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.

30 Under 30 #2: The Outbursts of Everett True

Okay, okay, I'm lazy, and I'm straying from the format before I've established on, but this is just WAY TOO COOL not to share.
The Outbursts of Everett True - an early 20th Century comicstrip upon which you can build a brand new worldview.

30 Under 30 #1: The Night is the Future and also the Past

"the night is a liar, it will never be a friend to anyone" Andre Ethier, "The Night"

I'm walking home down Commercial, a little after 4 a.m. It's the start of the day, but it's the end of mine. I'm on my way home, to curse the motion-sensor lights and to try to be gentle with the door.
Fresh newspapers are being delivered to the squat metal bins outside convenience stores, still closed for the night. In the coin-op boxes I see tomorrow's headlines today. I'm glimpsing into the future. It will be another two-to-four hours before the rest of the city knows what I know, but this secret knowledge is useless. I won't have anyone to tell it to until mid-to-late afternoon. By then it will be old news.
It reminds me of Montreal, when I was young(er). When I could close a St-Laurent bar and stumble out into the street to meet newspaper hawkers with fresh broadsheets. I wasn't all that interested in the news back then. In fact, the one time I actually went out in search of a newspaper, I didn't even know where to look for one. I found what I was looking for (a place to live) en route. I remember it as a Wednesday morning, though I have no reason to believe it was actually so.

30 under 30

Well, it's freakin' May. It snuck up on me. No wonder, I just took a five-day-weekend. I have 187 lazy bones. My kid brother, no the other one, probably knows how many bones I actually have, he's the intellectual in the family. If by intellectual I mean SCIENTIST, which I do.
So, May. I turn thirty in thirty days, give or take a week and a bit. But my goal is to get 30 WELL-WRITTEN posts up on this bleeatch before the big day. So, like, this one doesn't count.

Tell Me About Gary Haché!

This is kind of an old song, but it's new to me, and maybe it'll be new to you:
Gary Haché by Andrew Vincent & the Pirates

In a recent post, I wondered where the hell AV's new album is, and then my brother sent him an email, and AV replied that it was coming. So there you go.

"Gary Haché" is a nearly perfect song. I kinda wish the vocals were a little louder in the mix, cuz that wicked riff kinda overpowers them, which is a what a wicked riff like that will do, so, like, whatev. I like the way the perspective goes from third to first person after the first verse. It doesn't really make any sense, so it's rad. It reminds me of the time I went to Stratford with Chad and we got loaded and I got kicked out of some bar because a guy next to me dropped his glass and it smashed on the floor, and I...I think I had only just barely begun to booze it up at that point, but I got the blame. I may have even been waiting in line for my first drink. Regardless, there were many other places to drink in Stratford that night, and we hit most of them. I ended up falling down in the mud near one of those quaint stone footbridges Stratford seemed full of.

Newer and just as cool is Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi, from The Center for Cartoon Studies.

That's right, introduction by Glen David Gold, who wrote one of my favourite novels of recent times, Carter Beats the Devil. It's a fun and deliciously illustrated biography of Houdini (whose corpse is in the news again) very much in the same vein (though a little more lively) of Chester Brown's Louis Riel comic biog.

And in newer MUSIC news, and also civic whateverhood, I STILL DON'T HAVE THE NEW RTX ALBUM. VANCOUVER HAS LET ME DOWN AGAIN. None of the stores I've visited have even ordered Western Xterminator yet. I know for a fact that if I was still in Regina, Dave woulda had that sucker in my hands within MOMENTS of its release. I guess that's what's cool about Regina.
Last month, Drag City was giving away "Black Bananas" from Western Xterminator away for FREE. This month they're giving away "Sycamore" by Bill Callahan, formerly known as Smog or (Smog). It's pretty great. AND IT'S FREE.

The new pink layout is dedicated to Lindsay, the world's coolest 14-year-old.

Things I'm Reading Lately

I really need to write here more, but if you've come here looking for interesting stuff to read--well, you've come to the wrong place. For now at least.
In the meantime, here's some of my favourite stuff from Los Internetos that's been turning my crank.
Jon Ronson's neuroses (as well as his books and his radio shows) make him my number hero these days.
Douglas Wolk's always worthwhile 52-Pickup blog really kicked some serious ass this week. I don't know if there are any awards for comics journalism, but this week's column/blog deserves one.

I've been blogging a little bit on my MySpace page, though I should really do it here, since (as any 14-yr-old will tell you) MySpace is LAME.

Adventures in Pandora, Episode 1: WTF

On the nightshift, and sometimes just at home, I often listen to ye olde Pandora on the internet. Quite frequently, I listen to Jon Ronson's Ronson On archives, but sometimes I listen to music, too.
As of right now, I have, um, let's see, 10 stations on Pandora, which follow:

Bad Ass Folk: based on my suggestions of the Mountain Goats, Two Gallants, etc.
Big Pop: which is an attempt to scratch my Andy Kim/Tommy James itch.
Global Psych: this is the newest station, still very ill-defined. Hoping for some Luaka Bop-type stuff. Os Mutantes, Jorge Ben, etc. I've been trying to get some 60s French pop in there too to try to broaden the base.
Herky Jerky: a dismal failure reaching for White Hassle/Railroad Jerk type stuff, of which there is none. So instead, based on the Railroad Jerk entry, I get tubloads of 90s rock, including Hootie & the Blowfish.
Howling Hex: for all things Neil Hagerty/Jennifer Herrema related, I suppose it should be called Truxrox or something, but having it "H" based keeps it near the top of the list, alphabetically.
Mello Instro: another poorly defined station, ranges from Precious Fathers to Tin Hat Trio. Okay, "poorly defined" in this case = "too narrowly definied"
Nerd Rap: De La, Talib, Ghostface, etc
Sweet Country: trying to get countrypolitan, like 70s Jerry Lee Lewis, but the Jerry Lee Lewis stuff triggers 50s r&b, so it's kind of a bust. And the Willie Nelson suggestion triggers Sheryle Crow(e?). So it needs more
Sweet Soul: I plugged in the Dramatics and the Commodores.
Rough Soul: Rufus Thomas to Sugarman Three.

So that's what I'm working with. I'm listening to Sweet Soul right now, and it's playing the Commodores' "Night Shift", which is, y'know, PERFECT. But two songs ago, when I decided to start this entry, it played "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)", one of my VERY FAVOURITE Soul/R&B songs, only they played the one (I didn't even know it existed, HOW COULD I KNOW?) by the New Kids On the Block!!! And that's why Robots will never rule the Earth. They have no judgment, no sense of context. This Pandora robot just coldly examines quite superficial aspects of songs and doesn't seem to take in to consideration the fact that I am not a 12-year-old girl in the year 1990! In fact, the mere suggestion that I am a 12-y-o-g-i-t-y-1990 should make the Pandorbot self-destruct. And then I could go back to listening to Mastodon on the iTunes.
So now, I've switched to Sweet Country, and it's playing Jay Bennett, who I think used to be in Wilco or somesuch, which has ZERO to do with what I'm looking for in this station, but I think I entered Smog into the computation, which has completely ruined the experiment. Okay, axe the J-Ben, and we get "Why Baby Why" by GeoJones, which is is still a little hillbilly for what I'm after. Fast forward it, though, cuz I still might some 70s George, esp. George & Tammy, whoo! So now it's giving me Merle Haggard (thanks to the Willie, no doubt), CRIPES. Merle gets THUMBS DOWN. Not it life, just for this station. THIS IS SCIENCE DAMMIT. So now it's playing Iron & Wine. GIVE ME ONE BREAK, YOU CURSED MACHINE!
Okay, switch I&W to Bad Ass Folk, right? That's more or less the secondary reason for that station, as a clearing house for most of the stuff that's coming up in Sweet Country thanks to my ill-conceived Smog request (I just wanted to hear "Dress Sexy at My Funeral", which, to me, is a Countrypolitan song).
Okay, Charley Pride, "A Shoulder to Cry On". Nice. I've interviewed CP about three times, back in my music journalist days. I highly recommend interviewing him if you get the chance. He'll tell you a story, and I don't just mean he'll tell a story, but he'll tell YOU a story. He'll take the jist of your conversation, and find some anecdote that will sublimely express the very thing you were wondering about, only he won't actually answer your question, and he'll take LOTS of sidetrips in making the point. But it's wonderful. And if you can get tix at a decent price, go see him. He wears awesome sweaters, and still sings great.

DIRECTOR'S CUT BONUS MATERIAL CHARLEY PRIDE PULL QUOTE

Each night that I go out there and I hear that applause and appreciation, it's just like it was the first time. I love what I do, and I think that permeates out to my fans and right back to me. They love it, and we love doing it. It's a good marriage.

Okay, let's move over to the Howling Hex station...what've we got? Old Time Relijun, YES! Skronky w/o sax (at least no sax yet). I don't think these guys have any actual connection to Trux, but I dig their spirit in the same way. There's a sort of rock-as-freejazz, but not really aesthetic. Next up, the Minutemen, which, okay, that's closer to OTR than Trux for nu-jazz fakeness and turbull singing, but okay, yeah, plus the Meltzer connection (D. Boon had a Meltzer pome in his pocket when he died, sad, huh?). So now, Erase Errata, who, um, I think my brother likes these guys. I get why Pandorobot is playing this, it has that same syncopated Zappa-like swirl thing, but it's a little to proggo for me. So skip that, and now it's Tricky Woo, which I plugged in as a variable. Only, Pandora has a very poor selection of CanRock, and they only have Tricky Woo's hair metal album, First Blush, which I like, but, um, I don't think I like the stuff that it triggers, so maybe I should take it out of the equation. So now I get Chavez, which has nothing to do with anything except 90s alt-rock (i think they toured with the Smashing Pumpkins, blecccchhhh). So this station is broken. TIME TO MOVE ON.
Let's see what Herky Jerky gives us...Clem Snide, okay, I can kinda see the Railroad Jerk connection there. Very Brooklyn-y, very, um, rootsy but also wordy. Urbane. Or as Pandorbot sez: "features subtle use of vocal harmony and electric guitar" GREAT. NICE TO PULL OFF THE PANEL AND SEE THE MACHINE AT WORK. But I kind of like "End of Love", so who cares WHY, let's just listen. Back to the Nat'l Post cryptic x-word, which feels reallyl easy this week. Anagrams are always the easiest for me, because, y'know, the answer is LITERALLY right there. I mean, Withdraws corrupt decrees (7)...
Who the hell is Karl Blau? Sometimes I think Pandorbot just makes shit up to piss me off. NEXT!
Global Psych, okay, this one holds the most promise of actually introducing me to new (to me) music, since it's sort of a (fake) genre that I'm only sort of casually into. Zuco 103, sorta triphoppy, foreign language, I like. Sez P'bot: "features minor key tonalities, portoguese lyrics and synthesizers", which are all things P'bot believes I dig, so: RESULT!

BONUS CHARLEY PRIDE PULL QUOTE PART TWO

When I first got in to the business, people would always ask me, 'How does it feel to be the Jackie Robinson of country music? How does it feel to be the first coloured country singer? How does it feel to be the first negro country singer?' I'd say, 'I don't feel no different.'