beyond magazine

Blood, sweat, and tears.

Ani Difranco has released her first retrospective, Canon,  celebrating nearly twenty years of making music. Her website says the following:

"After over a decade of hard work, Ani DiFranco's career has blossomed into one that is successful in the rarest forms. Ani has proved that if you shed enough blood, sweat, and tears, you really can do what you want in your own way."

We have heard this many times as we wander around making a piece of independent media and talking to others doing the same. We're just wondering if we could change the "blood,sweat, and tears" part to chocolate chip cookies, milk, and naps. Just this once?

The truest of things.

You may have read our interview with hip hop artist K'naan in the latest issue of Beyond. His thoughts on doing "more deleting and less saving" when learning about other cultures are still with us as we work on other bits for upcoming magazines.

After traveling in Mali for a few days, K'naan spoke of making music with local artists.  In this video (Wrap Up) he speaks of being inspired:

This is the right vibe. Good spirit. Good people. A  community of serious musicians who live for the music, who live for sound you know. A lot of people I've met are not necessarily thinking of platinum records or anything like this. They just live to make some music. They live to make sound. They travel around the world and meet other musicians and have clever little things to show to each other. Very passionate about their thing. This is where you find the truest of things in a way. It's not connected to commerce. I'm not mad at making money but it can't be that you create something genuine if your beginning is thinking about the outcome of a financial kind of gain from that thing that you create. At least, it's not going to be art.

Nintendo near and far.

Lowercase dann of the Beyond ICU sends this MP3 from Nintendo Dorks:

So I received tremendous joy when I found the following file over on the SA Forums. Some internet genius took Nickelback's first horrible "hit," and mixed it with Nickelback's newest awful "hit." By "mixed" I mean one shitty song plays in the left speaker, and the other ear-bleeding excuse for rock plays in the right speaker. What a surprise, they are almost EXACTLY THE SAME. It's uncanny, sad, and hilarious at the same time.

And our friend and last issue's poet, Deegy sends me blasting back to the 80's with the MP3 of the Nintendo game, Zelda, played by a chamber musicians. I can see the screens of this game when I hear this music. Get the heart! Get the heart! What all good systems and analysis people needed on their school break. Obviously these musicians weren't playing their instruments all the time either.

David and William Shatner.

The Captain is a Man.

David Shepherd, a regular contributor in our print version and here online, writes about our fellow Canadian, William Shatner's new release:

My roommate is a Shatner fan . A big one. He has every film he's ever done, including the one where everyone talks in Esperanto. He has Star Trek the original series on DVD, all the Trek movies (on DVD and video), and I'd consider it a safe bet he's got the entire run of TJ Hooker on home-taped VHS.

He's also got 'The Album'. You know the one - Shatner's 1968 release, 'The Transformed Man' featuring his passionate spoken word versions of songs like 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', and 'It Was A Very Good Year'. His pained and anguished cry of 'Mr Tambourine Man!' at the end of his butchering of the Bob Dylan song is the height of Shatnerian histrionics and utter hilarity all wrapped into one.

Well, enter 2004 and Shout! Factory Records decides it would be a good idea to unleash another Shatner album on the world. Shatner, being older and wiser, calls up his friend Ben Folds, whom he collaborated with in Fold's Fear of Pop, and asks him to produce. The result? A surprisingly good CD.

Shatner's range of emotion has grown. He seems to be taking himself a good deal less seriously and acting a good deal more naturally. Shatner is downright enjoyable as he ranges from casual indifference to stunned disbelief over a punk-edged, rock rendition of Pulp's 'Common People'. His 'duet' with country singer Brad Paisley on 'Real' (written by Paisley specifically for Shatner) is restrained and almost touching. He holds his own with Henry Rollins as they run down a list of pet peeves on 'I Can't Get Behind That' (over a cheeky 60's era groove) and against Lemon Jelly's unstoppable grooves on 'Together'. 'You'll Have Time', a rollicking gospel number where Shatner repeatedly proclaims 'You're going to die!' is a bit much at times, but songs like 'That's Me Trying' penned by Folds and author Nick Hornby (and featuring Aimee Mann), and the spaghetti-western romp 'Has Been' more than make up for the occasional weaknesses in Shatner's lyrics.

Much credit should be given to Ben Folds, musical genius and master of all genres, who assembled an amazing cast of musicians and some stellar arrangements to make the album a musical treat. His liner notes indicate a true admiration for Shatner and perhaps accounts for his surprisingly human and intimate performance. Do yourself a favour and take a listen. You'll believe the Captain is a man.

Kevin and John Peel.

Kevin Packer, is the host of Katharsis, a weekly music program that airs Monday nights 10-11 on CJSW 90.9fm in Calgary, Alberta (Canada). (Also streamed live at www.cjsw.com). Calgary, is the city that hosts the mighty and pretentious offices of Beyond magazine.

CJSW is the University of Calgary campus and community radio station and is a much-loved radio alternative in Calgary, broadcasting a mix of music, arts, spoken word, multi-cultural and political programming. Kevin spends far too much time listening to, buying or thinking about music and has a predilection for inaccessible overlong saturnine musical selections.

"Yes, I always feel that the music I like, and I genuinely like the stuff I play on the radio, is my own way of going out on the street and righting these wrongs that I think should be righted."

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (John Peel) 1939-2004

Although I was not able to listen to him regularly I certainly know of the impact he has had over his many years in the music world. If not a sure stamp of quality, his approval was at least an indication of what was worth a listen, and many musical acts owe their escape from obscurity to him. Countless listeners and music fans have been introduced to new favourites thanks to his promotion of them on his radio shows and recordings. He broadened the popular musical landscape through his eclectic tastes and his insatiable appetite for new music.

As a fellow new music junkie and volunteer independent radio programmer his professional life is a model and an inspiration to me. A true hero in the broadcasting world has gone and will be sorely missed.

More on John Peel here.

A long time between blogs that included a whirlwind trip to the land of my childhood, Northern BC. There is nothing like hours and hours of driving past uninterrupted stands of cedars, spruce, and pine to give you perspective. It makes all things digital seem rather fragile.

The Morning News has a roundtable with MP3 bloggers that includes a discussion on the value of the tangible (record stores) and how downloading changes the music experience. In the 1950's, the music culture was changed with the introduction of the '45 and small, portable record players. Music listening went from the living room to the rec room and the bedrooms of youth. It excluded most parents and changed how and why music was produced and sold. The Walkman changed the experience to a more individual pursuit in the 1980's. As MP3's and Ipod devices change the form of how we digest music, will we change the form of music once again by changing how it is delivered?

There's much more in the article and it has good rabbit trail potential that will lead you to other articles, blogs and music sources.

Some snips:

Oliver (Oliver Wang is a music writer based in Oakland, Calif. He runs the audio blog Soul Sides and maintains a general blog on pop and politics, Pop Life.)

Much as I love the convenience of digital media, the tangibility of a physical product—be it a CD, DVD, LP, etc.—still matters and I don’t see this disappearing completely.

But, forced to imagine such a nightmare scenario…what I’d miss most is what I just said, the tangibility of the packaging, from cover art to liner notes. One thing about used LPs, too, is that you find these personal messages at times—signed copies of band LPs, dedications on records sent as gifts. Digital media will never (well, never say never) have those qualities.

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MB (MB publishes The Mystical Beast from Flatbush in Brooklyn, N.Y. where he lives with his wife and cats.)

Tips for finding new artists: I have a bunch of rules of thumb, but really there’s a lot of luck involved. Probably the best single thing you can do is make friends with someone who works in a good record store, especially if it’s owner operated (a certain store on Bleeker Street in New York is the inevitable exception to that rule). Failing that, find someone who 1) likes some of your favorite bands, and 2) likes a lot of bands that you’ve never heard of. Then follow up on all of their suggestions. And keep an open mind. I initially hated a lot of my favorite albums. I have two other tips:

1. The American press is really bad about covering foreign music that’s not from England. Make a friend in Australia, Belgium, etc.

2. Just because artists aren’t getting written about anymore doesn’t mean they’ve stopped putting out great albums. The press is fickle and completely incompetent when it comes to follow-up. Go find out what your old favorite band’s members are up to. You might be pleasantly surprised.

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John (John Seroff is the voice behind the Tofu Hut.)

If, however, by “financial responsibility” you mean do I feel guilt about distributing a track for free…no. Not any more so than your average DJ. And Dick Clark sleeps pretty well, right? He must, just look at him.

Calgary Folk Festival 2004

This weekend was spent in the company of thousands on a small island in downtown Calgary. Beyond ICU member Candace and I took our media passes and flashed them around like Wayne and Garth backstage at the Alice Cooper concert as we gathered interviews for upcoming issues of Beyond. We were able to soak in a few moments of music between brushing up on our research and wandering back and forth to the media tent. There were some lovely moments with Michael Franti including a song written after talking to soldiers in Iraq, the Weakerthans, Steve Earle, and on and on.

I always feel encouraged after walking away from the Folk Festival. It's a very good place if you want to explore the human experience. There's a great mix of ages. One of my favorite moments was watching a little girl jump up and down to Spearhead while throwing her teddy bear in the air. Right next to her were her middle age parents jumping up and down and next to them were some younger folks in dreads and tatoos. Sitting on the ground, a more senior couple nodded their grey heads to the beat as Michael Franti sang, "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world."

If you go to your nearest folk festival, you're going to see and hear a diversity not only of music but of political opinion and talent and maturity stages. Folk festivals often match performers up in workshops which allows you to hear people you might not have picked out of the program. One of my favorite moments from a few years ago was watching a young performer nervously set her guitar on her lap while looking at who she was sharing the stage with. "Whoa...it's Cockburn." she said under her breath but her microphone was on and everyone applauded her getting her space too.

I'm busy transferring some of the old blog to this one. I'm thinking I'll transfer only some of the 2003 content but I'm not sure where to put it yet. I'll paste in last year's festival report up above for memory's sake and then go from there.