vive/le/roi

So we FINALLY have a PopMontreal schedule. Sort of. It would be nice to have times/venues so I can start planning.

Can somebody confirm that on the Thursday schedule, the band called "Ambulance" is or isn't Ambulance Ltd.? If it is, I might be cutting Friday's classes. Also, Metric is that night. I wouldn't mind catching them. The hype machine catches another up into its clutches!

Friday's got Broken Social Scene and The Unicorns. That should be doable. I get my schedule for school... well, I don't know when, actually. I really ought to look into that. I don't know what my Friday afternoons will look like.

Saturday. Eh, nobody I'm especially interested in seeing, though Hawksley Workman might be worthwhile.

The big names are all on Sunday -- QOTSA, Black Dice, The Distillers etc. Chances of being there? Slim-to-none, baby.

I forget who was doing all the, "these album covers look alike" thing, but I found another pair.

the strokes - is this it vs delerium - semantic spaces


Okay, well, kind of, anyway.

I don't know where the picture went, but the cover of my senior physics text book also looked an awful lot like the cover of "is this it". of course, once you know what the picture is actually of, it's not really surprising.

Apollo Sunshine are going on tour, soon. Their dates are embedded in some flash so I can't copy/paste the whole list, but I imagine the following date is the most relevant to the people who read this, anyway:

09/05/03 NYC, NY @ Mercury Lounge w/Mink Lungs and Kaito

Pleasepleaseplease go see this show, guys. It's the day before my birthday, so consider it your birthday present to me. This band is awesome, you will not be disappointed. Okay, you might be, but if you are it's not my problem.

(Of course, big fucking surprise, no Canadian dates. Sigh. They're doing a bunch of shows with French Kicks and one with Earlimart. Man, I'd love to be there.)

GET YOUR BRAND NEW STROKES RIGHT HERE!!!

Some kind person bootlegged their show in Japan on August 3 and put up the new tracks. Available are "Reptilia", "Supernova" and "My Way" in Japanese leading into "Ze Newie" (which sounds a little different than in previous bootlegs) .

Go. Listen. Feel no guilt, because these weren't even swiped from the studio.

(As far as I'm concerned, Reptilia is the better of the two brand-new tracks. FUCKING AWESOME is a close approximation to its general quality. Though Supernova isn't so bad, really, being as it's a Strokes song. It totally reminds me of video game music circa 1991... Like this Sesame Street edutainment game I used to have for Nintendo... or maybe a midi track from a freeware game. There's nothing wrong with the latter comparison, "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" reminded me of the same and it's one of my favourite U2 songs.)

Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks that Paul Banks sounds like Gord Downie from The Tragically Hip. I was getting worried for a minute there.

Samuel Interpol shows up in today's Gawker Stalker, and it isn't pretty.

Looks like somebody just got a ticket to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs on August 29 at the Opera House... once again re-opening the debate, "bring the camera or don't bring the camera?" (Refer to this for details of camera woes at said venue.) I wonder if it would be worth it to pick up a disposable and shoot with that, being as I'd be, hopefully, right up close? Hmmm... Can you get a disposable with 400 ISO film? (Not that I've had any amount of good luck with 400 film in the past...)

I swear I'm not obsessed with Jennifer Lopez, she just happens to pop up in a lot of really head-shaking news. To wit: J-Lo And Britney To Become The New Oprah And Dr. Phil?

Speaking of staring at a train wreck... Robin Black is recording a show at the Horseshoe later this month for a live CD and DVD release blah blah blah... I still haven't seen his first DVD yet, even though I'm in one of the videos (which I have seen) and was interviewed for the interview segment... who knows if it got cut or not. I looked like a total ass anyway, I wouldn't care if it got left on the floor.

The Libertines with Adam Green and Living Things at The Opera House, Toronto, August 12 2003

At 8, Living Things went on. 3-piece. The guitarist/singer and the bassplayer were RIDICULOUSLY SKINNY and had identical messy black rock-n-roll hair. Black tattoos on their arms. All 3 were dressed all in black. They played music that wouldnt sound out of place on the radio about 10 years ago. It was harder than I normally like my music. The singer kept ranting about the States. "We're from the fascist States, blah blah blah, we like Canada where the sun always shines brighter." A lot of eyes were rolled. At one point he saw Will's shirt that said, "I hate the capitalist system" and hauled him up on stage to show everyone, and spent more time pontificating. Right. One guy in the audience was overheard saying, "Where can you buy a shirt like that?" Heather mentioned it to Will, who said that that's very ironic.

So they played for about 25 minutes, then gave out free shirts and CDs off the stage. I got a shirt, whoop de do. Then they took down, and we were left standing around for...

Adam Green came on around... 9, I think. Opened with "My Shadow Tags On Behind". Played (not in this order): My Shadow, Mozzarella Swastikas (the line about getting head under the rainbow got some laughs; a line got changed to "He fed my dolphin SARS [instead of stars], he fed my dolphin SARS like you'd put gasoline in cars." People in Toronto love SARS jokes.), Dance With Me (I whooped when he started playing it), Computer Show (this was second), Her Father And Her, Bleeding Heart (I think this one came third), Bluebirds, Jessica, Friends of Mine, and... closed with No Legs. The laughter rippling through the crowd as each line sunk in was glorious. People kept yelling for "What A Waster" (I suspect a lot of them might have only known him from his cover of WAW in the Babyshambles sessions). At one point I yelled "Everybody Dance Now!" and he looked at me and kind of laughed. Didn't play it, though. He played for half an hour, just him and his electric acoustic, and there was a stool for him but he stood the whole time.

The Libertines came on shortly after ten. Carl was wearing a leather jacket, zipped all the way up. The crowd took a couple songs to warm up, but after that was FUCKING PSYCHO. I will take this moment to mention that I was standing right at the stage, right in front of Carl's mic. I could have reached out and knocked it over. Of course, this was the epicentre of the mosh pit. The MOSH PIT. How long has it been since I was in a mosh pit and not just a bunch of pushy fans? Christ. Anyway. John was looking sexy but very unanimated, he basically just stood there and played. Anthony (the temporary guy, I think that's his name, that's what his signature looks like anyway) was really alive, and Carl was just crazy, spinning around and stamping his feet and really putting on a great show. The leather jacket came off after "Good Ole Days", which featured a crowd shout-along. I really, really love that song, and it was really magic having everyone singing along and going crazy. Especially the part "It's not about tenements and needles" where the music is all quiet, it was just people shouting and gah. Bliss. I was going crazy, jumping up and down and yeah. But the crowd was psycho. My legs kept bashing into the stage and I think I may have bruises on my thighs as a result. I kept getting slammed in the back and falling forward so I spent a lot of time just leaning forward, braced against a monitor, to try and prevent injury. One time I got bashed real hard in the shoulderblade and fell forward and almost hit a thing full of plugs, which probably would have cut a guitar or a mic had it been unplugged, so it's good that it didn't happen. But the energy was crazy. Fantastic. I was soaked in sweat and having a ball. I used the Living Things t-shirt as a towel to wipe the sweat off my face. Yummy.

The guitars/etc sounded GREAT throughout, but you could barely hear the vocals. Sigh. Carl is a really good guitar player. Yeah.

I noticed off to the left, Adam Green was watching the show from the wings. I think I caught his eye at one point and he kind of smiled. Then he put on some crazy aviators.

"Begging." Oh god. During the guitar solo, which was extended... Adam ran out of the wings and started doing what he would later describe as his "Shaman Dance", all around the stage, and it went on and on! Knees up high, legs wide apart, arms flailing... Then he ran off, and at the end of the song ran back on, hugged Carl (not like a full-on hug, but arms around each other's shoulders), who said something (and it was the only thing he said to the crowd all night) which was completely unintelligible.

They left the stage with 2 songs to go (I could see the set list, right). Carl made a dramatic exit by shaking a bottle of beer and spraying the crowd. A lot ended up in my hair. Then they came back on after a few minutes, everyone chanting "We want more!" and clapping/stamping feet. So they came back on and after Carl noodled a bit, launched into What A Waster. I was expecting the crowd to be more into that song than it was.

During the last song, "I Get Along", I decided, time to give myself a break, so I sat on my knees on the front of the stage, which hurt my shins and knees but at least my thighs were cool, plus I wasn't getting beaten by the guys behind me.

A TON of people got up on stage during I Get Along. It started with two guys getting up, running/dancing across the stage and then jumping back into the crowd. People kept getting up, guys, girls, running around and then jumping back into the crowd. A security guard manhandled one guy off the stage, but other than that...

Setlist. Oh yes. If you couldn't figure, the smears are from Carl's sprayed beer.

When they were done, everyone exited stage left except for Gary, who sprayed the crowd with orange Gatorade and then threw himself into the crowd and surfed over to the door going from the floor to backstage. Awesome.

Afterwards, I ran over to the merch table and sure enough, Adam was sitting there. Lots of people came up to get their CDs signed, and before my very eyes they sold out (I knew it would happen.) Some girl gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. I wish I had the guts to do that. He looked at me and said, "Didn't I meet you outside?" I asked him why he decided to use a string section, and he was like, "Uhhh, just... because?" He said they were romantic. I kind of babbled about not liking them at first, getting upset about them, then they grew on me as I listened more, blah blah, getting into the lyrics finally, and finally getting into the strings, because what would be the point of making a second "Garfield"? Yeah. Then I stood around for a bit more, listening to him talk to some guy about a gig the Moldy Peaches played at The Horseshoe, and then he was talking about Julian (I assume Casablancas) being so drunk he was lying down on the ground behind the bar. I guess Moldy Peaches opened for The Strokes when they did the Horseshoe. I mean, being so drunk he was lying down in an alley, it would have to be Julian Strokes, you know?

Anyway, those two guys left, and there were maybe 2 more people left waiting to talk to Adam so I finally screwed up my courage and said, "My friend put me up to this [mostly a lie] but I have to ask. Will you marry me?"
"Marry you?"
"Yeah..."
"Sorry, I can't."
So instead of being cool about it I beat a hasty retreat.

Got to my car, discovered that I'd brought a can of 7up, chugged it as I was driving to the highway. Missed the easy turn, turned on the next street, and went, "Wait, why am I leaving?" So I drove back to the parking lot, where I still had a valid parking slip, parked, ran back to the venue and around the corner.

I guess I missed the crappy waiting part, because there was Gary Libertines standing there! I got him to sign my CD booklet and setlist and chatted for a while, he said that as he threw himself into the crowd he thought that it was maybe a stupid idea, but it turned out okay. I asked him if he got manhandled and he said that no he didn't. He said that in Japan it was the worst, everything got ripped out of his pockets, but people put stuff in them, like sweatbands. And then he showed me the one he was wearing on his right arm, it was navy blue and had the Japanese flag on it. I think it was Petar who was standing with us, talking about things he'd read about happening at gigs, and was talking about QOTSA gigs and confusing poor Gary. He (Gary) was SO nice, easy to talk to, willing to chat, etc etc. I complained about my legs getting mauled during the set (well, not complained, more commented) and you can see what he wrote as to that on the setlist. He also wrote "Thanks!! Lots of love, Gary!!" on the CD thing.

Then I saw Anthony and two girls asked if it was him and I said I didn't know, then I saw the tattoo on his arm and recognized him. I got him to sign the setlist, and he said, "I'm writing, 'long live the breakfast nook!', it's a bus joke," and I was like, okay, cool, whatever. He was trying to write and not having an easy time of it, so I was like, "Do you want to write on my back?" and he was like, "What?!" and I said, "Do you want to put the paper against my back so you have something to write on," and he was like, "Oh! I thought you meant on your skin, I was going to ask if you were crazy!"

There was a big group around Mr Barât but it was fairly loose and he was just talking... he said, "Do any good bands come through here?" and someone said, "Radiohead is playing on Friday." "...Do any good bands come through here?" hahahahhahahahahhahahahaha ahem. He signed my stuff too. He seems very genial and happy to deal with fans.

Then I wanted to track down John so I asked around and he was on the bus already, so I stepped over and knocked on the door (this takes a lot of courage for me, I hate disturbing people). Anthony came to the front, but was talking to someone so he stood there for a while, then he finally came out. "Is John in there?" "Yeah..." "Can you get him?" "I think he's tired, I don't know if he'll come out." So he started talking to someone, a roadie I think, and then eventually I was like, "Can you bring this in for him then?" and he was very nice about doing so, came back out a couple minutes later with the CD book and the setlist signed.

Then Carl came by and I remembered that I had my camera again so I was like, "Oh! Can I get a picture with you?" and he was more than happy to get one. I thought about turning just before the picture went off and kissing his cheek, but again, the guts thing. I used them all up already. Then I got a picture with Anthony.



As always, the full story is up for grabs on my livejournal.

Carlos D. totally gothing it up. I think he looks a little like Alan Rickman there, personally.

The new Placebo video is sex without touching. Literally.

Libertines/Adam Green last night. Update tomorrow when my shoulders feel like they aren't going to break apart. (I got punched in the back in the moshpit. Nice.)

Pete Libertines' burglary arrest was for breaking into Carl Libertines' flat.

The clerk of the court read out the list of items Doherty was alleged to have snatched, including an antique guitar, video recorder, laptop computer, mouth organ, CD player, an NME award and £200 in cash.

When asked to enter his plea, Doherty replied: "I plead guilty apart from the NME Award and cash, which I know nothing about."

In related news, I'm going to see The Libertines with Adam Green tomorrow. I think I'm actually more excited about Adam Green. A whole lot, in fact.

Okay, the galleries are all up in a temporary home.

The Unicorns, Tangiers and The Walkmen.

Ambulance Ltd. are now selling t-shirts from their website. Check for $20 gets you a men's M,L or girl's tee, S&H incl. Will they take a money order? Or is the better question, will they ship to Canada?

The String Cheese Incident to sue TicketMaster! "According to SCI, Ticketmaster has gained monopolistic control over the concert ticket industry, using its massive power in the market to prevent competition from entering the business. SCI further alleges that Ticketmaster has negotiated deals with companies such as Clear Channel Communications to further restrict the market. "

Tangiers are going to be playing in Kingston on September 25th. Maybe they really weren't BSing us when they said that some bands actually came through...
August 14 Toronto, ON @ Silver Dollar
September 23 Hamilton, ON @ Mohawk College
September 24 Guelph, ON @ U of Guelph
September 25 Kingston, ON @ Schezro
September 26 Montreal, QC @ Casa de Popolo
September 27 Toronto ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
October 1 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod's
October 2 Peterborough, ON @ Trasheteria
October 3 St. Catharines, ON @ Hideaway

Alexisonfire sell out. To Atticus clothing. That didn't take long. I've seen them three times, even though screamo really isn't my thing, and I don't know. Their one song title, "Counterparts and Number Them" is clever, even though the video isn't anything special. One time when I was at Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, with my ex and some of our friends, we ran into two of them (my ex knew/knows them) and I was introduced and yeah. Weird. That was kind of before they hit it big, and it was only last August.

Sass Jordan: "The sun was in my eyes, so I had to wear my J.Lo glasses. Thank God for J.Lo." It's those last four words which sum up everything that is wrong with the world. DAMN, you guys are funny.

The Walkmen with Tangiers and The Unicorns at La Sala Rossa, Montréal, August 05 2003
We saw The Walkmen last night, as well as Tangiers and The Unicorns. Oh yes we did.

The gist (aplogies to those who have seen some of this already at the livejournal):
Waited in the restaurant across the street for three hours before the show. To kill time, right. Tangiers and The Walkmen came in to eat, probably because that's the sister restaurant to the venue, so they got the food for free. (But not the drinks, as the waitress told them in her seriously awesome French-Canadian accent.) Partook of Cameron's stupid freaking bloggerazzi-ing, of Hamilton Walkmen leaning against the bar, but I forgot to burn that to the CD I used to move some pictures from my computer with the photo software to this computer with the internet, so I'll post that later.

The Unicorns. Let me describe them this way: Take Adam Green. Make two clones. Dress them like they're attending a semi-formal dance. In the 80's. Involve day-glo. Give the three of them two guitars and a bass fed through some crazy effects pedals, a keyboard, a reel-to-reel and a drumkit, make them pretty much play all the instruments at the same time (with just the three of them, mind you), pretend to beat each other up on stage, jump off the stage, spontaneously take off their shoes, get shocked by the microphone (twice), tell someone in the audience that he's ugly, etc. Good times, for real. They're leaving tomorrow for a cross-Canada tour. They'll be back in Montreal for Pop Montreal at the end of September, so I think I'll be checking that out, especially since we love Quebec for its lower drinking age. (Then again, by the end of September I'll be legal everywhere in this fine country anyway. Amen.)

Tangiers. They got on stage and rocked us like mad showed that they can all play their instruments well, but play rock and roll that's merely mediocre. Whatever. They had good energy, and the riffs in their songs actually sounded different from each other, but they really just weren't anything special. I did like how all four of them got to sing, though. That was cool. And if I ever find their CD for under ten bucks, I'll get it. But yeah. I snagged their setlist. Their drummer was wearing a Le Tigre shirt, and when he walked by me at Casa looking for the bathroom, I told him I liked it. I only recognized one of their songs, the single, because I've seen the video a couple times on The Wedge. Anyway.


The Walkmen. I don't really know where to start. They played a lot of new stuff. A lot. They played "We've Been Had", "The Blizzard of '96", "Revenge Wears No Wristwatch" (I think), and maybe one more from the album... and all the rest were new. I recognized "You've Got A Nerve" from Jinners' site, that was cool. But, like, yeah. Nobody could get into it because nobody knew what was going on, yknow? This one song, I believe it was called "No Christmas While I'm Talking", it was a good song, but it was VERY down-tempo, VERY moody, and VERY long. I was looking around and everybody was just standing there, not nodding their heads, not dancing, just standing there and looking blank and going, "Uh, what?"

Right away, though, I was struck by Hamilton's singing. I got the impression that he was on the verge of dying of heartbreak, simply because the way he was constantly pouring himself out into his singing would leave him completely empty. It was really... nice.

Another thing I noticed was that at the very beginning, Hamilton was really into it, hamming it up, throwing poses, whatever. And then it sort of petered out and stopped about 2/3 of the way through. I can't help but wonder if that was directly related to the presence (and subsequent non-presence) of cameras in the front row? (aka I was the only one up there taking pictures, and my batteries died halfway through.) Perhaps that's a very self-centred theory, but whatever.

During one of the new songs, the bass cut out, and then it was being adjusted and then something went wrong with the amp and it made this sort of feedbacky-note, not unbearable, and actually kind of decent sound-wise, but obviously not what was required or desired. It had that periodic pulsing to it. Anyway, Hamilton actually stopped playing and said, "Can you not play the rest of the song, please?" and went back to playing/singing. He sounded a little bitchy when he said it. He actually seemed a bit peevish all night. Is he always like that?

Anyway I think all-in-all that their show and set could have been a lot better. I believe that I need to see them again to cement an opinion one way or another as to whether or not I really like them. I spoke briefly with Peter Walkmen and he flat-out said that their show wasn't that good, with a subtext of "it blew". I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but it was not... that... great... I really wish I hadn't just been able to say that in all honesty.


I then got in the car with two girls I'd just met and drove to Quebec City with them because they had to be in class the next morning, but also had to be at the show. (It was two and a half hours the other way from home. What can I say, I sympathised.)

The full, full story is here.

The DFA remix of Le Tigre - Deceptacon on the Yes New York compilation reminds me of Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch. Creepy.

The Kills, Interpol, Radiohead, The Datsuns, Kings Of Leon, Blur, Hot Hot Heat, The Star Spangles, The Polyphonic Spree, Blondie, The Strokes and The Rapture at Summersonic in Japan.

PeachesPeachesPeaches!

If you want to check out Peaches’ beard for yourself you can she and her MC5 in Montreal on October 8 at Club Soda and in Vancouver on October 21 at Richards on Richards. (from DAMN.)

Oh yeah. Wednesday night, but fuckit. I will be there. Hopefully.


The Modfather signs to V2.

Hawksley Workman to cover Joy Division as a b-side. Heh, they mention Robin Black. Bleh.

The Datsuns: Sex appeal before music.

Out Hud in Montréal.

Making more money while dead than most people do while alive.