Monday Roundup #62

Someday this space might be mostly concert listings again, but for now Monday roundups might include a romp through the MFS archives, some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!).

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Concert announcements:

Women From Space Festival 2022 (feat. Nicole Rampersaud / Paramorph Collective / Racha Moukalled/Elizabeth Brown/Aline Homzy/Ilyse Krivel / Susanna Hood/Tania Gill/Kayla Milmine) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2022-04-28 (Thursday). Early bird tickets $12 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced tickets $15/Early bird festival passes $40 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced festival passes $50. [FB event]

Scott Hardware (Whimm) / Sneaky Dee's 2022-04-28 (Thursday). $15, 19+. [tickets + info]

Women From Space Festival 2022 (feat. Lisa Conway/Emma Ongman / Kristine White/Bee Pallomina/Germaine Liu / Neema Bickersteth/Jessica McMann/Dot Starkey / Sara Constant / Lori Freedman/Scott Thomson) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2022-04-29 (Friday). Early bird tickets $12 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced tickets $15/Early bird festival passes $40 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced festival passes $50. [FB event]

Women From Space Festival 2022 (feat. Aisha Sasha John/Brenda Joy Lem / Kayla Milmine/Geordie Haley/Peter Morin / Ronley Teper & The Lipliners / TUSH) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2022-04-30 (Saturday). Early bird tickets $12 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced tickets $15/Early bird festival passes $40 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced festival passes $50. [FB event]

Women From Space Festival 2022 (feat. Kathryn Merriam/Isabelle Clermont/Grace Scheele/Elysha Vorstenbosch / Marilyn Lerner / PIQSIQ / Sook-Yin Lee) / 918 Bathurst 2022-05-01 (Sunday). Early bird tickets $12 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced tickets $15/Early bird festival passes $40 (before April 1st)/Regular-priced festival passes $50. [FB event]

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Shows this week:

Don't Worry Darlin [Chris Banks/Nick Fraser/Tim Posgate/Don Scott/Victor Bateman] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-03-22 (Tuesday). [FB event]

Music by Harry and Furlong [feat. Andrew Furlong/Robert Grieve/Yang Chen / Colin Fisher / Fahmid Nibesh] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-03-23 (Wednesday)

Continuum presents: Du Nord (feat. Quatuor Bozzini) [pieces by Nicole Lizée, Michael Oesterle, Tanya Tagaq, and Alissa Cheung] / The Music Gallery 2022-03-24 (Thursday). $20 Advance/door, $15 Students/Music Gallery Members. [more info]

Small Chaos [Curtis Whittaker/Michael Palumbo/Alex Sales/Tyson Headon/Birol Edrogan] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-03-24 (Thursday) [FB event]

Brush Line (feat. Continuum Contemporary Music) [pieces by Jimmie LeBlanc, Carolyn Chen, Tyshawn Sorey, Linda Smith, and Britney Dawn Do] / The Music Gallery 2022-03-25 (Friday). $20 Advance/door, $15 Students/Music Gallery Members. [more info]

CCMC with special guest Charity Chan / Array Space 2022-03-25 (Friday). $pwyc.

Stranger Still [Laura Swankey/Randi Helmers/Rob Clutton/Pete Johnston] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-03-25 (Friday – early!). $pwyc.

The Ryan Driver Sextet / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-03-25 (Friday). [FB event]

Batuki Music Society presents: Tribute to Jewel Ackah, King of Highlife (feat. The Butterfly Band) / Supermarket 2022-03-25 (Friday). $15 advance. [FB event]

Burn Down The Capital presents (feat. Picastro / Fortunato Durutti Marinetti) [double album release!] / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2022-03-26 (Saturday). $15 +fees, 19+. [FB event]

Lipliners & Friends Mini Music & Art Festival ["puppets, projections, art exhibitions, and live performances will be running throughout the day"] (feat. Ronley Teper & The Lipliners / Willow Rutherford / Tim Posgate & Andrew Downing / Gordon Hylands’s Living Fossil / Chris Pruden / Jaron Freeman-Fox / Vivienne Wilder) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2022-03-27 (Sunday). all ages event from 2-6, adults only 6:30-11pm. [FB event]

HAPPY SUNDAYS (feat. Seulement / Luge / LAL) / The Baby G 2022-03-27 (Sunday). $free, 19+. [FB event]

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Bandcamp corner:

• On the third anniversary of Justin Haynes' passing, Felicity Williams has released an EP of "a handful of half-finished mixes" from their joint project Biodad. That description is overly modest, as there's plenty to chew on both in Williams' vocalisations and Haynes' guitar work. It comes together most beautifully on a woozy, spindly cover of Gerry Rafferty's "Right Down the Line". (The Bandcamp release is also a fundraiser for the Tranzac.)

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It happened this week...

• ...on March 24, 2016 at Burdock Music Hall.

Os Tropies - Seu Heka

• ... on March 27, 2016 at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

King Weather - [fourth piece]

[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.]

Monday Roundup #26

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

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Community notes:

• I'm generally bemused by the fact that in the mind of the general public (and probably no few political decision makers), a "concert" is some immense spectacle by definition ("It typically takes seven to 25 trucks, 15 tour buses and a staff of up to 120 to stage a world tour...") but here's a dispatch from the general media on the state of the "music industry reopening". Not much consideration given to how small numbers of people in small rooms will fit in, but I guess one can still glean some outlines of how things might be looking indoors after summertime.

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Video Hits:

• This new one from Ducks Ltd. (from their forthcoming Modern Fiction album) hits me right in my C-86-ified heart.

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Livestream nation:

• Defiantly not a livestream, but instead an attempt at "a dynamic parallel format" (or even "a paranormal phenomenon"), the Multilocation Festival (curated by Nick Storring for the Canadian Music Centre) brings together a whole bunch of this space's fave performers (including Rob Clutton, Colin Fisher, Nicole Rampersaud, Christina Petrowska-Quilico, Andrew Wedman, Dame Cook, Jessica Ackerley, and Rose Bolton) in a variety of audio/visual experiences starting tonight (Monday, July 11th) and stretching out over the next couple weeks. There's a whole variety of exciting things on tap, including some promising cross-fertilizations like the unveiling of the Understory Series (which, I assume will involve filling in some more concrete details here) as well as a relaunch celebration for the Rat-drifting label (about which, more below).

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It happened this week...

• ...on July 12, 2013 at Izakaya Sushi House for Weird Canada, Pleasence, Moustache Rides and Just Shows present An Evening of Avant-Garage.

Wolfcow - Electric Afterbirth/Everybody Dies on Vacation

• ...on July 14, 2013 at Array Space for Somewhere There's Summer Series #7.

King Weather - First Piece [edit]

[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.]

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Bandcamp corner:

• This week sees the long-awaited return of one small-but-significant corner of our local creative music history to circulation with the arrival of the Rat-drifting label on Bandcamp. This brings into easier circulation a whole series of closely-overlapping projects (see my mostly-accurate visualization below) even including some new releases from the archives.

Recording: King Weather

Artist: King Weather

Songs: [two improvisations]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), March 27, 2016.

King Weather - [excerpt from first piece]

King Weather - [fourth piece]

A now-rare visit to the city from drummer D. Alex Meeks over the Easter weekend gave him a chance to re-unite with a couple of his formerly-frequent improvising partners. After ensuring that no angels were going to dance, Meeks was joined by trombonist Steve Ward. Their first foray with Ward's buzzing horn swoops looped into foundational drones put the pair right back into their old sonic neighbourhood (the short excerpt here from the first piece could also stand as an example of the "typical" King Weather sound). From there, as the old gears started to mesh more cleanly, the pair pushed outwards a bit for some rangier explorations, culminating in the final piece with a bit more giddy-up on the drumming and some more adventurous layering from Ward.

Recording: King Weather

Artist: King Weather

Song: [fifth piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), February 22, 2015.

King Weather - [fifth piece]

Back together after a few months' hiatus, Steve Ward (trombone, loop pedal) and D. Alex Meeks (percussion) played a series of shorter pieces this time around, grabbing at a variety of textures instead of the slow-building extended meditations they sometimes prefer. This particular piece of work sounds like some sort of Victorian oddity that involves a steam-powered birdcall being bolted to a metronome.

[You can find Kind Weather at The Tranzac on the last Sunday of every month — next time up will be March 29th.]

Recording: King Weather

Artist: King Weather

Song: [last piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), November 30, 2014.

King Weather - [last piece]

With just Steve Ward's trombone and loop pedal and D. Alex Meeks' percussions, King Weather are able to conjure up a wide range of moods — this set included tasty drones, tropical bounces and this mournful closer.

[King Weather's next appointment at The Tranzac is Sunday, January 25, 2014.]

Recording: King Weather

Artist: King Weather

Song: [last piece]

Recorded at Array Space (The Music Gallery's "Departures" series), September 5, 2014.

King Weather - [last piece]

Following a test run, The Music Gallery has formalized their off-site series (now christened "Departures") under the co-curatorship of Tad Michalak, employing some of the DIY verve be brings to his work with Burn Down the Capital/Feast In The East. Further instalments are being planned, but nothing's announced yet.

The rainy night started off with climate controllers Steve Ward (trombone/loop pedal) and D. Alex Meeks (percussion) finding ingenious applications for their deliberately-limited toolkit — in this piece, Ward's percussive breath-bursts provide some structure for his layers of trombone, sounding like a thundercloud losing its way on a hot September evening.

Bonus! Here's some video footage of the proceedings:

Recording: King Weather

Artist: King Weather

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac - Main Hall (The Second Annual Somewhere There Creative Music Festival - Show 4), February 23, 2014.

King Weather - [first piece]

Full review to follow. Confined to a twenty minute mini-set, percussionist D. Alex Meeks and Steve Ward gave a sort of sketchbook version of King Weather. Given time to stretch out, they prefer to let ideas build up and unpack themselves a little more fully, but this still showed off the ingenious layering that Ward can achieve with just a trombone and a basic loop pedal. You can see them at The Tranzac on the last Sunday of every month — and rumour has it there'll be some other cool opportunities to hear them otherwise.

Recording: King Weather

Artist: King Weather

Song: First Piece [edit]

Recorded at Array Space ("Somewhere There Summer Series #7"), July 14, 2013.

King Weather - First Piece [edit]

Full review to follow. Exploratory trombonist Steve Ward is known to range over different terrains in his various projects, but, by his own admission, in this session with percussionist D. Alex Meeks he was hewing a little closer to his loop-based work Lone Bone work than usual. An interesting series of experiments with Ward capturing and looping everything from his bell mute to the pop-top of his beer can.