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In This Issue: System of a Down have completed their first leg of their North American arena tour with The Mars Volta, and the second leg of the tour starts this Saturday, September 17th in Vancouver, with the second stop here in Calgary on Monday, September 19th. Fan reports have been largely positive and often include the fact that if you have tickets on the floor, be prepared to stand back, or take your life in your own hands by jumping in the pit. I will be doing the latter. Here's something different though. Seeing as I will likely have my hands full during their performance, I will give you what is potentially the set list for the show before it even happens. On the band's official web site, this set list is offered as the list for the entire tour. If you are the type who likes to be surprised, you should look away now.
It's not know if that's the exact order of the set, or if this is the pool of songs that the band chooses the set list from every night, but either way, it's an impressive group of songs that we will possibly be hearing come Monday night. Although there has been little word on the follow-up/companion album to Mezmerize, it has been reported that the band is potentially releasing Hypnotize on November 15th. The first single from the new album will likely be the title track and the disc will feature the band's first instrumental song, Hezze which is influenced by Middle Eastern music while incorporating rock and disco styles. Lastly, drummer John Dolmayan conducted an interview with online multi-media magazine FaceCulture when in Amsterdam. Dolmayan spoke about every song on Mezmerize, either speaking personally, musically or otherwise as well as revealing slightly why the songs from one recording session were split into the two albums. www.systemofadown.com Pearl Jam; One Night After Calgary As Told By: Jon Fessler Last week, I reviewed the Pearl Jam concert here in Calgary on September 4th at the Saddledome. After the show, I ran into kMNR reader Jon Fessler who was in town from Edmonton to catch the show. He was lucky enough to head back home that night to see the boys once again the following evening at Rexall Place. After reading last week's issue, he was gracious enough to provide me with details of that show which I've written below using most of his words. Before I get into that though, I should point out a correction from my review last week. I mentioned that two new songs were performed at the concert here in Calgary and that was untrue. I was correct in guessing the title of Hard To Imagine, but it and Dream Baby Dream (the other 'new' song that really isn't new) are actually Pearl Jam tunes that have existed for some time. Hard to Imagine actually appears on the Lost Dogs release of 2003 and Dream Baby Dream is a song the band's performed live for some time now. Now that I've cleared that up, here's what Jon had to say about the Edmonton show on September 5th: For the Edmonton show, I managed to get row nine on the floor. Having Ten Club membership is definitely an advantage and man do they treat you right! The show started with the same low bass note as Calgary (something they've been doing all tour so far), but this time the set starter was Release, and I knew it right away. The song was amazing and it's one that's been in my top ten Pearl Jams songs. Eddie Vedder's voice was amazing and the song was the perfect slow way to start the show. From there, the show whipped into some faster songs like Spin the Black Circle (which fucking rocked). Seeing that song live was awesome and Vedder was all over the place. The intensity of the band seemed a little bit higher than the previous night. Other highlights of the main set were Grievance (which is so good live), Corduroy, Given To Fly, Wishlist and Animal. This first encore contained my top three moments of the night. I've always loved Crazy Mary (a cover of Victoria Williams which appeared on the Sweet Relief tribute). Not only did the song itself rock, but it featured Boom on the keyboards dueling with Mike McCready on guitar. They jammed back and forth before finally playing together to perform the best version of Crazy Mary I have ever heard (and I've got a lot of live Pearl Jam material to draw from!) I'm usually not that excited about hearing Jeremy, but this was the first time they whipped it out on this tour. It took me back to 1992 when I first saw the video and realized how much I really love this band. Finishing off the first encore was Porch, another live favourite. It started off with a funky slow start but eventually got going huge. The band jammed and it easily turned into a ten-minute-long song. Looking at Vancouver's set list and time, Calgary's show was longer but based on my friend Brad's description of the show, Vancouver was better. He said that Vedder was all over the place, running around like a mad man. As far as comparing the Calgary show to this Edmonton show, I thought there was a bit more energy in Edmonton but Calgary was longer and had the better set list, plus the overall feeling in Calgary surpassed this show. www.pearljam.com Thanks again to Jon for providing his account of the Edmonton show. He's got scans of each ticket up on his web site (in case you don't believe he was really there...HA!), and he hopes to have pictures up from either show soon. At the beginning of the summer, word began to spread that satellite radio would arrive in Canadian markets as soon as this fall. By mid-June, the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, an independent agency responsible for regulating Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications systems) had granted licenses to three groups (SIRIUS Canada, Canadian Satellite Radio Inc./CSR and CHUM Limited), granting them the opportunity to provide subscription satellite radio services to Canadian consumers. The requirement was that they had to have at least eight original channels produced in Canada with a maximum of nine foreign channels per Canadian channel; that at least 85% of the musical selections and spoken word programming broadcast on said Canadian channels must be Canadian; that at least 25% of the Canadian channels must be in French; that at least 25% of the music on the Canadian channels must be new Canadian music; and that a further 25% of the music must be by emerging Canadian artists. The licensees must also contribute at least 5% of their gross annual revenues to initiatives for the development of Canadian talent, which means donating funds to organizations such as FACTOR. Of course, there has been a challenge to this, including one of the three licensees, CHUM Ltd. They stated that they never intended to follow through with their application, if granted. They are not pleased with the idea that companies that, although are partially Canadian owned and operated, ultimately originate in the US or otherwise. There was even an appeal to overturn the CRTC decision in cabinet, but last Friday, they upheld the decision. SIRIUS Canada is very happy with this decision and they could have services and hardware available for Canadian consumers as early as this Christmas. http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/September2005/09/c8078.html Now, looking South of the border where Satellite radio has been available for some time now, there's a new player in the game. They call it FM Channel Casting which is simply and FM station which broadcasts non-stop music with not even a minute and a half of commercials every hour, and no annoying DJs. The concept has been launched by owners of three Long Island radio stations who announced their format today (September 15th). One station feature classic rock with the second providing what appears to be similar to a top 40 station and the third being more eclectic, ranging from Alicia Keys, Frank Sinatra, Sting, Jimmy Durante and so forth. The stations will sell hourly sponsorship with short messages throughout the hour for the purchasing sponsor. The "Brandcasting" includes generally dry-read messages for 30 seconds at the top of the hour, 15 seconds at the quarter hour, 20 seconds at the half and 15 seconds at the last quarter of the hour. The "brandcasts" will not only be sold to major corporations, but will also be offered to listeners/individuals who want to buy an hour to mark a birthday, wedding, anniversary or other special event. http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/23962157 Not long after hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and brought on the worst destruction in US history and subsequently the worst government response in history, rapper Kanye West appeared on a telethon and spoke out about the terrible response and commented how "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Whether you agree or disagree with him, he does have a right to voice his opinion. All I will say is, that he could've picked a better time to make such a statement...and did Mike Myers look like he had the fear of God in him (while standing next to West) or what?! Seriously though, it's no surprise that West's comments have elicited some accolades and harsh responses alike. The latest to the latter fold is Dubya's wife, Laura Bush. "I think all of the remarks are disgusting, to be perfectly frank, because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country. And I know that. I mean, I'm the person who lives with him. I know what he's like, and I know what he thinks, and I know how he cares about people," she said in a radio interview this week. Now, this isn't really much of a surprise. My question is, if the President really didn't (doesn't?) give a shite about black people, would Mrs. Bush state that in an interview? Would she say, "Yeah, you know what? My husband is a war-mongering, greedy prick who doesn't give two fucks about black people, and that's why hundreds if not thousands of them are dying as we speak." Would she say that??? I doubt it, and of course, that's not what she said. Mind you, if you re-read what she said in the previous paragraph, it's interesting that she never actually states that her husband cares about black people. She says, "...of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country..." which by default includes black people. She also says, "...I know how he cares about people." She doesn't really specify which people. Rich people? Republican supporting people? People who believe in his God? His cocaine-sniffing daughters? Her comments are not far off than Bill O'Reilly's maniacal ranting days after West's comments, stating that they were "simply nutty" and "irresponsible". Actually, O'Reilly's comments at least offered some words of wisdom (whereas Mrs. Bush just defended her husband without really offering anything else): "...the huge, bureaucratic government will never be able to protect you..." and "...If you're poor, you're powerless, not only in America, but everywhere on earth..." Sadly, he closed his Talking Points/Most Ridiculous Item segment by telling France to "keep your cots" and encouraging viewers to get their "Boycott France" bumper stickers, stating, "To not do so would be ridiculous." You have to love right-wing media! Sorry, I got off on a political rant of my own, but let me get back to the music side of this story. West probably expected almost every black person in America to support him, especially rappers. However, Master P (a New Orleans resident) thinks that West "needed to wait." He reportedly told AllHipHip.com, "...I got people in my community dying right now. I got kids lost, I got parents lost, I got people got nowhere to go back to right now, so we need the government. We gon' need the president." He also apparently needs a grammar lesson, but he does have a point. All right, so this has morphed from a story to more of a commentary piece, but what West stated isn't really anything new. He focused primarily on black people because he is one, but the issue is that it's the poor people of America (and the world) that always get left behind. It just so happens that the majority of the poor people left behind in New Orleans are black. His comments might have been better served if he blasted President Bush for not caring about poor people, which likely holds more truth than anything else. Instead, he's being blasted by republicans for trying to make this a racial issue, which is never a pretty battle. Especially when you're a musician. http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/09/1306.cfm Thievery Corporation To Headline Operation Ceasefire Contributed By: Andrew Stewart Thievery Corporation has stepped forward to headline Operation Ceasefire, potentially the largest anti-war concert ever held in Washington, DC. The free concert takes place on September 24th, immediately following a massive march to demand the return of American troops from Iraq. The concert is set to start at approximately 1500 hrs. Joining Thievery Corporation are Steve Earle, Bouncing Souls, Jello Biafra, Wayne Kramer (former MC5 front-man) & The Bellrays, Le Tigre, The Evens, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists and more. For more details, check the web site. www.opceasefire.org In Stores Next Week This week seems to be a big one for the DualDisc format, in which a single disc contains CD media on one side and DVD media on the other. For those of you still yearning for '80s rock, Bon Jovi jumps on the DualDisc bandwagon with Have A Nice Day. Jamiroquai is also offering fans extra material on one disc with the release of Dynamite next week. This is his sixth album and first release since 2001's A Funk Odyssey. Also taking advantage of the DualDisc format is Barbara Streisand with Guilty Pleasures. For the urban-music-lover, there are a trio of releases for your hands to get on. Shaggy returns with Clothes Drop, while Master P drops Greatest Hits Remixed and yet another posthumous release from 2 Pac with Poetry & Music Vol.2. Lastly, from Canadian trouble-maker Matthew Good comes his best-of compilation In A Coma highlighting his career from 1995-2005. The album comes in two formats; the first is a simple CD with 17 tracks (2 new songs Oh Be Joyful and Big City Life, hits from both his solo releases and from the Matthew Good Band and the previously unreleased Pony Boy); the second is a "deluxe" version which contains two CDs and a DVD. The second CD of the deluxe set has three parts; Part One: Rooms which is acoustic re-workings of nine songs, including North American For Life, Hello Time Bomb and more; Part Two: Loser Anthems, for those of you who missed out buying this limited edition EP released back in 2001; and Part Three: Lo Fi B Sides, consisting of three songs (Born To Kill, Enjoy the Silence and Fated which is a FANTASTIC song). The DVD also contains three parts with part one containing what appears to be all the videos including a special animated video for While We Were Hunting Rabbits which has never been seen before. Parts two and three of the DVD is the making of the Rooms acoustic re-works and a slide show. Good really knows how to entice fans to buy a best-of disc that would normally be passed-by since they already own most, if not all of his catalogue. www.inacoma.com This Week's Releases Reviewed http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/09/1301.cfm ON SALE TOMORROW!!! In addition to his best-of release next week, Matthew Good is coming to Calgary on November 1st, playing MacEwan Hall. Tickets go on sale September 16th at 10:00 hrs.
~~ kMNR v2005.084 ~~ If you would like to hear about or if you have any information on a particular band or artist, please email and I will do my best to cover them.
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