Have No Fear, Losers (Where we go from here)

First of all, thank you to all those who voted for this blog in the Montreal Mirror's annual "Best of Montreal" poll. If you're visiting after having seen it listed therein, let me be the first to tell you that there's nothing to fear, that the mass is in fact obsessed and not afraid of nipple dream. You'd think the Mirror would get the Beautiful Losers reference right, considering Leonard Cohen is their Montrealer 2nd in line for sainthood (funny timing, with at least two friends telling me they've spotted him back in town...), but I'm not fretting much. Somehow I think I'd be getting more traffic from a link in Regret the Error than from the Mirror's printed local poll. Still, thanks to the Mirror and to those who voted. I'm totally going after Zeke's third place finish next year.

I'm actually going to be making an effort to give more time to this publication, and do weekly non-Montreal-centric, non-music entries, beyond the Wednesday pickings and bi-monthly podcasts that have been dominating the posts lately. All the music content will be continuing as well, of course, including some divulgences about Secret City Records, with which I'm involved, and the new Patrick Watson album. Look out for stuff in early June. Watson and his band will be one of the many awesome local artists appearing at the annual outdoor Pop Montreal-meets-the-Fringe Festival-in-a-beer-tent-on-St. Laurent event (June 12th-18th). They'll also be part of the NeXT/Pop Montreal showcase at NXNE in Toronto at the Comfort Zone on June 9th with the Besnard Lakes and the Hot Springs.

In the meantime, I've officially put the Friday nights at the Green Room to rest. Lots of thanks to all the people and DJs, bands and staff there for the fun times. I spent what seems in retrospect like a long time playing every weekend at both Korova and the Green Room, and it was time to focus on some other things. Again, fear not; I'm not laying off the DJing entirely. I will be starting to do a show+party every couple months at rotating venues to get the record-playing-in-person out of my system. And that all starts tonight at Club Lambi (4465 St. Laurent at Mont-Royal) with Bob Wiseman and the Museum Pieces, as per Wednesday's PopPicks. It's only $5. I'll buy you a shot if you voted for this blog and can adequately convince me of the fact ...