Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Smiths-Everything you ever Wanted and Needed....Sweetness, Sweetness



       Rhino Records UK announced today some news that is going to make the Smiths fan in all of us very very happy, well at least the U.K. fans, on the 3rd of October they will release The Smiths Complete - Deluxe Collectors Boxset. 

        The collection includes all four of the band's studio albums – ‘The Smiths’ (1984), ‘Meat Is Murder’ (1985), ‘The Queen Is Dead’ (1986), ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’ (1987) and their sole live album ‘Rank’ (1988) as well as firm fan favourite compilations ‘Hatful Of Hollow’ (1984), ‘The World Won’t Listen’ (1987) and ‘Louder Than Bombs’ (1987).

      Each has been taken back to original tape sources and remastered by Johnny Marr and Frank Arkwright at the world famous Metropolis Studios in London.

Here is the breakdown for the Deluxe Set

DELUXE COLLECTORS BOXSET

**INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED & STRICTLY LIMITED TO JUST 3000 COPIES WORLDWIDE**

A heavyweight trunk boxset including:

> All eight album releases taken back to original tape sources and remastered by Johnny Marr and Frank Arkwright
> All eight albums on Mini LP replica style CDs in gatefold card wallets
> All eight albums on 180g 12” vinyl LPs (5 singles, 3 doubles)
> 25x 7" Singles (the entire The Smiths Singles collection) inc. specially reproduced rarities
> A 36" x 24" Poster of all album and single cover artwork
> ‘The Complete Picture’ DVD of the band's music videos
> An 8 page 12" booklet feat. expanded liner notes
> 8x 12" art prints of each album cover artwork
> An Exclusive Code to download the whole catalogue as high quality MP3s (320k)

    The Deluxe set will set you back almost $400 Canadian, and that doesn’t included the shipping costs, and because this set is very heavy those costs will be astronomical, so I think I will be waiting for it to be made available on this side of the pond, but if you have that kind of dough laying around here is the link to the Rhino UK Site.

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS





Monday, July 25, 2011

Amy Winehouse-When the Talent Couldn’t Save Her from Herself

     As I scoured the online universe Sunday afternoon the first reaction by almost everyone to the news of her death was they were not the least bit surprised, even I Facebooked “expecting this headline sooner or later”, which given her history was not entirely inaccurate in the sense we all had unfortunately seen this day coming for awhile now. 


      Amy’s “battle” with her demons was well publicized in the media and I got this sense that even though she had sold over 16 million records worldwide and had this powerful voice that crossed the R&B, Jazz and Soul barriers that we only get to hear once in a generation the public would never be able to get past her drinking and she felt that to.


    Sources are coming forward saying that she had given up, she was on a non-stop drinking binge and not caring what the outcome was. Amy’s mother Janis Winehouse has said that when they met a day before she died “She seemed out of it” a British newspaper reported. Looking from the outside in we will never know what really happened, sure we’ll get a report saying this and that but we will never truly know what pushed her over. 


    As a person who doesn’t know what addiction is like in the first person I want to say why didn’t she just stop ?…why didn’t she just get help ? she had everything in the world to live for, Fame…Money……..but the people out there that have faced some type of addiction first hand and are still fighting it today will tell you that’s just not the case, it’s not that easy…and the story of Amy Winehouse ends with her losing the battle but in a very strange way winning the chance to be at peace from those voices of betrayal once and for all.



R.I.P. Amy Winehouse 1983-2011....27 Years old.



Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

A Nirvana Nevermind Tribute Album that Doesn’t Suck....Thanks SPIN

        With the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's “Nevermind” almost here we most defiantly will be barraged with tributes galore, so when I came across this FREE tribute album put together by SPIN Magazine called “Newermind A Tribute Album”  that pays “Nevermind” the proper respect it deserves I thought I’d share it with the rest of you.

Here’s a list of the artists and the songs they cover:

1-Meat Puppets-Smells Like Teen Spirit
2-Butch Walker and The Black Widows-In Bloom
3-Midnight Juggernauts-Come As You Are
4-Titus Andronicus-Breed
5-The Vaselines-Lithium
6-Amanda Palmer-Polly
7-Surfer Blood-Territorial Pissings
8-Foxy Shazam-Drain You
9-Jessica Lea Mayfield-Lounge Act
10-Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band-Stay Away
11-Telekinesis-On a Plain
12-Jeff The Brotherhood-Something in the Way
13-EMA-Endless Nameless

Here is the link to the Facebook page that SPIN has set up for the FREE download; you just have to “like” it

Click Here to get to the FB Page!

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Monday, July 18, 2011

Watch the New Beastie Boys Video with Action Figures...Not Dolls Action Figures!!

          Beastie Boys have dropped unto the world a new video for the track "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" which can be found on their latest record Hot Sauce Committee Part 2.
 
    The video which is directed by Spike Jonze has the Beasties portrayed by Action Figures (Yes that’s Action Figures, not Dolls) …O.K. so here’s how it goes: Beastie Boys + Action Figures=Best Damm Video Ever! that's all you need to know.


Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Cheap Trick Plays then the Stage Collapses at the Ottawa Bluesfest



     I’ve been to many outdoor music festivals over the years where the weather has turned and you wonder if you will be that one in a million that gets struck by lightning...well maybe it wasn’t the lightning but Sunday night during the final day of the 17th annual Cisco Ottawa BluesFest the weather turned and something bad did happen, the stage collapsed. 

      Cheap Trick took to the MBNA stage at approx 7: PM, reports say that it was just 20 minutes into their set when they left the stage, then according to CBC reporter Stuart Mills "A giant gust of wind picked up a tarp and garbage from across the field and flung it toward the audience and lifted the whole stage — where Cheap Trick had been playing — and almost like a convertible in a car, just folded it backwards in the same direction,"

     Later that night Cheap Trick posted this statement to their Facebook page “Severe weather hit the stage as Cheap Trick was performing at the Ottawa Bluesfest tonight. The stage blew down and collapsed. Everyone is shaken up but band and crew are all fine. Cheap Trick hopes that everyone who attended the show is also ok”

      According to festival director Mark Monahan, 3 injured people were released from hospital with only minor injuries. After watching the videos and looking at all of the pictures that were taken I just can’t believe that only three people were injured, if those people were cats they used up a few of those 9 lives last night.

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS





Red Hot Chili Peppers
"The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie"


      Back in December of 2009 John Frusciante had posted to his Myspace account that he had quit the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and if you know anything about the Red Hot Chili Peppers/ Frusciante Sound your first reaction after hearing this news was that they were over, John had shown that himself and his guitar gave them a sound that no other guitarist could even begin to duplicate …he had brought the group back creatively after the Dave Navarro era One Hot Minute record.   
      Now comes word of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers Record titled I'm with You, the record is produced by Rick Rubin, who had previously worked with the group on their 1991 record Blood Sugar Sex Magik …the new record introduces guitarist Josh Klinghoffer to the masses as their newest member. Klinghoffer toured with the Chili Peppers on their 2007-2009 Stadium Arcadium tour, and was no stranger to Frusciante; the two had previously worked together on a project that would eventually be released as a Frusciante solo record called Shadows Collide with People. 

    The first single off of the new record is called The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie. Right off the bat you’re hit with that distinctive Flea bass sound, there’s no mistaking that for anyone else, Kiedas then comes in with the voice has not changed in 28 years...although it has lost some of that Punk/Funk fire of the early days he can still battle with the best of them…Chad Smith’s drums stays true to the course of not upsetting the Chili beat, but right away you can just hear the difference a guitarist makes to a band when they have a different style and take on how things should sound, Josh Klinghoffer has a more psychedelic sound than Frusciante, not saying it’s a bad thing just different. But overall The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie in my opinion is kind of bland, it coasts dangerously close to the MOR border...nothing too exciting about it, the song just plays it to safe to be a Chili Peppers song, I just hope the rest of I'm with You bucks that trend and the band uses what they’re Mama gave them. 

     Here’s a link courtesy of KROQ Radio out of LA to the new single I'm with You

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Friday, July 15, 2011

Trent Reznor Tweets Us NOT To Buy
"Pretty Hate Machine" Reissue

    Trent Reznor took to his Twitter account yesterday to tell NIN fans not to buy Universal Music’s newly reissued version of his 1989 classic “Pretty Hate Machine” , as Trent puts it “a record label bullshit move repackaging the old version. Ignore please”.

  Trent released a remastered version of PHM last November. 
Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bob Wiseman-The Interview

Bob Wiseman @ Mariposa
     I’ve always had this love of music and pop culture that transgresses the normal persons casual love of a good band or live show, always having to know more about the artist or group, always wanting to get backstage and see what’s really going on... I believe that’s why I started this Blog and I also believe that’s why I have needed to take it farther than I had originally planned.  What I’m getting at is at this past weekend’s Mariposa Folk Festival I had it in my head that I was going to interview 2 to 3 different performers for the Blog, in the end I only had gotten up enough nerve to approach just one, and the only reason I approached him was after watching his performance there was just this approachable nature about him that made it easy for myself to talk to him..I met him in the food tent and we talked about Folk Festivals, we talked about his performances and we talked about tea...So here is my very first interview with the often imitated, but certainly never duplicated Bob Wiseman

SSGS-Is this you’re first Mariposa?

BW-No...third, I played… let’s see I played when it was in Barrie and I also played it when it was at Ontario place in the ‘90’s. I come from the folk festival world, I’m from Winnipeg and I basically moved to Toronto to study modern piano music because I played a piano workshop at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and the people on the workshop that were older than me were all kind of like impressed and wondering who I was and what I was doing in Winnipeg and it made me feel like their level of impressnability* …is that a word or did I just make that up?

SSGS -You made that up but that’s cool

BW-their level of impressnability*

SSGS -I’ll Google it later

BW-I tried to avoid saying that they were so awe struck because that’s just way to hambonish but anyways they were so fuckin’ blow away that they were like “what the fuck guy you gotta come to Toronto you gotta get some rep” so that’s what I did and as a result of that I got into Blue Rodeo and lots of other things happened so but I feel like this is where I came from you know the kind of mentality of Folk Festivals that I knew of as a kid in Winnipeg

SSGS -they’re huge out there?

BW-Well they’re huge now. They’re kind of a phenomenon of summer all over the place, but it wasn’t so in the 70’s there were like a few and Winnipeg was kind of like it was the big one at that time but now that’s kind of become there’s a few really big ones now Edmonton is like the big big one in Canada I think but you know the cooler the ones that are not like massive are actually cooler  and they’re more like what was cool about Winnipeg , Mariposa’s got some of that vibe, Shelter Valley’s really got that vibe..Have you been there?

SSGS -No

BW-it’s really small scale, it just makes it way more fun...in a certain way

SSGS -So you’re playing tonight?

BW- Yeah I do 4 more shows I do one tonight that’s like a concert of my stuff and then I think I’m in 3 workshops tomorrow. 

SSGS -So what can people expect at tonight’s show?

BW-For the last 10 years I’ve been making films about my songs...in super 8 or video or animation or stop motion or flash animation so I do them together I show the films it’s a multimedia thing..but it’s ultimately much more fun...it makes a…I played a song about Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was the president of Haiti who was kidnapped and Canada played a role in that and I like writing songs like that but it’s hard you know that song that Dylan wrote about Ruben Carter? You know if you hear that on first listen and you’ve never heard it it’s hard to follow the storey you know but that doesn’t mean that it’s not short of an amazing song but you need to listen to it a few times you know the more the complex the song is..you know you go to a book reading or a poetry reading it’s really hard (he laughs) I like poetry a lot but I hate poetry readings , you miss one thing and you’ve lost the thread of the whole thing. So since I started making films it kind of changes the rules you know I feel more people understand what’s going on in the song, and even if they don’t there’s a whole other level of amusement for simplicity in watching.

Bob then excuses himself from the interview while he goes and gets his cup of tea, we than have brief conversation about why he regularly chooses tea over coffee...he made quite a good case for tea, and as a non-tea drinker I’m thinking of giving it a try

BW-I started drinking tea over coffee more often than not because to me coffee requires some work , I don’t like it first thing in the morning if I’m not fully awake yet, I like it really when I’m feeling fresh…I love the smell, I love the taste ..coffee...coffee, I’ll have to run to the can very quickly after I have coffee, tea doesn’t work that way so tea it feels like I can yeah I can ..It’s also kind of coffee half the time kind of tastes shitty to me, it’s like why am I doing this, why is everyone doing this, it’s been advertised successfully coffee coffee’s what you do, that how I feel.

SSGS-Actionable”,  you’re still performing it?

BW-I am, not here but I’m doing it next in New York on Oct 1st I’m very excited about that and the guy that books me his name is bob Wilson and he works with a company called Live tour and these kind of booking agents they have conferences where they show different acts to people who buy for different theatres blah blah blah and artists often go and showcase …and interestingly to me was he went to it this year like in March I think he called me and I’ve done it but I didn’t do it this year and the play is new it’s from last year..but to make a long story short I got 3 gigs from it without having to go. Just because people had heard about it doing well I think during the circuit of the Fringe Fests and other things last year so that really felt great and so I’m doing it in Newfoundland , I’m doing it in British Columbia, and in New york coming up. I’m actually in the middle of a theater work shop what’s called an intensive right now for 3 weeks, I just took off to honour these 2 dates I’m working in Calgary right now till the 18th of July  with a theater company there called “one yellow rabbit” and it’s really immensely stimulating creative learning about structure and movement and you know it’s effecting even the way I was performing  right now which was a surprise to me  SSGS-in what way?…in the way I’m thinking about what I’m doing with my body while I’m playing

SSGS -So what’s next?

BW-Well next is I’m in the middle of a record and I’m very happy with it, finishing that record, finding a home for that record…touring in the fall through Canada writing some new kind of performance work like “Actionable” , I’m working on something about Stephen Harper and him trying to destroy the Canadian Wheat Board which he will probably do , I was trying to write a kind of a theatrical piece about that , might be for the Fringe Festivals next year I don’t know. I also want to write something about Harry Neilson, I really loved Neilson a lot , I wanted to write something about him and gun control which he became interested in after Lennon was murdered…I’m producing records for lots of people and I’m always looking for I try to do music for Film and TV. You know when you’re an artist you don’t know really how you’re gonna get by generally, you’ve gotta have irons in the fire and you’ve gotta shake people’s hands like a “Oh you’ve got a blog you wanna do an interview “you know you’ve gotta just nurture stuff too, I’m not saying that it’s phoney because I’m willing but that’s how it works.

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS


*Sorry Bob , I Googled  impressnability and it’s a no go

Mariposa Folk Festival 2011...That’s A Wrap!

  
From the Main Stage at Mariposa
     I wandered the Festival grounds iPhone in hand and camera in bag looking for those shots that would tell the story of the weekend, you know that picture...The singer in mid song...the child running through the trees with no care in the world...festival friends sharing a laugh they can only share but once a year...did I find them? maybe, but what I discovered that weekend was much more, and that always seems to happen as The Mariposa Folk Festival transforms a small park in Orillia, Ontario Canada into a place to relax, enjoy great music and share. 

      A few performances really stayed with me after the finals notes had been played and the stages had been carried away and it just happens that both of them were on the new “Ruth” acoustic stage that was situated right behind the main stage. One of the performances was on Friday afternoon and it was the multitalented musician, playwright, film maker and all around great guy Bob Wiseman.  Bob was sitting on one lone chair with his foot tucked up underneath him talking to someone as I approached the stage area,  he was introduced and he jumped right into what he does best, telling great stories with his music...although he had to compete with Emmylou Harris’s sound check and a porta potty truck driving by he ended his small set standing on a chair playing an accordion...that about says it all (I was also lucky enough to sit down with Bob and interview him, that’s coming soon to SSGS). 

      I first had the pleasure of catching The Rucksack Willies when they played the Mariposa Showcase auditions back in May of this year and had made such a mark on me that I couldn’t wait to catch them at Mariposa, so when I saw on my phone courtesy of the new Mariposa App (shouts go out to Trevor Mills @ Top Quark for the great work on the App) that they would be playing the Ruth Stage I was all over it. Bluegrass/Country/Folk...The Rucksack Willies have it all and more, they took control of that small and very intimate stage and never let go of it.  

    And as all of you know by now the Saturday night “Surprise” artist was none other than Canada’s own Ron Sexsmith. Even though the secret had been let out of the bag the day before courtesy of CBC radio it was still very exciting to watch Ron perform, and when he brought up a very last minute special guest of his own...Bob Wiseman, (as Bob was going up on stage he asked me if I was recording this, I said yes..then to my horror I realized when I got home that night I had placed it on the wrong setting and it had not recorded...sorry Bob).

    Then the Saturday night headliner Miss Emmylou Harris took to the stage...the one time I was more excited to see a performer not just for her music, which is just as seductive to the ears today as it was when she began her career more than 40 years ago but for her story. I am a huge Gram Parsons fan, and to actually witness live in concert someone who knew and worked with Gram so personally was more than I could have ever asked for...thank you Mariposa.  

       The thousands of people that attend the Mariposa Folk Festival must understand that a festival like this just doesn’t happen; it’s a grass roots effort that takes hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers to pull it off, the guys that drive the artists around, the men and women who sit at the recycling stations guiding you to which bin to place your empty paper plate, the security that keeps all of the “rowdy” folkies in line and so on and so forth. 

     As I Tweeted and Facebooked pictures and updates all weekend long I felt closer to the festival more than I have ever, I talked more than I ever had to so many different people about music and about the Festival, it just really shone for me.  

       My wife and I have attended every Mariposa for the last 10 years (Except for the year our son Jackson passed away) and with our young son Ben ready to take on Festival life I don’t see us missing a Mariposa anytime soon. 

See everyone next year!

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS




Jim Bryson & The Weakerthans






My son Ben learning to play the drum
From the stage
 


Emmylou Harris

Emmylou and Ron


Monday, July 11, 2011

Portishead Announce North American Tour

         Everyone has their list of bands that they have not had a chance to see live yet but hope to some day...well Portishead is one of those bands on my list. The point where they got added to the list was probably the first time I watched Live at Roseland NYC, everything was just so perfect about it…they had won me over. Let’s get to the point of all this…Portishead are touring North America and they have 2 dates penciled in for Toronto…so it looks like I will most likely be scratching one more band off the list (and be covering it for SSGS or someone else)…now if we can just figure out a way of getting all of the members of the Talking Heads into one room without them killing each other then I can start scratching again.

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS


Here is a list of their North American Tour Dates:
 October 1 & 2 IBYM, Asbury Park, NJ
October 4 Hammerstein Ballroom NY
October 5 Hammerstein Ballroom, NY
October 7 Jacques Cartier Pier, Montreal
October 9 Sound Academy, Toronto
October 10 Sound Academy, Toronto
October 12 Aragon, Chicago
October 15 Mexico, Corona Festival
October 18 Shrine LA
October 21 Greek, Berkeley, SF
October 23 WaMu, Seattle
October 24 PNE Forum, Vancouver
October 27 1st Bank Center, Denver