Video Of The Week: The Strumbellas

The closest thing to a "song of the year" that I hear everywhere (unlike, say, anything by the Eagles Of Death Metal that mostly plays in my headphones) is probably The Strumbellas' Spirits.

One part Arcade Fire, one part Fun., one part Of Monsters And Men and one part The Lumineers, the Canadian band (hailing from the suburbs of Toronto) made waves with that one song, and the video for it, directed by the Juno-nominated Daniel AM Rosenberg, does nothing to squash comparisons with Arcade Fire, what with the disguises and the roaring chorus leading to masses of people getting together and chanting in the streets:

Hey, It IS Pride Week

They say all's fair in love and war; and they say team sports are about battling your opponents.

Mitch Marner, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, had this to say about what he intends to do this summer and fall: “I want to make sure I feel comfortable enough to go out against men and play hard, and make sure I can go out there and do the things that I like to do.”

The boy and his mentor choose a suitable mate or position

Don't let anyone get in the way of your dream, Mitch. Go hard against those men and do what you like to do.

Video Of The Week: Cowboy Junkies

As I've mentioned previously when featuring Joseph Arthur a year and a half ago, covering Lou Reed in a straightforward, stripped-down manner can prove to be a great idea.

The first ones to be extremely successful with the idea were the Cowboy Junkies - technically from Toronto, though all four band members were born in Montréal - when they covered the Velvet Underground classic Sweet Jane:


I won't go as far as saying it's better than Lou's or the Velvets' versions, but it is certainly on par with it, which is still saying quite a lot.

The song is from 1988's The Trinity Sessions and is based on the Velvets' moody 1969 live version. Margo Timmins' vocals are on full display, as is the subdued-yet-consistent playing of her brother Michael; third sibling Peter Timmins plays drums, while childhood friend Alan Anton handles bass duties.

Video Of The Week: Danko Jones

Danko Jones is a Toronto singer-songwriter who sings and plays guitar in his eponymous band. They started out in 1998, first known for their live acts and songs that dealt with Jones' life and personae - mostly how he's always craving sex, but also issues of race, such as The Mango Kid.

Musically, it's blues-based riff rock in a trio setting. Right before the turn of the millennium, his band, mine and a few others were often put in the ''Jon Spencer Blues Explosion'' basket, which in 2002 or 2003 became the White Stripes basket, because their success far exceeded that of Spencer's group.

And I think that may have gotten to Jones, because his output was uneven from then on. Or maybe it's because he's more comfortable in an EP setting instead of full-length albums, but some of those records from 2003-2010 seemed like they contained more filler than killer material. This year's Fire Music is steadier, but lacks the surprise and, dare I say, lyrical directness of the first few releases. I'd still rate it a solid B, but it's the straightforward pieces like Do You Want To Rock (featured below) that work best, while his more personal songs (Getting Into Drugs is so-so and predictable, I Will Break Your Heart is borderline emo, and She Ain't Coming Home sounds like all the awful recent Metallica songs blended into one) fail to bring the point home.

One area where Danko Jones (the band) compares to rock royalty (Pearl Jam, The Ramones, Spinal Tap) is their heavy rotation of drummers; while Jones himself and bassist John ''J.C.'' Calabrese have been there from the beginning, Rich Knox is their seventh official, full-time drummer. That's right, seventh; they seem to have a two-year shelf life, more or less. Those from the past: Atom Willard, Damon Richardson, Dan Cornelius, Niko Quintal, Michael Cari Cari, and Gavin Brown.

The video for Do You Want To Rock was directed by Lisa Mann, who has previously worked for/with Apocalyptica, Cascada, Hedley, and The Used.

Florida Mayor Arrested for Dealing Oxycodone

When articles begin with a punchline - and you're the butt of it - you've sunken pretty low. Except in this case, I'm not sure of it's just Rob Ford or the whole city of Toronto who are ridiculed:

Hey, Toronto, we see your crack-smoking mayor with a coke-snorting congressman, and raise you a hillbilly heroin-dealing mayor. (...)

Upon announcing the arrest, the local sheriff couldn't help but take a shot at Rob Ford, either.

"This isn't Toronto. We will not tolerate illegal drug activity, in my jurisdiction, by anyone, to include our elected officials," Polk County Sheriff Gordon Smith said in a news release posted on his department's Facebook page.

So thank you, Barry Layne Moore, mayor of Hampton, Florida, for entertaining the masses while Ford's in rehab... and for looking the part, too:

Right out of Grand Theft Auto V.

Why, Oh Why?

Can two horribly wrong things make one awesome thing? I thought ''no'', but I may have to re-think my position on the matter after seeing this...



Yes, that's 10 minutes of Rob Ford dancing to the awfulness that is Crazy Town's ''Butterfly''.

That is all.

Rob Ford: The Sequel

Yes, I know, I too was under the impression that his 15 minutes were up, that not only had we had a sequel (if the crack smoking was Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, then the odd behaviour and ''plenty of pussy to eat at home'' was surely Episode 3: Revenge Of The Filth), but that we were probably at the Police Academy 5 stage of his tenure by now...

Except we had all forgotten the essential rules of sequels: they not only introduce new characters to the cannon, but oftentimes also take place in new surroundings (Hangover Part II, Vegas Vacation).

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Rob Ford in Vancouver. Not only did he get a ticket for jaywalking, he also tried to get out of it by contacting the chief of police. That's right: he bothered the boss of the police force for a $100 ticket, because he's an entitled fucking asshole. And he did so at this classy establishment: a Shell gas station, situated across the street from the bar where he'd been drinking all night (though he was to have stopped drinking last Fall):

Video is available on Twitter and YouTube.

Which begs the question: is he ever not in a drunken stupor?

Rob Ford Resurfaces

Ok, what to start with? The fact that if this was anyone else in North America, most people would deem it extremely racist? Or the fact that Rob Ford is at it again?

Hmmm.. seems he likes swearing in Jamaican patois...



''Bumbaclot, man'', indeed.

And here is audio of him saying this ''couldn't have happened yesterday'' because while he was, indeed, drunk yesterday, that was on his own time.



But who cares what day it was shot? Wasn't he stripped of most of his power precisely because he's an out of control buffoon? And didn't he commit to stop drinking and doing drugs in order to regain some power and go for reelection?

Maybe Rob has a King complex and thinks the current-day political trick of saying exactly the opposite of what you mean gets you forgiven for everything even in the real world... but it can't. Can it?

Rob Ford / Chris Farley Mashup

The only bit missing is Rob Ford, (warning of) living in a van, down by the river...



... well, and Ford's most recent magical quotes, such as the one where he has plenty to eat at home.

That Downward Spiral Called Rob Ford

''Elect me as mayor, and I will clean this city up like you wouldn't believe.'' That was the attitude Rob Ford put forth just a couple of years ago, running to take over Canada's biggest economic center.

Like a true used car salesman, his first order of business was to eliminate bike lanes, and his second was to get as drunk as possible in as many public events as possible, a political Chris Farley if you will, without the visible and audible threat of ending up living in that van down by the river, yet you could tell just by looking at him that that was exactly where he was headed, probably in the near future.

Then came rumours about drug use - and not just marijuana, no: straight-up crack. And there could even be video footage... a video people have already died for.

After denying it - and the existence of the tape - for the better part of 2013, Ford has now admitted to having smoked crack, but he did so with his usual sense of grandeur:

"Yes I have smoked crack cocaine. But I am not an addict," he said in a stunning admission. "Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors," he said, adding that he may have smoked it approximately one year ago.

Oh yeah - one of his drunken stupors. Makes sense. What else did he do in his (frequent) drunken stupors, kill a hooker? Waste taxpayers' money? Eat tons of donuts?

As if hearing that the police had found the video - and another one, rumoured to be a sex tape with an alleged minor - recovered from a erased hard drive (that's right, kids, hitting 'delete' is not a guarantee) wasn't enough, the mayor's boat is leaking from everywhere, and reports are coming out that he and his team hired a crack team (sorry) of hackers to erase the recording from online storage spaces.

Didn't work.

Now, I know it's never over until the fat lady sings, but I'm guessing that's merely one or two drunken stupors away from happening...

Party Like It's 1986

One man grew tired of his children rather than have human contacts and decided he'd punish his whole entourage for it - by reverting his family back to the year he and his girlfriend were born, 1986.

Gone are the iPhones, iPads, Blu-rays, cell phones, GPS devices, the internet...  back are the old Nintendo Entertainment System (and the original Super Mario Bros. game), encyclopedias, paper maps, playing outside...

Blair McMillan even lost his job for not having a cell phone and instead preferring one-on-one interactions. Though he probably would also have lost it when his client would have seen his fucking mullet and mustache.

In the name of all that is sacred, I do hope this one-year experiment doesn't go any further. Imagine his poor girlfriend, if they decide to continue living like this for, say, 5 more years, then splits up with him... imagine how lost she'll be in all the ever-evolving technology.

If a catastrophic event occurs and all technology is rendered useless, and everyone has to revert to hunting and gathering, then, fine, we're all on the same playing field. But purposely foregoing to accept the future in a feeble attempt to get in touch with your roots only works a little bit, and only in organized circles - like the Amish. Or the homeless. Past a certain point, it just becomes purposely holding up and restraining your loved ones' progress. It's kidnapping.

I kid, I kid...

Fare Thee Well, Will Austin

Photo by Sandra Lynn Belanger

He came from British Columbia with the hair of a madman and a head full rock solos. Like Buddy Holly on acid, he went from one weird project to the next, a troubadour of messed-up folk interspersed with space-rock from beyond explanation.

A proud Concordia University alumni, he will now take his squealin’ Bob Dylan renditions to Toronto, where I suppose he will become an investment banker or a used car salesman.

He leaves countless other musicians to mourn his absence, including but not limited to everyone in the Sake Of The Songs benefit shows, the UnPop Montréal festival, the singer-songwriter crew, Loaded/S.H.A.L.L. and other supergroups, as well as the hundreds of bands he’s started that lasted for six months before going into hibernation/indefinite hiatus. And of course SsKKLLffkk.

Godspeed, sailor. You will be remembered. In 2055.

The Decline Of k-os

k-os' debut record, Exit (2002) was full of promise. I even went around praising his all-around talent for the music's production as rivaling Beck, and his lyrics and flow as ''eventually in the same league as Outkast''.

His second output, Joyful Rebellion (2004) still showcased his talents, but had a decidedly more old school vibe, relying less on k-os' knack for melody and creating music from various inspirational sources and leaned more towards classic hip hop.

But then it turned to insipid pop and un-researched music pretty fast, starting with 2006's Atlantis: Hymns For Disco and perpetuated with the sample-heavy Yes (2009) and this year's uneven BLack On BLonde.

And apparently, it's transpired to his live shows as well, as per The Gazette:

k-os, 1:30 p.m., Mountain Stage

And the award for Osheaga drama queen goes to… k-os.

The Toronto rapper is well past his prime. And his new album Black on Blonde – despite guest appearances by Emily Haines, Black Thought, Shad, Saukrates, and Sam Roberts – is a bit of a mess. So when he took the stage 20 minutes late, as the day’s first show on the mountain stage, there was reason to worry. He began to rhyme over an amped up Public Enemy sample, but stopped after a few minutes. “I can’t do this right now – I can’t hear myself,” he said. He threw his all access VIP bracelet into the crowd,and walked off the stage. Very rock ‘n’ roll, man, but it’s not going to win you any new fans. And next time, maybe skip the Blue Jays cap.

Jesus.

For a guy who performs in Montréal four times a year, perhaps he should have done his research a tad. When playing his own shows at Club Soda or Théâtre Corona, where his own fans - by definition a forgiving following - show up, sure, you can use your Canadianism as a factor for common ground, as much as ''supporting the local underground''.

But at a festival show, with a broad audience representing pretty much everything your usual crowd isn't - there's a difference between playing to a thousand folks who know your shit and 35,000 who've never heard it before - perhaps it'd be nice to take an hour out of your bubble and read about where you're playing.

Most of us will never cheer for the Blue Jays as ''Canada's Team'' for the simple fact that we had the Montréal Expos - Canada's first major league baseball team - and the way they were taken from us left such a sour taste in our mouths we were turned off by the sport altogether. So... Jays? No. NO. NO. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work in Vancouver so much either, with the Seattle Mariners basically playing in their back yard.

Also, though they don't go to your usual shows, 50% of the population wanted out of Canada altogether at any cost twice in the recent past - and would have won had it not been for shady politicking and backdoor money dealings the last time around, to say nothing of those who think it would be a good idea on paper but weren't convinced by the arguments brought forth as the focal points the last time. So even if the Jays had been Canada's team, it's like wanting Puerto Rico to cheer for the Washington Nationals.

And what's up with not trying to work out the issue with the sound guy? Any band who's played in a bar will tell you that 3 times out of 4 it can be worked out if you're clear on what you want. The other time you'll wish you had walked out - which he did - but he should have tried to fix things first. By showing little patience with the staff at the very first show of the very first day of Osheaga - kinks are bound to occur - he instead showed great disrespect to the thousands who had paid fifteen times the price of entry as the first edition 5 years ago so it could attract artists ''of his caliber''.

And that attitude of ''artist vs staff'' usually escalates throughout the day as one side becomes more defensive and the other reacts accordingly, which ultimately led to headliners The Cure having the plug pulled on them in the middle of their mega-hit Boys Don't Cry at 11:05 PM, instead of being given the chance to finish the song before it happened so that the crowd could at the very least go home with the illusion that it went down well.

Instead, here is the evening's score card:
k-os: 0
The Cure: 0
Osheaga: 0
the public: 0

And instead of it being a 4-way tie, it's a 4-way loss. With k-os proving to be the biggest loser.

Not The Best Time For Toronto To Imitate Calgary

It's not enough that once-Liberal Toronto has taken a turn for the right politically with federal politics and a (crackhead) mayor worthy of Texas, it now has to deal with floods strangely reminiscent of the ones in Calgary a couple of weeks ago:

Calgary clean-up

The inside of the Calgary Saddledome is shown in this photo provided by the NHL’s Calgary Flames last week. The team said flood waters reached as high as the eighth row of seating in the stadium.

Toronto highway

Some Torontonians have been stuck inside the downtown subway system since Monday night.

A GO train is also partially submerged on the Richmond Hill line that left Union around rush hour. The murky brown water, which spilled through the bottom floor of the train has left passengers stuck for (...) hours.(...) All flights at Billy Bishop Airport have now been suspended due to the storm, according to Pamela McDonald, spokeswoman for the Toronto Port Authority.(...) Toronto EMS are recommending people do not travel if they can as cars are creating obstacles for paramedics. They also said they have received a large number of people stuck in elevators. (...) The Toronto Region Conservation Authority also warned that the banks of the Don River were at risk of collapse in the area of Hoggs Hollow in the area of Yonge St. and York Mills.

Shit, it's like a cross between a natural disaster in a third-world country in the 1960s with the information age and a million levels of bureaucracy/government agencies. At least Canada's version of FEMA won't stall for days with their rescue mission.

Good luck to all concerned.

Crackhead Mayor

I've been relatively quiet here for the past week, which means I've also missed out on writing about Toronto mayor Rob Ford, the ultra-conservative genius who once said that people who use bikes and bike baths instead of cars and buses were ''two steps left of Joseph Stalin'', and his alleged crack cocaine usage.

Now that Gawker can't seem to find the guys who were selling the evidence, Ford has come out of hiding and officially denied the claim, but it looks more like ''now that's it's safe and those guys are afraid of getting caught, I think I can get away with it''.

Taking a week off from the controversy - some say he went into a quick rehab, came out for the press conference then back into rehab - only fueled the fire, as it gave the Globe And Mail time to research what became an 8-page story on the Ford siblings' history with drug trafficking.

The heat is on. Soon, the pig will be cooked.

Video Of The Week: Billy Talent

I wasn't gunning for two straight very-political videos about the youth revolting in Canada, it just happened that way. As a matter of fact, I'd been waiting for Queens Of The Stone Age to release a full-length video (instead of just teasers) from their upcoming album to feature them again, but I've been caught up in listening to Billy Talent's second album (II) a lot this week, and well, it just became obvious that I had to go that route.

At first known as Pezz, the Mississaugua (Toronto) band was huge in Canada at the turn of the century. I didn't like their first record myself (I particularly disliked Try Honesty, an emo-semi-hardcore number that especially lacks honesty), but the second one, on the strength of Red Flag, Devil In A Midnight Mass, and Fallen Leaves (also, on a smaller scale, Surrender) got inside my brain.

I'm featuring the Floria Sigismondi-directed Red Flag today because it is a fine piece of art, at times reminiscent of the one she made for Sigur Ros' Untitled 1 (Vaka) - albeit a whole lot less dark; the song in itself is also gripping, and the breakdown at the end (where it's just the chorus and the drums) is arena-rock power the likes of which Van Halen could only dream of.

Tyler Bozak's Blackface

The internets are going nuts about the Toronto Maple Leafs' Tyler Bozak's Halloween costume, which is supposed to be Michael Jackson:

They cry ''racism'' about the blackface. I won't get into - for the hundredth time - how, in Canada, we don't share that history. Instead, I'll just point out that for a rich hockey player, the suit sucks, and he looks a lot less like Wacko Jacko than he does his cousin, Rockwell:

Free (Quality) Music By The Guest Bedroom

Actually, it's pay-what-you-can, and I'm sure they'd appreciate a couple of bucks their way, but in essence, you can download The Guest Bedroom's brand-new EP, Hunter, for free if you'd like.

I've already listened to it twice today, and if I don't go back to bed because of this ridiculous tooth ache, I'll listen to it some more. It's fun, clear, exquisite, smart and - dare I say - a bit poppy, in the British sense of well-constructed, listenable music - not boy-band material.

Another Deadly Stage Collapse

No, it's not a metaphor: right before Radiohead's Toronto concert, Saturday night, the stage structure collapsed, crushing one person to death and injuring five others seriously. The show was cancelled.

A lot of that happened last year, notably at the Indiana State Fair, as well as at the Ottawa Blues Fest, as Cheap Trick was playing their one good song massive hit I Want You To Want Me.

Either gravity's pull is stronger than ever, or we're hiring crews who neglect security and cut corners to save money. But as high-end pop shows start to regularly cost over $100 to attend, everybody involved should be making enough money to be content with doing their fucking jobs correctly.

Recyclables Ain't No Pollution

As usual, Toronto is far behind everyone else in environmental protection. This time, it pertains to the use of reusable grocery bags.

Except they need to be told reminded to wash the damn things every so often. Because people forget that groceries sometimes leak, that putting meat and fruits in the same bag can facilitate the transfer of bacteria, that bacteria evolve if left alone, etc.

Good to know.

Then again, to wash them, uou use clean water. And some people don't use all-natural or biodegradable cleansers, and that gets pumped the fuck back in nature as well.

No win?