Recording: Canadian Wildlife

Artist: Canadian Wildlife

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Garrison, February 23, 2010.

Canadian Wildlife - unknown

My notes for this set can be found here.

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

Gig: Whippoorwill

Whippoorwill (Luxury Pond / Canadian Wildlife)

The Garrison. Tuesday, February 23, 2010.

Sometimes it feels like the musicians you admire are very distant from you, but sometimes they're right there. Like at this show, when I walked in and Ohbijou's Casey Macija was working the door. No surprise, I suppose, as she was the one who had put this gig together as one of her "Heavy Vessel" shows. I was a bit apprehensive about heading out to The Garrison for a "quiet" type of show, but it turned out that the Tuesday night seemed to draw an audience out to pay attention to the musicians, not to drink and stand around talking to their friends. In fact, the only noise that generally competed with the sounds from the stage was the noise of the furnace kicking in — nothing to complain about, in other words.

This night was was billed as the proper debut of Jenny Mecija's Canadian Wildlife project — although there was a brief preview at the Friends in Bellwoods 2 release party¹ last year. As with at that show, she led off with a wonderful, sigh-inducing tune invoking images of hand-holding walks and such subjects. Mecija, a veteran of many shows in her capacity as a member of Ohbijou, was still a little nervous to be at the centre of attention. Her songs are good enough that she need not fear any adverse reaction from the audience, though, and in the meantime, she got by with a little help from her friends. The songs all centred around Mecija's keyboard, but the sound was filled out with her sister Casey on guitar and Leon Taheny (of Germans) on bass. Even with the extra players, the songs were still strikingly spare, fragile things. The t-shirt slogan for this project could be "move slow", but it's an amazingly lovely kind of slowness that hit me in just the right way. The brief, five-song set included "Winter's Moon", plus a cover of Forest City Lover's "Waiting By The Fence" and certainly left me with an appetite for more.²

Listen to a track from this set here.

With the room still filled with between-set chatter, Dan Goldman eased from tuning up right into his first selection, and slowly, over a minute or so, most of the crowd quieted down and played attention. Luxury Pond is definitely Goldman's creature, and is sometimes — as on this night — a straight-up solo act, but sometimes expandable beyond that. I had seen him in action previously backing up his partner Daniela Gesundheit (known for her own solo/not-solo project Snowblink), who was front and centre in the small crowd, taking in the performance. Playing seated, his tunes were stripped down to the rudiments of voice and guitar, but the music was neither spare not entirely straightforward. Nimble guitar technique and a mellow vocal approach somewhat masked the fact that although this had the form of the standard-issue confessional singer/songwriter, Goldman was a bit more oblique in his lyrical content — not too much to lose the audience in abstraction, but enough to fit in with the reverb his voice was wrapped in. Simple but effective stuff.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Whippoorwill³, the evening's headliners, is the vehicle for the pure country and western sounds of Sylvie Smith. Oft-seen on stage around town as a member of The Magic and Evening Hymns, if you wanted to wanted to judge her own thing by the company she keeps, then you should know the setlist included covers by Merle Haggard, George Jones, Dolly Parton and Waylon Jennings. But this is no casual karaoke-styled affair — the talented band⁴ was very well-rehearsed, leading off with an instrumental before Smith came on to sing "The Race Is On". Besides her excellent voice — she hit "Oh, Lonesome Me" just right — she exhibited a warm and friendly presence on stage, with the first string of songs a rockin' good time.

For a change of pace, The band essayed "Not In Nottingham" from Disney's animated version of Robin Hood. Definitely a song that I hadn't thought about for decades, but it was one I knew well — I must have been at just the right age for one the re-issues of that film, as I remember seeing that one a lot during elementary school movie days and the like. I never actually really put it together that the song is, in fact, written and performed by Roger Miller — so it turns out it's bona fide after all.⁵

Introducing "On Our Own" Smith commented, "this is the only song that we play that I wrote — maybe we'll change that, or not." We can only hope that Smith is inspired, rather than daunted, by the quality of songs she's playing here, as this one measures up nicely, and its author should be encouraged in the strongest terms to give it some companions.⁶ That one was followed with another local touch, covering "East" by The Weather Station, showing Smith to be as much at home on a torch song as a honky-tonker.

After a couple drinkin' times, the set ended with the fightin' words of Loretta Lynn's "Fist City", but the call for an encore (led by Casey Mecija's shouts) brought the band out to finish things as they started, with an instrumental, the languorous strains of Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk" serenading us out into the night.

I must say, I'm curious to see where this project goes goes from here. As it is, this is really good stuff, but mix in a few more originals and this goes from "Wow, what a great fun-time band", to "these guys are serious contenders". But even as it is, totally worth checking out. And though I came hoping for a respectful crowd laying attention to some quiet music, Whippoorwill deserves some boisterous, whoop-it-up crowds to get them ready for the Oprey or Gruene Hall.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ "Winter's Moon", the only officially released track from this project so far, is one of the highlights of that comp.

² During his own set, Dan Goldman would praise the "cotton ball disco" of Mecija's final song, another flavour of softness lingering in her tunes.

³ Update: in the interest of clarity, I should note that this band is now known as The Pale Mornings.

⁴ With Sylvie Smith at the centre of attention, it's important not to overlook the musicians on stage with her:

Chris Stringer - Guitar

Alastair Miller - Guitar

John Dinsmore - Bass

James Bunton - Drums

Bunton, of course, plies his trade in Ohbijou. Stringer is one of those musician's musicians, a mean hand at understated country guitar. Dinsmore, on the double bass, was unknown to me, but looks to have worked with NQ Arbuckle.

⁵ In fact, we'd get a double shot of Roger Miller, with the boozier "Chug-A-Lug" also making an appearance later on.

⁶ It's interesting to ponder, I suppose, how we tend to have an aversion to artists playing more covers than originals, but there are certainly some role models worthy of admiration in the case at hand. With her voice well-suited for harmonies, and an apparent penchant for collaboration, the classic role model here would be Emmylou Harris — although a closer contemporary mixing a respectful approach to covers with some well-written originals might be Kelly Hogan.

Recording: Canadian Wildlife

Artist: Canadian Wildlife

Song: Unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac Club (Friends in Bellwoods 2 release party), Saturday, August 29, 2009.

Canadian Wildlife - unknown

My notes for this gig can be found here.

N.B. There are a couple scuffing noises near the start, as I was still adjusting my microphones as the set started, but this is so pretty it's really worth hearing regardless.

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

Gig: "Friends in Bellwoods 2" release party (Saturday - part I)

"Friends in Bellwoods 2" release party (Saturday) (Featuring: Sebastien Grainger, Canadian Wildlife, The Phonemes, Samir Khan, The Low Notes, The Cutting Edge, Dinghies, Kite Hill)

Tranzac. Saturday, August 29, 2009.

Friday night's show at Lee's wasn't the end of the story of Ohbijou's efforts to launch the Friends in Bellwoods 2 compilation with as much fanfare as possible. The final act came the next day with an all-day, noon-til-late, all-ages spectacular at the Tranzac with a whopping nineteen acts scheduled to play. The sort of gig that's as much of an experience as anything, and the sort of day where, once you had your wristband, you could leave for a nap or go for a haircut and come back and catch some more bands.

Besides the Bellwoods house itself, the Tranzac may well be the most perfect venue for this kind of thing, with its community-intense mythos. Something between a Legion and a rec centre — I swear, sometimes I head out of the main hall and expect I should be able to turn and walk over to a curling rink — the Tranzac is well-loved as a gathering place despite its slightly shabby appearance.

For me, the prospect of an all-day release party was at least as daunting as it was exciting, and I found myself wondering how much I would be able to take. One version of the plan for the day had me showing up later in the afternoon, but when I heard from a friend they wouldn't be able to make it, I was untethered from that. Could have hung around longer at home, but I knew I'd just end up sitting around, mentally checking off all the bands that I had missed. So I ended up arriving at about 2:30, missing the first four acts of the day. Found a centrally located table being held down by some members of the young team who were coming and going all day and joined them.

This is a bit more point-form than usual, but bear with me, there's a fair bit to get through. Just as a general note, these were very short sets, fifteen minutes or so, and usually three or four songs.

Sebastien Grainger: Playing solo and armed with his white acoustic guitar. "Now I'm gonna play one of my hits... maybe I took the wrong career path if I wanted hits," said Grainger before launching into "By Cover of Night", a song replete with intimate details, epic sweep and stadium-strained vox that implied it would, in fact, be a huge hit if it were done by Snow Patrol or some British band of that ilk pumping it out from the stage at Glasto. For me, a nice way to ease into the day as the caffeine was starting to kick in.

Canadian Wildlife: This turned out to be the first solo performance by Jennifer Mecija, singing and playing at the keyboard, sitting on a stool with one leg tucked beneath her. Sweetly nervous but singing in a lovely voice, these hushed but pretty songs were the highlight of the day for me. The set ended with a cover of Forest City Lovers' "Waiting by the Fence", quiet and with all of its sadness turned in on itself, a nifty contrast to the version played by Forest City Lovers at Lee's the night before.

Listen to a track from this set here.

The Phonemes: On this occasion a duo with Magali Meagher accompanied by John Tielli on theramin, guitar and quavering backing vox. Leading with "April, Let's Send His Colleagues An Email" from FiB2 and then a couple new songs of intelligent avant-pop before bringing on Kat Burns (vox) and Kyle Donnelly (bass) to finish with a stirring take of "Pain Perdu", a little pop masterpiece with one of my favourite-ever lyrical affirmations.¹

Samir Khan: With Tusks unable to make it, bassist Samir Khan — revealing a sly, self-depreciating wit in the Jon Stewart/Jon Benjamin range — stepped up solo to "play some songs about male feelings, which is different than the usual set which is... songs about male feelings".² Armed with just a bass and a looping pedal, he played four melodic numbers, managing to pull it off without sounding too spare, one new one (possibly called "Little Pirouettes"?) even having an Elvis Costello-ish ring to it. Tusks is pretty much an unknown to me, but based on this, sounds worth checking out.

The Low Notes: Expanding on the minimalism a bit was Paul Mathew's duo, with his electric guitar backed by drummer Kieran Adams. With a resonant voice, Mathew's songs had a slightly melancholy 70's FM undertow that was cut, on a couple tunes, with a latin vibe. The crew managed to squeeze in five songs in a longer-than-average set. "What They'll Find" threatened to get lost within the players' practising their virtuosity, but the more compact tunes were fairly tasty. The set ended with Tara Azzopardi joining for additional vox on comp cut "Glory Glory". Not viscerally electrifying, but some pretty decent stuff.

The Cutting Edge: One of only two bands without a song on the compilation to play all day, this crew's hands had, regardless, many fingers in its making. A side project of The Wooden Sky with that band's Gavin and Wyatt joined by Heather Kirby of Ohbijou on bass and Chris Stringer on lead guit. Feeling like the musical and emotional antipode to the in-store at the other end of the week, this unit exchanged The Wooden Sky's quiet introversion for a rockin' countrified outburst — well illustrated by the cover choice of Merle Haggard's "Reasons to Quit"³ Perhaps not as affecting as The Wooden Sky, but a nice burst of energy.

Listen to a track from this set here.

The Dinghies: Stringer and Kirby stayed on stage for the next set, joined by James Bunton for a couple songs of slapstick-y fun fronted by Casey Mecija and Germans' Tim Fagan. A bit of a lark for all involved, this was a case of the musicians not taking themselves very seriously and letting the audience share in the goofiness of it all. Crooning lounge vocal interchanges, hand drums and some laughs.

Kite Hill: The day's longest changeover came with a more-complicated-than-most setup, Ryan Carley's Kite Hill, featuring his piano and vox backed by Steve Lappano's drums and a three-piece string section: Mika Posen (violin), Anissa Hart (cello) and Tyler Belluz (double bass). Unsurprisingly, this lineup produced an orchestral brand of pop. After a pair of songs, the band was joined by Lisa Bozikovic on vox and some extra percussion for their FiB cut, the theatrical "Tom Thumbtack". The songs were compact but well-arranged and pretty choice stuff.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Read up on the rest of the day's acts here.

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¹ As Magali commented, the lyric truly captures the spirit of the occasion:

Every day we discover a new day
every night we discover a new night
All I want, all I want, for my friends
is to sing about it.

² "I hate male feelings!" yelled back a woman in the audience.

³ On which Chris Stringer nailed that flanged country guitar sound.