 (photo by Coey Kerr)
Cadence Weapon - "My Crew(Woooo)" [Buy]
I've lived here in Montreal for over 10 years now.
I just want to ask people live in different cities about certain things happen/see here.
In your city/town, wherever you are, Do you see people commuting on unicycle? I often see that here.
Do you see people really into medieval things? I see that often.
How are the potholes in your city? Are they size of 18" Extra Large Pizza and can easily bathe small children?
Do you see racoon family eating poutine spilled on the ground late at night and when you take pictures with a flash, their eyes glow and look really awesome?
I've seen more things but the rest, I'll tell you another day.
Here is a video for this song.
The New Year - "Mayday" [bandcamp / buy LP]
Why are all the days on the calendar represented as squares? Neatly stacked in rows uniformly like bricks in a wall. Some days feel as though they should be shaped like stars or dark clouds. Some are fireworks displays, others are kitten paws or ocean waves. Dodecahedrons and spheres. In their defence, the calendar makers of the world don't know which ones will be the many-sided days that give our lives meaning, so they pretend that time is evenly distributed, that all days take up the same amount of space. But the calendars hanging in our minds are triangular and bouncy; textured and uneven, some days stay and others disappear. Each calendar is different. All they know for sure are the holidays and the transits of the moon.
With their calendrical name The New Year feel as though they should be marking out the even beat of days, square after square. But these are indie rock songs of the olde style (feat. members of Bedhead) and just like much of the quiet end of the late nineties, on repeated listening they reveal their spatial complexity. Their new LP Snow captures days of many shapes. It is an emotional calendar filled with desolation and hope, desire and skepticism, explored with a plain-spoken honesty that is deeply resonant.
10:14 PM on May 10, 2017.
Richard Thompson - "Foxes" [buy]
I saw a clutch of wild baby foxes in a secret location last week. Four of them. They were lying together in a pile in the sun by the entryway to their den. Taking pleasure in each other's closeness and the warm weather. They were probably born on a cold day, when the sky was slate and pouring down rain. Young kits, life has only improved in their short time here. While the world comes alive all around them there is time to lie, drowsy in the afternoon sun.
I wondered where they came from. How did they get there? But they might have asked me the same question, and I certainly wouldn't have had an answer for them. Instead we just looked at each other. Them only a second at me, me a long stretch of time at them. All we could do was acknowledge that here we were, breathing the same air, a brief encounter on our respective adventures.
--
I've loved Richard Thompson's soundtrack to Grizzly Man since it came out years ago and couldn't resist this opportunity to post the fox theme. The whole album is full of Thompson's inimitable folky guitar and the songs shimmer with light.
(photo by Spike)
 ( photo source)
Couleur Dessin - "Find Me Easily" [Pre-Order]
I made T.B.A(Tomato Bacon Avocado) sandwich. Recipe to be announced soon.
Milk Music - "Crying Wand" [buy]
The Dinosaur Jr-shaken-with-Pop-Rocks sound of Milk Music's hugely-fun debut EP is gone, but the fuzzy riffs and lyrical guitar solos that replace them on their new LP, Mystic 100's, are hypnotic. The band have stretched out, writing longer songs about environmental despoliation and the psychic warfare of late capitalism, melding the dark heart of punk and sage cowboy philosophers with the tie-dyed spirit of psychedelia.
"Crying Wand" evokes a dried-out desert viewed from the window of an old school bus full of hippies, and throughout, Mystic 100's brings to mind a series of landscapes. Over the album's runtime the band sonically describe the majesty and desolation of their world. It's a spaced-out land bordering on the Meat Puppets' arid realm, the old west of Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack, and the liminal space Homer ventures through after eating the insanity pepper.
GoldLink - "Meditation"
Smooth as a sweet springtime panic attack, fresh as a first bike ride on old pumped-up tires, free as it feels to pass an open window, be passed in turn by last year's favourite song, half-measures. Slick as a breath in played backwards, dark as a club dark, sound as a house party, sweet as a party you're leaving but not yet, not quite.
[Buy At What Cost]
10:26 PM on Apr 23, 2017.
 ( photo source)
Sylvain Sylvain - "Cant Forget Tomorrow" [Buy]
Almost ice cream season! my favorite ice cream place in Montreal, Kem Coba is opening soon!(Im not sponsored by them nor by Blue Apron) I just love that place.
Can't wait for summmer!
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about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.
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Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.
If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
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"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.
Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.
Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.
Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.
Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Ella Plevin.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
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Hey,
I have not seen anybody commuting on unicycles here in Hamburg. My stepsister used to have one, but they have gone out of style for a while, it seems.
But people ARE really into medieval things - there are huge fairs every once in a while and it is a glorious day to take the bus on those ones.
Pothole size varies from canholder size to the size of a small pond but usually they are not deep enough for bathing kids in them.
Never seen a racoon though, only rabbits and squirrels - lots of them. And we do not have poutine in Germany, but I am curious if I would like it.
Do you see dogs outside of shops and supermarkets waiting for their owner to return often? I never understand why they take them with them and then leave them outside. Dognapping is huge here at the moment - people are strange.
Have a good day!
Omg! Anna! Thank you! That is so interesting! Yes, we see people leave the dogs outside. Sometimes, I see dogs waiting for owner while the owner sips coffee inside which I feel bad for dogs! have a great day! so interesting to hear!
Here in Glasgow / Scotland.
I see a child going to high school everyday pedalling a unicycle with his dad walking next to him. Once arrived, the dad walks home with the unicycle. But if talking electric unicycle, I know at least 3 guys fast commuting to work with that.
There is definitely a medieval cult here but I do not coexist with it. I have seen medieval fighting classes in the Glasgow Uni and there is a blacksmiths club to learn how to make a sword from scratch.
Potholes are big enough to cook pasta for the family + neighbours in it. I do not reckon seeing a child bathing though. I will keep an eye on it. Sometimes they are deep enough to get in it and never come out again.
Raccoons are not in Scotland which sucks because they are awesome. We have fat squirrels, cute rabbits and cool foxes in the city. We have Poutine here too now but its kinda hipster and people don't waste it on the ground.
Now do you see drunk people put traffic cones on the head of public art sculptures in Montreal ?
WOW! Bertrand! Thank you for your info! Very interesting indeed!!!
Bar Harbor, Maine here. No unicycles in town, but Ezra travels all year round by Segway. In 1999, an 11-year-old on family vacation in Jamaica, he was in a car crash that broke his neck, then in a coma for many months, and doctors said he might never walk again. They were wrong; he's fought his way back to being upright, but he does have much trouble maneuvering. On a treadmill at the Y, where he goes a few dozen times every month, it takes him about an hour to cover one mile.
[http://www.mdislander.com/living/supernatural-take-stage]
Not much medieval, either, although 25 years or so ago Alan built a replica of a siege catapult (maybe 10 feet high?), which he used to take down to the shore and fire pumpkins out to sea. (He's been having trouble with his eyes lately, and can barely see, so it's probably good he's not using it any more.)
[http://www.mdislander.com/living/craft-fair-part-taste-bar-harbor]
We do have large potholes; maybe not regular sized-children, but cats or dachshunds could bathe in many of them. Made worse by the ice and snow of winter and the lack of interest stupid bureaucrats have in maintaining infrastructure. (Like if we ignore them, maybe they will go away?)
A raccoon walked across the yard three days ago, on its way to somewhere. He – or she – didn't say. (No spilled poutine in the yard, as far as I could tell.) That was kind of unusual – more often, we see wild turkeys and deer.
Keep writing such interesting stuff...
Thank you RPS. Very inspirational story about Ezra! Thank you for sharing!
Not much medieval, either...
I spoke too soon. Just yesterday I was driving by a gospel church and saw a sign advertising a medieval fair tomorrow on the other side of the island.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1868456146704276/
First one I’ve noticed in this area; I hope they’re not planning on taking us back to the time of the Crusades.