February 25, 2006
John K Samson, CBC3 Studio Session/Live at the Gas Station Theatre, Winnipeg, 2002
We have for your listening pleasure two solo performances of The Weakerthans frontman John K Samson. The first is Samson performing at the Gas Station Theater in Winnipeg Manitoba on November 15th 2002. This comes courtesy of the folks at ScheduleTwo [via For the ‘Records’] who have the video of the performance up for you to view and download to your iPods. It features an (as far as I can tell) unrealeased song called “Utilities” and three from Reconstruction Site. At the end of “Psalm for the Elk’s Lodge Last Call” he records his guitar on a series of loops which sounds pretty cool. As with the other performance, the songs are quite stripped down. The date of the second performance is unclear, but it takes place sometime before January 3rd, 2003, when it was put online as a part of the now defunct CBC3 weekly magazine thing [note: I have found out that the date was December 5th, 2002]. It is not listed on the Just Concerts page, but it can be found via the Weakerthans’ website. Again, songs from Reconstruction Site as well as “Utilities”.
You know the drill. Still on Rapidshare so click and follow. All the files from the two performances are in one zipfile at end. [Update: the individual song files have been re-uploaded]. New Pornographers and Belle & Sebastian tonight. With luck I will have some new stuff for you from that.
UPDATE: My thanks to Luke from Schedule Two who let me know that the date of the CBC performance and that the ‘Utilities’ performance can be found on the CBC Radio Sessions cd (buy it here), which is a fantastic collection of live Canadian indie music.
EVEN BETTER UPDATE: Schedule Two’s Luke kindly provided me (and by extention you) better quality mp3s of the Gas Station Theatre performance. I have updated the links and the zipfile. Thanks Luke!
Live from the Gas Station Theater in Winnipeg Manitoba on November 15th 2002
1) Utilities.mp3 (4.22MB)
2) Benediction.mp3 (2.57MB)
3) Time’s Arrows.mp3 (2.91MB)
4) Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call.mp3 (3.93 MB)
CBC Radio 3 Session, December 5, 2002
1) Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call.mp3 (2.75 MB)
2) One Great City.mp3 (2.73MB)
3) Reconstruction Site.mp3 (2.56 MB)
4) Utilities.mp3 (3.4 MB)
** John K Samson – Gas Station Theatre/CBC Session.zip (25.1 MB)
February 22, 2006
Mogwai, “Glasgow Mega-Snake”, ICA London, January 2006
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)
February 19, 2006
Sarah Harmer, Sydenham Street United Church, Kingston, 25 November 2005
[photo by Andy Learmont from the 2002 Edmonton Folkfest]
I don’t think it is much of an exaggeration to state that Sarah Harmer is one of the most versatile singers currently performing. She has successfully tried her hand at numerous musical genres from alt/indie rock as part of Weeping Tile, to pleasing pop in her two solo records released by Warner Universal, and folk-bluegrass-roots-jazz in her work with Jason Euringer and in her latest solo release. And she has performed with a diverse assortment of artists including The Tragically Hip, Great Big Sea, the Rheostatics, and the Weakerthans. In each project her powerful, clear voice seems at home: it never feels less than authentic and natural. Her newest record, “I’m A Mountain,” released February 7th in the US and to be released on March 6th in Europe, takes a “back to the land” approach in both its theme and musical style. The record was inspired by the “I love the Escarpment Tour” which she undertook to raise awareness about the pressing need to preserve the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, from mining companies (she talks to the Queen’s Journal about the album, the tour and the Escarpment; see PERL for more info on this and to sign their petition; Click here to hear my recording of “Escarpment Blues” which she performed with Broken Social Scene, hosted by SilverRoad). This mix of covers, new versions of older songs, and new material is authentic and serious, amusing and uplifting, and stunningly beautiful throughout (see CokeMachineGlow’s review).
Her performance at Sydenham St. United Church was a part of a mini-tour to promote the album upon its Canadian release (she is about to embark on a US tour, which include a March 17th performance at SxSW). The church, a gorgeous 19th century building, provided a wonderful atmosphere for Harmer and her band to introduce her new material, revisit old favourites, and perform some covers and standards that aren’t on her albums. Unfortunately, due to a frustrating technical difficultly I wasn’t able to record the better part of the show. I did however capture the last five songs. They are on rapidshare as usual so follow the links, a zip file with all the songs and talk is at the end. [UPDATE – I have uploaded the songs onto ezarchive so download away] I am sorry for the tape hiss which is present throughout and which I haven’t figured out how to reduce/remove. The last song was sung a capella and without the use of a microphone – while this was amazing to see in person it means the recording isn’t as strong. I hope you enjoy these tracks. I have several more Sarah Harmer shows on tape so you will see her again on this site in the future.
Sarah Harmer, Sydenham Street United Church, Kingston, 25 November 2005
1) Will He Be Waiting for Me.mp3 (3.55 MB)
2) I’m a Mountain.mp3 (3.32 MB)
3) Around this Corner.mp3 (3.28 MB)
4) Lodestar.mp3 (5.03 MB)
5) How Deep in the Valley.mp3 (4.64 MB)
6) Sarah Harmer- Sydenham St United -complete.zip (23.8 MB) (link expired)
February 18, 2006
Dinosaur Jr., World Cafe, NPR, 24 August 2005
My planned post for tommorow is sort of short so I thought do two posts this weekend. The first revisits a band I listened to when I was younger: Dinosaur Jr. I must admit I was never really cool enough to listen to their early stuff, mostly just “Feel the Pain” era stuff which I thought was pretty damn great. (The video for that song, directed by Spike Jonze, is fantastic. Stupid wordpress doesn’t want to let me imbed it so here is the YouTube link definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it). The band reformed with its original line up in 2005 and has been touring extensively. They plan to release a new album (the first with original bassist Lou Barlow since 1989) as well as a DVD. The first three Dinosaur Jr. albums were re-released on Merge in 2005. Late in August of 2005 they stopped by NPR’s World Cafe to play a couple of songs (both from their 1985 album “Dinosaur”). Check back later tommorow for another (rather different) post.
Dinosaur Jr. World Cafe, NPR, 24 August 2005
1) Introduction.mp3 (0.5 MB)
2) Quest.mp3 (4.69 MB)
3) Talk with Dinosaur Jr.mp3 (4.39 MB)
4) Bulbs of Passion.mp3 (3.59MB)
5) Drum talk & outro.mp3 (1.41 MB)
6) Dinosaur Jr – NPR World Cafe – 24 Aug 2005.zip (Complete, 14.3 MB)
February 15, 2006
Cool/Not So Cool
Cool: I thought I would take a second to post a quick thanks to Frank of Chromewaves for hosting a great site which hosts great contests. For those of you who read that site (most of you, I’m sure) you most likely already know that I won his latest contest, sponsored by Zunior, an mp3 player filled with zunior songs. I have wanted a mp3 player for quite some time but have been saving up for a minidisc recoder instead. Now I can have both. My winning playlist/entry can be seen here.
Zunior is an awesome online music store/record label. There are three reasons you should forget about iTunes or eMusic or wherever else you get your music online and buy from Zunior: 1) they have a great roster of artists; 2) you can get most of the albums in mp3 or in cd-quality format; and 3) they are the only place where you can get the wonderful Jill Barber‘s first EP “A Note to Follow So” which had a very small first printing. She is fantastic, this album is fantastic – much more stripped down than her follow up “Oh Heart” (get that one too, while you are there) – and you should thank your lucky stars that you can still get your hands on it. I will be posting some Jill Barber stuff here in the not-so-distant future. Am I asskissing? Maybe a bit. I am pretty pleased to have won. You should check out the site and see if I am full of crap or not.
Not so cool: My car tangled with a guard rail after hitting some ice and came out on the losing end. My insurance rate would go up astronomically for six years (!!!) if I submitted the claim through them so I had to pay for the damage. So much for that minidisc recorder. Anyway, in honour of insurance companies everywhere (and those who have been dicked around by them) I present you:
Whitey Houston, I Got Fucked By Liberty Mutual.mp3 (2.21 MB)
Whitey Houston (notice, no ‘N’ – not the coke-fiend) is cut from the same cloth as Death From Above 1979 and Lightning Bolt – they are from the “let’s see how much awesome noise we can squeeze out of two instruments” school. Stream more songs from their website and if they come by your town, check ’em out live as they put on a kick-ass show. I must admit that my insurance lady was pretty nice about things but I still am not happy about having to pay for the repairs myself. At least I know have an mp3 player to listen to while I take the bus to work.
February 13, 2006
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah & We Are Scientists on Steve Lamacq, BBC6, 6 & 13 February 2006
I saw that We Are Scientists were on Steve Lamacq’s show on BBC6 today so I popped over there to see if I couldn’t find something else to post for you today. After some confusion (involving broadcast dates of the sessions posted) I not only found the We Are Scientists but also an short interview and a live track from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from last week. So here is a small two-in-one post taken from the good folks over at the BBC.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music , 6 February 2006
1) Interview.mp3 (2.41 MB)
2) In This Home On Ice.mp3 (3.54 MB, part of the “Lamacq in the City” concert series, took place 5 February at Liquid Room, Edinburgh)
3) outro.mp3 (0.89 MB, Lamacq talking)
We are Scientists, Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music , 13 February 2006
1) Interview with Steve Lamacq.mp3 (8.83 MB)
Unfortunately WAS didn’t perform live today but I wasn’t too disappointed as these guys are very funny and it is one of the most amusing interviews I’ve heard in quite some time.
r
Apostle of Hustle, The Social, Toronto, 2 February 2006
While I missed a few good concerts in Kingston the first week of this month, I was able to attend the filmCAN fundraiser held at The Social, Toronto, featuring Dave MacKinnon (FemBots) and Apostle of Hustle. I had never heard of filmCAN before (it is a very interesting online magazine about/for the Canadian film industry. See the current issue for an article on Gus van Sant’s “Last Days” and an interview with David Cronenberg, to name just two pieces) but I am always up for live music and going out for charity gives me that added bonus of a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
I missed the better part of MacKinnon’s set, but caught the last few songs which were much more stripped down and immediate than the FemBots version but every bit as good. The Apostle of Hustle part of the show was also very good. It was the first time I had seen Andrew Whiteman on his own and I thought it was and excellent show, even if he twice forgot the lyrics to his songs (which was…kinda strange). Two covers were played (Metric’s Hustle Rose and The Rat by Walkmen), stuff from “Folkloric Feel” and three unrecorded songs. Check out Idiosynk for pics and a video of the last two minutes of the Metric cover.
Just so you are forewarned, the small bar was packed and were quite chatty so there is a horrible amount of background noise on this recording in parts. Why do people insist on talking through the ENTIRE show, especially when they are really close to the stage where you might expect to find people who are actually interested in listening? I’ll never understand that one. Thanks to the folks over at the AoH broken telephone forum for helping me with the songs titles of the unrealeased stuff (lemme know if I got any of them wrong). As usual, all files are on rapidshare with the complete show zipped at the end UPDATE: The individual files have been uploaded.
Apostle of Hustle, The Social (filmCAN Fundraiser), Toronto, 2 February 2006
1) Energy of Death.mp3 (4 MB)
2) Hustle Rose (Metric cover).mp3 (7.26 MB)
3) National Anthem of Nowhere.mp3 (4.23 MB)
4) Rafaga.mp3 (4.93 MB)
5) talk.mp3
6) The Rat (Walkmen cover).mp3 (4.07 MB)
7) Animal Fat.mp3 (3.84 MB)
8) tuning & Conan talk.mp3
9) Sebastien.mp3 (2.99 MB)
10) encore talk & forgotten lyrics.mp3
11) Baby You’re in Luck.mp3 (3.49 MB)
9) Apostle of Hustle – The Social – 2 Feb 2006 – complete.zip (38.6 MB)
February 11, 2006
Stars, “Petite Mort” 7″ single
I forgot to bring home the files I needed to write my planned post so please check back on Monday and I will make it up to you. However, so you don’t go away empty handed I have posted a Stars song for you.
This song was an outake from the “Set Yourself on Fire” sessions. It was released as a 7″ single (with a remix of “What The Snowman Learned About Love”). It is a interesting song with a staccato, spoken delivery in the verses, an upbeat tempo and some nice harmonies and it stays within the theme of “sex and death and robots” of “Set Yourself…”
Stars are playing a free outdoor show as part of Ottawa’s Winterlude on February 18th so if you are in the NCR be sure to check it out. Here are the dates for the rest of the tour (all ages show in Kingston on the 27th at AJs). Also, here (via For the ‘Records’) is an interview with Amy Millan where she tells a dirty joke.
Stars, Petite Mort.mp3 (4.49 MB)
UPDATE: As a bonus, reader Scott has sent me Stars, Live on CBC’s ZeD performing an excellent version of What the Snowman Learned About Love [new link](6.58 MB). Thanks Scott! My belated weekend update will be posted sometime this afternoon or early this evening.
February 7, 2006
Broken Social Scene on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, 31 January 2006
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)
February 4, 2006
The New Pornographers, The Triple Door, Seattle (via KEXP), 23 August 2005
We are only two weeks away from the kick-off of the big Belle & Sebastian and New Pornographers tour. I have given quite a bit of attention to Belle & Sebastian so I thought I should share some New Pornographers with you. This concert at Seattle’s Triple Door was hosted by KEXP just prior to the release of “Twin Cinema”. They played both old favourites as well as newer material. Neko wasn’t there, but Kathryn Calder filled in admirably. You know the drill – All the files are on rapidshare so give the links a click. The complete thing is zipped at the end of the post.
r
The New Pornographers, The Triple Door, Seattle (Live on KEXP), 23 August 2005.
1. Twin Cinema.mp3 (2.71 MB)
2. Use It.mp3 (3.14 MB)
3. It’s Only Divine Right.mp3 (3.42 MB)
4. The Bleeding Heart Show.mp3 (4.07 MB)
5. Jackie Dressed in Cobras.mp3 (2.88)
6. The Bones of an Idol.mp3 (2.6 MB)
7. Star Bodies.mp3 (3.76 MB)
8. The Slow Descent.mp3 (3.51 MB)
9. Sing Me Spanish Techno.mp3 (3.68 MB)
10. Jackie.mp3 (2.29 MB)
11. New Pornographers KEXP complete.zip (31.6 MB)
B(oot)log 