Dear blog,
Whoa… its been a few days and that’s my bad. Summertime and the living has been, well, maybe not easy. Busy?
I got more than one email and bunch of calls on the Zone looking to hear Maurice‘s acoustic take on “Robin.”
JP Maurice had just got off the boat from Vancouver where he had been on the outskirts of the Game 7 riot. He rolled straight into the Zone and laid this song down.
Maurice – “Robin” (live at Zone)
Download MP3>> 20110616 Maurice
Fun fact: “Robin” is a cover of the Vancouver band Topless Gay Love Tekno Party. Neat.
***
I don’t have any tattoos. I know right? I’m that guy. The no tattoo guy. Which is funny, because I went through a punk rock phase and everything.
Today I am broadcasting my radio show from Incendiary Tattoo on Esquimalt Road. I am waiting on a cheque, but if I get some money I might try and get one during my show. But what?
I am thinking some song lyrics from this song.
Grand Archives – “Swan Matches”
I always loved this song. Their s/t album Grand Archives was new back in 2008 when Madelyn was born and became the soundtrack to that part of my life.
The song reminds me of staying awake at weird hours for her birth and later staying up on the couch watching late night TV and maybe a bottle feeding during the witching hours.
Swan Matches are pretty neat. Its an old British brand founded in the late 1800s. They were known as “the smoker’s match.” Obviously, they’ve changed their tag line today… but still… for the classic smoker still jamming out the match stick to light up, Swan’s is apparently the brand. The brand was Britain’s best selling match by the 1930s.
The company is now Swedish but they still operate as Swan.
Sort of a random thing for Grand Archives to find for a song and title.
Beautiful song.
Go with yourself.
The Morning After 
Hey, no tattoo guys (and people) are such a great find these days! I’d do pretty much anything to get rid of my own minus, you know, saving up and paying for removal 🙂
ya, to be honest, if i was tattoo free right now, i would definitely make different decisions. i love most of my tattoos, but 90% of them are not anything i’d get again today if i was a blank slate… they’re now markers of a time & a place in my life.
so what i’m saying is, if you’re not a tattoo person, that’s cool. it actually makes you more unique in our generation than people with tats.
okay, and i didn’t actually know that swan made matches. weird.
i have a pack of swan filters that i bought in scotland, same logo and everything. they make a quality product. (and i love smoking)
That s/t Grand Archives album has been sort of a soundtrack to the last couple years for me too. Caught them down in Seattle for Sub Pop’s 20th. Never looked back. I’ve listened to that album a lot on long drives by myself driving across this great province. It’s one of my unofficial driving cds.
[…] like to consider myself a Grand Archives fan. On more than one occasion of exalted the virtues of the song “Swan Matches.” That song has taken an almost […]
[…] During that time I listened to a lot of Grand Archives. The Seattle band doesn’t seem to be very active these days…but I can always listen to “Swan Matches” and be transported back to laying on my couch in our little apartment on Yates Street with a brand new baby. […]