dis: miroir noir

After a few days of waiting (well it came out on the 5th of March) i bought Neon Bible – the new arcade fire album.

L and I were listening to it in the car – and after hearing Black Mirror we got to the second song.

Holy smoke ! I thought i was listening to Bruce Springsteen.

I suppose i should have the album in front of me to reference the song i’m referencing here, but it very well had the sound of the Boss.

It was like 1984 all over again. I suppose i should check the album for a bandana in the back pocket of some well worn jeans.

It was good. It was what i desire. (Whoa, oh, oh, i’m on fire.) I’m looking forward to hearing more of Neon Bible.

Un, deux, trois, du miroir noir

When i first heard the new Arcade Fire i thought it was a long lost treasure from the goth days of the 1980s. Hell, for all I know about Bauhaus.

I was so pleasantly surprise to hear it was not only new, but Canadian, and Arcade Fire.

then i heard it again on the CBC radio 3 podcast… after an interview with the band.

You can hear it by going to the Arcade Fire site, clicking on “Win” and then on “black mirror”.

It’s good times.

POST SCRIPT: Shared the song with my coworker (or cowerker if we’re going all Bauhaus here) – he was okay with it. I tell you though, i’m digging this song – and i’m not talking ‘digg’ as in web 2.0, but dig as in lovin’ it old school.

UPDATE #2: Duh! I  should learn to spell “deux” correctly.  Still loving the song…

Looking under stones.

*NOTE* This is about three weeks old. It somehow became saved somehow…

Here’s an interesting story, reported by the CBC, about how the two rolling stones concerts in Regina, SASK last year and how they’re “being hailed as the top grossing Canadian concert event(s) of all time.”

“Industry publication Pollstar said the Oct. 6 and Oct. 8 sold-out events brought in $12,011,124, placing the Western city of 200,000 on a top 10 list of North American concerts produced in 2006.”

What’s cool when you think about this is

a) it’s not Montreal or Toronto or Vancouver, but Regina – 200,000 people.

b) it’s the Rolling STones. While arguably the biggest band still touring – i mean, it’s big news when the Stones come to town anywhere – but i’m not sure they’re record setters

You can read it here.

Cracker’s greatest hit

Back in the 90s i liked this band Cracker.

You may remember their hits, Low, Get Off This, Eurotrash Girl.

They’re a good band.

I even braved going to see that awful band that sang “Runaway Train” at the carpeted Ottawa Congress Centre just so i could see Cracker open the show for them.

I tell you, you shouldn’t have carpets at venues. It’s just a trippy mess. Especially in the heydey of the mosh pit.

Cracker have done something cool.

They were dropped by their record label – Virgin. Anyhow,  Virgin decided to put out a “best of”using the songs that Cracker recorded.

Cracker decided to re-record their hits and release their own album on the exact same day as the Virgin release.

Here’s a link to Cracker’s Homepage

The band -endorsed  album is called Greatest Hits: Redux.

Mr. Barkley, I presume

Have you heard of Gnarls Barkley?

You know the group who’s name sounds like Charles Barkley?

Yeah, Crazy. What’s with the punny basketball band name? I decided to find out if another basketball player’s name would be better for their band name.

Here’s what I did.

1. Came up with some fast and dirty punny basketball names – in the same spirit as Gnarls Barkley -

2. then googled those names to see what comes up.
Before we begin, according to wikipedia, who you can believe 100% because it’s on the internet, Gnarls Barkley “denied that the band’s name is a reference to former basketball player Charles Barkley, saying “Nope. It’s just like everything else on this record. There was no conscious decision about stuff.

Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley definitely not impersonating that wolf-droog Alex from “A Clockwork Orange”

On to the names:
1. name: Tragic Johnson

google result: Oh, it seems that a guy named Markus added this to the urban dictionary in 2003 saying “Earvin “Magic” Johnson has aids.” On the site it has one thumb up, and one thumb down.

Outlook as a band name? Umm. A little too lame really – i mean, Magic had that whole lame talk show thing for like 14 minutes and that was rather tragic in its own right – it was terrible. Keep it real, and stay away from this one.

2. name: Kilt Chamberlain

google result: According to sports site Red Deportivo, “la marca del legendario Kilt Chamberlain de 100 puntos era algo muy especial y “�nico”, que todav�a no hab�a podido asimilar.”

Outlook as a band name? Not Good. Hmm. Aside from its obvious appeal in the Scottish community – and perhaps among Spanish speaking Deportivo sports fans – that’s about it.

3. name: Larry Beard

google result: whoa! larry beard takes photos of surfers! and he’s also #55 on the Georgian Southern Eagles football team.

In short, a really bad name for a band.

4. band name: Cream Abdul Jabbar

google result: ” A local band called Cream Abdul-Jabbar resides in Tallahassee Florida”

And probably plays gigs at the Hojo, the Ron Jon, and the Bob Evans (if they have them there.)

As a band name? Um, let’s move on.

5. name: Psycho Jordan

google result: The first reference has to do with Michael Jordan – someone reviewing the book “Playing For Keeps” said “There were times in the book where I felt almost sick to my stomach reading how incredibly psycho Jordan can be.”

So yes, Psycho Jordan is a good band name alternative for Gnarls Barkley.

No. Who are we kidding?

They’re both bad band names.

If you’re going to adopt a basketball pun name as your band name, why not just adopt the punniest basketball name ever as your name.

It came from a real guy, and this is his real name:

World B. Free.

Can’t we all get along? I think you’re crazy.