Savage. Propulsive 80s style hardcore. These chicks (and dude) wail!
Their 2012 LP Sorry was just half a point away from getting Best New Music’d by Pitchfork. The Vancouver punkers travel the land playing DIY style ragers. Most recently they were in Europe where they packed along a 7-inch single. As much as I love the record, man this single is solid. The A-side :”Two of You” is good but the flip “Hunting holiday” is my new favourite song.
White Lung was part of that Rifflandia punk rock night at Soprano’s with Fucked Up. I was already jealous of you SOB’s that hit that show… now twice as much. They would have been new to me then…but maybe I would have been blown away a month and half earlier and had White Lung in my life sooner.
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My next party will be Sunday, November 11th at Lucky Bar. I am building my war chest full of bangers and modern rock remixes to be just one cog in a great machine of music.
Nardwuar the Human Serviette and The Evaporators have a new compilation album called Busy Doing Nothing. The record features some new original songs, some cooperative tracks and a few covers. Some being other bands covering the Evaporators and some being random bands covering other random bands but showing up on the record. An interesting song I heard was Scottish modern rock giants Franz Ferdinand covering 1970s Vancouver punkers Pointed Sticks. The new compilation comes with a calendar and the calendar has a story… this is the part where Nardwuar talked about Franz Ferdinand covering the Pointed Sticks.
If you
look closely at the back
of the record you will
see Alex from Franz
Ferdinand wearing a
headdress while wolfing
down a Skookum
Chief Hamburger at
The Tomahawk BBQ
in North Vancouver,
BC, Canada. Alex
was in town producing
The Cribs at the
Warehouse Studios, which
interestingly enough is
owned by Bryan Adams,
who once worked at the
Tomahawk doing the
dishes!
Not too far from the Warehouse in Gastown, lies JC/DC Studios where with David Carswell and John Collins, Franz Ferdinand recorded a version of The Pointed Sticks’ Real Thing. JC/DC Studios is in the same space as Studio J, where Cub had their New Years Eve 1993 gig with Dimwit of the Pointed Sticks on drums! Furthermore, Kate Nash has eaten at the Tomahawk, so perhaps you can see where this is going?
Not really… but I am glad Nardwuar is here to draw all the lines together. I think this cover is pretty cool. It sounds modern and Franz Ferdinand-y but also classic. The song apparently features guest vocals Nardwuar….but I have a hard time picking it out.
Franz Ferdinand – “Real Thing” (Pointed Sticks Cover)
Dig it.
Interview with Nardwuar on The Zone @ 91-3 Victoria
I am doing that #MarchPhotoADay thing on my twitter. Good times. Every day there is a theme and you take a picture about it. Fun!
I have a couple songs for you today… two very different styles.
Lets get started talking about one of my favourite chill beat mongers, Four Tet. The UK producer and DJ teamed up with Burial for a song called “Nova.” The song will likely show up on Four Tet’s Text Records.
This song kind of reminds of the grey days leading up to spring. Spring is coming to Victoria, but ain’t here yet! (heck there was a light dusting of snow the other day).
You got that signature Four Tet beat and the ghostly samples and glitches of Burial. Basically everything about both performers I like, in one song. I remember when Four Tet toured to Vancouver… and I think played at The Biltmore? Oh man, it will forever be a shame that I didn’t rally to hit the show. In my defense… he played on a February 24th… Madelyn’s birthday. Just couldn’t do it.
The writer didn’t jive on the record, but in explaining their distaste they kinda sold me on the disc. The group is called Mr. Dream and their EP is Fatherland.
The critique is that band sounded a bit like a second-rate 80s vintage Homestead Records band. Sounds like my kind of band.
I started poking around the other day on Homestead because they are an important record label based out of New York for alternative music in the 80s. They feature prominently in the lore of the time in outsider music. Gerald Cosloy ran the label during a lot of important years and was instrumental in the early days of Dinosaur Jr. Awesome.
It was Dinosaur Jr that inspired me to try and learn guitar… and to hear a band that borrows heavily from that era but is modern sounds exceptionally intriguing to me.
Poking around more, and Colsoy’s story intersects again… as he is a part-owner of today’s influential indie record label, Matador Records. And then it just all makes sense. matador is home (or was home) to a lot of bands that I love. Namely Interpol (currently) and Spoon (formally). But click the link and you’ll see a pretty select roster of bands.
Very cool.
Back to Mr. Dream, the band out of Brooklyn NYC… are a couple Pitchfork writers (which is funny, because Pitchfork ripped them)… which goes to show, judging music is easier than making it (or at least a very different skill set).
I like Mr. Dream… but mostly because I like the style and era they are trying to replicate. And if I ever get half decent at guitar, might try for something similar (but with a Four Tet beat? haha)
That’s all I got… I am off on a little holiday tomorrow and Friday… Coral is taking me to a Canucks game. We’ll eat street food, drink beers, maybe hit the Red Wagon… I might go for a soak in the hot tub at my sister’s place, and generally act like a tourist with 48 hours to cause trouble Vancouver friends… if you’re downtown Thursday night…look for Hurricane Coral, I’ll be holding onto a lamp post or sturdy hipster near that!
Its been a few days since I’ve been back from Vancouver. I had a 24 hour adventure in the Terminal City to check out one of my all-time favourite bands, Interpol.
The show was pretty magical because I love their music… but especially the first two records (like everyone, I guess). The set was heavy on most of the best from Turn on… and Antics. The show also featured lots off the critically underwhelming Interpol. And was exceptionally light on Our Love to Admire. In fact, I think they just jammed out “Rest My Chemistry.” Which is cool as I personally think that song is the stand out from the record.
Interpol – “Rest My Chemistry”
There was not much of any “show” in the sense of lasers, devil worship, girls flashing their tits. Just four guys on stage in suits sounded great. The Orpheum Theater made the sound of their songs sparkle. A great audio environment. It didn’t hurt that @Nucksgrl got us 6th row! It definitely was a fan’s show.
I loved the song selection. I am weakest on their new music so it was great that they paced the new songs in with so many great “hits” from the beloved first two albums.
Interpol has been a favourite band of mine for a number of years and this show helped build on the sonic lust. Good times.
Years ago now… maybe 2004 or 2005 or 2006? Wow, James Sutton (the Zone’s music director) came across a song from a Vancouver band called Northern Alliance or NA.
The song was called “Take Me Higher” and we played it a bit on the radio here and like tons of feature songs before and after, it was played and drifted away into obscurity.
The funny thing about this song is that it still gets requested from time to time on the radio despite the fact the band was a story of never was.
What happened to Northern Alliance?
Searching the internet and there is a smattering of circa 2005 websites that are big on promises. A band full of bravado and breaking the status quo and how we’re all Sheeple but they have the answer to break the cycle and blah blah. One website, their shtick is to end every paragraph with “f*** Northern Alliance.”
I always find it adorable when counter-culture types edit themselves.
Its really too bad, they had an awesome song that I still remember and listen to and is still remembered by some Zoners to this day.
The song “Take Me Higher” is a pretty impressive Nu-metal rap/rock dealio. remind me of Linkin Park if I took them seriously (maybe how Linkin Park sounded when they were hungry).
Its a song about cogging your way through the day, through life. A great anthem for the people out there maintaining life but wanting a little more.
Musically, its not changing your world. Rap verse, soaring chorus, huge hooks… back to rap and repeat. But where I like this song compared to say something from most early 2000 nu-metal bands is that I believe the hardship from the singer. Its just hard to take the angst from millionaire douche-bags. But from Vancouver skids, its real.
Time and reflection add to the drama of the song. We now know they had designs on rock stardom to escape the deary madness of life… and it failed ( that I know of, perhaps their lives are in good places, and I hope they are).
This song is full of bravado and optimism. Their website screams the same. But we, the world of 2005-ish… weren’t buying it. And so fade to black on the chapter of music that was NA (METAPHORS!).
Who knows, maybe the band will google themselves and find my blog and smile that someone remembers their music. They’ll drop me line, let me know they’re still grinding and rhyming. Until then, download this old song that I think me and James ripped off MySpace many moons ago.
Madelyn standing in the pouring rain. Chinatown, Vancouver
Part of me thinks I’ve titled my blog with those same Japandroids lyrics before? huh.
I had a very fulfilling adventure to Coquitlam and Vancouver with Madelyn. Over the couple days we covered a lot of ground. Had some fun times with Grandma and Grandpa and Matt and Andrea. Visited with Paul and Sarah. Saw some sights, explored some city. All the while, pissing rain.
Whenever I visit the lower mainland I get nostalgic and think I want to move back. But then I drive in rush hour traffic and scratch my head. How and why do any of you do it? Life is too short. I’d be a transit cat for sure. (which I love and so does Madelyn).
Driving around one afternoon and sampling the radio I heard the DJ talk about a band called Sick Puppies.
This Aussie band sometimes gets requested on the Zone by people that are into “alternative rock.” I’d never heard of them before so I was intrigued and cranked it up.
Sick Puppies – “Maybe”
I guess. Rock, kinda. Alternative, no.
The DJ even quoted the lyrics on the radio like they were some sort of deep manifesto. Change? Being Unique? Fear? Challenge? Trying for something more? All these great points lost in distortion, soaring vocals and syrupy production.
Alternative rock should push you a little. Its should be vulgar, off center, and intriguing. All I take from “Maybe” is a smooth and even listening experience, if I forget the lyrics. Listening to the message of the song makes me mad. The song takes some basic human emotions and puts virtually no unique spin on them… just presents them. The melodrama violated my ears. Think of the word genuine… then to described Sick Puppies use the antonym. I need something a wee bit more left of the dial. God bless ya if that’s your style of Alternative rock, but it ain’t mine.
I don’t want to be hard on the Sick Puppies. They’re just a band trying to make a buck at rock and roll. They wrote the best song they could and it got played on the radio a half world away. Anyone should be commended by that feat which is truly a unique and challenging thing to do… Maybe I am more upset in the mass buy-in required to create the half world where that is possible. There are worse songs that get played in the mainstream more and better songs that never do. Weirds me out man.
Inspired by my friend Dave Sawchuk and a new afternoon show sponsor, Horus Bikes… I think I wanna get a bike to commute to work everyday!
So that means I am selling my Honda Jazz scooter. Which I love, but sadly I fear that if I bike to work everyday, the poor scooter will be neglected. I’d rather it went to a good home.
As you know from reading my blog (I hope), I LOVE scooter riding. If you think you might, or know someone who does, please have a look or share my Used Victoria ad with them.
Just got back from a quick trip to Coquitlam to visit my family and celebrate my brother Matt’s 27th birthday. Ran into some some old friends from High School which was kinda random. Its not like metro Vancouver is a small town or anything. Saw a friend named Lisa and her little 5 month old girl at Metrotown and ran into Jen on a first date!
***
In other less exciting news…
No more Sasquatch trip for me because I’m an idiot and did this:
ugh. So ignorant. Generally I feel Coral is the crazier driver and I am the zen one. Coral stresses in traffic, speeds, tails people. I always figured she’d be the one totaling the Jeep. But ah, Murphy’s Law, the guy that scooters to work in the sun/rain/sleet/hail/wind everyday… takes the Jeep out on a Friday morning for some errands (dry cleaning FYI), backing up and run into a cement barrier.
It smashed into the side/rear of the jeep above and beside the bumper. I don’t know if the Jeep is made of out of paper mache, but it sounded like an IED went off as I gingerly backed into the metal capped cement corner. I thought I was in Afghanistan briefly. As I didn’t see the barrier at all and the parking lot was empty, it was a mighty surprise.
“what the fuck was that?!?”
I fly outta the Jeep and… oh, right… the giant cement barrier. Since I missed the bumper, the cement barrier cut into the Jeep like a Spartans spear and did some serious damage.
So I have to make a claim to ICBC and that little “uh-oh I forgot” will cost me $500. About what I planned on spending on booze/food in Washington. Assuming I could get a media pass. If I had to buy scalper tickets more. So instead I canceled my holiday and will stay home to DJ and make up the $500. Lame.
Add this album to my list of “looking forwards to…” The new Wolf Parade album will be out in June (or maybe July from Sub Pop) and is named after one of my earliest memories growing up, Expo ’86.
Anyone in my age bracket or older that lived in British Columbia in 1986 likely has some fond memories of the World’s Fair that dominated Vancouver. Every time you ride the Expo line of the Skytrain or take in a IMAX film at science world, you’re basking in the legacy. I thought it was pretty neat when I read an interview with WP’s Dan Boeckner about why they chose Expo ’86 as the title for their new record:
Pitchfork: Do you have a title for the album yet?
DB: The title for the record, as far as we know now, is– unless we get sued for using it– Expo 86.
Expo 86 was a World’s Fair that happened in Vancouver in 1986. It’s been this thing we all talked about as a band. We all grew up in British Columbia, and we were all at Expo, which lasted about three or four days. It’s a weird little thought experiment– basically, we were all young children at the same big event. I remember Expo 86 was as big as the Olympics were this year in Vancouver. They completely reorganized part of the downtown core, and they built this giant geodesic dome called “Science World”. Now it looks completely, totally dated and a product of its time. They built monuments, built rides. It was something I don’t think we’re going to see in Canada ever again because World’s Fairs have fallen out of favor, at least for the Western World.
Pitchfork: Do you have any particular memories of going to Expo 86?
DB: I remember going to the German Pavilion, which was totally terrifying. Each country had a pavilion showing off their prime exports or a little bit of the culture, and the German Pavilion was this super austere, really cold Bauhaus-style minimalist building. It freaked me out as a child.
I remember the UFO HTO water park, Expo Ernie! and MFing Rainbow War. I still have a an Expo ’86 t-shirt that is wearable… not that I wear it much, it’s been co-opted by Ms. Coral Crawford.
Fun fact: The above cover for the new Wolf Parade album features some greasy looking youngsters about to fuck some ship up… those kids are actual family members of Wolf Parade’s Dante DeCaro. Wait an minute? the same Dante that used to be in Victoria favourite sons Hot Hot Heat? yes, the same one!
And one more degree of Kevin Bacon; Expo ’86 had a chief operating officer named Jim Pattison. He now owns The Zone @ 91-3! Believe that.
That’s it… Go with yourself.
Me, Expo Ernie, and my brothers CJ and Matt: May 1986
Its a power pop explosion from Portland indie darlings The Thermals.
Have a listen: The Thermals – “Canada”
Ok, its is a very basic, balls to the floor power pop anthem. Some hipsters were barking all over the internet because they expect more from The Thermals, but its better than anything Weezer has put out since Pinkerton and at least as good as most Sloan songs.
The lore behind the song is neato gang:
Don’t get us wrong – Buffalo, NY is a swell American town. But it’s not the easiest city to play, ask any band! So when The Thermals, on a recent tour, found themselves staring down the barrel of a less-than-spectacular night in Buffalo, The Thermals comforted themselves with the thought that the next day they were headed for CANADA. Toronto, to be exact, where they would headline an amazing sold out show at The Horseshoe Tavern. Sitting in the van in Buffalo, Thermals guitarist and singer Hutch Harris picked up a guitar and strummed a few chords, and sang a few lines about going to CANADA. Kathy Foster walked up and sang “Whoa Whoa-Oh Whoa!” as if on cue. Drummer Westin Glass set a fat beat to it at soundcheck et voila, “Canada”. Seriously, I’m not making this up. I mean, listen to the song. It doesn’t sound like it took The Thermals longer than half an hour to write “Canada”. But therein lies its brilliance! Totally off the cuff, yet totally sincere, “Canada” is an instant classic, a raucous, joyous ode to our brothers and sisters to the north. CANADA! Where everyone is funny, friendly and ready to have a beer or seven with you. CANADA! Where we’ll have everything we need! CANADA! The country we aspire to be.
and about the lyrics:
The lyrics to “Canada” contain the line “Sittin’ all alone / Pick up the phone and call Ramona / Go to Canada”. Ramona refers to Thermals sound woman Anna Lockwood, who sometimes goes by the name Ramona Flowers, a character in the Canadian comic book Scott Pilgrim, by Canadian author Bryan Lee O’Malley. Scott Pilgrim is published by Oni Press, who share a hometown of Portland, Oregon with The Thermals. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, a live-action film adaptation of the comic starring Canadian actor Michael Cera, is due in August of this year. Scott Pilgrim is named after a song by the Canadian band Plumtree.
This is too neat, trolling one of the radio message boards last night, they had a video posted from 1936. It was an old travel documentary that would have aired before a movie and this edition features Victoria and Vancouver, gateway to Canada.
I like the shot at 2:03 of the video, looking down Douglas north towards City Hall and you can catch a glimpse of the Rialto. Also, it is pretty cool to see all the trolley cars and the lack of high rises everywhere, especially in James Bay behind the Parliament Buildings.
The second half features Vancouver; British Columbia’s biggest city with a population of 350,000!
Their 2012 LP Sorry was just half a point away from getting Best New Music’d by Pitchfork. The Vancouver punkers travel the land playing DIY style ragers. Most recently they were in Europe where they packed along a 7-inch single. As much as I love the record, man this single is solid. The A-side :”Two of You” is good but the flip “Hunting holiday” is my new favourite song.
My next party will be Sunday, November 11th at Lucky Bar. I am building my war chest full of bangers and modern rock remixes to be just one cog in a great machine of music.
The Morning After 
