I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories.
I don’t really have much to say, since bass player Jessica is my friend. 
Jessica looks like a smurf in this lighting. Oh Rancho, you do so many things terribly, lighting is amongst them.
I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories.
The last time I saw The Super Friendz perform in Toronto, I left the show with such a high that lasted me for a whole week, and no it was no artificially induced. It was teh first time I saw The Super Friendz live, and I expected it to be the only time I’d ever see that classic ’90s Halifax rock band. Fate seems to want to correct me.
Fate seemed to have a different plan for me. With NXNE came an announcement that The Super Friendz would be playing at The Great Hall. I usually avoid NXNE, as I’m not doing the whole blogging thing much any more and it’s at a terrible time for those of us who have day jobs in schools. Then when I was handed a free wristband, I was able to pass on my ticket to another and make some stranger happy.
It didn’t feel like the band hasn’t played together for a decade (except two shows) and the band members seemed to be having a great time up on stage. I don’t know what to say other than I left with a giant grin on my face. I loved watching the people in the audience during the encore going crazy to hear “Karate Man” live. Watching Matt Murphy in his Murph-tastic zone is always a pleasure.
Setlist:
Let’s take a brief break from discussing NXNE and talk about the new Superman film, Man of Steel.
In 2006 Bryan Singer decided that the best way to return Superman to the big screen was to acknowledge the brilliance of the 1978 Superman film and its 1980 sequel Superman II by ignoring the remaining sequels and telling the story from that point onwards. After seeing the genesis of Superman time and time again, did the audience really need his origin story, again? Singer apparently thought not. What it did need, however, was a good film, and Superman Returns was not that. Hell, Superman III with Richard Pryor was a better film. Now seven years later, after the incredible success that was the Christopher Nolan directed Batman trilogy, it’s time to bring Supes back to the big screen.
So why did Nolan’s Batman work so well? It’s dark, but has none of the comedic charm that even Tim Burton’s dark Batman had. It was a big action film, but even through all the violence, and the ridiculousness of Christian Bale’s Batman voice, the film is about a man, his foibles and his fragility. Living in a world corrupted by man, he must save it through acts of vigilantism. This is what the audience saw, this is what the audience connected with, a man trying to save his world (Gotham).
Though his name might mislead you to believe that Superman is a man, he is, in fact, a god. And cinematically, Gods are boring to watch. Any film about a world of others needs a human for the audience to see through the eyes of. In Doctor Who his human1 companions allow the human audience to see into his world. In Back To The Future, the modern ’80s kids see the 1950s through the eyes of Marty McFly. In Away From Her you get to see the world of Alzheimer’s through the eyes of the healthy Grant (Gordon Pinsent) whose wife is deteriorating2.
In Superman, the human interaction is through Clark Kent. While Kent might technically be an alien God, he wants to be human, he strives to fit in and live a normal, yet geeky, life amongst man. Kent wants to be a part of this world, he wants to hold onto the normality of the household he grew up in. He wants to be the small town boy from Kansas, not the immortal man of steel from Krypton. The audience connects Kent, not Superman. Man of Steel fails at this. Clark Kent is Superman in a way he’s never been before, the two are inseparable to the point that it takes 3 minutes of screen time for Lois Lane to follow Superman’s path to his Kansas home. General Zod knows Superman is Kent, Lane knows Superman is Kent, the U.S. Army knows Superman is Kent, the only ones who don’t know Superman is Clark Kent is are the billions of red shirts who barely know of Superman’s existence.
I’m calling the general human population red shirts for a reason. I’d guess hundreds of thousands, if not millions of humans die in this film with little care or sympathy. Because of Clark Kent’s identity issues, we just watch this God-like character grow his super powers and have to face others like him. In this battle between Gods, there’s no regard for humanity, no character play, and no reason for the audience to even fein interest.
The vast majority of the film was watching shit fly into other shit. Whether were watching a plane fly into another plane, a super hero fly into a super villain, a super villain fly into a super hero, a missile fly into a building, Gods flying into and out of buildings, debris being thrown at air vehicles. It was tedious. As inane and repetitive as the action was, at least there was one concession, no matter what was going on in foreground, you always had a clear and perfect shot of the corporate logo in the background. Sears, IHOP, and 7-11 will feel their money was well spent.
What did the film get right? I think they made the back story of Krypton more interesting. In previous versions, we knew that Krypton was dying, and Jor-El wanted to save his son’s life. In Man of Steel we see a dying planet due to overuse of natural resources, leading to a military coupe against a government. The planet is going to die, and Jor-El must get Kal-El off the planet. Shortly thereafter we were into Superman’s adulthood. It felt like an uncomfortable jump, but what interested me was that when we finally got to the plot of the film, I hadn’t noticed. It seemed to flow so seamlessly. They continued with flashbacks to get us the info we needed as an audience, and there’s where the seamless transition into plot failed. Once the movie was really going and we jumped back in time to see young Clark, it felt forced, and uninteresting.
Forced and uninteresting is a good point to talk about romance in the film, and by romance, I mean that Lois and Supes kissed. Yup, they snogged. Supes be all over Lane! Why did they kiss? I’ve been wondering that since. There was no romance, no relationship between the two… it just happened. Much like the rest of the film. It just happened. Shit was blown up.
This is not my Superman.
I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories.
Peppermint. In 1992, Sloan came into existence and to prove this to the world, they self-released a six-song EP called Peppermint.It’s not the most popular of their releases, but contains an early version of their first hit, “Underwhelmed,” and two other songs which would later be released on their major label debut Smeared. Smeared and Peppermint go hand in hand; the two records are stylistically the same and bleed the heavy grunge that led record execs to Halifax as if it was the Seattle of Canada. Turns out it wasn’t; instead it was the home of some amazing power-pop.
Sloan have been playing the occasional show and playing an album of theirs in its entirety. They played all of One Chord To Another at a charity gig at The Great Hall and toured Canada playing Twice Removed. Due to the limited 40 minute sets of North by Northeast, Peppermint was a great choice.
Of all the songs on the EP, I believe “Underwhelmed” is the only song which is consistently and reliably in their set. While I think I’ve seen “Torn” performed once before, I can’t place ever having seen any of the other songs. The band sounded good, and though the vocals were a tad too low, they pulled off a great performance. One thing that intrigued me, and impressed me, was that even though they play “Underwhelmed” all the time, they took the time to relearn the song as they played it on the Peppermint EP.
Setlist:
I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories.
Mike O’Neill doesn’t play Toronto often. I don’t think he plays all that often, period. Mike O’Neill was, once upon a time, the bass player and songwriter for The Inbreds. The Inbreds were signed to Sloan’s Murderecords record label in the 1990s. Since then, over the past 13 years, O’Neill has released three solo records.
Celebrating the release of a new book released by Sloan about the 7″ singles released by Murderecords, Mike O’Neill opened the show. Shining as always was O’Neill’s uncanny ability to write infectious pop songs and a charming smile that seemed to melt the hearts of all the girls. He opened with the pop song “Henry” and only got better with “Don’t Forget to Breathe.” He continued with “One Pair of Shoes” one of O’Neill’s most beautiful songs.
O’Neill also played his most famous song. In 2001, Neko Case released an EP on vinyl only which featured some traditional songs and some songs by Canadian songwriters. For Canadian Amp, Case chose such songs as Neil Young’s “Dreamin’ Man,” “Knock Loud” by Sook-Yin Lee, and opened the album with Mike O’Neill’s beautiful song “Andy.”
Backing O’Neill were the powerhouse trio of Chris Murphy of Sloan on drums, Matt Murphy of The Flashing Lights on guitar, and Charles Austin of The Super Friendz on bass and guitar.
Setlist:
Question Period is usually a chance for Parliamentarians to hear their own voices. It’s usually a useless exercise. It’s supposed to allow the opposition and the backbench of the governing party to hold the government to account. This is what most question periods sound like. An MP stands up and makes a long speech, asks a question, the question is ignored.
This is what today’s Question Period sounded like, direct question followed by a flabbergasted prime minister unable to answer. Can we have more of this?
Today on my drive to work my phone decided to play some Daniel Romano. He doesn’t pop up too often, even though I own three of his albums1. His latest album is more country than anything he’s done before. Moving away from the folk of his previous two albums, and the rock of Attack In Black.
The song was “A New Love (Can Be Found).” As soon as he sang the opening lyrics, the most country lyrics you can imagine, I was hooked.
Some stranger is with her for the first time tonight. What’s a man to do when he just can’t win?
I don’t know if this song is positive or negative, and judging by the video below, I don’t think Romano knows himself.
Usually his records don’t pull me in completely, instead two or three songs grab my attention and hold it. Usually not more. On his previous album it was “She Was The World To Me.” The song is much more rooted into the folk world, as he sings “I was nothing to her, but she was the world to me.” He sings his love song to this corpse.
Way too long ago Mari told me about Telekinesis, I didn’t pay attention. Then one day I showed up to the Horseshoe Tavern where they were promoting their album 12 Desperate Straight Lines. I was giddy at how awesome they were. Last night they came back to Toronto to promote their new album Dormarion. While I’ve yet to listen to Dormarion1, I absolutely adore their previous record.
Last night Deep Sea Divers opened at the Horseshoe Tavern.
Deep Sea Divers
Deep Sea Divers
Deep Sea Divers
Deep Sea Divers
Deep Sea Divers
Last night I went to see The Good Family, a band comprised of:
That’s a lot of band members, and lots of family.
The show made me remember why I used to love the Sadies so much. I haven’t seen them since 2007 or so, and can’t imagine the number of amazing shows I must’ve missed.
D’arcy Good
Larry and Margaret Good
Sean Dean
Travis & Bruce Good
Travis & Larry Good
Margaret, Larry, and Bruce Good
D’arcy Good
Bruce Good
Bruce Good
Travis & Bruce Good
Travis Good
Larry, Margaret, and D’arcy Good
I also shot this video. I didn’t do a good job at keeping it steady or focusing, but it shows how awesome the show was.