The last time I bought a cassette, well… I’m not sure I remember. It was definitely in the late 80’s or maybe 1990, but it’s all rather fuzzy. To some extent vinyl had always kept a small touch of cool, but cassettes were popular only because they were portable. When CD’s took over that market, they became obsolete. Still, there is that touch of nostalgia and I fully admit to having a tape deck hooked into the stereo as I was making ‘mixed tapes’ into the late 1990’s.

So imagine my surprise when the latest Metric release came in two formats only: digital download and limited cassette. (Actually, I’ll be honest, I find it pretty awesome!) Over to the old AIWA deck I go and watch two wheels turn a thin strip of plastic. There it is, that new single (“The Shade”), introduced to The Edge just a day or…

The first person narrative has long been a device in rock music. So whether it is self proclamation (“Get Back Up”) or explanation (“Say What You Want”) or reclamation (“Piece Of Cake”) the only question to ask:  Is the Barenaked Ladies road still worth travelling?

It sort of depends on where your music tastes start and stop. Silverball leans heavily on the pleasant sounds of the eighties, happily playing in a mix of Huey Lewis & the News, Katrina & the Waves, and the Live Aid era pop that saw the dangerous (Jagger & Bowie) become outrageous as they danced in the streets. Sure, “Get Back Up” is a song that looks at the band as having nothing left to prove, but that doesn’t mean nothing left to say.

In the Barenaked Ladies world growing older doesn’t mean much more than gaining perspective. When Robertson sings “maybe we got much…

It’s hard to gain respect when you are the world’s most bombastic band. Ask ELO or Queen about critical reception and there will always be those critics who point out the over the top nature of such artists. On top of this Muse can’t shake the fact that vocalist/guitarist Matthew Bellamy phrases his singing like The Bends era Thom Yorke and plays flashy guitar reminiscent of Brian May. Thing is, if you were to describe the ingredients of a great sounding record, you could do much worse than those guys.

The only thing that can save artists from the line of ‘artistic achievement’ and ‘unholy disaster’ is a group of songs that both the band and their fans can embrace as “really f’in cool.” So now you have Drones, an album that uses the mechanical bringers of death as a metaphor for the loss of humanity, identity and empathy…

Anyone having read this blog knows that I love Lego and I LOVE vinyl. Well, holy rotating crap Batman!… some beautiful genius in South Korea has combined them to create this gorgeous working turntable.

So, I’m looking at my Facebook page and this video pops up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFSXsOpm2MY

Now, having watched the youtube video, it does sound like crap, but youtube has a whole bunch of working turntables built with lego… they also sound like crap.

The one from the video uses parts from an audiotechnica with Lego, and puts the sound out through speakers that are also built from Lego. I would be curious to hear it with real speakers. In fact, I would be curious to see a turntable built with Lego and really great parts from an old turntable that could be run through a stereo. To date it seems that the ‘master builders’ have been using…

Some albums just seem timeless by their very nature, and such is the case with Elliott Smith and his eponymous record. What made Smith unique was his ability to be a singer/songwriter playing music in a way reminiscent of Nick Drake but with a sensibility that came from his own life and the darker era of the 1990’s. Call it grunge without a Fender Jaguar to scream emotions in your face. Instead he used light strumming on an acoustic guitar mixed with a thin voice that always seemed like it was on the cusp of breaking. He was heartbreaking and mesmerizing in the same breath. He was better off without the bombast of the era as is proven in his earlier band Heatmiser, which often times seemed like just another band trying to be the ‘flavour of the month,’ because, as hindsight has shown us, he was so much more.

Driving

I suppose I could have added up the kilometres, but that information wasn’t relevant.

Distance

Doesn’t have a goddamn thing to do with how far you have travelled.

Locked in thoughts of where you were and where you’re going without the benefit of perspective. Each moment passing without the ability to reflect on it, because time passes and you can’t grasp it. Words linger without being able to wrestle them to the ground and beat them for information.

Instead there is only me, the kilometres and the music I’ve chosen to spend my time with.

Driving back and forth through snowstorms, Mark Linkous sings “When you raise your head from your pillow don’t delay / Because people decay / Will you let the rays of the sun help you along / I woke up and all my yesterdays were gone.” I might have a tear. It depends on which…

Let’s face it, Modest Mouse is never going to get any better and cooler than they were a few years ago when Johnny Marr joined up for an album and tour, and every album subsequently will be judged against the success of We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. Sure early albums like The Moon & Antarctica were great records that built their reputation, but both the commercial and critical success of We Were Dead… makes it the career highlight.

Perhaps that’s why we see an 8 year wait between records, although, it really doesn’t seem like that long ago, but I digress…

Modest Mouse has always balanced themselves on a thread between ambitious and eccentric. At their best they have this quirky genius thing going on and the other side of the coin is this pretentious arty bullshit that isn’t nearly as smart as they seem to…