Have you voted for the Obama’s playlist yet?
Category: Music
Film – The Band’s Visit
CBC announced format changes recently.
I am not so much unhappy about proposed changes as I am anxious. I really do think that radio should play current music by artists that deserve exposure because of either quality or cultural significance.
Commercial radio does do some of the exposure on artists that deserve it, but for most part they just don’t cut it. I think that I’ve officially heard more 80’s music in last two years that in that particular decade. I can’t blame the commercial radio as much as I blame the market that wants to listen to the song they first made out to over and over and over again but are too lazy to put on the record.
College radio (dead air, uhm, dead air) is great, but with so many shows most of which are unlistenable to any but a small subset of a small demographic, you just can’t turn it on and leave it on.
So it falls to CBC to be the bastion of audible art. CBC has the funding, skills and mandate to do it and do it well.
However, I haven’t had a favourite radio show since late night college radio metal and madness show in my CEGEP days, but lately, I have taken a strong liking to Tom Allen. I like the music well enough, but I love his stories and enthusiasm, it really picks me up in the morning. So, understandably, I am apprehensive about the one show that I like being cancelled.
Another thing that makes me nervous is that I’ve yet to hear a non classical piece on CBC2 during daylight hours and not think “This is godawful, where did they get this and who thought this should be played on air!!!”. Now, I like all kinds of music from noize (well, not so much now that I am older, but I used to) to opera to folk to hip-hop, but it has to be picked right. Whoever is picking contemporary music right now, better get a new position or I will have to turn off CBC2 altogether.
All told, I am glad that CBC is exploring new ground and trying to do what needs to be done to nurture Canadian arts, but I am upset that the only show I care for will be lost in the wash and, if they don’t do it right, I will end up turning to the lesser evil and listen to Def Leppard on commercial radio instead.
Life after Birth
I’ve been trying to get organized and adjusted to the baby. I’ve managed to do a bit about my thesis and even did a bit of reading. I must be quite stressed out since I’ve been mostly listening to classical and jazz on CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique. I ended up listening to Bob the other day because Trevor was too hungry to let me find a better station. It was strangely conforting to listen to the same music I was imposed with in high school. Just to prove that nothing changed they played the same Aerosmith song twice. I think there was an Aerosmith promo.
Film – Walk the Line
I love covers. For example, I really like covers of Bob Dylan songs – but never the originals. This brings me to Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt’ – It’s amazing! I had the original on one of my alternative tapes back in high school and I never actually paid any attention to it. If anyone had asked me what I thought of NIN I would have said that I’ve never heard anything by them (my tape that I listened continuously for at least a year had a DJ saying ‘this was NIN with “Hurt”) and I never cared until I heard Cash’s version and went crazy (also wondering why the song is so familiar). Neat eh?
The Blues are Still Blue *
My weekend trip to Montreal turned out great as it was the right combination of good friends and fine music. Belle and Sebastian concert was fantastic and now I’ve only got Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on my ‘must see’ list.
I also got a chance to make up my mind on the latest Belle & Sebastian CD ‘The Life Pursuit’ so here it goes: Essentially it is same old – same old. While that means that it is in no way revolutionary or surprising, it is solid B&S and I can’t stop listening to it. I will have to pass it to Luisa before it burns a hole in my disk player (as I did with “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” before it).
* B&S
It is so facile
You might have noticed, though you probably didn’t, that I haven’t really refreshed my CD walled for a while. I have been in a bit of a rut musically. I wasn’t really ready to move on from the albums I was listening to, wasn’t willing to buy more of the same and wasn’t ready to get into something new.
I try and really wear out an album before I put it on the shelf for future reference. I had really hard time doing this with the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album I got in February. Overall I enjoyed it, but it never managed to stay in my car stereo for more than a few listens. Today it dawned on me that it is a double album with a single album’s worth of good songs. There were a couple of clunkers that made the album a pain to listen to. So my solution is to burn a CD without the dud songs. Now I’ve got a CD with 11 decent songs and can’t wait to start listening to it.
On another note, I’m all in arts and crafts over my latest decorating scheme. My friend Marina and I are making yuletide decorations over the Internet. If you don’t have holiday decorating plans yet and like hens, I’m your girl! Drop me a line and I’ll give you the full scoop. Here is a little sneak peek. Keep in mind that this is a prototype and as such it looks like the bottom of the pecking order.
