Category Archives: regulars

Riff Raff

Indian Wars, The Nymphets, Phonecalls

By Bryce Dunn

Indian Wars

Indian Wars

Hello! We are back in black after a wee break, but as always ready to recognize the greatness that is 7” vinyl!

To begin, Vancouver foursome Indian Wars are jumping head first into the shallow waters of the garage rock pool already inhabited by the Black Lips, the Strange Boys, the Smith Westerns and many others, but they seem unfazed and ultimately ready to challenge. This is thanks in large part to catchy songs and some strong support from their brethren Dead Ghosts (whose guitarist Big Cat lends his recording skills). Songs like “Carol Anne” and “Pockets” will get lodged in your brain and refuse to let go with their crackling guitar breaks and rollicking drums. And they’re both saddled with reverb-drenched vocals with a penchant for ’60s garage records bolstering the whole mess. Let’s hope they can keep their heads above water long enough to outlast (or at least improve on) this current trend, ’cause right now this hits the spot. Read More »

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Venews

Diana Leung, El Dorado, Funky Winkerbeans

By Jordie Yow

Venews - Diana Leung

Venews - Diana Leung

If you’re working on behalf of an arts or culture group and trying to figure out how you can make your event or venue legal in Vancouver, you may be worried that you are about to step in a quagmire of cryptic regulations. You might be about to embark on a slog through a swamp of red tape—but there’s someone who can help you.

Her name is Diana Leung and she is the first person filling the relatively new position of cultural liason at Vancouver’s City Hall.

“I feel like I have a really sweet day job where I’m helping people,” said Leung over coffee. Leung’s job is to help people in Vancouver’s arts and culture community navigate the difficult path to get their space or event set up. She also helps guide city policy on how best to support artists in Vancouver.

Leung won’t do all the work for you, but she will let you know who you need to talk to. Read More »

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Textually Active

The Wire Primers: A Guide To Modern Music (Verso, 2009)

Review By Andy Hudson

The Wire Primers: A Guide To Modern Music

The Wire Primers: A Guide To Modern Music

A highlighter, a laptop and The Wire Primers—you could do worse for a quick intro to modern music. Reading like liner notes to artists like Sun Ra, Sonic Youth and Stockhausen, the 19 “primers” collected here are part of an ongoing series printed in The Wire, the British magazine of “improvisation, electronics and avant rock.”

First published in 1982, The Wire began as a monthly free jazz and new music review. Since then, it has widened its range, not only by tapping obscure new sub-genres, but also by putting the faces of Iggy Pop and Grammy-nominated Madlib on its cover. Read More »

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Editor’s Note

(Actually it's a production manager's note)

By Debby Reis

Dear Discorder:

I’ve been Discorder’s Production Manager for a year now, and during this time I feel like I’ve been reintroduced to Vancouver’s music scene. Before, I would go to the odd show, usually when someone invited me to see their band play, or else I’d see a bigger band I was already familiar with.

Reading Discorder every month has kept me in touch and connected to a community that I had always felt distanced from. I imagine it’s been the same for many of our readers, and it’s a comment that turned up in the reader survey we did last year. When you read Discorder, you know who the up-and-coming musicians in the city are. And this is why we think it’s so important to keep Discorder in print. Read More »

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Never on a Sunday: Part 3

with Rock & Roll Pizza Party and the Astoria Soul Club

By Discorder Staff

Illustration by Mérida Anderson

Illustration by Mérida Anderson


Rock & Roll Pizza Party

(Third Wednesday of the month)

Venue: The Biltmore
Music: Garage and punk
DJs: Kyle Scully, John Arnett and Ashley Marie
Cover: $7 for local bands, $8 for touring bands
Drink Specials: $3.75 PBR, $4.75 on feature draft

It seems obvious now, but the idea is actually totally ingenious. Jillian Mann has been a promoter for the Biltmore for two years now and entertained the idea of having her own night there. When given the go, she had to come up with something that would get people out on a Wednesday night. What better than the best music and free food? “We thought of naming it Hot Lunch and having free hot dogs,” said Mann, but then the idea of free pizza dawned on them. “We found out there’s a bar in Montreal that already does a Rock & Roll Pizza Party, so I contacted the promoter for it and asked if we could have one here,” Mann told me in an interview outside the venue while we watched people pour in. “He was really excited about the idea … Now there’s one on Calgary, too.” Read More »

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Venews

"How do we encourage creativity in Vancouver? We need to legalize it"

By Jordie Yow

Illustration by Lindsey Hampton

Illustration by Lindsey Hampton

“This is going to be really huge if it goes through; it will change the city,” whispered Dave Duprey, owner of the Rickshaw, Grace Gallery and the Narrow, before he went up to speak in favour of a report that the city of Vancouver’s cultural services had compiled for Jan. 21’s city council meeting. The report, with the innocuous title “Regulatory Review for Live Performance Venues,” is based on two meetings that cultural services had with stakeholders in Vancouver’s live performance community (full disclosure, including myself) to discuss problems and possible solutions for the bureaucratic nightmare that can be running a venue in Vancouver. Read More »

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Textually Active

Glenn Gould

Review By Andy Hudson

Glenn Gould by Mark Kingwell - Penguin Books Extraordinary Canadians Series, 2009

Glenn Gould by Mark Kingwell - Penguin Books Extraordinary Canadians Series, 2009


Biographers of Glenn Gould face a tough subject, something like a Mozart child prodigy crossbred with mind-wrangling communications thinker Marshall McLuhan.

Also, since dying in 1982, Gould has provoked a hubbub of competing biographies, from Francois Girard’s 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould to a PhD dissertation on his facial tics.

Mark Kingwell, a young Toronto philosopher with recent books on art, war, public space and idlers, sees the problem of the Gould bio like this: because Glenn Gould retreated, Oz-like, from the public eye and only communicated through broadcasts and recordings, no one got a single, solid impression. Read More »

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Film Stripped

"We use more of a Communist approach"

By David Stansfield

Salazar, illustration by Karlene Harvey

Salazar, illustration by Karlene Harvey

For generations raised on the big, shiny videos of MTV and MuchMusic— think Puff Daddy dancing in a tunnel or a topless Slash shredding in the rain—the music videos produced by local motion picture collective Salazar are a welcome departure from the norm. The collective, which consists of Nathan Drillot, Jeff Petry, Jesse Savath, Liam Mitchell and Bienvenido Cruz, create films that are completely unlike the glossy infomercials slouching down Much’s Top 30 Countdown.
Read More »

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Textually Active

Vancouver Special

Review By Debby Reis

Vancouver Special by Charles Demers - Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009

Vancouver Special by Charles Demers - Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009

I have a parallel existence to Charles Demers. We went to the same Burnaby high school without ever meeting. We were both involved as editors at The Peak, SFU’s student newspaper, albeit at different times, and we seem to run into each other at publishing events, comedy shows or just randomly on the street far more often than seems possible. I think the first time we actually met was at a youth labour conference. It is perhaps due to this parallel existence that his book of essays about Vancouver resonates so strongly with me, but then again, it’s more likely because I grew up in Vancouver at the same time as Demers. Read More »

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Editor’s Note

that mad at Lindsey for not partying magazine from CiTR 101.9 FM

By Jordie Yow

Dear Discorder:

Well, by the time you read this the Olympics will be upon us and our city will be swarmed with tourists here for the biggest two-week party in the world. Maybe you are even one of those tourists, in which case, “Hello tourist, we are conflicted about you being here.” Read More »

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