Last night was stellar. The Gaslight Anthem performed a sold out show at the Commodore Ballroom.
The place was packed, the energy was high and the music was top shelf.
The band that performed before Gaslight was a group based out of Victoria called Northcote. I’ve known Matt for years as he brought the project into focus. A couple years ago he released his debut self-titled record.
Since then, he has criss-crossed the continent, the UK and Europe performing in the growing folk-punk thing happening right now. He has been out there with Dave Hause, Frank Turner, Chuck Ragan, Billy Pettinger, and The Gaslight Anthem.
Vancouver Canucks’s goaltender, Eddie Lack, is known for his love of the mighty taco. And in Vancouver, there are infinity places to get an amazing taco.
The Vancouver Canucks tweeted that Eddie Lack wouldn’t mind if fans threw tacos on the ice after a game. But that doesn’t sound right…. or is it? Let’s call the Canucks to find up what is real.
I stayed on the SubPop soundcloud while working away, and this Doldrums song is banging hard and good.
And from the radio show yesterday, a song inspired by play of the new Vancouver Canucks d-man Alex Biega. His first game was Monday against the Wild and he scored his first goal! I wish I could sing like John Tillman.
Yesterday I put my Canucks sweater on and made my way down to Soprano’s for the Canucks Fan Video shoot.
Alex, Chika and Jefe organized a bunch of Canucks fans to come together and make a video to put on Youtube. It was good times standing on stage with other fans and cheers to their Canucks song. A parody to the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Dani California.” The video will be online tomorrow (in theory) before game 1 of the Canucks and Bruins Stanley Cup final. Have a listen to the song below.
Sean & Brayden Ft. Ryan – “Hey Vancouver (Teach me how to Lu)”
Man, I have the major cranks today. I am crabby McCrabberson right now. I’ll need a few sips of Sea Cider to get back into the normally happy spirit I carry around.
I think it has something to do with waking up at 6AM for bootcamp. Bootcamp was fun… its the waking up at 6AM that is less than fun. I haven’t had a proper exercise and Bootcamp leader Karla taught me a lot.
Like did you know, under that belly fat there are muscles? I know right! And not just one or two, but like a whole bunch. Anyways, I met a bunch of them this morning on the wet grass of Clover Point.
It’s looking like my idea to jet off to Tofino for a quick weekend might not happen. We’ll still go, but maybe not till after Christmas. Coral and I are trying to horde our treasure and build back up our savings account. A trip to Tofino will either raid our reserve or go on credit, and neither is wise or prudent.
Speaking of wise and prudent… we did buy hockey tickets! Huzzah.
We’ll head off to Vancouver on December 26th to see the Nucks and Oil. Oh course we’ll be travelling with our hockey friends David Eleanor and Lindsay. plus this year the Fallon Gong and Alyx are coming. It’ll be a party. I am always excited to see a Canucks games as they are my team to cheer for. But I love going to see the Oil as I have a soft spot for that Club and its Dave’s team. So we wear our jersey’s and trash talk and drink the night away.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Download or get you some Nice, Nice, Very Nice… its a mighty good record and I’ll give it a firm thumb up.
*** 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.
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.
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.
Victoria: Veteran Zone presenter Jeremy Baker was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs early this morning in a blockbuster three way trade that also involved the Calgary Flames. Listen for Dion Phanuef on The Zone Afternoon Show Monday.
“It was definitely a shock, but I’m very excited about going to Victoria and being a Zoner,” said Phaneuf.
“It’s a cliche. If Wayne Gretzky can get traded anyone can get traded. I was very surprised, but on the other hand I’m very excited to be going to the 14th largest radio market in the Canada.”
The shakeup comes following a loss to the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night to extend the team’s winless streak to six games, but Leafs GM Brian Burke said that “these pieces were in place prior to yesterday.”
“[Baker] is a warrior. He talks a lot,” explained Burke. “He presents music on the radio and I want players who play the game hard, but also some radio DJs to kinda shake things up in the East.”
A 6′, 180 pound Coquitlam native, Baker was drafted by the Zone in 2003. He says he was surprised by the trade but is hoping that he can do his part to turn around the struggling Leafs.
“I haven’t laced up since my days playing Midget “C” hockey in Coquitlam, but coach (Ron Wilson) said he expects me to play on the second defensive pairing Tuesday against the Devils.”
“I have a lot of respect for JB, but this is part of the business,” Zone Program Director Sara P said. ”It happens at times, and it’s happened here.’
”Jeremy is certainly a good talker, but we’re getting a big, hard shooting defenseman in return. He will really lock down the competitive afternoon drive time in Victoria for the Zone.”
The Victoria radio division is one of Canada’s most competitive with the Zone trailing Kool FM in the ratings and the final playoff spot and many share points behind perennial ratings dominator The Q!
Q! Afternoon show host Ryan Awram was reported as saying, “Dion might be a good hockey player, but if he presents modern rock like he played defense on The Flames, I don’t think Kirk (Mason) and I are too worried.”
Media reports say that program director Sara Parker is not done yet with the Zone’s onair line up.
She is expected to deal half of the Zone’s morning line to make cap space for Phaneuf’s 6.5 million dollar contract over 4 years. Rumours have Jason Lamb shipping off to Edmonton for Sheldon Souray or a block buster proposal that sees Dylan BigD Willows and Rozie Amos plus half the promotions department to Atlanta for Ilya Kovalchuk. Expect more of this story to develop as the March 3rd trade deadline approaches.
I went home for lunch today. Coral went to get a haircut and Nana was over watching Mads and I crafted a yummy portobello mushroom sandwich. Success.
Nana and I sat down to the news and our sandwiches at noon like we used to do when she looked after Madelyn more often and out on the street we noticed cops everywhere. They had the street blocked off and the SWAT team out, an armoured car, the dogs and officers everywhere. Standing around in the pouring rain waiting for “Andrew” to come out peacefully. I guess Andrew thought if he ignored them long enough, they’d go away? or maybe he was truly and magnificently coked out and thought it was a cruel extension of the Star-Trek rerun he was watching…. I dunno, but he had other ideas than surrendering. And so the good folks of the Victoria Police Department huddled in the rain.
Now this “Andrew” character, Coral I know him well. He has some of the most dramatic tantrum and domestics outside our building. They tend to happen more often in the summer but they also happen any day. Wednesday morning at 4AM? “Sure I’ll call my girlfriend a prostitute crackhead whore and she can yell worse back. And it can spill it on the street and continue for over an hour.”
There will be no one missing Andrew when he finally gets dragged out of his apartment to spend two-years-less-a-day at Wilkinson. It’ll be almost 2 years of bliss for me.
Drives me crazy. I hate the “law” and the “government” as much as anyone and I truly believe we should be free to govern ourselves however we feel fit, but when your idea of a drug filled bender interferes with my life, we gotta problem and you gotta go. In the olden days, Andrew would be tossed outside the walls our village and the Sasquatch would take him away.
***
Maybe this ties in, or maybe it doesn’t, but did I see on the news yesterday that California and Washington State are thinking of legalizing it?
I seem to recall that whenever talk of legalizing hits BC, the anti-druggie lobby says; “but what George W. do to us?”
Looks like nothing. He ain’t the president anymore and if California and Washington legalize it, its open season.
***
On a hockey note, the Abbotsford AHL team The Heat had their first sellout of the year last night against the Manitoba Moose. I saw in the paper that the Heat average about 3,700 fans a game, less than the ECHL Salmon Kings. Could Victoria rock an AHL team? Could we wrestle the Canucks affiliation away from Manitoba but before Abbotsford does?
The Heat are the only team in west for the AHL. Rumblings I’ve heard speculated on say the AHL wants to come out west. Could the AHL pickup the top ECHL west coast teams? Victoria vs. Abbotsford rivalry would be amazing.
The Mighty Ducks don’t have an AHL affiliate and are the only team without one…. hmmm.
you and every other 13 year old, you and every other 13 year old my dear.
Coral and I are back to grind after our fun weekend in Vancouver with Dave and Lindsay checking out the Canucks/Oil game.
Canucks crushed which sucks for Dave, but Coral and I had a fun time sitting along the highest row of GM place with our Blue and Green Canucks shirts and drinking expensive beer.
The game was wicked fun, Canucks got out to a HUGE lead early, then I got to listen to Dave lament the rest of the game with his hilarious observations. There were lots of Oil fans up in the plebes with us, so lots of good natured ribbing.
After the game, it was pouring rain and we wandered the city looking for a pub without an aggressive line of oppressive cover charge and settled for Lenox on Granville and Robson. Oddly, I used to work right by this pub but never drank there. (too touristy) but hey, now I am a tourist!
The bar was full of Australians… weird, but we made quick friends with a table of immigrants and had times that were good.
Dave was buying the rounds so I indulged him. We stumbled out of there in time for Coral and I to once again experience the rain and catch the last skytrain to the East.
I was in no shape to drive when we returned to Coquitlam, but was in great shape to run around the bushes and and eat cheeseburgers. Mighty times back in the Coquitlam.
Now we are back and this will likely be Coral’s last week at the government before lay-off time.
We are at peace with the lay-off. Coral will get to be with Madelyn and get to be a stay-at-home Mom for a bit. I’ll try and track down as much work as I can handle and we’ll see what happens.
With that, I am working on a new weekly downtown night. Still hammering out details, but if the night happens it will have me working actual turntables and I’ll have to get my hands on Serato. Exciting stuff and should help me elevate my performance (and generate a little income to start a proper business).
I will need a new url as I let http://jeremybaker.ca slip. doh! Its a bit of story how I even got the domain, then had no way of using it, then it expired and now… well once again we turn to a BBM from Coral.
Coral Crawford: OMG! jeremybaker.ca is about masturbation!!! Jeremy Baker: ha ha! Jeremy Baker: Its about time.
That is an end of the year high-light reel hit by the Pride of Port McNeil. Just an amazing freight train right through the Blackhawk captain Jonathan Toews. The only sad points about the hit…
I like Toews, he’s a great hockey player, why couldn’t it have been Kane?
AND the devastating hit then created a mint scoring chance for the ‘Nucks that was whistled because the Hawks threw a tantrum after the text-book hit. boo.
Still, Nucks win, the hit is amazing and it’ll live on Youtube for all time… or until Youtube gets bought out and the servers go dark.
***
Huzzah!
I did make it to the gym today and for once in my life, I ran into a business that was interested in catering to my needs for a cost that works.
Indeed Odyssey Fitness is 24 Hours. That in of itself was a victory, but the icing for me is that the fee is just $50 a month, no long term contract, no extra fees, a month free and I can come at 2 AM when no one is there and not have to worry about some fitness instructor “selling” any “programs.”
The lady Joanne was sweet, I told her what I wanted, the fees were simple to understand and I signed up! Heck, I might go after my DJ performance at The Clubhouse tonight. We’ll see, I have an early wake up call Friday morning.
***
Next, and keep in mind, I like the Olympics (I am wearing my Olympic sweater right now AAMOF)… but what the fuck is going on?
Maybe I need to send a resume to the Provincial Liberals because how they thought this story would go over well with Johnny Q. Taxpayer is beyond me.
This is how the meeting would have played out if I were in the room when this idea was hatched.
Government Cabinet Minister: “I think we should write a cheque for $1 million dollars of tax payer money to buy premium tickets to Olympic events.”
Jeremy: “no, don’t be retarded.”
then I would send them an invoice for $500,000 and Bob’s your uncle.
That no one stopped to say, hey wait a minute,” is what’s scary.
AND, why would any government official even have to buy tickets anyways? Shouldn’t they just flash a badge and walk in? We already paid for the games? If Premier Gordon Campbell actually has to “buy” an Olympic ticket, then truly, the IOC is fisting us.
A week or so ago, Victoria and Regina entered into some sort of civic pride bet to see which Provincial capital could raise more food donations for the local food bank. Regina spanked us (already embarrassed). The bet called for the loser (Victoria’s Dean Fortin) to fly out to Regina to shovel some snow.
Now the guy isn’t going to go? because of the cost of the flight and uhhh… carbon emissions?
Bike there dude. You don’t make a bet, publicly, on behalf of our city, LOSE, then renege on the deal. C’est dommage.
see, now I am in a bad mood, I better scroll back to the top of this blog post and watch the Willie Mitchell hit again.
![[New Rock Now] Northcote sounded amazing opening for The Gaslight Anthem](https://i0.wp.com/d2x3wmakafwqf5.cloudfront.net/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/106/files/2015/03/Northcote.jpg)
The Morning After 