aaron schwab

after a lovely morning and early afternoon at Cagney’s, i seem to have found myself at the college again, and again by way of bike — a dazzlingly bright idea, considering the single-digit weather and rain. some small part of me feels like i’m not done with this place, even though my classes are long done and my workterm information is complete and handed in; i promised my old radio prof i’d come back next week to pick up a CD from him, and i’m sure i’ll end up back here intermittently when i have time to visit the odd friend or ex-classmate. now that i’m on the other side of the fence (the “done college” side), looking back on the place makes it look not all that bad, and i’m glad i motored through my program instead of dropping out back when i considered that, which would’ve made me a college dropout with less than three months of class out of three years left. short-term pain, long-term gain, i suppose.

if i can go off on a completely unrelated and pointless tangent (and it’s my blog so i damn well can, thank you), i have to chuckle every time i pull into the parking lot behind Cagney’s apartment building, or look down from her sixth-floor balcony at the apartment on the other side of her building’s back fence. it’s a smaller building; it has three stories with maybe six apartments total, and what kills me is that the building — as is proclaimed by the metallic lettering bolted above the entranceway — is called Bel-Aire. the term brings to mind a wealthy neighbourhood with caviar and escargot to snack on upon exiting one’s Mercedes Benz at a members-only golf course, or perhaps it evokes images of the upper-class status of the Banks family from Fresh Prince. it just seems funny to me that a run-down and almost slum-like apartment building would uphold such a name, as if the building itself has delusions of grandeur (hell, the letters on the Bel-Aire sign are even halfway toppled over.) it almost makes me wonder if the building’s designer had far higher hopes for his creation than the ludicrous juxtaposition of nomenclature with which it ended up existing.

tonight should be nice — the forecast calls for me biking home in the rain, showering, likely collapsing for a while then maybe grabbing dinner with Cagney (which i hope happens; i’m kind of in the mood to look decent and go somewhere.) and then tomorrow, i’ll be in Travis’ chair by noon, getting some lovely colour into my snail. wish me luck! the armpit’s going to be quite a bugger.

well, that’s half true — the lifestyle change i’m referring to involves my return to Firefox 2 from Opera 9 — i initially switched from FF to the big, red “O” after Firefox crashed once and from there on out refused tro remember any of my bookmarks, but after a little system registry housecleaning and a reinstall, i’m back on the Mozilla train. hey, i know i’m a dork, but a faster browser is a faster browser.

after waking up with Cangney today, we strolled down to Frederick’s for breakfast. Cagney was skeptical of its level of sketchiness, but it turns out the place is actually really clean (being in downtown Kitchener though it may be) and the breakfast was awesome. it’s comforting to know a good breakfast place is nearby, because Angel’s and Mel’s aren’t always within my/our reach. after receiving another haircut from Cagney and loading up on beauty supplies at Shopper’s (the likes of which for me consisted of moisturizer for my upcoming bout of tattoo healing, hair gunk and some face stuff for after shaving so my face doesn’t go all red), i biked down to my dentist to get moulds made of my teeth, which is always pleasurable; especially the part where the grey moulding goo starts dripping down my throat. awesome. after said pleasantries and a toasted footlong roast chicken at Subway, Cagney and i ended up at tonight’s Cancer Bats show, which — barring the

Never Say Nevada: new, young, local band. the crowd seemed to like them okay, but they’re quite simply a style of music that does absolutely nothing for me, which likely has much to do with how ridiculously overdone it is. no offense to these nice dudes, but yawn.

Gran Casino: one of the best bands from KW, hands down. Cagney was quick to point out GC’s similarities to The Blood Brothers, and i’ll be just as quick to point out their musical parallels to At The Drive-In and Sparta. i just about shat my drawers when they closed with a near-perfect cover of Refused’s “Coup D’Etat,” too. their new CD will be available this upcoming Monday, and i strongly recommend my legions of loyal readers to message the band about getting a copy ASAP.

A Textbook Tragedy: so, what’s the hip key in which to milk breakdowns for all they’re worth these days — D? C#? C? B?

Black Lungs: i was thrown for a bit of a loop when i saw The Black Lungs play as a full band (Liam from the Cancer Bats on drums, even) because their Myspace songs had led me to believe the band was just Wade of Alexisonfire fame and a pianist. still, they sounded amazing as a full band and had the crowd’s fists in the air like a true-school punk band should.

Cancer Bats: tonight was my second time seeing the Bats and this was definitely their better performance. as far as a live show goes, they’re pretty straightforward and i knew what to expect: gratuitous amounts of circle headbanging from Scott, Liam going absolutely batshit in between vocal parts, and constant circlepitting (which is a blessing because it ruins any opportunities to hardcore dance on the floor, plus it’s just fun and doesn’t look as retarded.) what i didn’t expect, however, was George from Alexisonfire to come onstage and do vocals with Liam for the Bats’ encore of Pneumonia Hawk. it was an awesome set overall, and this just iced the cake.

the weekend’s just getting started, but nothing’s slowing down — i get to bike down to Way Cool tomorrow to watch Tim squirm in Kevin’s chair; he’s finally getting a piece done that he’s wanted for a while, and i want to be one of the first people to watch him wince. hee hee! tomorrow evening will complete my hat trick of awesome shows for the week, with Lifestory:Monologue, Shotgun Rules and Farewell to Freeway playing at the Vinyl in Guelph. it’ll also be my first chance to welcome Chris back from Guatemala, so fun will be had all around!

some beautiful tickets came in the mail for myself, Cagney and Sara today, and here’s the obligatory “ha ha, i have tickets, sucka” photo (props to anyone who caught onto the band in question by the title of this blog alone):

they’re general admission for lawn seating at the Molson Amphitheatre and while i had hoped to score general admission for the floor at the front of the stage, the lawn beyond the very back will hopefully be the party i’m anticipating it to be, and i really have no doubts, considering the band in question.

in completely unrelated news, well, didn’t my dad walk in for supper tonight with a new tattoo he got on impulse! it’s a little demonic and plays off his Irish heritage — a skeleton leprechaun with a bloody shillelagh raised above its head. i may post a photo of it if he allows me to when it’s healed up a little. it’s rather awesome, i must say, and i know he’s been wanting another tattoo for quite some time, so i’m glad he got this one — he seems rather stoked on it, too!

they actually never showed up to their own headlining spot at Elements tonight, actually, so everyone who remained at the show got five bucks back upon entry (since when is a headlining band worth one seventh of their ticket price?)

i would’ve loved to have seen Chiodos live, but seeing Protest the Hero was worth my $35 for sure. the closed with the very song i predicted they’d open with (Bloodmeat) and opened with Limb From Limb, which was played sans keyboard solo, but was great nonetheless. other highlights included Blindfolds Aside, Turn Soonest to the Sea and She Who Mars the Skin of Gods — which collectively made up for a lack of The Divine Suicide of K, but it’s not like i can choose their setlist! opening the show tonight was Lights, whose bubblegum indie pop i actually really enjoyed. she received a few “you’re hot!” and “how old are you?” catcalls between songs, the predictability of which i had to roll my eyes at (for the record, she’s 20 and yes, she’s a cutie. and dating a do-gooder scene celebrity.) up after Lights was From First to Last, who suck. badly. that’s really all there is to it. bad, bad band. move along. even Sonny’s solo work is better than that of his former bandmates in FFTL.

aside from my stellar evening, work was interesting today — it’s not every day that i get to ride in the back seat of a $120,000 Mercedes Benz for an in-car photoshoot. nice car, but honestly, it was hard to believe i was riding in something that costs as much as a small house. $120,000 doesn’t really feel like $120,000 when you’re sitting in it and realize it has the same makeup mirrors, reading lights, cigarette lighters and oh-shit handles as a $2000 car, you know?

i cringe at myself every time i bring up the weather as a topic of conversation, but the paranoid environmentalist inside me can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that there was snow on the ground on the first of April, and here i am with a sunburn (albeit a mild one) on the 22nd, which i acquired on my bike ride to and from the college yesterday, which i did to help someone out with an interview (i could’ve bused it, but i was bored and in a cycling mood. plus i’m pretty sure i can bike from home to the college in less time the two buses would take me.) other seasonal woes have become apparent with this warm weather in the form of a runny nose and generally feeling like ass in the brain region, which i’m hoping is allergies and not a cold.

anyways, my evening last night after my thigh- and knee-destroying bike trip was nice — i headed over to Cagney’s with the intention of seeing Prom Night on a triple date with a couple girls from her class plus associated male entourages, but one pair cancelled, so Cagney and i settled for shopping a little at Winners (new and cheap shirt and shorts for summer for the win) and going to see 21, which was a great movie. some parts dragged on a little but the overall plot was interesting enough, and the twist at the end was genuinely unexpected (or perhaps i’m a little cinematically naive. either way, this is worth seeing, whether you wait for DVD or go right to the box office.)

in other film news, i finally got off my ass (technically, i sat down on it) and watched Cloverfield. i was very wary of this film at first — i can scarcely remember any film in recent memory surrounded by so much mystery and promoted so much through viral marketing that i had feared the film would be a colossal letdown in contrast to its hype. thankfully, i was wrong. Cloverfield is great. it’s been a long time since Hollywood has seen a good monster movie (or a good monster in a movie), and Cloverfield delivers. as those of you who have so much as stepped outside since last summer know, Cloverfield — previously known only by its release date of 1-18-08 — was filmed entirely by handheld video camera, as the film follows a group of partygoers running for their lives through Manhattan. and they’re running from … something. it’s a monster alright (amongst the gamut of conspiracy theories that arose after the trailer for Cloverfield debuted last summer were suggestions that the creature destroying Manhattan was Godzilla or even Cthulhu, but it is in fact a brand new, original kaiju) but i can barely describe it beyond saying it has immensely long arms and a deepsea fish-like face. it even comes with its own brand of little (compared to the monster; large compared to humans) parasitic ticks that enjoy making snacks out of otherwise living people.

plot-wise, Cloverfield is incredibly simple: a gigantic monster inexplicably appears and demolishes Manhattan Island, and the story is shown moreso than told from the point of view of the people who have a video camera going around at a party prior to the attack (a camera which was apparently later retrieved by the military, so the entire movie is supposedly the audience viewing confidential footage of the attack.) that’s really it. the monster’s history, origins, motives and overall background remain completely unknown throughout the movie, which is precisely what kept me on the edge of my seat. the monster is also seldom shown in its entirety, save for a couple breathtaking scenes near the end of the movie. such mystery and general sense of the unknown are what make Cloverfield great, and it makes sense, too; if you were a partygoing twentysomething with a camcorder running from a colossal seabeast, you’d have about as much clue as to what’s going on as the viewers of this movie do, which is an element that serves to effectively insert the audience into the main characters’ eyes. into the “hot seat,” if you will.

that’s about as much as i’m going to go on about Cloverfield. JJ Abrams allegedly already has an as-of-yet untitled followup in the works for 2009, which serves to keep the mystery that surrounded Cloverfield intact, as well as giving conspiracy theorists and zealous bloggers glued to their computer screens (speaking of which, there exist several websites that serve to debunk — or try to debunk — unknowns that still plague the conspiracy-savvy Cloverfield audience. have at ‘em!)

we played in Cambridge at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts last night, and not to sound like a pessimist, but the show went terribly, and i knew it would from before the get-go. first of all, the show was terribly promoted, if at all — each band was given 40 tickets to sell, but other than that and some Myspace/Facebook messages, i’m not entirely sure any advertising was done at all. furthermore, two of the bands slated to play inexplicably failed to show up, so we (who were up first) essentially played to two other bands, the people putting on the show and managing the venue and maybe a couple showgoers. and we even had to cut our last song out of our set; Tim was experiencing some vocal problems, and the band overall was seriously out of practice. consider the fact that the final round of the ARC battle was taking place at The Gig in Kitchener that same night (congrats to the winners, PDH!), and you’re pretty much left with crickets and tumbleweeds at any other show in the area. i’m not taking this loss too seriously, however — we simply need to tighten up our operations. we did manage to sell a CD to one of the guys operating the venue, so that was a plus.

post-set, we consumed most of the rest of the pizza we’d ordered before the show and checked out a local downtown Cambridge pub, the Golden Kiwi. i generally have a stigma in mind regarding spending time in downtown Cambridge vonuntarily, but that stigma really only applies to the Preston borough of the city, which we weren’t in. the area surrounding city hall (i’m not sure whether it’s Galt or Hespeler) is actually really nice, as was the pub whose patio we chilled out on for a while.

today’s plans were sketchy from the start at best, and my idea to get together with Matt to do some songwriting (Tim had an exam this afternoon and has one on Monday too, removing him from any possible band practice this weekend) fell through. i might try to do that tomorrow but if not, i’ll have to find some other way to be productive. i did manage to get out on my bike today in this 24-degree weather in April (did we not have snow on the ground on the first of this month?) by heading down to Sherwood to pick up some strings. when i had my new bridge installed a few weeks ago, the guitar tech on the job trimmed my strings before putting them on my bass, which is all well and good, but i’ve noticed that they’re looser now than what i’m used to, which was very apparent to me last night as my low string constantly slipped off the nut when i strummed hard in drop-D.

man, i really ramble long and hard about mundane things when i’m bored, though tonight’s Phil’s night should be alright, assuming at least a few people i know show up. if i end up with nothing at all to do tomorrow, i might just sit around and try to compose something original on bass or take a lengthy bike ride to somewhere with my camera. if nothing else, i have a slew of concerts to look forward to in the coming week or two — Protest the Hero and Chiodos next Wednesday, Cancer Bats and Black Lungs next Friday, Farewell to Freeway, Shotgun Rules and Lifestory:Monologue if i can make it to the Vinyl in Guelph next Saturday and quite possibly The Fall of Troy in Toronto on May 1. time shall tell, i suppose!

until then, give last night’s ARC winners a listen. though i had to miss the battle’s finals for our Cambridge show, i’m glad to hear a good, solid punk rock band won at a predominantly metal show.

side note before i begin with today’s events: i thought i’d bring this up when the actual tickets came in the mail, but it just came to mind so here it is — last Friday, after sitting on ticketmaster’s website until 10:00:01 in the morning clicking refresh, i managed to score four tickets to Radiohead at the Molson Amphitheatre for August 15th. now, here’s the mindjob: even though i bought for tickets immediately at the soonest possible time during the presale, my tickets are on the lawn. how is it that the 1000 people who got the floor tickets had a faster internet connection than me? either way, the lawn at the Amphitheatre is supposedly one big party, and with Radiohead as the guests of honour, i don’t see how this can be a bad thing. now, onto slightly more current events …

work today was a whole lot of unexpected turns of events — i showed up at the studio prepared to dismantle the shelving in Joe’s storage room, but ended up spending almost the whole day hauling cargo from a woodworker’s shop on the first floor up to the studio. apparently Joe got into bartering with this woodworker, Glen, and Jeff and myself ended up taking some heavy wooden boards, a giant Krug desk hutch and some shelving units in exchange for some of Joe’s wooden laminate floor. it was a bit of an unexpected twist in my work day, but it was apparently an opportunity to score some vital construction materials worth not missing. getting up to Glen’s storeroom where the shelving units we took were was an interesting experience; i’ve never had to go up a set of portable stairs and onto scaffolding before using a steel pipe to hoist myself up to a door in the wall. the storeroom itself looked like something out of a cheesy horror movie, right down to the fact that it’s buried in the wall of a 130-year-old factory building. it was cluttered with junk from someone to whom Glen alloted some storage room, and when i say junk, i mean junk — among the miscellany Jeff and i had to shuffle around to get the shelving units out the door were bread ovens, a popcorn maker, a toaster oven, a cassette tape deck from a car, an 8-track tape deck from a car, an electric cooler that looked and smelled like mold and some old damp books that also looked and smelled like mold. suffice to say i found a few untainted treasures up there to claim as my own.

after work, i barely had time to get in the house, eat and shower before leaving for my photoshoot and mini-interview with This City Divided. the photos turned out well enough nd i think i got one or two worthy enough of the 8×10 they need for promotional purposes soon.

after coming home from that, i made a quick trip to Tim’s place to — drumroll, please — finally assemble our EPs. that’s right, kiddies; for the low, low price of $5, you can have a copy of our first EP, Beginnings. the whole package, including inserts and discs, was a DIY effort, and i have to say i’m damn proud of how they look, considering (to say nothing of how stoked i am to have our recorded audio available on CDs.) after leaving Tim’s, i headed to Cagney’s to present her with a copy. comment on this blog or email me if you’re interested in one!

it’s only two days into my bicycle-riding season this year and i’m already feeling the burn from the saddle. i managed to pick up a new (well, old and used, but new to me) bike yesterday from Jeff, a graphic designer who shares our studio space, and get it home in one piece, only to find that night that the front tube had blown, quite possibly from me overinflating it (though i’m positive i didn’t.) one $4.99 tube from Crappy Tire and a few minutes in Frank’s garage with a wrench and an air compressor later and she was good to go. it’s an old, slightly rusty mountain bike with a horribly uncomfortable seat that doesn’t stay on, but after swapping it with the cushier saddle from my old cruiser, she’s as good as new — at least as good as new as free will get me, and hey; she rolls, and the price was right!

after getting my summer wheels home and doing the saddle swap yesterday, i was called by Cagney from Voila with an invite to attend her grad ceremony, so i dusted off some dress pants and did that. it was kind of cool; the four girls of this particular graduating class (Cagney included) each had three models with done-up hairdos to show off, and i got to see Candice play her dream role of human window ornament — a role she executed magnificently, in all her fauxhawked glory.

post-grad ceremony, there was a wee buffet table, pizza and cake to be had. prefix these three items with the word “free,” and you’ll get a general idea of how pleased i was with my situation, not to mention some really kick-ass punch (strawberry kiwi with ginger ale and ice cream. write that one down, kiddies.)

anyways, i ramble on too long about food, so i’ll get to the details of what happened after that, and that was … well, food. dinner at Jack Astor’s, which proved a lovely (and food-inclusive) occasion to meet Cagney’s parents (mom for the first time and dad for the second) and youngest sister Gwyneth. suffice to say they’re all wonderful people and i can’t wait to get to know them and the rest of Cagney’s siblings.

today was a bit of a different day. since i didn’t get a chance to fix my blown bike tire tube until tonight, i had to bus it to work but i can bike tomorrow, which is good because i’ve really been jonesing to do so, not to mention the fact that it lets me sleep an extra 20 minutes or so (which is especially helpful, seeing as this is my second night in a row awake at three in the morning while having to work at nine.) lots of specifics regarding product shooting at the studio today, as will be tomorrow’s case as well, then Thursday and Friday will be put-on-work-clothes-and-tear-stuff-apart days which’ll be a nice, full workout (which is a plus, seeing as i have to miss climbing this week to do some light shooting for This City Divided.) anyways, i’m having a hard time staying lucid, so i figure it’s probably best for me to turn around and collapse into bed as opposed to on my keyboard.

before falling asleep, however, might i recommend that you all head to Lifestory:Monologue’s Myspace to check out their new track, The Coward. this band has more talent and character in their beards than most bands have in their whole bodies. get into it!

last night, myself, Cagney and Cagney’s friend Caileigh (whom i’ve been calling “new friend” all weekend) met up with Candice in Guelph last night for drinks and dancing at Club Vinyl — the same place i partied with Chris Taylor for his birthday last month (that evening and last night being the last two instances of me consuming alcohol, in the form of a polar bear and a shot of Jägermeister, respectively. i suppose i can accurately call myself a non-drinker who doesn’t not drink.)

last night was my first bar night with Cagney, so she finally got to see my super-white dance moves. i’m not sure she was too big a fan, but i can always learn to dance better (which would actually benefit me greatly, as, skill or not, i don’t plan on stopping dancing at bars anytime soon!)

the four of us went out to breakfast at Angel’s Diner in Guelph this morning (well, afternoon — though we woke up before noon, which is sooner than i had thought we would) and were served by a kind yet strangely witch-like lady who misheard Cagney’s order of a “sandwich on a bagel” as “salmon on a bagel.” this story really isn’t going anywhere, but it was a prety funny misunderstanding at the moment.

after finding the sweetest shirt in the world at goodwill, i dropped Cagney and Caileigh off at Cagney’s place and came home, and for some reason, i’ve been having a bit of a creative, inspired streak with my bass, so i’m going to go ahead and see if i can’t write something fresh to show the guys if we get together sometime this week.

in other news, there’s a good chance that i’ll be receiving a new used bike tomorrow for free from a graphic designer who shares our studio space at work — fingers crossed that he remembers to bring it in!

with that, i’ll leave you with a portrait of this weekend’s party people, pre-bar. cheers!

with Google Maps and text messages at my disposal, i successfully navigated Chris Taylor from downtown Miami back to the hotel that he and Paul are staying at for the night until they can grab their flight to Guatemala tomorrow, all without leaving my room all the way up north in Kitchener. amazing how close people can stay to one another regardless of where on the planet they are — Chris is currently in Miami, Florida, but i can type to him and it doesn’t feel any different than when i do so when he’s in Guelph. the whole world is in our back pockets (back pockets often referred to as Facebook, actually.)

other than that, my day was thrilling — i vacuumed out my computer (you know, because i’m a dweeb and i like my baby to be taken care of.) tomorrow night should see an increase over today’s levels of booze, sweat and dancing, or lack thereof — Club Vinyl with Candice, Cagney and Cagney’s friend Caileigh. if it’s half as packed as it was on Chris’s birthday, i have a hell of an evening to look forward to, indeed, not to mention my first dancing excursion with the wee ladyfriend!