Tuesday, October 28, 2008
desolation row





Here is a very quick weekend recap and a whole bunch of show announcements, minus links, because I'm sort of busy and lazy:

The Sweatshop on Friday was pretty good. No Gold were their usual charming selves. Ballz' set turned into a percussion free for all, which hurt them musically, but it made the performance - their last in Vancouver for a long, long time - a memorable one, to be sure. The last act I caught was Sorcerers. Their lead singer seemed pretty wasted, but the band sounded extra tight. It was sort of a nice contrast, actually.

Before the Sweatshop, I was at the Garage to see Dylan. I was expecting him to sound rough and live up to his reputation as "difficult," but even with that in mind, it was pretty terrible, perhaps depressingly terrible. I've always been fond of his ability and willingness to re-arrange his own songs, but, when in the past, he'd lead his band through a song in an entirely new way that was fresh, creative, and never different for the sake of being different, last weekend, he was content to mumble most of the lyrics to changed up numbers over a rotating series of generic 12-bar blues shuffles. Oh, and lest you think that reports of his voice being shot were exaggerated (which is what I thought, to be honest), you are wrong. He can play the hell out of a harmonica though, if that's any consolation... not that Bob Dylan needs any consolation, but you get my point, which is that I should have used by budget for an expensive show by an old guy on Neil Young (who was amazing last time I saw him a few years ago and apparently better last week).

On Saturday, I made it out to Bend Sinister's album release show. It was a pretty great performance by the band and it was coupled by a stage show that was straight out of 1975, complete with a string section, horns, video projections, and, yes, lasers.

Some stuff at the Biltmore:
-November 19th Justin Rutledge and Jenn Grant w/ Jody Glenham
-November 21st Jay Crocker, The Pack A.D., Swank, Beladeans, Valerie Graham, Spitfires, Hawaiian Bibles (Benefit show for Mike Gurr of Hotel Lobbyists)
-November 25th Holly Golightly

Some stuff not at the Biltmore:

Aja Rose and Gabriel Solomon are at Charles H. Scott Gallery (1399 Johnston St.) tomorrow night.

Sex With Strangers, the SSRIs, and Collapsing Opposites are at the ANZA for the latest One Cool Word release party on Thursday.

Also Thursday, Adjective, Terrorbird, and Zombie Pistolero & His Guns are at Honey.

There's an extra edition of Fake Jazz on November 11th.

Stamina Mantis, Ahna & Richard Catwrangleur, n213, and Holzkopf are at Blim on November 21st for a night that features music made by homemade, circuit bent, or otherwise altered electronics.

The same night Boys Noize and Paul Devro are at Celebs.

Franz Ferdinand is at the Commodore on December 9th.

Fake Blood is at the Republic on December 18th, to celebrate my birthday, I'm pretty sure.

Metric, Tokyo Police Club, Dears, Sebastian Grainger et les Montagnes, and Mike Relm are at the Vogue on December 21st for "Jingle Bell Rocks," a show in support of Covenant House.

Solars are also on the bill for the November 6th Wood Family Creeps show. It also starts at 8pm, not 8:30pm now.

Sex Negatives are now on the bill for the AIDS Wolf show on November 24th.

Nu Sensae, Gang Violence, and Role Mach are at the Astoria on November 28th, provided it's open by then.

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Thursday, October 23, 2008
saturday night's alright

So, as Steve noted in the comments of the last post, sometime between the end of Ballz' set and when No Gold were supposed to start playing last Saturday a rather large fight broke out at the Peanut Gallery. I don't what the future holds, but the show that was supposed to be there this weekend (Role Mach, Boogie Monster, gr8-2000, and Type to Talk) has been moved to the Sweatshop.

But before that, also at the Sweatshop, Ballz and No Gold get a chance to perform again tomorrow night(Friday), hopefully without the fisticuffs this time. Fine Mist (feat. members of International Falls), V. Vecker, Sorcerers, and Twin Crystals round out a bill that's sure to be awesome.

Also tomorrow, Mark Berube & the Patriotic Few are at the Biltmore with Dan Mangan.

Lady Dottie and the Diamonds are at Pat's on October 29th with the TVees.

The TVees also open, along with thee Manipulators and Hard Feelings, for the Fucking Eagles, who are at the Sweatshop on November 15th.

The Awkward Stage are at the Biltmore with Dylan Thomas on November 8th.

And Two Hours Traffic are at the Biltmore on November 14th with Hey Rosetta! and the Danks.

now playing: Attack in Black - Ever Bright, Ever Blue

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
designer drugs

On Thursday, I went down to the Biltmore to catch Fake Shark-Real Zombie. The guys were (relatively) well behaved, at least compared to their last outing there, but they still put on a pretty good show. They also debuted a bunch of songs from their recently recorded forthcoming LP. If you're a fan of Zebra! Zebra!, you won't be disappointed with the new one.

Saturday, I made it to the Peanut Gallery in time to catch Gang Violence. The sound in there isn't the best, but they seemed tighter than last time around. And they were pretty tight to begin with.

Candles played next and from my vantage point, I didn't really know what to make of it. He sang over pre-recorded pop beats, his voice sounded great, but I couldn't really see anything other than people going nuts in the front. At one point during the set, a Michael Jackson song came on during the PA, and dude was either lipsyncing or he does a spot on rendition of the King of Pop. The former is so bizarre it's almost awesome and the latter would be be pretty goddamn impressive.

Ballz, who were comprised of Dave and Luke from Basketball, were up next. Unsurprisingly, they sounded like Basketball minus Tome: no vocals and a leaned a little more on the electronics. Hopefully, the move to Spain isn't a permanent one, because they're escape from Vancouver leaves a big hole in the local music scene.

I was pretty bagged, so I bailed before No Gold played. I'm sure they were wonderful, as per usual, though.

To answer Steve's question, there weren't any fights when I was there. Although, some wasted asshole was getting escorted out when I left.

Speaking of No Gold, they're opening the El Guincho show on November 22nd.

Bad Moves are at Pat's on October 23rd with Against Civilization (who played the first night of Shindig).

Stamina Mantis have some of their artwork on display at the newly opened Neapolitan (Main + 6th) starting on October 24th. They'll play the opening along with n213.

Sorcerers play Blastramp! on the 30th of October. It goes down at the Bourbon, as always.

The same night, the Fembots play the Railway with Octoberman.

Woods Family Creeps are at Little Mountain Studios for an early show (8:30pm-10pm) on November 6th with Role Mach.

On November 15th, S.K. Robot are doing their annual GBV tribute show as Guided by Robots at the ANZA. As always, the second half of the show features GBV-aoke with the band. I'm psyched.

And last, but most certainly not least, the SSRIs have their new EP up for free on their website.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
needle and the damage done

Earlier today, the fine gentlemen in Bend Sinister let me know that they were set to play a benefit/protest in support of Insite on Thursday. They were going to go on before Bedouin Soundclash. That is, apparently, before the radio darlings (or someone in their camp) found out that Bend Sinister was planning to play fully plugged in and decided they didn't want to go on with acoustics after Bend Sinister played with all of their gear. So, the guys, who've very generously donated their music here to benefit Insite in the past, let me know that because of Bedouin's complaint, they've been removed from the bill.

Classy.

A real update coming later with some show announcements, free local music, and some other junk.

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Thursday, October 16, 2008
burst transmission

To be completely honest, the overall quality of the music at Shindig has been sort of lacking this year (although I missed one night and Hermetic were pretty good). Hopefully, yesterday is a sign of things to come, because it was pretty decent on the whole.

Things started of with Ben & Gorodetsky, a one man act that was okay for the most part and hilarious when he whipped out a cover of a Russian dance tune (complete with dancing).

Boogie Monster followed after taking forever to set up (especially for a 2-piece). They were almost worth the wait. They might still be worth the wait. It was actually sort of hard to tell. The drumming was phenomenal. Problem was, the guy hit his kit so hard it was tough to hear the guitar at the best of times and damn near impossible at other times. I'd definitely like to seem them again though. And, despite the fact that it was sort of hard to judge the total package, I think they should have won.

Which brings us to the winners, the Sappers. It's hard to knock a band for being pleasant, but after a few songs of very polite, restrained, folk-pop, I was ready to call it a night. They were tight, but it was late, and after a few songs, they weren't doing much to keep me awake.

Here's some bad news: Wire is canceled tonight. Refunds available at point of purchase. No official word on why, but rumour has it that sales were really low. Thanks to everyone who emailed/messaged about that one.

Tomorrow, Lover! are here from Memphis. They play the Sweatshop with B-Lines and Dead Ghosts

Saturday, BA Johnston, Ghost House, and What's Wrong with Tohei? are at Pat's.

The same night, No Gold, Gang Violence, Ballz (Dave and Luke from Basketball), and Candles are at the Peanut Gallery.

And also on Saturday, Usaisamonster, Miami Nights, and Nu Sensae, and Robe and Allied are at the Emergency Room.

Sex with Strangers are at the Bourbon on October 22nd with Princess and the Paradise.

Carolyn Mark is at the Railway on October 24th.

The Buttless Chaps are at the Biltmore on Halloween with Ghost House and Fond of Tigers.

Also on Halloween, The Pack AD are at the Rail.

Slow Down Molasses are at the Railway on November 5th with Portico.

The Cobrasnake is throwing a party at Celebs with Pase Rock and Expendable Youth on November 7th.

The Bicycles are at Di'Metric Studios (1114 E. Pender) with Hot Panda on November 15th.

And those Half Alive guys are bringing Metronomy to the Bourbon on January 25th.

Now playing: Sleater-Kinney - Turn It On

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Monday, October 13, 2008
let this phone ring out into nowhere

I didn't catch any of the openers at Richard's on Thursday, since I was watching the Canucks make the Flames' defence look like pylons in the earlier part of the evening. I did saunter into the bar in time to see all of Chad VanGaalen's wonderful set though. His latest, Soft Airplane, is one of my favourite records of the year so far, so I was more than happy to hear him play a large chunk of it, but the older numbers were great as well. Chad was joined by various members of one of the opening bands throughout the evening, but the highlight had to be a show closing rendition of "Sing Me 2 Sleep" with just VanGaalen and a violinist.

Congrats to Jerome, who won the contest for free tix and a copy of Soft Airplane. And thanks to Jesse at Killbeat who hooked up the prize. Look out for another ticket giveaway later this week, also courtesy of Killbeat.

Friends From School are at the Backstage Lounge on Thursday this week with For British Eyes Only and Catamaran

Role Mach are at the Peanut Gallery on October 25th with Boogie Monster, gr8-2000, and Type to Talk (formerly Stolen Bicycles Gang).

Not really music related, but Andy Dixon has a show of his drawings coming up at Grace Gallery called "How to Draw Everything" and the opening is on November 6th (the show runs through the 24th).

On the same night, Shannon & the Clams and Forever are in town from California to play the Sweatshop. Local faves Modern Creatures and Nu Sensae also play. And, rounding out the bill, is Channels 3x4, who are playing their first show in forever.

Also not music related, but on November 27th at Video-In, there's a screening and DVD release for Star Trek: Chains of Betrayal. If you saw the first screening of the fan-made episode at the Astoria in April, you'll recall that it's hilarious.

Oh, and it's election day, in case you forgot. Even if you live in a riding like mine where nobody competent is running, you should go vote.

now playing: Forever - Something's Missing

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Tuesday, October 07, 2008
no no no

Funny you should ask, Dustin...

There were quite a few shows that happened between today and last Wednesday, but the two I tried to go to were already sold out when I got there. Well, one when I got there (Baroness/Genghis Tron/Bison) and one I found out about before actually heading down (Colourbook/No Gold/et al). Did you catch anything? Was it good?

Here's some stuff that's happening soon(er or later):

No Kids and No Gold are at the Biltmore on October 10th.

Esthero is at the Biltmore on October 17th.

The Jolts, B-Lines, and Adjective are at the Sweatshop on October 18th.

Buddy Guy is at the Commodore on November 9th.

Digable Planets are at the Commodore on Remembrance Day.

Thanks to Chris, Matt, and an anonymous tipster for most of that.

Crystal Castles and the Breeders are both canceled.

Lucinda Williams is at the Vogue on November 12th with Buick 6.

The Rosebuds are at the Media Club on November 19th.

Blitzen Trapper is at the Media Club on December 6th.

Cave Singers play Richard's on December 12th with Lightning Dust and Whalebones.

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Wednesday, October 01, 2008
i'm not judging you, i'm judging me







After Eric's Trip, Wire, the Jesus & Mary Chain, and now Mission of Burma, I think I'm going to start watching bands full of old guys exclusively (I guess Eric's Trip aren't that old - also, not all guys).

Mission of Burma was at the Plaza last night to perform Signals, Calls and Marches and a healthy dose from the rest of their catalogue. And, other than sort of wishing that they would have played the album in order (which is a small complaint), they were pretty amazing. I'm not really all that familiar with anything outside of Signals... and Vs., but the songs they included from their more recent releases, as was the case with Wire, really stood up well.

If nothing else, it was worth attending for the sing along during "That's When I Reach for My Revolver."



Just in case you were wondering who they supported in the election.





Gang Violence opened up the show. This is the first time that I've caught them since Sarah (Channels 3+4/Ice Cream) started singing for them. In some cases, the vocals seemed a touch out of place, but when the trio really hit on something it was pure gold. If you haven't already, go see them if you get the chance. If you have seen them, you're probably already planning to do that.

On Halloween, those Half Alive guys are throwing a party at the Sweatshop with Glass Candy, the aforementioned Gang Violence, Lioness, and You Say Party! We Say Die! performing downstairs, while Tyler, Tony, Jason, and Expendable Youth spin tunes all night upstairs.

Three Six Mafia are at the Commodore on November 28th for their first ever performance in Vancouver.

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contests

music

upcoming shows
2/8 Twin Sister, Eleanor Friedberger, and Ava Luna @ the Media Club
2/9 David Choi @ the Rio
2/10 Secret Chiefs 3 and Dengue Fever @ the Rickshaw
2/13 White Buffalo @ the Media Club
2/14 The Ballyntines and Pleasure Cruise (TT) @ the Biltmore
2/18 Grimes w/Born Gold @ Fortune (early)
2/18 Cruel Young Heart, Young Liars, the Oh Wells, and Matiation @ the Dodson Rooms (AA)
2/18 Cursive w/UME @the Media Club
2/19 The Asteroids Galaxy Tour w/Vacationer @ Venue
2/20 Veronica Falls w/Bleached @ the Media Club
2/26 DJ Krush @ Fortune
2/29 Trevor Hall @ the Media Club
3/6 Slow Club w/Signals @ the Media Club
3/7 Cloud Nothings w/Mr. Dream @ the Media Clubr
3/8 Islands @ the Rio
3/10 Memoryhouse @ the Waldorf
3/17 William Fitzsimmons @ the Biltmore (early)
3/18 Magnetic Fields @ the Vogue (AA)
3/21 Plants & Animals>/b> @ the Rickshaw
3/22 Drive-by Truckers @ the Commodore
3/23 White Rabbits @ the Biltmore
3/23 Loney Dear @ the Media Club
3/24 Sharon Van Etten and the War on Drugs @ the Biltmore (early)
3/25 Nada Surf and An Horse @ the Rickshaw
3/27 The Ting Tings @ the Commodore
4/5 House de Racket @ the Electric Owl
4/6 Chairlift w/Nite Jewel @ the Electric Owl
4/7 Heartless Bastards @ the Media Club
4/8 Metronomy @ Venue
4/8 Gotye @ the Vogue (AA)
4/9 Cults @ Venue
4/10 First Aid Kit @ Venue
4/10 Andrew Bird w/Laura Marling @ the Vogue (AA)
4/13 The Odds and the Grapes of Wrath @ the Rickshaw
4/14 The Joel Plaskett Emergency @ the Vogue (AA)
4/24 School of Seven Bells w/Exitmusic @ the Electric Owl
4/26 Justice @ the PNE Forum (AA)
4/27 M83 @ the Vogue (AA)
4/27 Yukon Blonde @ the Commodore
4/28 Neon Indian @ Venue (early)
5/6 Delta Spirit w/Waters @ the Electric Owl
5/9 Yann Tiersen @ the Rickshaw
5/11 Great Lake Swimmers w/Cold Specks @ the Commodore
5/12 The Boxer Rebellion> @ the Biltmore
5/27 Coeur de Pirate @ Venue

legend:
AA = all ages
DG = @damaged goods
DFTK = @dirty for the kids
FJW = @fake jazz wed
EN = @easy now
GD = @glory days
HL = @higher learning JH = @junior high
JY= @junkyard
RRPP = @rocknroll pizza party
SD = @shindig
TT = @toonie tuesday
NW = @no worries

more shows
shindig
the biltmore
fortune
pat's
the railway
the red room
venue

club action
culture club
damaged goods
east van soul club
glory days
ice cream social
no more strangers
re-up
wild zero

local favourites

mostly music
a day in the life of...
a reminder
chipped hip
deftone
duncan's donuts
expressway to my skull
goodnight neverland
guttersnipe
hero hill
the indie files
my indie world
radio zero
the skinny
vanmega
weird pop vancouver
winnie cooper

consume
dandelion
red cat
scratch
zulu

formed a band
the abramson singers
basketball
bison
black mountain
brasstronaut
the clips
destroyer
fine mist
jpndrds
koban
ladyhawk
mt-40
no gold
nu sensae
twin crystals
white lung

dj kicks
betti forde
cam dales
dg djs
expendable youth
john cougar
my!gay!husband!
paul devro

everything else
beyond robson
chez nous presents
citr
cjsf
ion
linds & nicola
only
ryan walter wagner
safe amplification site society
scout
swak
the straight
timbre
twee death
urban diner
vancouver is awesome
vanity presents

everywhere else

blogs
b(oot)log
brooklyn vegan
catbirdseat
catchdubs
chromewaves
cliptip
copy, right
discobelle
feed your habit
fluokids
fluxblog
for the 'records'
good weather for airstrikes
gorilla vs. bear
i am fuel, you are friends
i (heart) music
largehearted boy
macleans
mad decent
marathonpacks
mcnutt against the music
more cowbell
music (for robots)
my old kentucky blog
the outernet
palms out sounds
pop (all love)
popsheep
rock, paper, pixels
ryspace
said the gramophone
soul sides
stereogum
songs: illinois
swedesplease
ttiktda
weird canada

you ain't no picasso
zoilus

sites
buddyhead
cbc radio 3
coke machine glow
daytrotter
glorious noise
pitchfork
schedule two
stylus
tiny mixtapes

scribbles
chart
color
discorder
exclaim!

interact
email
last.fm
twitter

history

on repeat
i'll make you a tape
one song
promo pile

previous posts
i came prepared for absolution, if you'd only ask
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and if they try to slow you down, tell 'em all to ...
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all i want to do is just sit here and write it all...
the hardest part is getting old
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mp3s are for preview purposes, if you like what you hear, buy it at your favourite indie record store. please don't direct link to photos. click for more.

writing by Quinn
unless noted

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