Summer in and out of the city

Great Caesar's Ghost! We're halfway through August! Where has the summer gone?
I shouldn't complain. This has pretty much been the best summer of my post-adolescent/pre-parental life. I saw Ken Vandermark and Jonathan Richman. I saw the new Batman movie (I still have a hard time calling it by its actual title) AND the new Hulk movie. I ate a lot of cheeseburgers and a LOT of Zako's smoked meat sandwiches. I officially became an Auxiliary Responsible Person In Charge. I scored all four Hoke Moseley novels. Oh, and I totally got married.
There's still plenty of summer enjoyment left to be had. Just ask East Van faves The Great Outdoors (or as I like to call 'em, the Grout Eatdoors)(I don't actually like to call 'em that). They've just released their Summer EP, the second in their series of four seasonal releases that kicks it in ways that Vivaldi could only dream about.

mp3: "Summer in the City" by The Great Outdoors
mp3: "Good Days" by the Fembots

The Best of Summer List

Summer's all but over. Like any good summer, you can only judge it by what you wish you still had time to do, not by what you actually did.
Stuff I didn't do this summer, but wish I had:
1. Go kayaking
2. Jog more
3. Get out of the city
4. Get out of the province
5. Get off the planet
6. Write my novel
7. you name it

That's kinda depressing. Let's focus now the positives about the summer.

Number one song to listen to while coming home from work circa 4 a.m.:
"Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith" by The Roland Kirk Quartet.
From the album of the same name (combined on CD with the just-as-classic Rip, Rig & Panic), this has got to be my favourite non-Inflated Tear Roland Kirk track. Featuring absolutely boffo piano by Lonnie Liston Smith, this is actually pretty unweird by Kirk standards. There's some great ambient vocals, especially towards the end, and one fantastic, colossal sustained note from Kirk on what I think is a tenor sax, but might be a manzello, that impresses me everytime I hear it.

Number one song to listen on the train to work:
"Theme from Rockford Files" by Mike Post.
This is just an amazing piece of music from an amazing show.

emlagrotta
Originally uploaded by emmetmatheson

Number one beach to be mellow and read books about stage magicians at and reminds me of my favourite Laurence Fishburne movie:
Deep Cove

Number one butter chicken:
Gassy Jack's

Number one Taxi Driver remake starring Christian Bale:
Harsh Times

Number one metafictional appearance by the writer of the story in Showcase Presents Batman Vol. 2:
Gardner Fox

Number one place to put your garbage during the civic strike:
I don't know, but how about NOT all over my backyard.

Number one movie starring Coffin Joe:

This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse

One Awesome Link

Bizarro Weapons Index

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

A Tempting Song

It's the summer and it's hot, and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of summer tunes.
I'm sitting on my back porch in a Tricky Woo t-shirt with a drink. I've got a Dan Fesperman novel that I'm reading by the light coming through the kitchen window. The dishes are done and there's a cool breeze. Somewhere down the block, someone's having a backyard party with what sounds like dancing.
I can see mountaintops dimly outlined in the night sky. Not like at Jesse's place, where I was earlier tonight. We ate hamburgers and played Rummy-O. From his balcony, you can see most of the North Shore and all of the mountains.
There's something magical about having nothing to do. You end up pulling out albums you haven't listened to forever and wondering if you're still the same person who bought it.
I bought The Perfect Little Door because it has Ken Vandermark on it, but I'm listening to it tonight mainly for the Portastatic.

The neighbours' motion sensor lights turn on. A raccoon is moving up their yard. He climbs the fence and looks at me, his eyes eerie and glowing. I meet the raccoon's stare.

MP3: "Late Night Wait Around" by Portastatic featuring Ken Vandermark and Tim Mulvenna