And she only sleeps when it's raining

I was in the MTL Monday to catch a game of the glorious tri-colore a.k.a. le Canadiens. Bummed we lost in a shoot out but getting tore up with my lil-sis at the Bell center is friggin priceless. You can't take us anywhere and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today my post might be a little bit on the sad end of things but god damn is it good. The 3 videos I'm going to hit you with are pure quality. Act like you know.

Let's start it off with one of my favorite NEIL YOUNG songs, OUT ON THE WEEKEND. The lyrics kind of evoke my current reality. The video was filmed at the BBC tv studios and I think it's real special. I love to listen to Neil with a couple of beers in me, it makes life bearable.



Next up is Montréal art-rappers LOCO LOCASS. They really push hip-hop into original directions. The song, M'ACCROCHER?, is about suicide. After aboriginal peoples in Canada francophones have the highest rate of suicide. Its almost as if nearly every family has someone somewhere who ended their own life. It's one of the biggest killers of young people and should be treated as a public health problem. It kills more people than a lot of the diseases we have marathons and ribbons for and it should be more openly talked about. I find this video and song to be really powerful.



And on another suicidal note we have NEW ORDER and the great song AGE OF CONSENT. The first song of the album power, corruption & lies. When I listen to it it's like Ian Curtis is still alive until the vocals kick in. I also try to imagine how Joy Divison would have evolved if Ian had lived. So many cool ways of looking at this song/video. The video is from a BBC radio session and it is fucking brilliant. Shit is electric yo.

And if you like to tell me maybe

Joyeux vendredi les amis!

Feel like phoning this one in here. Last night I had to decide on the improv team the U of O is sending to the national tournament. I felt like crap cutting friends of mine, the real world sucks. So to cheer myself up i've got maybe the best video of all time to give to you.

The Alchemist feat. SNOOP DOOG, JADAKISS and PUSHA T - LOSE YOUR LIFE. This is the coolest video ever. I think the things I love the most after my mother would be Halloween and gangsta rap. This video combines both into something completely and utterly perfect. A MUST WATCH VIDEO.




Next up is a weird band from Manchester. WE HAVE BAND the song is called OH. I think its just weird and pretentious enough for it to fall into the shit I like pile. That and they don't even have an EP which is cool. I like artists who make it hard for their fans to have access to their art.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of THE PIXIES so I'm gonna send you some of that goodness with the song DEBASER. One of my favorite songs of all time. That being said I think I might have posted this already... if I did that's good, double debaser.

You're welcome.

And they're gone so fast

Yo I watched the movie Kids the other day and it was fucked up. I first saw it when I was the age of the characters I was like "what's the big deal?" it seemed 100% normal to me. Whoa, seeing it now I saw that it's fucked and almost child porn. Anyways I think I like it a lot more now. The girl I used to sit next to in the 7th grade was OBSESSED with the movie. She's now a stripper, oh well. That got me thinking to the 90's and how things are similar yet so different. Notably what kids consider to be "emo". I remember hating the concept of emo as an up and coming hardcore kid but always liking a lot of the bands. The Ataris was like the worst shit to me but wow did it get so much worse. Emo went from a nerdy asshole to being bit by a radioactive spider and mutating into a horrific goth/emo monster with shit that I loathe like My Chemical Romance. So I guess this post is dedicated to when stuff wasn't that bad (in every single way).


First up is THE PROMISE RING. Wow, did I hate their name. They were really poppy and amazing. Their 1997 album Nothing Feels Good is a total home run and I think it's their best work. WHY DID WE EVER MEET? Is the song. They were one of the 90s "emo" bands to get some mainstream success so there's an actual video for this track. Jeeze look at the fashion. This song makes me think of going on makeoutclub.com. The original Friendster/Mypace/Facebook but for indie/HC/emo kidz.




Going into heavier stuff is MINERAL. Texas band who gets hated on sometimes for ripping off the legendary Sunny Day Real Estate. Meh, I like Mineral more than SDRE cause i'm a philistine I guess. Anyways not to sound too emo but this is what I listen to when I am rock bottom sad. haha.



JAWBREAKER. Easily one of my favorite bands EVER. If you don't like Bivouac or Unfun you have no heart and should kill yourself. The song I will feature is BOXCAR. I love the track mainly cause of the lyrics "You're not punk and I'm telling everyone/ Save your breath I never was one" Best song about "the scene" ever. Too bad scene and scenester are dead words replaced by hip and hipster. Hipsters don't care about scenes and that kind of bums me out as I am probably 63% hipster :(

SUPPORT YOUR SCENE!



Let's wrap it up B. Cap'n Jazz who are kinda like a mix between mineral and jawbreaker. The Promise Ring was a sideproject to Cap'n Jazz. I got a double pack here. n.1. a live video of QUE SUERTE and a non video but good audio quality of PUDDLE SPLASHERS. GET ON IT, because Big Baby Campbell said so.

*drops mic* cue stone cold steve austin music.

And today won't mean a thing

Saturdayz. It's raining like a god damned bitch and I want to be somewhere sunny. Hence a post dedicated to 90's west coast rap. Now don't get any ideas, east coast rap4lyfe. You can't beat big beats and high rise projects but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a bit of sun and bandannas. Enjoy.

SNOOP DOGGY DOGG - WHO AM I ? (WHAT'S MY NAME). Seeing him live this summer was pretty cool. I don't know how these cali kids wear fucking longsleeves and layers in the heat. Snoop had black pants and a hockey jersey during the hotest day of the summer. Cripin!



WARREN G FEAT. NATE DOGG - REGULATE. Possibly the best west coast track of all time.

Warren G : Regulate
Uploaded by BLACKMUSICS

EAZY E - REAL COMPTON CITY G'S. I'm gonna go ahead and say that Eazy was the coolest guy to ever get AIDS. One of his later track where he goes to town on his former NWA friends.



WESTSIDE CONNECTION - WESTSIDE SLAUGHTERHOUSE. Classic westside track. Cube hating on the east is kinda dumb cause he had the bombsquad (public enemy and really NYC) produce his best material. Also this song is calling out Common who is by no means a G. It's kind of like punching a girl who already limps naturally. That being said Cube has one of the greatest verses in all of battle rap.

All I can give,all I can give

If you haven't clicked on yesterdays bonus song you should, still on repeat. It's a beautiful life. Man last night post improv bar was so-so. I was kind of bummed on my solitary walk home. Moral of the story is you can never be depressed while riding a BMX. Seriously though, I need a slumpbuster. But before I bust my slump I have clean my room. The other day my moms woke me up and was amazed by the mess. She is a nurse that worked in AIDS care for years. She sometimes had to go with the social worker to patients' houses. A lot of them being heroin addicts. She goes "iain your room looks like a god damned shooting alley" I laugh it off and with a real concerned look in her eye she goes "no I'm serious, I've seen them before and this is exactly what it looks like". So yeah, I'm pretty sure I have to clean it up there. No theme.


Up first is T.I.'s first big single RUBBERBAND MAN off 2003's Trap Muzik. One of my favorite songs from that time period. Can't go wrong with lines like "wild as the taliban". That taliban sure is wild and I'm sure they appreciate the shout out. Osama I see you, capo status, you already know what it is.



Revisitin THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN. Last night as I was bummingly walking back home after escorting a real mean girl back to her university residence (HAHA) this song came up on shuffle and made more depressed/happy. I love these guys and I love this song. I hate people trying to copy them though. Trying to copy the greats just makes you look like an idiot. Check out Joseph Smith when he made up Mormonism. Come on bro you ain't jesus or mohammed.



And we're going to wrap this up with the DROPKICK MURPHYS one of my top 5 bands ever. I seriously don't care what peole think about that. I know a lot of dumbasses like them moreso now that they haven't gotten really big. Fuck it, they make great and original music. This song is THE WARRIOR'S CODE about the great boxer Micky Ward. A guy who has lost a lot but is probably the most gutsy and courageous fighter ever. His trilogy of fights with Arturo Gatti is legendary. Their first fight gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. This song is a real depression buster for me. ENJOY.



Bonus time:

I was once called a modern day James Joyce not because I was good at writing but because I was a drunken asshole. So I'm going to hit you with the folk song that inspired the book Finnegans Wake. When I die I want a funeral in my house (or in a bar) with tons of booze and my corpse well exposed. My late grannie tried to keep my seanair(grandfather in scots gaelic) in her house but the stupid municipal council wouldn't let her. Jeeze I loved my grandparents. I would just sit down and listen to them telling me stories for hours. A lot of them had to do with whisky. It's in my blood, I have to drink. The song has a really good intro, hook it up. Happy Fridays children!

Conversations, hesitations in my mind

I started working at a community center again working with francophone high school kids. I saw a kid who was pretty much me at 16 except with pierced ears. He even goes to my highschool. Brought back some memories... Theme for today is francophone nostalgia. Québec is an odd place. It's my nation, it's my history, it's who I am in a lot of ways but most of the time I feel alienated from it. One thing that bugs me is Québec being really late on a lot of art and fashion but also being way ahead of the game without knowing about it. Things have been changing recently with the whole electrorap scene but jesus christ. Young people's cd players in Québec (and the chunks of french-canada that still speak french) have been dominated by either anglo classic rock or franco artists from the early 90s. This shit has bugged me so much. Now I like these artists to but I hate lethargy, we gotta move forward! Anyways this post is about that.

First up LES COLOCS. Led by now the late André "Dédé" Fortin. One of my best friends in high school was also nicknamed Dédé. This group kind of had straight forward ska/Québec folk influenced music but they were really the best at it. Dédé also directed all the videos which I think makes him the best music vidéo director to come out of Canada. Looking back that kid was really fucking talented and it's a bummer that he killed himself. Apparently the narrow defeat of the yes side in the 1995 referendum really fucked him up. If ever we get a country this guy should be on the fucking money. Doublepack of JULIE (great stop motion animation) and TASSEZ VOUS DE D'LÀ (which makes me think of another high school friend who nearly died from drug abuse. the video is 100% rue st. catherine). Tonight I'm drinking one for Dédé, R.I.P.





Next up is Jean Leloup. I think it's like the law to like him if you're French. Which pisses me off because I like him. It's like a black man who's a university professor and works for the NAACP but just can't get enough watermelon and koolaid. Kid is like a French Beck though. Really original and totally out there. His videos are also reaaaaaally good. I leave you with ISABELLE and 1990. Isabelle was a song my friend Simon used to butcher every single thursday on karaoke and I loved him for it. The video is like a mini movie which is cool. 1990's lyrics really underline the vibe the western world had in 1990, optimism and the dawning of a new world. I think we are seeing the darkside of this "revolution". What he says about technology still applies today. ENJOY!





If you're French this post was fucking obvious. So for you I leave you with my song of the week! It's the kind of track that makes me want to get motherfucking rich and famous. Sorry for the lack of video.

We could have worked things out

My Jerry Only costume at Halloween was sweet. Still got some trickle down Halloween material to cover. Notably a special Halloween song by BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN called A NIGHT WITH THE JERSEY DEVIL. Not his best but dude that song title is so badass. The video is also pretty boss.



Next up we have BLOC PARTY. I really like this band but I find they got blown up by the press and now they are totally getting torn down by the same media that made them so huge so fast. Some parisian bloggers ambushed the group and forced them into doing an acoustic version of MODERN LOVE in an alley. It's pretty special.


Bloc Party, 'This Modern Love' - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Now an M.I.A. double pack. First clip is M.I.A. and Blaqstarr doing a weird cover re-interpretation of WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE ( The Wire's theme song). I think a remix of this song could make it really good. I don't know how I feel about it yet. The second video is great band BUILT TO SPILL covering PAPER PLANES. Judd Apatow made this song overplayed but he also created Freaks and Geeks which I have been obsessed with recently.





One love!

p.s. Instrumental W.O.P. horror jam for you all.

a special announcement

I'm all around jaded about the human race but tonight at this moment I can't lie, I'm really inspired about the potential of the human race to achieve anything. Let's try to soak in this historic moment.