Almost Famous II: David Vandervelde "The Moonstation House Band"

For me, David Vandervelde channels the essence of rock and roll. Rock and roll the way it was meant to be played, like bus scene in Almost Famous. Vandervelde released his debut album, The Moonstation House Band back in January, which is usually the kiss of death for making year end 'best of'' lists. However, The Moonstation House Band really is probably one of the best straight ahead rock albums of the year. It's relatively short, at 8 songs, but there is no waste on the album each song being as strong as the last.

At the end of last year Vandervelde recorded 4 songs at/for Daytrotter (if you're not familiar they have some outstanding live sessions) available for download here. Of these four songs, two are songs from his album TMHB (Feet of a Liar, Jacket), one is a song he wrote in a few minutes (F-ckin' Around), and the last is a cover of the Rolling Stones (C-cksucker Blues). Inexplicably, the post date for these songs is December 25th... pretty sad Christmas for Vandervelde if you ask me.

Also, there are 3 more live tracks available via WEEM/MOKB Indianapolis here.

I really can't emphasize enough how much that you should try and pick this up if you liked the sound track for Almost Famous.

Electronic Music for People Who Don't Like Electronic Music: Caribou "Andorra"

There has been a lot of hype surrounding Dan Snaith's aka. Caribou latest release Andorra (in the musicblog world, not the real world, in case you don't live in either). I skim through a lot of music blogs, and despite just about everyone raving about his album, I had kind of ignored them mostly because his earlier work under the moniker 'Manitoba' was pretty inaccessible. The wikipedia entry explains, hilariously, why he is now recording as Caribou.

At any rate, after hearing so many good things about this album I finally relented (I'm not sure, but I think I succumbed to peer pressure over the internet, sad, huh). After running through the album a half dozen times or so, I'm tending to agree that this more melody driven, beach boys influenced, electronic album, probably is among the years best albums.

In case you were wondering, yes, he does in fact have a PhD in Math. Was it that obvious from the photo?

My buddy Rosie passed along this Globe and Mail article by Robert Everett-Green on Snaith a little while ago.

Also, the BBC put together a neat mini-documentary (8 minutes) on Andorra available on here on youtube. You have no idea how hard it was to resist embedding this since I learned how to do it over the weekend.

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

Cuff the Duke @ Call the Office/My First Hoedown

(Sound quality on the video is not the best due to the fact that I, stupidly, decided to stand beside the speaker).

I managed to catch Cuff the Duke at Call the Office on Friday. It was good. My buddy Brain and I got there just in time to catch the opener Rock Plaza Central. After playing a really neat opening song ("I Am An Excellent Steel Horse") with a really cool four part vocal harmony, the rest of their set went down hill from there... the remainder of their set consisted of me and Brain drinking and trying to remember this band.

Cuff the Duke was excellent, and played a good mix of tracks from their three albums skewing away from their second, self titled album, in favour of playing some old favourites and promoting new material off their recently released Sidelines of the City. The highlight of the night had to be the three song encore where they invited a half dozen members on stage to help with some clapping part (I was pretty drunk at this point in the night, I can't be expected to remember everything can I?).

Photos courtesy of Brain and his stupid iPhone...

The Raptors: Where Mediocrity Happens...

I am THE Raptor hear me roar!

If I haven't made the, Chris Bosh looks like a Raptor so its appropriate that he plays for the Raptors joke to you in person.... consider it made.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it is that is going wrong with the Raptors lately. How they managed to completely collapse against Golden State in the 4th quarter on Sunday, how they blew a 20 point lead against Dallas on Tuesday, why they can't seem to win at home, and whether or not they're going to be any better than last year.

A couple of weeks ago I suggested that I thought Sam Mitchell was a communist (equal playing time for all!). After spending some time looking through box scores in the last week or so I think I confirmed my hypothesis that good NBA teams play a solid 7-8-9 man rotation with a few guys filling in between 5 and 10 minutes a night. With Rasho, Garbo, and TJ Ford out on Wednesday in Memphis - this is exactly what happened - and.... drum roll please... they won! Obviously this isn't the whole answer for the Raps (I'm realistic they were playing Memphis), but it wouldn't be a bad place to start. However, my solution to pear down the rotation that says nothing about when everyone is healthy which is the right mix of guys....

This has lead me to start thinking more broadly about the characteristics necessary to build a championship ball club. So, a project I've given myself from now until, whenever (hopefully in time for the NBA Draft '08), is to read up on NBA dynasties and to try and figure out why they were able to be successful for an extended period. Also, my hope is to look at non-dynasties (i.e. I'm kind of excited to read Jack McCallum's book Seven Seconds of Less on the Phoenix Suns) to attempt to figure out what they're missing. I'm hoping this will turn into a report/essay that I can give to BC (Brian Colangelo) and win my rightful spot as assistant traveling secretary for the Raps.

At this point book recommendations are desperately needed.

Sidebar, this biography of Tim Duncan is short, but its far, far too funny not to read. Please, I'm begging you. Thanks to TrueHoop for passing this on.

Hopefully some comments on Cuff the Duke tomorrow.

"I declare BANKRUPTCY!!!" ... some thoughts on a few TV shows

1/The Office - The Office, in my opinion, has been the best show on network TV over the last couple of years, but I was horribly, horribly, worried that the Pam and Jim getting together storyline would absolutely destroy the show. Well, turns out it hasn't, and has actually provided some hilarious moments for the show: Kevin and Oscar debating whether or not they've gotten together, their first night away to Shrute farms, and most recently Kelly's smack talk ('it's happening right now') vs. Pam. Since the end of the third season the show has developed a pile of other really interesting storylines: Ryan becoming an A-Hole, the Dwight-Angela-Andy love triangle, Michael and Jan's financial problems, etc. so it looks like they don't have to keep producing shows centering around Pam and Jim exclusively. It looks like its going to continue to be the one show on TV that I never miss, and always make sure that I'm up on. Oh and kudos to the girl who created the Finer Things Club on Facebook.

2/ Kid Nation - I've been watching this every week now based on my buddy Kyle's recommendation on his blog, that he found it 'strangely compelling' or something, and I really like it also. It kind of reminds me of working at the John Hatch Sports Camp through high school with slightly less crying and kids confessing how much they miss their family and want to go home. At first I was taken aback, normally I like reality TV because I like watching stupid people cry (see: every season of the Bachelor). But, since the show is composed of exclusively kids, hence 'Kid Nation' when I saw them cry, it wasn't much fun. After I got past the fact that watching kids cry isn't fun, the show was, in fact, 'strangely compelling' I think mostly because of the sheer honesty of the kids in Bonanza city i.e. they aren't as conscious of their appearance as adults, there's no passive aggressive comments, backstabbing, etc. Also, I'm looking forward to Kyle's running dairy from the season finale ... (Wasko, if you're reading this... you promised. This is also the part in my post where I pressure Kyle into fulfilling my request to watch the finale together so that we can relive watching the Bachelor re-runs in Korea after Tuesday Night Football.)

Another sidebar, I love how the host of the show raises his arms in triumph after the kids successfully do anything. Something I'm thinking about integrating into my daily life.

3/ Pushing Daisies - I tried watching a couple of episodes of Wonderfalls (also created by Brian Fuller), but could never really get into it. I think because I couldn't really identify with the main character (a teenage girl - she was no Buffy or Veronica Mars), and the premise of the show (her talking to figurines). So, at this point I've got through three episodes of PD now, and I've come to the conclusion that I like it significantly better because:

i) the production value is significantly better;

ii) Ned (the main character), while bland, is surrounded by two really likable supporting characters 'Chuck' and 'Emerson Cod' - I love Chi McBride in this role;

iii) I've come to the conclusion that all things are better with narration - see Ron Howard - Arrested Development, Daniel Stern - The Wonder Years;

Deep thoughts... Jenn Grant, Cuff the Duke, Pet Sounds vs. Jay-Dee

First off, I'd like to apologize to the legions of you who read this, for slacking a little towards the end of last week. In my defense, I've been playing a lot of NBA Live '06 for the X-box. And, while I really wanted to play with the real Raptors, unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to play with the Raptors BC (Before Colangelo) when their starting line-up was: Rafer Alston, Mo-Pete, Jalen Rose, CB4, and Antonio Davis; sorry if I just made anyone vomit in their mouth remembering that team. Instead, I opted for the Fantasy Draft (position 27 - in every round) now my starters are: Kurt Heinrich, 42 year old Reggie Miller, Shane Battier, Emeka Okafor, and Chris Bosh ... life is much better.

When I haven't been playing video games, I've been listening to Jenn Grant's Orchestra for the Moon, Cuff the Duke's recently released Sidelines of the City, and a mash-up album by Bullion, Pet Sounds: In the Key of Dee mixing the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds with the beats of Jay-Dee. A few thoughts on each.

Orchestra for the Moon - My buddy Rosie who managed to see Grant open for the Weakerthans in Toronto, came away from the show particularly unimpressed with her work. While I can't comment on her show, I can say that her album is definitely worth a listen. The beginning of her album has a Feist-ian quality to it, but as the album progresses she seems to find more of her own voice with the last three tracks 'Rainy Day', 'White Horses', 'Blue Skies' which are all, in my opinion, outstanding tracks.

Sidelines of the City - Cuff the Duke's third album, SotC, is more of a return to a sound that emulates Cuff's live performance that was captured really well in their first album Life Stories for Minimum Wage, but not so much on their second self titled album. They are currently touring in will be in Ontario starting on Wednesday, and I'm going to recommend that you visit them especially if you have a chance to see them with Land of Talk in TO on the 30th.

Pet Sounds: In the Key of Dee - Jay Dee "your favourite hip-hop producer's favourite producer" had legions of fans within the hip-hop community and passed away last February. As an homage to both Jay Dee and DangerMouse (I assume - who produced the Grey Album, a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles White Album), Bullion has put together his own concept album, taking the beats of Jay Dee and mixing them with the Beach Boys Pet Sounds with surprisingly good results. The entire album is available for download for free here.