Birthday wishes to Mr Bach

Today we should all try to improve ourselves by listening to Johann Sebastian Bach, for today is his birthday. Happy birthday old chap.

"I don't know much about erotic art" says he

My God - look how cute he is...Oh Morrissey - where have you gone?!

I never stole one happy hour around here....

I'm trying to get my review started for Morrissey's "Greatest Hits". Unfortunately I'm truly crushed with this 'retrospective' so I'm forced to go back to Morrissey's beginnings - from his first solo album, Viva Hate, I've found this amazing live version of one of my FAVORITE Morrissey songs, "Late Night On Maudlin Street". I'm restored when I absorb this creation - pure Morrissey lyrics and pure melancholy.

The The, a gem in the old iTunes library...

I was playing an old mixed CD in the car tonight on the way home and came across this old favorite - THE THE "Love Is Stronger Than Death". THE THE is the English band Johnny Marr joined post Smiths. The album that this video belongs to is "Dusk" - Great Album and I happen to have the Re-master Edition in my iTunes, thanks of course to my George Harvey - gatekeeper of all 80's alternative UK CDs. The song is blaring in the apartment as I type this.

New City And Colour - an acoustic folk reverie

Artist: City & Colour (Dallas Green)
Album: Bring Me Your Love
Label: Dine Alone Records
Release Date: February 12, 2008
Rating: 8 out of 10

In the complete opposite vane of Dallas Green’s Alexisonfire incarnation, City And Colour releases a second solo album, Bring Me Your Love.

This album is radiating of velvety acoustic authenticity, exceeding the 2005 effort of “Sometimes”, Dallas Green delivers an acoustic-folk reverie that’s bursting with his heartfelt narratives of love, loss and the human condition.

Along with that, the instrumentation is more sophisticated - burrowing down and lifting off with echoing string the odd whiff of Bob Dylan inspired harmonica and banjo. Bring Me Your Love is unpretentious, trustworthy folk-roots based and without a song to dislike. The immediate loves would include “Waiting”, “Constant Knot” and “Sleeping Sickness”, which begins inconspicuously before the tempo is carried up by a hand-clapping chorus, then the recognizable vocal of Gord Downey swaggers through the third verse. Downey’s cameo demonstrates stirring approval of this young Saint Catherine’s talent.

Listening to the City And Colour recordings I feel as though I’m back in the open air of the Malkin Bowl amphitheatre, beguiled by the purity of Dallas Green’s voice and washed away by gentle sashaying guitar. The 2-minute opening track Forgive Me immediately gives that off and as un-commercial as City And Colour is, Jack Johnson might aspire to cover “Against The Grain” or “The Girl” in a live set.

The order of the album is part of Green’s great intuitiveness. Songs fall into place effortlessly and the final track “As Much As I Ever Could” is as soft as silk, transporting the line taken for the album title, bring me your love, to a diaphanous lullaby - until that is, its abrupt end and your iTunes library barrels in The Clash’s Combat Rock.

-- Stephanie Kiernan