Author: jprobichaud

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Frank Turner “Be more kind”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Frank Turner
Album Title: Be more kind
Year released: 2018
Details: Black vinyl, 180 gram

The skinny: Okay. So I haven’t posted one of these paeans to the artifacts in my vinyl collection since last month. But don’t you ever take that to mean I haven’t been spinning tunes on my turntable. In fact, this album here, Frank Turner’s “Be more kind” has gotten a bit of a workout over this past month. I played it for my wife Victoria a few weeks ago and she really enjoyed it so she asked me to spin it again, just this past week. (I think that may be the first time she sat through the same record twice with me since I got my player a few years ago!) Anyway, despite playing some Frank Turner for her before on other occasions, this particular album, Turner’s lyrics, and the message appears to have to have struck a different chord with her this time around. I can’t complain at all, now that she is replaying certain songs from it, over and over again on Spotify, especially since I ranked this particular album #2 on my end of the list for 2018 albums. If you haven’t given it a spin yourself, I recommend doing so… right now.

Standout track: “Be more kind”

Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Spirit of the West with the NAC orchestra [2007]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Spirit of the West with the NAC Orchestra, July 2007

Artist: Spirit of the West performing with the NAC orchestra
When: July 21st, 2007
Where: Orchestras in the park series, Lebreton Flats Park, Ottawa
Context: For the longest time, Spirit of the West was the band I had seen the most times live (that mark recently was surpassed by Stars), not just because they were a Canadian band that toured its own country frequently but more because they have long been one of my favourite bands. The second time I saw them live is also quite memorable because it marked the night Victoria and I got together and the rest of the times I saw them after that, we saw them as a couple. But I’m now talking about the final time we saw Spirit of the West and it was all the more special because they were performing a free show with the NAC orchestra as part of their Orchestras in the park series. The much loved Canadian Celtic folk rock band had released its final album, “Star trails”, three years before and was one year removed from releasing a career retrospective collection called “Spirituality”. That night, though, the majority of the set came from 1996’s “Open heart symphony”, an album they had recorded with Vancouver’s symphony orchestra, because, as they said, they didn’t often get the chance to perform those songs live as they were meant to be heard. However, they did perform a handful of their hits as ‘encore’, like “Home for a rest” and the song referenced below, “And if Venice is sinking”. As a special bonus, if you click on that link below, you can actually watch the performance of it from this very show through the magic of YouTube. Enjoy.
Point of reference song: “And if venice is sinking”

Hugh McMillan, Vince Ditrich, and John Mann of Spirit of the West
Geoffrey Kelly and Tobin Frank of Spirit of the West
Vince Ditrich, John Mann, and Geoffrey Kelly of Spirit of the West
Vince Ditrich and Tobin Frank of Spirit of the West – “That’s amore!”
John Mann of Spirit of the West

(P.S. For those of you living in Toronto or within striking distance, I strongly recommend you consider a tribute show being held a week from today at the Phoenix Concert Theatre, in the name of lead singer John Mann, whom many of you know is suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. Last I checked, tickets are still available here. I would love to go myself, unfortunately, it’s just not feasible.)

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2001: #3 The White Stripes “Fell in love with a girl”

<< #4    |    #2 >>

In 2001 and 2002, garage rock emerged to take the mantle as champion of the indie rock resurgence. The epicentres of the revival were New York, whose scene was led by Interpol and The Strokes (appearing at #5 on this list), and Detroit, from which came The Detroit Cobras and The White Stripes.

Yep. Before Third Man Records, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, and a rather notable solo career, Jack White was in a little band called The White Stripes. Formed in 1997 with then wife, Meg, whose last name Jack took when they wed, the duo recorded six albums together before disbanding in 2011. The White Stripes became known for their tightly stylized image – they were most notably rigorous in the use of their red, white, and black colour scheme – and their blues-inflected sound, Meg’s stomping, bass heavy beats, and Jack’s raunchy guitars and raw vocals. Indeed, as things went on, they became less connected with their garage rock roots and more about blues revival.

Interesting, then, that their breakthrough came with their least blues-influenced album, their third, “White blood cells”, and this exciting single that had no traces of it whatsoever. “Fell in love with a girl” sounds like it was it borne out of the garage that welded together the pieces of the garage that housed the rock. It’s a quick adrenaline blip that doesn’t even make the two minute mark. At that length, you can almost hear Jack screaming, “there’s no time for an intro – we gotta go!”. The drums are muddy as hell and violent, Meg channelling her inner animal. Jack even sounds like he’s having trouble keeping up with her and his own raucous guitar work with his vocals, almost breathless for the duration, his attempts at proper diction dispensed with and you have no trouble imagining his gummed up mic covered in spittle. There’s anger and disdain and the feeling of betrayal.

It’s almost exhausting how great this tune is. Enjoy.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2001 list, click here.