Category: Music

Posted on

I Wanna Be a Hockey DJ

I don’t know anything about the rules and regulations of what can or can’t be played during those brief times when play is stopped during a game, but I wanna be a hockey DJ.  I want to pick what songs are going to be played when there is that tiny moment of no action happening on the ice.

I know that there is a lot of debate among hockey fans that say the organ should reign supreme in the rink.  I’m not here to argue against that idea.  I actually dig the concept.  But have you caught some of the crap that gets played?  Especially in the states?!  You really expect Kelly Clarkson to get the crowd, yet alone the players, really fired up for the ensuing face off?

I would have to say that getting a gig like this would be a dream job.  One of those all-time, top five types of jobs.  Of course, if I were picking the playlist, I know I would get people asking who the hell I was playing.  I’m the type of DJ that plays music according to the situation.  Playing tunes for the sake of people knowing the music is difficult for me, but I’m not saying I wouldn’t play by those rules either.

Posted on

NewMusicWest 2006

I would love to be attending NewMusicWest this year. In fact, if you are reading this and could hook me and Rebecca up at the last minute, contact me! I’d love to run around the whole weekend with my minidisc and mic to capture some stuff for the podcast.

NewMusicWest offers emerging artists and bands a chance to showcase their talents to industry professionals from across North America and around the world. Once a year, Vancouver is invaded by large numbers of managers, publicists, label reps, A&R, and media. In 2004 alone, over 40 A&R attended, including representation from Sony, Universal, EMI, and many more. With 5 nights, 25 venues and over 200 bands, NewMusicWest is Western Canada’s largest and most successful music festival.

Basically this is like a CMJ or SXSW, and I would love to have total access to everything. So many bands performing around the city, and it all kicks off tomorrow.

Raine Maida from OLP will be the artist keynote speaker for the event. Being the OLP fan that I am(which was much more back in high school than I am today), I would be interested in hearing what he has to say about the industry. The guy remains about the same, but I hear the ego has changed.

Posted on

“We Always Wanted to Become Canadian”

Mates of StateAfter having the South show cancel out on us for last Thursday, the Mates of State show at the Plaza Club was an outstanding way to fill the void. One wouldn’t think that a little bopper club like that would be a good venue, but it turned out really well.

It seems like Kori and Jason are getting better and better with every album that they are producing. They’re name is getting to be a little more well known, so many people at the show on Friday knew the words to their songs, and the press is starting to catch on to their sound.

Dare I say it, but they are cute on stage. For those who don’t know, they are married. They took off from the midwest to make their way to the west coast of the U.S. During the show, Jason was saying how they always wanted to become Canadian, but they married each other. Looking over at Kori, “Looks like we married the wrong people.”

Their set on Friday was a little short, but some minor technical issues at the start of the performance might have had something to do with that. “Goods” was their second song with other cuts like “A Control Group,” “A Duel Will Settle This,” and “As Night As Now.” At least I think so. I should have payed more attention to the set list. Plus I’m not overly familiar with the latest album, and they played a lot of cuts off that one.

In the encore, Kori played the keys while Jason stood away from the drums to sing “These Days.” It’s that one song from The Royal Tenenbaums[imdb]. You know, the one that Nico recorded on the soundtrack, but Jackson Browne originally wrote. That was a pretty awesome highlight of the night.

I have yet to be let down by Mates of State. If you get a chance to check out their stuff and like it, go see them live. You won’t be disappointed. Don’t expect stage theatrics. They’re just really incredible to see perform.

Posted on

We Goin’ to See Some of Them There Rock Shows

In every budget, you have to make room for something recreational. Rock and roll is that for Rebecca and I. And boy howdy, we have quite the calendar of events lining up for us.

South is going to be exciting. I recently heard that they had some sort of song on The O.C. some time ago, so this puts the potential turnout at the show even greater. I still have hopes that it’ll be a good show. April 20th at the Red Room on Richards.

Mates of State are coming to town on April 21st, and I picked up tickets for that last week. The Plaza Club should be an interesting place to check them out, being the last place I saw them was at Gabes back in Iowa City. Tony Pierce had an article about them on Buzznet. They will also be making an appearance at Cochella, and I’d like to be there as well. Turns out there is more to Pierce than just a crazy blogger, or at least I was impressed.

Scored tickets to Snow Patrol on June 14th at the Commodore Ballroom. It was an early bird special that we jumped on, but it’s exciting to be seeing another show there, the first and last one that I caught being Matthew Good.

Lots of rock goodness going on in this city, and this isn’t nearly half of it. I just don’t have enough time to blog about it all right now, but the point is that we have tickets to check out these shows!

Posted on

RIAA Wants Your Money, Forget About Your Education

This upsets me to no end. The Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, is the big giant we all love to hate. If you are one to be in support of freely downloading your music at will, these are the people who are looking to throw a lawsuit at you for a few thousand dollars.

The thing that gets me is that the RIAA is not only comprised of executives from inside the industry, but of musicians themselves. I understand that they want what is right. I am completely and totally all for artists getting the money they are entitled to from their music being distributed. To tell their fans to cough up the cash and drop out of community college is amazing. Looks like Mr. Record Company Executive will be having an extra week on the island this year.

That’s what really upsets me. By the time this money gets funneled down to the artists themselves, it is literally pennies. I could go on about it, but Courtney Love’s piece on Salon.com speaks to this really well. However, it was the piece by Steve Albini that opened my eyes to the situation a long time ago.

Don’t know who Courtney Love and Steve Albini are?

Posted on

Delayed Reaction To The Junos

I have always been familiar with the Juno Awards. 2006 has been the first time I have been able to actually see them. Prior to now, it was always entertainment reports that briefly mentioned that they happened with limited details of who won some of the awards.
For those of you that are unaware, these are Canada’s music awards. These go out to the top music acts of the nation. In fact, this year saw Brian Adams get inducted to the hall of fame. That turned out to be a pretty huge affair, almost the highlight of the night. Some would say that Nickleback was bigger, but I’d rather stick a pencil in my eye.

Overall, I was kind of let down by the whole event. Broken Social Scene‘s performance was pretty cool. And Michael Buble is bound to be the next big crooner, good for him, hope he has fun with that.

The big let down stems from one of those awards that Buble walked away with. Right after the whole acceptance speech, in the commercial break that followed, there was an ad for his latest album. It said something to the effect of “get the album that won the 2006 Juno Award for album of the year…” In the speech he just gave shortly before that, he was all surprised and astounded that he won. Continue reading “Delayed Reaction To The Junos”

Posted on

Northwest From SXSW

I’ve only been to SXSW once, but it made me believe that there was an actual reason to go to Texas. And it is true what they say. “Don’t mess with Texas.” That’s not a clever bumper sticker. It’s a word to the wise.

We got the university to set us college radio kids up in a fairly swanky hotel for a few days. I saw a bunch of shows around the downtown area of Austin. It was like discovering rock and roll all over again. All sorts of great venues, people with a true love for live music, and easy going crowds. It’s where I saw Shiner twice in one day. They Might Be Giants, Clinic, Lo Fidelity All-Stars, Girls Against Boys, and one of the last performances by The Promise Ring, just to name a few.

Now SXSW is turning into something even greater than just a music and film festival. It’s attaching all this fun technology, geek stuff that seems to be growing year by year. I’ve moved to an amazing city with everything SXSW has to offer on a day to day basis, but there is just something about Austin that makes me want to go there again and again.

Next year, man. Next year.

Posted on

The Future of Rock and Roll

WOXY.comWOXY.com went to a member based operation as of Feb. 6, 2006, leaving their 24k stream open to non-subscribers. This might be old news to some, and with the wedding coming up as fast as it did, I didn’t get a chance to mentioned this. I tuned in today because sometimes I just get tired of listening to podcasts and want some music other than my own library.

WOXY used to be a great terrestial station in the Cincinnati/Dayton area until they were sold to some, big radio company that got the whole broadcast portion of the operation. Everything else WOXY was retained and put online once some investors stepped up to foot the bill. And yes, WOXY used to be 97X. And yes, this is the station Dustin Hoffman’s character quoted in Rain Man over and over.

“97X… BAM!… The future of rock and roll!”

If you dig independent, good music, check them out. Give them your support to help keep this wonderful internet radio station alive.

Posted on

Some Good Shows Coming to Vancouver

I will never claim to be the end all source of music related events in Vancouver, but there are things that are of great interest to me that I think is worth sharing when I see them.

With that being said, Mates of State are coming to town April 21st! Midwest transplants that call the San Francisco area home now, they are pretty amazing to see live. More so, just the sound they are able to reproduce in a live atmosphere is pretty incredible. A purely husband and wife duo, she plays the organ, he’s on drums, and they both sing. A drunken buddy of mine, Ben Schmidt (who has now inflitrated the land of Minnesota), said something to me at one of their shows that sums up seeing Mates of State live quite well. “I hear a whole band, but there are only two people up there! Am I that wasted?!” Long answer short, yes. Check them out at the Plaza Club for an early show.

The Boy Least Likely To is playing with James Blunt on April 2nd at the Orpheum Theatre. This isn’t overly huge news, but I just caught wind of the opening act, not being a James Blunt fan myself. However, I would go to check out The Boy Least Likely To and stick around for the rest. I’ve played them on my podcasts after getting direct permission to do so. That makes them nice people, and I like that.

Also worth mentioning is the Matthew Good solo, acoustic tour. Three dates in Vancouver, but he’s also doing a set in Nanaimo. Would be very cool to catch a ferry for an overnight to check out the show, but I don’t think we’ll have the time. Rebecca’s a longtime fan of his stuff, so I’m thinking we’ll be checking out one of the Vancouver dates.

Beth Orton would be a good time as well on March 29th. She’s playing the Commodore Ballroom where I went to my first show in Vancouver, a Matthew Good show at that. I’ve always liked Orton’s music. She has a pretty amazing voice and unique writting style. This would be an excellent venue to check her out.

I’ll do more posts like this as shows come to my attention.