trevor

Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen.

Heck yes.

oh okay, cool. thanks. never really given him much of a chance, to be honest, so i'm not that familiar with his work...didn't realize that he was stadium-calibre.

hey solace, any idea who will be opening for them on the UK leg of the tour? just bought my tickets this morning for the second show at the O2. so pumped.

this came as a total surprise. did anyone even know that he was recording a new disc, let alone releasing it this year--and so soon?!! glad to hear it's all original music and not a collection of covers, too.

a music reviewer who posts on At Ease posted a glowing review of it the other day after he was privileged enough to have two listens in-studio, but he said it's under lockdown and impossible to take home, let alone leak. I don't think this bad boy will leak until right before the release date...I think the label realizes they have a masterpiece on their hands and don't wanna let sneak out. (Maybe that's wishful thinking, using words like "masterpiece." But, from everything I've read so far, I think we're assured a damn good record.)

So I'd heard about this guy a while back, around the time his debut disc Shallow Graves came out, but the immediate Dylan comparisons were a bit of a turn-off (that makes it sound like I don't like Dylan--not the case)...anyway, it was a while before I eventually checked the album out, and I didn't give it much of a chance at first. I think partly this was because the tracklisting was all messed up when I originally downloaded it, and there wasn't much flow to the album. I eventually got the tracklisting figured out and started really getting into it, but this wasn't until this past December or January. And then his next album, The Wild Hunt, which is due out in ten days time, leaked back in February. And it's really fantastic. It isn't a huge departure from what he's done previously--if anything, it seems like he's honed his craft to an even sharper point. There was a dark mysteriousness to the first album that's gone on the new one, which disappointed me at first, but in its place is an even stronger collection of songs, IMO. There's been a real leap in the quality of melodies, the lyrics are just as strong as before, and his voice (a point of contention for many, I'm sure) hasn't lost an ounce of that unique rawness. It's been a long time since I've been this captivated by just a guy and his guitar, and there's a timelessness about all these songs. They certainly don't feel like they were recorded in the past few years, but almost like they're long-lost relics that have just surfaced.

I'll be seeing him on Sunday at Sasquatch! at the end of May, and he's playing here in Vancouver a couple weeks prior to that. Don't have tickets to the latter show yet, but I really need to get on that. Anyone checked out his self-titled EP? It's his one release that I've yet to hear.

god i'm so excited. haven't been this excited for a release since...eh, dunno. In Rainbows? heh.

Listened to their first album a bunch of times, it never really grabbed me outside of one or two tracks (I think "Devastation" was the one I liked, although I'm not even sure that's the right name). Anyway. Is this one just more of the same? If I wasn't sold on the Dark Horse, is this new one worth my time??

i hadn't been this excited for a late night performance in probably years, and my god did it deliver. the sound quality isn't great, but, i mean, if this is the lead-off track on the new album like fallon indeed says it its, then this is going to be a HELL of an album. which is good, because my expectations for this thing are beyond massive.

on the highviolet website, they've got a couple whiteboards with a couple different tracklists. so maybe they haven't decided yet?

If this alt timeline is what happened if the bomb detonated, then I'm going to guess that the bomb detonating caused the universe to unravel events further back in time, to ultimately create a timeline with no conflicts where the island ends up underwater due to a different event.

I've read some speculation that the flashsideways are not actually a result of the bomb being detonated, but instead showing what would happen if the Man in Black/Flocke is successful. Which kinda makes sense...the characters who have been promised things by the MiB more or less have received them in the alternate timelines. Again, gonna have to see a lot more evidence of this before I completely get onboard with this theory...it also makes it difficult to understand Juliet's "It worked" comment in the premiere, right before she died. I dunno. Also was wondering last night the significance of the screen turning white behind the L O S T at the end of last season's finale, as opposed to the standard black, and whether/when we'll see that again. Maybe to signify the end of the flashsideways? Can't think they'll go on the entire season, but then again I'm unspoiled so maybe they will.

"Lost Verses" by Sun Kil Moon.

/end thread.

I work for the organizing committee, and Vancouver is my hometown, so it goes without saying that I'm excited. Although, at this point, I just really want the planning phase to be over and for the Games to just start already. Let's roll on Feb. 12 please.

Okay, I can say that this will definitely change between now and the end of the year...I'm also working on a list and I'm going to write up little blurbs on each album, and the order will probably shift around a bit...there's 10-15 albums that I haven't listed here that could all easily make it on in the next little bit. Also, there's a bunch of albums that I've only just heard in the past month or two--Gillian Welch's Time (the Revelator being one of them--that easily would've made it onto this list if I'd had more chance to listen to them. Same goes for all 09 releases. That being said:

30) Band of Horses | Everything All the Time

29) Sun Kil Moon | April

28) Songs: Ohia | Magnolia Electric Co.

27) Josh Ritter | The Animal Years

26) The Strokes | Is This It

25) Damien Rice | O

24) Elliott Smith | From A Basement on the Hill

23) TV on the Radio | Return to Cookie Mountain

22) Wilco | A Ghost is Born

21) Of Montreal | Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

20) Wolf Parade | Apologies to the Queen Mary

19) Ryan Adams | Cold Roses

18) The Hold Steady | Separation Sunday

17) Sufjan Stevens | Come On Feel the Illinoise!

16) The National | Alligator

15) Pilate | Caught By the Window

14) Radiohead | In Rainbows

13) My Morning Jacket | At Dawn

12) Matthew Good Band | The Audio of Being

11) Bon Iver | For Emma, Forever Ago

10) Sigur Ros | Agaetis Byrjun

9) Broken Social Scene | You Forgot it in People

8) The Arcade Fire | Funeral

7) Wrens | The Meadowlands

6) Modest Mouse | The Moon and Antarctica

5) Ryan Adams | Heartbreaker

4) The National | Boxer

3) Radiohead | Kid A

2) Sun Kil Moon | Ghosts of the Great Highway

1) Wilco | Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Phew. Like pulling teeth, though.

Yeah, that's definitely not a complete setlist. For starters, it doesn't include Conor's semi-solo run of songs near the start. I'd say there were probably anywhere from 6-8 songs before M. Ward took over with 100 Million. And yeah, saying that the room was "empty" is a major exaggeration...tickets said 7, we showed up at 7.30, the bouncers said the show would start at 8, and the band took the stage at 8.30. Granted, the crowd was thin enough that I was able to edge my way up to almost the very front, but there was a good crowd of people from the very get-go and everyone was very into it (one guy kept screaming out MIKE MOGIIIIIIIIIIIS, which got increasingly funnier as Mogis became increasingly awkward and by the end of the show seemed completely unsure of how to respond).

Show started with a few songs by the full band, and then everyone left the stage and it was just Conor for a song. Then Mogis joined him for a couple tracks, and then he left and Matt joined Conor on stage for a song. Then Conor left, Matt did a few songs by himself, then full band by himself, and then Jim had his mini-set. Kinda cool how they backed each other like this and traded off instruments quite smoothly and easily (they all played guitar, bass and keys at some point during the show, with the exception of Mogis, who spent a lot of the time on slide).

Could be speaking from a fairly substantial bias here, but Conor continues to be the major weak link in my eyes. He's the least skilled from a musicianship standpoint, and a lot of his attempts at showmanship either came off forced or wound up backfiring on him (during "Smoking from Shooting," he sang the 'Who makes my decisions' verse and held a hand over his right eye the entire time, looked like an idiot, then proceeded to nearly knock his mic from its stand, then spent the next 15-20 seconds trying to get it back into place just as all hell started breaking loose around him). Granted, he did come into his own a bit towards the end, and it would probably help if I knew his material more, but still...most of the time I just wanted to punch him in the face. (The fact that there were dozens of cute and charming girls practically drooling over him didn't endear him to me any further.)

All said, a very entertaining show, and given the ticket price, pretty good value too. I'll be interested to see what turns up on future setlists, but I was extremely satisfied by the MMJ tracks that were played, or, as Matt put it at one point, "severely pleased." Hopefully they don't play all 15 album tracks every time though...standouts from the album were "Losing Your Head" and "His Majesty's Voice" and then a few tracks that I don't really care for on the album at all: "Goodway" and "Map of the World" were both pretty great.

Okay, real fast, cause I really need to get to bed, but the quick lowdown on the show: they played every song off the album (I'm pretty sure of this, at least...haven't looked at the tracklisting, but off the top of my head I can't really think of a song they didn't play), plus 5-7 from each of their band's catalogues. It was these reworkings, some solo and some full-band, that generated most of the highlights. Never been a huge fan of Oberst and don't really know much of his material beyond Cassadaga, and off that they played Soul Singer and Limetree, plus a few other songs that I recognized but don't know the names of. This was my second time seeing Matt (the last time was at a festival) but he showed off his guitar chops and musicianship much more this time around, and I was actually quite impressed. His first solo song was a Hundred Million Years (could be off on the title, but it's off Hold Time) and it was fantastic. Again, drawing a bit of a blank on what else he played...

I'm a huge My Morning Jacket fan, and so the major draw here was definitely Jim, and he didn't let down whatsoever. Stole the show, as far as I'm concerned, and that's even with him being stuck behind the bass for a lot of the MoF songs. Him and Will Johnson played an unfuckingreal rendition of Bermuda Highway...that alone was worth the price of admission right there. He also played I Will Be There When You Die (with Conor, who was quite the weak link on this song, unfortunately), Golden, Smokin from Shootin (full band, and they slaughtered this song), and opened the encore with a stunning version of At Dawn.

Mike Mogis is quite the secret weapon.

All the guys hopped around and shared the instrumental duties a fair bit (Johnson was on the kit for the entire show except Bermuda Highway). Again, I know I'm forgetting a fair bit, but that's the best I can do for now.

just decided in the last 30 minutes to go to tonite's show. will try to report back tomorrow morning on how it goes, although i've got work and then i'm going to Grizzly Bear tomorrow night. busy busy.

I'm currently working for the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee, and I know that pretty much the entire office will grind to a halt tomorrow morning at 9:30 to watch the live feed from Copenhagen to see what happens. Personally, I think Chicago more or less has it in the bag, for the following reasons:

-Rio has World Cup soccer in 2014 and I can't imagine them getting back-to-back major sporting events

-London 2012, Sochi 2014, and Madrid 2016 would mean three successive Games in Europe

-It would be the first Olympics on American soil in 14 years (first summer games in 20)

-The Obama factor

Granted, there's obviously a billion other things that factor into the decision, political and otherwise, and I'm not totally sure why I've ruled Tokyo out...I haven't given them much in the way of consideration. I do think that it will come down to Chicago vs Rio.

I back the bid!

Plus, I had a couple hour layover in O'Hare a month ago and was very impressed by the marketing and support the movement seems to have. There will always be naysayers, but everything about the bid so far seems to be very well-managed. (Also, if golf becomes an Olympic sport, Chicago and the surrounding area have several high-calibre courses (I'm looking at you, Medinah))

i was dead tired listening to this last nite, and i fell asleep around track six or seven...one of the last things i remember was hearing a watch beep similar to "What is the Light?", which is a nice touch/homage to earlier FLips. But yeah, this sounded OUT there. Track four nearly broke my brain. Going to try and listen to this now at work, already getting distracted by people...

My Morning Jacket: "One Big Holiday"

this.

and "Only Shallow" by My Bloody Valentine.

Yeah, it should be in Canadian stores as of yesterday, right? Probably pick my copy up this weekend as a little birthday present to myself...

Nah, I thought Kesler would receive a Selke nod all along. I just really can't see him beating out Mike Richards, that's all.

So, the Nucks vs the Hawks. Should be a plenty entertaining series, if their final game during their regular season matchup is any indication. Plus, you've two got goalies who are very hot right now, and a couple squads whose special teams play was a huge factor during the first round. Both squads are pretty healthy too.

Gonna be a gritty, high-energy series, but as long as Vancouver can find some measure of discipline and stay out of the box, I think they've got a great shot. Not to mention home ice advantage...

Canucks in 6.

The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford. About halfway thru and it's fantastic.

wow. now that would be really something. jeez...

Because, as much as I don't like the guy, I'd far rather see him score goals for us then against us.

Basically, I'm just being selfish. That's all.