Want to help me write a book?

The list of proposals for the next books in the 33 1/3 series has been posted at the blog.

My proposal was for Archers of Loaf's Vee Vee, so if you're a fan of the album (and/or Recorda-Me) and would buy a book about it, you could let them know by leaving a comment.

Here is my original review of the album.

CFMH 107.3 FM TOP 107 ALBUMS OF 2008

1. V/A - Saint John 3 - The Revenge
2. C'mon - Bottled Lightning of an All Time High
3. Grand Theft Bus - Made Upwards
4. Woodhands - Heart Attack
5. Black Mountain - In the Future
6. V/A - CBC Radio 3 Sessions
7. Tom Fun Orchestra - You Will Land with a Thud
8. Barracuda Sunrise - Barracuda Bootleg Vol. 2
9. Share - Pedestrian
10. Sleepless Nights - Turn into Vapour
11. Hospital Grade - Secrets & Sawdust
12. Organizers - This Old Town's Filled with Sin
13. V/A - Forward Music Group
14. Constantines - Kensington Heights
15. Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
16. Sloan - Parallel Play
17. Adam Mowery - Port City Burning
18. Tony Wilson 6tet - Pearls Before Swine
19. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
20. Chesterfield Kings - Psychedelic Sunrise
21. United Steel Workers of Montreal - Broken Trucks and Bottles
22. Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
23. Mardeen - Read Less Minds
24. Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
25. Gruesomes - Tyrants of Teen Trash
26. Ron Sexsmith - Exit Strategy for the Soul
27. Chad Vangaalen - Soft Airplane
28. Matt Mays and El Torpedo - Terminal Romance
29. Superfantasticks - Choose Your Destination
30. Brendan Canning - Something for All of Us
31. Paper Lions - s/t
32. V/A - Do You want to Talk All Night? A Tribute to Snailhouse
33. Howlin' Rain - Magnificent Fiend
34. Corb Lund - Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!
35. John Henrys - Sweet as the Grain
36. Flight of the Conchords - s/t
37. Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky
38. Vampire Weekend - s/t
39. Slowcoaster - Future radio
40. Starvin' Hungry - Cold Burns
41. Santogold - s/t
42. Beck - Modern Guilt
43. Old Man Luedecke - Proof of Love
44. Holy Fuck - LP
45. Gerry Hebert Quartet - The Beat Niq Sessions Vol. 2
46. Sylvie - Trees And Shade Are Our Only Fences
47. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
48. Buck 65 - Situation
49. Bob Snider - A Maze in Grays
50. Catherine MacLellan - Church Bell Blues
51. V/A - Songs for the Gang - A Thrush Hermit Tribute
52. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
53. V/A - Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective
54. V/A - Unity: A Tribute to Desmond Dekker
55. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
56. Hercules and Love Affair - s/t
57. V/A - Juno soundtrack
58. Olympic Symphonium - More in Sorrow than in Anger
59. R.E.M. - Accelerate
60. XX Teens - Welcome to Goon Island
61. Women - s/t
62. The Sadies - New Seasons
63. The Evaporators - Gassy Jack and Other Tales
64. Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life
65. Grady - A Cup of Cold Poison
66. Hello Blue Roses - The Portrait Is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty
67. Loudon Wainwright III - Recovery
68. Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin
69. The Golden Hands Before God - Here
70. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
71. V/A - In Tune Saskatchewan 2008
72. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
73. Ratatat - LP3
74. Cat Power - Jukebox
75. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
76. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
77. Iron Giant - Creator of Scars
78. City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love
79. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
80. Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
81. Outrageous Cherry - s/t
82. The Pack A.D. - Funeral Mixtape
83. B.A. Johnston - Stairway to Hamilton
84. Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams
85. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
86. Fembots - Calling Out
87. Kate Maki - On High
88. Rachael Yamagata - Elephants... Teeth Sinking into Heart
89. One day as a Lion - s/t
90. V/A - Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story
91. V/A - Anti- Winter Sampler
92. Metallica - Death Magnetic
93. Caribou - Andorra
94. DK Ibomeka - I'm Your Man
95. Jane Vain and the Dark Matter - Love Is Where the Smoke Is
96. Luke Doucet and the White Falcon - Blood's Too Rich
97. Laura Barrett - Victory Garden
98. Apollo Sunshine - Shall Noise Upon
99. Bloc Party - Intimacy
100. V/A - Umalali: The Garifuna Women's Project
101. Vancougar - Canadian Tuxedo
102. Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
103. 54-40 - Northern Soul
104. Beautiful Nubia and the Roots Renaissance Band - Kilokilo
105. K.D. Lang - Watershed
106. Hayden - In Field & Town
107. The Stills - Oceans Will Rise

www.cfmh.ca

CFMH 2008 Countdown

Tune in to CFMH 107.3 FM in Saint John, NB (online at www.cfmh.ca) around, oh, noonish, to hear the top 107.3 albums of 2008 as compiled by yours truly! It's a long, arduous process that should take up most of the day (and I won't actually be there), so if you miss any part of it, check back here on the weekend and I'll post the list. Happy New Year!

PAVEMENT Slanted and Enchanted

Matador OLE 038-2 (1992)

In 1993, I was a part-time student finishing up a music degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I spent many days prowling the streets and industrial parks of the city, looking for a part-time job. One afternoon, I stopped by a record shop to kill some time between interviews. Browsing through the used cassettes, I spotted Slanted and Enchanted, the debut full-length album by California indie rockers Pavement. I had heard plenty of "next big thing" talk about the band, so I plunked down five bucks and popped the tape into my Walkman, where it stayed on repeat all day while I shuffled from appointment to appointment. The singer sang lines like "I was dressed for success/but success it never comes" in a hesitantly sympathetic voice... sitting on the bus ride home in my suit and tie, still jobless, I knew how he felt. I must have listened to S&E at least seven times in a row that day; the job search quickly grew tiresome, but the album didn't.

S&E is the sound of the raw elements of rock and roll being reshuffled for the umpteenth time; listen to the opening track, "Summer Babe (Winter Version)" and you'll hear lazy, fuzzed-out guitars played over a bassline that sounds like it was swiped from a Joy Division bootleg played at the wrong speed while in the background someone tries to remember how to play the James Brown "funky drummer" backbeat. "No Life Singed Her" features Tourette's-influenced vocal outbursts from someone who sounds like Tim Roth's Mr. Orange character after being shot at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs. Most startingly, "Here" is a plaintively pretty ballad with keening vocals and languid guitar lines that indicate that success was something Pavement deserved, dressed or not.

Separated at birth: Lindsay Lohan and Tammy

Go here to listen to as much as you can stand of Ms. Lohan's new single, and then watch this:



Except for the second one sounding a little more musically current, I can't hear the difference.

The Final No Pain for Cakes playlist, 22 April 2008

"King Ghidora" - Rutherford/Vandermark/Muller/van der Schyff
"An Oscar for Treadwell" - Anthony Braxton's Charlie Parker Project
"Klactoveesedstene" - Ornette Coleman Quintet
"Please Send Me Sweet Chariot" - Derek Bailey
"The Path" - Jan Garbarek
"Intro to Fifteen" - Art Ensemble of Chicago with Cecil Taylor
"The Lady of Khartoum" - Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer
"Time Will Tell" - Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips
"Angles of Repose Number One" - Joe Maneri/Barre Phillips/Mat Maneri
"I Smoke by the Ocean" - Deep Dark United
"I Am the Walrus" - Tony Wilson 6tet
"No Pain for Cakes" - The Lounge Lizards

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=cfmh&numresult=25

New radio show

The final broadcast of No Pain for Cakes will take place on Tuesday, April 22 at 9:00 p.m. AST on CFMH-FM and shoutcast.com... but on April 29 at 8:00 p.m. AST I will be hosting a new weekly show called Double Nickels on the Dime, which will be two hours of alternative pop, rock, punk, and hip-hop from the 1970's, 80's, and 90's (but mostly the 80's). Expect to hear lots of R.E.M., Husker Du, Minutemen, Replacements, Mekons, Public Enemy, Pere Ubu, Pavement, Television, Dinosaur Jr., etc., etc. Hope you'll tune in!