vintage

According to the BBC, it has apparently been determined that men listen to music for more “intellectual” reasons, while women listen to things that make them dance. “It’s partly how you talk about music,” says Lesley Douglas, the BBC’s head of popular music. “For women, there tends to be more emotional reaction to music. Men tend to be more interested in the intellectual side of the music, the tracks, where albums have been made, that sort of thing.”

Oh.

And it goes on!

“It seems undeniable that many women have been subjected to long and serious discussions between male friends concerning the merits of one amp or another on some obscure Doors recording, only to be left questioning their own instinctive, emotional reactions to favoured pieces of music: reactions which often involve shouting declarations of love and heading for the dancefloor.”

… What?

I’m not even sure how to comment on this one. What you’re telling me, dear BBC, is that men are only interested in music for the trivia and informational purposes, and women only want to dance. You’re also telling me that there are absolutely no female music trivia nerds and that men don’t enjoy a good beat nearly as much as girls do. Thanks for the clarification.

Jessica at Feministing sums it up rather succinctly: “Seriously, we might as well hold our iPods up to our vaginas.”

If you’ll forgive me, Ms Douglas, I (a girl) promise to stop reading internet articles about the merits of old Rickenbacker toaster pickups in my spare time, possessing a small shop’s worth of instruments, and reading books of trivia about the Who. I mean, really. How appallingly unladylike.

Last week (sorry, I’ve been a bit slow) saw the announcement of the East Coast Music Award winners, and boy … were there some real winners. Allow me - here are some highlights:

Recording of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Group Recording of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Single of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, “Fashionable People”
Songwriter of the Year: Joel Plaskett, for “Fashionable People”
Rock Recording of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Video of the Year: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Fashionable People (Randall Thorne)

I think I’m seeing a pattern here.

I guess there’s little to comment on, as the slew of awards speak for themselves. Joel is certainly well-deserving of attention, and lately he’s getting it in spades; the Polaris Prize nomination for this same album brought him a great deal of recognition that was, previously, sorely lacking. Not that the East Coast didn’t know about the Halifax native before, but I guess everyone can do with a few reminders.

Other notable award winners, though, include Prince Edward Island’s sweet foursome Two Hours Traffic for pop album of the year. Little Jabs was on my pick of the top 10 records of 2007, and while sometimes the sugar can grate a little, the album is tight and hooky and certainly deserving of the award. They seem destined for great things (and, coincidentally, opened for Plaskett for the final two nights of his Horseshoe residency); I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard a lot more about them in 2008.

There were few surprises at the East Coast Music Awards this year. George Canyon took the fan choice award for the fourth straight year, Classified came out with the best hip-hop recording, and the Rankin Family took the best DVD award (a category in which former Haligonians Sloan were also nominated, for a tour DVD filmed by Small Sins‘ Kevin Hilliard). Nothing came close to Joel Plaskett’s 6 awards, but quite frankly, not a whole lot came close to Ashtray Rock, either.

Next awards: the Junos, from my hometown of good old Calgary! Stay tuned.

… I solemnly swear not to post about the Joel Plaskett Emergency for the next little while. What can I say? He’s been a busy guy.

Dolly Parton postpones tour, blames breasts (Reuters)

Dolly Parton’s breasts may be two of the wonders of the entertainment world, but the country music icon says they are a pain in her back.
     Parton, 62, said on Monday she would postpone her upcoming North American tour after doctors told her to take it easy for six to eight weeks to rest her sore back.
     ”Hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don’t have back problems,” the folksy singer-songwriter said in a statement.

(Read the full story here.)

I swear I heard a clever joke about this particular article, but I’m trying to remember it and in all honesty, I’m failing miserably. I guess my mammary ain’t what it used to be.

Well, here we are, in the aftermath of this year’s Grammys. I didn’t even watch them, so I can’t comment on the excellent performances or the faux-pas, the red carpet hullaballoo or the dresses, or the fact that Amy Winehouse couldn’t collect her five (!) awards due to the fact she couldn’t get a visa. They tried to make her go to rehab … er.

Anyway, it’s true. Winehouse picked up five Grammy awards last night, and not small ones, either. “Rehab” won both Song and Record of the Year as well as Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; her album Back to Black won Best Pop Vocal Album, and she picked up Best New Artist. “New” is always a baffling category; it seems to mean ’we finally realised you existed this year,’ even though Winehouse had released an album prior to Back to Black. It didn’t do as well, of course, but “new”? Hardly. Still, this is not nearly as head-scratching as the nomination of Leslie Feist for the same category. Uh … what?

Curiously, the winner of Album of the Year went to a - gasp! - jazz album. I wonder how many people were up in arms about that one. That’s right, Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters took the prestigious best album title, as well as winning Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Not bad, especially for an album in tribute to a Canadian artist. (Interestingly, Joni herself won an award for Best Pop Instrumental from her new record Shine.) I’ve got to say that I’m actually impressed with the Grammys for awarding the Album of the Year to a less-than-mainstream genre; there will be speculation about their “hidden intentions” for that one, I’m sure (pandering to jazz fans! trying to garner interest from the less mainstream!) but really, it’s nice to know they actually liked a jazz record enough to award it that highly for once.

Some of the less-publicised awards, though, are even more interesting. Levon Helm (formerly of The Band) won Best Traditional Folk Album for Dirt Farmer. Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga won for Best Recording Package. And yes, ladies and gents, Barack Obama - that one - picked one up for Best Spoken Word album, for the audiobook of his own The Audacity of Hope. Now that’s news. Is the United States ready for its first Grammy-Award-winning black president? I’d vote for him.

See the complete list of winners here: Fields 1-8 and Fields 9-26.

If you’re a fan of the Joel Plaskett Emergency, chances are you heard about his 6-night run at Toronto’s Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in mid-December. And if you live in Toronto, chances are you probably attended at least one show, or fought unsuccessfully for a ticket - five of the six shows were sold out.

Never mind that Winter Nationals had been a Rheostatics tradition since Joel was cutting his teeth in Thrush Hermit. Never mind that they had just broken up in March and the fans were still sulking over the loss - and the end of the formidable Nationals run. The fact of the matter was that the Horseshoe’s 60th anniversary was coming up, a giant party was in store, and suddenly … there were no Rheos. A slight dilemma.

Enter Joel Plaskett. With his popularity on an exponential rise, a song in a Zellers commercial, recent tours with the Tragically Hip … well, he seemed like a pretty reasonable candidate for the ‘Shoe and a big anniversary bash. When he was approached by the head honcho of the Horseshoe, he gamely accepted - but decided that damn it, he was going to put a twist on things. For one, it was a milestone birthday; for another, a lot of people were probably not going to take a different artist playing Winter Nationals very lightly. So it was up to Joel to make it worth their while.

Being one part excited musician and one part sly businessman, Plaskett decided that he was going to play one of his albums every night (totalling five), and play the sixth night as a wild-card themeless Emergency set. Of course, this ensured attendance at multiple nights for people who “just couldn’t miss” certain albums; some crazy fans even went all six nights, this writer included. Sneaky.

Herein lies the genius of naming Plaskett the successor to Bidini, Tielli et al. There are few artists who could rehearse a repertoire of over sixty songs, play a full set each night (ramping it up a notch each time, as you’ll hear about) of almost completely different material, draw sellout crowds for an entire week, and still come away with fans who are not sick of seeing them. I’m still trying to come up with any other bands that are currently active who could do the same for me. Who on earth would I want to see six times in a row? Is there anyone?

Interesting: with these six Horseshoe Tavern shows, the Emergency has tied for most times I’ve seen a band live (nine) with Sloan, but I don’t think I’d ever voluntarily see Sloan that many times in such a ridiculously short period of time. Well, unless they played four album shows, Twice Removed through Between the Bridges - that would definitely get me out. But I digress.

The point is, Joel has a stage presence and a way about performing that is always, and I do mean always, fun and exciting. He does all the right things: engaging with the audience, making jokes, messing up every once in a while, having extended harmonica duels (Elkas playing “Low Rider”? Golden). Oh yeah, and bringing up a set of guests a la The Last Waltz didn’t hurt either.

If you’re curious, you can check out the complete setlists of his six-day residency at the ‘Shoe. If you’re not so into looking through them, allow me to impart the list of his guests:

• Tara S’Appart (Elevator)
• Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar, Grady)
• his father, Bill Plaskett
• Taylor Knox & Neil Quin (Major Grange, The Golden Dogs)
• Andrew Scott (Sloan)
• Mr Chill
• Gord Downie (Tragically Hip)
• Sarah Harmer
• Ian McGettigan (Thrush Hermit, former Emergency, Camouflage Nights)

Seeing Plaskett, McGettigan and Marsh on the same stage was certainly cause for quite a lot of celebration (especially their performances of “Light of the Moon” and “Down at the Khyber,” as well as unexpected Clayton Park favourites “Oh My Soul!” and “From the Back of the Film”. Let’s just say I picked that as one of the best shows of the year for a reason, mmhmm? There are few things more excellent than that.

Anyway, without going into excessive detail about each night, I’m going to say that there was no one week better than the reborn Winter Nationals at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. Everything from seeing Joel play with his father to Gord Downie singing on “Love This Town” to the Hermit to “In a Town This Size” and “The Lakes of Pontchartrain”. Ladies and gentlemen, Canada mourns the Rheostatics, and we will for a long time; but in their absence, it sure is nice to have a guy like Joel.