History

Sam The Record Man on Yonge St here in Toronto is closing down after 70 years. It's a Canadian institution to say the least. And with a store front like that it's been a part of the landscape on Yonge St for some time, there's a chance that the signage may remain intact though, so that's good news. I played hookie from work today so that I can go check out the auction they're having there (click on the pic to see some of the stuff they're auctioning of).

Should be an experience...

(the website has since changed the picture this links to, but I'll leave it for fun. Those are nice ovens.)

And this is for those hot summer nights to relax a bit. An amazing album and hard as hell to find on CD (just look on eBay)

Tim Buckley - Blue Afternoon

Here's the tracklist for the summer mix so you know what you're getting

1. Alvin Youngblood Hart - Tallacatcha
2. Woven Hand - Bible And Bird
3. John Phillips - April Anne
4. Ian Love - Old Enough
5. Bob Lind - Elusive Butterfly
6. Calexico - Love Will Tear Us Apart
7. Teenage Fanclub - Feel
8. Matthew Sweet - The Ocean In Between
9. Lloyd Delpratt - Together
10. Tindersticks - What Is a Man
11. Heartless Bastards - Brazen
12. Swell - So Easy, So Cool
13. Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe
14. Dog Day - Career Suicide
15. Klee - Two Questions
16. Magnolia Summer - Once in a While
17. Afghan Whigs - Mr. Superlove
18. Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra - Summer Wine

And here's the LINK

Replacements Live

It kind of gets easy to tell who my favorite bands are, but i have no shame in that.

Here's a great live show from the glory days of the 'Mats. Enjoy.

The Replacements "Putting On The Ritz" The Ritz - New York, NYJuly 27, 1987

Tracks:
01. I.O.U. 02. Nevermind 03. Hold My Life 04. I Will Dare 05. Lovelines 06. Can't Hardly Wait 07. Little Mascara 08. Swingin' Party 09. Bastards of Young 10. Within Your Reach 11. The Ledge 12. Waitress in the Sky 13. Sweet Home Chicago 14. Favorite Thing 15. Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out 16. Unsatisfied 17. Go 18. Nightclub Jitters 19. California Sun 20. Another Girl, Another Planet 21. Kiss Me on the Bus 22. Skyway 23. If Only You Were Lonely 24. Color Me Impressed 25. Takin' a Ride

vibrators

On the flip side of the great band/no image thing is The Automatix, a band I saw last night opening for the Vibrators. It's the usual case of young punks with time and money to spend on the right clothes, the right tattoos, the right hair dye and foot and a half mohawks but the songs and playing are definitely sub par, especially when opening for the Vibrators. The Vibrators have been doing it for 30 years and they still sound great, and they've aged much more gracefully than a lot of the old punks still kicking around (although drummer Nick looks like he's a weekend warrior heading to the cottage, blasting Van Halan; or Jon Mayer if he's feeling hip). The main problem with them is their songs aren't fantastic, they don't have the power to transcend the ages and become classics. The Saints at least have I'm Stranded to cement them on punk comps for years to come. This was pretty evident with the turnout, a pretty sparsely attended event. Seems like the only old punk bands people will go out to see are the ones who have become t-shirt fodder for the up and coming little suburban punks of the world. That's one thing The Vibrators definitely have going for them...

summertime.

Here's a nice little mix for strolling around on a nice summer day. ENJOY

I'll post the tracklisting later, but it's worth downloading and throwing on your mp3 player. There's a Heartless Bastards song in there... I saw them live Wednesday night and they were so amazing. They're a very awkward band to look at as they are completely image free. The drummer looks like Ethan Suplee with a beard, the bassist barley moves and is expressionless leaving singer Erika Wennerstrom to get all the focus. She kind of looks like Randy Rhoads at times, and is about the same size, but she's got a hugely powerful voice. She's right up there with PJ Harvey for intensity with a bit of Chan Marshall thrown in. You should really go to your local record store or emusic and get All This Time.

across the board

Just filler really...

Here's a few very different things.

Tindersticks - No More Affairs EP (features a great cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Kathleen")
Motorhead - Live From Spirit of Rock Festival, Winterthur, Switzerland June 2, 2007
Calexico - Feast of Wire Part 1, Part 2 pw - gfbbfg

raised by wolves

Voxtrot finally released a full length after 4 years of singles and eps. Those singles and eps were for the most part perfect pop with lots of hooks and catchy melodies; the full length has fleshed out a lot of those things and in the process lost a lot of the charm for me. It has it's moments, but it's not all gold. Here's one of their eps, puts a smile on my face.

Voxtrot - Raised By Wolves

And I just noticed the download link for this one was messed up below so here's a fix.

Quicksand - Quicksand EP

RFTC LIVE

One of the best rock bands ever in my books.

There's a few live shows. HERE


My internet has sucked a bit lately. Return to form due soon though.

sad bastard music

I've always been in love with sad songs that make you feel depressed and good at the same time... things that are so gorgeous and heartbreaking. When I would get in a sad mood (usually led to by an unrequited crush or something) I would like nothing better than to lay in the dark and listen to stuff like this... so here's a whole hours worth of that great stuff. It's like falling in love with a broken heart. (I'm feeling oh so poetic I know)

01 Jim Bryson - Without Piano
02 Spain - Every Time I Try
03 Chris Whitley - Cool Wooden Crosses
04 Tindersticks - She's Gone
05 Nina Nastasia - Cry Baby
06 Yo La Tengo - Tears Are in Your Eyes
07 Jenny Lewis - Melt Your Heart
08 The Replacements - Sadly Beautiful
09 Mojave 3 - Love From Room 109 At The Islander
10 Afterhours - There's Many Ways
11 The Twilight Singers - Deepest Shade
12 Irma Thomas - Anyone Who Knows What Love Is
13 16 Horsepower - Nobody 'Cept You
14 Bill Janovitz - Red Balloon

ENJOY all in one file (a few are wma format but I'm sure you can figure it out)

blah

this week was a bit of a mess but it had some highlights too.
The National show was great. They played the Opera House which is about as gorgeous a club venue you can find and it's a great place for their music to be heard. Te only problem with the show was the group of chatty bastards standing next to me including the sexually ambiguous guy who kept saying "I want them to play something I can dance to". A bit obnoxious.
Had the pleasure of see C'mon today at 4 in the afternoon at an outdoor gig and later I'm off to see Bionic and Urge Overkill. I'm quite happy.

Here's a few good rock tunes.

Nasty On - Filthy Part Of Town
Spitfires - Something To Nothing
Red Hot Lovers - Black Chrome (turbonegro cover)

a week of shows

Going to see Buffalo Tom, Urge Overkill and a bunch of other bands this week for NXNE fest in Toronto. Tonight going to see the National and then sneak off to Jon Epworth & The Improvements at the Horseshoe.

Here's some live National, and get the new disc, it's a slow burner but it's great.

The National - Black Sessions

rare Replacements

This album was a bootleg put put many years ago collecting a bunch of b-sides and unreleased tracks. They've all got their charm for sure. Some of these showed up on the All for Nothing/Nothing for all comp that came out a few years back but they're all in one place. Enjoy.
Can't Hardly Wait actually has the first four songs in front of it, I didn't feel like editiing... but it's a great older version of the song. Nowhere is My Home maybe one of the best 'Mats songs out there too.
The Replacements - Beat Girl

1. Kissing In Action
2. Ought to Get Love
3. Satellite
4. Like a Rolling Pin
5. Can't Hardly Wait
6. Date to Church
7. If Only You Were Lonely
8. Nowhere Is My Home
9. Route 66
10. Election Day
11. Tossin and Turnin
12. Jungle Rock
13. Cool Water
14. Cruella DeVille
15. 20th Century Boy

for short attention spans.

I saw a great show last night... been wanting to see Fucking Champs for a while. Just 3 guys can pretty much play the same stuff on the album and make it sound perfect. It's insane... the opening bands were awesome too.

The Fucking Champs
Red Fang
Birds Of Avalon

And here's a few good eps
Grandpaboy - Soundproof/Monolyth (Paul Westerberg, put out before Stereo/Mono)
Steve Earle & The Supersuckers - Split EP (this is out of print.... aren't you lucky)
Quicksand - Quicksand EP (from 1990, I think the guys from Tool must've heard this at some point)