Currente calamo: The Wavelength TWELVE! Festival (Part II)

TWELVE: The Wavelength 12th Anniversary Festival

While it's all fresh in my mind, a few notes from this year's WL Fest. Longer, more comprehensive reviews will follow down the road a piece.

Last year's Wavelength festival had a transitional feel, just as WL itself did in shedding its old skin as a weekly series and trying on new formats like so many hats. But throughout 2011, Wavelength really gained strength, with new blood on the programming team and a willingness to try some new and interesting things. It's befitting, then, that this year's festival was more streamlined (down to four nights) and bold in its lineups, reaching out to some bigger names for the headliners while still mixing in a lot of newer, less-well-known acts. My recap of the first two nights can be found here.

Night 3 @ The Great Hall

Saturday, February 18, 2012. The Weather Station / Off The International Radar / Nat Baldwin / Sandro Perri / No Joy

Not too many bodies in the stately (if somewhat echo-y) Great Hall as Tamara Lindeman took the stage. Her Weather Station project might be best suited for listening to 'round a campfire under a starry sky, but it was a fine table-setter here. It was easier to fill the space now that she's being joined by friends to fill out the songs from All of It Was Mine. Ian Kehoe (of Marine Dreams) and Andrew Barker (her bandmate in Bruce Peninsula) added instrumental textures, while fellow BP'ers Misha Bower and Matt Cully came on for some backing vocals. You don't want to wish a small crowd on any artist, but I'm super-glad it was quiet enough in the hall to lean back and listen to this without interruption.

It's perhaps a little bit surprising that the longest-tenured band at the festival was arguably the one that I knew the least about, but I had never crossed paths before with Off The International Radar. Kudos to the WL crew for putting 'em on the bill though, as this was one of my favourite sets of the festival. Employing electronics and keyboards and filled out with bass and guitar, the first word to come to mind as a descriptive would be "planetarium". The slowburning textures might come off as anticlimactic to anyone waiting for the band to kick into a higher gear, but once I caught the rhythm I felt all my limbs getting heavy and a pleasant, zoned-out sensation come over me. And quite perfectly accompanied by General Chaos' swirling lights slowly shifting away behind the band.

Listen to a couple tracks from this set here.

I've never particularly cottoned to Dirty Projector's brand of decentred contemporary haze-pop, which might explain why I never checked out any of the solo material from DP bassist Nat Baldwin. But here, as he set up for a solo set accompanied only by double bass, I was a little intrigued — if only to see if he'd be able to hold the growing crowd's attention. Limiting himself almost entirely to short-stroke bow work, Baldwin still managed to create enough musical range to accompany his pure-pitched vocals. There were a few mildly aharmonic runs here and there, but his approach hewed closer to popcraft than avant garde-isms. But still not too surprising that the chatter from the back of the room started to pick up as the set moved along. Enjoyable regardless, and a nice little challenge to the audience to pay attention.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Since his album release shows back in November, there's been a little bit of buzz for Sandro Perri, and from the crowd's reaction, you might have guessed that he was the night's headliner. Which is kind of awesome to see for an experimental singer-songwriter backed by a band of all-star improvisers. Balancing woozy keyboard workouts with polyrhythmic accents, I liked it most when the band stretched things out and let it cook. Perri is taking this material on the road soon with some of these musicians who can really do it justice — there's gonna be a lot of acclaim echoed wherever he takes this stuff, but somehow I'm glad to see that this really is getting some hometown love before all that happens.

After that came the shoegazing treatment that Montréal's No Joy excel at. But whether it was their intense volume or the late hour, the full crowd was steadily melting away as they played. No matter, this probably sounded the best of any of the times I've seen 'em — and we were treated to a bunch of new material, building on the strengths of their Ghost Blonde album. As always, the band were rigourously uncommunicative while on stage, but I was glad to see 'em chatting and laughing at the merch table afterwards.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Night 4 @ The Garrison

Sunday, February 19, 2012. Most People / Motëm / Army Girls / Burning Love / PS I Love You

Capping it all off was a night back at WL's Dundas West spiritual homebase. There was a surprisingly vigourous crowd on hand soon after doors, and it just kept getting more and more packed. Certainly more on hand than I would have expected for bedroom popsters Most People. The bearded duo had a laptop on stage for backing tracks, but managed to keep things feeling live with guit, bass and a sundry assortment of drums laid out before them. That gave the songs enough momentum to keep things interesting, even if the overall vibe was more laid-back. Is "post-chillwave" a genre yet?

Amongst the changes in Motëm's stage setup was replacing the candles he had last time with battery-powered versions of same. Whether that was some sort of nod to the meta-artifice of his persona — or even if whether or not what he was doing was meant as ironic artifice — I cannot say. Otherwise, the Hamilton-based swkeee-hopper brought a totally different musical set to backdrop his enthusiastic stage routine. I thought the music was a little tastier, but on the whole, I'm unsure on the persona, and I really can't say that I "get" what the whole routine is about.

After that came the shift from the "pop" to the "loud" part of the night, making Army Girls the perfect transitional agent. Drummer Andy Smith and singer/guitarist Carmen Elle just celebrated two years of playing together, so it's no surprise that they're tinkering and finding new ways to keep the older material interesting. Even better, though, was a bunch of new tunes bound for the band's first full-length that showed no dropoff in quality. All of it was warmly received, and this was the closest I've felt to an audience demanding an encore from a mid-bill band in a while.

Listen to a track from this set here.

I sort of sidled a little further away from the centre of the room after that, as I was expecting some moshing action for local hardcore group Burning Love. And while a big pocket opened up in front of the stage as the band got started, the pit never really took off, just creating a large open area for two or three preening guys to shove and posture at each other while everyone else had to squeeze into a smaller space. Not my idea of fun. But I did like the roar coming from the stage, delivered with wide-legged rock stances from the guitarists and bass player. Chris Colohan, meanwhile, delivered the lyrics with a crouch and a growl, occasionally springing down to prowl around that open area on the floor in front of the stage. Because of the preferred vibe differential, I pretty much never go out of my way to see hardcore shows. But I do like seeing it done well, so this is one more case where I'm glad WL was throwing something like this into the mix.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Up to this point, WL stage manager Adham Ghanem had once again kept things running admirably on time. It was only a balky microphone connection before the last act that kept the festival from having a perfect record top to bottom. Still, this set's slightly delayed start was still more efficient than most any other rock show you could think of, and once PS I Love You got going, no one was kvetching about the wait. It was really satisfying to see the fruits of Paul Saulnier's successful labours in the form of a spiffy double-necked guitar that he played for most of the set. There was also the chance to broaden the group's sound by having old friend Tim Bruton (Matters/Forest City Lovers) on stage, playing keyboards and second guitar. The set was based upon some of the new songs coming out on the forthcoming Death Dreams album, though there were a few older audience-pleasers mixed in there as well. Firery soloing from Saulnier abounded, so there's no doubt that the new album is going to be filled with shreddy goodness. The night — and the festival — were capped off with John O'Regan (a.k.a Diamond Rings) coming out to sing on "Leftovers" and "Facelove" during the encore.

Listen to a track from this set here.

All told, an excellently curated and executed festival. The initially-announced "workshop & speaker series" didn't come together, but even without that it felt like an action-packed long weekend. Many thanks are due to Jonny, Ryan, Kevin, Duncan, Dorice, Adam and Adham — plus General Chaos and all the volunteers who kept things going smoothly. Details about the next few events are already starting to come out, and it looks like there's more exciting things afoot. Thirteen might be luckiest year of them all.

Gig: PS I Love You

PS I Love You (Matters / Motëm)

The Garrison. Thursday, April 7, 2011.

Another show that I headed out to on a last-minute decision. I surely dig the headliner, but it hadn't been that long since I'd saw 'em. But the addition of Matters to the bill made this a must-see. Figuring I wouldn't be the only one thinking that way, I was on hand fairly early on to make sure I got in.

Once I was in, that made for more time, I suppose, to appreciate the fact that the night had been "branded" by some car company. [Deleted: several angry rambling sentences.] If a car company offers you free swag, don't take it! It's soiled and will cause you spiritual damage. [Deleted: further angry ranting about automobile companies.]

Anyway, there was a nicely robust crowd on hand as a figure took the stage and lit the candles on his candelabra, telling the crowd they are about to witness "the Toronto debut of the Motëm ceremony". Hailing from Hamilton, the mysterious Motëm¹ was wearing a toque and plaid and controlled his squiggy electronic music from behind a table full of gear. His performance encompassed a sort of mime/vogue dance style to his beatz, occasionally twisting a knob to make it extra-squelchy and tossing in a slogan here and there ("you better work!", "Let's Get it On").

Just like on the mixtapes he releases, the music segued from one song to the next. But the goal seemed to be more about creating an experience than just playing the music — the whole thing was a mashup of dance music, hip-hop's b-boy stances and performance art. It was kinda goofy/amusing for about ten minutes, but increasingly less so as it went along. Ultimately, this just isn't something that I "get". But no less than John O'Regan — Diamond Rings himself — was front and centre, having a great time, and I know that the cultural sophisticates over at Hype Lighter love this guy to bits, so note well that I'm probably out to lunch on this one.²

The transformation of The D'Urbervilles into Matters was meant to mark a break with the past, but there's far too much of a continuum with what they had become to really see it that way. Or, to put that another way, the biggest changes away from the sound that the band had explored on their first album We Are the Hunters had already been evident for quite some time before the name change. And similarly, this rebooting was obviously in the works for quite a while — back at least to the band's 2010 NXNE appearance, when there were whispers that that could be the band's last show, and they sold off all their old merch. After that came radio silence from the band as the members' other projects kept them busy, but the announcement of their transition to Matters — along with the release of a 7"³ — did manage to get a nice burst of media attention.

Evolution is the sort of thing you might not notice if you're not paying attention, so the attention-grabbing one-two punch of "Cito G/Boys 2 Men", with the tension-release craftsmanship and skittery structure deployed at a bolder level than Hunters-era D'Urbs would probably used might well have taken some by surprise — but those are songs that had been in the band's setlist for a little while now.

The newer stuff matches a sleek synth punch with guitar menace and a bolder sense of swagger. That latter quality would mostly be emanating from frontman John O'Regan, whose on-stage confidence and presence have expanded in tandem with the explosion of his Diamond Rings project. And even though for this show he was makeup-free and rocking the "classic John O." look — complete with black-on-black Jays cap⁴ — he brought a similar sense of all-that attitude.

That would give the performance plenty of verve and a sense of energy, even if it was, in fact, a similar set to the final time I'd seen The D'Urbs, featuring the songs presumably bound for the band's second album. Including their brooding/hi-rev cover of Timber Timber's "Magic Arrow", the nine-song set went forty minutes with no looks back to the first album.

When we'll get to hear these songs again is unknown. Word on the street is that concurrent with this burst of shows the band finished recording that second album, but since then, there's been no official Matters activity. Given everyone's other life and musical commitments⁵, it looks like this is most definitely on the backburner. It's not impossible that the advancement of time and the success of other projects might leave the recordings orphaned as a "lost album" that we'll eventually wonder about in hushed terms — and even as these same people are still amongst us, their collective presence (especially as a powerful live unit) will be missed.

Listen to a song from this set here.

An admiration for Matters was also brought into the headlining set by Kingston's PS I Love You, as singer/guitarist Paul Saulnier was sporting one of their new stickers on his headband — "I feel weird taking the stage after them," he commented.

But as the duo launched into "Meet Me at the Muster Station" and a pretty speedy "Breadends" they were showing they'd earned their headliner chops. Tightly organized, most of the set came in two-song bursts, and even then with only the quickest of pauses between — there was no tentativeness with this well-toured material. "Scattered" drifted a bit, but Benjamin Nelson's snappy drumming on "Get Over" grabbed me back.

When you see a band a few times, it's always interesting to hear the little differences — this time out, there was a whole tonne less vocals in the mix than the last time I saw 'em on the same stage. But there was accordingly more solo-tastic guitar — "Butterflies & Boners" melted faces nicely. Saulnier had also upgraded his foot-actuated bass keyboard to a new Moog model, and I could certainly feel that in my chest throughout the set.

There was also some new material such as "Sentimental Dishes", which mostly followed the same trajectory plotted by Saulnier's past work.⁶ And given the extra microphone over at the edge of the stage, it was no surprise to see John O'Regan — who had appeared on the single version of the song in his Diamond Rings alter ego — come out to add some vocals for the encore's "Leftovers".

Listen to a song from this set here.

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¹ Note the umlaut and the accent are on the second syllable of his name.

² Motëm will be sharing the Garrison stage with PS I Love You once again as part of the grand finale of the Wavelength TWELVE festival on Sunday, February 19, 2012.

³ The release of the single for "Get In Or Get Out" was accompanied by a stylish video directed by Colin Medley and Jared Raab.

⁴ The Blue Jays' own rebranding should give an impetus for a whole new range of sartorial choices for O'Regan — if they haven't already, they should really be hiring Diamond Rings as a merchandise spokesmodel.

⁵ These guys can be seen in Forest City Lovers, Diamond Rings and House League. The latter two both have just wrapped up new recordings, though no word yet on when they'll surface for the listening public.

⁶ PS I Love You have just wrapped up their second album, so hopefully there'll be some more new material previewed when they play the above-mentioned Wavelength Festival show. For the love of Pete, bring your earplugs!