Now when it comes to pop songs, there are several things that catch my attention. These are:

*use of trumpets and/or tamberine
*Hand claps/finger snamps
*A “Do do do do do” or a “Ba da ba ba ba ba ba” singing chorus line

I’m not sure where I found this link (possibly Vik?) but you should check out the latest podcast put out by Not Quite Rocket Science. They have dedicated their latest podcast entirely to pa pa pas (or equivalent two letter combinations).

tracklist:

Bunnygrunt - 1000% not creepy
Tullycraft - Rumble with the gang debs
Bella Vista - I’d Rather Be Here
The Specific Heats- Other Boys
California Snow Story - Suddenly Everything Happens
Billie The Vision & The Dancers - One More Full Length Record
The Gazetteers - The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic Of 1954
Annemarie - Bubble Gum I See
Pas/Cal - The Bronze Beached Boys (Come on Let’s Go)
Acid house kings - Start anew
Breezy Porticos - Taste Pedlar
Nord Express - Tripleplay
The State Of Samuel - I Still Love You
Math And Physics Club - In This Together
The Galactic Heroes - Baby Blue Volvo
#Poundsign#- Matinee Sunday
Tricycle Bicycle Cycle - Do You Remember? (Face)
Goyouhuskies! - Cubbyhouse
The hat company - A cloud in minor
Beulah - Silver lining
The smittens - Cool sounds
La buena vida - Por la mañana
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Rent a wreck

Every now and then, we will take a look at some random video and well, post our comments on it. I guess its video on trial, but with less annoying people. Or more annoying.

James - Tomorrow - Britpop classic from the band that brought you the songs “Laid” (think: American Pie) and “Sit Down”. Highest charting position was #12 on the charts, in 1997. It is on the album Whiplash, and the Greatest Hits album. I picked this song because I really like it.

Review:

Ricky Says: Tim Booth looks like a serial killer out of a Silence of the Lambs movie. Such an epic song, such a crap video. I don’t get the frenetic editing/moving forward pace of this video. Did they film this inside a warehouse? The video for this song should be triumphant and majestic. Very disappointing for a great tune.

Vik Says: not too much to it man, other than the fact that the lead singer looks like vinnie jones…

Nick Says: Aside from the hyperkinetic editing that would send more kids into epileptic fits than a Japanese cartoon, the video is all the more ridiculous for the spectacle of Tim Booth dressing up like the singer of Midnight Oil and prancing about like Michael Stipe. James always had bad music videos but this one’s even more offensive because the song’s so good.

Golnar says: The video was a bit low-quality for my liking but not in that “we meant for this to be low-quality kind of way”. I think that great songs don’t need a lot of visual distraction or interpretation and in this case the constant movement of zooming in and out, left me distracted enough so that I forgot which of my senses this is supposed to be enticed.

If you have driven between Toronto and Kingston along the 401 then you have likely passed and taken notice of a big, round, red building known as The Big Apple.

I went to this ‘Big Apple’ last weekend to get some pie. My girlfriend, Karen, came along to hit the petting zoo.

Here is what we learned:

Lesson #1 – Pies = High Security
The Big Apple is efficient and sterile…not two things I associate with apple pie. The first thing that turned me off was the turnstiles that directed you into the pie purchasing area…you know…the ones they have at Canadian Tire that prevent you from running in, grabbing a hammer and running out again. As I went through I swear I heard Mr. Apple Head whisper “Don’t even think of stealing any of our pies, cus’ we got these here metal clicky things that let you come in, but won’t let ya out, ya’hear”.

Lesson #2: No Eating Pies At The Big Apple
Price of a pie, $10. Price of a slice of pie, $3.50. They are making a killing on slices of pies. My idea to purchase a whole pie, then sit down and share it with all of my pie loving friends right was quickly smashed. Why? No pies allowed in the restaurant. How do they enforce this rule? They keep tight control on plastic forks. No eating utensils unless you buy a slice of pie. Behind the cashier is a big box of plastic forks and spoons. You buy a slice of pie, you get a fork. You buy a pie, no fork (even if you ask!!) Mother #@%*ers.

Lesson #3 – ‘Petting Zoo’ Is A Relative Term
Karen: So where is the petting zoo?
Cashier: Outside, beside the parking lot.
Karen: Is it near the two caged up Llamas?
Cashier: No, that is the petting zoo.
Karen: [confused] That’s it? But they are behind a fence.
Cashier: Well, if they come close to the fence, you can reach in and touch them.
Karen: I think the whole petting zoo thing is false advertising.
Cashier: No, it’s called tourism.

The Big Apple is nothing more than a glorified roadside toilet where you can buy pies for the fairly reasonable price of $10.

Rating 1/5 = Pull off the highway, get your pie, then run far, far away.

Toronto - Once in a while, it’s good to reconnect with your roots. Sunday night, I watched a movie made from the motherland (actually my polish landed immigrant roommate got it - weird). The movie was called “The Detective” and is brought to you by the Pang brothers, who made their name doing the horror flicks “The Eye” and obviously, “The Eye 2″. That’s the thing about movies, specially Asian movies. If the first movie is successful, there will be a sequel. You can have a movie about the end of the world, where at the end of the movie, everyone on Earth dies, and then the Earth gets blown up, and then our whole galaxy is sucked up by a black hole and if that movie makes enough money, there’ll somehow be a sequel.

The movie stars Aaron Kwok, one of the four big names from the 90s, as a private eye type detective. The movie takes place in Thailand, but everyone speaks cantonese in the movie. I guess we took that place over too. Basically the movie starts off with some dude who stumbles in, shows some money and asks our protagonist to find some chick. The rest of movie follows this detective as he stumbles into some kind of murderous plot and the body count rises. Some other people play some characters that has something to do with the story, but mainly, its a one man show.

Man, this movie was intense. First of all, lets talk about the cinematography, this movie is filmed unlike many other chinese movie (read: cheap). Theres some stylish filter work going on here, reminds me of some of tony scotts work (minus the suckyness) and some nice night shots. Basically, they saturate some colors thru out the film. The camera work is pretty good, you can tell they did horror movies since they do a lot of point of view shots, as if the main character was being followed and stuff. Its pretty good.

That was only 20% of the reason why this movie was intense. The 80% was the score. You know how in most movies, when there is a tense scene, the score builds up and theres a lot of tension in the scene, and then after that scene is over, the score dies down and you can relax? Well thats like this movie, only the score never lets up, so every scene in the movie seems overly important and intense. It works in adding suspense, but it starts wearing on you after awhile. Like seriously, they could of had the lead character taking a dump, and with that score, i woulda thought a dragon woulda flew out of his ass. Thats how dramatic it was.

This movie has also two of the most random end of movie twists that I have ever scene. Thats all I am saying. They comes out of nowhere. I won’t spoil it, but you will never ever see them coming. Me and my roommate had no idea how to react to it, whether this is a good thing, or a bad thing, i don’t know.

All in all, this movie is probably worth a watch.

3/5

What a great pop track by this Glasgow band on Domino Records. Jangily guitars, melodic hooks. First album is due out soon.

I grabbed the new Tullycraft releas this past week, “Every Scene Needs A Center”. Upon my first couple listens something sounded really familiar. Yes, I was pretty sure that I had heard the female leads voice before. Sounded a lot like The All Girl Summer Fun Band.

I did some research on both AGSFB and Tullycraft. No connection. However…

…have a listen to the Tullycraft tune “Clique At Night Vandals”. Besides being a great pop tune that I would have no problem dancing to all alone, right in front of the stage at the next Tullycraft show, they take a jab at Mates Of State:

I played you Mates Of State
You didn’t like them much
In fact you said
Too many songs that sound alike
Maybe we should kill them in their sleep

Oooooo… pop musician and chick fight. There would be scraped knees and sprained fingers everywhere. Kind of like when basketball players fight.

Tullycraft – Every Scene Needs A Center = Good

 

 Tullycraft - Clique At Night Vandals: Play Now