Dan Mangan + Blacksmith
Dan Mangan’s vigorous new album Club Meds might take folks who consider him a simple CBC folkie by surprise.
It’s punchy, bold and a little bit dangerous thanks to the help of his official backing band, Blacksmith.
He told me all about the album’s creation and its themes of tuning out/purposely not tuning in for Huffington Post Music Canada.
To read the story go here.
Filed under Music, Shameless Promotion
Marilyn Manson, 2004 promo photo
With a Best Of record on the way, the reigning monarch of creep rock has been getting reflective. Marilyn Manson may not freak out parents in the same way he used to, but he’s always going to be the weird one.
“I feel like more of an oddity,” says a sickly, croaking Manson, explaining how he views himself. “As long as someone’s not charging quarters to look at my balls or something. That’s what it can’t be.”
The Anti-Christ Superstar is mighty ill as he conducts this interview. He vaguely alludes to a breakdown and institutionalization and veers from topic to topic haphazardly. He doesn’t actually seem all that interested in the music biz these days and isn’t afraid to say it either. Regardless, his razor-sharp wit is still in fine form.
“I really couldn’t care less about Soundscan anymore,” he says. “I’m going for body count. At this point it’s only about prestige, it’s the only way to have more. It doesn’t have to be kills… at least severely disturbing people.”
The only new song on the Best Of is a vicious cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.” After joking that he picked the song as a tribute to Dave Gahan’s wife for fellating him, Manson explains the song choice was about politics.
“It’s symbolic of my career in that I found it to be more political and relationship-based than religious,” he says. Politics and revolution, or perhaps the politics of revolution are still at the front of his mind. Manson may joke about racking up body counts, but he probably has world issues in better perspective than most people.
“I’m kinda famous for tearing up bibles and wiping my ass with the flag, so I don’t think it’s any newsflash that I’m not big on American politics,” he says. “Who’s going to lead the revolution? What is the revolution revolting against? [On song] ‘Disposable Teens’ I was feeling the same things you’re asking me, ‘they say you want a revolution, I say you’re full of shit.’ I think it’s the same. Nothing has changed. It’s just a different colour.”
Manson then equates Columbine with the Iraq War in one simple observation:
“I’ve had my grasp on morals for some time since my dad’s experience [in Vietnam], but also because I had to sit there and think, ‘Why is it OK that we’re blowing the shit out of some other country and two kids blow up a high school?'” he says. “What’s the difference? Because somebody says? At the end of the day it’s all killing. You can drive yourself crazy in circles going round about that but it’s… it would take an hour at least just to go down that path. I think art is your escape. That’s what keeps me going.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2004 on ChartAttack.
Filed under Culture, Music, Politics, Recollections
Mac DeMarco’s shoes
Mac DeMarco, the music world’s answer to hacky sack behind the quad, recently sold his beaten up shoes for $25k in a charity auction.
I wrote about this event for Huffington Post Music Canada.
To read the story go here.
Filed under Music, Shameless Promotion
Ben Howard and Carly Rae Jepsen
Carly Rae Jepsen’s insidiously catchy “Call Me Maybe” isn’t just a number one single. The song has become a full-blown pop-cultural phenomenon, inspiring memes, viral videos starring everyone from Justin Bieber to the Harvard baseball team, and faithful covers by artists like fun..
From this mass of giggles, giddy dance moves and exuberant singalongs, one particular cover has emerged from the crowd. Haunting, pensive and delivered with just a little bit of a smirk, Ben Howard’s take is a very different beast. Even the motivation behind the British folk singer’s take on “Call Me Maybe” is more like an experiment than straight tribute. Faced with a list of pop songs that they could cover as part of their appearance on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, Howard and his band simply picked the least offensive.
“We really didn’t have many options,” the mostly soft-spoken singer/songwriter says. “It was one of those classic ‘choose a song from the playlist things’ and there was just so much shit on the playlist. It got whittled down to about three different options and I suppose Carly Rae Jepsen’s song was the best one of the three, really. We thought it would be funny. If you’re going to look for the devil, you may as well go to the belly of hell.”
While evocations of satan and hell aren’t the most flattering things that have ever been said about Jepsen’s epic earworm of a hit single, Howard is quick to point out that he thinks it’s a genuinely good tune. It’s just not something that you’d ever find in his own personal record collection.
“It’s an incredible song, but it’s not the sort of song that I would listen to. I’d say I’d probably hate it,” he admits with a laugh. “But it’s a great song.”
Oddly, it was the singer’s lack of attachment to the source material that really makes his version of “Call Me Maybe” what it is. It allowed him to play around with the sound and feeling and make it his own in a way that he really couldn’t with a piece of music he genuinely adores.
“I rarely do covers of songs because the songs you want to cover are songs you like, really. But a lot of songs I like, they’re untouchable,” Howard muses. “Like ‘Hallelujah.’ Everyone covers Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ and Jeff Buckley did what is really the definitive version and I don’t see why people are still trying to do covers of it.”
Another song that he considers untouchable is Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” a version of which just so happens to appear on Carly Rae Jepsen’s Curiosity EP, right alongside “Call Me Maybe.” Howard has heard CRJ’s popped up take on the Canadian classic, and he can’t say that he’s a big fan.
“It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” the singer says, admitting that he’s not one to mince words. “It’s really weird, what she did to it.”
Howard finds the cover so distasteful that it makes him question Jepsen’s folk rock roots.
“If she was a Joni Mitchell fan, then surely she wouldn’t have touched that song,” he says.
Luckily for Ben and his crew, the public’s response to his own cover have been far more favorable. Pop and folk fans alike have taken to the song, making it a minor viral sensation. The singer is more amused than anything by the response.
“I think when you do a cover, you’ve got to do something different and you’re going to step on a few toes and people are going to hate it or people really enjoy it. I think, on the whole, it’s been positive,” he theorizes. “It was interesting to branch out into a new audience of a lot of mainstream pop fans and just kind of doing… we just jammed it out in a day and thought it would be funny. And then, all of a sudden, everyone’s got an opinion on it and people are taking it all so seriously. It was a just a laugh, to be honest.”
Anyone who appreciates the singer’s soft and broody cover will likely be a fan of his debut album, Every Kingdom, as well. Although the subject matter isn’t quite the same, trading flirtation for broken relationships and the slightly eerie presence of nature, the raw and passionate folky sound is similar. When asked if his “Call Me Maybe” is the perfect Ben Howard gateway drug, the singer says “Hopefully. I guess we definitely did put our stamp on it.”
Recently converted North American fans will have a chance to see the folk artist in the flesh when he returns for a more extensive tour of Canada and the U.S. this fall. After an impressive first round of shows on this side of the Atlantic earlier this year, he’s eager to come back.
“We had a real fun tour last time, just some amazing gigs,” he recalls. “Better gigs than we ever could have hoped for. The shows in New York and Toronto and Montreal just blew our minds a little bit. We were expecting to play little venues and for people to not really get it, but it was just great vibes off of everyone. So we’re really looking forward to coming back.”
And if karma happens to pay him back in the form of a bunch of Canadians and Americans covering his music, Howard is ready. It’s already started to happen across the pond.
“I’ve heard a few,” he says. “There’s some amazing little covers. I always love watching other people’s interpretations. I think as soon as you put a song into the public, part of it is no longer yours. I’m quite happy to let people interpret it and see how they get on. Some of them are awful, but some of them are pretty great.”
This story originally appeared June 4, 2012 on the AOL Spinner website.
Filed under Music
The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream
This is my official Top 10 album list for 2010:
10. Arcade Fire The Suburbs
This made the list at #10 because of a begrudging acknowledgement that, yes, technically it’s a very good album. I can’t, however, shake the notion that the subject matter (restless youth, suburban angst) is something that pop-punkers have been singing about for 25 years. Which makes it not nearly as brave and world-shattering a concept as many would suggest.
9. Band Of Horses Infinite Arms
I haven’t listened to this album since 2010 and I see no reason to do so now.
8. Gord Downie And The Country Miracles The Grand Bounce
I’ve always had a tremendous appreciation for Gord Downie’s solo records. After all, to eschew his easy cash register gig in The Tragically Hip to do something like record freak-out hash rock poetry with Dale Morningstar (Coke Machine Glow, 2001) is incredibly bold. The thing is, as Hip albums become increasingly infrequent, Downie’s complimentary solo records are regressing to the mean in terms of musical adventure. And while The Grand Bounce has its moments — “The Drowning Machine,” in particular, reveals Downie’s often hidden dark side — I can’t help but feel it’s the beginning of Downie’s solo output oscillating towards the bar blues he’s better known for.
7. Black Mountain Wilderness Heart
It’s vitally important that Black Mountain exist. After all, without them there’d be a generation of Broken Social Scene-weaned hipsters who’d never think to listen to their dad’s old Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple albums.
6. The Schomberg Fair Gospel
In truth, it’s the idea of The Schomberg Fair — a punk-powered, banjo-plucking, hallelujah-hollerin’ rock revival — that I appreciated more than the actual music they released. This #6 spot is probably more about hope than actual love for Gospel.
5. Sunfields Palace In The Sun
The subtle charms of this soft-ish rock album from sometimes-Dears member Jason Kent certainly won me over at the time. In the end though I mostly cared about a song called “Desert Son.” If I redid this list today the album would probably be lower.
4. The Black Keys Brothers
Over it.
3. Gorillaz Plastic Beach
It took me almost a decade to realize that Gorillaz — a joke band made up of cartoon characters — was just as good as (and perhaps even better than) Damon Albarn’s other band, Blur. Granted, it took an album with outsized cameos from Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack and Little Dragon to figure this out, but the fact I even got there is what really matters. “Stylo” is one of the best play-it-really-loud songs I’ve heard in ages and “Empire Ants,” my favourite from Plastic Beach, inflames the imagination.
2. The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
The initial reason why I loved Are The Roaring Night was because my hockey team went on a huge winning streak when I’d listen to “Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent Pt. 2: The Innocent” as a psyche up song before each game. Gifts like these from the Hockey Gods need to be supported, after all. More recently, though, I’ve been reading a lot of John le Carré books. And while this has given me a suspicious fear of the United States and the nagging sensation that everyone you look up to will invariably let you down, it’s also done a lot to romance the whole idea of Cold War spies and their “tradecraft.” So now when I listen to Are The Roaring Night I not only enjoy the music on it’s surface sonic level, but I can also dig deeper into the loose spy concept/narrative that’s going on in the record as I peruse German daily newspapers waiting for coded messages from Czech operatives.
1. The Black Angels Phosphene Dream
When I looked back at this list and saw the #1 my first instinct was, “Why?” So I listened to it again and reconfirmed that, yeah, this is one badass record. Now, my loyalty to the album isn’t so strong that I wouldn’t consider flipping it with the Besnard album if I redid this today, but “Entrance Song,” “Bad Vibrations” and “Phosphene Dream” all explore that darker, more dangerous side of psyche rock I find so exciting.
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1
2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1
2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1
2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1
2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1
2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1
2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1
2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1
2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1
2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1
2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1
2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1
2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1
2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1
2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1
2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1
1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1
1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1
1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
Filed under Music, Recollections
I Overcame My Autism And All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir
Risky Fuel 