2010-10-31

Saigon Sunday

I post this every Hallowe'en, which is funny because it's exactly the opposite of what the title suggests. Anyway, it's a perfect Hallowe'en song and perfect Saigon Sunday tune.

2010-10-29

!!! new video !!!

Pretty out-there new video from rock/electronic/funk band !!!:

!!! [chk chk chk] - Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass from Ladeson Productions on Vimeo.


Killer basslines as usual... and is that sexual metaphor I see in a rock video?

[via Synthtopia]

Libertarian or Rapper?

Take the Quiz!

I got 8/10... funny stuff.

[via Daily Swarm]

2010-10-28

Robert Smith helps Crystal Castles cover a band known for borrowing from The Cure

Crystal Castles ft Robert Smith - "Not In Love"

Pros:
-American hipsters now know who Platinum Blonde is
-More royalties for Platinum Blonde (assuming the track makes any money)
-Updating of a song that did not age well; thus making is supremely listenable once again.
-Mad hits and downloads for Crystal Castles


Cons:
-American hipsters will start wearing Platinum Blonde t-shirts, ironically or otherwise
-Robert Smith is now caught in a temporal paradox, helping an artist from T.O. cover a retro T.O. band that took a lot of their sound from The Cure.

---

And neither pro nor con would be the fact that the attitude of the original is gone... I felt the PB version was about the singer convincing himself of the title sentiment rather than conveying the sentiment to a(n) (ex)lover. See also: 10cc.

2010-10-25

Pretty Hate Machine re-issue!!

Oh this makes me so excited:
'Pretty Hate Machine' Relocated & Remastered & Reissued...

Not that there was anything wrong with the original (there wasn't), but with Trent Reznor overseeing the remastering what could go wrong? I suppose the worst we could get is something like Let It Be... Naked, but even that wasn't that bad.

2010-10-24

Saigon Sunday

Great tune, this one always reminds me of heading to the retro club on a Sunday night.

2010-10-19

Of friends and photoblogs

Check out my friend Cassie's arty lo-fi photo blog here.

Clutch Toronto concert site

Concerts TO aggregates all the upcoming concerts in the city.

One of the most useful features is being able to sort by not only date, but venue and even price... anyone up for a $10 show? It also tells you where the tickets are still available.

Clean, simple, effective. I think this will be my new go-to site. Usually I check Rotate This for concerts, but this looks like it could take over.

[via Torontoist]

2010-10-17

Saigon Sunday

M+M (aka Martha & the Muffins, after an ill-advised name change) with "Black Stations, White Stations", about the state of radio in the early 80s. Great tune, but overall it hasn't aged that well.

Say hello to Holly

My neighbour Holly is a folk/rock musician, check out her website here

From her bio:
Like Joni Mitchell, Loretta Lynn, and her hero Tom Petty, Holly Andruchuk writes songs that sound out of time, but never out of touch. True-life tales spun out into five-minute mini-epics, her music connects through both lyrical heft and melodic charm. You don’t hear these songs, you listen to them. And when you’re up late, alone, driving to some strange new place, you feel them, too.
You can get her EP for free in exchange for your soul... er... email address. Good bargain!

Plastic concert

Gorillaz big-band sound [thestar.com]
If [the] first tour made a point about how secondary actual human musicians have become to pure presentation in pop music, this one is making a show of how much genuine, flesh-and-blood musicianship goes into creating the multimedia artifice that is the Gorillaz universe.

Sounds like a pretty wicked show, wish I was there.

2010-10-13

Kanye's cool samples

I'm pretty excited about Kanye West's forthcoming "return to form" album (hopefully it goes through at least one more name change). He might actually sell a few records the way he's been promoting it.

His albums are always loaded with great samples used rather effectively. Check out an extensive list of songs he sampled.

WhoSampled is a great site for this kind of thing, you could spend all day looking stuff up.

This one made me laugh...

Nevermind

2010-10-10

Saigon Sunday

This one is inspired by my post the other day about a book on the Top 100 Canadian Singles...



Happy 10/10/10!

2010-10-08

Stayin' Alive in the Wall

Great mashup! Hilarious how well the two songs and videos fit together. The juxtaposition of clips from The Wall and clips from Saturday Night Fever highlights some eerie similarities... dancing as mind control? Nah, I'm thinking about it too much. Fun song.



[via Synthtopia]

2010-10-07

Fine music previewing site

Here's a site you can check out that has music for previewing before you buy it. It's called the Sordo Music Database. Not that I promote that sort of thing.

Cool mashup: Stars of the Lid and Epcot video

I've just recently started listening to the ambient duo Stars of the Lid. Very ethereal stuff that pre-dates Sigur Ros for dreamy spacey drone pop. They also did soundtracks for Twin Peaks.

This is a cool mashup idea, pairing Stars of the Lid with Walt Disney's Epcot film from 1966:



The marriage of the music and picture works well here, capturing a sense of wonder. It reminds me of Eno's Apollo soundtrack...

Chromeo has some competition

Check out this clip from 80s synthpop revivalist Grum:


Pretty hilarious video... and the song has some serious kitsch factor as well... all the synths, drum machines, chord changes plucked straight out of an 80s movie soundtrack.

Ugh

The Glee cast now has more Billboard 100 songs than The Beatles [AV Club]

2010-10-06

Your new favourite mp3 blog

Not that I promote that sort of thing... [Unheard Music]

[via Daily Swarm]

Apparently, it's kind of a funny story.



What can I say... this flick doesn't interest me that much... I think I got all I needed from the trailer: Zach G is hilarious, awkward kid who did voices on Family Guy gets a starring role, guy and girl kiss on the roof top. Happy ending. Plus the folks who directed this one also did Half Nelson, which I didn't much care for.

What I dug about Nelson was the soundtrack, done by Broken Social Scene, and they're back at it again here, putting "7/4 Shoreline" to good use in the trailer. They also plucked Ida Maria's song "Oh My God" which has lyrics that are frighteningly perfect for the subject matter.

Social Network vs. Facebook



My brother Jon sends me this link on Facebook fact vs. fiction from G4TV.

When praising the film, the first thing the talking head mentions is the great soundtrack.

There's much more to it than that though... I mean, a Hollywood film that's largely dramatized and practically fictional? Pfft.

New Caribou album already!

Caribou Vibration Ensemble

I had read about this but didn't expect it so soon, it's a recent concert recording from ATP... Live albums are usually hit and miss (more often miss), and this sounds like it has the potential to be a mess. Maybe I just like to set my expectations low so I'm blown away. The above Pfork review claims there's four drummers in the set, so the mix could get muddled... Dan Snaith hasn't made so much as a misstep so far in his brilliant career, so this will be interesting to check out.

2010-10-05

Joy Division divorce lawyers

"Love Will Tear You Apart"

Roly poly fish heads

My girlfriend and I were preparing fresh sardines yesterday and this song immediately popped in my head... classic video humour.

Glass

Check out this trailer for the 2007 film Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts:



I watched this doc the other day, it's an excellent piece of work. If you're not a fan of classical music, it's an astonishing portrait of a brilliant mind.

2010-10-04

Interesting article on the future of radio in Canada

My friend Adam sends me this link: Audio column: Why are Canadians stuck in an AM/FM world?
News came out the other day that one of the most popular worldwide music streaming sources, Pandora, has put its plans to expand into Canada on hold. That’s because the royalty rates we’re demanding “are astronomical,” according to Tim Westergren, who founded the California-based music service.
It also features a choice quote from industry stooge Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association:
[He] cited widespread illegal music downloading in Canada as the real reason why services like Pandora wouldn’t want to come here. “Why would you spend a lot of money trying to build a service in Canada when Canadians take so much without paying for it?” he said.
I'm pretty tired of hearing this argument... if anything the Canadian music industry has weathered the digital storm and ensuing cloud pretty well, as the article mentions later, in regards to CBC Radio 3. Might I also mention the wonderful Polaris Prize?

"Old" media is changing, as is "new" media... 100 years from now people will laugh at the brief period in human history where music was commodified in a absurd fashion for 50 years. To oversimplify an extremely complex argument, the music/audio/radio industry has to adapt.

Start the arguments, indeed

Canada’s top 100 singles [article].

[Complete list]

Some notables:

22. Maestro Fresh Wes — “Let Your Backbone Slide”
29. Arcade Fire — “Wake Up”
42. Rheostatics — “Claire” (one of my all time favourite songs)
51. Malajube — “Montreal -40C”
90. New Pornographers — “Letter from an Occupant”
100. Wintersleep — “Weighty Ghost”

===

It's from the same guy who did the top 100 Canadian albums... Nice to see someone include "new" music, and not just rely on the usual suspects, the way most of the old school establishment does. Perhaps the inclusion of songs from the 00s will encourage the kids today to check out Mashmakhan. It's your heritage, drink it up!

Humour gold from The Onion

Quiet Riot Speaks Out Against Nation's Poor Metal Health Care

Loving the new Deerhunter album

Halcyon Digest might be their best one yet:

2010-10-03

PS

Just found this in Google's recommended items, mere seconds after my previous post. See also this.

The Social Network trailer



This is a great trailer. I especially love the use of the cover version of Radiohead's "Creep" by a Belgian girls choir. Hearing that version of the song in that context sends chills down my spine... the way the lyrics take on a new meaning sung unison by a group of young people... the global spin on it as well, everything ties back to the idea of the pervasive social network.

I'm looking forward to catching this flick next week, since it's getting rave reviews and features a score by one of my favourite artists of all time.

Regardless of how the movie turns out, the trailer will truly continue to be an excellent stand alone work of art.

You've probably already heard this one...

...considering it as a staggering 10 million views, and another version has 28 mil. But every time I hear it I laugh.



The hand claps kill me every time. Very well done. I wonder if all the promotion has led to the perp's capture.