Matador has announced the initial lineup for their 21st birthday party. In addition to the reunited GBV ("the Classic '93 - '96 lineup), it also features Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the New Pornographers, Girls, Superchunk, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Guitar Wolf, Fucked Up, Shearwater, Harlem, Cold Cave, Kurt Vile, Jeffrey Joe Jenson, and more to be announced. WHEW!
I am learning/teaching myself this whole kinetic typography animation stuff that seems to be all the rage these days. I took the opening narration from the classic TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and began animating to it. It is a work in progress, and if I don't get too lazy, I will hopefully finish it sometime.
Check it out on the actual YouTube site...this shit tends to get cut off on my blog.
My Macbook Pro motherboard got mad at me and died, so after being a week sans computer (longer then I thought it would take) I bought a new 27" HD iMac. She is pretty sexy.
Just two weeks away from the big Faith No More trip. After a two day keg party bender at Orsos, we will all head towards Philly the Friday before the show. There we will bewz and crank FNM like neverbefore. The next day however...well...I cannot wrap my head around that day just yet.
I herd from everyone that went that the beer line situation was unreal. A group of friends from Oshawa even left the event before BSS and Pavement even came on because of the shitty service when it came to beer/food.
Broken Social Scene, indeed: The Toronto Island Concert reviewed (not the music, the beer service)
Scott Deveau June 21, 2010 – 12:25 pm
The Toronto Island Concert this weekend could have been a perfect day.
The sun burned through the clouds just in time for the first bands to take the stage and blazed through the day until just before Pavement took the stage.
There was a cool breeze blowing across the grounds, the ferries were running smoothly, the bands were excellent and the food – top notch.
It could have been a perfect day that is if it weren’t for the f@&#ing beer lines.
To say there was a complete and utter organizational disaster in all the beer tents would be an understatement. The system seemed simple enough: line up for tickets, then line up for a beer.
So how did such a simple system degenerate into a half hour wait to get into a beer tent, an hour-and-a-half wait for tickets, and another two hour wait for a beer? Who the hell knows?
Collective Concerts, who put on the show, has yet to return our calls or emails for an explanation either. Judging by the wait times we experienced Saturday, it’ll likely be a while yet.
In the spirit of offering constructive criticism, we at the Ampersand have some suggestions for next year [mostly because we won’t be going back to another show on the Island until it’s fixed].
Too much selection causes too much of a disaster
It’s nice to have some good beers on tap when you go to a concert. But let’s face it, asking each person in line which of five beers they would like, is ridiculous. You need to decide on one brewery, make them an official sponsor, then offer two of their beers – a light one and a regular one. That way the people pouring the beers can create a conveyor belt whereby a group of “pourers” fill up hundreds of beer cups an hour of the same beer and place them on a table for a group of “servers” to give to customers.
Hire experienced bartenders to serve beer
As anyone who has worked a bar can tell you, experienced bartenders are an absolute must when dealing with high volumes. Watching the system that was set up on Saturday was one of the most maddening things you could ever imagine once you finally made it to the front of the line after a three hour wait. There were two or three guys filling up pitchers of beer, then pouring those pitchers into plastic cups. Filling up the pitchers again. Then filling up the cups. Any efficiency expert will tell you that the fewer actions you have each worker do, the faster the overall system will run [see a car factory for details]. This is where a two-beer policy shines.
Keep it simple, stupid. It’s not that hard to run a beer tent. People have been doing it for eons. But the more variables, rules and regulations you put into it, the worse it will be. Limiting the amount of drink tickets people can buy to four [which they did Saturday] is ridiculous, especially when you’ll only sell them two per person after waiting in line for three hours.
Too many lines cause too many line ups
Ottawa’s Bluesfest has a simple solution to this. Instead of lining up to get into a beer tent, have people line up for wristbands. Then make the whole area a beer tent for those people who have a wristband and have shown ID. Then set up several stations around the grounds to diffuse the lines. We understand the risk of underage drinkers. That’s what the wristbands are for. Don’t sell them to underage people, and the security people and police at the concert should throw out those without wristband who are drinking.
*****UPDATE*****
Jeff Cohen from Collective Concerts responds:
“3 Hrs?
Whatever you’re smoking can you send some over please.
The drama of it all.
One of the beer tents had both mechanical and electrical issues with regard to the flow of the beer draft (The North area).
It wasn’t as much as a problem earlier in the day, but at the peak hours, there was indeed a wait of up to 45 min to get a beer.
We told people as much and that they’d be better off going to another tent but at that point, the other tents were filled to capacity.
Few left. That is all regrettable.
We offered refunds to anyone to bought beer tickets and could not get service in a reasonable time. Many took us up on that.
We’re already looking into using a different [company] or insisting a service person is on site for our next show.
We’ll fix it.
We don’t want people to have to wait more than 15-20 min.
The other tents did not have this problem and the wait time was more in the 10-30 min range, the 30 min being only at peak hours.
But It’s not a beer festival, it’s a music festival.
65% of the 11,500 there were not even interested in buying a beer.
They came for the experience of hearing great live music in a serene outdoor setting. It can be had without alcohol.
While we’ll 200% be looking into how to set up the site to reduce waiting times (especially with regard to food and water) if you see a long line to get into a beer tent, why do you join it?
Maybe you should just come back later when there’s no longer a line?
Isn’t their a personal choice involved here?
Literally food for thought..”
Read more: http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/06/21/broken-social-scene-indeed-the-toronto-island-concert-reviewed-not-the-music-the-beer-service/#ixzz0rWUi3hDD The National Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today.
>>>Eddie Vedder on Robert Pollard's Moses On A Snail...
"It sounds to me like Robert Pollard uncharacteristically took ten years to make this one... He will tell you otherwise, but I don't believe him. It's too fucking good.
If it were any other group this would be seen as their masterpiece. I think for Bob it's just another good day of weaving words into a kaleidoscope of one of a kind, thought-provoking perspectives.
Soccer got cancelled due to the rain last night, which was kinda weird given that our game was in the dome...but whatever. I drove around cranking tunes, and ended up at Encore where I got a couple vinyls. Pumpt.
Got home and watched some shows while watching a wicked thunderstorm out my window. Just resting up before the insanity that will be this weekend. Fun overload. Coming up.
I just saw the new Broken Social Scene tour dates, and see they are playing Rumsey Playfield in Central Park just days before Pavement does their 4 day stint at the same place. Why they couldn't be opening for Pavement, I will never know. The rock Gods like to tickle my ass with a feather. Regardless, New York rules and I cannot wait till September. Going to be the best week EVER!!.
I have become somewhat obsessed/hooked on the new version of 90210, firing through the first season in about a week. I just started season 2 last night. They basically cover every story line that Degrassi High/Next Generation has already done. What can I say though? I am a sucker for petty high school drama....and Jessica Stroup. Serious tho, watch it.
Someone made this montage of action movie shots set to the song 7 vs. 8 by the mighty JESUS LIZARD. I watched this thing a good 3 times in a row, jaw dropped. This might be the best editing I have seen. Crank it loud!
The Brian Jonestown Massacre are infamous for their on-stage antics. They've been known to use each others' faces as percussion instruments and their fists serving as the drumsticks.
So, it was to the surprise and delight of a thousand strong at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre when the band not only kept their brawling tendencies in check, but pulled off a triumphant, hit-filled performance with more than two hours of catalogue favours and deep cuts of the band's psychedelic/country slop.
It was the BJM's first Toronto appearance in more than six years and despite a few new faces, the band's core remained static. Centred around singer/songwriter/ringleader Anton Newcombe, fellow singer Matt Hollywood and tambourine shaker/mascot Joel Gion, the BJM burned through two dozen songs with a lot of swagger and near-perfect precision, featuring as many as five guitars in any one sitting.
Newcombe is definitely the catalyst, but it was Gion who stood front and centre, treating the audience to various nonplused facial expressions as he bashed away on his tambourine and maracas. He was even wearing the infamous "Canadian tuxedo" (by his own admission) to celebrate the band's return to the north country.
While the band showed a lot of composure on-stage, the crowd seemed unhinged at times, especially by Toronto standards. Fuelled by a disproportionate share of girls and douchebags, there was a ton of pushing and shoving in the audience — some good-spirited, some not so much.
The crowd was paired with some ill-conceived attempts at crowd surfing and a primordial THC haze, which made it nothing if not lively, and it at times truly had the band feeding off the collective energy. That's a serious rarity for any live action in the GTA.
Highlights included such popular favourites as set opener "Super-Sonic," "Servo," "Here It Comes" and epic version of "When Jokers Attack," complete with a dense, layered outro that approached shoegaze territory on more than one occasion.
In their own detached way, BJM were clearly feeling the adoration and seemed a bit moved by the outpouring of support — as moved as a drugged out troupe of San Fran-based psyche revivalists could possibly be, I suppose.
Despite unseasonably warm temperatures outside, the energy remained indoors, even as the band wrapped up the main set with a quickie jaunt through "Hide And Seek." A few moments later, the band returned to tear through "Oh Lord" and a scorching "Satellite." The latter lead to a wee spot of moshing upfront and the aforementioned crowd surfing. It's a feat to get a 19+ crowd in Toronto to show much emotion for anything, but to have them stage diving for two hours in is nothing short of a miracle.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre truly defied the odds with this performance and more than made up for lost time north of the border
