They Don't Exist

I'm told that we live in the age of ideas. That is, in essence, an age of dreamers. Men like Churchill, Columbus, Elvis - men of action - are a thing of the past. They don't exist.

I saw proof that's not the case on Saturday night. In a tiny club in Guelph I saw a band called Vacuity set up enough guitars, drums, amps, keyboards, roosters, computers and mics to play an arena. And despite the confines of the room, they played like they were in an arena. Inspired, controlled, soaring, infectious, awesome rock/pop. They played the kind of show that makes you want to go out and by a guitar so you can do that.

Afterwards, they told me they're embarking on a 9 week tour of the country. These are not rich men. These are not foolish men. These are men of action. They've committed to the idea that they need to spread their music. And they're right. I'm sure they'd say it's because they don't know what else they could do. And as a fan of music, I hope they never have to do anything else.

But I think there's more to it than that. Maybe they're too humble to admit this, but the world needs them to spread their music. Every person that left that bar on Saturday was a better human because they shared such gifts. We don't tell enough stories face to face anymore. We rely on televisions, ipods and movie screens. Don't get me wrong, these are great facsimiles. They're important tools to disperse information. But nothing beats hearing the story, the play or the song in person. Nothing beats the real thing. And these guys are the real thing.

Go here: http://www.vacuity.net/ . Buy their record. Listen to it. And then send them a letter. Write them an email. Go to their house and light a candle. Do what you have to in order to support guys like this who make such incredible music and make the world a better place.

Desert Island Discs Pt ii

As I mentioned at the beginning of my last post, these are my top 12. I couldn't do 10. The last 6 are so minisculey separated that you would need a scalpel and a top surgeon to divide them. Most of these records were gifts to me - not in the physical sense, but in the emotional and spiritual sense. In each case there was something precious given and discovered together. Most of those people are folks who I've loved or still love. In may cases the record represents the person who helped to shape who I am. These are the kind of debts that can never be repaid. The best you can manage is remembrance and a refusal to let that ghost die. And so I carry them with me in the music...as do many of the artists that I cherish. It was really, really hard to whittle it down to these 12. I've honestly revised and edited this blog about 7 times over the last six months. But this is my definitive version (were my plane to crash in the next two weeks).


7. Crash - Dave Matthews Band

This is the record that launched Dave and his boys in the stratosphere and rightly so. These guys are ALL in the top 1% of musicians in the world. They are astonishing players and this record gives them all moments to shine. 'Two Step' is one of the great #2 tracks of all time. It starts out so dark and forboding but positively bursts into the joyful chorus of 'Celebrate we will 'cause life is short but sweet for certain.' It's a perfect bittersweet song with a very rare rock/pop feel. 'Crash into Me' is a lovely, twisted song - again with that very unusual groove that no other band does quite as well as these guys. And 'Live in Our Graves' is the band in a nutshell. A perfect, head-nodding tempo that gets jammed out, broken down and ramped back up again beneath a great melody and a bunch of great hooks. And I guess that's the strength of this record. Apart from the amazing singer/guitar player, incredible sax player and unbelievable violin player. The rhythm section is dyn-o-mite. Seriously. It's a bass prodigy (who could probably play the hardest music in the world while running a marathon and juggling kittens) and an ambidextrous drumming machine (who is like the Deep Blue of drumming machines in that he's more consistent, more brilliant and more creative). I feel confident the two of them could have a conversation with Stephen Hawking about astro-physics during a DMB concert and not get lost in either event. The thing I love about all of these records - but particularly ones worked on by Lanios or Lillywhite (he produced this record, but also worked with Guster, U2 and Counting Crows) is the sense of being on a journey. There is a beginning, a middle and an end to each record. There are ugly turns, run down towns, beautiful landscapes, unforeseen mishaps and picturesque sunsets. You have to be a passionate, committed genius (or group of them) to make such a journey possible in someone's head. These guys are all of those things and then some.

8. The Bends - Radiohead

A lot of folks think OK Computer is the better of these two records. But for my money this record has more diversity. More guitar tones, more mood changes, more haunting vocals and more creative playing. My band and I have often discussed what the hell the writing process must be like for this band. Their arrangements are so complex and so detailed that - having some production knowledge of my own now - it must be an incredibly laborious process. But the result is always worth the wait. I always find it very interesting that these guys followed a similar path to U2 (and Thom Yorke has consitently voiced his love of U2). They made a good record, an incredible record, another incredible record and went too far with the 4th in the sequence. But it's only the willingness to go over the line that makes these bands great. You can only accomplish greatness by taking a running jump at a brick wall and putting your faith in research into 4th dimensional travel.

9. Woodface - Crowded House

This is probably the most flawed record on my list. And some of you might ask, "Then why the hell is it #9? Or why the hell is it on the list in the first place?" And the answer is because even at his worst, Neil Finn is a better songwriter than 95% of the songwriters that make a legitimate living in the world today. If I could cheat and put a 'best of' on my list, it would be for Crowded House. "Recurring Dream" is an amazing collection of their best material. Any child of the 80's who didn't avidly follow them would be hard pressed to name 3 songs but would find themselves singing along halfway through the first verse. That's a testament to incredible songwriting. Woodface is as close as they came to a great album. Neil & his brother Tim did the writing together and there's something intangibly beautiful and remarkable about siblings harmonizing. Maybe it's DNA manifesting as an audio signal. Or maybe they're just both really interesting singers. Whatever the case, they do it on most of this record and although there's a few so-so tunes, at least half of the songs are the ones you wish you wrote. "Fall at Your Feet", "Weather With You", "It's Only Natural", "Four Seasons in One Day" and "She Goes On" never fail to inspire me. Crowded House is one of the biggest reasons that I make music. You can thank them or damn them for it, depending on your feelings towards me.

10. Goldberg Variations (1981 Recording) - Glenn Gould

This is the self-portrait or autobiography of a fascinating, disturbed and unspeakably talented man. Maybe it's the media documentation of the man that makes his music more remarkable than any number of other great piano players, but I don't think so. I researched him heavily several years ago when I was almost cast to play him and the stuff I found is just so incredibly rock and roll. He's a perfect mix of Brian Wilson, Peter Gabriel & Brian Eno. He loved to experiment with sound and noise. He hated concerts. He loved the studio. He ate scrambled eggs and drank black coffee at Fran's for every dinner of his adult life in Toronto. He only played piano on a brittle wicker & wood stool from his childhood. He had a bad habit of making inarticulate sounds when he played which made him really hard to record. And live it made him both ugly to watch and his hums, moans and whoops would break the spell of the music he was playing. He received an incredible amount of bad press and media taunting from such events and so at a very early age, he retired from playing live. And almost all his interviews were done in his own studio. He would interview himself. If you read the transcripts, they go something like this:

G.G.: I've often thought that I'd like to try my hand at being a prisoner.

g.g.: You regard that as a career?

G.G.: Oh, certainly -- on the understanding, of course, that I would be entirely innocent of all charges brought against me.

g.g.: Mr. Gould, has anyone suggested that you could be suffering from a Myshkin complex?

G.G.: No, and I can't accept the compliment.

An odd fellow, no question. But his playing is extraordinary. As much as I love the human voice and harmonies with it, there is something about the simplicity of a well played piano, cello or violin that just cuts straight to the emotional quick. Gould first recorded Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1955 when he was just 18 years old. It's incredible, passionate, flashy, concise, inhuman piano playing. He then decided that it was rubbish. Just youthful, boastful playing without enough thought or variation. He recorded the entire set of 30 variations again in 1981 just before he died (in 1982). And this is the album I'm speaking of. Johnny Cash did it, too - particularly on American Recordings IV. There's something about a man looking back across his own remarkable history and journey that resonates. He just wants to make one last, beautiful, honest piece of art. And Gould does that on this record. Everything it is to be human and feel joy, sorrow, loss and hope is encompassed in the peaks and valleys that GG finds in Bach's work.

11. Automatic for the People - REM

One of the darkest and most beautiful records I've ever heard. Without ever raging or weeping the record embraces the idea of losing the things we love. It's not an immediately accessible album - apart from "Man on the Moon" and "Everybody Hurts" (both of which are incredible songs and anyone who says otherwise needs to have their soul examined). But it's set of songs that rewards you the more you dig. "New Orleans Instrumental 1" which rolls directly into "Sweetness Follows" is some of the most interesting and moving music you'll find in pop/rock history. And "Nightswimming" is one of my top 5 favourite songs ever. There is not a better song about growing older and clinging to innocence in the english language. Everybody clings to those things - those wonderful, childish memories that we wish we could re-live.


12. Magic - Bruce Springsteen

Another amazing songwriter with an incredible band. And this cat's been writing songs (and writing them well) since before I was born. Older Bruce fans may disagree vehemently with me but I think this is his finest work to date. It's a culmination of all the great elements he's discovered and tempered over the years. From the crashing wall of guitars that starts 'Radio Nowhere' to the strings that positively sing out in 'Girls in Their Summer Clothes' down to the quiet, disturbing calm of the title track, 'Magic'. It's the best of the Bruce. The great songwriting from "Born in the USA" mixed with the urgency, darkness and honesty of "Nebraska". Familiar places, familiar characters and a familiar, charismatic storyteller. To make rock and roll for 30 years is an achievement very few people have accomplished. To make rock and roll for 30 years and still be RELEVANT is just a handful of incredible souls. There's a reason he's the boss.


Honourable Mentions: 5 Days in July - Blue Rodeo, Continuum - John Mayer, Keane - Hopes & Fears, Silent Radar - The Watchmen, Graceland - Paul Simon, You Were Here - Sarah Harmer

Desert Island Discs Part I

I believe it's important for artists to cite their influences. It shows who you are, why you're who you are and how you got to be who you are. People can look at you and see your shape, but this allows them to see the elements that eroded, softened and caressed you INTO the shape you are now. Personally I love knowing who influenced the artists that I love. Those are things I'm keen to discover and puzzle over the pieces of what made the artists who made me. It's like an Escher painting.

As the weather's been pretty overcast and rainy the past few weeks (and that sort of weather ALWAYS gets me slightly sad, nostalgic and thinking about my ghosts) and I've been in the process of unpacking all my things after my recent move, I decided to procrastinate by making my list of desert island dics. Now, it's important to note that the premise of desert island discs is that you're on an island with a cd player and 10 discs and nothing else. Well, perhaps also the means to power the cd player - I suppose that's several crates of Duracell's. My point is, there's no point in picking funny music, kitsche music or slow jams, because you're by yourself. It's just you and the music until you're dead. These are my top 12. I couldn't do 10. The last 6 are so minisculey separated that you would need a scalpel and a top surgeon to divide them. Most of these records were gifts to me - not in the physical sense, but in the emotional and spiritual sense. In each case there was something precious given and discovered together. Most of those people are folks who I've loved or still love. In may cases the record represents the person who helped to shape who I am. These are debts that can never be repaid. The best you can manage is remembrance and a refusal to let that ghost die. And so I carry them with me in the music...as do many of the artists that I cherish. It was really, really hard to whittle it down to these 12. I've honestly revised and edited this blog about 7 times over the last six months. But this is my definitive version (were my plane to crash in the next two weeks).

1. Achtung, Baby! - U2
Most people get mad at me and call me bad names because this is my favourite U2 record. They think I'm insane not to pick the Joshua Tree. People say Achtung, Baby is not that great an album (aside from the remarkable 'One'.) I say these people are on crack. They should be strapped down and made to listen to Nickelback in perpetuity for their ignorance. I LOVE this record. It is full of anguish and struggle; huge swells of joy and great valleys of despair. There is so much range on this record; musically, lyrically, texturally, vocally. I love all the strange effects and soundscapes that underscore the music. And it such great storytelling. Every sound that's made on the record goes towards conjuring an image, evoking an emotion or taking you to a geographical or chronological place. The ugly, crashing opening of 'Zoo Station' (which has all kinds of historical importance in the division and then re-uniting of Germany) to the mournful, lazy outtro of 'Love is Blindness' - it's all so deliberate and clear. While the Joshua Tree sags a bit in the last 1/3 of the record (I think that Red Hill Mining Town, Trip Through Your Wires & Exit are good songs but not great songs), Achtung Baby is bereft of wasted space. First note to last note it's perfect. The band went through hell to make this record; personally and professionally. And you can hear the descent into the underworld as well as the struggle to rise out of it at the end. It's full of big ideas and huge dreams. Equal parts bitter, proud, hopeful and compassionate. It's fucking amazing.

2. August & Everything After - Counting Crows
Adam Duritz is probably my favourite lyricist as well as one of the top 5 songwriters of my generation. He has been accused of being whiney. That's because the people making the accusations have no soul. His imagery cuts right to the heart of the matter and never fails to paint an instant image that has a very personal resonance. "She's talking in her sleep, It's keeping me awake and Anna begins to toss and turn and every word is nonsense, but I understand." How beautiful is that? 'Anna Begins' is probably one of my top 5 favourite songs. It encapsulates all there is to know about the fear, the joy, the wonder and the awe of falling in love anytime after the first time. And 'Murder of One' is one of the greatest closing tracks of all time. What a way to end your first record. A steady rise of guitars and passionate vocals peaking when he belts out the word 'Change' about a dozen times. I've often wondered if he's speaking to himself, to the world or to his lover. Or maybe all three. Perhaps it's a generational thing but his writing is what got me through some of my darkest days. Counting Crows are one of the reasons I want to make music. This record got me through some of the blackest hours of my life when it seemed much, much easier to quit; the relationship i was in, the job i had, the dream i was chasing. But the comfort of knowing that someone else shares my grief and my shame and my sorrow and my dreams and my fears and my flaws is priceless. All of that is on this record. All of it. "I want to be someone who believes." Amen, Adam.

3. The Joshua Tree - U2
Yes, it's another U2 record. What can I say? They make incredible music. Probably the best Side A in all of music. That's right, all of music. Beatles, Beach Boys & Rolling Stones be damned. It's an incredible emotional rollercoaster for the first 30 minutes. It shows all the hallmarks of genius. Degrees of patience, degrees of raw emotion, degrees of light and darkness, degrees of hope and despair and degrees of change. This record - to me - speaks of innocence and discovery. They say they wrote it as they discovered America; all its darkness, beauty and mystery. Hence the rough, clumsy pieces coupled with the shimmering, impossible-to-ignore sections of beauty and joy. The only other person who does bittersweet as well as U2 is Neil Finn of Crowded House. And this IS a dark, dark album with fleeting moments of joy but they ARE there. They have to be or this would be a Nirvanna record and you'd just want to shoot yourself in the face. The lads considered calling this album The Two Americas because there's the fascination of the old west and Vegas and the shiny, commercial aspect (I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For & In God's Country) that bleeds into the dangerous, self-indulgent, political murk (Bullet the Blue Sky & With or Without You). And if you want to hear one of the most passionate vocal performances in the history of music you need only listen to the last minute of 'One Tree Hill.' You can hear Bono picking up the pieces only to tear himself apart so you'll understand how much it hurts.

4. Us - Peter Gabriel
Like a few of the other artists on this list, Peter Gabriel had back to back monster records. There will always be debates on which is better: The Joshua Tree vs Achtung Baby. The Bends vs. OK Computer. Us vs. So. I believe Us is the greater of the two records. He took almost 6 years between albums and re-recorded this one 3 times. The first time he recorded the whole thing and then sat down to listen to it. He said, "I like the high hat. Let's re-do everything else." The second time he recorded it he sad, "I like the bass. I like some of the guitars and boy, that's a great high hat. Let's re-do everything else." By this time Dan Lanois (who produced 3 of the records on this list) was going crazy. During the third bout of recording is reported that Peter discovered cooking and Lanois could only coax him out of the kitchen by repeatedly trying and critiquing Gabriel's endless attempts at the perfect omlette. Such is the mind of a perfectionist genius, I suppose. Anyway, the results are obvious. The songs are so well arranged and structured and executed that it's impossible to deny their brilliance. And again - as with so many of the things I fall in love with - you can hear the sacrifice, the loss and the longing in the record. 'Love to be Loved' is all about the choice to forgo a relationship because of the sickness that performers have to bleed all over everything (in an artistic & metaphoric sense) in front of a crowd of people. It doesn't make sense to chose that over happiness but one just can't exist without the other. And 'Secret World' is another of the great closing tracks in all of music. "Did you think you didn't have to choose? That I alone could win or lose it? In all the places we were hiding love what was it you were thinking of?"

5. Rockin' the Suburbs - Ben Folds
This is a pop masterpiece. Adam Duritz goes so far as to cite Ben Folds in one of his songs. And I think when a genius cites a genius it's worth noting. I'd always liked Ben Folds. Brick was one of the most awful, honest and clear late teen/early twenty-something tragedies I had ever heard. But when I heard this record I heard the Brian Wilson of our generation doing what he does best. Great, epic vocal arrangements (the Ahhh's in 'Not the Same' are incredible). Dark and difficult ideas wrapped up in saccharine pop melodies (The Ascent of Stan & Fred Jones, Pt.2 - that song breaks my f$#*!ng heart every time I hear it). And a discovery of a joy amidst all the terror of the world (Still Fighting It). It's one of the only records where I truly believe that every track should be a successful radio single. Every song is that well crafted and that well executed. And you can't argue with a guy that closes out the 2nd last tune on the record with the word 'Motherfucker' in 5 part harmony. That's a lot of balls (and a great set of ears and pipes.)

6. Keep it Together - Guster
Len gave me this record and at first I really liked a few tunes and the rest were background noise. But I found myself adding one more tune to the 'songs I really liked' pile every time I listened to the record. I believe I made an incredibly unorthodox mixed cd at one point that had three tunes from this record on it. These guys are the American version of the Barenaked Ladies. The reason they're on here and the BNL aren't is because they take twice as long to make a record and the effort is twice as good. For example, if I could mash the best of Gordon with the best of Maybe You Should Drive I'd have something like this record. Incredible harmonies, intricate and incredibly arranged songs and some very unique playing (the drummer often uses his hands, a sock full of nickels or whatever else sounds both rhythmic and interesting). One of the most under-rated bands in the last 20 years. Listen to 'Careful', 'Diane' or 'Jesus on the Radio' and tell me they shouldn't be millionaires. I also love their sense of humour. They win the award for best band blog. The drummer - Brian - is hilarious. Like another drummer I know he may have done very well with a career in comedy. It was his idea when their manager came in 'just to see how things were going' to play a prank. They feigned overwhelming excitement about what the band had decided was their first single: a 7 1/2 minute opus with 2 key changes, a feel change and an acceleration. The manager almost had a stroke.