kMNR... September 29th, 2005

In This Issue:

Bucket Truck's Favour The Bull Finally Gets Release Date

Listen up kids, if your craving for some heavy Canadian rock music has gone unattended, be prepared to get smacked in the face. The boys from St. John's, Newfoundland known as Bucket Truck have finally announced the release date for their long awaited album Favour The Bull. Run, don't walk, to your local record store on October 18th and pick up this album which has been two years in the making.

Bucket Truck (percussionist Chris Hanley, bassist Dave "Squid" Mullett, drummer Mike Rowe, guitarists Mike Rizkalla and Mike Stewart and singer Matt Wells) have been hard at work on this album, doing pretty much most of the work themselves and not relying on the assistance of record labels. After shopping around for a deal that would suit them well, they decided to go it themselves, forming Bucket Truck Records. They then traveled to Sweden to record the album with producers Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lovstrom. They even teamed up with musician Walter Schreifels (Quicksand, Rival Schools) who lent some inspiration and vocals.

The boys will hit the road playing shows throughout Canada, most of which have yet to be announced, including special Atlantic Canada dates with the aforementioned Walter Schreifels. Two dates surrounding the release of Favour The Bull have been confirmed in Charlottetown, PEI on October 15th and in Toronto on October 18th.

If you're not familiar with the band and/or would like to hear what the new material sounds like, head over to their web site and on their spot on MySpace as they have some tracks off the album available to listen through streaming audio on both.

What If The "West" Was White?

Written By: Nick Gouveia

"George Bush does not care about black people!" - Kanye West (September 2005)

If you live on the east coast of North America you saw the expression on Mike Myers' face when Kanye West expressed his disgust in the way President George W. Bush handled the disaster caused by hurricane Katrina in the gulf coast. In the history of the presidency, no musician professed such a statement about the commander in chief. No person has ever called the president a racist, and essentially, that's exactly what Kanye West did.

In its context, this statement should go into the history books as a sparking point in the struggle for social change in the United States. Instead it has been relegated to being nothing more than an email forward that people receive everyday. Society, by and large, has become detained from reality. In times where governments around the world use the war on terrorism as a tactic to pass laws which further constrained our freedoms (read the patriot act), what gives Kanye West the right to blurt out this accusation on an international stage?

The answer is simple; because HE IS KANYE WEST!

Along with creating music that should be the blueprint for how hip-hop is written, TIME Magazine recently listed West as one of the worlds 100 most influential people. A high honour considering the list is laden with monarchs, politicians, business icons and spiritual leaders. Only two albums into his career, Kanye West has already established himself as the most creative mind in music. His first album The College Dropout along with his latest release Late Registration has revived hip-hop from its 'all bling' play list and brought forth a new era of thought provoking music.

And yet, no one seems to care about anything Kanye West has to say. Censors cut out the Bush statement during an encore airing of the Katrina disaster relief special for the west coast, grossly violating freedom of speech laws (oops forgot about the patriot act). Evidently the leader in hip-hop music doesn't have a good read on the pulse of the Black community in America. (Obvious Sarcasm)

J.F.K. used to have leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King visit the White House for meetings on how to bridge the gaps between races, and make the world a better place to live. I wonder if G.W. Bush ever thought of an idea like this.

I leave you with this, think back to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Think about all the work they did to try and bring peace to the world. Would people have listened if John Lennon were black? Would people listen to Kanye West if he were white?

(You can read Nick's blog at The Evil Empire.)

Another Nirvana Release Arrives This November

As reported through Yahoo! News/Billboard, the next Nirvana release will arrive on November 1st and contains three previously unreleased tracks.

The three unreleased songs on Sliver: The Best Of The Box are Spank Thru (from the 1985 Fecal Matter demo tape), Sappy (the 1990 studio outtake) and Come As You Are (a pre-Nevermind rehearsal recording). The remaining nineteen tracks are from last year's With The Lights Out boxed set. Below is the complete track listing:

  • Spank Thru (December 1985 Fecal Matter Demo) 3:10

  • Heartbreaker (March 1987 show in Raymond, WA) 2:59

  • Mrs. Buttersworth (1988 band demo) 4:05

  • Floyd The Barber (January 23, 2988 show in Tacoma, WA) 2:33

  • Clean Up Before She Comes (1988 home demo) 3:12

  • About A Girl (1988 home demo) 2:44

  • Blandest (June 1988 studio session in Seattle, WA. Produced by Jack Endino) 3:56

  • Ain't It A Shame (August 1989 studio session in Seattle, WA) 2:01

  • Sappy (January 1990 studio session in Seattle, WA. Produced by Jack Endino) 3:46

  • Lithium (September 25, 1990 KAOS radio show) 1:49

  • Opinion (September 25, 1990 KAOS radio show) 1:34

  • Sliver (1990 home demo) 2:09

  • Smells Like Teen Spirit (March 1991 boombox demo) 5:40

  • Come As You Are (March 1991 boombox demo) 4:15

  • Old Age (September 1991 studio session for Nevermind) 4:20

  • Oh The Guilt (April 1992 studio session in Seattle, WA) 3:25

  • Rape Me (1992 solo acoustic home demo) 3:23

  • Rape Me (October 1992 studio session in Seattle, WA) 3:01

  • Heart-Shaped Box (January 1993 studio session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) 5:31

  • Do Re Me (1994 boombox demo solo acoustic) 4:24

  • You Know You're Right (1994 boombox demo solo acoustic) 2:30

  • All Apologies (1994 boombox demo solo acoustic) 3:33

The Fecal Matter demo has long been considered the most-sought-after rare Nirvana item for the biggest of fans and it comes as a bit of a surprise that Spank Thru (from that demo) appears on this compilation. Personally, I'm glad that Opinion is considered 'the best of the best' from the With The Lights Out release, as it's one of my favourite rare Nirvana tracks.

Rolling Stone reported online last week that Kurt Cobain's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain took an active role in making decisions for this release, specifically the title and the cover image.

(With thanks from NFC: The Internet Nirvana Fan Club)

Steve Jobs Gives It To The Record Companies

It looks like we've got another soldier in the fight against the Goliath known as evil record companies. Who better than to try and slay such monsters? How about computer geek, Steve Jobs?

Jobs is the CEO of Apple, fine makers of superior yet rarely purchased home computers and more importantly, the latest techno-gadget partially responsible for making honest folks out of music thieves. The Applie iPod has been a raging success and the company's iTunes online music service has been offering fans an opportunity to download music at decent prices since it launched in 2003. Now, there's a threat on the horizon from record companies that prompted Jobs to lash-out publicly.

Last week, Jobs warned those in attendance at the Apple Expo in Paris, France that major record labels are looking to raise the costs of iTunes downloads when their current deals expire, stating that "they're getting a little greedy." That's a gross understatement if you asked me.

He went on to say, "Customers think the price is really good where it is. We're trying to compete with piracy - we're trying to pull people away from piracy and say, 'You can buy these songs legally for a fair price.' But if the price goes up a lot, they'll go back to piracy. Then everybody loses."

Now, to be fair, Jobs is a businessman and does have a stake in this. iTunes has sold over five-hundred million songs since 2003 and makes up for about 82% of the online music downloading market. Many people still would rather pay nothing for a digital music file rather than pay for the 99 cents it currently costs. Any increase will surely see those willing to be good little boys and girls, run quickly back to illegal download services. To me, this is just another example of the record companies' arrogance, considering that the money they make off the current price of downloads is enormous especially with no manufacturing, storage or shipping costs to incur.

Apparently, an anonymous record label executive spoke with MTV News and says that the labels are simply looking at implementing variable pricing (which translates into charging more money for current popular music), a practice that's normal in the industry. This strikes me as odd, as more often than not, new releases at retail outlets are priced lower to get them out the door quicker. The coward also shot back at Jobs saying that the current pricing has allowed him to "become the Wal-Mart of the internet and he wants to retain that monopoly." Although this is true, he/she continued saying that Apple has been selling it's hardware (iPods) "on the back of our content", which reeks of someone trying to refocus the attention away from themselves.

Bloodhound Gang Loves Ralph Wiggum

Hefty Fine hit stores this week, and although I have only heard two songs (Foxtrot, Uniform, Charlie, Kilo and Pennsylvania) from this new Bloodhound Gang release, I've had the chance to read the lyrics for another song, titled Ralph Wiggum.

All I can say is; ZUH???

In other Bloodhound Gang news, it should come as no surprise that Evil Jared Hasselhoff, Jimmy Pop and two members of their "crew" were thrown out of the Hippodrom at Octoberfest in Germany recently. The only shocking thing is that the Germans didn't mistake Jared as a relative of David Hasselhof and give him the royal treatment.

"Kidnapped by the likes of pure conjecture"

In case my lengthy review didn't hammer the point in last week, System of a Down was obscenely good. So much so, that for days after the show, all I could think of was "How can I see that again?!". A sentiment shared by many a friend.

As of today (Thursday, September 29, 2005), there are 53 days until the release of SOAD's next album, Hypnotize!

In Stores Next Week

The month of October starts off with a trio of rock releases worth noting. I'll start with Alberta/Canadian rock darlings Nickelback. Connoisseurs of rock music love to hate them, but their success speaks for itself. The boys (specifically leader Chad Kroeger) know how to write radio-friendly hits and this album is no different. The lead single for All The Right Reasons is Photograph and it's been getting an enormous amount of airplay on both radio and TV. This album should prove to be another success for the band.

For our second highlighted release next Tuesday, we look at Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have It So Much. As you may or may not know, I hate trying to label music, but for some reason, when I think of Franz Ferdinand, I think of trendy rock music. Now, don't take that as a negative, as I like what they did with their self-titled debut (which was funny enough, released on April 20, 2004). Speaking of self-titled, the band's original plan with their sophomore release (and all subsequent releases) was to keep them self titled and simply change the colour scheme of the package of the first release. Somewhere along the line, they changed their minds and decided to mix things up. Either way, it'll be interested to hear what this disc has to offer.

At the risk of showing bias, the most exciting release next week is B-Sides and Rarities from the Deftones. The CD/DVD release contains many songs that hardcore fans previously needed to scour the internet to hear, including a cover of Sade's No Ordinary Love, and an acoustic version of the 2000 hit Change (In The House Of Flies). The most exciting part of this release is the DVD which contains every Deftones video to date, and it also includes live and backstage footage.

There are a few more releases coming out next week. As much as I dislike them, I do have to give credit where credit is due and Canadians Simple Plan deserve a little bit. They release Live From The Hard Rock on October 4th, and although I have no interest in this album, the one time I did see them live was three years back at Warped Tour where they were booed, but not off stage. They persevered and that takes a lot of balls. Melissa Etheridge is delivering Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, while we see the return of Fiona Apple (yup, she's still around) with Extraordinary Machine.

This Week's Releases Reviewed

There were a few noteworthy releases this week, and you can read short reviews for some of them courtesy of the good folks at Chart Magazine. Why? Well, sometimes people like to have a little guidance when spending their hard-earned dollars on a shiny little plastic disc covered in foil which magically pumps music from the player it's inserted into. This week, read about Sweet Nothing from Matthew Barber, the 'country rock' of Neil Young's Prairie Wind, discover what The Antidote is from Morcheeba, the Pride of Ashley MacIssac's departure from his traditional fiddling, Dark Light from Finland's HIM, why Wolf Parade offers Apologies To The Queen Mary, and the seemingly impossible to find Live It Out from Metric, among many others:

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/09/2701.cfm

Upcoming Calgary Shows

ON SALE TOMORROW!!! Staind are coming to town on November 6th playing MacEwan Hall and joining them will be Default. Also on sale tomorrow (September 30th) are tickets for Nashville Pussy on October 18th.

On SALE SATURDAY!!! Not enough heavy metal coming our way? Not to fear minions of the damned, because Gwar are coming to Calgary's MacEwan Hall on November 9th. Maybe you've got a hankering for emo-punk, in which case there's a cure for you too. My Chemical Romance arrives at the Stampede Corral on December 7th with Thrice and Circa Survive. Tickets for both these shows go on sale October 1st.

September 30, 2005 Hedley, Faber MacEwan Hall
October 01, 2005 Black Dice, Blood on the Wall, The Incandescence HiFi Club
October 02, 2005 Audioslave, Seether, 30 Seconds To Mars Saddledome
October 03, 2005 Stratovarius, Into Eternity The Warehouse
October 04, 2005 Collective Soul Outlaws
October 04, 2005 Strada, Whitfield HiFi Club
October 04, 2005 Mediaeval Baebes MacEwan Hall
October 05, 2005 Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade MacEwan Hall
October 05, 2005 The Shams Ship & Anchor
October 06, 2005 Smokin 45s, Black Coffee Cowboys, Cryptomaniacs Broken City
October 06, 2005 Black Mountain, Ladyhawk & The Blood Meridian The Warehouse
October 08, 2005 Los Lobos Jack Singer Concert Hall
October 08, 2005 Skateboarding Totally Rules Everything Else Sucks (S.T.R.E.E.T.S.), Pussy Monster, DC Heads HiFi Club
October 08, 2005 Feist, Jason Collette & New Buffalo MacEwan Hall
October 14, 2005 David Gogo with The Tony D Band Bowness Community Hall
October 15, 2005 Corb Lund MacEwan Hall

~~ kMNR v2005.086 ~~

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.