BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edition - July 2016

Tragically Hip • METZ • Eli & Fur • Steel Panther • David Cross • Calgary Film Centre • Blood Orange

Editor’s Note/Pulse 4 

Bedroom Eyes 7 

Netflix & Kill 14 

Vidiot 15 

Edmonton Extra 24-25 

Book of Bridge 26 

Letters from Winnipeg 27 

Let’s Get Jucy! 38 

This Month in Metal 46 

FEATURES 

Calgary Folk Music Festival 

29-35 

CITY 9-10 

FILM 13-15 

Calgary Film Centre, Dumb and Dumber 

Sled Island live reviews - pages 56-57 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

MUSIC 

rockpile 16-27 

The Tragically Hip, Uptights, Fury 

Things, Cold Cave, METZ, Prozzak, Pre 

Nup, Bitter Fictions, L.T. Leif, Pancake, 

The Kronic Groove Band, Blue Crime 

jucy 37-38 

Sergio Levels, Eli & Fur, Rezz, Bob Moses 

roots 41-42 

Bottom Shelf Bourbon Trio, Calgary 

Stampede Without the Stampede 

shrapnel 45-46 

Numenorean, Steel Panther 

REVIEWS 

music 49-54 

live 56-57 

Sled Island 2016! 

BEATROUTE 

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief 

Brad Simm 

Marketing Manager 

Glenn Alderson 

Production Coordinator 

Hayley Muir 

Content Coordinator 

Masha Scheele 

Managing Editor/Web Producer 

Shane Flug 

Music Editor 

Colin Gallant 

Section Editors 

City :: Brad Simm 

Film :: Colin Gallant 

Calgary Beat :: Willow Grier 

Edmonton Extra :: Jenna Lee Williams 

Book of (Leth)Bridge :: Courtney Creator 

Letters From Winnipeg :: Julijana Capone 

Jucy :: Paul Rodgers 

Roots :: Liam Prost 

Shrapnel :: Sarah Kitteringham 

Intern 

Brandon McNeil 

This Month’s Contributing Writers 

Christine Leonard • Gareth Watkins • Ana Mihajlovic • Devon Motz • Willem Thomas • 

Michael Grondin • Jennie Orton • Sara Elizabeth Taylor • Alison Musial • Jodi Brak • 

Naddine Maddell-Morgan • Yasmine Shemesh • Levi Manchak • Arielle Lessard • Breanna 

Whipple • Jay King • Brandon Tucker • Michael Dunn • Adam Sarjeant • Shane Sellar • 

Trina McDonald • Cole Parker • Sydney Ball • Brittany Rudyck • Jamie McNamara • 

Jonathan Lawrence • Dan Savage 

This Month’s Contributing Photographers & Illustrators 

Michael Grondin • Levi Manchak • Jamie McNamara • Arielle Lessard • Syd Danger 

Advertising 

Tel: 403.451.7628 • e-mail: sales@beatroute.ca 

Distribution 

We distribute our publication in Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, Canmore, and Lethbridge. 

E-Edition 

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BeatRoute Magazine 

e-mail: editor@beatroute.ca • website: www.beatroute.ca 

Copyright © BEATROUTE Magazine 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the contents is prohibited. 

photo: Arielle Lesard 

BEATROUTE • JULY 2016 | 3

pulse 

CALGARY INTERNATIONAL 

BLUES FESTIVAL 

Straight Outta Harlem. 

Shemekia Copeland is 

the New Queen of gospel, 

blues and soul. She’s 

headlining the Blues Fest 

that runs a full week 

from July 25 to July 30 

featuring over 20 renown 

artists that are the epitome 

of “all killa no filla!” 

In addition to the stage 

performances, there’s a 

blues geetar workshop 

and a tour of the historic 

King Eddy Hotel, now a 

remodeled venue in the 

National Music Centre. 

calgarybluesfest.com 

BOB LOG III 

If you don’t ole Bob, well 

now is the time to get to 

know him. Nobody, and 

that means NOBODY 

plays the guitar, stomps 

the floor, swigs back the 

whiskey and swoons the 

ladies like ole Bobby. 

Nobody has a sweet, 

rock ‘n’ roll soul like 

Bobby... mmm good! 

He’s the Delta blues, Bo 

Diddley, Screamin’ Jay 

Hawkins, Jerry Lee Lewis 

and AC/DC all rolled into 

one hunka, hunka of a 

burning one man band. 

Gentleman beware, he 

will set your girlfriend on 

fire! You’ll have a whole 

lotta lovin’ to live up to 

after she’s been bouncing 

on Bobby’s knee... whew!! 

Palomino on Sat., July 30. 

CALGARY INTERNATIONAL FASHION 

FILM FESTIVAL 

“Standing at the crossroad of new a genre in filmmaking... this two 

day event explores the diverse, shifting landscape of fashion through 

film in the categories of beauty, lifestyle and luxury.” Intoxicating! 

Glenbow Museum July 22-23. canifff.com 

MOTEL RAPHAEL 

Sweet angelic things that named themselves 

after a well-know, bad-boy, gangster 

hang-out that thrived in Montreal 

during the heyday of the flamboyant 50s 

and swinging 60s. Exciting, well... YES! 

The indie-pop fun of Motel Raphael is a 

fresh, smart, darling (and a wee bit coy) 

but an all together playful treat from 

Quebec. Thank you very much! Please 

leave your politics at the door, maintain 

a measurable politeness and party with 

pleasure. Palomino on Fri., July 15. 

THE 4TH ANNUAL 

CALGARY GUITAR SHOW 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 

THE NATIONAL MUSIC CENTRE 

4 | JULY DECEMBER 2016 2014 • BEATROUTE • BEATROUTE

On The Fringe 

Calgary Fringe Festival 

JUly 29 – aUgUst 6... 10 days oF weird 

Meet roB gee... CoMiC, Poet, PsyCHiatriC nUrse 

gee worked for 12 years as a registered nurse in acute psychiatric 

units around england, scotland and australia. He 

also worked in child and adolescent units, drug and alcohol 

services, eating disorders, early psychosis intervention and 

psychiatric intensive care. in performance, he explores the 

world of chaos and adventure that lurks behind the veneer of 

everyday life. 

gee first acquired a taste for the stage playing King Herod 

in the school nativity. He started writing poetry when fronting 

punk rock bands as a teenager. Based in leicester, UK, he’s 

performed over two thousand shows, regularly appears on 

BBC radio, and is sometimes sent into schools as a warning 

to children. 

— Dr. Seuss for adults. 

— Didn’t so much break the mould, 

as refuse to accept there was one in the first place. 

— He’s a performance poet, but don’t worry – he’s not shit. 

BEATROUTE BEATROUTE • JANUARY • JULY 2016 2015 | 7

CITY 

DAVID CROSS 

on the road again, going to the people 

by Liam Prost 

PLACES PLEASE 

VAGINA MONOLOGUES 

Every summer, the Calgary Fringe Festival brings some of the 

most experimental, innovative, and sometimes just plan weird 

theatrical creations to our city. Below are a few of the picks from 

this year’s Festival, running July 29 - August 6. Check out the full 

schedule at CalgaryFringe.ca -- with most plays under an hour and all 

under $20, you have nothing to lose! 

Making America Great Again is a bold sentiment. A 

comedy tour from one of America’s most prominent 

comedians with explicit thematic ties to Donald Trump 

(and by extension Ronald Reagan from whom Trump stole the 

slogan) could be a direct political statement, and a reaction to 

an American conservative movement whose ideology is skewing 

further towards totalitarianism. Or it could be a title chosen on 

a whim when given an hour to choose one. Would it shock you if 

the truth was the later? 

David Cross, the comedian and actor best known for his role 

as the creator and star of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of 

Todd Margaret and as the psycho-analyst and therapist 

(the “analrapist”) Tobias Fünke in the cult classic Arrested 

Development, describes the choice of a title for his first comedy 

tour in six years as “not well thought out,” but ultimately a decision 

he is “happy with.” Despite the political title, Cross insists 

that “it’s not a message,” and that most of the set is non-political. 

That said, there is no small amount of irony in bringing a 

show called Making America Great Again to Europe and Canada. 

Cross describes that he felt some anxiety with bringing jokes 

with cultural context outside of America. “For the first few gigs 

I was interrupting my flow by describing things… the context, 

the references.” Audiences, however, have been understanding 

and receptive, such that Cross has “learned pretty quickly not to 

do that.” Even if there is a small piece of context missing, Cross 

advises audiences to “just hang on one sec and we’ll be moving 

on quickly.” 

“Audiences have been great, very enthusiastic,” says Cross. 

Europeans and Canadians tend to be “aware,” or at least “familiar 

with the idea” of some of the more specific commentary. The set 

features jokes targeted at the political response to recent mass 

CITY 

shootings, an American problem to be sure, but one that Cross 

has found his international audiences to be understanding of. 

Making America Great Again is Cross’ first large scale comedy 

tour since 2010’s Bigger and Blackerer. In that time he has been 

largely dedicated to film and television, but attests that he “never 

really stopped” doing stand-up. After a project was postponed 

and Cross found himself stuck in one place while recovering 

from surgery, he began to aggregate and refine the material that 

he has been disparately writing and performing in the last few 

years. “There’s always that thing in the back of your head… wanting 

to get out there” says Cross. 

Even recent creative successes in film and television “can’t 

replace the feeling” of “going to the people” directly. 

In his previous stand up work Cross has often included more 

performative elements that more closely mirror his other work, 

but for this tour he promises that the set is back to basics. “I 

come out, I do a bunch of time,” says Cross matter-of-factly. 

Compared to previous work, it’s a more “traditional” stand 

up set. “It’s me talking to you,” where he address the audience 

directly telling his “jokey joke.” 

At the same time, his stage set has changed a lot since the 

tour began. Partly out of what’s been working and not, and also 

how the social realities have shifted since he got on the road. 

“You want to make each show special” and by engaging with 

audiences at their level. For Cross that is often walking around a 

city for an hour or two, and injecting his observations back into 

the set. We can only wonder what kind of wonderfully terrible 

things he will have to say about Calgary and Edmonton. 

David Cross performs at MacEwan Hall on July 22nd, and the Horowitz 

Theatre on July 23rd. 

Knocked over, Knocked off, Knocked up 

chiMOchiMO immersive Theatre (Calgary, AB) 

Alexandra Centre (Muster Point) 

July 29 - August 6 

Who said theatre has to be enjoyed while sitting inside a building? Don 

a costume piece, get your feet moving and interact with the characters 

in this site-specific meandering performance. Your tour guide, a sweettalking 

escort, will host you on this journey into unconventional spaces. 

Bet you can’t guess what’s around the next corner… 

Vagina Monologues 

Broadway West Productions (Calgary, AB) 

INKubator Theatre 

July 29, 30, August 4-6 

You’ve heard about it, you’ve read about it, now you can see the play 

that was described in 2006, ten years after its release, as “probably the 

most important piece of political theater of the last decade.” It all started 

with New York playwright Eve Ensler, who interviewed 200 women 

about the most intimate subjects, from sex and love, to masturbation 

and menstruation, to rape and female genital mutilation. The result is a 

can’t-miss performance covering the gamut of the feminine experience. 

Proceeds from this show will be donated to a local woman’s charity. 

Improv Against Humanity 

Go 4 Broke Productions (St. Albert, AB) 

The Blues Can 

August 1-5 

Enjoy seeing your friends squirm when you give them the ultimate 

trump card in Cards Against Humanity? Then you’ll love watching the 

Go 4 Broke players create hilarious scenes based on cards from the game 

while you enjoy food and drink specials at the Blues Can. It’ll be more 

fun than an icy handjob from an Edmonton hooker. 

Hamlet 

Shakespeare by the Bow 

Prince’s Island Park & St. Patrick’s Island 

June 21 - August 21 

Okay, this one’s not part of Calgary Fringe, but Shakespeare by the Bow is 

doing something so interesting this year that I couldn’t leave it out. They 

are offering two ways to enjoy their gender-bending take on Hamlet this 

summer. First, the traditional way: an evening or afternoon pay-whatyou-will 

performance at Prince’s Island Park. But then, from July 19-24, 

they’ll be moving the entire production over to St. Patrick’s Island for an 

exciting new initiative: Hamlet – A Ghost Story. Why not watch them 

both, then head over to the Fringe to check out Breakneck Hamlet, 

which compresses the typically four-hour masterpiece into a one-man 

60-minute whirlwind. I think you’ll be all Hamlet-ed out after that. 

• Sara Elizabeth Taylor 


FILM 

CALGARY FILM CENTRE 

new film studio hopes to grow Calgary’s economy 

The Calgary Film Centre wants to engage both the local film community and out-of-town bigshots. 

Largely thought purely an oil-and-gas town, 

Calgary is making strides to become the next 

Hollywood North with its brand-new film 

studio, dubbed the Calgary Film Centre, which 

opened its doors on May 19 to 50,000 sq. ft. of 

potential movie-making goodness. Many local 

developers and politicians are hoping that the 

studio will boost Alberta’s stuttering economy, 

to diversify and modernize the city’s industries, 

and to provide world-class resources to the large 

creative talent in Calgary. It’s likely to be a wise 

investment; in 2015, the film and TV industry 

added over $200 million to Alberta’s economy. 

With so many recent large-scale productions 

happening in Alberta, such as 2014’s Interstellar, last 

year’s The Revenant and the award-winning TV series 

Fargo, the Calgary Economic Development, as well as 

Hollywood studios, are capitalizing on the financial 

benefits of shooting in Alberta, in addition to its 

stunning and varied scenery. 

Although the new facility is still filling its positions 

and the city of Calgary is still working on its burgeoning 

media trade, the province’s film industry employs 

over 3,000 people and is responsible for about $150 

million in production activity every year, according 

to Calgary Economic Development. There are also 

by Jonathan Lawrence 

hundreds of skilled people working in film and TV; 

the crews in Alberta alone have reportedly received 

over 50 Academy Award nominations and 90 Emmy 

nominations. 

The organizers behind the new studio are 

hoping that it will legitimize the city as a prime 

location for shooting, as well as attract productions 

that might otherwise shoot in Vancouver or 

L.A. Based on how things have progressed, they’re 

predicting a significant increase in film work over 

the next five years. 

So far, there are reportedly six Hollywood film and 

TV projects that are looking into Calgary’s new studio 

for their shooting services. Still, the organizers of the 

studio stress the importance of local productions and 

how Calgarian filmmakers should take full advantage 

of it. They’ve stated their hopes that the studio will 

see a fair share of big budget productions, as well as 

local and regional work – something that many large 

studios in other cities might not necessarily consider 

or advertise. 

Last month, Mayor Naheed Nenshi and film studio 

general manager Erin O’Connor visited the Milken 

Institute Forum in Los Angeles to enthusiastically 

pitch the studio to big-name industry executives. 

They claim that the edge they have over the other 

studios is the price and availability of its resources, 

which is a huge selling point for many film productions; 

most high-quality studios in film-centric cities 

are fully booked. 

Alberta has been a destination for filmmakers for 

decades - mostly for Westerns - such as Unbroken 

and Brokeback Mountain, as well as less expected 

films such as 1978’s Superman and the cult classic 

Cool Runnings. With the addition of the new film 

studio, Calgary’s photographic possibilities won’t be 

restricted to flat prairies and ice-capped mountains. 

With modern filmmaking technology, practically 

anything is possible on a soundstage. 

That said, the first production to shoot in the 

facility will be the Western-themed television show, 

Tin Star, starring Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and 

Tim Roth of Reservoir Dogs fame. 

Calgary and Alberta loves their Westerns, they just 

can’t get enough. Yet hopefully soon we’ll see the 

rise of science-fiction, fantasy and thrillers being shot 

in Calgary. Likewise, hopefully we’ll see an influx of 

creative people to the city, as well as opportunities 

for those who want to be involved on a film set, even 

just for the sheer thrill of it. I know I’d be pretty darn 

happy holding a boom mic for 15 hours a day. 

Well, maybe 10. 

Information on filming your next production at 

Calgary Film Centre can be found at calgaryfilmcentre.com 

FILM 


DUMB AND DUMBER 

looking back at a buddy classic’s two-decade legacy 

What do 1994’s Dumb and Dumber and 

Stephen King have in common? Believe 

it or not, there is a connection, if not 

pointless trivia. It so happens that both King and 

Jim Carrey, star of the cult comedy, stayed in Room 

217 of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, 

which also served as the fictional Danbury Hotel 

in the film. However, while the esteemed writer 

emerged having written The Shining, the latter 

inexplicably checked out after only a few hours. 

Maybe he had a ghostly vision of Dumb and 

Dumber To. 

It’s just not a true buddy comedy unless 

there’s a road trip gone awry involved. When a 

beautiful woman leaves a briefcase at an airport 

terminal, the two dummies in question, Lloyd 

Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff 

Daniels), struggling to get by, travel from their 

ramshackle apartment in Rhode Island to Aspen, 

Colorado to return the forgotten briefcase to the 

woman – perhaps for a decent financial reward 

or the reward of love. Either way, in true buddy 

comedy fashion, their friendship will be tested 

along the way. Unbeknownst to them, however, 

the woman intentionally left the briefcase at the 

airport which contained ransom money for her 

kidnapped husband. 

Jim Carrey’s breakout role as the lovable dimwit 

Lloyd Christmas (film rule #22: dimwits are always 

lovable), which, along with that year’s Ace Ventura: 

Pet Detective and The Mask, helped launch him into 

pop culture mainstream. From the awful, yet distinctly 

‘90s haircuts that Harry and Lloyd don to the iconic 

Mutt Cutts van (actually a 1984 Ford Econoline), 

Dumb and Dumber is a classic full of iconic images to 

anyone who grew up in the ‘90s. 

“It’s the epitome of Jim Carrey’s classic physical 

humour,” says Kevin Rosmer, long-time Carrey 

fan. “It’s a comedy that revolves around the 

characters rather than a concept,” a notion that 

Rosmer feels is missing from modern comedies 

where it’s both easy and effective to simply cast 

a Rogen or a Sudeikis and call it a day. He likened 

the film to the new generation’s Three Stooges – 

simple, slapstick comedy that doesn’t depend on 

effects or the times; it simply works on its own 

charm and cleverness. 

Plenty of surprises await Fifth Reel goers this month. 

While the film was ultimately a huge success 

and grossed nearly a quarter-billion dollars, Jeff 

Daniels undoubtedly got the short end of the 

stick, receiving only fifty thousand dollars for the 

flick versus Carrey’s $7-million deal (nearly half 

the film’s budget). Granted, Carrey had much 

more comedic influence; Daniels had only previously 

been known for working on dramas and 

with Woody Allen. 

In fact, Daniels’s agents urged him not to do the 

film, and insisted that his co-star would overshadow 

him and that the serious actor was “heading for 

an Oscar one day.” Nevertheless, Daniels chose to 

follow his instincts and do the film, and we’re glad 

for it. He knocked it out of the park and played 

“dumber” like we’d never seen before (and fired his 

doubtful agents shortly after). 

Carrey fans won’t want to miss this event. After 

the showing of Dumb and Dumber, a secret midnight 

by Jonathan Lawrence 

screening of another Carrey classic will be shown, and 

even Alonso Melgar, one of the organizers at The Fifth 

Reel, doesn’t know which one it’ll be. 

“We had a similarly themed Arnold Schwarzenegger 

night a couple years back…[the first was] 

Predator, and Commando was the secret movie, and 

people really loved it,” he said. “We chose Dumb and 

Dumber because it is, in my opinion, the most quotable 

movie of the 1990s, and Jim Carrey in particular 

really lays the magic down.” 

In fact, many of those infamous quotes were 

adlibbed by Carrey himself, such as “We’ve landed 

on the moon!,” “Woah, Big Gulps huh?,” and Lloyd’s 

rendition of the most annoying sound in the world. 

As always, the evening will be hosted by the 

Kinkonauts, who warm up the crowd with their hilarious 

antics and audience challenges. Past highlights 

include human-proton-pack ghost hunting, Arnold 

Schwarzenegger impersonation contests, and lifesized 

Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robots. Each Fifth Reel event 

features different shenanigans by the Kinkonauts, so 

what they have planned this time is anyone’s guess. 

This Fifth Reel event’s musical guest is John Lesbian 

Seagull, whose bio reads as “a shared affinity for loud 

guitars, beer that comes in 20 packs, and suck knobs 

that are not broken off… We carry on turning our 

amps as loud as they go, and we don’t hate each other.” 

What else could you want in an opening act? 

Don’t miss the Jim Carrey Double Feature on 

July 29 at the Plaza Theatre. And if you really want 

to feel like Lloyd Christmas, you can go hang by 

the bar and put out the vibe. In an orange suit and 

bowtie, of course. 

The Fifth Reel presents Dumb and Dumber at The 

Plaza Theatre on July 29th with performances by the 

Kinkonauts and John Lesbian Seagull. Stick around 

after for a surprise second Carrey-starring feature. 

NETFLIX AND KILL 

what’s streaming and slaying this month? 

Hey, it turned out that the latest season 

of Orange Is The New Black (Netflix) 

was good. Like the seasons with Jason 

Biggs good. I mean, it wasn’t like Jason Biggs was 

responsible for seasons one and two being good, 

he was more an innocent, nebbish-y bystander 

of their relative greatness. If you haven’t binged 

on it yet you still have a hole in your heart in 

the shape of Pousey and Soso’s gloriously cute 

relationship. 

Speaking of OITNB, one of its writers and 

producers, Sian Heder, also wrote and directed Tallulah, 

which Netflix got all hot and bothered over 

when it premiered at Sundance. It stars Ellen Page 

as a drifter who kidnaps a baby from its negligent 

mother, so the combination of ‘Ellen’ plus ‘Page’ 

plus ‘Baby’ equals Juno comparisons. Alison ‘Juno’s 

by Gareth Watkins 

Mom’ Janney being in it probably doesn’t help, 

but Uzo ‘Crazy Eyes’ Aduba and Zachary ‘Zachary 

Quinto’ Quinto might drive things far enough left 

field to sidestep hamburger phones and painful, 

painful discussion of Mott the Hoople. 

Also arriving is a new season of Marco Polo, 

from the same “Let’s everybody try to make a new 

Game of Thrones” rush that gave us Outlander 

and The Shannara Chronicles and Bo-Jack Horseman, 

starring a bunch of people as the characters 

they always play, except sometimes animals and 

Alison Brie as a Vietnamese girl for some reason. 

Neither’s essential, but if you’re unemployed or an 

insomniac or something and you’ve already seen 

The Wire and Seinfeld and the first 11 seasons of 

The Simpsons then maybe consider thinking about 

watching them. 

14 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE FILM

THE VIDIOT 

rewind to the future 

by Shane Sellar 

10 Cloverfield Lane 

Anomalisa 

Eddie the Eagle 

Hail, Caesar! 

Zootopia 

10 Cloverfield Lane 

Here’s a helpful handyman tip: why not turn that old 

bomb shelter into a contemporary sex-dungeon? 

Or, like, the doomsday prepper is this psychological-thriller: 

keep stocking it with preserves. 

Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) comes to after 

a car accident to find she is confined in an underground 

bunker curated by conspiracy nut Howard 

(John Goodman), who believes the air above is now 

contaminated from an unknown attacker. 

Remaining distrustful of her captor while building 

a rapport with him, Michelle conspires with her 

co-inmate (John Gallagher, Jr.) on constructing a 

homemade HAZMAT suit for escaping in. 

On one hand it’s an intimate and exhilarating 

cat-and-mouse game with sporadic bursts of 

humor and malice. And on the other, it’s an outof-left-field 

alien incursion sequel to the 2008 

found-footage Cloverfield. But some how these 

two conflicting narratives work in an unanticipated 

fashion. 

Ironically, to aliens, underground bunkers are like 

cans of preserved peaches. 

Anomalisa 

Stop-motion animation is arduous on voice-actors 

because they can only say their lines in very small 

increments. 

Fortunately, like with this stop-motion dramedy, it 

all comes together in post-production. 

While on a book tour to Cincinnati, unhappily 

married self-help author Michael (David Thewlis) 

meets an old flame for a drink in his hotel. When 

that doesn’t pan out he flirts with an insecure 

groupie Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and takes her back 

to his room. 

Inspired by a fevered-dream, he suggests they run 

away together. But her annoying idiosyncrasies and 

his increasing anxiety towards society may end their 

elopement before it begins. 

A surreal, yet substantial, look at a mid-life crisis 

through the meticulous method of stop-motion 

animation, esoteric writer-director Charlie Kaufman 

brings his awkward insight and doleful humor to this 

Herculean effort with unprecedented and depressing 

results. 

But at least this Claymation mid-life crisis has a 

lower body count than the California Raisins’. 

The Brothers Grimsby 

Young men in England only have two career options: 

the dole or football hooligan. 

The Renaissance man in this action-comedy, however, 

is successfully pursuing both vocations. 

Strapped with a wife (Rebel Wilson) and 11 kids, 

haphazard Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen) dreams of 

the day he’ll reunite with his long-lost brother Sebastian 

(Mark Strong). 

But when that day comes, Sebastian is working for 

MI6 and Nobby fumbles an assassination attempt on 

a notable humanitarian (Penélope Cruz), making it 

appear Sebastian’s gone rogue 

Now Nobby must clear his brother’s name and 

prevent a biological weapon from detonating at a 

football match. 

While Baron Cohen has a history of delivering 

lowbrow laughs, Grimsby does so in spades. Excessively 

crude and intentionally mean spirited, the few 

laughs it has are beyond infantile, while the action 

simply feels out of place. 

Besides, the real MI6 kills all your living relatives 

before they let you join. 

Eddie the Eagle 

The upside to the Olympics being in Canada is the 

low exchange rate helps your IOC bribe go a lot 

further. 

Unfortunately, the hopeful in this dramedy will 

need more than a kickback to compete. 

Dreaming of gold since he was young, Eddie 

Edwards (Taron Egerton) has shoehorned himself 

into every possible activity with disastrous results. It’s 

not until he witnesses ski jumping does the fearless 

Brit find his calling. 

With help from a failed ski jumper (Hugh Jackman), 

Eddie gets the training he needs to qualify for 

the 1988 games in Calgary, but not the respect of his 

fellow competitors. 

Despite its over indulgence in sentimentality and 

played out sports clichés, this true underdog tale 

still manages to rally enough heart and good humor 

to provide a pleasant reflection on this unorthodox 

athlete. 

Mind you, to those in the southern hemisphere, 

this Winter Olympic anecdote is brand new. 

Gods of Egypt 

The upside to a bird-headed god is they’re easily 

appeased with a bucket of mice guts. 

Mind you, the falcon-faced deity in this action-fantasy 

movie would rather devour his nemesis. 

When the immortal Set (Gerard Butler) assassinates 

Osiris (Bryan Brown), the King of Egypt, 

and declares a new tax on all souls passing over 

into the afterlife, the avian lord Horus (Nikolaj 

Coster-Waldau) partners with a street urchin, Bek 

(Brenton Thwaites), who has intimate knowledge 

of his enemy’s booby-trapped compound. 

But, in exchange, for helping him, Bek needs 

Horus’ aid in retrieving his love (Courtney Eaton) 

from the afterworld. 

Inlaid with overblown special effects and abysmal 

performances from a fair-skinned cast, this whitewashed 

construct of an alternative Egypt is grossly 

inaccurate, insulting and inane all at the same time. 

Furthermore, with all of their internal organs removed, 

Egyptians had plenty of room to store spare 

change for any afterlife tolls. 

Hail, Caesar! 

Disgracefully, in the 1950s only white actors were 

cast for communist roles in Hollywood movies. 

Fortunately, this comedy offers some enlightenment 

on the cultural insensitivity of “Redface.” 

Employed by Capitol Pictures to protect their 

stars from public scandal, Mannix (Josh Brolin) 

faces an array of back-lot indignities, including: 

a pregnant starlet (Scarlett Johansson), an inept 

heartthrob (Alden Ehrenreich), twin sister gossip 

columnists (Tilda Swinton) and a leading man 

(George Clooney) who has been shanghaied by 

communists within the studio (Channing Tatum, 

Fisher Stevens). 

The Coen Brothers’ ambitious but aimless attempt 

at lampooning the low-end genre pictures of 

post-war Hollywood and the escalating red menace 

therein, Hail Caesar does have some noteworthy 

odes to old Hollywood. Unfortunately, they never 

coalesce with the larger story, which seriously lacks 

the siblings’ eccentric brand of humor. 

Besides, the best way to catch commie actors is to 

stakeout the pot of borscht at craft services. 

London Has Fallen 

To get the upper hand on terrorism we need to 

employ the use of suicide bomber-hostages. 

However, the high-level hostage in this action 

movie isn’t likely to be allowed to wear an explosive 

vest. 

In London for the Prime Minister’s funeral, U.S. 

President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his bodyguard 

Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) are caught in a terrorist 

plot to wipeout all world leaders in attendance 

and kidnap Asher for online execution. 

Across the pond, the U.S. vice-president 

(Morgan Freeman) works with White House staff 

to solve the mystery behind the mastermind’s 

(Alon Moni Aboutboul) motives and the possibility 

of a mole. 

Overstuffed with straightforward shootouts, 

commonplace car chases and patriotic orations, 

this unwarranted sequel to Olympus Has Fallen is 

even more bombastic and nationalistic with Butler’s 

brutish performance and xenophobic one-liners as 

its highest and lowest points. 

Besides, you’d get more online traffic executing 

that hunky Canadian Prime Minister. 

Zootopia 

No one has a problem with all-animal metropolises 

as long as citizens always remember to pick their pet 

human’s poop up. 

Mind you, there aren’t many squatting Caucasians 

in this animated-adventure. 

Believing you can be anything you want to be, 

no matter your genetic disposition, Judy (Ginnifer 

Goodwin) forgoes carrot farming for police work in 

the big city. 

But instead of protecting the populace, Judy’s 

issuing parking tickets because her buffalo boss (Idris 

Elba) doesn’t think rabbits can be cops. 

To prove she’s more than her genus, she pairs 

with her species sworn enemy, a street-wise fox 

(Jason Bateman), to solve a rash of unsolved missing 

mammal cases. 

Ingenuously devised, strikingly rendered and 

wholly hilarious, this anthropomorphic whodunit 

has all the earmarks of classic Disney but with a 

modern message on diversity and tolerance. 

Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, the 

worst drivers on Zootopian roadways are not always 

female pandas. 

 

He’s Strictly Business Casual. He’s the… 

Vidiot 

FILM 


ROCKPILE 

THE TRAGICALLY HIP 

an ode to the barstool bard 

Looking back on The Tragically Hip’s place in Canadian life. 

There is something that happens when we’re about to lose 

someone we love. It becomes a time of reflection, where 

we remember how truly wonderful they really were, and all 

of the momentous ways they’ve shaped our lives. We feel luckier 

to have known them — better for it. In May, The Tragically Hip 

announced that their frontman, Gord Downie, had been diagnosed 

with incurable brain cancer. Accompanying this is a farewell tour and 

new album, Man Machine Poem. The news of Downie’s condition 

struck a devastating blow to fans as they tried to process the heartbreaking 

reality that they’d soon be forced to bid farewell to their 

barstool bard. We’re still reeling. After all, we’ve never forgotten how 

magnificent The Hip is. Downie is our Dylan; his poetry references 

things that only we, as fellow Canadians, can truly resonate with. It’s 

because of this depth that we’ve walked together, us and the band, 

photo: Paul McNamee 

for more than 30 years. They are ours. 

And they always will be. No matter what happens, Downie has 

imparted gifts that we may forever keep, from his untamed live performances 

to the poignancy of his words. As the curtains close, we begin to 

comprehend the bigger picture, perhaps in a more momentous way that 

we have done so before — to understand that between lines about lost 

hockey heroes, beneath the iconic throatiness, and amid a crushing diagnosis, 

there is profound wisdom that we can take from Gord Downie. 

In early days, the Hip cut their teeth playing at campus pubs and 

local dives in Kingston. Downie’s wild ramblings earned him the 

nickname “the barstool bard,” and his enchanting genius would make 

fans of each audience he’d wax off to. As the years stretched on, the 

band continued to tour, tirelessly, from coast to coast. Yet, 14 JUNO 

Award wins and a Canadian Music Hall of Fame Induction later, they’ve 

by Yasmine Shemesh 

remained accessible. Downie’s stories are our stories, delivered to the 

soul, not from a place of superiority. Humility is a virtue that The Hip 

has possessed since the beginning — when Hurricane Katrina hit, the 

band requested radio stations stop playing “New Orleans Is Sinking.” 

War Amps credits them with helping to bring awareness to the organization 

with a charitable concert in Winnipeg. If further case needs 

to be made, it’s this — when tickets to The Hip’s farewell tour sold out 

in seconds, the band announced they would partner with CBC to live 

broadcast their August 20 Kingston concert so that everyone could 

have the chance to say goodbye. 

Our land and its people have frequently been Downie’s muse and 

it’s that deeply-rooted patriotism woven through The Hip’s music that 

makes it feel so familiar. On “Fifty Mission Cap,” Downie recounts the 

disappearance of Bill Barilko — the Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman 

who vanished days after scoring the winning goal in the 1951 Stanley 

Cup finals. “At the Hundredth Meridian” tells us where the Great Plains 

begin, referring to the longitude line that separates Western and Eastern 

Canada. “Wheat Kings” references the case of a Winnipeg man wrongly 

convicted of rape and murder, while “Courage” tributes Canadian author 

Hugh MacLennan. As listeners, it’s comforting to hear stories we can 

relate to. They might even prompt us to crack open the history books. 

More than anything, though, it encourages Canadians to be proud of 

where they come from. 

It’s a good life if you don’t weaken. Seizing the day is a recurrent theme 

in Downie’s lyrics and, boy, does that song title ring true now more 

than ever. Despite his terminal diagnosis, Downie will be damned if he 

weakens. No — instead, he’s hitting the road on a cross-country tour, 

promising it will “blow people’s minds,” and releasing a new album. His 

life, however long or short it remains to be, will be a good one. Reports 

said Downie suffered a seizure late last year, underwent surgery to 

remove part of the tumour, and then was treated with chemotherapy. 

Less than two months later, doctors deemed him well enough to return 

to what he loves most — performing. 

In his signature warble, he’ll tell us to “use it up, don’t save a thing for 

later” and to “wreak some havoc on the way out.” 

And, amidst it all, he’ll reminds us that we must, always, try to live fully 

and completely. 

The Tragically Hip perform at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria 

on July 22nd, Rogers Arena in Vancouver on July 24th and 26th, Rexall 

Place in Edmonton on July 28th and 30th, Scotiabank Saddledome on 

August 1st and 3rd and at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg on August 5th. 

UPTIGHTS 

on getting down 

best songs are awful liars, baring their souls 

about how utterly worthless they are,” reflects 

“The 

Uptights guitarist and vocalist Jason Stevenson, 

though he admits, “it’s hard to write a song about being a 

total piece of shit when you’re happily married.” As we sit 

at Jesse Gander’s (vocals and keys) home base at Rain City 

Recorders on a unanimously hung-over Sunday, local power-pop 

quartet Uptights share some rock and roll wisdom 

and several large glasses of water. 

To say that Uptights is not the bandmates’ first rodeo 

would be a gross understatement. Sporting an impressive 

résumé of previous projects from 1990s local punk heroes 

d.b.s., to more recent offerings such as Lesser Negatives and 

Previous Tenants, the guys in Uptights have plenty of experience 

to draw from. Still, if you were to ask Gander what he’s 

taken from this storied musical career, he would tell you: 

“The most important thing I’ve learned is to not play in too 

many bands.” 

Uptights have an undeniably fun sound, and write songs 

riddled with hooks sure to put a bounce in your step with 

their driving organ riffs and anthemic choruses. But Gander 

insists, “There should always be a little bit of struggle and 

a little bit of heartache in good rock and roll.” As a self-described 

“negative creep,” he can’t help but squeeze a little 

darkness into even the most uplifting songs, and finds love 

songs – true love songs, that is – “one of the most difficult 

things to write.” Regardless of their origins, the Uptights craft 

catchy, fun as hell songs and as Stevenson modestly puts it, 

“That’s the dream: that one day you are playing to a room 

full of people, and they’re all getting down.” After putting 

out a series of singles that were recently self-released as one 

fantastic EP, Uptights will be heading back into the studio this 

July to record their first full-length album before hitting the 

road on a quick Western Canadian tour. 

Uptights performs at Anti-Social Skate Shop in Vancouver on 

July 9th, Broken City in Calgary on July 21st, The Almanac in 

Edmonton on July 22nd, and The ‘Cutter in Hinton on July 23rd. 

Uptights keep heartache in rock and roll. 

by Devon Motz 

16 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE

FURY THINGS 

rock trio blends influences to form distinct sound 

Fury Things rekindle their special bond with Calgary this month. 

photo: Daniel Kamnetz 

Fury Things is an alternative three-piece from Minneapolis playing energetic 

‘90s rock reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr., Bob Mould and The Pixies. 

Since their formation in 2012, lead guitarist and vocalist Kyle Werstein, 

bassist Devon Bryant, and drummer Andrew Carson describe themselves as 

“quiet dudes playing loud music,” a fitting description of the juxtaposition 

by Ana Mihajlovic 

between their cymbal-crashing power rock and mild in-person demeanor. 

Since their formation in August 2012, Fury Things has released three 

EPs, one full-length album and two singles. In addition to constant touring, 

they are well into writing and producing a new album, set for release in 

2017. Their busy schedule has paid off; the band signed to Modern Radio 

Record Label in the fall of 2015 while developing a loyal local and international 

fan base. 

Despite lifting their name from the classic Dinosaur Jr. single, “Little Fury 

Things,” the band does not consider itself a revival act. 

“We’re influenced by everything from hip hop to metal, and certainly 

‘90s rock, but I can’t point to one single thing and say that’s exactly what 

we’re trying to emulate,” explains guitarist and lead vocalist Kyle Werstein, 

“I’ve had people say that we sound like bits and pieces of certain bands but 

we don’t sound like any one of those bands in particular which I take as a 

compliment.” 

On their first full length album, the aptly titled VHS (2015), the band is 

certainly closer to striking a balance between emulating their Minneapolis garage-rock 

roots and finding their own unique sound. Hard-hitting drums, fuzzy 

guitar riffs and melodic hooks still mirror their many influences, but the album 

production shows a cleaner, modernized version of their former EPs. 

The band will be promoting their new album on their upcoming Summer 

Bummer tour, stopping in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. The trio 

considers Calgary their second home and has played three consecutive 

Sled Island festivals, the first being the nearly-canceled Flood Island of 

2013. “When we saw the response from Calgary and its music community, 

everybody banding together to have these pop-up shows amidst the 

flood, that experience really endeared us to the city.” This year, the band 

will be coming in July to experience its first Stampede season. “I’ve heard 

many tales of what to expect, but it’ll be interesting to see the reality,” 

laughs Werstein. 

Fury Things will be performing at The Colbat in Vancouver on July 5th, The Buckingham 

in Edmonton on July 7th and at the Palomino in Calgary on July 8th. 

COLD CAVE 

a search for light and warmth in a ‘dark and cold world’ 

The ethos of Cold Cave is that of, well, a dark, cold cave. From the 

outside looking in, we see a dark image of obscure, shadow-covered 

individuals clad in leather and sunglasses, clutching their instruments 

passionately. 

Wesley Eisold founded Cold Cave in 2007 and they have released three 

full-length albums and nine EPs to date, pushing their capabilities without 

looking back too much. 

Their gothic-darkwave-pop has a vibrant colour found in the layers of 

bouncing ‘80s synth-lines, piercing but subtle guitar riffs, crunchy postpunk 

bass grooves and uplifting choruses. 

“Cold Cave is a search for light and warmth in what seems to be a 

consistently tiring, dark and cold world,” writes Eisold in an email interview 

from Los Angeles. “Cold Cave is for love, for poetry, beauty but takes in to 

account all that is against those. It’s a voice that celebrates the possibility 

of living in a world of peace.” 

You could say Eisold’s music is a direct homage to the ‘80s synth-music 

loving teenager he once was. 

“I’m still a punk. It’s in my blood. Everything I approach in life is through 

the eyes of how I saw the world at age 14. I don’t know if this is good or bad 

but I am still emotionally driven,” he says. 

However, Cold Cave still manages to push forward on their own trajectory. 

“I guess I’m just a product of the ‘80s really. I was too young to be a part 

of the ‘80s hardcore, punk or goth scenes but was old enough to realize I 

loved it,” he says. 

Eisold, who has fronted big hardcore acts such as Give Up The Ghost, is 

Cold Cave’s only fixed member in a rotating cast of musicians. 

“It’s a solo project but I have people who are in my direct life contribute,” 

he says. “Cold Cave is a gang, even if it’s just me at times.” 

Cold Cave will be playing at this year’s Terminus Music Festival in July. 

When asked about Cold Cave’s live performance, Eisold kept things mysterious 

and said it will be “dark and beautiful. Come and see.” 

Eisold says that Cold Cave is “a reminder of all the good that could be, or 

by Michael Grondin 

Cold Cave perform in Calgary as part of Terminus Festival at Dickens. 

photo: Mara Mckevitt 

might have been.” He concludes, “I feel so lucky to have the people that like 

my music also be people that I could talk to, that I would want to know. 

That means the world to me.” 

Cold Cave’s only Western Canada appearance this summer will be at Dickens as 

part of the venue’s Terminus Festival on Saturday, July 30th. 


METZ 

bringing the noise when we most need it 

Check in with METZ before their next release in 2017. 

In doing research to talk to METZ frontman Alex 

Edkins, one thing becomes very clear, very quickly. 

Their touring schedule is a major point of 

interest to the majority of music publications that 

have talked about the band in the past. It’s hard to 

help it, really. The band’s touring schedule is relentless, 

much like the music they play. Just two days 

after coming home from a whirlwind tour that saw 

photo: Elinor Jones 

the trio playing through countries like Singapore, 

China, and Russia, Edkins still isn’t certain the title 

is necessarily something they’ve earned. 

“I don’t know why, but it’s definitely a sticking 

point for a lot of people,” he says on the phone 

from home in Toronto. “I think it might’ve been 

true when we were first starting out. We were 

touring that first record for almost two years and it 

got a little bit ridiculous by the end.” 

Admittedly, a lot of bands tour with near 

constant pace, but not even a sliver of those 

bands play music with the same intensity that 

METZ manage to stir up night after night. The trio, 

completed by bassist Chris Slorach and drummer 

Hayden Menzies, have fittingly become world 

renowned for their cacophonous aural assault. 

While Edkins admits that performing as manically 

as METZ does can get tiring, he still thinks it’s 

more about finding balance than slowing down. Of 

course, for a band like METZ balance still means a 

fairly constant presence. 

“With the last set of dates we officially ended 

our tour of the last record,” Edkins says, sounding 

slightly relieved. “We are going to be home in 

Toronto for most of the rest of the year, other than 

the odd festival show or one off tour. Basically all 

of our focus is on LP three now.” 

METZ’ third full-length won’t land until 2017, 

but the band still left fans with reason to celebrate 

in 2016, finding time in between touring to work 

on music that would come out on three 7” records 

earlier in the year. There was the arresting Eraser/ 

Full Auto for esteemed California label Three One 

G, the spontaneous collaborative single with Swami 

John Reis of Drive Like Jehu fame, and a split 

7” for Record Store Day that found METZ trading 

covers with post-rock heroes Mission of Burma. 

The latter two releases came to fruition following 

serendipitous timing and the hustle METZ is 

known for. 

by Jamie McNamara 

“We’re huge fans of [Mission of Burma] and we 

did the cover without really expecting much from 

it. We’ve played shows with those guys, so word 

got to them that we had done it and they offered 

to cover one of our songs as well.” Edkins has a 

slight tinge of disbelief in his voice at this point, 

and it’s hard to blame him. “They’re heroes of ours 

and it’s still crazy to hear one of our songs done in 

their unique style.” 

As for those one-off shows Edkins talks about, 

METZ will make the trek to Calgary for a show that 

is sure to be a perfect escape from mid-Stampede 

madness. When asked about the idea of playing 

Calgary during the most raucous event of the year 

for one particular sect of Calgarians, Edkins laughs 

before asking a question himself: “Is that a good or 

a bad thing?” 

It’s a good question, but really METZ’ music 

is oddly fitting for the Calgary Stampede. Sure, 

the Torontonian masters of percussive noise rock 

aren’t a massive country act, but the carnage they 

unleash is great aural accompaniment for the 

cowboy themed piss-up that arrives in Calgary 

every July. The clash of people all seemingly drunker 

than the next, bouncing around downtown 

Calgary with a bleary-eyed mix of sunstroke and 

country-western fever. It’s something that only 

the harsh noise METZ offer can cure, let’s all be 

thankful they’re making the stop this year. 

You can catch METZ in Calgary July 13th at Commonwealth 

Bar & Stage. 

PROZZÄK 

cartoon pop act talk existential dread 

In this new generation of attention deficit and social media 

proximity and planned obsolescence and bingeing on television, 

it would stand to reason that the idea of romance as an 

addiction would be a widely identified common ground; one 

that would certainly be alleviated by a band named after the 

drug we created to help us find happiness within our staggeringly 

suffocating anxieties caused by it all. And it would appear 

our addiction to it is still in full swing. 

When former Philosopher Kings Jay Levine and James Bryan 

McCollum reunited as Prozzäk for the first time in over a decade to 

play the nerdtastic Atomic Lollipop festival in Toronto, the reaction 

was unpredictably massive. 

“We were shocked about how many people were still interested,” 

recalls Levine. 

This enthusiastic welcoming back by fans led to the decision to 

write new music and schedule a tour; and a collective happy sigh 

was heard from all of us who are desperate to dose our Strange Disease 

with something catchy while hopelessly trapped in an era of 

Adele making us all want to drown ourselves in sad bubble baths. 

“There was a lot of shallow pop stuff in the nineties, and even 

though this is presented as fun music, it’s still got some truth to it 

and it’s got some heartache to it,” says Levine. “I think it touched a 

chord with people when they were 15 and now they’re 30 or 35 so 

they can relate to something real about it.” 

So what have Simon and Milo, Levine and McCollum’s animated 

Euro-Pop alter-egos that make up Prozzäk, been up to while we’ve 

all been maneuvering our 20s in this cruel, cruel world? 

“Well Simon recently has been attending a love addicts group 

and has been exploring self-help,” reveals Levine. The pitfalls of 

which are examined in the recently released new single “Love Fools 

Anonymous.” 

Milo, on the other hand, has been dabbling in tantric meditation 

with his partner, attempting to explore intimacy and retain that zen 

ROCKPILE 

exterior that makes him such a level-headed foil for Simon’s well 

explored neurosis. 

Levine attended love addicts anonymous to explore the idea of 

lovesickness for this project and to get deeper connected to Simon 

and found that he had more in common with his cartoon counterpart 

than previously thought. 

“I thought I had a major problem with love addiction, and it 

turns out I do,” he admits. “Like most of us do.” 

It is this human propensity for addiction, particularly to love, 

that these men believe make Prozzäk such a relatable and deeply 

embraced vessel of nostalgia and pop poetry. 

“I think it’s existential dread and fear of death,” muses McCollum. 

“And the desire to be worthy of having,” adds Levine. 

Maybe it is both those very human tendencies that not only 

make us thirst for that hooky little remedy to longing that Prozzäk 

provides, but also draws Simon and Milo out of their exile and back 

to the stage. 

“Atomic Lollipop definitely inspired Jay and I, and the characters 

too, to kind of jump back to life,” admits McCollum. “I think the 

characters are kind of maturing.” 

Levine disagrees. “I don’t think Simon is ever gonna find true 

love. He is going to continue to have a lifetime of inappropriate 

relationships for everyone’s entertainment.” 

Good news for all of us who are unlucky at love and looking for 

a bit of our own neurotic addiction dipped in Euro-Pop cheekiness, 

sprinkled with pain, and spouted from the neckless, hapless, 

shameless form of our hero and cautionary tale, Simon. 

Sucks to be us; let’s dance about it. Some things never change. 

Prozzäk perform throughout Western Canada this summer and 

fall. Catch them at Taste of Edmonton on July 27th, at the Rickshaw 

Theatre in Vancouver on September 17th and 18th, and in Calgary 

at The Gateway on September 20th and 21st. 

Simon and Milo return for a little nostalgia and relatability. 

by Jennie Orton 


PRE NUP 

thoughtful decisions come from past mistakes 

Pre Nup spent nearly two years perfecting a 10-minute set. 

by Colin Gallant 

photo: Josiah Hughes 

Calgary’s Pre Nup release their debut Wrong Your 7” this month, a joint release 

on Canadian labels Kingfisher Bluez and Debt Offensive Records. We sat 

down with husband-and-wife duo Sara and Josiah Hughes to learn more. 

BeatRoute: I was wondering why a married couple would choose Pre Nup 

for their band name. Do one of you have like a really valuable collection of 

marionettes or something? 

Sara Hughes: The ironic part is that if we were to actually divorce we literally have 

nothing of worth. We have no assets, no money. We would just have to figure out who 

gets the cat. 

Josiah Hughes: That’s not entirely true. We also have a whole bunch of issues of MAD 

Magazine, a massive E.T. memorabilia collection and an insurmountable amount of 

debt to divvy up. 

BR: You have your first 7” called Wrong Your coming out soon. Bands putting 

out a first release often shy from the expense of the physical format. 

Any reason you chose not to do that? 

JH: With Grown-Ups, we released like 60 songs or something stupid in the five years 

we were a band. With this band, we want to make sure that everything we release is 

the best possible music we can make. That’s why it took us nearly two years to perfect 

our 10-minute set… so it wasn’t hard to figure out what we wanted to press to vinyl. 

BR: The song “Wrong Your” touches on bad grammar and Josiah is an 

editor [for Exclaim!]. Will you guys ever do a song about bad videography 

since Sara is a filmmaker? 

SH: I actually love bad videography, like Degrassi and other old ‘80s stuff. I love 

films that have awful lighting and no production value whatsoever. Instead of making 

fun of shitty filmmaking, maybe I’ll make an homage to it. In fact, we already have 

a song called “Mickey Mouse Stuff” which is about Tommy Wiseau, the notorious 

director of The Room. I gave the song to Greg Sestero from The Room when he came 

to Calgary a few weeks ago. Hopefully he can pass it to Tommy. 

BR: You guys play live with some members of Lab Coast. Why do you distinguish 

Pre Nup as a band and who plays live in it? 

JH: We had such a revolving door of members in Grown-Ups that we decided this 

band should just be the two of us, and then we’ll have a live band. I write all of the 

parts for the songs and play all the guitars and bass on the recordings, and then they 

play them better than I possibly could live. Dadge asked if he could record Grown-Ups 

right at the tail end of that band, and his eagerness was one of the things that pushed 

us to get these Pre Nup songs done. Everyone knows him as a drummer, but he’s also 

great at bass. I love that I’m making a guy who has gone to music conservatory play 

fast, stupid pop songs. Darrell is married to Sara’s sister and was an original member of 

Grown-Ups, so he’s already in the family. 

Pre Nup plays 7” release shows in Edmonton at The Almanac with Switches on July 30th 

and in Calgary at Local 510 with Walter TV and Janitor Scum on August 2nd. 

BITTER FICTIONS 

antique aesthetics scatter across new record 

When a craft is heavy with cargo and seeks to put 

space between itself and anything else quickly, 

select items are cast off to ease the journey. It is a 

fitting image and title for Calgary’s own Bitter Fictions latest 

album. 

The heady spaces offered up in Jettison form an expansive 

and stratified environment, imbued with saturated colour and 

haunting complexities. 

This collection at times feels like the sensation of being 

suspended in limbo - a series of transmissions beyond a physical 

body - while still others feel more in this realm with recognizably 

jangly, slightly atonal and chiming guitar loops. 

Recorded on an, at this point, antique Tascam 244 tape 

recorder, the man behind the moniker, Devin Friesen is resolute 

in his choice for production aesthetics. 

“There’s a level of personal unpredictability. You can paint 

with it: play the tape back at different speeds, embrace the 

creaking EQ, push and pull the sounds a bit. Sean McCann also 

did a lovely job with mastering, and most of these pieces were 

recorded with the potential for mastering in mind. In other 

words, I know what I’m doing a lot better now. It’s a bit of a 

cliché but I’m not into how a lot of music is produced. Digital 

production can do wonders for some, and I’m certainly not 

against computers, but far too often I feel like I’m listening to 

software, or an advertisement. Heavy compression sucks the 

soul out of everything – probably why you hear it all over commercial 

music. There’s no depth or texture”, he says. 

Most of the album’s tracks had been sussed out during earlier 

parts of this year, in what Friesen describes as a “particularly 

explorative and perhaps more hopeful tone than usual,” borne 

out of themes of existential malaise, alienation, and personal 

upheaval. 

But while this album is processing some of the more difficult 

emotions an individual can live with, it is an immersive and 

L.T. LEIF 

on her new moniker and releasing a split with herself 

You may know her from HexRay, EMBASSYLIGHTS, 

Woodpigeon, or more directly, as Laura Leif. Leif has 

adopted the new moniker L.T. Leif to mark a new, 

“darker” chapter in her music, and also to rebrand from a 

singer-songwriter project into a band. The name is concise 

and professional, but also layered and introspective like the 

music it touches. 

“With a lot of what I do, there is a bit of my sense of humour 

that slips in,” Leif tells BeatRoute, and we can certainly see it 

in the name. Lieutenant Leif perhaps? Or L. tea-leaf? There is a 

lightness that sits behind the otherwise impersonal name that 

aligns well with Leif herself. 

Her new record Shadow on the Brim/Rough Beasts is centred 

on this kind of duality. The split name separates two very different 

moments. The first half of the record was recorded with 

Jay Crocker in Nova Scotia over the course of two winter weeks, 

during which time the two “pretty much just worked on [the] 

record.” The title, Shadow on the Brim, title stems from the 

notion of the cup of joy, which aspires to be “filled to the brim.” 

But even the brim of a cup casts a shadow. 

This first half was very collaborative, Leif describes that she 

and Crocker “came to something together that we wouldn’t 

have come to separately.” Leif is an admitted “perfectionist,” and 

they opted to keep only the tracks they were totally happy with, 

but in doing so were left short of a whole album. 

As Leif sat on the recordings, she was prompted another opportunity 

to record a separate set of songs, which through pure 

serendipity ended up the same length as Shadow on the Brim, 

just long enough to fill one half of a vinyl pressing. This became 

Rough Beasts. Leif then spent months exhaustively listening and 

by Mike Ryan 

photo: Cody Oliver 

moving record deserving of exploration for those not hindered 

by fear of emotion. It doesn’t feel alienating or terribly difficult 

to access, an issue that Friesen identifies. The pacing alone is 

its own reward, begging of the listener to block out all other 

common distractions and take it in. 

“I think of the electric guitar as more of a sound generator 

than a “guitar” – it’s a plank of wood with strings and electronics. 

Guitar music is some of the worst music, when it’s played 

‘well’ or whatever, it’s nauseating. Bruce Russell from the Dead 

C calls himself an ‘amplifier player,’ and I find that kind of thing 

more relatable,” he says, showing a true commitment to his 

craft while possible tinges of resignation of non-mass appeal 

reverberate around the words. 

On the backs of controlled feedback, low rumbling and 

droning, Friesen complements these textures with squealing 

guitar, bright harmonics flourishes, fuzzed out tones, and the 

subtle movement of calloused fingers atop wound metal strings 

in the collection of “playback as composition” works. It is as 

intimate as it is expansive and well worth picking up what Bitter 

Fiction’s has jettisoned. 

Bitter Fictions releases Jettison on Friesen’s own Shaking Box 

Music later this month. 

by Liam Prost 

reordering the tracks through “trial and error.” 

“Ultimately I was trying to make it work as a whole, as a 

journey,” Leif describes. The record follows a very strong arc, 

peaking during “under our walking, a cave,” a brooding instrumental 

passage that ends with the flip of the vinyl. On the other 

side we are warmly greeted by the adorable and intimate “puff 

ball thing,” a respite from the storm, and the beginning of the 

second leg of the “journey.” 

L. T. Leif’s new self-released record Shadow on the Brim/Rough 

Beasts is available now. 

photo: Cody Oliver 


CALGARY BEAT 

Punk Rock Sing-along kicks off at the Ship & Anchor 

PANCAKE 

spice and everything nice 

Sure to cast an impression, Pancake drips with possibility. Formed at 

a house show Melinda Massolas (vocals/guitar) organized, Pancake 

“crawled up from the sewers,” as Justin Van Groningen (drums) 

puts it, and stuck together to play an all-ages show at the National 

Music Centre. The four-piece lives in an interesting place, with their 

live post-punk meets pop-rock performances existing under the earnest 

influence of real fruit flavour and no-bullshit young soul. 

Pancake is filled with digestible lyrics like “don’t fuck your friends” to serve 

as gentle reminders that growing up is marred by silly stupors. Their nascent 

song, “Brendan’s Dick Residue (B.D.R)” remains a tribute to guitarist 

Brendan Long who, with his oddball nature, is more comfortable swinging 

his hips and making over-the-top gestures while onstage. The tunes are good 

enough to carry his Bono wraparounds off into the sunset. 

Inspired by the likes of Rockin’ with Judy Jetson, Massolas grew up 

watching the heroine, “who wanted to give it to this rock star Sky Rocker 

and ended up saving the world through the power of music, love and all 

that good stuff.” Calgary’s own Jean Sebastian Audet is also a big influence, 

Massolas says. “Watching him really made me feel like I could do this too 

because he was young and black, and so was I.” 

While their one-year anniversary is fast approaching, Pancake has a 

distinctly promising sound and a lot of growing room. With thoughts of 

Stampede breakfasts, touring and playing next year’s Sled Island, they’re 

nothing if not quietly determined. “I want to see pancakes at all our shows, 

but so far the closest we’ve come is a cheese bun,” says bassist Tricia Minions. 

Pancake is a shining example of what goes right when young, unassuming 

artists have big dreams and time to kill. 

Pancake show humour and humanity in first interview. 

by Arielle Lessard 

photo: Ben Painter 

While they’re waiting on mixing and mastering of their first album, catch 

them live on July 29th with Windigo and Fever Feel at The Palomino, as well 

as Long’s mom’s birthday party that promises to be “off the wall and include 

lots of wine.” Pancake is a crude gem and a welcome new arrival. 

Catch Pancake at The Palomino on July 29th with Windigo and Fever Feel. 

Luckily for my first edition of this column, the city is 

blowing up with events worth checking out, so you 

guys get less ramblings and more recommendations. 

Yes, soon the city will be overrun by Stampede tomfoolery 

and many of us will seek cover in our favourite off-the-beaten 

path haunts, but if you are the type who likes to take 

advantage of the free music at the Coke Stage, a couple Calgary 

artists will be holding it down for y’all (I too shuddered 

at that word use). BeatRoute favourites like the raspy and 

rugged JJ Shiplett and The Dudes will be on stage July 7th, 

and former Calgarian mainstay, the honey-voiced Jocelyn 

Alice will be performing on the 13th. 

Starting July 18th, the Ship & Anchor crowd will be welcoming 

back its fourth season of the raucous and sometimes 

comically offensive weekly Punk Rock Sing-along, featuring 

the fantastic off-kilter hosting skills of Ghost Factory’s Rob 

Gruszecki and Eric Svilpis. Prepare for a weekly romp through 

the best punk songs of all time on the Ship’s packed patio as 

guests are encouraged to scream their lungs out along to live 

acoustic versions. There’s also awesome prizes, and the first 

week is Rob’s Bachelor Party edition, so don’t miss it, because 

he’s a gem and will soon be married and no doubt way less fun 

(kidding of course). 

Starting July 21st, Calgary Folk Music Festival begins with 

some of the best headliners we have seen including the ethereal 

Swedish folk God, Jose Gonzalez, and finger picking wizard 

The Tallest Man on Earth. As far as Calgary representation 

goes, post-rock/atmospheric newbie Evan Freeman will be performing, 

and the crowd-warming beard-core Neo-folk of The 

Northern Beauties will be in full swing. Additionally, former 

Calgarians BRAIDS will be bringing their multi-instrumental 

experimentalism back home. 

On the smaller/newer side of the festival scale, Southern Alberta 

Hardcore Fest takes place early in July at Distortion. Go 

get some spin kicks in and support an up-and-coming festival 

and some awesome Calgary and out of town bands. 

Finally, Kensington will be turned into Diagon Alley July 

31st in commemoration of J.K. Rowling’s new release, Harry 

Potter and The Cursed Child. With the whole community 

taking part in the day transformation, prepare for a swarm 

of witches and wizards to be running the Kensington streets. 

Get your wands ready! 

• WIllow Grier 

THE KRONIC GROOVE BAND 

the funk is still fresh 

If you haven’t heard of The Kronic Groove Band it’s because they aren’t 

really a band anymore. In fact, they broke up five years ago. But if you 

do remember The KGB (as they were affectionately dubbed), you 

may recall some much younger (more innocent?) members of current 

Calgary mainstays 36? along with a horn section and keyboards in a 

funk-soaked, party-hard, wildly entertaining imagining. 

Starting as more of a “rock” band with their first album, The KGB had 

been playing together for just over three years when they fell into their 

signature sound which guitarist Scott White describes as “funkadelic.” 

“The sound is Funk with a capital F,” White exclaims. “There’s slap bass, 

wah guitar all over the place, horn blasts, disco beats, jazzy organ jamming 

and keyboards. We had the whole second album almost fully recorded 

when we broke up. Some songs were unfinished, and missing horn parts, 

but it was definitely our funkiest music,” he elaborates. So what caused the 

fateful break up that put the good time jams on hold? 

“It was too hard to organize all those people I think,” says vocalist Taylor 

Cochrane, referencing the eight-person lineup. “Plus none of us knew what 

the fuck we were doing from a business standpoint back then,” he adds, 

laughing. In 2014, the band decided to give it one last hurrah and joined 

A just slightly more grown-up version of The Kronic Groove Band returns. 

by Willow Grier 

forces for a one-off performance. This show ended up fuelling a resurgence 

for the project however, and Cochrane pulled up the archived recordings. 

In the interim, he had been working on plenty of other mixing projects and 

building his chops, where he had felt unprepared in years past. “Now I think 

I know how to not reverb everything out to shit and how to be tasteful with 

things. Now I think [the album] is ready.” 

The KGB describes the finished track list as something of a “greatest hits” 

ensemble. “It’s a bunch of sweet party songs,” says White. “There’s a song 

about going for munchie runs in the middle of the night. A song called 

‘Party Hard,’ one of our favourites, which is a funk party odyssey complete 

with an alcohol chant in the middle.” 

Party with them again, or for the first time, but The KGB wants to whisk 

you away to “Funky Island” with them for a special album release reunion 

party. “This album is straight from the cryo-vaults,” laughs White. “And the 

funk is still fresh!” 

The Kronic Groove Band will premiere The Death of the Groove on BeatRoute. 

ca on July 14th. See their reunion performance at Dickens also on July 14th 

alongside Robot Workers and The Firm Handshake. 


BLUE CRIME 

from a bomb shelter to a world tour 

photo: Fan Liao 

Dutch act Blue Crime makes their Calgary debut this month. 

Imagine blue shimmering light reflecting off a swimming pool. The 

music of Amsterdam’s Blue Crime has this floating quality that dances 

about, and within their shoegazey ambience, heart-throbbing melodies 

and sporadically fierce grit, Blue Crime find solace in intimate and passion 

fueled live performances. 

After an interrupted attempt to get a Skype conversation started 

between Calgary and Brooklyn, NY, three of Blue Crime’s members spoke 

of their excitement for touring in North America. 

“We really care about the sound, but what’s important also is the atmosphere 

and how we connect with the people watching,” says singer Liu 

Mottes. “We hope that we can get to a point where we can be together 

on stage and feel like one. We are still experimenting with that to see what 

works and what doesn’t.” 

“Continuity and flow are also important for our shows. We’re not the 

kind of band that plays a song and chats, and plays a song and says something 

in between. Which is fine but it’s not us,” says drummer and band 

recording engineer Bart van Hasselt. 

Blue Crime use a wide array of cosmic visuals to add to their performances 

as well. 

“We want to create an experience where we have the audience go 

on the journey with us. The idea is for us to have this visually as well as 

musically,” says bassist Floor van Dijck. “It’s not just about the songs, but 

the experience.” 

They were formed in a bomb shelter turned art space in Amsterdam’s 

Vondel Park. 

“It was a shelter for when something was going to go down. That’s 

where everything for us came together, where the first ideas for this band 

started. It’s a really beautiful place,” says Mottes. 

This ambitious four-piece also place a lot of emphasis in their own drive 

and vision, relying on a do-it-yourself approach to recording and writing. 

“We all come from very different musical backgrounds and when we 

come together everyone has their own spice to bring to the band,” says 

van Dijck. “From that point, we just decided to embrace it and work really 

hard and find our sound and work out how we wanted to perform.” 

Blue Crime will be stopping in Western Canada in early July, and they 

are very excited to tour through Canada and the U.S.A. “It’s the first time 

we’re touring on this side of the ocean,” says van Hasselt. 

“We are playing some really great nights with some amazing bands,” 

adds Mottes. 

Blue Crime perform at Nite Owl in Calgary on July 7th. 

ROCKPILE 

• Michael Grondin 


EDMONTON EXTRA 

CONSILIENCE 

INTERSTELLAR 

Tasy Hudson unleashes new album Under Our Beds words and photo by by Levi Manchak 

Under Our Beds is released July 8. 

Telling someone that you have a secret isn’t the same thing as 

telling someone what the secret is. But once you tell someone 

that you have a secret, it’s impossible not to want to hear it. 

And once revealed, it’s part of the permanent record for good or 

ill. There’s a lot riding on it. Releasing an album is a lot like spilling a 

secret; there’s a lot of tension and excitement right before anyone 

hears it. 

Under the moniker Consilience, Edmonton-based songwriter and 

multi-instrumentalist Tasy Hudson is feeling that kind of excitement as 

she gets ready to lift the covers off her upcoming album entitled Under 

Our Beds. 

BeatRoute sat down with Tasy to discuss making and releasing her first 

full-length album. 

BeatRoute: Can you tell us about the name of your project 

Consilience? 

Tasy Hudson: My dad suggested it as a band name. So I had to read 

about what it meant. It has to do with the unity of knowledge, or 

like combining disciplines to narrow it down to one truth. The more I 

thought about it, the more it seemed to fit. 

BR: What about the theme for Under Our Beds? 

TH: It comes from a line in one of the songs, “Secrets.” Under all our 

beds, there’s secrets. The general theme is: those thoughts that you have 

that no one else will ever know that you have. 

BR: Who was involved in making the album with you? 

TH: I did a lot myself. I wrote, sang and played most of the parts on the 

album but Jesse Northey (of Jesse and the Dandelions) recorded and 

played on it. Aaron Parker and Sophie Heppell also played some parts on 

the album. 

BR: How would you describe this album? 

TH: It’s largely a chill album that flows. 

BR: What made you want to start making music? Would you 

say it’s a secret? 

TH: [Rolls eyes] I could answer every question like that. 

BR: This is your first release, so how long have you been working 

on it? 

TH: It’s been about two years in the making, but some of the songs are 

fairly old. 

“Ride Out” is the oldest song I’ve written. I was still in university and I 

was feeling super stuck and just wanted to move on. That was about five 

years ago. The rest of the album has come together in the last two years. 

BR: Since Under Our Beds has been in the works for a long 

time, has your taste changed drastically since starting work on 

the album? 

TH: I think it’s just gone towards guitar-based music. This album is pretty 

piano heavy. Going towards guitar comes mostly from playing live. I’ve 

been tailoring my music to live venues more than I realized just ‘cause I 

like to rock out. But now I’m even going back to the piano again though, 

since I’ve been listening this album. 

BR: You play a lot of different instruments. Would you say 

you’re fluid in terms of instrumentation choices? 

TH: 100 per cent, yeah. 

BR: Two years later, do you still feel close to the material that 

you cover on the album? 

TH: For the most part, yeah. A lot of the songs are vague enough that I 

can draw new meaning from them. 

BR: Why did you decide to release the album now? 

TH: I just wanted to start doing it for real. I didn’t imagine that I’d promote 

the album originally, but then I got really invested. I thought that 

the songs weren’t garbage and it would be stupid to not do anything 

with them, and after two years, I didn’t want to wait too much longer. 

BR: Do you make your music as a release for an emotion or 

thought? 

TH: I can name songs that I’ve written where I wanted to “just get it out” 

and other times I start writing the song and don’t stop to dissect it until 

it’s done. 

BR: Are the secrets that you allude to on Under Our Beds still 

secrets? 

TH: Ummm… probably not. Also, it’d be fair to say that any anxiety 

related to keeping those secrets has vaporized. 

Under our Beds is out July 8th, and to celebrate the release Consilience will 

be performing that evening at 9910 in Edmonton. At the show, Consilience 

will be joined by an all-star lineup including locals Marlaena Moore and 

Jessica Jalbert, as well as R. Ariel from Phoenix, AZ. Consilience also plays 

Saskatoon on July 15th, Vancouver July 22, Victoria on July 23, and Calgary 

on July 28th. 

RODEO 

celebrating 5 years 

by Jenna Lee Williams 

2016 marks the fifth year of the Edmonton instalment of 

the Six Shooter Records three-day showcase, Interstellar 

Rodeo. The festival, which is held at the Heritage 

Amphitheatre at Hawrelak Park, features acts that fall under 

the blues, roots and country music umbrella and with one 

stage, is a more casual alternative to the Edmonton Folk 

Music Festival. 

This year’s lineup features 22 acts consisting of local, 

national and international acts. Friday night’s headliners 

are JUNO-award winning indie rockers The Strumbellas 

(Toronto). Cat Power (U.S.) takes the stage on Saturday, 

along with a solo performance by Edmonton’s own Faith 

Healer. Saturday night’s headliner is folk act Lord Huron (Los 

Angeles). The festival is closed off Sunday night with José 

González (Sweden), Kathleen Edwards (Ottawa), and local 

performer Joe Nolan and rockers Sam Roberts Band headline 

the evening. 

Weekend passes or single day tickets are available for 

purchase. 

Interstellar Rodeo happens July 22-24. For more information, the 

full schedule, and to purchase tickets, visit interstellarrodeo.com 

St. Vincent at Interstellar Rodeo 2015. 

photo: Levi Manchak 


THE ARCHAICS 

flower children add structure (and an organ) to newest release 

The Archaics mark ten years of playing together with new release. 

If you’re at a show surrounded by hippies and 

happen to breathe in the damp scent of Nag 

Champa, either the Archaics are playing a set, or 

there might just be a lot of hippies in the crowd. 

When Edmonton’s flowery quintet aren’t getting 

in trouble for burning incense indoors, they’re 

happily burning it at their outdoor shows. Pairing 

the earthy scent with their evolving style of mod, 

Doors-inspired, B-sides is something they’ll do for 

the time being. 

When BeatRoute sat down with guitarist Josh 

photo: Brock Mattsson 

Beatty and bassist Peter Masson over coffee and 

cigarettes, they happily shared insights into their 

upcoming record, Soft Focus, and how they keep it 

fresh after almost a decade of playing together. 

“10 years!?” Masson laughs. “Where did it all go?” 

Beginning the project before they could even 

play instruments, the Archaics have spent the 

last decade educating themselves in the ways of 

“weird” music and giving each other the space 

to grow up. 

“We’ve noticed our tastes change rapidly, 

which has definitely influenced our playing 

styles,” Beatty explains. “Someone will grab a 

new record and find it fairly inspiring and pass 

it on to the next person. Or, someone will go 

through periods of playing a lot while others 

won’t be playing barely at all. I think that’s the 

best part of playing with people you’ve known 

for so long. Even though you’re not progressing 

at the same pace, we all encourage each other 

wherever we are.” 

The Archaics’ willingness to be open minded 

led them to Masson’s parents’ cabin near Pigeon 

Lake in the middle of winter to record the last 

self titled LP, take a few psychedelics and lay 

some tracks down. 

“We kinda got a bit of cabin fever,” Masson 

laughs. “After the first week, it got a little tiresome. 

We couldn’t even escape each other in the 

bedrooms because we were using bunk beds! 

That’s what was nice about recording in the city. 

Work for eight to 10 hours then go home, get 

some down time and get back at it. Structure is 

definitely better for us.” 

Since their last recording experience in the 

cabin, they’ve added organist, Dylan Greenhough 

into the mix. Admittedly, the band was 

nervous to bring in someone new, but as Beatty 

reveals, the choice to add Greenhough was the 

right thing to do. 

“With the new record, it was total sonic exploration 

to see where we could make a new instrument 

fit in or expand things,” Beatty explains. 

by Brittany Rudyck 

“Now we’re working on music beyond Soft Focus 

and we’re writing together or basing parts off his 

organ. It makes things less dense and it’s gotten 

to the point where it feels weird when we have to 

play without him.” 

The addition of the organ to vocalist/guitarist 

Connor Snell’s ‘have I stepped into a time 

machine?’ type of vocals and the jazzy, simplistic 

rhythm section that is Andy Trant on drums, 

softens the sound slightly by adding some 

surprising pep. With the goal of sounding more 

technical in mind, the band took their cues 

from afrobeat, Delta blues and swing records to 

keep the psychedelia but turn that sound into 

something more original. 

And, sometimes in the midst of recoding in 

cabins, burning incense and working their buns off 

at “normal” jobs, people break bones. Thankfully 

for Beatty, it didn’t stop him from playing a set at a 

house show recently. 

“As I left my house to get to the party, I broke 

my thumb as I was carrying my amp out,” he 

chuckles. “It immediately swelled up and I kind 

of knew it was broken. Our organ player is an 

EMT and he told me to go to the hospital and 

not play the show. So, I played the entire set 

with a broken thumb.” 

Breathe deeply of incense at the Archaics’ Soft Focus 

album release at 9910 in Edmonton with Mitchmatic 

and Power Buddies on July 16. Local record aficionado 

Chris Zuk will be spinning vinyl in between sets! 

THE DEAD FIBRES 

what remains after a real good party 

Self-descried punk-psych trio The Dead Fibres make music 

containing various fibres made up of different sounds 

(including heaviness, surf, and ‘90s alternative rock) that 

are woven together to form the band’s distinct style. 

BeatRoute sat down with drummer Brandon de Gans and 

guitarist/vocalist Zach Mouallem over patio beers. Kennedy 

Pawluk (lead vocals/bass) was in Europe at the time of our chat. 

The Dead Fibres has been a band since early 2014; the same 

year they self-released their eponymous album. From day one 

this project has definitely a team effort. “We all have known each 

other for a long time. We have been playing together since junior 

high and high school. It wasn’t until 2014 we were like: let’s be 

Dead Fibres, let’s put an album out,” recalls de Gans. 

“We wanted to make some grown-up music,” chuckles 

Mouallem. 

Next BeatRoute asked the token band name question. “Back 

when we first started jamming most of the jams were written 

while being pretty drunk. Killing your brain cells and whatever is 

left over will be these little burnt out crisp fibres. I would think of 

those microscopic images of synapses and stuff. Imagine those 

being wilted and stuff. And that was our brains!” explains de 

Gans. 

The Dead Fibres’ new album is called Disgusting People With 

Disgusting Motives and will be released on vinyl, CD and digitally 

on local label Sometimes Music on July 15th. 

When asked to describe their sound, de Gans explains: “It is 

definitely dirty; something that feels like it is coming from this 

dirty alleyway or sewer.” 

“Especially with the new album. It is a little more coherent 

than that first album. That first album was also recorded in two 

different locations. It has become heavier than that first album. 

Chaotic, loud, abrasive but funky and rhythmic,” adds Mouallem. 

ROCKPILE 

Disgusting People With Disgusting Motives was recorded 

and produced by Jordan Koop at The Noise Floor (which is an 

old boat repair shop that has been converted to a studio) on 

Gabriola Island, and was mastered by Stuart McKillop at Rain 

City Recorders in Vancouver. 

When asked about their goals sonically their live show 

came up instantly. “Some of my favourite shows that I go to 

are high-octane, high-energy; everyone is going crazy, you 

can’t help but move. We want to put on a show where people 

are watching it and people are like, ‘That band is fucking 

nuts!’” says de Gans. 

Many bands that have inspired their sonic goals were introduced 

to Dead Fibres while they went on tour last summer. 

“Last year’s tour we played with so many math rock bands and 

that really rubbed off on is. We have always liked playing weird 

time and rhythms, but I think there [are] more of that on this 

album,” notes Mouallem. “We saw this band while on tour called 

Baby Labour that were really good, ” adds de Gans 

In terms of lyrical content, their upcoming release is more thematic 

than their debut. “The album is called Disgusting People 

With Disgusting Motives because we were almost trying to write 

about a character. It follows a character and his experiences,” 

explains Mouallem. “He is a bad dude who likes to get completely 

fucked and do bad things. Each song is a different slice of his 

mind,” notes de Gans. 

Come let your brain get crispy with The Dead Fibres in a city near 

you. Select stops include Friday July 15th in Edmonton at the 

Almanac., Friday, July 8th in Victoria at the Copper Owl, Sunday, 

July 10th in Vancouver at Lanalou’s, Friday, July 22nd in Calgary 

at Broken City, Saturday, July 23rd in Lethbridge at Attainable 

Records, and Wednesday, July 27th in Winnipeg at DIY HOUSE. 

Things get weird for The Dead Fibres on new album. 

by Jenna Lee Williams 

photo: Max Paran 


BOOK OF BRIDGE 

SOUTH COUNTRY FAIR 

a love letter to my hometown music festival 

South Country Fair celebrates 30 years at the end of this month. 

Sunburns. Face paint. Tie-dye. Sunshine. Stilt walkers. Sweet 

talkers. Late nights. Early mornings. Campfires. Thundershowers. 

Fortunetellers. Fire spinners. The sound, the smell, 

the feel of the South Country Fair. 

The quiet little town of Fort Macleod, just shy of 200 km. south 

of Calgary, with a view of the Rockies and an endless sky, takes on 

a new life the third weekend in July. The community with a deep 

love of the arts becomes a welcome home for hippies, travellers, 

artists, musicians and music lovers alike. 

This sweet summer marks the 30th year that the South Country 

Fair family has been gathering to celebrate music and share in 

community, in an intimate outdoor festival that has captured my 

words and photo by Courtney Creator 

heart since childhood. 

South Country Fair, you are magic. I love how you bring musical 

acts, from near and far, into one beautiful place of discovery. 

I love the way the river hugs your curves of the campground, a 

cool refuge from the heat of summer, a place to float and play, 

with echoes of music from the stage. I love how your people are 

kind and inviting, sharing stories and acoustic jams over campfires, 

dancing together to music that speaks to the soul. 

Napping in a hammock, cooking food on a campfire, reuniting 

with old friends and making new ones, dancing in the moonlight, 

singing in the sunshine, finding your favourite soundtrack to 

summer... this is a paradise. 

Musical picks you won’t want to miss are many, and though 

you likely won’t be able to see them all, festival-goers, whoever 

you are fortunate enough to see it’s guaranteed to be a real treat. 

With a mix of old and new, paying reverence to the past of talented 

musicians who have built the fair, and a look forward to the 

future of up-and-comers, you’ll find the comfort of old favourites 

and the excitement of new ones. 

Highlights: Check out Quique Escamilla for folk music from the 

soul, Jr. Gone Wild for a kick of “real deal country + punk rock 

spirit,” see Scott Cook and his eclectic collection of fun-loving 

musicians the Long Weekends, groove to the sharp wit of Big 

Rude Jake, get in the mood with gospel soul “supergroup” The 

Fates, dance to the classic Washboard Hank, find a friend in master 

contemporary songstress Amelia Curran, lose yourself in Miss 

Quincy’s “powerhouse voice,” and check out sincere singer-songwriter 

Ryland Moranz. 

South Country Fair takes place in Fort Macleod, AB, from July 15-17. 

To see a full list of performers and to purchase your festival pass go to 

southcountryfair.com. 

THE SILKSTONES 

a summer soundtrack of sweetened sadness 

It only takes 30 seconds for The Silkstones to transport 

you into the sombre dream world of HER, their sophomore 

album releasing on July 12. The opening track, 

“Steep Banks,” is a hypnotic collection of found sounds, 

leading the listener into the delicate melody of the following 

track “Sailing.” 

“At the beginning there’s this huge wall of sound,” says 

bassist Dylan Jerome Wagner. “I just had a delay pedal, put 

a bunch of distortion, played one chord, and layered it.” 

“We were trying to get the sound of Lethbridge,” says 

Ryan Phillips, vocalist and guitarist. “So that’s why there’s a 

train, and the wind.” 

“It’s actual wind and an actual train going through Lethbridge,” 

says lead guitarist Rus Andrew. 

Bassist Wagner, who joined the band after their debut 

album Webs on a Tree, has added another layer of complexity 

to their sound. 

“Dylan kind of has a different outlook on chords so it 

changes the sound dramatically,” says Phillips. “In a very 

good way, in a way that’s interesting to perform.” 

“I think with Ryan and I, if we’re not on the same page 

we’re in the same chapter, where as Dylan comes from 

another book,” says Andrew. “It really brings a different 

perspective. I’m always pleasantly surprised every time we 

write a song together.” 

“How would you describe your sound?” is always the 

hardest question to answer, they say. 

“Honest,” says Phillips, “a little bit dreamy. Some of the 

tracks have some heat, it’s got some rock to it.” 

“Chameleon,” says Wagner. 

“I think we have a lot of songs that sound different,” says 

Andrew, “and Ryan’s voice really anchors it together.” 

“This album is about relationships mostly, who I love, 

who I’ve loved,” says Phillips. “It’s a concept of love.” 

The band already sees their sound continuing to evolve. 

“By the time you finish an album and master it, you 

want to make something different,” says Phillips. “I really 

like this, but I don’t want to be making the same thing 

over and over again.” 

“I think we’re becoming better musicians and songwriters,” 

says Andrew. 

The Silkstones are looking forward to their first tour, 

with a string of shows in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. 

“It feels like a step,” says Andrew. “It’s the first time that 

we’ve done it, but I think we’re ready for it.” 

The logistics and long drives of a tour are all worth it 

once you’re sharing your songs. 

“There’s something great about risking it all onstage,” 

says Phillips. “It’s a huge outlet.” 

“To know that someone is there listening,” says Wagner. 

“That’s what it’s all about,” says Andrew. “When you’re 

playing, you can feel people react to it, and you can feed 

off of it.” 

The Silkstones kick off their tour at The Black Dog in Edmonton 

on July 2nd, and play the Ship & Anchor in Calgary on July 

23rd. They’re in Calgary again on Aug. 20th at Wine-Ohs and 

they’ll play the Owl Acoustic Lounge in Lethbridge on Sept. 

16th. Go to thesilkstones.com for links to their latest album 

HER and a full list of tour dates. 

The Silkstones embark on first ever tour this summer. 

by Courtney Creator 

photo: Corley Farough 


letters from winnipeg 

VENETIAN SNARES 

on Traditional Synthesizer Music and Winnipeg 

Excavating the depths of breakcore for nearly two 

decades, Winnipeg-based electronic artist Venetian 

Snares a.k.a. Aaron Funk, has consistently 

brought new ideas to the surface while also inserting 

his scathing tongue-in-cheek humour—something 

he says he’s not always sure people get. 

On his new effort, Traditional Synthesizer Music, 

Funk performed all songs live on a modular synthesizer, 

a challenge that, in many ways, restored his enthusiasm 

for making music again. 

BeatRoute spoke with the electronic genre-splicer 

in advance of his show at Terminus Festival, a set that 

will mark his return to Calgary for the first time in 

over 10 years. 

BR: Your most recent album, Traditional 

Synthesizer Music, sounds very different than 

what you’ve done in the past. Can you talk a 

bit about your songwriting approach on this 

album? 

AF: For Traditional Synthesizer Music, I recorded it all 

live, so I didn’t allow myself to multi-track it and finetune 

it or edit it or anything. It was basically whatever I 

could perform live. That’s what you’re hearing. 

To me, that was really exciting. I was kind of 

feeling like using computers made me feel like too 

much of a fucking God or something, like “I can 

do anything with this!” When you feel like you can 

do anything with something, it’s just boring. It just 

became like there was no adventure… It was really 

fun to just do something live… It’s a representation 

of spontaneity. 

BR: So you’re feeling excited about making 

music again through this process? 

AF: Yeah, for sure. It’s funny, because it’s a really nice, 

melodic sort of record. Playing live synth stuff on this 

Venetian Snares brings his breakcore insanity to Terminus Festival on July 31. 

ROCKPILE 

by Julijana Capone 

tour, people are expecting it to be like that, but instead 

it’s been entirely different… it sounds mental, like fucking 

skyscrapers getting into fistfights. 

BR: You’ve most notably said, “Winnipeg is a 

frozen shithole.” But you’ve also said, “I hope to 

die here under the wheels of a transit bus with a 

picture of Randy Bachman on the side.” Is dying 

in Winnipeg still your dream? 

AF: That shit was all tongue-in-cheek. Like I was saying, 

when you make something it can continuously get misinterpreted. 

Someone could interpret that like a direct 

diss on Winnipeg, but what that record really was, was 

me laughing at all of these people that live there and 

are like, “I hate this place. This is the worst place in the 

world.” Well, why do you live here if you think it’s hell on 

Earth? So it’s really funny. You lived there, so you know 

that’s a really common attitude there. 

BR: It is. 

AF: It was really funny for me to explore how stupid 

that is. I think that’s one of the stupidest records I’ve 

ever made, but I was laughing my ass off the entire time 

I made that album. 

BR: And yet people still love to return to it. 

AF: It’s so funny, to this day people are like, ‘I can’t 

believe you said that.’ I actually love it there. I think it’s 

a great place for artists to live and develop their art. It’s 

not as much of a struggle as Toronto or Vancouver. It’s 

a great place other than it’s cold. Whaaa! Put a fucking 

jacket on! 

Venetian Snares performs as part of Terminus Festival on 

July 31 in Calgary. You can also purchase his new album, 

Traditional Synthesizer Music, or shop past albums via 

venetiansnares.bandcamp.com. 

AIR GUITAR 

ladies and gentlemen… cue your song! 

Natalie Scott aka Sophie Dee 

“When you are holding an air guitar, you can’t be 

holding a gun.” - Ancient Air Guitar Proverb. 

The First Annual Saskatchewan Air Guitar 

Championship kicked-off at the Saskatoon 

Farmers Market on a Saturday in 

May. Air guitar, for the uninitiated, has become 

a competitive, worldwide phenomenon. Since 

1996, the Air Guitar World Championships 

have spread the peaceful message of air guitar 

across the world. The organization extols the 

virtues of world peace and charity, with Air 

Guitar Canada raising money for Right to Play. 

As a movement, it has caught the attention 

of the United States, Japan, Germany, and Russia 

that all host regional and national competitions. 

The top winner from each regional competition is 

flown to the national competition, with that winner 

competing in the four day world competition 

this August in Oulu, Finland. 

What is it about air guitar that can bring so any 

diverse cultures together? 

Tribute. Creativity. Expression. Freedom. 

Air guitarists get the opportunity to pay tribute 

to the music and musicians they love, acting out, 

in a public setting, something most people have 

done at least once in their lives in their parents 

basement or living room. The creativity involved 

is as encompassing as any performance art 

endeavor. There is song selection, song editing, 

character design and development, costume 

design, choreography, performance and crowd 

interaction. All aspects of any live performance 

condensed into one minute of sheer, expressive 

joy, the intangible feeling of crowd connection 

and accomplishment, tapping briefly into the 

purity of shared experience. Then freedom, the 

moment of flying, the temporary loss of gravity 

before speeding down the first straight away of 

the world’s largest roller coaster. 

That is air guitar, and it is infectious. 

Saskatoon competitor Dustin Davidson, aka 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner (WWCD), put 

it this way, “I felt like the hen house was on fire, 

there were shouts and cheers, and I’m was like 

“Cockaddoodle doo to you, too!” 

Mike Erman, the organizer for the inaugural 

Saskatchewan Air Guitar Competition was not 

SASKTELL 

by The Riz 

photo: Bob Holtsman 

Photography 

only drawn to the artistry and creativity of air 

guitar, but the sense of joy it creates: “Air Guitar 

is just such a happy thing. While doing so many 

interviews about the competition in the week 

leading up to it, that it’s almost impossible to even 

talk about air guitar without a smile on your face.“ 

Erman knew Saskatoon art and music community 

was ready for an air guitar competition to 

add another colour to Saskatoon’s diverse artistic 

community. “People seem to be so interested 

in the obscure and the different these days,” said 

Erman. “I knew that there would be some real 

characters come forward and I was not disappointed. 

Everyone really got into the spirit of 

things, and it was a huge success.” 

“I thought the whole experience was amazing!” 

said Natalie Scott, aka Sweet Dee, the first ever 

Saskatchewan Air Guitar Champion, who ruled 

the stage with her interpretation of Van Halen’s 

classic “Hot For Teacher,” describing her experience 

as “a perfect mix of fright, fun, comradery, 

and competition.” 

Air guitar is a highly supportive competition 

where the competing guitarists, and the crowd 

help one other strive for their best performances. 

“I was so nervous leading up to the day,” 

said Scott, “but once I arrived at the venue and 

met the other competitors, I knew it was going 

to be so much fun. The crowd was so supportive, 

it helped shake my nerves. The first cheers 

I got pushed me way further into my performance, 

too.” 

The night before the national competition 

in Toronto is the Dark Horse Competition, a 

category where any contestant can enter (on their 

own travel expense) to compete against Canada’s 

regional winners. Air guitar enthusiasts from 

around Canada get one last shot at going to the 

World Air Guitar Competition in Finland. 

Next stop for Scott, though, is straight to 

the Canadian Air Guitar Championships in 

Toronto on July 16 to take down all comers 

with a silent, but rocking, bravado. Any last 

minute tips for air guitar competitors? “Practice, 

practice, practice!” says the Saskatchewan 

champ. “Know your song well, because once 

you get on stage, you’ll need to rely on muscle 

memory. It’s such a blur!” 


CALGARY FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 

WHITEHORSE 

‘recognition doesn’t change what the horizon looks like’ 

by Mike Dunn 

One would suspect musicians of the calibre 

of Whitehorse’s Melissa McLelland and 

Luke Doucet to be comfortable in their 

ability to create fresh new music, but according to 

the band, their new EP, The Northern South Vol. 1, 

is defined by its limitations. 

“We’ve made our records with full production,” 

says McLelland, “but our live show is just the two 

of us, using loops and different instruments, and 

we wanted to make this record as close to our live 

show as possible.” 

“We bent the songs to sound like us,” says Doucet, 

“A lot of great art is defined by the limitations of the 

people creating it. The Beatles’ first three records, 

they were emulating Little Richard, and thankfully, 

they failed. They were The Beatles instead.” 

The Northern South Vol. 1 is a collection of 

vintage blues and R&B numbers, leaning heavily 

on the Chess Records catalogue, including classic 

Willie Dixon and Chuck Berry hits. While the vibe 

on the record runs the gamut of blues evocations, 

from the swaggering backbeat and low-end 

pump of the Little Walter classic “My Babe” to 

dreamy, sultry invitation of Robert Johnson’s 

“Come On In My Kitchen”, the Whitehorse sound 

is immediately identifiable, spurred by Doucet 

and McLelland’s distinctive vocal harmony. When 

asked if this move to releasing music closer to 

their live set is part of a progression of the band’s 

sound, Doucet makes the argument that the 

ROOTS 

Whitehorse sound has been consistently changing 

since their eponymous debut in 2011. 

“We’ve been singing together for 12 years, even 

before the band. It’s the bedrock of what we do. Our 

first record was sort of the safe place to be, a ‘CBC/ 

CKUA’ kind of record, safe alt-country, although I 

don’t really like that term. We’ve made left turns 

since, and we’ll continue to do so. Look at our heroes, 

they defied categorization. Neil Young is a folk giant, 

and he’s also the loudest electric guitar player, and he 

spent the ‘80s making shitty electro records. Whatever 

you’re creating, your personality comes through.” 

Currently at work on a full-length follow-up to 

their third record, 2015’s JUNO-winning Leave No 

Bridge Unburned, again with the production team of 

Gus Van Go and Werner F, Whitehorse is again taking 

musical chances, hinting towards elements of a “late 

‘90s British trip-hop style.” 

“It’s not going to be some crazy avant-garde thing,” 

says McLelland. “All the elements of what we do will 

be there. We have some beat producers from Brooklyn 

working on it with us, and having Gus and Werner 

there allows us to step back from the studio and 

production aspects and concentrate on songwriting. 

But really, we’re open to anything musically.” 

That willingness to take risks and alter what’s made 

them successful punctuates the bravery inherent in 

Whitehorse’s music, despite how well recognized 

they have been by the industry for their prior work. 

“I don’t think accolades or awards really change 

what the horizon looks like,” Doucet argues. “We 

didn’t know we were making a blues record with The 

Northern South. We could have done a lot of things 

creatively. It could have been vintage country songs. 

The recognition is great, but accolades don’t change 

our creative goals.” 

“A lot of musicians keep taking risks,” says McLelland, 

“and some don’t. Some love it, and some don’t. 

This record is The Northern South Vol. 1. That means 

we’ll make volumes two, three, and four someday 

too.” 

Even though their work keeps them constantly 

working, Doucet and McLelland still have made a 

point of supporting young, developing performers. 

“I think, at this point, everyone’s getting to know 

how great Andy Schauf is,” says Doucet. “And Terra 

Lightfoot too,” adds McLelland, “She’s from Hamilton, 

so we’ve had some chances to see her play here, and 

she’s opened for us a few times too.” 

Doucet and McLelland also take the time to 

throw some support to a particular Alberta player: 

20-year-old Edmonton guitar player Jasper Smith. “I 

really think his potential is sky-high,” says Doucet. “His 

playing, and his ear shows a real maturity. For a guy so 

young to be able to shift from classic country licks to 

Johnny Marr-style sonics, it just shows that he’s really 

listening.” 

McLelland agrees. “I think he’s been coming to our 

shows since he was like, 12. He saw us open for Jesse 

Cook, and he’s been to every show since.” 

“He’s playing with this girl in Edmonton, Ella Coyes,” 

says Doucet, “And they’re coming up with some 

really cool stuff. I think the possibilities for them are 

really high.” 

As their hectic touring schedule take them across 

the country again this summer, including Alberta 

stops at the Calgary Folk Music Festival and Edmonton’s 

Interstellar Rodeo, McLelland and Doucet admit 

that they don’t get to see as much music as they’d like 

to, but that there are some artists they’re sharing the 

bills with they’re excited to see. 

“Shawna [DeCartier, Six Shooter Records president] 

does such a great job on the Interstellar Rodeo 

lineups,” says Doucet. “And so does Kerry [Clarke, 

CFMF artistic director.] Marty Stuart, Bonnie Prince 

Billy, and Cat Power. Cat Power might not always be 

someone’s first thought for a festival headliner, she’s 

not up there juggling kittens or whatever, but she’s a 

really powerful performer. And to have Sam Roberts 

up there [Interstellar Rodeo Edmonton], who’s really 

a great performer, a real counterpoint to Cat Power 

shows an effort to putting together a really eclectic 

lineup”. 

Whitehorse will be appearing Friday, July 22nd on the 

main stage at Calgary Folk Music Festival, as well as 

Saturday, July 23rd at Interstellar Rodeo Edmonton, 

Sunday, August 14th at Interstellar Rodeo Winnipeg, 

and August 20th and 21st at Salmon Arm Roots and 

Blues Festival. 


CALGARY FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 

BRAIDS 

making an unorthodox homecoming 

BRAIDS isn’t your typical Folk Fest act. Overpowering 

synths intermingled with tight 

rhythm rolls and twinkling piano melodies 

define their music, a sharp contrast to the tune 

and twang of the festival’s titular genre, but it’s 

not even the trio’s first Calgary Folk Fest. Their 

first appearance was in 2011 before the release of 

their debut album, Native Speaker. At the time, 

the band skewed more generically closer to the 

festival at large than now, with more focus on 

guitar and less on electronics. 

“It’s kinda cool to be black sheep,” says Austin 

Tufts, the three-piece’s drummer. That said, there 

might be more similarities between the group’s 

brand of art-pop and folk than meets the ear, especially 

thematically. Tuft highlights, “The vulnerability 

of the lyrics and the fact that the song forms are 

rather like storytelling.” 

That lyrical core comes from the band’s engaging 

frontwoman, Raphaelle Standell-Preston. “She has 

such a strong lyrical voice, she kind of has the subject 

of the band always,” Tufts attests. “The music is 

almost an extension of her thought process and her 

poetry and her feelings on things.” 

The group’s songwriting process doesn’t begin 

and end with Standell-Preston. Each member of 

the band takes pride in equal partnership, with 

Tufts often filling an atypical for a drummer, 

queuing samples and modulating electronics, and 

multi-instrumentalist Taylor Smith having a hand in 

almost sonic intersection of the music. “It’s this very 

collaborative thing where we’re constantly changing 

what our role is depending on what the necessary 

context is.” 

The title of their latest EP, Companion carries 

several meanings. The titular song grapples with 

Standell-Preston’s relationship with her estranged 

stepbrother after a traumatic time in her life. The 

EP also serves as a “companion” record to Deep in 

the Iris (2015), the group’s JUNO-award winning, 

most recent full-length. Companion is also a fitting 

description of intensely collaborative relationships 

within the band, who formed in 2006 at Calgary’s 

Western Canada High School. “I’m very glad the 

people I’ve decided to do this endeavor with are 

just the people I love the most in the world. It’s kept 

us going.” 

BRAIDS performs Friday, July 22nd as part of the 

Digital Download workshop, Saturday July 23rd as 

part of the Ether Ore workshop and a full concert on 

the Twilight Stage (Stage 4). 

KACY & CLATON 

Saskatchewan duo turning heads with sophomore release 

really expect to have 

such a historic label pick up the 

album.” 

It’s exceedingly rare that artists of the folk music 

persuasion possess the comfort and confidence 

to maintain a raw, live-off-the-floor feeling in their 

recordings. There’s a propensity to desire a full-production 

to flesh out the song, rather than let the 

song do the heavy lifting. Perhaps that’s the reason 

that audiences, fellow musicians, and the music industry 

have found Kacy & Clayton’s lean and largely 

unadorned recordings so endearing. There’s a feeling 

of minimalist magic throughout 2013’s Kacy & 

Clayton and 2016’s Strange Country, largely due to 

the lilting, ethereal quality of Kacy Lee Anderson’s 

“We didn’t 

by Cole Parker 

by Mike Dunn 

voice, and the rich guitar playing of Clayton Linthicum, 

so knowledgeably steeped in folk traditions 

that he seamlessly blends British, Appalachian, and 

Delta Blues feels within single sections. 

The praise has been so widespread that Strange 

Country has been re-released by New West Records, 

a development whose significance is not lost 

on Linthicum. “New West has released records by 

Richard Thompson, Bobby Neuwirth, Ray Davies, 

and lots of other artists we really admire, and there 

was a hope that we’d have some label presence in 

the US and Europe, but we didn’t really expect to 

have such a historic label pick up the album.” 

While touring has kept Anderson and Linthicum 

away from home for a while, including their first 

time touring Europe, supporting Daniel Romano, 

plans for the follow-up to Strange Country are already 

in the works. “Kacy and I have been planning 

the next record for a while now,” says Linthicum. 

“All I can say publicly is that we’re very excited to 

make the next record, hopefully this December.” 

While not divulging much, Linthicum hints toward 

a larger, more expansive sound, while perhaps 

throwing some shade as to the look of the album 

design. “We’ve got some plans for expansion in the 

production but I don’t want to give too much of 

that away,” he says, “but the album cover will likely 

have a sheep-shearing theme.” 

Kacy & Clayton perform at the Calgary Folk Music 

Festival on Stage 5 on Sunday, July 26th as well as 

part of 3 workshops on Saturday and Sunday. 

EMILIE & OGDEN 

are harps the next big thing in music? 

Traditionally associated with heavenly, orchestral 

and otherworldly music, the harp is 

not an instrument you would look towards 

in modern pop music, but it is starting to make its 

presence known. 

If indie Harp acts such as Joanna Newsom and 

Sarah Page have hit your radar, make room for one 

more: Emilie & Ogden. The cliché image of the 

“singer/songwriter” as a dude with a guitar is so over; 

we much prefer a gal and her harp; the harp being 

Ogden, of course. 

Growing up in Montreal, Emilie Kahn knew she 

wanted to do something with music from an early 

age, but never really seemed to connect with a particular 

instrument. It wasn’t until seeing Sarah Page play 

the harp that Emilie Kahn knew she had discovered 

the “instrument she had always been looking for.” 

Since 2015, Kahn has been hard at work touring 

her debut solo album, 10,000 and fielding many 

interviews about songwriting, “Singing feels really 

good and a really pure and natural way to express 

something”. Kahn, who up until this point has just 

been writing songs in her bedroom creating ethereal, 

alternative, pop folk music that she is very hesitant to 

categorize. She describes, “Everything is so influenced 

by everything else it is so hard to pin point what it 

is.” It’s more about finding a healthy way to deal with 

“getting out anger or sadness that you don’t have anywhere 

else to put” and so the album has a lot of songs 

“exploring love falling apart… a lot of break-up songs.” 

Is it challenging to be a solo act, but especially so 

touring with a large cumbersome instrument such 

OH PEP! 

touring internationally before even releasing a full-length album 

Oh Pep! are young guns. Endlessly touring 

their sonorous chamber pop, they have 

finally decided that “now is the time” to 

drop their debut full-length Stadium Cake. This 

sounds like a momentous first step for a band, but 

they’ve already been playing together for five years. 

Oh pep! have opted for a patient approach to 

make sure that they dropped the record “when we 

felt we were ready for it.” 

by Naddine Madell-Morgan 

as the harp. “it’s not too bad … the annoying part is 

that I can’t really bring it on the plane … I could buy a 

ticket and bring it in the seat next to me, but I am not 

actually allowed to because it’s too wide.” So when 

you see Emilie & Ogden this summer, gives her a little 

extra love. It might be easier to bring a guitar, but for 

Kahn, the “key of the (Lever) Harp naturally is the key 

of my voice.” 

Emilie & Ogden perform at the Calgary Folk Music 

Festival on stage 1 on Saturday the 23rd as well as at 

the Ether Ore and Dueling Duos workshop. 

by Liam Prost 

At the heart, the band is two women, Olivia Hally, 

the Oh, and Pepita Emmerichs, the Pep! Olivia belts 

the quippy lyrics and methodically strums an acoustic 

guitar while Pepita adds texture and melody on violin 

and mandolin. They also add an assortment of other 

instrumentation to the stage and the record to add 

resonance and class to already lovable songs. 

BeatRoute talked to both Pepita and Olivia, who 

describe of the release strategy, “We made the decision 

ages ago… It takes a little bit of time to organize 

who you want to make the record with, make the 

record” and also have “the right songs.” 

Pepita and Olivia originate from Melbourne, Australia, 

but they actually recorded the record in Nova 

Scotia with Canadian producer Daniel Ledwell, who 

produced a few of the artists who will be gracing the 

stage at Folk Fest, a connection they made through 

the Folk Alliance circuit in Nashville. The band’s connection 

with Ledwell has led to an astonishing first 

record, but also successes that in some ways have outpaced 

the band itself. Stadium Cake is actually going 

to be available in North America before it comes out 

in Australia, both their country of origin and where 

they have toured more than anywhere else. Stadium 

Cake has given BeatRoute some “Crazy Feels,” and we 

hope you catch them on the side stages of Calgary 

Folk Fest before they end up literally throwing cakes 

from stadiums. 

Oh Pep! perform at Stage 5 on Saturday, July 23rd at 

the Calgary Folk Music Festival as well as three workshops 

on Friday and Saturday. 

30 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE ROOTS

JUCY 

SERGIO LEVELS 

Calgary jack of all trades puts skills to good use in Toronto 

Sergio Levels returns for a special gig in Calgary. 

As Calgary’s bass music community continues 

to thrive, it’s important to remember 

that as with anything in nature, growth 

necessitates change. In recent times we’ve seen 

long-standing residencies celebrate anniversaries, 

while others have drawn to a close or changed 

hands, and some key figures in the scene have 

come and gone. 

Sandro Petrillo a.k.a. Sergio Levels is one such 

individual. As one half of Piranha Piranha with Dan 

Solo, and as a solo artist dubbed Mr. Geography, 

he played a pivotal role in the formation of 

Modern Math and Northern Lights. Both weeklies 

brought in genre-pushing artists while simultaneously 

giving Calgary DJs and producers new stages 

from which to share and develop their craft. 

In early 2015, Petrillo made a move to Toronto. 

The home he and his girlfriend owned and lived in 

together was “scooped up” for new development, 

eventually forcing them to sell it, and begin looking 

at alternate options. 

“That was the initial thing,” explains Petrillo 

over Skype from a vacation in Mexico. “Of course, 

I needed a tiny bit of change, but I was very happy 

with things in Calgary… it was kind of like life led 

us in that direction.” 

Toronto ended up being that new direction, and 

promptly after his arrival, he was invited to the Red 

Bull Music Academy Bass Camp in Montreal. This 

helped him make some solid initial connections in 

the Eastern Canada, further developing friendships 

and getting into the club scene through his 

existing ties with the “national beacon” that is the 

Hifi Club. 

However, moving to a new city has challenges. 

Petrillo spoke of a “deep sadness,” and that it 

took around nine months to really settle in. He 

had been something of a “jack of all trades” in 

Calgary; on top of DJing he did graphic design, 

sound, taught private lessons, and was involved 

with Beat Drop. 

“There was a lot of stuff that I did in Calgary 

that you couldn’t put your finger on and say, ‘this 

is my position,’” Petrillo reflects. “And so when I 

went to Toronto, it was like oh yeah all of those 

connections that took so long to make, don’t exist 

anymore, and so it kind of was this harsh reality as 

to like ‘Whoa, I still want to do these things, but 

where am I going to get an income from, Toronto’s 

a more expensive city.’ It was devastating.” 

by Paul Rodgers 

He says the experience lit “a huge fire under 

my ass.” 

“It’s kind of like this beautiful success story, so to 

speak,” he says. “It was so difficult.” After quitting 

the “shitty” job at a garden centre, Petrillo got 

back to working on what he loves and got himself 

engaged in the scene, landing gigs and offering his 

many talents when opportunities arose. 

“I was just hustling and hustling and hustling, 

and then sort of like building up that position and 

forcing my way in to be like, ‘Hey, I’m useful, I really 

care, I’m fairly nice, let me work on your projects 

with you,’ and all of a sudden I’ve amassed a pretty 

good client base so to speak.” 

Petrillo is keeping himself busy in Toronto, playing 

out regularly, co-managing the Modern Math 

label and working on a small, multi-disciplinary 

creative space he created called Pushmi Pullyu. His 

show in Calgary this month will be a celebration of 

Modern Math’s roots. 

“It was a cultural thing,” Petrillo explains of the 

legacy of Modern Math. “It was kind of the right 

place at the right time and for us to be able to continue 

to do it on an annual basis in Calgary is huge. 

We both have so much love for Calgary and I’m 

able to explore different cities, but frick, Calgary 

was the spot. It needed to happen in Calgary… I 

just feel so honoured to be able to continue to do 

that and get the support that we have.” 

Catch Sergio Levels at a special Modern Math night at 

the Hifi on July 16th. 

ELI & FUR 

letting you know they mean business 

by Paul Rodgers 

With electronic music popularity still soaring around 

the world, epicentres like the U.K. seem to function 

with the relentless proficiency of an industrial 

revolution era factory, churning out incredible amounts of 

talent with no signs of slowing. Eli & Fur are one act that exemplifies 

this. Having only begun producing music together 

three years ago, they have forged for themselves a strong 

following and prosperous career with their melodic approach 

to house and techno. 

Their most recent single “On My Own” featuring Forrest, 

a scintillating deep house groove, is but one example of their 

torrential outpouring of high quality music. Their 21,000 

followers on SoundCloud continue to climb, and like some of 

their other peers like Gorgon City and Disclosure, they have 

ambitions of moving towards a more organic, instrument based 

live performance, citing Bob Moses as a contemporary with a 

similar approach. 

“In terms of what it looks like, I mean I think we can be really 

experimental with it,” explains Eliza Noble a.k.a. Eli. “We do a lot 

of our stuff on Ableton Live, so a lot of looping, we’ll definitely 

have some instruments in there, definitely some electric guitar, 

that’s kind of how we start off with writing our melodies. I think 

it just would be really cool to put on a show and have a lot more 

to it then there is at the moment I guess.” 

Noble has played guitar since the age of eight, starting off 

from “more of a folky aspect of things,” and her and Jennifer 

Skillman a.k.a. Fur both have experience on the piano. 

“I think it’s a great tool to have, especially when making electronic 

music,” says Noble, who was definitely the more vocal of 

JUCY 

the pair throughout the Skype interview. “I think that the guitar 

can be slightly more limiting, but it’s nice to have both of those 

aspects I guess.” 

Their last tour of North America they decided to do a Thelma 

and Louise theme, and they say that the theme for their upcoming 

tour, their longest to date, is still in the works. 

“We just wanted to make it a little bit more interesting, and I 

think that’s what we love to do, right, it’s not just playing gigs it’s 

like a story and we like to bring the personality side to it as well 

so I think actually like the idea of a theme is really cool,” explains 

Noble. They have a no shortage of plans for the future. 

“We’re focusing now on our own label and releasing music 

from other people as well as our own,” says Skillman. “Whether 

that’s an EP or just singles but we’re just sort of getting everything 

lined up.” 

Their talents and have propelled them to huge festival stages, 

such as Coachella, and have gained them international recognition 

including numerous nominations in DJ Awards and Bass 

Music Awards. 

“I think there’s so much that we still want to achieve and 

does still seem super early,” says Noble. “And definitely with this 

industry and dance music thing, it’s definitely a long journey – 

it’s really something you really have to work hard at... so it’s little 

things like that and being nominated for little awards here and 

that’s always a nice thing that says, ‘Oh wow! People are recognizing 

that we mean business and this is something that we’re going 

to take seriously and be in it for the long haul.’” 

Catch Eli and Fur at the Hifi Club on July 23rd. 

Eli & Fur are in it for the long haul. 


REZZ 

rezzurecting summer 

BOB MOSES 

for fans of more than underground dance music 

Bob Moses might be the first-ever musical act to be covered 

extensively in Resident Advisor and play Ellen in the same 

year. The sonically shapeshifting Brooklyn-via-Vancouver 

duo of Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie have been on a steady 

ascent since the release of their debut album Days Gone By 

(for which an expanded re-released was announced after this 

interview had been completed) for Domino records last fall, 

but arguably their biggest achievement is earning mainstream 

accolades while still keeping respect from the underground. 

“The thing is, most fans of ours listen to more than just underground 

dance music,” says Vallance on the phone from home in 

Vancouver. “There’s a lot of crossover these days, I don’t think we 

by Jay King 

One of the best things about the festival season is seeing 

new talents make their mark on unsuspecting eardrums. 

Some of these artists gain slow traction through 

years of rigorous grind and style changes until their niche is 

finally found. Sometimes, however, an artist will come out of 

nowhere, take the music scene by storm, and rise to immediate 

stardom. Rezz is the latter. 

At the young age of 21, Isabelle Razazadeh, has accomplished 

more in her first three years of production experience than some 

have in a decade. The Niagara Falls native is in the middle of her 

first headlining North American tour, Rezzurection. Her brand of 

heavy, dark, industrial techno is a refreshing variation from what 

might sometimes seem like an over saturation of repetition within 

the electronic music industry. 

“I feel like I’m developing a very loyal fan base,” Razazadeh says of 

her headlining tour which she described as, “literally insane!” When 

one of her biggest inspirations is Nine Inch Nails, and noticeably so, 

a cult-like following is something that can only be anticipated. 

Aside from sprinkling in a remix here and there, Rezz plays all 

original music. Her recent EP, released on Mau5trap, The Silence Is 

Deafening has gained critical acclaim and is in part what pushed 

her to front a headlining tour. Songs like “Edge” truly showcase her 

dark and distinctive sound. The newly released remix of Kill the 

Noise’s “Without a Trace,” has also gained a lot of traction, showcasing 

her softer side. She has also been named in Billboard’s 15 dance 

artists to watch in 2016 list. 

The Rezzurection tour is travelling through the U.S. and then 

coming back up to Canada just before August, with a Calgary date 

on July 31 at Chasing Summer, playing alongside Ontario friends 

Zeds Dead among many others. She can also be found at the beloved 

Shambhala Festival on the Pagoda stage the following week. 

“There were a handful of festivals before I started producing 

music that I was just dreaming to attend,” she explains. “Shambhala 

was on that list, for sure. I just know that whatever music I’m going 

to play is going to be so suitable for that fest.” 

Between her unique sound and now brandishing her new, custom-made 

“hypnotic goggles,” Rezz is hard to miss onstage. Be sure 

to catch one of her sets and find out what all the hype is about. 

Rezz performs as part of Chasing Summer which takes place at the 

Max Bell Centre from July 30-31 

by Jamie McNamara 

have any fans that just listen to 4/4 kicks and get mad when we 

don’t make that.” 

The band did start with an underground bent, with songs like 

“All I Want” finding success in the hedonist havens of Ibiza, but 

they’ve increasingly leaned towards more mainstream efforts. This 

move is reflected in the groups evolving live show that Vallance 

says is what the duo has been working towards since the beginning. 

“When we first started we only had one or two songs, so we 

would do a DJ set and Tom would sing over our songs and that was 

it. Then eventually we had enough of our own material that we 

could do an hour of our own stuff.” 

With the addition of a live drummer and some clever midi 

magic, the two have found a blossoming live show that is much 

more dynamic than most electronic acts. “Really it’s a band now, 

and that’s something that we always wanted to do, but didn’t know 

exactly how to get there.” 

Much like their music, Bob Moses’ success was more of a slow 

burn than instant success, but increasing radio play and spots on 

festival lineups worldwide have helped bring them to the masses, 

including notable fans like Ellen DeGeneres. 

Speaking of the experience, Vallance sounds utterly dumbfounded 

still. “We thought it was a prank at first, but she had heard us on 

the radio and told her people to book us immediately. 

“We were standing in the green room looking at pictures of 

[Ellen] and Obama, her and Kanye - Jack Black was sharing the 

room across from us and he could tell I was freaking out a little bit. 

He came over to talk to me and just said, ‘You’re going to crush it; 

I know it’s a bunch of soccer moms out there, but you’re going to 

crush it.’ In my head I was thinking, ‘I’m talking to Jack Black right 

now, this is fucked!’” 

You can catch Bob Moses at Commonwealth in Calgary on July 

21st, The Starlite Room in Edmonton on July 22nd, Commodore 

Ballroom in Vancouver on September 3rd, or DISTRIKT in Victoria 

on September 4th. 

LET’S GET JUCY! 

It is July, my dudes. Summer is here, the sun is out there just doing its 

best, and promoters around town continue in their righteous pursuit 

of bringing amazing artists through each month and making sure that 

music fiends never have to stray too far to get a dance-floor on pretty 

much any given day. Let’s take a look shall we? 

Bleep Bloop plays at the Hifi on July 7, before he races off for his set 

at Bass Coast. If you aren’t attending the festival, this would be a great 

show to catch. Seriously well crafted, multi-tempo beats that churn up 

the dance floor into a bass-addled frenzy. 

Also on July 7, Come Correct presents DJ Monk at Habitat. He is an 

old school selector and seasoned producer with a history that touched 

upon sound-system music, acid house and jungle. 

Another one on the 7th is Trust Issues vol. 6. This is the brainchild 

of local artist Jodie Overland. Known for her captivating techno sets at 

numerous venues across the city, Trust Issues focuses on another one of 

her passions, which is bringing the latest rap and trap to fans in Calgary. 

This takes place in the basement of Commonwealth. 

HARD Festival boss, Holy Ship! Founder and legendary DJ/producer 

Destructo will hit the stage at Marquee Beer Market and Stage on July 

8. If you like your house with a bit of a lean towards that gangster shit, 

this is one for you! 

Atlanta-based rapper RITTZ will be at Commonwealth on July 9 for 

an early show (7-10 p.m.). 

Another artist that will grace the stages at Bass Coast this month is 

Berlin based house and techno aficionado &me. He’ll be at Habitat on 

the 9th. 

Another festival pre-party at the Hifi! This one’s for Shambhala and 

it features festival alumni and veteran party-rockers Featurecast and K 

Lab. Come to the pre-rave rave on July 30. 

If you’re feeling like a trip out to the mountains, AND you want to 

catch some high-quality music at the same time, make sure to check 

out Ottawa’s A Tribe Called Red. Their unique approach to modernizing 

traditional powwow ceremonies combined with their advocacy for 

speaking on issues facing the aboriginal communities around the world 

make them an incredibly captivating act to see. They play at the Banff 

Centre on the 30th. 

I hope these listings help to aid you in your quest to hit as many 

shows as possible every month, and as always, I’m sure I’ve failed to 

include more than a few. Check back next month and enjoy July! 

• Paul Rodgers 

A Tribe Called Red are a great excuse for a trip to Banff this month. 

38 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE JUCY

ROOTS 

PRESENTER IN PROFILE: WINE-OHS 

‘the kind of place you know and love only with better wine’ 

Tucked into historic grain exchange building 

in the heart of downtown Calgary, just a 

stone’s throw from Stephen Avenue, is a 

gem of the local music scene. 

A simple sign, black with white text, hangs over 

a rustic wooden door, displaying the name Wine- 

Ohs to passers-by on First Street SW. The subtle 

signage fits with the establishment: it’s a modest 

place, but with a lot of heart… and great wine. 

“The more I travelled, the more wine became a 

part of my life. So I started talking about having 

a wine bar. I wanted to create the type of space 

that I would like to go to,” says Alanna Martineau, 

owner and founder of Wine-Ohs. “We called it 

Wine-Ohs because we didn’t want it to be pretentious, 

we wanted it to be accessible to anyone and 

be comfortable.” 

The venue features two levels, the main floor for 

the bistro and wine bar, while the stage sits in the 

basement, which they have dubbed “the cellar.” 

It’s a cozy space with soft, intimate lighting, and 

furniture handcrafted by Canadian alt-country 

artist Leeroy Stagger. Despite being envisioned 

as a wine bar first, and a music venue second, 

Wine-Ohs has quickly laid strong roots within the 

Calgary music community, becoming a favorite of 

local upstarts and touring acts alike. 

It’s “the kind of place you know and love only 

with better wine,” Martineau says. “I don’t know 

if I imagined music being as much of a part of it 

as it has become, but I think there’s a real need 

for as much support as possible for live music in 

Calgary.” 

Wine-Ohs caters primarily to roots musicians: 

honky-tonk country singers, cowboy poets, blues, 

jazz, folk and singer-songwriter performances are 

held in the cellar six nights a week. 

“I like roots music it because it’s never too loud, 

things sound great but you can still sit in the back 

ROOTS 

and have a conversation,” Martineau says. “And we 

can also put on a pretty good rock and roll show 

without blowing your ears out.” 

As a weekly treat, Calgary’s iconic country artist 

Tom Phillips makes an appearance every Friday 

night for happy hour from 5-8 p.m. with no cover 

charge. 

The T. Buckley Trio also lays claim to the Wine- 

Ohs stage on Tuesday nights, bringing their subtle 

fusion of country, rock and folk influences to the 

cellar on a weekly basis. 

“There’s been some really magical moments, 

and every time I think to myself ‘I don’t want to 

do this anymore,’ something really cool happens,” 

Martineau says. “Ian Tyson showed up here on a 

Tuesday night in February, just out of the blue, 

which was really special. Tom Cochrane was also 

here just after the JUNOs. A band was playing one 

of his songs and he jumped up onstage to sing it 

with them.” 

Despite the ups and downs that come with the 

territory of running a business, Martineau says 

that devoting her time to Wine-Ohs has been 

extremely rewarding, even coupled with the pressures 

of working full time on the side. 

“My life is so much more enriched by having 

done this, with all of the wonderful people I’ve 

met from across the country, musicians and fans 

and just people who like wine, Martineau says. “It’s 

a very different side of my life when compared to 

my day job.” 

Whether you’re after a heartfelt set of roots 

music or just a well picked glass of wine, it’s hard 

to go wrong with Wine-Ohs. 

Wine-Ohs is located at 811, 1st St. SW, right off the 

train line, check out T. Buckley Tuesdays, a BeatRoute 

favourite. 

• words and photo by Jodi Brak 


BOTTOM SHELF BOURBON TRIO 

finding eats and empathy in life on the road 

by Naddine Madell-Morgan 

photo: Dennis Tokarsky 

What happens when a thrash-metal bass player from the bustling metropolis 

of Pugwash, Nova Scotia, meets an indie-rock guitar player 

from Ontario, and a sculptor from the Prairies? They form a hybrid 

bluegrass-blues band with a mix of swing and early jazz, of course. 

The Bottom Shelf Bourbon Trio are three musicians who have been living and 

making music collectively in Vancouver for decades. Despite the officious sounding 

genre tags they find themselves described as, there is absolutely nothing dogmatically 

traditional about any of them or their music. The trio have lived in different 

parts of the world, worked at funeral homes, taught Tai Chi, and one even holds a 

Master’s Degree in Studio Art. 

When BeatRoute asked them for the elevator quote on how to describe their 

music, they had to laugh before seriously considering an answer. “Chris [Dawson-Murray] 

and I have been writing bios for months now and have struggled with 

it,” says guitarist and vocalist Steve Nelson “I call it genre-bending roots music.” A 

sentiment to which we can’t help but agree, especially considering Dawson-Murray 

had a totally different answer, “It’s hard to nail down, which sounds like a cliché 

answer, but I call it early jazz with a hint of bluegrass.” 

One thing is certain about the band however: they love to tour. “I would never 

come home if I could,” says bassist Steven Huston. “We basically run as many 

songs together as we can.” Offstage as well, they have effectively adapted to the 

challenges of the lives of touring artists, they have even figured out that the key to 

eating and staying healthy on the road is to set up their own mobile kitchen. “If you 

are eating at restaurants every day everyone is going to get greasy and grumpy and 

we’re gonna get into fist fights in a parking lot in Regina at three in the morning,” 

says Huston, who apparently makes a mean mushroom basmati risotto. 

That’s not to say that the band doesn’t have “greasy and grumpy” moments 

however. Dawson-Murray is considered by the band to be the Papa Bear of the 

group, and tends to take care of the others when they “on occasion” party a little 

too hard. When asked, (because how can you not?), the tipple of choice for the 

group is, of course, bourbon, with Huston inquiring, “Is someone else buying? Or 

am I buying?” 

Check out the Bottom Shelf Bourbon Trio at Wine-Oh’s in Calgary on July 16 and the 

China Cloud on July 23 in Vancouver. 

STAMPEDING MINUS STAMPEDE 

there’s always a little more beyond the usual ‘on a stick’ fare 

Like anything that starts off with an admirable goal, is found to be profitable, 

and has its very heart carved out and replaced with a gentrified 

mountain of cash, the Calgary Stampede’s original goals of celebrating 

farming and Western culture have long since been replaced by a sea of 

beer-label straw hats and general drunken buffoonery, which has the tendency 

to put the festival at odds with the city’s progressive community. 

Let’s not kid ourselves though, from its very inception, Stampede was 

always designed to make money, and for the city’s musicians, it has long 

provided a stable source of income in the summer months. Beyond the 

pancake breakfasts, corporate parties, and mass-capacity tents, though, are 

the venues that consistently provide excellent music to the community, 

and who ratchet up their events during Stampede to show off the diversity 

of the city’s music scene. 

Here are a few of BeatRoute’s picks for awesome shows every day of 

Stampede without having to wade through oceans of deep-fried butter. 

by Mike Dunn 

July 7th at Broken City - L.T. Leif & Friends 

July 8th at Ironwood Stage and Grill - Tom Phillips & The Men of Constant 

Sorrow Stampede Kick-Off! 

July 9th at Palamino – Femme Wave Presents featuring Mariel Buckley, Eve 

Hell and The Torchettes and more 

July 10th at Mikey’s Juke Joint - Stampede Burlesque Extravaganza! 

July 12th at Ship & Anchor - Punk Rock Bingo: Stampede Edition 

July 13th at Ship & Anchor - Washboard Hank, Peter and the Wolves and 

more 

July 14th at Oak Tree Tavern - Tom Olsen & The Wreckage 

July 15th at Dickens - The Dead South and Lucky Sonne 

July 16th at Wine-Ohs - The Bottom Shelf Bourbon Trio 

July 17th at Ship & Anchor - Last Day of Stampede w/ The Isotopes, River 

Jacks, Real Sickies & Jesse LeBourdais 

42 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE ROOTS

SHRAPNEL 

NUMENOREAN 

Calgary blackgaze act refuses to compromise 

Home will be released by Season of Mist on July 22nd. 

“I 

remember starting the band in September 

2011 with not too many ideas figured 

out at that point and we were just sort of 

waiting around for something to happen. And 

something did happen.” 

So recalls Numenorean guitarist, backup 

vocalist and bandleader Byron Lemley. 

“On December 22, 2011 we found out the 

news that Woods of Ypres founder David Gold 

[had] died and it really devastated us, as he was 

one of the biggest musical inspirations to us. 

Woods of Ypres was the first band I heard that 

wasn’t scared to show a very vulnerable side 

of themselves while still writing devastatingly 

aggressive heavy music as well. Another huge 

reason was that it felt eerily similar to same 

feelings we felt when we lost our older brother 

years earlier. We both knew instinctively knew 

we would give Numenorean everything we had 

from that day forward.” 

In the five years since their inception, Numenorean 

has literally exploded in notoriety 

courtesy of that all-in mentality. Emerging as a 

two-man project helmed by Lemley and his twin 

brother and vocalist Brandon, the project released 

their self-titled demo in 2014. The run of 

500 CDs by Winnipeg-based label Filth Regime 

Records, ran by Jordan Dorge of Wilt, has nearly 

sold out despite the band only embarking on 

one Western Canadian tour. 

“When I first heard these two tracks I knew 

what I had heard was something great and 

special,” says Dorge of the release. His label has 

also released music by Western Canadian bands 

Begrime Exemious, Chieftain, and Laika. 

“It moved me and motivated me to get this 

out to the masses. The emotional journey 

accompanied by the composition was just 

perfect.” 

SHRAPNEL 

Conjoining the atmospherics and dynamics 

of instrumental rock with the grandiose and 

orchestrated black metal that emerged from 

second wave Norwegian black metal, the demo 

was a launching pad for Numenorean, whose 

sound is reminiscent of blackgaze bands like 

Weakling, Agalloch, and Altar of Plagues. 

“We share a lot of similarities with the Cascadian 

scene, especially from the demo, which to be 

honest was firmly rooted in that,” concurs Byron. 

He continues, “Our upcoming full-length 

Home feels very far away from it, especially with 

the absence of acoustics and any real nature 

themes. I know we share a lot sonically and 

atmospheric with those types of band, but I feel 

the emotion is different in many ways… one 

being we all live in a giant city surrounded by 

plains.” 

On July 22nd, Numenorean will unveil their 

debut full-length via internationally distributed 

and renowned label Season of Mist. Already, 

four of the five songs of the album have been 

premiered on websites from around the globe; 

the band just recently opened for a sold-out 

Deafhaven show at Sled Island; soon, they will 

head out on tour with Ghost Bath across the 

U.S. They are the first Calgary band to ever be 

signed to the label, earning a three-album deal 

in a time where very few newcomers are offered 

such a thing. Comparatively speaking, the 

only other Alberta band signed to the label is 

Revenge, who had released four renowned fulllengths 

via underground conduit Nuclear War! 

Now before being picked up. 

“Earlier this year, Season of Mist was originally 

contacted by one of the members of Ghost 

Bath, who were trying to help Numenorean find 

the right home for their new album,” elaborates 

Season of Mist owner Michael Berberian, who 

photo: Sam Rollo 

signed the band despite their lack of relative 

recording and touring experience. 

“After sampling their music, it became abundantly 

clear that signing this band should be 

a priority for us. This was definitely one of the 

easier decisions we’ve made at the label.” 

“Numenorean started as a side project to 

express creatively what my brother Brandon and 

I weren’t feeling at the time with other projects 

we were involved [in],” offers Lemley. 

“We had been in thrash/melodic death metal 

bands for about six years at that point and felt 

it wasn’t what we truly needed and by staying 

in these bands it felt disingenuous to continue 

on…. At the time, I handled all the instruments, 

and Brandon took over vocal duties. We wanted 

to write music that was sad, melancholic, expansive 

and vulnerable while still holding onto the 

aggression and anger.” 

After the Lemleys recorded the demo, the 

twins started rounding out their lineup, refusing 

to remain complacent when members failed to 

meet their expectations. 

“The only problem we faced was that after 

a few live shows we realized something was 

wrong with the chemistry and had to start over 

again. At the same time that things were falling 

apart internally, the demo had been making it’s 

rounds and the feedback was... very surprising to 

say the least,” recalls Byron. 

“People started buying it quite frequently, 

mostly in Japan and Germany, until we were sold 

out of our 250 copies.” 

They soldiered on, determined to complete 

their lineup with like-minded committed individuals. 

“We knew then we had something special and 

that’s about the same time the current line-up 

was put together,” he recalls. 

by Sarah Kitteringham 

“It’s the best group we could have hoped 

for as everyone was a contributing member to 

Home, something we desperately wanted with 

this band from the beginning, as we’ve always 

stressed that Numenorean is an entire entity 

serving the music and not a group of individuals. 

I don’t think it can function any other way.” 

Today, Numenorean features Chieftain 

guitarist Rhys Friesen on bass, guitarist Roger 

LeBlanc, and drummer extraordinaire David 

Horrocks, who’s played with Calgary act Dark 

Forest, Hrom, and Ominosity. As a unit, they are 

stronger sonically than ever, collectively writing 

Home after solidifying in February of 2015. 

“It took us about eight to nine months,” explains 

Byron, who tells us Numenorean had written a full 

other album to release as their debut which was 

dumped in the trash because it didn’t meet their 

expectations (the material, he resolutely confirms, 

will “forever stay in the vault”). 

“I felt it didn’t represent the true dynamic and 

chemistry of the band. We basically started over 

again and everyone was a contributing member, 

which in hindsight was a great move.” 

The five-song, 44 minute Home is 

gut-wrenching, beautiful, and buffeting, focused 

on themes of loss and pain. Opening with a 

sobbing cry, the album’s emotional soundscape 

and lyrical content work in tandem, utilizing 

shrieking howls, ebb-and-flow dynamics, blast 

beats, and tremolo picking amidst quiet segments. 

Home is both an emotional journey and 

a complex and challenging package, particularly 

when confronting its hideous cover art, which 

actually resulted in the band rejecting another 

album deal when the unnamed label refused to 

release it as-is. 

“We wanted to slightly break the fourth wall 

and allow the experience to start before actually 

hearing any of the music,” says Byron of the 

cover, which depicts an “autopsy picture from a 

murder that occurred in 1970.” 

The cover is a naked dead little girl covered in 

cuts and blood. While it’s censored by a slipcase 

on the CD format, the vinyl release is “exactly 

as we wanted it,” a move that reinforces their 

unwavering disinterest in compromise. 

“This album’s emotional soundscape and 

lyrical content revolves around the experiences 

of loss, which can be very cold and ugly and in 

themselves hard to reconcile,” explains guitarist 

Roger LeBlanc. “However there is sometimes 

hope in those dark experiences. This photograph 

represented that for us.” 

“We all injected some very deep emotional 

baggage into this album, and most perhaps 

most important, was allowing ourselves to be 

vocally vulnerable in the writing stages with no 

judgment, which resulted in something beautifully 

devastating,” concludes Byron. 

Numenorean will release Home via Season of 

Mist on July 22nd. The band will play their album 

release party at Dickens in Calgary on August 6th 

with Altars of Grief, Krepitus, and Hammerdrone. 

They will embark on a U.S. tour with Ghost Bath in 

September. 


STEEL PANTHER 

get on the bus! Glam gods make it on the road 

by Christine Leonard 

This Month 

In METAL 

So sayth Steel Panther: “I don’t do any cocaine before a show; I wait for the guitar solo.” 

It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock 

and roll, but it’s only a short trip to the back 

of the tour bus if you want to record a new 

album. That is if you’re the lead-singer for the 

internationally celebrated glam metal-comedy 

band Steel Panther. Bonded in 2000 under the 

moniker Metal Shop (later changed to Metal 

Skool and eventually Steel Panther in 2008) 

vocalist Michael Starr, guitarist Satchel, bassist 

Lexxi Foxx and drummer Stix Zadinia have 

discovered the best way to squeeze recording 

sessions into their busy tour schedule is to take 

the studio with them on the road. 

“Right now we’re working on a brand new 

full-length record,” says Starr. “We’re going to 

be recording a lot of the vocals live on the tour 

during the rest of the year. If you record in the 

hallway where the bunks are and you put a lot 

of heavier girls in there it gets a real warm, thick 

sound. 

“So, that’s a really good way to record a ballad. 

If we’re doing a full-out ‘Pussy Whipped’ or 

‘Party Like Tomorrow is the End of the World’ 

we’ll go into the back-lounge where’s there’s a 

lot of mirrors to get a harder sound.” 

Despite the tight quarters, fleshing out 

their latest vision with plenty of sex, drugs 

and rock ‘n’ roll is just business as usual for 

the L.A.-based entertainers. Having spent the 

past sweet 16 years travelling the globe and 

performing live alongside Def Leppard, Mötley 

Crüe, Slipknot and Guns N’ Roses, Steel Panther 

has enjoyed enormous success, particularly in 

Australia and Canada where they’re keeping the 

spirit of ‘80s hair metal alive and kicking. 

“Canadian people love metal… still and so do 

Australians, they miss it. Canada and Australia 

embraced Steel Panther right out of the gate; 

it’s been fantastic for us,” he says. “Is heavy 

metal aging well? Probably not. But does it 

matter? No. Shit, I’m a sabretooth, for Christ’s 

sake! But think about this, if you look at any guy 

that you went to high school with that’s 53 - do 

you think they look like Axl Rose right now? 

Not a chance. He looks fantastic! His singin’ is 

amazing! You know what the biggest offender is 

for weight-gain in rockers? Lack of cocaine and 

too much beer. I don’t do any cocaine before a 

show; I wait for the guitar solo.” 

As sagacious as he is salacious, Starr knows 

exactly when to put the pedal to the metal 

and when to ease off the throttle whether he’s 

romancing groupies, eating candy, or partying 

all night long. It takes certain amount finesse 

and a strong constitution. Mandatory traits if 

you’re going make a living pumping out Sunset 

Strip satire albums like Feel the Steel (Universal, 

2009), Balls Out (Universal, 2011) and All You 

Can Eat (Universal 2014). 

“If somebody doesn’t like Steel Panther because 

of our lyrical content, or the way we look, 

or the fact that we’re bringing glory to heavy 

metal from the ‘80s they’re not going to like us 

no matter how good we are. There’s just no way 

around it. Kinda like if you get together with a 

girl and you know it’s not gonna go right. You 

just move on and go to the next girl. If you have 

a sense of humour, don’t’ take yourself super 

serious, and you like to have fun, and you like to 

party - we’re your band!” 

Steel Panther perform at The Ranch Roadhouse in 

Edmonton on July 7th and at the Deerfoot Inn & 

Casino in Calgary on July 8th and 9th. 

Thanks to the precarious nature of print 

deadlines and street dates, we are on the 

streets a bit late this July, so the shows in 

this column are starting a bit late too! Hopefully 

you were not a dummy and did not miss the 

Dayglo Abortions or Revenge gigs that kicked off 

the month in style. 

On Wednesday, July 6th, Distortion will be 

hosting a black metal gig headlined by Winnipeg’s 

progressive metallers Noire. Calgary’s Ye Goat Herd 

Gods and Morley’s Dethgod will open the gig; 

tickets are $10 at the door. 

The weekend of Friday, July 8th is so far utterly 

jam packed with gigs going down in Calgary. Distortion 

will host the Southern Alberta Hardcore 

Fest headlined by Xilbalba; the festival also boasts 

performances by Grim Vision, WAKE, Putrid 

Brew, Take Offense, Power, and more. Meanwhile, 

Emmedia will host an All Ages Anarchist Attack 

with Victoria’s ISKRA (read our extensive profile on 

them from last year online at beatroute.ca) , and 

Overtime Sports Bar will host All Else Fails with 

The Archon Prophecy, Quietus, and Illuminated 

Minerva. Over at Vern’s, yours truly has organized a 

show with recently reunited Edmonton blackened 

death metal band Rites of Thy Degringolade 

with Dire Omen, Vaalt, and newly formed death 

metal act Cultist. Given that the band is officially 

returning from their 10-year hiatus and this will be 

their second show since last year’s Covenant Fest, 

it’s a show you shouldn’t miss! 

The eighth annual Armstrong MetalFest will 

occur once more at 3315 Pleasant Valley Road in 

Armstrong, B.C. on July 15th until July 17th. With 

pre-parties going down in several cities, the main 

weekend event will be a whizbanger featuring 

Unleash the Archers will perform at the 2016 rendition of Armstrong MetalFest. 

camping, 36 bands, “trash wrestling,” a “Beer Helmet 

March” and general shenanigans. We chatted 

with co-founder Jesse Valstar to get the inside 

scoop on the event, which costs $120 in advance. 

You can check out the lineup at armstrongmetalfest.ca/ 

“The festival started as a backyard party that 

exploded into a full blown festival!” 

Continues Valstar, “After the first year was a 

success we decided to do it again…. That’s when 

we made the move to the Armstrong fairgrounds! 

That was a huge step for us because that when 

everything kind of got real. We were no longer a 

backyard party, we were a real event. So we had to 

do a lot of research on how to a proper event. We 

had 26 bands that year, and it was a total success! 

After that year we went to 32 bands, and have been 

holding steady at 36 bands ever since! 

Of the 36 bands performing, all hail from Western 

Canada. This year, the lineup boasts “Arkenfire, 

A great power metal band from Kelowna, hard 

hitting strong band who I think is going to rip it up 

hard this year,” “Nomad, they are a wicked bush 

metal band out of Enderby, and “W.M.D, a bunch 

of young guys thrashing it up out of Calgary!” 

We’re already out of space, but don’t forget to 

head to Terminus: Gravity Fest at the end of the 

month for an incredibly curated electronic/dark 

wave/aggressive fest that will go down at Dickens 

from July 28th until July 31st. Stories on the festival 

will be peppered throughout the magazine due 

to its multi-genre mandate. Regardless, be sure 

to check out the fest, featuring performances by 

Venetian Snares, Cold Cave, Caustic, and more. 

Enjoy your summer! 

• Sarah Kitteringham 

photo: Dana Zuk Photography 

46 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE SHRAPNEL

musicreviews 

Blood Orange 

Freetown Sound 

Domino 

Expectations were high for Devonté Hynes’ third 

album as Blood Orange. The bar set by 2013’s 

heart-wrenchingly melodious Cupid Deluxe was 

daunting. Could Hynes match its danceability and 

endlessly singable choruses? Freetown Sound certainly 

has and, more importantly, creates empathy 

by offering a deeply personal voice on marginalization 

and systemic oppression. 

During the lead up to its release, Hynes said 

the record is for “everyone told they’re not black 

enough, too black, too queer, not queer the right 

way, the underappreciated.” While some of the 

lyrical content is directly pointed, such as the call 

outs of cultural appropriation found in “Chance,” 

Freetown Sound is an echo chamber of a mind 

that experiences the world in a way that many do 

not. Hynes wanders between sexual and gender 

politics, being black in America, the immigrant 

experience and the influence of Christianity – 

oftentimes all in one song. 

A great example of this is lead single “Augustine.” 

It opens with Hynes recalling his family’s experiences 

as immigrants, and moves quickly into a chorus 

that quotes West African Bishop Saint Augustine. 

Verse two explores what it’s like to lose a loved one 

due to injustice, specifically mentioning Trayvon 

Martin. Finally, the song closes with a lament for 

Nontetha Nkwenke, the South African preacher 

jailed (and later committed) for being a community 

activist. It’s a lot, and if Hynes was giving us 

anything less than the real deal, it would feel like 

a mess. Thankfully, his conviction is palpable and 

carries the densely referential nature of the album. 

It’s not just the lyrics that shape Freetown 

Sound’s commentary. There’s a sonic architecture 

that allows tender love songs to bleed into protest 

tracks. The use of spoken word, sampled dialogue, 

protest chants and repetition lend Freetown 

Sound a mixtape-like feel, letting the work feel 

lived in and crackling with sincerity. 

Let’s not forget that Hynes is a proven hit maker 

with a keen ear for saccharine melody and New 

Romantic rhythms. There isn’t a single song on 

the album that won’t get stuck in your head. As 

we also know of Hynes, he plays rather well with 

others. Lorely Rodriguez (Empress Of) and he 

duet as fiercely passionate lovers on standout 

“Best to You,” with its soft frenzy of drums and 

instantly infectious vocal patterns. “E.V.P” sees 

Debbie Harry in a subdued turn as a ghost of selfdoubt, 

the track sounding like if Stevie Wonder’s 

“Superstition” was covered with the attitude of 

Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing.” An easy competitor 

for best overall song would be “Hadron Collider,” 

which again proves Nelly Furtado as a chameleon 

queen with endless tenderness. Stranger still, Carly 

Rae Jepsen could be confused for Kate Bush on the 

tossing and turning “Better Than Me.” 

With 17 songs and an hour-long runtime, 

Freetown Sound is surprisingly well paced and 

deliberate. The album functions as a look inside a 

wandering mind that doesn’t insist on a singular 

answer to its many questions. It’s refreshing to be 

invited on a journey that’s about moment-to-moment 

experiences, and which aptly captures 

from a personal lens the climate of hostility and 

otherness so present in the world today. In realms 

both personal and political, there are many loud 

voices doing a lot of talking and very little listening, 

and Freetown Sound makes a compelling case 

for the opposite to occur. Trying to fully unpack 

Hynes’ purview and itemize his message would be 

a disservice to a work that champions speaking for 

one’s self and simply being heard. His openness, 

combined with his unparalleled pop sensibilities, 

make it one you’ll want to hear again and again. 

• Colin Gallant 

illustration: Syd Danger 


BADBADNOTGOOD 

IV 

Arts & Crafts 

BADBADNOTGOOD’s latest album IV is an enriched new step from the 

jazz-meets-instrumental-hip-hop act’s previous records. For one, they’ve 

gone from trio to quartet with the addition of past collaborator, saxophonist 

Leyland Whitty. For another, it’s the first of their own albums 

to incorporate guest vocals. BBNG have collaborated with Whitty and 

produced music for vocalists for much of their best past work. It seems a 

logical and rewarding decision. 

Just a few moments into opening track “And That, Too,” the dual 

synth lines (one crisp and airy, the other a bit bleary and lethargic) make 

clear that there’s been a shake-up from the band’s usual bass-keyboarddrums 

workouts. This song and the subsequent “Speaking Gently” both 

make use of light psychedelia and serene orchestral accompaniment to 

cinematic effect. 

Third song “Time Moves Slow,” featuring Future Islands’ Sam Herring, 

reminds the listener of one of the band’s best traits: their ability to shake 

loose the absolute best from their collaborators. Herring is all buttery, 

not single cartoonish yelp to be heard. His restraint is mirrored perfectly 

with a smoky, minimal accompaniment from the band. The other guest 

vocals come on “Hyssop of Love,” featuring Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins, 

and In Your Eyes featuring Charlotte Day Wilson. Both show the band in 

full control of tone and mood, with BBNG at the head of the table and 

their guests adhering to the seating plan for the party. 

As for Whitty, he proves wholly his worth on Confessions Pt. II, 

featuring Colin Stetson. Few can go toe-to-toe with the alto saxophonist 

who has mastered both scene-stealing technique and circular breathing, 

but Whitty is clearly up for the task. His emotive skronking sits front and 

center as Stetson plays a rhythmic foil for the song’s first half. The mossy 

jazz of the song hits a crescendo with a rattling breakdown from Stetson, 

only for Whitty to join back in and match him note for note. 

Instrumentalism has always been the central attraction of BBNG; no 

collaboration with a big name vocalist or integration of guest musicians 

can overshadow their vivacious, natural chemistry as a group. Yet some 

of IV’s most enjoyable moments come from exploring psychedelic mood 

and expanded arrangements. With new blood and a bigger focus on 

variety, the instrumental muscle of tracks like “Confessions Pt. II” and the 

seven-minute title track hit event harder. Striking an alliance between 

these poles is an excellent fit for the band, and we can only hope they 

more exhilarating records like IV in them ahead. 

• Colin Gallant 

The Julie Ruin 

Hit Reset 

Hardly Art 

The Julie Ruin’s Hit Reset is lusciously adorable but it hits like a smashing 

sledgehammer. The band is composed of indie-art-punk behemoths, and 

their second album is clean, clear and delivers itself in a professional and 

driven fashion. 

It’s got synths (a lot of ‘em), it’s got washed out guitar drone, toy piano, 

cowbell, earth-shaking bass buzzing and tons more, coming together 

with the bombastic indie-rock vocals of former Le Tigre and Bikini Kill 

singer Kathleen Hanna. 

In 13 songs, The Julie Ruin showcase a dedication to fun, poppy artpunk 

that recalls Riot Grrrl and mid-2000s electroclash, but pushes into 

new territory. It gets funky, it gets electronic; it goes across the board 

within the confines of three minutes and a bit per song. 

This is the five-piece’s first release since 2013’s Run Fast (Dischord) was 

a bit looser by comparison, evident that they were trying out their sound 

and just having fun with it. 

Released through Hardly Art, Hit Reset has a big production sound. 

The songs are far more concise but the album as a whole maintains its 

edginess, accomplishing a feat where many other bands would just get 

washed out in the mix. 

The first single, “I Decide,” has a slow burning quality found in the 

pulsing keys, walking bass lines and guitar distortion, but the vocals are 

happy, clean and driving and full of “na, na, na’s,” a great juxtaposition 

that is found throughout the record. 

They sandwich disco dance tracks with supercharged moodiness, 

enticing the immediate urge to sing along and jump in the indie-rock 

circle pit of your teenage years. 

The best part of this album though, other than Hanna’s explosive 

singing, is the plethora of synth tones and voices. Every verse, chorus and 

bridge seems to have its very own unique synth line. And they’re catchy 

– and cheesy – in the best way possible. 

Sometimes, Hit Reset does resemble LCD Soundsystem, Fischerspooner 

or Deerhoof a little much, but that just comes with the territory. 

They still maintain their own flair in their gyrating instrumentation or 

the silly slap-stick, sing-along. 

Hit Reset is a well thought out album. It maintains elements from 

many styles of experimental art-punk while pushing forward on its own. 

Even through the big, clean production, The Julie Ruin showcase their 

sweet, dancey melodies with fierce, fun determination. 


YG 

Still Brazy 

Def Jam Recordings 

Despite getting shot in the hip last June, Compton’s Keenon Daequan 

Ray Jackson had a pretty good 2015. The man better known as rapper 

YG was a year removed from the release of his massively successful 

debut album My Krazy Life, and was hard at work on a follow-up album, 

then titled Still Krazy. The shooting came from an anonymous shooter, 

outside of his own studio, and that resulting paranoia has clearly affected 

YG on his newly-titled sophomore album Still Brazy. 

Still Brazy is refined, but relatable. YG’s flow is simple and conversational, 

but still sharp and observational. His diagnosis of everyday ills of 

life in Compton is never cartoonish, but never reaches self-seriousness either. 

On “Bool, Balm & Bollective” the rapper sits back and stirs shit from 

afar with confident swagger and his new found “hard to kill” mentality. 

Nowhere else is that mentality visible than the cocky “Who Shot Me?” 

The song finds YG sitting back and flexing his amazing storytelling ability, 

detailing the events of June 12th, 2015. The tense production from DJ 

Swish is a perfect compliment to YG’s increasing paranoia. 

The crowning achievement of Still Brazy, and possibly YG’s career 

thus far, is the political trap anthem “FDT,” short for what else but “Fuck 

Donald Trump.” It’s the modern day equivalent of a ‘60s political protest 

song, and if the world is a fair place Bob Dylan would be covering the 

song on an AARP mixtape (don’t steal that idea Jimmy Fallon). 

Its political nature is a throughline on the album, the high-profile 

police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner featuring as inspiration 

to the lead-in to “Police Get Away Wit Murder,” produced by Hit-Boy. 

YG continues his streak of getting amazing features from his long list 

of friends. Lil Wayne offers up his best guest verse in recent memory on 

“I Got a Question.” Elsewhere, fresh off the release of her amazing debut 

mixtape A Good Day in the Ghetto, Oakland rapper Kamaiyah offers up 

an irresistible hook on “Why You Always Hatin?” The song also features a 

Drake verse that proves how good he can be at being a cadence chameleon, 

adopting a syrupy, West Coast flow with ease. 

Leaving DJ Mustard also proves to be a great decision for YG, who 

trades the chintz-Cali beats of Mustard for heavy hitters like Terrace 

Martin (of TDE fame), Inglewood’s DJ Swish, and P-Lo. 

The album is in a similar sonic lane as Dr. Dre’s Compton, a refined 

and remastered g-funk amalgam spanning the last 20 years of West 

Coast rap. However, unlike the aforementioned Compton, this album is 

perfectly paced and wonderfully sequenced. 

• Jamie McNamara 

50 | JULY 2016 • BEATROUTE

Jay Arner 

Jay II 

Mint Records 

Jay II is the fitting title for Jay Arner’s follow-up to his 

2013 eponymous solo debut. In it, he trades in his 

laid back glam-inspired indie for a more saccharine, 

psych-inspired indie-pop jam. Surfy basslines, tight 

rhythms, reverb-laden guitars and synths are all 

provided by Arner and his partner in synth-pop 

duo Energy Slime, Jessica Delisle. Arner seems like 

someone who knows who he is. His lyrics are honest, 

open and extremely self-aware but it still feels like he’s 

soul searching for something he’ll like a little bit more 

in himself. In that way many of the songs on Jay II are 

remarkably relatable for its likely audience of slightly 

jaded indie fans. Arner’s problems seem so insignificant 

through the lens of objectivity, but they’re still 

problems damn it, and the writing deals with that 

sense of malaise perfectly. Album opener “Back to 

School” is a relaxed beach tune about rediscovering 

yourself after being distracted by the world for a little 

bit too long, which provides a twinkly but acceptable 

intro for the admittedly short (30-minute) album. 

Other standouts include the album’s super-fun first 

single “Crystal Ball,” Arner’s take on “Space Oddity” 

with “Earth to Jay,” and “Personal Line,” an earworm 

with what seems to be Jay’s own number as the hook 

(I admittedly tried calling but was quickly declined). 

• Cole Parker 

Bent Knee 

Say So 

Cuneiform Records 

Bent Knee’s third studio album Say So doesn’t ask 

permission – it tells it like you never knew it was 

about to be. The Boston based sextet has reached a 

new level of fearless genre-bending in this ingeniously 

arranged art-rock opus. Each song is a gripping 

adventure where dreamy melancholic piano ballads 

swell and distort with equal possibility of becoming 

uplifting pop anthems or borderline sinister heavy 

metal. In “Nakami” a Mr. Rogers-style opening quickly 

gives way to a psychedelic chamber-pop breakdown 

before rocking out alongside chanting and ethereal 

wailing. The shamelessly wacky intro to “Commercial” 

becomes a heavy affair reminiscent of Black Sabbath. 

Bent Knee has once again shown that they have all 

the elements and the flair – not the least of which 

is the powerful, and now more snarly than ever, 

voice of singer/keyboardist Courtney Swain – to do 

whatever they want. Say So cuts a fresh wound into 

the bleeding edge. 

• Trina McDonald 

Bitter Fictions 

Jettison 

Shaking Box Music 

Calgary’s Devin Friesen is the mastermind behind 

local label Shaking Box Music, which shines a light 

on Calgary’s noisier side of sound, and puts out some 

ambitious avant-garde, psych and drone recordings 

from many acts. 

His newly released Jettison, under his solo moniker 

Bitter Fictions, is a seven-song collection of nebulous 

noise, self-recorded in a library basement. 

This solo effort shows ingenuity in practice, 

because it’s just one guy and his guitar. However, the 

ideas that emanate from the meditational ambience 

shine through. 

Friesen balances precarious notes atop indistinguishable 

sources of feedback and resonance. 

Of course we have a loop pedal, we have all the 

standard modulation found in this style, such as reverb 

and delay among others, but the shivers, quakes 

and pulverizing blasts of distortion are unique to say 

the least, especially because of the limited instrumentation. 

Witnessed during a performance at 2016’s Sled 

Island, one way Friesen alters his guitar’s sound was 

on display. He places a drumstick beneath his guitar 

strings and uses another to prod, poke, caress and 

bang on the former, creating dense vibrations that 

create a foundation for anything he wants to lay over 

top. 

And the result? Calming and introspective dronescapes 

replete with sporadic layerings of melody. 


Marley Daemon 

Shadow Friend 

Independent 

Mainstream pop music has this way of taking our 

richest emotions – love and longing – homogenizing 

them and feeding them back to us in a mind-numbing 

display of narcissism and dysfunctionality, albeit 

on a tray of satisfying hooks and grooves. Marley 

Daemon’s recently released album Shadow Friend 

employs the structure, dynamics and emotional 

themes that make pop-music so widely appealing, 

but the songs are refreshingly not about co-dependent 

love and it’s inevitable and dramatic heart break. 

Daemon’s crafty songs require careful listening to 

determine that the love and longing she expresses 

are for the old and simple ways, for a connection to 

nature, and for a larger sense of self. Songs like “2012” 

and “Mad Brain” befriend the shadow of the times 

we live in and its associated grief. “Vessels” and “Red 

Leaf, Black Stone” are about letting go and finding 

freedom. Daemon’s musical talent, honed for years in 

the folk group Dirty Grace, carries her weightier messages 

with levity. The compositions are adventurous; 

the rhythm is steady, pulsing and danceable and the 

vocals, harmonies and beat-boxing move from Daemon’s 

heart, straight to the listener’s. Shadow Friend 

shines a light. It’s pop music reclaimed. 

• Trina McDonald 

Dark For Dark 

All Dressed 

Headless Owl Records 

Just in time for lying in the grass and watching the 

clouds comes All Dressed, from Halifax’s Dark For 

Dark. Immediately playful and instrumentally hooky 

right out of the gate with its Rickenbacker charm, 

All Dressed easily recalls the best elements of ‘60s 

folk-rock, using tones that haven’t been worn out 

from overuse through this most recent folk boom. 

Featuring lollipop-sweet vocals and lush girl-group 

harmonies, Dark For Dark would be worth listening 

to just for musicality, but like Lou Reed’s swan song 

with The Velvet Underground, 1970’s Loaded, the 

cotton-candy, beach blanket chime of those pop 

harmonies conceals something of a deeper, more 

menacing lyrical edge. 

“There’s no cure for this fiery world we’re living 

in,” the ladies of Dark For Dark sing on the lead cut 

“Orchard”, amid doo-wop sha-booms similar to Winnipeg’s 

Chic Gamine, while the early pop backbeat 

rolls along in the background. “Owls” uses the same 

very cool Byrds folk-rock vibe to great effect, while 

standout track “Blue Morning” is closer to “Sweet 

Jane”-era VU, with the added elegance of a distant 

pedal steel to add a bit of the high and lonesome to 

all the sunshine, before the bridge brings the song to 

a beautifully arranged vocal climax. For all the lack 

of light implied by their name, Dark For Dark are 

definitely dialed into some excellent, sunshine-y ideas 

on All Dressed. 

• Mike Dunn 

FRIGS 

Slush EP 

Arts & Crafts 

Arts & Crafts’ newest signees offer up a rich, if predictable, 

garage-grunge experience, with pelvis-shattering 

low-register ambience, dripping sludge rock 

cool and mom’s-basement juvenile angst. The nofrills 

damp acoustic environment of their apartment, 

which they outfitted for the recording, provides a 

much needed sense of impact; the perfect stage for 

their reverb-heavy sound, driven by languid rolling 

bass, with only rare interludes of post-100 b.p.m. rock 

beats (largely on “Ringworm”). Cutting their teeth 

with Toronto’s Heretical Objects Collective has left 

FRIGS confident, cool, and musically precise, a far 

cry from their less groomed, DIY punk aesthetic of 

yesteryear. 

But for all that practiced sound, FRIGS newfound 

need for tightness may have also swallowed up what 

a group needs most in a debut: namely, a sense of 

vision or originality to separate it from a landscape 

which is already regrettably up to its knees in ambience-heavy 

post-punk. What has been groomed out 

of this new release may have been the devil may care 

spark which made their HOC days so compellingly 

aggressive and confrontational, and which made their 

earlier recordings so full, complex and natural. Arts & 

Crafts seems to have picked up an undeniably talented 

new group, but this otherwise promising debut EP 

strongly lacks new ideas. 

• Adam Sarjeant 

Hood Joplin 

#75FFA1 EP 

Drama Hands 

#75FFA1 is a cool mix of chilly synths and beats 

informed by footwork and hip-hop. It’s that Northern 

Alberta sound, and behind the decks is Edmonton 

producer and DJ Hood Joplin. Locally, HJ’s leading her 

small scene to make an impact with art and events 

that strive to be inclusive, but she’s also been reaching 

past it recently and connecting with her influencers 

in Chicago. This is her first EP, and on it we see HJ 

working to establish a signature sound while her 

career has started to take off. 

Opening track “#75FFA1” is a highlight, working 

in increasingly more complex rhythms in the second 

half before dropping off to the minimal beat of 

“Audrey Hepburn.” The EP stays at that level over the 

next few tracks, focusing on tone and lush backing 

synths. “Hood Joplin Type Beat” is comparatively 

spacious and dark sounding. Throwing on a few more 

loops of any of these beats at the club would put the 

listener into a deep trance. 

HJ’s use of synths, often sounding symphonic and 

constantly moving with the beats, shows that melody 

is an important component to her music. It would 

be interesting to see her experiment more with the 

South East Asian melodies of her Pakistani heritage, 

such as in her excellent “Masala” tracks. 

The last song features Sam Lucia, front man of 

Vancouver’s esoteric, dreamy hip-hop duo So Loki. 

The two are a perfect match, with HJ’s hypnotic 

production backing Lucia’s vocal fry, which balances 

somewhere on the line between bored and menac- 


ing, before switching it up to overlap a strange chant 

on top of a stuttering beat. It’s a joy to see two Canadian 

up and comers experimenting together. 

It’s 13 minutes and 33 seconds long, so #75FFA1’s 

five tracks can’t really be called an immersive listening 

experience. It would be great to see HJ extend her 

beats into compositions and use releases outside of 

her mixes to work with song structure. The first two 

tracks of the EP prove that she’s got an understanding 

of how to build intensity and accomplish this. 

Let’s hope some of the beats from #75FFA1 make 

it to dance floors and mixes across Canada. It’s a great 

debut EP by an artist who is doing admirable work to 

unite her small scene and help it grow. 

• Sydney Ball 

The Hotelier 

Goodness 

Tiny Engines 

broader rock landscape without losing the elements 

that made them great in the past. The band emerges 

with a sound more akin to ‘80s R.E.M than anything 

in traditional emo canon. Still, there are interludes 

that find Holden reciting spoken-word poetry, 

lullabies, and all manner of tactics that often produce 

eye rolls from listeners. From a lesser band, the moves 

might result in cringing, but The Hotelier balance 

everything tactfully. 

Songs like the buoyant “Two Deliverances” cement 

The Hotelier as a powerhouse band that knows 

exactly the statement they want to make without 

compromise. 


Edna King 

Pressurize EP 

Modern Math 

The Hotelier 

The so-called “emo resurgence” had to end at some 

point, it only seems fitting that The Hotelier are the 

ones to end it. The Massachusetts based three-piece 

managed to go from playing DIY rec rooms to sold 

out festivals on the back of their instant-classic 

sophomore album Home, Like NoPlace is There. That 

album found frontman Christian Holden trudging 

through the depths of depression and personal turmoil. 

The result was an album that was emotionally 

arresting, but its bleak outlook often made it feel like 

listening to a funeral dirge. 

It makes sense then that the aptly named Goodness, 

the long awaited follow up to HLNPIT, is a step 

towards the light. 

Arguably The Hotelier’s biggest accomplishment 

with Goodness is making the leap from emo into the 

Number eight in Modern Math’s steadily growing 

catalogue comes in the form of Toronto’s Edna King, 

with her debut release entitled Pressurize EP. A haunting, 

almost unsettlingly psychedelic voice, laden with 

distortion speaks of a dream, before repeating “this 

is not real,” as a slowly pulsing, ominous bass drum 

gives the opening track some motion. “Dreams” sets 

a formidable pace for the five-track EP, and makes 

way for highly dynamic musical experience. 

A folky vocal lament commences track two, “Tracing.” 

Soft percussion meets the voice in the middle 

and creates a gentle, meditative fusion. The work 

of Lisa Gerrard, such as the 1996 Dead Can Dance 

album Spirtchaser is gently stirred from memory 

throughout this release, particularly in tracks like 

“Tracing.” 

After the even more wistful and calming “Wake 

Me Up,” which ironically would be a great piece of 

music to fall asleep to, the title track “Pressurize” 

comes in. It is an ambient trip for the listener, quite 

a bit more ominous than its accompanying tunes. 

Breathy, whispering stabs add to the feeling of unease 

that crescendos gradually, before it’s throbbing 

descent. 

The EP concludes with “Memo Me,” a minimalistic 

and ambient way to close out this enigmatic debut 

from a captivating Canadian artist. 


Lindstrom 

Windings EP 

Smalltown Supersound 

Hans-Peter Lindstrom should be awarded a stoner’s 

music award for the sheer amount of mind melters 

he’s released over his lengthy career under his third 

name. The Norwegian cosmic disco don is well 

known to anyone that prefers their dance music to 

be borderline meditative in its hedonism, but with 

his new Windings EP, the producer seems poised to 


make himself known to the rest of the world. 

The three track EP is near perfect in areas that 

Lindstrom has faltered in the past. The songs here 

run a perfect length; the EP may only be three 

tracks, but in Lindstrom fashion it’s still 20 minutes 

long. In the past, the lengthy tracks meant 

Lindstrom would wander, but here he sounds 

focused, his arrangements much tighter than 

some of his past work. 

There’s the ironically-titled opening track 

“Closing Shot,” a sumptuously slinky dance track 

that is peak-Lindstrom. It’s a firecracker record, 

full of arpeggiating synths that interlock and 

wander into cosmic bliss. 

“Algorytme” is the shortest track on the EP, but 

it’s six minutes unfold with the same brilliance, 

seemingly meandering and laser focused at the 

same time. If Lindstrom has an album in store in 

his near future, he would do well to build upon 

the foundation he has blessed the dance music 

world with on this EP. 


Mitski 

Puberty 2 

Dead Oceans 

Mitski Miyawaki is far too young to be writing 

songs this emotionally devastating. 

The 25 year-old, who performs under her first 

name, was known for her lo-fi ruminations that 

often sound like St. Vincent put through the ringer. 

Her 2014 album Bury Me at Makeout Creek 

found success on Bandcamp with this formula, 

but with her fourth full length Puberty 2, Mitski 

has made the official jump to the big leagues. 

Mitski and co-producer Patrick Hyland made 

Puberty 2 as a duo, but Mitski has proven she 

doesn’t need more than that to make an impact. 

The defining moment on the album - and 

honestly it’s one of the best musical moments 

of the year - comes a minute and change into 

the lead single “Your Best American Girl,” when 

Mitski fully unhinges. Her guitar unleashes a fury 

of feedback reminiscent of Pinkerton-era Weezer, 

but the song is made all the more powerful 

because it isn’t coming from another group of 

mopey, sad white dudes. In fact, in a post on her 

Facebook page, Mitski admits that the wonderbread-white 

world of ‘90s indie rock was sonic 

and lyrical inspiration to the song. 

Sonic touchstones like that anchor Puberty 2, 

but it’s when Mitski embraces her unique position 

in indie rock that the album truly shines. 


MSTRKRFT 

Operator 

Last Gang Records 

A brisk, automated marching band snare groove 

kicks off “Wrong Glass Sir,” the first track on 

MSTRKFT’s new record Operator. This is the third 

LP from the Toronto duo, coming seven years 

after 2009’s Fist of God. 

“Wrong Glass Sir,” following the drum-core 

intro, develops into a warehouse-raving acid 

house groove. Track two, “Runaway” brings to 

mind the crunchy, electro-funk sound, perhaps 

most associated with MSTRKFT’s overall sonic 

aesthetic; akin to the tone of the title track of 

their last album. As with their past work, Daft 

Punk and Justice come to mind -- a polished, robotic 

symphony, bearing a vocal line reminiscent 

of early Bloc Party. 

The album has moments of high intensity, 

synths and aggressive lyrics lash out at the listener 

in tracks like “Priceless,” or the closer of the 

album, “Go on Without Me.” 

The concept behind Operator, as Jesse F. 

Keeler previously explained refers to a concept 

he came across while browsing military websites. 

Basically, ‘operator culture’ is the idea of 

the worker detaching from his tool; it’s easier to 

handle thinking of being an operator of a tank or 

a sniper rifle rather than associating with the end 

result of their usage. Keeler said that they experienced 

a similar feeling in their studio, discovering 

detachment from their old drum machines and 

modular synths, becoming operators as opposed 

to musicians. This mentality is likely what 

spawned the chaotic, disconcerting mood that 

much of this album conjures. 

Not conforming to popular “EDM” trends that 

dominate frequencies in recent years, MSTRKFT 

stay true to their original MO with Operator. A 

hard-hitting behemoth of an album, interjected 

with robo-funk grooves and mind-bending modular 

onslaughts that will pique the ears of both 

electronic and rock music fans. 


Owen 

The King of Whys 

Polyvinyl 

Mike Kinsella seems at ease. Now a family man 

following years of being a stalwart, endlessly-productive 

presence in Chicago’s emo, indie, 

and math rock scenes, he sounds relaxed yet 

unrestrained—exploratory even—on The King 

of Whys, his first LP of original material under his 

long-running Owen solo moniker since 2013’s 

L’Ami du Peuple. 

The album is lush, warmly-produced, and 

decidedly expansive for an Owen release. Since 

commencing his solo pursuits with 2001’s Owen, 

Kinsella has—over the course of nine LPs—treaded 

ever deeper waters in the ocean of math-rock 

influenced emo/indie, with each record letting 

itself be swept out just a bit further, only to stagger 

back to shore carrying smoother production, 

increasingly refined songwriting, and a greater 

sense of humility. 

Whys is Owen’s first album recorded outside of 

Chicago, having sequestered himself in Justin Vernon’s 

secretive April Base Studios in Eau Claire, 

Wisconsin, with Bon Iver member S.Carey handling 

production duties. The secondary influence 

(and the full band brought in by Carey) supports 

heftier, more florid arrangements, giving Kinsella 

a renowned vigor to wax poetic on relationships, 

fatherhood, regrets, and living with oneself. 

The droning opening track “Empty Bottle” 

crashes like a 10-tonne metronome, while later 

on, “Saltwater” would not sound out of place on 

the much sparser 2006 Owen release At Home 

With Owen. 

If you long for the relatable honesty of bands 

like Braid and Sunny Day Real Estate, but are now 

too old for the yelling, or if you’ve overplayed the 

grooves on American Football’s sole full-length, give 

Whys a chance. Let Kinsella break your heart again. 

• Willem Thomas 


livereviews 

photo: Levi Manchak 

photo: Shane Flug 

photo: Sarah Kitteringham 


The 10th Anniversary of Sled Island did not disappoint. 

We can’t fit it all in here, but here we go! 

This page, clockwise from left: Peaches, Guided By 

Voices, Duchess Says, TT the Artist, Deafheaven, 

The Sonics. This page, clockwise from top: ESG, 

Dawn of Midi. Huge thanks to the Sled Island staff 

and volunteers. Here’s to 2017! 

photo: Michael Grondin 

photo: Liam Prost 


photo: Michael Grondin 

Sled Island 

Calgary, AB 

June 22-26, 2016 

Day 1 

ESG - #1 Legion 

ESG performed to an enthusiastic crowd that was continuously shaking 

on the dancing floor late into the night for a Wednesday evening/ 

Thursday morning. The legendary group added layers of percussion over 

drums and bass including bongos, rhythm sticks, tambourine. At one 

point in time one of the band members was jumping around the stage 

in an alien mask and exclaimed “thank you for the wonderful audience 

participation!” (Jenna Lee Williams) 

Angel Olsen – Central United Church 

Angel Olsen attests that it’s strange to rock out in a church, but we never 

felt weird about it. As the church reached capacity before the set, the 

already sweltering space became even sweatier. Olsen blitzed through 

her set with poise, taking few breaks for banter. After the release of her 

new “Intern” video a few weeks ago, we anticipated a healthy dose of 

new material, but were left with a Burn Your Fire-heavy set to which we 

were not disappointed. 

Even if this is a typical Angel Olsen set, for her first time in Calgary, this 

was the best introduction we could ask for. A sonorous set that felt like a 

bookend, despite the night to come. (Liam Prost) 

Day 2 

Cakes Da Killa – Commonwealth 

Cakes Da Killa played a high-energy set, and every few songs he would 

place a towel on his head to wipe off the sweat, but he would leave it 

on top of his head and sway his towel “hair” around like a woman in a 

Pantene Pro-V commercial. He played some of his new shit along with 

old favourites. Near the end of his set, he said he was going to part 

the sea like Moses, and divided the crowd in half, giving many of us 

the front row to his runway. The crowd’s energy was at top levels and 

Cakes was feeding off it. (Jenna Lee Williams) 

Chris Lorenzo – Sled Island Block Party 

Chris Lorenzo’s set was monumental. Tune after tune after tune; originals, 

exclusives, classics, VIPs — the man is an absolute beast behind the 

decks. People just couldn’t dance hard enough. The crowd held aloft 

a young man in a wheelchair. A girl took her shirt off. It was certifiably 

bananas. 

Lorenzo dropped many classic and entertaining tunes with a 

modern boost: “Gangster’s Paradise,” “Me Myself and I,” and a hilarious 

sing-along ensued when he played Afroman’s “Colt 45.” He then 

launched into a Netsky’s remix of “Everyday,” a huge half-step drum 

and bass tune from a few years back, and then finally, at the request of 

this writer, he played the nastiest jump-up track he had in his arsenal as 

his encore. (Paul Rodgers) 

Day 3 

The Sonics - #1 Legion 

The Legion was truly packed, and the bands, beers and buds were hot 

and sweaty and vibrating with excitement for The Sonics. These proto¬punk 

veterans did not hold back. A band that got its start in the ’60s 

were still able to get a raucous pit going, effortlessly blasting their way 

through song after song of gritty and full garage-rock anthems. (Michael 

Grondin) 

Psychic TV – Dickens 

Few have lived a life as loudly as Genesis P-Orridge and far fewer have 

lived as deeply in service to conceptual art. Psychic TV, conceived by the 

iconoclastic P-Orridge, drew a multi-generational crowd to Dickens on 

Friday night. 

Psychic TV dosed their set with psychedelic post-punk kraut-rock, 

spinning the genres and blending crowd together into an elated delirium. 

An encore followed their set, no less intense, but explained in advance as 

being short due to P-Orridge’s recent pneumonia. 

The strong set was a testament to a battle-hardened veteran’s ability 

to keep art alive, despite a world working against it. (Levi Manchak) 

Day 4 

Peaches – Flames Central 

Peaches was like the best of any Sled Island: indescribably strange and 

amazing. We are tempted to simply list the bizarre things things we 

witnessed at Flames Central during her headlining set. 

There were dance moves, nudity, and costume changes; but mostly 

there was great grimy pop songs and an air of relentless empowerment. 

Peaches began the night wearing a cape and shoulder pads, and a few 

songs in began shedding clothes. There was a flesh-tone bodysuit with 

hands all over it, a one-piece with a strange monster face on it, and by 

the end of the night she was literally topless. Hers wasn’t the only body 

on display either; two backup dancers wearing giant vaginas joined her 

partway in, flapping open and closed and rubbing their stuffed clitorises. 

The dancers also shed clothes periodically throughout the set until they 

were chasing each other around the stage in G-strings. 

The visual spectacle of it all was overwhelming, but it was still a 

music performance, and Peaches brought it. The set ran heavy on the 

latest release Rub with the particular highlight being “Dick in the Air,” 

which we lament that we are still finding ourselves singing along to 


even in public. She even busted out her most recognizable track “Fuck 

the Pain Away.” If you were one of the unfortunate few who didn’t 

make it into the packed Flames Central, you missed out. Sorry not 

sorry. (Liam Prost) 

Guided By Voices – Olympic Plaza 

It’s not a reunion. Don’t call it a comeback. Considering their vast discography, 

it’s easy to forget how many incredible songs Guided By Voices 

have written. 

Over the course of the headlining set at Olympic Plaza, GBV pulled 

out classic after classic that we had almost forgotten were all written by 

the same person. 

Robert Pollard is a songwriting treasure, and the set proved that he is 

also kind of a rock star. 

The band rocked the entire set with vivacity; even the folkier songs 

were turned up. 

Pollard himself bounced around the stage, spinning the microphone 

on its cord like a lasso, and broadly gesturing. Pollard was the preacher to 

the cult of introspection, rocking out to the lyrical weirdness of songs like 

“Tractor Rape Chain” without a second thought. (Liam Prost) 

Day 5 

Radioactivity, Speedy Ortiz – Annual Sled Island Pig Roast at Palomino 

Arguably the best thing about Sled Island are the mornings after: the 

looks on the faces of the hungover attendees, smiling and laughing, but 

clearly worse for wear from the previous evening of non-stop music. 

Then the music starts again and everyone comes back to life, faces 

brighten up, smiles widen. 

That was very much true on Sunday afternoon at the Palomino as 

Sled Island 2016 came to a bittersweet close. People not quite willing to 

rejoin the real world yet heavily attended the wrap-up party. Instead, the 

attendees spent the day running between both floors of the Palomino, 

catching every last bit of live music they could. 

As the evening came to a close, Radioactivity and Speedy Ortiz 

ended the day in an upbeat fashion, rocking the audience hard enough 

that everyone briefly forgot that Monday was fast approaching. (Jamie 

McNamara) 

Go to beatroute.ca to read our full Sled Island 2016 live recap posts 

reviewing dozens more artists and events including Shotgun Jimmie, 

JOOKLO ZAPPA, TT The Artist, Junglepussy, HUMANS, Kaytranada, 

Duchess Says, Tortoise, Oneida, Power-Buddies, Switches, A-Bomb, 

The Sonics, Deafheaven, Bell Witch, Chron Goblin, Witchstone, Numenorean, 

Circuit des Yeux, Dawn of Midi, Aleem Khan, Chastity Belt, 

PROTOMARTYR, Planningtorock, SUUNS, Land of Talk, Built To Spill, 

Mascaras, Hurry Up and many more! Also check out the complete 

photo album on our Facebook page. 


Savage Love 

big is bold, bi confusing and tiny is tricky... 

Is it a super douchey move to pretend to be a lesbian to avoid unwanted 

male attention? I’m a straight single woman in my mid-thirties and a very 

plausible lesbian in terms of sartorial stereotypes. Occasionally a guy will hit 

on me in an awkward or creepy way and I’ll trot out a line about “not being 

into men.” Most recently I used this pose when a courier broke down in my 

driveway and I invited him in for a glass of water while he waited for the tow 

truck. It was really uncomfortable and a little threatening when—after establishing 

that I lived alone—he asked me out. I guess I use this as an excuse so 

as not to hurt their feelings, but also to shut the conversation down as quickly 

as possible if I’m feeling vulnerable. 

Is this a harmless white lie, or a major cop-out that would offend actual 

lesbians? Can you suggest some better strategies for when you’re feeling 

cornered by a dude you’re not interested in? 

—Lady’s Entirely Zany Identity Enquiry 

“I’m not offended by this,” said someone I thought was an actual lesbian. 

I shared your question with this person—a woman I thought was an 

actual lesbian—because I wasn’t offended by it either, but wanted to 

check with an actual lesbian just to be safe. Turns out my friend doesn’t 

identify as a lesbian, but as a woman-who-loves-women-but-does-notidentify-as-a-lesbian-because-she-sometimes-finds-the-odd-dude-hot. 

So 

for the record: my friend is speaking for the WWLWBDNIAALBSSFTODH 

community here—which often intersects/sexts with the lesbian community—and 

not the lesbian community. 

“But even though I’m not offended by it, I have to say I’ve found the 

‘I’m into women’ line to be totally ineffective,” said my not-a-lesbian friend. 

“The creeps I’ve used it on get even more riled up after hearing that line. 

Sometimes I check out and start ignoring these creeps as if they’re wallpaper, 

but that can rile them up too. Same with a polite ‘I’m not interested.’ 

The only success I’ve had with warding off creeps is by actually yelling at 

them, asking them if they’d like to be treated the way they’re treating me, 

and if their mothers, sisters, et cetera, would appreciate that treatment.” 

My not-a-lesbian friend—who, as it turns out, identifies more strongly 

with the term “bisexual” than she does WWLWBDNIAALBSSFTODH—has 

also had some luck with the lose-your-shit strategy (e.g., screaming, yelling, 

and waving your arms around like a crazy person). 

“You kind of have to treat these people like bears at a campsite,” said my 

not-a-lesbian friend. “You have to make yourself big and loud and scary so 

they don’t get closer. Because they will get closer.” 

I’m an incredibly confused man in my early 20s. I’m attracted to men and 

women. I could see spending my life with either. But I think sexual activity 

with either sex would be confusing and strange. In sex ed, I always thought 

the whole idea of sexual intercourse was strange. I don’t think I’m asexual, 

but I’m not sure if I am bisexual. I am more attracted to vibrant personalities. 

I don’t think that I am just straight or just gay, because I have equal feelings 

for both sexes. Does this mean I could find equal companionship with both? 

Should I wait until I find the right person and decide from there? 

—Confused About Sexuality, Help 

According to the Tumblr Blog Decoder Ring that came in my last box of 

Kellogg’s Feelios, CASH, you’re bi-classic (attracted to men and women), 

bi-romantic (could be with a man or a woman), a sort of demisexual/ 

sapiosexual hybrid (demis are attracted to people they’ve bonded with 

emotionally, sapios are attracted to people who are intelligent, and vibrancy 

may fall at some point between the two), and maybe falling somewhere 

on the asexuality spectrum. The best way to discover who/what works for 

you is to get out there. If you find yourself feeling confused, just remind 

yourself that confusion—like so much else—is a spectrum. And wherever 

you fall on it, CASH, know you’ve got plenty of company. 

I’m a 33-year-old straight guy with a small dick. I have a girlfriend of seven 

years. When we met, I was really insecure and she had to spend a lot of time 

reassuring me that it didn’t matter—she loved my dick, sex with me was 

great, it was big enough for her, etc. I broke up with her once because I didn’t 

think she should settle for someone so small. After some hugely painful nights 

and another near breakup, we are in a good place now. We have lots of 

great vanilla sex, we love being together, and we recently got engaged. After 

everything I put her through—and I put her through hell—how do I tell her 

that being mocked (and worse) for having a small dick is the only thing I ever 

think about when I masturbate? I want a woman to punish me emotionally 

and physically for having such a small and inadequate dick. There’s porn 

about my kink, but I didn’t discover it until long after I was aware of my 

interest. (I grew up in a weird family that lived “off the grid,” and I didn’t get 

online until I got into college at age 23.) I’ve never been able to bring myself to 

tell anyone about my kink. How do I tell this woman? I basically bullied her 

into telling me that my dick was big enough—and now I want her to tell me 

it isn’t big enough. But do I really want her to? I’ve never actually experienced 

the kind of insulting comments and physical punishments that I fantasize 

about. What if the reality is shattering? 

—Tense In New York 

“I was in a similar situation years ago with my then-girlfriend, now-wife,” 

said TP. “I was too chicken to tell her about my fetish and worried she 

wasn’t satisfied with my size, so I didn’t want to bring more attention to it. I 

eventually went to a pro Domme and felt guilty about doing it behind my 

girlfriend’s back.” 

TP, which stands for Tiny Prick, is a prominent member of the SPH 

(small penis humiliation) fetish scene. TP is active on Twitter (@deliveryboy4m) 

and maintains a blog devoted to the subjects of SPH (his passion) 

by Dan Savage 

and animal rights (a subject his Domme is passionate about) at fatandtiny. 

blogspot.com. 

“I got really lucky because I found the Domme I’ve been serving for 

more than 10 years,” said TP. “It was my Domme who encouraged me to 

bring up my kinks with my wife. I only wish I had told my wife earlier. She 

hasn’t turned into a stereotypical dominatrix, but she was open to incorporating 

some SPH play into our sex life.” 

According to TP, TINY, you’ve already laid the groundwork for the successful 

incorporation of SPH into your sex life: You’re having good, regular, 

and satisfying vanilla sex with your partner. 

“TINY’s partner is happy with their sex life, so he knows he can satisfy 

a woman,” said TP. “That will help to separate the fantasy of the humiliation 

from the reality of their strong relationship. I know if I wasn’t having 

good vanilla sex, it would be much harder to enjoy the humiliation 

aspect of SPH.” 

When you’re ready to broach the subject with the fiancée, TINY, I would 

recommend starting with both an apology (“I’m sorry again for what I put 

you through”) and a warning (“What I’m about to say is probably going to 

come as a bit of a shock”). Then tell her you have a major kink you haven’t 

disclosed, tell her she has a right to know about it before you marry, tell 

her that most people’s kinks are wrapped up with their biggest fears and 

anxieties… and she’ll probably be able to guess what you have to tell her 

before you can get the words out. 

“He should explain to her that he doesn’t want to be emotionally hurt 

as much as he wants to feel exposed and vulnerable, and that can be a 

thrill,” said TP. “It can be hard 

for people to understand 

how humiliation can be fun. 

But humiliation play is one 

way to add a new dynamic 

to their sexual relationship.” 

Listen to Dan at 

savagelovecast.com 

Email Dan at 

mail@savagelove.net 

Follow Dan 

@fakedansavage 

on Twitter 

22 58 | JANUARY JULY 20162015 • • BEATROUTE ROOTS

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