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Archive for the ‘music’ Category

Defense Wins Championships

Posted in music, tagged , , , , , , on May 26, 2010| 2 Comments »

My brother CJ got married last Sunday to his lovely Caitlin.

The wedding was very fun.  Good people, great venue and food, obviously a great party.

I wanted to get CJ a record as a wedding gift and chose something that I could remember from our younger days.

The album that came to mind was Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream.

I remember CJ had the record on cassette and we brought it with us on a camping trip.  I had a minor obsession with the cut “Disarm” which is on of the first times I can remember having a serious crush on a song and had to play it over and over like teenagers are wont to do.  I think the camping adventure took our family to Northern California and at some point I found an empty camp site; laid on the picnic table; stared up at the sky through the red wood trees; put my ear buds in and rocked “Disarm”… hit stop, rewind, play and heard it again… hit stop, rewind, play and again.

The Smashing Pumpkins became one of my favourite bands of the 90s (my friend Paul was also a major fan and we’d listen to music all the time), and I’ll always remember that camping trip listening to the Pumpkins as one of my first real exposures to the band.

***

aww, an old record label called “Coral,” and a song called “I’m Gonna Love You Too.”

I want to get some custom DJ labels made up for my Numark NS7 when I finally get it back (tomorrow fingers crossed)… and I am kinda thinking something like this. —>

My man, DJ Murge is firing up his DJ classes again at Long and McQuade and I am thinking of doing another round.  I have a better idea of what I want to learn.  I am interested in taking all these great classic rock & roll and R&B records I’ve been listening too and learning to sample them or remix them into modern beats for both a club/dance environment and my more personal style of ambient and blisscore.

I get frustrated because sometimes I know what I want something to sound like, but don’t know how to begin to create it, or fuck with a song.  And I am not confident to spend anymore more money on software or hardware without some more knowledge on how to use it.   In fact, I figure, if I have the skills, I won’t need all these fancy gadgets and could do it with some basic software that I can get for free or is already on my Mac.  (that is the hope anyways).

Knowledge is totally cool, everything else totally sucks.

Go with yourself.

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History’s Mechanical Marvel!

Posted in history 101, music, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 25, 2010| 2 Comments »

Last weekend in Victoria was busy.  There was the parade, the hordes of American band nerds, the cruise ships and holidayers, personally I had a wedding to attend and DJ and then there were the kids dressed as olden tyme Victorians crossed with Mad-Max.  Steampunks.

Taking my grandparents for a stroll around Victoria I noticed some Goth looking kids all dolled up in frilly dresses and corsets.  one person commented that it might grad attire for a local highschool and we left it at that.

Later that night I was DJing at the Veneto Lounge and Miss Rosie Bitts stopped in for a cocktail and bite after a gig.  She had just performed at the Empress Hotel for Victoria’s first Steampunk Expo!

Wow, I wish I had heard of it earlier, seemed very cool.  It might be hard for me to explain here, real nerd stuff, but check out the wikipedia on Steampunk if you are curious.

While trolling the world of steampunk I discovered a story about a robot named Boilerplate.

The idea of steampunk is that is a fantasy or alternate history type of story where the technologies of the Victorian and Edwardian age either live on or information technology is “invented” at an earlier time.  Think a steam powered computer for example?

Boilerplate is the story of a robot build in 1893.  History’s Mechanical Marvel, created to end human causalities during conflicts between nations!

Watch the trailer.

When Paul Guinan created Boilerplate as an online project back in 2000, it seemed so real that many people actually believed that some mad scientist invented Boilerplate!

Check out the website.

At the top of this post is a picture of Boilerplate from the album cover of Stars’ 2008 digital ep, Sad Robots.

Neat.

I wanted to know more about Steampunk music… but what I unearthed, was… well terrible.

Some group called Abney Park… oy vey.  Super cheeseball and they seem more interested in selling brass goggles and t-shirts than crafting some unique music.

And yet the idea of what steampunk music might sound like to me is fairly intriguing.  I might stew on that a bit to hear some elements that might soundtrack a Steampunk Space Exploration!

I am sure it will include this jump-point song.

***

I do loves me some Tommy James and Shondells!  Yesterday, god bless Pol Plastino and his lovely lady Hannah.  Hannah works at Chapters and was able to track down a copy of Tommy James’ biography; Me, The Mob, and the Music.

So far so good.  There will be lots of inspiration for a new playlist to develop for my lounge sets at The Veneto.  This Wednesday night is the one year anniversary of the Rialto Hotel and the Veneto Lounge and I think I’ll base a set list on AM Top 40 radio of the early to mid-60s with some b-sides and interesting selections from Roulette Records.  I’ll need to take some notes tonight and track down some songs to mix into my standard weekend fare of Motown, Atlantic Records, Standards and Northern Soul jams.

There is a lot going on with Roulette so it might take some time to suss out the gems.

Go with yourself.

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The hunt continues

Posted in music, tagged , , on May 21, 2010| 2 Comments »

ahhh, it happened today.

My grandparents are in town for my brother’s wedding.  They brought my little cousin Conner from Kamloops too.  I met up with them this morning before the show to have a coffee.  We walked the West Bay Walkway into town and I stopped by Ditch… and huzzah, new shipment of Band of Horses records.

The reviews have not been stellar, but I am still really excited to listen to it.

***

Go an email about buying record player guts to build my own turntable and so far not encouraged.  the pieces are all very pricey.  Too much for this guy.  I think I’d rather buy a Rega already put together…. for now.

For Scheu Analog parts, the followings are available.

1)       Standard motor with housing (chrome or black) and controls (plus string) – $769
2)       Power supply for standard motor – $89
3)       30 mm, 50 mm and 80 mm platters – $319, $454 & $883
4)       Bearings for 30 mm, 50 mm and 80 mm platters $319, $319 & $389
5)       Bearing oil – $1
6)       Premium motor with housing (black) and controls (plus belt) – $1,459
7)       Power supply for premium motor $69

yikes. The hunt continues.

***

Check out this tour diary from Plants and Animals, too awesome.

Go with yourself.

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Open your ear hole

Posted in music, tagged , , , , , , , on May 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The Arcade Fire have posted a couple clips of their new single(s), “The Suburbs” b/w “Month of May.”

They have a fun virtual turntable to listen to a small sample of each cut.

Check it out!

***

A little update on my quest to find a record player turntable DIY kit.  Rega does not do (but you can buy their fine turntables at Atlas on Yates Street).  Scheu does do kits… I have an email in right now with their Canadian distributor to find what it is, and what it costs.

If my DIY turntable never pans out, then I’ll save my pennies to buy a Rega from Atlas for sure.

***

My man Bob Lefsetz was not very kind to my fave band The National.

“3. The National “High Violet”

Sales this week: 50,671
Debut

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where the act with the number three album is unknown to almost everybody in the country?

One in which music has been Balkanized, where we’ve got endless scenes and almost no mainstream.

I’d love to tell you I love this album, but I don’t.  I far prefer Broken Bells.

And while I’m at it, I’ll say that Grizzly Bear doesn’t float my boat either.

And my ultimate point is I’m now ignoring everything from Brooklyn.  It’s not the new Seattle, certainly not the new San Francisco.  The magazines and blogs need something to write about, and when they trumpet substandard stuff it ends up baffling the audience, makes them play video games or watch TV or listen to the same damn classic tunes over and over again.”

Ugh Bob, 50,671 people like love The National.  Its not their fault you’ve never heard of them, its not their fault the rest of popular music sucks or didn’t release a record last week.  Calm down.

You can’t dive into their 5th LP, listen half assed to a couple cuts and then “get it.”

Like any art, some of it speaks to you and some of it doesn’t.  Having been a passionate fan for some time, there is something to the sound that attracts me and keeps me coming back.  I read Bob constantly talking about how bands need to do exactly what The National have done… create real fans.  They did with me.

I don’t really care that people like or dislike the same bands I do (The National have their share of critics)… but I think my frustration stems from the fact I read this guy’s emails everyday when I roll into the Zone, and all he does is spout off about the need for hard working, authentic bands… one has a small glimmer of success and he hacks on them.

Ok, I’ll stop crying.  I generally like Bob’s curmudgeon-y emails even if I disagree with one part of one post.

But fuck Bob, open your ear hole.

Go with yourself.

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Build it out of wood

Posted in music, neat-O gang, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 19, 2010| 7 Comments »

Yesterday I was hard at work (or uhhh hard at watching Zone Sound tech Russ) fixing my Kenwood amplifier and Hitachi Turntable.

I am happy to report that the Kenwood sounds much better after cleaning the contacts and we eliminated a ton of the scratchy sounds it was having.  The record player needs a more substantial make-over.  I am thinking a new motor.

For now I have an old Numark of Boitano’s.  Same one as Jess!  It spins the platter at 33 1/3 so it’ll do.

Got me thinking it might be time to find a more substantial piece for the home.

Coral has a lot of reno ideas for our house, so stealing away the cash at a big expensive player right now might not work.  But I have been researching tons and I might be able to MAKE a good machine for a decent cost.  I could be a do-it-yourself kit and with my brother CJ’s help, make it look very pretty like this maybe?

The company that makes these beasts is called Audiowood.  I think they are woodworkers (like my bro) that buy kits, and then assemble.

I think they look bad ass indeed.

As for the guts of a record player.  A couple that look promising are Rega out of the UK and Scheu Analog out of Germany.

I’ll need to do some more research to find the best cost vs. quality and have at it.

***

I went to Ditch Records today to buy the new Band of Horses.  I know it has gotten terrible reviews, but I don’t care.  I still want to have a listen myself.

Sadly they were all sold out of Infinite Arms.

Talking to the guys I asked them what record players they sell and the owner Jeremy (yup same name as me!) said basically used and cheap.  That is what people ask for. Zoinks… got me thinking about an article I read yesterday on Analog Apartment.  They are interviewing the owner of a record store in some hipster neighbourhood of NYC:

To someone just getting started with vinyl, any words of wisdom?

Get a good turntable. So many of my customers say to me, “Where can I get a cheap record player?” I don’t get that. The whole point of vinyl is superior sound quality, so it defeats the purpose if you buy a crap record player. I know times are tough now, but save your pennies, search online, and get a good turntable and needle. (…)  Building a record collection is a wonderful, exciting thing. Have fun.

From what I’ve learned… doing it right and to the best of your ability the first time, always pays off.

If its the home reno’s from Young House Love blog, or building a turntable, I’ll want to do better than I’ve done thus far in my life.

***

In other news…

The Veneto Lounge is celebrating one year of not going out of business!  Huzzah!  On Wednesday, May 26th there will be a party starting at 6PM.

Their award winning tapas will be circulating the room for free, cocktails will be featured and after my show on the Zone, I’ll be selecting and presenting the music.

Birthday cake?  You know it!

Go with yourself.

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Analog YEAH!

Posted in history 101, life or something like it, music, tagged , , , on May 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I was reading Alan Cross’ website yesterday and he found a great article with a very poignant quote.

“I remember the first record I ever bought. Do you remember your first download?” – The Young Person’s Guide to Vinyl

I remember the first three records I bought, on Compact Disc, with my own money, that earned working for the man.

The summer of 1996 I got a job working at a Subway.  At the time my music collection could be considered anemic. I had some tapes, some CDs I had acquired, that was about it.  To hear “good” music I would hang out at friend’s houses or rocked the radio.  When I got steady work at Subway I was making the most money I had ever earned in my life… some pay-cheques were over $100!

My first pay-cheque I dumped in my Leo Young Savers account and headed off to Lougheed Mall.  I found the Music World and plunked down close to $80 for three records.

01) Alice in Chains – Alice in Chains
02) Metallica – …And Justice for All
03) Seven Mary Three – American Standard

Of the three albums, I don’t really listen to any of them front to back anymore and maybe only Alice in Chains is a band I still regularly enjoy.  But back in 1996, they all got heavy play… and though I was late to the party when it came to collecting music, I played a serious game of catch-up, and now I have more CDs than I know what to do with.

It only makes sense that my obsession is drifting over to collecting vinyl records, which admittedly I don’t have a ton of.

I did find a couple blogs I am enjoying these days.

Analog Apartment
Fuck Yeah Vinyl

Go with yourself.

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MIX: 5 Candies

Posted in music, playlist, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2010| 4 Comments »

A mix of songs of music I generally found as free downloads off http://pitchfork.com .

I presented them at the Veneto Lounge (http://hotelrialto.ca) on the weekend. I normally pick songs that have similar BPM when I craft a mix because that is all I can do to blend them together. These songs are all over the map, so the best I could do on the Vestax VCI 300 was fade them in and out. I am considering getting an effects add-on for my Numark NS7, I think that might allow me to create some more interesting transitions, but I am not sure. If any DJs stumble on my mix, maybe you could post some ideas in the comment section as I am still learning and could really use the advise.

I hope you like the songs, that Pallers cut, “The Kiss” absolutely crushes.

Click to Listen: MIX – 5 Candies

***

DJ Notes

01) The Books – “Beautiful People” (mp3)
02) Kisses – “Bermuda (Active Child Remix)” (mp3)
03) Fol Chen – “In Ruins (Baths Remix)” (mp3)
04) Pallers – “The Kiss” (mp3)
05) Kraftwerk – “Neon Lights”
06) Spirituals – “Wanderings” (mp3)
07) Twin Sister – “I Want a House” (mp3)
08) Woodsmen – “When Morning Comes” (mp3)

***
Look at that, so much free music from the Pitchfork Forkcast!

The Books start the set with some trippy reversed singing and then a bunch of math?

I dived into some Fol Chen just for Huckdoll who loves them.

Pallers are changing my world right now. “The Kiss” is an incredibly romantic song.  It definitely is a day-dream song that for me personally takes me into a kind of fantasy world.  I kinda wished I lived in this song.

I decided on some Kraftwerk because Pitchfork used their song “Neon Lights” to describe the style of Pallers.  “Neon Lights” comes from the 1978 record The Man-Machine.  I never really listened to much Kraftwerk which is a bit of a shame, there music is pretty interesting, and to hear what they did with far more primitive sequencers and processors is kinda neat.

This record does feature a #1 single in the “The Model” which actually didn’t chart so high till 1982 when it was included as the B-side with “Computer Love.”  DJs started jiving on the b-side so it was re-issued as an A-side and climbed the charts to number 1.

A song for Coral, Twin Sister sounds like a band you might hear on the Juno Soundtrack.  “I Want a House” is something Coral says to me all.the.time.  maybe if we lived in Texas where they give them away…

The set ends with my theme song for the morning after… when morning comes.  nice.

***

The title for this set comes from a conversation with Madelyn Friday morning and doesn’t have anything to do with the music.  Lately my two-year-old has become completely driven by candy.  One morning she just started on a baby babble train and I pulled out “five candies” and “three blue ones.”

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my mix.  If you like it, please share it with a friend.

Go with yourself.

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Download: Paper Cranes – Chivalry’s Dead (Remix)

Posted in music, tagged on May 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Download: Paper Cranes – “Chivalry’s Dead (Arturo Remix)”

Its pretty good!

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Into the Flood

Posted in Dave Babych, music, tagged , , , , , , on May 12, 2010| 7 Comments »

Phoenix from a speeding motorhome SWAGed from my Mom's Facebook.

Coral and I sometimes harbour fantasies of picking up and moving away to live somewhere different.

Its no secret that I want to move to the desert.  But lately I’ve been reading so much negative stuff about Arizona and their general distrust of immigrants… that well, doesn’t make me want to be an immigrant there.  That leaves Nevada or maybe even New Mexico.

Coral is less enthused about the US in general… maybe I could talk her into Nashville?  Music City USA, that has a nice ring.  Or maybe Texas!  If we moved to Nashville I’d make records and if we moved to Texas I’d obviously take the Panthers to State.

Jeff Gentner/Getty Images

I read that Nashville recently flooded.  Nashville, being a center for music in the US had a lot of damage to the things that make music industry spin round.  Guitars, piano’s, musical venues and touring equipment.

NPR: Flood Wreck Havoc on Music Scene

I wonder if this will effect us here on our imported rock & roll the same way it effects the price of oranges when there is a frost in Florida?  Jack White records will cost double per pound?

ahhh, maybe we’ll stick to Canada.  The Canucks let me down, but they got further in the playoffs than the Coyotes of Predators.  Could you picture me wearing a Predators sweater?  not so much.

Ugh, but that Canucks game last night?  I get that the Canucks are going to lose some hockey games.  The Blackhawks are a great hockey team and favoured to win.  But the way they lost… it is all just so… typical.

The Canucks are NEVER the team that exceeds expectation, and I think that is the worst part of being a Canucks fan.

Every year for the past lot of years, the Canucks generally ice a competitive hockey club only to then fall to pieces in the playoffs.  The villains change, but the Canucks lack of progress doesn’t.  600 divisional titles but zero Stanley Cups… its just not right.  I only derive so much joy from the yearly spanking of the Leafs and the bouncing of the Oil and Flames from playoff contention (But OIL, they surprise you some years and charge to the Cup… and all the history, and the future prospects in their system!!).

Oh well, next year right?

***

Trying to squeeze a couple bucks out of our little budget to buy bike for Coral and a trailer to pull Madelyn.  Then we can go for bike rides with long suffering Oil fan Dave.

Something that felt really good last night.  Coral and I went on our online banking account payee list and deleted two.  One credit card and one monthly bill that we payed up and eliminated.  That oddly had a level of satisfaction I wasn’t expecting.  Best use of the delete button for sure.

That’s all I got.  Go with yourself.

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The Blinding Force

Posted in music, tagged , , , , , on May 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I biked downtown today to pick up a copy of The National’s High Violet on vinyl.  It is a very pretty record.  When I got to Ditch at noon, they had already sold out of their first box and I was a sad panda till Longshanks said, “wait, it might be in this parcel that arrived today.”  Sure enough, it was.

Fingers crossed, my record player acts like a well adjusted machine and spins the platter all proper like and I’ll get the chance to dive into all four sides of deep brooding guitar driven indie-awesome.

I was staring at the record package before a meeting today at The Canoe Club.  My waitress had never heard of the National, so I did my boy-scout deed of the day and gave her the MP3 download card that comes with better LP purchases.

The cover art of High Violet is a sculpture by an artist named Mark Fox.  The sculpture is called The Blinding Force.  It was neat to see the original on the web, but I picture of a sculpture doesn’t seem to do it justice.  I’d have to see it in a gallery I think, to fully appreciate.

The sculpture has a bunch of hand written words blasting out of that wood base.  On the record cover it is hard to make the them all out and I don’t really understand their meaning or theme right now.  I think that is why I’d need to see it in person, to make out more of the words… maybe drink a box of wine with the artist and listen to his ideas.

And then, why did The National chose this piece of art over all the others pieces they could or would have seen in New York City?

I am now pretty sad I’m not going to Sasquatch to see The National in May.  I just got my email approving my media pass.  c’est dommage.

They play in Vancouver in September ( a day I likely won’t be able to swing) and then in Redmond, Washington the next night (an easier date for me).

***

Coral bought me a present yesterday… new Jamie Oliver cookbook.  Does it have a chapter of food inspired by the desert of Arizona?  Why yes it does, thank you for asking.

***

Go with yourself.

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