quoperative

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• Jonathan Richman – Pablo Picasso
• The Muggs – Just Another Fool
• John Wesley Coleman – Bad Lady Goes To Jail
• The Black Crowes – I Ain’t Hiding
• The High Beams – Living To Die
• The Ramones – Bonzo Goes to Bitburg
• Patto – Man
• Richard Hell & The Voidoids – The Plan
• Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer’s Gang War – The Harder They Come

Part 2 of 2 of the 100% Vancouver series (part 1 is here):

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• Rock Thy Neighbor – The Smugglers
• S.T.H.D – Ladyhawk
• If You Want Me – Indian Wars
• The Way To Gone – Black Mountain
• The Last of The 1%ers – The Black Halos
• Wind Me Up – Lightning Dust
• Scrambled Eggs – Pointed Sticks
• Shake This Joint Around – Rich Hope and His Evil Doers
• Spider Baby Jesus – Duffy and The Doubters
• Mountain Bitch – Black Wizard

Back to your regular programming…

Part 1 of 2 of the 100% Vancouver series:

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• Jesus – Black Wizard
• Moving Along – Lions in the Street
• In the Forest, Under the Moon – Blood Meridian
• Woof Woof I’m a Goof – The Evaporators
• DXM – The Jolts
• (Gone is the) Freedom Train – John Ford
• New Drug Queens – Pink Mountaintops
• Van City – Rodney Decroo

Thank you and goodnight.

On June 9th I posted a little tool to let people play with the separated tracks from Gimme Shelter. Since then I’ve observed that:

1. People like to play with this. Lots and lots of people. More than I ever thought would find it.
2. These separated tracks actually originated from the game Rock Band. So much for my claim that Bill Wyman dropped the master tapes off at my house.
3. The above point was brought to my attention by a very kind and courteous DMCA takedown notification letter.

After a few weeks off in cottage country here’s another little radio show:

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• Teenage Head – Flamin’ Groovies
• Get Up Morning – Eddy Current Suppression Ring
• I’ll Get Along Without You – The Melodians
• Get Yo Shit – Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
• Black River Killer – Blitzen Trapper
• Fad – The Black Lips
• You On the Run – Black Angels
• Little Bonnie – Aorta
• #1 Tonite! – Bad Wizard
• Carol Anne – Indian Wars
• Shining Light – Neil Young

Thank you and goodnight.

Today I tried a little experiment with the amazingly simple Nicecast.  Can you say a little pirate radio? Here’s the result and the setlist:

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• (Intro) Surfin’ Blues (Part 2) – Al Casey
• Just Wanna Rock – Gorilla
• The Rocker – Thin Lizzy
• The Sun Goes All Around – Thee Oh Sees
• Ruby D – Les Sexareenos
• Bummer – Jeff the Brotherhood
• Rave ‘n’ Rock – Daddy Maxfield
• Frankie – D Generation
• Sheena’s Back – Nick Curran and the Low Lifes
• Get Found – Bass Drum of Death
• Powerman – The Kinks

Thank you and goodnight.

I’m just floored by this. I found Dana’s amazing chalk lettering and design work on Dribbble and noticed she was doing some label designs for a BC winery. Check out this shot of one of the label designs:

Even cooler is this time lapse showing her creating the original piece (on a board 7 feet wide by 4 feet high).  As a guy who relies way too much on CTRL+Z in my day-to-day work, when I see people doing proper analog work it just totally blows my mind.  What a labour of love…

The intertubes provided the separated tracks from one of the Stones’ most iconic songs (and recordings) of all time. I took those and built a little player that lets you turn each individual track on and off while you listen.  Don’t like Charlie’s drums? Turn them off. Want to hear only the lead guitar? Turn everything else off.  Want to hear Mick tell Keith to go f**k himself when he flubs a note? Sorry, that’s not on this recording… or any recording that I’m aware of.

But seriously, I love the little imperfections. Just goes to show how unimportant it is to deliver a 100% flawless performance.  The little mistakes give it life.

And around the 3:00 minute mark if you isolate the two vocal tracks you can hear Merry Clayton’s voice crack (twice)… that just gives me chills. Immediately after Mick cries “Whoo!”.  Damn right, Mick.

This guy’s resume spans more than 200 films, from “Empire Strikes Back” to “Robin Hood”.  Here he shows off a few of his secrets for getting the perfect movie sounds.  Really amazing stuff.

J Roddy Walston and the Business (courtesy Codaphoto)

A bit late for a proper end-of-year list, but who really cares?  It’s all about the music, man.  This notion of “time” and your “social constructs” about “punctuality” and “appropriately-timed blog posts” are totally killing my vibe, dude. Don’t be a buzzkill, bro.

Something worth noting… I decided to shelf my CD collection and digitized the whole thing in late 2009 and early 2010.  Now I’ve got my whole music collection in iTunes and a buttload of shelf space got freed up in the apartment.  Double whammy! As a result, none (okay ONE) of these picks were bought on CD.  I’m 100% off the silver platters — I’m only buying music on iTunes and on vinyl.

So without further ado, here are my top 10… 11… 12… 13 (!) for the year.  As always, most (but not all) were released in the calendar year of 2010 and they’re in no particular order other than the order my brain retrieves them from my memory or iTunes happens to play one of them while I’m racking my mind to remember more than 6 albums I bought last year.

Let’s hear your top picks in the comments…

1. Black Keys – Brothers (Nonesuch)
   Obviously.
2. The Muggs – On With the Show (self-released)
   Released in 2008. “Just Another Fool” just might have been my “song du year” if it weren’t for this next one…
3. J Roddy Walston and The Business – S/T (Vagrant)
   I know I said these picks are posted in no order but this is hands down my album of the year and “Full Growing Man” is one HELLUVA track. Seeing these guys for the 2nd time at SXSW next month!
4. Hacienda – Big Red & Barbacoa (Alive Naturalsound)
   These guys were Dan Auerbach’s band on his solo album… and this year they did a great album of their own.  Think Tex-Mex Beach Boys.
5. Quest for Fire – Lights from Paradise (Tee Pee)
   Saw them last year at SXSW and was sold from the first fuzzed-out wall of guitar riffs.  Awesome record.
6. The Greenhornes – **** (Third Man)
   Back with a fresh platter after going 10 years since their last record, this one’s a lot deeper and more mature than their first three LPs.
7. Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void (Sub Pop)
8. Nashville Pussy – From Hell to Texas (Steamhammer)
   Named after a 1958 flick with Dennis Hopper… which is pretty bad ass. Engineered and mixed by transplanted Texan Canuck Gordie Johnson for a bit of a cleaner, stripped down and — dare I say — more mature sound.
9. Smith Westerns – S/T (Fat Possum)
   Noisy punk rock (or punky noise rock?) by teenagers… which is the only way you can properly make this kind of music.
10. Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart (Jagjaguwar)
    You’ve probably heard “The Hair Song” on your local “alternative” radio station. I saw these guys in November and daaaaamn was it loud. Even with my fancy ear plugs!
11. The Black Crowes – Before the Frost/Until the Freeze (Silver Arrow)
    I’m late to the party on this one and admit that I’ve never really been a huge Crowes fan… but this double album recorded off-the-floor at Levon Helm’s farm in front of a live audience is simply u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e.  I have huge new respect for these guys.
12. C’Mon – Beyond the Pale Horse (Independent)
    Classic, classic stuff from the grandfather of Canadian hard rawk (no, not Neil Young…) Sir Ian Blurton.  Just found out that “Mirrors”, probably the best track on the record, is on the soundtrack for that new Roommate movie.  Here’s hoping all the Gossip Girl fans start buying C’Mon records.
13. Johnny Thunders & Wayne Kramer – Gang War (Jungle)

The story behind “Gang War” (pick #13)…

I consider myself a pretty huge Dolls and MC5 fan so the fact that this one had remained under my radar until just a few months back kind of blows my mind.  In the early 80s, with Kramer fresh out of jail and Johnny Thunders still miraculously able to stand up despite being so strung out, these two legends (IMHO) briefly formed a supergroup (also IMHO) to a) get their rocks off and b) make some much needed coin.  From the sounds of it, their attempts to record and tour quickly went south with Thunders’ addiction making pretty much everything involved with playing in a band impossible.  Even still, they did manage to record some shows and even a few demo tracks.  This release is a mix of two of their shows along with some of those demos and is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the Heartbreakers and the MC5 as far as the sound goes. The guitar inter-play between these two guys is great and even with Johnny teetering on passing out the whole time he can still rip it up pretty good. Kramer’s “The Harder They Come” (which appears both live and as a studio cut) is just a straight-up great rock song.

So ends my 2010 picks… shoot me your picks in the comments!

I can honestly say that I haven’t yet caught an episode of the HBO wonder child that is Boardwalk Empire. I can also honestly say that I am mildly ashamed and 100% intend to remedy this situation at the next convenient juncture.  Look, I only have enough mental bandwidth and attention span to have 1… ok, MAYBE 2 shows (if you include Delocated)… on the go at any one time.

Imagine how tickled I was to discover that the track used for the opening sequence is an instrumental edit of “Straight Up and Down” by the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Now I really feel ashamed.

Apparently the only blogging I do these days is posting YouTube videos every 3 months. Well, I’m going to show you — me write words before make show movie picture.

I actually found this trailer on the site for Mr. Lee’s General Store & Haberdashery, a cozy little shop nearby that sells things like shaving blades, baseball gloves, mustache wax, switchblades, steel wool, handkerchiefs and fedoras — man stuff. It was from this store that my daughter bought me some wool socks for my birthday. Yes, today is my birthday.

Let’s do this again, shall we?

This is seriously awesome and amazing. I love Ian and Noel flicking beer coasters from the back.

Been neglecting the blog for a while but here’s an attempt to get back into the swing of things.  Thanks to Ted Leo for the most excellent Tears for Fears cover.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World by tedleo

Hey, I didn’t say it’d be a long post.

Courtesy of Mr. Pattison (who must enjoy searching for unusual MJ covers on YouTube) watch this video at 0:46 for a (handsome) dude walking into frame in the background.  THIS IS NOT ME.  I’m 99% certain of this.

Just a heads up, friends…

Whether you knew it or not, I’m a member artist at La Petite Mort Gallery in the Byward Market.  It’s a pretty chill space with lots of great art (and some of mine too).  I highly recommend visiting and checking out the multitudes of great (mostly local and totally affordable) art they’ve got for sale.  The gentleman that runs it, Guy, is a great guy and definitely deserves a hefty pat on the back for giving Ottawa such a great venue for all kinds of artists.

The reason for the email… because I’m lucky enough to be a member artist, I get a one night show to display some of my new paintings.  It’s basically a party at the gallery and you’re all invited.  I’m going to be making the trek back to Ottawa to be there and I’m hoping you all can make it too.  They’ll be music and drinks… and more art than you can shake a stick at!

Here’s the info…

http://www.lapetitemortgallery.com/events/StevePalmer2010.html

Friday, March 12th, 2010
7pm to 10pm
La Petite Mort Gallery
306 Cumberland Stree

And the tradition continues…

My prized platters for 2008 and 2007 are right here on Quoperative and if you’re completely void of any motivation to do something productive with your time (why else would you be reading this?) then you can hunt through the Setbacks site for my album picks going back to a simpler time… when men were men and you could freely travel by airplane with a tube of toothpaste that had a capacity greater than 125 mL.  But I digress.

What follows are my choice music purchases and acquisitions for 2009 (as always, most but not all were released in 2009).  In no particular order…

1. Steel Panther – Feel the Steel (Universal Republic)
   On pink vinyl, no less… Jade’s favourite of the bunch. Death to all but metal!
2. Death – …For the Whole World to See (Drag City)
   Dumped by Clive Davis of Columbia Records in 1975 for not changing their name… finally released in 2009.
3. King Khan & BBQ Show – Invisible Girl (In the Red)
   Stripped down, lo-fi, garage blues rock. What the hell did you expect?
4. Reigning Sound – Love and Curses (In the Red)
5. KISS – Sonic Boom (Universal)
   Facking dorks… you can only buy the album at Wal-Mart and it wasn’t released digitally so I HAD TO STEAL IT.
6. Le Nombre – Vile et Fantastique (Blow the Fuse)
   Doesn’t hold a candle to 2004′s Scenario Catastrophe… but honestly… that would have been impossible.
7. Them Crooked Vultures – S/T (DGC)
8. Priestess – Prior to the Fire (TeePee)
9. Lou Barlow – Goodnight Unknown (Merge)
10. Sonic’s Rendezvous Band – Live at Masonic (Alive/Total Energy)
    Triple shame on me for having my head up my ass and not including this on 2008′s list… whoops.  Better late than never. $6.93 ON ITUNES FOLKS

I have a feeling I’m forgetting something.  I hate that feeling.

Oh yes… this is awesome.

After almost 2 whole years I figured it was time Quoperative got a facelift.  Technically I figured it was about time for a facelift a year ago and I spent what seemed like months (most likely because it was months) trying to get the blog posts on the home page to lay out like perfectly-formatted newspaper columns.  After fucking around and trying to get it to work about a hundred different ways I gave up and set my sights a bit lower.  The way I see it, why shoot for the stars when you don’t have to?  That’s become my new mantra.

So just so you know… the homepage (cleverly labeled ‘fresh’ in the menu) now includes my blog posts, flickr photos, artwork and tweets — all intertwined chronologically into a continuous river of Steve… wow!

I also updated my work and posted a couple of paintings I did in the summer (photographed horribly by yours truly).