The Famines easily meet all of our criteria: when I first met Raymond and Garrett, it was clear since day one that we were all on the same page, and in the years that have followed, we’ve become good friends. The Famines have blown me away live every time I’ve seen them. As a singles collection, every song on this LP is a hit. This is good music. These are good people. This record will last.

As we all know, there is no “sure thing” in music these days: people aren’t buying records! Everyone downloads everything for free! No one cares! In this climate, releasing physical records still matters. Now is the time to double-down on the things we love. Instead of closing shop, now is the exact time that new models for making/releasing music can actually be given a chance to succeed.

• Hype is fleeting and temporary. Nothing is being built in favour of quick profits.
  
• Genre is dead. Genre obsessions/popularity are fleeting and temporary. Lasting music is hard to categorize.
• Disposable music is easily disposed of.
• Physical records are emphasize time. Mp3′s emphasize space. True music appreciation finds a balance between the two.

Harold Innis wrote a book in 1950 called “Empire and Communications” that I find useful when thinking about releasing music. Innis says that every medium has a bias of either space or time. The dominant medium in a civilization determine the nature of that civilization. Media that emphasize time are durable in character – stone, clay, parchment, and these media favour decentralization. Media that emphasize space are less durable and light in character – papyrus and paper and favour centralization. To increase stability, Empires need to balance time and space, but within Empires, monopolies of knowledge form that favour some media over others, balance is threatened. This leaves the door open for new forms and leads (ultimately) to the collapse of Empires.

The failing music Empires of the 20th century became entirely ‘space-oriented’ , with no inner coordinating principle and with no organic conception of ‘lived tradition,’ time, succession or duration. Music became all about turning quick profits, running artists into the ground. Biases of time somehow got lost, which is why there will be no new U2, no new Radiohead, no new Bruce Springsteen, no new Rolling Stones. Those bands were given time to grow, to experiment and to FAIL. Touring circuits that Bruce Springsteen developed in simply do not exist anymore.

If we are going to make music matter again we need to find balance between space and time. We live with the space-based orientation of Mp3 culture, which is no-longer novel nor desirable (nobody is going to their grave happy that they spent a chunk of their life downloading/organizing Mp3s), and physical artifacts are necessary to achieve balance. One result of this space-based Mp3 culture is abundance sickness which numbs us, and stops us from caring. Instead of endlessly shuffling 10,000 mp3s, why not spend some time with one record.

Mp3s still have a purpose, they successfully abolished the monopolies that major labels once held (and to a degree, still hold), but if any of us still care about music we need to slow down, to buy records that matter to us, to stop trying to hear everything and re-focus.

Part of my problem is that, because of my lo-bro upbringing and my default music taste, jazz music is really hard for me to comprehend. There are a million records by a million jazz musicians and it is hard to know where to start. When this journey began (November, 2003), I read a lot of Amazon listicles and All Music Guides for people just like me, and dove in. But, for every record I really got into (Miles Davis “Kind of Blue”, Charles Mingus “Ah Um”), there were a dozen that I really hated. That I found annoying or, worse, boring.

With pop music, when I hate something, I turn it off. During jazz month, I endure the stuff I hate in hopes that somehow it will make me a better person, and then put on “Kind of Blue” again. It’s the one jazz record that I own that doesn’t have to wait until November.

Thing is, I have this weird thing about liking “Kind of Blue” as much as I do. It always feels so obvious. It’s the one jazz record everyone can get into, it’s the one jazz record everyone owns, and if they don’t own it, it’s the one jazz record everyone should own. I’m listening to it right now. If Jazz Month slowly gets whittled down to five records that I enjoy and appreciate, I suppose that is better than nothing.

Where am I going wrong? Which records am I missing out on?

Welcome to Bored To Death, a shortlist of things to do in Lethbridge to aid in the “there is nothing to do here” blues, because the truth is that there is mostly nothing to do here.

Bored To Death September 30 – October 13

1)   “Cereal Gen” at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery (Until October 24) FREE

University of Lethbridge Art Gallery's Cereal Gen Exhibit

The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery has been exceptionally good over the last few years, and the gallery’s latest exhibit “Cereal Gen” is no exception. Edmonton artist Lyndal Osborne’s installation Endless Forms Most Beautiful, which displays alien-like “enlarged seedpods” in the process of being genetically altered, is a must see. It’s time to change the conversation from what the University gallery doesn’t do, to what they are constantly doing so well.

2) Art Days (Friday, September 30 to Sunday, October 2) FREE

Even though Art Days sounds like the least fun thing ever, there is no better time to celebrate the world-class art that happens here in our own backyard. The highlight of the weekend is Artwalk, which is an excellent opportunity to see the works-in-progress of some of our local art-stars. Plus: performances in Galt Gardens from our best local musicians and every carb-a-holic’s favourite two words: “pancake breakfast.” Remember to wash the syrup off your hands before you run your filthy paws over everyone’s artwork!

3) Ghostkeeper w/ Michael Rault at The Slice (Saturday, October 1) $10

Come for Calgary’s Ghostkeeper, one of that cities most entertaining live rock and roll bands, but show up early enough to see Edmontonian one-man-band Michael Rault, whose Buddy Holly-esque rave-ups will completely lay waste to The Slice.

4) Randy and Mr. Lahey at Average Joe’s (Thursday, October 6) $20

CHEESEBURGERS

This event sells itself: Randy and Mr. Lahey from Trailer Park Boys doing some kind of comedy routine, a Trailer Park Boys look-a-like contest (which should be fiercely competitive in Lethbridge), and a cheeseburger eating contest.

5) Uncle Bad Touch w/ Ketamines at The Owl (October 11) FREE

Montreal’s Uncle Bad Touch is the latest project from Priestess lead vocalist Mikey Heppner, and their self-released album is one of my personal favourite records this year.  Uncle Bad Touch might be one of the worst band names of all time, but their combination of 60’s arena rock and 70’s folk-rock is completely worth checking out.

Which is to say, I’ve been suffering from acceleration sickness again.

If 1991 was accelerated, 20 years later we are in hyperdrive and it feels like the engine is glowing red hot.

For me, acceleration sickness comes, in part, from information overload, though that is only part of the story here. For the most part, I’ve adapted and my information capacity has expanded (though don’t tell my gmail inbox that). The other part comes out of that increased capacity to process information, quickly, in that everything flows through and is incredibly hard to make things stick. So a lot more culture that I process a lot more quickly. Cultural diarrhea.

As a teenager with limited access to music, I would buy a cassette tape every month or so with the money I made from my paper route. I would get this tape and memorize the music on it, and even if I initially didn’t like the record (or only liked a song or two), by the end of the month the tape was in my DNA. When I got Nevermind the spring of 1992 at my local Sam the Record Man, I listened to that album a thousand times. I long for those days, as this still seems like the ideal way to process music, the right amount of time.

Twenty years later, I have access to and regularly check out (as opposed to listen) new music (and music that is new to me) all the time. Instead of experiencing albums, I experience the flow of new music. I imagine a river, and in this river are all the new albums/singles etc. and, from time to time, I get in and see if anything sticks while hours of music wash over me. As a result, it is incredibly hard for me to get into an album for any length of time these days. I love that Total Control record right now, but I am almost sad to admit that the fifteen or so full listens I’ve given the record in the last few weeks is enough. I’m anxious to get back and see what I’ve been missing. I’ll go to a few message boards and websites and see what’s new, what’s leaked, what needs to leak and continue the cycle. To fill the gaps, to stay relevant and ahead of the curve.

I’m chasing my tail so fast it’s a blur. It’s making me sick and I keep asking myself – what’s the endgame here?

Do we keep doing this forever? Can we keep doing this forever?

That question has been haunting me lately as I write my dissertation. Where does this go? At one point, I had high hopes for our digital future. These days, as those digital selves get increasingly ill, I can’t help but fear the worst.

Then things went weird.

The candidacy progress, which I rushed through, was pretty brutal on my psyche. I passed, but it felt like one of the most degrading and un-fulfilling events ever. Post-candidacy I had problems getting ethics approval – not that my research was going to be harmful to anyone (quite the opposite), but because of needless red-tape and bureaucratic hand-wringing. After finally starting the actual research phase of my dissertation in January 2009, I spent 8 months chasing down something which I eventually decided wasn’t there, and had to re-evaluate my whole dissertation topic.

It’s actually only been in the last eight months that I actually feel on top of my research and writing, that I’m finally on to something real, and the result is a dissertation that is slowly taking shape. I am making steady progress towards completion, and I think what I have is actually pretty good, but it took me a REALLY long time to fully embrace it and commit to finishing. In fact, up until last December, there wasn’t a week that went by that I wasn’t considering quitting.

There were many, many months over the last three years that I was hiding (I’m not sure how well) a deep depression. Crushingly heavy. Many factors contributed, and it took everything I had to climb out. Scary, looking back, at how awful I felt almost all of the time, and the lengths I went to insulate the people I love the most from this. Lots of late nights sitting alone quietly losing it. Music helped (a theme throughout my life), but maybe actually prolonged everything. Things got ugly.

I’m pretty sure I’m on the metaphorical “other side” now, as if it were so easy. For better or for worse, I’ve still managed to accomplish a lot in the last three years, and I think, in the end, the depression and period of deep introspection will pay off. I never want to go back, but in a sick way I’m glad it happened. Is that weird?

1) Because I’ve been writing a lot lately and I have too many ideas in my head
2) Because I’ve thought about doing this for a long time, you know like “losing weight” and “learning how to play guitar”
3) Because…

I am not Paul J. Lawton, author of historical fictions.

Nor am I a Paul Lawton, historian who studies the role of U-Boats in WWII.

Definitely not this Paul Lawton, illiterate with a fondness for fast cars.

You can ask my friend Jeff, but I can assure you that I am not Paul Lawton, deck-builder.

Pretty sure I can design a better “home page” than this Paul Lawton.

I am not the Australian soldier Paul Lawton who died in Iraq, and whose parents were informed via a quick cellphone call… RIP other Paul Lawton.

Not Paul Lawton, CEO of Comms Business Interactive, nor am I Paul Lawton on Lawton & Lawton law offices.

I honestly think I have the potential to be the most well-known Paul Lawton in the entire world! Come on other Paul Lawtons, give me some competition here, you guys are making it easy!?!

Stone Temple Pilots
The Tragically Hip
The Flaming Lips
City and Colour
Mathew good
Three Days Grace
The New Pornographers
Stars
Corb Lund
Fact to Face
Constantines
Attack in Black
Pride Tiger
Crash Parallel
The Dudes
The Whitsundays
Ten Second Epic
The Spades
Said the Whale

Weekend pass: $125

I almost had to eat my words about this festival. Last week, Morrissey made a statement that read

I am also pleased to be asked to join the bill at the V Festival at the Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, and also at Fort Calgary in Calgary.

I kind of lost my mind when I read that. I have been obsessed with The Smiths and Morrissey since I was a lad, and have yet to see him live (when that day comes, I am stalking his tour bus, getting him to sign my arm and then getting it tattooed there). Then that statement continues:

However, as we all know, the psychologically and constitutionally sickening Canadian seal-kill has started and is once again in full-cry.

Oh christ, here we go. Look Morrissey, you are awesome and everything, but punishing your Canadian fan base (most of whom likely agree with you that the barbaric seal hunting practices should stop) is really stupid. YOU PLAY SHOWS IN THE US, A COUNTRY THAT KILLS MORE IRAQI HUMAN BEINGS IN A YEAR THAN CANADA DOES SEALS!!! Ugh. I get really worked up about this all the time. Shit, I would have sat through Three Days Grace, Mathew Good AND City and Colour to see Morrissey, but alas, that is not to be. Just as well, as that is the musical equivalent to being bludgeoned to death by a sealing club (which, might I add, I am morally opposed to).

What happened to the lip service to having “local music” on the bill? I see the Dudes, The Whitsundays (from Edmonton, which should count I guess, but they are also playing the superior Sled Island, so fuck that), but that is it (and in order to say that for sure, I looked into some of the bands I hadn’t heard like Crash Parallel from Ontario, and who are apparently “drawing comparisons to artists such as Coldplay, The Fray, David Gray and Counting Crows” (which, aside from their music are four reasons why they must be avoided at all costs). Oh shit – Ten Second Epic (which is subsequently the length of time I could listen to their myspace) are from Edmonton too.

Sure there are a few Annotated Everything favourites on the bill (Flaming Lips, The New Pornographers, Constantines), but most of this festival just reeks of the dying (not soon enough) corporate music industry. A lot of the bands (and the structure behind the bands) are still desperately pushing music as a “product,” and talking (in a very 1990′s way) about “content” (“Get the digital release for bonus CONTENT!”). For those bands that avoid that way of doing business in the music industry, the stink kind of wafts over to them as well (whether they like it or not).

Secondly, who is this lineup going for? Are Stars fans going to want to sit through Attack in Black? Will Attack in Black fans sit through Said the Whale? Will anyone want to sit through Three Days Grace? To paraphrase Pierre Bourdieu, “taste is nothing more than the distaste of the taste of others” – something that I will admit fuels a post like this. Yet, it is one thing for me to think that this lineup is full of shit, and it is another for me to react against this form of blatant “focus grouped” lineup that appears to these eyes to be nothing more than a vehicle to move “units” (as opposed to a way for music fans to come together and enjoy a nice day in the sun without the taint that is a Branson-sponsored shill-fest).

To wit, this is exactly where I found my first ever porn stash, as a seven year old let loose with other seven years olds in rural Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. My comrades and I would bike around aimlessly, playing in construction sites and looking for treasure. And treasure we did find, in the form of a stack of 1970′s era Playboys, rotting away under a giant tree stump in a treed area, just waiting to be found by children. Burned in my memory was four little kids, not sure what they were looking at, but knowing instantly that they shouldn’t have been looking at it, dividing up the few mags that hadn’t decayed too badly. All was good in life for a week or two, with these magazines being the highest form of schoolyard capital, until (predictably) one of my friends was caught with one by his mom, and was grounded for a month. The rest of us, fearing the same consequences, ritualistically ripped up the magazines and let the pieces blow away in the wind.

This all comes up because yesterday, on a walk with Jane and my son, found… porn in the woods. Well, kind of. We were walking through Henderson Lake yesterday afternoon, a man-made lake with a walking path around it that is generally “DESTINATION LETHBRIDGE.” We were walking over this bridge, when something shiny catches my eye:

Kind of a bad photo, but what you are looking at (the red bits) are a handful of pornographic DVD’s (one with the title “Spring Chickens”) that had been… ritualistically snapped up and thrown under the bridge.  My son, not knowing what he was looking at (or pretending not to), wanted desperately to be allowed to go “investigate further,” to which I had to say no.

This brought up so many questions to ponder:

1. What is behind the porn in the woods phenomenon?

To which I can can think of two possible answers:

1. To keep pornography hidden in an area that it won’t be found easily, so that it can be used in an accessible, but private surroundings
2. To dispose of pornography in an area that will not point to one person (i.e. disposing of it in the garbage can out back).

Will the internet age slow (or eliminate) the porn in the woods phenomenon?

1. Yes. It is easy for kids to access pornography with the Internet.
2. Kids aren’t even allowed to play outside in the woods anyways.

Which means that we will no longer have stories like these:

Has anyone noticed that smell forest porn always has? Kind of musty, but unlike any other kind of smell in the world. It always smells exactly the same. The forest porn smell….

I will never forget the smell of rained on porn mags that have been dried up. For me, it’s the smell of porn.

What’s f–ked up though, is that to this day, my brain associates the smell of ferns with porn. No lie. We hid our rescued stash in a small cave that was hidden by a blanket of ferns.

What I found the most interesting in our discovery yesterday was the way that these dvd’s were disposed of – in a well travelled area, but out of the way enough that most people would not have discovered the stash. Also – with seven or eight destroyed DVD’s, one was noticeably unharmed. Perhaps an homage to a childhood experience lost to a digital age?