A Few Thoughts On The Upcoming Election

There is, by all accounts, something supremely strange happening in Canada. What a month ago seemed like a pointless election has blossomed into something else entirely: an unprecedented opportunity to radically and permanently change the political landscape of the country that we live in.

From all manner of unexpected places we are hearing news of unimaginable upsets, bizarre turnarounds and shocking defeats. The people who never lose ground are losing it. The people who never gain ground are gaining it. People are starting to get strung out on hope again. It's exciting, and a little weird.

The fact is: there is no longer a clear leader in this race. For the first time in my voting life, no one knows exactly what will happen.

All bets are off.

As young Canadians we have a profound opportunity to make a wide-reaching and lasting impact on the future of our country. If we can manage to shake off our apathy and conquer our indifference then there is simply no imagining the Canada we can build.

You and I. Right now.

Moments like this are exceedingly rare. It is up to us to seize them.

Stray Marvels: Bob Dylan - "Blind Willie McTell"

Blind Willie McTell died in 1959, just a few years before Bob Dylan became an international superstar. Decades later Dylan wrote "Blind Willie McTell", a brilliant tribute to his blues hero. Though the song was recorded during the 1983 sessions for his 22nd album, Infidels, Dylan, for reasons which remain utterly baffling, decided to omit the song from the final album. Thankfully the track was rescued from non-album purgatory and released in 1991 to instant critical acclaim. It exists now as a cherished b-side, arguably Dylan's best song of the 1980s (which isn't actually saying a whole lot). Dylan later went on to record several covers of McTell songs, such as "Delia" and "Broke Down Engine", for his two early 90s covers records, Good As I Been To You (amazing) and World Gone Wrong (equally, if not more, amazing).

Despite hearing this song (and the covers) when I was still a teenager, it wasn't until earlier this year that I finally decided to sit down and listen to some of McTell's original recordings.

More fool me, I assure you. Astonishing stuff.

Thanks, Bob.

Bob Dylan - "Blind Willie McTell"

Enjoy.

Imagining Defeat

She woke me up at dawn,
her suitcase like a little brown dog at her heels.

I sat up and looked out the window
at the snow falling in the stand of blackjack trees.

A bus ticket in her hand.

Then she brought something black up to her mouth,
a plum I thought, but it was an asthma inhaler.

I reached under the bed for my menthols
and she asked if I ever thought of cancer.

Yes, I said, but always as a tree way up ahead
in the distance where it doesn't matter.

And I suppose a dead soul must look back at that tree,
so far behind his wagon where it also doesn't matter

except as a memory of rest or water.

Though to believe any of that, I thought,
you have to accept the premise

that she woke me up at all.

- David Berman

Jesse 2 [April 2007]

When I posted Jesse 5 back in January, I went into (glorious) detail about why and how I make mix CDs, chronicling the process from the moment of inspiration (not wanting to pay for actual gifts) right on through to the finished mix. I also talked about the different ways I approach each mix depending on the personality and tastes of person I'm making it for (without forgetting to pepper in a little of my own idiosyncratic leanings, of course). In doing so, I also explained why every Jesse-mix contained exactly 22 tracks (and just how hard it is to cram that many songs on one 80-minute CD-R). Well, as it turns out, Jesse 2 actually contains only 21 tracks (!) which, you know, pretty much makes my whole struggle for mix-CD uniformity a moot issue.

Sigh. It was a noble ambition, nonetheless.

Regardless, Jesse 2 is an excellent mix. I know I say that about every mix I post but, well... why wouldn't I be biased? The thing I really love about making mixes for Jesse is that I get to throw unity completely out the window and just cram a wildly diverse roster of artists onto one track-list, creating some fun juxtapositions along the way. From electronica and punk rock to folk and hip hop, Jesse-mixes tend to have a little bit of everything that makes music great.

I know, I know. Lucky you.

Oh, and side-note: today is actually Jesse Leclerc's 27th birthday. Please wish him well. He especially loves it when people post sappy messages all over his facebook wall.

So get on that.

Here's the track-list:

01. Thom Yorke - "Black Swan"
02. Rancid - "Nihilism"
03. M.I.A. - "URAQT"
04. Bob Dylan - "Most of the Time"
05. Islands - "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby"
06. The Hold Steady - "Cattle and the Creeping Things"
07. Xiu Xiu - "Bishop, CA"
08. Neutral Milk Hotel - "The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1"
09. Mission of Burma - "Nancy Reagan's Head"
10. Sunset Rubdown - "Three Colours"
11. Clipse [ft. Pharell] - "Mr. Me Too"
12. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Toby, Take a Bow"
13. The Velvet Underground - "Venus in Furs"
14. Modest Mouse - "Custom Concern"
15. Fiona Apple - "Parting Gift"
16. TV on the Radio - "Staring at the Sun"
17. The Clash - "Lose This Skin"
18. Menomena - "Muscle n' Flo"
19. Califone - "A Chinese Actor"
20. Junior Boys - "So This is Goodbye"
21. M. Ward - "To Go Home"

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=D72IIC09

Enjoy (and share).

Video Void: Wolf Parade - "I'll Believe in Anything"

The first Wolf Parade album, Apologies to the Queen Mary, is a real wonder. It's one of those great rock albums that somehow manages to simultaneously sound both classic and forward-thinking. Along with "Shine a Light", "I'll Believe in Anything" is the album centerpiece. Spencer Krug is just a flat-out brilliant songwriter, and it's incredible that even here, on his first album, he's playing at the very top of his game. Most bands take a while to develop a sound and style of their own, but Krug and his cohorts set a high watermark with this release that they never quite managed to reach again.

I'm not really sure what, if anything, this video has to do with the song, but it's a lot of fun nonetheless. Despite seeming humorous at first, the clip ends on a melancholic note that, if not lyrically relevant, matches the longing mood of the song. I really love the cannon duel at the end, which reminds me a bit of Barry Lyndon (but with cannons instead of pistols, obviously). I'm not sure where it was filmed (nor can I seem to find it out via a brief internet search) but, well, it's all surprisingly legit-looking, which just makes the whole affair even more surreal.

Plus: cool wigs.

Here's hoping that their recently announced "indefinite hiatus" isn't actually code for "broken up" as many suspect.

Enjoy.

People Fall Off Buildings Presents: An Introduction to... Spoon

"I had a feeling from the start of it / You could let me go if you wanted to."

"Outside between the bands / Everything comes back out / It's hard to put down / What you can't hold back / And this is like being alive / It flows right out of your mouth.

"I'm just a user / I don't make any of this stuff."

"You'll know by the look on their faces / When they pass you / You've been dropped off on the Texas highway."

"Don't want to be your victim for life / Don't want your exclusive right / I just want you to change my life / Change my life."

"I go to sleep alone / But think that you're next to me."

"One day it'll take / And they'll start to make / Shirts that fit right / Til then I suppose / I still got Dad's clothes / And that's alright."

"We go through all the same lines / Or sell out to appease / But go to sleep in a bed of lies / I made my own more than once or twice."

"We got out in stormy weather / We rarely practice discern / We make love to some weird sin / We seek out the taciturn."

"Religion don't mean a thing / It's just another way to be right wing."

"We could go kick down some doors together / Stay out til morning / Sharp as knives / The new war will get you / Will not protect you / But I will be there with you when you turn out the light."

"Now all I need is a crew / One that can act as if / One that can slay on cue / And sneeze and sniff / Uh-huh, alright / I'm going back to the water / Been landlocked too long."

"When I turn my feelings on / I turn my feelings on inside / Feel like I'm gonna ignite / I saw them stars go off / I saw them stars go off at night / And they're looking alright."

"Clubs and sticks and bats and balls / For nuclear dicks with their dialect drawls / That come from a parking lot town / Where nothing’ll live in the sun."

"I had a nightmare / Nothing could be put back together."

"I wanna forget how convention fits / But can I get out from under it / Can I cut it out of me / It can’t all be wedding cake / It can’t all be boiled away / I try but I can’t let go of it / Can’t let go of it, nuh uh."

"All of the people you used to run into but never do now / They took off for the mystery zone."

"I know nothing was planned, you just can’t help yourself / Some people are so easily shuffled and dealt / If there was only one of us you truly felt / We’re getting your all and it feels real good / But only briefly like high school poppers would / Where you lose a bit of yourself."

Here's the track-list:

01. All the Negative Have Been Destroyed
02. Waiting for the Kid to Come Out
03. Car Radio
04. Advance Cassette
05. Change My Life
06. Everything Hits at Once
07. The Fitted Shirt
08. Anything You Want
09. The Way We Get By
10. Jonathon Fisk
11. Paper Tiger
12. The Beast and Dragon, Adored
13. I Turn My Camera On
14. Don't Make Me a Target
15. The Ghost of You Lingers
16. The Underdog
17. The Mystery Zone
18. Written in Reverse

And here's the download link:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V0N5DE6C

Enjoy (and share).