Sebadoh @ Lee's Palace

Sebadoh is the band I would've loved to have seen when I was 18 and hanging out almost every night with my friend Colin. We'd sit in his dorm room and talk about music and literature and people we knew, or goof off in the piano room in the basement, him bashing away at the keys, and me singing. He wasn't a trained pianist and I wasn't a trained singer, but we got by. And believe it or not, there was no sex, drugs, or alcohol involved -- just the exuberance of youth. (We were too young and snobby to go to bars anyway, which was probably part of it.)

That's why I bought tickets to Sebadoh's show at Lee Palace. Not because of the music, but because of the memory of those times. I haven't even listened to Sebadoh for years. All I have are tapes -- tapes recorded off of Colin's CDs, all those years ago. Okay, I do have a secondhand copy of Bubble and Scrape that I bought last year, but -- I don't know. It's just not the same when it's not played off of a paint-spattered Maxell cassette with my writing on it (back when my writing was legible).

Did the music hold up after all these years? It did. Colin always did have interesting taste that bucked trends. The set was typical of what I remembered of Sebadoh's oeuvre: jumping back and forth from raucous, quirky, and introspective. The latter two I had always associated with Lou Barlow, so it was a surprise to see Eric Gaffney and Jake Loewenstein spending equal time at the mic (and taking turns at the drums). It struck me last night that Sebadoh is like the jazz pianist Thelonius Monk, who still swings even though his melodies are offbeat and atonal. Sebadoh somehow still manages to have catchy tunes even though you'd be hard-pressed to hum them in the shower the next day.

I seem to have missed the first opener, The Bent Mustache (which was probably a good thing judging from this YouTube footage, but I caught Flecton Big Sky. I can't find much about them, which is too bad, because they had a surprisingly rich sound for a single drummer and guitarist playing songs in the lo-fi tradition. So the only other things I can say about them is that the drummer was remarkably enthusiastic for a two-piece band, and the hirsute, portly frontman seemed like he would have gladly given you a CD if you bought him a beer.

The person that got the most applause last night, however, was the guy who got up on stage and proposed to his girlfriend. At Lee's Palace. Yeah. That'll never last.

Flecton Big Sky website
Sebadoh website
Sebadoh on MySpace

---
Got my mouse finger and credit card ready for this year's Virgin Festival. Like last year, it won't break my heart to miss any of the acts, but unlike last year, I feel like this lineup is worth my $138. And I need an excuse to dust off my swan dress.

And on my calendar for April and May: Brad Mehldau, Sonny Rollins, Arcade Fire, the Joel Plaskett Emergency, and trips to Las Vegas and Seattle, both musical meccas in their own way. It's going to be a good spring.

Put your right foot forward

Back after a bout with the flu -- and my maxed-out credit card, which is why I couldn't buy Neon Bible yesterday like a good indie hipster and had to wait one whole day to hear it.

Is it just me, or does David Bowie endorse bands that sound like him? (I guess it's normal to like the things you wish you had made.) Both TV on the Radio and the Arcade Fire have received his blessing, and their songwriting could totally pass as his. It's probably the grandiose, reckless, genre-defying and -adopting that does it. But whereas I think Bowie does it consciously, the Arcade Fire does in unconsciously. Like Final Fantasy, they just seem to write songs without any regard for the standards of pop and rock music.

I can't figure out why I liked Funeral. In fact, it took me a long time to like the Arcade Fire, mostly because I couldn't pin them down. It was only when I labelled them as "infectious" and left it at that that I could let it go. Neon Bible will no doubt be analyzed to death via all manner of music journalism hyperbole (I'm talking to you, Pitchfork), and all I will say is this: the Arcade Fire are still infectious, but I miss the enthusiastic abandonment of the singing on Funeral.

Arcade Fire website
Arcade Fire on MySpace
David Bowie and the Arcade Fire performing "Wake Up" on YouTube It's pretty surreal to see the celebrities in the audience rocking out to the song.

---

Speaking of enthusiastic abandonment, I am currently hooked on the swaggering synth-and-brass disco-march-rock of the Wet Secrets, thanks to their 8-song EP, Rock Fantasy, being available as a free download on their website. It's the perfect soundtrack for my walk to work.

The Wet Secrets website
The Wet Secrets on MySpace

Final Fantasy @ the Tranzac

Braved the bitter, bitter cold (and my own cold) last night to catch an act on my to-see list: Owen Pallett a.k.a. Final Fantasy. He was playing the first of two fundraising shows at the Tranzac. Considering the acclaim and indie cred, they could have charged a little bit more than the $8 in advance, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Local band The Silt opened. They started out, well, interestingly. I figured they had created a new genre - lo-fi spaghetti western electronica - but they eventually degenerated into plodding, mournful folk-country-roots dirges that frankly made me want to poke my eyes out. I thought, "Well, with some more practice and a good lead vocalist, these guys could be...competent. Their songwriting is fine enough." They played their instruments well (the drummer even playing bass at the same time), and sang in harmony competently, but otherwise couldn't get it together. At least not for me.

I can't find much about them on the internet, except a piece Carl Wilson wrote for the Globe and Mail in 2000 (?!):

The Silt is turning out to be one of Toronto's natural resources, alongside the likes of Hawksley Workman, with whom they share hummability, flamboyance, classicism, and a willingness to be fey and vulnerable that, at its best, makes audiences giddily nervous.

Six and a half years later, I can honestly say I was not giddily nervous. I'm not sure which band Mr. Wilson saw in 2000, but it wasn't the same one.

The night got better when the Centaurs took the stage. Again, I can't find much about them on the internet except for individual MySpace pages for the drummer, flautist, and keyboardist/vocalist. The drummer denotes himself as being "2-step / Ghettotech / Freestyle", the flautist is "Experimental / Jazz / Jungle", and the keyboardist/vocalist "R&B / Neo-soul / Jazz". Imagine all that mashed together, and that was the Centaurs: trippy Stereolab-ish instrumentals (the vocalist never sang any lyrics) that would have been nothing without the drummer.

The consensus was that the flute was overwhelming; there are only so many kinds of sounds you can get out of a flute, unlike a violin. I felt there needed to be more featured instruments to shake it up a little. A good lightshow would have also improved the experience. Maybe they could hook up with the woman who did the overhead projector visuals during Owen Pallett's set.

Despite two albums and all the building attention, I was surprised that he was still a boy with a violin; I would have guessed that by this time he would have a backing band member or two. It probably explains why he seems to play small, odd little venues. He would be lost by himself in, say, the Mod Club, or even the Phoenix, even though his songwriting is dramatic enough for a large venue. Although I'd be curious to see if he could hold an audience in clubs that size. He certainly had the room hushed last night (save for some guy's bored, drunk, obnoxious girlfriend who kept pawing him and contemptuously stage-whispering in his ear).

I don't know anything about stringed instruments, but I could tell that Pallett is an accomplished technical player, and has a lovely touch. There was a sweetness to his playing that doesn't come through in the recordings. The same could be said of his singing. On the albums he sounds a little self-conscious; live, he really does know how to sing as he knows how to hold back.

I didn't recognize a lot of the songs he played. A quick buzz through the internet reveals that he does plan to release a new album this year, so that's something to look forward to. I'm curious to see whether the songwriting and production progresses. Live and solo, Pallett's sound is limited; on a recording there is the possibility of additional tracks and overdubs. Let's just hope the new album has a less ridiculous title than He Poos Clouds.

Final Fantasy website (which someone really needs to complete/update one of these days)
"This Lamb Sells Condos" on YouTube (likely directed by his friend with the overhead projector)
"Fantasy" on YouTube (a Mariah Carey cover, of all things, but it works)

---
Against all odds, I managed to get tickets to the Arcade Fire on May 15. Woohoo! They're crappy seats, but I knew I had to take whatever I could get.

You are the angel that I couldn't kill

I like to be surprised. I like liberal vocal harmonies. I like Mother Mother. I even liked them when they didn't have the extra Mother and band members. But I like Touch Up much better than their self-titled, self-released debut -- even though most of the tracks are the same -- because their new label Last Gang (home to Metric and The Dears) cleaned it up and cut out all the goofy self-indulgent bits that distracted from the strong genre-spanning Tin Pan Alley-like songwriting, interesting harmonies, and distinctive singing.

They play March 9 at the Horseshoe with a bunch of other fine young bands as part of Canadian Music Week. Sadly, I'm probably going to miss it due to another commitment. But I'm sure they'll be back.

Mother Mother website
Mother Mother on MySpace ("Polynesia" is my favourite track)

---
I don't think I have a snowball's chance in hell of scoring Arcade Fire tickets today. But I'll still try.

It's alright with me

Yes! Brad Mehldau, the intensely charismatic frontman for Atlanta, Georgia rock quartet The Bukowskis, is putting out a solo album next month. Mehldau’s powerhouse rasp and dynamo stage presence have been compared to Rob Thomas, Bono, Michael Stipe, and Gord Downie.

I just made that up by looking at the photo. But you believed me, didn’t you?

Brad Mehldau is a jazz pianist and composer. I first heard him on Jazz FM; the radio was playing in the background while I read a book, and when he began playing “It’s Alright With Me” my jaw dropped. I had to put the book down.

I sat there for a good 10 minutes (his interpretation on Live at the Village Vanguard runs about 12 minutes, actually) with my mouth open, swearing occasionally with disbelief. Within a month I had a ticket to his solo gig at the Glenn Gould studio and four CDs: Anything Goes, Live at the Village Vanguard, Back at the Vanguard, and Live in Tokyo. I've since added Day is Done, and House on Hill is on my to-buy list.

Many jazz pianists play chords with their left hand, and noodle with their right. Mehldau noodles with both. I love how he takes a standard (anything from Porter to Radiohead to Thelonious Monk) and runs with it, and just when you think he’s gone too far he manages to bring it back round again. His playing is cerebral yet romantic: the precision of a Bach fugue with a sensitive touch. He's Art Tatum without the whimsy, although he still retains his humour.

And I like the expressive way he hunches over the piano. It reminds me of the way I used to play during my misspent youth. He's a pianist's pianist. (There's a naughty joke in there somewhere.)

What blows my mind the most, though, is the tattoo. It’s a big tattoo. On his arm. That thing must’ve taken weeks to heal. Playing piano must have hurt like billio. It just seems a risky and masochistic thing to do for a guy whose upper body is his livelihood.

Anyhow, he rolls into town with Pat Metheny on April 9 and you bet your britches I've got tickets already. I'm not that crazy about Metheny, but any excuse to see Brad Mehldau play again will do.

Brad Mehldau website
Radiohead's "Exit Music" on YouTube

Part 1 and Part 2 of an interview with Mehldau and Metheny on YouTube. What a couple of scruffy-looking dudes. And check out that dragon tattoo.

New Pornographers @ Nathan Phillips Square

They were outstanding. And it was frickin' cold. I'm glad I saw them, and that I have feeling in my toes this morning. That's all I have to say.

New Pornographers website
New Pornographers on MySpace

The Golden Dogs w/ The Yoko Casionos and Paso Mino @ Lee's Palace

Last night was the best $8.50 I'd ever spent in my life. Well, rather, $8.50 x 2 plus convenience charges, beer, and the cost of the Golden Dogs and the Yoko Casionos new albums this morning on iTunes. But it was still the most bang for my buck I'd ever gotten at a concert: three tight, hard-rawkin, power-pop-alt-rock bands in one night. It was a good show, and even better, I did not black out from poor air circulation, as is my habit at Lee's Palace.

I can't find much on Paso Mino online; their website is under construction and I get the impression their current claim to fame is being Jason Collett's backup band. I'm not surprised; they were fantastic players, but still have to work out their sound. They haven't made up their mind between blues-rock, Canadian indie rock, and radio-friendly rock. They've got a lot going for them, though, including a lead guitarist with a distinct, mature, Jeff Martin-like voice. I wish they had rawked out a bit more, but the sensitive, lovelorn crooning probably makes them more popular with the ladies.

Overheard in the ladies' room near the end of Paso Mino's set (I couldn't wait): "Remember when Juan and Stef got kicked out because the staff throught they were screwing in the stall, but they were just exchanging clothes?"

The Yoko Casionos had already scored two points with me even though I'd never heard them before: a) their awesome name and b) they feature a rabbit in most of their photos and artwork. (Sadly they didn't have any T-shirts for sale at the merch table; I would have bought one in a flash.)

Live, I was pleasantly surprised. Very slick, very polished power pop-rock -- although almost too polished, if that's possible. Every song was bright and rich and performed impeccably. I can see them becoming very popular amongst faux-punk teenagers who like Green Day and Billy Talent -- and I actually don't mean that as a backhanded compliment. If their cards are played right, they could attract a huge and lucrative fan base and would be totally deserving of it. (And obviously, others think so, because according to iTunes These Are the New Old Times is distributed by Universal Music.)

Overheard in the ladies' room after their set:

"Aren't --- and Nathan cool?"
"Yeah! I wish they had played at my bat mitzvah!"

I don't think they were referring to any of the band members, but still, that made me feel old.

And finally, the Golden Dogs. I had bought Everything in 3 Parts last year on the sheer catchiness of "Yeah!", liked the rest of the album a lot, but had held off buying Big Eye, Little Eye. I think this was the first time I'd seen a band in which all the members looked like they were about to spontaneously combust. (Except the bassist. He showed admirable restraint. A quick buzz on the web reveals that he's relatively new to the band, so that explains it.)

Highlights: fake vines adorning everything, Christmas lights, the drummer drinking straight from a pitcher of water, the keyboardist swapping out handmade song namecards on a music stand, and a guitarist who looked like he could've been the kid brother of Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. And how the frontman could rawk out on guitar and lead vocals and chew gum at the same time is beyond me. He's clearly an evolved species.

But really, the Golden Dogs shouldn't hold back so much, y'know? They shouldn't be so uptight and self-conscious. They need to work on being more comfortable on stage. Let loose once in a while. Give it their all.

Paso Mino website (under construction)
Paso Mino on MySpace
Yoko Casionos website
Yoko Casionos on MySpace
Golden Dogs website
Golden Dogs on MySpace
Video for "Never Meant Any Harm" on YouTube (Which makes them seem like a sedate New Wave band, but keep watching. You'll also see the song name placards in the background.)

The bitch said yeah, the bitch said yeah

There hasn't been much to blog about lately because I went for one whole month without buying any new music. I didn't even realize it until I started to feel the strain and stress of a bitterly cold January. I finally got hold of Thom Yorke's The Eraser, but needless to say, it Mr. Yorke's mournful warbling didn't help my mood. It's an excellent album, yet I can't figure out if it's good or bad that it's exactly what I'd expected. I mean, I expected it to be excellent, but I guess I always want to be pleasantly surprised by music and it was anti-climactic to hear The Eraser at last.

The Eraser

---

Did you know that customers who bought this item also bought:

Twin Cinema - New Pornographers
Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade
Everything All The Time - Band of Horses
Set Yourself On Fire - Stars
Illinois - Sufjan Stevens

I am not surprised in the least.

I bought Immaculate Machine's Ones and Zeroes on a whim; I'd heard one or two tracks via CBC Radio 3 and they seemed to have the kind of energy I need for these early winter months. Like the New Pornographers, they're infectiously peppy, and have similar male-female vocal interplay. Kathryn Calder even stands in for Neko Case when the New Pornographers tour.

But whereas the New Pornographers have a '60s pop sensibility, Immaculate Machine has its roots in the '80s. That is, the former makes me want to dance like I'm singing backup in a girl group; the latter makes me dance like I'm in the prom scene in a John Hughes movie. In fact, I am convinced that they are the same band, but due to some trick of quantum physics, they are co-existing in the same time and space despite being from alternate universes.

Immaculate Machine website
Immaculate Machine on MySpace

---

Cansei de Ser Sexy has replaced Justin Timberlake's Futuresex/Lovesounds as my new guilty pleasure. Any other time of year and I wouldn't have bought the album. In fact, CSS made little impression on me when I saw them open for Ladytron last October, other than they were a cheerfully sleazy low-rent Go!Team. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.) One line from "Art Bitch" sums them up perfectly: "I sell my crap and people ask for more."

CSS on MySpace

---

Speaking of JT, there was some excitement at work on Tuesday as his tour bus was parked near the office and visible from our windows. That's as close as I want to get to him, even if he is bringing sexy back.

Good times

I like to think that today, the Bordens would have a MySpace page (maintained by youngest son Gary) and hold variety show podcasts from their rec room. And their "Friends" would mostly be older son Roger's high school classmates, who leave comments like, "OMG!!! saw you at the legion hall in trenton...u rawk" and "when r u coming back to dryden?"

And then one day they would get namechecked on CBC Radio 3 and discover they've been elevated to cult status by indie electropop bands. "I don't know who these Holy, er, Fudge boys are," Mrs. Borden would say over the phone to her sister in Kamloops. "But they sent us some nice e-mails."

Peter Appleyard @ the Harbourfront Centre

Peter Appleyard is 78, plays the vibes, and is awesome.

You wouldn't think it if you heard a recording, but in person he's unbelievably spry, charming, and always looks like he's having a great time. I first saw him at Jazz Lives, the now-annual Jazz FM fundraiser, in 2005. We had seats in the back row of the furthest balcony in Convocation Hall, and we could still see his bushy white eyebrows and the shiny brass buttons of his jacket. He only played one number, but if that had been the whole show it would've been worth the price of admission.

We saw him again at Jazz Lives in 2006, and this time we were so close to the stage we could see his name on his vibraphone. Last night at the Harbourfront Centre we weren't quite that close, but we still had a great view from the side balcony despite the box office attendant's trepidations that the seats weren't that great. Awkward, yes, but just the right angle for seeing the great man in action.

Our unique view raised some questions, though. What was the difference between mallets other than the colours of their heads? Why did he sometimes seem to pause and change his mind about mallet choice? And how long did it take him to perfect the technique of playing with three mallets at once?

Everything he played was a sheer delight, but the highlight for me was the liveliest version of Cole Porter's "Love For Sale" I've ever heard. Normally it's a dull, dragging, plaintive dirge that makes me want to poke my eyes out. Mr. Appleyard turned it into a fast-paced, sparkling confection with a hint of calypso.

My only complaint was that there should've been more vibraphone. There was plenty, but the show could've been called "Peter Appleyard and Friends" as he brought on a couple of guest soloists (a saxophone player and a vocalist) and he let his rhythm section shine without him on several occasions. (The upright bass player even got to take the lead near the end, performing "Our Love is Here to Stay" with support from the guitar and drums.) They were all stellar professionals, and normally I would have been happy to see them play. I just like Peter Appleyard that much.

Peter Appleyard website
The vibraphone on Wikipedia

---

Bonus: footage of Mr. Appleyard playing with Lionel Hampton in the 1970s. You can see his three-mallet hold near the beginning.

La grippe, la grippe, la post-nasal drip

Up in the wee hours of the morning with the nasty cold that's been making the rounds in the city. Even Andy Barrie has it. What's a girl to do besides make herself a cup of tea and post the ever-growing list of bands she keeps meaning to check out?

The All New Adventures of Us
AwRY (Shara Worden's incarnation before My Brightest Diamond)
Catlow
The Earaches
French Kicks (just because I like the name)
Hard-Fi
Hilotrons
Lianne Hall
Noisettes
OK Go
The Slip
The Switch
Ultimate Power Duo

The year in review

Whenever I come home from a show I take the ticket stub out of my pocket and tuck it into my whiteboard. Needless to say, there were a lot of stubs this year.

No. of acts (not including the huge lineup at Jazz Lives): 57
No. of shows: 32
No. of times I got carded: 28
No. of times my old, expired driver's license wasn't accepted as proper ID: 1
No. of times I saw Joel Plaskett this year: 3
No. of times I saw the Grates: 2
No. of times I blacked out at Lee's Palace from the poor air circulation: 2
No. of band T-shirts bought: 4, but only 2 bought at shows
No. of Keiths and rye-and-gingers consumed (but not necessarily at the same time): unknown

Best show of 2006: Tied between the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s for the raucous crowd and the Flaming Lips for the trippy, totally immersive experience.

Shows that just plain rawked: The Dears, Hot Chip, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Les Breastfeeders, My Brightest Diamond
Shows that went on too long: Band of Horses, Cat Power
Shows at which I nearly passed out: Band of Horses, Cat Power
Shows that won me over: Camera Obscura with the Diableros
Shows that overwhelmed: Ladytron, Flaming Lips
Shows that underwhelmed: Band of Horses, Calexico, Cat Power (sorry, she's very lovely but she tends to pick two or three chords and stick with them)
Shows that traumatized: Kids on TV, Fiery Furnaces
Shows that grated on the nerves: Fiery Furnaces, Spiral Beach
Shows that surprised me by how much I liked them: Classic Albums Live does the Beatles
Shows that I really enjoyed at the time but have since faded from memory: The Rapture, Belle & Sebastian, Stereolab, The Futureheads, Wolf Parade, The Strokes

Coming up in 2007: Peter Appleyard, Golden Dogs, Jazz Lives, Sebadoh, Sonny Rollins, more free indie acts at Nathan Phillips Square, and word on the street is that Dave Frishberg might be coming to town. Yeah!
Bands I hope are coming (back) to town: Final Fantasy, Gogol Bordello, Les Breastfeeders, My Brightest Diamond

Also planning a trip to Seattle in the spring. I'm bound to catch some good acts there (hopefully including the Trucks and the Earaches).

Major discoveries of the year: yéyé (French pop from the '60s), the Beatles, live opera

Favourite albums of 2006: Aberdeen City - The Freezing Atlantic, Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds, Found - Found Can Move, The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High, My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me the Workhorse
Honourable mentions (all good stuff by favourite bands, but these albums didn't resonate with me as much as their previous ones, or as much as the ones listed above): The Dears - Gang of Losers, TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain, Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Guilty pleasure: Justin Timberlake's Futuresex/Lovesounds. I'm so ashamed.
The album on top of everyone's Best of 2006 list that I didn't check out: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife.
Anticipating albums in 2007 by: The Bravery, Hexes & Ohs. And PJ Harvey is apparently working on new material, but no word on when that'll be released.

Happy new year!

It's a song you know well

Because nothing says Christmas like -- unh! -- James Brown.

Well, not really. But when you've had enough of sterile studio recordings of pop and jazz divas warbling carols, you can count on James Brown to spike your egg nog. Get down!



"Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto"
"Sweet Little Baby Boy"
"Christmas is Love"

And there's no need to fight last-minute shoppers at the mall. The Best of James Brown: The Christmas Collection -- 17 funky and festive tracks -- is available on iTunes for $9.99.

Addendum: RIP, Mr. Brown. I feel inexplicably responsible, having posted about him the day before.

Bonus track: Animaniacs, "The Noel Song". Best. Noel. Puns. Ever.

Sorry! These mp3s are no longer available for download.

---

This isn't music-related, but it is audio- and Christmas-related: on the latest episode of CBC's Quirks & Quarks, an engineering professor explains that it is possible for Santa to visit all our houses in one night with jetpacks and a relativity cloud. Awesome! A guest also discusses the virgin birth of komodo dragons. My favourite part is him pointing out that if Mary had conceived through parthenogenesis, Jesus would have been a girl. I think there's an untold story in that.

I just bought these albums

I lucked out and found a CD that had both Beatles For Sale and Rubber Soul on it. (The disc says, "For sale in Russia only." Oops.) Just missing Help and Yellow Submarine.

I think the used CD store man is going to have a very nice Christmas.

Beatles Marathon @ the Phoenix

So last Sunday at noon-ish my posse and I joined fellow musical masochists for the Classic Albums Live Beatles Marathon at the Phoenix. 211 songs, from "I Saw Her Standing There" (Please Please Me) to "Get Back" (Let it Be). 12 non-stop hours of live music, with only one break for dinner. More Beatles than I've ever listened to in my life. It felt a little bit like a Celtic folk tale in which a poor fool unwittingly puts on magic shoes that force him to dance for eternity. I crawled into bed after 1 am and I swear my feet were still tapping.

Highlights:

• The first "George" hopping happily about the stage with his bass. He had the head shake and the scream down pat.
  
• German versions of "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand". (As K. pointed out, these were songs he thought he would never hear performed live -- and would likely never hear performed again.)
  
• The groovy sitar player.
  
• The spot-on vocal harmonies during "Drive My Car".
  
• The rip-roaring performance of "Helter Skelter".
  
• The supporting percussionist belting out "Why Don't We Do it In the Road?" I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel.
  
• Hearing a really good song that I'd never heard before, which happened a lot.
  
• The hipster jocks in the audience. Now I know where all the cute young guys in Toronto hang out.

Lowlights:

• The frightening, aged rockers in the audience.
  
• "Eleanor Rigby", unfortunately. The strings got ahead of themselves and "Paul" had to work to catch up.
  
• Hearing a not-so-good song that I'd never heard before, which happened a lot.
  
• Realizing I should've worn comfortable sneakers instead of knee-high leather boots.
  
• Realizing, during "Lovely Rita", that no one writes songs about web designers. I may have to get on that. ("Lovely Deb, web designer", anyone? It'll sell a million records, I swear.)
  
• The woman who was a bit too excited to meet Andy Frost of Q107's Psychedelic Psunday. (He was broadcasting from the lounge.)

Undecided:

• The long-haired fellow who probably stands in for Robert Plant during Classic Albums' Led Zeppelin performances. Good vocalist, but there was one song in particular in which his hard rock stylings totally brought down the mood and gave it a sinister edge that had never been there before. (For the life of me I can't remember which song it was -- one of the early ones, when the band was still in their mop-top phase.)
  
• The group in the audience who was either a blended multi-generational family or a cult patriarch with his many wives.

In the end, the band outlasted us, as we limped away at the end of Abbey Road at 12:30 am with Let it Be still to go.

The next day I had a medley of their songs running through my head and I had to exorcise it with Ladytron's Light and Magic. Still, the concert did the trick, and now I'm thinking of getting hold of the Beatles' entire oeuvre. Checking my iTunes library, I only have Abbey Road and half of the White Album (long story). To the used CD store!

The Beatles official website
Classic Albums Live website
Classic Albums Live promo on YouTube (That's "Paul" singing Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Weird!)

Escape from New York

Sorry again, kids -- duty called and I was dispatched post-haste to the city that never sleeps. Am back but exhausted from the trip and yesterday's Beatlemania staged by Classic Albums Live. Will file my report soon.

Notes from the field:

• Baroque folk sibs Rufus and Martha Wainwright played Carnegie Hall the night I got into New York, but I figured that since they were Canadian, they would pass through Toronto eventually. (And I've seen Rufus before.) Later I found out it had been a Wainwright family and friends Christmas show -- including Wainwright mom and aunt Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Lou Reed, and Jimmy Fallon (?!) -- and I kicked myself for not hunting down a ticket.
  
• Classic Albums Live does U2's War at the Phoenix in February. Is it cool to see a tribute when the band is still around performing?
  
• On Janurary 6, Emily Haines plays the Danforth Music Hall, which is a much more appropriate venue for her introspective solo work than when I saw her at the Kool Haus. No word if anti-depressants are included in the price of admission, or if you have to bring your own.
  
• "Cool swingin' machine" Peter Appleyard plays the Harbourfront Centre in January. Eeeee! I know it's perverse to get excited about a septuagenarian vibes master, but damn it, I don't care.

That's it for now. Later, kids.

Tokyo Police Club with Hexes & Ohs and Spiral Beach @ the Horseshoe

Damn, I'm getting old. It's gotten to the point at which every new band I see looks like they're straight out of high school. But I guess like most fields that rely on innovation (e.g. art, math, science), the best work is done when the person is young. Not that any of the bands at the sold-out Horseshoe last night were particularly innovative, but they were all a lot of fun and were accomplished performers.

Well, except for Montreal electropop duo Hexes & Ohs. I still maintain that they need more confidence in their singing. I suspect that it's part of their charm, though. They're very wistful and earnest, and a full band and better singing chops would change their sound entirely. Perhaps for the better, because I do like their songwriting, but it would make them an entirely different band. At the moment, it's only the two of them on guitars and synth and their hardworking MacBook.

They only played two songs that I recognized off of Goodbye Friend, Hello Lover. I hope that means there'll be another album soon as I liked all the new material. Set highlight: Edmund Lam suddenly dropping to the floor to play a guitar solo on his back. We didn't see that coming at all.

NOW Magazine cover children Spiral Beach got a mixed response from my posse. We agreed they were good, but not original. We all heard different influences, ranging from Kate Bush to Garbage to Bjork to the B-52's to '60s psychedelia and '70s prog rock. Me, I had terrifying flashbacks to last month's Fiery Furnaces' show. I thought they were an impressively tight band, and the obnoxious theatrics amused me, but the songwriting was harsh to my ears. As K. pointed out, they were best when they had a melody to play with.

Set highlight: what seemed to be Ma and Pa Beach standing on a bench just to the left of us, filming the show and dancing.

By the time Newmarket post-punk-rawkers Tokyo Police Club took the stage, I was tuckered out and I suspect that everyone else was too. It was really hot, and there was more than one person who was a little smelly. Set highlight: none, really. They rocked out pretty well, but there wasn't any one moment that stood out for me. I was likely distracted by the number of people who kept squeezing by me as they were coming or going.

So despite TPC's strong performance and the appreciative audience, this was the first show I've been to at which the people didn't clap for an encore immediately after the band left the stage. (Although considering that the A Lesson in Crime EP has seven songs and is only 20 minutes long, maybe no one thought there was any more material to play.) I felt a little bad about joining the mass exodus -- it was TPC's last show of 2006, and they'd probably hoped to go out with a bang -- but damn it, there were people crammed into every nook and cranny in that place and I wanted out.

Hexes & Ohs website
Hexes & Ohs on MySpace
Spiral Beach website
Spiral Beach on MySpace
Tokyo Police Club website
Tokyo Police Club on MySpace

No, I won't sit and be quiet

Speaking of DIY bands as an excuse to have fun with your friends and impress girls, I present the Trucks as Exhibit B. Despite this Seattle quartet being all-female, I imagine several tracks off their self-titled debut will hold a special place in girls' hearts. These tracks will have you singing drunkenly with your gal pals on the dance floor while all the straight males in the vicinity look on in confusion or terror.

Their MySpace page claims, "WE ALL HAVE SWEET MOVES AND ROCK THE HOUSE!" Translation: collaborative synth-pop that's a cross between Peaches and Luscious Jackson, with a dash of Le Tigre's grrrly flair. Peaches probably inspired the raunchier lyrics, which is disconcertingly incongruous with the Trucks' girlish singing and harmonizing and catchy melodies. You will likely find yourself humming the most inappropriate tunes in the most inappropriate places. I unfortunately had the chorus of "Why The?" ("Why the f*ck won't you go down on me?") cycling through my head yesterday, which made for an entertaining day at the office.

But don't let that turn you off (or on, depending on your tastes). This is still a debut album; they haven't settled on a sound and schtick yet. Some tracks are nicely crafted alt-pop songs. Others will have you dancing in your pyjamas. And a couple will have the men in your life blushing with shame. All in all, the Trucks sound like good fun, and they're on my list of bands to see if I make it to Seattle next year.

The Trucks website
The Trucks on MySpace

Shut the f*ck up 'cuz this is what's up

About five years ago they were saying that indie movies were the new garage bands. All you needed was a digital camera, video editing software, and a dozen of your closest friends. I think recently there's been a return to music as an indie art form (read: a way to hang out with buddies, drink too much, and impress chicks), especially with this '80s new wave electropop revival -- again, because of easy access to computers and other relevant software.

Local Toronto band Ninja High School isn't '80s new wave electropop revival, but I suspect they were formed out of someone's desire to become more popular with girls. Without knowing anything about them, I imagined what the band was like from listening to their music:

• The frontman is a charismatic but slightly obnoxious lout whose forceful personality keeps the band from falling apart. (Likely the founding member.)
  
• The drummer is the only one with any formal musical training.
  
• No one likes the keyboardist, but they keep him around because no one else has a keyboard, and he's also their sound guy.
  
• The rest of the members are assorted backup-shouting and -dancing, tambourine-playing girlfriends, hangers-on, and riff-raff, who are just in it for the great after-show parties.

Of course, this is (probably) all untrue. But that's the impression I got from the 45 minutes of relentless slapdash cheerleading old school dance-rap on Young Adults Against Suicide. I tired of it quickly; there was little variation between tracks. If they ever show up on the bill of any of the concerts I go to, however, I'll be pleased. They at least sound like they're raucous good fun live.

Ninja High School website (I hope their sense of web design is ironic)
Ninja High School on NMC
Ninja High School on MySpace

Hey! Get over it!

So I pop into the Starbucks next to the Edge this morning, and there are these cute, shaggy-haired, nattily dressed fellas at the front of the line. With the radio station next door, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they're guesting musicians. I take my place behind two girls who are eyeing the guys furtively and fumbling in their purses. One has a camera in her hand, and finally they strike up the courage to approach them. I act disinterested, being an aloof celebrity-immune Torontonian.

As I pay for my low-fat cranberry muffin, the cashier chirps up, "You guys played a great show last night!" I don't hear their response, but at her co-worker's inquiry she says that they're in OK Go.

"Hm...OK Go," I think. "I keep meaning to check them out."

So as a reminder to myself:

OK Go website
OK Go on MySpace

...

Meanwhile, nine great punk videos via BoingBoing, most of which are from the year I was born and thus eliminating any credibility I may have when it comes to punk. Damn.