Saturday, August 04, 2007

Family Visit, plus Unknown Instructors placeholder

Currently in Maple Ridge, where my Uncle Alex (usually pronounced by my family as "Alec," a practice which I have adopted) is visiting from Nova Scotia. He's an exuberant fellow - a Celtic musician and an enthusiastic teller of Newfie jokes -- so for a change, family is trumping my chronicling of odd culture and Vancouver arts events. Took him to see John Fogerty at Deer Lake the other night, and am currently visiting him and my folks in Maple Ridge, without even a second thought about Koichi Makigami at the Powell Street festival, tho' it makes it the second time I've bailed on one of his Vancouver visits (sorry, Makigami-san!). One thing, though: I owe a brief note to those few Nerve Readers and Unknown Instructors fans who have actually visited my blog seeking the remainder of my Dan McGuire interview. It will be up in a few days, when I have the time to finish transcribing it, I promise. I think both poets and fans of Mike Watt, Joe Baiza, the Minutemen, and/or Saccharine Trust would find it very interesting - and there may be a bit of stuff on Iggy and the Stooges that didn't make it into the current issue of the Nerve.

By the way, if you haven't seen the current Nerve Magazine, or heard the new Unknown Instructors album, His Masters Voice - find a way to listen to the album that suits your conscience and find the new Nerve, since it features Watt, Baiza, and McGuire all in one. I like it a lot, and all the members I spoke to agree with me that it's a lot stronger than their previous venture. It's the first part of a two-part Watt-centric interview, to be followed next month by all Watt; I actually think this month's is the stronger month, tho'.

Oh, and while you're at it, there's also my review of the newest Jandek live album and a concert review of Tortoise (who suck) and Fond of Tigers (who don't), from when they played during the jazz festival.

That's all I can offer at the moment! (Oh, y'all know that the new Razorcake has my new Chris Walter interview in it, right? Alas, it's not so easy to find at the moment - I believe Scratch are all out).

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