Re: Calgary band crap
I logged on figuring on finding a big post from Tara Lee herself about the show, but alas, there was none. Who played on Friday, Lisa? Apparently, I was wrong about them not filming on Friday since they spent at least 10-15 minutes talking about the bands who played that night. I thought the FEDS were quite good, they're sort of this ska/mod hybrid and they brought out the Mod contingent who have been lurking around Calgary for the past few months. Wagbeard are surprisingly good considering they're not really my style. They more thrash pop than most of the stuff I like, but the songs are pretty catchy none the less. And Pat, the guitarist is probably one of the funniest guys I've ever met. If you watched it, he's the geek with the glasses :) Where were the Primrods, Chixdiggit and Huevos Rancheros?? What other good bands are there in Calgary? It seems like there are a lot of new bands, I think Simeon from RAF wanted to showcase some of the newer pop bands, and also he wanted different bands who didn't play last year. It's too bad the Primrods didn't play because they great, if you can find there cd where you are, pick it up. Chixdiggit and Huevos Rancheros really don't a lot of showcasing, at least in Calgary. Huevos are now on One Little Indian in the UK and Chixdiggit just got signed to SubPop. Graham Huevos, the bassist just left the band though. I don't think they are going to break up though, I think they're looking for a new bassist now. So if any of you hep cats can play a mean surf punk bass guitar.. I've just noticed all the typos and shit that I've made. Sorry. Anyway, two bands from Cowtown you should keep an eye out for, TOLEDO SPEEDWAY and STRAIGHT. Toledo Speedway is a band Mike Catano might like, kind of Swervedriver-ish at times and Straight are like a cross between poppy Superchunk and good Pixies. Very nice. even since I was there in May. And what the hell is with Difference Engine Funk rock isn't really my scene either. Matt, who thinks MuchWest's Calgary coverage was 8.47 billion times better than its Winnipeg coverage. G. And I was also pleased to discover that Winnipeg's music scene has a buzz about it, or so says Steve from Wagbeard. Curious. If I'm not mistaken, Crash Test Dummies are from there aren't they? That scene's a hoppin'!! Cheers, Lisa :-)
Re: Something to think about (a Posies Story)
I wanted to put in my $0.02 worth. A few of the Sloannetters have been complaining that this list is getting boring, well not so much lately thanks to the Halifax Happenings (Pop Ex and the No Case). But Lisa's forwarded post made me realise how nice it is to hear from the bands themselves. Did Sloan *ever* post on SLoan Net? What about the other Maritime Bands? State Champs did but not nearly enough bands do it. It's great to hear the *fan*'s perspective but it would be nice to hear a *peep* from the inside. just an opinion and perhaps a good idea? I think France is right. I always enjoy reading something from a musician's perspective. I know that, of course, not all bands have access to e-mail, but the ones that do should be a little more active in in stuff that pertains to them. Ken Stringfellow is good for that. He posts quite often on the Posies list, it keeps the list pretty focused or more interesting at least. The SubPop list on the other hand was almost a total fiasco. Most of the posts had absolutely no point to them (not that this post is going anywhere either:) ) And I was getting about 100 or so pieces of mail each day which there were, what, maybe 2 I was interested in. SloanNet and the Posies list rock my world in comparison. So uh, thanks. Cheers,Lisa :-) P.S. Thanks everybody, for the reviews of Pop Xplosion. Like I wanted to be reminded that I missed the Posies and Sloan. Oh well, Juliana Hatfield is playing the Republik on Friday. yay.
All of the true stories. (fwd)
Hi, I thought if any of you were Posies fans you might be interested in this. He talks a bit about playing the Halifax Pop Xplosion too! -- Forwarded message -- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 03:10:07 +0200 From: Ken Stringfellow [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: All of the true stories. Hello everyone. I'm sorry I couldn't warn you in time about the Jon Ken National Anthem gig--the biggest Posie-related appearance ever (non-sports fans: sold-out Kingdome crowd of over 58,000. That's roughly how many people lived in Bellingham when I moved there in 1978.) However, you either had tickets already or you didn't, it was well sold out by the time we knew we were appearing. This weekend the Posies headlined one night of the Halifax Pop Explosion III, in the real Halifax, the Nova Scotia one. We played with Pansy Division Pluto. Many of you NWerners know Pluto 'cuz they're a POPular vancouver band, they've played w/us a couple times before, they're good etc. P. Division is a POWer trio from the Bay Area, they like to sing about sexy things of interest to the gay man. The drummer is a big Posie fan and related a tale of him and his friends listening to 'Solar Sister' on acid for hours hours. Or so it seemed it must have seemed to him! Anyhow, PD is great, and their LPs _Deflowered_ and _Pile_Up_ have been on my hit list as of late. Other bands we saw in Halifax: Thrush Hermit--ugly guitars and a Rapeman take on the Beach Boys. Rebecca West--arguably the greatest thing ever. The song 'Sick' is so good it makes me... Fastbacks--yes I actually got to spend more than 20 minutes with Kim W. for a change. They were incredible 2 sets in a row (see them soon opening for Pearl Jam at a Sports arena near you). Mike X-Posey on drums. The 1994 Posies were almost reunited when Jon I took charge of the guitars during 'Set Me free', Mike Kurt B. were on the drums together. Joe had no interest in taking the bass off of Kim's hands--smart boy. Eric's Trip--Finally. (Rick) White lights only. As for the rest of the time, we hung out w/our publisher Margaret, her b. Rob, Ronnie from the Muffs, and various members and former members of Sloan, Jale, Hardship Post, etc. We were reunited with the personnel of our spring Canadian tour: Nick (sound buddy) and Bob (bus driver--source of the phrase What color is a red light?). Kim I ate lobster FOR BREAKFAST. I finished the 1300 page Austrian philisophical novel I've been reading since July. I mentioned that we left Tim Neece Management after 4 years with them/him. We are now represented by Curtis Entertainment, a new offshoot of Kelly Curtis' org. Kelly is the manager of Pearl Jam Pete Droge. Working with us are David Meinert, who helped book Bumbershoot this year, plus organize the Home Alive compilation, as well as book clubs and bands and manage bands and stuff for quite awhile now; and Alex MacLeod, who was Nirvana's tour manager and has been managing the band Spell. Of course, we're thrilled to have this in place with these very fine people. It also looks like we'll be booked by Twin Towers, the agents for Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, and, uh, everybody else. Today we were photographed by Vicki Berndt (see Lp covers of Redd Kross, Hole, the Muffs etc. for examples of her work) for our LP as well as the old 8x10s that will be distributed all over the globe. Tomorrow we'll be shooting the LP cover (the photographer will be Cam Garrett, who does those cool light shows at Posie shows sometimes), with supermodel Bill Bartell and others. On Wednesday, we'll be flying to Alaska. Here is the schedule for our upcoming shows. 10.19, 20, 21: Gig's, Ancorage AK. I think the first show is 21+ and the next 2 are all ages. Call the club for details. 10.31: Lewis Clark St. College, Lewiston ID. Probably all ages. 11.1: We will probably be playing the Zoo in Pullman WA. 21+ 11.3: Ketchum ID either at the Mint or the Dynamite Lounge. 11.4 The Edge, Provo UT. 11.8 Big Star w/Jon Ken @ Tramps, New York NY. 11.10 (back to Posies) Slim's, San Francisco CA 11.17 Royal Room, Bellingham WA 21+ 11.18 Orcas Center, Orcas Is. WA all ages. That might be it for the year. I promise we will finish our LP soon. We plan to work on it while we're in Anchorage and of course afterwards. See you all, KS
pop Xplosion
Hi, This is just a rumour that someone in Vancouver told me, but apparently Urge Overkill m i g h t be playing. I'm just tellin' ya what I heard! Cheers, Lisa :-)
Jale/ SF's/Inbreds in Vancouver
Well, I finally got to see Jale and the Superfriendz! I was kinda cheesed that the Superfriendz went on first because I missed a few songs but what I did see and hear was great! The Inbreds were pretty good I guess, and Jale sounded good also. I'm sorry if I'm not freaking out enough about the show but really it was dare I say, slightly boring. Everyone was good, but no one was extraordinary, well the Superfriendz were the closest thing that night to amazing, but unfortunately the rest of the night just kind of sounded like nice'n normal Canadian indie rock. I talked to Chris Murphy for a little bit though, that was cool. Apparently they're playing Calgary again (do you know about this Tara Lee?) And I saw a virtual cornicopia (I really have know idea how to spell that) of local rock stars from Superconductor, Zumpano, the Smugglers to Pluto. Yes, unfortunately I had a better time schmoozing than watching the bands (except for the Superfriendz, they really do RAWK!) And although I didn't see the gig the next night, my friend Hilary said the Superfriendz/Pluto gig was way better than the one I saw at the Starfish Room. So there! Cheers! Lisa :-) P.S. I agree about that whole raging Sonic Unyon debate. So what! Treble Charger and Sianspheric rule that's all ya need ta know!
Sloan can go on
Over the past week, I have been sitting here (not constantly mind you) reading everyone's teary eyed farewell to Sloan. All that Sloan have said is that they won't play together anymore, and really how many bands say that? From what I've heard they will still be recording singles for Murder, like the Stood Up 7. Maybe I'm being stupidly and naively optimisic about this whole Sloan thing, but to me it seems that they're just worn out from the past three years and need a break from touring and something else to concentrate on like the label, Jay has even said that he would like to start his own magazine. But being musicians I know that after a while they'll begin to miss some of the being in a touring band vibe. I guess I'm writing this because I was pretty taken aback by Adamweezer's display. Sloan are aware of SloanNet and they know that there are a lot of people who simply adore them, I've met them once with Tara Lee (of course) and I don't think that they'll abandon their fans like that. And remember, it took them what? 15 years, but the Eagles finally played together again, and they HATED each other. Sloan aren't the Eagles (thank God for small miracles) but I'd like to think that maybe they'd be willing to jam live together every once in a while, maybe for a birthday party, like Tara Lee's or heck, even Rita MacNeil's. Y'think? C H E E R S, Lisa :-)
Jay in Melody Maker
I was just reading this week's Melody Maker and in the Letters Page near the back, someone had written quite a cranky note about the paper and some of the reviews in it. It was signed Jay Ferguson, Yorkshire. (or somewhere like that.) There! Riddle solved, that's why Sloan aren't playing live, Jay's moved to a farm in England!! :) :) Lisa :-)
