The Scope

Joe Belly CD Release Show

Hey everybody. I figured it was about time to break my month long radio silence. I’m finally all settled into my new place in the flat and frigid plains of London, Ontario and I couldn’t keep ignoring the last few batches of videos I took before I left town that hadn’t been edited yet that have been calling on me to finish them when I’m not too busy recording my RPM or doing a bit of scattered job hunting. So it’s taken awhile to get around to it but here is the first of the last 3 or 4 instalments of Throwing Stones at You. Naturally it’ll be hard to continue documenting the St. John’s music scene when I live in Ontario now, so unless someone wants to pay my airfare to fly into St John’s and film their show (that would be awesome) the blog has to come to an end. Sad, sad times (sniff)…

Anyway…

Right before I left town I managed to get down to see the CD release show for Joe Belly’s new album “Nickles and Dimes” at The Ship. I’ve only really gotten to know Joe Belly (aka Phil Goodland — I don’t really understand that crowd’s love of fake names) recently within the last couple months when I somehow ended up at Phil and Sherry’s place at 6am on New Years eve where I was treated to some amazing tiramisu (Phil makes the best tiramisu I’ve ever tasted). Phil and Sherry are a super nice couple who bring out the best in each other musically. They’ve embraced a classic, warm and loose old school country style, and tackle it with more charm and sympathetic understanding than anybody going on the East coast. The show was a lovely familial event and the performances were strong all around, even Phil’s Gibson Les Paul dropping out of tune constantly (I hate Gibson’s precisely for this reason!) couldn’t put a damper on the festivities.

Here’s a couple vids I grabbed to commemorate the occasion.

Here we have Joe Belly and Sherry Ryan singing a duet which is also the first song on the new album “Separate Lives”:

Here we have a cover of the famous Freddy Fender classic “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”:

You should all go out and give Nickels and Dimes a listen it’s a really satisfying country chestnut. I’ll be coming back with my “cleaning out the archives” series of posts within the next week or so, catch ya later.

Pathological Lovers release ghoulish video

Here it is! The official music video for Pathological Lovers, “Best Served” from their debut album Calling All Favours. Directed by Jordan Canning, cinematography by Sam Pryse-Phillips.

MORE BRAINS at www.pathologicallovers.com

Playing to please

Heartland is the third full length album from Toronto based musician and composer Owen Pallett—but the first to have his own name on the cover. Hitherto, Pallett had released his albums (Has a Good Home, 2005 and He Poos Clouds, 2006 ) and numerous EPs and singles under the bandonym Final Fantasy. But with his audience expanding internationally and the prospect of legal hassles from the company that created and owns the rights to the RPG game Final Fantasy, he now records and perform under his real name.

The album is a finely folded satire of religious obedience presented in a suite of 12 songs. It was recorded over nine months in Reykjavik, Prague and Toronto and is, not surprisingly, a dense listen. It features the Czech Philharmonic but is as modern as the electronics used to execute it. You can even dance to it.

For some of the Canadian dates, he’ll have Alex Lukashevsky playing an opening set. In 2008 Pallett released Plays to Please, a tribute album to the songs of Lukashevsky and his band Deep Dark United where he also worked with an orchestra.

Kevin Hehir reached him on his cell phone while he was running errands during a break from the Heartland tour.

Hello, is this Owen?
Speaking.

This is Kevin Hehir calling from St. John’s.
Hi, how’s it going?

I understand that you just returned from Europe.
Yeah. I played three shows over there. Just London, Paris and Hamburg. They were kind of like little CD release party events.

So how did they go?
They went really well. I mean, the shows were all really wildly different. For the Hamburg show I was opening for Tokotronic, which is kind of the German equivalent of The National, and it was perhaps the worst show I’ve ever played. The audience was not interested and I was not interested in the audience, I guess.

Had you played there before?
Hamburg? Yep, but not since 2005, so it had been a while. But after that, I had some really good shows. In Paris at La Maroquinerie, which is sort of this black box club, and then a really good show in London at Union Chapel, which is the best live venue I’ve ever played at.

Is it actually a chapel?
Yeah, it’s really gigantic and has beautiful, high ceilings. It’s a pretty auspicious venue. Bjork did a concert there with a string quartet for the Post release. Antony [Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons] plays there, lots of people play there.

I noticed that you’re playing three churches on this tour, including here in St. John’s. Do you have any control over the venues you play at?
No. It always changes, and I find that the show is somewhat flexible. When you do a show in a bar, you play things a little quicker and when you do a show in a church, you play things a little slower. It’s more of a sonic consideration than anything, depending on how much reverb is going on in the room.

Because of the high ceilings and the wood?
Yes, exactly. But yeah, it’s nice to have a nice, spiritual show in a church and then contrast that with a raucous, booze-soaked club show.

I was wondering because of the story in Heartland. Lewis rises up to go after his creator. Do you ever worry that you’ll be smote down in a church?
No, I don’t believe in any of that stuff … I think the only good thing to come of that was good architecture. Nice buildings. Good work, believers!

So, about the album itself. Heartland was recorded in at least three places. Were you there for all of the recordings?
Yeah, I was there for all of the recordings. I was executing the whole thing.

How do you keep track of how all the different sounds are going sound together?
It actually drove me crazy a few times, especially after we had tracked the orchestra. I just had so much information, so many takes of strings and winds and percussion and everything to process. It got simpler as it went on because you just have to start small and take care of every placement of all the strings here, and placement of all the winds there, and balance it out. By the end, we just had a nice, 16-channel mixer and we were just sliding the faders up and down and mixing that way. So it was really kind of nice.

So you were learning and getting better at it as went on?
Well, with [2008’s Plays to Please], I had kind of already learned a little bit of what I was getting into, but this one was quite a bit more complicated. Like with the strings themselves, you’re talking about 18 different channels of strings, and there are all these close mics and they’re all over different parts of the room … It was mostly contrasting different micing techniques on different songs when it was appropriate. Because I had so much flexibility with the string ensemble, I really just went for it and took the time to ensure that I was going to get the best sound for every song.

What do you mean by more flexibility?
We had 50 players in a room and 18 mics on them. So there were all sorts of different ways I could mix it, afterwards. On certain songs, I had all the stings panned to one side and then I ran them all through envelope filters to make them sound extremely percussive. With “E is for Estranged” for example, that song goes through about three different mic treatments. It starts off with really distant roomy sound and then gets really quite localized on the first violin. It was both an aesthetic decision and also one just to cut out the shuffling of the people’s feet going on in the cello parts when the violins were taking their solos because I didn’t want to have the spell to be broken. (laughs)

I actually wanted to ask you about your EP Plays to Please, on which you cover six songs by Toronto’s Alex Lukashevsky, who is your opener for a few shows on this tour. How did that record come about?
When we were on tour together [years ago], it was really interesting because he’d be playing all these sets that were totally beautiful, but all these people who didn’t know the songs and didn’t know what he was about, didn’t react all that positively to it. They were like, “who’s this old pervert with a guitar?” When I say old, he’s actually not that old, I think he just turned 39 last week. So, I developed the idea that I was going to cover a whole bunch of his songs in this sort of old Van Dyke Parks-ian style which would almost be both a tribute and a bit of a sabotage (laughs) because I would be presenting his songs in a traditionalist way, which is opposite of how he was typically presenting his own songs.

I don’t know anything about him. Can you tell me who he is?
He’s one of my favourite song writers, if not my favourite songwriter. He’s in this band called Deep Dark United who’ve put out several records on several different labels, one of them being Blocks, the label that put out my Final Fantasy records.

Alex has been on that label for a while, making these amazing records that are kind of like… I don’t know, I can’t really describe him and do him justice. He kind of sounds like an extremely talented poet crossed with a really dirty uncle. But his music never sounds forcedly perverse, it just sounds beautifully … it just sounds beautiful.

It’s the way he presents his songs, too. The songs can be, and sometimes are, performed just by him solo, with a guitar. He kind of half improvises around them in this sort of sloppy, awesome fashion. He just stands up with a nylon string guitar in front of a mic and just plays for rooms of 20 people. And then he has a band which is a whole bunch of heavy, free jazz people, and they will just kind of improvise too, with these really bizarre takes on these songs … So the sensation of listening to any one of his albums, or going to see any one of his shows, is inherently incomplete because you really have to see it five times. Then you realize that you’ve heard five completely different versions of the same beautiful song.

I resisted going online to listen to him before I talked to you.
Well, he’s the sort of person who you really can’t sit down and breeze through. You really have to sit down and absorb what he’s doing and what he’s trying to do and understand that there are going to be a lot of moments where he’s going to piss you off a lot.

Are you happy about how Heartland has been received?
Well, I’ve kind of had no expectations about it. In fact, I feel kind of so far removed from it that any positive or negative response would have been absolutely A-OK.

Do you mean removed time-wise?
No, like emotionally. I don’t feel anything. I’ve been just as entertained by people giving it zero stars and saying, “this guy is a fucking asshole,” as I have been by people who give it ten stars and lavish it with effusive praise. I don’t know. I keep calling it an “it” because that’s what I feel like it is, it’s just an “it”. I don’t think it has actually anything to do with me, it’s just something I spent a year working on, you know? (laughs) The one thing that I’m kind of sad about … (long pause)… I haven’t read a lot of good writing. (laughs again)

About the record?
Yeah. There have been a couple of good zingers I guess, but I haven’t read a lot of good writing about it.

The first thing that came into my head when I first put it on was “bleepy bloopy.”
So you’re guy who wrote that!

No, I haven’t written anything yet.
Oh well, because Thomas Gill (guitarist) was checking his Twitter and someone apparently had said it was “bleepy bloopy”. It must have been somebody else.

I love “bleep bloop.” That’s wonderful.

Have you ever been to Newfoundland before?
No, never.

Any expectations?
None. I’ve seen photos, that’s about it. But, I am really looking forward to coming … I hear there’s a fantastic free jazz scene in St. John’s. My friend Jeremy Strachan (Hylozoists – Feuermusik) was there doing an ethnomusicology degree and he said it was very wonderful.

Do you ever play any fiddle music or folk music or what might be considered traditional music?
A little bit. I did it mostly for money. Which is going to sound really harsh, but it’s kind of how I put myself through university. I was playing mostly Sligo style Irish fiddle but I never really developed a taste for it outside of an occupation. I’m not trying to be belittling, I’m just trying to be honest.

So, I’m going to let you go because it sounds like you’re busy there.
I’m just lining up in a bank…

Owen Pallett plays an all ages show the Cochrane Street United Church on Friday, Febrary 12th. Tickets are 15$, available at Folly and O’Brien’s Music, cash only. Show starts at 8pm.

Scratch and sniff the surface

We’re only a few weeks in, and more than 150 local bands have signed up to record an entire album in one month for this year’s RPM challenge.

We have almost no idea what’s going on inside those 150 makeshift basement, bedroom, and/or kitchen recording studios. We’re left with only a handful of clues about what they’re up to.

No worries! Sarah Smellie has all the information to make sense of it all. Maybe.

Band Covering The Most Ground (literally)
Crystal City Printing Press

They’re a group of actors on a tour across rural Manitoba who are also recording an RPM album. You can follow their progress on the road here (www.tinyurl.com/y9dcf9u) and on their album here (www.tinyurl.com/yh976zv).

•••

Covering The Most Ground (figuratively)
de Zen Jenga and the Melting Pot Orkestar

So they’re a band of gypsies playing neo-indie power pop and “hope-filled, uplifting, big band fun.” Luckily there are eight of them. And make-up. And costumes. And fire spinning. www.tinyurl.com/yeoe3mb

•••

Most Non-Musical Entrant
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache

This stand-up comedy troupe—and devotees to some dude’s hairy upper lip—are making an album in hopes of earning themselves unlimited glory and “tens of ones of dollars.” www.tinyurl.com/yjzs9ug

•••

Most Provocative Band Name
Sluts on Sluts

This is Mr. Matthew B’s second year slutting up the challenge with his noise/drums/noise combo. Does that make this Sluts on Sluts on Sluts on Sluts? Hm. www.tinyurl.com/yeaop4b

•••

Best Band Name That Is Also A True Statement
Teenagers Don’t Wear Jackets

It’s true—and these two guitarists may sing you a tune if they can muster up the confidence. www.tinyurl.com/ycxcgd3

•••

Best Band Name That is Also An Interesting Collective Noun
Parliament of Owls

In addition to his solo entry, contender for St. John’s sweetest bike mechanic Jake Nicoll has collected a few soundscape-making friends to “make a record that will enable more people to have new, unique experiences.” The group promises not to prorogue anytime soon. www.tinyurl.com/ykgk5qy

•••

Most Glammy/Metal Sounding Name
Wizzards of Kaos

These Wizzards are bringin’ their doom ambience all the way from Portugal Cove-St. Philips, and not even conventional spelling is safe! Featuring Ritche Perez, who you my remember from RPM 2008’s Ohio Scream. www.tinyurl.com/yhujgt9

The Wizzards also pick up a nod in the Most Gratuitous Use of The Letter “Z” category, along with the group Cougarz in Legwarmerz.

•••

Punniest Name
Missed Her and The Misses

“Listening and growing” is the only information provided on this band’s page. Guess they’re a missed her eee. www.tinyurl.com/yek72lo

Runner Up: The Uke of Duckworth, aka Jordan Young. He also happens to give ukulele lessons, so maybe uke-an play too.

•••

Band Name Which Most Aptly Sums Up This Year’s RPM Challenge
Mythical Man-Month

By a casual, unscientific scan of the list, about a third of all of this year’s entrants are solo man acts. A third! What’s with that?

Runner Up(s): heart to mouth (Aww), Options (You got ‘em!), SUPERGOD! (You’ll feel like one when you’re done) Ubiquitous Gazelle (Augh! They’re everywhere!)

•••

Best Evidence of Procrastination from Last Year’s RPM Challenge
The Ultramammoth logo

It is pretty sweet. www.tinyurl.com/ycjukpe

Documenting a scene

A new punk and hardcore compilation is attempting to pin down that section of the local music scene. Martin Connelly talks to the people who put it together.

Davey Zegarac is smiling, triumphant even. He just finished putting together 709 Punk/Hardcore, a 32-track compilation from the St. John’s punk and hardcore scene.

“We didn’t even look at Corner Brook or Labrador,” he smirks.

Zegarac, originally from Winnipeg, first came to St. John’s on tour with his band Brat Attack. Two years ago, after the third or forth visit, he came for good. At that time, St. John’s had a big punk/hardcore scene, but it was fairly fragmented – groups were divided by where they played as much as by what they played. Now that’s mostly changed. “It’s really cool now,” he says. “Everyone’s really unified.” In other words, it’s a perfect time to put out a compilation.

It’s something that music scene veteran and project funder Ian Newton, owner of the punk/hardcore mainstay Distortion, has wanted to do for a long time. “It started off with [tireless promoter, musician, and founding member of Giver] Fred Gamberg, when he put together the compilation Danger of Falling Rock back in 1994, just before he died,” says Newton. “Fred got me into this, and I’ve been doing different things to stay in the scene since then.”

The idea is to honor what Gamberg was doing while giving the underground St. John’s scene some above-ground attention, in hopes of attracting more bands to play here. “It’s about cross promotion,” Newton explains. “About getting more and more bands here, about bringing business and record contracts. [Funding] this compilation was the best way to do it.”

Zegarac doesn’t see himself as any kind of keystone in the music community, but he plays pretty much every week with at least one of the four local groups he’s part of. And he’s done this sort of thing before.

“I put together three compilations back in Winnipeg,” he shrugs. “I just really love organizing this stuff.”

Zegarac also has experience with the distribution side of things, something that’s important if this CD is going to bring people to Newfoundland.

The project came together in under two months. Zegarac and fellow band mate, Kyle Molotov, from the Class War Kids, put together a list of potential tracks. Newton put up the money, and Molotov helped put the word out. Bands had a few weeks to get a track submitted, and almost all of them made the deadline. After that, Newton was hands-off. “I let Davey do all the work,” he says. “I just passed him the money when he needed it.”

Zegarac opted to leave out a curatorial process and left it up to individual bands to submit something good. He also opted to avoid arranging the tracks by categorizing them. “I like my mix tapes to be all broken up,” says Zegarac. “So they don’t have a metal section or anything, I try to keep it so every song sounds different.”

709 Punk/Hardcore will be released at SLAMFEST, which runs from February 12th to February 14th, featuring 20 bands from the punk/hardcore scene over three nights at four venues. Check music listings for details.

2009 RPM standouts

Patrick Canning picks 7 of his favourite discs from last year’s 70 local offerings.

Last year’s RPM challenge brought in an unprecedented bounty of 70 albums from the St. John’s area. That’s almost equal to the total amount of professional releases put out in the entire province in all of 2008.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “How can you possibly make a quality album in just one month’s time?” You’d be friggin’ amazed actually. Late-night inspiration hits, you find that old banjo to pull it all together, and things just fall into place. And when that happens, you have every reason in the world to celebrate. Shout it from the rooftops if you have to.

Musical genius is not what the RPM is about. It’s about giving people an excuse to be creative and the impetus to get something—anything—done. But it sure is nice when brilliance happens.

So let’s have a look back at a few of the standouts from last year’s challengers to show you that 28 days is totally do-able—you can pull this off, no matter what your skill level and experience—and that sometimes, genius happens.

Vegan Porn’s album To The Animals… May We Be Forgiven? has been stuck in steady rotation in my media player since I heard it last March. Lone porn star Matthew Finateri came out of nowhere to produce one of the most weirdly infectious albums of left-field pop music I’ve heard in ages. It takes a few listens for it to fully sink in, but when it does, this collection hard-to-categorize, semi-lo-fi indie pop, with lyrics filled with snarky social and political commentary, gives the listener plenty of meat- and dairy-free goodness to digest. The songs “Fish In Your Stew” and “New-Welfarist In The 21st Century” are great standout tracks that stick to you like crab lice. Good crab lice. Yeah. Listen here.

Errand Boy’s RPM entry Cape Disappointment was strong enough to make into last year’s Atlantis Music Prize shortlist, if that tells you anything. It’s a rich, and densely textured aural stimulant that feels more organic and less sample-driven then his previous releases. Errand Boy, a.k.a. Bryan Melanson, has been getting a decent bit of attention here and away for his world-class talent for crafting exquisite, moving, and complex electronic auditory panoramas. Cape Disappointment not only fueled the fervor, it proved him to be fully capable of churning out lush, cinematic masterpieces under strict time constraints. Listen here.

Steve Haley’s Two Steps in the Dark is one of the best singer/songwriter albums I heard last year. It’s a lovely collection of delicately, intelligently arranged songs that are lonesome as all hell. They ebb and flow with an easy-going grace that heightens the unforced, dramatic nature of the tunes. The end result is a perfect album for a late-night sulk in the darkness. I found this style of brooding, down-tempo folk to be a much better fit for Steve’s voice than his previous work with The Human Soundtrack. Listen here.

The 6 Fort Waldegrave (from 6 Fort Waldegrave Street, of course) take the award for best concept album of last year’s RPM. All the songs on Long Night on Camp Blood are directly inspired by the classic slasher movie Friday the 13th. Some directly reference scenes from the movie, and some are meant to be played over certain scenes as an alternative soundtrack. Done in just two weeks, but remarkably well-recorded, it has the trademark shambolic, off-the-cuff feeling you would associate with RPM participants, oozing giddy sounds of friends getting drunk and ridiculous. I mean, really, with titles like “Kevin Bacon Gets an Arrow Through his Neck” and “Chick Gets an Axe In The Face” you can’t go too wrong. Listen here.

RPM veterans and notorious local weirdos Mopey Mumble Mouse made one of their most inspired and enjoyable releases, The Wrath of Least Persistence. All the members take over on songwriting and frontman responsibilities so it’s more of a mixed bag than usual, but each member has at least one classic track on this album: Curtis Kilfoy’s vocal performance on “Forever and Ever, Amen” is cathartic and exemplary; Tom Davis’s “Grey Afternoon” is a really beautiful and tender piano ballad; and Bart Pierson delivers the rock classic we all knew he was capable of with “Vicious Circle” which drips in classic Elevator to Hell/Sabbath thunder and riffage. Listen here.

Typically found drumming for the Subtitles, Bryan Power picked up a guitar for last year’s RPM and, as Pilot to Bombardier, delivered one of my favorite albums of 2009. Come In Bombardier is an eloquent and subdued offering, with lush but delicate arrangements reminiscent of Smog or Red House Painters. Subtitles drummer Bryan Power’s voice is warm and understated, with an easy yet world-weary charm. The production is subtle and nuanced, perfectly highlighting the quiet mood of each song. Especially good is “Out of Tune,” with its quietly aching chorus and its vibraphone nod to “Chariots of Fire.” Listen here.

Another Subtitler, Rebecca Cohoe, teamed up with Exit Party’s Ian Murphy to make Pet Legs, a pure pop confection of the minimal 80’s keyboard variety. That type of album usually sends me running in the opposite direction, but Pet Legs’ self-titled gets the formula spot-on, with strong voices, energetic tempos, and catchy hooks all over the place. It’s the perfect type of project to benefit from the RPM challenge situation: With more time to spend, the album would definitely be at risk for over-thinking, over-producing and needless clutter. But the arrangements are beautifully sparse, the performances are solid, and the mixes are really full. A catchy, perky little gem of an album. Listen here.

Listen to more 2009 RPM Challenge albums here.

Straight-up country

David Keating speaks with purveyor of tearful tunes, Joe Belly.

With a full year of touring ahead of him, Joe Belly is getting ready to launch his latest album, Nickles and Dimes, at the Ship.

The final pressed and packaged CD has yet to arrive, but Joe Belly is steadily making plans for a year of touring that will have him on the road until the fall of this year.

“Right now, there’s a tour to Ireland planned for July, for maybe two weeks,” he says. “Myself and Sherry (Ryan) are going to do that together. We just decided for sure to do it today.”

Other planned dates include a tour to Ontario in the late spring and performances on the Folk Festival circuit in August.

For Belly, who won the MusicNL 2008 Country Artist of the Year on the strength of his previous album Crawlin Out Of A Hole, the lessons learned from his last studio session led him to a different approach in recording the tracks for Nickles and Dimes.

“Last one, we basically did in three days,” he says. “We went in to the studio really well rehearsed… This one, I had a bunch of cool stuff in mind so I brought the band in for four or five songs. We still did the band stuff pretty quickly, but then I brought people in separately. I brought the steel player and the fiddle player in after the fact, and then Sherry recorded some piano at our house and I had to finish some songs.

I still hadn’t finished a couple of tunes. The band hadn’t played a few songs. So it was kind of neat to do it that way- it cost more money, but the songs changed a bit more. Whereas, the first time we kind of banged them out. There was really no room to do that. This one we kind of played around a bit more.”

Drawing on several different veins of country music for the record, the title track of Nickles and Dimes is a John Prine-inspired folk tune. Other songs channel musicians not always considered in the country tradition, like Neil Young. Some tunes hearken back to the 50s and 60s, including a duet ballad with Sherry Ryan.

“I call what I do country,” says Belly. “It’s got folk and blues and rock elements, but there are some straight-up country tunes. I mean, the modern country music stations wouldn’t play it, it’s not new country. To me, it’s closer to traditional country.”

Joe Belly and the Sin City Ramblers launch their new album Nickles and Dimes at The Ship on Saturday, January 30th. Supporting acts include The Domestics, The Cowan Mountain Boys and Sherry Ryan. Visit Joe Belly online at www.myspace.com/joebelly

Catmanduah CD release

I’ve already spent a considerable amount of digital ink this year getting all sloppy and sentimental on my good friend Danny Keating (look here and here for examples of this) so I’ll leave this write up brief. Danny Keating (or “Dank Eating” or “The Origin of The Sound” or “The Catman” or whatever) was my gateway drug into the St. John’s underground  music scene when I first came across his open mic at Bar None about seven years ago now (there really hasn’t been an open mic that I could get into since, and I used to be a huge open mic fiend.) He’s one of the most bizarre and compelling and bizarrely compelling performers/songwriters I’ve ever come across.

Prolific to an almost perverse degree Danny  has always had a sizeable group of loyal supporters, but in recent years he’s become somewhat of a recluse, rarely doing shows or going out. And while he was still making records he would only give out 10 or 15 copies of each one to his closest friends and relatives and never bother trying to sell them. He doesn’t even have a myspace or website that has been updated or even logged into for 2 or 3 years.

That’s why I was so delighted that he is finally coming out of his shell a bit and releasing an album that is actually for sale! I think they even made more than 20 copies of it. So there you have it: Catmanduah (Danny’s most current and muscular band) have released Handful of Gleam which is easily Danny’s strongest album to date, and definitely his most ferocious.

I’ll give you guys a bias warning as I was the masterer on Handful of Gleam and Danny’s one of my most favourite people in St John’s, so I am too biased to give an official review on The Scope. But I’ll say this: if you don’t go out and buy this album now you are sorely missing out on one of St John’s finest, scrappiest howlers and tunesmiths at his most fierce and refined.

The CD release show felt quite triumphant. Even though it was a frigid and miserable January night a large and lively crowd trundled into CBTG’s and the boy’s played one of the most solid sets I’ve ever seen them do. Danny was one of the first acts I wrote about when I first started the blog just over a year ago and I think it’s kinda fitting that he’s going to be one of the last people I write about in it now that I’m a few weeks away from ending the project. Anyway, on to the videos..

Here’s a catchy little groover called “Pink Elephants” about lovers in a heightened state of inebriation.

One thing that has changed about Danny over the last few years is the length of songs. Way back in the day Danny would write giant epics like “Coat Sleeves” and “Green Tea” or “The United States of Ontario” which could go on for ten or fifteen minutes sometimes. Nowadays he’s keen on writing tunes like “Beachball” here which are scarcely over a minute and a half. Someone should set him up with a jingle writing gig, I think he’d kick ass at it.

Here’s the curiously titled “Sports Analogy” and an interesting cover of the Bill Withers classic “Ain’t No Sunshine”.

Anyway, if you want to catch another sighting of the rare and illusive Catmanduah I urge you to go to CBTG’s on Saturday the 23rd. It is my farewell to St John’s concert with yours truly and my very special guests Catmanduah, Local Tough, AE Bridger and Colonel Craze and The Hunch. It’s gonna be fuckin’ nuts! Be there!

You say you want a resolution

Members of the local music scene make some New Year’s resolutions.

Compiled by David Keating.

Our New Years’ resolution is to use more floor tom, more solo synth, fewer downstrokes and a greater number of offbeats. And to start exercising regularly.
— Luke Major of Mercy, the Sexton

I guess the resolution would be to see how many instruments we can add before it gets annoying.
— Paul Alexander of Quiet Elephant

To have all band members living in the same province.
— Ryan Taylor of Sonny Tripp

I am flying to Australia in February, so things in our camp will be mostly hushed. However the idea is to continue to write and correspond, and, through the magic of weberspace, keep sharing musical ideas so that when I come home we’ll be on something of the same page.
— Greg Hewlett of Pelago

My resolution is to finish my degree and two albums that I’m working on and try for the Guinness World record for the most joints smoked in a year.
— Colleen Power

I resolve that 2010 will be the year of the Belly! Ha!
— Joe Belly

More music, less industry. Tour more. Couches are a great source of sleep.
— Jon Janes of The Mountains and The Trees

Kujo intends to cut back on cheese and carbohydrates in the new year. Kujo is also going to try driving more defensively.
— Victor Lewis of Kujo

I am not one for resolutions but I guess I would have to say ‘not to do five albums in one year again.’ Nearly bankrupting myself and not having human contact for most of the last year was pretty hard… otherwise… Gymming it up and saving some money sounds good.
— Jerry Stamp

The Subtitles resolve to finish their debut record and to tour it as far across Canada as our little legs will carry us.
— Bryan Power of The Subtitles

My resolution in this year 2010 would be to adhere to the rules of the ‘Do What You Feel Festival’. ie: if it feels good, do it, as long as it doesn’t hurt others.
— Andrew Wickens of The Troubletones

2010 is definitely the year for The Mudflowers. We’re laying down the beer and getting ourselves in gear. The album will be out this year, and we’re currently looking to print t-shirts. We’re going to be laying low for a little while but keep an eye out because things are still happening and getting done. BRB St. John’s!
— Megan McLaughlin of The Mudflowers

To not use texting to get myself out of awkward situations.
— Jason Mooney of Over The Top

Review: Ke$ha – Animal

(RCA)

Am I a 14 year old girl? Not the last time I checked. I have no business listening to this album. Mainstream pop music has always been run by an evil consortium of Hollywood Svengali, Freemasons and Swedish engineers, but now in 2010 it’s reached the point where I feel like I’m reviewing a Reebok sneaker. No—there’s more honest artistic expression in a typical sneaker then what I hear on this disc. The Milli Vanilli scandal would never have happened nowadays, why bother hiring nameless studio singers to cover up for your VH1 drone’s total lack of talent when you can just drench a shit ton of autotune over every worthless syllable they drunkenly mutter? I guess all the stupid Hot Topic kids who grew up watching “The Hills” or “Paris Hilton’s New BFF” looking for role models need something to reaffirm their worthless lives before the real world inevitably crushes their dreams.

- Patrick Canning

Review: Dead Language – s/t

(Independent)

Local pickers and crooners the Dead Language’s debut self-titled album proves a fine display of their spare and delicate arrangements and a showcase for singer/songwriter Katie Baggs’ rich and enchanting vocals. The songs have a direct rustic simplicity to them with a surprising amount of restraint shown in the guitar, banjo, mandolin and violin combinations, with no one player dominating the spotlight, choosing instead to subtly fill in the empty space with their understated pluckings while Katie’s voice seduces you. Obvious standouts are the ballads “Breath by Breath” and the album opener “The Dance” which are just total heart rippers. This is a CD that falls into the rare list of albums where the hidden end track is one of the most compelling on the record, the sprightly and energetic instrumental would’ve been better placed somewhere in the second half where the pace starts to drag. All in all a truly lovely set of ballads and lullabies.

— Patrick Canning

Review: Pathological Lovers – Calling All Favours

(Independent)

The Pathological Lovers’ debut album is an hour long propulsive blast of high-energy rock ambition. Jody Richardson with his miracle pipes (voted Best Local Rock Star three years in a row don’tcha know) sounds as passionate and powerful as he ever has, and the production sparkles and snaps as it should. The thing is, though, The Lovers seem to be suffering from a bit of ADD nowadays. Very few songs are played straight. Big left turns, sudden change-ups and complicated wordplay are paramount throughout a lot of the album, and which make it a bit of a challenge to absorb. It would risk being too much to take if it weren’t for the fact that everyone involved is givin’ it their all and playing at the height of their game. But when Jody hits on the vocal hooks and keeps everything as direct as possible, like on songs “Wednesday”, “Change is Good” or the beautiful closer “Parking Lot in Life,” the album really soars.

— Patrick Canning

Narrows at Christmas

One of my favourite things about Christmas break are the reunion shows.

In as much as the vibrancy and originality of the St. John’s music scene is a product of it’s geographical isolation, it is also a victim of the same isolating force. I remember at one of The Scope staff meetings we were thinking about the annual New Music issue, and afterward I thought “how about an ‘Old Music’ issue, where we look at local bands that have been around for five years or more?”

But I couldn’t think of more then three or four bands in this town that would actually qualify.

Sure, there are plenty of individual performers who have been at it for ages, but in terms of bands or groups consistently playing original music together for more then a couple of years, under the same name, that is something rarer then a good looking tattoo in this town. Is it an inevitability that all the great bands that emerge in St John’s have to split up after a couple of summers? This is a university town I guess, but you’d think we could find more then four or five locals willing to keeping going at it after convocation. You can just blame the economy, out migration and Joey Smallwood I guess.

I don’t want that previous paragraph to sound like I’m trying to guilt-trip anybody who had to break up the band so they could move somewhere where they could actually pay off their student loans. Since I’m dropping out of the province in three weeks, this issue hits pretty close to home. I just wish more of my favourites would stick around long enough to record a sophomore album.

Anyway, on the bright side, people come home for the holidays. And what better way to celebrate then to get the band back together for a reunion show? Narrows was a band I only got to see live twice during their heyday and before the inevitably departure. But they definitely left a strong impression. Their debut album was an amazing piece of instrumental rock. A really, really solid piece of work. They are one of the very few bands in the world with three guitarists where everybody is a virtuoso and nobody plays a strictly submissive or dominant role. Everybody has their own part, and everything fits together very a very intricate and nuanced way.

If you were going to rank musicians in this town on the likelihood that they’ll end up in a Guitar Hero game, everyone in Narrows would be on the top of the list. I’m stoked that I got to document them before my plane takes off.

The Videos

Here is the one song with vocals in their set “Moving Bodies”…

Words? Bah! who needs words? This was a new song I think. I don’t know what it’s called.

This is “Memory Lane,” which I think is my favourite song of theirs. At around five minutes in a weird buzzing sound appears, then there’s a hum. I don’t what this is, but it goes away after a few seconds, so just ignore it. It might have been easier to ignore if I didn’t already point it out to you, sorry…

Narrows seems to be a once in a blue moon type of deal but you can see three of it’s members in a similarly awesome, epic instro band called Surgeon whom I will highly recommend to anyone.

Pathological Lovers CD release show

I can’t believe that in all these years of going to shows in St John’s it’s taken this long for someone to finally break out the lasers and smoke machines! My god! What have we all been doing with our lives?! So many wasted nights without green laserbeams in them! Just think of how many parties and shitty bar shows could have been taken to that next level with the simple inclusion of bright streaming laserbeams streaking through the room!

Smoke machines are all kinds of vile awfulness though.

Anyway.

I, like many other people in this town, have always been in awe of Jody Richardson’s voice. It is a rich and passionate instrument, and after a couple of decades of hollering out to packed crowds it still sounds every bit as fresh and powerful. I guess there’s a reason why he’s been voted Best Local Rock Star three years in a row. I’d been looking forward to the release of The Pathological Lovers debut album Calling All Favours for a long while. At least as long as I had heard they were working on it a couple of years ago. The by’s got the Rockhouse gussied up somethin’ royal for the event, with a 15 foot  version of the album cover as a backdrop, as well as the aforementioned laser canon and smoke machine. The Lovers were obviously excited about being there as the energy output barely dipped once the whole night. It was an evening of rollicking, caffeinated beats and adventurous interplay.

“Wednesday” is my favourite PL tune. It’s just a tight bundle of amphetamines being shot out of a canon straight at the moon. The momentum just doesn’t drop at all, and at three and a half minutes it’s one of their brisker numbers.

This is a fun and abstractly-themed floor stomper called “I Am The Interest Rate” that kinda reminds me of The Kinks but not really. I love the jam out just past the halfway mark.

Nothing could really prepare me for the encore the boys brought out at the end. When Jody came out and announce “do you really want more? well we can do a Yes song for you. It’s 11 minutes long. It starts out really strong, get’s kinda gay in the middle, but ends really strong,” I figured he was joking, but then they kicked right into a really faithful version of “Heart of The Sunrise” from the Fragile album, all 11 minutes of it’s preposterous noodling. I was in heaven. Weirdly enough, I never felt like it was much out of place in the set. Since the last time I filmed the Lovers doing a ridiculous cover gave me the second most popular video on my YouTube channel, I would’ve been foolish not to put it up.

Video from the Atlantis Music Prize gala

Yes, there were fake mustaches.

Well 2009, has come and gone, and I figured what better way to bring in the new year then with a big arse video post of The Scope’s big arse party we held last month for the 2nd annual Atlantis Music Prize.

Seven of the 10 bands nominated this year were able to perform that night, only Amelia Curran, Map To Temenos and Errand Boy weren’t able to make it,  and the evening was packed with a smörgåsbord of silliness and music. I’m not going to bother explaining what the Atlantis Music Prize is (just scroll down about 3 articles if you’re curious) and since I have seven videos I’m not going to talk that much. I usually don’t give myself this much work but I thought it would be snotty of me to leave out any particular act, fortunately I have lots of free time to kill editing video this holiday.

Since there were seven bands plus the roaming half-televised “Best Of” award show/improv comedy show, the music acts were forced into playing 3 or 4 song sets. That kinda upset me a bit at first, but I found out that there is something strangely satisfying about 3 or 4 song sets. The fact that the bands are playing their three best and tightest songs and never get a chance to get tired or worn out helps bring the event a good momentum (even if it inevitably gets broken up with set changes.) Anyway, it gave me a great chance to document some bands I’ve been meaning to film for a long while. I’ve only got a month left in this province to get every band on my list!

Now the videos
First I should apologize for the sound quality in this one, the PA volume was a little low during The Once’s set, so the audience noise overwhelms it a bit. I’m not going to rant about the audience like last time, I promise. Geraldine Hollett has one of the best voices in the country and deserves your attention. They’re singing “The Deserter” from their self-titled debut.

The Dardanelles got the crowd all jiggy with it with some Rufus Guinchard here in this video, and I realized how atrophied my step dancing muscles had gotten. Maybe my boots are just too heavy? They played as deftly as one could hope for.

A mustachioed Chris Kirby played this bright funky number from his album Vampire Hotel. He’s definitely one of those acts that needs to be appreciated live.

Then Kujo took the stage. I’ve talked enough about Kujo on this blog already, and Victor Lewis is my personal Jesus. I’d give my arm to him if I had to.

Here they’re playing the first song “Annalisa” from his brand new album Vic E Lou’s Great Invention this is a totally different version from the album. I highly highly recommend everyone pick up a copy of it as soon as he puts it out there.

This was the first time I saw Class War Kids live and I gotta say, I’d been sorely missing out. Playing songs off their album Reflection! Rage! Rebellion!, a wicked blast of old school punk was just what the party needed.

The mighty Novaks took the stage next, and swaggered through a short set of songs from their newest album Things Fall Apart which I’ve had in heavy rotation since I got it last summer.

Then the winner of the evening — although no one new it at the time — Curtis Andrews, whose beard grows mightier with each passing second, ended the evening with some loose and zippy up-tempo jazz numbers from his album The Offering of Curtis Andrews. If you go to the end of the video you can see him accepting his award.

Congratulations to Curtis and everyone nominated!

I can’t wait to see who get’s nominated next year. Should be an exciting year I think.

Merry Christmas from Throwing Stones At You

Last year I started a tradition of writing a Christmas song and making a video for it just before Christmas day. This year is my second Christmas classic, it is destined to be played in Wal~marts and churches across the nation for years to come.

Merry Christmas! Thank you for supporting Throwing Stones At You, and cheers for the New Year!

Oh and here’s last years Christmas video if you were at all curious..

Colonel Craze and The Hunch CD Release

Buy Colonel Craze and The Hunch’s debut album Reptilian Lipstick… Do it!

Yes, I was the masterer on the album, and yes I am good friends with all the guys, and have even played in bands with two of its members, and am thusly biased. I was born biased, raised biased, and I’ll stay biased until I’m long long dead and eaten by wolves. None of this changes the fact that Reptilian Lipstick is the most ass-kickingest, crotchgrabbingly, bad-ass album you’ll listen to this year. This album will hand you questionable substances, wait for the right moment to touch you inappropriately, and leave you feeling both violated and liberated. This album will change your blood type. This album will force you to destroy everything you own just for the pleasure of smashing it against your face in time with the howling. This album will change your religion, not only that but it will forcibly cancel out the baptism of anybody within earshot.

Maybe I exaggerate, but it’s really good.

This album was supposed to come out sometime in August but many misdealings, miscommunications and just plain fuck-ups with the manufacturers delayed the release of the album more than four months. So it was with great anticipation and total exasperated impatience that I arrived at the CD release show at CBTG’s last week. Finally the damn thing was finished and I could hold the end product in my hand. It was a beautiful moment, but there was something weird in the air that night… I’ll get to that later. First I’m going to do the opposite of what I usually do and  take a look at the videos of opening acts first. 

The other reason I was excited about the show was that I would get to see a band I hadn’t seen for a long while: The Chatty Cathys.

Started by guitarist/singer Adam Greene, The Chatty Cathys (who’s name is a Steve Colbert reference, if anybody is curious) are a rowdy trio of hard rocking moral reprobates playing aggressive and ossified guitar chaos with a bluesy edge. Greene’s stage banter can get notoriously confrontational, which I’ve witnessed get pretty out of hand on occassion, but the man has serious chops and writes tunes that can stick to you for a long time. He kept his mouth in check pretty well for this show and I took a couple of videos to add to my collection.

Also if you took The Chatty Cathys and rearranged them so the drummer and guitarists changed places you’d get The Drunks Rule This Place, who I talked about awhile ago here.

Here’s a song call “Gauche.” It’s apparently about AIDS relief in Africa?

I don’t know the name of this song but it’s pretty heavy:

Going completely out of order, Justin Guzzwell and The Crooks opened the night with his particular brand of compelling ivory pummeling. I think Justin is one of the most interesting and original new songwriters working the circuit last year, and he gets better each time I see him. I wrote about him and took a couple of videos back in the old blog a few months back (see it here if your curious).

This time I caught him and his band doing what is undoubtably his catchiest song, “Bossman”:

And then ummm… My camera batteries burned out?

No, that’s a lie. I can’t avoid it any longer! Sorry but I’m not going to show you any videos of Colonel Craze from their CD release show. Unfortunately for everyone, this was the shittiest Colonel Craze concert ever. And worse still this had nothing to do with the band. Well, maybe it had a bit to do with the band, but if anybody is going to take the brunt of the blame it’s going to go to the shitty, shitty audience that turned up to the event. And before you say “well what kind of crappy performer blames the audience for a bad set?” I would say to you that you are either blind and deaf or just haven’t gotten out of your house to see a show in at least 10 years.

I don’t know if any of you have noticed this recently, but people suck ass nowadays. And what I mean by that is people don’t know how to be an audience anymore, they have no sense of what is appropriate behavior when taking in a show. Usually when you hear that complaint it’s in reference to people being incapable of shutting up for a minute during quiet songs or people to stupid to turn off their cellphones when they’re at a play or movie, but in the case of Colonel Craze I’m actually inverting this sentiment. A lot of complete strangers showed up for the show and while every musician wants more new listeners, these people seemed to have wandered in from some Asperger’s clinic close by. Colonel Craze are a rock band. They play loud, punked-up, aggressive, rock and roll boogie music. The appropriate behavior is to dance, jump around, shout, cheer, drink and be generally rowdy and obnoxious, and that’s what people generally expect and look forward to when going out to a loud show. What is inappropriate behaviour is to stand motionless, aloof and uncheering right at the front of the stage throughout the entire set.

I don’t care how shitty the band is. I don’t care how much the song sucks. I don’t care if you got dragged there kicking and screaming by your boyfriend/girlfriend, I don’t care if the door person kicked you in the nuts on the way in, you better fucking clap between songs. This is just common fucking courteousy. Speaking from far too much experience, playing your heart out on stage and having it met with a room full of cold silence is up there with having your pet die in terms of shitty feelings.

So anyway, the room was pretty tightly packed for a snowy Friday night, but half this audience was intent on sucking all the joy out of the room by standing in silence and literally sneering at anybody attempting to dance in front of them. I mean, what the fuck is wrong with you people? If you’re not having a good time, go somewhere else! There are plenty of other bars on George Street. No one is forcing you to be here. And even if your significant other is forcing you to be here, why the hell are you standing like unmotivated zombies two feet away from the singer’s face? Go to the back of the room!

The Craze were pretty damn ossified (actually they were really, really tanked) but not so ossified that they couldn’t notice that half the front row consisted of these people. The awkward tension in the room was palpable, and the whole evening turned into a giant negative feedback loop of band and audience feeding off each other’s disgust.

I am exaggerating a lot in this rant, but none of the videos I took were fit for anyone to look at, so as a consolation I dug out an older Colonel Craze video I’ve had in my hard drive for a couple of months and uploaded it.

Here’s a feisty and inarticulate performance of “Pregnancy’s a Joke” and “Pressure Control” from Reptilian Lipstick:

The by’s are pretty much my favourite band going and they deserved a better CD release show then that, considering the amount of work they put into it. But anyway, having gotten that little rant off my chest and moving on with my life, I have to say I’m really excited about the future of the band. The album is getting a great response, and The Craze are really excited and happy with the way everything is going with it. Look out for their future shows and be sure to turn up if you plan on bloody dancing and screaming. Stay the fuck home otherwise.

The anti-rape cake from the show.

2009 Atlantis Music Prize winner announced

Photo by Justin Hall

He was facing off against better-known acts Amelia Curran and The Novaks, but Carbonear percussionist and composer Curtis Andrews took home the Atlantis Music Prize last night for his album of “world jazz niceness,” The Offering of Curtis Andrews.

Surprising, uplifting, and spontaneous, Andrews’ first album of original music is the result of a long musical journey, which included studies abroad in the villages and cities of Ghana, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe. It’s a wide collection of styles and intricate patterns, carefully constructed with the help of a host of talented local band-mates, including bassist Josh Ward (of Hey Rosetta!) and trumpeter Patrick Boyle.

An inventive and energetic drummer, Andrews has played in many bands in the capital city of St. John’s, most notably lately with the popular 11-piece reggae/funk/party band the Idlers.

Andrews’ win brings to light a strong love of avant-garde percussion in Newfoundland and Labrador. His album is dedicated to the memories of Don Wherry (founder of the Sound Symposium) and John Wyre (one of the founding members of the world renowned percussion ensemble NEXUS) two of Andrews’ percussionist mentors, both highly influential in Newfoundland’s contemporary musical history.

The Atlantis Music Prize, patterned on the Canada-wide Polaris Music Prize, is given annually to the best full-length album from Newfoundland and Labrador, judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales. 2009 marks the second year the Atlantis Music Prize has been awarded.

An independent panel of 40 journalists, musicians, and people recognized for their knowledge and appreciation of local music submitted their top picks for the best album released between November 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009. The winning album was decided by a group of six selected jurors and announced to a packed gala show on Thursday, December 17th at The Rock House on George Street, in St. John’s.

The winner received a $1,000 gift certificate for the independent Newfoundland music store, Reid Music.

The Atlantis Music Prize Short List for 2009:
Amelia Curran – Hunter, Hunter (www.ameliacurran.com)
Chris Kirby – Vampire Hotel (www.chriskirbyonline.com)
The Class War Kids – Reflection! Rage! Rebellion! (www.myspace.com/theclasswarkids)
Curtis Andrews – The Offering of Curtis Andrews (www.curtisandrews.ca)
The Dardanelles – The Dardanelles (www.myspace.com/dardanellesmusic)
Errand Boy – Cape Disappointment (www.myspace.com/errandboy)
Kujo – Kujo (www.myspace.com/kujotherockband)
Map to Temenos – O! Sweet Guillotine (www.myspace.com/maptotemenos)
The Novaks – Things Fall Apart (www.thenovaks.ca)
The Once – The Once (www.theonce.ca)

Atlantis Music Prize Short List 2009

Like the Polaris Music Awards for Canada, the Atlantis Music Prize is a juried award judged on artistic merit, without regard to sales or genre.

An independent group of more than 40 journalists, musicians, and people recognized for their appreciation of local music recently submitted their top picks to us for the best album released between November 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009 in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The winning album, decided by a group of six judges, will be announced on Thursday, December 17th at the Rock House here in St. John’s. For more information, visit www.atlantismusicprize.ca

Below is the Atlantis Music Prize Short List, in alphabetical order.

Amelia Curran – Hunter, Hunter

Obligatory genre classification:
Singer-songwriter/folk

Flavours:
Heartwrenching, introspective

Answers by Amelia Curran:

Could you tell me a little about Hunter, Hunter?
It’s the only album I’ve ever recorded in St. John’s, which is special in and of itself. It took 20 months, three or four locations, including a couple nervous breakdowns. We recorded 20 songs, 12 of which made it to the album… It was necessary for me to come home. It was time, and making an album here was so exciting. To get to work with Sandy Morris, Jeff Panting, and The Once, George Morgan… it’s amazing, I’ve been watching most of these folks my whole life. To have people like that so willing to come into the studio was was very exciting.

What’s your favourite track on the album?
I really like “Ah Me.” I also like “Hands on a Grain of Sand,” which one of the last songs that was written for the album. As I write more I’m getting better at sticking with a point, and straying from metaphors, which young writers tend to stick with. I think I’m becoming a better writer, and as my harshest critic, I think that these two songs are proof that I’m becoming a better writer.

www.ameliacurran.com

—

Chris Kirby – Vampire Hotel

Obligatory genre classification:
Blues/Rock

Flavours:
Funky, witty, theatrical

Answers by Chris Kirby

What do you like best about how Vampire Hotel came together?
The coolest thing about how this record came together is all the fantastic people I got to meet and work with in the process. Of course, Gordie Johnson [of Big Sugar fame] has always been one of my music heroes so having him produce and play on my record was quite a gas.

What’s your favourite track on the album?
Lately, my favourite track is “Heavy Rain.” I think it’s the best-mixed tune out of the lot. There’s a part where the bass drops out and the suspense that builds before it comes back in is just incredible. I get this sort of floating-in-mid-air feeling every time I hear it. Recording this tune was so easy. The band and I had the bed down pretty quickly, and then we just threw free and improvised parts on top of it.

www.chriskirbyonline.com

—

Curtis Andrews – The Offering of Curtis Andrews

Obligatory genre classification:
World/Jazz

Flavours:
Surprising, uplifting, ­spontaneous.

Answers by Curtis Andrews

What do you like best about how The Offering came together?
The thing that I find amusing is that I actually had no intentions of ever making an album! Selling, marketing, promotions, bios, self-aggrandizement. Some may say it is part of being an artist—but homey don’t play like that. But after playing some of this music live, the feedback was extremely positive and the amount of financial support for music in this province is unlike anywhere else in Canada—or the world probably—so I took the opportunity and applied for a piece of it. Now I have quite a nice little collection of music to share.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?
Favorite track? C’mon… that’s like asking “what’s your favorite cloud?” It’s always changing. Anyhow, one of my faves these days is “Genghis Khanda Blues.” It was a group effort, live off the floor, no overdubs, no edits and done in very few takes… it has a real freshness and liveliness to it… humor as well. And the dueling trumpet and sax solo has some nice peak moments. I think it was one of the earliest tunes in the whole process which opened up the gates for the others to fall into place.

www.curtisandrews.ca

—

The Class War Kids – Reflection! Rage! Rebellion!

Obligatory genre classification:
Punk rock

Flavours:
Fast, angry, fun

Answers by Davey Brat

What do you like best about how the album came together?
I was really happy how fast the album came together. Sean Dubs just joined the band three weeks prior to recording, but he’s an amazing drummer and just made it all meld well together. We had to rush it as we where about to leave for a 10 week cross Canada tour at the end of June, so we finished 14 tracks and ended up writing about half of the material in the studio. I think from start to finish, we got it all done in two weeks time. Pat and Kyle spent hours working on harmonies, adding texture and layers that really paid off. We are super happy with how the backing vocals turned out. They would be whoa-ing their little hearts out in my basement till 5am some nights.

What’s your favourite track on the album?
My favourite track is “Cherry Popping Conservatives.” The song came together really fast and I was giggling the whole time I was writing it… Totally pokes fun at uptight Christian conservatives and their prude stranglehold on North American society. It’s about overcoming sexual limitations, how we look at gender and sexual preference… Breaking down the walls of homophobia and sexism… I got the idea from a Henry Rollins spoken word piece about a bisexual magazine based out of San Fransisco called “anything that moves” and how fucked up the way we look at sex in North America. Domination rather than sharing passion and love. Either way, conservatives just need a little bum play.

www.myspace.com/theclasswarkids

—

The Dardanelles – The Dardanelles

Obligatory genre classification:
Traditional folk

Flavours:
Vibrant, raw, friendly

Answers by Tom Power

What do you like best about how the album came together?
Well about two weeks before we went recording, we had some personnel shifts, so to speak. Meaning, essentially, that we got a new member. He had to learn all of our arrangements, and help in the collaborative process. So for about a week before we went into the studio, we spent five to eight hours a day playing these tunes, non-stop. Then we went into the studio and did it all live off the floor. So maybe what I like best about how the album came together is that the process turned us all from individual players playing together into a band.

What’s your favourite track on the album?
I like track two, [“Boyd’s Cove Singles”]. We had all of our tunes ready to go to record, and then about three days before we were scheduled to go into the studio, Duane Andrews (who produced the record) said, ‘well, I tell you one thing the album is missing… a set of singles’. Singles being a Newfoundland dance tune inherent only to the province. And we didn’t have a set!

So Aaron dug out a bunch of tunes that he collected from an old accordion player out in Boyd’s Cove, that, to our knowledge, had never been recorded before, and we put together a set, all of us working collaboratively. And I believe the take that’s on the record is the first take we made of it.

www.myspace.com/dardanellesmusic

—

Errand Boy – Cape Disappointment

Obligatory genre classification:
Electronic/Folk

Flavours:
Meditative, cinematic, layered

Answers by Bryan Melanson

What do you like best about how the album came together?
My major source of pride is how I can hear small changes I made to my song-writing process in each song. I decided to record this album for the RPM Challenge just to try to break a couple of bad song-writing habits by forcing myself to this deadline, and each song I tacked on a secondary goal to write with only one instrument—or to use no samples—or to write something happy for a change. I like that I hear small breakthroughs all over the album.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?
“Ghostride the Relationship” is the best thing on there to me, because it’s one of the only songs I’ve written that’s basically free of any kind of melancholy, and I’m glad it was the song I wrote at the start of the month, becase if I was depressed at the start, writing the rest of the album would’ve been like dragging a piano uphill. Producing it was like rushing into the project and being as forceful as possible, just to break my writer’s block and still have time to finish the rest of the songs in a month, so I just recorded all of the guitar super-fast and got over my distortion anxiety a little. The end result sounds a lot more like what I listen to—I don’t have a lot of electronic music on my computer.

www.myspace.com/errandboy

—

Kujo – Kujo

Obligatory genre classification:
Classic rock and roll

Flavours:
Gritty, psychedelic, driving

Answers by Victor Lewis

What do you like best about how the album came together?
We’re just happy with the fact the album came together, period, because we’re so goddam lazy. It would’ve been easier to just watch re-runs all summer and pretend we were recording something wicked.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?
“Slumber Party” is our favourite track. It sounds so greasy. We messed with Craig’s bass ‘til it crackled, Adam found the noisiest cymbal clang, and me and Brad worked out the most obnoxious dual guitar parts I’ve ever heard. Actually, we barely got through the harmonized guitar solo because we were laughing so hard. Then there’s Craig’s falsetto backing vocals. Pure dirt.

www.myspace.com/kujotherockband

—

Map to Temenos – O! Sweet Guillotine

Obligatory genre classification:
Progressive punk

Flavours:
Atmospheric, intricate, frenetic

Answers by Peter Andrews

What do you like best about how the album came together?
I think my favourite thing about how the album came together is how natural and organic the whole thing feels. Especially since I didn’t think it would ever actually be released. A lot of the credit for this has to go to Jon Hynes.

We wrote all of these songs… within two months of being a band, and played them seamlessly as our set for probably the first six. O! Sweet Guillotine is in fact the third time we have recorded this album, having been dissatisfied with the first two attempts, which we were doing on our own.

For the third attempt we decided to bring in Jon, to help us put everything together the way it should be. His eyes and ears were exactly what we needed…

What’s your favourite track on the album these days?
My favourite song on the album would definitely be “-Orro-” …It took the longest to perfect. This is where the painstaking recording process has really benefitted us, I think. Out of every failed recording attempt, we were able to pinpoint exactly what it was we were unhappy with.

“-Orro-” is a song which changed every time we recorded it. From the time we first prepared the song for live performance, to the final version, which is gravely different, we spent about 18 months writing the song.

But by the time we were going into the recording session with Jon, the song was finished, and I believe we got the bed track done in a single take, and the overdubs came along extremely quickly as well.

www.myspace.com/maptotemenos

—

The Novaks – Things Fall Apart

Obligatory genre classification:
Rock and roll

Flavours:
Catchy, saucy, driving

Answers by Mick Davis

What do you like best about how the album came together?
We made this record in 14 days, and at the time it represented our live sound. Elliot, Mark, and I played together live off the floor on every track… there are overdubs, but a minimal amount. There was no click track used, auto tuner, etc. so it’s quite an honest album. Eventually, I imagine, we will make a Beatlesque record and really make use of the studio, but thus far this hasn’t been in the cards. The record industry is upside down, and we wanted to make an album that we could perform confidently on stage. The live show is where it’s at for a band like us. I feel that more than ever right now, as we’ve just played our most successful string of shows on the west coast of this country.

What’s your favourite track on the album these days?
“Worm In The Apple.” We get stuck with the “Straight-ahead rock” or “Classic rock” label quite a bit. We play rock and roll. And like blues or jazz or country, it is steeped in tradition. However, the lyrics on this record—and particularly on this track—are quite modern, as they pertain to my present feelings and opinions. We have no interest in rewriting “Rock and Roll All Nite” or “Slow Ride” or whatever. There isn’t a “Cock-Rock” song on this record. “Worm In The Apple” almost didn’t make this album—we ran out of studio time (and time with our producer, Gordie Johnson), so we completed this track at Great Big Studio with Mark as engineer. No one outside the band really believed in this tune, so we finished it on our own. That makes it special, I guess.

www.thenovaks.ca

—

The Once – s/t

Obligatory genre classification:
Folk

Flavours:
Delicious harmonies; earthy but other-worldly

Answers by Phil Churchill

What do you like best about how the album came together?
It feels like a real album. Not just a bunch of songs recorded and slapped together in some random order. It has a flow. It has peaks and valleys and it makes sense as a complete piece of work. We are proud and happy to play each and every track on it.

What’s your favourite track on the album of late?
“Maid on the Shore.”

It’s easy in this band to feel a little soft, a little laid back sometimes, and this one let’s us rock out. We play it together as a band and it is who we are now, but it’s built on our individual backgrounds: Geri really stretches out as a singer and shows her innate ability for harmonies. Andrew stretches out and proves that he is a true multi-instrumentalist that can play within a song not just on top of it. And Phil gets to tap into his rock and roll side and turn his electric guitar up on stun.

This was a track where having rock afficianados Mark Neary and Don Ellis made recording it a breeze. Hearing each layer was more exciting than the last and every move, every note, every idea seemed obvious but not in a contrived or predictable way. This one really made us feel like a band. The live performance of this song as we play it now is directly the result of what we produced in Don Ellis’ Fat Tracks Studio. It wasn’t even on our list of tracks to record on the album. The band cut it and Neary convinced us that it should be on there.

www.theonce.ca

—

For more information, visit www.atlantismusicprize.ca

Bob Dylan – Christmas In The Heart

(Flawless Records)

I’m pretty sure Bob Dylan could record himself hurting a llama for 45 minutes and a certain section of the population would hail it as “an amazing display of evocative and confrontational songwriting prowess.” I know it’s not really kosher to be overly critical of charity albums (all profits go to help the World Food Programme) and I know you gotta set the bar lower when criticizing Christmas records, and I’ve had a long history of barely tolerating mister Dylan, but honestly, was anybody really begging for 45 minutes of Bob gargling his intestines through 15 ancient, cornball Christmas standards? Everything on the album is so syrupy and over-produced, Dylan’s presence is like throwing a dying horse into the debutante’s ball.

— Patrick Canning

Wax Mannequin

Hola!

It’s been a while, and I think I’ve just about gotten over my post-vacation depression, although looking at that mountain of crap outside my window I don’t know if that will ever be the case. If you want to see what I was up to two weeks ago then look here and see why I’m bitter and miserable now. Anyway, I got a lot of stuff I’m planning on covering this month, but before I do that I should clear out some videos I’ve been sitting on for too long.

Since I started blogging and reviewing albums for The Scope a few months ago I’ve started suffering from this irritating condition called pitchforkshitbagatitis where I get so burned out from the relentless parade of indistinguishable, shitty new indie bands that I just want to murder things randomly. Lately they all seem to be in competition to see who can be the most watered-down, boring version of The Jayhawks possible, in hopes of getting prime rotation on CBC Radio 3 (fuck that station!)

This is part of the reason I take so much relish in going to acts like Wax Mannequin. Despite the best efforts of professional douchebag music snobs like myself, his work remains nearly impossible to categorize. It’s even impossible to come up with a short list of sort of similar artists.

From the mysterious and magical land of Hamilton, Ontario, Wax Mannequin has been spreading his scruffy, unabashedly melodramatic, throaty cabaret prog-punk-pop (that’s the kinda worthless genre description you get when you try to break down his music) for the better part of the decade. I remember first coming across his music back in 2003 when I used to terrorize the Zed TV website and I became pretty addicted to his song “Message From The Queen“. Since I moved to St John’s around the same time I’ve gotten the privilege of seeing him play here a few times.

I’m used to seeing him as a one-man band with a complicated looking soundboard pumping out backing tracks he would play along to. He would also be covered in roses, which he said “come out of my skin when I get excited. They are troublesome so I throw them to the audience, but it hurts and they keep growing back.”

On this most recent tour on the province he had no roses, sadly, but he gathered up a terrific backing band made up of all-star musicians from across Newfoundland. With Neil Targett and Paul Lockyer from Corner Brook (I’m from CB myself and Kuroda were a huge deal back in the day, if I had video camera/time machine combo I would go back and film them for the blog… I would do this after killing Hitler, naturally) along with Mark Bragg and Alison Corbett from ol’ Sin City. The show was deadly, and, as usual, I played the role of the dork at the front of the stage with his camera out throughout the entire thing. Here are the videos.

A classic Wax track: “Tell The Doctor” from his album “The Price.” “He cooks Christ’s medicine in his cock”… is that really what he’s saying?

This is my favourite song off his new album Saxon called “Something to Hide.” You can read my review of the album here. I liked it a lot.

And here’s two slightly mellower songs from Saxon in one video, “Broken Friends” and “End Of Me.”

Just because I bring the shows to you doesn’t mean you should stay at home. Get out of the house, you lazy bastards!

Home for Christmas

Rising opera star Calvin Powell returns to perform Handel’s Messiah.

On Canada’s West Coast, Calvin Powell is preparing for his role in Vancouver Opera Company’s newest production, Lillian Alling, set to premiere this coming spring. Once work wraps for the holidays, he’ll be returning home to St. John’s in time to rehearse with Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s seasonal production of Handel’s Messiah at the Basilica in which he will be the baritone.

It’s a testament to Powell’s approach to his performing career that leading companies on both sides of the country to find roles for him. Since graduating from MUN’s School of Music, Calvin has worked with companies like the VOC and Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company while still finding time to return to Newfoundland to perform.

Having recently settled in St. John’s with his family, Powell credits opportunities with companies like the NSO and Rising Tide Theatre for pushing forward the date of his permanent return.

“I definitely had a plan to move back to Newfoundland,” says Powell, “but I thought it would have been by the time I hit 40. However I was turning 30 and I thought ‘Things are good.’”

For him it just came down to deciding on what’s more important. Once he started a family of his own, being close to the rest of his family and able to afford a mortgage were factors. Plus, in a big city you’re a small fish in a big pond.

“It was by design to come home, but I found myself home ten years earlier than I had originally intended,” he says. He’s pleased with how it all worked out.

Aside from the personal and family connections, Powell finds the broad range of opportunities in Newfoundland more suited to his ideal career. Although he is trained primarily in opera, working in the province has given him the chance to perform musical and non-musical theatre, as well as appear on film in the local short musical, Sweet Pickle.

“That was fun. That was the first time I got to sing on camera,” says Powell. “All the disciplines are really mingled in St. John’s which is great…Working in Toronto, they see that I’m an opera singer and I don’t get considered for those sorts of things.

But for Messiah, Powell is returning to a role dedicated fans will recognize him in.

“It’s a Christmas tradition for a lot people in town,” says Powell. “My first Messiah was in 2000. I don’t think I’ve gone more than one year not doing it. When I was away it was great—it was a way to come home for Christmas.”

He thinks the audience has been able to see him grow as a singer and as an artist over the years. “I think that for me personally I get a little better at it each year.”

For those who have never been, Powell sees Messiah as a unique experience, accessible to newcomers.

“It’s not a play, there’s no movement, but it’s not a concert either, in the sense than everything is totally related and it’s meant to be performed as a whole, as opposed to a bunch of different songs strung together, he explains.”

In the new year Powell will be returning to Vancouver to continue work with the opera company, but in February, he will come home to appear with the Atlantic String Quartet. The balance of professional opportunities both home and away is something he hopes to continue.

“I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to keep it up, for sure,” says Powell. “You get to go away and do the things you get to do—the special things, the things you really want to do—but you can make a living here as a performer… It is possible. You just have to make that leap of faith.”

Handel’s ‘Messiah’ will be performed at The Basilica on December 11th and 12th at 8pm. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets for students between the ages of 15 and 29 is $10 with a free ‘Go NSO’ pass. For complete ticketing and performance information, visit nso-music.com