Braids - "Native Speaker"

I do yoga to Braids. I know thats a weird statement to start with, but it should give an idea of just how calming and amazing this band is.

Braids is an indie pop/art rock band from Calgary that lost a high school battle of the bands to a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band. I saw them open for Deerhunter at Sled Island, and it was pretty mind expanding. They layer spacious, warmly melodic sounds and dynamic vocals with a perfect flow. If this all sounds a bit heavy handed to you, dont worry - they sound really playful and optimistic, but not overly so! Each song on this debut CD averages about 6 to 8 minutes long, but it never feels that long. They dont drag, and it constantly compels.
Its pretty amazing how they manage to both create such layers and walls of music while wrapping it around tight, catchy tunes. They transcend age and genres. There music just makes sense, in a really undescribable way. They speak to you, and listen to you.
They just really rule is what I'm trying to say, and I hope you dig them!

1. Lemonade
2. Plath Heart
3. Glass Deers
4. Native Speaker
5. Lammicken
6. Same Mum
7. Little Hand

DL here!

The Detractions are recording

Unless you are one of the dozens of people who have seen our basement shows with a revolving lineup for the past half a year, the title of this post is going to mean NOTHING to you. So I thought I would clarify.

The Detractions, after much apathy and procrastination, are doing some recording this weekend. In a basement. For a day. Seriously, settle down everyone!

Okay, lemme explain; The Detractions is a musical project I have been playing guitar and singing with for almost a year now with a bunch of other rad local musicians. Peter Cormier (from that awesome folk band Here on the Sun) plays drums, Richard Charter (solo shoegazing wizard) plays guitar as well, and Chris Donovan slaps the bass and does some wailing of his own. And then there's me, whose pretty cool I guess.

Its taken awhile to get settled down with a lineup. Initially I was playing bass and we had one of the guys from (the late) Random Task Collective playing guitar for us and for another while we were a three piece (pictured below.) We played a bunch of goofy cover shows where we all dressed up and jumped around, which was a ton of fun.

Yes, we dressed up as blink 182 and played 90's covers. We also impersonated Sex Bob-Omb for a Scott Pilgrim screening party.


But with Chris joining on bass and me moving to where I wanna be (playing guitar and whatnot) we finally got down to writing original material. The name came from a play on Elvis Costellos backing band, The Attractions.

We played a basement show with The Prabes and Cluster Fox about a month ago now, which went fairly well considering we had never played a show with original material before that. And now, we figured we would get some recording done before school/work gets to hectic for all of us.

I have alot of fun with it. Most of my previous bands were just straight ahead, humourless punk/grind or whatever which gets old pretty quick. The Detractions is great because we all come from different musical backrounds but it all meshes really well. Ontop of that, we dont take ourselves to seriously because whats the fun in that?

Long story short, were gonna record as many originals as we can in one day next Sunday. A friend of mine, local musician Phil Feiss (Fornskog, Garroting Deep) will be mixing for us, so many thanks to him. When its all done, were gonna sell copies free or for donation! Also, a free download will be posted to this blog in case ya'll are interested. Also, we may be playing an all acoustic gig at a coffee shop on 17th sometime soon so keep your eyes out for that. We may do more after that but between school and work, we probably wont start regularly gigging till after this december. I cant speak for all the guys though!

Anyways, just thought I would talk a bit about it. I'm super excited!

- Nathan I

Black Death Review

So I have just finished watching Black Death. The only thing that I can say is, it was pretty good. It's been a while since I've actually yelled at a movie in anger. It was quite the experience, one that is definitely welcome in my mind.

The movie is directed by Christopher Smith (Severence, Creep). He's known for directing on the horror/ thriller side of things and doesn't fail to deliver. He achieve's a sense of both suspense and breathlessness at the climax of the film that literEddieally had me at the edge of my seat. The music, which is conducted by Nick Ingman (Shakespeare in Love, Madagascar) builds the mood and chilled me to the bone. The choices made by Smith creates an aura of evil and gives off a satanic and dark feel.

The film itself doesn't follow any traditional storyline or plot that I can recognize. The story is about a kinght appointed by the church in 1348, right around the time of the first bubonic plague that struck England. This plague was also known as the Black Death because of the black spots and boils it leaves on its victims skin. Medicine in Europe had no means of stopping it and the Church's believed it to be God sending this plague as a means for us to pay for our sins. The knight, played by actor Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones) is sent to a remote village where it is rumored to be ruled by a woman who can raise the dead and may have Satanic ties. The monk that volunteers to lead him to this village is played by Eddie Redmayne (The Good Shepard, Powder Blue) and I must say he delivers a very powerful performance. His anguish, self doubt, and self destruction makes it a performance worth seeing. By the time the third act rolled around I was still craving more and still appropriatly creeped out.

And that's my first review. So how did I do? Feel free to leave a comment here, on Facebook, or on twitter @R_Galarneau. I will welcome any feedback ranging from opinions on how I can improve to what other movies you may want me to review. Well this has been a lot of fun. and Arrivederci for now friends!

~Riley

Hello Interwebs!

Hello to you who may or may not be reading this. My name is Riley and from the onset of this moment I will be bringing you reviews from the film and video game industries. The movies I review (at the moment) are limited to whatever Netflix manages to produce, so expect older films that are classics and other films that have probably flown under your radar. On the video game side of things, I'll mostly cover indie titles and allow my cohort Lukas to cover the games you more likely want to hear about.

I've always wanted to do something like this (review I mean) and now I can get a chance. Bare with me and we will make this a learning experience for all. The first movie I will review will be Black Death starring the wonderful Sean Bean, who is most noted as Being Boromir from The Lord of the Rings. Basically he's a very talented actor who manages to look bad ass all the time.

And that's about everything I have for now. Hopefully Nathan I will forgive me for the length of this post, and I promise my general posts won't always be this lengthy. In a couple hours I'll have my first review and we'll se how it goes from there. And yeah, Arrivederci for now!

~Riley

P.S. Now that I go back and read through this, it doesn't seem that long...

New writers! Yay!

So when I first started this blog a year ago, I had this vision in mind of multiple opinions being shared and voiced here and there. Its why I allow anonymous comments, and post on my other social networking sites.

However, until recently, this has basically been me yapping and venting to myself while others read or listen (if they so wish.) But alas, I have finally incorporated other writers to this blog! Yay for bucketlist.

You will be seeing posts from Riley (G-Man), Lukas (Why Bother), and another fellow named Nathan (softerpostcards) here fairly shortly. Lukas is going to focus mostly on video game reviews and opinions, since he is such an avid gamer himself. Riley will be all about film and video games here and there and as for the other Nathan, he's just gonna FSU and write with terrible grammar.

I'm really excited for things to be a group effort, for more then one viewpoint to be shown, and for more forms of art to be focused on. Video Games and Film are both, in my opinion, equally valid and crucial artforms that need to be acknowledged. Plus, Zelda rules.

Oh and as for myself, I'm gonna do a bit of it all with some Theatre and visual art thrown in. And I will still regularly post album downloads for those pirates of you out there because, well, music is best when it is free!

One more thing, from this point I will sign each post as "Nathan I" to avoid confusion.

Cheers,

- Nathan I

Last URL change. again. seriously.

I realize this is getting ridiculous, but I swear this is it.

the blog is now called http://dontgotobusiness-school.blogspot.com

I figured, thats the title that the blog itself has, so changing the URL to it is just less confusing. I'm also a pretty indecicive person by nature, but I swear to stick to this one.

As for the nature of the title itself, I have a friend who decided to go to business school instead of what he loved (theatre) and now he just hates his life. Its a bummer. Plus, its a lyric from a pretty cool Grown Ups song.

Also, I'm gonna be incorporating some other writers into this blog. Keep an eye out for that!

Cheers!

- Nate

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - "This Years Model"

I can't believe I have never posted this one before!
I have ALOT of respect for Elvis Costello, even if I don't like all of his music. He's my favorite lyricist ever, I love how he experiments with so many different styles, and is willing to work with such a diverse range of people. I actually sang a b-side of his from "My Aim Is True" to get into theatre school!
Most of the stuff I like by him is his early work with the Attractions, and this his second album is hands down my favorite record by him (and possibly, ever!)

He would start as a mid tempo country twang rocker and end up a new wave icon, but this album perfectly captures the time in between. Deftly blending organs and synths with classic rock and roll riffs, herky jerk punk grooves, and some seriously snarling lyrics. This was pissed off, cynical Elvis at his best, criticizing everything from the Radio to miniskirt wearing punkettes hanging out at McClarens SEX shop.
I wish I had discovered this album when I was a bombastic, self proclaimed punk rocker who sneered and hated on vague concepts like "government" and hate" and rocked out to my simple 1-2-3-4 chords. Dont get me wrong, that stuff still rules, but Elvis took all those ethos and actually added some intelligence to the mix. His tunes on this record were just as fast and catchy as anything the Damned did, but it also had a brain and a far more unique shine to it. I feel like it is ageless, as a result. Pump It Up, Radio Radio, (I Dont Want TO Go To) Chelsea..... There are SO many classic songs on here, I cant even handle it. Whats even better, he was an INCREDIBLE live performer at this point in his career; go youtube Costello in the 70's to see what I mean.
Bottom line, when people say that Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll, I think Costello.

1. No Action
2. This Year's Girl
3. The Beat
4. Pump It Up
5. Little Triggers
6. You Belong to Me
7. Hand in Hand
8. (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea
9. Lip Service
10. Living in Paradise
11. Lipstick Vogue
12. Night Rally
Bonus Tracks:
13. Radio, Radio
14. Big Tears
15. Crawling to the USA
16. Running Out of Angels
17. Greenshirt
18. Big Boys

DL here! Enjoy!