Moondog - "On Broadway" Would you believe it? A lost film by Jules Dassin was unearthed in Hamburg this week. In the storage closet of an old optometrist's workshop, the reels were propping up, of all things, a TV. Inherited from his father, the owner didn't know what they were until a news crew was filming a story at his shop about looters. They read the labels on the canisters and screened the film that night out of curiosity. It's dated 1953, it's called Kaplan is Captain , and it's shot in [...]
This entry is, um, wide. Best to view it on its dedicated page . Said the Gramophone is upon us. For five days there will be too much to do, in too few hours, and we are hopefully going to dance our feet off. For kids like me, Pop Montreal is the city's annual music blow-out - our SXSW, our ATP, our Home Game. Hundreds of artists pile into dozens of venues across the city, from churches to concert-halls, conjuring rackets. The concerts and films are complimented by dozens of free talks, [...]
"It's cold, bring a sweatshirt." Alex wore a rain coat, he always wore a rain coat, just in case. Grabbed the We Buy Gold! one, pink with gold lettering, and a stack of bars on the back. Out the window and onto wet lawn at night. Sprinklers have stopped it must be after 1. Schoolwork takes the ghost of my mother's face, it must be September again. But fuck this year, this year can suck a dick, I'm done caring. At the tracks, the branches let go around the rails, beat away by the [...]
The Daredevil Christopher Wright - "The Animal of Choice" . The return of the band behind one of the best gigs - and my 48th-most-favourite song - of 2009. As I said when I stumbled across their debut : Here's something great. With lightness, vigour & appetite, these Wisconsin folkies set themselves apart from all the lonelies and weepies. The Daredevil can sing in three-part harmony but their music isn't posed, over-deliberated. Nor has it been imposed upon some poor back-porch. Like "Clouds", the best track on In Deference To A Broken Back , [...]
Heavy Times - "Too Many Dreamers" A squirrel enjoys a bit of red wine and loose garbage. Walks along the telephone cables, trying to keep feet single file. Passes windows that drip with human breath and glow-light. Up trees to see streetlights, the tips of silent chimneys, and three stars. Sleep will come when it does, but until then, as always, the hunt. Heavy Times - "Poison Ivy" For supreme and utter obedience to the letter of the law, there is a state-funded Heaven. It's [...]
Howe Gelb & a Band of Gypsies - "Blood Orange" . Howe Gelb begins this song as if accepting a dare. The first line is this: See the sky a-broil and the colour of a blood orange. Yes, he must rhyme with "orange". On the next line, as he sings the word "door-hinge", you cannot even hear his grin. He lets the song lie dry and motionless. The sashay is almost imperceptible, until the middle of the track. Even then, after the girls have made their appearance, the dance number does not go to them; instead it is [...]
Covergirl - "Chemicals" "You got the password?" a grimy nose peeked out from the crack of a chain-pad door. Sammy did not have the password. He had come because he needed drugs so that he could cut the drugs and sell them out to dumbasses in his neighbourhood cause he needed a lot of fuckin money right away. He stared dead in the eye of the stinky nose that grimed out from this crack. "Penny?" Penny was the real name of the beautiful wife of the horrible dealer who [...]
Hospitality - "Friends of Friends" . I'm one of those guys who shoves his friends. It's how I say Hi . It's how I say, I love you, you dumb fuck. I take two strides over and pow both hands, into the sidewalk. Then my friend dusts themself off and says, "Yo, Goonie!" Because my name is Goonie. I'm a DJ, a gardener, I make the best ice-cream sandwiches in the world. I shove my friends into brick walls and pavement. I've never been to New York but when I go I won't take the [...]
Doug Tielli - "Riversea" Whenever I want to be at once alone and among people, I will walk over to The Tranzac, my local bar and music venue and one of the finest places in Toronto and, indeed, the world, in the hopes that Doug Tielli will be playing some of his otherworldly songs. During those moods that bring me to the Tranzac, no music is more appropriate than Tielli's strange and soulful compositions, often transcendental meditations on nature, which, in the spirit of Emerson and Thoreau, communicate aloneness and at-oneness at once. I've seen [...]
TEETH - "U R 1" In a dream I thought I was an alien that had just come to earth, looking at it from above like a hot air balloon. I thought that grains of rice were words, more precious than gold which had of course no meaning to me, and held secret in silos and in grocery stores, blended in amidst the food. I dreamt that speech was eating and talking was unnecessary. I ate so much rice, pilafs, curries, paellas, sashimi, but couldn't make sense of it in my stomach, it felt like [...]
The Cyrillic Typewriter - "Names" . The Cyrillic Typewriter - "Troops of Pure Silver" . In Italy, perhaps, a zumpano is the name for a sparrow, a magpie, a quick black bird that snatches berries from branches. In Canada, Zumpano is just a musician, a Vancouver familiar , but he too is quick, snatching. The Cyrillic Typewriter's Cyrillic Typewriter is a suite of short-long songs, vignettes and portraits, like a collection of handmade stamps or a YouTube compilation of sunrises. They feel handsewn but not at all ramshackle, and so [...]
The World Provider - "Gary Sinistre" . A fiery arrow of guitar pop, just that little bit melancholy, recalling the Rentals, the Cars, and maybe somehow um rental cars. Bashful oh-oh-ohs, drums as flat as level looks. But what I love most of all are the bells in this song, deep in the mix. I hear those distant sounds and I can't figure out if it's a cathedral I'm imagining or just someone at the door. [Montreal's World Provider release History of Pain on September 13. They are launching the album with [...]
The Chills - "Pink Frost" The Chills - "Rolling Moon" Just after these songs were recorded, the Los Angeles Dodgers, led by the rookie pitcher Fernando Velenzuala, won the World Series. A month later I was born. It was 1981 and it had been an exhilarating but ultimately troubling year for my brother. For most of his life, my brother believed that there was a direct correlation between the Montreal Expos' fortunes and his own. (Given my brother's occasional happiness and success, the theory was dubious from the start, and it [...]
Sovroncourt - "Thompson . Eastman" "It's not ready." Teddy knew the rules: make a machine that can dance like a human being, evoke human emotion through mechanized movement. He'd been working for 6 months and the contest was today. "It's not ready," he told his uncle, Mike, who was driving Teddy to the field for the contest. "Well, Teddy," said Mike, "it's a bit late for that now." Teddy just held his face in his hands and the morning news washed over him like nonsense. When the time came to launch the machine, the music [...]
The Blow - "Hey Boy (Nicolas Jaar re-work)" . Nico Jaar takes Khaela Maricich's indolent complaint and makes it a thing of regimented community, marshaled handclaps. It's my favourite kind of dry and hopscotch beat: you trace and retrace the same dance steps, stamping footprints into the floor. Clouds assemble and dissipate; hurricanes wave and skim away. The boy never calls. [ buy Jaar's Bluewave Edits , which also includes his version of Missy's "Work It" ] Jhene Aiko - "Snapped" . "Baby," Jhene begins, "I got ya [...]
Total Babes - "Le Guts" Titans are walking. Heroes are being killed and swiped aside, others are preparing to fight, if only in vain. Trouble is coming. "My cell phone works fine, but I want a different plan, and if it comes with a new phone then I'll take it," said texting, while boxes of groceries in the trunk, bungee corded, stack themselves. "I didn't get to pizza! We always pizza on the first night!" the beach house emptied, with the door swinging open, shone the sunset right out into the sandy [...]
Cermak - "Plaza Meditation" . Rupert Grog wove in and out of the parking lot's lines, driving and reversing and hiking the parking brake; turning the key in the ignition and flicking the windshield wipers. This is an exercise, he repeated to himself. Take it easy. He imagined a class in Taking It Easy, where objects are placed on a table and you pick them carefully, calmly, easily up. Take the bowl, easy. Take the wheel of brie. In advanced classes, the taking would get harder. Take the kitten. Take the steam. [...]
Na Hawa Doumbia - "Danaya" "Tell me the long story." The old woman laughed and shook her head, "No, no. Not the long story. Not tonight. It's too late." "Please. Please tell me the long story. There is still time." The old woman laughed again, pleased and with a warm heart. "Okay, but you must sleep." "The Long Story" was an embellished version of The Story. The story that the old woman knew best and told often. The story of how she left [...]
John Tavener - Eternal Memory - 3. With Great Peace & Serenity performed by Steven Isserlis, Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi. My enduring memory of Jack Layton, the leader of Canada's left-wing New Democratic Party, who died this morning, was that time Miranda saw him at Idée Fixe. Idée Fixe is a dive bar, my favourite. Jack was there with his Montreal team, swigging a big bottle of 50 and playing pool. It wasn't that he was "like us" - of course he wasn't, he was a lifetime [...]
Gotye - "I Feel Better" VHS Workout. Fresh bird. Washed money. New shoes. High heeled. Crisp pear. Kneed carpet. Crocheted sofa. Pink walls. Photo frames. Snow signal. Fiat start. Busted garage. Good enough job. Gap-toothed boss. Retail detail. Grimy grin. Leather welcome. Down payment. Paid down. Drug ring. Call waiting. Meeting lot. TV joke. Separate ways. Driveway divot. Streetlight purr. Half glass. Smoke drapes. Top view. Shingle dwindle. Satellite hook-up. [ Site ] Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Tune Grief" Mirror [...]
Said the Gramophone
Check Out: d’Eon – “Transparency pt. II”
the Weekender ::: New music from Catcall // the National // Summer Camp
KNIFE PARTY – RAGE VALLEY EP
