Best of '09 part 3/2

Er, yeah. Just wanted to rap 'bout some of my favourite live moments from '09, which I had originally intended to do as part of my previous post(s). Oh well!

HANDS DOWN BEST CONCERT EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR/MY LIFE AWARD

All Tomorrow's Parties 2009 - Kutsher's, Monticello, New York

All in all, it was one of those events, one of those eye-opening, not-life-changing-but-certainly-uh-really-great experiences. Really, it was a bit of a dream come true: 3 days in New York (and actually only my second time out of this country), staying at a hotel with an absurdly fantastic line-up of artists, playing music all-day (hats off to Oneida, who holed up in the bar the last day of the festival and literally jammed all day). Boredoms, Suicide, Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, Melvins, Boris, Shellac, Circulatory System, Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Feelies, Dirty Three, Grouper, Bob Mould with No Age, The Jesus Lizard, David Cross... it feels surreal just typing the [incomplete] list, but seriously... just, holy shit. I also left early on Monday morning, having bought bus tickets for the evening, so I could spend the day in New York City. Being the complete dork that I am I did spend half of it record shopping, but caught the essential sites by and large. Can't wait to do it again.

Highlight: My girlfriend asking Dominick Fernow (aka Prurient, and the owner of Hosptial Records, hands-down the best (er, only) store I've ever been to for noise/drone/whatever stuff - check it out if you're ever in the city) if he knew of any good ice cream places nearby, a question which he answered thoughtfully and politely, instead of screaming distorted S&M mantras at us like I had braced myself for.


BEST VALUE AWARD

Broken Social Scene - Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

Broken Social Scene is infinitely kind to their hometown. Last time I saw them in Toronto (the November previous to this show), they played for two-and-a-half hours, and the whole gang was there, even Emily Haines. And for some reasons, Brock Isaac from Modest Mouse was there too, and played a couple of his songs with the whole BSS crew backing him up. So how on Earth do you top that? How's abouts a free, outdoor show right on the lakeshore? And how about playing for two hours, bringing in literally every BSS collaborator (including the oft-absent Feist and filming the show for an upcoming movie? Hot damn!

Highlight: The all-too-rare performance of "Almost Crimes".



"OH MY GOD, IT'S REALLY THEM" AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FIELD OF APPEASING MY FANBOYISM

SONIC YOUTH - Massey Hall, Toronto

I want to call Sonic Youth the most "solid" band I listen to, but "solid" carries with it impressions of overwhelming adequacy - I mean "solid" in the unwavering sense, like an old friend or favourite nightstand ("favourite nightstand"...?). Really, I can't flat-out say I "hate" any particular Sonic Outing: their occasionally ill-recieved early albums are incredible, Daydream Nation is one of very few records I dare call "perfect" (or, if you had talked to me in the month leading up to the show, "best fucking record ever goddamn recorded, motherfucker! SCREAMING SONIC LUV!"), their "pop" records are damn catchy and I think, in all seriousness and earnestly not just to be contrary to popular opinion and revel in my own fandom, NYC Ghosts & Flowers is a really great record (really). Ok, maybe The Eternal was just "solid" in the accepted meaning of the word ("Antenna" is grand, though), but they killed it live.

Sonic Highlight: "Death Valley '69". THEY DID "DEATH VALLEY '69".



DOUCHIEST AUDIENCE

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Sound Academy, Toronto

One part "recent superstardom", one part "inappropriate opening act", and one part "shitty venue" all came together into one decidedly unenjoyable mess of an evening, explained as follows:

Part one: I'm not going to be one of those "they suck since they got famous derp derp" asshats, it just so happens that Animal Collective changed as they got famous. Compare Merriweather Post Pavilion to Feels. Now imagine which would be more exciting live. The dancefloor-friendly anthems on MPP would probably be the obvious choice, but fact of the matter is that watching three young men fiddle with synthesizers for an hour isn't all that thrilling, and for some strange reason people only really got into the groove during "My Girls" and "Brother Sport", if "got into the groove" is taken as "spilled beer and stumbled in rhythm, sort of".

Part two: I like Grouper, I really do. I'd love to see her play in, say, a church or gallery, somewhere where the audience can sit and enjoy the atmospheric reverb-folk properly. Grouper should not be opening to a crowd with beer and "My Girls" and the inability to muster up the respect not to boo.

Part three: The Sound Academy is just the worst venue in the city, period. Nigh inaccessible without a car and stupidly laid out (if you're in the front row, it will literally take you 10-15 minutes to get out of the place). Blah.


OTHER RAD SHOWS OF 2009


THE HAPPINESS PROJECT - The Music Gallery, Toronto
Warm-and-fuzzy music by hyper-friendly musicians, at one of the more intimate and well run venues in the city.

MV+EE with WOODS - Whippersnapper Gallery, Toronto
Tiny space, tiny audience, but loud as hell and an all-around hippie-friendly, space-folky good time.

"TALES OF THE UNCANNY" - Yonge & Dundas Square, Toronto
Do Make Say Think, Final Fantasy and Robert Lippok joined forces to play a soundtrack to a silent horror film at a free outdoor show in the heart of downtown Toronto. Amazing, in concept and in execution.

FUCKED UP with WOMEN and VIVIAN GIRLS - The Phoenix, Toronto
Look, just go see Fucked Up if you ever get the chance, ok?


Ok, done reflecting - future ho!

Back in the saddle with The Black Vase

Yeah, it's been a while. How've you been in the last... year and a half? Good? Good. I've decided that Facebook notes aren't quite the proper outlet for writing about the things I write about, mostly because the things I write about aren't things my Facebook friends particularly care to read about. So here you are, my wider audience, and maybe some of you cats can dig what's going on here.

Despite the blog title, I don't really have a particular theme going on, or, in fact, any rhyme or reason behind what I post outside of the fact that it's something I like. And if you like it too (or dislike), you should drop me a comment or somesuch thing.

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Prurient is the moniker under which Dominick Fernow creates a shitload of noise (to be eloquent, of course), which mostly lands on the "harsh" side of the genre (as opposed to "gentle" noise, I suppose?) Which, for the uninitiated, means that some of these frequencies will likely, at proper levels, damage hearing and kill dogs (possibly. Probably.) Seriously, though, crank the volume way the hell down for "Roman Shower", the scathing 15-minute endurance test that opens Black Vase. I am by no means a conisseur of the noise genre, so perhaps I "don't get it", but I can see no point to this opener other than to sort out those who will not stick around for the next 50 minutes.



However, for those who can brave the (literally) piercing first track, what lies ahead is one of the few albums in the genre that can actually hold my interest. Ironically, in a genre that has pushed music to its very outer limit, to where music arguably ceases to even be "music" in any traditional sense of the word, most of it feels painfully samey and boring. You can only listen to so many kids running a distortion pedal through a loop until even walls of scathing white noise become yawn-inducing, much the same way death metal becomes hilariously pedestrian when every single band is doing their best be the extreme opposite of that.

But this is where Prurient comes in and makes noise that feels as if it has purpose, direction, meaning: as if he knows he is still a musician and still writes songs. Of course these terms are all still used with regards to noise and not traditional music, so when I say direction, I don't mean in the sense of "Godspeed You! Black Emperor slowly winding up some explosive climax after 10 minutes of hazy meandering", but more like "an explosive climax on a scrambled porn channel, all colours distorted and organs miscoloured but the last 10 minutes of hissing moans did lead to a static money shot." Various tribal drum beats all reverb'd to hell and feedback sirens/controlled squeals seem to direct the underlying/overlaying noise, with Fernow's indescernable static screams belting out some barely-there lyrics about S&M, rape, and all matter of such material that would make de Sade proud:

Show me how it's done
Open me up
Make me lick it up
Replace my air

Anywho, I've rambled enough. These tracks are .m4as, and for that I am terribly sorry; I will do my best to make future posts in mp3. k? k.

Prurient - Silver Flashlight
Prurient - Soft Crack


Comments always appreciated.