I was listening to the Sunday Edition on my way to Power to Play and they were talking the Reinvention of J.S. Bach. Paul Elie wrote a book on five composers/performers who brought Bach to mainstream appeal… which had me wonder…. was Bach underground? Was he the first hipster?
1) Vintage outfit (X)
2) Bizarre instruments (X) a cello? what even is that?
3) You had to see him in the tiny, out of the way church to really get it and he was a favourite of critics and other musicians. “A musician’s musician” which is pretty much a synonym for Hipster. (X)
J.S. Bach, a genuine original. I think that is probably trademarked by some company…. but yeah. Stud.
The dude flailed around on his acoustic guitar jamming this wild song. I flashed back to a performer I remember named Joel. He had this feral acoustic style that was mighty fun. I sometimes remember his music and want to listen (always at weird times) and then I think… those records must be buried in storage or lost to time.
This song, “Straight From Hell” I don’t know too much about. It was recorded when Paul was still doing the Morning After Show with me on CiTR. So 2000? 2001? Doesn’t matter I guess.
Music at Christmas time is the best. My wife picked up The Replacements documentary Color Me Obsessed from Ditch Records. The story is a second-hand account, told by the fans (and few producers/ancillary insiders, but no band members) of America’s unknown greatest rock & roll band.
The movie travels in a linear path through their creation, their records, the ups, the downs, and then the end.
I loved how the film went through every album and talked to fans who then said why different songs or records were their favourite.
I didn’t discover The Replacements until I was in my 20s and I first purchased the box set Left of the Dial, then later the compilation Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? If you’re scratching your head going, The Replacements? there was Alternative music in the 80s? You’d do yourself a service starting with either of those compilations to get educated. Both solid collections that I still listen to often to this day.
Since the 2006 collection of Replacements songs I have gone on a mission to collect Replacements records/books/now films. I have most their discography except the first and last albums which JR at Ditch said can be a little harder to find unless I get all internety and pay some bucks. I am not there yet in my fandom. Just waiting for either to show up in the bin at Ditch for a moderate price. After watching the documentary I found out their live record, Shit Hits The Fans was a cassette only release. Limited and never re-issued. So maybe that might be a mission to track down one day. Their ’82 ep Stink was originally issued with a hand-stamped cover. That would be a fun thing to try to track down one day too.
Trolling the net today I stumbled on a cover from Edmonton singer Jessica Jalbert. She does a very pretty and dreamy cover of the Tim era cut “Swingin’ Party.”
I don’t have the statistics, but I’d reckon close to 93% of concert goers keeps some of their ticket stubs. That is totally made up science…but it does seem that most people that care about music, collect something, anything, that has to do with the experience.
I have a drawer in a hall closet. It used to be a drawer in my bedside table. I started filling this drawer with nic-naks at a young age. One of the things casually thrown in there was concert and sporting tickets. Not all of them… but many of them. I am glad I did that.
Over the years and moves… the drawer came and was added to. When Coral and I moved in together, my childhood bedside table when the way of the majestic Dodo Bird for something more grownup. The drawer lives, but now in a closet. And still the concert tickets stubs drifted there.
The nature of my work means I’ve been to a lot of shows. Many I did not get tickets stubs for. Many concerts were club shows. No ticket stub. Early in my life, my friend Chris’ Dad worked for the Pacific Coliseum and snuck us into Coliseum and Forum shows. No ticket stub. But I did find many great stubs. Like the above two. my first and third “big kid” rocks shows ever.
I found a ticket stub for the day I found out Coral was pregnant. Coral and I had only lived together for a couple months at our apartment on Yates. That night I was to host a group of radio winners in the Zone’s suit at the arena for the Monster Truck Spectacular!
After work I took the Zone car home and asked Coral to meet me on Yates as we’d have to head direct to the arena.
When I pulled up to Yates she was standing on the corner crying. I asked her what’s up? We have to go to Monster Trucks RIGHT NOW! She said, “I’m pregnant.”
Whoa.
Well… get your shit together, we got monster trucks to do. And we celebrated…at monster trucks. And that ticket stub is a pretty important important relic in the story of Madelyn’s life.
Now, what to do with all these stubs?
Coral’s sister Alyx stuck a bunch to a cork board and made a collage…off to Michaels and $50 late, I had a sweet shadow box.
I dug through all my piles of ticket stubs. Found a criminally small amount to frame and got all Pinterest. Here is my finished project. But I really could have made like 4 of them… so many GOOD stubs. The best part of the project was going through all the memories. It is a very personal project so however your frame turns out, it’ll be awesome and you’ll be happy with it.
I put a select few concert buttons there too…. a Rifflandia 3 wrist band… and because its a shadow box and there is a ledge, a Sasquatch 2009 schedule. Neat.
I also saw at Michaels a concert T-shirt frame? O RLY? hmmmm
Local homeboy Ross Crockford shows up on Living in the City to talk about what Victoria looked like in 1862! Like did you know… Johnson Street used to be a gully? a gully full of dead bodies!?! SWA? Fortunately, our fore-fathers/mothers… rightly fearing a zombie uprising, had prisoners move them to Pioneer Square on Quadra. Now there are no more bodies (that we know of) buried under Johnson Street… yet the threat of Zombie apocalypse remains. Stay vigilant.
I bought my first first Dinosaur Jr LP yesterday. Weird, I know. I have always had an MP3 for “Freak Scene” on my computer… and I *might* have one Alex’s old Sebadoh records kicking around in a CD bin somewhere… but it wasn’t till I finished the chapter on Dinosaur Jr in Our Band Could Be Your Life that it all came together.
I was reading this book in the summer… then lost it after the chapter on Big Black! Fuck nuts.
Maybe Nana found it because on Friday my bed was made (thank you!) and the book was just sitting by my bedside table. And the bookmark was still where I left it. Magical.
I tucked into the story of Dinosaur Jr on Friday and it was amazing. The band began as a couple hardcore skids, J Mascis and Lou Barlow, coming together in Amherst, Massachusetts in the early 80s. The hardcore band, Deep Wound, didn’t really work for them, but when J came out from behind the kit to sing and play guitar and Lou moved over to bass… they created a new and unique still for the time. The blue-print for what we’d call grunge or alternative rock in the 90s.
They also hated each other (or it seemed that way in the book) and by the their third album, Bug, J Mascis and drummer Murph kicked Barlow out of the band. According to wikipedia and twitter, they are friends again and releasing new music as the original Dinosaur Jr!
I love listening to old 80 alternative rock. Especially on my turntable. Its more distorted (because my amp sucks) and feels more true to the style of the time. Maybe if I could track down a cassette player, I could jam out those early Sebadoh songs too.
J Mascis says Bug is his least favourite Dinosaur Jr record. Which probably means it’ll be my favourite. I’ve never met the guy… only read the legend in the book… but he sounds like a challenging dude. I guess the true artists tend to be. Actually… most the band features in Our Band Could Be Your Life are dysfunctional.
Bug works for me because it is fuzzy, heavy, original lineup but the most accessible of the early records.
Check out a couple selections.
“Freak Scene”
Side one, track one from Bug is one of the more recognizable songs from Dinosaur Jr. It helped propel the record to number 1 on the UKs Indie chart. The Brits of the late 80s and early 90s were fascinated with the authentic American sound and Dinosaur had that going on.
The lyrics seem like they are directly about J and Lou’s relationship. After reading about their turmoil and drama, then hearing this song… it adds so much weight to the story.
The final cut on the LP is a song called “Don’t.” The only song on Bug sung by Lou Barlow. He wails over and over, “Why don’t you like me?” The songs is noise and fury and Barlow apparently coughed up blood after laying down the vocals. Mascis himself said it was a little fucked up to make Barlow sing this song considering at the time, the two hated each other.
“Don’t”
So savage. Sounds better on my stereo than in my headphones. It needs the “room” to sound just right.
You know how much I love covers… Dinosaur recorded the Cure’s “Just like Heaven” for a compilation record, but dug it some much… they kept it for a single. I t was released in the UK in ’89 and was their first UK chart song. You’ll find the song now on the reissue of You’re Living All Over Me (the album before Bug).
“Just like Heaven”
That’s all I got for you right now. Just finishing the book, Our Band Could Be Your Life and loving the chapter on Mudhoney/SubPop.
I’ve often said that pretty much every endeavor undertaken by man is for the direct (or occasionally indirect) purpose of impressing a woman. Why women create? I am unsure, I am not a scientist, but I am a man… and men do strange, weird and wonderful shit to get laid.
In 1929, two bros named William Lear and Elmer Wavering took their young lovelies to the lookout in their car. What a magical night over looking the majestic Mississippi River. But it wasn’t exactly perfect. One of the women complained.
There was no music. Ergo, no vaginal entry.
And so William and Elmer invented the car radio… (and William would go on to invent the Lear Jet… and they’d help found Motorola with the Galvin Brothers)… but the point is… they invented the car radio (and I have my job in the year 2012) because they wanted to impress a girl.
*** Last night I watched the most excellent of documentaries. The film is called Art & Copy and is basically about advertising. If you have the Shaw or Telus on-demand its in the Movie Central.
They told lots of great stories behind the iconic brands and advertising campaigns of our capitalist world. One story that was new to me and interesting was the story of Crocker National Bank.
Crocker was a fairly big bank based out of San Francisco. By many accounts (err wikipedia) it was a good bank, people liked it, they did good… for a bank. Spooky logo though? whoa.
In 1970 they felt that the average age of the customers was too high that in order to continue success, they needed to recruit new younger customers. They went to some San Fran advertising firm and asked what they could do to change the perception of their bank to make it appeal to young families.
The Art Director thought… how about a jingle, not just a silly jingle, but more of a song. And instead of talking about the boring wah wah wah of banking, we’ll just play the song with a video of a young couple getting married.
Tag line: “You’ve got a long way to go. We’d like to help you get there. Crocker National Bank.”
Boom. Looked like this.
Wait a minute… I know that song! That is the iconic 1970 Carpenters hit! And you’re right, because its both. The song was comissioned for the advertising campaign. Richard Carpenter heard the song and knew the song writer. He asked if there was more to the song than just the minute jingle. Turns out there was!
The Carpenters recorded the song and it showed up on their album Close to You. As the third single off the record it would shoot to number 2 in Canada and on Billboard’s Hot 100. It would show up on Rolling Stones’ top 500 songs of all time and became an immensely popular wedding song. They’d win two Grammys for this record.
The popularity of both the commercial and the hit single would prove to be distressing for Crocker National Bank and they had to cancel the campaign. Too many new young customers! People weren’t aware Crocker did mortgages and this being the 70s and not the 00s… Crocker didn’t want to hand out mortgages to young couples that maybe couldn’t afford them.
Crocker would franchise the campaign to other regional banks across the United States.
I 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 mystical or religious place in my heart.
But scratching surface, the paint will fleck off and reveal, I’ve been a poor fan.
I’ll tell ya, it can be hard staying up on everything in music. I enjoy indie rock, classic alternative, chillwave and 60s music mostly on my own time. I work at a modern rock radio station, so I need to be up on whatever Dave Grohl is up to. I DJ weddings, lounges, clubs… and well, where ever someone feels they need a DJ. So I then need to have at least a passing grade of top 40, electro, dubstep, and new country knowledge… sometimes my brain gets full.
People call me on the radio or email wanted to talk bands. That makes sense. You’re sick; call the doctor. Need meat; call the butcher. Like music; call the DJ.
That is groovy and I appreciate being the friendly neighbourhood DJ. Occasionally someone says, “hey man, you should play the Bingo Bongo Band on your show.” I make the mistake and say, “never heard of them.” And then someone gets mad and says, “SWA? Never heard of the Bingo Bongo Band! They’re the greatest EVAR! What kind of DJ are you?”
Zoinks, I was the DJ born with a human brain that has to live on a planet that has a measly 24 hour day.
My homeboy Two sent me an MP3 today from the Grand Archives. Said the song was performed live for the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Party a few years ago when it was new. BEFORE it was included on 2009’s Keep In Mind Frankenstein.
WTF mate… they had a new record? Heck they’ve had two since their most excellent self titled debut.
This is beyond DJ failure; this is a total fan breakdown.
I guess fortunately? the good news is the buzz on the subsequent records was poor, so maybe I didn’t miss much… the track that Two sent me is pretty pleasant like GA tend to be. Have a listen.
I’ve been thinking about Henry George Bellinger again. Long time readers of this here blog may recall tat I occasionally like to talk about World War One. Mr. Bellinger is often cited as one of the, if not THEE first Canadian killed in action on the Western Front.
For some morbid or bizarre reason, the story of being the first guy killed in a war intrigues me. Months ago I told Simon about Bellinger.
Basically, it would be the anti-war epic. The story would center on 35 year old, married father tailor man Henry living in Eastern Ontario. The call comes that there is war and he enlists.
He trains, gets shipped over. Sits around for awhile. Cracks a few japes with the boys, smokes some cigarettes… then gets blown up in the first few moments of the first battle. Roll credits.
No heroic bayonet charge, no dragging his injured bro to safety… just sitting around, attack begins and a shell catches him. The end. And that is Bellinger’s War.
Obviously, I am having hard time envisioning the commercial appeal of this endeavour… but perhaps it could be a powerful short film. The ultra real war film.
There is not much information about this tragic footnote in Canadian history. He was born in 1876. He was married to who I can only imagine was super babe, Mary Ann. He was a tailor. He enlisted in the army in Levis, Quebec. He is buried in Belgium. He may have had a daughter named Mildred. Killed by enemy shell fire along with Norman Fry on January 8th, 1915. He was 36 or 39 when he died. The end.
Go with yourself.
I often talk about my days in college radio at CiTR as the host of The Morning After Show. Oh the times… circa 1998-2003, playing Canadian punk, metal and indie rock.
When I started there… I was young and dumb. But it was really fun learning new bands and hanging out with Vancouver’s most groovy folks.
The show before the MAS was called Vengeance is Mine. It was a PUNK show hosted by a guy named Trevor that had a leg dedicated to tattoos of villainous logos… “Decepticons,” The “Empire” from Star Wars, and “Cobra” from G.I. Joe. He dropped out of radio school (hey, I was going to radio school in the fall!) and he was a cook at the Atlantic Trap and Grill back when it was more divey and cool and less touristy and near the arena and stadium (but actually, still a fun place!).
Trevor was very friendly, loved music, was in a band, and was a huge inspiration on 18 and 19 year old Jeremy. One of his favourite bands that quickly became my new favourite band was Winnipeg’s Propagandhi.
Propagandhi made the kind of punk rock that punk rockers talk about making but don’t, or sell out.
In 2001 they released Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. The album very quickly became the most played record on my radio show. In fact, almost every radio show started with “Back to the Motor League.” The times when I couldn’t make the show and Paul flew solo, he played the song first!
At the time… the song was a party anthem for me. But I was also 21 and stupid. Listening now, the song still gets me fired up, but the message remains. The track talks about the co-opting the punk rock culture by corporations.
Generally Propagandhi are pretty politically charged… so being lectured every song isn’t for everyone… but I find the songs to be a great inspiration, and the energy to be positive. “Back to the Motor League” remains a favourite party rocker and usually a first play before a big night.
Today I was thinking about Alice in Chains for some reason…. and it got me thinking back to the Alice in Chains Best of/VHS thing “Music Bank.”
The first video is an old documentary that Seattle TV station, King 5, did about Alice in Chains when they were first coming up. Its such a spooky thing to watch now knowing how the band got what they set out for… then the tragedy that befell many of the members since.
The Morning After 