In November two of my favourite bands/artists, Sarah Harmer and The Weakerthans, performed together at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Naturally, by the time that I heard about it the concert has sold out, but the CBC was kind enough to broadcast it twice and I was able to record it the second time around (which, sadly, edited a few of the more interesting songs out to fit the time slot). It is quite an interesting show with favourites of both artists being performed along with a few covers in each of the sets. While “Benediction” wasn’t performed (am I the only one to find that odd?) Sarah helped The Weakerthans out on a couple of tunes and vice versa.

As I mentioned, a few of the songs were cut out, as was most of the talk. My recording is plagued with low ‘pops’ which you may or may find detrimental to your enjoyment. Despite all this, I think if you are a fan of either The Weakerthans or Sarah Harmer you should like these songs. I am hoping to find a better recording and if you happen to have one and are willing to share you would definitely earn a shiny gold star from me. That’s it from me from Cleveland.
r

UPDATE: Utilities and Lodestar links fixed. UPDATE2: get the missing tracks here

The Weakerthans with Sarah Harmer, Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto, 18 November 2005

1) My Favourite Chords.mp3 (4.09 MB)
2) Reconstruction Site.mp3 (2.94 MB)
3) Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call.mp3 (2.7 MB)
4) Utilities.mp3 (3.9 MB)
5) Night Windows.mp3 (4.12 MB)
6) Swinging Party.mp3 (The Replacements cover) with Sarah Harmer (3.96 MB)
7) Reasons.mp3 (3.72 MB)
8 ) Past-Due.mp3 (1.84 MB)

Sarah Harmer with The Weakerthans, Glen Gould Studio, Toronto, 18 November 2005

1) I am Aglow.mp3 (2.57 MB)
2) Escarpment Blues.mp3 (3.7 MB)
3) Weakened State.mp3 (3.17 MB)
4) Islands in the Stream.mp3 (Bee Gees cover) with The Weakerthans (4.38 MB)
5) Gone for Good.mp3 (The Shins cover) with The Weakerthans (3.68 MB)
6) I’m a Mountain.mp3 with The Weakerthans (3.17 MB)
7) Lodestar.mp3 (5.06 MB)

Buy The Weakerthans and Sarah Harmer stuff

Does any one know of any good bands playing tommorow in Cleveland? I have rather unexpectedly found myself in Ohio visiting my brother and I am looking for something cool to do tommorow night. Leave me a message in the comments if you can recommend anything. If not, I guess I can always visit the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame (photo by)for the fourth time.

I will have your regularly scheduled weekend post tommorow.

r

Hot damn! You can get video of Voxtrot performing five songs in Minneapolis thanks to the mad recording skills of Schedule Two (from the same show as Tapes 'n Tapes). The five songs online are:

Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives
Rise Up in the Dirt
Start of Something
Fast Asleep
Soft and Warm

And, for good measure, here are a couple of mp3s from the band's website on the off chance you don't already have them :

Voxtrot, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives.mp3

Voxtrot, The Start of Something.mp3

A few people have stopped by looking for the Weakerthans/Sarah Harmer set from last November which was broadcast on the CBC April 9th and rebroadcast on the 22nd. I don’t have it up here, but if you stop by Silver Road’s The Ring you can find a recording of the Sarah Harmer set from the rebroadcast this past Saturday. It is neither perfect nor complete (the rebroadcast edited out several songs and most of the talk) and but this is what we have. I’m hoping to get my hands on a recording of the April 9th broadcast - did anyone out there happen to record the full set?

Sarah Harmer with the Weakerthans, Gone for Good (The Shins cover).mp3

Owen Pallett graced Kingston’s smallest (but best) stage earlier this month. It was my first time seeing Final Fantasy and, even after hearing wonderful things about the live show, my expectations were exceeded. Seeing Pallett onstage alone but being able to accompany himself with ingenious and extraordinarily precise use of looping pedals is something to behold. That man can coax an unbelievable variety of sounds out of his violin - from classical bowing, to plucking, scratching and even by screaming into it. He was quite personable and chatted with the crowd, asking what songs they wanted to hear and telling little stories. Perhaps my favourite is his explanation about the title “He Poos Clouds” which involves him impersonating a woman with a southern accent and big hair describing how wonderful someone is. He played about an equal number of songs off his new album and “Has a Good Home” as well as previewing a couple of unfinished songs, one of which, he said, he had never performed live before.

Because I am sometimes shockingly inept as a bootlegger, and I left the extra tape I had all ready on my table at home, I only had enough tape with me to record the first part of the set. So I humbly present to you the what I have and regret not being able to share the rest of the really great show. At any rate, with the exception of a hiss/buzz that I can’t get rid of I think the sound is pretty good so you should really enjoy these tracks.

Much better bloggers than I interviewed Owen and I highly recommend you go to Mocking Music and You Ain’t No Picasso to read those interviews and if you are interested in winning yourself a copy of “He Poos Clouds” (and why wouldn’t you be? it’s pretty fantastic) check out I{heart}Music for a review and contest.

If you don’t win you can, and should, buy the two Final Fantasy albums through Sonic Unyon (scroll to #13 and #19 for FF)

Final Fantasy, Gradclub, Kingston, 11 April 2006

1) Intro.mp3 (2.43 MB)
2) That’s When the Audience Died.mp3 (7.54 MB)
3) This Lamb Sells Condos.mp3 (9.4 MB)
4) Wyrd Visions and Grizzly Bear talk.mp3 (2.39 MB)
5) The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead.mp3 (5.76 MB)
6) Hey Dad intro.mp3 (2.32 MB)
7) Hey Dad.mp3 (6.52 MB)
Many Lives - > 49mp.mp3 (5.2 MB)
9) “Banger” songs talk.mp3 (2.8 MB)
10) New, Unfinished song (no title given).mp3 (5.28 MB)
11) This Dream of Win and Regine.mp3 (6.56 MB)
12) He Poos Clouds talk.mp3 (2.6 MB)

Photo from Boston, Oct. 17, 2005 by Mike Ritter via The Josh Ritter Fansite.

I wasn't sure what I was going to post for you this week but when I saw that all the cool kids are writing about Josh Ritter I figured that I should join the party.

Josh Ritter stopped by the Grad Club in Kingston a little over a year ago (he was here at the beginning of the month, too, but I missed him this time around). I had seen him a few months before when he opened for Sarah Harmer and was duly impressed. However, I must admit that I actually went to this show to see the opening act - the lovely Jill Barber who I introduced you to last week. As a result I recorded her set in its entirety and just caught the first three songs of the main attraction. Which is somewhat sad because he put on a great show and I curse my unpreparedness.

Singing quite softly he held the attention of the rapt crowd. He was very personable and exuded a nervous authenticity - very down to earth and genuine. To give you a sense of what I mean by this I included a bit of banter where Josh describes cliff diving in Idaho. This is just a bit of the story but I think it is pretty funny. He played a full set, with a number of songs from his then-unreleased album The Animal Years and the encore was stellar - Jill returned to the stage to sing a duet. They performed her song "Two Brown Eyes". Great stuff.

I think the quality of the tracks I taped is pretty good, although there is an underlying hiss.

And because three songs is something of a tease, I am also going to share his instudio performance from Minnesota Public Radio's The Current, which took place at the end of January this year.

I hope the easter bunny was good to everyone this year.

r

Josh Ritter, The Grad Club, Kingston, 3 February 2005

1) Girl in the War.mp3 (6.77 MB)
2) Bright Smile.mp3 (5.6 MB)
3) Roll On.mp3 (5.64 MB)
4) On being "rednecked out" talk.mp3 (1.95 MB)

Josh Ritter, Live on MPR: The Current, 30 January 2006

1) Girl in the War.mp3 (3.68 MB)
2) New album & influences talk.mp3 (4.74 MB)
3) Wolves.mp3 (2.04 MB)
4) Idaho, Boston & Ireland talk.mp3 (4.06 MB)
5) Snow is Gone.mp3 (3.09 MB)

Josh Ritter albums and t-shirts make great Easter gifts. Personally, I wouldn't say no if someone wanted to get me the hoody…just thought I'd throw that out there…

For such a small place, Kingston has produced and/or nurtured a wide range of extremely talented musicians and bands. Some bands exist only while the members are at the University and then are left behind when the people leave for the real world, others continue to perform and grow as artists. Jill Barber is a wonderful case of the latter. First as part of the indie-rock band Bent Ivy and then as a solo artist, she developed as a musician right here before leaving for Halifax. However, a few times a year she returns, often to the Grad Club where she performed in front of an audience for the first time, to share her wonderful folky/jazz-tinged songs. For those unfamiliar with her, she is a singer-songwriter who has a rich, warm voice which she uses most often to tell stories of love and its aftermath.

What I have from this show from November of last year is only a small portion of her performance. Since recording this show I learned a valuable lesson: carefully label your tapes. You would think that would be a no-brainer but one that sometimes is forgotten. This is important for two reasons 1) so you don’t record over the show (which I did for the first half), and 2) so you don’t use a tape that has other stuff on it which may linger (the ‘ghost’ of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”, of all things, haunts the background of the latter songs, which makes for a poor mashup). So I put the four songs that I do have that don’t include something unwanted in the background, including one new song “Legacy” (which got cut off at the end). I have another recording of from earlier in 2005 that I will post sometime in the future so if you like this check back in a while. As usual this is an audience recording so the quality isn’t the best possible but I think you might like it nevertheless.

To round out this short post I have added two other songs - one from Barber’s first solo ep and one from a compliation from her band Bent Ivy. Both are fantastic and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

r

Jill Barber, Grad Club, Kingston, 8 November 2005

1) Oh Heart.mp3 (3.66 MB)

2) Measures & Scales.mp3 (4.75 MB)

3) Legacy.mp3 (3.01 MB)

4) Two Brown Eyes.mp3 (3.43 MB)

Bonus - from A Note to Follow So

* The Best View.mp3 (3.97 MB)

Super Bonus - from the Ultraviolet 2000 compilation :

* Bent Ivy, New Orleans.mp3 (3.6 MB)
[As far as I know this is the only Bent Ivy song recorded but on the listing from the 2001 CMW site, it states that Bent Ivy released an album - can anyone tell me if this is true? You will be my hero if you can provide me with more Bent Ivy tracks]

photo by Rainbowerin

Do yourself a big favour and get A Note to Follow So and Oh Heart from Zunior (the latter also available in CD form from Miles of Music).

I missed the better part of the Junos - better meaning both time-wise and performance-wise. Sure, I saw Black Eyed Peas perform but not Broken Social Scene. I did, however, see BSS take home the Juno for Alternative (? do people still use that word to describe music? In this case I guess it still works - alternative to utter crap) Album of the Year. Which was completely deserved, although I would have been happy if the New Pornographers won it as well. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to check out their performance today and you can too. See the teeny-tiny video here.

Or you can listen to it:

* Broken Social Scene, Ibi Dreams of Pavement.mp3 (Live at the Junos, Halifax, 2 April 2006)

The sound is a bit wonky at the 14 second mark, otherwise it is pretty good - but let me know if there is a better sounding copy out there.

“Fight for better music Canada.” Damn straight.

photo by BusySignals from the Saskatoon show on April 20th.

It took me a while to get back around to it, but here is the highly anticipated part 2 of the Rolling Tundra Revue. After being treated to a rather rocking set by The Constantines, The Weakerthans took the stage to entertain and enlighten the gathered crowd. I had seen the Weakerthans previously about a year before in Kingston and in both shows there was a rather distinct lack of engagement with the crowd. There was virtually no banter on either occassion - a few "thanks," one or two song introductions, and that's pretty much it. Not that I particullarly mind, however, because John K and crew did what they came to do - play great music - but as far as "all time great concert experiences" there was something a bit lacking with this show. Don't get me wrong, I thought they were good, and I would definitely go to see them again, but it was not what i would call great or particularly memorable. I don't know - any one else want to weigh in on the Weakerthans live? What do you think? Is it just me? At any rate, the Weakerthans played a really solid set drawing almost equally from their three albums. In addition to the old favourites they played two new songs - Night Windows & Reunion Tour - both of which were quite good. The show ended with the Constantines coming back onstage to join the Weakerthans, forming something of a Canuck-rocknroll-supergroup, for a rousing rendition of the Travelling Wilburys' "End of the Line".

As you no doubt expect by now, this is an audience recording, made on an analogue tape recorder, so be warned that this isn't soundboard quality. Despite that, I think you still might enjoy it. Oh, and I am missing a bit of the middle of "Left & Leaving" as i had to switch tapes. That's it. Until next week.

r

The Weakerthans, Lee’s Palace, Toronto, 8 April 2005
1) (Manifest).mp3 (2.07 MB)
2) Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961).mp3 (2.29 MB)
3) Watermark.mp3 (2.48 MB)
4) Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call.mp3 (2.56 MB)
5) Aside.mp3 (3.29 MB)
6) Benediction.mp3 (3.8 MB)
7) Night Windows.mp3 (4.59 MB)
Confessions Of A Futon-Revolutionist.mp3 (2.18 MB)
9) The Reasons.mp3 (3.52 MB)
10) Pamphleteer.mp3 (4.64 MB)
11) Reconstruction Site.mp3 (2.85 MB)
12) Plea From A Cat Named Virtute.mp3 (4.03 MB)
13) Left & Leaving (Joined).mp3 (4.21 MB)
14) If bill murray were a song - encore talk.mp3 (0.8 MB)
15) My Favourite Chords.mp3 (3.95 MB)
16) This Is A Fire Door Never Leave Open.mp3 (4.4 MB)
17) Openers thanks & stuff for sale talk.mp3 (0.4 MB)
1 Reunion Tour.mp3 (3.01 MB)
19) End of the Line.mp3 (Travelling Wilburys cover, with the Constantines, 4.96 MB)

Buy Weakerthans albums here.