Living in a new town much different than and far away from my friends, and working for a company that is a complete 180 from what I’m used to, is continuing to be difficult. Now that it’s not summer anymore, the near-constant sun isn’t enough to keep up my spirits; and I’ve come to realize just how ridiculous it is to not have a car here, even if the commute is 3 km and I live right next door to downtown.
This week, however, I discovered one of the best things to happen from me moving here, and to have picked this apartment building (as if I had a choice, nowhere else would allow cats): I’m 3 blocks from the local indie venue. I’ve been laughing at how I now have little excuse not to see a show, what with it being right there, tickets being $10-15 and the place serves food until about 11. There were 4 concerts this week I would’ve liked to have seen, but what with my having a job and needing to sleep I only made it to half of them.
Last night’s was the Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan, of whom I’ve been a fan for a couple years after I first heard “Journal of a Narcoleptic”, which according to iTunes is my 3rd most played song since I got my Macbook 2 years ago:
I’d never seen him live, so it was a real treat to catch him at a small, intimate venue like The Habitat and I recommend you check him out should he play in your town. He ended last night’s set (or tried to, before he got heckled into doing an encore) with “Robots”, which is off his new album. He got a few audience members to play percussion and the rest of us to sing along to the chorus at the end, which was a sweet way to end the night. He hasn’t made a video for the song yet, but here’s a fan version:
On Tuesday I was there to check out Grand Archives opening for The Most Serene Republic. I really went for the former band, though I have albums from both groups because I have albums from everyone you’ve never heard of. I felt obliged to buy merchandise because it seemed like stealing to see them both for $13 or whatever I paid for the ticket online. Luckily you can’t have too many band t-shirts (it’s true).
Grand Archives captured my attention instantly with their unison mandolin playing to the first song off their new album (song: “Topsy’s Revenge”; album: “Keep In Mind Frankenstein”), which sadly I can’t link to online but you should check them out if you like quieter stuff a la Iron & Wine. Here’s “Sleepdriving” off of their earlier album:
I’d lazily describe The Most Serene Republic as “chamber pop” because I’m too tired to come up with anything better for this Ontario band with a penchant for lush instrumentation:
I’ve been nagged into doing a music recommendations post so this is what you get for now.
2 concerts in a working week is good going. I doubt I would have made it to one unless I was on holiday from work (pre-baby. now I definitely wouldn’t).