Friday, April 26, 2013

FREE DOWNLOAD: Pizza Sub - "Pizza Sub"

Record Store Day was this past Saturday. I had to cut my day short and skip psych-surf-punks Crystal Swells' and the garage-y Nervous Talk's free sets because Neptoon Records got WAY too hot, crowded and smelly, but I got to see Pizza Sub at Red Cat Records. And they played "Pizza Sub" - twice! If only Pizza Sub existed during the edibles edition of my radio show. "Pepperoni! Salami! Marinara sauce! AND EXTRA CHEESE!!"


Download Pizza Sub's self-titled demo from their Bandcamp page.

Seeing Angels

Name your city. I will wire you money to see Angel Olsen (transit fare not included). My review of Angel Olsen with Villages live at the Media Club will be posted in Vancouver Weekly in a day or two.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Blondie - "One Way Or Another"



I only found out a week-and-a-half ago that "One Way Or Another," a song I always knew, was by Blondie.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Mash 'Em Yourself: Daft Punk vs. Cokskar

Play this song by Minneapolis hardcore band Cokskar 2:09 into Daft Punk's "Rollin' & Scratchin'." It sounds like the world's largest super-computer is crashing, but it actually kind of works:



Marnie Stern: Endless Quote Machine

Proof of Life by Marnie Stern on Grooveshark

"In 'Proof of Life', there's the line, 'All my life is based on fantasy'-- I sit here all day, living in this fantasy world and wondering if I have let my life go by without having real connections, no family or anything like that. Like, I am embarrassed that I can't afford health insurance, and then there's the separate issue of not caring about any of that and wanting to write a really good song that's important to me, which ends up overriding everything else. But then I lay in bed awake at night and think, 'Oh god, what will I do? I've got to find a guitar lesson to teach, or sell something.' But it's a choice. I feel very fortunate to have people hear my music. I don't feel like I have much of a right to complain about not making money out of it."

I kind of want to see Marnie Stern at the Media Club on April 25 just for the small, small, ohhh sooooo smalllll chance of meeting her. I don't know what I'd say though; I've met a few of my favourite musicians of all time, and I didn't say much to any of them.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Gene Simmons - "Firestarter" (Prodigy Cover)

Conversely, Gene Simmons' cover of "Firestarter" is one of the worst things I've ever heard. I wonder what it's like to reach his level of total complacency. And wealth. It must be pretty damned nice:


Prodigy - "Firestarter (Death Grips Remix)"

As if "Firestarter" didn't get the adrenaline flowing before. I love Death Grips:

Aggregate! Aggregate! Aggregate!

I don't know how the whole writer-publisher-property relationship works yet, but I assume publications don't like their articles being posted in full elsewhere even if it's on one of their own writers' personal blogs. So every once in a while, I'm just going to post the links to my reviews for Vancouver Weekly. This batch includes my reviews of Martha Wainwright with AroarA at the Rio, Crystal Swells with Juvenile Hall, Hole in My Head and Ornament & Crime at LanaLou's, the Strokes' Comedown Machine and Kurt Vile's Wakin on a Pretty Daze.

"In This Day and Age, 'Punk Ideals' Are Totally Irrelevant.

Not that it isn't cool to have them, but times have changed, man." 

 - Kurt Vile on criticisms of "selling out" to the Bank of America. Full interview and more context here.

The War on Drugs - "Black Water Falls"

The War on Drugs is the greatest band I've ever blindly stumbled upon. They are the greatest road trip music I've ever heard without ever having listened to them during a road trip. Well, no far out road trips anyway:

Drown Me in Slut River

Punk-assed garage-rockers from Iowa City Slut River will show up at your party, steal your beer and piss on your bed. Usually, bands lose a little edge in radio sessions, but Slut River spits, scratches, kicks and snarls as ferociously as ever. For more blistering tracks, check out their Bandcamp page:

Friday, April 5, 2013

Waxahatchee - "Be Good"

I want to be Waxahatchee's friend:


Remembering Roger Ebert and Why I Write

"Ebert was without a doubt one of the best critics out there. I can't count the times I went to his page only to find that he said what I thought or felt but couldn't articulate. The guy was a very gifted writer, regardless of what you think of his opinions on film. He was a voice of civility and understanding."

 - Anonymous


I'm not a big film fan. Unfortunately, I lack the attention span, and there are a lot of things I'd rather do instead of sit idly and burn out my eyes on a screen for two hours. I'm trying to watch more films though because I know there's an endless amount of good work out there, and my to-watch list grows by the week. As you can imagine, I don't read many film reviews either, Ebert's included. I also don't have the first clue as to what goes into film criticism.

But despite my lack of familiarity with film history and film criticism, taking the above quotation as a general consensus, I can say that the anonymous remembrance of Roger Ebert speaks to everything I strive for in writing about music. I know how difficult it can be to articulate the emotions that some music makes me feel. I've said time and time again (although more likely, I've only said it in several drafts of posts) that I rarely write about the music that moves me the most because I can struggle for up to months to articulate exactly how and why the music that moves me the most moves me the way it does.

I also know what it's like to come across writing that conveys exactly how I feel about a certain musician or piece of music, writing that re-affirms my belief that as little as personal tastes should matter, sometimes, they do matter, because to understand a piece of music, a movie or a book the same way someone else does - the way you thought no one else ever could or did - is to speak a same language. In these comforting moments, I feel a jolt of faith in my connection to other humans and in my capacity to empathize.

That I might possibly articulate how even one other person feels about music - that I might create a mutual understanding between people who may never meet and in doing so assuage any social anxiety that arises from a sense of aesthetic-and-wider-philosophy-based isolation - is the fundamental reason why I write. To be able to provide fresh perspectives and "contribute to the conversation" or "discourse" is just a bonus.

I consider myself fairly non-partisan. I can usually appreciate good writers whether or not I agree with them because when many issues are broken down, there are valid arguments for all sides. At the very least, I try to appreciate well-defended positions as motivation to remain as non-partisan as possible when I disagree. "Civility and understanding." If you can at least uphold those virtues, the way Roger Ebert was purportedly able to, there's value in your writing. It's least I can hope to do.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Franz Ferdinand - "Jacqueline"

Nine years later, I still get this song stuck in my head:


Waxahatchee - "Lips and Limbs"

When I have more time, I'll write more extensively about Waxahatchee - as I've been planning to since I first heard her a couple of weeks ago. For now, you can read White Lung singer Mish Way's take on Waxahatchee at the Talkhouse, and I'll just add that "Lips and Limbs" makes me feel like all kinds of ^_^ ^_^ ^_^:


FULL STREAM: Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador, 2013)

Philly guitar-maestro Kurt Vile's fifth full-length album comes out on April 9, but for now, it's streaming in full at NPR. God bless NPR.

FRREE DOWNLOAD: Samantha Glass Discography

Via White Poppy:

"word on the street is that everything on the Samantha Glass bandcamp page is FREE for a couple days...
http://samanthaglass.bandcamp.com/"