It happened quite innocently. I think someone mentioned an author’s name, or said something that sounded like W.P. Kinsella as we got into my car. Naturally (or so it seemed at the time), this caused my three tone-deaf friends and I (also tone-deaf) to try to impress each other with our knowledge of the lyrics of Moxy Früvous’ Bargainville album (“W.P. Kinsella” being a lyric from the tune My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors). If you have never heard of this group or song, you might think that I was making it up. I am not.

As it turns out, our ability to recall the lyrics from the album was indeed impressive. So, here we were, four heterosexual men, driving and singing loudly and poorly. After My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors, we segue into The Gulf War Song, The Drinking Song, Fell In Love. It’s important to note that of all music to sing badly, harmony-laden a cappella is particularly bad.

Let me clarify something. If you don’t know me, you may be thinking, ‘well, I’m sure he and his jolly friends enjoy singing to each other all the time’. This is not at all the case. Like you, we don’t often break into song with a group of friends. I’m sure, on occasion, we each sing out loud when alone in our respective vehicles, but never when together. That would be weird.

Anyhow, that’s exactly what we did in this case. We broke into song. And not just any song. Practically the whole Bargainville album (or at least 30 second samples of each track). It got me thinking, the odd event that it was. Moxy Früvous rules.

Moxy Früvous. You have to at least give them credit for the ‘u’ with the dots on it. That’s not easy to pull off. Think of Montley Crüe. They deserve more credit than that. If all that comes to mind when you think of Moxy Früvous is King of Spain, then I hereby call into question your Canadian citizenship and loyalty to the Queen.

Bargainville is a fantastic album. It is Moxy Früvous at their best. Self-aware, goofy, smart, and good. Oozing with Canadian-ness. Fell In Love is a good a Canadian song as any penned by Bruce Cockburn or Leonard Cohen. If you know the album, revisit it. If not, keep an open mind, get a copy of it on cassette, leave it in your car for two years, and I assure you that you will not be disappointed.

Steve Jobs used to play the part of the passionate visionary quite well. Watch the made-for-tv movie Pirates of Silicon Valley for an interesting and apparently accurate summary of the Steve Jobs / Bill Gates stories (beware of VERY bad dialog).

Now, watching Steve Jobs at the latest MacWorld Expo, he comes across like a
tired old salesman (I know, I know, that’s what he is). I’m not sure which is worse: Obviously believeing the hype you spin, or obviously not believing it.

That said, a new ad for the ugly new iMac (which will sell zillions, thanks to the Walmart Effect: tacky sells) features a fantastic song called Sunburn by the British band, Muse. I hadn’t heard them before, but I should have.

Since he was kind enough to lend us his digital camera, we’ve squeezed in a late submission to our rock concert feature by David Moses.

Hipster country-folk music – “Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi” by Jim White. Complete with “Sha-la-la” chorus, everything is indeed peaches but the cream.

No tea with my sugar, thanks – “Heartbeat” by Tahiti 80. Best if listened to ironically, or while chasing butterflies through a sunny field.

Rhymes about mythical creatures over a chamber music loop- “The Centaur” by Buck 65. The saddest “my dick is so big” song you ever heard.If you do not already know this song you have not yet lived life.

Electronica minus all the hippy-love and glow sticks – “Rage” by Atari Teenage Riot. Set the subwoofer to 11 and prepare to be bludgeoned. None of that twee blip-pop here folks.

This post has no links. It did, but explorer crashed and I had to do a rewrite. If you want links learn how to use a search engine, you vulturous slime.

The gem of the East Coast Music Awards was right under our collective nose (if there can be such a thing) all along.

The Charlottetown band, Eyes for Telescopes is comprised of former members of east-coast super-group strawberry.

They have recently released their first CD called Please Survive and it will make you cry (particularly the track My Boy). You can buy it Back Alley Discs.

More to come on aov about the band and the release.

I’ve been looking for an opportunity to mention that I used to work at a grocery store with the drummer and that old bands of ours played at the same shitholes on occasion, but it just hasn’t come up yet. I’ll let you know.

Bands I have seen this weekend and will tell you about some time soon (hopefully), but not now, because now I will sleep:

Port Citizen (twice)
Joel Plaskett
The Guthries (twice)
Fermented Reptile
When I say “Windom” you say “Earle”
The Onlys
Heavy Blinkers
Eyes for Telescopes (twice)
Mike O’Neil
Papa Grand feat. Nathan C
Chronic
Lending Jane
Buck 65
The Burdocks
The Goods
Flush

Drinks I drank this weekend but will not tell you any more about:

Heineken
Bottle ‘o Red Wine (Yellow Label something or other)
Clancy’s Draft (much, much more than twice)
Coffee (more than twice)
Keith’s (more than twice)
Oland’s Red Draft (twice)
Keith’s Draft (more than twice)

ECMAs rock. As do I.

If it is possible for a website to be “ toe-tappin’ ”, then I think I may have found such a site. Crank up your speakers and check out this gem.

For those who were not fortunate enough to get one of the early pressings of radiohead’s Kid A, I have posted the contents of the booklet that was included (in accordance with the very lose copyright notice on their website: (“NO COPYRIGHT UNLESS YOU INTEND TO MAKE A PROFIT. IN WHICH CASE, PLEASE ASK FIRST.”)

View the booklet »
(Approx 1Mb)

My opinions on Our Lady Peace vary wildly. On one hand, songs like Julia and Naveed from their first album, Naveed are truly great songs. They have impressed me in concert when I expected to be bored on several occasions: Letting six thousand people sing 4AM from start to finish; Hearing them cover the late Jeff Buckley’s song Eternal Life at dusk under a full moon; Playing a piano version of Julia they heard from a fan (this one is on schmaptser if you are a thief). These are good concert moments. The last time I saw them, I felt like I was an oldie-olson, since everyone else in the arena was a big-pants 14 year old (most of them passing around one communal joint). As we waited for the concert to start, I was seriously regretting attending, but once they took the stage, they impressed me once again.

On the other hand, I find Raine Maida (OLP’s singer) to be a pompous Bono / Thom Yorke wannabe. He is quite good at handling a stadium (a noteworthy skill for a rock star). However, he sometimes goes a little too far. At one concert, he had the audience in the palm of his hands until he went on an aside about how “it’s all about the music”. Dude, look in the mirror and repeat three times: “I am not Bono”.

I can assure you that my opinions are not at all swayed by the time Raine closed an elevator door in Matt’s face (ask him about it, he’ll be glad to tell you).

Anyway, Now that you have my personal history of Our Lady Peace, I am going somewhere with this. Their new album, Spiritual Machines, is based on the book The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil. This guy has an impressive resume:

• invented the first text-to-speech machine in 1976
• invented the CCD (flat-bed scanner) in 1975
• invented the first font-indepented optical character recognition (OCR) in 1976
• invented the first useful musical synthesizer in 1984

Kurzweil has also written on the subject of artificial intelligence. While I haven’t read Spiritual Machines yet, it’s in the mail. The flash animation currently on the front page of ourladypeace.com elegantly illustrates the transition point at which the resolution of a digital medium exceeds our ability to perceive. View the animation »

Our Lady Peace has also made a Napter-savvy marketing move. They have seeded Napster with full copies of the new album, only with a few voice-overs (from Ray Kurzweil himself, actually) identifying the album in each song. It’s not so much that you can’t enjoy the song, but enough that if you wanted to keep it, you’d still have to buy the real thing.

My point, if I have one, is that Our Lady Peace have done something somewhat interesting in their interpretation of Kurzweil’s book in a pop album.

I should also thank Our Lady Peace for bringing me the unlikely opportunity to see the worlds greatest and most underrated band, Catherine Wheel, at Summersault in Halifax last year.

Check out Clem Snide. Actually a trio named after a William S. Burroughs character, they play laid back country/folk/mellow/whatever (I have no gift for identifying musical genres). All their songs are very simple, beautifully played, introspective pieces.

I suggest you listen to “Your Favorite Music” (available on thier website), “I Love the Unknown” and “African Friend” (available from less reputable sources). “I Love the Unknown” makes me want to pack up and follow the sunset, the jetstream, the horizon.