It’s been a weird 7 days since last we’ve met, dear readers. To wit, what’s probably the most talked about incident right now outside of the Madrid bombings would be the mugging done by Vancouver Canucks star player Todd Bertuzzi of rookie player Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche. Todd recieved a rather hefty suspension, getting 12 games plus the playoffs for his cheapshot hit against Moore on Monday.
The Vancouver police are investigating this, and hockey analysts and idiot columnists the world over are calling for Bertuzzi’s head on a silver platter, comparing this whole ordeal to the Marty McSorley/Donald Brashear incident, viewing Bertuzzi as being one step removed from Osama Bin Laden. Hell, even Bertuzzi’s fans have turned against him, to an extent, calling his actions morally reprehensible claiming him to be a coward, a gutless punk, among many, many other things.
Being a Canucks fan, having this whole incident occur with one of your players heading into the playoffs is pretty bad. I don’t condone what Bertuzzi did, but the treatment he’s been getting from the media is insane. I’m content enough with the fact that of all people, Wayne Gretzky himself sort of supported Bertuzzi, saying that emotions do run high in games sometimes and that people do things they normally wouldn’t. Bertuzzi screwed up, yes, but that’s all it was. Nothing coldblooded or sinister like the media outlets would have you think, that’s for sure.
Comparing this to the McSorley incident is ridiculous. A more accurate comparison, for those that follow hockey, would be the incident involving current Minnesota Mild player Matt Johnson, who ended the career of Jeff Beukeboom back in ’98. Johnson earned himself a 12 game suspension and is still in the league. Moore looks to be back in 4-6 weeks and will make a full recovery. Whether or not he will WANT to come back and play is another thing entirely, though.
Another far more heinous act of violence comes from another era entirely, with Bobby Clarke’s premeditated attack on Valeri Kharlamov during the legendary Summit Series of Canada against Russia. Sadly, Clarke was lauded as a hero in some circles, and no police were called to deal with his brutal slash on the Russian’s ankle.
I could bring up Tony Granato’s own gooning incident (15 games). Or talk about Gary Suter giving Paul Kariya some dental work (4 games, yes, you read that right. Four). Owen Nolan’s hit on Grant Marshall (12 games), which came hot off the heels of an elbow to the neck the game before.
Bertuzzi picked a really bad time to decide to go and attack someone. It was late in the season, the night where my personal favorite player Trevor Linden broke the Canucks all time scoring record, and was coming hot off the heels of a rather violent last week, that saw the mother of all brawls erupt between the Flyers and Senators. It also happened against a struggling Colorado Avalanche, a powerhouse American team that is in the running for the Stanley Cup.
Had it happened earlier in the season, say, like Doug Weight’s crosscheck against Henrik Sedin last November (another incident that ranks right up there with the scuminess of the Bertuzzi hit, but was tame in it’s punishment to Weight), Bertuzzi most likely wouldn’t be in as much shit as he’s in now. However, you pissed off the Avalanche, and you happened to be a marquee player, so the heavy end of the hammer is going to come down on you. Not that you don’t deserve it, Bert, but you really don’t know how to pick them. It looks like Rucinsky and Sanderson are fitting in well with the team, but imagine how much better off we’d have been if you’d be playing alongside them. But yeah, this isn’t a HOCKEY column, and I’ve already devoted eight paragraphs to rambling on about this. I’m a Canucks fan, I haven’t gone into any lengthy diatribes in my month and a half of writing here at 411, can you allow me some wiggle room? Thanks, knew you’d understand.
As for myself? I sorted out some stuff with a friend of mine that I’m fairly certain didn’t exactly put me in good standings in her books. I’m afraid I might’ve done some irreparable damage to our friendship and that has me worried. On the plus side, I got a raise which was three years in coming to me. For those of you who think that working at a record store is all cake and ice cream, just keep in mind you get shitty pay, and those ‘free CDs’ that you covet so much are being coveted by the rest of the staff who also want to get their grubby mitts on them. Shit pay for doing shit work, but the perks help to balance it out. Empire Records, this ain’t.
Phew, this is starting to get quite depressing. Let’s get to work on…
Da News
Whoops, looks like it wasn’t all sunshine and roses this week in the world of music, either…
– Obits: Dave Blood, bassist for the Dead Milkmen, committed suicide March 10th. Blood’s sister posted on the Milkmen’s website, saying “Since the breakup of the band David has never really found his niche in life. My brother was a smart, clever and talented person. Inner peace has seemed to elude him for the last many years. Sometime last night David chose to end his life. He left a note that I don’t know all of what it said, he was not elaborate — but he said he just could not stand to go on any longer.”
Suicide is horrible, no matter who it is. I feel terrible for what Dave Blood must’ve been going through that led for him making a decision such as this, as well as the friends and family of Dave Blood. I’d never call myself a huge Dead Milkmen fan, but I did find some amusement in their stuff. Hopefully Blood is in a better place where his demons won’t be able to follow him. RIP, Mr. Blood.
This week sucked for news, and for that I’m apologizing in advance. With that said, though, let’s press on…
– A Perfect Circle will be performing tomorrow night on Jay Leno. I think this’ll be one of the first appearances Maynard & Co. have made on late night television and it should be interesting to see how Maynard’s ‘anti-celebrity’ attitude towards performing and being a ‘frontman’ will translate as being the feature band on the late night circuit. I’d also like to voice my disappointment once again with APC for losing Paz Lenchantin, another one of my future ex-wives and recruiting Twiggy from Marilyn Manson to replace her.
– G’damn. Looks like calling Pitchfork Media out on shit wasn’t the best thing I could do. Looks like the Pixies will be kicking off their reunion tour April 13th in Minneapolis, as opposed to the original April 14th start date. Still, us Canadians are getting a bulk of their attentions, as well as the Northwest parts of the States, so it’s still all good. Stupid latte sipping NERDS hanging out in their Boston offices, or something.
– Halifax rockers Sloan will see their latest release, Action Pact, come out on American markets May 11th. Expect a feature on Sloan in a forthcoming Sound Advice . Also, kudos to RollingStone for getting the album title right. Quite the silly gaffe from another PROFESSIONAL website, no?
– Looks like things are not all well in the land of Napster. Several key executives have left the outfit, while the site has struggled to make a dent in the online music market, competing against the juggernaut that is iTunes. Additionally, Napster was struck a blow by HP, who reneged on a $250,000 deal that would’ve seen Napster’s file sharing software be bundled with all HP computers. Instead, iTunes ended up getting the Windows version of their software onto the computers. What, a pay per download service having money problems? Warms my heart, it does.
– Chris Martin will be helping to cover a Buzzcocks tune for an upcoming movie soundtrack. That sound you hear is my brainmeat attempting to escape from my headbones in an attempt to exorcise itself from Earth and live peacefully on Mars.
– Beck is hard at work on his forthcoming studio, with rumours still persisting that he’s working with the Dust Brothers. Additionally, he’s recorded a cover of the Daniel Johnston tune ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’ for inclusion on a tribute album. In other studio news, Slayer are currently recording their first album with the band’s original members since 1992.
– AFI have had to call off the rest of their US tour, due to doctors orders that lead singer Davey Havok rest his vocal chords, lest he risk permanent damage to them. Doctors have also suggested that Havok either start wearing a dress or cut his hair and start acting like a macho man, as this whole androgynus punk rocker thing he’s got going is quote, ‘quite creepy’.
– Kazaa owners Sharman Networks were unable to squash a court order that allowed members of Australia’s music industry to raid their offices. As reported in the very first SBS, Music Industry Piracy Investigations obtained a court order to raid Kazaa offices to look for evidence of copyright infringement for an upcoming civil suit against Sharman. Although the order wasn’t killed outright, a judge did rule that a more conventional method of exchange between the two groups would be ‘desirable’, something which pleases neither side, as Sharman still has to pony up the information and MIPI is unable to completely strong arm Sharman with their court order. Look for more information regarding this issue later on this month, as the next court date is scheduled for March 23rd.
– Going back to my home continent here in North America, it was ruled earlier in the week that the RIAA cannot sue en masse John Doe downloaders, but instead have to go one by one, suing each user through their IP address. This isn’t much of a victory for file sharers as it’s a setback for the RIAA, as this whole process will cost additional time and money for the RIAA. Hell, the cost to file a lawsuit is $150. That works out to $150,000 for the thousand or so lawsuits the RIAA have filed against users in the last couple of months. Throw in legal fees for each user getting sued and it starts getting rea-llly expensive for the RIAA to start suing hordes of people. Heck, you might even start to think that suing filesharers will become too tedious and difficult that it won’t be WORTH doing. Now wouldn’t THAT be groovy.
– Audioslave have been quite busy in the studio, having penned 20-25 songs for an upcoming album. Nothing’s been given regarding even a TENATIVE release date for the album, although the band is putting off touring to focus on the record.
– Continuing to show why the whole notion of pop culture is a hulking, irradiated Gila Monster that bleeds pure anthrax when you cut it and is capable of spewing fire, William Hung, idiot engineer who cannot sing, has netted himself a recording contract with Koch. Watch me shit my pants in glee with this particular revelation, while the aforementioned Gila Monster nibbles on my scrotum.
– Bright Eyes are putting out a split EP with Neva Dinova, set for an April 20th release. Celebrate National Weed Smoking Day, Hitler’s Birthday, the Columbine Anniversary and my brother’s birthday by purchasing this record and sitting in a corner sobbing quietly to yourself. HUZZAH!
– Canada’s offering of redneck rock to the world, Nickelback, recently did an interview with Net Music Countdown earlier this week talking about the criticism that has surrounded the band. So sayeth guitarist Ryan Peake about the charges that they’re Creed knockoffs, “I remember playing for many years before they came out.†The guitarist adds that many bands actually try to mimic Nickelback’s sound, saying “It’s a little weird, but it’s flattering. Definitely people like our stuff and people want to sound like us.â€
It’d be interesting to hear what Peake would say about any charges that they used to cover Pearl Jam quite extensively back when they were a shitty-ass bar band, as opposed to the shitty-ass stadium band they’ve morphed into. I seem to remember a cover of ‘Evenflow’ that used to make it’s way into the band set. My, my, my. How times have changed, yes?
– Reading material this week would be the memoirs of Walter Yetnikoff, called Howling At The Moon. Yetnikoff was CBS Records prez from 1975-1990, in which he saw profits quadruple, and was hopped up on so much different junk he’d make Keith Richards blush. Worth checking out to see what he has to say regarding guys like Springsteen, Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones.
Anti-Pop: Well Hungarian
I just wanna say that I respect the work you do for 411 and that you have at least four fans….. – Rustee_Max, coming at you all the way from South Africa.
You hear that, Widro?! I’ve got me a READERSHIP! You know what that means? I’ve got CLOUT! And power! And fame! And all sorts of other delusions that some heavy drugs would probably help to sort out….! Hey, I might be the least read guy here at 411, but I’m at least having FUN doing this!
Rustee also chimed in with some thoughts regarding my diatribe concerning the RIAA, pointing out that overseas, such as South Africa, CDs cost exorbiant amounts of money, sometimes hitting the $40 mark when it’s all said and done. Unlike us North Americans who are getting it pretty easy, building a CD collection can be a costly venture, thus making p2p downloading sites a very useful form of ‘try it before you buy it’, especially considering that if you’re not a fan of the South African equivalent of Pink or Britney Spears, importing CDs can be a timely and annoying process.
Another thing that Mr. Max didn’t bring up, but I thought bears mentioning regardless, is that online sites like iTunes and Napster currently serve the American market and only the American market. Hell, us filthy Canadians up here didn’t get our own ‘legit’ file sharing service until late last year. While I still realize the fact that people are breaking the law by downloading mp3s of songs that they don’t already own, the thing that needs to be realized is that people who are doing the downloading are FANS, and FANS tend to usually support their ‘faves’. Guys like Rustee have their hearts in the right place, it’s just bullshit economics that gets in the way of allowing them to enjoy their music. That and the fact that Dave Matthews is probably the closest those poor South Africans have for a national hero when it comes to music. Just teasing, of course. After all, I’m the guy who lives in the country that unleashed Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne AND Nickelback unto the world. A trifecta of terror, the likes of which hasn’t been seen this side of the Minority Report.
Speaking of my weekend predecessors, let’s get to some plugs!
– Captain Caveman ended up covering 2 stories that I had my heart set on. This week he talks about Yorgos Kyriatou Panayioutou, as well as someone who is very well Hung. He also compares me to a Michael Moore produced movie that starred John Candy, although I’m not sure what exactly he meant by trying me with some pineapple. Since I’ve thoroughly confused everyone now, go and read his columnand sort this whole sorrid affair out, mmkay?
– Mathan’s got another column up. Taking a minimalist approach to this not because I don’t like the column, but because he’s talking about BIGGIE, and a ‘small’ plug would be ironic. No? Bah.
– Melchor interviews Body Count. Melchor INTERVIEWS Body Count. Melchor will also hopefully be interviewing someone else a little down the road thanks to the mad connections I’ve got or something. While you wait for this mysterious SECOND interview to materialize, check out MELCHOR INTERVIEWING ERNIE C OF BODY COUNT.
– Mr. YOU is like Peabody from Rocky & Bullwinkle. Except he doesn’t have an annoying kid following him around harassing him. No, he’s got Ryan Murphy, instead. Harhar? Check out Mr. YOU’s Wayback Machine, care of yesterday.
– Phil’s got me pencilled in as the columnist that Time Almost Forgot. Or was it the columnist that Phil almost forgot about? I can never remember. Check out his latest, if you’ll be so kind!
Sound Advice
Okay, so I’m going to feature a local ‘indie’ band here for this edition of Sound Advice. Reverie Sound Revue really haven’t been around for all that long, but they’ve been turning the local Calgary music scene on their heads with their upbeat, jazzy numbers.
Sounding like an even cuter version of the Cardigans mixed with some Stereolab, or maybe what a Canadian version of the Postal Service might sound like with a female singer, Reverie Sound Revue are an amazing little group worthy of your attention. WHY?
Well, top of the list would probably be lead singer Lisa Lobsinger’s voice. It’s one of the most gorgeous female voices I have ever heard used for singing. Her voice fits in perfectly with the synthy tunes that float in and around her as she flits from note to note. I know I’m getting very poetic here with my descriptions, but there’s really no other way to do justice to RSR/Lobsinger other than to get all pseudo-pretentious.
Although all the members of the band are bloody skilled when it comes to music, the other notable standout, for me at least, is John Marcel de Waal’s skills on the drumkit. The couple of shows I’ve seen them perform at, he had a simple, down-to-basics 3 piece drumkit that sounded like he had one of those Drum Kits Of The Gods that idiots like Lars from Metallica like to show off. How he’s able to get such BEATS out of a small kit baffles my un-drummer mind. Watching him drum is a treat and is a welcome divergence from most other ‘synth’ groups who like to utilize drum machines or synth beats to make up for a lack of a real, live drummer.
Reverie were lucky enough to open up for Modest Mouse when they played a show here, as well as doing a couple of shows for Montreal’s The Dears. They’ve also gone on a couple of tours across Canada, so it’s possible you might just be able to check them out.
The band currently has an EP for sale that can be obtained from their website. Cost is $10, which should include shipping for those of you living in the Continental United States. You can also grab the disc from Soundscapes in Toronto, or Megatunes here in Calgary & Edmonton.
If you want to take a listen to the group, you can listen to 2 tunes from this website. ‘Walking Around Waiting Downtown’ and ‘It’s All The Same’ are available for your listening pleasure, and give you a feel for what the group sounds like.
These guys are absolutely, 100% recommended if you’re a fan of ‘bleepy bloopy’ stuff like The Postal Service or Death Cab For Cutie, the Cardigans, upbeat fun pop music or easy listening music that isn’t shit like Kenny G or Yanni. They’re a local group, too, and it’d be awesome if we could get someone from Germany supporting them.
Other Artists Featured In Sound Advice: Peanuts & Corn Records, Sam Roberts, Hawksley Workman.
If you want to see a band or artist featured here (preferably Canadian) e-mail me at trevor411music@hotmail.com with your suggestions or catch me on AIM as flinch311.
The End Is The Beginning Is The End
Holy poop on a stick, Batman. I ran the gamut this week, both in this column and in life in general. Nothing really noteworthy coming out this week from what I can tell, so do yourselves a favor and spend your $10 (or $20 or however much it is you allot yourself for music during the week) and splurge on some Reverie Sound Revue.
Life is…well, life. It’s hard spending your time searching for that one little perfection. The one thing that you think would complete things for you, and finding out that it’s still going to be elusive as ever. Other times, things come completely together, and then LIFE, being the miserable bastard that it is, decides to throw you a curveball and drive apart that which you’d worked so painstakingly hard at collecting together. Not just talking about myself here, this has been a rough week on a number of people.
Life’s sometimes a bitter pill to swallow. No, nothing any of you really need to hear about. I’m Trevor, and this has been SunDAAAAAAAAAAY Bloody Sunday. Check out Bubba Ho-Tep if it’s playing near you!
How long, how long will we sing this song…?
