The Gig: Father John Misty with Har Mar Superstar opening
Where: The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, Canada
When: 14 May 2012
In One Word: Destruction

On Monday night in Toronto, the Fantastic Musical Troupe of Jack Black, Ron Jeremy and John Belushi, arriving as one in one of those zany wee Mercedes clown cars, power-slided onto the stage of The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. Mmm, fiction. Truly, words can only begin to describe how bizarre and fantastic Har Mar Superstar is.

This fantastic musical Transformer called Har Mar Superstar, a.k.a. Sean Matthew Tillmann, is a veritable Yeti of the music world. The best parts of Black, Jeremy and Belushi fuse together to create Har Mar Superstar: he of the one thousand layers of stage attire, the mega white belly and the saliva-gelled eyebrows. But, ye gods, for all his sweaty girth, pound-for-pound Har Mar Superstar more than delivers his own weight in R&B and bluesy-electro dance tunes. For one hour of power the capacity crowd inside the Horseshoe became voyeurs to the chin-sweat croons and pant-splitting boogies, shuffles and gropes of this fantastic fat bastard. HMS Awesome. Seriously, so entertaining. (I’m slicking my eyebrows as I speak.) It’s like Andrew W.K., only way more fun and perverted, and with headstands!… and minus the falling-on-his-arse burn outs. Ridiculous. Party lardy!

Ding-ding. And so to the main event, Father John Misty. The name alone made me want to check this show out in the first place. (Who? Wha? Before you Wiki, Father John Misty was the drummer of Fleet Foxes.) Joshua Tillman, a.k.a. Father John Misty had already been on stage tonight drumming for Har Mar Superstar as part of his band, and while Father John Misty is every bit as bizarre as Har Mar Superstar, he is also a lot more unpredictable. With HMS, you know what you’re getting, but with Father John Misty, apparently the show varies depending on what particularly intoxicants he has taken that night before the show. “The other night I did mushrooms before the show… that was an interesting one.” Tonight though, Father John Misty’s narcotic of choice was marijuana, so rather than completely tripping out and entering a portal to another dimension, he arrived on stage at the Horseshoe Tavern completely stoned.

The ensuing on stage banter was something that was lampooned from the off, with a curt: “So yeah, there will be some banter between songs then another song and some more banter and some merch, then some banter, and then a cigarette, ‘cos some of you will think a few songs in is too long to wait. I was that guy too… That exact description is going to happen to someone tonight in the crowd.” But as the set went on the cutting, slack and wholly dismissive banter seemed to become more a parody of a parody because between each snippet of chin-wagging the actual songs got more and more intense and more real: his talking got less comprehensible but Tillman’s actual performance only got more intense and revealing. Joshua Tillman, stoned and being a total smart cunt in between songs, performed his songs with such intensity and languid theatrics that he was somehow more attention-soaking than that loon Har Mar Superstar.

Josh Tillman has a sharp tongue and is a blunt and witty performer, but when he and his band are not lacing the music with honky riffs and cool swirling delay FX pedal endings, it’s basically just country music; albeit not CMT-approved (thank God.) Or label it Folk if you cant handle the C word.

I found myself bored with some aspects of Josh Tillman’s set and yet still unable to walkaway from it. It wasn’t that it was bad, but there was a tragic element to it all. And it’s human nature to stop and gaze at the car crash – it’s rare when the car crash arrives on stage. Josh Tillman’s appearance as an affected musician seemed false at first – hammed up by the pardon of being stoned and obviously pissed off at some bad review on Pitchfork – but the longer things dragged on, the more honest and sad it all seemed.

It is Josh Tillman’s honesty that makes him endearing as a performer and this is the reason why he held an attentive and giddy crowd in Toronto: Toronto audiences are not used to this much open, bare-all self-destructive emotion on stage. A broken artist wrestling with a bust mic stand is more the reality and truth of rock and roll destruction than some punkster putting his Strat through an amplifier. The key moment came with “Now I’m Learning To Love The War”, a song in which Father John Misty frankly sings: “I’ll just call this what it is, My vanity gone wild with the crisis”.  If you can get on stage stoned to your eyeballs and still hold the audience’s attention as much as a chubby dude singing songs about sex and plugs, and rock ‘n roll while stripping down to his underwear, then you must be doing something right. A tale of two car crashes.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Photos of Har Mar Superstar and Father John Misty at the Horseshoe:

Internet links:
Har Mar Superstar
Father John Misty

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I so wanted to dismiss this album release as just another Hollywood actress making their dilettante foray into music. Actresses like Minnie, Zooey and Juliette – Oops! I really enjoy their music – bad example. OK, I think this is what really happened; one fine day Rita Wilson was singing with the radio while driving the kids to school when they said “Hey mom, you know so many of the songs on the radio and you’re pretty good. Why don’t you make your own record?” Of course, that was years ago, so naturally, Ms. Wilson waited a few more years until she hit the magical age of 55 to do what the kids suggested.

Like I said, I really wanted to hate this album but to Rita Wilson’s credit, she has great taste in music and because this is a cover album, the song choice is crucial. Also important is the fact that most of the songs have not been covered by too many people up to now so there’s “freshness” about them. Rita Wilson possesses a pleasant singing voice which lends itself to the style of songs. The only issue I have is with a couple of the song arrangements i.e. for “Wichita Lineman” I prefer a guitar over the piano. Small stuff.

What’s most important, is that Rita Wilson has released an album that you would enjoy playing in the car and singing along with. And so the eternal return, as the circle goes on and life repeats itself…

© Dee Dee Duric, Music Vice

Internet link: Rita Wilson

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The Gig: The Lines
Where: The 100 Club, London, UK
When: 3 May 2012
In One Word: Exhilarating

Intro by Ngawara Madison. Review by Kate Pangonis.
​​
​100 club on Thursday 3 May was the setting of a performance by midlands group The Lines which can only be described as midweek magic! Last time I had seen the band play was when they opened for Peter Doherty at Brixton Academy way back in cold September. I liked them back then but this time around I was blown away. I had been hearing through multiple members of the musical grapevine, that the lads had been channeling something rather spectacular in their songwriting of late, so was keen to see how the band had grown and evolved in our time apart. I must say I was NOT disappointed in THE least [despite the fact that this gig was a late one, and I had to be up the next morning for a 4:30am alarm bell]. We caught up for a quick chat before the lads took to the stage, and they spoke about how they had been introducing some new sounds and effects to their music, which seemed to be redefining their sound once again [the bands motto is all about not fitting into a genre box, so this didn't suprise me]. The performance was extremely charismatic and I loved seeing the bands frontman, Alex really win the crowd over with his energetic performance – even coming off stage at one point to sing and jump around amongst the crowd. – Ngawara

Check out the full review below, written by  Music Vice’s newest stunner of an intern, Kate Pangonis.

The 100 Club isn’t the kind of place in which a mediocre band can ride on the atmosphere! To put it politely it’s more of a baseline, and the bands have their work cut out for them! To put it bluntly? The place looks like a dump! Despite the revival the place enjoyed a few years back with Paul McCartney, the venue still lacks massively in the aesthetics department. For indie bands like The Lines, however, this negative didnt really effect the evening at all. When we walked into the bar area the place was buzzing and you could spot the avid fans straight away. The band still managed to pull a decent crowd into the place. How to sum up the night? It was an evening packed with avid fans, surrealist lyrics and shredding guitar.

The openers were a band I’d never seen before called The Rainband. They were alright, but I admit they left me feeling a bit bored and pretty dubious about the coming performance from The Lines, a band Ngawara had been telling me about for a while now. I thought that they could potentially be another one run-of-the-mill indie band. But I am happy to say this was not the case!

The Lines from Wolverhampton rose to the challenge that lay unspoken on my lips with an exciting and surprisingly varied set, kicked off dramatically with their ever so slightly kooky indie hit, “Glorious Aftermath”.

The next few songs played out like a Youtube playlist of the bands most competent songs until it changed DRASTICALLY for three exhilarating unexpected minutes, when the lads treated us to an exclusive preview of “Rivers”, a yet to be released hot new track that The Lines are saving up for their much anticipated second album. I’ll say this: If the “Rivers” is anything to go by is going to be a breath of fresh air for our current indie rock scene. A contrast to their previous sound hitherto, the song was far more reflective and emotive in atmosphere than their other earlier stuff which, dare I say it, can be slightly cliché some times.

Thank god for second impressions because The Lines have become the antithesis of their original sound as far as I am concerned! These are genuine guys making genuinely good music. Catch a gig next time they’re down, and you wont regret it.

© Kate Pangonis, Music Vice

Internet links:
The Lines

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The Gig: Ane Brun
Where: The Great Hall, Toronto, Canada
When: 10 May 2012
In One Word: Love

I first heard Ane Brun about six years ago on Radio Paradise singing “To Let Myself Go”. I love the sparse guitar playing and raspy voice of this Norwegian born artist.  I had the opportunity to finally see her play live at the Great Hall in Toronto on Thursday night. I’ve been enjoying her music for the last few years and my expectations were high – Ane Brun did not disappoint.

It’s a treat to be able to see an artist as accomplished as Ane Brun (she’s won Norwegian Emmys) perform in an intimate venue like the Great Hall.  Needless to say, many of the 200 or so audience members were either Swedish or Norwegian. I know, I heard them talking between sets. But Ane Brun’s music is tinged with a very North American flavour which is why I’m surprised that she is not as popular here as she should be.

Her 1 hour 15 minute set included a few songs off her latest album It All Starts With One and I immediately fell in love with one track “Oh Love” which is as Ane said, her attempt to write the ultimate love song. By the end of the song, the audience had joined in and it was quite a moving moment. The rest of the set she played her hits like “This Voice” and “Balloon Ranger”. A sweet surprise came when she played an Arcade Fire song “Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels); A nice acoustic arrangement that curiously seemed to make the song hers.

Wow, I can’t help but feel that I was given the opportunity to attend an event that should be shared among more people. I’m not one who likes their favourite artists to remain on the fringes and unknown – I believe in sharing the Love!

© Dee Dee Duric, Music Vice

Internet links:
Ane Brun

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With their 2010 debut, Meet Me At The Muster Station, Kingston, Ontario’s PS I Love You established themselves as the kind of band that you knew wasn’t in the game to make great records; the album felt like a promotional tool for what I’m sure must be a killer live show. Muster Station was a brief blast of yelpy vocals, loud guitars, and pounding drums that was fun, but ultimately insubstantial on the songwriting front. It sounded like the kind of blast-racket that a studio recording can’t help but sell short; energetic, for sure, but maybe a little bit undercooked. Their new full-length Death Dreams, however, does everything a second album should: it enhances what worked before and fixes everything that didn’t.

The album begins on a mildly disorienting note: a slow, delicate two and a half minute long instrumental. You keep waiting for things to take off in their usual rocket-like manner, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, things just stay real calm and pretty for a second. It’s a strange opener, but one with a purpose; it lets you know that Death Dreams is going to be a fairly different beast from Meet Me At Muster Station. But lest this brief moment of spatial indulgence cause you to worry that PS I Love You have lost interest in making you sweat, never fear, my friend; immediately following the final notes of the opener, drums pop, a guitar cuts, and you are reminded of who you’re listening to. A different beast, but still, a beast nonetheless.

What’s immediately noticeable is just how those guitars and drums sound. The production on Death Dreams is significantly more polished than its predecessor. Polished in a good way, though; the band sounds fuller here and more powerful than they have on record in the past. Some songs even have an arena-rock-like bigness to them, which brings us to the other big development Death Dreams brings: the songwriting here is vastly improved from the debut and more adventurous as well. Lead single “Sentimental Dishes” is the best version yet of those explosive, yelp-and-riff driven anthems PS I Love You has been writing since their first seven-inch (“Facelove”, a 2009 split single with Diamond Rings’ irresistibly adorable “All Yr Songs”). “Red Quarter” and especially rousing album-closer “First Contact” are hugely successful attempts at crafting something with a more widescreen, epic sing-along scope than we’ve heard from this band previously, wildly careening past the five-minute mark – which, for a band who didn’t even have any songs that hit four minutes on its first album, is not only unexpected but extremely impressive. There’s a lot of “didn’t know they had it in ‘em” moments.

All throughout Death Dreams, you can hear a band reaching for something more, and more often than not, it works. And that is exciting stuff.

© Justin Santelli, Music Vice

Internet link: PS I Love You

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 If I was stuck on a desert, Yellowknife island, I would love this shit. However, I’m not at all. Nor are a lot of people. Funnily enough, one song goes, “I am an island. I am the end. I am the law. I am the laughter for the final straw.” Pfff. Yes you are the joke, Rikers. When in the movie did you misunderstand Spinal Tap?

The song, “I Love You This Much”  makes me wonder how big the singer’s arms stretch out.  I’m going to guess not very wide.

“Love is An Echo.” Boring. Your music is an echo. Life is an echo. Echo’s are echo’s of each other. Give me something to chew on or else you are just another echoing piece of New Wave/eighties synthpop without the satisfying bite of the originals.

Rikers spend money on production, but unfortunately you can’t pay for quality creativity. And music is about the quality of expression. I listen to these songs, waiting for the moment when I will give a damn, and it never comes. The tragedy is not in the songs, but in the act of listening.

© Glyde Barbey, Music Vice

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Against Me! singer Tom Gabel has revealed she is transgender and plans to begin living as a woman under the name Laura Jane Grace.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tom reveals how he has been privately living with gender dysphoria for years. She will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments.

Laura Jane Grace will remain married to her wife Heather who has been fully supportive. “For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news, but she’s been super-amazing and understanding.”

Looking back at the lyrics to “The Ocean” from Against Me’s 2007 album New Wave, Tom Gabel wrote about wishing to be born a woman:

And if I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman
My mother once told me she would have named me Laura
I’d grow up to be strong and beautiful like her

We wish Laura and her wife Heather happiness and peace.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

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I don’t care who the engineer on your album is and I’m sure 99 per cent of the music–listening  population agrees. Sure, you may end up with a professional sounding recording but ultimately, what makes the music good, is just that – the music. Monks of Mellonwah may have used former Nirvana engineer Howie Weinberg (he mastered Nevermind), but Nirvana didn’t use that fact to bring attention to their album – their music, lyrics, guitar riffs etc., did that. Mr. Weinberg may not have the reputation if Nirvana were not a great band to begin with.

The rock band Monks of Mellonwah from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia have released a four song EP. I believe that if a band puts out a record of only four songs, they had better be fantastic. Unfortunately, I was completely underwhelmed (if that’s a word) by the Monks and this release. The title song “Neurogenesis” has a very Alice in Chains flavour to it. But unlike Alice in Chains, it seems they’ve built the song around the chorus and thrown in a couple of obscure sounding, metaphorical verses for good measure. I’m just not buying it. The other three songs don’t even have a hooky chorus to make me interested in them. I think these boys may have a future if they actually work to improve their song craft and by that, I mean, read a little poetry, maybe some of the classics. Don’t worry so much about the quality, big-name engineers and producers because though the recording may sound polished, it needs substance to draw the audience in. Some of my favourite albums were produced on four-tracks in the song writer’s living room.

© Dee Dee Duric, Music Vice

Internet link: Monks of Mellonwah

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CONTEST!
Recent Music Vice interviewee Gary Prosser has extended some tickets for us to give away to our London, UK readers.

Breakout’s monthly showcase for new and breaking acts staged by Music Week in conjunction with All Night Long Promotions
returns on Wednesday 9th May 2012 at Proud Galleries in Camden. All Night Long Promotions have very kindly given Music Vice 10 pairs of tickets to give away to the Breakout show on 9 May.

TWITTER CONTEST: To enter this ticket contest for a chance to get free guest list for you and a friend to the Breakout show on Wednesday 9th May, get on Twitter and Tweet or Re-tweet @MusicVice with something like this…: #Contest Hey @MusicVice, I want tickets to #Breakout! @Breakoutbands

Give us all a bit of Twitter love while you’re there by following – and @GazPro too! If you don’t have Twitter, you may leave a comment below to be included in the contest.

Winners should be in or around the London area – you have to make your own way to the show. The address is: Proud Camden, The Horse Hospital Stables Market, Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, NW1 8AH

Breakout teams up with Institut Ramon Llull (promoters of Catalan culture and language) to host ‘Catalan Sounds on Tour’ in
London. The tour has already visited SXSW and Canadian Music Week to great success and will conclude this May in Brighton,
where Institute Ramon Llull will present Catalan Sounds: Music from Catalalonia and the Balearic Islands as lead international
partner at The Great Escape.

© Ngawara Madison, Music Vice

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Aggressive music kind of reigns supreme right now. I’ve always thought that looking at whatever people are dancing to serves as a pretty failsafe social barometer; if people are feeling something on such a primal level that it makes them want to move, then it’s probably saying something fairly accurate about where our heads are at as a society at any given point in history. Right now, dubstep makes people dance. But what’s always interested me about dubstep is how people so enthusiastically fetishize “the drop”: a moment of rollercoaster-peak ecstasy brought on by an onslaught of violent sonics, specifically relentless, pummeling bass. And everybody loves it. Everybody. The dominant dance craze of our generation – our twist music – sounds like an arcade fire-bombing; the world is ending, but it sounds like the only thing dying is computers. And this is even more terrifying because, let’s be honest, what else matters now?

Death Grips understand this. And that is why Death Grips are going to be huge.

Death Grips are a trio from Sacramento, California that consists of Stefan Burnett aka MC Ride, Andy Morin, and Zach Hill. They make music by stitching together samples of audio ripped from YouTube clips and homemade video recordings which they then warp and layer into aggressive zaps, booms, and other sounds that we don’t have onomatopoeia for yet. Zach Hill – here playing in a style that is comparatively simple to his work with Hella but still brutal as always – then lays down a beat. And when that’s all been done, I imagine they just let Burnett out of his cage, foaming at the mouth while he barks out incoherent non-sequiturs like “LEAVE IT FOR THE HOMELESS TO SLEEP PRODIGAL FUCK THAT NAUTICAL TEACHIN’ BITCHES HOW TO SWIM.” Death Grips have often been labeled as “punk-rap”, but that only feels half-right; you can’t really call what MC Ride does rapping. Instead, Burnett seems more like a vessel through which some feeling is being hardwired directly, funneling pure something with no regard at all for literal meaning. A dusty (but still apt) comparison would be Dylan in his pill period; the words don’t make much straight sense, but you can’t shake the feeling that something is being communicated to you with a very rare level of clarity, even if you’re not sure you have the right word for what that something is. Although, in MC Ride’s case, “rage” might be a safe bet.

The internet has gotten a little hard for Death Grips. It’s not difficult to see why; five seconds into any given track is all anyone needs to realize that this is music that’s very easy for critics and hard-core music geeks to love. Death Grips are abrasive, slightly challenging, and definitely cool, but above all else, Death Grips just sound different. This, combined with the marketing power of a major label (which, miraculously, The Money Store has been released through) ensures for a band, regardless of the quality of their artistic product, that they will be 120% culturally relevant. Hence, the excitement-pee soaked undies of a billion bloggers.

So, Death Grips have been labeled as something to be taken very seriously; liking them is now mandatory. For the next few months at least, they will be a litmus test of coolness. And their shows will be packed wall-to-wall with scrawny nerds just like me pretending to be aggressive and ready to bleed, all too desperate for a shot at proving just how genuinely into it they are, and it will be wasted on every single one of us. Because we shouldn’t be listening to Death Grips; your fourteen-year-old brother should be listening to Death Grips.

Now, that probably doesn’t sound like a compliment, but I honestly don’t think I could bestow a higher one. My point is this: The Money Store is a good album. It’s not a great album with a capital-G, although it can certainly feel like it, and I’m sure many people will declare it to be, if they haven’t already. On some level, it’s probably an Important Album, making some kind of fairly astute commentary on the state of human communication and the degradation of the average attention span. Musically, it can probably be seen as an ultimate end of the futurists’ manifesto. It works very well as Conceptual Music, and in an age where we find ourselves obligated to talk about anything for the sake of feeling as though the greatest tool of communication ever invented by mankind isn’t going to waste for even a single second, Death Grips and The Money Store can certainly give us lots to talk about. But here is the thing that I’m almost sure is going to be oddly overlooked by most: This album? It fucking rocks.

And when I say that it rocks, I mean exactly that: It fucking rocks. It sounds dumb, but think about it: when was the last time you heard music that caused you to actually say that it rocked? I used to say it all the time when I was younger, and it wasn’t until I listened to this album that I realized how long it had been since it felt like just saying that was enough to communicate exactly what I was thinking and feeling about whatever I was listening to.

It was then that I realized who should be listening to Death Grips: me, but six years ago. I’m 19, and I like Death Grips. I like some of their songs a lot. But if me-at-13 had access to “The Fever” after having just gotten grounded by my dad for not taking out the garbage fast enough or something, that shit would have been cranked. On repeat. And then I would have put on some Ride The Lightning and all the fast songs from Nevermind just to keep the rush going. Death Grips are abrasive and interesting and obviously brilliant, but at their core, they’re just really heavy, man. Not in any kind of Icelandic death-metal kind of way, but in the way they make you wanna call shotgun in your friend’s car and make a point of rolling the windows down just so everybody you pass can see you headbang. Even the album cover is begging to be brought home in a backpack, ingeniously hidden from uptight parents, and pulled out only behind closed doors or amongst trustworthy accomplices. You really need to suggest this album to that sullen younger relative that you’re not sure how to talk to. Goddammit, I’m envious of them.

The music just hits in a way that is best enjoyed without jaded inhibition, and “hit” is the right word, I assure you; a song like “Double Helix” sounds like it was designed with the intention of duplicating the woozy feeling that comes from getting a boot to the side of the head. “Get Got”, the album opener, takes off like a spaceship racing through a funk tunnel; “I’ve Seen Footage” actually presents us with what feels like a hook and begins to take the unmistakable shape of an honest-to-god pop song, and it turns out to be a really, really fun pop song at that. This is the Death Grips trick: It’s music that’s meant to disorient and overwhelm, but it grounds itself in a constant, tangible rage and never entirely abandons the language of pop music; this is exactly the kind of stuff that inspires awe in the eyes of introverted barely-teens everywhere who are looking for something undeniably awesome to thrash around in their bedroom to.

Of course, maybe Death Grips don’t want to be thought of as “fun”, and I could totally see that. Maybe we just don’t know enough about them yet, but I have a hard time seeing Stefan Burnett being particularly enthused by a crowd full of awkward, zitty, long-haired kids in Black Sabbath t-shirts and Vans slip-ons. He should be, though; that’s who’s going to love this music the most.

© Justin Santelli, Music Vice

Internet link: Death Grips
Pre-order The Money Store on vinyl

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Gogol Bordello are set to return to the Sound Academy again this May

Shows To Go TO May 2012 – Music Vice’s local monthly concert guide for our home city of “TO”, Toronto

Paul Weller reinvented his sound for 2012 with Sonik Kicks - the price of seeing the latest incarnation of Paul Weller live in Toronto on one of just three North American gigs? $59.50 advance or $79.50 at the door for his show at the Sound Academy on 21 May. That’s a mighty steep price for the average concert going punter in Toronto but skipping groceries for a week may possibly be justified if you’re a big enough fan. And if you’re not? Choose wisely and you could enjoy five or six of the concerts below for the same price. You know what makes sense. Happy concert going, Toronto. - Brian

Eleanor Friedberger w/ Hospitaliy @ The Garrison, 4 May , $15 ADV $18 door
Spiritualized @ The Phoenix, 5 May SOLD OUT
M83 @ Sound Academy, 6 May $25 advance tickets, $30 door SOLD OUT
Neon Indian @ The Phoenix, 8 May, $20 advance, $25 door
Rise Against (w/ A Day To Remember) @ The Air Canada Centre, 10 May, $35-$65
Wildlife @ The Horseshoe, 11 May, $10 advance, $12.50 door
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros @ Kool Haus, 13 May, $40.25
Father John Misty @ Horseshoe Tavern, 14 May, $10.50 advance, $13 door  (The solo project of J. Tillman, ex Fleet Foxes)
Mark Lanegan BAND @ The Mod Club, 15 May, $20 - A ‘bullshit-free’ safe bet – read our 2010 review from Melbourne, Australia
Mesguggah @ Sound Academy, 17 May – EXTREME Swedish metal… do not take your little nephew to this for his first concert
Joel Plaskett Emergency w/ Frank Turner @ the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 18/19 May, $29.50 advance, $32.50 door
Paul Weller @ Sound Academy, 21 May, $59.50 advance, $79.50 door
Gogol Bordello w/ Mariachi El Bronx @ Sound Academy, 27 May, $39.25 – Here’s what happened last time
Garbage @ The Phoenix, 28 May, $38.75
Daylight @ Hard Luck, 29 May, $10 (Punk rock from PA)
Patrick Watson @ Danforth Music Hall, 29 May

Tickets available via Ticketmaster, LiveNation and Ticketweb, depending on the show. Hard tickets at the usual Toronto record stores (RT/SS). All shows are +19 unless noted.

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”:

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Mak, a five year old band have now come out with their new and first self-titled album, Mak. My first impression? “oooOOoooh.” My second impression? Why the Ooh?”

I never seem to trust if bands are sincere with their darkness or if it’s a put on to appear deep. I guess everyone has their own linear expression of what their version of depth is. I think Mak is on one linear expression. As a third party listening to their music, it makes me feel very sad. Singer Jesse Mac Cormack sings with a gentle and soothing voice. Slightly withdrawn. Nice guy vibe. It’s something about the relationship between singer and music that makes the sadness.

I understand that Kurt Vile and Daniel Johnston are very sad people too, but somehow I don’t really care about their sadness (to me it sounds like it’s really just anger for a feeling of entitlement unsatisfied). Mak’s got vibes. And it’s not about justice. It sounds more like appreciation for all bands they love. I’m guessing Radiohead, Portishead, Pink Floyd, James Blake… and the influence of Montreal?

Is there a label yet for this type of sounding music that comes out Montreal, that I’m not aware of? Please let me know! If I had to describe to a friend who wasn’t familiar with Patrick Watson or Arcade Fire, I would be stumped. I would say, “You know, it sounds like Monteal music!” Do you know what I mean? I’m gonna go and label it Montreal music and assume you know what I mean by that musical influence… C’est le son de la tempérance des Monréaliens?

© Glyde Barbey, Music Vice

Internet link: Mak

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Rooftop Runners is a Berlin-via-Canada sibling duo that seemingly aims to specialize in a very specific kind of tense, slinky, mournful night-pop that lands somewhere in the neighbourhood of The xx. The key word is “aims” though; the success level varies.

The brothers of Rooftop Runners, whether due to limited resources and technical know-how or conscious creative decision, are staunch minimalists. The four songs that comprise their debut EP We Are Here are rarely made up of more than vocals, a simple drum loop, a single guitar, occasionally a bass line, and a synthesizer or two. Sometimes this works, as on the opening track “Streets”; a sparse boom-clap beat is accompanied by a lurching synth line that sounds like some false-starting machine, while the vocals start fairly low and breathy and somehow end up in this weird, high place. The whole thing, which goes on churning for about four and a half minutes, all adds up to something vaguely unsettling, and it’s the most interesting song on the EP.

The rest is less… focused? That feels like a strange criticism considering the nature of the songs; there’s so few elements at work that you’d think some kind of conceptual map-loss is unlikely, but it feels like an appropriate call. Perhaps the best word for it is unfinished. Too often the arrangements and production can feel too minimalist, leaving you thinking that the “build tension and release” moments (of which there are many) would come across as more effective if the band had more to actually release. For example, the closing song “She Devil” suffers from this approach in a major way; it’s already a mediocre song to begin with and by far the worst one of the four, but it’s made even worse by the fact that the song is laid bare, crap lyrics and all, in an arrangement that consists of an extremely quiet drum pattern and a single, repetitive guitar line. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they really like Beat Happening, but if that’s the case, then they’re doing it wrong; the band tries to sell every moment with such self-consciously serious conviction that you end up hoping the awkward lyrics are tongue-in-cheek instead of knowing they are.

What really sits strangely is the vocal delivery of the two brothers, whose confident, outward projection seems very much at odds with the spare instrumentation. It seems like a silly, obvious thing to say, but they might just be singing too loud. The best moment on the entire EP is probably the chorus of “Bang Bang”, where they lock into a restrained, hushed harmony that’s enough to make one really, really wish The xx would put out another album already. Rooftop Runners have some interesting ideas, but it seems like they’re having some trouble articulating them for now.

© Justin Santelli, Music Vice

Internet link: Rooftop Runners

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Eight and a Half equals Justin Peroff (Broken Social Scene’s drummer) plus Dave Hamelin and Liam O’Neil (both of The Stills). Do you know what I hear when I hear this long laboured project? Music to commute to. It’s the soundtrack to the 9-5er who takes the subway to work, the bike ride downtown, the jog in a forest. I can’t help applying this album’s soundscape to some real-life-scape. The music demands it. So now on the transitory path of self-reflection, I find myself grounded in the limbo between my minds’ subconscious impressions and where I am situated in the world. Funny too, that this album was created in transit between Montreal, Chicago and Los Angeles where the trio were geographically separated from each other, but bound by the gift of the internet and file sharing.

There is something profound so it is not yet pretty. Like dipping a big toe into the swimming pool. We’ve all done it and can’t take back the feeling. Is it the antithesis melodies? Is this what existentialism sounds like? Fragmented and unfulfilled? The music demands attention to it once you hear it. But maybe that’s just hearing in general. I feel forced to re-live the sounds that remind me of my developing years… 80′s outer space, an X-files jingle, the fax machine, grandma’s old piano, church, “We’re The Kids In America.” When did I get so out of touch I needed a reminder? It’s a bit disturbing. I suppose, Eight and a Half’s album isn’t about getting to nine, but about the commute to nine.

It’s pop-rock avant-garde, it’s in fashion…

© Glyde Barbey, Music Vice

Eight and a Half play the Sound Academy this Friday, 27 April

Internet link: Eight and a Half

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The Gig: Ani DiFranco
Where: Winter Garden Theatre, Toronto, Canada
When: 21 April 2012
In One Word: Powerful

Saturday night marked two key milestones in my musical education. Firstly, and most importantly, I was given an opportunity to experience a live performance by Ani DiFranco and secondly, I got to see her at the Winter Garden Theatre. The Winter Garden theatre is a gem of a venue: theatre-style with assigned seating, an intimate atmosphere and good acoustics. Think of a scaled down Massey Hall with a potpourri theme (Ms. DiFranco’s words not mine); perfect for her scaled down, solo acoustic show.

I consider myself well-versed musically but after seeing Ms. DiFranco’s powerful performance I realised that even having been to Lilith Fair (the first one!) I have until now, missed out on one of the greatest female performers out there. It’s hard not to compare Ani DiFranco’s musical style to Patti Smith, Chrissie Hinde, and even Joni Mitchell with her willingness to voice frank opinions on social and political issues in her songs.  She is a throwback to that era, but oh so needed now as few of her contemporaries do the same. With the recent debates on women’s reproductive rights both in the U.S. and Canada, Ms. DiFranco keeps her ear to the ground, allowing her music to maintain a relevancy even some 20 years after she first started out. Her newest release Which Side Are You On? continues in that tradition with an added feeling of happiness reflected in songs like “Albacore” and “Mariachi”.

For close to two hours, Ani DiFranco thrashed her guitars, sang her politically charged lyrics and inserted a poetic interlude in what was an almost flawless set. She has loyal fans and plays for them; both appreciative of the symbiotic relationship – an audience in tune with the artist’s growth and the artist who listens and delivers the goods.

© Dee Dee Duric, Music Vice

Internet link: Ani DiFranco

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Levon Helm - photo Ahron R. Foster, from LevonHelm.com

Everybody has their favourite member of The Band. Mine was always Levon Helm.

“Levon Helm” always seems like a cheap answer to the question of “Who’s your favourite member”; there’s something about saying that the guy who sang lead on a group’s three undeniably most famous songs is your favourite that reeks of entry-level fandom. It’s like saying your favourite Beatle is John Lennon (the cool answer, as we all know, is George, the aggressively contrarian answer is Paul, and the ironic answer is Ringo). Add this to the fact that he was the only American in a band full of fellow Canadians, and my answer can feel downright unpatriotic. But it’s true, and it always has been. Patriotic guilt be damned.

Unfortunately, Levon Helm died yesterday. He had throat cancer. He was 71 years old.

My friends and I elected to deal with this like adults: We got (pretty) drunk. And watched The Last Waltz.

The Last Waltz is a special kind of movie. For one thing, it’s a collaboration between two entities whose work I hold in a rarified kind of awe: Martin Scorsese and The Band. So for that alone, it’s a personal treasure. But beyond my own feelings – which, in the cosmic scope of things, really don’t matter – The Last Waltz is special because it’s a music movie in the purest sense; you can just put it on in the background like a favourite record while it serves as a really good excuse to just hang out with some people while good music and cool images play on a screen for two hours. It’s like a rock n’ roll hearth; you can sit and just kind of take it in, or it can act as a center of gravity around which a lot of conversation and good feelings will orbit.

For my friends and I yesterday, it was both. There was some discussion about whether Robbie Robertson pulled off that scarf, a few (many) declarations of everlasting love for Rick Danko, and a lot of laughter whenever Richard Manuel says anything. But this was tempered by brief stretches of hushed, reverent silence; at certain points, it’s impossible not to have to just stop and marvel at the sheer power and beauty of what’s onscreen, and it was at these moments that we all kind of remembered why we were sitting down and watching this together in the first place.

More than anything else, watching the movie yesterday reminded me of why and how much I loved Levon Helm as a rock n’ roll figure. Rock n’ roll is ruled by demons; it’s mostly why it will always seem so exciting, especially to guys like me who were raised to be good Catholic boys. As soon as you stumble across rock n’ roll, you realize that your suspicions have been validated: you have been going to the wrong church all these years. Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten: those were my new gods, and they were substantially more fun.

But none of them were honest gentlemen.

Can you imagine Lou Reed opening a door for anybody? Of course not. That’s a big part of why I love those guys; the idea that Johnny Rotten would actually spit in the faces of people who paid money to see him sing still seems to me like such a ridiculous, alien brand of rudeness that I can’t help seeing it as anything but amazing. But you can only find brutality singularly appealing for so long, and it was when I began to search for something more inherently decent to look up to that Levon came into my life.

Levon Helm was a classic Southern gentleman. An Arkansas man. Even though his greatest work was with a Canadian band, this mark of identity always shined off of him like a beacon. He projected a very gruff, grown-up kind of cool; re-watching The Last Waltz always reminds me that he is at least 35% of the reason that the only jacket I own which doesn’t serve a distinct, weather-beating purpose is my denim one. Because you know he’s not wearing it as some kind of ironic fashion statement, or as a stolen sign of a working-class culture he’s not a part of*; he just wears it because that’s exactly the kind of jacket that a guy like Levon Helm would wear, and its that unconscious honesty in aesthetic presentation that I somehow find just as appealing as all of the flash and artifice of someone like, say, David Bowie. He had manners too, which is always interesting to see in a rock n’ roll man: The scene where Scorsese asks the band about groupies, and while Richard Manuel – as this film proves, one of the creepiest, funniest men to ever walk the planet – is more than eager to share, Levon chastises Scorsese for being rude; he eventually laughs it off as a joke, but for a second, he is totally serious. And that gets me every time.

But those are reasons why Levon was important to me, and as I previously stated, what’s important to me is almost certainly uninteresting to you. The reason why we’ll all remember Levon Helm is for his singing. And my god, the way he sang: wholly, totally masculine, but not in any kind of unintelligent, macho way; masculine in that he was unafraid. Unafraid to throw himself with great vigour into the arms of aural salvation; unafraid to feel and project said feeling with no discernible reservations. When you watch Levon Helm sing in The Last Waltz, you get the feeling that you are watching a man not only bear his soul, but rip it out of himself and showing it just to prove there’s no reason why you can’t do it too.

Thank you, Levon. Thank you very much. Please, sit down. Take a load off.

© Justin Santelli, Music Vice

* I just realized that I am literally the worst kind of denim jacket owner, because now that I stop to think about it, I’m sure that my psychological denim-drive is a repulsive combination of both of these motivations.

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Tonight’s concert headlined by Sydney, Australia band The Jezabels was something of a mismatch between the performers and the audience. First off, English singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich was largely ignored by a sold-out Mod Club audience: few people in the room were paying attention, and many had their backs to the stage as they talked among friends. Having a solo acoustic performer as an opener is always going to be a bit off a tough situation – most of the the crowd rightly want to get amped up for the show, rather than listen to some guy in a wooly hat on an acoustic guitar, who mumbles between songs. Fair enough, but for those who listened and gave Leftwich a chance, they would have heard a solid set from this modest young lad.  “Maps” was my  pick of his set; it’s a song with some simple but effective lyrics where about a lost lover, regrowing, and the hope that she will come back one day: “Oh my darling, you should know, Since the last time you saw me, I have grown”.

If humble male singer-songwriters with a bit of a gritty, Coldplay/Chris Martin thing going on are your cup of tea, then give Leftwich a listen.

I frequent the Mod Club regularly and I am always impressed by the job done by the sound crew – it’s a safe bet, as far as Toronto concert venues are concerned. Tonight the sound was perfect, and the lighting was great too, so compliments to the Mod Club sound in-house sound crew on that. Good sound quality is only good if the music is worth hearing: The Jezabels were sensational tonight.

The Jezabels are a four-piece alt rock band from Sydney, Australia with a two girl, two guy line-up – from the moment they took to the stage, there was no doubt who the leader of the band was. Hayley Mary commanded the stage with an immense level of charisma and intensity. Singer Hayley Mary is a total superstar. The real deal, for sure. Her voice is comparable to Blondie’s Debbie Harry while her stage presence, looks and sex-appeal are off the hook. She is always at the edge of the stage, getting down low with the audience and bending backwards as she sings using every inch of her body; all clad in black, with boots, jeans and a leather jacket. Classic. Cool haircut too.

All-time top female vocalists I have seen perform live: Karen O’ (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Hayley Williams (Paramore), Juliette Lewis (+ The Licks) and now, Hayley Mary of the Jezabels.

Hayley Mary has a magnetic stage presence and all eyes were on her, but this is very much a rock group who are together, and unity and fantastic chemistry was evident between the band members in the music. The Jezabels are symbiotic, flowing together and complimenting each other to create swelling, brooding and moving indie pop music. Drummer Nik Kaloper is the pace-setter and frequently does my favourite ‘heartbeat’ boom-boom-boom style of drumming, and can ride and utilise the floor toms and bass without it sounding all George of the Jungle. Guitarist Samuel Lockwood and keyboard player Heather Shannon round out the sound, and the absense of an actual bass player is never noticed. This togetherness and symbiosis is what led to an immense performance – easily one of the best performances I have seen all year.

The studio recordings I have heard from The Jezabels do not do the band justice. It may seem an odd call for me to say this considering that their 2011 debut album Prisoner won the Australian Music Prize, but I have not been really excited by the songs that I have heard by The Jezabels: I enjoy their music and their recordings are fine but seeing them tonight in Toronto was a huge surprise – honestly, they were on another level to what I was expecting; seeing and hearing them live was so much better than on record. I could not be more enthused by what I saw from this band. The strange thing to me was that there were still lots of people near the back of the venue who spent most the show talking or playing around on their fancy mobile phones. That was odd, and a bit of an insult to the band but thankfully the majority of the audience were glued to The Jezabels and not their mobile phone screens.

The future is very bright for The Jezabels.

Some writers talk about the “energy” emitted from the stage by rock bands – if you want energy then see The Jezabels, because Hayley Mary is a bloody power plant!

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Photographs of The Jezabels at The Mod Club, Toronto (click to enlarge from attachments):

Internet links:
Benjamin Francis Leftwich
The Jezabels
Brian Banks

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Music Vice’s Ngawara Madison recently caught up with Liverpool, UK’s The Wombats‘ Dan Haggis (drums, percussion, backing vocals) for a chat about the bands recent tour of American and the UK; their song “Techno Fan” being used by Easyjet Airlines; Dan’s opinion of the various producers The Wombats have worked with; and what makes him feel like a ROCK GOD!

Jump Into The Fog:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpadYhXHgwA

Dan Haggis: “The chorus of ‘Jump into the Fog’ makes me feel like a mini rock god, like some miniature statue you’d find on a shelf in someone’s toilet who you might slip a little prayer out to whilst performing your duties!”

You’re a well travelled band! Its interesting to see the progression of your sound and fanbase because theres a lot to be said about a bands constant evolution, especially when you’re in a  position to be influenced by time in different cultures and countries. Over the years you guys have worked with a stack of well reputed international producers. Which of these would you say shared the closest creative vision to your own?

Dan: I think every producer brings their own brand of magic dust to sprinkle on recordings. Working with Steve Harris was great because he understood straight away what kind of band we were at that time and just gave us the freedom to play our songs practically live in the studio and his job was to capture the sound and energy as best he could. We like being fairly ‘hands on’ in the production of our music so this worked brilliantly. On our second album I think it’s a close call between Rich Costey and Eric Valentine, and I think that both producers have such commitment and enthusiasm towards music and their technical expertise is just mind blowing. They both really listened to us, were open to trying all sorts of crazy ideas, pushed us to the limit of our playing and musical capabilities and in the end we were all really happy with the result, which is obviously the most important thing.

Were there any instances where a producer opened your eyes to a new way of approaching your sound and mix? Who was the most ‘far out’ producer you have worked with?

Dan: I think Eric Valentine’s approach to recording works really well for us. He loves live music and tries to capture a live feel from the musicians, then painstakingly maps out tempo changes in the performance so that we can add programming and layer other performances on top easily. His mixing desk is self built and he has buttons you can press that move the microphone position robotically on a guitar amp for example by a couple of cm!

Your song “Techno Fan’”is currently being used in a pretty big sync – it’s part of European airline, Easyjet’s new social media and television ad campaign. How important do you feel it is these days, for bands to look into alternative revenue streams, aside concert tickets and record sales? You’ve been known, like your recent support act, Static Jacks, to actually give away free downloads to some of your music…

Dan: I guess with dwindling record sales in general it’s important for record companies to keep the money coming in so that they have the money to sign new bands and support current bands and pay for top quality studios and producers etc. Without these extra sources of income I think fewer bands would get signed and worse records would get made. It’s a shame that money has to be involved in something that should remain pure but that’s the way the business world works. That’s why being signed to a record company is good, so we (the artist) don’t need to worry about the finance side, we just worry about the music.

So many bands out there would love to support a band like The Wombats on tour. What factors come into play in  the organisation of your support bands for tours like the big US/UK just completed?

Dan: It depends on the tour. If we have friends who are in bands we like (such as Team Me, Static Jacks) then we always try to get them out with us. It keeps us sane on tour to have friends along for the ride. Obviously the most important thing is that they are going to give the crowd a good show and get them pumped. Sometimes our manager or booking agent have a band they need help with and we are so happy to be in a position to give bands a chance to win new fans.

Do you feel a growing allegiance to the United States due to your time spent over there, or are you still strongly connected to your Northern roots? Which country are you guys signed to presently?

Dan: We are signed to a UK label, 14th Floor and are also signed to Bright Antenna based in San Fran… The US is a very large place and we are well aware that it will take a lot of touring to ‘break it’ as they say but we love touring there and will be back in April. The last tour we did there was in October 2011 and it really felt like we were starting to see more people at shows and more enthusiasm at shows than ever before so the US feels like an exciting place for us right now. Touring and traveling are in our blood now so apart from missing our family and (girl)friends we feel at home on the road. Musical gypsies!

What are each of your favourite tracks from the new album to perform live?

Dan: It varies from show to show but at the moment the opener of our set “Our Perfect Disease” always gets me going. The chorus of  “Jump into the Fog” makes me feel like a mini rock god – like some miniature statue you’d find on a shelf in someone’s toilet who you might slip a little prayer out to whilst performing your duties!!

The Wombats – “Jump Into The Fog”:

Haha, that’s a vision for us! British pop and rock bands are hitting the charts and mainstream media in North America; boy bands like The Wanted are going to number one on the pop charts, One Direction are in the teen magazines, and bands like Coldplay have ruled the roost for a while. What do you think separates the British bands that make it big in the US; and the ones that only seem to work well over here [Kasabian, Robbie Williams]? Is there a cultural difference between the two scenes that pushes out certain English tendencies do you think?

Dan: That’s probably what makes America so interesting for us British bands. as it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re successful in the UK, you have to start over again when you go to the states.

© Ngawara Madison, Music Vice

Exclusive live photo gallery of The Wombats at O2 Brixton Academy, London by Music Vice photographer Lauren Towner:
[click to enlarge each gallery image full-size from attachment page]

Internet links:
The Wombats
Lauren Towner Photography

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THE FLAMING LIPS have been announced as Saturday night headliners for this year’s North By North East (NXNE) music festival in Toronto this June.

Wayne Coyne and his fantastic band of merry-makers will light up Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto on Saturday, 16 June at 22:00 with a free show. This Saturday night headline spot was previously played by Devo in 2011 and Iggy Pop and The Stooges in 2010.

Having The Flaming Lips as the 2012 headliners for NXNE establishes the festival as Toronto’s number one – as if there was any doubt.

However, the one big dilemma now facing music fans in Toronto is how they can possibly be at two unmissable concerts at the same time – with Radiohead playing a massive sold-out concert up at Downsview Park on the same Saturday night, June 16th. Leading bio-molecular scientists in Toronto have been alerted to the problem, with cloning seemingly the only solution to this crux…

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Internet links:
NXNE
Flaming Lips at NXNE Facebook event page

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In 2009, UK electro rock noise-merchants The Big Pink arrived on the scene with a bold and swaggering debut, A Brief History of Love. It was a very solid debut record, which came with a stand-out anthem “Dominos” – a song which united crowds of lads and lasses with lager-fueled bravado at gigs around the world. After seeing them in concert a couple of times, I felt The Big Pink’s live shows fell a little flat in places… they were just lacking a bit of material. I wrote about this in March 2010, after seeing The Big Pink in Toronto for the second time in 4 months – at that point I was eagerly waiting their next album.

Future This is the new LP from Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell. To my ears, it’s proven to be another case of the notoriously difficult second album hoodoo striking with vengeance. The Big Pink came out swinging with their first record but the tone of Future This is much less bold. Things start nicely enough, with the opening track “Stay Gold” being this album’s equivalent of “Dominos” – a feel good anthem, ready made for concert halls… albeit quite not on the same level as “Dominos”. Electronica ballads are still all over the shop, and things sound all nice and polished, with the record produced by Paul Epworth (Adele, Bloc Party, Primal Scream) and mixed by Alan Moulder (U2, NIN, Depeche Mode). “Lose Your Mind” is probably the best example of The Big Pink’s pushing their sound into soft-pop electro shoegaze territory on this album, with this which has a very big Duran Duran vibe about it.

Having a decent producer can only help you so much if the actual songs are that interesting, and is my problem with Future This – it’s just not a very exciting record. A Brief History of Love, was a sock-rocking, loud, laddish and stomping electronic rock record – in comparison Future This is a misstep: a shuffling, meek pebble-kicker of an album which never quite finds its way out of its own electro haze. It’s just not the same bold Big Pink that I first became a fan of. Rather than singing about girls falling like dominos and ’200 naked pure gold girls’ (“Crysal Visions”), The Big Pink have gone a lot softer with their second album. This softer side only really works with the last track, “77″, which, with “Stay Gold”, is the other top song on this album. In “77″ Furze sings with pained regret about a lost lover, and unlike in other places “Rubbernecking”, Furze’s mourning over being fucked up over losing a girl, actually sort of works. But only so far… and it’s not the deepest lyrical content either. When Furze was once singing songs that were the perfect soundtrack for galvanizing yourself with bravado before heading out on a Friday night for drinks and chasing girls, he now seems intent to be showing his hurt, sensitive side… it doesn’t pass. I never wanted to see the sensitive side of The Big Pink. Seriously, can’t one rock and roll band just stay rock and roll?

© Brian Banks, Editor, Music Vice

Internet link:
The Big Pink

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