June / July 2015

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Stylus

June/July Issue3 2015 Volume26

Production Team Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gil Carroll Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew Mazurak Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria King

On the Cover DON RITSON is owner and artist at Rebel Waltz Tattoo. When not working, he is usually working. Call the shop at 204.832.6733 for more info, or better yet, come down to 810 Notre Dame and see some of Don’s work in person.

Cover Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don Ritson Advertising Contact . . . . Andrew Mazurak

andrew@mazmedia.ca Printed by JRS Print Services: 204-232-3558

Contributors Selci Martyna Turczynowicz Matt Williams Natalie Bohrn Eric Roberts Mister Jan Topher Duguay Tim Richardson Harrison Samphir Danielle Marion Victoria King Kaitlyn Emslie Farrell Phil Enns

Stylus is published bi-monthly by the CKUW 95.9 FM, 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 Live Bait Great Lake Swimmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 CKUWho Knock Between Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 CKUW Program Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Nonstophiphop Full Circle Respects The Architects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Local Spotlight Rayannah // Yes We Mystic // Basic Nature . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Root Cellar The Ill Funk Ensemble // Li’l Andy // Sun K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Iconoclast Persist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 All That Jazz Brandi Disterheft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Under the Needle The Nautical Miles // The Boids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Fear of Music Safe(r) Festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Features Basic Nature // Carly Dow // Raine Hamilton // Rayannah . . . . . 4

Brain Wave Tapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Handsome Daughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Diamond Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Odanah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Deerhoof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Sufjan Stevens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

June/July 2015 Stylus Magazine

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Blah, Blah, Blahhhh

hhhh

We have finally made it to festival season, friends. Break out your hippest sunshades, trucker hat and short shorts. *** Every Second Thursday is Real Love Thursday at the Handsome Daughter, which will host bands like Chairs from Montreal and Pandas in Japan from Saskatoon and lots of locals as always *** Ellice Street Festival June 5-6 featuring Scott Nolan, Mariachi Ghost, JD Edwards Band and more *** Real Love Summer Fest runs June 5-7 at the Gimli Motorsport Park featuring Crooked Brothers, Mahogany Frog, Snake River, Surprise Party, Basic Nature, iansucks, Living Hour, Black Cloud, Animal Teeth and way more *** June 10 sees Purity Ring coming back to town with Braids and Born Gold playing the Garrick Centre; while Dipset / The Diplomats (Cam’Rom, Juelz Santana and Jim Jones [sans Freekey Zekey]) have reunited and are gettin turnt up at Stereo Night Club! *** Rainbow Trout Music Festival 2015 Ticket Launch Party is at the Good Will on Friday, June 12 with music from Ghost Twin and The Will to Power *** Dead Meadow w/ Surprise Party, Chica Boom Boom at the Handsome Daughter on June 13 $15 *** June 13-14 get to the Forks for Pride Winnipeg Weekend, featuring loads of live tunes, including Ro Walker, Süss, Halfway to Hollywood, The Help Wanteds and the same weekend kicks off TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival with a ton of free shows at Old Market Square before taking over the rest of Winnipeg for the week!

Check out our feature of Deerhoof on pg. 16 *** The Famines, Tunic, Lukewarm at the Handsome Daughter on Wednesday June 17 *** The Wooden Sky at the West End Cultural Centre on June 18 or catch SUUNS and Jerusalem in my Heart w/ Mahogany Frog at The Good Will or Chairs from Montreal at the Handsome Daughter with Glass Random and Tent Rentals (first show!!!!) *** June 19 Diamond Mind is in town playing the Handsome Daughter with The Zorgs and Ala Mode. *** Friday June 19 Cancer Bats with We Hunt Buffalo, Occvlt Hand and Union Stockyards at the Park Theatre *** June 20 at the Park Theatre sees Mad Caddies and

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The Reverend Rambler puttin’ on a couple damn good shows, but before that head to the Forks and enjoy the sun for Aboriginal Day 2015 with Don Amero, Brett Kissel, Lighteningcloud and many many more *** Sunday June 21 has the Burt hosting the incredible Esperanza Spalding *** Grounders are in town on June 22 with local indie rockers Benowa at The Good Will Social Club *** Tues-

day June 23 HMS Arlington 8 pm, $8 — Hard Charger plus local support Plague. Crust ‘n Roll as Denmark punks Iceage and Low Life engulf The Good Will *** Thursday, June 25 at the Zoo Night Club Goatwhore / Black Breath/Ringworm / Theories while the legendary Bad Religion show up for a gig at the Burt with Plague Vendor *** June 26 at The Good Will KEN Mode album

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release with Teeth marks and Pop Crimes *** Friday June 26 Greek Riots Middle Children CD Release at the Park Theatre w/ Moon Tan, Mabel’s Flight, Mobina Galore *** Hey cool, Swervedriver is in town on June 27 playing the West End with Basic Nature; that same night at the Sherbrook Inn is Big Trouble in Little China w/ Satanic Rights and Everyone’s Fired; also at the Good Will is Central Slam w/ Andrea Gibson *** June 30, at the Assiniboia Downs Summer of Sound 2015. Big line-up of DJ’s (plus tons of lasers!) *** July 2 is the Palm Trees single release on Brain Wave Tapes at the Handsome Daughter with Pandas in Japan *** You know the drill. Winnipeg Folk Festival at Bird’s Hill Provincial Park, July 9-12. *** Melt-Banana, Torche, Hot Nerds, Absent Sound on Friday July 10 at the Pyramid Cabaret *** Saturday July 11 at the Good Will — Central Slam Finals ft. Ian Keteku plus there’s Against Me! and frnkiero andthe cellabration over at the Garrick *** July 14 Full Flex Express — Tons of big names, tons of molly — Adrenaline Adventures *** July 17 Black Cloud Single Release on Brain Wave Tapes with economy and Rawhide *** July 18 at the Park Theatre, 1 pm $5-$20 adolyne 12” LP/CD release party with Dead Ranch, Baby Nebula, domestic + 3 more; ALSO! Amphetamine-Reptile Artworks Exhibit + the Color of Noise documentary+ Q&A w/ director Eric Robel & Tom Hazelmeyer *** dem mutha fucking Flatbush Zombies will make their way into Union Sound Hall on Tuesday July 21. Don’t doze! *** The Decemberists make their way through the Burt on July 22nd *** July 24-26 Brandon Festival of Folk, Music and Art with Tanya Tagaq, A Tribe Called Red, Ingrid Gatin and Zrada and many more *** Wednesday July 29 — METZ w/ BIG UPS and Dilly Dally at the Pyramid *** Rise Against and Killswitch Engage will should keep the kids in the city August long on the 2nd *** And if not then their rents will eagerly skip the cabin for Alice Cooper and Mötley Crüe playing MTS Centre that Monday the 3rd *** Have fun, stay safe, and protect your ears ***

June/July 2015 Stylus Magazine

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LYZIE BURT, CLAIRE BONES, RAINE HAMILTON, CARLY DOW, RAYANNAH, AND SELCI

RETROSPECTIVES ON MAY RELEASES FROM MANITOBA MUSICIANS: BASIC NATURE, CARLY DOW, RAINE HAMILTON, AND RAYANNAH

BY SELCI

I ran into local musicians Raine Hamilton Randecently Rayannah at Tom Bargain Coffeehouse and we

discussed all the women releasing albums in May. It seemed like a great idea to get everyone together at Munson Park and talk about music and being women in the scene in Winnipeg. Raine, Ray, Carly Dow, Basic Nature, and I spent an afternoon in the sunlight and had a lovely and productive discussion about music and equality. It all began with one question: How does it feel being a woman in the current Winnipeg music scene?

RAYANNAH: I think we’re at a very interesting time for women in Winnipeg’s music scene because I see the discrepancy mostly in our industry, and less on the musician’s side of things, although there is certainly a discrepancy. But here we are, a bunch of women in one month all releasing music and doing really cool things. The place where I actu-

04 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

ally see the discrepancy is in the people who hold power in the industry in the province, particularly in organizations. Though that is shifting, not to say that someone who identifies as a man can’t be an ally of course. I feel like there is an education that is just starting to happen now. There were many years where that education wasn’t there. In terms of bookers and venue owners, it’s just so refreshing when I go to other cities where I deal with more women on the road than men. That still isn’t really a possibility here, and that’s where I feel the resistance the most. Not so much with my colleagues and peers doing awesome things, more so with the industry itself.

CARLY DOW: I feel like it is really a supportive community here in Winnipeg. It’s so small but it’s thriving, and people are not competitive in a negative way. It’s just a really welcoming community and super supportive. It’s interesting with the discussion of women in music and of women doing specific

things. I appreciate the inspiration it can allow for younger folks, or anyone that wants to do something like this. On the other hand, we’re just musicians. We don’t have to talk about being women.

We’re really kickass musicians and we don’t have to be segregated as ‘women musicians.’ I think that is something to keep in mind. I always have a strange feeling about people saying, ‘Oh you’re the solo female songwriter. We’re going to fit you in our slot at the festival because you fit that exact slot.’ And it’s like, ‘how bout you hire me ‘cause you like my music not because there is that one little thing that you need to satisfy in your festival listing.’ It’s an interesting balance of being proud of being a woman and being strong and hoping to inspire other people, but also we’re all just doing what we love.

LYZIE BURT: One thing that I have been feeling for awhile now is that there is the potential that there might be a huge tip of the scale where everything is focused on women, women, women. Which

obviously isn’t the best thing because it’s still not equaled coverage. But it might be necessary. It puts that weird feeling inside, where you feel like there is going to be a lot of acknowledgement for your sex, whatever sex you are, if you’re not a man playing music or other things too. There is going to be overacknowledgment for little while until everything sort of equals out.

CLAIRE BONES: I feel that. There have been a lot of articles in the local newspapers and media about female musicians. I’ve been talking to some of my guy friends, and some of them are almost worried about it. I had some of the same ideas (as Lyzie) and some of them were like, ‘This is going to get blown out of proportion — it’s totally insensitive.’ They are concerned that it will become just dominated by females. I don’t think that will happen — we will gain the recognition then it will balance out. Like don’t worry, if that is what you worry about. Jerk. Haha!

I kinda want to know what some men feel about it… Just recently I have been getting to know more female musicians for some reason. I don’t know why that is. I don’t think it is because of everyone talking about it, but I have just played with a lot of men.

SELCI: There are just so many dudes! When I was growing up in high school I didn’t think I could be in a band for a long time because I was a girl and I didn’t have other girls to play with. Then once I realized I could be in a band, most of my players were dudes. That’s how it goes because there is an unbalanced ratio. I think for a long time a lot of young girls didn’t think they could be in bands, and they weren’t in their high school bands with all the guys.

Now we’re like, ‘Okay, yes, we can be in the bands.’

That’s what’s awesome about talking about this stuff ‘cause we can inspire the younger generation. Maybe in the next generation there will be a ton of lady musicians and it will balance out.

LB: With a lot of the talk, it feels like there has been an explosion of female awareness.

CD: Yes, on social media there is a lot of discussion about empowerment and equality.

LB: I think that it is giving a lot of inspiration. It’s definitely given me a confidence booster — like yes, I am a woman and I’m proud to be a woman, and I’m going to fucking play music ‘cause that’s what I like doing. I hope other people feel the same way.

S: I am definitely inspired by the women around me, it helps drive me and I feel supported.

R: I am also prepared to deal with more sexist incidences that take place in my career. Carly, Beth, and I spend a lot of time together, along with some other friends of ours. We have had tons of discussions about things that have happened to us. I have a lot of other really close female friends in the industry, and things are still happening that should not be happening. I think that is why there is so much coverage in the media because a lot of really good stuff is happening but also because bad stuff has to stop happening. It is an environment where we have to make decisions about how to react to these things on the job, no one is going to do it for us. So having the support network to contact each other and ask, ‘Was this unfair? What should I do about this, or

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should I do something about this?’ I feel a lot stronger having these interactions and conversations and when things do happen I don’t have that sense of doubt in myself. ‘I know I am allowed to be here just like anyone else and I know what I’m doing, so actually you can’t talk to me like that,’ or whatever the situation might be, and that is a big change I think. At least for me it has been a really big thing to feel that strength.

LB: It’s really nice to be able to talk about that. I think about this stuff and there is all sorts of ways of thinking about it and it’s just nice to talk to other women.

CB: Are there ever instances where you feel that kind of thing is happening and you wonder, is it because I am a woman or does everyone get treated that way? ‘Cause sometimes I wonder, ‘Is this person treating me this way because I am a woman, or is it just how they treat people?’ Mostly when it comes to information about music or technical stuff.

EVERYONE: It ‘s always the gear!!! [Laughter] CB: Yes, most often to do with gear. I don’t know how to differentiate sometimes. I guess just go with your gut.

CD: Sometimes people are just dicks, and other times they’re sexist.

S: I guess it can be hard to differentiate. There are sometimes where I just have that feeling in the pit of my stomach. One minute you’re treating me all cute like ‘Let me do this for you,’ then the moment that I say that I can do it myself and then I’ve proven so, they treat me with respect only after I’ve shown them that I know what I am doing. I always find that kind of funny, that you’re not just going to treat me with respect right off the hop, I need to show you that I know how to plug in a cable, or whatever.

CB: ‘Cause I don’t want to assume and be like, ‘You’re talking to me this way,’ and they’re like, ‘No no no.’

S: And I am sure if you called someone out for being sexist, most likely they’d be like, ‘No, I believe in equality. Of course I don’t think that.’ But a lot of it is unconscious social conditioning.

LB: Also, what about women who are playing that don’t really know what they are doing? ‘Cause I know I have played shows where I do need some help.

S: That shouldn’t matter either.

CD: It’s the same with men though.

R: Yeah, there are tons of dudes that don’t know what they’re doing. Why is it that they get to not know what they’re doing, but the moment that we don’t know what we’re doing it’s like ‘Oh honey?’

How bout you just show me and then I’ll know.

S: It goes back to the equality thing. I am going to be treated slightly differently than a male would be in the same position. Eventually, hopefully, you’re just going to treat me the same and there wont be like patronizing comments, like...

RAINE HAMILTON: ‘Oh, you’ve done this before?

Shocking!’ And I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this for ten years’ . . . So I have one more thought to add about women in the industry and finding belonging and finding safety for all people. I think that it’s a true

statement that the music industry and the world in general is a less safe place for women, female identified, and non-binary people. I just think the community can do a lot to prioritize the safety and wellbeing of people. I am impressed with efforts like The Good Will’s house rules, and I think those are excellent. I would like to see that be more widely spread. I wonder if there is a way to share that, or to establish that [on an individual basis] as artists.

LB: At some shows there are also people who wear pink bandanas.

R: At Cootie Club shows.

RH: I’m impressed by initiatives like that. I guess I would like to see acknowledgment of these problems, and steps taken. I wonder what I can do as an artist. Maybe it is possible to do something like make policies for your own shows. If I am doing a show, then there could be a policy, or a code of conduct of what is expected. It would be cool if there was some sort of movement that we could point to as artists and say, ‘This show is a _____ kind of show. This is what happens here.’

S: Maybe there is something we could stamp on an event page?

R: I think something that could make sense is, because the Cootie Club has already put in so much thought and started this kind of understandings, we could just join up with them? They already have a write up and a mission, so it’s just a matter of making sure that’s accessible and linking to that somehow.

It’s safe to say that we hope to go forward with this initiative. The issue of equality is less about putting a heavy focus on the gender of a musician and more about how people are treated. Initiatives like The Cootie Club can prevent risks and strengthen response to unfavorable situations. We need to be aware that incidences still happen.

I shared with the girls that 3 weeks ago I was roofied at my own show and luckily I had friends around to take care of me. I stress this occurrence and want to share it because it is something that is easily forgotten about. Proper precautions are forgotten because we don’t think it happens at the shows that we go to. But it can. We need to keep sharing our stories to continue to improve the society that we live in.

Rayannah released her EP Boxcar Lullabies on May 7th. Between touring and promoting her new EP, she’ll be playing at this year’s Rainbow Trout Festival.

Carly Dow released Ingrained on May 13. She’ll be touring in the summer, but you can catch her at Real Love Summer Fest, Shine On, Harvest Sun, and Matlock.

Raine Hamilton released Past Your Past on May 27th. In addition to touring Saskatchewan and Alberta, she’ll be playing Real Love Summer Fest, Lac Du Bonnet, Fire and Water, Rainbow Trout, and Shine On. Basic Nature released their debut full-length Circles and Lines on May 9th. They’re currently planning their first tour, and looking to head East!

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BY MARTYNA TURCZYNOWICZ

hat’s old is new again. Just ask Taylor Burgess, W founder of Brain Wave Tapes, a cassette label that started in 2014.

Why tapes? “They are really cheap and easy to produce. I can get them and turn them around quickly to the immediate community,” Burgess explains of his chosen medium. While there are some, who Burgess says “turn up their lip and swear off cassettes and say it’s the most inferior medium they’ve ever heard,” there are also those who “listen to tapes and would have a tape player rather than a CD player, or who don’t even have a turntable for that matter.”

Brain Wave’s first release was a collaboration with The Ineffable. Burgess calls The Ineffable an enigma, which is fair, because the rural Manitobabased band wishes to remain anonymous at all costs.

They reached out to Burgess when he was writing for Stylus and asked him to help put their music out.

“They said they needed my help to put their music out. It was very strange, but their music was so good

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THE INEFFABLE’S NIVEL UNO AVAILABLE AT BRAINWAVETAPES.STORENVY.COM

that I just had to help them.” Right now, Burgess says he acts as a mouthpiece for the band, because of The Ineffable’s request for anonymity. While he admits that promoting a band that wishes to remain anonymous can be difficult, it’s something he’s willing to do because of the calibre of their music.

Alongside The Ineffable, Burgess has also worked with Savant Flaneur. Savant Flaneur is made up of Nathan Krahn of Eagle Lake Owls and Scott Leroux, who plays in the Uncanny Valley Girls among other musical projects. Both musicians, Burgess says, are very prolific and have a lot of musical experience. He describes Savant Flaneur as “really cerebral; one of the key things I wanted the label to have was cerebral music, something that was like a headphone experience or an experience in itself.”

Aside from Savant Flaneur and The Ineffable, there is another recording in the works with Brain Wave — a split single with locals Black Cloud and Palm Trees. Burgess is excited about it. “It’ll be re-

ally good. An immersive, cerebral experience that can really be enjoyed when you’re isolated and on your own.” That release, Burgess says, is set for late June or early July.

Ultimately, Brain Wave Tapes is a way of getting musicians exposure. “Brain Wave is this umbrella that people can start to look towards and find other like-minded artists. I want whoever is working on music in their bedroom, or whatever, and are weirded out by the music or by [the idea of ] sharing it.”

Burgess hopes that those people would be comfortable sharing their music with him.

“I would definitely like to promote it and spread this music to a larger audience. I’m not hoping for any sort of huge fame. I hope my artists can get recognition but I mean, given the kind of esoteric nature of their music, I don’t have these illusions of grandeur. I just hope for a small collection of ‘weirdos,’ for lack of a better term, to be a family of sorts.”

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8 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

BY GIL CARROLL

The Handsome Daughter has quickly become one of

the most cool and exciting live music venues in Winnipeg. Its welcoming atmosphere, excellent food and drink menu and consistent awesome live music makes the Handsome Daughter a venue that we at Stylus couldn’t be happier to have in the city. I spoke to the talent buyer for the Daughter, Mischa Decter, on the role of the venue in the city.

Stylus: What role does the HD play in the Winnipeg music scene? Tell us about what happens at the bar.

Mischa Decter: We’re one of the smaller live music venues in town. Local bands and dance parties on the weekend, Karaoke on Tuesdays, vinyl on Wednesdays, stand-up comedy on Thursdays. A lot of art shows, album releases, hardcore punk bands, even slam poetry. Recently we’ve been getting some more renowned acts in the door, like B.A. Johnston and Sheer Mag. I was lucky enough to book Dead Meadow in June, they’re a really cool psychedelic rock band that have been touring for like 20 years.

Stylus: What’s the most memorable show that the bar has done?

MD: We had the High Thunderers headline a Friday night in February. The lead singer Joe was in the middle of the room for the whole set, without pants, played his guitar for maybe a third of the time, and his rhythm section never missed a beat. At one point he got so excited about the song they were about to play I thought he was going to die of happiness. At the end he ran out of the bar screaming and walked down Sherbrook for ten minutes practically naked.

The whole room smelt like B.O., it was so cool. We also convinced some of the guys from Royal Canoe

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PHOTO BY MATT WILLIAMS

to DJ our front room on a Monday night, that was super fun.

Stylus: It took a lot of hard work to get the HD off the ground, how did the bar finally come together?

MD: I wasn’t personally involved in the renovations, but there was a lot of work to be done on the interior. The bar is completely reborn from what it used to be. We got proper sound equipment for the stage, and threw out the pool table that was took up half of the dance floor of the old bar. It came together when the LC said ‘Okay I guess you guys are allowed to open now,’ and Jay told me ‘Okay I guess we need bands to play here now.’

Stylus: How has the Winnipeg music scene developed in the past year since the bar has been open?

MD: There’s been an influx of young bands, which is refreshing for everyone. Like, 18/19 year olds who have barely been to bars before, and they’re able to fill our room with all their friends. But with this growth, bands have to strive to set themselves apart.

The scene stays stagnant when new bands aren’t original, it develops when bands do cool new stuff with their music and marketing. Winnipeg musicians are very uncompetitive which is good because everyone remains friends, but can be boring because nobody is challenged to think outside the box.

Stylus: What’s the best part about being a Winnipeg establishment?

MD: Winnipeggers are predictable, in a good way.

They want to hear good music, drink Standards, and sing karaoke. It makes our job easy.

Stylus: What’s the best thing on the menu? Food

and beer?

MD: Everything our chef Stefan makes is amazing.

For the Big Fun Festival we had a bunch of special hot dogs, including the Korean ‘Bunh Mi Dog.’ During the Jets’ playoff run we sold a lot of ‘Jets Dogs.’ International Hot Dog day in July is going to be fun. We have lots of wild cocktails that I’m always too afraid to try, but the cider is really good.

Stylus: Any exciting future plans?

MD: We’re teaming up with the Tallest Poppy to run the beer gardens for the Sherbrook Street Festival this year, very excited for that. We’re also going to be hosting a wedding this summer, which is something I had never really anticipated. I really want to host a Super Smash Bros tournament at some point too.

Stylus: Why is Sherbrooke street awesome?

MD: Sherbrooke is a great street because it is the centerpiece for all the nice people that live in West Broadway and Wolseley. The neighbourhood has a great balance of affordable living quarters and commercial space. It has proven to be a sustainable location for businesses that specifically fit the needs of its residents, and for this reason hasn’t been overly gentrified.

Stylus: Any other final statements?

MD: The Handsome Daughter is a great bar and you should come to it because it is great.

Make your way down to the Handsome Daughter at 61 Sherbrooke Street on any night of the week for great food, drinks,music and everything else great.

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Diamond Mind

by Gil Carroll

iamond Mind is a fountain dreamy pop band D from Edmonton. They have released two tapes,

Blank Tape and Fake Tape. The songwriting, lyrics, and melodies on both stand out as innovative and witty, while the music that Diamond Mind creates to soundtrack these lyrics is chill, lush, and extremely catchy. I had the opportunity to meet with the band’s principal songwriter Liam Trimble at an Edmonton farmers market to talk about the band and his perspectives on music.

Stylus: What inspires your music? Do you take influence from other bands or artists or life experiences?

Liam Trimble: I don’t take much from what other bands are doing. Mostly I take influence from life. I love a good hook so if I hear a turn of phrase that has a specific cadence to it, I’ll try and put it to music.

Stylus: What is your songwriting process?

LT: It starts in the shower. That is where most ideas come together. I have always been a shower singer. It is the only place you can actually be alone.

Stylus: How did you record your tapes?

LT: I recorded all of Fake Tape in my bedroom just piecing songs together slowly. Blank Tape which was released on March 27 was recorded with Jesse Northey at his studio True North.

Stylus : How did Diamond Mind start out?

LT: I had a band around 10 years ago called Illfit Outfit but I realized I hated it and I was making music I would never listen to. Diamond Mind happened naturally, I knew a few musicians who were not in any other bands at the time, which is very rare.

Stylus : What is the Edmonton music scene like?

LT: There is a surplus of community but a serious lack of infrastructure. Venues are constantly closing and secret venues are getting shut down by cops. We did a secret show at a place called Circles which was a laundromat by day. It was a Big Shiny Tunes 90’s Tribute Night and we even had a version of “The Macarena” we were going to play, but cops shut it down in the middle of our set. Edmonton does have though thousands of awesome musicians that make up many dif-

ferent scenes. There are huge metal and punk scenes here, but there is not much crossover.

Stylus : What do you look for in new bands?

LT: Quality of songs is important, also if you can tell that their sound is not a carbon copy of something else. I look for hooks a lot because I love pop music. I also look for bands not to be a garage band.

Stylus : What is the most important part of writing a song?

LT: Nobody will ever care as much as you do about your lyrics, so you need to say things with interesting inflections and convey emotion through sound.

Catch Diamond Mind live at the Handsome Daughter on June 19 with The Zorgs and Ala Mode. $8 at the door.

Odanah

by Natalie Bohrn

e have church,” Mike Fox laughs on a brisk “W spring afternoon over bagels and beer at the

Sherbrook Street Delicatessen. I’ve asked about his band Odanah’s rehearsal rituals. “We’ve got a good little thing going on,” he says. “Instead of jamming on Friday nights with a few beers, we get together on Sundays at 10 in the morning with coffee... It’s become a good way to get stuff done.”

“It’s a great way to wake up -- rocking out,” agrees Brady Allard, co-leader of the transforming folk-rock four-piece.

This weekend ritual has been going on for a year of Odanah’s two years as a band, ever since adding Ashley Au on bass and Dan Britton on drums to the fold, and it seems to have oddly reverberated in the Winnipeg music scene. Odanah were invited to play the Big Fun Festival’s Hangover Brunch on a Sunday afternoon, a West End Cultural Centre Sunday afternoon matinee show in April, and have been addressed

by CBC Manitoba as “this lovely, sweet little folk band that’s sort of perfect to hear in a tiny venue with some tea.”

While it’s true that Odanah’s debut EP, Blood and Sour Mash, was influenced in no small way

10 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

by two of the softest and darkest of Americana duos, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings and The Milk Carton Kids, Odanah is now in the bittersweet process of breaking up with its old self.

With the folk duo project, “we felt limited to smaller venues and coffee shops,” says Mike Fox. “Brady or I would keep finding ourselves writing something and saying, ‘that’s not really appropriate for the band.’ Eventually, it turned more and more into, ‘Let’s use it.’”

“We were holding back the dam of garage rock,” agrees Allard. “At one point we had five new songs that weren’t folk, so we said, ‘Why don’t we relax the rules a little bit?’”

In this way, the songs Odanah puts forth have always followed the natural current of what Mike and Brady have been enjoying listening to: at the moment, Yo La Tengo, The War On Drugs, Real Estate, Kurt Vile, and Mac DeMarco are a few shared favorites. The Odanah song “Sugar” sounds like it owes a little something to Brooklyn’s punk revivalists Parquet Courts, and was indeed written while Allard was heavily into their album Light Up Gold.

At present, Odanah has pitched their tent in the

no man’s land between the traditionally polarized introverted, finger-picking folk and rowdy, full-band garage-rock. For live shows, the band moves behind either line delicately, depending on the night, the venue, the vibe, and their bill partners.

“We’re playing a folkier show in Toronto,” says Fox of Odanah’s spring tour out to the nation’s capital and back, “and we’re also playing The Mansion in Kingston with a bunch of psych bands.”

“We still have the folk songs and we still play them. I still love a lot of our older folk songs,” admits Allard. “But going forward, I think we’ll identify less and less with being a folk band.”

Odanah is ready to release all the new music they’ve been playing, and plan to drop a new album in late summer or autumn of 2015. “All the songs are ready, we just need to get in there and press record,” says Allard.

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June/July 2015 Stylus Magazine

011

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live bait LES JUPES

SOME KIND OF FAMILY

“CANADA’S NEXT GREAT BAND

... IF THEY HADN’T BROKEN UP.” - EXCLAIM

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URBAN RECORD OF THE YEAR

HEADINTHESAND.CA

Knock Between Doors

Mondays 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. on CKUW 95.9 FM or ckuw.ca

am Neal has been involved with CKUW for apSproximately the past 4 years, first doing guest spots on

Sellout Sound (now Mercy of Slumber), then co-hosting, and has now graduated to his own show, which is a marathon six-hour set of experimental music from across the spectrum. Stylus emailed Sam to talk about his show.

Stylus: What sort of music do you play?

Sam Neal: I mainly play experimental music — it’s kind of a lacking description, since experimental could mean virtually anything, provided you’re willing to argue whether or not the music in question is “experimental”. That said, I like the term, because it gives me a very large palette to work with — I could play Alban Berg one night and DNA the next, since both are connected in an exploratory nature.

Stylus: What are your top 5 bands?

SN: I could never answer this question, so I’m sorry for that, but I will note 5 modern artists who I recommend readers and listeners check out: Croatian Amor, Objekt, Samantha Vacation, Valerio Tricoli, Internazionalze.

Stylus: How did you get into the music that you’re into?

SN: This is not meant to be a jokey answer, but the

COMIC BY TIFF BARTEL (@TIFFBARTEL)

14 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

truth is this: hours and hours on discogs.com.

Stylus: How did you get involved? How long have you been involved with CKUW for?

SN: Maybe 4 or 5 years? A friend asked me to do a guest spot on his show, which was called Sellout Sounds at the time; it was later renamed to Mercy of Slumber. Eventually I did another guest slot, and another, and before I knew it, I was asked to co-host.

I agreed and have loved volunteering ever since.

Stylus: As progressively fewer people listen to the radio, how do you think CKUW fits into things? Do you think that CKUW will weather this storm better than normal radio stations because it attracts an audience who are invested in the idea of listening to college radio?

SN: I think so — compared to mainstream stations, college radio has always seemed to have a great culture attached to it, and that holds true to this day.

CKUW has a wonderful community of volunteers, friends, etc. that are very supportive, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Stylus: How do you feel college radio impacts the community/university? Do you feel like it has any impact?

SN: I think CKUW certainly has an impact on stu-

dents and citizens alike, and is integral to the representation of the university and community. CKUW is wonderful because it gives a voice to our campus and community, and provides a safe space for both an individual and a group to voice their opinions, ask and answer questions, provide news, music and other services to the public sphere. CKUW had a huge impact on me when I first discovered it, because I realized there was a place downtown that cared about what I had to say — I believe CKUW has had this same impact on others as well.

Stylus: Do you have any plans for your show in the future?

SN: Nothing to spectacular, other than a broader range of music with every show!

Stylus: What other shows on CKUW are you into?

SN: I don’t want to play favourites, since every show on CKUW has its own unique quality that makes for a great listen! I suppose what I’m into has always been tuning in at random and almost always being blown away by unique programming. That’s the best.

ILLUSTRATION BY MISTER JAN

16 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

BY TOPHER DUGUAY

The always inventive Deerhoof have been around for

20 years and just released their thirteenth album, La Isla Bonita, in November of last year. As they’re coming on June 17th to play at the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, we asked drummer Greg Saunier to discuss past influences, current inspiration, and the possibility of a Deerhoof musical.

Stylus: Your first tour was with Caroliner, which I just found out yesterday – how was that? They seem like they’d be a big influence on earlierperiod Deerhoof stylistically – did they influence you much?

Greg Saunier: They believed in us, which is to say they did one better than influence us. Caroliner was also the connection that brought Satomi and Deerhoof together. When she moved to San Francisco she was staying with them and that happened to be right when Deerhoof was looking for a singer.

Stylus: I really like Milk Man and when I was a lot younger I got a kick out of the album cover.

I just found out from doing some research on you all that you’re friends with Ken Kagami. I can see why – the mix of cutesy/gross elements sort of jives with your poppy/noisy tendencies.

How’d you get to know him anyway?

GS: Because Ken’s wife is Satomi’s friend from middle school. Milk Man was a character Ken cooked up while they were living in the same building as Satomi and me in San Francisco for a couple of years.

Of course he had nothing to do with the lyrics. He just handed us these drawings and called it Milk Man and that was it.

Stylus: Since I’m assuming you’re into the experimental art scene in Japan due to your friendship with Ken Kagami, are you into Japan’s experimental music scene as well? A lot of the stuff coming out of Japan in the 80s and 90s seems like it’d be a pretty blatant predecessor to your music (Picky Picnic and Syzygys both did very experimental/discordant pop, PSF records had a lot of technically talented psychedelic weirdos, etc) GS: Your assumption is reasonable but untrue. Actually I doubt that Ken is even into that art scene.

When we’ve stayed at his apartment his art book collection is all Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy. He claims Deerhoof is one of his main influences although maybe he’s just being friendly. Those bands are probably awesome. I’ve never heard of them, although I quite like their names. I’m impressed with familiarity with such obscurities, and kind of curious how you accomplished it. There was no internet when Deerhoof started out so what we did know was super random.

Stylus: What are you guys listening to lately?

Anything currently striking your interest? I know you said every album is like your debut as whatever band you’re pretending to be at the moment, so are there any bands you’d want to pretend to be right now?

GS: I don’t have a clue what Ed John and Satomi listen to. This past New Year’s Eve I sent them some songs for inspiration - Frida, Springsteen, Olivia Newton John and some other stuff - but they didn’t write me back. One thing I’ve been listening to again and again is an album of Igor Stravinsky’s piano music played by Giacomo Franci, which I found on iTunes. His interpretations are a radical creative statement, being neither traditional (which seeks to make Stravinsky’s music ever more palatwww.stylusmagazine.ca

able) nor in accordance with the composer’s stated preference (that it be performed in a mechanical and impersonal manner), and in so doing brings out some awkward humanity, comedy, grotesqueness, and feeling of absurdly arbitrary improvisation that have been trapped inside the music for too long.

Stylus: I got the impression from other interviews that you all feel like you’re trying to keep up with what’s currently hip to an extent and it’s becoming progressively more fashionable to make music that’s essentially R&B, but since it’s marketed to hipsters, it’s called indie (Autre ne Veut, How to Dress Well, Alunageorge… this is a little less fashionable now but I have a feeling you know what I’m talking about). Was that the reason you were interested in making a super slickly produced record before the actual recording sessions for La Isla Bonita?

GS: I don’t know those bands. You have done your homework. You’re like an encyclopedia my man. I’m not for or against genres. Ever since Satomi joined, I’ve tried to learn to write songs that she wants to sing. When we first started writing songs for La Isla Bonita, I was checking out late 80s and early 90s Madonna and Janet Jackson, because Satomi had said she used to sing their hits at karaoke at the time. So I knew they were good models. I had never heard any of it because I didn’t have a radio in those years. When I heard that production I was like ‘What in the world is this?’ So decadent and avant garde. Not to mention optimistic, like it was the last time American music sounded like it believed in the American dream. I seemed to hear “Anything is possible as long as you have the cash.” It was like aristocrats waltzing their lives away at the end of the Hapsburg Empire, doom and cynicism just around the corner. Deerhoof started the day Kurt died. At least in terms of music we were already in full postapocalyptic mode. So we were interested in looking back at that seemingly alien time before the fall.

Stylus: Do you think you’ll ever plan on making that Jimmy Jam producing Janet Jackson record after all? I’d be super down to hear Deerhoof vs. R&B. GS: Well that’s what we were trying to make. We just didn’t have that budget, or any budget.

Stylus: I noticed that all of your albums seem to be getting progressively, but incrementally poppier – but still pretty weird. I know you’ve said you guys start over from scratch whenever you start recording but have you noticed this yourselves?

GS: You pit poppy and weird against each other. To me that doesn’t seem quite right. Anything sounds like gibberish or like some bad joke when you don’t understand it. And I find that happening all the time when I hear some trendy new singer or trendy new style. It takes a few repeats to wrap your head around it. If you started reciting Greek poetry to me I could say it was weird but then again it might just be the minor quibble that I don’t speak Greek.

When you’re a DIY band that means you spend a lot of time with your music. Writing, recording, mixing, touring. It actually is the most familiar music in your life.

Stylus: Since you mentioned all your albums are basically like your debut what do you think was your best…er… debut?

GS: It takes two or three years of not hearing it before I can hear any of our records fresh. For now Breakup Songs is my favorite but ask me again in a

couple years and it might be La Isla Bonita.

Stylus: You toured with Caroliner and mentioned David Bowie as an influence – two of the most theatrical people in the rock game. Any chance of Deerhoof developing a more theatrical live show?

GS: A performer on stage is already theatrical by definition. We think of it that way and feel privileged to do so. What happens during a concert is a human story unfolding. The thing with Caroliner and Bowie is the artificiality and self-awareness.

Costumes and props. Deerhoof ’s aesthetic is about this juxtaposition of artificial and real, or constant alternations between going wild and animalistic and then stopping and making fun of it, revising it. Actually I think most music is like that. At least that’s the way I listen to it.

Stylus: What about a Deerhoof Musical?

GS: There was one. The Milk Man Ballet was a children’s music theater piece with singing and dancing, performed by the children of the North Haven Community School in North Haven, Maine. They performed the album song by song. It was released on DVD but you can also see excerpts online. We were there for the premier and it was one of the high points of my life.

Stylus: Where’d you get the idea for the “Mirror Monster” video? It’s such a simple concept and executed really effectively.

GS: For several years my friend Todd Chandler has put on these drive-in theater installations called Empire Drive-In in various cities around the world.

Everyone sits in or on top of cars taken from a local junkyard and watches movies. In the summer 2013, opening night of the New York edition of Empire Drive-In had silent movies scored with an orchestra of 20 casios playing music I composed. At the end of the summer he shot this slow motion footage of the cars being gathered back up to return to the junkyard, and he showed it to me around the time Deerhoof was starting to put together new songs for a record. I actually wrote “Mirror Monster” to match the video, not the other way around.

Stylus: Why did you pick the name La Isla Bonita? I know Milk Man was named because of the milk man on the cover, and Deerhoof Vs. Evil was named because you were making a joke about how you felt like you weren’t able to affect any real social chance, so does La Isla Bonita have any special significance?

GS: The deadline to turn the record in happened to be when we were on tour in Asia. After our show in Bangkok we stayed up late at the hotel finishing the mastering, and sent it to Polyvinyl. It still didn’t have a title, nor did most of the individual songs.

The next morning from the Bangkok airport Ed texted his wife to get some of her ideas, she being a master of words. Five minutes later an enormous text came back with tons of suggestions. All the way to Kuala Lumpur on the plane we were passing Ed’s phone around and dying laughing because we thought these names were so good. Most of the song titles on the record are hers, and La Isla Bonita was just too perfect not to use for the album title. It was exactly what we were looking for; the Madonna reference, the lyrical connection of the American Empire selling this image of false paradise to itself, an image that now seems laughable. Sara Cwynar had already created the photos for the album art and they included that one of the burning island.

June/July 2015 Stylus Magazine

17

SUFJAN STEVENS

BY TIM RICHARDSON

Stevens is known for high-concept projSects.ufjan He’s crafted musical anthologies of Illinois and

Michigan, made a song for each of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and churned out seemingly endless volumes of Christmas music. With his newest album, Carrie & Lowell, we find him at his least thematically ambitious and most biographically and emotionally exposed. As has been extensively publicized and discussed, Carrie & Lowell is very explicitly about one thing: Sufjan’s response to the 2012 death of his mother Carrie to stomach cancer. Each song copes with the reverberations of this event: witnessing it, burying it, or accepting it, sometimes all at the same time.

Leading up to the record’s release, there was much talk of Carrie & Lowell as Sufjan going “back to basics”. Sufjan may have gone a little more basic than anyone was expecting. For an artist that seems to have the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra on stand-by, the production values here are remarkably low. A number of the songs were recorded in a hotel room using an iPhone microphone, an audible air conditioner even prominently featuring in one track. Yet while this album is certainly stripped down, there is nothing musically basic here. Rather, this is Sufjan deprived of all his superpowers. Gone is the bubbling exuberance of Illinois and Michigan, the religious salvation of Seven Swans, and the auto-tuned electro-freakout of Age of Adz. Gone are the 25-word long track names and 25-minute long tracks. This is Sufjan Stevens naked and alone in a room, contemplating death, separation, neglect, and suicide. There is something unnerving about the loss of exuberance that was once emblematic of his sound. Maybe death changed him. Maybe he got old.

Moments of catharsis are here prone to be dispelled and undone. Take “Should Have Known Better,” wherein Sufjan struggles with the emotional inertia that prevented him from reaching out to his mother before her death. Halfway into the song, the tone takes an unexpected shift toward the optimis-

18 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

tic that would be jarring in almost any other musician’s hands. “Nothing can be changed” he sings, this time as self-reassurance, and, “My brother had a daughter; the beauty that she brings, Illumination.”

But as the track ends the music drifts away and the vision slowly dissolves before him. Even the illumination of a newborn niece serves as a reminder that his mother will never get the chance to share in the light. Even moments of respite can be repurposed towards grief ’s ends.

Sufjan has referred to Carrie & Lowell as “raw” and “artless.” There are times when Sufjan is so raw it almost feels awkward and even lurid to listen in.

This effect was only amplified in his live show when I saw him at Massey Hall. As if self-conscious, Sufjan powered through almost the entire new album start to finish before so much as addressing the audience, then dipping into his back-catalogue at a much easier pace. In an interview with The J Files Sufjan admitted to crying openly during some of his recent shows. As an audience, we are, after all, listening to a man asking his mother why she didn’t love him. As powerful as the show was, this is not an album that was designed with touring in mind.

All this melancholy may sound indulgent, but Sufjan brings an incredible lightness to this record.

Take “The Only Thing,” a song in which Sufjan playfully contemplates suicide first by driving his car into a canyon then by slitting his wrists in a motel bathroom. Here, suicidal ideation becomes merely the backdrop for a statement of faith and hope. The ‘only’ thing stopping Sufjan from ending his life is the “signs and wonders: sea lion caves in the dark” — the natural beauty of the world. In “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross” we find Sufjan in a moment of self-reflection after a grief-fuelled stint of substance abuse or “chasing the dragon too far.” For a song including the line ”Fuck me I’m falling apart” the sound is restorative, like being moved downriver by a gentle current. For Sufjan, there is no time so dark that it cannot be salvaged by a moment of transcendent self-forgiveness and the possibility of

renewal.

The title track is the album’s one moment of unrestrained uplift. Sufjan finds a sanctuary in a collage of lyrical images, snippets of childhood summers spent with Carrie in Oregon. The banjo kicks in at the midway point, its first appearance in the album from a man who was once known for its sound. The moment works because it takes us back to the roots of our relationship with Sufjan, just as he is returning to the roots of his relationship with his mother.

The album’s sparse final track “Blue Bucket of Gold” seems to call into question the entire album that comes before it, and perhaps even his entire canon to this point. He sings “Once the myth has been told the lens deforms it as lightning.” Sufjan has made a career of mythologizing — he made a full-length soundtrack for an expressway, made us empathize for a serial killer, and turned a road trip to Chicago into an anthem of freedom and renewal for all of America. But here, his powers don’t work: Sufjan can extol, forgive and tell all the stories he wants, but there is fundamentally no one there to hold him and tell him they love him back. More than that, this line foresees that the endless retelling of his story — in interviews, live shows, articles like these — ”deforms” the original meaning, and risks serving only to further distance him from the person that was its source.

In several instances throughout this record Sufjan ends a song by relinquishing his voice, guitar, and piano, and letting the song’s ambience engulf him, as if being overpowered by the mood he just conjured up. “Blue Bucket of Gold” ends with such an expression, this time as he surrenders his mother to the beyond. In an album that is overpoweringly honest, beautiful, and devastating, this section is the purest expression of grief in the entire record. It is a final release of sadness and rumination, and an acceptance of the futility of the attempt to reach out.

In the end, there is nothing that can bridge the gap between us and those we lose.

nonstophiphop FULL CIRCLE RESPECTS THE ARCHITECTS

I

By Harrison Samphir

n the nearly three years of this column’s appearance in the pages of Stylus, there’s been an effort to showcase hip hop at the fringes; that is, music you won’t (and often can’t) read about in major publications or listen to on commercial radio stations. In an age of rap that’s highly commercialized, alternative media plays an increasingly significant role in unearthing underground artists. Magazines like this one share their sounds and stories, establishing an invaluable connection between readers and burgeoning creative communities.

Full Circle, the two-piece Toronto hip hop outfit formed in 2012 by emcee Still Waters and producer Bes Kept (who also raps), is precisely the kind of group we endeavor to reveal. That’s because their blend of tight rhyme schemes and soulful, jazzy boom-bap breaks display dedication, both to an urban craft and the cultural lineage established by T.O. greats like Da Grassroots, Mathematik, Ghetto Concept and Choclair.

The legacy of Toronto’s rap pathfinders is well known — read the September/October 2013 issue of Stylus for the first edition of the “Hip Hop Retrospective” series — and lives in every corner of the sprawling metropolis, from the dusty shelves of Cosmos Records to the streets of Scarborough and Vaughan. Plenty of new artists dot the contemporary scene, too. 6th Letter, Airplane Boys, Big Lean, Adam Bomb and others have found commercial success in a city that’s very often recalled for its major label success stories (read: Drake).

Full Circle is an emerging act — they only began playing local shows recently, including an early-May spot during Canadian Music Week — but their de-

but LP Infinite Edges is a rugged assemblage of 16 impressive tracks that make necks snap with sharp hi-hats, poetic vocabulary and a refreshing level of sonic variety.

Hip hop duos are rare in today’s industry, but Full Circle’s two members create a dichotomy that shines. The rapping of Still Waters, filled with internal complexity and philosophical subject matter, flows steadily over the crafty production of Bes Kept; listeners might identify a resemblance to A Tribe Called Quest or any number of East Coast, New York legends, but there’s an ingenuity and freshness to the songs that never sounds recycled.

Still’s lyrical prowess is evidenced on “Get $,” one of the group’s earliest tracks that vibes with laidback keys and a Big L vocal loop: “A figment that you entrust in yourself should be a statement/Never closure, something vacant/More like a form of entertainment/They talk about it but could never ever demonstrate it.”

Speaking with Stylus on a two-way call from Toronto, Full Circle expanded on their mission as artists who feel deeply connected to their city and want to honour the pioneers who paved the way for future success.

“Hip hop was always around in Toronto,” says Bes. “I can remember the ‘Jump Around’ Pete Rock version in the second grade playing on my Walkman.

I was a big fan of Dan-e-o’s ‘Dear Hip Hop’when that came out. Son of S.O.U.L., DJ Grouch had a big impact on me. The whole Rap Essentials album.

Stylistic Endeavours, Mathematik.

“Toronto sounds to me like Saukrates ‘Play Dis’ or Choclair’s ‘What It Takes.’ You can tell these guys are digging in crates and staying true to their craft.”

Still is less direct and more contemplative. To him, rhyming is an extension of the stories we’ve always heard, the internal dialogue that drives the

PHOTO BY SAMUEL ENGELKING

urban appeal of hip hop music and garners attention from listeners.

“When I was hearing a lot of Toronto artists,” he begins, “it was an expression and a voice to project what was going on in the city. It drew me close to our form of music to promote Toronto and the artists here.

“The style of beats Bes produces, when it hits my ear the only way I can express myself properly is through my own experiences or things I feel need to change or things that need to be addressed. With our style of music, the content and the originality is shown through how real it is. You get a lot of people who make albums about theories or things that are out of this world, but this is for people who like and listen to our style and feel our originality and how real life situations manifest. On a lot of tracks I’m probably talking about things that everybody’s going through. I’m that voice. This album is organic and everyone can relate to it.”

There’s a lot to like about Full Circle and their no frills approach to making an album in 2015. Among the record’s songs are skits and interludes that will make most reminisce about the open-minded creativity of the early-90s, along with lyrical topics of varying depth and intensity.

As Still points out, Infinite Edges is far from their last project, too, alluding to a new record already in the works.

“First you tasted it. Now you’re going to be fed it.”

Hip hop heads everywhere should be lining up to get a plate.

Purchase Full Circle’s debut album at https://full360music.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-edges.

PHOTO BY SAMUEL ENGELKING

www.stylusmagazine.ca

June/July 2015 Stylus Magazine

19

Local Spotlight

RAYANNAH Boxcar Lullabies EP Rayannah’s debut EP Boxcar Lullabies is full of personal experiences and sweet stories, taking us through memories in the fabric of time. It is definitely alternative pop but remains highly individualistic with elements of soul, ambient and electronic music.

The tunes are extremely well written and well executed. Rayannah will pull you in with her dancing melodies and effortless tone. The production quality is top notch. Her songs move through pleasant and enlightening experiences, to eerie and hauntingly beautiful thick harmonies. Her rhythmic diversity is quite compelling and her ambient sections flow like angular silky rivers. Rayannah broadly builds from darling and beautiful spirals into wide layers high as the atmosphere and wide as the horizon. She does this so effortlessly. The supporting musicians on this album have a perfect blend and excel in performing their parts. Boxcar Lullabies is a lovely experience, a remarkable reminiscence - musical and familiar.

Selci

YES WE MYSTIC Vestige Yes We Mystic pulled off a wicked little stunt to promote this EP. By posting posters around the city with an ominous grayscale head floating in black abyss, they created a fury of speculation. Is it a new indie movie?

Is it signs of a coming terror attack?

Is it a cult calling? No. It’s a bunch of

20 Stylus Magazine June/July 2015

20 something’s pulling the wool over your eyes to promote their new EP Vestige. Now, this stunt would have failed miserably if the EP sucked.

But it doesn’t, and it deserves all the fanatic frenzied energy it gets. Yes We Mystic’s Vestige is a 2-song EP, following the band’s Floods and Fires debut in 2013. Yes We Mystic have always at least somewhat dwelled in melancholia and nostalgic folk, but this EP leaps forward to a more powerful embrace of anthemic power pop. Fuhr has always been a great vocalist, and the new EP exemplifies his progression and continuation in doing so.

The string section of this group contributes in a way that is previously unheard on Floods and Fires. With sharp cutting violin and crashing symbols, “The Contest of Strength” ascends on the waves of Keegan and Adam’s combined voices. Exclaim! is streaming an exclusive edition of the release, which includes 5 remixes from Mark Mills, Doug Hoyer, the Wilderness of Manitoba, Holy Hum, and Andrew Judah.

A band that is thoughtful, smart, and intentional in the material they release (and how they do it), the EP is completed with high production value. Vestige is exhilarating. (Self-released, yeswemystic.bandcamp.com) Victoria King

CAREY J. BUSS Answer The Bell Carey J. Buss’s second EP begins with the sound of a bell, thematically inviting the listener to enter the sonic space of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, where the first two tracks of Answer The Bell were recorded. The first and title track is a plaintive folk song, asking the listener if they will take social and environmental responsibility for today’s world. “Will you pull up the weeds and start planting your seeds?

Help the garden to grow good and strong,” sings Carey in front of the open vocal harmonies of a choir assembled for this record. Second track “Not A Movie Just A Metaphor”

changes the scene to feature Carey’s driving and melodic finger-picking guitar playing, Logan Picton’s singing fiddle lines, and a punchy rhythm section featuring The Bros. Landreth’s Ryan Voth and his steady train beat.

“Pilot Mound Fir Tree” is the tenderest of story-telling folk songs, beginning the tale with the all-telling line “Oh my sister she was born dead, we buried her that day.” “Eating The First Bird Of Spring” is a solo guitar tour de force inspired in equal parts

by Kaki King and Carey’s cat. “Last Pallet” features Ben Hadaller on the banjo. Answer The Bell is made of soulful folk songs, coming-of-age anthems and hymns for the working man, filled out with virtuosic fiddle and guitar playing and thunderous chorus of friends. (Self-released, careyjbuss.bandcamp.com/) Natalie Bohrn

CARLY DOW Ingrained There is hardly a line on Carly Dow’s album Ingrained that isn’t worth twisting around in your mind like a skein of yarn to find its true beginning and end. “I’m a fly on the wall of the earth,” sings Dow, a lifelong observer of nature of all kinds. This music has true roots in long studies of weather, earth, green growth and the seasons of life. “Soil To Dust,” the first single, is the kind of song Ani DiFranco would have righteously penned if she had worked closely for years with The Crooked Brothers and the husky wilderness of Manitoba, as Carly has, with deeply grooving drumbeat, richly intricate finger-picking banjo, and the dark descent of a violin. “Not A Songbird” and “Casanova” sit on the spare side, and portray a mightily vulnerable and gentle figure; “I’ll be the wind at your back, I’ll be the ground at your feet, come on baby, walk all over me.... I’m not a songbird, I am a crow, and I’ll call to you....” Carly Dow calls up all kinds of animals and stormy weather to exemplify her most

profound experiences. In the folk tradition of political song, “Ingrained” is deeply lined by Carly’s environmental and social stances. However, she refrains from pointing the finger, only sharing her deep personal fears: “I don’t want to see the day where everything has changed too much to go back,” and “If North is up as the arrow says, my hometown still bleeds at the head.” A living, breathing album with sweeping arrangements of cello and pedal steel, moaning harmonica and waltzing bass, Ingrained rests on the ringing truth of Carly Dow’s dark and poignant writing.

Natalie Bohrn

BASIC NATURE Circles and Lines Distorted melancholy, as sweet as rain on pavement. Basic Nature’s new album Circles and Lines, draws out an image that is rustically bright and sweetly twisted. The flow drones and drifts down the paths of hushed delay and through crumbling roads of heavy distortion. Basic Nature suspends us like a falling feather and swiftly arcs, profound as an incoming wind. The album is simultaneously light and heavy in the best possible way. Their instrumental and vocal blends are a highly complimentary sea of sound with haunting harmonies fading in and out unexpectedly. They’ve got a bit of a Warpaint thing going on, so if you’re into that you’ll definitely be into this. The recordings are quite lo-fi but for the most part match the overall sound and aesthetic. Their title track “Circles and Lines” is embedded with that mature angst that lives within us all. This album is shoegaze indie-rock suitable for listening anywhere - parks, basements, beaches, studios, warehouses, and journeys.

(Sundowning Lightfoot/Dub Ditch Picnic, dubditchpicnic.bandcamp. com/album/circles-and-lines) Selci

Root Cellar

KEIFFER MCLEAN Drama in the Attic Drama in the Attic is the first full length album from Keiffer Mclean, and it is full of intimate but easygoing songs about love, life, and family. Although he is only 20 years old, Keiffer has the kind of deep baritone voice that seems to belong to the expansive Canadian prairies. Each song is individually strong with interesting arrangements and very consistent vocals, but it takes until midway through the album to get a real sense of Maclean’s sound. However, by the time “Handful of Diamonds” (a strong contender for a first radio single if there ever was one) comes on, the introspective and easygoing nature of the album is entirely clear.

Mclean’s smooth deep voice creates an interesting contrast to the light and upbeat instrumentation throughout, and these textures come together to lend a meandering tone to the album which seems well-suited to a lazy summer afternoon. This is not to say the album is lazy – not only does Maclean utilize a variety of instruments (including keys, bass, clarinet, a tuba, and a trumpet) but he released the album independently with the help of his father as co-producer and his uncle Al Muirhead (a well established Calgary-based Jazz musician). At 20 years old, Maclean may still be developing his sound, but there are many interesting lyrical and musical choices here that suggest that he is well on his way to becoming a mainstay in the Canadian folk scene. (Self-released, keiffermclean.ca) Danielle Marion LI’L ANDY While the Engines Burn Hailed as “Canada’s foremost practitioner of country music for the thinking man,” Li’l Andy’s While the Engines Burn is a moody and evocative travelogue documenting the purity

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of the Canadian Prairie landscape, the hardships of pioneer life, and most notably, the toil and sweat of the railroad. The cover and album art contribute to the overall feeling of historic Canadiana, complete with facsimiles of faded postcards and maps.

The quality of the songwriting and instrumentation are quite good, with special mention going to Joe Grass, who composed the album’s unique – and, given the genre, somewhat unexpected – horn arrangements, and who plays a particularly haunting pedal steel throughout. Perhaps the only caveat, in this reviewer’s opinion, is Li’l Andy’s vocals, which are rather unpolished. Andy possesses a distinct baritone register, and its tonal flaws tend to detract from the music’s raw country beauty. At one point, he even displays an unfortunate instance of lazy lyricism, using the exact same pair of metaphors to describe smoke emanating from a train’s smokestack in the songs “See the Train Arrive” and “Gasoline.” These are lamentable drawbacks to what is an otherwise poignant musical exploration of the trials and tribulations linked to what many call a simpler time. (Selfreleased, lilandy.bandcamp.com/album/while-the-engines-burn) Phil Enns

LILY FROST Do What You Love Perhaps best known for singing the theme song to the short-lived CBC comedy-drama Being Erica (yeah, it doesn’t stand out to me, either), Canadian chanteuse Lily Frost’s music melds pseudo-60s bubblegum pop with surf guitars and just the right amount of cabaret moodiness, so as not to come off sounding overly kitschy. Frost’s vocals are reminiscent of similar – albeit, more musically interesting – fare such as Feist and Zooey Deschanel of She & Him. Meant as an album of life lessons written for her infant daughter, Do

What You Love does a decent job of placing age-old words of wisdom in bright hipster packages, but there are very few musical hooks among these ten songs to really keep listeners interested. “I will be gone by the end of this song,” Frost warns on “No Promises,” ironically, one of the album’s catchier tunes (along with “Grenade” and “Poetry”). The only real curve ball here comes at the end with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “San Tropez” – perhaps the most uncharacteristically optimistic song in Floyd’s entire catalogue. Unless you live in Wolseley, have two cats, and drink copious amounts of tea, skip it. (Aporia Records, lilyfrost. com) Phil Enns

bum art, reminiscent of soul groups from the 60s, serves to signify that this album is from the tradition of acceptable-by-baby-boomers soul. The weird thing about this is that the music doesn’t match this narrative very well. “Afraid of Heights,” my favourite track here, has a dance-punk bassline that sounds more like Liars than Larry Graham, and they use *gasp* sampling on “Bringin’ the Heat” (although this affront to instrument-playing authenticity is mediated by it being a Quincy Jones sample). All in all, not bad, but not good, but they’re good at what they do. ( Jermaine Wells/BJ Fitzgerald, illfunk.com) Topher Duguay

THE ILL FUNK ENSEMBLE The Duality While album art should not have any bearing on the quality of the music within the album, the album cover can combine with the album itself to convey a series of musical/’extramusical’ signifiers to the listener, informing them of their social status obtained through consuming the music. The Duality’s album cover is a good jumping-off point to discuss this. The Ill Funk Ensemble are a bizarre breed; they are a rock rap group. Each member is extremely technically skilled (they are described as “professional,” which is a much more authentic word than “session musician,” which I suspect they are), and they proudly declare that they independently book and perform an enormous number of shows per year and do not subscribe to artificial methods of obtaining faux-popularity (i.e. purchasing followers on Twitter). Similarly, the al-

THE WEATHER STATION Loyalty I’m uncertain of the most appropriate word to describe that feeling on a rainy grey Sunday, when there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go, and the whole day is spent in a half state of here and not here. When I first listened to Loyalty, the brand new release by The Weather Station, that was my day - and it became the perfect soundtrack. The Weather Station is the project of Tamara Lindeman, a Toronto songwriter and actress. Loyalty is the third release in the project’s discography, predecessed by All of it was Mine in 2011. Loyalty was made in collaboration with Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas, and is curiously nostalgic and beautiful, downtempo and easy flowing. Most notably on this release is the lyrics. Firstly, they’re laid out on the inside of the case and read like poetry. It’s worthwhile to find a comfy spot and read them ahead of time.

THE WEATHER STATION

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They’re eloquent and clean without fussing in unnecessary metaphor or imagery. Written as reflections, they dwell on motifs of travel and location (specifically referencing New Orleans, Nebraska, and California), sisterhood, and interpersonal disconnect. To my eyes, Lindeman’s lyrics look like they’re written as poems or short stories at a distance from the musical arrangement, which is further supported by the unconventional vocal patterns and song structure. For fans of Joni Mitchell and Sharon Van Etten, Lindeman is a breath of fresh air. Her voice is gentle and waspy, and the album is powerful in its subtly.

Never pushing too hard, never making waves, it floats contently in ebbs and flows of soft pop space. Really, it’s lovely. (Self-released, the-weather-

station.com) Victoria King

SUN K Northern Lies Sun K are an extremely polished indie-rock act who try to channel a rockist ideal of “cool” through every aspect of their sound. Big, crunchy, polished

guitars, a jazzy organ, a cool dude singer with an imperceptible rasp and lots of “Whoas” are heard throughout the first track, and the album continues its abstracted cool-guy aura. Despite being Canadian, they sing about New York City, and they mimic Lou Reed’s classic “Sweet Jane” with their own riff-rocker with the words “sweet” and “[insert girl’s name here]” called “Sweet Marie,” because “Sweet Jane” exists at a sweet spot between critically acclaimed rock song and popularly enjoyed rock song. Contributing to Sun K’s simulacrum of authenticity, the lyrics are hand-written and their singer wears a rockin’ fedora on top of his mess of I-Can-Play-Both-PartsOf-Every-Thin-Lizzy-Solo-At-TheSame-Time guitarist curls. Essentially, Sun K try so hard to channel a

past era’s ideal of a good and authentic rock band that they end up sounding hilariously inauthentic, and frankly it’s eerie hearing a band try this hard, and succeed so much, at sounding like the platonic ideal of rock music circa 1975. This makes it sound like I dislike the album, so I should clarify that if you want to listen to a band that continues the tradition of highly polished rock bands from the early-to-mid 70s (or the apex of rock music as cultural commodity) you will love this album. They are astonishingly talented at what they do, it’s just hard to shake the idea that, for example, their bassist just wants to sit at home and listen to Aphex Twin all day instead of being in Sun K. (MapleMusic Recordings, sunkofficial.com) Topher Duguay

ionable 90s bands when they sound like a more artsy version of Korn. I cannot defend this argument in good faith after listening to Persist. The album cover is an extremely badass JPG-artifacted skull containing some fiery lava. There is also a very patriotic maple leaf on top of the skull. Most of the text on the CD is in Arial. This is, as we all know, the mark of true craftsmanship, and a sign of the auditory delights to come. I eagerly put on the album, expecting a hard-hitting selection of damn-the-man riffs as equally informed by metal’s antisocial

virtuosity as they were by hip-hop’s inventiveness spawned through oppression. I trusted that Persist would create a true masterpiece, one as informed by the boom-bap of 90s hip hop as it was by the artsy glitchiness of the current era. I was wrong, this is literally the most generic “RAWK” album I’ve heard in my entire life, and the cover of “Sunglasses at Night” is retroactively making me dislike the original. Oops! (Can You Productions Inc, thebandpersist.com) Topher Duguay

initial bowed solo on album opener “Blues for Nelson Mandela” places her more readily in the cool jazz tradition, with sonic references to such bass legends as Ray Brown and Paul Chambers. The beautifully rendered title track introduces trumpet, saxophone, and flute, giving it a pleasant, quasi-“third stream” feel. Disterheft also sings on three of the album’s ten tracks (in English and French). However, as with all good jazz, this is a full-band album in the truest sense.

Trumpeter Sean Jones and drum-

mer Gregory Hutchinson really get to stretch out on “Portrait of Duke,” while Jones and alto sax man Vincent Herring trade solos on the appropriately titled, “Open,” both Disterheft originals. A funky bass-and-drums treatment of the 1969 classic, “Compared to What,” closes Gratitude and serves as a possible sign of things to come from this promising young bassist. ( Justin Time Records, brandidisterheft.com) Phil Enns

Iconoclast PERSIST You Don’t Shine Before I listened to this, I was going to write about this album in the context of me (shamefully) liking nu-metal in theory, and how the societal constructions of genre cause people to disregard music that isn’t actually bad.

For example Helmet, the originators of nu-metal, were a fantastic innovative band, and Dope Body are both extremely talented and are the perfect example for my argument, as every review of their music stubbornly insists they sound like any number of fash-

All That Jazz BRANDI DISTERHEFT Gratitude With this year’s Jazz Festival fast approaching, you may be on the lookout for some great jazz to get you in the mood. Though Gratitude, the third album by Vancouver-born bassist Brandi Disterheft, may have already been recorded three years ago, it still bears repeated listening. While she may draw comparisons to fellow bassist Esperanza Spalding (one of this year’s Jazz Fest headliners), it is primarily in gender only. Disterheft’s

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Under the Needle

SUUNS + JERUSALEM IN MY HEART

SUUNS + JERUSALEM IN MY HEART Suuns + Jerusalem in my Heart It begins with a lull and hum, slowly crawling from the underbelly of your sound system and clawing through to your speakers in dark and luring percussive pulse. Amongst that beat, distorted electric guitars roll and writhe, eventually soaring to a psychedelic climax. The rush peaks, echoes out, and leaves you wanting more of whatever the hell that was. Suuns + Jerusalem in my Heart is the most exciting collaboration in recent music history and I’m so fucking psyched. The selftitled release sees a pairing of two of Canada’s most fascinating, creative and innovative music makers and puts the listener in the midst of an experiment gone wonderfully right.

The sounds of electronic rock 4-piece Suuns coagulate with the Middle Eastern folk dabblings of Jerusalem in my Heart into a congealed mangle of sound and rhythm. The album was recorded over one week in November of 2012. In 2013, Suuns released Images du Futur from Secretly Canadian and JIMH put out his record roughly near the same time, off Constellation records. Recorded at “thee mighty Hotel2Tango in Montreal, QC,” this record comes to you via the fine folks at Secretly Canadian and Secret City Records. For Suuns fans, I relate this material to the dark electronic vibes of their debut release Zeroes, QC. “Metal” is likely to be the single you’ll hear most played on the airwaves.

That tune in particular is the most energizing and quick-paced, though does not accurately reflect the rest of the material on the album. Take heed!

If this is the only song you listen to, know that the rest of the release feels

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less like a propulsive blast but more of a mellow consideration. Moving through to “Seif,” the record slows to a steady beat. Most often, electronic beats sustain a song whilst a variety of vocals and guitar interweave. Arabic and Middle Eastern rhythms and sounds are intoxicating and delectable when paired with Suuns gothy glory.

Favourite tracks include all of them. #fangirl (Secretly Canadian/Secret City Records, secretcityrecords.com) Victoria King

and “Smartass” have The Boids doing a decent Dead Kennedys impression, which is always fun, but it’s an album of extremely upbeat music that I, being evidently allergic to fun, am just not appreciating right now. The Boids’ problem, I think, stems from them advertising themselves as a hardcore band, and their album cover + title implies that they are a hardcore band that you would not have fun to. However, they seem like a band that exists to be fun, what with their occasional Celtic touches (a bunch of Montrealers going “Too-Loo-Rye-Ay?”) and while they are probably a lot of fun to see live, I am clearly allergic to fun and just can’t appreciate it like my fun-having brethren. Also this is a complaint completely unrelated to their music, but they say that “Boids” is a made-up word but if you Google it the results show that it’s actually a word for an artificial life simulator THE NAUTICAL MILES Ode to Joy I was talking to a guy a while ago about the rise of grunge in response to hair metal and he mentioned that Canada sort of had its own response in the form of a bunch of very literary, “eclectic” folk-rock bands from

Ontario. Think Barenaked Ladies , Moxy Fruvous, or the more serious Rheostatics and Lowest of the Low. I always thought this was basically purestrain Canadiana; all Canadian indie comes from it. The Weakerthans are rockier, Wolf Parade were weirder, and Arcade Fire are more pompous.

The Nautical Miles continue Canada’s fine tradition of making indie rock without the rock in it. While this sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, I find it interesting that this particularly Canadian strain of rock is heavily lacking in the hyper masculine rock signifiers of non-indie rock or the artificial coolness of American indie (although folk has obviously played a part in American indie rock’s sound as well). The Nautical Miles have complicated, poetic lyrics full of allusion and metaphor; they care about politics and Pablo Neruda and are simultaneously preoccupied with the End and a final reckoning while dedicating an entire song to deriding the concept of an End of the World and saying that the future is forever.

They’re smart dudes (and ladies) with a way with words and I hope they keep up the good work on further releases. (Self-released, corbinmurdoch. bandcamp.com) Topher Duguay

THE BOIDS We Stalk Each Other Like Animals Oh Boid, where do I begin. My problem with The Boids stems from not what the Boids are, but rather what they are not. They are hardcore, yes, and they have an album cover which effectively synergises with their personal brand as a hardcore band, but instead of being hardcore in the sense of being, you know, hardcore, they also incorporate elements of pop punk into their sound which thereby transform them from being super hardcore in the sense of sounding like Cancer Bats or Cursed, which I was expecting and was very excited to listen to, to like, NOFX or Dropick Murphys, which is okay I guess but really not what I was hoping for. “Runaround”

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FEAR FEAR FEAR OF OF OF MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC SAFE(R) FESTIVALS

By Victoria King Ideas for Creating Safe(r) Festivals In light of a lot of really heinous behavior that came to surface nationally and locally a few months ago, our community started to have really great conversations through various media outlets. We spoke openly and passionately about creating safe(r) spaces in the local music scene, and new projects and initiatives started to reflect that.

Cootie Club still thrives, and the Good Will is continuing to champion their house rules. But as the cases of Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby fade away from the headlines, the danger is that these conversation fade away too. With Festival season on the horizon, it’s a good idea to remember those talks and engage in new ones too. Let it always be said that festivals are awesome — below are some ideas and considerations to make them awesome(r) for everyone.

Encourage Public and Shared Transportation Whether inside or outside of the city, there are lots of ways we travel to and from festivals.

I’ve been saying this for a long time about our public transport system. There’s almost nothing I would like to see more than for our city to extend the running times of public transit routes, even if it’s only the major ones. Bars are open till 2 a.m. and shows can run even later. It’d be encouraging to see some support for our vibrant music culture by improving the infrastructure for it.

Lauren Swan of Big Fun Festival suggests that for festival organizers, it’d be great to facilitate or develop a rideshare program. “That can be difficult for smaller festivals,” explains Swan, citing budgetary concerns as a possible limitation. She suggests that starting a small-scale shuttle or DD program is a positive place to begin.

Exemplify Diverse Representation Onstage “We have an open policy when it come to submissions,” says Swan. “We give everyone a fair listening, but don’t work under quotas.” She explains that most organizers are sensitive to creating a diverse line-up for their fest, but suggests that larger scale festivals may become beholden to corporate sponsors. With more “hands in the pot” comes more pressure and parameters. Putting someone on a stage means to exalt them, both physically and by explicit promotion. It can be empowering, both for a community and a festival. When bills start to show a pattern of the same people, you have to wonder who’s being left out.

Ro Walker Mills is a local MC who’s been producing spoken word poetry and music for the last 2+ years. Mills is participating in this year’s Pride Winnipeg Festival and the Pride Festival in Edmonton, but explains that it’s been challenging to book shows and collaborate with other artists. He speculates it might be because of identifying as transgender. “Being transgender gets a label, and so does rap,” explains Mills. He shares that he felt like he heard his true voice for the first time only after his voice started to change from hormones. “I feel like I have something to say, and I finally feel like myself.” Mills is hopeful for the potential of music festivals to

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bring new and diverse artists to a broader audience.

“Festivals are for new music, and things you haven’t heard before,” explains Mills.

Zero Tolerance for Abuse I’m not sure that there’s much to say here, other than it’s not okay. It’s never okay. It doesn’t matter who it is, who it’s directed at, what substance was involved, or how much. As an organizer, band member, or attendee, we shouldn’t legitimize abusive behaviour for any reason. Power and notoriety doesn’t excuse it either — everybody deserves respect.

Explicitly stating the expectations of everyone in a space is what’s helped given rise to one of Winnipeg’s newest venues. The Good Will made a really smart move a few months ago by instituting house rules to equalize their space. Look how well they’re doing — there’s rarely a slow night! In June, they’ll host Ice Age, Suuns + Jerusalem in my Heart, dance parties on the weekly, not to mention countless other community meetings and gatherings. I really believe that kind of success comes, in part, from fostering a culture where everyone is safe and respected.

It’s time that festivals (and of course, other venues) adopt something similar. In these days, meaningfully creating a climate of acceptance is more than simply ‘progressive’ — it’s good business.

Assess Accessibility in a Multitude of Ways Accessibility means more than building ramps.

When we design venues or performance spaces, it’s

necessary to invest time and energy in considering the space from a multitude of abilities and perspectives, says Megan Fultz, former UWSA president, and an accessibility advocate. She explains that accessibility is best spoken to by folks who deal with it firsthand. “People who have accessibility needs know their needs best, and they know what’s going to make or break it for them,” she says. She explains that sometimes an accessibility policy that’s posted to a festival’s website isn’t always the reality of that fest. “There can be significant costs to making a festival accessible (citing turf and terrain as particular ones) and it means making an investment,” both in planning, time, and budget.

Megan cites other challenges though — in particular, for folks who have trouble walking, experience weakness, or are visually impaired. A local step in the right direction comes from the Folk Festival’s companion policy, whereby those helping people who need support can get a free pass for the weekend’s fest. Another important recommendation Megan offers is to reserve an accessibility spot on organizing committees. That being said, also recognize that everyone represents their own perspective and consultation with multiple members of the community is a good start. “It’s much easier to be proactive than to fix issues later,” she explains. She’s hopeful though. “There are a lot of great people working in our scene, but there’s more work to be done.”

95.9 FM CKUW CAMPUS/COMMUNITY RADIO TOP 30 ALBUMS (Mar 31, 2015 – May 27, 2015) !=LOCAL CONTENT * =CANADIAN CONTENT re=RE-ENTRY TO CHART

ARTIST

RECORDING

# Artist Album 1 ! Leaf Rapids Lucky Stars 2 ! The Fuse Brilliant Sun 3 !

Carly Dow Ingrained 4 ! Romi Mayes Devil On Both Shoulders 5 * Lemon Bucket Orchestra Moorka 6 Tinariwen Emmaar 7 ! Ghost Twin Here We Are In The Night 8 ! Autumn Still Autumn Still 9 The Skints FM 10 ! Yes We Mystic Vestige 11 ! Johnny Sizzle Whatever Endeavor 12 * Great Lake Swimmers A Forest Of Arms 13 * Whitehorse Leave No Bridge Unburned 14 * April Verch The Newpart 15 * Robi Botos Movin’ Forward 16 * Monsoon Mandala 17 * Pharis & Jason Romero A Wanderer I’ll Stay 18 ! Crooked Brothers Thank You I’m Sorry 19 ! Les Jupes Some Kind Of Family 20 ! Dan Frechette & Laurel Thomsen New Disguise 21 ! Raine Hamilton Past Your Past 22 * Tough Age Plays Cub’s Hot Dog Day 23 Tom Teasley The Love Of The Nightingale 24 Wire Wire 25 ! Moon Tan New Age Renegade 26 The Mountain Goats Beat The Champ 27 ! Curtis Nowosad Dialectics 28 * The KingmiXers Flyboy 29 * Joel Plaskett The Park Avenue Sobriety Test 30 ! Conduct Fear And Desire

LABEL

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