Go and listen to Far from Refuge by God is An Astronaut.

DO IT.

Oh and give yourself seven whole minutes to listen to the song 'cause you'll need the time.

Amid less fanfare then perhaps it should have had, Neil Diamond released an album in May called 'Home Before Dark'. So, the big deal here is that he is an old guy now. The other big deal is that Rick Rubin has produced his last few albums. But really, and none of the reviews seem to be picking up on this, the real big deal is that his persona has made this wonderful transition from playboy, to slightly melancholic playboy. It's like he always seemed to be someone's ex-husband with that ego, you know the showmanship of buying a sportscar and a linen suit and dating younger ladies. But now he's like the ex-husband/boyfriend you still quietly love. He comes in and sits at your kitchen table and whips out his guitar and it turns out that for 30 years he's been thinking about what went wrong.

It's great, he's managed to stay inside his goofy "I'm a loverman" act, but turn it into something bittersweet. Also his voice with it's gravelly texture gets better over time. The less suave he is, the more I love him.

If I Don't See you Again

Who makes such a bad joke as their title?? ME homeboys, that's who.

I am so so in love with this girl. Lykke is so hot she already has her own Wikipedia page. This is extra remarkable considering she was born in 1986 which makes her what ? 22. Yeah, so the fact that I love her little Swedish lilt makes me kind of a gross cougar. Oh well. Here's an interview.

On an unrelated note Jen called this morning and asked if I got pregnant yesterday. So just to clear things up. I only looked at the man's teeshirt - okay?

The real reason for the post, My friends lil brother - who is clearly cooler then anyone I know simply by virtue of being about 11 years younger then me, posted a link to this trio of articles on FB

#1/ Coachella, one of the biggest North American Music summer music fests

#2/ Coachella By the Numbers, a demographic breakdown of all the bands playings playing the fest by nationality, gender, ethnicity, youtube hits, familial status you name it. The only thing missing is whether any of these guys have pets. Maybe if porno for pyros had been on the bill that would have made it into the data analysis.

#3/ Here is the chief "statistician, describing how he came about his analysis - fascinating stuff, also it's an interesting way to choose music. Demographically I am inclined to look into Kate Nash and Dan Deacon. Demographically and otherwise, I am inclined to stay the hell away from Roger Waters.

It smelled like spring this morning. The trees are budding despite the fact that I am still walking three feet above ground in the park, on packed snow.

I looked a bit like someone with a penchant for sniffing drugs, walking along taking deep breathes with my nose. I actually leaned closer to the trunk of a huge maple, just to see if there was actually a smell emanating from the bark - I don't think there was. So where does the smell of spring come from?

The Trinity Session Re-visited is still amazing, I wanted to post Sweet Jane but since I bought the album through i-tunes I can't ;(. Instead here is another youtube find.

Misguided Angel:

When I was 16 years old (I think). I bought a cassette tape of the Cowboy Junkies influential bluegrass album recorded at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto. Along with Leonard Cohen (Tickets I recently did not purchase, sadly.) the Cowboy Junkies are musicians that have stood (not to sound too cliched or anything) the test of time.

Generally speaking, I think reunion's 're a bit bogus, but in fact this time around, maybe because the music is so good it just demands re-interpetation, it seems like a bit of a brilliant idea to gather together an amazing collection of musicians inspired by the album to re-record it in the same place, 20 years later.

That's the idea behind Trinity Re-visited anyways and I think it works.

If you don't believe me watch the video of "Working on a Building":

Jen is mad at me because I did not credit that the last two interesting/funny things I posted came from her.

THANKS JEN IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU THIS BLOG WOULD HAVE NO CONTENT!

Actually this latest one comes from Stu, so thanks Stu...

Music Charts

ha. ha. ha.

Kit the neighbour ran into my apartment looking for Advil tonight, and somehow, (and this is only possible because Kit is Kit and I am me) we ended up doing an impromptu medley of Andrew Loyd-Webber numbers. Well it was more Kit, I only ever know the choruses. I just wasted about 15 minutes looking for tracks with Colm Wilkinson singing because he is really the only tenor I want to hear singing these songs, G-d I sound like such an old lady. Sadly I also spent the evening doing research on Francis Fukuyama. Why?? Why did I turn 30 and let the light go out on the party-animal inside me.

God do I love Jean Valjean (Listening to Bring him Home for the 5th time)

Bring Him Home

All I ask of You (Phantom of the Opera)[note: According to Kit this show was terrible, I disagree I really liked the phantom, but I have discussed this at length in a previous post]

Today I got a library card so now I can rent free DVD's at the corner, and they actually have quite a good collection. How's that for community media?

The first DVD I borrowed was Lady Sings the Blues - The Billie Holiday Story. Which I watched with Simon this evening.

The best part of the end of the year is that people's who job it is to tell me what to like, produce "best of" lists, condensing a year's worth of professional criticism, ignored by yours truly, into handy concise lists that I do not ignore.

This woman, KT Tunstall was actually part of a radiophonic list, on the CBC interviewed as part of a best of 2007 etc.. I started searching for her music based on her adorable Scottish burr and because she had a lot of nice things to say about hitting 30 and finding your path a little later in life.

Anyways the point being that I can't decide whether to worship her in the older sister kind of way, or in the I'm drooling at her boots and the adorable geeky "excitement" in covering the Jackson 5, and the striped teeshirt and the way she says "merci beaucoup" at the end of this live set. And yes her album is great, and you should go buy it.

Sigh....Those boots.