MFS has turned fifteen! My introductory thoughts on this landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks from the MFS community to help me celebrate by picking some selections from the archives, and possibly sharing some thoughts or stories.
Today's list is from Mira Martin-Gray.
I met the blogger behind this venerable operation in October 2017 at a show at the gone-but-not-forgotten Dupe Shop. But I first saw Joe about ten years earlier, at one rock club or another. Rancho Relaxo? Silver Dollar Room? Surely not The Reverb? I was an underage indie rocker sporting skinny jeans and oversized glasses gigging with my high school band, and often as not, that guy was in the crowd again, messenger bag in tow. Ah, 2007. Somehow all these years later Joe and I have found ourselves in the same-but-different music scene, and again, at least as often as not, we find ourselves at the same concerts – now friends and peers.
What a pleasure to dig through the Mechanical Forest Sound archive, a delicious mixture of nostalgia and discovery. I’ve chosen to focus on older stuff. Some of my selections represent cherished memories, and some offer glimpses of moments I wish I could have witnessed.
Recorded at Rolly's Garage (Daps All-Ages & No Shame Afternoon Extravaganza), June 20, 2009.
It was June 2009, the Ossington strip was newly "happenin," and I was a couple months shy of 19. Hooded Fang’s Dan and April ran a much needed series of weekend afternoon all-ages shows, often showcasing young bands and cheap eats. I came to this particular gig to hear percussive powerhouse Pick a Piper, with whom I’d shared a bill at the PWYC Pitter Patter Festival the year before (with DAPS side project HUT, IIRC). I was also happy to hear surprise guests Spiral Beach, the ultimate art rock teen idols. But the performance that I remember most fondly was Laura Barrett’s, and it seems she was the highlight for Joe as well. Barrett’s songs were quirky, feminine, complex – just what I needed to hear as an androgynous wannabe-intellectual indie kid. Soon after, I went out and bought a kalimba at African Drums and Arts Crafts in Kensington Market, and carried it around in my messenger bag.
Recorded at Clinton's Tavern, September 12, 2012.
I started working at the same restaurant as Jasmyn Burke about a year after this sparkling clip was recorded. She was so cool, I wasn’t, and we talked music in the dish pit. Sadly I never saw her perform as Weaves in solo project form, but later went on to catch the full band incarnation at Wavelength a few times, and proudly wore their T-shirt and pinback button. I even wrote a little blurb about their record for the dearly departed Weird Canada. Damn, they were good. They made rock cool again. But 2012 was very much the peak era of the solo loop pedal artist, and this version of Weaves is a shining example. Jasmyn’s voice just does things to you.
Les Mouches - Winter = Dead Time
Another one to file under local indie hero whose career skirts the weirder edge of things. I recently gushed about Owen’s first solo album on a podcast. Pallett’s music has been close to my heart since high school, but I hadn’t heard of this sui generis post-rock outfit until Orchid Tapes reissued their old Blocks Recording Club album. Sadly I didn’t hear about this show at the time, but based on the blog entry, it was an under the radar affair. Luckily the man with the recorder whom we all know and love was in attendance!
Recorded at Ratio, May 8, 2015.
This is not the same c_RL show in my memory bank, but it’s close enough in the space-time continuum to stand in for it. It's a vivid memory because it was the first time I had ever seen free improv. In 2012 I was playing loop pedal-core in a guitar-drums duo. We had a gig at the Tranzac in the late slot and as we were loading in, I was lucky enough to witness Germaine Liu doing unspeakable things to a snare, shaking it like she was rousing the drum from a dream. It was almost certainly upside down at one point. I had no idea what was happening and it was wonderful. It took me several more years to rediscover the door to Narnia that is our local experimental music scene, but that was my first peek into another world.
Kyle Brenders Ensemble - Grasslands [4th mvt]
Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 3), February 27, 2016.
I wanted to choose a recording that reveals what I was missing out on before fully cluing in to the scene. This blog affords the rare opportunity to dig into ongoing history. Some of the players in this large group are now well-known to me, others I have only heard of, and a few names are totally unfamiliar. Calling to mind Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Orchestra, I love this style of electroacoustical comprovisational big band music. It would be great to hear more of this kind of thing, but goodness knows it’s not always easy to get so many talented people in one place. It takes a special combination of creative vision and organizational skills, traits that don’t always arise as a pair. Thank goodness we now have Women From Space’s Big Bang to fill the void!
You can always click on the tags below to look for more stuff from these artists. Has there been five or so songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.
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