Sarah Harmer - new music, new year, now here 'New Low' - but new highs on horizon

By Will McGuirk

And the finest of voices and finest of lyricists and finest of activists and all in one for one arrives with verve, and ferocity, on a higher road. Welcome to new music from Sarah Harmer.

”I was seeing more of my public square and many more people out protesting and standing vigil, beyond the usually dedicated Indigenous leaders and social justice activists. I met with Queen's University students who were organizing to push the university to divest from fossil fuel investments, and then met with the principal of the university. When pressed, he dismissed the idea of divestment largely because he said it wouldn't make a difference to the fossil fuel industry, and also that sizeable donations and sponsorships made to the university by former students now at oil and gas companies created a 'grey area' of policy. The term stuck with me.  Sometimes it's good to see the nuance of a situation, and sometimes the calls for nuance are just straight-up cop outs.  I hope this song gets people to their feet, and not only to dance.” - Sarah Harmer

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Reuben and the Dark, Laurent Bourque, Matt Holubowski, The Hearts, Debra-Jean Creelman, Elephant Stone, Ruston Kelly, Brandon Wolfe Scott and Royce 5'9"

By Will McGuirk

Perseid meteor shower, night. The meteor shows up often in the n rock ‘n roll lexicon of journos, like hail, no one hails from anywhere in real life but in rock n roll speech everyone hails from somewhere, like meteors do too, better to burn out etc, but tonight as I look upwards and wait for those brief glimpses of something else alive in this system of ours I listen too to all of you out there burning to make and making in this oh so brief moment we have together and the connect happens, you appear on the horizon and you are seen and you are heard.

“Skateboarding has been a teacher, learning to smile through pain. Push past fear. I’ve taken many lessons and feel like I owe it so much in return. “weightlessness” is a small gift back to a culture that has given me so much; friends, community, confidence, and individuality. And I’m always just looking for an excuse to get on a board." - Reuben Bullock

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“‘Thoroughfare’ is about following something pure and beautiful down a narrow, colourful path, but getting a little lost along the way and leaving a bit of yourself behind, quietly lost in time,” - Matt Holubowski 

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“We can't believe what is happening. We don't know what to do. Scientists reveal they have built a spaceship that can take the top candidates for continuing humanity to New Earth. We've never been there, but we have heard transmissions that suggest life exists like ours. Who are the lucky ones that get to board starship Harmonia for planet B? “- Elephant Stone

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“It's an earnest, autobiographical song about self-preservation, something I'm trying to get better at but constantly struggle with.” - Brandon Wolfe Scott

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Mattie Leon releases new song 'Silver Line'

By Will McGuirk

Slowcity.ca pal Mattie Leon, one of the first kats to play Kops Oshawa and I will always be grateful for that, has a new song. Listen and tell me if this doesn’t feel like flying. Close your eyes, listen, and arrive somewhere else. His website has all the show details so go to one.

Hymns 57 releases new album, plays Kops in-store Nov 16

By Will McGuirk

Ambient architect Hymns 57 (aka Steve De Taeye) based in Guelph, ON., has released his latest album, ‘On the Weird Winds of Ontario.’ Hymns 57 will be performing at Kops Records in Oshawa Saturday Nov 17. The record is available on Aural Tethers and is built from fragments of found sounds and sonic musings on moments travelling over the summer of 2019. It is reflection on heart warmings and De Taeye has called it slippergaze. That seems like something Slowcity.ca could get into so we sent Hymns some questions.

Slowcity.ca: Slippergaze?? what is this slippergaze?

Hymns57: “Ha ha ha ha 'slippergaze'. Yeah, comes from my obvious love of shoegaze and hazy sounds. In some respects my music isn't too far off, albeit much more on the ambient spectrum. Hence, the slippers. Playing into some sort of aesthetic maybe, like the logo being the Heinz logo equals slippergaze. Making music, seriously, without taking myself too seriously.”

SC: What is your process for making sounds - where do you begin and how do you know where to end?

H57: “Creating or crafting the sounds is an ever growing multivariate thing. It could be as simple a particular pedal arrangement and settings.

“Often for live sets I consider the basics. The who, what, where, when, why and how am I going to sonically occupy this moment.

“I hand make a lot of tape loops out of cassettes for gigs. On a 5 or 10 second tape loop I can have a few segments recorded. Perhaps piano notes, waves crashing, tin foil being crunched and some dissonant drone note. Using a few vintage four track machines I'm able to fade in and out each segment, then toss in some effects and make careful loops. Now there's a base layer to paint on with samples or guitar.

“With a guitar piece it's natural to feel when and where to bring closure.

“The thing I've learned is to not let elements over stay their welcome. Introduce, let them mingle and excuse them once they've said what they needed to. This let's me experiment and improvise live without taking the ship off course.”

SC: When building songs are you building a soundtrack for a particular experience, or are you following where the sounds lead you?

H57: “It's a real mix bag. I could have an idea to try something and spend a few nights tinkering with it until it leads to something. For releases it's definitely more of an isolated approach. I tend to assemble with a certain 'feel' in mind.

“The newest release 'On The Weird Winds of Ontario' has it's own personality. Those tracks were done all with a very nostalgic dustiness to them. There's very personal field recordings throughout, samples of my kids... there's a vulnerability to this one. Other times the field recordings are just interesting textures to work with.

“I think building a soundtrack or an experience are very similar. Music soundtracks my day to day and inhabits particular experiences.”

SC: Tell me about your label, its evolution and how you choose artists?

H57: “This was a long time coming. This is just me, taking a stance on the importance of art, the sharing of it and having a physical accessible medium. Aural Tethers has been a radio show on CFRU 93.3fm in Guelph for almost 4 years now. It only made sense to make a small label catering to the show, it's audience and the type of music I curate. Putting a focus on inclusivity and artists not just from around southern Ontario but abroad also.

“I'm working Richelle Forsey, a Guelph artist/ photographer. Her photography is the aesthetic for the label. I really love her abandoned spaces work. So we used one already for the first release, a Guelph artist, Fossil Hunting Collective - The Fear of Landing On Water. On Aural Tethers bandcamp there's digital downloads and we produce limited edition cassettes. We'll also be offering full size prints of the album covers. We only put the artist info on the spines and inside the jcards. Almost like each release is a collaboration between Richelle and the music.

“So, we have the next few releases lined up. From Buenos Airies Mi Cosa De Resistance; very lo fi minimal piano ambient. From UK, Finglbone; fireside guitar and soundscapes plus others

“I'll be opening up label submissions in the new year. If you're a fan of the radio show, you'll know what the label is looking for. Experimental, drone, ambient, lo-fi, soundscape, field recording, minimal, instrumental, esoteric and electroacoustic are all things I wouldn't shy away from releasing.

I'll also be doing a collaboration series on the label called Emotioncodes. I'll pair 2 artists up to do a split or a collaborative release. I hope next year to have a few volumes complete. One is in the works currently between Hamilton's Building Castles Out of Match Sticks and myself. The idea is to donate all those proceeds from Emotioncodes to local mental health resources in the cities the artists are from.

“It's hopefully going to make a difference for at least one person, the same way the music will affect somebody else.”

The Arkells' rally the peeps to Oshawa's TCC Nov 14

By Will McGuirk

The Lovetrain known as the Arkells will be rolling into Oshawa carrying a message of celebration.

That which is the Arkells comes all wrapped into the melodic beats of Hamilton by way of Detroit - Max Kerman’s pops was a DJ in the Motorcity spinning Hitsville so the sounds of the Arkells are the soundtrack of mornings in the household and evenings checking grades. Honest music from an honest band doing their honest best to connect and build connections with music.

The Hammertown heroes are a soulful bunch in deeds but there’s an argument to be made the band are a folk outfit; they are a people’s band, telling people’s stories, championing the regular folk. In an interview with slowcity.ca frontman Max mentions his wife, his mom, his dad, his folks, his folk, the folk who keep him grounded, “That modesty comes from my mom's side.” These folk doing the work. He has work to do, but they do the work which needs to be done, work of some import he says although there are those who would argue in favour of the value of a well written track as a good day’s work, myself included.

Still it is this humility of one of this country’s biggest stars which makes the Arkells so endearing to their fans. Who else can sing “Ain’t no shame in some hand-me-down” or “we’re all kids from a neighbourhood” without a hint of irony or detachment. Who else can seek the ‘People’s Champ’ all the while championing the people. And who can sing “went to school in Oshawa” and it’s not just for the rhyme and who can sing “don’t be a stranger,” and mean it, you just know they mean it. It’s a plea and it’s a bargain, it’s a cry to rally.

They are not that far away from them fans, these music stars. The stage is not a barrier but a bridge. If the band were to call out to meet them on the barricade, the barricade would be the glittery line between act and audience. That’s the rallying point, right there in the slightest of differences, balancing on the thinnest of skins which serve to carve us away from each other, that’s the edge the Arkells dance on.

It is in the dance where the rally cry begins but the cry is carried to and then by the audience and the message is celebrate yourself, your work, your community and the rally cry is ‘Relentless’, “It's time to get to work, now let's get goin' Woo!”

But the band is no Ya Ya fists in the air Us Only Us! No its honest in its messaging of we are great but not greater than. It is an important point that centres the civic pride on the right side of this modern tendency to wrap oneself in geography. There is pride in the miles walked but awareness of the miles to go.

There is pride in the work but acknowledgement there is work to do still, much work.

It’s the music at work, the art has a role, from Lightfoot’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and “Working Man” from Rush, there is a narrative of celebrating labour in art in this country and the Arkells are of that narrative, the narrative which gave us Tragically Hip and Al Purdy and Alice Munro, and the rally cry is to be relentless but seek respite in the moment, in a back seat hand touch or a karaoke stumble. Don’t be a stranger, reach out darling reach out.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic - with iskwē, Rose Cousins, Nérija, Alice Ivy, Luke Lalonde, Spinning Coin, CamelPhat, L.A. Foster, Kid Lunch, The Franklin Electric and Scattered Clouds

By Will McGuirk

When no-ones watching, when no-ones listening, when no one cares what you have to say or write or sing, when we are all producing who is consuming? BUT If this new world, and I think it is, if this new world is going to be one constituted by reconstituting broken constitutions then is it not better to remake from the the fragments originally made as art. Each song, each poem, each painting, use them as the building blocks to remake the world which is cracking under the weight of commerce, of pop, of propaganda and lies. Remake the world from the truth, so keep telling your truths. Keep making on making because we need your contributions.

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Slowcity.ca Open Mic - A Tribe Called Red, Whoop-Szo, Dan Edmonds, Dan Mangan, Bear's Den, Donovan Woods, Jacques Greene, Elephant Stone, Sam Weber, Pup, Katie Bulley,

By Will McGuirk

We are slowcity.ca, we are slow for a reason, we pause, we wait, we give voice when we give voice and if what is said is worth saying it will always be worth saying no matter when it is said and if what is heard is worth hearing it will be worth hearing no matter when it is heard.

“This song is for the people who are working hard to make the world a better place than the one they were left with. This is for the fighters and the defenders. Part of being strong is also taking the time to stop, let go and release. Our DNA is of earth and sky.” - Bear Witness, ATCR

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"It imagines someone looking back on their own life and walking into their old house, reliving some pivotal moments of their life and re-engaging with who they are as a person and where they're at now. I read Winter, the novel by Ali Smith, and it really inspired me to want to write songs specifically about Winter. I think it's an incredibly inspiring time of year and it was a really fun and collaborative process for Kev and I to work on these songs, flesh them out, and bring them to life: embracing piano ideas and more acoustic elements whilst still exploring electronic textures behind the more reflective lyrics and sparse arrangements. - Andrew Davie.

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“If social media has taught us anything, it’s that there are a lot of unhappy people out there who are trying to find a way out. They are looking for meaning and something to believe in… or nothing to believe in… We all want the same thing, but are trying to achieve it in different ways.” - Elephant Stone

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“I’m trying to say that good things and bad things will happen, but not because they’re good or bad, but because they’re true, and the truth always comes out in the end. No matter how tragic or joyous.” - Sam Weber

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Take "Time Out for Tomorrow"; Jerry Leger plays Kops Records Friday Nov 8

By Will McGuirk

Toronto singer/songwriter Jerry Leger will release his latest album, ‘Time Out for Tomorrow’ Friday Nov 8 2019. He will be at Kops Records in Oshawa for a performance on that date. He will be on at 5 p.m.

Leger has released almost a dozen albums in his career, solo or with his side projects The Del-Fi’s and the Bop-Fi’s, with each album garnering greater interest and opportunities. His work is very much in the tradition of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Graham Parsons and Nick Lowe, all the poets who sang of loss and love and life as it lay on the street like yesterday’s news.

“Time Out for Tomorrow’ is his look at life where it lays and lives today, the title comes from a pulp fiction novel which a friend gave him and it fits he says his mood these days. It is an album of yearning, of leaning, of imagining a bigger world, where peace, love and understanding isn’t so funny at all.

“Well, it's hard to ignore what's been happening politically too but I don't write topical songs. I write based on my feelings towards things and actions.,” he says to slowcity.ca. “There's some social reactions here and there in the songs. Mainly, it's a record with hope and love. I hope I don't have to always deal with the same frustrations, I hope people learn that it takes more energy to be rude, to be unfair. I hope the arts are looked upon as importantly as they really are and all we need is love! right?,”

He speaks on the importance of the arts from his own lived experience. In the album’s press release Leger mentions how a song such as “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers can get him out of a depression. And the writing of his own songs can also elevate him he says.

“When I'm writing or sketching I don't think of its healing power in the moment. It's a gradual feeling as you get really into it or when you can take a step back and admire even a feather of something you've done. I don't think you need pain to create but if you're feeling low it does help to just feel like you're doing something. It's the boredom that makes me feel like I'm standing still. Songs are powerful, they can hit you right away. Music has saved me again and again,” he says.

Photo by LPPhotographs

There’s a saviour of a song in “That Ain’t Here” with its Lennon-esgue piano and an arms around the shoulders sing-a-long against hate. It has a slow anthemic beauty, with all the aplomb of Pink Floyd’s “Fearless.”

Leger is fearless too. There is much on this album which could leave him standing in a pile of dropped names. One could sum up many of these tracks on “Time Out for Tomorrow” with shout outs to those street poets (“Read Between the Lines” has an “Idiot Wind” gritted teeth delivery and “Canvas of Gold” would fit nicely in with any set by The Band.) but Leger’s bravery is in taking on these giants and matching them song for song, hit for hit. He may walk the same streets but he leaves his own tracks.

Leger is joined by his band The Situation plus special guests on the album which is produced by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies.

“Tim Bovaconti, who I met when I was 17 and sneaking into bars. He's one of the best musicians around. I remember the first time I heard him play guitar and I was floored. He produced or co-produced my first 6 records. We've worked a lot together and it was great to have him on an album again. Aaron Comeau plays piano on everything except "That Ain't Here", that's me but I can't play the fancy notes. He's another one of those players, like Tim, who can just pick up on things easily and make it sound like he's always played with you. Alan Zemaitis plays the organ like the old guys did, that concoction of passion, feel and skill.”

You could say the same thing about Leger, he plays like the old guys did, that concoction of passion, feel and skill.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Caveboy, LIA, Best Coast, Union Duke, The Bros. Landreth, Aphrose and Yorkston/Thorne/Khan

By Will McGuirk

Have you ever wondered what fusion of music will occur as we collectively stumble around the internet gathering bits and bytes of tunes and traditions from across the globe. Who will mesh and mash-up and draw upon such treasures. What new sounds will emerge and what new world will be born from such creations. I wonder a lot about that but mostly I wonder who will be brave enough to seek.

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"I wrote this EP as I was coming into myself. It was a period of my life when I learned how to love myself and what it meant to show myself respect. The root of this EP grew from the word resilience; Resilience in my mental health, as a woman and in my relationships. - LIA

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"Sometimes the biggest holdback is that little voice in your head saying you can’t do what you really want to do, for fear of failure. It’s a song where I’m battling the inner demons in my mind, asking them ‘why you wanna bring me down?’ when all I want to do is at least try. We all battle with these voices and this came to me and sometimes confronting them is the best way to get ahead." - Aphrose

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Close Talker get even closer - new 3D Binaural album drops Nov 8

By Will McGuirk

One should not take the writings nor the speakings of Marshall McLuhan literally. He speaks metaphorically for the most part. However on one level it is fine to take the phrases he says at face value in order to be able to understand the signposts rather than destination. One of McLuhan’s thoughts was on how electronic media would flip our predominantly visual space into a predominantly acoustic space. This does not mean podcasts and places for listening to sounds but it does mean that the prevalence of such podcasts and places for listening to sounds indicates that the environment which can best be described by the words “acoustic space” is getting closer. We can look to the artists to see what the future holds, as T Bone Burnett also says in his 2019 SXSW keynote address (his most recent album is titled “Invisible Light: Acoustic Space”) and at present a band such as Close Talker and this project they are calling “IMMERSION” is something which is indicative of the world we will be experiencing. So yes jump in on this, and gather the tools from it which you will be using in the future. So yes listen to the music but also be aware of the place you go when you listen in so closely, it will be one you will visit often.

Rock the Rink with Birds of Bellwoods lands at the Tribute Community Centre Nov 9

By Will McGuirk

Our pals in Birds of Bellwoods are once again playing in Oshawa, each time on bigger stages but this time they are taking to the ice. The pop-folk four-piece have been touring with the Rock The Rink ice skating extravaganza featuring the icing on the cake stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Patrick Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond and Elvis Stojko plus others. Thats a lotta star power on skates and the Birds have been providing on-ice accompaniment. The tour began in October in British Columbia and has been skating across Canada. Rock The Rink slides into the Tribute Community Centre Saturday Nov 9 before dipping into Cleveland Nov 10 and then salchowing it back north to Peterborough Nov 13. We flipped some questions to the band.

Slowcity.ca: Happy to see you guys on such a stage. Hard work pays off. What has this experience been like for you as a band and what have you learned as a band about being on stages such as this?

Birds of Bellwoods: “The hard work continues, but there’s no question this tour has been life changing. It took us a while just to process the scope of the audiences we were playing and the level of talent we were touring in support of. The experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone in the cast and crew have been incredibly kind and supportive, we’ve made some true friends and learned a lot.

“In terms of what we’ve learned about stages like this, there’s a lot to unpack because this is a very unique set up. Playing in the round, with ten to twenty feet of ice between you and any audience, it hasn’t been done much before. I’d say the biggest lessons include keeping your eyes up toward the balcony and wearing something sparkly.”

SC: What does this involve for you; are you playing while skaters are on the ice or do you have your own performance - if the former what is the process for such collaborations?

“We perform a set before the skaters take the ice, then join them again part way through the show to perform an acoustic version of our song ‘Let You Go’ while they skate. Choreography was created to our SiriusXM session, and when we got to Abbotsford we were placed on the ice. It was incredible to see how effectively and easily the two parts came together.”

SC: I have to ask about your relationship with the skaters, what have been the most fun experiences and who has been the most fun to hang out with and why?

“We honestly could never choose! All of the skaters are incredible in their own way. We truly have become a happy little touring family. Elvis taught us some Martial Arts breathing techniques, Patrick and Kintaro have an NHL’12 Xbox tournament going in the bus as we write this. We definitely spend a lot of our time with Kaetlyn Osmond and Jeremy Abbott - in fact Jeremy has even started a side project with several of us called Laska Highway - you can find our first song on our Instagram page. It’s very serious stuff.”

SC: Whenever creative people get together new projects and collaborations are forged - Are there plans to work with any or all of the ice stars in the future?

“We sure hope so. Though new to skating at the start of this tour, we absolutely love all of their work and hope to keep these relationships for the rest of our careers. I think we’ve got some pretty crazy opportunities for music videos at the very least. Also. . . Laska Highway forever.”

Ticket information for Rock The Rick in Oshawa here.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic 'Each One Reach One' edition -with Bedhead, Hawksley Workman, L.A. Foster, Sandra Bouza, Matt Zaddy plus Chris Landry and the Seasick Mommas

By Will McGuirk

Strip away the commerce, move that over there. The world has enough commercial music, there is no need to make any more pop. But the capacity to absorb the individual’s expression of their thoughts, that capacity is infinite. Here’s a thought - fill this infinite space called the internet with the infinite content of art. Each one reach one.

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“Some days it can be hard to get out of bed, but you do it anyway. BEDHEAD is the idea of carrying around the weight of what’s on your mind.

 I started writing “Fight No More” a couple summers ago during a really low point in my life; I found myself feeling incredibly overwhelmed and frustrated with my depression. I had been stuck in this headspace that felt like it would never end, even after years of treatment. Suddenly, something just snapped. Enough was enough. I said “fuck this,” and “Fight No More” was born.” - Bedhead.

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“The song is a meditation on belonging and the dark, slippery moments when love challenges. . . When it slips from a feeling, into work, into a mission statement of mutual truths.” - Hawksley Workman

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The song “was inspired by falling in love with somebody in an impossible situation. Someone who wasn’t ready to love - not even ready to love themselves - but still falling for them completely.” - L.A. Foster  

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Mappe Of directs you to "The Isle of Ailynn", Whitby prog-folk artist releases his second album

By Will McGuirk

One can only launch, lurch and leap onto the boat, push off, row, sail. Each of us on the sea, a solo journey, an odyssey, a ship of fools, a boatload of wonder. Mappe Of directs his ship towards ‘The Isle of Ailynn’, his own creation, his own destination, his own future in his hands as they carve back the water, wave after wave, song after song, he beckons and invites all as all artists do and you may require some semblance of insight on the purpose of the voyage so sail beneath the “Northern Sky” of Nick Drake, sail on “Into The Mystic” with Van Morrison, remember “All Things Are Quite Silent” so says Steeleye Span, sail through the “Holocene” with Bon Iver, or trust and travel to this place with Mappe Of’s Tom Meikle, which may only exist in the progressive-folk sounds of this record yet is as visceral as anything which proves the existence of your fingertips. It is as real as anything you may grasp and squeeze.

One can if one trusts, travel through this place, from the “Estuary” to “Thessalon” on onto “Icovellavna,” and be in awe of the grace and architecture, feel its rough hewn surface, inhale the great open spaces under great open skies which open further onto the heavens; one can drop one’s eyes and blinking in the smoke rising, see into “Volcae,” all the way to the bubbling magna which birthed all.

But this Isle is not one of fireside fables or Tolkien fantasies, nor the arrogant ponderings of a technophile in awe of the machinery. This Isle, as fantastic as it is, is still rooted in something human and familiar.

There is something concrete, something tangible, something tactile. One can, if one really works at it, create a song which reaches out and touches someone, Mappe Of may have just created something which one can reach out and touch.