Stealing The Beat: Part II

This three-part series takes a deep look into one of my most treasured belongings: my drumstick collection.

We’re back here for Part II of this three-part series, taking a look at the remnants of some of the concerts that formed me as a person, made my soul the way it is today, and were an aid to me in times of both happiness and unease – drumsticks from wicked awesome shows!

1. Moneen – 21/10/04

Moneen is and was a great band. I think they were underrated actually. One of the things I really liked about them was that when I went online to buy a tee-shirt from them, they actually mailed the package themselves, and included free pins and stickers too. It was really cool, especially for the band-infatuated 18 year old I was. Wow – it just hit me that I was 18 when I went to their show. I feel like I was 16 or something… it’s blowing my mind. Anyway – here’s their best song in my head: Are We Really Happy With Who We Are. Also – they’re Canadian.

2. The Cowboys – 08/01/07

Man, the Cowboys were awesome. They were a three-piece jokey-band from Queen’s University and they’d play every Monday night at Clark Hall Pub. They had a pretty strong following of about eleven of us die-hard regulars who would go every Monday night and sit on the floor in a semi-circle while they played Eleventeen, a super emo song. Other hits included Chop Chop Chop, FaceBook, and my personal favorite, Satan Is My Best Friend. They were briefly reunited at the recent surprise engagement party we attended – their drummer/guitar player was the one proposing. Our ride home was the tuba player, and the other third, the Dr., as he is called, was their amazing toy guitar player. If I could make one wish in the world, in whole, wide world… it would be for The Cowboys to get back together. This hilarious video I found online is a great example of just how loved the Cowboys were. I even have an embarrassing appearance at around 4:20 in. Note – the vid starts for real at about 1:15 in. There’s even a reference to the song Airing Your Grievances, now a Queen’s Players staple, that is actually copyrighted by The Cowboys. If you don’t know, now you know, Playa.

3. Finnish On The Chest – Queen’s Players – 16/06/07

I know I should be writing about Finnish on the Chest, but I’m still really hopped on The Cowboys right now, sorry. Finnish on the Chest is another Queen’s Player band. They had white tee-shirts with the Finnish blue cross on them. They never cease to amaze with their puns, amazing band skills, and hilarious names.

4. Mother Mother 04/09/11

In case you missed the review from the show in Peterborough, Coworker, Him and I saw the band a couple of weeks ago now, or last week, or something like that. They were fantastic and I suggest you check out His entry here to get a feel for their music and listen to all three of their albums for free.

5. Cory Roberts and The Mixed Goods – 12/31/08

Yup, you read it right. New Years Eve baby. This was the first winter that He and I were officially-officially dating and I went to visit him in New Brunswick so we could ring in the new year together. We went to a local pub where his friend was playing in this band and spent the night drinking and dancing – it was a great time. I think this is definitely the way to go as far as New Years goes – a pub, a band, and limited cover. In New Brunswick.

6. Hello Kelly – 04/16/05

Hello Kelly is the band of the brother of a friend of mine. We really enjoyed their stuff in high school, though they were a Christian band, so I bet you weren’t expecting that! They do have a really cute Christmas song though, that is more about hot chocolate than the birth of JC. Check out this video and enjoy a healthy taste of pop-punk from the early 2000’s.

7. Hot Hot Heat – 04/19/05

From that same show blogged in the previous edition of Stealing the Beat, Hot Hot Heat played in Peterborough back in 2005. They were so much smaller then too. The stage at the Trasheteria is at one end with all the rooms for the stars at the other, so they have to walk directly through the crowd to get to the stage. BFF talked for a long time about how Steve Bays had to tap her on the shoulder to get her to move out of the way. We were front row, and he sweated and spat into our faces all night. It was awesome.

Mother Mother: Great Great or Awesome Awesome?

If there is one sentence that would sum up my entire yesterday it is this one: My dogs were barking.

Yesterday was filled with more walking than I, as a lady of leisure (laziness) am used to.

He and I headed out for a massive walk along St. Clair West and then through the Junction down at Dundas West. It was awesome – we saw some hilarious sites, like Gooch Street, and the “Rue Morgue House of Horrors.” What the dude is that place anyway?

We continued our walk and ended up trekking through Etienne Brule Park (I know it has French accents in the title and stuff, but I have a Mac and don’t know how to make those). While it was a beautiful park, the best part was that we totally saw two snakes doing it! Awesome.

We went to look at open houses with His dad in Bloor West. Most realtors thought we were looking for us, but it’s really for His parents. The joke’s on them!

…

Then it was off to Peterborough to check out Mother Mother with my Coworker. We arrived in Peterborough a bit early and had time to kill so we headed to Spanky’s to grab a pint and some deep-fried whatever for dinner. One catch – Spanky’s didn’t have any of that grub. It was only like, platters of cheese and olives and fruit and stuff. Which isn’t necessarily bad, only when you’re pumped for a concert, you’d totally rather have onion rings.

So onion rings we had! After our beers we detoured over to The Whistle Stop for some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had. They also have about a billion kinds of poutine, but none of us liked poutine anyway.

Then – it was on to the Red Dog for some tasty Mother Mother tunes!

The opener was Whale Tooth, who were actually really good. They had a fun sound and got the crowd riled up for Mother Mother. Also, they didn’t play too long, which I think is a good quality in an opener when people are there to see the headliners. Just long enough to make you like them, then on to the main attraction.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mother Mother put on a great show. He and I had seen then previously when they played the Virgin Mobile Live show in October or November at Lee’s Palace and they were great. The Red Dog was a much smaller venue but this meant we got to get much closer to the band. The lead singer Ryan’s facial expressions are always priceless too – he’s totally in the zone and having a lot of fun with it.

One thing that was less than kosher was the crowd. Now, I totally get that at concerts, there’s a lot of pushing and shoving and general rudeness. But this show was crazy… the guy next to me was a total Emo Muppet Bobblehead and literally banging his head and emo hair around all night. I don’t know who he was trying to impress, but it wasn’t me, because that plaid shirt was not emo enough to match your haircut bub.

As an example of what not to do at a concert, try this:

Coworker to Drunk Girl: Can you please stop pushing me?
Annoying Guy to Drunk Girl: Push her as hard as you can.

What the dude?!? When did that become okay? Coworker didn’t say it rudely, wasn’t pushing her back, and was totally valid in her comment. Then this donkoid comes out of nowhere and tells the girl to push Coworker strictly because she asked her not to?

People can be idiots.

Point of this post: If Mother Mother is ever in town, go check them out. They’re pretty great.

Music at Work – Mother Mother

One thing that She and I both agree on is that work is made much more enjoyable when you have some music to listen to.  Luckily, we both work jobs where listening to music on headphones, while plugging away on your laptop, isn’t frowned upon.

So there has been some time spent at my workplace looking for for good music to listen to on the internet.  Personally, I prefer to listen to whole albums.  However, this can make it difficult when trying to find something to listen to.  Most well known bands only put a few songs on their myspace pages, oftentimes only as samples of their songs.

Luckily, through the ease of information sharing since the advent of internet, many artists that are trying to get their sound heard by as many ears as possible share their whole albums online.  I will try to uncover a few of these on this blog in a segment titled: Music at Work.

First up, is a band that I only found out about in the fall.  She was promoting a concert through work.  The headliner of that show was a band from Vancouver called Mother Mother.  Before going to the show I managed to find both of their albums online and in their entirety on their Soundcloud page.  Both albums are there along with a new single from their forthcoming album.  The music player plays really well and even goes seamlessly from their first album (Touch Up) to their second (O My Heart) without any user interference necessary.

After listening to them live, I was just dumbfounded as to what genre of music I would categorize them as. Really.  The best I can do is indie rock.  The lead singer sings very well and is backed up by two talented females.  They just seem to rock out, in a very, very good way. They’ve got an interesting and infectious sound and I can’t think of more than one song that I don’t care for out of all of the tracks from both albums.

Anyways, give them a listen at work and, if you like what you hear, try to see them live when they come to a town near you.  After all, that’s the reason why these bands upload their entire albums online, isn’t it?

If you have any suggestions for future music that can be featured in Music at Work, leave a comment or send me a tweet (@mulliganl).  Remember, I like full albums for my music at work.

Don’t miss: Touch Up, Polynesia, Body of Yours, Ghosting