Archives : all posts by Sean

I am very disappointed at how much this Avril Lavigne record is not-good. "Sk8er Boi" and "Complicated" are great deals of fun - those are the tracks I had heard before pursuing the album proper - but nothing so far is anywhere near as yayitssummerdoodoodoodoo. The fatal flaw is probably how severely Let Go suffers from "Marketing". The songs shift from style to style, as if ensuring that there's something here for each demographic ("Losing Grip" is angry Alanis chickrock, "Sk8er Boi" is pop-punk, "Unwanted" is enormous, bombastic 'modern rock', "Tomorrow" is the pretty ["pretty sucky!"] ballad, "I'm With You" is American Idol-worthy...). I'd much rather she focused, Smash Mouth style, on her one killer genre.

Also: the muttered sexual stuff on "Things I'll Never Say" is very punk.

Since it's not going to make the cut for my review of the New Pornographers' Electric Version, I might as well tell you: Dan Bejar (Destroyer) sounds like Stephen Malkmus' long-lost brother, like Uncle Drosselmeyer perched on a grandfather clock - wry, dark and wise.

I've been on a bit of a music burnout since listening to all that Grateful Dead this past weekend. I keep scanning my CD racks, trying desperately to find something I want to listen to. So far nothing is clicking, except for a wonderful track you can download here - Tom Zé's "Vai (Menina, Amanhã de Manhã". Oh, and Will Oldham's "Ohio River Song," and that weird record by Stars of the Lid, Tired Songs, but that's best for falling asleep to.

Universal asked me if we wanted to do a feature of Sam Roberts. Not sure what that would entail - an interview maybe? I don't know the guy at all; is he any good? Does anybody care - apart from radio DJs? He is a Montreal boy done good, though... Please advise!

I've also been having a lovely correspondence with David Neufeld, the (incredible) producer of the Broken Social Scene's You Forgot it in People, among others. I called attention to him in my review, and before I knew it, he had written me an email. A really, really interesting fellow... We'll see where this leads.

Boy, who recently moved to Toronto, will be doing a short tour, playing in TO (opening at The Rivoli), Montreal (Le Swimming) and Ottawa. A year ago, he was a revoltingly talented Whitehorse kid with a really good self-recorded album. Now, well, it looks like things are finally happening for him. (His website suggests there's a new album. Holy smokes.) Do check him out if you can - though I've never seen him live, Boy's (first) record is somewhere between Is This It? and Odelay (though his voice hints at Rufus Wainwright).

I'm trying to buy Clinic's Internal Wrangler on eBay, but people are giving me trouble.

iTunes Music Store Sells Over One Million Songs in First Week.

Holy crap! One million songs bought for $0.99 in a single week... from among Apple users (3% market-share, remember) in the USA alone.

Wow! Go music lovers! (Go Apple!) Finally, some proof that labels needn't be such paranoid dumb-asses about downloadable, burnable tracks.

Now if only the service would drift up north, Krispy-Kreme style... (oh, and it'd be nice if some indie labels were invited on board coughcoughcough).

If you want to listen to the mastered version of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief, and you live in the USA or Canada, call toll-free:

1-866-868-4433

Once you make it through the bizarre Yorkean voicemail hell, the songs will be at your ear. [courtesy at ease]

[update 5/4/03: ack! I left out the last digit of the phone-number. There you go!]

I've been moving, and had little spare time in front of a computer. Also little time for music listening! But all that should change now.

The schedule for the Ottawa Bluesfest is coming in, and holy crazy cow god! The blues are one of the only genres of music I've been known to declare an acute dislike for - though this dislike refers primarily to electric blues - so it comes as a bit of a shock that the lineup for Bluesfest looks so fucking good. I shouldn't be that surprised at this point: the festival's been getting less and less bluesy with every passing year.

Anyway, check out some of the lineup highlights: Ben Harper, Elvis Costello, Gord Downie, Great Big Sea, Kool & the Gang, Blue Rodeo, The Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players, Cinematic Orchestra, Orchestra Baobab, Antibalas, Jim Bryson, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Oh Susanna, Golden Famile, The Sadies, Nina Nastasia, The Dirtbombs... And the schedule is far from complete (rumours abound with regard to Sonic Youth, among others).

It's $85 for the pass, but probably money well spent! I may look into volunteering, to see if I can't squeeze out a cheaper route... Hopefully someone will want to join me, either way!

Ooh, and Royal City, Sarah Slean and Katherine Edwards are playing Tulipfest...

So this is another night like the last time I posted, but I'm going to sort of monitor what I'm listening to as I do it, rather than trying to do an honest retrospective.

Clem Snide - Soft Spot
The new (unreleased) Clem Snide record sounds like it might be really good, if I were to pay enough attention to it. I like their quieter folk stuff (see: Favorite Music) more than the nosier rock things (see: Ghost of Fashion), and this album is more the former than the latter. In the background now, though, it's pretty beige - I can't help but feel that the Snide would benefit from an injection of folk-blues a la Iron & Wine. (Oh, for those of you who don't know them - Clem Snide is like an awkward, shuffling, American version of The Weakerthans. But less punk.)

John Fahey - Red Cross
Well, it's nice. But not exactly rocket science. He can (could) play acoustic guitar real good, but nothing here makes me shut up (ie stop typing) and pay attention. I like the version of "Summertime", though.

The Dears - No Cities Left
Gee whiz was this a surprise. I'm not big on The Dears - even living here in Montreal, I've never gone to hear their dark chamber pop stuff. The last record was comfortably moody but didn't have much depth... (I was just listening to it the other day, actually, and found myself simply putting "Hollywood" on repeat repeat repeat. That song is jubilant and wonderful... but that fucking two-minute organ solo at the end dashes its chances at mix-cd glory. fuck.) This new one, though, whoa! I was expecting something cheesy-political (e.g. Chumbawumba) given some of their recent concert antics (I heard stuff about air-raid sirens and diatribes and angry young men). Instead - dark, lush, with dazzling guitar bits and terrifically diverse melodic lines. This is a rich, rich record - one I'm going to come back to. Strings, horns, choirs, piano, organ... Radiohead with an orchestra and a dislike for straightforward song structure. Or something.

The Velvet Underground & Nico - s/t
Gave this thing another chance given my recent VU discovery/binge. Liked it more than the last time, but still not remotely ga-ga. I don't know how "Venus in Furs" never sounded really really interesting before. Because, egads, it is! "Heroin" also sounds much better than before - the best part, hands down, is the sad, regular drum clump. I like Nico's voice, but I wish she didn't sound like she was reading phonetic transliterations of the lyrics ("and wut coss toom shell de poo gull oo-eh"). Many of these songs are too long.

Moxy Fruvous - Bargainville
I've been nostalgia tripping this week, and this does the trick. Well, not really. I only ever knew "King of Spain" growing up (and "Green Eggs & Ham"... why isn't that on this record? Copyright reasons? Or is my chronology wrong?). Surprisingly pretty, in a fresh-faced-and-harmless accapella kind of way. Lyrics about new and amazing "cellular!" phones make me feel suitably ancient. But why do Moxy Fruvous feel the need to sully a lovely ballad like "Fell in Love" with a gag about corn niblets? At least the Barenaked Ladies (used to) know when to hold off on the chortling.

Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
Hm. I'll have to put this on again. As interesting sounds washed in one ear and out the next, I got the impression there was a lot worth hearing that I was missing. Like the Flaming Lips only a) minus the squelching synthy things, and b) not so lyrically inane.

Clinic - Internal Wrangler
I am listening to this for the fourth time in a row right now. It's very good - unexpected blooms of harmony, dusty drum machine, hypnotized bluesman vocals, gruff and sneaky streaks of guitar. And you know what the best part is? I had no idea. When I heard this album three years ago, I didn't like it. Not one bit. Too messy, maybe - too bluesy? too dirty? (I'm running through the list of usual reasons why I don't like things, and yeah, I can see myself maybe jumping the gun and finding this not-to-my-tastes.) Fact is, though, that it's swell. It has so many interesting things to hear on it - it's clever but laid-back, nonsensical but proud. Like The Notwist's older brother, maybe - the one who prefers Howlin' Wolf to Men Without Hats. Check out when things speed up at the end of "Distortions," and the sax juts in for a moment... The grin of the mosquito who swoops in over congo drums in "Voodoo Wop," introducing a mellower groove (and then the unabashed organ strains that might be the sound of The Strokes when they're dreaming). I think that I might like The Dears record more - some of the noisy stuff on here will simply never be close to my heart - but this is probably the better record. Did I mention it reminds me very much of the Velvets? It does. In a good way.

(Now I need to find Walking With Thee, Clinic's newer one, and give that a re-listen. Well, first I need to finish my paper [and listen to Internal Wrangler some more].)

It has been a very tense day-and-a-half. These are the records that I was playing while I worked and worked and worked. I am glad they existed.

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (I really like the quiet, mellow emotion. "Candy Says," "Pale Blue Eyes" and "Jesus" = goodgoodgood! But what's the deal with the "Murder Mystery" wankfest, etc?)

The Velvet Underground - VU (Not as good. But ok. The mood felt right at 3am.)

U2 - Joshua Tree (Who knew that U2 had released a good album, albeit fifteen years ago?)

Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I (Only "Back and Forth" was really working when I listened, but.)

Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun. (I like this record less with every listen. Most recently, its musical content sounded like it had been reduced to nothing more than sheer [bland] atmosphere.)

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (First time listening to it in a long time. I got bored quickly. But "Money" still sounded fine.)

Well.. That's strange. It seems that when I write them out, the records I listened to sort of sucked. hm. I guess my playlist was redeemed by the scattered presence of 50 Cent's "In Da Club," The Clique's version of "Superman," Iron and Wine's "Such Great Heights," the two new Blur songs I like and, um, no, that seems to have been it.

Did I mention that it was a long, torturous night?