Misstress Barbara covers Leonard Cohen and blows your mind

Kindly visit this link to hear amazing techno DJ/producer Misstress Barbara’s take on Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love.” You won’t be sorry. You might fall in love.

I need a record shopping chaperone

I really do. I need someone to follow me to Slinky Music and tell me I am only allowed to spend a certain amount of money. And they should drag me out by my ear if I try to spend more. Because every time I go in there, I go in with a budget in mind. Then I blow the budget out of the water. Tonight, for example, my budget was $50. And I spent… $92. Ooops. They just have so much good stuff. And this time a bunch of good records were on sale, which made me feel like I wasn’t spending that much money. So then I bought more stuff. It adds up quickly, apparently. I got some rad buys though:

I Love Dubstep compilation
I have been coveting this for a while, but it’s a double CD set and therefore expensive. This time I bit the bullet and got it. I am currently listening to a song consisting pretty much entirely of wobbly chainsaw basslines, so it was worth it.

Daedelus – Love To Make Music To
It has a piano with a heart for a lid on the cover. That + the title = perfect. How could I not buy it?

Crystal Castles – self-titled
It’s about time. I did name them my hero for 2008 on Torontoist.

The Kills – “The Good Ones” remixes
This was one of the “it’s on sale, so it doesn’t really count” buys.

Hollertronix – #9
It has a remix of “A Milli” by Buraka Som Sistema and Diplo, and a remix of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” (which I was obsessed with in first year) also by Buraka. And Radioclit. YES.

The Kings of Electro compilation – Part B
Someone played some stuff by Playgroup for me yesterday. Then today I saw a double CD compilation curated by them called The Kings of Electro. It was about $20. I almost bought it until I saw part of it on vinyl for $10. WHEEEE! I pretty much had to own something called “The Kings of Electro” (though I wonder when “The Queens of Electro” comp is coming. Never? OK.). When I got it up to the cash the dude was like, “Do you know how many people slept on this comp?” Which was ok with me, because that’s probably why I was paying $9.99 for a $25.99 2 album set.

</nerding out>

Recording Day!

Today was my band’s first recording session. WOO! Thanks to Stefan for engineering and letting us take over his attic for the night.

I learned some things today:

-My amp, as much as I love it, is an asshole. It’s the most beautiful sounding amp around, and I was so psyched to drench everything in tremolo. My dreams were shattered when the amp chose today as the day to start making shitty loose jack/ripped speaker/busted tube noises (not sure which. I really just hope it’s not the last one. That one’s expensive.)

-I’m a baby. I sulked a lot after my amp broke. Oh poor me, I have to use a Marshall now. I might as well cry myself to sleep. I stopped when I realized I am 25 years old.

-I will never like the sound of my own voice. It’s science.

-Recording school was kind of useful. That’s how come we managed to do 9 songs in 5 hours.

-Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the best cat name ever. Especially when it’s the cutest cat on the planet.

-Only classy ladies drink Boone’s straight out of the bottle. That’s me!

-Recording is exhausting. I’m tired.

Amazing Conversations of Late

Here is one we had on Friday after band practice:
Erin: We can screenprint shirts with our logo for free, we just have to buy the shirts.
Nick, excitedly: Will we all wear the shirts?!?!?
Me: We don’t wear the shirts. Other people wear the shirts.

+++

I also had a couple of ridiculous conversations in the coat check line at Andy Poolhall last night with some drunk dudes. One of them was trying to tell me that 8 tracks were the future. The other one informed me, after seeing the free CD I had gotten, that CDs cost $7 each to manufacture. I told him he was way off base. “With the graphic design, yeah, $7 each,” he said.

Let’s examine this for a second. Let’s say that CDs cost $2 each to make. (They don’t, but I’m rounding to the closest dollar because I’m doing hungover math.) So by this guy’s logic,  graphic design adds $5 to the cost of each CD. So if you’re manufacturing 10,000 CDs, you’re paying your graphic designer $50,000. AMAZING. If you’re paying your graphic designer $50,000, you’re in trouble.

This Song Is About You

leave my thoughts by the door when you go we’ll pick them up  when you come back for more you’ve taken my time and all of my love you can’t stay the night and I can’t get enough

you think that you will get by alone and I wish that you would let me help because I know how much it takes to try and shake this on your own and I can see what you could be  And it’s not far from my life

New Song

I finished a new electronic song today. Even though electronic music is my boyfriend, it’s been a while since I’ve done one, because I’ve mostly been working on band songs.

(Speaking of the band, we’ve picked a name! And we’re recording at the end of the month! Hopefully we will play shows for you soon! Hopefully I will not throw up or pass out on the stage!)

But anyway, this song had been kicking around unfinished for a while. I kind of thought it would never get finished, because once I lose momentum on something it’s hard to get it back. But I did! It’s pretty rough – not a lot of time spent mixing or fixing timing, oops – but at least it’s a full song. It’s called “We Reveal” and it’s on my MySpace. If you think it’s about you, it just might be.

I wonder

Where is the line between being:
caring/patient/willfully vulnerable

and

a sucker/self-destructive?

Things I discovered over the holidays

A love of stupidly-priced makeup I’ve never been one to spend a lot of money on makeup. Most of the time in the mornings, I’m too lazy/in too much of a hurry to bother putting it on, so I never saw the point in breaking the bank over it. Until now. It started when I borrowed my sister’s Dior foundation. It made my blotchy old skin look amazing! So then I had to go buy some of my own. And while I was at Sephora, I remembered how much fun makeup is. This realization led me to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a tiny amount of things. But while it may be shallow of me, my new Urban Decay eyeshadow palette makes me very happy. So many shiny, sparkly colours! Also, it turns out that when you buy nice makeup and use proper brushes to put it on, as opposed to smearing on some random stuff with your finger, it actually makes a difference. Who knew?

I am a classy lady It’s true! My friend told me so! He said, “Yep, when people ask me what I think of you, I tell them ’she is one classy lady.’” (Nevermind that it was delivered with the utmost sarcasm.)

I can’t go more than a few days without my guitar I couldn’t bring my guitar home at Christmas. I almost lost my mind thinking about all the lost guitar playing/songwriting time. Eventually I dug out an old guitar I bought at a yard sale for $5 that won’t go in tune. I wrote a song on it. Order restored to my life.

Having glasses is awesome I went and picked up my new glasses yesterday. I spent the day taking them on and off and going, “Can’t see that sign! Oh, now I can!” Wow. Can you say easily amused?