Recording: Muskox

Artist: Muskox

Song: Ghost Ride

Recorded at the Music Gallery, October 29, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Canaille

Artist: Canaille

Song: Dock Boggs

Recorded at the Music Gallery, October 29, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

I'll gladly entertain any musicological theories on how this piece relates to its namesake, or to the "Old, Weird America".

Recording: Damian Valles

Artist: Damian Valles

Song: Rural Routes (excerpt)

Recorded at the Music Gallery, October 29, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Muskox / Canaille

Muskox / Canaille / Damian Valles

The Music Gallery. Thursday October 29, 2009.

Out to the Music Gallery for a triple album release spectacular from the fine folks at Standard Form. Perhaps befitting an operation that runs a music imprint as an adjunct to its print shop and bindery, SF create albums that exist as exquisite physical objects. The packaging for the albums being released on this night were visual and tactile delights, a joyful counterargument to people who want their music only in some intangible form. Similarly, the three musicians playing at this show were also exploring the tensions between the tactile and the intangible, the arranged and the improvised, and the composer's craft and ensemble's skill.

Opening the night was Damian Valles, whose new Rural Routes, an EP on 3" CD, examines his move from city to country. Live, Valles presented his music with solo guitar processed through laptop and pedals, plus a gently brushed cymbal. Starting with birdsong in the background, he added gently-picked loops of guitar, always keeping things intelligently layered and not merely piled one on top of another. When the later section swelled into a louder wave, Valles standing to conduct the building sounds with his array of pedals, it felt earned. Tidily executed in twenty minutes, this was a fine entrée for the evening.

Listen to an excerpt from this performance here.

With things pretty much set up and ready to go, there was only a quick break before Canaille¹, led by ethnomusicologist-about-town Jeremy Strachan, took the stage. Strachan, switching between sax and guitar, has been using this unit as a larger canvas for his compositions than his sax-and-buckets duo Feuermusik. These tunes, from the new album Potential Things² contain elements of ethio-jazz and spy themes, but always against a swingin' backdrop. By and large the first few songs were more compactly designed — pop song length, revealing Strachan's talent at, and respect for, catchy tunefulness. Things stretched out a bit more on "Summer Hair", giving Nick Buligan on trumpet and Colin Fisher — who looked to be fighting off a cold or some similar malady³ — a bit more room to stretch out in. Anchored by Dan Gaucher's drums and Mike Smith's double bass, the music was vital throughout — smart but never overbearing.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Having seem Muskox just a few weeks previously, I had a good notion of what I was in for. A few changes from last time around, though. Certainly much more elbow room for the players this time — indeed, room enough not just for a grand piano, but also for an extra player joining in on extra marimba and percussion. We were treated to all five pieces from the new album⁴ , plus encore. What can I add to my previous thoughts on Muskox? For whatever reason, when I closed my eyes and listened, my mind dredged up images of sitting in the back seat of a station wagon, watching snow-covered fields roll by. Evocative, then, I guess. And, natch, impeccably arranged.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ With my poorly-remembered vocabulary, for months I'd assumed that the band name was French for "cinnamon", but it turns out that it actually means something like "riff-raff".

² The album's jacket design pays homage to the classic Blue Note look — looking over the back cover, I half-expected to see an Alfred Lion credit.

³ I'm assuming that the bottle of cough syrup that Fisher was taking discreet swigs from between songs was for medicinal, and not recreational, purposes. His playing was exceptional, though, and not affected by whatever he was fighting off.

⁴ The 5 Pieces album cover is delightfully tactile, a schema of triangles, reminiscent of the Sierpinski fractals that haunted me during my youth.

Recording: Julie Doiron

Artist: Julie Doiron

Song: Elevator Show

Recorded at Lee's Palace, October 27, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Recording: Julie Doiron

Artist: Julie Doiron

Song: Le Piano

Recorded at Lee's Palace, October 27, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Recording: Herman Dune

Artist: Herman Dune

Song: Your Name/My Game

Recorded at Lee's Palace, October 27, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Recording: Shotgun Jimmie

Artist: Shotgun Jimmie

Song: Mind Crumb

Recorded at Lee's Palace, October 27, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Gig: Julie Doiron

Julie Doiron / Herman Dune / Shotgun Jimmie

Lee's Palace. Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

I came to this show with a bit of apprehension — after all, the last time I saw Julie Doiron was so good, I wondered it was was tempting fate to hope for something like that again. I know I've been burned in the past, going to see artists twice while touring the same album and delivering essentially the same show, which never seems as good the second time around. Long story short, holy moley am I glad I didn't skip this one. Pardon the strong language.

Hitting the stage at 8:30 for an early start to the night was Shotgun Jimmie, a late addition to the bill. The name was vaguely familiar, probably from his previous collaborative effort Shotgun & Jaybird. Tonight he was playing electric guit alongside drummer Jay Baird. With a dry wit, red shirt and moustache he genially cranked out a series of slightly ramshackle tunes, sounding like a stripped-down, rockist Pavement. The songs were generally catchy, though there were a few lyrical groaners ("life is impossible/but it's also a popsicle"), but his most winning feature was his good stage presence and goofy banter — and regardless of a song's sentiments, he never hesitated to end on a "cha cha cha". A sparse crowd on the dance floor¹ was joined by Ms. Doiron herself for a good chunk of the set, who watched with a smile, mouthing the words to the songs.

Seizing the chance to make a joke at the headliner's expense, Jimmie interrupted a rambling story between songs, saying, "it's just 'cause it's a Julie Doiron show I thought maybe I should just talk awkwardly for a while in the middle of my set — her fans seem to go for that kind of thing." Towards the end, the two musicians switched places, and Jesse Baird joined in on bass to back Jay Baird's lead vox for a nice number with a lonely country barroom feel. A thirty-five minute set was the first sign that the bands would be serving out healthy portions on this night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

There'd been a burst of chatter about Herman Dune when they'd passed through earlier this year for CMW, but other than having read somewhere that both musicians had taken "Herman Dune" as their surname, Ramones-style, I didn't really know anything about them.² David-Ivar Herman Dune took the stage kitted out with beard, trilby and tie, playing the first two songs solo, featuring gentle fingerpicked folk guitar, a richly expressive voice with an engaging vocal manner, and lyrics sometimes flowing out in near stream-of-consciousness torrents. At some points early Leonard Cohen came to mind. Unsurprisingly, the drums, supplied by Néman Herman Dune, juiced things up some, the energy also switching the guit over to energetic rock rhythms, keeping things generally moving at a pick-me-up pace. The pair's affectations and general easy-going-ness were sometimes at odds with the music, which had a rigourous seriousness — and occasional sadness — underneath it.³ "On a Saturday", one definite winner, had a bouncy beat attached to its yearning lyrics and Sterling Morrison guitar riffing. "I'd Rather Walk Than Run"⁴ was also a winner. Julie Doiron came out to add some backing vox to "Good For No One". It was an extended set for an opener, running about fifty-five minutes, but it felt earned, and I would say by the end I was a fan.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Julie Doiron's set began with an almost swaggering intro, a slow, bluesy fanfare that lasted a minute-and-a-half before segueing into "Consolation Prize", which also featured a classic rockin' bridge. And soon, the first "you know that one, right?" aimed at her bandmates as she launched into "Yer Kids". Unlike last time around, when Doiron was backed by Fred Squire and Rick White — with whom she'd recorded I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, this time 'round she was supported by Jesse Baird (drums) and Jay Baird (bass).

It's hard not to mention pretty much every song as a highlight: say, an explosive "Le Piano" ("That's the fastest we ever played it!" Doiron exclaimed with a sort of surprised delight at the end) or "Spill Yer Lungs" with thundering drums⁵ — I could go on. Will Kidman of the Constantines dropped in for some extra guit on "Borrowed Minivans", and then, stayed for a showstopper to top all previous showstoppers — a powerhouse version of "The Wrong Guy" that incorporated "No More" in its middle. Um, yow.

"I guess I'll do one or two by myself," Doiron said as the band headed off, soliciting requests from the crowd. "One or two" became six, including "Elevator Show", "Sweeter" and "Me And My Friend". Plus a pretty new one that had the feel of a classic folk song: "warmed by the sun and cooled by the wind/ the water sings to me". Miraculously, the crowd was pretty quiet throughout the solo segment, making it a pretty exquisite time.

And then, almost apologetic that she was still playing, the band came back out, joined by Shotgun Jimmie on guit for a closing suite, starting with "I Left Town"⁶ and then a rollicking run through a cover of The Dinner is Ruined's lullaby-esque "Sleep Little Willie". The final, final song ended the night as it began, in a Crazy Horse-like blast of ragged glory, "Some Blues" starting with a two minute long instrumental build, and the whole the song stretching more than nine minutes.

So, pretty incredible stuff, and a fairly different experience from back in March. Had I not been to that one, I might well have called this the show of the year. Either way. One to look back on fondly.

Listen to a solo track here and a rockin' band track here.

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¹ Oh, by the way, at some point since the last time I'd been to Lee's there's been more renovations afoot, with the elements of seemed to be a new sound system in place. The old stacks at the side of the stage have been replaced by new speakers, those contemporary-looking slightly curving units that hang from the ceiling. This has actually opened up the stage a little bit, unblocking the view from the close corners of the room.

² Although the name thing might seem a little precious, at least they've dropped the umlaut that used to be in "Düne".

³ Not that all of the lyrical concerns were deadly serious — one song imagined what a superhero would say to his girlfriend when revealing his secret identity. But even that wasn't played for laughs so much as presented as thinking through a potential problem.

⁴ Not to be confused with the also-played "Walk Don't Run", wherein David-Ivar cranked up his amp for some extended serious rockin' out.

⁵ In fact, on a couple occasions, Baird's drumming was so powerful that his cymbal mic was knocked askew from his insistent pummelling.

⁶ "Just C and F," she told Jimmie, and some of the crowd up front started chanting, "C to F! C to F!" Jimmie pulled off a credible solo and correctly guessed that the song would end on G.

Recording: Six Finger Satellite

Artist: Six Finger Satellite

Song: Rome From Home

Recorded at The Garrison, October 23, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: The Chinese Stars

Artist: The Chinese Stars

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Garrison, October 23, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Gig: Six Finger Satellite

Six Finger Satellite / The Chinese Stars / Sensitive Hearts

The Garrison. Friday, October 23, 2009.

On a miserably cold, wet night, made the trip over to "the culture's new centre of gravity", Dundas and Ossington, to pay my first visit to The Garrison. A new venture from Shaun Bowring, ex-booker for Sneaky Dee's, giving it something of a prima facie trademark of quality, like, if something is booked there, you get the idea it might be worth investigating, even if you don’t know who the act by name.

Inside, the separated front bar had tables scattered around in a lounge-type space — looks inviting and has definite hang-out potential.¹ Heading back into the venue proper, everything still seemed new enough to smell the paint drying. At this early point, the place is not exhibiting much in the way of personality. A fairly wide room, walls and ceiling flat black and red, it still the sense of the sports club that was previously in in here — a single lonely pool table remains, pushed up against a wall opposite the bar, and in a hallway beside the stage, a foosball table has been unceremoniously shoved down at the far end. The bar itself looks slight and unadorned. A reasonable-sized stage, and raised higher than Sneaky Dee's or the 'Shoe, meaning, with the absence of sightline-blocking poles or other obstacles, there should be good views from most anywhere in the room. The bathrooms were adequate — the mens' in the back a coffin-narrow aisle of urinals.² It’s funny how all of the bricabrac that your normally filter out — peeling band stickers, neon beer signs — resonate so strongly in their absence. Maybe it's because because it’s too new to be worn down or dank that it feels so generic. Maybe its biggest crime, the wide, featureless space with plenty elbow room, is that it feels suburban — not downtown, grimy, crammed together. It’s like a Jack Astor's just pulled out or something.

I think a lot of this will improve with a little wear and tear to give the place that "lived in" feeling. And it might well feel a lot different with a full house — and some of that loudness might end up bouncing around a lot less. Like I said, the biggest draw is the quality of the talent up on stage — the rest is window dressing.

Anyways, on this night I was at the new venue to see an old band. Though they were never number one in my heart or anything, I listened to a decent amount of Six Finger Satellite back in the day, and, at the other end of this decade, when all of this dance-friendly post-punk appeared seemingly out of nowhere, I sort of shrugged and told people, "ah, they're just ripping off Six Finger Satellite." Now the band is back, fashionably late enough that they can't really be accused of trying to cash in on a trend that they foreshadowed.

Openers were Sensitive Hearts, a co-ed synthpop duo from 6FS home base Providence, Rhode Island. They started things off by showing a satiric video ("How to Meet Mr. Right") that nailed the early-80's production values they were sending up, but was sadly lacking in any comedic punch. The band's music, which had a similarly winking retro element, fortunately fared better. Not strikingly innovative by any means, but with animated videos projected behind them, it was good fun. As the band's set progressed, the music moved from fluffy DOR to a harder-edged sound, lending a bit of an Ex-Lion Tamer element to the performance, as their music recalled the fat-analog-synth side of Six Finger Satellite that the band has largely dropped in their current incarnation.³ Not memorable, but nothing to sneeze at.

It had occurred to me during the days leading up to the show that outside some decidedly unhelpful album covers, I had no notion what the members of Six Finger Satellite looked like. This thought came back to me during The Chinese Stars' set, as, had I walked into the venue with them already on stage, I might well have believed they were the headliners, based on their sound. It turns out to be not so surprising that there's some conceptual overlap, given that 6FS drummer Rick Pelletier was a founding member of the band, although no longer playing with them. In face, when bassist V. Von Ricci switched over to keyb, this'd be the closest the night'd get to Severe Exposure-esque sine-wave terror. Not that Chinese Stars were merely rehashing someone else's sound — with Eric Paul's spastic-on-helium vox, they ere clearly working out their own thing. With insistent, trebly guitar leads and a solid beatkeeper, the sonic elements are in place here to impress. There weren't a lot of catchy choruses on hand, but that seems part and parcel of the band's mildly abrasive aesthetic. A hard-hitting half-hour that set a fairly high standard for the headliner to beat.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Coming in, I hadn't put much work into finding out what the reconstituted version of the band sounded like. I knew that John MacLean (now a/k/a The Juan MacLean) was no longer in the band, instead continuing his solo career exploring in more of a house music direction. When the band took the stage, there was a keyboard bassline, howling guit and clenched vocal, and it clicked into place. The band, it can be said, sounded like themselves — but in a sort of atavistic way, as if that whole career path where the keyboards took over their music had been reversed. Playing almost entirely tracks from their new release A Good Year For Hardness, I also gathered the impression that in this current incarnation the band was also less interested in immediate catchy hookiness than the clobbering groove — sorta a thinking man's pigfuck music. Frontman J. Ryan embodied this, in jeans and a simple black t-shirt, striking a sort of amiably macho stance, like a construction worker out on the weekend blowing off steam. Of the new material, Harness lead-off track "Hot Food" was perhaps the most effective, with Ryan's keyb squalls cutting against the pummelling rhythm.

The band played ten songs in fifty minutes and the reception was kind but not rapturous. I'm guessing like me, there were a fair number of curiosity-seekers in the crowd, perhaps some of whom might have been more enthusiastic to get a rehash of the tunes they remembered from days gone by. If nothing else, give credit to 6FS for turning the page and working their new stuff hard — as if declaring they were out-of-step with the times the first time 'round, and they're not going to pander now that music'd caught up to 'em some. It was a workmanlike show, solid and uncompromising, and if they didn't steal everyone's heart, and least they managed to put a boot in.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ One could also imagine the front room as a destination for those who didn't bring their earplugs. As I'd heard from several sources, the sound in the back is staggeringly loud. I had no complaints with the system's sound quality, but I'd have been fine with a few less dB's.

² Revealing moment of self-reflection — why do none of the other blogs ever take notice of what the bathrooms are like at various venues? Do the other bloggers never have to pee?

³ Note to Sensitive Hearts: consider adding a cover of "Rabies (Baby's Got The)" to the setlist.

Recording: Sun Ra Ra Ra

Artist: Sun Ra Ra Ra

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point (ALL CAPS! Island Show), October 17, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Times Neue Roman

Artist: Times Neue Roman

Song: To Die

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point (ALL CAPS! Island Show), October 17, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Great Bloomers

Artist: Great Bloomers

Song: Dark Horse

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point (ALL CAPS! Island Show), October 17, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.