Monday, March 31, 2008
healthier tara = good obstacle #1
happy birthday kitchenaid
weekend round-up
Friday, March 28, 2008
hillside festival gossip

- Kelly Joe Phelps
- Moshav
- Mr. Something Something
- Po' Girl
- Sue Foley
- Evalyn Parry
- some type of reuniting of Black Cabbage
And that's it. Nothing to get too excited about just yet I'm afraid but really, all I need to know is that the guy selling the African Peanut Stew will be there and I'm buying a pass.
bathroom basic


Thursday, March 27, 2008
Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for March 27th
- New York Dolls -- Personality Crisis -- New York Dolls (vinyl)
- Hefner -- Every Little Gesture -- Fidelity Wars
- The Two Minute Miracles -- The Margarine Riot -- Volume One *
- Oh Susanna -- Alabaster -- Johnstown *
- Los Campesinos -- Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s) -- Hold On Now, Youngster *
- The Replacements -- Anywhere's Better Than Here -- Don't Tell A Soul (vinyl)
- Reverend Horton Heat -- Bath-Water Blues -- Holy Roller
- Forest City Lovers -- Two Hearts -- Haunting Moon Sinking *
- Billy Bragg -- You Make Me Brave -- Mr. Love & Justice
- Kristen Hersh -- San Francisco -- Sky Motel
- Gram Parsons -- Hearts on Fire -- Grievous Angel (vinyl)
- Hayden -- Damn This Feeling -- In Field & Town *
- Justin Rutledge -- San Sebastian -- Man Descending *
- She & Him -- This Is Not A Test -- Volume One
- Peter, Bjorn & John -- Let's Call It Off -- Writer's Block
- Frank Black & The Catholics -- Western Star -- Pistolero
- The Ventures -- Walk Don't Run -- Walk Don't Run (vinyl)
- Goldfrapp -- Happiness -- Seventh Tree
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds -- Albert Goes West -- Run, Lazarus, Run!!!
- Ghost House -- Stagnant Minds -- The Old *
- Hawksley Workman -- It's Not Me -- Between The Beautifuls *
- Thrush Hermit -- Songs For The Gang -- Clayton Park *
- Bon Iver -- Skinny Love -- For Emma, Forever Ago
- Claire Jenkins avec band -- Dis-Moi -- Crow's Nest/Nid de Pie *
- Townes van Zandt -- Ain't Leaving Your Love -- A Far Cry From Dead
- Sarah Slean -- Get Home -- The Baroness *
- The Tom Fun Orchestra -- When You Were Mine -- You Will Land With A Thud *
- "Alabaster" kills me every time I hear it;
- Forest City Lovers: so far we're 2 for 2, keep up the good work!
- Is there a way I can commission Billy Bragg to write a love song about me? Few people can write so simply with such impact. But first record in 6 years?? What's that about??
- I can't tell you how happy I am the new Hayden record is so good. I'm talking Everything I Long For type of good...
- We cannot stop listening to that PB&J record!! Why is that??? The record is 2 years old!
- Nick Cave should give every musician a lesson in album design and he should call it "How To Make Your Record Buyers Feel Special;"
- Dear Hawksley Workman: Thank god this record is better than Treeful of Starling. It's no Delicious Wolves but it'll do.
- Congrats to Claire -- that song is a bucket of catchy and adorable.
okay fine!

cool factor = high

curl your heart out!!!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
weekend round-up
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for March 20th
- Colleen Brown -- Love You Baby -- Foot in Heart *
- The D'Urbervilles - We Are The Hunters -- We Are The Hunters *
- Shannon Lyon Pop Explosion -- Things I Used To Say To You -- Mods Rule *
- Huevos Rancheros -- American Sunset -- Dig In! *
- Calexico -- Guero Canelo -- Feast of Wire
- Matthew Barber -- Sleep Please Come To Me -- Ghost Notes *
- Weeping Tile -- Westray -- Eepee *
- Plants & Animals -- Feedback in the Field -- Parc Avenue *
- She & Him -- You Really Got A Hold On Me - Volume One
- Tom Waits - Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis -- Blue Valentine (vinyl)
- The Superfantastics -- Lullaby Punches -- Choose Your Destination *
- Pointed Sticks -- Marching Song -- Part of the Noise *
- Ladyhawk -- Night You're Beautiful -- Shots *
- The Stand GT -- The Wait -- They're Magically Delicious *
- Black Mountain -- Stay Free -- In The Future *
- The New Pornographers -- Miss Teen Wordpower -- Electric Version (vinyl)
- Thurston Moore -- Pretty Bad -- Psychic Hearts
- Forest City Lovers -- Country Road -- Haunting Moon Sinking *
- Joel Plaskett -- Truth Be Told -- La De Da (vinyl)
- Violent Femmes -- Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah ( Means I Love You) from The Jetsons -- Saturday Morning Cartoons Greatest Hits
- Vampire Weekend -- Oxford Comma -- Vampire Weekend
- The Smalls -- Maybe That Prophet Scared You -- Waste & Tragedy *
- Double Pumpers -- Hit You Hard Enough -- Old Gold *
- Luke Doucet & The White Falcon -- First Day (In The New Hometown) -- Blood's Too Rich *
- Cat Power -- Ramblin' (Wo)Man -- Jukebox
- Hayden -- The Van Song -- In Field & Town *
- Proof of Ghosts -- I'm Coming Home -- Proof of Ghosts *
- The Boo Radleys -- 4AM Conversation -- Wake Up!
- Sea Wolf -- You're A Wolf -- Leaves In The River
- Jason Collett -- Through The Night These Days - Here's To Being Here *
- Remember crush x1000 on Shannon Lyon? So cute...
- Huevos Rancheros: in honour of my mediocre breakfast of Huevos Tacinos in downtown Austin;
- Calexico: In honour of my kickass Mexican dinner at Guero's;
- Matthew Barber = hella cute and also a good record;
- She & Him: again, buy this record before the day is out and you'll thank me. Apologies to Smokey Robinson and The Beatles but their version of this song might be better than yours;
- Look at the back of Blue Valentine and tell me you don't wish you were the girl leaning up against that car. I know I do:
- Forest City Lovers: One of our favourite discovery bands at Hillside last year. So good!
- Luke Doucet song is dedicated to La Belette and her new home;
- Hayden: I wish that song was written for me: "And we did it for the lovers who were blind/ And we did it for the others left behind./ With each other, we recovered in the night."
- I played the Sea Wolf "You're A Wolf " song cuz we saw 2 wolves driving home from Toronto last week. Yay for living in the North!
house concert etiquette

parking etiquette
Thursday, March 20, 2008
SouthBySouthwest-overs
Here are the last of the pictures (I promise) and then sadly, nothing else to say about SXSW. This is a mish-mash of leftover pics that don't really fit anywhere, stolen pics from Dennis cuz I forgot my camera the first day, show videos and just general silliness. If you like that sort of thing.
This is us amidst the craziness that was 6th street.
Von Bondie goodness. Down boys...
Us at the Canada Blast party on the first night, drinking crappy American beer on empty stomachs. Hardcore!!
Us being hoplessly urban in our free hats. Yeah, can you spot the Canadians? Real subtle...

Waiting for yet another cab that never comes. This time at the base of a giant knight.
harold and maude
I love this scene in all it's simple perfection. The colours, the composition of the shot, the images....brilliant in so many ways. I wish I had conversations like this in flowers. Add in the Cat Stevens as they pull back at the end....sigh.
we can rely on each other

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
these boots are made for tara


Sunday, March 16, 2008
sxsw: day 5
Started out the day at the Waffle House because you just have to at least once. From there we pretty much spent the whole day on South Congress -- what a great street that is. The epitome of what a great downtown culture is and I could have easily spent my week's paycheque in those stores. I managed to keep my pursestrings in check and still managed to fulfill all my souvenir needs. For Tara though, it was all about the cowboy boots. We went to Allan's Boots, which from the locals is THE place to do your boot shopping. If it's good enought for Sam Elliott it's good enough for me. No red boots for Tara though I'm afraid but I did score a great brown pair with some flowery embroidery that I love and didn't break the bank entirely. Just a bit.
Post boot shopping we hit happy hour at Mars which is just a great place to chill and have dinner (Note to La Belette: this is a place you can get dressed up and go to for sure - it's at SoCo and Gibson). It's gorgeously designed and the food kicked ass.
Then, no word of a lie, we passed a park where a woman on a blanket had about 8 black lab puppies. My head almost exploded as we played with all of them, narrowly avoiding puppy overload. I miss Bailey so much it hurts!
More shopping and then Mexican dinner at Guero's and we were like stuffed pigs being rolled down the road. Thankfully we had just enough time to hoof it down to the SoCo bridge in time to see the bats!!!! I was SO happy we got to do this before we left. It's the largest urban bat colony in the world and just after sunset they all emerge from under the bridge and it was very, very cool. I took a million videos and I'll put them all on my Facebook page but I'm going to post all my videos here next week so be sure and check back.
Tomorrow back on the dawn rise time and we fly home. Austin you've been great and next year will be even better!! I'm pumped to get home. I miss my bed, my house, my dog and my husband so much I can hardly breathe. As far as what else I've done here is concerned -- I'm blaming Texas.
sxsw: day 4
Today began with some panels, the first on greening your event. It was super interesting and made me hopelessly proud of our own Ontario festival, Hillside. Some of the "new" ideas the panel was discussing and some of the challenges they were talking about, Hillside has been doing and fixing them for years. Good on'em!!
I finally fulfilled my SXSW merch order thank god as they were tearing down the set-up moments after we left. T-shirts = done. Next we headed to the Saxon for the Basketball & Insulin party put on by Outside Music, CBC Radio 3 and Exclaim magazine waaaaaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere. Saw a pretty terrible set from 1/3 of the New Zealand band Ruby Suns, an scorching set from Toronto's Sebastien Granger and The Mountain -- holy crap!!! Follow that with some kinda good band called The Big Sleep and the always amazing Sadies. Got to chat with our friends from Starfish Entertainment finally (they had 10 showcases this year!) and drank a couple big beers. Ahhh the south....
After finally hailing a taxi we met our official Texas BBQ quotient at the Ironworks BBQ. So good and based on all the stuff on the walls from famous people, I gather it's a bit of a legend. For me, as soon as I saw the plastic tablecloths and the full rolls of paper towels on each table, I figured we were in for some old school BBQ. We pretty much needed a bath after eating.
From there we headed to the conference center again in the hopes of catching the Lemonheads set as we'd missed them all week but they cancelled AGAIN. What the F Lemonheads??? Why did you bother showcasing if you weren't actually going to showcase???? You kinda suck. We ended up meeting some locals and having a pretty great conversation about music and health care and succeeded in killing a couple of hours not to mention resting our feet.
After our lesson on Austin we walked back to the Parish for the Arts & Crafts party. Caught the end of the Constantines set (which was not the best show I've seen them do by far) and the Jason Collett show. That's when the evening took a turn in my favour. We actually decided to head home relatively early and bailed on the rest of the night. When your eyes are actually closing in a rock and roll bar, you know you're in a bad way.
Tomorrow the conference is over so the plan is for a bit of shopping and not much else. Sleeping in is on my agenda for sure. I don't think I've ever been so happy for something so good to be over, if that makes sense. This festival has been amazing and great and all of that, but I'm wiped and miss my family and am ready to come home. SXSW - 4, Tara -0.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
sxsw: day 3
We kicked off the day with some great panels, one on blogging that made me feel both part of something innovative and cool and yet undeniably nerdy. Bloggers are weird and I've never seen so many PDA's, laptops, Blackberry's, iPhones, etc being used in one room at the same time. Nerdy with a capital nerd.
Post nerd-fest we headed off to the Tony James, Mick Jones interview which was hilarious and confusing all at the same time. Mick Jones is not unlike a drunk old man and a 9 year old boy who likes to shout out things like "My pants are tight! I like dinosaurs!" at any given moment. The poor interviewer had zero hope. He kept his notepad out though despite the fact that he should have just thrown it over his head and given up completely. I will also say that Tony James is aging very, very well. Talk about a silver fox. Yum. They're here with their new group Carbon/Silicon.
After that the plan was to see The Lemonheads after we missed them the other night but alas they cancelled. We were lucky enough to catch the Bodies of Water showcase and that was fantastic. We then hauled our cookies clear across town to the Caswell house for the big NXNE/ Manitoba Music party where we FINALLY got some BBQ. We got to chat with some fellow Canucks and catch up with some folk and see my new fave, Basia Bulat. Her voice kills me -- it's kinda got a Tracy Chapman feel to it. This set was good but her set later on at Antone's was a lot better. I took a video of her doing "Before I Knew" which I'll post up here later and on my Facebook.
Here's a bad picture of 6th street here in Austin to give you an idea of that this city is like during SXSW. It's about 6 city blocks completely closed to traffic, music in every bar (which is almost every building on the street) and people as far as the eye can see. It's pretty incredible.
From one great showcase to yet another landmark showcase for Tara -- Thurston Moore. Talk about something I've been waiting forever to see!!! No it wasn't Sonic Youth but still. I do think that the drummer was the SY drummer though. I need to check that out when I get home. Great set from an amazing man. I even got my bum patted. Not by Thurston though unfortunately.
What a day! This festival is besting me every day with more 3AM's than I've seen in a long while. But I will carry on!!! I still have my voice which is a blessing I suppose. I am missing Marc pretty hardcore though and that just gets worse every day. Thankfully I have great music to drown my sorrows in.
Friday, March 14, 2008
sxsw: day 2
Started off the day with the Lou Reed keynote interview. Man, I could listen to him all day. That low gravely voice.....so mesmerizing. He was low-key, witty and very Lou Reed...today was a good morning. Followed that with the Thurston Moore interviewing Steve Reich. Although it was interesting enough I couldn't help but wish it was the other way around. I was considerably more interested in Thurston but it'll do.
After that, the strangest of all panels. If you refer to the photo below you will see the following panelists from left to right: Matthew Caws from Nada Surf, Lisa Warden,music director for KROQ, David Wakeling from The English Beat, Karen Glauber, president of Hits magazine, dude from Superchunk and yes, that's right...all 3 Hanson boys. Hanson!! And I had no idea until they sat down and thought "hey look it's totally Hanson." So of course I took pictures.
From Hanson to Billy Bragg....wished his set was about 2 hours longer than the sad 25 minutes but we takes whats we can get.
On to the taping of Martha Wainwright's segment for SXSW Live. If you get DirectTV you should be able to see it. Look for me, I'm the girl in the black polka-dot dress. Not only was her set out of this world but guess who she invites up to sing a song??? Daniel Lanois!!! What a great moment. I took an illegal picture so excuse the blur.
Across the downtown for the best music we've seen this week so far, the NPR showcase including my newest fave good time rock band, The Whigs and the much loved by everyone Yo La Tengo and My Morning Jacket -- 2 bands I love and have never seen. The first thing I'm doing when I get home is listening to "And Then Everything Turned Itself Inside Out"again and again. It's been way too long. MMJ - astonishing isn't the right word. What a kick ass show they put on and I loved every minute we got of it despite having the sorest back ever from sitting on a step for 3 hours. But I took pictures and videos so it's all for the greater good.
Quick cab ride from the strangest man alive and a pitstop for the best pizza Austin has to offer apparently, Papparazzi Pizza. It lived up to the hype. Pizza in tummy at midnight = awesome. Off to Maggie Mays for a bizarre show by Montreal's Hot Spirits. I'm more than a little bit afraid of the lead singer. In a nutshell, she was stoned, spit and wasn't wearing any knickers under her mini-skirt. I tried not to look her directly in the eye. Thank god for the United Steel Workers of Montreal to make me forget it all. Fun, rowdy and just all around dirty bluegrass/hot rod country complete with fiery redheaded lead singer with pipes like Janis Joplin. I was enamoured with their CD at the radio station and I'm happy their live show met that standard.
Right now, yet another super duper late night -- almost 3Am and I'm still up. Tomorrow is supposed to be 30 degrees....that's hard to grasp for a Northern girl in March. On the schedule for tomorrow hopefully, The Lemonheads, Basia Bulat, Phantom Planet, Vampire Weekend, Thurston Moore, She and Him, The Sadies and the NXNE BBQ. Finally BBQ!!!
PS. I know I'm not linking to anyone -- it's cuz I have just no patience for that. Also, stay tuned for my facebook page for some videos and ALL the pictures.