Live, Baby, Live!

To be fair, I liberally borrowed the title of this post from an INXS live concert DVD but felt it was apropos since I'm here to talk about live music. This will be a rant, it may not be well constructed or well executed, but I felt like throwing this stuff down so...yeah.


I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned how much I love live music and seeing bands in concert here before but it's kind of a big deal to me. Music is such a huge part of my life and that loud, sweaty, crowded experience is integral to my overall enjoyment of it. I've had my mind changed at concerts regarding how I feel about a song I previously disliked and I've had artists show themselves to me in a different light than I am accustomed to, bringing me around to appreciating their material where previously I did not. I've fallen in love at concerts and even proposed to my soon to be ex-wife at a concert. Sure, some shows are just shows, but some have served as genuine benchmarks or signposts in my life. Moments I can revisit every time I listen to an album or hear a song that means something special in a mall or in the car while driving to work.

I know I probably sound like a ridiculous, sentimental fool by this point but I own it. I know how goofy I sound, and that's okay. It's how I feel and that's just the way it is. I am prepared for you to judge me and stop reading right here if you haven't already.


The whole purpose of this post is to lament the fact that I haven't been to see a live show in quite some time. The last concert I saw was on March 29th and I went to see Stars with a friend. Amazing show, unforgettable night. Even got to meet Torq after the show and complete my Stars autograph collection so, yay me. I had tickets to see Passion Pit a few months ago but they cancelled and I've passed up or was forced to miss shows by M83, The XX, Phantogram, The National and a stupid amazing lineup at the Rock the Seine festival that I was a week late to see. Gah!!



I'm chomping at the bit, here.

Anyway, there are a couple of decent shows down the road that I'm looking forward to maybe going to in 2014 but I don't know if there is anything coming up before Christmas and that's not cool. Looks like Said the Whale is here in a week or so. Maybe that'll help take the edge off a bit. We'll see.

Later.

Sloan X-Mas

Just found out that Sloan has released their Twice Removed deluxe edition as a digital download which has me torn. I really wanted to pick this up when I saw them on tour but it was $90 and I had to pass at the time. Now there's a digital option for $20 and it seems like a no brainer to get. What has me torn is, do I want a physical book to peruse or is the digital copy fine? Something to ponder.

Thinking of Christmas, here's a free Sloan holiday themed track...

                   
               
Later!

mike

Infinite Playlist

So, yeah. I got it into my head to make a friend a mixtape (there really is no equivalent or comparable term for the burned playlist so I stick with mixtape) and while compiling the 17 tracks that would ultimately make up the hour of music I also got it into my head to create a cover for the disc from scratch, much like Nick in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Sounded simple but, really, it was a bit more complicated than I'd hoped. I actually thought I would stress over the tunes more than the sleeve art but I was very, very, wrong. The music came quickly and the actual design came to me very late in the process. I knew that it had to be Jelly bean themed, but other than that I had no idea what I was going to do. Do I paint something? Are there a bunch of dancing Jelly beans all over it like some twisted California Raisin knock off? What materials do I use to accomplish this unknown project?

I knew, at least, that I would need a digi-tray to set the disc in but soon discovered they are harder to find than you might think. Digi-trays are not in high demand on a retail level and do not get stocked by your average, and even your not-so-average, music stores or big box stores. I found some online but I didn't need to order 200 of them, nor did I want to pay $40 for overnight delivery. I wracked my brains and came up with, what I thought was, an ingenious plan.

Hit the music stores that carry used CDs. They often have bargain discs for $5 or less and if they happen to have a disc held in a digi-tray I could buy it for a paltry couple of bucks, peel out the tray, and utilize it in my own far-out disc sleeve. This was something I was able to accomplish at a local shop called The Vinyl Exchange. I found a couple of weird world music discs in cardboard sleeves with digi-trays for $2 each and I was in business!!

I also found an Imogen Heap album and the first volume of Freakazoid!, both for $2, so that was equally awesome.

I grabbed some craft supplies from a local dollar store (cardstock, construction paper to cut into jelly beans, etc.) and proceeded to assemble the case for the disc.

It wasn't a difficult process but it was time consuming. I created and folded the cardstock cover and glued the digi-tray in. Then I cut out each individual jelly bean (all different colours) and glued them on to the cover one-by-one. Lastly, I grabbed a Sharpie and wrote up the liner notes and song info. I wanted to do something design oriented on the disc itself but I didn't have the time or materials so I just left it blank.

I was pretty happy with the results with the exception of how egg-like many of the jelly beans came out, and I attributed the image on the inside of the case to Monet rather than Van Gogh which, as an Art History student, shames me greatly. The person I gave it to doesn't know the difference but I felt like I should still cop to the fubar publicly so perhaps that will go some way to evening out the karma.

I enjoyed the experience, overall, and will likely try it again. I've put together another playlist for the same friend but I don't think the effort for the first one was appreciated much so I may shift the next project to someone else. I'll post images of that one as well when that happens.

Later!

mike

Passion Pit

I've kind of been ignoring the ol' blog of late. I managed to restore the settings after my last bit of experimentation with Blogger and templates and what-not, then summarily bailed on it. That was a bit uncool.

So, I've returned, ever-so-briefly to share with you a band I've recently discovered called Passion Pit. There's a lot I like about this group, and some I don't, but I dig this song and thought I would share it with you. The site I got it from described it as alternating "between car crash drum-and-bass explosions and a plodding melodic pop that bemoans the many stages of grief inherent in heartbreak." That was all they had to say to hook me, what can I say?



Hope you enjoy.

m

Siamese Dreaming

I've got a little free time on my hands and I've been going through my music collection, filling holes, organizing what's already there, and listening to a lot of stuff I haven't had on rotation for a while.

One such album/srtist would be Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins which I consider to be one of the best rock albums ever. No hyperbole. The songs, the words, the sounds, are all tremendously good and so very tight. The layered guitars, the insane drums, the ethereal quality of Corgan's voice and lyrics which, I would say, has never been recaptured on any other Pumpkins album make this album near-perfect for me. If I'm trying to get someone to listen to the Pumpkins, I usually toss them Siamese Dream.

Now, from everything I've read and heard, after all the tracks had been put down, Corgan went back and rerecorded the guitars and bass originally played by D'arcy and James Iha. The only tracks he didn't mess with were those of Jimmy Chamberlin because Corgan did not know how to play the drums. This would, if the stories are true, make the whole album a collaboration between Corgan and Chamberlin and all that implies.

Other albums followed but most without Chamberlin as he was kicked out of the band after a keyboardist they were touring with died as a result of a drug overdose which Chamberlin was involved with. I won't get into details but the story is probably detailed here.

Flash forward to the 2007 release of the newly reformed Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. Now, when I say newly reformed, I should qualify that D'arcy and Iha did not return to the lineup for the same reasons they left the band in the first place. Chamberlin, however, did take the opportunity to reconnect with his old band as Corgan had never agreed to losing him in the first place. So, we have Corgan and Chamberlin together again working on this 'new' album - the same guys who were essentially responsible for Siamese Dream - and it turns out to be utter shit. I don't even consider it a part of the true Pumpkins canon because it sounds like a band trying to sound like the Pumpkins rather than actual founding members of the band making up for lost time.

So, what went wrong? I dunno. Maybe D'arcy and Iha had a much stronger influence on the music than people give them credit for. Maybe Butch Vig was instrumental in bringing everything on SD together the way it did. All I know is that the same guys did it perfectly once and cocked it up royally the second time around. Go figure. Maybe it's true what they say about how you can never really go home again.

And on that note...

Later!

mike

"Stay Gold"

Very excited by the idea of a new Big Pink album coming out next week. Especially if the rest of the tracks are anywhere near as good as this one...



Stay gold, Pony Boy!

mike

Here's My Thing...

As I'm typing this I'm listening to the absolutely stunning score to John Carpenter's The Thing by Ennio Morricone. I was familiar with the music from the film previous to this, but only as a backdrop or an audio only track on the DVD. I had never sat down and just listened to it before tonight. Honestly, I'm a few tracks in and I can say, with some authority, that this is one of the best scores I've heard in a very long time. And all the more interesting for the fact that it feels like I'm hearing it for the very first time.

I guess, in some ways, I am hearing it for the first time. I've read that Morricone's score was not used in its entirety in the film, with Carpenter favouring only a few of the pieces, and subbing in some of his own work where he felt necessary. The soundtrack, features 10 tracks which comprise all of the music Morricone created for the film and none of the additional pieces by Carpenter.

What surprises me the most about this music is how orchestral it feels/sounds, which I'm sure sounds kind of dumb to say. Most of my memories from the film, however, are of the tracks "Humanity (Parts 1 & 2)" and a few other tracks which I'm not 100% sure are from the film or the DVD menus. Anyway, the "Humanity" pieces are very much in the tradition of Carpenter's style. It's very simple, rhythmic, and provides the background to a haunting, repeating, melody played with synthesizers. So, hearing the full breadth and scope of the music here is both jarring and tremendously cool.

The temptation to grab the DVD and pop it in is overwhelming, but I promised myself I would go watch the 'prequel' film on Friday and then watch the Carpenter version to see how well they line up. I've heard that they reverse engineered a lot of the '82 version in regards to the Norwegian team's involvement at the beginning of the movie, so maybe it would be rewarding to have all those little cues fresh in my head. Like when they explain how the axe got in the wall, for example.

Ah, well. All things to consider while I sit here listening and patiently await the October 14th release date for the new movie.

Cheers!

mike

Gorillaz Celebrate 10 Years

Unkind

I haven't talked much about Sloan on the blog despite their new album. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have yet to buy their new album (which I feel like crap about, by the way). Anyway, while I was buzzing around online looking for something else I ran across this music video for Unkind which is a bit dull, but the song is pretty sweet, so I don't care.



Later!

mike

U2360°

I finally managed to snag all the photos and video off of the camera from the U2 concert in June. I'm not in the mood to post anything about it tonight but I promise for anyone who is actually curious or waiting for some sort of 360° commentary it will come soon.



Later!

m

What Happened at the U2 Concert?

You know, it occurs to me that it has been a while since I got back from the U2 concert and I have yet to post anything about it. I think a big part of that is because Jen, for some inexplicable reason, took the camera to work and left it there, and continues to do so, preventing me from having access to the video and still images I took while at the show. I suppose I could always add those in later, but it's a fantastic excuse to procrastinate and watch old episodes of The Twilight Zone instead, so I'm hanging on until that camera makes its return.

I will say that the show was good, I got some merch, and we'll talk about it more soon.

Later!

mike

Vive le musique!

And, just so it's not all reflective first person narration here today, I give you a video I had meant to post about 2 years ago but, for some reason, never did. It's a video of some length where the band members of Phoenix go on to talk (in French with subtitles, I warn you) about all the music that influenced them in the creation of their own unique brand of pop. I loved it. I hope you will, too.

MUSICVISION PHOENIX from Guillaume Delaperriere on Vimeo.

Later!

mike

Confessions of a Media Junkie

That's the title that's milling about in my head at the moment. I still haven't done a search on it online to see if someone else is using it, so it may change, but I've been giving some consideration to writing a column, of sorts, here or on another blog (one that I'd create seperate to this one). In it I would do something similar to what Nick Hornby does with his Believer columns, "Stuff I've Been Reading", but instead of books (or exclusively books) I would cover DVDs and Blu-Rays. I'm always buying new discs and do not always watch them immediately after doing so. In fact, they often sit on my shelf for a very, very long time before I even take them out of their wrappers. I do the same with books and comics. The only things I get into right away is music.

So, that might be coming on the horizon. We'll see how things go.

mike

I Heart Jenn...Grant, That Is

One of my favourite artist discoveries of the last couple of years is the lovely and amazingly talented, Jenn Grant. I can't say enough about how great I think her stuff is, how amazing she is live, and the fact that her newest album, due out on January 11th from Six-Shooter Records, is streaming live for anyone curious enough to check it out at CBC3's blog here.

I'll be shilling this thing for months, I'm sure, on all my social media outlets, so check it out if you want to know what the heck it is I'm talking about.

Hope it gives you as much of a buzz as it gives me.

Later!

Image is totally cribbed from CBC3's site.

mike

Thank You BRMC

I've gotten a bit of a respite from my disastrously bad mood in the form of some kick-ass BRMC tunes. I don't know what it was, exactly, that lifted me from my funk, but lifted I am. It could be temporary, and I'm prepared to take that as it comes. For now, though, "Bad Blood", "Howl", "Promise", "Weight of the World", "Shadow's Keeper" and a few others are life-savers of the best kind. Whether it's the lyrics or the music or a combination of the two, I don't care. I've been enjoying the last few hours and this is good.

I just thought I would share.

And speaking of sharing:



Later!

mike

On a Happier Note

I`ve been listening to a lot of Charlatans lately so I thought I would share this live version of `Oh! Vanity`.

The Charlatans@Ray Ban Unplugged Primavera Sound 2010 from VICE España on Vimeo.

And, if anyone cares, the mood is a little better today than yesterday.

Cheers!

mike

Surprise Return

Just when you thought you'd seen the last of me for another two months, here I am.

I'm kind of sitting here at my computer, doing not much. I'm waiting for someone to contact me who I'm beginning to suspect will not, in fact, contact me, so I decided to head over to NPR and stream the new Stars album which is bloody fantastic!!! I also figured I'd pop on and do another posting. Go figger.

I don't have much to say, really. A lot of weird stuff has been going on at Meanwhile... HQ and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that is, but there's been some soul searching, some examining of life changes and choices, and lots of other boring stuff that nobody wants to read about, I'm sure. It's part of the reason that I haven't been blogging. I've never made this much of a personal forum, reserving it for my pop cultural predilections, so this end kind of gets neglected when I'm in one of these moods/phases.

Anyway, That's all for now. Will post again soon. Promise. Hopefully it will be more interesting than this.

I will leave you however with this:



mike

You Gotta Take Your Medicine Where You Can Find It

Kinda rediscovered a little band by the name of Medicine not too long ago. They're probably most widely known for contributing a song, "Time Baby 3", to the soundtrack album for The Crow. It is, in fact, the first place I ever heard of the band. Their stuff is a pain-in-the-ass to find but I did run across these videos which give you a taste for what they sounded like (and looked like, I guess).


Medicine - The Pink (1993)

Medicine | MySpace Music Videos


Medicine - Never Click (1993)

Medicine | MySpace Music Videos

It was always difficult to listen to an album all the way through without getting a headache, but when the mood struck it was brilliant chaos blasting through the speakers. Still is, really.

Anyway, I'm so freakin' tired I'm falling asleep in my computer chair so I'm gonna sign off.

Cheers!

mike

Made Me Jump Up & Down With Jubilation File

The only thing better than a new album is the fact that they'll tour it and I get to go see them again. Woot!



Peace!

mike

Made Me Smile File

Saw this when Ebert tweeted it. Love Phoenix and this arrangement is pretty cool.



Hope you like it as much as I do.

Later!

mike