Toronto enough tonight?

Hogtown get ready for the bossest hog of all! Tonight, for one night only, Jesse Matheson & His Midnight Snacks will grace the stage at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern. FOR FREE!

Jesse, if you say it all fancy-like, sounds like French for "I know". Which is what you can say now if someone asks you where Jesse is playing tonight.

My other brother, who lives in Toronto will be there too, which makes me the other brother right now.

mp3: "Nothing at All" by Jesse Matheson

Vancouver City Limits

Went down to watch the brother rock the house at Vancouver City Limits last night. Hosted at the Beaumont Studios at W. 5th & Alberta (incidentally, that's nowhere near the actual Vancouver city limits) every Monday night, VCL is an intimate mostly roots and singer-songwriter music showcase series worth checking out. It's in a rehearsal space with soft seats, and only holds about 50 people. Each show features three acts, and the folks who put it on take video of the concert and then post one nicely edited song from each performance onto the Youtube.
I haven't heard of any of the other performers, and a lot of them seem to be a little outside of my particular tastes in music, but in terms of live music settings, Vancouver City Limits is one of the best venues.

See Jesse Eat. Eat, Jesse, Eat.

If this video makes you uncomfortable, imagine being related to the guy.

(buy the album here)

Small world, about the size of a poppy seed

Last night I watched Greg and Gentillon, an admirable little film that finally brings some much-deserved glory to Aylmer, Quebec. It's a mockumentary about a small town comedy duo that sets out to conquer the Big City. My jaw nearly dropped when Gentillon went for a guitar lesson and was met by none other than Keith Carman! If you've ever spent any amount of time in the shallow pool that is the Canadian music press (and I think I mean that in a good way), you've probably crossed paths with Carman. His writing has appeared in notable mags like Exclaim! and Chart!, and probably lots of other places as well. He also plays guitar for a kick-ass rock and roll outfit called Maximum RNR. Mostly I knew Max RNR's other guitar playing Keith, Keith Maurik, who was at one time (and maybe still is?) a publicist for Epitaph Records. Despite the fact that they look like total scuzzbags, the two Keiths of Maximum RNR are actually some of the nicest folks you'll ever want to meet.
Keith Maurik is in a few scenes in Greg and Gentillon, but Keith Carman has a pretty large role, in which he not only shines, but gets across the exact impression I got of him the one time I met him face to face (when Max RNR played the Gaslight Saloon in Regina a few years ago): a sincerely nice guy who plays really loud music.

mp3: "I Hate the Cold" by Maximum RNR

Aside from making Keith Carman look good, and providing lots of laffs (especially the fight in the alley), Greg and Gentillon also, surprisingly, made Toronto look really good. Not as good as the Scott Pilgrim books make it look, but, hmmm, Toronto. It's a city that looks not bad. Of all the outdoor scenes in Hogtown, it only rained once. Something to think about.

In the meantime, Vancouver's not so awful. Unless you count the staggering housing costs and consequential epidemic of homelessness (an aside, Frances Bula's City States blog at the Vancouver Sun website is pretty great). But the Black Angels are coming on June 10, and they're bringing the Warlocks! The Black Angels' new album Directions To See A Ghost is out today for your digital downloading, and will be in finer record stores on May 13. If you liked Passover...

mp3: "Science Killer" by the Black Angels

finally, an update on some bands we've previously covered here at ABWAWBA:

Jesse Matheson and the Midnight Snacks will be releasing their brand new CD Pleasure Pounds this Saturday, April 19 at Rime in Vancouver.

The Fake Fictions will be releasing their brand new CD Krakatoa this Friday, April 18 at the Empty Bottle in Chicago.

If you can make it to both shows, you are well on your way to awesomeness.

Tribute to Lee Part 2: Fellas I Know, Ladies I Don't

Ladies & Gentleman, this week's Tribute to the late Lee Hazlewood continues with a couple of entries to the Elegant Lady/Not-Elegant Dude tradition that are both based out of Vancouver.
The first track, "We Don't Have To" is EXCLUSIVE to A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached, since it comes from my brother, one Jesse Matheson. Jesse, you may recall, recently scored Track of the Day at CBC Radio 3 (and you can hear R3's Craig Norris's reasons right here). Well, this track features the same lady-voice as that chart-topper "Son of a Gun" does, Allison Russell of Po' Girl. How my brother manages to swim in such esteemed waters remains a mystery to me.

Song number two is from another Vancouver sensation, albeit one we have to share with the world. Lightning Dust is Amber Webber and Joshua Wells of Black Mountain fame, and aside from the fact that some of their press photos recall the Nancy:Lee dynamic (it just struck me, why aren't musical duos expressed as a ratio more often?), their music pretty much features Amber's voice exclusively and bears little resemblance to Lee Hazlewood's (which is not to say it isn't haunting and terrific, because it's both of those things). This track, howev, has some Josh:Amber back and forth and, at the very least, reminds me of Lee because Josh isn't the most, um, naturally gifted vocalist, but he works what he's got to pleasing results.

MP3: We Don't Have To by Jesse Matheson feat. Allison Russell
MP3: Jump In by Lightning Dust

As a postscript, it's worth mentioning (as I may have already) that Josh Wells shares my enthusiasm for Royal Trux, from whom we might hear in the next installment of Tribute to Lee!

My Brother the Cow!

Jesse is a star.