sorry this is the link for the calander...http://www.therex.ca/calendar/calendar.cfm?month=3&year=2007

Mr mercer is available that thursday too, so we are set.....This is who is playing that night http://www.therex.ca/

Thursday night looks pretty good for me Stu. Any idea who's playing that night?

How about thursday night then, since that works for you Brian and Kyle and marc are flexable...Thursday night used to be my evening of choice for this sort of thing wat back in my days of youth....Mr Mercer ???

Me too. I might try to tag it onto a business "goodbye" drinks night that I'm arranging, likely for Wednesday or Thursday next week, though it's still vague.

I'm good for any weeknight at this point.

i'd be up for the rex next week as, improbable as it sounds, i'll actually be home all week. pick a date...k

I feel a need for the rex......anyone available and interested say next week or two?
s

Kylie, I've always loved the Bukowski song. It's one of the tunes on the "Good News" album that stretches away from the (really great) formula of rocky-hip-hop.

So today's BD morning shuffle was a pretty good one I thought, and worth laying out for y'all. It included Ella singing "Love is Here to Stay" (for the record, I really don't love Ella, despite the gorgeous, round voice, she totally lacks soul for me), the Five Americans with their great mid-sixties pop song "Western Union"; jazz pianist Don Friedman's "Extension" from his fantastic later-sixties album, Metamorphosis - lovely sombre, modal in style with some out elements in the solo-ing, well worth picking up; John Cunningham's "Losing Myself Too" from his excellent Beatlesque release "Happy Go Unlucky" in the early 00's, and the first movement from Nikolay Myaskovsky's seventh symphony - a twentieth century Russian composer, buddy of Prokofiev's who studied with him, and at times there are similarities.

Stu - thanks for the update on Damien. Figured I was the last to the party on him.....I read that his earlier stuff is very strong and will definitely pursue it. I can say that the current release is good too (though it might dredge up a Strokes debate that I would be loathe to enter into, so I won't bring it up).

Brian , Derek introduced Jurado to me a few years ago with his Rehersals for Departure cd from around 2000....I really love it, it is basic singer songwritter stuff , but his lyrics are killer, see Ohio from that album in particular...His later albums I have reviewed but nothing really stuck, but that doesnt mean they are growers on you if you get them.....

Derek, your post on Joyce Hatto is timely, as I read an article about the similiarity b/w her recorded works and those of others but hadn't had a chance to listen to the comparisons until hearing a story on NPR this week while driving. Sounds like fraud to my ears.

Morning Becomes Eclectic has been big into Damien Jurado for years and I'd heard the odd song while listening to it streamed or when in LA but have never really listened to an entire album. Given that I'm more into musicians like Jose Gonzalez these days (a sign of mellowing with age, peut-etre?) perhaps I'll download his latest.

In the vein of digging up old vinyl, for those with ipods out there who use the 'shuffle songs' version...have you done so lately and has anything older, interesting been brought to your attention that you'd hadn't heard in awhile. while shuffling yesterday, 'bukowski' from modest mouse's 2004 disc came on and i think it's one that i hadn't listened to much in the past but is a definite gem, witty lyrics, staccato rhythm to their delivery...equal to their 'hits' methinks. bri, i recall you mentioning an elmo hope (or was it andrew hill) recording that shuffled in as you stood on the subway and how enjoyable the experience was...anyone have similar experiences lately.

re: podcats vs. live radio--agree that the latter is preferable, more exciting, forces you to listen but unfortunately, i either don't have the opportunity to listen to these programs live due to their scheduling or forget that they are on. thus, i love them podcasts.

I've been listening to Damien Jurado a bit recently, and think he's very good. I've downloaded a couple of records form e-music inlcuding his most recent (Now That I'm In Your Shadow). Great touch with a lyric, simple unaffected voice, nice folk arrangements with a touch of chamber. He's been around a while, so I'm sure a bunch of y'all are already familiar with him - just thought I'd mention it if not.

Interesting article Derek ...who could ever dream of trying to pull a stunt like that! I see a screenplay in the works!

Sorry Derek, no archives on the Crypt ...in a way that's the beauty of radio though! you put something out there on the airwaves and then it vanishes into the ether. If i miss it, i miss it. If i manage to tune in for the occasional good show, i have had the privilege of catching a moment in time that can't be repeated, in a way. It's like catching a good concert at a club.

Now i know what your thinking, ...what's the difference if it happens to be a podcast ...not everyone has the ability to listen when at work, etc. etc. Somehow listening to good radio in real time, for me, is cool because you can't fast forward through the crap ...you have to endure the odd psa and adds for used computer resellers and health food stores or change the channel. You can't rewind to catch a track again and so it forces you to listen. Admittedly i'm not very good at that though! (listening that is) The other cool thing about community radio? If you ever want to know what a track is all you have to do is pick up the phone and call the dj. They love to know that someone is actually out there and digging the music.

Brian, actually beat me to the punch when it comes to my total lack of interest in the discussion of file formats etc but unlike him I couldn't even be bothered to post my disinterest. As for the CIUT deal that sounds like it would be a blast. The link you've posted Marc doesn't seem to take you anywhere. Do they have a site where you can listen to the past weeks show?

A much more interesting discussion than that of digital bits and bytes but in a somewhat technological vein is one that's been taking place in the UK re recently deceased classical pianist Joyce Hatto and whether or not her body of work might be entirely fraudulent. I'll post some links here and let you read in the International Herald Tribune and listen at the BBC for yourselves. When listening to the BBC program from last Saturday you can skip the first 10 minutes to get to the Joyce Hatto story.

...for example, Brian, the other night at the cd club, i believe you said that you never sit down in your living room and listen to your ipod hooked up to your audio system. hmmm!

I find that i have been listening to streamed podcasts and frequency modulation radio recently since i have been spending a lot of time all on my own (sob, sob!) in my office and i feel as if someone is trying to say something to me by selecting cuts and linking them together in a meaningful way ...i think that there is something to be said for that, as much as i do enjoy the occasionally randomness of a shuffle. I think it must have something to do with my fondness for the concept of the album, as apposed to the single.

Speaking of which, i must recommend "Hurray for Tuesdays" on ckln ...one of my favourite shows, Tuesday at 2:30 for anyone who has access to a radio or Rogers digital at that time. It is a little bit old fashioned, but there is something very comforting for me to tune in once a week to a favourite broadcast. It's live, spontaneous and since it is community radio, anything can happen.

I was mentioning to Stuart the other day a program on CIUT that is called "Vinyl from the CIUT Crypt" in which members of the listening audience are invited to come in as guest dj's and venture down to the u of t vinyl vault (and i hear it is a formidable collection) and select the music for the program and talk a little bit about their picks ...who's up for the challenge gentlemen?

Good point Marc, and nice job of moving me away from a one-dimensional invective.

It might be interesting to survey each of us to see how and when we listen to music, in which setting, using which technology, and what music aligns to each of these combos?

(I said might be....)

what i do find interesting about it though, is that our attitudes and preferences towards one format and media or another, reflects our personalities, lifestyles and listening habits.

yeah, they're almost as dull as one sentence posts. :)

I find discussions about file types excruciatingly dull.

it's okay, stuart, i won't give you any fl...

i guess it depends if there is a demand for that type of quality in a downloadable format. i suspect there will be, at some point, not because audiophiles will necessarily demand it but because i think cds will become ever more scarce in years to come. while i'll miss the packaging--the artwork and liner notes, that is, not those annoying brittle plastic cases that easily break--i certainly won't miss paying $15-$25 for a hard-to-find album. it would be interesting at a future cd/music club meeting to play an mp3 and flac files for the same song for comparison. i may be one of those people who may not be able to detect a difference but i suspect for some, the difference will be great enough to seek out the higher quality files, and go with a 'quality over quantity' approach when it comes to storing music on ipods.

it's understandable that, as the memory size of the newer ipods increases, the justification to shell out cash for a new one comes down to whether you can reasonably hope to ever fill the damn thing with music (or videos); why buy a 100-GB ipod if you only have 15MB full of music with which to fill it? however, if you increase the quality of the files and increase the file sizes, then you have a rationale for upgrading. think this bodes well for a company like zunior in the long-term.

gotta say as well, i like the fact that they're selling complete albums instead singles. i've read countless articles in the last year about the ascendacy of the single and the death of the album so it's nice to see a company stake it's revenue model on the idea that people still have the attention span/interest in 60+ minutes of music by one artist. i prefer to buy/download complete albums myself, and usually only buy a single if it's something catchy that i'm planning on mostly listening to at the gym or using to fill out a compilation cd. plus, they offer the artwork with each download, so if you wish to burn a copy and print it out, you can do so.

also gotta restate my support for any online music store which doesn't use drm-encoded files. for those with the time and or inclination, there is an interesting article in salon today about steve jobs' recent chastising of the music industry, which appears to be self-important rhetoric.