vintage

The weekend. The glorious, glorious weekend. That may have been one of the longest weeks I’ve ever experienced, and I’m not keen to repeat it!

I guess I have some blog catching-up to do as a result of that week. Thursday (April 9) I had the immense pleasure of seeing Willie Nelson at Massey Hall, supported by the incredible Ray Price and the petulant Billy Bob Thornton with his band the Boxmasters.

I know we’re all tired of hearing about BBT, but I suspect this review wouldn’t be entirely complete without a mention of his conduct. We all know what happened on CBC Radio on the 8th, but for some reason, Thornton decided it would be a good idea to try to “set the record straight” at his second night at Massey Hall. He called Ghomeshi an “asshole” and pontificated on how one is expected to keep the promises that are made, forgetting about two things in the process: one, that journalism is about all the facts, not some of them; and two, that his band isn’t very good and decidedly would not be playing with such country legends as Nelson and Price if he were not Billy Bob Thornton, actor, as well.

Anyway, there was no tossed gravy, but I heard later that security intercepted a guy with a container of it intending to do just that. I wish they’d let it go! Either way, Thornton was booed continually during his speech to the crowd and the next day bailed out of the rest of the Canadian dates on the tour. He cited an ill bandmate, but he probably just can’t handle Canada.

Here’s a review from the Globe and Mail about the Massey show and about his behaviour in more detail, and here’s a column by Russell Smith that pretty much sums up the entire situation perfectly.

Back to the show: Thornton’s band is not all that great, and there were five guitarists. Overkill in itself, but four of them were playing identical Fender Telecasters, and one guy had a steel-string. This did nothing to cover up Thornton’s lack of imaginative drumming when he got behind the kit during their extendo-jam, and the end was very welcome when it finally arrived.

Ray Price, who is a whopping 83 years old, delivered a beautiful set with a large band sounding more intimate than I have ever heard twelve people sound. It felt like you really were back in “the good old days,” two-stepping and wearing big skirts. His voice is among the best I’ve ever heard, and the string section were scored like horns — I’ve never heard strings act quite like that before, and it was magnificent. If you ever get the chance to see this man perform, do yourself a favour; he’s done so much more than most of us could even hope for, and he’s still going strong.

Willie was great, of course. He performed with a very stripped-down ensemble, in total contrast to the acts preceding him: the focus was entirely on his voice and amazing guitar chops, and rightfully so. He brought Price back out to sing “Crazy” with him, which is probably the only way that song could be any better than it already is; other favourites included “Always On My Mind,” “On the Road Again” and a fantastic medley of the classics “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “I’ll Fly Away”. I’m not familiar with a large portion of Nelson’s repertoire (he has an eye-popping 77 studio albums, so I suppose that’s excusable!), but it seemed like the setlist was hit after hit after hit, with a couple lesser-known songs thrown in here and there. The crowd loved it, and he proved to us — not that we needed convincing — that he’s legendary for a very, very good reason. And he’s only seven years younger than Ray Price, which is pretty remarkable too.

I also saw familiar funnyman Jerry Seinfeld last night, supported by Tom Papa, who I’d never heard before. The latter was really funny — good, clean, PG-rated comedy (I realised with some embarrassment that most of the comedy I have been watching lately has been significantly more than PG), and a lot of observational stuff similar to Seinfeld. And of course, Jerry was hilarious — the crowd loved it, and he really gave them a good set. He mentioned the cast of Seinfeld’s upcoming appearance on Larry David’s new show Curb Your Enthusiasm, which should be an interesting reunion: apparently they’re recreating the show on CYE? I have no idea. Stay tuned, I guess!

And finally, two news announcements!

The first is that Phoenix have announced their tour dates (see them here) … and their Toronto date is at, yes indeed, the Phoenix Concert Theatre. I guess it would be pretty hard to forget the venue for this one. They’ll be here on June 15; check out the tour page for the rest of their dates.

The second is that the Calgary Folk Music Festival have been releasing their Leak of the Week for quite some time, and the lineup is getting mind-blowing. Already. The full lineup will be announced on May 14, but for the time being, I’m already getting excited: artists confirmed include Mavis Staples, Akron/Family, Bell Orchestre, Justin Rutledge, The Acorn, Mark Berube & The Patriotic Few, Glen Campbell, and Iron and Wine. And that’s not even the full list of leaks!

The festival runs July 23-26 and tickets will be available starting May 14.

Have a lovely weekend!

OK guys, serious uploader problems on my end (nothing to do with the server or WordPress, which is good, but that only means I can’t blame it on anything else) so no Tunesday this week. SORRY.

I’m sure you’ve all heard about it by now but Billy Bob Thornton acted like a world-class asshole on national radio today, and Jian Ghomeshi somehow managed to roll with the punches and the surreality and the general five-year-old behaviour. Check out the podcast here (in mp3 form) or, if you’re really brave, the QTV YouTube episode. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Last week East Coast favourite Joel Plaskett released an ambitious album called Three. As you might infer, the record is a triple, featuring 9 songs on each CD. It also has a somewhat annoying gimmick in which many of the song titles feature one word repeated three times (“Through & Through & Through,” “Wait, Wait, Wait,” etc).

Well, I’ve had it since it came out, and I’m still not convinced. So far it doesn’t strike me as being dynamic or interesting or having much variation — most of the 27 songs are hard to tell apart, and “Wishful Thinking” is still a huge disappointment when the first time I heard it was something like this. (OK, that was the second or third time, but you know how it goes.)

There are a few songs that have caught my ear enough for me to return to them, though, and one of them is nearly in the middle of the album: the third track on disc two, “Sailors Eyes”. It’s steeped in East Coast traditional style, featuring a whistle intro and a fabulously Maritime chord progression, and sounds like familiar Joel Plaskett. It gets stuck in my head a lot. I like it! Hope you do too.

Tunesday 15: Sailors Eyes

Oh yeah, and I don’t really want to devote a whole post to the Juno Awards, but I do want to comment on one thing: The Stills for best new group? Seriously? A cursory glance around the Internet proves that they have been active since about 2000, and I personally remember them being a source of reasonably steady hype since at least 2006. This past summer they opened for Paul McCartney for Quebec City’s 400th anniversary, playing to a crowd of about a quarter of a million, and they have released three records. THIS IS NOT A NEW BAND!!!

All right, Ruhee out. Sorry for the negligent blogging lately — I have eight courses this semester. Eight. It’s a wonder I can still communicate in full sentences.

Are you surprised? Matt Good hates everything.

The Canadian Press reports that Vancouver-based artist Matthew Good “has no desire to be a part of the Junos”. He and Howie Beck go on to say that the award show is based too much on sales and that the major nominees are irrelevant.

Heard this before?

“When it’s actually a television broadcast that celebrates actual Canadian music, rather than who’s doing well internationally and has been in car commercials and iPod commercials … I’ll go,” says Good. Amen. I don’t usually agree with him anymore, but I can’t deny that statement.

Also, Elvis Costello is presenting an award. Why? He’s married to Diana Krall. Oh, how I love Costello, but oh, how many things are wrong with this show. Remember how it was supposed to be about Canadian artists? Yeah.

The Juno Awards will be broadcast on CTV this Sunday, March 28, from Vancouver.

Miley Cyrus has vowed to “ruin” Radiohead following a brush-off at the Grammy Awards last month. Apparently, she requested to meet them and they declined. Oh, the heartbreak.

Thanks to Chart for this comedic classic.

I can practically hear all the political junkies’ glee from my bedroom. Canada’s political landscape is more interesting than it has been in a very long time.

Tonight at 7PM Eastern, the two battling leaders made addresses to the country on national television. It is rare that a Prime Minister will ask for network time, and when they do, it is likely in a time of crisis. We are currently experiencing not only an economic crisis, but a political one; everyone is on tenterhooks waiting to see what our government will look like from day to day. It’s been a while since this many people were interested in politics — certainly more than there were during the federal election, which is pretty sad if you ask me.

I don’t pretend to be unbiased; I lean Liberal and I will freely admit it to anyone who asks. I am, however, not without my qualms about the coalition government. It is completely legal and within the bounds of our parliamentary democracy, but the timing is perhaps questionable, given the constraints Dion has to obey (namely, having already agreed to step down in May 2009).

Anyway, Harper’s speech clocked in at less than five minutes (surprising, given that the networks were given a ballpark of around ten minutes), and he didn’t really say anything new. Most irritating was Harper’s continued tendency to refer to the coalition as being “a coalition with separatists” — may I remind you, Prime Minister, that the Bloc Québécois is not a member of the coalition. The proposed new government is between the Liberals and the New Democrats; the Bloc has pledged their support, but is absolutely not a member. Continuing to paint the picture of three leaders forming a coalition instead of two is a lie.

Also very strange was the lack of a mention of proroguing Parliament or any sort of reference to the Governor General. General consensus is that Harper will ask Her Excellency to prorogue Parliament in his meeting with her tomorrow morning, but no one really knows what he will say, and that is now the most awaited development in this real-life political thriller.

Stéphane Dion had some trouble getting his address off the ground (unfortunately, that seems to describe his latter days as Liberal leader); the tape was delivered late to the news stations, and as such they had to overrun their 7:30 cutoff time. Already a strike against the leader of the Official Opposition. Dion’s video looked unfortunately like he had filmed it in his bedroom on a Macbook, but aesthetic qualms aside, it had a good deal of conviction. Dion talked for substantially longer than Harper did and outlined his reasons for forming a coalition government, and ended with a brief promise about what would happen if he were to become Prime Minister. While there wasn’t a whole lot of new information in his speech either, it was certainly more satisfying than Harper’s — slightly longer and with a little more to go on, rather than a direct regurgitation of what has been going on in question period for the past week.

In question period recently, Dion quoted Harper’s words from 2005 back at him, reminding him that when Paul Martin was trying to evade a confidence vote in 2005 — much as Harper is trying to do now — Harper called it a “violation of the fundamental principles of our democracy”. (story) Seems like that’s exactly what Harper’s trying to do now. I’ll remind you that a coalition government is perfectly legal and constitutional, as well as within the bounds of the parliamentary democracy that Canada enjoys.

Again, I think that the one thing these Parliament Hill shenanigans is reinforcing is the fact that we need electoral reform. First past the post isn’t working for anyone anymore, and it is time for some proportional representation. This is what the coalition is fighting for; while I am not a wholehearted coalition backer, this is one of the reasons why I think it might be a good idea.

And of course, if the coalition goes ahead, politics will be a damn sight more interesting than they will be if Parliament is suspended. That’ll be pretty nice too.

Sound off, ladies and gentlemen! The comments are open (although if you are too nasty and slanderous, no matter who you support, I may have to delete you; please be nice, articulate, and state your case like a civilised person).

For further good times, here’s a little collage of some question period antics. By the title you may guess that it is put together by someone who is against the coalition, but no matter who or what you support, it is kinda fun watching everybody get angry at each other. Around 3:32 I am a bit afraid that Dion might burst a vein or something. O Canada!

EDIT Here are some YouTube videos of the national addresses tonight. I can’t guarantee these will stay up, but have a look while they are; if there are any posted by news organisations, please let me know. And where is Elizabeth May in all this, anyway?

Stephen Harper
Stéphane Dion (comes in partway through, unfortunately)
Jack Layton
Gilles Duceppe

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 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)

I just want to say thanks to those of you who have been reading and linking to my previous post. It has created a huge spike in blog traffic, and is already the top post on this blog by a huge margin. I appreciate all the support — maybe political writing is my calling! Please keep debating in the comments, it is always great to hear what other citizens really think of the way politics are going in this country.

In music: for those of you who are unaware, Canadian favourite Final Fantasy has released two new EPs (Spectrum, 14th Century and Plays to Please). Check out the review at Pitchfork. The records feature Beirut, Alex Lukashevsky and Andrew Bird; Pallett’s upcoming LP Heartland, due for a 2009 release, will include contributions by Mantler and $100.

I’m not sure if this is news to anyone else, but Panic At The Disco seem to have recently gotten rid of the annoying exclamation point in their name. However, the annoying music is unfortunately still with us.

In Canada, Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail and Dick Pound of VANOC have created quite a stir. Pound caused a great deal of controversy by referring to the Canada of 400 years ago as “a nation of savages,” which understandably enraged most of the First Nations communities in the country. Wente then ran a Globe column supporting Pound’s claim and saying that the aboriginal people of Canada were uncivilized. Pound has since apologized for his comment and issued a statement that said the ethics commission “found no intent of racism,” but most still aren’t convinced, and there are many calling for the dismissal of both.

And in American politics … well, I think I’ll let the headlines speak for themselves.

First, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R) was convicted today on corruption charges. This is a huge blow to the GOP, and particularly to the Alaska Republicans. Between this and Sarah Palin’s increasing drop in the polls, Alaska is getting hit pretty hard. So far, Stevens has made no indication of dropping out of the race to be re-elected to Senate, but in a curious turn of events, he may not be able to vote for himself.

Two skinheads were arrested today in an alleged attempt to assassinate Barack Obama. The men were planning to kill 88 civilians and 14 African-Americans, with Obama being their last casualty. This is pretty scary business — nobody’s even been elected yet.

And finally, on a lighter note: the New Mexico Sun Times is a bi-weekly newspaper, with the next issue (October 26th through November 8th) hitting newsstands a week before the election. The editors decided to take a different path than most, and the latest Sun Times headline boldly proclaims Barack Obama the winner of the United States presidential election. Claiming the honour of being the first to report the results, the Sun Times still encourages everyone to go out and vote on November 4.

It’s been a fun week!

Muxtape is gone, and Muxtape is back.

The main page has finally been updated from the rather ominous message stating that Mux was in the middle of negotiations with the RIAA. The news is mixed; the site is relaunching, but due to huge problems trying to work out a licensing deal, it is now exclusively a service for bands.

The founder comments that it is “a radical shift in functionality, but Muxtape’s core goals haven’t changed. I still want to challenge the way we experience music online, and I still want to work to enable what I think is the most interesting aspect of interconnected music: discovering new stuff.”

It is a sad day for the internet, but things like this have to happen these days. I, for one, really enjoyed Muxtape because it allowed me to listen to actual mixtapes that other people have made; not just “listen to this song,” but rather “listen to these five, or eight, or thirteen songs that I really like and took the care to put in an order that I think makes sense”. There’s something really personal about a mix and that was the appeal of Muxtape.

I’m a bit wary of this new “for bands” designation, since MySpace and now Facebook seem to be doing enough of that on their own. I can’t see everyone flocking to Muxtape just to promote their band, but I am interested to see the ripple effect that this will certainly create throughout the rest of the filesharin’ internet.

I have to say, though, I miss clicking “random” and listening to ten tapes a day, just for fun. It had just introduced Last.fm integration maybe two or three weeks before the RIAA swung the axe, and that was awesome.

We’ll miss you, Muxtape, but we’re glad you’re back.
Wrap your head around that one.