Concert Review- Winter Gloves & Tokyo Police Club @ CNE August 29/08
This is NOT a picture from the show.
While the Bandshell at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto is not usually the first place one would think of to hear actual good music, good music could be heard yesterday from Montreal “dance rock” group Winter Gloves and Newmarket indie sweethearts Tokyo Police Club.
Nor is this.
Winter Gloves opened up the show with a good thirty minute set, and was highly underappreciated by the majority of the crowd who was obviously there for Tokyo Police Club, save for a few diehard fans (one guy screamed, during a pause between songs “I SAW YOU AT HORSESHOE TAVERN, REMEMBER ME?). They started out with “Factories” and continued on with their well-known “Let Me Drive”, followed by “About a Girl” and then “I Can’t Tell You.” They even played three new songs- “Jump”, “We Need New Transportation” and the song they played during their CBC Radio 3 Sessions podcast, “Tooth Fairy”.
Overall the band were extremely energetic, with lead singer Charles F bouncing all over the stage, whether he was maniacally playing keyboards, shaking a tambourine, playing guitar for “Party People” or even banging a xylophone. That’s right- you can even be amazing on a xylophone. Drummer Patrick Sayers was also very lively and looked like he was probably sweating a great deal from his intense drumming.
Next, Tokyo Police Club took the stage and the millions for fifteen-year-old girls began to start screaming. And with good enough reason- TPC did play quite a solid set. They started off their set with “Nature of the Experiment” and honestly, I didn’t know enough of their music to appreciate their last show of the year, but I know many of their fans certainly did.
Lead singer and bass player David Monk accidentally broke a bass string during one song and Winter Gloves actually lent him their bass to play in place. Monk jokingly said “Have you heard about how Mars is supposed to be bigger than the moon? That’s about as rare as breaking a bass string.” Later on, he also gave a shout-out to Tiny Tom’s Donuts, a CNE tradition, saying “Tom hooked me up, and it was delicious.”
Understandably, the crowd went craziest when they played their well-known tracks from their CD Elephant Shell, such as “Graves”, “Tessellate” and “Your English is Good.” After finishing off their set, the rabid fans wanted more and the guys came back out for an encore with their popular quick tune “Cheer it On.” You can only imagine how many people yelled “TOKYO POLICE CLUB” during the chorus of that song.
Overall the night was pretty good, I just wish that there were more people out to see Winter Gloves, even though I know they’re not as well known and that there were people other than me there to see them. Oh well, at least I have a nifty Winter Gloves t-shirt now.
Interview- The Passengers- Part III
Michael: Recently I posted on the blog about women in music…
Jonny: Women are nice.
Michael: I sort made the observation that it would be really easy to come up with a group comprised of entirely males. But when you think of an all girl group you might think of the Spice Girls or the Pussycat Dolls. What’s your stance on women in music? Do you think society would be ready to accept an all-girl group?
Jonny: I think so. There are [bands like] Le Tigre, that’s a kickass band. One of my biggest inspirations for writing is PJ Harvey. She’s an amazing songwriter and she’s really hardcore, tougher than most guys. I think society’s more than ready to accept an all girl band.
Daniel: I think in indie rock, even Canadian indie rock it’s almost become a staple. There’s always a girl singer part to a lot of really good songs. The new Dirty Projectors album is so good!
Jonny: I don’t like the guy voice…
Daniel: Well you don’t like the guy’s voice but the girl’s voice, I think it adds a certain quality.
Ryan: Well it’s all relative. I don’t think the world will ever be ready for certain bands. It’s very hard to stay objective about music even though that was objective and self-refuting. Most of it’s just your opinion, it’s preference. I don’t think that the world is ready but I think people will be, certain people.
Daniel: I think it’s there, you just have to find it, you know what I mean?
Michael: Let’s say theoretically you could take as many female musicians as you wanted and created a band, which female musicians would you choose?
Jonny: All right, I’ve had this prepared for years!
Daniel: This is the kind of game I love playing. Alright, girl drummers…
Jonny: There’s that one from Bat for Lashes.
Daniel: We saw Bat for Lashes live and they had a girl drummer who was just fantastic. So her on drums, I don’t know her name but I checked out her other band and it was pretty good too. Okay, let’s go for the typical four-piece band.
Jonny: Jenny Lewis…
Daniel: Ya, my crush on Jenny Lewis makes me want her in this band.
Jonny: So what, Jenny Lewis on guitar?
Daniel: This game is too hard! (laughter) Needless to say there are a lot of female musicians I’d want in a supergroup.
Jonny: I can do this, I think I can do this. PJ Harvey. Drumming, Karen Carpenter.
Daniel: You should get the singer of Deerhoof to play bass.
Jonny: Oh ya she’s good! She’s adorable and really good at guitar. Dan in a skirt? Okay I was just kidding about that. I really like Tori Amos, she just does everything, you know? (quiet discussion) Well apparently we’re not ready for an all-girl band!
Daniel: The question just has too many options!
Jonny: Ooh, let’s get Tegan & Sara! They’re good at guitar. We have this inside thing, Dan and I call each other Tegan and Sara.
Daniel: You’re (talking of Jonny) Sara because you talk a lot.
Michael: Well it’s not really inside anymore, is it?
Daniel: It’s outside now…
Michael: Okay, let’s make a permanent roster [for this band] so that, if this ever reaches the stratosphere…
Jonny: Or some millionaire who says “I have a billion dollars to pay these girls to make the best band in the world!”
Michael: The following is a challenge to the following female musicians:
Jonny: Jennny Lewis as a singer, PJ Harvey on guitar, Kim Deal on bass and Karen Carpenter on drums, done!
Michael: You heard it here first, you heard it hear first.
Daniel: I think they would create a whole new genre. It would be the most amazing thing you ever heard in your life. It’d be like… yeahhhh.
Michael: That’s the new genre, “yeahhhh”?
Daniel: Yes, and it will have four h’s. (laughter for a few seconds)
Jonny: Take control of this interview Michael!
Michael: Oh, I like the way this conversation’s flowing… I don’t really have much left.
Jonny: We could talk for hours, recording our own voices…
Michael: What kind of Canadian indie artists are you listening to right now?
Ryan: I’ve been listening to a lot of country and folk. There’s a band from around here called the Cavaliers, they’re local. There’s a musician who works for a camp called Christian Horizon his name is Seth, and he’s a brilliant musician. He was in a band called Battle Creek which is always a staple for me. Uh… I guess there’s a time when you don’t even know who you listen to. Broken Social Scene always. I love them, they’re nice.
Daniel: Lately, I found I’ve been listening to a lot of our friends. Which is kind of nice, making friends in indie music. Matt Henderson, Mike Harloff… Fitness Club Fiasco is [Harloff's] new name. The Cavaliers, they play amazing live shows. There’s Broken Social Scene and all their little side projects..
Michael: Like Reverie Sound Revue…
Daniel: Jason Collett. The new Metric album, I really enjoyed.
Jonny: Arcade Fire.
Daniel: Arcade Fire, I think they’re due for another album that will knock me off my feet.
Jonny: The Elwins, as I’ve stated before. Cutest EP of the last year…
Michael: Last time at The Basement I was so angry that I did not have the money to buy that EP, I was heartbroken.
Daniel: The Bicycles, even though they’re not really around. I don’t know if they’re on hiatus or if they broke up.
Michael: Sorry, you were saying…
Jonny: Sorry, sorry. We’re very apologetic/polite.
Michael: The Canadian way to solve problems.
Jonny: It is, isn’t it? I’ve been listening to Oh No Forest Fires, they’re phenomenal guys. I’ve also been listening to Make Your Exit, I used to work with a guy named Jeff Buckley, no relation to Jeff Buckley. They’re really good, I don’t know how to describe it. Kind of Broken Social Scene and Apostle of Hustle. I love Emily Haines and her writing. I’m trying to convince myself to not get a tattoo of her name. I’m very… what’s the word?
Daniel: Monomaniacal? You get an idea in your head and then you just go with it.
Jonny: Impulsive, that’s the word! Ya, I almost had an Emily Haines tattoo.
Daniel: Not as a diss to her, but we have a friend… I’m not going to go there.
Jonny: Let’s just say embarassing tattoos of bands that are no longer good. Like if I were to get a Third Eye Blind tattoo today…
Daniel: They have a new album, they could be good.
Jonny: There was a tattoo of a band that’s now really bad. They were good at the time..
Michael: Let’s keep the band’s name anonymus.
Jonny: Ya.
Michael: Well if you do get the Emily Haines tattoo you could be like Johnny Depp and the whole “Wino forever” thing. I guess you could try to find a variation of Emily Haines.
SuYen: I just got into the Canadian indie music scene, I’ve been listening to Death from Above 1979, I think they’re fantastic.
Daniel: Too bad they broke up though.
SuYen: Mike Harloff. Metric… I know [Jonny] likes Emily Haines so. If you asked indie in general I could name a lot.
Ryan: Forgot to mention Wintersleep. I like the singer’s voice, it’s not as good live but still really nice to hear.
Michael:Are you guys familiar with all the other bands with Winter in their names? Besides Wintersleep there’s Wintermitts, Winter Gloves…
Jonny: There are a lot of bands with the words “deer”, “black” and “castle”.
Daniel: There’s a lot of “wolf” bands.
Jonny: And “antler” too. Deerhoof, Deerhunter. Crystal Castles, Black Castles…
Daniel: I could go on forever about local indie bands that are good. Wooden Sky is releasing an album, they’re really good…
Michael: I think that concludes our interview, thank you so much for your time.
Interview- The Passengers Part II
Below is a transcript of the second third of my interview with the Passengers.
—————————–
Michael: At your shows you often talk about how the internet helps you. The internet is a good resource for you guys as far as spreading the word of your music. How do you think the internet helped you guys? Was word of mouth more helpful or MySpace and Facebook, that kind of thing?
Jonny: I think they go hand in hand. Word of mouth is still a viable means of getting to know who you’re listening to, what your friends are listening to. But it’s just easier to know what they’re listening to with the internet. When you first hear a band you’re like “Hey Ryan, have you checked out this band?” and he’ll say “What’s the MySpace?” Ya, I think they definitely go hand in hand.
Daniel: I think it does so much. I mean, you could have friends or family in other countries and you can just say “Hey, check out my band.” Then they go and tell their friends and almost immediately you have someone in England listening to you, right?
Jonny: I think we kind of take it for granted, you know? “There’s someone in England, across the ocean, listening to our song!
Daniel: Imagine ten years ago, you’d be listening in morse code. “F chord, C chord…”
Ryan: I also think that with the internet, word of mouth is great but I think it’s most effective in a tightly knit community like a high school or something. But with stuff like Facebook and MySpace it’s really easy to make a community, you know? Like on Wikipedia, you can go from an article about a penguin to a baseball. After one click you’re in a totally different world on the internet.
Daniel: You know, instead of saying “Check out my band, hear them live!” you can just say “Check out my band, here’s the link.” It has its pros and cons I think because there’s also overexposure, so many bands can do that.
Michael: What do you think is the best moment you’ve ever had at a show before?
Daniel: There’s this bar in Mississauga called Marcello’s, and the owner Marcello is a good character. He has a very strong personality I’d say, on occassion when bands are playing he’ll come from behind the bar and get the mic and do a rant. It’ll be off the top of his head, like “It was the night, it was dark…” Long, weird, off the top of his head. Then after our last set, one or two months ago he just came up to us and said “Ah man, I should have done a rant!” And I said “You know you’ve kind of made it when Marcello wants to do a rant for your band.” I felt so happy.
Michael: Do you have any stories that can top that?
Ryan: Well Marcello is a very good character so it’s very tough to tell a story not featuring Marcello.
Daniel: Whenever we play “Asleepwalker” when it builds into that big part it makes me feel so happy. I love playing that. It’s my favourite part of every show.
Ryan: Or in “Garden City” when everyone’s clapping and seeing people dancing, enjoying the music. We feed off the audience more than we realize, I think. When they’re really enjoying the music those are the best times.
Michael: How about your worst moment at a show?
SuYen: It wasn’t too far off, I think it was two weeks ago? Marcello’s?
Jonny: Our show was sloppy.
SuYen: Ya, I think it was the worst.
Jonny: I think our worst shows are when we’re really sloppy. I can be really hard on myself.
Michael: Are there any incidents of, you know, being heckled or something?
Daniel: I think we deal with the heckling by… well we don’t heckle back, but we sort of play into it.
Jonny: There was this girl last time who kept telling me to take off my shirt.
Ryan: That’s not so much heckling as someone thinking you’re sexy.
Daniel: I remember we had a show in Scarborough and everyone was sitting down, and I remember one girl thought it was too loud, because she kept plugging her ears. And it threw me off for a bit, and then I felt sort of out of place, in a way. I wouldn’t say it was because of mistakes or anything, but it was kind of a weird feeling?
Jonny: Feeling like you don’t fit in or something, those are the bad shows.
Daniel: The odd mistake doesn’t faze me that much but it’s more embarassing when you kinda get into that head space of “No, I don’t feel right up in front of people at the moment.”
Jonny: You’re very vulnerable. It’s like being naked and walking down the street.
Michael: I really like your use of metaphor Jon.
Jonny: Thank you! I read books these days!
Michael: Often when you see at award shows, when a band is coming to accept an award, they always make big acceptance speeches like “I’d like to thank God, and I’d like to thank my fans.” So how important are your fans to you, because there are a lot of artists who say fans matter a lot but then at the same time might not give a shit what they say.
Jonny: I think there’s a point in those artists who are really established when they realize that someone is always going to buy their music, and it’s not such a big deal anymore . For a small-time band like us the fans are really important. Who else is going to listen to us? Who else is going to tell their friends about us? Sometimes fans will tell us what they like and what they don’t like about us and we take really take it to heart.
Daniel: I don’t really know how to explain it, but it kind of helps you in a way, to do what you do.
Jonny: You know, when you’re playing a show and the fans are singing along, you think “Wow, that was something I made them do, taking the time to memorize the lyrics and sing along to.” It’s a really humbling experience.
Daniel: I think it’s really nice, you know, how you grew up liking a band, and then other people are sort of feeling the same experience, wanting to see a band live. Now that we can do that for people it kind of makes us feel really nice.
Michael: A lot of Canadian indie bands that I’ve noticed are very very nice, I’ve found that a lot. I guess it’s a stereotype for Canadians too, “Canadians are really, really nice.” Do you get that kind of vibe when you’re playing shows with other bands? Are they all as nice as they seem to be?
Jonny: Well there’s a handful of bands that we really like…
Michael: Would you be able to name any of them?
Daniel: Really friendly, or really unfriendly?
Jonny: Well we can’t really name the unfriendly ones…
Daniel: Well because of shows we’ve made really good friends with Matt Henderson, we always try to get as many shows as we can with this guy. He’s just the nicest guy in the world. And the Elwins….
Jonny: When we first met the Elwins we were playing a lot of crappy shows with all these bands that just didn’t fit us. I remember when the Elwins played it was like a breath of fresh air. I felt so happy playing a show alongside them.
Ryan: They’re also the sweetest guys in the world. Well a lot of the time when we play bars we’re not always very functional and sometimes the other bands might have been at the bar a little too much. Sometimes they’re not just our style of music and I don’t know if this is mean to say but not our style of people. You know they’ll say “Ya man, fuck ya, fuckin’…” (laughter) I can’t understand the people whose every other word is “fuck.” I wonder, you know?
Daniel: I think there’s a correlation between style of music and personality traits.
Ryan: I just find that more often than not, I’m just kind of a person who likes to socialize if I’ve met people beforehand.
Daniel: Well I guess to make it more specific you did say the Canadian “indie” scene, and I think that in the Canadian “indie” scene it’s true, people are nice. Because we meet all different genres of people, and different genres have different types of people, some not so favourable, some pretty favourable.
Jonny: There was a sign recently put up by some beer company, where it said “Beer colder than Toronto” suggesting that people in Toronto aren’t very nice.
Michael: Ya, I heard about that!
Jonny: They took it down! A lot of people were saying that Torontonians are actually nice.
Michael: I don’t know, I find that on the subway people aren’t very nice there…
Jonny: I think people aren’t nice on every subway though… Except for that homeless guy who wants to sit… on you?
Daniel: I think it’s a big city mentality. In a big city people are more likely to just be doing their own thing whereas in a small town…
Michael: I think we could have a seperate interview about whether Toronto is actually nice or not. We could probably go another hour, you know…
Jonny: Ya, let’s do that!
Daniel: I took a university course on urban environments and the city and we talked a lot about big cities versus small towns. Mississauga is… are we expanding?
Michael: Oh ya, I’d say we’re expanding…
Ryan: The sixth largest city in Canada, aren’t we?
Jonny: How many are we?
Michael: About 750,000 or so?
Daniel: Well you can tell by the skyline. To be honest, I kind of like it. I like New York a lot, so…
Michael: Do you maybe dream of recording in New York some time?
Jonny: Yes. Electric Ladyland…
Ryan: Do you like the idea of a lot of buildings being within the buildings or watching them from a distance?
Daniel: I just like a nice skyline, you know?
Ryan: There’s this one bridge that goes into Hamilton. To the left side, it’s just ocean and on the other side it’s just filth and grime. It’s absolutely amazing.
Daniel: I remember we were driving home from a show once and the lake effect with the buildings all lit up was really nice.
Ryan: You know on the other side there are all these factories and a lot of smoke and you wonder “Why is the smoke not reaching the other side of this bridge?”
Michael: Ya, I think we might have strayed a little…
Grayowl Concert Alert > Aug. 26 – Sept. 1
By Backdrifter
Grayowl Point presents the first edition of the Grayowl Concert Alert, a (hopefully) weekly guide to indie concerts in (currently just) Toronto. So without much further ado, here’s what’s going on in T.O. for the week of August 26 to September 1..
Wednesday Aug 26:
Datura @ The Boat (158 Augusta Avenue), 9:00 PM
Everything All The Time @ The Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen Street W), 11:00 PM
Politique @ Rancho Relaxo (300 College Street), 9:00 PM
The Change @ Clinton’s Place (693 Bloor Street W), 9:00 PM
Thursday Aug 27:
Bravestation @ Rearview Mirror (193½ Baldwin Ave.), 9:00 PM
Delinquints (with The Mahones) @ Horseshoe Tavern, 8:00 PM
E.A.S.T.S.I.D.E U.P @ Capital Theatre (2492 Yonge Street),7:00 PM
Music For Money @ The Music Gallery (197 John St.),8:00 PM
The Cubadors @ Mitzi’s Sister (1554 Queen St. W.),10:00 PM
Worst Pop Band Ever @ Rex Hotel (194 Queen St. West),6:30 PM
Friday Aug 28:
Cancel Winter @ Bovine Sex Club, 8:00 PM
A Match For The Curious @ DC Music Hall (360 Munster Ave.), 9:00 PM
Saturday Aug 29:
Kill The Lights @ El Mocambo (464 Spadina Ave), 8:00 PM
STRAWMAN @ The Kathedral (651 Queen Street West) time unknown.
The Killbots and extra happy ghost @ Rancho Relaxo, 9:00 PM
Sunday Aug 30:
*silence*
Monday Aug 31:
Bentroots @ Chick’n Deli (744 Mt. Pleasant Road), 7:30 PM
Tuesday Sept 1:
Datura @ The Horseshoe Tavern @ 10:50 PM
and that, friends, is all for this week. So have fun, and feel free to add your comments – let us know what you want from Grayowl Concert Alerts! see you next time.
Interview- The Passengers, Part I
As if I haven’t gone on enough about how amazing this quartet from Mississauga is, I now have an interview to prove it. Below is a transcript of the first third of the interview, with some minor edits.
———————————————————————-
Michael: Michael here, interviewing the Passengers for Grayowl Point. And so my first question is, if you could each answer this individually, what kind of music did you grow up listening to and how did it influence your sound, I guess you could say?
Ryan: I didn’t really listen to music until grade eight. In grade eight, my teacher mentioned the song “Hotel California” and I knew that song because I heard it one time and all I listened to was the Eagles for two years, and other classic rock. I also liked Van Morrisson because I thought Moondance was one of the greatest songs ever. Well I’m not sure what can be called “growing up”… Because growing up I didn’t really listen to any music until the Eagles.
Daniel: I know I pretty much grew up listening to a lot of Queen and Paul Simon. I don’t know how it really fits into what we do now. I remember grade six was my Radiohead year… I think that’s when OK Computer came out, that’s what we get a lot of comparisons to. I went through a punk phase for a bit… Wow, that’s a good question. The Beatles, obviously, since birth I guess. I guess you can say it influenced us melody-wise, like in the guitar parts, you know?
Jonny: I guess, growing up, I listened to a lot of country music and reggae, so I have a mix of Patsy Cline…Peter Tosh, Bob Marley. And then in my high school years I listened to a lot of Jeff Buckley, there’s a bit of that in the way I sing. I listened to a lot of the Verve and Radiohead, and a lot of disco music too like the Beegees and Donna Summer, so, some of my favourite stuff.
SuYen: Well, mine’s going to sound really strange but… my first musical experience was the Britney Spears “Oops I did it Again” CD, and then some Backstreet Boys (laughs). When high school came I didn’t really listen to a lot of music, and after a while I went to Sum 41, a little bit of Linkin park, and after that I went to a Japanese band called X Japan, that bad influenced me to play drums. But then after high school I met these guys and they introduced me to Radiohead. Now I’m exploring music and I’m still learning, listening to the Beatles and stuff.
Michael: Now I know this question is pretty common, but how did you guys meet? Is there someone who can tell the whole story?
Jonny: I think I can!
Daniel: Well you’re kind of like the essential figure…
Jonny: Ooh! I started a band in high school with a friend of mine named Phil, and we found a drummer through Craigslist who was kind of scary, and we also had a friend named Louis who plays bass with us and a few days before our first show, our Craigslist drummer dropped, and I’m really glad he did because he was kind of creepy. I think he was fourty years old, probably. And he suggested Dan who played drums and learned all the drums that week. We made three songs the night before probably, that was the first incarnation probably. After, we all kind of went our own ways and then I might Ryan and [SuYen] at my church, Mississauga City Baptist Church. We also played with Timmy Blank, who’s a very cool, stand-up guy. Later Timmy decided to part ways with the band and the first person who came to mind was Dan because he was a good friend of mine, and I wouldn’t really feel comfortable playing with someone else, so I asked Dan and he said yes. And we lived happily ever after, the end.
Michael: That’s awesome. So I guess another really common question, why the Passengers?
Jonny: We were under the band name of Her Majesty and we said “this is a really bad name.” And then we thought of calling the band Copper Gold which is one of the worst band names of all time that doesn’t exist yet. If you’re going to make a band name don’t call it Copper Gold. And I think I was just going through words that I liked.
Daniel: And we made a really big list, like a text file that we would send back and forth to each other. We had like Paper Cups,… I think I made about seven Beatles references like the 909’s…
Jonny: And the Lovely Rita’s or something? And then we settled on the Passengers, and I think it was [Dan] who said it looked really good on lined paper. Because if you were to have a paper with a middle dashed linem all the letters of the Passengers would fit under the line.
Daniel: It’s called the x height and it looks really nice if it’s in all lower case letters and it kind of lines up really nicely as a logo.
Michael: Okay, during the brief period when you guys changed your name to the Revelries, where did that name come from?
Daniel: That was from a really late-night MSN conversation, I think Jon suggested the Rivalries, and then I just kind of like looked at it and thought “Revelries?” like revelry, like a party, and then I immediately thought “have a revelry”. After I showed the definition of a revelry which is a joyous gathering, it seemed like the direction we were trying to go for our music.
Michael: Okay, so as if Jon hasn’t talked enough already (Jonny laughs), do you have a sort of process you go through when you write a song?
Jonny: Ya. I think what happens is I get a lot of ideas, and the first thing I do when I have a song idea is I go through it once, and then I just chuck it, I completely scrap it. And my idea is that if a song is good it will come back to me, like when I’m walking down the street or driving, and usually the songs that come back are the ones that I work with. If it’s not memorable enough then it’s not worth writing out.
Michael: Your EP that you released, “Do you have a flag?” Of course I’m going to ask why “Do you have a flag?”
Ryan: The first time that EP name came to us was when Timmy Blank was still in the band, and we were coming out with some recordings and we were all sitting around. And at the time we were really into a comedian named Eddie Izzard. He had this little routine where he was talking about how the British are conquering all these different colonies, and he said “I claim India for Britain”, and someone said “You can’t claim India, we live here”, and then “Well, do you have a flag?” and then “Well we don’t need a flag, we live here!” and he’s like “No flag, no country!” And we thought it was good because at the time we were all really into Radiohead, even more than we are now. Radiohead named their first album Pablo Honey, wasn’t that after a comedic routine?
Jonny: The jerky boys, they did prank calls in the early nineties.
Ryan: And so Pablo Honey came from that, and so we thought “Ya, that’s a good sounding name, and it’s more like Radiohead, so it’s everything that we want!”
Daniel: I think I can add to that. You guys were going to name the Skyscraper EP, before I was in the band, and then it was going to be “I’m okay if you’re okay”, and when we were thinking of the new EP, and then I brought it back and said “Hey, why don’t you actually go with the name that you were thinking of because it sounds really cool”. I think you can make your own meaning out of it too, it’s a very broad statement, or question to ask, and it can mean a lot of things.
Michael: When I was looking on the inside of the CD it said that you, Dan, actually took the album cover picture. What inspired you to take that picture?
Daniel: I think that when Jon first told me that they were going to name that old EP “Do you have a flag?” I asked if I could do the artwork for it. I had the idea of someone making their own flag, that was the inspiration for that. And the idea just kind of stuck with me, the idea of sewing machines, sewing needles. And pretty much what ended up becoming the cover of that was what I had as an idea two years before. It was stuck so long in my head I just wanted to get that up.
Michael: Do you guys have any plans for releasing music any time soon?
Jonny: Ya, we’re hoping to start recording another EP come the fall, around October. So we’re just trying to find the songs for that EP. It sounds a lot bigger and more joyous than our music thus far. We’re really enjoying working on that album so I’m really looking forward to it.
Michael: Okay, how many of the four of you can play guitar?
Jonny: I think all of us.
Michael: Individually, what was the first song each of you learned on guitar?
(band takes some time to think back)
Ryan: That is a good question, Michael. You know, I’m really not sure. Everyone will say “Oh, I learned ‘Smoke on the Water’ first and that’s the first riff everyone remembers playing. When I first got my guitar I was in grade eight. My dad played the ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff.
Jonny: Your dad plays guitar?
Ryan: He doesn’t. He picked up the guitar and played it and I thought “My dad is the best guitar player in the world!” Then he taught me it, so my dad was my first teacher. So the very first riff I learned was obviously the ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff, and everyone can say that but it hold significance for me because my dad was my very first teacher. I guess the first song I learned was-
Jonny: That was a long intro…
Ryan: Ya, I know, but I guess the first song I learned was “Walk this Way” by Aerosmith because I thought that it was neat. (Jonny and Ryan hum the guitar rhythm)
Jonny: Oh um… Mine was definitely “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins. When I first started playing the guitar I was obsessed with the Smashing Pumpkins, and I thought I could play it because it was in a different tuning. I was very unsuccessful but I was trying.
Daniel: I started learning guitar when I was in my big Green Day phase in grade six, and I think it might have been “Time of Your Life”. I know for so long I didn’t know how to read tabs off the internet but the first time it all made sense was like that scene in the Matrix, when Neo sees real life as the Code. It was a solo for a song off their Nimrod album, I think “Walking Alone”? And one day I started trying some things, and then I read the tab and I started hearing the solo, and then I realized that’s how it works! I guess “Time of your Life” and “Walking Alone.”
SuYen: This is a really hard question… I’m going to have to go all the way back, oh man… Because I’m not really a guitarist, but I like to play guitar, I don’t do all that crazy solo stuff, I think it was “Unintended” by Muse.
Ryan: Sorry, I wanted to redeem myself. The first song I learned was “Here Comes the Sun” but without a capo.
Jonny: Ya, well the first song I learned to play was “Classical Gas”. (awkward pause)
Ryan: Next question.
Review- “Jellyfish Noise Factory” EP- Pinto Publico
Reviewed by Michael
Mississauga’s Pinto Publico do not lie when they tell you that they make a lot of noise. No sir. This EP is the noisiest indie CD that I have reviewed so far. Not that this is entirely a bad thing. The noise has its pros and its cons, it is sometimes endearing and other times annoying.
I happened to get this EP free when they played a show quite some time ago- I believe it was actually March of 2008, the CD being from late 2007. Truthfully, I had not even listened to it until today, for reviewing purposes. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I didn’t want to listen to it, it’s just that at the same show I think I bought the Stop Drop N Skank EP at the same time. So Jellyfish Noise Factory sat around, unlistened to, and probably crying out for attention.
So I popped the CD into my laptop and started listening, and I’m not sure how I reacted. I have to say the guitar was something I wasn’t used to hearing. It had a very grindy/crunchy sound that actually fit the kind of music they played, which can only be described as a kind of fusion of funk, blues and pseudo-heavy rock. The vocals are interesting as well- not your typical singing, more like a series of gasping statements. Again, this has its pros and its cons.
“Jellyfish Noise Factory” is a fairly good opening for the album. It is the introduction to the grinding guitar sound and the gaspy vocals, and the album progresses from there. And by progresses, I mean continues. Unfortunately, the band does not seem to innovate too much with their sound, as several of the songs sounded a little the same to me.
Most of the songs are around the 3 minute mark, with a few tracks being under 2 minutes, and the album confusingly ends with “Strange Noises” which is almost six minutes, and is very slowed down and… I don’t know what exactly. It seemed like the band was trying to show a little more maturity on the song and it only half-worked. After a frantic eight songs, a sudden slowdown seems a little weird.
Oddly enough, my favourite song on the album was the shortest, clocking in at a meer 49 seconds, called “The Homeless Pinecone”. It was awesome imagery and the repeating vocals told a little bit of a story. Amusing to say the least.
This album has some interesting sounds even though there is a lack of innovation, and some of the music is, dare I say, danceable.
Top Tracks: The Homeless Pinecone, The Funk Song
2 Hoots (out of 4)
Review – “Let It Die” – Feist
Reviewed by Allyssia
When Feist was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2008 Grammys, indie music fans all over the world must have been scoffing in their seats (not that they were actually watching a mainstream award show…). To call Feist a “new artist” in 2008 was like calling Methuselah middle-aged because, as is common knowledge to her fans, Feist has been recording solo since 1999, almost a full decade before she was acknowledged by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Though her 1999 debut, the impossible to find Monarch (Lay Your Jeweled Head Down) (even I, a CD fiend, cannot get my hands on a copy of this out-of-print album), was good, Let It Die was the album that made a her a pulsing red point on the radar of indie music fans all over the world.
The album, a collection of originals and covers first released in 2004, has a distinctly foreign feel to it. The music, which is a tasty cocktail of folk, jazz, and mellow bossa nova, seems as though it wouldn’t be out of place in a smoky Parisian café, an upscale New York lounge, or a sandy beach somewhere tropical…or in an elevator. That’s the one fault that comes with this album: though it makes for brilliant listening when you’re in a mellow mood, some of the songs are so mellow that, after repeat listening they start to sound as bland as water on toast.
The CD’s high points are Feist’s original works which are both thoughtful and charming. Feist even gets a little sexy on “Leisure Suite” where she suggestively coos “In my leisure suite/Just a place to meet/We can press repeat/And do what we do when we’re there…” After listening to that one you’ll be blushing like the first time you heard the moans on Donna Summers’ “Love to Love You, Baby”. Another standout is the bouncy “Mushaboom”, on which she airily sings about the simple pleasures of small-town life.
Feist’s covers are good but, for the most part, nothing to write home about. Her cover of the Bee Gees’ “Love You Inside Out” (her rendition is called “Inside and Out”) is a notable exception. The song, which was nominated for Single of the Year at the 2006 Junos, sounds original, fresh, and memorable. But it’s her rendition of Françoise Hardy’s French ballad “L’amour Ne Dure Pas Toujours” that is the albums low point. Her French accent sounds a little awkward to anyone who knows what French sounds like coming from a native speaker. But don’t get me wrong: she’s by no means horrible. Think better that Emily Haines on “Poster of a Girl” but worse than April March on “Laisse Tombez Les Filles” – sort of like Jane Birkin on “La Décadanse”. But it’s not the accent that makes the track forgettable. The song’s just boring.
Now that Steve Jobs has turned Feist into a household (albeit difficult to pronounce) name, it’s easy to think that this Nova Scotia-born songbird just got into the swing of things recently. Let It Die proves that that couldn’t be farther than the truth. She’s been around for a while, and has been producing great music the whole time.
Top Tracks: Mushaboom, Leisure Suite, When I Was a Young Girl, One Evening
3.5 Hoots + *swoop*
Review-”The Unspoken King”-Cryptopsy
Reviewed By Michael Rhombus
So brutal you can practically smell it.
This 2008 release affected me on a deep personal level: it’s such a massive letdown that it makes me want to change my xbox gamertag (Cryptopsy84). Before the release of this ‘album’, the Montreal-based tech-death band known as Cryptopsy were one of three bands constantly battling for the ‘BEST BAND EVARRR’ title inside my mind. At this point I consider them to be a ‘handicap band’ and only remain in the battle for sentimental reasons.
If you’re not familiar with the history of the band, allow me to explain why nobody really had faith in this album in the first place. Classic frontman ‘Lord Worm’ (lovely name earned by eating worms on stage) had left the band for the second time, to my extreme displeasure. After releasing two LP’s he first left in 1997 to pursue life as an adult ESL teacher (I wonder if he puts both jobs on his resume). He returned in 2003 to tour and release another LP, then quit in 2007 due to personal health reasons (something he ate?). In his first leave of absence he was replaced by the acceptable Mike DiSalvo: most fans deemed him as ‘ok but not Lord Worm good’. In early 2008, the bands lineup looks like this:
Well…just look at them. There’s the new frontman Matt McGeacy to the far right, looking like a tough macho douchebag. This picture of the new line-up just makes me giggle, get a load of the lame pho-hawks on the two berks in the middle. And who’s that gothy woman? I don’t remember her from the band. Apparently she’s the new recruited ‘keyboardist’, which perplexes me. In the entire discography of Cryptopsy, I remember one song with a 30 second keyboard intro. The only one who appears to be an actual member is the guy to the far left, whoever that is. I think it’s the guitarist in disguise or something. Is it weird that they look extremely young in the pic, despite Cryptopsy being formed in 1992?
Anyway, onto the album itself. Gone are the heavily distorted bebop jazz progressions of past albums, replaced by ‘brutal’ metalcore crunching (most non-fans don’t know that death metal is a legitimate form of music, utilizing actual scales and such). I read in an interview that the band was taking a more ‘brOOtal’ approach, which was clearly detrimental to the album. Believe it or not, the vast majority of metal fans couldn’t care less about brutality and are more concerned with musicianship. Matt McGeachy apparently thinks his audience are fourteen year olds jerking off looking for crunchy guitar noises and has for the most part ditched the abstract part of Cryptopsy. Brutality for the sake of brutality makes you nothing but a musical sadist, torturing your listeners with sharp objects that lack intellectual depth.
Their compositions, song structures, and even the riffs are about half as complex as you’d expect from this band. To be fair, it’s still more challenging than your average berk-core band but I must say…this entire album left me feeling that other Cryptopsy albums were more efficient, if that makes any sense. This album tries too hard to achieve ‘brutality’ and forgets the main draw of the band: the highly experimental jazz-based approach to rhythm and borderline avant-garde compositions. It was always off-beat, challenging…occasionally they would fall flat on their asses getting carried away with technicality, but it still worked like few other bands.
Not that this album is all mindless brutality. There’s some mindless melody too. Also stated in interviews was that the new approach incorporated ‘both more brutality and more melody’. The attempts at clean singing on this album are horrendous and extremely comedic. Clean vocals on a Cryptopsy album? Surely you jest! Don’t get too excited, it just seemed that band studied at the ‘metalcore’ school of clean metal vocals, which means they sound whiney and stick out like an uncircumcised wang at a concentration camp. More melodic and more brutal? More indecisive and more pretentious.
As you may suspect, the fan response to this album was universally negative. The only people who seem to like this album are metal newbies who haven’t heard other Cryptopsy albums and like the ‘brOOTal-ness’ of the whole endeavor. I will grant this band one more chance before I give up and tell them to disband, perhaps the band actually reads all the negative e-mails I suspect people have sent. Till then…it stinks!
Top Tracks: it’s all mediocre and stale throughout, maybe ‘Worship Your Demons’ is slightly above par
1.5 Hoots
Review- “Dirtbike 3″- Buck 65
And thus the trilogy of Buck 65 hip-hop reviews comes to an end with the final part of the Dirtbike project, Dirtbike 3.
It was tough deciding what I thought about this album in comparison to the other two offerings of this project and I came to this conclusion: Dirtbike 2 was by far the best album, Dirtbike 3 was the second best and Dirtbike 1 was the third best (I’m not going to call anything in the Canadian indie scene “the worst” if I can help it).
So how to describe the sound of Dirtbike 3? Well, the intro once again introduced me to the fact that I was listening to Buck 65, which still irked me a little but I put up with it. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as the intro to Dirtbike 1 which repeated “My name is Buck/65 65/My name is Buck/No need to act stupid” way too many times.
One thing I finally understood after finishing off this album is that Buck’s rhymes are made to tell real stories, stories of people who are down on their luck or in trouble. Quite the opposite of the mainstream hip-hop scene for sure. For example, in one song Buck tells the story of what I can only describe as a slum, a place where many misfits would hang out, such as a woman in a bikini with a million tatoos or a girl who listens to heavy metal (not to imply that a girl who listens to heavy metal is a misfit).
Also in his rhymes Buck uses some very interesting statements as hooks- one that stuck in my mind was “And nothing rhymes with woman”. I think the reason that was so prominent to me was because there are always flimsy half-rhymes that mainstream rappers would use to rhyme with woman. This would probably involve a word being twisted out of its original pronunciation, popularized by such horrible artists as T-Pain and Lil’ Wayne.
I also quite enjoyed some his more descriptive rhymes, such as in the second-to-last song: “Here’s two or three things I know about her/She’s masculine, feminine, Chinese, curvaceous, married, filled with contempt and flirtatious”. Interesting set of words, for sure.
While there was some degree of songs that were forgetful, the final little bit of the album provided a satisfying conclusion. A voice asks what would happen if we were all to just drop music. The answer was repeated twice, as the very last two words of the album: “panic.”
After hearing all three albums, I can recommend this project to hip-hop fans who are looking for a different experience. Buck 65 is a very talented rapper, and the fact this that this three-album, over three hour, seventy-song project was completed is quite the accomplishment.
Top Tracks: Whatever that song was about nothing rhyming with woman
3 Hoots
Review – “The Old Prince” – Shad
Reviewed by Allyssia 
Though Canada’s indie scene is mostly known for its talented rockers, Shad’s 2008 sophomore album, The Old Prince proves that Canada has just as much to offer to the world of rap and hip-hop. Released in 2008, the album is one of the best to emerge from the Canadian independent hip-hop scene. It was so good in fact, that it was shortlisted for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize with the likes of Canadian indie darlings Stars, and The Weakerthans. Upon listening to the album, the reason for its recognition becomes clear.
London-raised Shad (born Shadrach Kabango) demonstrates his incredible talent on all 13 tracks on this stellar album. He combines an excellent and eclectic selection of beats, his laid-back flow, and clever lyricism to create hip-hop that’s both interesting and accessible. Actually, ‘clever’ doesn’t begin to describe his lyrics. They’re downright intelligent. I guess we should expect no less from a rapper who, when he isn’t performing or in the studio, likes to wind down by working on his master’s degree.
On many tracks, Shad shows a level of social consciousness that sets him apart from not only his mainstream counterparts, but also from a lot of his fellow indie rappers. While they’re rapping about their neighborhoods, partying, or living the high life, Shad uses rap to share his own philosophies on Black stereotypes, the music industry (he raps on “I Heard You Had a Voice Like an Angel/Psalm 137 that “Business prefers a market that settles for 2nd rate/ Kill the true artists, martyr the rebels”), God, and life in general.
But one shouldn’t be too quick to label Shad as a solemn guy because, even on his most serious tracks, he manages to show off his great sense of humor. Sometimes his humor is blatant enough to have you laughing out loud, like on the track “The Old Prince Still Lives at Home,” when he explains the benefits of the frugal life with a flow that’s reminiscent of the original Fresh Prince (who he parodies in the track’s music video). On other tracks, he more relies on his sharp wit to make you laugh, like when he spits that he’s “So hot he even get props from neo-Nazis” on the tongue-in-cheek “I Don’t Really Like To”.
From beginning to end, The Old Prince is a fun, very listenable album that, with its clever lyrics and interesting subject matter, seems the anti-thesis to the money-cash-hoes mentality that most associate with modern hip-hop. I highly recommend this top-notch album to all hip-hop fans, but recommend it even more highly to those who claim not to like hip-hop because of the bad rap (no pun intended) that it’s getting because of the idiots kickin’ it in the mainstream. Take a listen and I’m sure you’ll see that hip-hop can be so much more than what you’re hearing on Flow 93.5.
Top Tracks: I Don’t Really Like To, The Old Prince Still Lives at Home, Exile
3.5 Hoots + *swoop*
glasspaperweight
backdrifter
Allyssia
ayrindee
lordrhombus