Happy Easter Monday to all my friends and ex-lovers. I hope you got up to premium adventures. My weekend was a glorious mix of work, work, a little more work, and some cocktails.
I did get to DJ my first wedding of the season which felt great. Good people, quality party. I was at Veneto for cocktails with my wife’s step-brother… so my step-brother-in-Law? Sure. His name is Evan. We had a couple Thursday night… then Friday DJ’d what turned out to be a pretty busy Good Friday. Saturday at Laurel Point for a wedding… then Sunday saw breakfast with Razer and Kelsey at Pluto’s (El Paso Benny… ZOMG! good). Bob and the boys from Vancouver came over Sunday for Joe’s stag… that was trouble and day drinking at The Strathcona then to Sauce for cocktails.
Madelyn was in Coquitlam having Easter with Grandma and Grandpa and family. My brother CJ and Caitlin brought her home Sunday evening, so it was beers with my brother and Replacements records on the turntable. They peaced as Alyx and Evan came over with chicken and pickles for a Easter supper deep-fry! Mad Men, Game of Thrones… and that was a busy weekend.
I tell ya, it was a weekend of work and an Easter Sunday of excellent friends/family/and relaxation.
Huge beefy riff-rock. Chris Cornell activates his Chris Cornell growl. Plods along with this boogy swagger. Its melodic. For 90s rehash… quality track. I dig it.
Dylan Willows came to me and said “this is what modern rock needs! more heavy riffs!” But he said it to me in a way that suggested I could do something about it. Don’t look to me man, I just fuzz out to Japandroids in the corner.
Its not really anything you can say… what modern rock needs. The people say. If you like riff rock, jam it loud. If Gotye’s your bag, jam it quieter.
I will say, as a fan of album cover art… his one is more an advertisement than any statement or pleasant bit of graphic work.
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I got a tweet from my homegirl @klancashire alerting me to a new Kickstarter from a Seattle based video game designer.
Jordan Weisman founded the FASA gaming company in the 80s and they developed the role-playing game Shadowrun.
Shadowrun is an urban, futuristic fantasy game that pits technology and magic against the evil Mega Corporations that dominate future society.
Lots of machine guns, fast cars, seedy bars and Harry Potter all-growed up and with a Meth problem. Good times. There are also Orcs. Neat.
There were a few Shadowrun games, but nothing great. Jordan is going to try and fix that… but first he needs to raise $400,000 to get started. Cue: Kickstarter.
Already, Jordan and Harebrained Schemes (the video game deign firm partnering with Jordan) are at over $100,000!
I am so broke Jordan, or I’d give too… but all I got is there here blog, and maintaining costs me money, does not generate any! Zoinks. So you get a link and some time from me.
Read more about the project here… then wait till he actually makes it! I will try and buy the game.
The answer is sometimes simple. Watching Shameless and the music as always…very good. Do I think it fits the show? No. I read an interview with the music supervisor once and rolled my eyes with a “c’mon man!” The music is good…but almost too good. Its over thought. Which works for me, and works for Coral…but don’t pretend.
“Kline says she is able to expand on its characters — and seeing as the Gallaghers are not a mainstream family, the music isn’t either.”
I don’t really feel Fiona Gallagher reading a whole lot of Pitchfork. I’m just nit-picking, the music is awesome.
Coral watched a couple episodes last night and a few songs stuck out for her. At the time, watching the show, it was hard to place. But she went to bed and I was bored so to the internet I went. One was Josh Radin’s “Winter.” Damn, we even have that record!
The other was hard to place then a quick internet search and of course I remember… the Snow Patrol guy’s “other” project Tired Pony. I listen to the song away from the TV and it sounds like Snow Patrol’s “Set Fire to the Third Bar.”
Tired Pony – “Get on the Road”
On Friday, Cait Fraser at the Veneto had me download a song that she loves. She says its her “get ready to go out song.”
The band is from Melbourne, Victoria and they’re called Little Red. Neat pop-rock sound. It appears they’ve had a few minor Aussie hits…the song “Rock It” is friendly enough. Give it a spin.
Little Red – “Rock It”
I remember in the summer of 1995, my friend Bob got tape or compact disc of the record of Let Your Dim Light Shine by Soul Asylum. We jammed that album heavy and it remains to this day one of my favourite albums. I can still throw it on and I get that gnarly deja vu feeling. I didn’t know too much about Soul Asylum at the time. There was no wikipedia and I was too 15 to care… but when I got older and started at CiTR, I was picking through the records in the vinyl closet and discovered a massive hoard of old Twin/Tone and A&M recordings from the 80s. Like what-the-fuck…because in 1998 we actually said all the word, what, the, fuck. So for a few weeks at 4AM, I dropped the needle on all sorts of weird jams from David Pirner and company. Long before I loved the Replacements, I loved Soul Asylum.
OK, back to 1995, this story doesn’t really have a point so you can stop reading. But in 1995, Bob and I played Soul Asylum heavy rotation style like kids do. That and we had limited funds so we probably only had like this album, maybe G&R’s Spaghetti Incident and a handful of Megadeth records and tapes.
So you’re 15 and emo as fuck and Soul Asylum is depressing and emo and it all just works.
Fast forward to today (or maybe yesterday? or maybe the weekend?) and I am tired. Like tired to my bones. I am so tired that I am also tired of being tired. And that thought swirled around my brain. So clear, so fuzzy. I was tired of being tired. I could not get no rest… I knew it was Soul Asylum, I knew it… and it HAD to be from Dim Light… and sure enough, track 14. Eureka. You won’t believe how happy rediscovering this song has made me.
I was waiting for a chain reaction with the missing link Waiting for that trickle-down forever circling the sink I was tired of being tired I could not get no rest So I kept sleep-walking and talking in my sleep Yes I did my best
Soul Asylum – “I Did My Best”
The whole record is so spot on. I wouldn’t say the above song is my favourite, I just really feel it today. But you might remember “Misery” or “Just Like Anyone” from the 90s. That second song’s video I remember getting played on Much all the time. And holy moly, is that a young Claire Danes? Why yes it is… and she is getting taunted by those mean girls! i hope she doesn’t go all Carrie on them at the school prom!… oh what’s that? you’ll just grow majestic wings? Atta girl!
Hey Japandroids… you guys are alright. First single off their up coming album Celebration Rock, “The House That Heaven Built” is available digitally today on on the vinyl record May 15th. B-side? Its a cover of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I can always, ALWAYS go for more Japandroids, and seeing how this my blog… I subject you to it too. Isn’t that what BOMFAs are for? (BOMFA = Best of mates for always… I was listening to BBC1 today)
Right. I forgot to talk about Record Club last week at Smiths! So many fun times with other music lovers in the pub drinking a pint and eating curried poutine. Next month’s show-and-tell project… its High Fidelity Night!
LMFAO sing about Patrón on ice…. but there has got to me more to Tequila than party rock and neon orange man-capris. I went down to the Veneto Lounge in Victoria to learn how to make the best Margarita. This delicious and classic tequila cocktail will impress your friends and destroy your enemies!
It is a week of the returns…. Anchorman 2 (Will It Be Musical?), it better be! and earlier this week… new D!
How much do I need to write? I guess I could link to THIS…. then…
Tenacious D – “Rize of Fenix”
Neat.
*** A new character that I am working on… Hipsterman! I had the idea for a little sketch… then felt it needed a cartoon representation so I asked Casey Snow to draw something and this is what she came up with! And when she sent me the pic she said, “Hipsterman… Hipsterman, does whatever a Hipster can…” and the theme song was born.
Wintersleep – “In Came The Flood”
(durrrrr…. please take down the stream says band manager)
Exciting! Here is the news from the record label press release… as the band ain’t too keen on updating their own website… but hey, Dave Sawchuk needs to earn his keep at EMI right?
Late in the summer of 2011, the group fleshed out these new ideas with Scottish producer/friend Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai) and Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, MGMT) at the legendary Tarbox Road Studios in upstate New York. Secluded in the same woods that had already seen the creation of so much amazing work, the group committed themselves to long, focused recording sessions…and the occasional badminton match. Doogan can crush a bird. Who knew?
“Hello hum. I am the dying lung of the town you left. I was beginning to fear, beginning to fear that you would never come back.”
These words open the album’s first track, “Hum.” The song sits like a layer of mist that the speeding car of “In Came the Flood” comes bursting through. It’s a two-part introduction to the diverse layers of Hello Hum. As the record progresses, glowing melodies are backed by rhythms that can stand as the skeletons of songs or be studied for their subtle complexities. Guitars and keyboards weave together in fits of sonic weirdness that somehow shine with pop charm. Hello Hum is the new record out on June 12th.
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We know and love Aussie indie-rockers the Temper Trap from their songs “Sweet Disposition” and “Fader.”
Pretty easy, repetitive pop song. Not really changing my world like maybe “Sweet Disposition” or… you know I really liked “Fader” too. That whole first record was pretty strong actually.
New album is self-titled and will be out on May 18th.
Their record label hypes it thusly:
“The Temper Trap return with “Need Your Love” from their self-titled follow up to their commercially and critically successful debut album “Conditions” which spawned the hit singles “Sweet Disposition” & “Fader.” With “Need Your Love,” they’ve ditched the slow burn anthems for something more immediate, and it suits them wonderfully. Over big squelchy synths and pounding drums, “Need Your Love” is a festival-ready anthem that seems joyful on the surface but is about the painful disintegration of singer Dougy Mandagi’s relationship, it’s sky high chorus sure to be fairly ubiquitous come the summer.”
Even they admit in their corp-speak… uh, pretty basic punchy pop song. Not really too similar to their earlier hits.
If you got some thoughts, leave a comment and if you don’t… then, don’t?
Mark it zero Dude… on May 15th I’ll be making my way to Ditch Records for the new Japandroids 7-inch… “The House That Heaven Built.” Record, Celebration Rock, is out on June five.
The first single is blowing my mind… and its not even 2PM on a MONDAY! (and I got a few more songs to tell you about…)
The boys said their next record would be an uplifting party MoFo.
Brian King to Pitchfork: “But when you play for a group of people, and they’re singing the words that you wrote back to you, it just makes you feel a little bit less embarrassed of what you were trying to do. It’s something to celebrate. So, going into this album, we had a bit more confidence in ourselves and what we were doing.”
Kowabunga, its so good. Kind of reminds me a bit of The Gaslight Anthem a bit? But more rocking. Can.Not.Wait for the new record.
A few days before I buy the Japandroids single… May 8th, new Silversun Pickups album called Neck of the Woods.
The new single is a pleasant listen… its not “Lazy Eye” or “Panic Switch” … heck I prefer “Broken Bottles” over a lot of SSPU songs, but this first single “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)” is an airy fuzzed out jammer.
You’re getting that classic SSPU sound but I am pulling threads of modern indie rock out of this song for sure. I don’t think, when you lay this song down beside the great body of Silversun music, you are getting a timeless career single. But you are getting a fairly accessible light guitar rocker. I’ll take it and give a guarded optimism rating for the record in may.
So much new music today! I actually have afew more for you, but alas, I’m outta time right now so tomorrow we’ll have a listen to new Wintersleep and Temper Trap.
Yesterday, I was broadcasting my radio show from Sauce Restaurant. My man Ryan was jocking the bar… so I hopped back there with him and had him explain how to make an Old Fashioned.
While at Sauce… Victoria Royals defenseman and Carolina Hurricanes’ draft pick, Tyler Stahl stopped by. So I thought… I got my recorder machine, might as well jam out another episode of Hockey! with Jeremy.
The Morning After 