vintage

The Calgary Folk Music Festival starts this afternoon! Check out the website for more info, and follow my Twitter for updates. Reviews will follow the festival. Let’s get this party started!

More often than not, musicians invent their own names (or, in some cases, have them invented for them) - to sound cooler, to be easier to pronounce, to create a different persona. Whatever. In any case, there are piles and piles of popular musicians out there who aren’t using the names they were born with. Some of them are pretty obvious, some of them are shockers.

Here’s a list of 20. See which ones you can get - if you know any of them, drop me an email (rdewji AT yorku DOT ca) or leave a comment. I will reveal them all in a little while; you can see how you did and find out who the hell the rest of these people are!

I tried to pick pretty well-known musicians. Some of these are really obvious or well-known, others are totally obscure. Just remember: NO CHEATING! There are lists of these out there, but this is just for kicks.

Your list:

1. John Baldwin

2. Farrokh Bulsara
3. Robert Cummings
4. Reginald Dwight
5. Ernest Evans
6. Jacob Gershowitz
7. Frances Ethel Gumm
8. Charles Hatcher
9. Steveland Hardaway Judkins
10. Riley B. King
11. Donovan Philips Leitch
12. Declan Patrick MacManus
13. James Joseph McGuinn III
14. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien
15. Karen Lee Orzolek
16. Ronald Bedford Scott
17. Richard Starkey
18. Sylvester Stewart
19. Gary Lee Weinrib
20. Robert Allen Zimmerman

July 22 - A handful in so far, the leader with eleven correct. A few of these are really stumping people. Keep goin’!

July 16 marked Rush’s first American TV appearance in 33 years; they were guests on the Colbert Report, doing a brief interview and a performance of “Tom Sawyer”. Neil Peart gets in some zingers, and they all sign Colbert’s hand. All in a day’s work!

Watch the video here.

Stampede is over! I’m back now. Hopefully everything will be back on track here before too long - I apologise for my extended absences.

I’ve been meaning to do a post on this for a while: I recently filled out a survey geared towards Canadian music bloggers, and ended up getting picked to try out the Microsoft Zune, which just got launched in Canada about a month ago. I’ve had my Creative Zen MicroPhoto for quite some time (it has since been discontinued to make way for newer and flashier things, I expect) and figured it would take quite a lot to make me want to switch over.

Here’s what I’m thinkin’ so far.

The Good:

The Zune is really friggin’ tiny. Normally I would hate this, but it is a pretty cool, sleek-looking device, and makes my Zen look pretty elephantine in comparison. It is also touch-sensitive, but you can turn that on or off - kind of a nice choice, even though I can’t see myself ever not wanting the touch capability.

Zune also has an incredibly sharp and colour-rich display, which is a big bonus, particularly because it comes with video capabilities. The video thing is also a big plus for me - I didn’t think it would be, since I never really cared one or way or the other if I could watch videos on my personal device, but it’s nice to have it. I tried it out with the only video I could make work, Sloan’s “Flying High Again,” and it looks exceptionally good. The videos actually play on the screen lengthwise, so you turn the player sideways to view them. The volume control flips too - good on them for remembering to work that out.

I haven’t noticed anything wrong with sound quality, and the player itself seems pretty intuitive. The menus look nice and streamlined, and I like that the display stays visible even when you lock the player so you don’t have to keep unlocking to see it (a definite advantage over the Zen).

The Bad:

The paint or finish or whatever it is on the front of the Zune, this grey-black textured stuff, scratches off incredibly easily. My player already looks old and battered, and that’s just from sitting around in my bag for the last week or two. Wear and tear I’m okay with, but there’s an unreasonable amount of it considering I just got it a couple of weeks ago. The screen seems much sturdier, though, and the matte silver finish on the back is strong as well.

Also, the software! What a pain in the rear end. I am starting to get used to it, but I wish it wasn’t so … confusing. The thing I liked quite a lot about the Creative software is it’s all folder-based and you can just select things you want to transfer. Bada bing. Unfortunately, with the Zune software you have to select folders you want to monitor for photos, videos, music or podcasts; then you go back into the main screen and wait for the software to recognize that there are media files in those folders, and then you drag and drop it onto the little Zune icon so that it transfers. Very inefficient and very annoying. I want easy transfers - probably not an unreasonable request, I think. Once you get the hang of it it is a little less irritating, but the Zen has a huge edge here.

Oh boy, and the earphone jack is in the bottom of the player. I am so used to it being in the top that this drives me crazy every time I try to plug them in. Not really a bad feature or anything, but I didn’t realise I was this set in my ways! I am still trying to get used to this!

All in all the Zune is a pretty good music player so far. I really like the video capability, actually - I didn’t think I would, but I really do. I wish it was bigger than 8GB, but that’s mostly because I want to have way more stuff on there than is probably practical anyway. It’s nice and small and sleek looking (watch out for the paint scratches, though), the sound quality is good, the display is great, and it’s pretty easy to figure out. At this point I’d say I am really liking it, although I’m still up in the air about which one I would ultimately choose. The Zen doesn’t have video, but it has a lot of other stuff going for it, and it is a pretty solid player (dropped it, gotten it wet, etc and it still works).

I will update some more about this later! If any of you have a Zune or a Zen and want to comment about it please do - and if you’re part of the Matchstick Zune program, like my buddy Matt over at i (heart) music, definitely drop me a line!

I will be back to tell tales of Yep Roc and Stampede sometime. Hope you all have a marvelous weekend.

Sorry about my continued absences. I am currently knee-deep in the 2008 Calgary Stampede, where I work as a guest services supervisor; it leaves little time for such frivolities as music blogging. But here I am on a bit of downtime ready to give you exciting things to read again. I know how excited you are, trust me.

The Polaris Music Prize shortlist was announced today! The final ten vying for the prize are:

Black Mountain, In the Future
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Caribou, Andorra
Holy Fuck, LP
Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers
Plants and Animals, Parc Avenue
Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War
Shad, The Old Prince
Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour

Place your bets now!

—

Yesterday I also had the opportunity to see Sloan. Again. This time they played in Calgary at the Tequila Nightclub, not a place I would ever go to of my own accord. It used to be The Republik (which has since been resurrected a few blocks down the road), where Sloan played back in the day, interestingly enough.

I only got to see the last half of the show, which contained exactly one song from Parallel Play (lead-off track and single “Believe in Me,” which was a terrific live rocker). Old favourites in the set included “People of the Sky,” “Who Taught You To Live Like That?” and “Money City Maniacs.” The crowd was a beer-drinking Stampede party group but seemed to be really into the show, which was nice.

Many thanks go to Mike from the Sloan ‘entourage’ who helped me make it to the show after work in the first place. Working til 12.30 is not usually a situation conducive to going to see shows, but you know how it is … things always work out in the end.

By the way, some of you may remember me mentioning how Yep Roc had failed to send me my copy of Parallel Play at the time I wrote my review. Well, it finally came - on July 2. Three weeks and a day late! I will tell this story in full so you can experience the good times with me (ha, ha).

Have a good week, everybody!

Seriously.

Exclaim! reports that Devo bassist Gerald Casale is quite offended with one of the new McDonald’s American Idol toys. “New Wave Nigel,” as the figurine is called, sports a red flowerpot hat not unlike - well, exactly like - the “Energy Domes” designed by Casale for the band.

Ironically, Devo has always satirized and poked fun at consumerist culture and popular trends. They have taken the corporate giant to court over copyright infringement, and there is no word on whether New Wave Nigel will be pulled from the shelves.

Other dolls in the Idol series include Disco Dave and Country Clay.

(Vintage: bringing you really weird music news like clockwork.)

Wikipedia defines cover thus: “In popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition (performance or recording) of a previously recorded song.”

Cover songs are a subject of great debate among music fans. Are they good? bad? unthinkable? terrific? For my part, I am firmly on the “awesome” side of the fence - if, of course, the cover is done well. True to form or re-worked, it doesn’t matter, as long as the new version does justice to the original tune. In some cases they are even better, which is a great little surprise.

Here, in no particular order, is a list of some covers I can’t get enough of:

1. Marshall Crenshaw, Rave On
   (Marshall Crenshaw, 1982; remastered edition from 2000)

   I can’t get enough of Marshall Crenshaw, and I listen to this song over and over and over. It’s true that it’s a pretty form-fitting cover of the Buddy Holly (which is also really good, of course), but there’s something about it that I particularly love. Crenshaw’s voice is terrific. Even his countoff is endearing.

2. Jully Black, Seven Day Fool
   (Revival, 2007)

   A lot of people seem to have no idea that this is actually a cover; Etta James first did it on her album The Second Time Around in 1961, and now Black has brought it back to the forefront with her excellent version. Quite similar to James’ song, Black has still managed to infuse it with her fantastic sense of soul. Beware of earworms.

3. Sloan, Waterfalls
   (Listen to What the Man Said: A Tribute to Paul McCartney, 2001)

   An uptempo version of the somewhat ponderous tune from 1980’s McCartney II. This is one of those cases of “cover is better than the original”, and I’m not saying that lightly (I love Sir Paul); however, Sloan’s interpretation just seems to suit the song so much better, and Ferguson’s crooning of “polarbears” is the cherry on top.

4. The Bad Plus, Tom Sawyer
   (Prog, 2007)

   Yeah, a jazz cover of Rush. No big deal. I had the pleasure of seeing this ridiculously cool cover performed live, and it was just as great, and perhaps even better, than the Bad Plus’ recording. (Some argued it was better than Rush, but I wouldn’t go quite so far.) This trio fragments, reworks, and solos all over the Geddy Lee & Co. standard, but it is still completely recognizable. A pretty fun romp around jazzland, especially if you like the original.

5. The Golden Dogs, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
   (Big Eye Little Eye, 2006)

   I know, two Paul McCartney covers in the same post? Really, though, the Golden Dogs’ take on the Wings tune is a super good one, and I didn’t want to leave it out. It’s taken a little faster than the original, but otherwise is quite true to it; barring the little “Band on the Run” reprise at the end, it is pretty close.

* I’m having some trouble uploading “Seven Day Fool,” so check back in a little while to see if it’s back. Sorry about that.

BBC News reported jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson died in a scuba diving accident near Stockholm on Saturday. Svensson’s piano trio enjoyed great success throughout Europe and won a fair number of European jazz awards throughout their career.

Svensson leaves behind a wife and two sons.

Esbjörn Svensson Trio

It’s finally here: Sloan’s release of a follow-up to the mammoth 30-track Never Hear the End of It (2006); clocking in at 37 minutes, Parallel Play’s thirteen tracks seem to fly by. More than on previous records, this really showcases Sloan’s four-songwriters modus operandi, and the result is an improbable stew of sounds that somehow still works. I suspect the brilliant production has something to do with it.

Guitarist Patrick Pentland leads the record off with “Believe in Me”, a breezy rocker with stunningly unremarkable lyrics. Though Pentland has never really been known for his earth-shattering wordplay, he usually hits the nail on the head with a solid song, and this is the track’s redeeming factor. It’s fun and singalong-able, but not that enduring; for now, I’ll certainly enjoy belting along with the chorus when no one’s listening. The organ is an enjoyable addition.

Pentland’s other tracks are slightly disappointing. “Burn For It” and “The Other Side,” both under three minutes, have their moments of glory but fail to really hit the mark - the kind of songs you don’t mind listening to but forget about when they’re over. The chorus of “Burn For It” - I wanna walk through fire, walk through the fire and burn for it - is catchy enough, though. I can’t say that I dislike his work on this album, but his songs don’t grab me. It is not Pentland’s worst showing by any means, but he is capable of quite a lot more than he shows us here.

Jay Ferguson (Rickenbacker, denim jacket) provides his usual dose of charming pop with his three offerings, all below the three-minute mark. The second track, “Cheap Champagne,” features some beautifully sly vocal harmony and guitarless verse sections. The shouty “ba ba da”s that lead it off are really too jarring, but they sound much better when they return later in the song, and the rest of the tune with its perfect feel more than makes up for that.

Ferguson’s others, “Witch’s Wand” and “If I Could Change Your Mind,” are no less delectable. The latter is reminiscent of ’60s Motown/Phil Spector, a sure way to my heart. “Witch’s Wand,” a nice little swingy tune, features a chorus so catchy it is maddening. Jay’s been on quite a roll the last few records, and this is no exception; sometimes his tunes can come across a bit formulaic, though his current fixation on making them super-short helps alleviate that, but he’s good at throwing in some handclaps and piano ornaments to get you back to feelin’ the love.

Sarcastic bassist Chris Murphy has, thankfully, improved upon his lyrics since Never Hear the End of It. While we are still unfortunately subjected to many verses about how his life is going lately, at least it isn’t “People Think They Know Me”. Here he weighs in with three pretty solid tunes, the best of which is probably “Living the Dream” - some more of “this is my life!”, but disguised in a happy little song with a cute riff and some delicious placement of D7s.

“I’m Not A Kid Anymore” features good solid power-chording, but is not the most remarkable of songs. The chorus is probably the most exciting feature, but overall it stands around the same place as “Believe In Me” (fun, but not all that enduring). “All I Am Is All You’re Not” is surprisingly understated, giving it a cool, playing-hard-to-get vibe. I’d been listening to All Things Must Pass the day before the record came out, and the lyrics constantly remind me of Harrison’s “I’d Have You Anytime”; lyrical allusions aside, though, it’s a good song. Nice to have you back, Chris.

And finally Andrew Scott (drums/guitar), who rambles all over the map on this album. “Emergency 911″ has a bit of a Stooges/Sex Pistols feel, wherein he yells about bullies and ambulances and firetrucks. The looseness and anger comes off well, but I wish he had left off the Henry Rollins ending part. The rest is a good shouty rant of a time.

“Down in the Basement” is a happy, rolling Bob Dylan blues number, featuring lots of good keys; Scott pulls off the blatant Dylan ripoff well. It’s definitely my favourite of Scott’s tracks on the record. “The Dogs” is slightly ponderous, but grows on you, and even features an Animal Farm reference (Four legs good and two legs bad keep chasing each other ’round my head). Brownie points.

Scott also provides the album’s closer, “Too Many,” a somewhat confusing reggae-influenced loose thing with tons of organ. It is a strange choice for a final track, but then none of the tracks stand out as the perfect closer. It has some great harmony and little nuances, and he shows us quite often that he’s not afraid to play with boundaries and different sounds at every opportunity.

Scott and Ferguson definitely carry this record to great heights; Murphy, though, is finally staging a comeback from the lyrical Someone to not watch The View with rock bottom. Pentland is coasting a little, but manages to redeem himself with excellent instrumentation and some undeniably good hooks. Parallel Play is a solid 9th record, and I can see it sitting in my CD player for a while - or it would, if Yep Roc would bother actually mailing it to me. Well, you can’t win ‘em all.

Listen: Cheap Champagne or Living the Dream

The long list for the third annual Polaris Music Prize has been announced. As the website informs us, the long list consists of the top 40 full-length Canadian records released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008, selected by the 185 members of the Polaris Music Prize jury. Thirty of these albums will be eliminated to produce the 10-album shortlist, to be revealed on July 7.

The Polaris Prize is judged solely on artistic merit, without any regard for record sales; the idea is to reward outstanding Canadian artists who may or may not be enjoying proportionally outstanding sales. The winner of the prize will receive $20,000 and some pretty hefty press. The past two years’ winners were Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy (2006).

This year’s long (long, long, long) list of Polaris Prize nominees are:

The Acorn, Glory Hope Mountain
Attack In Black, Marriage
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Black Mountain, In The Future
Born Ruffians, Red, Yellow and Blue
Buck 65, Situation
Cadence Weapon, Afterparty Babies
Cancer Bats, Hail Destroyer
Caribou, Andorra
Christine Fellows, Nevertheless
City And Colour, Bring Me Your Love
Constantines, Kensington Heights
Corb Lund, Horse Solider! Horse Soldier!
Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Destroyer, Trouble In Dreams
Fred Eaglesmith, Tinderbox
Gatineau, Gatineau
Ghislain Poirier, No Ground Under
Hayden, In Field And Town
Hilotrons, Happymatic
Holy Fuck, LP
Islands, Arm’s Way
Justin Rutledge, Man Descending
Karkwa, Le volume du vent
Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers
The New Pornographers, Challengers
Pas Chic Chic, Au Contraire
Plants And Animals, Parc Avenue
Protest The Hero, Fortress
The Sadies, New Seasons
Sandro Perri, Tiny Mirrors
Shad, The Old Prince
Socalled, Ghetto Blaster
Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War
Tegan And Sara, The Con
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
Veda Hille, This Riot Life
The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour
Wintersleep, Welcome To The Night Sky

Note to bloggers: think before you decide to type links for a 40-strong list of artists. Wow.