Here goes metroB & Franko

1. Tiga – Beep Beep Beep
2. Fan Death – Veronicas Veil (Erol Alkans Extended Rework)
3. Solomun – Clouddancer
4. Solomun – Boys in the hood
5. Femme fatals – Look up
6. The Fall – Reformation!
7. xrFarflight – Triangle
8. xrFarflight – Slow Motion Hospitalism
9. Dinosaur Jr – Forget The Swan
10. xrFarflight – freq. ghost
11. Like A Stuntman – Fake Beards
12. The Canoe Man – Four Chairs And A Chair
13. Tschilp – Aark
14. xrFarflight – Castles Made Of Sandwiches
15. Gravenhurst – Animals
16. Binoculers – Easy In The Morning
17. The Walkabouts – Thats How I Live
18. xrFarflight – Mountain
19. Die Sterne – Deine Pläne

Sleep well.

“To understand the killer, I must become the killer…and I don’t need this violence anymore.”

I prefer good tone over technical skills.

The following is a short essay on the late Norman Bethune of Gravenhurst, Ontario.

The original document can be found here.

Mao Tse-tung

IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE

From the
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,
Foreign Languages Press
Peking 1967

First Edition 1965
Second Printing 1967

Vol. II, pp. 337-38.

page 337

IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE December 21, 1939

Comrade Norman Bethune,^[1] a member of the Communist Party of Canada, was around fifty when he was sent by the Communist Parties of Canada and the United States to China; he made light of travelling thousands of miles to help us in our War of Resistance Against Japan. He arrived in Yenan in the spring of last year, went to work in the Wutai Mountains, and to our great sorrow died a martyr at his post. What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people’s liberation as his own? It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every Chinese Communist must learn. Leninism teaches that the world revolution can only succeed if the proletariat of the capitalist countries supports the struggle for liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and if the proletariat of the colonies and semi-colonies supports that of the proletariat of the capitalist countries.[2] Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into practice. We Chinese Communists must also follow this line in our practice. We must unite with the proletariat of all the capitalist countries, with the proletariat of Japan, Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and all other capitalist countries, for this is the only way to overthrow imperialism, to liberate our nation and people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of the world. This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose both narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism.

Comrade Bethune’s spirit, his utter devotion to others without any thought of self, was shown in his great sense of responsibility in his work and his great warm-heartedness towards all comrades and the people. Every Communist must learn from him. There are not a few people who are irresponsible in their work, preferring the light and shirking the heavy, passing the burdensome tasks on to others and choosing the easy ones for themselves. At every turn they think of themselves before others. When they make some small contribution,

page 338

they swell with pride and brag about it for fear that others will not know. They feel no warmth towards comrades and the people but are cold, indifferent and apathetic. In truth such people are not Communists, or at least cannot be counted as devoted Communists. No one who returned from the front failed to express admiration for Bethune whenever his name was mentioned, and none remained unmoved by his spirit. In the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area, no soldier or civilian was unmoved who had been treated by Dr. Bethune or had seen how he worked. Every Communist must learn this true communist spirit from Comrade Bethune.

Comrade Bethune was a doctor, the art of healing was his profession and he was constantly perfecting his skill, which stood very high in the Eighth Route Army’s medical service. His example is an excellent lesson for those people who wish to change their work the moment they see something different and for those who despise technical work as of no consequence or as promising no future.

Comrade Bethune and I met only once. Afterwards he wrote me many letters. But I was busy, and I wrote him only one letter and do not even know if he ever received it. I am deeply grieved over his death. Now we are all commemorating him, which shows how profoundly his spirit inspires everyone. We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man’s ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.

NOTES


^[1] The distinguished surgeon Norman Bethune was a member of the Canadian Communist Party. In 1936 when the German and Italian fascist bandits invaded Spain, he went to the front and worked for the anti-fascist Spanish people. In order to help the Chinese people in their War of Resistance Against Japan, he came to China at the head of a medical team and arrived in Yenan in the spring of 1938. Soon after he went to the Shansi-Chahar-Hopei border area. Imbued with ardent internationalism and the great communist spirit, he served the army and the people of the Liberated Areas for nearly two years. He contracted blood poisoning while operating on wounded soldiers and died in Tanghsien, Hopei, on November 12, 1939.    [p. 337]

^[2] See J. V. Stalin, “The Foundations of Leninism“, Problems of Leninism, Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1954, pp. 70-79.    [p. 337]

We are photographing Katie and Murray’s Wedding in Niagara On The Lake next Year. Originally from the area Katie wanted to have their engagement session in Muskoka, so we started with Gravenhurst and then on to Bracebridge. The weather wasn’t really co-operating with us but we managed to get some great shots through the rain and stormy skies.

Come Join us at the GTA EAST Wedding Show at Deer Creek Golf and Country Club.

Nov 1st 2009 11am-6pm

Took a quick spin down to Glastonbury on Saturday being as we weren’t doing anything else, and Andy hadn’t been there before.

I’ve visited the place a couple of times when I was younger. Once with a friend’s family when I was a tie-dye wearing, bad-poetry writing, crystal-carrying young’un, listening to this sort of thing, and then once a few years later on an Arthurian-themed camping trip with an ex (Tintagel & Glastonbury). Oh yes, I am that cool.

I wasn’t quite as interested in the shops as perhaps I used to be, (I probably still have a few books on Moon Magic lying around if anyone wants them – no?) but we did have a nice bimble around the Abbey and up the Tor.

On Monday evening we went to see múm and Gravenhurst at the National Museum for Wales. I’m not yet convinced by the Museum as a venue for gigs, but it was definitely a more successful trip than when last time we saw múm, when they were playing with Cat Power at the Barbican. We were late because I decided that as everyone was getting off the bus, we must have arrived at the Barbican. Which of course we hadn’t. Which Andy had realised of course, and which I didn’t until I saw him driving off down the road, still on the bus. And of course when we did eventually get there we had front row tickets so didn’t exactly make an inconspicuous late entrance. Anyway, Monday was less stress-free certainly. I can see that Gravenhurst is a bit dour for most, but I kind of like the potential serial killer w/ choir boy voice aspect, and lines like this (from Animals) are too true:

They descend upon the city like flies
Spraying their eggs into a dead dog’s eyes
It’s England on a Saturday night

And múm were really gúd (especially once I’d got over the fact that one of the singers reminded me of Tracy Flick)

More music at the weekend – off to GreenMan – excited!

]]> http://earspice.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/mum/ Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:16:57 +0000 earspice http://earspice.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/mum/

Back in Manchester for the first time since May 2008 are experimental Icelandic collective Múm (pronounced ‘moom’). The duo formed in 1997 by original members Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason were soon joined by twin sisters Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir and released two albums as quartet. The group’s celebrated debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK was critically acclaimed.

Múm’s second album fills in the gaps between the work of fellow compatriots Bjork and Sigur Ros with amazing results. The third album, Summer Make Good, offered a darker and foggier, nautically themed work was released in 2004.

Múm present a casually gorgeous blend of electronic atmospheres and funny old instruments like accordions, melodicas and cellos.

Múm are playing at The Deaf Institute this week and one of our favourite Warp artists, Gravenhurst, will be supporting.

Sept mois exactement après leur passage au Bataclan durant le mois de Janvier, Animal Collective est de retour à Paris, suite à la sortie de leur dernier single “Summertime Clothes”. C’est sous une chaleur de plomb que nous avons bravé une Cigale littéralement bondée d’un public venu voir l’une des sensations indés de l’année. La première partie n’était pas des moindres, puisque Gravenhurst était venu défendre tout seul son répertoire.

On peut dire que Nick Talbot ne manque pas de courage, il en fallait sacrément pour venir jouer seul ses titres face à un public visiblement impatient de retrouver le collectif new-yorkais. Nonobstant ces contraintes, Gravenhurst joue ses morceaux avec juste une guitare, et emporte une partie des gens présents dans la salle, grâce à sa voix touchantes, voluptueuse et un jeu plutôt aérien et détaché ; le picking est cristallin, les arpèges sont mélodieux, la musique est minimaliste dans son mariage guitare / voix. Un contrepoint intéressant pour ceux qui ont déjà vu Nick Talbot accompagné d’un backing band, qui n’hésite pas à nous noyer sous des déflagrations de guitare shoegaze. Mais ce soir Nick joue la carte Drake, malgré quelques effets sonores bâclés sur le pourtant magnifique Black Holes In The Sand, joué dans une fin de set assez timide.

Très vite, Animal Collective arrive sur scène et les trois membres partent se réfugier derrière chacune de leurs consoles pour démarrer un set qui peine à nous captiver à son début. Est-ce la chaleur de la salle, le public trop sage, mais l’énergie n’est pas très présente dans ce mélange de beats primitifs et de voix à la Beach Boys chargées en réverbération qui sonne parfois comme d’indistincts borborygmes. Et puis quelque chose va se passer à partir de Summertime Clothes, on reconnaît aisément le morceau, qui est indéniablement le plus dansant de “Merryweather Post Pavilion”, suivi de l’électronica épileptique de Daily Routine. Le groupe prend alors ces marques avec des titres aussi marquant que My Girl, le concert se fait alors plus festif et créatif, notamment grâce aux superbes jeux de lumière noyant la salle dans une atmosphère tribale et néo-hippie. Sur Brother Sport la température monte encore d’un cran avec cette espère de zouk halluciné, noyé de blip clignotant en rythme avec les mouvements de la lampe frontale de Geologist. Pourtant, c’est la version rallongée de Fireworks qui demeure le moment fort de cette soirée, jouée de façon encore plus hallucinée qu’à l’accoutumée, avec même un Avey Tare qui joue de la guitare, et nous propose un solo disloqué et déformé, qui semble sortir d’un improbable clavier. Le concert s’achève ensuite après un rappel de rigueur assez rapidement exécuté. On ressort alors de la Cigale, gluant de chaleur, heureux et content du concert malgré une pluie qui tombe à torrent.

Article publié sur le site Indiepoprock.net

Par Mathieu.

PS : En vidéo, je vous ai mis le clip de My Girl que je trouve très réussi et très joli.

Conociendo la relación de amistad –y casi se diría que de padrinazgo– que une a Bibio con sus vecinos Boards of Canada, era de suponer que el fichaje de Stephen Wilkinson por Warp sería cuestión de tiempo. Y resulta que ese tiempo han sido cuatro años en los que Bibio se ha hecho un nombre de referencia en la periferia del revival folk gracias a tres discos de loops amables y guitarras color sepia en Mush, sello californiano más conocido por su devoción al avant-rap que a los sonidos de relax. Primero vino “Fi” (2005), que sonaba a Nick Drake sin voz y con una leve post-producción ambient de resonancias góticas, aunque lo que de verdad llamó la atención del disco fue que en la pegatina de la portada hubiera unas pocas y amables palabras firmadas por Marcus Eoin, de Boards of Canada, recomendando encarecidamente la escucha del álbum. Luego llegó “Hand Cranked” (2006), en el que estaba más potenciado el factor acústico de Bibio y en el que parecía desintegrarse la capa de electrónica desgastada que había formado parte de su lenguaje, y este año su nombre acabó por cuajar gracias a un tercer disco, “Vignetting The Compost”, tan seductor y agradable como los otros.

Entre “Vignetting The Compost” y este “Ambivalence Avenue” han transcurrido sólo cinco meses: el primero, pues, era una despedida contractual largamente postergada, y el segundo un comienzo de ciclo anticipado con prisas. Es normal que Mush quisiera retrasar todo lo posible su último disco –desconocemos si habrá más, ojalá–, y que Warp acelerara al máximo para poner el estreno de Bibio en sus cuarteles en la calle. Para los dos sellos es bueno que ambos trabajos coincidan en el tiempo, hacen fuerza y se ayudan mutuamente en las ventas y en la multiplicación del conocimiento del artista por parte de un público no necesariamente obsesionado por tener fichadas todas las novedades que salen al mercado. Pero sobre todo es bueno para Bibio, ya que la sensación que queda es la de que el hombre está en estado de gracia. En realidad, lo estará siempre: su música es atemporal, parece rescatada de un pasado mágico, y al haber superado las trampas del tiempo su impacto será eterno. O eso esperamos.

No me ha sorprendido este disco porque no deja de ser el mismo que le venimos escuchando a Bibio desde que aquella pegatina firmada por un escocés hizo que nos rascáramos la cabeza, pero la sensación ha sido demasiado agradable como para pasarla por encima. Es música de ivierno, sin duda: de noches frías e insomnes en las que se mira por la ventana hacia la luna y las estrellas –tiene que haber estrellas, porque no es éste un disco para la ciudad, sino para el campo, para grandes áreas de terreno con poca presión demográfica y menos contaminación lumínica–. De hecho, fichando a Bibio, Warp ya ha encontrado el contrapeso para Gravenhurst: si éste es el folk oscuro, trágico, Bibio es el folk de sentirse bien, también el tipo de folk que lleva tiempo buscando Guillermo Scott Herren con Savath & Savalas y no encuentra –o mejor dicho, no repite, porque en Bibio hay mucho de aquel “Folk Songs For Trains, Trees And Honey” (2000)–. Lo más interesante del trabajo es que cuesta tomar partido por cualquiera de las dos inclinaciones que adopta Bibio: tiene por un lado la languidez playera, sobradamente californiana, que trae el recuerdo de artistas injustamente olvidados como Tommy Guerrero y finalmente la más Boards of Canada, en la que la guitarra es un mero bucle y es el fondo de breaks y sonidos electrónicos ametrallados el que establece la distinción, como el final con “Dwrcan” o “Sugarette”, que parecen sacadas de “The Campfire Headphase”.

Pero, al margen de etiquetas y distinciones –innecesarias, porque es el estado de ánimo lo que manda aquí, no si un tema es más trip hop y el otro más hippy–, “Ambivalence Avenue” funciona como un todo, como una banda sonora del verano: tiene una vocación de luminosidad que lo hace ideal para estos tres próximos meses. Aquí han estado hábiles en Warp: retrasarlo hubiera significado irse al otoño, y no sería lo mismo. Aprovecha, porque hasta octubre esto huele a banda sonora de horas perezosas.

I heard a great presentation last night that serves to make a point about planning. When opportunities are present, the rewards go to those who plan for them.

Gravenhurst is a town at the gateway to Muskoka where the 2010 G8 Summit will be held. Last night they had Ella Kokotsis,  Director of Analytical Studies for the University of Toronto G8 Research Group, give a presentation to interested business people around the opportunities that hosting a Summit can bring.

Ella noted that over the few days of the Summit, about 25,000 accredited people will flood into to the area. And that number doesn’t include the general public who will flock to get some glimpse of the world’s leaders, their spouses and the Hollywood stars who show up to advance their causes.

Upwards of 2000 organizations could be in Muskoka to make their case to the world through the potential 4,000 media who could be present.

Well, you get the idea. Big numbers. Lots of people to accomodate, feed, entertain, transport and sell to. The opportunities for business are only limited by imagination … and they start now and go on well past the conference. Favorable worldwide media attention can ensure tourism to an area for several years. A years worth of meetings and activity in preparation for the big event will generate business.

The 2010 Summit is 13 months away. Those business people who are creative and plan now to take advantage of the Summit will do well. Those who fail to create a strategy will not. Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Whether you are local business leader,  one of the 2000 ‘Civil Society’ leaders or anyone else … plan. Create a plan. Don’t wait or opportunity will pass you by.

I have no idea what opportunities might come to our executive coaching firm. I do know that doing nothing will achieve nothing. I do know that there are leaders and executives from around the world who have a keen interest in the 2010 G8 Summit for their own and various reasons. I do know that some of them will want to clarify their thoughts, stategy and action plan with the assistance of an executive Coach, particularly someone in the actual area of the Summit. Further planning follows …

Gary Wood is an Executive Coach who specializes in assisting corporate, business, government and nonprofit leaders to be more effective at work and in leadership. Gary works internationally by phone but lives in Muskoka, site of the 2010 G8 Summit. You can reach Gary at 705.687.2711

Here is my non-headphone, maybe some headphones playlist for the day or maybe week, we shall see how my mood or the weather changes.

The Autumns- The Angel Pool

Bauhaus- In The Flat Field

Bjork- Homogenic

The Blow- Paper Television

Brad- Interiors

Brian Eno- Another Day on Earth

Broken Social Scene- You Forgot it in People

Chris Ganeau- Music for Tourists

Gravenhurst- Flashlight Sessions

Johanna Newsom- The Milk-Eyed Mendor, YS

Low- The Great Destroyer

The Magnetic Fields- Distortion

Piano Magic- Part-Monster

Pixies-Doolittle

Portishead- Dummy

The Rosebuds- Night of the Furies

Tall Dwarfs- Fork Songs

The Twilight Sad- Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters

Das Haldern Pop Festival hat ein paar weitere Bestätigungen. Sehr interessante Sachen dabei.
Lobhudelei aufs Haldern und die anderen Bands: hierlang
Videos alphabetisch sortiert nach Künstlern:


kleine Pause. dann noch weitere 10

1.

‘Doc Jazz’ A Visionary in Musician – Ascot

Geoff Eales Trio
Sunday, 4th January Jagz Ascot
Show will start at doors 12.30pm and music 1pm to 3.30pm
Ticket cost: £6.00
Special – entrance and roast lunch £12

A truly remarkable man, there are few musicians in the world who have been master of so many styles and who possess the breadth of vision as this most creative of Welshmen. Throughout his long and distinguished career he has worked with pop stars, country singers, opera divas, variety artists, funk legends, played on countless sound tracks, TV shows and jingles, been a featured soloist with symphony orchestras and has composed chamber works, symphonies and concertos. He is also something of a musical pedagogue.

A Doctor of Music, he could have quite easily pursued a brilliant career as an academic. As if this isn’t enough, he just happens to be one of the UK’s most gifted jazz improvisers. The trio includes Paul Morgan on bass and Mark Fletcher on drums.

2.

OLD SCHOOL PARTY!!!!! WITH 2 DJ’S- in Ascot

Wednesday, December 31st NEW YEAR’S EVE CLUB ONE- ASCOT

70’S &80’S SOUL, R&B, JAZZ FUNK, MOTOWN, DISCO
SPECIAL GUEST DJ GREG EDWARDS
Doors open at 9pm
TICKETS £15  please call:

01344 875123/874500
Links:

http://www.cluboneascot.com/

3.

A Spot of Dickens- at Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre

2 December – 3 January A Christmas Carol  Rose Theatre – Kingston  High Street

Box office: 0871 230 1552

Tickets around £26:00 with booking fee

4.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER- in Windsor

4th JAN 2009 20:00 at SUPER SUNDAYS PRESENTS ‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’
THE OLD TICKET HALL, WINDSOR  FREE !!

Old ticket hall – Windsor
01753 854554

Super Sundays Presents ‘Birds of a Feather’ our Resident Acoustic Duo. They say that birds of a feather fly together – well this phrase couldn’t be more true for this dynamic singing duo from Windsor, Berkshire. Gloria Garcia and Odette Michell have been performing high quality live cover versions for over 4 years collectively – choosing superb songs from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s – right through to the present day. Their acoustic take on these songs is uniquely identifiable by their remarkable two-part vocal harmonies. This is live music at its sweetest and best – pure live acoustic entertainment with more than a splash of sophistication.

About Odette

After exchanging the piano for the guitar, at the age of fifteen, Odette began writing and recording her own songs when she was just sixteen years old. Continuing her study of music at the Nottingham Trent University, Odette went on to receive her B.A Hons in Contemporary Music. A matter of days after graduation, and spurred on by a healthy wanderlust, Odette took off for the beautiful West coast of Canada with little more than a small backpack and a spirit of adventure. With her last remaining $30 she purchased a guitar and a (childs) bicycle, and made a new home for herself in Vancouver, where she spent many happy months delving into the local music scene.

In the years since she has played solo as well as with various bands up and down the UK, including the Internationally acclaimed Cambridge Folk Festival Club stage, where she has performed for three years consecutively and been fortunate enough to share the stage with musical legends Joan Baez, Eddi Reader and Kathryn Williams.Originally from Cambridge, UK, Odette recently relocated to Windsor; and is currently in the process of securing a number of choice festival dates for this coming summer.

About Gloria

Gloria Garcia was born in the beautiful wine region of Rioja in Northern Spain. She began singing at the tender age of five, greatly influenced by her grandmother, who was an opera singer. She started to get involved in a church choir and took guitar lessons but it was not until she graduated in 2000 that she decided to take a
challenge and travel to the UK looking to further her music opportunities.Gloria’s stunning vocal talent started to get attention while performing on her own or accompanied by various bands in the Berkshire and London area. Her style blends from pop and soul to latin and jazz, performing in English and Spanish.

Besides this, Gloria was selected in the last 75 in Pop Idol Series 3 in 2003, amongst 23000 contestants, getting really good reviews from judges Simon Cowell and Pete Watermann. She was also getting some media attention when she made it to the 10 final contestants in the VH1 Divas London Auditions.Gloria has an extensive session singing experience under her belt, having worked with very renowned producers such as In Demand (Cindy Lauper, Steve Brookstein’s production team), Master Stepz (Choice FM DJ) and Amit Kamboj (Metalhead records Goldies label). She has also fronted various bands such as Nu Future, Freedom Republic and the acoustic duo Garcia, performing extensively in well known festivals and venues such as Jagz in Ascot, The Cellar Bar in Bracknell and West One Four in London.

Gloria also manages community music projects and is a freelance singing teacher for Youth Music, The Arts Council, Thames Valley University and various other schools.

Gloria currently accompanies herself on guitar and piano. She usually plays at pubs and acoustic venues around Windsor and London.

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/gloriagarcia

http://www.myspace.com/odettemichell


5.

Ultra Alt Rock at Kingston

Jan 4 2009      7:30P
Fighting Cocks – (With W.M.D. & Adams to the Max)     KINGSTON

Formed in 2007 Toby’s Iceberg are a band of contrasts…Max is the smallest member of the band while Beard is the tallest. Max preferes the O.C. Beard likes Dawsons Creek and in contrast Theo like One Tree Hill. Davis plays Drums while Theo plays Guitar

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/tobysiceberg

http://www.myspace.com/wmd4

-Visit AdPontes-Staines Regularly for Staines Arts-

We are surrounded by bad news. Don’t dare watch the nightly news these days without a handful of Tums. From coast to coast, north to south, and east to west there just isn’t too much to smile about out there. This appears to be especially true in the world of sports. Players entering rehab, shooting themselves, making lewd comments about ex-girlfriends etc. are easy front news stories. History will remember this time if for nothing else as the train wreck generation. We love bad news about someone else. A crash on the highway stops traffic the other direction so people can stop and take a real good look. Enough, you get the point.

2 stories recently involving NHL clubs caught my eye and in the spirit of the holidays i thought it was a good time to share with those out there not familiar.

The obvious one involves the Chicago Blackhawks. The team was in town to play the Buds and were supposed to fly back to Chicago the next morning. However, the team’s general manger Dale Tallon was heading to northern Ontario to attend the wake for his father who had just died. The players, acting on their own accord altered the plans to return to Chicago. Instead they were able to arrange for a practice in Toronto the next morning and pay out of their own pockets for 2 buses to drive them north to attend the wake.

“I thought to myself, ‘What is this? Am I back in Chicago?’ ” Tallon said. “They started coming in and, wow. My mother, she gets the hockey package and watches all the games, it was so great for her. She was having such a hard time with it, we all were, but to see that, it was so heartwarming and it really took the edge off everything. That was the buzz the rest of the night. My dad was a hockey player and there were pictures of him when he was a young player, so the guys were looking at all the pictures and stuff. It was really cool.
It makes you feel good about the character of our team and the homework we’ve done as a staff in drafting and getting these players. They’re genuinely good kids. It makes you feel good about our young population, to make the decision they did.”

The story doesn’t end there. Not sure how many of you have been up to Gravenhurst, where the wake was, but at 9pm on a Sunday night there just isn’t a whole of choice when it comes to dining options. The players headed for the golden arches and the coaches to Harvey’s.

“There weren’t a lot of people in the restaurant and the players said they barely were recognized as they ordered. “I’d say there were about 10 people there, maybe,” Sharp said. “I don’t know if they were surprised and knew we were an NHL team, or if they were just surprised a bus load of guys came in in their suits.” What did happen was the players acted like kids when they saw a display of hockey cards that McDonald’s was giving with the purchase of meals.”It was cool when you walked in, there were all these hockey cards on the wall because it was a giveaway and if you bought a Happy Meal you got a set of cards,” Sharp said. “So right away everyone was looking to see if they were in this set of cards. But it was just Kane and (Jonathan) Toews and maybe (Nikolai) Khabibulin. I think it was just the three of them.” The players filled the restaurant, eating their burgers and fries as people in the store finally began to sense this was the Chicago Blackhawks eating in their little town. “It was pretty funny because most guys don’t eat McDonald’s,” Bolland said. “The last time I had McDonald’s was, I think, last summer.”"Not to sound like I’m a health nut or anything, but I haven’t eaten at McDonald’s in years,” Sharp said. “It was funny to see guys like Dunc (Keith) and Ben Eager, guys that really, really take care of themselves and watch what they eat, sitting there eating chicken nuggets and Big Macs.”

Try to imagine the scene of that Mcdonald’s on that Sunday night in cottage country. It’s 9pm and there are 10 people in the restaurant. Suddenly 2 greyhound buses unload and a ton of guys in suits enter the um, restaurant and end up ordering happy meals so they can get the hockey cards! Grown men, making serious coin, buying happy meals so they can play with hockey cards. This is what the game should be. It is nice to hear that beneath it all, the business can step aside if only for a day and the guys can be the decent people we always hear about and then be kids at heart loving the game they play as much as we who watch it do.

You can read more from the story here

The second story happened in Washington DC. Imagine you are 26 years old, working for an NHL club when you are sitting in your cubicle, doing your job producing the team’s website when the GM appears at your desk to tell you that you need to get suited up for the game that night. Now I am sure many of us out there have had a similar dream (save for the web producer part). I am sure we have all at one point in our lives envisioned the GM of our team asking us (why us?) to suit up for the big game. Well, Brett Leonhardt lived the dream for all of us. The pride of Waterloo Ontario has been fortunate enough to play goal the for the caps when needed in practice. However, with Jose Theodore out with an injury and the third-string goalie Simeon Varlamov stuck in air transit McPhee was stuck. What else is a GM to do but walk down the hall and tap the 6′7 web producer on the shoulder?

“Before the game, (the players) were telling me, ‘Be yourself. You’ve been doing this your whole life. They made me feel really comfortable. In the warmup, I didn’t want them to not shoot their hardest because it was me. I tried to challenge them and help them get them ready for the game. (The players) were awesome. They couldn’t have been better. I’ve practiced a couple times with the team, so the guys were familiar with me, and I travel with the team because I do the Web site. The guys were cheering and high-fiving me.”

Brett got to sit on the bench in full equipment, jersey on for about 30 minutes of real time, just over 10 minutes of the first period when Varlamov showed up. What did the 26 year old do when he got relieved? Showered, dressed and headed up to the press box to do his job!

Can you imagine a better holiday present then that. Here is hoping someone took lots of pictures and video for him to show his kids and grand kids. One that day, Brett Leonhardt was able to live the dream so many of us lived. Quite a lesson for all of us this time of year to teach our kids. Keep dreaming, you never know who is going to come tap you on the shoulder at your cubicle to get ready for the big game.

TSM is trying to confirm whether he had to sign a contract and got paid for one day as an NHler. If not I am hoping that Glen Healy steps in and gets the kid his due!

Happy Monday to all…

With ZXZW artists like Sun Ra Arkestra, Chops, Todd, Shitmat, Dethscalator, Hey Colossus, Zun Zun Egui, and Arabrot and favourite bands like Acid Mothers Temple, Fucked Up and Gravenhurst the London based Hokaben festival is definately worth a visit. Frank, Tijs and Joost will go there. Hope to see you there!!!

Gravenhurst is a vehicle for the music of singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Talbot, who lives in Bristol, England and is currently signed to Warp Records. Gravenhurst is dark and highly atmospheric, influenced by the melodic noise of My Bloody Valentine, the reverb-laden vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel, and guitarists such as Richard Thompson, Johnny Marr and Thurston Moore. Over 9 years and five albums, Talbot’s output has been diverse, but constant in the Gravenhurst sound-world are his fragile yet powerful voice, intricate guitar work and mysterious lyrical themes.

Download:

The Western Lands (2007)

Fires in Distant Buildings (2005)

Black Holes in The Sand EP (2004)

Flashlight Seasons (2003)

Web: Myspace Page , Website

The biggest news in the music industry recently is the announcement that 6 ISPs have agreed to help the good old music industry (and movie industry) in their ongoing, ever fruitless battle against piracy by agreeing to monitor continual offenders and issue them with strongly worded letters telling them that they “must stop it immediately, it’s quite naughty you know”.
 
Regular readers will have seen my previous post about this when they first toyed with the idea back in March. I must admit that I never thought the idea would ever be realised as it seemed too much of an invasion of privacy in my eyes.  But alas, it’s now seem the light of day welcomed by an overall feeling of “meh” by the great British public.
 
Billy Bragg’s chucked in his two cents worth (who’d have thought eh?) over at the Guardian saying that he thinks it’s a waste of time, and I’m yet to read anyone other than representatives from the big four/ISP’s say anything positive about the news.
 
I can see their thinking behind it, but it just doesn’t seem like the answer to me. Am I being short sighted? Is there something I’m missing? The industry was appearing to get better with its forward thinking (getting rid of DRM, embracing new models like We7 etc) but then they still revert to ideas like this which just seem a bit backwards.
 
“Let’s cut them off at the source”.
 
Brilliant. What next? The BPI announces they’re cutting the electricity to the homes of the seemingly hard of hearing folk who illegally downloaded the new Hard-Fi record? (It had been a good few posts since I gave Hard-Fi a cheeky dig so it was about time I reminded you all of my stance towards them).
 
Anyhow, click here to read this post from March for some background info on all the goings on.
 
The second part of this blog is going to be reflective of the festivals I’ve attended so far this summer; Rock im Park and Latitude. I won’t go into too much detail about all the music I saw as these are artists that have been reviewed thousands of times before by people far more competent in their lexiphanicism than I but I will tell you about my personal favourites.
 
Nuremburg was to be the home of my first ever foreign festival as I jetted off to Rock im Park to stand alongside fifty odd thousand drunken German metal fans and watch them sing their little hearts out.  The RiP festival is actually held in the Reichsparteitagsgelände, which for those not on top of their Germanic geographical language is the Nazi Rally ground where Mr. Hitler gave his charismatic speeches to the adoring onlookers. Just the setting to see Rage Against The Machine spout their anti-capitalist ditties then…
 
Friday’s proceedings brought well performed sets by The Futureheads and Jimmy Eat World, a couple of hit and miss shows from Pendulum and the Lost Prophets and an unsurprisingly fantastic display from Queens of the Stone Age.
 
Another personal highlight from Friday; handing a young German teenagers arse to him as we dueled on ‘Guitar Hero’ with my rendition of Muse’s ‘Knights of Cydonia’ simply pummeling his to oblivion. I must stress that after this event there was no animosity, far from it actually; we embraced. We hugged. A language that knows no barriers. This is how all international conflicts should be resolved in the future; imagine Gordon Brown and Robert Mugabe struggling their way through ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ with Brown edging to victory as he knows the song back to front from his much un-publicised hair metal phase of the late 80’s/early 90’s. A hug would ensue and Bobby M would stop killing his own people. And they call me an optimist…
 
Apart from the afternoon thunderstorm, Saturday was a perfect festival day with three cracking sets from Coheed and Cambria, Incubus and the highlight of the weekend, nay, week, nay, month; Rage Against The Machine.
 
Having been a mixture of both too young and naive the first time around; the prospect of seeing RATM had me rather excited and thankfully my expectations were more than met. The drums, the bass, the voice and the riffs that are potentially the most recognisable of our generation all amalgamated into a mélange of anthemic rock. I can honestly say watching a field packed full of drunk Germans all jumping in unison whilst shouting “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” is an image that has been well and truly etched into my brain.
 
Sunday came and along with it more thunderstorms. Not those refreshing ones when it clears up straight away afterwards so you dry out and continue on your merry way, but one of those storms where it stays relentlessly cold afterwards and you find yourself sat drinking an overpriced lager watching Alterbridge and thinking “Is this is?”
 
I’ve always had my suspicions that the people who hail from the countries collectively known as ‘The British Isles’ have something written in their genes which allows them to spot a fellow islander in a foreign land from several hundred feet away. As the third day was pretty Blighty-focused it soon became apparent that we were hardly in a minority at all as the Queen’s finest (and you Ireland) came in their droves to watch a ‘we-know-it’s-raining-but-we’ll-do-our-best-to-make-you-dance-anyway’ set from Hot Chip (they succeeded fantastically by the way) a simply awful and massively disappointing performance from Kate Nash (who I’d been looking forward to see for quite a while beforehand) and a couple of tight-as-you-like sets from the Welsh combo of the Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers (the latter of which was my first experience of their live show and I was well and truly impressed).
 
Then it was bed time as a flight at silly o’clock was calling ahead of a day’s worth of travelling. Here’s a cheeky tip: spend the extra £100 to fly from your Northern city’s airport rather than spending an extra 10 hours travelling to London Stansted (which is barely even in fecking London – I might sue for false advertising) just because you can get a cheaper flight.  It ain’t worth it.
 
After some well deserved recovery time I was off again; this time to the beautiful Latitude festival in Suffolk. A festival that’s catered as much for children as adults bizarrely enough as there were hundreds of the little buggers everywhere you looked. The setting itself is by far the best I’ve witnessed for a festival with everything being a short enough walk away from each other that you don’t have to create an S.A.S style plan with a minimum of an hour’s transportation time between stages (including toilet and tipple breaks of course) to navigate your way around.
 
Friday saw an enjoyable set from the fantastic Grammatics which although was unfortunately marred by frequent technical difficulties, still entertained those fresh enough to get to the main stage for midday and if this country has any sense then they should be much higher up the bill this time next year. Gravenhurst sounded like the soundtrack to teenage suicide note (which isn’t a bad thing per se; but the weather was far too beautiful and my spirits were way too high for me to fully appreciate his sullen works). Sandwiched in-between my musical adventures I managed to squeeze in a bit of comedy from the fantastically random Ross Noble and the utterly brilliant Russell Howard. I’ve been a fan of Russell Howard after seeing him on various TV shows throughout the past year or two and I’ve seen him live a couple of times since. I can honestly say he’s genuinely one of the best stand ups I’ve seen in my comedy attending career and I furiously recommend you all go and see him on his October tour. The man is brilliant.
 
The day finished off with a couple of enjoyable performances from Crystal Castles and Franz Ferdinand but the main highlight was the fish and chip stall giving me two bits of fish instead of one by accident. Unmitigated victory considering the fact that these fish must have been able to walk, talk and potentially solve basic equations if their cost was anything to go by.
 
I briefly mentioned the kids previously and I’m genuinely not lying when I say there were thousands there. It was a bit strange to get one’s head around at the beginning but it soon became apparent that the parents had accepted the fact that their kids were going to see a couple of unsightly visions during the course of the three days and probably put it down to “fantastic modern parenting” in their heads. All this said though, there was hardly any wrong-doing all throughout the festival. After performing no specific scientific research I can state that more crimes are (probably) committed per hour at your average Reading and Leeds festivals per hour than throughout the whole Latitude festival (all data for this non-existent research was provided by the “Consortium For Sweeping Generalisations”).
 
On Saturday I witnessed Wave Machines impress the new music seekers liaising around the BBC Introducing Stage, The Golden Silvers perform that one good track they’ve got, Team Waterpolo bounce around the stage in a fantastically energetic performance, Fan Farlo confuse everyone by replacing Ida Maria’s slot on the main stage but then impressing everyone more then she probably would have done anyway, The Coral put in the second best performance of the weekend with their mis-leadingly titled ‘acoustic set’ and then Elbow took the stage for what was my highlight of the festival.
 
Music is a wonderful thing. I may have mentioned this previously but it’s examples like this that reinforce that fact for me: I used to hate Elbow. I’m fully aware that hate is a strong word but I actually used to go out of my way to mention to people that I disliked them. I believe this initial dislike spurred from when they inexplicably toured as support for Muse on their 2003 tour where the only thing the two bands have in common is a song title. I was ready for a night of shouting, pogo-ing and sweating and Elbow simply were not the band who were going to warm me up for such verbs. After said gig I was happy to never hear from them ever again, to live in co-existent worlds in which never the two shall entwine, but then, five years later, I find myself washing the pots and listening to Radio 1 when Vernon Kay announces “here is the new Elbow track, ‘Grounds For Divorce’”. I realised I had no choice but to listen; although I’ve previously never wanted to listen to the latest UK urban music on 1extra so much in my life, my hands were awashed with suds and breaking the Freeveiw controller would have cast a shadow over myself and my housemates relationship causing an awful “flatmosphere”. But alas! It was bloody good! Brilliant in fact! Despite this audible ecstasy I still counted it as a one off and continued not to tell anyone that I was impressed by the Mancunians. Then I read five star review after five star review after five star review and I realised I had to cave in and get the album.
 
Never have a band changed my opinion of them so much as Elbow have with ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. Just a simply fantastic album that is extremely worthy of its recent Mercury nomination and I thoroughly hope they win. There. I’ve said it. Happy now? I’M AN ELBOW FAN!
 
Apologies for digressing there, back to the festival.
 
Elbow’s set was utterly fantastic with Guy Garvey’s beautifully delicate voice accentuating his profound, clever and moving lyrics to a crowd who were left thinking “top that Sigur” after the set’s awesome finale of “One Day Like This”. Top bloody notch.
 
Just a quick mention of the one called “Milly” who came and sat with us to “borrow some heat” from our fire as the sun was arising that night/morning. She had a voice so plummy that is sounded like a parody of a parody of a posh person. Amazing scenes.
 
Sunday was a relatively chilled affair as the three days previous of “socialising” were beginning to well and truly catch up with us all. Frankie Boyle was crude, Grinderman was sinister and Blondie were pop-o-riffic and a rather lovely way to cap off a lovely, and thoroughly recommended, festival.
 
Two down, two to go. Bring on V and Leeds!
 
What I’m listening to this week: Sound Of Guns (especially ‘Alcatraz’ and ‘Architects’) and Abba. Also check out my updated Muxtape.

What I’m reading this week: For One More Day by Mitch Albom

Stay tuned

sP

Yo! Yo! Yo! Simon Price in da house y’all. Various album reviews including Coolio’s It Takes A Thief by Simon Price. Taken from Melody Maker, 12th November 1994.jpg

And then Coolio lost all his coolio with Gangster’s Paradise. I think they bonded over hairstyles as alternative forms of sculpture.

Elsewhere David Bennun reviews a Best of Bon Jovi whose video for You Give Love A Bad Name was “…a style bible for a million proto-Butt-Heads and a frightening number of Germans – but then any figure greater than one constitutes a frightening number of Germans”  which made me smile again given Obama’s recent Kennedy-like speech in Berlin.

Tried to dig up some info on Jamie T Conway and drew a blank. I did however find this which I subsequently discovered to be a blog belonging to the singer in Gravenhurst, a very fine band that I’d urge you to investigate further if you haven’t heard of their music before.

Finally many thanks to AnyMajorDude who wrote a little review of this site on his excellent blog. Fans of Mick Hucknall should avoid visiting at present but for everyone else there’s much to enjoy.

In the year Glastonbury struggled to sell out and various other festivals didn’t even make the first day, Latitude Festival entered it’s third year and was a roaring success. Ok, it did have it’s problems. Robberies in the campsites (which Is to be expected at a festival), mixed weather and more importantly Melvin Benn’s refusal to expand certain areas of the arena while happily expanding the amount of visitors. 

But hey! Let’s not get bogged down in the negatives but rather revel in the joyous moments of the weekend. Well…my joyous moments really.

Here’s part one!

Thursday

Having spent a good portion of the day waiting around in cars or putting up tents/gazebos in the pouring rain I think everyone was in need of some sort of a getaway and The Irrepressibles certainly provided us with that fix. Sitting somewhere between Jeff Buckley (on the vocals side) and pretty much every genre of music they could possibly play (Yes the spectrum is that wide!) on the other, The Irrespresibles are a twelve piece orchestra fronted by the spooky but can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him singer Jamie McDermott. Playing in the middle of a forest is always going to be a predicament, such a beautiful setting requires equally beautiful music but thankfully The Irrespresibles have beauty in abundance. Haunting, stunning, scary and epic are all words that I will happily use when describing their performance but to be honest those words seem worthless in comparison to the feeling of joy when seeing a band so other-worldly that life on other planets seems almost a certainty. Mix that feeling with the engulfing sensation of an entire forest acting like a crowd of millions surrounding you and you’ll soon start to understand how overwhelming this performance was. 

The rest of the day/night was spent making new friends and finding out all the new things 2008 had brought to the festival. Personal highlights in that department was the light show over the lake at night, the mixing table at the digital fun-fair, the Pimms man and his posh ramblings, the piano by the lake and the cider barn. Shamefully the multi-coloured sheep of previous years were replaced with just one colour kind!

When describing this festival to latitude virgins the usual suspects come up, the amazing setting/the relaxed vibe/the mix of things to do etc but now I feel the incredible lights at night will be another thing I’ll add to the list. The place is already stunning during the day but at night it turns into a completely different environment with colours filling every nook and cranny.

Friday

Acting as the weakest day of music (in my opinion) I used this day to see a few bands I haven’t heard of before and my god was it worth it. The Joy Formidable at the Sunrise Arena kicked off my day and what a kick up the ass that was. Compared to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this trio from London certainly carried the YYY’s attack but with far more of pop edge than Karen O’s collective. A thoroughly confident set from a band that could easily get a lot bigger in the not too near future. Good Johnny Cash cover too (4/5). Straight after that I crossed over the bridge to see Heloise & The Savoir Faire in the Uncut Arena. On paper they sound like the kind of band I would hate but sometimes it’s good to push your musical boundaries a bit to see where they sit. Thankfully Heloise & The Savoir Faire didn’t punish me for my forward thinking outlook; instead they gave me a disco ball high five! Hailing from New York they certainly have a lot in common with the Scissor Sisters (both musically and visually) but this is the band you would feel happy telling people you’re a fan of. A mash of disco/funk/and the occasional heavy riff, this band was pure, unadulterated fun (3/5).

In terms of stars my favourite is easily the sun and occasionally that big ball of fire in the sky helps when choosing what bands to see. The equation I like to use for these occasions is sunshine + bands = Lake/Obelisk stage. This equation lead me to a hotdog stand first but then on to the lake stage to see Leicestershire shoegazers Kyte. From start to finish they made the art of eating a hotdog stupidly hard as the chewing process was hindered by my mouth being wide open with amazement. Not only the perfect partner to the sunny weather but also the perfect soundtrack to a good nights sleep. Think Mew if they slept with all the members of Sigur Ros and created a wonder child (4/5).  So three new bands down and none of them have disappointed. Maybe this will carry on all day? Nope. Gravenhurst were next. Ouch, what a let down. According to the book they were considered a mix between My Bloody Valentine and Nick Drake. Who came up with that conclusion? All I heard was a lot of bland music followed by the finale which was built on a foundation of poorly constructed guitar loops, both musically and rhythmically. Ok, MBV might not have tuned their guitars a lot of the time but at least what they created was good (2/5). After that I made way over to see the first band of the day I was genuinely excited about, Murder by Death. Sounding a lot like Johnny Cash and a night spent drinking whiskey in a middle American bar, Murder by Death made me smile from ear to ear. For a band that is relatively unknown in this country, they certainly gave it their all and filled that main stage with ease. Personal highlight of the set was ‘Ash’ (4/5).

Johnny Foreigner was the next band on my list and damn they were good. I’ve been a huge fan of theirs since I saw them support Idlewild last year and I was interested to see if that amazing performance was a fluke or not. It wasn’t. Playing songs from the superb Waited Up Til It Was Light, JF got everyone singing and dancing, despite the rain. Singer/Guitarist Alexei was on top form, attacking his guitar as if it just slept with his girlfriend and giving everything he had in him. It was an outstanding set, which saw the crowd feed off the pure energy of the band and vice versa. I’m not sure why they seemed shocked by the amount of people that turned up to see them; they truly deserve all the praise they’ve received in the last few months. Personal highlight was the unrehearsed version of ‘Eyes Wide Terrified’ (5/5).  The next and final band of my evening was Death Cab For Cutie. The general consensus after they finished was that of disappointment. Being the huge DCFC fan that I am I would disagree. I definitely would agree it wasn’t their best performance, especially on the choice of songs, but they were let down by the appalling sound. Not amazing but still good. Personal highlight was ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ (3.5/5)

I’ll try and stay clear of any sort of night time activities I got up to in this review as it would be boring but I feel it’s my duty to mention the amazing night I had at guilty pleasures, namely the dance off. We were all having a fun time singing and dancing to some of the cheesiest songs imaginable when a Michael Jackson song pummelled out of the speakers. After a minute of dancing to the Jackson classic I hear someone shout out “dance off, there’s a dance off!” Everyone ran into the middle and formed a circle and a few people started to break dance! It was truly one of those spontaneous, magical, out-of-the-movies moments. I was in tears of laughter and so was everyone else. Not sure what the DJ’s and dancers on stage made of it though!

So day one and two over!

Come back tomorrow for day three and make sure you get back here on sunday for the Latitude Mixtape!

Oliver