Vancouver based singer-bearded type, Dan Mangan came by the Zone Afternoon show last week before his show at Sugar Nightclub.
I am growing a bit of a semi for his record Nice, Nice, Very Nice. For Mother’s Day, we packed up the family in the ole Jeep and headed up to Parksville. On the trek, Coral’s sister Alyx brought along her copy of the album and we must have listened the CD twice through. It was pretty amazing to hear. I was pulling out elements of Damian Rice or The Frames; two artists that I also love. I was forced to hit stop only when the Canucks came on the AM radio for the drive back.
Which leads me to this: does the programmer of CFAX huff glue? After the game Alain is giving a post-game summery and interview and they cut him off to roll into commercials. What could possibly be more important than Alain Vigneault debriefing such a clutch win? What could CFAX have to air on a Sunday night after a 4-1 romp of the Mighty Hawks? Give your head a shake. I was forced to punch up the Team till it got too fuzzy. Respect the Alain… now I may never know the true nature of Sami’s testicle.
Right, Dan Mangan.
He came on the radio last Friday for an interview and live performance and clicking below will unleash that for you. We talk about fun things like Stand-Up Bass players; try to launch a beef with The Reverend Horton Heat; laugh at some really Jason Lamb-esque jokes; Dan talk about the future; a shout out to Tamara Stanners at the Peak; then he plays “Sold.” Then I gush some more about that stand-up bass!
Click to listen: Dan Mangan on The ZAS
Download or get you some Nice, Nice, Very Nice… its a mighty good record and I’ll give it a firm thumb up.
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I am just a handful of chapters from finishing Juliet, Naked. The book is very enjoyable and is scratching a lot of itches that rattle around my head.
There is a brief moment of the book where Annie ends up meeting a couple gentlemen in a pub in Gooleness (which I think is a fake town? There is a city or town or whatever in England called Goole… which is similar but not the town talked about in the book). Annie meets these guys and they go on to display some crazy old-guy type dance and explain that they are into Northern Soul culture. They then take Annie to a community hall where a bunch of old timers are milling about remembering the “good old days.”
I had read a review many moons ago about a Northern Soul compilation record, so I thought I’d check out what the music sounded like to put the scene in context for me.
Northern Soul basically was a Motown type movement going on in England in the 60s and 70s BUT they seemed like they went out of the way to find rarities, indie, b-sides and generally obtuse American R&B records. I was instantly hooked.
Listen to some Northern Soul music
I downloaded something like 60 songs on Saturday and punched them up at the lounge. I was losing my shit (the audience… well they weren’t going crazy like when I play more mainstream Motown, but I could see the style worked in the environment).
It was a lot of new music for me. My easy read of what Northern Soul is led me to a couple books I’ll need to track down if I can.
01) Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton
02) Northern Soul: Music, Drugs and Subcultural Identity by Andrew Wilson
and for shits and giggles maybe Buyology by Martin Lindstrom. Some crazy nerd words about fucking with your mind using the power of sound to sell stuff.
Basically Northern Soul sounds like music you’re familiar with, but you can’t place. I think it’ll end up being worked in with more standard Motown classic to flesh out the sets and keep it from getting stale. Plus, well anything new to me is exciting so it is fun trying to find and dig up the music of Northern England in the late 60s and 70s.
That’s all I got right now. Tomorrow, the new National record comes out. I have a meeting downtown so I’ll stop by Ditch and get the LP. Can’t wait. One.more.sleep.
Go with yourself.
The Morning After 
