vintage

NDP, Liberals reach deal to topple minority government

A deal has been negotiated between NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion that would see them form a coalition government for two and a half years, the CBC’s Keith Boag reported, citing sources.

The NDP would be invited into cabinet and get 25 per cent of seats, Boag said, adding that the party wouldn’t get the position of the finance chair or the deputy prime minister’s post.

We’re in a really sticky situation here, and I suspect that instead of becoming the beacon of Canadian democracy everyone is hoping for, it will just piss off the entire country instead of the majority who didn’t vote for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

On one hand, a majority of Canadians did not vote for the ruling party. This means that ousting him is likely a good development for most of the country, and will potentially make up for the fairly useless and expensive election we just experienced. No Harper means that the substantial left wing will be better represented in government.

However, as much as I’d like to see him become Prime Minister, Stéphane Dion is hardly in a position to govern at this point. He has led the Liberal Party to a crushing defeat, lost support from his party, and agreed to step down in May 2009. A leader that has already effectively resigned is not the most logical choice to suddenly govern the nation. Layton would be a difficult choice as well, though, considering his party’s small showing in the House and his own current problems. Had the Liberals finished with a leadership convention, this would be a little less of an issue, but as it stands you can already see the Conservatives shouting insults at the coalition plan.

Since the BQ are not entering into the coalition (but have said they will support it, which also means that the coalition has to support them pretty substantially), the numbers look a little questionable too. The Conservatives currently have 143 seats in the House of Commons; the Liberals and NDP combined have 114. With the support of the BQ’s 46 seats the coalition has a majority, but the Bloc is neither obligated nor expected to vote completely with the new government. In fact, it is certain there will be at least a handful who vote with the Conservatives. This is a shaky situation.

It would be nice, though, to show Harper that breaking his own fixed-election law was an unwise idea, and that the recent (now reversed) proposal to cut the public subsidy for political parties was not appreciated. The Conservatives rely much less on the public funding than the opposition does, of course, and so the move was widely viewed as a badly disguised attempt to destroy the opposition. “Sticking it to the man”, though, is not an entirely credible move in federal Parliament.

The CBC has posted a question-and-answer with a political science professor on how the coalition might work, and he has refused to even speculate on what a coalition between the Liberals and the New Democrats might look like. It is almost completely unprecedented, and the situation is very precarious. It’s impossible to determine who really would lead, though Dion says he believes he has the right to do so.

This coalition, though, is probably the only option. With Harper’s Conservatives floundering around and still half-denying the economic crisis, the opposition was bound to defeat them sooner or later (the vote will happen on December 8); they do not seem to be catering to the needs of the average Canadian. But will this coalition be any better? I’d love to hear your thoughts, because I am a little up in the air.

The fun never stops on Parliament Hill!

(I apologise for the lack of sources other than the CBC — I was just reading the site and linked to various posts. I hope you’ll forgive my unintended bias.)

I may still be suffering from a slight turkey stupor, so forgive me if this post is a bit incoherent: I experienced my first American Thanksgiving on Thursday night with a great big hearty dinner in Williamson, New York, just outside of Rochester. It was a good time, and of course my accent got made fun of when I said things like “house”. It’s fun being the only Canadian and trying to explain why we recently had an election for no apparent reason (I don’t know either).

SPEAKING OF WHICH, some absolutely crazy things are going on in our country at present. I will reserve my comment for later, as I just found out about all this today (don’t get much news about Harper and Friends when you’re down south), but perhaps this guy might actually get a turn?! Well, we’ll see.

Enough about that. Three weeks ago, The Bicycles released a terrific sophomore album called Oh No, It’s Love, and then followed that up a few days later with a smash hit CD release party at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. It featured a grab bag of musical guests, including Hooded Fang, $100, Forest City Lovers, Matt Murphy, Brent Randall, Sloan, Sebastien Grainger, and many others, and was probably one of the more joyful nights I have experienced this year.

I can’t comment on the entirety of the show in an unbiased way, since I was involved. The album features a horn section on many of the tracks, and I’m in it; since they wanted to play every song from the record (which they did, excepting one track, “Green Light”) they brought us back too. It was a total blast playing that show, since the Bicycles are an incredibly energetic foursome and are out-cuted by no one. Seriously, the most adorable band ever.

I did get to see a whole lot of awesome stuff that I wasn’t in, though, and it all added up to one terrific night. They backed up all those aforementioned musical guests Last Waltz-style (the Bikes, being their usual sugary selves, labelled it the “Last Schmaltz,” a continuation of the 2006 CD release for their first album, The Good, The Bad and the Cuddly), and seeing Matt Murphy and the Bikes play “10 Lbs” from the Super Friendz’ iconic Mock Up Scale Down was pretty amazing. Sloan playing “I Hate My Generation” was similarly terrific — both of these especially fun because of the excitement spilling off the stage from the four Bicycles. I don’t blame them. I’d be thrilled too.

The album is just as exciting as the show was. There are 19 tracks featured on Oh No, It’s Love — a pretty substantial length, even though all the songs are around 2 minutes long (the longest is 3:22). One of these tracks, though, is a decidedly unfunny comedy/spoken word track - not featuring any of the Bicycles - which really interrupts the flow of the record. It’s a bit like an unexpected shortcut, where you’re driving along a nice paved highway, turn off onto the bumpiest of gravel roads for a minute, and then are back on the highway again. Wouldn’t it be easier and more pleasant to stay on the highway the entire time? Yeah. In terms of the flow of the record, that’s a major flaw, but the only one I’ve noticed.

The whole thing sounds great, though. Like the previous Bicycles record, the vocals are mixed too low — it’s never possible to understand everything that vocalist/guitarist Matt Beckett is saying, but this time they included the lyrics! — but everything all together is a sweet and poppy package that leaves very little out. They try out a lot more musical styles and genres on this album, and bring in a host of guests that include Laura Barrett, Basia Bulat, Bob Egan (Wilco, Blue Rodeo), and Andy Lloyd to round out the cast, and it works really well; the surprising variety combined with the sheer number of tracks means this record can stay in your car CD player for a ridiculously long time before you get sick of it.

Have a listen: End of a Good Thing

I should be blogging reasonably more regularly in the next few weeks (or so I’d like to think, anyway). End-of-year lists are looming, and I’m starting to decide what my ears thought were the best things that happened to them in 2008. Got any suggestions? The comments section is wide open! See you soon.

I am a music enthusiast; I think this much is evident. I study music at school. I have a 27GB iTunes folder, which is steadily climbing. I buy CDs and vinyl records, I regularly read books about music and musicians (not limited to a specific genre, either), I write a blog about music, and — here’s the kicker — I appreciate the album.

The album. A fairly recent invention, when you think about it. Recording began with one or two songs, and singles were all the rage for quite a few decades, although some very early albums were actually a collection of 78s packaged together (the first being Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite in 1909) like a photo album, hence the name.

When Columbia produced the first 33⅓ LP in 1948 (more info), this took on the name “album” from the previous collection of 78s, since it held about the same amount of music. From there on, albums were produced that way — a collection of songs in a specified order on two sides of a disc.

Fun facts: The first double album was Benny Goodman’s Live at Carnegie Hall (the concert of 1938 released in 1950), and the first triple album was probably George Harrison’s solo debut All Things Must Pass (1971) — certainly the first triple by a solo artist, rather than an ensemble or group.

Anyway, for a while singles were popular and the thing to collect; then it was LPs, with the singles coming out beforehand to promote the record and to be played on the radio. This began the idea of having a few singles on the record, ones you’d hear on the radio, as well as other songs you would only hear by buying the album — a good way to encourage buying albums as opposed to singles, since the album incorporated both.

(Of course, the single would also include the B-side, which was the new track, demo, or otherwise unreleased song that would accompany the A-side single … it’s a whole thing that I won’t get into in this post, but let’s just say that was encouragement enough for collectors and enthusiasts.)

In recent years, there were cassette singles, and then CD singles. Nowadays there are very few bands or labels who release a physical copy of a single; it goes out to the radio stations as a promo CD, but the general public will probably get an iTunes download or some form of MP3 from the Internet. The digital age has taken over.

Which brings me to the issue of the day (that took long enough): the digital age. The age of the single song, and the decline of the album.

You wouldn’t think this is a problem, coming from circles anywhere but “commercial” pop music. Albums are more than alive, with vinyl making a huge comeback; all kinds of artists are releasing their records on both vinyl and CD, with a digital download of the record accompanying the vinyl copy for those who want to put them on their iPods or so on. You can’t go wrong with this idea; for the same price, you get a great package and vinyl copy, as well as a completely legal MP3 copy for whatever you want to use it for. The digital age is certainly doing some things right.

However.

I like to read the Writer’s Prompts on LiveJournal sometimes. Each day they put up a question that writers can answer if they want, and I tend to read a lot of the responses to see what people are thinking. One question recently said, essentially, “What are your top ten favourite albums?”

Albums, not songs or artists; albums, the complete package. Here’s my favourite response (these are all treated as anonymous):

I truthfully can not answer this question [...]. I do not own any complete albums.

Not a single one. Not even a greatest hits record? There are people out there, ladies and gentlemen, who do not own a single full album. I can’t even comprehend this, but so it is.

Why does this happen? Why would people ignore the idea of the album, the concept of a package of songs put together for a reason and with a purpose?

The answer, as so many things seem to be these days, is commercial music marketing.

As an independent music fans, we like to blame everything on The Man. Big labels are marketing bad artists. Everything in commercial music is overproduced. There’s nothing original about the mainstream. Whether or not these claims are founded, there is still one problem about commercial music: it is stuck in single-land. Everything is about the one or two or maybe even three songs that will be played hundreds of times a week on the radio, the ones that everyone will see and hear and know really well before the album even hits the shelves. The rest of the album is filler.

Instead of conceiving an album as a whole, it is seen by much of the commercial music industry as just a collection of songs, some of which are good, and others that are throwaway tracks. This is totally different from the view of the independent music industry, where often the single (because it is more commercial and supposed to be radio-ready) is the throwaway track and the deep cuts are the best stuff. Interesting.

Here’s another response to the prompt that accentuates this idea: I don’t think I have ever seen (or heard) an album on which I liked every single song or even most of the songs, so for me, albums are usually a disappointment.

I don’t have a great all-revealing point or conclusion to bring to this idea, but I think that a lot of it speaks for itself. Why is the album no longer important, and why are artists producing, or being made to produce, so many filler tracks? It used to be that being signed or distributed by a major label (Universal, EMI, Sony, Warner) was the biggest and best thing that could happen. Now the “new major labels” are highly-regarded independent ones, like Matador (Pavement, AC Newman, Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, Lou Reed).

There’s quite a lot of debate possible here, of course. Perhaps it’s not entirely due to commercial marketing campaigns. The digital age really does promote the single song; if you hear something on the radio, you can just download that one song, whether illegally or from Amazon or iTunes, and never see nor hear the rest of the record. Some people have no idea what the album cover even looks like for many of the songs that they listen to for this exact reason. Unfortunately, it seems infinitely more prevalent in commercial-land than it does in indie circles; the trend with independents is “returning to your roots,” or kicking back to the days of LPs and 45s, buying full albums, getting the artwork, and listening to things as a whole.

If you are in disagreement at the end of this post, and you still do not like albums because most of the ones you’ve heard, like the speaker in the second example, are disappointing, here is a short and by no means complete list of some of the albums that I own that are “dingers” — in other words, where I do not feel the need to skip a single song. Maybe you’ll find them to your liking. I can only hope you do.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959)
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Further Out (1961)
Paul & Linda McCartney - Ram (1971)
The Jam - All Mod Cons (1978)
Joel Plaskett - In Need of Medical Attention (1999)
David Braid Sextet - The David Braid Sextet (2001)
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall (2005; rec 1957)
The Flashing Lights - Sweet Release (2005)
Jetplanes of Abraham - Jetplanes of Abraham (2006)
Field Music - Tones of Town (2007)
Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows (2008)

The 44th President of the United States of America.
Thank you.

It’s a significant date for a number of reasons — let me elaborate on two of them.

First, the new Bicycles record, Oh No, It’s Love, hits shelves today. 19 tracks of long-awaited bubblegum pop are yours to purchase. Alongside the fabulous foursome is an impressive list of guests, including Basia Bulat, Laura Barrett, Dan Werb (Woodhands), Bob Egan (Blue Rodeo), and … me. It is humbling to be included with such amazing musicians! The record is awesome, and you should buy it.

The CD release is this Saturday, October 8 at Lee’s Palace in Toronto, and will feature many guests — Matt Murphy, Forest City Lovers, Green Go, $100, Sebastian Grainger and more. Young Rival will kick off the night.

And of course, today is Election Day in the United States of America. Here’s hoping that the whole world, who is going to be watching this day unfold, will not be disappointed. We know you can do it, America. We’re counting on it.

The fabulous Matthew from i (heart) music has been doing the Hottest Bands in Canada annual poll for quite some time now. I have had the honour of being part of the jury for two years so far, and this year’s list just went up — and some of my picks actually made it. I felt somewhat out of touch with Canadian up-and-comers this year at times, so it is nice to know some people agree with me!

You can check out the list right here.

My own band, Entire Cities, squeaked onto the list at #32. Thank you to whoever nominated us — that is totally awesome! I tagged us onto the end of my list as a laugh, but it seems as though at least one person did think we were worthy of a spot. This is great news! We’re in good company.

Just saw Buffy Sainte-Marie and Richie Havens at Massey Hall, but I didn’t actually see a long enough portion of either to properly review them (I was observing from outside a set of doors, so I heard it quite well but was often occupied). Richie Havens was amazing, though, and the fact that he had a cellist was an awesome addition. I really enjoyed what I saw.

I am going to try to procure a few albums this week that I have been meaning to get (such as Wolf Parade, Elliott Brood, and Chad VanGaalen), so look out for some reviews of those sometime soon. It is nearing year-end list time, and I am doing some thinking!