Recording: U.S. Girls

Artist: U.S. Girls

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Tranzac Fundraiser II), June 14, 2024.

U.S. Girls - unknown

It had been a hot minute since I had seen Meg Remy in performance, and I was pleased to see that this fundraiser-closing set was with a full band (although the evidence is also that she has been slaying it in duo mode with Geordie Gordon). This turned out to be a shorter but intensely-focused set, with this discofied jam sprawling out for about half of its length. Remy went from having her own private dance party on stage to taking it out among the crowd — I didn't have a great angle to see all the shenanigans, but I am told things got up close and personal. And then, job done, Remy sashayed off the stage, leaving 'em wanting more.

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

Recording: Unclassic Classics

Artist: Unclassic Classics

Songs: Lonely Son [Vernon Wray cover] + unknown^* + In the Shape of a Heart [Jackson Browne cover]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Sound For Silence II), February 14, 2019.

Unclassic Classics - Lonely Son

Unclassic Classics - unknown

Unclassic Classics - In the Shape of a Heart

This Valentine's Day special served to celebrate a very special love — one felt by a whole series of communities for the Tranzac. With all three of its performance spaces often busy all at once, the sounds from one room can often bleed into the next — theoretically charming in its way, but also disruptive when it happens at an intense or quiet moment of a performance. Fundraising efforts to enhance the rooms' sonic isolation have been underway for awhile now, with this night featuring a silent auction as well as a slate of musical talent drawn from several of the divergent scenes that call the Tranzac home.

The biggest highlight of the night was this sorta-inside-out version of The Weather Station, brought together by Tamara Lindeman to celebrate songs that sound like stone classics, but have been relegated to unjust obscurity. "Most people start cover bands so they can play songs that everybody knows, and play at weddings at stuff. I started a cover band to play songs that nobody knows, hopefully, which is funny 'cause it defeats the purpose of a cover band," she commented early on. The supple and sympathetic backing band got out of the way of the songs, bending their style to fit each piece and moving from the country-soul behind a tune from Link Wray's brother's cult private press album to something simultaneously more "1986" and more soulful than Browne's original recording. (The middle cut here, featuring Lindeman on piano backed only by Ben Whiteley's bass — plus some ungoogleable lyrics — hews the closest to something you might find on a Weather Station album with its spare, intimate beauty.)

A band like this, with Lindeman and Whiteley joined by Sam Gleason (guitar), Geordie Gordon (piano/synth) and Evan Cartwright (drums) played with the effortless excellence of session pros, but also the casual joy that can emerge when there are places like The Holy Oak or The Tranzac to incubate their talent and telepathy.

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

Recording: The Queer Songbook Orchestra

Artist: The Queer Songbook Orchestra

Songs: Telstar [The Tornados cover, arrangement by Ford Pier] + Don't You Pay Them No Mind (feat. Geordie Gordon) [Nina Simone cover, arrangement by Christian Overton]

Recorded at Church of the Holy Trinity (Songs of Resilience), March 26, 2015.

The Queer Songbook Orchestra - Telstar

The Queer Songbook Orchestra - Don't You Pay Them No Mind

Although it contains a number of fabulous musicians¹, the Queer Songbook Orchestra is more than just a band — it's as much an archival project and a community resource, "taking a look back at the history of popular music with the queer lens intact, and revealing the backstories and personal narratives behind much of the last century's popular songs". The songs are often presented with stories — stories of composers and musicians who had to encode their true meanings and stories of listeners who found empowerment through music.

The two songs here (from a phenomenal night filled with them) hint at both of those: "Telstar" shifts the song from poppy ebullience to a lament for composer/producer Joe Meek, whose queerness intensified his isolation in postwar Britain, while Geordie Gordon (of Guelph disco-rockers The Magic) sang a Nina Simone song that gave him strength. These two songs also showcase the band's musical ambition, as they've commissioned forward-looking arrangements for the songs that eschew good-time karaoke-style covers.

There's a lot of praise due to Shaun Brodie (known for his work in The Hidden Camera, Evening Hymns, plus heaps of live + session work with many Can-indie luminaries), who shepherded this project, and mention has to be made of Sean Frey and Amy Siegel, whose live projections added even more emotional heft to the music. Keep an eye out for the QSO's next presentation (June 21st at Buddies in Bad Times), which will celebrate the life and work of Duke Ellington sideman and great composer Billy Strayhorn.

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¹ On this night the band was: Sienna Dahlen (vocals), Alex Samaras (vocals), Simone Schmidt (vocals), Gary Beals (vocals), Geordie Gordon (vocals), Jennifer Burford (violin), Evan Lamberton (cello), Lief Mosbaugh (oboe/english horn/vocals), Mara Pellerin (french horn), Shaun Brodie (trumpet/flugelhorn), Ghislain Aucoin (piano/vocals), Jordan Howard (guitar), Andrew Downing (double bass), Stefan Schneider (drums).

Recording: The Magic

Artist: The Magic

Song: There You Are

Recorded at Clinton's Tavern, July 31, 2013.

The Magic - There You Are

Full review to follow. "We're a soft rock band now, so... deal with it," commented vocalist Geordie Gordon while introducing this new-ish mid-tempo number. It was said tongue-in-cheek, but there's more than a sliver of truth in there when you consider how the band's newer material is different from their older disco-fied stuff. Still, they can turn up the groove switch when they want, even in a band configuration with some temporary fill-ins, including Lisa Conway and Mary Wood on backing vocals.