Lowest of the Low Take Their Loyal Fans to the Highest Heights

by Eco

The Toronto band Lowest of the Low got together for a couple of sold out shows at Lee’s Palace this past weekend (Dec 3,4) in Toronto in support of their remastered, re-released debut album “Shakespeare, My Butt”

I can say without reservation, that this is the best concert I’ve ever attended. Yes, I know – I am letting nostalgia and simple love for lyric and sound ‘colour’ my review – so let me say up front that I have been a Lowest of the Low fan since the initial release of Shakespeare, My Butt. Over the 19.5 years since, the LotL sound for me has continued to haunt my playlists – adding some new material now and then, but always including some and any of the ‘Shakespeare’ tracks. Surprisingly, I have never had a chance to see them play live so when I heard that they were planning 2 shows, on nights that I could attend, it did not take long to have my tickets in the mail!

The Show at Lee’s was outstanding. The opening act was a combination of Jim Bryson and John K. Sampson (of the Weakerthans), accompanying each other on an array of their eclectic folk tunes. The Low kicked off the first set with a straight through run of “Shakespeare, My Butt”. At times, in fact most of the time, it was a MASSIVE sing along, with the crowd knowing and belting out every word of song after song.

Salesmen, Cheats and Liars

Rosy & Grey

Ron Hawkins commented at one point that there really was not much challenge in the set-list when everyone in the crowd knows it by heart.  The band was extremely energetic – playing with passion, and sharing that passion with the 300 or so fans who shared their own passion right back. After finishing Shakespeare, the Low moved on to a variety other songs pulled from all of their albums, as well as some unrecorded songs as well. Ron closed the show with Black Monday, one of my personal favourates.

The Full setlist:

Shakespeare My Butt in order:

4 O’Clock Stop

So Long Bernie

Just About “The Only” Blues

Salesmen, Cheats and Liars

Rosy and Grey

Kinda’ the Lonely One

Eternal Fatalist

For the Hand of Magdelena

Subversives

Bleed a Little While Tonight

Bloodline

St Brendan’s Way

Letter from Bilbao

Under the Carlaw Bridge

The Taming of Carolyn

Gossip Talkin’ Blues

Henry Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Bit (Thanks Correction!)

Crying Like a Postcard

3am Taxi Ride

Things I Wish I’d Never Seen

Gamble

Motel 30

Unbearable Lightness of Jean

Kill the Lights

Dark Horse

Last Recidivist

Black Monday

I can only hope that the Low will continue to get together and share their music with their fans. Even if it is only to continue to reissue all of their albums in sequence, as Ron laughingly suggested during the show, I don’t think there was a person in Lee’s Palace that would object. I also hope that they can find some way to work together again, perhaps leveraging the life journeys that each of them has followed since 2004′s Sordid Fiction. I can’t wait until next time!!

A New Guilty Pleasure?

I just finished ‘reading’ American Gods by Neil Gaimon. I actually read it the first time around 2001 – I was originally attracted by the cover and the title, and the plot synopsis on the back cover set the hook. I LOVED this book; the story, the characters, the settings, all of it seemed to be so alive and so mysterious.

This time, I picked up the book from Audible.com on the recommendation of Leo Laporte – part of his TWIT network shoutout/promos are for Audible.com, and he said that American Gods was even better in the audio book style. At the time, I knew that American Gods was a great story, and I imagined someone reading it, perhaps with a little appropriate inflection here and there and thought that might be a cool way to read the book again.

I have to say now, that it was an amazing experience. The narrator is George Guidall, and his reading performance is an equal to ANY theatrical performance; stage or otherwise. He not only provides inflection, but he brings the characters to life, brings the story to life in such a way that I could barely turn it off.

I’ve signed up for the 2 credits a month subscription and I have the new book by Guy Gavriel Kay “Under Heaven”, narrated by Simon Vance , queued up on my Ipod in the car. Maybe I’ll drive to Florida, so I can get some more reading done 8)

Eco

Rock statue mystery

by Kelly

I came across this really cool story about rock statues that “just appeared” in Toronto’s Humber River over the long weekend. Many residents didn’t see the artist that created them and speculated that at least two people must have created them under the cover of darkness.

Photo courtesy of: Carl Hanstke, 680 News

I think they look really interesting.  They are actually the creation of a local photographer Peter Riedel.  He created them Sunday afternoon and seemed surprised by all the fuss.  You can read more from CTV News here and CITY TV here.

MyNews contributor Richard Smith submitted this photo of Peter Riedel balancing rocks in the Humber River on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2010. (Richard Smith / MyNews.CTV.ca)

I couldn't find the credit for this photo

Inception

by Kelly

Although we love living in the country, one of the few things we miss about the city is having a movie theatre right around the corner. Both Dave and I love movies but now that we have to drive to go see one rather than walk around the corner, it’s more of an investment – we rely more strongly now on recommendations from friends & family and online reviews.

I’ve wanted to see the movie Inception since it was first announced – the idea of stealing “thoughts” by accessing someone’s dreams is a pretty fascinating concept. Back in January I wrote a post called “Movies to look forward to in 2010“. Inception was on that list. I then read a review by a friend here that really ramped up my interest so we decided yesterday to make the trek into the big city of Waterloo for the noon showing.

All I can say is wow! What a terrific movie. The story unfolds at the perfect pace with enough action to keep it exciting but enough detail and background that you don’t feel lost or confused.

I always love a good anti-hero and this movie is filled with them. Here’s the cast:

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur), Ellen Page (Ariadne), Tom Hardy (Eames), Ken Watanabe (Saito), Dileep Rao (Yusuf), Cillian Murphy (Robert Fischer, Jr.), Tom Berenger (Browning), Marion Cotillard (Mal), Pete Postlethwaite (Maurice Fischer), Michael Caine (Miles), Lukas Haas (Nash).

The director, Christopher Nolan, balances a complicated concept with simply written characters and stunning cinematography.  I was surprised that there wasn’t a lot of technology on display in the movie.   I think I only saw the characters use a cell phone once or twice.  The special effects never had that “CGI feel” to them either and were done incredibly well.

A particular favourite of mine was the fight scene in the hotel hallway.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character is fighting hard to subdue the bad guys while gravity and perspective are adding certain complications.

No surprise on what my recommendation is going to be – go see this movie…you won’t be disappointed.  Expect to leave the theatre still thinking and talking about the movie and expect to want to see it again immediately – I certainly do!

Favourite Lyrics

by Kelly

I’m a lyrics person – perhaps not as much as some I know, but I do love a good turn of phrase.  I thought I would start to collect some of my favourites here in our blog instead of jotting them down in my notebook.  It’s a nice way to save them and some of the memories that surround them – hopefully you won’t be too bored!

From the song “Summertime” by George Gershwin (one of my favourite covers of this song is done by Tom Jones & Stereophonics – see the previous post for the video).

One of these mornings
You’re going to rise up singing
Then you’ll spread your wings
And you’ll take to the sky

The next one is from “Crooked Teeth” by Death Cab For Cutie.  The first line always reminds me of David – on one of our first dates, we sat talking and laughing while polishing off some very good wine long into the night…so long in fact that the restaurant closed down around us.  They left us sitting at a table outside in the Distillery District with all of our cutlery, table linens and wine glasses. David ended up tracking down the importer (it wasn’t available at liquor stores) and buying me a case of the wine we drank that night.

You’re so cute when you’re slurring your speech,
But they’re closing the bar and they want us to leave.

And from the same song:

I’m a war of head versus heart
And it’s always this way
My head is weak, my heart always speaks
Before I know what it will say

This next one is from James Blunt’s “Wisemen”.  This one has more to do with the cadence and how the words flow than the actual words themselves.

She said to me, “Go steady on me.
Won’t you tell me what the Wise Men said?
When they came down from Heaven,
Smoked nine ’til seven,
All the shit that they could find,
But they couldn’t escape from you,
Couldn’t be free of you,
And now they know there’s no way out,
And they’re really sorry now for what they’ve done,
They were three Wise Men just trying to have some fun.”

This one is from “Rosy and Grey” by The Lowest Of The Low.  No surprise to those that know me as this is my all time favourite song.

You’ve been under my skin for more than eight years
It’s been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears
And I don’t know what the future can hold, or will do, for me and you
But I’m a much better man for having known you
Yeah, you know that’s true, because…

Everything is coming up rosy and grey
Ah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today
And your smile is fine and it’s just like mine and it won’t go away, ’cause
Everything is rosy and grey

This one is “Tear Stained Eye” by Son Volt.  I like Son Volt – their lyrics are great and their music can not be categorized.

Walking down Main Street
getting to know the concrete
Looking for a purpose
from a neon sign
I would meet you anywhere
the western sun meets the air
We’ll hit the road
never looking behind

Here’s one that David and I both share a love for.  This is “Uncertain Smile” by The The.  I travelled a lot for work at one time and I had this song playing in my hotel room in Los Angeles after finishing dinner on Santa Monica Pier.

Peeling the skin back from my eyes
I felt surprised
that the time on the clock was the time
I usually retired
to the place where I cleaned my head of you
but just for today
I think I lie here and dream of you

I’ve got you under my skin where the rain can’t get in
But if the sweat pours out, just shout
I’ll try to swim and pull you out
A howling wind that blows the litter as the rain flows
as street bups pour orange coloured shapes
turn your windows
A broken soul stares from a pair of watering eyes
uncertain emotions force an uncertain smile

Well I think that’s it for tonight.  I have many more “favourite lyrics” and I will add them to the blog on an ongoing basis.

My guilty pleasure…

by Kelly

Ok, we all have our guilty pleasures – mine typically involves avoiding house cleaning by reading my favourite blogs (see side panel), catching up on my twitter feeds and MyAlltop…all the while sipping on a Diet Coke and listening to my favourites mix on iTunes.  And part of my iTunes mix almost always includes a Tom Jones song.

I grew up listening to Tom Jones as he was one of my mom’s favourites.  Imagine my delight in later years to find out he shares his home country with one of my all time favourite groups, Stereophonics.  I was lucky enough to spend a fair amount of time in Wales, most specifically in the Cardiff area (I even sat beside Rhys Ifans at a chip shop in Cardiff Bay one afternoon…he eats mushy peas by the way…).

Ok, back to my guilty pleasure – Mr. Jones has released a new album called Praise and Blame.  Although his record company has made some questionable comments about his choice of material, I’ve read nothing but positive reviews.  My favourite appeared in a Q Magazine article: “Seventy years old; his voice better than ever; still “kicking the shit out of everything”: ‘unusual’ doesn’t do him justice.”

Here is a video of him performing on Jools Holland’s Later back in May:

And of course, how can I resist both Tom Jones AND Stereophonics:

Another one of my favourites – this always makes my Christmas mix – is Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews from another band I love, Catatonia.

Ok, I’m almost done.  I can’t end without sharing the song that went to number 3 on the UK singles charts in 2000, Sex Bomb.

And another collaboration with the boys from Cwmaman.

I will end with a dedication to @suze20TO…only Robbie Williams can carry leather pants…here they are at the Brit Awards (in 1998 I believe but I couldn’t find a date on this video).

Link Love

by Kelly

As usual, I haven’t had a lot of time to write – well, I’ve written lots but haven’t had a lot of time to make it the least bit cohesive and legible for posting here.  Also as usual however, I have a ton of tabs open and bookmarked pages that have made this week’s reading list.  I thought if they interest me, they might interest someone else out there too so here goes.

• Note to self:  speaking to a reporter from Rolling Stone Magazine might – just might mind you – result in your words being published.  Oh, and mocking your boss publicly is a bad idea…McChrystal Prepared to Resign…

• Although I get a lot of my news via Twitter, I was uncomfortable when the Attorney General of Utah tweeted that he had given the go ahead to execute a convicted murderer.  You can read the whole story here.

• I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell and always enjoy his blog.  You can read about his greatest triumph(his words)  here.

• I vaguely recognized the name Ray Kurzweil when I spotted it as I was browsing through headlines on myalltop.  This is a really interesting article in the New York Times about righting e-reader wrongs…Mr. Kurzweil is a fascinating personality in the tech world.

• The thought of any politician – even one that I admire as much as President Obama – having an internet kill switch makes me nervous.  The fact that it has been sponsored by the Chairman of the Homeland Security committee does nothing to ease my mind.

Those are some of the things that caught my attention.  Oh, and did you read about the earthquake in Ontario today?