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  • The World of Music

    Sara definitely called me on my “harsh stereotype of indie rock”.  I agree.  It was a little off the wall but I attribute it to the Monday morning talking.  Really, I enjoy indie rock and it should not receive such a blatant accusation as I have given them.  I retract that statement.

    But I hate, hate, hate the label of indie rock.  As Sara pointed out in her comment, the only distinguishing feature of ‘indie’ is that the band is not signed to a major label.  Well, what does ‘indie rock’ have to do with the musical label associated with it?  You can’t honestly tell me that if my band is indie rock, that we will sound the same as the other dude who is labeled indie rock who sounds nothing like us but is still deemed indie rock because they are not signed to a label.

    Somewhere, some long time ago, someone went a little haywire with the musical genre naming convention.  It most likely started with ‘alternative’.  Let’s go to Wikipedia for its all knowing source of knowledge:

    Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. The term “alternative” was coined in the 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired bands on independent record labels that did not fit into the mainstream genres of the time.[1] As a musical genre, alternative rock consists of various subgenres that have emerged from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, Britpop, gothic rock, and indie pop. These genres are unified by their collective debt to the style and/or ethos of punk, which laid the groundwork for alternative music in the 1970s.[2]

    Let’s talk about this for a bit, shall we?  Back in the nineties, if you said you were into Alternative music, chances are you liked the heavy guitars associated with grunge, or something of that form.  But then in a few years after, rock just morphed its way from being the hair metal rock that we all know and love, to some decent music coming out of the Britpop scene or just straight out rock that just didn’t fit into the 80s scene.  It started getting wishy-washy.  Then alternative became this weird term…”Do you really like the alternative music (the underground) or do you like the alternative music on the radio (Oh, Nirvana, how the mighty have fallen).

    Take a look at the definition of alternative in the UK.  So is their indie music the same as our indie music?

    Wikipedia says that in the United States (Indie):

    During the first half of the 1990s, alternative music, led by grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana broke into the mainstream, achieving commercial chart success and widespread exposure. Shortly thereafter the alternative genre became commercialized as mainstream success attracted major-label investment and commercially-oriented or manufactured acts with a formulaic, conservative approach. With this, the meaning of the label “alternative” changed away from its original, more counter-cultural meaning to refer to alternative music that achieved mainstream success and the term “indie rock” was used to refer to the bands and genres that remained underground.

    So I guess the bands I used to listen to in the 90s were indie rock, but as soon as they signed to a major label, they just shifted to Alternative, or in my case, grunge rock.  Fine.  At least I knew what I was getting into if someone told me I was listening to grunge, although I sure hope no one labeled The Smashing Pumpkins as such.

    So now we are in here in the year 2008 and the music genre naming convention is a mess.  Look at some of the terms found in Wikipedia under indie rock: post-punk, garage rock, no wave, baroque pop, new prog, post-rock, dance-punk, post-punk revival, post-post rock, psych folk, post-post-post rock.  Is there no end?  Even Indie rock doesn’t even know what the heck it is anymore in terms of definition.  So why the heck are we still using these really nonsensical terms to describe a type of music?

    When someone asks me what The National is like, I really can’t pinpoint it.  I suppose there’s a beauty in that considering not all music has to be the same (unless you want it on the radio of course!) but it does make it hard to define.  I would not define The National as indie rock as the other bands which form my general stereotype of that musical genre are definitely different than The National.

    Is anyone else out there frustrated with the naming conventions of musical genres?  Or are you loving the fact that in this day in age, everything flies and in the end, they are beyond naming conventions and when it comes down to it, it’s all about the music, man.

  • Def Leppard Postponed

    The rock gods must have been looking down on Vero this past weekend as she had to give up her Def Leppard tickets because she was in her play this past weekend and would have finished around 10PM.  This was a bad scene altogether considering Def Leppard could be classified as her favourite band ever.  At least we found someone to purchase her $93 ticket.  But on Friday night as I was sipping a beer I got a phone call from Mike who said he had bad news.  Visions of someone breaking into our house danced in my head and I was relieved when he said that Def Leppard had postponed their upcoming shows as Joe Elliot has fallen ill.  I can’t say that I was disappointed at the postponement as it gives Vero another chance to see them!

    This also opened up a little more time for me to study for my Quantitative Research Methods exam which is happening on Tuesday.  I have a good grasp of the material so I didn’t know how much I needed to study.  It turns out that I was well on my way by Saturday afternoon and decided to go out to celebrate Krista’s birthday.  In fact, we also squeezed a little game of Settlers of Catan (we’re hooked!  This game is incredible!) before going to bowling.

    Krista’s birthday was celebrated in my old neck of the woods…down in Westboro.  We went to the bowling lanes and had a few good rounds.  Actually, I did incredibly well in the first game with a score of 162 but then failed miserably in the second game and had something like 92.  We then headed out to the Carleton Tavern which is actually a good time…no cover charge, decent band, and a bunch of old-timers.  You can’t go wrong.  I can’t believe I had never been there before in my life.  It reminded me of the Chateau Kap or the Sunshine Tavern back home.  I ended up leaving soon after arriving to head over to Vero’s and left the party so they could continue their peanut races (which involved dropping a peanut into a beer and the last one to float back to the top had to be chugged.  Interesting.

    Vero and I had a bite to eat at the Newport Restaurant with Matt and Karilee on Sunday afternoon.  The Moe’s World Famous Newport Restaurant is quite the amazing restaurant.  It’s the World Headquarters for the Elvis Sighting Society and the place is full of memorabilia.  They have this great Montreal style pizza which has tomato sauce, mustard, pickles and ham.  At first this seemed disgusting but after trying it I realized that you should always try something before denouncing it.  Yum!

    The rest of the afternoon had me studying as well as Mike gallantly offering his services to fix Vero’s computer (which Matt had supplied a motherboard for).  He got all the hardware working but Windows has a hard time handling an entire new hardware setup and had a hard time booting up.  So, we realized that we had only got one step closer to fixing Vero’s computer and I decided for the time being that we should just put her hard drive into my old PC and give her that until we can have more time to fix hers properly.  At least she will have it so she can search for a job on the Internet.  She is getting quite frustrated with the job search as she has not had any permanent work since before Christmas.  The media industry doesn’t have a lot of jobs it seems.

  • Album Mini-Reviews

    Here’s a recap on some albums I’ve picked up over the past while:

    41h1r6qx15l_sl500_aa240_.jpgRolling Stones – Let It Bleed: This year may be the year of the Rolling Stones for me.  One of the bands I’ve been meaning to get into over the years…I decided to take a look at some of the top picks from the Stones and time and time again 1969’s ‘Let it Bleed’ made it onto the list.  So far, so good.  I’ve listened to it a few times and I must say that the classic rock universe is an interesting one in that there seems to be less killer albums from front to back (with smash hits and whatnot) but they form a more cohesive package, hence an album.  That’s the way I feel with Let It Bleed (a play on The Beatles Let It Be of that year)…there’s a few songs that are really hard hitting but the rest are fairly lowkey to me but the whole album has a great feel to it.  That’s what I want to accomplish when creating an album.  Back in the day, you had more albums coming out faster also…one a year (if not two a year like Zeppelin!).

    413bae7x8el_sl500_aa240_.jpgNine Inch Nails: Ghosts I-IV: Trent Reznor and company have released an instrumental album.  After hearing a preview of Ghosts I (the two disc set is split into four mini-albums entitled Ghosts but really, it’s just a hodge-podge of instrumental noise), I realized that the album would not have full out instrumental tracks like A Warm Place from The Downward Spiral.  Instead, it’s a bunch of instrumentals strung together that are erratic and really don’t form an entire piece of art.  But in that, he may have accomplished a piece of art which resembles our daydreams (a comparison he was trying to do) considering daydreams stray from one thought to the other.  While I am not turned off by the album, I realize that I won’t actively want to listen to Track X off of Disc 2.  It will be more of a ‘I want some background music while I study one night.”  Interestingly enough, he probably cleared a million bucks off of making instrumental noise and laying it on in album form.  Man, I wish I could do that.

    51exxgx0ol_sl500_aa240_.jpgVampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend: Maren suggested this one as a killer album that her and Allan-Paul listened to the entire time they down in Florida.  I downloaded it to give it a try before picking it up (a process I seem to be doing more and more over time after getting burned from mediocre purchases) and I would have to say that it is some catchy music but hasn’t caught me in a stranglehold yet.  It’s got this indie/reggae flair to it and it definitely something that can be deemed summer music.  I enjoy the different song structures and instrumentation on the album but we’ll have to see if it stands the test of time on the iPod.  I would recommend that everyone give it a listen though…some people may end up loving it!

    51ewz6pkdyl_sl500_aa240_.jpgTheory of a Deadman – Scars and Souvenirs: All right!  New Theory album!  Highly anticipated after their great sophomore effort Gasoline.  However, after a few listens, I am on the fence with their third album.  They have followed the same formula as their last (hard rock coupled with ballads, which is definitely a good rock formula) and the music is great but it’s the lyrics that have put a sour look on my face.  They really harp on points like having girlfriends who cheat on them (at least three songs on the album) and then there’s this one song called I Hate My Life which is cringe-worthy just because it talks about how much his job is awful or his wife’s nagging is getting on his nerves and then there’s this one line about lifting your middle finger to the world and I’m thinking was put in there just to have a great rock and roll concert moment with the entire crowd lifting that one appendage in unison.  It just seems…contrived.  But I really like the music and I would say 65% of the album has decent lyrics.  It’s just a shame that 35% put a bad taste in my mouth.  Theory – Get out of the working man lyrics and bring us some old gems.

    51dok6efipl_sl500_aa240_.jpgThe National – Boxer: I’ve saved the best for last.  I was reading an extensive interview with Raine Maida and they brought up this one band called The National and how Boxer was a beautiful album.  Intrigued to get into some new music, I downloaded it and fell in love.  The baritone vocals, the piano, horns and guitars bring you to this other level.  The drumming is an amazing part of the album…it just brings the songs up a level.  I really fell in love with this album and went out to pick it up in physical form the week after.  It is a worthwhile purchase.  There’s something moving about the music….it’s not rocking in the guitar rock kind of sense.  I can’t even think of a comparison…Wikipedia says they are indie rock but that term is getting WAY overused.  When I think of indie rock I think of guys who can’t really play their guitars well but know how to write a good riff and they drink Labatt 50.  I wouldn’t say they are indie rock….they are on tour with R.E.M. this summer so I recommend you give them a listen.

    Up next on deck to listen to a little more before a proper review: Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street, Wintersleep – Welcome To The Night Sky, Boys Like Girls – Boys Like Girls, Ashes dIVIDE – Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright

  • 90s Comeback

    Last night was retro of sorts. Krista came over and we had a little BBQ shish kabob (scratch that…kabab…thanks James!) (what language is that from? Turkish apparently!) as well as hooked up the old Nintendo and played some Lunar Pool which was her favourite game as a child. The Nintendo was in poor shape though and would not work most of the time. It’s a shame that we’ll have to find a replacement.

    The more welcome point of the night is when the television crapped out and Krista suggested we haul out the guitars. It was an all-request night and Krista requested all the tunes that we had learned when we were in the formation years of our guitar chops. 90s hits like All Over You (Live), Freshmen (The Verve Pipe), If You Could Only See (Tonic), Back To Good (Matchbox 20), If I Could Be Like That (3 Doors Down) graced the living room last night. Heck, she even found an old tune of Let Her Cry (Hootie and The Blowfish) which we all groaned at when it was requested but it’s good to look back at your roots and see where you came from and reminisce as how hard it was to play some of these tunes and now they seem like a five year old can play it. It’s all a matter of perspective I suppose.

    But it was great to really look at these tunes and what they meant to me. For for the past few years (if not more than a decade), I have pushed these songs to the wayside for bigger and better hits…classic rock tunes (Guess Who, CCR), staple acoustic diddys (Beatles!) and some contemporary stuff. But I had ignored a lot of the stuff I learned in my formative years and now I’m starting to realize that these are the songs I grew up on and I shouldn’t abandon them! Even though I now prefer the stuff that my parents grew up with, I can’t say that I dislike my generations’ music and if anything, my ears perk up when I hear something from my past and my mind wanders into memory mode.

    So now I think I’ll try and find a good mix of songs to play for the masses. I think part of my quest to play older tunes was part and parcel from playing with Troy at Aunt Dinah’s place where the crowd want tunes from their generation, and I fell in love with those tunes. Last night made me realize that the tunes I grew up with are still pretty decent and there are probably some people in the room who would appreciate them. Case in point…looks like another binder of songs have to be repatriated into my arsenal of rock.

  • Guitar World Update

    In a previous entry I spoke about getting a subscription to Guitar World.

    I ended up getting a subscription for $40 for the year.  Not too shabby.

    I just renewed the subscription and because I opted to get the version of the magazine without the bonus CD-ROM, it lowered the price to $27USD.  That’s $2.25 an issue people.  At last cheque, the newstand price is $8USD.

    Honestly, if you pick up three issues or more of a magazine in a year, you should really look into just getting a subscription.  For the same price you get an entire years worth of reading.  Crazy.

    On a random other note, I had to jump through some hoops to renew my subscription.  On the website it says $39.95 for the renewal.  Then in the paper that came with the last magazine it said $37.  So I emailed and asked them which one it is and then they started talking about $27.  So I called to see what the deal was and the first thing the person on the end of the phone asks me is “Now how much does it say to pay for the renewal of the subscription?”.  VERY SHREWD!  They probably know they have different rates going all over the place and they’ll ding you for whatever you can get.  I am going to assume that the $40 version is higher due to the CD-ROMs but it still doesn’t account for the $3 difference that originally had me calling to confirm.  Anyhow, if you have a business, just ask people what they were told to pay.  😉

    As for the actual magazine, if you are a guitar player, I would definitely recommend Guitar World (which in turn was recommended to me by Troy).  It had interesting interviews, guitar lessons from various backgrounds (jazz, blues, general theory) and then they have songs transcribed for you as well.  I have learned quite a bit from the lessons section and most times I am interested in the people they are interviewing.

    At the price of a coffee nowadays, you can’t go wrong getting a subscription to a favourite magazine.

  • Video on Flickr!

    Hey!  Flickr now allows people to upload 90 second video clips!  That is pretty cool considering years ago I had wanted to store my videos in one neat little spot and never found a good place for it (other than YouTube I suppose).  I am excited to try this feature out.

  • Return of the Wings

    For years now, there hasn’t been any good chicken wing deals in the area.  It used to be that I could get 10 cent wings around the area but it’s like there is a chicken shortage somewhere.

    Trish, Krista and I were walking past the James Street Feed Diner when I spied a sign that said ‘All You Can Eat Wings for $10’.  Now, after some quick math I realized that if I could eat 40 wings, that should come out to a half decent price per wing in this day in age.

    We called up Mike and Vero to meet us and we had a good feed of wings.  Unfortunately my eyes were bigger than my belly and after the initial basket of 20 wings I was done.  Knowing when to stop, I realized that, yes, I paid a little too much for wings this day, but someone pointed out that usually one pound of wings goes for $10 at this place and I ended up with two pounds for the same price, hence I got a steal of a deal!  I left in good spirits.

    But really, why can’t we find some nice cheap wings anymore?  I even remember there was a place that had 1 cent wings…now that was a little on the crazy side.  I swear they were pigeon wings and not chicken wings.  I digress…

    On a side note about purchased eats, last week I went to breakfast with Spencer and there was a new girl at the bagel shop I go to.  I asked for some salt and pepper on my LT and this woman laid that salt down like there was no tomorrow!  Plus, she managed to put it on top of this random piece of romaine lettuce (when the heck did they start having romaine lettuce at this place?) so the tomatoes couldn’t even absorb it.  I didn’t think much of it until I bit into the salt lick of a sandwich.  It was quite hard to take.  I ended up going there again this morning with Krista and didn’t think about it when I asked for salt but there she went again, pouring out a kilogram of salt onto my sandwich.  Case in point, don’t order any more salt with the meal.  Put some on yourself if need be.  Yeeeuck!

  • Review: Karilee’s Birthday

    Saturday Vero, Mike and I headed out to a fund raising breakfast event called “Breakfast for Joleen”. Turns out that Joleen has a brain tumor and while the parents prospective workplaces have been nice enough to extend some compassionate leave for awhile, I guess it is running out so there was a fund raiser to help out the parents during this time of need. Mike and Mel (I believe?) know these two parents personally, hence how we found out about this.

    In the end, we pretty well missed the entire breakfast/silent auction hoopla considering we rolled into there around 11:30 in the morning and the thing started at 9:00. We still paid for our breakfast and helped ourselves to some pancakes, eggs and a sausage. We took a look at some items that Mike, Mel and Duncan got at the silent auction including a computer (!) and a nice box of brownies which we took a gander at.

    There was also a blood bank on hand which had information on how to give blood but they also tested what type you were! I had never done so and I now know that I am O+. I guess I will start donating blood when they come to work as they usually do every once in awhile.

    We then chatted outside for awhile about Véro’s play and other randomness and then headed to Véro’s for a beer and then we headed home to get a quick bite to eat to hold us over before the night of fun. It was Karilee’s birthday party (although I think her birthday is actually on…Monday, April 7?) down at Fratelli’s in New Edinburgh.

    After having a beer back at Véro’s again that evening and watching Wedding Crashers (as Duncan had never seen it before), we hopped in a quick cabride to go to Fratelli’s which had just opened recently in New Edinburgh. Supposedly there are a few Fratelli’s in town but this was the first time I had been to one. Mike and I headed upstairs above the restaurant to say hello to his friend whom he actually helped move into that apartment a few weeks back. It was a slick apartment. I like the apartments with the high ceilings and the long hallway connecting all the rooms together.

    We then headed into Fratelli’s, took our seat, said hello to Matt, Karilee and company and settled in for the ride. I quickly noticed that Duncan wasn’t in the restaurant (and he had come with us) and I found him outside chatting with an old work friend. When I headed back inside I noticed that no one had ordered drinks yet so I went to bar, ordered some drinks and was about to take them away when they said “Oh no, we can bring them to your table!”. I have a feeling that as soon as I was about to walk away, their manager walked by and was wondering why I was picking up my own beer. Hey, that’s what you get when you’ve been sitting around the table for a good fifteen minutes! In the end, I put the beers back on the bar and said they could drop them off to me and that still took five minutes.

    That would have to be my only minor complaint about Fratelli’s. Every new restaurant has some growing pains so I won’t hold it against them. The food was superb, their bread was superb and the ambiance was great. I had some great conversation around me (and found a fellow comic book fan and we chatted for a few moments) and I think all had a good time. Vero ended up showing up after 10 o’clock since her play was done. I can’t wait to share a picture of how crazy her hair is for her play. It is quite zany!

    We ended up leaving Fratelli’s around 11:30 and I personally didn’t feel like heading downtown to a line-up at the Heart and Crown so a few of us headed to the New Edinburgh pub which was down one block and we said goodbye to Matt, Karilee and…Sophie-Lynn? Can’t remember her name…it looked like Karilee had a great time but I heard she hurt her ankle afterwards so that sucks.

    The New Edinburgh Pub was in full force with a band playing in the other side of the bar. We ordered a beer, sat down and listened to Trish’s story about her trip to the Dominican Republic. She had some great stories to tell and I encourage you to ask her about it the next time you see her. The Dominican Republic sure saw it’s fair share of people I know this year; myself, Vero and her family, Ferda & James, Trish, Krista and Jill…I think there were a few people from work also that I knew headed down there. It’s quite the hot spot (pun intended!) for Canadians I guess.

  • Settle This.

    Friday I ended up over at Eric’s to play some Settlers of Catan.  We had purchased this game for Eric and Annie for Christmas and he had yet to haul it out so we took a crack at it.  This would probably be the fourth/fifth time I had played it.  The first two times were horrible, the third time I kind of got the hang of it.  Like anything in this world, I think it’s best when you go on an adventure with people at your own knowledge level.

    So Friday night brought Mike, Eric and I together not really remembering or knowing how to play so the instruction manual came out, we had a few mis-starts (due to board setup and whatnot) but we loved the game entirely.  We played for four hours and by 1:30AM I was ready to pack it in but it was such an evenly matched game that we had to see who would win.  Mike ended up winning two games and Eric won one.  We ended up loving the game and look forward to playing it again.

    Can we also point out that there must be so many different schools of thought in terms of strategy for the setup of this game…is it better to spread your pieces out to get better resources, or to put them into high probability rolling areas?  Time will tell.

  • Review: Gooneys

    “these eyes have never seen a more beautiful sight. these ears have never heard a more beautiful sound. these taste buds have never tasted a more beautiful sandwich.” – me, after going to Gooney with Maren.

    This morning on my way to school, I decided to drop by to see Maren and get a bite to eat at lunch. She suggested a place on Laurier and O’Connor called Gooneys. She mentioned getting a salad.

    While leery of a salad bar kind of place, she mentioned there were sandwiches and knowing that this was the key to my heart (and stomach!) we headed there in the wet, wet snow that has appeared over Ottawa. What the heck? First they are calling for a warm weekend, now it’s sloppy wet snow.

    Upon entering, this place put a smile on my face. In the corner, there was this guy playing the blues on his sweet, sweet electric guitar an mini-amp. What the heck? Isn’t this a sandwich shop?

    Well yes it is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have some atmosphere! Maren warned me that the lineups get pretty large around noon so we hurried with five minutes to spare. The menu was awesome. Not awesome like I usually say awesome, more like a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring kind of menu. Tons of different sandwiches with soup combos, salad combos, you name it, they got it.

    I followed Maren’s suit and ordered the roast beef and decided to get the Works. I can’t even remember what consisted of the works other than some eggplant and ten other toppings. They wrapped it up in a nice shell of wax paper, sliced it, pased it over in a nice tray and voila!

    We grabbed a seat right in front of this guy playing his blues guitar.  I was in heaven.  He even threw in some Georgia by Ray Charles.  Unbelievable.

    The sandwich was so amazing…I don’t know what they put into it but it reminded me of my favourite sauce from New York Subway in Toronto on Queen Street West.  I couldn’t get enough of it.  I was loving every moment of it.

    Coupled with amazing company of Maren (always good conversation…mainly dealing with her upcoming trip to Mexico next week!), amazing eats and amazing treats for the ears, I will definitely return to Gooneys for a bite to eat.  Go early and beat the rush!

    iplaying: Apartment Story – The National (Boxer) – this is a fabulous, fabulous album.  Palmer approved.  Will write more later.