Ramones Redux

When I first listened to the Ramones in high school (I think it was grade 10 or 11), I wrote them off almost immediately. I'm not entirely sure why I disliked the them. I think I mainly had a narrow view of what punk was, and the Ramones, while they fit my visual conception of punk, didn't fit my aural conception of punk; they didn't rock as hard as I thought punk did - as hard as I thought punk was supposed to have rocked. Punk to me was the Stooges and the Sex Pistols, even though I disliked the Sex Pistols for reasons I won't explain here. I didn't dislike the Ramones in a "they're not for me" way either: I flat out thought they sucked. Yet, I always liked the idea - the image - the legacy - of the Ramones. I guess partially, that is to say, I may have disliked their music, but I was always able to appreciate their historical importance.

So, what turned me around? A few things: having developed an even deeper appreciation for straightforward, poppy music than I already had; having delved deeper into punk this past year; having realized punk was more diverse than I'd thought in high school; and eventually having delved into many of those different forms of punk including pop punk and more technical punk. Lastly, I've also been watching "the punk rock chef" Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations pretty much since Christmas, and he frequently references bands like the Stooges, Television, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, New York Dolls and, you guessed it, the Ramones. Hell, Bourdain even had dinner with drummer Marky Ramone (who turned out to have been quite a food enthusiast) in the Cleveland episode.

Christ, This Hurts the Eyes

The colours, the camera-cuts, the garish attires and hairstyles. Combined with the piercing feedback and overlapped shouting and yelping, this whole video makes for one angsty, dizzying head-trip - in many ways, sensory overload of the best kind.

The psychedelic punk freak-out doesn't stop with Huggy Bear. Here's Daisy Chainsaw, in their even more snarling, manic, cross-dressing, pink-boa-flaunting glory. Embedding has been disabled on this video, so click here to check them out.

These videos seriously look like episodes of Uh-Oh!

Someone Please Tell Me When Half Chinese Is Playing

Because they totally fucking melt my brain.

I heard about this local Vancouver band from a friend this past summer. So fucking good. Very propulsive, catchy rock buried under a crunchy layer of searing guitars, slabs of noise and tinny production. Check out their MySpace page here.

One of Those Shows

I bought my ticket for Canadian rapper/composer/producer/piano virtuoso/all-around musical madman/genius Chilly Gonzales yesterday. Like with most of my favourite musicians ever, I haven't written about him yet because it's so difficult for me to say everything I want to about him. And I'm probably not going to be able to in this post.

Gonzales, whom may be best known as a long-time friend and collaborator of Feist's (including having helped produce her last two albums), is one of today's most chameleonic, progressive musicians I can think of. Almost all of his albums vary drastically from one another, jumping from dark, excessively coarse, primitive-beat-oriented rap on his first four albums (okay, bad examples with which to start) to the velvet-soft and completely self-descriptive Solo Piano to the glistening, shimmering 70s radio pop of Soft Power to the slick, scatter-shot rap-pop of Ivory Tower (the soundtrack to the film of the same name in which Gonzo appears) to the orchestral rap of The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales, his latest and certainly most ambitious release yet.

Canadian "it" indie label Arts & Crafts' website describes The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales perfectly:

"Accompanied by Hollywood swells, tympani rolls, noble French horns, hypnotizing bells and influenced by Prokofiev, Morricone and Phillip Glass among others, this record is Chilly Gonzales’ 'professional confessional', revealing more of himself on these monologues than ever before."

"Professional confessional" is right: The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales is his most lyrically personal work yet. He even tempers his rap-deliveries, giving his lyrics which, on this album, largely pertain to themes of self-doubt, betraying his usual satiric self-image as a boastful, megalomaniacal, supervillainous MC, a peculiarly (for Gonzales) serious tone.

Knowing that Chilly Gonzales, in his bombastic, mad genius persona, is a performer in the complete sense of the word, as well as a technically gifted musician and improvisor, I know he's going to be one of the best shows I will ever see. It's also going to be my first time at the Rio Theatre just blocks from my place, even though the likes of Chad VanGaalen and Daniel Johnston have played there before. Pumped? You're fucking right I am.

How is Chilly going to pare down his band so it can fit in the Rio Theatre? At least I assume, as the Rio is primarily a movie theatre, it won't be able to accommodate such a huge band:

Rainy Day Music: Bright Eyes Edition

I thought I already posted this, but my tags tell me otherwise, so here it is: "Lua" by Bright Eyes, the only Bright Eyes song I still like:

Old Souls

I cannot, cannot, cannot believe I passed on seeing Alabama Shakes. WHAT. A. VOICE. SO throaty and guttural with the perfect amount of rasp - a voice that could scrape my skin and flesh off of my bones. I can already tell Alabama Shakes' debut album Boys & Girls (ATO Records, 2012) is going to be one of my favourite albums of the year.

So, bless my heart
And bless yours too
I don't know where I'm gonna go
Don't what I'm gonna do 
...
So, bless my heart
Bless my mind
I got so much to do
I ain't got much time

Man, haven't we all felt that way before?

I missed No Sinner twice. I missed Alabama Shakes. When am I going to get my blooze-rock live???

I Met This Man.

I shook his hand too. Boy, he did not like being approached.


A few thoughts:

1. I'm blown away by this video's production values, considering it's Pip Skid.
2. So, that's what Pip Skid looks like when he doesn't look like a rat.
3. I'm surprised anyone as attractive as the female lead would have anything to do with Pip Skid. Chalk it up to the "get exposure any way one can" nature of Showbiz.
4. I'm kind of surprised Pip Skid has music videos PERIOD.

Then, I see this video:


That's the Pip Skid I know. I also just read his Wikipedia page. I always thought he was an East Coast guy, but he's actually from Alberta and not merely signed to but "a cornerstone" of Vancouver hip-hop label Peanuts & Corn. Whack.