PINTEREST

Got a chance to try out the website everyone (who spends all their time online and pays attention to these things) is talking about.  Pinterest is essentially an online bulletin board.  Through a little bookmark you keep on your web browser, when you see an image of something you like, you ‘Pin It’ to one of your boards to share with everyone.  Most of my first introduction was through Lynzie Kent’s Twitter feed, where she pinned everything from wedding style to fashion to crafts.  Of course…I figured that’s what it was about.

Thanks to Lynzie, I’m now on Pinterest, and have chosen to look for some specific things to start.  I have a board for things that inspire me musically, whether they be posters or pictures of my favourite artists or images that grab me.  I, obviously, have one for cute animals and furry things.  And I have one for clothes and styles that catch my eye and I’d like to try myself.

Must admit…it’s pretty fun.  The question is, will it have staying power for me?  Path didn’t…Tout was neat for a week…will it keep my attention or become another site that has my login information?

THE STRUMBELLAS

First off, the biggest disclosure I’ve ever had to make.  In 2009, I worked with the Strumbellas.  I was in school, we had to find a band to manage, and me and a group were immediately drawn into these guys.  We helped them do odds and ends for about four months (…more than odds and ends, probably) and in early 2010 we parted ways.  Now…two years later…they have come to the company I work for, and now I’m working with them again!  So…double disclosure!

It’s been a big week for The Strumbellas.  Their CD release party was a success…I know, I was there.  Sold out house, packed crowd, and for a ‘new band‘ people seemed to know the songs pretty damned well.  They’ve had great reviews in NOW magazine among other publications, were included in an ‘essential track list’ last week in the Globe and Mail, and are getting attention at college radio.  For a seven piece alt-country act from Toronto (by way of Lindsay, ON) that’s not so bad!

You can test the music out on their website, follow them on Twitter and Facebook where each day a different member handles the social media duties (7 members, 7 days!) and watch out for their first music video for the first track from their new album ‘Sheriff.’

THE HUNGER GAMES

…this one I’ll keep short…I’ve become a horrible fanboy in record time.  The movie comes out in a month.  I’ve read all three books, watched the trailers repeatedly, keep an eye out for Hunger Games news, and can’t wait to buy myself a mockingjay pin to wear on my coat.

…dear lord…what have I become!

Follow me on Twitter @Potoroo if you want a daily dose!

If any of these albums are in this piece of art, so help me... “Sound Swell” (2007) near Jean Climb @ ‘Second Lives’ at the Museum of Arts and Design

I’m not a collector of vinyl.  I’m a music lover.  And I don’t necessarily think that vinyl has a better sound than CDs.  It’s just the experience with vinyl is wholly different: the huge cover art, the steps that must be taken to play, the fact that it’s easier to put the needle down and let it play rather than skip from song to song to song.

Also…some albums are just vinyl albums, both sonically and literally.  They were meant to be heard on vinyl.  Or…they are only available on vinyl.

There are some albums I would (blank) to own.  I say blank because my first thought was ‘kill’ but…I’m not a very violent person, and I’d rather this blog not be used in a criminal case in the future.  So, you can fill in your own ‘horrible thing I’d do’ verb.  ’Eat bitter melon.’  ’Listen to an economist discuss his most recent theory.’  ’Sleep with a lady.’ (…not that there’s anything wrong with ladies…I just prefer dudes…)

VYTO B – TRICENTENNIAL 2076

Vyto is number one on my list because it’s rare, obscure, and least likely to happen.  There is one teasing webpage that comes up each time I search for this album on vinyl, a sale that happened awhile back, where a collector bought a copy for over $300 that also came with a note (written by Vyto, I believe to a radio station, and signed by Vyto as well).  I’ve seen one other online…$200…but the first song on each side skips.

This album caught my attention because of its simple complexity: one man, accompanied by guitar or piano, singing songs that take us through a future laid out by the first track.  Each song expands on a line from the title track.  The melodies are quirky and memorable.  The sound is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

This is as much a fanboy wish as anything else: I became an instant fan of this album.  Now I need it.  It’s something I want on my shelf before it’s too late, and all copies have drifted into obscurity.

ANY SPARKLEHORSE ALBUM

I want them.  Nay…NEED them.  Especially ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ and ‘Good Morning, Spider.’

Sparklehorse is my biggest influence…my Beatles, my Radiohead, my life experience, my independence.  From the moment I ‘actually’ discovered who I was (a road trip to Maryland to visit a friend I’d met on the internet) to the moment I genuinely set forth on a career in music (finishing school work one day, and finding out Mark Linkous, the sole member of Sparklehorse, had died), Sparklehorse has been there and still is.

I need that big artwork, the ritual of dropping the needle, the restriction of the experience that sits me down and stops what I’m doing and makes me listen…really listen…to the album as a whole.

BARNES AND BARNES – FISH HEADS 45

When I was a kid I think I broke my brother’s copy of this.  Or maybe I think I did because it was this musical memory of mine: a funny, quirky song that my brother would sing to me.  I remember him coming up to me with the 45, in two pieces, and singing ‘No-More-Fish-Heads.’

I wanna buy it and give it to him.

DR. JOHN – GRIS GRIS

This album hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday.  I used to listen to it when I was REALLY young thanks to my friend Jason Fraser.  Yes…as a child I used to listen to an obscure New Orleans voodoo jazz album.

This one is sonically something that NEEDS vinyl.  It’s how I heard it first, and then a cassette copy of the vinyl.  I’ve heard a clean version on Rdio and although it still has it’s gris gris power it lacks something that only a needle on vinyl can deliver.

I’ve been pretty lucky.  I’ve managed to get some copies of vinyl that I desperately needed.  Finding a copy of Renaldo and the Loaf was a victory.  I have Tiffany’s albums on vinyl…DON’T JUDGE!  For new music, I own Neon Indian’s album on a double vinyl though currently have no turntable to play it.

This is TOTALLY an album for the next time you invite your boss over for a dinner party...trust me...

Owning Peter Hammill’s ‘A Black Box’ ensured that I could hear the entirety of ‘Flight’ the way it should be heard.

They are just ‘things,’ but fleeting things that can be there one moment, and gone the next.  Although the internet has made it easier to rescue and distribute obscure albums that doesn’t mean  everything will survive.  You can only be sure you have your music if you have it in your possession…

…what if you replace your entire collection on Spotify and then Spotify goes out of business?

…or if your computer dies and you lose the entire collection.

Sure, a house fire would do the trick on a vinyl collection, but my computer has broken down more often then my house has caught fire.

And there’s something lost in the process when you throw a thousand songs in an MP3 player and skip through.  I’ve noticed some drastic changes: I don’t know the names of songs as well as I used to, I don’t remember lyrics of entire albums like I used to, and worse of all…I spend more time staring at text trying to figure out what I want to listen to than I ever have.

That’s why I’d (blank) for some of these albums on vinyl.  Some music is meant to be different, stand apart, and have a ritual.  But to hold the ritual you first need the music.

Are there any albums you would (blank) for?  What are they?  Have you ever been so close but so far??  Tell me!!

Find me on Twitter @Potoroo where I hang out most!  Chat me up, I’m happy to hear from you.  And if you have music you want me to hear, please send it my way!!

But Roo!  You work in the music industry!

IKNOWRITE??!  But I’m poor!  I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say for the last five years I’ve leaned on a lot of people to keep me going, and one of the first things that had to be cut was CDs.  As a music lover, I couldn’t go ‘without’ music, and I realize the hypocrisy in this, and hope the mere fact that I’m saying it publicly and without any intention of boasting gets the point across that I would MUCH rather be buying CDs.

…actually…I’d rather be buying CDs at live performances after picking up a t-shirt and tour poster.  Or sending $100 to a Kickstarter campaign.  I’d rather be putting money right in the artist’s pockets.

It’s a complicated issue: having no money, having a love of culture, that culture costing money but easily accessible via the internet for free.

As money comes in, it goes back out though.  This past year I’ve managed to see some of my favourite artists live and I intend to triple the live performances I see this year.  When I do, I always buy merch.  But…enough of my defense myself.

I don’t only get my CDs from evil pirates.  I sometimes get them through work.  On occasion, these people end up working with me.  In others, they don’t, but I wish they had.  SOOOOO…after all this rambling, here’s what I’m really documenting: CDs (or vinyl) I would like to buy, despite the fact that I was given the CD for free, and despite the fact that I never even had a chance to work with the artist.

In other words, in full disclosure, these people gave me a CD and then worked with someone else.  But I still love them.  And in the first two cases, they were among my favourite albums of 2011.

THE CIVIL WARS – BARTON HOLLOW

They’ve gotten a bit of a buzz recently, winning Grammy’s and teaming up with Taylor Swift for another franchise near and dear to my heart, The Hunger Games. (click the link, it’s a VERY pretty song)  I think I started listening to this CD around the same time we had a teaser of City and Colour’s ‘Little Hell’ (an artist my company did work with in 2011).  The Civil Wars gave me my first bout of professional guilt…because I enjoyed ‘Barton Hollow’ more than ‘Little Hell,’ and when I should’ve been listening to C&C I was listening to TCW.

It’s a style I’m not normally into: the guy and girl duet pairing.  But…it’s amazing.  It crosses genre from folk to blues to pop and does so seamlessly.  ’Barton Hollow,’ unlike most albums I heard last year, is TRULY beautiful.  Years ago, I stumbled across a band called Imaginary Heaven from Vankleek Hill, Ontario.  The Civil Wars give me the same feeling I had with them: a humble, sweet, beautiful collection of songs.

I want it on vinyl.  I’m not a hipster.  I just see it as the kind of album I want to drop a needle and let it run, something I have a hard time doing with most new music.  Which is a WHOLE other subject for another day.

The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow, I ‘will’ buy you.

HOORAY FOR EARTH – TRUE LOVES

I’ve brought these guys up a few times.  They approached my company last year, and I was SOOOO excited to work with them on one listen-through.  Then…I just never heard about them again.  Apparently something happened with Google, or they had some kind of buzz growing, or SOMETHING.  They came through town and I missed them.

However, more than any other album I listened to last year, Hooray For Earth has found it’s way into my ears over and over again.  I have it on my iPod, my iPhone, I’ve sync’d it to my Rdio account, and I even have a CD burned to play in the car.

Hooray For Earth is a sonic adventure.  A headphone band.  The closest comparison I can make is Neon Indian, but I wouldn’t say they are that similar.  Both artists use a raw synth sound, almost like they broke apart a Casio and soldered shit all over it to force it to do their bidding.  But Hooray for Earth has this…80s science fiction soundtrack feel, like it takes place on a dark planet one moment and in a planetary dive bar the next.

Despite all of this, the songs are songs.  I could pick up a guitar and play them and they’d still sound pretty damned cool.  Artists sometimes rely on technical tricks to enhance their song, giving us an amazing production and great listening experience.  But stripped down, beneath the layers, there’s nothing there.  Hooray For Earth write GOOD songs, and then dressed them up further.

There is a touch of New Wave that flows throughout the album, but I can also hear Beatles…and the song ‘True Loves’ is one of the best and most captivating songs I’ve heard the last decade.

Hooray For Earth – True Loves, I WILL buy you.

Are there any albums you’ve managed to get for free that you’d be happy to drop hard earned cash to own?  Which ones??

Find me on Twitter (far more frequently than here) @Potoroo.  Don’t hesitate to message me up there if you like!

I’ve listened to other tracks this week – Lana Del Rey’s album, the new Jack White, even the new Cult song – but I’ll stick to stuff I haven’t seen as many reviews of out there. Oh, and as a quick note, all the titles below are clickable!!!  TECHNOLOGY.  Here are some thoughts!

Donna Fullman:

Under The Pink favourite Donna Fullman has released a track from her upcoming album on Soundcloud and she let me know…because she’s cool like that!

I wrote a review for her previous album happiness + victory last year.  This new song, By The Fire, is a pretty intro of what’s to come.  I loved Donna’s sweet earthiness, which I described as “…not folk…or celtic…or gothic…or rock.”  By The Fire is a bite-sized treat, tasty and leaving me wanting more.  I can only expect that Donna has stepped up from happiness + victory with more experience and such an amazing album under her belt.  When the new album Inner World is released, I’ll let you know!

Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas

Is it wrong for me to say that track 2 (Amen) made me think of Tom Waits when it first started?   No, of course it isn’t wrong to say, because they’re both among the best living songwriters.  I’m not saying the track isn’t ‘Coheny’ either.  The opening track ‘Going Home’ and track 3 ‘Show Me The Place’ smack of Cohen’s simple, memorable songwriting balanced with deep and complex lyrics.

The one thing I can say for this album (click the name above for a stream)…I listened to every word.  I can’t say that for every album I listen to.  Sometimes I get caught up in the rhythms and melodies and production and the lyrics become another instrument.  Not with Leonard Cohen.  I think it’s impossible to hear one of his songs and not listen to the lyrics…and I mean REALLY listen to the lyrics.

Old Ideas ‘is’ an Old Idea…simple, scaled down songs, with a focus on the words and the melody with just enough backing instruments to support the song itself. This is a quiet album.  A touch of celtic melody here, a touch of 60s folk there, even blues (Darkness, Banjo).  Every song has a comforting softness to it…relaxing!  (Lullaby is obviously a Lullaby!) Cohen is occasionally accompanied by female choruses (Come Healing), soft gospel singers (Going Home)…you know, stuff you expect from Leonard.

That’s actually the best way to put it…with Old Ideas you get what you expect, which is exactly what I’d want from Leonard Cohen.  Good songwriting, good music.

Hospitality – Hospitality

I recently had a ‘Belle and Sebastian‘ revival.  Hospitality gives me that fuzzy feeling I felt the first time I heard B&S.  From the first guitar stroke I knew I was in for a treat when I stumbled into this album.

What catches my attention with a new artist is when they surprise me.  ’Eighth Avenue’ surprised me.  ’Friends of Friends’ did too…and on…and on…through the rest of the album.  I mean, it’s not crazy complex, but it’s nothing like anything I’ve been listening to recently…it’s throwback but still very modern indie.  It sounds like a bunch of people having fun with music, honestly.

The production is tight, the instrumentation is rich and uncluttered, the songwriting is sweet…can an album be 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s?  This one seems to be, which is about the best way I could describe Hospitality.  And I think that’s what surprised me…right when I had it figured out suddenly we took a corner.

I suggest you give it a listen-through if you like indie-rock that merges (heh…they’re on Merge Records!) the best of the decades into hooky and fun tracks.

And there you have it…I did a review!  That wasn’t so hard, was it, Roo??

In any case, please let me know what you think!  Feedback is sexy!  Follow me on Twitter @Potoroo to hear from me every day!

…oh…and since I know you’re all wondering after that intro…here’s the new Cult song:

UPDATE: Quick note…20 minutes after I posted this, my boss walked in and told us we were working the new Cult album…so…like…when I posted they were an 80s band with a new song out…but I guess now they’re someone I’m working with so…this is the weirdest disclosure I’ve ever had to do

Yup, I’m a blogger telling you not to pay attention to me on Thursday!  Maybe…come back Friday or next week…when I’ve ingested the results!

THE SCOOP

For years now, I discover the BEST music via a cool radio station in Australia, Triple J.  They always seem to have a finger on the future-pulse of North America.  That is…shit that’s popular in 2011 will be popular here in 2012.  They predicted huge tracks by Kings of Leon, Mumford and Sons.

In January 2011, before anyone cared here, Foster the People had made their list.  Also on the list, and just hitting it big now, a little fella named Gotye.

So yah…I suggest you watch the Triple J Hottest 100 on Thursday, through the site or streaming audio.  You’ll be glad you did!

Hospital Smoking: A Lost Art

As some of you may know, I run a summer camp for geeks.  This summer camp has a stereotype attached to it that people get naked, run around, and wear funny costumes.  Ironically, the most recent movie we have reviewed for ‘Something Weird This Way Comes’ is about people who go to camp…get naked…and are terrorized by (you guessed it) a guy in a stupid costume.

Now…I defend myself by saying that we don’t get naked (unless showering) and the costumes are not stupid:

He's climbing an f'ing tower, how is that stupid????

The film, ‘The Beast That Killed Women,’ is about a nudist camp, has a guy in a gorilla suit, and a fair amount of naked ladies chatting about what’s going on around them in echoey rooms.  I say fair amount because they, apparently, dress up for parties (at the nudist camp), sleeping (at the nudist camp) and anything other than wandering the woods aimlessly, having picnics, or jumping into pools.

The men…they mostly wear shorts.

To hear the podcast about this fantastic film, click here!

We also have a Facebook Page devoted to the podcast, that you can check out if you enjoy it!  Like us if you like it!

Anywhoo, thought I’d update you on my comings and goings!  More music info to come soon!

If you read my blog with any regularity you know I love these guys.  Their 80s Fantasy Space Disco music is amazing.  Their soundcloud describes them as:

Imagine riding a unicorn towards the Northern Lights whilst wielding a lightsaber and simultaneously transporting the listener directly to both their childhood past and their future!

I love it!

Here’s their new remix…download it, listen, love, laugh, dance!

Yes…I read Young Adult novels.  They’re my favourite, in fact.  From Francesca Lia Block’s ‘Weetzie Bat’ novels to popular series like Harry Potter, I’ve always been more drawn to YA than anything else.  I fancied myself a Young Adult writer about a decade ago…had 36,000 words of my novel written.  At which point I discovered that I’m a horrible…horrible writer.

That said, I finished The Hunger Games today, and Suzanne Collins is NOT a horrible writer…she’s not even a bad writer…damnit, she’s a GOOD writer.  How about that reversal thing I just did there, eh?

…yes, that’s why I don’t write Young Adult novels…because of that.

THE STORY

The story was fantastic, a bizarre blend of post-apocalyptic and technology-based sci-fi.  I’m used to Road Warrior styles, or The Road…I wasn’t expecting technology to play such a huge role in Earth’s future when so many people are starving and struggling to survive…oh…wait…

…is The Hunger Games really any different than modern day?  …now I’m depressed.

We follow Katniss in this futurescape where North America is divided into 12 Districts (what happened to the rest of the world??)…actually, 13, but the 13th was decimated after a war which led to the Capital becoming a dictatorship over the 12 lesser regions.  Each region has a strength, and District 12 is coal.

There are boys…but she’s not a boy-obsessed prissy flower, quite the opposite.  The way they play the love story that is required for any story of this sort is…not normal…and is quite awesome I must say.  But let’s not talk about boys (…right now, anyways…)

I don’t want to get into too much detail here…or accidentally go into spoiler world…but lets just say Katniss ends up ‘somehow’ (twisty?) becoming chosen (a Tribute) for the Hunger Games: a televised competition where teens from each district are pitted against each other in a free-for-all battle to the death, the victor awarded with food and luxury.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

I could talk about the characters (each one is very layered and fascinating, unlike a glittery supernatural storybook that has been popular of late), or about the setting (the arena is well-detailed and reminds me of the wilderness of Canada), or the specifics of the plot…but you can read it, or watch the movie when it comes out.  What I want to talk about…is Public Relations.

…AH!  You were wondering ‘Why the f*** is Roo writing a book review?‘ and getting ready to fire an arrow through my throat, weren’t you!  But now you can’t…because I pulled it back.

…it is still a book review…and I still suggest you read the book if you like SciFi, Fantasy, or just good stories.

But yes, PR…because, as I was reading, I realized…this book is all about PR.

It goes against the nature of the main character – raised in a world where she has to hunt for food, avoid pissing off authority, under the thumb of the capital – but through the book she comes to realize that to survive she needs to look good (she has a stylist before the games begin), interest people (she has an interview before the games), and gain and hold favour of those watching (during the games she regularly makes decisions specifically to maintain an image).

All of this is happening while she’s under constant threat of death, starvation, hypothermia.  She’s battling a bunch of kids who are trying to stay alive as well…but she needs to maintain her image…because it could give her the edge she needs to survive.

The sequences with the stylists (the head stylist is one of my favourite characters, and will hopefully be played well by Lenny Kravitz in the film), discussions with her handler (being played by Woody Harrelson in the movie, which is cool!), and knowledge she’s gained from previous games are fascinating.  The push and tug of reality against the ‘augmented reality’ of…for lack of a better word…publicity, or her image, is an extra layer I’m not used to seeing in novels of this type.

Think of it…imagine if Harry Potter had to be wary of his actions, just in case the newspapers printed something bad.  If, when he was scheming to break the rules of his school, he stopped to think “But how will this play on television” and then work a strategy into his plan.

It’s brilliant.  It’s a great way to twist the genre.  Most of all…it’s a very clever way to take something unimaginable – a teenager forced to kill other teenagers for sport – and make it not just ‘human’ but, in a strange way, relatable.  Modern.

REALITY

In reality, in the music industry, at work, with the family…we all have to keep these things in mind.  It’s like office politics, or dealing with complex problems in close relationships.  Public Relations is really about keeping yourself in check and ensuring that you are showing what you want the world to see.  I, for one, don’t really pay attention to my own image…what you see here is what you get for the most part.

But, in the back of my head, there is a bit of Katniss there.  That nagging thought of ‘How will this action be interpreted, and how can I get the same result but end up with a positive interpretation?’

It’s a layer I wasn’t expecting.  And the reason why I highly recommend the book to anyone who’s got some time to kill…

…heh…time to kill…

Anywhoo, if you agree with me or think I’m way off, I’d love to hear from you!  Comment here or find me on Twitter @Potoroo

Honheehonhee from Montreal.  Great track, great video!

It’s the early 90s.  Rural Ontario.  A young dude, not yet grown into his pink hair, is music-obsessed and always looking for something unique.  He was raised on a strange concoction of radio pop (New Kids, Tiffany, and the more recent hip hop explosion) and obscura bizarro (Captain Beefheart, John Cooper Clarke, The Jazz Butcher).  There is a new genre emerging that bin boxes at CD stores calls ‘Alternative’ and, shockingly, one of his favourite bands (aforesaid Jazz Butcher) is shelved there!

…Alternative…I guess it’s the weird shit he likes to listen to!

As Alternative broadens, and bands like Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins find their way into the bin, it starts to look like this dirty rock (…grungy perhaps?) is taking over…when all of the sudden a song is played on the radio.  A song that sounds nothing like the other tracks being broadcast.

He buys the album within the week, ‘A Soap Bubble And Inertia.’  Rhythmic.  Melodic.  Complex and chaotic but not like Captain Beefheart…it’s catchy, hooky.  It becomes his favourite album.

Not long after a second album comes out, ‘Kicking in the Water,’ and it actually, somehow, manages to outshine the first.  Every song is a new experience.

And finally…’Sold For A Smile’…it was more rockin’, more rock radio friendly…or so it sounded.  From the small University town of Guelph, and before the internet became a powerful beast, it seems like the band has made it…was breaking into the US…they’re even coming to play the University!  But for some reason everything…just…stops.

(shift in perspective in three…two…) I never really knew why the Gandharvas broke up.  There are dozens of possibilities: they didn’t get along anymore, they owed the label so much after three albums that they couldn’t continue, the third album just didn’t sell, or maybe people just didn’t get it.

I had heard from a friend that Paul Jago, the lead singer and songwriter in the band, was in London.  That he had heard some of Paul’s 4-Track Demos of upcoming solo music.  They never materialized.

The next I heard, he had left music and moved to the states to study rocks.  Honestly, my first thought was ‘Good for him!  I hope he loves it.’  But I also thought to myself… “Damn…I was hoping I’d see him again.”

Note the date…a month and a half ago.  I stumbled across this video when I revisited the Facebook group for the Gandharvas and saw three videos, this one was titled ‘Thanksgiving Treat.’  It’s strange the number of things I discover through random acts.

I don’t know if the rest of the Gandharvas fans have noticed yet.  The views are under 100…they should be much higher.

Further inspection has found that Paul is now performing roots rock with his wife under the name Said Dog.  He’s still studying rocks.  But music seems to be back…maybe it’s never left.

Now…to the jumping the gun part.  I write all of this…before I’ve listened to any Said Dog music.  Everything is free on the site, just head to www.saiddog.com and you can grab it.  I’m almost too scared to.  Which makes no sense.  Years ago I heard he had 4-Track demos and wanted nothing but to hear them.  Now I hear he has full fledged songs and I’m nervous!

Maybe I should just do it.  I mean, I got back together with my high school bandmate and we did just fine.  It’s hard to dive into the new music of your high school musical mentor, years after you thought it was all done.  I guess there’s only one way to find out…

Click…