i'll trust as far as i can spit

The New Amsterdams at the El Mocambo last night started off the first of three straight nights of concerts for me. Both the opening acts were kind of bad, so Tricia and I left the venue, got hot chocolates, a poutine, went back to El Mocambo and played free foosball inside. After that, we made our way inside the crowd towards the front. The New Amsterdams hit the stage with “Hover Near Fame”, which I thought was a great opening track. Throughout the show, the band was funny and very interactive with the audience. During the encore, Matthew Pryor actually took requests from the audience and played a few old favorites: “Proceed With Caution”, “All Ears”, and “My Old Man Had A Pistol”. This show was slightly different than the one I attended a few of years ago. Well, mostly just the instrumentations: missing are a piano and an electric bass; while new additions included a cello and a slide guitar. Result: a more folk/country sound. Since the show was 19+, there were quite a few drunks, aka people yelling random crap at the band. There was this guy, who I swear was also in the last New Amsterdams concert, that kept yelling a bunch of shit out... it was actually funny at times, but mostly very annoying. It was only funny because the band actually paid attention to the guy and they were kind of interacting through the show. The guy kept yelling random Get Up Kids songs hoping the band would play them. So finally, Pryor said, “dude, no Get Up Kids songs, the band broke up, and if you missed it, too bad!” Later, during a quiet song, the guy yelled “turn down the bass!” Pryor replied with “turn down the heckler!” in which the audience responsed with the loudest applause and cheers. Good times! Oh, I also bought this children’s CD that Matthew Pryor made called If You Ever See An Owl… According to the merch guy (who was like the nicest merch guy ever… I actually had a whole conversation with him and he gave me four New Amsterdams buttons), the CD is probably not coming out till September because there is no label to distribute it yet. Anyways, here’s my favorite song on the disc: “We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs” ***file has expired, reload upon request, enjoy!

go here to see pictures from the show

self promote time

This is one of the new graphics I've been working on for this blog. I know, it is a little cheesy, but it is inspired by "Short Stories" by Patrick Wolf.

"…The boy loves the wolf,
The wolf loves the boy,
They’re kissing in the forest…"

Copy the link below and post a smaller version of the banner on your blog, MySpace, etc.

<a title="lycanthropy" href="http://ifyouwanttosingout.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/41/124560875_c7ba852c8f_o.gif" alt="lycanthropy, jackman's blog" /></a>

UPDATE When I was working on my portfolio, I ran into the problems of not being able to find any of my rough work. From now on, I’m going to upload all my rough/progress works so I can never misplace or lose them… here’s a re-assembled sample of an early stage of the banner.

yet another exclusive download

Here's Feist performing live @ Park West in Chicago, IL on January 27, 2006:

Intro/Safe and Secure
The Build Up
Young Girl
Four Teenage Boys
So Sorry
Secret Heart
Fighting Away the Tears
Phantoms
Mushaboom
Sea Lion
Intuition
Major Label Debut
Let it Die

all files provided by www.rbally.net, thanks!

exclusive download

Ok, here’s the HUGE music update: Final Fantasy’s new album He Poos Clouds. I hope I don’t get into trouble by uploading this. Well, it’s not like anyone I don’t know visits this blog, so I think uploading this will be alright! Anyways, this is just for people who just can’t wait for the release of the album and absolutely have to listen to new Final Fantasy right now. Please, go buy the thing when it comes out on May 9! Support indie and local music!! Enjoy!

Final Fantasy: He Poos Clouds
***file has expired, reload upon request

my face is on a shoe!

This week issue of NOW Magazine features one of the most amusing articles I’ve even read. The article's headline was: If the shoe fits… Adidas’s "Yellow" line mocks Asians with bucktoothed caricature. It talks about a new Adidas line called "Yellow" - and particularly about a shoe that features a Chinese cartoon character with buckteeth and slanted eyes. I am absolutely NOT offended by this at all! In my opinion, I think that it is funny as hell that someone (in this case, a giant shoe company) actually made this. It is even funnier that people actually buy this! I like how no one really cares when Asians and Asian cultures are 'made fun of' or 'put on display'. I’ve said this before, if those Harjuku Girls that Gwen Stefani has by her side were Africa girls, there would be an outcry among the black community. Likewise, if those Adidas shoes were called "Black" and featured a black guy with big lips and an afro, without a doubt, there would be boycott and outrage against Adidas. I just think it is crazy (and sad) how our society allows us to make fun of certain groups or be racist about certain groups; it really shows that there are still countless ignorant people out there!

go pick up this week's copy of NOW and read the entire article by Yee-Guan Wong on page 22

On a lighter note, I’m still working on new graphics for this blog and there will be a HUGE music update coming soon (hopefully).

iMac, iPod, iGeneration

It is pretty obvious that I am not a huge fan of hip-hop music. There’s only a handful of hip-hop artists/groups I actually enjoy: Madvillain, MF Doom/Viktor Vaughn, Buck 65, Atmosphere, Edan, Dizzee Rascal, The Streets, Wu-Tang, and Natalie Portman. Right now, I am totally into MC Lars’ new album The Graduate! I have been a member of Operation Lars since 2004, when The Laptop EP was released. Without a doubt, the highlight of that EP is "Singing Emo", which is also on The Graduate. This hilarious song looks at the lost meaning and authenticity of emo and what mainstream media had made emo to be. "Singing Emo" pokes fun at a fictional major label A&R scout named Marty who is in search for a generic 'emo' band to sell. He ends up signing a band called Hearts that Hate (haha, how 'emo') which features a ridiculously generic chorus. Another standout song is "Generic Crunk Rap": which states the fact that hip-hop music is going down the drain due to simplicity lyrics and pointless product placements. Brilliant track!! "Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock" is another hilarious song about kids spending their parents’ money buying shits from Hot Topic to try to be 'punk rock'. Almost all the tracks are flawless! One most likely needs to understand his references and lyrics in order to enjoy The Graduate. You may need to have a slight knowledge of the punk and emo culture; otherwise, you’d probably think the album is pretty stupid. For instance, if you don’t know the sample in "Download This Song", you may not understand the irony and humour. Likewise, if you are not familiar with Hot Topic, "Topic Is Not Punk Rock" will not make sense to you. MC Lars is smart, funny, and entertaining. Plus, he sent me a Christmas postcard back in 2004, so I am obligated to support him!

Singing Emo
Generic Crunk Rap
***files have expired, reload upon request

UPDATE I have uploaded "Internet Relationships". The song is way too good to exclude from this post.

Internet Relationships
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buy The Laptop EP here and The Graduate here

did I say how much I heart test(ic)icles!?

That’s the band Test Icicles, you perverts! I think I mentioned them a little when I posted how much I dislike the Artic Monkeys. But I think they deserved a post all to themselves. Their new cd, For Screening Purposes Only is so amazing! (and yes, I use amazing to describe everything) There is nonstop energy in their studio album, I can’t imagine what they are (were) live. But unfortunately, I will never find that out because Test Icicles have disbanded… only about a month after I discovered their album. So sad, there’re tears running down my face right now. Anyways, go check out For Screening Purposes Only, to quote from my pervious post: “the album combines the sound of hardcore and dancepunk, as a result, it is noisy and dancy all at the same time!” Haha, I’m so egocentric – quoting my own blog… whatever losers!
I don’t feel like uploading songs right now… but maybe later, I have to go eat now.

top 50 indie films

Jesse sent me this link today. I thought it’s pretty cool. I saw 33 34 out of the 50 films. There are still many to watch... guess I’ll be hitting the video store soon! See how many you have seen. Did you beat me? Anyways, I thought the list’s pretty good, but why are most of the films American? Where are all the foreign films? Or Canadian films? There certainly are greater independent Canadian films than Cube and Pink Flamingos should NOT be on the list, that movie sucks! Ew, and why is Passion of the Christ on the list?!!?... that is like one of the worst movies of all time!! I will post a list of movies that I thought should have been on the list in the 'comments' section. Check it out... add to the list!

UPDATE It is 2:30 am and I have just watched one of the scariest horrors in years! For those of you who know me, you are probably very shocked by this comment. And for the rest who don’t know me, I NEVER get scare in movies. For the most part, I go see scary movies for the comedy and reactions of the audience. However, The Descent is pretty damn scary. The story and concept is very simple and the scares are cleverly developed as the characters in the film move forward. That is all I can say, I know, it is extremely vague, but you have to trust me on this one, The Descent is scary and highly enjoyable to watch! Warning: if you are scared by simple Hollywood horrors, please do not watch this by yourself, gather as many people as you can and have fun with it!

i don’t know if b65 and bss can make up for the crappyness so far!

So, the Juno Awards show has only been on for about 25 mins so far, and there are so many things that pissed me off already. First, 'all your goddamn songs sound the same and the leadsigner is an idiot' aka Nickelback opened the show. Then, Michael Buble won for artist of the year. What?!?! No one told me that douche is Canadian. Oh, and his speech, oh... so fucking annoying! He’s like: “oh, artist of the year, artist of the year... I knew you guys liked my music, but to win for artist of the year means that you all liked my paintings too.” – fucking lame! Then, to top off the horribleness of the show, Black Eye Peas and Coldplay tied for international album of the year. Come again?!?! I wonder why they both won… maybe because they are both performing. I don’t know if I’m going to continue watching this lame-ass show, I just want to see the immortal Buck 65 and Broken Social Scene, the Canadian version of Wu-Tang Clan! Oh, and BRYAN ADAMS!!

contest

So apparently, Jesse told me that he left me a comment somewhere on this blog. Well, I can’t find it!!! So, the first person to tell me where his comment is located wins this++.

++the winner will indeed win the above item, but only in picture form. so essentially, anyone who clicks on the link will win the prize. you don't have to thank me. enjoy!