So... I've been to Vancouver Island 3 or 4 times this year and every time I go it rains and we end up getting stuck indoors... which might explain why Tk & Julie are wearing makeshift tin foil costumes in the pics above. I guess vodka might explain it too, but we tend not to dwell on that kinda stuff.
Oh, and yes, there's a semi-pointless YouTube clip involving bubble-wrap too. Behold:
i went to a "trapped in the closet 2" party and all I got was this lousy crazy fish with titties...
Last night we attended what was dubbed "most likely the first screening of Trapped In The Closet 2 in Vancouver". Things were beyond overboard; there was a projection screen, costumes, AND replica Berettas!
Without spoilers: the first 1/3 of TITC2 is sheer awesomeness. It's like a hyper-cliched version of the first 12 chapters (is that even possible?)... on speed. However, by the last 3rd of the performance everything feels kinda paranoid and Twin Peak-sy (but not in a good way). I have a hunch that the next instalment of TITC (oh come on, we all know there will be another instalment) will be completely entrenched in 1980's style homophobia.
Sidebar: why does Kells insist on constantly only wearing tone-on-tone suits? Didn't Regis Philbin rock that on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire circa 2002? I mean, for a guy who can't shut up about how flashy he looks... that aint' too flashy. Hey, I'm just sayin'.
Either way, thanks to Becca for hosting/completely embracing her unironic love of Robert Kelly.
quickie: i don't know much, but I know I love you...
Shout out to vanmega reader, miken, for posting this picture in the comments.
miken, you are here by awarded 6 trillion vanmega points (redeemable at that new H&M opening in Coquitlam this weekend... maybe). This picture is beyond meta for me. Radtastic, to the max.
You are the wind beneath my wings... or something to that extent.
adventures in fake dj'ing: hot! local! favourites! edition...
As promised, I've assembled an hour long mix highlighting the bands featured in Quinn's 2007 hottest/best in Vancouver poll. This set isn't the normal beatmixed fake dj stuff I normally do, but rather more of a cross faded radio-show style mix... with no painful radio show banter, of course.
The track list:
The Clips - Kassle The Doers - Art For $ Tranzmitors - Dancin' in the Front Row You Say Party! We Say Die! - The Gap White Lung - Back House The Choir Practice - Failsafe Organ Trail - Moonshine They Shoot Horses, Don't They - A Place Called LA Twin Crystals - First Girl Fake Shark Real Zombie! - Wolf Is The New Frog Eyes - Bushels Immaculate Machine - Dear Confessor Japandroids - Coma Complacency Pink Mountaintops - New Drug Queens Ladyhawk - The Dugout Secret Mommy - Grand About The Mouth Mutators - What Cuts Want Bison - Dark Skys Above
Turns out it was Hippie Days on 4th street today. Yep, the one day of the year where Kits residents disregard neighborhood gentrification and let their freak flag fly by... uhhh... having sidewalk sales, painting faces, and playing Rolling Stones songs over the store's PA systems. Or something.
Yeah, yeah, I'm being needlessly harsh.
Anyways, I ended up running some errands on 4th and hopped into Zulu Records. In the spirit of the event they were liquidating heaps of their used stuff for cheap. A lot of people were, naturally, digging through crates of vinyl... I lucked out and found a small mountain of late 90's CD singles. About 3/4 of the box was crap (e.g. Eurohouse remixes of U2 tunes, Shaggy, etc)... but the remaining stack was this cornucopia of late 90's beat-beat meets French house meets the kinda stuff that Mixmag and the like were insisting that OMGZ you must go listen to on a beach in Ibiza immediately. For less than 5 bucks I got a bunch of out of print stuff, that I haven't heard in years. Of the haul, here's my favorite track:
For those of you who used to actually get my real cassette-based, authentically dj mixed mixtapes in the latter half of university, you might remember I played the hell out of this version of this track. I thought it was lost forever, apparently not.
This year the poll didn't explicitly focus on who were the "best" bands in the city, rather the focus was on who were the "hottest" bands in the city (you know, creating the buzz and what not).
I think this was a really cool approach. A lot of locals love to pointlessly condemn the music scene, arguing that it's sleepy or small or that we're no Montreal or whatever. The results of Quinn's poll show that it simply isn't the case. He's highlighted a diverse, urgent, batch of emerging performers all of which are worthy of your time and support. The fact of the matter is, if you believe that the Vancouver music scene is lacking... you're not getting out enough.
Just announced as a part of the Global Comedyfest:
Comedy Death Ray, Friday September 20 at The Commodore
For those not in the know, it's a stand-up/sketch comedy thing originally founded by the guys from Mr. Show. Comparing the press release from HOB and the Comedyfest website there are differing accounts of who's appearing at the Vancouver show... potentially Daivd Cross, potentially Neil Hamburger. Both sources, however, are confirming that Mary Lynn Rajskub will be performing.
Chloe from 24!
And... I'm out of town that night. Sigh.
Anyhoo, tickets go on sale on friday at 10am via ticketmaster.
At the risk of sounding like I belong with the last 16% of the bell curve... Hey, that Flight of The Conchords show done by those Flight of The Conchords guys is pretty funny**!
** = in my defense, they've only just started airing the show on TV in Canada... and it's only shown randomly on the movie channel between episodes of Entourage.
I had a bunch of live bootleg FOTC mp3's from a few years back, and they were just okay-funny (maybe, because I was trying to paint them with the same brush as Tenacious D... for shame, me). But the show really builds on to the humor of the original songs... also the fact that most of their songs have been refined/produced to sound more like the original songs/artists they riff off of is kinda cool too. Case in point: the Pet Shop Boys-heavy "Inner City Pressure" (posted above) rules.
Anyways, this weekend I marathoned through every episode available on teh internets.com. You should too... start here.
Remember, a while back how I was looking for live bootlegs of Girl Talk shows? vanmega reader, Alex, put me up on a bunch of shows. Alex is hereby awarded 587 vanmega-points (redeemable at 7-11's everywhere). Because downloading these shows can be an uber-pain at times (dealing with yousendit, slow torrents, or even wrestling with flac files) I'm hosting my favorite of the shows I've heard:
This show took place about a week after the Vancouver show at Richard's... so there are lots of similarities... which is a good thing, if you were there and want to relive the sweaty insanity
Also... SPOILER ALERT (?): some advice... if you've never seen the GT freakshow live, and you're going to any of the upcoming Girl Talk shows, such as the one at UBC in September or the one in Calgary in October DON'T download these sets. Keep it completely fresh and new. You have no idea what you're in for.
Not to get all overly excited or anything, but this month's mixtape is magically delicious and a real return to form. This month's tape is long (17 tracks! over an hour!) and choc full of wonderful guitar riffs and melody and diversity and the like. It can pair with anyone's upcoming long weekend plans... unless, you know, you're going to a NASCAR race or whatever.
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