aplanetofsound

I tend to overpack. I go home for weekends and bring multiple options for what to wear, both pyjamas and day-wise. Then I Mother Earth announced a first show before the show they originally announced, on the night I get into Toronto. So I will pack a small bag with the bare minimum of what will get me through a couple days so I don’t have to check it. If I can get there for the show, I will make adjustments. If I am going to TO for them I want to be there for when they all walk onstage together, if I can.

I have much love for the White Stripes. A year ago today they announced their official breakup, although the writing had been on the wall for awhile. I had the good fortune of being in the front row for their 10th anniversary show, at the Savoy in Glace Bay. It was a little surreal seeing them, especially at such a significant event in their history, in my own backyard.

This is the account that I wrote about that show, on July 14, 2007. And yes, I bought the box set they released to commemorate that show and tour.

I don’t know if I can properly formulate an account of last night yet, but I’m going to try.

I have to say that, without a doubt, it was the best live show I’ve ever seen. I may as well start out with the support. Dan Sartain wasn’t really my thing. Next up was Ashley MacIsaac. When he stuck with the traditional fiddle – even the bits that he interjected into his less traditional songs – the crowd ate it up. One highlight was definitely when he called Buddy MacMaster up on stage to play with him. There was a thunderous standing ovation as Buddy made his way to the stage, and much of the action was caught by the White Stripes’ film crew (yes, they filmed the show, and they had notices posted all over the building that they were filming it and by entering the venue you were forfeiting any right to compensation for the use of your image/voice, in perpetuity, so it looks that the DVD is a reality).

And may I say that it’s cool how Jack White paid tribute to his Cape Breton heritage. His mom and brother were there, and there was a whole row of older, local cousins who took in the performance. When the show started, Meg and Jack were piped onstage.

I shot the first three songs of the show, from my perch in front of the stage on Meg’s side. They were very restrictive about where we could shoot from, there were two photographers per side, and no switching from side to side. As I mentioned, I took a lot of pictures. The reason? Jack White never stopped moving. I was also hampered by the lack of a telephoto lens. But there are some pictures that are worthy of my wall o’ concert photos in my living room.

They let me remain where I was for the rest of the show, so I had one of the best seats in the house. I had an eagle eye view of the interplay between her and Jack. I’ve always dug them, but there’s something about seeing them live that kind of makes everything make more sense. Meg gets shit on for her primitive drumming style, but so much of their show is about the way they play off each other. They play really intutively, without a set list. Often Jack would just play the first few notes of a song and Meg would pick up on what it was. The crowd was crazy, so into the music.

Here’s the set list, as taken from the Little Room message board:

Let’s shake hands
When I hear my Name
Icky thump
Hotel Yorba
Jolene
Canon > john the revelator
Death letter
Slowly turning in to you
Apple blossom
(Black jack tease)
One more cup of coffee
Wasting my time
300 mph outpour blues (acoustic)
I Fought Piranhas
Lafayette blues
Fell in love with a girl
Aluminum (short)
(“Red house… White man… Mexican…”???) (no one knows what this song was)
Nothing I can do
Astro > screwdriver (tease) > Rag and Bone (Tease) > screwdriver (finished on piano)
–encore–
Black Math
Cold cold night
Lord send me an angel
Catch hell blues
Martyr for my love for you
Doorbell
We are going to be friends
Finding it harder (on piano) > why can’t you be nicer to me > hello operator (short)
(Pause)
Hello operator
Prickly thorn but sweetly worn
Dead. Leaves and the dirty ground
You don’t know what love is
Seven nation army
Boll weevil

Highlights for me were … well, everything, but I guess especially Prickly Thorn, Catch Hell blues, the most beautiful version of Jolene, Slowly Turning, I Fought Pirahnas. There’s other songs I would have loved to hear that they’ve played at other shows, like Ball & Biscuit and Effect & Cause, but I pretty much would have loved for them to play their whole catalogue. Jack White is a musical genius.

The DVD cannot come soon enough.

At another space, someone posed the challenge: 10 albums you can’t do without. 10 records – and only 10 – that you would pick to have with you if you didn’t have access to any other music again.

I built my list pragmatically, starting with the artists I couldn’t bear to never hear from again, and picking representative records that they had recorded.

Then I realized that I left out Grace by Jeff Buckley. D’Oh!

So here is my list, for better or for worse.

I Mother Earth – Scenery & Fish
Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane
Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica
REM – Reckoning
Hawksley Workman – For Him and the Girls
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
The White Stripes – Elephant
The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving
Elliott Smith – Either/Or

While recent posts may seem to indicate otherwise, this blog is not dedicated to I Mother Earth. However, it does focus on my musical interests and the thing about which I am currently most excited is the end of IME’s eight-year hiatus. I suspect I’m like a lot of their fans and didn’t realize how much I missed them until they announced they were getting back together.

I say this because the Sound Academy March 23rd show sold out in five hours!

I live in Cape Breton. It makes it a little awkward to see bands that you love. Unless the band is Jack White and he wants to indulge his heritage and play a 10th anniversary show in CB. So I am flying to TO to see the non-reunion.

Once upon a time, there was a band that generally got lumped in with a lot of shitty Canadian bands. If you actually listen to their records, you will understand that they were so far ahead of the rest musically. And then they got a singer who was really talented.

So happy for the band that the response has been so strong.

They have also always been an amazing live band and really gracious with their fans.

When last we saw this music fan, she was wishing people good will while secretly gritting her teeth that she wouldn’t be able to take in the I Mother Earth non reunion show in Toronto.

Then someone (Steph) asked me why. I didn’t have a good answer. Then I had people offering to put me up.

I live in a geographically awkward place for people who are into music. I have never regretted taking the steps necessary to go to a show. I have regretted not going to a show.

Most notably, I regretted not going to the last IME show, in Barrie ON in 2003.

I flew to see one of the last IME shows with Ed in 1997. I flew to see REM and Modest Mouse in 2008. I am going to fly to see motherfucking I Mother Earth for my first show of theirs in 12 years.

The past couple weeks have been really great in reminding me why I love this band and its fans. I haven’t felt such a sense of community among any other group of people online. And the band has always been so great on an individual level. And they always have put on a kick ass live show.

So on Friday night, I booked a flight. I had already bought tickets for myself, my awesome friend Holly and her hubby Chris for the show.

So I will be at the Sound Academy on March 23 with a lot of people of whom I am very fond, watching I Mother Earth kick ass yet again.

So, the long-awaited (it was two weeks in the making but felt much, much longer) announcement by I Mother Earth came tonight. Jag, Chris, Brian and Bruce have reconnected, have been writing some new material and will play a one-off show at the Sound Academy in Toronto on March 23. Ticket details can be found at IMotherEarth.ca

This is obviously great news for fans. What is even greater is that they are completely doing it on their own terms, aren’t beholden to a record company that would just dick them around. And Jag says there could be future shows, if the fans want (they do). There will also be some new music, potentially lots.

Jag also posted a refreshingly honest blog post about the state of mind of the band when they went on hiatus after that epic Barrie show in 2003 that I couldn’t get to, what they’ve been up to since and what is behind them reuniting. It makes for a good read, whether you’re a fan of their music or whether you just have an interest in the inner workings of a band and how the industry can grind you down over time.

At this point, I don’t think I can make the March 23 show. That is a disappointment, but given that two weeks ago we’d thought we’d never hear anything new from them, I’m just happy that some people who I consider good friends will be able to experience it. And I honestly wish the the guys nothing but the best and will do whatever I can to support them.

Hawksley Workman with Symphony Nova Scotia
Rebecca Cohn, Halifax, NS

SET LIST
Autumn’s Here (with symphony) arranged by Keith Power
Song for Sarah Jane (with symphony) arranged by David Christensen
Your Beauty Must be Rubbing Off (Hawksley and Lonely)
Ice Age (Hawksley and Lonely)
Goodbye to Radio (with symphony) arranged by Jesse Zubot
Smoke Baby (Hawksley and Lonely)
Warhol’s portrait of Gretzky (with symphony) arranged by David Christensen

INTERMISSION
Oh You Delicate Heart (with symphony) arranged by Keith Power
A House or Maybe a Boat (with symphony) arranged by Rebecca Pellett
Striptease (Hawksley and Lonely)
Tarantulove (Hawksley and Lonely)
No More Named Johnny (with symphony) arranged by Jesse Zubot
You, Me and the Weather (Hawksley and Lonely)
No Beginning No End (with symphony) arranged by Keith Power

ENCORE
Don’t Be Crushed

I’ve seen Hawksley Workman perform eight times. That has included a wide variety of different shows – solo; all acoustic, with just him and Lonely; with the original Wolves; in a hole-in-the-wall bar in Sydney; with the interesting band that he put together in 2008, where part of the show involved playing miniature instruments.

In October, I saw Hawksley in his first-ever orchestral collaboration, with Symphony Nova Scotia. The set was about evenly split between songs performed with the symphony and those that Hawksley performed with Mr. Lonely (Todd Lumley), his longtime piano player.

It was the third time that I had seen Hawksley at the Cohn. It’s a great venue for him. The last show of his that was there, close to two years ago, is my favourite Hawksley live show I’ve seen. He played for three solid hours, did three encores. It was sublime.

The show I saw with SNS was on par, but I’m rating it lower because of the duration of the show. Which I suspect was partially due to the SNS collaboration. The times I’ve seen HW in Halifax, he would seemingly play all night if we demanded. This show, there was a one song encore of HW and Lonely.

He started out with a beautiful version of ‘Autumn’s Here’ with SNS, before talking about checking out the farmers’ market and eating at the Wooden Monkey, before launching into ‘Song for Sarah Jane.’

Then Hawksley talked about what happened the previous night. From talking to someone who was there, it seems that he made a mistake at the beginning of a song, I believe it was Delicate Heart, and made everyone start over. The person I talked to made it sound like it seemed to shake Hawksley’s confidence a bit. I’ve never seen that of him, but I can imagine if you’re someone who is really accustomed to doing what you do, a new situation may be challenging. Knowing all this, his talk of “I see the exit signs, like beacons for my terribleness. You suck, we go to work,” made me feel badly for him. But I got over that with the ovations we gave him.

Then he and Lonely played ‘Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off.’

There were random “Hawksley-isms,” he is supremely quotable.

“I’m trying to get a gig as a waterbottlist,” he said between songs, after blowing into his water bottle.

“On a Saturday night, you should be practising with the choir for church tomorrow

It was also really cool watching how the other musicians onstage responded to him when they weren’t playing. Some of them were very obviously taken with him, especially his voice.

He again broke out the menthol Fishermen’s Friends prior to hitting the really high notes, which is also my preferred cough drop. I’ve been known to chain drop them while covering court.

The performance of Oh You Delicate Heart was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard in a live venue.

More Hawksleyisms:

“I would walk to corner, get muffin the size of your head. I used to judge the world based on its muffins. Muffins are poorly named, if it was more sophisticated it might mean more to us.”

There were two standing ovations, which is one less than his last Cohn performance. It was the best show I saw in 2011.

That’s the cryptic image that met visitors to www.imotherearth.ca Tuesday morning. I discovered this when I noticed someone on my friends list sharing it with multiple other people on Facebook, so of course, I promptly did the same.

If R.E.M. defined my teenage years, I Mother Earth was the band of my mid-20s. A Toronto-based Canadian rock band, they were known for tremendous musicianship and extremely energetic live shows. Their music was a unique mix of trippy lyrics, Latin rhythms and hard rock. Between 1997 and 2001, I managed to catch them in concert about 15 times. Not bad for someone who lives in a relatively geographically isolated area, when you consider the regions of Canada where bands tend to tour.

I’ve seen IME perform in four provinces. My first show was Feb. 8, 1997, the day before my birthday, at St. F.X. University. I had arranged a pre-show interview with guitarist Jag Tanna for the small community weekly where I worked. The band at the time also featured the singularly named lead singer Edwin, Jag’s brother Christian on drums, Bruce Gordon on bass and percussionist Daniel Mansilla regularly toured with them. I was always a fan, but this was the first time I would successfully be able to take in a show. That night the metal barricade collapsed and I ended up with huge black bruises all over my legs. And I was also hooked. Ten days later, I braved a snowstorm to see them in Sydney. The next month, someone I met through the IME site and I packed up my car and took the ferry to Newfoundland, sleeping in my car (yes, in March, it was fucking cold) to see IME at Much Music’s Snow Job 97. I was in the front of the crowd and for months afterward had people calling to tell me they’d seen me on Much Music re-broadcasts.

Shortly after that came word that Edwin, the band’s lead singer, of whom I was never particularly fond, was leaving the band and IME would look for a new frontperson. But first they would do a few final shows with him, including Edgefest in Barrie, ON. So I packed a bag, bought a plane ticket and went to Ontario, where I was lucky enough to have some great people who I had met through imotherearth.com put me up for the week I was there.

Brian Byrne at a show at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax. Nancy King Photo

Then a guy from Newfoundland with blonde spiky hair joined the band. I got to see them perform pretty early on in Brian Byrne’s tenure in the band, when they played the Summersault 98 festival in Shediac, NB. Brian was a force of nature from the beginning and the band seemed to have a lot more on-stage chemistry than with Ed.

Then came the 1999 spring tour. I went to see IME three nights in a row – twice at The Marquee in Halifax, the third at Smooth Herman’s in Sydney. It was the second night’s show that I think was the best IME show I had ever seen. The bar was packed to the rafters and there was an amazing energy between the band and audience that night.

I loved all four records that IME put out – Dig, Scenery & Fish, Blue Green Orange and The Quicksilver Meat Dream – before going on hiatus in 2003 after a reportedly epic final show in Barrie (I wasn’t able to go).

IME also had a very active online community through their website. I was a moderator on their message board for years. Those of us on the site made friends, made enemies, annoyed each other, made each other laugh, and we all came to know each other only because of the band. At least one longterm romantic relationship (and an “IME baby”) resulted from people meeting on the site.

Jagori Tanna at Summersault 98 - Nancy King Photo

The other cool thing about IME was the relationships that developed between band members and their fans. There were some fun times hanging out on the tourbus after shows, getting to know people whose music you really admired on a personal level. Bruce Gordon, the band’s bass player, regularly arranged for me to take photos of their shows for my website.

So it remains to be seen precisely what will happen when that clock ticks down to zero, but after years of no real IME news, it’s exciting to have something, anything on the horizon.

My New Year’s resolution is to do a better job up updating this blog.

2011 was a great year for music. It’s always good to find new music, and I did that, and some artists that I’ve dug for a long time released some amazing material.

10. Chad Van Gaalen – Diaper Island

This is, honestly, not my favourite CVG album. It’s actually probably my least favourite. But that’s only because the others are so close to my heart. CVG is fearless and frankly doesn’t give a shit, he’s totally true to his own artistic vision which I really respect. And “Sara,” the song he wrote for his wife, shows how delicately beautiful his music can be.

9. Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 2

To be honest, I will probably always put a Beastie Boys record in my top 10 any year they release one. We’ve gotta party for the motherfuckin’ right to fight!

8. Imaginary Cities – Temporary Resident

Seeing them open for the Pixies two nights in a row this year made me like them in spite of myself. I am predisposed to not particularly liking female singers, but Marti has a really interesting voice.

7. The Roots – Undun

The Roots are more than the best late night TV house band. Undun is a concept album about the life of Redford Stephens, who lives a life of crime. It’s ambitious and successful.

6. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

This year’s list is heavy on the folkish/singer-songwriter content. This album is absolutely beautiful.

5. The Black Keys – El Camino

I struggled with where to put this because it came out so late in the year so it still seems really fresh but who knows how I’ll feel in a few months. But right now, I am loving this record. Standout track – “Lonely Boy”

4. Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire

I’ve been telling a lot of people to give this record a good listen. A lot of people – me included – abandoned Ryan Adam’s recent stuff. But this record is largely stripped back, primarily acoustic with minimalist arrangements, with the focus on the truly great songwriting. Standout track is “Do I Wait.”

3. Hey Rosetta! – Seeds

This record came out so early in the year I almost forgot to include it in this list. They are so on point with the balance of their musicality, vocals and lyrics. They are a flawless band and their songs are so well-constructed without being too intellectual. They also put on a helluva live show.

2. Suuns – Zeroes QC

I discovered Suuns when I saw them open for Chad Van Gaalen at the Halifax Pop Explosion. I waited for years to see Chad live, but it was Suuns that stole the night. They blew the roof off of the venue. I immediately went home and downloaded their record on iTunes. In particular, it was the live performance of “Sweet Nothing,” that made me continually say, “Holy shit, this is intense.” NME put this record as the 13th best of 2011, with Suuns the best new band. Montreal represent!

1. Greg MacPherson – Disintegration Blues

I said when this record was released digitally (I bought it when it went on sale in Europe, came out in Canada a bit later) that I didn’t expect to hear a record I liked better this year. I was right. It even surpasses his previous record, Mr. Invitation, which made the long list for the Polaris Prize. I interviewed him last year and he described his forthcoming effort as being more singer-singwriter oriented than the indie rock of Mr. Invitation. He has a powerful voice and a unique guitar technique. It’s quite beautiful, with standout tracks including “Snowman” and “Ukranians.” And Greg is a native Cape Bretoner, now based in Winnipeg, running an indie label of his own, Disintegration Records. His lyrics often reflect the island’s working class background. I will always spend my money on his releases.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A lot of the musicians I like are independent. If you like any of these artists and haven’t done so already, please buy their records. I financially support the artists I like.

Document.

That was my first R.E.M record. Well, cassette. I bought it in the music section of Woolco in Port Hawkesbury soon after it was released. I remember the day that I bought it because a cute older boy I knew from school saw my selection and complimented me on it. I was introduced to R.E.M. by seeing the video for “The One I Love,” on CBC’s Video Hits or one of those horrible 80s video shows (we did not have Much Music).

That song hooked me. It came out at the perfect time for me. It was 1987, I was 14 years old and was outgrowing my Duran Duran phase and wanted something with a little more substance. It was a transitional time for R.E.M too, going from being seen as a college rock band to one with broader commercial appeal, without compromising their integrity.

That record still stands up 24 years later. R.E.M. always wisely resisted label pressure to incorporate some of the popular electronic tools of the day that makes so much of the music produced in the 80s sound dated, even kitchy today, in an effort to be more commercial.

I would lie on my bed for hours, playing Document over and over. R.E.M.’s back catalogue, surprisingly, wasn’t available at the Port Hawkesbury Woolco, so I eventually picked up, yes, cassette copies of their other releases when we’d go out of town for doctor’s appointments and could make a detour to a mall. Murmur. Reckoning. Fables of the Reconstruction. Life’s Rich Pageant. For the first time in my life, I fell head over heels in love with a band. I started buying copies of every music magazine that featured them, and began investigating other bands they were compared to or who were mentioned by members of the band in interviews. Pixies. The Smiths. 10,000 Maniacs.

But R.E.M. was my favourite band. They had a significant impact on my life and helped shape the direction that my musical taste would take. Then came Green. Then Out of Time, which propelled the band to a whole new level, popularity-wise. I stayed with them, but it was the records from their early period that were always closest to my heart. It was the same ritual every time a new R.E.M. record was released – for the first listen I would lie on my bed, with my eyes closed, taking in the music. I took them with me to university. Then came Automatic for the People in 1992, which contains some of the most beautiful lyrics Michael Stipe has ever penned. It was the first special packaging release that I ever picked up, it came in a wooden box with beautiful photos of the band members.

Then came Monster. I remember cutting class to go to the mall on the Tuesday it was released so I could be the first person to get my hands on it, this time in CD format. It was during this period when the first development that jeopardized the band’s future came. My beloved uni-browed drummer Bill Berry collapsed onstage in Switzerland after suffering a brain aneurysm. He luckily recovered, but he ended up deciding to leave the band and stay on his Georgia farm instead.

Then it was New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which has one of my favourite songs from R.E.M.’s middle ages, “E-Bow the Letter,” which also featured Patty Smith. Then came Up and, for the first time, I was not impressed. It was the beginning of the end of Most Favoured Band status for R.E.M. Oh, I still bought their records. I still paid my annual fee to belong to the fan club (I still remember that Athens’ zip code is 30603), for awhile at least. But their music didn’t excite me anymore. Around the Sun, released in 2004, was the first R.E.M. record I didn’t buy at all. By this point, they had ceded the title of “Nancy’s Favourite Band” to Modest Mouse, a title the latter claimed with the breathtaking album The Moon and Antarctica.

I still listened to R.E.M., but not as often or as much. But I always had a special place in my heart for them, for the role they played in helping me develop my musical taste.

Then in 2008, they released Accelerate, easily the best record they had recorded since New Adventures. It had a spark that was missing from the intervening records. They seemed to actually be enjoying making music again and weren’t overworking their songs in the studio. That spring, it was announced that R.E.M. would be going on tour with … MODEST MOUSE! I had never had the opportunity to see either band. The band that defined my youth touring with my favourite band of the past decade. Being a member of REMHQ.com, I was able to snag a 10th row seat. I had always said I didn’t want to see R.E.M. live unless it was under the best circumstances possible, i.e. from the front row. Well, I thought, 10th at the Molson Amphitheatre isn’t too shabby.

I met up with Steph, who was also going to the show and, through events that would take far too long account in what is already a massive blog, we ended up in the front row, in front of the adorable Mike Mills, for the concert. I saw R.E.M. and Modest Mouse (and the National) from the front row! And it was one hell of a show. They performed a beautiful version of “Let Me In,” the song Michael Stipe wrote for Kurt Cobain. Johnny Marr joined them for “Fall On Me.” Michael was animated and engaging, doing crazy dance moves, dashing all over the stage. Peter Buck could still jump, although maybe not as high as he once could. Mike Mills smiled at me. I actually got to see them perform live “Begin the Begin” and “7 Chinese Brothers.” And, finally, I got to experience a live performance of “The One I Love,” the song that started my love affair with them. I even enjoyed the Accelerate tracks they played.

If I hadn’t had that experience I think I’d be feeling very differently today, hearing that they had announced their breakup. I was at work when I found out and I said, “I don’t know how I feel about this.” I think I was more upset upon hearing about the White Stripes breakup earlier this year because they hadn’t been together as long, hadn’t put out as much material.

If it’s truly an amicable split, then I guess you can’t ask for more from them. R.E.M. played its first show April 5, 1980, a date celebrated as “R.E.M. Day” by the band’s fans. They were together for 31 years, put out some amazing music, played an important role in the development of college rock, helping to pave the way for bands to come, who now are generally referred to as falling into alternative or indie rock genres. They’re in their 50s now, they all have other projects – musical, film and otherwise.

So thanks Berry Buck Mills Stipe (how they were always referred to in the writing credits when they were a four-piece) for everything you did for American music. And how you helped one kid in a small Cape Breton town explore new music in an age before the Internet.