Back on The Chain Gang

I'd like to rant for a moment about the inconsistent pricing between downtown vs. suburban music stores. As a suburban dweller, I've done my best to support the local HMV's, Music World's, and Sunrise Records in my area, since I think that'd contribute to supporting the local economy and the employment it creates. I just realized they shut down one of the local Sunrise Records which likely closed due to insufficient profit margins. God knows how many times I went there and found the pricing ridiculously high. The fact is I work in downtown Toronto, where Sam The Record Man and the flagship HMV and Sunrise Records stores are just down the street from me, so it's really tempting to just go there. HMV and Sam The Record Man were both selling the new Beck CD "Guero" for $11.99, but then I made the conscious decision to try to buy it back in the 'burbs at my local mall this evening only to find it priced at $15.99. That's just ridiculous. I'm assuming that the downtown stores sometimes price lower in order to lure consumers downtown, but then how are suburban outlets suppose to survive with such pricing. I can understand that the downtown stores have a usefulness with regards to selection, given their larger physical space, but damn, if a suburban store sells a CD that the downtown store also has, why can't they price it the same. I'm tempted to just go to Futureshop and pick "Guero" up for $12.99(or the special edition of "Guero" for $31.99).

Persistence pays off for once; I managed to snag a ticket today through Ticketmaster.ca for Kathleen Edwards at The Mod Club on April 7th, a show which had only yesterday been sold out at Rotate This, Sonic Temple and Ticketmaster. With all the convenience charges/taxes, I ended up paying about $25.00 through Ticketmaster for a ticket which would have likely only cost me $15.00(plus $1 fee) at Rotate This. Ah screw it, I'm just happy I got a ticket. BTW, it's completely slipped my attention that Kathleen's website been given a brand new 'do...according to the site you can view here video for "Back To Me" over at CMT.com

The next batch of Wavelength lineups(for April 2005) are now up. And the one and only Lisa Marr ex of Cub will be there on April 10th. ...I really got to make it out to at least one Wavelength show and this may be it. Anyone remember cuddlecore, or as I like to refer to it(to borrow a term from Ben Folds), punk rock for sissies? ;-) [thanks to a a post at 20hz for the heads up]

To continue the 90's Canadian indiepop thread, The Catbirdseat reports on Sparrow's new record called "The Early Years" which'll be released on Absolutely Kosher. Catbirdseat also has an mp3 of a Sparrow song. See his post dated March 29th, 2005. By the way, Sparrow is the band formed by Jason Zumpano, ex of Vancouver pure pop afficianados, Zumpano. For more info and mp3's check out the band site.

Aeki Tuesday posts an mp3 of a new Postal Service remix of Nina Simone's "Little Girl Blue" which will be included on the upcoming Verve Remixed 3 project.

If you thought The Tofu Hut's post on Feist was amazing, check out Between thought and expression's post on the grime scene including links to related articles and links to mp3's of songs by M.I.A., Diplo, Dizze Rascal and Canadian rapper Kardinal Official(or is it Offishall?).

The Arcade Fire make the cover of the Canadian edition of Time Magazine! You can read the accompanying story here. [info from chromewaves(via Arcadefire.net)...of course I'm probably the zillionth person to have linked to this]

And some new Toronto concert dates for some bands I haven't heard of but have interesting names[tour dates from Kork]:

-> Comets on Fire, June 19th, Lee's Palace
-> Gang Gang Dance, May 29th, venue TBA
-> Kid606(tigerbeat6 tour w/ Drop the Lime, Knifehandchop, eats tapes), Aug 4th, venue TBA