Joel Plaskett at Massey Hall: Good things come in Three's

I assure you, good things come in 3's. Joel Plaskett thinks so too. How else to explain having the confidence to put out a rare 3-disc album that contains something for everyone: a disc of rock and roll break-up songs, one of more down-tempo acoustic songs, and one of smart indie-pop? And how to explain how Joel is a deft hand at all three genres? Or that there were 3 of us going to see his show at Massey Hall on Saturday night?

Okay, that last one was pushing it.

Saturday May 23rd marked Joel Plaskett's debut at Massey Hall. This prolific singer-songwriter from Nova Scotia has been working the music scene for years, from his days in Thrush Hermit back in the 90s through to 7 albums/EPs over the past decade, either solo or fronting The Joel Plaskett Emergency. His most recent album has proven to be his most ambitious, "Three" - three discs, 27 songs of love and youth and toasting friends long gone, of leaving and coming home.

And the good things came in 3's that night. Joel played 3 sets over 3 hours. The opening set pronounced the night as Joel Plaskett and Family and Friends, as Joel opened the show with a 45-minute set with the musicians who he recorded Three with: singers Rose Cousins and Ana Egge, and his dad Bill Plaskett playing guitar.

Playing the historic Massey Hall made it a special night, and Joel shared the stage with his friends. After a couple of his songs, Joel accompanied first Ana Egge then Rose Cousins as they each sang a song from their own releases.

A short intermission (with an insane run on the basement bar and washrooms) and Joel returned, backed by The Joel Plaskett Emergency for a more rocking set of music. By the time he got into Through & Through & Through, I saw something I had seen in ages: the Massey Hall audience, up on their feet and dancing away as The Joel Plaskett Emergency rocked out.

And I got to tell you, Joel is a great performer - in person he demonstrates all the skill that's made him a mainstay in Canadian indie music all these years, jumping from celebratory rock to intimate acoustic numbers. And it's not enough he's a talented singer, songwriter, musician, but damned if he isn't genuinely charming and just a nice guy. Joel just entertains the audience so well, chatting between songs, telling stories about how he got this keyboard for $7 at Value Village, and singing about his cat. And it's not just him, but also the company he keeps: the Joel Plaskett Emergency are all pro's, not letting a busted bass drum phase them. And Rose and Ana just killed holding the long note during "Wishful Thinking" (you'll know the part).


Just before playing a Kelowna-friendly version of "Love This Town", an exuberant young fan who was pogoing like Tigger during the end of the second set kept shouting at Joel. Joel graciously walked up to chat with him:

Joel: "Mandy from Moncton? Of course I know her! She comes and rocks out at every show!"
Dude: "That's my sister!!!!"

As distracting as he was, you could see the guy was doing it out of love for Joel. Well, probably some booze too, but mainly love and boundless joy. Just like everyone else in Massey Hall that night.

The whole show was top to bottom fantastic, easily one of my favourites this year. But it comes down to a couple of moments. The way we shot out of our seats like a shot when "Through & Through & Through" started and we all started dancing. Cheering and pumping fist in the air through "Million Dollars" as Joel sang "Lonely love, gotta leave it behind" followed by Ana and Rose crooning back "Every time they look at us, we'll blow their mind" all velvet smooth.

But the moment that made me feel proud for Joel, like they way you feel for a friend, was during his third set, the encore, when he was singing all 16 verses of the epic length closing song "On & On & On", which also closes Three. It's sounds like a guy drinking to the life he's lived and he continues to live. Around verse 8 he sings:

I'm just like my father
With calloused fingertips

And he casts a look to his right and there's his father, playing with him onstage at Massey Hall. Followed by:

I'm just like my mother
When the red wine's at her lips

And there she is in the front row, best seat in the house, next to his wife.

As Joel played on the whole 12 minutes of the song, eventually leading us in a singalong about his little white cat White Fang. Yes, he really loves that cat.

Finally, after 3 hours, Joel finally took that bow with everyone, and the audience went into the night, beaming smiles of happy happy happy, through and through and through.

If you want a sample of what Joel Plaskett's music is like, head over to CBC Radio 3 where they have a session recorded with Joel Plaskett Live at The Capitol Theatre, Moncton, from 24 Apr 2009 streaming on the website or download the podcast as an MP3.

Joel Plaskett at Massey Hall - the2scoops Flickr set including a pic I snapped of the set list for the 2nd set


Updated with full set list via NXEW:

First Set
1. Happen Now - La De Da (2005)
2. Deny, Deny, Deny - Three (2009)
3. Pine, Pine, Pine - Three
4. In the Blue Moonlight - Three
5. Farmer's Daughter, Ana Egge solo - Road to My Love (2009)
6. Nothing More to Say - Ashtray Rock (2007)
7. Heartless, Heartless, Heartless - Three
8. Rewind, Rewind, Rewind - Three
9. Lost in the Valley, Rose Cousins solo- If You Were Me (2006)
10. Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' - Three

Second Set
1. Work Out Fine - Truthfully Truthfully (2003)
2. Extraordinary - Truthfully Truthfully
3. Through & Through & Through - Three
4. Gone, Gone, Gone - Three
5. Sailors Eyes - Three
6. You Let Me Down - Three
7. Precious, Precious, Precious - Three
8. Ashtray Rock - Ashtray Rock
9. Run, Run, Run - Three
10. True Patriot Love - Down at the Khyber (2001)
11. Spinning for You - website download
12. Nowhere With You - Make A Little Noise EP (2006)
13. Lazy Bones - Three
14. A Million Dollars - Make A Little Noise EP
15. Wishful Thinking - Three

Encore
16. Before You Leave, Thrush Hermit - Clayton Park (1999)
17. Love This Town - La De Da
18. Fashionable People - Ashtray Rock
19. On and On and On - Three

Joel Plaskett official site
Joel Plaskett - MySpace
Ana Egge
Ana Egge-MySpace
Rose Cousins
Rose Couins - MySpace

Neko Case, force of nature

A great Saturday night last week as some of my favourite peeps came to town to catch one of my favourite singer-songwriters Neko Case, who was playing the second of two sold out shows at Trinity St Paul's Church in Toronto.

First we had dinner at Dessert Trends Bistro on Harbord St, and I was very pleased with my first experience there. Started about 3 years ago as a dessert bakery, they've gone beyond their delicious desserts and introduced a full brunch, lunch, and dinner menu in the past year. Selecting from the $25 prix-fixe menu gave us each plenty of options to chose from. The opening salads and appetizers were brought to our table and presented very nicely. The pastry on the Baked Wild Mushroom Phyllo Tart with Goat Cheese was crisp and light. My main was the braised beef short ribs with lemongrass and preserved herb tomato served with French baguette for soaking up the lovely sauce. Everything was delicious to this point, and then came the desserts. True to expectations, absolutely delicious. Overall, great price point for food of excellent quality, variety, and freshness.


Bellies full, we walked up the street to Trinity St Paul's Church on Bloor, or as it's known by it's full name, Trinity-St. Paul's United Church and Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts. It's a beautiful building, and a very unique venue for seeing the show. I wasn't terribly familiar with the opening band Crooked Fingers - led by Eric Bachmann, the band had some beautiful songs with Eric's voice playing into the rafters of the church. Melodic, reminding me of the Great Lake Swimmers a bit, I'm definitely making a point to pick up a few of their albums.

And then the main event. Neko Case is a force of nature - a mane of fiery red hair, a sharp wit and a voice that is bigger than her body. This singer-songwriter breaks beyond record store categories like alt-country, with songs that are a little more punk, some a little more pop. It was an extraordinairy night. It's one thing to fall in love with her voice on the albums, but to hear her live and realize that her voice is that powerful outside a studio was just stunning. Nikita and I kept looking at each other as if to say "Where the hell is all that voice coming from?"

You could tell Neko was thrilled to play such a unique venue - she even wore a dress for the occasion. Churches tend to have such fantastic acoustics and from first note to last, she killed it. Easily the best show I've seen all year, and will be hard to beat. Neko had a full company of the players she recorded her newest album Middle Cyclone - guitarist Paul Rigby and Vancouver drummer Barry Mirochnick, bassist Tom V. Ray, backing vocalist Kelly Hogan and multi-instrumentalist John Rauhouse. Kelly's pretty charming and talented in her own right, but she was a highlight as she played the role of straight-woman with Neko, entertaining us with some funny dialogue between the songs and allowing Neko to show off her personality, and take her mind off the fact she was in a church, and likely hadn't been in one since, well, probably the last time I'd been in one prior to this Easter.

The crowd greeted her enthusiastically as ever. Despite her being an American performer, most people assume she's Canadian. She may as well be given the time she spends up here as part of the Canadian music scene, either as part of the Vancouver group The New Pornographers, or frequent collaborations with The Sadies, who she credited on several of the songs that night. Fans were suggesting her 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings The Flood should have been a contender for the Polaris Prize that year, which recognizes artistic merit of a Canadian artist. Alas, no rule bending, even for the divine Neko Case.

On tour for her latest album Middle Cyclone (buy it buy it buy it), Neko hit so many bright spots in her catalog, from new songs like the urgently passionate "This Tornado Loves You" and the upbeat pop "Maneater" to older favourites like "Deep Red Bells". I know I'm gushing, but to hear Neko's weary lament on "Wish I Was The Moon" with it's refrain of "I'm so tired/I'm so tired" was just a highlight of my music-going life. And anyone who was there, don't tell me you weren't moved by her cover of "Don't Forget Me" by Harry Nilsson, with special guest Garth Hudson of The Band brought out for some accordion work. Hearing Neko sing it live, such a beautiful lyrics, means every time it comes on the headphones it gets a little lump in the throat. But I think I can live with that.

Neko is coming back to town to Massey Hall in July. Go and thank me later.

More pictures from me: the2scoops @ Neko Case flickr set
Official Site: Neko Case

Some links via Chromewaves:

Chromewave's Photos: Neko Case, Crooked Fingers @ Trinity-St. Paul’s - April 18, 2009
MP3: Neko Case - “Middle Cyclone”
MP3: Neko Case - “People Got A Lotta Nerve”
MP3: Neko Case - “Hold On, Hold On”
MP3: Neko Case - “Star Witness”
MP3: Neko Case - “If You Knew”
MP3: Crooked Fingers - “Phony Revolutions”
MP3: Crooked Fingers - “Call To Love”
MP3: Crooked Fingers - “Big Darkness”
MP3: Crooked Fingers - “Devil’s Train”
MP3: Crooked Fingers - “New Drink For The Old Drunk”
Video: Neko Case - “People Got A Lotta Nerve”
Video: Neko Case - “Maybe Sparrow”
Video: Neko Case - “Furnace Room Lullabye”
MySpace: Neko Case
MySpace: Crooked Fingers

Oscar 2009 Live Blog "I can't wait for the upcoming montage of montages."

It's that magical night of too-high expectations: Oscar night is here. I'll be live-blogging on this site tonight, so come on by and add your 2-cents. I'll be on around 8pm EST.

No need to sign up an account or anything. Just plug in a user name and away you go.

"F-ing Sponge Cake!?" - Worlds Best Commercials 2008

Had a nice treat this weekend as I hit The Princess Cinema's in KW with Ms Rita at my side to check out the screening of "World's Best Commercials 2008", a showcase of the best international commercials as recognized by the London International Awards for advertising. The Princess is a classic little repertory cinema, with the real popcorn (not the glowing yellow kind) and butter. Settled in to the bucket seats, we laughed and marveled at some of the most creative and funniest commercials of the year, some tearingly funny, some moving and effective enough to take your breath away. Each commercial felt like a short film, some of them 30-seconds, some more ambitious like the 10 minute spot by director Martin Scorsese. For short attention spans and if you could use a laugh, do yourself a favor and check out a screening at a local cinema near you, or spend some time cruising the LIA site which has the award winning spots available for viewing in Quicktime format. You'll lose productivity today, guaranteed.

Be warned though: I don't let advertising influence my decisions, but the first thing I did today was to drink Schweppe's Ginger Ale while buying my VW Golf, which I drove to McDonald's, all funded by the profits I made from investing my Ladbrokes winnings into my E-Trade account. And then I will buy a drum playing gorilla as my sidekick. On E-Bay.

Here's a selection of some standouts:

McDonald's "Boombox" - Silver Winner, Best Use of Music. Try not to smile while watching this spot, with a young boy who is too fly for the dinner table. Rita started doing the electric slide in her chair to this, and you will too.
Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago

E-gaming "Climb", "Parachute"," Shark" - Silver Winner, Campaign. These character feel like they lept out of a Wes Anderson movie. Crazy goofy bastards.
Agency: M&C Saatchi, London

Schweppes "Burst" - Gold Winner, Cinematography. Beautiful in motion and image, with a soundtrack from Cinematic Orchestra. In the words of Ms Rita, "their music will burst your heart". The song is "To Build a Home".
Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne

Cadbury Dairy Milk - "Gorilla" Grand Prize, and Gold Winner, Confectionary. Love the serious look on his face, a slight head nod of commitment and BAM.
Agency: Fallon London, London

Volkswagen GTI "Dreams" - Nicely captures that transcendence between dreams and the real world. Gold Winner for Best Use of Music.
Agency: Ogilvy, Cape Town

Herringbone "Henri's Hands" - The Gold Winner in the Apparel category swerved us, posing as a poignant PSA before we started cracking up at a very inappropriate moment.
Agency: M&C Saatchi, Sydney

Louis Vuitton - "A Journey" - A gorgeous spot that will have you yearning to go beyond the places you know. Gold Winner for Cinematography
Agency: Ogilvy, Paris

Human Trafficking - "Radiohead" - Not shown in the collection I saw but worth watching is this Silver Winner for Cinematography. The band Radiohead committed their song "All I Need" to this spot for MTV's Campaign Against Human Trafficking, a music video that tells two stories in parallel, one child in a Western country, one in the Third World. It draws you in and gives you pause, successfully marrying music and message to shine a light on the shame that in this day there is still legitimized slavery and exploitation.
Agency: Colman Rasic Carrasco, Sydney

Volkswagen International Cinema "Toy Story" - Gold Winner, Corporate. Funny, but I don't think I can watch this Pixar classic the same way anymore.
Agency: DDB London, London

Coca Cola "It's Mine" - Silver Winner for Animation -A charming balloon battle for supremecy.
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland

Orange TV On Demand - "Rewind City" - Silver Winner, Editing. Sweetly romantic spot.
Agency: Publicis Conseil, Paris

Nintendo Jam Sessions - "Sponge" - Silver Winner, Low Budget. NSFW, a cheeky Australian ad.
Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland

AMP Energy- "Walk of No Shame" - Silver Winner, Humour. No, I am not familiar with this concept.
Agency: GREYnyc, New York

E*Trade - "Baby Banking - Gold Winner, Humour "I underestimated the creepiness."
Agency: GREYnyc, New York

FedEx - "Carrier Pigeons" - Gold Winner, Humour
Agency: BBDO New York, New York

Glade AutoSport - "Trash" - Silver Winner, Automotive Products
Agency: Draftfcb, Buenos Aires

Grammys - live blogging from the2scoops

With the use of CoverItLive, let's give this a whirl, shall we? It's going on at ALOTT5MA too.

Twitter feeds I pulled into the liveblog:

diplo DJ, collaborator with M.I.A.
stereogum online outlet for indie and alternative music
postrock - Washington Post music columnist
qoolquest Ahmir, ?uestlove, Drummer supreme for The Roots. Da' Man himself.

(Quest twitters like mad, including this from the night before:

"haaaaaaaa! thom yorke is jammin! he dancin like a muppet on acid. i love it. how he got more soul than 10 of post modern rnb artists?"

- On Saturday night, the Roots' Questo tweets about the Radiohead lead singer busting moves at an LA Grammy party.

And you can find me on Twitter at the2scoops. Now on with the show.

Neil Gaiman wins Newbery Medal

Neil Gaiman, English author of comic books and fantasy novels ( The Sandman comic series, Stardust, and American Gods) has won the prestigious Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children's literature for "The Graveyard Book," illustrated by frequent collaborator Dave McKean. It's a big month for Neil as one of his previous books, "Coraline", has been adapted to film and is due in theatres shortly.

The Newbery is awarded by the American Library Association, and the list of previous Newbery winners reads like the canon of children's literature, including Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time", William H. Armstrong's "Sounder" and Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia". Now, Neil Gaiman rightfully takes his place in that company. His works have shown limitless imagination and interpretations of dreams, myths and fables from all parts of the world fills many a bookshelf.

Neil got the news this morning and celebrated in exuberant style, as shown in this Twitter feed chain of events (http://twitter.com/neilhimself):

woken up by assistant at 5.30 in the morning. Not quite sure why. All rather bleary, to do with someone trying to call. argh. about 3 hours ago from web

oh. forget about it. about 3 hours ago from web

About to drink second cup of tea without Marmalade this morning. Also, I just won the Newbury Medal for THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. 42 minutes

Newbery, not Newbury. Also FUCK!!!! I won the FUCKING NEWBERY THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME. I thank you. 41 minutes ago from web

Updated: Neil blogs about the experience on his blog in an entry called Insert Amazed and Delighted Swearing Here, which includes this excerpt:

You are on a speakerphone with at least 14 teachers and librarians and suchlike great, wise and good people, I thought. Do not start swearing like you did when you got the Hugo. This was a wise thing to think because otherwise huge, mighty and fourletter swears were gathering. I mean, that’s what they’re for. I think I said, You mean it’s Monday?

(quote pointed out to me by Newsarama blog; Neil's post pointed out to me by Nikita)

LOST: Return to Craphole Island

LOST returns tonight for Season 5, it’s looking like a good ‘un. Unfortunately if you’re not watching it already, it’s going to be hard to get into with it’s rich narrative mythology, but if you’ve put in the work to catch-up you will be oh so rewarded, Jack’s tattoo origin aside. Lost is an excellent show to catch on DVD - I heard the Blu-Ray Season 4 set is gorgeous, and they’ll be releasing the first few seasons on Blu-Ray as well.

For a summary of the past 4 years on Craphole Island, you can’t beat the write-up by Isaac_Spaceman over at ALOTT5MA. It’s as funny as it is accurate. Here’s an excerpt:

PILOT: Is this a joke?

HURLEY: No, all of the jokes around here are mine.

PILOT: Oh, great, tell me a good one.

HURLEY: What has two thumbs and is dead?

PILOT: I give up.

HURLEY: My girlfriend and my best friend and the French paramilitary lady and her daughter and Arzt. Wait, that’s eight-to-ten thumbs.

PILOT: Ouch.

For the full write-up, click this link to ALOTT5MA - Previously on LOST

Come On Up For The Rising - Inauguration Day

It's a big day in Washington tomorrow as Barrack Obama swears the oath and becomes President of the United States of America. Once he cleans that old man smell out of the furniture in the Oval Office ("What the hell smells like Cheney in here?"), and changes the locks (Hilary probably still has a copy of the key) President Obama will some heavy lifting to do - Bush left the place a mess. But for the first time in a long time, the majority of Americans, and most of the world, seem to believe that things can get better. The air of optimism is almost tangible, you'd think this presidency is going to be scripted by Aaron Sorkin.

I'll have the radio tuned in tomorrow and plan to watch the highlights when I get home. I loved how some of my co-workers were looking forwards to "Obama Day". And why not, because this day is a big one. It proves change can happen if enough voices cry out. This is a day that's bigger than politics.

While you wait for the show to get underway in D.C., kill some time with the Obamicon.me site, where you can upload a picture and have it re-touched in the style of of Shepard Fairey’s iconic work shown above. You can't avoid it: I saw CBS network promos down in this style today. My contribution:

While we march into this new age, take one last, long lingering look at the clusterf*ck that was the Bush years, and no better narrative exists than The Story Of Bush, as told through the headlines from The Onion catalogued by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, As Teresa said:

There will be histories written about the Bush administration. They’ll be privy to information we don’t have yet, because the future is like that. On the other hand, we have our own privileged knowledge: We know how the story looked like to people who didn’t know how it was going to come out.

Now, in this moment before a changing world overwrites our memories of the era, let us pause to salute our constant companion of those years: The Onion. Other histories of the Bush years will doubtless be more factual, but none will ever be truer.

(via Accordion Guy, who also pointed out the brilliant someecards has out for the election).


This one's also a favourite.

Bye bye Bush. Hello hope.

Scrubs resuscitated on ABC

After years spent likes some neglected step-child on NBC, Scrubs is back for another season, but this time on ABC. And from all accounts, this last-minute extension has revitalized the show, with less trying-too-hard weirdness that's been around the past few seasons, and more of the type of show that captured a fanbase in the first few seasons that stuck with them through 9 timeslot changes over 7 years on NBC.

Alan Sepinwall's had a look at the first 2 new episodes and the prognosis is good. He proclaims the second of the two episodes on tonight is one of the best Scrubs episodes in its entire run, on far and in tone with the classic "My Old Lady" from Season 1 where a young JD (Zach Braff) takes the death of patient hard. I've loved this show from the start, but I found the past few seasons I had started to watch out of habit more than anything else. JD had turned into a man-child who despite 7 years of talking about what he was learning, never seemed to actually grow-up. But I stuck it through and there are gems in there, and now things are looking up since last time I checked in on the crew at Sacred Heart Hospital:

The past season has seen great work from the actors, but some lousy plotting. "Scrubs" has slipped down from my #1 TV comedy spot, as it is now bring up the rear behind "The Office" and "How I Met Your Mother". If "30 Rock" comes strong next season, it's going to slip further. I've got faith that the "Scrubs" can turn it around in the home stretch, now that a firm end is in sight.

By all accounts, the new season of Scrubs which starts Tuesday January 6th shouldn't exist. When the writer's strike came about last year, NBC denied Scrubs the opportunity to produce a small number of episodes to effectively end the series. In fact they outright said that was it for them. But in came ABC to offer an 18-episode eighth season. An ABC has been promoting the move heavily - I don't think I've seen more commercials for Scrubs on ABC in the past month then in all the years on NBC. They even have a slick new website set up with video clips, interviews with the cast and primers on the show:
Scrubs operating at ABC

It's likely the last season of Scrubs in it's current form. Producer Bill Lawrence and actor Zach Braff are both moving on after this season. But if ratings are decent, ABC may bring the show back in some incarnation or another next year. The show is in syndication, DVD sales are good, and once you remove Braff and Lawrence's salaries it's cheaper to continue the show then to produce new pilots. We'll see how it goes.

ABC (and City TV in Canada) is running back-to-back new episodes tonight. But really, what it comes down to, is any excuse to run Turk's dancing to Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" (updated: oh well, looks like Uncle Walt pulled the clip):

Boxing Day - Zunior.com 2 for 1 Albums

I'm not a big Boxing Day guy, but here's a great sale from the Zunior.com music store website:

Zunior.com Boxing Day Sale!
2-for-1 On Selected Albums
Hundreds of selected albums only $4.44

For the fifth year running, we are proud to present the Zunior Boxing Day Sale. Stop by on December 26 for a blowout 2-for-1 sale on selected albums from all of your favourite Zunior labels/artists. The sale just keeps getting bigger every year and we guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Load up that new MP3 player you got for Christmas at Zunior.com on December 26!

I've been enjoying using Zunior.com this year, where I tend to find many of my favourite Canadian bands and labels. It's well laid out, easy to use, and the downloads don't have any Digital Rights Management encoding you find on other sites that makes you feel like you don't own the music.

A number of my favourite albums from 2007 and 2008 are on sale including:

Ohbijou - Swift Feet for Troubling Times
Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
Royal Wood - A Good Enough Day
Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky
Great Lake Swimmers - Ongiara

I'm buying a few albums I've been meaning to pick up and have heard nothing but good things about:
Jenny Omnichord - Charlotte or Otis: Duets for Children, Their Parents and Other People Too
The High Dials - Moon Country
Luke Doucet and the White Falcon - Blood's Too Rich
Justin Rutledge - Man Descending
The Bicycles - Oh No, It's Love

You can pay safely by credit card or Paypal, so swing by and check out the sale.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and all the best spirits of the season, whatever you celebrate. My gift to you is a little peace, love, and understanding. Pass it on.