Rodrigo y Gabriela (y Led Zeppelin y Ben Folds)

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Wow. What can I say? These two were incredible. Rodrigo y Gabriela are an acoustic guitar duo from Mexico (based in Ireland) who, for the official record, do not play flamenco. It's hard to slap a label on their music, but according to the folk fest program they prefer to call their music "acoustic-folk-rock-metal". I caught wind of them while I was in the UK in June and I absolutely couldn't believe it when I found out they were going to be playing in my hometown at the Edmonton Folk Festival, which I already had a ticket to! As part of the folk fest, artists are slated to play on the side stages at "sessions" or "workshops" with 2 or 3 other artists, usually in various genres. Sometimes the individual artists play their own tunes, but in the best situations they'll all jam together. So with eager anticipation I went to a workshop on the Saturday to get my first taste of Rodrigo y Gabriela live with Rickey Skaggs, Solas, and Dirk Powell. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed as an MC regretfully informed the crowd that "there will be a scheduling change and Gabriel Rodriguez will not be playing". I scoffed disappointedly at the butchering of their name and hoped they would even be there for their next show on the Sunday when they were scheduled for a solo show. The next day I went early to stage 1 to see the band perform before them and to ensure I had a good spot for Rodrigo y Gabriela. As I approached the stage from behind, I saw the distinctive figures of Rodrigo y Gabriela mulling about the festival site. Excellent! At least they wouldn't be no-shows for today. My sister and friend joined me before the show where I had staked out a prime seat in the middle front of the stage. I had been ranting and raving about these guys the whole weekend, so they were obligated to check them out. For those who don't know, there are concerts concurrently on 7 different side stages, so you have to pick and choose your daily schedule of concerts. Part of the excitement for me was seeing the unsuspecting crowd growing. 99% of the people would have never heard of Rodrigo y Gabriela and would have checked them out based on the blurb in the program or just by random chance, so they had no idea they were about to be blown away.


Due to glitches setting up the sound, their show started about 25 minutes late and their entire show was barely 30 minutes... but what a 30 minutes! I had totally psyched myself out for this event and they did not disappoint in the least. In fact, they probably surpassed my expectations. The crowd was caught up in their energetic performance and was on their feet by the time the last song came on. Gabriela let us know that this was their first concert ever in Canada and they would be back in October once their album is released in North America. What an honour it is to have them start spreading the word in Edmonton and hopefully they'll be back like they said because I'm sure everyone there was an instant fan. In hindsight, they were also no-shows at their scheduled session later that day so this 30 minute show ended up being the only glimpse anyone had of them. But during the whole 4-day festival, this was the huge highlight for me. In the paper the next day, a reporter described them as the surprise "stars of the festival" and that she cried after the performance because it was so beautiful and unexpected. See, it's not just me. Oddly enough, they didn't bring any merchandise to the event and the merch tent was bombarded after the concert to no avail. A volunteer said based on the demand they could have sold a thousand CDs. Even in today's newspaper in the culture rant section (two weeks after the fact), someone wrote how incredible their performance was.


Anyway, you should check out rodgab.com, keep an eye out for them in your area, and look into grabbing a copy of their CD when it comes out. Here's a video of them performing Diablo Rojo I snagged with my digital camera, which is not too bad quality though it hardly does them justice. Look at her hands fly!



Rodrigo y Gabriela - Stairway to Heaven [originally by Led Zeppelin]


Susan Tedeschi was another welcome surprise at the folk fest. Here's a Zeppelin cover she did, which admittedly is a bit blase compared to the original, IMHO. But I do enjoy this Junior Wells song she performed at Folk Fest on the main stage. What a great voice.

Susan Tedeschi - Rock and Roll [originally by Led Zeppelin]
Susan Tedeschi - Little by Little [originally by Junior Wells]

And while I'm at it, how 'bout some more Zeppelin covers?

Templar - Whole Lotta Love
Dream Theater - Zeppelin Medley
Hangnail - Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
Tomoyasu Hotei - Immigrant Song



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Last week, I reported that Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls wrote in her blog about the phone call from Mr. Ben Folds himself. Now a couple days ago Ben dropped a line on his mySpace page confirming that the Dolls will join him on a few of his Aussie orchestral gigs (ROCK!). The mySpace blog doesn't seem to be working but the full post can be read here.

Ben Folds on the Dresden Dolls:
"speaking of neediness in music or lack thereof... amanda of the dresden dolls, my new favorite band of all time, mentioned that she felt many people thought their music was TOO needy. hmmm... i told her to give me a list of who these people are and i will fly to their homes with a sharpie and draw dicks on their bathroom walls. see, after years of touring, i never succumbed that particular touring pastime . i never drew dicks on walls. but last year, i had to try it. i drew a dick on a brand new clean white dressing room wall. and you know what, it felt good. so i want to draw more, and amanda will hopefully tell me who's houses to go to. feel free to leave a message with your address if you have any criticism of the dresden doll's music at all. and i will come draw a dick on your wall.
same goes for anyone who doesn't like the streets new record. or anything sufjan stevens does. there are a few others, who if you have a problem with, will draw the fiery wrath of my sharpie.... anyway, the dresden dolls will be making a few appearances with me in australia with the orchestras. if you comment with something nice about my favorite music, then i will draw a small child looking in wonderment at a beautiful butterfly (with a big dick)."

HAHAHA... absolutely classic! He also talked about the release of his Supersunnyspeedgraphic LP, which is made up of new mixes of some of his EP and non-album tracks, a live orchestral album on the way, and he'll be back in the studio in October to work on a new album! Wow, that made my day,week,month.


Saw Ben Lee at the Sidetrack Cafe last night. More on that next time...

Edmonton Folk Fest Megapost

Wow, I last posted to say I was still alive and then disappeared for about 3 weeks. I just got back into Edmonton last week and I have been utterly consumed by the 4-day Edmonton Folk Music Festival which started last Thursday. This is the first year I've attended the festival on a more than casual basis. While I was away my sister picked up full passes for the whole weekend, so I've been in 100% festival mode for the past few days. That is to say I woke up, went to festival, went home to sleep, and repeated for four days. To compensate for lack of postings, I'll try to generously pepper this post with related mp3s.

Among the many performers: Linda Ronstadt, David Gray, The Neville Brothers, Sarah Harmer, Bedouin Soundclash, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bruce Cockburn, Chumbawamba (?!), and Ricky Skaggs. The stand-out artists for me were in that category of "heard-of-but-never-actually-heard-before". So I'm a newly minted fan of Feist, Susan Tedeschi, Geoff Berner, K'Naan, and Hawksley Workman.

Chumbawamba was an eye-opening performance. Knowing them only for their annoying 90's hit Tubthumping, it was a shock to find out they've evolved into (or always were) English folk anarchists singing political rebel songs and medieval-sounding ballads. The beautiful four-part harmonies and playful guitar strumming are a stark contrast to the angry lyrics and political themes of their songs (see Homophobia). They're a hoot to see live and they entertained the crowd with goofy in-between song banter and translations of the sometimes overly British lyrics. They finished their set with a funny anti-Queen song, an extension of the Beatles' Her Majesty. I was able to record it with my digital camera, which isn't great quality but not bad considering. The line about showing the queen around Edmonton is particularly amusing because she did come to Edmonton last May for our province's centennial celebrations amid much fanfare. I snapped this photo last year at city hall and was so close I could have slapped her if I wanted to (not that I would...).

Chumbawamba - Her Majesty (Live at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival)
Chumbawamba - Her Majesty [originally by The Beatles]
Chumbawamba - Homophobia


Apparently Bedouin Soundclash's rise to fame and eventual Juno for best new artist began last year when their song was used in a Zellers ad campaign. Being somehow one of the only people to not hear/see this ad, I had to ask a friend to point out which song it was. They put on quite an enjoyable reggae/ska set. Here's that song for your listening pleasure, which is good song, might I add):
Bedouin Soundclash - When the Night Feels My Song


I'm not a huge hip-hop fan, but K'Naan was a refreshing voice rapping about actual issues and not just the ghetto, girls, and bling, which he actually takes issue with in one of his songs. K'Naan was born in Somalia and he raps about growing up in Mogadishu surrounded by hunger, warlords, and armed children. The first time I heard K'Naan was in this cover of U2's One with Jarvis Church for a peace album. Of course, Jarvis Church is the stage name of Gerald Eaton, lead singer of The Philosopher Kings, who also co-produced K'Naan's first album The Dusty Foot Philosopher.
Jarvis Church featuring K'Naan - One [originally by U2]

Though not exactly my cup of tea, I ended up seeing a sidestage session with Ricky Skaggs because I wanted to see Rodrigo y Gabriela (who were no-shows). It was still a fun show, especially because local artist Oscar Lopez was called to fill-in and he jump-started some awesome jam songs with Skaggs, Dirk Powell, and Seamus Egan (of Solas).
Ricky Skaggs & Jim Varney - Hot Rod Lincoln [originally by Charlie Ryan]

Feist impressed me when I saw a session where she shared the stage with Hawksley Workman, Geoff Berner, and The Waifs. She performed a really cool jazzy number that I don't know the name of and can't seem to find on her albums (something about everlasting love?). The sidestage performances were great because artists were thrown together and encouraged to jam with each other, which sort of depended on whether the artists were open to such an idea. Luckily at this session, they helped each other out on a few songs which is cooler than each individual artist taking turns playing. This was a prelude to a full set she played on the main stage later, qhich was really good although I did prefer the stripped-down set of tunes (just Feist and her guitarist).
Bright Eyes with Spleen - Mushaboom [originally by Feist]

The Blind Boys of Alabama were a treat and brought everyone to their feet with their inspiring gospel music (regardless of religious beliefs). This version of Amazing Grace, which the performed on Sunday night, is unexpectedly yet succesfully combined with the music of House of the Rising Sun.
The Blind Boys of Alabama - Amazing Grace

In '93, Randy Newman put out an album based on his Broadway reworking of Faust and cast various singers to play his "dream cast" including Don Henley, James Taylor, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, and Linda Ronstadt. Linda Ronstadt played the "good girl" role and Bonnie Raitt the "bad girl", but on Thursday night Ms. Ronstadt said she was going to sing one of Bonnie's songs because "bad girls have all the fun". And the song she sang is Feels Like Home, which I enjoyed even though it's atypical of the most of the stuff I listen to... but that's what Folk Fest is all about: exposing your ears to different sounds.
Chantal Kreviazuk - Feels Like Home [originally by Randy Newman]

For her encore, Linda Ronstadt covered this Warren zevon song, here covered by Bonnie Raitt & Jackson Browne:
Bonnie Raitt & Jackson Browne - Poor Poor Pitiful Me [originally by Warren Zevon]

Bruce Cockburn took the main stage on Saturday night and performed this song. I also enjoyed a song called Slow Down Fast, which is off his new album and features Hawksley Workman who was on hand to help perform it live.
Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time [originally by Bruce Cockburn]

Geoff Berner - Lucky Goddamn Jew
This guy reminded me of Ben Kweller with an accordion, at least in terms of vocal stylings. He won over the crowds with quirky sometimes angry punk accordion songs such as Maginot Line, Whisky Rabbi, Song Written in a Romanian Hospital, and this one: Lucky Goddamn Jew, which he performed in front of 20,000 folk-festers. At the end of the weekend, Geoff received an award and cheque from Galaxy Satellite Radio for best new artist. Check out his site here for some more MP3s. Strange celebrity sighting: as I was walking to the bank yesterday I saw Geoff on Whyte Ave buying a newspaper. That's random, thought I as I mosied on by.

A hilarious song Geoff sung was called Don't Play Cards For Money With Corby Lund. FYI: Corb Lund is an Albertan artist and sometime Edmontonian who apparently is a bit of a card shark according to Geoff Berner. A Corb Lund cover for you:
The Corb Lund Band - Sixteen Tons (live) [originally by Merle Travis]

Sarah Harmer was the closing act on Sunday night and included in her set was a cover of The Shins' Gone For Good. Here's a version of that song that Sarah Harmer performed with the Weakerthans on a CBC radio program. I nicked this from B(oot)log but I'm mirroring it myself because I was having a spot of trouble with his EZarchive link.
Sarah Harmer with The Weakerthans - Gone For Good [originally by The Shins]
...and another Shins cover for good measure:
Of Montreal - Know Your Onion! [originally by The Shins]


Hawksley Workman was a huge surprise for me. I knew nothing of his music and I was totally blown away by his main stage performance and other sidestage shows. A friend made an interesting comparison to Adam Sandler (Hawksley often ventures into falsetto) and he reminded me vaguely of a edgy, crazy Billy Joel probably because there's a very faint physical resemblance (at least without my glasses on) and he's accompanied by his piano player Mr. Lonely. Here's a video I got with my digital camera as I attempt to implement YouTube for the first time... At this particular session, he shared the stage with Lynn Miles, Michael Joseph & The Ridges, and Lorrie Matheson and you can see Hawksley motioning at Lynn Miles' drummer to join in. This song is Jealous of Your Cigarette off the album (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves with a little Pink Floyd thrown in near the end.




The HUGE major highlight of my weekend was getting the opportunity to see Rodrigo y Gabriela and their abrupt 30 minute performance was so epic it deserves it's own post... so tune in next time for that.

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On the topic of my last post regarding the Dresden Dolls, I see that Amanda Palmer recently updated her Dolls blog which talks about the hell of Panic! at the Disco fans and the experience of the Fuck the Backrow shows, one of which I partook in (read about that here. Later down in her post she talks about how Ben Folds randomly called her up and chatted for 2 hours, inviting the Dresden Dolls to play at the Sydney Opera House since both of them would be touring Australia around the same time next month. The mere idea that Ben Folds (probably my favourite music artist) randomly called up one of my other favourite bands and invited them to play almost makes my head explode with excitement. If this leads to some sort of collaboration or double-billed show, I'd be very very very very very very very very happy.

The Dresden Dolls - Mandy Goes to Med School
The Dresden Dolls - Pretty in Pink [originally by The Psychedelic Furs]
Ben Folds - Songs of Love [originally by The Divine Comedy]

Notdeadyet.

...wickedcool.

For the record, I've been back from overseas since the end of June although I've yet to actually make it back home to dear ol' Edmonton. I extended my trip in Toronto for an extra 3 weeks until August 8th, which has afforded me the opportunity to catch the Dresden Dolls (go me!) and next week The Living End thereby clearing off two upper-level entries in the Must-See-Before-I-Kick-the-Proverbial-Bucket list.

I paid close to 45 bucks (crazy service charges!) for the Dresden Dolls/Panic at the Disco! concert. I had never actually heard of the so-called headliners and left after the D-Dolls finished their 45-minute set to catch a bus and rush north to Bloor Cinema where The Dresden Dolls were presenting a sort-of film festival "thing". In their own words: "FUCK THE BACK ROW! A Night of Short Films and Dadaist Vaudeville with The Dresden Dolls & Co". Now I paid $10 for this show and take a wild guess which show was unbelievably great, unique, bizarre, and shocking and makes anything else pale in comparison?? I thought I'd be checking out a couple short films for an hour, then Amanda Palmer would play some solo stuff and I'd be in/out in 2 hours. Wrong, wrong, wrong. By the time the night was out, I'd spent nearly 5 hours at this "show". The show included some wonderful little films and music videos, a thoroughly engaging performance by The Lollipop People, a ragtag orchestra that evoked the sounds of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (that's a plus, if you're not sure), and a man lighting his penis on fire. I can only imagine the collective jaw dropping of the crowd as the delirious guy on stage with scenes from The Devil's Reject on the screen, ripped off his dress and, I repeat, lit his penis on fire. Two hours later as Amanda Palmer (1/2 of the Dresden Dolls) hit the stage, people were still talking about "it" in embarrassed guffaws and it was universally declared that that was the pinnacle moment of the evening and could not be topped. Then the entire audience went into a hushed trance as Amanda played through solo piano songs and soundtrack covers. As someone obsessed with both films and cover songs, this was Pure Ultimation (is that a word?). Later in the set, her hitherto unidentified "Special Guest," which was quite possibly the worst kept secret since The Crying Game, joined her on stage. Lo and behold, it's Brian Viglione, 2nd half of the Dresden Dolls playing guitar and a snare drum. Highlights included covers of Rainbow Connection, Science Fiction Double Feature, Pink Floyd's Mother, Favourite Things... actually there were no highlights because the whole thing was PURE ULTIMATION (that's my new phrase of the post). At the earlier show, they had also played covers of Black Sabbath's War Pigs and Hit Me Baby One More Time with Panic at the Disco's lead singer sharing vocals. They were joking around, talking to the audience, taking requests, and messing around-- imagine having a private performance of the Dresden Dolls in your living room. I mean, who really listens to the random yellings of fans? The Dresden Dolls, that's who. Afterwards, they came to the lobby to chat with fans, take photos, and sign stuff. I doubt there were too many people who didn't come away from the experience thinking that they quite possibly are the greatest band in the world. Damn, what a show.

In conclusion, go here, read details, go aah, and put forth great effort to attend the aforementioned show. Note that penis-burning is not guaranteed because that some kind of crazy may be a local Torontonian thing.

I also got to check out New York City for the first time ever and met David Cronenberg at a lecture he did for the Andy Warhol exhibit he's curating in town (got this hilarious photo of him doing zombie dead eyes and me looking like a delirious psycho next to him, sigh). Back in E-Town, I'll hopefully be going to see Ben Lee at a local club, I have tix for The Who (almost 30 years to the day my mum saw them live in the same arena), and I'll be going to the 4-day Edmonton Folk Fest where my new group o' the moment Rodrigo y Gabriela are unexpectedly making a pit stop. I don't know what happened lately, but all of a sudden bands I want to see are actually playing shows in Edmonton and I'll be back just in time for the rush. Now if only Harvey Danger, Andrew Bird, Jamie Cullum, and the Ditty Bops swung by... If you haven't already bought the new Ditty Bops' Moon Over the Freeway, then do so, I command you to.

No mp3 posts until I get back. There's much to tell and discuss about the rest of my trip (mp3/photo tour?), though I realize I've been away for 3 months and any audience I may have had has likely dwindled down to me, 4 other people, and a computer savvy cat. In fact, my heart stopped for a brief second as I logged in thinking that maybe my blogger account was deleted for prolonged inactivity. Alas, 'tis the curse of the unwritten blog. Toodle-oo.

Tribute to Neil Gaiman

Way back in the day (as in way back in "internet time") when the best site for movie scoops was Corona's Coming Attractions before it was taken over and mutated into part of Cinescape's film section, I first heard about a film in development called Neverwhere based on the novel by Neil Gaiman (which was in turn adapted from his own BBC miniseries) whom I had never heard of hitherto this point.

Life-changing day, that was.

Based on the one-line synopsis of the plot which I fell in love with, I tracked down the book and thrilled myself to bits. I sapped up whatever Gaiman books were available at our library. Soon I was among the eager fan community awaiting his new novel American Gods in 2001. At this point, I had no idea of the scope of this so-called fan community... he was my secretly unknown favourite author. In conjunction with the writing and publishing of this book, he started up an online journal to track its progress. Now this certainly wasn't one of the first "blogs" or even an early one, but it was around a long time before everyone and their neighbour's cat ran a blog (moi-self included). Now it's one of the most popular blogs (there must be stats somewhere to prove this...) and he still regularly updates nearly every other day with interesting, readable postings even though he was under no obligation to continue past the 2001 publication of American Gods.

I remember when the library had maybe three books categorized as "Graphic Novels" including an adaptation of the Vampire Lestat. It was around this time that I had first heard this term and adopted it as my own to defend my reading of comics. "NO! It's a graphic novel," I'd tell my mom, although it was indeed she that handed me the Lestat book and asked me if I was interested. Another one of the early ones available at the ol' EPL was Neil Gaiman's Sandman: The Dream Hunters, which sorta went over my head at the time and I didn't get who or what Sandman was supposed to be. Of course, when you hear about Neil Gaiman it's usually Sandman-This and Sandman-That, but the whole Sandman thing eluded me until several years after the fact, the library's graphic novel collection exploded and I finally got my hands on the seminal, epic 10 volume, 9-year run of the series. Masterful storytelling, exquisite art, complex interweaving of myths and history, etc, etc, etc. It was everything great literature could be and it was a comic, so there. It could hardly exist in another medium with the same impact and resonance.

It still baffles me to this day that I try to expose friends/families to Neil Gaiman and no one pays attention. "Neil who?" say the slobbering masses. Yet don't they realize that Neil Gaiman is SLOWLY TAKING OVER THE WORLD??

His career drastically reduced to some trivial points:
-left an indelible mark on the comics world with the Sandman series (1988-1996)
-became a best-selling author of novels (Neverwhere, American Gods, Anansi Boys), then children's books (Coraline, Wolves in the Walls)
-has written lyrics for Tori Amos (a friend who has been known to name-drop Neil in her own lyrics)
-wrote the English language adaptation of Princess Mononoke, which was certainly the first Miyazaki film I saw before I even realized I was watching a Miyazaki film
-decides he's going to make some movies, so he writes and directs A Short Film About John Bolton... just to warm-up
-then he collaborates with Dave McKean to create last year's MirrorMask
-co-wrote with Pulp Fiction's Roger Avary the uber-hyped Robert Zemeckis-directed Beowulf (which, for the record is most definitely not filmed with stop-motion techniques) set for release in 2007 with the most eclectic cast one could ever hope to assemble: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover(!), John Malkovich(!!), Robin Wright-Penn
-currently Matthew Vaughan (producer of the Snatch/Lock Stock; director of Layer Cake; near-director of X-Men 3) is in Inverness filming an adaptation of Neil's novel Stardust with another dandy cast of Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Alfred Molina, Sienna Miller, Charlie Cox... OK, I've never heard of Charlie Cox either.
-Henry bleedin' Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, anyone?) is directing an adaptation of Coraline, which will be stop motion animation, if I'm not mistaken. Sadly to do Coraline, Selick abandoned his work on the film version of Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox... but Wes Anderson came in to replace him! Henry Selick's Coraline!! Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox!! Has the world gone mad and suddenly fulfilled my fantastical dreams of non-stop stop-motion animation!?!? BWAHAHA, Brilliant!
-Wolves in the Wall was recently adapted for the stage and is being performed by the National Theatre of Scotland
-I think Neil's still in the development stages of his own feature directorial debut for a film adaptation of Death (Sandman's cute gothic sister)
-internet sensation, according to me.

Movies, music, literature, the stage, the internet... is there anything he can't and/or won't dominate? Plus, he has a wonderfully delightful young daughter Maddy who is the real star of Neil Gaiman's journal if you ask any regular reader, and he knows it too.

OK, the real reason behind this whole rambling tirade of tribute is because I was just reading on his journal about "Where's Neil When You Need Him?" an album of music inspired by his work. See? He's unconsciously determined to conquer every form of media. Now it doesn't surprise me that Tori Amos is involved nor am I remotely shocked that past collaborator Stephen Merritt of The Magnetic Fields is a contributor. But according to Neil's latest post, Rasputina is singing a song about Coraline. Rasputina + Coraline?!? Victory is mine! Plus, "Hungry Lucy doing a haunting take on Wolves in the Walls". I know one Hungry Lucy cover and I love it. I can only wish for a tune by the Ditty Bops, another fantastic group that I dig listening to, which can be directly attributed to Neil.
It's kinda scary to see how he has influenced my tastes... damn you! I'm independent and think for myself! You can't brainwash me. Fine... you can, but I won't like it. Ok, ok, I'll like it.

Tori Amos - Angie [originally by the Rolling Stones]
Rasputina - Wish You Were Here [originally by Pink Floyd]
The Magnetic Fields - Heroes [originally by David Bowie]
The Ditty Bops - Ooh La La
Hungry Lucy - Jealousy [originally by the Pet Shop Boys]

Neil who? Now you know.

...and just because I can't not share this unrelated great cover:
Motormark - Left To My Own Devices [originally by the Pet Shop Boys]

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That's it, I'm off to Europe until July!

I leave you with a newly discovered (very exciting) cover of a song I'm obsessed with (see here).
Blind Spot - 12 [aka the Pinball Number Song from Sesame Street]

By the way, if there are any errors in this post I won't be around to fix 'em. So there.

Franz, Death Cab, (Harvey Danger), Oilers

Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie came through town last night and I went to check it out... it was pretty good. Alas, I wish I could say I'm a huge fan of either of these bands and that I know more than just whatever's played on the radio, but I'm not really all that familiar with any more than 5 or 6 Franz/Death Cab tunes, so that kinda put a damper on the entertainment. But still, not bad.

My favourite part was when Ben went solo acoustic and played I Will Follow You Into the Dark. I was somewhat surprised that most of the crowd was singing along since I wasn't sure how much of a following Death Cab had here in E-Town, but they proved me wrong. During that song he sings, “You and me have seen everything to see from Bangkok to Calgary”, which inspired boos for our hated rivals to the south. Later Ben would shout “Hockey update! Oilers 1, Red Wings 0." to a loud ovation because game 3 of our playoff series was going on elsewhere in the city, then he added "And here’s a song about something completely different." I must say that they were rocking harder than I would have expected from the few songs I know by them. I was also kinda hoping they'd play Such Great Heights from Ben Gibbard's other band The Postal Service, but 'twas not to be.



Franz Ferdinand was rockin' hard. Though again, outside of their hits Take Me Out, Do You Want To, and This Fire, I was sorta out of the loop. The best part was in the second song of the encore when the Death Cab for Cutie guys came out with drum sticks for a big drum-a-long percussion spectacular, which was damn cool. Two Franz guys + a Cutie were on one drumset and the other 3 Cuties were banging along some side drums. Then after This Fire, the concert ends and everybody filters into the lobby to find a 3-3 Oilers tie with 3:00 minutes left in the 3rd. Everyone freezes and 1000 people are riveted to one teeny weeny 17-inch TV hanging from the ceiling. Oiler chants begin as time winds down and we get a late powerplay, but the period ends and everbody rushes off to find a real TV to watch overtime. Long story short, Oilers won in double OT. YEEEHA! Now I'm scared the Oilers will go deep in the playoffs as I jet off to Europe... oh the dilemma!

For lack of Death Cab apparel, I went to the concert armed with my Harvey Danger shirt. If you go way back to one of my October posts, you'll know that I'm a huge HD fan and that their fates are curiously intertwined with Death Cab for Cutie. Both hail from Seattle and have done gigs/collaborations with each other. Their careers follow opposite paths: Harvey Danger had one huge song (Flagpole Sitta) then unfairly faded into oblivion, while Death Cab for Cutie were relatively unknown for years before having a meteoric rise in fame in the past year. I couldn't help but think as I watched Death Cab perform how much I wish Harvey Danger would actually tour up here (or me down there). Their second album King James Version is just so damn good! They reunited late 2004 after a 4 year hiatus (now if I could only get Moxy Fruvous to reunite, I'd be complete) and last year released their 3rd album Little By Little, which can still be downloaded in its entirety for FREE from their website. Go! Download! Listen! What you waiting for?


Harvey Danger - (This is) The Thrilling Conversation You've Been Waiting For
Ben Gibbard does back-up vocals on this HD song from King James Version.

Lounge-O-Leers - Flagpole Sitta [originally by Harvey Danger]
There aren't too many covers (if any, besides this one) of Harvey Danger... it's kinda goofy.

Franz Ferdinand - What You Waiting For? [originally by Gwen Stefani]
Oddly enough, this combo works.

The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes [originally by The Postal Service]
Another reason to love the Shins: this cover.

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - Death Cab for Cutie
This is the 60's novelty song from whence Ben Gibbard & the boys derive their name. Curiously, this song was also performed in the Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour as a striptease, or so I'm told.

Death Cab for Cutie - Earth Angel [originally by The Penguins]
From the Stubbs the Zombie soundtrack.

Fatboy Slim

This time next week, I'll be in Paris. Blimey.

I found this great CD at the library called A Break From the Norm, which is an album of the original songs from which Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim sampled some of his most famous tracks. Fatboy Slim, like one of my other favourite artists, Fantastic Plastic Machine, recontextualizes old samples to create new compositions that just use the originals as a jumping off point to unknown yet familiar territories-- sort of a Retro New thing. At the end of June, I'll be going to one of Fatboy Slim's patented beach party/concert festival things on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. Should be a memorable experience, to say the least.

The original vocals that are sampled in Praise You are from Camille Yarbrough's Take Yo' Praise, which is an absolutely great song.

Fatboy Slim even samples cover songs, which are excellent in their own right:
Yvonne Elliman - I Can't Explain [originally by The Who; sampled in Going Out of My Head]
Ellen McIlwaine - Higher Ground [originally by Stevie Wonder; sampled in Song for Lindy]
Some interesting trivia here... Ellen crossed paths with Jimi Hendrix in 1966, playing with him for a while in New York City (supposedly trying to start a band with him). She also has some albums released on our very own Edmonton-based Stony Plain Records and she makes her home just south of us down in Calgary. On a related note, our Edmonton Oilers just beat the Detroit Red Wings this afternoon to tie the Stanley Cup playoff series 1-1. Hell ya! And I think I just heard the sound of bawling Flames fans on the Red Mile as Calgary lost to a team named after "mighty" water fowl (from California, no less). As cool as a potential Oilers/Flames playoff match-up would be, it's oh-so-satisfying to see the Flames burn out. A good day for hockey. Go Oilers!

A Break From the Norm also features the sample sources of The Rockefeller Skank, Soul Surfing, and other Fatboy Slim songs I haven't even heard of. But the great thing about the album is that the original songs are a good listen beyond the "Oh that's where it comes from" moments.

Sly & The Family Stone - Into My Own Thing
This is not from the album, but it was sampled by Fatboy Slim in Weapon of Choice.

Disney covered

Today, one of my favourite cover song subdivisions: Disney cover songs. Hopefully SaveFile isn't so screwy this time, 'cause I can't find a better alternative.

Disney Records puts out a series of cover albums called Disneymania, which as you'd expect contain a lot of fluffy pop versions by what I assume to be Disney Channel regulars. Yet I have to admit that a couple of the tunes have their charm, particularly Daniel Bedingfield's crooning of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes-- kudos for revving up into a Bobby Darin-esque big band number. Bowling For Soup's cover of Bare Necessities also makes me smile because they even include the part in the original when Mowgli says "Yeah man!" in the last chorus.

Daniel Bedingfield - A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes [originally from Cinderella]
Bowling for Soup - The Bare Necessities [originally from the Jungle Book]

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - I Wanna Be Like You [originally from The Jungle Book]
Having Louis Prima as King Louis was pure genius at the time and led to one of the most memorable Disney songs.

Michelle Shocked - Everybody Wants to Be a Cat [originally from The Aristocats]
It's cool that there are a couple covers of this song out there, but nothing can come close to matching the alley cat jazz swing feel of the original. Plus, in the cover versions everyone leaves out the best part: when the cats kick it up a notch and all start jamming, shouting, "Everybody...Everybody... EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE A CAT, HALLELUJAH!"... etc. Man, I want to be a cat. This is from Michelle Shocked's whole album of Disney covers called Got No Strings.

4106 , Yuki, TDC, and Masa (Spoony) - Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo [from Cinderella]
An unexpectedly great cover that takes the original into uncharted territories. Sounds like Puffy AmiYumi on crack. From a Japan-exclusive Disney cover album featuring punk/rock bands (Japanese and otherwise). To my knowledge, there are two albums in the series: Dive Into Disney and Mosh Pit on Disney. Here's a review/article on the latter.

Interstate '76

Nearly 10 years ago, Activision released a computer game called Interstate '76 that featured muscle car mayhem, afroed sidekicks, and a protagonist named Groove Champion. I remember it being fun (but barely running on our computer) and it was followed by a dismal sequel Interstate '82.

The key ingredient that made the original game so good was the wicked funk soundtrack that accompanied the vehicular combat. Heavy on the wah-wah pedal, lots of fuzz, and sexy sax. You can totally imagine this groovy music overlaying a 70's police car chase or possibly porn.

This was one of the first games (that I remember) with professionally recorded soundtrack where the game CD could actually double as an audio CD. As you raced around blowing up other cars, this awesome music played on endless rotation off the CD , which made it easy to ignore the choppy, repetitive gameplay and mediocre graphics (hey, they were cool at the time).

The soundtrack was performed by the one-off band Bullmark headed by Arion Salazar (bassist of Third Eye Blind) and made up of Brian "Brain" Mantia (drummer for Primus), Santana's keyboardist, and other session musicians. Some of these songs are among my most played iTunes tracks, which goes to show how these have long outlasted the novelty of the game.

Here for your listening pleasure is the soundtrack from Interstate '76, which I snagged off Arion Salazar's now-defunct official website (my own game CD long gone).

Interstate '76 soundtrack by Bullmark [via MegaUpload; you usually have to click to close an ad that appears over the download link... SaveFile was acting up]

NOTE: these are the 16 tracks that came off the actual game CD. In fact, I only know these songs by track number. Activision actually released an official soundtrack with even more tracks (with real names), which you can read a review of here. I would kill for this soundtrack, though it may be lost for eternity. [EDIT: Found it!]

My fav tracks: #4, #7, and #16 (which was the wicked opening title music).

Also: #10, #5, #9, #2, #3
. . . . basically, check them all out.

Oingo Boingo

[EDIT: links fixed, I hope!]

Back in his pre-composer days, Danny Elfman headed a band called Oingo Boingo. He'd later be known for his movie and TV themes including the The Simpsons, Batman, and most if not all of Tim Burton's films. The Nightmare Before Christmas is particularly brilliant with Danny Elfman penning all the songs and providing the singing voice of Jack Skellington. Corpse Bride had its moments, but I'd say not as memorable as Nightmare. I don't really know too much about Oingo Boingo, but they dabble in sort of the same science fiction/experimental/satire/new-waviness category as Devo. And like Devo's covers of Satisfaction or Secret Agent Man, Oingo Boingo's covers are similar only in name to the originals. Just listen:

Oingo Boingo - California Girls [originally by The Beach Boys]
Oingo Boingo - You Really Got Me [originally by The Kinks]

There's this cult film called Forbidden Zone directed by Danny's brother Richard Elfman, which features the music stylings of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (they shortened their name later). I had borrowed the soundtrack from the library and enjoyed it so much that I bought the newly released special edition DVD of it. I guess it's one thing to listen to these wacky songs and another to watch the no-budget 90 minutes of "plot" tying them all together. Surrealist to say the least (with Knick-Knack as the midget king of the 6th dimension)... I don't really know what to say about it. I wish I could say I truly enjoyed it, but it was a bit pointless for my taste. That said, the soundtrack is fun, particularly the rendition of Minnie the Moocher with Danny Elfman as Satan.

The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo - Squeezit the Moocher (Minnie the Moocher) [originally by Cab Calloway]

Israeli Mission: Impossible

I was just re-listening to this Best of Mission: Impossible CD that was discarded by the public library and really diggin' this live track:

Mission: Impossible Live From Israel
Lalo Schifrin conducting the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra

Nice! Starts off with "The Plot" music (and gets really groovy during this part) then moves into the oh-so-familiar M:I theme.

The 3rd movie comes out a few days after I leave for Europe and I'm kinda sad about having to miss it. Well, not really. Poor crazy Tom Cruise is looking to be the worst part of the movie. The whole ad campaign is based around this Philip Seymour Hoffman "Then..I'm going to kill you.. right.. in front of her" quote and the blown sideways into a car money shot. Remember the trailer for the first Mission: Impossible? Tom Cruise flying through the air from an exploding helicopter onto the back of a TGV train, face grunting at the camera... ridiculously impossible, but still cool. Now, he flies 5 feet sideways into a car and it's supposed to be impressive. The whole ad campaign seems to neglect what is the best cast assembled so far:
Ving Rhames (always cool)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (newly Oscar minted)
Simon Pegg (the "Shaun" of Shaun of the Dead)
Laurence Fishburne (hell ya)
Johnathan Rhys Meyers (best Woody Allen film in ages)
Maggie Q (cool name and very cute as she blows up a fancy car)
Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, one of the best movies ever)

Weakest Link: Tom Cruise (crazy)
Questionable Link: J. J Abrams (first big screen film; seems to be reusing action scenes from the previous 2 films but on a TV scale)

Remember when Carrie-Anne Moss, Scarlett Johanssen, Kenneth Branagh, and Ricky Gervais were all cast at some point...? With David Fincher directing. But delays and more delays led to them all dropping out to accomodate Crazy Tom's schedule (my interpretation). They need to revamp this series to be more like the original show: a group of IMF agents that actually worked together AS A TEAM. Bring back Martin Landau!