New York's Citi Field suitable for kings and Queens

The New York Mets have definitely underachieved on the diamond over the past few years, but the team did a great job with Citi Field, its new stadium that opened last season.
The ball park was built to replace nearby Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens, and any New York City breaks should definitely include a visit here for baseball fans.
Citi Field seats 42,000 fans and has an exterior look similar to old Ebbets Field, which was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers before the team moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. 

The stadium's most notable feature is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, which acts as the entrance to the park. It features photos, videos, a statue and a quotation from the player who broke Major League Baseball's colour barrier when he played for the Dodgers in 1947. It's a very nice touch and another posthumous honour for the man whose uniform number has been retired by the league. 

An excellent souvenir store can be accessed from the rotunda before making your way to your seats, and a Mets Hall of Fame & Museum has opened adjacent to the rotunda this year.

I paid $19 for an upper deck seat along the first base line for a weekday game against the St. Louis Cardinals last August, and it offered a good vantage point of the entire field, as well as Flushing Bay and the East River to the north and the numerous planes that were noisily taking off and landing at nearby Laguardia Airport throughout the game.

A giant apple with a Mets logo on it lights up and rises out of the centre field area where there are no seats, and an impressive opposite field shot by David Wright gave me a chance to see it in action in the first inning as the Mets jumped out to an early lead on the way to a 9-0 win.

I appreciated the brick wall behind the plate, similar to the stadiums in Philadelphia and Baltimore and the fact that the dimensions and wall heights weren't uniform in the outfield. Some lucky fans can sit at ground level behind a screen that forms part of the outfield fence in right field near the bullpens in a section called Mo's Zone.

There's a good selection of souvenirs and food available from vending stands throughout the stadium. If you're able to afford a classier dining experience, the 350-seat Acela Club offers a full view of the field from its location behind the left field foul pole. Other higher end eating options are also available beyond fast food hot dogs, sausages, nachos, ice cream, hamburgers, French fries, seafood, pizza, pasta, barbecue and Japanese offerings for us plain folk.

Big Apple Brews is unfortunately the only place for commoners to order microbrews, but at least it's conveniently located by the Mets 2K Sports Fan Fest if you want to enjoy a beer while your kids play. The Fan Fest area is very well done and includes a mini wiffleball field replica of Citi Field, a batting cage, a dunk tank, video game kiosks and other attractions.
Another welcomed aspect was lots of open areas where fans who didn't wish to stay in their seats can easily stand and get a good view of the field. A large video scoreboard in centre field offers player information and replays, as well as sometimes annoying ads that have come to be part of the modern baseball experience. 

Tennis fans will appreciate that the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the home of the annual U.S. Open tournament, is located across the street — making it entirely possible to see a unique tennis-baseball double-header while the grand slam event is on.

Jetset Motel — Jetset Motel

I'd seen the name Jetset Motel in local concert listings for a while, but didn't know anything about the band or its music until being sent an online advance copy of its self-titled debut that will go on sale on April 20.
The 10-track album is a happy discovery, full of well-written and played rootsy guitar rock played by four Newfoundlanders now living in Toronto and influenced by the likes of Gram Parsons, Neil Young and Wilco. The record was mixed by Laurence Currie, whose studio resume also includes the names Holy Fuck, Wintersleep, The Cliks and In Flight Safety.
Lead singer David Picco and Jimmy Rose's guitars intertwine seemingly effortlessly, while bassist Sheldon Kelly and drummer Dennis Keough are no slouches either.
Backing harmonies add a pop dimension to the big guitar sound found in opener "I Guess You Know By Now," while there's a little more jangle in "Way It's Been."
You can hear some steel guitar in the rollicking country rocker "Late In The Early Morning," tasteful organ in the mid-tempo "Pass By Slow," and Picco cuts loose on the harmonica in "Goin' Down The Road."
The six-and-a-half-minute closing track, "You Are Only Listening (To Your Heart Start Up Again)," revolves around acoustic guitar for the first half before feedback and squealing electric guitar comes in Velvet Underground-style to take things home.
Jetset Motel offered a lot more than I was expecting. I'll give it an 8/10.
Jetset Motel will be launched with an April 22 performance at Toronto's Dakota Tavern, while more Ontario shows are scheduled for May and June. You can also hear the band's music in the CBC television series, Republic Of Doyle.

Acoustic Superchunk and a D.O.A. sing-along

A special screening of Canadian writer/director Matt Bissonnette's Passenger Side was held at Toronto's The Royal cinema on Wednesday night.
It was special not only because it's a fine film that I can identify with, but because Bissonnette (who's married to actress Molly Parker) was in attendance. So was the movie's music consultant, Mac McCaughan, the main man for indie rock bands Superchunk and Portastatic and the co-founder of Merge Records. The two men discussed the use of music in Passenger Side with Now magazine editor/publisher Michael Hollett, and then took questions from the audience.
Then came the moment that drew many of the people in the crowd (including Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew and Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, who were sitting together) out on a rainy night to spend $20 or $25 for admission and more at the concession stand — which on this occasion was selling Mill Street Organic Lager and wine. I told you it was special.
Oh yeah... back to that moment I mentioned in the last paragraph. What was it? A rare acoustic performance by McCaughan and Superchunk/Portastatic bandmate Jim Wilbur. Well, it wasn't totally acoustic, since Wilbur kept switching between acoustic guitar and electric bass. But it was totally special.
I saw a full-on Superchunk performance at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas last month. It was great, but it was only 25 minutes. We got a full hour on Wednesday.
The set began with a pleasant surprise, and McCaughan's acknowledgment of Canadian content regulations, as the two musicians covered Vancouver power pop/punk band Pointed Sticks' 1979 single, "Out Of Luck."
McCaughan and Wilbur then dug into the Superchunk catalogue for "Cool," "Detroit Has A Skyline," "1000 Pounds" and a new song titled "Everything At Once" that worked really well despite McCaughan's concerns because it was the first time he'd performed it in this format.
The duo then changed gears, and jokingly chided with each other as they did throughout the set, to play two Portastatic tunes: "A Cunning Latch" and "Song For A Clock." 

Bissonnette was in the front row, organic lager in hand, leading the cheers as McCaughan and Wilbur offered up more Superchunk songs. The two men seemed to grow more comfortable with each number, and things kept getting better as they blew through "I Guess I Remembered It Wrong" and "Throwing Things," which was probably the most aggressively played song of the night.
It was then cover time again, as McCaughan sang what he said was the first Lemonheads song he ever heard: "Hate Your Friends." Sticking with interpretations, with a sing-along twist, the crowd enthusiastically shouted the title of D.O.A.'s "Fuck You" in all the right places. It was slower than the original, and McCaughan kidded that punk rock was painful to play and listen to without drums, but Joey "Shithead" Keithley probably would have been pleased with the version.
D.O.A. ("Fucked Up Ronnie") and SNFU ("Cannibal Cafe") are both represented in Passenger Side, and McCaughan said that they're two of the best bands he's ever seen. He obviously has a soft spot for Canadian acts, as Asexuals, Leonard Cohen, Islands, The Nils and Chad VanGaalen also have their songs used in the movie.
Portastatic favourites "Noisy Night" and "San Andreas" were meant to close the night, but a standing ovation and crowd calls for more prompted McCaughan and Wilbur to return to the stage for a fine cover of The Go-Betweens' "Rock And Roll Friend" and an energetic, set-ending "Fishing" that featured a surprisingly big bottom end sound from the duelling Gibson guitars.
The gracious Bissonnette, McCaughan and Wilbur spent time talking to audience members (including Drew and Abraham) when everything was over, which capped off a fine evening of triple-headed entertainment.
Passenger Side will open in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver on April 23, and will hopefully move into wider Canadian release after that. It was just picked up by a U.S. distributor and will hit American theatres in the fall.
Superchunk should release its first new studio album in nine years in the coming months.

Drive-By Truckers show is a big to-do

Toronto's Lee's Palace was the fourth stop on the Drive-By Truckers' tour in support of its new album, The Big To-Do, but the Athens, Georgia-based band seemed right at home.
"No wonder The Rolling Stones keep coming back here," singer/guitarist Patterson Hood told the packed house as the southern rock band returned for its encore on Tuesday night, saying the group had spent a couple of days in Canada's largest city leading up to the gig. 
The Truckers' stay will continue today with a free in-store performance at 5 p.m. at Sonic Boom (a non-perishable food item donation for the Daily Bread Food Bank is requested) and another show with opener Langhorne Slim at Lee's tonight.
The large crowd at Tuesday night's show made the Truckers feel at ease and gave warm receptions to the songs in the first part of the set that was packed with The Big To-Do material that patrons still might not be too familiar with.
Things got off to a solid start with "Drag The Lake Charlie," and five of the next seven songs were from the new album. It might actually have been six, as there was a cut sung by bassist Shonna Tucker that I couldn't make out because her voice was somewhat drowned out. 
The same thing happened later in the show during Tucker's second time in the spotlight. I don't mind her songs on the Truckers' recordings, and there was nothing wrong with them musically last night, but I'm not sure if her voice can carry them on a stage shared with her bass, three guitarists, a drummer and a keyboard player.
Hood and fellow singer/guitarist Mike Cooley essentially alternated and took turns on lead vocals for each song during the set, which early on was highlighted by "Gravity's Gone" and "Girls Who Smoke." 
Things slowed down a bit and John Neff moved from guitar to pedal steel for "72 (This Highway's Mean)," and stayed there for "My Sweet Annette," "Love Like This" and "Feb 14."
Hood's storytelling abilities were on full display during "18 Wheels Of Love," Jay Gonzalez was given a piano solo during "Self Destructive Zones" and "Steve McQueen" was given the extended treatment. "Hell No, I Ain't Happy" had the audience singing along to the chorus and ended the group's 100-minute set.
The encore began with another new song, "The Fourth Night Of My Drinking," as the band members continued to pass around the large bottle of Jack Daniels they'd been sharing all night. "Marry Me," "Dead, Drunk And Naked,"  "Guitar Man Upstairs" and "Lookout Mountain" closed things out.
The Truckers had ended their set in New York City last week with a cover of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died," and I was hoping to hear the group's version at Lee's. It wasn't to be, but by no means did I leave the show disappointed.
It was good to witness a full show after catching just three songs during a short set at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas last month.


Here's the set list for the April 6 Drive-By Truckers show at Lee's Palace:


"Drag The Lake Charlie" 
"Get Downtown" 
Shonna Tucker song
"This Fucking Job" 
"Gravity's Gone"
"Daddy Learned To Fly" 
"Birthday Boy" 
"Girls Who Smoke" 
"3 Dimes Down"
"Ronnie And Neil"
"72 (This Highway's Mean)"
"My Sweet Annette"
"Heathens"
"Love Like This"
"Feb 14"
"18 Wheels Of Love"
"Self Destructive Zones"
"Steve McQueen"
Shonna Tucker song
"Hell No, I Ain't Happy"
ENCORE
"The Fourth Night Of My Drinking" 
"Marry Me"
"Dead, Drunk And Naked"
"Guitar Man Upstairs"
"Lookout Mountain" 

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion — Dirty Shirt Rock N' Roll: The First Ten Years

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's name wasn't overhyped when the band hit the music scene in 1992 with its self-titled debut album after the demise of Spencer's previous band, Pussy Galore.
The singing and guitar-playing Spencer teamed up with fellow guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins to create a pioneering scuzzy mix of loud blues, punk and soulful rock-and-roll  that didn't need a bass to shake up a room. And while the band experimented with that formula a bit over the years through working with the likes of Dan The Automator and Beck, that original sound stayed with the band through the first 10 years of its career that are documented on this newly released Majordomo Records compilation.
Spencer chose and sequenced the album's 22 tracks to give a good overview of what his group was all about. It begins with a Rufus Thomas hook-up on "Chicken Dog" and ends with the single edit of "She Said" from Plastic Fang, the group's final album under its original name. There's a good cross-section of material in between.
The psychedelic "Magical Colors" is probably the gentlest and most melodic song on the record, and features Spencer singing more than growling. Incorporating a string section works surprisingly well on the multi-parted "Bellbottoms." There's a vicious live recording of "Fuck Shit Up" and a primitive "Water Main." Organ looms large on "Afro," while "Feeling Of Love" features some wailing harmonica.
Then there are the collaborations: Dub Narcotic Sound System on the greasy "Love Ain't On The Run;" Spencer's wife and Boss Hog bandmate Christina Martinez singing on "Blues X Man;" Money Mark playing organ on the primarily instrumental "Buscemi;" R.L. Burnside singing and playing guitar on his "Shake 'Em On Down;" Luther, Cody and Jim Dickinson going to "Hell;" Dan The Automator scratching on "Talk About The Blues;" "Flavor" remixed by Beck, Mario Caldato Jr. and Beastie Boy Mike D; and Andre Williams getting down and dirty as only he can on "Lap Dance."
This album isn't great from start to finish, but there are enough high points to keep your attention, and Mike Edison's liner notes help set the stage to create the right mental imagery for those of us who've never seen the band on stage.

Dirty Shirt Rock N' Roll: The First Ten Years is kicking off a campaign that will see all of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's albums reissued in remastered form with rare and unreleased bonus tracks, new liner notes and photos. All titles will also be available digitally, some for the first time.
Heavy Trash is still my favourite Spencer band, but the Blues Explosion will always be his most influential.

The Von Drats — Dratsylvania

If you believe this band's bio, it formed in Dratsylvania and relocated to Toronto in 2005. I don't believe it, but I'm not going to argue with a sextet wherein all of the members wear make-up to resemble creepy skeleton-like creatures and share the same last name like The Ramones. And besides, after listening to this self-produced debut album that was just released by Stereo Dynamite, I'm just happy that The Von Drats are part of my city.
This is primarily an instrumental album driven by Dave Von Drat's Farfisa organ (and I'm a total sucker for the Farfisa) and the twin guitars of Steve and Trevor Von Drat. Drummer Leonard Von Drat makes himself particularly conspicuous on a few tracks, including the bouncy, fun and only mildly spooky "Cemetary Stomp."
The opening title track and its closing reprise go heavy on scary sound effects, but most of the other cuts rely on the group's instrumental prowess to impress with an approach that features lots of surf elements, doses of reverb, dollops of horror punk and large helpings of vintage garage rock.
The title gets mentioned a couple of times in "Los Tigres Del Nortes," and there are actual lyrics to "Catch Fire" and "Torso Alley," a song about an axe murderer. A few more numbers with singing would have been appreciated to break things up a bit more, but perhaps we'll hear those on album two.
The Von Drats' music isn't particularly original, but the group is quite good at what it does.
I'm surprised and disappointed that I haven't yet got around to seeing the band perform, but hopefully that will change soon. Dratsylvania seems like a place I wouldn't mind spending some time in.

Jason & The Scorchers — Halcyon Times

It's been 14 years since Jason & The Scorchers last released an album of new material, but you wouldn't know it by listening to Halcyon Times' 14 tracks.
Group founders Jason Ringenberg and Warner E. Hodges have created an impressive roots-rockin' record that easily stands up to anything the pair did in the '80s when they were among the leaders of a punkabilly movement that showed that Nashville had hot new talent to complement its legendary country music legacy.
The singer and guitarist are joined by a new rhythm section composed of drummer Pontus Snibb and bassist Al Collins, and the record features contributions from former Georgia Satellites leader Dan Baird (including lead vocals on  "When Did It Get So Easy [To Lie To Me]"), Ginger from The Wildhearts and Tommy Womack. Hodges co-produced the album with Brad Jones (Chuck Prophet, Hayes Carll, Justin Townes Earle).
"Moonshine Guy/Releasing Celtic Prisoners" gets the album off to an ebullient start, and things pick up tempo and instrumentation-wise from the sparse mandolin introduction on "Beat On The Mountain." Hodges' guitar is unleashed and runs with wild abandon on "Mona Lee," and it hits peaks as stirring and exciting in several places throughout the album. Ringenberg keeps the pace with his distinctive yips and yowls that harken back to 25 years earlier.
There are also quieter, but no less impressive, moments when the listener has the opportunity to savour the stories told in such songs as "Mother Of Greed" and "Land Of The Free."
I was looking forward to hearing Halcyon Times, but it has exceeded my expectations and is one of a couple of contenders to become my favourite album of the first quarter of this year. I'll give it a 9/10.

Niagara Falls from the Canadian side

Niagara Falls is one of the natural wonders of the world and, with cheap flights to Toronto,  you're only a 90-minute drive away from taking in this spectacular sight and the other attractions the city on the Canada-U.S. border has to offer.

The views of the 50-metre-high and 800-metre-wide Horseshoe Falls and the 30-metre-tall and 320-metre-wide American Falls are best from the Canadian side, which also has more tourist-oriented facilities if you eventually tire of the natural spectacle. And melting ice in the Niagara River and Lake Erie at this time of year means that the flow rate of water crashing down over the rocks is high.

You can take walkways under the falls or board the famed Maid Of The Mist boat to cruise through the rapids to the falls to feel their immense power. And yes, you will get wet.

There are also lots of great vantage points just by walking along the road that follows the river and the falls. And if you keep on driving along the Niagara Parkway you'll find the whirlpool and the cable car that glides over it, along with other scenic spots and historic locations, until you get to the quaint town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, the home of the Shaw Festival theatres.

The Skylon Tower and Minolta Tower give visitors who ascend to their summits different visual perspectives of the falls and the surrounding area.

 

Clifton Hill offers a variety of often kitschy wax museums, haunted houses,  mazes, rides, arcades, theatres and miniature golf courses that will especially appeal to children and teenagers. For the grown-ups, Niagara Falls has two casinos and a number of respected golf courses.

A little bit further out, but a short drive away, is the Marineland theme park and aquarium featuring rides, wildlife exhibits, whale and dolphin shows, and a campground. The city also features water parks where kids can splash around and zoom down slides without fear of finding killer whales lurking below.

Niagara Falls offers a wide variety of motels, hotels and restaurants to suit different tastes and budgets, which further enhances its popularity as a family destination.

CMW is over, so attention now turns to NXNE

Canadian Music Week ended on the weekend, but international bands,  industry representatives and dedicated music fans can take advantage of cheap flights to Toronto in June to attend the city's other major annual music event, North By Northeast.

This year's NXNE is expanding to seven days with the addition of a new interactive conference to the long-standing music component, which features 650 concerts at 50 venues, 40 music-themed films, 15 conference sessions and a charity soccer game.

Interactive panels, seminars and events have been part of NXNE's sister festival — South By Southwest in Austin, Texas — for a number of years, so it makes perfect sense for Canada's largest city to host one as well.

The 16th annual NXNE will run from June 14 to 20. More information is available at the NXNE web site.

Skiing Music Albums

There apparently was an appetite for albums devoted to songs about skiing in the late '50s and early '60s, and I've dug them out from the avalanche of non-skiing releases that have come out in the last 50 years to present you with the covers and track listings for these quaint little records. I admit I haven't heard any of them, but I think you can get an idea of the repertoire just by looking at the song titles and the album artwork. Snowplow your way through these: 

Track list: 
Round-Bottomed Bogners
The Cotton-Pickin' Lift Tower 
Skiing Billy (with Rosalie Sorrels) 
In the Mountains Near AltaTwo Cubes with a Slug of V. O. 
The Ski Instructor 
The Mineshaft Song 
The Last Ride 
Skier's Bible School (with Rosalie Sorrels) 
Stretch Pants Lament 
An Ounce of Prevention 
The Skier's Daydream

Track list: 
Ski Country
In This White World
Watch Out For That Lift Tower
Highlands Where We Ski
Ski The Rocky Mountains
Somewhere My Love (Lara's Theme)
Aspen Ski Blues
Edelweiss
Super-Skier
Four Strong Winds
Cremation Of Sam Magee
Lovers Of Snow

Track list:
Celebrated Skier
In This White World
Super Skier
Highlands Lassie
Bend in His Knees
Talking Skier
Ski Patrol
Skiin' in the Mornin'
Super Skier's Last Race
What'll We Do
Skol to the Skier 

Track list:
Why the Hell Do We Ski
Skier's Proposition
Ski Racks and Boot Sacks
Old Ski Tow
Ballad of the Snow Bunny
Ski Instructor
Back to Town
Come Along Boys
Roll Your Leg Over
Summit Ski Meet
Hills of West Virginia
Stretch Pants Lament
Skier's Daydream 

Track list:
Winterland
Two Boards
Wacky Waxer
Oola
Here's to the Skier
Skiers Medley
Skiers Lament
Under the Take-off
Sun Valley
Winter Song
Ski Heil

Soundtrack For A Revolution 

"They could take everything else but our songs" is a line spoken early in Soundtrack For A Revolution, and this entire 82-minute documentary on the U.S. civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s is based on that theme.

The movie by filmmakers Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, which was executive produced by actor Danny Glover, tells the story of the black rights movement through old newsreel footage and recent interviews with people who helped lead it — but also through the songs they sung as they engaged in such non-violent protests as marches, lunch counter sit-ins and freedom rides on buses. Sadly, these people (including some enlightened white supporters) were often attacked, beaten, hosed, jailed and sometimes even murdered at the hands of racist bigots.

A number of songs from the era — which evolved from gospel hymns, slave chants and the labour movement — are included in the film. These include "We Shall Overcome," "I Shall Not Be Moved," "Keep Your Eyes On The Prize,"  "Which Side Are You On?," "I'm On My Way," "Here's To The State Of Mississippi," "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" and "Marching Up To Freedom Land." The twist is that the songs are performed by current artists, including Angie Stone, Joss Stone, The Roots, TV On The Radio, John Legend, Blind Boys Of Alabama, Wyclef Jean, Mary Mary and Richie Havens.


You probably won't learn much new if you've read or seen other films or television programs about this subject, or especially if you've visited the excellent National Civil Rights Museum on the site of the former Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, but this film is still important if for no other reason that it reinforces some positive messages and shines a light on a dark period of American history that occurred less than 50 years ago.

Soundtrack For A Revolution will screen at Toronto's Bloor Cinema on Feb. 17 at 6:30 and 9:15 p.m. as part of the Doc Soup program. It will receive a theatrical release in Toronto two nights later.

Hacienda and Those Darlins at the Horseshoe
My notepads and camera are packed away until my second-floor renovations are finished this week, so I'm afraid you only get a half-assed account of Tuesday night's show and this failed attempt at creating an arty photograph that I took of Those Darlins last March in Austin, Texas.

I wanted to see Hacienda at South By Southwest last year, too, but didn't fit the San Antonio, Texas quartet into my schedule. I'd liked the couple of songs I'd heard online and brothers Abraham, Jaime and Rene Villanueva and their cousin Dante Schwebel had built some credibility by being championed by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach.

But Hacienda's visceral mix of psychedelic pop and garage rock with a hint of blues is best experienced live. The group only played five songs on Tuesday, but the bearded young men totally immersed themselves into them. Schwebel didn't seem to be in the best of health, but he still ripped away at his guitar and shared lead vocals with the animated, bass-playing Rene. Abraham played a Farfisa and I'm a sucker for any band that has one. And even if I would have liked a bit more of that vintage compact electronic organ in their sound, I would have liked Hacienda no matter what.

Hacienda's Loud Is The Night debut is out now and its Big Red & Barbacoa follow-up will be released by Alive Records in April. The group will be back in Toronto on March 3 opening for Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, and that's a show you should mark down in your date book or program into your iPhone or whatever you kids do these days to keep track of such things.


I liked Those Darlins when they played the BMI party at Stubb's on the Tuesday before the SXSW Music Festival officially started last year, so I was pleased to find out the three-woman and male drummer combo would be making its Toronto debut as part of the Horseshoe's free Tuesday night program.


The Murfreesboro, Tennessee band has toughened up its sound over the past 11 months and added more of a garage rock element to its rockabilly roots. It's kind of like what would have happened if Wanda Jackson would have been brought up listening to punk rock.

All three women write their material and sing lead at various times, and Jessi and Kelley Darlin trade off between guitar and bass and Nikki Darlin plays baritone ukulele. The vocals aren't as strong as I'd prefer and the playing isn't great, but the ladies are still more talented than the more buzzed about Vivian Girls and they know how to have a good time. And like Hacienda, they've also been taken under Auerbach's wing.


Those Darlins' self-titled debut album came out last year. Highlights from it that made the biggest impression on Tuesday were "Wild One," "Cannonball Blues," "DUI Or Die" and an extended closing cover of "Shakin' All Over." 

I don't know if they usually pull that last one out or if they performed The Guess Who's 1965 hit as a nod to being in Canada. Or maybe they didn't even know that The Guess Who are Canadian. Or maybe they only knew the original Johnny Kidd And The Pirates version, which came out in Europe five years earlier. I suppose I should have paid a visit to the merch table after their set to find out.

Bata Shoe Museum puts right foot forward

I'm pretty practical when it comes to footwear, unless you consider Converse Chuck Taylor high-tops to be exotic.

But if you have a foot fetish, or a couple of hours to kill during your holidays to Canada, you should consider a visit to Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum.

Hundreds of shoes, from a collection of more than 12,500, are on display in the modern four-storey, 39,000-square-foot building designed by architect Raymond Moriyama at the corner of Bloor Street West and St. George Street near Toronto's high-end shopping district.

There are sandals and shoes from around the globe that encompass 4,500 years of history, including a collection worn by 20th century celebrities. The displays also tell the stories of the ties between the shoes and their relation to history and culture. There are permanent, semi-permanent and changing exhibitions so shoeaholics can make repeated visits and still find new ways of getting their fix.

The museum was founded by Sonja Bata and opened in May 1995. The millionth visitor passed through its doors in September 2008.

The Bata Shoe Museum can be visited six days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sundays from noon until 5 p.m. It stays open an extra three hours on Thursday evenings when it has a pay-what-you-can policy, with a suggested fee of five bucks.

Admission fees are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $6 for students and $4 for children. Those under five get in free.

Casa Loma: Toronto's grand "house on the hill"

When one thinks of castles, medieval Europe immediately comes to mind. But holidays to Canada can also include a visit to a castle.

Toronto's Casa Loma may not have the history of its European counterparts, but it's not without its own intriguing back story.

Toronto military man, business mogul and millionaire financier Sir Henry Pellatt drew up plans with architect E.J. Lennox in 1911 to create a grand "house on the hill" overlooking the growing city. It took 300 men three years and $3.5 million to build and was the most spectacular private residence in North America, complete with Italian marble floors, stained glass windows and artwork from across Canada and around the world. It took a staff of 40 people to maintain Casa Loma.

Pellatt and his wife did a lot of entertaining in the 98-room castle, but that came to an end when his large spending combined with a downturn in the finances of his businesses during World War I and he was plunged into bankruptcy and forced to sell off his assets and abandon his grand estate.

Casa Loma lay vacant until it was turned into a luxury hotel, but that failed in 1929. It was empty again until 1933 when the city took it over after back tax payments weren't met. It was eventually opened as a tourist attraction in 1937 after refurbishment by The Kiwanis Club and has remained a popular spot for city residents and visitors alike ever since. Restoration work continues today to keep Casa Loma looking like Pellatt had envisioned.

There are secret passageways and an 800-foot underground tunnel connecting the castle's elegant hunting lodge, stables (which were built in 1906 at a cost of $250,000) and its five acres of gardens that are open from May through October. Casa Loma also hosts about 200 private functions a year and has been used for numerous film, television and photography shoots.

Casa Loma is located at 1 Austin Terrace, near the intersection of Spadina Road and St. Clair Avenue. It's open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Adult admission is $18, with lower rates for seniors, youth and children.

In conversation with Frank Turner
British folk-punk singer/songwriter Frank Turner made a whirlwind visit through Toronto last week. He played a concert in my living room on Jan. 25 and then three more shows over the next two nights.

Some of Turner's time was also spent talking to journalists to promote Poetry Of The Deed, which was released by Epitaph Records last September. Spinner ran an article from my interview with him yesterday, but we talked about so much else that I thought I'd post our entire conversation.

It's long, so I won't waste any more of your time with this introduction.

But if you'd like to turn this into a drinking game, down a shot every time Turner utters a derivation of the word "fuck." You'll likely be loaded before you make it to the end.

Here's our Q&A session:

Steve McLean: You're playing your first few North American dates solo before getting a full band for your stint opening for Flogging Molly. Will you have your British band or will you be picking up players here like when I saw you in Austin last year?
Frank Turner: I always like that you had Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band or Neil Young and Crazy Horse. I want my backing band to be a set group of people so the people who are into my stuff are going to know their names and know who they are. I don't want to have a bunch of sessionistas. The English band played on the last record and they're my friends and they're consummate musicians — much better than I am. This will be the first time that I'll be able to bring them to this side of the Atlantic, and I'm really excited about that. As much as I enjoy playing solo and that is the core of what I do, and will remain the core of what I do, I feel we're going to turn some heads on the Flogging Molly tour because no-one here has seen it before.

Do you have a preference in playing solo or with a band?
It generally depends on what I've been doing more of recently. I think both of them have their own thing. Right now when I'm doing a band show, it realizes the kind of sound I'm trying to make most fully at the moment. The first show I did this year was in Kingston in south London. We made a very cheap ticket price and it was crazy and we sold 1,000 tickets in a week. I played solo on a tiny stage and there were people around, above and behind me. The vibe was just amazing.

You performed in my living room last night. Do you do many shows like that, and why do you do them?
The reason that I'm a lucky and privileged person is that I get to travel the world and I don't have a desk job. But much more important than that is that there's nothing I enjoy more than playing guitar and singing. It's my favourite thing to do in the whole world. As a corollary to that, I really enjoy entertaining a crowd. It's a really fulfilling thing. I don't care if it's for five people or 5,000 people. I've been working with the Epitaph guys for under a year and I'm still convincing them that I'm serious when I say stuff like "Any after-shows or house parties, I'm in."
We have this thing about the number of days I do in a row while I'm on tour. On the Flogging Molly tour, we've been filling in all the off-days and we've reached a stretch now where there are 21 shows in a row. I'd just be sitting around playing guitar on an off-day anyway, so I might as well do it for some people. It's simple for me. I just love playing. If it's at someone's house where they want to hear me play, I'm in. It's all just playing. 

Do you think your profile is growing in North America, and is it reflected in record sales and concert attendance?
In the U.K., things are pretty well established for me now because I've been touring there a lot more. Mainland Europe generally falls in behind what the U.K.'s doing, so things are going pretty well in Europe right now.
North America is a thing unto itself. I feel like there's more work to do here. I did plenty of hand to mouth American tours where I'd play to 20 people in a bar every night. Now I have an L.A. show next week that's sold-out. That's a big fucking difference right there. I want to move it to somewhere bigger because loads of people are e-mailing me. But from a promotional point of view, it's good to be turning people away. And we're doing Coachella now. And the fill shows we're doing on the Flogging Molly tour are 200 or 300 capacity venues, and it looks like we'll be getting good crowds. Things are definitely moving in the right direction.
I don't know if people recognize this over here, but there's this almost terminal obsession in the U.K. music industry with breaking America. They talk about it like it's a black and white thing, as in if you don't go over there and become as big as The Beatles then you might as well not bother going at all. And I'm all, "What the fuck are you talking about?" If I reach a point in my life if my career in North America plateaus out and I'm playing to 200 or 300 people a night, that's amazing. That's fucking great. I'm thousands of miles away from home and 300 people want to hear me play. If it goes further than that, that's brilliant and I'm not going to complain about that. But there's this funny thing in England where you're either fucking interstellarly huge or you're nothing. But you can sort of be medium. I have no problem with being medium.

You posted on your Twitter and you mentioned last night that you've been working on new songs. How are they coming along?
I've got a ton of ideas coming at the moment. I'm quite strict at trying not to be meta-analytical about my songwriting. I try not to sit there and think about what direction I'm going to go in because that feels really contrived to me. I just try to sit down and write a good song. I do my best to try and not put any other angles on that because then it seems like you're forcing it. Having said that, when the next album is starting to coalesce, you can't help but think about what it's going to be like.
Without going into details, I'm recently single again and not in a particularly nice way, and that obviously sets me hurtling down a slightly different path songwriting-wise.
Directionally speaking, my one kind of caveat about the Poetry Of The Deed album is that I think I got a bit over-excited about the fact that I had a band in the studio. I think it's a tiny bit too much of a band record for me. I think it could have done with a little bit more solo stuff on it. Something I'm planning on doing next week is sitting down and making sure I have guitar and vocals done for every song. There are a couple of songs on Poetry Of The Deed that I can't really play without a band, and I feel a bit funny about that retrospectively. It feels like I've broken my own golden rule.
But I'm really excited about some of the new stuff I've got coming up. I think that the first three records fit together in a way, and it's not like I'm going to make a completely left-hand turn and go crazy, but I want to be a bit more experimental lyrically. I've been listening to a lot of Nick Cave. At the risk of doing a Nick Cave-slash-Dylan or whatever, I've been writing about religion quite a bit recently. I'm an atheist, but I come from a very religious family and I find the whole thing fascinating. So we'll see what happens.

Do you have a life philosophy that makes its way into your songs?
I wouldn't have anything so coherent that I could write it down and publish it, but my guiding lights in life are still things I have from growing up with punk rock. I believe in self-reliance and independence and individuality. To a large degree, you make your own luck in life and that through hard work and self-belief you can achieve a lot.
I've always loved the introductory quote from Get In The Van by Henry Rollins where he says, "I'm a man of average intelligence. If I've achieved the things that I've achieved through hard work, imagine what you can do."
I actually had that stuck on my wall for a little while because it's such an inspirational quote. That's my general take on things. Life is short and there's lots to do, so keep busy.
I have so much planned for the next year. There's a live DVD coming out in March, which has got two full shows from London as well as videos and tour diaries. I'm going to be touring all over the world for the rest of the year, and then hopefully in early 2011 I'm going to put out two albums at the same time. One will be the next record, but I'm also going to do a record of traditional English songs. Someone has also asked me to write a book, which I've started working on as well.

What's the book about?
By the end of this year, I'm probably going to be up to 1,000 shows. The idea is to go through those and pick 100 shows and I'm going to write them up as diary entries. I'll pick shows that have an anecdote with them or have a point, so it's not going to be just a straight tour diary. That seemed like a cool premise to write something that wasn't going to be as pretentious as writing an autobiography when I'm 28. It's one of those things where at first it seems daunting and then you say "I can do this," and then you realize that it's an absolute fucking ton of work. That's something that's going to take over for a while.

Is the live DVD coming out through Epitaph as well?
It's coming out through Xtra Mile and I'm not sure if Epitaph is going to fully license it for the states, but they have an online store that they sell shit through, and I think we're going to give them a bunch of copies.
One of the shows on the DVD was at Shepherd's Bush Empire in October, which is thus far the biggest headlining show I've done. It's this amazing venue that holds 2,000 people and, if I may say so myself, it was the show of a fucking lifetime. It was right at the end of a tour, it was a full band show and everyone was so fuckin' tight. The crowd was awesome and everything went like clockwork.
The other show was at Christmas last year at a venue called Union Chapel, which is actually a church that holds about 900 people. We did kind of an unplugged show, so it was with the band but my drummer was using brushes and percussion and my other guitarist was on acoustic and mandolin and we worked up alternative versions of songs and dug out songs that we hadn't done for a long time, and one or two that I'd never played live before. There's a song called "Hold Your Tongue" from The First Three Years that I've totally rediscovered because we recorded it and never played it live. I think it's a really nice DVD package that has a lot of shit on it.

Do you try to find a balance between personal and socio-political, and now maybe religious, songs?
I'm not settled in myself about either my opinions or my relationship with politics as an artist. I never wanted to be a protest singer and I don't consider myself to be one. But it's funny how in putting out three records, each of which has one political song on it, that there are still plenty of people who see me as a protest singer. Imagine if I actually did write protest songs.
The other part of it that I find quite challenging are the assumptions that people make about my politics based on I'm a white kid with a guitar who sounds a bit like Billy Bragg in places. I oscillate between being hugely entertained by them and utterly dismayed by them. Basically people think that I'm a socialist. But I'm not and I never was. In fact I couldn't be any further away from that.
I describe myself as a libertarian. I believe in resisting tyrannical governments, and I think that almost all government is tyrannical by definition. That's where I fall, for what it's worth. The music industry as a whole is sort of a soft left place, and that's fine. But I suddenly realized that I was not saying what I believed in and I kept changing the subject about politics, largely because I just couldn't be fuckin' bothered to have the discussion. But there are a lot of people I know who get slightly offended when I tell them that I think socialism is insanity and slavery.
And then I realized that all of us, myself included, go on and on and on about how we should stand up for what we believe in, and here's me doing the opposite of that. I thought if I have any fucking moral fibre as a human being, I need to write fuckin' songs about this and sing them. "Sons Of Liberty" is sort of down that line, but I want to be a little more explicit about it.
So there's this new song I've finished about Che Guevara T-shirts that I think is going to annoy a lot of people. The guy was a murderous, homophobic thug. What's to be idolized about that? He took great pleasure in shooting people who disagreed with him. I don't care what your political spots are, that makes you a twat.

Do you attribute your way with words, knowledge of history and social awareness more to your formal education or other factors?
I really enjoyed my formal education and I think that academia is where I'm going the minute that I'm not able to make a living out of playing music anymore. History was my subject and I'm very passionate about it and interested in it. I think that history is vastly important. I don't really understand that I have friends who know nothing about history and don't care. I can't understand how they can just exist at all without being inquisitive about it. History explains why we're here and why things are the way they are. How can you not care about that?

So you're an advocate of higher education.
Yeah, but I'm really kind of old-school about it. Languages, science, philosophy, maths, history and stuff like that are good. But I have friends who do degrees in hotel management. That's not a fuckin' degree. That's a skill, which is fine, but it's not a degree. It's a different thing. Particularly in the U.K., there's been a lot of confusion between the polytechnics which teach skills and universities. Basically, I'm in favour of utterly useless knowledge. I want people to go to university and learn nothing that will help them in life. I went to university and I got very fucked off with people in my class who were waiting out their time so they could get a stamp on their CV so they could get a high-paying job. Fuck you. Go and do a business management course or an economics degree.

Are there any songs that you're particularly proud of that you'd like to talk about?
Yes, but it's difficult because it's kind of like having children that you're supposed to equally love. But there are one or two that sort of rise above for me. "I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous" said a number of things that I wanted to say as well as I'll ever say them. I was also very pleased with "Journey Of The Magi," because that was lyrically a slight departure and I was a bit nervous about trying my hand with it. But I felt that it came out okay.
I have this new song that I'm working on about Bob Dylan and Patty Hearst standing around on a pirate ship. I'm really, really fucking pleased with how that one's coming.

Old-school pirate ship or new-school Somali pirate ship?
It doesn't really specify. It's about a lot of things, but that's one of the images in it. I figured that those two would make a cool couple sailing around the world and robbing people.

I remember you telling me last year about how everything came together with Epitaph. Can you share that again?
I was on tour with Gaslight Anthem in Europe and I was having a shitty day. You know when you're in one of those moods where you're like the next person who calls me is going to get a fuckin' ear full. It doesn't matter if it's the fuckin' Pope. Then my phone rang and had an unknown American number and I was like, "Who the fuck is this?"
I answered the phone and it was Brett (Gurewitz). I grew up with Bad Religion and Epitaph Records, and it was really funny because he started telling me who he was and I said, "I fucking know who you are."
He said "My name's Brett and I play in a band and I run this little record label," and I was like, "I know."
He was cool and straight-up and said, "I really like your stuff and I'd like you to be on my label."
And I said, "Cool."
We were talking to a lot of other labels at the time, and I did actually hang up the phone on a very, very big major label deal that was worth a lot of money. That was difficult. I'm not particularly morally opposed to major labels. I think that's a false dichotomy.
But my one major condition was that I wasn't going to leave Xtra Mile Recordings in the U.K. because they're like family. Million Dead did records for Xtra Mile as well, and when we broke up and I announced to the world that I was going to do folk stuff, everybody apart from two people just said, "Good luck with that and call us back in six months when you're back in hardcore bands."
One of them was a guy who does a punk show on Radio One called Mike Davies. He said "I get it. I totally fucking get it."
And then there were the guys at Xtra Mile. I don't think they were quite as enthusiastic about it as Mike was, but eventually they said, "Let's see where this goes."
I didn't want to ditch them, and all of these labels that offered big money said they wanted to sign me for the world. And I was like, "Hello. You're not listening to me."
And in that very first conversation with Brett, he was like, "What are you looking for in a deal?"
I told him he could have rights to the whole world outside of the U.K., and he was like, "Cool, that's fine."
It was ridiculously easy. It was about six weeks after that that we signed a deal, which is very fucking fast. It's been great since then and I'm pleased with the way it all worked out.

What was the impetus to make you leave a punk band and embark on a solo career?
There were a lot of different reasons at the time. Part of it was getting older and developing a changing taste in music. I'd started to get heavily into country and folk in the last few years of Million Dead's existence.
The other major factor was that Million Dead was a really, really intense band. We were like willfully intense. We used to beat each other up verbally. We had to be a cross between Black Flag and Refused. Every show had to be the greatest hardcore show ever. I remember Tom, our guitarist, at one show where our bass player missed a note and he walked right over to her and got right in her face and yelled "Fuck you" in front of 500 people.
The whole atmosphere around that was just really fucking intense. I think we were a pretty good band. We made some good records and I think we put on some good shows.
The band nearly broke up over the cover artwork of our first album. It literally got into a fist fight. One of the guys was like, "If you put that fuckin' photo on the cover of the album, I'm out of this fucking band."
When the band broke up, I was like, "I am fucking through with being in bands."
I wanted to keep making music and touring, but I didn't want anything fucking resembling what I'd been through. The farewell tour we did was utterly out of control because I started doing quite a lot of drugs — mainly to piss everyone off because they were all very anti-drugs. So I was like, "Okay, motherfuckers, let's see where this goes."
That last tour was unhinged, but we played the best we'd ever fuckin' played and the crowds were great. But after the show in the dressing room, two members of the band would be punching each other, someone else would be doing massive amounts of cocaine, and somebody else would just be crying. It was just fucking mad. At the time, we all kind of took it in our stride. But looking back at it now, I'm like, "Jesus Christ."
But I didn't want anything at all to do with that, and going out and playing songs on my own made a lot of sense. Even I wasn't sure if I was going to do it forever when I first started doing it, but it very quickly felt like I'd hit my stride.
Being in a band like Million Dead was kind of like we were so bent on making every song so fucking weird and complicated and odd and intense and unhinged and uneasy. To go from that to just going, "G, C, D" was relaxed and I could have fun with it.

Do you consider yourself a punk, a folkie or do you try to distance yourself from such labels?
It's funny that I somehow in life ended up with the two most contentious words in the genre dictionary. I must be some sort of masochist. But I grew up in punk and it will always be the bedrock of what I do. But I've been known to describe what I do as folk because I want it to be considered community music. But at the end of the day, descriptions only exist until you actually hear the band you're talking about.
If I had to pick a word to describe myself, I'd say I'm an entertainer. I'm really adamant that I don't think that anybody can describe themselves as artists. I think that's illegitimate. It's not for you to say about yourself. Other people can tag you as an artist, particularly after you're dead, but my day-to-day job is entertainment. Hand in hand with that statement is the fact that loads of people are disparaging about that word and that concept, which I think is bullshit. What could be a nobler profession than to be an entertainer?
What could be a more fucking wonderful job to have than when people get to the end of their busy week and come down to your show and pay a cover charge to get in and you make sure that they have a good fuckin' time. In saying so, that puts me into the same ballpark as everyone from actors to vaudeville. I like that association. When people come to my shows, it's like if they don't walk away having a good time after I've played, then I'm not doing my job properly.
I get really fucked off the way that Dylan now just seems to be trying to irritate the shit out of everybody at 100 pounds a ticket. If it was a free show, maybe. But fuck you, I've paid a ton of fuckin' money. I saw him and he sat behind the drummer and played piano all night. I was like, "Don't be a cunt. Get up and play some fucking guitar."
The whole self-conscious artist thing just fucking gets my back up.

Campfire Punkrock was the title of your first EP. I think it's a good, succinct description of your music.
I stole that off a guy. I was in Dundee and I'd just finished playing a show and I was outside having a cigarette, because I was smoking at the time, and this catatonically drunk Scottish guy walked up and said, "Ah, you're fucking campfire punk rock you are, you bastard," and then walked off.
I was like, "Thank you very much," and took out my notepad and wrote it down.
In the sleeve for the EP, it says "Thanks to the drunk guy in Dundee who gave me the title for the EP." You have to take your inspiration where you can get it.

Is there anything we haven't touched on that you'd like to talk about?
My ideal kind of night is kind of chaotic, careening around the place, old friends making new friends, playing songs and drinking a lot of whiskey. That's me in my happy place.
It's nice to be in Toronto. As I was saying last night, it was kind of surreal. The first show I played here was in an amphitheatre and the second one was in your house. It's nice that we have this show here (Horseshoe Tavern) tonight. It's like a leveling out.
I've been reading a Neil Young biography and it has a lot to say about the Toronto music scene. We walked past Massey Hall yesterday, and I was excited by that. A lot of people have good things to say about the Canadian music scene and I've always been well-treated in Canada. It's nice to be here and hopefully I'll be back soon.