…but just in case you haven’t, check it:

I love Rage… so fucking much.

Almost everything was wrong with The Stanley Park Singing Exhibition (day one, anyway. I’m not going to day two). That said, almost everything was right with Deerhoof’s performance.

I did not illegally record their show. And you should not DOWNLOAD IT.

P.S. Andrew Bird was really awesome too, but the recording device I totally didn’t have ran out of batteries.

My friend Adam is going to poop himself when he sees this:

…yikes.

(I love this guy)

Tomorrow I’m going to Berlin, for the first time in my life.
Could I be more excited?
(mm.. maybe.. if I was a beautiful girl from Sweden who’s going to go to USA next October)
There’s always been something.. special, between me and Berlin, since when I was a child, really.
My very first band I’ve been a fan of was Alphaville, and they were from Berlin. They were huuuge in Italy in ‘84-’85, as well as in the rest of Europe. I was only.. 8, 9 years old, and I was totally mad about them: I had Alphaville’s first album on vynil and on cassette, lots of posters and press clippings about them.
My precious dad also bought me the sheet music of this unforgettable first album, “Forever Young” (1984): I learnt all the lyrics by heart, even though I totally ignored their meaning (my first clumsy attempts in the fabulous world of the English language..).
I still remember the whole tracklist: apart from the hit singles “Big in Japan“, “Sounds like a melody” (masterpieces of early 80’s synth pop. Definitely) and “Forever Young“, I loved the second song on the album, “Summer in Berlin“: superb instrumental intro, great chorus, touching lyrics.
I couldn’t help thinking about it last month, while searching for an accomodation to book on the net: I came across the “Summer in Berlin” special offer almost in every hotel website..
However..
There’s no official video for “Summer in Berlin”, but I found this one, made by a fan, and it’s not that bad.
Guilty pleasures have never tasted so good to me.
Enjoy

Alphaville - Summer in Berlin (1984)

Some days ago I uploaded a post about Does It Offend You, Yeah?, a band from Reading, and I chose, among their 5 videos to date, “Epic Last Song”, which features the band as miniature action figures.
I totally love this kind of videos: action figures with cut-out faces, or real people with cut-out faces, or cut-out figures with.. uh, whatever!
So why not post some more?
You probably know “E-pro” (marvellous vid) by Beck, or “The Hell Song” by Sum 41 or “Wishbone” by Architecture in Helsinki already.
So I thought it would be nice to pick up something not that filthy famous (at least, I suppose so).
Here they are.
Enjoy

Eskimo Joe - Wake Up (2001)

Space - Avenging Angels (1998)

Athlete - El Salvador (2003)

And, for last, the one I like the most.
Amazing video, awesome song (that kind of song that gives me the shivers each time I listen to it and I can’t really explain to myself why).
Again, enjoy.

The Spinto Band - Oh, Mandy! (2005)

While surfing YouTube, I discovered this video from the future. I say from the future, of course, because these children are clearly mine. Check it:

On rare occasions, I find myself somewhat blown away by the quality and originality of new music I’ve discovered. But not since my friend Will made me listen to “We Tigers” by Animal Collective have I said to myself “holy shit, nobody else is doing this.” Enter Muskox, a big little band from Toronto who remind me of Animal Collective in the truest sense. No, not that they sound like them at all, but that they’ve managed to find influences from a variety of unlikely sources, and put them together to create something that is truly original (and perhaps the birth of a new genre entirely).

Mike Smith, their leader in crime, was kind enough to grant me an interview. Here is what transpired:

Jocelyn: Coming from a jazz background, how did you arrive on the kind of music you make?

Mike: Trial and error, I guess. For the most part, it’s been an ongoing search for a particular sound - it’s just that in the last few years I’ve realized that I need to go ahead and make it myself. 

I mean, I’m still working on it - I ended up studying jazz as part of that process, I guess. It seemed to be the right path to go down when I started getting really serious about music.

J: How do you describe your sound?

M: That’s kind of the bane of my existence. Whenever possible, I just play it for people, but otherwise I’ll just string together a bunch of baffling strings. I really like the vagueness of “prog-Americana.”

Really though, what we do is play more or less through-composed instrumental music that combines elements of minimalism with heavy doses of traditional musics from all over the place. 

The group has an unusual line-up - saxophone, banjo, vibraphone, double bass, harmonium and electric piano - which wasn’t arrived at for novelty’s sake, but rather as the most logical way to produce the kind of ensemble sound I am trying to achieve.

J: How does the song writing process work for you? How do your band mates participate?

M: More or less everything is dictated by what I write down and bring to rehearsal, although there are usually a lot of things there that were arrived at through talking with the other guys. I always have a lot of questions for Jamie, the percussionist, since I really enjoy exploring unorthodox techniques on his instruments. 

Most of the music on the last recording we did was originally written with pedal steel guitar as the dominant voice, and the melodic and harmonic content came about as a way of exploring the weird hillbilly engineering behind that instrument. It was interesting to hear what happened once everything was rearranged for the way we play it now.

As for the actual writing process, I start with some sort of small fragment, or a particular rhythmic concept, and a duration of time. the time gets chopped up in such a way that hopefully produces a compelling structure, and then I fill it up with permutations of the original idea.

J: One of the interesting effects of the Internet is the availability of so many different kinds of music, somewhat independent of the popular marketing machines. How do you think this exposure to so many genres has effected your music? How do you think it effects the response you get from listeners?

M: It’s hard for me to imagine being without this sort of universal access to all sorts of music. It’s a little terrifying. I am constantly finding inspiration in these spontaneous YouTube binges where I just follow a trail through a whole whack of new music. Definitely this directly effects the music I’m working on - I just bought a second harmonium so we can produce the sound of Italian bagpipes.

It’s hard to say how this effects listeners. I’m always tempted to grill people on how they place my music in the overall scheme of things, but that’s a kind of creepy thing to do.

J: I didn’t realize Italian bagpipes were a thing.

M: Italian bagpipes are THE thing, as far as I’m concerned - zampogna. The Italians don’t mess around. They use THE WHOLE SHEEP. 

From time to time I come across something like that which I suddenly realize I’ve been searching for forever, and I kind of add it to my musical clipping file - you know, “stuff to rip off later.”

J: As long as you steer clear of the pan flute, I think that’s pretty cool.

M: I try to steer clear of the Andes.

J: It’s probably safer that way.

M: Mind you, the cajon comes from Peru. I’m sunk.

J: Ah well, you can’t win them all.

If you could recruit one living artist to join your band, who would it be?

M: Tricky one. 

Well, practically speaking, someone who plays the viola. The fantasy choice is a little harder…

J: Just say Slash. Everyone does.

M: No way. I want Izzy.

J: I think somewhere an angel just lost its wings.

M: Well, as long as the guy with the “Where’s Izzy?” sign is placated.

J: Yeah that poor guy needs a break.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In ten?

M: Of course there is no way to tell what may happen, but at this point I’d like to see myself continuing to write and perform my own music, with people still willing and/or interested in hearing it. I don’t have any lofty goals. I just hope to remain curious enough to keep at it.

Around four years ago, I got bummed out enough to attempt to stop playing music completely, so at present I’m kind of blown away to have such and amazing group of people to play music with.

J: Where did you find these people?

M: Well, the origin of this whole project was being invited by my pal Matthew “Doc” Dunn to play the Bummer in the Summer festival in 2006. I had been living in Montreal for three years with my head in the sand for the most part, and had very little clue what had been happening in Toronto, musically.

It seemed like a good opportunity to just go for it, and write the music I’d been imagining. So, to be on the safe side, I just gathered together the best sort of musical pals I had while I was at the University of Toronto - that was Jamie Drake, and bearded man and saxophonist Mark Laver.

Doctor Dunn filled out the group, and as time went on we added Ali Berkok on piano, who was a new friend made in various other random musical projects. When Doc left the group, I decided to take over his banjo duties and handed over the bass to Pete Johnston, who was another U of T guy of yore, and also someone who added to the band’s weird connection with the Annapolis Valley.

J: How do you fit in the Toronto music scene?

M: I’m still trying to work that out! Up until now, we haven’t played all that frequently - about once every two months - but it always seems to be in a different situation. We’ve done stuff in the sort of art music/experimental scene like the Bummer, as well as shows hosted by the Association of Improvising Musicians, as well as just straight up kind of indie rock shows like the recent Bruce Peninsula release show on Toronto Island. 

Right now we are really lucky in Toronto to have a very open-eared audience for the most part. It’s quite common to see bills that feature completely disparate acts that can all keep the attention of the audience.

Also, for better or worse, we are a pretty unusual group so I’m not sure we really “fit in” anywhere. That said, I feel pretty comfortable.

J: What kind of response do you get when playing live?

M: People seem attentive and appreciative. I kind of can’t believe it. Our sets usually consist of two or three uninterrupted blocks of twenty minutes or so, and for the most part folks seem to be listening. I mean, I guess the people who get bored or are otherwise turned off aren’t really going to approach us after the show and say so…

J: What’s your favourite Muskox song?

M: My favourite to play right now is “Foot Locker”, since I always screw it up and it is fun to be on my toes. I think I did the best job writing-wise on “The Wren”, since it has top-secret connections to all the other Gallantries tunes.

I’ve been trying to establish a tradition of covering a pop tune with a vocalist from whatever band we are playing with. It’s the best ever. Last time we did “Rhiannon” with Tamara from The Weather Station, and a few months there was a Kate Bush double shot with the amazing Isla Craig. 

I think sort of shoe-horning tunes into our mutant instrumentation may be my favourite activity.

J: Well, I think that’s about it for the interview. Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

M: I’m good! Although I can’t help but feel like a jerk for talking about myself for so long. I guess that is how interviews work.

You can download “The Wren” by control-clicking (or right-clicking for all you non-Mac-using losers) here, or by checking out the downloads page. Also, be sure to head over to Muskox’s Myspace page for more great tunes and general awesomeness.

As the air is getting crisper and the sky is getting rainier (at least around these parts), it’s getting about time to (grudgingly) bid summer adieu. In honour of this bittersweet farewell to warm weather and mild sunburns, I decided to make a playlist of all the songs I played the hell out of this summer. Enjoy them while you can.

As you all probably know already, while I’m writing this post the Reading & Leeds festival is taking place.
It’s one of the things on my “must do before I die” list. No, not “write a post about it”, no.. I mean.. “BE THERE”, for once in my life.
It’s something I’ve been putting off since 1992, when I was left shocked after reading that year’s lineup: Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins (inbetween “Gish” and “Siamese Dream” era..), Ride, Pavement, Screaming Trees, Charlatans..
Whatever..
Reading (the city, not the festival) gave birth to two of my favourite bands ever, Slowdive and Cooper Temple Clause.
And so.. when I read that Does It Offend You, Yeah? (cool name indeed), one of this year’s hippest bands in Uk actually came from that city, and that they will be opening for NIN on some dates of their North-American tour.. I felt the irresistible urge to investigate it some more.
As first impression I don’t think I’ll become a fan of DIOYY; I like them, they have nice songs, but I don’t get all the hype about them at all (usually hardly one out of ten bands hailed as the “Uk next big thing” by English media is worth a buy).
I mean, if we were in.. 2003, that is, before !!!, Digitalism, LCD Soundsystem, Justice (and Simian) “traced the path”, they now would be godlike knights of the.. urgh.. punk-electro-dance-clash genre.
But, in 2008, DIOYY appear to be a sort of not so original mix of them all, and bands like.. mm.. Shitdisco, Late of the Pier (we talked about them here ), Klaxons (this moot and motley list could continue with The Rapture, The Teenagers, New Young Pony Club, CSS..), sound much more intriguing. To my ears, at least.
However..
Among their five singles to date, I picked up this one (Klaxons playing a song by Bloc Party remixed by Digitalism?).

Enjoy

Does it offend you, yeah? - Epic Last Song (2008)