Caught this New Zealand comedy duo on tele on Friday, and found them quite funny (this song is particularly hilarious). According to the old wikipedia, Flight of the Concords have had an award winning BBC radio series and currently have their own HBO series (now available on DVD).
25/11/2007
Flight of the Conchords
14/11/2007
23/07/2007
Party whilst I am away
The awesomeness that is “Put Your Head In The Lions Mouth”, the hyperkinetic new album from das local heroes con Parkas, is a triumphant release party. Unfortunately it’s happening while I’m at nerd prom in San Diego. Doesn’t mean you can’t go nor tell all your friends:
The Deets:
Parkas, Slowcoaster, The Redux
Friday, July 27th
@The Legendary Horseshoe
Doors 9pm
$8
And if you can’t go, head over to your local record shoppe (Soundscapes likely your best bet) for the cd or over to Zunior for the digital purchase. It’s ausumnal incarnacion and you needs to have it.
04/06/2007
Oh Noes! What Have I Done?
On Friday the wonderful Parkas played a different kind of gig at the Sheraton Grand Ballroom, where they were opening for the Second City players in a benefit for Community Living in support of the intellectually disabled. It was a good, if unusual, venue but a fun and exciting performance nonetheless. Having had their new album “Put Your Head In The Lion’s Mouth” for a week now (and the demo recordings for the past few months) I’m intimately familiar with the bulk of the Parkas material, but they opened up their set with a track I’d never heard before:
Well I’m runnin’/Po-lice on my back/been hidin’/Po-lice on my back/There was a shootin’/ Po-lice on my back/And the vic-tim/well he won’t come back
I been running/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday
What have I done?
The hyper 3-chord tones with call-and-response/back-and-forth was a grappler, immediately engaging the audience, and the band never let go. And yet, I couldn’t help feel it didn’t exactly feel like the richly structured Parkas tunes I was familiar with, it was a little too jangly and straightforward.. a little too Ramones, I guess. But I liked it, it was aggressively catchy.
The next day Aden and I went to see the new Judd Apatow flick, Knocked Up and quite early on into the film there was the song, although quite obvious (to me anyway) not the Parkas. Aden even looked at me and I said “they must have done a cover.”
So strange to have never heard a song before then suddenly hear it twice in two days. The song was originally recorded(mp3) by the Equals, written by Eddie Grant. It was later covered by the Clash (which is, I believe, the version played in Knocked Up) with other covers by The Deadcats, Asian Dub Foundation & Zebda, Die Toten Hosen, Back
Levellers, Micky Fitz, Pressure Point, The Hated, The Rocketz, Willie Nile, The Constantines.
As you might tell, I’ve become a little obsessed with the track… it shall pass
30/05/2007
11 Reasons to love the Parkas
1) “If you could see it/ I know you’d love it/ If you could buy it/ there’d be a line-up”
- Filthy Rich Kids
2) “So I bite my tongue before I curse/ this center of the universe”
- Toronto Enough Tonight
3) “Every time that I surrender/ you put a weapon in my hands”
- You and What Army?
4) “The people that we used to be are waiting for us/ underneath, but if we dive into the black/ when we surface/ we just come back/ alone”
- Margaret Atwood
5) “Put on your shame face/ the guilty party has started”
- You Get What You Pay For
6) “We used to have such an organized party/ We used to have such an organized party/ Now I’m playing Lenin to your McCarthy/ I’m playing Lenin to your McCarthy/ We’re back in black/ We’re still in-the-red”
- Lenin and McCarthy
7) “I will wait like a minotaur/ for you to come find me/ This is part of our/ mythology”
- (Still Hanging Around With) The Crucifixion Blues
8) “The heart is only/ ventricles forcing/ blood to leave home/ and disapppear/ The heart is only/ a muscle working/ It keeps me moving/ away from here”
- A Change of Heart
9) “In this darkness tonight/ that no sun could shine through/ let there be light/ and let that light be you”
- Let There Be Light
10) “Raggedy Ann/ Raggedy Ann/ you were the best thing in my life/ I just couldn’t stand”
- Raggedy Ann
11) “The first one to find me was Old Jealousy/ He’d put his teeth/ right into my shoulder/ and for a good laugh he’d lacerate me”
- The Wolves, Darling
The new Parkas album “Put Your Head In The Lion’s Mouth” is out June 19, on Saved By Radio.
The Parkas play a benefit concert, opening for Second City, in support of Community Living (details and tickets) on June 1st.
They also play North By NorthEast (NXNE) Showcase- Dakota Tavern on June 7th @ 11:00 or midnight and the NXNE Afternoon BBQ at Global Village Backpackers’ Hostel at 4pm on June 8th.
Catch you some springtime-come-summer Parkas!
05/03/2007
Leaving it all(most) behind
This is going to be short, although it deserves more of an explanation but I’m getting “text-drain eye-strain” from staring at a computer monitor too long today so there’s only so much I actually feel like writing that’s going to make sense especially considering I’m not feeling punctuation friendly as I channel a little Kerouac for a second and spit out words all streamoconsciousnesslike and sometimes strung together in formations that don’t really make much sense and yet do if you read it properly but that’s difficult considering how hard it is to “get” intonation via text but some people are super keen at understanding it and others just scratch their heads and move along. But I’m rambling.
Music.
I used to big a big-big-big (Honeycombs!) fan of the music. I used to absorb it constantly, looking to be on top of the next great thing, trumpeting the newfoundglory (not the band) of some new band (not New Found Glory) and making cd compilations (yes I know, I still owe a bunch of people some compilations and yes, I’m tardy, but well, that’s what happens when you don’t give a shit anymore… and that’s what happened, I don’t give a shit anymore… almost. I’ve now written myself in a corner in this bracketed sub-statement so I’m going to close the bracket now) but continue as if the bracket were still open and not ignored.
Anyway, yeah, I’ve lost the flavour. I don’t care about being on top of the latest bands. It’s hard enough to care about the bands I claim I do like. I’ve just gotten tired of the whole scene, man, and whatever people are calling “fresh” and “new” all sounds like the same old shit from maybe last year, maybe 5 years ago, or maybe 30 years ago. There’s this band I found via CBC radio that sounds, basically like Queen, only a bit more modern in song structure, but I like it, cause it sounds like Queen… why don’t I listen to Queen instead? Well, Queen’s been overplayed. Oh certainly, I haven’t heard all Queen songs, but of the Queen songs I have heard I’ve heard them lots and lots and lots of times (FLASH! AH-AWWW!), so it’s gonna be hard to collect a bunch of queen songs that are a) barely played out or b) good (As there’s a reason most of the stuff I’ve heard from them is played out, because it’s their best stuff). And so I listen to Bend Sinister downloaded from the internets. But I make no further delusions for myself that this shit (it’s good shit mind you) is fresh… it isn’t. It’s retreading familiar ground as so many “new” “hot” “blog favourites” do… it doesn’t matter if that ground is 2 years or 20 years old, it’s all been done before.
I just came across Holy Fuck today, again, for the first time (and by that I mean I’ve heard them before, probably seen them in concert even… well, actually just missed them one time) and I love them. They’re doing this “analog dance music” (ie. computer free) thing which sounds all innovative but !!! has been doing it for a few years now (their new record, that is !!!, sounds hot) and even The Hidden Cameras were doing analog dance music a few years back, before Joel Gibb got all cute and decided he wanted to do more sugary bubblegum early-60’s pop effect (which I like too, but it’s not quite as stimulating as the big church organ repetitive danceable grind that he kicked off his career with).
So maybe this isn’t so short, but shut up, you know. I can ramble with the best of them, but only once in a while… I don’t ramble so good on a regular basis… you have to have a lot of free time to do that and free time is something I have but also something I cherish and waste it doing important things like building snowmen and being in love with my girlfriend and stuff like that (you didn’t just wretch there did you? Dude, that’s sick).
And what would you say to a lovely cup of tea?
Feck off, cup.
Naturelmont.
But i’ve lost my train of though, which isn’t so much like losing a train because really, how does one lose a train as they are rather massive and heavy and we all cannot have brilliant Bluthy-like powers of GOB or David Blaine. So yes, Music is the heart of life, or groove is in the heart or some contrivance of some sort like that (I used to write like this all the time, what happened to me) and yet, my heart is lost. Perhaps it’s because my iPod went AWOL sometime in January and has yet to rear its ugly head. As traumatic as that may seem, I’ve actually been kinda okay with it, as I still have music, when I want it, as I’ve begun to embrace the power of the podcast… although they can be too talky talky sometimes, but oh schnell, that’s the way gloves go.
But in the end (and not the ass) I look at my musical obsessions from the periods of 1993 to 2006, those which are tucked into four under-the-bed totes back at BOBTown, and I don’t see any excitement anymore… stones and dead weight for the most part. I wouldn’t be upset if they were gone, but I’m not going to be party to losing them either. Perhaps some day those six hundred (!!!) discs of happiness, tedium, envy, disappointment, love, infatuation, groove-shim and bitter fruits will be skeet, but collecting dust as they do does no one any harm (I never meant any harm).
But what? Really, is this sensical, in as much as sensical is not a word on its own and yet nonsensical makes it all better, wholly complete without the red underlining of the word-check-spelly thing. Channeling Dib there for a second. Will music ever regain its favour in my life? Probably not. The deliciousness of concert (gig) going is gone, as the mundane between set shenanigans rarely ever engaging. My verve for such things has departed… and I realize that my favourite music is Now, not Then. I like it new, I like it fresh and then I like it gone… I don’t like to go back, I’m not fond of revisiting. To many music is something to keep, I think to me it’s disposable. I’d rather reread the New Teen Titans that revisit the New Pornographers. That may not be entirely true, since sometimes Bejar and Case and Newman (spelling all go bad) write less badly than Wolfman… okay most of the times I’d much rather listen to A.C.’s whine than Raven and Starfires… this was a bad example brought forth by the use of the word “New” in both these titles. Let’s just say that this day, and most days that preceded it (recently at least) I’ve been enjoying the comforts of sequential art rather than the speaker crumbs of song.
But yes, there is new music to be found (just as I found old New Mutants in Aden’s long boxes), and though either might not be the bestest thing ever, perhaps like Seinkiewicz’s stunning art, we’ll find a funky drumbeat that gets me excited and back in the business of giving a damn about what’s the music of the month. Will I get the latest x or will I seek out the first album of y or will fond memories of MM and National at least get me into the record store twice this year?
I dunno.
How ’bout you?
04/12/2006
Quick sack of randomness
Buh. Back in my last stretch of single days, which if we’re counting was November-ish ‘05 - July-ish ‘06, it seemed the weekends were long, and kind of draggy, even if they were busy. Since Aden and I have been together, the weekends never seem long enough, they seem jammed packed and rarely restful, although invariably they are rewarding, fun and usually the best use of a weekend. Still, downtime is needed at some point. Healthy downtime, not this “I’m sick and forced to do nothing” time.
meanwell
I guess I should apologize to those who said that Lost was in a slump this season. I managed to get episodes 1-6 (which are the only episodes of this “season”, with the next “season” of 15 episodes running weekly from the first week of February with no repeats) and yeah, they’re weak. The first two episodes were fairly strong, but they went sloping after that. It’s almost like they writers have forgotten what they’re doing. Then again, I recall that I didn’t like the original episodes of the second season, but loved the latter bits, so I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it all turns out.
cement
The “forgotten” Pavement song:
Land of the Hot Knives
More London
Still planning on discussing and showing photographic documentation of the voyage to London, and soon before my memories get fuzzy (too late)… just not sure when soon. Thanks for expressing interest though….
24/10/2006
sonic alert
Two of my favourite local bands and one I’ve never heard of will be joining forces for a Thursday night throwdown at the Silver Dollar Room on October 26.
The Parkas will be there laying heavy on their new tunes from an as yet untitled upcoming album. They’ll also have very limited quantity of “Black Paper Singles.” According to the band’s mailing list, “Black Paper Singles contain four previously unreleased Parkas songs sealed in black paper. Each one is different, and each one will contain two tracks from our new record, along with rarities, remixes, and live recordings. Pick one up at a show for only three bucks.”
Yes, it’s completely worth it. The new tracks (and I have a copy of the studio recordings, remember) are flipping amazing. If they get this new album mastered and released this year, it’s going on my best-of list for certain.
Meanwhile The 6ixty8ights are dropping/have dropped their new album, “Pica Electric Armada”, so hopefully that’s available at the show too.
Friday Morning’s Regret opens up the night (I think), so it’ll be a surprise to see how they mesh with two of my current favourite bands, since I’ve never heard of them.
I would say expect a report Friday, but I’m notoriously tardy (’tarded) on my reviews right now… so who knows. It’s going to rock, I can guarantee you that, it’s just a matter of how hard.
13/09/2006
Linkage. Really?
Jamming Culturejamming down your larynx
Banksy is often described as a “guerrilla artist” because of his socially satirical and often imposing manner of art which includes but isn’t limited to highly detailed stencil tagging. His latest project is “remixing” the Paris Hilton album packaging and sneaking it onto store shelves for unsuspecting sheep to purchase. Not only that, but DJ Danger Mouse - who first came to prominence as the mixer of the notorious “Grey Album” which mashed Jay-Z’s “Black Album” and the Beatles “White Album” (and is currently 1/2 of both DANGERDOOM and Gnarls Barkley) - has contributed a full remixing of the Hilton tragedy in the modified package. Some unsuspecting but lucky 500 Hilton guppies in Britain are going to have their mind blown.
Meanwhile, Banksy has a video (nsfw) showing the making and execution of this latest project.
The NHL is NiHiListic
The Hockey News, via ESPN, analyses the NHL satire in Bon Cop, Bad Cop. It’s a good article about how the NHL doesn’t have a sense of humour about itself, nor does it know how to really breed superstars like football, baseball, or especially basketball. What isn’t explicitly said is how “cult of celebrity”-centric America is, and that perhaps if there was more focus on creating off-ice star personalitiess as well as on-ice (as wrong as it sounds, and is) it might actually work as draw south of the border.
The article isn’t exactly sharp on the details of the movie, though, as the writer gets wrong who died in the film, how they died and in what order, but that’s just my nitpickyness. And then there’s the ignorant, but forgivable “genuine midget” comment. (Remember class, the m-word is offensive and not funny).
update - I was thinking a little further about why turning NHL players into media stars wouldn’t quite work the same as NFL or the NBA, which is that the bulk of NHL players aren’t homegrown Americans, and for even more English isn’t their native tongue. American sports lovers can get behind a good “homegrown” story, and America in general is also quite xenophobic, so making a media celeb out of a mumbling Czech player, not likely to happen. The bulk of NFL and NBA players are cultivated from high school and college athletic programs, and while Major League Baseball has accepted some foreigners into their game (mostly Cuban and Dominican) it’s still primarily an American-played sport. Hockey isn’t nearly as international as soccer, but it’s also no where near as isolated as NFL/NBA.
While I agree with Proteau’s statement that “Where other leagues have learned to cultivate and accentuate their star personalities, the NHL’s culture strongly encourages its stars to (a) shut up; and (b) get back in the corner while you’re shuttin’ up,” perhaps it’s because Americans aren’t ready to make champions out of subtitles. Unless NHL players are willing to go for speech therapy and media management courses, I don’t think we’re going to be seeing much change. Who was the last widely recognized (in the public consciousness) hockey player? Wayne Gretzky. Baseball, basketball, football, hell, even tennis and golf have had more prevalent newsmakers and media penetrating sportiers over the past decade.
Despite my statements, though, maybe Proteu is right: the NHL should promote their talent as not just good athletes but also interesting and visible entertainment figures in order to increase interest in the game. To add to my generic statements, if there’s anything the Bush government has proven, American love good spin and rhetoric. Maybe the NHL should poach some of the WWE’s marketing team, or Bush’s many ex-press secretaries(?).
Some New Newsom
Zoilus has received Joanna Newsom’s new album, which is heading for release in November. I was quite agog over Newsom in ‘04 but havn’t really listened to her debut, “Milk-Eyed Mender”, much since. Her latest album, “Ys”, apparently is 5 tracks, each clocking an average of 11 minutes. What intrigues me most, as Zoilus reports from the album press release, is (famed producer Steve) “Albini mic’d the harp in an insane and never-before-done manner! I’d love to describe it further but I don’t want to give away his ideas, in case he wants to do it again sometime.”
While I don’t have much music blogging cred, I too get my own share of pre-releases. Recently I got a demo copy of the first recorded Duloks tracks, which are all skookum, and later this month I’ll be getting a sneak peek at the Parkas studio recordings for their sophomore effort which, from what little I heard in July, should be very exciting.
And finally in music, I Am Spoonbender, the SanFran art-pop group, on 9/11 just released a < ahref="http://www.buyhiddenpersuaders.com/index2.html?checkYes=on">FREE album on-line called “Buy Hidden Pursuaders”. I havn’t given it a listen or digested really what the deal is behind the project, but apparently it’s pretty socially and politically charged. It “is absolutely free because it is the ‘only album that cannot be bought’” states the Agreement clause.
All files are avalable as crazy huge .wav files, so they take some time in obtaining.
02/08/2006
Quad-disc Samplerama
Hello dear readers and geekentics (anyone got a better name for the three people who call themselves my fans? play nice),
The goodly 25 of you who have been listed to receive the 4-CD 2005/06.5 compilation should be happy to know that all the cds are burned, but I’m having a little difficulty finding cost-affordable colour printing for 100 cd covers and liner trays. So I’m slowly getting things together via a shoddy bubblejet printer, so over the next month or so I’ll be shipping the cds out (two sets have alread vacated the Ronces). Unfortunately I don’t have a hierarchical list, so just expect an email or a package at your door one day (probability is that if you’re local Toronto, you’ll be getting yours towards the end).
Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy (at least some of) it when it gets to you.
Your gentle host,
-g-
PS. The final set was just claimed by some dude named Jeff, so I have no more.
29/07/2006
Finally…
someone (allmusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine) takes indie blog darling Sufjan Stevens down a peg or ten (link from zoilus). I tried to buy into the Sufjan hype a few years ago but the guy did absolutely nothing for me. I’ve picked off mp3s from various mp3 blogs and wind up skipping over them when they show up in my iTunes shuffle. His widely-praised-as-best-album-of-2005 recording, Illinois, was playing in Chapters one day where I was perusing the shelves before a movie. I turned to my friend and said, “You know, this is really fucking annoying.”
“It’s Sufjan Stevens,” he said.
“And that’d be why…”
I find Stevens to be about the same as Badly Drawn Boy, an artist whose first bedroom-produced album is still fantastic but subsequent albums got bloated and heavy under the artist’s own pretentiousness. They both make these big, baroque productions which have the air of something large and important but contain no soul, and worse, little of interest beyond the initial “woah, that’s odd” impact. The fact that Stevens made it onto Paste Magazine’s top 100 living songwriters (not that these lists really mean anything, but…), and in the top 50 no less, proves how powerful the indie bloggerati have become in entrenching new talent without really allowing for historical perspective.
Erlewine makes a great point about Stevens:
apart from the conceit of writing songs about a particular state, there isn’t much connection to the sound or feel of the state in question. Stevens never taps into the musical history of a state — never touching Chicago blues or jazz, or Michigan soul or rock. He simply uses the concept of songs about a state as a vehicle to deliver his baroque folk-pop.
This from one of the 50 greatest living songwriters. I feel the need to point out that Stephin Merritt didn’t even make Paste’s list (thereby invalidating it completely in my eyes). Merritt - who has mastered the concept album many times over and can write circles around the bulk of the top 100 - had he broached the idea of the 50-States album would likely come up with something more akin to what Erlewine notes, considering how Merritt can weave from a cheerleading chant into a showtune into a doo-wop pop into bouncy electroclash with an apparent and enviable ease. But this is just bitterness talking.
Anyway, I’m glad I’m not totally alone in the Sufjan=meh category, and I’m glad there’s someone of greater musical insight tackling the idea than I.
28/07/2006
muse-misc
I know they’re not the same, but for some reason I get twee, fey and emo music all confused with each other.
27/07/2006
Tharsisica
Free-form blogpost. Stream-of-consciousness-like.
I’m often what they (”they” being nobody in particular) call a “perpetual thinker” (okay, I doubt the non-existant “they” actually call anyone that, but stick with me here). My brain is constantly engaged, rarely ever shutting down. I’m often thinking so many thoughts I’d rather not think that I wish sometimes I were a tad simpler so I could find enjoyment in dormancy, alas it is not to be. So when my mind is kicked in full gear, thinking about girls and music and comics and work and bills and a few dozen other things that constantly niggle away (I was checking to make sure I was using “niggle” in the right context and answers.com asked me “Or did you mean: niggardly” - with lack of question mark, no less - to wit I most certainly did not!) it often creates a very distracted and extremely restless me. I don’t remember the last time I had a really good, full night’s sleep. When I was in Windsor two weekends back, I was able to escape much of my routine life and also sleep in a house with air conditioning, so I did get a better sleep, comparatively, but still not a good sleep. Two of the big things that have been taxing my brain was a quandry about love and the other, oddly enough, was The Futureheads (see sidebar review). I know it’s weird to exhaust so much thought on a band, especially considering it really wasn’t me thinking about the band, but rather just being unable to get their songs out of my head. It was odd how often the chorus to “Fallout” would push every other thought aside for tens of minutes (”After days in the dark/The light broke through/And it was beautiful to see you/And sit in the warmth with you”), or to sort of enter a fugue state with the chorus from “Favours For Favours” (”But there’s something that you do/I just can’t help myself/and I wish that I could move more in time with you/I watch you step and I watch you turn/I watch you move like a knife in the water/As you move across the floor/Over to me/For all to see”) only to snap out of it and find I’ve been staring blankly at my monitor at work for an undetermined period of time. It’s really mildly insane how fixated I became with the Futureheads recently, so last night was the climax of this whole build-up, and mercifully it did the trick. I slept last night free of thoughts of sound, instead dreaming of… well, i dunno, bunnies and Wonder Woman or something. I don’t remember. The night before, however, I dreamt that a friend had turned into a demon, so I asked her if she is now or has ever been a demon. Peanut butter before bed will do that to you. So anyway, one major distractor resolved, and the other is resolving itself in a happiest circumstances as well so now my thoughts are less cumbersome. Well, Rooms and I are now in the apartment hunting market after the neighbours said that they’re not moving for another year and are likely selling the house, so that one other worry off my brain but a whole new one on it. And I’m trying to figure out what’s happened to my initiative and motivation, as it seems like all my little projects are nagging my brain and yet the rest of me can’t be bothered to deal with them. This post is disjointed, like Ragdoll in Secret Six. I’ve also lost weight, which isn’t good, considering I’m now on the 100lb dare-to-be-Wolverine thing. I’ve toned up quite a bit, which is nice, but dropping a belt size wasn’t part of the deal. (”Everything was ready but he had to run away/Shot for the money on the very same day/ Le Garage/ Le Garage-rage”… I don’t even understand what that means). VAAAH.
Anyway, this kind of ramble randomness is tiring and I’m hot and sweaty in the priests collar. I think I shall read some comics.
also
I realized this morning that for the past four days I’d been refreshing the Weather Network webpage for Stratford, Ontario, rather than Toronto (I went to Stratford on Sunday, see, and it was delightful… I have a fun idea for adapting Coriolanus to modern times… plus, Colm Feore).
oh and…
I think I finally figured out what that wonky smell is in the basement sometimes… it’s the ages old dehumidifier (that overflowed this morning, by the way, since the duct-tape floater-thingy ain’t working none good so much anymore) overheating or something. Maybe. Good to know at least.
…
If the kitchen smells like hummus, that’s ’cause I made hummus. Help yourself, there’s lots there. It’s kinda tahini heavy.
…feh
I really thought I’d enjoy this rhubarb-ginger jam, but, you know, not so much.
10/07/2006
The 4-CD Sampleganza
Greetings fleshy ones.
The 2005-2006.5 x4CD sampler is in full progress. The liner notes have been constructed and the CD burning process has begun. Very soon all will be complete and ready to ship. So far I have 14 of a maximum 25 sets already spoken for, so there are a few more to go around.
The discs are broken out into four different genrefications:
the rap/dance/ambient/electro-esqu
the rock-like
the folky/twang/downtempo pop-ish
and kids’n'comedy (which is a weird mix of childrends music and foul language)
The nearly 75 artists on this collection include: Great Lake Swimmers, The National, Strong Bad, Ugly Duckling, Spoon, City Field, The 6ixty 8ights, David Cross, Amy Millan, MF Doom, Love Is All, Apostle Of Hustle, and many more. This compilation is guaranteed to meet CTRC CANCON minimums, if not in fact doubling them. It’s Toronto-centric in many respects, but that’s quite all right.
Let me know if you wants one (11 left and counting)
21/06/2006
Free as in “it only costs me”
I’m compiling 18 Months: Best of 2005/2006&1/2. A four disc tome of hiphop/dance, alternarockelectropop, twangy/chamber/downtempo, and comedy/kids/irreverence. Who wants a set?
I’m not sure how many 4-disc cases I have so you may get it as four individual disks in a hand-made slip case, two separate 2-disc cases, or one four-disc case, or maybe even a 3-disc case (plus bonus disc! in a handmade sleeve)
‘Twill be a surprise!
60+ tracks of some of my favourite songs, almost all by different artists so you’re guaranteed to hear something new (*not an actual guarantee*). I’ll be making at most 25 sets, so if you want one, claim it now. I think a half dozen are already spoken for. No shipping expenses for you if you’re not in Toronto, it’s all on me.
I’m awaiting some further materials before I begin production so shipping will commence mid-to-late July.
20/06/2006
greece’s pieces
A new Superman newspaper advertisement has been leaked and it features the MOS bursting out of a page full of reviewer pull quotes. All of the quotes are from easily influenced television or radio station affiliate reviewers… not exactly a ringing endorsement. I fear the films going to be utter pants as is. The ho-hum trailers… all of them… have yet to inspire any excitement, or even really pique my interest. Of course, I will be seeing it… twice probably (the first time I see a big film like this I usually spend my time picking it apart and being over analytical… the second time, when I know what’s coming and can actually see if I enjoy it or not).
these days is hawt
The days have been too warm for a Northwestern boy like me… I usually take it in stride but the official sign that it’s too warm is cold showers in the morning (and nothing to do with an unfulfilling sex life… riiiiight). Normally my showers are hot, and they get progressively hotter as my body adjusts to the heat. I get so warmed up, in fact, that during the winter I wind up sweating while standing outside (thus negating much of the shower’s effect). I usually do this in the spring and summer as well, but not this year… I’ve been treating myself to that stunning cold water shower. You know what I’m talking about, when the temperature differential is such a shock to your system that suddenly you’re gasping for air like your lungs have collapsed. Yeah, that kind of …shrivelling cold. So cold that I’m actually shivering by the time I get out of the shower… which isn’t good, because warm house + shivering = rapid warm-up and sweating… which, again, kind of defeats the purpose of the shower.
I need to find the happy medium.
(and not a cheerful fortune teller)
not my idea…
In the latest Thor’s Comic Column there’s a big promo for a new “reality tv” contest thing called The Comic Book Challenge and they want your ideas, my ideas, all of our ideas. They want us to pitch the ideas and then through popular selection they’ll weed their way from 50 down to a winner. I have a killer idea that could quite easily win over the masses of geek culture that would no doubt be voting in this thing, but I won’t enter it and I’ll tell you why…
It’s not worth it.
Even if I won, it’s not worth it. Quitting my job would probably be the only option to take the time away to work this contest process and I don’t have the cushion to do it. Not only that, even if I did do comics and developed the idea and handed it over to Platnum Studios for film and/or tv production, chances are they’d put me on some sort of committee validation roster and I’d have to comprimise my storytelling to get the thing done and I’d most likely hate the whole procedure. Oh, and then, say I did manage to get the book out there, my cred as a writer would be called into question for YEARS (hell, Mr. Real World Judd Winnick still has his validity called into question) and any popularity would not be based on my talent and any criticism would not be based on my lack thereof… it would be bitch jealousy and that’s it.
And say I did manage to get my book published, comics pay shit. There are very few writers of comics out there making a living at doing it. I’d guess it’s between one and two hundred that are actually supporting themselves as writers (and usually not just on comics either). Comics earn and pay shit. There’s no money in it, and losing a good job to break into an industry where the lifespan of most writers lasts about 10 years anyway… sigh.
I love comics, and I will get around to making my own some day, but throwing away my life right now for what’s essentially a glorified colouring contest isn’t really a smart path. There’s enough other frothing and/or desperate and/or well-off fanboys that can do this. And I guarantee you that the winner’s idea isn’t nearly as cool as mine.
oh… and…
Toonage is live.
Go read my Parkas interview and DVD feature. They’re good.
Also got some cd reviews and a concert review extracted from the sidebar.
I need to have a short bio to appear at the end of my articles… I have three and I’m wondering what the geeKent reader(s?) thinks. VOTE NOW!
Option 1: Graig Kent is a consumer and a reviewer. He reviews what he consumes and he consumes a lot. He routinely blogs at geekent.com in an effort to publicly embarass himself.
Option 2: Graig Kent is a veteran on-line reviewer, with nearly 1000 reviews spanning cds, concerts, movies, comics, and more, but without any major credentials to show for it, excepting his blog geekent.com
Option 3: Graig Kent lives in Toronto, works a regular job, and spends all his money on things he later reviews. You can find out way too much about him at his blog, geekent.com
If you don’t like any of these, feel free to write your own… be as kind or mean as you want, just make sure you plug my blog. Oh and on #2, I may actually have over 1000 reviews to my name. I’ll take a tally soon. I’ve been doing this review thing for 9 years now (whee-yow!)
19/06/2006
Sizzleteen
My new pants make that snowsuit sound when I walk. You know what I’m talking about…
*fweetfweet,fweetfweet*
Zebra
Speaking of sounds, new concert review to the left. JMac took me out for a great belated birthday evening of food and song. The music wavered between acceptable and interesting, with the performances varying between bored and spectacle. I was, however, completely amused by the plethora of black & white horizontal stripe shirts in attendance (hell, there were two of them in the Two Koreas alone!).
When did the sailor shirt make a comeback, and why do so many people think they’re cool? Is the Robin Williams Popeye movie the next retro pop-culture phenomenon? Are we going to see a bunch of flapper-style dresses floating around the alterna-scene? Are canned spinach and hamburgers the next big food craze? I guess indie doesn’t stand for individuality.
*jab!*
Ah, I really don’t care all that much, but a couple gin’n'tonics in it did entertain me greatly.
Circus
I was talking with a friend a few weeks back about our respectively crappy computers:
He: I was looking at some boobie sites a few weeks back and I got a virus
Me: Dude, you mean you weren’t wearing a condom? How many times do I have to tell you to protect yourself…
He: Well it was just a worm.
Me: Ewww. Well, thankfully it wasn’t anything more serious. You might not be so lucky next time.
There’s you have it kids, if you’re trolling for on-line sex, play smart and play safe. Because when you visit boobie sites, you’re not just visiting them, you’re also visiting all the ads and pop-ups they’re in bed with.
14/06/2006
No radio play for Mister Gray
I realized today that I’m going to be out of touch with the bulk of the folks I regularly turn to when I want to discuss music and musicy things.
Mi hombre Ryan back home just had some major back surgery yesterday, so he’s going to be laid up and on descending slope of painkillers for a few days, weeks or perhaps months. With his wonky physiology we’re not really sure how long his recoup is going to be but eventually, once it’s over, his quality of life should be 137.285% better (scientifically approxassumed). I spoke with his brother today and his surgery went as smoothly as was expected… there’s still some nerve issues but they should fade, apparently.
Once better, Ryan’s going to be doing a lot of the old jockeying of discs for CILU back home, and I plan on interrupting his show on as regular a basis as possible… because I’m jealous and I want to steal his thunder. He actually had his first solo show air yesterday, and I would have listened but for some reason none of streams were working for me (poops, I say!).
Anywho, get better soon Ry (well wishing comments can be left on his blog but chances are he won’t get to reading them for three or four weeks).
Meanwhile, GAK, after a quick stop at abode du Ronces, is out roaming around the east coast (in Halifax currently… maybe) for a few weeks, to be back ever so briefly for about a week, then off and gone again on international destinations unknown (well, known, but forgotten… by me anyway). GAK is the largest consumer of music I know, while I am the largest consumer of comics I know, and Ryan is the largest consumer of wrestling (Japanese and Mexican primarily) I know. Random trivia. The point being, I usually get fed a lot of my music sourcing from GAKamole and with him out of commission for about 75 days, I’m going to have a lonely summer of figuring things out for myself…
I think I’ve been doing a fairly okay of it so far though, but that’s in large part thanks to JMac’s input. She turned me over to the Diableros, and rekindled my interesting in finding new music worth getting excited over, especially local stuff. JMac is way cool, but very aloof these days as she’s trying to squeeze as much into her life as she can (as well as wrap up some other business) before she’s shipped off to Guantanamo… erm… France (same dif). She’s on a 2-month leave in la belle terrain, tutoring some rich kids and getting seduced by odouriferous, chain-smoking, beret wearing, thin-moustache having, tight leathery pants squeakly, always “How you say?” saying Frenchmen… and she’s going to some huge throw-down with DJ Shadow. *Sigh* It’s a thug’s life.
At the very least I can drag Toast about a bit to gigs and whatnot should he feel so inspired and less crotchety old man (I keed, I keed).
So yeah, colour me sonically lonely. Anyone want to tell me how the Golden Dogs, whom I just discovered and really enjoy, are, like, so 2004? Anyone want to say “I told you so” about the Great Lake Swimmers, whom I’ve finally just caught onto. Anyone want to give me some background on the Tall Dwarfs (”Dwarves?” “No, Dwarfs.”) whose 1990 reissue “Weeville” is tripping my brain out?
guh.
And I still miss the legendary 2003-2004 gig buddy Sara… she really needs to get in touch (if she’s lurking…)
09/06/2006
All quiet on the north by northeastern front
Two posts earlier I’ve got my concert chart laid out, so don’t be too concerned/surprised/disappointed with a reduced/absent turn of blogging for the next little bit. I’m not really doing the North By Northeast bullshit… here’s a conversation with a friend as to why:
She - thanks for reminding me about nxne
i’m usually good at keeping on top of these things but just with everything lately it’s all been passing me by
Me: I hate festivals… I’m not much for lineups and figuring out schedules…
that’s why I’ve never done the TIFF proper.
Festivals always seem so… exclusive too.
Like it’s a big club … a big no Graigs club or something.
She: hahahah
Pop Montreal is the only music festival i’ve done but I liked it
wasn’t too traumatized by conflicting gigs and what not. But in the end it all depends on your taste
Me: I did NXNE and CMW the first two years I was here and was pretty much soured on the whole festival thing by that point.
I’m not a hardcore enough music nurd to care about “seeing something first” and not a big enough scenester to care about being seen and not a big enough blogger to feel obligated to tell people about this shit.
She: well, if you don’t like the festival setting, you can always just wait until the band/movie you want to see comes by again or gets a theatrical release, if at all
that’s the thing with film fests though, a lot of it will never see a theatrical release, at least not in North America
Me: yeah…
She: the bands though will probably always come by again
Me: Maybe if I was getting paid to write about these things I’d actually care again
sigh… someday
She: well, if you don’t care enough to see these things on your own for your own enjoyment, then it’s definitely not worth the effort
Me: the thing is, it’s the hassle of being a nobody in these things…
if I had a press pass or an insider pass…
things would be much simpler… takes a lot of the guessing and aggrivation out of it
She: well, yeah, that’s the thing. half the point of festivals is to connect artists with the industry as well as the public
but if it were not for the public and their interest, then the industry would have no one to market to
kind of like a serpent swallowing its tail
Me: totally.
I just get annoyed at the imbalance of it though… the last time I did NXNE, I stood waiting in a lineup for 40 minutes only to be told I wasn’t getting in (all the while, people with their media badges were breezing on in)
it’s that kind of thing that peeves me.
If they had to stand in line too, I wouldn’t be so annoyed…
or maybe if they allocated a certain number of media spots to public spots…
shrug
She: unfortunately that’s how the festival business works. Media are given priority bec have they to maximize coverage
we could debate this for hours, but i have to go
Me: ja
———-
This definitely isn’t all I have to say on these “festival” things, and some of my thoughts up above aren’t exactly well thought out (such is “chatting” format, I guess) but, as I said, no time for love, Dr. Jones. Off for dinner and a show.
but first
The Monarch’s list of peers - from an outtake on the Venture Bros. episode “The Trial of the Monarch”:
Judge: You’re on thin ice, but do you get off the ice? No, you jump up and down like a lunatic having a..a conniption fit. Now if it was up to me, you’d have been in chains an hour ago. But this is a trial by jury and it’s up to your peers…
The Monarch: Peers?
Judge cont’d: …to decide this.
The Monarch: PEERS?! How dare you! That repulsive display of humanity out there? NO WAY! A list of my peers would read as follows:
Flying Squid and Tigeriffic; Truckules; Lord Mostly-Magic; King Fantastic Outfit; Fee Waybill of the Tubes; Suicide Girl Tegan; Bill “Superfoot” Wallace; Happy-Go-Clucky and Swiss Misstery; Chaka Igloo; and my 8th grade earth science teacher Mr. Tringe! Oh… and Bizarro Oscar Wilde as an alternate.
Heh… Truckules. The only other sign of Truckules on-line is this gay trucker fantasy story. *shudder*
05/06/2006
3 music things
Gigs: (updated June.08)
June 7 - (maybe) BE YOUR OWN PET, Whirlwind Heat. The Mod Club
June 8 - (defs) GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS w/ Mean Red Spiders, Barzin, The Barmitzvah Brothers, Two-Minute Miracles. Sneaky Dee’s
June 9 - (maybe) Ruth’s Hat, SUEISFINE (they’re from Thunder Bay), Unsensored. Neutral.
June 10 - (defs) Amy Millan CD release. Mod Club
June 11 - (not likely) TILLY AND THE WALL w/ David Dondero. Mod Club.
June 17 - (defs) THE TWO KOREAS & LEVY w/ Kill The Lights. Drake Undergound.
June 19 - (maybe) DON CABALLERO Horseshoe.
June 22 - (maybe) ACEYALONE w/ Ugly Duckling, The Procussions, Diverse, more. Reverb.
June 23 - (maybe) DE LA Soul. Harbourfront.
June 29 - (defs) The Organ. Drake Undergrnd
July 4 - (defs) CAMERA OBSCURA w/ The Diableros. Horseshoe.
July 26 - (defs)THE FUTUREHEADS w/ Tapes n Tapes. Phoenix.
Aug 5 - (defs) WOLF PARADE w/Frog Eyes. Phoenix (tix on sale Sat.)
Aug 28 - (maybe) Hall & FLIPPIN Oates. Hummingbird (tix on sale tomorrow)
Doom song
The complete DANGERDOOM ep, Occult Rhythm, is now available free from Adult Swim. A video for ATHF is also viewable.
New Parkas video
The vid for Darling, The Wolves by Parkas as hosted on YouTube.