The Hidden Song Archive

T-Bone and I got to Bymark early last night so we went to the bar and had a drink before dinner. I got an early start on the scotch (Macallan 12) and she on the white wine.
 
An hour later we slid downstairs to our table and our guests – my wife, and T-Bone’s friend whom I’ll call the Other Jen (OJ for short) – joined us. We made our choices and got to it.
 
The appetizers: T-Bone got the steak tartare, my wife got the white asparagus & shrimp with hollandiase, OJ got something else that I can’t remember and I got the steak tartare also. Big mistake. I’d always wanted to try it, and at least now I know, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. Should’ve gotten the gazpacho. Ah well.
 
I felt redeemed during the main course. While the wife got an enormous hunk of salmon and OJ got the chicken, T-Bone and I both upgraded to the famous Bymark burger (which normally runs ~$35). Ordinarily I’d say that’s an insane price to pay for a hamburger, but one bite into it and I knew it was worth every penny. The burger tasted so good that it didn’t even really taste like a hamburger; it was like an immaculate steak with a perfect sauce which just happened to have subtle cheese, unobtrusive lettuce and a few pieces of bread slapped around it. I took my mushrooms off and doubled-up T-Bone’s burger.
 
As if that weren’t enough, the onion rings that came with it were nothing short of miraculous. So light and fluffy and golden and filled with rosemary that – true to form – they tasted less like onion rings than like some foreign food I’d never tasted before. It would be satisfying to walk into Bymark and order a plate of the onion rings.
 
I cleared my palate with Cragganmore. Others used wine, silly tossers.
 
The upside down pear cake was good, but not on the same level as the burger. Not much could be; I’m certain that the burgers were prepared in the Matrix. Believe it or not, I’m now considering making another trip to Bymark solely for the $35 burger and onion rings. I have truly crossed over to some parallel dimension.
 
I’m sad that Summerlicious is over, as are my credit card companies. I wanted to end it off my going to the Metric show at the Mod Club last night (Duarte kindly got me on the guest list), but a splitting headache hit me around the dessert course and got worse from there, so I passed.
 
No rest for the wicked, however; we leave early tomorrow morning to go camping in Algonquin. With any luck our campsite is notunderwater, as most of Peterborough appears to be. Wish us luck.

My wife and I watched the entire second season of Six Feet Under this past weekend. Unlike the first season which started off quickly, dipped in the middle and picked up again near the end, this season started off slowly and spiked quickly toward the end.

Now I can’t wait for season 3, dammit. Why does this series make it so hard? Making us wait a year for the DVDs to come out grumble grumble bitch grumble murmer…

Good lord.

My friend Adam sent me a DVD he made out of some old home video. See, when I was 13 I was in a band. I was the drummer. Our name was Fever Pitch, for chrissakes. We played mostly covers, of crap like April Wine and Kiss, and (apparently; I had forgotten this) some metal stuff like Metallica. I could barely watch it; the music was…not good. My haircut was…worse.

I have no pictures of myself at that age; it was strange to see…me. I was strange. And awkward and shy and not as good a drummer as I thought. But then, I was 13 and still learning to play. God, it was awful and intriguing and horrible and hilarious. It made me cringe and laugh.

I shall now hurl it into the Thunder Pit.

Pitchfork reviews the new Fiery Furnaces album Blueberry Boat. The 9.6 rating just makes me want to buy it more; I gave it a once-over on MP3, but that was just a formality. I knew I would buy it once it came out, so I’ve resisted listening to the MP3s again.

from Yahoo!: Grohl Drums Up Support for Nine Inch Nails

Tue Jul 13, 1:27 PM ET
By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has logged some time behind the drum kit with Nine Inch Nails, which is recording its first studio album since 1999’s “The Fragile.”

Eagle-eyed fans spotted Grohl on Nine Inch Nails’ in-studio Web cam last week, sitting behind a mixing console. His contributions are expected to appear on the Trent Reznor (news)-led act’s long-awaited new album, “Bleed Through,” due later this year via Interscope.

His presence was also tipped off by members of rock act the Exies, who are recording their next album at the same studio, Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, Calif.

“Last week, we had a great barbecue with Queens Of The Stone Age and this week we come in to see Dave Grohl playing drums for Nine Inch Nails,” the band wrote on its official Web site (http://www.theexies.com). “Is that a trip or what?! I guess Trent Reznor is going for real drums this time around. Good call, I say.”

A Foo Fighters spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Grohl rose to fame as the drummer in Nirvana.

An unattributed message on Nine Inch Nails’ official Web site says the band is “about to head back to New Orleans to begin work with (engineer) Alan Moulder. We’re in the midst of a very inspiring recording session that has everyone thrilled. We’re working on a new batch of songs Trent just wrote and we cannot wait for you to hear them.”

“There are lots of surprises in store — wish I could tell you what they are,” the post continues.

“The Fragile” debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 875,000 copes in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was followed in February 2002 by the concert album “And All That Could Have Been, Live.”

The oldest brother was in town this weekend after a whirlwind tour of eastern Canada. He arrived late Friday night, so we just had a few drinks and then all hit the hay. We still haven’t explained what happened at 6 in the morning: two thunderous explosions just outside our door; we couldn’t see what it was, but it was loud enough to wake us, scare the cats, send birds scattering and create a plume of smoke in the air. We’re blaming it on the empty hole in the ground across the street, which we’ve now named the Thunder Pit.

Saturday was more eventful. We walked down King Street and had some breakfast, then walked a little further to the distillery district. He likes exploring new neighbourhoods, and this one wasn’t really even there when he lived here. We poked around for a bit, checking out the amazing stuff in the Sandra Ainsley Gallery, Brush and Sound Designs. Had we not just stuffed ourselves silly we would’ve stopped at a patio and had a drink. We left there and walked back down the Esplanade, then walked up Yonge a bit to the Irish Embassy (after all, we weren’t going to stay full forever) for a pint.

The Toronto Street Festival is on this weekend, so we poked around the acts a bit on the way back up Yonge. Nothing too impressive. ‘Sides, I was boiling hot and needed a frozen hot chocolate. We relaxed a while at home before going up to Yonge & Eglinton (where we were caught in yet more Street festival crowds) and walking over to 7 Numbers…Mmmmmm, sexy duck. We stuffed ourselves silly, then 4/5 of us went to the Bow & Arrow for a few drinks. When we got home my wife and brother decided to watch Friday The 13th on TV; because I’d gotten up at 7 in the morning to go for a run, I was knackered. I went to sleep.

Today was low-key: no explosions, the most ridiculous movie ever made, brunch at the Duke of York, a bit of frisbee in Ramsden Park, and then my brother had to take off for his flight. My wife and I sat exhausted on the couch and absorbed a few more episodes of Six Feet Under (season 2).

It was good to have him here. Living on opposite sides of the ocean we don’t see each other that much, but I think we were at least able to give him some relaxation (and good food!) at the end of his long trip.

Rage on, ThunderPit. Rage on.

Considering I used to live not 5 minutes away from the Corner House, it seems odd that I’d never eaten there. But leave it to Summerlicious to get my ass out to the obvious places.

I trekked there with T-Bone, DJ Duarte and Tony T for today, and had a spiffy lunch. Carrot & ginger soup, cornish hen and chocolate tart with a blueberry compote. All were quite good (as were the courses everyone else got), and well worth the price. With no drinks (I still have to work this afternoon, you understand) it wasn’t much more than I’d spend on Indian lunch buffet.

And then, as if we needed more decadence, we stopped at JS Bonbons on the way home. Mmmmmm…chai tea…

3 down, 1 to go. Bymark is up next.

Pleasant surprise: I went down to the Ministry Of Transportation office today at lunch. I figured that if I was lucky it would be 20 minutes to walk down, an hour waiting in line, 5 minutes renewing my license and 5 minutes to take the subway back, making for a 1.5 hour lunch. So I was shocked and awed when the renewal only took 2 to3 minutes. No foolin’! There was no lineup, she punched the form, ran my credit card through, got me to sign 3 things, told me to stand against the white wall and wait for the flash. I did, she handed my my temporary license and I was on my way. I had so much time left that I walked back.

It took me longer to order a chicken sandwich from Wendy’s than to renew my driver’s license. Who says a Liberal government is always inefficient??!?

From NME

THE DARKNESS’ FRANKIE POULLAIN has admitted the group get “sick to the back teeth of each other”.

The band, who have spent some of this year working on their second album, will headline this weekend’s T In The Park and Oxegen festivals.

Frankie told Radio 1 that the band’s time together doesn’t come without its troubles.

He said: “There could be some cracks appearing, but without the friction there is no spark. You can’t create a spark without friction.

“The thing is you sacrifice, you bite your lip for the common good, the more noble goal, and that’s what we’re all focused on. So we’re all focused on the same objective. Okay yeah, of course there’s fights and everything. We get sick to the back teeth of each other.”

He added: “We all have our little faults. Justin is trumping all the time, or farting, or whatever you call it in this country. Ed whinges all the time. I’m perhaps a little too cynical for my own good. Dan is a bit of a martyr. But that’s what creates the band, it’s the chemistry, so I think it’s a good thing.”