Monthly Archives: April 2011

On-Time Soundcheck Sunday

Edie Carey, “Love” and “I Never Thought I’d Say This”

Let the whole thing play through. Sadly this is a video from a house concert last fall, and therefore not very good (and the sound quality is a bit lacking, too). Music starts at around 1:45, if you’re impatient.

My crush on Edie Carey has been thoroughly documented elsewhere, and, wouldn’t you know it, she’s got a new album out. Which is every bit as warm and hug-inducing as “Another Kind of Fire.” I really like it; it’s the sort of record you can put on (ok, ok, “the sort of collection of digital files you can play on your music device”), put the big headphones on, and tune out the world. It’s the sort of thing you used to listen to in your room in the dark, and it has that kind of heart-tugging quality that most of Edie’s music has.

Over the summer, I criticized Sarah McLachlan’s new album for not being, well, new. “Laws of Illusion” wasn’t fundamentally anything we hadn’t seen before, and I was a disappointed that she seemed to not be making progress as an artist. I invited comparisons between McLachlan and another Sarah (Harmer), someone who seems to reinvent herself with every new album yet manages to stay more or less the same at each step. Edie Carey is heading into a third category: people who make the same kind of music on every album, which is fine, because it keeps getting better.

Pat down

I’d been lucky in the six-ish months since the Tray Stacking AgencyTransportation Security Agency introduced the Freedom Frisk enhanced pat down procedure for air travelers to, from, and within the United States. Not once in my travels had I been forced to go through the Nude-o-ScopeAdvanced Imaging Technology scanner, and not once was I subjected to the Government Gropeenhanced pat down. I had been tagged for a trip in the microwavemilimeter wave scanner at YVR transborder a few months ago, but politely declined and got a relatively benign CATSA-approved physical search. And that’s been it: every other time I’ve had to be screened in the United States it’s been at a priority lane or some other kind of checkpoint that hasn’t used the AIT devices, or I’ve ended up in a normal lane, so I didn’t have to opt out.

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Belated Soundcheck Sunday

I was in transit on Sunday (well, not really — I was in transit Sunday night, and sitting on a beach for most of Sunday itself), so here’s the Soundcheck for this past week. We apologize for the delay. Not that anyone actually cares, mind you…

This week’s Soundcheck isn’t really about the song, but rather who is doing the singing: Hayley Williams of Paramore. Those of us who aren’t quite as hip and with it (and, also, not teenagers) might have first run into Williams and her band as part of “Guitar Hero: World Tour” where “Misery Business” featured rather heavily in one segment of the game. Paramore always struck me as kind of a twee band, sort of like Avril Lavigne but with actual musical talent; it was hard to get enthusiastic about a band that was made of people under the age of 20. And, let’s face it, when you’re over the age of 30 you probably shouldn’t be listening to stuff that’s made by and popular with the under-20 crowd — it’s, I dunno, creepy.

But here’s the thing: Riot! was really good. And Hayley Williams is so good, and has such a shocking voice (warning: obnoxious but illustrative video lives on the other end) that it’s hard not to pay attention. I’m not going to run out and chase Paramore or Williams’ tour bus down or anything like that, but yeah, they’re both great.