Artist: Disappears
Song: Revisiting
Recorded at The Garrison, April 15, 2012.
Disappears - RevisitingFull review to follow. Although the band impressed with the material from the new Pre-Language album, it was when they revisited this one from the previous Guider that they were at their most incendiary, with Steve Shelley compressing all of Faust IV into twelve minutes of sheer krautrock groove.
Reviews of screenings from Images Festival 2012, Toronto, Canada.
Toronto's festival of "experimental and independent moving image culture" has now been at the cutting edge for twenty-five years. Screenings continue at Jackman Hall until April 21.
The Nine Muses / Dir: John Akomfrah (2011, 94 min, HDCAM, UK)
You are alone when you arrive. In a cold place of forbidding beauty, you are colourful and stand out against the bleak landscape.
John Akomfrah's film presents us with a series of vivid tableaux — figures in bright parkas, their backs to the camera, looking over a series of desolate (yet beautiful) Alaskan landscapes. Their presence invokes a feeling of dislocated timelessness.
That alternates with a collage of stock footage presenting the immigrant experience to England in the 50's and 60's, and as the film progresses, we come to understand Akomfrah's metaphorical intent — each of those immigrants arrived feeling cold and alone, prominently colourful in a bleak place.
Uniting the two visual streams is the audio, drawn from readings of "great works" of the Western canon, with the notion of the epic heroic quest — Telemachus sailing to find his father; Dante descending into the Inferno — as our map to the immigrants' odysseys, framed through a delineation of the classic nine muses.
A lyric and metaphor-rich film then — a journey to be experienced rather than a narrative expression. As such, the viewer needs to be willing to sink into it and drift along. It's largely rewarding on that level and immersive enough to justify its running time. There were a couple points where I felt like the film could have been tightened up but on the whole Akomfrah, who has been making films since the 80's, is confidently in control of his diverse elements, weaving together the historical and mythical in order to have them illuminate each other.
The screening was enriched with a very perceptive Q + A session hosted by Cameron Bailey. It was a treat to hear Akomfrah talk about his methods and goals, showing a keen perception into his own work. A very good opening for the festival.
Images 25th Anniversary 1988 Screening Part 1 [shorts programme]
As part of their twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations, Images is looking back to the first iteration of the festival, asking some of the people who put that together to re-present some selections from 1988. This programme brought together three of those entries.
Last Days of Contrition (Dir: Richard Kerr. 1987, 35 min, 16mm, Canada) loomed over this group, not just in having the longest running time, but also in its bold, nearly harsh, presentation. It was introduced by Cameron Bailey who situated the film as a part of an ongoing dialogue at the time about gender representations in the stylistic approach of non-narrative film — and this work is most definitely "male" in its aggressive signifiers. Hitting with the force of an air-raid siren, Last Days redeploys footage from a road trip across America as an investigation into Regan-era imperialism. Swirling desert shots imply the vertigo of dislocated confusion as they are layered over other vistas. Meanwhile, found sounds create a harsh sonic terrain. In the end, the travelogue becomes unravelled into a blur of warnoise and fragmentary images. Deliberately pummeling, it was a bit hard to take at times, but I could see how this would have left an impact in Bailey's mind a quarter-century later.
On the other hand Sirensong (Dir: Jan Peacock. 1987, 8 min, Video, Canada) was soft-edged and suggestive, drifting from the banal (footage of washing dishes bookends the piece) into the associative drift of memory. This also contains elements of a travelogue — and even some similar desert terrain — but it evokes less a sense of place than a feeling of memory. The passage of time has also provided an extra layer of nostalgia to this work, as the warm fuzziness of videotape now joyfully shouts "1988!" at the viewer. Nicely done at a technical level, with some very smart transitions informing its sense of drift — this is recommended viewing to anyone making a music video on VHS (and I've seen no few examples of this in the past year or so) in order to evoke just this sort of memoryhaze.
With its old-school cut-and-paste technique, Orientation Express (Dir: Frances Leeming, 1988, 15 min, 16mm, Canada) felt less bound to its exact moment of production. Employing a cut-out animation technique reminiscent of Monty Python-era Terry Gilliam, this was a giddy joyride that compressed its running time into an express train trip across the terrain of pop culture. Cheeky feminist fun that appropriates ads and other images of "the good life" (suburban style) and gives them a twist to hint at what lurks underneath. Wonderful stuff.
These selections from 1988 were really worth seeing. In that regard, do take note that there is a second programme of curated selections from that first festival running on Thursday night (April 19) at 9 p.m. And, even more intriguingly, the festival has put the bulk of the material that was shown at the first Images Festival online: you can stream them on the "iFpod" at the Images website.
Artist: Anagram
Songs: Try Not to Look Surprised + That's a Wrap
Recorded at The Silver Dollar Room, April 13, 2012.
Anagram - Try Not to Look Surprised
Full review to follow. They crammed 'em in to the Dollar as tight as they'd fit to send off Anagram in style. In return, the band essentially played two sets, one focused on their older material, featuring a guest turn from Christoper Sandes on keyb, and the second focusing on their more recent songs as a lean four-piece. Otherwise, the band went out with a graceful lack of sentimentality or fanfare. And now: Anagram enters into the realm of legend.
Artist: Damon & Naomi
Song: Helsinki
Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, May 25, 2011.
Damon & Naomi - HelsinkiMy notes for this set can be found here.
Artist: Amor de Días
Songs: New Wine + Late Mornings
Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, May 25, 2011.
My notes for this set can be found here.
Damon & Naomi (Amor de Días)
The Horseshoe Tavern. Wednesday, May 25, 2011.
The evening's rain swept in earlier than expected, and with it a chill in the air. That kept me from walking, and I was forced to watch the inky eveninglight slump over the day through the streetcar window. The city looked abandoned.
Those hiding from the rain weren't doing it at the 'Shoe, which was also eerily empty as I made my way in. Not even music playing on the PA, so I could hear rainwater — I hoped — rushing through the overhead pipes. The room smelled like a wet sock that had been tossed onto a radiator.
Off to the side by the merch table, I could hear Alasdair MacLean chatting with earlybirds dropping by to grab records. As someone who generally rolls their eyes at the whole idea of "branding", this was a sobering reminder of just how much value there is in a band name: the last time MacLean passed through town, fronting The Clientele, he was playing to a full house. Now, with Amor de Días — his new project with Lupe Núñez-Fernández1 — he was the opening act at a show playing to a couple dozen people.
In fact, this would be the quietest show and the quietest crowd I'd ever witnessed at the 'Shoe. And at the very least, if there was going to be a small crowd, I was glad that it seemed as if every person who showed up was here to listen. As the set started, I was leaning against the pole on the left side of the dancefloor as MacLean invited people to move up. Soon, there were a few folks moving their chairs onto the dancefloor as the band — joined on stage by Heather McIntosh on cello — led with the mostly instrumental "Foxes' Song".
Amor de Días' album is a spare, wispy thing, and live, it was even moreso, presented without the quiet rhythm tracks and additional textures from a bevy of guest musicians. Instead, there was mostly just two voices singing softly together, acoustic guitar and the low notes of the cello to craft the simple beauty of "Dream (Dead Hands)".
Before "Harvest Time", previously released on The Clientele's Bonfires on the Heath, Alasdair commented, "You may recognize this as a song by another band I was in. [beat] It's a song by Depeche Mode." Jokes aside (and the slightly painful finality of his use of the past tense to describe The Clientele), it turns out, that the song was indeed originally recorded for this project, and subsequently repurposed for The Clientele. Its country meadow vibe and pre-industrial sensibility ("everything here has a place and a time / we're only passing by") evokes a sense of nature existing as something larger than us, here before and after us — a notion far from the suburban light.
But it's important to note that this is not just a songwriting project for MacLean, but very much a partnership. And it's the contrasting textures of Núñez-Fernández's songs that really set this apart, moving things from MacLean's heath-rambles to the gentle bossa nova of "Late Mornings". There's a common ground in the two approaches, mostly in the shared fragility and spaciousness of the songs, and room for the two voices to gently rub up against each other.
Except for "New Wine", the setlist would mostly stick to the material from the album — they even chose to tackle some of the more abstract stuff, like Núñez-Fernández's "Birds", which did employ a quiet electronic backing track.
The forty-five minute set closed with "Wild Winter Trees". The whole thing was quite wonderful and entrancing — the only thing was lacking was a crackling fireplace and a window with a view over glen and vale.
I posted a song here right after this show, but now I've also added some more here.
As the between-set turnover ended, I wandered back from the front bar to find that someone had taken my spot by the post — but there was an invitingly empty chair on the dancefloor for me to claim. This would turn out to be an excellent set to be seated for. Truth be told, I was more here for the openers than Damon & Naomi, a band that I had always casually appreciated, but had never really explored in depth.
The product of the longstanding partnership between Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang2, this former rhythm section now specializes in a sleepy and decidedly less-rhythmical folk-rock. This duo — with Yang on keyboards and Krukowski on acoustic guitar — also had an extra member at hand to fill out their sound, and the slightly soft-rockish vibe from Bhob Rainey's saxophone fit right into the music's defiant limpidity.
They started by featuring songs from their then-new False Beats And True Hearts, but did find time to spotlight material from a catalogue now eight albums deep. From Within These Walls3 there was the advanced downerism of "Lilac Land", which gives off a little hint of "Hey You", after a couple valiums. And in the absence of Ghost guitarist Michio Kurihara4, Alasdair MacLean pitched in on electric guitar for "Ueno Station", which was about as loud as the set got, as well as the quieter new "Nettles and Ivy" ("nettles and ivy / twisting until they die").
As the band played the quietly swirling "Helsinki", it was, somehow appropriately, eerily cold and silent in the room. I could occasionally hear the clack of someone playing pool out in the front bar, but otherwise, nothing. The band did ramp things up at the finish, as all three members of Amor de Días came on stage to pitch in on an extra Gram Parsons-y version of the Rolling Stones' "Shine a Light", with Krukowski noting, "this is as rock'n'roll as we get," while commenting on feeling the vibes of country music past in the Horseshoe's walls. Encore "Turn of the Century" (from 2002's Song to the Siren) closed out a rather satisfying hour.
Listen to a track from this set here.
It was an excellent night, and the quiet spaciousness in the room made it even better — this exact same show would have been awful in a packed, chatty room. Yet, I worry about the economic viability of artists tromping around the country (and across oceans) if they're playing to crowds like this. Still, I did what I could, and went and bought a disc from MacLean, shook his hand and thanked him for coming. Hopefully these deliberately low-key bands will garner more attention when they make their way back.
1Núñez-Fernández is also one-half of Pipas.
2 It's probably obligatory to add "formerly of Galaxie 500" after their names even though, by this point, they've now spent far more time overall just being Damon & Naomi.
3 Speaking of Within These Walls, the band showed a pretty advanced sense of self-awareness and ability to laugh at their own mordancy:
Damon: The darkest album of our dark careers...
[someone in the crowd "woos"]
Damon: ...we gave ourselves a challenge... to make it even sadder. Y'know: "that's sad, but how sad can you go?"
Naomi: ...and how slow also...
Damon: Yeah, 'cause people think we're slow and sad, but, y'know, to us, we're just normal. So we thought, "what if we were slow and sad to us?" Where would that end up?
Naomi: We horrified ourselves.
Damon: Yeah, so that's that album. Anyway, pick up a copy on your way out!
4 Kurihara, who has been collaborating with Yang and Krukowski since 2000's With Ghost, had originally been slated to complete the band on this tour, but visa problems had kept him from making the trip to North America.
Artist: HVYWTR
Song: Dirty Tricks
Recorded at Double Double Land, April 12, 2012.
HVYWTR - Dirty TricksFull review to follow. VC + WG (who started exploring this terrain in The Deeep) are pushing further down into zones where the pressure changes liquid into something harder than steel — now ain't that a groove.
2012 Images Festival
Toronto. April 12-21, 2012.
So — this year, I'm going to be leaping in to the Images Festival, Toronto's celebration of "experimental and independent moving image culture". I'm admittedly no expert, but going through the listings, here's some of the offerings that intrigue me the most.
Music
Admittedly, I'm a bit more comfortable in advocating things on stage than on screen, let's start with some of this year's bumper crop of musical offerings.
Live Images - Lucky Dragons + Tristan Perich + Lesley Flanigan + Abstract Random
Friday, April 13. Images at 204 (204 Spadina Av.)
The Wavelength Music Series — itself named after a seminal work of local experimental film — has long collaborated with Images, including last year's presentation of Fucked Up soundtracking silent film West of Zanzibar. But with WL's Jonny Dovercourt now in the Images fold, that has kicked up a notch, and the Wavelength crew are taking full advantage of Images at 204, the festival's pop-up hub.
The kick-off party on Friday (April 13) does a nice job of melding together a lot of "experimental" and visual elements alongside the music. Headliners Lucky Dragons are constantly finding new generative principles to include the audience in their music-making process — completely magical when it works well. Tristan Perich and Lesley Flanigan are also bringing new means of electronic music production, for what sounds like an immersive experience.1 And Abstract Random bring enormous energy and positivity in pushing hip-hop forward toward a bolder frontier.2
Live Images - The Third Man by Erik Bünger (plus Steve Kado and Jodie Mack)
Wednesday, April 18. Images at 204 (204 Spadina Av.)
It's been a while since I've heard a rant from Steve Kado, so his appearance here (examining "the question of why the moving image has remained essentially unchanged since its introduction in the late 19th century") should be some interesting combination of awkward and though-provoking. He'll be presenting before the main event, where Erik Bünger "provides a narrative journey through the haunting and infectious character of popular music and its effect on the contemporary psyche". I'm not entirely sure what that's going to entail, but given that it's jumping-off point is The Third Man, I'm hoping it involves zither.
Live Images - Yo La Tengo presents: The Sounds of Science
Saturday, April 21. Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Av.)
A true treat to close out the festival, with the seminal American rock trio performing a live score to Jean Painlevé's classic avant-garde underwater cinematography. Eschewing pop structure for watery flow, the band's music is ambient but never alienating.
As a magnificent bonus, Chris Cummings (who knows a thing or two about experimental cinema) will open the night in the guise of tuxedo-clad crooner Mantler. A not-to-be-missed show.
Film
To be honest, I really think one method here is simply to look in your datebook, see which evening you're free, and head down to Jackman Hall at the AGO. Get non-linear with it! Full screen listings are here — but these are some of the screenings that I'm going to try and get down to.
The Nine Muses Dir: John Akomfrah (2011, 94 min, HDCAM, UK)
The Royal, April 12, 6:45pm
The opening night selection sounds like a non-narrative essay film more than a traditional documentary, using sonic collage and static images instead of narrative structure to investigate the idea of "immigration."
As Afterwards the Image Still Rings [shorts programme]
Jackman Hall, April 14, 5:00pm
Pure visual experimentalism, like Björn Kämmerer's Turret ("a widescreen rotating arrangement of undulating vertical lines") or Lucy Raven's 10Hz ("composed of projection test patterns and calibration charts"). This is the stuff that a lot of people associate with experimental cinema, so why not embrace it? Lean back, slow your brain down, and try to perceive. All things told, any one of the several shorts programmes is arguably a good way to get your feet wet.
The Observers Dir: Jacqueline Goss (2011, 67 min, Video, USA)
Jackman Hall, April 14, 7:30pm
El árbol de las fresas (The Strawberry Tree) Dir: Simone Rapisarda Casanova (2011, 71 min, Video, Canada)
Jackman Hall, April 20, 7:00pm
Two films that both appear to toy with the conventions of documentary convention, simultaneously telling their subjects' stories while problematizing for us, as viewers, the nature of that presentation. The Observers "skirt[s] the border between the real and the re-enacted" at Mount Washington Weather Observatory, while in The Strawberry Tree "the subjects often address the camera directly and even tease the filmmaker", subverting the very idea of the passive, observed subject.
Two Years at Sea Dir: Ben Rivers (2012, 86 min, 35mm, UK)
Jackman Hall, April 15, 9:00pm
This one looks to be immersive while simultaneously calling attention to its own means of production, with hand processed 16mm footage blown up to 35mm, creating "a grainy uneven shimmering quality": a texture meant to embody the landscape it's presenting.
1 And of the outside-the-theatre programming, I'm hoping to get down to see Tristan Perich's "Microtonal Wall" (at InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, 9 Ossington Av.), with 1,500 miniature speakers each emitting a unique note.
2 The Wavelength crew will also be taking over the venue on Friday, April 27th for a spectacle of weird pop including Kontravoid, Rat Tail, Mausoleum & Sexy Merlin.
Artist: Jennifer Castle
Song: Way of the Crow
Recorded at Soundscapes, May 24, 2011.
Jennifer Castle - Way of the CrowMy notes for this set can be found here.
Jennifer Castle
Soundscapes. Tuesday, May 24, 2011.
There was the evening's honest sunlight and poetry in the air as I tromped down Grace to head to Soundscapes, lightness in my heart and broken lightbulbs on the sidewalk. Altogether perfect for an acoustic mini-set from Jennifer Castle, whose music also mixes sweet spirit and dark soul-murmurs.
In the flesh, mind you, she always seems bright and cheery, until she lays her hands on her guitar, closes her eyes and starts channelling something. Before she could get down to it, however, while a friend brought up a bouquet of lilacs to set at the foot of her chair she went over to the cash register to borrow a copy of her own album to have something to use as a setlist.
This would be a solo set on electric guitar, used to pick out a spare backdrop for her songs. Castle's playing can be very minimal, but an occasional flourish would occasionally remind that the paring down is a deliberate choice, and never a result of ability's limitations. As I've seen her do before, Castle moved through the set in mini-suites, leading with "Way of the Crow" seguing through four more titles before stopping to let the crowd respond with applause.
And then another burst of songs. Eyes closed, Castle manages to give the impression of disciplined restraint and instinctive sensuousness at the same time, and maybe in the murky flow from song to song there's an undertone that all these dualities — cheerful singer/grim troubadour; technique/improvised drift; the joy of love/a hurting heart — are cheap perceptual constructions. She's looked at clouds from both sides now.
Most of the songs would be from the excellent Castlemusic album that this set was celebrating, including "Misguided" — which I don't think I'd heard live before. "For My Friends", a high point from the older You Can't Take Anyone also found its way in there. And then a pause to slip on her capo and chat for a moment before diving back in a new key with the evocative "Powers", and then playing the unreleased "Sailing Away" (and its instrumental counterpart) she'd played at her Horseshoe gig.
Dank bar or cheery store, porch or leafy park, Castle brings an earthy sense of intimacy. The songs evoke both loneliness and self-reliance alongside the ease given by small comforts: a bouquet of flowers, a quick laugh or a bottle of wine ("lord send me laughter / and honey don't be long with my drink"). And of course, the comfort brought by sharing a song with a bunch of friends.
Listen to a song from this set here.
Artist: Crystal Stilts
Song: Silver Sun
Recorded at Sneaky Dee's, May 22, 2011.
Crystal Stilts - Silver SunMy notes for this set can be found here.
Artist: Actual Water
Song: Brighton
Recorded at Sneaky Dee's, May 22, 2011.
Actual Water - BrightonMy notes for this set can be found here.
Artist: Les Fräuleins
Song: unknown*
Recorded at Sneaky Dee's, May 22, 2011.
Les Fräuleins - unknownMy notes for this set can be found here.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Crystal Stilts (Actual Water / Les Fräuleins)
Sneaky Dee's. Sunday, May 22, 2011.
It's sorta interesting that two-piece bands, even when — or especially when — playing minimalist/abrasive music, tend to counter that with a strict visual sensibility.1 I don't know if the stripped-down rigour of the two piece corresponds with design-school aspirations, but Les Fräuleins certainly felt conceptually mulled-over, and their visual presentation was one of their more distinct elements. Setting up, there was as much time dedicated to their fluorescent lights as there were to their guitars, and though some were laid flat on the stage floor, they also had some that were set into repurposed guitar cases, opened up and leaning against the gear on stage.
Also playing together in the more shoegaze-y Beliefs, Patrick McCormack2 and Jesse Crowe bring a low-slung minimal churn to this side project, mostly composed of two guitars, ipod drum tracks and a lot of volume. Drum machine-era JAMC, a less pop-inclined Raveonettes or a de-psychedelicized Moon Duo come to mind here. McCormack (who sang as well throughout) switched to a bass for a few songs, though that didn't actually change the overall sound very much.
The songs traded in a sort of numbing regularity, which is probably not a universal selling point, but can be pretty compelling when they get in the right groove. I got the feeling that this is a bit of a pleasant diversion for the pair, given that they were selling their records on a PWYC basis and their main online presence seems to be a semi-abandoned myspace profile. But so far as I know, they are still a going concern and are worth checking out.
Listen to a track from this set here.
The "flower punk with no lack of heaviosity" of Actual Water had really clicked with me the first time I saw 'em, and their alchemy of pop structure and buzzing noise felt like a world-beater.3 As so often happens, tactical moves seemed to drag momentum down a bit, and there was a longer-than-expected post-release gestation for their The Paisley Orchard album. Originally self-released in 2010, it was picked up by Unfamiliar, leaving the album in a bit of limbo prior to its wider re-release in 2012.4
But at this moment, the band were powerfully possessing the songs and the hard-edged 12-string sound, leading off their set with a version of "The Situation" that was notably cleaner and less-distorted than the album version, revealing the jangly sock-hopper underneath. If it weren't for singer Tony Price's 12-string work, this song would be a lot like, say, White Wires.
That said, after the first couple songs, Price picked up the 6-string as the band tackled both sides of their "She's a Priest"/"Latoya" single, and switching out the Rickenbacker didn't radically change the band's sound. These ones are a bit more overt in borrowing from punk's velocity and no-frills arrangements — perhaps owing to the influence of producer Ben Cook — but most of the band's songs are still done in well under three minutes.
The band was really firing on all cylinders for this set, hitting just the right tone of jagged imperfection and rock'n'roll joy, and getting a little noisier on "Pencil-Legged" and "Caroline Ave.", a couple numbers from 2008's Double Negatives, and after that the awesome la-la-la-la-la-la chorus of "Brighton" encapsulated pretty much everything excellent about this band.
it's reductive to just call them jangle-pop revivalists, cut as that is with so much more, like closer "Vari Baby"'s 80's power pop-isms. It's probably more on point to think that the specific musical signifiers they're playing with here — like the casual but carefully-curated JD look of their blazers, leather jackets and boots — aren't the core of what they do so much as one of a series of experiments in pop production. Given the amount of time they've been playing behind this material, it's no surprise that in more recent shows the band is moving beyond the 12-string sound that was at its height here. It wouldn't be surprising to see them re-emerge in another guise altogether.
Listen to a track from this set here.
I had last seen Crystal Stilts in 2008, in what I thought was a so-so performance that didn't measure up to their debut album. This would turn out to be the inverse of that show, as I came in less-enamoured with follow-up album In Love with Oblivion, but a superb performance would give me the impetus to revisit it and realize its strengths.
There was a different drummer than last time around, but he was still employing a stand-up kit.5 The band was also obscured by flickering, abstract-y projections, which went well with their amped-up psychedelic haze-punk.
They started off, like the album, with a rising overture of sorts leading into "Sycamore Tree", with JB Townsend's guitar line rubbing against Kyle Forester's keyboards which added some cosmic trippiness to counter the jittery flinching around it. And at the centre of it all was vocalist Brad Hargett and his baritone croon, intoning, "I want to know why!"
Hargett embodied the angry bleakness of the lyrics — look at that album title again — looking mostly undemonstrative in a tightly collared jacket, zipped all the way up. A slightly discomfiting look, Hargett appeared like a houseguest that comes in but won't take off his coat and won't sit down, looming over the hosts and standing around the living room rambling on about graveyards.
As Hargett cycled through various shades of apparent disinterest in the proceedings around him, the task of bantering with the crowd was handled by keyboard player Forester, who spent some time asking the crowd about the nature of the May long weekend. In turn, the dancefloor was quite packed in up front with a very into-it, dance-y crowd.
After "Through the Floor", the band dipped back to debut full-length Alight of Night for "Crystal Stilts", which came off much more sprightly without all the layers of reverb-y murk that are on the recorded version, though it was still opaque enough to illustrate lyrical sentiments like "we're courting dreams / we're snorting dreams / distorting dreams".
I rather dug "Silver Sun", which had some of the same implied jangle that Actual Water had brought to the table. But here, that was one ingredient mushed together with a crushed-up valium and, say, an early Chills vibe. And after the rather-excellent "Shake the Shackles", I realized that this set was just getting better and better — they were playing with the dialed-in-ness of a band at the end of a long tour. Main set closer "Prometheus at Large" stretched out a bit, and "Blood Barons" in the encore had a punk floyd sort of breakdown.
Live, the music all comes together as a razor-sharp, stripped-down coiled psychedelia. Quick songs with downer lyrics — even "Love is a Wave", which sounds like it might offer some sunny sentiments, doesn't: "Love is a wave / Hate is included / Sometimes my angels may feel prostituted". So even if the band were a little static on stage, it was riveting stuff, and an excellent set.
Right after the show I posted a track here — and now you can also check out another one here.
1 The red and white aesthetic of The White Stripes is the obvious example here, but closer to home, there's also the meticulous layout of Japandroids' releases that run counter to their unkempt freedom rock (and a top-notch variety of t-shirts, to boot!) as well as the typographic fastidiousness of The Famines out of Edmonton.
2 McCormack is also in Neon Windbreaker.
3 The pop power and forward-looking retro flourishes are surely also an influence on Slim Twig in his recent return to playing with a band and increasing experimentation with pop structure.
4 The Paisley Orchard still seems unusually difficult to obtain online right now; you can sample a couple songs at their bandcamp but the whole thing seems elusive to legitimately find, though Unfamiliar claims to be working on that.
5 Frankie Rose was still in the band the last time I saw 'em. Keegan Cooke, her replacement, was also absent at this show due to border issues, with a fill-in only identified as "Shades" in his stead.
Artist: A. David MacKinnon
Song: Looking for Ambrose Small
Recorded at The Garrison (Crosswires #7), April 8, 2012.
A. David MacKinnon - Looking for Ambrose SmallFull review to follow. Dave MacKinnon (fondly remembered for his work in the FemBots) launched his "cinematic" instrumental solo album at tonight's Crosswires. I'm not sure what imaginary film he had in mind, but this one sounds like it should go with M. Hulot out on a nostalgic stroll — and then breaking out into a little dance.
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