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

Go listen

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Noah