Tales of Interest, Friday Afternoon... Kobe!

• Before I say anything else I should point out that my pre-playoff prediction of the Celtics over the Lakers in 6 is looking pretty good right now....

• My buddy Kyle has been back writing (which is a career many of my friends think that he should pursue) and has a couple of posts - a running dairy of the ESPN spelling bee, and best video games of the 90s, which are well worth your time to read... I'll take this opportunity to remind him if you become a lawyer you'll have to get up before noon eventually...
  

• I realize I may come off as being a little 'soft' after this... but, this move around the 0:55 second mark is terribly impressive...

• Lastly, the Besnard Lakes, Bionic (who I don't know) and the Golden Hands Before God are playing at Call the Office on Saturday, which should be excellent. See my review of the GHBG's new Here EP, and get there early to see them as they're the first ones on.

If Bands Were Ballers....

Last week, I wrote a post on my new favourite band of the moment, the Golden Hands Before God. In the post, I compared them to UCLA forward Kevin Love, and Black Mountain to Gilbert Arenas. I was quickly corrected by Bryan of Herohill, who suggested that a better comparison for Black Mountain was probably Dirk Nowitzki (a big stats guy, who pretends to have an edge - Dirk's infamous scowl). And while I thought I was being particularly original, apparently I wasn't, since, when I emailed them to get an opinion on my comparisons - they gave me some helpful feedback and sent me the text of their June 2007 post.

Either way, here goes my best shot at picking out some of the best comparisons I can think of, with some sort of explanation where possible. This was the best I could do, but would be interested if there are other suggestions out there....

Kobe Bryant is Kanye West.

Both are hands down the best (shooting gaurd and rap producer) around, get a lot of attention and deservedly so, but they both know how good they are and carry themselves thusly.

Chris Paul is Feist.

It took a little while for people to figure out how good they actually are, and even if they don't/didn't win the prize (NBA Championship/Grammy) at the end of the year - they certainly demonstrated that the attention is well deserved.

Ron Artest is Amy Winehouse.

Because you could hear just about anything about either of them, and you'd believe it was true.

Dikembe Mutumbo is the Besnard Lakes.

They both look a little too old to be doing what they've been doing, but lately, they've been awesome.

Joakim Noah is the Sunparlour Players.

Energy, intensity, and passion. Just getting their grounding, but both will be very successful in their own ways.

And, as always, Chris Bosh is the Toronto Raptor.

Wednesday Bullets: TV, Movies, TV and Rock Band (the songs that should've been)!

• The series finale of the Wire was on a couple of nights ago. Wow. My buddy Kyle passed along these articles on the finale, which you shouldn't read if you haven't seen the 5th season yet. The first is an absolutely absurd critique, ironically, from someone at the Baltimore Sun (season 5's focus is the Sun). The second, is an incredibly thorough (and long) review of the finale, which is well worth the time to read. My thoughts: this season has taken the greatest departure from its strength: the ambiguity, unpredictability, and what I presume is a realistic take on the drug culture in Baltimore, by introducing a few one dimensional characters (everyone involved in winning the Pulitzer at the Sun), and one psychotic turn from Jimmy McNulty. However, I felt that the finale managed to return to what made the Wire great and provided a satisfactorily unsatisfactory ending. The best part for me was seeing the transformation of the kids from season 4, Michael turning into Omar, Dookie to Bubbles, Namond to Bunny Colvin or, cringe, Carcetti?, but also other characters changing roles (Carver to Daniels, Sidnor to McNulty) within a system that is nearly impossible to fix. The one thing that was missing, I thought, was some type of resolution with Randy Wagstaff. The last time we see Randy he is pushing kids out of the way in his group home when Bunk goes to question him. With Randy's entrepreneurial streak, and the hardening in the group home, its not a stretch to see him turning into the next Avon Barksdale, Marlo Stanfield, or, more likely Stringer Bell, but who knows... a sad farewell to a terrific TV show.

• I also managed to catch a movie called Up the Yangtze on Sunday afternoon as a part of the London Canadian Film Fest. It was a oddly compelling documentary film following a family being displaced because of flooding after the third phase of the Three Gorges Dam hydro project along the Yangtze river in China. A nice review from the Toronto Star on the movie and Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang. If you're in the mood for a nice PBS type piece, its a great one to check out.
  

• On a much, much, lighter note Liz and I have been going back through season one of How I Met Your Mother, which has been surprisingly hilarious for me the second time around. Doogie Howser aka. Neil Patrick Harris, has always been a standout character on the show, but I've found the other characters significantly less annoying than I remember them. The show is set to return on March 17 according to wikipedia.

• And on the lightest of all possibly notes, I bought Liz Rock Band on Friday, which meant that we basically spent all of Saturday at home watching HIMYM and playing the aforementioned Rock Band. Its been just about as fun as everyone has said it would be except I'm terrible. At any rate, a few songs that I think should've made the game, but probably aren't popular enough...

[mp3] The Besnard Lakes - And You Lied To Me from The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse

[mp3] Cuff The Duke - Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker from Life Stories for the Minimum Wage

[mp3] Wilco - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

[mp3] Tokyo Police Club - In A Cave from the upcoming (4/22/08) Elephant Shell

The Golden Hands Before God are coming... no, that isn't a death threat

(Photo by Stephen Nilsson)

I've been bouncing some messages back and forth with Jamie from the Golden Hands Before God for a couple of weeks now, and here's what I can tell you about him/them:

1/ Jamie (second from the left) is way cooler than I am. By a lot. Although, this is probably not a really formidable task. That said, he's probably cooler than you are too. Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, only to make myself feel better.

2/ They have an 7 song EP coming out sometime later this spring called Here, which is being produced by Jace Lasek (the Besnard Lakes) and mastered by Harris Newman (Wolf Parade).

3/The GHBG play the type of '60's classic rock inspired music that a band like Black Mountain should play, but to me, they seem devoid of any type of soul. If this review of a December show in TO is any indication, the GHBG play like they mean it. If I'm to draw a sports analogy, Black Mountain is Gilbert Arenas. Arenas is great, good stats, a lot of attention, but is never going to win a title, not a real winner. The GHBG are like UCLA Freshman Kevin Love, coming out of a good school, great intangibles, looks good, but somebody has got to put him into the right system and give him a chance.

4/Unfortunately I can't post it, yet (but maybe later I hope?) but the GHBG have produced what is hands down, without a question, my favourite song of the year 'Blood of November'. If I tried to described it, I'd ruin it, so I won't.

However, this is also very, very, good.
[mp3]The Golden Hands Before God - Interlude

The Golden Hands Before God will be opening for Mahogany Frog in London on Wednesday, April 9 and in Hamilton at the Casbah on the 8th.

Best Videos 2007

7. Carleton Singing Knights "Chicago" (Sufjan Stevens cover)
This acapella version was good enough that I felt compelled to share it even though it happened last year. For fans of Soofyan Stevens, and Andy Bernard's 'Here Comes Treble'.



6. K'naan "KickED PushED"
The story of yet another hardship for K'naan.



5. The Besnard Lakes "For Agent 13"
Very moving, even if Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas aren't really 'video people'.



4. Bat for Lashes "What's a Girl to Do"
Donnie Darko meets BMX bikes.



3. Kanye West "Stronger"



2. Destroyer w/ Final Fantasy & Cadence Weapon "An Actor's Revenge" (live @ Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX)
How excited is Cadence Weapon to be on stage with Dan Bejar (the New Pornographers, Destroyer)? I think, very excited.



1. Feist "I Feel it All" (live on Jimmy Kimmel, on a moving city bus)
Reason #1,032 why I love Feist.

Another Couple of Videos... The Besnard Lakes, Sunparlour Players

The Besnard Lakes "Because Tonight" from The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse @ Call the Office - October 11?, 2007



The Sunparlour Players "Hymns for the Happy" from Hymns for the Happy @ The London Music Club - November 14, 2007

Battle of the SmokeMachines: The Besnard Lakes vs. Young Galaxy

I went into Thursday night expecting to be impressed, again, by the Besnard Lakes, and I was. What I didn't expect was the opener, Young Galaxy, to throw down the gauntlet and put on the impressive performance that they did. Especially here (in London), I find people tend to talk through opening bands, but with Young Galaxy those in attendance had little choice but to pay attention. The band gained the attention of the crowd very quickly and held it throughout their set.

Front man Stephen Ramsay was incredibly likable, joking through the set with Jace Lasek (of the Besnard Lakes, pictured above) at first that, "Montreal wasn't big enough for the both of them" and that "his smoke machine kicked their smoke machine's f--kin' ass". Lasek responded only by coughing vigorously the next time the smoke machine was turned on. Also, about halfway through the set Ramsay told the audience that they would play a new, yet to be titled song, he indicated that they were leaning towards the title 'BarfWolf'... he seemed to think that would receive a particularly high rating on Pitchfork.

High points of the set included: Outside the City, Come and See and Swing Your Heartache, which was a terrific choice to close the set on.

Sounds like: the resolution of, and waking up from, a superhero dream.

Also, the Besnard Lakes continue to be awesome.

The Besnard Lakes @ Call the Office

Polaris Prize nominees the Besnard Lakes are at Call the Office tomorrow night. If you are in or near London, you should strongly consider going for the following reasons:

1. The show is $7 bucks through ticketscene.ca.

2. They have released one of the most overlooked CDs of the year, according to Pitchfork. This is a terrific chance to see them in a small venue before they takeoff.

3. If you trust my judgement, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, is one of my top 3 albums of this year to this point, and their live show is better than the album.

4. If you like both Led Zepplin and the Beach Boys, why not a band that sounds a little like both (see "Disaster").

5. In the words of my good friend of mine, "Look at that shirt. Look at that shirt! LOOK AT THAT SHIRT!"