(CN) TOWER OF SONG

The big adventure over here in Toronto is almost at an end.

I've tried to faithfully record all that's happened, and if the posts have been few and far between, well that's cos I've had to work hard and play less than I would have liked.

F'r'instance.....I've bought tickets for gigs by Fionn Regan, The National, Regina Spektor, Scout Niblett and Rilo Kiley and not got to any of them. I want to go see Josh Rouse next Tuesday, but as its my last night in town, there's little point.

But...I have had a great time in so many different ways, and its made me realise that I could, if I really wanted to, live and work outside of my beloved Glasgow.

Things will soon return to normal, and for any admirers of TVV that might just be a good thing. I've earned a little bit of money while out here, and last night I hit some second-hand music stores in a big way to purchase things . I'm going to be taking home a bundle of vinyl - mostly 12" singles but also a handful of LPs - mostly from the 80s and so expect some obscure b-sides or remixes to land this way soon. I also found some great CDs with cover versions galore that I will be sharing with you come November...

So much for the future. Here's some stuff that came up on the good old i-pod earlier today. They are all 21st Century britpo tracks that are really well known and were played to death upon release, so much so that we all probably got a bit sick of them for a while. But bygollygee, its well worth recallling just how wonderful they are:

song : Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down

song : The Futureheads - Decent Days And Nights

song : Editors - Munich

And while I'm in reminiscent mode, when all is said and done, isn't this just a bit magical?:-

song : The Smiths - This Charming Man (New York vocal)

And finally, a little piece of Canada to round things off:-

song : The Dears - Warm and Sunny Days

Ciao.

THIS SPORTING LIFE

Do any of you have a sports team out there that you particularly detest?? If so, I've a surefire way of making them lose their next game....make sure you get me to support them.

I'd previously witnessed the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Maple Leafs succumb to the opposition in my first ever major league baseball and ice-hockey events. But yesterday was the worst yet.

I toddled over the border to Detroit and looked on aghast as my beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers threw away victory against the local Lions in my first ever NFL match in the flesh. Almost 24 hours later, I'm still at a loss to explain what happened. They dominated the game in all aspects but managed to shoot themselves in both feet, both knees and blow up both of their hands in the biggest horror show since the release of the last LP by Rilo Kiley.

song : Tim Booth - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

So, I'm available for hire. If you're an American with an interest in the world series, just get me to don the Boston Red Sox or Colorado Rockies colours and watch them fail miserably.

I'm dreading to think what is going to happen when I return to Scotland in 10 days time and start going back to watch Raith Rovers who have climbed to the top of the league in my absence...

song : Nirvana - Stay Away

Oh, I forgot to mention something inthe previous post of my great night out with FiL. It also unexpectedly featured nude life drawing......

That should get you intrigued.

song : Orange Juice - Tongues Begin To Wag

Ciao.

A FRIGHTFULLY DECENT CHAP INDEED

Sixteen weeks into the Toronto adventure and a true highlight. I hooked up with FiL of Pogo A Go-Go fame who had flown in from Vancouver for a business convention. We had a thoroughly splendid evening consisting of beers, vodka, pasta, red wine and late-night browsing in record stores, as well as chewing the fat about music, politics, work, family and all points inbetween. Oh and we also talked a fair deal about some of you lot out there, so its our fault if you woke up in the middle of the night and discovered your ears were aflame.

Apologies for the photo mind you. It was taken at the very end of a long evening as we enjoyed our nightcaps on the street outside a jazz bar. I know, we're both ashamed to have been caught in such a house of ill-repute, but it was the only place still open. And yes, the music, like most jazz, was wanky.

But it did not spoil a superbly enjoyable evening, and by the end of things, I think I had convinced FiL that his pre-conceived ideas about Toronto (which you can read right here), were a tad misplaced.

song : Hey! Elastica - This Town

song : Violent Femmes - Vancouver (live in Vancouver)


Ciao for now.

LOST IN MUSIC

As Colin so astutely observed, I did maintain what I hope was a dignified period of silence this past week. I feel however, that it is time to again post some tunes....

When TVV got the mention a while back in 'The Guardian', it was summed up as:-

"Wonderful early-80s Scottish indie 7-inchers vying for attention with healthy doses of classic Thin Lizzy."

But I'm nothing if not perverse, so here's a bundle of things that bear no description whatsoever to what the papers said about me

song : Billy Bragg - That's Entertainment

song : De La Soul - Ring, Ring, Ring (12" version)

song : Ian McCulloch - Lover, Lover, Lover (Indian Dawn Remix)

song : James - Sunday Morning

song : King Biscuit Time - I Walk The Earth

song : Win - Super Popoid Groove

Ok....the last song is a wonderful Scottish 7-inch song from years ago (complete with jumps and scratches). The others are a mix of covers, b-sides and stuff you might not know or have forgotten about. Enjoy.

SOMETIMES THIS ALL SEEMS VERY INSIGNIFICANT

The establishment of TVV has led to me finding loads of great new friends, many of whom have been name-checked before.

There is one friend however that I have never talked about until now.

His story, told in the words of his dad, is one that I have been privileged enough to follow in blog-land. It's a story that has brought out all sorts of emotions in me at different times. It was a story that was always unlikely to have a happy ending. And so it proved.

I know that some some of you have also been following the story and will know exactly what I'm talking about. Others will find this all a bit cryptic. I make no apologies for that.

All I'll say is that it's times like these that make me again question the existence of 'God'.

song : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Death Is Not The End

Thanks wee fella for helping me realise what really matters and what isn't all that important. I'll be thinking of you and your mum and dad an awful lot over the coming days.

299 NOT OUT......MAYBE IT'S RIGHT TO BE NERVOUS NOW

Work is a bit crazy just now - I'm over in Toronto for a project surrounding an election which is now just 72 hours away - so the plan to talk about some new Canadian bands has had to be shelved for the time being. Instead, I'm going to briefly talk about a couple of old and dear friends, messrs Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley.

It is well documented that the two came together in 1976 to form Manchester's first 'punk' band - Buzzcocks - and that after a handful of gigs and a splendid debut EP, they went their separate ways. Shelley remained the singer/songwriter/frontman of the band who went on to enjoy a fantastic and successful run at the UK charts, some of which has been chronicled previously here at TVV.

Meanwhile, Devoto formed Magazine which fused the post-punk new wave sound electronica and saxophones to great effect. And while Buzzcocks were primarily a great singles band that originally crashed and burned in three years, Magazine released a handful of fantastic albums with singles that flopped. I'm particularly fond of The Correct Use Of Soap, which I intend to talk about in more detail at some point when I get back to Glasgow where the songs await downloading....

Both bands broke up in the early 80s, and inevitably, there were solo careers, neither of which really set any houses on fire chart-wise, although that's not to say the product was rubbish.
Buzzcocks reformed at the beginning of the 90s while Devoto left the music industry to work in photography.

It was therefore a major surprise that in 2001 the two got back together, recording as ShelleyDevoto and released an LP with the intriguing name of Buzzkunst.

Sadly, the LP turned out to be no more than average with too many ordinary songs, although it was great to hear Devoto sing one more time. Hopes that some of us may have had of the two going on the road to perform from the LP and the back catalogues never materialised.

In the meantime, here's a couple of my favourite tracks from the LP, the first of which was also released as a single:-

song : ShelleyDevoto : 'Till The Stars In His Eyes Are Dead
song : ShelleyDevoto : Can You See Me Shining?

And in recognition of triumphs past, this is from the aforementioned The Correct Use Of Soap released away back in 1980:-

song : Magazine : Philadelphia

And that's your lot for today.