The Best of the Booker

On July 10th, The Best of the Booker award will be handed out and you the people can vote for the winner until July 8th. Odds are that one of the nominated books will win.

Ear Crack

Trahison - Vitalic
You, Me and the Bourgeoisie - The Submarines
Life in Technicolor - Coldplay

Collectibles vs. The Planet

Soundboard raised the alarm on the environmental impact of vinyl LPs earlier this week. Even CD packaging seems excessively plastic these days, but it's not easy to give up the pleasure of unwrapping a new disc to discover its colour and hold the accompanying liner notes/artwork in your hands. Surely, musicians appreciate the tactile benefit of producing a clutchable version of their songs too. What's a semi-head-out-of-sand music fan/musician to do?

Tutorial

Jay Ferguson, 1/4 of Sloan's songwriting team, tells you how to write a song.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim hit some funny bones when I read it recently. It's standard practice for essay collections to be spotty and this one was no exception. Most of the time though, it's enjoyable to be immersed in the details of the Sedaris clan's lives. He has a new book out called When You are Engulfed in Flames - review here, interviews with DS here and here (the latter one, conducted by Rick Mercer, is excerpted in print or available as a full-length audio clip).

Cultural Studies

Rob Walker takes a shot at explaining what consumerism means to consumers in Buying In. Benjamin Nugent investigates an often-maligned (more recently celebrated) culture in American Nerd: The Story of My People. The L.A. Times reports on a recent downturn in documentary box office returns and research claims that my bummed out brain may require sad music to cope with such disappointing news.

Polaris

The long list for this year's Polaris Music Prize is going to be difficult to pare down. Much too much Canadian talent to sift through!

They Have Music in Canada?

The Guardian speculated about NXNE's status as the "new" SXSW yesterday, which amused me, given that it's been happening annually since 1995. I suppose we're all guilty of discovering and trumpeting great things that may be new to us but aren't really new at all. We aren't all guilty of using the word Toronton in place of Torontonian however. That's an honour reserved for The Guardian alone. I wonder how that's said? My preferred pronounciation is Toron-tawn rather than Toron-tun.

Scene Not Herd

Attended Scene Not Herd, a program of music videos, at the Worldwide Short Film Festival last night. Generally, the selections were good (but uncharacteristically heavy on North American and indie rock content I'm told) and the event is worth adding to your annual must-see list. On the way into the screening we were handed 3-D glasses for the last video of the night, Bjork's Wanderlust. It's been awhile since I've seen anything in 3-D but I wasn't blown away. Thankfully, several other videos did impress. Check out: The Bumblebeez' Dr. Love (humour), Menomena's Evil Bee (visuals), Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton's Our Hell (music and visuals), Utah Saints' Something Good '08 (music and humour) and The New Pornographers' Challengers (music and music). I love this last song so much that setting it against a solid black screen would still rate a seal of approval.

The Beginners, Will Currie & the Country French and Laura Peek at Over the Top

Mike O'Neill, the bass-playing half of The Inbreds, is back with a new band called The Beginners (see Chart Attack for a refresher on what he's been up to in recent years). The band played as part of the Over the Top Fest last month. The set was a little loose but fun all the same and peppered with songs from O'Neill's solo albums, like Are We Waiting and Camera Shy from 2000's What Happens Now?. Additionally, I can report that I've now seen a band begged for an encore but lacking enough material to comply. They tried valiantly though, botching at least one song part way through, so credit for effort.

Opening acts Laura Peek and Will Currie & the Country French both delivered entertaining sets. Peek played solo, commenting that she'd left her band, the Winning Hearts, in Halifax due to financial constraints (the life of an independent musician isn't so glamorous). To like - her shy but friendly interaction with the crowd between songs and her discerning musical taste in choosing to cover The Magnetic Fields' I Don't Really Love You Anymore. A bright future for Peek may well be in store.

Will Currie & the Country French were a big ball of fun musically (think of the energy of Ben Folds Five), but Currie's between songs banter needs a bit of fine-tuning. The Country French's piano-centric tunes were super-catchy and the whole band, particularly Aaron Mariash who drummed with panache, seemed to be having a great time (visit their youtube channel for behind the scenes tour shenangians). Locals would be wise to see them soon, before their album, A Great Stage, blows up and tickets are hard to come by. They play tonight at NXNE.

Do You Know That Book About....?

Booksellers are invariably helpful, which is quite amazing considering the customers - and antics - they have to put up with. (Image and answers courtesy of the NY Times).

Briefly

The Worldwide Short Film Festival is on this week. The Globe and Post weigh in here and there on what to see. Thanks to M, I'll be checking out Scene Not Herd.

Hooray for Handclaps

Sloan's latest album, Parallel Play, is out today and that's great news. Songs from Sloan should always be celebrated. Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson spoke to Exclaim about the new disc while Chris Murphy spoke to the Post about everything else. Hear signature Sloan hand sounds on I'm Not a Kid Anymore.

Whispers

The National gets some play from the Post. Their most recent album, Boxer, is getting all the buzz, but it's worth perusing the archives for 2005's Alligator. Opener Secret Meeting is spectacular. Autumn de Wilde is Annie Leibovitz for today's young rock musicians. iTunes will now offer movies for rent or sale in Canada. Operation Filmmaker documents how an attempt at giving a hand up to an unproven talent can go awry. Electronic books may still be viable. Profitable even. The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction goes to Rose Tremain for The Road Home. And James Frey attempts a fictional comeback.

In the News

Martha Wainwright talks about her second album, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. Augusten Burroughs talks about his umpteenth memoir, A Wolf at the Table. And Kurt Cobain's ashes were stolen (?).