Hi!
I haven't been posting here much, which means I haven't been letting my blog followers know about a bunch of the stuff I've been doing online, and have discovered that as a result a couple of people who read this blog are unaware of major stuff I've been doing on the Georgia Straight website. They just thought I wasn't writing much!
Ha: no, that is no so.
I feel like it will benefit more people if I write for that website rather than this one, the pay being about the same. The hyperlink to see (pretty much) everything I've done there, with the most recent at the top, is: https://www.straight.com/user/591
You can bookmark that link and use it to find my most recent stuff there any ole time.
At the moment, if you haven't seen it, the I, Braineater piece is really good, in particular, but if you're accessing this website sometime well after March 21st, you can find that here. Jim's a great interview; there's a really cool thing in a past Big Takeover, as well (the issue with Bob Mould on the cover) where we talk about his work with Art Bergmann, Buck Cherry, Ron Reyes, Chris Crud, and such. That's more his backstory -- how he started in both music and art.
Photo by Cat Ashbee
The context of the new piece is more his return to recording after a long time away. It's really kind of a part two to a piece you haven't read part one of. I do recommend seeking out that part one, it's a super-cool story and illustrated with a bunch of Jim's art. And it particularly focuses on I Here, Where You!
I love I Here, but it's like Nomeansno's Mama, a singular oddity, an outlier. The new album is his masterpiece. True, it repeats a lot of material from Artist Poet Thief and elsewhere, but it does so with a crazy-deep sound, with actual bass (the missing instrument on Artist Poet Thief). It's really really great. Like, I'm almost as excited for it to come out as that motherfucking New Modernettes record that we're all salivating for, which is now old enough to leave home, get a job, and get married.
Can't speak to that Modernettes record, but it will be months til the Braineater album comes out, of course, but the Otway gig tonight will mark the debut of the new lineup (with guitarist Rod Bruno). There are still tickets. You'll be paying more than you usually would, of course, since there's a full touring band headlining, but you seriously won't regret seeing Otway, though; he's one of the most exuberant live performers out there. (A second Otway article should go live later today).
One local punk who I will not name here has commented that the addition of a real guitarist is going to change everything to how they present. I have seen the trio-form version a few times, and while I truly enjoy Jim's new material (and old) and am glad he's back, I wasn't completely sold on the trio form as a live act -- there was a missing piece. Rod Bruno might just be it (I know I've seen him with Trailerhawk but I'm not sure where else I might have seen him).
Oh, and by the way, if you're looking for an Artist Poet Thief, there was one in the middle of the new arrivals at Beat Street yesterday for $30. There's also a Doughboys' Whatever in the used punk section!
No blame if you're doing another gig tonight -- I don't even know who the Koffin Katz are, so I can't say I feel like I'm missing out -- but do note that the Otway/ I, Braineater/ Nightflower Orchestra show is an early show. Music will start at about 7:15. Braineater will be up by 8. It will all be over by 10ish (in time to make LanaLou's for a bit of 64 Funnycars, if you go quickly!
If you missed it, I also did a recent piece on Gerard Van Herk (there's a correction in it so if you read it before, read it again). He follows 64 Funnycars. Otway will be so done his set by that point that, who knows, he might come down for that! (Would be fun -- I'll try). Call it the John Otway afterparty.
Wherever you end up tonight, I hope it rocks. (People who don't know Otway should look up his Urgh! clip and/ or try some of his videos. "Bunsen Burner" is pretty fucking fun.
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