Get Thee To A Record Store

As if we needed a reason to spend a Saturday at the record shop, today is RECORD STORE DAY. Record stores are awesome. Especially the ones that kick-ass. Dave Kuzenko's X-Ray Records in Regina is one such kick-ass, awesome record store.

When I was forced to move to Regina at age 15, Dave's shop (then a Records on Wheels) was the first place I went after I signed up for high school. Othen than school and eventually workplaces, I doubt I spent more time in Regina outside of my home anywhere else but X-Ray.

I still remember that first visit. I didn't buy anything, but I saw lots that I wanted. There was a black t-shirt with art from Lou Reed's Transformer album on the wall, in the high north corner at the front. I wanted it so bad, and eventually guilted my mother into buying it for me about a week later. After all, I'd been sooooo traumatized by the move. (As if, I saw an opportunity and exploited it.)

When I wore that shirt to my new school for the first time, everybody knew where I stood on the Lou Reed issue. I made a lot of friends because of that shirt. Let's see, there was the guy with the Lenny Bruce shirt, the guy with the Mudhoney shirt, and the guy with the KISS shirt. We all knew where one another stood. On one of my weekend visits back to Saskatoon, I wore the shirt when I saw a band called I Am Joe's Lung (featuring a guitarist who would go on to play in Vancouver's Nasty On) at the Unitarian Centre. Midway through their set, they played a cover of "Sweet Jane" and I looked at the singer and pointed to my shirt, so that he would know where I stood on the issue.

I didn't buy a lot of other shirts from Dave (though I did buy a really sweet Jon Spencer Blues Explosion t-shirt with a blue naked lady on the front with my first paycheque from my first post-high school job--selling time-share vacations in the basement of the Travelodge). But I did buy a lot of music there. I even bought an album from him the day before I moved to Vancouver. Even though Dave's the kind of friend you end up giving money to almost every time you hang out with, I always looked forward to heading over to X-Ray whenever I could. For a while, I actually had to walk by the store on my way home from work. That was awesome. I got a lot of great music outta that.

My favourite way of shopping at X-Ray was to spend about 90 minutes looking through the racks and then picking out something based purely on how bad-ass the cover art was. Dave would always be able to tell all kinds of stuff about the album and nine times out of ten, it was awesome. I got a lot of wicked blues and jazz albums that way. I also bought a lot of stuff based on recommendations from either Dave or the handful of dudes who occasionally worked there.

Dave was also always real supportive and encouraging of my writing, even in the early days when I sucked even more than I do now.

From the way I'm talking, it sounds like Dave's not there anymore, but guess what? He is. If you're in Regina today, stop in and chew the fat. Buy a damn record for a change. He'll probably be watching the Jays on his laptop. Tell him Mathesoy says hey.


mp3: "Save Yourself" by the Make-Up
mp3: "Blossom (Got to Get it Out)" by Komeda

No More No Depression

Sad news, folks. With their May-June issue, No Depression is calling it quits (at least for print). Considering the state of both music and print media industries in this digital age, I guess it shouldn't really be as surprising as it feels.
I thought No Depression would've lasted longer than other music mags, though, since they're a niche mag that served so well a niche that seemed more likely than others to contribute financially to the music industry. If you know what I mean.
Though they covered a niche market, No Depression always managed to find ways to broaden what Alt-Country or Americana might include. Outside of the letter cols, and the occasional weird ad (one that sticks out read something like: "Alternative Country is the only Country and the only Alternative"), there was very little looking down on mainstream country. In recent years, hot Nashville acts like Miranda Lambert and Gretchen Wilson even received favourable write-ups within ND's pages.
No Depression could always be counted on for excellent writing on interesting subjects. Why, they even published me a few times at the beginning of this century. It was an exciting time for country music, and I was very excited to be part of it. I never really got the hang of pitching to them, which frustrated me (and continues to frustrate me--pitching is hard). But I was always treated with respect by editor Peter Blackstock. No Depression was the first publication outside of Regina to carry my byline, and it was both emboldening and terrifying. I don't remember how many pieces I ended up doing for them, but I know that I was proud of at least two of them. I had some good jokes in my review of Neko Case's Canadian Amp EP, and my Stompin' Tom concert review was one of the finest things I'd written up to that point.
I would have gladly written more for them, but, as always, the whole thing plunged me into an existential crisis. I was torn between trying to write in what I thought was their voice and pursuing my own developing style. Careerism was fucking up my shit.

Good night, No Depression.

mp3: "Country Song" by the Idaho Falls

I'm not a man, or machine, I'm just something inbetween: TEN GREAT CANADIAN ALBUMS

Proven by science*: Loverboy > Slayer + Coldplay.

About a week ago, I bemoaned the lack of Loverboy on the so-called Top 100 Canadian Albums of All Time. I promised to report back with what my top ten would have been had I not been too lazy to compile and submit one last fall for the book.

In the order that I think of them:

Get Lucky - Loverboy
Ode to Joy - Deadly Snakes
Casa - Roger Dean Young & the Tin Cup
Truthfully Truthfully - Joel Plaskett Emergency
How'd We Ever Get This Way? - Andy Kim
Blow the House Down - Great Uncles of the Revolution
Inhabitants - Inhabitants
Les Sables Magiques - Tricky Woo
Blue - Joni Mitchell
ah, what the hell, Sunday Anthems - the Neins Circa

So, like, that's ten Cdn albums I love a lot. What say you, fussy britches?

MP3: "The King of America" by Great Uncles of the Revolution

*when science = Mike Reno

Me and What Army?

It was a very exciting weekend. Not as exciting as the forever unchronicled Canada Day Long Weekend, but whatev. The big thing is that Nicole came back from Saskatchewan on Sunday, putting an end to my eight-day-long diet of ketchup chips & Pilsner.
But what might be more exciting to you, dear readers, is that between Friday afternoon and Sunday night I got a bunch of new music.
On Friday, I went downtown to the big Human Meat Vacuum to use a birthday giftcard. As mentioned in previous post, I spent a lot of my solo time just listening to music that I hadn't listened to in a while, and over the course of the week, I got WAY into Luna, thanks to a promo copy of 2004's Rendezvous.
So I was looking for The Best of Luna, hoping for the Beggars' edition, which comes with a bonus disc of cover tracks. I found it, but couldn't tell which edition it was. But it had an "Import" sticker on, so I figured I was in luck. I wasn't. But there was a flyer inside the package pointing me to Lunafied, which is where the covers are at. At 99 cents a pop. SIGH.

But while I was in the L section, I noticed the Lightning Dust album, Lightning Dust. Starring Amber Webber and Joshua Wells of Black Mountain, Lightning Dust is dark and moody folk-type (I dunno, maybe it's that "New Weird America" stuff I keep reading about in Arthur magazine) stuff, though "Wind Me Up" is pretty delightfully upbeat. "Heaven" ends with a nice melodica bit, and Amber Webber's voice is archly great. Oddly, I ended up hanging out with Josh most of Friday night. We are both Royal Trux fans.
MP3: "Listened On" by Lightning Dust

Anyway, not satisfied with a mere greatest-hits package from Luna, I also grabbed the latest alb from former Luna folks, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, aka Dean and Britta. Very much a contempo-take on the Lee & Nancy dynamic, but also as breathy and luxurious as the last few Luna albums. Last week, talking about my rekindled fondness for Luna to Cam, I said that they make me wish I had a high-performance car so that I could put Luna on the stereo and drive along the coast late at night. There's the thrill of going fast without the fear of losing control. Their latest album, the one I got, is called Back Numbers, and it's everything I hoped it would be.
MP3: "Our Love Will Still Be There" by Dean & Britta

Not that long ago, I realized the Parkas have a new record. As soon as I realized it, I ordered it. Thing was, since I'm a little moron, I somehow had it sent to my parents' house in Regina, rather than my house in Vancrunker. Luckily, Nicole was in Regina last week, and stopped by to hang out with my darling mother and brought me back some sweet Parka action! I'm still getting to know Put Your Head in the Lion's Mouth, but the early impression is that it's an impressive continuation of the toughening up of the Parkas that started with The Scars To Prove It EP. Here's a really excellent track that kinda makes plain the difference between the Now This Is Fighting Parkas and the Put Your Head in the Lion's Mouth edition, since it's a remake of Fighting's "The Heart Is Only A Muscle".
MP3: "A Change of Heart" by Parkas

30 Under 30 #3: They Say It's Like Crack, But It's Totally Not Like Crack At All

Maybe it was Richard Meltzer who told me that getting free records (or CDs, as the case was for me, but since I prefer the term records, I will use it from here on in) is like crack, maybe it was me who told him. It doesn't really matter who said, the fact remains, free records are not like crack at all. Free anything is not like crack, because one of the most essential things about crack is that it's not free. Of course, free records aren't really free either.
It's been, what, seven months now since I got off the gravy train of free records. I feel okay. Cold turkey. More or less. There have a been a few exceptions, but nothing worth mentioning. In fact, the only free record worth mentioning was a gift from Nicole, who put a lot of effort and care into tracking down the awesome new RTX album for me.
I kinda thought I'd miss it, and, yeah, it's taken a while to get used to idea that I actually have to BUY records (poor me, I know), but then again, it's kinda nice to get a record and have no obligation other than to ENJOY it. And, honestly, those last few years, I was enjoying music less and less, outside of the radio stuff, of course.
In face, I think I reached a point where I actually enjoyed whining about getting free records more than I enjoyed getting free records at all. I had overstayed my welcome.
But now, I'm thinking about getting back into it. Not because I want free records (which I actually don't), but because I'm kinda feeling desperate to write again. So maybe writing is crack. Though, um, y'know, not really.