LIVE WIRE: Talk to girls much?

(Despite being constantly surrounded by adoring fans, Gregg Gillis still finds time in his daily routine to download hardcore pornography. © 2008 Benjamin Luk.)

Click on each photo to see the full-rez files in all their glory! Trust me, it makes a HUGE difference.

Before landing my pass to the sold-out Girl Talk show on July 24th at The Commodore Ballroom, I’d never been warned by so many concert photographer colleagues that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. “Insane” came one description. “People will, like, try to undress you” was another. Ultimately though, they were right. Halfway through the show, I found myself with people pressing in from all sides, onstage, belt somehow loosened, shielding my cameras with my torso, trying my damnedest to re-plug in Gregg Gillis’ left speaker because he asked me nicely between tossing handfuls of confetti into the sky. As anyone who went to that show can attest, there’s no exaggeration here. It’s an understatement.

Girl Talk is Gregg Gillis, a 26-year-old mashup artist of the highest calibre. Making lesser laptop DJs like MY!GAY!HUSBAND! look like a nebbish fat fart in a tutu, Gillis will take your two-song mashup and raise you fourteen, magically breeding such incongruous musical species such as Kelly Clarkson, Queen or Huey Lewis & The News with shoot-'em-up gangsta rap and producing beautiful, club-dancey aural babies. These babies then have the power to burrow inside your head and transform you from an unassuming hipster fan, to a single unit in a sweaty, writhing, blissed-out orgy of pop music ecstasy. Whilst operating within this orgy, the only thing you’re aware of is how much fun you’re having. And when it’s over, like a particularly adventurous acid trip, you’re just glad to be alive.

Not really playing by any sort of predetermined set list, the show functioned by Gillis juggling the samples that made up albums Night Ripper and Feed the Animals into a continuous stream of recognizable clips, as though he sliced and diced up his own tracks and reinterpreted them again into something incestuously new. But the real star that night was the crowd, a swarm of thousands climbing up onto the stage, throbbing to the music, and making security sweat for their paycheck.

Oh, and if you know what a Holga is, get a load of these! Can I get a big "Fuck yeah!" for photographic neoconservatism?

If you still don’t understand, come with me to the next Girl Talk show. Be forewarned though: I’ll probably, like, try to undress you.

View the entire Girl Talk photo gallery here! (Flickr)

I think the photos speak for themselves. Special thanks to Brock Thiessen at Discorder.

Coming soon: Possible coverage of Pemberton? Stay tuned.

FROM THE VAULT: Oasis - The Masterplan (1998)

“FROM THE VAULT” is a bimonthly piece about albums from years past that weren’t given the attention that they deserved. That means no Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin albums, and nothing less than ten years old. More likely than not, this section will be all about personal favourites. Enjoy.

(Courtesy of Epic Records.)

Oh, the arrogance. The world-conquering, cocaine-fueled, but ultimately endearing arrogance. A lot of bands wouldn’t be able to pen a tune half as catchy as the worst song on 1998’s The Masterplan, and Noel Gallagher not only wrote them all (barring the live cover of “I Am the Walrus”), he threw them away. Every song on this album (or rather, compilation) was a B-side to an Oasis single. A great many of them were the equal of, or superior to, the single they were supporting.

For evidence, one need not look any further than the opening “Acquiesce”, which has become such a fan favourite that it’s difficult to imagine it not being played at an Oasis gig as “Live Forever” or “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. With a great glam-rock riff and Liam Gallagher’s biting take on the opening line leading into Noel’s soaring chorus (the very first Gallagher brother duet), the song defines anthemic.

Elsewhere on the album, the tender “Talk Tonight” and the oddly touching “Half the World Away”, written while Noel had run off to Vegas while the band was on its first tour of the States, betray a quiet confidence in the power of song, not relying on the thunder and bombast found on either Definitely Maybe or (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?. Noel provides vocals on both of these, as well as “Going Nowhere” and the stirring title track, and if you start to wonder why such a great voice is being neglected in favor of Liam’s patented British whine, you may be happy to note that every subsequent Oasis album released after The Masterplan has featured Noel on lead vocals for at least two or three tracks.

As for The Masterplan itself, it’s perhaps natural that a collection of B-sides should feature some crap amongst the crème de la crème. “The Swamp Song” is a superfluous four-and-a-half minutes of instrumental snippets from (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and sounds like the musical equivalent of drinking the runoff from a bar mat, while “I Am the Walrus” proves just how much Liam owes to Lennon for his vocal delivery and does nothing for this collection.

“Listen Up” is much better. The six-and-a-half minute rock ballad floats by on a breezy psychedelic guitar lick while Liam turns in a fantastic vocal performance, outdoing himself with each line ‘til he crescendoes at the chorus with an undeniable authority. “Listen Up” is a song that’s underrated even amongst Oasis fans (meaning it’s unknown to most everyone else) but after more than a decade of making music, it’s still one of the band’s finest moments on record.

Noel Gallagher fully expected his band to become the next U2 following the release of 1997’s bloated opus Be Here Now. For a variety of reasons, that never happened, but if you’re seeking a collection of melodic guitar-based pop that’ll put a swagger in your step and a smile on your face, The Masterplan will do just that.

TRACK MARKS: Edition One

(We debated the use of a photograph of actual track marks, but felt that doing so could upset our more drug-addled readers. You never know when a Nickelback fan might stumble across our site. © 2008 Benjamin Luk.)

Welcome to the very first edition of "TRACK MARKS", where every two weeks or so (read: whenever the hell we feel like it), we dive into our extensive iTunes collections and randomly pull out a few songs that we feel you oughta know about. We haven't yet established a real formula for how we're going to go about these articles, so expect "TRACK MARKS" to be a bit of a gong show as Pearce, Ian and Kaleena eventually get around to tackling this as an assignment. In the meantime, just sit back, enjoy, and download like a fiend.

Disclaimer: As far as I know, these are all legal downloads, but in case any record company officials come sniffing around, we're not hosting a goddamn thing. Finally, we're not endorsing illegal downloading in any way. Just because it's more convenient, free, a good way to stick it to the man, and one of the best inventions of the 21st century doesn't mean it's "right". Ahem. Moving on then.

• Tilly and the Wall - Pot Kettle Black (mp3)

Good ol' Tilly's come a long way since Conor Oberst's project Park Avenue died off, loosing current Tilly members Neely Jenkins and Jamie Pressnall out onto the world. From then on, along with three other Omaha tweeheads named Nick White, Kianna Alarid and Derek Pressnall (who's lucky enough to be married to sexy Jamie), they then went on to form the saccharine indie pop band Tilly and the Wall. Now, not everyone's into this happy shit, but with their new single "Pot Kettle Black" experimenting with distorted vocals and a bouncy 70's rock guitar line vaguely reminiscent of The Stooges, it's nice to know that Tilly's somewhat gimmicky quirk of having a tap dancer instead of a drummer hasn't held the group back from charging forward with their artistic vision. Nick White's keys, which come into play about a minute and a half into the song, then blend that 70's rock groove with a more contemporary indie style. Think Sleater-Kinney if they habitually sang about unicorns and bunny rabbits. And were on a sugar high 24/7.

• Albert Hammond, Jr. - GfC (mp3)

Probably best known as the rhythm guitarist for The Strokes who just so happened to play lead on "Last Nite", Albert Hammond, Jr. now has a solo project up and running. His second album, ¿Cómo Te Llama? (which means "How do you call yourself?" in Spanish, but to me, will always remain "How do you like my llama?"), is quite the departure from typical alt rock fare, melding genres all over the place from jazz to funk, and making tracks like "Lisa" sound like Architecture In Helsinki went to town on a My Bloody Valentine song. With a soaring axe solo that makes me want to hit the road stoned out of my mind on my way to a Supertramp concert, and an opening guitar intermezzo like sparkling water, "GfC" is a must-hear for anyone bored with typical contemporary rock. Those falsetto oohs could put a baby in you too. Wear protection.

• The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement (mp3)

You've probably heard all about this from Pearce's review already, but since this is just about the most epic track we've run into here at the blog within the past few months, I figured I might as well drag it into the limelight just one more time before everyone dismissed The Last Shadow Puppets as some musical curio and went back to listening to Arctic Monkeys. Lyrically, it's a bit like a Harlequin romance written by Keats, and musically, it's a bit like Clint Eastwood busting a cap in your ass. With those galloping drums and that Ennio Morricone-esque six-string and string quartet combo, "The Age of the Understatement" is a favourite of ours here at the blog, so we're giving it to you now in hopes that it'll be a favourite of yours too. And yes, we spell "favourite" with a "u" here. Just like Alex Turner would 'cuz he's all British and we're all proud Canadians.

• Girl Talk - Shut the Club Down (full album mp3 download)

Hey, Girl Talk's coming to town soon! If the powers that be are smiling down upon us, we may actually get to cover that show. Feel free to annoy some of these people, by the way. My individual e-mails requesting passes never seem to get replied to, so let's see how fifty of them do. Don't harass 'em though. All I'm saying is that one e-mail per reader saying that you'd like to see ThatRockBlog.com cover Girl Talk at The Commodore on July 24th would be hugely appreciated. Anyway, the whole frickin' Feed the Animals album is available for download online and though they encourage you to donate $5, you can just do what I did with In Rainbows and pay nothing, justifying that by the fact that Pearce forked out the whole enchilada just because he loves Radiohead. I'm sure you know someone who'd buy the Girl Talk album but then again, if it feels good, do it.

Even then, the latest Girl Talk album is worth every penny you may or may not choose to spend on it. I personally liked Night Ripper better, but if you're like me and love all music, you should dig everything Gregg Gillis does and his uncanny ability to mate everything from Queen and Fleetwood Mac with Dolla, BLACKstreet and Lil Wayne. "Shut the Club Down" finally makes Avril listenable without shame as Gillis mashes "Girlfriend" up with Dolla's hilariously titled "Who the Fuck Is That?". Then, shake over ice with Toni Basil's "Mickey", get your Flashdance on with Michael Sembello's "Maniac", and pour over some "Young Turks" courtesy of Rod Stewart, and you've got a tall, frosty glass of "Shut the Club Down". In fact, you know what? Just stop reading and go download already. Today, princess. Go. Now.

• Speaky - Mystery Hypnosis (MySpace, with downloadable mp3's if you have a MySpace account)

Now, here's a curio for you. It turns out that a few months ago, some asshole fan thought it would be funny if he swiped a whole bunch of music from another mashcore artist out of West Chester, Pennsylvania and put up a Torrent proclaiming it as a leaked copy of Girl Talk's Feed the Animals. Not only that, but it looks like this douchebag also got the song titles wrong, naming "Mystery Hypnosis" as "Doesn't Really Matter". Speaky's mashups don't necessarily have the same crunk as Girl Talk's material, but it's not total trash. I wouldn't even be talking about it if I hated it, so this guy must be doing something right. Aside from a slightly annoying habit of over-processing certain samples and making them sound like Alvin, Theodore and Simon contributed guest vocals to everything from Paramore to one of the many versions of "Mambo Italiano", it's all just good, fun club music. Also, it turns out Linkin Park goes really well with decent rap. We never would have known, having had to listen to white boy Chester Bennington get his wuss on in drivel like "In the End". I swear, he's this close to becoming the new Vanilla Ice.

* * * * *

So that's that. I hope you've enjoyed your first foray into our music collections, and you can do your part to help us out by continuing to invite everyone you know to the ThatRockBlog.com Facebook Group. That's also a good place to let us know what we need to listen to, so sign up or die trying.

Finally, if you've got a Tuesday, July 8, 2008 issue of The Province kicking around, check out Page B4. Center photo's mine, but it looks like someone forgot to issue yours truly a photo credit. FedEx your turds to The Province, 200 Granville Street, Suite #1, Vancouver, BC, V6C 3N3.

LOCAL EXPOSURE: What do you know about electro?

(Proof that once that DJ gets going, it's like a David Lynch movie in there. © 2008 Ian Chand.)

What do you know about electric-dub-hop? Moreover, what the heck is electric-dub-hop? Those thoughts were running through my mind while I was on my way to The Alibi Room for my first live music assignment, but being the new guy at ThatRockBlog.com, I was just stoked to be there. I mean, this ELECTRICDUBHOP series was supposedly part of the Vancouver Jazz Festival, but that made no sense at all since there was a severe lack of jazz. Not really knowing what to expect, what I heard when I finally got there was surprising, to say the least. Rhythmic tones thumped away and waves of sound exploded off the walls, resonating in my ears. I can’t really say that I was ready for 6+ hours of this sort of acoustic assault, but a guy never truly is when he has no idea what he’s getting himself into.

The evening started off with some low ambient tracks courtesy of Flawless Imperfection, a local DJ who let the cavernous spaces within The Alibi Room carry his synthesized, inorganic melodies the way a concert pianist might in some monumental auditorium. Next on the mic (or Mac, rather) was LID, a two-man group composed of Mike Brener on guitar and vocals, and Paul Finley on turns and synths. Opening the set with hollowed-out synthetic beats, Finley left Brener to throw in some hot and heavy riffwork to the dreamy melancholic tones. Midway through their set, the boys changed gears and took more of an avant-garde approach towards their already inventive performance, adding vocals and accelerated scratching. LID had a charm to them that can only be found when two artists genuinely have a good time on stage. Their passion could be felt throughout the crowd, who had already started moving to the beat. (Which was an accomplishment in itself, seeing as how the bottom floor of The Alibi Room where the show was taking place was no larger than the typical Vancouver apartment.)

At this point, through my schmoozing, I had already met the next two performers who, in my opinion, were the most entertaining of the evening: Jess Conn-Potegal and Elam Benaroach. Their equipment consisted of vintage 70’s and 80’s synthesizers, and did these boys ever know how to work their synths. They turned, dialed, flipped, connected and scratched with effortless swagger. They spat their lyrics and then replaced them with beats, carving sonic waves through the air. The old-timer synths worked their charm creating a delectably rich and authentic sound, while masterfully blending late 1970’s disco with new wave trance. It was around this time the room became stiflingly packed and transformed into a dance floor. Royal Destiny rounded the evening off by fusing hip-hop, electronica and dub to create an elaborate dance vibe energy. The hosts of the show, Rupe Sidhu and Jarrett Martineau, laid down tracks and took off running, never stopping to let their audience take a breath or giving them time to catch up. Their shared message of “holding onto all that was golden” spoke to the crowd on a visceral level, and Martineau’s free-styling capabilities captured their audience’s imagination.

Although I still don’t entirely know what electric-dub-hop is, I think it’s safe to say it’s a genre with no boundaries. From what I heard last Thursday night, anything and everything is liable to happen. To anyone walking down a flight of stairs in an unfamiliar bar to witness such an event, expect everything, and you won’t come out disappointed.

General update #5.

(Photos by Kaleena Marie, © 2008.)

So we've never really made a big deal out of it 'til now, but we figured since this blog was all about covering live acts when they come to town and local acts while they're still trying to make it big, it might be time to mention that Pearce and I are actually in a band of our own. I know what you're thinking: As musicians ourselves, where the hell do we get off going around saying what sucks and what doesn't suck when we're all in the same boat they are? Well, frankly, we know better than they do. And really now, isn't that why you keep coming back?



Anyway, we're called The Best Revenge and last week, we finally decided to get off our asses and actually record something. Having only mediocre basement-recorded tracks available for listening online, we realized we needed to get a demo together to start shopping around to pubs, clubs and everything in between. So with the help of our bassist Evan Joel and all his various illicit connections with Blue Wave Studios, we were able to set up a studio session last Wednesday so I could lay down six drum tracks as the foundation for our new EP, due out in September. Most likely, we're going to be having an EP release party just because we can, so watch out for a huge ThatRockBlog.com / The Best Revenge EP Release Party real soon.

(That's Pearce and I on the right, Evan on the far left. The other dude, I only know as "Yuv". © 2008 Kaleena Marie.)

Now, as for actual news about the blog, we'd like to welcome our newest contributor Ian Chand to the board. Pearce found him on the streets, effectively saving the poor boy from a lifetime of male prostitution and all kinds of unpronounceable diseases, but it just so happens the guy sees himself writing for Spin Magazine within the next ten years. Well, let's put him through his paces, shall we? We sent him out on assignment to the 'B-Sides' series at The Alibi Room when the Vancouver Jazz Festival was still in town, so expect all sorts of magic and mystery from that dude coming right up.

Lastly but not leastly, I'm taking off overseas for the month of August to chill with my Asian brethren. That means my duties for the next little while will probably consist of more editing than writing or shooting. Also, we're thinking about booting up a new section with a monthly list of tracks that it would probably do you good to know about. "TRACK MARKS" will soon give you yet another reason to bookmark the crap out of this page.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some Boston to listen to...

OFF THE RECORD: The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

(Courtesy of Domino Records.)

Side project is not a term most artists like to use. It smacks of secondary status, sort of like that other astronaut who drew the short straw and stepped onto the moon after Neil Armstrong. (What was his name again? My point exactly.) Moreover, record labels don’t always allow for such ventures unless the main project is at least moderately successful and even then, it’s an uphill battle. Luckily for Alex Turner, moderately successful doesn’t even begin to describe the commercial and critical heights his band Arctic Monkeys has scaled. Ever since their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not became the fastest-selling debut album in Brit chart history, Turner has assumed his place at the forefront of the independent music scene.

All of which would make this side project, The Age of the Understatement, easy to write off if the music wasn’t up to snuff. But with Turner and Miles Kane (that other, less famous Shadow Puppet) mining an orchestral pop genre that hasn’t been popular since the 60’s and bringing along a bagful of melodies catchier than an oversized beach ball, this debut is a fresh and invigorating listen that simply refuses to be deflated.

The opening title track immediately sets the tone for the album with a thunderous string arrangement, a tireless military beat and lyrics that not only prove themselves worthy of such dramatic flourishes, but also seem to encompass all the major themes of the album: love, passion, anguish, and denial. It’s a song that, along with a few others on the album (“In My Room”, “Calm Like You”), sounds as though it could be the next Bond theme.

In terms of wordplay, Turner has matured from writing about such juvenile matters as underage drinking (from 2006’s “Riot Van”: “I’m sorry, officer / Is there a certain age you’re supposed to be / ‘Cause nobody told me”) to pointed observations on doomed love (from “Calm Like You”: “Summertime made promises / It knew it couldn’t keep / The fairytale was climbing up / A mountain far too steep”). Perhaps having another lyricist to collaborate with/compete against has enabled Turner to push past the bitterness that enveloped much of last year’s underwhelming Favourite Worst Nightmare.

And yet, there is more to this effort than just great lyrics. Owen Pallet is as big a reason for this album’s success as either of the young songsmiths. By writing ambitious string arrangements that swell and swoon in equal measure, Pallet redefines the role of the orchestra in British rock.

Still, as impressive as the music is, there is something else very special happening with this release. Alex Turner is 22 years old, and starting with Arctic Monkeys’ debut in 2006, he’s now written three albums in three years (as well as a few EPs), with rumors of yet another Arctic Monkeys album due later in 2008. Judging by the pace at which his contemporaries release their work, this makes him one of the most prolific songwriters of our time and actually makes The Age of the Understatement seem that much more of a success.

Plus, looking at that album cover, I can’t fault them their taste in models…