Update

I just found out that this little site I worked on a long time ago has had 1451 page views. When the hell did people start reading this?

Note: right now I do not have a tape player, but I will certainly get one in the future, and maybe revive this blog. For now I've been reviewing my new music at:

Out My Passenger Window

I haven't been able to make any mixed tapes obviously. But I am committed to not letting this art form die in vain.

Music This Week 008: Stuck in Quicksand?

I know, I've been bad.

I've left something for a long time that I should have gotten to; which is this blog.

After I went to Grady, I planned on doing a double playlist featuring Grady and Big Sugar in ode to Gordy Johnson's amazing guitar playing. Well, that's still coming.

This week is something a little bit different. Right now we're waiting for a new Deftones album. This morning I picked up my Breedlove acoustic, and played a little Johnny Marr in the key of How Soon Is Now. Only, it didn't sound at all right. I've heard something about Marr using an open E tuning to play this song in, and it'll never sound right in standard. So I played the Quicksand version.

Quicksand was cited as a major influential force on a lot of the hard or punk bands currently out there, or that arose throughout the 90's and became famous in the last decade. While not being as 'big' as Page Hamilton and Helmet, their members were certainly responsible (arguably) for a lot more.

They have been reverred by such groups as the Deftones, or AFI, or other groups who have primarily 80's roots to some of their influences.

Quicksand actually started life as a couple of different bands. Lead singer and guitarist Walter Schreifels was the original creative songwriter and founding member of the Gorilla Biscuits. Which, if you remember, was perhaps the original hardcore straightedge band. That made them important in their own wright. Their bass player was Sergio Vega. You'll hear him elsewhere right now; mainly on the new Diamond Eyes album that Deftones released while Chi Cheng continues to be layed up in a hospital bed in a coma from a 2008 near fatal car accident in San Jose, California.

Quicksand were one of the first bands, besides Helmet, to take NY hardcore punk, and sort of smooth it out. When you listen to Steph Carpenter's 8 string Meshugga-type chug in Diamond Eyes you hear metal...but you hear something else from Moreno entirely. That's the Deftones. Now listen to bands like Thrice, Thursday and then a bazillion bands labelled 'emo' flavour of the week kinda stuff. None of that music really existed before Quicksand. It was hardcore, punk, metal, new wave, or nothing. When did they come together? As soon as an ex NY hardcore guitarist decided it was cool to do a cover of The Smiths in the early 90's.

Now can Quicksand take all the credit? No, of course not. But can they take about 50% of it, with the other 50% going to Page Hamilton and Helmet? Yeah, that seems fair. Now, whether or not you think this is a good thing or a bad thing, it's probable that when you go to see live music, the 99% of 'metal' (unless they're slayer-like) or hard rock, or screamo, emo whatever bands are playing on your local stages right now that think they were influenced by something like a combination between Thursday, Slipknot and The Smiths...ladies and gentleman...the chain reaction started here with Quicksand instead. Give it up for them, a little unknown history.

There are some cool vids up on youtube if you care, a few live ones, and a great one of them playing warped tour in Camden, New Jersey from what's probably 1996. For the playlist this week, I thought I'd go all over the place with this to connect the dots.

-How Soon Is Now - Quicksand - Slip 1993
-How Soon Is Now - The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing (single - B side) 1984
-Used For Glue - Rival Schools - United By Fate 2001
-Rocket Skates - Deftones - Diamond Eyes 2010
-Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - Deftones - B Sides and Rarities 2005

By the way, Walter formed a band in 2001 called Rival Schools that split after one album in 2001. So if you happen to search for "How Soon Is Now Cover" and you get 'Rival Schools' come up a bunch of times, it's very much essentially the same thing, since Walter is really responsible for both covers. Funny how things should go; since a band that was once influential on the Deftones now has their bass player as part of the lineup. That's where you'll hear Sergio Vega now. Meanwhile Rival Schools, who's second album under Island Def-Jam went unreleased that was scheduled for 2002 is set to apparently release a new album in 2010 after 8 years of not speaking to each other.

I'll believe it when I see it. But if I do see it, I'll probably buy it.

Music This Week 007: All About Grade

It's funny how some bands just could not exist without others, yet those other bands popularity never seems to be what it should compared to bands that use them as a direct influence. Think of The Velvet Underground for example. The Velvets continue to be cited by many bands of the last 20 years in alternative rock (even in mainstream rock) as a very influential group by many, like the Killers for example. Take the Velvets popularity into account though, and what you're left with is a handful of hipsters, appreciators and musicians alike (I disclude myself from this category, not because I don't recognize their valuable contribution to art and music in the post modern age, but because I don't really like their music all that much - keep in mind it's just a personal preference, I totally thank them for what they've done for so many artists and musicians in general).

Grade is one such band. To know that Grade started in 1993 is one of those things that when you find out, it's like finding out there is an entire album from Slayer of early 80's punk covers. It really brings you back to the roots of it all.

Grade hails from Burlington, ON, like such other bands as Jersey (now defunct) and Silverstein - who copied their sound so precisely in their debut How Broken Is Easily Fixed (2001) that Kyle Bishop himself, one of the founders and lead vocalist of Grade actually guested on the album. But there could be no Silverstein, or perhaps Jersey without Grade. I would also argue that there could be no bands from nearby New Brunswick, New Jersey like Thursday without Grade (Thursday's debut came out in 2000), or even most of the stuff Thrice got away with wouldn't have been possible without them.

The first recordings came in a split with band Believe in 1994, with the landmark And Such Is Progress coming in 1997. A lot of the early stuff is simply 'hardcore' and couldn't be classified as much else. Most of this styling can be heard on The Embarrasing Beginning (2000) which Grade has publicly said on many occaisons was a mistake to release in the first place. Atypical Grade would be probably classified as the majority of stuff from Under The Radar in 2000 from Victory Records. It's around this time that things started to change. What I felt was the golden child on Victory's roster; I was wrong about. Thursday got the big winnings going off to Island (where later they were released from, and went back to Victory before getting signed with Epitaph) and bands like Taking Back Sunday struck gold with Tell All Your Friends - which has now been rereleased 3 times (ridiculous). The Screamo moniker came out of this music...the problem was that Grade was maybe a little too hardcore. The emo part of screamo wasn't there. It was just a lot of Kyle Bishop screaming, and I guess what's considered punk rock (of course there are so many facets, for example, I keep getting confused as to why I'm finding It Dies Today in that section).

Grade was plagued by a problem that surrounds a lot of Canadian touring bands. Long tours, far between stops and day jobs and being on an indie label meant they never found more than home market success, and certainly not on the radio (being a screaming band and all). This meant that most of the guys were in more than one project. After Headfirst Straight To Hell (2001) was released, what I believe is their crowning achievement and probably one of the best albums of the decade, Greg Taylor, the original guitarist, left to play in Jersey full time (he was playing in both projects). Charles Moniz replaced their original bass player Chris Danner right after the release as well. Moniz was so new, in fact, that I remember seeing Grade for the first time live in '01, and Kyle saying that they couldn't do any more encore because Charlie was new, and he didn't know any more songs. The Casarin brothers from Somehow Hollow joined Grade for their final tours and the band brokeup thereafter. If you watch the video for Termites Hollow you can see the Casarin's in the background wearing S-H shirts to promote their own band. It was pretty terrible. Then they broke up.

Somehow Hollow was a terrible disappointment. It was no follow up, and the songs were just too poppy and without substance for Grade loyals. Jersey eventually broke up. Kyle Bishop was playing guitar on a horrible punk outfit called the Black Maria. It had all gone to shit.

Then there was a light. Greg Taylor had formed a new band called Saint Alvia Cartel. A cool, and distinctly Canadian sort of reggae-greaser punk rock band had a few incarnations of what sounded like Grade tracks on it. All in all, the self titled release from Stomp in 2007 was at least a worthy replacement to maybe fill 25% of that hole. They were touted as a 'Canadian Punk-Indie supergroup) with members of Bane, Jersey and Grade, and even got radioplay. The singles Don't Wanna Wait Forever, and Time To Go actually got radio play. Then their follow up hit, and it sucked so bad...I don't even want to go there. It was just really bad.

Then something even more miraculous. On July 1st, 2009, the original members stated on their Myspace site that they were actually playing together again. By fall of that year, two tracks were finished, and in winter of 2010, two split EP 7" pressings were released by At Both Ends magazine for their final issue. Now rumors surrounding a new Grade album, considering how well they got together and the hype around the release of just two songs continue to float around.

Those songs can be heard here:

http://www.myspace.com/gradeundertheradar

There was also a reunion show in 2008 at the Opera House in Toronto. I never heard about it, because unlike Americans, I don't follow Myspace. It was just never friendly to Canadians I guess. I would have easily dropped the money to fly down there and see them live. I'm guessing it was fairly impromptu.

Anyway, I wanted to give you a little sampling of Grade music for this week's playlist. This sort of goes through a little bit of the other groups I mentioned as well.

Optical Portions - Grade - At Both Ends Split - 2010
Dirty Dent - Saint Alvia Cartel - Self Titled - 2007
Somehow Hollow - The Witch Of Glen Cedar Gate - Self Titled - 2003
Little Satisfactions - Grade - Headfirst Straight To Hell 2001
Seamless - Grade - Under The Radar - 2000

And there's a little Grade-ology for you. I had them on while I was cleaning the house today. Hardcore really gets your house spotless. Until next time, keep listening to music.

Music This Week 006: The Stills Album I Couldn't Find, Underoath, and turning 27.

I'm old.

There I said it.

Actually an interesting thing crossed my mind the other day while driving to my parent's place for dinner. I had Underoath in the CD player. There was a point at which I though I'd be past this.

No, not this point on Wayne Gretzky Drive. I thought a time would come where I'd stop listening to hard music, but it just hasn't happened. Maybe in my 30's, but at 27, I'm still enjoying it, if not more now than I did when I was younger. It's interesting growing older as a music appreciator. In addition to having all the wierd hopeless romantic fetishes that music appreciators have (like in High Fidelity), you look back at all this mass of music you collected and wonder as to why...what drove you to take on this expansive undertaking of analyzing, enjoying, keeping it all in order, etc. There's also those other crazy things like

• -I want to be a rock star
• -I am a musician
• -I cannot find a girl in which so many musicians express so much passion for in songs. I want to write songs like that and therefore, I want a girl for which to be passionate about
• -Possibly I want a girl who is a musician

I was once told by this girl that I was dating that "[she] was used to being the star in the relationship." I told her by all means, she could be. I don't think that worked, because she didn't stick with me. I don't consider myself a star by any means, but being a music collector, appreciator and even a musician or just a general music nerd carries in itself a certain elitism that's undeniable. Some people can think it's nerdy and a waste of time and effort (and money if you're like me). Others might find it intimidating.

Now on to what I had on the laser turntable this week. First; I still can't stop listening to Jackson Square by the Arkells. Again, it took from July to freaking late March for me to get a hold of this album, but I did, and I've been obsessing over it since. There really hasn't been a day that has gone by that I haven't listened to it. I told you to pick up some songs from it in the last edition. I feel like everyone should just listen to the whole album.

I finally got the Stills Oceans Will Rise this week. Every store had been out of it for quite sometime, until I went to the HMV in Bonnie Doon mall after getting milk at Safeway. It is, I guess, a little wierder than I thought it would be. In spite of that, there are still some good songs on it, although my favourite is still Being Here which has already been licenced to Alexander Kieth's.

Fuck it.

Then there's Underoath. In 2004 AP gave them 5/5 for the album They're Only Chasing Safety, and said openly that it was "unlike anything else out there." Unfortunately, that's not even remotely true. I don't really think it's true of that album either. I picked up their most recent Lost In The Sound of Seperation and was surprised at how just like Norma Jean it sounded when Cove Reeber guests on their tracks. Spencer Chamberlain definitely has an emo whine when he isn't growling the rust off his vocal cords. Outside of that; I have no idea how this band was labelled as a Christian band. They are about as much a Christian band as Evaneasance was, or Hayley Williams of Paramour is. I mean, maybe the band itself is Christian, but this is far from a Christian band, just like how Norma Jean was supposed to be Christian, and perhaps some of the songs pertain to scipture, but not in a Love Jesus sort of way. The album isn't a 5/5 for me as Ross Robinson's produced Anti Mother by Norma Jean. But it fills a gap where there needs to be some hard music versus all the softy indie shit I've been listening to lately. Well, it's not shit. It's chocolate pudding, isn't it?

For the playlist this week, have a listen to:

1. Hands On Fire - The Stills - Oceans Will Rise 2008
2. Snow In California - The Stills - Oceans Will Rise 2008
3. A Fault Line, A Fault Of Mine - Underoath - Lost In The Sound Of Seperation 2008
4. Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near - Underoath - Lost In The Sound Of Seperation 2008
5. Burning Down The House - The Talking Heads - The Best Of, Remastered 2009

Why is that last one in there? Well you know, it was 2/25 and I picked it up because let's face it: The Talking Heads are freaking fun to listen to.

I know it's been a while since I made a tape. Maybe I should make myself one for my birthday (or maybe one of you should make one for me).

Music This Week 005: The Arkells, A huge storm, and a Pilot Speed show that didn't happen...

It was July 19, 2009. I had been at home, and got caught in quite a storm on the way home from work. By the time I had gotten home, everything seemed okay. I had just been dumped by my girlfriend (oh sorry, she went on a break with me), but I resolved to meet Jeremy and Sheila to see the Arkells and Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate) play a free show at Capital Ex. Through the Arkells set, it rained off and on, and eventually the sun came out for a while. They wrapped up their set. The road crews began to put the stage together for Pilot Speed. This was the first time I was to see one of my favourite bands since their 2003 release Caught by the Window.

I was talking to a few Grant Macewan journalist students whom were taking some pictures; I asked them to email a few of the pictures of the stage to me. That's when one of them remarked about how dark it had become. I looked to see extremely dark clouds descending over us at an unusual rate. "It'll probably just pass by us." I said. Jeremy and Sheila went to find Sheila's friends somewhere. That's when all chaos broke loose. The wind picked up so much it became a threat to the temporary stage. We were asked to leave the area immediately. I didn't initially believe anything was that bad, so I straggled, until the police began evacuating us. I started walking, quickly, towards the exit, until I heard terrible sounds behind me (it proved to be booths falling apart, and the stage collapsing) and that's when I started running. As I was going for the exit, a metal fence blew over on to me. I continued out and around and began down Wayne Gretzky Drive towards my truck which was parked in front of Axe at the time, a couple of blocks down. Giant oak trees along the drive had branches blown off, one on top of a minivan while driving right next to me. Then the hail started. Finally I reached my truck, being pelted with hail and debris, and then hard rain. I got in and began to drive home. The lights were out, including the traffic lights, and people had forgotten to use common sense and were ripping through uncontrolled intersections.

We found out the day after that Pilot Speed had to cancel some of the rest of their tour because their equipment and tour vehicles were damaged from the storm. #YEG was the biggest twittered (Edmonton) location due to the storm.

I never got to see Pilot Speed when they came back.

I did however, finally pick up Jackson Square by The Arkells (Dine Alone Records) a few days ago. Just as good as it was on that stage; it was on the album. Max's lyrics are fantastically poetic, and the music is great to groove to. So as a tribute to one of my old favourites, and one of my new favourites, the playlist today is made up of two great Arkells songs, and three great Pilot Speed songs.

1. Tragic Flaw - Arkells - Jackson Square 2009
2. Abigail - Arkells - Jackson Square 2009
3. Alright - Pilate - Caught By The Window 2003 (rereleased under Pilot Speed)
4. Hold The Line - Pilate - Self Control For Life's Speed 2006 (rereleased under Pilot Speed)
5. Put The Phone Down - Pilot Speed - Wooden Bones 2009

And if you must know, my Self Control for Life's Speed album is the one labelled "Pilate" and not Pilot Speed. They pulled them from shelves at some point and restocked with a new press that had the new band name on it. Some band that broke up in 1974 had the same name as Pilate. It doesn't make Pilot Speed any less good, or the other original Pilate any less unknown. That's my opinion on it.

Enjoy the playlist this week; I recommend the entire Jackson Square album.

Music This Week 004: Colleen Brown, Matthew Good and Artists Using Other People's Guitars

This week started out with the Hawksley Workman concert on Sunday evening, and technically because Sunday is the beginning of the week, that means the week started out with the Hawksley Workman concert.

Opening for Hawksley was Colleen Brown. Hawksley had heard her on CBC Radio 3 and invited her to open the show. Workman's dedication to local artists is phenominal, getting a local artist for him to open his shows at each place. But I digress, I'm focusing on Brown here. An Edmonton, Alberta native, she's proven that there is a possibility for Edmontonians making music to play on a national scale and have some success. She described the story of how she first heard her own song on local radio CKUA while she was working at the box office in the Winspear. Fantastic stuff, she put on a great show, and some of her tracks are in our selections for this week. I wonder if she'll google herself and come accross this blog one day...

As for Hawksley, I told Cedar he's a shredder. Played an excellent show absent of anything off of Lover/Fighter except for Future Language Of Slaves, an abbreviated version with a shredding solo at the end. Apparently the concert was being recorded for later broadcast on CBC Radio 3. Quite personally I think CBC could easily sell copies of the performance, if not pressed, than at least on iTunes. Songs that I couldn't stand off the album suddenly sounded fantastic in comparison to their counterparts, which in my opinuous ranting, were overproduced. If you love Songs For Sarah Jane, it's about 10 times more heartbreaking played by Hawksley on a Gretsch single cut with a very strange floating bridge and Mr.Lonely, his keyboard player. If you think We'll Make Time is a boring lovesong, it takes on a whole new aura of energy and pure rock excitement when used as the final song in the encore. And you'd be surprised when Workman straps on a Gibson King V in the middle of the show and shreds some metal worthy solos.

Here's a guy who can do no wrong. He himself admitted that, "I can't believe I'm here. In a time where this industry I am is so uncertain I keep being able to play amazing people like this in front of all of you just by being me." And that's his appeal. Workman doesn't have mass appeal. But yet, looking at a sold out Winspear Center, seeing how the concert goers ranged from hipsters to punks to preps, professionals to labourors, seventeen year olds to seventy year olds; Workman appeals to everyone and anyone.

Then there's this:

And I know you're like, "what is that?" It's Workman playing this:

This is a Paul Reed Smith SE Mike Mushok signature model guitar. This is an odd choice. Why? Because this is the signature guitar of Mike Mushok. Who is he? He's the guitarist from Staind. That's right; Workman is playing Staind's guitarist's signature model. The other wierd things about this include the fact that this guitar is a 27.7" baritone model. In other words, it's made explicitly for low tunings and heavy metal. Finally, it's actually a cheaper Korean built guitar, as opposed to the real PRS american built models. It actually retails for only around $700 altogether. But it actually works well for Workman. On occaision when Mr.Lonely and his bass player are both on keyboards, he can carry the low end of the song by playing in lower registers. It also has passive pickups which are a little more dynamic compared to most baritones which use actives. I thought it was interesting. It's something you don't see a lot.

Finally the last thing I wanted to talk about this week was Matt Good. I have always found him one of the most dynamic and interesting songwriters there ever was. Of course, through his divorce, and in the days after MGB died off, his solo material wasn't so great until Hospital Music. That being said, I never gave Vancouver my full approval. That is until this week I took it in the car with me. Driving out to the Fort yesterday morning in the dark that daylight savings time left us, I had a good reaquaintence with one of my old friends. The selections off of Vancouver are seen below.

So here are the songs to add to your playlist for this week:

1. Colleen Brown - Man, Woman and Child - Foot In Heart 2007
2. Colleen Brown - I Can't Make You Love Me - Foot In Heart 2007
3. Colleen Brown - Ain't Got No Man (To Have Problems With) - Foot In Heart 2007
4. Matthew Good - On Nights Like Tonight - Vancouver 2009
5. Matthew Good - Volcanoes - Vancouver 2009

To go ahead and hear Colleen Brown, check out:

http://www.colleenbrownmusic.com/

You'll also find links there to her album available on iTunes and CDBaby. Of course, if you live in Edmonton, just go stop by Blackbyrd or Megatunes, and you should be able to get a hold of it.

Until next time, keep enjoying music!

Music This Week 003: Hawksley In Town

Mr. Workman (seriously, is this the guy's real name) is in town this week. I didn't really enjoy Meat all that much, but I knew I wouldn't. I knew that Hawksley was getting wierder and wierder and there was nothing much anyone could do about that. I mean why do you think Tegan and Sarah stopped having their albums produced by him and moved over to Ben Gibbard and Hunter from AFI? I think to be able to suggest someone else's music to have mass appeal, you have to have mass appeal yourself.

But the point isn't necessarily always about having mass appeal, of course.

I know that I abandoned music this week last week (yeah I said it) but for a good cause. Basically, the PS network was down, and you weren't supposed to use your playstation. So instead I made a tape. That person I made the tape for will be coming with me on Sunday evening to see the man himself who has broken so many hearts...or something. I wonder who's opening?

This week, I thought I'd include something from Meat, along with some other selections I've been listening to.

1. Songs For Sarah Jane - Hawksley Workman - Meat 2010
2. Golden Years - Disco Ensemble - Back On The MF Street 2009
3. The Weight - Thrice - Beggars 2009
4. Spanish Handshake - The Bronx - The Bronx III 2008
5. Wolves - Machine Head - The Blackening 2007

A lot more highway driving for me now, therefore, a lot more stuff I can cruise to. Add these to your playlist, and enjoy!