Lickin' The Beaters / Lake Holiday

Five years ago almost to the day, Siue Moffat's Lickin' the Beaters: Low Fat Vegan Desserts, Illustrated by Eight Fantastic Artists (Buy it.) was released.

My role in the book was as one of the illustrators, and I helped Siue out with the image editing, the (original) cover, and even submitted a recipe or two. It's an amazing little book, so it's no surprise that five years later the reprint was picked up by PM Press.

For the 2003 launch, a band I was involved in played an acoustic performance that was one of our finer moments... Well, one of my favourite, anyway.

Lake Holiday
Live at Clinton St Public School's Park (Toronto, July 27th 2003)

01. American Summer (Acoustic)
02. "Did we bring the tambourine?"
03. Love is On Our Side
04. "You gotta sing louder"
05. Half a Tank
06. Today It Came to an End
07. Bless My Soul
08. "Do we look like hobos?"
09. Helen
10. Keeping you Away from Me
11. Radial Tires

Buy Lake Holiday's, Curse of Sunshine (iTunes)

Posted at 07:11 PM by five - 1 comment - Back to top

Wired for Sound - Part 2

An early show from Toronto's Pony Da Look. This was quite early in their career, so those unfamiliar with the band should check out "wishstick" (video) from their difficult to find Shattered Dimensions CD (murderrecords) before moving on to the live show.

Pony Da Look, Live at Wavelength 122 (Sneaky Dee's, Toronto, Sunday July 14th, 2002)

01. "Intro"
02. "Vicky (Live)"
03. "Hungry Again (Live)"
04. "Dirty Nails (Live)"
05. "Pendulum Hand (Live)"
06. "Bistro (Live)"
07. "The Forcefield Weakens (Live)"
08. "Ghost Pants (Live)"
09. "Night Cat (Live)"
10. "Crooked Finger (Live)"
11. "Johnny (Live)"
12. "Nothing to Say (Live)"
13. "Crystal Countdown (Live)"
14. "Avalon (Live)"
15. Outro/Banter
16. "Pivothead (Live)"

All tracks are m4a.

Posted at 10:59 AM by five - add comments - Back to top

Wired for Sound - Part 1

I came across a box of old recordings of shows from Toronto circa 2002–03 (while I was doing the Wired for Sound radio show on CKLN), and rather than have them disappear, I thought I'd post a few in their entirety.

Lederhosen Lucil, Live at Wavelength (El Mocambo, Toronto, February 14, 2003)

01. "Intro"
02. "Natural Light (Live)"
03. "Country Bell (Live)"
04. "All Good Scabs (Live)"
05. banter
06. "Apricota (Live)"
07. "Molasses Trip (Live)"
08. "Love Bites from an EKG (Live)"
09. banter
10. "You Suck (Live)"

All tracks are .m4a.

Posted at 03:34 PM by five - 2 comments - Back to top

I Know You Got Soul

I haven't had much to post about lately, but recently a (mis-titled/attributed) remix posted to the excellent Palms Out Sounds' long-running "Remix Sunday" got me thinking about the older remixes and samples, and I thought I'd share it here....

The song the remixer selected (or Palms Out thinks they did) was pretty big twenty years ago, and after downloading the "remix" (find it at PO's Remix Sunday 109), I was a bit sad to find it had only one think in common with the original track: the "title" sample... which was lifted from elsewhere.

Back in the 80's, early hip hop and dance records, didn't clear their samples. So, a song could be built from the ground up using almost nothing but other people records. I knew this, of course, because I tried to look up the samples from our mystery song about ten years back. Of course, in 1997 or so, it was just a list of songs and artists I hadn't heard of; no file sharing software existed (Napster launched in 1999) to track down missing songs, mp3s were relatively new, and with Amazon.ca still a few years away, getting music meant dealing with customs charges and most of this music wasn't in print.

Anyway, looking it up over the past week has been far more fruitful. Not only did I track down the old list of samples, but I managed to buy a few of the songs (some I already had!), and track down most that I was missing. Then I started trying to match them up to the original song and remixes, and the US released-post-court-injunction-mixes. (I am getting outside, don't worry about me...)

Some of the original list was straightforward, some near-impossible to spot, some disputable, and some (in my opinion) outright wrong. I'll list them all in the extended post, but if you're feeling a bit more adventurous, download a few of the tracks below and see how many it takes before you figure out the song...

Song #1 (.m4a) — difficulty : 10. A highly distorted seven second sample was used, and the reason the sample-heavy remix was re-edited for its release in the US.
Song #2 (.m4a) — difficulty : 6. A rather distinct sample was used from this song. In combination with the next sample it formed "the break".
Song #3 (.m4a) — difficulty : 8. The sample was slightly distorted and sped up, but rather long (over ten seconds).
Song #4 (.m4a) — difficulty : 6. This sample was only used in the UK 12" remix (which was the version that went to #1); a re-created version with different lyrics was used in the US remixes.
Song #5 (.m4a) — difficulty : 1. The acapella version of this song contained the main sample and the title of the song we're looking for.

Answer!! (.m4a).

[Read More!]

Posted at 04:55 AM by five - 2 comments - Back to top

Over 13,000 downloads

I'm not sure how it happened, but when Relax Brother, Relax: A Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Teenbeat Records was released in February 2005, it somehow made it's way onto Archive.org's Most Downloaded Items list.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it still sits highly on their charts with around 13,000 downloads and an overall position of 8 (I think it went as high as 3). This is after two years! Perhaps it has something to do with them being free....

So, thanks to those of you who've shown support and/or downloaded a recording.

For those who had no idea that I ran a little music label (though not really anymore), pPlease check out some of the other releases available through archive.org.

I highly recommend:
Jonas Crenshaw's Colossal Failure (a sarcastic and sweet country-tinged album)
The Linger Effect's Charmer (a Factory records inspired new wave masterpiece)
and Lake Holiday's American Summer EP (an orchestral indie-pop glimpse at summer days).

Posted at 02:25 PM by five - 2 comments - Back to top

The 25¢ Soul Project, 1998

I finally did it. In a few days I'll start the move from working on a PC at home to working on a Mac. It's not like I've been posting often here, but I've still got a few half-complete My Mean Magpie recordings sitting on my hard drive that I've yet to deal with. So over the past few nights I finished off one of them:

The 25¢ Soul Project
Download it!

Originally called "I Soul My Soul for a Quarter and Now I Want It Back", the Project was a labour of lumbago for Georgia' members Patti Kim and Five Seventeen. The idea was to take others half-finished 4-track songs, add a few tracks of our own, mix it and package it up. Posting messages to message boards, and including small flyers with our mail, the first submission (from Caught in Fluz 'zinester Mike Applestein) rolled in somewhere in January of 1998 and the rest slowly trickled in.

From singular riffs recorded on boomboxes to demo recordings by full bands, we worked with them all. Running them backwards and forwards, accidentally erasing entire tracks, and adding layers of fuzz (though this may just have been what they sounded like) we managed to pull out 16 "songs."

Back in 1998, this release was a bonefide cassette hit, selling out its 200 copies in a matter of months.

The full recording is available through Archive.org in FLAC, mp3, and oog formats. And if you've an iPod you can download a zip file with m4a files. As always, jewel case artwork is also available for download.

Bonus Tracks

To the best of my knowledge, only "Yorkville, IL" went on to be re-recorded for Oval-Teen's debut CD A Million Shades of Oval-Teen as "When March Rolls Around."

For the initial 25¢ release, the 4-track recording got screwed up big time. I ended up accidentally recording over the beginning section of the music when trying to bump tracks, and were forced to use the a capella approach which set the tone for the rest of the mix. It didn't help that in the process of trying to save the song things got out of sync. When Oval-Teen re-recorded the song it was the centre piece of the album. Unfortunately the consensus was that '[the album] only real disappointment is the really long boring organ interlude in "When March Rolls Around."' (source)

Oval-Teen "When March Rolls Around" (edit) — with organ solo removed
Oval-Teen "When March Rolls Around" — from A Million Shades...
  buy it for $2.45!!!
The 25¢ Soul Project "Yorkville, IL" (original Out-of-Sync Mix)

Posted at 02:07 PM by five - add comments - Back to top

Life on Mars?

Thanks to my trusty friend, the internet, I was able to sit down and watch the conclusion of the series (2nd season) of Life on Mars

Named after the David Bowie song, the series follows detective Sam Tyler, who after being hit by a car in 2006 wakes up in 1973 Manchester: "Am I mad, in a coma or back in time?"

Unlike other shows that have overstayed their welcome, Life on Mars creators recognized that though the premise was interesting it wouldn't last long without questions being answered. Matthew Graham a writer and co-creator told the BBC: "We decided that Sam's journey should have a finite life span and a clear-cut ending and we feel that we have now reached that point after two series."

And a fine two series it was.

It's currently broadcasting (?) on BBC Canada/America, and on Showcase Canada on this side of the water, but I had to find other means of tracking it down. There's no word if a DVD is in the works, but it'll likely be a couple years away... which means having to avoid or embrace the American version currently in the works by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal).

Worth waiting for will be the sequel to the series, Ashes to Ashes (after another Bowie song) which moves the series forward to 1981 in London following DCI Gene Hunt Phillip Glenister, who's arrogant, bigoted, and an all-round bastard.

What's the deal with the song?

Simply, it was playing on Sam's iPod when he got hit by the car and, when he wakes up in 1973 it's on an 8-track. There are a few lines which have some relevance ("take a look at the lawman, beating up the wrong guy..." But really? It's just a good song.

David Bowie "Life on Mars?" 1971
Barbra Streisand "Life on Mars?" 1974 (yeah, I know.)
The Flaming Lips "Life on Mars? (Peel Session)" 1992
Yann Tiersen with Neil Hannon "Life on Mars? (Live)" 1999
The Seu Jorge "Life on Mars? (Portugese)" 2004

Posted at 11:05 PM by five - 2 comments - Back to top

"What's a cluckin' chicken? What's a cluckin' chicken need?"

After 15 years, The Happy Mondays announce that a new album (with the unconfirmed title, "Freaky Funky Fish & Chips") has found a home on Sanctuary Records (read the article).

Note: the pic on the left is from the album Bummed, and the title from the song "Angel"

The Happy Mondays are probably best remembered as one of the principal subjects of the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People. Though the Anthony Wilson quote of the band being the best poet since Yeats, is a bit over the top for a man whose lyrics read more like a drug-addled Edward Lear on a bad day, Shaun Ryder can sell a lyric.

The album is mixed by Howie B (Björk, U2) and Sunny Levine, and will feature the cover artwork of Central Station Design (who did all the previous albums). It will also be without Shaun's brother, bassist Paul Ryder.

The Mondays had a rocky career, but also put out some fantastic albums. When the band parted ways Shaun managed to pull himself together and put out some great work as Black Grape.

Past efforts to revive the band have failed with weak singles. However, this album is being very carefully guarded, so there's hope it might be worth the 15 year wait.

Here's a taste of some Mondays' rarities for the uninitiated:
"Delightful" — from Fac 129 Forty Five (1985)
"Desmond" — from the first pressing of Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) (1987)
"Wrote For Luck (Dance Mix)" — from Facd 212 Wrote For Luck (1988)
"Step On (One Louder Mix)" — from Fac 272 Step On Promo 12" (1990)
"24 Hour Party People (Jon Carter Mix)" — from 24 Hour Party People (OST) (2002)

And a bonus:
Shaun Ryder "The Story" — from Amateur Night In The Big Top (2003)
John Kongos "He's Gonna Step On You Again" — from Kongos (1971)

Posted at 09:33 PM by five - add comments - Back to top

Eight songs from 2006 you've never heard (or forgot you had)...

I've put off posting my favourite albums from 2006, because chances are someone else has said it better, or I'd be echoing the sentiments of a million others who all liked (insert favourite 2006 album) as much as I did.

So I thought I'd write about some of the free, limited or digital music that continues to impress me as much now as it did when I first heard it.

Aaron Booth & Kate Warren "Cut Dead" (J&MC cover)
Back in 2005 I had grand plans to create an album reproducing a song-for-song tribute of The Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy. I let the project slip into incompletion, but not before Aaron submitted this beautiful rendition of "Cut Dead" made with Toronto musician Kate Warren. Available through his website for most of the 2006 it quietly slipped beneath the radar.

Petra Haden "God Only Knows" (Beach Boys cover)
At the end of January 2006, Petra Haden posted the first follow-up to her brilliant acapella rendition of The Who Sell Out. Tackling The Beach Boy's "God Only Knows" seems like asking for trouble, but she pulled it off with more grace then any other rendition I've ever heard. (Later in the year she tackled Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with equal ease and brilliance.)

Jim Guthrie "Hands in My Pocket"
Early in February Jim Guthrie made a full length version of a super-catchy song he'd written for Capital One Bank available on his website. Those in the US - and those without a television - were spared the ad itself, but Jim also gotr a nod from Rick Mercer who parodied the ad and song. Read more over at Angels Twenty.

His Name is Alive "Ghosts"
On March 13th His Name is Alive issued versions of songs from their debut 1990 album Livonia" re-recorded in 2001 while under contract with 4AD and re-recorded again (?) sometime prior to 2004. 2005 was clearly a comeback year for the band. They released Detrola, the best album of their career and gave us a wonderful look back through this limited CD (100 copies). Earlier this week they released an instrumental version of Detrola (along with extra tracks) as an iTunes exclusive which is not to be missed.

Kaki King "Please, Please, Please (Let Me Get What I Want)" (The Smiths cover)
On March 26th, 2006, John Darnielle created a post for Last Plane to Jakarta gushing about Kaki King.

Her cover of "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" is like a great calm sea of sadness, and I could listen to it for hours on end and never get tired of hearing her sing it, all plaintive and hesitant and half-hopeful. (So far my record for listening to this particular track non-stop is an hour and fifteen minutes. It was awesome.)

My favourite version is from her performance at Daniel Street (December 28th, 2005) available througharchive.org.

The Mountain Goats "No Children (Audience Version)"
On June 13, 2006, John Darnielle had a sore throat and the audience helped him out by singing the song in it's entirety. What's most impressive (at noty at all a surprise) is that the entire audience knew all the words. Grab the whole show from archive.org.

Of Montreal "How Lester Lost His Wife (Pocket remix)"
On August 26th Polyvinyl released Satanic Twins featuring remixes from Satanic Panic in the Attic and The Sunlandic Twins. Impressed by the amazing Joanna Newsom remix done the year before by Pocket, I took a chance on a band I'd given up on years before only to have my interest renewed.

Final Fantasy "No Cars Go (Live)" (Arcade Fire cover)
I'm not sure where this track comes from... I know that it's a live recording from Bristol in October of 2006, and that it's a cover of an Arcade Fire track from their debut EP. Owen Pallett, by now, needs no further introduction. (However, He Poos Clouds sounds an awful lot like a soundtrack to a Broadway show. A good one, but still... I can imagine Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters duetting on a few tracks.)

Posted at 11:45 PM by five - add comments - Back to top

We (heart) Quiet Riot - A post about Royal City

Earlier this week the folk (singular?) over at I (heart) music posted a nice article on one-time Toronto favourites Royal City.

The post reignited my interest in the band, and I returned to some of the demos and a few of the live tracks.

I was asked about a year ago if I had a recording of a couple of songs of there's that weren't recorded in the studio which were meant to be included on a third and final album for Rough Trade. I had recorded two shows for broadcast on CKLN, and they gave me a CD of demos for the Ten; Ten compilation I put together. I didn't have the song they wanted ("Horses"), but I did have live versions of a few other unreleased tracks.

I went looking to see if I had any more shows that I hadn't transfered and realized that I only had a single copy of the shows and no backups whatsoever. Thus, I've decided that the best course of action is to post it here.

Royal City: Live at Ted's Wrecking Yard, Toronto
Recorded Friday March 16th 2001.

It's a huge file (m4a files ONLY) in two parts: Part one (zip file) and Part two (zip)

For those who only care about the unreleased tracks, I've converted them to mp3s (aren't I nice?)

"Postcards (Live)"
"Dirt Fuck (Live)"
"Royal City (Live)"
"I Called (Live)"

Bonus Track!!

"I Called But You Were..." — A unused track from the At Rush Hour sessions. There are at least two versions of this track.

Some unrelated self-promotion

A long time ago I was in a band called Georgia. Though most of the tracks are available through this site, I put up a newish mix of one of our oldest songs (10 years ago!) on a MySpace page. Take a look...

Posted at 08:13 PM by five - 4 comments - Back to top