Category: Reviews

I haven’t commented on this album until now because I really wanted to have the album sink into my psyche for awhile to digest.

I’ll be honest with you, upon first listen, it wasn’t what I expected.  With the lead single ‘Them Kids’ being a rocker, knowing that Fixed to Ruin would be on the album (another rocker) I had this vision in my head that Love at the End of the World would be Chemical City Part 2.  That’s definitely not the case here.

This new album will probably end up being one of my favourite ones for the sole reason that I find that all my favourite albums are ones that I have to work at liking.  Someone told me this years ago and it makes so much sense.  You keep discovering new things that you love about an album if you have to push yourself to listening to it.

Take Waking the Dead for example.  An ethereal tune which didn’t really catch my interest at first.  I read on the boards that it was amongst the fave tunes and I just couldn’t figure out why.  But then one day last week it clicked and I LOVE this tune.

Anyhow, in the end, I do enjoy this album and it will probably grow on me over some time which is great.  I find that an album which grabs me right away is great and all, but it doesn’t have staying power in my books.  This one will surprise us all and probably stay in our music library for a few years at least.

I think I will also appreciate this album more after I see them live as I find seeing a band live brings out a different feeling to the song and when you listen to the recorded version you can hear the live version in your head at the same time…

In the end, I still prefer the rockers…Love at the End of the World, Fixed to Ruin, Them Kids, Up Sister (!!! I’m really loving this tune lately whereas three weeks ago, not so much).  But I also enjoy the slower ones…Lions of the Kalahari is amazing.  It’s something I can envision kids singing.  Words & Fire is majestic.  If there was one tune that I haven’t really fallen in love with yet, it would be Sundance but I’m sure I’ll grow to love it at some point.

I am glad to hear that the reviews acknowledge that it’s a different direction but that does not equal a bad thing.  I think it’s great that people are giving it a chance to grow in their heads and become a killer album.  Heck, look at the Beatles…after awhile they took their music in multiple different directions and that’s what we love them for.  They didn’t just stick to pop songs with bubble gum lyrics.

Bravo to Sam Roberts and the band for this excellent album.  I would definitely recommend it…just don’t expect another Chemical City.  It’s not a straight up shot of rock n’ roll, it’s a straight up shot of good music and I’m glad to see Sam Roberts grow as a song writer.

Putting my funny review of Weezer’s album aside, I actually wanted to review Weezer’s second album; Pinkerton.

After the mind blowing opus which is their first album, upon first listen, Pinkerton probably scared off 75% of its fan base.  I know it scared me initially.  A few months ago I borrowed all of Eric’s Weezer albums because I knew it would be a band I would eventually love (due to both James’ and Eric’s love of the band and how we share similar musical interests) and I decided to focus on listening to them in order.

Pinkerton hits you hard with the fact that this is not the band you grew fond of from their first album.  The album is VERY raw…there are no polished barbershop quartet singing going on here.  The playing has a very live feel from it (which is fine if that’s what you are going for!) and just has this hard-edge sound to it.  Almost like it was literally recorded in a span of a few days over impromptu jam sessions.

I will admit it, that upon the first three listens, I really wasn’t taken with the album.  It was a struggle to listen to it.

But I was once told that every great album usually takes time to love.  I then found myself humming some melodies from the album and realizing I wanted to listen to it again.  These songs grow on you.  I popped the album in again this morning and am falling in love with it more after each listen.

All in all, I think Pinkerton is the polar opposite of Weezer’s first effort, much like the two Foundations in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.  But it doesn’t mean that it’s overly bad.  In fact, it’s a very strong album and if I hadn’t heard their first album before Pinkerton, I would probably give it an easier time…but everyone compares new to the old and this is what we have.

If I even think back to the year it was made (1996), it must have been the beginning of what is considered ’emo’ rock nowadays.  It’s much different than a lot of the stuff that was coming out around the time…Mellon Collie, Odelay, Tragic Kingdom, Sublime, No Code, Fashion Nugget, Recovering the Satellites…and for many years after that.

Give Pinkerton a try.  You’ll be humming the melodies after awhile.  Now onto Weezer’s third effort…

Weezer just released a new album yesterday and it is killer.  I mean it, you can’t get any better than this.

While I haven’t actually LISTENED to it yet, nor have I even purchased it yet, I don’t think this album can disappoint after seeing the album cover.  It is sweet.

It isn’t about the red cover (which is a nod to their old self-titled works both with Blue and Green covers respectively) and it isn’t about the fact that it’s Weezer (!!!) but it’s about the combination of not only a sweet looking cowboy hat but an amazing moustache on the front cover.

I am now envisioning my own moustache making an appearance by the time my birthday rolls around this summer.

That’s it, that’s all folks.

Last night after my microeconomics midterm (which went fairly well I believe) I went to Vero’s place and Mel popped in a film called Notes of a Scandal.  It starred Judy Densch as an old spinster (as she called herself) who teaches at a high school.  Along comes a new arts teacher (Cate Blanchett) who ends up having relations with a 15 year old student (while being married and with children at home).

The film revolves around the secret of this relationship and how Judy Densch’s character finds out about it but promises to keep it a secret only to use it as a tool of power against Cate Blanchett.  She holds it over her head whenever there is something she wants.

In the end, it was a sub-par film and had different views on scandalous behaviour.  I do enjoy Judy Densch from the James Bond films so it was nice to see her in something different.

Not much else to say no this one.  It kept my interest for the most part so if you’re flicking through the television set one night and come across it, you may as well stop and watch.  I don’t know if it’s worth a rental though.

The next book I picked up off of Mike’s bookshelf was a lot more interesting and dear to my heart than The Catcher in the Rye.  Mike had recommend this book as he knew I shared as much passion for music and guitars as he did.

Clapton’s Guitar is a book by Allen St-John which follows the creation of a guitar by Wayne Henderson, who is an American luthier and his guitars are highly sought after.

It follows Allen’s journey into Wayne’s workshop out in Rugby, Virginia (population 7) where Wayne constructs his objects of beauty.  Wayne will build you a guitar, but you’ll have to remind him to do so and you may be holding your breath for a long time while waiting to play it.  Some guitars have taken ten years to build because he has no discernible order to his schedule.  He just builds what he feels like.  If he feels like building your guitar today, he’ll do it.  If not, you may have to keep reminding him or it can take you a decade to finally get one.

This book was an amazing insight into the luthier buisiness of building guitars, as well as a history lesson on guitars in general, but specifically focussing on the Martin guitar line and how they are highly sought after.  I never really knew anything about Martin guitars before reading this book, but I now know that Martin guitars (especially pre-war models) are highly sought after and can fetch numbers like $30,000.  For a guitar!!!  I never knew!  I guess it is now my dream to play a Martin guitar to see what’s the big deal.

The story goes that Eric Clapton played a Wayne Henderson guitar and wanted one.  He puts in an order but like everyone else, has to wait awhile.  Allen St-John finds out about this and wants to meet Wayne Henderson (being an avid guitar collector/player himself) and so forms a friendship with Wayne and he is writing a book about Clapton’s guitar and eventually Wayne gets around to building the guitar for Mr. Clapton.

The story follows the actual process of building the guitar, intermixed with the happenings of their lives such as travelling to music festivals, history lessons of guitar factories, luthiers, repairmen and the quest for old pre-war Martin guitars.  It also talks about folk guitar playing in general and follows some up and comers from the music festivals.

Being a guitar player myself, I really enjoyed this novel.  I thought it was superb.  I had never thought about a guitar in the way that these people do.  I had respect for my instrument but had never really known what had gone into it.  I now know what sort of wood makes a better sounding guitar.  I now know that Brazillian rosewood is a lot harder to come by than any other rosewood, hence the reason why the Wayne Henderson guitars are highly sought after; because they sound amazing and are not made in a factory…they are made one at a time with care.

For a guitar player, this book is a must.  For a non-guitar player, I think you would still enjoy this book as it follows a journey of creation but it was also filled with fun stories of Wayne Henderson and his friends.

Heck, I even want to convince Dad to try and build a guitar when he retires.  It would be a neat hobby.  Even I want to try it now.

I needed a book to read a few weeks ago so I decided to start scouring Mike’s bookshelf as he had recommended a few novels over the years that I had never ended up reading. The first one to catch my eye was one that he had not recommended but I knew I had wanted to read it for some time: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

I didn’t know what to expect from the novel. I knew it was a grand piece of North American literature. I knew that a lot of people had read it in high school. I really had no idea what the novel was about.

The story follows Holden Caulfield, a student at a prep school who has flunked out and is heading back to his parents place in New York City. Turns out that he has flunked out of a few prep schools and it doesn’t seem that he is too interested in much in life.

The narrative is very cynical and it reads from the first person perspective of Holden. He is always annoyed with everyone and how fake they are. I swear every second word is ‘god damn’ which I thought must have had to be a big deal back in 1951 when it was published. I wanted to ask Nanny about that actually.

All in all, I personally found the novel to be quite boring. For the longest time while reading it, I was thinking “Alright, where’s the hook? What’s going to happen? All there is is Holden complaining about everything and him getting closer and closer to his parents place back home.” I really had to churn through the novel. At one point I had mentioned to Amelia that I was reading it and finding it very lacklustre and she mentioned that it was her husbands’ favourite book and she enjoyed it as well so I thought that maybe there was a glorious ending to it and I sped through to the end.

I was left disappointed as there was no amazing twist (thank you makers of the television show Lost for making me expect a grand twist at the end of every story I ever read again) and overall, I couldn’t really understand why this was considered a grand piece of literature.

After speaking with Mike, Krista and others, I have gathered that for the time, the novel was a breakthrough in storytelling in this manner. There was not a lot of first person narratives, let alone one with some foul language and a dismal outlook on life. Plus, it went through some pretty interesting topics for its time…drinking alcohol, seeing prostitutes…it must have been a big deal at the time back in 1951.

I compare this novel to the same feeling kids nowadays must get when we show them the old cartoons we grew up with and they laugh and say “The special effects were so cheesy! How could you like this?!”. It’s all a matter of perspective and I figure I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it in a more appropriate time period. As a story, it just wasn’t that interesting to me and did not shock me in any way.

I was lucky that my Professor of Microeconomics actually gave us some sample test questions for the midterm. When I heard of this, I figured there were five or six questions awaiting us. Lo and behold, there were 40 pages of study material! I was impressed and I definitely hit the books a little after coming back home from the cottage.

However, lack of sleep got the best of me and I found myself waking up from a four hour nap when the sun was starting to go down. After making some dinner and reviewing some study questions, I settled in with a Ridley Scott film; American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. It deals with Frank Lucas who was a gangster in New York back in the late 60s and deals with his rise to power.

It was a decent film and it surprisingly held me interest at 9PM. It was quite long and a little drawn out. I was talking to some people at lunch who said they’ve tried to watch the entire film and just were uninterested. I enjoyed it, but it definitely is no Godfather film. If you have 2.5 hours to spend watching a slow moving film with some great acting and a good ‘based on a true story’ story, then check out American Gangster!

Also, if you think it’s your typical gangster film with a lot of violence, it is not. It’s very story based.

On Saturday I awoke from my slumber and decided to watch another film before heading out to Matt’s cottage for the day.  I figured Into The Wild would be a perfect choice as I was heading into the wild myself.

I had been introduced to the film through Eddie Vedder’s solo album which was made for this Sean Penn film.  It is based on the adventure of Chris McCandless who was a college graduate who decided to leave all material possessions behind and head into the wilderness.

He first heads around North America…wherever the wind takes him.  However, it is clear that he eventually wants to travel to Alaska on his own and experience nature firsthand.  It was an interesting film in that he explores the relationships Chris has on his journey and makes you think a little about what we are trying to get out of our life here.  The film explores the extremes (like his parents thinking a brand new car will solve all problems, or their son burning all his money and hoofing it around America) as well as the in-between thought processes (hippies, military folk, etc.).

I really enjoyed this film and it gave me this need to be out in the forest.  It had a calming effect on me and I took my time driving to Matt’s cottage while enjoying the scenery.  I think that this film would appeal to my own generation whereas older generations may wonder why the guy is so against the grain and is simply wandering through life and not settling down to get a job.  I think I’d like to explore these thoughts in a future entry so I’ll leave it at that.

That being said, I really enjoyed the film…it’s a story of a man’s adventure into trying to discover a little more out of life when they weren’t satisfied with the norm.  As soon as I finished the film, two people reminded me of this nomadic spirit…Vero and Carrie.  They are both people who seem to want a little more in life than the norm, they just have to figure out how to get it.  I think they would find the film interesting.

With this newfound nomadic spirit within me, I packed the car and headed west to Matt’s parents place.  They live 1.5 hours of Ottawa so it’s a good couple of albums worth of music to get me by.  It had also started raining as soon as I left the house so the outlook didn’t look good.

I arrived in the wilderness and walked into their house to find everyone sprawled out on the couches and watching the hockey game on a nice new flat screen television which was mounted to the wall.  While this was an impressive sight from a technological perspective, it wasn’t quite what I had in mind for the trek to the wilderness.  😉  I have to remember that Matt’s parents place is eventually their HOME in the woods, and not their COTTAGE in the woods.  Any place with Internet, satellite TV and a furnace is not a cottage.  Either way, it is a beautiful home and is coming along nicely.  There was a pile of top soil out in the front and I figured I was brought here on false pretenses and I was going to help bring the top soil up to the upper roof where they are going to put in a sod roof!  I didn’t mind if that was the case as Matt’s parents have been nice to me over the years in allowing me to visit once in awhile, so it’s the least I could help with.  In the end, the work was not happening this afternoon…we were left to go down to the dock, have some beers, run away from the thunderstorm, have a little BBQ, jam on the guitars a little and simply enjoy the nature around us.  I got stir crazy later on in the night and wished to go back outside instead of hanging out in the living room so with a cooler we headed down to the dock where the fog had settled around us.  It was quite freaking cold out there after awhile and it finally got us moving back into the house.  May I also point out that Evan had bought the most God awful beer there ever was and I wish I could remember the name of it so I could issue a public health warning.  We felt bad for him so we helped him finish it.  Let me say that I didn’t feel like drinking much more after that horrible concoction.

We eventually headed downstairs to crash for the night and if there is one thing pets need, it is slippers!  Every time the dog would walk around all you would hear is ‘clik, clik, click on the hardwood floor.  😉  Jenny is a great dog though so it’s hard to be mad at her, but I did consider throwing a pair of slippers on her paws.

In the morning, Karilee made us some great blueberry pancakes and then I decided to head back into town to start studying for my midterm in microeconomics.  It was great to see Mike and Mel (along with Lola and Gigi!) as well as meeting their friend Amelie.  Dave, Evan, Erica, Marie and Norm also showed up for the night and it was good times had by all.  I even talked to Norm a little about comic books and let him in on the fact that I had a great assortment of old comic books coming my way this coming week from Aunt Lois.  I must admit that I very excited to peruse what are in these boxes.  I have visions of what gems could be in there…could there be X-Men comics dating back from the 1980’s Dark Phoenix Saga culminating in #137?  Who knows?  Aunt Lois let me know that there were probably 100 X-Men comics in those boxes and they figured that there were around 500-600 comics in total.  It is a great treasure to receive these books and I look forward to this upcoming weekend when I’ll get to see what’s in them!  Thanks again to Aunt Lois and Uncle Gary for this.

Friday afternoon came to me earlier than planned as my boss let me out for the long weekend. Freedom!

I headed home on the bus (which was surprisingly more packed than the usual crowd…perhaps EVERYONE was getting off early?) and picked up a stack of comics from Mike, picked up a case of beer and stumbled upon a great sale of movies at Rogers Video where each movie was $10. That was a steal of a deal considering some of them were priced at $16.99. I also like buying previously viewed movies at a low price and then when Blockbuster eventually gets around to buying back movies at a minimum of $8, I bring back a stack of ones that I can do without and in the end, I don’t pay too much to rent them. In this case, my cost would be $2 to rent them instead of the $6 they usually go for.

I said farewell to Mike who was heading out for a grand weekend of cottage fun with his friends and then settled onto the couch for the rest of the night. It was going to become the start of a good long weekend. I perused some comics, had some beer and lit up the BBQ.

I popped in The Bourne Ultimatum and anticipated the wild ride. I had heard nothing but great things about this film. Turns out that they were all correct in their reviews. Once again, Jason Bourne took me on a high paced ride with some good chase scenes and some good insights into Jason Bourne’s story. The formula works. You have an assassin with no memory and every film he gets a little bit of the memory back. I haven’t read the novels yet and I heard they are slightly different than the films. So I can’t comment on how much they differ, but what I can comment on is that the Jason Bourne films are definitely up there in fun times as much as the James Bond series.

I also enjoy the camera work in the Bourne films…I think the erratic hand held cam style of filming started with The Bourne Supremacy and I enjoy it for it’s fast paced “I feel like I’m there watching Bourne kick some ass!” feel.

Two thumbs up. Three thumbs up because Julia Stiles was in the film as a brunette. Meow.

I got around to watching Fantastic Four over the past few days. I had actually picked up their soundtrack when it came out and it left a bad taste in my mouth and then I heard it was a so-so movie so I stayed away.

However, I have this renewed interest in seeing the Marvel films (need to see Ghost Rider next) so I decided to give this a try.

The only thing I know about Fantastic Four is whatever I read about them in Marc’s Fantastic Four issues back in Kap. It was nice to have a friend who was getting into comic books at the same time as me and had some different tastes so we could swap and see what else was happening out in the world of wonder.

So Fantastic Four deal with Reed Richards (scientist extraordinaire), Sue Storm (ex-girlfriend to Reed), Johnny Storm (Sue’s brother) and Ben Grimm (Reed’s friend) who go into space for the sake of science but get hit with some cosmic radiation and develop superhuman powers (ability to fly and be on fire, elasticity, turn invisible). There is also Victor Von Doom who is up there with them but he’s the enemy in the big film and he gets super powers also and becomes (wait for it…) Doctor Doom!

This film pretty well is the classic origin story where they set the characters up, they get the powers and they deal with them. I enjoyed how they took their time with the development of their newfound powers (how did Spider-Man REALLY know how to spin webs any time after the first few times? Come on.) and their newfound fame in the city for being superheroes. There really wasn’t that much time left in the end of the film for the big showdown with Doctor Doom.

Not being a big fan of Fantastic Four, I can say that the movie kept my interest as it brought out some human aspects of gaining super powers (how would you actually turn yourself invisible? “Invisibility On!”) but it was definitely lacking on some high paced moments. It was very drawn out and low energy for the most part.

Saying that though, I had never read the first issues of Fantastic Four so I don’t know if it’s a faithful reproduction of their origin but I would bet that the second film is a little better as they don’t have to deal with the origin so much.

Oh yeah, and having Jessica Alba in your film isn’t a bad thing. Meow.