Full Name: Jeff Geady I’d never have believed it if I didn’t have a friend there to witness it as well, but the same suit-wearing old guy from last year’s Lee’s Palace showcase was there last night, joining the crowd of university-age kids in front of the stage for The Pigeon Detectives. I couldn’t tell if he stunk this year; he was too far away to smell, and the kids were enveloped in a cloud of too-sweet-smelling colognes.
Surreal, yet awesome.
I said I wasn’t going to drink. I said I had to work the next day. Only one of those statements is still true today. Ugh.
Last night was Misteur Valaire, The Details, The Cansecos, and The Russian Futurists, splitting time between Rancho and Sneaky Dee’s. I got my fill of dancey techno indie-pop stuff (note: The Details are not this - they are some ‘Peg rock good peoples). No complaints from me - my show review will be forthcoming ASAP. Tonight will be a hazy shoe-gaze affair, it looks like.
Incidentally, I ran into Nate from the Schomberg Fair at the St. Lawrence Market today. He’s got a very amusing story about Road to Avonlea. I can’t really tell it, but if you see him, it’s worth asking about.
Picked up our media passes yesterday with Dan. The registration and media events are being held at the Royal York this year, instead of the Holiday Inn. Apparently this venue change has signalled an equivalent ante-upping of dress and demeanour as the Royal York media area was in full-on banquet mode - well-dressed old people in suits, very few indie-rocker types, and lots of white tablecloths and puff pastries. This is what CMW means to people who’ve forgotten what music sounds like.
Dan and I were not particularly impressed, so we went to Harvey’s instead and I had a burger that made my stomach hurt for 3 hours.
Note to self: ask Dan why Rancho is not serving beluga caviar
Tonight: Sneaky Dee’s
Having just received mostly-official confirmation of my accreditation as a member of the press for CMW, I look forward to this weekend. It begins early, on Thursday night, in complete disharmony with my workweek which ends, conventionally, on Friday. This begins 4 solid nights of intoxication and further reduction of audible frequencies through repeated trauma.
And a whole shit-load of bands.
I can be somewhat critical (wait, hear me out) but last year’s CMW was rather enjoyable (apart from a somewhat confusing appearance of a 50 year old man in a suit showing up at Lee’s Palace stinking of incredible body odour who didn’t seem to notice he was the only person in the room smoking marijuana, and who, of course, had to stand right beside me). So I have high expectations for this year - no pun intended.
I will accept nothing but quality entertainment, dammit.
I wake up to CBC Radio’s Music and Company every morning, and today, at 7am I am promptly greated with the news that Jeff Healey died. The news is somewhat surprising, even though I have no personal stake in or specific love for his music. I guess he just seemed a bit young, and he was. 41 years - complications from cancer.
As I said, I have no particular love of his music, yet he’s been in my mind for a long time. My aunt collected his records, and there’s Healey’s down on Queen and Bathurst. I think it affects me because he seemed, and was, a very genuine person, full of warmth and love for music. It’s always going to suck when people like him go.
And CBC played him performing a cover of this song, My Blackbirds are Bluebirds Now. I can’t find a version of Healey playing it, but I liked it so much I’m posting the next best thing.
Fans Urge Preservation of Carpenters’ Home
We all know The Carpenters, right? I don’t need to explain? OK, as the article states, they bought this house for them (the singing sister and brother team) and their parents. Then the girl dies of anorexia at age 32, and the parents died and then Richard sells the house. The current owner of the house wants to demolish it and now fans are wanting Los Angeles to declare it a historical landmark.
WTF?
Getting past how creepy it is for a family of presumably rich musicians to be living together in the same house (in their early 30’s no less) with their parents, what makes this house so special? Their studio and recording spaces have already been destroyed, and Richard Carpenter saw fit to sell the house his sister died in (hey, maybe he’s not so fond of the place, eh? Ever think of that, obnoxiously zealous fans?) so why save the house?
Because it’s on the cover of their album “Now and Then”? I hope not. Google the album - the house is a typical 2-story bungalow with hopelessly 70’s-ish colour scheme (my parents had the same scheme - it happens).
There’s nothing special about this house. I’m going on record supporting the destruction of this building. Just looking at a picture of it - I can smell the faux wood panelling. Ugh.
What is it with this kind of obsession over useless artifacts? Why do we clutch to fragments of the past? Because we are unhappy with the present? Uncertain of the future?
That Seizure-Inducing Hip-Hop Music
Musicogenic epilepsy is basically seizures triggered by music - music of a certain type, usually music with strong neurologic reaction (ie. music you really like, for example). Joan of Arc would go into fits when she heard church bells, for example, and she’d see visions of angels and the voices of saints, etc. Some people speculate she was experiencing this affliction.
Well, now there’s a cure for those wingnut religious-themed visions!
Stacey Gayle has been cured through brain surgery and can now listen to her favourite hip-hop music once again!
Modern Science: Killing religious mystery and enabling people to listen to Sean Paul without traumatic neural episodes at the same time. Way to fucking go, Science. I guess you take the bad with the good.
I was linked to this essay about 5 years ago so I realize that some, maybe even most, people have already read this, but I think it’s valuable re-read, if only to re-hammer another nail into the coffin of corporatized music.
I say “music” because while Albini’s essay is about rock bands, this certainly applies to all young up-and-coming musicians of any style. I’m thinking particularly of the booming hip hop/r&b industry that’s gone so corporate it makes rock music look almost interesting by virtue of obscurity (I said “almost”). Hell, even fucking Timbaland is producing rock ballad white kids these days.
Not that this is news for rappers, either. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube both quit NWA around 1990 complaining that they were receiving little compensation, despite Straight Outta Compton selling over 3 million copies. Dr Dre quit, formed Death Row, and that didn’t get any better, as he left that label following claims of financial mismanagement and corruption.
The point is - music is big business, involves multiple millions of dollars and is administered by an old-boy’s club power structure that is almost laughably corrupt. It would seem the bigger the label is, the worse their practices are, but I could just be speculating. Anyway, without further ado:
The Problem With Music - Steve Albini
“Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.”
Just another reminder to young bands with talent (as they are many, in Toronto alone) to keep the stars out of their eyes, get educated on the business if you’re going to shop for labels, and get a lawyer you can trust. Or simply do not try to get signed, period.
Tafelmusik + Rock Plaza Central (this link is a direct link to an audio stream and will open some kind of musical player thing)
So back on December 8th, CBC Radio 2 aired a Fuse episode featuring a musical mashup of Toronto’s Rock Plaza Central and Tafelmusik (a baroque orchestra that plays worldwide and makes a home at Trinity-St. Pauls near Bloor and Spadina. The taping was a few weeks prior (I forget the date and don’t feel like checking) and admission was free. I went with a few friends and sat in the front row a few feet from the feet of Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik’s director. What followed was over an hour of amazing music and commentary taped live off the stage at Trinity-St. Pauls.
This stream will link you to the songs, minus the commentary from the orchestral and band members and CBC’s Amanda Putz. The show list goes like:
1. Concerto in A Minor For Violin and Orchestra
2. How Shall I Aspire To Heaven
3. I am an Excellent Steel Horse
4. 15 Hands
5. Canon and Gigue in D Major
6. My Children, Be Joyful
7. When We Go, How We Go (Part 1)
8. St. Cecilia’s Dance
9. When I Am Laid In Earth / We’ve Got A Lot To Be Glad For
I can’t quite describe how awesome this was in person, with a 7-8 piece orchestra bathing you in acoustic sound on one side, and a folk-rock band on the other. Truly magnificent. This audio stream hopefully captures that. If you missed this show, well, this is all you got. And minus 10 cool points for your absence.
A belated 9+ minute Christmas message from your dead friends Kurt Cobain and William S. Burroughs.
9mb mp3 link (save target as)
I’m totally copping this from a friend’s blog, so all props belong to Hank and http://www.everythingathon.com/ and I’ll offer his description of this audio gift:
Two dead junkies offering us a glimpse of a different kind of Christmas…The one Norman Rockwell never painted…”
Enjoy!