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In This Issue: THE 100TH ISSUE OF kMNR!!!! What does the future hold for kMNR now that we’ve reached the 100th issue? Well, www.kmnr.ca is now live and a new web site will follow shortly, but the goal will remain the same; keep bringing the loyal readers the stories they expect on the bands they love. To celebrate, we're hosting a party at Broken City here in Calgary tomorrow (January 6th, 2006) night and I invite anyone who's in the area to come on down and join the festivities. I'd like to thank every one of my readers, old and new for making this what it is, and here's to a great 2006! Enjoy the issue and thanks for reading! 2005 Retrospective With The Means (The following interview was conducted for Beat Route magazine here in Calgary and my editor Glenn Alderson wanted me to take a different approach to the whole 'year in review' line of questioning. Unfortuantely, I couldn't quite execute in a manner that seemed appropriate to me and for this, I apologize to Josh. HA! After hours of listening to the interview tapes and six attempts at the article, I finally settled on two version; the Q&A portion with James that follows and the other a traditionally structured article that will run in next week's issue. Let's get to it, shall we?) Josh (vocals, guitar) and James (drums, vocals) of The Means have known each other since they were five years old living in Omemee, Ontario; have been playing together since they were fourteen (when they “covered or ripped off” Nirvana) and moved to Calgary over two years ago. They spent much of last year recording an album and although they have no money left to release it, they are hopeful to have it out in 2006. They played many shows in the past year, some of which resulted in the two fighting. Talking with them for over an hour, I could see exactly how that could happen. “Josh and I have a love hate relationship,” James (Below Right) told me. “I love Josh and he hates me.” Here are his thoughts on 2005: kMNR: What was the best thing to happen to The Means in 2005? James: Two words: Andrew Wedderburn (of Hot Little Rocket). Love him to death. He somehow got a hold of our demo we recorded on Engelburt Humpberdinck cassette tapes. We started playing shows at the Castle and The Point and stuff and made it a demo on cassette tape. He got a hold of it and started playing it on his radio program on CJSW at the time and then ended up joining our band playing this organ that I had and he didn’t know how to play it at all. So basically it was him wrestling with the organ on stage. Who’s the best artist you shared a stage with in 2005? No Means No…just absolutely amazing. I remember meeting them in the green room afterwards and being just amazed at how old they were in fact. Y’know, they’re these fifty-some-odd year old toothless guys. I think they’re all in their fifties which is my dad’s age. They have this longevity and they have this energy to them. They’ll do it when they’re seventy years old. It was like if my dad was a punk musician and I was just as awkward around them as I am around my dad. By far it was an awesome experience. I think they might have acknowledged our existence during the show. When they came on stage they did say a thank you to us and that’s all we ever really wanted. What was the best show you attended? Wow, I saw a lot of shows at the Night Gallery that no one else seemed to go to. I remember Dead Moon playing there. They played for about two and a half hours to five people. That was great. They’re another band who’ve been around forever, never made any money but constantly touring and putting out their own shit. To see them play, they lit these candles and played until the candles burnt out. It was just an awesome show. What album have you worn out in 2005? Holy crap. I’m kinda sentimental; I weep constantly in the dark listening to the Arcade Fire, Funeral. Josh is gonna shank me later for saying that. (James later asked that I mention that his real favourite album is The Wet Secrets’ Half Whale Half Cow.) I really dig Infiniheart, Chad Van Gaalen. I try to listen to as much local stuff as possible, try to be a scenester. A pretend scenester is way better than an actual scenester. Which album do you most regret hearing or buying? Going back to Omemee, Ontario, I grew up on Neil Young and I bought his new album Prairie Wind and I’m going to give it to my Dad for Christmas. Is it because you’re ashamed or is it really that bad? It’s really that bad. Well, I mean, give him some credit, he did have an aneurysm. I think it’s obvious. It might have been the best post-aneurysm album. Let’s say best post aneurysm. I haven’t had an aneurysm. Maybe if I had, I’d have a different opinion on the matter. I regretted very much buying that album. What was the best thing to happen to music this year? Can you pause for a second? I had a liquid lunch today and I was sleeping before you came in. Actually, I’ve got a good one. Josh is gonna hate me for saying this so I better say it. Are you ready? My other band, Pressure Kill Common Style, getting signed by Rectangle Records. Our EP comes out Valentines Day and it’s gonna blow this world apart. (Next week, read what Josh and James had to say about running out of money after recording their new album, the closing of The Night Gallery, happenings in Calgary last year and the future of The Means.) It’s never too late to receive a gift from a band you dig, so if you haven’t already gone over to The Rocky Fortune’s web site, you should do so now. Merry Boxing Day was written hours before their performance at The Ship’s annual benefit show in December and is available for download, free! They’ll spend the next couple of months writing and pre-producing their follow-up to last year’s Sway and hope to have the new record out in the fall. Be sure to check them out Jan 20 at the Underground and Jan 24 at the Hi-Fi Club. This past Tuesday kMNR founder Chris Andrade joined reader (and one-time writer) Keri Rak on her CJSW radio program Tombstone After Dark. “Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden on Tombstone After Dark??? Sung by Johnny Cash, no less,” said listener Marc Johnson. Despite the show’s theme being “twang”, Chris contributed to the play list with some Alice in Chains, a KISS cover by Garth Brooks and The Rocky Fortune in addition to the aforementioned Cash covers. Tombstone After Dark airs every Tuesday from 19:30 to 21:00 hrs and Keri hosts the show every fourth Tuesday. Her next scheduled show is January 31st. Johnny Cash and wife June Carter Cash may have been revived on silver screen recently in Walk The Line, but the home they lived in for 35 years has been bought by Bee Gees member Barry Gibb and his wife. The rustic home is on Old Hickory Lake, 13 miles Northeast of Nashville. Gibb intends to preserve and honour the home and plans to use it to write new material. Ladies, the next time you’re at a Tom Jones concert and you want to get his attention before tossing your panties his way, make sure you call out “SIR TOM!” That’s right, Tom Jones has been the latest musician announced to become a knight, joining Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Sir Mick Jagger among others. DLR Insists Van Halen Well Reunite Despite becoming certified as a New York EMT and launching a new career as a radio host (replacing Howard Stern on many of the "free radio" stations Stern used to broadcast on after he left for Sirius Satellite Radio), David Lee Roth has stated that a Van Halen reunion is "inevitable". "I talked to the drummer (Alex Van Halen) about a week ago and I think, eventually, the inevitable will happen." Roth told the Pittsburg Tribune Review. "It definitely won't be rockers with walkers." Sounds like Roth is betting this will happen sooner than later. If I need to tell you that DLR is a founding member of Van Halen, you should be ashamed of yourself. They have made attempts to reunite twice; once foiled by tensions (big surprise!) while the other attempt failed when Eddie Van Halen was diagnosed with cancer. I give Roth's radio career less than a year and any subsequent Van Halen reunion about four days. Good luck though! Happy 2006! Geez, it took me this long to get to say that? This must be a packed issue. Oh yeah! It's the 100th ISSUE! OK...well now that the holidays are over, it might do some of us some good to run around town in search of great deals on good music (y'know, in order to shed all those extra pounds you packed on eating cake and turkey and stuffing and such), but you may still want to check out what the good folks at Chart Magazine had to say about the latest releases like the third album from The Strokes (First Impressions Of Earth), the third album in 2005 from Ryan Adams (29), Beck's second stab at Guero (with the remix Guerolito), the debut from The Subways (Young For Eternity) and many more. Enjoy! Holy Shite! Look at all the upcoming shows!!!
~~ kMNR v2006.100 ~~ If you would like to hear about or if you have any information on a particular band or artist, please email and I will do my best to cover them. |
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