BeatRoute Magazine - BC print e-edition – [March 2017]
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics.
The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.
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FREE MARCH <strong>2017</strong><br />
OK, HI,<br />
WE’RE BACK.<br />
pg. 9<br />
+ JAPANDROIDS, DIRTY PROJECTORS, LOGAN, ABORIGINAL SPEAKER SERIES & MORE
<strong>March</strong> ‘17<br />
CHOOSE<br />
LOVE<br />
WALKINPEACE<br />
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Andrew Volk<br />
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Chronixx - page 17<br />
photo: ???<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 3
MUSIC<br />
JAPandroids<br />
the boys are back in town<br />
photo by Leigh Righton<br />
JOSHUA ERICKSON<br />
DAVID CUTTING<br />
This rainy city entices many rad people, and Hayleau<br />
is no exception. This beautiful ingenue released<br />
her self-titled debut EP last fall and its<br />
sneaky hooks are taking the world by storm and<br />
we are all better for it. She has also been cast in<br />
the Netflix original adaptation of the Archie and<br />
friends universe, Riverdale, as the Josie and the<br />
Pussycats bassist Valerie. We sat down to talk to<br />
Hayleau to get a feel for what she is up to and her<br />
thoughts on the all so sudden public recognition.<br />
BR: What is it like to play an iconic role like one<br />
of the pussycats in this brilliant new take on the<br />
comics?<br />
H: It’s crazy and amazing to be able to play Valerie!<br />
She's always been my favourite character in the<br />
comics because I felt like she was the most like me.<br />
BR: How do you handle your fans now that Riverdale<br />
is on the air?<br />
H: I try to respond and interact with everyone that<br />
supports the show. It's been so great to see how<br />
with HAYLEAU<br />
many people are excited about the storyline and<br />
characters! I've gotten some messages about people<br />
going through hard times and learning through<br />
Riverdale. It's humbling to have the support that<br />
I've been getting and I feel very grateful.<br />
BR: How does your family feel about this amazing<br />
Riverdale opportunity?<br />
H: My family is stoked! It's great. My mom collected<br />
Archie comics when she was young so we have<br />
a bunch of older comics. My dad will always be<br />
my number 1 fan. Recording the episodes, telling<br />
people about the show and my character. I tear up<br />
about it sometimes haha it really makes a difference<br />
having a good support system. We were all<br />
surprised that it happened so fast, but the excitement<br />
never ends.<br />
BR: What is it about music/acting that you love?<br />
H: I'm a creative and being able to express myself<br />
through music was my first love. Going through a<br />
break up or being pissed off at someone or situations<br />
is hard to express and to get over. Writing<br />
music is the best way to get it out of my system, to<br />
vent, and to tell my side of the story. I love acting<br />
because it allows me to play a character that has<br />
traits that I don't have and really get to run with it. I<br />
feel like Valerie in Riverdale is much like me but has<br />
the balls to be a little more forward and aggressive<br />
when she needs to be. It's fun to do scenes like that<br />
because I feel like I learn about myself through the<br />
character. Being Valerie is me getting to go back to<br />
high school and do it over how I actually wish my<br />
high school career went.<br />
BR: Where did you study music?<br />
H: My living room. haha constantly studying always<br />
learning!<br />
BR: What do you want to be known for as a Vancouverite<br />
who is getting her start in acting?<br />
H: I want people to know it doesn't matter where<br />
you're from, that opportunity comes and you need<br />
to be ready to knock it out of the park. I was working<br />
at a breakfast restaurant when I auditioned for<br />
Riverdale and I still mentally am that person. Just<br />
excited and ready to work for this opportunity!<br />
BR: What should people know about you that<br />
they don’t already or that they get wrong about<br />
you?<br />
H: I don’t know if this is something people don’t<br />
know or want to know, but I'm really proud to be<br />
from this city. I feel like Vancouver gets a little bit<br />
forgotten about in regards to entertainment and<br />
its our time go show what the F we got. I want to<br />
support and lift-up other creatives and really do<br />
some amazing shit here.<br />
BR: If you could have any superpower, what<br />
would it be?<br />
The story of Japandroids is one of victory<br />
and frustration, vitality and desperation,<br />
emotional depth and youthful<br />
lust. Their songs are life-affirming<br />
anthems that beg to be the soundtrack<br />
to the best night of your life. They ask<br />
you to live in the moment, while you<br />
reminisce about the best parts of your<br />
past, and give a hopeful gleam into the<br />
future. The duo of Brian King (vox/ guitars)<br />
and David Prowse (drums/vox)<br />
embody all of these things as Japandroids,<br />
but this almost never came to<br />
be.<br />
Japandroids formed in 2006, quickly<br />
making a name for themselves in the<br />
Vancouver music scene. They took a<br />
DIY approach to nearly every aspect of<br />
the band, even renting out their own<br />
spaces and PA equipment to put on<br />
their own shows. While recording their<br />
debut album in the summer of 2008,<br />
they had grown frustrated and felt<br />
the band was going nowhere, so they<br />
decided to quietly break up after they<br />
released the record. On April 8, 2009<br />
their debut album Post-Nothing was<br />
released. Later that month Pitchfork<br />
gave Post-Nothing a “Best New Music”<br />
designation, and show offers from all<br />
over the world started flowing in. In<br />
2012 the band released the critically<br />
acclaimed Celebration Rock and with it<br />
came a new level of success.<br />
It’s been five years since Celebration<br />
Rock, and Japandroids are back with<br />
their new record, Near to the Wild<br />
Heart of Life. Last October, Japandroids<br />
did a small warm up tour to get ready<br />
for the release of the record, which<br />
they kicked off with four shows at the<br />
Cobalt in Vancouver, all of which sold<br />
out. <strong>BeatRoute</strong> caught up with the<br />
band after the second night of this<br />
four-show stretch.<br />
Meeting up with King and Prowse<br />
at the Café Brixton, within seconds of<br />
For Brian King and David Prowse, growing up is part of the job.<br />
sitting down it is apparent they are excited<br />
to be playing shows again. These<br />
Vancouver shows were the first shows<br />
after a three-year live hiatus. After the<br />
final show of the Celebration Rock tour,<br />
Prowse remained in Vancouver while<br />
King split his time between Toronto,<br />
where he had recently moved, and<br />
Mexico City, where his girlfriend lived.<br />
“We recorded Post-Nothing then<br />
toured for a year and half on that record.<br />
And as soon as we got home<br />
we began work on Celebration Rock.<br />
So from the time of Post-Nothing it<br />
was…” King pauses to think about it,<br />
“Five years. Those five years it was all<br />
Japandroids, all the time.”<br />
In those five years between 2008-<br />
2013 the band played over 500 shows,<br />
toured through 44 countries and released<br />
two critically acclaimed albums.<br />
It was time for a short break.<br />
“We were dedicating some time to<br />
fixing our personal lives, for once. Being<br />
like, ‘I need some time to get my<br />
shit together,’” says King. “When you’re<br />
travelling and working that much, your<br />
personal life is going to get destroyed.<br />
So we needed a bit of time to figure<br />
things out.”<br />
The band apparently didn’t need<br />
that much time though. After a short<br />
six month break, they decided to start<br />
writing again. King says that while writing<br />
Celebration Rock, things were going<br />
slow so they decided to shake things up<br />
by moving to Nashville. The experience<br />
worked out incredibly well for them, so<br />
they decided to try it again for the new<br />
record.<br />
After spending six weeks in New<br />
Orleans, the guys went back to their<br />
respective homes, getting back together<br />
every month or so, playing musical<br />
chairs with cities, bouncing between<br />
Vancouver, Toronto and Mexico City.<br />
King said the experience was very positive<br />
and inspiring for the band, but<br />
it wasn’t very time efficient. He notes<br />
that five years is a long absence, but it<br />
didn’t bother him at all.<br />
“I think [time] is less important to us.<br />
The goal when we write songs and record<br />
them is to do something we think<br />
is better than what we did before. So as<br />
we were writing, after awhile it just became<br />
‘it takes however long it takes,’”<br />
says King with a shrug.<br />
Long time fans of the band will<br />
find all the familiar Japandroids hallmarks<br />
on Near to The Wild Heart of<br />
Life. Anthemic fist-pumping choruses,<br />
woooahhhhh’s & ahhhhhh’s singalongs,<br />
youthful vitality, nostalgia and<br />
catchy, memorable riffs. There is just<br />
more of it this time. On the record you<br />
will hear synthesizers, acoustic guitars<br />
and experimentation with production<br />
techniques. These were all the results of<br />
experiments in the studio and the two<br />
could not be happier with how it went.<br />
“This is the first time we’ve done recording<br />
not trying to emulate the live<br />
band set up. Once we opened that<br />
door, the possibilities were endless.<br />
We just decided to go with whatever<br />
sounded best and figure out the live<br />
thing later,” says Prowse.<br />
Previously, the band had a strict<br />
rule when they approached the studio<br />
- only guitars, drums and vocals with<br />
minimal overdubs. They wanted to<br />
achieve a “raw, live” sound with those<br />
records, according to King.<br />
“Our early EPs were an attempt at<br />
that and it was refined on Post-Nothing<br />
and it was refined to the point where<br />
we perfected it, the sound for our<br />
band, on Celebration Rock. We did it!”<br />
says King with an emphatic pause. “This<br />
time we decided to try a new thing…<br />
to me this is like 2.0 or something like<br />
that. The start of something new.”<br />
One of Japandroids’ early breakout<br />
songs was “The Boys are Leaving<br />
photo: ???<br />
Town,” and King says the song was<br />
“about something that [we] wanted to<br />
happen. And after Post-Nothing, it did<br />
happen.” Now, Japandroids are making<br />
their triumphant return to their hometown.<br />
The band has played countless<br />
shows in Vancouver, but this particular<br />
homecoming brings something new,<br />
the duo’s first show at the prestigious<br />
Commodore Ballroom.<br />
“It seems ridiculous to be playing the<br />
Commodore,” says Prowse, still sounding<br />
in disbelief. King chimes in after<br />
him, “yeah, when you’re growing up<br />
here, the Commodore, that’s where the<br />
“big” bands play. And when you’re a local<br />
band here, to play the Commodore,<br />
that’s the dream. To play the Commodore<br />
is like playing Madison Square<br />
Garden when you’re a local band here.”<br />
Japandroids perform at the Commodore<br />
Ballroom on <strong>March</strong> 25<br />
H: INVISIBILITY. I just watched The Incredibles<br />
(one of my fav Disney movies) and Violet’s powers<br />
in the movie are so sick. It would be nice to be able<br />
to sneak into a room or walk around naked and no<br />
one know.<br />
BR: What is next for Hayleau?<br />
H: Who knows. I have so many ideas and goals that<br />
I’m putting in motion for the year. Definitely new<br />
music within the next few weeks. I just started<br />
shooting a show that will be on Netflix next year<br />
that I'm super excited about.<br />
Vancouver singer and actress, Hayleau, is getting a chance to go to everyone’s favorite high school.<br />
The Hayleau EP is out now and Riverdale is<br />
streaming on Netflix<br />
4 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> MUSIC<br />
5
FUCKED UP<br />
anger management with a atouch of pan flute<br />
photo by Dustin Rabin<br />
GRAEME WIGGINS<br />
Anger has long been a driving force in<br />
punk rock music, but in order to carve<br />
out a 15 year career like Toronto’s<br />
Fucked Up have, you’re going to need<br />
more than just anger to bring to the table.<br />
With their upcoming release of Year<br />
Of the Snake (the eighth release in the<br />
Zodiac series) and touring in celebration<br />
of their first album Hidden Worlds,<br />
Fucked Up have always managed to mix<br />
forward thinking music and anger in<br />
equal measure.<br />
“We've always been a project interested<br />
in trying to do different things.<br />
We will always be a hard punk band, but<br />
we all like different types of music and<br />
ideas,” says lead guitarist Mike Haliechuk.<br />
“The last record we did has a pan<br />
flute on it so like, maybe we're almost<br />
at the end of what we can experiment<br />
with.”<br />
That said, their new release still endeavors<br />
to take their sound to uncharted<br />
territories. He continues, “It’s more<br />
on the experimental side for those 12"<br />
(releases). It starts out hard, then gets<br />
really trippy. It’s about psychedelics and<br />
rebirth, real hippy shit.” This trend for<br />
pushing their sound will likely continue.<br />
“The next one is “[Year of the] Horse”,<br />
which we have a demo for, it’s gonna<br />
be an album length song in a bunch of<br />
different movements, like a symphony<br />
or something. Right now it’s like 50 minutes.<br />
It’s very epic.”<br />
Despite trying new things, Fucked Up<br />
aren’t against celebrating their past. As<br />
drummer Jonah Falco describes, “Right<br />
now we're in the middle of celebrating<br />
the 10 year anniversary of Hidden World<br />
so we're touring that record in full. It's<br />
something we never would have done<br />
as a project ten years ago, although we<br />
did do it once around the time of its release.”<br />
With all the years spent playing as<br />
a band, refining the evolution of their<br />
sound, the live show remains pretty<br />
much in the same space as when they<br />
began. As Falco puts it, “The Fucked<br />
Up live show was kind of fully formed<br />
really early on in the band —vocalist<br />
connecting with the audience, and the<br />
band trying to create the most interesting<br />
context for that to happen in. We've<br />
just gotten more proficient at playing,<br />
and maybe better at tuning.”<br />
There’s been a lot of talk in music circles<br />
about how the current political climate<br />
is ripe for a punk resurgence. That<br />
Fucked Up keep looking to the stars and so their Zodiac series continues with Year of the Snake.<br />
political anger will somehow translate<br />
into a newfound relevance for the anger<br />
that punk and hardcore has brought to<br />
the table. Falco sees this as missing the<br />
point.<br />
“Attributing political energy and new<br />
found dedication to punk music at the<br />
hands of a lot of potential misery seems<br />
opportunistic and also nearsighted.<br />
Punk never disappeared and neither did<br />
those people that chose to steer independent<br />
music communities toward<br />
ground level involvement in real political<br />
issues.”<br />
Fifteen years in, that punk rock anger<br />
can be hard to keep up. Families and<br />
other pressures can alter or change that<br />
anger. For some punk bands, getting old<br />
means giving in. For Fucked Up though,<br />
because they definitely have more to offer,<br />
aren’t close to quitting yet.<br />
“Maybe anger isn't or wasn't always<br />
the motivation that made us work. It<br />
definitely greased the gears, but I think<br />
Fucked Up has always been about<br />
exploration and working within the<br />
framework we know best to push that,”<br />
Falco says. “In that sense, we're not that<br />
tired at all.”<br />
Fucked Up perform <strong>March</strong> 19 at<br />
the Cobalt.<br />
ELVIS DEPRESSEDLY<br />
a life in poptimism<br />
Elvis Depressedly takes a sober stab at the Top 40 ladder<br />
STEVE MANN<br />
It's tempting to group Elvis Depressedly<br />
in with a wave of nihilistic American DIY<br />
bands that rose up along with Bandcamp<br />
via Tumblr blogs and #lofi. If you<br />
get to the Q & A that's been ongoing on<br />
social media between Elvis Depressedly's<br />
Mat Cothran and anyone who'll ask,<br />
you get the impression of someone extremely<br />
honest and occa<br />
sionally fed up with some bullshit that<br />
fits perfectly with someone who writes<br />
songs about the ugliness of the world.<br />
Speaking to him re-contextualizes everything.<br />
There's a distinct excitement<br />
and passion in how he sees the future of<br />
Elvis Depressedly for both himself and<br />
bandmate Delaney Mills.<br />
There's certainly reason to be excited.<br />
In 2015, after six years and eight releases<br />
spread over three projects (the<br />
other two being Cothran solo projects-<br />
Coma Cinema and Mathew Lee Cothran),<br />
Elvis Depressedly released their<br />
label debut on Run For Cover Records,<br />
New Alhambra. It's a richly textured record<br />
that adds a discernible complexity<br />
to the Elvis Depressedly catalogue with<br />
the addition of samples and less traditional<br />
song structures to the already<br />
enticing pallet of manipulated vocals,<br />
entropic personal lyrics and deliberate<br />
out of the box production choices.<br />
It was quite a departure compared<br />
to what many would look to as their<br />
breakthrough record, Holo Pleasures,<br />
which was Elvis Depressedly's take on<br />
shoegaze. After seeing how much the<br />
out of <strong>print</strong> 7” was going for on the<br />
secondary market, they saw an opportunity<br />
to re-release the record in 2016<br />
as a full length with the addition of California<br />
Dreamin', a collection of songs<br />
cast aside during the original recording<br />
sessions that Cothran and Mills revisited.<br />
While songs like “Slipped” have a<br />
bit of New Alhambra in them, Cothran<br />
tried to stay honest to the spirit of the<br />
2013 Holo Pleasures recordings by deliberately<br />
recording things “the wrong<br />
way.” When asked about this purposeful<br />
backtracking, Cothran elaborated, “It<br />
was definitely kinda weird to go back,<br />
because I do see Elvis Depressedly as a<br />
band where I want clarity and I want<br />
digitalism. Our goal is top 40. So going<br />
back to that fuzz and mystery was<br />
strange, but still fun.”<br />
These chart topping aspirations may<br />
come as a surprise but in Mills and Cothran's<br />
eyes, Elvis Depressedly was always<br />
a pop band.<br />
“If it doesn't it's not a big deal, cuz it's<br />
a pipe dream anyway, but if it does it'll<br />
be like anything else I thought would<br />
never happen but happened anyway.”<br />
These pipe dreams come true include<br />
touring outside of the US with UK dates<br />
last summer, an upcoming Euro tour, as<br />
well as being able to subsist off of revenue<br />
from their music; an element of stability<br />
that Cothran attributes to allow<br />
him to tackle his current sobriety.<br />
The clarity sobriety has afforded Cothran<br />
is reflected in his latest record, Judas<br />
Hung Himself in America, released<br />
under Mathew Lee Cothran. The record<br />
was the last hurrah for the old DIY recording<br />
equipment Cothran had been<br />
using to make music since day one. It<br />
also highlights his pop ambitions with<br />
new vocal processing obviously inspired<br />
by the Billboard hits he sees himself<br />
among. In anticipation of the release,<br />
Cothran reflects, “It's going to be interesting<br />
I think. That'll be like the first<br />
swing at the plate, and the next thing<br />
I'm hoping for is the home run. But if<br />
not, I'll get it on the third swing for sure.<br />
I get three you know!”<br />
Elvis Depressedly performs <strong>March</strong><br />
23 at The Biltmore Ballroom (all<br />
ages).<br />
6 MUSIC<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong>
THE COURTNEYS<br />
BY ALEX HUDSON<br />
all around the world and back again<br />
When<br />
The Courtneys<br />
scheduled<br />
a weekend-long<br />
session<br />
with local producer<br />
Jordan Koop at his Noise<br />
Floor Recording Studio in<br />
fall 2012, they had no agenda<br />
beyond capturing a handful<br />
of their songs. They certainly<br />
never anticipated that the resulting<br />
debut album, 2013’s The Courtneys,<br />
would become an underground sleeper<br />
hit, turning the trio of singer-drummer Jen<br />
Twynn Payne, bassist Sydney Koke and guitarist<br />
Courtney Loove into one of Vancouver’s<br />
most hotly tipped indie pop exports.<br />
“It surprised me,” remembers Jen, speaking<br />
with <strong>BeatRoute</strong> in Moja Coffee on Commercial<br />
Drive. “We had no expectations. We just<br />
wanted to record the songs we had. And then<br />
it took us quite far.”<br />
So how did The Courtneys, who first formed in<br />
2010, become so unexpectedly successful? Sydney,<br />
reached on the phone at her current home<br />
base in Strasbourg, France, cites “the moment<br />
that changed everything for us” as an article by<br />
Pitchfork, when the publication included them<br />
in a feature about under-the-radar bands.<br />
The added exposure meant that accomplishments<br />
came quickly. The album sold out of three<br />
consecutive vinyl pressings through Vancouver-based<br />
label Hockey Dad Records, buzz band<br />
Wavves tweeted lyrics from the single “90210,”<br />
and the group scored deals to release and distribute<br />
the album internationally. They also landed<br />
high-profile opening gigs touring with Tegan<br />
and Sara and Mac DeMarco, respectively. (Jen<br />
is Tegan and Sara’s cousin, and she previously<br />
played in DeMarco’s old band Makeout Videotape.)<br />
The lengthy 2014 tour with Tegan and Sara<br />
was a particularly pivotal moment for the threepiece.<br />
“Touring with a bigger band, you learn a<br />
lot from them,” Jen says. “It’s like a business,<br />
how they run their crew, and then getting to<br />
play these big venues.” Suddenly, The Courtneys<br />
found themselves playing in front of crowds of<br />
thousands in prestigious theatres and ballrooms<br />
throughout the United States.<br />
Sydney recalls, “It was sort of like rock ‘n’ roll<br />
camp. They gave us a lot of advice on how to<br />
prepare our tech rider and how to talk to sound<br />
people, because we didn’t have our own sound<br />
technician.”<br />
This professional advice has been valuable for<br />
The Courtneys as they rise in the music industry:<br />
Not only do they often face on-stage technical<br />
difficulties due to having a drummer for a lead<br />
singer, their all-female lineup sometimes attracts<br />
patronizing scorn from mansplaining sound<br />
guys. Sydney points out, “We’re this really basic<br />
three-piece band who are all girls, so of course<br />
the way that the technicians treated us sometimes<br />
was totally great and other times was with<br />
quite a bit of suspicion. We had to figure out how<br />
to act confident and know what we were talking<br />
about to at least communicate how we wanted<br />
to sound.”<br />
As The Courtneys continued to rack up new<br />
achievements, they booked a scattering of days<br />
at Noise Floor Recording Studio. The drawnout<br />
recording<br />
process took<br />
place over the<br />
course of years:<br />
lead single “Lost<br />
Boys” came out way<br />
back in January 2014, but<br />
the bulk of the new material<br />
wasn’t laid down until spring<br />
2015. These sessions have now<br />
spawned the sophomore album, II,<br />
which came out in February. (Both Jen<br />
and Sydney clarify that, although the LP<br />
is sometimes mislabeled as The Courtneys II,<br />
the correct title is simply II. “The album title is<br />
kind of a reference to Led Zeppelin and Mac De-<br />
Marco,” Sydney says.)<br />
With its wonderfully straightforward combination<br />
of fuzzy slacker-rock guitars, luminescent<br />
pop melodies and witty lyrics, II recaptures everything<br />
that made The Courtneys so addictive.<br />
But it’s also a more ambitious effort, with many<br />
of the songs riding surging, hypnotic grooves that<br />
become more engrossing with each listen.<br />
Opener “Silver Velvet” is a chugging, pastel-tinted<br />
daydream that begins the album with<br />
squeals of feedback and the blissed-out opening<br />
lyrics, “The day is getting shady / Laying in the<br />
aisle / There’s nothing in this life to do / But stay<br />
here for a while.” The seven-minute “Lost Boys”<br />
contains quirky lyrics about a “vampire teenage<br />
boyfriend” and ends in an extended jam that<br />
highlights guitarist Courtney’s stormy fretwork,<br />
while “Tour” climaxes with euphoric refrains of<br />
“It’s time for us to let go / Slack off and hit the<br />
open road.”<br />
Jen points out that these new songs are more<br />
emotionally complex than the band’s past work,<br />
describing the process of writing lyrics as “my<br />
therapy.” Although some songs are about goofy<br />
subjects like aliens (“Mars Attacks”) or a love for<br />
television (“Virgo”), others concern relationships<br />
and other autobiographical matters.<br />
“On the first album, everyone was stuck on<br />
saying that we were a summer band, and it was<br />
beach-y and summery,” she says. “We have that<br />
sound, but I read this review yesterday that was<br />
saying that the songs [on II] were kind of sad. That<br />
made me really happy. Oh my god, they get it!<br />
They don’t sound sad, but they are in a way. They<br />
go<br />
deeper<br />
than what is<br />
first apparent.”<br />
The album came out on<br />
Flying Nun Records, an iconic New<br />
Zealand label that has long been an<br />
inspiration for the group. Sydney explains<br />
that The Courtneys had offers from larger Canadian<br />
companies who could have helped with<br />
grant applications and commercial wheeling and<br />
dealing, but they ended up choosing Flying Nun<br />
for its distinct indie aesthetic.<br />
“It actually just makes sense for us to be on Flying<br />
Nun because our music sounds like the other<br />
bands on that label,” she says. “Even though<br />
it wasn’t going to be as good for our monetary<br />
music industry career choices, we had to do what<br />
makes sense for the actual music that we make<br />
and what seems like it’s going to be the most fun<br />
for us.” She adds that the band’s music is particularly<br />
well received in New Zealand, making it a<br />
logical choice for them to team with a Kiwi label.<br />
With the album available now and already<br />
receiving enthusiastic reviews, The Courtneys<br />
are preparing for a North American headlining<br />
tour that will kick off with a Vancouver show<br />
on <strong>March</strong> 14. After the tour, their next move is<br />
unclear: These days, the band members all live in<br />
different countries, with Jen based in Vancouver,<br />
Sydney in France, and Courtney in Los Angeles.<br />
They all work jobs outside of the music industry<br />
and have no intentions to pursue the band fulltime.<br />
“Our whole thing is kind of that we don’t<br />
have a career,” Sydney observes.<br />
Photo by Andrew Volk<br />
Most<br />
importantly,<br />
they’ve made an<br />
album that they regard as<br />
timeless. Although they continue<br />
to embrace inspirations like ‘90s alt-rock<br />
and Kiwi indie pop, II is much more than simply<br />
the sum of its influences.<br />
“I don’t know if we totally care what other<br />
people think about the record, but I do think<br />
that we all really like it,” Sydney reflects. “I’ll<br />
be proud of that forever, and the validation of<br />
it being released on Flying Nun is really, really<br />
satisfying for me. I feel great about it and I<br />
think the others do too. If people like it and<br />
we get more opportunities in our lives because<br />
of that, that’s really cool, but it’s hard to know<br />
what opportunities we will accept and what<br />
we’ll do next. We just have no plans and that’s<br />
how it’s always been.”<br />
The Courtneys perform on <strong>March</strong> 14 at<br />
the Biltmore and on April 11 at the Cobalt<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> MUSIC<br />
9
MUSIC<br />
Moon DUO<br />
the perfect pair bring on a third and enter a fourth orbit<br />
DANNY KRESNYAK<br />
Sixteenth Century English dramatist<br />
Francis Beaumont wrote, “only love<br />
and the moon can make a dog growl<br />
in rhyme.” Now time may have paraphrased<br />
the renaissance playwright’s<br />
words, but rest assured the original<br />
text was equally romantic.<br />
Beaumont’s words find dawn in<br />
the work of two-piece Portland electro-eclipse-rockers<br />
Moon Duo. The<br />
group’s beating heart is a couple —<br />
guitarist Ripley Johnson and keyboard<br />
player Sanae Yamada — who have<br />
crafted a haunting mix of rhythms into<br />
a unique minimalist spellbound sound.<br />
The pair have just reached outer orbits<br />
with their fourth release, Occult Architecture.<br />
“When we started it was just Ripley<br />
(Johnson) the guitar player and myself,<br />
we wanted to give ourselves the limitation<br />
of two people to see what we<br />
can do within that framework, see how<br />
much noise we can generate,” says Yamada.<br />
The most obvious evolution between<br />
Occult Architecture and their<br />
AGE OF ELECTRIC<br />
brotherly love and divine happenstance<br />
JENNIE ORTON<br />
previous records is that Moon Duo is<br />
now a trio, puling drummer John Jeffrey<br />
into their gravity.<br />
Jeffrey came into the studio and laid<br />
his drum tracks onto material the core<br />
pair had already composed. According<br />
to Yamada, this dynamic encouraged<br />
the band to evolve in new directions.<br />
Still, the tides remain the same.<br />
Over three previous albums and extensive<br />
tours of North America and Europe,<br />
Moon Duo find harmony in their<br />
shared passion for celestial bodies, and<br />
draw inspiration from the far away<br />
matters of time and space for their<br />
minimalist, entrancing tunes.<br />
“It’s (the moon) this distant thing<br />
but it has this influential relationship<br />
over the natural forces of the earth, the<br />
tides, gravity,” Yamada says. In short,<br />
it’s got a pull to it. The live show exploits<br />
and tricks the senses, combining<br />
crafted visuals with the all encompassing<br />
fullness of the dark, filling the room<br />
with the absence of light.<br />
While the thematic motif of the<br />
band’s lyrics usually draws from the<br />
On the Marquee Stage, August 29th 2015, the brothers Kerns and<br />
the brothers Dahle plugged in on the same stage as Age of Electric<br />
for the first time in 17 years and the pop that shot through the stacks<br />
was apparently heard across the nation. It pretty short order after the<br />
house lights went up that night, interest came from all corners for the<br />
band to do more live shows; and divine luck would have it, they just<br />
happened to have some new music in the cannon just waiting to go.<br />
“It’s such a fascinating turn of events, every time I go to talk about<br />
photo by Howard Wise<br />
Age of Electric steps out after a two-decade hiatus and brings with them some pretty new goodies.<br />
Moon Duo bring a unique Architecture to the art of the tides with their fourth release.<br />
supernatural, political upheaval in<br />
the US has helped to shape the tone,<br />
and the emotion of this most recent,<br />
often darker work. “Art is inevitably a<br />
social statement. Perhaps the political<br />
climate is so extreme and unusual<br />
photo by Alicia Atout<br />
this it seems more surreal,” laments guitarist/vocalist Todd “Dammit”<br />
Kerns, who is currently in LA and enjoying being Slash’s bass guitar<br />
beast.<br />
After what Kerns describes as a “passive aggressive” split in 1998,<br />
AOE went off and did their own things. Though Kerns admits that<br />
he and guitarist Ryan Dahle remained in close contact, often writing<br />
music together on the side. This new music started to really take<br />
shape and it wasn’t long before they started to get that old familiar<br />
that it’s almost impossible to avoid it<br />
filtering into whatever you are doing,”<br />
says Yamada. “I’m horrified and, like<br />
many other people, I’m still reeling. It<br />
may take years before we actually see<br />
the fallout and know what we’re trying<br />
to say.”<br />
Till then, I guess we’ll have to settle<br />
for a howl at the moon.<br />
Moon Duo perform at the Cobalt<br />
on <strong>March</strong> 4.<br />
ache for the stage.<br />
“We were just kind of like ‘Hey we still do this pretty well together’,”<br />
Kerns says.<br />
And then, as they say, it just sort of happened.<br />
Culminating with the approach of the 20th Anniversary of their<br />
monster hit, and last release before the split, Make a Pest a Pet, the<br />
decision was made to not only release the four new tracks they had<br />
in the can as an EP (The Pretty EP <strong>–</strong> released February 17) but also a<br />
remastered 2 LP vinyl reissue with bonus tracks of Pest a Pet on the<br />
same day; and a Canadian tour to support both.<br />
“All that stuff just kind of seemed to fall from the sky at once. In<br />
the eleventh hour I kept expecting it to fall apart. It’s like picking out<br />
a china pattern with a girlfriend y’know? You’re thinking ‘I dunno, are<br />
we ready for this?”<br />
As with any situation where things get revisited after 20 years,<br />
there have been some surprises in the shows played live insofar as<br />
which songs seem to have blossomed during the hiatus. Kerns has noticed<br />
a large following for the set opener, the bratty and relentless bit<br />
of perfect 90s alternative that is “Motor” from their self-titled 1995<br />
album. Kerns acknowledges that when the album came out the band<br />
had so much to prove that their trajectory prevented them from<br />
standing with the release too long.<br />
“That music didn’t really have a chance to…I dunno, ripen? I guess?”<br />
he laughs. “Those songs have been planted for 20 years, some for over<br />
20 years, and its interesting to see what they have become out there.<br />
And the only way to see what they have become is to play them on<br />
stage and see the reaction.”<br />
An impressive history for a band with two sets of brothers. Defying<br />
the odds of what normally happens when family spends that much<br />
time together (cough, Oasis, cough) the amicability of this band<br />
keeps the music hooky but authentic, nostalgically 90’s yet refreshingly<br />
new (as evident with the rolling and rumbling catchy strummer<br />
“Show Me Your Weakness” from the Pretty EP which sounds like it<br />
would fit right in streaming out an open window at Easy Eye Studio).<br />
But just in case, Kerns has his own technique for any disagreements:<br />
“The finishing and starting move would be [brother and bassist]<br />
John Kerns, I’d be that guy in the corner with a Slurpee saying “kick<br />
his ass, man!”<br />
Age of Electric perform at the Commodore Ballroom (Vancouver)<br />
on <strong>March</strong> 24.<br />
STRONG WOMEN STRONG MUSIC<br />
supporting women in our backyard with the freedom of jazz<br />
ERIN JARDINE<br />
“Perhaps Atira chose jazz as a genre because<br />
in it there is great freedom,” remarks Karin<br />
Plato, artist liaison of Strong Women Strong<br />
Music, an event produced as a celebration of<br />
International Women’s Day and as a fundraiser<br />
for Arita Women’s Resource Society.<br />
Atira is a not-for-profit women’s advocacy<br />
organization and one of the biggest providers<br />
of social housing in Vancouver. Longevity<br />
has lent itself both to SWSM and Atira; the<br />
society began with projects and transition<br />
homes in 1984. Strong Women Strong Music<br />
started 11 years ago as a one-night affair, but<br />
with the additional support of Vancouver’s<br />
Coastal Jazz and Blues Society the fundraiser<br />
has expanded to three separate evenings<br />
and more musicians.<br />
Plato has been involved in the event from<br />
day one, performing as a vocalist and coordinating<br />
the lineup.<br />
“Certain years some of the artists don’t<br />
know each other before the concert takes<br />
place. It’s a lovely way to make new connections<br />
and collaborate to share the music.<br />
This is particularly true when we combine<br />
experienced older artists with some of the<br />
upcoming younger women artists who may<br />
not have met before,” she says.<br />
WIND-UP BIRDS<br />
is dad rock still dad rock if it’s cool?<br />
Born from the ashes of Owl Field Recordings,<br />
the lads of Wind-Up Birds bring a<br />
breezy blend of jazz, funk and pop that is<br />
both familiar and refreshing. Guitarist and<br />
vocalist Sam Willett points to Mac DeMarco<br />
as a rallying point for the band in their<br />
embrace of cheesy retro pop with distinctively<br />
modern sensibilities. “He’s doing stuff<br />
that people might not consider cool but<br />
he’s making it cool,” Willett explains. “We<br />
all like that kind of music. We like Steely<br />
Dan. We like Paul McCartney. We like dad<br />
rock. It’s groovy, it’s funky and we thought<br />
it would be nice to incorporate that into a<br />
band and play.”<br />
Spend enough time with Wind-Up Birds<br />
and an endearment for the nostalgic yesteryear<br />
is palpable. A discussion of their<br />
penchant for the retro evolved into an interesting<br />
conversation of the relationship<br />
between dad rock and vaporwave. “There<br />
are always people that are looking back at<br />
what people did before, sort of retro stuff,<br />
and wanting to incorporate that into their<br />
own art, be it photography, film, or music,”<br />
says Willett. “We like that mixing of aesthetics.<br />
That’s what vaporwave does really<br />
well, is it mixes this diverse bunch of weird<br />
aesthetics together to make a new one.”<br />
Wind-Up Birds first full-length, Casual<br />
Music Album, is a labour of love for the<br />
quartet. Recorded in Willett’s living room<br />
with a plethora of handcrafted and borrowed<br />
equipment, the process, from Willett’s<br />
perspective, went better than anyone<br />
in the band could have expected. What<br />
was both a cost-saving and creative-control<br />
measure promises to be an anticipated local<br />
release for <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
Coinciding with Atira’s values of inclusive<br />
feminism, the music takes its own form<br />
through improvisation with different pairings<br />
of musicians, including upcoming artists<br />
as well as some other experienced jazz<br />
artists who may not have been involved in<br />
previous years. This makes it interesting and<br />
fresh for everyone involved and hopefully<br />
aids in making an enjoyable experience for<br />
the audience, especially if they come every<br />
year to support Atira.<br />
One of the challenges Atira faces is the<br />
inevitable growth in the numbers of women<br />
who continue to need help in Vancouver.<br />
“Last year approximately half of the women<br />
and their children needing support were<br />
able to receive assistance. Through the year,<br />
various fundraising events help bring awareness<br />
to the need in our city,” says Plato.<br />
With these growing numbers, an understanding<br />
of the unique issues women might<br />
face that force them to ask for help is critical.<br />
International Women’s Day deserves attention,<br />
which is what Strong Women Strong<br />
Music delivers in their message.<br />
Strong Women Strong Music <strong>2017</strong><br />
takes place <strong>March</strong> 6<strong>–</strong>9 at Frankie’s<br />
Jazz Club<br />
When women need their voice more than ever, SWSM gives us all that and then some.<br />
Wind-Up Birds are anything but weekend warriors, but they do dig on some Casual Music.<br />
JAMES OLSON<br />
Along with their upcoming release show,<br />
the band already is ready to start recording<br />
again in the late spring and summer, with<br />
seven to eight new songs written. “Our philosophy<br />
is, we don’t know how long we’re<br />
going to be able to play together as a band.<br />
We’ve all got school and various commitments<br />
so we want to make the most of<br />
what we’ve got,” says Willett. “We’ve been<br />
lucky that we’ve been able to play lots of<br />
shows and we’ve been able to meet lots of<br />
cool bands and cool people. We’ve been<br />
able to put out T-shirts and tapes, which I<br />
don’t think any of us have been able to do<br />
in any other band. We’re just trying to make<br />
the most of it.”<br />
Wind-Up Birds play 333 on <strong>March</strong> 19<br />
with Kai Bravewood, Wax Cowboy,<br />
and Dear Rabbit<br />
TINY KINGDOM MUSIC<br />
management in the trenches<br />
HEATHER ADAMSON<br />
With multiple barriers facing musicians<br />
trying to make it and find<br />
their way in an ever increasing<br />
complex industry, having experienced,<br />
passionate people to help<br />
you navigate the waters can make<br />
all the difference.<br />
Enter Vancouver's Savannah<br />
Wellman and Meaghan Davidson<br />
who have recently launched Tiny<br />
Kingdom Music; an artist management<br />
and administration company<br />
focusing on diversifying the<br />
status quo management structure<br />
to provide artists with choices and<br />
levels of support in order to maximize<br />
the number of musicians<br />
they can support in the areas they<br />
need it the most. Both Wellman<br />
and Davidson left their long time<br />
positions at Music <strong>BC</strong> to branch<br />
out on their own and take all they<br />
had learned and the connections<br />
they have made in order to move<br />
from handing bands a suggested<br />
road map to being able to jump<br />
in the passenger seat for the ride.<br />
“It was amazing at Music <strong>BC</strong> to<br />
provide artists with the information<br />
they needed to further their<br />
careers, but then our involvement<br />
would end,” explained Wellman.<br />
“After doing that for a very long<br />
time we felt the desire to roll up<br />
our sleeves and become more<br />
hands on.”<br />
Walking through the steps herself<br />
as a professional songwriter,<br />
musician and performer, Wellman<br />
understands firsthand what<br />
roadblocks are in the way of artists<br />
making their music a sustainable<br />
career path and is passionate<br />
about helping them find their own<br />
way. “Traditional revenue sources<br />
are not there anymore so it is<br />
about learning how to figure out<br />
other ways to financially survive in<br />
the music industry,” says Wellman.<br />
“In Canada and <strong>BC</strong>, there are funding<br />
sources available but it can be<br />
difficult figuring out how to access<br />
them. We want to help the musicians<br />
we believe in be seen as professionals<br />
instead of hobbyists and<br />
be taken seriously by the industry<br />
while communicating effectively<br />
with an audience. It's about developing<br />
the whole package.”<br />
As women in the industry, the<br />
immediate response from female<br />
musicians was somewhat of a<br />
shock, yet not completely surprising<br />
to Wellman. “A lot of women<br />
musician friends called us immediately<br />
to express how relieved<br />
they were to finally be able to<br />
have other women to turn to in<br />
this capacity. I was torn between<br />
being happy to be able to provide<br />
needed help and sad that so many<br />
had been feeling this way for a<br />
long time, that they would need<br />
a female rep to be taken seriously<br />
and have respect. It is one more<br />
barrier to overcome and we are<br />
here to provide whatever support<br />
we can.”<br />
As the two long-time friends<br />
and colleagues begin this new career<br />
path together, they are solid<br />
in their vision and commitment<br />
to the music they believe in. “The<br />
idea of being a part of the career<br />
of any one of the artists we love is<br />
what excites us the most.”<br />
www.tinykingdommusic.com<br />
photo by Scott Little<br />
Davidson and Wellman leave Music<strong>BC</strong> to rep local musicians.<br />
10 MUSIC<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> MUSIC<br />
11
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH<br />
refusing the repetition<br />
SAFIYA HOPFE<br />
Tuesdays: Cartems Donuterie on Main<br />
I began my training circuit with Cartems Donuterie, where embarrassing<br />
yourself in front of strangers is made easier by the<br />
awaiting comfort food. But before I could rock the worlds of the<br />
nine trepidatious attendees, someone played “Yellow” so I had<br />
to leave. Still, I have love for the performers at Cartems—they’re<br />
earnest and eager to improve, making this a great place to start<br />
out.<br />
Performance length: 15 minutes<br />
Performance quality: A for Effort<br />
Things to note: When did donuts get so expensive?<br />
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah first stole our hearts in<br />
2005 with their self-titled debut, only growing bigger<br />
over the years as hits like “The Skin of my Yellow<br />
Country Teeth” and “Blue Turning Grey” appeared<br />
on movie scores and became near-anthemic to<br />
their fans. Now, over a decade later, they have released<br />
their fifth album,The Tourist.<br />
The sound is neither like nor unlike them. Frontman<br />
Alec Ounsworth prides himself on aiming<br />
for variation when songwriting, and yet there is a<br />
distinct structure and dynamic that listeners can<br />
continue to recognize the band by. It sounds like<br />
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as we know them, and<br />
we’ve come to know them well. The patterns heard<br />
on The Tourist are as apparent as the vivid variation.<br />
Tracks like “Better Off” pay clear homage to<br />
their signature style, percussively and lyrically. “A<br />
Chance to Cure” sounds a little like Hail to the<br />
Thief, and “The Vanity of Trying” incorporates a<br />
melodic progression reminiscent of The National.<br />
Some of the album’s edgier songs might even remind<br />
one of Spencer Krug of Moonface and Wolf<br />
Parade. The Tourist manages to blend, experiment<br />
and dabble, all while remaining consistent.<br />
After all, it is Ounsworth’s intention to both<br />
honour himself artistically and to continue evolving.<br />
“From one album to the next I’ve never set out<br />
to do what I did on the last,” he says. “I make a conscious<br />
effort to try not to repeat myself, from one<br />
album to the next. I can't believe it when I hear a<br />
band that makes an album and then makes the<br />
next album and it basically sounds more or less<br />
exactly the same. That to me doesn’t make a lot<br />
of sense, except maybe from a marketing point<br />
of view. To me, you’ve sort of got to stay on your<br />
toes. If you're bored on stage, it’s going to come off.<br />
One of the reasons I took a relatively long break<br />
between the second and third album, I found it to<br />
be a little taxing and I didn’t care to be dishonest<br />
in front of people. So I needed to take some time<br />
off to figure out how to be… how to like it again.”<br />
Out of convenience, the band started out playing<br />
in New York, a city with no shortage of variety<br />
and venues, nor a shortage of critique and diverse<br />
tastes. After all this time, engagement with audiences<br />
has come to mean much more than recognition.<br />
As a matter of fact, Ounsworth refers to recognition<br />
as the “icing on the cake.” As the band’s<br />
audience has become “more cult-ish and refined,”<br />
according to him, this interaction has come to<br />
mean something much more intuitive and has led<br />
him to redefine success. To Ounsworth, this concept<br />
simply translates into finishing a record and<br />
being able to declare with pride that he has done<br />
“everything he can do.”<br />
After all, writing music seems to depend for him<br />
a lot on authenticity, honesty, and laying all of his<br />
cards out.<br />
“I’ve been doing this for twelve years now, and<br />
I’ve been writing songs for twenty, so I’m just used<br />
to doing it in when I have something I need to say,”<br />
Ounsworth says. “If you don't really have anything<br />
to say then don't say anything at all. I think for this<br />
particular one I had something to kind of get off<br />
Wednesdays: The Drive Coffee Bar<br />
After my cop-out at Cartems, I needed an incentive to show the<br />
city what it really means to be a singer-songwriter. As a full-service<br />
venue, The Drive Coffee Bar just so happens to be home to<br />
some of my most encouraging friends, J. Daniels and J. Beam. The<br />
best part: their “Vancouver Warmer-Upper” isn’t just a pre-performance<br />
vocal exercise, but a beverage with four different kinds<br />
of alcohol. Progress!<br />
Performance length: 15 minutes<br />
Performance quality: 3.5/5<br />
Things to note: Don’t perform after three warmer-uppers.<br />
my chest, and that’s often how the albums come<br />
about. That’s how the first album happened, and<br />
kept going for the five.”<br />
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah perform <strong>March</strong><br />
18 at the Imperial (Vancouver).<br />
MY BRIEF SWEEP of VaNCOUVER’s OPEN MIC Circuit<br />
PARIS SPENCE-LANG<br />
Vancouver: a burgeoning metropolis of under-talented millennials, trying desperately to<br />
allay their as-of-yet unsprouted careers as nouveau-mimes until they can break through to that<br />
breathtaking borough of famous faces and endless sunsets, Venice Beach. Though I will staunchly<br />
deny this statement’s veracity in person, I am one of such vaudeville vampires. And with my latest<br />
mixtape drop barely nudging the needle on my SoundCloud plays, I was unsure of how to spread<br />
my apparently unlistenable “jams”—until I discovered the open mic. Either I would sweep the<br />
scene and catch my big break, or I would give up on my dreams and just become a doctor.<br />
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have developed music as a delicacy for a refined cult of a fan base<br />
Illustration: Syd Danger<br />
photo: ???<br />
Thursdays: Café Deux Soleils<br />
I thought open mic nights were my ally—until I came to Café<br />
Deux Soleils. Turns out I merely adopted the mic—the “deuxers”<br />
were born to it, molded by it. Not only is this place packed, you<br />
need to show up early to put your name in a hat. I chose to throw<br />
up in the bathroom instead, but I imagine if you pull off a tight<br />
two-song set here, Def Jam calls and gives you a contract.<br />
Performance length: 10 minutes<br />
Performance quality: 4/5<br />
Things to note: If you’re not chosen, don’t be upset—you’re<br />
probably more of a listener anyway.<br />
SHRED KELLY<br />
putting the accent on après<br />
HEATHER ADAMSON<br />
HAWKING<br />
making a record of stank face worthy jams<br />
REID OAKLEY<br />
If you want to be exceptionally good at something,<br />
professionals say you need to have completed at<br />
least 10,000 hours of whatever said thing is. If that’s<br />
the case then Hawking has no doubt earned that<br />
distinction; not only through their touring prowess,<br />
but also their continuing willingness to adapt in the<br />
face of adversity.<br />
Following up their self-titled release from 2015,<br />
the guys are keen to keep pushing their sound in<br />
the direction they’ve chiseled for themselves, with<br />
their first full-length release Diverge. Talking with<br />
lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Vanderhoek, deeper<br />
details arise of the band, and their upcoming album.<br />
“It’s heavier, let’s just get that out of the way.<br />
Actually, I say that and then I think about the softer<br />
tracks including an acoustic one...We finally put in<br />
some breakdowns though. Those are really fun.”<br />
After announcing the album back in mid-November<br />
the math rockers have been hard at work,<br />
balancing tour life with a tight recording schedule,<br />
“It’s a concentrated early-20s attitude from a bunch<br />
of frustrated music nerds who wanted to make a<br />
record full of good stank-face-worthy jams.” Similar<br />
to their sound, the album title itself is a declaration<br />
of their clear push in an aggressively original and<br />
changing direction “It’s more self-explanatory than<br />
my pretentious self would like to admit. We’re going<br />
our own way with this record. We’re fed up with<br />
Shred Kelly performs at Sugar Nightclub (Victoria) on <strong>March</strong> 23 and the Fox Cabaret (Vancouver) on<br />
<strong>March</strong> 25.<br />
Shred Kelly is the ultimate ski town band. So<br />
much about how they came to be, who they are<br />
and how they market themselves has always been<br />
about deriving from Fernie, <strong>BC</strong>. The culture of<br />
living and representing Fernie as a place continues<br />
to influence their development as a band<br />
as is explained by keyboardist and vocalist Sage<br />
McBride, “Because our band was born out of the<br />
party scene of a ski town, our music catered to<br />
high energy sets because that was the driving<br />
force behind the type of audience we were playing<br />
to and it became what we are known for.”<br />
Although this still rings true, the band has<br />
expanded the dynamics of their live show over<br />
the years as they have been exposed to different<br />
types of venues that allow for and complement<br />
changes in tempo in their set list. “Our musical<br />
tastes are evolving and changing as we grow,”<br />
shared McBride, “there are five of us and we pull<br />
from our own personal influences to see what<br />
sticks. We have been writing some softer songs<br />
but we are mindful about what will fit into our<br />
touring set while keeping the tempo up because<br />
that is when we and the audience have the most<br />
fun.”<br />
A mainstay on the Canadian touring circuit for<br />
the past seven years, Shred Kelly have reached<br />
a level of notoriety that now provides them a<br />
certain amount of comfort and reliability when<br />
it comes to the touring lifestyle, something they<br />
came to appreciate when starting to break into<br />
the European market last year. “We had our<br />
second tour overseas this past fall in Germany,”<br />
shared McBride. “We had forgotten what<br />
it is like as an unknown touring band breaking<br />
into someplace new. You are starting over again<br />
and it is a challenge not having a consistent paycheck.”<br />
However, the differences noted between<br />
their early days touring in Canada compared to<br />
their time in Germany were also clearly evident.<br />
“When we were starting out as a band in Canada,<br />
we would arrive for a show and there would be<br />
no meal or drink tickets and we would be earning<br />
a percentage of the cover at the door. In Germany,<br />
although we weren't making a lot of money,<br />
the venues hosted us so well with these incredible<br />
food spreads everywhere we went and most<br />
places arranged accommodation for us as well.<br />
They really took care of us.”<br />
Embarking on another <strong>BC</strong> tour this month,<br />
Shred Kelly aren't taking for granted the fan base<br />
they have built in their home province while continuing<br />
to be surprised by what may meet them<br />
at the next town they visit. “The towns we have<br />
never played in before are always a blank slate<br />
which is exciting, but what cotinues to scare me<br />
most about touring is visiting the places we have<br />
been before,” shared McBride. “That nervous anticipation<br />
of being able to outdue ourselves never<br />
goes away.”<br />
Shred Kelly performs at Fox Cabaret in<br />
Vancouver on <strong>March</strong> 25, <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
waiting for any scene or any industry to have a place<br />
for us and we certainly have no intention of being<br />
overly shy or polite about our efforts to pioneer one<br />
for ourselves.”<br />
Getting their start as an indie rock band in the<br />
watered down Vancouver music scene was no easy<br />
task for the group, but adapting is clear within their<br />
skillset, and they were soon defining themselves<br />
sonically on their own terms, “we embrace it. It’s<br />
like we’re too heavy for the Indie crowd, not heavy<br />
enough for the Metal and Hardcore crowd, too<br />
Prog for the Punk crowd but too Punk to quit touring<br />
and go get master’s degrees in music theory.”<br />
With a planned six week run across North America,<br />
beginning with Canadian Music Week in Toronto<br />
in April and then heading down stateside before<br />
they work their way back north along the coast,<br />
there should be plenty of opportunity to catch<br />
these highway stars when they roll into a town near<br />
you, stacking those hours.<br />
Catch Hawking’s album-release for “Diverge”<br />
<strong>March</strong> 10 at The Rickshaw Theatre<br />
With Diverge, Hawking carves out their own damn scene thankyouverymuch<br />
photo: ???<br />
RIO<br />
THEATRE<br />
1660 EAST BROADWAY<br />
MAR<br />
5<br />
MAR<br />
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MAR<br />
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MAR<br />
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MAR<br />
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MAR<br />
23<br />
MAR<br />
24<br />
MAR<br />
25<br />
MAR<br />
27<br />
MAR<br />
31<br />
APRIL<br />
2<br />
APRIL<br />
4<br />
APRIL<br />
6<br />
MARCH<br />
HIGHLIGHTS<br />
WWW.RIOTHEATRETICKETS.CA<br />
THE RED TURTLE<br />
TONI ERDMANN<br />
LA LA LAND<br />
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY<br />
THE HANDMAID'S TALE<br />
THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE<br />
NOODLE WESTERN!<br />
TAMPOPO<br />
THE FICTIONALS COMEDY CO. PRESENTS<br />
LADIES AGAINST<br />
HUMANITY!<br />
#IAHATRIO<br />
THE GENTLEMEN HECKLERS PRESENT<br />
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER IN<br />
THE RUNNING MAN<br />
THE LURE<br />
PEELERS<br />
JONAS ÅKERLUND'S<br />
RAMMSTEIN: PARIS<br />
ONE NIGHT ONLY!<br />
THE SHAWSHANK<br />
REDEMPTION<br />
THE LURE<br />
THE ROCKY HORROR<br />
PICTURE SHOW<br />
THE GEEKENDERS PRESENT<br />
WE ALL FLOAT DOWN HERE:<br />
A BURLESQUE TRIBUTE TO<br />
STEPHEN KING<br />
HAYAO MIYAZAKI DOUBLE BILL!<br />
SPIRITED AWAY<br />
PRINCESS MONONOKE<br />
KITTY NIGHTS WEST PRESENTS<br />
KATE BUSH:<br />
LIVE BAND BURLESQUE TRIBUTE<br />
BLADE RUNNER<br />
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI<br />
EYE OF THE STORM XII<br />
AN INTERACTIVE A/V EXPERIENCE<br />
JOHN HURT & SIR RICHARD BURTON IN<br />
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FIRST THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH!<br />
COMPLETE LISTINGS AT WWW.RIOTHEATRE.CA<br />
12 MUSIC<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> MUSIC<br />
13
FRIDAY<br />
MARCH 3<br />
SATURDAY<br />
MARCH 4<br />
TUESDAY<br />
MARCH 7<br />
THURSDAY<br />
MARCH 9<br />
SATURDAY<br />
MARCH 11<br />
WEDNESDAY<br />
MARCH 15<br />
THURSDAY<br />
MARCH 16<br />
FRIDAY<br />
MARCH 17<br />
SATURDAY<br />
MARCH 18<br />
SUNDAY<br />
MARCH 19<br />
THURSDAY<br />
MARCH 23<br />
FRIDAY<br />
MARCH 24<br />
SATURDAY<br />
MARCH 25<br />
SUNDAY<br />
MARCH 26<br />
MONDAY<br />
MARCH 27<br />
THURSDAY<br />
MARCH 30<br />
EVERY<br />
MONDAY<br />
LIVE AT THE WISE HALL<br />
MARCH EVENTS SCHEDULE <strong>2017</strong><br />
OLD TIME DANCE PARTY<br />
MONTHLY SQUARE DANCE<br />
A VARIETY OF QUEERS BENEFIT<br />
CONCERT<br />
UPSTREAM VOICES<br />
Stop Petronas LNG! Defend Wild Salmon!<br />
VIPER CENTRAL<br />
LOUNGE WARM-UP SERIES<br />
Carole Pope<br />
and Rae Spoon<br />
EAST SIDE BEER FEST<br />
VIPER CENTRAL<br />
LOUNGE WARM-UP SERIES<br />
Annual WISE St. Paddy’s Day bash with<br />
Shane’s Teeth<br />
(Tribute to The Pogues)<br />
Screaming Chickens Theatrical Society<br />
Taboo Revue<br />
Rose Cousins<br />
WITH SPECIAL GUEST PORT CITIES<br />
Three For<br />
Silver<br />
WITH Blue Moon Marquee<br />
AND The Burying Ground<br />
JEsse WAlDmaN CD RELEASE SHOW<br />
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS SHRINKING MOUNTAIN<br />
VIPER CENTRAL<br />
ALBUM RELEASE SHOW (PLUS 1973 NFB DOCUMENTARY “EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT”)<br />
Robt Sarazin Blake<br />
Recitative album release show FEATURING Noah Walker<br />
Youth Poetry<br />
Slam Finals<br />
FEATURING SPILLIOUS<br />
SAWDUST COLLECTIVE PRESENTS<br />
INHABITANTS • LEAH ABRAMSON • WAXWING<br />
PETUNIA AND THE VIPERS<br />
MONDAYS IN THE WISE LOUNGE<br />
WISE HALL<br />
1882 ADANAC STREET (AT VICTORIA DRIVE)<br />
WWW.WISEHALL.CA (604) 254-5858<br />
WHY?<br />
cynicism with a smile<br />
GRAEME WIGGINS<br />
Sometimes light is best seen coming from a place<br />
of darkness. For experimental indie-pop group<br />
Why?’s songwriter Yoni Wolf, the darkness may<br />
have come from an unnamed health scare he had<br />
a few years ago. The light, however, can be seen in<br />
their latest album Moh Lhean. Their sixth studio<br />
album, and first to be released in four years, takes<br />
the sarcastic edge off of their melancholic and hip<br />
hop infused indie sound and replaces it with a<br />
more hopeful tone.<br />
“I think there was a lot of cynicism to some of<br />
the older stuff, [but] I always said it with a smile,”<br />
explains Wolf. “I’ve always had a bit of a darkness<br />
and I made light of it all of those years. I’m trying<br />
to dig out of it and working on being a little more<br />
positive.”<br />
While much of the talk online centers around<br />
the album as a return from their four year hiatus<br />
since Mumps, Etc, in fact they’ve been working<br />
on the album on and off for even longer. “It does<br />
feel like a long time working on this project, I have<br />
to be honest about that,” Wolf says. “One of the<br />
songs I [actually] wrote in 2010, so technically<br />
[the album was] started in 2010, if you want to<br />
back that far. But you know, you have to let things<br />
marinate and all that.” The hiatus narrative also<br />
obscures the fact that he’s released a number of<br />
other projects over that time, including a collaborative<br />
album with rapper Serengeti called Yoni<br />
& Geti.<br />
Why? originally made a name for themselves<br />
in the early 2000s as part of experimental indie<br />
rap collective Anticon. Their current indie rock<br />
sound reveals past influences with touches of<br />
rap cadence filtered through an electronic sound<br />
collage. The result can be labeled as either ramshackle<br />
or precisely meticulous. To Wolf, it’s a little<br />
bit of both. “Certain elements are very spur of<br />
the moment, and certain things are meticulously<br />
labored over. I think it just depends,” he says. “Everything<br />
is pretty scrutinized.” Is he a perfectionist?<br />
“I think so. My brother (Josiah Wolf, who is<br />
also in the band) is as well, about different things.”<br />
As to the writing process, “It’s a mystery. I’m<br />
sure some people know that about themselves.<br />
I don’t know [everything] about myself or my<br />
process. It’s always different. Sometimes I’ll think<br />
I’m dried up and have nothing left in me then it<br />
dawns on me and it’s like, ‘I have something left<br />
in me!’ It’s a mysterious process. You just have to<br />
follow it when you know it.”<br />
While the prospect of an upcoming tour is<br />
daunting psychologically, it’s a necessary in today’s<br />
music industry. “I used to make a living off<br />
selling records, and I can’t do that anymore. I<br />
make a living off touring [because] that’s how it is<br />
now. It’s hard on my mind and body but I do enjoy<br />
it.” This seems part and parcel to the artists more<br />
optimistic outlook. “I’m pretty good. I’m trying to<br />
be more [of a] positive person. Let the light shine<br />
in and all that. I’m always working on it, everyone<br />
is. If they’re not [then] they probably should be.”<br />
Catch Why? live at Venue <strong>March</strong> 25 and<br />
pick up their new album Moh Lhean out<br />
<strong>March</strong> 3 on Joyful Noise.<br />
Positivity takes the wheel when it comes to releasing a new album and touring with Why?<br />
THEY<br />
versatility in motion with hooks to spare<br />
VANESSA TAM<br />
Nü Religion is here to empower a new voice and send ripples into the shifting tides<br />
Just a few years into their careers at<br />
THEY., Dante Jones and Drew Love<br />
first met back in 2013 after they moved<br />
to Los Angeles to work in the music<br />
industry from Denver and Washington,<br />
DC respectively. Connecting at a<br />
core level in regards to music, the two<br />
quickly became thick as thieves and<br />
later released their first project as a<br />
duo; an EP dubbed Nü Religion.<br />
Creating truly genreless music anchored<br />
by contemporary R&B, Jones<br />
and Love grew up on a steady diet of<br />
everything from punk to rock, pop,<br />
80s R&B and soul. In addition to cosigns<br />
received from major artists like<br />
Bryson Tiller and Timbaland, THEY.<br />
are positioned to be one of the most<br />
versatile projects of our generation.<br />
The strength of their said versatility<br />
cannot be better demonstrated than<br />
with their first official collaboration<br />
with EDM heavyweights ZHU and<br />
Skrillex on the track “Working For It.”<br />
As unlikely as the partnership looked<br />
on paper, the track came together perfectly<br />
and drew core parallels between<br />
the seemingly opposite genres of modern<br />
EDM and hip hop.<br />
“I feel like this generation kind of<br />
split off into like one set of people<br />
who really likes EDM and the people<br />
who like hip hop,” Jones said over the<br />
phone, thinking out loud. “But I think<br />
now you can go to a rap show or a rap<br />
festival and [see that] they're reacting<br />
and jumping and bouncing around<br />
like it's an EDM festival. I think [both<br />
genres] take a lot from each other<br />
and that the lines are getting a little<br />
bit blurred at this point. Whether it's<br />
EDM bass or 808 trap music, you're<br />
gonna see the same reaction.”<br />
With obvious nods to punk and<br />
rock in their music, many would assume<br />
that the duo is trying to revive<br />
an arguably dying genre. “I think that<br />
the term ‘rock and roll is dead’ has<br />
been thrown around numerous times<br />
throughout history,” Jones laments.<br />
“But it's not necessarily like we're trying<br />
to revive rock, it's just that we have<br />
so many influences that incorporating<br />
a lot of that stuff was a natural development<br />
for us. You know I've been<br />
making guitar driven music for as long<br />
as I can remember, so I think it was just<br />
a natural thing for us.”<br />
Transitioning to the current oversaturation<br />
of the North American<br />
EDM scene, Love added, “I think what<br />
EDM did [for music] was that it kind<br />
of changed people’s expectations for<br />
song structure. Where you know, back<br />
in the day it was all about the hook.<br />
But now it's more about creating a<br />
moment whether it is like a vocal hook<br />
or if it's more like a drop. That's something<br />
that we always kind of have in<br />
our approach whether it's a song like<br />
‘Back It Up’ where the actual hook<br />
is really more like an EDM drop. So I<br />
think while the [EDM] scene itself may<br />
be dying out, some of the influences as<br />
far as song structure and the way people<br />
listen to music is still gonna be like<br />
carried over into wherever the next<br />
wave of music is.”<br />
photo by Alexander photo: Black ???<br />
With a new album titled Nü Religion:<br />
Hyena just released on Mind of<br />
a Genius Records, the duo is looking<br />
towards empowering likeminded artists<br />
with the Nü Religion movement. “I<br />
know a lot of people when they first<br />
heard the EP, were definitely thinking<br />
that they had an idea for what our<br />
sound was gonna be,” Love mentioned.<br />
“But each song is [going to be] different<br />
on the album from start to finish.<br />
Each song has its own unique flair to it<br />
and I think [while the album] follows<br />
a story and follows a sonic path, each<br />
song will still different.”<br />
“In addition to releasing our album<br />
and doing our tour, I'm [also] really<br />
excited to be trying our best to create<br />
opportunities to empower other<br />
people that are trying to do the same<br />
thing [we are],” added Jones. “The Nü<br />
Religion is an empowerment movement<br />
and all we're trying to do is we're<br />
embrace other musicians.<br />
“I think we're in a really interesting<br />
place,” added Love. “[With] urban music's<br />
position in the world and also how<br />
we're kind of in a transitional place as<br />
far as what's going on in the world politics<br />
wise and with racial tension and<br />
everything. I definitely feel like there's<br />
room for a different voice, and really<br />
that's what we're trying to do is fill the<br />
void and give an alternative to the music<br />
that's out right now.”<br />
THEY. perform at Alexander Gastown<br />
<strong>March</strong> 8th.<br />
Clubland<br />
your month measured in BPMs<br />
vanessa tam<br />
BPM<br />
“I hope it snows a little more, I love seeing snow in the city when it’s supposed<br />
to be spring,” said no one ever. Instead, let’s pool our collective energy into<br />
generating longer days full of sunshine and chiller nights full of the best electronic<br />
and hip hop concert picks for the month of <strong>March</strong>.<br />
The Internet<br />
<strong>March</strong> 16 @ Alexander Gastown<br />
Based in Los Angeles, The Internet was formed by Odd Future members Syd<br />
tha Kyd and Matt Martians. Their three studio albums, Purple Naked Ladies,<br />
Feel Good, and Ego Death, showcase Syd’s raw natural talent as a singer and<br />
the undeniable synergy the band cultivates when performing together.<br />
Datsik<br />
<strong>March</strong> 18 @ The Vogue Theatre<br />
Around the same time dubstep hit it’s peak in North America back in 2009,<br />
Datsik started producing and releasing music on the internet from his bedroom<br />
in Kelowna, <strong>BC</strong>. Armed with his signature bone shaking bass and devastating<br />
drops, Datsik quickly developed a strong fan base and continues to<br />
collaborate and perform with international artists like Steve Aoki, Wu-Tang<br />
Clan, Diplo, Skream and more.<br />
Black Atlass<br />
<strong>March</strong> 20 @ The Biltmore Cabaret<br />
Hailing from Montreal and signed to A-Track’s Fools Gold Records, Black Atlass<br />
is the creation of singer, songwriter, producer and overall creative Alexander<br />
Fleming. Completely fluent in piano, guitar, drums, bass, trumpet as well as<br />
every aspect of sampling and music production, Fleming’s hauntingly beautiful<br />
falsetto is what really gives his work that special edge that makes it instantly<br />
recognizable as Black Atlass.<br />
Isaiah Rashad<br />
<strong>March</strong> 22 @ Fortune Sound Club<br />
Signed to Kendrick Lamar’s Top Dawg Entertainment record label, Isaiah Rashad<br />
is a hip hop recording artist, singer, songwriter and record producer from<br />
Chattanooga, Tennessee. Flexing a smooth and laid back flow over downtempo<br />
instrumentals, Rashad delivers his messages with thoughtful precision and<br />
style.<br />
Isaiah Rashad<br />
photo by Justin Hogan<br />
14 BPM<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> BPM<br />
15
BPM<br />
Vallis Alps<br />
sharing the love across every timezone<br />
BIG WILD<br />
making your influences invincible<br />
CHRONIXX<br />
bringing everyone in to the same wavelength, cause: music<br />
JAMIE GOYMAN<br />
BPM<br />
KAROLINA KAPUSTA<br />
Imagine travelling halfway across the world for a volunteering<br />
experience and meeting someone there that<br />
shared the same beliefs, visions, and musical tastes as<br />
you. Imagine being told that in a couple years time, you<br />
two would have created a cohesive piece of musical<br />
work, which would top music charts and result in you<br />
playing at major festivals and selling out shows. That’s<br />
sort of how it went for Vallis Alps.<br />
“It was honestly a magical experience,” said Parissa<br />
Tosif, vocalist and one half of the electronic dream pop<br />
duo Vallis Alps, telling the story of how her and her producer<br />
counterpart David Ansari first met and created<br />
their first songs together back in 2015.<br />
While Tosif is from Canberra, Australia, Ansari hails<br />
from Seattle in the United States and together the band<br />
is based in Australia. The pair met while volunteering in<br />
the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. After returning<br />
to their own homes, they continued sending each other<br />
music. Ansari, at the time, was interning at Deep Well<br />
Studio in the middle of the woods in Washington. At<br />
the same time, Tosif was taking time off school to focus<br />
on music and decided to take a risk and visit Ansari in<br />
Seattle. Good fortune blessed the pair again when they<br />
were given the opportunity of recording at Deep Well.<br />
A month later, they completed four songs which lead<br />
to the release of their first self-titled EP a year and a half<br />
later.<br />
Their first single, “Young,” plays like a drowsy electro<br />
pop melody as Tosif sings dolefully about the passage<br />
of time and how it favors the young. Their debut EP, a<br />
euphoric five track work of art, features Tosif with her<br />
voice of milk and honey and Ansari’s ethereal production<br />
style.<br />
With the promise of a new EP on the horizon, their<br />
latest single “Fading” is the first taste of music from the<br />
pair in almost two years. Combining Tosif’s tender vocals<br />
with David Ansari’s uplifting production, “Fading”<br />
was another infectious track that delighted their fans.<br />
“The people we meet, our families, our struggles and<br />
joys, our faith, the mysteries of our world and the events<br />
taking place at this point in history are only some of the<br />
inspiration for Vallis Alps’ lyrics,” says Tosif. “The new<br />
EP [Fable] is conceptually based around the idea that<br />
we wanted to snapshot where we are at this [particular]<br />
moment in our lives. We wanted to give ourselves a<br />
few concepts to remember for when we get older. That's<br />
kind of how the name ‘Fable’ came about - little snippets<br />
or stories that can be carried forward. Each song<br />
has a different meaning, and story - but they all fit within<br />
that overarching purpose.”<br />
Vallis Alps is paying it forward by releasing the stems<br />
of their music on their website. “We wanted to share<br />
our stems because we feel like in this day and age, the<br />
building blocks for every project - whether it be artistic,<br />
scientific, mathematic - whatever field, should be accessible<br />
for all to see and use,” Tosif explains. “We have<br />
learnt so much from other people, from them explaining<br />
what goes into their final product, that we felt it<br />
would be cool to show people what we've learnt about<br />
making a song.”<br />
After hitting up North American destinations they’ll<br />
be returning to their home base to continue performing.<br />
The Australian leg of their tour has expanded to<br />
meet further demands. “It's honestly such a privilege<br />
to be able to meet the people that listen to our music.<br />
Fans can expect our new songs, our old, and hanging<br />
out with us two!” reveals Tosif. Ansari adds, “This tour<br />
has a lot of firsts - we’re performing our new EP in it’s<br />
entirety and we’re touring with a light show for the first<br />
time. It’s a coherent audio-visual show that represents<br />
our music better than our previous tours have, so we<br />
can’t wait to show it to people.”<br />
Vallis Alps performs at the Alexander Gastown<br />
on <strong>March</strong> 11th.<br />
photo by Sean Walker<br />
Serendipity, faith and transparency are the building blocks behind Vallis Alps’ transcendent work.<br />
Big Wild creates his unique wide-open soundscapes in the crowding world of EDM.<br />
VANESSA TAM<br />
<strong>2017</strong> is shaping up to be a monumental<br />
year for Jackson Stell’s electronic music<br />
project, Big Wild. Having just started<br />
creating music under the moniker four<br />
or five years ago, Stell is already landing<br />
prime slots at major music festival and<br />
touring with artists like Odesza and GRiZ.<br />
“Putting out my EP and doing my tour<br />
is a really big step for me [this year],” Stell<br />
shares. “And then on top of that I’m working<br />
on new music and just finding ways to<br />
continue to make things grow. I think if I<br />
can nail it this year, I'll just be in a really<br />
good spot. But then again, I'm somebody<br />
who's always looking into the future and<br />
trying to make things bigger and better.”<br />
Armed with his multi-instrumentalist<br />
background and influenced by the wideopen<br />
spaces of Big Sur (which also inspired<br />
the creation of his artist name), Stell managed<br />
to carve out a one of a kind space for<br />
himself in the increasingly crowded world<br />
of EDM. One of his earliest inspirations for<br />
making beats, like many other electronic<br />
music producers, was through listening to<br />
rap and hip hop from an early age. Some<br />
of the most popular tracks on his Soundcloud<br />
are still the bootleg remixes of popular<br />
tracks like Ludacris’ “Stand Up” and<br />
Rich Boy’s “Throw Some D’s.”<br />
“I think [electronic music artists are inspired<br />
by hip hop] mostly because most<br />
of the production is done on a computer<br />
or with software, and a lot of people use<br />
[that same] software in electronic music.<br />
So it's kinda like a natural crossover,” he<br />
explains. “I also feel like rap is definitely<br />
more of a youth centric genre so when<br />
you're in middle school or high school,<br />
you're more likely to listen to [an be inspired<br />
by] rap than you are to maybe rock<br />
or other things.”<br />
With the launch of his first EP titled<br />
Invincible officially behind him, Stell feels<br />
like he’s ready to take on a full LP next.<br />
“I kind of re-thought a lot about how I<br />
produce and approach music and I think<br />
that now I'm ready for an album whereas<br />
before I don't know if I was ready to really<br />
commit and create a fully cohesive project<br />
of you know 10 to 15 songs,” he says<br />
reflectively. “Where I'm at now, I think I've<br />
matured more and I know what it takes to<br />
put it all together.”<br />
Regarding his work with Odesza’s Foreign<br />
Family collective, Stell feels completely<br />
at home collaborating with his<br />
friends and colleagues. “The basis of [my]<br />
friendship [with Odesza] and the way this<br />
all started was because we liked each other’s<br />
music,” he stated confidently. “But<br />
also like, they have really good knowledge<br />
of how the music industry works and<br />
they're really willing to help me. To meet<br />
another artist, especially one at the scale<br />
of Odesza, that's really into supporting<br />
your music, that's really important to me.<br />
That's kind of what I always wanted, to<br />
have relationships in the music industry<br />
based on music and not just based on just<br />
like trying to gain like popularity among<br />
fans and stuff like that drives away from<br />
why I'm actually doing this.”<br />
Big Wild performs at Venue <strong>March</strong><br />
16th.<br />
Jamaican lyricist Chronixx, Jamar McNaughton, has<br />
a tendency to make music that comes with a proper<br />
rhythm and a voice that soothes. Having been<br />
involved with and inspired by music from a young<br />
age, his first song was written at age 5, it’s safe to<br />
say that if you enjoy the vibes coming out of Jamaica<br />
you already know of Chronixx and if not, well,<br />
knowledge is power. “My relationship with music is<br />
never to make it complicated or try to overdo it,”<br />
tells McNaughton. “I try to bring my music as close<br />
to my real life experience as possible and when I'm<br />
not doing that, I'm making music to guide my life<br />
experience. I want to sing music that will drag me<br />
in the right direction.”<br />
The new album, said to be out before summer<br />
hits, has been made with that precise mindset of<br />
trying to translate music into something tangible<br />
in real life. The young producer and lyricist’s relationship<br />
with music has consistently evolved with<br />
him through the past 20 years and with the new<br />
album, he continues to keep up with the main<br />
goal of staying true to his inspiration. “I don't really<br />
conceptualise an album. Inspiration comes and<br />
you just have to channel it,” he explains. “The vibe<br />
comes and you have to find the best way possible<br />
to channel it. Sometimes the end [product] doesn't<br />
match the original inspiration. Sometimes it does<br />
BEATGINNINGS<br />
finally a way to cut teeth in the local DJ scene<br />
MOLLY RANDHAWA<br />
and when it does, it's the greatest blessing in the<br />
world.”<br />
His last EP Dread & Terrible topped charts and<br />
had fans in a haze of solid bliss. The anticipation<br />
since that 2014 release is at an all time high for the<br />
heads that follow him, a number that only continues<br />
to grow over time. Chronixx is on the right<br />
path to spread his vibes and music to many more<br />
waiting ears, the strong need felt by him to create<br />
music and connect with people will have countless<br />
albums coming from the man who never stops.<br />
“For me it's not a concept in terms of an intellectual<br />
concept, you get a vibe and inspiration, and<br />
it’s now up to you as a musician, artist, poet or producer<br />
to channel that and translate it into a song.<br />
It is very beneficial to take some of your work and<br />
spend time with it and make it into a body of work.<br />
It is beneficial for any musician to create a good<br />
body of work that people can identify you with for<br />
the rest of your time as a musician.”<br />
With a live band set to perform with Chronixx<br />
in Vancouver, the audience is set for a very musical<br />
experience. Having spent much of the last few<br />
months working on the new album, the man is full<br />
of music and ready to share it. Dynamic was the<br />
word he chose to describe this tour with a healthy<br />
heads up that Jah9, Kelissa and Jesse Royal will be<br />
Beatginnings takes local artists from the bedroom to behind the DJ booth, helping gain confidence towards playing for a crowd.<br />
joining him at different points of the tour. “The<br />
best aspect about performing is a part of the process.<br />
It’s how inspiration comes down to a song,<br />
performance is an important step where you get to<br />
physically translate that same emotion and inspiration<br />
to another person. To hundreds of people at<br />
the same time is like a miracle. It’s one of the only<br />
photo: ???<br />
Over the past few years, Vancouver has been exposed to multiple<br />
events and initiatives dedicated to the rising popularity of electronic<br />
and underground music. Inspired by local music collectives like<br />
Groundwerk and Hideout, Beatginnings bridges the divide between<br />
the bedroom and the club by helping less experienced musicians<br />
build confidence by performing live for crowds of people. While sharing<br />
their experiences getting booked in Vancouver, Sylva Sivz (Sivz)<br />
photo by Joachim Maquet<br />
Based on his organic relationship with music, Chronixx manifests his real life in his work.<br />
photo by Chris Johnson<br />
times when human beings get to connect and feel<br />
each other’s emotions. I don't take credit for that,<br />
that's the power of music.”<br />
Chronixx performs at the Commodore<br />
Ballroom on <strong>March</strong> 18th.<br />
and Angelo Daniele (Palehock) came together after recognizing the<br />
need to create a space for beginner producers and DJs with little to no<br />
experience playing live shows.<br />
Working to abolish the experience of getting booked for shows as<br />
an exclusive experience for those who are more connected in the industry,<br />
Beatginnings makes it a priority to book artists that have never<br />
played in a club setting before. Together, the duo promotes local<br />
artists without favouritism as long as they submit their application<br />
on time. “[Beatginnings] wants to see people getting booked for their<br />
skill and production,” explains Daniele. “Not by how many people<br />
they can bring to the club. We make it a point not to book our pals<br />
and become exactly what we’re trying to embody in the industry. We<br />
listen to every submission to give everyone equal opportunity.”<br />
Both Sivz and Daniele use the event to showcase the artistry and<br />
experimental side within electronic music and explore newcomers<br />
who are pushing boundaries outside of their scenes. “It provides a<br />
chill, friendly and just-right environment for producers to come test<br />
out their tracks and for DJs to gain confidence playing for a crowd”<br />
says Daniele.<br />
Having gained popularity quickly within the community, Sivz and<br />
Daniele want to keep their idea focused. “When we first got started<br />
out we were worried about after we gave people gigs, what would<br />
be next? As cool as it is to be the Oprah of gigs, we wanted to be<br />
sure we were doing more,” Daniele explained. To combat their fear,<br />
the duo started facilitating music production workshops and cross<br />
promoting their event with other electronic based communities like<br />
Groundwerk. He went on to say, “We really want to be a voice [in the<br />
community]. Opportunities to work with other [organizations within<br />
the same space] are slowly arising and giving us plenty of ideas as we<br />
go.”<br />
The Beatginnings first timers <strong>edition</strong> takes place at The<br />
Anza Club on <strong>March</strong> 29th.<br />
16 BPM<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> BPM<br />
17
FEATURED CONCERTS<br />
VICTORIA, <strong>BC</strong><br />
BEN CAPLAN &<br />
THE CASUAL SMOKERS<br />
PLUS GUESTS<br />
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 | SUGAR NIGHTCLUB<br />
SHRED KELLY<br />
PLUS SAM WEBER<br />
THURSDAY, MARCH 23 | SUGAR NIGHTCLUB<br />
KYTAMI<br />
PLUS GUESTS<br />
FRIDAY, MARCH 24 | SUGAR NIGHTCLUB<br />
BILL & JOEL<br />
PLASKETT<br />
PLUS MAYHEMINGWAYS<br />
FRIDAY, MARCH 31 | ALIX GOOLDEN HALL<br />
FOR FULL CONCERT LISTINGS & TO PURCHASE<br />
TICKETS, PLEASE VISIT:<br />
WWW.ATOMIQUEPRODUCTIONS.COM<br />
FACEBOOK /ATOMIQUEPRODUCTIONS TWITTER @ATOMIQUEEVENTS<br />
BPM Vol. 1<br />
celebrating the greatest up and coming hip hop, R&B soul and electronic artists that Vancouver has to offer<br />
Stevie Ross<br />
Having just released his first neo-soul album<br />
at the beginning of the year, Something<br />
in Wonderland, Stevie Ross in on a wave.<br />
Coming from a background as a street rapper,<br />
Ross is making a conscious effort to<br />
connect with more people with this latest<br />
project. Layering his deep soulful voice over<br />
live instrumentation, Ross is ready to take<br />
Something in Wonderland as far as he can<br />
in collaboration with local producer Aaron<br />
Hamblin a.k.a. Speechless.<br />
Brandon Gregora<br />
Experimenting with music is fun when<br />
you’re 22 years young and have a grip of<br />
natural talent. Layering his heavily filtered<br />
vocals over trap tinged instrumentals, you’ll<br />
find Gregora singing about the three p’s of<br />
contemporary R&B: parties, pussy and pills.<br />
With just a handful of loosies floating on<br />
his Soundcloud at the moment, Gregora<br />
is poised to do whatever the hell he wants<br />
with his music.<br />
VANESSA TAM<br />
Vancouver is a young and hungry city both in terms of the music it consumes and<br />
the music it produces.<br />
Celebrating the continued growth of the Electronics Dept., we’ve decided to rebrand<br />
ourselves as BPM to be more inclusive of the local and international rap, hip<br />
hop and R&B acts that we cover in addition to the electronic music that we regularly<br />
showcase.<br />
Beatroute <strong>Magazine</strong> is proud to present BPM Vol. 1, a fundraising event and showcase<br />
of local musicians producing contemporary hip hop, R&B, soul and electronic<br />
music for our generation.<br />
BPM Vol. 1 takes place at The Anza Club <strong>March</strong> 18th.<br />
Noble Oak<br />
Jolin Ras<br />
An inspiring creative, Jolin Ras merges his<br />
contemporary beat production style with<br />
live saxophone to create an unreal soundscape<br />
that traverses space and time. Simultaneously<br />
soulful and modern, his tracks<br />
deny the requirement of a vocal hook to<br />
create an incredible sonic performance that<br />
instantly connects with his audience on the<br />
deep and personal level.<br />
After a lengthy stint living in Toronto and<br />
touring across Japan, Noble Oak returns<br />
back to his hometown of Vancouver with a<br />
suitcase full of new experiences and immersive<br />
compositions. Having started the Noble<br />
Oak project on a whim just 6 years ago,<br />
Patrick Fiore has come a long way with his<br />
latest album, Past Life. A cozy mix of ambient<br />
down-tempo and indie dream-pop, Fiore<br />
explores ideas of change, transition and<br />
loss in his latest work.<br />
Chapel Sound<br />
Comprised of DJs, producers, visual artists,<br />
writers, singers and songwriters, Chapel<br />
Sound is a collective of artists who’ve<br />
joined together to push creative expression<br />
forward without boundaries or prejudice.<br />
Chapel Sound is for the children.<br />
Empathy / Kinship<br />
Based on soothing vocals and minimal<br />
house vibes, Empathy is a new project that<br />
was created by Alison Boulier and Thom<br />
Kolb one day as they were basking in the<br />
new love they found in one another. Sonically<br />
adjacent, Kolb also produces electronic<br />
music under the moniker Kinship where<br />
he’s primarily inspired by the music his<br />
friends make and enjoy.<br />
The DREADNOUGHTs<br />
10 years of breaking the rules (and a few bones)<br />
HEATHER ADAMSON<br />
The Dreadnoughts encompass a reputation that<br />
is unlike any other Vancouver punk band out<br />
there. In ten years they have raised the bar for<br />
what punk music represents and stands for in the<br />
local music scene and garnered themselves an allegiance<br />
of fans that are intensely loyal and passionate.<br />
“Having lived in East Van for 14 years, it is<br />
rare that a couple of days go by without running<br />
into someone on the street who has a connection<br />
to our band,” mused drummer Marco Bieri (aka<br />
the Stupid Swedish Bastard). Even during their<br />
hiatus, their email inbox had daily requests for<br />
shows, guitar tabs and other random requests.<br />
“For whatever reason we have been part of creating<br />
a huge community and I do not believe there<br />
will ever be anything similar in my life to this,” said<br />
Bieri.<br />
This Dreadnoughts fandom culture is deeply<br />
rooted in their take-no-prisoners live show that<br />
has earned them folklore status worldwide. From<br />
starting out with only five songs and still booking<br />
three set evenings all over <strong>BC</strong> (thanks to vocalist<br />
and lead guitarist Nicholas Smyth <strong>–</strong> aka Uncle<br />
Touchy or the Fang - being a human juke box),<br />
The Dreadnoughts philosophy of “let it ride” has<br />
created opportunities from day one to continually<br />
surprise both themselves and audiences. Their<br />
touring stories are rich in antics and flair, one part<br />
ASSIMILATION<br />
all jokes aside, Apotheosis delivers thematic depth<br />
ANA KRUNIC<br />
horror, one part comedy including countless band<br />
and audience injuries as a result of their overtly<br />
physical live show. “Before I joined the band I was<br />
a fan,” recalls bassist Andrew Hay (aka Squid Vicious).<br />
“I would go home from shows with a black<br />
eye on my face paired with a big smile.” Recalling<br />
some of their most memorable shows, their<br />
intensity is undeniable. “I feel like anytime we<br />
played Pub 340 we almost died,” shared Hay. “It<br />
was always a mixture of pure energy and absolute<br />
muscle pain. It didn't help that they served drinks<br />
in glass mugs. Glass everywhere.”<br />
Their escapades have not been limited to <strong>BC</strong> or<br />
Canada, not even close. Europe has been a hotbed<br />
for the band from early on, with some of their<br />
most riveting experiences taking place there with<br />
large numbers connecting to the band and their<br />
songs as anthems to express at times some hardcore<br />
emotion. “At one of our shows in Monheim<br />
Germany I had never seen our band and an audience<br />
be more hostile towards each other,” shared<br />
Hay. “A gentleman told me that it was actually<br />
a good show because it was 'Avante Garde' and<br />
'Very Disturbing.'” Some of their largest successes<br />
have occurred in Eastern Europe including being<br />
on Polish TV and getting to play a 6000 person<br />
festival in the Western Ukraine after responding<br />
to a random email and making up a fake manager.<br />
Listening to Assimilation's first album,<br />
Apotheosis, you're hit with death/<br />
thrash that instantly makes you think<br />
of bands like Morbid Angel, Incantation<br />
and their peers <strong>–</strong> it sounds like<br />
it clawed its way through time out of<br />
that scene in the late 80's/early 90's<br />
The best advice from the band regarding the new release Apotheosis? Prepare to be Assimilated.<br />
The Dreadnaughts take years of pure energy and absolute muscle pain on the road with an Anniversary tour.<br />
As they reflect on the past ten years, they are<br />
also looking ahead at what's to come, including<br />
an 10th anniversary tour and a new album on the<br />
way that they promise will have some new surprises<br />
for fans to dig their teeth into. When asked<br />
if they would be taking a political approach to the<br />
album's concept, vocalist and lead guitarist Nicholas<br />
Smyth stated “We tend to think that when<br />
punk bands “go political” it really, really sucks.<br />
That said, there is a way of being political without<br />
being superficial and preachy including inviting<br />
the listener to reflect on certain deeper issues and<br />
to learn a little more about why we are where we<br />
are. That is where we are going with this album.”<br />
to land in present-day Vancouver.<br />
Then you listen a little closer and it's<br />
not quite the same tropes of the era<br />
<strong>–</strong> rather the imaginings of someone<br />
who grew up immersed in that music<br />
while doing a hell of a lot of gaming.<br />
The name of the EP came about when<br />
photo: ???<br />
founding member, vocalist and guitarist<br />
Jesse James Jardine was playing<br />
a game on his PS4 called Apotheon<br />
<strong>–</strong> about a Greek soldier ascending to<br />
godhood by conquering the Pantheon.<br />
Apotheosis is the greek term for a<br />
mortal becoming a god, and this lyrical<br />
theme of inner strength and self-empowerment,<br />
as interpreted through a<br />
death metal lens, runs through many<br />
of their songs and into their upcoming<br />
full-length debut, Laws of Power.<br />
"The new album is more death metal,<br />
it’s more technical and less old school<br />
than our EP,”says Jesse. The record<br />
is a continuation of the theme on<br />
Apotheosis, a former mortal negotiating<br />
existence in the realm of the<br />
gods (with lots of references to Dark<br />
Souls, of course). Assimilation went<br />
through many lineup changes to get<br />
here, including members of Ogroem<br />
and Terrifier. Jesse started the project<br />
with more of a grind focus named<br />
Ceaseless Discharge before forming<br />
Assimilation.<br />
The current line up consists of Stephen<br />
Shaw of Sinned on drums, Shiloh<br />
"Mystique Garlique" Anderson on bass<br />
and after posting an ad on Craigslist,<br />
Matt Chanway on guitar ("First thing's<br />
photo by Savonna Spracklin<br />
From their stage names to their stage presence,<br />
The Dreadnoughts are a force to be reckoned<br />
with and time has proven that their staying power<br />
is stronger than ever. Whether it’s a near death<br />
crash on the Autobahn or a broken instrument on<br />
the stage, this band continues to sacrifice life and<br />
limb for the sake of their music and are proving to<br />
be unstoppable.<br />
The Dreadnoughts’ Ten Year Double Show<br />
Extravaganza takes place <strong>March</strong> 17 and 18<br />
at the Rickshaw Theatre.<br />
first", laughs Jesse, "he was willing to<br />
grow his hair.”) One glance at their<br />
online presence shows you just how<br />
much they take the piss out of both<br />
internet culture and occasionally the<br />
super-severe metal culture. For example,<br />
a sardonic GoFundMe campaign<br />
for their drummer Steve called "Save<br />
Our Dad" to fund a PS4 to play Battlefield<br />
I and "get hype AF." The campaign<br />
is still live, by the way, if you feel this<br />
is a cause worthy of your donations.<br />
In similar fashion, the details are soon<br />
to come for a show in Langley where<br />
they're planning a kegger/bush party<br />
show with a few other local bands<br />
on <strong>March</strong> 18th following the release<br />
of Laws of Power, as well as a western<br />
Canadian tour in May with Terrifier,<br />
Evilosity, Torrefy and Gatekeeper<br />
joining them on select dates. I asked<br />
Jesse for some last words: "Keep the<br />
old-school alive, check out the bands<br />
that the bands you like listen to, because<br />
it's probably a hell of a lot better<br />
than whatever you're listening to, and<br />
prepare to be assimilated.".<br />
Assimilation’s full length album<br />
Apotheosis is released on<br />
<strong>March</strong> 17th.<br />
18 BPM<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> The skinny<br />
19
CITY<br />
WORSE<br />
a three headed heavy metal monster awakes<br />
HEATH FENTON<br />
As most people in the extreme music community<br />
know, Vancouver metal legends 3 Inches Of<br />
Blood called it quits a while back, so it was just a<br />
matter of time before the members would start to<br />
resurface in new projects. Worse is the latest spin<br />
off, made up of ex-3 Inches Of Blood members,<br />
guitarist/vocalist Shane Clark (2004-end), bassist/<br />
vocalist Justin Hagberg (2004-end) and drummer/<br />
vocalist Matt Wood (2004-05). If you think they<br />
are going to be just another 3IOB clone then consider<br />
yourself greatly mistaken.<br />
“Just listen to it. A band is the sum of its parts.<br />
Three Inches of Blood is something we all have in<br />
common and that we’re proud of, but this is the<br />
music that this combination of people is making,”<br />
Clark explains.<br />
If any of you are familiar with the musical career<br />
arcs of these three fine fellows, then you<br />
know what Clark is talking about. Before they all<br />
came together in 3IOB in 2004, they were all in<br />
quite different bands. Clark was in stoner muscle<br />
groove band Ten Miles Wide, Hagberg was playing<br />
black/death metal with Allfather, and Wood was<br />
playing in doom mongers Goatsblood. Keeping<br />
that in mind, Worse blow any pigeonholes wide<br />
apart and in all directions. The music gets doomy<br />
at times and has a downright greasy element to<br />
it. Clark’s trademark dirty groove is instantly recognized.<br />
And with the three members all sharing<br />
vocal duties, the music has many personalities.<br />
“I’m really into repetition. I love being hypnotized<br />
by the never-ending riff. We’ve all done vocals<br />
before and we all wanted to give it a go,” says<br />
Clark.<br />
The seeds of Worse were actually planted<br />
about eight years ago when long time friends<br />
Clark and Wood started to jam together. Clark<br />
goes on, “When we would be home in Vancouver<br />
at the same time, which wasn’t often, we’d drink<br />
beers and jam on shit just because we see eye to<br />
eye on the concept of playing for the sake of playing.<br />
About six years ago we did a demo that we<br />
got Justin to sing on, and then we didn’t jam for<br />
about four years. It really became a thing again<br />
two years ago when we were both in Vancouver<br />
full time and we were neighbours and Justin was<br />
still on board.”<br />
Worse has since played a couple of local shows<br />
and also recorded a recent three song demo,<br />
which was released by War Crime Recordings.<br />
“War Crime got a hold of me and said they<br />
liked the demo and offered to put it out as a super<br />
limited cassette. I thought it was a cool idea and<br />
we’re rolling with it. Working on this with them<br />
was super chill. They put out cool stuff,” Clark says<br />
about the deal. And surely this is just the tip of<br />
the iceberg. “This year we have a few things cooking<br />
but too early to say. We’re focused on writing<br />
right now. We’re recording this year and we’ve<br />
got about three or four songs on the go. The stuff<br />
after this demo will be cool. I would rather play<br />
shows and get the music to the people. That’s the<br />
way we’ve always done things. The reason this<br />
band exists is because Matt and I liked to drink<br />
beer and jam on stuff. The focal point is the music<br />
for us at this moment, we’ll see what happens,” an<br />
enthusiastic Clark reveals.<br />
Seek out this band right now. This is just a<br />
taste of what is to become. All three members are<br />
monsters in the extreme music community and it<br />
would be best to climb aboard the mothership as<br />
it gathers steam.<br />
Worse have released a three-song demo,<br />
available for purchase at http://warcrimerecordings.bigcartel.com/<br />
Just when you thought things couldn’t get better, Three Inches Of Blood alumni band together for Worse.<br />
We recently hosted a discussion panel at<br />
Studio Vostok to discuss diversity and representation<br />
in the arts community. It was<br />
refreshing to see a handful of people have a<br />
spirited conversation about an important<br />
issue without watching it descend into a<br />
counterproductive shouting match. Everyone<br />
walked away with more insight than they<br />
entered the room with and everyone left with<br />
an increased respect for each of the people<br />
they shared the discussion with. Among the<br />
many topics addressed was the outcome of<br />
mandates that place a focus on diversity, and<br />
whether the emphasis on increased representation<br />
can result in the inadvertent tokenization<br />
of people.<br />
There is no clear-cut correct way to approach<br />
this. There will always be someone<br />
who doesn’t agree and there are valid points<br />
on both sides of the argument. With situations<br />
like this, I think the most sensible way<br />
to go about things is an unbiased assessment<br />
of the positive and negative effects of<br />
the outcome, and the gathering of various<br />
opinions to form a consensus, with a greater<br />
importance placed on the opinions of those<br />
who are directly affected by the outcome. It’s<br />
the impact on the individual affected that<br />
ultimately determines if things were done in<br />
an appropriate manner. I know people who<br />
have felt that the attention paid to their differences<br />
have made them feel tokenized. Am<br />
I in this band because of my skin colour? Were<br />
we added to this bill because of our gender or<br />
our ability? These are thoughts that can cross<br />
an individual’s mind and potentially make<br />
them feel alienated.<br />
The contrast to this is that if no effort is<br />
made to increase the visibility of marginalized<br />
groups then a different kind of widespread<br />
tokenization will remain unchallenged. If<br />
you’re a black guitarist you’re Jimi Hendrix.<br />
If you’re a female vocalist you’re Janis Joplin.<br />
These comparisons can become tiresome for<br />
those who receive them on a constant basis.<br />
The reason those examples have become the<br />
a dialogue about diversity and representation<br />
From the desk of Mitch Ray<br />
token point of reference for many is because<br />
of the lack of representation overall. It’s because<br />
those “types” of musicians are not the<br />
mainstream norm, and that lack of visibility<br />
for certain groups is what perpetuates those<br />
stereotypical comparisons.<br />
From the business standpoint there are<br />
factors at play that not everyone is aware of<br />
and these have varying degrees of importance<br />
for different people. Constructing a lineup for<br />
a show is an often frustrating process with<br />
bands unable to confirm or bands dropping<br />
off the bill. It’s even more difficult when the<br />
clock is ticking to get everything organized<br />
and announced in order to sufficiently promote<br />
it and ensure its success. As the list of<br />
available and suitable bands dwindles, it isn’t<br />
always easy or viable to adhere strictly to a<br />
particular mandate. There is also the financial<br />
incentive. Very few promoters are able to sustain<br />
a living in their line of work, and it might<br />
be hard to convince some that changing their<br />
winning formula isn’t a risk that could affect<br />
their livelihood. It’s unfortunate to think that<br />
for some, diversity doesn’t even enter their<br />
thought process, but it is indeed a reality and<br />
it’s an outlook that is not entirely devoid of<br />
logic.<br />
There’s a lot of ground still to be made if<br />
things are going to get to where they should<br />
be. There are many different approaches<br />
of achieving the same end goal, and aside<br />
from truly regressive types I can’t imagine<br />
too many people within the arts community<br />
having the opinion that a more diverse community<br />
is a negative. If you’re in a position of<br />
influence you should take it upon yourself to<br />
move things in the right direction, with the<br />
open-mindedness to acknowledge that your<br />
way is not the only way to reach the goal<br />
many of us want.<br />
Mitch Ray puts on events and manages<br />
artists under the name Art Signified.<br />
ABORIGINAL SPEAKER SERIES<br />
an opportunity to both learn about and be a part of Indigenous research<br />
FARZAD TAHERI<br />
Acimosis (pronounced “ah-chee-moo-sis”) is<br />
the Cree word for puppy. It is also the honorary<br />
nickname that William Lindsay and his<br />
team gave their ex-secretary at the SFU office<br />
for Aboriginal Peoples.<br />
Lindsay and his colleague Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn,<br />
who are considered to be the go-to experts<br />
of the Indigenous Research Institute at<br />
SFU, have introduced a new approach of sharing<br />
academic research with the general public,<br />
specifically the Downtown Eastside. Lindsay,<br />
who grew up in that community, describes<br />
himself as a “Chindian” (Chinese-speaking Indian)<br />
— a term that he learned from someone<br />
in the audience during his recent Aboriginal<br />
Speaker Series presentation.<br />
The Speaker Series serves to give people “a<br />
flavour of the kind of research that is happening<br />
in SFU,” in an interactive and entertaining<br />
way. All we need to do is to show up and<br />
throw challenging questions at the speakers.<br />
The first event in the next series, taking<br />
place on <strong>March</strong> 7, displays photos from the<br />
1800s, during the era of colonization. What<br />
Lindsay finds interesting about these photos<br />
are the implications of bias while these<br />
“staged” shots were taken. On <strong>March</strong> 14, anthropologist<br />
Katherine Nichols will expound<br />
on the past relationship between Aboriginal<br />
communities and non-Aboriginal academics,<br />
and the importance of current collaboration<br />
in rebuilding the broken bond.<br />
Similarly, on <strong>March</strong> 21, Marianne Ignace,<br />
The SFU Vancouver campus boasts a thriving Indigenous presence, one they are proud of.<br />
director of the First Nations Language Centre<br />
at SFU, will describe the efforts she took<br />
in re-translating and re-claiming the stories<br />
recorded from Secwepemc knowledge keepers<br />
(in the late 1800s) that only exist in English<br />
renditions. She’ll also talk about the preservation<br />
of native languages through modern<br />
technological means.<br />
To echo the SFU Office of Aboriginal Peoples’<br />
motto, “Engaging the world,” on <strong>March</strong><br />
28, Gretchen Ferguson, an associate director<br />
with the Centre for Sustainable Community<br />
Development, will present an international<br />
perspective on Indigenous entrepreneurship.<br />
She highlights the distinct conception of innovation<br />
and profit making, and the collective<br />
GROWING ROOM:<br />
A FEMINIST LITERARY FESTIVAL<br />
an exhilaratingly large gathering of women and genderqueer writers<br />
SARAH JAMIESON<br />
Room magazine has come a long way in 40<br />
years as Canada’s oldest feminism literary<br />
journal and this year, Room will celebrate the<br />
milestone by hosting Growing Room: A Feminist<br />
Literary Festival, starting on International<br />
Women’s Day, <strong>March</strong> 8. The inaugural<br />
festival will include readings, panels, workshops,<br />
and more, and many of the events are<br />
free to attend.<br />
“The roots of [the festival] go back to the<br />
beginning of time…these are not new ideas<br />
that we’re talking about. For some people, it<br />
might be new to them, and that’s really exciting,”<br />
said Arielle Spence, the festival’s director.<br />
“We hope that people who attended<br />
the women’s march for the first time attend<br />
Growing Room, and those who are long-time<br />
activists also attend.”<br />
At the same time, the magazine will release<br />
a special anthology entitled Making<br />
Room: Forty Years of Room <strong>Magazine</strong>. The<br />
anthology includes some of the best writing<br />
by Canadian women and genderqueer writers<br />
for the journal. The 416-page collection<br />
will also explore the history of art and writing<br />
since Room’s inception in 1975. Making<br />
Room’s launch party will open the literary<br />
festival at the Fox Cabaret.<br />
Choosing the shortlisted pieces for the<br />
anthology wasn’t easy — all of them were<br />
painstakingly handpicked.<br />
“We had a three-day retreat to a cabin,<br />
the six of us. It was mostly civilized, but there<br />
was some yelling,” she laughed. “It wasn’t<br />
easy. There was a lot of writing that could’ve<br />
gone in there, and I think there are some of<br />
us who are still sad because there were some<br />
pieces in there that we thought should go in<br />
but didn’t really fit.”<br />
Growing Room takes place from <strong>March</strong><br />
8 to 12. Over 40 authors will host festival<br />
events and panel discussions this year, including<br />
Lorna Crozier, Jen Sookfong Lee, Evelyn<br />
Lau, Amber Dawn, Hiromi Goto, Dina Del<br />
Bucchia, Carrie Mac, and Sonnet L’Abbé.<br />
photo by Dale Northey<br />
orientation in pursuit of the common good.<br />
The Speaker Series is an invitation for the<br />
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal to once again<br />
come to the table and start a collaboration,<br />
but this time, both as guests. And who better<br />
to host than Science — the impartial and<br />
truthful Science, helping to rebuild trust and<br />
embrace the thirst for knowledge.<br />
The Aboriginal Speaker Series is co-organized<br />
by the SFU Indigenous Research<br />
Institute and SFU’s Vancity Office of Community<br />
Engagement, and takes places<br />
from <strong>March</strong> 7 <strong>–</strong> 28 at the Djavad Mowafaghian<br />
World Art Centre, Goldcorp Centre<br />
for the Arts.<br />
Growing Room: A Feminist Literary<br />
Festival runs from <strong>March</strong> 8 to 12 at<br />
the Fox Cabaret, Creekside Community<br />
Centre, 24 West 4th Avenue, and<br />
Vancouver Public Library — Mount<br />
Pleasant Branch. roommagazine.com<br />
illustration: Slavka Kolesar<br />
Canada’s oldest feminism journal celebrates<br />
40 years with literary festival,<br />
special anthology collection<br />
OP-ED: CONFRONTING<br />
ISLAMOPHOBIA IN<br />
CANADA<br />
holding onto hope in the face of hate<br />
NOOR KHWAJA<br />
I was preparing myself for the Monday ahead when I got the news<br />
of the Quebec City mosque attack. A few days earlier, my Facebook<br />
stream had exploded with protests surrounding Trump’s Muslim<br />
travel ban in the United States. These posts included live footage outside<br />
airports, moving videos of families stuck in transit, and the voice<br />
of Hollywood actors crying out, “#NoBanNoWall.” Also among this<br />
stream of frustration was the shining face of Justin Trudeau, promising<br />
to take in the refused refugees. In a world where differences have<br />
manifested into phobias, Trudeau’s repeated words of acceptance<br />
have reinstated Canada’s cultural harmony. If the policies of our<br />
southern neighbors have legitimized forms of hate, Canada has done<br />
the opposite.<br />
This is why the news of the mosque attack was so difficult to process.<br />
In my idealized world as a Muslim immigrant, Islamophobia had<br />
not touched my beloved new home. While I cried for the worsening<br />
situation in the United States, I was grateful to be where I was: far<br />
enough away to not worry about my own future. However, with news<br />
of the attack, it became clear that fear and hate trickles outside of<br />
borders. Perhaps it has always been hidden here. That’s the scariest<br />
thought of all.<br />
Tired of sharing social media posts of other people taking action, I<br />
decided to try something less passive. My roommate and I attended<br />
a rally downtown as a reaction to the attack. Keeping with the Canadian<br />
cliché, there was a violent snowstorm the day of, but we bundled<br />
up and braved the cold. To our surprise, the space was brimming with<br />
pink-nosed, snow-covered sign holders. One of the many speakers at<br />
the rally had a simple solution to the rise of Islamophobia. He urged<br />
the public to ask their neighboring Muslims questions. At the grocery<br />
store, in the mosque, online. Anywhere.<br />
In high school, I had a girl ask me why I didn’t wear hijab and<br />
whether it meant that I had chosen to not be a true Muslim. I had appreciated<br />
the chance to explain myself and talk about the spectrum<br />
in my religion, the same as in any religion. Her presumptions were<br />
quickly eradicated, simply by talking to me for a few minutes.<br />
We shy away from asking questions because we don’t want to<br />
seem ignorant or ill informed, but I know that many of us on the answering<br />
end welcome them when they replace misconceptions and<br />
brainwashed hatred. I saw hope in the people at the rally, wearing<br />
toques, standing in the freezing cold, and trying to learn.<br />
Asking questions can often replace misconceptions.<br />
photo by Masha George<br />
20 The skinny<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> CITY<br />
21
CITY<br />
COMEDY<br />
BOTTOMS UP<br />
getting to know your local bartenders<br />
YASMINE SHEMESH<br />
PACIFIC CROSSINGS: HONG KONG ARTISTS<br />
IN VANCOUVER<br />
PUDDLES PITY PARTY<br />
send in the clown<br />
GRAEME WIGGINS<br />
photo by Emily Butler<br />
Ever wanted to know more about that person behind the bar pouring<br />
your liquid courage? Here’s your chance. This month, meet Chris Alarcon<br />
from the Biltmore Cabaret.<br />
HOW DID YOU START BARTENDING?<br />
I started bartending because after two and a half years of bussing I<br />
strategically became best pals with my boss and convinced him that I<br />
was ready for it. I wasn’t.<br />
HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED AT THE BILTMORE?<br />
Let’s just say I’ve been there long enough that the guy I served last<br />
night was discovering masturbation when I started.<br />
BEST THING ABOUT YOUR JOB?<br />
Best thing about my job is commanding the respect of a stranger who<br />
would otherwise not even look at me in real life. Because without me,<br />
there’s no liquid courage for them.<br />
FAVOURITE DRINK TO MAKE?<br />
My favourite drink to make is something exotic and blue with cherries<br />
floating on top because it blows the minds of naive young kids.<br />
GO-TO DRINK ON A NIGHT OFF?<br />
Go-to drink on a night off is usually whatever my pal Nina Mila decides<br />
to make me at The Boxcar. #NameDropper. Usually a vodka<br />
soda. Bitters because I’m a simple man with simple pleasures and I’m<br />
trying to watch my figure.<br />
TELL US ABOUT THE GREATEST NIGHT YOU’VE EVER<br />
HAD AT WORK.<br />
Greatest night at work was probably when I asked Jesse Pinkman from<br />
Breaking Bad if he needed a tequila shot to which I got a very subtle<br />
“No, thanks.” The acknowledgement was enough for this star-struck<br />
guy. That or when Tame Impala played. I knew they’d blow up.<br />
THE WORST?<br />
The worst night I’ve ever worked is anytime there’s a metal show with<br />
five bands on the bill. One can only handle so much fury. Or the time I<br />
said, “Bye, sweetie,” to a girl and her boyfriend tried to hit me over the<br />
head with a bottle. Shoutout to our fabulous security staff for saving<br />
my life that night.<br />
The Biltmore Cabaret is located at 2755 Prince Edward St.<br />
Chris Alarcon is blowing naïve minds,one maraschino cherry at a time.<br />
shining light upon the beauty and struggle of immigration<br />
NOOR KHWAJA<br />
“When I was seven years old, I opened a<br />
World Book Encyclopaedia and landed on<br />
the word ‘puppet.’ I thought, ‘That’s what<br />
I’ll do for the rest of my life.’ The old family<br />
joke was that if I’d happened to look at<br />
twhe word ‘proctologist,’ I’d be looking up<br />
your ass right now.”<br />
Ronnie Burkett has been running his<br />
ever-popular Daisy Theatre since 2013.<br />
Originally intended to be a one-off performance,<br />
this live, improvisational puppet<br />
show was met with acclaim, and has since<br />
been consecutively selling out theatres<br />
over the last four years.<br />
“It can be funny, it can be political,<br />
and it can be very dirty,” Burkett states.<br />
A self-proclaimed news junkie, Burkett<br />
draws inspiration from current events and<br />
trending topics daily. “What’s the audience’s<br />
baggage when they walk in? What<br />
are we as a community in that darkened<br />
room thinking? It’s surprising which characters<br />
can address this kind of stuff and<br />
how the crowd will react.”<br />
Audience interaction is also a part<br />
of the show. Some volunteers may find<br />
themselves manipulating characters and<br />
others could somehow end up with their<br />
shirt off. “When you invite a civilian to the<br />
party, you lose full control of what’s happening.<br />
Everything is in the moment.”<br />
THE DAISY THEATRE<br />
meeting the master behind one of puppetry’s most outrageous stage-shows<br />
JOHNNY PAPAN<br />
photo by Rose Lam<br />
Of the Daisy’s large, diverse cast, Burkett<br />
highlights three hand-sculpted stars:<br />
Edna Rural, a confused and judgemental<br />
Canadian; Esme, a drunk, vulgar, and<br />
bitchy Hollywood movie star; and Schnitzel,<br />
the innocent fairy. “These three characters<br />
are all equal thirds Ronnie.”<br />
In regards to the Daisy’s terrific popularity,<br />
Burkett states, “I’ve always wanted<br />
to ask audiences why they keep coming<br />
back. I think it’s because I have a point of<br />
Hong Kong artists show the talent they often have to leave behind<br />
This year marks the 20th anniversary<br />
of the transfer of sovereignty<br />
of Hong Kong from the<br />
United Kingdom to the People’s<br />
Republic of China. To celebrate<br />
this historical milestone<br />
and its relevance to our city,<br />
the Vancouver Art Gallery will<br />
run an exhibit entitled Pacific<br />
Crossings: Hong Kong Artists<br />
in Vancouver from <strong>March</strong> 4 to<br />
May 28. The exhibit contains<br />
the work of four artists: Paul<br />
Chui, Josh Hon, Carrie Koo, and<br />
David Lam, each showcasing<br />
their unique and diverse practices.<br />
Using different forms of<br />
media and archival accompaniments,<br />
the collaborative event<br />
will offer visual and historical<br />
insights into the complexity of<br />
artistic immigration.<br />
Speaking with the exhibit’s<br />
curator Diana Freundl, she explains<br />
that the art “allows institutions<br />
to consider peripheral<br />
themes that reveal some of the<br />
complex narratives and histories<br />
surrounding Hong Kong<br />
emigration.” While techniques<br />
and backgrounds of the artists<br />
are rooted in Hong Kong,<br />
their transition to Canada has<br />
evolved some of their work and<br />
represents an interesting fusion<br />
of culture. For example, Koo’s<br />
pieces are painted using traditional<br />
Chinese ink techniques.<br />
Her works often contain abstract<br />
landscapes mostly of<br />
“mountains shrouded in clouds<br />
and mist.” However, after immigrating<br />
to Canada, inspired by<br />
the nature of British Columbia<br />
and Alberta, Koo’s work transitioned<br />
to include the snow of<br />
her surrounding environment.<br />
Many artists from Hong<br />
Kong left their notable reputations<br />
and artistic communities<br />
behind with their immigration<br />
to Canada. While holding status<br />
and popularity in their field<br />
prior to immigration, “these<br />
artists remain largely unknown<br />
today in the Canadian art community.”<br />
As a program run by<br />
the gallery’s Institute of Asian<br />
Art, the exhibit aims to “bring<br />
greater visibility to Asian art”<br />
and “increase engagement with<br />
Vancouver’s Asian communities.”<br />
Freundl hopes that the exhibit<br />
will “provide some insight<br />
into the art ecology of Hong<br />
Kong (both past and present)”<br />
while also showcasing the genuine<br />
talent that currently lies in<br />
the community’s shadows.<br />
Pacific Crossings: Hong Kong<br />
Artists in Vancouver highlights<br />
both the beauty and the struggle<br />
of immigration. While the<br />
city celebrates variety in culture,<br />
it can be difficult to re-establish<br />
talent across oceans.<br />
The must-see exhibition will<br />
help to applaud cross-cultural<br />
artwork while also educating<br />
the public of unique narratives.<br />
Pacific Crossings: Hong<br />
Kong Artists in Vancouver<br />
run at the Vancouver Art<br />
Gallery from <strong>March</strong> 4 to<br />
May 28.<br />
view. If an artist doesn’t have a point of<br />
view about the time they live in, it’s just<br />
empty entertainment.”<br />
“The world is nuts and uncertain right<br />
now; the Daisy is the right dose of satirical<br />
nonsense. Expect the unexpected.”<br />
The Daisy Theatre runs at the Historic<br />
Theatre from <strong>March</strong> 21 to<br />
April 9.<br />
photo by Alejandro Santiago<br />
Daisy is the dose of satirical nonsense we need in the strange circus that is today.<br />
There’s an old Saturday Night Live<br />
skit that popularized the distinction<br />
between things that are “funny<br />
ha-ha” and things that are “funny<br />
strange.” Things that are “funny haha”<br />
are things like comic strips and<br />
practical jokes, while things that are<br />
“funny strange” are things that are<br />
just odd, or absurd on the face of it.<br />
Puddles the clown, visiting Vancouver<br />
on his Puddles Pity Party tour,<br />
falls under the latter category. He’s<br />
a seven-foot-tall, sad-looking clown<br />
with a beautiful voice whose cover of<br />
Lorde’s “Royals” made him YouTube<br />
famous, and now he tours the world<br />
singing his unique takes on songs and<br />
confounding expectations.<br />
The fact that many people experience<br />
coulrophobia (a fear of clowns)<br />
makes the idea of a touring clown<br />
musical act hard for some to get behind.<br />
But Puddles’ act is welcoming,<br />
and his gentle personality makes the<br />
whole thing palatable. In his words,<br />
“Every now and then, I’ll meet someone<br />
who says they’re afraid of clowns.<br />
But once they see my show, they relax<br />
and realize that clowns are just like<br />
apples. And one rotten apple doesn’t<br />
Since opening in April of 2013, Chris<br />
Bentzen’s gallery, Hot Art Wet City,<br />
has shown pop surrealist/weird art<br />
and housed many local, original comedy<br />
shows. Unfortunately, this month<br />
is the last to experience any comedy<br />
mean that all apples are rotten. Most<br />
apples are tasty and sweet. I’m a<br />
sweet apple.”<br />
Skepticism is an understandable<br />
feeling. Today’s society is a guarded<br />
one, making it difficult to open oneself<br />
up and authentically take in an<br />
experience that might at first seem<br />
ironic in nature. Puddles understands<br />
this and tries to work towards breaking<br />
that concern’s hold on people. As<br />
he describes, “It’s easy to get stuck in<br />
cynicism and skepticism these days.<br />
Maybe it’s from being hurt and trying<br />
to defend against being hurt again.<br />
My mee-maw used to say, ‘Life is just<br />
a series of disappointments.’ And<br />
that may be true. But in the between<br />
times, there are some glimmers of joy.<br />
You just have to leave yourself open.<br />
Open to the disappointments and<br />
open to the joyful surprises.”<br />
Clowning is an ancient art, with<br />
some clowns requiring years of training<br />
to perfect their act. Despite being<br />
both a clown and blessed with a<br />
beautiful voice, Puddles’ training has<br />
been fairly limited. “I’ve never had<br />
any formal singing lessons. My meemaw<br />
says I came out of the oven singing.<br />
Never had any formal training of<br />
HOT ART WET CITY<br />
Venue that brought art and comedy together closes its doors<br />
AMBER HARPER-YOUNG<br />
HAWC was a great place to be surprised by laughter and weird art<br />
magic in Bentzen’s artful space because<br />
the venue is closing.<br />
Before he started running the<br />
gallery, Bentzen describes himself as<br />
having “just liked going to comedy”<br />
and he would frequent shows like The<br />
Puddles swims gracefully in the wake left by Pennywise and the Juggalos<br />
any kind, really. I’m a big coffee drinker<br />
and once took a latte art class with<br />
my pal Stu. Does that count?”<br />
So it might be time for Vancouverites<br />
to put aside their cynicism, embrace<br />
openness and check out Puddles<br />
Pity Party. You never know how<br />
it might change you. In his words, “It’s<br />
Sunday Service, Talent Time and anything<br />
at Little Mountain Gallery —<br />
shows where anything could happen.<br />
“It’s like going to a punk show in the<br />
‘90s,” he says. Bentzen knew he wanted<br />
to have comedy at HAWC before<br />
opening. “I knew I wanted to have a<br />
bunch of stuff happening.” And he<br />
did. Apart from comedy he also hosted<br />
yoga, various sketch classes, workshops,<br />
screenings, and more.<br />
Someone who helped facilitate the<br />
live comedy at HAWC was comedian<br />
Alicia Tobin. Bentzen first saw Tobin<br />
(HAWC’s current comedy curator)<br />
perform at The Rio. Now, four years<br />
later, together they have been responsible<br />
for bringing more outsideof-the-box<br />
formats to the Vancouver<br />
comedy scene.<br />
Although the venue’s shows have<br />
been selected for the Just for Laughs<br />
NorthWest Festival for two years running,<br />
Tobin won’t take all the kudos<br />
for the success the gallery’s comedy<br />
has enjoyed. Tobin says, “Chris is a<br />
huge comedy fan, and even though I<br />
was initially connecting with comedians<br />
and hoping they would work with<br />
us to create great shows, beyond that<br />
Chris should get all the credit. His<br />
incredible work ethic and his love of<br />
our local comedy scene, combined<br />
with some very wonderful shows and<br />
my first time in Vancouver. Vancouvians<br />
can expect a night of song and<br />
dance, sadness and joy and most of<br />
all, fellowship. Oh, and free Puddles<br />
cuddles after the show!”<br />
Check out Puddles Pity Party<br />
<strong>March</strong> 6 @ the Rio Theatre<br />
terrific audiences, made HAWC so<br />
special. I am going to deeply miss my<br />
own show, especially the people that<br />
came to the show — I met hundreds<br />
of genuinely wonderful Vancouverites.<br />
Thanks for drawing with me,<br />
buddies!”<br />
Tobin’s fun-filled show is interactive:<br />
Everyone attending draws<br />
something whimsical that she has<br />
imagined/suggested, while encouraging<br />
personal twists. And in between<br />
showing these drawings and gently<br />
mocking/interviewing the individuals<br />
about them, she features short sets by<br />
local comedians. Tobin speaks with<br />
everyone attending the show about<br />
their drawing with a well-balanced<br />
approach of comedy and warmth.<br />
If you’re interested in taking part in<br />
HAWC’s alternative comedy experience,<br />
see any of the final shows there<br />
this month. You might even leave<br />
with some tight, low-brow art.<br />
Graham Clark Presents <strong>–</strong> Friday,<br />
<strong>March</strong> 10<br />
Vancouverite: A Comedy Show <strong>–</strong><br />
Saturday, <strong>March</strong> 11<br />
Alicia Tobin’s Come Draw With<br />
Me <strong>–</strong> Friday, <strong>March</strong> 17<br />
We Know Nothing About Art: A<br />
Comedy Show <strong>–</strong> <strong>March</strong> 18<br />
22 CITY<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> comedy<br />
23
QUEER<br />
ELBOW ROOM CAFÉ:<br />
THE MUSICAL<br />
celebrating community and sass through song and dance<br />
DAVID CUTTING<br />
Elbow Room Café on Davie Street<br />
is a Vancouver legend. Known for<br />
its sassy service and delicious food,<br />
the restaurant holds fond memories<br />
for so many. In the past couple<br />
years, Dave Deveau and Anton Lipovetsky<br />
have ventured to create<br />
an even richer legacy for the community<br />
staple — a show called<br />
Elbow Room Café: The Musical, a<br />
delightful romp through the rich<br />
history of the couple who have<br />
owned and operated the establishment<br />
for decades. <strong>BeatRoute</strong><br />
caught up with Deveau to learn<br />
more.<br />
BR: What is Elbow Room Café:<br />
The Musical about?<br />
DD: Elbow Room Café: The Musical<br />
celebrates Vancouver’s iconic<br />
Elbow Room Café (nowadays located<br />
at 560 Davie Street, though<br />
originally down on Jervis) — a little<br />
hole-in-the-wall with great food<br />
and a side of verbal<br />
abuse. The cafe is owned and operated<br />
by real-life partners in life<br />
and crime Patrice Savoie and Bryan<br />
Searle, who after over 40 years<br />
together know how to put on a<br />
good show of yelling and screaming<br />
at each other, all with a subtext<br />
of love. The musical looks at how<br />
we age together in a Technicolor<br />
world and tackles notions about<br />
legacy, about what we want to<br />
leave the world after we go.<br />
BR: Where did the idea come<br />
from?<br />
DD: Zee Zee’s managing artistic director<br />
(and my husband/partner in<br />
crime) Cameron Mackenzie came<br />
up with the idea in 2013 when we<br />
were sitting in the Elbow Room<br />
with our friend and collaborator<br />
Anton Lipovetsky. We had just<br />
opened our critically acclaimed<br />
play My Funny Valentine the night<br />
before (written by me, directed<br />
by Cameron, starring Anton), and<br />
were musing about what a big<br />
photo by Emily Cooper<br />
The sass you’ve come to love with your eggs now comes to the stage<br />
Vancouver musical might look<br />
like — where would it be based?<br />
Would it be recognizable? As we<br />
looked around the room and saw<br />
these endless walls of headshots,<br />
larger-than-life colours, and a raucous<br />
environment, Cameron said,<br />
“What about Elbow Room: The<br />
Musical?”<br />
BR: What should people know<br />
when going to see it?<br />
DD: The show really resonates<br />
whether you know the Elbow<br />
Room or not because there’s<br />
something deeply human about<br />
the characters’ journeys, but you’ll<br />
certainly get an added level of satisfaction<br />
and belly laughs if you’ve<br />
ever been to the Elbow Room<br />
during its busy weekend brunches<br />
to see Patrice and Bryan in action<br />
— it’s an experience any Vancouverite<br />
or tourist should experience<br />
at least once.<br />
BR: What makes it special?<br />
DD: It’s a big, gay musical celebrating<br />
Vancouver, celebrating our<br />
queer community, and the songs<br />
are unbelievable. I dare you not<br />
to bust a gut laughing and shed at<br />
least three tears. There are some<br />
songs that actually render cast<br />
members inconsolable — thankfully<br />
we have a good rehearsal<br />
process for them to be able to get<br />
over it!<br />
BR: What is your favourite part?<br />
DD: I’m still amazed that Bryan<br />
and Patrice gave me full access to<br />
their lives and archives and let me<br />
write their past and their future<br />
onstage. There’s something amazingly<br />
delicate, intricate, and profound<br />
about being given that rare<br />
gift. Watching them watch their<br />
lives being performed onstage<br />
during our 2015 workshop production<br />
was astounding enough,<br />
and I can’t wait to see how they<br />
react to this far more developed<br />
version.<br />
Elbow Room Café: The Musical<br />
runs <strong>March</strong> 1<strong>–</strong>12 at The<br />
York Theatre<br />
FROM THE DESK OF<br />
CARLOTTA GURL<br />
CARLOTTA GURL<br />
Welcome back, my spring-kissed blossoms. This<br />
is your time of renewal and resurgence. I’m just<br />
now waking up from my post-wintery hibernation<br />
and that crazy shit I drank to get me over<br />
the seasonal blues is wearing off. Let’s hope<br />
we’re all feeling as excited as I am about the upcoming<br />
Spring Equinox. This is one of my favourite<br />
times of the year. Aside from the occasional<br />
hay fever, clogged sinuses, and reddened itchy<br />
eyes, it really is a wonderful season to feel alive<br />
and really any good allergy pill (and tequila) will<br />
kick those pesky ailments to the curb. It is also<br />
around this time I find myself being very thankful<br />
for all the good things that have happened<br />
in my life.<br />
Indeed, my biggest accomplishment and greatest<br />
joy would have to be the success of my<br />
weekly show, Absolutely Dragulous, which just<br />
celebrated its six-year anniversary. I’ve learned<br />
so much about myself creatively as a performer<br />
and MC from this particular show. I’ve also had<br />
the great pleasure of working alongside and<br />
learning a lot from some of the greatest drag<br />
performers in this city over the last 20 years,<br />
such as Willie Taylor, Justine Tyme, and Diana<br />
Rose, to name a few. To say I’ve lived most of my<br />
life on stage would even be an understatement.<br />
On a personal note, this show has been my salvation<br />
in more ways than I can express and has<br />
led to many opportunities. I’ve also made some<br />
great friends and got the chance to work with<br />
some very creative and innovative designers,<br />
hairstylists, and DJs. When producing a weekly<br />
show with so many different elements it really<br />
does take a village. I’m so incredibly thankful<br />
to the exceptional staff and management at<br />
the Junction for allowing me to do this. And<br />
of course, this show wouldn’t be happening if<br />
it weren’t for the fans that keep coming every<br />
week. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.<br />
As an artist and performer I’m always looking<br />
for ways to outdo myself and be the best that I<br />
can be, and Absolutely Dragulous has given me<br />
the vehicle to do just that. Until next month,<br />
you beautiful people, be kind, be loving, and<br />
most importantly, be fashionable. Love you all.<br />
DAVID CUTTING<br />
Standing on stage above the Cobalt crowd,<br />
Ponyboy smiles down. Serving leather-daddy<br />
realness, this drag performer effortlessly<br />
whips the crowd into a frenzy; bending<br />
norms while creating community is all<br />
in a night’s work for this gender-tripping<br />
sweetheart.<br />
“My name was given to me by my drag<br />
dad Sammy Samosa (formerly Sammy Tomato),”<br />
says Ponyboy. “It’s inspired by The<br />
Outsiders. I have always had a thing for the<br />
pretty-boy protagonist type, outwardly a<br />
bit badass but inwardly just a hopeless lover.<br />
Holden Caulfield was my second choice,<br />
but I couldn’t find a good pun that wasn’t<br />
gross.”<br />
Ponyboy is one of the founding members<br />
of Man Up, a monthly drag show at<br />
the Cobalt that runs the last Friday of the<br />
month. The show came to be because of a<br />
need for drag kings to have a stage. Now it<br />
is home to a widely diverse family of drag<br />
performers. “I’m inspired by the amazing<br />
influx of young artistic motivated queer<br />
people who want to get on stage and show<br />
their ideas of what drag and gender performance<br />
is. Vancouver drag has its own<br />
unique flavour,” says Ponyboy.<br />
Man Up also inspired a show, charmingly<br />
and aptly called Man Up Amateur Hour,<br />
where new drag performers can come<br />
and try their hand at performing. It’s an<br />
amazing first start because it provides the<br />
performer with much the same experience<br />
QUEERVIEW Mirror<br />
knocking some sense in<br />
DAYNE TANK<br />
I'm a very emotional person. Something as little as<br />
a friend not saying hi at the club can set me off into<br />
a spiral of questions. Because of this, a lot of people<br />
get confused when I talk so openly, casually, even<br />
joking about being assaulted and hit in the back<br />
of the head with a collapsible baton by a stranger.<br />
There's two reasons why I joke about this: one, I<br />
just really love seeing shocked and uncomfortable<br />
reactions on people's faces, and two, I'm somewhat<br />
thankful for the experience as whole.<br />
While by no means am I thankful for the physical<br />
pain and how emotionally distraught I was for<br />
months afterwards, before the assault I was completely<br />
disconnected from my local LGBTQ community.<br />
I was obsessed with traditional masculinity,<br />
and finding those traits in a boyfriend, I dressed colorful<br />
but kept to my assigned gender's clothing and<br />
turned my nose down at drag and its art in general.<br />
After the assault, along with the obvious depression<br />
that followed, I felt some of my friend's and classmate's<br />
reactions as less than understanding.<br />
I was about to begin my last semester of college<br />
at Langara when this assault happened, and after<br />
having a private meeting with the head of the faculty<br />
to discuss what had happened, her reply was<br />
KING OF THE MONTH<br />
PONYBOY EAST VAN GENDER TRIPPER<br />
as the main production. Ponyboy fosters<br />
these welcoming spaces because they<br />
know the importance and need for queer<br />
entertainment in this world. “I’ve been<br />
very fortunate to be supported for as long<br />
as I have in the community. At this point<br />
I really want to share the experience I’ve<br />
gained with those who want to learn more<br />
or try something new, be that performing,<br />
hosting, or organizing. The community has<br />
taught me so much; I just want to support<br />
folks the way I’ve been supported,” shares<br />
Ponyboy.<br />
Drag in and of itself is a form of rebellion.<br />
Its origins are that of a social device<br />
that could change the world through politically<br />
charged performances, safe spaces,<br />
and relevant social commentary. “When<br />
Man Up started I was a literal baby and<br />
a brand-new queer. It took me a while to<br />
begin to understand, for example, how<br />
misogyny and racism can show up in drag<br />
performances and queer spaces. My mentors<br />
had planted these seeds early on, but I<br />
only began to recognize this starting maybe<br />
four years ago, through many conversations<br />
and feedback from people in the<br />
community. And of course, it’s an ongoing<br />
process of learning and adapting to an ever-growing<br />
community in a really troubling<br />
world.”<br />
You can catch Ponyboy the last Friday of<br />
every month at the Cobalt for Man Up<br />
"Well please make sure you do not miss any classes."<br />
This came two months after when I was excused<br />
from all classes and assignments for two weeks<br />
when I had Mono. That meeting, among others experiences,<br />
helped me change for the better.<br />
Inside the coming months, I started to understand<br />
exclusion and the lack of understanding that<br />
I was guilty of as well as marginalized pain. I slowly<br />
embraced queer culture and history and started<br />
to delve into drag and it's pop-culture-resurgence,<br />
and I acknowledged needs and parts of myself I had<br />
completely denied beforehand. So from my heart,<br />
which feels a whole lot bigger after this, thank you<br />
Mr. drunk guy with a baton. And fuck you as well.<br />
Talking about traumatic experiences as a way to cope can be highly beneficial towards recovery.<br />
photo by Chase Hansen<br />
24 queer<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> queer<br />
25
FILM<br />
This month in film<br />
PARIS SPENCE-LANG<br />
Maple Ridge Festival of <strong>BC</strong> Film <strong>–</strong> <strong>March</strong> 17th-19th at The ACT Arts Centre<br />
Everyone wants their own film festival—but with a burgeoning (and refreshingly<br />
humble) film scene, it’s about time Maple Ridge got one together. This inaugural fest<br />
is courtesy of the ACT Arts Centre and The Ridge Film Studios, and pays homage to<br />
the local cinema that made it possible. With a dozen highly engaging, mould-shifting<br />
films—all created in beautiful British Columbia—viewers are sure to see something<br />
they’ll love, along with sets they’ll recognize from their own backyard. See<br />
www.theactmapleridge.org for details.<br />
Upcoming Releases :<br />
Raw<br />
I’ve eaten a lot of weird shit, but the trailer for this movie went down like a rabbit<br />
kidney. Which Justine, a young vegetarian who’s never tasted raw meat, is forced<br />
to enjoy when she enters the merciless yet somehow seductive world of veterinary<br />
school. After the kidney, Justine’s appetite for raw becomes insatiable—with horrifying<br />
consequences. Use a meat thermometer, kids.<br />
In theaters <strong>March</strong> 10th<br />
T2 Trainspotting<br />
20 years after stealing their heroin money, Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) returns<br />
to his hometown to help Spud kick the heroin. Of course, Sick Boy and Begbie show<br />
up too, with new hijinks, new problems, and new drugs. Director Danny Boyle drops<br />
the needle on a killer UK soundtrack, and fits the film with a full suite of visual effects—no<br />
tabs required.<br />
In theaters <strong>March</strong> 17th<br />
Ghost in the Shell<br />
Based on the manga and anime, Rupert Sanders’ Ghost in the Shell stars Scarlett<br />
Johansson as The Major, a cyborg counter-cyberterrorist tasked with stopping a new<br />
enemy who hopes to sabotage the AI technology that made her possible. And while<br />
the film has some whitewashing controversy, no one seems to care that Johansson<br />
spends half the movie robo-naked.<br />
In theaters <strong>March</strong> 31st<br />
Ghost in the Shell<br />
COMING ATTRACTIONS<br />
Logan: Wolverine’s Return to Form Cuts Deep<br />
In Logan, Logan (Wolverine [Hugh Jackman]) is forced to<br />
sharpen his claws once more to protect, at the will of Xavier<br />
(Patrick Stewart), the last of the mutants: Laura, a small girl<br />
who has a lot more in common with Logan than he would<br />
like. Embarking on the requisite road trip to sanctuary,<br />
Wolverine discovers what it means to feel… and loses a lot<br />
more in the process—sounds good, right?<br />
And it is. Logan and Xavier, who predate the current<br />
Marvel meta, are actually played by competent actors absent<br />
in most superhero films. But everyone else has the dialogue<br />
of a Disneyland animatronic, a weakness that is often<br />
favourably avoided in the film by replacing talking with the<br />
off-cutting of people’s heads.<br />
The movie still has the Marvel patina. But, when the excess<br />
violence and propaganda and child acting are stripped<br />
away, Logan puts emotion back into the movie-machine of<br />
Marvel, making for a suitable homage to the glory days of<br />
the X-Men.<br />
Logan is in theaters <strong>March</strong> 3rd.<br />
• Paris Spence-Lang<br />
Bitter Harvest: Too Far Against the Grain<br />
Window Horses:<br />
An Ethereal Poem Painted Onto Film<br />
You would be hard-pressed to find a film that feels<br />
as culturally relevant as Ann Marie Fleming’s Canadian-made<br />
Window Horses. Rosie Ming, a Canadian raised<br />
by her Chinese grandparents, is invited to a poetry festival<br />
in Iran. Rosie (Sandra Oh) embarks on her first trip alone<br />
and learns about a Persian past and her own meaning of<br />
poetry.<br />
What starts as a classic tale of a young talented girl finding<br />
herself becomes so much more--this is a movie about<br />
Bitter Harvest, a poorly executed attempt to set a doomed<br />
romance against the backdrop of the Holodomor, comes<br />
across as a film about a non-fiction atrocity that feels much<br />
too fictional.<br />
It sits in the new school of costume entertainment where<br />
everyone in Europe had English accents and could evade<br />
injury during a sword fight on horseback by sliding half off<br />
the saddle and riding the horse sideways through the melee.<br />
Real large scale tragedy should never feel like fan fiction,<br />
particularly a tragedy that was not only an act of genocide<br />
but one that has been ignored for years by a small but dedicated<br />
population of deniers.<br />
This is a film with obviously lofty ambitions but with<br />
a lacking ability to draw attention to the genocide without<br />
taking too much creative licence. But...The film was<br />
made by three artists of Ukrainian descent who probably<br />
lost relatives in the famine. One can appreciate the desire<br />
to tell the story, particularly when no one else had, and how<br />
that desire might create a voice that is a tad overwrought.<br />
Bitter Harvest is in theaters <strong>March</strong> 3rd.<br />
• Jennie Orton<br />
self discovery and an awakening within one’s conscience.<br />
Rosie’s many discoveries and realizations are beautifully<br />
painted using unique animation techniques by guest artists,<br />
highlighted by original poetry and music, while the<br />
characters are brought to life by remarkable and recognizable<br />
talent like Ellen Page and Don McKellar. Window<br />
Horses is an animated movie as mature as any film, showcasing<br />
true art in almost all of its forms.<br />
• Hogan Short<br />
Dirty Projectors<br />
Dirty Projectors<br />
Domino<br />
“I don’t know why you abandoned me,” begins the<br />
eighth album by lonely Dave Longstreth’s Dirty Projectors.<br />
The band has always been his vehicle, but<br />
this self-titled work follows a period of popularity<br />
he shared with vocalist Amber Coffman. Beginning<br />
with Rise Above, an unrecognizable reintrepretation<br />
of the canonic Black Flag album of the same<br />
name, cresting in 2007 with Domino debut Bitte<br />
Orca (an album where Angel Deradoorian was<br />
also a prominent vocalist), and continuing on with<br />
Swing Lo Magellan in 2012. With a lineup shakeup<br />
and a break-up with Coffman behind him, fans<br />
new and old of the band wondered whether would<br />
Longstreth would revert to the confounding ways<br />
of early Dirty Projectors or find a way to one-up<br />
the accessibility of its most iconic dynamics. After<br />
all, the song the band is most likely to be remembered<br />
for is the Coffman-led “Stillness is the Move”<br />
from Bitte Orca. Much to Longstreth’s credit Dirty<br />
Projectors stars a string of wonky pop singles, and<br />
they’re some of the best songs he’s written to date.<br />
Opener “Keep Your Name” shuffles between a<br />
disaffected down-pitch on the vocals, slurred electronic<br />
production and Longstreth in a vulnerably<br />
vicious narrative as he (presumably) offers his raw<br />
view of the aforementioned break-up. For once,<br />
there’s an easily perceptible justification for his<br />
penchant towards the off-kilter. If you had to listen<br />
back to you trash-talking an ex, you would want a<br />
little remove, too.<br />
“Little Bubble” begins with jaunty strings but<br />
quickly becomes an organ lament about how two<br />
people in love can form their own small world<br />
around them, if only temporarily. Like much of<br />
the record, it’s evocative of the things we take for<br />
granted when smitten and offers a relatability from<br />
the wordy Longstreth not much seen before. The<br />
song isn’t an ambitious production compared to<br />
much of Dirty Projectors but it feels appropriate,<br />
intentional and the right kind of restrained.<br />
“Up in Hudson” is the obvious highlight of the<br />
disc. It feels like a charitable TL;DR for a record<br />
that remains complexly human and self-accountable<br />
at every step. You’ll only need one listen for<br />
the<br />
fade<br />
chorus<br />
away”)<br />
(“Love<br />
to stick<br />
will<br />
with<br />
burn<br />
you,<br />
out,<br />
but<br />
and<br />
you’ll<br />
love<br />
need<br />
will<br />
doz-<br />
just<br />
ens to soak in all the musical movements and pedestrian<br />
descriptions of the little joys that lead to<br />
the humblingly-large pain Longstreth must have<br />
felt while writing it. The first two thirds contain<br />
pitched down Eastern melody, broken metronome<br />
rhythm, swole up horns and mentions of both<br />
Kanye and “Stillness in the Move.” One feels they<br />
know Longstreth, or at least know the universality<br />
of his experience, while constantly being surprised<br />
at what anachronistic musical addition will come<br />
next. By the time the two-minute guitar blaze set<br />
atop polyrhythmic percussion arrives to finish the<br />
track, Longstreth is without need for words, a little<br />
bit like his friend Kanye during the climax of “Runaway.”<br />
Last of the singles is the frankly perfect “Cool<br />
Your Heart,” a sunny slice of euphoria co-written<br />
by Solange and most impactful when show-stealing<br />
guest singer Dawn Richard emotes. It washes<br />
away the trapped feeling of much of Dirty Projectors<br />
by substituting being stuck in your head with a<br />
set of principles for the future.<br />
Where the album suffers is during the half of<br />
tracks not chosen as singles. For a long time now,<br />
Longstreth has felt guardedly obtuse just for the<br />
sake of keeping listeners at arm’s length. Much of<br />
the musical and lyrical choices made on tracks like<br />
“Death Spiral” (which owes Timbaland an unflattering<br />
credit), “Ascent Through Clouds” (less elastic<br />
than he wants it to be), and closer “I See You”<br />
(adding a gospel reminiscent organ is no excuse for<br />
depth), contradict what the singles do best: pair<br />
intimately realist narrative with confidently confused<br />
pop weirdness.<br />
If that’s the cost for the high points for this album,<br />
we are happy to pay up. After five years since<br />
the “eh, fine” feeling of the safe choices made on<br />
Swing Lo Magellan, it’s understandable that not every<br />
moment on Dirty Projectors feels as well considered<br />
as it could be. In a way, it’s a bit comforting<br />
that this probably isn’t Longstreth’s best work yet<br />
- knowing things could be even better will have us<br />
at full attention for the foreseeable future.<br />
• Colin Gallant<br />
• illustration by Sarah Campbell<br />
REVIEWS<br />
26 film<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> reviews<br />
27
ALBUM REVIEWs<br />
TIL THE GOIN’ GETS GONE<br />
LINDI<br />
ORTEGA<br />
The Painters EP - Animal Collective<br />
Paradise - ANOHNI Cascades - CFCF & Jean-Michel Blais<br />
The Navigator - Hurray for the Riff Raff Human Voicing - The Luyas<br />
Animal Collective<br />
The Painters EP<br />
Domino Records<br />
Following the tepid reception to their<br />
lukewarm album Painting With… last<br />
year, a four-track release of music recorded<br />
and left over from those same<br />
sessions doesn’t necessarily sound alluring.<br />
Damn if experimentalist darlings<br />
Animal Collective don’t release some<br />
solid extended plays.<br />
While it doesn’t carry the frenetic<br />
mania of 2008’s Water Curses, or share<br />
the echoing pulse of Fall Be Kind from<br />
the year after, The Painters EP is a surprisingly<br />
exciting expression from a<br />
group that pioneered experimentalism<br />
in the mainstream, and who unfortunately<br />
seemed to be losing their touch<br />
for flare with their last LP.<br />
While the highlight of The Painters<br />
EP may be the group’s cover of “Jimmy<br />
Mack,” originally popularized by 60’s<br />
trio Martha and the Vandellas, each<br />
track of the 13-and-a-half-minute release<br />
plays to the strength of the AnCo<br />
archetype: rhythmic psych pop backdrops,<br />
delirious vocal harmonies, and<br />
the unshaken dedication to a sound<br />
that really no other group could emulate<br />
half as successfully.<br />
In short, The Painters EP does what<br />
Painting With… couldn’t, resulting in<br />
an experience that’s equal parts whimsical<br />
and serious while still retaining the<br />
distinct cohesiveness that’s prevalent in<br />
AnCo’s strongest works of the past.<br />
• Alec Warkentin<br />
ANOHNI<br />
Paradise<br />
Secretly Canadian<br />
ANONHI’s newest EP is both a warning<br />
shot and a plea for help. Nine markedly<br />
different women make up the cover of<br />
Paradise, ANOHNI included, and the six<br />
songs contained within showcase an intersectional<br />
understanding and political<br />
voice not commonly found in electronic<br />
or pop music. She takes on corporate<br />
greed, environmental degradation, and<br />
toxic masculinity in the way that other<br />
artists handle love and heartbreak.<br />
ANOHNI is backed by production<br />
from Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix<br />
Point Never, compatriots on 2016’s<br />
widely acclaimed Hopelessness. None<br />
of the songs here would feel entirely out<br />
of place on Hopelessness <strong>–</strong> Paradise is<br />
an extension of that album’s success; a<br />
b-side of sorts. That album was the start<br />
of ANOHNI asking grander questions of<br />
American civilization, of war and surveillance,<br />
and of her listeners. Now, she<br />
is demanding answers and pulling us<br />
from where we have strayed.<br />
She sings for retribution against corporate<br />
lackeys on “Jesus Will Kill You,”<br />
implying that their God will punish their<br />
lack of caring for our Mother Earth.<br />
“Your wealth is predicated upon the<br />
poverty of others / What’s your legacy?<br />
Burning oceans, burning populations,<br />
our burning lungs,” she sings through<br />
vocal distortion, accompanied by signature<br />
HudMo pan-flute and blaring<br />
drums.<br />
Politics aside, ANOHNI has the most<br />
heavenly voice, through which she is<br />
able to maintain tranquility while colliding<br />
with the discordance of her beats.<br />
On opener “In My Dreams,” her soft<br />
reverb acts as a lullaby, each word pulling<br />
you in deeper to the non-existent<br />
Paradise, the alienating and cold world<br />
ANOHNI has found us in.<br />
ANOHNI could easily soundtrack the<br />
revolution, and while it will certainly<br />
be painful, god damn it, we’re going to<br />
come back closer than ever.<br />
• Trent Warner<br />
CFCF & Jean-Michel Blais<br />
Cascades<br />
Arts & Crafts<br />
Cascades, the collaborative EP from<br />
Montreal producer CFCF and neo-classical<br />
pianist Jean-Michel Blais, is a confident<br />
musical mind-meld from two<br />
visionary musicians.<br />
The duo first met while performing<br />
together for the 2016 Red Bull Music<br />
Academy. From there, the two came<br />
together for this EP that trends towards<br />
tasteful minimalism, but takes<br />
inspiration from ’90s trance and other<br />
electronic bombast. The result is songs<br />
like the EP-highlight “Hypocrite,” that<br />
blends grand piano with supersaw<br />
synths not seen since the days of trance<br />
raves. Another piece, “Spirit,” is reminiscent<br />
of James Blake, complete with an<br />
alluring piano melody and entrancing<br />
electronic haze in the background.<br />
Throughout the five-track EP, CFCF<br />
and J-MB walk a thin line between<br />
classical form and electronic cheese.<br />
It’s a tough act to pull off, making it all<br />
the more impressive that Cascades is<br />
as good as it is. These songs probably<br />
won’t have long-lasting staying power,<br />
but they still make a case for bridging<br />
genre and mindful collaboration.<br />
• Jamie McNamara<br />
Hurray For The Riff Raff<br />
The Navigator<br />
ATO Records<br />
The world has changed since Hurray For<br />
The Riff Raff’s acclaimed, 2014 album<br />
Small Town Heroes was released, and<br />
many now find themselves in vulnerable<br />
and uncertain times.<br />
The Navigator is singer, songwriter,<br />
and human rights activist, Alynda Segarra’s<br />
brave, bold declaration of love to<br />
those facing prejudice. It couldn’t have<br />
come at more crucial time.<br />
It’s political without being ornery<br />
and balances between hope and despair.<br />
“Hungry Ghost” is a tribute to the<br />
LGBTQ community; a kind of love letter<br />
to the people who continue to create<br />
sanctuaries and promote unity and<br />
freedom in the wake of the Oakland and<br />
Orlando tragedies.<br />
“When will you help me out / You<br />
can’t even pick me out of a crowd.”<br />
Puerto Rican by descent, growing up in<br />
the Bronx and living in New Orleans, Segarra’s<br />
velvet vocals echo her own story<br />
as each of the twelve tracks weave the<br />
tale of a displaced and wandering street<br />
girl navigating her gender identity, sexual<br />
identity, class, race and culture to find<br />
her place. None of this is more prevalent<br />
in then in “Rican Beach,” a song<br />
about cultural appropriation and gentrification,<br />
which Segarra dedicated to<br />
the water protectors of both Standing<br />
Rock, North Dakota and Penuelas, Puerto<br />
Rico, where coal ash waste is contaminating<br />
drinking supply.<br />
“Now all the politicians they just<br />
squawk their mouths / They said we’ll<br />
build a wall to keep them out,” she<br />
sings. “And all the poets were dying of a<br />
silence disease / So it happened quickly<br />
and with much ease.”<br />
The Navigator is a succulent, beautifully-united<br />
concept album, with lyrics<br />
that give a damn elevated by electric<br />
guitar riffs, edgy percussion, Latin<br />
rhythms, blazing rock and piercing ballads.<br />
Ultimately the story ends with the<br />
compelling anthem “Pa’lante,” a Spanish<br />
term inciting a call to action, to keep<br />
going, rise up and move forward. And<br />
we shall.<br />
• Aja Cadman<br />
King Gizzard and the Lizard<br />
Wizard<br />
Flying Microtonal Banana<br />
Flightless / ATO<br />
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s<br />
newest album Flying Microtonal Banana<br />
is the band’s first attempt at experimenting<br />
with microtonal sounds. The<br />
result is a valiant first attempt, but one<br />
that is plagued with too much repetition.<br />
Microtonal music basically uses<br />
smaller intervals between notes, allowing<br />
for more rapid sounding instruments,<br />
a technique popular amongst<br />
Eastern music. The first track, “Rattlesnake,”<br />
makes great use of this, with<br />
background shakers and rattles. The<br />
band is sticking to their psychedelic<br />
roots, and it sounds fast-paced and very<br />
catchy.<br />
However, as the album progresses<br />
you begin to realize that almost every<br />
song sounds like this. “Melting,” the album’s<br />
second track has the same “snake<br />
charmer” microtonal sound to it, and<br />
it’s hard to make it through three minutes<br />
of this, five times in a row.<br />
The band also makes use of strange,<br />
ghoulish background noises, on “Open<br />
Water,” something that sounds like an<br />
un-tuned bagpipe is heard throughout<br />
the track and later again on the album’s<br />
final track, Flying Microtonal Banana.<br />
Overall, one can appreciate the<br />
band’s attempt to try out these off-kilter<br />
tunings, and there are gems on the<br />
album: A personal favorite for me, the<br />
song “Nuclear Fusion.” But, the album<br />
seems to reuse the same sounds, and it’s<br />
not interesting enough to distinguish<br />
which songs you like and which are just<br />
background noise.<br />
• Foster Modesette<br />
The Luyas<br />
Human Voicing<br />
Paper Bag Records<br />
With arms into Montreal’s finest acts<br />
such as Arcade Fire and Belle Orchestre,<br />
The Luyas surprise more in approach<br />
than in execution. There is a familiar<br />
baroque instrumental complexity, but<br />
much less of the cinematic grandness<br />
than their pedigree might predict.<br />
Their fourth full-length outing, Human<br />
Voicing, does an effective job of<br />
avoiding contemporary musical tropes<br />
that frequently get dismissed as “overproduced”<br />
or “generic.” Tracks are often<br />
slow and plodding, with only spare<br />
moments of melodic clarity. Rarely,<br />
if ever, does electronic affectation or<br />
deep reverb inject anything inorganic<br />
to its atmosphere. The Luyas efforts at<br />
creating a meditative record seem to<br />
come more from jazz than from rock<br />
or pop. Pretty guitar and violin lines are<br />
smartly obscured by layers of instrumentation,<br />
often organs or mid-range<br />
synths. Instead of reaching into chamber<br />
pop, the arrangements stay hazy,<br />
often anchored only by a bassline or<br />
keyboard drone, and singer-instrumentalist<br />
Jessie Stein’s breathy vocal.<br />
The Luyas do more with less, and<br />
Human Voicing is a clearly constructed<br />
and restrained release. While it sinks far<br />
enough into the mid-range to be murky<br />
and contemplative, it bursts out often<br />
enough to keep itself interesting.<br />
• Liam Prost<br />
Methyl Ethyl<br />
Everything is Forgotten<br />
4AD<br />
It’s hard not to draw a parallel between<br />
Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and the<br />
frontman of Methyl Ethyl, Jake Webb.<br />
Both hail from the isolated city of Perth,<br />
Australia, both started their respective<br />
bands as a means to home record studio<br />
experiments and solo material before<br />
blossoming into full bands, and with<br />
their latest albums, both have mastered<br />
the art of blending heady atmospheres<br />
with pop song structures.<br />
Those surface level comparisons are<br />
where the similarities end. Where Tame<br />
Impala use pop-leaning psychedelia to<br />
focus inward on the neurosis of Kevin<br />
Parker, Webb and his two bandmates<br />
expand outwards on their sophomore,<br />
4AD album Everything is Forgotten.<br />
Where Parker gains his inspiration from<br />
The Beatles, Webb probably learnt more<br />
from the Cocteau Twins and MGMT.<br />
Everything is Forgotten is hooky<br />
dream pop that channels the explosive<br />
energy of Cocteau Twins into tightly<br />
wound funk-indebted indie pop.<br />
AVAILABLE MARCH 17<br />
TITLE TRACK TIL THE GOIN’ GETS GONE<br />
AVAILABLE WITH PRE-ORDER NOW!<br />
28 reviews<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong>
Everything is Forgotten - Methyl Ethyl<br />
VOIDS - Minus the Bear<br />
Heartless - Pallbearer As Long as Your Eyes are Wide - Said the Whale Drunk - Thundercat<br />
THURS MAR 2<br />
BIFF BANG POW!<br />
60S PARTY WITH<br />
FRIDAY MAR 3<br />
SUNDAY MAR 5<br />
2417 EAST HASTINGS STREET<br />
Beatroute Oct.indd 1<br />
THURS MAR 16 FRIDAY MAR 17 SAT MARCH 18<br />
RAMONA (SEATTLE)<br />
DEAD BARS (SEATTLE)<br />
NEEDLES + PINS<br />
JESSE LEBOURDAIS<br />
2016-10-21 2:17 PM<br />
FRIDAY MAR 10 SATURDAY MAR 11 SUN MAR 12<br />
QUIETER (SEATTLE)<br />
LEISURE CLUB<br />
GUILT TRAP<br />
BB<br />
THURSDAY MAR 23<br />
SIDEWALK CELLIST<br />
PROPHECY SUN<br />
JULIE MCGEER<br />
COMPANY B<br />
JESSICKA<br />
FUNDRAISER WITH:<br />
VIEWMASTER<br />
ANYBODYS<br />
MI’ENS<br />
FRIDAY MAR 24<br />
AUTHOR + PUNISHER<br />
EVOLUTION<br />
BOG<br />
Tracks like the opener “Drink Wine,”<br />
sound like early-10s’ peak-Robyn mixed<br />
with Purple Rain-era Prince, all strutting<br />
basslines and strobing synthesizers.<br />
Lead single “Ubu,” is a catchy piece of indie<br />
pop, occupying a space in between<br />
the bedroom funk of Unknown Mortal<br />
Orchestra and the doomed post punk<br />
of Preoccupations.<br />
Still, even if it’s easy to heap praise on<br />
Everything is Forgotten, it doesn’t come<br />
without its detractions like “No .28,” a<br />
song that sounds like a flabby Hot Hot<br />
Heat B-side, or the orchestral, piano pop<br />
leanings of “Femme Maison/One Man<br />
House” that feel like Ben Kweller did a<br />
collab with Fall Out Boy circa-“Sugar<br />
We’re Going Down.”<br />
Songs like “Act of Contrition” and<br />
“Groundswell” pick the album back up,<br />
reaching some of the best pop moments<br />
of the year so far. Even with its missteps,<br />
Everything is Forgotten is a confident<br />
sophomore effort, solidifying the sound<br />
of a band that has a bright future.<br />
• Jamie McNamara<br />
Minus the Bear<br />
VOIDS<br />
Suicide Squeeze<br />
Playing VOIDS, the first album from<br />
Minus the Bear in five years, is quite the<br />
shock immediately. Different sounds<br />
from different eras fire off instantly, including<br />
DL-4 reversed guitar, and that<br />
perfectly-danceable-yet-still-mellow<br />
tempo they always seem to find. These<br />
sounds, however, are all brought together<br />
in a disparate and jarring way.<br />
The absence of original drummer Erin<br />
Tate means the incredibly awesome/<br />
weird rhythms are toned down and the<br />
drums themselves match and serve the<br />
song a bit more. This gives the album a<br />
way more pop sound than we had heretofore<br />
experienced. It almost sounds<br />
more Coldplay than math rock.<br />
Reminiscence sets in as I remember<br />
how - wait a sec - every Minus the Bear<br />
album brings in new elements and is<br />
confusing for the first few moments.<br />
From Menoso El Oso’s more subdued,<br />
reverb-y sound, to Planet of Ice’s longer<br />
songs with synth elements, every album<br />
from the Portland math rockers carves<br />
out a unique sound.<br />
Ultimately, for me, what ties it all<br />
together are the unabashedly upfront<br />
lyrics about sleep, regret, memory, drug<br />
use, sex, and being human sung with<br />
that signature “aloofness” by Jake Snider.<br />
By the fourth song, “Invisible,” the<br />
elements have coalesced and the band’s<br />
vision for VOIDS comes home as a sick,<br />
tapping riff enters for the bridge. Minus<br />
the Bear succeed with another unique,<br />
amazing album, but may lose some fans<br />
enticed by their earlier sounds. Still, this<br />
reviewer is happy to follow them into<br />
the future.<br />
• Noah Michael<br />
Pallbearer<br />
Heartless<br />
Profound Lore Records<br />
Arkansas’ Pallbearer were knighted<br />
doom metal heavyweights in the underground<br />
scene shortly after the release of<br />
their critically-acclaimed, 2012 debut album<br />
Sorrow and Extinction. Heartless,<br />
the band’s most recent album, forges a<br />
more musically technical sound than<br />
previous releases. However, the virtuosity<br />
of Heartless may push the band farther<br />
from mainstream success, instead<br />
increasing their acclaim among more<br />
underground scenes.<br />
“I Saw the End” kicks off the album<br />
with unique vocal harmonies and the<br />
crisp dual guitar tones on “Thorns,”<br />
work with the crushing drums to form<br />
a wall of sound that is not overwhelmingly<br />
murky. However, the stand out<br />
element of this album is the creative<br />
composition of individual tracks. At<br />
11:58 minutes, “Dancing in Madness”<br />
may seem long winded, but the time<br />
signature changes and layering of sound<br />
stave off monotony. Despite this, the<br />
tracks tend to run together too much.<br />
Where past albums found sonic levity<br />
in the form of classical acoustic guitar,<br />
Heartless pushes forward with little to<br />
break up songs or shift moods. Instead<br />
of telling a story, Heartless feels as if<br />
Pallbearer have written one long, yet<br />
ever-changing song.<br />
The technically intense music, lyrics<br />
and album artwork create an album that<br />
feels more intellectual than their past<br />
projects. The question is, will the change<br />
in direction lead the band deeper into<br />
the underground? Perhaps leaving the<br />
cliches of metal behind will make Pallbearer’s<br />
music more appealing to fans of<br />
other genres. Stigma and stereotyping<br />
have made metal inaccessible and shedding<br />
the genre hallmarks could catapult<br />
Pallbearer into the mainstream.<br />
• Bridget Gallagher<br />
Said the Whale<br />
As Long as Your Eyes are Wide<br />
Hidden Pony Records<br />
Said the Whale are absolutely one of the<br />
most earnest and hardworking Canadian<br />
bands. The Vancouver now-trio has<br />
long been making music that is as exuberantly<br />
friendly as it is fun loving. Even<br />
in their quiet and somber moments,<br />
STW has always been able to find ways<br />
to make us smile.<br />
As Long as Your Eyes are Wide looks<br />
from the outset to be a more “mature”<br />
outing, with nakedly explicit explorations<br />
of grief and loss, coloured by a<br />
coat of new-fangled production. The<br />
record runs abundant with huge shimmering<br />
synth and guitar melodies, and<br />
the few remaining acoustic instruments<br />
serve more rhythmic purpose than texture,<br />
making for an unabashedly pop<br />
experience, albeit one with little to no<br />
compromise of the style and wit of their<br />
past releases.<br />
Co-songwriters Ben Worcester and<br />
Tyler Bancroft trade off songwriting<br />
duties to great effect as usual, but it’s<br />
Worcester specifically whose work sparkles<br />
the brightest, stretching himself to<br />
a greater degree thematically, but also<br />
vocally, even if his tracks are less raw-ly<br />
emotional than Bancroft’s.<br />
ASAYEAW feels intensely laboured,<br />
both in production and in songwriting.<br />
It takes a lot of emotional and intellectual<br />
investment to make a record like<br />
this, and STW does not make it look<br />
easy. Every song is an investment and<br />
their collective hearts are so far down<br />
their sleeves they might as well be wearing<br />
them as cufflinks.<br />
• Liam Prost<br />
Thundercat<br />
Drunk<br />
Brainfeeder<br />
Like much of Brainfeeder’s back catalog,<br />
Thundercat’s third full-length is an<br />
album that is often hard to pin down.<br />
Featuring production from Flying Lotus<br />
and appearances from Kendrick Lamar,<br />
Pharell, to soft rock legends Michael Mc-<br />
Donald and Kenny Loggins, Drunk is an<br />
ode to soft rock that the virtuosic musician<br />
has said is inspired by times in which<br />
he was less than sober.<br />
Production from Flying Lotus is apparent<br />
from the get-go as the 23-track<br />
album winds its way through CR-78 (you<br />
know, the drum machine that ticked its<br />
way to infamy on hits like Hall and Oates’<br />
“I Can’t Go For That”) backed footwork,<br />
neo-soul and the kind of avant-jazz that<br />
Kendrick Lamar played with on his opus<br />
To Pimp a Butterfly. It’s not hard to imagine<br />
Drunk being the elevator music that<br />
soundtracks the descent to hell.<br />
Thundercat’s falsetto permeates<br />
much of Drunk even when the backing<br />
track maneuvers through its multitudinous<br />
moods.<br />
Songs like the lead single “Show Me<br />
the Way” featuring soft rock legends<br />
Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins<br />
showcases Thundercat’s ability to blend<br />
chopped-and-screwed soul with funk<br />
basslines and thrilling vocal turns. Like<br />
much of the album, the song sounds less<br />
like the soft rock of yesteryear and more<br />
like a jazz-indebted, Joe Jackson single<br />
taken on a bad acid trip.<br />
Drunk isn’t perfect, but it still remains<br />
utterly fascinating. It’s an album that no<br />
other artist could make but Thundercat.<br />
Because of that, its missteps are lessened<br />
by the sheer weirdness of it all.<br />
• Jamie McNamara<br />
KARAOKE EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT<br />
RENT CHEQUE FRI MARCH 31 (last FRIDAY of the month)<br />
TUESDAY MARCH 21 (every 3rd TUESDAY)<br />
THE EAST VAN GARAGE SALE<br />
SUN MAR 26 from 1-6PM (every last Sunday of the month)<br />
DANCE NIGHTS<br />
THE DARK<br />
EIGHTIES<br />
FRI MAR 4<br />
CLUB<br />
NEW WAVE<br />
THE EAST VAN<br />
90S ALT PARTY<br />
THURS MAR 9<br />
GIGANTIC VS<br />
BANGERS + TRASH<br />
SUN MAR 19 + 26 SAT MAR 25<br />
MADCHESTER<br />
MONDAYS<br />
HACIENDA CLASSICS<br />
80s/90s UK + BRIT POP<br />
MONDAYS WITH DJ SUZANNE<br />
NO COVER/$4 HIBALLS/FREE POOL<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 31<br />
reviews
LIVE REVIEWs<br />
LA Vida Local<br />
Finite<br />
The Rancid Waters of Existence<br />
This EP delivers plenty of gruelling drumbeats and filthy guitar tones, interspersed<br />
with sombre atmospheric passages. While there are some impressive<br />
guitar leads throughout the EP, the real highlight is vocalist Noose’s<br />
tortured and at times eccentric screams. Otherwise, there are no real tricks<br />
or surprises here; this is just evil lo-fi black metal.<br />
• Scott Postulo<br />
Run The Jewels<br />
PNE Forum<br />
Feb 8, 2016<br />
Run the Jewels took the stage at the<br />
packed PNE Forum to the sounds of<br />
Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” Had<br />
this been any other rap act I would<br />
have commenced with the eye-rolling<br />
and sarcastic remarks at this point, but<br />
El-P and Killer Mike truly have earned<br />
their time in the sun. Over the last four<br />
years their unlikely rise to fame can<br />
only be described as iconoclastic. This<br />
is not rap music that lends itself to selling<br />
sneakers, headphones or life insurance.<br />
It’s angry, defiant, full of violence<br />
and dark humour, and yet at the same<br />
time deeply heartfelt, empathetic and<br />
hopeful. A complex ball of emotional<br />
and moral contradictions, flawed but<br />
striving for virtue, these are two largerthan-life<br />
characters tapping into something<br />
universally relatable. The success<br />
of their message is a sign of our times,<br />
and does it ever translate perfectly into<br />
a live setting.<br />
Like many of the fans that had waited<br />
early in line on the day of the initial<br />
ticket release, I was quite disappointed<br />
when the show was moved from<br />
the Venue to the PNE Forum. Usually<br />
a switch to such a large venue comes<br />
at the cost of the quality of the show,<br />
diluting the connection between<br />
crowd and artist, and making for a<br />
less-enjoyable evening. But within the<br />
first five minutes of the show starting,<br />
I honestly could not have cared<br />
less where I was. It’s a credit to RTJ’s<br />
incredible charisma that they were<br />
able to keep the energy levels of such<br />
a giant crowd high for the entirety of<br />
their hour-and-a-half-long set. The<br />
show lacked any kind of lull or periods<br />
of disinterest, which also speaks to the<br />
strength of RTJ’s catalogue. The set list<br />
was naturally heavily leaning towards<br />
their newly released material, but the<br />
crowd was clearly already intimately<br />
familiar with the newest album, shouting<br />
every word back at the two rappers<br />
with full force. My favourite moment<br />
of the night, though, had to be when<br />
Gangsta Boo was invited out to perform<br />
her verse on “Love Again.” Absolutely<br />
incredible to hear a giant crowd<br />
of mostly 20-something-year-old-men<br />
shouting, “He’s got my clit in his mouth<br />
all day,” at the top of their lungs. I don’t<br />
think the importance of a moment<br />
like that at a testosterone-fuelled rap<br />
show can be overstated. While I was<br />
less than happy about the venue baitand-switch,<br />
I can’t think of a single other<br />
rap act that deserves to cash in on<br />
their hard work. So go ahead, play that<br />
Queen loudly; RTJ really is the people’s<br />
champ.<br />
• Gabriel Klein<br />
photo by Galen Robinson-Exo<br />
Skye Wallace<br />
Something Wicked<br />
A definitive album that showcases Wallace as an artist who commands attention<br />
and isn’t backing down or fitting any prescribed mould. Her strong<br />
alt-rock vocals take centre stage on every track, spinning tales and swindling<br />
your mind and heart with reckless abandon.<br />
• Heather Adamson<br />
Loans<br />
Self Loaning<br />
A schizophrenic math/punk rock hybrid that walks the line between heartfelt<br />
emotion and spastic rage. Steady melodic sections are infused with<br />
sudden bursts of frantic changes in time signatures that keep the listener<br />
on their feet in between some of the more joyous or bittersweet choruses,<br />
which ensures a good amount of variety from song to song.<br />
• Brayden Turenne<br />
Auroch<br />
Seven Veils<br />
An EP that waterboards the listener with sheer sonic madness. Labyrinthine<br />
onslaughts of hyper-complex death metal emanating from some unknown<br />
Lovecraftian planet assault you, while still retaining that violent brutality<br />
that will surely make your mouth foam over. What the release lacks in length<br />
it makes up for in layered complexity that entices further listens.<br />
• Brayden Turenne<br />
photo by Galen Robinson-Exo<br />
Thundercat<br />
Rickshaw Theatre<br />
Feb 17, <strong>2017</strong><br />
Wearing an all black fit, it looked like the murdered out Thundercat<br />
was really just there to slay us all. Performing alongside Justin Brown<br />
on the drums and Dennis Ham on the keys; the trio opened with<br />
“Tron Cat” off his 2013 LP “Apocalypse”. In between songs, Thundercat<br />
exchanged some banter, pointing out a Godzilla shirt he saw<br />
in the crowd. “That’s a really cool shirt man, that’s all I had to say”,<br />
he giggles as he starts playing the opening chords to “Lotus and the<br />
Jondy", a tune also off “Apocalypse” dedicated to his friends Flying<br />
Lotus and Austin Peralta, who died in 2013 of viral pneumonia.<br />
The rhythms that Thundercat delivers are completely in sync<br />
with the movements of his body. Extreme focus and his facial expressions<br />
while concentrating made it charmingly reassuring for his<br />
fans to see that he was putting everything he had into his set. His<br />
drummer and keyboardist were also on the same wavelength, keeping<br />
up with the pace of the crowd and the vibe on stage without<br />
missing a beat.<br />
This was Thundercat’s fourth sold out show in a row on his world<br />
tour to promote his upcoming album “Drunk”, which is set to be<br />
released Friday, February 24th. The album features talents such as<br />
Kamasi Washington, Kenny Loggins, Pharrell, Flying Lotus, and Kendrick<br />
Lamar.<br />
• Molly Randhawa<br />
Cloud Nothings<br />
Biltmore Cabaret<br />
Feb 16, <strong>2017</strong><br />
While their new album Life Without Sound<br />
might be a touch more pop focussed and<br />
mid-tempo, live Cloud Nothings’ stripped<br />
down, no frills approach made for a show<br />
that went by quickly and energized a crowd<br />
that seemed to need it. Cloud Nothings<br />
stripped things bare. There was little in the<br />
way in between banter, a fact that singer<br />
Dylan Baldi acknowledged near the end of<br />
the set, and little in the way of over the top<br />
performance. Nothing meandered, and the<br />
pace rarely lifted. The new songs, sped up a<br />
touch, aided by the, possibly a touch overzealous<br />
drumming, fit in with the earlier<br />
music just right and the crowd responded<br />
strongly to both.<br />
Cloud Nothings tap into a feeling of<br />
hopelessness and fear that seems particularly<br />
of the moment currently, a lot of their<br />
choruses relying on a short repetition of<br />
phrases to emphasize the emotional undercurrent.<br />
Whether it’s just repeating “Line by<br />
line” from Life Without Sound’s “Darkened<br />
Rings” or “I want a life, that’s all I need lately/I<br />
am alive but all alone” from “Modern<br />
Acts” this repetition builds to an intensity<br />
that pushes towards emotional release.<br />
When singer Baldi and the crowd repeat “I<br />
thought I would be more than this!” over<br />
and over again in increasing intensity like on<br />
pre-encore closer “Wasted Days” (a standout<br />
if the set) one really sees the emotional<br />
cathartic appeal of the band. This is further<br />
emphasized on the final song of the encore,<br />
“No Future/No Past” which repeated its title<br />
into a final crescendo leaving the audience a<br />
sweaty, drained mess.<br />
• Graeme Wiggins<br />
photo by Justin Uitto<br />
Alien Boys<br />
Self Critical Theory<br />
Self-Critical Theory is a powerful feminist-driven manifesto, an album that<br />
roars loud as one of the most classically punk releases of <strong>2017</strong> so far, and has<br />
no shame charging you head-on with a clear, loud message. Full of rallying<br />
calls within the thoughtful, often politically charged lyrics, Alien Boys are<br />
insightful, angry, evocative and extremely tight musically, making you want<br />
to mosh, but also be socially responsible at the same time.<br />
• Reid Oakley<br />
Gun Control<br />
Volume 1<br />
A collection of the band’s work over the past year, Volume 1 looks to show<br />
off the ability of noise-pop outfit Gun Control, but low production quality,<br />
repetitive melodies and often straining vocals stop them just short of a fully<br />
polished release. While some recordings like “Take My Mind” manage to find<br />
a good structure, most of the nine-song tracklist ends up falling into the very<br />
familiar lo-fi punk aesthetic found from many bands of the scene.<br />
• Reid Oakley<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 33<br />
reviews
ating the best (and worst) of Vancouver’s public toilets<br />
MICHELLE HANLEY<br />
Trump Tower<br />
I have finally pooped at the Trump Tower as a radical act of political<br />
protest. I would highly recommend doing the same. Let's start a<br />
movement with our bowel movements. Destroy fascism by pooping<br />
at ground zero!<br />
I walked into the Trump Tower looking hopelessly out of place and<br />
was immediately asked by an employee if I needed help. She led me<br />
to the bathrooms, which were obviously very nice and glamorous —<br />
Floor to ceiling stalls, marble tiles, real fabric cloths instead of paper<br />
towels! Wow! This is how the 1 per cent poops. However, I'm still going<br />
to give it a bad review because it’s owned by a hateful and fascist<br />
dictator. #DUMPTRUMP<br />
JJ Bean (Main Street)<br />
JJ Bean is a large local chain of coffee shops in Vancouver. They serve<br />
great cappuccinos and this particular location has some of the nicest<br />
employees.<br />
At my last visit here I had the particularly nightmarish experience<br />
of accidentally walking in on someone who neglected to lock the<br />
bathroom door and afterwards, running into a friend who introduced<br />
me to the person I walked in on pooping! It was the worst day.<br />
Despite that, the bathrooms are quite clean and charming. Though,<br />
the weird semi-opaque glass doors are particularly anxiety inducing<br />
because sometimes when the sun is shining, you can see a rough outline<br />
of someone on the toilet through the doors. Not cool JJ bean.<br />
Mount Pleasant<br />
Community Centre<br />
I love my local Community Centre. This one is my favourite in the city.<br />
It is a great place to go if you need to return some library books or<br />
enroll in a beginners Zumba class.<br />
I frequent this bathroom often because it is very close to my work<br />
and despite how much I talk about toilets and pooping and stuff, I<br />
still can't bring myself to drop a deuce at my workplace. But the ones<br />
here are especially nice. The bathroom is bright and spacious and<br />
clean and they have free wifi! So it's perfect for mindlessly scrolling<br />
through Instagram while bored on the toilet. This community centre<br />
is a great place to poop.
UPCOMING EVENTS<br />
FRIDAY MARCH 25 FRIDAY MARCH 31<br />
PLATINUM ERA HIP HOP<br />
DOUBLE DIP EDITION!<br />
WEDNESDAY MARCH 1<br />
TENNIS<br />
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 26<br />
JERREMY<br />
ALLINGHAM<br />
FRIDAY MARCH 10<br />
SEX WITH<br />
STRANGERS<br />
MONDAY MARCH 27<br />
JAIN<br />
SATURDAY MARCH 11<br />
SMASH<br />
BOOM POW<br />
SATURDAY APRIL 1<br />
COLONY<br />
HOUSE<br />
SATURDAY MARCH 18<br />
JOSEPH<br />
FRIDAY APRIL 7<br />
MITSKI<br />
UPCOMING MRG SHOWS<br />
~<br />
MARCH 4 - ILLY - THE RIO THEATRE<br />
MARCH 16 - BEN CAPLAN & THE CASUAL SMOKERS - ST JAMES HALL<br />
MARCH 20 - JAPANDROIDS - COMMODORE BALLROOM<br />
APRIL 5 - HOPSIN - THE VOGUE THEATRE<br />
APRIL 7 - VANESSA CARLTON - THE RIO THEATRE<br />
/BILTMORECABARET @BILTMORECABARET @BILTMORECABARET