My Relationship with the Doves

Have you ever come across a band that you really only like one song by?

That's the English rock band the Doves for me. "Meet Me at the Pier" is one of my favourite songs but i can't dip into the bands other material.



This has to be one of the coolest sounding songs of the last decade!

Lindsay's lovely suggestion

This week in Purchases

I bought two cds this week -

A Collection of Sam Cook's hits and Bruce Springsteen's 'Darkness on the Edge of Town.' The latter was inspired by the documentary I saw at TIFF just a week prior. I realised what a fox Springsteen is and how he mastered that classic American Apparel look thirty years before.





This iconic shot should make its way onto Nerd Boyfriend.

Neil Young

Neil Young has been in the back of my brain for a month or so now. But I have decided, despite his wealth of older material, I'm going to grab his much newer album 'Harvest Moon' someday very soon.

The tunes "Harvest Moon" and "Unknown Legend" make my heart skip a few beats faster.

TIFF comments, an ongoing thing.

I am writing a bit for my friend's brilliant online magazine 'Steel Bananas.' The article will focus on TIFF, i'm thinking rather than espousing reviews for films that won't break the surface for another year, I will write something on the tricks of the festival for the frugal film goer.

Upon doing some research, I have stumbled upon some pretty kookie articles. First, out of the New Yorker is a Toronto hot spots guide... Now I have a finger on the pulse of Toronto's hot spots and this my friend, is not a good reflection of that.

Cameron Crowe's 'Elizabethtown' & Jim James

I just watched 'Elizabethtown,' the 2005 film by Cameron Crowe. It for the last five years has been a film I watch once a year, nothing impressive. But upon my watch this time around, I noticed a familiar face. It was Jim James of My Morning Jacket. He plays in the fabricated band 'Rukus.' In the film they do a cover of Lynryd Skynrd's "Freebird," which he produced for the film's soundtrack. Throughout the film he even has a few small wordless cameos.

I also stumbled upon an album by Ryan Adams, titled 'Elizabethtown Sessiions.' These tunes were roughly put together and recorded rather quickly in the studio for the purpose of the film.

I'm sorry for my absence -

I'm settling in, with the sweet sounds of Jason Collett's 'Idols in Exile'

'Let the Right One In'

Watching spooky movies late a night isn't a great idea. The film 'Let the Right One In' scared me like crazy. I know, I'm about two years late on this one...

Interestingly, the Swedish film's name 'Let the Right One In' was drawn from a Morrissey song titled "Let the Right One Slip In" (1992) and the old vampire folklore that states that vampires cannot enter a house unless invited.



Just writing about this gives me the willies.

A GIGANTIC MENTAL NOTE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%27est_pas_moi,_je_le_jure!_%28film%29

Molly Johnson's CBC Radio 2 (94.1) Morning Radio show

I am loving Molly Johnson's morning radio program.

Soundtrack for 'It's Kind of a Funny Story'

It's Kind of a Funny Story Soundtrack:

01 Broken Social Scene: "Not at My Best"
02 The Damned: "Smash It Up"
03 The Wowz: "Happy Today"
04 White Hinterland: "Icarus"
05 Elden Calder: "Where You Go"
06 Mayer Hawthorne: "The Ills"
07 Method Man and Redman: "Da Rockwilder"
08 Pink Mountaintops: "Tourist in Your Town"
09 Maxence Cyrin: "Where Is My Mind"
10 The Middle East: "Blood"
11 Little Denise: "Check Me Out"
12 Rachid Taha: "Habina"
13 Broken Social Scene: "Major Label Debut (Fast)"
14 Broken Social Scene: "Sweet Number One"

Yeah yeah yeah!

Half Nelson and Broken Social Scene's "Shampoo Suicide"

I know I write about this one a lot, but I had an exchange with some industry folk about the Director of Half Nelson. I couldn't help but glorify this scene for its use of the song from the start. It's sort of a music video for the tune -

Zero 7's "Salt Water Sound," CBC Radio 2 - "The Signal"

I always get extra excited when I stumble upon a familiar song on the radio. There's something really lovely about the unexpected pleasure!

I was flipping through the radio in my parent's car and I was suprised to hear Zero 7's epic tune "Salt Water Sound" on CBC. I had to double check if it was one of my high school mixed tapes and it wasn't. It's an odd song to play because it's not one of the most accessible tunes from the album 'Simple Things.'

That made my night.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/schedule/index.html

Dan Auerbach

I saw him spring of last year at the Phoenix.

There was a moment during the song "Real Desire" that really shook me. For every show he had white Christmas lights strung above the audience. During the bridge of this song they were lit up with the music.

It was one of the loveliest concert moments I can recall upon in quite a while. I have a fantastic photo of the lit up room, I'm really glad I stumbled upon it again. And although you can't see the lights, the audience is super visible! Definitely not your typical show.





It's all about the little details in a show. I saw Thursday in April of 2004 and for the countdown in the song "Jet Black New Year" they released confetti. That was a memorable moment as well.

Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner; Last Minutes with Oden

I've had a similar instance happen to me in my life:



A song I don't adore but was used for this video:

Glass Vegas

Rf

Japanese band Rf.

Bahamas + White Stripes

I'm not sure what it is about artists and making this difficult for them. Afie Jurvanen plays it off as if it's a hidden trick. Jack White has been known to make unnecessary obstacles for himself while playing. I guess it boils down to style and preference.

“I mostly use cheap old Harmonys and Silvertones from the ’50s and ’60s, specifically a black Harmony Stratotone with only one pickup,” he says. “I’m a little obsessive about those, really. I don’t know if I should be revealing my tone secrets, but there’s something so magical about a guitar you have to wrestle each note out of. It makes me resist the temptation to get carried away.” (pulled from straight.com)

Christian music, Switchfoot

My gateway into Christian music was sparked by two movies that I have seen. First 'A Walk to Remember' on a very serious note and 'Saved' in a humourous way.

I didn't actually find any bands in 'Saved' because a good chunk of the songs in the film were not actually Christian motivated bands. For instance, the song that rolls with the credits is the brilliant "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys.

'A Walk to Remember' took a really great approach. It was my foundation for the band Switchfoot. Switchfoot is a band that I will admit to people that I like them, but I'm super hesitant to actually admit that I like them. I usually buttress my response with a quick - "Oh, I only like their older stuff." But since grade nine or ten when I first laid my ears on Switchfoot through the classic Mandy Moore film, I have steadily listened to older Switchfoot tunes. 'New Way to Be Human' is an incredibly well put-together album. It's one of those albums that you can listen to and find yourself amazed that it was released over ten years ago! Originally released in 1999, I would say it received minimal success being overshadowed by Britney Spears' hit album '...Baby One More Time' and Eminem's 'The Slim Shady LP.'



This version kills Mandy Moore's movie version. For the curious listener, it's really interesting that in the film and in Moore's version they changed the words in the bridge from "I give you my apathy," to "I'm giving all of me."



Some other Christian bands I unintentionally dipped into is Copeland and Mae.

So what i've come down to is that music is music. I like it based on the sound and listenability.

Kim Cooper + Neutral Milk Hotel + 33 1/3 + Toronto

I just finished the brilliant 33 1/3 book on Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.' This is a very funny album. I can't remember what I personally gathered of it on first listen, but it's definitely something most people probably need to listen to a few times. A friend of mine asked me today if they were a Christian band. The book answers this question and very well at that. Author Kim Cooper states: "Pt. One" ends with a spacey drone that oozes into the track's initial gutsy cry "I love you Jesus Christ," which is the spot where aggressively non-Christian listeners have to make a conscious decision to stay with the music. But is the expression one of love for the Saviour or for another person, punctuated by the emphatic invocation of J.C.? Jeff repeatedly made it clear that he was singing about Jesus, but alternative interpretation is there for those who need it. (Cooper, 69-70)

Cooper's book writes honestly about the band. She doesn't paint them in a pretty light but she illustrates their stance well. Frontman Jeff Magnum is an odd guy, seems a bit reclusive in his inability to accept or further enjoy fame. Perhaps that's why this album is so good. I can't help but think if Brand New disbanded in 2004 after the release of 'Deja Entendu,' would they have such a big legacy as Neutral Milk Hotel had? Or would they be forgotten amongst CDs in a secondhand record shop? Who knows. The difference is Magnum isn't making music anymore on his own - a very bizarre decision for someone who created such a masterpiece.

A bit close to home that I really enjoyed reading. I've seen so many shows at that venue, in reading that I could picture how it was all happening.

The Farkeys were in force again come July 29, when Neutral Milk Hotel was booked to headline at Toronto's venerable Horseshoe Tavern. Bryan Poole reflects, "We'd always do these tours, Elf Power and Neutral Milk and Gerbils, I don't know how many people that is in total, twelve to fifteen people. Nobody can make a group decision, there's no consensus on what to do or where to go. It becomes a real problem. Neutral Milk Hotel was notorious for showing up late to gigs, barely getting to gigs, more than a few times. we totally misgauged how long it was gonna take to get there, and then couldn't find our way out of Montreal. 'Ah, we're still like 250 km away, we're not making sound check.... It's 10 o'clock, we're still not there.' Elf Power's supposed to open the show. Ended up not getting to this club until midnight. Sold-out club. The owners were freaking out. We finally get there and they're like super excited, wild-eyed, waving us into the back alleyway, running to get the stuff on stage. There's people just packed, standing there, no equipment onstage - you can imagine, these people are there for a couple of hours, staring at a stage with nothing on it. So Neutral Milk Hotel just went and played, and then Elf Power played afterwards. But the things is, those were the best shows. They barnstormed the stage and the next day, the Toronto paper gave this outstanding review of how great it was. The live shows were always just really chaotic." (Cooper, 92-93)

Norah Jones

I feel a little adult contemporary jumping into Norah Jones' music but I can't help it. Her tunes are easy to listen to and they come off well.

It hasn't made my itunes yet, but it's coming close.

She doesn't write all of her music, but I get really excited when I see the likes of Jesse Harris, Levon Helm and Tony Scherr in her liner notes.

Completely and utterly impressed by her great pals.

Tony Scherr at the Piston; Friday August 27, 2010

I realised I didn't leave a note on Tony Scherr and Steamboat at the Fake Prom.

If you don't know, Tony Scherr is an under the radar heavy weight songwriter/guitarist. He wrote the core of Feist's pretty, bare tune "Lonely, Lonely". It originally was the tune "Sacramento" which was released on one of Tony's albums. If you haven't gathered already, Scherr is well-loved in the Toronto scene.

I doubled booked myself this evening with Fake Prom and Tony Scherr. Scherr was supposed to be an early gig, while I figured I'd hustle my way over to Fake Prom at around 10pm. Tony rather took the stage at 10, leaving me hustling over an hour and a half later than I anticipated.

Scherr played a magnificent set. He is about as charismatic as the bottom of your shoe, but he has a good humour to him that made me think what a good conversationalist he must be. Between songs he chomps as if he was chewing gum, I couldn't help but laugh at his nonchalant ways.

I got the OK by a musician friend who said that he was a brilliant guitarist. The words "He's so good" left his mouth and at that moment I knew all my speculations of Scherr's talent were solidified. As much as I love music, I will not lie to anyone and tell them that I am a musician. I don't have the ease and flow that musician encompass, I get shocked when faced with a large crowd and I feel incredibly insecure. Which is quite the opposite of how I feel when I am watching music performed. There's something really great about Scherr's presence, he's very stiff but he definitely feels the music. His lax but well-calculated guitar work serves as a glowing example of how talented he is. He toys with the guitar with the ease that most people flex with their voices. He however is album to do both at the same time. Similarly to the way Dan Auerbach can. Few artists can really grab this.

A part of me sympathises with Scherr as he is not in his prime anymore. He's aged and experienced, which he wasn't shy to articulate in his set. He made a shout out to Kate and Chris, the headliners of the evening claiming that when Kate was six, he was one million years old. He's funny and not shy to point out the obvious. With that being said, his less than perfect vocals combined with his aged appearance will make it hard for him to jump out to many people. I however have no problem getting beyond this. He has a real charm to his music that works with my likings.

Scherr is an indiviudal I will see everytime.

Fake Prom was fun. It was everything I wish my prom was. Steamboat were flawless - playing beautiful familiar hits of the past. Including a fierce and true cover of Brandy and Monica's hit "The Boy is Mine".

It was after this song that my friend was convinced that Scherr was a great artist:

Purchases

I bought three CDs this week and almost bought 'After the Gold Rush' by Neil Young (sorry Ted!).

Patti Smith 'Horses'
Jenn Grant 'Orchestra for the Moon'
Lou Reed 'Transformer'

As the suburban wealth sinks in, my CD investments rise. Yikes.

The coldest day of September

I know this is old news, but the Black Keys album is my favourite album of the year! It's filled with delicious hooks and powerhouse vocals - both compliments of Dan Auerbach.

Beyond that, I really felt inspired by Camera Obscura today. I thought to myself, if my life was followed by Camera Obscura playing in the background, I would be five times as happy as I normally am. If only...

Yesterday, I went to a hip coffee shop and felt really at ease when the shop played the Beach House album one and a half times through. It's always so refreshing when you hear an album from start to finish, whether you are skipping quickly through songs. There's something about the order, predictability or comfort in knowledge of what's up next.

I guess that's all in music today. I have been seriously listening to Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' a bunch. Reading the 33 1/3 book has really given me some great insite to a band that I knew very little about. Definitely a read worthy book.

I've currently got my teeth sunk into the 33 1/3 book on 'The Last Waltz'. That's a headcase of a book, I feel as though i'm reading Pamela Debarres' revealing memoirs.

Beck's "Girl"

Happy September world! This is a very exciting time for me because Septemebers mean TIFF for me. This festival the goal is thirty films.

A co-worker played a string of Beck tunes off of 'Guero.' He however failed to play my favourite tune "Girl."