mumbling into the void

Thanks to tickets gifted by my aunt and uncle, my wife Kate and I joined them to see The Guess Who play at the Saddledome on Monday, June 8th. The four of us weren’t the only people there, as it was so packed it must have been a sold-out show, or close to it.

It was a somewhat strange experience going to this show. It has been a while since I felt like a young person at an event. That feeling was a frequent occurrence when I was in my twenties and going to whisky festivals in Calgary, but it is a rare thing now, at the ripe old age of forty-five.

The most difficult thing about the show was the lineup to get in. That luckily went smoothly despite the metal detectors constantly setting off from all the canes and walkers, replaced hips, and shrapnel from the Korean War the many individuals ahead of us had. I could smell just as much from weed smoke wafting around the stands as the last concert I saw at the ‘Dome, so that must be a universal thing now, regardless of age and demographic.

The opener for the night was Don Felder from the Eagles. He is still a solid performer and sounded great, though I am a big fan and barely know any of his music. He was, of course, obligated to end his set with Hotel California. There would have been riots otherwise, with the crowd of Boomers eyeing to tear down the Saddledome before the new arena is finished going up to replace it.

But I was there for The Guess Who.

This band has gone through quite a few iterations over the 60+ years it has been together, on, and off. The live band that is currently touring contains its two most famous members: Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman.

No, that sixty years is not at typo. Cummings – still singing melodiously at nearly 78 years old – noted during the show that he and Bachman first played in Calgary together in 1966.

Cummings, Bachman, and their backing band played through 19 songs in total for the performance. They performed 17 straight before leaving the stage only to come back for a two song encore before the lights turned up, and it was time to go home.

Jambinai is a band from South Korea – but they are about as far from K-POP as one can possibly get. There are no teen idols here – Jambinai is more of a post-rock band with some jazz and folk influences thrown in for good measure. The music Jambinai creates ranges from deep, melodic and introspective to noise-driven dissonance made with a fusion of instruments wailing notes that merge the sound of a bleating air horn with nails scraping down a chalkboard. In a good way.

When it comes to Canadian Bands from that were big in the 1990s, everybody thinks of The Tragically Hip. Others that might come to mind are Our Lady Peace, Moist, The Odds, Barenaked Ladies, Big Sugar, The Tea Party, and so on. It was a pretty good time for Canadian Rock and Alternative music, wasn’t it?

The Canadian band that been living rent-free in my brain since they first I first heard them back then is the Headstones. This band, along with Nine Inch Nails, created the music that helped me survive the (mostly self-inflicted) trials and tribulations of teenagedom.

I remember first hearing the Headstones music when my parents got a 24 pack of Labatts beer, and it had a compact disc inside. The song on the CD was the Headstones’ first single: When Something Stands For Nothing. I was hooked on that song from the first play.

Coming at us from Montreal, Quebec is Chill ’em all by DJ Champion. This album will turn 20 years old in November of this year. Crazy, right?

Even though it was originally released in the fall, there is something about the music that makes it a soundtrack for – and celebration of – summer vibes.

Part two in my Dystopian Future Album series.

Don’t worry – I don’t have plans for a third part. At least not yet.

Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails was released in 2007, during the Bush II era of US Presidency. I was 26 going on 27 at the time, bemoaning how stupid we were in the western world to be following such an absolute idiot as the Leader of The Free World for a second term. Oh, how dumb and naive I was. The more things change…

Here we are, not even two decades later, and those times seem oh-so rosy now. A bygone era, where politicians mostly did things above board (okay, maybe not), the corruption was less blatant and in your face, and the 24 hour news cycle seemed to pause and let us all collectively take a breather occasionally. You know, instead of pummelling us non-stop with the next imminent crises or global meltdown.

George W. Bush now seems like a scholarly elder statesman looking back, with his Fool-Me-Once-isms and inventive pronunciation of Nu-Cu-Lor that I still not cannot stop saying myself, and that awe-shucks goofy smile. But he didn’t have it easy, no sir. He was just a salt of the earth guy from Texas that inherited everything from his daddy, including his post-secondary schooling, political party and presidential seat. Oh, and his favourite nation to have a war with. If only all of us were so lucky to fail upwards in such a stratospheric manner.

Year Zero was very obviously Trent Reznor’s look at the Bush II era we were living through, and taking it all to an even more outrageous level. The entire album is an ode to a world gone even madder. There are songs that show the blurring of lines between religious zeal and nationalistic jingoism. Lyrics envision a dystopian hellscape where misplaced rage and deeply flawed masculinity find each other and fall in love. The rabid worship of power for power’s sake is given musical form.

Well, thank goodness, none of that nonsensical doomsaying will ever happen.

Front Line Assembly’s most popular album came out back in 1994 – the same year Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral was released. More than 30 years ago. Both still sound and feel ahead of their time.

Front Line Assembly is an industrial band that resides in Vancouver. Originally founded in 1986 after Bill Leeb left fellow Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy, the band has rotated and included different members over the years. The two main constants are Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber. It is a soundtrack for this world we live in. One of Front Line Assembly’s members is Rhys Fulber.

Their music is on Millennium and elsewhere is synth-driven, dark, and dystopian. There are notes of Nine Inch Nail’s industrial style on the album. There are also notes of Rage Against The Machine’s eponymous album, which came out in 1991. But Rage Against The Machine was burning with justified anger at the inequality and racism all around us, and The Downward Spiral points out the unbalance and self loathing that festers within. Millennium is more a warning or portent to unregulated warmongering and fear and aggression.

Groove Armada – Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)

Groove Armada’s album Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) came out in 2001. It is chronologically sandwiched between two other fantastic albums that were released by the band/dj duo within about 5 years.

Vertigo came out in 1999. It is the album that originally got me into Groove Armada. I can still remember purchasing the CD at the A&B Sound that resided near Sunridge Mall, back in the day when music stores that actually sold music – not just anime toys and t-shirts – were a thing. I think I purchased Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) from the same store when it was released in 2001. Lovebox – the third in this unofficial-to-anybody-but-me trilogy of great albums, was released shortly thereafter in 2002. That CD I purchased at the late, great Megatunes on 17th. I purchased many an album there, including DJ Champion’s Chill Em All, which I wrote about in the past.

That spot now houses Vine Arts’ 17th Ave location. Don’t tell Andrew I said it, but I hear it is a pretty good liquor store.

Ahh, nostalgia. How is it that I have reached a point where I can mention things I did as an adult a quarter-century ago, yet I still don’t feel like an adult now?

This is the second time I have talked about a Soulwax Album in this space. The first was about their 2005 remix album called Night Versions. Night Versions was the album that got me into Soulwax, when I first picked it up, nearly 20 years ago now.

For those new to the Belgian band Soulwax, the group is built around the core DJs and multi-instrumentalist Dewaele brothers Stephan and David, plus a rotating mix of members. Soulwax creates music that falls into an array of different genres, including disco, alternative (is that still a thing?), indie, punk, electronic, new wave, and more. Soulwax’s music comes off as a celebration of all of these different styles, yet also seems to push forward and innovate. Being inventive while paying homage to what came before may sound like a hard combination to pull off, but the Dewaele brothers and Soulwax make it look easy.

I love you, Pumpkin
I love you, Honey Bunny

Most people likely have a few movie soundtracks that they consider iconic. Pulp Fiction is one for me, and I am sure I am not alone. I remember my Dad purchasing it on Compact Disc after he had seen the movie in theatre. He brought the soundtrack home and immediately popped it in the ghetto blaster that resided in our kitchen.

I was 14 or 15 at the time, and I was transfixed from those first spoken lines and then the frenetic pace of the opening song – Misirilou. I listened to the soundtrack front to back numerous times before I ever watched the movie.