Hello again readers, and welcome to another week down the hole.
First off, I’d like to say that it seems that I touched a bit of a nerve with my comments last week regarding Dany Heatley being a murderer. I received 2 e-mails about the subject, and had one of my friends also give me his 2 cents regarding it. Well, I hate to say I told you so, but…well, hell, let’s just take the headline that’s been floating around on about a dozen newspapers:
Heatley to be tried for vehicular homicide.
It would appear that the courts down in the States happen to agree with my line of thinking, and yet he’s being allowed a free pass by many hockey fans, as his reckless behavior happened off the ice, and it has no bearing on how he is as a hockey player, yadda yadda yadda. Nevermind the fact that the chances of you being reckless, possibly dangerous, off the ice could translate into being very dangerous ON the ice are rather high, I find it highly amusing that Heatley, the murderer of the NHL (but not the NHL’s Murderer….that starts with a ‘B’ and ends with a ‘ettman’) is getting a slot on the World Cup roster, and yet a certain someone (whose name also starts with a ‘B’ and yets ends with a ‘ertuzzi’) is getting the shaft for doing the exact same thing that numerous NHL players have done over the years. For those of you worried about international embarassment in the arena of world hockey, I’d like to point out that we, as Canadians, had no shame in gooning it up during the ’72 Summit Series. Bertuzzi would’ve been a good fit for the World Cup Team, although having Lecavalier on in favor of Yzerman, who is taking a bow thanks to his eye injury, is no less a good fit, and he’ll probably bringing some chemistry and good karma to the table, intangibles which Big Bert wouldn’t have been able to contribute.
The only thing that worries me now, about having both hockey players at the mercy of the courts, is that this could delve into a dangerous game of one upmanship between the two, to show that they aren’t going to be going ‘soft’ on a celebrity of sorts. I can see it happening because: 1) Americans don’t, by and large, give a rat’s ass about hockey, and 2) Vancouver authorities are in a very tenuous situation right now, considering that they had previously prosecuted a player for on-the-ice actions, and cannot risk showing favoritism towards a player that’s on the local team. The next month or so should be very interesting for fans of both of these players.
Following that, not much more interesting stuff regarding hockey. The Avs re-signed Aebischer? Interesting choice, but I guess it shows commitment by the team with the worst scouting in the league to stick by their choices. Isn’t Aebischer Swiss for ‘sieve’ or something, too…?
As for what’s been going on with yrs. truly? Not a whole lot. Missed out on a couple of concerts this past week, due to migraines and other commitments. Really pissed I completely forgot about the Vans Warped Tour, which I had thought was going to be happening on Saturday for some reason (complete with me booking the day off at work) and not Thursday. I heard it was a really good show, and I really would’ve liked to have checked out Taking Back Sunday, Coheed & Cambria, Thursday, and some others. Mahwell.
I’ll try to hammer something out that’s somewhat coherent, but I’m making no promises, as even as we speak, I’m feeling as though Dany Heatley had taken me out for a Sunday drive. Blame Calgary’s weather patterns, which alternate between hot and sunny and cold and apocalyptic on a day-to-day basis. Fucks up the air pressure, which in turn f*cks up my head. Anyways, enough jibba-jabber, let’s get down to covering….
Da News
– Dave Grohl is drumming for Trent Reznor. As though this is somehow newsworthy, Trent confirmed that Grohl was beating the skins for all of the tracks for the upcoming Nine Inch Nails opus, the tenatively titled Bleed Through, although he’d be the one performing for the rest of the material. As to why I think this isn’t newsworthy, despite the excitment I have for Grohl being on board with Reznor? It’s f*cking Dave Grohl, guys, he’s becoming more and more like the music industry’s version of the town bicycle/whore: everyone gets a ride with him. Not to say that I don’t admire the fact that he’s got an impressive work ethic which, considering his resume as is, he can simply rest on his laurels, but news that Grohl is drumming for another well esthablished artist? Yawn.
– The frontman for Franz Ferdinand, Alex Kapranos, will see the re-release of the first disc of the first band he worked with late in August. Divorce At High Noon was the first group Kapranos worked with before joining up with Franz Ferdinand, and had a first release date of August 1997. Pick it up if you’re interested.
– Speaking of rarities and re-releases, looks like the White Stripes are going to be following suit with a rarities collection of their own, so sayeth the Mr. Jack White. No release date or other information has been released, unfortunately, as this info was gleaned from a web chat the Stripes frontman had with some fans a couple of days ago.
– Courtney Love. 40 year old appointed a legal guardian, and suffering from a ‘gynecological medical condition’ all in the same week. You know I–ahh, f*ck, what’s the use? It’s not as though I’m making this shit up. How the f*ck am I supposed to rip on her when THIS is what I’m given with? I mean, f*ck, is the legal guardian there to ensure she doesn’t endanger herself or not make another America’s Sweetheart? Hell, this gynecological condition, were the RIAA on hand? Cos I heard her pussy went platinum. HOO-HA! And THAT…..Ladies and Gentlemen, was YOUR Courtney Love Jab O’ The Week(tm)!
– I believe I reported about this, rather vaguely, inside of a month or so ago, but if not, here it is again:
A new reissue of the classic Clash album ‘London Calling’ is set to feature a selection of previously unreleased tracks from the band that were presumed lost for over 25 years since they were first recorded.
Over 20 tracks, now known collectively as the ‘The Vanilla Tapes’ were recently discovered by Clash co-frontman Mick Jones in his storage room. According to bassist Paul Simonon the songs – including ‘Working And Waiting’, ‘Heart And Mind’, ‘Canalside Walk’ and ‘Revolution Rock’ – come from a point in the band’s history when they were at their creative peak.
Sounds very hot, I’m sure.
– RIP Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane, bassist for the NY Dolls. Dead from either complications of leukemia or pneumonia, depending on the source you decide to go after.
– Cannibal Corpse was accused of racism and violence against women earlier this week, as concert organizers for a show in Toronto were told that they’d be charged with hate crimes if the show went on as planned. I’m not a huge metal fan, I will admit that up front, but is there really any sort of place for garbage like Cannibal Corpse in the music industry? Honestly, strip away all the gore and bullshit and what do you have? Absolutely nothing special or remarkable at all. The ‘special covers’ and violence depicted in the songs are simply gimmicks to get kids to ‘rebel’ or whatever. It’s terrible music, as I could go into a basement studio and crank out something 100x harder than this purile shit. Kudos to TO for having a clue and exercising good taste.
– Story of the Year, Lostprophets, My Chemical Romance, and Letter Kills are all going on a tour together. Reports that Story of the Year picked these bands to tour with them because they’re the pussieset groups they could find that were available are most likely overblown, but hey, at least I don’t think they have to worry about getting their asses kicked here! Hoo-HA!
– Jeffrey Smittle, of Michigian, was fined $120,000 for selling bootlegged material of several rock performances. So wait, $120K to the guy who bootlegged a bunch of material that was never before recorded and never saw the light of day, and yet there are people out there facing enormous legal fees from the RIAA because they downloaded some mp3s? Something’s not right here, Fred….
– Finally, I’ll close off with some tidbits for y’all, cos I know you all love them tidbits…
Bjork‘s new one is due out in August. Expect Dinosaur Jr. reissues sometime by the end of the year. Elliott Smith‘s swansong, Basement is due out in ROCTober, along with a new Jimmy Eat World and Nick Cave, who is releasing a double disc and Sigur Ros are in the studio right now. Phew! That’s alot of bold for one paragraph.
Anti-Pop: Do It All On Camera With The American Dream
Overtime sucks, and the amount of hours I spend working has a direct correlation with the length of the pimps. I’ll let you figure out how much I worked this week, yo.
– Jeff’s guest on the Swindle Sheet this week has got one hell of a Late Night Jukebox, care of Cory Laflin.
– Evocator wants to pound Melchor into submission and then feast on his heart.
– Melchor realizes this, and knows that everything is going according to plan. Plus, he has a column that rivals any of Eric S’s mini-novella’s in length this week. The man’s a f*cking workhorse, and by that, I mean both Eric S and Melchor.
The End Is The Beginning Is The End
New Hives came out either this week or next week, I cannot remember which, unfortunately, but it sounds bloody good. Really love the new CD and the new disc doesn’t stray too much from their existing formula, which despite how much I bitch about bands doing carbon copies of their albums, isn’t always a bad thing. The only other big release that I know of is the Van Halen best of which will either be REALLY BIG NEWS for you or news you can’t give two shits about. So, um, have fun with that.
Avoid I, Robot, I don’t think I need to explain why and….that’s about it, really. Save your money and go see Napoleon Dynamite, instead. I’m Trevor, and that’s another Sunday. Melchor’s got your back on Monday, assuming Mr. YOU hasn’t taken him out before then.
