My Concert History

I saw Muse last week.  What a great show!  Totally rock star.  Had a great time.

Anyway, I hadn’t been to a concert in a while and it got me reminiscing about all the other shows I’ve been to in the past.  I thought to myself, “I should write them all down somewhere so I remember.”  Guess where I decided to write them down?  I figured it would be fun to reminisce and share it with my readers.  As concert attending goes, I’ve been to several but definitely not as many as some of my friends.  I know some of my readers were with me at some of these concerts so if you remember a concert, reminisce with me.  And remind of any I’ve forgotten.

And here they are, in approximate chronological order:

My first concert ever (which changed my musical life) was Our Lady Peace at the Saddledome in Calgary.  Stereophonics was the opener.

Econoline Crush at Area 51 in Chilliwack (got a guitar pick at this one).  Mudmen opened.  I’ve included an Econoline Crush video because I think more people should like them.  And I’ve included a Mudmen video because it’s such a novelty.  I don’t really like them.

Enrique Iglesias at the Houston Rodeo.

The Killers at Shaw Conference Center in Edmonton (We got in for free.  Thanks, Ashley!).  Tegan and Sara opened.

Pearl Jam at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

Our Lady Peace and Default at Capital Ex in Edmonton.  Also Armchair Cynics and others.  First video below is of a lady during the Default show that really, really loved it.  Maybe a bit too much.  The other video below that is during the OLP show, Raine walks down the middle of the crowd and some goober steals his hat.

Barenaked Ladies and Bachman Turner Overdrive at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.  This was for Canada Day.

Goo Goo Dolls at Shaw in Edmonton.

Snow Patrol at Shaw in Edmonton.  Ok Go opened.

Wolf Parade at The Starlight Room in Edmonton.  Frog Eyes opened.

Travis at Red’s in Edmonton.  Maximo Park opened.

Ten Second Epic at The Starlight Room in Edmonton.

Raine Maida at the Belly Up in San Diego.  I talked with Raine and got a picture with him!

Switchfoot at Cricket Amphitheater in San Diego.

Our Lady Peace at the Belly Up in San Diego.  Company of Thieves opened.

Broken Social Scene at the Fillmore in San Francisco.  The “queen” of Canadian indie rock opened (what was her name Randal?).

Muse at Viejas Arena in San Diego.  Passion Pit opened.  The video is from the show we were at but not recorded by me.  It’s the beginning of the show, the song starts at about 2:15.

What do Sidney Crosby and OK GO have in common?

They were both the subjects of some very interesting material on my Google Reader this morning.  And now I will share it with you…

First, remember how Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal in the gold medal game last week?  And remember how he threw off his gloves and stick?  Well, that stick and one of those gloves is missing and Reebok is offering a $10,000 reward for their return.  Crazy, eh?  Now that’s a Canadian legend in the making.  Check out the article.

Second, the band Ok Go released a new video last week.  You may remember them for their treadmill video (which I have also included, just in case you haven’t seen it yet).  The song is called “This Too Shall Pass” and the video is pure genius.  Enjoy.

When Today’s Music Becomes “Classical”

With the recent release of things like The Beatles Rockband and Michael Jackson’s film “This Is It” I found myself pondering the future state of what we consider to be the most influential music of the last century.  Music has evolved and proliferated so much in the last century that it is hard to predict what the future of music might hold.  And it is hard to know how today’s popular and influential music will be perceived by music historians a century or more from now.

I wonder if Beethoven and Mozart could have ever imagined the kind of music that we listen to today.  And I wonder if, one day, future generations will think of 20th and 21st century music in the same way that we currently think about music from centuries past.  So called classical music is comprised of a variety of styles and subgenres that were probably starkly obvious to musicians of the “classical” age but which, for us, have been melded into one giant genre.  Will our Beatles and Britneys and Metallicas be lumped together as a genre of 20th century popular music by amateur music historians of the future?  I think there’s a good chance that something like that will happen.  Especially if music making continues to become so ubiquitous.  With more and more people making music, music archives will be so jam packed that everyone but the hardcore purists will want to lump things together for simplicity’s sake.

Another thing to consider is the enormous effect technology has had on the evolution of music.  The electric guitar and the drum kit, which now make up the most basic instrumentation of the majority of today’s popular music did not exist until the early 20th century.  I wonder what Mozart would have done with an electric guitar or a synthesizer in his hands?  The device AutoTune is an example of some technology that is currently revolutionizing (for better or worse) the music industry.  Where does music technology go from here?

Will there continue to be social outcries over new kinds of music as they emerge?  I recently watched the film Amadeus in which (if I remember correctly) young Mozart raises some eyebrows by writing a French ballet for the German king (yikes!).  This week the movie Pirate Radio opens, depicting a time in the 60s when England banned rock and roll music.  And who can’t remember a time in the 90s when Eminem or some other rapper was making the news for making controversial music?  Where does music go from here?  What other toes can modern musicians step on?

Needless to say, I have a lot of questions about the future of music.  And few answers.  But isn’t it fascinating to think about?  Just take a look at where we’ve come from and all the marvelous music the ages have created!  Just thinking about it makes me excited to see what music is like when I’m an old man.  Even though I’ll probably hate popular music when I’m old and wish that kids could appreciate “real” music like Our Lady Peace and U2.  I probably won’t live long enough to see my favorite bands enter “classical” status, though.

While I’m excited to see what the future holds, there’s one thing I hope for from future music historians – that they are able to distinguish between musicians like the Beatles and Britney Spears.  I imagine somebody a couple of centuries from now browsing through a catalog of popular music from the 20th century and perceiving that two artists such as the Beatles and Spears are relatively equal in terms of hit songs and media coverage (or something to that effect; I don’t know the exact statistics; and for the record, my personal opinion is that Britney Spears is a speck of dust compared to the Beatles).  To me, it seems a sin to conflate two so obviously different musicians.  But chances are, people a century from now aren’t going to see the difference so clearly.

Those are some of my thoughts.  Let me know what you think about the future of music.  Bonus points if you can name all the musicians in the photos.

My New Obsession

Some of you might know this about me: I love trivia and I love memorizing things.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Ken Jennings, but I certainly enjoy the feeling of just knowing things.  When I was about eleven years old and had dreams of becoming a world famous chemist I came across the periodic table of the elements in my parents set of encyclopedia that I just happened to be browsing through and I thought to myself, “How great would it be if I could memorize all these elements?”  So by age twelve I could name all the elements by symbol.  And speaking of trivia, the only magazine that I’ve ever read every article, cover to cover, is Mental Floss, a magazine of pure trivia.  It’s such a fascinating publication.  I would recommend it to everyone.

Now that you know this about me, I’m ready for you to know what I’m obsessed with these days: Sporcle.com.  I think I might have mentioned it briefly earlier in my blog.  But if you haven’t heard of this website please go ahead and check it out.  It’s a website full of little quizzes.  Everything from naming all the presidents of the US to naming VH1′s top 100 songs of the 90s.  Even if you’re not a trivia buff and even if you don’t fancy yourself very good at remembering things it’s a great pastime and a great way to hone your geography or history skills and so much more.  Maren and I will often do quizzes together.  We compete on some and cooperate on others.  Since I’ve started my Sporcle habit I can now name all the US states and their capitals, I can name all the countries of the world (with a blank map in front of me) and all the flags of Europe.

So go check it out.  In addition to the ones I’ve already linked to above here are some quizzes that you might enjoy:

Car Logos. 90s Video Games. Guess The Language.   The “A” Game. Time’s Top 100 Novels.

Album Club Review: Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years

Dark Days/Light Years disappointed me a little.  The songs worth listening to ended too soon and the rest of the songs lasted much too long.

As the album begins I felt like the songs were pleasantly upbeat, stuff that I found myself bobbing my head to.  It wasn’t ingenious music but it was enjoyable.  I felt like it would make good ambient music at a party or something.  It’s the kind of music that you don’t hate, would sound good in the background at a party, but at the end of the night you’re not going to be asking the DJ who it was and you won’t be heartbroken if you never hear them again.

Then after the first four songs were done SFA’s modus operandi began to become apparent.  Each song title also happens to be the most repeated word or phrase of each song.  In the first few songs you forgive SFA for doing that because you’re sure that not all the songs will be like that.  And then as you listen on, you discover that, sure enough, nearly every song does the same thing.  And it gets old fast.

I found myself thinking that the songs from Dark Days/Light Years would sound good in short spurts, say in a commercial or something, but anything longer than that becomes very repetitive and annoying.  By the second half of the album my interest had waned and it all kind of blended together.  It’s a shame really.

But credit must be given where credit is due.  I think they are talented musicians and they produced some quality songs.  I liked Mt., Moped Eyes and Where Do You Wanna Go?, but for the most part, the songs were kind of forgettable.

May’s Album: Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years

 

Dark Days/Light Years

 

So this month I get to pick the album again and, I’ll be honest, at the time of my choosing there wasn’t any particular album that was an obvious pick for me.  So I embarked on a search through recently well-reviewed albums and came across the Welsh band, Super Furry Animals.  

At this point I feel obliged to admit that I sort of judged this book by its cover.  Aside from picking an album that has received mainly positive reviews, I wanted to pick an album that grabbed my attention.  Well, Super Furry Animals fit the bill.  After seeing the band name and the psychedelic cover artwork I gave it a brief preliminary listen and I was impressed enough that I decided it would be a worthy album for the month of May.

That being said, Dark Days/Light Years was not a completely arbitrary choice.  I read the reviews; I looked into the band’s history.  What I found is that Super Furry Animals have been around for a long time, 9 albums to be precise, but have continually escaped mainstream success despite consistent critical acclaim.  The reviews for DD/LY seem to suggest that that trend will continue, that is, high critical acclaim, low mainstream acceptance.  I feel that as a responsible music listener I have a duty to reward such consistent, and apparently good, musicianship with a dedicated listen, even though, or maybe especially because, they may not be palatable to the general public.

So the critics like them; they say DD/LY, which is still less than two weeks old, is some of SFA’s best work in nearly five years.  And they seem like they will be a fun band to listen to (they even have a song written in Welsh!).  Definitely something unique and, I feel, worthy of a month of the Album Club’s attention.

April Review: Dear Science

 

Dear Science

 

So some of you might know that I’ve always had a bit of a love affair with rock music from the 90s.  And sometimes it’s hard for me to get over that music and give modern rock the credit it deserves.  Well, this month I discovered that TV on the Radio is a perfect example of what’s great about modern rock!  I loved every second of their album Dear Science.

Beginning with the very first track, they hooked me.  What’s evident from the very start is that the percussion/rhythm is unique and is a major part of what makes this album so catchy and memorable.  And every song that follows confirms what you suspected after listening to only the first song.  Every song promises a beat that grabs you and pulls you into the song in a way not many songs can do.

Another thing that is immediately evident is the vocal skill of the band.  Solid vocals all around, from high falsettos in many songs to some surprisingly pleasant bass in the song Family Tree.  I was impressed.

I was sitting contemplating what else about this album made it so enjoyable and I decided that it’s because Dear Science makes excellent use of dynamics and instrumentation to guide their songs from start to climactic finish.  Every musician tries to do that but there’s something about TVOTR’s efforts here that stand out to me.  In many of their songs they make it seem like it’s a departure from the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern.  I’m probably not doing well at explaining myself here, but I know that Dear Science took its songs seriously and produced some high quality music as a result.

Overall, a great album!  Songs like Dancing Choose, Golden Age, Halfway Home and DLZ continue to get a lot of attention on my music players.  I could listen to the beginning of Red Dress over and over, just cause I want to yell along with it.

High points of the album are the great rhythm and beats, catchy melodies, skillful instrumentation and song construction which, all together, makes for some very unique and memorable songs.

Low points are few but I will mention this, some of the slower tempo songs, while still beautifully showcasing the musical talent of TVOTR, I felt detracted from the upbeat feel of the album that was introduced by its first song and that I felt should have made up a better portion of the album.  But that’s just a selfish desire of mine.

Great album!  4.5 stars out of 5.

April’s Album: TV On The Radio – Dear Science

TV on the Radio’s website bio begins with a quotation from band member David Sitek, “A lot of bands have something to say, we have something to ask.”  Well, I have something to ask, too!  How did TVOTR’s album Dear Science become the 2nd best album of 2008 according to The Hype Machine, the third best reviewed album of 2008 on Metacritic.com, the 6th best album of 2008 according to Pitchfork and much more?  

Well, this month we’re going to answer that question.  We’re going to find out how TVOTR has topped so many lists and received such rave reviews.  My own interest has been piqued by the few tracks I’ve heard on the radio and the brief research I’ve done on the band.  It promises to be a rewarding experience.

So album clubbers, let’s get excited for this month’s album, Dear Science!  And perhaps, as we listen to TVOTR’s latest, we’ll be able to figure out what they’re asking us, too.

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And for those of you for whom buying the album is a less than ideal option, my album club partner, Randal, has found a solution.  As a club, we are all going to share a membership at LaLa.com where club members will be able to stream all the album club music for free!  Once you’ve decided to participate, get in touch with Randal or me to get the login information for LaLa.com.  Once you’ve logged in, go to the “All songs” link under “My Collection” and there you will find the album club music, past and present!  

We would ask that all those who choose to use LaLa please do not abuse the account!  LaLa.com allows users to browse music and download music and other stuff.  For the purposes of the club we won’t need any of that stuff, so DON’T do it.  Randal and I will have the album club music ready for you in the “My Collection” section.  Anyone who abuses their account privileges will be denied access to the account in the future.

Please also note that LaLa.com will mainly be used for music that cannot be streamed elsewhere without an account of some sort.  For example, this month’s album Dear Science can be streamed in its entirety on the Hype Machine’s website (just scroll down to the number two album).

AC2: A Mountain Is A Mouth

Did you know that Bruce Peninsula is an actual peninsula located in Ontario?  I didn’t.

Bruce Peninsula is indicated in red

 

I enjoyed Bruce Peninsula’s A Mountain is a Mouth.  My first thought was that they were very unique.  A unique and pleasant combination of voices and instrumentation.  And the result is very good.  But, sadly, not super.

There are a lot of voices in BP and that leads to some really amazing stuff and some not-so-amazing stuff on A Mountain is a Mouth.  First, I think my favorite thing about BP is the pseudo-gospel backup chorus.  It gives the music a unique, haunting feel.  In fact, the music in general has a beautiful, haunting feel to it.  The chorus also compliments the lead vocals very well, and even works with the lead male vocals, which I wasn’t a huge fan of.  However, I was quite disappointed to find that effects of the chorus began to seem repetitive by the end of the album.  And there were moments when they chose to be intentionally discordant, which contributes to the unique feel of their music but which, for me, detracted from the enjoyability of the music.  Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the chorus aspect of AMIAM.  Some of the best examples of the chorus’s contribution are in the songs Steamroller, Crabapples, and Drinking All Day.

As far as instrumentation goes, I was impressed at the variety and versatility that AMIAM showed.  I suppose with as many band members as they have, it’s much more plausible to incorporate such a wide variety of sounds.  The instrumentation they chose, whether it was clapping, wind sounds, banjo or more typical rock instrumentation, always seemed to add to the effect of the song.  Very well done.

Another thing I would like to point out is that the album has a great studio sound – the technical tweaking in the studio surely served BP well on this album.  It has great potential for a live show, but it really makes me wonder how they would pull it off in person so that the songs still maintain the emotive edge that is so appealing about their music.  But then, I’m supposed to be reviewing the album, not a live performance, so I’ll drop it here.

Overall, the album connects on a fair number of songs and misses on some others, like the short, throwaway songs Satisfied and Northbound/Southbound.  Some of the songs toe the line between hit and miss, but the album is generally enjoyable.  There are definitely a few songs that will be on a regular rotation in my music collection.

So the positives include the uniquely pleasant sounds of AMIAM and my enthrallment with their backup chorus which created some very strong, memorable songs.  The negatives include some repetitiveness and some unimpressive songs.  After weighing the evidence I will say that I enjoyed the album and I will give it 3.5 stars out of 5.  

While I feel that my rating accurately reflects my feelings about the album, I want to add that I really think that it is worth listening to.  It’s a pleasant diversion from the mainstream.

 

Don’t forget to check out my new Album Club page that has general info on the Album Club and past albums!  You can find the link to it at the top of the page next the Home and About Me links.

5 Star Albums

I’ve been thinking about this new album club that I’m a part of (and that you, hopefully, will be a part of, too) and I came to an obvious yet important conclusion.  Everyone has different tastes in music.

I often don’t agree with others’ musical preferences.  Sometimes the musical fare of the masses leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.  For example, popular musical phenomena like Britney Spears or Lil Wayne.  At the other end of the spectrum are the trailblazing music fans who value their unique, progressive musical taste and are often of the type who would stop listening to a band when they become too popular (or at least rub it in people’s faces that they knew them first!).

Music critics arise from all across that range of musical taste and their critiques reflect that.  Generally speaking, I would say that those who judge music for a living are relatively objective in their judgments but no one is free of the influence of personal taste.  Therefore, I think a critic’s words should be held up in the light of the material they enjoy and compared to the music you, the reader of the review, enjoy.  If I was interested in knowing about a new rock album I would be less inclined to look to a Britney Spears lover for an opinion than to a Pearl Jam fan.  At the same time I think it is important to keep an open mind and be willing to let an informed reviewer show you something new about a particular piece of music or about music in general.

All of that being said, I thought I would do my future review readers a favor and illuminate for them some of my favorite albums, albums that I would consider “5 star” albums, or at least, albums that I enjoy very much.  Hopefully this will shed some revealing light on my reviews to come and be informative in some way.

So here are a few examples of my favorite albums:

Our Lady Peace – Clumsy

Metallica – Black Album

Oasis – What’s The Story Morning Glory?

Collective Soul – Collective Soul

Goo Goo Dolls – Dizzy Up The Girl

Michael Buble – It’s Time

Amos Lee – Amos Lee

As you can see, there’s a heavy 90s rock influence among my favorite albums.  But I think these albums do well to approximate my musical taste.  I’m certainly not a close-minded music lover and my tastes are always evolving, these albums simply come to mind easily because they’ve stood the test of time.  I love getting to know new music.

And there you have it.  Some of my faves which have influenced my present musical tastes.