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I couldn’t bear to see the blog go an entire calendar month without a post, so I just figured I’d give a heads-up that I have two shows at the Phoenix in the next two days (Mogwai tonight, TV on the Radio on Wednesday) and I will do my best to give a decent review of at least one of them.

I will now turn your attention to one of the most disturbing, yet perversely cute, music videos I have ever seen, Mogwai’s “Hunted by a Freak,” from 2003’s Happy Songs for Happy People:

(P.S. If you told me a year ago that I would buy a ticket for a Sigur Ros show AND get to see Mogwai and TVOTR all in the same week, I would have punched you in the face because I would have thought you were crazy, and that’s what I tend to do to crazy people.)

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What better way to break a prolonged blogging hiatus than to share some of the saddest music-related news I’ve heard in a long time. Seems that a quick read through the post indicates that the Cursed guys probably aren’t going to stay together for much longer, which is a real shame because those dudes rate pretty high on the amaze-ometer. Much like the Montreal Canadiens’ chance at winning the Stanley Cup this year, they will be missed.

Oh well, on the bright side:

- The new Mates of State album is getting fairly mixed reviews across the board, but I myself think it’s dandy.

- The big R.E.M./Modest Mouse/National bonanza is at the Amphitheatre in about two weeks, and to top it off, a free Ted Leo show five days later!

- I went back home for a visit over the May 24th weekend and got to eat I-Flav and drink Blue Star, two tasty luxuries which I am forever longing to partake of in the Tee-dot-Oh.

After a fortnight of nothing cutting nor witty being posted, I figured I’d break the dry spell with a short post of scattered jot notes.

1. After seeing We Will Rock You last week, it served to strengthen my recent personal realization that this song and this song are both excellently amazing in each of their own rights.
2. Also excellently amazing: the announcement of this show.
3. There seems to be no end to the “Goddammit why do these two shows have to be on the same night?!?” chronicles of Chuck Smith (boo hoo hoo, I know).
4. Even though I already have dates with Radiohead and Modest Mouse this summer, I continue to cross my fingers and pray daily for this band and this band to make a stopover from their numerous festival appearances to come to Toronto in the coming months.
5. In spite of their sharp downturn over the last few games (and in the playoffs in general), I still believe.

P.S. New Wolf Parade leaked! Huzzah!

I made a last-minute trip to Toronto on Friday night with Jay to see Paint it Black, Cold War and Bergenfield Four, the latter of which contains the lead singers of both Fucked Up  (awesome) and Alexisonfire (terrible, in my opinion, but it was certainly interesting to see an icon perform at such an intimate gig).  My pictures from the show suck a lot, but suffice it to say that the whole thing looked a lot like this: tons of energy and emotion combined with one of the most savage pits I’ve ever been a part of. I was thisclose to getting my head taken off at one point… oh youth.  Paint it Black were really good, and Cold War were great.

I again found myself at a hardcore gig on Saturday night, this time back in London to see Jay’s band (Blackbirds) open for Cursed. A number of people who were at the aforementioned Toronto show the night before made the trip in, and from what I heard, they were definitely rewarded. Apparently Cursed were amazing (we took off before they got on), and Blackbirds definitely killed it. I have some pics but they are as dark as hell (unlit venues are really fucking with my chi these days), and thus will need some extensive post-processing.

From there, a crew of us headed to Call the Office to see Born Ruffians. As many of you know, their album is among my favorites released so far this year, and I was absolutely blown away the last time they played Call the Office. They have really blown up since then, as evidenced by a massive crowd of youngsters who pushed and shoved (fruitlessly) in hopes of getting in front of me. The set list was perfect, and the band sounded really, really good. Highlights included Foxes Mate for Life, Kurt Vonnegut, and This Sentence Will Save/Ruin Your Life, but the best moment was undoubtedly during I Need a Life when the entire room joined Steve and Mitch in shouting “Oh but we go out at night” after each of Luke’s lines.

Luke was clearly quite sick, as evidenced by his continual nose blowing into toilet paper (”did someone wipe their bum with this?”) and his rather reserved demeanor. He was definitely a lot more jumpy and jerky during the Fall show, but the other two thirds of the trio more than made up for it intensity. Great show.

I was going to write up my take on the Okkervil River/New Pornographers show at the Phoenix on Wednesday night, but as was the case with MMJ a couple of weeks ago, Frank at Chromewaves always beats me to the punch, outlining pretty much just what I was thinking but in much better words (and with much better photos and links). As a sidenote, my two primary conclusions from the night were:

1. Aside from being a killer songwriter and an energetic frontman, Will Sheff looked like the long-lost love child of Julian Casablancas and Liam Gallagher.
2. I still have a massive crush on Kathryn Calder.

I’m booked in for a full slate of shows this week (Cloud Cult on Monday, Jay Reatard on Thursday, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin on Friday and Destroyer on Saturday), so hopefully I will have camera in hand, and hopefully Chromewaves won’t be one step ahead.

(Oh yeah, and Broph and I totally scored tickets to this at their actual retail prices! No Craigslist or eBay = giddy up.)

In lieu of my initial plan to stay in and be a lazy/sooky wuss tonight, I opted to head over to Jono’s to hang out with him, his sister, her boyfriend, and Samuel. We went to this Thai place in the middle of nowhere on Jono’s promise that it’d be amazing, and indeed he was correct. It was quite delicious, and highly fun to boot. From there, Samuel and I hit the Basia Bulat show, and I must admit that I left pleasantly surprised. I honestly didn’t really “get” her when I saw her perform at LOLA in September, and the incessant raving about her by just about everyone in town had left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Definitely a different story tonight, though: opener Katie Stelmanis was absolutely awesome (I grabbed a copy of her CD — I’ll let you know how it is), and Basia Bulat was excellent as well. I guess that I just had to be in the right frame of mind, but I was really digging her vocals tonight. I think she sounds a bit like Natalie Merchant, actually.

Last night was the big one, though. Do Make Say Think played here in London, and they were just fantastic. They played a ton of stuff off of Winter Hymn… and You, You’re a History in a Rust, much to the delight of the largish crowd at Call the Office. Considering how much was happening at once on stage (there were about seven members in the band), they were amazingly tight and ever so rhythmic. The songs sounded quite similar to their recorded counterparts, except somehow even more huge. I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to see one of the bands who laid the groundwork for all of the Toronto collectives that are now seeing so much success.

I am way behind in terms of recent show coverage and upcoming dates, but my workload has once again become somewhat reasonable, so perhaps I’ll be able get on top of that. Born Ruffians, Stop Die Resuscitate and Cursed all have shows downtown next Saturday, so I’m going to try to hit all three. We’ll see how it goes.

Last night my friend was cool enough to offer me her +1 for a special taping of My Morning Jacket for some TV show called “Beautiful Noise” at the Berkeley Church, which is (you guessed it) a renovated place of worship, albeit with more beer and less pews. I’d be lying if I said I was totally foaming at the mouth to catch the set, like so many of their avid followers, but having enjoyed a few solid listens of It Still Moves a few years back, I was definitely interested enough to see them live and to hear stuff from Evil Urges (to be released in June).

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Nothing says “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!” quite like the Leprechaun Brothers…..

Due to the killer combination of laziness and busyness (mainly the latter, unfortunately), a plethora of show photos have been left unprocessed on my camera as of late. My apologies to those whom I promised hasty distribution, but here’s a decent one to tide you over while I sift through the (digital) pile.

Love love.

After some delays due to snow on Monday, Matthew hopped on a plane to Scotland, leaving Chuck and myself to pick up the slack for the next week or so. It’s a rather inopportune time for him to leave, because there’s damned near nothing on which to report (and we all know how much of a pain it is to write filler). I saw a Most Serene Republic show last week, but there really isn’t too much to reiterate: it was almost exactly the same as the last time I saw them.

It seems that every band in the world is in Austin for SXSW this week, and it hurts my heart that I am not there also. Next year, perhaps. Things will soon pick up though, as I’m heading to Toronto to see Justice (!) on Monday and then back here for Ladyhawk on Tuesday. There’s a whole bunch of stuff coming that I haven’t put on the calendar yet as well.

Among the many hundreds of bands performing in Texas this coming week is Plants + Animals, who may indeed the next “big thing” out of Montreal.  They can be cited as further proof that there is still an unlimited supply of amazing music in Montreal now. BrooklynVegan posted an interview with them today, and it’s quite good. Ch-ch-check it out.