Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006

He recorded his first album, Infiniheart, in his bedroom, where he not only played all the instruments, but made most of them himself. It took him six years.
This August he released his second album, Skelliconnection, which he recorded this time in his basement.
Chad Vangaalen is an odd and lovely musician. His music is full of sound bits and strange instrumentation and his distinctive voice is a quavering soaring falsetto, often reminiscent of Neil Young, but much, much weirder.
I first became really aware of his music when he toured with the Constantines this spring. He was irreverent and strange, telling poop stories and weaving disturbing and beautiful worlds with his unusual songs and unique vocals.
He's a graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he once, on a dare, pooped into a hot dog bun, decorated it with plastic

His art leans toward the eyeballs on tentacles school, and his videos are a strange ride featuring his animated artwork morphing from one weird world to another.
I thought that the Hallowe'en season would be the perfect time to showcase this unusual and talented local boy, who plans to build a skateboard park in the backyard of his newly purchased Calgary bungalow.

Enjoy, my little goblins.
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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Saturday, October 28, 2006



Friday, October 27, 2006
*
And all the stars were crashing 'round
as I laid eyes on what I'd found
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
I think it was Mellowlee’s friend, Just a Cool Cat, who first got us started on it, with his Friday Random 10 Playlist. It was cool seeing what came up randomly on other people’s music files.
Then Allison, thinking outside the box, took it one step further by, not only moving it to a Tuesday (a day in desperate need of a random playlist), but making a new song by taking some lyrics from each of the songs.
Well, that was too much fun to pass up. Here is my copycat effort:

Cemetery Gates – the Smiths
Time and Time Again – Counting Crows
Hummingbird – Wilco
A Wolf at the Door – Radiohead
Western Dreamz – Thrush Hermit
Skindiving – James
Belle and Sebastian – Belle and Sebastian
B is for Butcher – the Hives
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want – the Smiths
Fool’s Gold – the Stone Roses
hybrid lyrics:
It seems so unfair. I wanted to see you walking backwards to get the sensation of you coming home. Remember to remember me standing still in your past.
Take it with a pinch of salt. Nothing’s ever good enough, good enough for me. Going down, I’m growing wings; hope I can fly before I hit the ground.
You better take a weight right off your mind and listen to what other people say, cause things are going wrong. You keep trying and end up in the middle.
For once in my life, let me get what I want; lord knows it would be the first time. I don’t need you to tell me what’s going down.
Well. That turned out to be a rather self-centered and angsty song, didn’t it? But I guess that’s not too surprising with two Smiths’ songs in the mix.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
#


Allison and I both really like the Futurehead's cover of Hounds of Love, but lately I've been thinking about the original and how I haven't heard it in forever.
Does anybody have the Kate Bush song that perhaps they might like to post sometime?
I'd love to hear it again and you would be my BFF.
Monday, October 23, 2006
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Sunday, October 22, 2006
posted by novillero Aug 17, ‘06
Winnipeg, Canada’s mod soul power explosion, Novillero, is set to appear on USA Network’s hit TV series, Monk (starring Tony Shalhoub) on August 25 (Canadian air date tba). Two original Novillero songs are performed and lines are spoken, but will Mr. Monk solve the crime?
This June, Mint Records act Novillero spent three days in Los Angeles on the set of Monk, playing themselves, as headliners of an outdoor rock festival. Tony Shaloub’s detective, Monk, jumps up on stage interrupting their performance. While Monk stands centre stage, trying to get the audience to co-operate in his investigation, Novillero yell out, “Forget this guy”, and crash into their song again.
Most of the band had never watched Monk until a few days before the shoot, except for Rod, who’s been a huge Tony Shaloub fan since his “Wings” days, but they were all very excited about the opportunity. “We arrived on set at 6:45 a.m. and there were about 250 extras already there, many of whom were wearing Novillero t-shirts. I didn’t really realize until then that we were the “headliners” of the fake festival. As if! ”
The band were asked to do the show after a music supervisor caught their SXSW set, noting The Flaming Lips were originally tapped to appear but had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict. A true SXSW success story!
Novillero’s Sean, Grant and Rod had the grand opportunity of ‘having lunch’ with Monk co-star Ted Levine (known to many as the serial killer “Buffalo Bill’ in Silence of the Lambs). Ted opened up to the boys, sharing his thoughts on one of his latest movies “The Hills Have Eyes” (‘a little too bloody’) and his favourite music (‘David Bowie’s”Heroes”’ is the tops) among other things. In return Novillero shared some of the Great White North’s secrets, for example why cars have to be plugged in during Winnipeg winters.
The world of TV seems to be catching up with them, as crowd sizes continue to build for Novillero from their intense live shows and busy schedule. A fall tour with The New Pornographers in Canada and their own string of dates in the USA is in the works to help celebrate this great opportunity for the band and a chance for audiences to see the dynamic live show in person.
“Embracing power pop harmonies, sunshine pop horn arrangements, and Krautrock-inspired synths, [a] near-perfect debut” - All Music Guide
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
The night before the New Pornographers concert this week, I dreamt that Carl Newman was staying at our house (all the bands seem to stay at our house when they play Calgary). In the dream, our garage door was broken, and Carl whipped out a big old toolbox and started to work on it. At sound check, he was still working on it and told us to go ahead to the concert without him; he was going to miss it in order to get the door finished.
I don't know what kind of subliminal meaning there was in that dream, but I was relieved to see him take the stage on Wednesday night. I would rather see him play any day, especially since there's nothing wrong with our garage door, but I did keep saying to Eva, "just look at him, he could totally fix that door".

low point of the evening: Somebody had some homework to finish first, so we got a late start. I wasn't too concerned as I assumed Immaculate Machine would play first, and while we always make it a point to see the opener (you never know when you are going to hear the next Radiohead), as long as we got to see the New Pornos, and especially Novillero, we were happy.
Imagine our shock when we entered the hall just in time to hear Novillero announce "this is going to be our last song". NOOOOOO!!!!!
more than made up for it moment: The guys from Novillero were so sweet and friendly and happy to chat while working the merch table. "I told you we should have gone last" Sean exclaimed when Eva told him that they were her main reason for coming and that we only caught their last song. After a lengthy chat, they promised they would be coming back soon and we bought a couple of sweet t-shirts - Eva's has a bullfighter, mine has a deep-sea diver.

best indie kid ever: The sweet bespectacled lad with the hand-knitted green striped mitts and matching scarf near the front of the stage. Those mitts saw air all night long! Every time I looked over, those mitts were way up in the air, clapping, thrusting to the ceiling, just givin' 'er. And not just during the New Pornos either; those mitts worked each song of every band. Kathryn Calder, who had just done double duty with Immaculate Machine, even commented on how great this kid was as the Pornos took the stage.
I ran into him as we were leaving, and I couldn't help blurting out "dude, you're awesome!". He looked puzzled for a split second, then glanced down at his mittened hands, and a big grin split his face as he gave me a thumbs up. Well, thumbs up to you too, indie boy! Keep on being fabulous!
best dance move of the night: That would have to go out to my very own indie kid, for her "Happy Hands" interperative dance moves. Shades of the best parts of Napolean Dynamite.
overall: great night, despite that fact that there weren't that many people there. In fact, there was not an eight-foot guy in sight and I had the best view of the stage I have ever had at Mac Hall. The New Pornos were tight, as always, Novillero were awesome, and Immaculate Machine were a good new addition to my musical experience. In fact, I'm gaining more and more admiration for Kathryn Calder all the time. She may not have the lungs of Neko Case, but she has a lovely voice and is an awesome keyboardist.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006

Heartfelt congratulations to you, Professor Yunus.
I'm pretty pumped that I am going to see the play Trainspotting at the Sage

Theatre tomorrow night.
There have been rumours that people have fainted and vomited at productions of this play and I, for one, could not be more excited. Sounds like going to a reading of a Chuck Palahniuk novel, although I don't imagine there will be plastic human limbs tossed out into the audience.
I still think that the film Trainspotting was Ewan MacGregor's finest effort, and I can't wait to see what the Sage Theatre production makes of Irvine Welsh's novel. They did after all produce Drinking in America a couple of seasons ago.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
I think many Decemberists fans were wondering that when it was announced that the charming folksy Oregon band were signing with a major label for the release of their new cd, The Crane Wife.
The strength of the Decemberists has always been found in Colin Meloy's ability to translate historical references into compelling stories, stories filled with rogues and rascals, pirates and prostitutes, mariners and marauders.
And while the Crane Wife, the Decemberists' major label debut, is a departure from their traditionally guitar-based songs, the sly subversion of this crafty gathering of book nerds is not missing from this latest offering. The first track on the cd is entitled the Crane Wife, Part 3, while the Crane Wife, Pts 1 & 2 is actually a single entity (albeit 11 minutes long) and it features much later on the cd. Oh those sneaky Decemberists! To add to the subversion of the natural order of things, the Perfect Crime #2 is in fact the only crime on the cd, in that there is no Perfect Crime #1. (Actually I'm also referring to the fact the this particular track is probably the least successful on the cd, but more on that later.)
The Crane Wife moves into new musical areas for the Decemberists, bringing in a more exerimental sound in many of the tracks. The lush grandiose opuses are still there in all their glory, with not one, but two of the songs clocking in at over 11 minutes. The Island: Come and See - The Landlord's Daughter - You'll Not Feel the Drowning is a song cycle of sorts, three distinct songs melded into one piece.
As Rewriteable Content so aptly stated in their review of this cd, the Crane Wife has the potential to alienate a lot of die-hard Decemberists' fans, those who only want to hear the Mariner's Revenge Song again. This cd delves into more exploratory music and while that may seem like sacrilege to those who only want to hear another sea shanty, I say let's embrace a band's desire to explore and to push their musical boundaries.
Hell, even Belle and Sebastian dipped into electronica with Electronic Renaissance.
That said, I have to say that the Perfect Crime #2 does not really work for me. Something about Colin Meloy's voice does not lend itself very kindly to reverb and the overlong denouement of "it was the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime" seems forced, to say the least.
That said, I have fallen completely in love with several of the songs and, in typical deviant Decemberists' fashion, I can feel the others starting to wrap a tentacle firmly around my heart.
The Crane Wife will be spending a lot of time on my playlist.
Have a listen to: The Crane Wife, Pt 3, Sons and Daughters
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Friday, October 13, 2006

To the woman who was behind me in the lane reversal stretch of Memorial Drive yesterday afternoon, you are clearly fucking insane.

The problem of course, starts quite a ways before we actually go down to one lane, as many people whip out into the left (disappearing lane) rather than wait in the right (good guys') lane, so that they can cut in at the point ot cutoff. This will always happen everytime you have a disappearing lane (of which we are blessed with several) because essentially people are arseholes. So those of us creeping along in the good guys' lane keep a very short distance between us and the car in front so that those ignorant bastards can't cut in, because after half a year of this nonsense, we are tired of it.
Yesterday I heard somebody honking while we were creeping along and I thought to myself, why would someone be honking, we're not even moving? After a bit, I noticed the vehicle behind me was really really close to my bumper (like, a hair away) and then the honking started up again, and it was the car behind me. By this time we had passed the cutoff point, so we were now down to one lane of traffic.

I really am puzzled by what she thought she could accomplish. Even if she was having some kind of crisis, there was nowhere for her (or the rest of us to go). To our right was a sidewalk, to our left was oncoming traffic. Did she expect me to go up on the sidewalk to allow her to pass? And if so, what about the other 45 cars in line in front of me? What the hell was she thinking?
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

But it's true, my friends. And through some great turn of fortune, I have been blessed recently with not one, but two, Will Benham original compositions in my honour. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. But I sure can share them with you.
best fire that manager whose like ricky gervais/
at least give him a lesson in customer service/
it was a trying time, took a couple a months/
but eventually, btz had you for lunch/
now i'm still wary of office depot/
cuz if my shit don't work, don't wanna deal with a creep-o/
but now you made it possible for barbara to buy some blank cd's/
to which i say, can i get a copy of the victory mix please/
now in conclusion, i gotta spread it around/
don't fuck with the zombie, cuz she will throw you down/
because you're not only dealing with her/
you're dealing with an army in the blogosphere
And if that doesn't get your bling jingling and your gold teeth flashing, how about this one:

it's your birthday
gonna party like it's your birthday
gonna eat salmon and pizza like it's your birthday
and you don't give a fuck cuz it's your birthday
hope you don't have to work
office depot's still a jerk
a new decemberists cd would make me go bezerk
you got some mix cd's from some offspring
and hopefully there's no songs from the offspring
Oh yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!
The only thing is, "Will Benham" just is not going to cut it as a hip-hop moniker. If Will is serious about promoting his obvious rapping talents, he's going to have to get his bad self a bad-ass name. A yellow PVC suit wouldn't hurt either.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

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Monday, October 09, 2006
----- Original Message -----
From: Casey-Ahlbum
To: Barbara
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 8:24 PM
Subject: RE: Your Concerns with Office Depot
Dear Ms. Bruederlin,
In response to your email I would like to point out that the Office Depot return policy is clearly disclosed on the back of our sales receipt at the time of purchase. Mr. Collins' offer was made in the spirit of good faith in what he believed to be his best effort to work with you. I am sorry that you have not found our efforts to be satisfactory.
In our investigation of this matter it has been brought to our attention that the unit was not only returned outside of the period of time that we allow, but that it also appeared to our employees that it was not in resellable condition. With that being said, the behavior that you described our employee as having engaged in at that point does not represent the way in which Office Depot desires to treat our customers and for that I am truly sorry.
Office Depot's believes that our policies are extremely fair in light of our position in the marketplace as a low cost provider of goods and services. In order to maintain our every day low prices it is necessary to limit the period of time that we allow product to be returned, even with a receipt. However, we recognize that rules and policies should never stand in the way of taking care of a customer. Therefore, in the spirit of goodwill, I would be happy to extend an offer to return the product in exchange for an Office Depot Merchandise Card equal to the purchase price of the product. We believe that this offer is extremely fair, reasonable, and within the spirit of customer service. If you wish to accept this offer please let me know and I will ask Mr. Tim Collins to contact you directly to finalize the arrangements.
Sincerely,
Casey J. Ahlbum
Sr. Customer Relations Manager
Executive Customer Relations
Office Depot, Inc.
----- Response -----
Dear Casey Ahlbum,
Thank you for your email and for your offer of an Office Depot Merchandise Card equal to the purchase price which I paid for the products in question. I am happy to be able to accept this offer and to accept the spirit in which it is made.
I should state that at all times I felt that Mr. Collins was sincere in his efforts to bring closure to this situation, and that he made his best attempt to work with the resources he had available at the time. I do appreciate his efforts and I appreciate the sensitivity with which he treated this situation. I also appreciate your fair offer of a full refund in return for the goods in question, as well as your apology for the past behaviour of an Office Depot employee, and I am happy to make this exchange.
I look forward to finalizing these arrangements with Mr. Collins.
Regards,
Barbara Bruederlin