Some Items of Interest From the Past Year

A few choice things from 2007 around our abode:



1. Civic Pride - I found a new feeling in my stomach and it wasn't from breakfast at the Tomahawk. When they unveiled the Olympic mascots, I had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn't on vacation somewhere else.

2. Speaking of which, we went out of town numerous times, and as it turns out, Beard Papa was a common theme. From Hong Kong, back home, to San Francisco, we were hooked. Not that there weren't other awesome things that happened on those trips....

3. Culinary Feats - Two meals of note: (i) while there's no shortage of good restaurants in town, there's only a handful that elevate it to an artform: the tasting menu at Gastropod achieves that in bounds; and (ii) the delicacy of Shanghainese cuisine is often lost at most places, but dinner at Ye Shanghai in Hong Kong certainly found it.

4. Speaking of Hong Kong, this was one of my favorite finds from the year - Masabumi Yokoi's entry for the Uniqlo t-shirt contest.


5. Other Clutter: I did so amazingly well for toys this year, I feel (almost) guilty. I got the Labbit for Christmas, and went down to the mothership and picked up this Bossy Bear for under $20 (yay for parity!)


6. Comics: The year saw a whole slew of Chris Ware output, but I was really feelin' Misery Loves Comedy. Sure, it was a re-print of all the old Schizos, along with some other stuff I had already, but this was probably the best anthology since the Newgarden book from the year before. Didn't see the Clowes strip in the Times, sorry. Didn't feel Tomine's Shortcomings as much as the next Asian-N. American, sorry (it was interesting, but not as interesting as some thought). Can't read French, thus didn't get the new Michel Rabagliati, sorry. Didn't read the Pascal, either, sorry. (The NYorker cover beside is also one of my faves of the year, though that might be due to shotty memory than anything else)

7. Muzak: The more I grow dependent on my i-Toons, the less certain I am as to what the heck came out in the past year. This problem compounds itself the further I end up in this crazy mp3 blog world: what's old is new again, and back-catalog is as current as new release. Thus, a quick scan of my hard drive would probably yield a 3:2 ratio of music from 30 years ago to tracks released in 2007. Worse: my free time can't keep up to the sheer glut of files on my hard drive, and there's not nearly enough free space on that thing either; I might have listened to that Ronson album intently for a couple of days, only to burn the thing to CD and never pick up on it again.

There's not a heck of a lot I remember from the past year of music. I recall Radiohead did something, didn't they? That girl from Rilo Kiley showed up in pictures everywhere (not nearly as many as Cat Power though), and I even liked that album a lot too. I tried extra-hard to give rock n' roll a chance this year, and recall that I liked a slew of albums (Sea and Cake, etc) - heck, I even liked that Liars track that Brian posted on his Facebook a whole bunch. I think I remember that.

But more than anything, if my current playlist is any indication, 2007 seemed to be a good year for hip hop. (I didn't think the Pharoahe Monch got enough hype, and thus here's that gah-gah-gah re-working of "Welcome to the Terrordome"; I'd post something from the Top Shelf comp or the Y Society or Ohmega Watts albums, but there's enough blogs out there that have covered them already:

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New Portishead, Hell Freezes Over

By now I'm sure you've all seen the videos of the new Portishead songs, so I'll spare you the details, but does anyone remember or know why the heck P-head would've recorded this French version of "Only You"?

Burned My Oven Mitts Get Some Polysporin

Here I go gummin' 'bout Sammy P and a new book of photos finds its way to my door. Comes with an accompanying EP of electronic tracks that burn. Order from Press pop dot com.

Get Yr Ovenmitts Here's Some Heatrocks

I. Startin' From the Middle Ground
It's not like it was the first mix CD, or even the best, but there was something about Andy Smith's first Document mix that seemed to grab everyone. It was probably the first time I'd heard kitsch (Tom Jones) so obviously paired and emphasized within a mix without it seeming jokey, and probably the first time I'd ever seen a cover of a dj set (Smith covers the venerable "Wheels of Steel" set). When Smith played the Republik later that summer, dropping "St. Peppers" into his set seemed revelatory; few djs in Calgary up to that point would drop something so glaringly outside of the normal rare groove/hip hop/acid jazz set (though most obviously could have, it just didn't seem to happen). Now it'd be weird without it.

Jay used to play the hell out of the Spencer Davis segue into Love Unlimited from this mix, but the Jungle Brothers/Jeru intro grabbed me to no end.

Jungle Brothers - "How Ya Want It We Got It" (Native Tongues remix): Oh yeah! Of the three Native Tongue heavyweights, the Jungle Brothers just don't generate the same excitement. De La's rhymes are perhaps more catchy, and Tribe's beats perhaps more influential, and thus the Jungle Brothers nestled in third. This track came well after the Native Tongues had lost their collegiate charm, but man, is it still comforting to hear them on one track.


De La Soul - "Intro" (from Stakes is High): The Jungle Brothers track always reminded me of this De La song, which I prefer. It's the first time that De La had sounded so bleak and weary to me, and the intro emphasized this the most.


Jeru the Damaja - "Come Clean" (from the Sun Rises in the East): I'm not sure what the beef with the Fugees was all about (none of them seem to have fared very well, outside of Wyclef's obvious commercial success), and the falling out with Primo didn't seem to help. For what it's worth, I really liked "Black Cowboys."


II. From Way Out
I'm digging on the new electro stuff coming out; in particular, the Flying Lotus tracks I've heard grab me. It makes perfect sense that it finds a home on Warp, though I prefer it to the mainstays of that label (Boards of Canada, Autechre, etc), mostly because, at the time Warp had glutted in excess, the records seemed largely exercises in output.

Flying Lotus - "Dance Floor Stalker": I guess this guy comes from the Coltrane lineage. It's not overly apparent, in that I don't get overwhelmed the same way. But it rumbles the kidneys, which is good.


Sam Prekop - "Sewing Machine": The Flying Lotus track also reminded me a lot of this early solo Prekop track that found its way onto the Two Gentlemen EP. At the time, I had anticipated Prekop's first solo album to be more of the electronic stuff, rather than how organic it actually came out to be (it's all good). Prekop's fun with samplers carries over onto the S&C track on the Reach the Rock soundtrack.


III. And Back To the Front...

Love Unlimited Orchestra - "Theme from the Together Brothers": The track that appears on the Andy Smith mix is from the Together Brothers soundtrack, which seems to be harder to find than not (the Love Unlimited releases always seem less ubiquitous than the Barry White albums, for whatever reason). But the title theme itself shows up regularly on various compilations, best-ofs, etc., and is just as r-e-d-h-o-t.


Ohmega Watts - "The Platypus Strut": How does Ohmega Watts go unnoticed? Dude's albums have been so heavy they're giving me a hernia tear in the sack-ro-ill-iac. The new album, Watts Happening, is no disappointment, and this track is just ass-boggling.

HOT ROCKS.

THIS HAS AGED AWESOME.

Super Clearing House

Have REM been around long enough now to be back in vogue a third time? Maybe, maybe not - but it had me searching through the storage bins.

I never saw Backbeat, mostly because (i) it was generally slaughtered in the reviews, and (ii) I'm not really that captivated by the Beatles mythology, but my ears did perk up when it came to the soundtrack. You had Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Dave Grohl, Dave Pirner, Greg Dulli and Don Fleming doing their best Hamburg-era Beatles. At the time, the product didn't quite seem to measure up to its components, but after thirteen years, I've kinda warmed up to it.

the Backbeat Band - "Long Tall Sally": I'm not particularly fond of this song as a general matter (Lord help me if I have to hear the Commitments soundtrack again), but this version has some teeth.


the Backbeat Band - "Please, Mr. Postman": This song makes a lot more sense now that we've seen the latter part of the Afghan Whigs' career and the Twillight Singers (unless I'm way out to lunch and that's Pirner singing, in which case I've probably grossly underestimated Soul Asylum)


the Backbeat Band - "Carol": At the time, the Backbeat Band seemed overly glossy to me; now, it just seems better executed.


Out of the various Stipe guest appearances, the Golden Palominos is probably the most forgotten of the bunch. The group, overseen by Anton Fier, saw a rotating cast though its years, including Stipe, Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsay, Bernie Worrell, John Zorn, Syd Straw, Matthew Sweet, Bob Mould, Jack Bruce, T-Bone Burnett, etc etc etc. Midway through the 90s, the first few Palomino albums were compiled into 'sampler' discs, each featuring two or so albums. These tracks are from one of the re-issues, compiled from the first two albums.

the Golden Palominos - "the Cookout": Out of the tracks from the first album, "the Cookout" is easily the most listenable, the rest being mostly sub-par NYC No Wave that hasn't aged well (it's certainly a God-send that Arto Lindsay has generally favoured singing over yelping through the years). Features some good 80s drum machine programming by Fier and turntable work from Laswell (keep in mind this track would've appeared in the same year as Afrika Bambaataa's "Renegades of Funk" and Herbie Hancock's "Rockit", thus meaning that Laswell/Fier must've had their ear to the ground)


the Golden Palominos - "Omaha": the least whiny of the Stipe tracks. The second Palominos album is a lot more accessible than the first, and probably a bit more thought-out. This is a cover of the Skip Spence song.


the Golden Palominos - "the Animal Speaks": I've had the benefit of the last 30 years to know what a douche-bag John Lydon generally is (I saw him show up on an episode of Judge Judy for punching out a roadie, for Christ's sake), but I will admit that this is probably the track that aged the best from that album.

Clearing House: Pt something or another

I loved the Red Hot and Riot compilation as much as the next guy, but when did it become the new Bob Marley Legend?

While we're on the topic of Red Hot, how many of you knew about America Is Dying, their hip hop compilation that came out in 1996? Well, I didn't. Here's a few tracks that clued me in:

Prince Paul, Biz Markie and Chubb Rock - "No Rubber, No Backstage Pass": I think Biz actually meows at one point.


That Crazy Wu Tang Family - "America": just on the heels of that leak from their new album, here's this chestnut.


Common ft. Sean Lett - "Lately I've Been Thinking": about who the hell Sean Lett is.

Clearing House: Pt 6

Just to prove how topical I am, here's some cuts from a Joy Division tribute album, just in time for that biopic to come out (and, oh, all those Interpol albums).

Tortoise - "As You Said": A cover of one of few instrumental Joy Division tracks (from what the Interweb authorities say, it hails from the Closer sessions and ultimately showed up on the Heart and Soul set). An interview in Wire later revealed that the track was also one of the reasons why Bundy Brown left Tortoise before Millions....


Girls Against Boys - "She's Lost Control": mid-90s, Girls Against Boys...seemed appropriate.


Low - "Transmission": This came out later as a separate EP for Low. One of few examples of someone out-bumming Joy Division (Codeine also appears on the tribute).


This wasn't on the tribute album (or from the same decade), but I figured it fit. Here's LCD Speakerphone's cover of "No Love Lost":

Clearing House: Phew, Pt 5!

Calgary, it was fun. Vancouver, howdy doody!

There's little I can or will say about On Guard For Thee other than that it was one of those garage rock compilations that featured a heck of a lot of Calgary bands, particularly considering the compilation was released on an Australian label (Augogo). This one probably won't be remembered quite as readily as the various Bloodbaths, but probably saw just as much airplay.

Von Zippers - "Mega Volt": I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Von Zippers was/is one of my favorite Calgary bands, hands down. Few other bands in town, particularly at the Rotoflex prime (the compilation is from around '95), put on a better live show.


Parkades - "(You Ain't Heard) the 5,6,7,8's": I thought long and hard about putting this up, and ultimately decided to post this for a few reasons. One, I didn't have an opinion on most of the other Calgary bands on this compilation (Pussy Monster, Huevos, Chixdiggit); Two, I figured it'd be better to post a track from a band that was defunct than from a band that was still performing (Forbidden Dimension); Three, I can still picture the apartment listed as the Parkades' mailing address in compilation liner notes (more amusingly, Chixdiggit actually list a Market Mall PO Box for their coordinates)(also of note: no email addresses/websites listed whatsoever).


Smugglers - "Babe": Are the Smugglers still around? I've got no clue. I always thought they were immensely fun, and certainly liked them more than Cub.


Evaporators - "Grouse Mountain Scenic Railway": Probably one of the more interesting songs on the compilation. Funny thing is, we've been here over a year and I still haven't driven north of the British Properties.

Clearing House: Pt 4

In the whirlwind days of the mid-90s, there were plenty of times when I'd throw down cash for any old electronic shizz on a disc, and goddamn if those times weren't chock full of worthless comps. The excitement of a foreign genre was at full-time frenzy, and one of the treasure troves for the stuff was Kensington CD.

Kensington CD, located where an acoustic guitar store resides (well, at least when I left Calgary) behind Higher Ground (or thereabouts), was a fantastic place to be if (i) you were too lazy to leave the suburbs to head down to 17th, and (ii) you wanted to check out (and scoop) whatever the hell Sid and Faust were buying (the lady that ran the place would let me check their orders and buy out albums that came in ahead of them)(also: she also let me in on Sid's real name, a shocking revelation at the time). At some point I ran out of moolah and stopped frequenting the place, and thus I'm not overly sure when it packed up. Which is a good thing, because it wasn't overly long afterward that I noticed I spent a lot of cash on a whole lotta nothin'.

One compilation, Further Mutations on Lo Recordings, saddled that vague territory of electronic experimental music, which, in 96, would've also included the likes of Amon Tobin and Luke Vibert, even if only out of novelty. This comp came out before the plethora of laptop glitch, and certainly before anyone had caught on to Leaf Records. Kinda proves as a good nostalgia point, if high frequency squeals brings fond water to the eyes. Here's a selection:

Fish Out of Water featuring Robert Wyatt - "Cry From the City": notable for Robert Wyatt (on vocals and piano) and not much else


David Kristian - "See Sawing Sea": included purely because I'm a sucker for the musical saw. From what I gather, Kristian hails from Montreal, wherein he'd do his own soundtracks for whatever old sci-fi films were playing at the tv station he worked at.


Richard Thomas - "An Itch You Can't Fucking Scratch": I like to imagine this is avant garde scratch dj work, but now imagine it more as someone fucking around with pro-tools or some such early on. Now I just like the title.