Taylor Knox
By Will McGuirk
Finally 28 degrees - wow summer takes so long but it just takes one day to forget that whole winter’s coming line - roll out the patios and roll out the rock and roll. . .
and I’ve been busy at Kops Records Oshawa but to quote the Poor Nameless Boy “been meaning to catch up and slow down” - one day maybe this day with these kats; Lily Frost, Taylor Knox, Tyler Childers, Merival, The Sun Harmonic, Yes We Mystic and Poor Nameless Boy.
The riff-tastic Danko Jones returns to the Oshawa Music Hall Thursday, May 16, in the wake of his new album ‘A Rock Supreme’. The title is a nod to Coltrane’s seminal album but the tracks are a nod to the classic rock of AC/DC, Deep Purple, Aerosmith and Thin Lizzy, albeit via some high energy skateboard thrash punk. Keep the doors open otherwise he’s likely to blow them away.
Post from our pals Dizzy:
“We’re so happy to finally share ‘Twist’ with you. This song holds a lot of firsts for us. It’s the first time we’ve produced ourselves fully on our own. The first time we’ve written something that wasn’t born in Oshawa.
The beginnings of Twist were written 7 months ago in a hotel in Amarillo, Texas. We fleshed it out on a green room piano in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and finished it in a small studio space in Whitby, Ontario. This song reeks of tour and home all in the same breath, and we’re so excited to let you back into our brains again. Hope you like it.”
We do.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
By Will McGuirk
So I’m leaving this here because it runs parallel to the way we think here at Slowcity.ca. Its from the Snotty Nose Rez Kids’ press release; “Boujee Natives stems from our belief that everyone is an artist in one way shape or form and that we were all created to create but it’s up to us as individuals to find out what that is for ourselves. We wanted to showcase all the badass First Nations artists that have welcomed us into their worlds as we were coming into ourselves and developing our artistry into what it is today. We are the creators, we are inspired natives, not native inspired, and we like to rock our shit, we dem Boujee Natives.”
So yes its up to us, you, me, to find our creative selves within and build our own future. Music helps so here is today’s open mic which you can air while you woodshed ideas this rainy week. Dig into Esperanza Spalding, Jenn Grant, Tamino, Rhye, Rich Aucoin, Black Mountain and Ada Lea. Dig into the future, unearth yourself.
Leaf Rapids
By Will McGuirk
As we waver between seasons, on the verge of summer, on the waning of Spring, wary of winter’s return we see this inbetweenness in the music stepping up for the open mic today - its a mixed bag with the swales and swells of Cat Power, the poptimism of Tarig, the icy Canadianism of Leaf Rapids, a double hit of the erudite Bad Books, the songwriterly David Gray, and Brazilian spiritualism from Sessa, Yes just go with the flow, we will get your there.
By Will McGuirk
“Grab it and change it, it's yours” - ‘Alternative Ulster’, Stiff Little Fingers
For some young people growing up during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, life was neither the green of Republicanism nor Loyalist Orange, it was grey. These teens didn’t buy into the binary choices presented to them; be Catholic or Protestant, be Irish or British; they wanted a third option. There had to be an alternative to the Ulster they inherited, even if it was one they had to build themselves from the few resources available.
‘Alternative Ulsters: Punk Rock and Teenage Kicks in Troubled Times’ is the title of a retrospective exhibition and panel discussion event taking place Friday, May 10 2019 in Dublin.
This event is hosted by The Hope Collective under the We Shall Overcome - Dublin banner. We Shall Overcome was started in Britain, as a way to focus on those creating in a politically negative environment.
A wide variety of activists who had worked to make their own future in Northern Ireland during those troubled times will be featured. Among the special guest speakers are Henry Cluney of Stiff Little Fingers, Sheena Bleakney of the Warzone Collective and Sean O’Neill of Spit Records and co-author of “It Makes You Want to Spit.”
“There are alternatives, even in politics,” says Cluney. SLF’s anthemic call out “Alternative Ulster” released in 1978, was a touchstone for many inside and outside Northern Ireland.
Cluney came from an area which was a flashpoint he says.
“We had shooting going on on a constant basis. It just made me think that there had to be a better way. This was before music, but it’s how I grew up,” he says.
“Growing up in Northern Ireland, in particular Belfast, was difficult” says Bleakney, who founded Warzone in 1984, but her creative side, and a love for music, art and writing gave her a place to grow, and hide she says.
“My sister (Julia) and I started a fanzine at 12 years old, mostly to discuss our thoughts and feelings in a way we could not express to our family or friends in school. For me, secondary school was a difficult time where i was bullied and lacked confidence, so art and writing and creativity was my form of expression, but also the only time i was aware of being good at anything. The notion that i was doing things for myself, did not occur to me at this young age.”
Yet that is exactly what Bleakney was doing.
Two years after The Warzone Collective launched they opened a drop-in centre and cafe called Giros, named for the welfare cheques. It was also a venue, a practise space and screen printing workshop. It was all DIY. Over its existence it became the counter-cultural hub in Belfast.
Understanding her own personal experience of not having a voice in the either/or world she grew up in, allowed Bleakney to understand others whose voices had been silenced.
It was not an easy journey. She rebelled against her parents’ concern for her safety in such a world. She found them constricting and she ran away, eventually spending time in juvenile penitentiary. This gave her time to hear from others from different circumstances but with similar concerns about how to build bridges beyond the walls.
“This was the huge changing point for me, I was always sticking up for the underdog, I realise now that i was more concerned for others than I was for myself, and social change became imperative to me. Our fanzine discussed issues of race, sectarianism, class, gender, and most importantly for me, animal rights. I became involved with some direct action at that point; marches, demos, and talks, both in school and outside. I became involved with Just books so I could cook veggie meals for other people, began hunt sabbing (sabotage) at 16, wrote about animal rights in our fanzine,and of course was passionate about setting up Giros and a veggie/vegan cafe at 17. Music and punk, to me, were never about the image or the look, it was always about social change and having a voice. We honestly thought we were going to change the world,” says Bleakney
“My own personal resistance probably came from just a sense of not fitting in,” she says. “I recognise that now as a lack of confidence, which i think stemmed from the fear around us in the city, and my parents worry of letting us go out into that world.”
In that world, the normal teenage rebellion against Mom and Dad’s rules, was amplified, to rebelling against society at large.
“All teenagers rebel against their parents, we were no different,” says O’Neill, “We loved this new music that was emerging with its outrageous sense of style. It was exciting, dangerous but most of all, fun. That’s what drew us together. Not caring to ask what religion your new found friends were was almost a byproduct of the music.”
The divisionary aspect of religion lost out in a manner to the unitary nature of music and within this new environment, created by the songs of SLF and the Undertones and those featured on the Spit Records compilations, teens could create a future for themselves, independent of the one their birthplace dictated.
O’Neil’s future was as a chronicler of the people populating this new environment. Interest in the stories in the book led to interest in the music behind the stories.
“When compiling the book I had obviously spoken to lots of people from old Northern Ireland punk and New Wave bands and quite a lot of these people had unreleased demo recordings of their old band. I thought that it would be a good idea to release a compilation of these tracks, as almost a companion to the book if you like,” says O’Neill “Lots of these bands were mentioned in the book but unless you saw them live at the time, you had little chance of actually hearing what they sounded like. These compilation albums became Shellshock Rockers Vols 1 & 2. My aim with the label was to unearth previously unreleased recordings by Northern Ireland bands and issue them on limited run CD or vinyl. It is a way of archiving the material and also sharing it.”
The label is an ongoing concern, issuing not just rare and unreleased original punk bands but also bands currently active.
The Warzone is also an ongoing concern. Although there have been difficulties across its history, the ideas behind the Collective have remained strong and relevant. Changing the world is exhausting and many quit, many too, leave for a variety of reasons, but not Bleakney.
“Belfast was always home, and I am so glad I stayed, because look at it now,” she says, “For me, I stayed and learned and grew in confidence and raised a son and set up a business and now, at 50, I’m still involved in vegan activism and have a vegan food business, all while being surrounded by loving friends I have had since the days of Giros. I have travelled a lot, but leaving for me was never even a thought. . . I had far too much going for me in the fantastic city,”
O’Neill concurs.
“Why break away from a place that you love and where all your raw material is?” he says.
Belfast Tourism promotion poster
By Will McGuirk
Its a short note on Facebook but yes there is new music from Timber Timbre. Three tracks available on cassette. Dissociation Tapes Vol I is now available on their website. Three tracks, “The Pink Room,” “Dissociation” and “Dedication Time.” Jacqueline Badeaux directed the video for “The Pink Room.”
It just takes one sunny sunny day to dispel all the winter grumpiness, doesn’t it. So here we are at that wonderful time between frost and flies. Take advantage and get outside as you much as you can.
Its been some time, five years, since Leela Gilday issued an album but her new album, ‘North Star Calling’ is coming out this year and the single “K’eintah Natse Ju” has just been released.
In a press release Gilday says the track is “about the legacy of colonization and its impact on our (Indigenous) family relationships- part of what happened in residential school was the dismantling of the Indigenous family structure. This was intentional- if you take away children from their families you deprive them of the love and cultural traditional values that growing up in a loving home gives to them. This song is about some of those relationships. Part of this was inspired by the tragic deaths of Colton Boushie and Tina Fontaine." Leela will be at Hugh’s Room in Toronto May 10.
Also on the mic today we have Ponytails, Del Barber, Old Man Luedecke, Operators and Rhye.
Micah Erenberg, Photo by Colin Medley
By Will McGuirk
Great tunes for you on this wet Wednesday and to brighten up your rather moist humpday we are featuring a photo gallery of our pal, Colin Medley, he who documents the Canadian indie scene with aplomb and a careful eye for the everyday life of musicians, no rockstars in Medley’s orbit. Dig into new tracks from Micah Erenberg, Close Talker, T. Nile, Absolutely Free and Badge Époque Ensemble and let us know what you think.
Absolutely Free, Photo by Colin Medley
Shows
Absolutely Free - Thursday, May 9 @ The Garrison, Toronto (CMW)
Badge Époque Ensemble - Saturday, May 11 @ The Garrison, Toronto (CMW)
Badge Époque Ensemble, Photo By Colin Medley
A Tribe Called Red
By Will McGuirk
Well the magnolias are out on my neighbour’s tree so there’s that to celebrate on this rather chill evening, I hope those flowers survive. But also lets celebrate St. Lucia, they have an acoustic EP available and will be touring a stripped down intimate set. Charlotte Cornfield ( a fave around here) also drops in. Stay around for A Tribe Called Red who drop an absolute killer remix of Keith Secola’s “Indian Cars” which will have you up on that old wooden dance floor in seconds, (summer hit alert!), plus we have Language Arts, Tre Mission, JoJo Worthington and Bad Animal. Stay warm.
St. Lucia - Thursday, May 16 @ the Mod Club, Toronto
Bad Animal - Tuesday, May 21 @ the Baby G, Toronto
Language Arts - Thursday, May 23 @ the Monarch Tavern, Toronto
Charlotte Cornfield - Friday, May 24 @ the Baby G, Toronto
By Will McGuirk
Our slowcity.ca pal Colin Medley, along with Maria Todorov-Topouzov, have co-directed this short, about a group of young folks in the band Deliluh making their own future; finding spaces and creating venues. Watch, learn, enjoy, share.
By Will McGuirk
Its been a while since we have heard new music from the prog-folk project, Mappe Of. Since the debut, ‘A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone’ released on Paper Bag in 2017, the band has kept a low profile with just a reinterpretation of the album, ‘CelestialVersion’ made available. The single “Ladybird” dropped overnight and its a delicate dancer, a cheeky number with a sonic sleight-of-hand, which will catch you off-guard.
Our pal from Whitby, Tom Meikle (aka Mappe Of) made a rare live appearance opening for the Rural Alberta Advantage in Oshawa recently and is currently on a short tour with dates in Quebec, May 2,3 and 4 and May 9 in London ON.
On June 28 he is opening for Joep Beving at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre. Tickets here.
The E.P. Taylor Windfields Farm Champion Award is presented annually to someone who is resilient and innovative and a person with connections to Oshawa.
Nominations for the 2019 award are being accepted by the city until May 15. Examples of those who qualify for the award, are individuals who have developed new ideas in to tangible, programs or projects within the community or those who have led transformational change in the city.
“If you know someone in our city who has made a significant contribution to the community through forward-thinking and overcame challenges along the way, take the time to put their name forward. This award is a great way to recognize their valuable work, and will also serve as inspiration to other innovators in the future,” says Councillor Derek Giberson, Vice-Chair of the Community Services Committee in a press release.
Named for Edward Plunkett Taylor, who via his company, Canadian Breweries Limited, became one of Canada’s richest businessmen and was a pioneer in horse racing, breeding the much celebrated Northern Dancer who sired many champions. Windfield's Farms was the horse breeding farm located in north Oshawa.
In 2016 the City of Oshawa approved a program to honour the legacy of the farm (which is now a large housing estate and soon-to-be- retail centre) with the Champion Award.
The first recipient was Dr. Gary Polonsky, a big thinker who dreamt of an university in Oshawa; that dream became Ontario Tech.
Visit www.oshawa.ca/EPTaylorAward for more details.