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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

When the real world gets too fucking busy to blog, the best thing to do is post the work of others... right? Anyways, here's some audio percolating across teh interweb:

Tegan & Sara are the latest band to get the mash-up treatment from Party Ben. Walking with a Ghost is paired with Mylo's Paris 400. This sounds more like a summery / dancey electronica T&S remix rather than a mash-up. Anyhoots:

- Tegan & Sara vs Mylo - Walking In Paris [mp3]

Oasis have a new single out. Does anyone actually care about Oasis anymore?

- Oasis - Lyla [mp3]

Gasp! Radiohead performed a brand spankin' never been heard before new song at a concert over the weekend. Needless to say, gushing fanboys the world over are - well - gushing. To hell with Art-Rock, I miss Ok Computer.

- Radiohead - Arpeggi (Live) [mp3]

The Futureheads are playing The Commodore in all of 10 days. Until then I rock this live track from thier performance at SXSW. The Fat Boys human beatbox meets Gang o' Four riffs breakdown at 1:08 mark pleases me to no end.

- The Futureheads - He Knows (Live) [mp3].

I'm finally getting into the newish Queens of the Stone Age disk. You should to...

- Queens of the Stone Age - Long Slow Goodbye [mp3]

K... happy listening, back to these goddamed term papers.

elsewhere

how to really confuse your party guests | deftone | goulet?

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Tuesday, March 29, 2005

file under: holy fucking crap...

The Arcade Fire are on the cover of the latest issue of Time Magazine (sorry yankees, the Canadian Edition only). They're featured in a fairly extensive piece about the state of "indie music" which acknowledges that 'indie rock' no longer means "independent with out major label backing" but rather has come to mean "something closer to 'stuff you wouldn't expect to hear on normal radio' ... encompassing a [wider] range of sounds" (I think understanding this subtle difference is important). There's discussion about the most anticipated Canadian indie disks of 2005, the nature of the business, the rapid sales growth of indie rock, and of course the grass(web)roots success story of The Arcade Fire. Nice, like beans and rice, kids.

You can read the entire article here.

elsewhere

the stencil | bob saget is god | another OC related rant

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Sunday, March 27, 2005

nice work, internet...

On Thursday, the combination of some excessively popular Ted Leo / Ryan Adams media, some new linkage, and the return of the babble board ended up sending a flurry of requests to our web host, so much so that we consumed our daily allotted bandwidth (5 gigs!). This resulted in the site being temporarily suspended. Nice one, kids.

Anyways, we’re now back, and the above referenced Ted Leo / Ryan Adams tracks are now offline. Stop whining… you know that there will be more audio goodies in a matter of days. For now, there's vanmega radio.

In other news...

Also, I feel compelled to inform you, faithful blog reader, that this weekend myself and the Tk accidentally watched Jesus Christ Superstar on the TV. My initial reaction was "Hey, this movie is beyond totally fucked". Tk then informed me that this movie was, in fact, a "musical" (truth: I’ve never actually sat through one before). Musicals baffle me… I mean how can people act through singing for that long (upwards of an hour and a half) without laughing at themselves?

By the way, if you ask me ~~to be a bit blasphemous~~, Jesus was a bit of a prick in the movie. I mean the guy never once said to the random crowds of 30+ people about to break in to song and dance in his honour, “hey, it’s cool… you get me, you’re into me… no need to break out into an excessive routine. I get it, and for that I’m gracious”. It’s like he wanted the various dance troupes to perform just for him. Either way, Judas was rad. The guy couldn’t sing anything with out going completely over the top. As this article points out Judas’ defining moment in the movie was "Whichever was the first moment in which he stood with his legs just slightly more than shoulder width apart, half-squatted, pointed one index finger righteous in the air, and wailed."

elsewhere

tony pierce wrote a great easter post | jesus is magic

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Tuesday, March 22, 2005

two hot-ass, important pieces of news... [painfully updated]

one:

My sources have just informed me that Weezer will be playing The Commodore Ballroom (!) on Tuesday April 26th, as apart of the Commodore's 75th anniversary celebrations. Insanity!! Who's with me on this one?! Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 9:30am. Get on it... but note; Weezer + a surprizingly tiny venue with bouncy floors = tickets will be sold out in 6.2 seconds.

UPDATE (Saturday): Goddammit! Logged on ticketmaster at 9:27. Made first "look for tickets" query at 9:30:06. Shit was already sold out. Yeah... yeah... I knew tickets would go fast, but I mean jesushchrist that's insane. If anyone out there has a spare ticket, help a brother (uhhh... me) out.

two:

If you live in vancouver Cord Mag wants to give you free stuff! There's a contest going on right now at Cord where we're giving away pairs of passes to Lowest Of The Low's Vancouver show on March 31, as well as an autographed copy of their latest disk, Sordid Fiction. But you gotta move fast (ie. now) the contest ends in a few days - to enter head to the website or send an email to contest001@cordmag.com with your email, name, mailing address and phone number. Woo! Everyone loves free stuff. There's 4 prize packs to be won!

Also - if other local Vancouver bloggers could spread word by posting or linking this contest on their respective blogs, that would be uber-pleasing.

elsewhere

the new fiona apple disk has leaked, download it here

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Friday, March 18, 2005

friday = alt-country download day

Word on the street is that Ryan Adams has a new disk coming out in May... I'm not gonna front, I wasn't too impressed with his last disk, Love is Hell. It was kinda... uhhh... watered down... erummm... not focused. With that said, prior to LIH the guy put out 4 disks which were nothing short of jaw-droppingly brilliant and important, so much so that I find myself regularly citing Ryan Adams as my favorite artist / song writer / band of all-times / ever. This infuriates the hipsters with a-symmetrical haircuts to no end. Ha_ha_ha.

After following some links over at Scenestars, I got my hands on a copy of Ryan Adams fabled (i.e. never released) Destroyer album. I guess it was recorded in 2000 with Gillian Welch & David Rawlings. Upon completing the disk, Ryan felt it wasn't up to snuff for being his first post-whiskeytown solo release. He then scrapped the disk, returned to the studio and recorded what would become Heartbreaker.

Ryan might have been smoking crack, Destroyer is pretty 'effing good. He threw out some wonderfully crafted songs. At times the disk parallels Heartbreaker's hushed introspective alt-country style. Although, it lacks that timeless "could have been written in the '30's" finish that all the critics gushed about when Heartbreaker was released. Either way, I've posted it here. Check it:

Ryan Adams - The Destroyer Sessions

01 Born Yesterday
02 Dreaming's Free
03 Poison & The Pain
04 No Disguise
05 Rainy Days
06 Statuettes With Wounds
07 String And The Wire
08 Hey Mrs. Lovely
09 Nighttime Gals
10 In My Time Of Need
11 Bartending Lines
12 Memories Of You (False Start)
13 Memories Of You
14 Time (The Revelator)

(As always, right-click save-as. These files will be posted for a limited time. Get 'em whilst you can.)

Update: Nice work, internet... apparently, this post was exteremely popular and killed my bandwidth. So the files were taken down. Hopefully those who've shared from here, will share with others. Those still looking for the disk could try here.

elsewhere

new tunes on vanmega radio | look at my striped shirt

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Wednesday, March 16, 2005

quickie: playing nintendo's "bad dudes"...

I double dog dare you to click here, play a video game, and try not to swear up and down that "Bad Dudes" isn't the most awsum video game ever made. Hell, they shouldda named it "RAD Dudes"... but I guess back then the word 'rad' didn't carry much ironic cache.

But for serious, what's not to love about a video game that opens up with a poor-man's Ice Man telling you that "the president has been captured by ninja's"? NINJAS. So best.

Actually, that video game is so worst (although I do remember it being pretty kick ass back in the day). The type of crap I'll occupy myself with instead of getting the 5 final projects I have due in the next 10 days done is nothing short of amazing.

elsewhere

Upcoming '24' Focuses on Jack Bauer Eating a Sandwich

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Monday, March 14, 2005

most fastest twenty four update...

Hello, I am a total ho-bag.

---

Note: I'd just like to point out to those who refuse to watch season four of 24 week by week, and instead are choosing to abstain until they can buy the whole thing on DVD and watch it in a hedonistic marathon format that (1) this post contained spoilers (2) they suck for waiting.

elsewhere

napoleon vs fender | if everyone in america had to grow bangs

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Holy hell, it's good to be home... even if only for a few days, slightly stepping out of school mode and actually changing environments was - apparently - just what the doctor ordered. The doctor, however, did not order the insane drink-a-thon that was the 4th annual wine club weekend. Things were beyond blurry pretty much from 5pm on Friday until... well... now. Although, Shinobi couldn't make it to the dinner due to a corporate fuck-up of grand proportions, this was the best (in terms of menu, wine pairing, general sassiness / prettiness of the dates) annual dinner thus far. Needless to say the candle light was just right the HiFi was in the background and the wine was delicious. Shout out to Peter Sichel.

Upwards of 6 billion photos were taken, a good portion of them can be viewed here.

elsewhere

lots of sxsw mp3's here | cord mag interviews the futureheads

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Thursday, March 10, 2005

irony: a dish best served cold

In the last few days blog-nerd buzz has been brewing over Ted Leo's cover of Kelly Clarkson's Since ~~You've~~ U Been Gone. Who am I to deny, it's pretty entertaining. See for yourself:

Ted Leo - Since U Been Gone [mp3]

Over the song's break Ted tears into the chorus of Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs... which is kinda fitting, since the break of the original Kelly Clarkson song is an obvious rip-off of the YYY's riff.

Update: File taken offline, as my bandwidth was getting hammmmmmmered. Hopefully, those who got the file from here will share with others. Alternatively, you may be able to find the file here.

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In other acoustic, but not ironic, music news... I'm kinda starting to feel the Kings of Convenience's Riot on an Empty Street disk. Yeah, I know that some people have been digging on the band for a few months, but the live material I heard was kinda ho-hum. The disk however, is lovely and gentle, a bit reminisant of Simon & Garfunkel, plus their Norwegian point of origin adds this awkward charm to their work. Check out the mellow gold yourself:

Kings Of Convenience - Cayman Islands [mp3]

Incidentally, the Kings of Convenience play Richard's on Richards in Vancouver tomorrow (Friday). I won't be there, I'll be in Calgary, going off like a school girl at the Wine Club Annual. Can. Not. Wait.... see you next week.

elsewhere

how to win any argument on the internet | adam riff

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Tuesday, March 08, 2005

the futureheads at richard's on richards...

Where do I even begin on this one? The fact that Tk stumbled out of the cab and into the arms of johnny drummer-face, or the fact that our strategy of 2-fisting gin + sodas while working to the front of the crowd paid off like gang-busters, or the fact that yet again I saw an inspired band for less than the cost of parking downtown?

In seriousness, last night's Futureheads show was wonderfully bonkers. Since the band’s last performance in Vancouver they’ve become ~~six~~ eight times more sharp and polished... which is pretty amazing considering the selling point of the band is their uncontestable (I just made a word up) sharp and polished style. The boys poured endless energy with their dancey indie material the entire time they were on stage, working wht was intialy a sceptical crowd into a sweaty screaming mess. I bounced up and down on the heels of my feet the entire time, totally fucking giddy that the best tight pants wearing band in the universe was going off, like all of 4 feet away from us.

Best of all, they’ll be back in the city on April 9th. Get tickets, fools.

A quick side note to the 5 goons who clearly drove in from Surrey to the show: please note that a Futureheads gig is not the environment to start moshing (or whatever that mid 90's grunge rock pushing and shoving manoeuvre you were trying to pull off was). Granted the band's music is infectious, danceable, and almost forces you to move, it's not cool to manifest this excitement by being a dick. In future, when at shows in the city, take a quick look at the crowd. If the number of people wearing hockey jerseys is fractional to the number of people with asymmetrical haircuts then stop acting the fool. Kthanks.

elsewhere

dogs cost more than cars | how to make cheap vodka taste like the good stuff

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Sunday, March 06, 2005

Adventures with disposable income... (w/ apologies to whatevs)

Laptop-based karma is funny stuff. Shortly after gushing about the wonders of the iTunes (store), the iTunes (media player) on my computeramatron died. Luckily huge nerds on teh interweb spend countless hours on forums, showing off by posting all kinds nerd-knowledge... meaning, after a few weeks of pining for iTunes (and the $8 worth of purchased music suddenly rendered useless) and googling for software fixes, I was back online. While I'll resist the urge to bitch about how "big music" has no clue how to competitively price their digital products (eg: selling a virtual copy of the new chemical brothers CD for $12.99 on iTunes vs selling a tangible real copy of the disk for $9.99 at an hmv). I will mention a few random tracks I've recently bought, that may or may not be worth your time.

- Tegan & Sara - Love Type Thing (iTunes exclusive single). With a track length of about 1:30, a lack of focus / energy / a rhythm section, and a guitar solo at the end lasting 5 second and featuring 3 notes - it sounds like the twins phoned this one in. Verdict: Skip it.

- Le Tigre - Morning Becomes Eclectic EP. Live recordings from their sessions at KCRW. The girls actually sound more (would you believe) refined in the stripped down KCRW environment... which you'd think wouldn't work for a bad which thrives on squelchy rawk. Verdict: Download it, but don't download the booooring interview tracks at $0.99 a pop.

- The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Jaques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix) (iTunes exclusive single). I have no idea who Mr. Jaques Lu Cont is... I'm sure he's a nice guy, either way he managed to take what little charm this song had (uhhh... a sassy rock-a-fied disco shuffle beat) and replaced it with piercing synthy stuff. Verdict: Skip it, remind anyone who trys to play this track at a party that the killers are "soooooo spring of 2004".

- Robert Wilson - Be My Habit. Rob Wilson is a buddy of mine who does the singer-songwriter thing, he crafts these wonderfully mellow acoustic jems, and has opened for the likes of Jason Mraz and Matt Nathanson. I was pleased as punch (that's right, pleased as punch) to find his latest disk available for purchase. Verdict: Spend the $8.91 and get yer chill on.

Of course if this is all too much, you could always just opt for the streaming goodness of vanmega radio.

elsewhere

myTunes redux | mp3 mash up de jour: beatallica | buy me this

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Thursday, March 03, 2005

busy doing nuthin'...

autobots roll out

Yeah - technically - I might be getting a masters' degree at school right now, but gawddammit I'll be dammed if I haven't already earned an honorary doctorate degree in procrastination. Don't get me wrong, I'm TCB'ing to the max, but I seem to be unable to actually put ~~pen to paper~~ finger to keyboard until the last possible second. This semester, perhaps, has been the worst for said procrastination. Due to poor planning, I find myself in the middle of random scholastic benders of marathon proportions, motoring to get deliverables done for the next day, killing all chances of getting more than 3 hours of sleep on a given night. The result of all this nonsense is that my body is slowly falling apart. For example, this week a weird exhaustion symptom showed up where every time I yawn or shut / rub my left eye, it starts spastically twitching for upwards of a minute and a half. Chicks can't keep their hands off me, forreals.

Anyhoots... the internets is clearly responsible for the lion's share of this tardiness. Here's a selection of what the www's kept my ass busy with in the last 24 hours:

- Creepy children covering Modest Mouse's "Float On".

- Optimus Prime dies of Prostate cancer. A diet consisting entirely of energon cubes will do that to ya.

- The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button (don't front... them boys can still pump out some pleasing tunes. here's hoping they've stopped wearing those yellow-lense sunglasses)

- Janet Jackson - A (re)Design of a Decade. Mash-ups are so 2004.

- Spiderman's greatest bible stories.

- Nintendo and Sega games playable via your web browser for free. I'm the Kung-Fu champ. My footswipe is unstoppable.

- Dave Grohl - My Hero (acoustic, live on Craig Kilborn).mpeg. And then reproducing the tune on the guitar, while serenading the mountain of neglected homework on my desk.

elsewhere

screw you I just posted 6 juicy links

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Tuesday, March 01, 2005

file under: getouttahere!

In a turn of events that can only be described as the best news ever, I've been tipped off that indie-splatter-punk darlings, LeftNutt, will be doing their first ever ~~Western Canadian~~ Prairie Province tour. Goodness!

According to my sources (i.e. the drunken lead singer), the tour will see the boys tear through Saskatchewan and Alberta with the final gig taking place in Calgary. Needless to say, based on already existing buzz and strong fan base, the Calgary show is going to be re-fucking-doink-i-donk (uhhh... ridiculous). If there are any sugar-mama's or sugar-papa's who's like to fly me into Calgary for the show, I'd be eternally grateful. Seriously, I'm not playin'.

Dates and venues for the tour are as follows:

- March 18th - Gas Light Saloon - Regina, SK

- March 19th - Gas Light Saloon - Regina, SK

- March 20th - The Roxy - Saskatoon, SK

- March 26th - Cowboys - Edmonton, AB

- April 2 - The Night Gallery - Calgary, AB

Tickets available at the door. Get on it.

elsewhere

mp3: white stripes peel sessions 2 | it came from the 1971 sears catalog

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