That time of year...

Well, it's that time of year that people either love or hate. Or perhaps if you're like me both.



With the on set of Christmas coming I often loathe the shopping malls, peoples demands for service they would never dream of giving someone else and the impatience of those who wait in line ups for expensive gifts that have nothing to do with the spirit of the season.

However what I enjoy most about Christmas is that for the most part in my family that has its ups and downs with squabbles, is that everyone shuts up for a day or two and gets along. upcoming weeks to Christmas are often stressful and full of complaints but the week after everyone tends to say they all had a great time and cannot understand why we don't get together more often.

So for today my first list is for those folks who can't get enough of Christmas, most likely due to the fact they don't work in the service industry.

Most of these songs are from the Phil Spector Christmas album which is probably the best holiday album ever made, but some other classics from the Beach Boys add a sunny California warmth to a temperature challenged season.

Here's the songs.

I will also later post some sit by yourself in a poorly lit bar songs for all of those who could do with out, or at least had a regretful day of waking up to a mall.

Until next time, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

Rock & Roll Arts & Crafts

so it's been a long fucking while hasn't it? So lately I have been working my day job, and then coming home to my night job. My night job consists of mainly drinking, and working on music, but mainly drinking. I think about music a lot. It consumes most of my time money and energy. Ironically this doesn't help my musical output thinking about shit doesn't get the shit done. If it did I'd be a philosopher.

Anyways what has brought you to this blog today is a little at home repair project. Due to the cheap construction of one of my favourite pedals it's in need of repair. My black Russian Big Muff pi reissue has a broken jack due to Electro Harmonix being cheap and using plastic jacks and nuts.

So me being equally cheap I've decided rather than track down a new jack for it and pay the whopping $2 for it I'm just going to glue the cheap plastic part back together with some 2 part epoxy and hope for the best.














For the second installment of Rock & Roll Arts & Crafts I went to the The Paper Place to see my friend and former room mate Heather to pick up some Japenese paper to cover the housing of a project pedal I'm building. Awhile ago I ordered a kit to build a pedal that normally I would never be able to afford the coveted Lovetone Big Cheese fuzz pedal. It's a really cool sounding over the top fuzz pedal used by Stephen Malkmus among others. (you can hear it quite a bit on Pavement's Wowee Zowee album)

So I will update you on this one I get my ass in gear and start building it.

In more exciting news I've added 3 more pedals to my arsenal recently which has made me broke and extremely frugal for the next few months. I managed to get great deals on all 3 of these no longer manufactured pedals.

My first acquired pedal was the semi rare often over priced Boss Pan Tremolo PN-2 which is a really cool stereo pan / tremolo pedal that was made in the early nineties and was replaced by the TR-2 tremolo with out the cool panning effects. Either way I must admit I partially wanted it for the hype that My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive used them.

Secondly I picked up an 80's Boss Delay DM-3 which is the bigger brother of the DM-2. The Dm-2 is much more collectable but also has the price tag to go with it. They sound pretty much identical with the exception of a stereo out on the DM-3 and a noise reduction circuit. I snagged this guy up for a good price and rather enjoy it. It's a nice smaller alternative to my EHX Deluxe Memory Man.

Lastly I went to a music store promising myself not to buy anything when I came across what is seemingly rare these days. A Frantone Hep Cat. I've wanted one of these for a few years and had a chance maybe 2 years ago when Song Bird Music closed it's doors. But alas, I did not have the money to purchase one even extremely discounted. Well thankfully I waited and got an even better deal on it. It's a pretty simple over drive but it sounds fantastic and hand made by Fran herself in New York.

Alright well I think I've finally bored everyone to tears so I promise a more interesting blog next time. Maybe some music, or I will have some picture of the pedal build.


xo, Matt

Can-con 90's edition

A long time ago Canadian bands used to have a problem getting airplay on the radio. This made it hard for Canadian bands in the post British Invasion era to get heard and sell records. So the CRTC imposed a system made radio accountable for making sure 35% or its content was Canadian music.

This was great when Canadian music was getting a wide variety of play. Radio was somewhat accepting different styles and sounds and then somewhere along the way radio fell on the Nickleback crutch. This might also be referred to by the Secret Society of Commerical Radio D.J.'s (or SSCRDJ for short) as "Let's keep good music a secret" Back in the 90's however there was a steady flow of good music thanks to Sonic Youth getting Nirvana signed.

So here's my list of favourite 90's tunes that were made in Canada. They aren't necessarily my favourite songs from these bands but it was definitely the ones you would hear on the air waves.

So here is the top ten.


1.Sandbox - Curious
I don't know what happened to this band but I really loved this song. Years later people who remembered this band would then recognize it's guitar player as Bubbles from the trailer park boys. That's right Canadian musicians retire from bands and tours to trailer parks in the east coast.

2.Rusty - Misogyny

This video used to creep the hell out of me. In fact it still might. They then followed up with the Alanis Ironic spoof video for Empty Cell before their record label went bankrupt and we never heard from them again. Unless you hang out with Sproule sisters, they still hold Rusty close to their hearts. Rusty probably now resides in a trailer park with the members of Sandbox.

3.Sloan - The Good In Everyone.

A good Sloan song, not my favourite. It's important to me however, because I was maybe 9 or 10 when this song came out and I didn't really recognize any bands as Canadian. For the most part I thought Canada just had wedding bands and a few bands several decades ago. But this woke me up to knowing that we had cool music that sounded just as good as American music.
I also really related to Sloan at the time because they kind of looked like the Beatles at the time when I only really listened to the Beach Boys or the Beatles.

4.The Odd's - Someone Who's Cool

This song got a lot of rotation on my local radio station in Midland, Rock 95.7. Although as a kid for some reason I always thought was a Tom Petty song. I think it could have been the chorus. I still stand by the fact that its a very Tom Petty'esque chorus. Anyways tambourines and pop harmonies make this a good song for summer.

5.Hayden - Bad As They Seem

I heard this song just going into high school, I believe Chris Hamelin introduced me to this song. I just remember at the time I would sing along to this song and I couldn't hit the low notes. Not to mention this song had everything I longed for as a young teenager with not much of a social life and was hopelessly romantic.

6.Limblifter - Tinfoil

What's not to like about this song? I was later excited as a kid learning guitar that you could have more than one band. I just remember hanging out with my older cousins Mike and Ian and going through whatever tapes or cd's they had gotten or whatever was in the car and just loving all of it. Later I would enjoy Age of Electric and be told that two of the guys were from Limblifter. at 11 or 12 being in multiple bands that are getting videos played on Much Music seemed very cool.


7.Organized Rhyme - Check the O.R.

Best hip hop track of the 90's. Many of you will argue that I'm sure. But I love this song and was horrified one night while having drinks with some co-workers and none of them knew this song or that no one in the entire bar knew this song or that Tom Green could rap. Even my rather busty server didn't have the slightest clue what I was talking about. I would later find out that she hadn't heard of "Buffalo Stance" by Nene Cherry older sister of one hit wonder Eagle Eye Cherry.


8.Gob - Soda

I just like this song. It reminds me of summer, again on high rotation on Much Music my only outlet for new music before the internet.

9.Killjoys - Rave+Drool

Big Shiny Tunes on cassette tape. I wore the shit out of that tape. 'nuff said

10.Age of Electric - Remote Control

2 notes and you're hooked. I remember trying to learn this on guitar by ear when I was just starting to learn guitar, and thinking how does that guy play his bass so low to the ground. This must have been before I was aware of camera angles and lip syncing.



Two Honourable Mentions

Zumpano - Oh That Atkinson Girl

I wasn't aware of Carl Newman's Sub Pop endorsed band Zumpano while they were together. However I would like to think that I would have very much enjoyed them had I known of them. Therefore I did not put them on the list because I was unaware of them during the actual 90's

I mother Earth - One ore Astronaut

I liked I Mother Earth, but not the way everyone else seemed to LIKE I Mother Earth. This would probably be maybe one of three songs I liked by these guys. But knowing that IME complete's a lot of people memories of the 90's I added this in as an honourable mention.


To hear all of these golden Can-Con nuggets click on the Playlist.

Hey people.
Here's a photo of the day we recorded in Jimmy's room. I promise I'll post the mp3 of the song after some bass has been laid down and it gets a proper mix. But for now this is what I've got.

Later today I'll post another song sketch I'm working on. I just need to upload the mp3 to my mediafire account.


xo

Attic Jam

So in an attempt to try and keep up a appearances Jimmy (The Guest Bedroom bassist/guitarist/room mate) and me have been demoing songs for my upcoming E.P. but rather than waiting an ice age for that to come out, here's some proof I'm working on it.

This is one of the songs we demo'd last weekend and we decided to make a video the other night just live off the floor for the sake of jamming.

Hopefully you enjoy.

The photo above was taken by Alana Sproule at her Gallery / Shop Awkward Stage. Alana and I are currently working on a zine together. Hopefully we make this happen as we can both be quite the procrasturbators at times.

I suck at Blogging.

It appears that a little piece of web real estate is too much responsibility for me. It's this cycle I get into where I get really enthusiastic about something and then have trouble keeping the momentum going. Whether it be over ambition or lack of enthusiasm I apologize for not being more regular about this blog.

Right now I'm currently listening to Bright Eyes' Fevers & Mirrors on vinyl why deciding what I should do graphically for a guitar pedal I'm building. It's a clone of a now extinct pedal, and the originals are now like $700 used. So for $100 in parts it seems like a better option to build one myself. I'm excited to get this built, it's a clone of the Lovetone Big Cheese. If you listen to the band Pavement at all then you'll have heard this pedal. it's most present on the bands Wowee Zowee album on the song Half a Canyon. I just love that distortion sound.

Can't wait to see Pavement this summer on Toronto Island.

Where's the blog?

Okay so I continue to slack on this blog I realize this. However I've been shaping up a special set for my Show at Awkward Stage on the 27th. This is my first solo show in awhile and it's not what you would come to expect of a four star daydream set.

Needless to say some new music for your eyes while I wrap up on some lyrics to a new song that will be posted soon. Two great garage rock songs from the '60's have entered my life and filled a mysterious void. One song that I'm in love with is "What am I gonna do" by the Dovers. I loved it when I thought it was an Atlas Sound song. To find out it's really a great song before Bradford Cox sampled it.

Another song that has come to my attention is The Creation's "If I stay too long" This song was first brought to my attention on my friend Doug's facebook wall. I listened to it, like it, but sort of forgot about it. It was quickly brought back to my attention when Doug slagged my love songs of the 60's blog. Which is fair. After downloading the song and playing it again, I really loved it. It's like The Animals, and The Troggs but cooler.

love love love love.

Here's the songs ------> songs!

Songs of V-Day: I Want Her, She Wants Me.

Alright. Here is a Valentines day mini mix of the best '60's pop love songs.

I've been talking with friends lately on two topics that inspired this blog.

1. I dislike the majority of band names that are 'the (insert noun here)' The 1960's were chock full of these types of band names but they were good names and they were the fad of the decade. However since the start of the last decade and the re-explosion of garage rock, with bands like The Strokes, The Vines, The White Stripes, the trend has come full circle again. Only these are getting watered down with thoughtless boring names like The Microphone, The Stereo's, The Drums. Sadly this is parodied in a Sum 41 video, with a sleezy manager trying to capitalize on the 'the' trend making them change the band name to 'the sum 41's'.

2. In the 1960's all the bands did start with 'the' but were generally all awesome. The Beatles, The Rolling stones, The Kinks, The Who. Need I say more? And all of the love songs from this decade are so innocently dramatic. You'll never hear a song from another decade where a girl needs a boy so desperately, or where a boy needs to prove to his girl beyond a reason of any doubt that he'll always be true. However as long as this music exists chivalry will never die.

So this blog is dedicated to the top 5 love songs for boys and girls of the 1960's. These are the most heart wrenching, reverb drenched, tales of lust and heart ache of all time. It always leaves me wanting for simpler times when love was a hopeless ideal dying to be fulfilled. Those two minutes and twenty seconds of willful suspension, that love is all you need. And maybe The Beatles were right.... All you need is love.


Girl Meets Boy:

The Ronette's - Be My Baby.
Probably the best pop song of all time, and a prime example of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" production. From the reverb drenched bass drum thudding intro, to Ronnie Spector's Soaring Whoa-ohs, you can't help but swoon.

The Crystal's - Da Doo Ron Ron.
One of the most exciting songs about meeting someone while abusing a rhyming scheme. Infectious hand claps, hammering piano's and fat saxophones. It's impossible to listen to this song with out tapping your toes let alone resisting clapping along.

The Crystal's - He's A Rebel.
What more exciting than meeting the boy of your dreams than having you parents and society disapprove of him. And while falling in love with the misunderstood bad boy of your town may seem romantic, chances are it won't be long until you're listening to Tammy Wynette's "Stand by your man" debating your choices.

The Marvelettes - Please Mr. Postman.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, and there is no better part of love than pining over someone. However now that we don't have to wait a week for letter these days, it sort of renders this song obsolete. However you can still feel obliged to write people handwritten letters. I'm sure they would be really surprised, as well baffled at how something that wasn't a bill got delivered to them in the first place.

The Shirelles - Will you still love me tomorrow?
The '60's was a decade when girl groups totally owned it. Regardless of how awesome The Beatles were, even they loved these girls and they're bombastic melodrama.

Boy Meets Girl:


Manfred Mann - Do Wah Diddy.
The male equivalent of Da Doo Ron Ron *. A raucous over sensationalized song about meeting a girl. One of the many gems to come out of the Brill Building group of song writers that included Jeff Barry( who has written most of the songs on this list already) Carole King, and Neil Diamond who wrote for the Monkee's and later didn't do too badly writing songs for himself I hear.

The Turtles - Elenore.
First of all, how can you not sing along to this song? One of my favourite song for the fact that the chorus is so simple stating that "Elenore, Gee I think you're swell. And you'd really do me well. You're my pride and joy etc." The Turtles would later break up over being in contract disputes and multiple law suits over copyright ownership. Flo and Eddie would later join Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, often performing The Turtles hits with the Mothers.

The Beach Boys - Little Surfer Girl.
Probably the best pop waltz / rip off of "when you wish upon a star" ever. Lush harmonies cresting like gentle waves of sound with Dennis tapping away on the ride cymbal keeping the song swirling along. I have a feeling that in the early '60's Surfer girls were the equivalent of Scene girls today. Instead of tattoo's and piercings though a french bikini and bob hair do's were the order of the day. What boy wouldn't pine for classic beauty and innocence. *sigh*

Alright I'm going to listen to this one more time and continue the list.

The Beatles - I've Just Seen a Face.
The Beatles wrote a shit load of love songs. I think maybe ten of their songs aren't about love. But probably if you play those songs backwards they are subliminally about love. Anyways, I always thought this was a really cute song when I was a kid. Especially the parts that Paul hums after the verse. If I was drunk in a bar and there was karaoke, this would probably be my song of choice. Followed up by The Turtles Elenore.

Tommy James & The Shondelles - Crimson and Clover.
This song is sex. If I was trying to seduce someone to make out this would be the song I'd probably choose. Awesome tremolo guitars and vocals ambient reverb thrown all over the place. I'm not to sure what Crimson & Clover have to do with disrobing a girl you just met, but I imagine if I unlock this secret it would be too much responsibility for one man alone.

...Crimson and Clover... Over and Over !


So here's a link to listen to the playlist. This playlist is probably best listened to with someone, or while pining for someone who will never know how you feel because she doesn't even know you exist because you spend all your time listening to pop music and reading blogs.

...it's okay, I'm here for you. You're safe here.

I promise to try and stay on top of this blog, as it seems I've been slipping as of late.

Happy V-Day Everyone !



* Before somebody tries to correct me. There is a male equivalent of Da Doo Ron Ron that was released in 1977 by Shaun Cassidy**. Girls everywhere swooned for the Partridge Family's now "grown up" lead singer gone solo. However being released in the '70's voids it from this list. And out of general good taste as well.


** Somewhere along the lines i blurred Shaun Cassidy and David Cassidy together. Shaun Cassidy sang Da Doo Ron Ron. David Cassidy sang in the Patridge Family. Apparently I'm losing my touch.

New song finished.

Song one for the Rpm Challenge. Started writing it the other day and recorded it polished off the lyrics this afternoon. Day 1 of vacation is a success.




I'm trying to think of something to say but my head is adrift. Anyways it figures the first song i write is about how I spend my evenings and days at work. To get rid of writers block right about whats blocking it. Monotony!

Another new song in the works that I'm really excited about. It just sounds really fun.

Here it is. This one hasn't been matered but I'll edit the post if/when it does get mastered.

Pause and Reflect.

All we ever get out of you is polysyllabic put downs.

Alright so here's another one from the archives. This is a song that I'm revising and working on for the upcoming album/ e.p. that I'm working on recording with my roommate Jimmy. A.K.A James Allan Toth in the recording biz (for all of those looking for a good producer look no further. He's also playing in angular and haunting band The Guest Bedroom. who you should check out.) It's going to be good once we get it all recorded. For now here is a super long version or what the song will be. Super lo-fi and shoe-gazey with lots of reverb distortion and buried vocals. Believe or not there is a longer version recorded how ever it's no longer in existence since the great computer crash of 2008.

The story behind the song long windedly titled "All we ever get out of you is polysyllabic put downs." or simply Polysyllabic, came from my M.A.S.H. loving friend Siobhan. Somewhere in season 11 episode 2 I believe. I thought this was a clever quip and instantly began writing a song. I don't know how the title relates to the song. But this song was written about the hazardous summers of my late teens. Along with my friends, drinking a little too much, and picking up garbage on heavy pick-up days and smashing them to bits with crowbars in the park.

Why? Fuck if I know. It seems totally idiotic now but back then it made sense and burned off some energy.

And then the infamous cottage weekend with roman candles and too much cherry whiskey for one man to drink on his own. And then followed up by the lost summer that I disappeared in a fit of manic depression from these great people who I never see much of these days but I feel I should acknowledge(and make plans with). Because drinking underage has lost it's excitement with out you being around. I know it's hard to drink underage at 23, but I can always drink more with you guys around.

So for Siobhan, Jeff, Alison( and all the mischievous carter clan) Logan, Mallory and Tonja. Or really anyone who worked at Walmart with us that summer, this is for you. Although most of you have probably heard this already.



All we get out of you is polysyllabic put downs.

Still workin' away.

So the new song I've been sort of sketching out isn't ready yet. For fun here's a song live from my last show at The Boat. If you weren't one of the forty people in attendance this will be something new for you. This is another song that will soon be recorded for my upcoming E.P. due out later this year.


But until then hold tight with this.


House

Back to sea.

Here's a fresh song I finished and recorded today for everyone's enjoyment. This song is the result of listening to Atlas Sound's new album "logos" too much. Wrote it fairly quickly and recorded it just the same. Rough around the edges, covered in reverb, and ready for you ears. Should load into itunes with art work supplied. Leave feedback if theirs any issues or if you just like it in general.


I'm also thinking about signing up for the RPM challenge at RPM.com. The challenge is to write and record an album (10 songs or 35 minutes) during the 28 days of February. No real prize at all, just a matter of bragging rights and forcing some creativity to come forth.


Please tell you friends about this blog if you are enjoying it thus far.

Stay tuned for friday! friday will be digital mix tape day.

M.

Back to sea

State of the Art Hard Drive.

So it's day two. And Since I haven't had enough time to get some fresh b-sides rolling out, I figure I'd start from the back catalog. So available for the first time in glorious .mp3 format, is the four star daydream cover of the Beatles' "No reply" from the album "Beatles For Sale".

On a side note it’s been heard that some[1] of you are displeased by the title of this blog. So let me shed some light on how Art Hard Drive came to be. It originally came to me as a lot of titles often do, and that is misreading something and taking it in a different context. Much like Ringo reworking common expressions and turning them into song writing gold with titles like “Hard Days Night.”

So as it was, I was reading an article on recording at the time and took a second pass at the sentence and saw Art Hard Drive. What the hell is an “Art Hard Drive?” After a third pass of this sentence, it actually read something along the lines of “using a state of the art hard drive…”

I then thought of what an Art Hard Drive might be if one actually existed. The answer is with modernization and technology, art is no longer limited to canvas or recorded tape. Purists might cry foul but art's everywhere from viral video, to mashups, and now this blog[2].

Art Hard Drive welcomes you to the modern portfolio.

no reply

---

[1] I’m looking at you Alana.

[2] My apologies for discrediting the art community when referencing my work as art. But it is in the eye of the beholder mind you.

last crash.

Here's a song I started and never finished writing. one of these days i'll get around to finishing it. It was the last song i recorded before my computer crashed and i lost all of my recordings from the past eight years. all that's left of this gem is the .mp3

enjoy

January 2nd unfinished vocals

Resolution don't fail me now !

Okay, welcome to Art Hard Drive.
You may ask, what exactly is Art Hard Drive? Or maybe you don't even care.

Either way, Art Hard Drive in it's original conception was a project in which I put all my music ideas that didn't have a home with the musical projects I was working on at the time. And now since I don't seem to be doing much of anything I've decided to make a blog and force myself to be creative and just purge all of my ideas insecurities and run-on sentences with an audience present.

So with this blog I plan to try and put up as much new song material, regardless of style quality or stage of process it's in, In hopes of bridging the gap of music making and music listening.

Rather than having a proper website, I felt this would be the most instantaneous way to keep in touch and get feedback on a more personal, less formal way. Now I just need to get some shit done.


For now please feel free to stop by my Myspace at:

www.myspace.com/fourstardaydreammusic *






*Myspace is a really old website that bands and kids used to use in the 00's to show their music and gain fans before facebook and twitter washed all of that away.