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

Love, Letters: It must be Valentine's Day

Got a note from Marcellus Hall last night. Hall is an NYC illustrator who also happens to make very good music. In the 90s, he led the indie rock band Railroad Jerk, perhaps best known for having a video mocked by Beavis & Butthead.
Toward the end of the 90s, Hall and RRJerk's then-drummer Dave Varenka shifted gears and formed White Hassle, perhaps best known for inspiring a more famous indie rocker's skin ink.
These days, Marcellus Hall goes it alone, or with a band. He hasn't released anything yet, but posts songs to MySpace, like everyone else on planet earth.
Anyway, Hall wrote to let us know that some of his non-music stuff will be seeing print toot sweet. He's got a comic in the anthology Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me, and he's done illustrations for the children's book Because You Are My Baby by Sherry North.



mp3: "Love Letter" by Marcellus Hall
mp3: "2 by Sea" by White Hassle

Favourite Song of the Still New Year

So far, the theme of February here at Bulldozer/Wrecking Ball has been CITIES. If there's been a subtheme to that, it's been Calgary. I don't know why, things just worked out that way.

When I was a kid--like 18, maybe 19--I was obsessed with Jack Kerouac. For all the harm it did me, it got me writing. It took a lot of writing to come out from underneath that post-ado whumpity-whump, and I've certainly spent a lot of time emulating other, less obvious, writers since.

One of the things that started to bump me off my Kerouac kick and start reading other things was his short story "cityCityCITY", which I read in the collection Good Blonde & Others. I may have even read it in Calgary. I'm 95% sure I at least bought it there. Probably in the summer of 1996, when I imagined I was a hobo. Anyway, it's one of Kerouac's only attempts at science fiction, and it's pretty dull. There's a lot to be learned from Kerouac's writing, and some of the stuff in Good Blonde is pretty damn fine as far as that goes. But the biggest lesson I learned from the book was that there had to be more to lit-rit-cher.

I actually carried on in my Kerouackisms for a couple more years, but things were never really the same after "cityCityCITY".

All this talk of THE CITY and Calgary (which is a city) makes me think of The Summerlad (which makes me think of the Michael Chabon novel Summerland, which I've never read) and their giant ART piece City of Noise. I remember talking to a member of The Summerlad (Garrett McClure, I think?) about it right after their second album, Themes: International, came out in 2005. The original City of Noise work was a 45-minute happening inspired Peter & the Wolf, Solzhenitzen's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and, of course, Calgary. It was commissioned for Calgary theatre dynamo One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo.

Summerlad has finally recorded City of Noise (you probably want the vinyl, dude), and it's about as awesome as I thought it would be nearly three years ago. Which puts The Summerlad one up on Kerouac.

mp3: "City of Noise" by The Summerlad

Get Local (BC only)

It's a new week, and it's already almost half gone. What the heck? Over at my house, we're making a renewed effort to eat better foods, after a December and January of eating delicious but awful stuff. One way to eat better is to eat local, but before you can eat local, you gotta Get Local. And really, living in a place like the lower mainland, with so much grown and raised nearby, you gotta feel shitty if you're not eating at least a little bit locally.

And you should listen locally, too. But also not-locally. Let's imagine, say, you don't live in Regina. So why should you listen to Regina's Goldenmile? Because they're awesome, and because Scott made sure I got a copy of their new album Stay Golden. Goldenmile may never tour. If they do tour, they might not play your town on a night when you don't have prior commitments. Should you punish yourself for that?

mp3: "Death Moves" by Goldenmile

Oops, forgot to keep the meter fed!

My file storage service has exceeded its monthly whatever, and most of the mp3s on this blog are going to be unavailable for the next few days. Boo friggin' hoo, right? So maybe I should start thinking about better file storage or something, since this blog has mysteriously become more popular than I ever expected (I think it's the recipes).

But don't despair music addicts! Here's a sweet song from Ottawa's Andy Swan's 2007 album Andy Swan's Ottawa.

mp3: "Can I Pay You With Sunshine?" by Andy Swan

A Grudge and Anticipation

Dear Aaron/Erin Neely:

For at least two months I have been receiving phonecalls for you. I am not impressed. It doesn't really make any sense, because I've had my phone number for well over a year, and the calls for you only started recently. Either you've got a number very similar to mine and a lot of inattentive friends, or you've been giving out my number as a random fake phone number. Today, I stopped being polite about it. I thought you should know.

Meanwhile, I am expecting to get my hands on the really new debut album, Stay Golden, from Regina's Goldenmile in a couple of days. When I left Regina in the summer of oh-six, Goldenmile was one of my favourite bands to see live, even though I almost always missed the first half of their sets. So I'm very excited to hear the album. The record is out on the new Regina label Young Soul Records, whose website I want to punch because it is useless. Their MySpace page isn't much better, but at least it has songs. And if you're on MySpace, maybe you can be their friend and maybe there's some benefit to that.

mp3: "Intruder (demo)" by Goldenmile

This City, or Any City

It's been a year and a half since I left Regina, and I'm only now starting to do some of the things I came to Vancouver to do. I mean, I needed a change, that much was sure. And for a while, change was enough. The novelty of shedding my by then five-year-old routine was exhilerating. I was doing different work in different clothes. Well, mostly the same clothes, really. But now I feel overdressed in the same clothes that used to feel underdressed.

So Tuesday afternoons now have a purpose, which is welcome and overdue. Now I have a reason to get out of bed before 2 in the afternoon at least once a week. I feel like the choice to live in Vancouver is finally right, when before it was merely convenient. It could have Toronto, it could have been Montreal. It probably wouldn't have ever been Calgary. I'd say I've got nothing against that city, but I'd be lying. My distaste for Cowtown doesn't run so deep that it includes the people who live there or the music that comes out of it.

It's mostly coincidence that I came across this song, by Kara Keith (formerly of Falconhawk, whose website is still advertising an "upcoming show" from 2005), today, as I was thinking about cities (Saskatoon's been on the brain lately, as well).

Maybe you can tell, but I'm not blogging as much lately, and there's good reason for that. I'm busy writing other things. But I'm going to try to post at least twice a week, whether I have something to say or not.

mp3: "Kick This City" by Kara Keith
mp3: "The City's End" by Falconhawk