Queens Of The Stone Age - If I Had A Tail

Trip Part 2: The next few days. We landed in Taipei, Taiwan, down $500 and a good friend. But we could not let that deter us so we hopped on a bus to the city centre with what little energy that was left in us. After finally finding our hostel we had gotten there too late and nobody was there... except for the only other guy staying there who heard us and let us in; I guess we had to get lucky at some point! After a brief introduction and the dropping of the bags we headed out for our first $1 beer(s) in Asia (bought at a 7-11, drank in public). Our "doorman" turned out to be from Ohio originally but he was basically Asian as he had been travelling the continent for over four years. He immediately became our personal encyclopedia as we racked his brain with as many questions that we could think of and he was more than willing to at least attempt to answer them all. He was an incredible person to run into on night 1 and ended up being an excellent travel companion as well.

Taipei was a city that my friend and I had never, ever envisioned visiting, save for it's airport on connecting flights. What we discovered was a city bursting with culture and character that was both familiar and very foreign. We arrived right at the start of Chinese New Year and the city was alive with celebrations as families  and friends reunited for a few days of feasting and  fireworks. We attempted to partake in the festivities by setting off shoddy fireworks, exclaiming "Shin ye quai le" (Happy New Year in brutal Taiwanese-English) to the amusement of locals, and had a feast of our own with the help of some Taiwanese girls on break from studies at University (a delicious, crazy meal complete with duck blood, chicken hearts and many other things that I still have no clue what they were).

Taipei was a familiar city because it was very modern and first world. We ventured to the top of the world's second highest building that holds the Guinness Record for fastest elevator (1010 m/s), the Taipei 101 Tower, danced the night away at a club called Roxy 99 (of course!) to great hip-hop, rock and pop (watching an entire dance floor of Asian guys and gals belting out the chorus to Oasis' "Don't Look Back In Anger" was an incredible sight to behold), had a greasy Burger King hangover meal and took in some brilliant live blues at a bar called Bobwundaye (two white, American dudes on guitar and vocals/harp and a local girl on drums). Yet for everything that was modern and recognizable there were even more very foreign experiences. Streets came alive with markets selling the likes of terrible knock-off clothing, live yet very sedated ducks, Angry Birds on anything and, of course, poorly made fireworks. I smelled quite possibly the worst smell of my life which was in fact a food item known in English only as stinky tofu. Myself and our Yankee friend destroyed a combined 12 years of not puking due to alcohol with one sip of Taiwanese vodka. We felt a great lil' high and started spitting red after chewing on the mighty Betel Nut. And we even met a girl from Swaziland who's name was, no joke, "click" leeswa. Taipei was accidentally awesome and I would definitely recommend it to anyone with the time to go there.

The Queens Of The Stone Age are fucking back with a huge roar. The entire new album is fantastic, full of stoneriffic riffs, killer grooves and the badass snarl and songwriting from front man Josh Homme. This track, "If I Had A Tail" is the best example of everything that the album stands for. It begins, oddly enough, sounding a bit like the beginning of The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" but quickly stomps out that pop rock with a sick riff over a strong, haunting beat. The guitar solo that follows the first chorus proves that modern rock still isn't quite dead and that these guys are ready and willing to carry its torch. The video is also awesome, featuring cool animation and a driver on an apocalyptic mission. QOTSA are headlining the Squamish Valley Music Festival this year and I cannot fucking wait to see them.

Some Taipei pics...

The Taipei 101 Tower getting lost in the clouds

Our New Year feast

Brilliant translation breakdown

The Betel Nut, a cheap and legal hiiiiigh

Midnight Runners - Neck Tie Noose

https://www.reverbnation.com/midnightrunners/songs

I went to see the Midnight Runners play a headlining set for the Canadian Content Series at The Roxy last week. They are four guys that I went to high school with and they started the band near the end of our time there. After graduation they went their separate ways and put the band on hiatus until getting it back together recently, playing a few gigs around the Lower Mainland. 

All four guys are great musicians, with Rhejis Wicks handling lead vocals and guitar, Joel Harrison on lead guitar, Andy Lee on bass and Jesse Harder keeping the beat behind those drums. Their half hour set was very tight musically, featuring mostly original songs plus covers of the Foo Fighters' "There Goes My Hero" and STP's "Interstate Love Song". These 2 covers describe their style quite well: guitar-heavy alt-rock with stellar songwriting and melodies. The crowd, comprised of many family and friends, was definitely digging it, especially during some of Joel's killer guitar solos. These guys seem well on their way but the one thing I believe they definitely need to work on is their stage banter mid-song. They seemed nervous up there and cracked cheap jokes or made awkward comments too often. But if this is all a new band needs to truly fix in their live set then these boys are well on their way. I can't wait to see what they do next and really hope a recorded album and ventures into the Fox Seeds or Peak Performance Project are on the horizon. Be sure to check out their page on Reverb Nation and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Midnight-Runners/297094140418014 

The song "Neck Tie Noose" is a hard rocking foot stomper that is intensely sung and is a great example of the tightness of this band as they rumble their way through it with the fury of Spanish stampeding bulls. Download this track at the website listed above as well as their other stuff, especially the bluesy "There's No You In Us".

Some thoughts...

- Sure hope the Spurs can get it done tonight in game 7. Lebron and co. are gonna sure make them work for it though and either way it's gonna be one helluva game. By the end of it we may get to see one franchise (the Spurs) cement themselves as the best team of the 21st century and the Tim Duncan/Gregg Popovic duo go an unprecedented 5 for 5 in the NBA Finals. Or we may see one of the greatest players to ever grace the hard court (LBJ) add to his legacy with a 2nd title and a 2 for 4 record in the NBA Finals.

- You wanna know a great word, just say it out loud: Waldorf

- Kanye West realeased his highly anticipated Yeezus record this week. After a couple listens I'm still not quite sure what to think. His rapping and lyrics seem more ridiculous than ever but once again his production skills go unmatched and make for a great listen. 

Solange - Losing You (Cyril Hahn Remix)

After stumbling around the sometimes gorgeous, sometimes dirty, but always intriguing Southeast Asia for almost 4 months I have returned to Beautiful British Columbia, putting an end to the hiatus of EpiclyUnreal Song Of The Day. Plenty of great memories and crazy stories came from that whirlwind adventure and I plan to explore some of these over the next few weeks.

Day 1: Myself and two good friends depart YVR at midnight, taking the redeye to Taipei, Taiwan. After a 90 minute layover we are on our way to Manila, the bustling, most densely populated city in the world, and capital of the Philippines. One of my friends has arranged for us to stay with the family of one of his friends from University. The two brothers, both of whom are of similar age to us and sound like awesome dudes, are waiting at the airport to pick us up. What a great way to be introduced to a foreign country and begin this incredible trip. Now all we have to do is clear customs, grab our backpacks, and find the exit.

After watching the majority of the foreigners on our flight pass right through customs and receive their VISAs it is finally our turn. We hand over our passports and almost immediately something feels wrong. The agent asks us for information regarding our flight off the island. We tell her that we have not booked that yet as we plan to do so in the next week or so, once we learn more about the island and have consulted with our hosts in Manila. Well apparently this is a big No No. We are then directed to the other side of the building where we enter the customs holding room. 

After an excruciating wait, a different lady with short black hair enters the room and asks us for our passports. We oblige and ask what's going on as well as offer to quickly use the Internet to buy flights off the island right then and there. Both of these questions go unanswered and then we are told to go back to the customs line. We get to the counter we had been to before and the same agent has our passports and seems prepared to give them to us and allow us to enter the country. But right before this can occur the short haired lady, fresh off her walkie-talkie, waves over to the agent and we are ushered back to the area near the holding room. At this point an airport employee has found our backpacks for us, which I figure cannot be a good sign. Next the short-haired she-devil tells us that we have been denied VISAs and are being sent back to Vancouver. Collectively, our three hearts sink. In a last ditch effort I show her the documents for my flight home from Seoul, South Korea at the end of June. I want to prove that Yes we in fact are planning to leave the country at some point and that we are not refugees or some shit. In fact we simply plan to spend the allotted 3 weeks given by our VISAs and spend our money in THEIR country. This does nothing, along with another request to buy tickets on the spot to leave the country. After a short discussion with two more official looking agents in the room where they are now holding our passports the lady comes back and tells us that we will instead be sent back to Taipei and at our own expense. She takes our credit cards and books us on the next flight back that day for $500 each. FUCK. There goes about a half a month of travelling as well as a harsh lesson learned.

We are then ushered up to a lounge where we have to pay US $10 (go figure!) to sit there while a security guard holds our passports and watches us. My one friend finally gets Wi-Fi and is able to message our very confused hosts who were waiting to pick us up. So shit can't get any worse, right? WRONG. The overall shittiness of the day comes crashing down on my other friend and he tells us that he will be going straight home to Vancouver once we get back to Taipei. We plead with him to reconsider and at least sleep on it but his mind is made up for reasons that I will not share but, believe me, they're good ones. Still it sucks as the tripod is gone and we are left as a very confused, tired, and angry duo in Taipei, Taiwan, a country that we only ever planned on visiting the airport of.

After leaving Vancouver at 12:15 am on Wednesday February 6th we finally arrive at our hostel in Taipei at around 10 pm on Thursday the 7th. It ended up being an awesome hostel where we made some great friends and had incredible experiences in the city. The trip had now officially begun but holy fuck that was one hell of a speed bump!

The song "Losing You" by Solange and remixed by Cyril Hahn was chosen for the obvious implications of the title with regards to day one of the trip but also because it's a great song. I love what he does with the vocals, turning them into a deep soul voice, a staple of all his remixes by the likes of Destiny's Child, Mariah Carey, and Jeremih. This song also went on to be somewhat of an anthem for the trip for me as I couldn't stop playing it on multiple occasions. Cyril went to UBC and frequents the local club scene. I really want to catch him doing a set at Fortune Sound Club one day. Also, be sure to check out the original version of the song by Beyonce's lil' sis Solange. 

Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok

So this will likely be my last post for quite some time as I am leaving for SE Asia with two friends tonight. We really don't have any clue what we're getting ourselves into but it is going to be one helluva adventure! We will wake up Thursday morning in the 14th most populated and most densely populated city in the world, Manila in the Philippines. Next up will be Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and South Korea, where we'll be flying out of the 2nd most populated city on earth. Gonna be hectic/ridiculous/amazing! Thanks to everyone who I was able to say goodbye to over the past couple of weeks, greatly appreciated. I'll definitely miss everyone back home and cannot wait to be back in the early summer to share stories and drink Canadian beer!

I plan to see as much as I can, party lots, ride an elephant, pet a tiger, go on some epic treks, meet incredible people, and hopefully even swim with whale sharks! Plus it's gonna be cheap and hot as fuck.

I felt that "One Night In Bangkok" was fitting for today because not only is it actually about SE Asia but it is a kick ass track with one of the greatest, catchiest choruses ever! 

Peace out kids

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)

So the most recent issue of Rolling Stone featured a list of the 50 greatest hip-hop songs of all time. I've always been a sucker for music lists and countdowns, rarely agreeing with them but always enjoying them. Rolling Stone has created some of the most memorable music lists such as the 100 greatest singers of all time, the 100 greatest songs of the 2000's, and the 70 greatest Bob Dylan songs. The 50 greatest hip-hop songs was no different, combining a mix of the obvious classics with lesser known yet highly influential tracks. "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" came in at number 12. I have always liked Pete Rock but had only heard a few singles. Then I listened to this one and my mind was blown. Such a sick beat that samples the saxophone from an old jazz song by Tom Scott and the opening guitar part is unreal. But it's the rhymes and storytelling of C.L. Smooth that really makes this song a masterpiece. He's talking about their friend Trouble T-Roy, a dancer with Heavy D and the Boyz who died after falling off a stage in 1990. It's a beautiful tribute to their fallen friend that is very elegant but would not seem out of place at a wake at a bar. Stolen from RS: when producer Pete Rock first played the finished track "we just started crying". Very cool.

 and a must-listen.

Some thoughts...

- Less than 2 weeks until I'm off to SE Asia. So fucking stoked but still lot's to do before we go!

- I'm in a hella tight battle in fantasy hockey this week. Need a big night from my recent free agent pick up Zack Kassian!

- Went to a very cool bar last night on Granville Island called Backstage Lounge for a good friend's going away party. Great live band playing funk covers, super cheap beers and dancing all night long!

- Coachella lineup looks sick as usual, although the headliners are sorta weak, especially when the Rolling Stones were heavily rumoured

Yacht Club - Flash

"Flash" by Yacht Club is a song whose video I stumbled upon a while back yet only recently got around to downloading it. Ever since I did that it has been on repeat on my iPod. Just a great 80's style, synth driven track. The uptempo beat brilliantly aligns itself with the smooth, R&B voice of singer Ben Cook (best known as the guitarist for the punk band Fucked Up). He lightly croons before bringing the house down with the hyper-catchy, aching chorus. Just a fucking awesome song; it is the one that Duran Duran, Soft Cell, and Tears For Fears wish they'd wrote! The old school style of the video is a refreshing take in a world of super HD and perfect images (not that there's anything wrong with that... just a nice change of pace). I'm really hoping for big things from this Toronto group who, along with Trust (whom if you've read this blog know that I am quite a big fan of), are bringing the early 80's back to the T-dot.

Some thoughts...

- THANK FUCKING GOD HOCKEY IS BAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!

- So unless Canucks GM Mike Gillis can get a very solid player in return, Roberto Luongo should not be dealt this season. We are a better team with him on the roster AS LONG AS the 2 goaltenders can buy into some sort of sharing system. Difficult in today's ego-maniacal sports society but certainly not impossible.

- What the fuck is this thing!?!?!?!

- That is the Tardigrade, aka water bear. It is a small animal that can handle many of the most extreme conditions on earth. Pretty creepy but pretty rad too ;) Go Google it now!

- So long Seahawks, it was a great season and truly the start of great things to come with a very talented core group of guys that can beat you on both sides of the ball. Just hope Pete Caroll can start managing the late stages of the half and game a lot better...

Punch Brothers - Movement and Location (Live)

An incredibly haunting performance by a superb bluegrass band. Punch Brothers perform "Movement and Location" on Conan with a tender elegance that begs your utmost attention. The stage is pitch black with just a few floor lights illuminating the five band members and their instruments. They are in perfect sync with one another, fading in and out in order to allow for one instrument to take the lead while the others follow along with a beautiful subtlety. The violinist is absolutely brilliant, hitting the high notes and timing them just right while the rest of the guys finger pick like madmen. I must warn you that if you're in a particular mood this song just may make you cry.  If you like this track be sure to check out their album Who's Feeling Young Now? and the song "Dark Days" from The Hunger Games Soundtrack.

Some thoughts...

- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an awesome and, yes, epic movie. I saw it in IMAX 3D and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Make sure you check it out before it's out of theatres.

- So I paid $400 for 2 vaccinations to protect me from Japanese Encephalitis when I'm in SE Asia. I have since learned that I really didn't need these shots... Fuck.

- I find it absolutely hilarious how the brilliant GM Mike Gillis has turned Roberto Luongo from a long-contract, high-paid burden into a highly sought after commodity from many other NHL teams. Now we basically get our pick of some top prospects and/or top 2 line scorers. Pretty neat.