geekent’s stuff’n things

03/07/2009

[...about me #143 - 150] 33 bands: 10 - 17

Filed under: ...about me — Tags: , , , , , , , — Graig @ 11:23 am

(what is 33 bands?)

Artist: Q-Tip/A Tribe Called Quest
Albums owned: Tribe - Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990); The Low End Theory (1991); Revised Quest for the Seasoned Traveler (1992); Midnight Marauders (1993); Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996); The Love Movement (1998)
Q-Tip - Amplified
Eps owned: sadly, none
Album(s) missing: Tribe - Hits, Rarities & Remixes (2003); The Lost Tribes (2006)
Q-Tip - The Renaissance (2008)

Status: Q-Tip’s “lost album”, Kamaal/The Abstract, originally slated for 2002 release, then scrapped by the record co., will finally be released by Battery Records on September 15, 2009
A sixth Tribe record was discussed around 2006-2007 when the group reunited for touring but nothing since has been mentioned.

Personal history: Tribe was always my second hip-hop love to De La Soul, but upon relistening to the albums (see anew #134-140) the once-perennial seed has once again blossomed. I’d been anxiously awaiting Q-Tip’s second album for years, then kind of gave up hope, and completely missed it when it came out last year. It’s on the list of things to be corrected. I also forgot that I had the opportunity to see Tribe about a year and a half ago in Toronto, and didn’t take it. Dang.

Artist: Godspeed, You Black Emperor
Albums owned: Yanqui U.X.O.
Eps owned: none
Album(s) missing: lift yr. skinny fists like antennas to heaven! (2000); slow riot for new zero kanada (1999); f# a# oo (1998)
Status: on hiatus

Personal history: GAK introduced me to GSYBE on a mixedtape back in 1999 I believe, or perhaps it was a mixed cd in 2000. Either way, i was fascinated and a live show at a remodeled and restored Palais Royale way way back still resonates in my mind, as does their powerful contribution to the opening moments of 28 Days Later (remember when Danny Boyle was cool, not famous…? bah). GSYBE, I miss you.

Artist: Parkas
Albums owned: Now This Is Fighting (2003), Put Your Head In The Lion’s Mouth (2007)
Eps owned:A Life of Crime (2006)
Album(s) missing: none
Status: Currently recording their third album with Dale Morningstar… and then…?

Personal history: Even though I’ve known drummer Greg Rhyno, and bassist/vocalist Mark Rhyno since high school, do I put them on the list because I know them? Hell no. The Parkas are an amazing band, full stop. Having emerged from a tumultuous career path (see the near-brilliant “Life of Crime” DVD) stronger than ever a few years back, they make fun, exciting rock and-or roll, with clever and catchy lyrics and deliver one of the best working man live shows around. New material is most definitely welcome, and anticipated.

Artist: Golden Dogs
Albums owned: Everything In Three Parts (2004); Big Eye, Little Eye (2006)
Eps owned: none
Album(s) missing: none
Status: Currently recording

Personal history: Even though married leads Dave Azzolini and Jessica Grassia are originally from Thunder Bay, I didn’t actually come across the Golden Dogs until 2006, and even that was by happenstance (of which I can’t remember). Impetuously infectious and a killer energetic live show, with a wildly varied and grandiose sound, they could be from Duluth or Bruges and I’d still be just as enthusiastic. I also have a yellow t-shirt with the “target” emblem from their last album which I just love love lurve. Their video for “Never Meant Any Harm” still ranks as one of my favourite all-time videos:

Artist: Matt Murphy
Albums owned: The Super Friendz - Mock Up, Scale Down (1995); Slide Show (1996); Love Energy (2003)
The Flashing Lights - Where the Change Is (1999); Sweet Release (2001)
Guy Terrifico - The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico (2005)
Eps owned: The Flashing Lights - Elevature EP (2000)
City Field - Authentic City ep (2004)
Album(s) missing: none
Status: Supposedly recording a new Super Friendz album…

Personal history: I was introduced to Matt Murphy and his Super Friendz by the aforementioned Parkas, Greg and Mark Rhyno, way back in 2005, when their pre-Parkas endeavour, Phasers on Stun, opened for the Halifax based band at a tiny little place with a foot-high stage and low ceilings whose name escapes me (I saw Hayden there too). Chris Murphy of Sloan was filling in on drums for their tour, I recall, and I remember him saying that Mark had the best hair in Rock and Roll. Anywho, I bought Mock Up, Scale Down then and there, and it’s been probably my favorite Canadian rock album ever since. Their track “Karate Man” was at one time adapted into chapter 3 of my novel Quarter City but was later excised.

Their second album, Slide Show wasn’t well received, which I couldn’t ever figure out, since I’ve enjoyed it immensely from the get go. It’s not as poppy as their debut, but it does show growth and maturity. I knew the Super Friendz had sadly disbanded but I was over the moon to discover the Flashing Lights in 2000, and to see them live a bunch of times in 2001. The track “Do It To Yourself” on Sweet Release is one of my all-time favourite songs. It was bittersweet to hear that the Flashing Lights disbanded so that the Super Friendz could reunite, creating Love Energy, followed by Matt Murphy’s unexpected performance as the titular legendary 70’s country music sensation in the mocumentary film The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico. The album which resulted from the film was incredible, and the celebratory live/farewell show for the DVD release was a great time, full of nudie suits and pedal steel guitars. Taking a back-seat in his girlfriend’s band, the B-52’s inspired City Field, Murphy’s contribution is still quite tangible. He’s been rather absent since Guy Terrifico disappeared, but whatever he does next, I’m there. The man can cross genres and styles with ease, and is a damn fine entertainer.

Artist: Rod Slaughter/Novillero
Albums owned: Duotang - Smash the Ships and Raise the Beams (1996); The Cons & The Pros (1998); The Bright Side (2001)
Novillero - The Brindleford Follies (2002); Aim Right for the Holes in Their Lives (2005)
Eps owned: n/a
Album(s) missing: Novillero - A Little Tradition (2008)
Status: Active, just coming off touring.

Personal history: I don’t actually recall how I came across Duotang. Was it a live show in Thunder Bay? Late-night CBC Radio of Brave New Waves? MuchMusic back when they actually played music videos? Honestly don’t recall. But I remember making a choice between two a bass ‘n’ drums duos, them and The Inbreds. While I like both, I threw my hat in with the Winnepeg-based band and followed them for years, across three albums and at least four live shows. Duotang’s frontman, the brilliantly named Rod Slaughter, had dabbled with the Winnepeg mega-band Novillero between albums back in 1999, but it seemed to be a bit of a passing phase, only when Duotang split up, he threw himself right back into it, and while the first album was decent, the sophomore release was incredible. They’ve been active ever since, achieving some modest success. I missed out on their 2008 release, which will have to be corrected.

Artist: Interpol
Albums owned: Our Love to Admire (2007)
Eps owned: none
Album(s) missing: Turn on the Bright Lights (2002); Antics (2004)
Status: Working on a 4th album, expected in 2010.

Personal history: GAK introduced me to Interpol back in 2000/2001 on a mixed cd, and lent me an early EP, and I didn’t really get it. They didn’t strike me as interesting and I found their sound rather monotonous. Somehow, though, they found their way onto my iPod (probably when I had GAK’s entire CD collection for about 2 years) and one day, with Paul Bank’s dulcet tones ringing in my ear, I became enraptured. There’s a rock-steady consistency to Interpol’s sound which, the more their catalog builds, the more comforting it becomes, and the more they become the heirs to post-punk royal crown. I find their sound to have great momentum, perfect driving music (more daytime than nighttime though).

Artist: Ratatat
Albums owned: Ratatat (2004), Remixes vol.2 (2007)
Eps owned: none
Album(s) missing: Classics (2006), LP3 (2008), Remixes vol.1 (2004)
Status: active

Personal history: Ratatat makes stadium rock for your headphones. It was the video for “Cherry” that drew me in and while I don’t have much in the way of personal attachment, it’s really just that their instrumental merger of hip hop, guitar rock, and laptop electronica just pleases me. Their two volumes of Remixes, made available for free on their website at one time or another, (likely making rounds on the torrent sites), made some very mediocre rap palatable.

—
33 bands (in no particular order):
1. The National
2. Modest Mouse
3. De La Soul
4. TV on the Radio
5. The Futureheads
6. !!!
7. Menomena
8. Danger Mouse
9. Damon Albarn
10. Q-Tip/A Tribe Called Quest
11. Godspeed, You Black Emperor
12. Parkas
13. The Golden Dogs
14. Matt Murphy
15. Rod Slaughter/Novillero
16. Interpol
17. Ratatat

02/07/2009

[...consumed anew #145] Yanqui U.X.O.

Filed under: ...consumed anew — Tags: — Graig @ 2:29 pm

Godspeed, You Black Emperor’s third-ish album is a cd-bursting 80 minutes long consisting of five tracks, three songs long (”09-15-00″ and “Motherfucker=”Redeemer” are both split into two parts). You can’t really critique Godspeed’s music: you either climb aboard the journey or you you won’t; you appreciate it for it’s many various inspirations or you don’t; you can get behind their sometimes 20+ minute compositions or you can’t….
GSYBE is art music, it’s a slow-burning soundtrack to modern existence, it’s a planetarium light show minus the plaentarium and the light show. If all you ever listen to is top 40 or (gah) Virgin radio, then you’re just not going to be interested. But this is music that takes you somewhere, epic journeys through sound, virtually lyric-less (or in the case of Yanqui U.X.O., fully).

Taking from prog rock, shoegazer, punk, post-rock, chamber, classical and avant-garde and mashing them together into a falafel consisting of at times dozens of musicians, Godspeed is (was?) a political and social orchestral machine, and in spite of rarely (if ever) actually speaking, their music can convey any number of dark landscapes and horrifying visions of the future. Yanqui U.X.O.’s packaging maps “big music” (Sony, BMG etc) to the military industrial complex, and while their music can’t speak, its intonations are heady. But with any music not tied to lyrics, you go in with only that which you take.

I haven’t listened to Yanqui U.X.O. quite enough in the many, many years since I acquired it, but it creates an incredible vacuum when it’s played, one that draws you in and doesn’t want to let go. What strikes me most about this album is how much it feels like a built-up and blown-out version of Slint’s Spiderland (see “anew #86″), as if that album were a snowball, increasing in size, rolling down an unending snow covered mountain.

28/05/2009

[...learned #145/146] 2009 NHL Playoffs: Final Round

Filed under: ...learned — Tags: , — Graig @ 1:50 pm

First, the results of my predictions on round 3:

Eastern Final
Pittsburgh vs. Carolina - I said: Penguins in six | actual: Pens in four
(I could tell it was all over by the third period of Game 2, really)

West
Detroit vs. Chicago - I said: Red Wings in five | actual: Red Wings in five
(it played out almost exactly as I expected, except that the Wings got wounded, and Khabibulin was out after game 3. Huet had an awful game 4 but was stellar in game 5.. but just not good enough)

In round three I was 100% accurate on the winning team (2 for 2) with 50% accuracy with winning team and games.
In round two I was only 25% accurate on the winning team (1 for 4) with 0% accuracy with winning team and games.
In round one I was 62.% accurate (5 for 8) and 37.5% accurate (3 for 8) with winning teams and games.

Round 4 - Stanley Cup Final

red wings vs. pittsburgh penguins

For the first time in 25 years, the same two teams are playing in back-to-back finals. The Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins met last year, going six games, although the Pens weren’t nearly as hungry or disciplined, and their playoff legs were shaky. In 1983, the Great One’s Edmonton Oilers lost out to the streaking New York Islanders (winning their fourth in a row), but established their dynasty one year later, in the 1984 rematch against the Isles (winning five cups in seven years). Is Crosby and Malkin the new Gretzky and Messier? Not likely. Perhaps more apt is they’re the new Lemieux and Jagr.

Detroit has been to the Stanley Cup Final five times in the past twelve years (winning all five times), six times in the past fourteen (the last time they lost a final was against New Jersey in ‘95) , which is pretty incredible in a 30-team league. Detroit was the last team to win back-to-back Cups in ‘97 and ‘98 seasons. As Aden says, it’s the closest we have to a dynasty in hockey right now.

Will they do it again? Tough to say. Pittsburgh is looking hungry right now, their captain has so much more composure this year and has elevated his game to the superstardom he was expected to have last year, and the fact that Malkin finally arrived in the playoffs with all cylinders firing against Carolina spells plenty of trouble. Crosby and Malkin incredibly have 28 points each. Detroit, though, is the walking wounded, with Lidstrom, Datsyuk, and Ericksson currently out and Draper perhaps not feeling his oats, while the Pens are really only dealing with a wounded, but functional, Gonchar. But the Red Wings’ greatest strength is their depth, and they have four solid lines, each quite capable of scoring, which is where they succeed while others fail. But Pittsburgh has assembled some depth themselves and their line-to-line match-ups should prove very interesting.

On the goalie side, both Fleury and Osgood are underappreciated for their skill. Yes, Chris Osgood isn’t a flashy or particularly dynamic goalie, but he’s steely, and with three Stanley Cup rings on his fingers already, he’s proven that he’s got what it takes to elevate his game during the post season. Yes, he’s surrounded by probably the best defensive team in the league, but just check out the last few games against Chicago for how good he’s been in net, his GAA (2.06) through three rounds (playing 16 games) as proof. Marc-Andre Fleury, meanwhile, has a 2.65 GAA, which is about as average as you can get out of a top-line starting goalie. He’s made some incredible saves, but also let in some softies. He’s a much more acrobatic goalie than Osgood, which Detroit will either be stymied by or readily exploit.

The story the media is drooling over is the Hossa factor, as he rejected a sweet offer from Pittsburgh for this season to hop aboard Detroit at a reduced rate in hopes of capturing Cup glory. I don’t think he expected to be facing his (briefly) former teammates in the final. Hossa finally reappeared these playoffs in Game 5 against Chicago after hiding out most of the conference finals. He was absolutely inspired even if he had no goals to show for it.

It’s going to be a hell of a final, and I expect games where both teams are scoring high, and games where both teams are stymied by goaltending. That they have a mere 10 days to play 7 games (should it come to that) is demanding for them, but exciting for hockey fans.

Game 1 and 2 are dangerously back-to-back this Saturday and Sunday in Detroit (with CBC and NBC showing their pull with the NHL). Saturday’s game starts at 8pm, and typically Sunday games start early to mid-afternoon (between 1:00 and 3:00), which means if Game 1 goes into overtime, both teams might only get 12 hours to recouperate.

Who shows up and pulls off the Game 2 victory will likely decide who’s going to win.

Aden’s useless stat is the last time she had a baby, the Red Wings won the Cup, so history might hold true again. But my (highly hesitant) prediction, given how the two teams played in Round 3, is Pittsburgh in seven, MVP going to Crosby.

27/05/2009

[...consumed all new #145] TV’s 50 Funniest Phrases

Filed under: ...consumed all new — Tags: — Graig @ 10:59 am

I’m almost embarrassed that I watched this, since it’s so plebeian, a list of supposedly the funniest catch phrases from the past 60 years of television, as voted on by… who the hell knows. But it was horrendously malformed, (”Yadda Yadda Yadda” from Seinfeld at #1…erm, huh?), although unlike so many other lists, this one wasn’t angering, just confusing. I mean shows like Seinfeld, Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and Arrested Development could have their own lists of 50 funniest phrases that would top the majority of what else was on the list. And how they decided what catch phrases to choose… “Jane, you ignorant slut?” or “two wild and crazy guys”) from SNL over, oh, say half a dozen catchisms from “Wayne’s World” (you couldn’t enter a high school in the early 90’s without hearing “We’re Not Worthy”, “Schwing” or “Excellent”). But then I know that my tastes and experiences aren’t the same as most, which is why I should always, as a rule, avoid programs and other such lists of things like this.

26/05/2009

[...i ate #145] jos louis

Filed under: ...i ate — Tags: — Graig @ 3:16 pm

I buckled. I’d been craving one since attending a Red Wings game Joe Louis Arena a week and a half ago, and I couldn’t resist any longer. They are evil little cake-like mushroom tops filled with thick, smooth frosting-esque concoction and covered top to bottom in a chocolate-esque coating. Is it like gum? Will it take seven years my system to process it? Is it still processing the last one from a few years ago? Evil. Evil. Evil. Deliciously evil. I like to separate the top and bottom layer like and Oreo cookie (only so much better) and eat them individually.

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