Stylus Magazine -- Feb/Mar 2013

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Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

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02 Stylus Magazine Feb/Mar 2013

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Takin’ Care of Business

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Stylus

Feb/Mar Issue1 2013 Volume24

On the Cover ANDREW MAZURAK walks these prairies with a beauty by his side and a pretty little lady under his arm. This issue will mark his two years as the Art Director of Canada’s oldest independant music magazine in publication (so cherish this paper between your fingers dammit!).

Production Team Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sheldon Birnie Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew Mazurak

http://www.mazmedia.ca/ is where he collects his bodies...

Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . Darcy Penner Advertising Manager . . . . . . . . . . Ted Turner

...of work.

204-786-9779, outreach@theuwsa.ca

Distributor . . . . . . . . . . . Patrick Michalishyn Cover Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew Mazurak Printed by Copy Plus Inc. . . . . . 204-232-3558

Contributors Janel Chau Nick Van Doeselaar Shanell Dupras Matthew Dyck Brenden Fortescue Kristel Jax Ginaya Jesmer Victoria King Devin King James Korba Grace Moyer Matt Perrin Harrison Samphir Fabian Suárez-Amaya Broose Tulloch Martyna Turczynowicz Scott Wolfe

Stylus is published bi-monthly by the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association, with a circulation of 2,500. Stylus serves as the program guide to 95.9FM CKUW and will reflect the many musical communities it supports within Winnipeg and beyond. Stylus strives to provide coverage of music that is not normally written about in the mainstream media. Stylus acts as a vehicle for the work of new writers, photographers and artists, including members of the University of Winnipeg, of CKUW and of the Winnipeg community at large. Stylus reserves the right to refuse to print material, specifically, that of a racist, homophobic or sexist nature.

All submissions may be edited and become the property of Stylus.

All opinions expressed in Stylus are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors. Contributions in the form of articles, reviews, letters, photos and graphics are welcome and should be sent with contact information to:

Stylus Magazine Bulman Student Centre, University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9 Phone: 204-786-9785, Fax: 204-783-7080 editor@stylusmagazine.ca www.stylusmagazine.ca Contributions will be accepted in the body of an email. No attachments please. All submissions may be edited and become the property of Stylus. Unauthorized reproduction of any portion of Stylus is strongly discouraged without the express written consent of the editors.

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TableofContents Blah, Blah, Blah Events Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 NonStopHipHop Vancouver’s Cityreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Live Bait Photos of Japandroids and Screaming at Traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 CKUWho Destination Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 CKUW Program Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Local Spotlight Mise en Scene // Mobina Galore // college-à-trois . . . . . 21 Ulteriors Ariane Moffatt // Arabian Horses/Glina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mental Notes Sonreal & Rich Kidd // Sean Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Around The World Friendly Rich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Motion Pictures Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Iconoclast Enslaved // Cradle of Filth // Sylosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Root Cellar Martha Wainwright // Lee Harvey Osmond // Mike Cooley . . . . 28 Under the Needle Grizzly Bear // The Flowers of Hell // Madness . . . . . . 29 Fear of Music Everything is Broken in the Culture of Reissue . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Features Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Butterclock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 This Hisses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Ingrid Gatin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Voivod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

03

TRUST WECC FEB 28

Blah, Blah, Blah Alright folks. A fantastic February followed by a magnificent March. Catch ‘em while you can, these shows are going to be hotter than June! Monday nights has the Sawat Team playing at 555 Osborne *** Each Wednesday catch the Songerwriter Explosion series at 555 Osborne, and Andrew Neville & The Poor Choices over at the Rose N Bee; Every Thursday is Rock n’ Roll Draft Night at the Windsor *** Every Sunday, don’t forget to catch Big Dave McLean at the Times Change(d) *** It’s time once again for CKUW FUNdrive! Kick off is Friday Feb 8 at the Rose N Bee with the No Label Crew of Ex Modern Teen, Merch Table Delite, The Young Pixels, and Indicator Indicator. *** The Wind-Ups are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a weekend at the Times Change(d) Friday February 8th & Saturday the 9th *** Saturday, February 9th, This Hisses release Anhedonia at the West End Cultural Centre; Dean Brody plays the Burton Cummings; local punkers the Pink Slips are playing their farewell show at the Rudolph Rocker with Terrorist, Black-out Brigade and more *** Wednesday, Feb. 13 sees Benjamin Francis Leftwich play the Park Theatre; and Heavy Metal Kings and Filthy Animals play the Pyramid *** Lindi Ortega, Dustin Bentall & The Smokes take over the Park Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 14. Over at the Times, Romi Mayes is throwing an early Valentine’s Show, while later in the evening Andrew Neville & the Poor Choices are hosting a Lonely Person’s Show; the Windsor hosts CKUW FUNdrive edition of Draft Night with Smoky T, JRiley Hill, and more *** Electric Soul and friends rock the Rose N Bee ***

On Saturday, Feb. 16, Panicland, Piss Ticket, and Cruel Society are playing the WECC *** Sunday, Feb. 17 Enslaved and Pallbearer are playing The Zoo; while Chicago’s Chrissy Murderbot spins at the Pyramid *** Tuesday, Feb. 19 check out Martyn Joseph at the WECC *** Catch Romi Mayes and Emma Cloney at the WECC on Wednesday, Feb. 20 *** Sarah Slean is playing the WECC on Thursday, Feb. 21 *** Friday, Feb. 22 has Kids and Heroes at the Park Theatre; all the while Calvin Love kills it at the Windsor that night *** Demon Hunter, All Should Perish, and Battlecross tear up The Garrick on Friday, Feb. 23; homegrown sensation Venetian Snare is playing The Zoo, also that nightl and if that wasn’t enough, hip-hop legends The Pharcyde bring their 20th Anniversary tour to the Pyramid *** Sunday the 24th hit the Sherby for Dead Ranch record fundraiser *** February 25, get yr mind blown at the Windsor with Breath Grenades, Trapezoids, and Kojak *** Tegan and Sara are in the MTS Centre on Tuesday, February 26; also that night, Soulfly, Incite, and Lody Kong are playing the WECC *** Trust hits the WECC with ERAAS on Thursday, Feb. 28 *** Friday, March 1 will see Moonspell, Noir, Inquisition, The Foreshadowing, Wilt, and Death Wolf all play The Zoo; while JD Edwards Band rocks the Times; and Stephen Fearing WECC’s it up *** March 2 cues up Powder Blues at the Pyramid *** On Saturday, March 9, the Night Vision Tour hits the Garrick, ft. Imagine Dragons, Atlas Genius, and Nico Vega; that night has the Park Theatre hosting Reverend Rambler; over at the Windsor

PHOTO BY KRISTIE MULLER

BA Johnston will be disrobing and getting sweaty; and Arrogant Worms is playing the WECC *** The great and super old Leonard Cohen plays at the MTS Centre on Monday, March 11 *** Rock N Roll never forgets, friends. Make sure to hit the MTS for Bob Seger! *** Monday March 18 has Doc Walker, Emerson Drive and Aaron Pritchett make a stop at MTS Centre on their huge CMT Hitlist Tour *** Tuesday, March 19 check out Electric Six at the Pyramid *** Ron Sexsmith is swooning the Burton Cummings on Saturday, March 23 *** underground namestay Masta Ace plays the Pyramid on March 22 *** And on March 26 the Pyramid brings in London’s The English Beat *** MTS Centre gets grimey as ASAP Rocky and Rihanna take over March 25 *** The Garrick will host Stars and Said the Whale on Wednesday, March 27; as Jazz Winnipeg brings Born Ruffians and The Elwins to the Park Theatre *** Billy Talent, Sum 41, Hollerado, and Indian Handcrafts are playing the MTS Centre on Thursday, March 28; that same night, the Park Theatre is hosting the long bill of Soilwork, Jeff Loomis, Blackguard, The Browning, and Wretched; over at the Windsor, Rock Lake are releasing their debut disc, along with Vibrating Beds and the Hoots *** Memphis rockers and poets Lucero play the Park Theatre on March 29th *** Hayden is joined by Lou Canon on Saturday, March 30 at the WECC; and Shout Out Out Out return to Winnipeg and more specifically the Pyramid with Doldrums *** More great shows will be announced, so keep your ear to the floor/stylusmagazine.ca!

FUNDRIVE 2013 February 8th - 15th

PRESENTS:

THIS HISSES Saturday Feb 8th @ WECC PETIT CANADA Jeudi Fevrier 21st @ Parc du Voyageur WOMEN ON THE WHEELS OF STEEL (a fundraiser for the West Central Women’s Resource Centre) Friday, March 8th @ the Regal Beagle ARROGANT WORMS Saturday March 9th @ WECC THE WINNIPEG FREAK OUT Saturday March 16th @ TBA RED MOON ROAD Thurs March 28th @ WECC

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Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

05

By Fabian Suárez-Amaya

Keeping the same touring and recording line-up to-

gether for over a decade, Stars is something of an anomaly among modern musicians. They recently strode through Winnipeg as an opening act for Metric at the MTS Centre. Stylus spoke to Evan Cranley as Stars is preparing to embark on their next tour, promoting their new album The North.

The North had been two years in the making, beginning in 2010 with partial compositions bouncing between Cranley (bass, guitar, synthesizer, percussion, trombone) and fellow musician Chris Seligman (piano, keys, synthesizer and French horn).

While the focus for many fans is the lyrics of Amy Milan (guitar, vocals) and Torquill Campbell (keyboard, vocals), Cranley explained that the music generally comes first. Milan and Campbell draw their inspiration from the “loose compositions,” of the musicians, and begin writing.

Recently returned from a 13-week tour and preparing for another, Cranley spoke about touring with a young child. “We were nervous before going on, about how our daughter would react to the lifestyle, but she was incredible. I think it’s in her blood. She’s a natural entertainer and a natural traveler. She’s got 13 aunts and uncles on the bus. She just makes the tour a happier place to be around,” Cranley laughed.

He continued, “The highlight for me was having Torq’s daughter and my daughter on the bus together in Europe, going to the Louvre together and hanging out in London together, dancing to soundcheck in Vienna together. That was a really special time, to witness our children playing together on

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the artist should be getting. Here in Canada, you can download things illegally, but if you reach your data [maximum] downloading at home, you have to pay cellphone companies money to steal records from artists. It’s like the Wild West out there!”

“The whole thing needs to be revolutionized. It’s totally unfair. I think being an international touring rock act, that’s going to become really exclusive. It’s something that’s for the elite now in a weird way, driven by corporations. I find the whole thing totally gross, now that I’m older. I’m kind of ranting a bit.”

Emerging online resources and continued government funding are possible solutions. “I’m hoping things like Kickstarter will splinter off into other sort of moneysharing socialist internet sites. So emerging artists can get money from their fans directly. Stars has also really benefited from being a band in Canada. We got a lot of money from grants to tour and to make records and that’s helped our career so much. Let’s hope that artist funding doesn’t go away. There’s people out there that really need it.”

The North received some jabs from music critics like Pitchfork and Slant Magazine for its unapolILLUSTRATION BY BRENDEN FORTESCUE ogetic thematic consistency with previous albums, but Cranley was resolute in the band’s focus. “These are hallmark themes. These are the the road in all these beautiful cities. They came to kind of things that we’ll battle in relationships your sound-check every afternoon and danced. We’ve whole life, love and loss, light and dark, they’ll never been around for 13, 14 years, and to finally share a go away, no matter how young or old you are. The moment like that, with the people you make music themes don’t change, but the textures, the tones, and with and your family, that was a really special time.” the compositions change from record to record. I From the Twitter pages of Milan, Campbell, and think that’s the important thing, finding a theme, the band itself (@youarestars), Stars is unabashedly but being really cautious about repeating yourself.” outspoken online, boasting a recent bottled-water The repetition is easily justified: it’s what the free tour, support of Obama, and criticism of cerband knows. It explains Cranley’s comfort in extain Canadian politicians. pressing his excitement about his child to a com“We don’t talk about political things overtly, lyriplete stranger, his voice carrying real gratitude that cally, and musically. But individually, some of us are his song could have meaning to a couple of Winvery passionate about it. It’s a very delicate thing, nipeg teenagers, or decrying the music industry less to make bold political statements in your music. I with cynicism than with anger. Stars is a group of think you have to make it about the music first and honest individuals, who wear their hearts on their the message second. [But] I like to be in a band that sleeve because they’re too big to keep in their pockruffles feathers, makes people feel uncomfortable. I’d ets. rather be a part of a band like that than part of a This propensity for sincere, intense emotional collective that doesn’t say anything about anything display is most evident when explaining one of they believe in. Bands are meant to fuck shit up a Campbell’s more memorable lyrics from the album: bit.”

“Take the weakest thing in you / And beat the basCranley admitted that Stars had ventured a tards with it.” bit more openly on The North, with “A Song Is A “I think it’s better to kill a person with love, than Weapon,” yet he maintained that subtlety was cruwith hate,” Cranley explains. “You know, we all write cial. “There’s political tones in that. But the reason the songs, but whether Torq or Amy writes the lyrwhy it works is because it could be more than one ics - leave it up to the listener as to who wrote that. person. It has a very universal sentiment to it. That’s With that song, the love you make is equal to the why I think it works. That person’s never named; it love you take. And it’s easier to live your life with could be anyone in power.” love than with hate.”

He was considerably more vocal when asked about a recent article Stars had posted on Internet Stars play the Garrick on March 27th, with Said the streaming websites and artist revenue. “All of that Whale. stuff hasn’t caught up to the money that I think

Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

07

PREPARING FOR FIRST PROM

By Kristel Jax

Stylus: As we publish this, you’ll have released the first single of your long awaited EP. We want to know all about it: what’s it called, how long have you been working on it, and what secrets does it hold?

Laura Clock: It’s hard to say when I actually started to work on the EP. Some songs are brand new and were recorded last month, some others started to be built two years ago. To me, where and when it was recorded doesn’t really have an importance. It’s more about a feeling that is timeless. Maybe somehow there’s a reason why it’s so separated in time. I wanted it to feel like different stories, sequences, and flashbacks. The EP is called First Prom.

Stylus: You’ve been recording and touring a lot with oOoOO. Is he on the EP? LC: oOoOO co-produced the song “Don’t.” And I did the rest of the EP myself. There are some touches of my friend M. E. S. H. on the song “Sorry love.”

Some drums I chopped at the end. The song “Milky Words” was originally a beat by a very mysterious producer called Moon. I asked him if I could take it and sing on it and he agreed. So I did ask for some friends talents here and there, to “add” some things, but mostly and overall, I was sitting alone in front my Logic session making the record alone.

It was important for me to do something very personal and with full control. Even though it was painful. Yeah, sometimes I was envious of these people who just have to go in a studio, sing, and leave, and then have a team of people taking care of the rest… haha. When I started my project in 2009 I was producing, writing, every single thing on my own and then started working with oOoOO. I admit I was a little offended to be taken as a “singer” even though it’s just ego shit. Who cares. I was mostly a live vocalist in that project, it’s true. I only wrote two songs with him for oOoOO. I guess it’s just my values. I have a lot of respect for people who try to handle everything on their own. It’s usually long and harsh, but gratifying in the end.

Stylus: I’m really into strange cover songs and I’ve been listening to your version of “Crush” for two years now – I still can’t get over it. What are your favourite covers by other artists?

LC: Thanks. One of my favorites is “Turn Me On”

by CocoRosie. It’s a classic.

Stylus: Will any new cover songs appear on this new release?

LC: No. I tried to stop doing that ‘cause I could just

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mysteriously, fitting her foggy sound. Though Clock finds many fans through her live and recorded collaborations with Tri Angle oOoOO (NoWayBack, Try), Clock is committed to her own sound and vision: a dizzy blend of hip hop aesthetics, pastel-tinted fantasies, mirrored reflections of top 40 pop icons, and cold New German Cinema heroines. If this sounds like a visual artist you’d love to check out or at least follow on Tumblr, you’ll be glad to learn Clock’s new EP is due later this winter.

do it all day. It’s addictive. It’s just too easy and lazy to me somehow, but I’ll release some on [the] internet for sure.

Stylus: I read you like to get spaced out on valium and record late at night. What’s more enjoyable for you, performing live, or recording?

LC: I switched to syrup now: it’s way cooler to “hold a cup” (take that as you want), haha. No, I don’t wanna “promote” drugs at all, but instead the power of crystals and automatic writing.

I’d rather promote that. All those anti-anxiety pills make you even more depressed.... well, that’s my personal experience on the subject. Anyways, it really depends, I think I prefer live shows because I am not getting too pissed usually. I am very impatient and recording songs takes so long, it makes me nervous to sit and stay still when things don’t sound the way I want. I’ve stopped myself from breaking my laptop several times.

When I play live I don’t have time to think, so it’s relaxing and peaceful.

Stylus: Your singles have an intimate bedroom vibe – what kind of head space are you in personally when you perform live?

LC: Well I am trying to be as entertaining as possible. And I’ve been told I was, but kind of besides my control. I am kind of clumsy, and I really try not to trip all the time, and be too clowny cause that’s not hot. Like pros, you know. Like Rihanna and all those pop stars. I admire them so much. I wish I had that confidence. I am working on it though.

Stylus: What have you found is the most difficult kind of audience for you, and how do you deal with that?

LC: People who are staring and not dancing is the worst, I feel really awkward. It doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t like it, but I am very sensitive and if I don’t feel the audience “with me,” comforting me and being close, I lose it and storm out once in awhile. I should work on my confidence, I guess…

Stylus: What’s been your best touring experience so far?

LC: All of it was amazing. Traveling with oOoOO all over the world was a blessing. Lots of drama too; touring in general always brings surprises (mostly good ones). Taking a ferry from Germany to Denmark was one of the prettiest trips / landscapes ever, I think.

Stylus: You seem attracted to colours, digital art and pop imagery. What imagery do you like to surround yourself with? What would your dream home look like inside?

L NE JA BY

erlin via Paris artist Laura Clock has built ButterBclock into an underground phenomenon slowly and

ION AT TR US ILL

butterclock

LC: My dream home IS my home. I have lots of glitters mixed with dirt, a few posters of my friend o F F love on the walls, plasma balls, good speakers, and crystals. I just need an ocean or waterfall view. We have snow right now in Berlin and that’s cool too.

I directed the video for the single “Don’t.” I am very much into filming, it helped me to finish the EP actually. It’s soothing.

Stylus: Do you dream in colour? What was your most recent dream?

LC: I only dream in blue, pink, and purple, are you kidding me? My last dream was probably about chasing waterfalls, and Soulja Boy was the soundtrack...

Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

09

THIS HISSES the balsamic reduction of Anhedonia

By Shanell Dupras

T his Hisses formed back in 2010 with member Julia

Ryckman’s urge to record after her last project, The Gorgon, was through performing. Ryckman recruited Pat Short after attempting to make a band with him in previous years. Ryckman also asked JP ( JeanPaul) Perron to join, having no idea what to expect.

They quickly became This Hisses, and pumped out their first album, Surf Noir, only three months after forming. Their sound has slowly changed, and they are now releasing a second album to show their new, more evolved sound. Stylus sat down with Ryckman, Short, and Perron over a meal of Rold Gold pretzels and wine to talk about the new album, due out February 9th.

Stylus: How did it feel when Surf Noir became such a success in Winnipeg?

Pat Short: It’s kind of intangible. It didn’t make a huge difference to how we do anything.

Jean-Paul Perron: We just try to put on good shows. The album release was a big event but it wasn’t a lot of our regular fans. It’s nice because people come out of the woodwork and come to our shows that aren’t involved in the music scene… One thing that Surf Noir did is it got us a lot of good shows, like the WAG’s 100th anniversary and Nuit Blanche. A lot of those shows probably wouldn’t have come up without the success of the record.

PS: I don’t think we make music for anybody else.

If you write music, you shouldn’t care what anyone who listens to it is going to think.

Stylus: What were your influences when writing the new songs?

JPP: I have a weekly radio show on CKUW [ed. note: see CKUWho this month for more details!], and we all went on to the radio show with the producer of the record Matt Peters, and brought in our influences.

PS: For me, I just kind of tried to look back to stuff that I liked when I was playing more aggressive music like Jesus Lizard and Killing Joke.

Julia Ryckman: We were getting pretty specific.

Even down to what did I want the bass to sound like on this record.

JPP: Our personal influences [are] a lot differ-

ent. I have a lot of novelty records, and I bring a lot of that into my drumming style because I like to keep it very animated and solid, but at the same time I like to have a lot of fun.

JR: There [are] some interesting stories from different songs. There’s a song called “Winter’s Grip,” and when we went into the studio I didn’t have lyrics. I knew how I wanted to sing it and I knew what the song should be about… It was getting to [the point] where I actually had to record this vocal track, so JP and I sat down, and I was like “Ok. This song is about this, it’s a bit of a party song, it’s a bit of a rager. It’s about being stuck in winter and desperately needing summer.” And we sat there, and crunched out these lyrics in a high stress situation.

JPP: We were just pacing.

JR: Yeah it was really intense, and we were just eating these stupid Rold Gold chocolate pretzels and writing these lyrics. There’s another song, “Black Smith”… I came in there wanting to write a straight up punk song.

JPP: That one sort of has the influences on there [of ] Black Flag and the Smiths put together.

JR: Yeah I came in with this straight up punk riff.

I was like “Oh yeah, this will be like a Gorgon style punk song.” And then Pat made this beautiful twinkly guitar line that changed everything. They were joking that we’d call it “Black Smith.”

JPP: But then it worked lyrically after that. Julia puts together the lyrics and [says], “This is what it’s about!’ and Pat will chime up with something.

“We’ve been trying to think of a name for this song!

We just put two band names together!”

Stylus: The title track is called “Anhedonia,” meaning an inability to feel pleasure; why did you choose that name?

BY TION TRA S LLU

PS: Because we’re old and jaded. Nothing feels good anymore.

JR: That song is about having enough negative experiences that you’re longing to not be in the world where you’re subject to desire… So it’s more of a poetic use of the word, not really literal.

PS: It’s funny because you pretty much said that and I was like “Oh anhedonia!”

Stylus: What are some of the key differences between Anhedonia and Surf Noir?

PS: It’s better.

JPP: I’d say it feels darker.

JR: It’s refined. It’s like when you’re making a balsamic reduction. You’re boiling away the vinegar until it becomes this really intense, crazy substance.

And I feel like that’s sort of what happened.

PS: We boiled Matt [Peters] until he made a record for us.

JR: We put ourselves in the hot pot.

JPP: You can tell that we’ve come a long way playing music together, because after three months Pat and I hardly knew each other playing in this band, and this is after we’ve toured and played a lot of shows.

PS: I think part of the reason the second album is different too is because I started using songs [from] this side project… that didn’t work out. “Anhedonia” is one of those songs; “Crawl” is one of those songs.

Stylus: Are you planning on doing a Canadian tour after the release?

JPP: Right now. We’ll see how it goes. It’s been a goal of the band… to go to Europe… but we want to make sure that we have stuff in place so that we aren’t just in Europe backpacking. We have a couple of new songs in the works that are quite a bit different than even Anhedonia.

So now it’s another shift.

And then we’re going to be recording more videos for this album.

We really excel in our live shows, so that’s why we like touring.

Visit us at www. stylusmagazine.com for a more extensive interview with This Hisses.

NICK VAN DOESELAAR

I

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Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

011

ingrid gatin

IN CONVERSATION WITH.. BROOSE TULLOCH

It’s been two years since her last album, but Ingrid

Gatin is back with 11 songs and 1,000 Lives. 1,000 Lives, the title of her second full-length disc, was recorded in a Winnipeg loft and church, and in Grammy-nominated producer Howard Bilerman’s (Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat, the Dears) Montréal studio.

Gatin’s instrument of choice is the much-maligned and oft-mocked accordion.

“I started playing the accordion because I wanted an instrument I could busk with. I also really liked the sound of the accordion in French music; a few of my favourite indie bands have one and I thought I could make beautiful and interesting sounds with it.”

Speaking on how 1,000 Lives came to be the title of both the song and the album, Ingrid explains “A friend’s mother in P.E.I. was in the audience and she told me that once I found the name for that song, it would be the name of my album. I decided to call the song “1000 Lives,” and it made so much sense for the album too, as it’s about the different lives that all of our lives contain, all the people we used to be and are becoming.”

Born in small-town Saskatchewan and raised in Brandon, Manitoba, Ingrid remembers her youth fondly.

“I grew up in Whitewood, Saskatchewan. I loved being in a small town in the middle of the prairies.

My parents are nature enthusiasts and I had a bit of an idyllic childhood, with no television and lots of trees. We moved to Brandon for junior high and high school. Great place to do that.

A small city, but I could do all the things I wanted to do like act in plays, take dance lessons, vocal lessons, the school rock band.

I was always playing music and acting.”

After high school she moved to Winnipeg, joining bluegrass renegades The Magnificent 7s in 2007.

“That band gained a lot of local popularity, and really helped me step into the Winnipeg

music scene when I started playing solo gigs. Then after I did my first solo tour in the spring of 2009, I got a grant from Manitoba Film and Music to record a solo album, and started touring Canada like crazy.”

Though based in the big city, composing reconnects Ingrid with her country roots.

“When I’ve spent time writing in a cabin in the woods or living in small towns, I want to stay forever. I think being from the prairies and growing up on farms will always be in my music. My family and people around me are very important to me, so I end up writing a lot about my interactions and discoveries in the people in my life, no matter which city I’m in. Of course modern technology makes communication easy, so I can keep the connection to my past and to important people.”

Speaking of important people, tell us about some of the local musicians in your life.

“Well, I have toured with Demetra Penner

because I love her music; and for some reason, I never caught a live JP Hoe show until this past year when we were both showcasing at the Folk Alliance in Memphis. I was so pleased to discover him, and now I get his songs stuck in my head. Not to mention my ex-band, The Magnificent 7s, who I’m still on good terms with. They are tighter than ever and all of them are so talented. There are so many amazing bands in Winnipeg.”

After the official launch on February 5th, Gatin begins touring eastward to the coast, which is not far from home in some ways.

“I am really excited for that, as I have spent quite a lot of time in that neck of the woods, and it reminds me a lot of the prairies with its love of music.”

Montréal’s Twin Voices will be opening for Gatin on the eastern leg of the tour, which hits Toronto at the end of February for the Folk Alliance.

Then it’s a western tour in March and April, before a jet-setting summer.

“I plan to be based out of Winnipeg again for the spring and summer... between touring Europe and playing summer festivals, of course. I’ve been invited to play a music festival in Wales, so I’ll be touring Wales, Germany, and the UK, and hopefully visiting both France and Norway, where I still have family.”

“I have to say how excited I am about releasing this album,” she continues. “I’ve put a lot of work and love into this, it’s been my whole life between touring over the past year, and now I can’t wait to share it with the world.”

So, how does the life Gatin lives and the life she records fit together?

“Life is crazy,” she admits. “I have a million wild and wonderful tales and they are only growing in number.

People are so beautiful and so strange, and it is just a pleasure to get to experience happiness and heartache in my own life and through the eyes of friends and lovers. I think that is really what this album is about, stories of experiencing the world in different lights, in all kinds of different places. The world just keeps on spinning, and it never stops providing experiences for us to grow from.”

ILLUSTRATION BY GRACE MOYER

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Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

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ONE TIME, IN THE EARLY 90S, MY LITTLE BROTHER AND I WERE GAMING THE HARDEST GAME THAT EVER GAMED. BECAUSE I WAS SUCH A GREAT OLDER BROTHER, INSTEAD OF JUST LETTING HIM BE MY CHEERLEADER, I ALSO APPOINTED HIM THE SACRED DUTY OF WRITING DOWN ALL THE SAVE-CODES. AFTER MONTHS OF HARD PLAYING/CHEERING ON THIS GAME, WE PUNCHED IN THE LATEST SAVE-CODE TO THE FURTHEST LEVEL WE’D EVER BEEN TO AND NOTHING HAPPENED. “CODE INVALID” IT SAID... IT WAS OBVIOUS WHAT HAD HAPPENED; HE WROTE THE CODE DOWN WRONG. I MADE HIM FEEL LIKE A REAL SHIT FOR MESSING UP HIS ONLY JOB AND WE NEVER PLAYED THE GAME AGAIN...

ANYWAYS, 18 YEARS LATER I THOUGHT I’D FINALLY ADMIT THAT I’D ACCIDENTALLY MISREAD THE CODE TO HIM. WHOOPS.SORRY BRO. BUY OUR CLOTHES.

W W W. M N E C L T H N G . C O M

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PHOTO CRED: D. KURYLO

NONSTOPHIPHOP Vancouver’s Cityreal keeping a close to ear to the pavement

By Harrison Samphir When Stylus asked Remi Huot, otherwise known as Cityreal, how he began making hip hop music in his early twenties, the answer was not unusual.

“I fell into it accidentally,” he recalls, speaking with Stylus on the phone from Vancouver BC. “I had some knowledge of music from playing in high school bands, and later on started messing around with beats. I just stuck with it as a hobby.”

Now 26 years old, Huot is among Canada’s most prolific rising emcees, boasting two records, three Western Canadian Music Award nominations, and a substantive list of associated acts including Swollen Members, Sweatshop Union, D-Sisive and even Leslie Feist.

Coming off the release of his latest effort, Good Morning Blues, Huot discussed the Vancouver scene and illustrated his ascension as a conscious artist with quite humble beginnings.

Spending many of his formative years in Manitoba, Huot attended the University of Winnipeg and Collège de Saint-Boniface before relocating to Vancouver in 2007. There he worked with local and national hip hop figures to release The Beginning in 2010, a full-length effort that impressed critics and fans en route to procuring a handful of Western Canadian Music Award nominations.

Cityreal’s style of hip hop is characterized best by Huot’s effortless flow and similarly fluid lyricism. His vocabulary is expansive and informed, while his mostly self-produced tracks are a healthy blend of underground sampling and live instrumentation.

This modern approach to crafting a hip hop record is manifest in Huot’s

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sophomore release, Good Morning Blues [ed. note: see “Mental Notes” in the Review section for more]. Completed with blues guitar legend Wes Mackey, the two met in impromptu fashion at a now defunct upscale Vancouver restaurant called The Shore Club.

“It was one of the nicer restaurants in Van and Mackey played a one-man show there with just bass pedals and guitar,” explained Huot. “I asked my waitress if she could get his contact information for me, so we sat down for coffee and went from there.”

Their collaboration, released January 22, seriously elevated Cityreal’s status.

“Reception [for Good Morning Blues] has been massive,” said Huot with confidence. “It came together organically due to circumstance... [And] a succession of good luck has led to what the project is now.”

“Good luck” might be referencing Huot’s opportunity to record with one of Canada’s most well-known and vital hip hop ambassadors, Madchild. The fellow Vancouver native has already enjoyed a vibrant solo career and experienced critical success with group Swollen Members, but the chance to work together favoured both artists.

“Madchild was getting past his hardships when I met him,” said Huot, recalling the artist’s recent battle with oxycodone addiction. “He taught me what it takes to make it. He’s the most driven guy I’ve met in the industry.”

“It’s not about following in the footsteps of what’s out there,” explained Huot. “Swollen Members as a whole have taught me an incredible amount and I received a lot of insight into the drive and the energy that is needed to be successful in this game.”

Capturing that drive has facilitated a heightened political tone in Cityreal’s music. In the video for a remastered

version of the album’s single “Passing Me By”–originally featured on The Beginning–Huot expressed a “collage of feelings” toward his city of Vancouver and its pervasive urban poverty and addiction.

“We filmed a Downtown East Side Neighborhood Council protesting awful living conditions for singleroom occupancy dwellers,” he explains. “We wanted to make a link between the ongoing gentrification and the way things have been changing in the city over time.”

“The video speaks to that,” Huot believes. “You see a lot of self-serving talk in modern hip hop, and I tried to stay away from that. I saw an opportunity to be mutually beneficial to a cause that is important to me and to a lot of people.”

Yet despite Huot’s commitment to addressing systemic problems in his place of residence, he’s not getting caught up in the “scene,” either.

“To be completely honest,” he admits, “I don’t like to focus much on locality or the ‘take over your city’ mentality.

The best hip hop has come from people who look beyond that, who look at the broader picture. Swollen in Vancouver and Drake and K’naan in Toronto did the same thing. I just try to take that type of approach and avoid getting pigeon-holed in the ‘scene.’”

Broadening his scope further yet, Huot already has a new record in the works.

Titled Lost in Vancouver, his third disc overall will be a collaboration with Bulgarian-Canadian composer, producer, and arranger Todor Kobakov, the Toronto-based contemporary musician who has completed string arrangements for some of Canada’s finest talent including Stars, Dan Mangan, Metric, and k-os.

“He’ll be doing 75 per cent of the string arrangements on the album,”

PHOTO BY RYAN WEST

confirmed Huot. “Once we’re done mapping it out, I’ll bring him back to Van and record a ten-piece string composition with the Vancouver Film Orchestra... It’ll be a big, epic sound with strings and piano, and we’ve already got Saukrates and Swollen Members on board, too.”

In the meantime, Cityreal is heading to Fort McMurray in northern Alberta to film a video for the song “Midnight Sun,” which also appears on Good Morning Blues. In the vein of his other aforementioned video, Huot hopes to expose both a political edge to his songwriting and an increasingly controversial national energy project that is the oil sands.

“Naturally, when I’m making a video it’s a lot less forced,” he suggested. “I can take time to plan the message and create more of a project to get a common message out. “(In Fort McMurray) we’ll have our feet on the ground making an effort to show the devastation that’s going on up there. That was my reason for getting into music in the first place: to have a voice and to be heard. I’m very interested in politics and trying to enter the political arena... I’ll probably go back to school and work for a nonprofit some day, but this is a real opportunity to bring a worthy cause to the attention of people everywhere.”

Huot did not have time to answer my obligatory question regarding the “state of the hip hop industry,” but in a way I’m glad he couldn’t comment.

As it stands, Cityreal is a young and exciting new talent who, unconcerned with trends and the specter of material wealth, is poised for success and an enlightened career in hip hop.

“I make music to make good music,” he concluded. “Hopefully one day people will embrace it.”

Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

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VOIVOD TARGET EARTH WITH NEW ALBUM

BY BROOSE TULLOCH

16 Stylus Magazine Feb/Mar 2013

LLUSTRATI ON B Y

think because we toured for two years before writing the album and because of the set lists on tour, we have absorbed all of the eras.

When people started saying it had a bit of everything for everybody, I started to think that maybe I should use covers from previous albums. I made it very colourful because we are selling a lot of vinyl these days, which I think is great.

Stylus: On Target Earth your politics and observations seem more overt and pointed, yet the sound is bright and crisp.

ML: Yeah, it’s strange because we are always influenced by what’s going on socially, around the earth, and all that. So even though it seems to be about new, modern subjects, it is sort of reminiscent of what we’ve been talking about along the years. What I mean by that is, when we started writing the album early in 2010 and during the following year there were events going on like the Occupy movement and Arab spring, the economic crash, and the Fukushima nuclear accident, and we talk about all of that stuff in sci-fi tales. It brings me back to the 80s when we were writing about Chernobyl and the Challenger explosion. We always talk about pollution and high-tech weaponry, so it’s sort of the same worries year after year, but it’s influenced by what’s happening on this planet right now, so in a sense these are recurring scenarios.

Stylus: Another more positive cycle that has come around again is vinyl.

ML: Yeah, for the past few years every album we’ve put out came on vinyl

I

Stylus: How are things in Montréal?

Michel Langevin: Things are great.

We’re enjoying a bit of a break here, after much touring this year and recording and mixing. I’m back to doing some graphics at home so that’s great.

Stylus: How does being a drummer and a visual artist work for you?

ML: I’ve been pretty much spending half my time doing graphics and the other half playing music for the past 30 years, so it’s been absolutely great for me. I didn’t really try exploring other stuff than digital art and drumming. But I can connect both very well with Voivod.

Stylus: Is it a different kind of pressure to visually represent the band’s philosophy and sound?

ML: Yes. It is always a challenge because I try to express the music and the whole vibe of the album. I find it’s very hard to please everybody, that’s the main challenge. But I also try to connect the visuals to what’s going on in the life of the band as well. I tend to change the design when we change lineup. Trying to represent the music of the new album Target Earth is sort of a return to the prog-thrash metal that we were doing in the 80s and I had to design a new logo for that.

Stylus: Target Earth’s artwork incorporates a number of past elements, perhaps heralding the return of original members?

ML: When we started demo-ing, our friends said the music was sort of a mix of all the Voivod eras put together, though with Blacky [ Jean-Yves Theriault]’s lower bass sound, it really brings you back to the 80s catalogue. I

MA TT PE RR IN

I

n December, Stylus caught up with drummer and graphic artist for legendary Québec metal band Voivod, Michel Langevin. Their latest album Target Earth, was released January 22nd through Century Media Records. In its 30 year career, Voivod has made a name for themselves with a prog-rock/ thrash metal sound, thought-provoking lyrics, and an eerie science-fiction vibe.

It was a chilling cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” from 1989’s Nothingface that broke the band, reaching number 114 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

with a download card.

I think it’s really great because then it allows me to do sceneries on the front cover. So I’m going to try to go all out next time and put in tons more

detail.

Stylus: How did your culture of nicknames originate?

ML: We were French-Canadian and thinking nobody is going to be able to say Michel Langevin [Away], Denis Belanger [Snake], Jean-Yves Theriault [Blacky], and Denis D’Amour [Piggy], so we thought let’s find short catchy nicknames that sort of represent everybody’s personality. That’s how it started. While we were writing War & Pain at the jam space, I was doing a lot of my early drawings and concepts, and studying science at university and quite often couldn’t show up at rehearsal because of homework and they ended up calling me “Away.”

Stylus: Voivod has had eight lineup changes plus more than one hiatus. What keeps the band going?

ML: We have a very loyal fol-

lowing; everybody who is into Voivod is really loyal, they show up whenever we tour. Last October we went across Europe without an album, we just had the “Mechanical Minds” single and people showed up, it was unbelievable! There were a couple of times where the band was on hiatus because of the unfortunate passing of Piggy [founding guitarist Denis D’Amour died of colon cancer in 2005] or the crash in Germany [bassist Eric Forrest was seriously injured in a 1998 auto accident], but we always go back to playing music.

Also I get antsy after a year or two.

That’s why Piggy and I, or Snake [Denis Belanger] and I, keep phoning each other back, saying “Okay, let’s reform!” Plus we can always count on the Voivod family, we call them Voivodians, across the globe. We get very good crowds in Moscow, South America and Asia. It would be really hard for me because I love travelling so much and playing music across the globe; it would be really hard for me to accept not doing it anymore. So I just keep doing it. Even in the early 90s when metal took a bit of a low profile, we were still going to Europe to play huge festivals with Venom and Slayer. It’s hard for me to find a reason to stop, and right now it is even better for us because we are enjoying a resurgence of thrash metal and the band has become sort of legendary.

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Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

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SCREAMING AT TRAFFIC PHOTO BY GINAYA JESMER

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018 Stylus Magazine Feb/Mar 2013

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Destination Moon

Mondays, 9:00p.m. to 10:30p.m. on CKUW 95.9 FM or streaming online at www.ckuw.ca

JP Perron, host of CKUW’s Destination Moon, shows me around his wildly decorated apartment, explaining the process by which he puts together his weekly themed show on a cold Sunday evening.

On top of a billiard table, which doubles as a table tennis pitch, he was dozens of records spread, separated into particular sub-categories.

“Whatever theme I have always has little subsets within it,” he explains. Before us is his upcoming “Laughing” episode. Records piled based on categories like “fun songs,” “jokes,” “sad funny songs,” and songs featuring laughter itself. “There’s always something I can group together, and I’ll try to keep it so it flows.”

This is the way he plans his shows every week, spending hours crafting a perfectly zany playlist for his Monday evening listeners. “Usually I have a lot of episodes planned ahead of time that I’m working on,” Perron continues. “So whenever I hear a song that has a certain theme I put it into this book.” He then shows me [a] well dog eared notebook with thousands of songs scrawled across every page, with plenty of scrap paper and napkins taped in for safe keeping. JP has been doing Destination Moon — which airs Mondays from 9:00 to 10:30 PM — for a few years now. Growing up in Saskatoon, Perron’s love of community radio runs deep.

“I’ve always wanted to do a radio [show],” he admits. “I would listen to campus radio in Saskatoon. CFCR. I loved that station. I knew every show that was on all the time, I was just ad020 Stylus Magazine Feb/Mar 2013

dicted to it.”

He got his start with CKUW by guesting on, and then taking over Rockin Chair AM, an oldies rock and nostalgia show airing at 6:00 AM

Wednesdays, before launching Destination Moon.

Drawn entirely from JP’s massive novelty vinyl collection, Destination Moon features a different theme every week.

Some of his favourite themes include “Gibberish,” “Whistling,” and the perennial Halloween and Christmas themes.

“I try to make them pretty topical.

I have lots of summer themes, vacation themes,” he says. “In the middle of winter I try to do like a trip around the world, like exotica.”

“I’ve been collecting novelty records and vinyl for a long time and making mix tapes,” continues Perron.

“Every now and then I would make a mix-tape on a theme. I’d have these lists started. Now I have this radio show, it’s just a work in progress.”

“Like say Time,” explains JP by way of example. “Whenever there’s a time change, I’ll do a theme on time, so every time I do it I have some more songs that I find and the theme gets more elaborate.”

In the end, the combined love of radio and records keeps JP, who also works two jobs and plays in a number of bands [ed. note: see our feature on This Hisses in this issue], slogging through the snow to CKUW studios every Monday night.

“I like novelty records,” he says.

“It’s really fun for me to be able to go through all that I have, so they’re not just sitting there.”

Tune into Destination Moon on CKUW 95.9FM every Monday evening from 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM.

Local Spotlight

INGRID D. JOHNSON What About Love?

People often talk about music with a purpose or a purpose in music, with Ingrid D. Johnson, the purpose and the music are one. A victim of child sexual abuse, she found hope in therapy and a real sense of purpose putting a message in her music. At times the lyrics can seem awkwardly confessional, but they do set the tone and back-story for the stronger songs.

Positive vibes permeate every song, even the sad ones, on this ultimately uplifting disc. Her sound is a soulful blend of pop, jazz, and hip-hop supported by her band, the Funky Fresh Crew. An individually talented group, The Crew has a good chemistry that gives the songs a real vibrancy. What About Love? feels like a natural extension, or more accurately an abridged version of 2009’s double-album, Wounded Soul. Case in point, one of the tracks, “So Long,” is a re-mix of “Hurry Up” from the previous disc.

(Independent, intheclosetproductions.com) Broose Tulloch

THE GIRTH The Girth Winnipeg has this amazing ability to breed musicians and great bands. On The Girth’s debut album, they prove themselves as incredibly talented local musicians that have loads of fun with music. This quality shines through on this release, and the result is one of the most unique records released last

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year. Messy men, pretentious douche bags and underwater living are some of the hilarious stories/issues addressed on this gem. The delivery is straightforward but comes off with an amazing laid-back fun vibe. This album will translate incredibly well to a live setting, and coupled with the Girth’s live show, some good times will be had when these guys hit the stage. “Seriously Not Serious” demonstrates the feel you get from the entire album, as Steve Basham sings “I’m at my best when I’m a mess and art’s an afterthought.” The Girth do not take themselves too seriously and as a result we get an album that is immensely entertaining in its catchiness and hilarity. Highlights “Messy Man” and “I’ll Cut You,” the former with its goofy voice and the latter with its awesomeness, are great examples of the storytelling and songwriting that make this local act one to check out.

(Independent) Scott Wolfe

mal presentations. “Vast Undulating Black” is more or less exactly what one would imagine the sound of vast undulating black to be. “Born to be My Unicorn” is as close to pop as this album comes, as it includes vocal and background percussion, but despite a somewhat conventional structure still retains a dreamy quality. This is not revolutionary ambient or electronic music, but it serves to affect your atmosphere appropriately.

It’s been said that this album is “perfect for walking at night” but also “ideal for winter hibernation.” These two acts are contradictory, but it makes sense when we consider both Treme and Winnipeg. Generally, Winnipeg is a place where it is ideal for winter hibernation on the best of days, and yet there is something alluring about it, something that is maybe only discovered by walking the streets of this city. It’s that sort of un-

derstanding about New Orleans that David Simon has, and it’s the sort of understanding that Blunderspublik has about Winnipeg on Barren Immensity. (Dub Ditch Picnic, notype. com/drones/catalogue.e/panospria/) Devin King

MISE EN SCENE Desire’s Despair When the opening track cracked me upside the jawline, I thought “oh hi, The Long Blondes!” BUT IT WAS

BLUNDERSPUBLIK Barren Immensity When David Simon’s latest foray into television, Treme, began airing on HBO, you can’t fault people for assuming we’d get The Wire Pt 2. On the contrary, what Simon provided was not so much of a plot driven narrative, but a slow, reflective look at New Orleans and its people. In some ways, it was more of a painting than it was a television show. Blunderspublik’s latest cassette Barren Immensity follows a similar suit. Blunderspublik’s Discogs.com page says that he writes “audio pieces for distraction.”

Barren Immensity couldn’t be further from the truth. Rather than distract, they serve to affect your environment – not to be listened to on its own per se, but to be used to experience life as you listen. Some tracks move faster than others – “Elastic Modulus” is one such example – but many tracks rely on slower, or at least, more mini-

Feb/Mar 2013 Stylus Magazine

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NOT THE LONG BLONDES. It was Mise en Scene’s debut full-length disc, Desire’s Despair. The top track off of the album for me is “When I Met You,” full of clangy, scratchy guitars and booming drums. Pavement comparisons are played out, so fuck that. But it does have a real early 90s sound, like Wisconsin’s alt-rock group Garbage, or if Sloan had ever hired a singer. The track also features some coy, tongue-in-cheek quotes: “You know I like you all the time / not only when I’m drinking wine,” or “I’m dating guys that just aren’t cool / I wish I had someone like you.”

Vocalist Stefanie Johnson has a beautiful and powerful voice, driving many of the tracks on its strength alone, but I was left looking for a little more diversity from the group. There are efforts throughout, from the belting on “Velvet,” to the grim lyricism on “Paris, Texas,” but by my third listen through, I still found many of the tracks indistinct without the track list. This is not to say the album doesn’t have its strengths: the aforementioned “When I Met You” was a standout, and lead track “Endless Summer” uses the duo’s pop-sensibilities to their utmost. The shoo-bop 60s feel of “Sherry” and the aggressive hand-clap chorus on Sweet William are sneakily danceable. The album is a fine debut effort, full of energy. I’m interested to see what Mise en Scene does for their second release. (Pipe & Hat, miseenscenemusic.com) Fabian Suárez-Amaya

MOBINA GALORE Skeletons EP Skeletons EP, Mobina Galore’s second offering, is a five song nineteen minute blast of raw rock n roll, chock full of hooks and crashes. The production is a bit muddy, but it’s still a crisp sound, like a brighter White Stripes (though they cite Black Keys as a major influence). The drum-guitar duo of Jenna Priestner and Marcia Hanson adds a nice depth to the music with some great harmony; their voices work well together. The vocals, while not weak, are a little thin, and at times you can feel their strain to reach the notes or volume. That doesn’t sound like a compliment but it is. It adds to the urgency and immediacy of the songs

24 Stylus Magazine Feb/Mar 2013 22

and gives the lyrics a proper delivery, not begging or desperate, but fighting hard for the equalizer, so to speak.

“Take Me Away” is a bit different from the other songs with its lower tone and slower tempo; it kind of growls along nicely. The EP is capped off with the standout track, “Hear Me Out,” a finalist in the 2013 Manitoba Songfest. All in all, an excellent barebones raw rock album that does its job: it makes you want to see them live. (Independent, mobinagalore. com) Broose Tulloch

COLLAGE-À-TROIS collage-à-trois EP I had the pleasure of attending collage-à-trois’ second annual Winter Show in December, and can safely say it landed in my top ten list for 2012. These women are very talented arrangers and executed their live set incredibly well. Their debut self-titled release is a five song EP tracking in at 25 minutes. Minimalist arrangements limited to guitar, percussion, and flute support the three women’s voices as the songs navigate through pop, jazz, and blues tunes - 75 per cent of which I am unqualified to comment on. But as a pop enthusiast, this EP is fantastic. While it fails to capture the beauty of their live set (something that should be blamed on the recording budget, and not the performances), this EP contains an impressively wide range of influences, and pulls it all together with solid arrangements built around great vocal melodies.

From the driving gospel and blues of opener “Walkin’,” to the ridiculous yet normal seeming time signatures of “The One,” this EP is a great showcase of collage-à-trois’ flexibility, without getting self-indulgent. EP closer “Grain De Mil” captures what I like most about this group: smartly structured pop tunes and captivating chord progressions with quick melodies on top of a stripped down, driving rhythm. It’s clear collage-à-trois have great chemistry, can arrange a good song, and know how to execute it live. I look forward to their next release. (Independent, collage-a-trois. com) Darcy Penner

Ulteriors

BLACK WALLS Acedia If Casper the Friendly Ghost was into wearing hardcore t-shirts and skateboarding through Toronto’s endless suburbs, he’d be a lot like Black Walls’ Ken Reaume. Reaume, who is no stranger – he toured with the likes of Mount Eerie and Final Fantasy under his old handle VIVIV – takes cues from both Mark Kozelek and Black Sabbath, weaving demons, religious iconography, regret, and one celebrity skateboarder (Brian Lotti) together with gentle vocals and skillful classi-

cal guitar compositions. The effect is a delicate, formless sound that ollies four dark horses and never touches back to earth. After a four year break from releasing music, Reaume submits Acedia as Black Walls’ debut, and the music is an obvious result of patience. VIVIV, like Kozelek, always struck me as acoustic music for people who find alienation and naivety in most things folk leaning. There is a touch of Natural Snow Buildings here amid Black Walls’ heavy lyrics, occasional field recordings, electronic glimmers, and tender song writing: a real glimpse into the beyond. Stare into the white vinyl at midnight and you might just see a ghost. (Pleasence, blackwalls.bandcamp.com) Kristel Jax ARIANE MOFFATT MA (remix) Québécois chart topper Ariane Moffatt’s latest release is MA (remix).

Moffatt collaborated with Montréal’s DJ Poirier to remix tracks from her

original MA album released in 2012.

MA was her first bilingual record as well as the first record to be remixed and rereleased. The album mixes Moffatt’s airy, soulful vocals with electro-pop reminiscent of Robyn. Some of the original tracks have been completely deconstructed making them completely unrecognizable. While it makes for a good remix, Moffat’s signature vocals and lyrics are missed in “L’homme dans l’automobile” and “Sourire Sincere” and that’s kind if a bummer. That being said, “In Your Body (Plaster Remix)” more than makes up for it with its awesome, highly danceable beats. MA(remix) gives a fresh take Ariane Moffatt’s music, which usually focuses on lyrics and dabbles in everything from jazz to reggae musically. It’s short but sweet, I enjoyed it from start to finish and hope to hear more remixes from Ariane Moffatt soon. (AudioGram, arianemoffatt.com) Martyna Turczynowicz

ARABIAN HORSES / GLINA Split EP It’s no shock that one of the best drone releases of 2012 was also a tape I spent half the year struggling to describe. Drawn to the hypnotic work of Moscow’s Arabian Horses, who’ve released a few impressive psychedelic drone recordings prior (notably Guardians of the Flame on gem of a label Full of Nothing), it was the Glina side that I found myself returning to most often and with intense curiosity. While the eighteen minute Arabian Horses track is creeping and beautiful in its strangeness, aggression and persistence punctuated by howls and ruptured guitar lines, Glina is terrifying to the level of the extraordinary. What begins as jam-y noise soon takes shape as combative, stretched dirges that remind me of both Angels in America and Kram Ran for their reckless abandon; especially Angels for their low, unnerving female vocals

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which also bring to mind the bleakest wails of free jazz artist Patty Waters.

There is patience and there is doom.

Both tracks, particularly “Protestanskaya etika,” escalate to the metal side of noise. Glina, play my birthday party. I’ll be serving thick black KoolAid. (Steak Au Zoo, steakauzoo. bandcamp.com) Kristel Jax

CHARLATAN / CLATHRUS Split I just made my way through season one of the X-Files, which has everything to do with this little drone split from Russian label Full of Nothing.

The EP progresses like a well paced, spaced out episode: after an ominous prologue, rhythms build a false sense of security which shock us at a sudden turn. Nightmarish visions cuddle up with clever banter. As Mulder and Scully proved that government conspiracy and brutal slaughter can skip hand in hand with knee-slapping witticisms and angelic sexual tension, Split unleashes playful noise which watches through our windows and creeps in through baseboard ventilators (remember those episodes?

TERRIFYING). Just when we’ve understood the direction of the EP and can sit back and enjoy “Charlatan,” Clathrus’ first track, “Manitoba,” grips with a serious turn. A metaphysical question is asked of us. What are we willing to believe? When did we arrive back at the edge of our seat? How many references in music are there to Manitoba in comparison to Saskatchewan? Tying up no loose ends and showing no mercy for our real lives these two psychedelic artists, one from the United States and one from Russia, unite for about the length of a typical X-F adventure and of course leave us wanting more; “Zond,” Clathrus’ final track, is the EP’s strongest.

(Full of Nothing, digital.fullofnothing.net/) Kristel Jax

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Mental Notes

CITYREAL & WES MACKEY Good Morning Blues In the framework of Vancouver hip hop – a scene synonymous with names like the Rascalz, Sweatshop Union, and Swollen Members – Cityreal (Remi Huot) is steadily becoming one of the city’s most relevant players. With his sophomore release Good Morning Blues, the Winnipegraised emcee has made a prominent mark on the face of West Coast rap and planted a stake in its future development. Recorded alongside veteran Wes Mackey, a guitarist with a

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professional career spanning 50 years, Good Morning Blues is an immaculately produced ten song album with smooth instrumental tracks and an ear directly to the pavement of urban Vancouver. Featuring collaborations with Mad Child and Toronto’s D-Sisive, Cityreal’s first release in nearly three years deals with themes of self-discovery and sounds impressively mature for an artist with only one other release (2010’s The Beginning). Although the prominence of Mackey’s guitar riffs and melodic hooks situate Cityreal’s Good Morning Blues within an ‘alternative’ nexus, the frequency of sampling and core hip hop elements also broadens its appeal. The use of Nipsey Russell’s 1974 soul classic “What Would I Do (If I Could Feel)?” on a midpoint interlude is one notable example.

Heads and casual fans alike should enjoy Cityreal’s Good Morning Blues, if not for its avant-garde integration of blues elements, then for its lyrical honesty and dedication to the central tenets of the genre: beats, rhymes, and

life. (Independent, cityrealmusic.com) Harrison Samphir

SONREAL + RICH KIDD The Closers This album blended into one mish mash of two rappers trying to be lyricists. Not that it’s terrible, but just because you have a decent vocabulary and you can rap consistently with pop culture reference doesn’t make anything great. (There was a VCR reference. Old School, man). “Best Believe” was the track that stuck out the most.

These guys can definitely spit but for me it’s all about picking the right mo-

ments. The album just failed to grab me at all. It’s not bad but it’s not amazing. This middle of the road junk is just not gonna cut it. Maybe over time it will, but I’m impatient. Blech.

(Black Box Recordings, weareblackbox.ca) James Korba SEAN PRICE Mic Tyson I’ve heard this dude on so many mixtapes. Sean Price always seems to get overlooked in the mixtape circuit. It’s sad because every label seems to be looking for the hottest southern artist and are missing quality MCs like Sean Price. “BBQ SAUCE” with Pharoahe Monch is a sick track with terrific keyboard lines and sicker flows. The production on here is pretty decent with decent beats. Sean Price has this confidence that will hopefully land him to bigger and better things. In the meantime this dude will continue to be a beast on the mic while you guys get around to listening to him. Pick this up man. (Duck Down Music, duckdown.com) James Korba

Around the World

FRIENDLY RICH Sings the Songs of Adriano Celentano Some quick background information: Adriano Celentano is an icon in his homeland of Italy where he is the best selling artist of all time. Friendly Rich is a Brampton, Ontario composer who has provided soundtracks for the Tom Green Show and a Russian kids show.

Rich was introduced to Celentano’s music by a friend who he dedicates his

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11th album to. Whereas Celentano’s music is generally lushly orchestrated with sweeping strings as a backdrop for his voice and guitar, Rich has a different cabaret-style take on it. Rich himself refers to it as “experiment cabaret music.” There is a bit of a spaghetti western gallop to it, ceding to a more Roma influenced sound when the tempo picks up. This results in a few moments of true musical greatness throughout the album. Rich’s voice is full and operatic, in that the vocals come from lower in the throat and have a deeper resonance.

They could easily be the focus of the album, but producer Greg Damson treats the six-person Lollipop People band more like harmony vocals, the instruments are not just backing the vocals but on equal footing with. The music and band could stand on their own without a vocalist with the same feeling and effect, just not to the same degree or as vibrant. You can easily envision Eurotrash hipsters dancing to this album in a Heineken commercial. Coolness from an unlikely source.

(Pumpkin Pie Corporation, friendlyrich.com) Broose Tulloch

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Motion Pictures “KRAUTROCK: THE REBIRTH OF GERMANY” Growing up in the rubble of post-war Germany, a generation of musicians helped to rebuild their country’s identity through music. And the music they made transcended both Western and German influences to inspire music legends. This BBC 4 documentary examines an important, if overlooked, chapter of music history when technological and creative innovation merged into krautrock.

Born from Germany’s Cold War atmosphere of shame and division, krautrock rebelled against the still prevalent Goebbels-endorsed pop music, “Schlager,” often with the otherworldly sounds of an obscure new instrument – the synthesizer. Bands

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like Can were at ground zero of electronic breakthroughs with composer/ pioneer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and broke through anti-German sentiments abroad. The term, krautrock, (originally an insulting British label) only increased record sales in the UK. And Germany’s new wave of bands would gain an even bigger reputation after reinvigorating the careers of two Berlin roommates: Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Bowie recorded three of his most important albums in Berlin, drawing inspiration from krautrockers Kraftwerk and Neu. Brian Eno, an influential musician and producer, also experienced a rebirth through krautrock. After leaving Roxy Music and spending time with Harmonia in the German countryside, Eno went

on to produce David Bowie – and later on, The Talking Heads – to great acclaim.

Germany’s krautrockers did not only inspire these artists; they laid the foundations of genres like industrial and electronica, and inspired major bands like Joy Division and Radiohead, as well. For anyone who desires to hear the influences behind some of music’s biggest names, Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany is your ticket down the autobahn of rock history.

This 60-minute primer perfectly captures the heart and philosophy of Rock & Roll’s underappreciated visionaries. A mark of all good music docs: the real fun begins when you start combing the discographies.

(BBC 4) Matthew Dyck

Iconoclast

ENSLAVED Riitiir Simply put, this album kicks ass.

It’s just really good blackened tinged rock. The vocals shift from black metal gargles to clean soaring wings of eagles type smoothness. For some reason Josh Homme comes to mind.

There are so many different elements going on here and they’re effortlessly put together. Take for example the track “Roots Of The Mountain”; you’re blasted with symphonic blackness and then suddenly it kicks into this power metal opus of a chorus and this slow build up somehow even more epic goodness. The guitar work

on this album is almost perfect. Big production at parts, grimey when it needs to be and always filled with terrific melodies. I always have the lowest of expectations with most things coming from Nuclear Blast but this album really surprised me. Catchy riffs and constant changes is the name of the game here. This is a rock record you’ll definitely want to take a look at.

Make sure you check ‘em out when hit the city this February. (Nuclear Blast, nuclearblastusa.com) James Korba

How this band exists is beyond me.

The worst thing you can do as any sort of metal band is be boring. Cradle Of Filth, you are not shocking anyone anymore. I generally tend to avoid anything that Bam Margera gives his stamp of approval on, with the exception of Turbonegro. Rather than detail this piece of shit, I’d like talk about the first time I heard Cradle Of Filth. I was 17 and walked into the old Cellar downtown in the basement of Music City. It was on the listening post and just as I was about to listen to it Andy O. put this phone call on speaker. It was a man looking for a version of Jurassic Park that showed dinosaur genitalia. I laughed then and I laugh now. Cradle Of Filth you will always be associated with dinosaur balls as this album sucks ‘em big time.

Fuck Me. (Nuclear Blast, nuclearblasusa.com) James Korba

CRADLE OF FILTH The Manticore and Other Horrors Good god this album is pure shit.

KORPIKLAANI Manala The kings of folk metal are back! At least that’s what the promotional material says. Where is this folk metal

kingdom? Who lives there? Finntroll?

Are they constantly battling each other for folk metal supremacy? All these questions need to be answered! Are there Korpiklaani fans? If so, please email Stylus and let me know because I’m dumbfounded. Am I supposed to keep listening? How many metal points do I get for listening to the entire album? What the fuck? I’m too old for this I think... (Nuclear Blast, nuclearblastusa.com) James Korba SYLOSIS Monolith Dude metal dude metal pound your chests inyoooooeyessssssssssssss.

Yup. This is the type of thing that makes me fall asleep more that eating a whole pizza to myself. Sylosis are fucking talented but, like most dudecore bands, also utterly boring. Thrash breakdown here, hardcore yelling there. Guitar noodling all over the place. To be honest, as I write this review I’m watching an episode of WCW Nitro from January 1st 1996. I wish I had a jacket like Sting, so many tassels to choke people with. The fucking Stinger splash must kill your chest and he gives you at least two a match and then the Scorpion Death Lock for your troubles. Oh wait there’s keyboards now yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh broooooooo.

Slow it down. Do it. Now time to mosh or whatever. Dudecore, you bore me. (Nuclear Blast, nuclearblastusa.com) James Korba

SYLOSIS

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Root Cellar

V/A Concert for St. Stephens More than just a church, St. Stephens is a vital pillar of the Kensington Market community offering a number of services to those in need. And it has had a real impact on many musicians, including Molly Johnson, Jane Siberry, and Bruce Cockburn. All three, along with Daniel Lanois and Kurt Swinghammer, took part in the benefit concert and appear on the disc. A quick aside, a Lanois recording or live show is rare enough, let alone both. That in and of itself is worth the price. The disc includes Sook-Yin Lee’s introductions, which initially adds to the charm and give the recording the same flow as the show, become tedious after a few listens. But that’s nitpicking.

The novelty of listening to the complete event in order never really wears off. The album is a live folk recording slam dunk; the acoustics are great, the artists world renowned, and the performances top notch. (True North, truenorthrecordings.com) Broose Tulloch MIKE COOLEY The Fool on Every Corner The first solo album from singersongwriter-guitar slinger Mike Cooley (of the Drive-By Truckers) was recorded live over a couple nights in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia. While Cooley generally commands more or less equal stage time with the Truckers, his contribution to albums are often overshadowed by the more prolific Patterson Hood penned numbers. An intimate affair complete with boozy hollering and raucous sing-a-longs, The Fool on Every Corner mostly revisits DBT classics, though stripped entirely of the heavy arrangements that accompany these tunes on their original releases or the live rock shows where most listeners first encountered them. “Guitar Man Upstairs” and

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“Marry Me” get a nice acoustic treatment, while slower jams like “Loaded Gun in the Closet” and “Cottonseed” start the set off nicely. One highlight for me comes during “3 Dimes Down,” a tune complete with Tom T Hall references and a line lifted from Bob Seger’s “Rock N Roll Never Forgets,” one of rock’s best pump-you-up-fora-night-of-boozin-anthems. Towards the end of “3 Dimes Down,” Cooley goes off on the Seger line and gets right into “Rock N Roll Never Forgets,” until he forgets the words and trails off. A cover of Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” and a brand new tune, “Drinking Coke & Eating Ice” give the rabid DBT fan some extra bang for their buck. My only complaint, as a rabid DBT ran, is that “Uncle Frank” or “One of These Days” wasn’t included. A great introduction to an underrated American songwriter, The Fool on Every Corner is a dang good record. It’s too bad it came out so late in 2012, as I’m sure it missed a lot of Top Ten lists (mine included).

(ATO, drivebytruckers.com) Sheldon Birnie MARTHA WAINWRIGHT Come Home to Mama Recorded in Sean Lennon’s home studio and produced by Cibo Matto keyboardist/sampler Yuka Hondo, Come Home To Mama is Martha Wainwright’s third full length effort, and her most accessible to date. Wainwright’s performance of “Proserpina,” the album’s first single which was written by her deceased mother, Kate McGarrigle, is her most touching and heart wrenching to date. There is a right way and a wrong way to write a deeply personal song about deeply private things, like marriage, babies, and death. Done correctly, the listener has a personal and possibly profound reaction that relates to their own life and forms a bond between them and the song. Martha Wainwright has that gift and has never been afraid of baring her soul, putting her heart on her sleeve, or flat out telling the real story, warts and all. Because life is messy and you can’t hide from it, so you might as well take what you can from each moment. This “live for the moment amid chaos” is exemplified in the opening line of “Can You Believe It;” “I really like the makeup sex, it’s the only kind I ever get.” We’re all thinking the same thing, “been there!” It’s also terribly

catchy. Come Home To Mama has a pleasantly subtle electronic pop sound that works well with Wainwright’s style and sense of melody. It’s a mighty fine folk pop album with a nice sheen to it. (Independent, marthawainwright.com) Broose Tulloch JIMBO MATHUS & THE TRI-STATE COALITION White Buffalo The latest from Americana-jack-ofall-trades Jimbo Mathus is an entertaining ten tracks of country and gospel tinged tunes. With a tight backing band in the Tri-State Coalition, each tune gets its own flavour, and for most parts the arrangements are fresh takes on an old formula. Throughout, Mathus’ songwriting is strong, with some interesting characters on parade.

Lead track “In The Garden,” title track “White Buffalo” and “Useless Heart” are take-away tracks for me. At its best, White Buffalo is a prime example of contemporary Americana exploring and celebrating the roots of southern folk music. At its low points, however, it risks coming off as little more than a pastiche of these influences.

Luckily, the low points are few and far between. Overall, White Buffalo is a solid effort from a tireless southern performer and his crack band, worth repeated listenings over an uncapped bottle of bourbon. (Fat Possum, fatpossum.com) Sheldon Birnie LEE HARVEY OSMOND The Folk Sinner Lee Harvey Osmond is a diverse allstar collective including Hawksley Workman, Oh Susanna, members of Skydiggers, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings and Cowboy Junkies. It is led and co-produced by Tom Wilson, with Michael Timmons of the Junkies helming the board as producer, engineer and mixer. Aptly titled, it is a folk album, story songs in the folk tradition with an infectious roll to it.

These are the type of songs that Wilson has recorded before, but never an entire album. Lee Harvey Osmond call their sound “acid folk,” which is about as good a pithy description as any. Perhaps, a more layered, lush Youngbloods paired with the intensity of Greg MacPherson or Eugene Ripper. There is a tenderness and peacefulness to the album, the softer voice of a man who has exorcised his demons. The duet “Big Chief ” has a

wonderful romantic feel to it while “Honey Running” gets your toes tapping, head nodding and shoulders going. The controlled feedback in “Leave The House” brings to mind Jesus & Mary Chain’s covers of “My Girl” and “Tower of Song.” With any album there are songs that draw us more than others, and that’s true here, but there’s not a dud in the bunch. One of the standouts is “Freedom,” cowritten with Colin James for his Bad Habits disc; silky smooth and rich like milk chocolate and maple whisky.

The album begins with “Oh Linda,” a Gordon Lightfoot composition with stripped down instrumentation and concludes with the somber “Deep Water,” a song not unlike Daniel Lanois’ “Still Water” in tone and tempo.

To oversimplify, think Junkhouse with the angst reined in. (Latent Recordings, leeharveyosmond.com) Broose Tulloch TOM FUN ORCHESTRA Earthworm Heart The Tom Fun Orchestra is like a shepherd’s pie containing generous portions of Great Big Sea and Pogues with a few dashes of The Decemberists. The result is a much edgier sound than GBS but not as raunchy as Shane McGowan. Lyrically, they remind me of Lenny Gallant and The Headstones at the same time, with some of the darker subjects, like heroin withdrawal (“Animal Mask”).

Given the grit and edge of the rest of the album, the title track, buried in the middle, with a full chorus everyone singing every word feels like a curtain call with the band arm in arm. With every song you get swept up in the raucous music coming at you from every direction, and before you know it, you’re singing at the top of your lungs.

The Orchestra is a wild and wooly cacophony of instruments and sounds swirling and twirling to an infectious beat. What I especially enjoy is how seamlessly it plays, the tone, topic and tempo may change, but even the slow songs feel like they belong exactly where they are. Case in point, after four raucous tunes, “Lungs” is an evergrowing crescendo building from a whisper to a roar. Even though they’re from Cape Breton, I’d like to reference the Rock, in saying “Earthworm Heart” is like “Sunday Morning Coming Down” with Screech. (Company House, tomfun.ca) Broose Tulloch

Under The Needle

LUKE LALONDE Rhythmnals Between Born Ruffians’ second and third albums comes Luke Lalonde’s first solo effort, an eccentric mix of songs compiled during the frontman’s downtime. The opening track, “Grande (Rhythmnals),” feels like the perfect bridge between Born Ruffians’ analogue charm and Lalonde’s more electronic tracks. A series of angelic voices and intermittent radio blips eases you in before an uplifting acoustic tune takes over, bolstered by chants. Unfortunately, the other side of that bridge never reaches that same creative high. From here, Rhythmnals moves mostly between electronic R&B and aimless melancholia. “Hate The Night” mixes laid-back beats and eerie synths with Lalonde’s croon (think indie Justin Timberlake), while “Shove Off ” shows the eccentricity of a BR b-side. The catchiest track, “Undone,” romantically joins a sad acoustic verse with an unapologetically poppy chorus, but “Red Wagon” carves out a more satisfying groove with its simple beats and cyclical melody.

With some albums, it’s better to fo-

cus on the highlights rather than the whole. While Rhythmnals, as an album, doesn’t amaze me, it does deliver a few interesting tunes to tide over BR fans until their upcoming release. And there’s a good chance you will have your interest sparked after hearing one of Lalonde’s radio-friendly tracks. But Rhythmnals often loses momentum with unnecessary tangents and glossy electronic effects. Lalonde seems to favor dense layers and structure over atmosphere and groove, so it makes for songs that sound like a handful of good ideas buried under a mountain of sugary editing. At its best, Rhythmnals captures the eccentric joy that makes BR the little-big band worth hearing. At its worst, it’s scatterbrained and more than a little selfindulgent. (Paper Bag Records, paperbagrecords.com) Matthew Dyck LADY LAZARAUS All of My Love in Half Life All of My Love in Half Life sounds like how I’d imagine some ancient sprawling land like Iceland or Ireland to look and feel like – beautiful, broad, aged, cold in temperature, rich and warm in feelings of a romantic mysticism and sort of transcendental, in a way. This album permits a lot of echoes and reverberations throughout, and somehow it feels as though its recorded in the wide open. All of My Love in Half Life is the first solo album from poet, songwriter and artist, Melissa Ann Sweat, here under the pseudonym of Lady Lazarus. A California native, her voice sounds strong and real, unaltered or edited (for good reason). The

EVENT GUIDE

piano throughout this album sounds so beautiful and dense, repeated over and over as the base for most of the songs. This release is dark and layered, and it’s probably best served with a nice glass of red at fireside. (Self-released, ladylazarus.net) Victoria King

THE TREWS …Thank You and I’m Sorry The Trews have consistently been pumping out rock albums since “Not Ready to Go” first came blaring out from every Canadian rock station in 2003. Whether we like to admit it or not most of us could hum along to at least one Trews song. It is catchy Canadian rock that is played with a certain East coast charm and energy that sets them above other shitty radio friendly rock bands…. like fucking Nickelback. Each album finds these boys writing awesome hooks, although 2011’s Hope & Ruin left something to be desired, …Thank You and I’m Sorry finds the band exploring the old and familiar territory that we have come to expect, while conservatively branching out in a different direction. The Trews absolutely rock the cover of “Leaps and Bounds”

by completely making it their own, so much so that you could actually believe they wrote it. “The Power of Positive Drinking” and “Oblivion” are solid catchy party tunes, but the highlight is in album closer “… And we are the Trews,” where the smart songwriting and straight up Canadian theme spark a sense of pride. This is a decent EP that will hold fans over and draw in some new ones for their next album. (Bumstead/eOne Music Canada, bumstead.com) Scott Wolfe

BROTHER OCTOPUS Tentacle Trauma Tentacle Trauma’s sound is not easy to pin down. The second offering from Edmonton duo Brother Octopus is a thoroughly entertaining eclectic melange of genres - think Captain Beefheart psychedelic arrangements with subtle disco beats and new wave/80s college pop sensibilities constructed on a blues foundation. And yes, I said subtle disco. The bass beat is there, but softer and underneath the melody line, not out in front. I was reminded of The Creatures at times. Though the somber final track, “The Electric Chair,” would not be out of place

February 8th: Balanced Records Code Fusion Release Party w/ Joe Nice (Baltimore) and Process Rebel (Amsterdam) [Dubstep] February 23rd: Venetian Snares [breakcore] March 2nd: Goth-Trad (Japan) [dubstep] March 30th: Vilify (Montreal) [Trap / Dubstep / Hip-Hop/ Jungle]

All Events take place at the Zoo Nightclub - 160 Osborne St. 18+ w/ valid id Tickets available at the zoo front desk and select retailers.

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alongside offerings by The Church or Go-Betweens. The solid playing shows a confidence with nothing blistering or in your face. It’s understated and solid, yet complex enough to provide something new to discover with every listen. The first track is aptly titled “Introduction”; it’s sing-rapped over an electronic chugging guitar riff and the lyrics more or less introduce you to the personalities behind the album, namely Brother Octopus and cohort Ladyfriend. Every song has its own feel and style but also compliments the other tracks. Whether the topic is serious or (mostly) not, the lyrics are simple and clever and let the cat out of the bag: these serious musicians don’t take themselves too seriously. Take for instance, “Recreational Zoo” - the lyrics read like a Noah’s Ark headcount, with each couplet featuring a different and somewhat neurotic critter. Tentacle Trauma, while not a classic album in the classic sense, is indeed a good-natured treasure with a quirky Canadian appeal. (Oak Apple Records, oakapplerecords.com) Broose Tulloch THE FLOWERS OF HELL Odes Almost more interesting than The Flowers of Hell’s cover songs is how

founding member, Greg Jarvis, creates them. His rare disorder, timbreto-shape synesthesia, allows him to actually see sounds as shapes, so all of the songs on Odes were visually constructed. Admittedly, the result is not quite as radical as the process, but this record still teems with creative arrangements and beautiful musicianship. Combine that with a list of songs written by Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Joy Division, and you have an orchestral pop record that should interest plenty of music lovers, classical or otherwise. Reed fans, especially, should have Odes on their radar with its heavy focus on Reed and Velvet Underground alumni. “Walk On The Wild Side” is given a subtle arrangement with deeper bass and clearer strings, while alternate lyrics from an old demo are given the Reed treatment by Ami Spears. An instrumental version of “Run Run Run” rides the bass-line through some classic Velvet Underground textures and improvisations, while “Mr. Tambourine Man” is done with a pitch-imperfect Nico impression by Laura Rafferty and captures a similar vibe that Nico brought to Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine.” A spaced-out vibe full of breathy synths and vocoder vocals make “O Superheroin” the most interesting inter-

pretation; the song celebrates Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed’s marriage by combining her “O Superman” with VU’s “Heroin.” But my favorite has to be “Calling Occupants,” a Klaatu song about contacting space aliens that really works into Jarvis’ extraterrestrial sounding arrangements.

All too often cover albums seem to bring little to the table other than a good impression of a better artist.

Odes, on the other hand, brings a lot of creative energy and intelligence to some of my personal favorites, so don’t let this one pass you by. (Independent, flowersofhell.com) Matthew Dyck

GRIZZLY BEAR Shields I’ll start off by admitting I wasn’t a big fan of Grizzly Bear’s 2009 release, Veckatimest. And I know, I know, “It was really good,” “What’s wrong with you,” blahblahblah. BUT, I will say this. Their latest release, Shields, is really, really good. Excellent in fact - so good it makes me believe I must have missed something in Veckatimest, and it is time for a re-evaluation. Shields has got a really fantastic new-age psychedelic sound to it that warbles and wobbles but truly adds another unique and interesting album to the group’s repertoire. The culmination of fuzzy guitar, lead singer Edward Droste’s pretty and wandering voice, as well as sheer ingenuity creates an exciting audio atmosphere to listen to.

As a listener who was reluctant to give in to this band, I admit I was wrong.

This album was finally completed after a series of “processes of eliminations” for the band. After an initial recording session in Texas, they ended up scrapping a lot of material and replaced it with material recorded in Cape Cod six months later. And while trying to fill in the gaps of songs with tricks from the past, they challenged themselves to come up with new sounds and patterns. All things considered, this is a good album - really, a Pitchfork wet dream. (Warp Records, warp.net/) Victoria King JULIE DOIRON So Many Days I first put on So Many Days at about 10:00 AM on a Saturday morning, while my roommate was making

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eggs, or something. Whatever people cook in the morning. As soon as the swaying pluck in “Cars and Trucks” first became audible, she interrupted my blathering – “Who is this?” With the similarly catchy hook of the second track, “By The Lake,” bursting in alongside Doiron’s “ooohs” and pleasant depictions, decisions were made.

“I love this! Who did you say this was again?”

The clever song placement is clearly intentional. It’s impossible to quit the album before the third song starts, by which you’re already curious for more.

“Can’t Make It No More” is another stripped down, basic track, but offers a stylistic alternative to the previous two tracks. The slowed tempo and sparse instrumentation give the track a moody setting while Doiron tells you about the crushing confusion of experiencing depression in an otherwise comfortable, middle-class existence. The awfully direct lyrics are effective, especially as a sister track to “Homeless,” a darkly ambiguous story of suicidal ideation.

While lyrical simplicity is a theme of the album, at times it is also a limitation. This is especially true in the love songs, where it is less powerful than it is boring. Doiron is certainly not getting any props from Daniel Dumile for her repeated rhyming of true, blue, you. Critiques aside, the album is wonderful and I love it. “By The Lake” is my favourite. I would not call it only a terrific hangover album, nor merely a great morning album (both of which it is), but it is a beautiful album that stands on its own. Listen to it. (Aporia Records, juliedoiron.com) Fabian Suárez-Amaya

JOHN CALE Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood John Cale’s latest is a weird one. But then again, you’d expect nothing less from the man. From (primarily) acoustic based dancey numbers like album opener “I Wanna Talk 2 U,” to the fuzzy vibe of “Scotland Yard,” to bizarre experiments with autotune, Cale doesn’t let the listener become too comfortable in any one aural space. “Hemingway” is a beauty of a track about old Papa, with the refrain of “You’ve got a thousand-yard stare” repeating into the distance. “Decem-

ber Rains” is a cool number that gets stuck in my head. Not everything works here, but John Cale seems like the kind of artist who doesn’t really give a fuck; he’s just following the muse where it takes him. While certainly not my favourite album to cross my desk in recent months, it has a certain quality that sticks with you. Well worth a listen if experimentation within fairly rigid confines of the pop song are your thing, and probably worth at least one spin even if it isn’t. (Double Six Records, doublesixrecords.com) Sheldon Birnie

BOYS NOIZE Out of the Black Alex Ridha’s first album as Boys Noize gave us 2007’s Oi Oi Oi. It came at a time when a Daft Punk resurgence was underway and other electronic groups, namely Justice and Digitalism, were all riding the wave. He had a bit of a misstep with 2009’s much less intense Power, but it appears that Out of the Black is the happy median between his previous albums and it shows Boys Noize finding his sound … sort of. The first five cuts are incredibly infectious and will definitely keep the party and drugs going (see “XTC”). All these tracks could easily have found a place on Oi Oi Oi. Things get a little strange in the second half of the album where the fluidity is completely lost as the oddly gangster “Circus Full of Clowns” creeps up on you. “Stop” is a full blown rip off of Daft Punk’s “Rollin’ and Scratchin’” and “I’ll House You (feat. Snoop Dogg)” is a silly-ass move for an electronic artist, which sounds straight up ridiculous. The highs on this album are when the music speaks for itself, like in the purely instrumental “Missle,” and does not ride the coattails of Snoop Dogg or any other influences.

Thankfully the highs are plentiful enough that this album deserves to be checked out if you are into the high energy, party starter electro.

(Boys Noize Records, boysnoize. com) Scott Wolfe

www.stylusmagazine.ca www.stylusmagazine.ca

ERIN COSTELLO Can We Get Over If I played Erin Costello’s new album, We Can Get Over, for you and told you it was from the 60s, you would believe me. The selfproduced album starts off with “Oh Me Of My,” which sets the pace for the rest of the disc with playful doo-wops and plenty of soul. We Can Get Over nods towards classic soul throughout the whole album while staying fresh and modern. The heartfelt “I Don’t Know Anything” and “Hold Me” are like slow, soft lullabies with emotional lyrics and a slower pace.

The more upbeat title track and “Count to 10” are more playful and totally retro. This album has it all: feel good tunes, great string arrangements, strong background singers and a very talented vocalist.

I can’t wait to hear more from Erin Costello. (Independent, erincostello.com) Martyna Turczynowicz MADNESS Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da I wouldn’t call it ambitious or remotely close to the edge, but it is fun, a lot of fun! No showing off, just the band in full party mode, like a ska version of Trooper or Harlequin. A bright staccato bounce (the operative word for the entire album) drives the leadoff song and then a softer rhythm holds the disc together. It does sound a bit nostalgic, though not dated. The distinct pop-ska sound from the band that brought you “Our House” is still in effect. Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da is the band’s tenth album, and its seventh to reach the top ten chart in Britain.

There’s no real killer, but there’s also no filler, just a complete disc of very good songs. One standout is “Misery,” a pure pub song with a simple rollicking melody you can rock shoulder to shoulder with your mates and a pint while you sing with the band. It’s essentially a list of mismatched clichés of things to help you lighten up. Jolly good fun! Plus, who doesn’t like boogie-woogie piano and a sexy sax solo? The album’s first single, “Death Of A Rude Boy,” takes you right back to the early days of ska in the 80s and the melodica gives it a tasty Indian feel, like a curry after the footy match. I would recommend it to any Planet Smashers fan. While it won’t make new fans out of the uninitiated, the disc will definitely please existing Madness fans. (Cooking Vinyl/Eone Music, eonemusic.com) Brooce Tulloch

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NUGGETS: ORIGINAL ARTYFACTS FROM THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC ERA, 1965-68 GETS DIGITALLY REISSUED AFTER 40 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

FEAR OF MUSIC Everything is Broken in the Culture of Reissue

but what we need is in the periphery of music itself.

What does this say about us? Is it even about the music anymore? Or is there some cavernous thing inside of us that cannot be filled? Though in this addiction, the labels might be suppliers of our addiction, but as the users it’s something we clearly clambour for. Obviously there’s a market for it. And we won’t be content until we have all the demos, outtakes, Japanese-only b-sides, remixes – all the bonus tracks, forever. It is our compulsion, because at some point our love became misplaced and it became a need for something else. We used to love music for the music, but what now? It’s not just the music anymore, there’s something else too. The la-

bels gave us so much, so often, it’s what we thought was right. Maybe they broke us and we let them.

Maybe we’re broken.

By Devin King Maybe music is broken. Pop has eaten itself. It’s a cultural ouroborous. Music has run its course and Maybe labels are broken. That would account for has become too dependent on its past. The 90s were the way we have a constant series of albums being the 70s, the 00s were the 90s, and now is now is reissued and rereleased with whatever ephemera now ad infinitum. The permutations of influences is deemed desirable – DVDs, bonus tracks, liner have reached their maximum (science word?), and notes, updated sound. The downturn in music so what is left? Scour the past. Find what made sales left them with no choice but to feed us back things great and do it again. Do it again. Do it what we’d already eaten – in some cases, offering again. We’ll live off of Fleetwood Mac forever. Reisup new versions of an album several times over a sue the reissues. Eventually it will be all we know. decade span. In other cases, breaking an album into Everything will be the same. The bonus tracks will pieces, spreading tracks out across different versions be the original release and at different retailers, the remaster will be in 5-D making listeners work 95.9 FM CKUW CAMPUS/COMMUNITY RADIO but we’ll need special headextra hard to listen to TOP 30 ALBUMS (Nov 27, 2012 – Jan 29, 2013) phones to hear it (though what they would have, !=LOCAL CONTENT * =CANADIAN CONTENT re=RE-ENTRY TO CHART they haven’t been invented a decade past, have yet). So in the end it’s just purchased at a one still Rumours. But we never stop shop.

ARTIST RECORDING LABEL demanded anything else. If Perhaps I’m more 1 * Bloodshot Bill So Blue Transistor 66 music is broken, it’s because cynical though; I can’t 2 * Mother Mother The Sticks Last Gang we kept buying Rumours. help but think that 3 !

Various Artists Songs In The Key Of Hope: The Derek Wheeler Story No Label Collective The tenth anniversary this ploy would have 4 !

Boats Marblemouth Self-Released copy, the fifteenth anni5 !

Propagandhi Failed States Epitaph cropped up anyway.

6 Guided By Voices The Bears For Lunch GBV Inc. versary copy, the twentieth It’s a brilliant cash 7 ! Phelgm Fatale Glam Crust Or Bust Transistor 66 anniversary copy. More grab for labels, allow8 !

DJ Beekeeni Crash Self-Released and more bonus tracks, all ing them to collect 9 ! Mise En Scene Desire’s Despair Pipe & Hat suspiciously similar. And more money without 10 ! Drums And Wires Waiting On The Moon Self Released all the while, drowning even needing to find 11 Habib Koite & Eric Bibb Brothers In Bamako Stony Plain out something new. Maybe and produce new con12 Various Artists Rhino/Warner music is broken. tent. To do so allows 13 Cat Power Sun Matador Until when? When labels to become com14 ! Vampires Vampires Self-Released capitalism dissolves and placent and rely on 15 * A.C. Newman Shut Down The Streets Last Gang a united workers collectheir old stars – not 16 Antibalas Antibalas Daptone tive forms to create music?

17 ! Nova Midnight Midnight Disintegration even old stars’ new 18 Bat For Lashes The Haunted Man Parlophone/EMI Until we better learn ourrecords – until, even19 * David Gogo Christmas With The Blues Cordova Bay selves, and the meaning of tually the labels have 20 The Vaccines Come Of Age Sony life? Until the right person nothing left to offer.

21 * Ladyhawk No Can Do Triple Crown with the right collection of “And oh, the sickening 22 Enjoy Gold Burger instruments and ideas is eigreed.” Maybe labels 23 Egyptian Project Ya Amar Six Degrees ther mad or genius enough are broken.

24 Niyaz Sumud Six Degrees to do something revoluMaybe we’re bro25 ! The Young Pixels The Receptive Self-Released tionary? Or is it too late, ken. We, the collec26 ! The F-Holes Red Hot Morning Noise because they wanted too tors. We’ve bought 27 Dios Dios Burger much money, we wanted into the nonsense, 28 * Purity Ring Shrines Last Gang too much stuff, and the 29 ! Benj Funk Looking Up Self-Released this obsessive need 30 Clinic Free Reign Domino stuff became meaningless? to have and have and have. Not only that, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968

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winnipeg folk festival ConCerts lindi ortega and dustin Bentall & the smøkes FebruAry 14, pArk TheATre – $17.00 in advance

Justin rutledge FebruAry 20, pArk TheATre – $20.00 in advance

co-presented with The union

hayden with special guest lou canon stars with special guest said The Whale mArch 27, GArrick cenTre – $27.50 in advance

yukon Blonde

mArch 30, WesT end culTurAl cenTre – $25.00 in advance

Billy Bragg

The Tooth & nail Tour with special guest kim churchill

Zeus

April 3, pyrAmid cAbAreT – $17.50 in advance

April 10, GArrick cenTre – $35.00 in advance

live @ the folk exChange emma cloney – March 2, $10.00 in advance sol James – March 16, $10.00 in advance William prince – March 22, $10.00 in advance Grant davidson – April 13, $10.00 in advance steve brockley band – April 21, $12.00 in advance Flying Fox and the hunter Gatherers – April 27, $10.00 in advance

TickeTs – Winnipeg Folk Festival Music Store (211 Bannatyne at Albert)

wi nwww.stylusmagazine.ca nip e gfolkf e stival.c a

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