Fiona sings Cash

Yesterday Fiona sang the first 2 lines to "Folsom Prison" by Johnny Cash.

It brought a tear to my eye!

A shade of Blue

Lately I've been listening to quite a lot of blues music. Not becuase I'm feeling down or anything, I've just kind of been looking and around and seeing what I like.
I've discovered I really like acoustic blues more than the electric stuff.
My 3 absolute favourties are:

Mississippi John Hurt - Gentle, fingerpicked guitar, beautifully sad music.

Lightnin' Hopkins - Here's a guy who new how to hurt. Lots of songs about crying in his bedroom after his woman walked out and some brilliant blues solos.

Odetta - A breathtaking voice - It feels like she is slapping you in the face when she sings. I'm listening to "Motherless Child" right now and I have goose bumps.

If you are feeling down, I suggest a listen to some of this stuff. You might figure out things aren't as bad as you thought in comparison and it's strangely uplifting.

I wunt you

Ok, so last night Fran and I had date night! We went to see James Blunt at Massey Hall. James Blunt is the guy with the girly voice that sings "You're Beautiful" which you will hear pretty much everywhere right now.
Before I review the concert I want to take a minute to go over how James Blunt came onto my radar.
My mate Tony told me about him last year and so I downloaded a few tracks. The guy had a weird voice but after I got used to it, I really liked it. James Blunt was at this point a pretty cool, singer-songwriter type. Ok fast-forward a few months and suddenly I find Starbucks is selling his Cd (that just has to be a bad thing) and lo and behold, he is appearing on Oprah (that has to be a bad thing). Now I understand it's all about the $$$ but this does have serious influence on who goes to see him live. It has also meant I have been getting flack from my cooler friends (you know who you are Jen, Kareen, Tim...) for going to see him.
So onto the show and the audience is split, half oprah fans aka soccer moms and half Brittney wannabe's who are dressed like they should be pedaling their wares out on Shuter Street. They have actually made signs "I'll be Blunt, You're Beautiful" and my favourite "James Blunt, I wunt you" - Genius!
None of this really matters, it's still a great show.
Boy Least Likely To who are on my Best of 2005, open (the audience explodes when they come on as most of them aren't familiar with the concept of an opener) and they are alot of fun. A few tunes really miss, especially when they try to slow it down but they have a nice bit of banter with the crowd and get everybody clapping along.
Next up Mr. Blunt.
Screammmmmmmmmmmmmm go the girls
Flashhhhhhhhhhhhhhh go the cameras
The set is high energy and the band are really tight. He only has one album so we hear all of that and a few new ones which I thought were pretty good. After the 2nd song he invites people to stand up and the girls charge the front of the stage. The security beats the hormonal crowd back to their seats where they stay until Beautiful closes it and they charge forward again. He plays "No Bravery" in sync with a home vidoe he shot when he was in the army, all burnt buildings and grave sites, it's pretty heavy but quite touching until some 15 year-old shouts "I love you" just before he finishes.
I think the guy actually gets a bit of a bad rep but I guess it's all in the marketing.
Before I finish I want to say a word about Massey Hall. It's magical. It's a fairly small venue, maybe 1300 and is nothing special looks wise, 2 balcony's, lot's of pillars to avoid, but the sound is perfect. I could hear every note and every word. Ron Sexsmith ia playing their in April and he referred to it as his holy grail. I love it.
Ok, I have to go think of something that rhymes with Blunt to put on a poster

Continuing adventures in Rock n Roll......

We had a music club meeting on Friday which was alot of fun. Lot's of different stuff was played ranging from Kraftwerk to T-Rex to Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Bloc Party and onwards. For my part, I played Patti Smith's version of "Gloria", which I introduced as possibly the greatest rock n roll track ever (Ok I might have been over stating things but hey beers make things seem better and it is a rocking track). I also played "For Real" by Okkervil River, a band that I am really enjoying right now.
As for my musical history trip, I have been getting lots of music in but as of yet haven't had time to listen to it all. Sometimes I just put my ipod on shuffle and see what I get.
I'm loving Fats Domino, Blueberry Hill never really did it for me, but the guy could rock a piano like nobody else.
I got into T-Rex's "Electric Warrior" a while back and my friend Nikki leant me a DVD of their movie "Born to Boogie" which is great. It's a concert movie mainly but is interspersed with weird little bits directed by Ringo Starr, oddly enough. Ringo actually plays a sort of large squirrel at one point, and their is also a midget eating a car. I guess it made more sense on drugs in the 70's but it sure makes for a wierd trip these days. Elton John also appears in one part playing some mean piano and looking way cooler than you would have ever thought possible.
I have a ton of blues music to get through including some Howlin' Wolf and Etta James and I'm also looking forward to some CCR.
Rock on
Alan

Rock Snob

On Valentines day Fran got me the rock snobs dictionary. Am I a rock snob? Hmmm more of a music snob or a music connoisseur I guess. I think I might even prefer enthusiast, although that sort of makes me think of model railways. The book has really got me to thinking because as I read it, I realise there is so much I don't know. That's one of the great things about music, it's endless.
So I've started doing some research into the histroy of Rock'N'Roll trying to cover some of the stuff that I might have missed. As always the Toronto Public Library has been key.
Firstly I have been ordering all sorts of classic albums that I haven't heard before. Albums like Sticky Fingers by the Stones, Blind Willie Dixon, Bill Haley and the Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.
So far my big discovery has been Patti Smith's album "Horses". This is one that always comes up on the top 100 lists but I was always a bit put off by the attachment to the punk scene as I never really managed to get into that. As it turns out it's an amazing album that pretty much set the foundations for tons of bands out now like The Strokes and The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. Sometimes people say that and then I listen to the album and I can't see the influence but there's no doubt here. It crackles with a really raw energy, the opening track Gloria, with it's G-L-O-R-I-A footballish chant is breathtaking. This is pure rock'n'roll.
I've also been listening to some stuff by The Clash. Another band that I was always put off by the "punk" tag. To me punk always meant headcases who couldn't really play their instruments but thrashed around tunelessly with the things before breaking them over their amps. I guess I was wrong. The Clash bristle with political overtones but suprising to me, have a very reggaeish feel at times. I knew that reggae really surfaced in the UK with the Ska of bands like the Specials and the English Beat but I never realised that it sort of bubbled over into a punk hybrid.
In addition to the albums I thought I might check out the Rock Snobs required reading. First up (and very in keeping with the bands I've been listening to) is Dee Dee Ramones book "Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones". Again this is amazing stuff. It sort of makes the rock bands today look like a big bunch of girls. These guys were hardcore, doing pretty much any drug they could get their hands on and ending up with riots after every show. Their girlfriends where nutcase prostitutes and hangers-on that were pretty much as violent as anyone in the band. Much of it is almost sickening, especially the heroin stuff, which leaves you pitying them more than anything else, but in the end you can't help but be a bit awed by it. These guys distilled all the over the top indulgence of rock'n'roll together with some of the meanest, low down dirty aspects of society to create some kind of monster. (I use the phrase Some Kind of Monster as it's the title of the Metallica documentary and I think the Ramones would have kicked some serious Metallica ass).

New Music

So last weekend I signed up to www.emusic.com a subscription music site. I did it basically because they have an amazing 100 free tunes for signing up to a 30 day trial after which you can cancel at any point. I was thinking, sign up, get some tunes and cancel without paying a thing.
However now I'm thinking I might keep it up. It's only $10 a month for 40 tunes so I guess I'd be getting 3+ albums a month and also that warm fuzzy feeling that come with purchasing legal music.
I kind of like the idea of having a music subscription and although the site is limited in the labels it has on it, there is a lot of really cool stuff I have been after. Even if there wasn't new stuff each month I wanted there is plenty of back catalogue stuff to keep me going. 10 bucks ain't really that much, I think I can justify it.
To illustrate what a great selection of cool stuff they have, here is a sampling of what I downloaded on the weekend.
The Okkervil River "Black Sheep Boy" and "Black Sheep Boy - Appendix". Ok both these albums were on a lot of year end critic lists and I fell in love at first listen. It's intense, angsty, fragile, funny, beautiful.... Just an amazing couple of records, check them out.
Cat Power "The Greatest". The brand new Cat Power album and not a greatest hits as you might think. It's a sumptous album with her velvety voice crooning over a mixture of sparse guitar tracks and more orchestrated stuff. Another cracking album.
Josh Ritter "Golden Age of Radio" I love Josh Ritter and had been looking to get this for a while. He has a bit of a Dylan feel but with a softer more country edge. I've seen him live twice and both times he was awesome.
Mason Jennings "Mason Jennings" Another one I'd been after for a while. I had downloaded a mix of stuff but I wanted the whole album and an official version. Kind of similar to Josh Ritter but maybe a bit more upbeat.
Various "The Late Great Daniel Johnston" This is a tribute to Daniel Johnston who is a singer/songwriter who suffers from manic depression. He started out recording in his bedroom and handing out tapes on the street and his music continued to have a home made feel to it. His songs are simple and yet amazingly deep and heartfelt. He has some great uplifting moments in his music too which is suprising, for example "True love will find you in the end". This album has an fantastic mix of people on it including Beck, Tom Waits, The Flaming Lips, Teenage Fanclub, Clem Snide, and more. Hearing other people do his songs, often in a much more accomplished and full sounding way than his bedroom tapes really adds a different dimension to them. I can't recommend it enough.

Walk the line

Isn't it always the same. No posts for months and then 2 come along at once.
So Fran and I went to see Walk the Line yesterday. It was obviously a film I was going to have to see and sure it enough it made me want to go home and listen too all my Johhny Cash records. I thought Jacquen (I don't think that's how you spell it but can't be bothered looking it up) Pheonix nailed the role, although some of it did seem a bit spiced up for the movie. I thought I wouldn't like Reese Witherspoon as June Carter but she was actually pretty good.
But enough of the movie, that wasn't the highlight of the night. No that belonged to the 3 very old and very deaf ladies who came in 10 minutes into the film. After a loud conversation about where to sit two of them headed for the front row (I should add it was the Carlton which has really small theatres) whilst the other stayed at the back. The 2 in the front row curiously sat apart from each other and then settled in to watch the movie. Then it started.
Every once in a while one of them would have to add a little editorial comment to the other. Being deaf they had no idea of volume so the film was punctuated with comments like "That's Waylon Jennings" and "That's his house" or "He's lost his pills". Everytime it happened everybody else would laugh and sort of shake heads and stuff. It was flooring me, really they need their own show. The only dissapointment for me is that we weren't watching something more serious like Munich or Brokeback Mountain because I can only imagine what they would have come out with. That is a Saturday Night Live skit waiting to happen. Honestly if halfway through Brokeback Mountain the old dear had come out with "He touched his penis" or something I would have been in tears under my seat.
Again get these ladies a series or maybe add the Old Dears commentary to the DVD release, I'm definitely going back to the Carlton.

And so 2006 begins

Alright so it's been a good few months since I posted anything and the only people visiting this blog are those annoying comments that keep popping up. Is there no where people won't try and advertise?
Anyway just for them I am going to try and keep this thing up at least once in a while at least.
So 2006 has begun.
It promises to be an interesting year for me.
First up Fiona is already under way with full on sentences and no doubt by the end of the year will be running circles both literally and metaphorically around Fran and I. It's quite amazing to think of the development that she is going through everyday now.
At work Toronto's (and Canada's) 1st purpose built Opera House will open in June, which although exciting means a hell of a lot of work. I was at the site a few weeks back and it's looking great. It feels very intimate for a 2000 seat venue and it's totally different from any other venue in the city.
Watched a great movie the other night. "In Good Company" with Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace. Topher Grace is the 20 something hotshot who becomes 50 year old Quaids boss after a company take over. Topher then begins dating Quaids daughter (Scarlett Johanssen) to make matters worse. What's great about the movie is it really has a lovely way of illustrating the parallels in each of the characters lifes and how their relationships change things. It's brilliantly directed and the soundtrack is great too (very Garden State with Iron and Wine and The Shins). It's one of those movies that might look a bit naff from the box but I thought it was brilliant.
So for all you add placers out there (ok I know the adds are placed by a computer program) go rent it, you won't be dissapointed.
Cheers
Alan