HEADS UP: Kung Fu Classic “Iron Monkey” To Be Projected At Chinatown Night Market

This Saturday night brings great things to the Chinatown Night Market. Part market, part circus, and part food truck extravaganza, the block of Keefer between Main and Columbia comes alive on weekend evenings with contained, magical chaos. Highlights include four bras for $10 (hells yeah), multi-flavoured potato tornadoes and “Winner Winner” Singaporean-style chicken dinners (because “the sauce is boss”). While all of that usual night market awesomeness continues, this weekend they’re adding Movie Night with an outdoor screening of the kung fu cult film, Iron Monkey. Details after the jump… Read more

VANCOUVER WOULD BE COOLER IF #202: It Had A Bar That Really Messed With Patrons

Imagine your friend takes you to The Diamond in Gastown one night and you’ve never been there before. You walk in and the place is empty save for a couple of bearded man-men of the hipsteriffic mold. The room is stark – brassy, Victorian, lit by candle and kerosene – like the study of a successful, Bourbon-loving taxidermist. The beardmen sell you two “dark” pints for 12 cents while you’re still getting comfortable at the bar, but before you can properly reflect on that the room is filled with loud merrymakers in full-on Gassy Jack period dress (including two ladies of the night asking if you want to go upstairs – nice touch). A dude warns you that your face is on a “Wanted” poster and then a cop comes in and tries to arrest you for some Philadelphian crimes, but not before the good publican smashes a whisky bottle over his head and you’re ushered out with drinks unfinished and brains a-racing.

Money quote: “So I shouldn’t ask them if they have an iPhone 5 charger?”

Via Brooklyn and Improv Everywhere.

OTHER CIVIC IMPROVEMENT SUGGESTIONS

GOODS: Big “Night At The Aquarium” Raises Over $350,000 To Help Protect Aquatic Life

Ocean Wise is the the seafood sustainability of the Vancouver Aquarium | 604-659-3596 | www.oceanwise.ca

The GOODS from Ocean Wise

Vancouver, BC | The Vancouver Aquarium’s annual fundraising gala, Night at the Aquarium, presented by PCL Construction Group, raised over $350,000, for the non-profit society. One hundred per cent of the event’s proceeds support the Aquarium’s conservation, research, and education programs, including its Ocean Wise™ program, which was created to address overfishing, the single biggest threat our oceans face today.

“Our magical signature gala is an unforgettable night where we invite our supporters to celebrate our shared commitment to aquatic conservation,” said Dr. John Nightingale, Vancouver Aquarium president and CEO. “Their support allows us to rescue and rehabilitate injured animals, to ignite the curiosity and passion of tomorrow’s conservationists, and to continue our work as a global leader in aquatic research. Night at the Aquarium is our most significant fundraising event and brings together community partners near and far to connect with the important conservation, research and education initiatives we lead.”

The event’s 350 guests were treated to a dizzying array of sustainable delights from 16 of B.C.’s top Ocean Wise restaurants and chefs, including Chef Rob Clark, who served an exquisite spot-prawn taco for the sold-out VIP reception, and Chef Wayne Harris of the Vancouver Shangri-La Hotel, who created a heavenly seared halibut with creamy coconut and apple salad. In addition to being one of 22 wineries and distilleries present at the event, Mission Hill’s Chef Matthew Batey of the vineyard’s Terrace Restaurant created an exquisite smoked scallop with hazelnuts and vanilla crème. New this year was a champagne reception, courtesy of Tattinger. Read more

SMOKE BREAK #1040: 60 Second Animated Treatment Of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas

It’s only right that this 60 second “speedrun” animation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas runs at the authors actual internal speed. Also, who needs Johnny Depp when you have a pencil? Language NSFW.

TAKE ANOTHER BREAK

SOUNDTRACKING: “Parquet Courts” Set To Mix Music And Words To Devastating Effect

Kevin Pederson photo

by Daniel Colussi | My pal Mark Richardson hipped me to Texas/NYC outfit Parquet Courts when he selected the band to kick off an exclusive mix for this very column. Said track, Master Of My Craft, piqued my interest, and further investigations into this twitchy, lyrically ambitious band have yielded many rewards. In the roughly six months since their very fine Light Up Gold album was released the band has toured pretty much non-stop. The album has received rave acclaim and they’ve won over a lot of new fans, myself included. Key to Parquet Courts’ appeal is their marriage of nervous, bouncy punk rock with surprisingly dense lyrics. It makes for a refreshing, satisfying listen. The brevity and urgency of these songs – none of which crack the four minute mark – betrays the depth of what’s troubling the minds of lead songwriters Andrew Savage and Austin Brown.

Stoned And Starving’s title recalls any number of Wavves’ throwaway songs, but it’s actually an existential confession from soul wandering the empty streets of Queens. N. Dakota is musically laidback and cyclical, but lyrically packed with enough tossed off observations – of among other things, toothpaste, going on holiday, and the vastness/emptiness of the USA – to form a solid novella. No songs overstay their welcome, and when the album’s brisk thirty minutes are through you’ll likely play it again.

I’m pretty enthused to hear some new tunes from these guys, some of which were debuted recently on NPR World Cafe. Their headlining show on Friday night at the Electric Owl will be their first Vancouver appearance and is as guaranteed a good time as you’re ever going to get in this topsy-turvy world. Struggling with David Foster Wallace’s unfinished tome? Give yourself a break and come have a beer with NY/TX’s finest.

Parquet Courts w/Naomi Punk (Seattle) and Devastator at the Electric Owl, Friday June 14th. Tickets at Zulu, Red Cat, Electric Owl and Timbreconcerts.com.

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Daniel Colussi is the Music Editor of Scout Magazine and a contributing writer to Ion Magazine. A veteran employee of Zulu Records and tuneage aficionado, he DJs on an infrequent basis (about four times a year) and is a musician around town who plays in several ensembles.

SOUNDTRACKING: Toronto’s Basement Literati “Hooded Fang” At The Media Club

photo: Sarah Amroussi-Gilissen

by Daniel Colussi | It’s been two long years since Toronto’s Hooded Fang last played Vancouver. During this time they’ve overhauled the line up, dropping some members and shedding the glockenspiel-twee of their earlier incarnations for something a little darker, a little more ferocious. The Hooded Fang of today is a leaner beast, one that revels in amp buzz and out-of-tune guitars. All of these qualities are well-evidenced on their delightfully trashy, melodically ambitious new LP, Gravez.

This is my kind of album, one that clocks in at an easy thirty minutes (I love short albums) but which is nonetheless packed with enough ideas to make any lesser band’s career. This is hooky, literate lo-fi basement music; it might even be punk rock but it’s ultimately quite unnecessary to apply the usual reductive journalistic genre identifications because Gravez has its own feet to stand on. Ode To Subterrania speaks to my ill-fated time living in a mouldy basement suite off Commercial Drive. Bye Bye Land is lethargic pop with an air of detached weariness a la Mellow Gold, a tip that’s beloved to me. Even Pitchfork has taken notice (never a band thing). Check them out when they come to town this weekend.

Hooded Fang play the Media Club Sunday June 16th. Tickets at Zulu, Red Cat and the venue.

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Daniel Colussi is the Music Editor of Scout Magazine and a contributing writer to Ion Magazine. A veteran employee of Zulu Records and tuneage aficionado, he DJs on an infrequent basis (about four times a year) and is a musician around town who plays in several ensembles.

VANCOUVER WOULD BE COOLER IF #201: It Broke Seattle’s Book Domino World Record

Just a couple of weeks ago, two college students and 27 volunteers at the Seattle Public Library broke the world record for the longest book domino chain with the successful and totally mesmerizing drop of some 2,131 tomes. It was done to promote the launch of the library’s 2013 Summer Reading Program, which focuses on getting children and teens into the written word. The especially cool thing is that the books used in the record breaking stunt will soon be going on sale to support the library, so the whole operation from start to finish was smart as hell (engagement + fundraising = win). The Vancouver Public Library offers great programming for kids – they do a great Summer Reading Club and a Book Camp – but it would be great to see them rise to this particular challenge. They have a whole bunch of open interior space – surely enough for the 2,132 books that would later be sold as record memorabilia – so the ball is in their court. Don’t let us down!

OTHER CIVIC IMPROVEMENT SUGGESTIONS

HEADS UP: 11 Very Awesome Things You Should Get Up To In Whistler This Summer

by Alexa Harder | Vancouver’s a sweet place to call home, but taking a break from city life and heading somewhere a little more relaxed is often necessary in the summer. Whistler undeniably fits the laissez-faire bill, plus it’s one of the most beautiful natural playgrounds around, conveniently located just an hour and a half away from the city with a ton of cool stuff going on. To get you excited and up there, Scout has curated a list of Whistler’s most awesome summer larks. So hop on a bus, get in your car (less preferable), or hitch a ride (least preferable) and do some (or all) of the cool stuff we’ve listed below… Read more

SWAG: Win Two Tickets To This Friday’s “Sign Painter” Premiere At The Rio Theatre

Hand-painted signs are awesome. It’s definitely an artform that is worth celebrating, and this weekend you can with two fantastic events. First, catch the film Sign Painters at the Rio Theatre on Friday night (7:30pm). Note: this is a 19+ event.

There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.

In 2010 Directors Faythe Levine and Sam Macon, with Cinematographer Travis Auclair, began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features the stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States. The documentary and book profiles sign painters young and old, from the new vanguard working solo to collaborative shops such as San Francisco’s New Bohemia Signs and New York’s Colossal Media’s Sky High Murals.

It won’t be your average screening. Directors Levine and Macon will be in attendance and hanging around after the show for a Q&A with the audience. And then, on the following day, the One Shot At Glory: The Art of The Sign Painter show will go down at Smash Gallery on Clark. The art exhibition will feature works and demonstrations by some of the artists featured in the film. So yeah, it’s basically a one-two knockout of sign painting radness this weekend, and you should probably get into it!

To win a pair of tickets to the Friday night showing, “like” Scout on Facebook (if you haven’t already), follow @scoutmagazine on Twitter (if you haven’t already) and retweet the following: I’m fixing to win two tickets to Sign Painters @RioTheatre via @scoutmagazine http://wp.me/plxHU-hYK.

The winner will be chosen at random on Thursday night. If you don’t win, don’t sweat it! Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Purchase tickets and find out more about the events here.

UPDATE: Congrats @amytheavocado. You’ve won 2 tix to Sign Painters. Email michelle [at] scoutmagazine.ca to claim!

READ IT (AGAIN): Pair “The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” With An Alibi Pint

by Marcus Kaulback | Slowing down a little and breaking out a good book is never a bad idea. But what to read? You could walk into any bookstore and roll the dice on a recent release, but here’s another option: pick up a book that you last put down 5, 10, or 20 years ago. For the next book in Scout’s Read It (Again) series, we’re checking Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

Why You Should Read It Again: Classic is too weak a word to describe this novella, the very title of which has come to occupy a space in the lexicons of psychiatry and sociology. This “fine bogey tale” suffers though from its notoriety, for everybody and their dog now knows the mystery of who Mr. Hyde is. Nevertheless, the beautiful language and effusive description Stevenson employs on every page really do transport you to the streets and parlours of Victorian London…and isn’t some kind of transportation the point of every good novel.

Pair It With: Wait for a truly wet day and repair to the basement of the Alibi Room, housed in a DTES heritage building on Alexander Street. Get (re)acquainted with the academic and gentlemanly Dr. Jekyll and the irascible and remorseless Mr. Hyde over your own personal transforming draught (preferably the limited release from Iain Hill at Yaletown Brew Pub that Alibi is currently pouring). Described as an Imperial Stout with a “hefty whiskey kick”, it weighs in at about 9% ABV, and promises to give you that bubbly feeling Jekyll knew all too well: “There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body…”

OTHER CLASSIC PAIRINGS

SMOKE BREAK #1037: So What’s It Like To Live In A Closed Biosphere For Two Years?

(via) This short but totally fascinating documentary tells the story of Sally Silverstone and Linda Leigh, two of an 8-person team that spent two years inside Arizona’s incredible Biosphere 2 research facility.

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SOUNDTRACKING: Eight Minutes With Jose Gonzalez Of Junip (And A Ticket Giveaway!)

by Daniel Colussi | Sweden-by-way-of-Argentina folkie Jose Gonzalez made a pretty big splash during the aughties with his two solo albums, Veneer and In Our Nature. Those records found Gonzalez in melancholic folkie-form — a modern day atheist Nick Drake. Surprising to everyone, this was only one side of Gonzalez’ musical identity. With Junip — the powerhouse trio he fronts with buddies from the 90s Swedish hardcore days — Gonzalez veers way to the left of the folk-idioms. Junip is a versatile unit, a band as comfortable locking into trance krautrock grooves as they are sunning themselves under the Tropicalia-sun. On their wonderful self-titled second album the band moves all over the places, dropping catchy New Order hooks, embracing noise and abandon – but most significantly the band proves itself to be very much it’s own thing, something refreshingly distinct from Gonzalez’ solo work. In particular drummer Elias Araya shows his presence as a real monster behind the kit, propelling the band to extremes that Gonzalez’ solo work never attempted. I spoke with frontman Jose Gonzalez about the self recording the new Junip album playing with his old buddies, and his roots in Swedish hardcore. Njuta!

Where are you right now, Jose? I’m back at home in Gothenburg, Sweden. I just came back from a European tour. How was the tour? Great, great. Two weeks around mainly Germany and UK. It’s been really nice. And how were the new Junip songs received? It was really good. A lot of people are already singing along with lyrics. And I think many of the new songs…we’re happy with them and they suit themselves for live shows. I think the album is slightly better than the last one for live shows. So that’s cool.

I read the the new Junip album came about through the group jamming, and forming the songs through listening back to recordings of the band jamming. Is that true? Yeah, that’s basically the way we write. The way that we’d describe it I guess it would make it sound like we’re a jamband (laughs). But no one goes to the studio with a finished song, so we always start from scratch together and basically press record after we start it or after we find something that sounds nice. It’s a mixture of trying to have sounds together with chord progressions, melodies, right from the start. So yeah, recording onto a computer and picking out the stuff we like the most and continuing with those until they are finished songs that I can take away for a while and form the lyrics on my own.

Did you test the new songs out live at all or were they fully formed and finished in the studio? It was completed in the studio. We’ve tried to do that before, to test them live, but I think that with the last full length and this one we tried them out in other ways than live. We’re like a studio band in a way. We’re six on stage to play these songs live. We just produce and don’t think about how to do it live until later.

Both the Junip albums were recorded by yourselves. What are the joys and challenges of recording yourself versus using an outside producer? Well, I mean we have an outside producer – Don Alhsterberg – on both albums. And the way we work is that we try to do as much as possible on our own because it’s fun and because it feels a bit more rewarding when you’ve done something on your own. Basically our rehearsal space is like a lo-fi studio and once and a while Alhsterberg would come by and listen to our demos and tell us what to change and what to add and how to make things better. And he gave us hints on how to EQ things, and how to set up the mics. Other bands would probably write the songs in another room and then bring them into the studio and try to make them sound as good as they can be, but we think in terms of the sound from scratch.

Junip is a band that has a lot of power compared to the music you make on your own under your own name. So do you enjoy making louder, almost heavier music? Yeah, definitely. Especially now and when we were on tour it was fun to do the soft stuff with Junip, with nice harmonies, but then to bring it up to, for us, pretty loud and noisy. It doesn’t need to be that way but it’s fun now that we’re able to do that.

Musically were there any particular references points that you drew from when you were making this new album? Or is that not important? It wasn’t that important. Only when we got stuck I sort of sent inspiration lists. But, in general, we didn’t get stuck that many times. It’s not that important as long as everything is working. In general, if a song sounds good, it sounds good to all three of us. But looking back, many of the inspirations that we have are Nina Simone or Marvin Gaye mixed up with music that is more synth-based, or Brazilian music with the production that has acoustic guitar and flutes and percussion.

It’s interesting that Junip generally has a unanimous agreement of what sounds good. Yeah it’s not always the case, but many times it’s like that.

The three of you have been playing music since he late 90s, right? Basically, we’ve been together for a very long time but we haven’t been active for all that time. It was ’98 that we started, but from 1998 to 2003 we did maybe twenty shows and a 7″ ep, so (laughs) not that active! And before that me and Elias had played in a hardcore band, so we’ve known each other for a very long time. It wasn’t until 2008 that we started to write the first album that we started to take it more seriously, setting aside time in our calendars to work just with Junip.

Is there a particular dynamic to how this band works? You’ve known each other such a long time – do you share responsibilities pretty equally or…? Yeah, I mean it’s become a bit like when we’re producing, whoever wants to do something can do what they want. But there’s sort of a division of labour. I’ve written all the lyrics and vocal melodies on my own. The rhodes and organ is always Tobias and Elias always brings the drums. But production-wise its always a bit mixed. I’ve been playing percussion or a bit of bass, synthesizers. It’s a bit mixed. Style-wise, we come from slightly different points of view and it became a bit clearer with Tobias did most of the production for Your Life Your Call and I did much of the production for Suddenly.

Is there a lyrical theme or approach that defines the album? So basically I took each song and wrote a lyric to it, letting the music dictate what I wanted to write about. There is no overall theme but there are many songs that deal with changes in life in relationships or other issues where…I dunno, life, death! (laughs). Changing moments. So there are exceptions. I think So Clear is different and maybe Baton too. So yeah, it’s all after construction when you try to find a common theme for all the songs.

I’d love to hear about your old hardcore band with Elias. What was it called? So Tobias’ band was called Ultimate Concern and me and Elias’ band was called Renascence.

I had no idea that you had a background playing hardcore. Yes, I used to play bass. It was between ’93 and ’98.

Did you ever put anything out? Renascence released a 7″. Ultimate Concern released I think an ep. And we did some other recordings but we never released them properly so it’s not strange that you didn’t know (laughs).

Junip play the Rio Theater June 4th. Tickets at Zulu, Red Cat and The Rio, plus Scout has a pair to give away. Here’s what you need to do…

TO WIN TICKETS TO THE JUNIP SHOW…

1) “Like” Scout on Facebook if you haven’t already.

2) Follow @scoutmagazine on Twitter and retweet the following: I’m fixing to win two tickets to @junip_music via @scoutmagazine http://wp.me/plxHU-hWf

The winner will be chosen at random late tonight, so cross your fingers.

The View From Your Window #156: A Small Cottage In The Serbian Village Of Topola

I.F. | Topola, Serbia | 12:00pm | SHARE YOUR VIEW

We love posting the photographs that reveal the views from our reader’s windows. Whether it’s a back alley in the fall or a sandy beach in high summer, we’re always stoked to see what you see from home, work or while on the road. Some of our all-time favourite reader submissions below… Read more

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