Author Archives: Rob MacD

So, Dave Stewart and I formed a band a decade or so ago. The band is called Chimp. Way back then, we recorded a baker’s dozen of original songs. We recorded them in my living room, using a 4-track cassette recorder we rented from Toomb’s Music for a week. We also rented a microphone and stand and, I think, a guitar pedal. Dave played bass (mostly) and I played guitar (mostly). We didn’t have a drummer. We used pre-recorded drumbeats from my cheap Casio keyboard.
After the week was up, we still had a bit of work to do, so we borrowed a 4-track cassette recorder from Wayne Dunsford.
So, in two weeks or so, we recorded these songs, as best we could, and mixed them down to cassette. We dubbed the cassette a few times and handed them out to friends.
And that was that.
Then, last spring, we decided we’d try and find the original 4-track cassette, digitize them and try and clean them up as best we could with an audio program on my computer. The cassette was found in a shoebox in a closet in my house, and over the next couple of months we cleaned them up, removing hiss, remixing, restructuring (in a limited way) the songs as we saw fit. We got Jason Rogerson to come on board as a fresh set of ears and together, the three of us remixed 12 of the songs. We also recorded a few new vocal bits at Moses Media and inserted them in a couple of songs.
So, after all that, we had 12 songs we thought were pretty rocking, in a lo-fi way. We decided we’d put them on a CD, get a small number made and throw them out to the world. We called the CD Thundercrack! as an homage to this movie.
At that point, the idea of a CD release party came up, and it was decided that Baba’s would be a great place to have it. Not having played the songs in about a decade, and not having any rocking equipment to play on, we came up with the idea that it would be cool if other local bands played cover versions of our songs at the CD release. So, we got a few bands/people to play some of our songs at the CD release.
It’s this Saturday night at 9 at Babas. Musicians performing include John Connolly, Jason and the Forget-Me-Nots (the aforementioned Jason Rogerson and a compilation of his musical associates), The Love Junkies, Pat Deighan & the Orb Weavers, Lennie MacPherson, Riley’s Lane (a ladies celtic group) and String Theory.
A couple of months ago on the PEI Locals music webforum I solicited any/all bands the invitation to join the evening and play a song or two. From that solicitation, the band String Theory bravely stepped forward and offered to play a song, song-unheard. I can’t wait to hear their cover of Killer Bees. String Theory will also be playing at Babas later Saturday night, after the CD release wraps up.
Wade Lynch was also going to perform a song, but had to cancel due to a conflicting schedule. I’ll miss hearing his interpretation of Boy Likes Girl.

So, that’s the story of Chimp.
A couple of weeks ago, we thought “wouldn’t it be cool to have a video for a couple of the songs?” Not really wanting to invest time and energy into shooting new footage, we thought it would be fun to create a video using pre-existing film we had. That is how the video for “The Living End” (below) came about.
Dave and I have known each other for over 20 years. I met my wife through my friendship with Dave, or I met Dave through my friendship with my wife. I can’t quite remember.
Anyway, just before Dave and I became friends, Dave shot an 8mm film called “Goodbye, Columbia” starring his friends. Shortly after we became friends he shot another 8mm film called “Attack of the Angry Moon Cats”, starring his friends, which now included me.
A few years later, Dave and I wrote and made a short-film called “Florid”, starring our friends.
We took a key scene from Florid, and some of the “actiony” parts from Goodbye Columbia and Attack, and threw them all together to create this video. It’s supposed to be the end-credits of a movie called The Living End, but I don’t know how well that concept plays out.
Anyway, lots of interesting images, a couple of shots of a younger Dave and younger Rob, and some brief clips of Charlottetown landmarks that no longer exist.

Here, then, is the world premiere of the music video for The Living End by Chimp.

According to yesterday’s CBC News article about the upcoming summer season of the Charlottetown Festival:

Sketch-22 heads for the Big Dance

Local comedy troupe Sketch-22 has been picked up by the festival. The group will perform at the Mack Theatre.

“This is awesome we’re so excited, we put so much work into this
show for five years, I think this is sort of a sign to us our hard work
is paying off,” said founding member Andrew Sprague.

“This validates Sketch-22, and because of this we promise to make much less fun of the Confederation Centre of the Arts.”

Sketch-22 is well known for its sometimes crude spoofs of Island life.

The Big Dance?  Anyway, I was just impressed in the size of the font we received compared to any of the other performances mentioned.

And, while we (Sketch22) have been assaulted in the past by critical reviews from Guardian and CBC commenters, I have a feeling we’ve just entered into a whole new realm and level of attack.  To wit:

In the comments to the above-linked article, WILMOTDAVE had this to say about the news:

Sketch 22?
Wow how new and innovative to justify poor comedy at the expense of the rest of us.
One day Obama which was for change and now going backward to a cesspool of asinine and weak comedy.

With that Obama mention, is he insinuating that our comedy is akin to the Presidency of George Bush?  If so: Ouch!

Still, I am inclined to have “cesspool of asinine and weak comedy” added to any future PR for our group.

Let the backlash continue!!

Wait for it!!

So, for a long, long, time, I’ve had this idea where I get a big group of people together, a choir, and we dissect a song and each of us in the choir take one dissection of that song and interpret it using only our mouths. So, one person (or more, depending on difficulty) would make the bass guitar sounds, some more would “sing” the percussion sounds, others would sing the guitar sounds, etc.
I’ve had a desire to do this for a long time, as I’ve said.  I thought it would be challenging and original. As recently as last week, I was thinking about what song would be a good one to do.

But now, this morning, my desire to do it has disappeared because, this morning, I saw this video.  And now that it’s done, I don’t have to do think about it any more.

This might be the best thing ever:

Grahpic Design by the amazing Laura O’Brien
Chimp Logo by Russell Stewart (also amazing)

“THUNDERCRACK!” IS ON ITS WAY – NOV 18

Track Listing:

1. The Living End
2. Boy Likes Girl
3. Nectar
4. Killer Bees
5. So Exquisite Harbour
6. Love Song for David Arquette
7. Tonight (Alright)
8. Pillow Talk
9. Poot
10. Red Asphalt
11. Retarde d’Amour
12. We Be Chimp

Don’t miss the fantastic Thundercrack! CD Release Party, November 15th at Babas.  A list of performers to blow your mind, all covering these 12 Chimp songs.

FOX has a new show this season, called "Hole In The Wall".  If you haven’t seen it, check it out immediately.  And by "immediately" I mean "never".

What a terrible, boring show.  Here’s the concept:  There are two teams of three.  All are dressed in silver jumpsuits (it’s not gay porn).  In turn, the two teams’ members stand on the playing area, and a giant foam wall moves towards them.  There’s a shape cut out of the foam wall, and as the wall passes by, the contestants have to emulate the shape so that the wall passes by free and clear.  If they fail, the wall pushes them in the water.

That’s the show.

I’ve seen clips of the Japanese version on YouTube and they are mildly amusing in a "highlights of clips" format.  But watching the sections between the "action" is interminably dull.  The host stands, inexplicably, high above the action, and does little but yell.  There’s also an on-the-floor co-host, a woman who yells everything in an irritating high-pitched tremble.

The contestants are equally annoying and ugly.

Action from this sucky show.

If you want to see a much more entertaining American rip-off of a Japanese game show, watch Wipeout (ABC, I think).  It’s a pretty entertaining show.

Tonight and Saturday night are the final two Sketch22 performances for this season.  Maybe forever?

Come see the fun, at The Guild.

I hadn’t heard much about this documentary, other than it being a doc about a couple of guys who are good at playing Donkey Kong.  Hearing that little bit about it, I went "meh" even though it was getting good reviews.

Well, last night I decided to give it a try.  I watched it and absolutely loved it.  It has everything you want from a good movie – drama, comedy (even if it’s inadvertent to those involved), suspense, heroes, villains, minions, gaming nerds, espionage, and, as they say, so much more.

Basically, it’s about two guys.  One is the reigning Donkey Kong champion, and the other is a guy who attempts to challenge the world record score.  The events that unfold are too good to be true, but I have no doubt it’s all true.  I don’t want to give anything away in case you watch it, but believe me, you couldn’t write a better story.

Even if you think it’s not your cup of tea, go and watch this film.  You’ll love it. 

Here’s the trailer.  To me it misses the mark of what this movie is about. What it doesn’t show you is the awesomeness of the how drawn in you will become to the events that unfold.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters – Movie Trailer

I may have already spoiled it.  Below is a video of a baby laughing, but the sound is slowed down.  I watched the first half of it, and couldn’t help but laugh myself.  Laughter is infectious, it seems, even at half speed.
Go have a look and listen now.  Because if you keep reading and then go and watch it, you won’t be able to enjoy it as laughter.  And it should be enjoyed as laughter.
Seriously, go and watch it, then come back.
Okay, you watched it. Now go and watch it again (actually, don’t watch, just listen), but this time, don’t listen to it as if it’s laughter.  Listen to it as if it’s someone crying.
Like, really wailing.  Imagine they’ve just broken up with their girlfriend, and is home alone, late at night, crying.  (Once you do, you won’t be able to hear it as laughter anymore).

I think I’ve just discovered that crying is just laughter slowed down.  What are the implications of that?  Is crying just enjoying yourself, but at a really slow pace?

Check out this video: Slow Motion Baby Laugh

http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf 

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