My coworker Ron (@boyreporter; Boy Reporter's Nookbook) — who goes well above and beyond — picked me up a kick-ass Sloan poster at from the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend (which I sadly missed), designed by Mike Holmes. I immediately popped on earphones and listened to Twice Removed. Awesome!
Sloooooooan, Slooooooooooooan! Sorry, but you just have to do that when talking about Sloan, who to my surprise (and no doubt theirs) released their ninth studio album today, 17 years after they stormed out of Halifax.
"We were Canada's Nirvana, then Canada's Oasis, then we weren't anything," Chris Murphy told the National Post's Ben Kaplan. The above photo encompasses the interview (click for a larger version) with the shoot-from-the-lip Murphy. There are more quotes at The Ampersand.
Some choice zingers:
"In the ’90s, all we had to do was show up, we were cooler than everybody. Who’s going to be cooler than us, Tea Party? I Mother Earth? These people aren’t cool — we’re cool."
"Collective Soul? Nickelback? Poor Eddie Vedder — he’s responsible for all that shit."
"Underwhelmed is our Creep. Actually, Creep is their Underwhelmed. We predate those motherfuckers."
The new album is Parallel Play and I'm listening to it as I write this. Check it out. Slooooooooooooan!
What would New Year’s be without me adding to the plethora of lists? So without further ado, here is my picks for the best in pop culture for 2006, in no particular order:
Heroes The most sci-fi show on network television since The X-Files is also the best show on TV this year, topping Prison Break and even Lost. Random people suddenly develop powers and must figure out how to handle and use them, for better or worse. It is the best comic-inspired work of fiction since Sin City, doling out plot developments at a furious pace.
Hiro Nakamura Super Hiro is the heart and soul of Heroes and the one character who wholeheartedly embraces his newfound powers and sets out to do good with them. Also, as a Star Trek quoting Japanese nerd, he provides the show with comic relief.
Truthiness Stephen Colbert was on a tear this year: he lambasted George Bush and the assembled media as a speaker at White House Correspondents' Association Dinner; he had his fans stuff the online ballot box to have a Hungarian bridge named after him; and the Merriam-Webster dictionary selected truthiness as its Word of the Year for 2006. The Colbert Report is spectacular satire.
OK Go I’d never heard of these guys until the day I got sent a link to a video for a catchy song – Here It Goes Again – and their treadmill-hoping, choreographic perfection. Then I watched it over and over and over again.
Royale With Cheese After the unceremonious dumping of Pierce Brosnan as the agent with the licence to kill and years of speculation on who would fill the tux, Daniel Craig emerged as the new, hard-edged 007, reinvigorating the venerable franchise without abandoning its past.
Parkour The most thrilling movie chase of the year had no gadgets and no cars, just two people making their way though a construction site at a death-defying, breakneck speed. The opening sequence of Casino Royale showed a terrorist using the technique, also known as free running, to escape the pursuing James Bond. Pure adrenaline.
Sloan After 15 years, the Canadian power pop quartet refuses to phone it in, releasing the 30-song Never Hear the End of It and heading back out on tour. Much goodness to be had.
Toronto During TIFF Visitors often complain that Torontonians are cold and aloof – and they aren’t wrong – but all of that changes during the Toronto Film Festival. Suddenly complete strangers are chatting with each other with ease while in lines and theatres. They compare notes, thoughts on films, celebs they’ve spotted and then as quickly as it began, it evaporates. I wish the city were like this year-round.
The Tick vs. Season One The big blue bug of justice finally comes to DVD after 12 years and multiple fan requests. A parody of superheroes, The Tick is as dim as he is strong – neigh well invincible – as he battles bizarre villains alongside an equally bizarre cast of characters, including American Maid, Die Fledermaus and the Civic-Minded Five. I’m so thrilled, all I can say is spooooon!
Shut Up and Sing I’m no Dixie Chicks fan, but the documentary on what the country stars went through after lead sing Natalie Maines said “Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas,” was a real eye-opener. Their statement is mild by today’s standards though it was almost a career killer a scant three years ago. I picked Fido as my top movie of the Toronto Film Festival, but months later, it’s the Chicks that I keep talking about.
S.O.A.P. Suds Despite massive amounts of internet hype, Snakes on a Plane is grounded. Turns out all the bloggers saying “wouldn’t it be cool if they did…” never had any intention of going to see it. Best web hoax of the year!
Video Mashups It was like the birth of a new art form as digital videos, YouTube and people with loads of free time collided to create some of the most hilarious web moments of the year, from Toy Story 2 recast in the Requiem for a Dream trailer to the Peanuts gang shakin’ like a Polaroid picture to Outkast’s Hey Ya. Absolute brilliance.
Britney Spears While there are many pretenders to her throne, Spears is in a class of her own when it comes to young celebrity train wrecks. From questionable parenting (now where did I put Sean Preston?) to finally dumping her parasite impregnator Kevin Federline, and then partying harder than Paris Hilton in a one-week period, she bows down to none. Keep trying Lindsay and Nicole.
Not Ready for Prime Time Players Saturday Night Live is hot this year, not so much the show, but the shows about the show. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip gives West Wing fans a taste of what they’re missing (even if it does take comedy writing far to seriously) and 30 Rock has all the laughs, especially with the sublime Alec Bladwin playing network blowhard Jack Donaghy. As for SNL itself, on the rare occasions it has a funny skit, I can watch it the next day on YouTube – see Lazy Sunday and Dick in a Box.
Yul & Ozzie The top two finalists in Survivor: Cook Islands actually deserved to be there: Yul for his masterful playing of the game and controlling other contestants without it ever being obvious and Ozzie for being one of the most natural physical players ever to compete. The reality show granddaddy proved it still has chops.
For more lists than you can possibly imagine, be sure to check out Fimoculous' stunning list of lists, including such gems as the Best Re-cut Movie Trailers, the Top 10 Retro Gadgets, the Top 10 Sex Toys, the Top 5 Most Pretentious Looks and more music and film Top 10s than you will ever be able to read.
When is the right time to expose your child to the Dead Kennedys? Is the Forgotten Rebels’ Surfin’ on Heroin an appropriate lullaby? These are not abstract questions, but something I wondered while driving in the car with the six-day-old Tristan with the iPod on shuffle. He's already been surround by music during his few days on this world. We had the laptop in the delivery room and he came into the world listening to Metric, coincedentally arriving to Combat Baby.
Yesterday he sat in my arms while I was watching Robot Chicken and he seemed vaguely attentive as the Trix rabbit sold coke to the rest of the breakfast cereal mascots in a great parody of Blow. He’s not just getting pop culture moments, but meta references – not that they mean anything to him now. But I figure it will seep in at some point. I knew all The Beatles music when I was in high school, but not because I had listened to it, but because my parents had for years before. So I hope you like Sloan, kiddo.
Is that so bad? I don’t have any desire to hear in what manner the wheels on the bus rotate, or how many humps Alice the Camel (or Fergie for the that matter) has. That isn’t entirely true of course, as I will happily sing to Tristan, but I don’t feel the need to only play that kind of music around him.
So is there pop culture for babies? Is it those songs? Books that you read to them? I suppose I will find out soon. So far it’s just been stealth marketing. To date, Tristan has two outfits with Winnie the Pooh on them and an offer for Winnie the Pooh books that come with a Tigger clock – all from Disney. He also has Clifford the Big Red Dog on a quilt and Sesame Street characters on his Pampers. Who are they indoctrinating, him or me?
It’s been a bad year for music. Well, for me at least. I was looking at my iTunes and I only have half a dozen albums recorded in 2006 and we are already halfway through August. This is appalling.
The last two albums I got were The Raconteurs' Broken Boy Soldiers and Johnny Cash’s American V: A Hundred Highways, with its heartbreaking version of “If You Could Read My Mind.” Both great albums, but I’m hardly overflowing the iPod.
There is one little ray of sunshine in all this – my friend Rob let me know about a new Sloan album coming out in September, so at least I’ll have seven albums by the end of the year. You can get a taste of the 30-track (!!) opus with the first single “Who Taught You to Live Like That” over on their MySpace page, which makes me very happy. Hey, who knew there was good stuff on MySpace pages?
Anyway, I can’t let this situation continue so I’m appealing to all my readers to tell me the best music they’ve heard this year, or at least summer. Albums would be best as I’ve never been one for singles, but I’ll take on all comers. So help me out everyone, don’t let this musical atrophication continue. I’ll be listening to Raffi and his ilk soon enough as it is.
P.S. - I'm doing a spot of guest editing over at Scandal Sheet this week. It's fun to be mean and gossipy.
Canadian musicians haven’t recorded anything worth commemorating since 1970. That is if you accept the Toronto Star’s list of the 10 Essentially Canadian songs published over the long weekend.
I exaggerate of course – they included Leonard Cohen’s "Hallelujah" from 1985, but he was also listed for 1966’s "Suzanne" and I think can be fairly placed as a singer from the ‘60s. Of the 10, eight were recorded between 1962 and 1970, with 1643’s "Huron Carol" filling out the list.
So no Tragically Hip, Sloan, Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Shania Twain, Nickelback or Avril Lavigne. Nor is there anything from one of the hottest music scenes in the world, including Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Metric, Stars or Wolf Parade, to name a few.
Now I know how and why these lists are created – they get people buzzing and doing exactly what I am doing – so I feel a little bit manipulated in responding, but I couldn’t resist. The reason? It appears they just gave up on the music list, and they more or less admit it:
"The further back we went in time, the easier it was to find consensus, which probably accounts for the omission of any song written after 1985. The panellists pushed for the inclusion of songs written after that time, but there didn't seem to be any agreement about which of the more recent songs were worthy."
They couldn’t agree on one Hip song? That band in more Canadian than Stompin’ Tom, the quintessential example of ‘big in Canada, mostly unknown elsewhere.’ Their songs appear on homegrown TV shows and films, but the Star’s panel ignores them. Same would apply to Sloan.
What about the artists who made it in the U.S., which often equates to Canadian success? I may not be a fan of Bryan Adams, Shania, Nickelback or Avril, but I can’t ignore their impact, but I appear alone in that conviction. I’m not suggesting that the list be filled with contemporary artists, but I can’t believe they could create one where eight of the songs came from an eight year period.
What would New Year’s be without me adding to the plethora of lists? So without further ado, here is my picks for the best in pop culture for 2006, in no particular order:
Royale With Cheese
The Tick vs. Season One
When is the right time to expose your child to the Dead Kennedys? Is the Forgotten Rebels’ Surfin’ on Heroin an appropriate lullaby? These are not abstract questions, but something I wondered while driving in the car with the six-day-old Tristan with the iPod on shuffle. He's already been surround by music during his few days on this world. We had the laptop in the delivery room and he came into the world listening to Metric, coincedentally arriving to Combat Baby.
It’s been a bad year for music. Well, for me at least. I was looking at my iTunes and I only have half a dozen albums recorded in 2006 and we are already halfway through August. This is appalling.
Canadian musicians haven’t recorded anything worth commemorating since 1970. That is if you accept the Toronto Star’s list of the 10 Essentially Canadian songs published over the long weekend.
