A lot of people told me that having worked the nightshift for over two years, I'd be ready for the sleepless nights. That's like saying working 9-to-5 prepares you for not sleeping during the day. Winnipeg's Paper Moon have a new EP out in advance of a forthcoming long-player due in the new year. The album will be Only During Thunderstorms , the EP is What Are You Going To Do With Me? and it's available, like, now at the Endearing online store . EP includes this rad cover of [...]
Lillian Simone Matheson, born 6:07 a.m., Sunday, Dec.7/08 at BC Womens' Hospital in Vancouver. Birthweight: 7 lbs, 14 oz Everyone's healthy, no one's sleeping enough. mp3: " Sweet Child of Mine " by Luna
I can't believe I got up at 6 a.m. (PST) for this . When Harper walked out of Rideau Hall with his prorogation, I let out a pre-emptive yawn the size of Meech Lake. Short term, well, good for Harper. Long term, what's the strategy? He's burnt his bridges with the Liberals and NDP, and he's done even worse with the Bloc , which otherwise would be his only chance of getting a budget passed. The highlight of the morning, though, was Don Newman talking to John Baird, Minister of Transport in [...]
Stockwell Day, ladies and gentlemen, the gift that keeps on giving . Meanwhile, Harper booster Stephen Taylor says, "not a single person voted for a coalition government." Is it just me, or did half the country just forget what a Parliamentary system entails? This is what it's all about folks. Stephen Harper was elected with a minority mandate, which means the will of the Canadian electorate was that the Conservative Party work with the Opposition parties to run the nation. When Harper, Flaherty and Flanagan tried to put their [...]
Stephen Harper on the role of the opposition in a minority government . (via Paul Wells @ Macleans ) Oh, you see what he's doing there, he means a Conservative opposition. That's why what he said then doesn't line up with what he's doing now. Martha Wainwright: very good. Great voice, great energy, great band. Biggest surprise of the show: Opener Brian Borcherdt (whose myspace profile pic does him no favours--unless he wants to look like Jared Leto in a Star Wars fanfilm???), best known as one of [...]
So the Harper gov't thunk twice. But it might be too late for them. Their Stalinist-by-way-of-Tom-Flanag an power play has spurred the long-dormant Liberals into action . Whoops! For more LOLZ-Harper , Paul Wells at Macleans laid it on solid yesterday , with bonus awesome photo that will be my new desktop. Meanwhile, there's a boatload of shows in Vancouver tonight, in case we need something to take our minds of the best political intrigue this country's seen since Gerda Munsinger . We got AC/DC at GM [...]
Bad: Stephen Harper's idiot government is going to try to cut subsidies to political parties , for motives that couldn't be more transparent--to crush the Liberal Party. Because a minority of Canadians elected Harper and his mostly anonymous pals so they could carry out a bullshit vendetta against the Loyal Opposition with a reckless disregard for, y'know, actually running the country during a time when it seems like it really fucking matters to be paying attention. Right? Worse: Harper's Conservatives are going to sell it as if it's some altruistic belt-tightening in the face of [...]
After a full weekend of childbirth class, buying and assembling a crib, and thinking of the future , I return to my living room where I still have too many CDs leftover from nine years as a compulsive record reviewer. Each time I've moved--which has been lots--I've divested myself of giant chunks of the collection, but it's such a giant heap that it's hard to notice any difference. I like to think that my career as a reviewer was notable more for my appetite than for my taste, which was and is constantly under development. I didn't keep any [...]
November seems to be Midwives Awareness Month or something here in BC, and let me tell you, midwives are pretty awesome. I don't know what it's like to go through this with an OB-GYN, and the real moment of truth (birthing) is yet to come, but based on our experiences so far, I have no reservation about recommending midwives to any expecting parent. Well, not any. Obviously, if your pregnancy is complicated and you need a medical practitioner, that's your best choice. But if your pregnancy is healthy and problem-free? You owe it to yourself and your community [...]
Hogtown get ready for the bossest hog of all! Tonight, for one night only, Jesse Matheson & His Midnight Snacks will grace the stage at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern . FOR FREE! Jesse, if you say it all fancy-like, sounds like French for "I know". Which is what you can say now if someone asks you where Jesse is playing tonight. My other brother, who lives in Toronto will be there too, which makes me the other brother right now. mp3: " Nothing at All " by Jesse [...]
A week ago, Sound Salvation Army's Pat bemoaned the, well, Dylan -ness of Dylan . That ultimately punk rock way that Dylan has always managed to command respect and contempt at the same time from the same people. I didn't see the current tour, so I don't know. I saw him ten years ago at what was then called the Agridome, and, well, it was pretty damn cool. It was Dylan, knocking out hot guitar and plowing through a bunch of songs that half the world knows at least some of the words to. This tour saw Dylan [...]
Vancouver: Take your mayoral pick: A dude who skimps on transit fare or a dude who put his personal ambition ahead of his own party's welfare in a way that would even make Paul Martin embarrassed. The 2010 Olympics want to control your entire life . And not in a good way. Next up: mass evacuation of all Vancouverites who don't work for official Olympic sponsors? The Danks play at the Biltmore tonight with Two Hours Traffic. But me? I'll be at Louis CK . mp3: [...]
CanWest Global announced Wednesday they'll be cutting 560 jobs, or 5% of their workforce. Some of the finest people I know work for CanWest, and I hope they're okay. Further says the CP, "The company will also cut the physical size of some newspapers to reduce costs and focus efforts on expanding digital media operations." That sounds dismal and calls to mind CanWest's failed Dose commuter tabloid, the horridness of commuter tabloids in general, and usually awful programming on so-called specialty cable. Commuter tabloids are generally barely worth what you pay for them, unless it's raining [...]
Sick of elections yet? Too bad if you live in BC where municipal elections are set to take place this Saturday, November 15 . Saturday??? What the heck is that all about? The rest of the country does their voting during the week, which seems natural and good. But BC likes to think of itself as super natural, so go figure. Having spent not quite as much time as I'd like lately engrossed in Lee Henderson's The Man Game , a wrasslin' epic set in an alternate universe 1880s Vancouver, I kinda thought there might [...]
Lately, I've been losing sleep, worrying about the well-being of our precious banks. Luckily, I'm not the only who cares. The good ol' Harper gov't has been caring about banks too, why they must have worked through Remembrance Day figuring out this one . Well, back to bed, Canada! mp3: " The Bank " by Louis CK mp3: " End of Bank " by Louis CK P.S. Louis CK is in Vancouver on Friday at the Vogue.
Josh Reichmann used to be in Tangiers , a kick-ass Toronto band that had one or two former players from the Deadly Snakes . Tangiers released three excellent records of fraught, garage-y soul rock between 2003 and 2005. That's, like, one record a year. Now Josh Reichmann's got a sweaty new band, an Oracle Band, and they've just released their first EP, Life Is Legal , out now on Paper Bag Records. If you were on Paper Bag's mailing list during the week of Oct. 7th, you woulda got a free download [...]
Went down to watch the brother rock the house at Vancouver City Limits last night. Hosted at the Beaumont Studios at W. 5th & Alberta (incidentally, that's nowhere near the actual Vancouver city limits) every Monday night, VCL is an intimate mostly roots and singer-songwriter music showcase series worth checking out. It's in a rehearsal space with soft seats, and only holds about 50 people. Each show features three acts, and the folks who put it on take video of the concert and then post one nicely edited song from each [...]
Between the Augusts of 1997 and 2006, the main thing I did was write record reviews. I wrote 'em for free and I wrote 'em for pay, and I wrote 'em still when I had nothing to say*. It was, at first, good training for writing. I mean, it was writing, but it was also a bunch of other things. Mainly, it was me teaching myself to write. I've had no instruction in composition since high school, and what mentorship I've had has been indirect. For a long time it felt like I had to rediscover fire with [...]
The good people of Shazhmm look at Herbie Archives Vol. 1 and make my mouth water. The Fat Fury! Frankenstein! Possible multiple Frankensteins! Hubba 2x . Of course, the last thing I need right now is $50 collection of comics from the 60s. But a boy can dream, can't he? mp3: " Sweatshirt Cowboy " by the Woodsmen mp3: " I Been Rich All My Life " by the Woodsmen
A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Deer Tick – “The Rock”
Craziest Horse: The 15-Minute Like A Hurricane From Berlin
Escucha el ruidoso regreso de M.I.A.
Holy living fuck the new Die Antwoord video is intense
