Scene and Heard with Will McGuirk

Ladyhawk make the 10-4-08

Ladyhawk
Shots
Jagjaguar

Because if I was in a band I'd want it to be ballsy and confrontational, because rock n roll is not always about getting laid...
sometimes it about not getting laid...most times really.... and I think thrashing around with crowd of other guys who aren't getting laid which is really what being in a rock n roll  band is about would sound just like Ladyhawk's Shots. The Shots could be tracks, comments, bullets or drinks but it all works in a roughed up Wolf Parade way and at the end of the day in a drafty rehearsal studio it only matters if it works or not there and then. Shots does.

Memorial Park and unicorn dreams

So 2K08 bites the dust (finally). Looking around for a song of the day brought me to John O'Regan's project Diamond Rings. Two tracks for you ...Its Not My Party or maybe Running From The Future....
Fingers crossed we will get a few things sorted and the Bandshell in Memorial Park will be better utilized in 2K09. I can fully visualize it, so much so that at times its seems I am already there. Sunshine, tunes outdoors, merch for sale, surrounded by a library, an art gallery, a museum, a whole carnival of intellectual stimulus.
So if I can see it does that mean it will happen... isn't that what that "O" book The Secret was all about.

The Acorn plant seeds of ideas

 

The Acorn are offering you solace for the winter in the form of two free EPs, Ear Worms and Little Elms are available now. So while the wind howls about Mary outside pull the blankets tighter and treat yourself to another ten minutes of you time.

Records will have to suffice.

On the CBC Radio3 blog there is a posting about the Transmission music conference which took place in Vancouver recently. The post includes notes taken  and on live music it says... "Live music is thriving most in venues 250 - 5000 capacity" and also "Fans want up close, intimate interactive experiences with artists". I have always maintained that the best approach for bands these days is to concentrate on playing gigs and spend less time in the studio tweaking buttons and playing with your protool.
However I do have to refine that. Please keep recording music. Its the only way in this lovely ol' city of ours to hear new music. One can't go out and hear the new live anymore. Its not commercially viable as an investment. Why...I can't figure out...Oshawa is in the top 15 population-wise in the whole country yet its "scene" is virtually non-existent. For all the bleeting that I do here its still as weak as it ever was... maybe weaker. As I found out with the PLAN B art & music gig,  of the 145,000 folks who live here there wasn't one, one...who chose it.
So please keep recording. Make it as sweet as it can be. Put all your effort and skill into the tracks.
While there will always be folks who want a collection that can be viewed and assessed in one look, more and more are choosing to take music back to its intangible format. All these recordings will be available for download at a whim. Recordings will be stored in virtual clouds, in a non-proprietory format. Any player will play these tracks.
However access will be restricted. You will have to pay a gatekeeper. At the moment that is your service provider. That small fee you pay Rogers gets you music.
The record companies know this already but their approach has been wrongheaded. Also at Transmission was Seymour Stein of SIre Records. He was keynote speaker and a quote of his has been making the rounds..." The first major music labels were all phonograph manufactures... Had we remained in control of the hardware we (the music industry) wouldn't be hurting as much as we are now. And the Ipod would be ours."
Well with due respect to the man who signed the Smiths and the Ramones he's thinking too small. Its not the Ipod he should be salvivating for. Its the cables and wires and towers of the service providers. Whoever owns the distribution channel owns the content.
Anyone who wants to help this ol' blogger out could maybe record live gigs and pass them on...best of both worlds then for us stuck in Play It Safe Land.

Wolf Parade make the 10-4-08

Wolf Parade
At Mount Zoomer
Sub Pop

The Montreal based band and progenitor of Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs always leave me somewhat uneasy. Its akin to a lone music box playing in the attic of an abandoned house. There is always so much unsaid, so many unfinished stories, too few answers yet that simple tinkling calls one forward and upwards. The tension and anxiety of Apologies To The Queen Mother, their debut, is here but its played out in a longer, less concise manner. Great swirls of keyboards and blasts of buzzsaw guitar fight for a toehold on your consciousness. Its seems relentless until it loses interests and moves on...next track. Its a difficult album to take straight off  (much like its cover art) and I'm still not sure it should be on this list. But there's something in there and its a nagging uncertainty that beckons further exploration. At Mount Zoomer is an odd one to open but I found the haunting hovering presence of Neil Young's Revolution Blues to be the key.

CATL + $100 = Silver Dollar

Ghostly Downtown Oshawa.

"Drove downtown in the rain..." odd weather...a thaw in December. Its a Whoop It Up Weekend in the old town tonight so I thought I'd do my rounds and check out Durham newest Entertainment District. What with so many students home for the holiday and folks finished shopping and bargain hunting I thought it would be a good time for the good folk to sit back and have a hot toddy and put the year behind them.
So I took a jaunt along King Street in Oshawa just for the halibut and....
I glanced down at Isabella's Cafe...closed.... Restaurants...hard to say as they are all behind closed doors. Avanti's is open to the street but it didn't look like too many folks were in there... The Big Sexy...nothing, Fosse...shut for good, The Regent...closed, The Atria well not necessarily everyone's cup of T...the lights were on though, GM Centre...closed...Rileys...not much...
So there you have it...in the Ent. DIst. on the Saturday between Xmas and N.Y.'s Eve... shuttered and emptied. In the fog descending due to the strange temperatures the city core resembled nothing so much as a ghost town.

From one Snow Ball to another.

Well I don't know where you were but I can tell you the D-Rock was out in full force and in fine voice last night. First stop on a wicked weather pre-Eve was Johnny Bs Jingle Bell Rawk...Paddy Dorie, Champion Heartache, Stables and D'Urbervilles on stage...played to a full house of indie + some, Dave Statham was in the house, Vaughn Lai of Brown Brigade was in the house, Rody Walker of Protest The Hero was in the house, Gay Fog was in the house, members of Kites, Recroom, Thee Side Project, Stellas, plus a field of solo folkies... owners of indie local biz, Alakatraz, Isabellas, the Elvis (RIP) and Fosse (RIP) were also digging the tunes.... great to see everyone out enjoying what was a great event. Its been sometime since the D-Rock were about in such numbers...just goes to prove...something!
Also managed to make a stop at Festivus X, featuring Anagram and Ancestors, which took place at the Diezel Room downtown. Pretty well every D-Rock kat who wasn't out jingling the balls at The B's in the AMC was gunning for the punk rawk at Festivus... members of Caution Inc, Recroom, Robots, plus the presence of the Mayor Al Rock made it one crazy crazy holiday get-together.
Big up to Matt Holtby for the Jingle Bell Rawk and Michal Majewski for FestivusX.
(I stole the pic from Danielle Perry's Facebook...but there were lots of photogs on hand so we'll see if we get some sent on to us.)

The Mark Inside leave their mark on the Brits

"well well, the mark inside arrived safe and sound back home in toronto, ontario, canada after completing their tour of england in support of the hold steady. by all accounts the tour was a success and we got to play in front of more than 10,000 people in just under two weeks. we thank the hold steady for the opportunity and our new u.k./european/pacific rim booking agent steve strange (x-ray touring) for setting up everything for us. thank you to those of you at the hold steady shows for reaching out to us and telling us your opinions of our opening slot adventures on stage, we have received nothing but complimentary and flattering reviews and we shall try to inform as many people as we can the next time we shall be coming to the u.k. we should be back in february for a more intimate club tour. more details to follow as soon as we have them. here is a link to a review of our wolverhampton show that was sent to us. we hope all is well in your world. thanks for reading. our record release date looms ever closer."
- the mark inside.

We're For Barton do donuts if you do donuts

I'm hoping to catch these Barton kats with roots in the D-Rock in 2K09...they played the New Rock Tuesdays a while back but well you know...things happen. I did have a phoner with them just to clear up a few bits n pieces...
The kids play a charming indie kind of rock n roll... perhaps Forest City Lovers-esque... 
Its that time so the kids are home and they have posted on their blog....
"Because somehow it just wont feel like the holidays in Oshawa unless I manage to find an empty parking lot and a carload of ppl to do donuts in it with."
Ah so true and its perhaps the only good thing about this downturn that there are way more empty parking lots this year...lots in the downtown too...so carve out a circle with your friends...hot times in D-Rock await. Call me...I'm in.