Tastes Like Fire

 This week Greyhound announced that they would be withdrawing all of their bus service lines from Canada. Pretty crazy to think of! I can't say that I ever thought of Greyhound buses as the sort of private business that would be taken away as the result of COVID-19, but here we are. As a Toronto kid how never learned how to drive* and who went to school outside of the city, I spent a huge amount of time on Greyhounds as a yute.

*Is my huge volume of Greyhound rides a character flaw? Perfectly normal to ride it so much while you're 19/20, but should I have moved on and gotten a car at 25?

As a dedicated Greyhound rider, here are my top stories from da bus:

This is always the first one that I think of. In the spring of 2012, Andrew W.K. announced that he would be doing a full-band tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of I Get Wet. I had never gotten the full AWK live experience, having only seen him play to a backing track. (Party) Pat and I were ecstatic at the thought of seeing our party god play live and bought tickets immediately. When the date came, we got on a Greyhound in Guelph to head to Toronto and brought beers to get ready for the show. We heard a guy a few seats in front of us open a beer and laughed that we weren't the only ones drinking on the trip. When we tried to nonchalantly open ours a few minutes later, the guy turned around and said "Are you guys going to see Andrew W.K. too?"

Despite the fact that I took the bus to Toronto from Guelph constantly, I was always nervous that I had gotten on the wrong route from the University of Guelph bus loop. That never happened, but one time the driver started to take a strange route after stopping at Aberfoyle, before eventually stopping and asking over the PA if someone could look up directions for him.

I admit that I can be particular while I'm traveling and get easily annoyed. Usually I avoid this by either listening to music for the entire ride or watching a movie, but there were a few times this was unavoidable. Don't be the guy who loudly talks to a person he doesn't know about DJing for an hour, or the guy loudly going over his Keeping Up with the Kardashians re-watch, or the guy asking me phone his friend in Guelph while he is currently getting off the bus. Just try to be quiet.

I've already told the story of the time that I worked a long and strange night at Nest in Toronto, so I don't need to re-tell that again, but the ride into Toronto that started the night was one of the most memorable (and chill) parts of that night. I rushed to get to the Charles Street Terminal in Kitchener, and then started to listen to How Did This Get Made? for the first time. The first snowfall in Ontario started during the ride and as a result, traffic moved crazy slow for the entire ride. It took about three hours to get to Toronto and I tried to relax and just let the trip happen. Though I'm not one for winter, I will admit that looking out the bus window and seeing roads and hills only slightly covered in snow was relaxing.

It's Book Review and Face the Nation Time

This morning I found out that there was a tribute to Adam Schlesinger last night, featuring both big names, Courtney Love and Chris Carrabba, and personal favourites like Ben Kweller, Justin Pierre, and Matt Caws. I was surprised that I hadn't heard about this, but I don't know that I would have paid for a livestream anyways. This reminded me how bummed I was to hear that he had died early in the pandemic and led to reflect on the year and a bit that we've been living through COVID. 

Schlesinger's death was a weird one for me. I think it's totally normal for you to feel sad when a person you respect and admire dies, but it almost felt like I made too much of a big deal about it to myself, compulsively reading stories about him and the experiences of those close to him. I think that was probably the result of the stress and fear of COVID coming out of me in strange ways. I never really reacted strongly to any of the horror stories around public health or long-term care in Quebec, but then latched onto Schlesinger's death like crazy. In hindsight, those two things are probably related, right?

Sidenote: I can't remember if I said this during my in memoriam post, but there was one time that Duff and I were talking about our pie-in-the-sky producer picks for Beat Noir. I said Schlesinger and Duff reacted like that was the worst choice possible and didn't fit all. Him working on Sovereignties is a laughably weird fit, but I still stand by it? 

Anyways, a year later I'm still sad that he died as a result of this pandemic, especially as someone who was relatively young and still producing great music. When I think about him and Fountains of Wayne, I find myself still in awe of his talent as a songwriter. He was the first person related to my interests who died during the last year, and that sits as a strange post in my COVID experience. It having been a year since he died is a reminder of how long this has been going on and it's sad to think how bad things still are. Maybe it's nice to think about vaccines being readily available Canada now. I don't know. That's nice, but I also can't say I'm confident about things going back to normal like everyone else is. I still never really know how to feel about the pandemic and now the music and death of Adam Schlesinger is weirdly tied up in that. Strange feeling.

Okay, two things related to this:

One is that as part of the tribute, a reformed Tinted Windows performed. Tinted Windows was a super-group featuring Schlesinger on bass and as the principle songwriter (awesome), Bun. E. Carlos from Cheap Trick on drums (IMO the coolest CT member, also awesome), James Iha on guitar (not a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, but he's undoubtedly the coolest member), and Taylor Hanson from... Hanson on vocals*. I was so excited to learn about this band because it was this joining of forces around this specific type of pop-rock that I absolutely love, but isn't for everyone. Sadly, the album didn't really stick with me, even though I REALLY wanted to like it. Apparently the band had discussed making another record, which I still would have absolutely listened to. It's sad that never happened.

*I can't say I'm a fan of Hanson's music, but I do have respect for them continuing to put out records this far into their career and being committed to pop-rock. Lifers.

I found it touching that this band reformed as a bass-less three-piece to perform for this night.

Second, I discovered that a tribute album to Schlesinger came out and I listened to that immediately. I think it really speaks to his preternatural talent to pair vocal harmonies with words and chords to hear the songs in so many ways. Maybe this is a nice thing I need.

Postscript: I just found that this compilation was released on my birthday last year. What a coincidence.

Bad Operation in My Mind

 Well, I had a plan to write a blog every day this week, but then I promptly let that plan fall apart last night, since I hurt my back skateboarding and ended up lying down and watching TV for the whole night. Does it still count if I blog seven times in one week? Am I fee to change the rules, or are they set in stone once I make them?

I've gotta admit that I'm pretty bummed I've hurt myself skateboarding yet again. Though I was pretty indestructible as a teenager, that's really not the case anymore. The first injury came in 2016 and since then I've consistently hurt myself almost once a year:

1. 2016: Partially torn ligament in my left ankle.
2. 2019: Partially torn ligament in my right ankle after getting hit by a car.
3. 2020: Pulled a muscle in my lower back.
4. 2020: Re-aggravated that same muscle.
5. 2021: Re-aggravated that same muscle.

The first two were accidents that weren't fully my fault, but the last three have been the result of me getting older and not keeping my body in good shape, which sucks. I was skateboarding to the market near my house and all of a sudden my back tightened up and started to hurt. I was kicking around trying ollies in a parking lot and one landing made my back do the same. I then end up having to spend a few days lying in bed to rest my back, which shoots my productivity into the ground. It sucks.

This most recent injury has made me think about if I'll be able to keep skateboarding, because even aimless fucking around seems to have a high risk for me. I guess I can commit to regular stretching and exercise, and maybe that will help, but it also sort of feels like skating is legit something I won't be able to do anymore.

To be honest, that scares me, because skateboarding is something that I consider integral to my identity. I don't want to turn into a "guy that used to skate" and my first reaction to any of the injuries is that I'll just keep dealing with them because I'm willing to keep getting hurt if I can keep skateboarding. I can't say I really feel the same as I'm bedridden now, but the thought is still in the back of my mind.

I don't know. Getting old is a trip and it really sneaks up on you. I don't want to act like I've already resigned to giving up on how I was as a young person, but what do you do when the proof starts piling up?

In the Morning We'll be Fine

There's been a slew of great music releases of the last couple of weeks, which to me signals that the most blessed time of the year has started: The point in spring and summer when the Actual Good Records start coming out.

There's a been a few things that I've enjoyed so far this year, but to me the sign that 2021 in Music had started in earnest was the release of Origami Angel's Gami Gang last Friday. I'm not sure exactly what it is about the release, but it stands out more than the other good stuff I've heard this year, like Another Michael and Glitterer. It could be the warm weather creeping in around its release and letting me know that all the good stuff is about to come. It could be people I know getting excited about it. It could be a lot of things. I feel like one of these releases that reinvigorates my desire to jump into new music has to come every year and this is it.

That being said, it is good, but not perfect by any means. In terms of 4th (are we on 5th?) wave emo revival, it hits all my spots, but is too polished by half. I need it to feel a little more like everything is about to fall apart and it's a miracle that the band is staying together in the song. I also need a lot more off-key screaming. I'm also not one for video game references and there are a lot here. 

It also weird in that it's sometimes almost too honed in on my interests. The promo pictures feature the members in a Bane hoodie and a throwback college basketball jersey, which is about as close to a perfect summation of my aesthetic in two articles of clothing as you can get. On top of that, it's a shreddy emo album with a lot of breakdowns and basketball references. How did I get so directly in this band's crosshairs? Is that my fault or theirs?

Anyway, Gami Gang is good and Counter Intuitive Records kicks ass. Sure is weird that I always feel the need to describe things I don't like about things I like, right?