I am in front of a computer located somewhere in the wilds of south-western Ontario after a weeklong bender, um, i mean conference, in Hamilton. Through rather bleary eyes I see that b(oot)log has been nominated in The Torture Garden’s Unnecessary and Completely Arbitrary Blog Awards in the Best ‘Young’ Blog category along with two much better blogs than mine - Cable & Tweed and Rbally (seriously, they are much, much better, go read them). Colour me flattered. While perhaps arbitrary and unneccessary, it is nice to see that others are digging what you are doing so thanks for the nod, Shane.

And now, on to the music which, coincidentally, has an Irish connection: Stars were interviewed and performed live on Ireland’s RTE Television’s Other Voices earlier this year. Knowing that I would be away all week but not wanting to miss my weekly post I uploaded the tracks in advance but didn’t have time to write anything about it. Thankfully, the content is pretty self-explanatory because while I would love to add something profound and/or witty, my brain is feeling a little soggy after spending the last several days discussing the Philosophy of Archives (and making the most of the several open bars provided) so I’ve got nothing. Enjoy the Stars. Perhaps I will be back next week with something enlightening to offer…but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. I don’t think it has happened yet so why should next week be any different?

For a very good recording of Stars’ recent show in Berlin visit Don’t Pay for Drinks. Huzzah for more Stars!

Stars, Other Voices, RTE Television, Ireland, 15 February 2006

1) On the state of Canadian music talk.mp3 (1.77 MB)

2) One More Night.mp3 (4.08 MB)

3) describing their music talk.mp3 (0.8 MB)

4) Calendar Girls.mp3 (3.8 MB)

Buy Stars albums etc. through Arts&Crafts.

Completely Unrelated Bonus Song: Tokyo Police Club - Cheer it On.mp3.

I thought I would throw this one on because I am sad to have missed their show in Kingston the other day and because I am currently listening to their album very, very loudly which is the best way to listen to songs about robots in my opinion. (buy from Paper Bag Records)

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.

A little post-rock treat for your Wednesday. From January 10th to the 14th Mogwai was in residence at the ICA in London. The Independent and the Guardian offer reviews and Channel 4 are streaming a live video of the performance of Glasgow Mega-Snake (although it is not clear which night this performance comes from) which will appear on their forthcoming album “Mr. Beast”. Here is an mp3 of that performance.

Mogwai, Glasgow Mega-Snake (Live at ICA).mp3 (3.68 MB)

Broken Social Scene took over the Late Night stage last week. I missed it but thanks to YouTube (and Brooklyn Vegan for pointing it out) I was able to catch it from the comfort of my office today at lunch. There might be other mp3s of this floating about but here it is if you missed it elsewhere (via rapidshare update - it’s been reuploaded).

Broken Social Scene, 7/4 (Shorelines) Live on Conan.mp3 (4.16 MB)