THRee Year Anniversary THe Devil & Daniel Johnston Archer PrewiTT Nicolas Di Genova THe Manvils Barr
FREE
APRIL 06
This MoNTh in Ion 16 18 46 47 48
Editor’s Letter Sorry if I owe you money and good luck getting it. Of the Month Cats that cuddle when they nap, movies about a guy who got stabbed in the eye with barbed wire, games about being a gangster and The Concretes. News From Nowhere Sam Kerr’s real last name is Frey. Horoscopes ION’s in-house astrologist Ernold Sane reads the stars and all the childproof containers in your medicine cabinet. The Perry Bible Fellowship
ART 20 Nicholas Di Genova If all birds had guns for heads, it’d make hunting a lot more interesting. 22 Podcast Giving guys with blogs attention only encourages them.
FASHION 24 26 28
Haute Couture Anatomy Puma was going to get Steve McQueen to design a shoe for them. When they realized he died over 25 years ago, they got Alexander McQueen to do it instead. Christina Culver She knew she wanted to be a fashion designer at age three. When I was three, I was still on the tit. Doll Parts Fashion editorial shot by Fred Fraser.
FILM 32 The Devil and Daniel Johnston When I defaced the Statue of Liberty and attacked a member of Sonic Youth they put me in jail. When he does it they call him a genius.
MUSIC 34 38 40 42 44
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The Manvils If music doesn’t pan out, Mikey can always fall back on a career as a male model. Archer Prewitt Sof’ Boy himself talks music and comics. Barr This guy speaks a little too passionately about MySpace and Friendster. Poster Art The work of Vancouver talent Longplay. Album Reviews
Volume 4 Number 3 Issue 28 Publisher
Vanessa Leigh vanessa@ionmagazine.ca
Editor in Chief Michael Mann editor@ionmagazine.ca Arts & Culture Editor Jennifer Selk jen@ionmagazine.ca Fashion Editor Vanessa Leigh fashion@ionmagazine.ca Acting Film Editor Michael Mann film@ionmagazine.ca Music Editor Bryce Dunn bryce@ionmagazine.ca Photo Editor Fiona Garden photos@ionmagazine.ca Advertising Kelly Hassen kelly@ionmagazine.ca Claudio Rubbo claudio@ionmagazine.ca Advertising Accounts Manager Natasha Neale natasha@ionmagazine.ca Copy Editors Marisa Woo, Maha Al Farra Art Department Danny Fazio danny@ionmagazine.ca John Morrison john@ionmagazine.ca Website Andrew Bobic Intern Elim Kwok Contributing Writers: Adrian Mack, Carl Rogers, Curtis Woloschuk, Ernold Sane, Filmore Mescalito Holmes, Julie Coler, Natalie Vermeer, Remo Gisman Jr, Sam Kerr, Sarah Keenlyside, Tara Conley Contributing Photographers: Fred Fraser, Jeremy Van Nieuwkerk, Mark Maryanovich, Natalie Vermeer, Sebastian “sxp” Politowicz, Toby Marie Bannister Original Artwork & Design: Nicholas Gurewitch ION is printed 10 times a year by the ION Publishing Group. No parts of ION Magazine may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written consent from the publisher. ION welcomes submissions but accepts no responsibility for the return of unsolicited materials. The opinions expressed by writers and artists do not necessarily reflect those of ION Magazine. All content © Copyright ION Magazine 2006 Hey PR people, publicists, brand managers and label friends, send us stuff. High resolution jpegs are nifty and all but it’s no substitute for the real thing. Clothing, sneakers, liquor, video iPods (60 gig version only), CDs, vinyl, DVDs, video games, and an Xbox 360 can be sent to the address below. We’re serious about the Xbox 360. We really want one. 3rd Floor, 300 Water Street. Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 1B6 Office 604.6969.ION Fax: 604.6969.411 www.ionmagazine.ca feedback@ionmagazine.ca Cover Photo: Mark Maryanovich Model: Mikey Manville
EDITOR’S LETTER Words Michael Mann Photography Toby Marie Bannister
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All too often I hear that media doesn’t teach us anything positive. It’s strictly eye candy that’s rotting away the teeth of civilization. That changes now. Trying to get a magazine off the ground is a phenomenal way to build up your personal debt, so in honor of our three year anniversary, I’m going to teach you how to default on any outstanding debts you might have. There’s nothing worse than getting a phone call before you’re about to eat dinner from a collections agent demanding you open up the coffer and pay them. My outstanding debt was for a parking ticket I got three years ago in a city I’ll never visit again in my life. It’s only $30. $15 if I paid it promptly. It’d take me two hours to drive out there to dispute the ticket so I’m just not going to pay it and if I ever visit there again they have full permission to tow me. My logic is sound. The collections agent on the phone disagrees. He says he’ll fuck up my credit rating if I don’t pay right now. I explain to my collections agent that I won’t give my credit card number out over the phone and request all further correspondence in writing as there’s no way I can be sure he’s not just some dude who stole my mail and is now calling and asking for my credit card number. After that was said, we hit a childish impasse so I hung up on him. Which is good strategy when you’re on the phone with someone who’s telling you something you don’t want to hear. He called back fuming and starts yelling at me and threatening to call me every day until I pay him the $30. At this point it’s no longer about the money and it’s personal.
So I talk to my friend Jim. He used to work as a collections agent and gave me a few pointers. The first thing you do is request all correspondence to take place by mail. If they keep calling you, tell them you’re going to file a formal complaint with the Collections Ministry. A refusal to correspond in writing can result in the collection agent getting their license pulled. But you don’t really want to do that because no one wants anyone to lose his or her job, however bad and soul-stealing a job it is. It’s just something you say to shut them up. After you’ve shut them up you tell them you are planning on going stat bar with the debt. This isn’t what your collections agent wants to hear. The biggest strength of a collections agent is your ignorance. And you’re not supposed to know that if you go six years plus a day without paying anything or acknowledging the debt in writing, it is erased from your credit record. You can do this for any outstanding debt. However, with the bigger debts, they can garnish payment from your income tax statement. So if you ever want to go on a six year mission of self-discovery to Europe where you don’t file income tax… immediately following your graduation would be a good time to do this. But the real way to get these vultures back is to mail them 30 post-dated checks for $1 because they work for commission. And that’s what I did. So in the year 2013 when this magazine is 10 years old and there are flying cars, he’ll get to collect his fat commission of roughly $1.50. Hopefully by then the automated woman who’s calling me everyday to remind me about the debt will stop by then.
Photo Jeremy Van Nieuwkerk
ION THE PRIZE
This month ION is giving away an assortment of men’s and women’s clothing from Cult. If you could see the future, you’d see that you’re wearing Cult, which is the perfect outfit to be wearing when you’re being chased by damn dirty apes. Innovated from surf culture, at just three years old Cult is making waves the world over. With headquarters based on the Gold Coast of Australia, Cult is already taking the global surf fashion market by storm. Experience the New World Order. More info online, check out www.cultindustries.com Go to www.ionmagazine.ca and click on contests to enter. IONMAGAZINE.CA 17
Of THe MoNTh
Pets Marvin & Thomas I often wonder what a cat behaves like when it’s sleep deprived because it’ll never happen. After waking you up in the morning to feed them, they eat and immediately go back to sleep. Like really, who has a nap at 9:30 am? After that they’ll wake up, walk around the house a few times and have another nap. Wake up again to try and get you to pat them a little, then have another nap, maybe on your lap or maybe on that comfy chair in front of the TV. After Oprah they wake up and take a trip to the cat’s box which is followed by another nap. Then they’ll wake up to eat some more, play with some catnip, which gets them all stoned and then they pass out for the night. God why wasn’t I born a cat? Send your pet pictures to pet@ionmagazine.ca. If we use them we’ll give you a prize that pales in comparison to seeing your animal immortalized in print.
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DVD A History of Violence A seemingly predictable (some might go so far as to call it cliched) story about a small town everyman who becomes a media darling after killing two career criminals who try to rob his diner. Seeing him in the news and mistaking him for someone else, badder men come into town to confront our hero. Breaking up the plot and shaking these people out of their mundane lives are acts of horrific violence. Before you know it Viggo ‘Aragorn’ Mortensen is slaying mafiosos like they’re orcs. For fans of Cronenberg’s Crash there’s also some gratuitous sex to break up the monotony. Like every movie he’s done in the past 25 years, Cronenberg gets an amazing performance out of his lead Viggo but there are so many other terrific performances in this movie it’d be stupid to list them all. A History of Violence reaffirms the fact that David Cronenberg is one of the only auteurs who has any concept of what sex and violence are really like.
THREE Extremes If you are offended by things like incest, torture, murder or the food challenges on Fear Factor you might be wise to check something else out. But if seeing the visions of a trifecta of Asia’s most disturbing and ingenious directors do what they do best - shock the hell out of you - then 3 Extremes is for you. Aptly titled, this is a collection of shorts by Park ChanWook from South Korea, Takashi Miike from Japan and Fruit Chan from China. Together they form a gigantic triangle of depraved and truly shocking Asian cinema. Fruit Chan’s Dumplings will turn you off dim sum for the rest of your life. Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook’s Cut is about a sadistic game involving murdering a random little girl. The longer he hesitates the more fingers his wife loses. And finally, in Ichi The Killer director Takashi Miike’s Box, a young female writer is being haunted. Could it be by her twin sister whom she locked in a box and accidentally set her on fire when she was younger? You’ll just have to watch and find out. And you’re in luck if you can’t get enough of this stuff, the second DVD has a full-length feature of Dumplings.
Ticket GiveAway The Concretes & The Magic Numbers Courtesy of House of Blues we have tickets for The Magic Numbers show on April 24 and The Concretes show on May 17 both at Richard’s. The Magic Numbers hail from merry old England and should be no secret to you by now. They’re good time rock n roll and fully deserving all the critical acclaim they’ve received for their self-titled debut album that came out last year. The Concretes are a pop septet from Sweden on tour to promote the release of their new album In Color. They’re further proof that Europeans make better pop music than North Americans and that by the year 2012, all bands will have upwards of 15 members. People without blonde hair and blue eyes are more than welcome to attend. If you’re not fortunate enough to win you can pick up some tickets to these shows at Zulu Records and Ticketmaster.ca.
Game 25 to Life
Contributor Mark Maryanovich
Play as a cop or a gangster in this urban action shooter. This game is tough as hell as people come at you from all angles. It doesn’t start you off easy either. They drop you right into the middle of the action with cops and gang members all shooting to kill. Just when you think you got everyone, some guy on the roof of a building hits you on the head with a firebomb. Then you’re dead and you cry for a bit until you realize it doesn’t matter if you get killed because it’s only a video game. Next time take some hostages and maybe people will be a bit more hesitant to open fire on you. After you spend countless hours trying to finish the single player mode, you can go online and waste all your friends with a variety of weapons: my favorite is the sniper rifle.The kick ass hip-hop soundtrack keeps you nodding your head while picking off anyone who gets in your way. The ESRB Rating warns of mature sexual themes, strong language, use of drugs and intense violence with blood and gore. Why is it all the most offensive games are always the most fun?
Mark Maryanovich loves music. Aside from the Mannvils, who he shot for us this month, he’s also photographed the likes of Henry Rollins, Elliot Smith (RIP), and David Usher. Maryanovich likes old school methods and techniques in photography, 8x10 Polaroid instant film being his favorite, which he used with Vancouver Rock legends 54-40. He art directs music videos and films and his work can be viewed at www.maryanovich.com.
Correction The lovely hat that appeared on the cover of our March 2006 issue should have been credited to Hatheads Millinery. All the parties responsible for the mistakes were promptly sacked and we’re sorry.
IONMAGAZINE.CA 19
ART
CREATURE FEATURE NICOLAS DI GENOVA Words Jen Selk
Regardless of if they love it or hate it, a lot of people have something to say about Nicholas Di Genova’s art. His incredibly detailed, sometimes monstrous creatures are alternately fawned over and slammed. The Toronto-based artist doesn’t take the bad stuff to heart, though. He just keeps plugging along. At the moment, he’s hard at work on his first solo show for the Frederick Freiser Gallery in NYC, and he’s tinkering with a graphic novel that he promises will contain “lots of monsters, incest, and giant robot sex” though perhaps not in that order, and perhaps without his real name (understandably). ION decided to talk to the man about his work, the media, and how we “discovered” him. (‘Cause the guy’s going to blow up, and when he does, we’re totally taking credit.) Hey Nicholas. I love the pieces you sent us! Thanks for doing that. Awesome. I’m glad they went over well. I always get a tad nervous sending over images. You shouldn’t. They’re great. Speaking of which, how did you develop your style? It’s pretty interesting. I’ve been into comics, cartoons, and nature documentaries since I was old enough to open my eyes, and into drawing since I could pick up a crayon. When I was in high school I caught on to certain artists like Barry McGee, Dalek, Doze Green, Jeff Soto…. and all of a sudden it was like ‘Whoa... You can draw like this and show it in galleries?’ And that’s pretty much what got me making art. Worst thing anyone’s ever said (to your knowledge) about your work? Heh. At every show I overhear a few people saying stuff like ‘That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen’ or ‘I wouldn’t hang that on my wall if someone paid me!’ I find that stuff funny though. I’m pretty thick skinned. One time I was walking down the street with a finished canvas, and these two dudes saw me and followed me down the street yelling, ‘Hey, your shit sucks!’ That was a tad embarrassing… I was just relieved they didn’t jump me. Jerks. They’re everywhere. So what about the best thing? Best compliment. I’ve had a few moments that felt pretty good, two of my heroes are Dalek and Beck, I had the chance to meet them both over the last year, and it meant a lot to me when they said they appreciated what I was doing. The biggest compliment came two years ago though, on the opening night of my first solo show. My mom and dad drove up to see it, and my dad said it looked pretty good. He’s not much of a talker, so coming from him, that’s a pretty big compliment! You’re not exactly established, but you’re already starting to get a lot of press. Why do you think that is? To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. I guess for the same reasons I like the work – because it’s a chance to temporarily step out of reality and into another world. I was going over all of the work that I’ve done over the last few years, and my 20 IONMAGAZINE.CA
little biosphere contains over 1000 different species. Is the whole “in the public eye” thing what you always wanted? Not exactly. I have no idea what I want out of this… Just the opportunity to keep doing it and getting the chance to show it, I guess. Seeing my stuff in print feels pretty good though. I keep a copy of every review, interview and ad, and when I feel sort of worthless I read over them to cheer up. And they make my parents happy. Sometimes, when my mom reads them, she cries. I think that’s really cute. Awwww. That is cute. You know, people keep asking how I “found you.” I used to baby-sit for a kid named Nicholas Genova, and I heard he’d become an artist. Then I saw your name somewhere and thought maybe he was you. Hey, I think I’ve heard about this guy before. Something about a Nick Genova going to OCAD … Yeah. I think that’s him. Weird. Last time I saw him, he was into nature documentaries and creature-creatin’ too… Anyway. This story isn’t about me. SO. How do people tend to discover your work? People seem to find out about my work in all sorts of ways: the web, my merch, a gallery, on the street. Some people have no choice but to see my work, cause I harass them on the Internet with images! Sometimes people find the wheat paste I put up on their store and track me down… that’s not so much fun. You used to be a street artist? Five or six years ago I used to be more involved in street art culture. I’d find abandoned furniture and stuff on the street, and draw spirits leaving the objects. For example: a fridge spirit floating away from an old fridge, or plant spirits crawling out of an abandoned garden... And your web-name “mediumphobic” came out of that, right? That was your tag? Actually, I used to write the name “medium”. I liked it cause I imagined myself as a sort of spiritual medium connecting our world to the ghost world. Sadly, mediumphobic only exists because medium.com was taken when I went to register for a domain name, and I liked the ring of mediumphobic better than something like mediumart or mediumrulez. I dunno, mediumrulez sounds good to me. One last question: your work has been said to “speak to the giddy kid in us.” True? It would be nice if it was… It certainly speaks to the giddy kid in me! Catch Nicholas Di Genova in the group show Generated Habitats taking place at 2-1022 Queen Street W., Toronto, this month. Opening night is April 7th, from 7 to 10 p.m. He’s online at mediumphobic.com.
ART
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ART
Podcasting
Words Jen Selk Photography Sebastian “sxp” Politowicz If you’ve spent any time tuned into the mainstream media lately, you might have noticed a trend: they’re all talking about blogs. They’re really proud of themselves too. ‘Blogs!’ they seem to say. ‘They’re fresh! They’re hot!’ And of course, the assumption is that by tapping into them, big media becomes fresh and hot by association. And that would be true. If it were 1998. It’s 2006, however, and blogging isn’t exactly brand spankin’. Podcasting, by comparison, is. Like blogging, it enables so-called regular folk to broadcast their ideas to the world, only this time using audio files instead of angsty text. Think of it like HAM radio for the 21st Century, just a tad less geeky. As far as cultural phenomenons go, this seems important. In an effort to understand the growing trend, ION chatted with two Toronto-based podcasters – Matthew C. Brown (we’ll call him MCB) and Matthew Price (MP) - who’ve been on the bandwagon since the almost-beginning. Their co-hosted podcast is called MAMO! (The tag line reads “Matt and Matt talk about movies and popular culture.” Get it?) It’s a little like NPR, a little like CBC, and, though they don’t think so, a little like Pump Up The Volume. Here, a little of their wisdom: ION: So MCB, when we first talked you said that as of about a year ago, you didn’t even know what podcasting was. Now you’re hosting two different shows. [The second is for blogTO.] How’d that happen? MCB: I’ll let Matthew cover the story of MAMOs origins, because it was really his baby … As for moviesTO (available at www.blogto.com), Fresh Daily was looking for podcasters and heard MAMO and liked it … now I have no free time whatsoever. MP: MAMO started last June, because I just felt like the kinds of conversations I was having about movies and the movie business were inherently more interesting than what I was hearing in the mainstream press and on TV. Also, I felt like there were a lot of “truths” just accepted by the business that have no factual basis … I sent an email out to my friends to see who was into it. Matt gave it an instant yes and we launched about two weeks later. Then iTunes hit and ka-BOOM, people I didn’t even know were listening and liking. “Truths?” Explain. MP: Oh, there are all kinds. There has always been an inherently flawed logic in how executives interpret box office results, for instance. The best example is Demi Moore. She was in several high grossing movies in the early ‘90s, culminating with A Few Good Men. She had nothing much to do with their success, but her agents made a play for her to take the credit. And she managed to take a huge salary for her next picture, Striptease. Nobody stopped to say, “Wait a minute, Demi Moore had fuck all to do with the success of these films.” Ahh. Striptease. The hair. The rock-hard breasts. Those were the days. So MCB, why’d you say yes right away? MCB: Because Matthew has a weird Svengali-like hold over me. He’s a dynamic man with good ideas, and I’m the sort of fellow who’s willing to throw his hat into the ring for an experience if it sounds interesting. Plus, he gives great 22 IONMAGAZINE.CA
backrubs. I don’t want to know. So, is the downside of podcasting the same as the downside of blogging? Any idiot with a voice can do it? MCB: It’s certainly the same as the downside of blogging, but there’s the same upside as well: generally, if your content is crappy, people will stop paying attention to it. There are a million bad blogs out there that nobody reads, and about as many bad podcasts that nobody listens to. Actually, I rarely hear podcasts that I like. I hear a lot of podcasts with nasally-voiced 20-something males broadcasting out of their parents’ basements about the virtues of their comic book collections... not that I should necessarily throw stones in that regard. But at least I have a deep voice. So what are you guys doing differently? What makes MAMO better than the big boys? MP: I don’t think we’re better, but I do think that we’re inherently more honest because we don’t depend on access to the machine … We’re just giving our unvarnished opinions. Plus I think we manage to walk the fine line between total geekery and mainstream appreciation. Neither one of us would try to be “too cool” to actually enjoy something no matter how mainstream or how out there
ART the thing may be. MCB: That’s true, and it’s something that we come up against a lot. We wear our hearts unabashedly on our sleeves. We both sobbed like little girls with skinned knees when King Kong fell off the Empire State Building. If something is good, we don’t give a fuck if it’s from Hollywood or Iran. MP: I just want to add two things: One is that we seem to be one of the only podcasts recording in public space, which I think makes us much more creative and immediate than a “studio isolated” show. And the other is that I truly believe that we are exploring a topic no one else is addressing right now. How popular is MAMO? And MCB, how popular is moviesTO? MP: MAMO is enormously popular. We are literally mobbed everywhere we go by groupies who... Oh crap, dreaming again. In actual fact, we probably average about 200 downloads a week, and it seems to hold steady at that level. MCB: moviesTO pulls down about 2000 listeners a week, or so my producer tells me. Are you making any money at it? MP: No, we’re not making any money. But we’re not against it as a concept. Anything else you’d add about the phenomenon that is either funny and/ or interesting?
Final question/comment. Be honest: This is all inspired by Christian Slater circa 1990, is it not? MP: I prefer to feel inspired by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, but whatever you have to tell yourself. MCB: HA! Never made that connection myself. Happy Harry Hard-On is the godfather of the entire podcasting industry. I’m lost… how embarrassing. Let’s wrap it up. Do you think working together creates a better show than either of you could produce on your own? MCB: Definitely. My solo podcast sucks by comparison. MP: You should see my solo podcast. It’s so bad, I’m not even doing it. Matthew C. Brown is a filmmaker and film critic and serves as the technical director for Toronto’s One Minute Film & Video Festival (www.minutefilmfest. com). Matthew Price is an occasional film writer. In his normal life, he manages a Toronto video store and plans a film curriculum for his six year old son, Max. The MAMOcast is available at http://mamocast.blogspot.com.
MP: I’m not just gonna be funny and interesting for free. That’s what the podcast is for.
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FASHION
Haute Couture Anatomy Words Carl Rogers
When one considers forward-thinking designers, with which Puma has worked over the years, there is a comforting familiarity to their styles and visions; Jil Sander, Neil Barrett, and even - at a push - Fake UK. There is an inherent rigidity and efficiency presented by these designers that forms a cohesive bond with the Puma philosophy. So imagine the surprise when it arose that the latest designer to wave his magic wand over the brand was one Mr. Alexander McQueen… 24 IONMAGAZINE.CA
This is the man responsible for so many iconic, some might say revolutionary, images over the last 10 or so years; the man who scrawled the epithet ‘I am a Cunt’ into the lining of Prince Charles’ Savile Row suit when he was 16 years old; the man who completely reinvented the entire concept of fashion design to suit his own orgasmic, phantasmagoric creativity. McQueen could never have been labelled an obvious choice for this role. The collection though, reveals what an inspired appointment it was. They retain the efficiency and futurism for which Puma has lately become renowned, but are now drenched in the molten metal of McQueen’s macabre. The collection is, McQueen articulates, inspired by the anatomy of the foot. Tendons, veins, corpuscles, and muscles are reflected
in design features that offer a direct input in the structural integrity of the shoe as well as pronouncing aesthetic verve. Perhaps one of the most interesting features appears on the ‘My Left Foot Bound’ sneaker for which McQueen’s own foot was cast and the impression suspended in transparent rubber; it is a real eye-grabber which fascinates and horrifies in equal measure. It seems that more collections of this nature are a distinct possibility and with the intricate craftsmanship, unique imagination, and established pedigree of the two super-brands, these sneakers are sure to become valuable and treasured collector’s items. Potentially, I guess, they could also almost be considered educational tools - biology lessons strapped to your feet!
FASHION
ChristinA Culver Words Tara Conley Photography Fiona Garden
By the early age of three, Christina Culver knew that the world of fashion was where she belonged. Even as a young child she loved to daydream about shoes, hair and make-up. After studying under local designer Jason Matlo in 2004, she set out to create her first collection, which debuted at BC Fashion Week last year. Christina expresses herself through her fun, sexy, and girly creations that she calls ‘wearable art.’ Her line, Christina Darling, is a diverse celebration of her own personal style. A true fashion chameleon, her designs are flirtatious, diverse and playfully feminine. While some designers choose to focus on one particular direction, Christina pulls from an assortment of different designs to create a collection. While influenced by a multitude of things from classic Hollywood movies to hiphop to pop culture, the most important thing for Christina is to always be asking 26 IONMAGAZINE.CA
herself,“What would I like to wear today?” The ultimate goal for her is for people to feel as good in her clothes as she does creating them. Christina is currently working on her Fall/Winter 2006/2007 line, which will debut at BC Fashion Week, Vancouver’s premier fashion event that has given exposure to, and elevated the profile of, countless local designers. The show will feature 22 different looks all inspired by the movie Valley Of The Dolls, featuring denim, tailored pants, dresses, blouses, and evening gowns in a variety of fabrics and colors. Each design is unique, and intended to stand confidently on its own with fierce personality. While all this may seem glamorous, Christina advises aspiring designers to be prepared to work very hard as being a successful designer is incredibly grueling work. Check out Christina’s designs along with other local designers including Mara Gottler, Jason Matlo, Vata Brasil, and Chloe Angus on Sunday April 9 at 5:30 pm, at the Scotia Bank Dance Center. www.bcfashionweek.com
THree Year AnniversarY PArtY
aPril 8th 9 till 2 252 e1st ave (One blOck east Of main) DJs: miss X & march 21 (circlesquare/OutPut recOrDinGs) sPOnsOreD bY:
Doll Parts
Stylist/hair/mua: Liz Dungate Photographer: Fred Fraser Photo Assistant: Kristine Chin Model: Sabina @ The Breitinger Agency
left: jacket and skirt by Blushing Designs by Shelley Klassen right: bolero by Nap dress by Nicola Fan all courtesy of Dream in Gastown
jacket and crop pant by Dust halter tunic by La Poeme all courtesy of Dream in Gastown
coat and blouse by Nicola Fan skirt by A. Karaca all courtesy of Dream in Gastown
FILM
THe Devil & Daniel Johnston Words Sarah Keenlyside
For those of you yet unfamiliar with Daniel Johnston, here are some interesting facts: He recorded his first albums with a $59 Sanyo mono-boom box as a teenager in the early 80s while living in his brother’s basement. By the early 90s, he was being heralded in the underground music scene as a cult hero, attracting fans like Sonic Youth, Jad Fair and Kurt Cobain (who often wore a Daniel Johnston designed t-shirt on magazine covers and TV spots). He is also a prolific visual artist and his comic book32 IONMAGAZINE.CA
inspired artwork (usually drawn with magic markers on 8 ½ x 11” scrap paper) is available for sale online, with asking prices ranging from US $400 to $5000 a pop (for one of his junior high school assignments). Recently, a sampling of his work was shown at the Whitney Museum’s 2006 Biennial in New York. Classic over-achiever, right? He’s also a manic depressive with grand delusions who ran away from home once to join a carnival, chased an old lady out a second story window, defaced the Statue of Liberty, assaulted a member of Sonic Youth on a maniacal rampage and forced his father’s airplane to crash while flying home from the SXSW music festival. He even recorded a hit song with Yo La Tengo over the phone from a mental hospital (the song was recently used in a Target
ad campaign). Now in his mid-40s, he lives in the basement of his aged parents house and is faced with the question of how he’s ever going to survive when they inevitably pass on… Director Jeff Feuerzeig won best director at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for his feature documentary about Daniel’s life entitled The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The film manages somehow to tie all these wild tangents together, painting a mindblowing portrait of an artistic and musical genius obsessed with fame, haunted by demons… and mysteriously, the number nine. (You’ll have to watch the movie to figure out why). ION: How did you first encounter Daniel Johnston?
FILM Jeff Feuerzeig: It was around 1985 and I was doing college radio. I was very involved in underground culture – there actually was an underground back then, no Internet. Anyway, we started hearing about this kid from West Virginia named Daniel Johnston who was making his own self-produced albums on cassette in his basement. And we heard that he was crazy. We’d heard that because he promoted it. So I got my hands on two of his tapes – Hi, How Are You and Yip Jump Music. His manager Jeff Tartakov was distributing them. He was taking out ads in fanzines through Stress Records – you’d send in five dollars and order up a homemade cassette. It was very personal – like a pen pal. What was it about the music that stirred you? They were these beautiful songs of unrequited love. They really touched me. He was an incredible singer-songwriter. The piano playing was brilliant. The whole Yip Jump album was recorded on a child’s chord organ. I’d never heard that before – it captured my imagination. Some of the songs were about his mental illness. The songs were just so raw and pure and they seemed to be coming directly right from his brain, right onto the tape. Between some of the songs he’d put recordings of his mom yelling at him. And I just thought that was great. Did you know him personally before approaching him to make the movie? I’d never met Daniel Johnston in person and he never toured. If you weren’t at one of the four or five shows he ever did, then you never saw him. He was an enigma. I love that. I think Daniel Johnston is best appreciated as an enigma. The more you couldn’t get him, the more you wanted him and he really nurtured that in his audience because his life was being played out in public. I was reading about him in the Village Voice – every time he’d throw some woman out of a window, or crash a plane, the Village Voice would write about it. What inspired you to make a film about him? Daniel did a live radio broadcast on WFMU in 1990… from the mental hospital over the telephone line. And they built it up all week – it was going to be the “Daniel Johnston One-Hour Radio Special.” Everybody in the New York, New Jersey, Brooklyn area was glued to their radio that day, including me. I was rolling my tape deck at home, recording it. For one hour
I sat there with my mouth agape. It’s much, much scarier than the Orson Welles’ broadcast of War of the Worlds. I’ve heard that and I don’t know how anyone thought that was real. This was too real. He interviewed himself in multiple voices. He did elaborate comedy skits playing all the characters himself, including the female characters. He improvised songs. His obsession with fame, the devil – it was all there on tape. He also took calls from the listening audience. I called in that day and talked to Daniel live on the radio in 1990 – that’s how we first met. He also recorded his hit song that day – “Speeding Motorcycle” with Yo La Tengo. They were playing in the WFMU studio and Daniel was singing over the telephone line and they made a record together. So, a lot happened on that broadcast. When it was over, I said WOW, I want to make a film of this broadcast – with all of Daniel’s highs and lows, his comedy, his tragedy, the songs, the sketches, the Woody Allen jump cut editing – everything that he demonstrated in the broadcast. I thought that would be one hell of a film. And that’s the film I did. Daniel recorded a ton of material over the years. Were you overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you had to weed through? I was overjoyed. It really, truly is one of the great archives that had ever been unearthed. It was like this giant, Hefty garbage bag filled with hundreds of these tapes. You couldn’t make a film like that about John Lennon or Elvis Presley or Neil Young or David Byrne... The material does not exist. Daniel is an artist who documented his whole life since he was 13. He recorded surreptitious conversations with people; his mom yelling at him and telephone conversations with his family and friends when they didn’t know they were being recorded. He also was doing audio diaries of his thoughts and feelings as they were happening – everything that was going on in his mind: when he’s feeling manic depression coming on and his fingers are tingling, he’s recording it. When he’s diagnosing himself out of the DSM4 Psych manual, he’s recording it. When he’s being arrested at the Statue of Liberty for painting Jesus fish – hundreds of them up and down the staircase – he’s recording his arrest. When he’s attacking Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth after he came to Hoboken, he’s recording it. You know, I can’t make this up, it’s all true.
A lot of documentaries following mentally ill people have inspired criticism over the notion that they exploit their subjects. What’s interesting in this film is that it seems Daniel was the first to exploit his mental illness to gain recognition. First of all, congratulations to you for understanding, because you’ve seen the film: Daniel Johnston exploited his own mental illness way before anybody else ever did. And he continues to do so to this day. Let’s just get that out of the way. Not only that, it’s clearly in the film that he’s exploiting his mental illness when he goes on MTV in Austin. He holds up his tape Hi, How Are You and the first thing he says on national television is “Hi, I’m Daniel Johnston, and this is my new album Hi, How Are You and I recorded it while having a nervous breakdown.” So he flips that in there. On those audio tapes, he had studied Van Gogh and talked about cutting off his own ear, he strategizes with Jeff Tartakov, his manager saying “It’s good that they know I’m crazy, as long as they’re writing about me.” He also wrote songs like “I Had Lost My Mind.” He exploited his mental illness throughout his whole life and career. He’s so open about it, it would make your head spin. I don’t think there are taboo subjects in the world that should not be explored through journalism and art and films and music or whatever. If the subjects are really off limits, how else would someone be able to explore them? Why do you think his story is so compelling to people, seeing as it’s difficult for the average person to relate to his condition? Daniel really takes us to the edge. A place I’ve never been.This film is the closest to madness and genius that you’re ever going to see in cinema. I’ve seen how people have reacted so far… I mean, people are laughing at parts of it but for the most part, people are terrified. The film, therefore, takes us to the edge. The material is there to do it. He did it, and it’s real and he went on this journey and had incredible highs and lows. I think it’s really cathartic to go through that. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is screening on Wednesday April 19 at 7pm at the Pacific Cinematheque (1131 Howe Street) as part of the Big Smash! music-on-film festival. www.bigsmash.com IONMAGAZINE.CA 33
Photography Mark Maryanovich Visual Mechanics Sxv’Leithan Essex Moonshine always tastes better when it comes from your own still. The same rings true for local band The Manvils. Don’t let their looks deceive you; they’re more than just a bunch of pretty-boys. The Manvils’ brand of blues-rock conjures up visions of a drunken bonfire party where you rip off your shirt, start howling at the moon, then wake up the next day with a massive hangover and a vague recollection of signing a contract that some guy with a pitchfork shoved in front of you. On their new album, Buried Love, front man Mikey Manville leads the charge, showing you that he can howl with the best of them, and that his stable of female stalkers is well earned. With stars in their eyes and a distinct Rolling Stones influence, surely a meaty role in Pirates of the Caribbean 5 for Manvils lead guitar player Mark Parry - where he plays Jack Sparrow’s long lost son - can’t be too far off. www.themanvils.com
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Archer Prewitt Words Julie Colero Photography Chris Strong
Archer Prewitt has two very good things going for him at the moment: his music and his art. A Kansas City art school kid who started drumming young, Prewitt was a member of four-piece lounge/kitsch/ avant/art band The Cocktails before he found his place amongst the Chicago post-rock elite as a member of the Sea and Cake in the mid-‘90s. Still with that band, Prewitt also regularly records and tours in support of his solo records. His fourth solo full-length, Wilderness, came out not all-too-long ago, and features the kind of soulful, straight-ahead song writing that his fans have come to love. If you’re not so into indie rock, don’t yet write Prewitt off – he’s also a renowned comic book artist, creator of the ever-affable, never-stoppable, somewhat-poppable Sof’ Boy. The little guy, who looks an awful lot like the Pillsbury Doughboy, lives his down-and-out life on the mean streets with a joy that is unknown to even the most optimistic of us city-dwellers. The comic is best seen to be believed; Prewitt succeeds in creating something both horrifying and hopeful. But enough gush, the man had plenty to say as to why he’s really not just the guy from the Sea and Cake who draws the funny pictures.
Well, completely different songwriters. Sam [Prekop] writes all the Sea and Cake stuff - that’s pretty much his vehicle. I add the flesh to the bones [with my] guitar parts. By and large, this is a little more traditional in its approach to song writing and lyricwriting. I feel like I’m trying to be true to what my aesthetic is. I try not to be derivative. I try to really refine it, I guess, as I don’t like things to stretch on for too long; and if they do, they need to take twists and turns that would hopefully make the listener feel like it’s not a static experience if a song goes
I have to ask you about the comic book side of things. Is there much crossover there between the comicon fans and the music fans? No. We sell the comic books at shows and a lot of people don’t know what that’s all about. Nobody ever buys any, really. I think it’s because I purposely like to make Sof’ Boy feel like it’s fairly anonymous. My name is really small, and there are small credits. I like the feel of that. A lot of the comics that I liked growing up, you never could find out who inked ‘em, or drew ‘em, or pencilled ‘em. That made it even more mysterious to me. It seems, at least in Japan, that it’s gone well beyond that … They always read the fine print, it seems. They seek out all the details and nuances.
ION: In the general progression of things, do you have a plan for what you do on your own, as opposed to what comes out when you’re working with others? Archer Prewitt: Well, all I really think about is collecting songs I write that seem to work together as an album. Some make the cut, some don’t. As far as a career with this band, I don’t really think about it so much. I’m always working on songs, but [have] no real huge aspirations at this late stage of the game for world domination. I’ve been working with the same guys for a long time, so I just try to get a song to some sort of completion and then I present it to them. And then we get to the specifics of fleshing it out and deciding on how we want it to sound in the end. If you had to come up with one major difference between your solo project and the Sea and Cake, what might that be?
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a chance, I appreciate that, but I don’t feel like the Sea and Cake informs what I do at all. I’ve never felt like I’ve taken something away from the Sea and Cake that would shape what I do musically, or in the production-sense, either. I have pretty specific ideas about what I want to do that’s very different from what Sam & John [McEntire] do. You know, I have my outlet. It’s not that my ideas don’t come through, but they’re often laughed off as being, sort of, I don’t know, not Spartan enough or something. I don’t go for clinical sounds.
Is that where the desire to do all the merchandise came from?
over three minutes. Okay. Now, the listener, at this point in the game – who is that? I don’t know. I only get the feel that, when I meet people at shows, that they seem to respond to the lyrics and they’re able to sit through the sensitive songs as well as the more robust songs. Maybe the listener that seems to be a fan is someone who likes to invest themselves in the subtleties of the music. But you do have a lot of lifers on board, don’t you? I guess. If people were only listening to the Sea and Cake and they thought, oh, I’ll give his side-project
The people that generated the vinyl dolls in Japan responded to the merchandise that I had made myself and just the whole aesthetic. Are we talking about the original cloth dolls? The cloth dolls, yeah, and a little rubber figurine that I’d made by mixing two chemicals together. I’d made it in my kitchen and it came in a little printed box with a tiny comic book. It’s an extension of what I’ve been interested in for a long time. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily ironic, ‘cuz it’s fun to make, just little merchandise things that go along with the comic. Again, the reason I make comics is because of how I responded to them as a child, and the reason I make these toys is because that was an extension of comic books. I would order all these little curios through the comic books. It relates to that magical,
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private world I inhabited as a kid. Would you want children reading Sof’ Boy? I purposely don’t use profanity and I think, in comparison to what a lot of children are exposed to, it’s very benign. It’s definitely for an adult audience, it’s got a cynical tone to it, some darkness to it, but the children that have seen it, they all love it and they don’t see the dark quality of it. … There’s some brutality in SB that’s pretty over-the-top, but in a lot of ways it allows me to purge my thoughts about cityliving, coming from a small town. Kansas City was a lot slower [than Chicago], but I got held up in both towns. There’s people with guns, people out to do you harm. Kansas City felt like a big city to me still.
Looking online, it’s difficult to find anything other than Sof’ Boy. There’s a whole backlog of fine art that I’ve done, primarily woodcuts and some paintings. I just sort of fell out of the gallery scene. I’m interested in working on children’s books. I’ve been drawing from life again, doing portraits and little still-lifes. I’m gonna be working on another issue of Sof’ Boy, and I think it’s going to be compiled into a hardbound book with all the stuff up to this point. Then I’d either stop doing it altogether or just do it very occasionally, which is what I’m doing now, sort of. I like the character enough, but I’m getting older, and I have more interest in painting right now and doing other things.
So it’s not like you’re sitting on a whole stable of characters right now, all waiting to get their chance? I have this other character, Funny Bunny, but I’ve never really been a prolific comic artist, probably because I’ve always had so much music going on. I find it difficult to sit at a desk and do it six or seven days a week. When I was living alone, I was a night owl, I could get a lot of work done, but now I’m married and just thinking about different things, as far as art goes.
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Barr
Words & Photography Natalie Vermeer Barr is Brendan Fowler plus extra people soon. Barr recently opened up for the Animal Collective and isn’t someone that can be easily introduced in a couple of sentences. He is very involved with his music (spoken word/free jazz drumming for Barr and drumming for New England Roses), vegan shoes for DC Shoes, silk-screening and print-making (doing gallery shows), a free art magazine (ANP – put out by RVCA) and surely more. Hopefully his style shines through in this following collection of words. It’s hard to imagine someone more open, stoked, and creative than Brendan Fowler. So, first question: is Barr becoming a band? “It’s just a logistics issue right now,” Fowler answers. “I’m going to make a new record. I’m going to record it during the summer and it’s going to be a really straight format. It’s going to have live drums; there were live drums on this record for half of it maybe. Making this last record, it occurred to me that I could make something that would be listenable. I didn’t think that Barr was ever going to be listenable, you know? I thought it was more about the live show and talking and whatever. But then in making the record, I was like ‘maybe I can make a listenable record, maybe.’ I don’t mean to sound cocky but I feel I can make a listenable record. But anyways, I want to do that and I’m making it with the intent to be able to play live. So it will have all live drums and piano and bass and almost like a band, you know what I mean? I have a drummer already, Kevin Shay, who is my hero. I’m really honored he’s going to play drums. I went to college to study free jazz drums because of his inspiration. He’s like an older dude. I played two shows with him in the fall, he played with me, and it was my dream. My favorite musician in the world was my backing band! It was insane. I was so happy, I was giggling so hard, that I would fuck up the songs ‘cause I’d be giggling and couldn’t say the words. It was insane. “Anyways, so yeah, the next record comes out February of 2007, so hopefully either in the fall when I tour again or when I tour for [the album release] I will hopefully have a band! Fingers crossed. We’ll see.” Fowler does not hesitate to speak what he thinks, which is as apparent in his last album, Beyond Re40 IONMAGAZINE.CA
inforced Jewel Case, as in real life. He tackles any topic with ease and freedom. Some topics of the interview were “off the record,” perhaps because they will appear on the next record! How can he be so open and honest? “It’s pretty intense. People have said like, ‘Do you get weirded out that people know so much?’ I’m just like, ‘No, should I be?’ People have been asking me that lately and I’m like, ‘Oh fuck, should I?’ I don’t think so though. I feel like that’s the point. You know how sometimes you do something, like when you’re a little kid you do stuff because you think it’s really awesome and then other kids make fun of you or something and you stop doing it? You only stop because other people say you should stop, but fuck it! I’m pretty resigned to like ‘this is what it is’… It’s weird being in a band by yourself because you don’t have anyone to talk about your ideas with or bounce it off. The way you talk about it or describe it, I think it’s pretty gut, pretty visceral.” Somehow, talk led to MySpace so we went with that. Because it’s the future. “It’s amazing.There’s a lot of built-in communication. I think it’s really good. I’m really into it. I’m not really into doing it, but I’m really into it as an idea. I think it’s fucking rad. I feel really adamant about it. I really want to stress in this interview that I really think it’s a positive thing! Now, there are some problems, for sure. Fox owns it, that’s a problem… [but] that’s the thing, even the problems with it are kind of interesting – they are future problems. They are problems that are involved with the fact that we live in the future. One thing that I think is really exciting is the fact that we live in the future. It’s 2006. When you were like a kid, the 2000s were the future, like in cartoons and shit? So, you know, we live in the future! Rather than teleporting or having hologram phones like they said we would, we send text messages and emails: which are letters! How rad is that? Isn’t that so fucked and insane? I never would have guessed. Everything, all your work and shit, is done over email! And it’s all letter writing! That’s crazy! We live in the future and we write letters! It’s so rad! But I think the whole Myspace thing is amazing as it allows people to be community-ish. I have to spend a lot of time on the computer for the magazine and stuff so I try to keep distractions to a minimum. I try not [to] be super active on Myspace. But it’s really good for the Barr thing and for what I do and I feel involved in a
lot of community organizations through the magazine and Myspace is really great for it! Yah, Myspace – a beautiful thing! “Remember Friendster? Friendster just fucked up so bad! They fucked up so bad, they just got shut the fuck out. And it’s like, fuck you for fucking up! Fuck you for not letting people curse! The second they stopped letting people curse, I quit. That was it. That’s just bullshit. This is a free thing and you’re going to do censoring? That’s crazy!” After a brief discussion of his scarf, Fowler ends the talk with, “I reveal too much. I’m sorry. That’s when honesty gets ugly. Please don’t say anything about my scarf.”
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POSTER ART
LONGPLAY
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MUSIC Two guys, a girl and a design house. That’s Longplay, a design team who screenprint multi-colored posters for musicians like Buck 65, The Gay, and The Pink Mountaintops. If you see one of these puppies on a telephone pole immediately rip it down and walk away with your head down pretending you’ve done no wrong. Or you can check their site and pick up a poster from there, which isn’t as fun but they’ll probably appreciate it more. And fear not, hanging posters these good on your wall doesn’t make you a teenager. They’re like art and people might even think you’re sophisticated when they see them. www.longplay.ca
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ALBUM REVIEWS
Page France Pear/Sister Pinecone Fall Records Page France’s Michael Nau has proven himself a truly prolific songwriter. Since 2004, his band has released two full length albums including last year’s standout Hello, Dear Wind. Page France has now issued a double-EP comprised of 14 new compositions. Upon first listen, the temptation arises to suggest that Nau’s string of strong songcraft is growing a touch threadbare. Pear finds Page France foregoing the pastoral inflections of their sophomore disc for a skewed approximation of vintage AM pop. Also largely absent is Nau’s studied, dark lyrics. A new emphasis on vocal hooks has resulted in exceedingly simple language. Despite the appeal of jangly guitars and bubbling organs, the tracks suffer due to dull bubble/trouble/double rhyme schemes. Only closer “Say Wolf in the Summertime” ideally melds Nau’s melodic and melancholic tendencies. While more succinct and downtrodden, Sister Pinecone exhibits substantial depth and, consequently, is a far more enthralling affair. The loose, evocative wordplay employed on the central pairing of “Weatherman” songs leans heavily – and to great effect – on Nau’s ongoing meteorological muse. Meanwhile,“Antarctica” plays out an epic romantic confessional in only three minutes. Nau would do well to take cues from its concision. 3.5/5 Curtis Woloschuk
Loka Fire Shepherds Ninja Tune This album has been quite some time in coming. Liverpool’s Karl Webb and Mark Kyriacou first surfaced on the legendary Ninja Tune’s Xen Cuts compilation back at the turn of the millennium. Leaving them a half a decade to develop the ideas for Fire Shepherds, there is no other label it could’ve been released on as this debut cleanly falls under the genre that has become Cinematic Orchestra, a classic case of symphonic Zen jazz. It seems a little presumptuous to ponder the full scope of what Loka is trying to achieve on a broad scale based only on seven, albeit lengthy, tracks. This
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much is indisputably true, though; it’s something orchestral, avant-garde, and beautiful. These guys really need a double album for a more complete experience but who can wait 10 years? Tupac keeps coming out with new double LPs every couple months or so, even more since he died, so it’s not asking the world or anything. Please, sir, can I have some more? 4/5 Filmore Mescalito Holmes
Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood Mint If Neko Case isn’t the reigning queen of alt. country, I don’t know who is. Employing The Sadies, Calexico, and Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, Neko’s selfproduced fourth solo album is a certain ambiance shift from her last traditional covers laden release The Tigers Have Spoken, despite maintaining the animal imagery. Fox Confessor rides a heavier dark and sombre vibe with Case’s lyrics apparently waking up from the disillusionment of the Hollywood propagated notion of some rewardingly presented, all encompassing love that’s crammed down our throats from a young age (though I don’t understand how anyone could believe Jennifer Lopez is even capable of loving anyone besides herself). While legions of accountants and secretaries flock to the banal, unchallenging likes of Jack Johnson, Case wraps her singer-songwriter roots, folk vocals and vision around country, twisting it to accept everything from moody psychedelic rock to eloquent orch-pop. The brilliant symphony of a household’s mental downfall, “Dirty Knife” exhibits all the best qualities of where she’s at now. Move aside, Wilco. It’s Neko’s turn now. 4.5/5 Filmore Mescalito Holmes
VARIOUS ARTISTS Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon Numero Group Reissues of (excuse the term) “slept on” records are regular occurrences these days. Last year Drag City put out Gary Higgins’ barely released lonerfolk classic Red Hash, and a few years before that Sub Pop did the same for Michael Yonkers’ equally excellent Microminature Love. Dudes like Andy
MUSIC Votel from Twisted Nerve are making a living unearthing forgotten homemade folk and making prog rock cool again. I guess DJ’s who once made a living of spinning rare Blur and Inspiral Carpets b-sides, gotta start making a living at some point. Keep swimming or sink, motherfucker. The Numero Group is one of the best of those crate (and grave) digging labels around. In addition to their Eccentric Soul series, they’re reissuing stuff like Antena’s French-pop debut, Fern Jones country-gospel recordings and this: Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon.The partyline/press release describes it as a compilation of Saint Joni lovin’ ladies who, in the aftermath of Altamont and the death of the sixties, picked up their guitars and tried to make it like their heroine, playing coffeehouses releasing their own privately pressed records ‘cuz no label would do it for them. The sound culled here is definitely mellow, somewhat cod-spiritual and, at times entirely unmemorable. A co-worker of mine said he felt like he needed to hear some Black Sabbath after listening to the whole thing in one sitting. That said, I do like it, it does have some interesting moments and is probably an essential purchase for someone who really dug that Linda Perhacs reissue from a couple years back. Collie Ryan’s “Cricket” and Jennie Pearl’s “Maybe in Another Year” are standouts and Ellen Warshaw’s version of “Sister Morphine” is neat, but then again it’s a hard song to fuck up. Another good title for this would have been Before They Were Soccer Moms. 3.5/5 Remo Gisman Jr.
Various Artists Shapes RED Compilation Tru Thoughts Hot off being named label of the year by the BBC Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards, Tru Thoughts has decided to issue an official taste of what to expect from the DJ friendly jazz/funk collective this year. As such, there are many unreleased and vinyl only mixes and remixes on this Shapes Red Compilation appearing along side the key selections taken out of current and upcoming releases from Tru and its sister hip-hop/garage label Zebra Traffic. This included the Laura Vane assisted “A Little Something” from Diesler’s new, more mature Keepie Uppies and the titles tracks from The Bamboos’ Step It Up and Quantic’s An Announcement To Answer. It would appear they’re trying for label o’ the year again as all the big guns will be out and firing in the upcoming months. If you’re not a fan of Tru yet, it won’t take you many listenings of this compilation to see that they have as much of a lock of their unique brand of housey funk and electronic jazz as Ninja Tune has on trip-hop. 3.5/5 Filmore Mescalito Holmes
Band of Horses Kahoots Everything All Fourteen The Time Sub Pop Ghosts I & Ear Formed from members of Seattle snooze-rock band Carissa’s Wierd, Band of Horses are one of many new acts trying to find an original sound by sounding like an interesting amalgamation of other bands. On “Swords” they sound like the Sugarcubes or The Jesus and Mary Chain. On “The Great Salt Lake” they sound like the Beach Boys. On the slow folksy songs they sound like Neil Young and on other songs they sound like the Flaming Lips or Built to Spill. The song that’s bound to get the Horses the most attention is “The Funeral” where they sound like any number of bands that have 15 members and a lead singer with a high pitched voice. A lot of bands keep adding different flavors of topping on the popcorn that is their music. Looking for the perfect combination without becoming the ever so derivative all-dressed flavor, which everyone knows tastes disgusting. At times they come dangerously close to sounding like the Indie rock equivalent of Coldplay but lead singer Ben Bridwell’s powerful voice keeps it all together by singing with genuine emotion and not coming across as corny or canned. 4/5 Michael Mann
With the world still reeling from the effects of The Strokes indie rock boom from half a decade ago, it’s easy for many a quality guitar band to fall through the cracks. In the Kahoots case, this was obviously exacerbated by the fact they chose to play in a metaphorical crack –the rural island of Martha’s Vineyard– since they formed in the late nineties. Although this is their first national release, they’ve actually recorded and self-released a catalogue of over 200 songs from the time Kahoots consisted of just Rob Myers and Elisha Wiesner to the engineer laden quintet it is today. So no matter what, their ninth album should do wonders to expand their fanatical cult following, maybe even to the point that they can post notes on the front doors of their day jobs Lutheran style and walk away from those tight assed retail bastards forever. You won’t find purer indie rock than Fourteen Ghosts. 4/5 Filmore Mescalito Holmes
HARD-Fi Stars of CCTV Atlantic It comes with the major sanction of the NME, but HARD-FI might be too acutely British for some, since it nails the dreary reality of lower middle class English life so well. Bad cider, depressing disco nights at franchise wine bars, chart house music, pneumatic girls named Sharon who dance around their handbags, rotten sex in a Ford Fiesta, ring roads, Travelodges, and, yes, surveillance cameras everywhere – Stars of CCTV sounds like all that, and as such will only puzzle that ridiculous breed of North American art school victim who runs around faking a cockney accent. Its mélange of viscous, dubby basslines, smart-alecky disco (“Hard to Beat” is exactly that), northern soul, pop, and baggy will more likely end up being written off as EMF 2 in these parts, which is too bad, since the mega-hit “Cash Machine” is a “corker” as they say. Stumbling down Granville Street on a Saturday night hammered to the tits on snakebites singing “There’s a hole in my pocket, my pocket, my pocket…” will seriously bring you much closer to the real experience than a lifetime of stroking it over a picture of Damon Albarn. 4/5 Adrian Mack
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“Savage life forms never follow even their own rules.” -Q Stardate 41153.7 Trust a snake before a Mormon, a Mormon before a hooker, and never trust Sam Kerr. On Monday I met some Mormons. They came from Salt Lake City and they got drunk really fast. Being drunk in extreme heat is a skill that takes some time to master. If one can find the right balance of sauna time, tanning, swimming and drinking, the outcome can be magical. However, if this tenuous balance is somehow upset, then the outcome can also be two drunk Mormon chicks hanging out at a Hawaiian beach bar with me. The Mormons were acting odd. Not as odd as the scene in Death Race 2000 when Stallone punches his naked girlfriend in the face for having a conversation with Frankenstein; but, most certainly odd none the less. One of the Mormons had a really foul mouth on her, and the other had a tattoo on her lower back. Quite simply, something about these Mormons just didn’t seem Karl Malone enough to be from Utah. Four Mai-Tais later Foulmouth tells me that she needs to crunch out a grumpy, and the beach shitter is not an option. I offer my hotel room bathroom, but Strippertattoo doesn’t want to wait alone while I walk to the room with Foulmouth. So, Strippertattoo decides to tag along with Foulmouth and I. You must be able to see where things go from here. Mormons are a group of people that condone polygamy. It is the third anniversary issue of ION Magazine. Walking down the hallway to my hotel room are two hot drunk girls and Sam Kerr. The next meaningful conversation I had with the Mormons went something like this: Sam says, “Wait a minute you’re not Mormons. You’re hookers! Get these handcuffs off me.” Strippertattoo says,“We’re not hookers and we’re definitely not Mormon, but we are thieves and we’re definitely robbing the shit out of you.” The End.
NEWS FROM NOWHERE
I hate to do this to you my beloved reader, but I feel an undeniable urge to give you the truth. This column is only loosely based on a true story. In fact, it’s all lies… and maybe, everything always was. Here I close my journey. Two years, 17 countries, and three continents later, comes the end of my saga. The end of ‘News from Nowhere.’ I leave you where I found you, with a quote from the Q.
Words Sam Kerr
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“It’s not safe out here! It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it’s not for the timid.” - Q Stardate 42761.3
HOROSCOPES
Words Ernold Sane
God you are crap. You creep people out like a tampon commercial. You’re like that uncle that ‘‘tickles too hard and stills stares at old lady’s asses when they bend over to pick up a napkin. Your etiquette is very ‘Tara Reid’ and your music collection is Popo Zao. The only good thing going for you this month is that your feet smell like a very expensive French cheese. ’’ ARIES March 21-April 20
Taurus
April 21-May 21
Your room-mates / people in your general living area are tired to the tits of you leaving crumbs all over the place and they think you’re clumsy. In their annoyance they’ve set up minicams to watch you pleasure yourself with your TV remote while watching Becker and inappropriately petting your cat.
Gemini
May 22-June 21
You love the new Madonna song that’s actually just as shit as Madonna six years ago, only now she’s mastered the sound of an idiot farting into a flute. Gemini, please realize that if you call it ‘old Madonna’ some hag will be listening in and tell you, “she’s not old” ... to which you reply “she’s a fucking fossil,” and a shoe fight will ensue. Go get the latest Bacon Brothers album and sing a long with your dentist while you get your headgear tightened.
Cancer
June 22-July 22
You’ve been hurt in the past but there’s no point in holding out when it comes to finding someone, and let’s face it you, are no Jennifer Love Hewitt, although your sense of humor, singing, acting and cobwebs in your undies are shockingly similar. You may think you’ve got mad skills and you’re a great catch but you come off
very Popo Zao. You’re a dirty ass Federline Popo Zao-loving degenerate and love won’t love you. Your lucky color is green!
Leo
July 23-Aug 22
It’s been a bleak time for you lately, but the time has come for you to pack your bags and take a short getaway, (Not to Vegas though, going there might delude you into thinking you dress well). Speaking of getaway, you’ve managed to get away with that ugly Tasmanian devil-like tattoo without drawing too much attention to it. That’s okay, people are trying harder to avoid your stank ass breath that smells like a professional wrestler’s sweaty ass crack.
Virgo
Aug 23-Sept 23
You have pimple puss. Your face needs a good scrub with the stiff side of a brittle brush. You need to get your hair out of your face and start working on that time machine so you go back to a time where brushing your teeth meant drinking milk. Stop blaming the pee smell you reek of on your gerbil. Things will be good for you around the 19-25th except your gerbil will die and your hygiene still pales in comparison to the average degenerate Montreal squeegee kid.
Libra
Sept 24-Oct 23
You need to focus more on your art
and a lot less on your style. You and your nasty friends look like the next VJ search, and cub scouts are getting more action than you skid marks. Jupiter shall bring you joy towards the end of the month, which means nothing cuz you’d be impressed if Carrot Top spat in your face and used you as a prop while giving out handjobs to pay rent.
Scorpio
Oct 24-Nov 22
You’ve been good at managing your finances and you’re as happy as R. Kelly reading Everyone Poops to a group of children. Speaking of kids, no one wants to risk reproducing with you due to your boar-like face, but that’s okay because by the time you grow old enough to find a hot blind companion there’ll be robots and clones and shit. The moon is on your side, but Jesus is not.
Sagittarius Nov 23-Dec 21 As Mercury moves retrograde, breakdowns need to be avoided by securing work and money. This means you need to stay at your job and get yourself a female cop’s haircut like Caralyn from The Apprentice. You also need to dress like Kardinal Official cuz looking like that super-hero /rap star / Macaulay Culkin-in-an-MJ-video is gonna get you props with your friends in the chatroom. By the end of spring you shall be Popo Zao, homey.
Capricorn Dec 22-Jan 20 After the Aries Solar Eclipse you have been left with an overbite that makes fellow Capricorns want to punch you several times in the face. This isn’t your fault but you look like one of The Moffats, which is coincidental because your band is just as shit. Everything you do is Capricorny.
AQUARIUS
Jan 21-Feb 19
You are on God’s list of diarrhea handouts this month because your attempt at life in general has been as weak as Nicole Richie’s left arm but hey, everyone has a scheme that will not work. You have to choose between friends or failures. However, all your friends ARE failures so now you need to chose which ones to pass your fleas onto.
PISCES
Feb 20-March 20
It was an abnormally dark time in space when Jupiter and Neptune were kicking back with a book and discussing whether or not to give Ellen a TV show. It was at this time that lesbianism slipped into the world’s culture undetected and into popularity in our society. Jupiter and The Nep are still unclear of how it happened, but those blue-collar bastards are too busy sucking up hydrogen gases to give you props for giving us lesbos. Props Pisces. Popo props.
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