Mix Annotations - Choke City
Hi Friends!
2025 is wild, of course, but so far my wildest personal development is becoming a History Guy. Specifically, right now I’m being a Trudeau-Era-Québec/Canada-History-Guy.
After following the Bloc Québecois during the election (for work), I feel like CIP announced their Blu-ray release of Action: The October Crisis of 1970 just for me. It’s a 1973 documentary about the lead up and events of the October Crisis. People in Canada can watch it for free on the NFB website.
From there I read The Making of The October Crisis, a book by D’Arcy Jenish that goes deeper and provides a greater historical context and play-by-play than what realistically could be covered by Action, given when the movie was made (1973 vs 2018). (Many of the events in the 60s are covered in Chris Oliveros’ Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?, and it’s funny how I read and really enjoyed that book when it came out a couple years ago, but somehow that and Chris’ super informative book launch presentation didn’t set off the spark in me to dive deeper into the history.)
Since then I watched 24 Hours or More, a documentary snapshot of the labour conditions and movement in Québec in 1971. And that’s on top of watching the 3-part Champions documentary series (1, 2, 3) about the intertwined political careers of Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque (to which Lis said “Are you still watching that? How long is it?”). I know I got the history bug bad because I’m already planning to watch Le confort et l’indiférence and Referendum - Take 2/Prise deux, and mapping out used bookstores for when I’m in Montréal next week. Never have I wanted so badly to see so many Canadian History sections.
Every summer I do go through some kind of mania. In the past it’s been Maurice Sendak or Sue Grafton, but I guess I feel like those align with who I understand myself to be. History Guy is a new experience. I’m loving it, but it is a strange trip.
I’m also really into the old black and white Judge Dredd reprints.
Anyways, here’s the link to the latest mix:
ANNOTATIONS
The Warlord - The Ultimate Warlord I think this was shared on IG.
LIARS - Tumbling Wall Buried Me in the Debris with ESG You know, every once in a while it’s good to go back to the club classics. This track does get a shout out in the 33 1/3 book on Dance-Punk that I’m looking forward to getting to some day.
Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine Close personal friends.
Broken Social Scene - KC Accidental Genuinely friends of a friend of mine. The next song really reminded me of BSS interludes and breakdowns.
caroline ft. Caroline Polachek - Tell me I never knew that I think probably just people’s hype for the new album. I know Gareth Campesinos! is excited about it. Was not keyed into their first album, but I am now!
Yoichiro Yohikawa - The Miracle Planet on Strings I got around to this after trying to find a song in Robinson’s Garden that doesn’t seem to appear on the soundtrack. After striking out a bunch (including being let down again by Shazam) I stumbled on this album.
Akron/Family - Oceanside Close personal friends.
Asa-Chang & Junray - Hana This was played in an episode of Mogwai’s NTS residency back in 2017. But I listened to it just recently. I have not been holding onto this track for 8 years.
Emahoy Tsege Mariam - Homesickness This is also a very NTS-y song to me. It reminds me of working at The Beguiling.
Judee Sill - Jesus Was a Cross Maker This was part of Dorothea Paas’ playlist accompanying the release of her lastest album.
John Travolta - Let Her In This got mentioned on an episode of With Gourely and Rust, not that I can remember which one…
Men I Trust - All My Candles I finally gave ‘em a go after their Polaris nomination.
Cici Arthur - All So Incredible Close personal friends. Also enjoyed their Kreative Kontrol interview.
The Beach Boys - Cuddle Up This was on the Le Jardin Beach Boys tribute episode honouring Brian Wilson’s passing.
While space allows, I’m stashing my recent mixes and annotations in a Google Drive folder, which you can visit here: The Archive
DRAISER 2025
As always, here's the link to this year's fundraiser. The goal is a modest $2025, but I will increase it if we go over. It would mean a lot to me if you considered donating: tinyurl.com/Draiser2025.
Even if you’ve already donated, please consider sharing it with your friends and family.