Guided by Voices: The Club Has Reopened

Posted on May 27, 2014 by McPhedran

Guided by Voices, featuring Robert Pollard on lead vocals, have a full-on sound, murky and raw, a straight shot of indulgence and jolly vice, like nothing else.

Guided By Voices play “Alex and the Omegas” at The Bowery Ballroom

The band has been around for over 30 years and, despite never cracking into a major market, has maintained a loyal following known for their chant of the faithful, “GBV!” The show is made up of some 65-80 songs – 10-14 songs in the encores alone, almost all of which – like the above Alex and the Omegas – are barely 2 minutes in length, all replete with power chords, chants and leg kicks.They are not a traditional band, although oddly enough that is exactly what they seem, a case of beer on stage, bottles of Jack Daniels and plenty of smokes to go around…yes, even today.
They have split up and got back together numerous times. The last CD – Motivational Jumpsuit – was to be the last, but now there’s another coming in a month – Cool Planet. This, their final reunion tour, is returning to New York this summer and will play The Stone Pony, which according to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame is “one of the greatest rock clubs of all time.” An intriguing combination to be sure.

Amadeus to Jimi: Top Five Wish List Concerts

Posted on May 16, 2014 by McPhedran

I can think of a few greats I wish I had seen live on the concert stage.

5. The Clash – fresh off recording the album of all albums, London Calling.4. Louis Armstrong – the voice and trumpet with Ellington or Fitzgerald…anybody at all!3. Amadeus Mozart – conducting The Marriage of Figaro on the Vienna stage. 2. John Coltrane – the grand master saxophonist at The Village Vanguard.1. Jimi Hendrix – the voodoo child from his marvelous distant land…live at Monterey.

Gord Downie & The Sadies Play Harvard

Posted on May 5, 2014 by McPhedran

Gord Downie and The Sadies played at The Sinclair in Cambridge on Saturday. The opening song, Crater, is the kind of music that comes over you and drives hard, perfect for sitting back and imagining that life might not be that bad, that there is joy in the night. View concert clip here.The band offered a superabundance of terrain – rock, punk, surfer, country, folk – melding their new-found energy with sincerity, talent and screams. And all of this, only the band’s third show together. Their cover of Guided By Voices, I Am A Scientist, makes one wonder what might be next, the hot summer nights ahead, when they will get deeper into their groove.

The Ten Worst Concerts of My Life

Posted on April 11, 2014 by McPhedran

Concerts are not always what we expect. Indeed they can be so fraught with the promise of excitement, that they turn into just the opposite. Understanding that some of the worst events have probably been permanently deleted from my brain, I offer the worst concerts which I remember:

10. Amon Tobin (Brooklyn Masonic Temple, October, 2011) A spinning electric thing mess that clacked and clanked, all so monotonous and loud.

9. Sebadoh (The Rage, Vancouver, September 1996) The highlight of the evening was the lead singer announcing that tour t-shirts were available “for anyone who still has a pulse.”

8. Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman (Ontario Place, Toronto, July 1990) Bob Weir should never play lead guitar nor sing Take Me to the River again. Ever.

7. Elton John (Barclay’s, Brooklyn, October 2013) The song-writing great went through his catalogue and butchered every last one. That wasn’t Rocket Man, was it?

6. Destroyer/Dan Bejar (Miller Theater, New York, September 2009) Bejar subjected the audience to a naval-gazing slide show and wincing music.

5. Cabaret Voltaire (Concert Hall, Toronto, May 1985) Arriving two hours late, the band played a haughty 45 minutes with slaughterhouse videos as a backdrop. No encore, thank goodness.

4. Bob Dylan & Tom Petty (BC Place, Vancouver, July 1987) Great music transformed into distorted abominations. Like a Rolling Stone wasn’t even decipherable.

3. Jimmy Cliff (Roman Amphitheatre, Carthage, July 1989) Cliff’s terrible Las Vegas style performance was undoubted torture for the performing ghosts from centuries past.

2. The Grateful Dead (Syracuse Dome, Syracuse, October 1984)Terrible sound and energy, low-lighted by Jerry Garcia missing verses and, in the end, unable to pick up his coffee off the amp.

1. The Who (CNE Stadium, Toronto, July 1980) A bitter experience with fights in the stands, hollow sound and the empty realization that live music was sometimes a terrible disappointment.

Shock to Sell

Posted on March 22, 2014 by McPhedran

Lars von Trier’s cinematic mission to shock audiences continues with the release of Nymphomaniac.

Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac”

Using scandalous images to sell isn’t a unique plan.

Henry Miller’s early work

Sarah Lucas’s “Nud Nob” in New York

Fat White Family perform at Pianos in New York

But instead of shocking, this tack becomes more a source of amusement, the kind of thing that sells t-shirts. Which seems to be all they’re trying to do.

Top Ten Concerts

Posted on March 18, 2014 by McPhedran

Yes, I admit this is both anal and childish, but I like to remember the places where my thoughts worked best – even if I didn’t remember much of it at show’s end.

10. Ravi Shankar, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto (1983) Beautiful hall, incredible music.

9. Emmylou Harris, The Boot Saloon, Toronto (1992) A honky-tonk night.8. Tragically Hip, Cleveland Flats, Cleveland (1995) Canada’s greats, straight & full-on.7. Guided by Voices, Fillmore West, San Francisco (2002) The club is open. 6. Jane’s Addiction, Key Arena, Seattle (1995) Farrell and Navarro in summer dresses. 5. Low, The Aquarium, Fargo (2012) Three full sets. 4. My Bloody Valentine, Roseland Ballroom, New York (2008) Ears are still ringing.

3. Noel Hill & Tony MacMahon, Mother Red Cap’s, Dublin (1994) The pure drop in a tavern.

. .

2. Sufjan Stevens, Bowery Ballroom, New York (2013) The end of the world – December 21, 2112 – with a few hundred others. 1. Grateful Dead, Oklahoma City Zoo, Oklahoma (1985) Full moon, at a zoo. (walstib)

Tibet House Benefit 2014

Posted on March 12, 2014 by McPhedran

The 2014 Tibet House Benefit, at Carnegie Hall last night, continues to be a musical highlight of the year.Highlights included the enchanting music of Phillip Glass (accompanied by Nico Muhly & Tim Fain), surprise guest Sufjan Stevens offering two of his Planetarium songs, and New Order front-manned by the raw, seemingly ageless Iggy Pop. Not even Patti Smith could ruin the night with her ego and histrionics, grabbing poor Mr. Glass at the end, dragging him into her spotlight.The good news is that, this time, she didn’t spit on the floor.

It is a privilege to attend this event. Thank you, Mr. Glass.

How to Make Rude People Feel Uncomfortable

Posted on February 3, 2014 by McPhedran

I went to see Bernardo at The Rock Shop on Friday. The show was awesome.However I was in the back – where the sound is best – and had a couple of people talking in front of me, talking non-stop, their backs to the music. Normally I would tell them to shut up or move, but I am trying to better, kinder version of myself and so employed a different method. I used the flash on my phone. And it worked, sort of; they hated it – ducking and turning away and stopped for a moment. But then, after I had done it twice, they went back to talking. The show still rocked.

Neil Young Plays. Nobody Listens.

Posted on January 7, 2014 by McPhedran

Neil Young battled the audience at New York’s Carnegie Hall last night. Time and again, he had to ask them to stop yelling out between songs. “You guys finished? No? You paid real good money to get in here, so you should be able to listen to each other.” Neither did they listen to the ushers telling them not to take pictures, flashes going off in all corners, guaranteeing each and everyone a personalized blurred memento.

Neil Young’s stage at Carnegie Hall

It’s a common disease, not being able to listen, our self-centered world only getting worse. As Laetitia Sadier sings in Stereolab’s The Seeming and Meaning:

We communicate more and more
In more defined ways than ever before
But no one has got anything to say
It’s all very poor it’s all just a bore

Paolo Sorrentini’s La Grande Bellezza, although a somewhat tedious film, does offer one character, a poet, who says nothing. Explains the protagonist. “He’s an excellent listener.”

La Grande Bellezza

It’s something to aspire towards.

Basinski & offthesky: Music to Get Unstuck By

Posted on December 5, 2013 by McPhedran

Often I get stuck. I don’t know how the room is – the stairway or carpet, the door – or what a character sees – the wallpaper, the light from the kitchen – or what she thinks – a dull pain in her calf, a memory of a first-grade teacher – and sit and stare, trying to think it through. Music gets me out. William Basinski and offthesky never fail. William Basinki’s Disintegration Loops – literally the sound of a loop of electronic music slowly disintegrating into other sounds – rises and falls, thick like an ocean.

The front door has been left open, only just, the chain casting a long jeweled shadow on the trim.There is an old wooden banister on the stairs; a narrow carpet runs up it, rolling vines and roots, worn blue, a corner of it bunched at the bottom. The third-last step squeaks. Jason Corder’s musical project offthesky is more immediate, starting engines and building long tenuous chords, moving relentlessly to the precipice.

She has her keys, holding them low in her hand. She has forgotten something. She waits but can’t remember. She opened the door. Yes, she just did that. And she came in. She needed to…she can’t remember. She goes up the stairs slowly, pausing on the third step.And remembered, the moment, only ten minutes ago, that she had stepped off the pavement, her feet on the cracked dirt, the leaves and her shadow there, all of the water now gone, from the river, the path and benches immersed, the stillness, and now back. And she was here. She had liked that.*This blog written to William Basinski’s dlp 1.1 & offthesky’s lossless

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