ben is a sandwich

It's definitely hard to judge. The albums to me are something I've lived with, live are usually some other experience entirely. But for what it's worth, I do remember that the most recent "full band" tour was a pleasure all in all but slightly disappointing. The Avalanche-Coma band were the best MG live incarnation ever, mainly because of how loose they were with established songs. They presented nearly every song, be it new or old, in a completely different light than the studio versions (pledge, load me up/generation x-wing, and the future is x-rated are particular stand outs). I have bootlegs from those tours but it's a damn shame we'll never hear those versions properly recorded.

i've had this vision in my head for a couple of years now of the live cd/dvd/whatever that should have been. the cover would be a picture of the 'Howdy!' sign from the avalanche tour. it would have the re-vamped versions of x-rated, hello time bomb, load me up, etc. one of the nice long jams on big city life, the keyboard-centric 'pledge,' and end with the german live versions of suburbia and born to kill (cleaned up, of course). there would also be a second disc from the last acoustic tour. but only 30 minutes of actual songs, so that there was plenty of room for all that random discussion of beer brands and paris hilton biographies. alas, it wasn't meant to be.

if it were anyone else, i'd totally verbally backhand you. but it's you, so i actually am intimidated. so i unsay it, but... um... highly suggest it? would that be alright?

i concur with those who like the demo better. not that i dislike the most recent version. but the demo (or at least the copy i have) is very lo-fi sounding, and i do love the low/high vocal contrast in the chorus. the new one sounds just like he played it live. which i liked, but it's definitely less 'fragile' or something.

my second opinion. it didn't totally strike me at first, though i enjoyed it. but i spent the day on public transit and walking the streets and now i think it's wonderful. go walk the streets and take public transit and listen to it under some headphones, or your opinion doesn't count. yeah, i said it.

that one's even better! someone get in touch with matt. he needs to use it.

frankly, i'm quite disappointed that it's a fake. i thought it was fantastic. but, maybe the real art will blow my mind. only time will tell.

i definitely don't see the killers thing. i like it. i think i'll like it better in context of the album, as the lyrics of all the songs (that i've seen lyrics for...) are bloody fantastic. very personal. and i like that the production is sort of between the rawness of WLRRR and the ambience of rooms. can't wait for the full meal.

toronto and scarborough.

heck yes. i've been craving a new helping of those smooth-ass josh vocals. such a great band. thanks for sharing!

if i recall correctly, the people who won the soundcheck/meet and greet contests during the avalanche tour got to see it rehearsed (at some of the soundchecks, anyhow). alas, no bad cellphone/mp3 clips were ever leaked.

happily got swordfishtrombones, frank's wild years, and big time for xmas. they've been playing 'big time' on bravo quite a bit lately (for those non-canadians, that's an arts & culture type tv station)... but apparently the vhs is out of print and they have yet to release it on dvd. a damn shame, i tells you.

the odds-break the bed

hawksley workman's "almost a full moon" might be them second best christmas-type album ever. the first is "a charlie brown christmas" i could listen to that shit no matter what the season, i tells ya.

ooh. i wouldn't wish that upon anyone.