Journey vol. 2

Listening to Plants and Animals

I was trying to explain indie music to my Dad and I played a couple of indie songs for him, rationalizing that it was simply to explain something. Of course then I realized that Canada should have a burgeoning indie scene of it's own. And apparently it does, so I've started exploring the Canadian indie music scene. After going through a few artists I've stumbled upon Plants and Animals, a band that I can appreciate and, hopefully, so can my dad (at least something he hopefully won't actively dislike). It's an odd criteria to meet, but the world of indie is one of reviving lost art forms so it's not entirely out of place. [at this point the author gets told that he's polluting the computer].

Listening to The Michael Parks (formerly Detective Kalita)

After some long searching I managed to assemble a few indie artists that looked quite promising. Most awesome is Detective Kalita (now The Michael Parks). they're surprisingly under the radar for being such a good indie band. Last night, along with a couple of classic Star Trek episodes, we watched Igor with John Cusack. The movie was surprisingly good with a solid blend of offbeat humor and a really original plot. Steve Buscemi played an indestructible rabbit and along with a talking brain in a jar named Brian provided most of the laugh out loud comedy. John Cusack is a lot more subtle though, while not actively funny himself, he works well in a comedy environment, if you've ever seen Hi-Fidelity or some of his earlier fare you'll know what I mean. Igor is a mostly overlooked gem and it's well worth a watch. Anyways, the day is wasting away and I'm going to go adventuring. Keep it pregnant people.

pipe smoking professor

Sanctuary Road

This is something that I wrote back in December, but never really edited. Most of the editing I've done now is punctuation, but a little bit of phrasing near the beginning too. Its form is reminiscent of freewriting, but content-wise I spent a lot more time on it and the coherency shows (if limitedly). Without further ado, here it is.

Pipe smoking professor

Sanctuary Road

I'm riding on a train going somewhere I don't know. 

Conductor looks at me says, Canada you want something? you know where to go? 

but I'm just as lonely, just as scared of tomorrow as the next soul 

I hold maybe fewer grudges, but I'm every bit as cold. 

When I try too hard there's a pain that hits me in the heart 

and I know there's something there, 

diabetes or some strange disease, 

brings the thought of being home 

to be so clear to me. 

Wake up fevered on the coach the railroad is in a dream, 

here I'm buried in a sea of apathy and snow, 

but the thought is just as strong, my eyes see nothing but the road they call it home, but to me it's just another cardboard box a mess of Russian dolls and in the middle me what rail to jump, what car to drive I'm holding up my sign and looking at the coins on main street, dropped like diamonds in the snow. I'm not made for the weather you know, it holds me down and brings me close to the smell of something I can't pretend to like. This bitter city holds no part of my soul. For love and peace, and a host of other things I must leave to Arizona, never mind she's buried in snow. A plane to a place I've yet to see, still a sense that I can find a sanctuary settled somewhere on a road, with a conductor that calls me Canada and a feeling like I'm going home.

Journey vol. 1

listening to Banned from Atlantis

So me and Alpha made a deal to listen to only Canadian music that we haven't listened to this week. I mean let's be serious people, there's a wealth of musical talent in Canada. The only reason some of these artists haven't ever made it big is because they're in Canada. Most Canadian artists that do make it big are the ones that move to the U.S.. It certainly requires a little bit more work to find the good Canadian musicians, mostly because a lack of publicity, but the results can be quite rewarding. Right now I'm listening to a great punk band from Winnipeg called Banned from Atlantis that existed briefly in the mid-nineties. The drumming is pretty hectic and often way off, but that just serves to capture something of the essence of punk, something that it lost some time ago due to excessive spit and polish. 

listening to The Besnard Lakes: Volume 1

Next up on todays fantastic journey through awesome Canadian music is the strange yet beautiful The Besnard Lakes. With this band, much more so than Banned from Atlantis, you can really feel the Canadianess. It has hints of other ethnicities, but there is a very distinct sound that's unique to Canadian music that they've captured. There's something that reflects the vastness and the wildness of this country that shouts out "THIS IS A CANADIAN BAND". It has echoes of Matthew Good and some of the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, but from the later it still maintains a vast chasm. In the end it's both starkly unique and profoundly Canadian. A good mix if you ask me. Today is a sunny day, one of those days that's perfect for basking in the heat still present under the newly verdant foliage. I'm going to go find somewhere to climb trees and then make my way out to Langley for the evening. Happy Victoria day tomorrow. Celebrate by finding a new Canadian band. Keep it pregnant.

Will

Sound from the Garages

listening to Stranger of the Night by Absie

So here I am, out in Burnaby, getting up early. I got up just past 7:30 this morning. If you know me, that's early. I was doing some band searching last night (quite an enjoyable pastime) and I stumbled upon a few good ones. First I found this band called The Litter, they're a great late 60's psychedelic garage rock band. I found them initially because they did a cover of Buffy Sainte Marie's Codeine, a song that I was trying to find the original of online (the only copy I could find was a live version of about half the song). Anyways, it turns out that the Litter rock out pretty hard in their own right, and they had some great songs (like Action Woman) that weren't covers and some great songs (like I'm a Man by Bo Diddley) that were covers. Good listening if you like garage rock or psychedelic  music, and a good mixing of the two.

listening to Codine by The Litter

After that it got pretty crazy. I was eating some trail mix and there were some dehydrated blueberries in it. So I had the thought, I'll bet there's a band called The Blueberries. Sure enough there's a band called the Blueberries. And oddly enough they're actually pretty decent. They're an indie French band from Brest, but they take their influence from a lot of British punk like the Clash, which is a good thing. They're still a starting out indie band, but they're rocking the Clash vibe so I'm sure they're going to be pretty awesome once they polish their sound. 

From The Blueberries I linked to a British artist called Absie. Again, she's an indie artist, but with a lot more stuff than the Blueberries and actually playing shows in Britain. Good music, worth a listen. I've got to go to work now or else I would have said a little more. Keep it pregnant.

Will

Mindy's Last Ride (Indefinitely)

Mindy is done, though not in the expected way. I was at Kwantlen checking my email when she got towed. The ironic bit is that as I was walking out to her, I was reading an article about how UBC got rid of its parking fines. That's called bitter irony. So after exhaustively trying to get her back (without money that can be a difficult task) I returned to the Kwantlen library and continued my search on craigslist and monster.ca, both pretty darn useful websites. Anyways, that's all for now, but don't expect any blogging for a while.

pipesmokingprofessor

Mindy's Last Ride (approximately)

I have 50 more kilometers to go. Or at least that's as far as I'll be able to go. From there it's either walking or, if I can find one, biking. It's useful to know exactly how far a tank of gas will take you, but there's also a sense of impending doom when you know you're not going to be able to fill it up again. Today I'm on the job search, all got up in some nice pants and a fancy shirt and I'm even wearing shoes. In weather like this, one should never have to wear shoes, but alas it must be done. The resumes are mostly printed, but they are unfortunately woefully incomplete. That is to say, they're lacking a phone number. I have neither a land line nor a cell phone, and while it can sometimes be a beautiful thing not being connected to the whole world, at times like these it has its drawbacks. Anyways, after printing off a few more resumes, I'm off to tour around Langley in the blazing sun, shirtless and listening to 100.5 at full volume (of course I'll be wearing the shirt when I apply for jobs). What is 100.5 you ask? It's just the newest radio station in town and also the coolest (cue catchy sound effect and slide guitar).

Will

The Times They Are A-Changin'

I really liked Rambo. Not at first, but it grew on me. I also like Modern Times, again not at first, but after a while... You see, First Blood was an excellent movie, none in the series will ever compare to it. Rambo: First Blood part II was still good though, and Rambo III as well. They followed a definite progression, and Rambo was simply the logical conclusion of that. It worked too, looking back it was a great movie, and it fit into the pantheon well. The same is true of Modern Times. Back when I bought it I hadn't listened to too much Bob Dylan and I had a passing fascination with it, enough to convince me to buy some of his older stuff, until I plunged headfirst in and reveled in the stuff. I worked my way forward through his albums (not all of them, I mean seriously the guy has something like 60 studio albums) until I got to such offerings as Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. It was then that I began to see the progression. He was going somewhere, and that somewhere was Modern Times. It wasn't so much a somewhere as with Rambo's conclusion, but it was definitely another step in his musical evolution. Our favorite artists never stay the same. If the Beatles had continued penning pop anthems, we would never have gotten such gems as Sgt. Peppers or the white album. If Neil Young wasn't so musically inviscid, grunge would never have had the run it did. Sometimes it's hard to accept change, but it is better far than grasping at what we once had. When Indiana Jones 4 presents nothing of its former charm by trying to capture just that, when Metallica, GnR and Black Sabbath all put out their long awaited comeback albums, trying to recapture the bombastic rock of their youth, only to present soulless shells, when we see Hollywood pump out sequels to all our favorite movies, making them exactly like the original, and failing to make them either original or even possessing of any cinematic strength. We've got to take a step back and realize that change is what makes us so fascinating, we've got to learn to take chances, to keep from getting stuck in the same rut. We'll find something good and wear it out till it's just a shadow of its former self, but real staying power is the ability to move on. If you've ever asked me, that's why I like Jack White.

Pipe Smoking Prof