There comes a time in any rock critic’s life when a band that they used to look upon fondly, who had since broken up, moved around but brought two of the members back in a new light. In my case, this comes to The First Joke. (Ironic, no?)
I grew up in Buffalo, New York. Halfway through my high school years I found my place in the local music scene as a reporter for NeXt inthe Buffalo News. I interviewed a ton of bands (and pretty much all of them have since broken up as well, but I’ll occasionally see people when I go back home, everyone’s doing well) but every single band looked up to the slightly older band, This Day & Age. Everyone was so charmed in their presence. I knew a girl that listened to their album every night before falling asleep. I found myself at many of their shows singing along with more oomph than I usually do at live shows. (Once, they played at Media Play-ha!- and they stopped short. I was still singing. Embarrassing.)
This Day & Age broke up a year into my university life, at the cusp of becoming something really big right after the release of their second album, The Bell and the Hammer. I don’t think I saw their last show (although memory is failing me right now, anyone care to fix this?) but I did make it to a show of theirs at Club Infinity in October 2006. It was bittersweet.
In the past few years, three of the members ended up in a band called the Reign of Kindo. I never really followed them. I was so busy learning new Canadian music. I regret such, but I am redeemed in the formation of The First Joke & Other Matters. Made up of the singer and drummer of TDAA, Jeff Martin and Steven Padin, they bring back what we all loved: the low-key late-night coos. What they didn’t bring from TDAA was the gut-wrenching yet still subtle wails, but you know what? That’s perfect. The First Joke shows how they’ve grown in music and their life paths, and those of us who knew TDAA still have those great memories.
The First Joke will be releasing their first album independently on January 19th. All of me wishes that it was just a few weeks earlier, when I’ll be home for the holidays. To have that kind of reunion would be great, and I’m sad I’ll miss out when it finally does happen in Buffalo. Hopefully Jeff and Steve will take this far or at least really put their love into it. These new songs show a lot of promise, like “Runway,” which will encourage your humming reflex to pick it up immediately and “Page in Book” is an example of the sweet harmonies Jeff & Steven have created for years now. It’s good to hear Steven taking more singing leads, such as in “Winston Was Here.”And in “Perelanra,” they’ve got a lil Latin flair.
Jeff revealed this information about the few of the songs on their blog: “a fun little fact about a couple of the songs.. i wrote the song “page in book” about this guy who realizes a bit too late of the damage he has done to his relationship. steve then showed me the music to what is now called “winston was here” and asked me to write lyrics for it.. (i did).. it then became the hopeful outlook of winston (the character from “page in book”) on the day after his wife leaves him, as he begins his new life.”
But hey, I’ll like just about anything these guys do if you couldn’t tell already. Definitely check The First Joke out, and pray they’ll get bigger and come to Canada one day.
The Reign of Kindo are still in formation, even making a new album, and you and I will do well to check them out too.
October 2009 Conversations: Imogen Heap
By Jessica Lewis
The release of her third solo album, Ellipse, saw solo singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/artist Imogen Heap into massive success. She kept her doting followers informed of every step through Twitter and still the finished product is always surprising and fascinating. In the past, Heap gained popularity through soundtrack appearances, (The O.C., Garden State) which has let her push her own boundaries. Ellipse does just that ― it definitely has a more mature feeling than her past two records, but she has honed and held onto the sound that is so dearly loved. Heap had a few minutes to talk about the album while she was in Toronto doing promotion in August.
How often would you change different little pieces of songs? It was awesome how you tweeted all the time about the changes ― but what made you want to be so open?
I think a real need for a kind of connectivity with people. I think the greatest parts of life are when you’re connected, whether it’s with your family or your friends or your lover. With the planet too! I guess it’s really the connection that I love because in the past, well right in the beginning, it was always the musician and the audience and it was a local thing, they would play in the streets and people would get involved, and as recorded music happened, a kind of barrier happened where then you had this gap between your audience and the writer, and then over the years record companies massively got in the way, so then you’ve got this huge blockade between you and the people who like your music. So, thankfully now, that barrier has completely disappeared, and I think it’s something that I certainly crave, just wanting to understand people and wanting them to understand me. That’s just a natural human need, that’s why I do it.
Do you think the way you go at this is the future? Do you think all bands should get into working like that?
I don’t think it’s a case of should, for the sake of marketing and everything, maybe, but for me, it’s not a case of somebody going, “if you do this, you will sell records,” it’s just I felt like I wanted to do it and I had to do it and I needed to do it. I also wanted to involve people in the process of making a record because I don’t think anyone has ever documented the process so finely, from right at the beginning, writing little gems of the ideas. I’ve actually been filming the whole process, my friend Justina’s got to now piece together 350 hours of footage into one. She’s got her work cut out for her. It was actually a fan that wrote in and said “I would love to see how you work a song, can you film it while you’re in Maui?” And so when I got back, my friend said “oh, let me continue it so we can document it!” And then it took eight months to build the studio. And then the tweeting was just to kind of fill in the gaps for me, because I always felt strange with YouTube only could have ten minutes to describe everything that I had done. There were people who wanted more.
So how often would you say you changed little pieces in songs?
All the time, constantly changing it, because until it’s finished, you’re changing it. That’s what you do. Start up with something and then change it and then add on to it or other bits or make another part do that part, so you’re constantly changing it.
Is there anything new you’re putting in your live show?
At the moment, I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to do it, but I bought this new piece of gear, which is really cute, it’s called a monome, it’s a control service, it doesn’t actually have any sounds, but you can tell it to tell things around your kind of workstation, gear, what to do. Basically, it just looks cool. It takes a while to program everything to know what you want to be doing, but you can have a section on it where you go okay I want this to be my looping section, so you can loop your vocals live and this would tell the computer to start recording at a point, and then over here you have your keyboard area, you can have drum samples if you want, over here you can have faders or whatever you like. I’ll be using that.
Will you still have the clear piano?
Yes.
So, you slapped your bottom in a “Bad Body Double,” what other kinds of sounds that you used were your favourite on this record?
One of my favourites was actually kind of one of the only times I recorded something outside of the studio. I wrote this song called “Half Life,” it’s the token piano song, I allow myself to have one at least because I think it’s a bit of a cop out to do stuff more piano because you can do so many other things. So, I did the piano song and the song is really in broad strokes trying to be closer to somebody who is constantly surrounded by people or just business, generally business, you’re surrounded by somebody, you can’t be with them, so you’re living this kind of half life, and I wanted to get a sense of distance and kind of unavailability. I wanted to get the sound of people chatting, kind of milling around, like when you go to a party and everyone’s laughing and cheers-ing, so I went to a few art gallery-type places, because I thought that was the sort of thing that might work. Everywhere I went, there was always music in the background, so I couldn’t record it. So the one time that actually was perfect was at the twitter Twestival, twitter festival, of people who just got together and they happen all over the world. I went to the one in London and I went there with my binormal microphones, which look like headphones. I was walking around with my recorder, and for people who didn’t know, thought I was just walking around with headphones, but I was actually recording them. So hopefully, nobody’s going to want any royalties or anything.
You wrote the lyrics all over the world.
Yes, about half of the ones that I wrote on my trip ended up on the record. Half of the songs, six songs I wrote on the writing trip, six I wrote when I got back to the house. And then one of them was kind of between the two places. One was improvised, “The Fire.” It’s an improvised piece to try and balance the kind of nerdy detail and biggishness that’s on the rest of the record. I wanted to have something completely free from form and just like a train of thought. So I recorded the piano in Maui, which is where I began the record, so I kind of created this ellipse by just travelling around the world. And then “The Fire” I recorded in my garden at my family home where I burnt this piece of wood that used to go between the grate and the kitchen and the garden, and I couldn’t just throw it away because it had been there for 30 years. So I got all the family around to just be quiet and listen to the sound of it crackling. I managed to get the writing and travelling side of things and also my family and the house.
Now for the rest of the songs, what was it about humanity that struck you so much?
I guess with this record I really wanted to explore a bit less about one-on-one, about me, me, more me and me, me with somebody else, me not with somebody else, and me wanting to be with somebody else. When I was on my writing trip, I started to read a lot more and have a chance to read and talk with people. You start to formulate things in your mind that matter, but you haven’t because you’re so consumed by yourself and only talking about you, that there’s not enough time to reflect about us and what we’re doing here and what a mess we’re making of it. Just my relationship with the rest of the world, with people, and how people react to people, and so I guess I just went a bit further with it.
What are you going to tweet about now that the record’s finished?
I’ve mostly been tweeting about the promo runs, what I’ve been up to. I went for an amazing test drive yesterday of the Tesla, so I tweeted about that.
Are you going to get it?
I can’t quite afford it, but maybe one day. It’s quite expensive. It’s a really fantastic car. I’ve read about it for a year and a half or two years and there’s no reason why we don’t have electric cars already, that’s just the monopoly. So this is the future. They’re the only car company that’s made an electric car that’s desirable and sexy.
You could be their promo girl.
I’d love to yeah! If they could give me a complimentary vehicle… to wave a flag or something!
Mainly the record is you doing everything, right?
I did have a few guests. I had a guy called Nitin Sawhney, who is a musician and artist in his own right and writes many albums and actually I was on his record last year. He played the acoustic guitar on “Canvas.” My ex-boyfriend played drums on a couple songs. I was playing drums on the other songs but I was using his kit, so I thought I should get him on. He’s really great. I got this fantastic trumpeter in again who is from Norway, called Arve Henrikson, I had him on the last record as well, and he’s just so amazing. So he’s on “2-1″ and “Half Life.” And, I’ve got a really beautiful Indian singer, who’s actually a flautist, but he just has the most beautiful voice. Him and the cellist, Ian, both made me cry when I heard them play. I just thought I love the idea of getting people who made me emotional on the record. They were incredible when they came into the studio.
Would there ever be somebody that would want to offer help, but you would just want to do it your own way?
There were a couple people that were like, “you know if it gets to be too much, let me know and I can help mix it.” I think the way I work… it doesn’t work like that anymore. You go in, you’ve written a song or maybe you haven’t written a song. You do everything in tandem so you sing the vocals and while you’re doing that you build music around it. Everything you build, it’s not like you have a band and you go in and do drums and bass guitar, vocals, and then you mix it to make it sound good together. It’s because you’re kind of crafting it to go along, you’re building and building, so you don’t put something on it unless it fits with everything else, so you’re doing it as you go. So there are hundreds of tracks of stuff that you’re working as you go, so it’s not like “now we mix it.” I knew that I’d finish it, but it’s just how much work. The biggest problem with this record was time management and not counting for the unexpected bits that always happened like “oh, can you come and sing a song on this record” or “can you produce a song for Mika” and you don’t plan for those, so when you say “I’m going to be finished in six months” you don’t plan ahead for the three months of extra stuff that comes your way. That was great, but a strain.
You’re famous for reproducing your vocals. If you had clones, what else would you make them do besides sing? You’d have a lot more time.
Yeah, what would I get them to do? I might get them to build my stage live on the show. I’ve got this plan for my next shows, I don’t know if I’m going to do it, but I’ve got this plan. It’s to not have anything on stage at all and to come on and slowly rebuild the stage myself while I’m doing it. So I’m kind of building, having things hidden on the stage, underneath it where there’s slip-like shapes and things and throw them up into the air and then light falls on them. There’s nothing … I like the idea of no waste. There’s no need to have hundreds of watts of lights pouring down on me when I’m only here. I don’t need all of those. I’d love to work on a stage show where light is built and sculpted around me or I’m projecting it myself or it’s on me, like I’m being projected onto with a big dress or something. Trying to be more igniting with the stage and get creative inside that.
This review was originally written for Exclaim.ca, but unfortunately was not able to be published. But please do check this Toronto band out! They’ve recently went on a very short hiatus, but hopefully they’ll have new shows lined up soon around the area and an actual EP eventually released.
The Runaway Catholics introduce themselves with sunny soft folk-rock. As they delightfully combine slower and faster tracks between five songs, it’s easy to see that each stands out for their own merits. “Ghosts in Memories” illuminates the sweet melodic vocal partnership of Shawna Sormin and Brodie Dakin to a pop-based tune that would definitely wake you up in the morning. “Melody of June” and “France” flow beautifully into one another with simple, nostalgic beats and chord progressions, quietly highlighted by the piano or xylophone, respectively. “Crazy Sorrows” has the collective at its strongest, while both impressive electric and acoustic guitars work together in a way that should take them back to Woodstock or at least blasting the speakers out at a backyard party. The live recording of “Charmed Life” has them in a dream-like jam session state, with just enough to leave the listener hanging, wishing there was more, or at least that they were at the show clapping along.
Interestingly enough, Lars is in town and will be playing a show with Ghost Trees in my backyard this Saturday!! Our backyard is tiny and intimate and the combination of these two talents will make this amazing. I’ll be bringing you exclusive content after, but why not come? Let me know if you would like to see the show – email me!
Anywas, back to Ghost Trees. She makes incredibly psychedelic yet soothing tunes and tones to fill up jars upon jars of colourful spirits. Her voice is calm and beautiful in a way of a female voice you don’t often hear in 10 other singers. Her songs are slow but upbeat; they are like light clouds rolling in, just when the sun is setting and you see all of the rays from the sun peaking through in every direction. “Books in Your Hands” is a perfect example of this.
The electric guitar sounds like she’s just playing around sitting on her bed, tapping her feet and shaking her hair. No hairbrushes or any type of fake microphones in sight, because this girl is serious business. Her music isn’t just the regular bedroom work some might stumble upon.
“Sound of the Old City” is a tale of the uniqueness of Karlstad, Sweden, and I think she captured the town quite nicely. The people always seem to be reflecting or just moving, moving, moving.
The two previous songs mentioned are on her MySpace for listen as well as two more – please check it out! Jamie’s got an EP called Feathers coming out soon – I don’t know the details yet but if you’d like a copy, leave a comment!
And again, let me know if you want to come to the show! But if you miss it, you will have another chance to catch them at The Only Cafe sometime next weekend, details to come.
There is a new side project super group in the midst, coming from the ever-evolving Montreal music scene.
Out of Arcade Fire, Young Galaxy, Stars, Zeroes, Parkside Jones, Marathon and more comes this pop rock band called Silver Starling.
Their self-titled debut, which was mixed by Peter Katis (who has worked with The National and Interpol) and Marcus Paquin will be released in the fall by Last Gang Records.
Four tracks are available on their MySpace. “Something Over Nothing” is a slow, dreamy sad ballad. “Caught in Your Glow” is another ballad, but much more upbeat, with a great string arrangement, building the song up in tempo. “Ghosts” is clearly the stand out track in terms of catchy, with cute banjo plucking and xylophones with frontman Pacquin’s whisper. “Closer” is also quite catchy and has a great bass line.
I don’t want to spend much time comparing them to Arcade Fire, but it’s undeniable Pacquin has a tiny bit of Butler’s vocals in him. However, he takes it in a more casual and fun direction. Other than that, Silver Starling are progressive and charming, and I’m excited to hear more from them in the future.
If you go to their MySpace, you can catch an acoustic video performance of “Ghosts” which really showcases their harmonies, coordination and ability to sing in the wind.
The band has tour dates lined up in Oro-Medonte, Montreal and Ottawa at the moment for Aug 30 – Sept 24.
Bent By Elephants
Bent by Elephants By Jessica Lewis
For their first EP, of just six songs, a pat on the back is in order for Bent by Elephants, a folk six-piece from Montreal. Each song is as beautifully laid out as the one next to it, so the whole proves equally strong. The songs detail real stories, and it’s the down-to-earth, willing-to-explain-almost-anything qualities that lie in both the music and the lyrics that warrant attention. Currently featuring Chesley Walsh (vocals), Luke Fowlie (guitar), Ryan Frizell (trumpet), Alex Whyte (guitar, trombone, vocals), Paul VanDyk (upright bass) and newest member Charlotte Cornfield (drums), this band are, for the most part, comprised of classically trained musicians. They brought together learned and honed talents that created sweeping, warm, explorative tunes of lost encounters, close ties and a love for Canada. There is nothing on this EP that doesn’t fit with something else, and there is a good amount of variation in solo efforts on it to boot. Walsh’s vocals are uplifting, while each instrument finds elements of shy or brash to work with. It’s almost cautionary that this is their first try.
I feel like a lot of the songs are based on certain people. Are they real?
Walsh: Yeah, most of them are. “Victor” is about this guy named Victor who I met when I was going on a road trip down the West Coast two summers ago. I’m from Los Angeles, originally. I was travelling along visiting friends and family that were kind of dispersed along the West Coast, kind of hitch-hiking and taking busses and ride shares and stuff down the way and I met this guy Victor. Somehow both of us got stranded in Sacramento together because our rides ditched us. He had this very specific kind of spiritual live-by-the-seat-of-your-pants attitude that I dug a lot. I have no idea how to get in touch with him.
What about the other songs?
Fowlie: [For "Saskatchewan Pool"] I was at a cottage with family. I’ve been going there forever. Once there was a tornado when I was there by myself and I thought it was a very romantic songwriting story. When all the lights went out, I was sitting there by candlelight writing.
Walsh: I felt that when I listened to it, and he told me about it. I wrote the lyrics about a similar experience I had had in the mountains in California and basically, I had an amazing time with this one person and then it passed and I haven’t seen them in forever. Actually, come to think of it, most of the songs I feel like are about people that I knew for brief periods of time and then haven’t been in contact with. I think that would be the idea for that song; we weren’t really thinking about the outcome of it. It’s kind of about time passing and observing a moment or the space around you in particular.
The EP also sounds like it would do really well on a movie soundtrack to me.
Walsh: Yeah, man! I’ve always said that about the way Luke writes songs, I always said that Luke should go into film, and I think we’re both interested in that in our own way.
What kind of film would you like to be on?
Fowlie: I’ve seen some really good documentaries. There’s this one about [artist] Andy Goldsworthy that a guitarist played all the songs for. I really like that kind of thing. It’s appropriate. (Independent)
Fueling my latest obsession with all bands East Coast, here comes another one out into the light that’s in Canadian eyes (as well as rolling off the their tongues as a great band name) — Milks and Rectangles.
A four-piece from Charlottetown, PEI (the humble home of Two Hours Traffic and tour partners The Danks), these guys are about to release their first EP on August 11, called Civic Virtues.
Milks and Rectangles (Justin Uyterlinde, Mike Carver, Christian Ledwell and Brandon Williams) are built up from passions for history, jokes, landscape and indie rock. They’re poetic and wistful, calm and organized. They’re catchy and relaxing at the same time. Comparisons off the top of my head include Beck’s guitar work on a track or two, Franz Ferdinand’s back and forth tempo (especially in “Heart’s the Target”) and a little of the soft charm similar to that of Malajube.
You can read a great interview with the band over on NxEW.
Suggested tracks: “Motel Fire Drill” and “Tilting at Windmills.” They can be found, along with a few other songs, on the band’s MySpace.
When I moved to Toronto three years ago, I started to hear a lot about a band named Broken Social Scene. I saw their name on t-shirts and magazines everywhere around the city. It wasn’t until a while later that I was finally introduced to their magic.
And that’s when I was inducted into the greatness of Canadian indie music. I was hooked. I couldn’t get enough.
Here I am today, a little bit older and a little bit wiser. Just like the folks that make up Broken Social Scene. I know and love their side projects and of course the incredible music that happens when they all come back together. They’ve been idle for a while but this summer things have picked back up what with Stuart Berman’s This Book is Broken, the Arts & Crafts showcase at NXNE, the Polaris Prize shortlist announcement this week for Metric, and of course, they’re recording a new album.
The band pulled out all the stops for last night’s show on the Sirius Stage at the Harbourfront Centre. First, they announced that there would be a film crew recording the night’s events for an upcoming movie (“that’s going ALL OVER THE WORLD!”) called This Movie is Broken. I’m glad the band is finally getting this attention, and hopefully their true fans don’t stop loving them if they get a little bit closer to mainstream.
Who understands Broken Social Scene’s music better than Torontonians? So much of their being is this city and what’s in it. Even at the ‘end’ of the show, Kevin Drew was yelling things like ‘we eat here’ ‘we live here’ you get the deal. Anyways… I bet everyone somewhat understands their music, but I believe that Torontonians or anyone who’s ever lived here gets it 10x better.
When I close my eyes during a BSS song, I see so much beautiful imagery. I see a sunrise letting its light bounce between high-rises, I see the harbourfront, I see cops and robbers speeding through the streets, I see a cute couple in a park. This makes me love BSS even more.
This show was the first time I ever got to see BSS. There’s been times between when I moved here and now that I could have gone, but something always came up. I’m glad this was my first time.
The band brought out everyone to please the crowd and the film crew- including Feist, Amy Milan and Evan Cranley from Stars, Emily Haines and James Shaw from Metric, Jason Collett, Apostle of Hustle (and BSS founder) Andrew Whiteman, Happiness Project’sCharles Spearin and Julie Penner, the usual Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, Sam Goldberg, Lisa Lobsinger and more. There was a total of 18 people on stage at one point.
Highlights included hits like “7/4 Shoreline,” “Almost Crime,” “Anthem of a 17 Year Old Girl,” “KC Accidental,” and more. A lot of the people who have their own projects got to play their own songs as well. Metric had “Gimmie Sympathy,” Apostle of Hustle played “Soul Unwind,” Feist and Kevin Drew had a mash-up duet, Amy Milan played a new song (i believe, prove me right/wrong), and Jason Collett played “I’ll Bring the Sun” that clearly had the band the most excited.
It was a magical two hours. Atmospheric, swirling, colourful and inspirational.
Were you there? Share your thoughts in the comments!
In liu of a new series of Polaris blog entries I’ll be doing (slightly in order to avoid discussing my opinion until I’m good and ready), here’s today’s entry, all about Metric, one of the most talked-about nominees so far.
CBC Radio 3reported yesterday that the Metric gang was on their way back from the Glastonbury Festival when they stopped at Stonehenge. They realized it was closed and forlornly looked through the fence until they recognized ‘rock icons’ Spinal Tap.
“We were all settling in for an uneventful ride when our driver suddenly exploded with excitement. Gesturing madly to the left of the highway and veering dangerously off the main road he shouted “STOOOOONEHEEEEEEENGE”, swerved and made a sharp turn onto a bumpy dirt road full of craters. Showering the camped out hippies in dust, he tore down the road toward that famously perplexing collection of rocks. We screeched to a halt at the entrance and piled out like a bunch of fucked up clowns only to discover that Stonehenge was….CLOSED! We were staring at the stones through the fence and halfheartedly watching various generic families wander toward their cars when Joules said the words we will remember forever: ”Um, guys, that’s…Spinal Tap!”"
And there you have it. Metric has made it clear they all have way more fun than the rest of us do.
BUT I did get to see Stonehenge in January after I moved to London for a few months. So… ha!
Now, I didn’t see any rock stars that I know of, but I did see this guy! He obviously didn’t think I was a rock star either…
There’s a little back story to this. One of my roommates has been on exchange over in Sweden. She went to a show one day and saw this guy. Thought he was good. Forgot about it for a while, until she went to a festival and he was there. They bonded. She tells me this. She sends me his MySpace profile.
I can see why she is fond of him. His blog is really sweet, where he mentions that fans at his show in Vanersborg could speak with Canadians. Also, I’m not sure if it was auto-translated or he did it himself, but I like that he “baptizes” songs.
Lofgren sings in English and plays in that usual modern hippy-poppy way. The most obvious comparison I can think of at the moment is Sam Roberts. We’re fans of Sam and now we’re fans of Lars. Lofgren’s songs are hopeful and dreamy, but it has that underlying sense of reality to it. That little voice saying “oh, I wish for this good time/ I’m nostalgic for that time, but… let’s be true.” His blog does the trick: “Soul is something that you feel from within, and you do it spontaneously. It’s not something that you learn to do, and it’s not something that you read and you do it. You have to have a natural feeling for it.”
Karlstad, Sweden in March
It’s good to see music like this coming out of a place like Karlstad. I visited in March – it’s a tiny town where nobody works but nobody does much else. They ride their bikes around and wait for the sunny weather. I assume that right now it must be beautiful there.
Listen to “Opportunity Knocks,” “Candy Rome,” and “Round Your Heart” all found on his MySpace.
Like Lars Ludvig Lofgren? Know of any other good Svedes? Let me know!
For any RoundLetters updates that came before May 09, go here.
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There comes a time in any rock critic’s life when a band that they used to look upon fondly, who had since broken up, moved around but brought two of the members back in a new light. In my case, this comes to The First Joke. (Ironic, no?)
(P.S. Is that the Buffalo News in the picture?!)
