Thawing Spring Friends Release MP3s Like Interweb Tulips

Spring is almost here, and kids in Montreal are slowly creeping out of their holes, emerging triumphant bearing mp3s that represent the fruits of their 6 months of Seasonal Affected Disorder. The Amethysts aren’t the only ones who decided to throw a new track into the ether this March. Friends (and members) of Adam & The Amethysts have recently released some amazing music on the interwebz. And I’ll be damned if I’m not going to BLOG THE SHIT OUT OF THEM.

Mozart’s Sister is dear friend Caila Thompson-Hannant, whom I used to play with in Miracle Fortress way back when, and whom you might recognize from Shapes & Sizes and Think About Life. She just released this free EP on bandcamp that evokes Prince and Dirty Projectors and great times.

Generalessa is Scott Johnson Gailey, who just so happens to play bass and drums in the Amethysts. He released these lo-fi bedroom pop songs that are sure to please your sensibilities.

Code Pie is Rebecca’s band, and their new album of feel-good pop tunes is killer. Be sure to listen to the single “Operator.”

And they also cover Justin Bieber’s “Baby” which is not to be missed by anyone, please:

You can spot former Amethyst Rory Seydel in this new video for this awesome Pat Jordache song. Pat is a great and talented man who makes filthy arty pop music that I, you, and everyone else rightfully loves, and his band is among Montreal’s current best and brightest.

James Irwin is another dear friend and this song is just fucking brilliant. Plus it was recorded by Pat. He used to play in My People Sleeping (RIP), one of the best MTL bands, with former Amethyst, Katherine Peacock.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to check out the PWYC album Odd City by Ancient Kids, the new band lead by occasional Amethyst drummer Jordan Robson-Cramer featuring me on guitar and keyboards. I’m not on this record though; it’s pretty much all JRC.

News: Film Soundtrack, Show in June, Green Lightning

Thanks to everyone who came to our show at the Casa on Friday. It was fun and the World Provider were great as expected. We’re going to be playing another show June 26 in Montreal at the Belmont on St. Laurent. The details are still in the works, but I know that the wonderfully dreamy Young Galaxy will also be playing. Also maybe a special show somewhere on the 25th, but I’ll keep you posted on that.

In other news, the music of Adam & The Amethysts (including some new tracks) will be featured in a short film called Impossible, directed by Montreal’s ubertalented Vanya Rose. It’s based on a short story by Katherine Mansfield, the turn of the (20th) century modernist writer, but is set in contemporary Mile End, Montreal. Only it’s a parallel universe where everyone in Mile End is inexplicably listening to Adam & The Amethysts! In any case, it’s a nice little love story where the characters shop at all the same grocery stores as me, which is awesome. I’ll let you know when it’s released. It’s been picked up by the CBC, so you’ll have a chance to catch it on your bunny ears.

Also, it snowed a bunch in Montreal yesterday, and last night our power went out after a couple hours of sporadic green lightning (which may have been neighborhood power lines or transformers crapping out). I was convinced it was the apocalypse.

xo

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Let’s Dance in Style, Let’s Dance for a While

Three videos, each beautiful.

Thunder Bay, in Rap Form

You really gotta hand it to this 22 year old MC who risked–and in my opinion, transcended–dorkdom and made this unabashedly sentimental hip-hop homage to his hometown (and mine) Thunder Bay, Ontario. Dorky maybe, but the references to Finnish pancakes, Labatt Crystal, and Terry Fox give me goosebumps–and incidentally I’m not the only one. As of posting this the video has over 210,000 hits on YouTube (almost twice Thunder Bay’s population), and the genuine hometown pride evinced by the YouTube comments makes my eyes moist. I really hope that they start playing this on MuchMusic. It’s definitely slick enough, and Thunder Bay could use the cultural moral boost. Now who’s going to mash this up with Amethyst Amulet?

Digest of Wonder: Tree-Climbing Goats, Mummies, and Dirty Projectors Covers

Today’s post is going to be short on talk, but will feature a medley of wondrous images and hyperlinks for you to enjoy.

Here are some things from the internet that have recently inspired wonder in me. May they also bestow feelings of amazement upon you.

Tree-Climbing Goats of Morroco – Seriously. You have to see this. Also on Youtube.

10 of the World’s Most Amazing Mummies – Another great post from Atlas Obscura. Incredible.

Solange Knowles covers Dirty Projectors – First she ostensibly gets her sister Beyonce and Jay-Z into Grizzly Bear. Now this.  Somehow, every time a big hip-hop or R&B star (especially a Knowles) flirts with indie rock, which has been happening lately, my dream of one day stealing Beyonce away from Jay-Z seems slightly less absurd. [UPDATE: check out this article from August. Jay-Z on indie rock]. But seriously, Solange’s version of “Stillness is the Move” is so good and based around the same sample as Dr Dre’s xxplosive. Thank you, Pitchfork. (note: Pitchfork’s mp3 was taken down, but this one should still work). Also, if you haven’t seen it, the Dirty Projectors’ incredible original “Stillness is the Move” has a lovely video. I’ll be seeing you Montrealers at the Dirty Projectors show this Sunday at Le National with our good buddy Tuneyards. Should be epic.

In other news, my herbal detox is going well. I’ve pretty much gotten over feeling hungry all the time, but the other night I had a very impassioned dream in which I ate an entire plate of nachos. That was all that happened. Notably, the nachos had pesto on them, which is something I will have to try after this cleanse is finished.

Also, look out for an Adam & The Amethysts Montreal show or two in the coming months, because, why not?

Stuart Gordon’s HP Lovecraft Adaptations

Since Halloween is fast approaching, I thought I’d get us into the mood with a spooky post.

I am a huge fan of the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft. If you’ve never read him before, and appreciate cosmic nihilism, macabre occultist rites, as well as long-winded and archaic diction, you just gotta check him out. I recommend the Library of America’s H.P. Lovecraft: Tales, because it’s hardcover, very extensive with almost 900 onion-skin pages, and has one of those built-in ribbon bookmarks. Perfect for curling up by the fire with a cup of tea and contemplating one’s insignificance in a vast and hostile universe.

And if you’re like me and also love perverse and disgusting horror films, you will fall in love with director Stuart Gordon’s adaptations of HP Lovecraft, in particular Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), and Castle Freak (1995). All three of them feature Jeffrey Combs, one of those amazing underrated working-class actors who exclusively does B-movies and television and frequents the horror and science fiction convention circuit with his Sharpie marker. He’s actually been in eight Lovecraft adaptations, including ones not by Gordon. Anyway, these three films actually share a lot of actors in common, which is fun. I guess Gordon likes to work with his favourites.

Stuart Gordon is an old hippie turned master of the cinematically nefarious. Here’s his bio lifted directly from Wikipedia:

Gordon attended the University of Wisconsin and soon after formed Screw Theater. In March 1968 Gordon’s Screw Theater produced The Game Show at the UW Memorial Union. The goal of the production was to get the audience to leave. To that end the heat was turned to 90, ushers chained the doors behind the audience, the show’s start time delayed and the content of The Game Show made as inane as possible. The audience finally demanded to leave one hour and fifty minutes into the two hour production. In the fall of 1968, he produced a version of Peter Pan that got him and his future wife arrested for obscenity. The story made national headlines until the charges were dropped in November 1968.

After the University of Wisconsin demanded future theatrical productions by Screw Theater be overseen by a University Professor, Gordon cut his University ties to form Broom Street Theater. Its first production, the new translation of the risque Lysistrata, premiered in May 1969. Gordon is married to Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, whom he frequently casts in his movies. Together in 1970, they founded the Chicago Organic Theater Company, for which Gordon also served as artistic director. With the company, he did several plays, such as Warp!, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Bleacher Bums, ER, Bloody Bess. Warp! was later adapted into a comic book by First Comics. He is also the proud father of three daughters- Suzanna, Jillian, and Margaret.

And here are some goolish trailers for your enjoyment!

First, a hideous pseudo-Frankenstienian tale of science gone wrong:

Secondly, another tale of science gone wrong. I love the insane fluorescent pink and purple color palette of this movie. So 1986!

And last but not least, a classic macabre tale of a gruesome subhuman creature stalking people in a castle:

So much gruesome dismemberment, so many great memories. Dismembories?

xo a

Ukulele = Whimsy in Advertising,

I can’t be the only person who’s noticed that in the past year or so, ukulele (and in particular, slight variations on a specific ukulele arrangement that usually also includes glockenspiel or tinkly piano and often whistling) has become the primary vehicle through which TV advertisers communicate whimsy.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the uke, but frankly these cutesy ukulele ads are getting a little annoying. Not that I watch that much TV or even have cable. But who doesn’t like to curl up on the couch with that special someone in front of So You Think You Can Dance every once and a while? (i.e. every week…)

In any case, notice the similarity between the soundtrack to this Canadian Tire ad…

and this Workopolis ad?

And there are millions more. Like this, this, this, and this.

Anybody work in advertising who can share some insights about this?

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