sixty-six (theme: the great canadian songbook tour)

[amethysting.livejournal.com]

The Tower of Learning
Rufus Wainwright
Poses
2001

Well, the one-and-only performance of The Great Canadian Songbook Tour goes down tomorrow night, so that moment has yet to be written in school-concert history, BUT at the rate we are going, it is sure to be...spectacular.

As a school-secretary, there is no worse time than school-concert time. It just really is so incredibly horrifying. The concert becomes this bucking, untamable beast that is trying to throw me off of its back. Sometimes it does so successfully, but one of my ankles always ends up getting caught in a stirrup and then I dangle there with the ends of my hair brushing the dirt (not an altogether excellent metaphor, but I am going to go with it).

This concert has effectively ruined a number of homegrown hits (or maybe just one--"Takin' Care of Business"--because all the other songs aren't all that great anyway), so I like that I can use this theme to reclaim my love for Canadian music. When I used to buy CDs, I was always pleased when I saw the SOCAN symbol or that government "Canadian Heritage" reminder stamped on the disc. For some reason, it made me very proud in an intense patriotic way.

Perhaps it was because of this patriotism-tinged memory that made me sidle up to the packed CD towers in my living room when I was trying to choose a song for this week. I must admit that Rufus Wainwright was already at the forefront of my mind, though. Poses and Want One were staples when I was doing my B.A. I love the grandeur of Rufus Wainwright's music, his tenor voice. The word "sweeping" comes to mind. Even quiet songs are huge. He does a lot of interesting things with orchestration and (especially when I was doing my B.A.) I was stuck on how literate his lyrics were...the perfect mix of classic literature and pop culture references.

When I hear "The Tower of Learning" I am on the number 45 bus, leaving the belly of Place Bonaventure after spending the day at McLennan. I'm tired, depleted, on the verge of tears. I'm standing in the bus aisle, my backpack at my feet, holding onto one of those grey straps, swaying and bouncing with every movement of the bus. I was listening to "The Tower of Learning" for the first time. The song has such a solemn opening, and it suited my mood perfectly: "I really do fear that I'm dying/I really do fear that I'm dead" hit me with particular force. I just remember this perfect moment (it may be slightly altered, but my memory tends to be pretty accurate)...the bus pulled onto the Champlain Bridge, and, just as we reached that point where you get a perfect view of the sparkling city skyline the song reached its pitch: "All the sights of Paris/Pale inside your iris". It was like being pulled into a kaleidoscope...something bright, but blurry and ever-shifting, something that was impossible to hold on to, but that lifted me nonetheless. Words give way to humming and that galloping beat, that cacophony of blips and a distorted voice. There is a religious-quality to it (this is undoubtedly influenced by my Catholic school days) and, especially that night on the bus, a real sense of having your heart lifted, of being saved.

sixty-six. [THEME: the great canadian songbook tour]

[cabaretlights.livejournal.com]

Potent
Artist: Puncturevine
Album: Ignite
Year: 2007
♥: Let me tell you a bit about goth clubs.

They're dark -- in feel and lighting. They usually have black lights, a DJ pumping EBM/industrial, a dancefloor filled with a bunch of writhing people who are out to see and be seen. The goth scene in any city is generally incestuous: you know (almost) everyone, and like any subculture, you get swept up in quotidian drama. But if you can let that go, put on your corset and black eyeshadow and red dreads, and just dance -- they're a good fucking time.

I was introduced to goth clubs (and Friday nights at Saph!) via my friend Claire, and through her, back in 2004, I met this girl Meg. You may know her. Maybe. But! Before Meg and I were to turn into the Decarie Duo we've become, we had to bond. So: in summer 2007, we road tripped to visit Claire in Toronto. We packed our best lacy crinoline skirts and darkest makeup, slowly adding colour to our wardrobes but still attached to the dark swirls we painted around our eyes in cegep. This was going to be a return to form! -- the goth girls, together again, doing Toronto up Montreal-style (a Canadian songbook tour of its own!). The weekend itself is kind of lost in my memory, a blur of Meg and I wandering the city on foot while Claire was at work, a lot of amaretto sours and Claire encouraging Meg to go into modeling ----- but this band remains...potent (haha).

Friday night, we walked into Neutral in our gothy finest (our outfits all matched, big skirts/striped stockings/pigtails -- I in purple, Meg in red, Claire in blue), ready to dance...and there were people with microphones and synths onstage. What. Meg and I exchanged looks, exasperated -- we were expecting to move, not listen to some local band from Oakville or wherever the fuck -- but then the set started. Puncturevine is goth/EBM at its loveliest and most accessible: ethereal, flowing, Delerium-esque undertones with a heavy industrial twist. When it ended, Meg and I each bought the album, wide-eyed and convinced.

I'm posting Puncturevine for this theme because it infuriates me that a band so good. so interesting, has never gotten exposure. Will never be included in a Canadian songbook. Will be forgotten, swept under the goth club rug and left with so many other amazing artists, in every genre, that just never make it. So I'm taking the theme and spinning it: this is in no way a song that would ever make it into a school musical. What it is, though, is a local Canadian group that struck me, one random evening, by chance. And that's my Canadian songbook tour: musical and physical journeys to the subcultures, the underbellies, the weird and the outcast and the beautiful.

And I, anyway, have never forgotten this album: I blast it often, especially when I am getting ready to go out. My favourite track is the opening one: "Potent." It pulses, rips through your veins, builds and breaks; its sensuality is raw. And, in light of recent events, I quite appreciate the latter.