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June 2005

Thursday, 30 June 2005

It's never to late to publish the final draft.

On 20 June, I had to work late. Not too late. Six o'clock late. And having walked past A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books several times (daily. twice daily.) I noted the Nick Hornby reading scheduled for seven that night and thought "Hm, I can easily stop by on my way home." Over a hundred other people decided to stop by too.

A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books is clean, well-lighted, and contains many books, but it's not ideal for a reading. (It also doesn't have any nooks and crannies to burrow into with that book you want to read but don't have the money to buy when someone is refusing to return the library's only copy...) The best bookstores, though, aren't designed for readings; they're designed to hold the maximum number of books. (Dog Eared Books, on Valencia. City Lights, in North Beach.) But in general, ACWLP is a nice independent bookstore on my path between work and home.

I arrived shortly after six and the couple dozen seats were already taken. The city's summer days had reached a peak that week, so I was bit sweaty and the crowded, standing room only area only fueled my discomfort. I browsed some interesting new paperbacks while I waited, but nothing held my attention long enough to spur a purchase.

The talk around me of course was books books books. Having only read Hornby's High Fidelity and some of his lighter non-fiction articles, I had no idea what the book he was promoting entailed until he started reading.

Fortunately, book lovers like to have things start on time. (After being reminded for the third time that the reading was going to be recorded for a radio show and that all cell phones needed to be turned completely off. Thank you.)

He began by reading excerpts from A Long Way Down. A morbid tale of four lost souls who meet right before their own planned demise. Hornby pops into the head of each protagonist giving us a humorous look into what each of them is thinking (and at the reading funny voices). It was enough to spark my interest. A Long Way Down has landed on my list of books to read.

Powell's has a great interview with Nick Hornby that will give you a better idea of the contents of the reading.

The Q & A at the end is always dismal. It's always aspiring writers asking about the writing process. And the writers always respond with "I don't have a process." Hornby responded with something like: I smoke and drink coffee and sit in my flat and write a few words and then check e-mail. Except he's a writer and from England so add many more syllables and a British accent to that.

He did mention the band Magic Numbers as his favorite band of the moment (well, that moment several days ago).

Sunday, 26 June 2005

I began counting months ago

Subpop has posted a track from the upcoming Wolf Parade EP.

Maybe you'll begin to understand why I keep raving about them. I'm not the only though.

A new music blog has the CBC session tracks in mp3 form. (I'm sure it's a limited time offer so hop over there soon.)

Friday, 24 June 2005

firecrackers in sawdust

The Double

Let's say you like bands with boys who wear eyeliner, both old (The Cure) and new (The Killers), but you don't really like the look of the eyeliner. Let's say you like Interpol. Let's say you like Wolf Parade. (Let's  pretty much say you're me, right now...)

Then you should be listening to The Double.

One part recent Wilco. (David Greenhill wore cowboy boots on stage.) One part Interpol. With a bit of a singer-songwriter, math rock feel. Synth/keyboard. Guitars with multiple effects pedals. Drums. And a drum machine.

I hesitate to say drum machine because the drummer, Jeff McLeod, was really fun to watch banging on the actual drum kit. But on a couple of songs, Greenhill put down his bass guitar and stood at the drum machine giving the set a moody, sonic brilliance the entire room was nodding along to.

Recent Matador signees, The Double have an album, Loose In The Air, coming out 13 September 2005. Until then, you can purchase their 2004 release Palm Fronds from Catsup Plate Records or from one of your favorite indie record outlets. (I've been listening to it since Thursday.)

"with water we did each other's hair up into mohawks at first we couldn't get it to go up but then we really got it goin'"


Sarah Dougher started off the night at Bottom of the Hill. Reminded me of Erin McKeown but she just didn't strike me. I can't even think of words to describe her. (My last show at BotH was Rilo Kiley where the opener was a forgettable girl with an electric guitar too.)


John Darnielle and Peter Hughes (including, for a few songs, producer John Vanderslice) ripped through songs from The Sunset Tree--including Lion's Teeth but excluding Dilaudid--and older songs and occasionally playing an eager audience member's request. I tend to enjoy a show more when the guys on stage look like they're having fun, and The Mountain Goats looked like they were having a blast--John even did a little bit of dancing. The Double's drummer, Jeff McLeod, returned to the stage for the end of the set; and The Mountain Goats came back out on stage for two whiskey fueled encores.

Since I was practically sitting on the stage, and BotH being an intimate venue, the whole night felt like hanging out a friend's house listening to great music.

eta: Some lovely person taped the Mountain Goats set. (Flac. No registration required.)

Continue reading "firecrackers in sawdust" »

Sunday, 19 June 2005

Acoustic is the new polka

The Mountain Goats
Bottom of the Hill
23 June 2005

The Waifs
The Independent
08 & 09 July 2005

Tegan & Sara
Great American Music Hall
03 & 04 August

Liz Phair (acoustic)
Cafe du Nord
18 August

The New Pornographers
w/Destroyer and Immaculate Machine
27 September 2005

Monday, 13 June 2005

Compose yourself and listen to the text.

I picked up a copy of The Believer's music issue today. Finally. My logic in purchasing it has to do with the path I take through the city that leads me by A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books. They didn't have it in stock until today (or yesterday). (I'm pretending like I don't live three blocks from McSweeney's or anything.)


Owen Pallett on Jim Guthrie's cover of The Constantines' "Nighttime/Anytime (it's alright)" = Fucking Brilliant

"One of the fourteen reasons Canadian music has been crushing domestic rock output these past years is the hardworking camaraderie of its musicians."

The Constantines are on Jim Guthrie's label Three Gut Records in Canada (and Subpop in the States). Pallett, Guthrie, and The Constantines are all Canadians. And I probably haven't said much about Jim Guthrie but I should. He's good. An older, less-whiny Bright Eyes sound, and he's not Conor Oberst (thankfully).

"Meanwhile, our American friends cannot even be counted on to open a bag of Cheetos."**


**Quotes taken straight from Matthew Derby's article. [Product endorsement is not mine. I prefer Cool Ranch Doritos.]


Wolf Parade covers a Frog Eyes song. It's a quieter sound for Wolf Parade but a brilliant song none the less. (I'll have to find the original.)

Click on the Sights & Sounds link at the Three Gut Records website for mp3s from Jim and The Constantines. Subpop has even more Constantines songs.

Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy website still has a cover of Joanna Newsom's "Peach Plum Pear" up for download. Relevent info since The Decemberists cover her "Bridges & Ballrooms" on the Believer cd. (Yeah, it all relates as opposed to being my meaningless rambling.)

Saturday, 11 June 2005

"looking over Melville's shoulder as he wrote Moby Dick"

In Vowell's Assassination Vacation she references the Grandfather Paradox during the retelling of her visit to Dr. Samuel Mudd's home and museum in Maryland. The Mudd house is where John Wilkes Booth went after the assassination of Lincoln; and where Dr. Mudd cared for the injured Booth.

At the museum gift shop, she purchased a copy of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Family Home Cooking from Dr. Mudd's great-great-granddaughter. And she pondered traveling back in time to kill her great-great-grandfather a "racist, pro-slavery teenage terrorist" who was with Quantrill when he raided Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 killing over 182 people; and wondered what the cashier, a "descendant of racist, slave-owning, convicted assassination accomplice" thinks of the Grandfather Paradox.

The Grandfather Paradox being the idea that one travels back in time and meets and kills an ancestor therefore erasing himself from the future and thus is one of the greatest arguments against the possibility of time travel. (Or one of the greatest arguments against the possibility of time travel is the exact nature of time and it's uninterruptable continuance. But that's just my thoughts.)

Besides the Lawrence reference, I love this passage for the intersection of science & physics with literature & history. This is why I love science metaphors in poetry and fiction.

Thursday, 09 June 2005

Track 09

Wolf Parade released the tracklisting for their first CD LP. The September 27th release couldn't come soon enough for me even though all but three of the tracks on the full length and the EP to be released July 7th are currently available in various ways.

Merge will be releasing Arcade Fire's originally self-titled EP on July 12th. "No Cars Go" is a tour favorite and a great song included on the EP.

Destroyer will be touring with the New Pornographers. Dan Bejar will be playing with both bands. Hopefully, they'll be playing a venue smaller than the Fillmore. I'm hoping Great American.

Liz Phair is playing an acoustic set in August at the Cafe Du Nord for 21+ and an all ages show upstairs at the Swedish American Hall. I might hit the over 21 show just to see her live at least once.

I decided to purchase tickets tomorrow for both Tegan & Sara shows at Great American. With my current work schedule, I'm going to be exhausted the morning after the second show, so I'm hoping it will be worth it.

I'm still planning on hitting the Brian Jonestown Massacre Show on the 15th of July.

Tuesday, 07 June 2005

Somewhere they're playing hockey.

Kevin Beesley-Hammond from the Smugglers suffers heart attack after hockey match. He'll be fine. And his team, the Flying Vees, won the game 6-3.



I miss hockey.

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