Thursday, October 22, 2020

Pink Steel, Red Herring, the SuiteSixteen: a bunch of stuff on hold while I obsess over the Blue Oyster Cult

Jeez, there is SO much I haven't been doing while I transcribe, edit, and assemble my Blue Oyster Cult features (I interviewed Eric, not Buck, but that felt right in the circumstances; and I'm putting together two distinct articles for a US mag and a German one). It's their first new album in 20 years, folks. I've been excited. I've been so focused on the Blue Oyster Cult that my poor wife has been having DREAMS about them - she woke up yesterday with the request that I stop talking about them for awhile, since they'd invaded her subconscious. Only just got my pre-ordered LP in the mail the other day, but it's real good, a worthy comeback. "The Alchemist" in particular - written by the new guy! - ranks up there with the stuff off their first three albums!  (My full review is below, in the previous post).

Meantime, here is stuff I have put on hold, pending getting the time to do it justice: 

Supreme Echo reissued a mighty EP of classic Victoria proto-punk band Pink Steel, aptly titled Here We Go Again. You can read about it here - a review not written by me. This is stuff I plan to write about - I bought the EP and am in touch with bandmembers- but meantime, check out my old Pete Campbell articles here. And here

Red Herring, whose new EP debuts in a couple of weeks, is next on my list. They're one of my very favourite band reunions - I can say with honesty that I was happier to see them get back together than Mission of Burma, even, since Mission of Burma ain't from Vancouver! (I would have to think long and hard about whether I am happier they got back together than the now-apparently-gone-again Slow, but y'know...). You can read the first major piece I wrote about Red Herring here, and read someone else's article about their magnificent new single "Julia," which is a complete departure from anything else Red Herring has done. There's also a new, nutty, slightly, um, "extroverted" video for "The Brain Song." Mind you, I do have a big thing I wrote for them, to serve as a sort of band bio, but I am not quite sure what the rules are on my using it myself, since it is being sent around by their publicist... more to come on them, in any event...! 

Meantime, someone I knew and was friendly with in fucking JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, Rob Nesbitt of BUM, has recorded a major album that is themed around his first love, who was going to the same (fucking) junior high school! (I quite probably knew her too, tho' she's slipped my mind). Mine Would Be the Sun is a magnum opus, Rob's Quadrophenia, and I have a major interview with Rob pending publication, which, alas, I have had no takers on (I haven't transcribed it, but I have pitched it at a few people). I was there for THE VERY FIRST TIME Rob took the stage at a rock concert - his first taste - and sat with him in his backyard a few weeks ago to talk about it, and his whole subsequent career, which I had missed, because we fell out of touch when he moved from Maple Ridge. It's a helluva story. Grant Lawrence writes about it here. Listening to it on Rob's bandcamp doesn't really do justice to the obsessive level of care and craft he has poured into this album - it's a bit intimidating to approach, actually. (Trivially, it was Pete Campbell of Pink Steel who pointed me at this project). 

And there's more! Aaron Chapman is taking our party leaders to task for not having any platform during COVID-19, to support live music venue owners. I've kinda just ignored that whole issue, even tho' I've gotten a couple of press releases from Mo Tarmohamed about our beloved Rickshaw (which apparently your band can now rent as a venue for livestreamed concerts). I've had a bad feeling about the whole situation since COVID broke, but I don't know what to do about it. Venue owners certainly deserve the same supports other businesses are getting. Thanks, Aaron, for speaking out on this. 

What else? I guess I could dither about the fucking provincial election, spew my resentment at Horgan that I have to think about it right now, or my irritation with the Green Party that I can't even get clear on who their local candidate is... only Green signs I've seen anywhere are from Fursteneau herself, in her own riding of Lake Cowichan, where I gather she is well-liked. What are the Greens doing in Burnaby South? I vote this Saturday, but there are no candidates listed on their website or on the CBC for this district. In fact, Burnaby South isn't mentioned on the CBC page at all. What the fuck is going on? I don't know, and no one is explaining it to me. I guess I'm just going to go to the votin' place - at least I know where that is - and pick whoever is on the ballot that I can stomach. Is the lack of clarity here in any way the fault of Horgan for calling this election early? Do I punish Horgan, with his insincere politicians' smile, broken promise that he wouldn't call an early election, and apparent preference for LNG companies over BC First Nations - for this shit, or forgive him? Do I try to figure out, standing in the voting booth with my phone out, if there even IS a Burnaby South Green Party candidate? All I know is, I sure ain't gonna vote Socred. Oh, pardon me - I meant BC Libertines. Or whatever they're calling themselves these days. 

(That was a joke, like the whole idea of an election in the midst of a pandemic).

Arrgh. Anyhow, I was awakened from sleep by bad-vibe nightmares of being part of a group of stranded hikers, facing the prospect of freezing to death in remote cabin... woke up to discover the window was wide open and my hands, outside my blankets, were like ice. There was something in there about a sociopathic student who had caused the whole freezing-situation called Mike, and some sort of note from his teacher giving him a low mark on a class assignment, with only the words, "These are terrifying ideas, Mike" written on it. The "camera" of my dream panned over it and then cut back to a group of us huddling in bed together trying to share body heat as temperatures dropped. I hadda wake up - at 4-fucking-30 - to close the window, pee and warm my hands.

They're warm enough now.  

Hey, who should I write for locally, these days? Someone offer me work. I try not to even think about that other paper I used to write for sometimes. 

1 comment:

Allan MacInnis said...

Well, there is something I learned. We are only Burnaby South federally - the riding has a different name provincially (go figure): Burnaby Deer Lake. Alas, the Green's candidate either a) doesn't know how to write a bio or b) really hasn't done much, because she makes herself sound vastly less experienced than the NDP candidate for the district, Anne Kang. I guess I am voting NDP after all. At least I know what my riding is! (I think).