Coming around to accepting the geographic location of the ‘do. Walking 4 minutes to a free My Morning Jacket concert helped. Had a perfect view of Jim James from the balcony, super squeezed in & craning my neck to’n'fro…does that man have 2 or 3 flying v guitars? insane. that tech earned his keep.
Though I’m still angsty about missing his solo show, being impossibly-packed in a 100-seater church at sxsw (& the M Ward factor adds to the angst), I finally feel somewhat at peace about it. Special thanks to Stacey & Roberto for hooking me up with this annual ritual - the headaches & lineups are worth it - superior sound and lights - top notch acts & the Berkley Church is as lovely as even in its crotchety run-down kinda way.
Should sleep, will stay up listening to MMJ bootlegs.
G’night meegs
p.s. My Dirty Projectors ticket for tomorrow says #32, number effing thirty-goddamn-two, people - WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU INTERNETS? GO TO THIS SHOW ALREADY.
Long overdue proper slow Sunday morning in Toronto, re-living that last Sunday in ATX at Jo’s - with green tea, homemade banana bread, & the Sunday Times - just not outside admiring scruffy tattooed indie/punk/’billy/rock types come & go, unfortunately. It was good to talk politics (in between tech & music, that is), with UT/AMF/ATX friends (Hook’em Horns, future Final Four champs!) throughout the primaries - even better in person. Here’s a combo music/politics playlist to mull it over:
Blessed by the god of above average opening acts this week, and what an insane week it’s been. Glad to be settling back into TO living without the settling part, still catching up with everyone & everything I’ve missed as a truant Torontonian. This is my first chance this month to actually relax, geek out at home, reassess (still processing sxsw - swag, photos, vids, etc…) - or as Kramer told me to do on Wednesday - enjoy the small pleasures instead of freaking over big plans.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday had/s an eclectic hat trick of shows in the city, with venues I haven’t visited in far too long. Standout acts include(d)……
Of course headliners Beach House were brilliant in their own moody, ethereal, swoopy, haunting kind of way, but pumpkin time crept up around 1ish and I bailed before they wrapped.
Hunch confirmed, they’re equally awesome live as on the record - I desperately need to start repaying some of the ongoing sleep debt….
Phew. So tonight brings a concert from the beautiful Basia Bulat, who reigned over Austin this sxsw, charming all the public radio pocast’n'day show freegans’n'jaded record store employee-types in Travis County.
Okay. See you @ Lee’s. Rest up.
Peace Meegs
p.s. - Mike at the Drake sez that there is going to be a 2nd block of tickets going on sale for jen’s combo-show at the music gallery. heads up, cause you could enjoy this in the comfort of your own city, finally:
Realizing that the top 5 is heavily skewed in favour of the latter half of the fest and the hyped up indie/pop acts, well, except the guilty pleasure Nada Surf reference (here’s a live version of weightless - Mp3, from the band’s February appearance on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic). oh well. seeing Daniel Lanois twice and back-to-back Billy Bragg and Mick Jones sets was pretty incredible in an old-fart/classic icons kinda way…finding it tough to synthesize all this info since my CAMERA CRAPPED OUT. sigh. bygones. hopefully the IT dudes can put that bad boy on some kinda life support and salvage some photos. anything.
ANYWAY, thinking about the box of hair reference from yesterday, which is really from late Sunday evening on the flight back. . Talking to this cool gal from mint records about their roster past & present and how, for a geeky girl growing up in Parry Sound, the last cub record was pure plastic bubblegum bliss. BoH came out in 1996, so this CD I’m spinning right now is twelve years old - ugh. We talked about how when you’re a teenager you have this unsustainable ability to absolutely, unconditionally LOVE a record. It’s visceral. Like Jordan Catalano levels of obsession that I don’t have the energy or attention to focus on any individual work of art anymore. I wonder if when i go nuts for a song or an album today if it’s even a fraction of the attention I heaped on BoH and other 16-17-year-old favs. Part of it is pure free time, I guess, but there’s something to be said for the raw reactions of the teen years & music. Truth be told - it’s not a mind-expanding or genre-busting record (check out Magic 8 Ball, still my fav track from BoH in this Mp3)
Hmm..ponderables. Would like to hear if you had any h.s. guilty pleasures, maybe we could do a seeqpod mixlist…
Phew. So I’m back, if you still give a crap. Safe-ish & sound, but with more dirty laundry and an empty fridge. Majority of catching up questions & convos begin with a request for a musical (un-related to interactive, wha wha?) highlight. That’s tough. Here goes nothing, Top 5′in it up:
1. Jens Lekman x 3 - the NPR party at the Parish, the hot freaks party at Club de Ville & the night showcase at Mohawk. Oh, & having a blissful moment talking to him, that was pretty badass, too.
2. Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed & the True Loves - knocked me out, shut me up & left me wanting way more. Did the requisite waterloo run on Sunday but to no avail. Gotta get this record STAT.
5. Nada Surf - Classic performance at Cedar Street. Still remember seeing them during my first SXSW at the Yard Dog day party. Flip back for some of the previous NS Mp3s…
ANYWAY one of the highlights was hanging out in the airport listening to a recording of the M Ward show at St. David’s church, which Peter got into (lucky dog), but I was super lucky, too, to have met so many nice people along the entire stretch of the visit. One encounter reminded me to dust off Cub’s Box of Hair tonight. Long story. When I say I wish you were there, I mean it. Most of the time.
Well, M Ward lineup was too discouraging so we hoofed it down to the ACC for a Lemonsheads TV show taping….which was cancelled….but now we're camping out in Emo's Annex for the Daytrotter showcase w/ Ra Ra Riot, Spinto Band + another dose of Dr Dog
Describing jandek is hard. To use the classic parent-baby trope - it's if phillip glass and tom waits had a son, I guess. But that's too simple/not fair. Jandek's music makes you want to close your eyes and really listen, revel in the misery, picture somewhere dusty, rural, unkind, and lonely. Hard to say if this isn't a great deal magnified by the man's mystique. His fedora, back turned to the audience, press' hype, the doc, the prolific output - it all contributes to the images your mind conjures up when you're soaking in his music. Background noise for a dinner party, this ain't. You owe it to yourself to check out some of his songs, you might not like it at all, which is cool, I understand he's not for everyone, but you might just get hooked and have a new fav wallowing record.
Back in the central presbyterian church for the elusive jandek. If the peter + the wolf show here wednesday (that was only three days ago!?!) is any indication of the beauty this venue can enrich, then I'm in for a treat.
Two other church-venue shows lined up tonight, too, m ward + jim james (my morning jacket). Decided to forsake the maze of fence nuttiness at waterloo park tonight + assume the breeders'll pass through toronto on the final leg of their tour.
Lykee li this afternoon was all that I built her up to be….got a chance to say hi and talk briefly to her before she went on, which is another highlight to add to the growing list of (unphotographed, grrr…) south by memories for 08
A decidedly more mellow day so far. Was lucky to run into Frank + receive the VIP treatment at the Hot Freaks party, which covered off the need for a late tex-mex lunch. Chris denny + the old souls were a surprise treat replacing lyrics born, lead Denny has a very wicked Neil Young type voice. Had a chance to chat with the band over fajitas afterwards and found out that a members is a Haligonian. Badass. We swapped Blue Rodeo stories and had a good break from running around. Jealous Girlfriends' show @ de vill was very good and sadly only one of a few unofficial shows they played this year. White Rabbits just wrapped a super tight set of high powered rock and I'm beyomd excited for Lykee Li - this + the Breeders are my 'must sees' for today…hope to make M Ward + Jandek, too More later Peace Meegs
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