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Dan Mangan at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church

… and Reverend Mangan came down from the stage and spoketh to the assembled crowd. As he walked through the aisle, the crowd repeated his words back to him, over and over again, and it was good, for “Robots need love, too; they want to be loved by you!” The night started out poorly, as someone working for what I’d guess to be either the venue, or Collective Concerts would not let me into the Church with my camera. Apparently pro1 camera equipment was not allowed if you didn’t have a photo pass. Something that more than pissed me off, as I was eager to photograph Dan Mangan, at my… Read More »Dan Mangan at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church

Stephin Merritt is amazing

Stephin Merritt at one point wrote for Time Out New York. They recently posted all his works online. Aluminum Tunes is not a new Stereolab album but two CDs of B-sides and outtakes and such. Three or four years ago, Stereolab was an indie-rock group with intentionally unintelligible singing, obscure words drawn from Marxist tracts, really long songs consisting of one chord, Velvet Underground shtick, lackluster playing skills and plenty of charm. Nowadays, it still has the charm part, but indie rock is dead—Stereolab helped kill it. Now its music is much better. Stephin reviews Stereolab. That has to be the greatest summary of Stereolab I’ve ever read.1 Merritt also… Read More »Stephin Merritt is amazing

Isobel(le, sans Sebastian)

Isobel Campbell seems to hate Toronto. In 1999, her then-band Belle & Sebastian were scheduled to play a show here, but she got sick, and the band had to cancel what was to be their first Toronto show. The next time they came around to Toronto, they played at one of the city’s worst venues, The Kool Haus. She didn’t seem to be too happy up on stage, and lo and behold, she left the band the next day. Since then Belle & Sebastian have been without a cellist1 and they seem happy about it. A few years later, Campbell was on tour supporting her new record, an album she… Read More »Isobel(le, sans Sebastian)

Cassettes and Paper

I’m reading zines of old. I came across some zines that were sent to me by a couple of women who played an important part of my teenage years. Nothing like that! You see, back in the ’90s I found for the first time in my life “modern music” which I enjoyed. Before that I was listening exclusively to music of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, a lot of which I still love and listen to, but I found a band who were contemporary that got me going. Through that band I met many great people, and I still continue to meet people because of them. Back in the the… Read More »Cassettes and Paper

I Want The World To Stop

Massey Hall is arguably Canada’s greatest venue. It’s the right size, it’s beautiful to look at1, a perfect location, and most importantly, the sound… the sound is what a great concert should be. Belle & Sebastian, you fucked that up. The sound was muddy, at best. The vocals were buried, and for a band who prides themselves on the harmonies, this is a shame. Chris Geddes’ keyboards could barely be heard and your backing string section was made mute. Then halfway through the set an angel appeared, a bearded, bespectacled man shouted from the fifth row “TURN UP THE VOCALS!” Mick Cooke and Bobby Kildea started in on the opening… Read More »I Want The World To Stop