The Morning After music blog is coming to you from scenic Vancouver. The city sits on a fjord/inlet and at the base of the some mountains. My daughter has been bugging me to take her up into the snow ( she wants to ski but doesn’t know how yet) so I thought we’d try some snowshoeing.
We went to Grouse last weekend to play in the snow but that place is crazy busy and expensive, so I took her to the less insane Mount Seymour (the other local mountain is Cypress where they had some 2010 Olympic events…and Whistler is about an hour and half north).
During our hike I rolled tape…you know for 7, she was a trooper and it was a great afternoon.
Our soundtrack for the drive from the ‘burbs up to the mountain… that Aquilo ep Painting Pictures of a War.
Skizzy Mars‘ debut album, Alone Together is out on January 22nd. Yeah I’ll buy it….the dude’s delivery is like pouring delicious audio butter down my ear hole.
He just released a song today off the new record called “Crash.” Bro named Pell is singing the hook.
Skizzy skirting the line between insecure and confident. The vibe I tend to get from Skizzy songs is adventures of a man running around Manhattan with the daughters of the New York elite. Is that close?
Coral has been all over the Cinemax show The Knick. A TV show about surgeons studying and practising medicine in the early 1900s New York City. (and starring one of my favourites Clive Owen)
I’ve been able to absorb a bunch of the show while she binge watches season one to catch up with season two currently on HBO. And it has pulled me in now.
One of my favourite parts of the show is the spooky electronic music they use to heighten tension. Though the show is a period drama set at the dawn of the 20th century, the music is synth based.
That is done on purpose by former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez and director Steven Soderberg.
This is from Rolling Stone last year; But one of the few things that was far too ghastly to replicate was the music. “Oh, it was horrible,” he says with a laugh. “Aesthetically, it’s a really cool period, but the music was absolutely boring and not interesting. Ragtime had just started – and there’s a tiny bit of that in the background of some scenes – but other than that, there was nothing good.”
I had some reservations about it at first,” (Cliff) Martinez says. “You’re trying so hard to place the viewer in this time and this place, and the music is really fighting something that everyone else in the show is trying to achieve. But as the episodes started coming in, and seeing that it had all this electronic stuff that was mine, I realized that it was working. So it gave me the confidence to do it.”
A complete anachronism, the composer constructed a postmodern and curious through-line for the series with droning, minimalistic synthesizer and guitar lines, warbling bass and chimes that seem to swoop down from nowhere. When accompanying images of hustling, bustling turn-of-the-century Manhattan, as well as the occasional blood-sopped aortic aneurysm operating-room scene, it makes for hyperrealism and a sense of urgency that the era’s hits, like “I Want to Be a Military Man” or “Ma Tiger Lily,” would ruin.
I wish I was paying closer attention to one particular song (that got me thinking about the soundtrack) from season two. Sounded kinda like a Theremin in there….but I can’t be sure. All I know is that the song pierced through the TV to me, and then got me thinking about the soundtrack.
I might have to go back and try to find the episode and see if the song is on the season two soundtrack.
The show is brilliant and I love the tunes.
Oh I think this is the song that I was saying might have a Theremin in it? Maybe? You guys are smarter than me, leave a comment if you know.
Coral and I fired up Paper Towns last night. Movie was alright…straight white male/female fantasy goobly gook. Super dorks land the hot girls because they see their inner beauty. There’s a road trip…and Ron from the Walking Dead is less annoying as Ron from Orlando.
Soundtrack was fun. Coral and I loved the “Lady in Red” elevator music when model and main dork went up a tower to get a view of the city and shared a moment.
Does that song not sound like it was written to be in a John Green film?
The film was fine. It was cute and served as a great Monday night watch for us. After listening to Twin Shadow, what I really craved was Volcano Choir. So I dusted off Repave, and put “Byegone” on repeat.
I was reflecting on the year that was in music and put together a couple mixes. The first one is some of favourite songs and records of 2015.
2015 was a year of change for my family. We moved from Victoria to Vancouver. And for the first part of the year I lived in the city by myself, commuting back to the Island on weekends. I spent a lot of time listening to records commuting on the skytrain or on the ferry. When I was with the family, we always had something playing on the car stereo on our adventures and road trips.
Not sure what record I listened to the most…. Kurt Vile, FIDLAR, Beach Slang (and weirdly Waters) were all played a ton. Catfish too come to think of it.
This list is mostly stuff I listened to between headphones. I think I should make another list of what got blasted in the car, it would sound a little different (more Imagine Dragons and Modest Mouse and Ryan Adams).
And then I wanted to reflect on some of favourite songs I cranked at CFOX after a year at the station. It was a fun year. Hit some great shows, festivals, adventures with my family, and getting back into the grind of living in a bigger city. Plus the challenge of trying to elevate my radio performance in a competitive market. Great times. Here’s the soundtrack.
Assistant Program Director Dustin Collins called the set, “Delicious & Rich.”
METZ have a video for their song “Spit You Out” from their 2015 record II.
The thrilling, frenetic video, directed by the band and edited by Scott Cudmore (“The Swimmer,” “Wasted,” “Wet Blanket”), features effects-laden live footage and presents a visceral representation of the band’s sound and deft power in performance.
Looks pretty good and sounds great.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the Toronto punkers live…but I do remember that live show being the experience that demanded I pay attention to the hype. So great.
“I wanna be razor sharp. I wanna be crystal clear.”
P’aris taps Willa to lend some vocals to the pop jam “Focus.”
P’aris in the email about the song.
Focus’ is a song about two people experiencing the loss of a pregnancy. There’s a very particular type of gentle empathy that both partners must offer each other when going through a miscarriage. It’s a strange type of loss, especially from a pragmatic standpoint – you haven’t so much lost something as you have lost the idea of something. So in a way you’re mourning the loss of control over your own future, control over your body, your biology. And you’re also faced with the fact that you have failed at the one thing humans exist on earth to do. ‘Focus’ is about making sure the relationship doesn’t suffer while you’re each processing things in your own way.
The Morning After 