April / May 2018

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

1

2 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

APR/MAY 29 NO. 2 2018 VOL

On the Cover

Production Team

MILES PASICK is a Winnipeg based freelance illustrator, graphic designer, and fine art painter.

He has had the opportunity to present his work throughout Canada, the United States and Hong Kong. His current body of work can be seen at the Albert Street Cocktail Company in the Exchange.

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gil Carroll Assistant Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . Jen Doerksen Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Campbell

He welcomes private and public commissions, so feel free to contact him at milespasick@gmail. com, visit his website www.milespasick.com, or find him on instagram @milespasick!

Cover Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Miles Pasick Advertising Contact . . . . . . . . . Rob Schmidt

manager@ckuw.ca Print by JRS Print Services . . . 204-232-3558

Contributors Zoe Lebrun Alex Roberecki Chris Bryson Renee Batson Margaret Banka Michael Wolever John Iverson Andrea Petrovicova Sam Swanson Brendan George Ko Ryan Haughey Chris Emotion Photography Nigel Webber Tony Nardela Graeme Houssin Joey Senft Kaelen Bell Stylus is published bi–monthly by 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 Writing submissions: editor@stylusmagazine.ca Graphics submissions: design@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.

Table of Contents Blah, Blah, Blah Events Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Space Jam The Village Idiots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CKUW Program Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CKUWho Shradio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Winnipeg State of Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reviews Human Music // Slow Spirit // + more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CKUW Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

03 09 14 16 17 17 20

Features Sheer Mag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Russian Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Weaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kelly Bado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alexander Mickelthwate: Classical Music Ambassador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Odder Than the Otters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Warming, SOUP, Dana Lee: Live at the Handsome Daughter . . . . . . . . . .

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

05 06 10 12 13 15 15

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

01

02 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

BLAHBLAHBLAH Spring has sprung.

Make sure to come out of hibernation for these amazing live shows happening in Winnipeg***Feel the power on April 3 at the Good Will with Royal Thunder, Pinkish Black and Madeira***Sloan is back at the Pyramid Cabaret on April 5, or check out Odder than the Otters at the Good Will (check out our review on page x)***April 8 at the Garrick, Chicago post metal legends Russian Circles play with King Woman***Tyler Del Pino releases an EP with Okay Mann and Olivia Lunny on April 14 at the Good Will***Montreal experimen-

tal artists Sound of the Mountain play at Video Pool with Civvie on April 19***April 20 at Forth see 4/20-happy Juniper Bush, Ultra Mega, and Black Cloud, or head to the Windsor for Spine of the Earth, They Psychics, and the Love Tongues***Toronto psychedelic rockers Casper Skulls play the Good Will on April 22 with iansucks and Rustowl***April 25 at the Handsome Daughter, check out a sick Burger Records band from New York, Pink Mexico with Bathtime and The Sorels***April 26 see Calgary act Flowshine play alongside

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

Silence Kit and AkiĂąa***Canadian buzz band Weaves play the Good Will on April 30 with Mulligrub and Mise En Scene***Preoccupations come through Winnipeg with guests Freak Heat Waves on May 1 at the Pyramid***May 5 TWIN releases their EP with some help from Trampoline at the Cavern***Head to The New Club St B for Casati, The Hairy Prairies and Zulu Panda on May 9***May 16 Real Love Winnipeg and the West End Cultural Centre present legendary Canadian ambient artist Tim Hecker***Winnipeg Folk Festival presents Martin Harley

at the Times Change(D) on May 23***May 31 Veneer, Mobina Galore and Typesetter rock out to fundraise for Girls Rock Winnipeg at the Good Will***Have a show/shows coming up? Send listings to editor@ stylusmagazine.ca***

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

03

04 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

SHEER MAG

BY CHRIS BRYSON

PHOTO: MICHAEL WOLEVER

Sheer Mag play with their hearts on their sleeves.

The critically acclaimed Philadelphia five-piece’s take on lo-fi hard rock brings riff-laden grooves to anthemic heights, with their lyrical concepts fuelled by a steadfast vision for a better world.

Sheer Mag will be coming to Winnipeg with hardcore/thrash beasts Fury, Red Death, and Power Trip. Although Sheer Mag are stylistically the most ill-fitting of the bunch, their punch nevertheless hits just as hard. Tina Halladay, singer of the band, said they’re excited to finally be doing a non-headlining tour with a bunch of bands that they know. “Sometimes it’s just fun to not have to play last every night,” she said. “I mean it’s awesome it’s amazing but it’s going to maybe help to have people who normally wouldn’t see us play maybe do that and just kind of be like a fun, we’d be able to play a shorter set and stuff like that.”

A part of what’s made Sheer Mag such a distinct entity is their political and emotional ethos that stands up for the oppressed and misunderstood. With their lyrical concepts and having a female vocalist, the span of their influence goes beyond the reach of their music. “I get young girls coming up to me, also just because you know there’s not tons of women in music,” said Halladay. “Especially like more aggressive music. Lots of girls come up to me they say they started a band after they saw us. And I think that it’s cool because we do a thing where (Disrupt) J20, the people raising money for the people who got arrested at the protest for inauguration day, they would come out and have a table at a bunch of our tour dates the last time we were on tour. So the fact that we can do things like that is really important.”

Halladay knows the importance of being nonjudgmental, open-minded, and able to put yourself in another person’s shoes before jumping to conclusions about their behaviour, and many people could benefit from her point of view. “I think any time anyone is open minded and can listen to other people’s perspective is someone that’s worthwhile and kind of deserves to be given a chance to figure out what’s right and the opportunity even if they’ve maybe been blind to certain things in the past or whatever,” explained Halladay.

She described a situation where she was with some friends who were talking about something offensive a celebrity had said. Halladay remarked that the celebrity “didn’t come from a place of privilege where she was educated about why what she said wasn’t okay or whatever. And I just think that people often forget that not everyone comes from an education and background where they can understand all of those things,” Halladay said. “And given the chance, some people just need the chance to be explained.

Instead of answering in outrage to some things they should be patient and understanding and kind of help educate people who maybe don’t have access to knowing those types of things are offensive or upsetting to people.”

Sheer Mag’s lo-fi style is one of the defining characteristics of the band’s sound. On their debut fulllength, Need To Feel Your Love, they decided to put a smidge of polish on and threw bits of funk, soul, and disco into the mix. “It’s all about us and learning, we just got better at what we were doing. So that’s like in taking whatever lesson we learned from past mistakes or whatever and improving on them.

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

I think of course it’ll get a little bit better in production hopefully,” said Halladay. “We make it sound a certain way on purpose and there’s also parts that are just the limitations of the equipment we’re using and our knowledge on it. So there’s certain things that will always be important to us in how we sound. But there’s also other aspects that are going to improve because we’re getting better at doing it.”

For a band on a steady career upswing, Sheer Mag still likes to keep their values close to heart. “We don’t have a crazy plan, just to continue making music that we think is worthwhile, staying independent and doing things the way we want to, being true to ourselves and making sure our shows are affordable for people who always support us from the beginning, is always important to us,” explained Halladay.

“We have to fight with venues and bookers. I mean we love our booking agent but you know it’s probably frustrating to work with us sometimes because we don’t do things like everyone else does.”

Halladay explained how they often fight to keep shows at a reasonable price and have their shirts made in the U.S. to stay away from sweatshop labour, in turn taking less marginal profits in comparison to other bands. Halladay said, “just trying to keep our morals intact is basically what our main goal is I think. Just practicing what we’re preaching and all that kind of thing.” In a world plagued by as much chaos that it’s currently consumed by, Sheer Mag are one of those still standing up for what they believe in.

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

05

BY CHRIS BRYSON PHOTO: ANDREA PETROVICOVA

Russian Circles perform in Winnipeg on April 8th at the Garrick Centre. Chris Bryson had the chance to chat with bassist Brian Cook to get a sense of the world of Russian Circles.

Stylus: You’ll be coming through Winnipeg on a pretty extensive tour. How do you deal with the challenges of being away from home when on a long tour?

Brian Cook: Well, at this point the band has been doing this kind of thing for 13 years, and I’ve been touring for about 22 years, so at some point you just learn how to cope with it on some subconscious level. There are a few obvious things you can do to

06 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

keep yourself sane: take solo walks away from the club, keep in contact with friends and loved ones back at home, try to eat well and exercise when you can. A friend advised me before my first tour to spend 10 minutes alone every day, and that’s good advice. I find the bigger challenge to be dealing with coming home. Tour has its own momentum. You get in the van and it takes you to your next destination.

At home, you have to recalibrate your brain to be self-motivated. I occasionally see articles about musicians dealing with post-tour depression and it’s a very real thing. You go from being constantly in motion, constantly validated, and constantly surrounded by people to being static and alone. Dealing with that is the bigger challenge, in my opinion.

Stylus: Does the band ever change or alter its approach to songwriting and if so what have been some of the reasons for doing so?

BC: Every song is a little different. We all live in different states, so we end up trading a lot of audio files. Sometimes songs are cobbled together out of a bunch of different ideas, sometimes someone comes to the table with a fully written song, sometimes we just stumble across an idea when we’re all in a practice space together. We don’t have an established process.

Stylus: Being an instrumental band allows you to cover more ground stylistically with less

need for adherence to a particular style. What aspects of your music do you think best benefit from this flexibility?

BC: We’re all music hunters, so we’re always exploring new artists and new sounds, but we obviously owe a lot to metal. And for me, honestly, most of the interesting guitar-based music happening today owes something to metal. But metal also has a tendency to cling to these aesthetics that can be a little cartoony and juvenile, and that winds up manifesting in a lot of the lyrics and vocal delivery in the genre. So being an instrumental band has benefitted us because it allows us to cull from the instrumental side of metal without having to shoehorn some campy frontman into our sound. I think it opens up our music because we’re not working with the limitations of a vocalist, and i think it provides us with a broader swath of listeners who might not be open to the guttural growl of the Corpsegrinder or the operatic wail of King Diamond.

Stylus: The music of Russian Circles is filled with an emotional weight buried within transcendental darkness. What are some of the inspirations and influences behind the narratives and ideas for your music?

BC: Any narratives are totally subconscious. We don’t have an active muse and we don’t write music based on a theme. I have nothing but respect for artists who can work off a concept, but for us, the music either resonates with us or it doesn’t. We don’t try to cobble together songs based on a preconceived notion; we write music based on what resonates with us on a very immediate base level.

Stylus: Was the looping of guitar always something the band has done to give added heft to your music? Are there any other methods the band uses to further amplify or give added effect to your sound?

BC: We’ve always tried to fill as much sonic space as possible. Looping allows us have multiple layers and multiple textures going at any given time. We’ve also incorporated things like the Moog Taurus so that one musician can play two instruments at a time.

Ultimately, we really just want to make things texturally rich and dynamic, but we also want to adhere to the three-piece format without resorting to backing tracks or having a laptop on stage. There are a few other tricks we employ, but we can’t give away all of our secrets.

Stylus: What made the band decide to do a live album?

BC: The songs are constantly morphing. With our studio albums, we’re making adjustments and edits all the way up until mastering. Once the album is actually finished, the songs still wind up evolving in the live show. We don’t drastically alter them, but we find new things to highlight and new ways to simplify things. So there’d been some talk about trying to record a few shows at some point just to document how the songs had grown. The problem is that going into a show knowing it’s going to be under the microscope of recording would ultimately zap some of the energy out of the performance because we’d be trying to play things as meticulously as possible. It just so happened that the Dunk! Festival set was recorded without our knowing it, and it was a concert we were all very happy with. There are still a few flubs in the performance, but that’s the nature of live music.

Stylus: From what I’ve read Russian Circles is a band whose members don’t live in the same city and don’t get the chance to play together often.

When it comes to sculpting and recording what songs or a final album will be, how do differences in ideas and opinions get resolved?

BC: If it doesn’t resonate with all three members of the band, the material gets scrapped. We’re all pretty open to criticism; no one is afraid to ditch a riff or mix up a part if it isn’t working. Honestly, the biggest conflicts in this realm have been pretty minor. I remember Mike really gunning for this one particular thrash riff that wasn’t really vibing with Dave. I was the mediator, and I told Mike the riff was really “fun”. That was enough for him to willingly scrap it.

There is no fun allowed in Russian Circles.

Stylus: I read in an article with The Seventh

Hex that with the music you create you said you “want to make something that sounds natural and human.” As an individual player and collectively as a band, how do you go about doing that?

BC: I’m just not a fan of music that sounds like it was built on a grid. I’m not opposed to using technology to make the recording process cheaper and smoother. It’s way more financially practical to record on ProTools than tape, after all. But I don’t want music to sound mechanical. There is very little electronic music that resonates with me because so much of it sounds like canned music. It doesn’t ignite my imagination. It just makes me think of someone sitting at a computer screen, staring at a grid, and plugging sounds into quantized beats. It really depresses me. I want music to be an escape from staring at a computer screen. And more and more rock music is recorded in that manner. The drummer doesn’t even play on a lot of current metal records; the engineer just samples drum tones and they plug those sounds into programmed beats. It’s no wonder so many modern rock records sound so sterile and flat. There is no push and pull. No space. No interaction between the instruments. I know that’s what some people really want out of their music---they want it to be perfect and crisp and even. But i prefer when it sounds like the band is so passionate about what they’re playing that they run the risk of mucking it all up. That’s way more exciting for me.

Stylus: Do you think it’s important when creating music (or any art) to maintain a balance between the pursuit of perfection and retaining immediacy and cohesion?

BC: Absolutely. I’ve been really digging this Workin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet record, and there’s one note Miles hits in the first song that sounds flat to my ears, and I totally love it. It’s jarring, but it reminds you that this album was made in a live environment. It’s a snapshot of a time and place. It’s not trying to create its own reality. And it makes all the moments where the band locks in and plays off each other feel that much more inspired. But I’m also someone that would rather spend five years listening to a record and wrapping my head around it than to hear something that’s beat-detected, auto-tuned, and ultimately designed to be instantly digestible

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

and quickly forgotten. I want to make art that’s still interesting ten, twenty, thirty years down the road.

And as someone that still buys vinyl, I only want to spend money on music that still excites me after a decade or two of repeated spins.

Stylus:. Will the band be bringing any new elements into the fold with the next music you put out? Can you tell me anything about the next Russian Circles release?

BC: Hopefully. There are a lot of ideas floating around, but we haven’t yet started to put the album together, so who knows. There been discussion of trying to make a darker, uglier album, but we also have a tendency to wind up writing songs with the opposite mood of what was initially intended. So we’ll see what happens.

Stylus: If you were to give one piece of advice to a musician/band trying to make it in the musical world as it is today, what would it be?

BC: Well, first things first, you would need to define “making it.” When I first started playing in bands, all I wanted to do was play a show. Then it was just a matter of putting out a record. Then the goal was to tour. And that’s about it. I had “made it” by the time I was 18. “Making it” should really just be about creating something you’re proud of, and everything else is just icing on the cake. At this point, I’m way more interested in musicians like Sir Richard Bishop or Daniel Higgs---musicians that have a history of doing whatever the fuck they want even if it means they only draw 50 people in their hometown or only sell a few hundred records. It’s more exciting to see someone make art that makes them happy than to see someone try to build a lucrative career pleasing other people. So my advice is to do whatever you want and do it passionately. Be involved in your musical community. Go see other bands. Support underground venues. Buy bands’ merch. Throw your own shows. Make your own tapes or records or CDs. Value your own art. Make it special. Make it sacred.

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

07

08 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

: m a J e c a p S

the village idiots

WORDS & PHOTOS BY CHRIS BRYSON

Visual art and music go hand in hand. From album covers and liner pages to visual displays at shows, to t-shirts and posters or tiny pins for sticking to things, the two are almost inseparable. The home of the Village Idiots is a testament to this.

Stylus took a Wednesday trip down to Osborne Village for The Proud Sons Live at The Roslyn broadcast and to take a look at some behind the scenes memorabilia. Some of these items you might have seen on the show before, but we’re here to tell you what they’re about. So with that, let’s take a little trip…

The first item to be spotlighted is the “life sized” Lisa Simpson doll/figurine that you may have noticed in the chromatic intro video to Live at The Roslyn. As Live at The Roslyn host Rylie Saunders explains it: “This is Lisa Simpson. So it’s a life sized Lisa Simpson. I guess we don’t really know how big Lisa Simpson is. But our buddy Cory bought it at a garage sale. Supposedly it was from the movie set of The Simpsons, and we’re super stoked to have it.

Lisa’s always here watching all Live at The Roslyns.”

Picture two is an art piece that was made by the Village Idiots’ friends Mike Pratt and Sarah Sytnyk that is mounted above one of the couches in the living room of the apartment. “They walked along the riverside and they found this log they thought it was such a cool shape and everything,” says Saunders.

“And they took it home and made it into this actual art piece as we see it.”

The third picture is a painting made by Sid Bellinger

2 3 is that they decide to leave.

1 that sits atop the fireplace mantel in the living room. “I bought it from him a long time ago. He’s the guy who makes the mural for all Live at The Roslyns. So he’s done both murals. When we first moved in I bought that. And another really cool thing is all these CDs (on display beneath the painting) are CDs of all the bands that have played Live at The Roslyn” says Saunders. “We get an album when the bands have them and we put it there like it’s a throne to them.”

The fourth and fifth pictures are taken from fellow Village Idiot Kevin Repay’s bedroom. As Saunders explains: “Sid Bellinger as well made those. So this has never been seen before. Nobody is aware of this really unless you’re 4 here. So the guy who made the mural is the guy who made these super cool things and Repay got the moon and sun. We just have to paint the walls white again,” whenever (if ever?) it

Picture six shows one of the most unique pieces of artwork in the apartment. A glittering guitar that looks like it could have been recovered from some underwater shipwrecked fantasia deserves a keen eye to truly be appreciated, and the photo, due to the reflecting of light, does not exhibit its true visage. Nevertheless, like the other items already shown, you can see that it’s a truly remarkable piece.

“We have a friend that, this is what she does, she repurposes guitars” says Repay, explaining that the guitar is two combined into one, overlapped, into something where artist Savannah Jensen created her own. “She does this as an art project and sells them,” says Repay. “People hire her to do this. She’s been hired four times since doing this one. And Brent Alarie (owner of Hwy 59 Guitars), donated guitars to her. Every one is unique obviously. Her art style is very much like collaged style, so they piece together guitars and it fits so well.”

Undoubtedly, with these artistic gems that are sprinkled throughout the Village Idiots apartment, it wouldn’t be the same without them.

6

5

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

09

weaves

BY MARGARET BANKA

Weaves is a Juno- and Polaris-nominated indie-rock band based in Toronto and currently on tour for their second full-length album Wide Open, which was released in late 2017. Stylus had the chance to catch up with vocalist and songwriter, Jasmyn Burke, to talk about being a female lead, a killer Canadian compilation, surprising inspiration for the next album, and Trump (but really only a little, we promise). Don’t miss Weaves at the Good Will Social Club on April 30th, with locals Mise en Scene and Mulibrgub opening!

Margaret: So to start things off I just want to thank you again for agreeing to do this interview and taking the time to talk to me. You’re on a bit of a break right now, from the first leg of your tour, am I right?

Jasmyn: Yeah, we just got back from a month-long American tour with Palehound and it was really fun, it was very positive, and now we’re home for about two weeks. We’re going out to the Junos and then doing a little mini American tour and then we go back. We’re doing a full Canadian tour in May. M: I’m excited to see you when you come back to Winnipeg because I saw you here back in 2016, or just outside, at Rainbow Trout Music Festival, anyways I don’t know if that rings a bell...

J: Actually yeah, that was one of our favorites.

Somebody asked us recently what were our favorite festivals to play and we were like, Rainbow Trout Festival.

M: That’s great! It’s a popular one around here too - that was a great year. It’s nice to hear your voice again, and not even in an acoustical sense, but also speaking symbolically, as a female lead in an otherwise all male group - I’m sure you’re aware that it’s a pretty powerful seat, especially these days. So I guess I’m wondering, is it a place you ever envisioned yourself, when you were starting out?

J: I guess it just organically happened that everybody in the band ended up being male. I’ve always written by myself, and then whoever wanted to join me has just sort of naturally joined the band. I think I’m obviously aware of having a voice, and the more our band becomes part of the mainstream world, I think about that, but you know, the guys are really supportive of the music and always encourage me to write and be open with my lyrics, and myself as

10 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

PHOTO: BRENDAN GEORGE KO

a person. It really feels like an encouraging space — positive.

M: Speaking about that, on your latest album Wide Open you really lend your experiences as a woman more noticeably than in the first album, and like you said, you have a pretty supportive environment. Specifically, writing and recording, ‘#53’ for example, you talk more about your experiences, just being a woman, did working on that bring up a response from them, or from you, that you didn’t expect?

J: I think it’s more the aftermath of it. I wrote it and then we came back from tour - we had put out the first album in 2016 and then we were essentially home for only six months, so I wrote really fast.

That’s kind of how I work anyways - I don’t like to overthink things. We turned over a record in six months: written, recorded, mixed, and mastered, and it was a really quick process. I feel like it was very reactionary to, like, Trump had just won and everybody was like, “What the hell is going on?!” and I just felt that I wanted to write things really immediately and see what my brain would come up with in that instance. I guess that I’ve always, just by way of playing music and being a female, utilized my voice and tried to be a positive example for young girls. I think with this album I got a little bit older, I toured: you meet people at all these shows and a lot of the time I’d have a lot of young girls come up to me and they’ve never really seen a female that looks like them on stage, in particular in a rock band with weird tattoos and stuff, and I realized that my particular story could also be a reflection of many people’s stories. The more honest I am about whatever I’m going through, I feel like the more people can connect with it, and it’s just that sharing of experience. Usually after [a show] I’ll go to the merch table and I’ll try to talk to people. In the same way that I felt really wide open with this album, I experienced really wide open stories from people. They would come up and tell me whether they’d just broken up with someone, or left an abusive relationship or a parent had died; all these intense stories crept up, and I feel like you can’t have it not affect you, so I guess thinking about the third album it’s those experiences and navigating this new wave of feminism that pushes everybody to be more powerful and open and to talk about their experiences.

M: Definitely. Seeking out that community now is super important. So would you say when you

were there this time, did it feel different, now that it’s Trump, and there’s always some circus going on with him in the media, than it did during elections, when everyone’s emotions were running extra high?

J: I think regardless of the election there’s always been division amongst classes and it’s very hard for people to change their socioeconomic status, both before and after him. In that way, I feel like still, when you drive through parts of the U.S. and you see there’s abandoned houses, that was there before, and in a way you hope that, with him being elected — especially with the younger generation, you can see it — they’re resisting more. But I think, because we live in a bit of a bubble on tour and when you go to a gig, people are there to see you, and they enjoy your music, so it’s kind of hard to have a proper perspective city to city. But I will say that playing the songs, you revisit — it’s funny, we have ‘Shithole’ from our [first] album, and now that song has a whole new power to it live, and we made little limited edition ‘Shithole’ pins that we sold on the road or gave away and people wear them with pride now and it’s like taking back your story. Singing ‘Scream’, minus Tanya [Tagaq], who I wish was on the road with us every night, is pretty powerful when you’re at a show - it’s an interesting experience from writing it by yourself in a room to putting it on stage.

M: No doubt. I was going to ask you specifically about ‘Scream’. When you were writing that song, was it your idea to reach out to Tanya Tagaq? What a great compilation, and so interesting; two Canadian females performing a song that really transcends so many different levels of the population. I was so curious as to how that came about.

J: We were both playing Iceland Air Waves in 2016 and we met on the plane, she’s a very charming, interesting woman. She came up to me while we were waiting to use the washroom at the same time.

M: So you met on a plane!?

J: Yeah! And she was just like, “Who are you?”, and I said “I’m Jasmyn and I play music.” She was going [to Iceland Airwaves] as well, and I had just met Jesse Zubot - who plays in her project - previously at Polaris, so I kinda knew him and we all connected while we were playing in Iceland. We were all staying at the same hotel and kind of had a few wild nights and I just connected with her. She’s a very strong woman — she’s a mother and an artist and

I wanted to work with her on something. When you see her throat singing live it’s all improvised, it’s such a beautiful experience. I messaged her, “I have a demo of this song that I’ve been working on and maybe it would be cool if you participated,” and she was immediately interested in working with us. It was amazing. We had already recorded it as a band, and she just came and then did two takes and it was magical.

M: It seems like Weaves, as a band, you work very fast, and you improvise a lot, and so it seems with Tanya, the style is so different, but the methods are so similar.

J: Yeah, both her and I, we don’t really overthink the construction of the song. It’s more led by emotion and so in a way it makes perfect sense because neither one of us wants to go back and try and change or re-edit things. She’s pretty free as a human and I feel that way too, and we work together in that way, and it’s probably why we clicked immediately on the road too. Leading with openness is the best way I think.

M: So this tour, how are you and the gang -

Zach, Morgan, and Spencer - holding up? I’ve heard that you’ve had some crazy moments before on tour, but is there anything that feels different this time around? Or did you tuck away any lessons from your last tour to help prepare for this one?

J: I think with this one, we’ve already toured extensively for the last three years. The main thing is I go to the gym in the morning now, and that’s a big change. I just feel like you have to be emotionally and physically prepared and the more you tour the more you figure out what you need to make touring the most comfortable as possible, considering you’re in the car for twelve hours a day sometimes, especially touring the U.S. Obviously we all have our little moments of getting into fights and stuff, but for the most part our tours have been pretty smooth.

M: That’s good news. So I heard you hint about a third album, and I know you wrote Wide Open so soon after your debut album...is the next one not too far away?

J: I have sort of started going quietly into this jam space and writing - I always like to write, just be-

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

cause you never know what will come up. We don’t want to try and put out a third album three years in a row, that would be insane, but we’re starting to pick away and I’m just starting to think - I kinda want the next album to be almost the opposite, instead of this [one], where it’s carefree and dancing and fun, and I’ve been listening to a lot of Katy Perry and Madonna - and making it a Weaves thing, but well see. I started taking a spinning class and it’s always about the BPM, and it would be funny to take that ethos and put it in a Weaves type of scenario.

M: What I love so much about Weaves is how you can jump between so many different sounds, even within an album. Like on Wide Open you have ‘Scream’, but then you also have a track like ‘Puddle’. It’s awesome that you can bounce between all these songs but still keep it your own, so I’m not very shocked to hear that you want to do something completely different.

J: [Laughs] Yeah.

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

11

BY ZOE LEBRUN

Kelly Bado

Kelly Bado is a bilingual singer-songwriter from Winnipeg who brings listeners on a musical journey with her soulful voice. Originally from the Ivory Coast, Kelly brings pop, soul, R&B, and world influences into her music all at once, creating a warm and one-of-akind sound that is sure to melt your heart.

Stylus: What first got you into music and what is your musical background?

Kelly Bado: My parents got me into music. I was always singing in choirs. For me, music didn’t start today, I’ve been singing ever since I was a young girl.

My mom placed me in the choir and I liked it, so I started there, and I also did choir at my school. So, I was in two choirs and it just stayed that way when I was back home. My country is the Ivory Coast so my background in mus i c

12 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

PHOTO: CHRIS EMOTION PHOTOGRAPHY

would be African music, and choirs are usually religious, so I started out singing Christian songs and hymns.

Stylus: What was it like growing up in the Ivory Coast? Is French your first language?

KB: First of all, it was warm, there is no winter [laughter]. I grew up within the city with my parents, sisters and brother. We would go visit my grandparents in the village for Christmas and stuff like that and see the whole family. My whole family lives in the Ivory Coast, so I moved here with my sisters, and my brother now lives in France. We were a very close family, every Christmas and other celebration we were together and would see the family at large, around probably 50 people. It’s different now, but when I grew up we were always very close.

Stylus: What other artists (musical or other) have influenced and inspired y o u r work?

KB: I’ve listened a lot to African music and Afro-jazz.

When I was back home i n Af-

rica I was also listening to Soul and R&B. I was listening to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, they were the biggest, and Celine Dion too. Those were the biggest examples for me, I love their music, I love their voices, so I was listening and training with that. I was also listening to some French music, because my parents loved it. They also really liked Julio Iglesias who sang in Italian and French, they were always listening to him, so I did too.

Stylus: I hear you performed in Ottawa for the Canada 150 Celebrations last year, which also featured some other incredible Canadian artists. What was it like to play such a special show with so many other established Canadian musicians?

KB: It was incredible! I’m a big fan of some of the other artists, so to be with them was incredible. I was so shy at first! We all ended up in the same area, so I took my courage and pushed myself to talk to them. Alessia Cara was very nice; Serena Ryder, Walk Off the Earth, they were all so approachable.

I took a picture with everybody! It gave me the confidence to just be myself among them as if I was as popular as them. I really appreciated the fact that they were so… human. I also saw the Prime Minister there. It was such a big experience for me and such a privilege to be able to do my songs there. I’ll never forget it!

Stylus: What is your favourite part about being a musician?

KB: I think my favourite part is to see people’s reactions when you share a song and to see how some of them look at you. It’s hard to say, but seems like they’re connecting to you, and I love that because it gives me even more confidence. I used to be so shy, I wasn’t able to look at people. I was taught a trick to look just above the audience, but then I met a coach who told me not to do that. I asked her why not and she said because you’re singing for people, it’s your job to engage them. If you really connect with what you sing, when people look at you it’s not that they’re trying to intimidate you, they want to connect to you. Once she said that to me, I tried it out and I find that it’s true, people are just listening.

They want to hear what you have to show. When I see people react and dance then it gives me confidence in what I share.

Stylus: All of the vocals on your EP, Entre Deux, are in French. Was there a specific reason why you chose to sing in English for your latest single, ‘I’m On Your Side’?

KB: No, that’s kind of just who I am, I’m a versatile artist. When I first started it was portrayed as a problem, they couldn’t define my

style and what I do. For a long time, I struggled because I was trying to define myself according to what they said; the industry just wants to put you in a category. When I sit down and look at my writing, I see world music and I have French, but some of my ideas are a bit different in the sense that it mixes world and pop music, and even folk, which I took from here [Canada], there’s no folk in the Ivory Coast! I don’t try to force my music. I let it come and it stays like that. In my EP, I showed the French side of me, and people liked it. So, if things come in English, I let it happen, I don’t try to translate or manipulate it. The new album is going to be a collaboration, and my songs are going to show me as a bilingual artist, because I never part with French.

I’m creating myself in my songs, and I’m feel like what was perceived as a problem in the past could be a strength in years ahead.

Stylus: Do you think Francophone music could encourage more English-speaking, music-loving Canadians to try and learn French better?

KB: I think so; I have some English friends who wonder what I’m singing a lot, and the truth is, every time I’ve performed for English crowds, they were so excited about the French songs! I don’t re-

ally have an explanation for it, except for maybe they’re interested in something in another language because they want to know about it, or maybe they always wanted to learn French or they like the way it sounds. I’ve also had students cover my songs at their schools, which was probably some of the highlights of my career; I was so happy, excited, and honoured. At another school they have an ‘Artist of the Month’ board and I was told that I was on it once. I think to be bilingual could be inspiring to some younger generations don’t know as much about French. I think it could be a way to show French and that it’s a beautiful language.

Stylus: What is the creative process like for you while writing music?

KB: When I first started writing, I thought that you had to let your thoughts just come to you, but I met someone very early on when I was singing at a coffee house downtown, and they told me that you have to train your brain to write. Writing is not always natural. Normally you should train yourself to write and be inspired. Then, every day, or every week, you can decide to write something. It doesn’t have to rhyme, or mean something, or have a purpose, you just have to write something. With that being said, I

do usually have lots of melodies coming to me, and what I do every time there is a little bit of an idea, whatever it is, I just take my phone and start recording right away. I have tons of melodies there, and I leave them like that and go back to them later and bring more ideas to them. Once I have a main idea I am able to build off of that.

Stylus: What is next for you in your musical career?

KB: Well, next would be my album and working on projects. It’s hard for me to imagine what is going to happen in five years. I hope that I’m able to make great music and get a Juno or something [laughter] and be able to tour in a different country maybe, but those are big, big plans. For now, I just want to be able to make the album and surround it with great people to launch it with. I launched the first EP myself, which wasn’t terrible, but also wasn’t an easy process. I got great shows, invitations, and gained traction with it, but this time I want to learn from my experience. I want to prepare so that when this album is released it reaches its full potential. That’s my homework for this year and the months to come!

ALEXANDER MICKELTHWATE: Classical Music Ambassador

BY JOHN IVERSON I first met Alexander Mickelthwate twelve years ago at a press conference that introduced him to the arts community as the new Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. I was immediately captivated by his positive attitude, his enthusiasm, and his community spirit. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, this well-liked and respected Maestro came to Winnipeg from a conducting position he had held in California. It was an adjustment for him to say the least, but he moved his family to Winnipeg and made our cultural arts-rich city his new home.

Alexander served the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and indeed the Manitoba arts community, above and beyond what his position required of him during his twelve years here. Under his leadership the orchestra became more immersed in the community than it had ever been previously, and this is clearly unprecedented. There have been concerts in the park, at the Forks, and at various other venues throughout Manitoba outside of their regular concert calendar. There were initiatives and activities involving everyone from budding musicians to the under thirty crowd and seniors, and no one has been deprived of the opportunity to enjoy live classical music. Two fine examples of this are his co-founding of Sistema Winnipeg, an intensive music education program that focuses on children with the fewest resources and greatest need, and the creation of the Indigenous Music Festival. As a result the orchestra now boasts a palpable presence in our community on a year-round basis. Much of this success can be directly attributed to Alexander Mickelthwate and his ongoing commitment and dedication to our artistic community, and to classi-

PHOTO: TONY NARDELLA cal music as a whole.

Alexander’s skill at leading the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra was clearly evident to anyone attending concerts he conducted, right from the very moment he arrived here. And there have been so many outstanding concerts over these past twelve years, including a milestone performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. And he brought the WSO’s New Music Festival to new heights. He continually promoted audience interest in live classical performance. He was superb at what he did, and he strove to be the best that he could be, and in turn he made the orchestra better. And he gave so much of himself to achieve this. The results are certainly clear to see, as the orchestra has enjoyed many successful years under his guidance, both artistically and financially. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra is in a very favourable position now, thanks in large part to Alexander Mickelthwate.

As a volunteer host of a radio program that features classical music, and is committed to promoting the music and activities of local artists and ensembles, I was delighted to have Alexander come down to our station every September to talk about the orchestra’s upcoming season. He was always readily accepting of the invitation to come down to CKUW and help promote the orchestra and its activities for the forthcoming concert season. He came dependably every single year during his tenure here, and he did this primarily on his own personal time. To me this speaks volumes about his commitment to the orchestra, and indeed to our arts community.

I know that I am only one of many who will miss Alexander when he moves on at the end of this

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

concert season. And so we now welcome a new Maestro, and he has big shoes to fill. Hopefully he can continue to build on the legacy that Alexander Mickelthwate has set forth. The bar has been set very high.

So if you happen to run into Alexander, or have the opportunity to speak with him before he departs, don’t forget to say “thanks” for everything that he has done for our orchestra and our community, and wish him well in his new endeavours. Our artistic community has lost a great advocate and leader, a key player in our cultural landscape.

Auf wiedersehen Alexander, and thanks!

Listen to John Iverson’s Shades of Classics. on CKUW 95.9 FM.

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

13

6AM 7AM

8AM 9AM 10AM 11AM NOON 1PM 2PM 3PM 4PM 5PM 6PM 7PM 8PM 9PM 10PM 11PM MIDNIGHT 1AM 2AM 3AM 4AM 5AM 6AM

YOUR SHOW HERE Morning News Magazine

VOYAGE Jazz

Classical Kaleidoscope SPACE CADET

MUSIC, OUT OF THIS WORLD

AMATEUR HOUR So Bad, It’s Good

TWANG TRUST

Country/ Roots/ Big, Dumb Rock ‘n’ Roll

S.A.N.E. * RADIO

Local Experimental Music

Flailing in a Time Warp BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Day for Night THE MOSHPIT YOUR SHOW HERE

THE SATURDAY MORNING SHOW

YOUR SHOW HERE World - Island music

TEMPLE OF SOUND

FANTASTIC FRIDAY

QUEERIOS

WOODEN SPOONS

SUNNY ROAD Roots Music RAW COLOURS HOW TO SURVIVE A TORNADO GLOBAL RESEARCH NEWS HOUR

Shradio

NOW SOUNDS New Release Music

‘PEG CITY GROOVE

Spotlite on Local Music

Latin Urban

MAS FLOW

CHECK CA Funky

QUADRAFUNK Electric Dance Party

Brain Drainer Radio

MANITOBA MOON

INFLUENCED

Eclectic Mix

WE BUILD HITS

Hip-Hop

DANCE HALL FEVER

CRYSTAL PALACE

Dancehall and Reggae

RED BOX

Hip-Hop

PSYCHADELIC ROCK

THE TRIP

Where Angels Fear to Tread

THE IVORY TOWER

THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

For Kids (Adults too)

MUD PUDDLE RADIO

FEMISPHERE

25TH FLOOR JUKE JOINT

THE WONDERFUL & FRIGHTENING WORLD OF PATRICK MICHALISHYN

Electronic

PHASE ONE

THE SEX FILES

POP/ROCK

Pop/Rock

TAWNY, THE BRAVE

EAT YOUR ARTS & VEGETABLES

PAGES

J.R.'s Gone Country

YOUR SHOW HERE

RADIO ECOSHOCK

99 BALLOONS

SPORTS TALK

ACCESSIBILITY MATTERS

T�e E�i�e F�l�s

DEMOCRACY NOW!

Cafecito Latinoamericano

SHADES OF CLASSICS

THE C.A.R.P.

GROUNDWIRE

The Completely Asinine Radio Show

RADIO FREE WPG

TALKING RADICAL RADIO

THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES

ISLAND VIBES

Caribbean

Sexy Sundays

WITH

Caramel Sunshyne

8

MUSIC

LOCAL SPOKEN WORD

WEEK

CKUW@UWINNIPEG.CA

EMAIL:

FAX: 204-783-7080

ON AIR: 204-774-6877

NEWS DESK : 204-786-9998

OFFICE: 204-786-9782

WWW.CKUW.CA

ALTERNATING

12 SPOKEN WORD

12

9

ONLY COWARDS SING AT NIGHT 6 Indie

P.I. NEW POETRY

Frogs will be Towed

CACOPHONE

YOUR SHOW HERE

NEON BEIGE SOUND EXCHANGE

PLANETARY RADIO

Indigenous Artists

THE MEDICINE WHEEL OF MUSIC

Classical and New Age

CKU-Speaks

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY F R I D A Y SATURDAY S U N DAY MORNING BREATH

PEOPLE OF INTEREST

WINGS

This Way Out

BOOTS & SADDLE COUNTRY

THE GREEN MAJORITY

The Green Blues Show

Winnipeg Arena is on Fire SYSTEM KIDZ Home and No Home

Lost Chunes

BLUESDAY

11 AT 10 Sports: Proper Footaball

ALTERNATIVE RADIO

DEMOCRACY NOW!

POP/ROCK

THIS WAY OUT

DEPARTMENT 13

T�e S�a� S�o� SHORTWAVE REPORT MAKING CONTACT

New Classical

GROUNDSWELL

ROGUE PRIMATE

PSYCLE RADI0 INNER CITY VOICES

THE WORLD World

THE TONIC

Garage, Punk, Surf,and R&R

Sock-Hop-A-Go-Go

MONKEY SPARROW

PLAYING THE BLUES

CheezePleeze

LISTENING PLEASURES

DESTINATION MOON

YOUR SHOW HERE

NIGHT DANGER RADIO

GLOBAL-A-GO-GO

THE HAPPY STATION SHOW

SYNDICATED - WORLD MUSIC

METAL MONDAY MODERN JAZZ TODAY

AMPLIFIED RADIO

14 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

basslines with folky storylines. Their contemporary combining of various 60’s and 70’s genres merges the musical stylings of Earth Wind and Fire, The Beatles, The Dogglers, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, with Bedouin Soundclash, and a twist of Jack Johnson.

Odder than the Otters might show the most promise for Winnipegframed folk-funk fusion since ‘Superfreak’ Rick James was arrested for going AWOL from the military, which put an end to The Mynah Birds with local legend Neil Young.

Since being highlighted by CBC’s

BY SAM SWANSON PHOTO BY JOEY SENFT Searchlight contest, Odder than the Otters have been busy performing and If you fancy a bevy and romp, then you’ll be interrecently headlined Season 2, Episode 21 of Live at ested to know that both of those words refer to a The Roslyn. They opened with a jazzed-up pirate group of otters. folk track, “Don’t Dirty Those Shoes”, followed by Otters can perform tricks. For example, they can be “Hola Luna.” trained to chase a school of fish into nets.

Winnipeg band Odder than the Otters can per- The band’s main songwriters are Goertzen and Hill form tricks too. Not altogether unlike Jesus turning who were inspired by a shared trip to Ecuador, and returned with a few sunkissed new tracks, including water into wine, these otters can turn “Rehab” into “Hound Dog”. If you haven’t heard it, let me tell you: a couple with titles en Español.

Although all of these odd otters are Winnipeggers, merging Amy Winehouse into Elvis Presley is at they’re accepting of foreign persuasion. least as cool as Fred Penner fusing “The Cat Came “Most of the influence of the album was definitely Back” into “Hit the Road Jack” and “Crab Bucket” by inspired by being out of Winnipeg, and being in a K-OS. different country and experiencing new things and Song blending fits with the band’s style-blending having an abrupt way of life for a few months,” Gohallmark. Odder than the Otters combine funky

ertzen said.

The band’s visual image is composed of Hill’s videography and Mitch Kruse’s painting. A film art graduate, Hill directed the music video for “Hola Luna.” The band’s album artwork is designed by Kruse who completed communications programs at Red River College and the University of Winnipeg.

Kruse said he spent recent weeks painting the art for the band’s six-song EP released April 5 at The Good Will Social Club.

“It’s been kind of a growing experience for all of us, not just the art stuff but as a band finding our sound, I feel like our visual brand has grown with our sound,” Kruse said.

“Mitch did a fucking wicked job with the artwork and painting a great picture of the sound that our band is trying to emit,” Goertzen complimented.

“We’re really happy with how our album sounds and how the album looks.”

Though pleased with the new EP, these dogglers won’t be resting on their laurels. More songs are in the works, according to Goertzen.

“We’ve got a boat load of new songs we’ve written that we’re super excited to release. The next step for us is we’re going to release more songs and more videos. We want to play some festivals and get back in the studio, and record and release an EP with some of the fresh new songs that we’ve written that are very energetic, very high-pace and very engaging, and we can hardly wait to do them.”

WARMING :: SOUP :: DANA LEE

Live at the Handsome Daughter The cold wind subsided and soothed the air in Winnipeg on the evening of February 17, but the weather wasn’t the only thing warming up. Brady Allard’s new project, Warming, played their first set on that Saturday evening. The lineup at the Handsome Daughter included two other groups: SOUP and Dana Lee. Each group brought fresh new music to the audience, which left us excited to see what was next to come.

The first group to play was led by Dana Lee. The ensemble included Lee on guitar and vocals, a backup vocalist, lead guitar, bass, and drums. The initial songs were upbeat and accompanied by a slide guitar, shifting their sound toward a more alternativecountry style. After a few songs, Lee warned the crowd playfully: “We’re gonna play some sad songs too!”

With floating bass lines and picked jazz guitar chords, Lee’s band introduced new concepts and musical ideas to the audience. The set was pleasantly dynamic – moods shifted as Lee performed a barebones section of the set on her own. The full band joined in again at the perfect moment. Although the set was lengthy, it had a cooperative flow to it.

Each song had a methodical structure and varying melodic vocal lines.

Dancing along with the band members until the set ended, the audience was in for a treat from the next band. Amos Nadlersmith (AKA the Shoal Lake Kid) performed his crooning folk songs with a band for the first time ever.

Dubbed SOUP, the group presented a new take on some great songs. Personally, I’ve enjoyed melan-

cholic yet hopeful music from the Shoal Lake Kid for a while, and I was extremely excited to hear that they would be performed with a full band.

This set was short and very sweet. Each song was well converted to be suited to a full band. Lead guitars shined softly over the main guitar and vocals and gently took the audience on a dream ride to ecstasy when it was time for a solo. The full band version of “Alright” was slow and gentle, soothing the audience yet putting them on the edge of their seat for what they were to hear.

The final song, “Jesus Cocaine Ketamine Christ” rocked through the verses and broke down on the chorus. The catchy name of the song was sang in three part harmony, while the drums played on just the downbeats. With simple and beautiful guitar tones and lyrics that could make anyone choke up, SOUP’s first set was a complete success.

I spoke to Amos after the show to ask how it felt playing with a full band. “It felt pretty cool bringing a full sound to songs that I’ve been jamming by myself for a while now. It was also a lot of fun. I love Sam Adam and Brian a lot so getting to play with some of your best pals ain’t that bad.”

The Shoal Lake Kid hopes the audience members who had seen his solo set felt the heightened energy that he felt while SOUP played. I definitely did.

No set plans are made so far for SOUP, but Amos hopes to play more shows with the group. “Adam and Sam tour with their bands Living Hour and Veneer often so Soup shows will kind of have to fit around the already busy projects of the mates.”

SOUP plans on playing together again, and I plan

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

WORDS & PHOTOS BY RYAN HAUGHEY on seeing them when they do.

Finally, Brady Allard and Warming took the stage.

With Allard on a Beatles-esq bass guitar, he felt like a modern McCartney. Synthesizers and clavinet tones topped light guitar playing while the punchy vocal tones surprised those in the audience who were new to Allard’s music.

The big moments (and I mean BIG) seemed so effortless — high vocals soared seamlessly over bass driven acid rock riffs. Fresh drumming styles drove each song forward. Warming’s authenticity and originality drew in the audience and blew their minds with every turn and every hook.

Once the fog machine was activated, the milky vision vibes got even more real. The final few songs were a roller coaster ride through the fog. Rapid tempo bass and drums backed up a wild guitar part, while Allard shouted his poetic lyrics at the top of his voice. After a big finish to what seemed like it would be the final song, the band breathed for a moment, and without leaving the stage, began what felt like an encore. As this final song played, I couldn’t help think “How are they going to top that last song?”

Allard finished singing, but the band played on.

He put down his bass and walked quickly off stage.

While the rest of the band finished playing, the crowd was left in awe.

The last of three great performances left the audience cheering and satisfied. Warming had left a warm feeling inside each member for the cold nights to come.

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

15

ckuwho?

Listen to: Shradio

2-3:30 PM on Fridays

that was too cheesy. So I kept the idea of playing relatable, theme based music but with a better name.

Listen in to Shradio, hosted by the amazing Lily O’donnell on CKUW 95.9 FM every Friday from 2:00 - 3:30 pm.

Stylus: How did you get involved with CKUW? Do you have other Campus/Community Radio experience or podcasts/vlogs/blogs etc?

Lily O’donnelI: I got involved with CKUW after moving here from St. Paul, MN. I am a student at the University of Winnipeg and was looking for a way to meet new people and get involved with the community. I did the programming workshops and then Victoria King, the programming director of CKUW asked me if I wanted to join her for an episode of her show, Now Sounds. I went on and totally loved being on the radio and then she offered me my own time slot to fill in for, and eventually that time slot became Shradio. I do actually have some experience with podcasts in the past. Not a lot of people know this, but when I was about seven, my mom, my sisters, and I had a weekly podcast together called 10 Questions About. One of the more infamous episodes we did was an animal episode where I “researched” the red panda and then discussed ten facts I learned. I think she just posted it onto a family blog she ran when we were younger. I am sure you could still find it hidden somewhere on the internet.

Stylus: How long has your show been running? How did you come up with the format and name?

LO: My show is pretty new. I believe I started it about four months ago, but began filling in for the time slot since November. Since my show is on Fridays, I just played the music that I maybe saw live that week or was going to see on the weekend, or played music that I had been listening to all week.

My show is all theme/mood based which was solidified for me after I had a break up. I wanted to go on the show and play sad love/break up songs. It was a very depressing show that week. It was a lot of songs from The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs and some Moldy Peaches. From that idea, it just seemed fitting to play music that matched or reflected on the week. My shows since have been a lot more upbeat, I promise! The name came from my tendency to put a “Sh-” in front of words. Like “Shwen are we going”, “Shwater”, “Shwere are you”, etc. I just thought it would be fitting to make it Shradio. The original name was going to be Relatable Content but I felt

16 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

Stylus: What is the most bizzare thing to ever happen to you on air?

LO: Oh my gosh!! This is a loaded question for me.

My shows seem to often be a bit bizarre as I just have all my friends come on air with me and we try our best to make everything run as smoothly as we can but this has proven to be a challenge. I don’t know if this is bizarre, but during Fundrive, Colin, who volunteers at the station came on the air to amp up our show to help us get pledges. He came on to compliment the show and as soon as he sat down, I completely just forgot his name. My mind just went blank and I have met him so many times! It was terrible! I had to introduce him on the air and I just said, “Now in studio we are joined by....” and he goes, “Colin..” and then I said “Lily” and my friend, who was joining me on air, Iris goes, “Iris”. We all just went around and said our names out loud, he was very confused. Luckily, we moved past the incident very quickly, but if he’s reading this now, I am very sorry, Colin!

Stylus: What have been some other memorable CKUW moments for you?

LO: A really memorable CKUW moment for me was when my friend Hannah and I did our first ever all-vinyl show. Victoria had to help us out quite a bit and there were a few record scratches here and there, and often the needle wasn’t situated at the right place so it would be starting at the wrong song, or half-way through the song. It was really a frantic learning experience! That’s what I like about CKUW, it’s a very forgiving place to make mistakes and now I never have any problems playing vinyl.

Also, just doing all-vinyl shows are so much fun!

You really feel like you’re like an old school DJ and are running around the studio, since there are three record players, starting one ending another, situating the needle perfectly.

Stylus: How do you decide what music to play?

LO: Well, mostly I pick themes that match how the week has been. There has been a wide range of themes. The week before winter reading week, I was getting ready to go home, so we played nostalgic, going home, growing up kind of music. This last show I did was all anti-establishment angry themed music, like Communist/Socialist punk. I have been unemployed for about a month so I just have been feeling especially anti-money. For St. Patrick’s Day, I am going to do an Irish made or Irish-themed show.

My Dad is an Irish immigrant so I have grown up listening to pretty Irish music. So far, I am thinking some traditional pub music like Whisky in the Jar and Molly Malone as well as Irish bands like Fight Like Apes and The Cranberries, and of course Sinead O’Connor. Something I have really liked is picking one theme and then collaborating with my friends on songs to play. The friends I have come one air with me all have really diverse music tastes, so I will usually play folk punk, Indie-punk type

music and then they’ll play techno-pop music, Classic old time country-folk, or just old school rock and roll. I love collaborating as you get so many different styles of music that all fit whatever the mood/ theme is. There’s something for everybody! I think for the future, I might make a Shradio Instagram or something, announce the theme in advance and then have people put in requests and play it on air. I think that would be really fun and a way to get the whole community involved in the show.

Stylus: Any local bands you are particularly excited about?

LO: Yes! I love the dreamy-lo fi scene in Winnipeg!

My faves right now have got to be Charlie Baby, the People’s Republic of Amsterdam and Topiary Veil.

One day, I will meet Charlie Baby and kiss their feet, they’re music matches my experiences so much, it’s almost scary. Their music is very melancholy and supportive, they’re newest album I am in Love, But Not with Myself, is very honest and vulnerable. All the songs have really long, all-telling titles like “telling someone how you feel is hard but making them a song and sending it to them at 5 in the morning to tell them how you feel is recommended (this is the original voice memo sent at 5 in the morning)”. That song in particular I have played a lot on my show, and I think most people can listen to that album and relate on some level to those really intimate feelings Charlie Baby sings so openly and beautifully about! The People’s Republic of Amsterdam hasn’t released anything online, at least that I can find.

But, I have seen them live a few times, they played at the Fundrive wrap up party at the Good Will.

They are so fun to watch live, oh my gosh! The lead singer is so animated, they remind me of like a cyber goth, Lil Peep infused Iggy Pop. I just saw them at the Handsome Daughter one night and almost fell to the ground in awe. It really was one of the best live local bands I have seen! Topiary Veil also hasn’t really released a ton of music online, but I just happened to see them play live at the Handsome Daughter and they have this thing where they want their identities to remain a secret so they wear ski masks and these long colorful Ms. Doubtfire-esque smocks. They play very lo fi, dreamy grungy music.

They did a cover of Nirvana’s “Sliver” and I was just in love.

Stylus: What are your earlier childhood radio experiences?

LO: I grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota and just listened to public radio constantly. 89.3 The Current is kinda the background music of my childhood. My mother has always been a hipster and just would never let us listen to the top of the pops radio stations, no matter how annoying that was to us when we were young. I also grew up listening to the University of Minnesota’s college radio station, Radio K. Every weekend they had a punk show my Mom loved and we ALWAYS had to listen to it. Now I appreciate my humble public/college radio beginning. Who knows if I would have my own Canadian radio show now!

BY NIGEL WEBBER “Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.” - KRS-One 2017 was the year hip-hop took over the music industry. With huge hits by Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar among others, it seems only natural for Vulture Magazine to call 2017 “the year hip-hop won the music business.” Through streaming platforms like Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube, hip-hop now reaches it’s biggest audience ever. The music has come a long way from DJ Kool Herc throwing jams in Cedar Park in the Bronx, but hip-hop still struggles to find acceptance in the mainstream pop radio world.

The terms rap and hip-hop are often used interchangeably, but rapping is just one of four main elements of hip-hop culture. Graffiti writing, breakdancing, and DJing are the other three main pillars, and style of dress and manner of speech are also considered elements. The combination of DJing and rapping is hip-hop music or rap, for short. Before the term rapper was even used, the person with the microphone was the MC, or master of ceremonies.

Early MC’s weren’t lyricists, their job was to rock the party, control the crowd as the DJ spun and mixed records. Separate from hip-hop, R&B is a genre in it’s own right that has partly begun to fall under the hip-hop umbrella. Back in the 1990s as hip-hop music was gaining sustained attention in the mainstream, a new R&B sub-genre popped up called ‘new jack swing.’ New jack swing merged hiphop style production and beats with R&B singers.

The rise of R&B in this period led to some of the most successful artists in the genre, including TLC and Erykah Badu. Since then R&B has evolved with the times, but the marriage between hip-hop music and R&B has only grown stronger. As hip-hop came to the world and began to be put on wax, the

notion of an MC who can do everything began to fade. Hip-hop artists became more specialized and lyricism came to prominence. The specialization created a multitude of sub-genres within hip-hop.

Recently, the door has continued to open for artists whose music is still under the hip-hop umbrella but features more singing than rapping. The mainstream music world is starting to see more of these artists, including Rihanna and Nicki Minaj.

The increasing success of these artists has led to Winnipeg’s own up and coming R&B singers.

Prominent among them is Keisha Booker, an R&B singer active in the Winnipeg scene for several years.

Booker’s 2017 EP General Admission was influenced by modern R&B acts like Jhene Aiko as well as classic ‘90s R&B like Lauryn Hill. The producers on the project, including Makae and Rayny, are primarily producing hip-hop beats for rappers. Although the lines between hip-hop and R&B beats are blurring, Booker says the producers she works with understand the distinction. Winnipeg’s relative lack of R&B singers in comparison to rappers may lead some producers to shy away from R&B production, Booker suggests. Regardless of genre, Booker feels that 2018 is “the year of the independent artist” and the access the internet provides is crucial for up and coming artists, especially from geographically isolated Winnipeg. Streaming platforms like Soundcloud or YouTube allow listeners to immediately hear artists music without any payment has levelled the playing field. Without as many gatekeepers in the music industry and even fewer in Winnipeg, it is the artist’s prerogative to get their music to as many ears as possible. Keisha Booker sees this as a plus, saying “marketing towards people [is easier than] marketing towards big businesses.”

While Booker acknowledges the importance of industry recognition and support, the critical aspect

is still “getting people music” and building a fan base online and offline. Booker also notes how important it is to have a supportive hip-hop community in Winnipeg, in particular local hip-hop artists supporting each others work.

While there are fewer gatekeepers in the music industry than 20 years ago, they do still exist. The primary gatekeeper in this area is pop radio and the attached airplay charts. Cracking the top of the pop charts has proved elusive for even for some of the biggest names in music. In 2016 Beyoncé’s “Formation”, with 98 million views on YouTube, failed to even crack the pop radio charts. The inescapable 2017 Kendrick Lamar track “Humble.” made it to 26 on the pop charts, a relative success considering the equally omnipresent “Mask Off ” by Future failed to chart at all despite reaching 267 million views on YouTube. Although Winnipeg hip-hop artists like Keisha Booker do not concern themselves with stats and charts like this, it is worth noting that one notable crossover success between the pop and hiphop/R&B worlds has been a Canadian, Drake. An undeniable outlier in the Canadian hip-hop scene, Drake’s international success has forced the incredibly US centric hip-hop music industry to start to take Canadian hip-hop seriously. Despite all of this, Winnipeg hip-hop artists find themselves largely outside of the mainstream music industry, instead finding themselves in a warm and supportive community of fellow artists and fans who are wholeheartedly invested in seeing Winnipeg succeed.

Nigel Webber Tiny Scru Films 204-795-1491 nss.webber @ gmail.com tinyscrufilms.com

Local Spotlight

HUMAN MUSIC Human Music With most of the music industry relying on computers and machines to play music, the local indie band Human Music takes it back a few decades to when music was still played by humans. Their latest album, also called Human Music, was released in

December of last year. This album consists of a blended style of folk and punk. Their sound feels like it was heavily influenced by the British pop of the sixties and the American folk of the seventies. Most of the songs are upbeat and have a high energy behind them. An exception is the chill, low tempo instrumental song “King Chrome,” which gives the album a nice contrast. The dominating part of each song is the riff that starts at the beginning and is consistently referenced until the end. The riffs are catchy and interesting to listen to but could benefit from more variation to expand their musical ideas. A highlighted song on Human Music is called “Sending Messages” and is about a social disconnection from the rest of the world. Lyrically this album deals with some intriguing topics,

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

while at the same time musically creating a positive and relaxing vibe.

They sound like a fun band to hear live with their personalities and charisma being reflected in their music.

The album however was recorded with a crisp and clear sound with all the instruments mixed nicely together. You can check out the album Human Music at Human Music’s Bandcamp page. Alex Roberecki SLOW SPIRIT Unnatured Slow Spirit’s Unnatured comes after a lengthy period of growth and development. The resulting full-length album is a broad melding of serene ambience, experimental jazz-fusion, and emotionally driven alt-folk.

“Human” is a barely over 90 seconds

whirlwind tune with a franticness reminiscent of a Mars Volta track.

“Legendary Mistake” features chiming guitar swirls and jazzy instrumentals set to singer Natalie Bohrn’s sultry smooth baritone. Midway through, the song dives into a frenetic jazz-fuelled vamp with a wavering siren call sailing atop the mix.

“Unknown” is a soft, serenading spell that slows the tempo down wistfully and beautifully. “Bad News” takes the listener to darker territory. Spare instrumentals drive the song with Bohrn’s voice sounding angelic and remorseful. Bellowing horns and noise guitar bring added heft. The song vacillates in intensity before bursting into a straight-up rock-out groove of churning guitar and pummelling drums.

“Bad News” transitions into “Good

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

17

Bird”, a mellow and dreamy number of chiming notes, pattering drums, and Bohrn’s soft falsetto. Horn accents flesh things out to swaying harmonies and subtle grooves amongst flowing melodies – it’s all good here.

Album standouts “Last Night” and “Oh My Old Friend” end off the album. The former unfurls with a sprawling drone that feels like the warmth of a clear-skied summer night, the world vast in all directions, before Bohrn’s first lyrics of the song arise in hushed spoken words: “It’s so quiet,” the space can be felt, “the rain has finally stopped,” as it all begins to bloom. The song ventures into post-rock brilliance, with searing and soaring arpeggios, a bold ascent, and shimmering instrumentals before trailing out through echoing winds and a singular drum.

“Oh My Old Friend” is the most emotionally affecting of all, ending off the album with Bohrn’s vocals ringing the highest they have yet. The song falls into a hypnotic sway as parts are moulded and added. Chords and melodies tinkle and unfold, with Bohrn singing “Oh my old friend, I misunderstood you, I misunderstood.” You can feel the weight and sincerity in her voice, as if coming from a wrenched heart, knowing a mistake has been made.

This is the kind of album that unearths hidden beauty with every listen. Listen to it all the way through and it’ll speak to you in different ways each time. A part of what makes this album so special is how, after so many spins, it’s still hard to pin down. Genre-defying, spacious and emotional, this is art rock at its finest.

Chris Bryson

you feel what the artists are feeling.

The first song, “Peace and Boredom” drowns in melancholy with repeating lyrics, building up till the end when the drums and backing guitars kick in and make a big ending. It’s a great start to the small collection of songs as it sets the tone and pace for what you’ll be hearing over the next 15 minutes.

The tongue in cheek nature of Merin comes out in their song “Space Camp”, where a quote from ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’ plays over the intro. “I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.” The nostalgic nature of this song brings back memories from the artist’s life so that the audience can experience them.

Another sassy moment from Merin is the name of one song, “Spectre (007 James Bond Theme)”. The song is filled with blue complexion and mentions the idea of the singer being a “spectre” at one point, but James Bond is never mentioned in the song. The sadness in the song mixed with the cheekiness of the title paints a perfect image of Merin.

With a consistent sound, Space Camp EP is a quick and easy listen. The simple chord changes are predictable in a great way. Each song is exactly what it is supposed to be, bringing the listener exactly what they need.

Reccomended if you like Peg City Groove on CKUW 95.9 FM. Ryan Haughey

THE CASTLE Gloom

MERIN Space Camp EP This short EP is full of wholesome and direct songs. It’s got a quiet style, but the memorable songs speak loudly and reach out to the audience. Since there are only five songs on the EP, each song sticks and is recognizable the next time you hear it.

A barebones style is the dominant sound throughout the record, with almost shy vocals. The sad lyrics stretch out each song’s lonely nature, letting

18 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

At the age of sixteen, the artist known as The Castle has already developed a professional sound. Her latest album Gloom, which was released last December, contains seven tracks of down-tempo electronic music. The album is an arrangement of soft cool sounds, produced mostly by using synths, programmed drums, and bass guitar. The Castle’s ability to hear and create music is very impressive. The progressions of each song are very clear and each instrument is arranged to build off the other like a musical conversation. This album is successful in conveying emotion and creating intense soundscapes. Every song contains a catchy melody that is re-

peated and developed until it is stuck in your head. Her style is influenced by 1990’s house music as well as Mac Demarco, but her sound often differs from song to song. For example, “Butterfly” sounds like a melodic Drake type beat, where “Computer Tropics” has an Aphex Twin vibe.

From beginning to end, Gloom remains exciting and constantly new.

The songs are short, well organised, and void of lyrics. The listener is not left missing the lyrics, but it would be interesting to hear how a singer would work in on future albums. I highly recommend visiting The Castle’s Bandcamp page and listening to Gloom. This album is part of a very promising beginning for The Castle.

Alex Roberecki

is “Firstry.” Starting with a sample of Method Man, the song has Dill the Giant with a crazy flow. If the simple but hard beat with an acoustic guitar sample kept going, Dill the Giant would still be rhyming on it. Listen to Slopoke when you’re walking in a snowstorm contemplating the cosmos. Nigel Webber

RUSTOWL RUSTOWL

FC COCONUT Slopoke FC Coconut’s beats make you think.

The drum sound is boom-bap and the expectation is a solid hour of head nodding. FC Coconut creates the expectation of one sound but flips it by often letting his drums hit off beat. By doing so, FC (short for Flavour Crafts) forces the listener to consider that most hip-hop beats over the decades have been on a 4/4 beat.

FC Coconut, who is originally from Istanbul, Turkey, has a classic style beat tape in his new release Slopoke.

The initial complexity of the drums leaves the listener washed over by the lush instrumentals but on subsequent listens FC’s love of simple but elegant piano is evident. FC Coconut made Slopoke on the SP404 drum machine and sampler. The all instrumental A Side includes a few production features and movie samples including the inspiration for the title Slopoke, from an old Looney Toons cartoon.

The B Side of the tape includes some instrumentals but also features guest verses from some of Winnipeg’s best rappers. Young upstart CJ the Grey pops up for a couple tracks and Brendan from Super Duty Tough Work delivers his intelligent battle rap. All the guys from 3Peat are featured on individual tracks. Steve takes a phone call about going for Chinese food then drops his verse on “Incagnito” [sic]. The best track on the whole tape

R U S T O W L’s long-awaited debut revels in dichotomy, like an angsty and wonderful beast that sits somewhere at the crossroads of punk and folk. The self-titled EP features only four songs, but manages to cement the band’s already-established spot in Winnipeg’s music scene with its unique blend of styles and instruments.

After honing their sound for nearly a year, the quartet of Garrett Iverson, Jensen Fridfinnson, Robert Reimer and Jory Strachan is ambitious with its debut — and it pays off. The EP opens spectacularly with “In A World Of Old Lovers,” a driving, restless track that jumps from an intense chorus to a beautifully uncoordinated verse of gang vocals and back again.

The addition of Strachan’s harpsichord is bizarre and genius, giving the track a haunting and offbeat edge.

“Crooked Teeth” is next, a stomping indie rock addition with punk spikes and features a particularly powerful bassline by Reimer. The EP’s second single “Awkward Age” is next, a powerful and solemn ballad that holds its own between two rowdier tracks. It tells a nostalgic story, perhaps of a love from another time, with simple but strong lyrics (“Years, that is the only line between you and I”) over a rolling melody. Iverson’s closing guitar solo is especially masterful, and the final note feels sombre and longing.

The album ends with its first single, “Hibernation,” an upbeat and gritty jam with particularly poignant lyrics (“Crawling into the ground I always hear a sound of loathing, but images cut through the darkness, like a knife I could grab but not control”) that counteract the hard drumline and violent guitars. The track ends with one last note from Fridfinnson’s fiddle

before a faltering guitar riff glitches and falls like an amp suddenly lost power, leaving us wanting even more.

The track is a perfect finishing touch to the EP, a final piece of evidence to prove that this bamd thrives in the middle ground: the space between genres and between emotions.

The EP debuted on March 23 at a joint release show, where housepanther released its debut album Club Soda Lows as well. Rustowl is now on a Western Canada tour through early April, ending with a final show at The Good Will on April 22. Graeme Houssin

ROMAN CLARKE Looking For Mine Roman Clarke is on to something.

With the release of his debut EP, Looking For Mine, he’s fashioned a markedly signature sound. As one third of The Middle Coast, Clarke is no newcomer to the local scene. Looking For Mine feels fully formed, ready

ring through your head for days.

Looking For Mine is full of compact, indelible pop nuggets. Brimming with soaring harmonies, catchy choruses, and shining melodies, each track feels different but perfectly in place. Keep ‘em comin’, Roman Clarke. Chris Bryson

fluorescent drone, bringing to mind the image of multi-colored fireflies in some nocturnal fantasy. “It Will Catch Up With You Too”’s weaving and wailing trumpet floats over bopping keys, burbling basslines, squeals, squelches, surges and slowdowns into a fiery fluorescent coda.

The title track’s instrumentals run the gamut between frantic and dreamy, always seeming to have a hand in both.

As the trumpet refrain at one point sounds like it’s flapping its wings to take flight, then at another, has arms stretched straight out, sailing, enjoying the view, the drums move at the same pace while guitar and keys slowly twinkle, wriggle and bloom.

The constant here is a vacillation of motion, of controlling the chaos that gets caught in between, and Odd Outfit pull it off with a glorious flair.

That push and pull is what makes this album so vibrant.

Instrumental jazz can sometimes run the risk of tedium or banality without any variance of style or form. With Up/Down, Odd Outfit stands out by bringing starry psychedelia, sultry R&B, the dreaminess of shoegaze and the pulsing propulsion of krautrock into a mix that’s as intuitive as it is jammy. Up/Down is precocious and heady, showcasing a band that’s fusing a range of styles to mesmeric effect.

Reccomended if you like “The Trip” on CKUW 95.9 FM. Chris Bryson

for the world to hear.

Clarke performed all instruments and vocals on the album, with the exception of electric guitar played by Ariel Posen. Each track is vibrant and distinct, with a pervasive romp that’ll keep a bounce in your step. The EP’s a melding of old-school soul and R&B shot through with a funky backbone and a modern pop sheen.

It’s remarkable how far these tracks will burrow their way into your brain.

EP opener “Faithful Man”, like much of the album, feels airy and effortless.

Clarke’s vocals shift between deep and delicate, invariably strong. Keys and percussion move in a bounce-step, sway-step groove, as bass follows behind with eager curiosity. The song’s arrangement, like all songs on the EP, feels simultaneously meticulous and natural.

“Let You Fall” finds Clarke’s vocals smooth and sultry with a formidable resonance. Chirping and hopping keys set to a shuffling and bounding beat, the harmonies ascend, hitting almost gospel-like peaks. “Waiting” is a buzzing and bumping tune, slow and heavy, with a late-night grinder groove. Penultimate track “Stop” is a funky dance number full of catchy lines and earworm tricks, liable to get any static listener veering for the floor.

The final title track brings things down to a sauntering sway with the same emphatic conviction that carries throughout the entire EP. The chorus a simple yet staying aphorism, it’ll

Up/Down gives impressions of luminance and colour – Odd Outfit acting as a spectrum of light. The Winnipeg four (sometimes five)-piece’s debut LP combines genres into what could concisely be termed as instrumental jazz, but it’s more than that.

Album opener “Intervention” has the feeling of walking on a cloud. A sweet fluttering trumpet refrain pairs with light strums as pattering drums fill the space with a subtle but coercive bounce. The song sails through shimmering hues of blues, purples and reds (similar to those found on the album’s cover). Keys follow in rapid succession while the tempo wavers through hypnotic bursts.

The music can at times feel reminiscent of the smooth and dreamy percolations of some Do Make Say Think songs, in the way that the instruments speak in modes of feeling and motion with space and atmosphere having equal presence and purpose as the sounds being made.

“Moons Aligned” is a sparkling

the world. It was as if I picked up a book and every chapter had a new and fascinating story. Songs like “Won’t be the Same” brought back memories of failed relationships that could never be repaired, while songs like “Oh My” reminded me of the everyday struggles of being black in America.

Not many would know that Boogie was once an honour roll student in elementary school turned gang banger in high school. Coming from humble beginnings, Boogie was introduced

to the church where he was a part of the choir at a young age. This experience allowed him to transform into a lyrical beast who speaks his truth through his lyrical content accompanied by vivid visuals.

Recently I listened to one of his tracks called “Further” from his 2015 album The Reach. This song made reference to Tiana Ricks who was a 6 year old that died in 2013 as a result of a gang related drive by while at a family gettogether. His lyrics spoke of what it’s

like in the hood and the ongoing gang violence that occurs on a daily basis, which often results in innocent lives lost. California has always been the home of the hood poets. Boogie is just another one of those talents gracing us with his musical message. Check out Boogies Thirst 48, Thirst 48 part II, and The Reach, and you will not be disappointed. Renee Batson

Than Any Other Day. One sophomore album and a solo record from front man Darcy later, Ought released Room Inside the World, a record born into a world even more emotionally fraught and politically driven than that of their debut. It’s interesting then, that rather

than ratchet up the frayed nerve energy of their earlier work, the band has decided to mellow out and deepen, surveying this new political landscape with a slightly more level head.

The album opens with the echoing “Into the Sea”, a muscular re-imagining of the high wire trapeze act of

ODD OUTFIT Up/Down

Mental Notes BOOGIE Singles A few months back I came across an artist that goes by the name of Boogie. A native of Compton California.

Boogie, who is now signed to Interscope Records, captured my listening ears and fascinated me with his visual storytelling.

As I went through his catalogue of music, I was able to get a picture of what message he wanted to portray to

Under the Needle OUGHT Room Inside the World Montreal’s Ought have cultivated a satisfying little mythos for themselves since forming in 2012. As the story goes, Tim Darcy, Ben Stidworthy, Matt May and Tim Keen joined

forces during the “Maple Spring”, a series of student demonstrations in Montreal that protested a proposed tuition hike. Inspired by the environment of urgency and political activism, they formed Ought and began recording what would become their debut album, the anxious, nervy More

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

19

their debut. The song also works to introduce Tim Darcy’s newly theatrical vocals. Darcy’s early vocal work invited comparisons to David Byrne’s anxious energy, but here he inhabits a wide cast of characters, settling most consistently somewhere between Paul Buchanan and Fred Schneider. It’s a charismatic performance throughout – passionate and a bit goofy – and it allows Darcy to better explore his expressive vocal range.

The band also tries on a variety of new sounds, making Room Inside the World a record of exploration, if not necessarily a record of risk. The band works jazz, lounge music, dream-pop, and new wave into their sound, adding small instrumental and production flourishes throughout.

The inarguable highlight is “Desire”, a glowing love song that features a gently uplifting choir and a particularly emotive performance from Darcy. It’s a high water mark for the band, managing to explore new sonic ground while remaining unmistakably themselves.

It shows us that Ought don’t necessarily need to be wild to be affecting.

Reccomended if you like Now Sounds on CKUW 95.9 FM. Kaelen Bell

U.S. Girls began in 2007 as Meg Remy’s solo noise project, which gradually expanded to a constellation of musicians that circle Remy’s dark star, fleshing out her previously sparse compositions. In a Poem Unlimited sounds both timeless and relentlessly inventive, riding airtight grooves and indomitable hooks that dip into funk, synth-pop, disco, and blues.

First single “Mad as Hell” is tightly wound disco sung from the perspective of a disenchanted First Lady, who watches her husband’s hair go grey as drone bombs shower the Middle East.

“Incidental Boogie”, a twisted meditation on an abusive relationship, is a heaving, metallic groove that gives way to thunderous buzz saw guitars.

Follow up “L-Over”, an immediate highlight, features a loping melody so instantly classic you’ll swear you’ve heard it before.

Synth-pop manifesto “Poem” is the rare protest song that points toward the future, that allows us to envision something more. That forward momentum peaks with the relentless polyrhythmic tussle of album closer “Time”. The song could be a warning,

but it could also be a reassurance; after the hopeful paean of “Poem”, perhaps what we need to be reminded of is that “there is still time/ oceans of time”. We haven’t quite lost hope yet.

Kaelen Bell

CUB SPORTS This Is Our Vice This Is Our Vice is a great synth-pop record for a casual listen, as well as an energizing one. Cub Sports’ electro style track-list is fun, catchy, and easy to get lost in. With unique synth sounds surrounding vocals soaked in reverb, the songs carry the listener through an analog experience.

The songs are repetitive, but in a good way. The reoccurring hooks make it easy for the listener to learn the song as it plays, and by the end of the song, they know the lyrics and can sing along. It also helps that you enjoy hearing the funky riffs from synthesizers that accent the light vocals over again, letting the sound marinate in your mind.

Cub Sports has a striking sound that sticks with the listener throughout their day, and into their night. Their groove flows similarly throughout each song, but each song is equally unique. This Is Our Vice is about love and heartbreak, depressed times and relaxed times, addiction and metaphor. The metaphorical lyrics on songs like “Vice” are open for interpretation, but can be applied to whatever suits the listener best.

This record emphasizes everything that is good about synth pop. Soaring vocals and engaging tones skate over smooth, laid back drum beats. A fine ride from front to back, This is Our Vice is fun to listen to any time of the day. Ryan Haughey

95.9 FM CKUW CAMPUS/COMMUNITY RADIO TOP 30 ALBUMS ( January 26 - April 3, 2018) !=LOCAL CONTENT * =CANADIAN CONTENT re=RE-ENTRY TO CHART #

U.S. GIRLS In a Poem Unlimited “You’ve been sleeping with one eye open ‘Cause he always could come back, ya know?

And you’ve been walking these streets unguarded Waiting for any man to explode” So begins “Velvet 4 Sale,” the opening track of Meg Remy’s heroic sixth album as U.S. Girls. It’s a conversation between two women - a revenge fantasy that queasily interrogates misogyny, revenge, and America’s obsession with gun violence. Remy herself said that “men are lucky women (and children) have yet to take up arms.”

And although I hope this never happens and I completely disagree that violence is ever effective, this very idea was ripe for a song.

It’s that contradiction – the warped morality and messy politics – that makes the narrative so vital, a vitality that runs through the entirety of this electrifying album.

20 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018

ARTIST

RECORDING

1 ! Propagandhi Victory Lap 2 * The O Voids Data 3 * The Pack A.D. Dollhouse 4 * Minor Empire Uprooted 5 ! Marshall Birch + Some Buddies Dog Daddy Yeah 6 Bjork Utopia 7 * Yamantaka // Sonic Titan Dirt 8 Boubacar Traore Dounia Tabolo 9 * Jolie Holland & Samantha Parton Wildflower Blues 10 * Ought Room Inside The World 11 * Boogat San Cristobal Baile 12 ! Valiska On Pause 13 * The Confabulation Tunnels And Visions 14 * Stegosarahs Experimentations 15 * Buffy Saint marie Medicine Songs 16 * U.S. Girls A Poem Unlimited 17 Zimbamoto Tambai 18 * Arcade Fire Everything Now 19 * Slow Against The Glass 20 * Do Make Say Think Stubborn Persistent Illusions 21 * Alvvays Antisocialites 22 * Dirty Inputs The Runcible 23 * Whitney Rose Rule 62 24 * Weaves Wide Open 25 ! Johnny Sizzle - Martin Howell Creepy Domain 26 Joshua Gerowitz Solano Canyon 27 * Mike Janzen Nudging Forever 28 * Austra Future Politics 29 * Born Ruffians Uncle, Duke & The Chief 30 Primus The Desaturating Seven

LABEL

Epitaph Sounds Escaping Cadence World Trip Transistor 66 One Little Indian Paper Bag Lusafrica Cinquefoil Royal Mountain Maisonette Trouble In Utopia Woodhead Self-Released true north Royal Mountain Self-Released Columbia Artoffact Constellation Royal Mountain Paperplussound Six Shooter Buzz Awkward Reasons Inc.

Pfmentum Self-Produced Domino Paper Bag ATO

www.ckuw.ca/stylus

April / May 2018 Stylus Magazine

21

SHERYL CROW • BAHAMAS • COURTNEY BARNETT T HE S TR UMB E LL A S • E L L E K I N G • P A S S E N G E R JOHN BUTLER TRIO • NATALIE MACMASTER • A TRIBE CALLED RED ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES • WHITNEY • RHYE • JULIEN BAKER

REAL ESTATE • HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER • TOO MANY ZOOZ • WAXAHATCHEE DONOVAN WOODS • MANDOLIN ORANGE • MO KENNEY • LEE RANALDO BARNEY BENTALL • GAELYNN LEA • FIVE ALARM FUNK • GABRIELLE SHONK HUUN-HUUR-TU • PHOEBE BRIDGERS • MAPPE OF • THE WAR AND TREATY ARCHIE ROACH • NÊHIYAWAK • LEONARD SUMNER • WE BANJO 3 • FERRON

GENTICORUM • LAS CAFETERAS • DELGRES • FRONT COUNTRY • DARLINGSIDE • SCOTT H. BIRAM JADEA KELLY • RISING APPALACHIA • SIDI TOURÉ • ASHWIN BATISH • MICK FLANNERY • FORTUNATE ONES LILLY HIATT • KEN WHITELEY & THE BEULAH BAND • MATT HOLUBOWSKI • WALLIS BIRD KACY & CLAYTON • LANIKAI • VALLEY QUEEN • MAMA KIN SPENDER • HARROW FAIR 10 STRING SYMPHONY • GORDON GRDINA’S HARAM • JOHN SHOWMAN & TOM POWER • THE LYNNES THE LONESOME ACE STRINGBAND • MICAH ERENBERG • BONIFACE • MARTIN SIMPSON ROGER ROGER • SECRET AGENT 23 SKIDOO • AMYTHYST KIAH • JEREMY FISHER JUNIOR THE LUMBER JILLS • AL SIMMONS • LULU AND THE TOMCAT • GUSTAVO & THE GREEN FOOLS

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT WINNIPEGFOLKFESTIVAL.CA AND THE WINNIPEG FOLK FESTIVAL OFFICE

BIRDS HILL PROVINC IAL PARK 22 Stylus Magazine April / May 2018