Monday Roundup #143

Community notes:

• The Music Gallery's X Avant Festival is this week — long-serving as the unofficial end of summer/gateway into fall for the local musical calendar, this year's edition offers three nights of music that will definitely help to reconcile you to the sudden transition to long pants weather. And while you definitely can't go wrong at 918 Bathurst with Germaine Liu's candy-coated percussion party (Wednesday) or Yes No Wave's celebration of Indonesian experimental electronic music (Friday), I'm going to give myself a shout-out here and strongly recommend you do not miss Thursday's off-site shoestravaganza at the Bata Shoe Museum, which, somehow, I was invited to curate. There will be nine musicians performing, with the first half seeing acoustic solos/duos/trios spread throughout the galleries and the second half seeing a large-scale, electronically-processed collaborative set. It's really looking like a fun night!
  Meanwhile, besides the musical programming, Sunday sees "nerds are punk too", a "community roundtable discussion dedicated to breaking, building and dreaming" and making and holding spaces to create culture in these fractured times.

• Meanwhile, there's plenty going on otherwise, including Concrete Cabaret's Objecto Festival, taking over The Tranzac this weekend with two nights of experimental cabaret, with avant-puppetry and other artforms, plus music by Ronley Teper and the Lipliners!

• Also, AMBiENT PiNG's live community drone event DRONE:KLUB returns Thursday to the Long & McQuade Clinic Hall. All are welcome to participate in or experience the drones!

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Concert announcements:

Marilyn Lerner presents: Special Appearances #2 (feat. Marilyn Lerner/Brodie West/Mike Milligan) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-17 (Tuesday). $pwyc.

Pulling at Seams ["an interdisciplinary night of new artistic works and will include the screenings of a short film and music video, poetry, live music and performance art"] (feat. Subhanya Sivajothy / Parade [Stefan Hegerat/Chris Pruden/Laura Swankey] / Animacy Theatre Collective) / Burdock Music Hall 2023-10-20 (Friday). $15 advance/$20 door. [FB event]

Art of Improv (feat. Bruce Cassidy/Kye Marshall/Eugene Martynec/Bill Gilliam) / Annette Studios 2023-10-27 (Friday). $20 / pwyc. [FB event]

Bloop [Lina Allemano Trumpet & Mike Smith] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-29 (Sunday – early). $pwyc.

Splendid Industries Presents: The Gloom Sessions (feat. Danny Sheahan / Paul Geldart / Piers Oolvai / Toys 'n' Dreb) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-29 (Sunday) [FB event]

Hot Garbage / Houndstooth 2023-10-31 (Tuesday). $no cover, 19+. [FB event]

Nick Fraser Presents: Lina Halloweena [celebrating Lumo Records' 20th Anniversary!] (feat. Lina Allemano Four / Titanium Riot) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-31 (Tuesday). $pwyc

Charlotte Cornfield [Could Have Done Anything LP release celebration!] (Sister Ray) / The Great Hall 2023-11-02 (Thursday). $24.68, 19+. [FB event]

Pony Girl [LP release!] (Elrichman / bUDi) / Monarch Tavern 2023-11-03 (Friday). $14.50 advance, 19+. [FB event]

Freesound Presents: Patterns in a Chromatic Field [performing Morton Feldman’s hour-long "Patterns in a Chromatic Field" (1981) for cello and piano] (feat. Amahl Arulanandam/Wesley Shen) / Array Space 2024-02-29 & 2024-03-01 (Thursday & Friday). [FB event]

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

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Shows this week:

Dun-Dun Land, Night 12 (feat. Dun-Dun Man / DUTCH) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-10 (Tuesday – early). $pwyc. [more info]

a Josh Cole Quartet [Josh Cole/Nick Storring/Blake Howard with Lina Allemano] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-10 (Tuesday) [FB event]

Brodie West presents (feat. Donna Lee Quartet) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-11 (Wednesday – early)

X Avant XVIII: Neeeerrrrddddssss: so what do you think? (feat. Germaine Liu/Fahmid Nibesh/Raphael Roter/Mark Zurawinski / Christopher Willes & Akash Bansal's "Six Turntables") / The Music Gallery 2023-10-11 (Wednesday). $17.03, all ages. [FB event]

Never Was [Joe Sorbara/Brandon Davis/Madeleine Ertel/Kelvin Mansaray/Patrick O'Reilly] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-11 (Wednesday). $pwyc.

X Avant XVIII: Neeeerrrrddddssss: shoe horn (feat. Tegan Dietsch / Lina Allemano / Why Be Normal [%%30%30 & James Bailey] / Yang Chen / Tom Richards / Annie Elgie / Leucrocuta / Hex-A-Decimal) / Bata Shoe Museum 2023-10-12 (Thursday). $22.20, all ages. [FB event]

Behaviours I: Interfaces [curated by Zoma Maduekwe, featuring "artist-musicians who boldly integrate digital technology and interactivity into musical production and performance"] (feat. Danny Shaddick / Jason Doell / Aida Khorsdandi) / Array Space 2023-10-12 (Thursday). $20.00 (or PWYW), livestream available. [more info]

X Avant XVIII: Neeeerrrrddddssss: and i was like woah! (feat. Gabber Modus Operandi / Rani Jambak / J. “Mo’ong” Santoso Pribadi / Wok The Rock / Aki Onda / Natasha Tontey / Riar Rizaldi) / The Music Gallery 2023-10-13 (Friday). $17.03, all ages. [FB event]

Audiopollination (feat. Lucas Temor/David Parker/Kye / yasmine/Diane Roblin/marilyn yogarajah / Ryan Kinney/Andrew Finlay Stewart/Nirvana Sagar / Mickle 32/Sonia Leung) / Array Space 2023-10-13 (Friday). $10 (cash or card). [FB event]

Musica Universalis (feat. Colin Fisher Trio [Colin Fisher/Josh Cole/Jeff Luciani]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2023-10-13 (Friday). $pwyc, suggested $10.

Freesound presents: Shadow Mudras (feat. Ken Ueno/Karen Yu with Jason Doell) / Array Space 2023-10-15 (Sunday) [FB event]

Happy Sundays (feat. Constant Smiles / Fortunato Durutti Marinetti / Merival) / The Baby G 2023-10-15 (Sunday). $free, 19+. [FB event]

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It happened this week...

• ...on October 12, 2010 at The Great Hall.

Dan Deacon - Wham City

• ...on October 14, 2010 at Stone's Place.

Tomboyfriend - Skank

[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.]

Sunday Playlist #18

Sunday Playlist #18

Alex Lukashevsky - Downhill is Downtown

Sean Nicholas Savage - Grandson

Great Lake Swimmers - Moving Pictures, Silent Films

Giant Hand - Catacombs

Tomboyfriend - Margaux

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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: Tomboyfriend

Artist: Tomboyfriend

Song: Hardboiled Wonderland

Recorded at MFA Party, Stone's Place, October 14, 2010.

Tomboyfriend - Hardboiled Wonderland

My notes for this set can be found here.

Art Event: MFA Party

Sheila Heti presenting How Should a Person Be? / Margaux Williamson presenting Teenager Hamlet / Tomboyfriend presenting Don't Go to School

Stone's Place. Thursday, October 14, 2010.

Declaring the completion of their respective long-gestating projects to be their matriculation from a DIY art school where they used each other as teachers and subjects, this was a triple-headed project launch party. The night was being held at Stone's Place, a Rolling Stones-themed pub in Parkdale. I'd never been inside before, and truth be told I'd always assumed it was for people who wanted something less edgy than, say, the Cadillac Lounge across the street — to say nothing of Wrongbar a couple doors down. And maybe it is, but it was actually rather cozy inside, with lots of couches gathered into intimate zones. Perhaps a bit decentralized for an event where you'd want everyone to pay attention to the stage, but well-suited for a crowd that was decidedly on the familiar-with-each-other side.

I found a couch to sit on against a wall perpendicular to the stage, which was comfortable enough, but poorly situated relative to the blinking lights flashing directly at the wall behind. I pondered whether my grand mal seizure would be an awkward bringing-people-together moment, and got back up to wander around amongst local celebs (and semi-celebs) that I recognized as people that maybe I should accost and start conversations with, though my will to mingle was not, on this night, particularly strong.

In between rock'n'roll oldies playing over the house system, Misha Glouberman, MC-ing in his inimitable style, stepped up to the stage to announce that things would not be starting on time but, in fact, at some subsequent time. No problem for the bulk of the chatty crowd on hand, which skewed older and, natch, artsy-ish — the sort of scene where people can be overheard talking about their "projects". And while it was getting crowded along the bar, there was also more than a few people in sight killing time by reading a book.

Once things got going, the night was presented in a two-part format — first a chance for each of the artists to present a sample of their work to the crowd; and then, after a break, a full set from Tomboyfriend. Margaux Williamson led off, showing a short clip from her movie Teenager Hamlet. In this situation, it was harder to get a grip on what the whole thing might be like, though even in what we saw the night's hallmarks of collaborative DIY self-referentiality were on display.

That was followed by Sheila Heti reading from the beginning of her novel How Should a Person Be? It sounded like a good ride, and though based in a version of her own actuality, also not entirely unlike the fables of her Middle Stories. Perhaps it's that in both her voice comes through so strongly — which I mean literally: I've heard Heti reading before, and after the fact could hear her as I read her work, almost as if it were an audiobook. I haven't tackled the novel yet, but do look forward to it.

And then a one-song sample from Ryan Kamstra's Tomboyfriend, playing "Almost/Always", one of the more wordy/literary songs from their album Don't Go to School. And then a break to mingle and cruise the merch table and consider what had just gone down.

The most striking thing about all these works of art is how closely intertwined they are. From Heti's reading: "Margaux complements me in interesting ways: she paints my picture and I record what she is saying. We do whatever we can to make the other one famous." These cross-connections go all the way around — Kamstra is in both the book and movie, while he in return writes songs about his friends. I'm sure far more thoughtful people than myself have put more thought into this, but I found myself musing on what it means for the glamourous people to gain that status by virtue of self-declaration and what the boundaries are between mutual reinforcement and mutual masturbation, and between creating mythologies and telling in-jokes. Handicapping the merch race, it looked like the book was winning — though it was also the bulkiest and hardest to conceal on one's person.

And then, once the band started getting ready, I looked upon the awkwardly-shaped stage (long and narrow, presenting the short front to the dance floor) and had a momentary Seeing Things-like vision of mediocre Stones cover bands cranking out rehashed Keef riffs. The crowd was a little thinner now — obviously some people didn't stick around to rock'n'roll, but there were plenty of vocal supporters on hand.

Showing a sense of occasion, bandmembers were celebrating the "don't go to school" theme, sporting uniforms marred by various school supply impalements.¹ The choir, who would join the band on several songs were wearing graduation gowns. For the full set, the band led off slowly with "Romantic Shut In", just Kamstra accompanied by Sholem Krishtalka's piano and backing vocals, and then flipping to the other pole of the band's sound with the scrappy glam of "The Swan". Kamstra's musical vision is based in a synthesis of some disparate elements — the sexual chug of rock'n'roll against the narrative scope of showtunes, to name a couple.² That murky mix reflects the fundamental ambiguities of sexuality and identity that Kamstra is expressing in his lyrics, blown up larger-than-life with his theatrical (and sometimes wilfully over-the-top) delivery.

Theatrical, too, in the sense of putting on a show. During "Hardboiled Wonderland" Kamstra took to the floor and danced like he was auditioning for an old-fashioned burlesque act. "I'm getting a little more comfortable with you," he said after, undoing his shirt to reveal a training bra underneath. The band, meanwhile, was getting into the giddy fun of it all, but definitely keeping things grounded with their solid playing. As I'd suspected after seeing them play some of these songs at an "open rehearsal", things were held together a lot more with a steady backbeat. Meanwhile Krishtalka and noted illustrator/cartographer Marlena Zuber gave vocal support as the songs lurched back and forth from cabaret to dive bar.

Now, I'm one who likes scrappy garage rock more than torch songs, so the fact that I'm more compelled by that side of band's work isn't too surprising. Thus, I'm drawn to stuff like the B-52's-on-poppers "Skank", with vocal parts passed all around and cowbell rhythms hitting on all cylinders. But I'm not blind to that other side, like the melodramatic hustler epic "Goldfinch Gluespoo", which arcs like a mini-musical. That one closed out the set, but everyone knew that there was going to be one more, and the band didn't wait long before plowing into signature song "The End of Poverty".

Afterward, Kamstra looked like he'd just played about seven periods of hockey and sweated out any evils in his system. As a communal dance experience, this was convincing — enough that one doesn't feel too bothered on the way out to fret, "but is it art?"

Check out a couple tracks from this set here and here.

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¹ I assume it's in that spirit that the album's title is mis-spelled "DON'T GO TO SCHOOOL" on the disc's spine.

² In their recorded incarnation, the band throws even more elements in the mix, including a couple flirtations with a more electronic/dancey sound, such as on the heavily autotuned "Big in Afghanistan".

Recording: Tomboyfriend

Artist: Tomboyfriend

Song: Skank

Recorded at Stone's Place, October 14, 2010.

Tomboyfriend - Skank

My notes for this set can now be found here. Review to follow — Tomboyfriend's full Length Don't Go To School is now available.

Recording: Tomboyfriend

Artist: Tomboyfriend

Song: Margaux

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 4, 2010.

Tomboyfriend - Margaux

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Tomboyfriend

Tomboyfriend

The Tranzac Club (Southern Cross Lounge). Wednesday, May 4, 2010.

Gearing up for increased visibility and summertime shows, this gig was billed by Tomboyfriend as an "open rehearsal" — a chance for the band to play some songs live in a semi-informal setting for a supportive audience with a lot of friends at hand. In the prolonged process of completing their debut long-player Don't Go To School¹ the band was showing off some of the songs from that, as well as some even newer ones, plus old faves and a couple covers tossed in to boot.

The band revolves around singer/lyricist Ryan Kamstra² but achieves liftoff with the work of a supporting cast whose numbers increased after each song. Following the mini-epic "Goldfinch Gluespoo"³ Kamstra commented, "We add more band through the evening," warning that anyone could be called upon — and the fact that members of the choir were seated throughout the room and straggled up to the front to join in on songs made it seem for a moment that anyone in the room could be impressed into service.

But at the start, it was just two voices plus Sholem Krishtalka — who would perhaps prove to be the essential force holding everything together musically — on piano. Kamstra, wearing a muscle shirt and tie, gave the impression of an accountant doing some karaoke to blow off some steam⁴, holding the microphone two-handed, elbows out, like he was about to impale himself or commit some manner of rock'n'roll harikiri. The sound was thickened a bit on "Almost/Always", now with a driving bassline and little guitar nibbles pushing the song forward. And then with the choir gathering around a microphone to dance and sing, the full expansiveness of the band's sound was more evident. The first, longer set focused on newer material, including stuff from the album and even a couple songs that are even newer — including "The Commons", which featured the "yay!"-shouting choir.

After getting through all the new material, and a quick break, there was a more relaxed attitude for the second set, starting cabaret lounge style with a couple covers, including the George Gershwin standard "The Man I Love". That was followed with Krishtalka crooning Ani DiFranco's "Not a Pretty Girl", stating, "there is nothing ironic about this cover". After a couple more numbers, the whole thing ended with a clap-along, folky version of the band's signature song "The End of Poverty".

With their theory-into-practice correctness and friends-having-fun stage attitude, there's a sense of the right boxes being checked off with this band — but there's still moments where it feels as if the whole thing hasn't quite jelled. The band is riding the fine line between ecstatic spontaneity and under-rehearsed shakiness — although that sort of thing tends to work itself out over time.⁵ The most critical thing, though, that decides if the band stands or falls is Ryan Kamstra's songwriting.

Kamstra is blessed and cursed with having knocked one out of the park on the first pitch, so to speak, with "The End of Poverty" and the immediate impression was that nothing else has quite poked at the essence in the way that song did. Besides setting the template with its singalong giddiness, the song is also word-drunk, and swollen with a certain metaness, as if crafted by a magpie snatching shiny bits from half-remembered songs and other sources.⁶ But "End of Poverty" also calls attention to itself by sticking around a bit too long — it's a brilliant three-and-a-half minute pop smash lodged into a five minute song, containing the seeds of its own hangover. That, and some of the other logocentric songs, leave the impression that what Kamstra needs more than anything else is an editor.

On the whole, it's probably not entirely fair to be too judgmental of a band playing a show billed as a "rehearsal", so let's take all of this as a sketch suggestive of the picture that's going to emerge with more performances. I'd certainly like to check them out with a drummer and everything else going on, and wait for a chance to give that album a spin.⁷

Listen to a couple songs from this set, including something older here and something newer here.

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¹ I was excited at first to think that this might have been inspired by one of the songs on one of my all-time most-beloved albums, but I am told that's merely a coincidence.

² In fact the membership has shifted considerably since their initial 3" CD two-song demo, which has been the band's only previous official release so far.

³ "They become shorter from hereon in," Kamstra assured the crowd at the song's conclusion.

⁴ This proved to be all the more apt when it turned out there was a song called "Karaoke Singer" in the band's setlist.

⁵ And in that regard I'm also looking forward to hearing this lineup play with a drummer, which'd likely be one more ingredient binding it all together.

⁶ This cut-and-paste method, also evident in some of the newer material, does manage the interesting feat of somehow coming around full circle to 70's storyteller-styled songwriting. And it should also be noted that if leaves the lyrics occasionally coming off as too abstracted/constructed, there are counter-examples where the songs are still rooted in a more immediate here-ness, such as the ballad to a friend "Margaux".

⁷ In that spirit, I note that Tomboyfriend is, in fact, playing a gig this Friday (July 9th) at Buddies in Bad Times, as part of the "Keith Cole Experience". Eight bucks gets you three bands plus the always-entertaining Keith Cole.

Recording: Tomboyfriend

Artist: Tomboyfriend

Song: The End of Poverty

Recorded at The Tranzac Club (Southern Cross Lounge), May 5, 2010.

Tomboyfriend - The End of Poverty

I suppose I should throw some music up here to break up all the film-related posts. Here's a cut from last night's Tomboyfriend "open rehearsal". It'll be a bit before I can post some thoughts on the new material — so for now, just clap along with a "folk version" of this classic cut. In the meantime, why not go visit their new website.

My notes for this set can now be found here.