Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
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Gorgeous Bully
Art is Hard Records just released a limited 50-copy run of Gorgeous Bully’s cassette, The Young Obese. It’s even packaged as a pack of smokes! I’ve been listening to it on repeat while working on the next issue of Steel Bananas, and this season’s chapbooks. It’s awesome. Here’s the first track, “Never Cry.”
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I don’t need tender mercy
“Sometimes it’s good to be a killer.”
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And I say
Absolutely sexy minimalist jazz. Nicolas Jaar ft. Scout Larue and Will Epstein. “And I say.”
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Pretender
Last weekend I needed some coldwave. (Black Marble, opening track from their forthcoming EP Weight Against the Door.) Pretender by Black Marble
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Saint Nothing
Tugging my heartstrings: Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear’s new track, “Saint Nothing.” The EP Silent Hour/ Golden Mile is forthcoming from Warp in March.
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Rain + The Soft Moon
The rain in Vancouver (also known as one of its two seasons) has created the perfect environment for enjoying the darkness of The Soft Moon blaring. Here’s a taste:
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The monsters in the room were all dancing
This is lovely.
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Sombre Mountains
Strength came from somewhere, from revulsion; there was a crash and a wave of light, and the dead man was crouching in his lair, facing the animal onrush of light. Yet it was hardly dawn. And the strange, piercing keenness of daybreak’s sharp breath was on him. It meant full awakening. – D.H.L.
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Latest Project
This is Woodward. I bought him today. He is from Romania. He was handmade in Vasile Gliga’s workshop by some nice people who care about good quality violins. His friend, Juliette, is a french bow made from Brazil wood and horse hair. Together, they make beautiful music! Today, I taught myself how to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and tomorrow ...
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Savage Night at the Opera
Though I am, perhaps, the biggest fan ever of Destroyer’s Rubies, this has easily become the new anthem for my last summer in Toronto, paradoxically, by an artist straight from Vancouver. I move in nine days.
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We’re Savage High
Sound bites from this afternoon working at the MLCRC… “…love is a deeper season than reason…” “…for the love, comes the burning young from the liver, sweating through your tongue…” “I’m growing like the quickening hues…”
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Some things last a long time
I’m currently reading Jennifer DeVere Brody’s Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play for my thesis, and mulling over the dash’s bizarre ability to separate, connect, and propel. The Baroness’ writing is dominated by the dash, as she weaves through her narratives of insanity and woe in an erratic stream of consciousness that branches off in the most bizarre directions. Maybe I’m ...
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Blonk
Last night Curran and I ventured out to the Toronto New School of Writing‘s evening with Dutch avant-garde composer and sound-poet Jaap Blonk. In the great hall of 918 Bathurst Culture, Arts, Media, and Education Centre, Blonk opened with Hugo Ball’s Seepferdchen und Flugfische, the poem I performed last year, which he performed ⎯ I must admit ⎯ better than ...
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Abject Address
I’m currently reading about counterdiscourse and the abject address in Dina Al-Kassim’s On Pain of Speech for my thesis, and thumbing through pages and pages of the Baroness’ handwritten rants from her time in Eberswalde asylum just outside of Berlin. Is it odd that I don’t think she reads mad? Here’s another track from my research playlist:
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Eye Contact
My new favourite research music: Eye Contact by Gang Gang Dance. As I’m knee deep in sociolinguistics and the personal life of DADA Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, their sound oddly fits. I’m now off to Robarts for more reading. Below is a 4AD live session with Gang Gang Dance, and a six-part FaceCulture interview.
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Grown Ocean
“You would come to me then without answers Lick my wounds and remove my demands, for now.”
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The Lake
I officially quit smoking and started long-distance running again. I ran through the Don River wetlands, and south to the lake. It’s a beautiful day to be by the water. I sat there for a while thinking how much I love these sad, polluted beaches. It’s sometimes hard to believe that miles of toxic sludge stretch across the basin, just ...
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tUnE-yArDs
In celebration of the multitude of recent awesomeness in my life, and as a last hurrah with my brother Jeff before he moves to Boston, one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Riaz, bought me a ticket to see tUnE yArDs at the Horseshoe. He’s the best, and I’m stoked!
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My love is bigger than your love
The symposium was fantastic. Heaslip House was packed, and my fellow panelists spurred a great Q&A session, making my first conference presentation one to remember. I’m hitting the end of my second term, with only four months left before I move to Vancouver! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I’m currently jumping around with the love of my life to this Mclusky ...
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I’ve seen and done things I want to forget…
From PJ Harvey’s new album Let England Shake, inspired by WWI.
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Death to Everyone
“. . . so strap me on and raise me high ’cause buddy, i’m not afraid to die ’cause life is long and it’s tremendous and we’re glad that you’re here with us and since we know an end will come it makes our living fun . . .”
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wax lyrical
I just can’t help it. In my whole life, I have never been this happy or at peace. Thank Krishna for love.
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Schafer
From R. Murray Schafer’s The Composer in the Classroom. My obsession with R. Murray Schafer recently reemerged. I attended his latest opera The Children’s Crusade in 2009 – an unforgettable performance with nearly one hundred performers, The Canadian Children’s Opera Company, and the Toronto Consort – and haven’t been able to shake the inspiration since. Lately, I have been devouring Schafer’s ...
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Blonde Redhead @ The Phoenix
Curran and I ventured far (across the street from my apartment) to The Phoenix Concert Theatre to see Blonde Redhead last night, and it was incredible! Kazu was as transfixing as ever, and I came to appreciate their new album as a new direction in their catalogue. Though I initially felt the 23 vibe all over it (hearing its electronic ...
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SB’s Second Anniversary Party!
Last year we – the SB kids – packed Sneaky Dee’s on a Tuesday night in celebration of our first anniversary. This year, with a Friday slot at Sneak’s, we’re sure it’s going to be more than a memorable night! We’re showcasing four great bands – Toronto’s avant-pop darlings Krupke, London’s experimental post-punk A Horse and His Boy, Toronto’s indie ...
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Charlotte Moorman
Within the next few months I’ll be preparing my PhD applications, since my MA is only three terms and my booklust is still in full swing. My first choice right now is NYU, so lately I’ve been revisiting avant-garde artists whom I really love who also made big splashes when they hit NYC. Charlotte Moorman is one of them. Listen ...
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Caribou Fanzine
Never met a math man I didn’t like. What a show! Andorra and The Milk of Human Kindness are/were my favourites, but Swim is really putting up a good fight. Still vibrating from those drums, oh, those drums… Cover: Excerpts:
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Slapp Happy
Another crippling obsession from 1973: A Virgin Records re-issue (after Polydor scrapped it) of ”Casablanca Moon” by English/German avant-pop Slapp Happy with members of Faust. Later it became “Acnalbasac Noom” with Recommended Records. Under any name or label, it’s delightful and delicious.
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Hungry, Restless, Wicked, and Wild
Sitting on the curb outside the pizza place, hair frizzy from the mist off the falls, your headphones on my ears, New Kind of Love blaring. Slow conversation. Laughter. A bus ride home with knees against the seat, summer air on our palms out the window, swapping songs, shoulder to shoulder. Bon Iver, our realization of the dark starlit voyage: ...
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Beach House @ The Opera House
The woman, known for her immovable will and composure, renowned for her impenetrable nerve, indifferent to all but the very few who can capture her, remarks: Oh, my heart, my heart, my heart!
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Bramble
I’m a lucky girl.
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CMW: Handsome Furs, The Darcys
I’ve been super busy this week with thesis work and design work for Tightrope, so I missed out on CMW’s Thursday lineups, while Curran held down the fort festival-wise. Friday, however, was a better night for me. Prior to hopping out for CMW festivities, I travelled west on College Street to a tiny hole in the wall where a friend ...
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CMW: The Bonfire Ball & Fucked Up
Canadian Music Week, compared to NXNE, may not have as many bands I’d really like to see, and may push headliners that alienate people who really like music, but who can really complain about a handful of badass acts playing venues all over Toronto? Plus, with a media pass through Steel Bananas, I can avoid the shitty headliners blow off ...
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Come see the duck!
5:08am | just finished my gay male lit essay | feeling wired and free | come see the duck!
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Excuses
Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo. Thanks to Riaz for the tip-off. This is beautiful.
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SB Presents…
Steel Bananas Presents: Jane’s Party, The Rucksack Willies and Hemingway Pop, Country & Funk at the Rivoli, March 19th! Spring is nigh and our good friends, Toronto’s frighteningly charming folk-pop “Rubber Soul” enthusiasts Jane’s Party will be hitting the Rivoli with an alarming force March 19 for what will no doubt be the best possible way for you to ring ...
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Ted Dawson and avant-garde musical notation
I met award-winning avant-garde composer/Professor Ted Dawson just over year ago in February 2009 at the opening of the Permeate Exhibit at the Music Gallery in Toronto, an art show exploring intersections between music and visual art. Before then, I knew nothing of avant-garde visual notation (I still can’t say I’ve performed any, though I heard a great sampling of ...
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Southern Souls
Up late watching Mitch Fillon’s Southern Souls videos from southern Ontario musicians. Best thing to happen since my beloved Blogotheque. Gravity Wave‘s is particularly good. Beautiful music is everywhere.
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On a Residents kick
The Residents are awesome. Though less Pynchon-esque in their social obscurity, they still sport tuxedos and eyeball masks in public, and refuse to participate in interviews. Lovely. Plus, their music has spanned a few decades of awesomeness, and their wicked series of one-minute videos are great sensory treats. Below is a selection of recent favourites…
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