i don't have the heart to tell you/i've waited so long to be near you

Sometimes it's easy to forget that Vancouver's a sports city. Usually, it's because the Canucks are hapless and their ownership seems intent on keeping it that way. But if you give this place something--anything--to cheer for, they show up. And man, did everyone show up last night (and also the night before for the Goldeneyes opener).

BC Place is such a terrible venue for the Whitecaps for a variety of reasons, but even with the curtains blocking out the upper bowl, it's a cavern in there in the regular season. On the other hand, when it's filled to the brim with 55,000 people? When they're standing for all of extra time and the PKs? When the home team somehow gets it done after being down two guys for what seemed like an eternity? There's no place I'd rather be.

Since there's only one champion, sports inevitably involves so much heartbreak. Every season for every celebrating fanbase, there's exponentially more that have to go over the "why?" Some of them cheer for teams that couldn't even dream of getting that far. 

Sometimes it makes you wonder why you bother.

And then there's a game like last night that makes you remember why it's all worth it. 

Album of the week

Sharp Pins - Balloon, Balloon, Balloon

What if Uncle Bob had a reverb unit and a love of girl groups (or maybe the Byrds?) when he made all those classic Guided by Voices records?

There's 21-songs on this thing, but it clocks in at an economical 43-minutes and there are about a zillion hooks crammed in there.

Delightful stuff.

Song of the week

Gladie - Car Alarm

A thing I love is when Augusta Koch growls out a lyric so hard that it sounds like her voice is going to break before she inevitably reels it in. And that happens on this one during the opening couplet.

I think this might be a minority opinion, but I love Koch's work with Gladie even more than those Cayetana records and, while there's no album announcement yet, this single out on a new label (Get Better Records) almost surely means that there's a new one coming. It popped right to the top of my most anticipated list.

Classic of the week

The Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums

That fucking bass line, man. There's the tapping on the high hat and then there's that bass line and then that shimmering, ringing guitar chord and then there's Ian singing one of the greatest love songs of all time.

But it's that bass line that holds everything together.

The bass lines really hold the whole album together--a 58-minute masterpiece that's locked in by one unimpeachable groove after another.

And then after the Roses were done, he lent his talents to the imperial era of Primal Scream and gave us this insane riff from "Kill All Hippies."  

RIP, Mani.

More heat

Miya Folick - Maybe When I'm Ready

Conway the Machine feat. Roc Marciano - Diamonds

now playing: Pavement - Spit on a Stranger