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Monday, August 29, 2005

recap: Calgary was awesome, and stuff...

Yup... the last week has been pretty rad. Between attempting to individually catch up with everyone I know in Calgary over beers and wines, run-a-way open mics, and some serious wedding party insanity (twoonie bar!), I'm now an exhausted, broken, blogger. But whatever!, as the angsty teens often say.

For those who were involved with the antics which went down over the last week... and for those who enjoy stalking complete strangers online... I have a shit-load (i.e.: 106) of photos to post from the trip. Actually, I have those photos plus a bunch of other pics to post from previous events this summer to upload as well. Prepare for a photo flood, kids... HOWEVER, I'm all of 48 - 72 hours away from hopping on a plane to Manhattan with Tk and Adio to visit Sock, Jane et. al. If this trip is even one tenth as good as my last visit to New York, it's gonna be awesomeness, to the max.

So posts might be far and few for the next week or so... please accept my apologies. To tide ya over, here's some linkage to some stuff that's currently going on elsewhere on teh Interwebamatron:

Canadian Indie-darling, A.C Newman, offers his list of Music You Should Hear for Amazon.com. I'm not normally a fan of those Amazon lists, as they're usually totally unsurprizing / uninspired. However, A.C's list not only offers a couple of shockers (i.e. John Mayer) it's riddled with wit.
Gorilla vs Bear is holding a kinda fitting contest; "Guess the Pitchfork rating of the soon to be released Death Cab For Cutie album". Niceness.
New Ted Leo tunes which were recently performed live are beginning to float up on to the internets. Primary Vivid recorded a tune using his camera (phone) and is offering it for download.
Speaking of Ted Leo, he's playing Richards on Richards this Friday. If you're in town go see the show! Mr. Leo's live performances CAN NOT be recommend enough. Get on it, get yer rawk on, etc.
Speaking of live gigs in Vancouver, apparently the highly anticipated Arcade Fire show schedule in early October has been canceled. From Blown Speakers reports that a suitable venue for the show couldn't be found. I think I speak for all of us when I say, "What?!?"
Finally, speaking of The Arcade Fire, Pure Volume is offering up a couple of Arcade Fire mpthreeves for download. While the KCRW stuff is a bit done to death, they do offer their rare-ish B-side track, "Brazil."

Happy surfing, yo. I'm off to New York.

Sidebar: if anyone out there is reading this and knows of any good events / gigs / whatever going off in New York (errr... Manhatten) over the next week or so, drop me an email or post a comment and bring us up to speed. Kthanks.

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Monday, August 22, 2005

road trippin' to calgary, post-haste...

Can you believe... Gong and Sweet and Fetus Heppner have been here for 4 days, and these are the only pictures we've taken?! Jeepers. But for serious, we're having some good times. Pass the flavored vodkas.

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Just a quick heads up to those in Calgary, I'm road tripping to your fair city tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and will be around until Sunday. My goal is to spend my time in Calgary schmoozing / catching up with y'all(s), wrapping up with Nancy's wedding on Saturday.

So yeah... if you're around, let's hook up for a beer / coffee / lunch / whatever. Holler at me via email or my cell. Get on it!

Incidentally, the 12 hours (each way) of driving to and from Calgary will not be fun times. I mean... it's endless driving. The positive, though, is that I get some serious marathon time to crank up the stereo and rock out to a bunch of new tunes (Hellllllllo freshly leaked Broken Social Scene). However, last time I did the Vancouver -> Calgary drive, I figured out that listening to stand-up comedy (as opposed to the rawk) in the car, not only passes time, but is also highly pleasing.

For example...

David Cross - On NYC, etc... [mp3]

Dave Chappelle - Weed plus gay shit... [mp3]

Seriously, get on the Trans Canada Highway and listen to them tracks... watch the time fly.

See you in Calgary.

elsewhere

hey! jay burns | rob wilson | six slick ipod hacks

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Thursday, August 18, 2005

various thangs...

Last night me and the tkv made a random stop at the Railway Club to check out Natasha Thirsk, the lead singer from local band Catlow perform. Kinda cool stuff, performing for the most part solo on an electric guitar. Her set consisted of a mix of "quieter" and "louder" songs. I wasn't 100% feeling the quieter stuff (hey, maybe it's not my cup of tea), but the louder, "more rocking" (if you will) songs kicked a bunch of ass.

Incidentally, we checked out the show based on a lone mp3 she's given away via the boompa! website. Hooray, successful internet-based mp3 marketing! You too can download the track in question:

Catlow - Number One [mp3]

Such bad-ass guitar riffery. I'm gonna be bold, and state that this track will be on my best of 2005 list come December. Also of note: Catlow has a disk coming out on Vapor Records (home to the likes of Tegan & Sara) later in the fall.

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Ok... this isn't exactly breaking news this late in the week... but in case you missed it, HOB announced a couple of interesting shows this week. Franz Ferdinand will be performing at the Orpheum Theatre on tuesday October 4th.

Also of note: Broken Social Scenester / all-round darling, Feist will be performing at the Commodore Ballroom on Wednesday October 5th. I'll most likely be skipping the Franz show, but will be in full effect at the Feist show. Tickets for both shows go on sale on Friday (tomorrow) at 10am... although, I've heard there's an internet pre-sale for Franz Ferdinand on right now via HOB.

Also - have you heard the new Franz Ferdinand single yet? Get on it.

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Ok... I might be a bit late on joining the bandwagon here, but hot-damn The Cobra Snake is my latest internet addiction / timewaster. At times, it's like vice mag's do's and don'ts minus the commentary (see, you get to make up your own)... other times, it's kinda like a L.E.S. hipsters' version of Girls Gone Wild. Bless.

And finally...

Have y'all(s) checked out the new Denison Witmer disk, Are You Dreamer? In a word or two, that stuff is mellow gold. I know people have drawn a lot of comparisons between Witmer and Sufjan Stevens, but, in my opinion he sounds more like a modernized James Taylor. You can stream a bunch of tracks from his from the new disk over his myspace space. Incidentally, that track California Brown and Blue is, like, the most beautifulist thing in this world.

Also incidentally, vanmega has a myspace myspace... I'm not even sure why since no one I know really uses myspace. Anyways, if you do use it, add me as a friend. K thanks, my deflated ego thanks you.

elsewhere

chelseagirl | killcupid | becausegeek | open letter to honda owners

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Monday, August 15, 2005

OMG! New Mixtape!

Yes-yes-y'all(s), the August mixtape is online and ready for your ears to consume. This mix is purposefully diverse ('cause most folks' musical tastes are, these days), and while this mix starts out kinda calm, by the end, things are going bonkers (in a good way). Your perfect companion for a summer afternoon whilst you roll around on your patio in the summer sun, sustaining your always charming 3 beer buzz. Or... uhh... something to that effect.

Do it: Download the August mixtape here.

As always, this is a very limited time offer. And, as always, your feedback is welcomed and encouraged - hit me up via comments or email.

elsewhere

the urban ninja | nuclear beef | cool hunting

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Sunday, August 14, 2005

quickie: quotable...

From this week's "Band Geek" column in the Westender:

“Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone is a rock photographer these days? Every show I go to lately has at least a dozen digital camera-toting amateurs, pointing and clicking away with the wrong light settings and shutter speeds, eventually ending up with blurry shots that resemble a child’s experimental
mixing of all the paints in the paint box

[...]

I’m not saying that amateurs should stop clicking away with their cell phones – by no means; I’m sure your photos will turn out great – but you are in my way. So stop.”

True, but let’s not kid ourselves. The professional photographers who are actually commissioned to shoot bands’ live performances are only allowed to snap for the first three songs of any performance. I can’t recall a single gig where anything overly-exciting actually happened on stage at the starting point of the show. Case in point – uhhh, see the previous post below.

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(While I’m mining the content of a local arts & entertainment weekly) I should also point out that the Westender has a feature on local Vancouver musician, Todd Fancey, who you probably know better as a guitarist from The New Pornographers. The feature highlights his solo/side-project, Fancey. Prior to reading the piece, I knew very little about his solo work. However, shortly after, to get a wee bit of insight, I read some reviews of his work from pitchfork, etc... everyone review seemed to uses non-value-adding, open-ended phrases like “summery” to describe his sound. Hoping for more luck, I checked Fancey’s official website. Interestingly, the mp3’s he’s posted on the site sound really good. If you ask me (and by virtue of reading this blog, you’ve asked me) the tracks I’ve heard sound less like New Pornographers stuff, and more like the down-tempo stuff from Broken Social Scene’s last album. You know, tracks like “Looks Just Like The Sun” and “Pacific Theme.”

Hmmm... “sun”... “pacific”... there are those ultra-vague “summery” descriptors again. Goodness.

elsewhere

rules of rock | rules for audiences of rock | from blown speakers

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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

the rise and fall (and rise) of Ryan Adams... [updated]

Last night, I witnessed what I believe to be, without hyperbole, the most bizzaro concert performance ever delivered by a contemporary music artist at the Commodore Ballroom.

Ryan Adams' tour came through Vancouver last night in support of the 95 albums he's releasing this year. It's interesting to note that the Vancouver gig was relatively early date in his tour schedule. It's even more interesting to note that the REST OF HIS TOUR WAS CANCELED TODAY. The official reason: Illness. The real reason because he was a totally unprofessional fuck-tard last night.

As you may know, I've been praising the work of Mr. Adams for ages, so using phrases like "fuck-tard" seems a bit inappropriate. But, in reality, last night's show warrants it. Perhaps if I detail the night in segments it might help give a sense of how the snowballing train-wreck went down.

The night was supposed to be broken into 2 sets. For the first set, Ryan & The Cardinals performed material from the yet to be released September disk almost exclusively. This is cool, but the audience has little knowledge of the material. I'm all for the expanding of my sonic horizons, but everyone was kinda looking around like "what disk is this from?" trying to find some common rallying point. Of the few songs that were familiar, they were performed slowly. Each note was tortured and teased out. The entire time the set went on, Ryan literally hung out in the shadows. This set was different, but very cool. The bands' performance was tight, Ryan's voice was compelling and strong. As the set closed, Ryan told the crowd that the band would be back on stage in 10 minutes apres-smoke break.

Ryan then returns to the stage, on the solo tip, clutching a 6 string acoustic. For a brief moment, shit got awesome. Ryan tore into a couple of old tunes, he even did his bluegrass Wonderwall cover. See for yourself:

Ryan Adams - Wonderwall [mpg]

UPDATE: Full high-quality video (shot by someone else) of Wonderwall performance in its entirety here.

Then, about 10 minutes into the second set, things fell apart. It quickly became evident that when Ryan said he was "going for a smoke break" he actually meant "going backstage to smoke a plethora of BC bud, and then promptly beer-bong and entire 26 of Crown Royal." Ryan suddenly became a noticeably drunk/stoned mess, somehow taking on personality traits of both Liam Gallagher and Billy Corrigan at the same time (a charming blend, by the way). The remainder of the second set was a series of aborted songs, where Ryan took the time to lash out at the band, the crowd, and himself, through pointless ranting. The whole time, Ryan became more and more incoherent... well past the point of being somehow able to pass it off as "rock and roll attitude".

It's interesting to note, despite Ryan's head being totally fucked up, for the most part, his guitar playing was bad-ass. He was blazing with ease through solo after solo, as if his body had decided it could do better without his brain and was simply operating without him.

Finally, the cluster-fuck of a second set ended. The house lights were turned on, and people started filing out the venue, when suddenly, Ryan et al came back out on stage and tore into a couple of 2003-era tracks; sloppy, loud, riddled with false starts. At this point, I'm shaking my head. In the past, I had read an article about Ryan and the reason why he's deemed so prolific. Apparently, part of the reason he's credited as being such a talent is because he simply doesn't care about his work... so much so, that we just assume that if he would try, he'd be amazing. This show was kinda like confirmation of that theory. Homeboy, simply wasn't trying... trying to perform... trying to impress... trying to be remotely professional.

Then, as the band played through the final chorus of I See Monsters, Ryan seemed to mentally flick a switch. He began playing a guitar solo while simultaneously climbing up an upright piano, somehow getting himself on top of a stack of speakers on the left hand side of the stage. Ryan was now 16 feet above the ground, tearing though riff after riff, teetering on the edge of the speakers, nailing every note. This single act was both insane and awesome at the same time. This guy was a fucker, but he was finally delivering and captivating. As if to almost totally redeem himself for the previous 2 hours of mediocrity and disrespect.

Almost.

Seriously, 24 hours later and I still can't decided if I was totally entertained for all the wrong reasons, or if I was totally appalled and want to write ticketmaster a letter demanding my money back.

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UPDATE: Ryan Adams' official response to all of the shenanigans and cancellations here.

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Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Endorsed: Justin Rutledge...

Tim writes in to the vanmega.com mailbox...

"Okay dude,

I read your blog semi-religiously and I rarely write in (long time listener, first time caller). I recently bumped into some music that I felt that I needed to share with you. You've given me quite a few musical gifts in the name of bands to check out, I felt that I owed you one.

I live in Toronto and through some mutual acquaintances ended up across a bar table from this fellow; Justin Rutledge. I didn't think too much about it - everyone in this town is either a musician or an actor, it seems, - but for some reason I googled his name the next day, downloaded some MP3's and read some reviews.

Holy crap! I'll spare you the full review, but listen to the MP3's on his site and don't take my word for it, read what Uncut and Chart Attack have to say about the dude. Warning: it's slightly more country than Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker but the lyrics are just as good--there, I said it.

Cheers,

Tim"

Thanks for the heads up, Tim! Apparently, Justin Rutledge is playing in vancouver tonight at the Media Club... I'd check him out, but I have a date with Mr. Adams himself. For those of you who don't have the patience to click through an artist's website (which you really should actually take the time to do, by the way) here are some Justin Rutledge mp3's (right click, save as):

Thoughts? Do we like?

elsewhere

yuppie punk | blog depression | prefix blog

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Monday, August 08, 2005

Reviewed: The White Stripes in Vancouver...

Last night me and the tkv checked out The White Stripes at the Orpheum (a surprizingly pretty venue, IMO). Perhaps the one thing that was actually shocking had nothing to do with the band, nor the stage... rather, it was the crowd. Maybe I've been to too many indie-label shows at sketchy venues as of late, but the fact that we stood shoulder to shoulder with hipsters, bar-chicks, jocks in hockey jerseys, age'd old school rock n roll guys, kids, etc, seemed bizzaro-eclectic. But with that said, it made for a good audience... the crowd went bonkers over anything the band did, which was kinda cool and filled the place with uber-energy. However, at times, people were going seriously overboard. 2 rows up from us there were a bunch of dudes who felt the need to watch the show shirtless. I mean, hey, I like to rock... but that shit is too much for much.

Not surprizingly, the bands performance was bad-ass, really loud, really wild. And despite Jack and Meg's usual efforts to generally come across as sloppy and improvised, they're actually polished pros. Jack feverishly moved back and fourth between a rack of 4 guitars, a keyboard, a grand piano, and a xylophone with out showing the slightest strain. Meg, who's now been playing drums as a full time job for upwards of 7 years, can actually lay down a tight groove... don't let her spaced out look and head-tilt fool you.

The other thing that became clear while seeing the band perform live was Jack's obvious Led Zeppelin influence. I never really heard this before... I guess I was trying to draw parallels to old depression-era blues artists. Clearly, I was trying to hard. But don't take my word for it - listen to this Zepplin track, and see how easy it is to imagine the stripes covering it:

Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker [mp3]

Either way, awesome show. The White Stripes are playing in Vancouver again tonight. We're not going... we're saving our energy for tomorrow night's Ryan Adams' show at The Commodore. Awesome City.

elsewhere

dl the new dcfc here | stuff on my cat | encyclopedia dramatica

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Sunday, August 07, 2005

quickie: go read Cord Mag, win an iPod...

Just in case you haven't visited Cord Magazine in the last little bit, this is a quick tip to remind you hit up the site. In addition to a new feature with The Objects, lots of fresh reviews, etc, we're also giving away an iPod shuffle. People the world over love iPods... here's your chance to (potentially) get one (or maybe a second one) for free.

Winning has never been easier... just head over to the website, and click on the "win an iPod shuffle" banner (duh), and sign up.

Good luck, and so on.

elsewhere

nardwuar vs david cross | stream the new juan mclean album

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Wednesday, August 03, 2005

also impromptu-vacation related...

Not surprizingly we had the iPod going 24/7 during the Kelowna trip. That FM radio transmitter thingy makes mass-broadcast of of the iPod painless while on boats, in trailers, etc.

Surprizingly, figuring out what to listen to in order to please 10 people at any given moment was tricky. Shuffle wasn't able to satisfy, nor did listening to specific albums. However, use of a previously created playlist called "Old 'n Awful," which is composed of... uhhh... old songs which are kinda played out, seemed to work. Actually, the playlist went over like gangbusters. No one could get enough. We played the playlist upwards of 9 times over the 2 days in Kelowna.

Based on this, I have reason to believe that EVERYONE who fits into the Gen-X demographic is pre-dispositioned to LOVE this playlist and, more importantly, every Gen-X'er has some strange/hilarious childhood story associated with each song... which is pleasing when you're sitting around knocking back cocktails with your buddies while shooting the shit for hours on end.

Anyways, this is the playlist. I strongly recomend that you reproduce this playlist for your own use via iTunes or whatever...

Old 'n' Awful

Hello - Lionel Richie
Step By Step - New Kids On The Block
Kiss On My List - Hall And Oates
Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J
Poison - Bell Biv Devoe
Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
Dancing In the Dark - Bruce Springsteen
Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls
Creep - TLC
Baby Got Back - Sir Mixx-a-lot
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
You Get What You Give - New Radicals
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
Jump - Van Halen
Jump - Kris Kross
Batdance - Prince
Cheap Sunglasses - ZZ Top
Bust A Move - Young MC
Mr. Wendel - Arrested Development

Incidentally, through repeated play of "Old 'n' Awful", I've also come to the conclusion that EVERY boy who was a teenager in the 90's LOVES the track Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J. So much so, that dudes actually get rowdy when LL starts rapping at the 0:09 second mark.

See for yourself:

LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out [mp3]

elsewhere

video iPod | make your own reality show | hasselhoff as pac-man

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Tuesday, August 02, 2005

impromptu-vacations are the most-nicest...

Seeing how this week is my final week of school, I probably should have been, you know, studying or reading or speaking in full sentences or something, but luckily the Gong's hooked us up with an impromptu invite to come kick it with them in Kelowna. And kick it we did... and by "kick it" I mean "whiped around in a boat all day soaking up the 35+ weather." Also, the insanity factor was kicked up by about 3 notches, since Grayson rolled into town for a visit too. Bless his cotton socks.

As per normal, I'll post more photos and stuff in the next couple of days. Actually, I'll get all of the photos from the last couple of months organized and online... I guess I've kinda let that slide... but, what can you (yes, you) do?

More later...

elsewhere

apparently, ryan adams & pitchfork are best friends now | torr

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