Saturday, December 30, 2006

Mule makes a fine point

90% of the press i have ever got has come from the mighty Mule, and he has done it again with a fine review of the latest 21TR CD.

I really have to find that "link HTML", but none the less. Mule gives us some high praise ending with:

"This album lives up to its title. 21 Tandem Repeats don’t want to be anyone (other than themselves). They’re tight, smart, and completely free of attitude or pretension. They’re through being cool. I wonder what they’re doing in the music business."

Funny cause i was just on that waffle last night... what the fuck am i doing in the music business... because it is a business don't you know. I guess it is my rebellion to do the opposite of what the music business would dictate, one should do with the added bonus of what I'm doing being completely right for me.

Kind of like when CT and i go out and pick up garbage from around the neighborhood because we are sick of looking at it, or when i end up on my bike almost being killed by a car... but I'm on my bike for exercise and to avoid burning fossil fuels... but the car people think the roads are for them and them only because they have selfish small minds. I always like the bike riders that go down the center of the lane taking non stop harassment from the vehicles behind who want them to move over so they can race by the cyclist and get to their oh so important rendezvous.

Or talking to my parents the other day and the fact that my niece has asthma and she is like 7 years old (lives in Toronto), and they say that most kids have it... and then the next sentence is about protecting the economy. So i ask my mom id it's more important for her granddaughter to be able to breath or that her oil stocks keep value? And don't get me wrong my Mom is a saint who would do anything for her granddaughter but the idea of "harming" the economy is so embedded into the citizens of our culture that we will continue with insane policies?

So it's up to people like me to exist as an example of doing things for the right reasons... wow where did this confidence come from? Better stop now.

I'm up all night

That was Mark Andrewski's calling card... He would hit you in the arm and say "we're up all night". Back then we would play hockey on a commodore 64. It would take an episode of Sanford and Son to load the damn game and then we would play, get caught up in the action and begin screaming until our landlord/roommate Joe burst into the room asking us how did it happen that we became so fucked.

I remember one time... Well let me set this up... Joe was a respiratory therapist and worked odd shifts at the hospital so there were times when it was very important and difficult for him to sleep. But that's not to take away from the stakes of a 2-2 tie late in the third period. Like I mean you have already invested an hour loading the game, and then playing it... So when our team went up 3-2 with a minute remaining, you can understand the need for some fine celebration. We were so into the game it was like I forgot it was 4:13 AM. Joe reminded us that it was indeed 4:13 AM, but unfortunately we couldn't pause the game, and clearly couldn't give him the attention he was looking for. Like I mean, it would be insulting to him to wake him, and then go on to lose the game in the final minute. He didn't quite see it that way, and in fact took it more in the other direction, like it was a further insult to wake a man and then ignore him as he was berating the wakers. Reminds me of this song called the takers I wrote a long time ago... Should pull that one out.

They have a 3 on 3 hockey game on the CBC website... Maybe I should play that and wake up CT and Kaiya celebrating a goal... How do you think that one would go over?

Have you ever woken a mother's child? I'd rather claim an Elk carcass from a Grizzly Bear. The grizzly bear would kill you immediately and your pain would be over. Like if you went down for a glass of water and tripped over a large pile of clothes in the middle of the staircase... That were so carelessly left on a chair out of harms way... And as you fell smashing down the stairs chipping you tail bone and bruising you elbows you might be then accosted for making a noise that could wake people up.

Wonder if I should resolve to be less of a failure for next year?

I don't know.. I kind of like being a failure... Like what if I became a success... Everything would change... I wouldn't know how to interpret things, and I would have all the wrong reactions. The chain would be broken and I would be lost... It would be the classic Man vs Environment we know so well from our film studies.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Nothing wrong with CBC radio 3

So you can imagine my alarm when I get an email from the producer of the CBC Radio 3 saying that she was reading online that I was having troubles with my site. I believe it was the un fucking believable blogaroo a few posts back... a good lesson for old Robertson... When you have problems ask for help... Rather than slinking to your blog and griping. I'll say that Mary-Anne Korosi, is a fine human fighting a noble cause and all my problems are history. Well I did upload a lot more of the Canada Lynx Records catalogue (still have to do the rest of Represented and Knockout hits) so we will see what I did wrong soon enough.

If you are in a band and you are in Canada your most important site is NewMusicCanada.. or now CBC radio 3. It is your vein into the CBC, and if you do searches on the internet it is usually the CBC site that comes up first... Possibly Myspace may challenge that now, but none the less that is the key one. Your music is secure and you might even get played on the finest station going (smiley faced PR?).

It always kills me how when you want to get a gig everybody needs a physical CD to play some shithole bar where the onus is on the band to bring the party. Slipping into that negative territory...

My daughter Kaiya is up and telling me she needs the one with the bears on it so she can change a stuffed rabbits diaper... It is an hour past her bedtime and she is blocking me out of her subconscious by keeping on task.

"you need to go to bed", I say "you are sick and you were up all night last night keeping mommy and daddy up" I add. "but I, I, I ,I am just tying rabbits hair" she says.

Getting off topic

but what are blogs for.

"if you have a po po I'll put this on you" she said moments before being plucked off the floor and put back to bed

I had to work her pretty hard

now I wonder if I were to start griping about the acid farts I have been having... Would my doctor email me in a few days and tell me to cut out the "all grapefruit diet"?

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Why not another Blogaroo?


Blogaroo- a single post within a blog

I feel like the last series of posts was perhaps negative... And then there was that conversation with Willingdon Black in which he said something like "you have got to get that picture of me out of there". Would this one have been better... I believe that I was particularly pleased that a perfect working example of Robertson bone logic had been realized.

Getting off topic again. It was Christmas, and tomorrow I go back to work. Our family went to Pemberton and got snowed in for a day... Myself and CT went for a Christmas eve snow shoe hike into the dark valley and heard Quiet. It was very peaceful so calm in fact that I though about the city and had a violent flashing urge to smash a brick through the teeth... Wait a minute, peace and goodwill to all.

My daughter had a fine day, and was generally more interested in taking care of babies than the whole Christmas vibe. We were at Tam and Jude's place and there were presents and cheer galore, Kaiya enjoyed the excitement and the chocolate in her stocking. You see we are trying to develop some of our own family Christmas rituals that don't revolve around the idea that you MUST race out to a crowded shopping center to buy some piece of crap to show you love every member of your family (Fancy lady had some good points with regard to community shopping). CT and Kaiya made me a picture and Kaiya and I painted CT a ceramic bowl. Although not perfect our ritual is growing roots, Kaiya had a blast just hanging out all day together and I guess that a good start.

Then we came home and I locked antlers with my computer in an effort to further my "music career"... Hit laugh track. Now that would be something... If a computer could watch when a person is reading and when they hit a particular spot a laugh track plays. Possibly some scrolling thing. You know I'm just kidding, although I did spend some time trying to make music available on "free" sites. There is just too much music out there, and I don't feel music is as important as it use to be. I remember in the 70's I had a friend who was much older than I... Like an older brother and I would go and see him and in his room we would listen to Supertramp and Pink Floyd... His room was books LP's and a turntable... He was in High school and I in public school.

Take a kid in high school now, you can play video games, surf the net, play with photoshop, make movies, make music, leave irritating messages on others myspace pages, blog... It's just not the same world where Music was the main outlet.

So why should people care? But then they go ape shit over shallow celebrity news and then you are reminded about what a joke it all is.

Insanity

Just spent another day uploading Canada Lynx Records Music to various places.

I listened to track 1 (come again) on our CBC radio 3 21 tandem Repeats page... The file was completely slowed down... So it sounded like a deep sea version. Unfucking believable, and then there is the Supersimian "on frozen Pond" that cuts off halfway through the song... Which I'm sure came in handy when I sent Hockey night in Canada the link to that song to see if they wanted to use it. Some days it feels like the whole world is against me. It's like it is impossible for me not to be represented as a complete jackass. You ever wondered if somebody hates you?

I think I fixed the Come again track but for some reason I cannot access the Roadbed or Supersimian... That would be too easy... What we need is another ordeal. Ever listen to Last FM? We have some stuff up there, I guess I could post a link but I don't feel like going through the agony that might take.

Monday, December 25, 2006

and old post with a photo from last year



Willingdon Black posing with a paper mask that's nose juts out into a narrow walkway... notice the broken nose.

****December 27, 2004

People who put their noses in things that break noses, end up with broken noses.

That is vintage S. Robertson. i announced that as a reply to a question and then cackled with glee afterwards. Of the rest of the people in the room some enjoyed, others were confused, and a few seemed rather traumatized with the inherent violence of it all. In a sense it's just bone hockey logic, a dialect picked up from the red-necked sector of the game.

When I was younger I did enjoy "weirding people out", but now that i recognize what a bad idea that is on so many levels... so I try to avoid doing that. But being me often puts one in a position where I have to contradict myself... shit man I should run for president... or secretary of defense!

A waffle

21 TANDEM REPEATS
Never Wanted to Be Anyone (Canadalynx)... **** should be (Canada Lynx Records)

Super Robertson, who leads this band and has a regular Wednesday Night at the Railway Club, might be the weakest element of this record. He's not a great singer, which perhaps is why his voice is down in the mix, yet it has character.
Presumably, Robertson also is the main writer and at this he's not great either, yet this second album has charm. It's long on atmosphere, even vaguely psychedelic, making it easy to get caught up in it's swirling patterns, but the album could use more real songs such as the title track or "Failure" to seem more than a wank. C
- Tom Harrison


What would be the quotes

21 Tandem Repeats "Never Wanted to Be Anyone"

"has character"

Tom Harrison Vancouver Province

or

21 Tandem Repeats "Never Wanted to Be Anyone"

"this album has charm"

Tom Harrison Vancouver Province

or

21 Tandem Repeats "Never Wanted to Be Anyone"

"long on atmosphere, even vaguely psychedelic"

Tom Harrison Vancouver Province

or

21 Tandem Repeats "Never Wanted to Be Anyone"

"real songs such as the title track or "Failure""

Tom Harrison Vancouver Province

I guess then name of the game is to take a bloodbath and make it look like a rose garden... That's where the money is in high level BS.

I had some reservations about posting this on the blog... The most obvious being the savage beating that I personally took... One would think that you would let that kind of blow over and hope nobody caught it. Well in some ways it's good to analyze things. I disagree with some of the reviewers points outright, but I also see a few things that were done that would lead a writer to those conclusions if the music wasn't their bag. In some ways I am pleasantly pleased that the album was disliked by a modern rock critic... That dislike may prove to serve us well. Mostly I can't be upset because the CD got reviewed. As a matter of fact the CD I did before this one SUPERSIMIAN "How the tiger got Lionized", got reviewed by the same Tom Harrison who liked it and commented on the great writing. To me it's just great to get reviewed in with a pile of other REAL bands... you know what i mean

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The slippery eel

"Your colleagues in Korea may have called me 'the slippery eel' because I was too charming for them to catch me," he said. "That nickname was given to me because I was too friendly to the media Â… I promise today I can be a pretty straight shooter when I have to."

This is the man who is to lead the United Nations starting next year and his biggest task is to... "You could say I am a man on a mission, and my mission could be dubbed Operation Restore Trust,"

Is the slippery eel a beacon of trust able to ooze through the barbs if international geopolitics driven by world economics. Or is he a master sugar coater?

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I was going to update that bastard Super robertson supper show blog but fate had me already signed into this dog of a bitter rue-fill jackass.

thats right i posted a comment on Difficult music earlier in the evening before that savage encounter with the myspace bulletin board. But here we are in my backyard where the NIMBY phenomenon is king.

I am actually beginning to get the FEAR again over this show next saturday. It all started with a reply to an email earlier this week. I had emailed a publicist who is helping me out with the release of this 21 tandem repeats CD. i basically said in this last week what should i focus on... he gave the obvious answer that had eluded me... get as many people out as possible and kick some ass! Grande fucking bone wisdom if you ask me... that is exactly what you need to do, get some fucking people out to the show and kick some ass.

now the problem of course lies in my lazy and negative attitude towards my whole music "career". i have taken too many beatings over the years to the point where i was going to retire last year and focus on trying to do creative writing rather than music... but circumstance had other ideas for me and as a man of great faith in the omens i need to follow them. the problem is of course that i find myself in a position as the CEO of a record company trying to con people into the idea that 21 tandem repeats is important, versus the concept of being a player who just wants to play. The ever quotable Jason Rodney once sang "it's a fast food industry" at the end of the song Chicken... where is he when you really need him (arguing with the dean of medicine in some state university in detroit), but thats beside the point.

What should i post on the Supper Show Blog... who cares about some chump fool free show, all them consumers are paying

Here is an interesting development.

My little girl is sick and i just spend some time by her bed making her feel better... she is so sweet, poor little girl all stuffed up.

And then you remember what is important, but then you flash back to the idea that if you are going to do something then do it right! had a few interesting conversations in the last few days. One with a guy name Ryan Townsend... another fine member of the V5T postal code, who is a man with a great belief in the emerging Vancouver music scene, a fine singer and songwriter himself, a man with an infectious enthusiasm for the great possibility. it would take me hours to...

never-mind i'll just post this

wow, i couldn't leave just yet... like i have to repair this series of unconnected thoughts... hey i could play drums tomorrow night... that's a soothing idea... very soothing... now i can't open my email... i don't understand... this is a live nervous breakdown... don't even think of spellchecking this bitch... too late now I'm off that wonderful tangent and on to other things like self analysis which must be some form of egotism when you think about it... I gotta be that Condo salesman that lurks inside of me.

If i didn't have art i might have become a highly successful condo salesman, i can put on a show, and i am a natural fucking ass hole, an unfortunate tendency that i have managed to curb in recent years.

A Profile.. i am a decent man who just plucked a beard hair from his computer keyboard. i have strong values but am weak when it comes to creating situations where people who react wildly when confronted with certain conditions meet a heavy dose of those conditions head on.

Thats why i love Rodney, he understands the full scope of the crushing situation imposed yet has a honors PHD degree in his own reactions to travesties. I win with him and against him. While we are on Rodney this is the latest... so i sent him a letter addressed with a personal insult and he bought a drum kit for my child and had me pick it up from Toys are Us where the retarded staff took an hour to find it. I might add that ther is nothing in that store that is worth buying... actually there are some necessary things for infants.

i have to get off this computer... i will post without even re reading and no edits with respect to spell checking...

i guess that was me

Oh yea

Come to the Western Front on Saturday December 16 2006 303 east 8th ave. Vancouver B.C at 8:00PM.. it's apparently really important that there is this appearance that people care about the band 21 Tandem Repeats

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Just drinking and thinking

There has to be a berrte way... Make that a better way.

That statement will all become gibberish if I black out ant let the spell checker take the reins... Which is usually a pretty good option around here. Set lists and a waning belief in oneself dominated the first few beers.. And then there was this sense of coming victory and the score was all there.

And then a man plays an empty cave that cost him plenty.

Of course the Christmas spirit... What is the Christmas Spirit? Some innate consumer response.

we have a little girl who will turn 3 in march... How to celebrate Christmas without training a young mind to be a fool consumer?

Is there ever any real permanent happiness to being a consumer?

Don't get me wrong, there may be.... Like perhaps a certain guitar player who loves the hunt for a new guitar amp, and it is the hunt that they love... So making the kill (the purchase) could kill the hunt and hence ruin everything.

probably a bad example because a guitar amp is a purchase of possibilities and I begat this exercise to flog plastic wrapped plastic toys as a bad idea for a developing smart mind.