AD

No, it's completely stupid and a moronic half-measure that needs to be shelved.

1. It's 10 outlets across the whole province.

2. The LCBO markup will still apply.

3. These places will only sell what LCBO sells (as they are LCBO).

4. Liquor-buying hours etc haven't been addressed.

The worst thing, (best as far as Ont Liberal political strategy goes), is that this now takes all the momentum out of the idea to put liquor wine and beer into corner stores because now the govt just says, "well, we did what you wanted, we put outlets in grocery stores." Gee, thanks for saving me a stop on the way home. How much of my tax dollars did this cost? Many full LCBO stores are right beside supermarkets anyways. Contracts for outlet stores will be going to big grocery chains instead of opening up money-making competition by putting alcohol in corner stores.

There is no promise to improve selection, there is no promise to let consumers pick what they want to buy, no notice of changes to hours, no possible improvement on LCBO monopoly price-gouging.

Stupid half-measures that don't solve anything.

They really need to do away with the Beer Store.

Randy Bachman is the special guest for this show.

Incidentally, can anyone recommend something hard and grungy? I was listening to Soundgarden and Metallica's Black album the other day and wondered if there's anything out there these days that's got that kind of energy to it? Needing to rock out a little more, ya know?

Japandroids and METZ both fit that bill. Ladyhawk can lean to the heavy side at times.

From Exclaim!

Ween's Aaron Freeman Hints at "Transformative Procedure"

Gene Ween (aka Aaron Freeman) has undergone some significant changes this last year, having folded his longtime project Ween and nearing a full year of sobriety, and the prolific odd-pop experimenter is channelling those metamorphic themes and potentially more on a new solo tune called "Genene."

It's a quick and quiet space-folk tune with an early Bowie feel, and it has the singer putting on an English accent to sing lines seemingly referencing a post-op sex-change procedure ("The transformation's done/you're truly born again"). The song goes on to discuss changing dressings for the last time, furthering the surgical nature of the softly sung tune.

Shortly after the song was posted, Hidden Track apparently got a hold of Freeman at a hospital bedroom in Belgium to ask him whether the song was metaphorical or a literal admission that he was undergoing gender reassignment surgery. Freeman admitted he endured a "transformative procedure," but didn't confirm either interpretation.

"This song is left to interpretation on purpose. To me it's just an honest song about where I'm at, creepy, real and pretty, just the way I like it," Freeman said. "On one hand it's about change and acceptance on a personal, spiritual level but can obviously be interpreted literally as a sex change."

You can stream "Genene" down below.

Best single:

whatever the name of that Japandroids song is...

WHEN THEY LOVE YOU AND THEY WILL, TELL THEM ALL THEY'LL LOVE IN MY SHADOW

IF THEY TRY TO SLOW YOU DOWN, TELL EM ALL TO GO TO HELL

The House That Heaven Built

Bobby Moynihan plays the druncle on SNL

Hey Booche and Ollie, here's a recording of Pearl Jam playing Love Reign O'er Me in case you haven't heard their version.

SendSpace linky

why would you have anyone but Roger singing?

For a better performance?

Well then why even have The Who? Why not just the best cover band. Sheesh.

Well, The Who was outnumbered on stage during their own set, so you're kind of on to something there. I think Eddie Vedder performing a song with his heroes that he usually performs excellently with Pearl Jam would be entirely appropriate given the huge benefit show star-studded thing. I think it would have been a better performance. But oh well, maybe they didn't want him to sing it, or he had to split town, or Roger Waters said no, or whatever other reason. Man Eddie can sing the hell out of that song though.

Billy Joel is doing well. He had an easy act to follow tonight.

why would you have anyone but Roger singing?

For a better performance?

They shoulda let Eddie sing this. He can actually hit the notes with some power.

The Who has a great band. Not so sure about Roger and Pete anymore though.

Alicia Keys was horrible.

I wish he would play live more. I think he played more European dates this year than Ontario.

he definitely rocks more than you

Bon Jovi is the worst.

Best Albums:

Corb Lund - Cabin Fever

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Joel Plaskett Emergency - Scrappy Happiness

Kid Koala - 12 Bit Blues

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Best Local Album:

The White Wires - WWIII

Honourable Mentions:

Mike O'Neill - Wild Lines

Grizzly Bear - Shields - great album

Doug Paisley - Golden Embers EP - maybe my favourite release of the year but at 5 songs it's maybe unfair to include it in the 'Best Albums' list.

The Luyas - Animator

M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion

Near Misses:

Jack White - Blunderbuss (the awesome songs are awesome, the shit songs are shit)

The Wooden Sky - Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun (same as above)

Best Single:

Zeus - Are You Gonna Waste My Time? (too bad the rest of the album really did waste my time. 1 killer tune, 13 tracks of filler)

I was just out in the car listening on XM and man it sounds good. Now back home watching on youtube. Also sounds great! So far an amazing show. Roger Waters was amazing.

Nope, not a huge fan of Bruce. Care to elaborate?

One of Bruce's backup singers is super off-key. Jesus. Get her a monitor.

I thought Max quit playing with E Street? Wasn't he grooming his kid to take over a few years ago? (I don't feel like Wikipedia-ing this)

The city itself is pretty normal, but the surrounding area is awesome (if you like nature / wine / water etc)

The Inbreds broke up but still get back together for one-off shows once in a while, such as the annual Skeleton Park Festival in Kingston. Mike O'Neill has put out a few really excellent solo albums and plays fairly regularly around here. His last show in Ottawa was at Raw Sugar. He also played Wolfe Island Music Festival last summer. Dave owns and runs Zunior.com, a fantastic online record store.

She was on her American tour when she said she might need to cancel Europe tour due to health and potential bankruptcy, then said it was on, then postponed the Europe tour due to angioedema and that she could not afford to bring her full production with her overseas. That's how that story goes.

Wow. Surprised that Michael Phillip Wojewoda would put this out there on his blog.

I just deleted a whole rant about the cancelation of the Rheostatics reunion shows due to Martin’s inability to attend. Although I was not in this show or version of the band I have a long history both as a producer and a drumming member of the Rheos.

Instead I’ll just say that I am saddened that a glimmer of hope was again…extinguished.

Over the span of 10 years I had initiated or participated in three attempts at interventions with Martin. These were all related to his severe problems with addiction. The last effort, orchestrated by Dave Bidini and Selina Martin and members of his family, ended in disaster. Martin has never spoken (at least) to me again. It’s been over three years now.

Now here I am smoking cigarettes again, I’m no stranger to my own addictions. I have to face that as well.

So I’m not trying to throw stones.

It’s just…

I miss his sober company very much.

I’ve missed it for a very long time.

Anyway, when I heard about this gig I was happy to hear that Martin was resurfacing. On a simple human level I knew Dave, Dave and Tim were attempting a very big thing.

Yet in the end it is cancelled.

Now that the reality is firmly back in place I am only sad.

‘sad’

The official language of Quebec is French.

Quasi-burn

All 3 reunion shows at the Horseshoe have been cancelled. Martin is unable to perform.