Recording: Nomeansno

Artist: Nomeansno

Songs: Something Dark Against Something Light + Victory

Recorded at Lee's Palace, April 4, 2011.

Nomeansno - Something Dark Against Something Light

Nomeansno - Victory

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: METZ

Artist: METZ

Song: Negative Space

Recorded at Lee's Palace, April 4, 2011.

METZ - Negative Space

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Nomeansno

Nomeansno (METZ)

Lee's Palace. Monday, April 4, 2011.

Out for a dreaded Monday night gig amongst the Crusty Punx and other relics who looked like they weren't going gently into the weeknight. Those in attendance included Loud Arguing Dudes and Guy Who Repeatedly Shouts Outs People's Names From Across the Room ("Bill! Bill!") — screw this text messaging. Amongst a menagerie with a lot of folks who gave the impression that the used to go to a lot of shows, man, there'd be some grumpy faces in the office tomorrow morning. They were also people who didn't give a fig about t-shirt protocol — there was a large contingent out in their iconic Nomeansno WRONG t-shirts.

So, a decent showing for openers METZ, even if the crowd gave the impression were going to take a wait-and-see stance toward the local trio. With the big headliner drumkit set up near the front of stage left, Hayden Menzies' kit looked pretty puny by comparison, but it still generated plenty noise. And per the band's custom, the only source of light was from the illuminated kickdrum — which, on Lee's high stage, put it blindingly at eye level.

Even with that giant drumkit taking up real estate, this was the largest stage I've ever seen the band play on, and guitarist Alex Edkins had some extra room to wheel about as he powered the band's abrasive noise-lurches. With a hint of scabrous Jesus Lizard-y yelp-squelch, by "Dry Up", it was pretty clear the band was winning over some of the Crusty Punx. Maybe it's just having a slightly bigger space to fill than I've seen 'em in before, but they were a bit less overwhelmingly loud — not that they were delicate or anything, but there was some overhead for the dynamics and this might have been the best I'd ever heard 'em sound.

Playing their usual mix of tracks from their singles ("Dry Up", "Negative Space") plus newer ones presumably bound for their still-forthcoming album, they played seven efficient songs, moving quickly along, and sounding almost eager to get off the stage so they could hear the headliners.¹

Listen to a song from this set here.

The last time I saw Nomeansno I went into it with no small amount of trepidation, fearful that time might have robbed some of the vitality from what had been one of my favourite bands back in the mid-90's. But that show's velocity careened right past nostalgia in a hurry, and this time I was more enthusiastic going in. Certainly for the bulk of the crowd — including a panorama of about three generations of leather jacket-wearing punks — none of this was an issue. My only worry was in wondering how far back from the stage I'd have to be to avoid getting jostled by bodies bouncing from the pit.

Making a stopover in T.O. before flying over for some European dates, the trio were in gregarious and feisty form. "We're from Vancouver, Canada's premier hockey town," said bassist/vocalist Rob Wright, gleefully taunting the crowd to some equally amiable boos.

With a fairly immense catalogue spanning three decades to draw from, there's a lot of stuff for the band to dip into and I was pleased with the selection of "Angel or Devil" (from 1995's fab The Worldhood of the World (As Such)) to start things off. Right from the start, all of the hallmarks were there — Rob's powerful, driving bass, as much of a "lead" instrument as Tom Holliston's guitar, both of whom were pushed along by John Wright's thunderous, stop-on-a-dime drums. Without pause came the funky post-punk guitar line animating "I Can't Stop Talking" (from the less-beloved Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie) making the song sound incredibly more vital than I recall.

I was also glad that there was some new material in the mix. A pair of recently-released EP's provided several songs to the setlist, including the ace new "Jubilation", which, like so much of the band's material, makes a joyful song from the darkest of outlooks ("nothing left to hold on to in this wicked word / that's jubilation"). "Slave" and "One and the Same" were less endearing, but I'm still super-glad to see the band not just meekly accepting the easy ride down the nostalgia act route. And with a whiplash-inducing motion, they followed those newest songs with one of their oldest, reaching back to Mama, the band's 1982 debut full-length for "No Sex".

Call 'em codgers, but they're still pretty physical on stage — Rob managed to unplug his bass while Holliston sang "The Hawk Killed the Punk". And that led into a particularly driving and frothy version of "Teresa, Give Me That Knife". Watching them pump out song after song, it was admirable to see how damn vital the band remains, still nimbly navigating tempo changes and other rhythmic detours. And still treating the songs as if they were raw emotions ripped from the flesh, like when Holliston put down his guitar to grip the mic stand and lean into his vocals for "Metronome".

No shortage of highlights and no letup in a set lasting about an hour and twenty minutes — though the band might have been wearing down during set closing one-two punch from high-water mark Wrong, with a couple bum notes audible during "Oh No! Bruno!". Regrouping for a pair of encores that added another twenty-minutes to the proceedings, the night closed with the triumphalism of "Victory", and once again raging against the dying of the light carried the day.

Right after the show, I'd posted something old and something new here. And now I've done the same again here.

---

¹ METZ will be headlining a stacked lineup on the first night of Wavelength's TWELVE! festival, Thursday, February 16, 2011 at Parts & Labour.

Recording: Yamantaka//Sonic Titan

Artist: Yamantaka//Sonic Titan

Song: Lamia^*

Recorded at The Garrison, January 28, 2012.

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Lamia

Full review to follow. A little theatricality goes a long way, as YT//ST demonstrated, their show offering more than just their "noh wave" musical stylings. They played pretty much everything from their album, and encored with this one, which isn't. "If you have a heart / it'll tear you apart".

^* Thanks to John for passing the title of this one along to me.

Recording: Thieves

Artist: Thieves

Song: Cut You Down^*

Recorded at Placebo Space (Wavelength 533), January 27, 2012.

Thieves - Cut You Down

Review to follow. A pleasantly laid-back, folky evening at the comfy Placebo Space was given a jolt from Wayne Petti & co.'s Thieves.

^* Thanks to Wayne for passing the title to this one along.

Recording/LMA: The Mountain Goats

In my normal style, here's an irregularly large number of songs from this show:

Artist: The Mountain Goats

Songs: You Were Cool / Prowl Great Cain / Going to Georgia

Recorded at The Opera House, April 3, 2011.

The Mountain Goats - You Were Cool

The Mountain Goats - Prowl Great Cain

The Mountain Goats - Going to Georgia

But if that's not enough, I've uploaded the concert to the Live Music Archive, where you can stream the whole thing or download it in the format of your choice, including lossless FLAC files:

The Mountain Goats, Live at The Opera House 2011-04-03

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats (Megafaun)

The Opera House. Sunday, April 3, 2011.

I've never been a big fan of The Opera House, and this trip down to Queen Street East did nothing to change that opinion. Getting into the venue is something like passing through customs to North Korea, a series of lineups and random, redundant security checks — I was asked if I had any "cigarettes" more than once. That was more than enough to drain away my enthusiasm, especially as the slowness of it all meant that I missed the bulk of the set by openers Megafaun.

I probably wasn't in the best frame of mind by this point, so the fact that what I did hear didn't do anything for me is probably inconclusive at best. What came off as hey y'all twang-ish pleasantness might have had something more substantial behind it.

As I moved up between sets, I was faced with another one of the venue's least-pleasant features — in a full house, the lower floor near the stage gets uncomfortably packed. At least, looking around, it appeared that this was a bit of an older, fannish, non-rowdy kind of crowd. That's about be what one'd expect for The Mountain Goats, a band that has a lot of highly-passionate fans who feel a strong connection to bandleader John Darnielle, whose lyrics transcend most singer/songwriter pitfalls by remaining grounded to the mundane while cutting deeply and incisively into the dark reams of pain and soul-damage.

In this crowd with plenty hardcore enthusiasts¹, I was actually here as something of a curiosity-seeker. For a band that does inspire such strong devotion, I'm actually a rather casual Mountain Goats fan, getting into them only around the time of 2008's Heretic Pride. As such, this was my first chance to see them, as they hadn't passed through town since '07 — in the band's duo days before drummer John Wurster was in the fold. They're now a relatively-expansive four-piece, with longtime bassist Peter Hughes complemented by touring keyboard player Yuval Semo.

Given the preciseness and detail that Darnielle musters, it was a disappointment that the set began with a pre-recorded skit/entry music that led off with a cheery, "hi, America!", which is never endearing to a Canadian crowd. I was feeling too rankled by that to grasp the thrust of the heavy metal overture, though I believe it was something by Morbid Angel, whose Erik Rutan produced some of the tracks on the new All Eternals Deck.

But, as the band took their places, I put all that behind me, seeing as Darnielle's music is about overcoming adversity (or, less optimistically, being crushed by it). Darnielle cheerfully apologized for the long absence from Toronto — in fact, after leading off with something new ("Liza Forever Minnelli"), he was a joyful presence on stage, countering the darkness in the songs with witty banter and a willingness to pause to tell the stories behind some of the songs. It's pleasing to observe that his clipped, nasal cadences while singing are balanced by a chipper demeanour between songs. He also must have figured his most intent fans would be up close, given a bit of a propensity to chat off mic with the front row between songs.

Although the new album got its due, there were also plenty dips into the band's back catalogue², including "Jeff Davis County Blues" and "Southwood Plantation Road" early on. Musically, The Mountain Goats is a pretty straightforward band, with quick songs and uncluttered arrangements that serve as a delivery system for Darnielle's lyrics. The live band applies a sonic consistency to material from different eras and managed to inject some energy into the songs from the new album (like like "Estate Sale Sign") that flirted with blandness in their recorded versions.

Darnielle chatted about his unusually-large microphone (a repurposed drum mic), and told the story of how Amy Grant inspired him to play without shoes. A quieter solo portion began with "Outer Scorpion Squadron" accompanied only by Semo's keys before Darnielle was left by himself on stage, strumming recent non-album track "You Were Cool" and back-to-back Sunset Tree singalongs "You or Your Memory" and "Up the Wolves".³

There were a few things that I would assume would count as rarities, like "Seeing Daylight" from the 1996 Beautiful Rat Sunset EP — you'd think that most people here wouldn't be familiar with something like that, but the audience was amazingly quiet and attentive. That and "Age of Kings" was part of an quiet-with-band burst, before tearing things up again, starting with "Palmcorder Yajna" and the jaunty "Prowl Great Cain".⁴ There were a couple more deep cuts⁵ before the main set ended with Darnielle relenting to play "No Children", which I think was the most shouted-for song throughout the night. Sometimes the darkest things can be the most cathartic, especially when Darnielle simply held the mic out over the crowd to collectively sing out the refrain for him: "I am drowning / There is no sign of land / You are coming down with me / Hand in unlovable hand / And I hope you die / I hope we both die."

At eighty minutes, that would have been a decent concert. But Darnielle raised the bar when he returned and announced, "I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm going to be straight with you. We're gonna do what the Grateful Dead used to do and just do a second set. [beat] This will be five or six songs instead of the whole set. The reason it's not a whole second set is that those guys were really outstanding musicians and I am just a caveman hitting my guitar with a fist... I think a six-song second set is the best I can do." With that, the band launched into a kick-ass rendition of "Going to Georgia"⁶ from 1995's first full-length Zopilote Machine. It seemed obvious that the band was reaching beyond their standard tour repertoire, as before "Song for Dennis Brown", Darnielle commented, "Wish Yuval luck, he's never heard this song." And similarly, during "Dance Music", Darnielle was twisted with his guitar toward Semo so the keyboard player could see the changes.

There was still time left for stories, including a self-lacerating tale about an ill-considered youthful decision to break up with a girlfriend via letter to introduce "Broom People". And then with a fond good night came the affirming strains of "This Year" ("I am going to make it through this year / if it kills me").

Somewhat to my surprise, the mega-encore was not the end, with the older trio returning for a cover of Nothing Painted Blue's "Houseguest", the band rocking it out as Darnielle's microphone became intermittently unplugged as he fell to his knees, blasting the lyrics to the front row. The whole show wrapped up after twenty-five songs and just shy of two hours, almost enough to make up for the venue.

I'd originally posted a song from this set here, but now I've added a few more here — along with a link to the Live Music Archive, where you can stream or download the entire concert.

---

¹ At one point later in the show, a woman behind me shouted up to the stage, "I hate men, but I love you, John!"

² All Eternals Deck is the band's thirteenth album, although those were preceded by a number of early cassette-only releases, to say nothing of singles and EP's. The prolific Darnielle also has a number of side-projects as well, making for a pretty vast body of work.

³ This night would prove a treat for fans of the 2005 album, which was dipped into quite frequently throughout the night, with "Dinu Lipatti's Bones" being surveyed, plus "Song for Dennis Brown" and "Dance Music" in the encore, asfter Darnielle admitted, "we have two songs left and they are also from The Sunset Tree, because that is how I'm feeling."

⁴ "This is a song about a guy who betrayed a guy! Later he felt bad because the guy got held in prison and tortured. That pretty much is what this song is about."

⁵ Including the spare "Snow Crush Killing Song" (from Sweden) and the particularly lovely "Elijah" from The Coroner's Gambit, one of the albums that, to be honest, I never even knew existed before searching for the song's origin.

⁶ Previously an ongoing concern for Darnielle, he has penned nearly two dozen "Going to..." songs.

Recording: Hussy

Artist: Hussy

Song: Tarter Mouth^*

Recorded at The Silver Dollar Room, January 26, 2012.

Hussy - Tarter Mouth

Review to follow. A roar, a chug, a shout — this ain't your grandaddy's cosmic slop.

^* Thanks to a commenter for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Daniel Nebiat

Artist: Daniel Nebiat

Song: two unknown songs^*

Recorded at Gladstone Hotel (Melody Bar), April 1, 2011.

Daniel Nebiat - unknown

Daniel Nebiat - unknown

My notes for this set can be found here.

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

Gig: Daniel Nebiat

Daniel Nebiat

Gladstone Hotel (Melody Bar). Friday, April 1, 2011.

Launching its third year in the Gladstone Hotel's Melody Bar, Batuki Music's annual World Concert Series faced a bad news/good news scenario, with scheduled headliner Mel M'rabet forced to cancel due to illness. Luckily, with such an abundance of talent at hand, programmer Nadine McNulty had no problem finding a last-minute fill-in, who turned out to be Daniel Nebiat.

Maybe these things shouldn't matter when we evaluate the music, but it counts for a lot that besides his musical gifts, Danny Nebiat is a truly warm and openhearted guy. While the band were soundchecking, a youngster, whose family was having dinner at one of the nearby tables, walked over to take a picture. Spotting him, Nebiat immediately hammed it up for the kid, even moving aside the microphone stand he was setting up to allow for a better picture of the whole band. Similarly, Nebiat is an excellent ambassador for his music, patiently introducing crowds to the krar (an Eritrean lyre) and otherwise always willing to talk about his music, whether engaging in bar-room musicology or acting as a dialect coach.¹

He was also bringing a slightly different sound from when I saw him before, with Samuel, a guitarist, sitting in for the duration of the set. Although he was new to the band, he showed great technique and knew his stuff. Mostly playing as one more rhythmic element, he largely doubled Nebiat's krar with quick, staccato picks. At a few points, I saw him intently peering at the other musicians to see where he fit in before catching the song and throwing in little double-time nibbles. Tasty, tasty licks. Meanwhile, the backbone of the band is Naz Tana's Bass and Yared's keyboards — these guys play with unflashy professionalism, leaving plenty room for Nebiat to be a showman.

Eritrean music (which overlaps with the styles of neighbouring northern Ethiopia) has two dominant modes, tigrigna and the kicking guayla beat — the latter, with its repeating ba-doom one-two rhythmic lurch, is an tasty gift from Eritrea to the world. The band gave a taste of both in the first of the forty-five minute sets, which included five lengthy jams.

In an effort to bring together different kinds of African arts, during the break there was a special presentation from the Jaivah Dance troupe, showing off their intensely physical moves. After the intermission, once the band was up to full speed again, Nebiat brought back Saba Sabina and the dance troupe back out. After impressing the crowd a bit in front of the stage, they quickly started pulling up members of the audience to dance with them, and were soon leading a dance parade around the room, a snake that kept getting longer with each circuit, until it was like a continuous Ouroboros loop. And from there, the rest of the set was more of a dance party, the songs expanding to match that, with four long tunes stretching out past forty-five minutes. And much to the crowd's delight, without missing a lick on the krar, Nebiat stepped down from the stage to dance along.

Listen to a couple songs from this set here.

As I've said many times before, I'm a big fan of these early Friday shows at the Gladstone — the folks there should be commended for continuing to program them.² This was really good night, and I feel lucky to live in a city like this where we can see such talent. Remember folks: this isn't "world" music — it's local music. It's here in our city, and it doesn't take much to feel more a part of it.

---

¹ Nebiat is also a busy working musician — when he's in town, most weekends he can be found playing somewhere on the Bloor/Ossington Ethiopian strip — worth seeking out!

² The "other" African music series at the Gladstone (programmed by Afrofest's Music Africa) takes over the Melody Bar on Friday nights during February to celebrate Black History Month. First up (on February 3, 2012) is Fojeba, bringing some funky zouk. Recommended! Daniel Nebiat will return to the Gladstone as well during this series, appearing with the Kush Ensemble on February 17.

Recording: John K. Samson

Artist: John K. Samson

Song: The Last And

Recorded at Soundscapes, January 24, 2012.

John K. Samson - The Last And

Full review to follow. A solo acoustic set from Weakerthans mainman John K. Samson brought out a packed crowd to celebrate the release of his new Provincial album.

Recording: Weekend

Artist: Weekend

Song: Age Class

Recorded at Sonic Boom Records, April 1, 2011.

Weekend - Age Class

My notes for this set can be found here.

In-store: Weekend

Weekend

Sonic Boom Records. Friday, April 1, 2011.

San Francisco haze-rockers Weekend¹ were dropping into Sonic Boom's basement before they'd be heading across the street to open for postpunk O.G.'s Wire. I was glad to have a chance to see the band, who'd not made it to town yet for their own show, though I knew them from their Sports² album. It might be somewhat revealing to mention that that album came out on Slumberland, but it should be noted that Weekend hew far closer to the murky haze of, say, Crystal Stilts than the clean tweeness of Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Or to put it another way, it was rather telling during the quick soundcheck when bassist/vocalist Shaun Durkan commented, "I don't need a ton of vocals." The extra-quick set-up came after some unspecified border delays, and although the band was a bit late rolling into the store, they were generous with their time once things got going.

The set lead off with "Untitled", the album's forceful closer. Like the album version, the song started with an instrumental overture, but once it got going, while the vox were indeed buried, they weren't swathed in layers of murk and reverb, giving the live sound a more direct feeling. The vocals got hazier after that — at first I thought Durkan had a pretty large effects rack for his bass, but it was actually for his microphone. But even with all that, the trio's sound was relatively cleaner in this setting.

There were some interesting effects of this de-hazing: "Veil" was especially cleaned up, rendering the plaintive lyric much more comprehensible and letting the words carry the song's sadness. "End Times", meanwhile, had a more overt new wave/new order kind of feel.

There were also a couple looks ahead to songs that would show up on the Red EP. In fact, at the start of "Hazel", Durkan mentioned that the band were playing this for the first time ever. "This might end in flames," he added, but it actually came off without undue problems, though it wasn't yet entirely honed to fine popsong it would become in its recorded incarnation. Closer "Coma Summer" — also with a catchy heart buried under many garbled layers — brought some more murky sonic complications along with guitarist Kevin Johnson's brisk strumming to cap things off.

The band played a seven-song set, going more more than thirty-five minutes — probably almost as much as they'd be allotted later on in the night opening for Wire. After they finished, I spotted Josh McIntyre (from local rockers Little Girls) in conversation with the band. Which makes sense, as there's definitely some close points of comparison with his own music. Weekend haven't made it back yet for their own headlining show, but there would certainly be some like-minded locals for them to play with.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Not to be confused with Weekend, Alison Statton's post-Young Marble Giants project or Toronto's Drake-affiliated crypto-R&B group The Weeknd.

² Not to be confused with Sports, the 1983 chart-topper from Huey Lewis and The News. In case you're getting it mixed up with the album at hand, do note that the Weekend's most assuredly isn't the one where "the whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost."

LMA: This Mess @ Wavelength 531

In collaboration with This Mess, I have uploaded their entire set (and first show!) from Wavelength 531 to the Live Music Archive. You can stream the whole thing, or download it in the format of your choice, including lossless FLAC files.

This Mess, Live at The Garrison (Wavelength 531) 2011-12-29

The band's next show is gonna be this Thursday (January 26, 2012) at the Silver Dollar, alongside Hussy, Ostrich Tuning and Mazola. Come check 'em out!

P.S. Any artists with whom I've shared recordings previously — if this looks like a cool idea to you, please get in touch with me and we can get something of yours up on the Archive!

Recording: Pissed Jeans

Artist: Pissed Jeans

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Sneaky Dee's, January 20, 2011.

Pissed Jeans - new song

Review to follow.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? It was called out from the stage as a "new one" — please leave a comment if you have any info!

Recording: Destroyer

Artist: Destroyer

Song: Song for America

Recorded at Lee's Palace, March 31, 2011.

Destroyer - Song for America

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: The War on Drugs

Artist: The War on Drugs

Song: Coming Through

Recorded at Lee's Palace, March 31, 2011.

The War on Drugs - Coming Through

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Mantler

Artist: Mantler

Song: Playin' Along

Recorded at Lee's Palace, March 31, 2011.

Mantler - Playin' Along

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Destroyer

Destroyer (The War on Drugs / Mantler)

Lee's Palace. Thursday, March 31, 2011.

Mantler was a savvy choice for an early opener at this show, dovetailing nicely with the headliner's smooth and mellow new direction. Chris Cummings has been doing that for awhile, and here the trio was playing to a relatively thin crowd, but probably one with a lot of people who hadn't been exposed to Mantler's superbly-composed lounge-pop before.

On a stage crammed with gear, Cummings' Wurlizer and Jay Anderson's drums were squeezed right up near the front of the stage. Along with Matt McLaren's bass, the band produced a snappy funk from the low-key leadoff of "Playin' Along". "I Guarantee You a Good Time" won over some of the crowd and as the place filled in, the band held their own in terms of amount of attention being paid to them — which is always a victory for the first band up playing to people here for someone else. And Cummings elicited some cheers as he stood up to rap out a verse on closer "I've Been Destroyed". After the set, I overheard one guy approvingly describing the set to a late-arriving friend as "kinda like Bacharach", so it seems that the tuxedo-clad singer managed to make something of an impact.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Playing songs from their then-pending Slave Ambient album, Philadelphia's The War on Drugs were, at the time of this show, still mostly talked about as being the band Kurt Vile used to be in. That album would go on to make something of a splash, and put the band on an upward trajectory to a point where they're now generally being considered on their own merits. But still, I guess the seeds had been planted, as there was a fairly-full house for the quartet.

A balky microphone rendered Adam Granduciel's vox in opener "Best Night" staticky and incomprehensible, but his guitar work was pretty tasty. I dunno if it was that bad mic or something else, but he seemed to be in a testy mood at the outset: "Can you put some fuckin' sauce on it?" he desperately sneered at song's end — which, as "Baby Missiles" started, apparently meant some massive reverb. He'd repeat the call a couple more times in the set, to the extent that a few guys in the crowd were soon also calling for more sauce on it.

Underneath the sauce, his vocal delivery registered as sub Dylan-y, a flavour which was imparted even more strongly in "Buenos Aires Beach", with a folk-rock 12-string-style guitar part. So there were some tensions here between the band's retro-y fundamentals and the more contemporary tweaks. For the latter, besides that fashionable reverb, there was a tidy regularity to the rhythm section — drummer Steven Urgo was holding things together with a laptop and click-track. That imparted a sleekness, that when set against the Americana-ish vibe of the vocals, seemed to be the band's most distinguishing feature — as if they were trying to find a synthesis between a stack of Tom Petty albums and another of Thrill Jockey discs.

The mellow "Brothers" did bring their old bandmate to mind, sounding like it could nestle quite nicely on a mixtape next to Kurt Vile's "Jesus Fever". But even better was "Coming Through", where the guitar tone channelled Lindsay Buckingham and the steady rhythm channelled nothing so much as Fleetwood Mac in a concise three minutes, a more intriguing package than closer (and older track) "Arms Like Boulders" which stretched out more and leaned a bit more on the Dylanisms.

It was a forty-minute, eight-song set from the band, a lot of them in the five-minute range, in that zone between popsong concision and jammy looseness. And as the set progressed, Granduciel's mood improved — a few songs in he was fixated on the notion that the hometown crowd might, at any time, start a chant for Destroyer's saxophone player Joseph Shabason.

Listen to a track for this set here.

Shabason's "You Belong to the City"-esque sax licks would indeed be central to Destroyer's new sound on Kaputt. On stage, that was reproduced alongside trumpet player J.P. Carter (Fond Of Tigers, Inhabitants). The 80's-inspired smoothness was the album's big talking point, but somewhat unsurprisingly, in the live setting it all sounded like, well, Destroyer, with the new stuff getting scuffed up a bit and the older songs getting some smoothed-out treatments. But there's no doubt that soft-rock vibe was palpable right from the start with album-opening track "Chinatown".

Before the show, I was having a beer with J., and mentioned how it'd be interesting to finally see Destroyer play, upon which he swiftly reminded me that we had, in fact 'em, back in 2008. On being told, the memories of that show flashed back into my consciousness, mostly about the quote-unquote eccentric behaviour of leader/vocalist Dan Bejar. That persona was on display here, as the band launched into "Blue Eyes", with Bejar stopping the song after its first line. He was peering back to the soundman, thinking he was being signalled, though it turned out to be a false alarm: "I'm hallucinating," Bejar muttered, one of the few verbal asides he'd offer. On the whole, Bejar — who wasn't wielding a guitar this time around — came off as more closed off and inward-directed than previously, though still to some degree like he was playing a character.

Instead of wild-eyed rock prophet, though, his mode here was closed-eye visionary, delicately gripping the microphone as he sang. Like his multi-layered lyrics, it's hard to know whether to take his presence at face value — while on stage, is he self-consciously playing the role of anguished artist? Does he maybe really feel that way a bit, but then plays it up for gravitas? I don't assume to say, but there were times that he looked acutely uncomfortable. On the other hand, he also showed a sharp awareness of his surroundings: as "Painter in Your Pocket" was getting started, Shabason was struggling with a beer bottle when Bejar non-nonchalantly reached in his pocket and handed him an opener.

Behind the frontman was a seven-piece band, giving full-force to the new material's lush arrangements. It admirably rendered the Kaputt material with the same smooth hammer deployed on the album and applied the same treatment to the older stuff in the setlist. "It's Gonna Take an Airplane" (from 2004's Your Blues) was considerably bulked up from the original's acoustic guitar/flute mellowness, there was an excellent version of "My Favorite Year" and a spatter-y "3000 Flowers" that melded a rocking edge with the sax line.

Of the new songs, "Downtown" was notable for featuring dual bass action. "Suicide Demo for Kara Walker" featured the same extended intro as the album version, the song stretching past the eleven-minute mark but never feeling too prolonged. The main set closed with the weird disco-isms of "Song for America", and a slowly decaying synth pattern kept playing as the audience called for an encore. Returning to the stage Bejar commented, "as always, you're too kind," about his most protracted direct communication to the crowd.

The encore would only turn out to be one song, but that would be the expansive "Bay of Pigs". Clutching a handful of lyric sheets, Bejar returned to the stage accompanied only by a guitarist and keyboard player Larissa Loyva (whose backing vox throughout the night were a key element of the band's sound) though eventually the rest of the band would filter back to join in as the song slowly ramped up from floating textures to mutant pop. There was an enjoyable crack in the façade when, mid-song, the musicians nearly broke each other up, the "da-da-dums" punctuated by Bejar's half-cut-off laughs. Even if this was a less-forceful show than when I'd seen them before, it was more insistent on my memory, and I reckon that this time I won't forget that I saw Destroyer play.

You can check out something from the latest album here, or listen to an older track get the Kaputt treatment here.

Recording: Herman Dune

Artist: Herman Dune (feat. Julie Doiron)

Song: Walk Don't Run

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, January 19, 2012.

Herman Dune - Walk Don't Run

Full review to follow. When Julie Doiron announced that she was bumping one of the nights of her own residency at Saving Gigi to catch former collaborators/tourmates Herman Dune, it didn't take a massive leap of faith to think she'd show up on stage. Less expected for me was the amount of full-bore rockin' from the trio, with extended codas aplenty. Good stuff!

Recording: Jonathan Adjemian

Artist: Jonathan Adjemian

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded at The Earth Ship, March 26, 2011.

Jonathan Adjemian - [excerpt from an improvisation]

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Ghost Eye

Artist: Ghost Eye

Song: [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded at The Earth Ship, March 26, 2011.

Ghost Eye - [excerpt from an improvisation]

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Keir Neuringer

Keir Neuringer (Jonathan Adjemian / Ghost Eye)

The Earth Ship. Saturday, March 26, 2011.

I kinda suspected that this wasn't going to be the regular sort of show. The listing required an RSVP, and the reply to the email I sent giving me the address to the mysterious Earth Ship listed me as "#13 of 35". So not a big crowd, then. And the address directed one to a "Rear Coach House", making me wonder whether this was going to be in someone's glorified garage.

It turned out to be far more elaborate than that. Passing through the door, the vestibule gave the impression of a gateway to something different, with toy record players spinning broken discs. And then, through a sheet... and into the warm and friendly outpost of The Earth Ship. Attached to the printmaking shop of local artist Jeff Garcia, this living space was filled to the brim with his works, like a giant three-dimensional collage drawn from his mind.

I don't know much about the art world, so I can't speak to all of the context he's working in, but I was immediately drawn to Garcia's work. I had seen him before at a few gigs, though, and I could easily grip the connections between local-sourced, organic music and the DIY approach in his art. Applying a sort of post-apocalyptic bricolage to the world of today, Garcia's art is often sourced from found materials, and has a funky, off-the-grid vibe. In so doing, he makes a strong statement against the crass disposability of our society, every item insisting: we could wring out so much more value from all this stuff we have casually thrown away.

One wall of the high-ceilinged main space was dominated by a giant sculpture of pinecones, each glued to a magnet and attached to a wall in a 30×30 grid, allowing for a near-infinite variety of patterns to be created by removing some. A rope sculpture dangled from above, and it appeared to be a giant plaything for Shouty, the housecat who had the serene self-possession of someone who knows they're really the ones in charge. Every show should have a cat that will climb up onto your lap and cuddle.

Very much a casual, friends-hanging-out vibe, with hearty warm drinks and a wide selection of music playing in the background. At one point, musician Isla Craig pulled out an opera album and played a cut. Perhaps appropriate for a show like this, the place gave the impression that everything was an improvisation and all the terrain was up for grabs — even where openers Simeon Abbott and Steve Ward were going to play took some deliberation before they started setting up essentially in the middle of the space.

Appearing as Ghost Eye, Ward and Abbott would be joined by a visual collaborator, and as a slow rumble of noise built up, Ward playing some low trombone notes over it, pixellated colours from a projector danced over the musicians and onto the pinecones behind them. With some creative applications of new technology, both musicians were using their iThings as instruments in this set, at first for playback to add muttering found-sound voices in the background as well as reverse-masked plinking noises. After a bit, Ward also used it as a microphone, holding it in the bell of his horn to grab sounds for further treatment — and later on, he'd pull up a keyboard app to use as an instrument. Meanwhile, Abbott, his guitar laying flat on the floor, was sticking things in the strings while manipulating sounds with pedals and his own phone.

A mini-fog machine sprayed into the projector's light-path made its digitized blocks seem as indeterminate as the music, which blurred in and out of focus. After one quiet interlude, Abbott started gently hammering his guitar strings while Ward introduced a quiet trombone line behind, using a CD as a mute. Not long after, Abbott was bowing the guitar's strings while Ward added soundbursts from a tape recorder and loop pedal, the sound eventually receding into buzzing-bee washes of looped trombone before finishing with a spooky concrète close.

It's fascinating to list of all the creative innovations used in producing the music, but it wasn't just toy time. The end result was stretched-out but not lax; contemplative but not self-absorbed.¹

Listen to an excerpt form this set here.

Instead of taking over the spot in the centre of the room where Ghost Eye had played, Jonathan Adjemian was perched like a mostly unseen, somewhat-unpredictable oracle on the landing above the entryway. There was an old wooden ladder extending out horizontally from the ledge, as as Adjemian began, Shouty the cat strolled down it to find a perch above the audience and settled in for a nap.

There would be a different sort of improvisation at hand here, as before getting down to the sort of solo keyboard work I'd heard before from Adjemian, he began by telling the story of a traveller arriving in a small town to award them with a statue of one of their leading citizens. Unable to put one of their number above the whole, the stranger proceeded to create statues of everyone in the town — as well as the town itself. Relating the story in a friendly, conversational manner as wizzling analog synth noises built up behind the words, Jeff Garcia, in the kitchen area below, added some live foley by flipping the curtain and slamming the freezer door.

As the story ended, leaving the listeners to reflect upon the difference between the world and simulacra of the world and the consequences of the replication replacing the original, the music slowly built up to some haunting synth-generated noises that sounded like loons or perhaps drifting spirits calling out. As that segued into the "song", Garcia was improvising on an overhead projector, grabbing things at hand to add to a water pan that was being projected onto the wall.

Adjemian started to add a pow-wow like beat as he played a warbling synth solo over top — the effect was strongly evocative of the NFB's Dance vignette. That moved into some more sawtooth patterns, and as it ended, the loon-like cries returned. Given the emotional arc of the music, it almost felt like a retelling of the same story as before. As it finished, when the audience down on the floor started to applaud, Shouty stood up and stretched her back, and walked off the perch like a thespian returning to the wings, as if were a matter of course that the applause was for her.²

Listen to an excerpt from this set here.

New Yorker Keir Neuringer was the night's out-of-town headliner. I hadn't heard of him at all previously, but he fit into the vibe perfectly. Neuringer came off like a solitary traveller reporting on a collapsing society, a road-bound Cassandra staying one step ahead of the flames of destruction or the pitchfork-bearing mobs preferring to ignore the situation and watch TV. The percussion-plus-spoken-word "Conquistadors" was like the work of a doomy beat poet or a we-told-you-so Last Poet, leading off: "First they came for the forests and I did not speak out because I did not live in the forests", a constant pounding rhythm churning like the industrial state looking for more and more raw materials.

He shifted over to his Farfisa to power "Rocket Ships" with a sort of funhouse dread vibe, his statements punctuated with a kickdrum at his feet, then improvised a sawtooth segue to the scorched-earth visions of "Strange Lands", a constant low warble of unease set off against a feedback-y howl. The songs felt like dispatches from a post-Empire America, with old boundaries and categories in flux, a feeling that was heightened even further on "What We Have", where suddenly his roadtrip felt less like Kerouac and more like Cormac McCarthy:

some will fall to their knees

some will stand shoulder to shoulder

some will not even flinch

some have already begun to brace themselves

some will eat flesh

some will shed flesh

Ending with the pronouncement "whatever it is, we all have it... this has all happened already" the song trailed off into an extended coda that melded into an instrumental. After a couple minutes, Neuringer reached over to stick a tape in a cassette player, adding a disembodied, warbling voice halfspeaking in zwippling fastforward bursts with one hand, while the other alternated between keyboard vamps and knob-twiddling effects on the voice, which never quite settled into mere comprehensibility. The whole thing sped up into a whirl, like a frenzied society driving itself to collapse — an apt vision, for I realized afterward that the voice belonged to Helen Caldicott, prophet of nuclear doom and familiar to Canadians as the subject of the NFB doc If You Love This Planet.

But after that, the night ended with some ascension as Neuringer strapped on his saxophone, matched the drone from his keyboard, and as that cut out, kept playing. And playing — with circular breathing that slowly transformed from being a straight drone to a repeating ostinado figure, which became increasingly punctuated by squeals and then finally into something that might sound like a conventional, if wayward solo, series of notes suddenly slowing down like he again was fiddling with the playback head of a tape player. This solo sax piece is titled "The Love Story" and it sounded like a soul-cry against all the previous dark emotions in the songs, Neuringer playing with a restless verve, pushing onward, never stopping.

The whole set, going past forty-five minutes, was non-stop. The circular breathing impressed as a feat of sheer endurance (though, in an attempt to demystify it, Neuringer gathered the crowd in a circle at the end and gave quick tutorial on the basics of the technique) but it was the songs that stuck with me afterward.³ On the whole, a really inspiring night, and the sort of show where you feel privileged to be sharing an earthship journey with such creative passengers.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Besides playing in a variety of groups (as well as solo — his Lone Bone project is rather worth seeing), Ward is also busy as a musical curator, putting together shows of boundary-pushing music in his Panic! series, Monday nights at Somewhere There.

² Adjemian also operates under the bandonym Hoover Party, and can be found playing in a terrific lineup tomorrow night (January 19, 2012) at Holy Oak Café alongside Isla Craig, Alex Lukashevsky and Tenderness.

³ The songs he played derive from a pair of 2011 EP's Neuringer released under the moniker "Afghanistan" — you can check them out on his bandcamp.

Recording: Ruby Coast

Artist: Ruby Coast

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at NOW Lounge (No Shame All-Ages matinee), March 26, 2011.

Ruby Coast - unknown

My notes for this set can be found here.

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

Recording: Modern Superstitions

Artist: Modern Superstitions

Song: No Shame

Recorded at NOW Lounge (No Shame All-Ages matinee), March 26, 2011.

Modern Superstitions - No Shame

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Army Girls

Artist: Army Girls

Song: The Power

Recorded at NOW Lounge (No Shame All-Ages matinee), March 26, 2011.

Army Girls - The Power

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: No Shame All-Ages Matinee

No Shame All-Ages Matinee (feat. Army Girls / Modern Superstitions / Ruby Coast)

NOW Lounge. Saturday, March 26, 2011.

Following up on their look into the somewhat-underwhelming state of all-ages shows in T.O., NOW decided to be a part of the solution by turning over the Lounge on the ground-floor of their offices over to No Shame's Lauren Schreiber for an afternoon show. As I followed the signs chalked on the Church Street sidewalks into the Lounge, the show was a prima facie success, the room filled with kids of, um, all ages ranging from enthusiastic young'uns bounding underfoot to broody, Beib-coiffed tweens sullenly slouching in the booths along the walls. And on stage, I Eat Kids were probably closer to the young end of the spectrum. Representing for the ten-and-under demographic, the band's enthusiasm was so awww-inducing it was easy to overlook that they were playing songs they wrote at a pretty proficient level. Proud dad Tim Vesely (Violet Archers, ex-The Rheostatics) beamed happily at the side of the room, while a lot of friends danced around up front.

Some of that younger contingent (and their parents) slipped away after that, but there was still quite a mix on hand as rock duo Army Girls took the stage. The all-ages enthusiasm of vocalist/guitarist Carmen Elle (who noted, "I've been playing since I was fifteen") was quite apparent. Backed by drummer Andy Smith, the pair played tunes from their slim but potent songbook.

Out of breath after a churning take of "The Power", Carmen Elle commented, "when I was younger, that was easier to do." But when the sitting row of small-fry taking in the set from right up front started an organized back-and-forth wave during "Cold and Alcohol", she certainly still had enough energy to hop over and lean right up to them, happily hamming it up without missing a lick on her guitar. The set included the five songs that would later end up on the Close to the Bone EP as well as the equally-worthy "Guts".

Listen to a track from this set here.

It had been almost a couple years since I'd crossed paths with Modern Superstitions — they weren't even modern yet — but it seemed like they'd used their time well. They were a fairly taut unit back then, but now were also sounding more snappy — like a switchblade in the pocket of a leather jacket, sharpened and polished.

Vocalist Nyssa Rosaleen delivers with her strong voice, but still isn't super-animated on stage. Or perhaps excess flash just isn't the band's style — the best thing here might be a rock-solid rhythm section (Harry Burgess on bass and Ben Reinhartz on drums) that impresses with coiled potential more than kinetic pizazz. And guitarist Matthew Aldred still exercises a deadpan wit between songs.

All of which is to say there something pleasantly subtle about the band's delivery, a late-night vibe that was a bit at odds with the bright afternoon setting. "This next song is called 'School Days'. That's appropriate," commented Rosaleen, looking down the length of rectangular room, and commenting, "though the children have mainly left." ("Inappropriate!" shouted Aldred.) After the driving "No Shame" (titled, as the band took pains to point out, as a tribute to Lauren Schreiber, who supported the band and put them on her bills many times) they eased back for a couple slower ones, a nice change of pace before tearing back to close out the set.

Sunbleached, their debut full-length, is now near release¹ so I reckon we'll be hearing more about this band soon. After their set, they had some of the show's young patrons sidle up to ask 'em for autographs, so you can take that as a positive sign.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Proudly hailing from Aurora (or at least not taking pains to conceal their hometown), Ruby Coast was playing songs from their then-just released Whatever This Is.² Currently a core three-piece (guit/keyb/drums) playing with a bassist, the band led with the energetic "Stability" and slightly more addled "Dr.Acula".³

I have nothing bad to say about the band. They're a little yelpy for my taste, and maybe slot a little too easily into whatever cubbyhole you keep your Born Ruffians/Tokyo Police Club albums, which is admittedly not my thing.

Still, thanks to Keith Bradford's keyb work, there's an interesting commitment to atmospherics underlying the songs, and there's no doubt they're solid performers on stage — even managing to enlist some audience participation from the teenaged boys who moved up front to see them. Plus, I did appreciate that not everything was jammed into to a narrow musical spectrum, with stuff like "Liza Liza" slowing down the pulse a bit. Despite their album's newness, they even had some new material to present, and that was some of the stuff I liked the most.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Besides the ennobling notion of loading the heads of the next generation with good music before all the mersh crap can take root, I like all-ages shows because you're done efficiently early. In this case, with plenty of time before dinner and, um, the evening's rock'n'roll show. Having made their point, we'll see if NOW takes any further steps to help foster more shows like this in town.

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¹ You can hear some songs off it on their soundcloud.

² The album is available for free at their bandcamp.

³ Am I the only one who thinks it would be kinda awesome if Drew Smith did a cover of this?