April 2007 That environmentally friendly magazine from CiTR 101.9 FM {BREEIIBELT gXILLECTIUE ^IGHRL + TI015E fl%P cJERR flRUDRILLRRD M@co*2>@9t APRIL'2007 Editor David Ravensbergen Art Director Cole Johnston Production Manager Laura Henderson Copy Editor Cheyanne Turions RLA Editor Danny McCash Datebook Editor Laura Henderson Review Manager Cheyanne Turions Layout & Design Cole Johnston* Laura Henderson Production Team Cole Johnston Melanie Coles Caroline Walker Graeme "XML" Worthy Michelle Mayne Arthur'Krumins Catherine Rana David Ravensbergen Alanna Scott Laura Henderson Cheyanne Turions Photo & Illustration Cole Johnston Luke Meat Freddy H. Melanie Coles LlNDSAYSDIET.COM Besh from Greenbelt Program Guide Bryce Dunn Charts Luke Meat Distribution Amanda McCorquodale US Distribution Catherine Rana CITR Station Manager Lydia Masemola Regulars The Gentle Art of Editing 3 Riff Raff 4 Bryce Dunn Copyfight! 4 GregMcMuUen Cinema Aspirant 5 £ J^S^'S Allan Maclnnis Textually Active 6 Adverbs, Inkstuds Mixtape 10 Kara Peet Calendar 16 Spring Waltz Real Live Action 23 Under Review 26 CiTR Charts 29 The Dopest Hits of March 2007 Program Guide 30 The Highlight 31 CiTR Spring Bash Features Cris Derksen Vancouver's cello ambassador excels at every genre but country. Mr 11 Greenbelt Collective Most musicians take their fans for granted. These pop collaborators not only appreciate your support, they want your to join their band. Mr 13 Signal + Noise Multimedia artists converge on Vancouver from Aptil 19th to 21st to prove there's more to the message than just the medium. mt 18 SXSW In case you Weren't already jealous, Luke Meat rescounts a week of beer, bands and BBQ at the legendary Texan Festival. MT 20 Cover Art by Cole Johnston ©DiSCORDER 2007 by the Student Radio Society of the University of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Circulation 8,000. Subscriptions, payable in advance, to Canadian residents are $15 for one year, to residents of the USA are $15 US; $24 CDN elsewhere. Single copies are $2 (to cover postage). Please make cheques or money orders payable to DiSCORDER Magazine. DEADLINES: Copy deadline for the May issue issue is April 22nd. Ad space is available until April 23rd and can be booked by calling 604.822.3017 ext 3 or emailing discorder.advertising@gmail.com. Our rates are available upon request. DiSCORDER is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to unsolicited manuscripts, unsolicited artwork (including but not limited to drawings, photographs, and transparencies), or any other unsolicited material. Material can be submitted on disc or in type or via email. As always, English is preferred, but we will accept French. Actually, we won't? Send words to discordered@gmail.com and art to discorderart@gmail.com. From UBC to Langley and Squamish to Bellingham, CiTR can be heard at 101.9 FM as well as through all major cable systems in the Lower Mainland, except Shaw in White Rock. Call the CiTR DJ line at 822.2487, our office at 822.3017, or our news and sports lines at 822.3017 ext. 2. Fax us at 822.9364, e-mail us at: citrmgr@mail.ams.ubc.ca, visit ourweb site at www.citr.ca or just pick up a goddamn pen and write #233-6138 SUB Blvd., Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z1, CANADA. the (Jentle j4rt of Editing I have a confession to make. While I've been moonlighting as the editor of Discorder, an alleged champion of independent media and free expression, I've been making a living through far more sinister means. A job that's not only shameful, but directly contradicts my professed values. A job that actively makes the world a slightly worse place. As any good twelve-step program will tell you, the first step on the road to recovery is to admit that you have a problem. So—deep breath—it's time to face my fraudulence head-on: I've been spam- ming. For real. I write spam. No, I'm not the one responsible for those malicious emails offering the cure for your girlfriend's dissatisfaction in the boudoir, and I don't saturate your blog's comment section with nonsense. What I do is write advertising copy for products that I know absolutely nothing about. My words are then placed on fake websites that jockey for supremacy on Google's page rankings, luring in users with hollow promises of real information about real things. In truth, these sites are little more than AdSense farms, each waiting to generate revenue from the frenzied clicks of disoriented web surfers. Each article I write makes the internet a little bit less useful, and for that I apologize. On top of it all, writing spam is decreasing my enchantment with the written word. There used to be times when I would read a great sentence and feel a rush of endorphins; I remember reading Nietzsche for the first time and exclaiming yes! under my breath every few pages. These days words have little effect on me. Even though I secretly enjoy a Uttle spam here and there, like the email with the subject line "he saxophone on poop" that landed in my inbox the other day, the effect is like literary crack: it doesn't last. From books to blogs, the sheer volume of text vying for my attention actually seems to strip words of their meaning. The internet has become a masterpiece of empty signifiers, the definitive book that Baudrillard never wrote. Call me a dinosaur, but what I really like about Discorder is the tangible feeling of newsprint in my hands. I like spending the long hours of production weekend with my friends and cohorts, working on a collaborative project that bears the marks of our collective effort. I lite the fact that when I say, "We've switched printers again this month, and now run on 100% recycled paper and vegetable inks," I'm talking about an actual change we've made, one based on something as old-fashioned as conviction. I like having a new Art Director and Production Manager, both eager to step in and carry on the legacy of this magazine that's as old as I am. I'm going to kick this spam-writing habit, and Discorder is the higher power that's going to help me do it. David Ravensbergen, Editor discordered@gmail.com cWr_AL'A ifOW OT'E'hf 4148 Main St Open daily @ spm You're invited for one TWEE (A(PT(Ert(lZ(E(K. vdtfi the order of an entree. 'Entertainment every Thursday starting at 8:30pm 'African Music By Yorojrom 'Benin www.nyala.com Coupon expires (May 15th, 2007 -=l=l AJ\ by BRYCE DUNN 531 ['■-_t_V_-4. • # vcm y • ® THE BLACK HOLLIES THEDANSETTES Hello again music lovers, time for another journey into the center of my turntable for sounds fantastic and scary, like our first single by gangly goth-rockers The Horrors. Currently buzzing around the heads of British music critics, these boys from nowhere are now everywhere, and stockists can't keep their records on the shelves. The first batch of tunes released on these shores come in specially designed sleeves, naturally upping the collector factor. "Gloves" is a slice of organ-grinding dementia (played by Spider Webb) that sees singer Paris recounting one heck- uva nightmare over a squealing guitar riff provided by Joshua Von Grimm. "Kicking Kay" is a similarly grounded garage pounder that tells of equine emulation, while the rhythm section of Tomethy Furse and Coffin Joe nail the lid shut on this three minute burst of primal punk. Already getting flak from the garage purists and favour from the entire British teenage girl population, The Horrors are onto something, and only time will tell if they still wear their influences on their sleeves or rip them off and make you eat them. (Loog Records, www.loogrecords.co.uk). Probably the only band that could melt the black hearts and mascara of those lads is the trio of lasses known as The Pipettes. They attack with an arsenal of pop confection so sweet it could put Charlie and his chocolate factory out of business. "Judy" is the latest in their batch of sticky sweet sixties-girl-group-inspired songs and it's definitely a winner. The b-side? the oddly titled "The Burning Ambition of Early Diuretics," mentions the word "love" at least eighty-eight times (yes, I counted) and acts like a,lost song from the vaults of Tommy James. The Pipettes' chops are backed by an ample band, and the puppet master is the man known as Monster Bobby, the Phil Spector of the new millennium. Their debut album, We Are The Pipettes will be getting a proper release on this side of the Atlantic in the coming months as they just inked a deal with Interscope Records. Make sure you got a toothbrush and floss in hand, 'cuz this one's gonna hurt, kids. (Memphis Industries, www.memphis-industries.com). Not only have those Brighton babes been the boon of dentists nationwide, it seems they've spawned offspring in the state of New York with The Dansettes, named after a 50s record player that could be carried around with you and used to play several records at once. Seems the ladies (Leah, Jaime and Jennie) were born behind the decks of their local soul spot, the Subway Soul Club, and couldn't stop belting out their favourite songs. They employed the Brothers United backing band and the rest, as they say, is Soul Power! The song "Forty Days" is a stompin' mid-tempo number that hearkens back to the glory days of the Wigan Casino and the Northern Soul movement. They share one side of a new forty-five with their friends The Black Hollies, who turn in a decent cover of Deep Purple's "Hush" (which just so happens to be one of my most hated garage songs EVER). I think I got turned off by this song when I heard it being slaughtered by a local Vancouver band (trust me, you don't want to know who they are!) and can't listen to the original for wanting to tear my eyes out. However, the Hollies' freakbeat stylings are much better suited to their likeable full length, Crimson Reflections (released last year), so I won't dissuade from checking them out. (Ernest Jenning Record Co., www.ernestjenning.com). Finally then, some covers I can endorse without breaking down are supplied by Torontonian malcontents Brutal Knights on a recent single fittingly titled The Breakdown EP. Whether these guys and gals were just looking for an excuse to record some of the "classics", or actually ran out of original material is anyone's guess, but they don't fool around on "Communication Breakdown" by the legendary Led Zeppelin and "Nervous Breakdown" by Black Flag: Both songs are treated with just the right amount of sneer and savagery, as you would expect from a group whose take on punk rock is nasty, brutish and short. But what I didn't expect was how they chose to start the next song immediately after the one chosen for the side then quickly fade to black AND do it on both sides. Oh, those cheeky monkeys! (Perpetrator Records, P.O. Box 68-984 Newton, Auckland New Zealand), j) "''■• 'mj&.'~ Thanks for coming along on the voyage—we blast off again next month! THE CORPORATION --HELLO COOL WORLD - KATHERINE DODDS -THE CORPORATION - HEtLO COOL WORLD - KATHERIINE DODDS -THE CORPORATION - HELLO COOL WORLD - KATHERINE DODDS ASPTRATTT Illustrations by Melanie Coles by ALLAN MaclNNIS /■ recently discovered something odd and delightful. Nearly all of the most politically engaged, intellectually stimulating, and inspiring documentaries I've seen in the last five yearsare being promoted by the same rather remarkable Vancouverite, Katherine Dodds. Dodds has two companies of note: Good Company, which used viral marketing via the internet to promote The Corporation, and Hello Coo! World, whose webstore includes films like.the intense and disturbing Winter Soldier, an essential film about the Vietnam war that I've Written about here previously. Dodds' work as an advertiser is entirely tied to causes she believes in, and she has an energetic, hyper-articulate manner that is difficult to match. With several new titles on her site, including the compelling Manufactured Landscapes, and an upcoming two disc, extra- laden re-release of the landmark film about Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, it seemed an ideal time to check in. Dodds' long-term model for promoting films began "almost ten years ago, when The Corporation was just a germ of an idea. It was basically years in the funding, and then years in the making, and my role during those early years was as friend and communications consultant. Then, as it came closer to being released, I also raised the moriey for the new media component and became the producer of the website. And then* I moved onto taking what money there was for publicity and leveraging-it into what became a fairly substantial promotions budget for a documentary. What I did was somewhat unprecedented, because I was in the position of having produced the money that I then got to spend." . Dodd's work on The Corporation, collecting email addresses and building a strong grassroots network (and audience), put her "on the map" and led to her promoting The Take, a film about worker- . occupied factories in Argentina, made by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein. "I had done PR for a lot of documentaries before that, but it wasn't turning it into its own mission, which Hello Cool World has become." Hello Cool World's mission statement is 'Ideas to Audiences, Audiences to Action, and Action to Outcome.' One manifestation of this is the Campaign for Corporate Harm Reduction, which, Dodds explains, "is us saying that we want to find a. way to sustain this network post-launch. While I can say, 'Yay, we managed to get money to launch the film,' that money, after.a year, was gone. So what we're trying to do now is figure out how we can sustain the momentum of all these people, who asked two questions endlessly in the year The Corporation was released: 'What can I do,' and 'When can I buy the DVD?'" (Continued on next page) CINEMA , ASPIRANT! COPY-n by GREG McMULLEN J t's easy to generate a list of Canadian stereotypes- delightful images of hockey, maple syrup, dog sleds, and Celine Dion spring to mind immediately. However, in recent weeks a new character has been added to the national roster—callous movie pirates. Reports in many media outlets, from the CBC to the National Post, have suggested that we sneaky Canadians have been busy beavers indeed, surreptitiously bringing camcorders into our theatres. Once inside, we record the latest Hollywood cultural gems, then let the Hell's Angels, Rock Machine, or, horror of horrors, al-Qaeda, sell the resulting knockoff DVDs at discount prices. Fearmongers froth Hollywood and their allies in Washington have unveiled a media campaign, painting Canadians as sinister infringers of copyright in an effort to bolster their lobbying campaigns in Ottawa. They hope to get Canada to adopt new legislation to "get tough" on piracy. Recently, the U.S. ambassador to Canada went on record insisting that Canada bring in tougher copyright laws, claiming that our provisions are "the weakest of the G7 countries" and that piracy costs our economy $10-30 billion a year. Canada has been added to a "priority watch list" of copyright villains, including China, famous for cheaply available bootleg DVDs, and Russia, home of the much-maligned AlIofMP3.com, a discount music store that the recording industry claims is completely illegitimate. The head of 20th Century Fox has even threatened to delay movie releases in Canada in order to keep early copies out of the hands of DVD pirates. The prospect of waiting an extra month or two to see the new Rob Schneider opus and the inflated talk of law and order might have some Canadians ready to lock up pirates and throw away the key, but there are problems for the industry groups—the numbers they use are grossly exaggerated and Canadian laws already prohibit the criminal behavior of selling bootlegged copies of DVDs. Let's look at the statistics thrown out by the movie industry. They suggest that 50% of all pre-release bootleg DVDs can be traced to camcordering in Canadian theaters. Strangely, this doesn't seem to jive with earlier industry statistics, which peg that number at closer to 30%. If this smokescreen isn't enough to rouse your suspicions, studies done by AT&T Labs suggest that 77% of pirated movies come from DVDs given to industry insiders, hardly the stealthy theatre pirates portrayed in the recent media blitz. As for the ambassador's numbers/there is no indication of how he reached this $30 billion estimate or how pirated " media could cost us 3% of our gross domestic product. Michael Geist, a prominent copyright activist and Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa, did o It's pretty easy to buy the DVD now, but questions from people concerned about corporate abuses still flood in. Dodds reports that they have received "about 300" feedback forms from people who held "Corporation house parties" to discuss the film and "what, strategically, we can do about the institution and the problems the film exposed. What we're trying to do is sustain a base by which we can review some of the feedback we've had. I keep hearing things about what has happened because of the film, but there'd be a lot more outcome stories if we were able to do that research." One singularly inspiring outcome story Dodds offers involves the issue of corporate personhood. This legal gaffe is "one of the root causes of corporate harm that the film presents," by which corporations are granted "rights" like any individual—a problematic status, which a lot of activists have been working to revoke. "Last year," Dodds tells me, "I met a human rights lawyer from Seattle who said, 'By the way, I saw one of the rough cuts [of The Corporation], and because of that film, I had some input into the Democratic Party platform for the State of Washington, and we put the issue of corporate personhood on, and it got passed.' Haying it on a state-wide political agenda is huge, it's major, and I found out about it by accident. We would like to be able to look for those stories." Mongrel Media distributes the Canadian version of The Corporation and is behind the forthcoming Canadian release of Manufacturing Consent (a film that sparked Dodds' career in media and is the reason that she and The Corporation's Mark Achbar first met.). Mongrel also hooked up with Good Company on the Vancouver-made Scared Sacred and Jesus Camp, a scary documentary about the religious right in the USA. Mongrel and Dodds also united on the more recent Manufactured Landscapes—which follows photographer Edward Burtynsky to China, where he captures some truly stunning, and.often horrifying, images of how industry is transforming the planet. More fun is Gary Burns' Radiant City. A sly, incisive, and funny dissectionof suburbia, it won the Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2006 VIFF and is running from April 6th through 12th at the Vancity Theatre. I loved it, and, having grown up in Maple Ridge, found it depressingly accurate. The film goes beyond the normal barrel-shoot, looking at urban planning, the semiotics of the suburbs, and peak oil—which is the theme of another great documentary that played last fest, A Crude Awakening. No surprise—the., ubiquitous Dodds is behind promoting that, too. The full text of my interview with Ms. Dodds is viewable on my blog, at alienatedinvancouver. blogspot.com (she is baffled at my branding myself thus). Be sure also to visit hellocool- world.com and check out its various campaigns; some of the proceeds from DVDs bought through the site go to the Campaign for Corporate Harm Reduction. 0 some research of his own, examining the actual economic harm caused by Canadian piracy. He suggests that camcordering has a relatively minimal impact on the industry's bottom line, as the quality of these copies is generally very poor. Even when DVDs made by camcorder are released, pirates quickly move on in search of illicit copies of the official DVD version, favouring the drastically increased quality. He also suggests that while box office numbers are dwindling, the movie industry's earnings have increased overall. The ease and quality offered by legitimate DVD home viewing could be keeping people out of crowded, noisy theatres as much as the availability of poorly recorded DVD bootlegs. What about the existing law in Canada? Five years in jail and a million dollar fine. That's the current maximum penalty for camcordering a movie for commercial purposes. Still, Hollywood and U.S. senators are pushing for tighter laws with stiffer penalties. The current law requires that prosecutors prove that the accused camcord- erer intends to distribute the copy commercially, sticking with our "innocent until proven guilty" values. One. of the proposed changes would see that onus reversed, forcing anyone caught with a recording device in a theatre to prove that they're not going to be selling a copy of the movie. We have to keep things in perspective here—we're talking about movies. There already are stiff criminal sanctions against camcordering. The problem is far less severe than the movie industry would like to«admit, both in terms of volume and financial impact. Producing and selling DVD bootlegs is a crime. It should be a crime, and those caught doing it should face criminal sanctions. However, we have to be careful about how far we go to limit this behaviour. The existing criminal sanctions are tough, and doing things like reversing the burden of proof is a dangerous challenge to the principles of liberty. Is preventing copyright infringement worth the risk to fundamental justice? &g*;<&iS Tougher laws raise serious questions about what hon est moviegoers will be able to do in the theatre. Cellphones with video capabilities are almost universal now, and digital cameras capable of holding hours of video are common as well. Will we be asked to check our gadgets at the ticket counter? Why should we trust them with an expensive and personal piece of electronics when they won't trust us not to copy their film? Perhaps the biggest problem is that when faced with a challenge, the movie industry continues to treat its best customers as its biggest enemies. Anyone who has gone to see a film in the theatre in recent years has seen the carrot and stick of public service announcements featuring a hard-working stunt worker asking us to think of his children before pirating films. These tear-jerkers are usually paired with ads equating downloading films with purse snatching and car theft. DVD releases feature similar PSAs that are completely unstoppable, meaning that every time you want to watch the Hollywood hit you paid $1.5 to watch in a theatre or $30 to own, you have to sit through a lecture about why copyright infringement is wrong. There's a fundamental flaw in this model—if you pay for a movie, you're actually getting a product that's worse than what you'd have if you downloaded it or bought a DVD bootleg. What needs to change is the way studios do business. Right now the assumption is that if movie ticket sales drop, it's because people are stealing movies. This is deeply flawed logic. Maybe we're renting from Blockbusters Maybe we're sick of overpriced popcorn and people chatting on their cellphones. Maybe we're playing video games or reading blogs. Maybe the majority of movies being released are steaming piles of shit that are exceedingly unworthy of our attention. Come up with some ways to get us back in the theatre. Give us the excitement of the early days of the moving picture and moviegoers will return in droves. Give us value that can't be downloaded and DVD sales and rentals will increase. Changing laws can't make up for years of disrespecting the customer, but a change in attitude can. ft Discorder 5 LOVE AND ROCKETS | THE COLD PANES OF SURFACES | JE/N BAUDRILLARD LOVE AND ROCKETS by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez Fantagraphics Love and Rockets isn't just some crappy band spun out from gothic vanguards Bauhaus—the name originally comes from a comic series founded by two brothers in California. Starting out with a series of magical realism stories, sci-fi, and some great cheesecake art, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez quickly gained notoriety as innovators within the underground comics genre. Over the last 25 years, the brothers have gone from the new guys on the scene to the pillars of the community; setting new standards for storytelling. The brothers' status as Mexican-American creators gives them a unique storytelling viewpoint otherwise lacking in the comics sphere. While-they initially self-published their work, a copy of their first book sent for review to the Comics Journal ended up getting them published by a young maverick publisher, Fantagraphics. To commemorate the 2 5th anniversary and expose hew readers to the magic that is Love and Rockets, Fantagraphics has re-collected the first storylines into two affordable books, to be followed up by more collections reprinting the classic series. Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime and Heartbreak Soup by Gilbert start the project on strong feet. Jaime's early work on Love and Rockets was a mix of sci-fi fun and serial adventure, which quickly shifted gears into a dramatic, character-driven narrative. On first glance, Locas, his ongoing storyline, is a mildly soap-operatic narrative focusing on a small group friends. On further enjoyment and examination, Jaime has created a series that explores complex characters, seeking to understand their faults and glories. In addition to his evocative storytelling, one of my favourite things about Jaime's work is his ability to draw perfectly. That may sound like an odd statement, but it's true. I had the chance to look at an original page of his work and it was pristine—no white, just an incredible use of blacks. This collection is especially neat because it details his development from a young, adventure comic- influenced illustrator to a modern master. But don't just go for the art; go for the story. The exploits of Maggie, a young, broke, Latina punk rocker is a unique look into a culture that most readers wouldn't otherwise experience. All of the characters take on a life of their own, and it turns out to be an incredible world spun from one man's mind. While Jaime's work reflects his own life growing up in California, Gilbert develops a whole new world of magic, poverty, and a community in transition. Gilbert's creations are based in the small Mexican village of Palomar, introducing us to unique characters and families that span a storyline over several generations. Gilbert's work is a little more of a challenge to get into, but it's a challenge that satisfies. The epic starts out with the introduction of the buxom Luba. The dynamic sexuality of Luba sets the men in town aU aflutter and emotions abound. In discussions about his Palomar storyline. Gilbert has said that he wanted to show people what life is like in a small poverty-stricken village in Mexico. It's a whole different lifestyle, one that places great importance on community and family. Throughout the dif- - ferent struggles that face the community, people manage to stick by each other. Over the last 25 years' Palomar has developed from its small town roots to the big city, as the lead characters move to LA and undergo the immigrant experience. His ability to tell such a dynamic, complicated story is no easy feat, and Heartbreak Soup is a must-read. The work that Jaime and Gilbert have put together has left a lasting influence on the comics industry. The publishing of Love and Rockets showed other creators a new way of doing comics. Without the work of a couple of brothers from California, comics would be nowhere near as interesting as. they are today. And Daniel Ash would have to find a different name for his band. Remember to listen to the Inkstuds radio show every Thursday at 2pm on CITR or online at www.inkstuds. com, and be sure to check out my interview with Jaime Hernandez. by Robin McConnell THE COLD PANES OF SURFACES by Chris Banks Nightwood Editions, 2006 There is a reason why the general public has a bad attitude toward poetry. There is also a reason why poets are widely regarded as insufferable, self-important drips—the kind of individual you wouldn't want to be stuck talking to at a party, for instance. That stereotype persists amongst even highly literate people, and even though I sometimes call myself a poet, I can't blame them. The reason is that books like this one, from thirty-something Canadian poet Chris Banks, continue to get published. Nightwood Editions, the press responsible for this horrible misstep, operates out of Gibsons, BC, and usually has a very good reputation for putting out award-winning books by young poets like Matt Rader, Elizabeth Bachinsky, and Alayna Munce. The Cold Panes of Surfaces seems to have been fairly warmly received elsewhere, but the list of unforgivable poetry crimes Banks commits in this slim volume is long and painful. Hoe it is: 1) Writing poetry about the act of writing poetry. Banks does this often, throughout, beginning with the collection's first poem, "Divination," in which our attention is called to "the poem written there," in the poem's last line. It is written in "moonlight's white / book," no less. An important sub-crime is the namedropping of dead, canonical poets within the text. Banks seems particularly obsessed with Wordsworth and even offers "My Own Private Tin tern Abbey." In this bland, grasping, modern-day pastiche of the English poet's most studied piece, Banks gives us this gem: "But might it not also be that a river is a home one recognizes / instantly, like to like, for its transitory nature, its beauty, / for the energy that pushes its current is the same one / stirring our blood?" Come on. Brighter stuff comes out of the mouths of first-year English Lit students every day. 2) Trotting out tired Canadiana and pretending to give it a fresh twist. This includes writing anything about moose. Or hawks. As in "Ghost Moose" or "Red-tailed Hawk Elementary School." While nature will always be an inspiration to artists and writers, there is a way express this fact without retreading ground that was last broken, in this country, sometime in the 1940s. 3) Turning abstract nouns into proper nouns, complete with capital letters, as Banks does here with Ages, Memory, Desire, and Natural Beauty. There is an air of forced sanctity throughout the book that seems lodged somewhere in the 18th century, along with'puffy sleeves and consumptive gaze. 4) Stale fascination with Eastern culture. It seems that Banks has TESL/TOEFL disease. He's apparently spent time in Korea and/or Japan doing the English teaching stint so common to overeducated Canadians, and he has managed to come back with the weird notion f hat he can write about a "Mountain Temple" or 15th century Buddhist poet-priest Ikkyu without sounding like Captain Colonial. 5) Writing, as a young male poet, about maleness and masculinity with absolutely no balls whatsoever. Considering that currently Canada is teeming with awesome young male poets (e.g. David O'Meara, Ken Babstock), I see this as the most heinous crime of the bunch. The bleakest example is "Ghost Moose" (already guilty of other crimes; see above) in which the speaker remembers seeing a trio of hunters showboating over their kill. The stunningly clunky lines "I know now such swagger is often just a cover for the difficulty of male / friendships, the immunity some men feel to suffering" plead with us to see some profundity in the experience, but Banks' psychobabble is anemic and awkward and downright embarrassing. To be fair. Banks does present some interesting images in places. A "cubist bear corpse" shows up in "Roadkill." Insects have "hum-bucking bones" in "Tafelmusik." But for the most part, this book confirms all the terrible things about contemporary poetry I wish weren't still, occasionally, true. by Regan Taylor A SIMULATED LIFE RIP Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) Jean Baudrillard's death on March 6th, 2007 unleashed a torrent of obituaries, critical essays and blog posts about the importance of the man and his work. These responses range from the hero worship of theory geeks to brutally dismissive retorts from the media and more "traditional" philosophers. In many ways, this divisive reaction is entirely predictable, and also perhaps the only outcome that Baudrillard would have seen fit. That is, what people are mourning or lambasting—to jack terminology from the deceased—is the simulacrum of Jean Baudrillard. Not unlike corporate culture, " critical theory has become a giant battle of brand names, in which substance is overcome by surface. No matter how complex and nuanced the work of a thinker like Baudrillard may be, it is invariably reduced to an easily consumable idea, a hyperreal image.' The varying reactions to Baudrillard's death are as much a response to the post-industrial system that constructs Baudrillard as they are measured considerations of the philosopher's work on the Hyperreal. As a way to mark his death, I'd like to discuss both of these positions—the worship and the hate—to consider a fuller picture of Baudrillard. As far as I can tell, there are two major , schools of the Baudrillard hate-on: those who do not understand him and the people who understand him all too well. In the former category, I'd lump in all sorts of critics from the media, the conservatives and many humanist liberals. The media, especially its English-speaking Western incarnation, tends to equate Baudrillard with his two "celebrity" moments: his famous pronouncement that the Gulf War (the 1991-92 permutation) did not take place, and his influence on The Matrix, a film he hated and derided as "the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce." By boiling down Baudrillard to only these two facts, the media reduces his contributions to mere artifice, popular fluff and the absurd ravings of an out-of-touch (is there any other kind?) French philosopher. But those moments are more than just misguided ad campaigns for Baudrillard —they fit into his- larger intellectual project of questioning the importance of the subject, turning instead towards a study of the object (a crucial and massive shift in philosophy). Conservatives and liberals hate him for the same reason: his soul-crushing and outwardly nihilistic view of the present, which can be thought of as a postmodern counterbalance to Marshall McLuhan's hope for technological salvation. If you think of the modern world in terms of simulacra, simulations and hyperreality, you are, at once, attacking both traditionally liberal views of natural rights and humanism alongside conservative notions of tradition and history. To put it another way, if he was a rapper, Baudrillard would be Malice of the Clipse, rather than, say, Young Jeezy. He'd be much more interested in stark textures, sinister style and gloomy beats than Jeezy's inspirational demaira for us to seize the will to power and make a difference. When read through traditionally liberal and conservative viewpoints, Baudrillard's work is unsettling because it rejects many of the foundational premises of both political wings. The category of Baudrillard haters who know him very well is much more complex, obscurant and unnecessarily academic, but it's important to get an overview of this side of the issue. Put simply, Baudrillard existed outside of the centre of continental philosophy for much of his career. He taught German before switching to a position in sociology at the experimental University of Nanterre, finally landing in a more traditional place at the University of Paris-IX Dauphine. By the time he settled into the confines of this university, he had already become a pop philosopher and a burgeoning icon. Publication of books like Forget Foucault (a short essay that dismisses The Man of theory as well as chiding the influential work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari) cemented his status outside the locus of philosophy typified then by Foucault, Lacan and Derrida. The overlords of continental philosophy (and their students and acolytes) ruthlessly poked holes in his thought, denouncing his work as, well-written and poetic trifle—a charge that Baudrillard himself levied at Foucault. The thing is, Baudrillard didn't really consider his work as philosophy but rather as "theory fiction," a kind of creative writing concerned with the most important issues of the world (hyperreality, globalization, seduction) in a way that philosophy and critical theory has shied away from. It's probably best then to think about Baudrillard as a convincing and talented author brand. He was, in other words, neither a heroic nor detestable figure, but a dystopic poet trapped in a theorist's body, trying to make sense of the ether of the Hyperreal. fr by Graham Preston SUNDAY APRIL 01 craftsman tattoo one year anniversary party: ULTRA VIXEN BURLESQUE DANCERS, DJS, GUESTS. TUESDAY APRIL 03 hollow logo THURSDAY APRIL OS spm music presents ether's void, under the sun, the GOOD SISTER FRIDAY APRIL 06 imu productions presents: crystal pistol, underride, THE PRICE OF DRUGS THESE DAYS IS THROUGH THE ROOF, MURDER CITY SPARROWS SATURDAY APRIL 07 imu productions presents: voltz, the flairs, ready SET DIE, NIKKI HURST, JENNIFER DOLLS ROCK 'N ROLL BURLESQUE SUNDAY APRIL 08 the robot ate me (sro, run chico run, international FALLS WEDNESDAY APRIL 11 tarkin, joey only outlaw band, sumner bros. THURSDAY APRIL 12 history of sex trade workers in Vancouver: an art INSTALLATION AND SHOW: BURLESQUE DANCERS, A PIANIST AND VARIOUS SINGERS FRIDAY APRIL i 3 fireball productions present: infernal muUEsfeg*^ TYRANT'S BLOOD SATURDAY APRIL H spm music presents: noize tribe zero cd release PARTY WITH SIMIAN RUE, FMTA, IAN JONSTONE BAND SUNDAY APRIL 15 sealed with a kiss presents the cave singers (ex- MEMBERS OF PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES), GUESTS TUESDAY APRIL 17 indie folk night with Helena arlock, sean wesley .' WOOD, BURNSIDE, CHRIS SMITH, RONNIE OLSEN WEDNESDAY APRIL 18 edmund, shine on, reasonable men THURSDAY APRIL 19 pete samples (vinyl republik), sinewave, phontaine FRIDAY APRIL 20 riddim riders 4/20 party* djs, live reggae band SATURDAY APRIL 21 imu productions presents: winstoncd release PARTY WITH SPECIAL GUESTS, THE CUPS, TBA WEDNESDAY APRIL 25 go-time productions presents: school's out for THE SUMMER PARTY WITH TAY MACRAE, JASON GRAYAM, DELANIE, WES KASTR THURSDAY APRIL 28 black.skyune presents: hot blood bombers, the FURY AND THE MOUSE, ALL PURPOSE VOLTAGE HEROES, GUESTS FRIDAY APRIL 27 spm music presents: callahan, seconds to go, lives of THE MANY, TENANT SATURDAY APRIL 28 fireball productions present: cradle to grave, GUESTS 210 ABBOTT ST * www.tlielaiplper.ca 604.681.6666 ^ IN HISTORIC 64SI0WH M6cotf5>@0t TEROGfOUSLYiXClTING «^i ,^^^T ALBUM* BUY THE NEW GRINDER MAN CD AND GET A FREE POSTER AT THESE STORES! ,- Jfctorta: DITCH 635 Johnson St. louver: RED CAT 4307 Main St. NG)p<2ri ^ arucL^^sum l__?%r\___&__t# by,k/Wa The Seeds (San't (Seera fo offtake ^a offline The Bats ggoctto Faust ©cter Ss CKpmmt £BaIcLSmf£ The Incredible String Band ™a_r_uvj. zqox Six Organs of Admittance Forever Amber yj^HDreamer G| The 13th Floor Elevators oKo&ody.fx> £ooe The Homosexuals happening: crocus blooms, winter thaws into the first jacketless day of March, yellow daffodils and seemingly harmless post-commitment coffees. It always starts this way, but these innocuous springtime indications have the tendency to grow into ah enormous magnolia tree of rosy crush-fantasy blossoms before too long. Yes, I've been suffering from wintertime doldrums, but I swear my response to the new season is something more than just recognition of colour and fairer weather. It's not just my imagination or heightened sensitivity—Biology Eleven gave me at least enough scientific information to conclude that bright pink and yellow petals are unambiguous sexual signals, each whispering "pollinate me." At any rate, alhthis seasonal responsiveness usually engenders a full-blown infatuation or two by the time the cherry trees have blossomed. 0 have noticed through my experience with seasonal sensitivity that spring romances are subject to many of the same perils as cherry blossoms: at any time a barrage of rain or a strong gust of wind threatens to shake springtime ecstasy to the pavement. It's all about the thrilling extremities, either sweet consummation or an allergy attack brought on by errant pollen. And to be sure the real spring infatuation is limited to a few short weeks, most of which will probably be rainy days spent inside languishing and longing instead of loving—but when the sun is revealed, you're jacketless and your fingers graze the one you adore, and it's clear that springtime is undeniably sublime. <5 Can ■<5poon Young Marble Giants ||pI3|| The Clean Qjloa. dioruj. Angel'in Heavy Syrup Tiger Trap <^ou. and Qjlle My Bloody Valentine %n^9oux8r or all those who are equally affected by spring's clamouring, here's a bit of psychedelia to say that I commiserate. I hope you find that it mirrors the kaleidoscopic maelstrom of this most desirous of seasons. Here's to the possibility of springtime opening petal by petal. j) Alt-Country with a Hip-Hop backbone buy CD's at ZULU High Life RedCat and Noize Im- 5^_# ^gg A Zh &<£& C K B digs!!! E April 13 R tn Railway Chili B April 20tli V Cafe Deux soleils w May Slth the Chapel o Q May 18th I Fairview D Buck 65 says "Bonkers' check it out! www.injsp&co.coni/ blackberrywood Blackberry Wood {DIRECT YOUR LUSTY FIDGERS TO discorder.ca/ TO TRSTE THE fRUITS OF £PRIRG. <£ris Derk For a long time, nobody seemed too willing to explore the possibilities offered to indie rock by a solid string section, except perhaps Montreal post-rockers Godspeed You Black Emperor! Yet even then strings still appeared an exception to the rule. These days, though, scads of enthusiasts regularly pack sold-out solo performances by quirky musicians on interesting instruments, and not only by Canada's violinist laureate, the ever-mentionable Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy. These days, both Owen and his colleagues have a better home in pop music than ever before. Not just there to shade in the refrain of some Smashing Pumpkins hit, classically-trained string musicians head the creative class, balancing challenging and iconic personal projects (think Patrick Wolf) with the arrangement of string parts for larger art rock ensembles (Marika Anthony-Shaw of both Arcade Fire and Belle Orchestre), Even rarer than these tag-teaming musicians, though, are string enthusiasts willing to try their hand at just about any score. Few musicians seem even capable of making the time for the many genres and styles that colour the musical CV of East Van's own persona cellist, Cris Derksen. Currently a principle cellist of the UBC Symphony Orchestra and well on her way to a Bachelor of Music, Cris remains-a mainstay of musical collaboration in the Lower Mainland and beyond, having recorded with the likes of Rae Spoon, Kinnie Starr, Josh and Amber of Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, E.S.L., The Approach, and Girl Nobody, as well as Native composer Russell Wallace. In a rare off-hour, Cris and I caught up on hercom- ings-and-goings of another year rife with musical possibility, on the pros and cons of classical training, and on striking a delicate balance between solo performance and community involvement. Fou did a whole lot in 2006, and will do a whole lot more in 2007. What were last year's best of the best? Last year? Hmmm, I can barely remember last year. The Folk Fest is always good. Vancouver Folk Fest. Oh, Kanye West was 2006. So that was a good gig. Is there a short list for the potential best project of 2007. Yeah, there's a show with Tanya Tagaq [at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in March], I'm going up to Bamfield to a festival, and you have to get there on a yacht. And then I [already] went to Calgary and stayed at the Palhser Hotel. That was fancy. Besides playing along a lot of different avenues in Vancouver, you straddle a number of different communities as a musician. What has been your philosophy on and approach to musical multitasking? Well, I want to be able to do it all. I think it's important to be flexible musically, and it gives you a lot more enjoyment if you do a Uttle bit of everything. It's not like I'm the best country cellist at all, but it's good to practice. It's good to expand. I get that question a bit about straddling different communities, and I don't know, it just makes me more employable. Hear Cris Derksen and her cello at whoserecords.com/crisderksen or myspace.com/crisderksen. Okay, cus tomary question about the looping pedal in two parts. Easy part first: what kind of pedals and gear do you use on stage when you perform solo? I use the Boss Loop Station,.it's like RXL20, and then I use the Boss MU50, which is a basic effects pedal. I just got it, like, last week. It has delays and chorus and octave phaser, flanger, whatever. It's a got a Uttle bit of everything on it. -sllPIl And looping pedal question part the second: how were you inspired to join the litany of string instrumentalists who use one in their performances? WeU, fuck. Okay, classical music is so linear, it's so straight, one line, "this is the melody and that's about it." Sometimes you play with other people and you get harmony but it's very, very linear, and with-a loop station it's more spherical. You can buUd on something and then take it down too. It gives it more shape. It gives you way more options. On to quick facts. What plays through your headphones most these days? I just lost my discman. I was sad because it was my favourite CD in it (actually, it was my roommate's CD). On that was Kaki King and the Stars. And, ooh, Lori Anderson. I've been listening to her a lot these days. Lori Anderson is old school. She's married to Lou Reed and she did all this looping stuff before it was^reaUy possible. She did it all in studio, and it's fucking rad. She plays violin and, like, saxophone or something weird. I don't know but she used a lot of looping effects before they were easUy usable, which I find very impressive. Best performer or ensemble to support in Vancouver this 2007? Besides you, except that you might be involved in a bunch of them. I want to say my friends. Better Friends than Lovers are reaUy endearing. Oh, a good Vancouver act to support is Amber and Josh [of Black Mountain]. Favourite place to play a cello? My bedroom. Degrees in music, yay or nay, and why? Both. To get a degree in music is beneficial for the technique that you gain by taking classical studies intensively. You learn a lot of technique, and all of the theory is important, but it's not necessary. I want to straddle the fence while saying that a classical degree is worth it. I think it's only worth it to a point, and then you have to make [music] your own. |) Discorder 11 JlMsjCONCEfiTS® CANADA BUY TICKETS AT hob.ca ^uf ' * ' j gEEBEIH JAITIS MANDO ! .. DIAO ____%___ JTBEfAESDOfiSI EUDSSOW TINQCK CLCVCN ':HHj:Ii;M FEIST WITH SPECIAL GUEST Icmtwm Bitumm I 0<#au ItASKegZ;- s [Dinosaur jr. PETER ELKAS gathering J COMMODORE BALUOOM ■ftffM CROATIAN 'CM.TUHAL CENTRE J PURCHASE tickets OQOOflS AT hob.ca OR ticketmaster.ca 604-280-4444 (((XAA))) [m| ^jt^PH^g-'to be in arfecUy captures thtf** se of fan and their nent of making mur tr&f by something as oaktog tea, "Uo like ', wad-knit (ing, kittens W Discorder 13 The East Van-based group was formed by Besh just over a year ago. "I started writing in Montreal and got friends and family to pitch In, but the first real Greenbelt began in Vancouver. Before then all the members had just been forced to join in. We only played four or five times before I moved out here to the west coast," says the Ontario-born songwriter. "I felt that this idea I had to form a big group could be a really great thing. I came out here with it in mind that I would find people to join it and just see what happened." Besides Besh, Jeff and Karina, the group's current members include Geoff (guitar), Carly (keyboard), Mike (guitar), Nicki, Robin, Jon and Sharon (all playing various instruments). Other members occasionally rotate through the ranks, and guest appearances from local luminaries Uke Ryan McCormick of CoUapsing Opposites are not i While a host of musicians from varying backgrounds have played with the Greenbelt CoUective, one of the band's distinct characteristics is that everybody in the group sings. The force of their united voices creates an irresistibly joyful and uplifting sound, unnervingly reminiscent of Christian music. Fortunately, in this case, there is no reUgious motivation, campfires or bad sweaters; Ok, there are the bad sweaters. Brimming with youthful exuberance and a playfulness that ignores any pretensions of technicality, the music instead focuses on uncompUcated and often repetitive songs with catchy melodies. But has there been a conscious decision to make music in this vein? "No," Jeff definitively states, "that's just the personaUty of the people. Nobody is reaUy taking it too seriously; if they were then they wouldn't fit in. I don't think we have a goal in particular other than just to keep the band going." Despite what Jeff says, they do of course have other goals. One of the primary aims is to avoid the exclusivity and sense of false celebrity that can be associated with be ing in a band. By adopting an open door poUcy, Greenbelt hopes to break down the barriers between audience and band. While the group's underlying motive is to be ademo- cratic and inclusive co-operative, rallying all ten members together in pursuit of the same goal is a compUcated task. "There are certainly key people," Besh says, and it's pretty clear who she's talking about. "Besh is the sole lyricist and writes all the basic songs. She usuaUy has a creative vision for the how the music is supposed to sound," observes Karina. "Then the rest of us put in our suggestions and she says 'mmmm, no. I was more thinking Uke this.' Musically it is a collective, in the way that each person plays their individual parts the way they feel is right, whilst bearing in mind what works as a whole. Though the premise of the coUective is that this is a democracy, there is a core of influence, which is Besh and Jeff, her musical partner. They bounce ideas off one another." Jeff adds, "We do work as a coUective; I don't know if they do all the time but every member should feel like they are able to speak up and say what they want." Besh agrees "I think it's true. It's still in the beginning of the process, we know where we want it to be and people are getting stronger as individuals." In the meantime, Besh seems a Uttle reluctant to be the perceived leader of the band. "I would say that eventuaUy it would be really great if it wasn't needed, but it stiU is at this stage. I think once people get more comfortable with playing their instruments the way they want to and start writing their own songs, I'll be able to take a step back and we'll aU be able to get more out of it." The band has recently completed recording sessions for their first album at the legendary Hive studios in Burnaby with engineer Jesse Gander. In addition to the core members, the disc features guest performances from feUow locals Ryan of CoUapsing Opposites on saxo phone, Lise of Wintermitts on flute and two friends CaUa and Chris, who flew all the way from the east coast to be involved with the recording. The thirteen-song album has the working title Our Homes, and should be released sometime in May. Despite the impending release date, the band isn't concerned about finding a record label to put out the album for them. "We've been doing-everything for ourselves"for so long now that we may as weU keep on doing it that way," says Jeff. "I don't think we ever want to find ourselves in the situation where we become lazy about things. If we want to set up a tour, we'U set up a tour. We'd love to go to Japan; we'd love to go to Europe." For now, the Greenbelt CoUective wiU have to settle for their usual schedule of frequent performances around Vancouver and the exciting prospect of a planned summer tour down the west coast of the US. Despite their cross-continental origins and itinerant ambitions, the group's lyrics evoke images of community, comfort and familiarity. With their welcoming attitude and joUy disposition, the Greenbelt CoUective's music is Uke a warm hug, a friendly embrace that instantly makes you feel at home. For aspiring musicians, they offer an alternate model for working as a band, and perhaps even a place to come and play. AU this is neatly summed up in their name, which Besh explains is a reference "to the concept of greenbelt land, of protection, an isolated safe area around something chaotic and crazy. "In a musical culture awash in cynicism and irony, the Greenbelt CoUective is a welcome refuge. By adopting an open door poUcy, Greenbelt hopes to break down the barriers between audience and band. M GENERATION LOSSLES BY CAROLINE WALKER The 7th installment of Signal & Noise, VIVO (Video ■ In | Video Out)'s annual celebration of explorations in media, will see the festival continue on its steady trajectory towards increasing interdisciplinarity and international presence. This progression has prompted the name change from Video In to .the >more ambiguous acronym VIVO because, according to an ad-libbed explanation, they are "more than just video." Velveeta Krisp, the Festival Director for this and the past four Signal & Noise festivals, adds laughingly that the switch to VIVO is also an attempt to "lose some of the weight of history," In the context of this year's festival theme, "Lost and Found," _W_*_W -^^wlst a look to the past seems appropriate. Like many readers, my own experiences with the Video In have primarily been as a venue, and I could plead complete ignorance to its history. >i''*liP^i Likewise my experiences of Vancouver are largely limited to a three year transplant and some vague knowledge of "Gassy Jack" and that Kitsilano used to be cool in the 60s. Needless to say, I required an education in VIVO and Vancouver past stat in order to understand Signal & Noise's place in our current state of the arts. To aid me in my quest to step beyond my immediate experience, I had the pleasure of sitting down with-Crista Dani, currently a member of VIVO's board of directors and, more significantly, one of the founding members of the original Video Inn back in 1973, After some research, I began to piece together some basic history. Active in the late 60s and early 70s, Intermedia was an informal collective experimenting with collaboration and interdisciplinary work. Feeling that the times were right, Intermedia members Michael Goldberg and Trish Hardman organized an international gathering of alternative video at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1973. The event was called Matrix conference, and the admission fee was a videotape. Expecting only around 50-60 attendees, they were shocked . to welcome over 160 from across Canada, the United States, Japan and Europe. A dozen of the Matrix attendees stayed on to found the Video Inn and its umbrella organization, Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES). Originally located at Powell Street on Skid Row (an area that was the center of the Japanese business community before the internment camps of WWII) and starting with the initial tapes acquired from Matrix, Video Inn began as a video library and resource center. The second "n" in Video Inn was a reference to the building's former life as a rooming house, and the fact that a few members of the Video Inn (including Dahl) made the space their home." Initially driven to the location by the affordable rent, the mixture of repeated flooding from bad plumbing, cockroaches and an apathetic " landlord forced them to move to Yaletown in 1986 and change the name from Video Inn to the more familiar Video .In. As Yaletown morphed from a desolate warehouse district to a highly fashionable area with a price to match, yst another move was required. 1993 saw the move to the current locale at T965 Main Street. (There may in fact be a move in the near future. Rent is expensive at the Main Street location, and negotiations for a new home are currently underway with the Woodward's developers). In Dahl's words the early Video Inners felt they were going to "spread art culture and social change all over the world." She laughs as she relays this token encapsulation of the late 60s' artist society. However, she retains the idealism of her youth, and when speaking of political activism she takes a tone .that only someone who has lived it can. Bom in Seattle, Dahl was active in the San Francisco of beatnik and Haight-Ashbury fame, but left America in 1968 on account of the Vietnam War. Her story is not unlike that of many others attracted to Vancouver in the 1960s. It was different then. In the world of video art Vancouver was a pioneer, aided by the legitimacy that came with the early support of the VAG, the site of that seminal Matrix conference. (That would g>%®^ soon change; a clear example of the shift occurred in 1984 when the VAG cancelled a video installation entitled Confused: Sexual Views. In response, Paul Wong, seminal Video Inner and one of the artists working on the installation, unsuccessfully launched a suit against the VAG—the first Canadian artist to sue an art institution). Indeed, the Vjdeo Inn itself, along with the National Film Board's Le Videographe in Montreal, was to be one of the first publicly funded alternative video centers in Canada. In a city with an infantile desire to make an impression on the world stage with the 2010 Olympics, it is not customary The very medium of video, in which so much hope was invested, has become a pacifying force. for Vancouverites to think of .'themselves as global leaders in anything, but when it comes to the history of video art we can honestly stake a claim. The medium of video was bom in a climate of activism and the rising women's movement, Its lack of history and low cost (not always true) made it very appealing to those looking to create a new social order. The goal was to get this tool into the hands of the masses and to democratize information. At the Inn's inception, video was new and novel. This was the medium of the future, and the invention of the Portapak (the first portable video recording device) put that future in the hands of the people. It is difficult to imagine now—with practically anyone being able to communicate ideas in moving images—the novelty of this new medium. I imagine'it must have been like the first time you caught your form on a security camera and became enamoured with the gaze of big brother. As I look back at the Signal & Noise programs of past years, the theme of political and social commentary continues, albeit in a less direct form. When I ask Dahl how the representation of political art has changed, she contends that the' biggest change is not with the art itself, but rather the support it receives. The world has changed a lot since the Video Inn was first conceived, and one profound difference is our media. We are now free to create our own realities as we please—to watch or not watch what we choose. Self-created realities couple with the contradictions of urban life to breed social disconnection and esqapist tendencies. The very medium of video, in which so much hope was invested, has become a pacifying force. Real activism and desire for change is relegated to the margin, while its superficial details are immediately patented and made for sale-. But as Dahl says, art represented in festivals like Signal & Noise "has to happen somewhere." It would be a gross misinterpretation to assume that the name change to VIVO is the Video In's attempt to leave its history behind. The new name is a way to reflect the current state of new media. While video will always be a part of VIVO, it would not be in the spirit of the organization to remain tied to it. The group's 34-year evolution has been a delicate process of moving ahead, not being held back by history but not forgetting it either. The early tapes are invaluable, yet also ephemeral. The nature of the tape is to decay, a process expedited by infrequent viewing. It is this that brings Dahl, now in her 70s, back to VIVO. With the help of a grant from UBC she's taking on the massive job of digitizing the old tapes, in the hope that more people will see these works that range from naive to prophetic. Inspiration continues to be derived from the past. As Signal & Noise morphs and develops, the festival remains attached to the ideals of VIVO's founding members. When the group began, the newness of video meant that early pioneers approached the medium from other disciplines like painting, sculpture and performance. Interdisciplinarity has been there from the start, and is still manifest in the Signal & Noise selections. At the first Signal & Noise in 2001, the majority of the selections were local video productions. In recent years, the festival has seen video retreat to make way for more installations, performance art and interventions. Audio plays an increasingly large part of the festival, though not audio that most music listeners outside of the small electroacoustic community will be accustomed to. The playback pieces (those that are not performed live) will be presented in 8-channel diffusion, an overpowering sensory experience. An increasing international presence at Signal & Noise also hearkens back to the early days of Matrix and the Video Inn's role as a facilitator of global tape exchange. Now in 2007, submissions to Signal & Noise come in from all over the worid, notably from countries with governments that are supportive of the arts. Last September the Harper government announced cuts to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade for Public Diplomacy, shrinking the funds available to promote international exchange of Canadian arts and culture. (This "cut" is actually a withdrawal of $11.9 million over 2 years—removal of all discretionary funds above the meager base budget). It will remain to be seen if this has any impact on the activities of VIVO or related artist productions, but it is hard to imagine that it would not with artists competing for the same grant money. In Krisp's words, "If you think about the heirarchy of 'the arts', where does interdisciplinary art fit? Where does media art fit?" While doing outreach and trying to get financial support for the festival, Krisp was surprised to find out how many people in Vancouver are still unaware of VIVO or Signal & Noise, despite the fact that word has managed to get to Europe. Chalking it up to the -Canadian classic," she illustrates the point with reference to acclaimed Canadian director Guy Maddin. "When his last big feature, The Saddest Song in the World, came out it played in Vancouver theatres for maybe a week. Yet someone was telling me that it plays art house theatres in San Francisco and New York for months—and there are line ups." The ongoing struggle of getting Canadians interested in Canadian art is not made easier, at least in the case of • Signal & Noise, by the local media. Aside from an article in the Discorder last year, there was no press covering the festival. However, the media blackout hasn't stopped festival* attendance from growing each year. Last year was well-attended and the most successful to date. Krisp attributes this, and rightly so, to the posters. The power of that form of low-tech communication is quite amazing. Part of the appeal of the festival resides in its collective nature. In an attempt to make the festival as democratic as possible, submissions are judged for inclusion by jury members with diverse backgrounds in the arts, including many experienced in multimedia and interdisciplinary work themselves. During the selection process Krisp ensures the jury remains blind to artist identity, so that rejection or selection will be determined by the work itself and-not preconceptions. Established artists and those emerging from their basement cocoon for the first time are shown side by side. The final count sees almost 50 artists represented over the last weekend of April, and the lack of focus on any one artist gives the festival a casual atmosphere without much pretense. After, all is said and done, Signal & Noise is a festival, and people go to festivals to have a good time. What the new media will be and whether the world will be changed for better or worse because of it is*impossible to know. Consider Signal & Noise to be an offering of possibility. It is important to move forward but retain our connection with the past. The history of VIVO, formed around ideas of exploration and integration, is a robust one. The collective behind the organization will continue to experiment, and likely will continue to exist on the fringe. Yet the fringe offers freedom, and freedom (the real kind) is where change starts. I'll end by quoting seminal Video Inner Michael Goldberg's essay entitled "Before the Generation Loss," a piece that seems quite fitting today. "I have no illusions that bits and bytes will successfully communicate our realities, nor that the currently touted electronic information superhighway will inherently change our lives for the better. Nonetheless, the need for creative expression, and a desire to use moving images to bring about meaningful change in an imperfect world, must be a real presence in the upcoming digital media environment." Signal and Noise runs from Thursday April 19th to April 21st centered at Video In Studios (1965 Main Street). v. signalandnoise. ca STRICT FETISH DRESS CODE 1 SXSW IS IN ITS 20TH YEAR NOW, AND AS ALWAYS, PROMISES AN EXCESS OF SUNSHINE, BBQ, FREE LIQUOR.AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, MUSIC. AFTER A YEAR OFF LASTYEAR, I WAS HAPPY TO RETURN FOR MY SECONDTRIPTOTHIS WILD, WONDERFUL ORGY OF MUSIC AND FUN. J.,.,t*eM*n?ftic»ed«< lip■« TV\OVXSO^. degree weat^^hee^- WBt0£e0£ caobeT Ao we^°^ffserioustioteo^^gtrasse^ mft the« set, i ^ng a P*» rf tbe bigSe ■„ recent SV^ . haie, I ^ the sptnt ol ,nathey L V*,0S " lOw MaBtt*Och e«*odS *e s^a foial5- W1" Befcwe^^P^^V'"^ ,ee„neo( ^fuSo-BW^'oeepl"1^6 - acts'l'**" ^SP*rf^c*o«^»w ba^tpri, ■ &, s ^ °po^\ 3BBS &ki£i>A m V\ltf^ A«ff^ " - .- 1 Asp iras ./eot over 20*** atec^sWe ste^' seo-a .«**? ^ ^^e s8tarte 6 s^e * wea*.- '*tdota b\ac^- . „"\Nou ^ SgE9E9k 0tUoUl vje Lglcvt L8nove^ visovxt don ^eeU^"seUa^ , becai ov?seV ns- x?a»S< S ^e'8 lYve bjBa^&ik Seat""" ,wits>'"" ffl,rtWai-v\ ■rftCaW* ...wott few a^X^S** ***#*' ,^e<^ jtstoo*:. tea" lA\vxsta»" vflBfiSsx ^ea^ree-^ - sot»e fCOUl n^F^e'ra^- g,re' atrai ^ttxesst ata (.Sor1 *a8S°!rtve^8t .MvrtiVe i tfre1 tfc°tf Ltr&a» \>an( barv' Jfe^Hs^sS gaitar ISiS^^g^lgpg •s^sSs^?^-1* a****. ^°>^ee°a Discorder 21 AND DONKEYS al LU I o BY ALLAN MACINNIS TIM RAY The recent reunions of Vancouver punk/ pop bands the Subhumans, the Pointed Sticks, the Furies and the Modernettes make it a great time to check in with Tim Ray. Tim Ray and AV's 1977 track "Time Waves" was the first self-released single by an independent Vancouver band. The band's subsequent seven-inch AVEP was picked up by Quintessence, and stands as the legendary label's first release. Ray's band members included a pre-Pointed Sticks Bill Napier-Hemy and avant-guitar- ist (and later Straight columnist) Alexander Varty. "Dying in Brooklyn," which Tim describes as a song about "the unrest in suburban living," is memorable enough that Liquid Screen, a Japanese band who opened for the Pointed Sticks last summer, included a cover of it in their set. This was much to the delight of the tune's co-writer Napier-Hemy, who was standing backstage at the concert thinking, "Hey, I know this song..." Ray is more than just a piece of local history. After the scene here dwindled, he spent 1982 in Paris, then formed the anti-folk band Big Yank in New York. Ray describes anti-folk music as a "combination of punk and folk," a style Beck was associated with around the time of Mellow Gold. Ray's last concert was in 1987 at CBGB's. Since then, he has changed his creative output to focus on the finer arts. An abstract expressionist painter and a "self-described outsider artist," Ray is also an experimental filmmaker, whose assemblages of "found film and scratched film," drawn from 1950's sci-fi and horror films, game shows, Three Stooges episodes, low-budget porn, and . static have played behind the likes of Pere Ubu, the Reverb Motherfuckers, and the Butthole Surfers, and graced film screens across the continent. Noteworthy as all this is, I don't get really excited about the interview until Ray gives me a tape of as-yet unreleased songs from various sessions in the 1980s. Trust me: the best music by Ray has been heard by very few people in this town. The Big Yank . stuff in particular gets me grinning widely. It's pretty far out there, with samples of voices, radios, and distorted orchestral in- tros; semi-tuned acoustic guitars, jaggedly strummed or plucked; near-incoherent vocals with impressionistic lyrics; and a deranged playfulness and passion throughout. So, was Ray dropping a lot of acid back then, or what? He laughs. "Well I've done my fair swag of drugs in my time, but no, I wasn't doing anything then!-We had a bit of marijuana I think, but that was about it. Everybody was clean in the band." I marvel at this. "It's really fucked up music!" Ray proudly responds, "It is, isn't it! It's the most fucked-up eccentric stuff I ever did! Even by today's standards, it's still pretty different." Tim notes the similarities to the work of Daniel Johnston, though he was completely unaware of Johnston at the time. There's a particularly interesting story behind one tune, "Taming of the Donkey." "Well, the donkey is the democratic thing, just donkeys and hee-haws and all that sort of anarchy of a donkey," Ray says, a tad opaquely. "It was the story of how a gentrified area had a waterfall in it, and a building? And the building was ruining the waterfall - so they had to take the building, pull it down and save the waterfall. So it was saving nature, rather than man-made structures. I kinda related to that story and then I wrote a song around it." How does that connect with the Democrats? "Well, I kinda crossed over a bit—there's a bit of this, a bit of that. I just sorta melded it all into one. It didn't have to be literal." Also on the tape are some stunning new wave pop tunes from the early 1980s, featuring Varty and Ray on guitars, Marty Higgs on bass, Ron Cargil on drums, and Peter Helliwell on keyboards. The music, produced by Ron Obvious, reminds me of Devo, early Talking Heads, and even the B- 52s, but it's just challenging enough that it would probably have scared off most radio listeners back in the day. "I like to be ahead of the times," Ray shrugs. Good as it is, most of this material remains unreleased. "I didn't really listen to other punk/new wave bands too much," Ray says, when I ask about influences. "In the beginning, I sort of did, because it was such a turn-on, right? My whole upbringing, I was listening to Iggy Pop and Roxy Music, and everything from The Who to Jimi Hendrix. And Jonathan Richman. I was sort of naturally being primed for the new wave movement in my high school days. And I did like the Talking Heads, the first two records were really good. But by that time, 1980,1 was sort of trying to do my own thing, and I didn't really want to be influenced." He concedes that a bit of his roots showing through was inevitable. "I was only 23, right? When you're young, you tend to wear your influences on your sleeve a bit more." Varty and Napier-Hemy also cite Television as a band they all liked. I ask Ray if there were any high points from playing music in Vancouver. "The John Cale tour was very good," he tells me. "We did Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, on the Honi Soit tour. He had a full-on rock band." Interested readers can check out much of the music from the tour on the John Cale Comes Alive LP. "It was a really good little tour, actually. [Cale] wasn't really friendly—I think that was during one of his alcoholic stages. He's had a few substance abuse stages where he's a bit anti-social, but it turned out okay. We were pretty smug, but he bought us some beers and acknowledged us." The Commodore branch of that tour is Varty's favourite memory of performing live with Ray. "This was during Cale's 'Dirty Ass Rock 'n' Roll' phase," Varty says, "and rather than drag out the Marshall Stacks and try and go up against him volume for volume, we played with little tiny Fender Champ amplifiers—basically the smallest tube amplifiers available, and that was a band that had Ray, myself, and Scott Harding all playing guitar. So it was great fun. We just came out with these sorta lunchbox-sized amplifiers and put them on stools and had a great show." Napier-Hemy also has a fond memory of playing live in AV, opening for Patti Smith at the Commodore. "I really admired her, and she was standing by the side of the stage while we were playing. I was doing my zombie routine—I had my khaki work- shirt on and I wasn't moving around, I was being very stoic. And when we came off stage Patti Smith complimented me on the way I moved. I still to this day don't know if she was being sarcastic or not," Bill laughs. "But anyways, she spoke to me, which I was all excited about!" It struck me as interesting that, in terms of his painting, Ray chooses to call himself an outsider artist. I know from a past interview with the Minimalist Jug Band that not all people labeled thus appreciate the term. "Yeah, outsider art was one of the things that had cropped up in the Zeitgeist in New York. Outsider art was very cool, and a lot of people say, you're self-taught, you're an outsider, so that sorta stuck with me. I have my own style of drawing. I use tissue and I don't use a brush." Ray applies the ink to toilet paper and uses his fingers inside the tissue to draw. "It's a bit of a technique— you can use your fingers inside the tissue and get different effects from the ink, you can dot it and splash it around and all that kinda stuff. It works out good." Ray recently had a show at at the JEM Gallery (225 East Broadway) and those who missed it can check out his paintings at the Naam starting in May. A final note: Varty tells me that he is "madly dying to do something," so if anyone is in need of a "crazed guitarist," seek him out. And if anyone is interested in facilitating the release of some really exciting music—from shoulda-been new wave hits to completely unbankable but marvellously fucked up anti-folk—seek out Tim Ray. He's been working on putting together two reissues for some time, and has some amazing surprises in store for the right listener. £) Xro- m MARCH 24 Commodore Ballroom When Subtle took the stage there was a sense of mystery in the eyes and utterances of the soon to be perspiration-brushed crowd. The band's set, which featured sardonic jokes and bordered on performance art, soon had the uninitiated craving more. For those already familiar with Subtle, the liveliness and surprising proficiency with which the band transferred their complicated recorded sound had much the same effect. Adam "Doseone" Drucker's ability to control the audience with his socially charged narratives and manic movements was fascinating, as was his disturbing delivery of the set-closing Shellac cover "A Prayer to God." Subtle is interesting and innovative in much the same way TV on the Radio were around three years ago. ■ "^>_$$ Perhaps TV on the Radio opened their set with "Young Liars," a song from their early career EP of the same name, for a reason. Less than seven months removed from their last Vancouver experience, there was a noticeable difference in the popularity (and attendees) of the show. Fans reaching on stage to swipe set lists, people insolently pushing their way towards the stage, and perhaps my own peculiar ploys to get them to play 'Ambulance" didn't seem to impress the band. Largely thanks to the consistency with which Return to Cookie Mountain graced the top of 2006 best album lists, TVotR have attained a level of fame they probably never anticipated. Yet lead vocalist Tunde Adebimpe still gushes gratefully and bounces around stage fluttering his hands, the incredible vocal harmonies between him and Kyp Malone are still present, and the band still have an almost unparalleled sound that is remarkably good live. Which makes the hype inescapable, and the band worthy of all the acclaim. Pddraig Watson REA i 1 Photo by Freddy H. MARCH 3 Fulford Inn Salt Spring Island For those who are dub challenged, the layman's definition describes dub music as a bass-heavy version of reggae, with instrumentais laden with echo and reverb. Such a classification is far too narrow for Twilight Circus, who vastly expand the scope of the genre. Twilight Circus albums are recorded live, vinyl is pressed in Austria and live shows are presented DJ-style courtesy of Ryan Moore. Based out of the Netherlands, Moore's Twilight Circus is currently on a North American tour culminating in Los Angeles, where he opens up for George Clinton. Moore most likely considers this upcoming performance on March 14 at the Dub Club in LA as somewhat akin to the Holy Grail. After a Ferris Bueller-style jeep race to catch the 5:00pm Schwartz Bay ferry, we finally arrived at the Fulford Inn at approximately 8:00p.m. to find Moore tending to the musical apparatus (including some turntables to die for). After greeting the Dub Messiah the proceedings turned to'Salt Spring Pale Ale and homemade Buffalo Jerky (had to eat something on the ferry). Moore started the show shortly thereafter and didn't let up until a little after 1:00am. Crediting such influences as John Henry Bonham, Carol Kaye and Sir Paul, Moore's performance was an inspiring sonic assault. Consider his latest release, Rasta International, which was partially recorded at the Mecca of recording studios, namely Tuff Gong studios in Kingston, Jamaica. An apt snapshot of what lurks within that album could be heard on "Stand Up & Fight", as Moore's bass roved like a phantom, dropping out at times (except you're not entirely sure if it does) only to come back unexpectedly with renewed force. Both live and on record, Moore's dynamic approach embraces intuition, tem pered with a cautionary view of new technology. For Moore, flexibility is a valued good, and the quality of the song and musical ideas are paramount. As for the audience response, Moore single- handedly transformed the sleepy Fulford Inn into a hotbed of freaks from all demographics, brimming at full capacity. Internationalism at its finest. Move over Bono, move over Kofi, and make way for a true internationalist with "dub teeth". While our existence is rife with uncertainty, one can always be certain of an eventual death, high taxes and, after watching Twilight Dub Circus, Moore's unconditional mastery of the dub genre. Dario Raymond AL ZOMBIE! Discorder 23 REALjl <pcTiorru U ...CONTINUED 1 A few weeks ago my mom, sister and I went to see Van Morrison at GM Place; it was one of the weakest shows I've been to. Van looked as though he had been woken up from a nap when he rolled out onto stage, he didn't once address the crowd, and— though his sax playing was great—his voice sounded pretty rough (or maybe he was just slurring the lyrics, which would explain the grogginess).. He left the stage, two thirds of the way through "Gloria," exactly (to the second!) 90 minutes into the show. People booed and left feeling ripped off. Maybe Van was having an off night. Still, as a fan of Moondance and Astral Weeks, it was a tough show. Maybe it was naive to hope to hear "Madame George" or "Everyone," but to only get "Moondance" and then a bunch of songs I wasn't crazy about (including a country version of "Have I Told You Lately," argh) made me wary of seeing artists whose output from the '60s and '70s is what made me a fan. The Zombies' show a couple of weeks later couldn't have been more different. Colin Blundstone and Rod Argent, two of the original Zombies, are both older than Van Morrison, yet they put on an amazing show. Colin's voice still sounds as beautiful and wistful as it did forty (!) years ago, and keyboardist' and chief Zombies songwriter (along with bassist Chris White) Rod was full of energy, even if his 'fro is looking a little grey. They rounded out their lineup with Rod's cousin on bass (ex-Kinks bassist Jim Rodford), Jim's son Steve on drums and gun-for-hire guitarist Keith Airey, who— though a bit of a ham—was fun to watch. I imagine there are a whole bunch of reasons why The Zombies were more excited to be in Vancouver than Van Morrison. They hadn't played here since 1965 and they broke up in 1967, shortly after recording their masterpiece, Odessey and Oracle. They haven't had the chance to get scornful of audiences and become curmudgeons. A few songs into the show Rod announced they would play five songs off of Odessey and the crowd freaked out. Hearing "Care of Cell 44" live is not an experience I'll soon forget. "This Will Be Our Year," performed live only a few times since it was recorded forty years ago, was especially poignant. When they played "Time of the Season," they brought down the house. They also played a bunch of songs from Colin's solo albums, and Argent, the band that Rod founded after The Zombies folded. The whole "show was great and the band was incredibly gracious, fun and tight. If they come back to town in the next 42 years, you should definitely see them. If you want to .see Van Morrison in action, rent The Last Waltz. Duncan McHugh At the tender age of 73, Phill Niblock maintains an impressive touring schedule, putting on shows with decibel levels befitting those less than half his age. Active as a composer, photographer and filmmaker since the 1950s, he is often referred to as "the forgotten rninimalist" who, unlike most of his contemporaries (Philip Glass, Steve Reich, et al.), creates sound works that remain true to the idiom's form. Bearing minimalism's trademarks of formalis- . tic purity and theoretical rigor, his long-form studies use single-mic source tones from acoustic instruments like recorder, cello and e-bowed acoustic guitar. Originally working with tape, he now layers sound files via laptop into dense, singular drones at rock 'n' roll volumes which, over time, reveal microtonal variations hidden within. Niblock, along with saxophonist Thomas Ankersmit (whose CV includes collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm and Keith Rowe— plus he's an impressive circular breather to boot), encouraged the audience to wander freely in the sonorous acoustic space of Saint Andrew's Wesley Church, so tones could waver with a turn of the head as four twenty-minute works played out like time-stretched exhalations, hovering between stasis and motion. Those who wished to remain seated could watch projections from The Movement of People Working, Niblock's single- take films of menial labour around the world. Initially puzzling, the visual and the auditory didn't seem to sync up. Footage of people mending nets, loading crates and forging horseshoes seemed didactic, even arbitrary, when coupled with such impressively large sounds. Although it would have been more satisfying to listen without the . visual distraction—in the same way that Francisco Lopez uses pitch-black rooms and blindfolds for his multi-channel anxiety attacks—the sheer mass of Niblock's work ultimately served to maintain focus on the simple matters at hand. One was free to watch, close their eyes and lose time, alternate between earplugs and listening to it raw (two very different experiences) or move around freely to examine the interplay of sound and architecture while headlights on Nelson flashed through stained glass. Nowadays, drone comes cheap, whether via complacent ambient bliss, quasi-mystical appropriation of Eastern idioms or in the sludgy (and AWESOME) theatrical nihilism of SunnO))). More akin in spirit to the fluorescent lights and piled bricks of visual minimalists Dan Flavin and Carl Andre, Niblock's presentation was experiential rather than experimental, activated by the audience's participation in the work. In other words, it rocked. Slowly. Christopher Olson + fT/lffL ^RHTRSV i jpmoosH Orpheum Theatre ^Rmy A mostly-empty Orpheum greeted the teen/pre-teen duo of Smoosh. Admittedly, a lot of their appeal came from their young age: watching the drummer's face light up in a smile several times per song after nailing some part, or other, or noticing the pint-sized bass player—even younger than the two others—who added to a few songs before scampering offstage. Still, the band had enough twee-pop hooks to make their set a good one. I wish I could have been as creative with a keyboard or drum set at that age. : Meanwhile, Final Fantasy was dazzling, with Owen Pallett slowly building up a virtual orchestra of repeating violin parts with his looping effects pedals. It all worked to glorious effect as his plucks, scratches, and strums arranged themselves into delicate, immaculate compositions. His compatriot Steph added visual flair by projecting artsy drawings and cutouts on an old-fashioned overhead projector. A beautiful rendition of John Cale's "Paris 1919" topped off a brilliant display of talent and ingenuity. ' At long last, we were presented with the four scrawny lads of Bloc Party and their twangy, emotive repertoire. Matt Tong's frenetic drumming anchored "Positive Tension"'s rhythmic art-punk, while Gordon's bass work had a forceful impact on the blasting choruses of "Waiting for the 7:18" and "The Prayer". Softer, swaying crooners like "Blue Light" and "Sunday" also played a major role in providing respite from the more frantic tunes. It's unfortunate that the band's rapid ascendance has led them to employ some tactics that are a tad distasteful. Inviting kids up onto the stage for a big dance party at the end of "Helicopter" didn't seem to suit the song. Frontman Kele was constantly eliciting cheers from the crowd, as if to prove to himself that his popularity hasn't quite run out yet. But despite the populist antics, there were musical high points around every corner, with "Like Eating Glass" feeling truly epic and "She's Hearing Voices" turning into a stomping, show-stopping rager. Sure, this much-anticipated show had its flaws, but the intensity those indie heroes put on display was thrilling and energizing in a way that few among the sold-out crowd are going to forget any time soon. Simon Foreman 11 fiERi/Hl RPD flELL \ 3 gr/EGRDETH + po_un MARCH 11 Pacific Coliseum "That was the most Metal thing I've seen in my entire life!" Those were the sentiments of most of the packed crowd at the Coliseum as drummer Vinnie Appice, bassist Geezer Butler, singer Ronnie James Dio and the heavy metal architect Tony Iommi bowed and walked off the stage after playing their first concert together in fifteen years. For those sweaty club downtown, they would have been the headliners, since they are, after all, a southern metal supergroup featuring ex- members of Pantera, singer Phil Anselmo and bassist RexBrown, guitarist Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar guitarist Kirk Weinstein and drummer Jimmy Bower. The band pummeled the crowd with relentless riffing while Anselmo, one of the most respected metal vocalists in the last twenty years, grunted to the brash tunes like a possessed man. In their all-too-brief stint on stage these "young upstarts" nearly stole the on the band rested almost exclusively on Mustaine for the entire set, leaving the other members to play in the dark. To any Megadeth fan this should come as no surprise, since the band has always been Dave Mustaine's beast. The band is a revolving door of the most talented musicians in metaldom. This time around the band featured bassist James Lomenzo, replacing long-time member David Ellefson, as well as Canadian brothers Glen and Shawn Drover on guitar and drums, respectively. The night seemed to have reached a high point slow, doomy opening riff of "After AU (The Dead)" when the house lights came on and all 5"4' of the 57-year-old Ronnie James Dio pounced off the drum riser like some sort of tiny demon spawn. The audience responded accordingly and proceeded to go insane. The band played a riveting set, with all of the legendary members playing the marvelously heavy music they are renowned for. The throbbing bass of Geezer Butler perfectly complimented and anchored the powerful power chord riffing and piercing solos of Iommi. These two band's dark music. Vinnie Appice was the only weak link of the performance with his by-the-num- bers drumming. Appice drummed solidly, but nothing he did compared to Bill Ward's exciting freewheeling, jazz-tinged style. Of course, a true night of heavymetalmagic would not be complete without some ridiculous lyrics, and Heaven and Hell did not disappoint in this regard. All metal bands have some cringe-inducing lyrics Oust ask Mustaine about what's inside "Hangar 18" to understand) but Dio really has no competition here. The chorus to almost every your dreams" from the song "Heaven and Hell." The thing is that Dio is such an extraordinary singer and such an exciting, albeit short, frontman that he makes even the most absurd lyrics sound like a revelation. Before returning for an encore, Heaven and Hell finished off the show with their namesake song, the only song in their repertoire that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with anything in the Classic Sabbath catalogue. Beginning with a slow, moody riff, the song hearkens back to older Sabbath but never sounds like a who haven't heard the explanation, Heaven and Hell is the Dio-era lineup of Black Sabbath (the first lineup of many after their split with Ozzy in 1978) who chose to tour under the name of their first album together (Heaven and Hell) in order to avoid confusion with the original Black Sabbath. The show started off with ah explosion of noise from the opening band Down. If this were a packed, show from the metal legends that were to follow. Megadeth took the stage soon after, appearing in front of an ecstatic crowd who may have mistook them for the headliners of the evening. Dave Mustaine may have made the same mistake as he lead his crack session band through a number of classic and brand-new Megadeth tunes that set the Coliseum on fire. The two Spotlights shining down after Megadeth. Hell, they even played an encore: not bad for the openers. Indeed, many people seemed to be leaving before Heaven and Hell even came on stage. These people missed out on a wild ride. The stage was shrouded in darkness when a spotlight shone down upon Tony Iommi standing stoically in a long, black leather trench coat, a cross around his neck and his jet black Gibson SG in _ hand. He began to play the original members work so well together and their second-to-none guitar teamwork fueled the powerful rockers like "Voodoo," "Lady Evil," "The Mob Rules" and the heaviest of them all, the encore "Neon Knights." Dio's voice may have been the most powerful instrument of the entire night, as it sounded better now than Ozzy's voice did twenty years ago. Singing with intensity and passion, his voice soared over the song is the title repeated ad nauseum or yelled once with a lot of emphasis. The verses often fare less well, as Dio has a tendency to sing about dungeons, dragons and children of the sea. One of the lines Dio seems most proud of (it's on the backs of the concert T-shirts) is "They say that life's a carousel/Spinning fast, you've got to ride it well/The world is full of Kings and Queens/Who blind your eyes and steal retread. With Geezer's simple but powerful bass and Iommi's never-ending collection of great riffs and licks that build to a speed metal freak-out at the end, it is in many regards the perfect Black Sabbath song. However, I can't imagine Ozzy singing it, because "Heaven and Hell" belongs to Dio as much as the devil horns do. Brent Mattson Seylynn Hall hf-iHt: ^HHHH I returned for the first time in around a year to the little popularity contest they call Seylynn Hall to see one of the only bands that could drag me back there, Fake Shark - Real Zombie! They always put on a colourful and extremely entertaining show, but on this night in particular they poured all their energy into one of the best performances I've seen in a long while. Sporting a new bassist ■<f.ERL EOmBIE! ' who thrashed and danced his way through the entire set, they were tighter than ever. Vocalist Kevin Maher always grabs the crowd arid holds their attention, and he didn't disappoint. His stage antics are a little loopy and were clumsily complimented by guitarist Louis Wu's acrobatics. At one point in the middle of the show Wu climbed up onto a platform above drummer Malcolm Holt, and jumped clear over him. It was dangerous, and it was totally rock 'n' roll. For the first time in what seems like forever, kids danced like clapping monkeys in a ©fonder without caring what they looked like or who saw them. FSRZ killed it. Their sound is fresh, unlike anything out there right now. Check out Fake Shark at the Lamplighter on the 31st before they leave for an international tour—you won't be disappointed. SarahFischer j) The Belushis Thunderballs (Independent) This sophomore album from one of Vancouver's rudest of booze bands invites the many cliches of rock 'n' roll: loud, liquored, ballsy, irreverent, thundering and clearly only here for a good time. Thunderballs is a decent approximation of the all-out aural abuse of the Belushis' Uve show, but Uke most booze-rock records, it lacks a certain luster come sobriety and the light of day. Despite singer XXX's indisputable abiUty to wail Uke Rob Tyner, somehow "city's got its finger in your ass" feels different from within the comforts of home than it does when being sprayed with sweat at a bar, aU the whfle having your butt cheeks unceremoniously groped from behind. That said, live or on tape, the Belushis deUver with cocky anthems, and enough guitar wanking to please the most jaded of rock snobs. I'd argue this band is best Ustened to when horny, sweaty, and drenched in cheap bourbon. Wherever that might be. Then again, the Belushis also Uke to make a point of reminding you that they don't really give a crap what you think of them, and according to one of their groovier tracks "We're Not the Cool Kids," apparently they "don't give a fuck about your MySpace" either. Which is funny, since they added me anyway. MyaB El-P The Book of Lists SelfTitled (Scratch Records) Early the morning I awoke to review the self-titled sopho- moric release from Vancouver's The Book of Lists, I dreamt I was driving in a car with my famUy (a boisterous seven piece ensemble, if you will) from one smaU Canadian town to another. My parents bickered in the front seat, and I tried frantically to reorganize a mountain of coloured markers my younger siblings had littered about the vehicle, spread across the floor jjf the back seat Uke an impossible game of Pick-Up Sticks. Try as I might, I could not keep the pieces of the dream—the trip, the car, my fanrily-—assembled in any meaningful or lasting fashion. At times, the same could be said of this release, which, despite a clear agenda to balance a solidly Brit-pop sound with long-drawn moments of inspired psychedelic rock, departs after a first spin with little left lingering behind. Only fragments from tracks like "Lost Weekend," and "Eating SUver" remain, both of which iUustrate the highly imaginative stylings of Trevor Lee Larson's layered guitar riffs, which throughout the album compete with Chris Fey's quirky vocal strains for musical superiority. Fey and Larson likely earned The Book of Lists much of the praise they won for their debut release, Red Arrows, an album that moved UK label 1965 to put out the Pacifist Revolt 7". On their setf-titled release, however, and especially on sure-footed tracks like "Journey East," bassist Laura Piasta and Brady Cranfield on drums prove the winning duo. Together the two lend staying power to a sound that sometimes deliberates too heavily on fleeting melodies. Their soUd back-up of the album keeps the musical hooks that neverquite bite from leaving the Ustener completely hanging. A self-titled album always offers to be the most of, if not the best of, the band for which it has been named. The Book of Lists, though, never quite fulfill their vision on this recording* although from what I can piece together, their live show must be well worth seeing. Mono Brown #11 IJLL Sleep Nhen YouJre Dead (Definitive Jux) Brooklyn native El-Producto, founder and CEO of hip-hop label Definitive Jux, has released warning after warning of impending doom and the crumbling of modern society. 172 Sleep When You're Dead, the proper, anticipated follow-up to 2002's Fantastic Damage, displays El-P's anxiety and paranoia in full bloom. Laced with his layered, futuristic production, rap's George Orwell deUvers his ideas with clarity and precision, touching down on every societal impurity he can get his hands on. This album is terrifying, plain and simple. Part of the horror comes from El-P's certainty when describing his vision of apocalypse and the downfall of human civilization. At every moment during the thirteen tracks he seems to speak from experience, and the surrealism of his subject matter never does seem aU that surreal. In fact, it seems quite plausible. &&^__$& The other part of the horror comes from his beat-making. He creates dense soundscapes of waning sirens, pulverizing drums.and clumsy pianos. Industrial and trashy, El-P's beats sound Uke a mix between grinding machinery and Alfred Hitchcock sound effects. When layered on top of the vocals, it brings a whole new light to the urgency and panic expressed in his lyrics. El-P won't sleep soundly. Not for now, at least. But rest assured, some of the best material El-P has recorded can be found on this disc, and never has he sounded as matured and focussed. EI maintains his status as underground hip- hop's heavyweight MC/producer, and there is no doubt in my mind that he wiU continue to innovate as long as he can hold the mic in his right hand and the sampler in his left. Stuart Mitchell Albert Hammond, Jr. Yours to Keep ■(Rough Trade) The Strokes were formed in New York State sometime in nineteen ninety eight then put out Is This It with much ado. That was in two thousand one, when people thought the band good fun and gave their album positive reviews. Now they're not as widely liked (outside of Alpha Kappa Phi); cue Albert Hammond, Jr.'s own CD. I guess his stuff is good enough (some decent songs, some boring fluff). Out on Rough Trade, the album's Yours to Keep. Some songs are decent; some are not. Most of them are soon forgot. " 101" sounds okay in the car. But underneath that curly hair 4S*gB___i , there isn't really that much there: Albert should have stuck to playing guitar. Maxwell Maxwell tuart Mitchell m undeL Floodlight Cold Faces (independent) There's apparently a new TV show entitled The Couv, based in Vancouver. It showcases the youth of tomorrow by fouow- ing their tri als, tribulations, life lessons and cellphone text drama. The soundtrack is gladly provided by Vancouver's own Floodlight, a.k.a. Sum41/Matchbox 20/3rd Eye Blind/Days Away/Shurman/Nickelback Ute. The production on the record is great, done by Floodlight's own Dave Truscott. This vocaUst/guitarist/composer/producer is obviously at the helm of this safe-rock EP. I would wager that the goal here is to break'into opportunities such as the speakers of a Bootlegger, the newest Big Shiny Tunes, or jr the smaU stage at the Vans Warped Tour. The vocals seem to be there just for the sake of being there. I couldn't make out anything in the lyrics that was actually "saying" anything. WeU, there actually was a banal take on the "damn-the-man" theme in the title track and a garden-variety love balladish ditty. The lyrics had no message, nothing of value. I understand that they're playing to people that don't even know they don't even know, but seriously, there's no reason to perpetuate this kind of run-of-the-miU bullshit. Although pushing no boundaries musicaUy, this should get the heads of 14-year-old kids bopping. It could at least be played in the background at a nursing home kegger. I'm ready for my coma now Cosmo Digger Wayne Petti City Lights Align (Outside Records) Toronto's Wayne Petti is best known for his work fronting ' Canadian touring band Cuff the Duke and orchestral pop vibraphone sensations the Hylozoists. City Lights Align is Petti's first officially released solo album, a more polished and studio-tweaked version of the untitled disc he's been hawking at shows. Musically, City Lights Align largely sticks to the tried and true formula of acoustic guitar and simple percussion, and it works. This re-recorded version offers a bit more instrumental depth than the show-only offering that preceded it, adding a rich organ and even some drum machines on a few tracks. Despite the added instrumentation, Petti's lyrics are what both makes and breaks this album. At his best, Petti manages to find the perfect alignment of folk music and city lights, creating a new folky-country sound that retains the lonely blue collar sensibilities of old country while weaving through stories and themes relevant to young, modern citydweUers. "Up on the HiUside" perhaps best exemplifies this, dealing with relationships, spirituality, underpaying jobs, poUtics, and how there's always someone better than him "with money, at sports, or phUosophy." Petti runs with one idea until distracted by another without losing the overall mood and even admits his own disjointed nature, jokingly stating that "a short attention span takes me to the next Une." The trouble comes when Petti veers into more sentimental territory. While he manages some clever turns of phrase in "Moment by Moment" and "I Wait," love songs Uke "I'U Be With You" are unforgivably sappy. lines Uke "with every pirate movie that I see, I wiU think of you" belong in unsophisticated dorm room serenades and should never find their way onto actual albums. City Lights Align is mostly solid, but this kind of filler is frustrating, making . me wish that Petti released an EP rather than stretching this effort to album length. Still, for a Cuff the Duke fan, this album wiU serve to bridge the gap tiU the band releases their next. Greg McMullen LCD Soundsystem Sound Of Silver (DFA) James Murphy, the man whose toiling effectively fashioned the genre that has been coined dance punk, is enigmatically influential. Counter-intuitiveness seems to be his secret to success. LCD Soundsystem's first album gem "Losing My Edge," a song about Murphy's fading hipsterdom, became a ferociously prevalent song despite being about lost prevalence. The track could be the thesis statement for the . dissertation that is Sound of Silver, an album willed on by Murphy's lost youth. On "Losing My Edge," among other quips, Murphy proclaims "[he] was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids." Sound of Silver seems to usher back to rock a scene that has become dance-oriented. The album feels more explicitly derived from influences than earUer LCD Soundsystem, and is more interesting due to immense displays of emotion (rather than a focus on achieving a new sound). The trademark repetition is stiU evident, but Sound of Silver is lyrically more pungent. Coming off of an odd undertaking, 45:33, a workout record Murphy made for Nike and Apple that was largely instrumental, the sentiment is all the more astounding. "Someone Great" best exemplifies the shift to greater meaning both on this album and career-wise, and is perhaps the most exceptional track on Sound of Silver. Once again the focus is vanished youth, but this time the gate swings open for poignant subject matter on the rest of the album. Murphy defies conventions indiscriminately. The album is at times political yet uncontroversial, which isn't just counter-intuitive—it's downright oxymoronic. Sound of Silver is compelling and listenable dance music, which is contradictory itself, but with LCD Soundsystem that seems right, and so soon enough it will probably be standard. Which means Murphy is going to have to mix things up, which suitably is what he does best. Pddraig Watson The Nein- LuKury (Sonic Unyon) During most of The Iliad, the runner Achilles sits in his tent trying to decide whether to fight and die or desert and Uve. It is fitting then, that "Achilles Last Tape Solo" is the best song on an album where The Nein, Uke Achules, choose an undertaking that will ultimately lead to their defeat. Luxury, Uke the Greek warrior's last battle, is a noble attempt at something they just couldn't fuUy succeed at—a smooth synthesis of rock and electronic music. The aforementioned song is by no means perfect, but it is a soUd example of how awesome this experiment can be. AU the elements are there, from strong melodies to computer cacophony, and they are not merely juxtaposed, but inextricably moulded together. Noisy tape manipulation cooperates with thumping acoustic drums, and discordant synth lines complement in-tune human voices. Unfortunately, this standard is not met by the rest of the album. The problems that plague the songs vary from forgivably lazy amalgamations of electronics and rock, to unforgivably poor inventions of each. The first track, "Burn Construction," is the strongest example of The Nein's weakest tendencies. At its core, it begins as a bland modern rock radio-ready waltz, complete with played-out lyrics and a guitar line that is on par with even the most derivative post-grunge tune. It improves towards the end, but its flaws epitomize the album's greatest failing: weak songwriting. The Nein could create a far more impressive album by writing a consistent batch of songs before busting out the moog and tape manipulation. And they should, because unlike the world of Greek epics, the world of American rock doesn't grant you immortality for fighting a losing battle. Pop Levi a The Return to Form Black Magick Party (Counter) I have no idea what the title means, but the album Is just as far-out as the tide sounds. Pop Levi seems to specialize in pasting zany, weird sounds onto rock songs. Yes, "pasted" is an appropriate phrase. I am a proponent of wacky or psychedelic sound bites as long as they're used in a man ner that complements and is appropriate to the underlying music. The feelings I get as I repeatedly Usten to The Return to Form Black Magick Party range from appreciation for its potential, to muted interest, to embarrassed cringing. The most striking aspect of the album's sound is the prominent studio trickery. For example, most of the vocals are overdubbed. The dubbing doesn't hurt, as the album would've sounded too acoustic otherwise. The weird noises, however, are another story. The bulk of them are tacked on the beginning or end of a track, instead of being integrated with the song's flow (as in Pet Sounds from The Beach Boys). This is not to say that every single mUlisecond has studio tricks up its sleeve. Among others, "Blue Honey," "Hades' Lady," and the lovely "From the Day that You Were Born," show Levi's raw, more basic approach to rock. The pick of the lot is probably "[A Style Called] Crying Chic". At the same time, it's a shame because I can envision the potential for "Crying Chic" to be even better—it has an acoustic guitar hook that kills—if only Levi didn't sing the song to death. Alas, that's another prominent, detrimental aspect to Levi's record: recycling the lyrics or vocal melody. Some of the words are thoroughly embarrassing, the worst being "Pick-Me-Up Uppercut," with grunts, endless repetition of the title, and various bewildering one-liners ("The alligator! The alligator! ... I'U see you laterl I'U see you later!") that belong in someone's toUet (not mine). The aid result is an album with loads of great ideas sans the backbone of songwriting savvy. John Park Nine Inch Nails Year Zero (Nothing) Trent Reznor's latest album, Year Zero, paints a bleak portrait of a near- future police state America that has crumbled under the weight of its own excess and vanity; not so pretty now, the citizens are being terrorized and-experimented on by their own government. With gritty imagery, shocking sounds and theme Web sites, there's nothing thinly veiled about the album's subject matter as commentary on today's political and social climate in the US. It's an incredible spectacle setting the stage for a spectacular album release. And there hasn't been a stitch of traditional marketing to promote it. It's here that you see Reznor's paranoid vision of big brother and digital control isn't just a sci-fi-fueled cautionary fable of what's to come, but rather the very tools he's using to get the music out and heard. The advertising has been a stealth initiative, spread word of mouth through the internet by fans and savvy media outlets. The traditional label channels and methods are being bypassed. The campaign is taking the form of an alternate reality game (ARG), a blossoming gaming activity that attempts to teU a narrative within the context and bounds of real life. Media and communication mediums are often manipulated to contain or be part of puzzles that relate to the story. For Nine Inch Nails, there's been coded messages embedded on tour t-shirts, secret images, cryptic strings of numbers on web pages, automated e-mail respond- ers from brainwashed truth-seekers and chiUing wire-tapped phone caUs. On February 14, the song "My Violent Heart" was "leaked" when a concert attendee found a flash drive that had been "accidently discarded" in a bathroom stall in Lisbon. The song was distributed widely on the web and features Reznor's spoken word calm over soothing bass and beats before abruptly giving way to a nrilitaristic call to arms over distorted guitars and synth stabs. Running the song through spectrum analysis on computer audio editing software turns the static heard at the end into an image that may be the album cover or a clue to the ARG's reference of a mysterious force known as The Presence. The effect is similar to Aphex Twin's secret image embedded within Come to Daddy in the late 90s. In the following weeks, more clues were revealed. Another flash drive was found containing two files: the quietly smothering and claustrophobic "Me, I'm Not" and another mp3 file of chirps entitled "2432". Analysis of that song decodes a phone number leading to the above mentioned phone recording. LA radio station KROQ suddenly played the forthcoming "Suvivalism" twice; a quick and energetic rocker with an unexpectedly bouncy chorus. A flash drive was found containing a video for the song, featuring an apartment complex's many units being monitored by closed circuit television. On February 25th, during the live broadcast of the Academy Awards, another USB drive was found containing the track "In This Twilight" and an image that led, with no small amount of irony, to the Web site r. holly woodinmemo- riam.org. The song features beautiful vocals from a usually abrasive or whispering Reznor over chunks of sonic debris scraping through the heavy beat. Soon after that, fans and ARG players alike found themselves clicking to www.artisresistance.com for downloadable stickers, stencils and desktop images. "Survivalism" was released in Apple's Garageband format to be remixed, modified and redistributed. As digital music distribution becomes de facto, it's this kind of creativity that allows a artist to achieve a vision that was once limited to album graphics, music* videos and stage shows; it's this kind of power that aUows artists to reclaim control of their own music and how it reaches their audience. With so much of the album being released in a controlled way, Reznor is positioning his music Uke a brand. Underneath all the story, technology, and even the music, the real war is revealed. And the battle is just getting started. Henry Faber Rich Boy Self-Titled (Interscope) For a rapper to name himself Rich Boy seems a little audacious if not unoriginal, Rich Boy hails from Mobile, Alabama, again raising a few red flags. Is Rich Boy just another flash in the pan from the southern states? Another rapper to come on the scene with weak lyrics and a funny dance craze? Well, appearances can be deceiving. Rich Boy's debut album oozes the swagger and drawl of the south but in ways that seem wholly genuine. Rich BOy doesn't take any tracks off; there isn't an ounce of laziness on the record. Instead what you get is a 21-year-old kid trying, and succeeding, to prove himself to hip-hop heads everywhere. Rich Boy's story isn't the typical rapper's story. No coming up through the ranks of street dealers, no hard time spent in prison, and no bullet wounds to impress the young kiddies. Rich Boy was going to school to become a mechanical engineer when one day he happened upon someone making a beat on their computer/From then on Rich Boy put himseU into his music. Good thing he did too. This album is filled with pleasant surprises track after track. Guest spots by other artists play a substantial, obvious role in the success of the record and, in turn, Rich Boy doesn't disappoint. We get both members of OutKast, but on different tracks, David Banner, John Legend, Pastor Troy and Jimmy Jones, just to drop a few names. Some of the best tracks on the album include "Get to Poppin," 'And I Love You," Looka Here" and the street anthem "Throw Some D's." Production on the album is tight, and having LU' Jon produce some of your tracks wins points with me every time. Various Artists Imagine the Shapes (What's Your Rupture?) "It's all about entertainment, and it's all about satisfaction"—a line from Love is All that could easily become the motto for the NYC-based imprint, What's Your Rupture? In a few quick years, a string of excellent releases has pushed the label to the forefront of the indie-pop revival. But so far the label has stuck almost exclusively to seven and 12-inch wax, excluding fans whose parents were too square, or hip, to pass down the turntable. Now, What's Your Rupture? has widened their audience by releasing Imagine the Shapes, a compUation that gathers the label's first four singles on one convenient CD. Thankfully, the label is the type that follows a strict aesthetic, which makes the disc play more like a cohesive album than some disjointed compUation. Each band—Love is All, caUSE co-MOTION!, The Long Blondes and Comet Gain—beats out the type of scrappy indie-pop once heard blaring from bands like The Popguns, The Wedding Present and Television Personalities. To set the tone, Sweden's Love is AU begin with the sax-infused, guitar-frenzied workout of their stunning Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up seven-inch, showcasing three of the strongest tracks from their full-length, Nine Times That Same Song. The label's only American act, caUSE co-MOTION!, follows with their jangly brand of herky-jerky rock 'n' roll, where clean, choppy guitars briskly lay four tracks to rest. Next comes Sheffield's The Long Blondes, who wrap Orange Juice, Blondie and Spectorisms into a disco party destined for mass consumption. UK vets Comet Gain wrap up Imagine the Shapes with their torrid union of mod- punk and Northern Soul, a • formula previously perfected on their grossly underrated album, Realistes. As the compilation spins to a stop, it's easy to walk away feeling both entertained, and satisfied. Q Brock Thiessen BEN SIGSTON f HE PAINTEB BIRBS THEfASUJURSTEfS m CiTR's charts reflect what has been spun on the air for the previous month. Rekkids with stars (*) mean they come from this great land o' ours. Most of these platters can be found at finer (read: independent) music stores acorss Vancouver. If you can't find 'em there give the Muzak Coordinator a shout at 604-822-8733. His name is Luke. If you ask nicely, he'll tell you how to git 'em. To find other great campus/community radio charts check out www.earshot-online.com. Strictly the dopest hits of March 2007 Artist Album Label 1 The Arcade Fire* Neon Bible Merge 2 Secret Mommy* Plays -Ache 3 The Pack* --Srai||j[ Tintype ^fesf Jndependent 4 Besnard Lakes* Are The Dark Horse Jagjaguwar 5 Trans Am 0^*J|&|g Sex Change Thrill Jockey 6 The Queers -:^^^^»' ■ MunkiBrain z~_,% *,»<£]£ Cochon •'^ Pop Levi The Return To Form Black Magick Counter 8 Various* Aaargh Annual #2 Aaargh Records 9 Various* . Snowed In: A Tribute To Hank Snow CJSR 10 Do Make Say Think* You, You're A History In Rust Constellation ^ #&*$*£ 11 StinkMitt* The Red Album Cochon 12 Organ Trail* Wagon Train Independent 13 The Black Lips Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo Vice 14 antibalas rhythm of the river Riverboat j,,* H?OO0 15 Marnie Stern In Advance Of The Broken Arm Kill Rock Stars *T&h: 16 Amy Winehouse Back To Black Island 17 Mum The Peel Session Vancouver, BC Fat Cat T^^i.^; 18 Julie Doiron* : Woke Myself Up Endearing 19 The Dolly Rocker Movement Nightmares -^f ^f|§ Distort 20 Jesu Conqueror \ Hydra Head 21 The High Llamas Can Claddeirs ■ DragCity *&%?{.'£ 22 Deerhunter Cryptograms Kranky 23 Deerhoof Friend Opportunity Kill Rock Stars. ' 24 Psychic Ills 3 Early Violence . Social Registry 25 Hella There's No 666 In Outerspace Ipecac ' IS^iwifi* Artist Album Label 26 Dead Meadow Dead Meadow Jn&^vi&fc Xemu 27 Wendy Atkinson* Pink Noise Smarten Up And To The Point _ 28 MV SEE With The Green Blues Ecstatic Peace 29 Various* Killed By Canada Fans Of Bad Productions 30 BA. Johnston* Call Me When Old And Fat Is The Just Friends 31 Klaxons Myths Of The Near Future Because Music 32 Apostle Of Hustle* ■ National Anthem Of Nowhere Arts & Crafts 33 Fun 100* Goodbye! Hockey Dad .34 Elvis Perkins Ash Wednesday XL. 35 Panda Sear '■/i$g!%j3S Person Pitch Paw Tracks **S|2p||B Independent 36 Barr Summary 5RC 37 Peter Bjorn-& John Writer's Block V2 38 Bonobo Days To Come (Bonus) Ninja Tune 39 Bobby Conn King For A Day W^Sp-'^. Thrill Jockey 40 Kristen Hersh Learn To Sing Like A Star .Yep Roc 41 Ghost In Stormy Nights Drag City 42 III Ease All Systems A-Go-Go Cochon 43 Alkaline.Trio Remains sfpslPfP Vagrant • 44 Bonnie "Prince" Billy Layandlove ' \ _„_- *$&& Drag City 45 Die Mannequin* How To Kill How To Kill 46 Neil Young Live at Massey Hall Reprise j 47 Lee Hazlewood Cake Or Death Ever 48 GruffRhys Candy Lion Team Love 49 Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline Kranky 50 The View . Hats off to the Buskers '•|?S|§iS| '1965 THE BIST DEALS IN TOWN FOR A MEASLY IS BUCKS. Anti-Social Skate Shop and Gallery 2425 Main St. 604-708-5678 Audiopile 2016 Commercial Dr. 604-253-7453 Beat Street Records 439 W.Hastings St. 604-683-3344 The Bike Kitchen UBC, AMS, 6138 Student Union Blvd. 604-822-BIKE Burcu's Angels 2535 Main St. 604-874-9773 The Eatery 3431 W. Broadway 604-738-5298 Hit* Boutique 316 W.Cordova 604-662-3334 The Kiss Store 2512 Watson St. 604-675-9972 Lucky's Comics 3972 Main St. 604-875:9858 Magpie Magazin 1319 Commercial Dr. 604-253-6666 People's Co-op Bookstore 1391 Commercial Dr. 604-253-6442 Puncfurhaus 228 Broadway E. 604-708-8100 Red Cat Records 4307 Main St. 604-708-9422 The Regional Assembly off Text 3934 Main St. 604-877-2247 R/X Comics 2418 Main St. 604-454-5099 Scratch Records 726 Richards St. 604-687-6355 Slickity Jim's Chat and Chew .. ~S3h 2513 Main St. 604-873-6760 Spartacus Books 319 W.Hastings 604-688-6138 Vinyl Records 319 Hastings St. West 604-488-1234 www.citr.ca/frieiids A Friends of CiTR Card scores you sweet deals at Vancouver's finest small merchants and supports CiTR 101.9 FM. Show it when you shop! Discorder 29 You can listen to CiTR online at www.citr.ca or on the air at 101.9 FM fmmt_j_wsB_mmunm_i 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm lpm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm 12am lam 2am 3am 4am 5am ShookShookta RimUMSIKDM Mondo Trasho TRANCENDANCE DlSASTKRPlECK THEATRE Breakfast with the Browns Lions and Tigers Mtertfc andBbars... Let's Get Baked Native Solidarity News the Jazz Show Vengeance is Mine Bvcjvic Pickin' Third Time's The Charm Morning After Show Career Fact Track n Avant 1>a Musigtit Fiex Your Head Salaaio Minimo Caughti in the Red Aural Tentacle Suburban Jungle End ofthe World News Cute Ba^d Alert! Planet Lovetron Democracy Now Necessary Voices Cnumiroc SAMSQUANCHS SOMETIMES Hideaway JUICEBOX Hans Kloss' Misery Hour }______M_tiiS__BMEMSM_WlWi Duncan's Donuts Crimes & Treasons Exquistte Corpse Live from Thunderbird Radio Hkix : Ska-T's Scenic Drove These are the Breaks Nardwuar Presents ShakejA Tail Feather I Like the Scribbles the Saturday Edge jKNEKAXIUN AKKfiUI ADON Leo Ramirez Show Shadow Jugglers Svnaitic Sandwich Beats from the BAnJ"\JVNT Conception Radio ■■■■SUNDAY TANA RADIO (World) SHCX)KSHOOKTA (World) KOL NODEDI (Worid) Beautiful arresting, beats and voices emanating from all continents, corners, and voids. Seldom-rattled pocketfuls of roots and gems, recalling other times, and other places, to vast crossroads en route to the unknown and the unclaimable. East Asia. South Asia. Africa. The Middle East Europe. Latin America. Gypsy. Fusion. Always rhythmic, always captivating. Always crossing borders. Always transporting. THE ROCKERS SHOW (Reggae) Reggae inna all styles and fashion. BLOOD ON THE SADDLE (Roots) Real cowshit-caught-in-yer-boots ' country. CHIPSWITH EVERYTHING (Pop) British pop music from all decades. International pop (Japanese, French, Swedish, British, US, etc.), 60s soundtracks and lounge. Book your jet-set holiday SAINTTROPEZ (Pop) QUEER FM (Talk) Dedicated to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transexual com-muni- ties of Vancouver. Lots of human interest features, background on current issues, and great music. RHYTHMSINDIA (World) Rhythmsindia features a wide range of music from India, including popular music from the 1930s to the present, classical music, semi-classical music such as Ghazals and Bhajans, and also Qawwalis, pop, and regional language numbers. MONDO TRASHO (Eclectic) TRANCENDANCE (Dance) Join us in practicing the ancient art of rising above common thought and ideas as your host Dj Smiley Mike lays down the latest trance cuts to propel us into the domain of the mystical. trancendance@hotmail.com DISASTERPIECE THEATRE (Talk) ■■■■ MONDAY BREAKFAST WITH THE BROWNS (Eclectic) Your favourite Brown-sters, James and Peter, offer a savoury blend of the familiar and exotic in a blend of aural delights! UONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS... (Eclectic) A mix of indie pop, indie rock, and pseudo underground hip hop, with your host, Jordie Sparkle. ALT. RADIO (Talk) Hosted by David B. PARTS UNKNOWN (Pop) Underground pop for the minuses with the occasional interview with your host, Chris. LETS GET BAKED w/matt & dave (Eclectic) Vegan baking with "rock stars" like Sharp Like Knives, Whitey Houston, the Novaks and more. NATIVE SOUDARITY NEWS (Talk) A national radio service and part of an international network of information and action in support of indigenous peoples' survival and dignity. We are all volunteers committed to promoting Native self-determination, culturally, economically, spiritually and otherwise. The show is self-sufficient, without government or corporate funding. NEWS IOI (Talk) A volunteer-produced, student and community newscast featuring news, sports and arts. Reports by people like you. "Become the Media." W.I.N.G.S.(Talk) Womens International News Gathering Service. SON OF NITE DREEMS (Eclectic) UNCOMMON PRACTICE (Classical) All the classical music you don't hear on mainstream radio! A variety of innovative and interesting works from the 20th and 21st centuries, with an occasional neglected masterpiece from earlier eras. KARUSU (Worid) THE JAZZ SHOW (Jazz) April 2: One of the stars of last year's jazz fest was vibist Bobby Hutcherson, and tonight we feature the great vibist and ma- rimbaist on a rare album issued only in Japan called Inner Glow. Bobby's quartet is augmented on some tunes by three great horn players.A hidden gem! April 9:Tonight's feature honours pianist/composer/iconoclast Andrew Hill (who appears in concert this week April 12 with his trio). Andrew!!! is classic Hill with vibist Bobby Hutcherson and a rare appearance by Sun Ra's tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. This music was recorded in 1964 and is as contemporary as April 16: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Lee Morgan (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Bobby Timmons (piano) and bassist Jymie Merritt was the great drummer/band leader's favourite edition.You'll hear why in these live concert tracks recorded in Paris. The Messengers were on fire this night! April 23: Tonight the leading voice of the Hammon B3 organ: Joey DeFrancesco. Joey will be at the Jazz Cellar April 27 to 29 so to give you a taste of this young jazz master we present "The Philadelphia Connection" with Joey'D', guitarist Paul Bollenback (to be replaced at the Cellar by Canadian Jake Langley) and hot drummer Byron Landham. Joey honours the late organ hero Don Patterson in a great set April 30: Trombonist/Composer J.J.Johnson leads in an all-star big band in a program of originals by the trombone giant As this album features all aspects of Johnson's creativity it was called "The Total J.J." The band includes a full array of famous jazz stars like Hank Jones (piano) and Art Farmer (trumpet). Big sounds by one of the true greats. VENGEANCE IS MINE (Punk) All the best the world of-punk has to offer, in the wee hours of ■■■■TUESDAY PACIFIC PICKIN' (Roots) Bluegrass, old-time music, and its derivatives with Arthur and the lovely Andrea Berman. HIGHBRED VOICES (World) THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM (Rock) Open your ears and prepare for ' a shock! A harmless note may make you a fan! Hear the menacing scourge that is Rock and Roll! Deadlier than the most dangerous criminal! borninsixtynine@hotmail.com MORNING AFTER SHOW (Eclectic) GIVE'EM THE BOOT (World) Sample the various flavours of Italian folk music from north to south, traditional and modern. Un programma bilingue che es- plora il mondo delta musica folk italiana. BESNERIC RHYME (Talk) Interviews with contemporary Canadian poets. We'll talk about line breaks, construction bosses named Phil, and the invitational REEL TO REAL (Talk) Movie reviews and criticism. EN AVANT LA MUSIQUE (French) En Avant La Musique! se concentre sur le metissage des genres musicaux au sein d'une francophonie ouverte a tous les courants. This program focuses on cross-cultural- music and its influence on mostly Franco- WENER'S BARBEQUE (Sports) Join the sports department for their coverage of the T-Birds. FLEXYOUR HEAD (Hardcore) Up the punx down the emo! Keepin' it real since 1989, yo. Flexyourhead. SALARIO MINIMO (World) Salario Minimo, the best rock in Spanish show in Canada. CAUGHT IN THE RED (Rock) Trawling the trash heap of over 50 years' worth of rock n' roll debris. Dig it! PLUTONIAN NIGHTS (Eclectic) AURALTENTACLES (Eclectic) It could be punk, ethno, global, trance, spoken word, rock, the unusual and the weird, or it could be something different Hosted by DJ Pierre. ■■ WEDNESDAY SUBURBAN JUNGLE (Eclectic) PLANET LOVETRON (Electronic) With host Robert Robot One part classic electronics. One part plunderphonicmixnmatch. Two parts new and experimental techno. One part progressive hip-hop. Mix and add informative banter and news for taste. Let stand. Serve, and enjoy. planetlovetron@gmail.com ANOIZE (Noise) Luke Meat irritates and educates through musical deconstruction. Recommended for the strong. WRAPPED IN SILVER SOUND .(Eclectic) DEMOCRACY NOW (Talk) Independent news hosted by award-winning jounaiists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. RUMBLETONE RADIO (Rock) Primitive, fuzzed-out garage may- NECESSARYVOICES (Talk) Socio-political.enviromental activist news and spoken word with some music too. AND SOMETIMES WHY (Pop/Eclectic) First Wednesday of every month. SAMSQUANCH'S HIDEAWAY (Eclectic) JUICEBOX (Talk) Developing your relational and individual sexual health, expressing diversity, celebrating queer- ness, and encouraging pleasure at all stages. Sexuality educators Julia and Alix will quench your search for responsible, progressive sexuality over your life span! www.juiceboxradio.com FOLK OASIS (Roots) Two hours of eclectic roots music. Don't own any Birkenstocks? Allergic to patchouli? C'mon in! A kumbaya-free zone since 1997. HANS KLOSS' MISERY HOUR (Hans Kloss) This is pretty much the best thing on radio. ■■■THURSDAY END OF THE WORLD NEWS (Eclectic) SWEET 'N HOT (jazz) Sweet dance music and hot jazz from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. DUNCAN'S DONUTS . (Eclectic) Hosted by Duncan, sponsored by donuts. WE ALL FALL DOWN (Eclectic) Punk rock, indie pop, and whatever else I deem worthy. Hosted by a closet nerd. CRIMES &TREASONS (Hip Hop) MY SCIENCE PROJECT (Talk) Zoom a little zoom on the My Science Project rocket ship,, piloted by your host Julia, as we navigate eccentric, underexposed, always relevant and plainly cool scientific research, technology, and poetry (submissions welcome), myscienceproje ctradio@yahoo.ca PEDAL REVOLUTION (Talk) AFROBEAT (World) Music of the worid, with a special dance around African drum beats. My passion is music from the Afri-can Diaspora. Catch up on the latest and reminisce on classic spins. myafrobeat@yahoo.com EXQUISITE CORPSE (Experimental) Experimental, radio-art, sound collage, field recordings, etc. Recommended for the insane. LIVE FROM THUNDERBIRD RADIO HELL (Live Music) Live From Thunderbird Radio Hell showcases local talent... LIVE! Honestly, don't even ask about the technical side of this. LAUGH TRACKS (Talk) RAW RADIO (Hip Hop) wmmmm friday CUTE BAND ALERT! (Eclectic) SKA-TS SCENIC DRIVE (Ska) Email requests to: THESE ARE THE BREAKS (Hip Hop) Top notch crate digger DJ Avi Shack mixes underground hip hop, old school classics, and original breaks. RADIO ZERO (Eclectic) NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE PRESENTS (Nardwuar) THE CANADIAN WAY (Eclectic) Independent Canadian music from almost every genre imaginable covering the east coast to the left coast and all points in between.Yes, even Montreal! thecanadianway@popstar.com AFRICAN RHYTHMS (World) David "Love" Jones brings you the best new and old jazz, soul, Latin, samba, bossa and African music from around the world. www.africanrhythmsradio.com SHAKE A TAIL FEATHER (Soul/R'n'B) I LIKE THE SCRIBBLES (Eclectic) Beats mixed with audio from old films and clips from the internet 10% discount for callers who are certified insane. Hosted by Chris D. mam Saturday THE SATURDAY EDGE (Roots) Studio guests, new releases, British comedy sketches, folk music calendar, and ticket giveaways. GENERATION ANNIHILATION (Punk) A fine mix of streetpunk and old . school hardcore backed by band interviews, guest speakers, and social commentary. www.streetpunkradio.com crashnburnradio@yahoo.ca POWERCHORD (Metal) Vancouver's only show; local demo tapes, imports, and other rarities. Gerald Rattle- head, Geoff the Metal Pimp and guests do the damage. CODE BLUE (Roots) From backwoods delta low- down slide-to urban harp honks, blues, and blues roots with your hosts Jim, Andy and Paul. THE LEO RAMIREZ SHOW (World) The best of music, news, sports, and commentary from around the local and international Latin American communities. OUR WAVE (World) News, arts, music for the Russian community, local and abroad. SHADOW JUGGLERS (Dance/Electronic) An exciting chow of Drum n' Bass with DJs Jimungle & Bias, on the ones and twos, plus guests. Listen for give-aways every week. Keep feelin da beatz. SYNAPTIC SANDWICH (Dance/Electronic/Eclectic) BEATS FROM THE BASEMENT CONCEPTION RADIO (Talk) CITR 101.9 FM Springs Into Spring The sun is shining, birds are singing, flowers are growing, clouds are looming and it's pretty clear by now that spring is in the air. Spring is an exciting season here at CiTR, with the National Campus and Community Radio Conference coming up fast on the horizon. As the days get longer and the sun activates long-dormant synapses, more and more people are snapping out of their winter slump and trying their hands at something new. We'll have updates on conference planning next month, but for now check out two new shows blossoming on the airwaves. Besneric Rhymes Tuesdays 2 - 2:30pm What could be better than a show that brings poetry out of the library and into the street? Frankly, a show that brings a poet off the street and into my house to help me get rid of the bedbugs in my mattress, as poet Zach Wells did on a recent episode of Besneric Rhyme. We've also taken the Great Donut Tour of Vancouver with poet Ben Hart, and gotten convincing performances out of counter workers who we-asked to read from his sonnet cycle about donuts. Tune in Tuesdays 2-2:30 -pm to listen to host Linda Besner take local poets out on the town. Duncan's Donuts %__W__t__l Thursdays Noon - lpm Some people say I'm living the dream. If the dream is working at UBC and broadcasting a radio show on my lunch break, then you better believe that the dream is being lived, by me, Duncan, host of Duncan's Donuts. - ,.-„'ij?~> Why call it Duncan!s Donuts? I aim to deliver sweet treats from the Pop Underground. Plus, it didn't sound as pretentious as the other names I was considering ("Songs For A Future Generation," meh) and Parts Unknown was taken. What is the Pop Underground? Uh, well, it's any pop music that doesn't make it on to most radios. That and it should have something to do with Calvin Johnson. Please bear in mind, I ascribe to an unusually broad and inclusive concept of pop. Beach Boys and Kinks, check; X-Ray Spex and the Delta 5, check; Half Japanese and the Beat Happening, check; Destroyer and The Blow, yup; and much, much more. Other than music, what will I hear? Well, this being campus radio, expect to hear all manner of technical gaffes, including feedback, missed cues, bizarro levels and hearing me talk while the songs are playing because I've left the mic on. That talking may be of interest; at 12:301 deliver select concert listings. I also try to bring in co-hosts whenever I can. These co-hosts have all sorts of interests to share with you, the listening public. Some of them are from France, some are from Toronto, some of them are ladies, all of them bring a fresh perspective to the pop endeavour. Who's listening? Well, my mom listened once, and people call in when I give away tickets (which happens on occasion), so there must be some listeners out there. Also I recently accosted Canadian film and television legend Don McKellar and convinced him to do a promo for my show, so it sounds like he listens. I'm sure that he doesn't, but he is a fan of The Zombies, so he could—feasibly—like the show. Requests and heckles are always welcome on Duncan's Donuts, Thursdays at noon on CiTR 101.9FM. For more information, visit duncansdonuts.wordpress.com. Discorder is looking for an Editor. Responsibilities: »liasing with label reps, volunteers and staff » planning, creating and commissioning content for each issue » organizing interviews and meetings » editing copy » contributing to the long-term vitality of Discorder and CiTR » ensuring the successful execution of the magazine each month Requirements: » strong command of the English language » knowledge of local and independent music » able to take initiative, delegate responsibility and be resourceful » comfortable with mac and pc working environment discorder.ca This is a volunteer position with a monthly honorarium of $350. A flexible schedule and a willingness to work 50-60 hours/month is required. Apply by April 12th with resume and cover letter to discordered@gmail.com. Discorder 31, Zulu Serves Up An Ace! m mm mese vm* releases MODEST We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank CD CARLA BRUNI No Promises CD FDrmany it is their dream job to sit in a comtortable chair and listen to music. I. Baron . Van Gillgimon am currently sitting very comfortably in a very exquisitely ornate chair listening to the latest single from Issac Brocks Washington-based rock outfit Maoist Mouse 8 However, I am terribly sad and forlorn. Jgtote to you as I need your help. I have been banished on an island, exiled from my kingdom and my people. An evil lord rules over my domain and listens to terrible, terrible muzak. Please, build me a magical cBpper ship to return across the oceans to my country. In gratitude I will drop copies of We Were Dead Before The SMp Eves Sank in your mailboxes and include a short concise critj-i cal analysis detailing my opinions as to why Brock and his 8| pals (which now include Prince of Manchester Johnny Marr) are the most potent band on the planet Furthermore, I win demystify their latest release and reveal the secrets that sharpen its poetic lyricism, fanciful sonic melodic exchanges, and instantly catchy rhythmic hooks! Grab your hammer, build the ship—set me free and yourselves with It! CD 16.98 COCO ROSE The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn CO UMaison de Mon Reve and oah's Ark introduced us to ly unsettling and always captivating musical landscape. From their minimalist beginnings in 2003, as an acoustic folk vocal duo, to their latest five revue featuring break dancing and French MCs, CetaRaile have consistently evolved and delighted in pushing boundaries and defying expectations. The Of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, the third ventricle of sb) Bturgy, represents another stride onward from us works. After completing demos in the south of iSe« went to Reykjavik to "collaborate with po Parisian supermodel turned detached I Ntea-esque folk diva, Cart* Branl returns with her first English language release!! No Promises is Brail's musing on early turn-of-the-century British ind American poetry as repositioned with th fabric of her already well-steeped folky sonic vision. Coached enchanted diva Martanne FaHMid, Brail's sublime Ne Promises smoky listen that weaves together magical acoustic instrumentation accompany her dovebird voice. Standout tracks include "Afternoon, "If Yon Wen Coming in the Pall, and "These Dancing Days Are Bone" —all of which speak of an intimate listen a la Cat Power, BJn or perhaps even Amy Wlnehwua. Rarely does one come across records that sound as hermetic as Carta's does — break the seal am CD 16.98 BLONDE REDHEAD is CD Consistently a Zulu favourite, Blonde Redhead never, ever disappoint From their early days as a more art-damaged status as predominant post-post-punk auteurs, this powertrid has pushed the sonic envelop to create some of Ihe most evocative, emotive, and explosive pop songs around. Uve, they are amazing, as the visceral sound of their dissonant compositions leaves their audience awestruck and completely absorbed in the raDturous din thai forms the tounda- :\ tion of their arty rock. For this new outing, 'tlial in a more soothing mix with the addition of strings and keyboards to their pulsing rock bombast, the resatt is something that sonically approaches the hazy tones of NBVs Unless, futuristic rock of RHfs OK Computer and the urgency offBTS Daydream nation Upon digesting the opening bars of the spellbinding 23. it ts clear that you are listening to one of 2007s finest releases and a sure contender for year picks. Enjoy. AVAILABLE APSHjjjiljj fellow T* Usa '*r THE BOOK OF USTS s/t CD Beak Of lists inhabit a THE CTTY V GLASS SOUND: Vancouver Lade! Spotlight 1777rex . brittle glass houses and overpriced condominiums that currently choke this western town. This is a coastal band, in-touch * equally in-tune with the raw street beat. With a love of the classic UK landmarks of the past 40 years, along with their own interminable twang, it's safe to say that the always evolving holy racket conjured up by Chris Frey (singer, songwriter), Laura Piasta (bassist), Trevor In Larson (guitarist),; (drummer) is pure sound + vision, i List*' first shot, recorded in the winter of 2004 at the Hive Creative »art and Josh Welts (Black Mountain) on th dials. This lysergic jangle pop EP was released by Global Symphonic and sharply drew the attention of taste maker Jamer (Rough Traders UK-based 1965 label, who released a $ft CD e; El ps) on guitar and vocals, in guitar, vocals and keybs, 0 KfJM theCi studio conspirator since Dancer in the gilts continue to experiment wi and clashing personalities, juxtaposing de CD 16.98 BRIGHT EYES iorate with pro- ~^| a; asBJetk'smain La LCD SOUNDSYSTEM Sound of Silver CD So you lost your edge and then Daft Punk played your house. Ever wake awl find that your life is being controlled by a song? Do you hear the lyrics forthe song in your head as you act them out? If so. you are in terrible trouble — unless of course that the song is in fact one by James Murphy a.k.a. LCD Soundsystem You see, James' songs are like trips into a NYC fantasy land where aH the evils of bloated egos, narcissistic voguers and eombed- over power brokers are exposed for exactly what they are: scum. Propelled by Murphy's sonic narrative you are granted access to the after-party party and there you can rip the sheets off the beds and scale down the skyscrapers of hedonism. All like the Sound of Silver. Amazing! CD 16.98 graced Stanley Park ai allowed us afl to bask in the glorious s shine while a bright-eyed young man named Conor Went took to the Malki Bowl stage and proceeded to serenade series of fireflies. The young "boy-wonder* is now 27 years old and has a discography the length ot any freaky, hippy-hair dancer there thai night. Well, now the fairies have returned with a nice little record for us all to relive that momentous summer evening! Oberst, back with the' same band from that tour,'returns with his Caiielapa record and in doijg so, Hushes his sound out tttjl to ring forward with string gftgementsfrom fellow BatlBii multi-instrumentalist Nate Jficett. "Few Winds is the firstiingle and positions Conor and pals flowing Dylan-esque BiMftg Thunder era minstrels. Elsewhere, )ins a series of badiajl tales of wanderlust, melancholy nightmare nights^ajB on the plains. Recommended. CD 16.98 LOW Drams and Guns CQ/LP On their eighth full-length album first for the legendary Sub Pop records), law prove that some thir only get better with time. Attendee! recent Im shows will find these tones both familiar and uncanny, as producer Dave Fridmann (who also worked with them on 2005's The Sreat Destroyer) has helped them tweak some of their newer live staples into surprising and contemporary shapes with the use of looped vocals and drum machines^The result is a set of Low tunes in the efas sic mode (death-obsessed, crawlingly slow, and replete wimachingly sublime harmonies) that sound like a low you've never heard before, immediate, fresh, and full of experiments. You can hear the group trying out new approaches on these songs that sound appealingty open- ended. A sure favourite for fans old and new, and an unexpected triumph from one of indie-rock's most dependable workhorses. (and SALE PRICES ON SALE UNTIL APRIL 30,2007 CD 16.98/LP 14.98 ice, the band has shared bills with the (of which Frey was a member for the seminal This Night 2LP and tour), Frog Eyes, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Tha Bows (UK) among others. With their pedigree intact and a fresh batch of recently produced Hive recordings in the can (once again with Stewart and Wells on board), it's time for It* Beak Of Lists to turn another page. Listen for the cue; this is the sound of now. AVAILABLE APRIL 10" (S.T.».E.E.T.S./Pr*.Mtrtps) on drums. They existed from 1996-199 a time when Vancouver felt kinda lacking in visceral, visionary music. ' They were the exception, f II never forget the first time I saw them, how astounded and inspired I felt as I left The Columbia that night It ck to me every time I listen to this record. *» CD 14.96 CHET Fighting Against Darkness CD % lictoria's OM have always seemed at the precipice ot mterna- V tional success. One would be hard-pressed to find a young band wtth such a wealth of talents coupled with such a focused musical vision, evocative sound and captured aesthetic. Over the course of their previous two releases, this charming group have honed their haywire sound Into a cacophonous splendor of dreamy vocals, brooding guitars, and austere strings. With this third embarking, the Beattie brothers seem to be peaking in confluence and maturity as Fighting Against Darkness has a'trwreatflfetljirsr-"' rollicking irUhe cookhouse self-assurance. Exploding with Zuma, shrouded in epic Main Street Exile, and mining the soul searching of Sister Lovers, Chet are channeling some very heady sounds and thus evoking the spirits of grandiose passion. Shit, life is a gamble, win some with Chet! CD 14.98 Y«%Y PARTY! WE SAY DIE! Lose All Time CD I ose All Time is the sophomore Laibum from Va ed post-whatever freak-popsters Yea Say Party! We Say Die! and the first for their new label Paper Bag Records (home of Stars. Tokyo Police Club, etc.). The album is a brilliant, spastic celebration of hyperactive outbursts and meditative moments. Uke Lose Ail Time's concept, the bubbling joy of this music strives to touch something unrestrained by the passing vagaries of fashion. These kids have come a long way from their rural roots in the churchy sprawl oi Abbotsford, but you can still sense the origins of their deep need for a really, really good time and their determination to make it happen. Currently rockin' on Exclaim's Spring break tour and featured in uber-hip Brit mag Dazed and Confused. YSPiWSD! can tear the dome off any home, including your own, proving that nothing is as inspiring as 8 little OIY. CD 9.98 THE ANEMONES Special Times CD Imagine the bedroom product ot Htstolre Melody Nelson and any of the better Velvets records and you will begin ts und< stand the beautMsrJSBlute that is The Anemones Soon this group wjH he the toe of Montreal, as with a lecherous grip the/ have i"oved themseJvM into the hipster- heavy Mile End to S|8i Btose losers how j loosen the tie from Jo H Bafea (Tbt ttetk). Sptoei Ur CD 6.98 ICE PALACE s/t CD I yndsay Sung (Dick Para* LpIi* Mountaintops) SBIch Trawick (3 f: Inches Of Blood) just got married and consummated their love just before making these really sweet tunes — reportedly con- Limited to just 100 lonely copies, as is the case with all I777rex releases, this beauty takes it over the line with a sumptuous Bach Congratulations on love. CD 6.98 HEY SQUEAKY VOICE, SM6 YOUR SONG FOR ML TBS PONYS -Turn The lights Out CDAP D.O.A. - Punk Rock Singles 1977-1999 CO THE ROSEBUDS-Night of The Furies CD XHI XIU - Remixed and Covered 2CD WTEfflWTIONAL NOISE CONSPIRACY-Live at Oslo Jazz Festival CO BONNIE PRINCE BUY - Strange Form Of Ufa CDEP CD 16.98 EL-P - TN Steep When You're Dead CB PANDA BEAR- Person Pitch CD MYSTERY JETS - Lite Is A Grave And I Dig It CD DUSTIN COLE WITH THE SPECIALIST -Try and Love Me CD Zulu Records 1972-1976 W 4th Ave Vancouver, BC tel 604^iy|p|| wvv^v.zultjTe^^^s^^rjf: STORE HOURS
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Discorder CITR-FM (Radio station : Vancouver, B.C.) 2007-04-01
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Title | Discorder |
Creator |
CITR-FM (Radio station : Vancouver, B.C.) |
Publisher | Vancouver : Student Radio Society of the University of British Columbia |
Date Issued | 2007-04-01 |
Extent | 32 pages |
Subject |
Rock music--Periodicals |
Genre |
Periodicals |
Type |
Text |
FileFormat | application/pdf |
Language | English |
Identifier | ML3533.8 D472 ML3533_8_D472_2007_04 |
Collection |
Discorder |
Source | Original Format: Student Radio Society of University of British Columbia |
Date Available | 2015-03-11 |
Provider | Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library |
Rights | Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these recordings must be obtained from CiTR-FM: http://www.citr.ca |
CatalogueRecord | http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=1190017 |
AIPUUID | aaefe201-81fe-44ac-9f06-5eb6f8108b9a |
DOI | 10.14288/1.0049944 |
AggregatedSourceRepository | CONTENTdm |
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