Could there be a better way to ring in a New Year?

So I've just had to change my New Years Eve plans . . .


"If you find yourself in Toronto this New Years Eve, come to the Phoenix where Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and Jimmy Shaw of Metric will be hosting a dance party for the ages."


It seems I will be ringing in 2009 with a bunch of 17 year olds whilst looking for the ghost of Rory O'Shea in the Parlour . . . ahhhh the Pheonix in the 90's . . .

Top 10 Favourite YouTubes of 2008

So as 2008 comes to a close, I give you my favourite YouTubes of the year - in no particular order.



















And last but certainly not least - definitely most embarassingly though, sadly I am addicted to this show . . . but come on - this shit is awesome!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

The next month:

Nov 27


Nov 28


Dec 2


Dec 5


Dec 9



Dec 11


Dec 12


Dec 13


Dec 16


Dec 18


Dec 23

Battle of the coolest band(s) ever

Love George Vale's work, and once again I am not disappointed. Kev's hair made me laugh a bit though.

If I had a million dollars

I was having a conversation with some friends the other night about what extravagancies we would splurge on if we won a million dollars. Some people had noble ideas like donating the majority to Habitat for Humanity or Doctors Without Borders (it should be noted I think those people are full of shit - they would be on a world cruise so fast your head would spin), others suggested helping out family members with mortgages/loans and some were absolutely homest and said they would buy an obscenely ridiculous car and go on lavish holidays. In pondering what I would honestly do with a sudden windfall I have come to a conclusion, which lead to everyone else in the room coming to an entirely different conclusion about me.

My conclusion:
It did not take me long to decide that in all seriousness, I would give my winnings to Jeffrey Remedios in exchange for a seat on the bus for the next tour. There are deeper issues there that I am not going to get into now (another post for another day) that made me choose this, but let's just say that some people dream of running away to join the circus, I dream of running away to join a band. Well, not a band, the band. There's a difference.

Their conclusion:
I am crazy.

Seriously? Who would not want to share this stage?





Did I mention I play a mean bell tree?

Steaming pile of shit

Seriously?!?!?!?!?!?! This is what we've been waiting 16 years for? Axl sounds over engineered within an inch of his life and the drums are simple, boring and far too repeptitive. Now at lest we know what they've been doing for the past decade and a half - they've been fucking around with Axl's vocal tracks for 5475 days! The only saving grace is a cool riff from Buckethead - not technically astonishing though, just different and unfortunately not enough to forgive the overall shittiness of the track as a whole. Dr. Pepper should unpack the 300 million cans from the fridge and put them back in the warehouse. This sucks, and I really wanted it to kick ass. Grrr . . .

You only live once

Today has very quickly become the most expensive day of my life thus far (if you don't count the day I bought my house).

The second that I heard that Stars were opening for Coldplay I began calculating in my head logistically how I could swing going. The show is in Ottawa (a 5 hr drive from Toronto) and on a Monday night, I do not have the option of taking tomorrow off of work even if I was so inclined (which I am not). So here is the ridiculousness that we have come up with. We are flying to Ottawa at 5:30 pm this afternoon, where we will then cab it the 1/2 hr to the actual stadium and see Stars open for Coldplay from what are the best seats I have ever had for a concert. In lamenting over the skyrocketing price for the evening, I have come to the conclusion that sometimes we all have to indulge ourselves and that this is a once in a lifetime experience that I cannot afford to miss. It does seem somewhat indulgent and absolutely crazy that I am going to get on a plane to go somewhere for what will amount to a total of about 5 hrs. What some have pointed out makes the whole event even more ridiculous is that I am not spending all of this money and doing the crazy turnaround flight for Coldplay - I am going to see Stars open for Coldplay - there is a difference. I will probably be the only one who is more interested in the opening act. I am unsure how I feel about Stars at an arena though - I would love them anywhere, but I fear that this show may fall into the weird category that seeing Feist at a large venue did - inorganic and unnatural. I am used to seeing Stars at venues that have max capacities of 300 or 500, not an arena that houses 20,000 for hockey games.

Anyway, if you have not had the chance to see Stars live - at a small venue or an arena, you should definitely do so - they are an excellent example of how Canadians have saved music for us all. It's like the whole world stops when Amy and Torque sing, magical.