Lets says METZ sounds like a slow-mo cutlery drawer dropping to the floor but hitting the side of the counter on its way down again and again on a repetitive loop and its replayed over and over - thus is the metal on teeth scraping context of the single "Drained Lake" from the METZ album "Strange Peace" and the video delves into that drawer and with the sprinkling of some magic brings it all to life and forks becomes orchestras and its a kitchen party for cats and cabbage.
Meghan Patrick's new single and video released
Meghan Patrick has released the title track from her new album, due for release in January 2018. The video, directed by Shaun Silva of Tacklebox Films, features a cameo by Meghan's dad, Michael.
Tales from the Road - a tour diary by Rory Taillon
One of the best things about being a touring musician is having the ability to slip back into a city or province that you only visit a very few times a year, but feel like your relationships with the people, the venues and the breweries can pick up where they left off after a short chat over a pint.
It’s been a long time since I released a new album and it only seemed fitting to start the tour in the two cities that I spent the majority of my adult life; Toronto and Oshawa, Ontario. Driving through these cities always bring back vivid memories of awesome times, stupid shit I’ve gotten myself into and pivotal moments of my life. It’s always fun, until I hit that dreaded 401 traffic anywhere around Toronto. This then turns into sitting and waiting on the DVP (the Don Valley Parking Lot as my mother calls it) as I head into the city for the first show of the tour at The Hideout.
There’s nothing quite like the traffic in Toronto. It really tests your patience and the integrity of your car’s brake pads. Something that I’ve noticed after driving through a lot of Canada’s cities is that they all have their own signature style of traffic. Montreal is notorious for it’s traffic on the highway and in the city. On the highway, it gets nuts with people darting in and out of lanes (usually conserving their turn signal’s light-bulbs as much as possible [Toronto and Ottawa honestly seem equally concerned about maintaining their light-bulbs’ life span]) but it does always seem to be moving. Driving in the city is nuts too because you always have to be paying attention because you never know when someone is going to spot the slightest opening and go for it in their car, no matter how minimal it is or who’s side mirror might win the jousting match.
Back to Toronto though. So the first day of the tour I pull into the city and immediately switch back into a Toronto city driver: Always on the lookout for cabs deciding to u-turn at the slightest implication of a fare, cyclists darting through traffic like deer in a stampede and people deciding to stop at any point, anywhere on the road for any number of weird reasons. Now I always try to arrive at a venue early as to anticipate any sort of delay or issue. Even with the Toronto traffic, I was still on track to arrive at my first venue on time for load in. That was until I drove passed the venue’s location that I had played previously on Queen St. and see it all boarded up. The panic sets in. I’m yelling desperately to Siri on my phone, “Where’s Rory Taillon playing tonight?” “What’s the address for The Hideout?” “Toronto SIRI COME ON!! TO-RON-TO!!!” (Hands free phone technology. What a time to be alive.)
The moral of the story I guess is make sure you have the CURRENT address of the venue you’re starting your tour at. Either way, that stress melts away as soon as I load into the venue, set up and catch up with old friends over a pint before my set.
My name is Rory and it’s my pleasure to chat with you about my misadventures and shenanigans as a Canadian independent touring musician here on Slowcity.ca. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back with more tales from the road soon!
You and I (on the other side of the world) with The Weather Station
Its simple. Its a done deal, the Weather Station is just about the finest singer-songwriter this land between sea and sea and sea has produced in decades - she has always had a Joni Mitchell vibe but on her latest she grabs a bit of Crazy Horse but lets be clear The Weather Station is more than a sum of the parts gone past. She is wholly her own. The latest single gets a video treatment from our old SlowCity pal Colin Medley - a handheld love story amidst the barkers and the yellow balloons.
Matt Holubowski releases deluxe 'Solitudes', bonus EP 'Epiloques'
Matt Holubowski has the instrumental percussive flair of Patrick Watson with the backcountry serenity of Bon Iver - one would take 'Solitudes' and retreat into solitude and sit with this new companion but now there is a guest, which opens the door like a trembling Timber Timbre to a whole new gathering.
There's Only One Peter Perrett - the dude plays the Horseshoe Tavern Feb 28 2018
Space Invader Peter Perrett, as part of The Only Ones, came soaring out of the punk scene in the late 70s with the pogo ready "Another Girl Another Planet" as the engine, joining the likes of Elvis Costello and Ian Drury as a new breed of English songwriter. Decades later the dude has mellowed just a touch but is still fearless in his lyrics and his latest "How The West Was Won" album is an absolute masterpiece, all spit and polish. Perrett has dates in Britain, Europe and the States with a stop at the 'Shoe in Toronto.
Toronto two piece Teen Ravine ready 'Steady On'
"There’s a bridge over the Don River in Toronto and written above it is the phrase: “This river I step in is not the river I stand in”. You could drive over it a thousand times and miss it. But it’s a really beautiful thing…a subtle reminder that no matter how hard we try to resist it, nothing is permanent, everything is in flux." - Teen Ravine
The TO duo have a new album coming out in the Fall. This woozy track, Steady On, will be on it. Listen in, find your balance and keep in mind all is the only constant is change.
Howling Belle Juanita Stein goes solo on "America", plays the Dakota Dec 9
Ah the myth of America, she seems to have gone walkabout for while. The Land of the Free, used to mean possibility and bravery but she's is scared today. Maybe she will find her way back. Juanita Stein went looking and came back with her own "America", an album so right for the now, so all languid Chrissie Hynde, arm draped over the shoulder of EmmyLou Harrison a la Keef and Ron Woods, or Springsteen and Clarence on the cover of Born To Run. Its A Sunday Morning Get Down. Juanita is an Aussie and on sojourn from Howling Bells. This belle is tolling for America, calling her home.
Juanita will make the Dakota Tavern in Toronto her home for a night, the night of Dec 9 2017.
Rory Taillon - photo by Mirjana Simeunovich
Road Watch- Checking in with Rory Taillon on tour
The voice they call Rory Taillon is touring his new album, ‘Only Whispers’ across Canada. We are going to check in on him over the coming weeks and he will check in with us too. If you look at the itinerary you will see the niche Rory has cut for himself as the Brewery tourist. He is Ottawa-based these days but passes through Durham Region often, to sing, to gig, and to stock up on a few of his favourite brews.
“One of the biggest things I miss about living in this area are the great breweries,” he tells SlowCity. “5 Paddles has always made some of my favourite beers and I love the guys there and sharing a pint with them. The coolest thing I have ever been a part of is definitely the beer label and collaboration that I did with 5 Paddles for Jukebox, our coffee vanilla stout with the vinyl label.
"Manantler is always an awesome place to stop at for a show and a pint. The atmosphere alone makes it a lot of fun. The fact that you have to enter at the back of this big industrial building, go down into the basement while smelling the malt and hops all the way down and then the speakeasy looking bar once you enter the brewery. It's always a good time.
"The Second Wedge not only has some of the best people running that place, but they have one of the coolest patios I've ever seen at an establishment, let alone a brewery. What they do for their community and the support the locals give them and all the music that they bring in is incredible."
TOUR DATES
Oct. 20 - Bar Robo, Ottawa ON
Oct. 21 - McCloskey's, Chesterville ON
Oct. 25 - House Concert, Moncton NB
Oct. 26 - The Abbey Cafe, Fredericton NB
Oct. 27 - Breton Brewing Co., Syndney NS
Oct. 28 - Back Alley Records, Charlottetown PE (aft.)
Oct. 28 - Marc's Lounge, Charlottetown PE (eve.)
Oct. 29 - Taz Records, Halifax NS
Nov. 2 - Block 3 Brewery, St. Jacobs ON
Nov. 3 - Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa ON
Nov. 5 - SpitFire Cafe, Brockville ON
Nov. 8 - The Foundry, Thunder Bay ON
Nov. 9 - From the Grind Up, Fort Frances ON
Nov. 10 - Half Pints Brewing Co., Winnipeg MB
Nov. 11 - Rebellion Brewing Co., Regina SK
Nov. 12 - Lucky Bastards Distillery, Saskatoon SK
Nov. 14 - Aria's Bistro, Edmonton AB
Nov. 15 - Cold Garden Beverage Co., Calgary AB
Nov. 16 - The Royal, Nelson BC
Nov. 17 - Lorenzo's Cafe, Enderby BC
Nov. 18 - Coast Mountain Brewing Co., Whistler BC
Nov. 19 - The Heatley, Vancouver BC
Nov. 22 - 9 Mile Legacy Brewing Co., Saskatoon SK
Nov. 28 - The Red Dog, Peterborough ON
Nov. 29 - The Painted Lady, Toronto ON
Dec. 1 - Sons of Kent Brewing Co., Chatham ON
Dec. 3 - The Second Wedge, Uxbridge ON
Dec. 8 - Batstone's Northern Ramble, Renfrew ON
Jan. 17 - The Red Brick Cafe, Guelph ON
Jan. 18 - Silversmith Brewery, Niagara ON
Jan. 21 - The Second Wedge, Uxbridge
Roaring' Rory Taillon releases 'Only Whispers' Oct. 15, cross-Canada tour dates announced
Its gotta be a West Coast thing, this roll into the mystic, this redemptive rock of Rory Taillon on this latest record, the ironically titled "Only Whispers". He may be based in the middling earthy hills of Ottawa but his is a West Coast thing, a great, big wide open West Coast thing of a record.
In the rolled in sea mist there this West Coast thing sits, its both the end of the line and the beginning of invention.
This West Coast thing is the pealing guitars on Holy Cow of 54-40 and Hunger of the Temple Dog. This West Coast thing is a plea sung by a choir of peaks in the Church of Laura Palmer.
Take me to church, a cathedral of trees, and the mountain as mount for a sermon on stars. This is the church of the vast, the church of the whole monumental sloppy mess of it all, the church of the rise later in the day saints, of all of those believers leaping arms out in the open void confident in the knowledge beauty and truth will catch them.
This is the sound of Rory Taillon, the sound of faith in the future; it is in the hugeness of this man’s voice, big enough to contain the multitudes we are. It is the church as cave and church as carriage, filled with stones and strings, reasons, regrets and regards.
It is the church of a simple book, 'of a leaf, a stone, an unfound door'. I wish sometimes I was fourteen again, just to climb inside Look Homeward Angel for the first time again, to read Thomas Wolfe again for the first time but time has walked on and the closest I can get now is the "Only Whispers" of Rory Taillon.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Oct. 13 - M.C.N. Soundtrack of the City, Toronto ON
Oct. 14 - 5 Paddles Brewery, Whitby ON (aft.)
Oct. 14 - Manantler Brewery, Bowmanville ON (eve.)
Oct. 15 - The Moustache Club, Oshawa ON
Oct. 20 - Bar Robo, Ottawa ON
Oct. 21 - McCloskey's, Chesterville ON
Oct. 25 - House Concert, Moncton NB
Oct. 26 - The Abbey Cafe, Fredericton NB
Oct. 27 - Breton Brewing Co., Syndney NS
Oct. 28 - Back Alley Records, Charlottetown PE (aft.)
Oct. 28 - Marc's Lounge, Charlottetown PE (eve.)
Oct. 29 - Taz Records, Halifax NS
Nov. 2 - Block 3 Brewery, St. Jacobs ON
Nov. 3 - Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa ON
Nov. 5 - SpitFire Cafe, Brockville ON
Nov. 8 - The Foundry, Thunder Bay ON
Nov. 9 - From the Grind Up, Fort Frances ON
Nov. 10 - Half Pints Brewing Co., Winnipeg MB
Nov. 11 - Rebellion Brewing Co., Regina SK
Nov. 12 - Lucky Bastards Distillery, Saskatoon SK
Nov. 14 - Aria's Bistro, Edmonton AB
Nov. 15 - Cold Garden Beverage Co., Calgary AB
Nov. 16 - The Royal, Nelson BC
Nov. 17 - Lorenzo's Cafe, Enderby BC
Nov. 18 - Coast Mountain Brewing Co., Whistler BC
Nov. 19 - The Heatley, Vancouver BC
Nov. 22 - 9 Mile Legacy Brewing Co., Saskatoon SK
Nov. 28 - The Red Dog, Peterborough ON
Nov. 29 - The Painted Lady, Toronto ON
Dec. 1 - Sons of Kent Brewing Co., Chatham ON
Dec. 3 - The Second Wedge, Uxbridge ON
Dec. 8 - Batstone's Northern Ramble, Renfrew ON
Jan. 17 - The Red Brick Cafe, Guelph ON
Jan. 18 - Silversmith Brewery, Niagara ON
Jan. 21 - The Second Wedge, Uxbridge
METZ and the making of Strange Peace
Strange Peace is out on Royal Mountain Records in Canada and Sub Pop Records not in Canada. The METZ have created a short film relating the making of the album with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago. Enjoy then crank that f**ker of an album to 13!!
METZ release video for 'Cellophane', new album Strange Peace now available
METZ have dropped the Strange Peace, Royal Mountain and SubPOP, recorded with Steve Albini, with a whole lot of Pil and Sonic Youth underneath, and they tour with stops at Lee's in TO Sept 29 and 30. Suuns open. Leave your ears at home - you won't need them this you feel.
Hear The Music of Fred Penner at the Port Hope Cultivate Festival Sept 22-24, 2017
“Every day you learn something new/ Discover a world in front of you”, sings Fred Penner on his latest album “Hear The Music”. The track called “The RIver Will Bend” features Ron Sexsmith and Bahamas. They, along with Alex Cuba, Basia Bulat, Terra Lightfoot and The Good Lovelies and others, collaborated with Penner on the record, his 13th, learning for sure from the 70 year old entertainer but also teaching him a trick or two.
“To see the range of talent in Canada is very invigorating,” says Penner in an interview with SlowCity.ca, “. . . to see individuals who are moving up that scale; Ron Sexsmith, Good Lovelies, Terra Lightfoot, Bahamas these are such dedicated souls who are actually making a mark in this world and watching how good they really are and coming in, bringing their energy to this record, and me giving them something to play with, and them just taking it in their own creative path, it’s really lovely to know that that part of our society is strong and is growing and will continue to make that difference.”
Making a difference is the theme of CULTIVATE, a festival of local food, drink and music taking place in Port Hope the weekend of Sep 22 to 24 2017. Food choices include Foragers Farm, Headwaters Farm, and Fries by Jamie Kennedy’s Kitchen. Brews include Manantler, Church Key and NHB as well as Kinsip Distillery and Empire Cider, plus many more. Penner will perform Saturday on the main stage. Other acts include Terra Lightfoot. Evening Hymns, Digging Roots, Gentlemen Husbands, Mayhemingways and Jenny Whitely.
Making a difference is also the force behind Penner’s four decades-plus career as a musician and children’s entertainer. He is a three time Juno winner for Children’s Album and his CBC TV show Fred Penner’s Place ran for a dozen years in the late 80s/90s and may well be best known for “The Cat Came Back”, or maybe not as so many seem to have their own connection with the folks they grew up with on the box.
Penner says he has been able to connect over generations because of the power he found music had. He credits his sister as his inspiration.
“It goes back to early influences and working with special needs children in the 70s, back to my university days. I worked in a residential centre for special needs children. I had a sister who was a Down syndrome child and she was a huge influence on my awareness of how powerful music is to the life of a child,” he says.
Music powered him forward from his work in theatre to working with families and children and as he says one ship led to another.
“It’s been an amazing range of things that I delighted in. It kept me active and hard to believe ultimately how far it has gone. I have been in the business for 45 years and I have never looked back on my career. It has always been moving forwards,” he says.
Moving forwards into a new day, into new discoveries, new opportunities to teach and new opportunities to learn.
"Hear The Music" is available on Linus. He plays 4:30 p.m. Sat Sept 23.
