Everything

Best Ways to Make New Friends in a New City

Posted on by halley in Everything | Leave a comment

So Celeste and I conveniently switched cities (still a sore subject – let’s not talk about it) and we’ve had to make new friends. Making new friends when you’re in kindergarden is fun. Making friends in your 20s and 30s? It’s terrible. So, we’ve put together a handy-dandy list of the best ways to make new friends in a new city for all y’all who are contemplating a city switch or just wanna ditch your homies. If you think of any others we’re missing, please let us know. We’re still struggling:

1) Loudly Announce your Costco Membership Everywhere You Go.
At a certain age, the allure of a trip to Costco starts to outweigh the allure of free shows and club entrances. We are at that age. Nothing can perk up interest in a bar/Metro car/sidewalk faster than a casual (but very loud and well articulated) mention of your Costco membership and ability/willingness to bring guests. Industrial-size goodies for everyone!

2) Offer Candy to Strangers.
Gum. Werthers. Lifesavers. Homemade cookies. Keep these in your (man)purse, pockets, and/or briefcase and offer them indiscriminately, early and often. Although we’ve all been taught as children not to take candy from strangers, apparently that rule becomes moot when you’re a bored millennial looking for a snack. You’ll find yourself surrounded by friends … or at least people looking for a way to freshen their breath.

3) Pull out a Flip Phone.
Whether it’s working or not, people LOVE to see a good ol’ flip phone. Offer to let them give it a flip, throw it on the ground, or pretend it’s a walkie-talkie. All amazing party tricks – and for $3 on ebay. A steal.

4) Be Nice.
All right, here comes our moralizing. As some of you may know, the world has had a rough year (or 5). It would be nice … if people could just be nice. So next time you find yourself wanting to hit an idiot over the head – don’t. Be nice.

That’s it. Happy 2018!

Concert Review: Shout Out Louds, November 6,Mod Club

Posted on by Ricky in Everything | Leave a comment

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One of the more well known lines of lyrics from the Shout Out Louds comes from one of their most famous singles:

“Let’s call this a come back!”

As I stood there, revisiting a band I’ve seen three previous times, I was wondering … is this a comeback?

The Swedish pop band recently released their fifth record Ease My Mind, their first in four years. In indie-music timeline that’s like 12 years. The buzz hasn’t been large even though the album is solid. This was reflected Monday night as a half packed Mod Club greeted the band. Comparing it to their last show, which was a rather packed Opera House, you had to be just slightly disappointed at the turnout. Time, however, is unforgiving.

Despite what I assumed was a disappointing crowd, the group took the stage and enthusiastically introduced the group to their new stuff with the track “Paola”. For the uninformed, this was like meeting an old friend. Warm tones, pleasant arrangements and also a dash of that undeniable Swedish pop touch. The new stuff, just like the old, is full of hooks that make you go hmm, this is good.

Obviously the older tracks were the ones that got the crowd going, with the undeniable beeps and boops of “The Comeback” signalling the start of the “hits” phase of the show. Man, that track is fucking good. “Tonight I Have to Leave it” was the epic point of the night, with lead singer Adam Olenius venturing into the crowd, urging people to “give love”. It might seem a bit pre-meditated (he did the same thing at the Opera House show) but in times like these, a positive message is always appreciated. I was particularly pleased that they played (closed) with the track “Impossible,” which has got to be one of my favorite tracks of the ’00s. Say what you want, ending the show with your best song is NEVER a bad idea.

For better or worse, Shout Out Louds have never really left the warm space they have created since 2007’s amazing record Our Ill Wills. While some can see it as a self imposed limitation, I think their music fills a particularly nice indie-pop niche. There’s always a space for nicely arranged hook filled pop music and on Monday night, the Shout Out Louds was a great example of that.

Record Buying – A Descent into Madness Part 1: Suede, Slowdive, Jamie XX

Posted on by Ricky in Everything | Leave a comment

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As a somewhat big music fan, you would imagine that I would have had a record player for ages. So it comes as a surprise to many that I did not. It wasn’t because I didn’t want one, more so what would happen if I did buy one.

As a kid, I collected too many hockey cards and then eventually comics. Then it was DVDs and CDs for awhile, then a digital mp3 collection. You get the point, I like to accumulate shit. So in my mind, I knew if I got a record player, it would start all over again and frankly, records are not cheap. The logical thing to do was to enjoy the music as it was (mostly free) and not bother with it. However, it did feel like a part of the music world was missing.

I always knew eventually I would get a record player. In March of 2012, Suede released a box set of their albums. Naturally as a massive Suede fan, I bought it. Mostly because I figured it would be annoying to try to find all these Suede records should I buy a record player. Yet I didn’t buy one to listen to these records.

Until August of this year. Somehow a Friday night conversation about how “every day you don’t have a record player is a day you aren’t enjoying your records” came to make sense. Two days later I bought a record player – the Project Debut Carbon (which has dropped $100 in price since I bought it, much to my annoyance)

Anyways, since then I’ve been buying a lot of records (and enjoying the process). I figure I will write about the records I buy since this is a music blog or something.

1. Suede – The Vinyl Collection
Price Paid: $250??

I actually don’t remember the price I paid, but a box set of your favorite band is priceless. This box set is great and comes with a nice book that talks about each record and the record making process for that record. I still don’t have the heart to put on their record A New Morning and I doubt I ever will. Dog Man Star was the first record I played (after I played a test record to make sure I didn’t fuck up anything) and it was totally glorious. Not sure how my roommate felt about me cranking it up but she seemed cool with it.

2. Slowdive – Slowdive
Screen Shot 2017-10-25 at 11.25.47 PM
Price paid: $17.99 (Dead Dog Records)

I was just hankering to buy another record. The collection must be awesome! It must be curated. In my head, I was already mentally building a collection of records that would populate my household. However, my first foray into record stores highly suggested it would be a very expensive venture. Records were even more expensive than I thought. 30 bucks for new records? WTF?

Anyways, I was getting pissed off that all the records I wanted were thirty dollars or more and then I saw Slowdive sitting in the new release section at a nice price point of $17.99. While some of my friends are obsessed with this band, I was only neutral towards them. However, I really enjoyed this album when it was released earlier this year, so I thought, this is a good price point and also an album album, not a bunch of singles with shit tracks in between. It’s also good for late night listening because it’s pretty mellow. I enjoy this record.

3. Jamie XX – In Colour
Screen Shot 2017-10-25 at 11.32.41 PM
Price paid: 23.99 (Rotate This)

I loved loved loved the XX concert earlier this year (and all the XX albums) but one of the highlights of that show was Romy singing Loud Places, one of the many highlights from Jamie XX’s album. Perhaps it was the vivid recollection of that moment that spurred me to buy this record as I looked through Rotate This’s vast collection, or perhaps it was the fact that this record is pretty awesome. Anyways, In Colour has a great collection of songs that you can pretty much put on at any time. I don’t know what juice that kid was drinking growing up but the dude can produce some poppin’ tracks.

When I opened this record, a little card dropped out and it was like a download code. I was like … do I type this into … my bit torrent site? I guess some people just legit download music. Good on them.

So it’s been 9 weeks and I’ve bought 20 records. I’ve decided to write about each one, to chronicle my journey. (Maybe)

ImagineNATIVE Review: The Road Forward (Marie Clements, 2017)

Posted on by Gary in Everything, Reviews | Leave a comment

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To varying degrees and on a spectrum of acceptance, we are all aware of the issues facing our First Nations communities. If our knee jerk reaction on being exposed to these painful, negative stories is denial, then we shouldn’t be surprised that this selective pressure pushed for the evolution of fighters: singers, songwriters and activists whose whole lives are built around being heard, being recognized to promote change. And thus, we come to this film. The Road Forward is a positive (and forceful) image of people who had no choice but to fight for their own rights, told through songs.

The Native Brotherhood/Sisterhood of BC are organizations that sprung up in the 1930s in response to deprivation of liberties of the native people on the BC coast. Originally formed around fish processing factories to the blueprint of a workers union, it gradually took on the job of neighborhood watch in Canadian politics regarding native rights and freedom. Recognizing the need to unite the cause as well as to communicate news in general, in 1946 they began to run the paper Native Voice, not as the mouthpiece of the organization, but as THE gazette for native life and politics in BC and around the country. That is where The Road Forward starts.

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If we are feeling reductive (and blind and deaf and dumb), we could categorize this as another “struggle film”: documenting and prominently highlighting the otherwise invisible hardship people endure outside of our plastic anechoic chamber. But that would not only be a gross understatement, but also an irresponsible one. Calling this a musical slightly breaks the term as we typically grasp it in the Broadway sense. Yes, it uses blues, rock and rap to convey, emphasize, and weave together a story. Yes, it is a great showcase for native talents who persevered despite adversity. But it has more soul, and more self-determination, than that description betrays. Like saying fried chicken is just poultry pieces with breading in hot oil for 10 minutes, the secret is in the cookin’ and eatin’. The vehicle on which these feelings of pride, shame, fear, sorrow, cultural confusion, and far more beyond, is the key to this film. This allowed it to take on a new ability, and strike a distinct tone on the same subject that we all know (and tend to bury in ignorance) so well. And so, even if it lacks analysis of pragmatic solutions as to the road going forward, you need to watch this. It’s a powerful and important monologue, and we need to hear the (war) cries and start to discuss and enact realistic and humane solutions.