Monday, March 12th, 2007

Canadian Music Week(End)

The last couple years, Canadian Music Week has been sort of like a speed bump on my way to SxSW – under other circumstances, I’d have spent more time taking in the music on offer but given the tight timelines, I usually had to either take it in in passing or not at all. This year, however, I ended up going three nights straight, starting with the Under Byen show on Thursday. Friday night I spent what was, for me at least, a record six and a half hours at the Horseshoe taking in the Chart showcase. Quite a grab bag of acts on the bill, half of which looked an awful lot like this showcase from NxNE last year. Hmm.

The first act I caught was Peter Elkas, whom I apparently saw some 12 years ago with his old act The Local Rabbits. These days he’s sporting the shaggy hair and beard that’s a uniform of sorts for Canadian roots rockers but looks can be deceiving. His bag is smooth, soul music now, and he’s pretty dang good at it. He and his band (affectionately named “Elkoholics”) found their groove early and worked it for the duration, previewing tracks from their new album Wall Of Fire, out March 20. Chart previewed the show via a Q&A with Elkas.

MP3: Peter Elkas – “Wall Of Fire”
MySpace: Peter Elkas

BC’s You Say Party! We Say Die! trade in the sort of hepped up dance-punk that whether you particularly enjoy the style or not, is always a blast to watch live… assuming the band is good at it. And YSP!WSD! are good at it. Frontwoman Becky Ninkovic was a grinning whirlwind of energy, pogoing around the stage while her band impressively managed to keep up. Sound-wise, it could have been a dozen songs or just one song played for forty minutes – it was loud, fast and all kind of blended together for me – but was a good time either way. Their new record Lose All Time is out March 20 and they’re back in town April 4 as part of the Spring Fling tour put on by Exclaim!, who also put the band on the cover of their west coast editions this month. Chart had a pre-game chat with the band.

MP3: You Say Party! We Say Die! – “Monster”
MP3: You Say Party! We Say Die! – “Opportunity”
MySpace: You Say Party! We Say Die!

Like dance-punk, hip-hop isn’t something I listen to but do enjoy seeing in person, again providing it’s done well. And Edmonton’s Cadence Weapon, probably the biggest draw on the bill this night, also delivered. With DJ Weasel manning the turntables, Cadence Weapon came out amped up and sustained the energy level through his whole intense and unpretentious set and brought the crowd’s up to match (though grabbing the people in the front row and physically shaking them helps there). There was a definite electricity in the room from his performance that lingered after much of the audience up-front cleared out with its conclusion. His Breaking Kayfabe album, nominated for a Polaris last year in Canada, is out March 13 in the US, just in time for his arrival at SxSW this week. Chart also talked to him before the festival.

MP3: Cadence Weapon – “Sharks”
MP3: Cadence Weapon – “Black Hand”
MySpace: Cadence Weapon

Personal faves Land Of Talk from Montreal drew the midnight slot and sadly got off to a bit of a rough start, thanks in no small part to an extremely drunk and pushy patron who decided then and there would be the best time to try and pick up frontwoman Liz Powell. Loudly and persistently. They (and we up front) did our best to ignore him – not an easy task – and the band eventually did find their footing about midway through the set and finished strongly. Overall not their best performance (their set opening for The Dears back in October was fierce and set the standard from my POV) but still enjoyable and it was great to hear new material that will appear on their next record, hopefully out by the Fall. Their current EP/mini-album, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss will be out on March 20 in the US. Canadians have no excuse to not already own it.

MP3: Land Of Talk – “Speak To Me Bones”
MySpace: Land Of Talk

Unintentionally, I missed the whole of Kill The Lights’ set on account of, well, talking to other people. But I can say that they were very loud. Their debut album Buffalo Of Love is out tomorrow and they’ll be on MTV Canada to celebrate.

MySpace: Kill The Lights

By this point, it was way past my bedtime and while I was doing alright, wakefulness-wise, all things considered, I needed a pick-me-up to make it through the night and The Adam Brown (definite article mandatory) provided just the rock injection necessary. They may come from Montreal but they live in a world where the language spoken is Marshall Stack and “yeah yeah yeah” is as profound a lyric as anything Dylan could have written. No frills, no fuss, no muss, just arrow-straight old school rock’n'roll and loads of fun. They didn’t care that there was but a fraction of the audience left over from earlier in the night – it just meant there was more room for dancing. My second wind lasted about exactly as long as their set… and then I went home and collapsed. Chart chatted with the band before the show.

Video: The Adam Brown – “Big Roker” (YouTube)
MySpace: The Adam Brown

ACT TWO. Or three. Anyways, I was undecided on what, if anything, I was going to do for Saturday night. Sleep was an option, as was playing Guitar Hero 2 at Graig’s (probably as close as I’m going to get to fulfilling my dream of covering “Tonight I’m Going To Rock You Tonight”). I thought about trying to catch The Pipettes but decided (correctly) that that would be folly. And so it happened that I ended up at the Whipper Snapper Gallery for Paper Bag’s showcase.

I arrived a bit late for The Hot Springs’ set, but still in time to be impressed. I arrived a bit late for The Hot Springs’ set, but still in time to be impressed. Fronted by the intense, entertaining and probably a little unhinged Giselle Webber and her distinctive warble, the Montrealers take equal parts of ’70s punk and classic rock (and metal) and mash them together into something unnatural, unholy and bilingual. I had intended to catch them last October at Pop Montreal but was sidetracked. But hey – better late than never.

MP3: The Hot Springs – “Bacteria”
MP3: The Hot Springs – “Caco Disco”
MySpace: The Hot Springs

And what better way to wrap up Canadian Music Week (for me) than with a band I’ve called “quintessentially Canadian”, Ottawa’s The Acorn. They seemed to be feeding off the cozy, informal environment of the Gallery and were extra loose and jovial, shrugging off technical difficulties and malfunctioning amps to still turn in a sweet and upbeat set of shimmering pop. My love for any band that not only utilizes the ukulele – but swaps it between band members – continues unabated. If you’ve not discovered the joys of the Acorn yet, keep April 12 open as they play the Drake Underground that night.

MP3: The Acorn – “Blankets”
MP3: The Acorn – “Plates & Saucers”
MySpace: The Acorn

And that was my weekend. Like the recipe promised, a healthy dollop of Canadian talent from across the country covering a range of sounds and styles. The Toronto Star has their best picks from the fest and Chart is still compiling all their showcase report cards. And, as usual, here’s the photographic evidence that I’m not just making this all up.

Photos: The Adam Brown, Land Of Talk, Cadence Weapon, You Say Party! We Say Die! Peter Elkas @ The Horseshoe – March 9, 2007
Photos: The Acorn, The Hot Springs @ The Whipper Snapper Gallery – March 10, 2007

Dean & Britta tonight! I’ll be putting the review together en route to Austin so with luck I’ll have it up by late afternoon/early evening. Before SxSW devours everything, anyway.

Update: Almost two days before someone told me I forgot to put up the link to the Of Montreal cover of The Who. Geez people, you have to help me to help you. Anyway, it’s there now.

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

Below The City

So tonight begins what will almost certainly be an insane eleven days punctuated by Canadian Music Week here at home over the next three nights and then SxSW in Austin for most of next week. I’m bracing myself as best I can but it’s akin to holding tightly onto a tree in the face of an incoming hurricane – any way you slice it, you’re gonna get buffeted.

For me – and for many – things kick off tonight with Under Byen, Frida Hyvonen and Ohbijou at the Mod Club – a rock solid bill that doesn’t actually rock at all in the conventional sense. Under Byen’s concert page also states that they and Frida Hyvonen will be on MTV Live tonight. I believe you can be part of the studio audience if you show up at the studio at Yonge and Davenport at 5PM – don’t take my word for it, call them for details. And the Mod Club show is an early one so if you’re going, be there by 7:30 when Ohbijou is scheduled to go on. eye features Under Byen on this week’s cover, The Toronto Star has a profile and Stereogum, who is presenting the tour, has a couple of new remixes from the Danish band’s latest album Samme Stof Som Stof, and they will be playing multiple times at SxSW though their official showcase is at 9:00 on Thursday, March 15 in Emo’s. And congrats to Dmitri, Vincent and Jonathan who won the Frida Hyvonen CDs.

Then tomorrow I’ll be spending far longer than any one person should at the Horseshoe for the Chart-sponsored showcase featuring a wealth of Canadian talent. Land Of Talk will be the highlight for me, but the bill also includes (in no particular order) Vancouver dance-punkers You Say Party! We Say Die!, former Local Rabbit Peter Elkas, Edmonton hip-hop artist and newest addition to the Anti-/Epitaph roster Cadence Weapon, Montreal rock machine The Adam Brown, Haligonian roots rockers The Divorcees Vancouver I’ve-no-idea-what-to-call-them Mother Mother and Toronto/Montreal’s Kill The Lights. Yeah that’s a hell of a lot of acts for one night but the ‘Shoe is open till 4AM this weekend. Don’t expect me to last the whole thing.

Saturday night is up in the air – right now I’ve got The Acorn and friends at the Whippersnapper Gallery on the calendar, though I’m not sure if that’s an actual CMW show, but I’m also tempted by The Coast and Santa Dog at Clinton’s or even make a half-assed attempted to see The Pipettes at the Rivoli, though that’s almost certainly not going to happen. And less likely but still worthy of note are post-rockers The Red Sparowes at the El Mocambo, Leeroy Stagger at the Hideout or The Golden Dogs, Yoko Casionos and Jenn Grant at the Horseshoe. Or I could stay home and sleep.

NOW, The Toronto Sun, and The Toronto Star offer up some of their picks for the festival while eye, being sponsor of the event, has a full sched with bios and a slew of other features, profiles and interviews. Torontoist is making their picks day-by-day and The Toronto Star also considers the state of the festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

While a saner course of action for Monday night would be getting organized to catch a plane to Austin the next morning, I will instead be seeing Dean & Britta at the Mod Club that night. Packing can wait till later (but hopefully not too late). Dean Wareham talks to NOW about going back on the road after two years away and progress on his memoir (also check out the audio clips at the bottom of the page) and to Chart about same. Phillips, meanwhile, talks to Harp about her second life as a cartoon.

As for SxSW? Oh man. Still haven’t wrangled a wristband but I’ve got a plan (or a few plans) for rectifying that once I get to Texas. I’ll be posting my schedule in the next couple days for those who are curious, but in the meantime check out Drowned In Sound’s picks – three of four are up, the last one will be posted tomorrow. They’ve also got this piece asking various UK music execs what their SxSW plans are. Besides BBQ. But you know what I’m looking forward to the most? This.

A couple of bits that, in an ideal world, would have gone in yesterday’s post – Tripwire has a rather expansive interview with Jarvis Cocker, who also tells NME there is no Pulp reunion in the works. Ted Leo tells Harp 10 things you didn’t know about him. Number eleven might be the fact that he has a new ecard with a Living With The Living preview.

And I finally got my copy of the Arcade Fire album yesterday. One listen in? It’s alright. The Malaysia Star has a rather large profile of the band from The Chicago Tribune‘s Greg Kot.

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Wire Waltz

I had been quite excited about seeing Brooklyn’s The Last Town Chorus at the Horseshoe this past Tuesday night – since the show was announced last month, I’d been getting cozy with their self-titled debut. It’s a spare, stark record focusing on Megan Hickey’s rich, mournful twang and her equally keening lap steel guitar. The follow-up Wire Waltz, out domestically on March 6, sounds like it’ll be a more fully-arranged and band-based affair and it was that configuration that came across the border for the band’s Toronto debut.

Hickey, accompanied by a guitarist and keyboardist, played seated (they all did) but what they band lacked in onstage mobility, they made up for with emotion and intensity. Considerably louder and more powerful than you’d expect based on the recordings, Hickey was riveting to watch, whether singing her heartrendingly sad songs or coaxing her guitar to weep alongside her. The band recently had a breakthrough of sorts with a cover of David Bowie’s “Modern Love” appearing on Grey’s Anatomy but while that’s a bit of a dubious thing to build a career on, the fact is that the cover really is remarkable and I’ve always thought the song itself was highly underrated (it’s been one of my favourite Bowie songs for nigh on 25 years now – seriously). If a cover on a TV show is what it takes to get people to hear Last Town Chorus, then so be it – I can’t imagine anyone hearing this wouldn’t be drawn in and made a fan. Hickey mentioned that she expects to return to Toronto sometime in March after the album is released. And when she does, you should be there.

While there was a decent-sized crowd in attendance for The Last Town Chorus, it’s likely most of them were there to see the band on after, Montreal’s Young Galaxy. It’s funny – though the band says they don’t want to be considered a spin-off of Stars (singer/guitarist Stephen Ramsay was guitarist in Stars for the past few years before recently departing), they’ve not done much to discourage comparisons, from signing to the same label, selecting a similarly astrologically-inspired name or even just doing the boy/girl vocal pop thing.

The difference, however, would be that on that last point Ramsay and Catherine McCandless don’t offer nearly the chemistry or charisma of Torq Campbell and Amy Millan. At one point in the show, Ramsay mentioned something to the effect of everyone being really high – whether in jest or not, that would actually explain a lot, not least of which was Ramsay’s glassy, thousand yard stare. They seemed laid back to the point of being disinterested and it didn’t make for a very compelling show – their songs, while nicely textured and arranged, don’t boast the kind of hooks that demand your attention so if the band isn’t compensating for that with some sort of effort, it’s just going to drift on by, which is pretty much what happened. Things did pick up towards the end of the set, both in terms of song quality and performance, but by that point I was pretty anxious to just go home. They’ll release their debut album this Spring so I expect they’ll get more opportunities to impress in the near future. Hope they do.

Metromix talks to Last Town Chorus’ Megan Hickey.

Photos: Young Galaxy, The Last Town Chorus @ The Horseshoe – January 23, 2007
MP3: The Last Town Chorus – “Modern Love” (live)
MP3: The Last Town Chorus – “Change Your Mind”
MP3: The Last Town Chorus – “Oregon”
Video: The Last Town Chorus – “Modern Love” (YouTube)
MySpace: The Last Town Chorus
MySpace: Young Galaxy

NY Press talks to M Ward, who is in town for a sold out show at the Mod Club tomorrow night.

Drowned In Sound has details on the debut full-length from Fields – Everything Last Winter will be out April 2 in the UK and will hopefully be out sometime around then in North America via, I believe, Vice. And speaking of stateside releases, you won’t have to pay import prices for the new Idlewild – while Make Another World is out February 26 in the UK, it will be out in North America on Sanctuary sometime in May.

While most of the CMW schedule was posted a little while ago, a couple of the more high-profile showcases had been left blank – namely those at the Horseshoe and Lee’s Palace. Well the lineups for those have been announced and as you might expect during Canadian Music Week, they’re loaded down with, well, Canadian music. The Friday night will be the loaded one, with the ‘Shoe hosting Land Of Talk, Cadence Weapon, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Mother Mother, Peter Elkas, Kill The Lights and The Adam Brown. Of course with seven bands, you’re looking at, what, 15 minute sets? But you can’t complain about lack of variety.

Over at Lee’s Palace, you’ve got a slightly more manageable lineup – The Besnard Lakes, We Are Wolves, Pop Levi, Rock Plaza Central and Baby Eagle and Woolly Leaves with a special guest (maybe the rest of The Constantines?). Admission to either show will be either a CMW wristband though assuming those go with the usual “limited wristbands” policy, buying a $10 advance ticket might be your best bet.

But CMW isn’t the only game in town – Pitter Patter has released the schedule for their festival, running concurrently with CMW and in clubs all along the Golden Horseshoe, from Hamilton to Oshawa. They’ve got an absurd number of bands signed up and if between the two events you can’t find something worthwhile to see in Toronto between March 7 and 11, well damn. Nuts to you.