Artist: No Joy
Song: Ghost Blonde
Recorded at The Great Hall (Wavelength TWELVE! Festival, Night 3), February 18, 2012.
No Joy - Ghost BlondeReview to follow.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Recording: Off The International Radar
Artist: Off The International Radar
Song: unknown*
Recorded at The Great Hall (Wavelength TWELVE! Festival, Night 3), February 18, 2012.
Off The International Radar - unknownReview to follow. My notes during this song mention something about a "Tangerine Dream K-Hole", and then trail off into incomprehensibility. Didn't know these guys at all, so this was the first set of the festival that took me surprise and grabbed me.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Recording: Fucked Up
Artist: Fucked Up
Song: Year of the Tiger
Recorded at Steam Whistle Brewing (Wavelength TWELVE! Festival. Night 2), February 17, 2012.
Fucked Up - Year of the TigerFull review to follow. Celebrating the spirit of Wavelength, Fucked Up tried something new, with the debut of their massive new Zodiac single (an epic in thirteen minutes) accompanied by live video projections.
Recording: Silver Dapple
Artist: Silver Dapple
Song: I Hate My Birthday
Recorded at Steam Whistle Brewing (Wavelength TWELVE! Festival. Night 2), February 17, 2012.
Silver Dapple - I Hate My BirthdayFull review to follow. Strong set from the night's Montréal visitors, balancing guitar crunch and pop smarts.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Recording: Pixies
Artist: Pixies
Song: I Bleed / Dead
Recorded at Massey Hall, April 19, 2011.
My notes for this set can be found here.
Gig: Pixies
The Pixies (Imaginary Cities)
Massey Hall. Tuesday, April 19, 2011.
It'd been a couple years since I was down for a gig on Shuter Street, and even this trip was somewhat happenstance. T., with whom I'd gone to many a show back in the day, had an extra ticket and invited me out — so despite some nostalgia-related misgivings, I joined him up in the balcony for the second of a two-night stand of a band playing an album from 1989 front-to-back.1
They say that playing Massey Hall is some sort of meaningful measuring stick that a band has, y'know, made it. But really, it just means you can convince a certain numer of people to pay for a semi-pricey ticket — it's not like "Classic Albums Live" have reached some equivalent point of artistic validation to The Quintet or anything. And it's even more capricious for opening acts. I dunno what went down in what backroom, but it seemed like a helluva break for Winnipeg's Imaginary Cities to be on this bill. Purveyors of a mildly fungible soul-laced pop-rock, they might have been seen as lacking in stature to be "Massey-worthy".
Given that I had seen 'em just about a month before this, I was not too sad when we walked in with the band already on stage. We still managed to catch the last twenty minutes of the set — enough to reinforce my dominant impression that they're "a pleasant diversion to pass the time while you wait for another band". Besides some of their own stuff (like the admittedly-catchy "temporary Resident"), they threw in a cover of Cake's "Mexico" — which was effective in playing Rusty Matyas' vox off Marti Sarbit's, but kinda implied a bit of a lack of faith in their own repertoire. Especially as their own "Nine and Ten" was just as successful in that regard. The band seemed a little unused to being spread out on such a big stage, but they had fun with it, bantering with the crowd and even inviting everyone down to the merch table to check out Matyas' own brand of ketchup.
Perhaps, in the end, this was a canny choice for an opener as this might be the sort of pleasantly non-threatening stuff that might appeal to a nostalgia-seeking crowd who probably don't work as hard at finding new music as they used to.
Now into a cash-in reunion phase that has lasted nearly as long as the band's original tenure, the Pixies were taking another kick at the horse by presenting a end-to-end revisitation of the seminal (and wonderful) Doolittle. And that obviously paid off, with the band playing Massey Hall two nights in a row — a good showing even if there were plenty of open seats up in the balcony on this night.
On the darkened stage, a giant screen blinked into life, showing a Chien Andalou highlight reel. The screen would go from opaque to backlit as needed, adding visual accompaniment to the songs, as well as title-cards announcing each phase of the show. There were also giant colour-changing orbs suspended above the stage, and I considered how awesome it would be if they lowered to the stage after the opening act and the band emerged from them, Spinal Tap style.
That was not to be, but there was a mix of the high-tech and ceremonial (I'm so not used to shows with, like, a lead-up and screens and so on) with the band's more down-to-earth approach that was generally agreeable. The four members seemed about as spread apart from each other as they could be, and guitarist/vocalist Frank Black, er, Black Francis seemed unconcerned with interacting with the crowd. That task would fall to bassist/designated banterer Kim Deal, whose chipper demeanour bobbed happily along just like one of her basslines.
She'd also occasionally shout out a progress report on how far through the album the band was, but before getting there the set started off with some b-sides, "Dancing the Manta Ray" (which is mostly notable for being a different song than "Manta Ray", surveyed a few songs later) and "Weird at my School" (not really notable at all). "Bailey's Walk" and "Manta Ray" are, indeed, stronger songs and expressed more of the Doolittle vibe.
And then into the album proper, which should be an anti-climactic experience (no surprise what's coming next!), but it was still exciting when the bassline for "Debaser" kicked in. Otherwise, though there's no doubt that I loved Doolittle back in the day, it'd probably been well more than a decade since I listened to it, so I was actually was a little surprised as the hits, as they say, kept on coming.
There was definitely a bit of live acceleration on songs like "Tame", which made the quick tunes rush by even faster — many were here and gone in a couple minutes flat. The audience was pretty ebullient as the band tackled "Here Comes Your Man", but, perhaps perversely, I think I enjoyed the stuff from "Side 2" more, just to see the band tackling non-natural setlist selections like "Mr. Grieves" and "Silver". "No. 13 Baby" — somewhat surprisingly the longest cut on the album, go ahead and look it up — actually was allowed to simmer along a bit in an extended outro, but otherwise the arrangements hewed pretty closely to the originals.
And then, after "Gouge Away", the band departed the stage — and another thing I'm not used to any more is the large-format gig's extended encore breaks, with the band waiting for a few minutes and letting the audience whip themselves up a good bit before returning. Returning to the album's b-sides, they played "Wave of Mutilation" once again, here in its slowed-down "UK Surf" incarnation, and added "Into the White" before retreating again.
After that came a five-song encore that leaned on the early part of their catalogue, with a pair from 1987's Come On Pilgrim ("Caribou" and "Nimrod's Song") and the rest from '88's Surfer Rosa, leaving the last couple albums unvisited.2 And if "Vamos" wasn't particularly the one I'd've hoped they'd pull out of their hat, closing with "Where Is My Mind?" (the audience singing along for the chorus) and "Gigantic" was a rather satisfying finish. The latter even included the band getting a little playful, doing a drop-out to only Deal's bass playing as she laughed and told the audience, "it took us twenty-two years but we finally learned how to break it down!", before ending the song by saying "Good night" to each of the bandmembers.
Ultimately, although it was a pleasant-enough experience and a good gig I was feeling hard-pressed to be as excited as the people around me losing their shit to this, and I wondered, "am I a callous blowhard, or are these people clinging to their past too much?"
I mean, it could be both.
I's originally posted a recording from one of the encore's non-Doolittle songs here, and now I've added a couple from the album itself here.
1 Plus, I should add, I had already seen the Pixies, back in 2004 when there was a sense of exciting novelty about their reunion — and back in a time when I'd head out to a giant shed on the other side of Pearson Airport to go see a band. If nothing else, Massey Hall was a monumental step up in terms of comfort, sonics and convenience.
2 That Bossanova anniversary tour is gonna be a harder sell, I reckon, and by Trompe le Monde the band might be down to playing state fairs and Elks conventions.
Recording: Odonis Odonis
Artist: Odonis Odonis
Song: Are We Friends?
Recorded at The Shop under Parts + Labour (Wavelength TWELVE! Festival, Night 1), February 16, 2012.
Odonis Odonis - Are We Friends?Review to follow. OO capped off a powerful set with this nifty tune — all told, a fab first night for the Wavelength Festival. The action continues all weekend, so don't miss out.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Recording: Fergus & Geronimo
Artist: Fergus & Geronimo
Song: Never Satisfied
Recorded at The Garrison, April 16, 2011.
Fergus & Geronimo - Never SatisfiedMy notes for this set can be found here.
Recording: Surf City
Artist: Surf City
Song: Headin' Inside
Recorded at The Garrison, April 16, 2011.
Surf City - Headin' InsideMy notes for this set can be found here.
Recording: Bruised Knees
Artist: Bruised Knees
Song: Inside Eye
Recorded at The Garrison, April 16, 2011.
Bruised Knees - Inside EyeMy notes for this set can be found here.
Gig: Fergus & Geronimo
Fergus & Geronimo (Surf City / Bruised Knees)
The Garrison. Saturday, April 16, 2011.
After a full day of rock'n'roll, I entered a quiet-ish room at The Garrison, with maybe about 30-odd people on hand, mostly hugging the walls, as locals Bruised Knees took the stage. I was most certainly glad to see the band again — they'd impressed every other time I'd seen 'em and now they were a little less rangy, the songs a little more lived-in. "Caesar", say, now really played up the tension between the druggy psychedelic loll in the guitar and the rolling drums.
And with more familiarity, "Badwater" with its warm Sonic Youth-y interplay of Chuck Skullz' guit and Graham Hancock's bass sounded like an old hit that you hadn't heard for a while. Natalie Logan (who was dropping humblebrag references about meeting Werner Herzog) was again an effective foil, with her contrastingly bright vocals and percussion adding the frisson that makes the band stand out. That was in display throughout but really hit home in the overlapping vocals in "Drums", which closed out the efficient seven song set. A plusgood table-setter for the next band up.
Listen to a track from this set here.
From the get-go, it seemed like Surf City were quite possibly a band designed to appeal directly to me, combining their stolen-from-the-JAMC name — originally "Kill Surf City" — with a sound that pays tribute to the NZ/Flying Nun guitar-pop tradition. You can safely say that this was the band I was here to see.
Originally slated for Parts & Labour, this could have fit comfortably there crowd-wise, but for the sonics, I was glad to be at The Garrison. That'd apply even in the case of a band whose preferred sound was rather mushy, with super-echo-y vocals low in the mix, and plenty sustain/delay guitar effects.
"We're Surf City — let's staht," said Davin Stoddard with his New Zealand twang. Not much for banter otherwise, the band launched into "In Times of Approach..." from their excellent 2010 debut full-length Kudos, that song stretching out live in a way that the album version did not. Given some of the zworping layers of texture, based on the sound alone one might have guessed that there was a distorted keyboard in the mix, but the band employed a straightahead two guit/bass/drums lineup, with lots of effects.
For a band playing Volume Rock, it was mildly amusing to see the teeny amps they were wrenching their sounds from — Stoddard just had a little Fender sitting on a chair that he would occasionally lean into to generate some shards of noise. Material from the album was mixed with a few songs from their initial self-titled EP. Most of that stuff, like "Headin' Inside" (with its "good night, good night" hook) had a more more succinct pop structure.
Not that the newer stuff (like the Clean-tastic "See How The Sun") was lacking for hooks, but it was more refracted through some sort of smoky lens. And live, there was room to explore inside the songs a little, as with the album's title track (which begins with the declaration, "west coast dreams are kept alive / by the hidden sunsets in your eyes") stretching out a bit to close things out. All told, a fantastic set. It's a long way over from the other side of the world, but I do hope the band makes it back here.
I'd originally posted a live track taken from their album here, and now you can also check out an older one here.
It didn't look like I was along in coming out to this primarily to check out Surf City, as there was a notably-thinner crowd on hand as headliners Fergus & Geronimo took the stage. I was a bit leery coming into this, having checked the Unlearn album out and finding it indulging in Zappa-esque whimsy far more than I prefer, mixing sloppy rock moves with doo-wop signifiers, all wrapped up with a smirk of vague contempt.1 "Taking the piss" seems to be one of the band's goals, so perhaps it's no surprise that they led off their set with a noodly blues jam.
That had me feeling increasingly dubious about the proceedings, but things did improve with "Girls with English Accents". As it would turn out, songs from the album were a little thin on the ground — perhaps a tacit admission that the slower, psychedelicized doo-wop material might not go over live. Instead, there was a bunch of more rockin' stuff, including several tracks from their pre-album singles.
Nominally a duo of Jason Kelly and Andrew Savage, they were rounded out to a four-piece for touring purposes, and it helped a lot that the band incarnation came off as louder & scrappier than what I was expecting, with rough edges that helped make them sound more like a garage band and less like musical pranksters. That said, their penchant for goofiness did rise to the surface from time to time, notably on a song about Roman Numerals that was, in fact, a list of things that employed them ("superbowl sweatshirts / Star Wars prequels / textbook diagrams / Rambo sequels").
Other ways of being smart-assed included "Powerful Lovin'", a totally straight-faced soul number that didn't wink at its over-the-topness, as well as the very Zappa-esque "Wanna Know What I Would Do If I Was You?", tweaking its nose at correct usage of the subjunctive mood.
That said, there was also a pleasingly abrasive lurch through "Girl U Want" ("a folk song from our homeland") — I would expect that the band might have appreciated Devo's conceptual side more than their mutant new wave sensibilities, but as parts of the drumkit started coming loose, it came off rather well. As as they finished off with the rockin romp of non-album single "Never Satisfied" and garage-y nugget "Baby Don't You Cry", it helped cement the impression they're not just the band they present on Unlearn. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was converted to the cause, but I left liking them more than when I came in.
Listen to a track from this set here.
1 For example: "You still buy CDs?" is printed across the face of the CD.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Recording: The Sadies
Artist: The Sadies
Song: Sunset to Dawn
Recorded at Toronto Reference Library, April 16, 2011.
The Sadies - Sunset to DawnMy notes for this set can be found here.
Gig: The Sadies
The Sadies
Toronto reference Library. Saturday, April 16, 2011.
Another excellent effort from the folks at the Toronto Public Library's "Make Some Noise" program, this time bringing out local twang-titans The Sadies. Heading over after a Record Store Day marathon, I arrived more than a half-hour after the listed start time, winding my way through the crowd to find some space as the band was playing "Stories Often Told".
As they switched over to a moody instrumental, I had time to take stock of my surroundings. The Reference Library's large atrium was pretty full, but not too tightly packed, with the main area of the floor filled with seated people, a ring of standees behind them. Except for the tiered floors of stacks above, it felt more like a mellow folk festival set in a field than anything else. A really nice vibe, and the band sounded really good in this large, open space.
They played a mournful take of "Sunset to Dawn" that reminded me of the previous night's version with the Margaret Good (Dallas and Travis' mother) on vocals. A rare false start while starting "Whispering Circles" was a nod to Dallas' broken foot: "I'm not as agile as I used to be," the seated Dallas said as he made some adjustments to his gear.
That didn't stop him from keeping pace with the exercise-in-acceleration that is "Ridge Runner Reel". And for finale "Tiger Tiger", Dallas did get up on his feet and move over to centre stage to undertake the double-crossover-and-play-each-other's-guitar move with Travis.
The band didn't leave any doubt they were ready to play more and there wasn't a long gap before Travis switched to the fiddle for "Pretty Polly" and "Stay a Little Longer". And then, as has become a bit of a custom, the night was closed out with their mammoth R&B Nuggets medley, though it was now quite mixed up from the earlier Them-centric version I'd heard previously. Quite awesomely, this time 'round it lead off with a run through Spinal Tap's "Gimme Some Money", before detouring through "Psychotic Reaction" and local garage faves The Deadly Snakes "I Gotta Plan (for Saturday Night)" — and then into some "Mystic Eyes" and "Baby, Please Don't Go" before ending up back where it started. So good!
Listen to a track from this set here.
There's nothing slated at the moment, but hopefully there's more to come from the Make Some Noise folks. It really gives a tremendous sense of ownership in our public library when it expands into areas like this.
Recording: Steve Gunn
Artist: Steve Gunn
Song: unknown*
Recorded at Halo Halo Village (Medusa YEAR 2 Showcase), February 12, 2012.
Steve Gunn - unknownReview to follow. Good times in the always-melding artsphere at Halo Halo Village.
* I don't know the name of this piece — my notes just say "slide guitar gorgeousness". Please leave a comment if you know the title!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Recording: The Ethiopia Perspective Collective
Artist: The Ethiopia Perspective Collective
Song: Musicawi Silt (Wallias Band cover, arr. Girma Woldemichael)
Recorded at Glenn Gould Studio ("Ethiopia: A Musical Perspective"), February 11, 2011.
The Ethiopia Perspective Collective - Musicawi SiltFull review to follow. Well, it's early in the year, but so far this one sets the bar that everything else is gonna get measured against. There was a series of fabulous vocalists, but let's just pay tribute to the all-star backing band for now with this classic. This show is going to be broadcast by the CBC (on Radio One's "Big City Small World" on February 25 and Radio Two's "Canada Live" on February 28th) so consider this just a brief taste of the complete perspective for now.
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