Ok, I’ll admit it, I haven’t been a hardcore fan of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World for years. I saw the trailer a couple months ago, thought it looked interesting and sounded familiar. In time I recognized Scott Pilgrim mainly from from geek conversations and a string of tweets from my local West Hollywood nerdery @meltdowncomics. Finally a couple weeks ago just before the TV trailer melee began I was able to read all 6 of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s books and they were nothing short of life-changing. His storytelling style is a multi-layered ADD blend of vintage video game humor and indie rock kitsch set against the background of the amazing maple mecca of Toronto. Needless to say I laughed my ass off while it burrowed it’s way into my heart. It’s not that often where you can read something that you just “get” and you feel like in some way it gets you back. So of course I’ll be seeing the movie on opening night Friday, August 13.
I’ve categorized this as “You Should Know:” but really, if you haven’t heard of Montreal fireball Melissa Auf der Maur then you need a serious lesson in Alt Rock history. After Kristen Pfaff’s overdose, Melissa became her replacement as bassist of Hole and in 2000 MAdM would replace D’Arcy Wretzky in Smashing Pumpkins until it’s initial dissolution. Her 2004 solo album titled simply Auf der Maur would go on to sell over 180,000 copies worldwide.
Now that you know who she is you should know that her latest SELF-RELEASED solo album Out Of Our Minds is a vibrant, layered work with touches of Kate Bush with newer hints of artists like A Perfect Circle, Azure Ray and Blonde Redhead. Her electro-rock orchestrations have a very epic swing and play into the delicate blasts of her voice. And it could be my stubbornly approaching 30 yrs-old ears but in songs like “Meet Me On The Dark Side” I still hear a bit of that 20th century “alternative rock” sound remaining in the songs structure which might actually be a welcome appeal to people of my generation and the Gen X’ers just before us. Of the 5 tracks I have been given to preview the standout is still the title track but a close 2nd is “The Key” which almost has a Queens of the Stone Age vibe, not so coincidentally. MAdM has also worked with them in the past. Album guests include Jordon Zadorozny (Sam Roberts), Chris Goss (QOTSA, UNKLE), Alan Molder (Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins), Mike Frazer (Franz Ferdinand, ACDC) with a special duet with Glenn Danzig.
Out Of Our Minds is following the modern trend to remonitize music by appealing to hardcore fans by offering the solo record along with various other media in cost escalating tiers. Along with the solo record there is also an accompanying Graphic Novel by Brooklyn artist Jack Forbes as well as a 28-minute HD film, directed by Tony Stone which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and a vinyl picture disc (among other standard merch). All of this is set for release this March 23rd.
A free MP3 of the title track is available at xmadmx.com when you sign up for updates. Warning for sensitive listeners: In title track Out Of Our Minds, “Fire” and “Desire” lyrically interchange. But because she is a redhead, I think we can make an exception.
Finally more KITH! Does it get any better than these cross dressing Canadians? How about morbidly obese fatsuits! (Be jealous: Bruce McCulloch and I go to the same Trader Joe’s).
Wasting no time I see! The White Stripes are releasing a Documentary of their 2007 Canadian tour entitled Under Great White Northern Lights. I can understand that Jack White has been busy since then with his other band and his other, other band but is this still relevant in the general sense or are the White Stripes just throwing its Canadian audience a bone? The packaging is actually quite lovely and it does include 3 unreleased live tracks including “Let’s Shake Hands” but this seems like a release just for hardcore fans of the two-tone band.
Tegan & Sara’s 6th Full-Length Album Sainthood came out yesterday, go get it! It’s the first record that the Canadian twins have ever written together in the same room in their 29 years! Just like 2007′s The Con, it was recorded by Chris Walla from Death Cab for Cutie in Portland. They are currently on tour with dates going through April 8th.
For every one thing I post on here (at length, not little blurbs), I must write 3 dead drafts that just get half written with brilliance and I never have time to finish them. ( Sorry, tribute to Ron Asheton and the time I met him backstage at SXSW with Iggy, Spoon and Kings of Leon!)
I still hate my job, but still have one. All 50 hours of it. So much anger for my livelihood. I used to be poor, it was the happiest I’ve ever been. Zero was there and that’s about all that matters.
I was hanging around with some folks in Echo Park the day after Thanksgiving and the occasion came up that someone needed to cut something random like a stray piece of string on someones shirt. Just then a few people offered their pocket knives. And when they put them away I noticed they all had the same thing: A small pocket knife with a metal handle and a locking 3½” inch blade in the front pocket of their jeans. Since then I’ve started noticing a lot of people (especially on the eastside) with a little silver clip on the outside of their dominant hand side jeans pocket.
I know this is the big city and things can be kinda Skeksis around here but is the knife for protection, for it’s many utilitarian functions or because everyone else has one? I just took a mental inventory of my living areas and as it ends up, I have a lot of knives just laying around. I cook, so I have a few in my kitchen, a few xacto knives for many incomplete art projects, a couple utility knives in a drawer and my toolbox and pretty big knife I keep in my car… just in case. So I guess it makes sense to just have one on you at all times.
There is a lot to love about Tegan And Sara, pretty much everything in fact. They’re adorable Canadian twins that write the best indie-pop out there, what more do you want? But the best part about a Tegan and Sara crowd is that being predominantly younger girls, anyone over 5’7″ has an AMAZING, unobstructed view of the show! Ok, don’t get me wrong, the crowd was great. Sara herself exclaimed that the audience was the best out of the 4 at Hollywood’s Music Box @ The Fonda Theatre. This being the last stop of a pretty solid year and a half of touring behind 2007′s The Con they played a pretty tight set with plenty of evidence of change since the album’s release. Tempo, Tone and Instrumentation seemed to differ slightly from record; It could be that reproducing what The Sisters Quin and Chris Walla created in the studio would be nearly impossible or because after their journey around the world they, themselves and their songs had changed. This is starting to sound like fan fiction, so I might as well you about this dream I had about them the other night… ok I’ll save that one, because I should probably tell you that they had some decent support on this tour with Girl In A Coma and City And Colour.
