Monday Roundup #177

Concert announcements:

Queer Pride: QSO 10 Year Anniversary Show (feat. Queer Songbook Orchestra with Alanna Stuart, Alex Samaras, Lydia Persaud, Matt Nethersole, Stephen Jackman-Torkoff & Thom Gill) / Buddies in Bad Times 2024-06-12 (Wednesday). $30-$45. [more info]

Kelly Elizabeth (Westelaken / Brock Mattson) / The Dakota Tavern 2024-06-12 (Wednesday). $13.54 advance/$15 door. [more info]

Ross Daly's This Tale of Ours Ensemble / The Music Gallery 2024-06-15 (Saturday). $25 general admission; $15 or more Pay What You Can Afford admission; $15 MG members. [FB event]

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

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Shows this week:

Chris Banks Presents (feat. Broken Pedals Duo [Chris banks/Tania Gill]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-03 (Monday)

Track Could Bend #92 (feat. Duo Cichorium [Jasmine Tsui/Louis Pino] / Tom Richards) / Wenona Lodge 2024-06-04 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Peripheral Vision (BLOOP) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-04 (Tuesday) [FB event]

Julie Doiron (Carson McHone) / Monarch Tavern 2024-06-06 (Thursday). $31.17, 19+. [FB event]

Tania Gill Presents (feat. Lina Allemano Four / Tania Gill Quartet) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-07 (Friday – early!) [FB event]

Parade [Lullabies After Storms and Floods LP release!] [Chris Pruden/Laura Swankey/Patrick O'Reilly/Stefan Hegerat] (Roula Said / Ky Band) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-06-07 (Friday). $22.63 advance, $25 or PWYC at the door. [FB event]

Transmit presents @ Do West Fest (feat. The Crime Family / Sap / Hobby / Julianna Riolino) / The Garrison Stage 2024-06-07 (Friday). $free, outdoors/all-ages/family-friendly. [FB event]

Transmit presents @ Do West Fest (feat. So Tired / Your Grandad / Accelerant / Pleasure Craft / Kali Horse / Silks / Night Lunch / Thermal / Teknicolor Raincoats / Annie-Claude Deschênes / Pixel Grip) / The Garrison Stage 2024-06-08 (Saturday). $free, outdoors/all-ages/family-friendly. [FB event]

Ghostlight Residency: Solstice (feat. Ghostlight) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-08 (Saturday – early). $10 suggested. [FB event]

Ministry of Phonic Services Presents: "Futile, nevertheless" (feat. Ben Mike & The Beatles / Owen Kurtz & Callon Murphy / Ecotone Orchestra feat. Steven Noronha) / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-06-08 (Saturday). $pwyc, all ages

Coward Patrol & More Noise Please! present (feat. Never Sorry / Battle Milk / Black Galaxie / A Useless Mass) / Penny's Dive Bar 2024-06-08 (Saturday). $pwyc. [FB event]

A-Minor Presents (feat. Rituals / Fires of Cheektowaga / The Lee Majors / Memorex) / Hard Luck Bar 2024-06-08 (Saturday). $16.48, 19+. [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]

Flux Minstrels ["blending experimental psychedelic heavy rock, psychedelic free jazz, and ethereal melodies"] [Pierre Mongeon/Bryant Didier/Mark Hundevad/Glenn Fraser] / Array Space 2024-06-08 (Saturday). $10, all-ages/family friendly. [FB event]

Michael Palumbo's Cool New Instruments Night ["8 artists present demonstrations of their own instrument designs"] (feat. Rafael Khan / %%30%30 / Enzo Sun / Adam Tindale / Naakess / Duo Cichorium / Michael Palumbo / Rob Cruikshank) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-08 (Saturday)

Transmit presents @ Do West Fest (feat. Hieronymous Harry / Catholic Wilt / Rogue Tenant / Falcon Jane / Little Kid / Nora Kelly Band) / The Garrison Stage 2024-06-09 (Sunday). $free, outdoors/all-ages/family-friendly. [FB event]

Shawn William Clarke (Rose-Erin Stokes) / Burdock Music Hall 2024-06-09 (Sunday – 1:30 p.m.). $15. [FB event]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Senior/Newman / Drew Smith / Nick Flanagan / Nocturnes [Michelle Breslin & Ayal Senior]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-09 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

The Ship String Quartet [Rob Clutton/Aline Homzy/Tilman Lewis/Nilan Perera] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-06-09 (Sunday – early) [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]

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It happened this week...

• ...on June 3, 2010 at The Music Gallery.

Lisa Bozikovic - Waterfall

• ...on June 5, 2010 at The Shop @ Parts and Labour.

Zebrassieres - Beach Fight

[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.]

Recording: Paper Laced With Gold Ensemble

Artist: Paper Laced With Gold Ensemble

Songs: Paper Laced With Gold (feat. Lisa Bozikovic) / I Got Stuck in Wawa (feat. Stevie Jackson) / It's Not Your Home (feat. Maggie MacDonald)^*

Recorded at The Imperial Pub's back room (Paper Laced with Gold: the musical in concert), August 26, 2017.

Paper Laced With Gold Ensemble feat. Lisa Bozikovic - Paper Laced With Gold

Paper Laced With Gold Ensemble feat. Stevie Jackson - I Got Stuck in Wawa

Paper Laced With Gold Ensemble feat. Maggie MacDonald - It's Not Your Home

You will always be from where you are from / but you can never go back / it's not your home. Originally workshopped at the Harbourfront Centre in 2012, Maggie MacDonald's Paper Laced With Gold is a story that stretches out on that long Canadian spine that runs from the dirty mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the Sleeping Giant of Thunder Bay — mostly settled in a truck stop somewhere in the lonely middle, the Canadian equivalent of the "flyover states", the places where people were promised something that never came true (like, "there'll be plenty of jobs to go around once the Seaway opens!").

This re-mounting coincided with the presence of co-writer Stevie Jackson (in town for a somewhat larger gig with Belle and Sebastian the next night) and brought together most of the cast from the original performance. In streamlining the narrative down to some connective spoken passages, the performance not only tossed aside some of the musical's aesthetic/ideological choices (cross-gender casting, putting "non-singers" in singing roles, etc.) but also took some of the songs out of the character's mouths (Jackson did a fair bit more singing here than in the staged version). That said, in the previous version I could hear MacDonald's voice in the songs even though she was strictly a backstage presence, and here she reclaimed her alter-ego Betty, the waitress at the confluence of all the truckstop's dramas, stuck between laying down roots and movin' along.

The style of this version meant that all the songs came out in a river-rush torrent, but it was often quite glorious — there were several that I remembered well from just that single performance five years ago. My understanding is that this was a waypoint on the journey of getting these songs properly recorded, so they may yet have a life after the stage.

^* I will update these once the proper titles come to light. Please leave a comment if you know them!

Recording: Richard Laviolette

Artist: Richard Laviolette

Song: Someone To Tell My Story When I'm Gone

Recorded at Longboat Hall (You've Changed Records 8th Anniversary Celebration), April 22, 2017.

Richard Laviolette - Someone To Tell My Story When I'm Gone

Geez — has it really been three years since the excellent You've Changed label celebrated it's fifth anniversary? Time flies, but friendship lingers, and this night featured many of the same musicians, either on stage or just hanging out in the now-fancier-than-ever basement of the Great Hall. Switching over to a full-on, seven-piece country band took a bit of time, and Richard Laviolette seemed a little nervous his group was going to get the proverbial hook after just three songs. They managed to get a reasonably full set in, but it gave a leave-it-all-out-there edge to this tune. With a John Prine drawling howl (plus Lisa Bozikovic's keybs prodding things along, plus Aaron Goldstein's pedal steel, plus Jessy Bell Smith's backing vox) this showed off the joyful energy on Laviolette's recent Taking The Long Way Home album.

Recording: Lisa Bozikovic

Artist: Lisa Bozikovic

Song: I Wanna Go Home [Party Time cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto 3"), January 5, 2014.

Lisa Bozikovic - I Wanna Go Home

Full review to follow. Once again the Holy Oak invited some of the best Toronto songwriters of right now to pay tribute to their local musical heroes, with their choices ranging from past to present and from the familiar to the obscure. As far as I can tell, there's a lot more water in this well, so hopefully the series won't end here.

Besides paying tribute to Jennifer Castle, Lisa Bozikovic played a song by her friend Emma Moss Brender who was in The Pining as well as having this solo project whose name was chosen with grim irony.

Sunday Playlist #33

Sunday Playlist #33

The Weakerthans - (Hospital Vespers)/Bigfoot

Daniel, Fred and Julie - Your Love

A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose

Lisa Bozikovic - Wanting the Wanting

Diamond Rings - It's Not my Party

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Sunday Playlist is a semi-regular feature that brings back some of this blog's previously-posted original live recordings for an encore. You can always click the tags below to see what I originally wrote about the shows these songs came from.

Recording: Lisa Bozikovic

Artist: Lisa Bozikovic

Song: No Monument

Recorded at The Music Gallery, September 7, 2012.

Lisa Bozikovic - No Monument

Full review to follow. Wow. The show celebrating Lisa Bozikovic's first album was a good one, but this one celebrating the brand-new follow-up This Is How We Swim was a triumph. The arrangements are bolder and more confident, as is the songwriting. And the whole thing was tied together with the amazing projection art of Sean Frey, whose motifs teased out the song's meanings with symbolic grace. The songs on the album deal with death, loss and other transformations, but by the end I felt like I had head and seen something beautiful and affirming.

Recording: Lisa Bozikovic

Artist: Lisa Bozikovic

Song: Take and Take

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), November 20, 2010.

Lisa Bozikovic - Take and Take

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Ohbijou

Ohbijou (Lisa Bozikovic)

The Tranzac (Main Hall). Saturday, November 21, 2010.

The news that the beloved Tranzac Club was in financial danger was, perhaps, not entirely surprising. Any member-run non-commercial enterprise is probably nearly always on an uncertain financial footing. But the notion that this space could be lost got a lot of people reflecting on how special the Tranzac is and there was a quick burst of organizing. A lot of that was done by Stuart Duncan (Out of This Spark records impresario as well as a board member at The Tranzac), who put this night together as a fundraising show — as well as a steady stream of events over the next couple months.¹

I showed up early for this one, and actually not only had time to secure a good spot, but also wander a bit. I found, in typical Tranzac fashion, an entirely different interesting show going on in the Southern Cross Lounge, and managed to catch the end of a jazz set before heading back over to the Main Hall. By now, it was filling in. I'd thought that something quieter like this would be set up as a sit-down show, but the dancefloor was left open. Some other people had the same idea and began to drag out chairs to claim a space in front of the stage, but were discouraged from doing so. Ultimately, there ended up being a lot of people sitting on the floor, and then a fringe of people standing behind them, and then the outer layer of people at the back who would be less attentive.

I was pretty keen to hear Lisa Bozikovic lead things off. The last time I'd seen her play her set was filled not only with songs from her fabulous album Lost August, but a smattering of newer ones as well. This time out, her warm and emotive voice was backed by a larger cast, although Bozikovic started alone with a quiet new one ("I sing all day"). She was then was joined by some extra voices (Felicity Williams and Jessica Moore) for an almost wordless song, mostly just beautiful harmonies until the end, when it was summed up with "now you see me, now you don't". One gets the sense that Bozikovic is in love with combining voices, intoxicated by harmonies, and it works very well — especially with collaborators such as these.

After that, she was joined by a malleable lineup of backing musicians, with people being added or subtracted to serve each particular song. There was a supporting cast of about eight coming and going, amalgamating members not only of the evening's headliners (Anissa Hart on cello, James Bunton on drums and Heather Kirby on bass) but also some of the bands she'd toured with, such as Kite Hill and Richard Laviolette & The Oil Spills, including Tyler Belluz (on bass and banjo) and Mike Brooks (on guitar and pedal steel). The full band did lovely versions of "Take and Take" and "New City", both of which are highlights from the album.

There was getting to be a lot of people chattering away at the back, but I was glad to see that those who had showed up to hear the music got impatient with them, issuing a chorus of shushes as each song started. The setlist mixed up familiar songs with newer stuff, so the tense nibbles of keyb-driver rocker "Phone Cord" and quieter "No Denial" were followed by the utterly gorgeous "Waterfall". The set ended with an a capella version of "The Letting Go" with harmonies from Williams and Moore, so intoxicating that even the folks jabbering at the back quieted down.

"My entire music life in Toronto I owe to The Tranzac," Bozikovic said in discussing why she was proud to be playing at this show. Whether it's within these walls or in another warm and cozy spot, Bozikovic is an artist worth seeking out.

Listen to a track from this set here.

There was a full house by the time Stuart Duncan took the stage for a fundraising pitch and a discussion of what the night was all about. The room was quite full and up front packed with people sitting on the floor — obviously I was not the only one who had been waiting for a chance to see Ohbijou, who hadn't graced the city with the orchestral sweep of their music for more than a year. Singer/guitarist Casey Mecija looked to be a little nervous to be breaking a layoff from playing, but the band didn't show any rust, jumping right into a new song, and then a few more familiar ones from their two albums.

Some of the new songs that Casey Mecija had been working on in her solo shows earlier in the year were now getting fleshed out with band arrangements — not just their cover of Nathan Lawr's "Barking At Your Door" (here ending with an audience singalong), but also some others we can expect to hear on the next album. Included in those was a swimmingly lovely song ("true one / we've only begun") that gives high hopes there will be no drop-off in quality for album number three.

Casey, as well as her sister Jennifer Mecija, took several opportunities to talk about why the Tranzac was important to them: "doesn't it feel like you're in your living room with a whole bunch of your friends?" Casey asked, looking down at the seated audience. Before the gorgeous "Steep", Casey talked more about the Tranzac, both in terms of her own musical history and the role it plays as "truly one of the most unique venues in Canada", welcoming a whole range of musicians into its informal, relaxed space.

The band finished off the hour-long set with one last new one, and then came back for a three-song encore, leading off with "The Otherside" before throwing in one more cover, a jaunty run through Chad Vangaalen's "Willow Tree", led by Heather Kirby's banjo. Then they ended the night, as they have so often done in the past, with the everyone-plays percussion closer "The Woods", ending in a vigourous clap along finish.

The band is busy working on their new album (you can get some periodical updates here), so hopefully it won't be such a long time before they're playing more.

Check out a couple tracks from this set: something old here and something new here.

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¹ As of this writing, it looks like The Tranzac is out of the woods, so we should pause to applaud the outstanding work by Duncan and everyone else who pitched in.

Recording: Lisa Bozikovic

Artist: Lisa Bozikovic (feat. Felicity Williams)

Song: Waterfall^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery, June 3, 2010.

Lisa Bozikovic - Waterfall

My review of this show can be found here.

Gig: Lisa Bozikovic

Lisa Bozikovic (Gabe Levine / The Silt)

The Music Gallery. Thursday, June 3, 2010.

On a pleasant June night it was slightly stuffy and warm inside the Music Gallery — a reminder that it was near the end of the indoor music season. Though that would bring with it the promise of upcoming outdoor shows, there was still some music to hear in this lovely space. I was rather glad to have seen this show announced, as I'd missed Lisa Bozikovic's album release show at the same location a few months prior. On this night, she'd be a most gracious host, surrounding her set of direct songs with a couple more, um, tangential avant-folk acts.

The first of those was Gabe Levine¹, starting off the evening. Best-known for his work with Constellation-affiliated Black Ox Orkestar, his past efforts were linked to Montreal's experimental-type scene. Currently Toronto-based, he was playing material from his forthcoming solo album Long Spun Thread², produced by Sandro Perri, who is no stranger himself to working in the different worlds of experimental/non-experimental musics. bearing that in mind, it's interesting to see what he brings to this more song-based music.

And, indeed, to the casual observer, the net effect here leans more towards conventional song structures and arrangements, but with a subtle undertow of sonic complications. The music was mellowish overall and in a singer-songwriter kind of mode, and even gave an impression not unlike some of the Mountain Goats' stuff at their most folk-poppish. Levine sang with a steady confidence in a smooth voice, backed by Jessica Moore (banjo, backing vox) and a drummer as a unit "for the first time, ever". Perhaps one of the ways in which those experimental music backgrounds came out was how seamless the players were together.

Given that Levine's music is decidedly non-forceful, perhaps it's no surprise that it didn't immediately knock me down. But it was an intriguing half-hour and left a pleasant aftertaste. Given the cast of local notables contributing to his forthcoming album, it should definitely be worth looking for.

Listen to a track from this set here.

It's arguable that Lost August, the debut album from Lisa Bozikovic, hasn't yet gained the renown it deserves. With a fabulous voice and sympathetic backing from a large supporting cast (including members of the Ohbijou and Steamboat camps), the album wraps a good set of compositions in even more-impressive arrangements, adding texture and depth to what could have been a too-plain, folkie affair. I was interested in seeing how much of that aural expansiveness would be brought to the live show. Unsurprisingly, things were a bit stripped down, but Bozikovic (herself fully capable on keybs, guitar and accordion) had the sympathetic backing of Mike Brooks (electric guit, pedal steel) and Tyler Belluz (also of Kite Hill, on stand-up bass) with Jessica Moore and Gabe Levine returning from the opening set to add additional colour.

The set opened with "This Whole House", one not on her album. Bozikovic, on guitar, fought off a little bit of feedback at the start of "New City" but overcame that to present a delicate interplay with the pedal steel. An enthusiastic collaborator, Bozikovic seemed less at ease being the centre of attention — a bit nervous-looking throughout, and tuning at length, almost as if to steady herself down. She was also very time-conscious, cutting a song from her own setlist so as to not cut The Silt short. Anti-diva, perhaps — or perhaps some of the aching vulnerability hinted at in her album was just floating up to the surface.

But that certainly didn't subtract from her ability to express the emotional undercurrents in her songs, getting at the feelings that are more complicated than the words could convey. After describing her ex-lover's lips with an unabashed sensuality at the start of "Wanting the Wanting" — shades of Lucinda Williams at her best — it felt like a knowing, self-deceiving lie when she sang "I feel nothing for you now/ maybe I felt nothing for you then," on the chorus. These are the layers of self-undercutting contradictions that real people feel and that songs don't normally grasp at.

Bozikovic looked more at ease when she moved over to the piano, leading off there with a forceful "Take and Take". She was joined by Felicity Williams³ who added her admirable voice to another unreleased tune, possibly called "Waterfall", their intertwining voices adding a lovely hue to the song — the lilting "whoa-oh-oh"'s more gentle brook than waterfall, bringing locals Snowblink to mind. Very good stuff, so it felt sad that the set, just seven songs, zipped by in a too-quick half-hour.

Pared down that much, some of the album's standouts — like the sublime "New City" — were left unplayed. What we got was very good, though, and it's worth noting that Bozikovic is not out of songs after her stellar album, with three of the selections here not coming from that release. Bozikovic has the talent to justify both a more assertive presence on the stage and a longer set length — hopefully these will be the rewards of some more exposure and more shows.

A couple tracks from this set: you can hear one from the album here and one that isn't here.

The final set of the night was from The Silt, another one of those recombinant forces from the local improvised/experimental scene. This unit consists of Marcus Quin, Ryan Driver and Doug Tielli. Each of these guys serve in a number of other formal and ad hoc music groups — I've seen the latter two in multiple capacities, both playing their own stuff and backing others, as well as playing together in mouth-speaker soul-weirdos The Reveries. Those who know that band would have one means of comparison, as The Silt occupies different coordinates on the same terrain, less self-consciously "weird" and more straightforwardly song-based. But relatively so, of course. Like Gabe Levine in the opening set, what we have here are capable improvisational musicians playing around with song forms. But this crew was a quite a different angle, their music more strongly abstracted.

There's also an oblique sort of rootsyness here, some songs coming off like right-angle encounters with the blues. Which is to say if you were constructing a continuum of weird-rootsy/experimental music, you could put this left of the dial to acts like FemBots (y'know, a little weird) or Rock Plaza Central (a bit more off-kilter) — but still capable of occasional bursts of poppish ebullience.

Anyways, these guys have been playing together as The Silt for a decade (releasing three albums in the process) giving them an intuitive ease. As Driver and Tielli swapped off lead vocals, each in their own high, keening manner, Driver moved between piano and an old analog synth. Quin spent most of the set doing double duty on simultaneous bass and percussion, but sometimes just limited himself to playing his bass with a slide. Tielli added guitar lines that could slide quickly in and out of abstraction.

Perhaps appropriate to this band's round-about-ness, I can say that I didn't not like this. But I wouldn't be so bold as to remove that double negative. I get a certain sense on listening to music like this similar to what I get after watching a certain kind of arthouse cinema — the experience is more edifying that pleasing, perhaps I could say. Or interesting without really grabbing me emotionally. It is fascinating to sort of mentally reverse-engineer these songs to see the crazy way they constructed them — almost like one of those shows where engineers have to build a car out of junkyard debris.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Those looking him up should look here, and not confuse him with the other Gabe Levine, who is in a Brooklyn indie band called Takka Takka.

² The album release show for this is now listed on Friday, October 1 at the Music Gallery, and promises a very tasty-looking group of supporting players. Plus, the always-fabulous Mantler is opening.

³ Williams, perhaps best-known right now for her work in THOMAS, is also a notable frequent collaborator with many local artists.

Recording: Lisa Bozikovic

Artist: Lisa Bozikovic

Song: Wanting the Wanting

Recorded at The Music Gallery, June 3, 2010.

Lisa Bozikovic - Wanting the Wanting

Review to follow. My review can now be found here. A sweet but too-short set last night. I do think I'll mention here that if I were naming names for the Polaris Prize, Bozikovic's Lost August would definitely be in my longlist.

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

"Friends in Bellwoods 2" release party (Saturday) (Featuring: Bellewoods, Lisa Bozikovic, Kids On TV, Emma McKenna, Germans, Snowblink, The Acorn)

Tranzac. Saturday, August 29, 2009.

You can catch the first part of the day here.

Throughout the afternoon, the size of the crowd waxed and waned a bit, especially between acts, when many would head out for a smoke or duck out to the side to check out the action in the barbeque zone. There was a weirdly sedate late-late night vibe throughout the afternoon, a drowsy sense that it could be four in the morning and the end of a bender — until a bright shaft of light from outside from someone opening the side door suggested it was, indeed, actually four in the afternoon. Needing a bit of a jolt a couple times between acts I simply headed out the front door and went for brisk, short Annex-y walks to get some air in my lungs and clear the cobwebs.

As afternoon became evening, there was a quicker uptick in the size of the crowd, giving the impression of an actual Saturday night from about the time Germans were playing forward. But through it all, it should be noted, the busy organizers from the Ohbijou camp were always close at hand — James or Casey came up to introduce nearly every act as they took the stage, all day long.

Bellewoods: Chris White's foursome launched into their set with "Kneel On The Apron", just a sleepy acoustic guitar and voice for a couple minutes before the opening up from there. Impressed by the crowd's quiet attentiveness, he followed it up with an even quieter number. Hurtin' heart introverted mope-rock, I found it more likeable when the rhythm section tried to illustrate the sturm-und-drang a bit more proactively. Probably better suited for days with grey skies and mixed emotions about the world.

Lisa Bozikovic: Starting solo at the keyb, at first I thought I might be getting something similar to what I'd heard just the other day. But once James Bunton (drums) and Anissa Hart (cello) joined in, it turned out that even though I'd be hearing most of the same songs, this time they were more fleshed out, which certainly made a difference. Added background vox added even more pleasant texture. And a set-ending accordion cover of Ina unt Ina's "Teacher" — a techno song about a teenage crush on a teacher — was a fun wrap-up.

Kids On TV: With new stagewear and projector in tow, the KoTV crew took the stage. Absolutely the most visually interesting of the day's bands, they also managed to boost the energy in the room up a couple notches. Four songs from their current setlist, the aces were once again "Dazzler" and comp cut "Poison". This being the, what — fourth? — time I've seen them in not such a long stretch, I feel a bit like a scholar observing minute details within the songs. But for the less devoted, you merely have to show up and soak in the spectacle and the fun.¹ Also nice to note that the crew wasn't plagued by any technical gremlins outside their control this time, just for jams in bang-bang fashion.

Emma McKenna: This was a name I've been hearing a fair amount lately, mostly in that, "Oh, you haven't heard her?" kind of tone people reserve for when they think they're the first on the block on to something new and special. Playing solo with electric guitar,² McKenna played five quick songs that were definitely intriguing. Plainspoken yet declamatory, with a trilling voice that could occasionally twist a word into a little shiv of unexpectedly stretched syllables. The crowd, building up to its evening's fullness, was starting to get a bit chatter-y in the background, which was about the only blot on this set. Good stuff, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for more.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Germans: Another band that I missed out on when people were calling them one of the city's best a couple years ago, Germans are back together after some hiatus time.³ The band played a new wave-inflected sort of 90's alt. rock — which is to say their dominant tempo was "chugging", and the sound relied as much as keybs as squally guitars. This was generically okay, but it didn't leave a strong impression on me. Maybe the band's current lineup needs some more time to gel, or possibly not entirely my thing, I'll reserve judgment for now and see what I see if I encounter them again.

Snowblink: For a band that had more or less completely failed to impress me the first time I saw 'em, I was slightly surprised by the sense of reverence in the room as Snowblink prepared to play. Perhaps it was vocalist Daniela Gesundheit walking around the room, handing out bells for everyone to play or Casey Mecija introducing the band with a stern warning for those at the back to hush up and listen before going right down in front of the stage to claim a space on the floor but there was a palpably expectant vibe. So as I listened to the songs — performed by Gesundheit on antler-enhanced guit plus Dan Goldman on guit/vox/keyb/effects — I quickly concluded I'd been wrong the first time around. Wrong. An elegant voice and folk-songs embracing the subtle technological tweaks of the musicians — maybe the vibe in the room was infectious, but I was pretty captivated. The sets were stretching out a bit by this point in the evening, and the five songs in twenty-five minutes were quite fabulous.

Listen to a track from this set here.

The Acorn: Closing things out was probably the biggest "name" of the night in The Acorn out of Ottawa. Playing on this night as a bass-less trio, the band started out with the gentle "Slippery When Wet" and maintained a mellow vibe with a some new material, "Misplaced" particularly making an impression. The set ended with a cover of Gowan's "Strange Animal", which I must confess made me wince initially, but the band imbued it with a new-wave energy.⁴

Listen to a track from this set here.

And then, about quarter to midnight, the whole thing was over. There were some other good shows going on around town, but I was feeling way too punchy to even think I could be up for more. Time to head home. Not something you'd want to do every Saturday, it felt like a bit of an endurance test a few times,⁵ but it was quite a day, and a nice way to mark a special occasion. And also, I'm guessing, the sort of thing one will look back on with a satisfied sense of, "I was there!".

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¹ Excitingly, John mentioned that KoTV will be having an EP release party September 24th at the Gladstone, so that total might go up again.

² Although for the first song, she was also stomping a ring of bells 'round her ankle as well.

³ Although they didn't get back together in time to place a track on the compilation.

⁴ Was that Police-like reggae shuffle always there in the verses? I don't really want to go back to the source to check on it.

⁵ And by about the third time through the compilation being played as between-set music, I think I started to feel like I was in a sort of Friends in Bellwoods 2 indoctrination camp.

Gig: Melissa Boraski, Isla Craig, Lisa Bozikovic

Melissa Boraski, Isla Craig, Lisa Bozikovic

Holy Oak. Friday, August 21, 2009.

Friday evening, Bloor and Lansdowne. Found the venue, just steps away from the subway station, but needed to walk a bit — to unclench — before heading in.¹ I had some time to kill.

After a bit, once I realized that the sky was not permanently grey and that ash wasn't raining down from the sky, I started to feel more myself and headed back towards the spot. Ducked into an empty-ish space — turned out to be a very nice little coffee shop, a homey room with a mishmash of assorted tables and chairs. Bought a cup of tea and settled in as some other patrons also started to straggle into the shop. Billed as a show for Eiyn Sof, turned out to be more of a pass-the-guit singer-songwriter night. Which was just what I was looking for. Figuring that my Saturday night was going to be a late night of loud/aggressive music,² I kinda wanted the opposite of that, which was what led me to see these unfamiliar singers in a neighbourhood I don't get to much.

The room fairly nicely filled up with twentyish people on hand, Melissa Boraski started things off, standing barefoot at one end of the seating area and launching into a song with a voice as clear as spring water. Playing compact compositions with a strong melodic sense, Boraski's music was generally in the country-folk idiom — this is someone, I'd wager, who's spent some quality time with some Townes Van Zandt albums. Nice chops on guit, too. Her music definitely left an impression on me, evidenced by the fact that I found myself humming a couple of her tunes a day or two after the show.

Listen to a isong from Melissa here.

Lisa Bozikovic may have showed the most range on the night, not only in her voice, but also in presenting songs on piano and accordion in addition to guitar. One tune on guitar also featured a nicely bluesy tone, but her work was generally less "pop" than Melissa's songs. Lisa's work was less based in immediate hooks — more of an implied yearning exploration and an open-hearted emotionality.

Up last in the rotation was Isla Craig — the night's only known quality to me. Playing a spontaneously-derived set on piano and borrowed guit, Isla — with the third fabulous voice of the night on display — gave a bit more of a sense of someone whose songs are inherently designed for fuller arrangements. On guitar especially, she played with a two-stringed circularity, giving the songs a hypnotic regularity recalling sequencer arrangements. Isla threw in a cover of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" to go with her originals. Fine stuff all around.

Listen to a song from Isla here.

The artistes played three songs apiece once through, and then did a second round, a bit more relaxed the second time through, with spontaneous harmonies popping up on a couple songs. At the end, after the hat was passed around, the three conferred to see if they could come up with anything else they could play together, but settled for conversation with friends in attendance. A very nice night, and done pleasingly early. Different sort of thing than most gigs I get to, but it felt like a nice change of pace.

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¹ This book is freaking me out! Getting off the subway, other humans suddenly seemed alien and suspect — I had that punched-in-the-gut ache I recall from reading all those Reagan-era "Day after" novels. What was the Scholastic book club doing selling those books to kids anyways? I think they left me scarred for life. But I digress.

² This turned out to be more or less the case.