goodbye

His Masters Voice (Goodbye HMV)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I fell in love with the girl at the rock show. With the girl at the rock show.

I’ll never forget tonight. With the girl at the rock show. I’ll never forget tonight. With the girl at rock show.

I’ll never forget, tonight.

Remember that song? It came out way back in 2001. The year that I first began to buy my own music and slowly building up my record collection (read: cd collection). From DMX, to Jimmy Eat World, Weezer (the green album), No Doubt, Nickelback and yes, Blink 182, this was a stellar year for me.

I can’t believe that I’m about to lose it on account of a store closing.

End of an Era

Here’s the thing dear readers, that record store closing is not just one store, but a chain of over one hundred stores across the country. The parent company will still be there when it’s all said and done, but for a number of reasons, HMV Canada, of HMV UK lineage will be gone after April of 2017.

Seriously though, I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that something which has been a central part of my life for almost two decades is about to go the way of the dodo. Something which allowed me to carefully collect almost six hundred albums by way of aisle browsing, slowly researching, and interacting with employees that each had a love of music all their own.

Seeing the engine of the closeout move at full steam ahead, via representations like the banner below on their website have continued to push my heart to break, because while HMV (rarely known as His Masters Voice) had plenty of deals, it was their broad catalogue of music and film which drew in true collectors and lovers of the treasure hunt.

Closing Time

I would spend hours perusing the stacks of the HMV West Edmonton Mall location, and as I got older, I started to branch out and visit locations in Southgate, South Edmonton Common, Kingsway, and Bonnie Doon to find albums I wanted but couldn’t afford at the time of initial release.

Youth of today are likely not going to experience music in the same way that I did, nor did I versus generation x’ers and baby boomers before me, and while that does make me sad in a way, I hope it opens us all up to a more diverse mix of music overall. Acceptance and celebration of cultural differences was accomplished for me by testing out new music regularly.

It can be difficult to “stumble upon” a random artist unless you are diving through the bins, but what’s a teenager to do when that option no longer exists? I guess you just evolve and start using Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play like the rest of the mix?

theories Summarized

This isn’t the first time I’ve said goodbye to something I loved, nor will it be the last.

Yet, there is a glimmer of hope.

The music junkie culture of years past is likely gone, but that doesn’t mean music consumption is altogether deleted. How we consume music is changing, there are more methods now, and buying online will likely be a primary one. But people still want a physical item, and Sunshine Records might have the cure.

I think this might be start of something beautiful, a resurgence of the musical treasure hunt, and this time Sunshine Records promises to offer a mix of vinyl, cds, musical merchandise, and apparel. Hopefully they’re not too late to the game. And that’s my theory.

Tim!

 

See The Math Of It (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dissociation review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Saying goodbye is incredibly tough – Particularly if you don’t know if you’ll ever meet again. When all you have are memories from a painful departure, it numbs you to your core being.

You need to be thoughtful in your farewell messages, because once you do, there is no second chance. This week’s album review is an exercise is that experience. Someone leaves and the other stays behind.

The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
released October 14, 2016
******** 8/10

tdepcover1

 

The Dillinger Escape Plan are an American mathcore and heavy metal band which claimed their name from the bank robber John Dillinger. Founded in 1997 and born out of a hardcore punk group called Arcane, these guys have seen numerous roster changes over their 10 year tenure and 6 studio album showing.

Like the man, The Dillinger Escape Plan have successfully executed numerous projects which have given them creative control and an ability to dictate the course of their own trajectory despite numerous changes to the lineup, intentional and otherwise.

Dissociation marks the last time that TDEP will be performing together on tour. Initially thought to be an indefinite hiatus, lead singer Greg Puciato has since confirmed that the band will be breaking up once the tour ends in March 2017.

Let me start first by stating that I was disappointed to learn that TDEP would be breaking up after this record. As I immerse myself more fully in the music scene, especially in metal, I realize that there a number of fantastic groups that make metal music which I know absolutely nothing about. Dissociation feels like the right title knowing what we now know of the future. Whether the album is about the separation of it’s elements, literal or metaphorically, the foundations of the record are set up rather nicely with Limerent Death. A song that addresses the death of a romantic sentiment and the lingering frustrations therein. The follow up track Symptom of Terminal Illness is definitely more methodical and slow in it’s delivery.

Wanting Not So Much As To is one of my favourites on this album. I suspect it has something to do with the punk tones and howls featured throughout, plus it features melodic notes, spoken-word, and it all fits in together rather nicely in it’s instrumentation.

Fugue has great electronic influences, Low Feels Blvd is jazzy, while Surrogates and Honeysuckle feature prominent opening, middle, and closing sections.

Manufacturing Disconent is heavy. And in the past this would’ve been exactly the kind of song I stayed away from, but it’s considerably more interesting to consider it with the backup vocals and sampled audio. Taken as a whole, this song represents the creative ability of The Dillinger Escape Plan almost perfectly, and other critics have labelled it as a classic sound for them.

The final three tracks are all excellent in their own right – Apologies Not Included, Nothing to Forget, and title track Dissociation. It is the light at the end of tunnel. And as mentioned before whether literal or a metaphor, this song has a simple structure and even some hope of the future ahead. I blame the strings for that. They are beautifully included and introduce us to a very different side of The Dillinger Escape Plan. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye, but I suspect a great many replays of Dissociation in the years to come.

 

 

 

I’ve heard this idea that true friends don’t ever really say good-bye, they just take a sabbatical from each other, picking up the pieces easily upon reconnection. The Dillinger Escape Plan have had an excellent run, and while they may be leaving to pursue other opportunities, the memories they have made will last a lifetime, even better because we have a musical record. That could just be a theory though.

Tim!