I guess we'll just have to adjust

Attention Saskatonians (Saskatoonians? I dunno): Please go see The Paper Cranes at The Bassment on July 2nd. It is in your best interest to go see a band that rocks out this hard live.

That's it.

Peace.

Young girls ages 10-21, singing screaming the words to Born To Run

Looks like I’m going to be in Vancouver next week, 1 day late arriving for Bright Eyes there, and one day late returning for Bright Eyes here. I am unhappy with this arrangement.

I am happy that I re-found the CBC Radio 3 live show archives. Now for all the Flashlight Brown, Sigur Ros, and You Say Party! We Say Die! concerts you may have missed there is a close approximation. Or at least for me.

That’s it. I thought it was worth mentioning. They have a bunch of shit dating back to 2001. There are probably some bands there that people should check out if they haven’t. I can’t vouch for the live stuff, but Flashlight Brown is probably my favourite pop-punk band, Fiery Furnaces and The Unicorns both make my head spin, and Dizzee Rascal puts on a killer live show (so says Leo, who also puts on a killer live show).

There is the possibility that listening to these will leave you disheartened, as I am now even more upset that I couldn’t get into the You Say Party! We Say Die! show after listening to their set on this site.

On a completely different topic, I thought this was an interesting read: Top 10 Signs of the Impending US Police State.

Peace..

Bringing raised fists to a knife fight

Saw The Lawrence Arms with Brian a couple nights ago. They played with Alkaline Trio and The Black Maria. I really don’t have anything good to say about The Black Maria. They were fairly generic in what I assume is the style of the day. I saw pieces of Thrice, My Chemical Romance and maybe A Static Lullaby in there. You would think that would be a good mix but it just came off as sounding trite. I think the lead singer spouting off about doing your own thing the whole show might have turned me off too. I’ve seen people be genuine with rants like that, and I’m pretty sure that guy was just going through the motions. Enough about them.

The Alkaline Trio played last and I would say they played for about an hour too long. Someone who knows their music better could correct me here but I’m pretty sure they played their entire new album, and then another set worth of older stuff, with a god-awful acoustic set in the middle. Too much of a decent thing is how I would describe their set.

The Lawrence Arms were the best punk band I have seen in a really long time. Three dudes on stage just rocking out. I would say that they introduced four or five songs by saying “this is another song about getting wasted.” How punk rock is that? They played fast and hard, with their set covering pretty much every song I wanted to hear. I had intended on actually bringing my camera but once again forgot. One day I’ll get smarter about this shit.

If anyone wants something new to listen to here’s my weeks top 8 albums. Not that they came out recently, but I listened to them this week. These are the top 8 albums I could think of this week:

1 – Murs: Murray’s Revenge
2 – Against Me! – Searching For a Former Clarity
3 – Kanye West – Late Orchestration
4 – Delorean – Into The Plateau
5 – Thunderbirds Are Now! – Justamoustache
6 – In Flames – Come Clarity
7 – Mogwai – Mr. Beast
8 – Controller.Controller – X-Amounts

And that’s all I got.

Peace.

I kill you little kids like morning after pills

Well I am off to Saskatoon tonight to revel in the glory of the city I once lived in and hopefully see everyone I need to see. I am also looking forward to how awesome it will be to have no cars on the road as I tear it up on my super huge, dope-ass longboard. I don’t know if I can explain how much fun that thing is without resorting to sweet 80’s slang. Like gnarly.

If anyone wants an itinerary, I’ll be rolling about the city all day Saturday, followed by my grandma’s 80th birthday that night, followed by Skid’s show at Lydia’s. Sunday will be rolling around the city followed by who knows and Monday will likely be a sorrowful parting with my family on Monday. Then I’m going to do laundry.

Now if anyone gives a shit, here is what I am listening to these days:
- Delorean - Into The Plateau – I would say some kind of space pop thing. They are from the Basque region and I have seen them described as danceable dark pop punk, which hardly does them justice. Definitely worth checking out if you want some fast paced, atmospheric pop. If I had to make a comparison I would say Kiss Me Deadly, or a U2 that doesn't suck. Maybe a U2/Clash cross thing.
- Asobi Seksu – Citrus/Self Titled - I’m sure I’ve mentioned them before, but they are the shit coming out of New York. Plus their lead singer is hot, which is always a plus.
- T.I. – That King album is solid gold. Plus it sold over 500k. If you can’t appreciate the beat for What You Know, I’m not sure if we can be friends anymore.
- Lady Sovereign - Yes more grime, and this time from a tiny girl. I tried not to get it just because I didn't want the Def Jam marketing machine to get the better of me, but it turns out she is touring with The Streets this summer. Anybody with that endorsement is worth a check-out.
- So if anyone is interested I can throw up some links for song downloads. I’m just too lazy right now, and I can’t imagine anyone actually downloads the stuff I put up anyway.

And that’s it.

Peace.

That’s what’s happening in the parking lot

I need new music to listen to. Someone hook me up with some good ideas. Last night I picked up J Dilla’s Donuts (R.I.P), the Gnarls Barkley album and Reasonable Doubt. Those were all sweet albums, but it’s been so very long since I saw something reviewed on RapReviews, Punknews or Pitchfork that I really thought looked cool, that I haven’t got nearly enough new music going to keep me happy.

I guess I do have a bunch of older stuff that I never really got into, probably because I never put them on my work computer, which is where most of my music gets listened to. Maybe I should just pick up a pile of old stuff that isn’t on here and throw that on. That will require getting rid of a bunch of stuff though, but I need to do that anyways for some new work programs. This is quite a dilemma.

Other inane music stuff:
- The beats on Demon Days are bananas. Between that and Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere I think that Danger Mouse is destined to be a top-tier producer. As if The Grey Album hadn’t already proved that. He should challenge 9th Wonder to a produce-off.
- In Flames are coming to Saskatoon, but I don’t get to see them because work is lame. I will have to console myself with their new album, of which the three tracks I have heard all kill. That is one poorly constructed sentence.
- This is the best folk/protest song I have ever heard. Listen to it once and tell me you aren’t on your way to find out who Rachel Corrie was. Or maybe you already know who she was, in which case this Billy Bragg song should strike a chord. That man is a genius.
- Web off of Tipping Point is probably my favourite Black Thought rap ever (today). Shit is gutta. I’ve been calling shit gutta ever since I heard Funk Flex call the singing on Papoose’s Sharades gutta. It sounds absolutely ridiculous when he says it, so it makes me smile when I get bust it out. How can singing be gutta? I can’t figure it out. And then on the next chorus Flex talks over it and says “ Keep it loose, Dunkin Donuts style, keep it loose. I had the lieutenants up on the Krispy Kreme, ya heard they stepped their game up. On some real expensive donut action. No doubt!” I have no idea why but that shit crack me up. I want to get on the radio and say retarded shit over songs. That would be gutta.
- I’m going to see The Strokes this weekend. I can’t really picture what they will be like in a large venue. I sometimes think bands like that should just book a small club for a week and play there every night so no one misses them. It can’t be the same vibe in an old hockey rink as some dive bar. I’m pretty sure the latter would be more enjoyable.

And that’s about it. Looks like me and the inferno are coming down to Saskatoon for the long weekend. Be on the lookout for a kid on a dope longboard careening into traffic and whatnot. So far I only know that Mike and Leo are in town, but if anyone else is going to be around you should drop me a line.

Peace.

*edit* - did I mention Halo 3?

Dress me in red at the wake and blue at the funeral

Friday night was one of the better nights I’ve had in a while. Granted I spent it in some dive bar with a completely bizarre waitress, but the fact that I finally got to see Leo perform live was most definitely worth it. It made me feel good to see someone I care about doing something with their life that wasn’t just earning a paycheque. One day I’m gonna get there too.

I spent most of Saturday chilling out on 17th with Leo and his crew. I took them to the Coup for lunch, which is quickly becoming my favourite restaurant in Calgary, and I think they all enjoyed it. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around and shooting the shit. That night I watched Fade to Black, which is by far the best concert movie I think I have seen. I’m hoping that new Pixies movie is done that well. Tim, Jess, Sunita and I went out for a couple drinks after that and then I met up with Chris at the Hi-Fi club for Jan’s birthday. That place is pretty damn cool because drinks never cost anything and they have cheesy punk bands playing all the time. I think The Daggers were playing on Saturday night.

I worked Sunday, and then watched the hockey game with Tim and Chris. Tim and I rented Hustle and Flow after the game, which I thought was a deadly movie, but I’m pretty sure Tim slept through. The girl from Get Real was in it. I’m pretty sure only Mike remembers who that is, or what that show was.

And that was the entirety of my weekend.

Peace.

Listen up because it’s an anthem

Things I want to write about before I forget them: stupid purchases, music, weekend plans, and my life.

So I don’t know if I’ve said anything about this lately, but I’m pretty sure I am addicted to buying stupid things. Not necessarily stupid things, but just things. I just spent a weekend with my parents where they loaded me up with some cool stuff and food. You would think this may have been enough to get me through the next few weeks without having to buy something else, but obviously the stuff I got wasn’t cool enough. As such I picked up a longboard off ebay the other day. Not that I was the only one doing it, but I really had no reason to do that. Tim and Mark both picked one up as well, so I’m hoping that this summer we actually use that shit. I think I may have just bought it so I could throw it in our apartment and people will think I’m really X-TREME when they come over and see all the snowboards, skateboards, and longboards. It’s really all about looking good. Other than the longboard my latest purchases have been cds, but I don’t even really know which ones and that’s really it. It’s quite bizarre how that eats up all my cash.

I would now write something about the cds I picked up but I can’t remember what they are, so I’ll just talk about some shit I found laying around the internet. First off, for some reason I felt the need to dig up the new Taking Back Sunday. I can’t say that was a good idea because quite honestly anything that band puts out can hardly compare to Tell All Your Friends. It is because of this that I got rid of the old album and just started listening to Tell All Your Friends again. That album may well be timeless. Next up is the new Murs disc, Murray’s Revenge. He did this one with 9th Wonder again, and it is just as good as Murs 3:16. I don’t really think I can say anything about it other than that. Definitely worth picking up if you are down with any kind of hip-hop. If you don’t like it you can hit me next time I see you. Other than those two CDs all the new stuff I’m listening to is coming from Evan’s Song a Day blog. No its not that Evan but some random dude who puts up a random ass MP3 every day, and I definitely like what he’s been putting up there.

I’ve also been listening to the two new tracks Leo put up on his site. His new stuff is the best I’ve heard from him yet. I’m pretty damn excited to see him play on Friday and hopefully Saturday night (yup, I’m gonna groupie it up and follow the tour to Canmore). He’s playing at the Distillery, and I think the show is at 10. I think it would be worth anyone’s $5 to go check it out. And if anyone is up for it I think this is my last weekend hitting the hill so either Saturday or Sunday I’ll be out at Sunshine doing some really wide carves.

On to the part about my life, I stopped eating meat a few weeks ago. This wasn’t really a decision based on anything other than I don’t really want to eat meat anymore. I may have been out for drinks when the decision was made, but it was just a convenient excuse to make the call. So now I’ve been without meat for 3 weeks or so, and I am pretty sure I’ll be sticking it out. I don’t really have any desire to eat meat right now, and I think I need to show people that I can actually stick with something. I guess this is going to be it.

Peace.