Thursday, August 24th, 2006

Today Forever

So last night was the Shoegaze Cover Show I’ve been babbling on about all week. This wasn’t the first time I’d been to a show dedicated to paying tribute to the dreampop bands of yore – there was a Creation Records tribute night at the El Mocambo way back in the Spring of 2001 that was heavy on the shoegaze and even featured some full frontal nudity courtesy of White Cowbell Oklahoma.

Last night’s show was a more compact and penis-free affair, with the participating bands contributing a few covers and an original for good measure. Fjord Rowboat offered up the most faithful renditions on the night and I guess I’m a traditionalist because their set was my favourite. Their cover of Chapterhouse’s “Mesmerise” was a particular treat and right up their alley. After them The Assistants, whose pedigree is more C86 than shoegaze, tackled some Galaxie 500 and one-man looping drone factory Wyrd Visions… well I’m not entirely sure what he was doing. No Dynamics blew up an amp and while their set didn’t do much for me, their sound was intriguing enough that I’m going to check out their original material.

The final act, like that Creation night five years ago, went to a “supergroup” of sorts – this one called The Black Rabbit and featuring members of Uncut, The Two Koreas, Nassau and The Diableros. Boasting many guitars and dedicated to maximum volume, they played a ragged and too-short set including My Bloody Valentine’s “You Made Me Realise” and Spacemen 3′s “Take Me To The Other Side”. The venue’s curfew prevented them from really taking flight though, and they failed to take the title of “Toronto’s best shoegaze tribute supergroup who play deafening Isn’t Anything covers to close out the night” from the Voltron force comprised of Mean Red Spiders/Sloan/I-forget-who-else-but-if-you-remember-please-tell-me and their PA-destroying “Feed Me With Your Kiss”. Man, that was something. And the only point of heresy on the night – no Ride. W. T. F.

But this night was pretty good too – a little too short overall and maybe not enough of the straight covers to satisfy me but still a lot of fun and it was certainly heartening to see the interest in the genre (the turnout was quite good). If you’re curious, I’ve posted the tracklists of the three mix CDs I prepared for DJ duties last night after the jump – I didn’t get to play everything, unfortunately, but was generally pleased with how it sounded over the PA. Pretty good ebb and tide if I do say so myself. And I do. And bumping the CD player causing it to skip randomly? That’s the new scratching.

There are photos – certainly dark and blurry but there’s some decent ones. They’ll be up tomorrow-ish. In the meantime, here is some audio from the night’s performers’ day jobs.

Photos: Shoegaze Cover Night @ The Tranzac – August 23, 2006
MP3: Fjord Rowboat – “Paragon”
MP3: Wyrd Visions – “Bog Lord”
MP3: No Dynamis – “Josephine Baker”
MP3: The Assistants – “Taste It”
MySpace: Fjord Rowboat
MySpace: Wyrd Visions
MySpace: No Dynamics
MySpace: The Assistants

Club AC30 will release the second volume of shoegaze covers compilation Never Lose That Feeling, volume one of which I quite enjoyed, this October. To whet your appetite, they’ve updated their MySpace with more streaming tracks including tracks from Britta Phillips and Sing Sing.

Dirty On Purpose have got a new video from Hallelujah Sirens for “No Radio”. Jazzercise! And further evidence why indie rockers should never, ever, EVER wear shorts. Thanks to Clicky Click for the link.

Video: Dirty On Purpose – “No Radio”

Exclaim! talks to Asobi Seksu about their shoegazing ways. They’re at the Horseshoe September 20.

PopMatters profiles Mew.

np – The Coast / The Coast
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