Veda Hille

well folks, once again the oscars served as a fabulous excuse to drink fancy cocktails and yell about fashion. head on over to what we’re wearing to catch a glimpse of our own choices, as well as some examples of fetching winter ensembles.

speaking of winter, i’m heading up to whitehorse on thursday with the fits and the vh band to play at the canada winter games. it’s -40 up there today. and we’re playing in a tent downtown. but when we play with kim barlow we’re indoors, thank heaven, both at the cultch in vancouver on feb 28 and at the yukon arts centre on march 1. i’m happy to have a week of playing ahead. oh, and of course i’ll be doing research at the winter games for the new theatre replacement show yufo, which involves alien abduction, slow food, and the olympics in its convoluted plot. plays in vancouver at performance works in late march!

duplex will be playing a quick and incisive set at the wise hall next monday, feb 26th. the band goes up at 6:30, and then there’s a screening of Kids Can’t Wait, a film on childcare in BC that we made the music for. and then a community discussion! and while i have your attention, i can remind you of the fabulous kim barlow, great aunt ida, fits gig on feb 28th at the vancouver east cultural centre, and then the very next night (sans ida) in whitehorse yt. thank god they’ve finally invented the teleportation machine.

ok, here’s a last minute notice for you; theatre replacement’s production of Sexual Practices of the Japanese is playing in seattle this weekend at on the boards. lee hutzulak and i made the music for this show, and it includes some showstoppers, let me tell you. and a vibrator suite! not to mention some great theatre writing and performance. so if you’re in the hood head on down, and say hi to my friends maiko and jaime if you see them.

i dreamt last night that i wrote the most amazing post for you. i think i actually managed to attach some of the cinnamon heart cookies that i made for valentines or something, i woke up feeling quite proud of myself. so this will be just a hollow copy of the dreamworld cookie post.

on saturday night i went out with a team of pals to see final fantasy and buffy st. marie at The Centre in vancouver. (kinnie starr and jim byrnes were also on the bill, but alas i was in rehearsal and had to arrive late.) it was a stellar show. the organizers made an odd last minute decision, and had buffy play first and then owen (ff) followed. i think that musically speaking they should have stuck to their original guns. but nonetheless, both were stunning. buffy’s voice continues to be one of the most powerful on earth, and her presence and confidence were awe inspiring. i was completely carried away, particularly by “bury my heart at wounded knee”, despite the fact that her band’s playing was not to my taste. it didn’t matter. i am going to be singing some of buffy’s songs this spring with the cbc radio orchestra, and once again i feel lucky. and then owen pallett took the stage, a brave man after buffy’s two standing ovations. it was my first chance to see him play live, after loving the albums, and he played beautifully. and he’s covering one of my favorite john cale songs, that i was just getting ready to cover myself. that bastard. maybe we can sing it together sometime. in any case, once again seeing someone work brilliantly and musically with live loops (juana molina is the other loopmaster) i am convinced that i should stick with my band. i keep thinking that i should try that out, but after seeing owen i think i’ll leave it to him.

and then the pals all went out for gyoza and moonlight and witty conversation afterwards. the evening easily won the Best Saturday Night Of The Year award. thank god for good music and buckwheat vodka.

well folks, as i have mentioned we recorded last week’s show at the cultch. the second set of new songs, called this riot life, is fairly bombastic and presented some recording difficulties. dave sikula, our engineer, battled masterfully with a wide range of volume and energy levels. that set has some great moments on tape and some that are better left to the lovely memory of the live show. but i just sat down and listened for the first time to the first set, which was a performance of field study with full band. it’s a very nice recording. very nice. so that is something that we might make available as a special internet record this year. maybe with a few of the new songs thrown in…..

anyway, let me refresh your memory as to the Swell Band. we have skye brooks on drums, martin walton on bass, jesse zubot on violin, peggy lee on cello, ak coope on clarinet, and patsy klein on vocals, keyboard, flute, and percussion. a deadly team. and here is us playing plants, on january 28 2007 at the vancouver east cultural centre.

 

 plants live 07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

hello all, and thanks for all the lovely mail that’s been coming in since my interview with my favorite bill richardson on sounds like canada this morning. (maybe that’s up online somewhere? anyone feel like checking?) he is so easy to talk to, in the best way. and so here i will post again the song lucklucky, so that you don’t have to search it out in past postings. this is a demo version of the song, recorded on barry mirochnick’s birthday. as you will hear. i know that it is very sad that the album will not be out for a year, but we haven’t even started making it yet, people. i will attempt to “roll the thunder” without “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, and will post little tide-you-over type things in the meanwhile.

thanks for listening, as always.

 

 lucklucky: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download