( A) LIVE celebrating live music memories
During my formative years, I liv ed in Montreal. I worked at the Marvin Duchow Music Library on Sherbrooke Street as par t of a w ork-study program through the university I was attending. Some of my daily tasks included filing LP r ecords in alphabetical order, sewing musical scores together with thread and needle, opening rehearsal rooms for musicians, even disinfecting headphones. I spent hour s listening to people practicing classical and jazz and occasionally electroacoustic music— and I got paid to do it! It was a pretty good gig.
( A) LIVE celebrating live music memories
During my formative years, I liv ed in Montreal. I worked at the Marvin Duchow Music Library on Sherbrooke Street as par t of a w ork-study program through the university I was attending. Some of my daily tasks included filing LP r ecords in alphabetical order, sewing musical scores together with thread and needle, opening rehearsal rooms for musicians, even disinfecting headphones. I spent hour s listening to people practicing classical and jazz and occasionally electroacoustic music— and I got paid to do it! It was a pretty good gig.
At the time, live music shows were relatively inexpensive, between $ 8 and $ 20 for co ver charge. Suffice to say I was a music glutton during this per iod. I was a bit of a m usical chameleon, adapting to whatever musical landscape I encountered, not wanting to be loyal to any particular genre. Here are just a few of the bands / artists I saw: Bjork, Portishead, Stereolab, Shonen Knife, Sloan, Billy Bragg, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Ani Difranco, The Planet Smashers, Moxy Fruvous, Kid Koala, DJ Vadim, The Violent Femmes.
One of my most unforgettable live shows was DJ Shadow. The Californian DJ was signed to the UK record label, Mo’ Wax. Music purists might scoff at the idea that a DJ show can be considered a“ live” performance. But I would say it takes tremendous musicianship to pull off a show that consists only of sampling various genres, vocals, and instruments in shifting sonic textures and styles. A DJ is more than a human jukebox that mixes and scratches; great DJs are soundscape ar tists who have the ability to transcend musical boundaries into something ne w and worthwhile to listen to. DJ Shado w was considered a musical innovator. Nothing else w as being produced at the time that had the hallmark traits of his unique multifaceted music.
My boyfriend at the time, Rob, borrowed Entroducing, DJ Shadow’ s debut album, from his older brother, Brad( whom w e both secr etly idolized as the epitome of cool). Brad had every hip new LP imaginable, including Massive Attack, DJ Food, Funki Porcini, Amon Tobin, DJ Vadim, DJ Krush, Herbaliser, Coldcut, and, of course, DJ Shadow. We’ d listen to Entroducing for hours on end— never getting tired of it.
DJ Shadow was only about three or four y ears older than us, in his mid-20s, but he was being hailed as a sampling genius. It was rumoured that he had 50,000 LPs in his personal collection. His debut album was the first of its kind— an alb um that was made entir ely by using sampled sounds. The style of his music was labelled“ triphop”. Trip-hop combines jazz, funk, psychedelia, soul, experimental, and hip-hop, to cr eate a do wn-tempo, moody mishmash of genres that, when made well, results in a“ trippy” effect.
Brad got Rob and I tic kets to see DJ Shadow at a small, relatively obscure club. I r emember being
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