By Brandon Greaves (CIVL DJ) – Email
Print Edition: February 5, 2014
Brandon Greaves hosts Pacific Trash Vortex every Monday at noon. Here he lists songs from his favourite concerts attended in the Lower Mainland from the past year and assures you none of them are trashy.
Feeling hopelessly lost is a recurring theme on Arner’s debut solo record. This song is about dreary Vancouver nightlife (though less explicitly than the opening track, “Midnight on South Granville”) and its ability to eat away at you. If you can’t relate, check out the #19 NightBus, where new strains of influenza are being bred as we speak.
B.A. Johnston — “Certified Cold Is the Way to Go”
“Am I a waste of skin? … ‘cause I am drunk and I’m still day-drinking.” Johnston’s trademark self-deprecation comes across more like self-loathing in this jaunty tune about staying home all day with Sonic the Hedgehog and too much beer. Although, haven’t we all been disgusted with ourselves on our slovenly days off?
An unexpected track from the long-running Vancouver noise rock outfit; Erin Ward’s vocal takes the place of usual frontman Nic Hughes’ in a blazing rock song that jumps out from a largely atonal album that scarcely incorporates traditional song structures.
Okay, I actually only saw this guy perform improv comedy as part of the Sunday Service in Vancouver. It was the best comedy show I’ve ever been to, and I went to look up his music immediately afterward. I was kind of taken aback by this goofball comic, whom I had only seen improvise a rap about popcorn, making these introspective, heady rock songs.
Melt-Banana — “The Hive”
I got really dehydrated from being in a particularly thrashy part of the crowd and was in a state of delirium when Melt-Banana played this song. I was hypnotized by the flashing lights on lead singer Yasuko’s sampler for the duration of it. Great guitar parts!
