Jonathan Coulton Feels Fantastic
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Canadian Content, Comedy, Current Faves, Issues, Music, Reviews |Lula Loungue, Toronto ON
July 9, 2008
By Megashaun
The Lula Lounge in Toronto isn’t your typical rock show venue, but then again, Jonathan Coulton isn’t your typical rock star. The man has made a name for himself via Internet superstardom. He’s just a dude, really. No fat record company executive pushing him around, telling him what to play or what to look like. No. He’s just a former database programmer and Yale graduate who turned to making a living by making music. In what used to be part of his kitchen.
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No Shame In Flamboyance: An Interview With Gere Fennelly
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Current Faves, Interviews, Issues, Music, Underground/Cult |Interviewed by Less Lee Moore
One of the coolest live performances I ever saw was in Dallas TX in 1993. Redd Kross was playing with a bunch of other bands (including pre-indie-cred Nick Heyward from Haircut 100) for the Live 105 Acoustic Christmas.
For their cover of PJ Harvey’s “Oh My Lover,” keyboard player and pianist extraordinaire Gere Fennelly performed the song on a baby grand, with singer Jeff McDonald dramatically sprawled on top of it.
Although she left Redd Kross soon after to concentrate on other pursuits, that amazing flair for theatricality and humor still infuses everything she does.
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Glitter and Doom: Tom Waits
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Issues, Music, Reviews |Fox Theatre, St. Louis MO
June 26, 2008
By J Howell
Despite Tom Waits’ assured permanent status on my short list of heroes, I have mixed emotions about the St. Louis Glitter and Doom show. It’s not that it wasn’t awesome; I’m pretty sure that Mr. Waits is quite incapable of playing a bad show at this point. It’s not that his band was less than aces; they were, to a man, amazing musicians. . .
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The First Synthpop Song, Part One
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Issues, Music, Pop Culture Holy Grail |By Less Lee Moore
Read Part Two here.
Read Part Three here.
Although I usually consider the search for the Pop Culture Holy Grail to be a quest for a tangible object, this time around it was something more esoteric.
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Adventures with Metal Mania: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Issues, Music, Retrovirus, Video |By Ann Clarke
I recently re-subscribed to cable TV after a three-year hiatus. There is crap on TV that I am completely out of touch with, but that’s probably a good thing. In that three-year break, I didn’t pull that shit where people claim to only “read books” just so they can one-up the rest of the world. That’s just as bad as the douchebag that watches Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Issues, Music, Music Reviews, Retrovirus, Waxing Nostalgic |By Christian Lipski
Nothing’s Shocking is a great example of an album that I liked more for the individual statement that those specific songs made than the band itself. I didn’t really follow Jane’s Addiction after their debut, and I never felt sad about that. What I do feel sad about is that I looked on my iPod and I do not have this album on it. Okay now I do.
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They Are All, So Don’t Even Try: NXNE 2008 with Redd Kross
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Canadian Content, Current Faves, Issues, Music, Reviews |By Less Lee Moore
You have to understand. . .
There are things that I look forward to, things that I get excited about, and things that I Live For. Redd Kross is one of the latter.
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Summer in the City: Clothing Optional
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Canadian Content, Issues, The Summer |By Katrina Armstrong
Some of us live in downtown Toronto and work hard. We work in industries where we don’t really have a chance to get away during the summer For example, at my company summer is the busiest time of year and no one is allowed to take vacation time between May and September. As a result, we feel trapped and stuck in a busy urban center. Well, not anymore. Just a seven-minute ferry ride away from downtown is the Toronto Island. Best known for Centreville, a children’s amusement park; Ward’s Island, a contentious area where people live; and the ever (un)popular Toronto Island Airport, Toronto Island harbors something spectacular, relaxing, and even a little sexy: Hanlan’s Point Clothing Optional Beach.
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It Has To Be From The Heart: Firewater
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Current Faves, Issues, Music, Reviews |By Ann Clarke
Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland OH
May 30, 2008
Photo © Julie Finley
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The Police, Synchronicity
Published on July 30th, 2008 in: Issues, Music, Music Reviews, Retrovirus, Waxing Nostalgic |By Jemiah Jefferson
This is the first music that I ever bought in a record store (or, I should say, that I begged my mom to buy for me—I had absolutely no money of my own at the age of eleven, since I never got an allowance as a child. . . or a teenager, for that matter). I bought this on cassette, probably from a Sam Goody or something similar, in a mall. I bought it months after its release, in the fall, after a punishing summer where “Every Breath You Take” kept its stranglehold on the Billboard #1 slot for what seemed like forever. I have always quite disliked that song, and after seeing so many other worthy songs attempt to break through and fail (most particularly “Is There Something I Should Know?”, Duran Duran’s vastly superior single, which topped out at #4, much to my rage and frustration) I learned to hate it, and I still hate it.
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