Sunday Bloody Sunday

After going to Decca 77, I went to see U2. It was something I wanted to do once in my lifetime. I used to listen to U2 a lot when I was younger. I haven't listened to their more recent albums that much, but I do have the latest one on my Apple devices, as all Apple users do. The songs from that album weren't that bad. They played a lot of them in the show, along with some classics like "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was a strong moment, with lights the color of the Irish flag:

There was a fair bit of technology in the show. There was a huge rectangular screen in which Bono could walk and images would go around him. Bono still has a great voice, and yes he talks a lot about global causes, and The Edge is pretty cool. I am glad I got to see this show.

Cruel World

I went to Lana del Rey's show last Thursday. I didn't get tickets for it myself since it was a school night, but my sister got me some tickets for Christmas.

Grimes was on stage for the first part of the show. I haven't listened to her album that much, but I only recognized one of the songs (an article about the show I read later only talked about two songs from her album). Apparently she is releasing another album soon, so she must be testing her new songs. Her performance wasn't really appropriate for the Bell Center, though. It was too concentrated on one part of the stage. There were also weird dancers all around her. Since Grimes is from Montreal, it made me think that maybe she only called up some of her friends so that they could dance around her on stage.

As for Lana del Rey's performance, well, it wasn't exactly the best show I have ever seen. She didn't talk that much, but she smiled a lot. She went down into the public and brought back some gifts on stage, among which there was a Canadian flag. She didn't do any encores, either, and the show was finished after an hour and a half. She seems to rely a bit too much on her pre-recorded voice, or maybe that's just my imagination. At one point, she held the microphone towards the public but I could still hear her singing. Perhaps I was mistaken and it was the public singing, because everybody seemed to know all the lyrics. In general, her songs varied just enough from the album versions so that there could be doubt whether she was lipsynching or not. The videos playing behind her were a bit too self-indulgent, with lots of footage of herself and of American flags.

I had forgotten about the possibility that she might do her Leonard Cohen cover in Montreal. I really hope she will record it someday, as "Chelsea Hotel #2" is such a great song. Besides songs from her albums (mostly singles from Born to Die and Ultraviolence), she also played a song called "Us Against the World" which I liked a lot, "Serial Killer" which is a little bit more of a minor song, and she covered a Peggy Lee song in a pretty jazzy way.

Perhaps I would see her again in Quebec City with some friends, but I don't think I will be going back to Montreal to see her.

The Cure

I saw Tegan and Sara at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at the Place des Arts last Monday. I hated the venue, it wasn't intimate at all. The concert was great, though. I liked the light effects a lot, and I found that the girls conveyed a lot of emotion.

Setlist:

Arrow

Don't Rush

The Ocean

Hell

Walking With A Ghost

I Bet It Stung

Burn Your Life Down

Where Does The Good Go

Speak Slow

On Directing

Red Belt

The Cure

Paperback Head

Night Watch

Soil, Soil

Knife Going In

So Jealous

Nineteen

Northshore

Alligator

Sentimental Tune

Someday

The Con

Encore:

Back In Your Head

Feel It In My Bones

My Number

Call It Off

Living Room

Other topic: Yesterday, I went to a great tea lounge called Camelia Sinensis near St-Denis. My friend and I had a black Chinese oolong that required us to use a special technique. We were given specific amounts of time for the infusions, and we each had two small cups in front of us, one of them being more cylindrical. We used that one for the first pouring. Afterwards, we would smell it then pour it into the other cup. The cylindrical cup would keep the scent of the tea, and that scent would change as time passed. The senses of taste and of smell would then be separated, very effectively: the tea didn't taste as it smelled. We also had a delicious grape scone, which was just the right amount of buttery, and a green tea cheesecake, which was as delightful as any cheesecake always is. I left the place feeling incredibly relaxed.

After Hours

Books: Read Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, it was great. Horrors of war, once more. I loved the description of Brod's character, and a lot of other things, including the meaning of the book's title.

Movies: Saw The Fountainhead, Gary Cooper is weirdly handsome as Howard Roark; Patricia Neal is not how I pictured Dominique Francon, but she is also weirdly beautiful; I enjoyed Raymond Massey's portrayal of Gail Wynand the most; one of the greatest things about this movie is that it is old and black-and-white, so, not much there; I don't think the movie makes much sense to anyone who hasn't read the book, oh but how I love the book, I reread it recently and all along I was going ohmygodIlovethisbook.

Saw The English Patient, so horrible, I don't understand how it got so many Oscar nominations, both of the characters of the love story are utterly unlikable.

Saw Ne le dis à personne, a terrific French thriller directed by Guillaume Canet, I guess the boy's got brains too.

Saw Up in the Air, it had some good moments; Vera Farmiga's character is really hot; a good reflection on unemployment; it is scary how somebody can get to the point where George Clooney's character has, i.e. with no connection to anybody whatsoever.

Saw Inglourious Basterds, it was okay, but I wasn't blown away by it or anything.

Music: Have bought The XX album from iTunes recently, not exactly breaking news in the indie world here, but I like them a lot.

Places: Went back to Laloux, one of my favorite restaurants, before it changed chefs; perhaps I mentioned this restaurant before; the servings are usually very small, and it is always frustrating because the dishes are both always expensive and delicious; this time, perhaps because they are changing chefs, the servings were a bit more generous; I had a delicious plate of lamb with a tajine of carrots.

Went to a fancy Vietnamese restaurant, it was excellent, had imperial rolls, a Tom Yum soup, chicken sautéed with vegetables, and a very original dessert: chocomaki, a dessert resembling sushi with sweetened rice replacing the rice, fruit replacing the raw fish, and chocolate sauce replacing the soya sauce, all along with some coconut ice cream.

Real life: Arrived to L.A., it was weird, I kept thinking about all the broken dreams that must go down there; went to Santa Monica, a nice little shopping neighborhood; went to Venice Beach, didn't stay very long; drove down Rodeo Drive, a fancy shopping street; visited the Vietnamese mall in Santa Ana; went to a Vietnamese vegeterian restaurant, it was weird.

Drove from L.A. to San Francisco, the road was really nice, desert-like; San Francisco is pretty beautiful; went to a fancy restaurant called La Folie, had snails, Hawaiian butterfish and a Valhrona and passionfruit bomb; went to Napa Valley and Sonoma, i.e. wine country, it was really beautiful; walked around Fisherman's Wharf; went to a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, it was so delicious; went to Berkeley; went to Chinatown to eat some dim sum; went to City Lights Bookstore; went to Haight-Ashbury; went to Union Square; saw some Chagalls and Picassos; ate at a great Thai place; went to Stanford.

Stadium Love

I went to the Metric concert on September 17 at Metropolis. It was cool. The Stills were the opening, and they were okay. Metric's show was a lot about the lighting effects and the long, weird instrumentals with lots of synths. Not sure that's what the fans wanted, but it was interesting. Honestly though, once you've seen Karen O, no other indie songstress makes the cut. 

Don't Stop Believing

Yay, TV is back amongst the subjects discussed on this blog! And yes, I'm on the "Glee" bandwagon. Who doesn't love to watch other people indulging in the joys of show choir? The dialogs are also often hilarious. I am presently waiting for it to start. After a so-so third episode, last week's episode was very strong. The scene between the poster gay character and his dad was pretty powerful, and the Quinn pregnancy thing is seriously messed up. Also, there was a pretty great moment in the episode, which starts a bit after 1:32 in the video embedded below:

I might comment on tonight's episode later. On another note, the soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are is now streaming online, and I'm loving it. Of course I do: it is, after all, Karen O! The movie looks like a real tearjerker... I'll be waiting for it!

That Time

I went to see Regina Spektor last Thursday at the Metropolis. It was a pretty great concert. Little Joy opened, they were cool. Regina was onstage for approximatively an hour and a half, but it felt longer, perhaps due to the nature of her songs. This is by no means a bad thing. She had three musicians with her: a drummer, an Asian violonist and an Asian cellist, who were awesome :D They stayed onstage for the first part of the concert, and after that it was only Regina and her piano or her guitar. In the first part of the concert, she played "Eet", which was one of the better moments of the concert. "On The Radio" was also awesome. She took out her aqua guitar for "Bobbing for Apples" and "That Time". "Après Moi" made me want her to sing in Russian far more often. For "Poor Little Rich Boy", she had a wooden chair next to the piano and was hitting on it with a stick all while playing. We thought the stick would break, but it made it. The encore was so great. She played "Samson", "Us", "Fidelity", "Hotel Song" and "Love, You're a Whore". I was waiting for "Hotel Song" during the whole concert and I finally got it! "Love, You're a Whore" was a country-like song, very fun. She played 23 songs in total, and the only song from Far that she didn't play was "Genius Next Door". Here is the complete setlist:

The Calculation

Eet

Folding Chair

Ode to Divorce

Machine

Laughing With

One More Time with Feeling

Blue Lips

Two Birds

On The Radio

Dance Anthem of the 80's

Bobbing For Apples

That Time

Après Moi

Poor Little Rich Boy

Wallet

Human of the Year

Man Of A Thousand Faces

Encore:

Samson

Us

Fidelity

Hotel Song

Love, You're a Whore

Human

Three Sundays ago, I flew from Montreal to Vancouver with a friend. I spent three days there and after that, it was Victoria for one day, Banff for three days, Calgary for three days, Drumheller for one day, Regina for five days, Winnipeg for four days and finally Toronto for four days. Here are my impressions of each stop I made:

Vancouver, British Columbia: went to The Eatery, a really well decorated Japanese restaurant with some cool music; biked along the Sea Wall (10 km), which is awesome; as part of a pub crawl, went to Roxy, a pretty okay place, and met some cool English and Scottish people; went for a walk in the mountains, just one hour by bus from the city.

Vancouver is a pretty cool city. It has everything: mountains, the beach, the city. It is smaller than Montreal, and I find its downtown area simpler. Vancouverites are ridiculously nice people. Generally, we found that the more we went east, the more unpleasant people became. If you ask a Vancouverite for help, he will really go out of his way to help you.

Victoria, British Columbia: a really nice, small city. My friend really liked it. We went whale-watching, expecting it to be a nice ride in the sea, under the sun. As a matter of a fact, we had to go really far into the ocean, at 50 km/h. The wind was unbelievable. We were too proud to get inside the boat, so we stayed on the deck. I think we would have died from the cold if it weren't for a life-saving blanket. The experience was still awesome, though.

Banff, Alberta: went for the most extraordinary hike ever along Bow River, amongst endangered flowers, it felt as if we were in Pocahontas; did some canoe, and that was pretty painful, we only reached one lake out of three and had the laziest canoe ride ever on the way back, using only the current; met the greatest couple ever, Chris, 19, and Hannah, 21, both British and in possession of a rental car in which they brought us everywhere; went to Takkakkaw Falls, and they were awesome; went to Lake Louise, which is a million times more beautiful than any picture you'll ever see, and took a dip in it, the water was three degrees Celsius; went to a cool bonfire, though smaller than what we had imagined; drank way too much at karaoke; the next day, we added another person to our group, Tom, a cool Canadian with a funny dirty T-shirt; went to Johnston Creek, it was okay; went for a random dip in ice-cold water in front of Castle Mountain; went to hot springs; went camping with the most inclined tent ever; and, finally, went to Lake Two-Jacks and Lake Minnewanka/Mini-Wanker, both really beautiful.

Banff was my favorite stop. It is unbelievably beautiful. We were surrounded by mountains, and at night, we saw the starriest sky we would ever see. It was hard to believe we were still in the same country. I really like cities, but I fell in love with this national park.

Calgary, Alberta: went to Heritage Park, it was okay; went to the Calgary Tower, it wasn't that impressive.

Calgary was my least favorite stop. It felt like the least Canadian city to me. It felt (no offense to my US reader(s)) like we were in the United States, mainly because of the huge Wal-Mart and the equally huge stores alongside it, as well as its huge parking lot. It is not that big of a city, and not that pretty. 

Drumheller, Alberta: what a crazy name for a town. It is a real hellhole where the only thing they have going for them is a dinosaur museum. The museum is actually pretty neat. One cannot help but wonder what the young people who are growing up in that town do to pass the time.

Regina, Saskatchewan: we stayed there the longest, and it was the third smallest city we stopped into, after Drumheller and Victoria. This says everything. I didn't expect to like Regina at all. The first thing we did there was watching Harry Potter, because we thought we wouldn't have much to do in that city. (The movie was okay. I found it funny. I didn't like the beginning much, but by the end I was pretty caught up in it. The actors are still incredibly bad, though.) We stayed at a couple's appartment, Trixi and Max. Trixi was kind of hippyish, but like a cool hippie. Max was more punkyish. Their appartment was pretty cool. It had Indian drapes everywhere. Max had had surgery in his mouth, so we could barely understand him sometimes, but it was pretty funny. Trixi is really into belly dancing and drumming. We went to see one of her belly dancing workshops and we saw her drumming in the street for money. All in all, because of them, we got to see the hippie Regina. I never expected Regina to be a hippie city. We stayed there five days, and that was enough to see the whole city. We went to about every used books store in Regina. They had one really cool one in particular, Buy The Book. They also had a cool records store and an awesome restaurant with lots of vegeterian options. One night, we did about four places before hitting the gay bar, and that was where there was the most action in the city. We came back the next night, but the music wasn't as good.

Winnipeg, Manitoba: I didn't really like Winnipeg. It is a pretty big city, and its younger population, in its downtown area anyway, mainly consists of hipsters. The more time we spent in the city, the more impatient I became with them. They had a cool CDs store and a cool movie rental place in Osbourne Village, though. There was also a great vegan place in the Exchange District.

Toronto, Ontario: HUGE city. We went to the Distillery District, not expecting anything, and it was actually really nice. There were a lot of art galleries. Chinatown was also great, and huge. Kensington Market was supposed to be where they had the hippie scene of Toronto, but it wasn't that cool. We ended our trip with a bang at the Kool Haus for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert. It was AWESOME. The opening act was Amanda Blank, a cool and indecent rapper. The crowd went crazy when the actual concert started. I ended pushed against a girl who was against the barrier, right at the front, right in the middle. I don't know where Karen O finds the energy to perform the way she does for such a long amount of time, even though the concert felt really quick. She is incredibly beautiful when she performs, and she is completely crazy, as expected. "Skeletons" was beautiful, and "Maps" too. I am so glad I got to see them without all that Osheaga shit.

This trip was one huge chunk of a really great summer. And it's not over yet!

Sapphire

I met Alex McCurdy last summer in France. He released a little while ago an album on MySpace. You can listen to it here. It is not for the casual listener. It requires you to listen to every single word that is said, or else it just sounds like crazy stuff. An attentive listen, though, is rewarding. Lyrics aside, the music itself is very interesting. These guys are obviously having fun with their instruments, and they are coming up with pretty cool things. Alex also does some solo work that can be found here. Those songs are more melodic. The "Knock, Knock" song is HILARIOUS. He is also a poet. I strongly recommend the "Alex Show" series.

Just A Girl

No Doubt is one of the first "alternative" bands I ever listened to. So when I heard they were coming at the Bell Centre in Montreal, I thought, why not?

The opening acts were Bedouin Soundclash and Paramore. Bedouin Soudclash was okay, but the crowd didn't show much interest: after all, they had come to see No Doubt. Paramore has a lot of energy, the girl has a great voice (the red hair really works for her), but their songs are really ordinary. Haley, the singer, obviously loves what she's doing and communicates a lot with her public. She can easily summon the crowd to do whatever she wants. Gwen Stefani visibly has more experience, but Haley doesn't lack anything much for a performer.

I have to say, though: Gwen Stefani is still a hell of a performer. She had everybody dancing during nearly two hours. The concert got a little emotional when she started singing "Running". The most exciting moment for me was when they played "Just A Girl". It seemed to be an anthem for many people in the crowd. "Just A Girl" was the last song they played before returning for an encore with three songs. On the second one, Paramore came back on the stage, and Haley sang along with Gwen Stefani. It was a pretty great sight.

Gwen Stefani tried to interact with her audience as much as possible. She let a girl come onstage to take a picture, she made everyone sing "Happy Birthday" for several of her acquaintances and she came down to sing right next to some the members of the audience.

The stage was entirely white, and most of the crew wore white too. The drumset was in the middle. This is what it looked like:

The Hand That Feeds

Last week iTunes raised their prices. Some songs, the most popular ones, are now 1,29$ instead of 0,99$. Some of the older songs had their prices brought down to 0,69$. Now, I find no good reason for this change. As Trent Reznor's agent said, more or less: "In this time of bad economy, do you really want to put off the people who are still willing to pay for music?" Not only that, but there are very few songs that actually had their prices up. Not every song in iTunes' top 10 is 1,29$. Well, all the better, is what you'll tell me. But I disagree. Why upset us with these news and then do very little about it? It's completely irrational, I know. But I guess I don't like small disturbances in my life. Or something.

Dudley

Another restaurant, another favorite of my family. This time it's on the cheaper side, and mainly Mediterranean. It's also pretty far away, from my point of view, somewhere in the north of Montreal, but I could be wrong. The name is Dima. We start with various spreads, in which we dip pita bread. There's the classic hoummos; metabaal, which is made from eggplant; and mouhammara, which is a mix of pine nuts and pomegranate. I could be awfully wrong about all the different spellings. Other starters include taboulé, a parsley salad; akras naanaa, which is meat with a touch of mint; and sausages. I then had shish taouk: chicken served with hot, crispy pita, and some salad and rice. Every time we go there, we are never disappointed.

And in other news: Eminem's new song kind of sucks. And it's kind of making me sad.

Music When The Lights Go Out

Three songs I am listening to a lot these days:

1) "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" by Jeff Buckley - Great.

2) "The Gift" by The Velvet Underground - Is it even a song? Eight minutes of madness.

3) "Like Spinning Plates" by Radiohead - Sometimes I think I could go crazy simply from listening to some of Radiohead's songs. "Motion Picture Soundtrack" from Kid A is another good example. "Like Spinning Plates" can be found on Amnesiac. I know a lot of people think Amnesiac is almost a "Kid B", but I really like it. It is really bleak, but I like it. 

Life In Technicolor

The lineup for the Osheaga Music Festival has come out and I don't really know what to think about it. It seems really scattered. These are the groups I know a little bit, or a lot: Coldplay, Jason Mraz (urgh), Girl Talk, Lykke Li, Elbow, Beastie Boys, Rufus Wainwright, Arctic Monkeys, The Decemberists, Crystal Castles, The Ting Tings and Beast. I have already seen Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys. Why bring back those two? What have Arctic Monkeys been up to lately? Arctic Monkeys are good in a show. Not really fun, perhaps, but good. Their fans go crazy at their shows. My sister is really enthusiastic about Arctic Monkeys, but I can't get too excited. There are other bands who will be pretty active this year who are free, I believe, at the time the festival will be taking place, and who could well be invited. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, unfortunately, is busy around that time. 

Other bands will be announced on May 7th. I will be waiting until then.

Perhaps I am just jealous of Coachella's incredible lineup.

Ghetto Love

I have finally brought myself to listen to Spinnerette. I like the Distillers so much that at first I was like, "Brody, why do you have to chaaaaaange??" Apparently, she has something new to say, and this something is poppier. But it still has Brody Dalle's edge. (Brody Dalle was the Distillers' lead singer.) Oh well, I'm all for that: I never have enough of edgy pop. The title of the post is the name of one of Spinnerette's songs. Check out the video on YouTube: it is pretty hot, and Brody is looking good without her crazy hair. There is only an EP out for the moment, but I'll be waiting for the album.

what I'm listening to at the moment 2

1) Leonard Cohen. What a poet. When you are in a certain mood, he is exactly what you need. Here is my list of Leonard Cohen songs:

"Suzanne"

"The Stranger Song"

"So Long, Marianne"

"Bird On a Wire"

"The Partisan"

"You Know Who I Am"

"Famous Blue Raincoat"

"Night Comes On"

"Take This Waltz"

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

"Democracy"

"Anthem"

"A Thousand Kisses Deep"

2) Debut by Björk. Great stuff.

3) I have just heard The Sounds' Myspace. They are a Swedish group, not that recent, touring with No Doubt this summer. Unfortunately, we will not be getting them in Montreal. We will be getting Bedouin Soundclash instead. (...) They're kind of dancy. Maybe I'm just sold to them because the singer is female. It's my feminist side.

From now on, I will attempt to be Grey's Anatomy/One Tree Hill-like and give each of my posts a song name. Points are given to the reader if he/she guesses whose song it is, without cheating, if possible. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

Natalie Portman

Doesn't it sometimes seem to you like we live in an era where everybody likes Natalie Portman? I swear, every hipster (yes, I'm categorizing) wants to do Natalie Portman. Seriously, what the heck is up with that? There's a group called Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, for God's sake. (They're okay. Some non-descript dancy act.)

There's been a trend with these little independent movies making it to awards ceremonies. Slumdog Millionaire, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Sideways, Garden State. I haven't watched Slumdog Millionaire yet. By the time Juno came out, I was already sick of this particular trend. Little Miss Sunshine seemed okay, but I never got through it. Sideways was incredibly painful. Anglophone wine snobs doing French word-dropping is a no-no. And finally, Garden State, with the ever so present Natalie Portman. The classic hipster movie. I didn't like it that much. I can think of two funny moments. One is when they are running like madmen to avoid a rocket or something. The second one is when we realize that Zach Braff's character can't swim.

To finish up, here's a gushy moment for you: Milo Ventimiglia is now single!! NOW I can marry him. No problem.

Cheap sex galore!!!

There was this poker event with my class last Friday, and so a lot of people kept talking about "Pokerface" and kept doing the same pose as on the video on photos. I decided to check out the videoclip, and it is ONE OF THE MOST AWFUL THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN.

Here is Lady Gaga's message to you: "I do it for the money."

Girly post

Hotness.

1) Jakob Dylan. Bob's son. Old. Married. Looks like Trent from "Daria". I love his music :)

2) James Franco. Thirtyish. At first I only knew him as Harry Osborn. (Spiderman? What Spiderman?) Who knew that he was such a comedian and that he was a part of the Judd Apatow crew? (OMG I LOVE "FREAKS AND GEEKS".) Watch his Funnyordie series here. Also, he is going to play Allen Ginsberg in a movie about Howl's trial. How hot is that?

3) Milo Ventimiglia. Also thirtyish. Short. I like him particularly as Jess in "Gilmore Girls".

Do I like James Dean types? I think I do. Do I like James Dean himself? Not so much, actually. He acts like a madman in East of Eden. TERRIFIC MOVIE, though.

what I'm listening to at the moment

1) PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. I love the song "Good Fortune".

2) Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell and Show Your Bones. I'm more familiar with Fever to Tell, though. My favorite song is "Cold Light" and listening to "Tick" in class makes me want to get up and dance away.

3) The Clash's "Straight to Hell". M.I.A. got her opening riff for "Paper Planes" from this song.

Man I don't listen to current music.

On a side note, the guy who created Playmobil is dead!! Noooooooooo. And apparently, the Super Bowl was cut off by an X-rated movie in Arizona.