Jaimoe

Me trying out my looper pedal for the first time at Spirit's Bar and Grill in Toronto this summer.

I love TCM. It's one of, if not the best, non-sports channels on TV. The only thing that would put it at my #1 would be if they went HD. Man, they had a Marx Brothers mini-marathon today and I see they're airing promos for one of the best modern westerns ever, Bad Day At Black Rock, that's scheduled for Saturday night. All movies are shown in their original aspect ratio and TCM programmers use the most recent cuts (most of the time). Top that TVO... well, you haven't yet!

The Raps are playing tough tonight against the Suns. No Bosh and Bargnani, and Ford is rusty (tossing balls away etc...), but it's a 5 point game at the half. Depth can't be underestimated.

Rios could be gone as early as this week. I hope either of those Giants pitchers turn out to be stars.

What's "dime"?

Shock people? Calamity Jane and popo weeny make you look like a nun.

Florida's ballpark is worse than the Big O, their payroll is one of the lowest (if not the lowest) in the NL, so making a profit isn't that surprising.

If there's any fans left in Florda, you gotta feel for them. However, the Tigers are my second favourite club, so I'm liking the deal alot.

I hope the Leafs pull out all the stops in tonight's game as your birthday present from them.

I'm sure the balloons and the cake are being prepped at Denny's as I write. Have a 24 of Bud kind of birthday Brad!!

To all my Jewish Sanc-friends, have a great and festive 8 days!

A really really really bad big ticket concert.

Hopefully the review will point you towards the new CD?

Thanks. I also loved how Wayne's guitaring has evolved. The last time I saw Cuff back in 2005, Petti was more of a melodic lead player. He still is, but I found him going for broke more on the jams. It may have a lot to do with Murray.

Pictures are pending. I emailed MKS (who took lots of great shots) and asked if I could add some pictures from the show. I think I'll add the link instead (pending approval).

Here's the link. I don't know why it wouldn't go up on the main page. See Cuff or buy their albums. They are a special band: http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showtopic.php?tid/244136/

Cuff the Duke @ The Mod Club 11/30/07 Review by David “Jaimoe†Ball [blurb]Oshawa alt-country rockers Cuff the Duke put on one hell of a show Friday to the delight of a capacity crowd at The Mod Club in Toronto's chic Little Italy district. The gig was one of the last stops on their cross Canada tour and was my first taste of material from Cuff’s just released third studio album, Sidelines in the City. It also gave me a chance to check out their pared-down line-up featuring geeky glasses-wearing singer-guitarist Wayne Petti and fellow founding member Paul Lowman (on bass), plus key new additions Dale Murray (replacing original guitarist Jeff Peers) and drummer Corey Woods. No more strings, horns and other ambitions that had Cuff rivaling the on-stage chaos of an Arcade Fire concert.[/blurb] Understandably, new songs dominated the 90-minute set, but I gotta say I liked every freaking one of them - admittedly my Sidelines in the City initiation was tainted because Cuff the Duke is a great live band and could make even a Tea Party song sound good. Regardless, I'm doing what Conan O'Brien said after My Morning Jacket thoroughly killed "One Big Holiday" on his program a number of years ago: "I am buying that record!" The new songs aren't necessarily better than the stuff from their 2005 self-titled minor masterpiece, but there's an exciting edge and music diversion taking place that finds the band ever-so-slightly exploring other branches stretched above their country-rock roots. Of course blending catchy instrumental arrangements with beautiful vocal harmonies remain at the core of Cuff's success, but this 4-piece incarnation (and sometimes adding a fifth member on piano/organ) puts a big bright spotlight on Petti and Murray's guitars and their love of jamming. Older favourites like "Take My Money and Run", "The Ballad of Poor John Henryâ€, "Belgium of Peru" and "The Future Hangs" were obvious crowd pleasers and had their usual guitar interplay, but they also had more oomph this time out thanks to Murray's heavy Gibson SG guitar tone replacing Peers' country-punk Fender twang. Amiable front man Petti grinned a lot during the night, no doubt pleased with the enthusiastic fan reaction to excellent new cuts like gritty country blues "If I Live or If I Die" and Tom Pettyesque "Remember the Good Times", but a couple of other Sidelines guitar showcases topped everything else. Opener "Surging Revival" mixes Ben Folds power-pop with searching Crazy Horse solos and the dream-poppy “Failure to Some" rocked the house in a big reverb-drenched guitar jam way, taking a page or two out of My Morning Jacket's rulebook. Winging it through a cover of the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle with Care†highlighted a rowdy encore complete with Petti and company orchestrating a dueling audience chant and at the same time being fully engulfed by a stage full of gyrating fans. It felt just like old times. I’m not sure if they’ll still be able to pull off those antics in a few years, because Cuff the Duke can’t remain one of Canada’s best kept secrets for very much longer. *** 1/2 (out of 5) Here's a link to Mercy Southam's exclusive photos of the Cuff the Duke show , including pics from the good opening act from Montreal, Land of Talk.

In fact, you could spend your entire trip in the Village you'd be happy. Don't forget The Blue Note (one of the US's best jazz clubs) is in the Village, plus the restaurants are great... and so is the shopping.

There's a couple of great CD shops with tons of bootlegs of Dead, Allmans etc... in Greenwich Village. It's not that large of a neighbourhood, so you should be able to find the stores I was in. One is the first floor of a house, up a small flight of steps.

I know, and I love it.

I'd love to have a few pictures. I'm writing the review right now. I want to get it done today, but I gotta watch HNIC tonight.

I liked the opening band too. That chick is a good guitarist - she adds nice clever fills to her power-chords. They are a little show-gazey though, but not enough to turn me off.

I don't know who Adam is either. I posted that whilst drunk after the Cuff The Duke show. I agree with the cash-grab critique of yours, however, isn't every old band that reunites only in it for the money? Have you compared any old Pixies live stuff with their last tour? I like the old stuff a lot better: the guitars were more anxious and danderous.

It was a fascinating and smoking show tonight. I'm going to submit a real review in the next few days, but I loved tonight. Large Marge was fun and I enjoyed talking to C-towns and M as well.

I agree.