SLED ISLAND FESTIVAL IN CALGARY. WED JUNE 30 - SUN JULY 3, 2010
JOURNAL BY BOB SCOTT
The nice folks who organized Calgary’s Sled Island Festival invited Mongrel Zine to cover it, so while Janelle stayed home with her fulltime job, I booked a plane ride to Calgary! Air Canada security check was hard on my supplies at the Vancouver Airport. My expensive suntan lotion and mouthwash were confiscated because I didn’t know you had to have 100ml or less… but I did manage to smuggle a scratchtool onboard by having a bladeless utility knife and a MZ pin (in plain sight on my backpack) that I broke the pinback off and inserted in the Olfa knife where the blade goes so I was all happy with myself like MacGyver. Until I
tried to do a scratchboard drawing later on in my trip, and saw how much concentration it requires and a proper tool.... The shiv ripped through the scratchboard. All I could do on the plane trip was eat the little complimentary bag of pretzel dust and stare straight ahead watching history documentaries without the sound because that was better than looking at the losers I was sitting with. When the plane landed in Calgary and all of us passengers stood up I heard, "Hey Bob!" And it was BBQ sitting a few rows behind me the whole short trip from Vancouver. He was en route from his travels in Asia and had a stopover flight in Van. Already on the good foot I managed to snag Mark’s ride downtown to the Royal Canadian Legion #1 and get my press wristband from Drew Marshall, media coordinator for Sled Island. During my trip I stayed at a few places, first night with my friends Jeff and Dale of HELL SHOVEL who played 4 shows during Sled Island with Bloodshot Bill (BB) on drums! (Check out “Summer’s Over” on the MZ#9 CD comp with this issue!). That night we stayed in the living room of a Sled Island festival facilitator’s house in N. Calgary. Sled Island facilitators were mostly volunteers, just like the Olympics, I guess. Nice people, very helpful! Just random acts of kindness are pretty alien to me! Dale, Jeff and I had cabbed it to the house together after they opened the first night of QUINTRON & MISS PUSSYCAT’s curated 3 night event Sucre Du Sauvage at the Legion #1 on 7 Avenue SE. This old
SLED ISLAND BOOTY! GOLDEN TRIANGLE CASSETTE ON HARDLY ART
ALL PHOTOS BY BOB SCOTT UNLESS CREDITED
building had very beautiful veteran’s poppy tile murals and nice old woodwork and lovely old sconces, original to the building! So were some of its occupants! I learned that this Legion was the first of its kind in Canada back in 1922... and that breakfast was served at 6:30, much too early at time for old Nosferatu here.
After Hell Shovel opened Sucre Du Sauvage (SDS) set upstairs, I went to the downstairs stage and watched GOLDEN TRIANGLE. Their music was new to me, they play excellent psychedelic garage melded with experimental art rock and are fronted by 2 talented women: Carly & Vashti, with Alix on bass. Their choreographed rhythmic swaying, vocal chanting, and tambourine shaking creating pulsing walls of guitar feedback reminded me a little of Jefferson Airplane but I liked Golden Triangle’s trio of strong female voices
even more than Grace Slicks! The band is balanced out with a male backing band: Jay on drums and Cameron and OJ on guitar. Golden Triangle are a creative crew from Brooklyn and are on the scene somewhere most every night if you keep up with their online goings on (goldentrianglenyc. blogspot.com). Carly’s a great photographer too you can check her stuff out in Vice and carlyrab.blogspot.com. After I tried to catch a glimpse of TY SEGALL and not being able to penetrate the small upstairs stage room, I decided to catch my first Quintron & Miss Pussycat show. (Always checking out his releases over the years but never caught him live – I’ve missed him far too often!) Secret Pizza was the best puppet show I’ve ever seen! Miss Pussycat makes her own dolls and Quintron modulates the trippy puppet speech and provides the insane little soundtracks and other fx! I picked up the King Lee feat. Quintron Tire Lee 7” . Then THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS went on after and Mark belted out praise in his wonderful voice. This band was terrific despite missing a key member, King Khan, who chose to stay at home in Berlin rather than attend the festival he helped curate after recent events that ended with the breakup of The King Khan & BBQ Show. He was missed but it was understandable, and things went as smooth as they could in his absence. Later in the Defenders set Joe Bradley even had this non-believer freaking out about the coming beasts in the Apocalypse in his wild recitation of The Book Of Revelations from the Bible during "The Great Defender". He knew most of it by heart! The biggest surprise of the night was at the end when BIG FREEDIA, the awesome transgendered rapper from Louisiana who was as charismatic and over the top as Little Richard! She was kind of like the antithesis of Schoolly-D. Her sleazy underground beats and cool sexy rhymes had the full house going nuts dancing onstage and off. When she performed “Dribble Dat Azz” Big Freedia dribbled away just as good as her co-dancer who looked like a Fly girl from In Living Color. Their ass dribbling was surreal and kind of hypnotic! BLACK LIPS’ Cole Alexander really got into dribbling his naked azz
after the crowd bum rushed the stage! After the first great night of sets it was up to The Black Lips' hotel room, packed with hungry and thirsty musicians that couldn’t get booze after midnight. All together in a room with like one can of beer and a $15 mystery meat sandwich that tasted like someone had fucked it. Quintron and Ms. Pussycat, Golden Triangle people, BBQ and BB, Jeff and Dale, even Big Freedia and his DJ showed up to chill for a bit though!
We finally reached Ship & Anchor on time for a great show! This
BBQ PHOTO BY ROB ROBINSON
Flashback to the future here once again to the facilitator’s house, it is morning after 3 hrs sleep. Jeff led Dale and I on foot for a guided mini-tour of Calgary, which he was very familiar with having grown up in nearby Edmonton. I met his very nice family at The Legion the night before! I wonder what they thought of Hell Shovel!? We walked an hour and a half back downtown, Jeff remarking on store signs and such and we watched more shows after a weird but good steak sandwich at Broken City where THE PACK A.D. played at the Mint Records showcase but I had to keep moving with Hell Shovel, be one with Hell Shovel… and visit BBQ and BB… All Montreal perps although BBQ/Mark Sultan is more like a world roamer now than Mtl guy and actually calls Toronto homebase now. (His Ape Sodom DJ nights with Max from The Deadly Snakes are Thursdays at Shitty Cheers and have included guest DJ’s like BB, Choyce, and Jared Swilley... who showed me his rad Kuka Mongas tattoo!)
venue was free to the public. Bloodshot Bill got to stand up and cut loose on his guitar, this time backed by Ben Frith on drums and Mike Park on bass, both of Vancouver’s Thee Manipulators! BBQ played a medley of his songs (as Mark Sultan, King Khan & BBQ Show, and just BBQ) mixed with his witty/smutty banter. Then my friend Rob Robinson (Mongrel Zine #9 Hell Shovel cover photographer) took me for coffee his friend’s Kawa Espresso Bar, pronounced KaVah, which is Polish for coffee. At $5 a cup and up, it seems caffeine addicts will spare no expense to get a good cup of joe but I can attest that was just perfect black (and I usually take a lump of sugar and a crème if you must know) and I was wired! Thanks for everything Rob! Very buzzed we returned to Ship & Anchor to catch Hell Shovel play their second show, then Rob drove me to the Legion for night two of SDS. On the second night SDS I caught TOPLESS MONGOS upstairs and they rocked the fuck out with loud fast and gritty garage punk kind in the vein of Oblivians. Jared and Thee Manipulators’ Mike Roche and I really dug it. After that I went downstairs for the only lull in the whole event, WHITSUNDAYS, some indie band with a mime ant onstage with them. I took a picture before escaping though. Mark Sultan played with Bloodshot Bill, Jared from the Black Lips, and Dale as THE DING DONGS and
DING DONGS PHOTO BY KYLA MARIE
it was one of the best things I’ve heard in ages! Jared and Dale joined in having only practiced together for a little while that same afternoon! His guitar strap came off for a whole song so he had to hold the guitar tight to his chest until he could charade his plight to someone in the crowd to reattach it while playing. The Black Lips/Hell Shovel/Sultan/Bloodshot Bill crews are true showmen, and through a variety of lineup changes they formed multiple bands and pretty much supported the whole structure of SDS the entire 3 night duration of that event within Sled Island while also playing a lot of shows at other venues. These guys are pretty true to the original 1950s Rock and Roll Revues in spirit! The second night of SDS ended with Black Lips mayhem at the Legion for me. I loved it, although there seems to be identical shade-wearing drunk spazzy kids that dance onstage too long and take over the mics at every Black Lips show? Everyone was having a great time which is the main thing… OJ from Golden Triangle was crowdsurfing with all the girls! None of the youthful drunken debauchery seemed to phase
the little old ladies working the Legion bar, those old vets must really throw down! Cole was enamoured with these little old blue haired ladies at the Legion and dedicated a song to one! They were indeed sweet, all of the staff there were above and beyond nice. After the show and with hopes for an afterparty, I designated drove the Topless Mongos and their gear in their pickup to their house which seemed to have a party in progress the whole festival. It was cool hanging out there, everyone showed up for some beers. Mark liked the laminated map that Calgary native Janelle made for me so I wouldn’t get lost (but I was beyond help), Jeff batted empty cigarette packs and stuff with a ping pong paddle but was pretty well behaved. After the house cleared I got to sleep 5 hrs on their sofa hide-a-bed and felt pretty rested. But I then had to walk 3 hrs the next day in blistering sun to find the Hell Shovel crew… I was totally lost as a blind baby marsupial in Calgary, with how it branches out from the center like a spinning roulette wheel. My mind was squirming for a nice clean Starbucks restroom. After what seemed like a lifetime of carrying a radioactive brick of Nazi gold in my anal cavity I found one in some megamall complex! There, after I lovingly emptied my bowels faster than an airplane toilet flush, I ran into Ian St. Pé of Black Lips
and it turned out we were going to be ending up at the same show later that night, Hell Shovel at Local 522. Ian is a super nice guy, it was good to see him. Lost again out in the heat I ended up being spotted in my red hat by Jeff and BB who were out getting food. BB couldn't stand the fact that he was paying twice the price for Tandoori Chicken (with no rice) but being in a band with King Khan called The Tandoori Knights, he felt compelled to buy it anyways. Just then a total freak walked by us in broad daylight! Stunned, Jeff thought he saw his “double walking by but it was just another faggot on the street,” just like his own Demon’s Claws song lyrics on “You’ll Always Be My Friend” from The Defrosting Of LP. So far out! Aw man too bad I only snapped a shot of him from behind!!! (Demon’s Claws toured Europe until Dec 4 of this year with Dale filling in for Pat Meteor and Simon from Weakends took Ysael’s place!) The price of restaurant food in Calgary is astronomically high, although I found chain places like Subway or Tim Hortons were priced similar to elsewhere in Canada. That said, I ate the best $13 breakfast at Reds Diner on 16th Ave SW ever! It was worth it having buttermilk pancakes like Grandma used to make! I didn’t have any run-ins with local jock thugs that seemed to be escorting skanky dates to trendy restaurants, and generally drinking and arguing everywhere… seemed like the cops were all over the locals but everyone knew enough to not harass the tourist$. Mark witnessed some drunk ape jock call a drunk First Nations person an immigrant, and of course fighting ensued. I went back to the Hyatt with Jeff & BB and I had a great shower during which I heard Jeff shouting, “Scrub it goooood Bobby!” I collapsed on the hotel floor beside Jeff’s discarded reeky tennis shoe and we watched what seemed like 20hrs of Wizard of Oz on TCM, napped then heckled more tv and it was off to a 3rd night of good music. Before Hell Shovel’s third gig Dale washed and hairdried his vintage polyester shirt for a half hour before we all walked to Local 522 and got rained on. Hell Shovel played their best set yet, really fun watching them get better with practice. TYVEK played tight, slightly weird punk that reminded Mark
and I of Crucifucks. I liked the lighting in Local 522 but all the ironic redneck animal trophy heads were stupid. Speaking of stupid, I hesitated when the waitress asked if I was in the band and ended up having to pay $18 for a burger and fries! Golden Triangle played their second of three shows (but I missed their afterparty one). Their guitarist OJ took off during a song to the kitchen with his guitar still plugged in and bolted out seconds later with a pita bread in his mouth, high metabolism! SLED ISLAND BOOTY! TYVEK I have to say the ladies in 7” ON X-RECS; TYVEK LIVE CD Golden Triangle dressed so cool! Best taste in thriftstore finds mixed with designer stuff, they know how to dress to the nine! SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB played and were not fitting the bill and were actually pretty godawful. Desperately trying to blank them out I decided to suddenly become a rock journalist and dragged Tyvek into the basement of Local 522 to do a taped interview but just I was about to begin Jeff ran down to tell me they were leaving and I had to bail! We went back up to the Hyatt for a break, and we partied a little with Bloodshot Bill who played some of his rare rockabilly 45s for us on his little portable record player. He does garage sales! Then it was off in a fancy cab ride to Hell Shovel’s 4th show, an afterparty at a Caribbean restaurant called What's Up? Hell Shovel was on a bill with HARD DRUGS. This last Hell Shovel show was their “Gravy Show”. They actually got paid as flying in their bassist Dale from Berlin ate up most of their Sled Island advance. They got their cab, dinners, and cash money for that show! After that we all ended up back at the Topless Mongos house where I spent another nice night on the hide-a-bed! Thanks Mongos for your kind hospitality!
The fourth and final day of Sled Island was the hardest for me but also fun. Lost again with no sense of direction, I tried to do the afternoon shows at Broken City and do the promised raincheck interview with Tyvek after dropping off zines but I was just too zapped from all the walking and toting my stupid backpack and duffle bag o’ heaped with swag that I had to try and get back to the Hyatt floor. I found Sloth Records on 17th BLOODSHOT BILL’S PORTABLE Ave by fluke and left RECORD PLAYER! a bunch of Mongrel Zines there on consignment. This finally lightened my load of many little purchases at shows like Tyvek’s live CD Golden Triangle’s LP Double Jointer issued in cassette format with a different cover. I love blasting it! I didn't make it to Comrad Sound record store, which sounds like a good place, bands record there and stuff. I also couldn’t carry a copy of The Ding Dongs LP that BB was selling and I was dying to get because it would have been trashed by the time I got it home. I started that last night out by checking out THE MANTS (!) and THEE MANIPULATORS who played their guts out to a sparse, mostly uncaring crowd of regulars at The Distillery but I enjoyed it tons. After their set I ran back to the Legion and caught GZA after a brief lineup outside. This night at the Legion was organized by FUCKED UP!, who headlined but I missed that. For GZA the turntable sounded pretty muffled but the GZA crew really tore shit up nonetheless. The whole place was pumping fists and booty shaking. After the barrage of "motherfucker" lines I noticed a sign on the Legion wall that read "Please! No profane language!" Everyone was heading to see Quintron & Ms. Pussycat again but I couldn’t due to my plans to get a ride back to Vancouver in B-LINES’ van. This was the last I saw of Mark or any of those guys but man it was good hanging out with them all! Luckily, I ran into B-Lines’ Ryan and his brother Bruce in the band room that was near all the band merch tables upstairs at the Legion, wolfed down as much soggy MANTS AND THEE MANIPULATORS PHOTOS BY KYLA MARIE
catering fruit and veggies as I could, and then we walked to an afterparty that cost me $10 bucks to get into! This would have been worth it for the full lineup but I will explain what happened… This cool house party didn’t have a name. I ate some pot brownies offered to me but I didn’t eat enough to feel a buzz and then ran into Kevin from Tyvek who was in full party mode so our interview was postponed… but it will happen in Mongrel Zine #10, Tyvek! I was only able to catch Nü SENSAE play a short but bombastic set of noise punk before Ryan, unpredictable after X amount of beers, was getting out of hand and we had to bail! I stayed in a dark basement of THE GROWN-UPS members’ townhouse after being threatened with rape and not having having my zine for sale on consignment at Scratch if I mentioned his drunken behavior to anyone! After having to insert earplugs to drown out the loud drainpipes in the basement, and being able to doze off for 15 mins, Ryan suddenly flops on top of me in a drunken stupor in the dark, then abruptly gets up and goes somewhere else without his blanket… this gave me quite a startle thinking my rape was imminent! In the one hour of semi-sleep I got I had a nightmare about Al Pacino having his Godfather III heart attack. "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in... ACK!” I tried to resuscitate him mouth to mouth but to no avail… The morning van trip drive back to Vancouver was HARD. The small van was very uncomfortable with 5 of us and poor Matt drove 90% of the
way back which entitled him to put on some really good hip hop and The Fall and other good stuff that I listened to in half coma stuffing my face with junk food while reading an old Psychotronic Video Magazine cover to cover. Matt then put on a David Cross comedy CD that nearly threw me over the edge… Mr. Show could be really funny, but this standup shtick was irritating. Cross needs to get to the fucking punch quicker! Matt stopped in Merritt for an all too short nostalgia tour of his hometown. The clouds were gently floating by on a nice summer breeze, casting their shadows on the peaceful little hills… I just wanted to get
pockets of cool shit going on, a real strong scene of young bands happening, and seemingly tons of venues to do shows at. The festival provided some much needed musical and cultural diversity for Calgary, known primarily as being a c&w stampede town. I’d say the price of a festival pass is well worth it for a music nut who knows their way around the city. I bet most people there easily soaked in twice as many shows as my lost and tired ass did, which is what bands like Tyvek, BLines, Grown Ups, and people were doing while I was lying around exhausted on hotel floors. Truth be told I was also on assignment for my ultra long
out of the van and go nap comfortably on one of the little hills there. I drove the last tiny bit, their van has no side view and a gas pedal you have to stand on to get the van to accelerate plus bumper to bumper traffic too. As much as I bitched that I should have flown return to Vancouver, driving back with one of the bands was the zinely thing to do and I wouldn't have changed anything.
and overdue Hell Shovel interview in this issue of the zine!
Calgary's Sled Island was a lot of fun, a lot of running around lost (but it was probably easy for people with brains that have inner compasses… I think I crushed mine partying). At times during my trip to Calgary for Sled Island I felt like there was almost too much to do and I felt like a headless chicken running around because there were so many choices of bands to see! I barely noticed Canada Day! I discovered that Calgary has
As you read this Sled Island 2011 is already in the works. Check out their Sled Island Festival Facebook page. I hope I can be a part of the art exhibiting that goes on at Sled Island in the future. I’m looking forward to another bout of Sled Island and hopefully will live to see The GZA with Lord Khan another time! I hope this article gave you dear reader a glimpse of what it was like to be at Sled Island, though my experience is just one of the many stories during this 4 day blitz of bands. It was really nice to get home and cuddle with Janelle, as nice as it was to spend time with friends! THE END