Mechanical Forest Sound

Recording: The Hoa Hoa's

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Artist: The Hoa Hoa's

Song: Postcards

Recorded at Sonic Boom Records, December 4, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

In-store: The Hoa Hoa's

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

The Hoa Hoa's

Sonic Boom Records. Friday, December 4, 2009.

Although I knew I'd be heading over to see their proper show later in the evening, had nothing keeping me from heading out check out The Hoa Hoa's make an in-store appearance downstairs at Sonic Boom. Interestingly, a rare all-ages show for the band — not that I'm guessing that they have anything against the youth of today, but what with usually appealing to a bit of an older crowd, they're just not in that circuit that includes very many all-ages shows. But taking advantage of this opportunity, there were lots of friends out, some with kids in tow, and before the show started, guitarist/bassist Femke Berkhout was making the rounds, passing out candy and earplugs to the young'uns.

With a nice crowd built up, the band started with "Hey Joe", and moved into a nice run through "Thinking About Today"¹. And then, excitingly, "Waves" — a vocal spotlight for Berkhout and a slowburner of a tune that's a close acquatic cousin to the VU's "Ocean" — and the first time I'd heard them essay this one live.

Although the band was celebrating their album's release, they still have a surplus of unrecorded material that's been kicking around in their setlist for awhile. "This one's gonna be on the next one," was the comment as the band introduced the dreamy yearning-adolescence ballad "Going Out".² And then, fully warmed up, the band ended by putting their new release in the best possible light with the scorching trio of "Grew Up on the Seeds", "Vinyl Richie" and "Postcards". The whole set ran a generous nine songs and thirty-five minutes — actually a hair longer than the "proper" set they'd placed at Rancho. One would hope that at least a few of the assembled were there out of curiosity and seeing the band for the first time, and thinking to themselves, "If this is the warmup, what are they saving for the main event?"

Check out a track from this set here.

¹ A cover by the Outsiders that the band also performed at their Rancho gig. "Hey Joe", in contrast, is an original on their Pop/Drone/Pedals album.

² The song even manages to nick a few lines from Sam Cooke at the end.

Recording: Germans feat. Doc Pickles

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:20:00 +0000

Artist: Germans feat. Doc Pickles

Song: The Wavelength 500 Lineup Announcement Song

Recorded at Wavelength 494, The Garrison, December 20, 2009.

I'll have some proper notes — and more soundz — from this show when I get caught up. Maybe a week Thursday or so. Until then, enjoy this madcap bit of impromptu collaboration.

Recording: Jason Collett

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Artist: Jason Collett

Song: My Daddy was a Rock'n'Roller

Recorded at The Dakota Tavern, Jason Collett's Basement Revue, December 1, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Recording: Susan Holbrook

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Artist: Susan Holbrook + band

Poem: Good Egg Bad Seed

Recorded at The Dakota Tavern, Jason Collett's Basement Revue, December 1, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Recording: Derek McCormack

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Artist: Derek McCormack

Reading: excerpt from The Haunted Hillbilly

Recorded at The Dakota Tavern, Jason Collett's Basement Revue, December 1, 2009.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Gig: Jason Collett's Annual Basement Review (week one)

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Jason Collett's Annual Basement Review (feat. Jason Collett, Susan Holbrook, Neil Quin, Derek McCormack, Bahamas, Fraser Young, Danielle Duval, Beatlejuice)

Dakota Tavern. Tuesday, December 1, 2009.

For the third year running, local man-about-the-Scene Jason Collett has taken over the Dakota Tavern for December's Tuesday nights. Dubbed his "Basement Revue", each show features a different (and generally unannounced) line up, with poets and authors rubbing up against singer-songwriters and rockers, all playing short sets in a live variety show format. Tickets usually go fast for the cozy confines of The Dakota, the pleasant little country bar in a basement just off Dundas and Ossington. It's actually a venue I rather enjoy going to, which makes it strange that I hadn't, in fact, been there since this time last year. This night, showed up with K. at about quarter to ten. The tables spread out on the dance floor were filled up, be we managed to find a nice place to stand a bit further back. Just time to settle in, grab a beer and soon enough Jason Collett was taking the stage.

"How does it feel, not knowing who's gonna play tonight?"

Scattered, muted applause. One woman lets out a "woo!".

"Sounds like Toronto out there."

Picking up his guitar, he launched into "Airport", followed by "Fire", the sound system occasionally overcome by that that perbety-perbety-perb blipping noise of cellphone interference. It returned, more persistently, during a performance of one his new songs ("Cross the border down in Detroit/ workin' hard on my sangfroid"), forcing Collett to lengthen an instrumental break to wait out the ringtone.

With that warm-up, he introduced poet Susan Holbrook, who said this was the coolest gig she's even done ("the fact that I can call it a gig makes it more cool"). Filled with comedic wit, she read to an admirably quiet room, her poems employing found text and wordplay, deliberate use of cliché and pop culture ("The Disney Princesses had oatmeal and quail eggs for breakfast — Barbie had a diet pill and a grape pop tart.") Her reading occupied the rhythm of the words rather well — enjoyable stuff.

Then, a set from a slightly nervous Neil Quin of Zeus, playing solo electric guitar. Working a similar terrain to Afie Jurvanen (and even with a similar kind of bantering vibe), he did three generally agreeable songs, though they sounded a bit undercooked without accompaniment. More entertaining was Derek McCormack, reading from his novel The Haunted Hillbilly. Narrated from the perspective of Nudie Cohn — here a gay vampire trying to seduce Hank Williams — and written in a stylized minimalist-yet-flamboyantly-dramatic avant-comic-book style, McCormack gave very good reading that made me eager to check out his stuff — even ending his excerpt on a cliffhanger: "'Why does my ass hurt?' Hank thinks."

Listen to a part of this reading here.

Collett introduced Bahamas by unspooling a free-association family tree of all the night's musicians before bringing up the pair. Accompanied by Jason Tait on drums, Afie Jurvanen promised a set of all-new songs, playing three that all turned out to be instrumentals.¹ That was pleasantly rockin', and after Collett directed him to stay on stage to sing one, Jurvanen obliged with a cover of Dylan's xian era "In the Summertime" (from Shot of Love, Jurvanen here sounding a lot like Warren Zevon) to round out the first set and head, after a pretty solid hour, for a short break.

The second half started with a new wrinkle for the basement review — stand-up comedy from Fraser Young, delivering a slightly goofy observational take on contemporary issues such as classified ads, the internet and sexual mores. Good stuff. K., who was a fan of his work, reported that the ten-minute set was mostly older material, which made me think briefly about the different sort of standard an audience tends to hold comedy to than, say, music, where we wouldn't raise an eyebrow at the prospect of a set of stuff we've heard before.

The next mini-set was from singer-songwriter Danielle Duval. Unfamiliar to me, she fit well into the schema of the night, with her forthcoming album being produced by the Zeus tag team of Carlin Nicholson and Michael O'Brien. Taking a hands-on role, Nicholson even jumped onstage to whip a wayward amp back into shape during Duval's first song. With a pleasingly yearning voice, she played both on guit and piano, and sounds worthy of further investigation. All the more so since this was the one point of the evening where the crowd — or at least a small clot of oblivious, yapniks to my left — threatened to overwhelm the music. Her last song, "Imposter", was notably catchy.

Collette then brought back Susan Holbrook to read another poem, this time backed by an impromptu band featuring Mike O'Brien, Afie Jurvanen, Jason Tait and Carlin Nicholson. She read "Good Egg Bad Seed", a longer poem dealing with life's little dualities, with a suitably smoky groove from the band. One of the highlights of the night.

Listen to Holbrook and the band doing this piece here.

"I really like this band, so I'm going to hit them with a brand new song. We'll see what happens — we like the trainwrecks around here." Collett said, taking the stage following the poem. He picked up his guitar and showed the band the changes and they started into it once, abortively, before Collett stopped them, admonishing himself for misleading them about where the song was going by spending too much time talking. They started again and made it through a verse before Collett stopped to give further instructions, and then again — this time going all the way through. The song, maybe called "My Daddy was a Rock'n'Roller", was a sweetly nostalgic sort of remembrance, still with a few lyrical odd thumbs sticking out — but that went perfectly well with the figure-it-out-as-we-go along vibe from the musicians. A bit of a treat to see that raw live magic.

Listen to the band figuring it out on the fly here.

And then, the final set from "wedding party band" Beatlejuice, basically an amalgam of members from Zeus and The Golden Dogs. Playing, natch, all Beatles covers. Within those confines, the group managed to avoid some of the more obvious parts of the catalogue, ranging from early stuff ("You Can't Do That") and covers ("Please Mr. Postman") to late era material ("I've Got a Feeling").² The band found its sweetest spot in the second-tier '63-'65-ish stuff ("What You're Doing", "All I've Got to Do") which is punchy and more amenable to live performance. Keeping up a fast pace of quick songs, the band managed to squeeze out fourteen titles in just over forty-five minutes. A bit of a goofy lark ("this was all Jason's idea, for the record," the band explained) it made for a fun dance-the-night-away end to the evening. Not breaking new ground, but it took the overarching idea of the show's intimacy in a new direction — one could easily imagine these same musicians' teenaged selves jamming out these same songs in another basement somewhere, fusing these changes into their musical DNA.

During the set-up, a good chunk of the crowd decided to head home, and more trickled out as the hour grew later, leaving more elbow room as the band brought a cellar full of noise. Between songs, I kept waiting for someone to shout "Mach schau, Beatlejuice!", to the point where I was wondering if I'd have to do it myself. But seeing as none of the players on stage could be bothered to wear a toilet seat around their neck, I held back.

Perhaps lacking a bit in star power, this was still a solid night's entertainment — two-and-a-half-hours of show. To be in such an intimate space with the winning off-the-cuff vibe always makes these shows into a memorable event.

¹ Jurvanen even left nearly all of his characteristic banter at the door, making for a wordless set all around.

² The set included "The Word", making it, strangely enough, the second time I'd seen a band cover that one in less than a week. What are the odds?

Recording: Girly Drink Drunk

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:55:00 +0000

Artist: Girly Drink Drunk

Song: There's Such an Ache in My Heart^*

Recorded at the Third Annual Toronto Rock Lottery, Sneaky Dee's, November 28, 2009.

^* Rock Lottery songs are, by their nature, sort of works in progress, so this title is just a guess.

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Recording: Heroine Spoon & The Hot Knives

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Artist: Heroine Spoon & The Hot Knives

Song: She Stepped In It^*

Recorded at the Third Annual Toronto Rock Lottery, Sneaky Dee's, November 28, 2009.

^* Rock Lottery songs are, by their nature, sort of works in progress, so this title is just a guess.

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Recording: Zecond Two Nuns

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Artist: Zecond Two Nuns

Song: Instrumental With Gameboy^*

Recorded at the Third Annual Toronto Rock Lottery, Sneaky Dee's, November 28, 2009.

^* Rock Lottery songs are, by their nature, sort of works in progress, so this title is just a guess.

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Recording: The Beta Males

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Artist: The Beta Males

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at the Third Annual Toronto Rock Lottery, Sneaky Dee's, November 28, 2009.

^* The band didn't call out a title for this one.

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Recording: Seductron

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Artist: Seductron

Song: Theme From Seductron^*

Recorded at the Third Annual Toronto Rock Lottery, Sneaky Dee's, November 28, 2009.

^* Rock Lottery songs are, by their nature, sort of works in progress, so this title is just a guess.

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Gig: Rock Lottery

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

The Third Annual Toronto Rock Lottery

Sneaky Dee's. Saturday, November 28, 2009.

A local tradition now in its third year, the Toronto Rock Lottery does about exactly what its name implies. In the morning, twenty five local musicians gather and put their names in a hat, drawing out five brand-new bands with five members each. These bands have all day to come up with a twenty minute set of new material — and maybe one cover. Depending on the range of participants assembled, the resulting insta-bands could be almost anything — or several things all at once. Organized by the community-mined Jane Duncan, the event is a fund-raiser for the Regent Park School of Music, providing music lessons for kids who can't afford them — and hopefully training a future crop of lottery participants.

Now, fortunately, the definitive article on this event has already been written by Melody Lau of The Singing Lamb, so all I need is to throw up some audio samples and a few annotations. Such as to note that the night had a surprise celebrity compère, Edmonton's poet laureate Cadence Weapon, who came off like Krusty at a random beauty pageant, grabbing the drink tickets first and then asking, en route to the stage, what he was there for. He did a nice job, filled with goofy fabricated factoids as he introduced each band.

It's pretty amazing to think that this event has featured a different cast of players every year, attesting to the depth of the talent pool that there is to draw from. And on this night, there were even a handful of competing gigs, drawing from the same set of musicians that might have been taking part. That might also have accounted for a slightly smaller crowd this time out, with plenty of open space at the back of the room while the bands were on stage.

Just a quick note: with twenty-five musicians pitching in, there's no way I could keep up and give nearly as much individual credit where due for individual flourishes, so my apologies for not being more specific more often on the who-did-what score. As for trying to figure out who everybody involved was, I did some quick googling around, and some helpful stilleposters pitched in to the lists below. But feel free to comment on any mistakes or omissions. Also, I was standing just close enough to the stage that I could usually fit about four people on stage into my pictures so sorry to those that got cut off.

First up were Seductron¹, who started off fusion-prog-disco, made a side-trip into cod-reggae, and ended with a the funk-metal breakdown of "Relax, It's Just Sex". Setting a high standard of musicianship for the following bands, the five were impressively tight. I'd commented before that the litmus test of a Rock Lottery band is this: are they as good as a random opening act that you wander in on at any other gig that you go to? These guys definitely had the chops, and carried themselves like they'd been tasked with serious work — but like they could pull this off any night. After their first song, someone beside me turned to their neighbour and asked, "is your band this good?" which is a pretty good indication. A solid start to the night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

The plaidest of them all, The Beta Males² came out of the gate playing some well-formed songs, even having some impressively credible lyrics — always the hardest thing to throw down at short notice. A particularly multi-polar beast, they actually had the vibe down of a band that hadn't quite decided on one sound yet, and sounded a bit like a different band on every song, from jangly to alt-countryish, to a shouty, spazzy new-wave one (that included a banjo breakdown in the middle) to a moody one. Their five-song set included some pretty fleshed-out songs, a couple of which would surely be a credit to the setlists of these guys' regular bands.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Presenting like an almost-too-precious art rock band, Zecond Two Nuns³ ended up being enormous fun. The evening's champion banterers, they focused their work on three songs, but still pretty much filled out their set, starting off with a Gameboy-powered instrumental featuring sax and clarinet, which turned out to be better conceptualized and executed than a few actual bands I've seen this year doing the same sort of thing. The introspective "Life Fucking Sucks" was sardonically introduced with an "all right, this song is for the kids of Regent Park". Turning to the world around them for lyrical inspiration, they ended their set with a song about those low, low introductory finance rates on furniture that turn out not to be such a deal in the long run on the epic "You Really Give Me Those Low Prices (Mama Help Me)". Zany but effective stuff.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Heroine Spoon & The Hot Knives⁴ had the strongest female representation on the night, as well as the strongest flute presence. Containing the contrasting vocal styles of Daniel Lee's smooth croon and Dee Prescott's throaty howl on the first couple songs, the band then upped the ante, reaching out a real-life incident for inspiration with a poignant song about stepping in poo. That was followed by one that would have been a credible little roots rocker, were it not for the barbed title "It Ain't So Hard Being Blue Rodeo". The set ended with the group gathered at the front of the stage for a rousing a capella cover of James' "Laid", to screaming acclaim.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Last up were Girly Drink Drunk⁵, whose name, I profoundly hope, was inspired by this. Burdened with the longest gap between coming up with their songs and performing them, they still managed a well-constructed layered sound, leading off with the proggiest song I've ever seen Mantler sing. Playing last suited their late-night sound — you could easily imagine hitting a bar just before last call and hearing these guys playing to a room full of melancholic drunks on their "lounge sexytime number". And then a lurch through a slightly haphazard powerpop rock anthem and it was all done.

Listen to a track from this set here.

All told, a very well-executed event. On stage, the changeovers were relatively quick, and I was pleased that it all wrapped up at one a.m. on the nose. Kudos, too, for there being very good sound throughout — no easy task with a series of un-soundchecked bands taking the stage. Hopefully the tradition will only gather strength and keep rolling next year — and maybe even get more audacious in mixing in a few more musicians from outside the indie-rock bubble.

¹ Seductron:

Ashley Beattie (Provincial Parks, Sunday Night Live house band at Comedy Bar)
Evan Davies (Now Magazine, ex-Republic of Safety, ex-Death And The Deadly Dying Dead)
Paul Weadick (Danger Bay, ex-Entire Cities, ex-Forest City Lovers)
John Zaniol (session guitarist, ex-Parade?)
Lane Halley (Fullspeed Velocipede)

² The Beta Males:

Kurtis Marcoux (???)
Adam White (The Reason)
Kevin Sasaki (ex-Gravity Wave)
Eric Woolston (Friendlyness and the Human Rights, All Day Breakfast, Maylee Todd and Pegwee Power, Hooded Fang)
JM McNab (Key Witness, solo artist)

³ Zecond Two Nuns:

April Aliermo (Hooded Fang)
David Dineen-Porter (PDF Format)
Joseph Shabason (Everything All The Time)
David Stein (Key Witness, Boys Who Say No)
Ben Standage (Birds of Wales)

⁴ Heroine Spoon & The Hot Knives:

Dee Prescott (I Hate Sally)
Lauren Schreiber (No Shame concert series, ex-Gravity Wave)
Liz Schieck (???)
Shawn Jurek (The Primordials, solo artist, freelance Mastering Engineer)
Daniel Lee (Hooded Fang)

⁵ Girly Drink Drunk:

Stefan Banjevic (The Wilderness of Manitoba, Key Witness)
Chris Cummings (Mantler, Hank)
Steve Kwok (Radius and Helena)
Brendan Howlett (Danger Bay, ex-Henri Faberge & the Adorables, ex-Entire Cities, ex-Gravity Wave, ex-Bloodhöser)
Brojck Edwards (It It, Almonds, Cohen, Colourbook)

Recording: Steamboat

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:10:00 +0000

Artist: Steamboat

Song: Love & Loss

Recorded at The Garrison, November 27, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Cityfolk

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Artist: Cityfolk

Song: Jimmy

Recorded at The Garrison, November 27, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Steamboat

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Steamboat (Cityfolk)

The Garrison. Friday, November 27, 2009.

Working late on a Friday night, I failed to make any time-killing plans for that pre-gig gap in the night and ended up at The Garrison indecently early.¹ Hung out while the room started to fill in. Drummer Jay Anderson — a fine gentleman — stopped on his way by to say hello and thank me for showing up. "Ah," I joked, "I'm just here to catch some of those avant garde sounds."

He laughed and said, "yeah, it's gonna be a real skonkfest." Which was amusing but the exchange left me thinking about the tension inherent in Steamboat's good-time soul revue. There's a certain percentage of Steamboat's target audience (or, say, of potential Garrison attendees), suspicious of the pleasure principle and believing in a sort of grim musical version of the Protestant work ethic, giving the evil eye to something so overtly fun and "easy". And, to be honest, I think some people are suspicious of a band with Steamboat's influences (classic soul, 70's AM gold) because it's their parents' music.

Well, poo on them. I might not want Steamboat as the soundtrack of my next long, dark night of the soul, but I'd be well-pleased to have 'em play the next time I get married or divorced or bat mitzvahed. Y'know, some occasion where dancing and celebration is indicated.

Anyways, with a bit more time, the place was filled in a bit as the opener, Cityfolk, took the stage. This four-piece was totally unknown to me, and turned out to be purveyors of soulful reggae, rock'n'roll style. With the R&B undercurrent running through their music, they brought to mind groups like Aswad as much as The Wailers. Gifted with two good singers in contrasting styles, guitarist Jay Byrd a little more gritty in a nice counterpoint to bassist King Iyah's sweet tones, there were plenty opportunities for some pleasing vocal arrangements. Tight and sonically sound all around, the weaker link in the chain was the songwriting — but presumably that will come around if the band keeps working at it. And hopefully they will, even though with their skills they could probably rake it in as a cover act. A couple that they essayed, including The Beatles' "The Word" and Paul Simon's "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover"² were expertly executed. A good match on the bill with Steamboat, and pleasing enough. When it all came together, such as on tracks like "Jimmy", it even left a lingering impression.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Meanwhile, we were up to a good crowd on hand by the time the headliners were getting ready to play. I looked around and did a quick headcount of Soundscapes staff members on hand in the crowd or on stage, and wondered to myself if there was any one left over to mind the store.³ The last time I saw Steamboat, they were celebrating the release of their first EP with a marathon, guest-powered gig. Six months later, there's a new EP out — the shiny Live in Nassau⁴ — and another party to celebrate it, though this one keeping things a bit more centred on the band themselves. They started off like a dad-rock Ramones, powering through seven quick songs, each about two-and-a-half minutes long, before the horn section joined them, stretching things out some on "Talkin' Shame" and "Day Dreaming". That led to a frenzied run through "Don't Be Mine" — "I lost that one," vocalist Matt McLaren laughed at the end, like the song were an oiled pig at a rodeo, staying one twist ahead of the musicians. The band recovered, though, for showstopping runs through a couple tracks from the new disc, starting with "Love & Loss" (the best tune in their catalogue?) followed by their cover of Ken Boothe's "I'm Not For Sale".

By mid-set the room felt quite full, with even more dancing up front — obviously there is enough of a contingent interested in good times and good music to come on out. After a main set lasting an hour, the band encored with a couple covers, including "Lovin' You"⁵. And when McLaren said they were going to end with a song from The Muppet Movie, I thought we might be going out with "Can You Picture That?", as the band did at the last release party. Instead, we got the jaunty "Moving Right Along" — are there any other bands in the city with two songs by the Muppets in their repertoire? There were even a couple already-newer-than-the-new-release songs in the mix, including the upbeat "Bread and Butter", a sure sign that the band still has an untapped reservoir of ideas. Given the pace they've established, keep a weekend open in May for the next release party.

Listen to a track from this set here.

¹ Although the space is still pretty spartan, The Garrison is slowly starting to feel more like comfortable surroundings. This time, I noticed that the front of the stage had been opened up some, making it feel like less of a box off to the side and more part of the room, definitely improving the feng shui. As for the lack of decoration that I'd complained about before, there was now one of those informational warnings up behind the bar ("WARNING: Pregnant women should not consume alcohol.") adding that dash of colour and style I'd been looking for.

² This one segued into a verse from Boyz II Men's "Water Runs Dry" without switching up the beat before skipping back to the Paul Simon.

³ Perhaps they just put out a plate with some change on it and put up a sign like you sometimes see at the subway booths when the collector goes out for a smoke.

⁴ The disc packaging (another nice job from the Standard Form folks) as well as the recordings are a delightful step up from the goodness contained in the original Steamboat EP. Recorded live at the 6 Nassau space, the new one does a nice job of capturing some of the energy that the band puts out on stage.

⁵ Not that one — rather a 1973 cut by Johnny "Guitar" Watson from the Matt McLaren-approved Listen album.

Recording: Michelle McAdorey

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Artist: Michelle McAdorey

Song: The Instance

Recorded at The Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar, November 26, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

Recording: Betty Burke

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Artist: Betty Burke

Song: New Job^*

Recorded at The Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar, November 26, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

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

Gig: The Phonemes / Michelle McAdorey

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Blocks Presents: The Phonemes, Michelle McAdorey and Betty Burke

The Gladstone Hotel (Melody Bar). Thursday, November 26, 2009.

Out again for the monthly Blocks Recording night at the Gladstone, this time with a couple acts on the bill I was interested in investigating, plus one familiar one. From a genre perspective, sort of an interesting night as well, as all three acts were pretty different from each other, but each could, at some level, be placed in some corner of the big category called "folk".

We were a little off the pace in getting there — stupid hybrid buses with their propensity to just quit working — and arrived with Betty Burke¹ already on stage. Managed to grab one of the last remaining tables and settle in. I'd been eager to check them out pretty much ever since I'd heard about 'em, mostly based on the fact that Maggie MacDonald² was involved. The band is normally a trio with Shaun Brodie — or possibly a five-piece now with rhythm section — but on this night it was only MacDonald and Holly Andruchuk. I was not familiar with the latter, but she has a solid CV of folkie hell-raisin', and is obviously a strong source of this group's musical direction — a sort of straight-ahead roots-rock. Or as MacDonald would put it, "we're in the true story business" — punk like Woody Guthrie was punk.

MacDonald is not the world's greatest singer, but she's a helluva vocalist, and it was great to hear her hitting her characteristic cadences, like in one song, coming down hard on those opening syllables: "New York and London are under water / lovers and liars swim together" — but also cool to hear those tics in a new musical context. "New Job", the final song, which included a sort of origin story of the band's name was rather good fun. I only caught about three-and-a-half songs, but I dug what I heard, and look forward to checking out the full band. More gigs, please.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Next up was Michelle McAdorey, who was certainly part of the draw getting me down to the show. Probably best known for her work with Crash Vegas, who'd flirted with Canadian semipopularity in the early '90's. Following the band's dissolution, she'd released a solo album at the other end of this decade, but had been keeping a low profile for the past while. Lately, she'd been said to be playing with some of the members of the local improvised music scene, and it was from this pool that she drew her lineup for this gig. This was the first show for a band including Eric Chenaux³, Ryan Driver, Martin Arnold and Blake Howard. I'd seen half of these guys playing just recently with The Reveries, and having that context in mind certainly helped me to sort of appreciate the musical place this group was coming from. Aiming for a meeting point between folk/songwriter and improvisational urges, there was a musical tension between droneyness and widdley-wah guitar, bringing to mind, say, MV & EE in a sort of mellow, rustic mood. It also felt — especially on songs like "Love Don't Change" — like it was bumping up a bit to that fine line that separates fluid musical exploration and noodly stoner jamming. With that in mind, I think I enjoyed some of the quieter, textured moments more, although they were a bit less at home in this environment, the crowd split between Friends of Blocks out eagerly soaking in the show, and those just out for a drink in a bar where some band happened to be playing. Given that, I'm already eager for this band to play somewhere in a more hushed environment — Music Gallery show, anyone?

Listen to a track from this set here.

The couple times that I'd seen The Phonemes during the summer they were playing as a duo + guests, with Magali Meagher playing with John Tielli on guit and theramin. This time the pair were accompanied by the keyb work and vox of Stephanie Markowitz, which fleshed out out the sound rather well. Meagher is an intriguing songwriter, her plainspoken lyrics flirting with a pop sensibility in a come-hither manner. It was certainly interesting to hear some of the new songs that I'd heard presented in a stripped-down format at this summer's shows getting filled-out arrangements, and Meagher's consistently upbeat patter and share-the-stage ethos — Maggie MacDonald was called up to add some percussion on "Steeples and People" — were good entertainment. But the fact that I was winding down with sleepiness on a work day sort of had me drifting a bit as things went on. A scattering of chatty people — including a table of oblivious young folks busily trying to impress each other with banalities and bottle service — was a bit of a distraction, too. But generally good stuff, and a nice step forward with the new material.

¹ The name, it turns out, comes from a story about Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobite pretender to the British throne, who, following his defeat in battle fled into exile disguised as his maid. All sorts of interesting things here to be spun out about gender/power/representation and so on, or as Maggie would say on stage, cutting to the chase: "we're named after a drag queen from three hundred years ago". Also note, adding to the mythic value of the band's name, that it was a MacDonald who came up with the plan and saved the prince.

² MacDonald, sort of a rockstar combination of Rosa Luxemburg and Ava Gardner, is currently a member of The Hidden Cameras and formerly of beloved post-punk Fall-owers Republic of Safety.

³ Chenaux, it turns out, had been a late-era touring member of Crash Vegas, so his creative partnership with McAdorey is a fairly longstanding one. I recall having enjoyed Crash Vegas back in its time in a "pop" sort of way — it strikes me that it would be interesting to perhaps revisit some of that in light of what I know now and see how much of this current freak-folk kind of vibe is there in nascent form.

Recording: Malajube

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Artist: Malajube

Song: Porté disparu

Recorded at Sonic Boom Records, November 25, 2009.

My notes for this set can be found here.

In-store: Malajube

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Malajube

Sonic Boom Records. Wednesday, November 25, 2009.

It's sort of a weird cultural phenomenon: every ten years or so, for one reason or another, a francophone Québec act manages to worm its way into the ROC popular culture. Which works out well enough for everyone involved — a new audience for the band, and a largely unjustified sort of sense of briser les solitudes for us maudit anglais. So, move over Harmonium and à la prochaine Mitsou — we've got Malajube now. It's easy to understand the trans-lingual appeal, with their penchant for catchy hooks, even if they do sometimes come off like a contemporary Supertramp that it's okay to like.¹

And I have liked 'em okay, in that broad realm of liking them enough to head down to the Sonic Boom basement, but not so much that I was going to head to their Horseshoe gig the following night. As is always the case with the in-store, you can never be sure what you're gonna get — maybe three or four songs and then out, maybe half the band playing acoustically. But with the band apparently having an extra day in town, and not in a rush to get over to the venue, it turned out we got a repectable eight song, thirty-five minute set.

The band led off with a trio from the new-ish Labyrinthes, starting with "Les Collemboles" and "Ursuline" and moving into "Casablanca", with its nifty synth hook. Keyb player Thomas Augustin is definitely their most distinctive sonic element, but all four members did a solid job filling out their sound.² Singer/guitarist Julien Mineau wasn't predisposed to a lot of banter — "approchez, approchez – get closer, I mean" after the first song was about as chatty as he got. But that was fine with the band moving quickly from song to song. Breakthrough album Trompe-l'oeil was represented with "Casse-cou" and "Fille à plumes", and "Porté disparu", may fave track off the new one, with its supremely catchy "non / jamais / je n'oublierais mon nom" hook³ was arguably the highlight of the set. And, of course, the band kept the ever-popular "Montréal -40°C" for near the end.

There were a few spots where, like on their albums, they got a little bit ponderous, but serving the purpose of the in-store well, I felt like I appreciated them more after hearing the songs done live. Quelle jouissance!

Listen to a track from this set here.

¹ I realize, with the "death of uncool" and all that I suppose at some level it's okey for people to like Supertramp. But eighty-five or so per cent of my brain still instinctively says, "C'mon, Supertramp?".

² Mathieu Cournoyer had the best fashion statement of the group, with an Expos button on his bass strap.

³ Although admittedly I had to look up the tense there. "Oublierais" is present conditional, making that, what, "no, never, I can't forget my name"? Geez — you can google verb conjugations now. These kids nowadays have no excuse not to be speaking six or eight languages.

Recording: Lucky Dragons

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:55:00 +0000

Artist: Lucky Dragons

Song: excerpt^*

Recorded at Centre of Gravity, November 21, 2009. Bite Your Tongue #2.

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* An excerpt from a spontaneous piece, though I wonder if the group has a title for this "method" of creating music. Leave a comment if you know!

Recording: Corpusse

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Artist: Corpusse

Song: Nourishing Meat^*

Recorded at Centre of Gravity, November 21, 2009. Bite Your Tongue #2.

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Thanks to Daniel for confirming the title.

Recording: Nif-D

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Artist: Nif-D

Song: excerpt^*

Recorded at Centre of Gravity, November 21, 2009. Bite Your Tongue #2.

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* I'm not sure if this is a song, per se, or an improvisation. Anyone care to leave a title in the comments?

Recording: Feuermusik

mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com (Mechanical Forest Sound) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Artist: Feuermusik

Song: Doppelspiel

Recorded at Centre of Gravity, November 21, 2009. Bite Your Tongue #2.

My notes for this set can be found here.