Monday Roundup #174

Concert announcements:

The AMBiENT PiNG presents Drone Day 2024: Afternoon Drones (feat. dreamSTATE / DRONE:KLUB:44 [live community drone session]) / Trinity St-Paul's Centre 2024-05-25 (Saturday – 2:00 p.m.). $free, family-friendly. [FB event]

Exit Points #49 (feat. Essie Watts/Constant Yen/Wesley Shen/Hiroki Tanaka/Steven Noronha / Joel Ong/Katie Couchie/Diane Roblin/Erik Johnson-Scherger/Michael Palumbo / Switchemups!) / Array Space 2024-05-31 (Friday). $20 advance/$25 door. [FB event]

Technicolor Blood (Zero Bars / Deposed) / The Nono Room @ Dock Ellis 2024-06-01 (Saturday). $10. [FB event]

Liquid Architecture Turns 1! (feat. Nilan Perera / Alex Fournier / James Bailey / Ryan Kinney) / Mischief Makers 2024-06-08 (Saturday). $10 cash or advance ticket / $12 card at the door. [FB event]

Save Bar Orwell fundraiser (feat. Sundowner / DENISE / Ancient Greece / cute) / The Baby G 2024-06-09 (Sunday). $17.31, 19+. [more info / tickets]

TONE Festival (feat. Fred Moten & Brandon Lopez / Lee & Gamble Unlimited / Roa Lee) / The Music Gallery 2024-06-13 (Thursday). $20 advance, all ages. [FB event]

TONE Festival (feat. Mas Aya [Coming And Going record release] / Colin Fisher [Suns of the Heart record release) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-06-16 (Sunday). $20 advance, $25 door, all ages. [FB event]

Chris Brokaw (Picastro) / The Baby G 2024-06-17 (Monday). $23.57, 19+. [FB event]

Luka Kuplowsky & The Ryōkan Band [How Can I Possibly Sleep When There Is Music double LP release celebration!] (The Heart of Going La [Fan Wu & Thom Gill]) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-06-18 (Tuesday). $22.63 advance/$25 door. [FB event]

TONE Festival (feat. Wolf Eyes with Anthony Braxton) / The Great Hall 2024-06-26 (Wednesday). $35 advance. [FB event]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

---

Shows this week:

Toronto Electronic Music Open Mic (feat. Ross Edmonds / Paul Hilllier / Bradburn Williams / Gary Duke / MIke Murphy / dreamSTATE / Diyonisos / Phurniture / Fantastical Realms / Time God Uly / Heiki / Ben Shannon / Spectral Eyes / Eugene Huo / Gruve Collective) / Handlebar 2024-05-13 (Monday) [more info]

Ghostgirl residency ["original compositions and ghost stories"] (feat. Aline Homzy/Allan Mackie/Michael Davidson/Steven Noronha) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-14 (Tuesday – early) [more info]

Not Dead Yet presents (The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis / Fortunato Durutti Marinetti / Daydream Plus) / The Velvet Underground 2024-05-14 (Tuesday). $27.58. [FB event]

The Brandon Davis Trio [Brandon Davis/Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Joe Sorbara] [album release celebration!] (Brandon Davis [solo]) / Sellers & Newel 2024-05-14 (Tuesday). $15 minimum donation. [more info]

Josh Cole presents (feat. Kind Mind [Josh Cole/Ted Crosby/ Michael Davidson]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-14 (Tuesday). $10/pwyc. [FB event]

Christina Petrowska Quilico [Games of the Night Wind album release, featuring nocturnes by David Jaeger] / Canadian Music Centre 2024-05-15 (Wednesday). $free with RSVP. [more info]

TONE presents (feat. Lea Bertucci / Germaine Liu / Black Galaxie) / Standard Time 2024-05-15 (Wednesday). $17.52, all-ages. [FB event]

Dun-Dun Band [Pita Parka Pt. I: Xam Egdub LP release show!] (Allison Cameron/Mira Martin-Gray/Josh Cole) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-05-16 (Thursday). $25. [FB event]

Makam Nights (feat. Behnoosh Behnamnia [kamanche and violin] / Rob Simms [tanbour]) / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-05-16 (Thursday). $pwyc. [FB event]

TONE presents (feat. Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield [Nate Wooley/Susan Alcorn/Ava Mendoza/Ryan Sawyer] / Rob Clutton Trio with Kurt Newman [Rob Clutton/Karen Ng/Nick Fraser]) / Standard Time 2024-05-17 (Friday). $22.89, all-ages. [FB event]

Masahiro Takahashi presents Cha-no-yu (feat. C.R. Gillespie / Nick Storring & Masahiro Takahashi) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-05-17 (Friday). $pwyc. [more info]

Opa Yallah / Burdock Music Hall 2024-05-18 (Saturday – early show @ 6 p.m.). $15. [FB event]

catl. / Castro's Lounge 2024-05-18 (Saturday). $pwyc. [FB event]

---

In the mix:

• New ambient mix! Drone and drone-adjacent music by: Mind over MIDI, Sarah Peebles, Aidan Baker, Robert Rich, anthène & stijn hüwels, Klaus Schulze, saltmarsh + Boards of Canada.

---

It happened this week...

• ...on May 15, 2014 at The Music Gallery (Emergents IV) [composer: Liz Hysen].

Thin Edge New Music Collective - Doors

• ...on May 18, 2014 at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

Colin Fisher + Jesse Laderoute - [first part of an improvisation]

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Bumping into... Jesse James Laderoute

Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)

---

How are you? Where are you?

I'm doing well enough. Any day above ground, am I right? I am living in brockton/little portugal throughout the pandemic. It's a real treat!

What have you been up to since March or so?

Walking, talking, cooking food, buying cooking implements with government money (it's our money anyway and anyone telling you otherwise can fuck off) and working on various records i've been kicking around my head for the past few years to varying degrees of success. I've become a much better mixing engineer with all of my free time.

Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?

I built a guitar! I was already doing most of my mixing at home "in the box" as they say so not much has changed in that regard. I have found the time to get really focused on really small details that no one will notice but me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that those details affect people's listening experience whether they're conscious of them or not.

Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?

I binge watched the clone wars and realized that it makes most other star wars properties look like complete shit in comparison. I say this in all honesty, as a lifelong trek person. It was actually fun to watch!

I'm always trying to stay on top of the endless stream of new brutal metal albums. This one by Akhlys really sounds of the moment to my ears.

And i'm always going back to Bach, baby. And Blaze Foley.

How are you feeling about 2021?

Any day above ground, mate.

Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?

On the lighter side, probably gear. Like the volume pedal I bought to make sounds for stoners with. I'd ask you about which new devices you've incorporated into your setup. Talking about gear can still be fun as long as the person you're doing it with actually gives a shit about it. Check for eye contact, if it isn't there, change the subject.

If we chose to get into politics we might talk about how John Tory sucks as a mayor, how his homeless policy is both bankrupt of compassion and ideas. How his lack of action will most certainly kill people while he continues to make appearances meant to give the impression that he is helping even in the slightest.

We might also talk about how Doug Ford's efforts to "protect small businesses" seems to mean forcing them to close so big box stores can stay open without competition, leading to increased traffic in fewer places, thereby exposing the most vulnerable people, the ones usually forced to work for these larger businesses for low wages, to the virus disproportionately.

So yeah, how those guys are terrible might come up.

Recording: Blonde Elvis

Artist: Blonde Elvis

Songs: Brass Pendant + Monday is Red

Recorded at The Baby G, May 27, 2019.

Blonde Elvis - Brass Pendant

Blonde Elvis - Monday is Red

Returning from a bit of a hiatus, Blonde Elvis kicked back into action with a re-jigged lineup offering enough firepower on the back line to free Jesse Laderoute from guitar duties. Dishing out plenty world-weary bon mots (a banter style known, I believe, as "IRL shitposting") Laderoute was as entertaining as always while the band ranged through some old faves as well as a bunch from their storehouse of yet-unreleased songs. The middle of the set gleamed a little brighter with the addition of Colin Fisher on sax for a few tracks.

[Blonde Elvis will be playing, this time at the Big G, on Friday, August 16th alongside The Leanover, Johnny De Courcy and The Kommenden.]

Recording: Laderoute/Urquhart/Story

Artist: Jesse Laderoute/Ashley Urquhart/David Story

Song: [last section]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination 58), January 21, 2018.

Jesse Laderoute/Ashley Urquhart/David Story - [last section]

There were some different faces, including a couple rock'n'roll ringers at this edition of Audiopollination's "self-curated" series. Though best known for his work with Blonde Elvis (and assorted other projects) Jesse Laderoute is no stranger to improvisation. That said, he helped to start this night off with some volume, shredding away and opening a space for Ashley Urquhart and David Story to get loud in their own ways — the former leaning into the piano to hammer at the strings while the latter eased into a ferocious triangle solo (!). Things then settled into this section of coiled tension, unresolved like the middle part of a Necks piece.

Michael Lynn captured this whole night in black and white, so you can view the full set over on youtube:

[Audiopollination returns with the second Del Stephen-curated "Spirit of the Inner Child" show on Friday, February 23rd with spontaneous recombinative sets from Allison Cameron, Bea Labikova, Del Stephen, Jeff Sinibaldi, Julian, Mira Martin-Gray, Simone Baron and Tomasz Krakowiak. The next "self-curated" Audiopollination will be on Saturday, March 10th.]

Recording: Catholic Wilt

Artist: Catholic Wilt

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #18), September 6, 2016.

Catholic Wilt - unknown

Whether it's a spell of creative fecundity or the influence of some new metal t-shirts, Jesse James Laderoute has had a rush of new material that falls outside of Blonde Elvis' sophisto-pop parameters. He's recently debuted Body Rot, a solo industrial endeavour as well as this doom-folk project, which was getting just its second public airing. With a deliberately compressed and tinny/trebly guitar tone, there was un underlying uneasy edge under the quartet of extended songs unveiled here — and plenty of slow and deliberate builds and clever loop-pedal deployment to craft layers of guitar sounds. This last one in the set came across most like a "folk song" — albeit one that got trapped in some foreboding forest.

[The next Track Could Bend is coming up on Tuesday (October 4th) and will feature CHOBO with Strings, Goosey (The Holy Gasp's Benjamin Hackman and Karen Ng), and INCHOATE.]

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

Recording: Jesse James Laderoute

Artist: Jesse James Laderoute

Song: [edited excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at April 7, 2015 at Johnny Jackson ("Track Could Bend #1").

Jesse James Laderoute - [edited excerpt from first piece]

One of the goals of this new series is to collapse some of the walls between the "improvised" and "rock" scenes, because sometimes people are actually playing similar music to different crowds — and sometimes musicians who should be seeing each other as peers just don't encounter each other. It was with that in mind that Jesse Laderoute (better known for his work in Young Mother and, more recently, Blonde Elvis) showed off his experimental side, bringing some Reich-ian repetitions and phone phreaking to close out the night. (Do note that this selection here reveals the heavy hand of the recordist, enfolding a chunk former within the latter section of the original.)

[Track Could Bend continues at Little Italy's Johnny Jackson on the first Tuesday of every month, with shows starting & ending early. The next one will be Tuesday, May 5th.]

Six years/Six pack: Anni Spadafora

MFS has turned six! My introductory thoughts on this landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.

Today's list is from artist/DJ/musician Anni Spadafora, who plays no wave-esque rock in one of the city's best new bands, but who also has the name PAULINE OLIVEROS emblazoned on her guitar.

---

It was really difficult choosing only 6 recordings. So grateful for this archive, this wild attempt at throwing a net at this mess of a city. These are songs from shows I was at or wished I had been at. And a hint at some of the core people whose music urges me to listen deeper around these parts.

Nif-D - Centre of Gravity excerpt

Muskox - Buff Stop

AND THIS (sorry, I'm a cheat and a glutton)

Anagram - What a Mess

THOMAS - unknown

Alex Lukashevsky - Back to the River

Jesse Laderoute - Cassette Store Day [excerpt]

---

You can always click on the tags below to look for more stuff from these artists. Has there been a half-dozen 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.

Recording: Colin Fisher + Jesse Laderoute

Artist: Colin Fisher + Jesse Laderoute

Song: [first part of an improvisation]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 18, 2014.

Colin Fisher + Jesse Laderoute - [first part of an improvisation]

Full review to follow. Although they might not have shared many stages lately, Colin Fisher (of Not The Wind, Not The Flag and so much more) and Jesse Laderoute (of Young Mother and Blonde Elvis) have jammed together off and on for a few years now. Laderoute set the tone here with his synth burbulations and then Fisher pushed things forward (on guit and pedal manipulations) in this first segment of their joint set before they let the sonic ground shift a bit.

Recording: Jesse Laderoute

Artist: Jesse Laderoute

Song: [second piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 18, 2014.

Jesse Laderoute - [second piece]

Full review to follow. Seated on the floor and surrounded by synth and plenty of pedals, Jesse Laderoute (of Young Mother and Blonde Elvis) unfurls a bit of a homespun Beyond the Infinite here, as he continues to stretch out his improvisatory chops.

Recording: Jesse Laderoute

Artist: Jesse Laderoute

Song: Cassette Store Day [excerpt]^*

Recorded at Sonic Boom ("Cassette Store Day"), September 7, 2013.

Jesse Laderoute - Cassette Store Day [excerpt]

Full review to follow. Cheers to Sonic Boom, who are, once again, supporting community engagement and local music by allowing local labels to set up in their store and sell their wares directly to the curious at Cassette Store Day's tape fair. They also had live performances from some adventurous musicians — exactly the sort of left-of-the-dial stuff that thrives in cassette culture.

While his work in Blonde Elvis showcases him as a crafty tunesmith and his other band Young Mother might be described as "pop avant", Laderoute went full-on experimental here, creating drone-y layers of manipulated vocal sounds and keyboards as a bed for Jason Wasiak's horn work. This nascent sonic exploration will hopefully emerge as its own distinct project in Laderoute's stable a little further down the road.

^* As far as I know, this improvised piece doesn't have a formal title.