Photograph by Nathan Cypry
Motel Raphaël, Trish Robb, Rhyme Jaws
The Moustache Club
Friday April 29th at 8 p.m.
As they say April rains bring May flowers, and this show may well be a blooming party and a full-on celebration of rock 'n roll popping out all over.
Ontario Writers Conference/ Festival of Authors
Deer Creek Golf Course and Banquet Facility in Ajax
Saturday Apr. 30 at 7 p.m.
Join Gorecore author Andrew F. Sullivan (WASTE), poet Ingrid Ruthig (This Being), graphic-memoirist Teva Harrison and Maggie Reedan evening of festivities and celebration, and CAKE!! Voting for the Story Starters Contest finalists will take place and of course there will be books to purchase
EVENT DETAILS ->
OSOG, Meghan Patrick
Manantler Brewery in Bowmanville
Sunday May 1 at 3 p.m. + 5 p.m.
Quite the global range of good music on tap along with their own craft brews at Manantler May 1. Touring Tel Aviv folk act OSOG are performing at 3 p.m. and afterwards at 5 p.m. there will be a set by Bowmanville-raised Meghan Patrick. There will be a meet 'n greet and listening party for the country star's debut album "Grace and Grit" which just hit the streets. It is available on Warner Canada
OSOG
HILLSIDE 2016!! thirty three years in and the Guelph Lake Island based festival, this year running July 22 to 24 continues to have its finger on the pulse of new music. The festival provides a stage for its own local homies as well as rolling out the green carpet for headliners. This year's announced line-up includes Buffy St. Marie and The Sadies as well as the Milk Carton Kids.
Readers of SlowCity.ca will be familiar with other cats announced, among them some of our faves, including Evening Hymns, Dizzy, Land of Talk, Northcote, PUP, Nap Eyes, Repartee, TUNS and Donovan Woods. The full list is available of course on their website and there are more acts to be announced.
With camping, Children's Area, Performer Workshops, local craft arts, brews and food vendors, and a green festival mandate that is years ahead of other festivals, whats not to love? Tickets go on sale April 30 via Ticketbreak. Encore Records in Kitchener and Soundscapes in Toronto and the Hillside Office in Guelph will be also be selling and starting The Bookshelf, also in Guelph will have some too.
I have had the very good fortune to attend Hillside for several years but this still remains my favourite time at the fest. It was electric.
Billard Blossom
Manantler Craft Brewery, Bowmanville
Friday, Apr. 22 2016, 8 p.m.
Psychedelic cowpunk, think Handsome Ned fronting the Flying Burrito Brothers. Add in some new brew hand made and you have a whole night of sweet Black Grass.
Happy Birthday Will
Blue Heron Books, Uxbridge
Saturday, Apr. 23 2016 1 p.m.
One of the finest bookstores celebrates one of the finest writers; its William Shakespeare’s Birth/Death with Canadian actor Kenneth Welsh reading from the Bard and there will be CAKE!!!!
Teenage Head, Python, Black Corporation
The Atria, Oshawa
Saturday, Apr. 23 2016 9 p.m.
Teenage Head make good on a date change. It will be as they say Some Kinda Fun!!!
HIGHS, Bravestation, Sad Boys Glee Club
Moustache Club, Oshawa
Friday, Apr 15 2016 9 p.m.
HIGHS are on tour in support of their debut full length album Dazzle Camouflage available on Indica Records. The album features eleven tracks of HIGHS now signature sound of bright-sided Afro-pop and shimmering indie-pop, all beats and harmonies that just take one higher and higher. While Paul Simon’s Graceland is the go-to reference for HIGHS, intriguingly on the track "Acting Strange" the band stretches into Fleetwood Mac vox territory conjuring up Tango In The Night era McVie/Nicks. Tango is the one with the jungle on the cover so maybe there’s something in there of an African twist too.
Holy Mount, Dan Brooks
Manatler Brewery, Bowmanville
Saturday Apr 16 2016 8 p.m.
Speaker Series: Charlotte Hale
Robert McLaughlin Gallery
Sunday Apr 17 2016, 2-4p.m.
Charlotte Hale is a photographer, Professor of Photography at The School of Media, Art & Design, Durham College and owner of Charlotte Hale & Associates – Fine Art, Photography & Design in Toronto. She acts as an artist representative and offers collection management services through her gallery in Mirvish Village. In May the gallery will host an exhibit of work by Baron Wolman. He worked for Rolling Stone magazine. The exhibit focuses on the groupies and the band members they sought out. Hale will speak after an introduction from RMG CEO Donna Raetson and Mayor John Henry of Oshawa
Tim Hecker
I can't think of a better way to celebrate ten years of Luminato than with a return to the brilliance of last year's Unsound Festival at the Hearn Generating Station in the city's east end June 10 - 11.
The incredible architecture of the station is such that the space itself became just as important to the proceedings as the sounds playing and the visions projected. This year 20 acts from 11 countries will perform over the two days.
Friday June 10 Sunn o))) will play their first show in over ten years, followed by The Bug with MC Miss Red and Flowdan. UK three -piece Raime make their Canadian debut also perform, this will be their Canadian debut.
Montreal-based artist Kara-Lis Coverdale collaborates with Berlin-based visual artist MFO (Marcel Weber). He has residency this year and feature with many artists over the course of the festival.
Orphx
Saturday, June 11 LA-based Italian and Nine Inch Nails collborator Alessandro Cortini opens followed by Tim Hecker. The Canadian sonic star will perform pieces from his new album on 4AD/ Paperbag, "Love Streams" along with a live lighting installation by MFO. The night will also usher in the North American premiere of "Hot Shotz", a mash-up of Lorenzo Senni’s trance with Powell’s beat-driving sampling.
As well as the Music Stage there will be the Side Room which will offer an even more eclectic collection of collaborators and sound artists, among them Lebanon's Rabih Beaini, Finland's Amnesia Scanner, Canadian duo Orphx and Jiin from Chicago.
Tickets for Unsound Toronto are $25 per night. Performances start at 9 p.m. For more information or to buy tickets visit the Luminato website. The Hearn Generating Station is located at 440 Unwin Avenue. There will be sound and strobe effects associated, be forewarned, and it is recommended 14+. Luminato runs June 10 to 26 and features a wide variety of performances from a multitude of disciplines including Rufus Wainwright, "Rufus Does Judy", The James Plays Trilogy, Rimini Protocoll's "Situation Rooms" and "Monumental" a dance performance with Godspeed You Black Emperor and The Holy Body Tattoo.
BORN IN THE U.S.A. - TOMMY YOUNGSTEEN PRESENTS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Regent Theatre, Oshawa
riday, Apr. 8, 20168:00 p.m.
We're never ones to promote tributes, we'd rather focus on makers of new music rather than rehashing oldies but Tommy Youngsteen, a tribute to Tom Petty, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen is just way too good a concept to miss. The ten piece horns and all outfit (featuring members of Sam Roberts Band, Stars, Sloan, The Stills, The Arkells, Broken Social Scene & The Trews) will be running through the hits of The Boss like they were born to it.
Three solo singer/songwriters from the Black Grass scene haven't played together in a while so this is a treat. All are fine singers and guitar players, Liscio in particular knows his way around an axe.
JULIE DOIRON, STEVE LAMBKE, WILL KIDMAN
Monarch Tavern, Toronto
Sunday, Apr 10 9 p.m.
Three solo singer/songwriters with quite the pedigree. As well as their time in Eric's Trip and the Constantines respectively they have had produced wonderful solo work. Lambke's recent Days of Heaven made the 2015 SlowCity Top 5 list.
Ryan Thomas's series on Clarington ON., continues with a very timely look at two Irish pubs, The Snug in Newcastle and the Village Inn in Bowmanville. In his latest video he interviews J. Walsh co-owner of The Snug and Kyle Faber, co-owner of the Village Inn.
L-R: Dante Berardi Jr. (guitar, synth), Nate Daniels (lead vocals, guitar), Caitlin Grieve (violin), Matt Sullivan (drums)
Serene-pop team CAIRO make a stop into the Moustache Club in Oshawa Mar 17, opening for The Balconies. Their debut album "A History of Reasons" came out in 2015 and their expansive clean pop sound, along the lines of Half Moon Run with whom they share a producer, Nygel Asselin, has been airing on radio. They describe their dreamy airy vibes as the cadence of everyday life, which in their case "looks like a kaleidoscope of love, hate, joy, anger, bliss, ups, downs and naps," says Dante Berardi Jr. in an email interview with SlowCity. (The other members sharing the kaleidoscopic life are Nate Daniels, Matt Sullivan and Caitlin Grieve).
"Life is messy, you get a bit of everything," Berardi continues. "The bands we love are the ones that reflect that range of emotions in their music. With our album we tried to reflect the whole spectrum of emotions we feel day to day (and throughout the creation process). That's just our brutal honesty showing, brutal honesty to a fault,"
He is honest enough to say the experience of taking such a wide open songs into the tight space of clubs can be frustrating for a band so fastidious with their music.
"We bring a pretty big sound/set up along with us because matching the record is always our goal," he says. "Everything is highly tuned and we are professionals with our gear, but sometimes people get a little miffed by us not just wanting to plug into a crappy house guitar amp from the 50s and 'see how it goes'. We take our sound seriously but not ourselves so we just roll with it. Luckily we have spent a lot of time getting good at being polite, and being quick to set up, sound check and tear down."
Bernardi Jr. says the name CAIRO wasn't as quick to set up. But it was the first one they could agree on. CAIRO reflects their own chaotic mix of personalities, much like the ancient capital. The chaos however coalesces around the music. The song lights the fire in CAIRO. Its the spark.
"The song comes first. Usually from a skeleton of a song or a single part we build up from," he says. "Lately we have been toying with other forms of writing but either way the song is always king. You can put as many cool instruments in a song as you want, but if it's a shitty song to begin with it doesn't matter. We start with making the song great, then add melodic accompaniment in whatever shape or form that takes."
Much of that shape and form comes from Caitlin Grieve's violin. She adds a classical but also a folk element creating layers of tension for the soaring choruses of lead vox Nate Daniels to spring from. Matt Sullivan holds down the beats and Berardi's synth and guitar slides between. Its an unusual set-up but together CAIRO as silky as 600 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, you just want dive right in with someone.
Douglas Coupland created Group Portrait 1957 for the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa.
Coupland has collaborated with Artsy for an on-site installation at The Armory Show at MOMA Mar. 3 to 6 2016. He will also participate in the fair’s Open Forum talks series, What’s Next?
Mariposa, The Grand Dame of Folk Festivals, has another fine line-up this year. The festival has a great knack of pairing up-and-coming new artists with more well known established artists. The organisers also challenge the idea of folk music by adding into roots artists from across the globe. Brother Sun, Catherine MacLellan, Colin Linden, Dave Gunning, David Amram, Dirty Dishes, Fortunate Ones, Jeffrey Foucault, Jon Brooks, Josh White Jr., Ken Whiteley and the Beulah Band, Murder Murder, Rita Coolidge, Sheesham and Lotus & ‘Son, Sussex featuring Rob Lutes, Ten Strings & a Goat Skin, The Milk Carton Kids and Vance Gilbert are among the acts already announced. Add in workshops, several stages, intimate showcases, vendors, crafters and a beautiful location on the shores of Lake Couchiching in Orillia and one can understand why its celebrating its 56th anniversary.
In 1987 David Olson and Derrick de Kerckhove hosted a conference, "Orality & Literacy", bringing together the teachings of Marshall McLuhan, Northrop Frye and Eric Havelock in a series of talks and lectures. Havelock attended and fortunately the conference was recorded and broadcast on CBC's Ideas program as "Literacy: The Medium and the Message" in 1988. That three part series has been made available as a podcast by David Cayley, host of Ideas, on his site.
Its a dream team - vintage roots rockers and the new upstarts. The Strumbellas are riding the wave of their single Spirits and a new album due in April. Blue Rodeo continue to be the band that inspires folk of all folkways and the band folk of all folkways aspire to. The two are playing a double at Massey Hall Feb 18 and 19 and the General Motors Centre in Oshawa Feb 20. The bands have connections to the East GTA so expect the GM Centre gig to be a sort of homecoming.
Chilly Gonzales & Kaiser Quartett - credit: Massey Hall/Malcolm Cook
Sure a JUNO nomination is nothing to be snuffed at but a Live At Massey Hall (the LAMH), I would venture, is a far better indicator of who is doing remarkable work among Canadian music makers. In and around the same time the 2016 JUNO nominations were announced, Chilly Gonzales played the Live At Massey Hall series with the Kaiser Quartet. He played Feb 5, with singer/songwriter Alejandra Ribera and her two-piece band opening the evening.
The Massey Hall showcase, now in its third season, features a wide selection of not-so-mainstream Canadian success stories, artists of an independent bent but with an international audience, artists who swim beyond the streams the JUNO drinks from.
JUNO offered up Drake, Mendes, Bieber, Weeknd, Nickelback and other Billboard topping stories from its pool but the LAMH went to Chilly, the ex-pat pianist who has collaborated with Daft Punk, Peaches and Feist, who is as adept in classical as in electronica, in pop as in disco and a beslippered vaudevillian ham at his core. He entertained period. He played as is his wont selections from Chambers, his most recent release but he utilized the Kaiser Quartett as one would a synthesizer, self-proclaimed. During the two hour performance he moved from the thunder of a Beethoven to the chippiness of a Mozart as he rolled up and down the keys and who but Chilly could have two thousand people stand up in Massey Hall to do the Robot Dance. Bet we looked good. . . Feist arrived to guest during the encore. Chilly is no James Last Hooked on Classics pitchman but it this is Classical Music colour me converted and break out the tails.
The LAMH has gone previously to artists such as Destroyer, Coeur De Pirate, Basia Balat, Zaki Ibrahim, Timber Timbre, Shad, Chad VanGaalen, Hayden, Great Lake Swimmers, Constantines, Lisa LeBlanc, Sloan, Tanya Tagaq and Owen Pallett among others; not exactly household names. But they have performed on the stage of the Old Lady of Shuter Street, their shows filmed, recorded and edited for later broadcast on the Massy Hall YouTube site (most of those mentioned are now available to re-enjoy).
And yes there is overlap between the JUNO and the LAMH; Coeur De Pirate is JUNO nominated this year and Chilly was nominated in 2011 for Ivory Tower in the Electronic Album category. But the difference between the two is as stark as Bach and Black Eyed Peas. JUNO rewards those who have gained a popularity, a notoriety. Success is in terms of business not artistry, not mutually exclusive it must be added but rarely twinned up on an annual basis. How does one reward artistry? Who judges? The Polaris Music Prize endeavours to broach the subject but is left dangling between Arcade Fire and Drake? Can one billion hamburger buyers be wrong about taste? Is popularity the antithesis of art. No. . . but sales is not the only way to weigh value. Someone needs to create a new measurement and Live At Massy Hall is as fine a gauge as one can get.
The room, the stage, the status and the ambience, the history, the space, the ghosts of past and their lingering presence. It is among the finest halls in the world and recognized as such by many artists who have performed, or long to perform, on its worn wooden boards. Combine all of it with a booking policy that is adventurous and dangerous, risky, edgy, one that prioritizes artistry over business acumen and what one gets is a business that is setting the pace, sounding out the parameters, a business model that is as creative and forward thinking as the artists on stage.
The JUNOs rarely break an artist, maybe make an artist. But the work is completed long before JUNO gets a sense of the nominee. The LAMH it seems, seeks out the new, the rare, the undiscovered and brings its historic heft to the presentation of the artist. The LAMH lauds the future not the past of its artists.
Alejandra Ribera is one such example. The singer/songwriter is, as they say new to me, although she has been performing globally and released an album, La Boca, in 2014. Ribera sings in French, Spanish and English and lives sometimes in Montreal, sometimes Paris but is from Toronto originally. She is of Scottish and Argentinian heritage. She is visceral on stage, her songs are corporeal, bodies, they carry the weight of hips and the form of lips, they sway and emanate, wrap and curve around Ribera who dances inside them. Ribera was a revelation and a revelation is what one has come to expect from the LAMH; a reward, a rejuvenation, a lust for live, of joy, and ultimately, revelation.
You know the JUNOS, they are the same old tame old. But the LAMH, the LAMH . . . thats for the top shelf.
Comedian Kevin Hart will be hosting the All-star weekend celebrity basketball game afterparty Feb. 12 2016 in The Roy Thomson Hall lobby which will be transformed into a nightlife destination. Hart is the coach of Team USA with Drake coaching Team Canada. The teams will take each other on at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game taking place at the Ricoh Colisuem at 7 p.m. The afterparty begins at nine. The NBA All Star game takes place at the Air Canada Centre Feb 14. British singer Sting (ex-Police frontman) will headline the half-time show and Cirque du Soleil will tip-off the evening with basketball inspired performance. More information available here. The Afterparty is a 19+ event with dress code enforced.
By Jason Gartshore - Americana Review
A music world already reeling from the recent passing of soul legend Natalie Cole and pop/rock legend David Bowie was hit hard once again by the sudden passing of one of the all-time greats, Mr. Glenn Frey. To say the least, Mr. Frey had an impact on the world of music. How big was that impact? As a founding member and one of the principle songwriters of the Eagles, he was among a group of 1970’s era musicians that influenced rock and country with a sound that could not and will not be replicated. His passing represents the end of an era that began with the establishment of the country-rock sound first pioneered by the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, then taken to the masses by Linda Ronstadt, and finally elevated to indescribable commercial heights by the Eagles.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Glenn Frey’s interest in music began early and eventually led him to working with fellow Motor City singer-songwriter, Bob Seger. After working with Mr. Seger and honing his songwriting skills, Mr. Frey relocated to Los Angeles in the 1960’s to capitalize on its burgeoning folk music scene. It was in L.A. that he would meet Don Henley, and the rest is beautiful music history. Surrounding themselves with other notable singer-songwriters as Jackson Browne and J. D. Souther, Glenn Frey and Don Henley would collaborate on some of the most successful and best-selling songs in music history. Eagles Their Greatest Hits – 1971 to 1975 and Hotel California are among the top selling albums of all time, each selling in excess of 30 million copies.
Working initially as a backing band for Linda Ronstadt, fame and fortune came to the Eagles quickly. Like it does with many bands that are young and achieve incredible fame in a short period of time, the workload and pressures of such fame can take its toll. The Eagles were no different as constant touring and recording demands led to infighting among the group. They would disband in 1980 and reunite in celebrated fashion in 1994 with the Hell Freezes Over Tour. I had the great fortune to attend two shows on this tour. In 1994 in Toronto at the old Exhibition Stadium with over 56,000 in attendance, and in 1996 at the Molson Amphitheatre, also in Toronto. The 1994 show remains the best concert I have ever attended.
What’s the significance of the passing of Glenn Frey? As I mention above, it’s the end of an era. It’s clear the Eagles as a touring band and entity will not continue. You cannot replace Glenn Frey. He was a founding member and one of the lead singers. To me, it wouldn’t be the Eagles without him, and I’m sure the other band members feel similarly. As well, the very sound of the Eagles will never be replicated. The band performed in 5-part harmony, something unheard of at the time and has not been duplicated since.
The passing of Glenn Frey, David Bowie among others represents the turning of a page, a reminder that life has moved on from our younger days. The Eagles were the soundtrack to my high school and early college days, even though the music was 20 years old at the time. It still sounds as fresh today as it did 20 years ago when I first got tuned in to them, and 40 years ago when they first hit the charts. If you are young and love music and don’t know about Glenn Frey and Don Henley, I encourage you to explore and learn about their music as solo artists and as the Eagles. If you’re in a band, explore them to see where you can go when you dedicate yourselves to hard work and perfection. It can lead you to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an institution where the Eagles were inducted in 2002. The video below is a live clip from a 1977 concert where the Eagles perform one of their signature hits “New Kid In Town.” This is what 5 part harmony sounds like. Enjoy Glenn Frey (lead vocal), Don Henley (drums), Joe Walsh (keys), Don Felder (guitar) and Randy Meisner (bass) in this classic clip.
Friday Jan. 22 2016 The Regent Theatre in downtown Oshawa Ont. presents "Hotel California" in their ongoing series Classic Albums Live. The show starts at 8 p.m.
"Like an attempt to make sense of the residue of a dream, I hope that the imposition of a coherent narrative onto them is a necessary act but does not undermine their enigmatic qualities." - Casey Mecija.
All three albums came across the wire today, album art says something to me or is it just an imposition of narrative.
HIGHS - DAZZLE CAMOUFLAGE
Avataar - PETAL
Casey Mecija - PSYCHIC MATERIALS
Dralms (aka Christopher Smith from Vancouver) continues to impress upon every listen. Shook is a tremendous album, marrying the cinematic scope of Timber Timbre and the boundless euphoria of Arcade Fire with some late night deep funk grooves and early morning synth stretches. But still his own, still DRALMS. Its a joy.