Well, well, well. Here we are in mid-August already. How did that happen? The Finn and I spent a blissful two weeks on vacation, but have sadly now returned to the daily grind. Y’know, I always laugh when I hear people say that they would keep working if they won the lottery because they like to keep busy, need to feel productive, blah blah blah. Like, are you for real? There are about a MILLION things I can think of that I would do if I hit the jackpot. Actually, my current life dream is to be able to sit around all day watching & blogging about ‘80s teen movies. There are SO MANY good ones!! Teen Wolf, for one (which I seem to be obsessed with lately). The Lost Boys, License to Drive, and Dream a Little Dream (all starring the two Coreys). Better off Dead (John Cusack) and Real Genius (Val Kilmer), only two of the best movies of all time. A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (River! *sob*) And I haven’t even gotten to any of the John Hughes (“a genius of our time”) classics.
Sigh. If there’s anyone out there reading this who wants to pay me to write about masterpieces of ‘80s cinema* such as these, please do let me know. I LOVE THE ‘80s SO MUCH.
*Yes, I do realize that some of these are regarded as fairly terrible movies, but that is only because the general public obviously has no taste.
Anyway, what better way to celebrate the return to reality with a dose of morose songs celebrating the death of love? Yes, that’s right — I am finishing off my list of favourite breakup songs. Here are the next five:
You guys. Not only is “Elvis Impersonator” an actual job, but for some people it’s their only job. Isn’t that crazy? I mean crazy awesome of course, but still…what is it about Elvis Presley that, almost 35 years after his death, people are still so fascinated by him? Think about it, who else inspires the same kind of idolatry? There are quite a few Michael Jackson tribute artists, sure, but Jackson’s final years were tarnished by allegations that he could never quite recover from. Marilyn Monroe may enjoy status as a 20th century icon at a level close to Elvis, but to the best of my knowledge there’s no annual convention of Marilyn impersonators. So what’s the big deal with Elvis?
I grew up in an Elvis household. To say that my mom is “a bit of a fan” is like saying that Napoleon was “sort of keen” on empire-building — i.e. both were completely obsessed. When I was sixteen, a friend of mine came to stay with my family in Singapore over the Christmas holidays, which is when my mom goes to town with her Elvis Christmas albums. Here is an actual exchange between her and our guest:
Spencer’s friend: “Mrs. Spence, Elvis is DEAD”.
Spencer’s mom: “Not in this house, young man. NOT IN THIS HOUSE”.
So there you go. I’ve been listening to The King since infancy. Thinfinn’s dad may rival my mother for the title of #1 Superfan, so he was raised on the standards as well. For the past few years we have been curious to check out Collingwood’s annual Elvis Festival, but the scheduling has always conflicted with another music festival that we attend. When my brother-in-law and his wife moved there last year, though, we decided it was time that we got our Elvis on and hightailed it to Collingwood.
You guys, I am probably the worst person here at Let Them Eat Vinyl to review last night’s U2 show. I love them so much that they could just walk out onstage and do nothing and I’d be all “Yay! They were great!” But Thinfinn is still working on his review of New York Dolls / Poison / Mötley Crüe at the Molson Amphitheatre (as his editor I am getting impatient, but anyone out there who knows the man knows you can’t rush him :)) so I have no one else to pawn this off on. So you’re stuck with me I guess. Here goes.
I never really got the whole groupie thing. Well, let me qualify…I understand people being into musicians. After all, they are creative and often super talented which are definitely attractive qualities. And people tend to look good up onstage underneath those stage lights. But I’ve never understood the concept of sleeping with someone just because they’re famous. What’s the point in that? I mean, if you’re gonna hook up with someone who’s not famous it would be someone you like or admire or at least have good chemistry with, right? So why should your standards be different simply because the person is famous?
And yet we all have our celebrity crushes. The musicians I have found myself particularly drawn to over the years have all shared similar qualities – creative talent, unique personal style, a proclivity for iconic sartorial statements, and something undefinable that makes me want to keep watching and listening.
A big thank you to everyone who entered LTRV’s contest to win tickets to My Morning Jacket! We received some amazing best-concert-ever stories, and it was very difficult choosing between them. I removed myself from the selection process, relying instead of a panel of nine experts (i.e. drunk friends at my cottage) to determine the winner. After careful consideration, they chose two semi-finalists and then cast their votes for the ultimate victor, who has been notified. Although only one of you gets the tickets, I want you to know that you are all winners to me. 🙂 Srsly, though, the stories were highly entertaining, so thank you for taking the time to share them with us.
We have more contests and giveaways planned in the upcoming months, so keep watching this space!
In the meantime, here is a tune, ‘Victory Dance’, from My Morning Jacket’s latest album, Circuital. I was checking out set lists, and they’ve been opening the shows on their tour with this song and closing with my other favorite, ‘One Big Holiday’. Gah!!! If I didn’t have the consolation of going to see U2 I would be punching myself in the face right now for missing this show. Anyway, I couldn’t find a decent quality recording of a live performance of this song on YouTube, but the audio is attached. Enjoy!
Have you ever tried to have dinner at Starbucks? Yeah, it’s actually totally doable. They have these little eggy-hammy-cheesy situations that are quite delightful. I’m in night school at one of the local colleges in downtown Toronto and since I am always, ALWAYS running late, I only ever have time for a mad dash into Starbucks before class starts to grab a coffee and one of these breakfast sandwiches and sometimes a slice of banana chocolate chip coffee cake. Yum.
As you probably know, in recent years Starbucks has made a foray into the business of selling music, serving up new releases alongside their mocha frapps. They also have free weekly iTunes songs available for download. I stopped picking up the cards a while back, because I was just shoving them into the bottom of my purse and then finding them months later, when the codes had long since expired.
But! I was in there last Tuesday getting my usual meal before class, and I noticed a card for a free 10 Song Summer Mix. Now that’s something I can get behind. First of all, free music – yes. Secondly, I was intrigued as to how good a mix put together by Starbucks could be (although, I am sure it’s not the suits who handle the music. They probably have legions of hipsters and music scenesters on the payroll for this sort of thing).
Anyway, I downloaded the playlist from iTunes and have spent the last week and a half listening to it off and on. Here is my synopsis…
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Of course I do, Spencer. Who doesn’t want to clone themselves? Duh…” Sorry, consider it a rhetorical question. Cloning seems like the sort of thing that would start out as a delightful experiment but quickly go horribly awry, which is likely why we humans are drawn to the concept (or am I the only one?) Sometimes I think that it would be better, in fact, to have a robot version of yourself. Although I am pretty sure that Robot Spencer would turn out to be wickedly evil and would cut a swathe of destruction through my life, ruining my job and marriage, making snide remarks to my friends, and forcing me to turn against it, culminating in an epic battle royale involving flame throwers and explosives. Who would emerge as the victor? Hopefully we will never have to find out the answer to that question.
Maybe what I’m really asking is, do you ever wish you could be in two places at once? Of course we know this is impossible (unless you subscribe to the theories of Hugh Everett III. Why can’t someone just go ahead and prove the whole parallel universes deal once and for all? Jeez. I’m waiting, Science).
Sadly, this proof is unlikely to occur in time for July 11th. Why is July 11th an important date, you ask? Because there are two musical events happening simultaneously that evening that we have tickets for. And I desperately want to attend both of them.
How did this happen? Let me explain. A few years ago, The Finn and I had a friend who worked as a bartender at The Berkeley Church in Toronto. They were in the midst of filming Season 3 of the show “Beautiful Noise,” a music profile and performance series, and he let us sneak in for free to catch a few of the acts. My Morning Jacket happened to be on the bill and we were absolutely blown away by their live performance. Like seriously, it was just massive amounts of AMAZINGNESS. They had just flown in from somewhere in South America about two hours prior to the show and they still KILLED it. After that I became completely obsessed with their live album, Okonokos. They are one of those bands that really takes it to the next level live in concert, and Jim James has one of the coolest voices I’ve heard in a long time.
Anyway, when I was looking around for a birthday present for The Finn this year I realized that they were playing a show here in Toronto on July 11th so I got us tickets. Yay! Great, good plan, ready to go, super pumped. I can’t tell you how excited I was about seeing them live again.
Except…
July 11th is the same night that U2 is playing their rescheduled show.
F&CK.
You guys. I love U2. Like, I love love LOVE them. The Joshua Tree is my favourite album. ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ is my favourite song. When I went to see them two years ago and they started playing that song, I cried. I totally cried like a baby.
SIGH. What to do? In the end, we decided that we just could not miss U2. But, our loss could be your gain. We are giving away our My Morning Jacket tickets to one lucky Let Them Read Vinyl reader. The winner will receive two tickets — so you can bring a friend/spouse/significant other/relative/nemesis/archenemy/evil robot of your choosing. Whoever you decide to take with you, my advice is that it’s not someone you’re on a first date with, because this band is so good that you will forget all about your date as soon as the music starts and ignore them for the rest of the evening. This will probably make them mad and they will refuse to date you again, and then you will blame old Spencer and LTEV for your ruined love life. So don’t say we didn’t warn you.
All you have to do to enter the contest is tell us, in the comments section: what is the best concert you ever saw, and why? Doesn’t have to be a super long answer, a few sentences or a paragraph will suffice. We will choose the winner using highly scientifical methods (don’t worry, these will be totally impartial — we are bound by the music blogger code of ethics) and we’ll notify the winner by e-mail.
The deadline for entry is 12:00 midnight on Friday, July 1st.
The only qualification to enter this contest is that you must have a cell phone. Tickets were purchased through the Rogers Wireless Box Office so we will text them to you, and you bring your phone to the venue with the text (they scan your phone for entry). If you lose the text, it can be re-sent to you. More information about the Rogers Wireless Box Office can be found here.
Here’s a preview of what YOU could be seeing on July 11th. This song is so good it makes me want to cry:
SHOW DETAILS:
July 11th 2011, Kool Haus, 132 Queens Quay East, Toronto, Ontario. Doors at 7pm. All Ages. GA Floors.
In 2004 Brian Wilson released his long-awaited Smile, which had been Smiley Smile as a Beach Boy project and was scrapped due to drugs, mental illness, the Beatles and trying to get the sound he wanted on ‘Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow’. All that, it’s lore, and the unfinished album is legend.
Anyway, 37 years later or however long it was he finally recorded this beast with members of his backing band and The Wondermints. Critics universally agreed it was genius, brilliant, etc., and it did ok in sales considering how long it had been ‘out there’. I bought it and listened a few times but got lost early and for long stretches in all the harmonies and lack of guitar and oblique syncopation. Much singing, strange lyrics, and almost too much like a capella/choral singing to ‘hook’ me.
Let Them Eat Vinyl 