Archive.org is obviously one of the best things online. In addition to offering (for free) over 1.2 million text files, over 158 thousand 'moving images' (mostly film), and over 300 thousand audio files they have their own version of 'Concerts on Demand'. The archive currently includes over 58 thousand performances. All of them are embeddable and downloadable (usually MP3 and lossless Flac). The particular recording below is Toronto's own Rock Plaza Central at the Camper Van Beethoven silver anniversary show in Chicago. You can also just download the whole thing here.
Yesterday I said that Rock Plaza Central's new album was going to be called "...at the Moment of our Most Needing or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone". When I read this on their blog I took it as a very long title and read the OR in the middle as part of the title as in Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I was wrong. the title was never supposed to be that long. we were just still debating. definitely now going to be called
...at the moment of our most needing
The long awaited follow up to the 2006 album Are We Not Horses is done and is set to be released on May 12. The tentatively entitled ...at the Moment of our Most Needing or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone is already a shoe in for the longest album title of 2009 and nominations are now open for what people will actually call it. According to Rock Plaza Central's Myspace"...much of it is inspired by William Faulkner's Light in August, about a young woman who, at 8 1/2 months pregnant, goes off in search of the man she thinks is in love with her. She has no shoes but she has faith. The record is perhaps my love song to her. Searching for her. About thirteen months pregnant. And even when she rebukes me, I will know the world was good enough."
From the Rock Plaza Central Myspace blog:"So, really exciting to announce that Are We Not Horses has become required listening (or as Exclaim Magazine called it, "required rocking") at two institutes of higher learning. The first, at the University of South Alabama, is on a Grad English course on Comtemporary Literature, studying "another recent (if slightly less visible) trend in contemporary lit: the cross pollination between indie music and fiction. We’ll pair three novels with three albums—Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn (1999) with I’m Not Jim’s You Are All My People (2008), Chris Eaton’s The Inactivist (2003) with Rock Plaza Central’s Are We Not Horses (2006), and Willy Vlautin’s Northline (2007) with Richmond Fontaine’s Post to Wire (2004)—and consider not only the issues faced when moving between media, but also whether cataclysmic changes in both the publishing and music industries might, in some fashion, have given rise to this phenomenon." The second institute is an elementary school in Ottawa, Ontario, where Grade 6 students interpreted "My Children, Be Joyful" as "trying something new, reaching towards something they hadn't before", and they've also been revisualizing the lyrics of the song in drawings. Hopefully we'll be allowed to post some pics soon!"It remains to be seen whether being forced to study a particular band in school helps boost your fan base or not but given that most Canadians still don't know their Rock Plaza Central basics (nor apparently how their government works) it is good to see them put where they belong - in the mandatory curriculum.
A bunch of music related bits and pieces I found today all crammed into one post instead of 7:
Toronto's Sunparlour Players are going west, and will be joining forces along the way with Rock Plaza Central and Woodpigeon the dates are below, if you miss these guys your friends will never le
From their Myspace blog: Rock Plaza Central are looking for places to crash during their upcoming western tour. Imagine, while your friends are bringing home CDs and T-shirts, you can bring home the band!Last time we went out West on tour, we stayed with so many wonderful people. For me, it was probably the best part of it. Getting to know so many of you who like what we do. Any chance anyone would like to put up five musicians again? We have mats and sleeping bags. We just can't handle pets because of allergies.
In addition to the dates on our page, we're also likely to be in and around LA and San Diego in the June 15-16 area, Phoenix on the 17 and Missoula, Montana on June 22. Then back into Canada for what looks to be:
Lethbridge june 23, Edmonton the 24, Red Deer the 25, Saskatoon on the 30, Regina the 31, and Winnipeg July 1, my sister's birthday.
Then I think it's Madison, Des Moines and Iowa City or Chicago?
Please fire me an email at chrisrulesbigtime at sympatico dot ca is you think you can help.Thanks!
Rock Plaza Central - Anthem for the Already Defeated
"April 30 through May 4th at select venues, which includes film premieres, rare musical performances and exciting theatrical productions. Each year the festival continues to grow, having started with just three events seven years ago and now it numbers nearly three dozen."Many of the events this year are being sponsored by CBC Radio 3 for a list of their sponsored events visit the R3 blog. A full listing of the events, as well as venue and ticket information can be found at http://www.overthetopfest.com/2008/. For specific dates see
Rock Plaza Central - "SexyBack" cover
Few bands in the last year have generated as much buzz in Canada as Rock Plaza Central from Pitchfork to the 
