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: Greydini

Artist: Greydini

Song: Abstract Spider Pizza Party

Recorded at Owl's Club (basement), May 18, 2018.

Greydini - Abstract Spider Pizza Party

Also known for his work with Wolfcow, the great Greydini has been making "solo" releases of skewed pop for a while, and this set saw him previewing several tunes from the forthcoming 10" Pardon My Syrup mini-album. Exchanging the band's no wave chug for some bumpin' mutant disco tracks, the songs are still fuelled by the same manic street poetry and delightfully absurdist crab consciousness sensibility.

[Rumour has it that Greydini will be returning to party (probably with that new disc in hand) at Owl's Club for Alpha Strategy's album release party on August 31st.]

Recording: Wolfcow with Anna Mayberry

Artist: Wolfcow with Anna Mayberry

Song: Enhanced Texture, Part 2

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Mixed Input Festival – Night 2), September 17, 2017.

Wolfcow with Anna Mayberry - Enhanced Texture, Part 2

This festival was convened by local experimental film collective Pleasure Dome as an attempt to deepen the collaborative experience between musical and moving image artists, which was manifested in a variety of ways over two nights.

Greydyn Wolfcow used this festival set as an opportunity to push the band into some different territory, eschewing the pop-nugget sized "hits" for one set-filling longform piece. Driven by a discordant industrial thrum (provided by current bandmembers Chris Worden, Ian Sequeira and Jon Shapiro) that loomed like a toxic emission from a chemical plant, the piece was tied together by the vocal refrain of "evidence, evidence, evidence", while a corporate product analysis slideshow (the powerpoint of the '80's!) was projected onto the stage. Meanwhile, Anna Mayberry's movement portion channelled the band's bad hoodoo, like a sullen teenager driven from lurking at the side of the room into their own moshpit as some sort of emotional exorcism.

Recording: Tranz DéFoncé

Artist: Tranz DéFoncé

Songs: [two presumably-untitled pieces]

Recorded at The Dupe Shop, March 5, 2017.

Tranz DéFoncé - unknown

Tranz DéFoncé - unknown

This new Storefront location for duplication.ca not only brings cassette production and other services closer to the people that are most likely to use them, they're also serving as a community hub, hosting a series of shows and mixtape exchanges. This Sunday afternoon show pulled three bands from their garages for a rawkin' good time. When a random passer-by sees a band playing in a store, comes in to watch, and then grabs a mic to start singing, most bands would take umbrage. Tranz DéFoncé are not most bands. Even on what was mentioned as their last-ever show, this junk-rock supergroup took the volunteer in stride, encouraging more than just tolerating the unexpected turn of events and adding one more random element to their noisy thrum.

Recording: Toblerone Boys

Artist: Toblerone Boys

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at September LP's LPs (4th Anniversary Party), 15, 2016.

Toblerone Boys - unknown

A night of fine music among the crate-digging as LP's LPs celebrated its birthday in style. Amongst the cozy bricabrac at the back of the store, Randy "Man Made Hill" Gagne and Greydyn Wolfcow showed off some experiments from their dank pop lab, with lo-fi drum machine beats giving a framework for wobbly synths.

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

Recording: Toblerone Boys

Artist: Toblerone Boys

Song: [last section]

Recorded at The Piston, May 19, 2016.

Toblerone Boys - [last section]

This mad scientist funk laboratory with potions crafted from smashed beakers and broken equipment made one of its infrequent appearances at this gig, beaming strange rays into the forebrains of the assembled crowd, creating a new lurching army of the night.

Recording: Toblerone Boys

Artist: Toblerone Boys

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Ratio ("Wavelength 653"), March 27, 2015.

Toblerone Boys - unknown

Kudos to Wavelength's Adam Bradley for putting together this off-kilter night of side-projects and pop experimentalism. There was a pleasing underlying affinity in all four sets of something being just off a little. Opening duo Toberlone Boys exhibited that quality, with Randy "Man Made Hill" Gagne and Greydyn Wolfcow hunching over their keybs to generate woozy beatscapes that still managed to be slicker than the pair's pulled-back hair.

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

Recording: Wolfcow

Artist: Wolfcow

Song: Art Killer

Recorded at Johnny Jackson, March 1, 2015.

Wolfcow - Art Killer

Greydyn Gatti's vocals are pretty low in the mix here, but this shows off the fierce guitar tussling between Chris Worden and Brian Shirk that's giving the band some increased punkrock intensity.

Recording: Abra Cadaver

Artist: Abra Cadaver

Songs: Pigdaters + We Caught The Chill^*

Recorded at Comfort Zone ("All Toronto's Parties 2"), May 24, 2014.

Abra Cadaver - Pigdaters

Abra Cadaver - We Caught The Chill

Full review to follow. The first ATP show brought together bands selected by five different live music purveyors in a cool mix'n'match marathon. Upping the ante, the night-time portion follow-up brought a full line-up of recombinant bands (some of them special one-offs) to create a completely unique night. (It should also be noted that this also served as Wavelength's 600th show. Congratulations Wavelength!)

Julie Reich played in the live version of Wolfcow before her solo project Bile Sister took off, so it wasn't too much of a leap to see her co-fronting this amalgamated unit with Greydyn Wolfcow. But together, they took on the air of a Bizarro World Sonny and Cher, pumping out off-kilter pop nuggets in bulk, tossing lyrical fragments back and forth. There's a lot of longstanding bands that can't come up with as many hooks and ideas as this putative one-off.

You can also check out some more pictures from the day on the MFS facebook page.

^* Thanks to the commenters that helped me get these titles correct!

Recording: Wolfcow

Artist: Wolfcow

Song: Ammonia Club

Recorded at The White House ("Wavelength 580"), November 9, 2013.

Wolfcow - Ammonia Club

Full review to follow. Underneath the intense rock attack, Wolfcow songs are often something like pop hits that escaped through a dimensional gateway from a slightly-weirder parallel world. Or, in the case of this ditty, advertising jingles from somewhere where a heaping cup of ammonia is a good way to start your day.

Recording: Wolfcow

Artist: Wolfcow

Songs: Electric Afterbirth/Everybody Dies on Vacation

Recorded at Izakaya Sushi House ("Weird Canada, Pleasence, Moustache Rides and Just Shows present An Evening of Avant-Garage"), July 12, 2013.

Wolfcow - Electric Afterbirth/Everybody Dies on Vacation

Full review to follow. I'd seen Greydyn Gatti before in his mutant-synth guise, but fronting his hard rock combo he showed off another side entirely, as if delivering a rhythmically-wayward dispatch from some alternate world's version of Detroit Rock City. Staggeringly prolific as a home-recorder, there's a lot here that demands further investigation, but do see this live unit in action if you get a chance.