Bits and bobs

I was going to post a link to the new Goldfrapp song from their forthcoming album (out 9/20 US) but just as I was typing these very words the link has gone down. Well, take my word for it, it sounds like this band might finally deliver on the promise they've been building up to with their first two releases. Go snag it, I'm sure it's floating around out there somewhere.

Probably not on the Spotlight Review 1: The Lashes--"Get It"
An advance of this anticipated debut (out 7/31) shows yet another band stuck in the Strokes/Hot Hot Heat axis, which has now become a genre all its own. Not a bad one, but becoming a bit too familiar. Had some high hopes as they are produced by John Goodmanson, who's been responsible for some of my favorite artists' releases (S/K, YLT), but all he brings seems to be a sharp, clean sound. Probably give it another listen or three to see what's what.

This Monday on the show, a real grab bag, and a look at some recent magazines with their attendant CDs. For your homework, check out here and here. Some cool singles to fit in, too including some New Order and Arcade Fire.

Probably not on the SR 2: Coldplay--"X&Y"
Boy, am I wrestling with this one, which means I actually may review it in a few weeks to cause myself to wrestle some more. "Talk", which I raved about way down blog, is totally revised here, and like the majority of the album, seems to have been polished to an almost-too-much-gloss. The Doves album, which I had reservations about when it came out, is looking way much better.

very quick one

Last night's playlist up: Joanna Newsom & Kirsty MacCool, I mean MacColl. Short & sweet.

The Titantic Trio were awesome of course. Here's someone's blog report cuz I'm being lazy......

More goodness soon.

It's Sleater-Kinney week!

The new playlist is now up over at the WBER website. Playlists below should stay on track for the time being. The magazines and singles week includes looks at new issues of The Believer and Comes With a Smile, both with extra-special CDs; guaranteed fun.

On the reading front, the announcement for the Sunburst Award for Canadian fantastic fiction is out, and has been consistently one of my favorites to follow. I think I read most if not all of the nominees in previous years and have never been disappointed. This is a bit different from the Aurora Award mentioned in a previous post, which is voted on by fans, and suffers like most of the recent speculative awards in that they seem to be more of a popularity contest. I am thisclose to diving in to these and having a ball. Right now I'm finishing up the 2005 Rhysling Anthology, which is the award given by the SF Poetry Association, and is equally satisfying.

And yes, as the post title states...should be one fine day and night in Toronto this coming. I will do my absolute damnedest to post a review pronto. But truer words and all...

As for M.I.A, who I sadly missed in Toronto last month: just got my hands on the import version of Arular, which is somewhat different from it's US counterpart, though I haven't listened yet to see what the new context is like. That means I now have 4 versions of this album: Piracy, the original, the "clean" version (for radio), and this. Still one of the year's best so far.

Megapost

Two weeks and no posting. Wish somebody could have told me how tricky it is to keep an up-to-date blog. Not like a lot hasn't been happening, but I've had a couple of people tell me they do keep up on me here, so I feel like it's my duty to send a smoke signal every now and then.

Anyway, my wife and I hit the Stratford Festival, which is now become an annual thing, and we are finding we're having even more fun just hanging around the town and being together than just doing the plays. For the record, if anybody stumbles across this, we saw three plays, and I won't say which ones exactly because I don't want to spoil anything for anybody if they're going, but the production of Sondheim's "Into the Woods" is first-rate and a must-see. The other two we saw we're OK but not up to previous standards.

Then I had to head to Albany for some work-related stuff, and along the way found something called the Albany Pump Station, had a decent burger and some damn decent beer, always a fine thing.

This is the Spotlight Review's blog, so here's some forthcoming stuff. Playlist as always resides
here and I got to sit in on New Wave Wednesday this week with Jen V. and had a blast, with playlist right here (I make an entrance right around the Naked Eyes song). In the weeks to come, we have:
6/13: The Wedding Present, The National, Stephen Malkmus
6/20: Joanna Newsom, Kirsty Maccoll (I previewed some of this on NWW, a top-notch and long overdue compilation)
6/27: magazines and singles
7/4: off, happy 4th!
7/11: Mid-year review, best of 2005 so far
7/18: Magnolia Electric Co, St. Etienne, Bob Mould?

I'm leaving myself a little wiggle room because something always seems to slip in at the last second or so.

Reading lots of little things, mostly short stories/novellas. The "Transgressions" anthology that's out right now has a couple of fine things in it, I didn't bother to read the whole 800-page tome. I got very much into the Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, and John Farris contributions. I suspect that's the beauty of this thing, a little something for everybody to kind of dip into.

Also read the short nominees for the Aurora Award, the Canadian SF awards. Abetter crop this year for sure as opposed to recent years. My money's on Nalo, but this is one I've never been able to predict accurately.

And way back when this blog first started, my first entry noted a forthcoming story that was about me, written by Jeff Vandermeer as part of his Secret Lives project. Well, that story is finally here, and you can head over to Tim Pratt's site to order it. My copy is on it's way, and there is plenty here that would be on my must-read list even if I wasn't in it, so I'm watching the mailbox.

Stay tuned for more, hopefully soon.