I love music (yeah yeah you know that already), I love seeing music live (you know that already too), and I love loving both of those things (ditto)- that feeling, however, that feeling when you pass a band on to someone else and they end up loving the music, loving the show, loving the band... le sigh. Sharing the love... makes me feel like a bona fide hippie- and not in the unwashed and smelly kind of way.
I've said before that when I love a band, I'm not that bothered whether other people like them too, and that's true (only if they DO happen to like them, it kind of makes me super excited). That extends to pretty much any band I recommend to someone; I mean I might hear something and think its okay, but feel like it is right up Krista's or Em's or George's alley and then pass it on. Now even though I am not totally enamored with this band, if they like it, if I was right and it is up their alley, that is such a great feeling. If they really like it, if they love it, well then. Even better.
I am not someone who recommends bands willy nilly (neither do I trust the recommendations of those who do)! Recommending a band is like recommending a movie or a restaurant or a book: Just because I like it, doesn't mean everyone else will or should like it too. You have to take into consideration each person's individual taste, what other music they like, their favourite bands, and most importantly what it is that they like about their favourite music/bands. Someone who likes K-os for the singing parts is not necessarily gonna like Eminem, while someone who likes The Streets for their every-day-life lyrics would likely enjoy Scroobius Pip... I like to find out what it is about a song or a group that makes someone love it and then keep on the lookout for things that remind me of that...
Either way, you also have to be careful about how you recommend it... "You're gonna love these guys, they are sooooo good!" is almost as unflaggingly doomed as "You like the colour blue so you will love these blueberries!" Something like "So I found this band, they kind of remind me of Library Voices, maybe not quite as energetic, but you should give them a shot- I think you might like them!"- much more direct, much more honest, much more effective. Tells them what to expect and doesn't set the standard so high that they're bound to be disappointed regardless of how much they should logically love it.
When I first discover that a friend is in into music (sure arguably few people are not into music, but I mean 'into music' in an active way, where they will just sit down and listen to an album without doing other things, or get a craving for a certain band, or love going to live shows...) I start gathering information so I can make better recommendations. Making mental notes of which music they like and why. I mean its not a recommendation-a-month type of thing, more of a keep-an-eye-out matter, but I like to know what I'm keeping an eye out for. Of course if their tastes fall in line with mine I am bound to be passing on music on a more frequent basis, but regardless of my own reaction to new music my second question when I discover a new band is always 'who else do I know who would like this?"
Loving music is a pretty personal thing. Having a favourite band is a pretty personal thing. And recommending a possibly-future-band-like should be a pretty personal thing too. Don't cop out when passing-on bands: one good recommendation is so much better than ten unconsidered ones...!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Of Radio and Research
I have recently gotten back into radio... that could mean so many things! well, okay maybe just a few things, but to dissect its actual intended meaning:
In university I hosted a radio show. Well actually I started out filling in for people who were sick/had exams or were in plays or whatever, then moved on to hosting a radio show with my friend Robyn, then later on a movie soundtrack show with another friend, Jess. I kind of loved it. For someone who used to be afraid of speaking in front of large crowds of people radio was perfection (yes perfection). It was just me and my friend, two microphones a couple turn tables, a tape player and a CD machine (ok CD player, but tape player followed by CD player just sounded lame...). No audience. Not in the studio, likely not even on the other end of the radio. Perfection! Well until the day when a person we had never met called in and we realized that there actually were people listening on the other end of the line... actually that was a really weird feeling, that you are being heard by people you've never seen and will likely never meet...More importantly you might play a song that introduces them to their future favourite band! Screw being afraid of talking in front of people, the possibility of introducing someone to new music far outweighed any fear. I was hooked.
At least until the end of university...
Once you get out into the real world its a little more difficult to get involved in radio. At least I thought it was... I later discovered that several people I knew had local radio shows, mostly on campus or community access radio, but I knew from experience that the fun part was the idea that even just one person you've never met might hear something you play and like it. If three people heard it, all the better, but I really couldn't (and still can't) fathom the idea of many more people than that hearing my voice on the radio (despite evidence to the contrary...)
So when Shawn asked me if I would do a Canadian music segment for his weekly radio show/podcast I lept at the chance. Not only was I excited to get back into radio, I was especially pumped to have an excuse to be up on Canadian Music. Alright, alright, I don't really need much of an excuse, but its nice to feel like there's a reason beyond "I just like it though...". Don't get me wrong, that is definitely enough of a reason for me, only sometimes, when people realize the depth of my love for it and the extent of my random can-con knowledge they seem a little weirded out by it. Tacking on "Well I do a weekly radio segment on Canadian bands..." takes the edge off a bit!
So this past week I went a bit bonkers with it. And my 'it' I mean research. And by 'research' I mean listening to a crap-ton of bands on a crap-ton of websites and blogs, and mining the minds of friends and fellow music lovers for their current favourites.
And it was awesome.
Alright the computer-dazed-headache thing wasn't so hot, but once the dust settled I was left with at least a handful (and at most an extensively annotated and very very long list...) of new-to-me bands to add to my listening list. And that most definitely is awesome. So I thought I would share a few with you!
First off, the tantalizingly-few-released-songs of Writers' Strike. Hailing from Halifax, this is the first band that has made me miss the Hali music scene since I moved away almost a year ago. Plus you can download their music for free (or 'pay what you feel like' which always makes me actually want to pay for the music)! Text-book Indie, the kind of band you hear and think "I bet they're good live..." I am going to have to send some of my east coast friends on reconnaissance missions over the next few months... Looking forward to the eventual release of a full length album
Though my 'research' was geared towards Canadian music, the band I have not been able to stop listening to is from Iceland. Of Monsters and Men. A little bit Arcade Fire, a little bit Library Voices, and a little bit Mumford and Sons, with maybe a dash of Phil Collins (okay that might just be me, but seriously, just a liiiitle bit!) their back-and-forth vocals, storytelling lyrics and loverly selection of horns, guitar and la la las gets me right in the stomach. Plus they've got the awesome (though sometimes subtle) Icelandic accents that just make all of the lyrics seem trapped in some sort of netherworld between Europe and North America, like they're singing from a bubble atop the Atlantic Ocean... or Iceland. Either way I am very much enjoying it!
Also not Canadian but instead from Rhode Island, Math the Band. Cheeky, a little silly, and a lot like 8-bit video game music, these guys are far from sophisticated, but way too much fun to not love. I spent the last three days listening to them while editing K's extensively long film-preservation paper and they acted as both excellent background music, and an exceptional distraction. Odd combination, but you'll just have to trust me on that. Like B.A. Johnson and The Beta Band had some sort of nintendo-playing wiz kid, they walk the line between quirky and ridiculous in an entertaining and (usually) fairly listenable manner.
So with the monster list I have awaiting further 'research' there are bound to be more of these types of posts in the next few months/weeks! If you've got any other bands you think I should check out, send em my way! Maybe I'll play them on the radio (well, only if they're Canadian, but I will listen to them either way)!
In university I hosted a radio show. Well actually I started out filling in for people who were sick/had exams or were in plays or whatever, then moved on to hosting a radio show with my friend Robyn, then later on a movie soundtrack show with another friend, Jess. I kind of loved it. For someone who used to be afraid of speaking in front of large crowds of people radio was perfection (yes perfection). It was just me and my friend, two microphones a couple turn tables, a tape player and a CD machine (ok CD player, but tape player followed by CD player just sounded lame...). No audience. Not in the studio, likely not even on the other end of the radio. Perfection! Well until the day when a person we had never met called in and we realized that there actually were people listening on the other end of the line... actually that was a really weird feeling, that you are being heard by people you've never seen and will likely never meet...More importantly you might play a song that introduces them to their future favourite band! Screw being afraid of talking in front of people, the possibility of introducing someone to new music far outweighed any fear. I was hooked.
At least until the end of university...
Once you get out into the real world its a little more difficult to get involved in radio. At least I thought it was... I later discovered that several people I knew had local radio shows, mostly on campus or community access radio, but I knew from experience that the fun part was the idea that even just one person you've never met might hear something you play and like it. If three people heard it, all the better, but I really couldn't (and still can't) fathom the idea of many more people than that hearing my voice on the radio (despite evidence to the contrary...)
So when Shawn asked me if I would do a Canadian music segment for his weekly radio show/podcast I lept at the chance. Not only was I excited to get back into radio, I was especially pumped to have an excuse to be up on Canadian Music. Alright, alright, I don't really need much of an excuse, but its nice to feel like there's a reason beyond "I just like it though...". Don't get me wrong, that is definitely enough of a reason for me, only sometimes, when people realize the depth of my love for it and the extent of my random can-con knowledge they seem a little weirded out by it. Tacking on "Well I do a weekly radio segment on Canadian bands..." takes the edge off a bit!
So this past week I went a bit bonkers with it. And my 'it' I mean research. And by 'research' I mean listening to a crap-ton of bands on a crap-ton of websites and blogs, and mining the minds of friends and fellow music lovers for their current favourites.
And it was awesome.
Alright the computer-dazed-headache thing wasn't so hot, but once the dust settled I was left with at least a handful (and at most an extensively annotated and very very long list...) of new-to-me bands to add to my listening list. And that most definitely is awesome. So I thought I would share a few with you!
First off, the tantalizingly-few-released-songs of Writers' Strike. Hailing from Halifax, this is the first band that has made me miss the Hali music scene since I moved away almost a year ago. Plus you can download their music for free (or 'pay what you feel like' which always makes me actually want to pay for the music)! Text-book Indie, the kind of band you hear and think "I bet they're good live..." I am going to have to send some of my east coast friends on reconnaissance missions over the next few months... Looking forward to the eventual release of a full length album
Though my 'research' was geared towards Canadian music, the band I have not been able to stop listening to is from Iceland. Of Monsters and Men. A little bit Arcade Fire, a little bit Library Voices, and a little bit Mumford and Sons, with maybe a dash of Phil Collins (okay that might just be me, but seriously, just a liiiitle bit!) their back-and-forth vocals, storytelling lyrics and loverly selection of horns, guitar and la la las gets me right in the stomach. Plus they've got the awesome (though sometimes subtle) Icelandic accents that just make all of the lyrics seem trapped in some sort of netherworld between Europe and North America, like they're singing from a bubble atop the Atlantic Ocean... or Iceland. Either way I am very much enjoying it!
Also not Canadian but instead from Rhode Island, Math the Band. Cheeky, a little silly, and a lot like 8-bit video game music, these guys are far from sophisticated, but way too much fun to not love. I spent the last three days listening to them while editing K's extensively long film-preservation paper and they acted as both excellent background music, and an exceptional distraction. Odd combination, but you'll just have to trust me on that. Like B.A. Johnson and The Beta Band had some sort of nintendo-playing wiz kid, they walk the line between quirky and ridiculous in an entertaining and (usually) fairly listenable manner.
So with the monster list I have awaiting further 'research' there are bound to be more of these types of posts in the next few months/weeks! If you've got any other bands you think I should check out, send em my way! Maybe I'll play them on the radio (well, only if they're Canadian, but I will listen to them either way)!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Hey, I know that guy!
If I have heard of a band and one of their songs has ever made me smile I will go see them in concert. Okay, if someone I trust to know my musical tastes says I will like them, I will also go. Alright, it doesn't take much for me to go to a concert, but it its even better when its one of 'your bands.' I love going to see bands I love, but there's this other thing you get to have happen sometimes that makes it just a little something else... a little more entertaining I would say. Yes, entertaining is the right word. When you know the person playing the music.
I remember the first time I went to see my cousin play a show- It was fantastic! The show was fun, they were good, and it was great- if odd- seeing these guys I'd known practically their whole lives rockin' out speed punk style... even the road to get to see them was epic (ok not the physical road, but the metaphoric one- I had tried to go see them three times previously but the first time the show got canceled, the second time I ended up having to work all weekend, and the third time- the third time I was soooooo close! Made it all the way to Waterloo and then *blamo* the great East Coast Blackout of 2003. Seriously. It was not meant to be).
Even hearing someone you know on CD... A few months ago I also happened across an old mix CD with one of my cousins old songs on it and found myself singing along for at least twice through before figuring out what it was... (Move to Bremerton, if you're one of like twenty people who has ever heard their album... geez I don't even know what band they were at the time! The Durty Sox maybe?) It made me remember who he was back then when they were writing those songs, just punk ass kids bangin shit out on their guitars... It definitely brought a smile to my face... Or this morning when I heard my friend Kevin's old band, The Dunn Project, and had a similar reaction (not the 'its not meant to be' one, the other one. The 'Ahaha I know that guy! Oh hey this is awesome, I like this music! Nice work friend, nice work!" one). You feel like you've got a little bit of an inside track on the music cuz you know one of the people making it, but then you also feel like you know them just a little bit better for having heard something they made...
The other way that this works is when you've seen a performer so many times, in such small venues that they get to know you- at first just by sight, then by name, then soon you're have actual conversations when you pass each other on the street, catching up and asking after each other's families... This used to happen to me with Old Man Luedecke back in Halifax, and my friend's friend Phil has an even more elaborate version with the loverly B.A. Johnson. Its kinda odd, but it seems somehow very Canadian.
This whole loverly making-you-like-the-music thing doesn't always work out perfectly, though. I mean there are bands I know whose music I am not super fond of- but knowing them personally does turn the experience from "Ho-hum" into "Well, I am smiling and bopping my head..." Case in point: I went to university with In-Flight Safety- never knew any of them well, but had friends in common so I saw them around- but I find their music, how shall I put this....? Boring. Fine, well played, but just Intensely. Boring. Nonetheless when I happen to pass by them playing at a festival or as an opening band, it makes me just a little bit happy to stand there and watch them for a few minutes. Not in an 'Hey guys, hey guys, I know the band!" sort of way, but in more of a "Hey I know you're just regular people from a regular place, and I think its kinda awesome that you're up there playing for loads of people" and I get this weird sense of pride. Again, not pride for me, not pride in something about myself, but being proud of them for doing what they love and getting some sort of recognition for it, even if its just playing their stuff and having people show up to hear it.
I suppose sometimes this also transfers to bands I don't know personally, but have just loved for forever... Like when I heard the Elliott Brood show in Ottawa was sold out- so proud of them. Or Arcade Fire making it big. Or Sam Roberts getting to play Massey Hall. Its weird, I have no reason to feel that way, but yeah- so proud.
I honestly think its one of the big reasons to see live music- you get to feel like you actually know the band/singer/guitarist/whatever. I mean, obviously you don't necessarily know them (except for when you do know them already, or come to know them though going to see them play...) but either way you get to physically, actually be in a room with them, to exist in the same actual physical space, and somehow that makes it all seem just a little bit more real. Its like seeing a work of art in person- anyone who says that a photo in a book is the same as the real thing has clearly never stood in front of their favourite statue or smelled their favourite oil painting (Yes smelled. Fine, think I'm weird, but you go stand in the JMW Turner Gallery at Tate Britain and tell me the smell doesn't transport you to a different era... also the light playing of the softly muted colour transitions... ok I'm gonna just leave it at that before I start to sound like an inaccessible art history text book...). But anyways, being in the same small space as someone making music makes the music make its way into you in a different way than just listening to it on CD. (I guess I'm not really talking about stadium shows or crazy huge tours here, but really I suppose it works in those situations too, to a certain extent- perhaps the effectiveness is inversely proportional to the size of the venue...?)
I realize I have all but totally lost the plot here, so I'll just say this: If you know someone in a band, go see them play. Even if you don't love their music when you hear it on the crappy CD they recorded in their basement, even if you don't really know any of the songs, just knowing them will make it a fun experience. Also you can make embarrassingly awesome fan t-shirts and wear them to the show. And maybe baseball hats too. Hats are cool.
I remember the first time I went to see my cousin play a show- It was fantastic! The show was fun, they were good, and it was great- if odd- seeing these guys I'd known practically their whole lives rockin' out speed punk style... even the road to get to see them was epic (ok not the physical road, but the metaphoric one- I had tried to go see them three times previously but the first time the show got canceled, the second time I ended up having to work all weekend, and the third time- the third time I was soooooo close! Made it all the way to Waterloo and then *blamo* the great East Coast Blackout of 2003. Seriously. It was not meant to be).
Even hearing someone you know on CD... A few months ago I also happened across an old mix CD with one of my cousins old songs on it and found myself singing along for at least twice through before figuring out what it was... (Move to Bremerton, if you're one of like twenty people who has ever heard their album... geez I don't even know what band they were at the time! The Durty Sox maybe?) It made me remember who he was back then when they were writing those songs, just punk ass kids bangin shit out on their guitars... It definitely brought a smile to my face... Or this morning when I heard my friend Kevin's old band, The Dunn Project, and had a similar reaction (not the 'its not meant to be' one, the other one. The 'Ahaha I know that guy! Oh hey this is awesome, I like this music! Nice work friend, nice work!" one). You feel like you've got a little bit of an inside track on the music cuz you know one of the people making it, but then you also feel like you know them just a little bit better for having heard something they made...
The other way that this works is when you've seen a performer so many times, in such small venues that they get to know you- at first just by sight, then by name, then soon you're have actual conversations when you pass each other on the street, catching up and asking after each other's families... This used to happen to me with Old Man Luedecke back in Halifax, and my friend's friend Phil has an even more elaborate version with the loverly B.A. Johnson. Its kinda odd, but it seems somehow very Canadian.
This whole loverly making-you-like-the-music thing doesn't always work out perfectly, though. I mean there are bands I know whose music I am not super fond of- but knowing them personally does turn the experience from "Ho-hum" into "Well, I am smiling and bopping my head..." Case in point: I went to university with In-Flight Safety- never knew any of them well, but had friends in common so I saw them around- but I find their music, how shall I put this....? Boring. Fine, well played, but just Intensely. Boring. Nonetheless when I happen to pass by them playing at a festival or as an opening band, it makes me just a little bit happy to stand there and watch them for a few minutes. Not in an 'Hey guys, hey guys, I know the band!" sort of way, but in more of a "Hey I know you're just regular people from a regular place, and I think its kinda awesome that you're up there playing for loads of people" and I get this weird sense of pride. Again, not pride for me, not pride in something about myself, but being proud of them for doing what they love and getting some sort of recognition for it, even if its just playing their stuff and having people show up to hear it.
I suppose sometimes this also transfers to bands I don't know personally, but have just loved for forever... Like when I heard the Elliott Brood show in Ottawa was sold out- so proud of them. Or Arcade Fire making it big. Or Sam Roberts getting to play Massey Hall. Its weird, I have no reason to feel that way, but yeah- so proud.
I honestly think its one of the big reasons to see live music- you get to feel like you actually know the band/singer/guitarist/whatever. I mean, obviously you don't necessarily know them (except for when you do know them already, or come to know them though going to see them play...) but either way you get to physically, actually be in a room with them, to exist in the same actual physical space, and somehow that makes it all seem just a little bit more real. Its like seeing a work of art in person- anyone who says that a photo in a book is the same as the real thing has clearly never stood in front of their favourite statue or smelled their favourite oil painting (Yes smelled. Fine, think I'm weird, but you go stand in the JMW Turner Gallery at Tate Britain and tell me the smell doesn't transport you to a different era... also the light playing of the softly muted colour transitions... ok I'm gonna just leave it at that before I start to sound like an inaccessible art history text book...). But anyways, being in the same small space as someone making music makes the music make its way into you in a different way than just listening to it on CD. (I guess I'm not really talking about stadium shows or crazy huge tours here, but really I suppose it works in those situations too, to a certain extent- perhaps the effectiveness is inversely proportional to the size of the venue...?)
I realize I have all but totally lost the plot here, so I'll just say this: If you know someone in a band, go see them play. Even if you don't love their music when you hear it on the crappy CD they recorded in their basement, even if you don't really know any of the songs, just knowing them will make it a fun experience. Also you can make embarrassingly awesome fan t-shirts and wear them to the show. And maybe baseball hats too. Hats are cool.
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