reviewed by Michael Thomas

It’s not often that I can say that an EP of only three  songs has a lot of soul, but I can most definitely say this about Valley Ghost Train, the latest release from Mike Mackey’s ongoing project, Kings of Lowertown.

This is a quick EP, so this will be a quick review.

The opening title track is pure bliss to listen to. At a crisp two minutes, I was blown away by the main melody which seems like a guitar mixed with a mandolin. The lead vocals are sung quickly and breathlessly making it seem like Mackey wanted to pack as much awesomeness as he could in a small time frame.

That’s followed by “South Mountain” which sounds (at least in my listening) like I’m listening to it through an alarm clock. This has a more roots-rock feel to it. The chorus has some really great banjo that works well with the guitar.

The last song is “There and Gone (Between You and I)” which is a more standard garage-rock track. It’s also pretty short, at about two-and-a-half minutes, and features a pretty catchy guitar riff.

This is a really pleasant bit of listening, and the song “Valley Ghost Train” made it doubly worth listening to. A wonderful and refreshing release.

Top Track: “Valley Ghost Train”

Rating: Strong Hoot (Good)

To get an idea of what you could be winning, here’s a stream of the album.

To enter: Send an email to grayowlpoint@gmail.com with the subject line “Leonard Cohen contest.” In the body of an email, include a haiku (a three-line poem- 1st line is five syllables, 2nd line is seven syllables, 3rd line is five syllables) centred around the theme of ideas. The word “idea” doesn’t have to be in the haiku. As well, include your first and last name and whether or not you’d like your poem to be published on Grayowl Point should you win.

The deadline for entries is Friday, February 3rd by 1 p.m. EST.

We hope to hear from a ton of you.

Yamantaka's Ruby Kato Attwood - Photo Credit: Elena Gritzan

by Elena Gritzan 

One of my goals this year is to expand my musical taste.  I want to go to more shows, listen to a wider variety of music, and expose myself to anything I can get my hands on.  In that spirit, I headed to the Garrison on Saturday, January 28th for a four-band showcase presented by Weird Canada and Psychic Handshake Records. And if musical variety was what I was looking for, I definitely went to the right place!

The night opened with one-man act Sexy Merlin.  Dressed in a transparent black top that zipped up to cover his face, he led us, drum sticks in hand, through a series of increasingly danceable percussive-based songs.  The second act, U.S. Girls, reinforced the idea that Sexy Merlin started off with: one person can create an extremely interesting, intricate wall of sound. Working only with cassette tapes and a multitude of synthesizers, musician Megan Remy created expansive and slowly changing layers of noise over pop vocals.

Then the guitars came out.  Montreal-based band The Pink Noise brought an incredibly high amount of energy to their punkish, garage-rock style songs. I was charmed to see the violin player hold and pluck her instrument like a guitar, and realize that the lyrics to their final song were actually from “Nowadays”, the song the closes out the musical Chicago.

The main event of the night was a dramatic presentation from Montreal/Toronto band Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.  The show began with dimmed lights and the sound of a thunderstorm.  Drummer Alaska B came out wearing a dinosaur head, before the two singers of the group went out and moved through the crowd with a giant paper dragon.  All of the band members sported full faces of dramatic face paint.  It was clear to everyone in the first few seconds that this was going to be more than just a musical recitation; this was going to be an experience.

Just as their visual aesthetic is a conglomeration of East vs. West influences, their musical sound is a collection of wildly disparate sounds.  Picture opera and folk mixed up with metal and noise-pop.  Singer Ruby Kato Attwood has a phenomenal, evocative voice, though it unfortunately got a little bit lost under the waves of noisy instrumentals for some of the show.  What Y//ST excelled in was their level of energy.  Looking around me, it was obvious that the crowd was enjoying every moment.

Personally, they managed to take a number of genres that I normally have little interest in (metal is something that is normally lost on me) and turn it into an exciting sound that I definitely want to hear more of.  I have to say, though, that my favourite discovery of the night was the drum-dance of Sexy Merlin.  What can I say, I’m helpless to the power of some infectious roto tom.

You can hear the bands here:

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan

The Pink Noise

U.S. Girls

Sexy Merlin (You can also hear his self-titled 7″ release here)

reviewed by Michael Thomas

Toronto has got another case of the blues, and that’s thanks to a new recording from a local band. The Breaks have recently released In Meetings, their debut record. The album name is a strange juxtaposition with their sound, considering the music the guys play.

The record itself is bluesy in parts, but the larger genre that the three guys of the group play in is the well-worn arena of rock and roll.

The guys put in a great effort on the album’s 12 songs, doing their tracks live off the floor. This gives the songs a bit more of an energy. While the song content is a little clichéd at time (the lead singer mentions drinking too much a little too often) there are some enjoyable moments on the album.

The album starts off with some good old-fashioned blues-rock, and the track was chosen well to start things off. It uses some great traditional 12-bar blues, features reverbed vocals and a sweet guitar solo a little later on.

In a few places, namely the songs “That’s Alright, That’s OK” and “Do It Again” I got a big Lynyrd Skynyrd vibe in a good way. The song “Ugly Day” is a fascinating track to listen to, which tells the story of a, well, ugly day, but told through the use of cheerful acoustic music.

My favourite track of them all was “Face Turn Blues” which naturally shows the bluesier side of the band. This song stays true to the downhome blues that were big in the 1920′s and 30′s- simple repetition of phrases with minimal instrumentation. For this song I could actually forgive the drinking references.

In Meetings is a step in the right direction for this band. With a little more creative songwriting and more focus on the blues that the bands does so well, their next recording can be a lot stronger.

The album is available via Bandcamp.

Top Tracks: “That’s Alright”; “Face Turn Blues”

Rating: Young Hoot (Decent)

Last night’s show at The Black Sheep Tavern marks my third time seeing them live in as many months and it was a fantastic show, as always. The Black Sheep Tavern was sold out, packed despite the snow covered roads and impending freezing rain, and we were not to be disappointed.

Openers Harlan Pepper were amazing. A few months back I experienced my first ever encore by an opening act (Lake of Stew, also performing at the Black Sheep)- well that count has now risen to two. And a well deserved encore it was…

Hailing from Hamilton Ontario, this rather young (just barely nineteen) and very enthusiastic (adorably so) four-piece charmed the audience with a mix of rock, bluegrass, psychedelic, and folk.  Though their hand-made signs (‘Harlan Pepper’ written in sharpie on two cardboard cutouts of deer) and flowered cowboy shirts may have suggested something softer, they rocked out song after song, seemingly gaining energy instead of tiring out. At one point lead singer Dan Edmonds and guitarist Jimmy Hayes stood on two chairs in the audience and co-played their guitars- strumming their own and playing the chords on the others’. Though I’m sure they’ve practiced it a million times, they pulled it off with a sense of spontaneity that made the crowd go wild. After a few covers, a few more unerringly energetic tunes and a plea from drummer Marion Nicolle to think about purchasing their CD (“Y’know, if you like what you hear… If you want to…” Adorable.) they played the aforementioned encore. Brilliant, all round.

Elliott Brood then took the stage with a declaration of “Its been too long Wakefield!” from guitarist Casey Laforet. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen them perform live, but this was the first time I have ever been seated for an Elliot Brood show- and I’m not gonna lie, it felt weird. But the tables were right up front, and being right up front is kinda my bag, so seated I was.

Despite half the audience being in chairs, the boys had everyone bopping their heads and clapping along in no time. With the exit sign above the door flickering with the bass, the snow swirling outside the window, and the candles lighting steins of beer, it was easy to feel immersed in their frontier aesthetic and darkness-riddled narratives. They rolled through a few songs before pulling out some tunes from their oldest full length LP, Ambassadour. We were even treated to a lyric-less partial version of “President 35″ when lead singer Mark Sasso, stumbling during the first verse lost his place and couldn’t get back on track. Talking to him after the show, he laughed and shook his head “I can’t believe I forgot the words to my own song!” With other performers it might have been awkward, but the joking and teasing that followed made it decidedly entertaining (referencing their pre-song banter about the upcoming American Presidential race and the republican leadership scandals; “Newt Gingrich wanted to have an open marriage so he could get with Mark, can you blame him for getting all distracted?”).

About half way through the set the boys were having no more of this sitting down nonsense so with a “Stand up if you’re gonna vote in the next election!” from Sasso, and awkward ‘You get up first’ ‘No YOU get up first’ glances all around, we were suddenly on our feet and dancing to the thundering beat of “Oh Alberta,” “Miss You,” and “Valley Town” (I gotta say, there is just something about seeing two grown men rocking out on ukuleles that always makes my day). This is where EB are always at their best: Stephen Pitkin stompin’ it out on the best kit in the land (drums covered in birch bark and wood grain, replacing his original suitcase bass drum), Casey Laforet shaking his shaggy mane over the steel guitar, and  Mark Sasso on the banjo with his boppy right-step left-step shuffle.

The dancing is always my favourite part of an Elliott Brood show…  Glancing back at the teenage boys exuberantly jumping to banjo music, seeing the huge smiles on the faces of each band member, and feeling the floor bounce beneath your feet as every one shouts “HEY, HEY, HEY” in perfect unison. Add in a few encores and a rousing all-bands number with Harlan Pepper (during which we held down our table while Dan Edmonds and HP bassist Thompson Winston danced on it…) and the performance sadly drew to a close. As everyone gathered their coats and the crowd started to disperse, Mark Sasso stepped down off the stage and shook my hand and that of my friend. “Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for dancing!” You gotta love a band that plays an amazing show, and then thanks you for enjoying it… Do me a favour (do yourself a favour!) next time you see that Elliott Brood is playing a gig near you- go. And bring everyone you know.

reviewed by Cory McCrindle

If this EP has a target audience, it may be those who are lonesome for the East Coast or life near the water in general. That’s the mood it seems to invoke. And what I’ve heard leads me to think that while Sea and City has some very good raw materials to work with here, the product sounds like it’s not quite finished. Still, the EP shows that the band has quite a lot of promise.

The first track I listened to is called “Dreaming About the Sea.”  It is an atmospheric number featuring guitar and banjo as well as echoing vocals.  It’s somewhat comforting, although feels a bit amateurish in its execution. There’s a little bit of a Simon and Garfunkel vibe going on here at the beginning, but then the track morphs into a bit of cacophony. Overall, the song shows flashes of Broken Social Scene and perhaps even Arcade Fire, but with a decidedly Celtic lilt.  It’s a damn good effort, mind you, and the instrumentation is solid.  I am especially taken with the great drumming here.  The downside, I feel, is that the mix is a little muddy.  In the hands of a good producer, this song could come across much better in my humble opinion.

The second track, “Two Weeks,” sounds a bit like 80′s Brit-Pop, maybe a poor cousin to the Modern English hit “I Melt With You.”  It has a similar bright delivery that almost transcends the soggy mix…almost.  I will say that I again enjoyed the crisp drumming, and that I loved the great bass break.  The lyrics are for the most part light and airy.  For example, the lines “Call me in the morning and we can talk about the truth/Fairytales and whimsical ideas, of things you’d never know/We used to sit and feed the ducks/or drive around in that old pickup truck/Do you remember?” suggest a carefree time gone by. However, the buoyant mind picture is stifled by having to hear it as if there was a sponge in the speakers.

“Lungs” is another atmospheric tune. The drummer is the true star here and puts on a terrific, mesmerizing percussive display. As a result, the guitar and steady bass – while solid – are relegated to supporting roles. It appears to be yet another nautical-themed number in some respects. The hollow sounding vocals lend to the ethereal quality.  I am reminded somewhat of Dream Academy with this song.  The repeated phrase “Right above my head there’s an ocean” does more to confuse than to clarify.  But the line can be overlooked in the interests of poetic license.

The next number, “The Distance Above and Below,” is a reverberating instrumental track that sounds like it would fit perfectly into the soundtrack of a road adventure movie.  But at 1:46 run time, it seems to me to be incomplete.  I actually quite enjoyed listening to it and wanted to travel, musically-speaking, along with it. Unfortunately, it didn’t take me as far as I would have liked to go.  Near the end you hear some distant sounding background vocals perhaps meant to sound like angel-choir ‘aaaahhhhs.’  In the version I heard, it kind of ends abruptly, and that to me does a disservice to both the song and the band.

“Wicker Chair” is the closest thing to a gem in this collection, although the gem is still somewhat flawed. I know under the surface of this number is a beautiful, powerful song…it’s just hard to actually hear it. The upside here is that the lyrics are pretty good, evocative of mood and with a strong delivery. The drumming, as it is throughout the album, is beyond reproach. There is some nice guitar work in what sounds like it must be a backwards track and I think I can imagine what the keyboards were meant to sound like. There is a nice sound collage at the end that includes more backwards tracking as well as a tolling bell.  But the downside, yet again, is the muddy mix. And that robs me as a listener on what could have – and should have – been a very satisfying musical experience. I was also distracted by what I viewed as an unnecessary and distracting piano line. If it was meant to give colour to the piece, I think it failed. The song could have done without its inclusion. Still, this to me is without a doubt the best track on the CD.

The sixth and final song, “Angel Hair,” is in the same vein as some of the other tracks in terms of style. It has a dreamlike quality that you might justify using in one song, but perhaps not a whole album’s worth. It’s like a sonic rolling wave. It’s a moody, trippy number with a bit of a warm glow to it which suddenly emerges from its cocoon into the more clearly delivered line, “Don’t let me find you chasing after me” as if it is a separate song. That line builds into a chorus, backed with bird sounds and children’s noises. On the surface that may sound like a strange mixture, but somehow it works and is actually a nice touch.

While the songs from Mice Can Start Fires are less than perfect, there’s nothing here that couldn’t be made better with a cleaner sound mix. Sea and City seem to be on the right track and this is a good first step. It’s hard to base much of a prognosis on just six tracks, so I will wait to see what the band comes up with going forward and wish them all the best. But what I will say is that I sincerely hope they can use the good raw materials they have and build something more sonically solid in the future.

Mice Can Start Fires is available via Bandcamp. Also note that from that page, one can order “hand-packaged, personally loved” physical copies. They look pretty swell.

Top Tracks:  ”Angel Hair;” “Wicker Chair”

Rating: Young Hoot (Decent)

reviewed by Michael Thomas

With a name like Sacred Balance, this Toronto/Montreal band needed to have something to show to live up to its almost zen-like title. Thankfully, the group doesn’t disappoint on their first effort.

The band’s genre of choice is trip hop, a genre that I was a little unsure about before doing some quick research. The definition isn’t easily described, but as a comparison I would say Sacred Balance is like a more instrument-based version of the Montreal duo Beast, though that’s not a great comparison to make either.

Trip hop usually relies heavily on electronics, and while the EP does have some of that, it isn’t the largest part of the music. The most pleasing (and unexpected) instrument to hear was the violin, which plays a rather substantial part in almost every song.

So what exactly is Sacred Balance? Well, they’re definitely not your traditional rock or pop band. Singer Chloe Charles sings like a more expressive (and female, obviously) Beck Hansen, making the tone of each song completely different from any other song with guitar, bass and drums.

The subject of abnormality is present in a few songs, such as the opening track “Alien In My Bed” which is a disturbing thought just based on the song title. The sense of abnormality is also in the extremely catchy song “The Hole” which seems to be about a man falling through a hole and into some kind of strange hell where he meets himself. Even more unnerving is that this creepy story is told in a call-and-response form, making it sound a little like a campfire song.

The EP can also be divided in half- the latter three songs are all called acoustic, and the distinction is fairly obvious in the two versions of the song “Corrections In Ink” but otherwise it can be hard to differentiate due to the complexity of Sacred Balance’s melodies and instruments.

In the end, the EP triumphs in distinguishing itself from a slew of other Toronto acts. Here’s hoping the band continues to display its penchant for complex song structures coupled with unique vocal deliveries.

The EP is available as of today via Bandcamp.

Top Tracks: “Corrections in Ink”; “The Hole (acoustic)”

Rating: Strong Hoot (Good)

reviewed by Jeff McAllister

The boys behind March Forth have grown a ton in six months. The band is still relatively young—a fact I smiled upon fondly when I reviewed their self-titled debut in April—but over the past few months a lot has gone on behind the scenes. The quintet has become a quartet. The group has reevaluated its sound and let hip-hop take the back seat. And it seems these decisions were, for the most part, good ones—The Revival is a stronger record than its predecessor in terms of songwriting, musicianship, and production quality.

The band I previously compared to Linkin Park and N.E.R.D., I would now be more inclined to slot next to vintage Jet or Franz Ferdinand. Eddie C. Lane’s frantic guitar work—particularly on the EP opener, Lady for the Night—is reminiscent of the pop-rock of the early 2000’s; Anthonie D’Elia’s increasingly confident yelp fits that bill to a T. While most of March Forth’s earlier lyrics centered around heartbreak, tracks like the vintage sounding Backseat Bingo are more occupied with the rockstar celebration. Verses like, “So I man up, stand up, walk to her, say ‘girl, how’d you like your eggs,’/ What I meant to say was lady, wanna spread your legs?” blur the line between cheese and bravado—which  what rock and roll is all about, really.

The album isn’t perfect. Sure March Forth are a tighter band, but a large part of their initial charm was their novelty—their music was rose-tinted with ambition. Now that the boys’ genre switch has landed them on a more populated path, they’re going to have to do a lot more to stand out. Whether that involves resurrecting past influences, or pushing even further forward, we’ll see, but if there’s one thing to be sure about, it’s that March Forth are dexterous. Given their speed and adaptability, I have no doubt that that horizon isn’t so far off. Once more, I look forward to hearing what they do next.

Top Track: “Lady for the Night”

Rating: Young Hoot (Decent)

reviewed by Michael Thomas

I’ll love this EP ’til the sun burns out.

This blog rarely gets the chance to cover Yukon acts, so imagine my surprise when I received this split EP from two Yukon bands. Despite both bands using the same adjective, and despite both acts being from the same territory, the acts are different enough to make a very diverse EP.

The first half of the EP belongs to Old Time Machine, the collaborative effort of Ryan McNally and Kyle Cashen. Though the EP doesn’t reveal this through listening, the two apparently play through a slew of instruments during their performance, something like five instruments a piece.

The Old Time Machine half of the EP starts off with “Sun Burns Out.” The layout isn’t too complex- a kick drum and notes on the acoustic guitar accompany McNally’s baritone vocals. His half-singing-half-talking vocal style gives the song a very sensual feel.

The other Old Time Machine song is “Tearing Me Down.” This hints at the complexity the duo is capable of, with a mandolin playing over a drum machine, and McNally’s vocals garnished with reverb. The song is quite catchy and probably my favourite of all four EP tracks.

Meanwhile, Old Cabin takes up the EP’s other half. Old Cabin is the name for Jona Barr’s solo act, and while Old Time Machine does well with the interplay between two musicians, Old Cabin explores more time-honoured folk traditions, trading complexity for slower–but more haunting–melodies.

The first Old Cabin song is “Frost Windows” which takes minimalism to a new level. There is very little guitar in the song- single strums are used sparsely, leaving more room for Barr’s vocals (and his harmonies with a female backup singer). The song is very haunting and atmospheric.

“New Flashing Lights” has a steady drum beat in the background over a more active acoustic guitar. The song is one that many can relate to- it seems to be a song about growing up, but told in a distinctly Old-Cabin way.

Old Time Machine and Old Cabin both are worthy acts in completely different ways. Putting them together is an even bigger treat.

Top Track: “Tearing Me Down”

Rating: Proud Hoot (Really Good)

The unsigned concert series has been around for a while in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton, but now Vancouver is getting its own.

Who: Sidney York; Treelines; The Ruffled Feathers

When: January 26th, 2012, Doors at 8 p.m.

Where: Biltmore Cabaret

Cost: $5 at the door

All proceeds will be going back into the music community via Music BC.