jfJB !
ft^f m*<f**me fr*m CiTR /orm<? FM
"mm MOTHERS BAU61T-S
HOMEFRONTIIVASION"
Al
rW
fM ,2003
_iers
The KeL_
plus The Raffing Boml
Doors 7:00 - Show 7:30pm -Tickets $12 adv. Scratch, Zulu, Noize, Red Cat Records.
I Mesa Luna - 1926 W. Broadway
jjpn Seattle Wa.: Thft BUj
n Seated With ^Kiss A»d
BroRr
:en
Wednesday Nov 12
resent
A*Kiss Aad Mojswui present
Social S^m|
Jason Collett
Doors 8:00pm - Show 9:00pm - $15 adv. ticketmaster, scraiefezulu.
"@ Richards On Richards - lOSJSft^dtf St;
■% ■ irom^cittle VYA Matadoraec. artists...
Pretty Girls Make Graves
The Robosexuals
^fpOpm - Show 8:00pm-$12 adv. www.ficketmaster.com, zulu, scratch.
@ Sonar - 66 Water St.
ursday Nov 27
tQRR MpiC TOUfcfeatufing
B. Fleischmann
plus guests
Doors 8:00pm - Show 9:00pm - $12 adv. Scratch , Zulu, Noize, Red Cat Records
m @ The Picadilly Pub - 620 W. Pender St.
From Scottland, Mat<
Sunday Nov 23
fador rejcon^krvji artists
plus guests.
Doors 8:00 - SHow 9:00pm -Tickets available @ www.ticketmaster.com, zulu, scratch.
Richards On Richards - 1036 Richards St
Monday Dec 1
Sealed With A Kiss and House of Blues Present
ThAWa1iTfteefHnd
Reggie & The Full Effect
From Autumn To Ashes & No Motiv
Doors 6:00 - SHow 7:00pm - Tix at www.ticketmaster.com, zulu, scratch.
The Croatian Cultural Centre
CiTR 101.9 FM presents... our annual music DEATHMATCH!
BtHNdfe
"Disclaimer: Bands might not be exactly as pictured.
NOVEMBER UNEUP
4th Spark That Screams
Flippin' Jiggers
Sarah Wheeler
f S
11th: Semi-Finals #1
The First Day
Elizabeth
Revisionist
18th: Semi-Finals #2
The Parlour Steps
They Shoot Horse. Don't They?
New Years Resolution
25th: Semi-Finals #3
Winner Dct 21st
Winner Oct 28th
Winner Nov 4th
Plus Jokes For Beer!
Cover $6. Show starts 9 PM @
The Railway Club (Soymour/Dunsmulr)
For the latest results and schedules,
please visit http://vvww.citr.ca
Additional Info: Phone (604)822-1242
Email benlai@citr.ca
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!
wwftS^r
:hart
'0Nh£ MMtodk
Black Dog
Video
RECORDERS
Mimta
/Columbia
fAcademy
Fireball Productions
BEAT STREET
RECORDS
ARC
ELECTRONICS
l4%QR0Efi DiSCORDER
ISSUE 246 • NOVEMBER • THAT MAG FROM CITR 101.9 FM
I Features
The Shins by Merek Cooper p.10
Red Light Sting by Ian Gormely p.12
Peaches by Susy Webb p. 13
The Unicorns by Patrick Finlay p. 14
The Stunts by Ben Lai p. 15
Mark Mothersbaugh by Justin Gradin p.l6
The Books by Saelan Twerdy p. 18
Alexisonfire by Niki Reitmayer p.20
Regulars
Covering Fire p.6
Fucking Bullshit p.7
Riff Raff p.7
Panarticon p.7
SHiNDiG Report p.8
Strut, Fret and Flicker p.8
Under Review p.22
Real Live Action p.24
Kickaround p.26
Charts p.27
On the Dial p.28
Datebook p.30
Year-end Questionnaire p.31
Editor:
Merek Cooper
Ad Wrangler:
Steve DiPo
Art Director:
Lori KiessBCig .
Associate Editor:
Esther Whang
Editorial Assistant:
Karen Langhelle
Secret Weapon:
Saelan Twerdy
RLA and Under Review Editor.
Kimberley Day
Layout and Design:
Merek and Lori
Production:
Kim Day, Lloyd Cooper, Stevo,
Jason Bennett and lots of
other people. Very special
thanks to Duncan and the
Ubyssey
On the Dial:
Bryce Dunn
Charts:
Luke Meat
Datebook:
-ip;j5g§r Mistress Whang
Distribution:
Matt Steffich
US Distro:
pig Frankie Rumbletone
Publisher:
Lydia Masemola
© "DiSCORDER" 2003 by the Student Radio Society of the University of British Columbia. All
I rights reserved. Circulation 17,500. 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
i (to cover postage, of course),. Please make cheques or money orders payable to DiSCORDER Maga-
i DEADLINES: Copy deadline for the Jancember issue is November 19. Ad space is available until
* November 26 and can be booked by calling Steve at 604.822.3017 ext. 3. Our rates are available upon
| request. DiSCORDER is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to unsolicited manuscripts,
I unsolicited artwork (including but not limited to drawings, photographs, and transparencies), or any other
f unsolicited material. Material can be submitted on disc or in type. As always, English Is preferred. Send
I email to DiSCORDER at discorder@club.ams.ubc.ca.
I From UBC to Langley and Squamlsh to Bellingham, CiTR can be.heard at 101.9 fM as well
I as through all major cable systems in fhe Lower Mainland, except Shaw in White Rock. Call the
j CITR DJ line at 822.2487, our office at 822.3017 ext. 0, or our news and sports lines at 822,3017
I ext. 2, Fax us at 822.9364, e-mail us at: citrmgr@mail.ams.ubc.ca, visit our web site at www.citr.ca or Just
f pick up a goddamn pen and write #233-6138 SUB Blvd., Vancouver. BC. V6T 1Z1, CANADA.
I Cover
The cover was a another wonderful
production from Lori. Don't stare to long at
the picture of Mark Mothersbaugh, it'll make
you feel sick.
pj mums ■;.
LONG LIVE ROCK.
TUESDAY NIGHTS SONAR OFFERS UP THE
BEST LOCAL RAW TALENT THIS CITY HAS
SEEN SINCE THE DAYS OF THE TOWN PUMP
$2.00 ALL NIGHT LONG
YOUR BAND GOT WHAT IT TAKES?
JUST WAITING FOR THAT BREAK?
...THEN WE MIGHT BE LOOKING FOR YOU!
BANDS CHOSEN TO PERFORM WILL
• HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY LIVE IN A LARGE ROOM
• PLAY IN THE SAME ROOM AS MANY OF THE GREATS
(BIG SUGAR, MATTHEW GOOD BAND, NIRVANA, SOUNDGARDEN...)
• GAIN EXPOSURE GET MEDIA ATTENTION
• HAVE A CHANCE TO SELL MERCHANDISE ON SITE
•HONE YOUR SKILLS ON STAGE
• GET THE CHANCE TO COMPETE IN OUR MONTHLY BATTLE OF THE BANDS
• MAKE A FEW $$$ & HAVE A FEW DRINKS
INTERESTED?
PLEASE SEND A
DEMO & BIO TO
|_SONaR
AKA THE TOWN PUMP
C/O AMP'd
#205-1039 RICHARDS
VANCOUVER, B.C.
V6B3E4
I D\SCO*5>eR Hum
■|^^ Velocetle Recording Artists M M
Beulab
IHEIlHf^^^;^w^^ i!i«J:Hii
T
m
i:n.'ij:i:ij mi
I INDIGO
MI HUB GIRLS
hUTh fTAIN CIMrTh nr /'.KINTDnV ^^ I ™ ■■%#
H£ft| Ear,y Show'.!! Doors
Show 8:30pm Show E
S SOMETHING I
I CORPORATE &
FO&MK LEAD SIN^EIr OF CANDLEBOX
iifeU
vi
1 BAM13ITS
ILY THE GIEEN ROOM) ■ tickets also at zu
FAT POSSUM RECORDING ARTISTS
I FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7
doors 6:30pm all dgeS
fir thsrseems fee ver
zao • armor for sleep • beloved (us)
| FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7 ft SATURDAY
■ CROATIAN CULTURAL CI
TWO SHOWS!
&rfr
with guests eastmountainsouth
IS 8PM, SHOW 9PM • TICKETS ALSO AT ZULU & HIGHLIF
| MONDAY NOVEMBER 10 f
MILES
WITH SPECIAL GUEST »iB,L,„»
LEEROY STAGGER W
DOORS 9:00PM PLUS GUESTS f^ff
SHOW 10:00PM IMNEVrntAf P?1f'a
TICKETS AT ZULU, SCRATCH, nUllEIUUW LIFEDPiSNIRf
wmm
LIVE IN CONCERT
FtimilUIWTHESTAIBFWJMTIttHITHLM,
INCLUDING...
DIZE
UMMM
mmm
Spiritualized'
with special guests |
I Am^SS GrW Soledad Brothers
MIGHTY
TICKETS ALSO AT ZULU
'-Mm-
J QUEEN ELIZABETH THEAT8E |
I (FORMERLY THE 68EEHI
mm
I PURCHASE TICKETS fiQUGQQ AT ]
¥4rH(<miiF?f- -~ UOTT-~*w^ ,
| FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14 fc^
Blacfcl
MI5TRIC
"THE UNICORNS
[WLJ^WJPJSIJ
IMliliUiI
I COMMODORE BALLROOM I
nATliRDmiOVEMBER22|
HEHE]/
PLQTO #^ SffiFj
ujkh/pecQlguen/ 1|«L. |1 TQMRS \
Luke Vibert
Chri/ Clarh
n.e.d.
PJACEB
I COMMODORE BALLROOM I
rrchhel ynmnoRTH
I RICHARDS ON RICHARDS I
I«
SIMPLE
[Bill
ESSD
1 with very special guests <
| SATURDAY DECEMBER 131
IBHIQ
3Q&L I skSpI- i \w\wi\ UN I jjflii j
NOVEMBER 26 ^V3fM^
COMMODORE Gi;il^n<9f^,1„,
BALLROOM k.«oc* «v —
I tue unoopiiT Toun eooj rcnTURinG: '"'"S^S^^^^^ I ■ .^ (^ I |—)iK">\^"*N
IPLKPLinr. jwi3Km«I9 QSSgJg
j™. -Ipmsm ncDenbc-
S THE FULL EFTECT |«
rnam nuTumn
TDP5UE5
no moTiu WSm^^imfS^^i \MM
| COMMODORE BALLROOM F
Mffl
URCHASE TICKETS $08800 AT hob.com OR ticketmaster.ca ticUetmasxer604-280-4444/1 a small Introduction
The "In" Sound from Way Out.
My brother's in town this week,
and from England he brought
many things, most notably a
dry sense of humour and British
chocolate. But of all the sparkly things that have piqued my
interest, nothing has provided
as many laughs as the Lonely
Planet guide to Vancouver.
Really. It's quite bizarre to read
an outsider's perspective of a"
place you actually live in. The
music scene is described as
"diverse," and they get bonus
points for mentioning Jerk with
a Bomb. But they definitely
lose points for their one-line
review of CiTR: "Alternative
music from UBC—at least when
the announcers shut up long
enough to play something."
Meow!I But really, I don't wanna
take anything away from either
the author of the book or the
book itself—it's an impossible
task to squeeze a city with a
diverse population of 2.1 million
into 250 pages of informative
journalism.
Then I thought, "Hang
on—isn't that what we do?
Squeezing Vancouver's music
scene (and more) into 250
pages per year?" With some
dodgy maths, and disregarding advertisements, it just about
goes.* There's no mention of
yours truly (the magazine, not
me), but there is a disclaimer
at the beginning, which guards
that "things change, prices go
up and good places go bad."
With that in mind, and seeing
look real cool and shit and pose
like yer all bad boys). Contact
info is also a must. Check next
month's issue for more details.
You can also check out
the all-new website in the next
few weeks when it will slowly
emerge from months of inactive slumber like a fiery phoenix
from the rained-on embers of a
W-i .cu\ uiipo*>/t>fe fas/c to
3qveez^ <u city vv/f/1 a population c£ Z,) million niio 250 pages'
of m fcftn afivejoc<ma/»sm
that many of you. noticed the
lack of a Local Band Directory
this year, we here at DiSCORDER
have decided to move with the
times and bring you a service
that isn't set in stone and will
change with the changes as
and whgn they happen. The
all-new Local Band Directory
will now be hosted online, and
submissions will be taken forthwith. What we'll need from local
bands will be a brief bio, a roll
call of members and a really
nice picture (where you can all
burned-down house in the central interior. A whole new design
and lots more local news to
be updated weekly will be just
one of the treats awaiting you
at www.citr.ca/discorder. Give
us a bit of time, though; we're
quite lazy (but well-intentioned,
I can assure you). Trust me, it's
gonna be great—maybe we
can even make it into the next
Lonely Planet guide.
Mag In this box.
That time of the year is soon
to be upon us again. Yes, the
Christmas holiday end-of-year
polls season. Yes, that's right
people: woohoo! Now, I know
you're all shy (or is it just that you
don't care?) but in recent history, editing DiSCORDER has felt
a bit like being a Japanese soldier manning a deserted island
in the Pacific circa 1955. The
war's over and I'm the only one
who doesn't know. People, let's
have some bloody feedback. Fill
out the form on the inside back
cover and mail it back to us.
Look, here's the. address: Discfucking-order, #233-6138 SUB
Blvd., Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1.
Go postal, it's old school. And
therefore super cool and kinda
eccentric. You weirdo!
Let us know what you think,
let Vancouver know what you
think. Enforce your taste on a
whole city! It doesn't have to
be just Santa Claus and store
clerks from Zulu Records that
get to make lists at this time of
year. You too can feel special
and cool. Prizes will be given for
creative answers (if you count a
special mention in DiSCORDER
as a prize, that is).
Truth be told, if you're struggling for best-of-year picks you
could do worse than make your
choices from within the pages of
this issue, leading off with Devo
main man Mark Mothersbaugh's
art. That's right, between his
soundtrack work and the odd
reformation gig, the old nutter
finds time to make bizarre but
beautiful pieces of art, drawn
mainly on the back of postcards, if the interview we have
with him in the centre spread
is to be believed. Of course, it
could be a huge prank.
Two hotly awaited sophomore albums arrived this month
and we have interviews with
both bands responsible. The
Shins are putting smiles on faces
"for miles around with Chutes Too
Narrow, their stunning follow-up
to Oh. Inverted World. And^ with
The Lemon of Pink, the Books are
building on the critical ground-
swell they created with Thought
For Food. Elsewhere, you'll
find Peaches and Alexisonfire,
Canadian favourites whose
recent live shows may go down
in plenty of people's top-shows-
of-the-year lists, albeit both
for different reasons. The local
scene is held up in fine style
by The Red Light Sting and The
Stunts. The Stunts are veterans of
Shindig/ which reached its halfway point recently and shows
signs of continued success as
the competition progresses. You
can read the monthly roundup
on page eight. Speaking of
which—rdid anyone else see
Gangbang a few weeks back?
Was I just drunk or were they
really fucking good? Answers
on a postcard addressed to the
editor. •
(a Na/em±Te»- X003 bui^hit bv:
Ch^ta'mln
Do you know what Darby Crash,
Townes Van Zandt, Hitler and Ian
Curtis have in common? They all
have one testicle! And they're all
dead! If you were ever wondering, what the fuck happened to
Hitler, I'll tell you, he's dead. That
means he died.
doesn't have heart disease yet.
He made that Shaker record not
too long ago, but only because
his acting career had failed. He
was in Scrooged, I think, but I
don't know for sure because I
haven't seen it. I've seen Blown
for the Win, Moneyshot, and
David Yow vven* crctzy anctstutck
his dick in the Roasted Mnncin
f?ack of Lanri b ancfirfed to serve ft-
on ihe floor
David Yow isn't dead. I
mean, he doesn't sing anymore,
but he didn't croak or anything.
Last I heard, he moved to San
Francisco to tie-dye t-shirts.
Apparently, he was working as
a chef at Tru in Chicago, preparing caviar staircases and
fois gras, when he went crazy
and stuck his dick in the Roasted
Niman Rack of Lamb and tried to
serve it on the floor. The last time
he pulled out his dick in public
he got arrested. He didn't get
arrested this time. He just got
fired.
David Johansen isn't dead.
He's gotten kind of fat, but he
m
Just like ordering off the kids'
menu at IHOP, we only got room
(and money) for a short stack this
time 'round, but never fear, I will
impress nonetheless with some
decidedly witty discourse on
the three flapjacks on the table.
Getting things off to good
start we find a Jim Diamond in
the rough—the bass player of
The Dirtbombs—providing the
anchor for a two-song party platter recorded "raw" in a record
shop in Australia. First side delivers "Pray For Pills," which chugs
along nicely with a swell sing-along chorus about the need for
speed (the other kind, friend);
side two gets down with the
funky double drummer talents of
Pat Pantano and Ben Blackwell
on the track "My Love For You."
Don't want to assume these are
covers (their penchant for pay-
*fe
Busty Porndexter, and he's definitely in those videos. He wasn't
so bad. He makes funny noises,
but he was alright. I heard that
he's selling photocopiers now for
over a hundred grand a year.
Good for him.
Ari Up was an actor, too. She
did some hair product commercials in Jamaica, but for the most
part, she's been working in New
York, selling hot dogs at Shea
Stadium. I don't know what she
does in the off-season, although
I did see her playing chess with
Mike Piazza in Central Park last
Chavo Pederast actually
ing tribute is well documented),
as this only makes an ass of you
and me, and you and me mean
no disrespect to the Motor City
Babies. (Corduroy Records, 38
Advantage Rd. Highett Victoria
3190 Australia.) One thing I know
for sure is that I know a great
pop hook when I hear it and
Broadcast Oblivion have plenty in
stock on this,, their first seven-inch.
How can you deny a band that
boasts a former member of one
of my all-time favourite punk-pop
combos, Scared Of Chaka? Few
bands in my mind can take two
seemingly opposing styles and
make such beautiful noise that
it hurts sometimes just thinking
about it, but that's what SOC did
and guitarist Dave Hernandez
takes that ball and he damn
well runs with it, out of the park
and all the way home. On the
pair of tunes supplied here, "We
Burn Away" and "Her Arsenal"
eschew a little of the punk edge
of the past for more Superchunk-
styled song crafting, but with
enough bite to give it bounce,
and this comes by way of drummer Coady Willis' (ex-MCD)
knack for a good, sensibly-filled
beat and Andrew Church's (of
The Droo Church) rock-solid bottom end. A good place to start
lives right here in Vancouver. I'm
pretty sure that he works at a
suburban Christian bookstore
in the bookmark department.
I heard that he wears SST tank
tops underneath all of his mock
turtlenecks. He's still a punk. He's
so punk that he rebelled and
became a Canadian citizen. He
married a nice Canadian lady
and then he defected. He also
roams the Downtown Eastside on
Tuesday nights, feeding the hungry and passing out blankets. It's
hard to recognize him now, but I
know that he doesn't like to talk
about Black Flag. If you see him,
just buy your bookmark or take
your free crusty rolls and get the
hell out of there. He's a nice guy,
but for some reason he's embarrassed about his past.
The real mystery is what
happened to Dave Grohl.
Apparently, he's been singing
and playing guitar in some band
called the Jew Lighters for the
last few years. I've never heard
them. I don't understand why
he would play guitar instead of
the drums because he's such
a fantastic drummer. I guess
that means that he must be an
even better guitar player. The
Jew Lighters must be fucking
incredible. •
new vinyl
by bryce dunn
for a band that you will undoubtedly hear more from in the
future. (Burn Burn Burn Records,
4040 Woodland Park Ave. Suite
#4 Seattle WA USA 98103.)
With all the talk of pedigrees,
power pop pundits The FM
Knives could do some name-
dropping too, but they are sworn
to secrecy, especially when it
comes to The L'il Bunnies, one of
Sacramento, California's more
infamous outfits, yel methinRs
there's a connection. Until I
know for sure, I'll take solace
from these latest solid gold Jam-
inspired head boppers from a
label that knows hits when they
hear them. "Keith Levine" and
"Valentine" are sharp-dressed,
snappy punk songs that stick in
the throat like the syrup on them
hotcakes. (Dirtnap Records, P.O.
box 21249 Seattle WA USA 98111.)
Put a fork in me 'cuz I am done! •
Found strolling along the viaduct, one head-shaven, Fez-
wearing dancer and a crazed
juggler with hula-hoop, sporting
attached signs: LOOKING FOR
FUN. Who are these Freaks?
Nothing less than the Vancouver
Fun at Last
Vancouver only has seven years
to prepare for the Olympics.
This is a very, very short time to
begin reversing No Fun City's
deeply ingrained flakiness, massive entanglement of Puritan
bureaucracy, and social anality
reminiscent of the self-flagellating
Dark Ages. Getting mediaeval is
one thing—feasting, looting, fucking—but being mediaeval is not
what we had in mind.
Out from the bowels of
Warehouse Commerical, and
apparently in no official Art
Catchment Area (thus shunned
from SWARM and Commercial
Drive) bounds the Vancouver
Fun Brigade™. This anonymous,
roving collective of hivemind
Funsters is dragging Vancouver's
dull, grey palette into the wild-
ness of what Wednesday night
could be! I'd like to nominate
this crew for a grant of several
hundred thousand dollars to do
to this city what the NPA couldn't
get it up for: fuck the city, all night
long. And don't we deserve it.
"We were given the finger
by a guy at Robson and Thurlow.
Neither of us can figure out how
he could have found animosity in
two people obviously looking for
fun," says secret Funster Milkman.
Then: "The Sugar Refinery had
some pretentious art school
types out front who asked us why
were were doing what we were
doing, and would not take the
answer that we were just 'looking
for fun' as valid." Likewise, "the
people in Bin 149 were blind, the
Templeton was a letdown, and
the viaduct gave no response."
Luckily, Vancouver does have
its FunLovin'. The candy shop on
Granville "invited us in, fed us cotton candy as we hula'd, cranked
up the "Time Warp" on the stereo
while we all danced around,
juggled in the window and lip
synced. This is now a mandatory
stop on all Fun Brigade™ outings."
And, of course Dqvie St: "People
on the patio of the Fountainhead
bought us Shirley Temples, and
a guy from Missourri came by to
chat and ask what this was all
about. We were applauded by
the Pumpjack, but then two boys
with a sign reading 'Looking For
Fun' and hula hooping in front of
a gay pub is bound to be easy
fun making. A friend who works
there said when he got to his shift
the next day, there was still talk of
the fun brigade." Special mention goes to the Super Value on
Davie, which featured a woman
who laughed for an entire block
getting up to us, and once there
told us we were the pest thing
she's seen happen in Vancouver
in a long long long time."
Agreed. Alright, with all that
rain, with the Fall blues setting
in, now it's time for the NEWS!
We're a Big, Homeless Province
Now
It's good to see Vancouver & BC
finally acting like the Big Province
it is. Homeiessness, finally, is on
the rise, according to a GVR
steering committee on the matter. After years of Ontario's
stranglehold on the nation's
poor, BC is returning with a vengeance, opening its resources to
allow privatization of the sector.
The MCFD (Ministry of Children
and Family Development) is no
longer returning calls to the St.
James shelter of North Van & the
Downtown Eastside, in an effort
fo allow "equal opportunity bidding" on homeless advertising,
corpse transportation, and population control methods. "It's been
too long that non-profit, volunteer shelters using Government
hand-outs have kept BC's poor
off the streets," says a source
from the Premier's Office. "It's
time to open up the homeless to
the realities of the market, and
allow business and organised
crime to have a run at managing
our greatest resource, the unused
flesh of the province."
DiSCORDER Not a Newspaper,
But a Fruitstand
Following failed attempts by
the BC Liberals to silence The
Georgia Straight for not being a
"newspaper," but, according to
legal experts, a "Yuppie Onshore
Bakery," and potentially opening the Straight's Hippie Drug
Investments to billions of dollars
in back-taxes, the Province's
Financial Ministery is now eyeing
DiSCORDER's unpaid pyramid
scheme. "We've learned that
DiSCORDER has never made
a single red cent," says a
close source to Officials. "They
the sound of spectacle
by tobias v
don't even cheat or steal—the
protocols we stand by!" The
Source exhorted, adding that
"If something isn't grubbing
money, then it's a detriment
to the Province, and certainly
not a newspaper!" Asking what
DiSCORDER was, or is, or happens
to be on weekends, the Official
replied: "Probably a fruitstand."
In any case, one out of eight
staff at Panarticon agree—the
Straight is a lump of trees used
for advertising has-been bands
& aging Latte Radicalism masquerading as cheese-dip. But
it's still tasty cheese, and we here
at Panarticon add our name
to the Supporters, at least if it
means the Straight will revitalise
its crony attempts at "being hip"
after realising its racket could be
called off-side. It could start by
buying-out an apple or two from
DiSCORDER's fruitstand.
Rain, More Rain
The entire . community of
Abbotsford, now under a metre
of water, was rumoured to be
building a giant "ark" dnd waiting for "The Sign."
But Really...Halloween and
Electricffy
Hopefully a few of you bit the
bullet and dressed up as Osama
or Hussein for the Festival of
Evil—and the always mad
Parade of Lost Souls, organised
by the Public Dreams Society
<publicdreams.org>. Me, I went as
a "Found" WMD. And I also pray
that a few of you checked out
Vancouver New Music Society's
Electricity <newmusic.org>. Hats
off to Artistic Director Giorgio
Magnanensi, who has done
more than his share to revitalise
the connections between the
avant-composers and today's
laptricians.... Now if only the
Vancouver club scene would
stop acting' like a small-town
mafia.
Biting Till I Can't Stop.... •
7 I>iSc©<3>efc peri'ormance/art/i'ila
by penelope mulligan
Shoot Horses, Don't They? which
is a seven-piece band with a
horn section. With all the people
it was like a party on stage. Their
set was crazy, catchy, dance-
able and endearing all at the
same time. The voting was as
close as it could get, but They
Shoot Horse, Don't They? was
picked to be nightly winner.
If you read my little article last
change, Paulisdead was ready
to play and they did not disappoint. Instrumental^ fabulous
with their discordant guitars
and aggressive drums, they had
three different vocalists which
added to the diversity of the
set. Leah Abramson came on
shortly after Paulisdead. Very
confident on stage, Leah used
her beautiful voice, and guitar
SHiNDiG 2003 Night By Night
Summaries
By Ben Lai
We are more than half-way into
SHiNDiG 2003 now and it has
been a sweet ride. Jokes For Beer
has been disastrous for the most
part, but the music has been
good which more than made up
for all the lousy dead baby jokes
I have to endure each night.
On September 30, three
completely different bands took
to therFaSe at the Railway Club.
First up was The Wreckers. They
delivered a set of fun pop rock
tunes enjoyed by all. A few of
their more humourous songs,
such as "18-Year-Old-Girlfriend"
and "Amber Lynn," got" quite a
few people smiling with approval.
Next up on stage was The Parlour
Steps. Featuring well-layered
instrumentais and great harmonies, The Parlour Steps impressed
many with their solid stage performance and musicianship. Even
after their guitarist broke two
strings near the end of their set,
the band didn't seem to miss a
beat. Shitfaced ended the night
with a high energy and impressively entertaining metal set.
The singer progressively stripped
more and more of his clothing 3M»V<I OBO MyQ&fb QTldS Wfth nOftr1€S#tqf (V€
as the night went on, and by
the end he was only wearing his
boxers. Their songs all seemed
to have a certain amount of
shock value and the crowd
reacted most to a catchy little
ditty called "Shave Your Pussy." It
was an interesting night for sure,
but eventually it was decided
that The Parlour Steps would
advance to the next round.
The next night of SHiNDiG was
October 7. A Common Mistake
played first and impressed the
audience with their soft melodic
songs. For a set that is so mellow and dark, their songs were
actually very catchy and accessible. Explaining Colours to the
Blind followed, and they are a
perfect emo band. They were
tight, the instrumentation was
intricate and interesting, and
the singing was first-rate. The
last band of the night was They
ltey$hootHots&>Po*i*i7hey2 Yes, ancHfiey
ftfc *><*<& An d/es, we ft?ow rfs born qjilm \
month, you'd recall thaf I promised drama and excitement at
October's SHiNDiG. Well, drama
and excitement was what we
got on October 14. The three
acts that night were New Year's
Resolution, Leah Abramson
and Paulisdead. New Years
Resolution, who was slotted to
play first, broke their keyboard
just before their "set. After all their
repairing efforts failed they had
to phone someone to bring in a
backup keyboard. Unfortunately
this backup wouldn't show for
an hour and they were scheduled to play in minutes. What
to do? Luckily, Paulisdead was
nice enough to agree to switch
their limeslots with New Year's
Resolution. After a quick stage
sad. Bvt JL m osdsfy&sl1)
(she was accompanied by an
accordion player on few of the
songs) to her advantage. Except
for the applause, the entire club
was mesmerized and stayed
silent during her lovely set. Now
with a backup keyboard that
sounded and looked completely
different than before. New Year's
Resolution was the last band to
play. Their combination of heavy
drums, powerful guitars and
intricate keyboards made for an
amazing set. As serious as some
of their songs were, there were
a couple that showed off their
sense of humour too, especially a
song about Ricky Schroder which
got more than a few people
chuckling. The judging literally came down to the last vote,
and New Year's Resolution was
declared the winner at the end.
That's it for this month's edition of SHiNDiG summaries. Come
check us out in November tors,
more fun and excitement. On
November 4 the singer/songwriter
stylings of Sarah Wheeler will
battle against fhe cool tunes
of Flippin' Jiggers and the mellow sweet sounds of Spark That
Screams. And it gets even more
intense when the semi-finals
begin on November 11. See
you all at the Railway Clubl •
SHINDIG ft held every Tuesday
night at Tine Railway Club until
December 2. For mora /nforma-
Non please visit
http:llshindig.citr.ca.
SEAMLINE: An Invocation of
Energy Through Tattoo
Wednesday, October 15
Hastings Art Gallery
If performance art can be
described as the transformation
of an action into art through
performance, then Julianna
Barabas is pulling it off in a most
elegant and ingenuous way.
She is undertaking, in twelve
monthly sessions, to mark her
body with a tattoo which will
bisect it into front and back.
This "seamline" began at her
left shoulder, travelled down her
arm, up the inside to the armpit,
down her torso and leg, under
her foot...you get the picture.
The circuit will be complete
when the line has traversed the
top of her head. The installment
I witnessed (#6) was called The
Bridge, because it was the one in
which the seam crossed from one
side of her body to the other via a
tapeworm-like spiral design over
her pubic bone.
The cosy storefront gallery
where it took place was an island
of light and warmth in the rainy
Strathcona night and attendees were welcomed like guests
who'd popped 'round for dinner.
Undercutting the casual ambience like a sinister reminder of
why we had come, was a white-
sheeted tatjtoeisPs couch in the
cenfre of the room. Barabas'
cfieerful. trepidation was obviously genuine—she had already
endured five sessions of this on
some excruciatingly tender parts
of her body—and she responded
honestly to the ensuing pain, neither performing it, nor attempting
to stare it down. (At one point,
she commented that we ought to
have as many different words for
pain's nuances as Eskimos do
for snow.) Inviting friends and
strangers to watch seemed less
like a desire to perform than to
deepen her own psychological
engagement.
In many ways, the event had
the atmosphere of a home birth—
right down to the snacks and
libations, supportive presence of
mates, photo documentation,
tattoo artist-as-midwife and, of
course, the spread eagled principal player whose "caretaker"
coached and comforted her
throughout the process. In fact,
the most formal element was
Gretchen Eisler's live accompaniment on viola. A lightheaded
and humourous beginning with
Beethoven's Ode to Joy soon
gave way to more lugubrious
bowing and squeaking which
battJed with the relentless buzzing of the tattoo gun. It was an
interesting sonic effect, but didn't
feel terribly connected with what
was happening on the couch.
Body modification is no
stranger to performance art,
but whereas it's often self-
administered, confrontational
and statement-driven (as in the
work of Yugoslavia's Marina
Abrimovic), it's the goal in itself
for Barabas. Complex and
deeply personal as her need for
the tattoo might be, she would
only say that "conceptually, the
line has always been there. It was
just a matter of making it visible."
In this sense, seamline is more
akin to the'decade-longkpfastic
surgery project of French artist
Orlan. Though enormously more
radical (and "performed" only on
film), Ortan's undertaking was, in
essence, very goal-directed and
also involved a practitioner (in
this case, surgeon-as-arHst).
For an audience, seamline .
can fascinate, intrigue and even
repel, but its most enduring value
might be as metaphor—our goals
and desires can demand much
of us as we try to realize them.
The seam lengthens at 8pm
on November 19 (478 Union
Street) as part of LIVE Biennial of
Performance Art. .
THE PLUGHOLE
What happens in a world where
everything has become corn-
modified, including human interaction? One possible answer lies
in the title of a play which opens
here later this month. Shopping
and Fucking has been a massive
hit in Europe, New York and playwright Mark Ravenhill's native UK,
where it premiered back in 1996.
Interestingly enough, it's also
been huge in Russia, where western-style capitalism charged in a
few seconds after the collapse of.
the Soviet empire.
Pi Theatre's Del Surjik, who
co-directs the piece with Diane
Brown of Ruby Slippers, knows
that Vancouver's theatre scene
can be isolated and stresses the
importance of producing works
that have been rocking audiences elsewhere on the planet.
Tracking three Londoners as they
look for a home and family in a
world made vacuous and abrasive by consumerism, the play
has been called "witty, shocking,
poetic" and "the vanguard of
the New British Theatre."
This production also has some
genre-bending innovations. DJ
Jason White—aka Honey Bee—
will mix the music and soundscape live, while David Roberts'
set design is so hot that Brown
and Surjik went stumm when
asked about it ("It's a secret.
It's never been done before").
Brown did want you to know,
however, that we can drink in our
seats and lig around afterwards.
All told, it sounds like this one has
a lot more going for it than just a
catchy name. •
Runs November 21 -December t
at Performace Works on Granville
Island. Tkfs and Info: 604,257-
0366.
8 Novewjteer 3sx>* 1
H t>vsc,o<Deif2. >mmm
The Shins' lead singer James Mercer's answering machine says: "This
is James. I'm not at home today, [adopting a whispered tone] I'm
right behind you." When I finally get to talk to a real person it's Marty
Crandell, The Shins keyboard/bass/guitar player, who informs me that,
"He was supposed to be back by now. We were supposed to have a
practice. He called us. He said he was in some kind of garden." Some
kind of garden? Sounds relaxing. And really, who would begrudge
him the chance to relax? James Mercer is an accidentally busy man
these days. The release of Oh, Inverted World blew the lid off this tiny
band outta Albuquerque and the whole world looked in. Turning them
from bedroom recording project to slow-burning bona fide mega-success, the world embraced this four-piece's contemporary take on '60s
West Coast psychedelia and Beatles-esque pop.
Last month saw the release of their second disc, Chutes Too Narrow,
an album that will surely only intensify their acclaim. So when I finally
reach him, James Mercer tells me of the countless interviews, the pressure of making The Shin's sophomore album, and all about a brief stint
shilling for the one of the biggest corporations on the planet.
DiSCORDER: Hello, we're meant to do an interview.
James. Mercer Oh my God, I'm so sorry. God, I had two written down
for today. Man, I've been doing four or five a day. I don't know what
Sub Pop is trying to dp to me. I'm sorry I screwed that up.
It's okay. So how's it going?
Good. We just got done practicing. We're doing CMJ this year.
I know this must be boring for you, but could you give me a brief explanation of how The Shins started? I know you were in a band called
Flake.
Yeah, l was in a band called Flake and we were doing punk-pop
Pavement-type of stuff for a long time. It was a real collaborative
effort as far as songwriting goes, but I started a bedroom recording
side-project that I called The Shins.
Where did you get the name from?
It comes from this musical. The Music Man. The main family in town
is the Shins. And so there are scenes where people are like, "Are
the Shins home? Are the Shins here?" Stuff like that. I don't know, it
sounded kinda weird to me, a bit strange and cool.
So The Shins came Into being from a bedroom recording project?
Yeah, exactly. Flake ended up breaking up in 1999 and I just kept
the Shins going. We just started recording ourselves and stuff and we
ended up putting together some pretty good songs. We gave a few
of them to a buddy of ours who was in a Sub Pop band at the time
called Love is Laughter. And he gave them over to Jonathan Pone-
man and Jonathan really liked them and signed us.
Which songs were on that CD?
io tiovejnaiper 2/0&
I think it was "One by One All Day" and "New Slang" and "When I
Goose-Step."
I always assumed Isaac Brock [Lead singer of Modest Mouse] had
something to do with getting you signed to Sub Pop.
Well, Isaac did try to make Sub Pop aware of us at one point but he
never actually gave them any music.
He seems to be acting as an A&R man for them these days.
He is. He's actually getting paid by them.
Moving on, I wanted to talk a bit about the Oh. Inverted World album
and the success you had with that.
Yeah, it was kinda crazy. ¥0W$$i
I'm trying to remember the first time I saw you, and l.think it was on
Amazon.com where it says, "If you like this, then you'll love The Shins'
Oh, Inverted World."
Right, yeah.
I wondered if you were the first band that ever got big because of
Amazon.com?
[Laughs] I don't know. Yeah, Amazon has been wonderful for us
because of that type of thing. I mean, shit, kids go to buy The Strokes
and the first thing it says is "If you like this, you should buy The Shins." I
mean, god, they probably sold a hundred thousand at least, just on
Amazon.
It always seemed really cool to me that although you guys have
shifted a lot of records, you haven't had the same amount of media
scrutiny as other big successful bands.
Sure, yeah.
You must be pretty happy about that?
Oh yeah, definitely. The press is pretty nice to us at this point.
You don't have people following you down the street?
No, no, no.
And you didn't really have to tour the album very much.
We actually toured the album quite a bit. For the first record we
toured once every three months and we'd be gone for a whole
month. So that's a quarter of the whole year.
It just seems like other bands are forced to be on the road for like two
to three years if they get a hit record as big as yours.
Yeah, we never did that. We weren't really extreme about touring. I'd
go crazy if we did that.
Which leads me to the next question, i read a lot about you and in
interviews and songs you seem to present yourself as a bit of a home
body, would you say that is correct?
[Laughs] Yeah, a little bit.
You don't enjoy going out?
I do sometimes, but...! don't know...! just end up sticking around the
house for some reason. I'm not a good party guy or something.
And you even recorded the album Chutes Too Narrow in your house?
Yeah, we did.
Can you tell us a bit about the recording?
Yeah. I used to record on a Four Track—real cheap, cheap stuff. And
I ended up buying a cheap computer—a Hewlett Packard Pavillion.
I bought a used soundcard fori! for two hundred bucks. And that's
what the majority of the stuff on the first record was recorded on.
So you were mostly your own producer?
Yeah, I produced if entirely. I think we credited it as produced by
James Mercer and the Shins.
The best thing about Oh, Inverted World is the sound. It's got such
an original and cohesive sound, the echo and the warmth. Was that
something you just stumbled upon or did you go for that intentionally?
I think it's just that I sat there for a long-time working the EQ and stuff
that was in this program. Cool Edit Pro. I got a book that gave you the
basics of EQing.
So you taught yourself how to produce?
Yeah. I think that the new record is a sonic improvement on the last
one. I think you're right that we did get a nice aesthetic out of these
effects and stuff.
Were you under a lot of pressure to follow it up? To avoid the "Sophomore Slump"?
Yeah, I definitely felt pressure, but you always feel pressure when
you're working on recording or working on writing. You just don' t wanna let people down. But you know, when you're actually sitting there
writing the.songs you don't really think about stuff like that, you're just
sitting in your room alone. There's nobody watching you. [Laughs.]
I just wondered if you had a moment of doubt where you were like,
"Shit, these songs aren't gonna cut it, what am I gonna do?"
Yeah, well, definitely. There was actually a moment in the studio
where I ended up abandoning one of the songs we had brought in
to record, because I just didn't like the way it was turning out. It was
largely because of that. I was like, "We can't do this. This song sucks
now." So we dropped it and I wrote "Young Pilgrims" to fill its place.
Did you have any problems with people trying to steal stuff, and putting them online? I know Radiohead claim that someone broke into
their studio and burned a CD and put them online before they'd even M
mm ****- _,«*,
'Ui££
m
finished them.
Oh man, that would suck. I recently was burglarized and they took all
my computers, even my back-up hard drive. All the original files for
both records are gone.
Oh, that's shit. So what do you do now?
Fuck it. [Laughs] Yeah, it sucks, but whatever. At least the projects
were done, it wasn't like I was halfway through them and then somebody stole them
So how do you actually feel about downloading?
I think we've been helped by that sort of thing. When we first started
burning CDs and selling them on tour and stuff, it didn't take long until
they spread all over Napster. It was like free advertising—we didn't
even have a contract or anything to sell. So that really helped us
hugely. I guess I don't think too much about the money aspect of it.
The lyric that really stick out for me on Chutes Too Narrow is "Have I
left my home just to whine in this microphone?"
Yeah. [Laughs]
Is that how you really feel?
Yeah, like, "What the fuck. What am I doing?!" There was one time
when I remember almost having a panic attack when we were first
getting signed. I was like, "What in the hell is going to happen here?
I'm not a musician! This is ridiculous. What is Sub Pop thinking? They
can't possibly put this much trust in me." I was a mess.
I don't think you should be so hard on yourself.
Well, you know, I guess it's just when you're living in Albuquerque
you've never really done much musically and stuff. You're just like,
"Oh God, what's gonna happen? They are gonna be so disappointed, somehow." I don't know. It was just silly.
And now to the question that everyone must be asking you right now.
My girlfriend and I were absolutely addicted to America's Next Top
Model [super cheesy reality show currently enjoying a re-run season
on the Life Network].
[Laughs] Oh yeah.
And one of the contestants was Marty's [Crandeli, the aformentioned
keyboard/bass player/guitarist] girlfriend, is that right?
Yeah, that's right. Elyse. Yeah, she's rad.
And she was wearing Shins t-shirts and Marty even appeared in one
episode.
You saw that one?
I saw them all. i was completely addicted.
Oh, that's cool. Wonderful. Elsye is doing really well. She's in Milan
right now.
^K,
So she was successful even though she didn't win?
It's huge: she's fucking everywhere. She's really busy.
The show basically became a cheesy obsession among my friends.
Marty got to go on the show; that was pretty a
Did you guys get a lot of publicity from the show? Do you think it won
you any new fans?
No, I don't think so. [Laughs] No, it was just kind of an interesting little
fluke.
How did she get on that show?
Marty and her, they do lots of wacky shit like that. They used to dress
up in pink sweat pants and put fanny packs on and go down to this
really stupid meat-market bar called Banana Joe's in Albuquerque.
They'd get into the place and then dance all weird and just laugh.
They are just ridiculous. Marty's a hilarious clown.
In "New Slang," there is obviously the line, "New Slang when you notice the stripes/The dirt in your fries." But didn't you then sell that song
to McDonald's?
[Gives a really mischievous laugh] Yeah, it was pretty much when
we first got signed. Sub Pop called us one day when we were out on
tour and said, "Uh well, we've got this company that wants to use
the intra to 'New Slang' for a commercial." I was immediately kinda
excited, like, "Oh cool, this is great." But then Sub Pop told us, "It's for
McDonald's." And we were like, "Oh Shit!"
They said they'd pay us a certain number and we doubled it and
added half again, and we decided to do it. We didn't even have an
audience at that time. I think now we wouldn't do something like that.
I don't regret doing it, but right now we're kinda doing well, so we
have a different attitude toward our songs—we feel Hke they're kinda
valuable. —
I was amazed that they chose the song that contains the line about
there being "dirt in your fries."
I know, I thought that was pretty funny too. And the commercial is actually about french fries, too. Not just McDonald's—it's actually about
french fries. The funny thing is that it aired for about a week and then
disappeared. I don't think it worked for them. I think they wasted their
money.
Finally, when will you be coming to Vancouver?
I think we'll be coming to Vancouver in the spring.
So there you go. Hopefully The Shins will bring with them the first blossoms of spring, but until then you have the lovely new album. Chutes
Too Narrow, to keep you warm. Buy it now and cuddle up—it's gonna
be a long winter, but we don't mind.
IvMiiT^
IV V>vSGoG.0*5£
M? m ill!! m ,M mm"
Ian Gormely's on the wrong side of the tracks with The Red Light Sting
The Red Light Sting are one of Vancouver's greatest musical assets.
Much like The Beatles did in the early sixties, the group has been able
to absorb the sounds of today's underground and convert them
into a unique style. Beyond their music, band members Andy and
Zoe run Ache Records whose catalog boasts releases from Hot Hot
Heat, Death From Above and Radio Berlin, just to name a few. I had
the privilege to talk to all five band members (vocalist Greg, guitarist
Andy, keyboardist Zoe, bassist Jeff and drummer Paul) after their show
at North Vancouver's Seylynn Hall.
DiSCORDER: So I guess we'll start at the beginning. How did you guys
all hook up and form the Red Light Sting?
Greg: Well, the three of us were in a band
Zoe: He's not going to know who you're talking about.
Greg: Oh, okay. [Laughs.] Andy, Zoe and I were in a band called
Hooray for Everything, and our original bassist Matt was in a band with
me called The Self Esteem Project, we had the same drummer in both
of those bands, but then he moved to Saskatoon so that kind of broke
up both of the bands I was in, so I was kinda angry and writing kinda
angry songs. Then I wanted to work with this guy again... this guy
being Andy. And then this guy, Paul, was in d.b.s. with Andy and then
Andy showed him some stuff that we were working on and he was
like, "I want in on that." Then we needed a keyboard player cause
I was originally going to play keyboards, but then we realized that I
couldn't play keyboards and then we figured out Zoe could. So Zoe
played keyboards.
Andy: And somewhere along the way we picked up this jerk... Jeff.
[Laughs.]
Jeff: They asked me to join about a year ago through a bunch of
confusing emails.
Greg: It seems like so much longer. - qlsjigjg
Andy: How long ago was that?
Jeff: It's a year.
Most of you guys are in other bands or doing your own thing. What
was it about The Red Light Sting that made it the priority?
Andy: I don't think it was a decision anywhere along the way, it just
sort of happened, d.b.s. and The Red Light Sting overlapped a little
bit. Me and Paul were in both for a few months I guess and then d.b.s.
broke up, so pretty much all my time and energy went into The Red
Light Sting. And from there I've had side projects. But my side projects
don't really involve practicing or playing the guitar in any way so it's
an entirely different thing.
Do you find it difficult to write in a band with so many creative people?
Andy: No. That's what makes it easy. We don't even have to do
anything. We just turn on our amps....
Greg: ...and the songs write themselves. I haven't heard it before...is
this a cover song?
Andy: Paul juslcttcks, he counts in and we just start playing something
and it always works out well.
Where do you come up with your ideas for the lyrics? They've always
struck me as being like an excerpt from a book.
Greg: They're actually directly taken from books. [Laughs.]
Andy: Almost all of them are from Stephen King.
Greg: That's fucking weird, I was going to say "Stephen King's It."
[More Laughs.]
Andy: Wicked dude!
Greg: But no, anyways...what were we talking about?
Zoe: Where you come up with your lyrics.
Greg: They're just there for the most part. We'll bring in the song and
I'll have a couple of ideas for what I want to talk about. I'll focus on
one area at first and just kind of repeat that over and over. And then
I'll establish the theme kind of and then just base it around that. That's
a pretty boring answer. [Laughs.]
I've noticed on your website you have links to a bunch of other bands'
sites and almost all of them have managed to become sort of buzz
bands recently. You guys obviously have good taste in music.
Andy: Well, most of those bands are our friends. We don't put links up
for just any band. Yeah, it is weird that most of our friends' bands got
popular and we didn't. [Laughs.]
Greg: I wonder why?
Zoe: We don't like to just put links to anyone. We try to keep it small,
to just the stuff we respect or our friends...and we also respect what
they do.
Andy: I don't respect any of my friends actually...especially these
guys.
Has it been kind of weird with Hot Hot Heat's success recently?
Andy: It's not really weird...it's kind of interesting.
Greg: It hasn't really affected us, I don't think.
Zoe: We're happy for them. They worked really hardk
Andy: It doesn't really affect us in any way, it's just an interesting thing
to happen I guess.
You guys are working on a new record right?
Andy: Yeah, it's done.
Zoe: Done recording.
Andy: Yeah, we're just working on the artwork and stuff like that.
Why have you waited so long to put out a full-length LP?
Greg: We write really slowly.
Zoe: We didn't want to. Initially we just wanted ta do EPs.
Andy: We thought the kind of music we play didn't work after forty
minutes. That's why we only play for fifteen minutes.
Greg: We just figured it would be too annoying.
Andy: But I think that we've done pretty good with this one because
we kind of switched it up a little bit. I don't think it gets boring...and it's
still pretty short. How long is it?
Greg: Thirty minutes.
Zoe: Ten songs.
All of the Ache Bands have very distinctive album art. Where do you
come up with the ideas?
Andy: Well, The Red Light Sting stuff we all design together. We all sit
around and come up with an image or one of us brings in an image.
Greg brought in the psycho image for the cover of the split and I
brought in the photo of the mannequin for the next one.
Greg: The third one [Our Love is Soaking in It] was like a still from a
movie that the guy that runs Sound Virus did. It's just like this scene of
his grandma smoking so we all thought that looked pretty cool.
Andy: We hired a design team from London to do the album art for
our full-length.
Pulling out all the stops for this one?
Andy: Yeah. No holds barred. We also got Paul McCartney to play a
song on this one. [Laughs.]
What?
Greg: He plays three tambourines...all at the same time.
Andy: You might ca!l him the tambourine man!
Where did the idea for Ache records come from?
Zoe: Hot Hot Heat was playing around and we really liked what they
were doing but they only had a demo, and Andy had just gotten a
new job where he had extra money and thought, "Hey, maybe I'll
start a record label," because nobody was putting out their records.
So he did that, but then he needed some help, so I ended up putting
in some money and helping. We did the Hot Hot Heat record and
then The Red Light Sting was starting out, so we did the split. Now it's a
lot more like a business.
Andy: Originally, we didn't know where we were going with it. It was
like, "Hey maybe we'll do a split with Hot Hot Heat, that'd be cool,"
and then d.b.s. broke up and I was like, "Oh we'll release the last
songs that we recorded." Then suddenly we were like a real label.
Zoe: Now it's really busy. We both have day jobs, but it takes up the
rest of our spare time when we're not practicing.
You've got the Divorce series coming out now too?
Zoe: Yeah, that's coming up, as well as the Kid Commando full-length,
Femme Fatale full-length. Secret Mommy LP and Piers Whyte EP, so
we're really busy.
Finally, how would you describe The Red Light Sting's sound?
Greg: Awesome. JK1I31I
Zoe: We are like totally awesome.
Andy: I would call it incredible.
Greg: Are you going to elaborate on that?
Zoe: Sebastien from Death from Above told me that our new record
was very eclectic and thinks that it should be filed under world music.
So I hope that's a good definition.
Greg: Awesome, eclectic world music...The Red Light Sting.
Somewhere between Maxi Priest and Megadeath. •
X Nicveinriber-- Zoo3 the mmu
Peaches tells Suzy Webb where to stuff it
What's left to say about Peaches? By now you all know what she
sounds like (electro/hip hop/glam rock) and what she looks fike
(hotpants, hot body, mullet, neon spandex). You know all about the
new album, Fatherfucker. that has been refused for sale by Wat-Marts
all over America. You have read reviewer after reviewer-earnestly
declare that Peaches' music is genuinely original and transgressive,
and will endure beyond such fads as Electroclash. You may or may
not believe this. However, you probably don't have the inside scoop
about the crazy behind-the-scenes world of Peaches' stagecraft,
which has evolved dramatically since the early days when she would
merely plug her portable CD player into the PA system. That is why
you should read this interview, conducted with a tired and taciturn
Peaches over the phone from Montreal.
How are you?
Good. Are you writing this for a magazine or what? W$$Sili£&
Wow, we're so famous.... So what are the questions you really hate
answering and are sick of being asked?
It's not really a question of what I don't like people asking. It's just a
question of getting a little conversation going, and I'm sure you'll get
all your information.
I was actually just asking out of curiosity....
I think it's ridiculous when people ask me why I'm so shocking, because I'm not. I'm just relaying what everybody does and what I do
directly, and I don't see what the big problem is. I just find it funny that
people find "fatherfucker" more offensive than "motherfucker."
I totally agree, our language is so biased against women.
And men too! I just want to make it even, so we use all kinds of words;
so we can express everything about ourselves^ There shouldn't be
just one way of saying things. So instead of just-saying "bitch" about
something negative, it can be both ways.
I see you not as shocking, but confident, and expressing a lot of things
that myself and my friends feel quite deepiy^So how do you think you
got to the point where you felt safe and ready to express things that so
many other people still find shocking?
I think it was just seeing so much music television that was so manipulative. The images were completely hyper-sexualized, but the music
didn't relate to it. I was also really into hip hop music but realizing that
in hip hop and rock and roll for the last 50 years, I've been singing
along with lyrics like "Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my
leg," or "Big-legged woman ain't got no soul," or "Back that ass up,-"
"Baby's got back".... I want straight guys to sing along with what I'm
saying. It just seems like women don't have a problem with it. I'm not
so much trying to put a focus on women as a focus on men. Straight
guys, come out! Shake"your dicks! Back it up, that's where your g-spot
is, stop telling us to back it up.
Yeah, totally. H mmm... [thinking about fucking-boyfriend's ass]. So
what do you do if you have a day off, and you don't have anything
else to do, life play a show, or write any music, or do any stupid interviews. What would you do?
Um...depends what's around me. If my boyfriend's there, I'll probably
stay in bed with him. Smoke pot, whatever.
Living in Germany, what's your viewpoint of Canada now? Are you
just happy to be gone, or do you look back with fondness?
I don't think I'll ever come back. But it is fun to visit. I don't have a
problem with it.
Where in Canada were you born?
Toronto, North York.
How did you learn to speak German?
I didn't yet. I've been on the road for three years. | know some...I
definitely understand it...but my grammar's horrible.
I saw your show on June 16 and 17, when you were opening for Bjork.
I ready enjoyed your performance, but the crowd seemed pretty
tough to win over. What was the experience like for you?
You get to see what a larger mainstreamaudience is like, where
their heads are at. Because they don't know anything about me,
they're waiting for their Bjork [sarcastically]. Bjork's power is that she
can make her audience quiet for 90 minutes, whereas mine is making
them go crazy, whether they're angry about seeing me up on stage,
or they love it, whatever. I had 10,000 people go "Oooh!" [Peaches
gasps, mimicking shocked intake of breath] when I said, "Shake your
dicks." It was great, it was amazing. I'm going to tour with Marilyn
Manson for a month, and I'm sure they're going to human sacrifice
me.
No, I bet they'll really like you.
Maybe I'll get him to human sacrifice me. He'd be like. "Oh, OK, so
that's part of it...."
No, I bet they'd really like you a lot. Hopefully they'll have some idea,
because I think what you do is something no one-else really does,
so people are surprised. I remember when I first saw you I was like,
"Oh my god, she's so amazing," but maybe I was coming at it from
a more, I don't know, slutty viewpoint than some people. [Peaches
laughs]. What is the craziest thing that's ever happened at a Peaches
show?
Well, Philadelphia was pretty crazy. I was playing at the Trocadero.
The first thing was, I got to climb up along the rail of the balcony, and
get on the DJ booth, which was like 30 feet up, and then climb back
on to the stage. And that was good, because all the underage kids
were up there, so they got to get a good close look at me and I got
a good close look at them. And then this girl came onstage and say,
"So you want to stuff me up, I've got something for you to stuff up!"
And she pulls up her skirt, and I had a towel around my neck, so I put
my head under the towel, pretending to eat her out. But then it turns
out she had no underwear on, so I ended up singing "Stuff Me Up"
to her pussy under the towel. Yeah, it was hot. Oh, can you hold on?
[Peaches proceeds to give directions to her roadies.] Yeah, just put
that over there, so it'll look like smoke. Maybe just a little forward. I
thought it was supposed to stay there until the monitors go up. What?
No, that's the one that closes and opens. Cool, can we start the show
with the curtains closed? Can you, move that one over there? No. I
wanted it with the other one. Alright, hi?
What's your favourite song on the new album?
My favourite song right now is "Tombstone," because its like a rockabilly electro song. What's your favourite song?
I really like "I U She." It's just so...slutty.
That one's for the straight guys to sing along. You know, where it goes,
"I / You / He / Together...." So it doesn't always have to be two girls
and a guy. I'm offering alternatives!
That's a good way to put it. Well, I think I'm going to let you go now...
[She squeals in delight] Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
3 ;. •.-^-of.pefc lilit
n
$■/.'•
I
TOO
by Patrick Finley
183 nVL
In the middle of Gastown, mixed with overflow from East Hastings,
are The Unicorns: three boys with tears in their eyes, decked out in
pink and waiting to play rock. On stage, Aiden Ginger (keyboardist/
guitarist/singer) screams uncontrollably when the lights go off and
then on again. Drummer Jaime Thompson plays on while Aiden and
Nicholas Diamond (guitarist/singer) playfight for keeps. This is sincere
emotional rock, full of turmoil and romantic falling-outs: the essence
of "puberty pop."
DiSCORDER interviews Nick, while Aiden walks with an old friend,
and Jaime goes AWOL.
DiSCORDER: Do you think love can save the world?
Jaime: Save the world from what?
Nick: No...probably nobody's ever going to...[Looks up]...nobody's
ever going to love us...wait, can I rephrase that sentence? I wanna
make it sound better.
Jaime: Yeah', you just work on something, you're the writer here.
[Laughs]
You guys recently moved out to Montreal?
Jaime: No, a long time ago actually. I lived in Montreal for three years
before moving out onto the road.
Nick: I've been going to school in Montreal since 1999.
Were you making music before that move?
Nick: Myself and Aiden started making music about 2000 and he lived
in Campbell River, and we played when I came back on holidays.
I would come back in the summertime and at Christmas and we
started this thing called The Unicorns, and it was just the two of us
with a keyboard drum machine and two guitars and it just grew from
there. We bought some nice gear and eventually he moved to Montreal in March 2003 and we started playing some shows. Then we got
Jaime to join and became a three-piece, one big puzzle and now we
are the best band ever.
Jaime: Apparently we're better than The Beatles.
Nick: And Jesus.
Jaime: Well they're better than Jesus, and we're better than them.
So, how does your personal geography affect your music?
Nick: I was sending Aiden stuff I was working on, and he was sending
me stuff he was working on and we'd piece it together like that. Then
I would go back, and we'd be face to face and bring it home...yeah,
it was cool; flanked by the Rockies, we survived.
[Jaime leaves.]
Do you use production as a tool? Or is it just there?
Nick: It's not like we strive to be a lo-fi band...we're mid-fi now.
Would you say writing comes before music?
Nick: It all depends. There are instances where a narrative will come
about, and there are times where we come up with a really good lick
on the guitar or the keyboard and we'll write some words. Or there
are times when it all happens at once, kind of like a bomb. They're all
good, they're all different, all the songs have their own path.
How would you describe your puberty?
Nick: [Laughs.] That's good, nondescript. I dunno, lots of punches to
the head, better than most compared to the movies I've seen. I just
got picked on a lot. In terms of physical changes it was slow and sudden... puberty is chaos.
How did your experiences in puberty affect your music now?
Nick: It's funny, sometimes I think of The Unicorns as "puberty pop."
We're growing as a band still and sometimes the songs themselves
grow... always changing between voices, puberty is exciting.
What CD/vinyl of yours would you put in a 100-year time capsule?
Nick: Grace/and by Paul Simon.
You sure you want that to go down?
Nick: Yeah.
You would describe your music as the love child of what?
Nick: Ahhh...Fuckin' two-way action on Silver Apples....! dunno so
much...Paul Simon is in there getting some action. Destiny's Child,
Ace of Base...Cannibal Ox, El-P is production, fuck, I dunno, so much,
everything...nothing, we're totally unique, you can't define us.
How would you die?
Nick: How would I die? Nobody's ever asked me that question. It's a
good question. Our new album is called Who Will Cut Our Hair When
We're Gone.
Because your hair and fingernails keep growing?
Nick: How will I die? How will I die. It should be sexually, shouldn't it?
Maybe I would like to be doing something fun, creative: having sex
while performing a song about drawing. And directing a film, while
working in a factory. And also some pain. I should be tortured. Instantaneous. And also crushed by an elephant. But I'm not going to die,
I'm immortal. P'llSfSi
You don't really want to be immortal, do you?
Nick: No, I just want to be 750 years old.
Uke Noah?
Nick: Speaking of Noah, the unicorns were shunned from the boat,
they were too busy frolicking, so that's how I would die, I would miss
my opportunity, having fun, frolicking.
How much is your reality a fantasy? *f^&^5
Nick: How much of my fantasy is reality? A lot of it.
Ready for the last question? Who should rule the universe?
■Nick: Me, motherfuckers!! No, not me...God, Jesus Christ, Krishna,
Buddha.-.Hitler, just kidding...nobody. Nobody is going to rule the
universe...but Hitler will. It'll be tag team. •
The Unicorns play their crazy tunes on Monday, November 17 at the
Croation Cultural Centre and Tuesday. November 18 at the Commodore, supporting High High Hair. You need to go. I'll be taking names
at the door. Non-attendees will be severely punished. You have been
warned. Don't blame me when I knock at your door.
i4 hJo/eirvNfcer Xo<& rf'C
THE STUNTS
One of the most entertaining bands to
watch during last year's SHiNDiG was the
eventual second runner-up, The Stunts. This
pop-punk trio was having a blast on stage
and it showed. They were having fun. The
crowd was having fun. That's the formula
for a great show ten times out of ten.
Interview and photo by Ben Lai
Based in Vancouver and formed three years ago. The Stunts currently
consists of Jax on guitar, Jackie on drums and Dana on bass and
vocals. I had the pleasure of having lunch with them at East Hastings'
Ovaltine Cafe on Thanksgiving Day to talk about their current interests
and projects.
DiSCORDER: Were you always called The Stunts?
Jax: Dana is the reason why we're The Stunts now. We hqve another
name, but then Dana became an artisan.
Dana: We were called the Cunning Stunts and then I took a welding
course and learned how to cut metal. But I couldn't cut the whole
word Cunning Stunts because it was too long so I just got the word
Stunts. So we became The Stunts.
Jax: Must be a metal band, because she made it out of a one inch
plate of steel!
Dana: [Laughs] Plus our moms didn't like the name. Cunning Stunts.
Jax: And our old guitar player kept mixing the first letters up, which is
problematic at family venues.
Where is the plate of steel now? I don't think I've seen it at any of your
shows.
Dana: Oh.... It's hanging on my kitchen wall.
Jax: We heat it up and brand people with it. [Everyone laughs.]
Jackie: Nice idea.
Jax: Only our arch enemies will get branded with a Stunts logo that
big. The Stunts: Scarring their enemies since 2003.
You are going to have a CD release party at the Cobalt. Can you ten
me about that?
Jax: The CD is called Over It. And everyone should get over it. Six
songs recorded by Jessie at Wreckage. So it's going to be a Wreckage theme night at our CD release, with Ten Days Late and Billy the
Kid and the Lost Boys.
That's a good lineup. Should be a good show.
Jax: That's right. Should be a good show. Come early, stay late. Do
you recall that we have a different theme to every show?
Yes, the costumes.
Jax: So you enjoyed the mad scientist theme, and the Brownie theme.
Jackie: The army theme.
Jax: Yeah, Sergeant Rock and the Privates.
Dana: You missed the gym teacher theme.
Jackie: That was a good one.
Jax: We played in Victoria. We dressed like what our old gym teachers
would have. Lots of whistles and visors. Sweat bands.
Dana: And sweat socks up to our knees.
Jax: It was hot. [Laughs.]
What was your favorite theme?
Dana: The Brownies.
Jackie: I like the army. You guys' uniforms were so nice.
Jax: I like the Brownies because we can practice our knots and fire
starting and things. But I think the next theme might be pretty good.
It's Dana's birthday.
Dana: Are you going to tell him how old I am now? [Laughs.]
Jax: I so am. Dana's turning 33 like Jesus. You know that Jesus was
33 when he died right? So maybe Christ on a cross would be a good
theme.
Dana: Crucifixion? Yeah. [Laughs.]
Jax: I wonder how Jackie will play the kick drums with nails to her
ankles.
Dana: It's going to be a bit tough.
Jax: But we'll be controversial with the religious right groups.
Dana: What would our mothers think?
Where do you get your costumes?
Dana: Tickle trunks.
Jax: You should see how I dress at my corporate job. [Everyone
laughs.] A mask, at ail times.
Dana: Sometimes it's well thought out and we shop at different stores.
Sometimes it's an hour before the show scrambling looking for clothes.
Jax had her Brownie costume from when she was a kid.
Jax: Luckily I haven't grown much. I still have my girlish figure.
Someone I know saw you playing at the Gallery Gachet. For a film by
Nikola Mann. What was that about?
Jax: Yeah, we were in a film soundtrack. The film's called Coming and
Going to Paris. It was a short independent film shown at various film
festivals. We were in the soundtrack with this new song we wrote en
francais.
Do you speak French?
Jax: Enough. We've all taken Grade nine French.
I thought I did too but when I was In Paris I was useless. Couldn't
understand a thing.
Jax: I saw Neurosis in Paris. We met the guy in Neurosis in the Catacombs. We were like, "Who's the weirdo tattoo dude?" So my friend
went up and spoke to him and found out he was the guy from Neurosis. He was so happy. I translated all the scary things underground
for him with my Grade nine French. He put us on the guest list and we
saw Neurosis in Paris.
Dana: That's almost as good as my brother running into Geddy Lee at
The Lourve. He's got a picture with his arm around him at the Mona
Lisa.
Jax: That's awesome! Geddy Lee almost has the same hair as the
Mona Lisa. [Everyone laughs]
Normally your songs are English. Who writes them?
Dana: We all do.
Jax: It's an elective and collaborative effort.
Jackie: Jax and Dana do the lyrics. I maybe come up with five words.
Jax: But they are really good ones.
Dana: Yeah.
Jax: Our songs are about love gone wrong. They are not about any
of our ex-boyfriends by name. Despite what they might think. Artistic
license is the key.
There is a song called "Killer Sports Car."
Jax: It was pretty much written here on this street. [Points outside to
Hastings Street.]
Dana: We were in the middle of a march. It was also during a period
of time when lots of pedestrians were getting smashed up the sidewalks in Vancouver by crazy drivers and sports cars. And then we had
an altercation with a guy on the street just here outside the Ovaltine.
He was a very busy man.
Jax: Was it the guy driving the Porsche?
Dana: Yes.
Jax: We were marching. Holding up the street protesting. Feminist
action. And that guy was the local representative of that Killer Sports
Car Clan.
Dana: So he made his way into the song. ThefeHs another song called
"Read My Lips."
I don't remember that one too well.
Jax: It has cussing in it.
Jackie: The word "masturbate" comes to mind.
Dana: My mom's favorite. My mom told me that she went walking
with her headphones, and she listened to our whole CD, even the
one with the dirty words in it.
Jax: That one is the favorite of our old guitar player's non-English
speaking husband. Well, he speaks English a bit. And he's like, "I love
that song. [Sings] mas-fur-bate to this you bas-tard. Can you play it for
me? On acoustic guitar?" I'm like, "Ah...okay."
Haha.
Jax: Our songs are just songs about things, nothing too serious. Except
that they are serious, you know, they are pro-feminist.
Do you see yourself getting more involved in feminism as a band?
Jax: Lots of our songs have got increasingly direct feminist content.
I would really like to put the band on the back of Jackie's truck and
drive around the propaganda machine. [Laughs.] But I never managed that.
Dana: I'm pretty interested in playing as a feminist band. Feminist
activism is important to me.
Jax: Yeah, me too. As individuals. The band, the project, is more about
rocking. What about you? [Looks at Jackie.]
Jackie: [Laughs]
Jax: We make Jackie come to work at our various activist activities.
Jackie's solid because she fakes all the heat. Takes lots of heat for our
big mouths. ?^S^S
Dana: Some parts aren't easy. - *&itf4^
Jax: We can be archly controversial. You'll have to come to see our
show to find out why. • ' "'^-v-v?5t
The Stunts will be playing with Ten Days Late and Billy the Kid and the
Lost Boys at the Cobalt on Thursday, November 27.
1 ^AscpfcDeR. Justin Gradin picks Mark Mothersbaugh's braifr1
Mark Mothersbaugh is a pioneer musician, a successful film, commercial and television music composer and an extremely talented visual
artist. In the years since he first became famous with Devo, Mark has
been mainly concentrating on his company Mutato Muzika, which
has scored music for a diverse range of clients, including The Rugrats
and Pee Wee's Playhouse. Most recently a sucessful collaboration
with filmmaker Wes Anderson has brought Mark Mothefbaugh's music,
Devo or otherwise, to a whole new generation. In between writing
music, he somehow finds the time for art, art which he will be displaying in Vancouver at the Bfly Atelier Gallery at the end of the month. I
called him at his Mutato Muzika headquarters, and the following is the
result of that conversation.
DiSCORDER: Hello.
Mark Mothersbaugh: Hello.
Okay, can you start by telling us what the Home front Invasion is?
It's a collection of some collages that were done fairly recently, within
the last year or so. The images are just kinda one man's view of the
world around him and relate to the things I see out there.
So it's not all postcard art?
No, actually there's nothing the size of a postcard.
They're all bigger pieces?
They're all larger pieces. It's just my modus operandi that I carry postcard-size cardboard in my pocket everyday, to work or wherever I go.
To bed with me, even—which is sad to say—but you know, I jot things
down in the form of sketches or lyrics or whatever on those cards. I've
been doing it for about 30 years. I've done other shows where they
were referred to as postcard superheroes. The postcard just gets stuck
with me. It's kind of a dated terminology.
You haven't done an art tour in a really long time though, not since
the early '90s?
Yeah, I started a company [Mutato Muzika] about ten years ago
doing music for film and TV and different interactive mediums. For
a number of years it was pulling all my attention but now it's been
healthy for a while. And I was able to put an art studio in my office
space, so it's easy for me to write a piece of music for Wes Anderson
or something and while they're mixing it or transposing it onto paper
for players to play, I can go in the other room and work on this stuff.
How has your tour been going so far?
Pretty good, a pretty high-percentage of the shows all sell out. A number of them sell out on the first day and that's kind of nice, because
(fe tff>jev*\ber 2a& .
my intention with this show and the reason why it's called Home Front
Invasion is 'cause-I'm making an overt attempt to climb into people's
living rooms and bedrooms and wherever else you might hang a
picture. So I'm invading other people's home fronts. As far as the kind
of galleries I'm showing at, oftentimes it was galleries that advertised
in Juxtapoz, just because I kind of like what they represent in the art
world. Although a lot of the stuff in Juxtapoz magazine doesrrt really
interest me, like the hotrod thing and the rockabilly thing.
Like Coop's [legendary underground Los Angeles artist, famous for his
'50s-style "hotrod girlie monster art"] drawings?
You know what? And I've known Coop for a really long time and I
really like him. I remember when I was in seventh grade, meticulously
painting the Ratfink [the classic character created by Ed "Big Daddy"
Roth. You know the one, that rat that drives a bloody great hotrod—
Ed.] on my skateboard back in the '60s. So, I totally love all that stuff
and it has a place in my heart. His thing in particular is an homage
to somebody else in a way, and I see my stuff as more like—I'm kind
of like a visual reporter who's going around with one of those sticks
with the nail on the end picking up trash at a parade ground after the
parades are over, and collecting that stuff as evidence. But instead of
collecting from a parade ground, I'm just collecting off of television,
off of trips to the mall, off of traffic jams, after a bad meal, after a really incredible nightmare. W&$$"~
So you're just observing?
That's where my subject matter comes from. And I picked these gal-
'teries that were kind of small aneHess established rather than pressing
to see if I could do images that would be more attuned to the Mary
Boone gallery [in New York] or a Larry Gagosian gallery. I was looking
for the galleries that make me feel like they're kindreds spirits wflh the
early Devo days—when people were into it for the love of art.
Yeah, It seems the original punk-scene seemed so influenced by
Dada and Marcel Duchamp. I don't really see that anymore, I don't
know how much of a punk/art relationship there Is now.
Yeah, for what's going on in the world of music—although I write
music every day—I'm really kind of outof fhe loop of pop music. Every
now and then I'll work with people I'm impressed with or for a particular project but I'm not attempting to do pop music anymore.
You released a Christmas record, Joyeux Mutato, on Rhino in 1999.
Can you tell us about that?
Yeah, that was just a fun in-house project with the people here—my
brother [Bob Mothersbaugh] and Bob Casale. We'd work on something like a Rugrats movie and we needed to get that energy out of
mr
our head. So we'd stay after hours and just do stuff we enjoyed.
It was also a collaboration with Charles Long, the sculptor. He
got commissioned to do a window for Saks and he was doing these
'60s sci-fi snowmen. Very abstract and gorgeous. I think it was the
best window display I've ever seen in a commercial store like that. I
thought Saks were really smart to get him and he had a really good
response to their request. But he was looking for music that could
fill the environment and I wanted to create something that had
a nostalgic feel but was unrelated to traditional Christmas music.
It's definitely in a different world from Bing Crosby singing "White
Christmas." Although there are references to those kinds of songs in
there—they're floating around like fragments in a snow globe, inside
this other music. That project was just fun. I printed one up and gave
it away to friends one year and then the next year Rhino said they
would put it out.
You guys work a lot with Rhino, then? Like the Pioneers Who Got
Scalped: The Anthology CD box set. When that came out I saw it in
record stores, but it took me awhile to even find out about Recombo
DNA, the B-sides box set, which I thought was a much better set of
discs.
You know what? That happened accidentally, to be honest with you.
It really had more to do with interest from specific people at Rhino.
I have a basement full of tapes still, you know? Some of it might be
good but a lot of it's just very private and it makes even that stuff
seem very polished and mainstream. We recorded every day for
about ten years and very little of it has seen the light of day, and for a
good reason—not all of it is supposed to be heard.
, If somebody were really to get into the chronology of the early
music we made, you would see that there were a couple of directions
that Devo could have gone before we ended up doing what we did.
Oh, yeah?
There were other interests. Do you know a band from France called
Stereo Total?
Stereo Total, yeah.
Their music reminds me very much of some the music that Jerry
[Casale of Devo] was writing when I first started working with him. It
was really kind of bluesy and dirty, it sounded like the Little Rascals
were playing the instruments. It was more concerned with energy
and feeling than being polished and well performed. I guess we were
performing it the best we'could, really. At the time we didn't know
where we were going exactly. It's kind of funny because every now
and then the people in Devo think: "Hey, why don't we do another
record?" But then they lose interest after they think about it for 10 minutes. But if the other band members were to talk me into it, I would
say, "Let's go back to some of the stuff that was more tike what Jerry
liked writing in 1972." There was this period of time when he was
writing stuff like "Subhuman Woman" and these songs that were really,
really crude rudimentary blues. I never used the keyboard to play
notes that were in tune, it was more like the way Allen Ravenstine from
Pere Ubu played the synth. I was just looking for sound effects and it
would create, like, a sonic gas, which would surround these caveman
blues pieces. That's where I would go if I were to revisit someplace
Devo was at and almost went but didn't go.
We also spent years doing this kind of industrial trance music that
we never released. If you could listen to it now, you would say it was
the stuff that the guys who became Nine Inch Nails wrote before
they were Nine Inch Nails. It happened at a time when we were in a
transitional stage and we were moving towards what became the
kind of really weird sci-fi pop stuff by the time we were on Enigma
records. I felt it wasn't very successful when we were writing it, but, in
retrospect, I like it a lot more now.
Devo recently played a few shows for Tony Hawk's "Boom Boom Huck
Jam" Skateboard Tour. How was that?
Yeah, yeah! That was actually a lot of fun. I mean playing was fun. I
was just mesmerized by the whole Tony Hawk phenomena. We were
kind of friendly with all this skateboarding when we started off. We did
videos like "Freedom of Choice," where we used all the old guys from
the first time around.
Oh yeah! That's a great video.
On stage we wore first-generation skateboard gear on stage because
we like the way it made us look more like automatons. Half man,
half machine, and that really appealed to us, the whole gladiator
skateboard thing. Although, by that point we were all old and we'd
crashed so many times that we weren't skating ourselves anymore. I'd
put a big hole in my head when I was a kid skateboarding. [Laughs.]
Do you guys get a lot of requests to play shows these days?
Yeah, we get requests to play. Sometimes we do it if it seems interesting. Everybody has other things they're doing in their life and, to be
.quite honest with you, performance is something that should only be
a job for 20-year-olds. Quite honestly, I'd rather leave the job up to
the young kids. They're in the process of confirming their manhood,
you know? It's a rite of passage for anyone that age.
Richard Branson [Virgin Records label head] famously tried to persuade you to take on Johnny Rotten as your lead singer when you
were first starting out. I read recently that Johnny Rotten broke up the
Sex Pistols again; so maybe next time Devo plays you could get him
to join lire band and sing for you, since he wasn't successful the first
time around.
Yeah, we should have done it the first time maybe. Maybe just for one
day so he could experience Akron, Ohio.
T think that would be realty funny. I'm just picturing it.
Uh-huh. [Laughs.]
Johnny Rotten singing....
At around the. same time. Bob Casaie and I stayed with Iggy Pop for
a couple of weeks in Malibu. Devo used to rehearse in his living room
for a while and he wanted to record all our songs before we put out
an album.
Really?
Yeah, he wanted to record them first. I was kinda like, "I don't know if
that's a good idea." And Blondie wanted to do "Come Back Jonee"
before we ever recorded it and it made me nervous because I
thought, "What if everybody else takes our songs from us?" In retrospect, though, you always think about how you'd do things different.
With Devo I can think of a hundred important things I would have
changed. One of the things I would have done is encouraged Iggy to
do one of our songs and I would have encouraged other bands that
were interested in us too. You know, we had weirder shit than that. We
had people like Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager invite us over
to their mansion and say, "Let's collaborate on some tunes."
That's funny.
Yeah, I just remember sitting there, looking at this guy in bedroom
slippers and whatever other uncool stuff he was wearing. I remember
being a little bit self-conscious because I had these wrestling referee
shoes I found in Ohio that were, like, from the '40s, that looked really
cool. But I'd worn them so much that the sole was starting to come
off one of them, so it would flap like a tongue at the front. And I
remember the whole time I was at his place, I kept holding my foot in
a position, so that he wouldn't see that the bottom of my shoe was
coming off. I'm thinking, "Did he write, 'Do You Know the Way to San
Jose?' And if he did, why are we even in the same room having a
discussion because I don't know if our interests are in the same area
at all?" [Laughs.]
So, Is Mutato Muzika your main focus now?
Well, Devo isn't focused at all. We do things now and then...[coughs
on something he's eating]. Excuse me, I'm getting choked up talking
about this. What's going on in my life right now is that I'm doing Mutato Muzika and looking for interesting projects to do with that. I'd really
like to do less TV. I feel like I've really run the gamut with that. I started
with Pee-Wee's Playhouse and then did lots of commercials. My company's gone through periods where we've done millions of dollars of
commercials in a year. And at different periods of time I thought that
was fun. I got into the idea of putting subliminal messages in Ford and
McDonald's ad campaigns. It was kinda fun, and then it got to be too
easy and so it became boring. It's very rare that I'll do that anymore,
.but it's easy to do. Usually, the guy who does the final mix will hear it
when he's fixing it to send to the television networks. They'll notice it
and say, "Did I hear a voice in there?" And if you're lucky they don't
say anything to the client. But they've never fired me because of it.
But I always have very important subliminal messages; I don't ever just
fuck around. It's always like, "Question Authority" or "Don't trust your
parentsll" [Laughs] The things kids need to know about.
Right now, I've got to ask you about the Swifter commercial.
Yeah, you can just change our name to De-HO.
Everyone I know seems to be asking "what's with that?".
[Laughs.]
So, is that really you guys singing?
Which would you like?
Well, I think tt is, isn't it?
[Sighs] Yeah. 1+iate to say it, but it is.
I think it's funny. Whenever I Swifter my kitchen now, it's a party.
Yeah, it'swawful a commercial that I kinda like it. Maybe we're doing the wrong thing but everybody in the band's really delighted with
the idea of these songs turning into insipid products. •
Mark Mothersbaugh's Home Front Invasion opens on Saturday, November 29 at the Bfly Atelier Gallery and runs until December 20. The
man himself may be there to open the show or he might not. He's not
sure. Whatever happens, though, there'll be lots of cool art there at a
price you might even be able to afford.
The Bfly Atelier Gallery can be found at 341 Water Street. You can call
them at: 604-647-1019.
Marie's art plus much much more can be found at www.mutato.com.
Enjoy.
H Div-ofc&en Words and Interview
By Saelan Twerdy
The Books make their music from samples, but probably not the kind
you're used to. Their sounds echo the dusty twilight of Appalachia
and the old-world metropolises of Europe. They have the rigor of
high-brow experimental movements like sound sculpture and musique
concrete, but they balance them with the wistful humanism of pop
melodies and American folk music. Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong,
the two brains behind The Books, sample from instruments they play
themselves (guitar and cello, primarily) as well as from their own extensive library of found sounds, and have recently added the immediately pleasing element of their own voices. Totally uncategorizable,
playfully absurd, and quietly beautiful (as well as technically virtuosic).
The Books stole the hearts of a very mixed audience with their sleeper
hit of a debut. Thought for Food. Now with a quickly growing fanbase.
The Books are poised to delight music lovers of all stripes with their second album of gBtchy, electro-acoustic sound-collage-folktronica. The
Lemon of Pink. Discorder was able to contact Paul and Nick at their
current home in North Adams, Massachusetts, for a conference call,
in which they proved to be as charming, funny, and good-natured as
the music they produce.
Discorder I wanted to start by maybe talking a little about your
respective backgrounds. I know a few things from reading your
Nick Zammuto: Tomlab's website?
Yeah.
Nick: Did you look at our o
i website? Booksmusic.com?
Umm, no, actually. I didn't know about that. I'll check it out right now.
In the meantime, can you tell me a pit about how you met and started
collaborating?
Nick: It was a mutual friend that brought us together, Julie Wolf. I met
Julie when I was in Massachusetts—we were working in art conservation together. She ended up getting a job at the Guggenheim, so she
went down to New York and I ended up going with her. Paul was one
of Julie's sister's friends, so we met that way and kind of immediately
started working together. We met over Shooby Taylor, really. Ever
heard of Shooby Taylor? You gotta check him out. You know scat?
Well, he scats over, like, Beethoven, and he holds nothing back.
Paul de Jong: He was a postal employee in Brooklyn, and I don't think
he ever got out of Brooklyn, but he was happy all the same. He made
a couple of recordings in a local studio, but it's really worth checking
out anyway. Just a total obscurity and a great oddity in the history of
music and it's basically what got Nick and me together.
Nick, I wanted to ask you about this hike you went on. The Tomlab
website says you went "kind of crazy."
Nick: Yeah, I hiked the Appalachian Trail, southbound, in 2001.1
started in Maine and went down to Georgia. I started July 1 st and
finished November 9th.
So what prompted that?
Nick: Well, I found myself Pving in cities and I don't know exactly why,
but after I was in New York I ended up following Julie out to L.A. I guess
I was just a victim of the car culture out there. My life was going in a
direction that I just wasn't very excited about, and I'd always wanted
to hike the trail. It seemed Bke a good time to do it. So I left L.A. and
headed for the mountains. It was very therapeutic.
Paul: All the while, leaving me out here for five months in utter despair,
in the middle of working on Thought For Food.
Nick: You never told me about that, Paul. Utter despair? isSN
Paul: I'm totally joking.
So how long was this after you'd started The Books?
Nick: Paul and I had probably been working together for at least
a year and a half. We'd recorded about half of Thought For Food
before I got on the trail. We finished the second half of it then in Hot
Springs, where I ended up after I finished the trip.
Paul: Thought For Food was all really done in starts and fits. In phone
conversations, and there were short periods where we would get together. We finished up in Hot Springs, we spent some time in New York,
we spent some time near Boston. Altogether, we may have spent five
or six weeks in the same room. Very much unlike The Lemon of Pink.
I wanted to ask you about that: In what ways was recording The
Lemon of Pink different from recording Thought for Food?
Nick: Well, for The Lemon of Pink I ended up coming back to Massachusetts, to North Adams, which is where we are now.
Do both of you live there now?
Nick: Well, we have two sort of identical studios, one here and one
in New York, where Paul lives, so we can easily share files. Paul would
come up here and we'd work on the album; most of the work we did
together on The Lemon of Pink was done here. We probably spent five
or six times as much time together on this one than on the first album,
and it was all in this ramshackle apartment that we're living in now, in
North Adams. It's up on a hill and it's got a nice view of town, but you
look at this place and you're like. "How could anyone live here?" It's
sort of attractive to me that way.
Paul: One of the wonderful things about it, and that's where The
Lemon of Pink distinguishes itself from Thought for Food is that the
place we are in. North Adams, is very quiet and it allows you to roll the
tape at any given moment of the day. So we really play together a
lot, we improvise a lot, and a lot of the ideas spring from that.
Nick: Yeah, the studio is right next to the kitchen, so we sort of tag-
team it; one of us is cooking, the other one is making music. We go
back and forth.
So, you said your website was booksmusic.com?
Nick: Uh, www.thebooksmusic.com
Ohh, okay. Because it looks like www.booksmusic.com is a religious
website.
Nick: What kind of religion. Can you tell?
Some sort of Christian thing about Armageddon. Okay, I'm at your
website now. This is neat: living room, bathroom, kitchen...Hey, speaking of kitchen, I wanted to ask you—on the Tomlab website, it lists your
occupation as "teaching art and making sandwiches".
Nick: Yeah, that's what I was doing for at least the beginning of The
Lemon of Pink, teaching one day a week at a local college, doing
critique for some of the seniors and visual arts: painting sculpture,
whatnot. Then I worked at a cafe, a sandwich shop just a block away
from where I'm living now, and that's how I afforded my new computer that allowed us to make The Lemon of Pink.
So, what kind of equipment were you using, then?
Nick: Just a very simple set-up. A PC with a decent sound card running cheap consumer software, mostly Sonic Foundry stuff.
Paul: A good playback system, but not even that fancy. A decent
playback system and a quiet environment, those are the ingredients.
Wow. That's actually really impressive.
Nick: We've never really had an opportunity to say this, but it's
something I'm really proud of, about The Lemon of Pink, that we could
take a computer and just make it. It makes me feel very hopeful for
the future of music. The machinery is so accessible to anybody who's
interested in it, now.
Paul: No fancy studio was ever needed. We do everything with the
same set of microphones, and then there's the other stuff, the field
recordings and the things that come from LP. But that's also pretty
straightforward. It all ends up on the PC.
Well, speaking of field recordings, I wanted to ask you about your
sound library. I imagine it's quite extensive.
Paul: Well, I always think there must be sound libraries around, other
peoples', that are far, far bigger than whatever we have. It's really
how you make use of it. What our memories can carry, of the library,
that's really what carries over into the composition.
Nick: It's Tike sort of a musical instrument. We-have this thing lying
around and it's constantly growing arms and legs and changing colours. We just listen to it all the time, internalize it, and when a situation
comes along that feels right, it's all there just waiting to be plucked.
As to that, it seems to me that your music is more about relationships
between sounds than the sounds themselves, per se.
Nick: It's sort of a balance—for me, anyway. In music, it's like you're
always listening to the outside, to the fringes, to the relationships. But
when you're listening to the sound in itself, you have to go straight to
the heart of it and find out where it's coming from and what it means.
l€ Mcvernbe*- -2x*>3 wi
mmm
NOVEL
Irs Ike constantly bouncing backana forfRT"*™ i
Paul: Often, it seems that the music creates itself in the sense that,
if you find the right relationships between sounds and you put them
together, then it already starts resembling music, in a way.
I wanted to ask you guys what motivated you to start singing on The
Lemon of Pink.
Nick: [laughs] I'm not sure, and I don't know—well, I won't say
anything about it. But we met this musician down in North Carolina
named Anne Doerner, and she was a big inspiration to us, because
she's just musical through and through, she basically plays any instrument she can get her hands on. She was one of those piano geniuses
when she was a kid and then ended up going off to MIT and studying
math, and then has just basically lived on the street for the better
part of the last twenty years playing music—all different kinds, mostly
old-time American music and Cajun music. When we met her—well,
in The Lemon of Pink, for example—on the first track, we had a loop
going and we were like, "Anne, just sing along," and she improvised
all these lyrics and we cut from that recording. The human voice is
kind of the most direct way to get into sounds sometimes, because -
our ears are so designed around the human voice. Using one voice as
an instrument is something that's worth experimenting with, even if it's
a dead end. S^^'%3
Do you think you're going to work with Anne Doerner again?
Nick: Yeah, well at least as much as she can stay interested in being
around us. She has the wanderlust, I guess. She's always moving
around. It's kind of hard to persuade her to do anything.
Paul: We did this show in Chicago, and she came along and worked
with us. It was an honor, to have another way to work with her.
I wanted to ask you about touring, actually. I've never seen any tour
dates listed for The Books. Do you perform live much?
Paul: Not really. The thing we did in Chicago was kind of a tryout.
Nick: It was the first time we've performed in front of anyone, really.
I think we feel more comfortable, like, making dinner for people
than playing out somewhere. We're still in the very early stages of
developing what we want to do in a live situation. So we can't make
any promises. The show in Chicago turned out to be well received
enough, though, that it makes me think that it's a viable thing to
continue on with. We're going to take our time and try and develop
a show that's really spectacular before we try to go on the road. So,
stayed tuned.
I wanted to ask you about some of the things you've done outside of
recording albums, too. I understand you composed the score for a
radio play?
Paul: Well, this radio-maker, someone who's been making radio art
for at least the last twenty years, he lives right around us. I guess he
got our first album and became really interested in us. He was commissioned to do a radio play for BBC Radio 3, and he asked us to
soundtrack it. And since he was so close by, we thought it would be a
great way to try another collaboration.
Nick: We've always had an interest in doing soundtrack work, just
because we love movies.
What other kinds of things have you done? I've heard about
soundtracks for films, theatre, and dance, too.
Paul: Oh, that would be me. That's what I've done, mostly in Europe.
I've worked a lot with choreographers and theater makers in the
Netherlands, mostly electronic soundtracks for their pieces, but also
pieces for instruments and tape—which I prefer, cello and tape. The
last thing I really did for that was in 2000 and since then I've only done
a few small projects. Last year I was commissioned to do a soundtrack
for the city of Rotterdam, which is not nearly as strange as you might
think, creating pieces of music that somehow relate or take their inspirations from different neighborhoods in the city. I play back to them,
meaning I produce a CD and I perform on location.
So are you both still doing individual things outside of The Books?
Nik
■ " Sift
SOUND?
cic Yeah, in order to stay sc
I think it's important for us to be do- winter, where w
n get together and think about a live perfor-
ing our own things as well. I've studied the visual arts—I've only been
making music for maybe the last five years or so—and I still have a
really deep interest in sculpture, especially sound sculpture. I've been
working on that, here and there; I think I might go back to school for
that, and I have some solo audio work, some music I've made under'
my own name, Zammuto, that's been released in various place. You
can find it on the internet, probably. And I guess the most notable is
Solutiore of Stareau, which pops up occasionally.
I wanted to ask you, especially in light of Shooby Taylor, what kind of
stuff you guys listen to when you're hanging out, because I imagine
it's pretty eclectic...
Nick: we're omnivorous.
Paul: We're gluttonous listeners—
Nick: I don't know if I'd say that; we're extremely poor. I haven't
bought a CD in, like, the last six months, but Paul is actively seeking
music all the time, so I get the direct benefit of that.
Paul: There's always paths that you can follow, from one thing to
another, so it's really a wonderful journey that brings me from one
performer or one musician or composer to the other, sometimes in A
completely unexpected ways. Most of it actually comes through J>
riends, and sometimes it goes through what I read, even what I reajF
about our own music. You'd be surprised how many musicians and
composers we've been compared to in reviews that I've never heard
of, and I was really happy to discover them that way.
So Nick, if you don't buy CDs, how do you feel about, say, downloading mp3's or burning albums?
Nick: I'm sort of really ambivalent about it. As musicians, we're
extremely poor, so I think it's important for people who are our fans to
somehow know that in order to keep making music, people have to
buy the records. But it's out of our hands—I mean, I don't download
mp3's and I don't burn a lot of album copies, but I know what it's like
to not be able to pay rent and to really want to continue this work. It
is the way music is going, though, the whole system of distribution is a
dinosaur.
Well, I have to say, for myself, that I first heard your music by downloading it, and I fried to buy it, but for a long time, your music wasn't
available in any record stores here.
Paul: It's because we're—well, we were, for Thought For Food, at
least—being printed in Europe. We already have a reputation for being difficult to find, hard to get, in stores.
Do you have any idea how The Lemon of Pink is doing, sales-wise,
compared to Thought For Food?
Nick: Well, it's doing better, I think, but it's not Britney Spears.
You guys are definitely straddling a line between "academic"music
and a more popular music, like a folk music, or a more accessible
kind of electronic music. Do you think these kind of distinctions are
real at all, or useful?
Paul: Umm, no.
Nick: [Laughs.] No. Just listen to anything that you can get your hands
on and see how it makes you feel.
^Paul: The less distinction the better. Everything should be folk music.
You know, I heard something somewhere, I can't remember where It's
from but It went something like, "Hey, it's all folks music—I ain't never
heard a horse play no songs."
Nick: [Laughs.] My folks don't play music.
So, that's just about it, but I wanted to ask you what you guys have
planned for the future and what you're working on right now. .
Nick: I think we're in desperate need of a break, and we just have to
keep sane, so I think we're going to focus on our own work and cloister ourselves up for a while. Try to hear sound in a new way. We'll keep
working for sure, but I'm just not sure what the result's going to be. This
is conjecture, but I'd really like to set aside a month, maybe over the
mance; try to think out of the box, figure out what we could really do.
Paul: All our individual experiences in how to present things for a larger
audience live are so different that we really have to get to know each
other better than we do now.
Nick: We'll just see what happens, what comes out of a friendly, non-
pressure-filled situation.
Paul: We already kind of figured out that to make a really true representation, or a reproduction of what we do in the studio on stage, is
utter impossibility.
Nick: It's a totally different beast. But there's an enormous amount of
potential there.
, Thought for Food and The Lemon of Pink are available now on Tomlab
(www.tomlab.de). Information about other Books-related projects can \
be found at www.thebooksmusic.com.
Reading From The Books
Nick and Paul recommend a few of their favorite literary works!
and authors.
Daniil Kharms
Paul: He was a Russian absurdist writer from the time of the ]
Constructivists, I think he committed suicide or was killed in the §
gulag somewhere, in the 30's. He wrote a large collection of 1
very short, extremely absurd, brilliant stories. It's just a joy every §
time you read them, or re-read them.
Nick: The absurd is like the back door to the profound. You
know, the front door is locked, so you have to go around and |
find the key in the garden. And that's what he does.
D.T. Suzuki
Introduction to len Buddhism
Nick: I've always been inspired by Buddhist writing, and D.T.
Suzuki's grasp of the English language is really excellent, which. 1
is not true of a lot of other Japanese Zen people. It's a great j
piece of writing and just really fascinating if you're interested in I
Zen, at all.
Hans T. David (editor)
The New Bach Reader
Paul: Writing about music is something I keep coming back to, j
because I've always been really involved in classical music,
up until today. I play a lot of Bach, and this wonderful book is f
a document of the life of Bach. He was a man who struggled j
with things we all face in daily life, which I find inspiring.
Mary B. Roseman and Mary Mills
Graded Sentences for Analysis
Nick: You'll never be able to find this. A friend gave it to me
and now it's one of my most cherished possessions. It says on
the title page: "Graded sentences for analysis: selected from
fhe best literature and systematically graded for class use." You
open it up and it's just numbered sentences, there's probably
a thousand of them, and their sources aren't listed at all, so it's
like this weird kind of automatic poetry.
Nick and Paul also noted that they read a lot of dictionaries.
fl T>\<>co*£>e* CRIME OF 77f£ CE/Vftffty
Wmm
'^0
How a twisted science experiment to produce five killer-elite schoolgirls went terribly wrong and thus formed "the only band ever." Honestly, I didn't make this up.
They are the Crime of the Century. They are the only band ever.
They are restless, destructive. They are the shaggy, unshaven youth
let loose on society. Their guitars are revolution, their snare is the
heartbeat of anarchy. Their sound is, by all means, captivating. They
are Alexisonfire. *
According to the internet they are the creations of a Norwegian
doctor with an advanced scientific knowledge of test-tube babies; a
doctor who resented the world he lived in so much that he planned
to create five Catholic schoolgirls to destroy it. But somehow a vial
of Agent X606 (two parts Lysol, one part Jack Daniel's) was spilt into
the cloning tanks, changing what were to be girls into a breed of
destructive, hard-rocking boys.
So how did such a scandalous crime of distorted human-farming
lead to the creation of a slightly demented rock-band? The facts are
unclear but the shocking truth is out and sweeping the nation on a
cross-continental tour. Perhaps I was expecting to interview a couple
of drunk, pre-GaHaghers with skateboards, but who I really-met on the
backstairs of the Croation Cultural Center, were two quiet, refined,
Canadian boys, with skateboards in hand. DiSCORDER had a chance
to catch up with Jesse Ingelevics (drums) and Chris Steele (bass) of
Alexisonfire as they "inhaled" a bit of BC culture.
DISCORDER: You've been touring pretty hard now. Being on the road,
does it ever get to be too much? Too much stress?
Chris: At first it was cause we weren't use to touring at all and being
in tight quarters with each other week after week. But we're starting
to learn how to be cool with each other and deal with things a bit
better.
Jesse: After about a week you get into the zone, you're set and
you're ready and everything's going well.
Chris: Especially touring parts of North America and the world we've
never been to before. We've never been much outside of Ontario before, and this is our first western tour. It's just been absolutely fantastic.
It's just been sold-out show after sold-out show. It's just been so much
Jesse: It's our first time on the West Coast of Canada. We love it so far.
We'tt be back. Skateboarding, and just the scenery and the fresh air.
Like going from Calgary to Kelowna and we went right through the
Rockies. We stopped at the side of the road and got out; all we could
smeB was fresh pine everywhere. It was just beautiful. Just c
On your tour you play a lot of clubs and some all-ages venues. What
do you prefer, playing a show for the kids or playing In the environment created by the presence of alcohol?
Chris: Both is really good, but definitely aH-ages. We definitely attract a
younger crowd, but there is still the good amount that are of age and
do drink and have a great time at the show as well. So as long as it's
aU in good fun and there is no trouble at the shows, all-ages....[cut-off
by Jesse]. IhP8*"*^
Jesse: Pretty much as long as it's people who aren't drinking age are
able to come in as well and enjoy it, we're happy.
Wed, you guys have only been a band for like a year and a half, right?
Chris: Coming close to two years now in October. Everything worked
really, really quick and it was just so surprising. Dallas used to play in
an old band a few years before this one started, called Helicon Blue,
a mullet, soft-rock band, and he met this guy that now runs our label,
Greg [Below] from Distort. Uh...now that pot is gonna make me start
forgetting what I was talking about. [Everyone laughs.] Yeah, so that's
how we met. He [Greg] heard of our new band that started up, came
out to a show, and everything started to fall in so quick after that. And
now what we're doing on this tour, I never expected it. Especially to
have two videos that are being played; we never thought we'd have
recorded a video. Very mind-blowing.
That has got to be tight—recording a video?
Chris: Yeah, it's really cool. Especially with the guy we do 'em with.
The director, Mark [Ricciadelli], an amazing, amazing guy.
Jesse: He knows what's up.
Chris: He came to our show, he loved our live music, he loved our live
show, and we got accepted with VideoFACT, and then we did the
video with him. He's really great to work with and the outcome was
just unbelievable.
Jesse: The first rough edit we loved, and we kept. It was so good. He
was like,"You wanna change your stuff?" And we were like,"No. It's
good just the way it is." [Laughter from Chris—I get the "goodfrmes,
goodtimes" vibe.]
Some bands struggle for a long time before they reach the success
you guys are seeing. For example, here you are after two years
co-headlining a tour with Billy Talent who have been in the game for
what, eight years? What do you think is the factor that determines how
successful a band will be?
Chris: [Pause] Factor that determines? How many people buy your
CD, I guess. [Laughs]
Jesse: How well they work with each other is the main thing.
Chris: And how well you manage your money, even if it's a small,
small amount. Say after a show, we wouldn't dish out the money with
everyone and just like," Yeah, go have a fun time." We.always put
the money into a band fund and save up and that's how we can get
to the shows in a working van and trailer and get equipment. It's all
about...! don't know. You know what I am saying though?
Yeah, yeah. Okay, your music can be pretty angey, sad, beautiful,
but always really emotional. Where do you And fhe inspiration for your
songs?
Jesse: It's just that everybody has an individual way of playing their
instruments and coming together. It gives us our own sound. We're
not really trying to do anything in particular. What happens comes out
and we refine things over time and get songs the way we like them.
Chris: We all came from different types of music, we all had different
backgrounds and some members are older.
Is if true that it is George's birthday?
Chris: It is. It's true.
Jesse: It was Dallas' on tuesday.
Chris: At West Edmonton Mall, he enjoyed his birthday. Yeah, that was
a good show. But didn't we run away from that question about the
whole emotional part? How we're writing the music? I don't know
about lyrical wise because I don't have anything to do with that and
neither does Jesse. But as far as music goes, yeah, just all different
styles and influences, and just jammin'. Doing what we do. Jammin'.
Fair enough. Wed, I think Alexisonfire is amazing, but I was talking to
a friend of mine who was like, "Yeah, the music isn't bad, but what's
with all the screaming?"
Jesse: I think that when people listen to the CD, the screaming is so
different to them, hearing it, it comes across as very harsh. I think it's
the first thing they hear, it just gets implanted in their head that it's loud
and it's angry and right upfront, and they might not likejhat. If they
could take some time to listen to it as a whole and enjoy It they could
change their thoughts, but I'm not sure. I'm not suwSlsO
Now maybe I'm wrong, but your CD was released in Canada in October 2002 and in the States in November 2003...is that right?
Chris: September....
Jesse: October 9.
Chris: Oh, it was October 9?
In The States?
Both: Yep.
What was with the huge time gap?
Chris: We didn't really expect what was going to happen with our
Canadian release. We weren't really concentrating on the States or
anything at that time and it just took a while to find the label that we
felt we would be comfortable with. And we finally found it. I know it
was a bit later but I think it's a good thing. We're going to finish this
tour in December, go home for hopefully two, maybe three, months
and then we're going to be working on all our new stuff, getting
another album out this summer.
Would that be the Ambulance EP?
Chris: No, we're just going to go with the full-length. We had four
songs recorded and we didn't really like the one.
Jesse: We.had an idea to do something but we've now just changed
our minds.
Chris: We're just trying to make a really, really good full-length.
Well, you guys just signed to Atticus. How sweet is this deal?
Jesse: Right. It's just really cool that...[cut off by Chris].
Chris: It's nice to have a clean shirt after every show.
Jesse: Well, we went out to San Diego and two of the dudes from Atticus came and just hung out with us. They were really great, we had
a fun time meeting them.
What are the other benefits to that?
Chris: Well, I guess just having clean clothes to put on.
Jesse: Hopefully we will be able to get on their sampler CD or their
compilation one.
Are you guys signed to any other companies?
Chris: Our record's also released in Japan on Howling Bull.
Alright. Well, when I was thinking of this question, I kept trying to think
of ways to word it so I wouldn't offend you or piss you off, but I kept
falling back to the same sentence. If you had the choice, go back to
St.Catherines or do a commercial, would you ever sell-out?
Chris: No. We are just gonna keep-on playing music that as a band
we like to play.
Jesse'And just keep doing that and if they like it, they like it. Hopefully
we'll keep on getting a good response.
Chris: That's why we're playing music in the first place. At first you're
not about shows in front of an audience, you're just playing music,
what you like. You just have to keep it like that the whole time.
Well, is there anything else you want to add?
Jesse: It's good to be in Vancouver. Since you guys were so good with
"Pulmonary Archery," maybe you could go back to Powershift (on
MuchMusic) and get us back to number one with "Counter Parts..."
if you can. Maybe another video might be in the works. One day...
we're trying. •
For more Alexisonfire you can go to www.theonlybandever.com or
the mothershlp, www.bedlamsociety.com.
2D Ma/ertteer Aoc& Western Front New Music & Leisure Thief present a CD launch for
H 4§» LEE HUTZULAK I Princess Builder
»«.«^ ™ vv/ Todd Hutzulak I Julian Gosper I Todd Mason I Jeffrey Allport
9PM Sat Nov 22nd 2003 at the Western Front
303 East 8th Ave $12/10 (includes CD) ■,*■*.«, »»**.
B~H Heritage Canadian
Ivance sales: 604 876 9343 www.front.bc.ca www.leehutzulak.com
mm mwwm m airw
think you're up to it?
id a love of publi:
THE BRICKYARD315CarrallSty6046853922
NOVEMBER ********************
1st Desarmador, 7th Sunn and guests/
5th Tim, Far From Heros, Complete, Man Down/
6th Novastatik, Straight Jacket, Calypsus/
7th 20 Miles, Leeroy Stagger, Honeycow/
8th DOA's 25th Anniversary with Thor, Hisseyfit/
12th Nashville Pussy, Peter Pan Racerock, StinJc Mitt/
13th Themselves, Clue To Kalo, The Drunken Arseholes/
14th STREETS. A Javelin Rain and guests/
15th TBA/ «<,-
16th Mono and guests/ ev^O/rpi
19th Soundawg, Raw , Daark/ **> cotS ^^sajj
20th Fuck Me USA, The Nons and guests/ * ^Peci^
21st The Festival Of Guns/
22nd The Festival Of Guns with The Real Mackenzies/
26th The Harlots and guests/
27th Race Banrten_anol^uests/
* for complete listings: wwwfirebaUprbductionscom *
$S COVER • OPEN LATE • 1227 GRANVILLE STREET
ZA D\*c£«oe& recorded media
David Bowie
Reality
(Columbia)
Reality is coolest where the beats
are big: close listenings magnify
towards nothing. Save this album
for extended highway corners
and late-night push-ups.
Eugene Joe
Yourself High," carry the duo into
more adventurous territory. "Get
Yourself High" has a dose of hiphop but K-OS doesn't seem to
have much of a presence on the
track. It's ironic how Rowlands
and Simons sing the lyrics "don't
rely on us to get high." Could
this be their own verbal warning label for their songs? "The
Golden Path" is a spacey-sound-
ing story about a journey told by
The Flaming Lips. A flute accents
the melody, which takes on a
New Wave vibe.
The Singles collection does a
nice job of showcasing the evolution of The Chemical Brothers
from static electronic sounds to
more diverse music genres. Three
words found in their liner notes
prove how much they love what
they do: "Love Is AH".
£m/7y Khong
The Chemical Brothers
Singles 93-03
(Astra Iwerks)
This album could have been
called Greatest Hits Collection:
but, then again, a "greatest hits"
tag is usually a sign that a band's
career is over. This may just be
filler for the boys until their next
project is finished. The Chemical
Brothers established the electronic music scene into the mainstream in the 1990s. There are 10
years worth of hits here, plus two
new tracks, "Get Yourself High"
and "The Golden Path." The
former is notable because both
Rowlands and Simons drop their
vocals on the track alongside
Canadian rapper K-OS.
There are no surprises here.
You get the original studio
release of each track without a
remix makeover. There are the
constant big beats with repetitive
vocals sifted in. You can play the
whole CD through in the dark,
with glo-stick in hand, and have
your own rave. If staying indoors
isn't your thing, pop this bad-boy
into your car stereo and take a
road trip. Be sure to start off with
the sirens blaring in the opening
track, "Song to the Siren."
The Singles collection
displays the various collaborators The Chemical Brothers
have worked with, like Richard
Ashcroft and Noel Gallagher.
Out of all the hits, "Hey Boy Hey
Girl," "Block Rockin' Beats," and
"Setting Sun" are the tracks that
you end up humming for the rest
of the day. The two new tracks,
"The Golden Path" and "Get
22 tfosiewber jJxb
The Dambrots
Especially Not Love
(Bartleby)
Okay, this has got to be done,
so I will just go ahead and say it.
This CD is painfully bad. I regularly
see more interesting, clever, and
enrapturing performances at any
university pub open mic night.
Actually, I'm more intrigued by
the street singers on Granville
than I am by this debut album.
Both street singers and most
open mic performers can exhibit
a spark. This doesn't have to be
a spark of genius, but it can be
a spark of love for the music, or
even just a spark of exuberance.
Folk music can be beautiful, and
has the ability to project sonic
landscapes more powerful and
halting than many other styles,
due mostly to its down to earth
nature.
The power in folk music,
then, lies not in complex or inventive instrumentation, but in lyrical
content and delivery, both of
which are severely lacking in this
album. From the very first song,
"Not Quite"," we are drawn in by
sparse acoustic chords backed
by the words "you say you have
changed this time around, and
I can almost believe you but
not quite." Right through to the
closing number "All That Heaven
Allows," there's really no inspiration to be found in the melodramatic singing and poor choice of
lyrics on this album.
soren Brothers
The Dismemberment Plan
A People's History of the Dismemberment Plan
(DeSoto)
For every piece of high-concept
or original art that succeeds brilliantly in reaching its ambitious
goals, there's about a hundred
or so that fall to earth like bird
guano. Just look at movies;
for every Memento, there are
dozens of Final Fantasy: The
Spirits Withins. Consisting of 12
remixes made by fans who took
separate tracks from the band's
songs off their website, A People's History of the Dismemberment Plan (the Plan's last album)
definitely qualifies as high-concept. Though the album doesn't
figuratively splatter on a car
windshield, it hardly qualifies as
one-in-a-hundred either.
While samples and technology played a role in many of
the Plan's songs, the best remixes
here are the most organic ones.
Drop Dynasty's twists "What Do
You Want Me to Say?" into, a
slinky hip-hop song that's almost
as much fun as the original. Quruli
adds a tribal-drums-recorded-
underwater beat to "A Life of
Possibilities," which transforms the
song into a haunting, reflective
look back at the past. The best
of the bunch is Ev's take on "The
City;" the loneliness and alienation of the original is retained
but re-imagined with a terrific
trumpet solo arid piario underbelly. It's too bad the stinkers on
the album are as plentiful as the
gems; Parae's "The Face of the
Earth" is electro-nonsense, beats
and cut-up vocals can't save
Cex's "Academy Award," and
ASCDI's Depeche Mode-influenced mix of "Time Bomb" drains
the energy out of the original like
tuition drains my bank account.
Consider this album, then, a
morsel to tide fans over until the
band reunites (I hope); for everyone else, go buy Emergency & I
and/or Change to find out what
you're missing.
Neil Braun
Irving
f Hope you're Feeling Better EP
(Eenie Meenie)
Irving appears to be channeling its musical vibe from
another era, particularly from
the '60s. The disc is full of upbeat.
catchy tunes with ingrained singalong melodies and sprinkles of
horns in the mix. The retro feel is
augmented by the harmonious
choral/group singing of the band
members a la Beach Boys and
Mamas and The Papas. What the
'Boys and the 'Papas didn't ha\»
were the distorted guitar sounas
that irving dabbles in.
The nice clash of tones
is apparent in the opening
track, "The Curious Thing About
Leather," where the full-band
harmony meets up with a wall of
noise. The lyrics are not profound,
but short and simple, irving travels back in time on "I Can't Fall
in Love", being a perfect fit into
an '80s Ratpack teen comedy
flick. The riff on this track could
even be a distant cousin to The
Strokes' "Last Nite." Even on "The
Guns From Here," the electronic
beats are reminiscent of '80s
techno hits like "Just Can't Get
Enough" and "Da Da Da." The
highlight on the disc is "Please
Give Me Your Heart, Is All I Need",
which features a refrain sung by
a duo of women, which sounds
like a Swedish wet dream come
true.
Emily Khong
The Lisa Man* Experiment
American Jitters
(Sympathy for the Record
Industry)
A couple months ago a friend
was telling me of an experiment
some girls did in Vermont. In
his story, these girls went into a
remote cabin and spent a few
months there, almost never leaving the cabin. Every day they
would force themselves to write
music, no matter how inspired
they felt, making the music
something of a journal of the
emotional and climatic changes
of season they were experiencing during their stay. At the end
of their time in the cabin, they
went over all the tapes they'd
recorded, and took the best of
it, which they then made into
an album. It was a great story,
and I still believe probably true of
some band.
When I saw The Lisa Marr
Experiment's album, I thought
that I might have chanced upon
this gem, which had, in my mind,
reached near mythical proportions. Alas, you can imagine my
expression of disappointment,
anger, and eventually fear at
the sounds of the first song's
country rock power chords and
bar singer. I was unfortunately
unable to make it to the end of
this album, no motter how hard I
tried, and I am being honest. The
music on this album may at least
have been novel was it badly
produced, with the grit of a bar
atmosphere somehow incorporated, but instead it is polished,
and thus loses any personality
which may distinguish it from the
rest of the second-cut mainstream feel-good country rock
that you can access out there,
soren Brothers
Outkast
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
(La Face)
Remember when you saw
Outkast's "The Whole World"
video and thought to yourself,
"can Dre and Big Boi possible get
any more tacky or insane?" The
answer is yes, yes they can. These
mainstream rappers, part of a
group usually associated with
bitches and bling-bling, have
stretched the limits of rap and
hip-hop so far that they have
created their own musical territory yet again. In this, their fifth
album, the Aquemeni pair have
incorporated soul, funk, disco,
gospel, dixieland, and even a
little electro into their already
diverse sound. The album is in
fact a double-CD, one by Andre
[The Love Below) and one by Big
Boi (Speakerboxxx); although
both members appear on each.
As Big Boi assures on "Last Call,"
Outkast isnt breaking up, they just
want to show "what the two sides
are about."
The result is interesting, to
say the least. The division of
production showcases each
artist's personal taste and sound,
allowing the listener to distinguish
influences on previous albums.
Big Boi's Speaterboxxx is a more
classic hip-hop album, heavy
on collaborations, rhymes and
booty bass. Not to say that his
efforts have produced an ordinary disc, by any means. He
uses everything from charging
electronic sounds to a full brass
section to samples of a rooster
crowing. And Jay-Z. Honestly,
who would've thunk... The point
is that Big Boi focuses more on
rapping than singing, and makes
a more typical Outkast sound,
his words flowing like a rhymin'
river over ingenious bass lines
and instrumental choruses. The
shining stars are "Bowtie" and
"Ghettomuzik," although "The
Way You Move" has instant
dancefloor appeal.
The innovative mixture of
sounds and samples create an
exciting set of tracks that encourage you to get down. Dre, on
the other hand takes his work in
a completely different direction.
Up? Out? Diagonally? It's hard
to say. It could be described as
horny-rainbow-space-cowboy,
or intergalactic-sexy-ghetto-
funk, or something along those
lines... in the end, it's just plain
craziness. Dre's falsetto features
on almost every song, most
convincingly in "Spread", a song
guaranteed to get you hot. The
climax of this disc is the fervent
"Hey Ya", another dancefloor
favourite, that blends everything
fun you ever wanted in a song
(clapping sounds, thumping
bass line, acoustic guitar, and a
snappy ending beckoning you to
"shake it like a Polaroid pictqre")
and turns it into something that is
neither rap nor hip-hop nor pop
nor anything else. It's just fucking
cool. Sadly enough, Andre is not
as consistent as his Speakerboxxx
counterpart in producing the
Outkast sound we've all come
to know and love. Many of his
tracks lack a little thug-ness and
a lot of Big Boi's vocal participation. Other songs, like "Roses"
arid "Happy Valentine's Day"
are just plain silly, and attest to
the fact that nowadays, the boys
can do pretty much anything
they want.
The worst part about
Outkast's decision to separate
and work in two camps is that
they have, together, made an
album with twice as many intros,
interludes and oytros. severely .
cutting up the flow of each
disc, and not providing any real
musical satisfaction. Do we really
need to hear Bamboo (Big Boi's
son) gurgle over a faint thump of
bass? Do we need to sit through
a minute of Andre's horrid British
accent? To both I reply: hell no.
Speakerboxxx and The Love
Below would be great as a half-
and-half album, ten tracks each,
no filler, no junk. But, since we
are officially in the world of the
Dirty South, I guess it can't be
avoided. Shout-outs, prayers to
God, and signings-off aside, the
work of Antwan "Big Boi" Patton
and Andre "3000" Benjamin is
progressive, surprising and best
of all, a little more outrageous
than before.
Ozomatii
Coming Up EP
(Concord Records)
OK, first off, let's get this clear:
I was duped into reviewing this
CD. I was promised some association to Jurassic S and thus
snapped it up faster than a
garter belt thrown on a wedding
night. Imagine then my shock
as I played the 6-track, self-produced in-Spanish cheese-fest
that is Coming Up. Surprise,
confusion, distress, anger... all
of these emotions arose, and not
necessarily in that order. Where
was the link? Back in the day,
as they say, both Cut Chemist and Chali2na used to be part of
Ozomatli. Like, waaaaay back,
in the late '90s, when they were
both starting out in L.A.
On this EP, the California-
based Ozo (as they like to call
themselves) have hit basically
every single Latin music stereotype while trying to make something new by incorporating some
jazz, ska and hip hop into their
sound, and occasionally trying
to be political. Strangely enough,
this, their first release in over two
years, doesn't really work out;
they sound like a group of posers.
Instrumental^, things could be
worse. In fact, the general "tropical" feel of the songs (except
the horrendous ballad "Let Me
Dream") is proof that they do
have a talented brass and percussion section, namely Justin
"El Nino" Poree and Mario Calire.
And their collaboration with A.B.
Ill Quintanilla and Kumbia Kings
on the album is quite a booty-
shaker. End praise here. Singing
about La Morena (Ihe Brunette),
el Sol (the Sun), mi gente (my
people), and mi vida (my life)
using lyrics re-hashed from every
salsa album since 1965 just
doesn't fly. No matter how many
African drums or scratch DJ's
you toss into the mix. Ozomatli's
Coming Up is average Latin Pop
trying to be top-notch World
music. If it's Latin hip-hop you're
looking for, try Orishas instead.
Flavia
on "Hear the Wind Blow," or as
dastardly as on "Random Rules,"
or as hypnotic as the superb
"Indian Summer." While some
may still be angry at Wareham
for breaking up Galaxie 500, my
only beef is with the two Phillips'
originals here, which won't really
make you forget her career's
early masterworks: a costarring
turn in the Justine Bateman film
Satisfaction, and the voice of.
cartoon Jem.
Jetset Records has also
released Sonic Souvenirs, an
EP of L'Avvenfura songs allegedly remixed by Sonic Boom of
Spaceman 3 quasi-fame. While
there may be traces of minor,
bush league vocal-highjackery,
and a few new, uh, rain sounds,
there are certainly no Sonic
Booms.
Basil Waugh
it another chance and I realized my mistake. The album is
the exact opposite of our poker
game: introspective, coldly hip,
profoundly female, distant, and
relentlessly foreshadowing an
inevitable catfight. The lyrics are
actually very well written; unfortunately I am a man. TVP alienates
us, and the style, sound, and substance are catered to our hotter
counterparts' dispositions. Despite
the predominantly tranceJike
tone of most of the record, it
successfully feigns rocking out
at times, and that girl-mind in
all of us can't help but nod or
tap along. It's the soundtrack of
people on their way to a party,
but not there yet; at other times,
its sound seems to invite vacant
stares out the window.
Daniel Suarez
Thijjirrte of the ye<ar is cr timeior "scares," arid what's npre..
scarytttiartnothbving-enou^VfTOneyfor'food? -•; '.*.'•
David Usher
Hallucinations
(Capitol/EMI)
The latest offering from David
Usher is pretty much what you'd
expect: pretty, lush arrangements of his songs (which remind
me a lot of some of Sting's works)
and Usher crooning his supposedly poignant lyrics over top.
Teenaged pseudo-poet girls will
love this CD.
That said, it's not at all bad,
you just have to be in that kind
of a rainy-day, contemplative,
David Usher-esque mood to
enjoy it. But what I enjoyed the
most was the bonus mini CD,
with a remix of "In This Light" that
does far more justice to the piece
than the big CD's version, and
two energetic rocking live tracks,
including "Butterfly," which tell
me that David Usher is much better live than on CD. ^-\\ '"
Vampyra Draculea
Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham
L'Awenfura
Sonic Souvenirs E.P.
(Jetset)
Recorded with bandmate Britta
Phillips, Dean Wareham follow up
Luna's suprisingly fine Romantica
with L'Avventura, a collection
of generally bewitching* cover
songs and hormonal, cosmopolitan duets. Our curtain opens to
the stab of strings, warm guitar,
and our Gainsbourg and Bardot,
cool as cucumbers, volleying
sweet nothings, not too unlike
characters in the Antonioni film
for which the album is named.
Although a couple covers are too
straightforward, Wareham simply
doesn't sound much better than
The Vanity Press
s/t
(SOCAN)
I put on The Vanity Press during
a vigorous game of poker with
some friends. We discovered that
it sucked. To the sound of twangy
guitars, electric keyboards (think
The Organ), and a bored female
vocalist, we quickly lost our will
to gamble and turned it off.
Later, though, when Danny had
taken all of our money, I gave
Vendetta Red
Between The Never and The Now
(Epic)
At first listen, this album is an emo
instruction book, with its heavy-
ish guitars and lyrics about girls
lost (the liner notes thanking
Dashboard Confessional and
Hot Water Music helped confirm
my first impression). So I go along
listening to the CD Between the
Never and the Now and all of a
sudden, as if breaking some sort
of emo-convention, lead singer
Zach Davidson starts screaming
as if someone was plucking his
pubes. I didn't get it. It was like all
of a sudden, they realized they
were emo and decided to throw
in a few metal screams to make
their music somehow valid. After
a few songs, they reminded me
of bands like Alexisonfire or End
This Week with Knives, neither of
which have impressed me very
Vendetta Red seems to be
trying to blend metal and rock,
but this disc was just disorganized
and uninteresting pop-influenced
rock. Nothing on this album stood
out as being technically impressive: the music was alright, but
not challenging, the lyrics were
trite and mechanical; and, when
♦he singer was "singing", there
was too much emphasis on the
vocals, making it all too clear that
he was a little tone-deaf.
Vendetta Red may appeal
to some. For instance, if you are
a fan of the bands that I've mentioned, are looking for a lighter
alternative to nu-metal, or are
mired in self-pity because your
high school girlfriend dumped
you twelve years ago, then this
may be an album for you.
Liz Hay •
The Unicorns . '\h »'* ...'
Who, Ml Cut Our Ha/r When
We're Gone? ' r f. ",*
(Aliens) '--'[/
As pink, as" toreaous,' dnd as
prone* to, noisy iwtbvirsts-'Jos'
hungry1 newborn" child, -The'
Unicorns .have.set out from
Montreal- (vlcf "Campbell RiVeci
itti only one objective"to'
iate you believe again They
have .the; unhinged, keyboard^ *
heoyy.Wspasms.; ot -..Qaajjioaf,*'
the experimen'^^fi.inj'r^ciey '
of The Microphones, and. the
innocent/sinister po&. perfection of non-Mpntreal-dwellers ■
Of Montreal. The Unicorns' "j
magic Is bracmgly unique,
twever; their seamless blend
smirking irreverence and
naked sincerity is coated with
the rich and creamy frosting of
genuine ongmaHty Their knack
for perfect pop hooks will bring
you ta but their charmingly off-
kilter kookmess will keep you
fisienlng. Without batting an
eye they'll sKp in fiddles and a
penny whistle next to squirming
blasts of synlh-pop noise and
jittery disco punk drumming
coexists peacefully with sunny
Beach Bays, harmonies:- The
maddeningfy, catchy power-
pop riffs and sing-along chorus
of "Jellybones" will have you
throwing your'nands.in the air
only seconds before the song
dissolves into melancholy fragility and breathy, repeated intonations of "this ts love/so we'll
survive" And If you weren't
already off-balance, the next
tune ("The Clap") seems to
have snucfc in off of a tost Hot
Hot Heat b-side (and for once,
that's a good thing] The theme
song duo of "Lets Get Known"
and "i Was Born (A Unicorn}"
couldn't be more endeanng,
who could resist o line like, "if
we work real hard/we ;can get
some matching clothes/for our
live shows"? Who WW Cut Our
Hot When We're Gone? per- •
fecfly recreates the godfy fun
of kids playing dress-up and the
thrilling immediacy of having a
show in your own kitchen. The
Unicorns are as real as your life
and more magical than your
most twisted fantasies; albums
this fresh don't come along
very often
Various Artists -- •
W/0 In a Box; Songs for* and
Inspired By Hedwlg ondthe
Angry Inch •>- *;.-'•
(Off Records) .'
This album is" a compilation
featuring Sleafer-Klnney Frank
Black, Yoko Ono & Yo La tengo,
V Imperial Teen and The Breeders,
among 'otrjersTThatls rjghf.vWig
in a'Box features more good
music than «you can; handle,
*prvd §ssJvjtf,qll, if yao"boy tKis,
your money,will go to a goad
cause m
To raise runds for Ihe Hehc«-
Martin institute—o supportive
environment for lesbian, gay.
bisexual, transgender and ques-
* tiomng^yqufh between fhe ages
of 12 and 21 ond their families^—over" twenty' artists "have
come together to put out 16
great tracks with lyncs that will
make even the most rebellious
of Catholic schoolgirls blush
, The Sleafer-Klnney and Fred
Schneider (of the B-52s) track
•"The-Angry Inch," for example,
whines' about a sex.'change
operation gone wrong If that s
.not enough to make you want
to buy the album, then surely
the fact thot track 15 Is by Cyndi
- lavper 'and The Minus 5" will
■. leave' yoy CDnWncWd, - ■;.-.■_<■. -■
:-"-;.;.bespite; ."several":'"'.overly
mellow songs highlights of
this album *. include» -Rufus
Wainwrlght's beautiful cpntnbu-
fton, "The Origin of Love, as
wed as The Polyphonic Spree s
title track.,"Wig in a Box," and
Ihe conlnbulion from the Three
Bens—Ben Kweller, Ben Folds,
and Ben tee—"Wicked Little
Town." This album is;, beautiful musically arid.' interesting
lyrically, it features - artwork
done entirely by students of
the Harvey Milk School at the
Hetrick-Martin institute, and if is
so. jam-packed-with talent, my
CD player exploded the minute
{pressed play
Kanbertey Day
Wig in a Box: Songs for and
Inspired by Hedwlg and The
Angry Inch ts widely available
In stares. If you are Interested
In contributing to or finding out
more about tha Hetrick-Martin
Institute and'the Harvey Milk
School, yov can visit their web-
*■ sfte art: www.HMI.org . «. -
I lUtattSL i I
5. cvm* ,
H. faroAVeWtoes&YS
|(tv-CrV tvXSoa/j \5 wppjwtSfc*
&ro*KS<W 0?G*rVO
p -fKeW.W&rfte* .
Secret tWe^, Werner
M>f fraiec* BWe
10. C\jn*
ft. ?ar*UeiortoClefe¥S
w/yLokn &o\iofe
15. B«ek€<t>er3
y°i Si****/ Ruw«r»
17. CunT
IS > ?ar*\ieU-Tv«S<iflty5
W- Gloria.'* ?of*CV*V*>W
2o.T«\ep*Ky (?.<9
21. Mac rfenTtac
ZZ. Ron Cktto ft/* A/icO
2n.rTun+ \
15. ?«r*tl£lflito«*d*YS
H- fVtoota.
12^. Tonv U)»\So«v
Jcsstzobotefe.. •
|30. l*«k AV>c<*rwS«*N
TKa> £«IU| Boy
AftaWL Isodtit^
ariSrer'— '
-& r>lsoo*J>e£ live reviews
Mogwai
September 25
Commodore Ballrom
I know I'm old. I only have one .
Mogwai album. I don't really
remember any of the names of
the songs. But I've seen them
live once before and it was
a wonderful, mind-numbing,
ear-deafening experience. This
show was no different. Each
song blended into the next in a
seamless wave of sound. Last
time I was completely unfamiliar
and found myself startled by their
sudden melodic crashes. This
time I was prepared. This time I
left my earplugs at home and we
welcomed the onslaught. It was
loud, it was continuous and it felt
like catharsis.
I wanted to start a mosh pit.
I wanted to yell.
I wanted to break dishes.
I wanted to be entombed, and
overwhelmed in a sea of Mogwai
sound.
I wanted everyone in Vancouver
to see how this wee band from
Scotland can make the noise of
thousands.
I wanted the crowd to shut the
fuck up.
I wanted the beautiful auiet moments to last forever.
I wanted to hit something.
I wanted to be this impressed
more often.
I wanted to capture what they
created.
I wanted them to never stop.
When I was a teenager,
during the halcyon days of the
grunge era, I used to go to shows
a. lot. Living in Sault Ste. Marie,
there weren't really that many
places to lash out my teen age
angst. I would see nameless punk
bands and grunge wanna-bes
just to get lost in the throes of
music. But there was always one
band I longed to see, Sianspheric. Soundscapey but crunchy,
they were Canada's Mogwai
8 years ago, but they never-
caught on. It was a little strange
now that I'm more familiar with •
Mogwai's work because I felt like
I should be seeing Sianspheric up
there, that they should be filling
the Commodore. The music was
sort of like coming home but it
wasn't them. The saddest thing: I
finally got to see Sianspheric play
this year at New Music West, a
watered down, older Sianspheric
and they were no Mogwai. I'm
glad there are still bands out
there that are slaves to the layers
of noise guitars illicit. No matter
how old I get, I will always love
the wall of sound they create.
This show was a rare occurrence
in the music world, something to
be savoured.
As for the old lady in me, she
left more than happy. One of my
major concert peeves is talking
during shows. You go to shows
to listen, not to catch up on the
latest gossip. I've had so many
shows ruined by incessantly gabby folks. Mogwai took it in stride;
they just drowned them out.
r. fisher
Damien Rice
September 29
Richard's on Richards
More than a few curious onlook;
ers who had heard or read about
Damien Rice somewhere surrounded the "Damo" die-hards
at Richard's on Richards on the
night of September 30, wondering if the money they had spent
on the tickets were worth it.
That question was pretty
well answered by the end of the
first song, "Delicate." The band
was on. The occasionally moody
Rice was smiling, entertaining
and looked like he was having a
great time, as did the rest of the
band (Vyvienne Long on cello,
Tomo on drums, and Shane Fitzsi-
mons on bass). Normally, there
is a fourth member, vocalist Lisa
Hannigan, but she had acting
commitments to fulfill and was
not part of the tour. To many fans,
Hannigan, with her stunningly
beautiful voice, is just as big
an attraction as Rice, and her
absence was definitely noticed.
Rice acknowledged her absence
before starting into an extended
version of "I Remember," a song
that Hannigan usually sings.
Rice nicely mixed the songs
from his album O with various
b-sides and unreleased tracks,
such as "Baby Sister," and the
always-humourous "The Professor." One of the highlights of
the evening came during the
middle of the set, as Rice and the
band launched into a beautiful
rendition of "Eskimo." The male
members of the band then left
the stage so Long could go solo.
After finishing her solo. Long
revealed to the returning Rice
that something was caught in
her top which allowed Rice to
make a few jokes and get a few
more laughs from the audience.
In a rather tongue-in-cheek
statement, Rice asked fans not to
show her too much pity because
"she had been with nine boys
recently."
After the laughs, the set then
ended with two songs that needed no introduction to the Rice
die-hards, "Volcano" and "The
Blower's Daughter." Of course,
the crowd hadn't had enough
and cheered for an encore,
which they got after several minutes of hooting and hollering. In the
encore, Rice played three songs:
"The Blower's Daughter, Part
/AtetfrSo^ftre,saeqminQundecipherable iy*'»cs»
FKpfo by Wi f?#tmay-^r
HB^ • "p jH
i^\ P8HE
JP^ J" L~*$
\Sm?
- J! H-^a fi
II," "Cannonball," and ended
(with a little help from opening
band Pedestrian) with a nearly
20-minute version of "Cheers
Darlin'," which concluded with
a bit from Prince's "When Doves
Cry." When the approving crowd
finally dispersed, more than a
few people at the. club were
overheard raving about Rice's
talents.
At the beginning of the
night, many fans at Richard's
barely knew who Damien Rice
was, but by the end, all of them
were cheering for more of him
and digging into their pockets to
get more of his music. That's a
successful night for any artist and
definite sign that he and his band
put on a great show.
Wilson Wong ^•''^^^iffi
Billy Talent
Alexisonfire
Death from Above
October 02
Croatian Cultural Centre
I arrived at the Croatian Cultural
Centre just as locals Death From-
Above were ending their set. Bad
planning on my part; however,
Alexisonfire was setting up and I
was able to witness the hundreds
of screaming teens starting to .
throw empty water bottles across
the mosh pit in anticipation. It
was rock'n'roll all-ages frenzy,
the average age of the crowd
being 15. Alexisonfire is an odd
band, but they have a definite,
following. They would constantly
acknowledge their fan-base,
even including them in a spontaneous singing of happy birthday
(with cake!) to the band's
screamer-vocalist, George. In
short, their songs are melodic
punk rock. Guitarist Wade has a
beautiful voice that carries the
songs through, but then George
incoherently screams on top
of it, which, in my opinion, ruins
the whole thing. Not because
he's screaming, but because
he sounds like he's puking. It
becomes extremely annoying
and hard to listen to. While I
couldn't tell their songs apart or
truly get into their music, there
were still throngs of fans with their
banded-wrists pumping, riding
the mosh pit to the scream-o.
As Billy Talent was setting up,
the stereo was pumping Mars
Votta's latest album, De-loused
In The Comatorium, which I air-
drummed and lip-synced to with
glee. As for Billy Talent, it's not
often that a band can puH off a
tight sound in studio as well as on
stage, especially at the Croatian
Cultural Centre, but BHIy Talent
succeeded! Their songs and
stage-presence were solid from
beginning to end. Singer Ben
Kowalewicz would belt out wild
screams in rock star poses while
guitarist Ian D'Sa's memorabte
riffs would resonate through the
bones of everyone's body. Bassist
Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron
Solowoniuk kept the rhythm going strong.
The band practically played
their entire album. "Try-Honesty"
brought the crowd into a singing fury as would be expected.
However, I found I was rocking
out to their encore of "Standing
Oamkr\ Rite atffiChetfdtson Rtefiarcis
in the Rain" and Fugazi's "Waiting
Room." Sure, it was an all-ages
show, but the enthusiasm at Billy
Talent was triple what you'd find
at the Commodore any night. All
in all, it was an awesome end to
an excellent rock show.
Robyn Hanson
Saves the Day
Taking Back Sunday
October 14
Croatian Cultural Centre
When I heard that Saves the
Day was touring-with Taking
Back Sunday, I was immediately
reminded of the last TBS show at
the CCC, which wasUttered with .
pre-teen girls screaming lead
singer Adam Lazarra's name,
and itching to touch his oh so
sexy body. However, when I arrived at the show, I was relieved
to see a majority of the show-goers were in their late teens and
twenties like myself: perhaps old
school Saves the Day faniOr-.'-. •..
followers of the Moneen experience. One thing was for sure:
there were definitely less admirers
of Adam than at the last TBS
showcase.
As Moneen hit the stage,
the reaction from the crowd was
the usual for the opening band:
a group of die-hard fans in the
pit, surrounded by a confused-
looking crowd wondering what
the hell a "Moneen" really is.
As a Moneen fan myself, I was
thoroughly disappointed by
their performance. The vocals
were cranked up like a pop-
punk radio band, there was no
Kenny-audience interaction that
is characteristic of the ener-
getic lead singer, and the playlist
choice was limited to five or six of
the group's biggest (but mostly
newest) songs.
Then came Taking Back
Sunday, the pop-punk/emo
one-album-wonder that has
recently become the newest
fad among junior high kids who
last year were faithfully following
A New Found Glory. Call them
pop-punk, emo, post-punk-pop-
emocore or whatever you want,
their live show was rock star crap.
Singer Adam Lazarra decided it
would be innovative to fuck up
every chorus, sing every second
line and lazily drop an octave
on every high note. But Lazarra
wasn't the only cancer in the
band's performance. The whole
band was just sloppy, probably-
owing to the fact that the band
split up half a year ago and
obtained two new members for
the tour. Despite all these faults,
however, the high school girls
didn't seem to mind. £fesS§w
Then Saves the Day hit the
stage. The pop-punk foursome',
started their set with their biggest
hit, "At Your Funeral." The atmosphere was awesome; the whole
room seemed to sing along and
those who didn't know,the lyrics
tried their best anyway. Although
the band played their newest
songs with perfection, it became
apparent that the band had no
intention of playing any of their
older material. A token "Hollyhox,
Forget Me Nots" was played with
little enthusiasm as was most of
their set. Their slow songs were
played well, and>the ones that
were supposed to rock, didn't.
After a much-expected encore
g^^tee emotional "Not An Exit"
to finish the evening, STD left with
modest waves and thanks.
^§§jeihris. Stevens
2M- fOov/er»Nber 2ao3 . Sloan
Cuff the Duke
October 1^^^
Vogue Theatre
Remember the days when Sloan
was a really good band with
clever Lyrics and fresh-sounding
music? Well KISS THOSE DAYS
GOODBYE, because despite the
minute decency of their latest
album Action Pact. SLOAN WILL
NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. "
Sloan's most rece'nt trip to
Vancouver brought about a
show that was only worth seeing
because of the opening act.
Cuff the Duke. The young band
from Oakville, Ontario, was definitely not familiar to the crowd
of youngsters at the Vogue
Theatre, and although they
put on a spectacular set, they
weren't as well received by the
crowd as would be expected by
such a wonderful performance.
Having borrowed Andrew Scott
of Sloan's guitar, Cuff the Duke
lead singer Wayne Petti played
and sang his heart out, throwing
all of his energy and emotion
into the songs that are infinitely
better live than on CD. Cuff the
Duke played a fairly long but
never weak set, lacking only one
thing that was present for their
previous Vancouver shows: a
harmonica. Look out for these
guys...they are extremely talented, their take on alt-country is
very original, and they're going
to be huge one day.
As for Sloan, the only word
that can sufficiently epitomize
their performance is DISSAPOINT-
MENT. Immediately upon starting
their set, Chrjs.Murphy—bassist,
guitarist, pianist, vocalist, drum-
■meF,e>Elraordinaire—mouthed off
at a wavering "fan and threat-
'^en^^fo.'kltk him out of the show
because of his inebriated condition. The next few songs were
played with a very distracted
Murphy silently mouthing to his
roadies to get the fan removed
from the venue.
Once the fan was removed,
the band picked up the pace
again, and played many new
songs, and every old single one
could possibly think of. New music aside, Sloan only played two
songs.that were neither singles or
featured on beer commercials
nationwide. They only switched
instruments ONCE, there was
no piano to be found, and they
played "The Other Man," quite
possibly the worst song to ever
exist. Chris Murphy's drumming
was so off, his fellow band members were forced to crane their
necks back to closely watch his
hands in order to play along.
This sloppy performance
was absolutely heartbreaking
and ended well before curfew,
but this is to be expected from
a band that reached its peak
a decade ago and has gone
downhill ever since. They didn't
even play "Underwhelmed."
Kimberley Day
My Morning Jacket
Patrick Park
October 18
Richard's on Richards
In the past year, DiSCORDER writers have collectively described
'lWekrtow toov "to show up abandlhcrf's
been arouwclfot- to yearsl" Cafffhe
Duke crrtye VcgiKfjhecctre.
Photo by kfrttberjey Oaf
My Morning Jacket's shows and
albums as "fiery retro-rock,"
"absolutely perfect," and "one
fucking step closer to enlightenment." You might think our
glorious little rag is on the band's
payroll (hey, we could always
use the money), except their
most recent show at Richard's
proved everything those reviewers said was completely true.
A shoeless and sockless Jim
James led the hirsute quintet
(well, the keyboardist isn't very
hairy) through a 90-minute set of
loudness and beauty. The band
held the crowd's attention in a
vice grip from about 30 seconds
into the first song, "Mahgeetah."
right through to the incredibly
bruising finale of "Phone Went
West." How could the crowd
help themselves? James's
shoulder-length hair waved
wildly when he headbanged
and completetycovered his
face when he sang—the man
looked like the Addams Family's
Cousin It. But through all that hair,
James's live (read: non-mixed
or mastered) vocals soared
just as strongly and sweetly as
on album. The rest of the band
supported James with the force
of a hurricane and the subtlety
of a whisper. Even through layers
of feedback, the separation
between the instruments was
excellent and each rang true
with force and brilliance; many
of the band1 s songs ended with
a guitar/bass/drums jam that left
the crowd slack-jawed in awe
(or dancing theirasses off without care for the people around
them in the case of the lady
standing next to me). Standout
songs included "The Way That He
Sings," which sampled James'
vocal harmony (I seriously doubt
any backing vocal from the
other band members could
compare to James's) and "One
Big Holiday," which blev/fhe
crowd away with its fierce guitar-
picked climax.
As if answering an unmade
challenge to show diversity
beyond incendiary rock jams,
James began the band's encore
with a brief solo acoustic set
that spellbound the crowd with
its homespun elegance and
beauty. James's voice still engulfed the room and he hardly
needed a band to hide behind.
The band did rejoin James for
"Phone Went West," where
James' angelic lyric "Tell me I'm
wrong/ Tell me I'm right/ TeH me
there's nobody elseJn the world"
(which James' embellished by
stretching "world" by about five
extra seconds) intermingled with
the band's stop-start playing to
induce the crowd into awe-inspired, stop-start headbobbing.
Doubtless, then, that this was the
Concert of the Semester; I only
hope my words here can stand
next to my colleagues in doing
My Morning Jacket justice.
Neil Braun
Kid Koala
DJ Jester
Lederhosen Lucil
October 19
Commodore Ballroom
Theiun'started when I was
handed the bingo sheet. Next
thing I know, the Commodore
Ballroom, which I'd thought I was
so familiar with, had been transformed with several round tables
and rows of chairs filling up the
main standing area. I find myself
in something of a classy jazz
venue with old trumpet jazz solos
on the speakers for atmosphere,
and absolutely everyone in the
room is smiling. In a pamphlet
that was handed out with the
bingo sheet, there were short
blurbs on all of the performers
of the evening, as well as their
friends who helped create the
show we were about to see.
The first opener was DJ
Jester, who kicked it all off with
upbeat mixing of some popular
tunes (starting with the theme
fromGhostbusters). His mixing was good, but what was
perhaps more powerful than his
music was his ear-to-ear smile
and energy, which got everyone
in the room cheering and beaming.
Lederhosen Lucil was next
up, and I'm not really even sure
what to say about her. Her music
was basically two synthesizers
with her singing, but what came
out was everything from rap
to punk, reggae, lounge, new
wave, or basically anything that
she could think up, and she was
more than happy to drastically
change her singing style to accommodate all the different
sounds, sometimes even more
than once in a given song. Lederhosen Lucil is from Montreal,
speaks with a fake German
accent, and is perhaps one of
the best performers I have ever
seen, even giving out a health
bar prize to fhe best dancer to
her dance number.
Scratch turntablism isn't
generally seen as an especially
emotional genre of music, but I
feel it's fair to say that Kid Koala,
or Eric San, is among the top artists of his genre, and as a great
artist is able to create an entirely
affecting set of music. I once
heard a performer say that, "if
you play for applause, that's all
you're going to get," and I don't
think I ever fully understood that
until this night. San has amazing
technique and virtuosity, and
could probably make a living
simply showcasing that, but
instead he crafts stories and love
songs, and it all feels earnest.
Sometimes with DJ P-Love
and DJ Jester, and sometimes
entirely on his own, San was
always able to keep everyone
happy, and by the end everyone was clambering over each
other to dance up front. It was as
if all their energy had been slowly
building inside them through the
entire evening, until it was just
too much to take sitting down,
and they just had to scream and
jump and twist and spin, and
that's exactly what they did.
The Commodore became, for
that one night, something of a
circus, with all different kinds of
attractions, and I can say with
confidence that no one left that
show feeling short-changed.
soren Brothers • .
Sloan's Claris/V(Ufphy>pQUsm9"for a mo-
rrtfcrrtfrrw b/SsecufHy guard dutfesio
Sf«gaso«9 PVjQfoby!rf»W)eftebPcu3
UPCOMING MUST-SEE SHOWS
If you miss these, you have no reason to live.
Blood Brothers with The Red Light Sting
November 09
Mesa Luna
The Blood Brothers are coming back! If you
ask anyone who went to the last show, this
is not something you should be passing up.
Dancing, yelling, jumping, and just plain row-
diness are guaranteed to be plentiful.
Local band The Red Light Sting will be opening, fresh off of a stop in the US that landed
them in New York for CMJ. They put on a
good show, just don't throw anything up on
stage while they're performing.
fe
Vi
Broken Social Scene with Stars
November 12
Richard's on Richards
Does Broken Social Scene even need Q^i-
troducticiis| f?dther th^^e^«j^fic^'yo014^ee
this shovjfMlviH simP'y.M^I^^^^^^^" liiiiif imi-ppii'Cf mm
A Tribute for Ju
"benefiting The
iLINDA McRAE & Cheerful Lonesome
i BOTTLENECK
ELDORADO
AUBURN J
THEHAIRYBALLS i
KICK IN THE EYE Pi
the anza cluS 9pm
m^
03MTJTLJRIO
P
jCs&VC 6kftoue*4 r>ovenbw XooS
J »§t*v'W^v".f mov 12™ ;
; JETS OVERHEAD TUr Uf*Y flllT '
! FRANNY ft THE FLAMES ! ' Itflf UUI
I (SMUGGLERS. MACH 3. NEW TOWN ANIMALS)
NOV igl^w NOV "2 6*™ !
iJSKJl^^i/i1^! ELDORADO ;
B1RU«lo!ilFLY!GMHAM BROWNE
•IMMACULATE MACHIME! » the prairie dogs ,
aTHE VALVES:
-*;( «X DOA. SUBHUMAMS, MODERMETTES)' j
Info: COi| 878-COCO • RUMBlf TONI,COM
SPONSORED BY PONCHO'S ROCKIN' TACOS
2tV r^cvemr>ber 1SX&
TO be. Cord^<-»e4 • . 2WSVST
November Long Vinyl
November Short Vinyl
November Charts 20 Years Ago
v Mln6r,trmor. Who'&tfie'srMfesf of Ihetn'QH^-
1 Stinkmitt
Scratch and Sniff
Teenage USA
2 Oh Susanna
s/t
Nettwerk
3 Buck 65
Talkin' Honky Blues
Wea
4 Sparrow
s/t
Overcoat
5 Ted Leo & the Flximacists
Tell Balgeary, Balgury is...
Lookout!
6 Kid Koala
Some of My Best Friends.
NhjaTune
7Dudes
Beepuncher
Moustache Wax
8ButttessChaps
Love This Time
Mint
9 v/a
KIBE!:Vol. lsdtk
Warner
10 Iggy Pop
Skull Ring
Vrgjn
11 Mark Farina
s/t
Om
12 Mr. Airplane Man
Moanin'
Sympathy
13 Mummies
Death By Unga Bunga
Estrus
14 Rachel's
Systems/Layers
Quarterstick
IS Ken Nordme
Wink
Asphodel
16 US Maple
Purple On lime
Touch and Go
17JoeStrummer
Streetcore
Hellcat
18LFO
Sheath
Warp
19 AB State Champion
Al State Champion
Five One Inc.
20 Stereolab
Instant 0 in the Universe
Etektra
21 Do Make Say Think
Winter Hymn Country...
Constellation
22 Stars
Heart
Arts and Crafts
23 Tha
Triumphant
Scratch
24 Hawksley Workman
Lover/Fighter
Universal
25 No Luck Club
Happiness
III Boogie
26 Belle and Sebastian
Dear Catastrophe Waitress Rough Trade
27 Danko Jones
We. Sweat Bbod
Universal
28 Ladytron
Softcore Jukebox
Emperor Norton
29 v/a
DFAcompliafon#l
DFA
30 Sloan
Action Pact
BMG
31 Basement Jaxx
KishKash
Astrdwerks
32+/-
You Are Here
TeenBeat
33 Cheer Accident
Introducing Lemon
Skin Graft
34 Guided By Voices
Earthquake Glue
Matador
35 The Unicorns
_Who Wit Cut Our Har...
Aliens
Elliott Smith
Pretty (Ugly Before
2 v/a
Gossip/Erase Errata
i
^ JBteS
3 Microphones
Lanterns
jm
4 Triggers
Medicine
M
MPMiyl
5 Clorox Girls
s/
r ^^H
6 v/a
Fliptops/Gloryholes
■— -g§
*» Ml
7 Hidden Cameras
Play "Ban Marriage
8 aLUnARED
ELCTRK
1 m
-*i
9 v/a
Black Rebels/Nearly Deads
-i m
S£l
10 Stuck Ups
Last Chance
1 H
91
11 v/a
Explosion/Tonsils
"l JP
12 Lost Vegas
Neo Psych
I **m'
*^SrH HPI
13 v/a
Low Rollers/Diskords
^m
ij^j^fl HF i
14 v/a
Dancing in the Dark
Mm ^m I
15 Ludella Black
The Pill-
m
fi mt
16 v/a
Icarus Line/Burning Bride.
1
mr
17 Shell
Gimme She
M
Wm
18X27
t^m
■
1 mm m
19 Low Beam
20 Federation X
Airstream and Dreac
s/
§ Adrian Belew kn
1 Adrian Belew
2 Hunters & Collectors
qws karate.
Twang Bar King
The Fireman's Curse
^gm*
n
3XTC
Mummer
H
k
4 The Mekons
The English Dancing Master
*H
m.
5 Enigmas
Enigmas EP
1
iBl
m
6 The Bongos
Numbers with Wings
f.
- *Tm
w ■ -1
7 3 Teens Kill 4
No Motive
F 1
I 1
I
8 UB40
Labour of Love
1
i J
1
9 Anne Clark
10 The Alarm
Changing Places
The Alarm
■*jjH
11 Cabaret Voltaire
The Crackdown
12 Nina Hagen
Angstlos
13 Alan Vega
Saturn Strip
14 Elvis Costello
Punch the Clock
15 Green on Red
Gravity Talks
16 Howard Devoto
Jerky Versions of the Dream
17 DepecheMode
Construction Time Again
18 Kissing the Pink
Naked
EIHo ft anjcf his Qiqnt feneejj,
19 Rent Boys Inc
20 Violent Femmes
Squeal for Joy EP
Violent Femmes
c
HOW THE CHARTS WORK }
The. monthly charts are compiled based on the number of
times a CD/LP ("long vinyl"), 7" ("short vinyl"), or demo tape/
CD ("indie home'jobs") on CiTR's playlist was played by our DJs
during the previous month (i.e., "November" charts reflect airplay over October). Weekly charts can be received via email.
Send mail to "majordomo@unixg.ubc.ca" with the command:
"subscribe citr-charts." •
X? t>"i3(jO«>eR ARE YOU SERIOUS? MUSIC
9:00AM- 12:00PM
All of time is measured by its
art.
. This show presents the most
recent new music from around
the world. Ears open.
THE ROCKERS SHOW
12:00PM-3:00PM
Reggae inna all styles and
fashion.
BLOOD ON THE SADDLE
3:OOPM-5:0OPM
Real cowshit-caught-in-yer-
boots country.
CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING alt.
5:00PM-6:00PM
British pop music from all
decades.
SAINT TROPEZ alt.
5:0OPM-6:00PM
International pop (Japanese,
French, Swedish, British, US,
etc.), '60s soundtracks and
lounge. Book your jet set holiday now!
QUEER FM
6:00PM-8:00PM
Dedicated to the gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transsexual communities of Vancouver. Lots of
human interest features, background on current issues, and
great music.
RHYTHMSINDIA
8:00PM-10:00PM
Rhythmslndia features a wide
range of music from India,
including popular music from
Indian movies from the 1930s
to the present, classical music,
semi-classical music such as
Ghazals and Bhajans, and also
Qawwalis, pop, and regional
language numbers.
TRANCENDANCE
10:0OPM-12:O0AM
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 mystic-al. <trancendance
@hotmail.com>
THE SHOW
12:00AM-2:00AM
FILL-IN
2tftOAM-6:00AM
MONDAY
FILL-IN
6:00AM- 8:00AM
BREAKFAST WITH THE BROWNS
8:00AM-11:00AM
Your favourite brown-sters,
James and Peter, offer a
savoury blend of the familiar
and exotic in a blend of aural
delights!
THE DIM SUM SHOW
11:00AM-1:00PM
PARTS UNKNOWN
1:00PM-3:00PM
Underground pop for the
minuses with the occasional
interview with your host, Chris.
SANDBOX THEATRE
3:00PM-4:00PM
A show of radio drama orchestrated and hosted by UBC students, featuring independent
works from local, national, and
international theatre groups.
We welcome your involvement. <sandboxtheatre@hot
mail.com>
ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS
4:00PM-5:00PM
A chance for new CiTR DJs
to flex their musical muscle.
Surprises galore.
STRAIGHT TALK
10 recent albums that keeps Robert Robot oblivious to Jack FM
(Planet Lovetron Thursdays 10 am -11:30 am)
1. DJ Broken Window - Parallel Universe Parts 1 & 2
2. Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place
3. Various Artists - Soyz Revenge
4. Kill Memory Crash - When The Blood Turns Black
• •-^^feMen'n9 Bolt- Wonderful Rainbow
6. Various Artists - Digital Disco 2
7: DM & Jemini - Ghetto Pop Lite
8. The Bug - Pressure
■,, ^IftyVRSSNNl]]] - Comeouffoshowdem
10. Ghtslain PaWer-Bears as Politics
10 guilty pleasures songs that Robert Robert cant bring himself
to play on the Planet Lovetron show
,>* if§§$yo.nce (Feat. Jay-Z) - "Crazy in Love" - •.
2. Heart- "Barracuda"
3. Kyle Minogue - "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
4. Outcast - "Hey Ya"
5. KLF - "3am Eternal" j
^Ipj^rything But the Girl - "Missing"
7. 2 Pac - "California Love"
8. The Verve - "Bittersweet Symphony"
9. Queens Of The Stone Age - "No One Knows"
^Hp^cy Chapman - "Fast Cdr"
your guide to
"TO 10l.9ni
5:00PM-6:00PM
CRASH THE POSE alt.
6:00PM-7:30PM
Hardcore/punk as fuck from
beyond the grave.
SOLARIZATION (on hiatus) alt.
6:00PM-6:30PM
MY ASS alt.
6:30PM-7:30PM
Phelps, Albini, 'n' me.
WIGFLUX RADIO
7:30PM-9:00PM
Listen to Sebcta Krystabelle for
your reggae education.
THE JAZZ SHOW
9:00PM-12:00AM
Vancouver's longest-running
prime time jazz program.
Hosted by the ever-suave
Gavin Walker. Features at 11.
Nov 3: "Davis Cup" is the only
(and rare) blue note album by
the prolific pianist/composer
Walter Davis Jr. In a program
of Davis originals this swinging
pianist brings trumpeter Donald
Byrd and hot alto saxophonist
Jackie McLean into his quntet.
Nov 10: Hezekiah "Stuff" Smith
played real jazz violin and
swung wih a rawness and a
passion that was unequaled
in this music. One of Stuff's best
recordings was this one in collaboration with trumpet giant
Dizzy Gillespie. Hot Stuff!
Nov 17: That Jim Hall is one of
the finest living jazz guitarists is
beyond question but which
of his hundreds of recordings
to pick for a feature? This one
comes close to perfection.
Recorded in Toronto with two
great Canadina jazz players.
Don Thompson (bass) Terry
Clarke (drums)
Nov 24: Serge Chaloff was one
of the pioneers of the baritone
saxophone and one of the first
players to translate Charlie
Parker's musical language to
the big horn. Chaloff's life was
tragic and he died in 1957.
Today he would be 80 and we
celebrate by playing his last
and finest date called "Blue
Serge".
VENGEANCE IS MINE
12:00AM-3:00AM
Hosted by Trevor. It's punk rock,
baby! Gone from the charts
but not from our hearts—thank
fucking Christ.
PSYCHEDELIC AIRWAVES
3:O0AM-6:30AM
DJ Christopher Schmidt also
hosts Organix at Club 23 (23
West Cordova) every Friday.
TUESDAY
PACIFIC PICKIN*
6:30AM-8:O0AM
Bluegrass, old-time music, and
its derivatives with Arthur and
"The Lovely Andrea" Berman.
HIGHBRED VOICES
8:00AM-9:30AM
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM
9:30AM-11:30AM
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!
<bcminsixtynine@lTotmail.com>
FILL-IN alt.
11:30AM- 1:00PM
MORNING AFTER SHOW alt.
11:30 AM-12:30PM
REEL TO REAL alt.
12:30PM-1:00PM
Movie reviews and criticism.
BEATUP RONIN
12:00PM-2:00PM alt.
(starting nov. 18)
Where dead samurai can program music.
FILL-IN
1:O0PM-2:00PMalt
CIRCUIT TRACING
2:00PM-3:30PM
EN AVANT LA MUSIQUE alt.
3:30PM-4:30PM
«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 Francophone
musicians.
ELECTRIC AVENUES alt.
3:30PM-4:30PM
Last Tuesday of every month,
hosted by The Richmond
Society For Community Living.
A variety music and spoken
word program with a focus on
people with special needs and
disabilities.
THE MEAT-EATING VEGAN
4:30PM-5:00PM
WENER'S BARBEQUE
5:00PM-6:00PM
Join the sports dept. for their.
coverage of the T-Birds.
FLEXYOURHEAD
6:0OPM-8:OOPM
Up the punx, down the emo!
Keepin' it real since 1989, yo.
flexyourhead.vancouverhard
core.com
SALARIO MINIMO
8:00PM-10:00PM
THE LOVE DEN alt.
10:00PM-12:00AM
<bveden@hotmail.com>
ESCAPISM alt.
10:00PM-12.00AM
es«cap»ism n: escape from
the reality *or routine of life by
absorbing the mind in entertainment or fantasy. Host: DJ
Satyricon.
Aug 5: Pounding System: dub-
wise and otherwise.
Aug 19: Church of Hell: Mars
Attacks!
<DJSatyricon@hotmail.com>
AURAL TENTACLES
12:00AM-6:00AM
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
FILL-IN
6:00AM- 7:00AM
THE SUBURBAN JUNGLE
7:O0AM-9:O0AM
Bringing you an entertaining
and eclectic mix of hew and
old music live from the Jungle
Room with your irreverent
hosts Jack Velvet and Nick
the Greek. R&B, disco, techno,
soundtracks, Americana, Latin
jazz, news, and gossip. A real
gem!
<suburbcrjxigJe@dxrr)eE8iCcm>
FOOL'S PARADISE
9:00AM-lO:O0AM
Japanese music and talk.
EXQUISITE CORPSE
10:00AM-11:30AM
ANOIZE
11:30AM-1:00PM
Luke Meat irritates and educates through musical deconstruction. Recommended for
the strong.
THE SHAKE alt.
1:00PM-2:00PM
FOR THE RECORD alt.
1:00PM-2:00PM
DEMOCRACY NOW
2:00PM-3:00PM
Independent news hosted
by award-winning journalists
Amy Goodman and Juan
Gonzalez.
MOTORDADDY alt.
3:00PM-5:00PM
Cycle-riftic rawk and roH!
RUMBLETONE RADIO alt.
3:00PM-5:00PM
Primitive, fuzzed-out garage
mayhem)
RACHEL'S SONG
5:00PM-6:30PM
Socio-political, environmental
activist news and spoken word
with some music, too.
www.necessaryvoices.org
<necessaryvoices@telus.net>
AND SOMETIMES WHY alt.
6:30PM-8:00PM
(First Wednesday of every
month.)
BLUE MONDAY alt.
6:30PM-8:00PM
Vancouver's only industrial-
electronic-retro-goth program.
Music to schtomp to, hosted
by Coreen.
JUICEBOX
8:O0PM-9:O0PM
Your ears have never felt so
naughty!
FOLK OASIS
9:00PM-11:00PM
Roots music for folkies and non-
folkies... bluegrass, singer-songwriters, worldbeat, alt country,
and more. Not a mirage!
<folkoasis@canada.com>
HANS KLOSS' MISERY HOUR
11:O0PM-2:00AM
FIRST FLOOR SOUND SYSTEM
2:00AM-6:00AM
THURSDAY
FILL-IN
6:O0AM-8:O0AM
END OF THE WORLD NEWS
8:00AM-10:00AM
PLANET LOVETRON
10:00AM-11:30AM
Music inspired by Chocolate
Thunder, Robert Robot
drops electro past and
present, hip hop and inter-
galactic funkmanship.
<rbotlove@yahoo.com>
FILL-IN
11:30AM-1:00PM -
STEVE AND MIKE
1:00PM-2:00PM
Crashing the boy's" club in the
pit. Hard and fast, heavy and
slow fpunk and hardcore).
THE ONOMATOPOEIA SHOW
2:00PM-3:00PM
Comix comix comix. Oh yeah,
and some music with Robin.
RHYMES AND REASONS
3:00PM-5:00PM
DJ Knowone slaves over hot-
multi-track to bring a fresh continuous mix of fresh every week..
Made from scratch, samples
and just a few drops of fame.
Our tables also have plethora
of guest DJs, performers, interviews, giveaways. Strong Bad
and the occasional public
service announcements.
<eno_wonk@yahoo.ca>
LOCAL KIDS MAKE GOOD
5:00PM-6:00PM alt.
Local Dave brings you local
music of all sorts. The program
most likely to play your band!
PEDAL REVOLUTIONARY alt.
5:00PM-6:00PM
Viva la Velorution! DJ Helmet
Hair and Chainbreaker
Jane give you all the
bike news and views
you need and even cruise
around while doing it!
www.bikesexual.org '■
OUT FOR KICKS
6:00PM-7:30PM
No Birkenstocks, nothing politically correct. We don't get
paid so you're damn right we
have fun with it. Hosted by
Chris B.
ON AIR WITH GREASED HAIR
7:30PM-9:00PM
The best in roots rock 'n' roll
and rhythm and blues from
1942-1962 with your snappily-
attired host, Gary Olsen.
<ripitup55@telus.net>
UVE FROM THUNDERBIRD RADIO HHi
9:00PM-11:00PM
Local muzak from 9 til 10. Live
2& NoveivyJxr .2oo3 bandzfrom lOtil 11.
www.stepandahalf.com/
tbirdhell
WORLD HEAT
11:00PM-1:00AM
; An old punk rock heart
considers the oneness of all
things and presents music
• of. worlds near and far.
Your host, the great Daryl-
ani, seeks reassurance via
<woridheat@hotmail.com>.
WIRELESS CRUELTY
1:00AM-6:00AM
FRIDAYS
FILL-IN
6:00AM- 8:00AM
CAUGHT IN THE RED
8:00AM-10:00AM
Trawling the trash heap of
over 50 years' worth of real
rock'n'roll debris.
SKA-TS SCENE-IK DRIVE!
10:00AM-12:00PM
Email requests to: <djska_
t@hotmail.com>
THESE ARE THE BREAKS
12:00PM-2:00PM
Top notch crate diggers DJ
Avi Shack and Promo mix the
underground hip hop, old
school classics, and original
breaks.
THE LEO RAMIREZ SHOW
2:00PM-3:30PM
The best mix of music, news,
sports, and commentary
from around the local and
international Latin American
communities.
NARDWUAR THE HUMAN
SERVIETTE PRESENTS...
3:30PM-5:00PM
CiTR NEWS AND ARTS
5:00PM-6:00PM
A volunteer-produced,
student and community newscast featuring news,
sports and arts. Reports by
people like you. "Become the
Media." To get involved, visit
www.citr.ca and click "News
Dept."
THE NORTHERN WISH
6:00PM-7:30PM
AFRICAN RHYTHMS
7:30PM-9:00PM
David "Love" Jones brings
you the best new and old jazz,
soul, Latin, samba, bossa. and
African music from around
the world,
www.africanrhythmsradio.
HOMEBASS
9:00PM-12:00AM
Hosted by DJ Noah: techno
but also some trance, acid,
tribal, etc. Guest DJs, inter
views, retrospectives, giveaways, and more.
I LIKE THE SCRIBBLES alt.
12:00AM-2:00AM
THE ANTIDOTE alt.
12:O0AM-2:O0AM
THE VAMPIRE'S BALL
2:00AM-6:00AM
Dark, sinister music of all
genres to soothe the Dragon's
soul. Hosted by Drake.
SATURDAY
FILL-IN
6:0OAM-8:O0PM
THE SATURDAY EDGE
8:00AM-12:00PM
Studio guests, new releases,
British comedy sketches, folk
music calendar, and ticket
giveaways.
8AM-9AM: African/World roots.
9AM-12PM: Celtic music and
performances.
GENERATION ANNIHILATION
12:00PM-1:00PM
A fine mix of streetpunk and
old school hardcore backed
by band interviews, guest
speakers, and social commentary.
www.streetpunkradio.com
<crashnbumradio@yahoo.ca>
POWERCHORD
1:00PM-3:00PM
Vancouver's only true metal
show; local demo tapes,
imports, and other rarities.
Gerald Rattlehead, Dwain,
and Metal Ron do the damage.
CODE BLUE
3:00PM-5:00PM
From backwoods delta low-
down slide to urban harp
honks, blues, and blues roots
with your hosts Jim, Andy,
and Paul.
ELECTROLUX HOUR
5:00PM-6:00PM
SOUL TREE
6:0OPM-9:O0PM
From doo-wop to hip hop,
from the electric to the eclectic, host Michael Ingram goes
beyond the call of gospel
and takes soul music to the
nth degree.
SYNAPTIC SANDWICH
9:0OPM-1 1:00PM
PLUTONIAN NIGHTS
11:O0PM-1:00AM
Cutting-edge, progressive
organ music with resident
Haitchc and various guest
performers/DJs. Bye-bye
civilisation, keep smiling blue,
where's me bloody anesthetic
then?
http://plutonia.org
DJ profile
Gavin Walker
The Jazz Show
Mondays 9 pm to 12 am
Describe your show:
Jazz Music..the real thing...all
styles and eras.
Record played most often on
your show?
My opening and closing
theme: Bennie Green's Sou/
EARWAX
1:00AM -4:30AM
"noiz terror mindfuck hardcore like
punk/beatz drop dem headz
rock inna junglist mashup/distort
da source full force with needlz
Stirrin' {the wordless vocal is by
the guys in the band).
Last record you bought?
Max Roach Parisian Sketches.
Musician you would like to
marry?
I'm already a musician. I just
want someone who has won
the Super 7.
Favourite Show on CiTR?
There are so many good
ones but two that I always
check out are The Edge on
Folk with Steve Edge and Are
You Serious Music? With Colin
McDonald and others.
Strangest phone call received
while on air?
The lady who called and
asked me if 1 was a black man
and seemed disappointed
when I told her that I wasn't;..
she said that she would still
listen to my show anyway...
thanks lady.
on wax/my chaos runs rampant
when I free da jazz..." Out.
REGGAE LINKUP
4:30AM-9:00AM
Hardcore dancehall reggae.
Hosted by Sister B.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
6AM
7
8
REGGAE LINKUP
(RG)
PACIFIC PICKIN'
FIU-IN
FILL-IN
FILL-IN
6AM
7
8 '
9 |
(RT)
SUBURBAN JUNGLE
(EC)
riLL-IIN
BREAKFAST
WJTH
THE BROWNS
(EC)
HIGHBRED VOICES
(WO)
END OF THE
WORLD NEWS (EC)
CAUGHT IN
THE RED (RR)
THE
SATURDAY
EDGE (RT)
ARE YOU
SERIOUS?
MUSIC (EC)
FOOL'S PARADISE (WO)
10
11
THIRD TIMES
THE CHARM (RR)
10
11
EXQUISITE CORPSE (EX)
PLANET
LOVETRON (DC)
SKA-T'S
SCENIC DRIVE (SK)
THE DIM SUM SHOW
(EQ I
19 PM
FILL-IN
MORNING AFTER
SHOW(EC|
ANOIZE
(NO)
FILL-IN
12»»m|
ROCKERS
SHOW (RG)
BEATUP
RONIN
(EC)
THESE ARE THE
BREAKS (HH)
GENERATION
ANNIHILATION (PU)
1
REEL TO REAL (TK)
1 1
2
3
PARTS UNKNOWN
(PO)
FILL-IN
SHAKE (RR) j RECORD (TK)
STEVE & MIKE (HC)
POWERCHORD
(MT)
3
CIRCUIT TRACING
(DC/EC)
DEMOCRACY NOW (TK)
THE ONOMArOPOEIA
SHOW(TK)
LEO RAMIREZ
SHOW (WO)
BLOOD ON THE
SADDLE (RT)
SANDBOX THEATRE (TK)
RHYMES &
REASONS (HH)
CODE BLUE
(RT)
4
ELECTRIC 1 EN AVANT
AVENUES (EC) | LA MUSIQUE (FR)
MOTORDADDY/
RUMBLETONE RADIO
(RR)
NARDWUAR
PRESENTS (NW)
4 1
ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS (EC)
5'
6
- MEAT EATING VEGAN (EC)
5
6
CHPSVOTH | SAINT
EVERYTHNG<po> | TROPEZ (PO)
STRAIGHT TALK (TK)
WENER'S BBQ (SP)
RACHEL'S
SONG (TK)
LOCAL KIDS 1 PEDAL
MAK£GpOD 1 REVOLUTION (TK)
QTR NEWS AND ARTS (TK)
ELECTROLUX HOUR (EC)
QUEER FM
(TK)
FILL-IN
SOLARIZATION rnq
FLEX YOUR
HEAD (HC)
OUT FOR KICKS
(PO)
THE NORTHERN WISH
(EC)
SOUL TREE
(SO)
A.S.W.
(FO/EC)
BLUE
MONDAY (Gl)
7
MYASS(Eq
7
8
9
WIGFLUX RADIO (RG)
ON AIR WITH
GREASED HAIR (RR)
AFRICAN RHYTHMS
(WO)
8 1
RHYTHMSINDIA
(WO)
SALARIO MINIMO
(WO)
JUICEBOX (TK)
THE
JAZZ SHOW
UZ)
FOLK OASIS (RT)
LIVE FROM...
THUNDERBIRD HELL
(LM) .
HOMEBASS
(DC)
SYNAPTIC
SANDWICH
(DC/EC)
10
11
11
12AM
TRANCENDANCE
(DC)
VENUS
FLYTRAP
(EC)
ESCAPISM
(EC)
HANS KLOSS'
MISERY HOUR
(HK)
World heat
(WO)
PLUTONIAN
NIGHTS (DC)
THE SHOW
(HH)
VENGEANCE
IS MINE!
(PU)
AURAL
TENTACLES
(EC)
1 LIKE THE
SCRIBBLES (EC)
THE
ANTIDOTE
(EC)
WIRELESS
CRUELTY
(EC)
EARWAX
(HH/DC)
2
3 1
4
3
4
FILL-IN
FIRST FLOOR
SOUND SYSTEM
THE
VAMPIRE'S
BALL
PSYCHEDELIC
5
6
(DC,
'EC)
It
V
(E
q
REGGAE LINKUP (RG)
5
6
^4r^ LM-live music • LO-loonge • MT-meral • NO-noise • NW-Nardwuar • PO-pop • PU-punk • RG-reggae • RR-rock • RT>*rts©te • SK-ska • SO-soul • SP-sporls • TK-ralk • WO-world
HH-hiphop • HK-Hans Kloss • Kl-kids • JZ-jazz
■ska • SO-soul • SP-sporls • TK-ralk • WO-world
_l
351 >i3ce*Oe& SUBMISSIONS TO DATEBOOK ARE FREE.
FOR THE DECEMBER ISSUE, THE DEADLINE
IS NOV 26. FAX SHOW, FILM, EVENT
AND VENUE LISTINGS TO
604.822.9364 OR EMAIL
<DISCORDER@CLUB.AMS.UBC.CA>
Black Rice
Desarmador
Elizabeth
Vulcan Dub Squad
Sat 1
@ Pic Pub
Big Sugar
John Ford
Sat 1,8 pm
@ Commodore
Something Corporate
RX Bandits
Mae
Sun 2,8 pm
@ Richard's
AWOL One
Josh Martinez
Kaboorri
Mon 3
@ Pic Pub
Kevin Martin & The Hiwatts
Mon 3, 8 pm
@ Richard's
Franny & The Flames
Jets Overhead
Jesse James
Wed 5,9 pm
@ Railway Club
Peanut Butter Wolf & The Stones
Throw Alistars
Dudley Perkins
Wildchild & Romes
Wed 5, 9 pm
@ Richard's
The Snits
Collapsing Opposites
Thur 6
@ Pic Pub
Indigo Girls
Michelle Malone
Thur 6, 9 pm
@ Commodore
Further Seems Forever
Armor for Sleep
Beloved
Shai Hulud
Fri 7, 7 pm
@ Croatian Cultural Centre
North Mississippi Alistars
Fri 7, 9 pm
@ Fairview Pub
Lucinda Williams
eastmountainsouth
Fri 7-Sat 8, 9 pm
@ Commodore
Star Collector
Magic Ass
The Basement Sweets
Fri 7
@ Pic Pub
20 Miles
Fri 7, 10 pm
@ Brickyard
The Planet Smashers
Flashlight Brown
Jesse James
Los Furios
Fri 7,8 pm
@ Railway Club
D.O.A.
Thor
V Brickyard
B.C. SPCA Fundraiser ,
features Hector and comedian
Aubrey Tennant
Sat 8, 9 pm
@ ANZA Club
s 1 mWtfk&i
"HBP
mm
Spiritualized
Soledad Brothers
Sun 9,8:30 pm
@ Commodore
The Blood Brothers
The Red Light Sting
Raking Bombs
Sun 9, 8 pm
@ Mesa Luna
A Mighty Wind
featuring Mitch & Mickey, the
Folksmen and the New Main Street
Singers
Mon 10, 7:30 pm
@ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Clash-The Ultimate Hiphop Battle
Tue 11,1 pm
@ Commodore
places t
o be
concert venues:
misc venues:
brickyard
315carrall
604.685.3922
cinematheque
1131 howe
604.688.8202
cafe deux soleils
2096 commercial
604.254.1195
ridge cinema
3131 arbutus
604.738.6311
cellar
3611 w. broadway
604.738.1959
video in studios
1965 main
604.872.8337
cobalt
917 main
604.764.punk
commodore
green room
868 granville
695 cambie
604.739.7469
604.608.2871
record shops:
lotus
455 abbott
604.685.7777
derive poss records
324 w. hasting
604.646.2411
the main
4210 main
604.709.8555
bassix records
217 w. hastings
604.689.7734
marine club
573 homer
604.683.1720
beatstreet records
3-712 robson
604.683.3344
pat's pub
403 e. hastings
604.255.4301
black swan records
3209 w. broadway
604.734.2828
pic pub
620 w. pender
604.682.3221
crosstown music
518 w. pender
604.683.8774
railway club
579 dunsmuir
604.681.1625
futuristic flavour
1020 granville
604.681.1766
itehard's
1036 richards
604.687.6794
highlife records
1317 commercial
604.251.6964
the royal
1029 granville
604.685.7527
red cat records
4305 main
604.708.9422
sonar
66 water
604.683.6695
scrape records
17 w. broadway
604.877.1676
sugar refinery
1115 granville
604.331.1184
scratch records
726 richards
604.687.6355
WISE club
1882 adanac
604.254.5858
zulu records
1972 w. 4th
604.738.3232
Killing Joke
Amen
Tue 11,8 pm
@ Richard's
Broken Social Scene
Wed 12,8 pm
@ Richard's
Nashville Pussy
Wed 12
@ Brickyard
The Battles
The Human Hi-Lite Reel
The Regional Hats
Thur J 3
@ Pic Pub
Salteens
Carnations
Yoko Casionos
Thur 13, 10 pm
@ Marine Club
Fuck Me USA
Ch.3&4
my! gay! husband!
Fri 14
@ Pic Pub
Los Furios
Fri 14
@ UBC SUB Ballroom
Plaid
Luke Vibert
Chris Clark
Wed 19,8 pm
@ Commodore
Wassabi Collective
Thur 20
@ Pic Pub
Placebo
Eagles of Death Metal
T||f.20,8 pm
@ Commodore
Festival of Guns
Fri 21-Sat 22
@ Pic Pub
Rocket From the Tombs
Sat 22, 7:30 pm
@ Richard's
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Cobra High
Sat 15,8 pm
@ Sonar
The Unicorns
Hot Hot Heat
Metric
Tue 18,8 pm
@ Commodore
Simple Plan
Gob
Tue 25, 8 pm
@ Croatian Cultural Centre
The Hidden Cameras
Tue 25, 9 pm
@ Richard's
Ms John Soda
B. Fleischmann
Thur 27
@ Pic Pub
Hinterland
Windows '78
Reverie Sound Revue
Fri 28, 9:30 pm
@ Media Club
CITR Special Presentations:
|j||vays..Yhe1irst bond goesfta&t'^ggpl
&^JN6V«§mt$er T$£tT:
-* '■Cepft*A\5tQwuw&*
do KcNCtfrber Oocd Discorder >s End of Year Poll
■ Complete and send to:
discorder@cluk ams. ubc.ca
Discorder #W-61?8 SUB Blvd.,
Vancouver. BC V6T1Z1
Best Albums of 200]
|
I
Ber* >/iu/e<» ^
Best Band of 200]
i:
2-
1
Best Solo Artist of 200]
1
1
|
Best Venue
1'
2-
J
Best Gig of Year
Worst Band of Year
I
1
|
1-
2-
]•
.Bei* Locd/ Band of Year
Worst Gig of Year
|
I
I
2-
Bert Xocss/ Album
Best Record Store of the Ye&r
i
1:
2'
]'
What mlljou remember most about 200? ?
What did you like best about Discorder in 20011
What did you like least about Discorder in 20011
pj0 drawing by andrea nunes Ind crew ipp music
risTotus make lunch. Yeti_
our effort: smart, catchy and rocking, with a pop^Hure
■os For -some pej$le$owever/lihifcollection js§( welcome llpitl
from trtij rs^uter^fea&vVoutptit of these Dayton, Ohio natives, - \
seeminglyissutfift racordslwery dfeer Week." "Come on Pollard,"
these ppople exdaaii, their vahk-^ccounts fining, "is it possible to
keep abreast of every fjSY^feasejand stili^ve money for our kids
to go to urjwereli^inp^aj, & fMJotjsneoirarn. for* former school
teacher, HArt (foe&seent ihsensitn$ § fl| possible needs of the
young -£ let dime fi parens i&#» }fmm But. on the other hand,
most jtp^Si £W$ wl$S l^^pir%ildren at home >
watc/ifig te^wwll s^apoodj|ii||^ peers attend school
in«der to affortf.the entwe'and ever-growing GBV catalogue. For
tlwse-Tare fewstubbornly committed'to the supposed future wellbe-
iii of tbetr progeny, tWs 'feestdtffiackage will ilpst keep you
infffljpep s|w^pBrTs^nilr9:|ffitrious career. ffe^ffc %-
AVA&ABff NOVEMBER 4pp * *,
Ghosts of fhe Great Highway 01
The mi imlW^ I good |§p, especially on their ,_
!astl^rea^glrig&|>)^)nte!iigent songs made us feel sad and
conten^me|^#eo^^KiarJ^H^of the music. They also
rocked S&b^h^aM^-w^pe4^zy Horse-like intensity.
And the F^^^^^^^WWlW1681(> the Star Spangled
Banner l^nftaSp flAw|etr}A[8fll| must be lurking within the
mincl °wfe Korifiafc 8fce a seeret oohc^Br^ibscure future vision.
His so^wcrkranfiwd^itHfiisimecuriOH^ein. spelunking into
tne emotional darka^ssCto&rering W^MpIs from the collective
unconscious As good & his sdt^ materoifould be though, we ;*- ■
longed Jerthe tim4nt>$amt i$Mpf that made the Red House *\
PaJatemejomitdgblB and versatds -Son Xi^ Moon takes up where
I'the datkwaters-ol&efseB
MARTte|l
FejflcwSngjt profenjpd ptpxf|tslence fffi Anjtoon assocatecF
Josh IjfetMee^^AtmA^dt^seeh ¥^f deaf of atifvay
froj^Mto^M^^^^^^^^mB'a stovM8v*SB^
Mf^^^l^^i^^Pi^^^li^^op scene. Birtwlwrffjl
coinM^tromallwWilaitiBez, who exudes seemingly Igtyfiofp^
jjfejKenergy^andTmaginatiori^we suspect that even better ttliigsaf^:
CD 19.98 2LP19.98/^I
The Sea:
_Jft)EP
porida might mal^you
BmfeMlaml bass and fixed
^ortVand'norrrjally jitsT
'ouWtje ngw This time,
r> w8l&4alking about Florida's i
P^feytren & Wine EP, The Sea and The Rhythm
Cidto^mthetepessenttoSubPoplhBt-nTadeuplffi^*
year's amazing The Creek Drank the Cradle, thisSve.l;
song disc offers more of Beam's beautiful four track , ••-*
mdsie. fco-fi yet lushly textured, Beam combines the feel
of Bedhead-era bedroom rock with the storytafling
charmof American folk nfflsfe.These highly personal
songs run the gamut of traditional tbeoqjel^ently mod-
. ernized with a wash of layered guitar aajL^vocals, each
song more subtle and compelling than-ffte>fa$t. Iron ft
Wine will make you think twice about the swampy state.
CDEP10.9&
THEDWFBOMBS
Dangerous Magical Noise
Detroit rock city is swaying into the midnight grind as
steam anrfcsmoke mix with the unsMfrendering fog
andMstthaf cradles the denizens of oKibsfiketheB
% SMMJje Greystone Ballroom, the Forest Club, ProSB-' -
Show Bar, Flame Sfiow Baf, Cozy Corner, and tha mast *
; significantly flw^Sue Bird ton. Surely, you've ha(fijj£**
aoout-thefakebdxalHSBfoe Bird—the one trd^jft^
bumped to thlssSinds of Ellington and BelderteOkiil
Mayfleld and Gaye, Stooges and the MC5. Today WsS
legendary oldJyurlteet is^omplng the next wave of' 1
Detroit musJG history — Dangerous Magical Noise —
the breakthrough album from Mick Collins (rockls most
underrated rocker) and his Dlrtbombg! Sorely thisfsUJej
last great rock record of 2003, let it io your bricks, tefft J
in your bones.
CD 16.98 LP+7" 14.98
KD 606
Kill Sound Before Sound Kills
ip^ %^% i
Tii^P^ftlSondjlbum for Mike Pat
Pai|l»^^st-averyraiog imprint Ipecac sSl
' 9^|'*NHMtepj^!&sort °* "^tip^f
iSBtWpB^T^^^pSo|ecoiQ>fiaj^
gae masterpiece Pressure oft mead's Tigsdlejifc
label, Kill Sound, represents his own stablMPi|||
dancehall destiucttoft,«l a laptop pimks%tee Trulyf"*
thfefePffer sound. AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 4TH
**>
Gerrnan-irtdietrontea
iabetTorntafr-has^
beeri'responsible for S*
sleeper hits over the-'test couple of
years fetplie likes of Hoftk«Jn|Bro, Casiotone for
the Painfully Alone and Angelika Kohlerman. Of all
the company's surprise success stories, perhaps tne'
most surprising and the most successful has been
that of Thought for Food, the debut album by 1*e
Books. TIM Lemon of Pink sees this mysterious
outfit greatly expand upon the folktronic delights of
its debut putting everything from bluegrass licks to
eastern scales through the digital blender, wtBt con* -
sistently confounding and beguiling results; - ■
CD 20.98
THE SHINS
Chutes Too
Hamwrfll.;..
GUBStAeporterafid^
Vancouver Sttckoafl
Underground sluggec *
Basil Waugh writes On this reiaJjvery antieipateU
sopfiomore release, Am^ricaStop Modelizers fj/our
friends will explain) take the »f-as-baroque-don't-fiX|
it approach, but sfflf managstosJip something m
and noteworthy into their tight throwback vernaj
lar As much a^ I'd, Bke to think that ^S
loosened ufel'm pretty eyre rfS Tift
iie^aJ^Qj||pts that match -*0&n op ^-d
ante, but forJp most pa^^
m, to encfcfiag efip: the -i
\ gymnasfc, a welcome lanV;'
anger JajjMs MeKtr'S' voie)^
I has ojply spread thrat#
CD 19.96
"AVAILABLE M
CD 19.98 21P 22.98
SW EFFECT UNm NOVEMBER 31,2003
oint we harMneed
sjto'meraw
Ivmerl^*
^^^^sMiSfeLthey %
syrrmes^the test e^i^ of ■
iheN|firi8nTrKurgehce of thWaJe '7^aftd mlfPQ&ffl
psnlttsuRT'ad^unk crossover style, ipntoh played bV
&i£Ginej..j^e reai^n't^e^^eB^bo^i^^satis.^
lofwnlfi this ad: 'k wfioie. mm or a dozen grassy magazines couldn't win people owral effectively as one listen
. to House of Jealous Lovers, which rocks by any standard
The boys easily seli by reputation, wirfcrrfsMfl buBding
What* is tempting, instead, is Ihe urge to .set up a^omon-1
SdMype stand in front of Zulu, handing out-pries of m
Echoes to the teeming crowd of enthusiastic Rapture fans,
ever-eager to assimilate the latest in New York coot And "'
then together |n our Converse shoes attff^M fitting jeans,
we wis alt dance and dance and dance bice total maniacs-. "'^ ~
CD 10.98 LP 19.98
otto1 new ?
reteasos:
^^J&-KishKashCDAF^&
My Oblivion CDep
iO* Today is the Day CDep
■ Obs|acle One CDep ^rtetador)
MS. JOHN SODA- White Tafting Cd (Morr
Wusic) „;, *»; >
SOUL POStflON -8,000,(M)0 Stories ck|U^
Hl^^p^m^V-And this
is our Mpcltf qjfe Pee)
L|^#ir^eflAin...imP(Too
fiNStEVACID MOTHERS TEMPLE- s/t CD
fSnbfop)
GOfO^ZVIBOTIC MYNCI-Sleep/Holiday .
C&tSBBttt#>w
ALIAS- Mtt# CD/LP (Anitcfl#^ •
Discorder
Discorder CITR-FM (Radio station : Vancouver, B.C.) 2003-11-01
Item Metadata
Download
- Media
- discorder-1.0050276.pdf
- Metadata
- JSON: discorder-1.0050276.json
- JSON-LD: discorder-1.0050276-ld.json
- RDF/XML (Pretty): discorder-1.0050276-rdf.xml
- RDF/JSON: discorder-1.0050276-rdf.json
- Turtle: discorder-1.0050276-turtle.txt
- N-Triples: discorder-1.0050276-rdf-ntriples.txt
- Original Record: discorder-1.0050276-source.json
- Full Text
- discorder-1.0050276-fulltext.txt
- Citation
- discorder-1.0050276.ris
Full Text
Cite
Citation Scheme:
Usage Statistics
Share
Embed
Customize your widget with the following options, then copy and paste the code below into the HTML
of your page to embed this item in your website.
<div id="ubcOpenCollectionsWidgetDisplay">
<script id="ubcOpenCollectionsWidget"
src="{[{embed.src}]}"
data-item="{[{embed.item}]}"
data-collection="{[{embed.collection}]}"
data-metadata="{[{embed.showMetadata}]}"
data-width="{[{embed.width}]}"
data-media="{[{embed.selectedMedia}]}"
async >
</script>
</div>
Our image viewer uses the IIIF 2.0 standard.
To load this item in other compatible viewers, use this url: https://iiif.library.ubc.ca/presentation/cdm.discorder.1-0050276/manifest