Jenny Charlesworth

Top 10 albums of 2011: Jenny Charlesworth, The Straight

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:20:00 -0800

If this were about top songs, I’d be the laughingstock of the Straight’s music department. Not only would Britney Spears be getting a shout-out, so would Rihanna and Drake. For the sake of my street cred, thank Christ almighty we’re looking at long-players.

Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams

A 20-something girl singing about her dead mother doesn’t exactly scream “record of the year”. But nothing tops Only in Dreams. Pack leader Kristin “Dee Dee” Gundred pushes through the pain with earworming hooks and fierce vocals. There’s no wallowing here, just a badass babe who’s hell-bent on showing off her garage-rock diploma.

The Black Keys - El Camino

There’s a chance this record sucks. Most of us are so doped up on the duo’s down ’n’ dirty blues-rock that it would take a guest turn by J.D. Fortune to make us cry foul. But I’m hoping it’s more than El Camino euphoria that’s making booty-shakers like “Run Right Back” and “Lonely Boy” sound so good.

Atlas Sound - Parallax

It’s no wonder Bradford Cox recently suffered a nervous breakdown. Between his Deerhunter gig and Atlas Sound solo project, there’s hardly time to kick back in the La-Z-Boy. He might have dodged the meltdown had he half-assed Parallax, so let’s applaud Cox for sacrificing his sanity in the name of whipping up more cockeyed pop.

Wilco - The Whole Love

Jeff Tweedy and I haven’t always seen eye to eye but he certainly got my attention with the manic album opener “Art of Almost”. How can you write off a record when it starts so full-throttle? Somehow, even the outrageously over-the-top “Capitol City”—a heavy-handed ode to the Beatles—will worm its way onto your playlist.

Wooden Shjips - West

The next time you get into an argument about whose turn it is to take out the trash, turn this on, real loud—do it mid-spat if you have to. There’s no greater “fuck you” than the drugged-out drone rock this San Fran quartet churned out for West.

The Weeknd - House of Balloons

I swore I’d never warm up to the Weeknd. And I made it a habit to sneer at those losing their shit over the “mysterious” mix tape Drake was suddenly pimping harder than Sprite. But… I was wrong. Truce, Drizzy?

Tinariwen - Tassili

Tinar-who? The African collective may not be a household name, but that’s no reason to tune it out. Upon hearing this album, NPR Music crowned the group the “best guitar-based rock band of the 21st century”. It’s an unfathomably bold statement—until you hear the traditional Tuareg melodies.

Austra - Feel It Break

The album rides on the coattails of its sensational lead single, “Beat and the Pulse”, but it’s still deserving of its Top 10 standing. Listen to any track, and when the moody electro meets powerhouse Katie Stelmanis’s operatic voice, you’ll see what all the fuss is about.

A$AP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP

Before this mix tape ever went viral, 24-year-old A$AP Rocky already had a $3-million record deal. The Harlem MC is cruising for Tyler, the Creator’s crown, and he makes a pretty compelling case here.

Oddisee - Rock Creek Park

Another MC-producer who came out of left field—well, left-field Maryland, that is. Oddisee cooked up this largely instrumental hip-hop project in a mere two weeks, a dizzying pace for creating the soundtrack to a sprawling city park. Thanks to his innovative and thoughtful sampling, Rock Creek Park is a rare treat.

-Published in the Straight Dec. 15, 2011

2011 Year End Picks

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:09:00 -0800

For my 2011 Year End picks as Spinner’s Deputy Editor click here: Top Albums|Top Songs

Thinking Outside the Manager

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:50:00 -0800

PHOTOGRAPH BY TENZIN DORJE

A look inside the non-denominational nativity play that’s taking over the Brick Works… “Silent night, holy night” might be the traditional setting for a certain holiday tale, but The Story, Theatre Columbus’ outdoor play based on the Nativity, promises very little of either. The imaginative walk-about—which weaves its way throughout Toronto’s historic Evergreen Brick Works using the kilns, pavilions and quarry garden as backdrops for the holiday spectacular—updates the ancient tale of Jesus’ birth with an all-inclusive secular spin. Audience members—we recommend travelling with hot cocoa in hand—follow the usual suspects (Mary, Joseph and the three wise men are still the stars of this non-denominational revamp) on an hour-long, one-kilometre journey that recasts the Nativity as a comedic morality play. Director Jennifer Brewin gave us the lowdown on the winter spectacle that runs Dec. 13–30 and is sure to delight the whole family—and startle more than a few unsuspecting passers-by.

1. “When you’re going into public spaces and telling stories there, a linear narrative is important—especially when you’re in a rambling, chaotic outdoor space like the Brick Works,” says Brewin. “Playwright Martha Ross comes at this as a parable, as a story for our time. She took from the Bible and brings the characters to life in a secular context. A baby is born basically in a garbage dump and we decide he’s going to be a leader. So there’s a democratic appeal; your faith can come into it but it doesn’t have to.”

-Published in The Grid Dec. 11, 2011 (click here to read full story)

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon 'Stands Behind' Anti-Grammy Comments

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:36:00 -0800

After slagging the Grammys and going head to head with the Avalanches on account of his “sell-out” Bushmills Whiskey endorsement, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is trying to set the record straight.

Speaking to Q host Jian Ghomeshi during a live tapping of the CBC show in Toronto Thursday morning, Vernon addressed the comments he made to the New York Times regarding the Grammy’s compromising artist integrity.

“I think I can stand behind all that stuff,” he said. “I come from a place where music, growing up, was an expression, it was a journey, a vehicle for self-discovery. So I’ve always been a little bit hesitant of the industrial approach to music and making music.”

“I don’t think it’s wrong,” he continued. “Like, Micheal Jackson is the best, everyone loves Michael Jackson, but his success became sort of fuel on top of fire on top of fuel — and obviously it didn’t work out well for him personally. But the whole system is just bizarre to me, but at the same time people love it, [that kind of music is] on the Top 40 for some reason. I can’t just sit here and say that I’m right.”

Though Vernon’s complaints about the award show were a previously unpublished part of an earlier interview, the Times only ran then the day after Bon Iver nabbed four Grammy nominations, including a Best New Artist nod. This created an awkward situation for the singer-songwriter, even more so if the band walks away with a golden gramophone or two on Feb. 12.

“I was a high-school football player and basketball player, and winning [was] awesome,” he told Ghomeshi. “But music, when you win, it’s almost like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’”

That may be the only time Vernon says he’s sorry, though. He’s certainly not making any apologizes about his Grammy tirade or about licensing his music to a whiskey company (or about getting all sweaty in his workout video that just surfaced via The Daily Swarm.)

“What the Black Keys say is right … in music you want musicians to be these immutable forces of purity, but it’s tough. I remember Wilco did a car ad, and they were like, ‘Well, we drive cars.’”

“You play that balance between doing what’s right and feels good,” he continued. “It doesn’t always feel good to have your music be used for something it wasn’t really made for, but you make those decisions, you live and you learn by them and it’s certainly not something to feel bad about. I don’t feel sure about any of that stuff, but you just have to say no to more things than you say yes to.

“I think you have to draw the line with what you’re OK with being associated with. And sometimes you just say no because you’re sick of hearing your song or you don’t want other people to get sick of hearing your song. So with the Bushmills thing, my dad is a big Irish whiskey collector, and they’re like, ‘So we’ll give you free Bushmills.’ And I was, ‘Yes. Free Christmas present for dad.’”

While Vernon stands by his choices, he admits it’s a tough road.

“The worst feeling is you feel like you’re a little bit alone. And it can be very silly, like, ‘Oh man, I’m in middle school again,’ and dealing with things I didn’t think I’d have to learn lessons about, like saying something and having someone repeat it a bunch of times out of context and it becomes convoluted. But whatever, you have to let it roll off your back and know that it’s not important.”

Q airs on CBC Radio One, Sirius Satellite 159 and select U.S. cities on Public Radio International

-Published on Spinner.com Dec. 8, 2011

Cadence Weapon: Rapper Sounds Off on Drake Diss, Odd Future and Rap Beefs

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:29:50 -0800

‘Tis the season for year-end lists. But it’s not just music critics and bloggers tallying up the records that rocked 2011, Cadence Weapon is also taking stock of the releases that moved him this year — and he’s not pulling any punches when it comes to albums that fall flat either.

So whose record failed to make the cut? Well, after his recent tweet comparing Drake’s ‘Thank Me Later’ to a “book on tape,” it’s safe to say that ol’ Drizzy isn’t getting any blue ribbons from Cadence Weapon.

“With Drake’s album, I feel the same way when I go to see a blockbuster movie: it’s really well made but just doesn’t do anything for me,” he tells Spinner.

“There’s a couple good tracks on it,” he adds. “I end up only liking a few tracks here and there from contemporary rap; it’s not designed for me, it’s designed for whoever still buys albums.”

But Cadence Weapon, who got fans hyped on his forthcoming effort, ‘Roquentin,’ at last month’s M for Montreal Festival, knows where to draw the line when it comes to calling out another rapper.

“I don’t want to diss Drake now and never be able to go for a ride in his Maybach,” he jokes. “I feel like every journalist tries to get you to slag him off. When you interview Timber Timbre do you think the journalist goes, ‘So what do you think about Bon Iver, is there a beef?’ No, that would never happen. It sucks, ‘cause it creates a problem for me because I want to make music that’s maybe not so confrontational…”
He may be cautious about insulting a rap star of Drake’s caliber, but Cadence Weapon speaks a little more freely about the current chart-toppers en masse.

“Anything that is instantly hyped, I don’t take it very seriously,” says the rapper, now based in Montreal after putting his hometown of Edmonton on the map with his clever rhymes (and thought-provoking verses as the city’s distinguished Poet Laureate). “Music that’s going to last for longer than like one or five or 10 years, you can tell it a mile away. I feel like every few months there’s a new thing that everyone is talking about … I don’t really have time for it; I have too much older music to listen to still, so many classics to listen to.”

When “instantly hyped” is dropped in reference to the current rap scene, a guy like Tyler, the Creator, the loudmouth ringleader of OFWGKTA, invariably comes up. So what’s Cadence Weapon’s take on the young phenomenon?

“When I was first hearing about Tyler, the Creator, I felt like I was seeing an alternate version of myself in some ways,” he explains. ” Not really in the content, but musically it’s like the stuff I made when I was a kid. And it was happening all the time, people were coming up to me, ‘That Tyler guy, he’s a lot like you.’ Or, I would be DJing somewhere and a girl would come up and be like, ‘Are you trying to dress like Tyler, the Creator?’ ‘No, I’ve been dressing like this the whole time.’”

‘I do think the guy Earl [Sweatshirt] from Odd Future is a great rapper,” he offers. “Contemporary rap doesn’t really sit with me but there are a few things I’m absolutely loving right now like A$AP Rocky and Spoek Mathambo.”

When it comes to Cadence Weapon’s own material, it’s ’90s rap that he’ll always represent. “I get really inspired by the process that Outkast used with their tracks. For a lot of their early-’90s rap they would have a band come in and do interpolations of the things they wanted to sample, and I wanted to take that to the next level for ‘Roquentin.’

-Published on Spinner.com on Dec. 2, 2011

Let's all chill out and let Courtney Love do her thing

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:21:00 -0800

By Jenny Charlesworth

Courtney Love’s ta-tas are back in the news this week. It seems a Hole concert in Sao Paulo was all it took for the 47-year-old to peel off her over the shoulder boulder holders and expose her boobies yet again. Just a glimpse of those nips and the gossip rags snap to attention, all too happy to ridicule Kurt Cobain’s wild widow. But isn’t it time we gave this train wreck of a woman a hall pass? When it comes to Nirvana’s Yoko Ono, we’ve slagged and sneered enough—Love learned long ago that she’d never be America’s sweetheart.

Her “kinderwhore” days may be long gone—the itsy-bitsy baby doll dresses balled up with Cobain’s flannel in some long-forgotten storage locker—but that doesn’t mean Love will ever slip into a power suit and play the part of old maid. There’s no reforming this rock star; she’s as controversial as they come. But after the umpteenth public-relations disaster, you’d think we’d be over the mud-slinging and cut Courtney Michelle Harrison some slack.

When it comes to first-world problems, Love has enough to warrant that OxyContin addiction—and the need to show off her suspiciously perky 34Bs to a stadium of bamboozled Brazilians. Long before Love was shamed for canoodling with Michael Pitt (her late husband’s doppelganger and star of the Cobain biopic Last Days), or traumatizing a New York Times writer by shimmying out of her skivvies mid-interview, she had a whole host of other sorrows to bring her down.

Having horny businessmen fork over dollar bills for a whiff of her lady bits had to be a great confidence-booster when she stripped as a pro. As were those years riddled with drug addiction and debauchery—no doubt helped along by accusations from ruthless Nirvana fans that she murdered the Sid to her Nancy. Then there’s that whole business of being on Social Services’ hit list for her WTF parenting skills with Frances Bean Cobain. This psychological roller coaster is bound to send anyone off the rails now and again. So if that means a little areola served up with Hole’s greatest hits, then we should be able to awkwardly laugh it off—just as David Letterman did when Love re-enacted Drew Barrymore’s infamous on-air tit flash.

Really, aside from a few instances when she emerged with a shiny new gown (and Frankenstein face, courtesy of Dr. McBotox), the California native has been true to her cause. She’s been sloppy and strung-out, sure. Naked and nasty, absolutely. But she’s also been a constant in the canon of rock. We count on her onstage stripteases the same way we expect Ronnie Wood’s love torpedo to be gobbled up by some barely legal blonde the moment the Stones walk off-stage.

It’s not fair to expect Love to pull a June Cleaver revamp just because she’ll be ringing in 5-0 soon. So enough with the sensational headlines, enough with the Kurt Cobain shout-outs at Hole concerts (according to Love’s outburst at the Brazil gig, she’s “going to beat the fuck out of you if you do it again”), and enough with picking on a chick who just likes to hang out topless and strum on her guitar.

Now if she starts brandishing her beaver on-stage, then we can talk about boycotting her bush. In the meantime, though, if Hole’s fearless leader wants to share her fun bags with the world, we should all chill the fuck out and show the lady some, ahem, love.

-Published in the Georgia Straight Nov. 16, 2011

Turn on the bright Lights

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:15:00 -0800

The MuchMusic darling reinvented herself with a littlebit of help from hip friends like Shad and Holy Fuck

By Jenny Charlesworth

If you are a MuchMusic darling looking for a hip overhaul, getting Holy Fuck to guest on your new record is a good place to start. With a name too profane for TV and a sound too experimental for the mainstream, the electronic outfit provides instant cred for a pop star looking to slum it in the indie music scene. But according to the raven-haired electro princess known as Lights, her recent revamp courtesy of the Toronto group isn’t nearly so contrived.

“I’ve never written for a particular audience,” Valerie Poxleitner, who has legally changed her name to Lights, tells the Straight. “As an artist, you’re establishing your creative vision—not where other people see you.”

On the line from her hometown of Toronto, the 24-year-old spells out why—and how—she decided to step away from teen pop on her new album, Siberia. If it were just about pleasing the powers that be (and the fans who lap up manufactured radio chart-toppers), then Lights would have pulled the plug on her sonic reinvention rather than walking away from Sire, the major U.S. label behind her 2009 debut, The Listening.

“It comes down to artistic integrity, and this is the record I wanted to make,” the singer-keyboardist says of her reasons for leaving the label. “It was a battle, it really was. We were like, ‘We’re not crazy, this is something we’re really proud of.’ Some people get it, and some people don’t.”

Perhaps if her collaboration with Holy Fuck (whose members guest alongside rapper Shad on the single “Everybody Breaks a Glass” and have numerous production and cowriting credits on Siberia) had felt forced, Lights would have reconsidered her game plan. But working with the guys at the suggestion of her manager, CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi, proved to be surprisingly seamless.

“It was so far out when he brought it up,” admits Lights. “But the way we wrote stuff was like jamming and live off the floor, and it was so easy.

“It takes a lot of confidence in your own craft to walk in there and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’ve got,’ ” she adds. “And I don’t think I would have had the same success if I’d done that a few years ago, because of the confidence I’ve built over the last couple years after releasing the first record.”

But don’t get too used to Lights’ darker electro-rock vibe. According to the Juno Award winner, World of Warcraft devotee, and aspiring tattooist, it’s all about experimenting.

“If you’re interested in something, try it out,” she says. “I remember growing up wanting to play cello, so I did for a time and learned it. I wanted to get into gymnastics, air cadets. It may not be long-term, but at least you went for it.”

-Published in the Georgia Straight Nov. 10, 2011

What do you say, Coeur de Pirate?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:09:00 -0800

Inked Quebec indie popster Béatrice Martin (a.k.a. Coeur de Pirate) goes Blonde for her latest album.

1. Parlez-vous français?

Our country may have two ofﬁcial languages, but unless your name is Celine Dion, it’s pretty damn hard to become a major Canadian pop icon if you sing exclusively—or even primarily—in French. Happily, that hasn’t slowed down Coeur de Pirate’s Béatrice Martin. She might still be under the radar of most Anglo-Canadians, but she’s got about as many Facebook fans as Tegan and Sara—and she’s adored in France. As for those who can’t make sense of Blonde’s French lyrics, don’t feel like you need to learn the language on Martin’s account. The singer-songwriter isn’t looking to be an ambassador for her native tongue. “If people find the need to go beyond the music and look into the French, that’s great,” says Martin. “But they don’t need to. That’s not what I’m about; I don’t think I can take on that role.”

2. The title is not a nod to her hair stylist.
Martin may be a blonde bombshell, but her sunny locks didn’t inspire the title of her sophomore album as Coeur de Pirate. All those confused Anglophones who think this collection of piano pop tunes has anything to do with (a) hair or (b) Bob Dylan, take note: “Blonde actually means ‘my girlfriend’ in Quebec French,” explains Martin, who happens to be the, er, blonde of Bedouin Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski. “The album talks about all the seasons of a relationship, from when you meet someone to the break up and whatever happens after. A lot of it is about loving from a distance, too.”

3. On Blonde, Martin makes beautiful music with her boyfriend. Again.
Martin and Malinowski’s courtship started with the Bedouin Soundclash/Coeur de Pirate collab “Brutal Hearts,” a smoldering duet carried by hypnotic percussion and seductive strings. But it was their Armistice project that proved the musical union had legs. With Mariachi El Bronx (the mariachi-loving incarnation of L.A. punks The Bronx) adding a festive boost to their sweetheart harmonies, Martin and Malinowski teamed up for Armistice’s debut EP, which came out in February. It was no surprise when Martin and her beau co-wrote “Saint-Laurent” for her solo record. “I wouldn’t collaborate with anyone I didn’t have a story with, because that’s what makes it interesting,” she says. Blonde was bolstered by a few more all-star recruits, too, though it might take some careful listening to pinpoint their contributions: Sam Roberts croons en français on the country-tinged “Loin d’ici,” while Bon Iver’s go-to saxophonist, Colin Stetson, lets Martin’s angelic voice take center stage on “Ava.”

4. The Weeknd is the voice of Coeur de Pirate’s generation.
Though she’s known for playful pop—a far cry from the slick, x-rated R&B Abel Tesfaye makes as The Weeknd—Martin couldn’t resist tackling “Wicked Games,” a track from Tesfaye’s Polaris Prize–nominated House of Balloons album that serves up some real killjoy rhymes: “Bring your love, baby, I could bring my shame/Bring the drugs, baby, I could bring my pain.” “I could see myself in his words, which is why I covered the song,” the 22-year-old says of the one-off, which, sadly, isn’t featured on Blonde. “He’s explaining our mentality for this generation, that people go out at night and numb themselves when things aren’t going well.”

5. Tattoos = the stuff memories are made of.
It’s easy to spot Martin in a crowd, thanks to the colourful tattoos snaking up her arms and across her chest. We couldn’t help but wonder if the avid ink collector—who scored an upcoming cover feature with Inked magazine—will commemorate the follow-up to her Juno-nominated debut with another design. “I usually get tattoos for people that were important in my life,” she says. “The album is an object but it’s also a whole part of my life, so I might consider a small one.”

BY: JENNY CHARLESWORTH

-Published in The Grid Nov. 9

AUSTRA

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:44:00 -0700

Whenever a touring musician rolls into a new town, there are certain must-Google spots: the closest Guitar Center, the cleanest laundromat, the cheapest auto body shop. Or, in the case of Toronto electro-goth contingent Austra, the nearest Whole Foods.

For a band that maps out their travel itinerary based on organic grocery pit stops, it seems bizarre to meet ringleader Katie Stelmanis in a Toronto bar that hawks prehistoric pickled eggs and platters of sandwich meat. But Stelmanis, with her dyed blonde hair and metallic necklaces piled one upon another, is perfectly at home with such contradictions.

Onstage, the bold 26-year-old, with her octave-shattering voice, is the centerpiece of the show. “I’ve been performing since I was 10 or 11 in lots of different ways, like recitals or full-on operas, so the stage has always felt very comfortable to me,” she says, leaning back on one of the retro vinyl chairs that decorate the tiny watering hole dubbed “The Commie” (its actual name is the Communist’s Daughter, after the Neutral Milk Hotel song). Offstage, though, Stelmanis shields herself from both record and ticket sales, still lacking confidence in the hype that has propelled the trio into the pages of Vanity Fair and earned their latest album, Feel It Break, a coveted spot on Domino Records’ UK roster.

“It’s just too much pressure, it’s too stressful,” says Stelmanis of tracking the economics behind her career. “I just like to have my dates and go to the next city.”

Nursing a cider, the singer-keyboardist chats about her anything-goes thrift-store-fashion style and weighs in on the new Chrissie Hynde-inspired hairdo the Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger is sporting as of late. It’s downtime that Stelmanis seems to need — just a few moments to step outside of the media juggernaut that now factors into her day.

Though the whirlwind pace can take its toll — yes, even when you’re performing in exotic locales like Prague and Istanbul, as Austra will this fall — Stelmanis doesn’t allow herself much time to dwell on sleep deprivation. There will be time for exhaustion later. First, there’s this business of touring, then tapping into the inspiration for the next record, for which fans are already clamouring.

“Before I was touring a lot, I was trying to sort out where we wanted to go with the next one,” says Stelmanis. “Now I’m getting excited to get back into the studio; I’m starting to get ideas again.” Though recording is on her mind, she adds, “I like taking the break, ‘cause [touring is] a totally different mode.”

While a true-blue follow up to Feel It Break’s noirtinged numbers is a ways off, Austra may still pump out the odd one-off track in the meantime, as they did with “Alone, Together” for Stereogum’s recent Strokes cover comp, STROKED: A Tribute to Is This It. “I like vocal acrobatic covers, songs that are made for singers; I just go for it,” says Stelmanis upon mention of the project. “I’ve done Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ and I’ve done ‘Natural Women’ and the ‘Woodstock’ cover.”

Moments later she’s bent over the jukebox at the back of the bar perusing records by Jonathan Richman, Caribou and Queen. It’s the 1979 anthem “Heartbreaker” that catches her eye. As Pat Benatar’s ferocious voice booms through The Commie’s speakers, it’s oh so tempting to ask Stelmanis what she’d do with the classic hit if given the chance to Austra-fy it.

-Published in The Block — 2011 Winter Issue

Ground control to Amon Tobin

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:40:21 -0700

_PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWARD CARREON

For the better part of two decades, electronic music maven Amon Tobin has dazzled audiences with mind-expanding cuts that marry vinyl samples with his uncanny sonic sensibility. Despite his impressive résumé, the Brazilian-born visionary balked at touring his new album ISAM. Tobin insisted this latest disc—which he calls a “sound sculpture” of field recordings—didn’t have the right vibe to ignite the dance floor, so the stage show needed to evolve beyond his DJ-centric performances. When ISAM: Live touches down in Toronto on Sunday night, fans will experience an audio-visual adventure that has already drawn praise from Cirque du Soleil. Tobin gives us the inside scoop on his bold new show.

1. “I can’t make the music from ISAM work in a DJ environment because it’s not about making people come to the front of the dance floor, so I had to think differently about how to present it,” says Tobin. “We came up with an idea about integrating it into a much larger thing; making [something other than] myself the visual focus.”

2. “I’m not DJing, so it’s more like a cinema experience, a live presentation of the record with visuals. Similarly to when I do DJ sets, I’ve really meticulously worked out the pacing and dynamic curve to the live show,” says Tobin, who utilizes audio-reactive graphics and real-time projection mapping created by Vello Virkhaus of V Squared Labs—which animates stationary objects with 3-D video—to bring ISAM to life.

3. “It’s not just a series of random visuals that look pretty; there’s a narrative to the whole thing. I had this adolescent fantasy about having a spaceship, and I thought it would be a great idea to use this technology to realize that. We have this whole part of the story where the spaceship gets hit by a meteorite and it causes some damage to the engine room. It goes from a very wide shot of the ship and space and zooms into the engine room.”

4. “Where I am, it’s very much a cockpit. I’m surrounded by screens and controllers and all kinds of technology that makes me feel like I’m off flyingon some mission.”

5. “Before people actually see the show, I think they tend to draw comparisons with other large-scale productions like Daft Punk or Deadmau5, but after seeing the show I think they really realize that it’s actually a totally different thing. This is something new.”

-Published in The Grid Oct. 19

Death Cab for Cutie taxis to the bright side

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:36:00 -0700

When Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard got hitched to Zooey Deschanel in 2009, his bandmates saddled up for a lifetime of dodging questions about the She & Him bombshell. And now thanks to a certain studio where the Seattle band recorded parts of its latest album, Codes and Keys, the doe-eyed It Girl isn’t the only one popping up in interviews.

“As a kid growing up hearing ‘Summer of ’69’ on the radio, who would ever think I’d be recording in a place Bryan Adams built?” bassist Nick Harmer tells the Straight, on the line from a Los Angeles hotel room. “You couldn’t grow up listening to Top 40 radio and not become fond of him. So to record in his Warehouse Studio was completely awesome.”

Local Death Cab fanatics will be crushed to learn that the introspective indie rockers spent nearly two weeks at Adams’s nondescript Gastown studio last year. Yes, while you were dodging suburban hooligans during the city’s annual Celebration of Light festivities, you might have been just a thrown punch away from the band—though Harmer is far less ruthless when describing the sea of downtown drunkards.

“Our hotel was on Granville Street so we had this nice walk to the studio everyday, including on a fireworks night when every person in Vancouver was streaming to the beach.”

As it turns out, Terminal City is actually old stomping ground for Harmer and the boys.

“When we were in college we went to school in Bellingham, so we would go into Vancouver and see shows,” the bassist says. “I spent a lot of time at the Starfish Room.”

And when Death Cab for Cutie returns to our fair city this week to greet the stadium-size crowd gathered at Rogers Arena, its members will be in full celebration mode. With the follow-up to 2008’s Narrow Stairs racking up accolades and their club-ready remix record featuring the handiwork of Cut Copy about to roll out, there’s plenty of reason to break out the bubbly.

“When the remixes came in, we just sat back and enjoyed them,” says Harmer of compiling the Keys And Codes remix EP, a process he describes as “pretty easy” since it was simply a matter of saying yay or nay to the prospective revamps.

But for a band that’s made its mark writing breakup anthems for a generation of earnest indie kids, taking the swoon-worthy pop-rock that defines Codes and Keys and injecting it with disco decadence took a leap of faith.

“I don’t really listen to a lot of electronic music,” admits Harmer. “At this stage of my life, I don’t ever find myself in clubs that would be playing this music. So some of the remixes I’ll admit to being ignorant about. But some of it when you hear it, immediately you’re like, ‘That sounds amazing,’ which is how I feel about the remix of ‘Some Boys’. The whole thing was a fun experiment for sure.”

-Published in the Straight Oct. 20

Bellwoods social scene

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:23:00 -0700

BY: JENNY CHARLESWORTH

As St. Lawrence Market opens, merchants are setting up sandwich-board signs and sorting through day-old croissants. Coffee in hand, Ohbijou ringleader Casey Mecija navigates the maze of grocery stalls to a secluded picnic table. After the previous night’s excitement—the hood of Ohbijou’s van flew up and cracked the windshield while the band was en route to a video shoot for the lead single off their Metal Meets album—the Brantford native seems relieved to have found a tucked-away corner. “The van belonged to April Aliermo from Hooded Fang,” says Mecija, who’s a little flummoxed by Ohbijou’s bad luck when it comes to borrowing vehicles from their counterparts in the Bellwoods/Queen West music scene. “Once, when we were driving the Forest City Lovers’ tour van, the brakes stopped working, too.”

Despite the unreliability of their vehicles, those two bands have a close relationship with the members of Ohbijou. All three groups are part of the indie-pop community that sprouted up in Toronto in 2006, around the time Broken Social Scene and its many offshoots began spending more time abroad. Mecija and her bandmates are considered by many to be the poster kids for the post-BSS scene, thanks to their role coordinating the two Friends in Bellwoods benefit albums, which documented the action and featured some early recordings by now-famous local names like Austra mastermind Katie Stelmanis, Rural Alberta Advantage and a pre–Diamond Rings John O’Regan.

“We’re very much lumped into that orchestral pop thing,” Mecija says of the chamber-pop sound most associated with the scene. “We still have that sound in so many ways but we definitely wanted to show some growth on [Metal Meets].” To do that, the six-piece enlisted the help of Besnard Lakes’ frontman/producer Jace Lasek. “We wanted to play around with toys—not just always have a glockenspiel—so we got effects pedals and tried to create a different environment for the songs.”

When it came to the lyrical bent of the third album, however, Mecija already had her approach mapped out. “I was enrolled part-time at U of T to do my graduate studies in sociology and equity studies so there was a re-imagining of emotions in my lyrics that was inspired by the authors I was introduced to.”

On Metal Meets, Mecija manages to weave the type of tales that have earned Ohbijou a bevy of believers: The Irish folklore at the heart of “Sligo” is a nod to the ensembles’ recent globetrotting, and the story behind “Balikbayan” traces the singer’s ancestry.

“Up to a certain point, I thought of my parents as just, y’know, my parents, but these past couple of years I’ve really wanted to try to figure out what their stories are and what it means to be Filipino in Toronto,” says Mecija, who, along with her Ohbijou bandmate and sister Jennifer, is a first-generation Canadian. “To put that sort of subject matter into an indie-pop song was a really neat way to try to explore that history.”

It also offers a clue as to where Mecija gets her penchant for crafting dreamy love songs. “When my mom was working as a nurse in Texas and my dad was still in the Philippines, he sent her care packages and one of them had the vinyl of their [favourite love] song, ‘Precious and Few.’ I didn’t know my dad was that romantic!”

Mecija isn’t shy about touting her parent’s lasting connection for shaping her own sentimentality, which is at the heart of Ohbijou. “They never wanted us to be engineers,” she laughs. “They always appreciated our love of the arts, and so much of my inspiration comes from them and that love.”

While sketching out tour plans for Metal Meets—a disc the group hopes will win them fans beyond Queen West—Mecija reveals she’s pushing for a gig in the Philippines. “Ohbjou was in Japan last year and we were maybe one flight away from the Philippines, but it just didn’t work out,” she says. “But that’s a big aspiration—to showcase our music in the place my parents are from.”

— Published in The Grid Sept. 29

Hospital stay didn't keep Cave Singers frontman down

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:59:53 -0700

It’s only been a few months since the Cave Singers’ frontman, Pete Quirk, was forced to trade in his tour bus for a tiny hospital room, but he’s already making light of the situation. “The new album will be about the Cleveland hospital system and how thorough they are,” the singer-guitarist jokes on the line with the Straight from his Seattle home.

Quirk blames “three months of epic nights” for landing him in the ER. Understandably, he seems relieved to have the ordeal—and, hopefully, his binge-drinking days—behind him. After all, there’s work to be done. Despite having released No Witch in February, the band is already focused on its fourth record and is busy trying to jell with a new collaborator, Cameron Elliott.

“It’s different playing with another person,” says Quirk of adding a fourth man to the creative process. “But this local Seattle guy is our friend, and I like hanging out with him, so we’ve got him playing some bass and some other stuff and it’s kind of groovier now. We’re broadening our horizons.”

Bringing bass into the mix should be nerve-racking for a band that’s been so guitar-focused, but Quirk treats it as a minor footnote in the group’s four-year evolution. After recording No Witch with studio wizard Randall Dunn (Black Mountain, Sunn O))), Boris), the Cave Singers aren’t shy about experimenting with their throwback folk-rock vibe.

“That was the most production we’ve had, working with Randall,” says Quirk. “Like in terms of someone else being, ‘Maybe you should try this?’ Or, ‘Okay, how about I get this guy to come down and play viola on this track, or I can get my friend to come down and play Rhodes [piano] on this.’ ”

Dunn also helped the Cave Singers tap into the fired-up energy that fuels the band’s concerts. “No Witch is the closest re-creation of what we do live in front of an audience, and I think if you went to a show, then listened to that record, you’d get that crossover,” says Quirk, clearly excited to see his band moving forward.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that the guy never considered quitting the Cave Singers when he was sucking back no-name applesauce on his hospital cot in Cleveland. Doctors can caution you about the pitfalls of having a profession that demands steady drinking, but what other job allows you to get close to a genuine legend—and maybe even do him a favour?

“We got to play the Newport Folk Festival this year, which is where I saw Pete Seeger,” explains Quirk. “He was getting hounded by everybody but I wanted to get a photo with him to send to my mom, but I didn’t ’cause everyone was talking to him and he looked like he really wanted to leave. So my gift to Pete Seeger was to not ask him to get a picture with him. So I hope he knows that.”

-Published Sept. 15, 2011 in the Straight

Photo

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:16:44 -0700

Photo Credit: Steven Pan | Jacket Burberry Prorsum I did a...

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:21:14 -0700

Photo Credit: Steven Pan | Jacket Burberry Prorsum

I did a profile for the BLOCK. Keep an eye out for the story in the fall issue.

I was invited on CBC Radio 3 today to talk to Dave Shumka about...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:55:00 -0700

I was invited on CBC Radio 3 today to talk to Dave Shumka about Austra, whose ‘Feel It Break’ album is up for the Polaris Prize this year. You can listen to our conversation here (just as soon as it’s been uploaded).

Hyperballads and hyperlinks

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:06:00 -0700

How a Toronto web design company helped Björk realize her latest online vision.

BY: JENNY CHARLESWORTH

The remnants of a recent brainstorming session are splashed across the IdeaPaint-coated walls of Liberty Village new-media studio Jam3. Six months ago, the cryptic equations and rushed shorthand would have been engulfed in a constellation of marker points as studio partners Mark McQuillan and Adrian Belina, along with Pablo Vio, worked furiously with their developers to give Björk’s website an intergalactic facelift.

“We received a video of what they wanted it to look like,” says McQuillan of Jam3’s first dealings with the international team spearheading the ambitious project for the Icelandic pop princess. “Björk was looking for a site to match the creative around her biophilia project, which involves an album, videos, apps for each track, and really explores organic form and nature in a highly stylized fashion. But [Google SketchUp], the technology they used to create that video, doesn’t have a clear exporting path [to the web], so it was next to useless. We had to put on our sleuthing caps and basically figure out how we were going to get it from A to Z.”

“Z” is where Björk fans can navigate through a 3-D solar system to explore the superstar’s musical output and learn about her forward-thinking biophilia concept (the re-launched website is the first phase of the multi-disciplinary endeavour). And getting there meant pushing the creative envelope with HTML5, a technology that Vio kindly demystifies for those not altogether tech savvy, describing it as “a fancy new HTML for being able to animate pages.” Apple bossman Steve Jobs has endorsed it as an alternative to Flash.

Jam3 has established itself as a leader in the digital storytelling realm after eight years of award-winning work. (The dozen or so accolades on display in its foyer are hard to miss, unless, of course, your gaze first falls upon the prized Street Fighterarcade game.) They acknowledge that landing this latest VIP client has a lot to do with the fact they actively encourage their developers to experiment. In fact, it was an experiment in HMTL5 “thrown up” on the Jam3 labs blog that caught the attention of Björk’s management team at One Little Indian Records, which was canvassing for a studio that could effectively execute the creative vision she had developed with French design partnership M/M (Paris).

“She’s very involved,” says McQuillan, who admits to snapping a photo of himself while on a Skype conference call with Björk. “She’s not one of those artists who has her management take care of a lot of things. She’s detail-orientated and is a participant in all of her creative activities across the entire spectrum of her work.”

With the innovative site—which is viewable on most browsers, though it works best on Google Chrome—now launched, Jam3 is proud to be in the spotlight. “It was a unique challenge and it’s drawn a lot of eyes,” says Belina. “One, it’s Björk. Two, it’s unique to anything online. And three, it’s drawn a lot of attention from the technical community because it’s among the first large projects to be done in HTML5 with this degree of technical difficulty.”

For a company that sees its clients as its sales staff and a credible voice to promote its industrious efforts both in the technical and creative worlds, Jam3 has done well to land a global icon such as Björk. Her revolutionary spirit would surely clash with any team not driven by the same zest for pioneering, so this new tie is quite a coup for the Toronto studio. (McQuillan hints at the website’s continued evolution, along with more biophilia-related output courtesy of his studio.) It also bodes well for McQuillan and his partners to land a Björk meet-and-greet backstage when her fantastical biophilia tour finally winds through town.

—Published July 13 in The Grid

Cults Plan Hip-Hop Mixtape, Talk Jim Jones Influence —...

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:19:00 -0700

Cults Plan Hip-Hop Mixtape, Talk Jim Jones Influence — Exclusive Video

My interview and co-direction credit

They may offer a nod to fearsome Jonestown icon Jim Jones on their record and have a slightly creepy name, but there’s nothing off-putting or diabolical about New York duo Cults. Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion — partners both musically and romantically — have quickly won the favour of just about anyone who has a penchant for dreamy, retro-flavoured indie-pop (including Lily Allen, whose label is behind the group’s self-titled debut).

Spinner recently sat down with Cults during AOL’s NXNE party at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto to talk about their foray into hip-hop, creepy cult leaders, and why they’re just a couple of “control freaks.” Oh, and we also got the lowdown on Follin’s guest gig with iconic Canadian punks F—-ed Up.

—Published July 5 on Spinner

Sled Island Comes of Age With Help From Buzzcocks, Bison B.C. and Man Man

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:47:22 -0700

Getty Images for Vintage at Good

Sled Island doesn’t have the desert skyline backdrop of Coachella, nor the clout and history of SXSW or its north-easternly offshoot NXNE, but the Calgary festival sure has heart.

Over the course of its five-day run — which wrapped up on Sunday, June 26 — Sled Island transformed the Alberta city into an indie music paradise, where it was possible to see the Sheepdogs jam inside a hotdog joint amidst arcades games and exotic condiments, Kurt Vile unleash his stoner Springsteen routine in a church and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo walking along the street post-gig with a 10-speed in hand.

In just five years, the music and arts fest has flushed out a platform that is giving Canada’s cowboy capital a new reputation.

Sure, the RCMP officers on hand apparently took style cues from Chuck Norris’ ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ character, but the ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ vibe was largely upstaged by the formidable talent that shook Calgary last week as locals and outsiders alike raced from venue to venue to hear the 200 artists on offer.

Flanked by tents hawking everything from wood-fired pizza and screen printed posters to bicycle helmets, Buzzcocks fired through hits like ‘What Do I Get’ and ‘Orgasm Addict,’Twin Shadow won over new fans with ‘Slow,’ and the Raveonettes reminded folks why they’re still going strong after a decade in the game. The outdoor Olympic Plaza stage, which featured these sets and more — indie rock elder statesmen Minus the Bear and hometown hero Chad VanGaalen, among others, also performed — drew thousands of wristband-adorned concert-goers over its two-day weekend run.

Elsewhere, Man Man smeared red and white paint on their faces and took to the Distillery stage to enrapture fans with their exuberant, carnival-esque rock as Montreal metallers Barn Burner thrashed their way through a ragged set several blocks away at Dickens Pub.

“It’s a really cool festival, I’m glad it happens,” Man Man mastermind Ryan ‘Honus Honus’ Kattner told Spinner. “Unfortunately, the bands I’m keen on catching are playing at the same time as us, that’s what happens at fests. But we’re psyched to be here and we want to come back.”

With churches, clothing boutiques and popular BBQ joints like the Palomino holding down showcases, Sled Island has a very SXSW-like quality — fitting, considering Alberta’s oil-and-cattle kinship to Texas — but in Calgary, the career-launching handshakes take a backseat. The focus is more on music than roundtables and Twitter workshops, which makes for a rather relaxed experience. Well, as relaxed as one can be while trying to hit up four bands at four venues in a two-hour span.

Though Calgary may not necessarily chart with tastemakers, Sled Island has the chance to change all that, enticing people with a first-rate lineup that pairs scene staples like Blonde Redhead with buzz bands such as the Luyas, while even finding a place to showcase a crotchety comic like Neil Hamburger, who was actually attacked by an irate fan during one of his shows — there’s an ongoing criminal investigation — though that’s probably not all that surprising given his confrontational comedy.

Sled Island also has the gusto to go after heavier sounds, which seems to be paying off nicely with the decibel-pushing demographic, who rang in the fest’s fifth year headbanging to Bison B.C., Red Fang, the Sword and stoner doom metal stalwarts Sleep.

“This city is made for this — this is Canada’s SXSW,” Bison B.C. singer-guitarist James Farwell told Spinner. “That’s a bold statement … but I think Sled Island is gaining that momentum, all the different types of music, it’s very eclectic, and it’s becoming that destination. But Sled Island is very low on the f—-ing industry bulls—-, here it’s just like playing good shows and partying with your friends.”

The 2011 installment of Sled Island was certainly a milestone year. Moving out of its infancy, the festival has become a point of pride for Calgarians, with locals eager to talk up their music scene and city at every turn. And, in some cases, the fine citizens of Calgary did a lot more than hype up their home turf. Just ask Carl Johnson, frontman for the Canadian indie pop group Library Voices,’ who, after injuring his foot mid-set at Sled Island, was rescued by local actor and ‘Fubar’ star Andrew ‘Tron’ Sparacino so he could get right back up and, y’know, “Give’r!”

-Published June 27 on Spinner

Sled Island Suits Up for Another Year, Celebrates Milestone

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:41:25 -0700

Sled Island Flickr, James Stangroom

There’s a sea of music lovers spilling out of a hot dog joint, tunes are blasting as folks chow down on chili-smothered smokies, the sun is shining and sooner or later someone in a cowboy hat is going to saunter past. SXSW? No, Sled Island in Calgary, Alberta.

Since 2007, Sled Island — which kicks off today and runs until June 25 — has beensteadily growing into one of Canada’s premier multi-day music festivals, even expanding to include film and art components like the established NXNE in Toronto and the mother of all city-wide showcases in Austin. Perhaps not the most obvious place to throw a destination fest — Calgary is known more for its cowboys kicking up dust during the Stampede than as a hot-spot for catching chart-topping indie artists — Sled Island has found success nonetheless. It’s five-year milestone in 2011 proves it may even have the momentum to one day challenge NXNE for Canada’s festival crown.

“Five years ago when it was just a dream, it was like, ‘Can this actually happen in this city? Can a festival this caliber and size exist and grow, and be around for this long?’” Sled Island festival director Lindsay Shedden tells Spinner. “And five years later here we are, and it’s bigger and better than ever. It’s become really obvious to everybody in the city that Sled Island was actually what the city needed.”

Chad VanGaalen, a Calgary native who performs at the city’s outdoor Olympic Plaza on Saturday, concurs. “I love playing and enjoying Sled Island every year regardless of if I’m playing or not, guaranteed there is always a band that will blow my mind,” he tells Spinner. “A festival like Sled Island means that Calgary gets introduced to a s—- load of bands that we would almost never get to see play in this city. Also, its great to see people stumble from one event to the next, using the down town like it was meant to be used.”

With this year’s lineup topped with heavyweights like the Raveonettes, Blonde Redhead, Minus the Bear, and Buzzcocks (whom Spinner recently chatted with about their just-released ‘A Different Compilation’ — we may also have covered that time they “borrowed” Kurt Cobain’s blow while on tour with Nirvana), while white-hot acts like Zola Jesus, Crocodiles, Twin Shadow, Man Man and Dum Dum Girls round out the bill, Sled Island requires nearly as much planning from concert-goers as SXSW. “Do I catch Dead Meadow at Local 510? Or opt for the Lee Renaldo Workshop at Cantos?”

Then there’s the chance to get a rundown of the local music scene, where you can seeHot Panda, Samantha Savage Smith, Smalltown DJs and more performing in their own backyard (sometimes even quite literally).

“The great thing about Sled is the paring of local bands with international acts. Also the surprise of walking around the corner and seeing one of your favorite bands in your friend’s living room and then seeing your friend’s band play right after,” says singer-keyboardist Katie Lee of Braids, a Calgary outfit now based in Montreal.

“Unfortunately, in the past, the city has shut down some wonderful creative spaces for music and I think Sled Island helps push the need for more of these types of spaces to help foster creativity which then the city can showcase at festivals like Sled Island,” adds Lee.

Sheddan notes that this was indeed Sled Island’s mandate when festival founder and Calgary club owner Zak Pashak was trying to get things off the ground. “The whole idea behind this festival was to have a community-orientated festival,” she says. “All these venues pop up and stick around, so every year there are new venues coming up. So it’s getting better every year and the [local] scene is growing.”

-Published June 22 on Spinner