Friday Bullets: When Shaq Attacks!

• Wednesday at around noon might have been the most exciting moment of my life. My favourite basketball blog (TrueHoop at ESPN) posted my comment on the Shaq trade:

If I'm Phoenix I make Shaquille O'Neal race Dick Bavetta [extremely old NBA referee] a la Charles Barkley. If he wins the trade goes through, if he loses then he promises to appear on a celebrity version of 'The Biggest Loser.'

• In retrospect that might have been a little harsh, Shaq is not going to run with the Suns, but he'll be a good chemistry guy, a good inside presence, and a good mentor for Amare Stoudemire. Realistically, even though they had the best record in the West when the trade went through, they were something like 14-12 against the Western Conference which wasn't going to cut it during playoff time. Give GM Steve Kerr credit for having the testicular fortitude to make a move, even if it was trading their best defender, rebounder, finisher on the break. After I thought about it, I asked myself was Phoenix going to win a title pre-trade, and the answer was a resounding no. With Shaq, they're going to have to play a different style of game, and so, who knows...

I was going to post a Shaq song, but the Diesel is not a guy I want coming after me for copywrite infringement. Instead:

[mp3] Tokyo Police Club - Nature Of The Experiment.mp3

• My friend Cali's band, the Sea Inside, is playing tonight at Call the Office with a slew of other acts. I wrote about them and posted a video a few months ago. I'll encourage you to go see them, its definitely worth your time if you're in the area. Also, it was his birthday yesterday, and its one of my BFFs (Rosie)'s birthday tomorrow, so a song for both of them from the Winks album Birthday Party.

[mp3] The Winks - Guitar Swing.mp3

• Also, I missed Jane Vain & the Dark Matter on Wednesday, since the weather was terrible and I hadn't heard enough good things yet to warrant me risking my life going out into the snow. Hopefully it was good, and hopefully they'll be back. That said, if they're in TO in the next few days so if anyone makes it to those shows I'd be interested to get a review.

[mp3] Jane Vain & The Dark Matter - C' mon Baby Say Bang Bang.mp3

• Last bullet. Thanks to everyone who keeps coming back and reading, as of today we should be over 1000 'total visitors', since I figured out how to add the counter a couple of months ago. Anyways, thanks, any feed back is always welcome, have a great weekend.
  

[mp3] Vampire Weekend - Mansard Roof.mp3

Ra Ra Remixes: That is to say, Remixes of Ra Ra Riot Songs

Jen and I had been having this ongoing discussion about how we'd been both been feeling like we needed some inspirational music. I mentioned the other day that I really liked the Do, but I definitely wouldn't classify them as inspirational, I think they're probably too experimental to really pick me up.

That said, I think Ra Ra Riot is going to fill that void and really get me through the rest of winter. They even have an inspirational/tragic story about the mysterious death of their drummer. I don't want to compare their music to anyone, especially since I'm going to post remixes of their songs, but I get a kind of poppier Arcade Fire vibe from them sans banging on helmets, shouting through microphones, etc. I just compared them to someone, didn't I? The only shame about this is that Ra Ra Riot only has the one self-titled EP, but if you're jonesing (or rioting?) for more RRR I would check out their Daytrotter session from October 2007 where they perform 2 songs that aren't on their EP.

[mp3] Ra Ra Riot - Each Year [RAC Mix].mp3
[mp3] Ra Ra Riot - Ghost Under Rocks [Andrew Maury Remix].mp3

In other news: I'm going to try and catch Jane Vain & the Dark Matter at the Alex P. Keaton tonight. Also, I think Jen's seeing Dragonette, who I missed when they came to London (Ontario) in November.

Wednesday Bullets.... I promise I'll stop... after this weekend....

• I just can't help myself. Hayden is three days away and I promised myself I wouldn't talk about it anymore, but I came across another couple of concerts in mp3 format that I thought were worth passing on. First one, courtesy of i(heart)music, of a live session at CBC Radio 3 in 2005. The second, is from B(oot)log, of Hayden's Nov. 2/2007 show at the Grad Club in Kingston. If you haven't seen Hayden - it gives you a good idea what his shows are like - probably more so that Live from Convocation Hall [2001].
  

• Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was on a pile of year end lists and I finally heard something off the album, say, about a week ago. After doing some research (I probably should have just looked at his myspace), I found out that FEFA was released independently and is being re-released on Jagjaguwar (home of the Besnard Lakes, Sunset Rubdown, Okkervil River) on February 19th. I think I read that the album was recorded in a cabin in Northern Wisconsin, and if it wasn't, at least it sounds like it. I think it'll be the album that reminds me of being holed up in my apartment for the winter of 2008... as far as I know you can find 4 tracks through the Hype Machine: "Flume" "Skinny Love" "The Wolves (Act I and III)" "For Emma". All recommended if you dig that singer-songwriter ish.

• I wasn't sure whether I was going to mention this, but, what the hell. I saw Sweeney Todd last night. Not sure why, by all accounts I hate, HATE, Johnny Depp and I don't like musicals - with the exception of the Buffy musical episode, which I grew to love. With all that going against it, I actually kind of enjoyed it. The music wasn't great, but it didn't distract from what was, at the very least, a pretty entertaining if not extraordinarily morbid story about cannibalism.

• Lastly, after Feist at the beginning of December I was pretty concerned that my concert calendar looked pretty bare. In the last few days I've added a few favourites: the Most Serene Republic, Tokyo Police Club as well as a couple new acts that I'm interested in Jane Vain and the Dark Matter, Amos the Transparent, and Born Ruffians. So, looks like I'm going to have some stuff to do in the next couple of months. Hooray!
  

Update: As I was writing this the Raptors just beat the Celtics in Boston. I guess this is how good the Raps can be when Andrea Bargnani plays like a #1 draft pick (2o pts, 7 rebs, 6 asts).