Watt's tour diary

Hey Mike Watt made a tour diary of his little tour of Canada with DOS http://www.hootpage.com/hoot_dos.html#dos%202004%20canadian%20tinytour

I always like to read what people from far away think of our little town, the things you don't realize are regional (breakfast sausages, clean air)

software and shows

Kodak Easyshare - dude, you know how pictures are all grainy and shit. Especially when you're trying to make graphics and menus for website. well this free program is supposed to sharpen up your images in one touch. I haven't tried it yet but I read about it in Popular Science so it must be good. Professionalism here I come.

there's a new file sharing software out. Curtis has it. I'll ask him what it's called and then update this. He was getting episodes on TV shows from it and apparently it's spyware free

Skype - talk to anyone for free. High quality long distance for free. I've talked to my brother in Mexico and the quality is excellent. Get it while it's free. Fuck the phone company.


Bumbershoot
here are the bands I want to see. Must see bands are in bold the others won't kill me to miss

FRIDAY
Death Cab For Cutie
Presidents of The USA
United States of Electronica
Against Me!
Burning Spear

SATURDAY
Pedro The Lion
American Music Club
Robyn Hitchcock
The Black Keys
Nancy Sinatra
Drive-By Truckers
Face to Face

SUNDAY
Crooked Fingers
The Walkmen
Cobra High
Ben Kweller
The Beta Band
Public Enemy
These Arms Are Snakes

MONDAY
Built to Spill
Pixies
Toots and The Maytals
Sam Roberts
Nick Lowe
The Killers

Hey Ya Lives!

Today I was walking through the park and saw a grandma with two grankids they were laying down a blanket on the lawn the grandma told the kids to "shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture."

Shows I won't be going to

October 5th - Sarah Harmer - Broadway Theatre - Saskatoon - $27.50 will be too expensive for me at that point. Why can't she play at Louis' or something.

October 20th - Hayden - The Exchange - Regina - Ever hear about how he swore he'd never play Saskatoon again? Looks like he's sticking to his word.

November 17th - R.E.M. - Saddledome - Calgary - man did I ever used to like R.E.M., making the trip isn't very likely though. I wonder who's going to open? I wonder what day of the week this is?

snails...

our show last night was a humbling experience. we totally blew our first song but that was fine because no one was there to see it. The rest of the set wasn't as bad as we imagined it was as we were playing it. The attendance for the show was absolutely dismal. As the promoters we lost money from our own pockets (well, not mine but the other guys :) ).

The Paper*Kites and The Vertical Struts were both excellent. Make sure to check them out when you have the chance.

We have another gig tonight at The Bassment with Edmonton's The Vertical Struts, The Paper Kites, and O Jeh Lye La (sp?). Cover is $5. Show at 8.

I haven't been updating this because I've been looking for a new place to live and the circumstances behind it are causing me great anxiety. Wish me luck.

Between the last update and now I saw Despistado and Bif Naked play at the Exhibition. I watched Harold & Kumar. We had a gig last Monday and met some great people from the other bands. Some other stuff happened too.

Anyway, I'm looking for a 1 bedroom basement suite or apartment near broadway or the university with a safe parking place and room for two people with a clean trained declawed cat. Is that too much to ask?

two new comps of interest

Future Soundtrack for America (August 17th - Barsuk Records)

01 OK Go: "This Will Be Our Year"
02 David Byrne: "Ain't Got So Far to Go"
03 Jimmy Eat World: "Game of Pricks"
04 Death Cab for Cutie: "This Temporary Life"
05 Blink-182: "I Miss You (James Guthrie mix)"
06 Mike Doughty: "Move On"
07 Ben Kweller: "Jerry Falwell Destroyed Earth"
08 Sleater-Kinney: "Off With Your Head"
09 R.E.M.: "Final Straw (MoveOn Mix)"
10 Bright Eyes: "Going for the Gold (live)"
11 The Long Winters: "The Commander Thinks Aloud (Future Mix)"
12 will.i.am: "Money"
13 They Might Be Giants: "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too"
14 Clem Snide: "The Ballad of David Icke"
15 Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Date with the Night (live)"
16 Fountains of Wayne: "Everything's Ruined (acoustic)"
17 Nada Surf: "Your Legs Grow"
18 The Flaming Lips: "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (live on the BBC)"
19 Old 97s: "Northern Line"
20 Laura Cantrell: "Sam Stone"
21 Tom Waits: "Day After Tomorrow"
22 Elliot Smith: "A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free"

-Also available with a book by McSweenys
-A fundraiser for MoveOn.org
-Jimmy Eat World covering Guided By Voices???
-That Blink-182 song is a guilty pleasure of mine
-Bush is still a moron


The Late, Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (September 21st - Gammon Records)

01 Teenage Fanclub w/ Jad Fair: "My Life Is Starting Over Again"
02 Clem Snide: "Grievance"
03 Gordan Gano: "Impossible Love"
04 Eels: "Living Life"
05 TV on the Radio: "Walking the Cow"
06 The Rabbit: "Good Morning You"
07 Calvin Johnson: "Sorry Entertainer"
08 Bright Eyes: "DevilTown"
09 Death Cab for Cutie: "Dream Scream"
10 Beck: "True Love Will Find You in the End"
11 Sparklehorse w/ The Flaming Lips: "Go"
12 Mercury Rev: "Blue Cloud"
13 Thistle: "Love Not Dead"
14 Vic Chestnutt: "Like a Monkey in the Zoo"
15 Starlight Mints: "Dead Lovers Twisted Heart"
16 M. Ward: "Story of an Artist"
17 Guster: "The Sun Shines Down on Me"
18 Tom Waits: "King Kong"

-this is a 2 disc thing. The second disc will be the original Daniel Johnston versions of the songs
-Wow! TV On The Radio doing "walking the cow".
-I'm gonna get Vinyl to order it for me.
-The title is misleading Daniel JOhnston is alive and (maybe not financially or medically) well

Aug 9 National Monument, In Media Res, Parades Against Parades, & Asterid
@ Unitarian Center ($7 admission - Doors at 7:30/ Show at 8 pm)
Bring your dancing shoes!


National Monument are from Winnipeg. In Media Res are from Vancouver. Parades and us are local. This is our first real gig besides our two open stages and our misplacement at The Pit! Come and squirm!

myspace.com

I signed up for myspace.com. It's like Friendster but has a blogging feature and is way more customizable. It has some pretty big flaws but it's okay and I'm surprised by how many people are on it. Loren's even on it.

It would make more sense for me to have my blog there because more people can see it and are more likely to comment but I like this thing damn it and I'm sticking to it.

view my myspace profile http://profiles.myspace.com/users/5841707


recent listening:
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Pinback - Blue Screen Life
The Decemberists - Her Majesty...
A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder

A.C. Newman

On Sunday night I drove back into the city. I was driving into the sun about half the way which was painful but in a beautiful way. I gave Dean a call and we both wanted to go see the A.C. Newman show at Amigos.

We got there around 11 and the show hadn't started yet and there were a lot less people than I expected. Cover was only $8. We sat right up front.

Opening was The Neins from Vancouver. None of them looked older than 20 years old but, damn, they did impress me with their songs. I'd say they pretty much did everythimg right. The singer was a lot like Jonathan Richman in his lyrics and mannerisms and they way he stared into the audience. Musically they had the vancouver sound and a bit of the Beatles via Elephant 6.

After the Neins played I bought A.C. Newman's LP and The Neins CD (both excellent, btw). Deans and I talked to the drummer and bassist/keyboardist of The Neins for quite a bit. It's really good to have Dean in our band because he's a born schmoozer. Anyway, they're really nice people.

Next A.C. Newman played and the place started to fill up a little more. Still nobody got up to watch which was a little disappointing. The girl playing bass was from The Gay and the drummer was from Copyright. I don't know where the guitarist/keyboardist, Shane, was from but he was really good. Various Neins came up and joined on some songs. Overall I found that the vocals and guitars were too quiet and it would have felt more livelier if people had gotten up. The set seemed really short but was altogether really good. I still have "The Battle for Straight Time" in my head.

I grabbed a poster from the wall after and saw that the drummer was about so I had him sign it. Some other kid was getting things signed too so the drummer led us into the back room to hang out with the bands. They had tons of beer to spare so they offered us some. I had a Sol. Everyone signed my poster and I got Carl to sign my LP jacket. I hung around for awhile and talked about The Pixies and transportation and then I left to find Dean. He was talking to The Neins again and I let him know there was free beer back there. LOL. I swear me and Dean probably talked to Mr. Newman for an hour. It felt like we were interviewing him after awhile but he was really nice and didn't seem annoyed at all. We talked about doing the solo thing, Neko Case, The United States, touring, festivals, Vancouver, The Fiery Furnaces, Clinic, Spoon, Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, the last Pixies show, San Francisco, Austin, The New Pornographers... We chatted with The Neins a little more and they demanded we take some beer home with us so I did. Those two Sol were sure refreshing on Monday afternoon