Enough is enough

I don't know if anyone will read this, but I need to say it so here goes. OK, so Cliff’s Notes of the Ford’s radio show can be boiled down to these points. The only people who got to ‘call in’ were of course Ford supporters. 1 a retired police officer who claims to have been a drug squad officer during the time Doug is accused of pushing illegal substances, who says he never came across Doug’s name in his work. Turns out, this particular officer may have accepted bribes from a drug dealer during that same time period – huh. Supporter number 2 – a Don Bosco parent, I expected that. Supporter number 3 – a Richmond Hill Councilor who has never met either of the Ford brothers. Doug does know that his brother is Mayor of TORONTO right? Sorry - I forgot about the 4th caller who actually asked "the" question, whom the brothers Ford proceeded to call a racist after cutting her off and basically hanging up on her. Something that has been bugging me all afternoon is the Don Bosco parent who claimed that teachers are all on the highway home at 3:30 when Mayor Ford is on the field coaching kids. First of all – technically – if Ford is on the football field then, he has left HIS job of being Mayor before 3:30. Secondly, the statement that most teachers are on the road home at 3:30 is incredibly offensive to me as a Teacher. Having worked in the field for over 15 years, I don’t know a single teacher teaching a full day program who is on the road home at 3:30, and Doug supporting such a slanderous statement (by failing to interject/correct) is unconscionable. And as expected, there was an extended mega mix of the back patting that we saw all day yesterday from Doug (Hotel room sales, Rotary service, his family has been giving back for years, media conspiracy, saved the city a billion dollars, “is that the best you got?”…). Both brothers said repeatedly that we should “let the people decide”. So let’s do just that, let’s see both brothers step down and call a bi-election. I know this is not a popular opinion given the cost of such an endeavor, but enough is enough and too much is ridiculous. Let’s get on with the business of running the city shall we?

The day the music died

Today, I am devastated and heartbroken beyond comprehension. Despite claims of possible reunification 'sometime in the future', I fear that this is truly the end for Broken Social Scene. I cannot remember a day in my life when I have been so affected by something that has absolutely nothing to do with me directly. Their music has changed my life ever since the very first time I heard the very first chord and I am not quite sure how to handle a 'post' BSS existence. Time to turn off all the lights, get a bottle of wine and loop Feel Good Lost - which will only serve to make me weep uncontrolably. However, I truly don't know how else to honour and mourn the passing of the people who changed my life and saved my soul, because that is what they did for me, every day for the past 9 years.

Now what?

I am hoping that this is yet another case of "the boy who cried wolf" as Kevin has characterized himself. I will remain hopeful and wait patiently . . . thankful for solo endeavours. If this truly is the end, I will be devastated.

How many is too many?

I now officially have 40 versions of Anthems on my iPod. There has been a suggestion that (from someone who obviously has NO idea) that this is unnecessary. I would argue that is bullshit since each one is different - some vastly so. Here are just 2 of my faves - and shining examples of the differences.

Harbourfront 09

Paris 06

Livin the dream

I have many regrets in my life and one of the biggest is the decision I made back when I was 9 years old to refuse the school band teacher's assignment for me to play the drums and instead force my parents buy me a flute so that I could take the class. An aside - who the hell lets a 9 year old make life altering decisions anyway? As a member of the army known as the flute section of pretty much every school and city band or orchestra in my youth, there was many a time when someone from my section was called upon to play one of the myriad of 'auxiliary percussion' instruments. I was at least smart enough to be the first to volunteer to pinch hit every time. Consequently, I have had the pleasure of playing cymbals, gong, timpani, bells, bass drum and even one time the back of a chair on stage at Massey Hall and Roy Thompson Hall (2 major venues in Toronto).

There are songs I LOVE I could no longer listen to because the feeling of needing to crawl out of my skin because I could not play them on the drums was too overwhelming. When I moved into my own home, I thought that it would be nice to have a set of drums but it was much more of a concept than an actual plan. For 11 years I have imagined and wondered and daydreamed about having a drum set. I am a girl with a percussion fetish, my 2 favourite words in the English language are 'percuss' and 'reverberate'.

As of today I do not have to wonder anymore, I now own (and after 4 hours of hard work, have assembled) a drum set. I have been trying to either talk myself out of wanting or into buying one for 11 years and after having the chance to play someone else's a couple of months ago - it got me really thinking about what it was that was stopping me. Then, 2 weeks ago while I was fast asleep and dreaming - in my dream appeared Levon Helm - and he said "Stop whining and get your bloody drums", and so I did. Who am I to mess with Levon Helm? It is by far the most ridiculous thing I have ever done in my life and it is AWESOME. My life was not complete until I owned a kick drum. Please don't get the impression I think I can actually play , I'm awful, I suck more than a vacuum - but today has been the best day of my life thus far and I'm having a blast trying!

I would highly recommend that everyone live their dream - it rocks!

Oh Canada

Juno noms are in, don't know what to make of them yet. Caribou for New Artist, have I hallucinated 4 whole years? Nice to see names like Owen Pallett, Chilly, Luke Doucet and Holy Fuck on the list though - Junos seem be branching out (better late than never). If Down With Webster wins Group of the Year I'm leaving the country though.

And because even though my heart bleeds BSS (who have 5 well deserved noms), kinda rooting for Owen to win just because he is the best thing to happen to Canadian music lately and if I could write , I would hope to write something as beautiful as Lewis Takes Action, here is some fantastic Owen . . .

The evolution of a song

I absolutely love this song for it's simplicity and have enjoyed watching it evolve with the band over the years. I have to say that they way it is being presented most recently is my favourite - but really, any way will work for me.

2005:


2007:


2007:


2008:


2010:


2011:

A sign of the apocalypse

The sheer quantity of 'Top _________ of 2010' lists that Kanye is on makes me want to vomit. That is all.

Another one bites the dust

As the year winds to a close and I look back at 2010 musically, it will be remembered for 3 things. Firstly, the long overdo release of Forgiveness Rock Record; secondly it is the year I sadly fell out of love with Arcade Fire and lastly; I will remember it as the year I fell hopelessly in love with Mumford and Sons.

It's about time

These guys are AWESOME. I had heard 1 or 2 of their songs but then a friend dragged me to the show a few days ago and I fell immediately in love. In general, I do not play the whole "Oh my god, I'm at a concert, I better get up front and be all crazy ridiculous" game - I kind of hang in the back and just listen to the music. I happen to think that The Sound Academy is the shittiest venue in Toronto, however - last weekend I really didn't care at all. About 3 songs in I was front and centre - well, a little right of centre actually - awestruck, directly in front of one Winston Marshall. The man is a freaking banjo virtuoso. I am a fan for life and had I been able to figure out a way, I would have stowed away on their tour bus and never looked back. I have not been this blown away by a band in years - the only thing that I think even comes close in the past few years was seeing Stevie Wonder live. I was floored, it was embarrassing - I think I actually stopped breathing for a while there and I may have drooled. Definitely the best discovery of 2010, great - just what I needed - now I just have to get me a banjo. Their music is poetic, cerebral, powerful, beautiful, stripped back, just bloody unreal and life changing. Oh, and did I mention that they all play at least 4 different instruments? I cannot say enough wonderful things about them - go listen, they won't disappoint.

White Blank Page

Ho hum

So, this makes me feel like I should go back to bed and not bother to get up and do anything as I can never hope to do anything even a fraction as fabulous as this . . .. And with a beautiful backdrop provided by Mother Nature, how can anyone not be moved by this? How can something so simple be so magnificent?

Once in a lifetime

When I first heard about the BSS show in Central Park I played the 'Should I, Shouldn't I' game for a few days and then thought, how many times in my life will I want to kick my own ass if I don't go? The answer was well into the triple digits so we immediately formulated the most ridiculous plan ever to attend the not to be missed evening. I flew out of Toronto mid afternoon Saturday, we raced in the cab over to the Park and were met by about 3000 other people who also understood the importance of the event. All told, by the time the show started, I am quite sure attendance topped out at over 6000.

The setlist was phenomenal - my favourite addition being Romance To The Grave - if there is a track off of FRR that can explain to the world exactly who they are, it's that one. Older crowd faves like Ibi, Shorelines, Looks Just Like the Sun and Cause were all present and accounted for, with FRR heavily represented.

The set was longer than I expected and the whole night was surreal (we stayed up all night in NY and caught a 6:00 am flight back to Toronto), but there was 1 disappointment.

Their performance was beefed up with the addition of back up tracks - that cut fairly deep. For anyone who has ever seen them live, we recognize that a huge part of their whole 'mystique' is that any given performance will be different from the previous and the subsequent performance due to who shows up on stage each night. This is why I have 27 versions of Anthems. I am hoping that backing tracks are not now going to be a staple of their live gigs.

Anyway - all in all a pretty inspiring night, I can now say that BSS has brought me to tears in Central Park (thanks to Lover's Spit and Hotel). I feel a bit like I should do a Mastercard commercial . . . "concert ticket $31, return airfare to NYC with 16 hour turn around time $600, seeing your favourite band play Central Park - dreamy and priceless."

Oh, and an aside - if you don't know when to clap in Stars & Sons, just don't effing clap at all!

And thank you to Mother Nature for holding back the rain, although I don't even think that could have ruined our night.

Another year

How the hell do I forget every year what a shitstorm Back To School is?

To be Canadian . . .

There is no mistaking the beautiful sound of Dallas Green - add in Gord Downie and you've got a recipe for pretty damn near perfection.

One of the rare days when I hate my job and feel very envious . . .

Lesson learned

I grew up repeating the phrase "Van's the man" on demand. And as an adult I fully recognize that Van is indeed the man. Very few people write shit like this anymore.

A syncopation addict's dream come true

I'm gonna have to make my own Public Service Announcement. Remember the whole "this is your brain on drugs" movement? Forget drugs - this is your brain on Neil Peart. I don't think I had a coherent thought for at least a few hours after this. Gonna go see it all again on Saturday, too awesome to pass up.

Just another Wednesday night, no biggie

My Wednesday night is not nearly as fun as this . . . so I live vicariously. How can you not love people who can do this?

Aha!

Next time someone asks you the meaning of life, play them this.

New Instructions

Proud to be Canadian

So I am going to send this interview to anyone who ever asks me why I think an overwhelming majority of so-called 'mainstream' artists (and I use this term loosely) are full of shit. BECAUSE THEY CANNOT SPEAK INTELLIGENTLY ABOUT THEIR ART. Alan is my favourite music journalist and he also happens to be Canadian, I have been listening to/reading his stuff in a variety of forms for over 20 years and the man asks questions I want the answers to. He knows the Toronto music scene better than anyone and had a hand in many artists in this city ever seeing any airplay to begin with.

Luckily, the ratio is fairly decent - for every shitty Canadian artist like the boys from Nickelback, Drake or Bieber (to name a few current thorns in my side), there are at least 2 remarkably talented artists like Charlie and Kevin. For that math, I am truly grateful.

A day 4.5 years in the making

So, now that I have had a full 36 hours with Forgiveness Rock Record (and I do mean a FULL 36 hours - it has not been turned off, even slept with it on a loop) here are my thoughts.

For so many reasons I love this album, I cannot possibly put them all into words. The first thing that struck me is how un-unified it is in comparisson to YFIP and BSS, which both seemed to have such a natural flow. FRR does not have that flow that makes it seem like a cohesive 'unit', which I expected to be a bad thing. What I loved most in particular about YFIP was that it seemed like a story unfolding in chapters - each track seemed to follow almost like a natural consequence of the previous track - and this was a huge part of the why I became so addicted to it. Naturally - after hearing clips of a few tracks off of FRR before the leak, I was concerned that this album may not have that quality and I wondered how it would hold up. Turns out - my concern was COMPLETELY unfounded. In fact, a major piece of the puzzle that is my growing love for FRR is the fact that it is so random. The songs still seem to belong to eachother, just in a remarkably different way. Anyway - enough about the album as a whole.

I love World Sick for the conversation that happens all the way through between the guitars.

I love Chase Scene for it's 70's vibe and effects.

I think I liked live versions of Texico Bitches better, but it is still an awesome song.

I am one of the few it seems who don't hate Forced to Love. It's organized chaos, and it is beautiful.

I am still waiting for All to All to grow on me but I do like Lisa's vocals.

I have loved Water in Hell since the first time I heard it - I think in 07. I actually prefer the album version of this one to the live versions. Sure to be my summer anthem.

Art House Director sounds so much more like and AoH song - even minus the Whitey vocals - seems like it should have been on his album.

Highway Slipper Jam makes me giggle - love the mini scat at the beginning and the instrumentation and Lisa's vocals, I am again in the minority in the fact that I actually think Lisa is a valuable addition to the band. It also sounds like it could have been on YFIP.

Sentimental Xs is not what I was expecting but still a beautiful song with great textures.

Sweetest Kill breaks my heart every time I hear it.

I need more time with Ungrateful Little Father, it has not told me how to explain it in words yet.

Romance To the Grave sounds like it could have been on Feel Good Lost - beautiful layers and such a warm feeling.

Me and My Hand was cute the first few times - then I started to skip over it, but it's back in the loop now, I get it.

I have saved the best for last. Meet Me in the Basement may actually overtake my previous favourite song ever (Stars & Sons live in Paris 05). I am left with a dilema however. I am a huge fan of live tracks - often preferring them to studio 'produced' versions of many songs. The 2 things I love most about this song have not been (on the few occasions I have seen it played live) and cannot be replicated live. The first is the wall of sound that is 7,952 horns. I hear so many colours, textures and layers that even if they had all of their sometime horn players (all 10 of them) out with them on the road, they could not match it. The other issue is that my very favourite part of the song is the additional, and decidedly un-Peroff percussion rythyms and sounds that bring such depth to what is easily the best, most well developped track on the whole album. Obviously waiting for liner notes to confirm it (possibly McEntire but not sure), but if that is all Justin, I'll eat my hat. Oh - and if I am not mistaken, there is some flute in there too, how can I not love that?

Anyway, there you have it - and if you read this whole entry - I don't mean to alarm you, but you're a music geek.

Meet Me In the Basement