BeatRoute Magazine BC print e-edition - April2017

ALEX AND ALLYSON GREY
finding the sacredness in art and the art in sacredness
JENNIE ORTON
Well within the mind lattice, amongst the Fibonacci
rhythm of the universe, Alex and Allyson
Grey hold court. Long a union forged by a mutual
love of the sacred and the psychic, the Grey’s have
expressed through art what most of us feel but
cannot conceptualize. It is through their efforts as
teachers that the Grey’s look to show us all how
we can find sacredness in art and within ourselves.
“Some artists have a vision but haven’t developed
the skill to communicate it effectively. Some
artists have plenty of skill but haven’t cultivated a
unique vision. The best artists cultivate both vision
and skill and dedicate their work to serving a higher
purpose,” says Grey.
Alex and Allyson have developed a refuge called
CoSM in The Hudson Valley of New York where
they intend to help open minded and budding artists
to do just that.
“Forty wooded acres of beauty and several
buildings support CoSM community in powerfully
attuning with the Soul’s regenerative creative forces
in the tranquil beauty of nature. At CoSM, we
host Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice,
Autumnal Equinox, Deities & Demons Masquerade
Ball, and weddings, baby blessings and
memorials. Grey House is filled with art and altars.
The Wisdom Trail through the woods features
natural beauty, altars, a labyrinth, a reflecting
pond, murals and sculptural installations. CoSM’s
ten-bedroom guest house is open for guests every
night of the year. Day-visitors are welcome four
days a week,” explains Grey.
It is not only funding but understanding of this
rare place and experiences offered there that bring
the Grey’s to Vancouver for their four day event
in Vancouver. Offering an art workshop on April
27th at The Post on Hamilton, a feature presentation
at the Vogue on the 28th, a multimedia night
dubbed ‘MetaCoSM’ at the Imperial on the 29th,
and a book signing event at Banyen Books on the
Alex and Allyson Grey share their tips for getting the best view from your third eye.
30th, the Greys are hoping to stimulate the aether
we all seem so good at ignoring in our hustle to be
self-conscious Vancouverites while further funding
their efforts.
At these events, guests can expect to gain an
understanding of what has made the Greys a
particularly beloved pair of artists by those who
advocate consciousness expansion and creative
expression; everyone from Timothy Leary to
Deepak Chopra to Tool, most of whose album art
Alex Grey was responsible for. It quickly becomes
evident what it is about the Greys and their practice
that lends itself so well to finding sacredness
in the every day.
“From the mind of the creator to the public
meme stream, we recognize the impact of important
voices in our culture, important visions
for the future. We can only move toward that
which we imagine, so that puts the arts and media
in a powerful position to become drivers and
representatives of the collective imagination.”
But if you are looking for a taste of “how to
better remember “a vision” amidst the tumultuous
inner waves of the psychedelicized mind”,
Grey suggests to “try to remember the feeling you
are having when the vision occurs. Write it down,
and sketch even badly, soon after if possible. Then
when you create something and it begins to remind
you of that feeling then you are close. It
isn’t easy. I have puke stained sketchbooks from
Ayahuascaville. Finally, it is about Surrender to
Love. Let go. Explore. Let your mind go free. If you
think you are in trouble, lie comfortably open, untangled,
close your eyes, breathe, look and listen.
Keep your inner eye open for the beauty.”
For more information on the four-day
event, visit http://www.apparentproductions.com/
ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES
cover band made good get their yayas out
GRAEME WIGGINS
When punk rock super-group/cover band Me
First & The Gimme Gimmes debuted in 1995 with
their seven-inch, Denver, and its two John Denver
covers, it would have been hard to imagine they’d
still be kicking 20 years later. Featuring a veritable
who’s who of prominent punk musicians from the
Fat Wreck Chords’ roster, including label head Fat
Mike from NOFX, the band seemed like mostly a
bit of a gag — funny and entertaining, but not exactly
likely to have longevity. Two decades and six
albums later, Me First are back with a new greatest
hits album, Rake It In: The Greatestest Hits, and an
accompanying tour.
For singer Spike Slawson, 20 years of history
has made the band more fun, with a caveat. “The
crowds have gotten bigger, which makes it harder
at first and easier at the end, if that makes sense,”
he says. “It’s harder to stand up and face them,
but once they like you it’s like a drug that would
be impossible to synthesize chemically. Especially
for a lot of musical types who were a sort of pariah
milquetoasts growing up when they’re shown appreciation
and adulation in a live scenario. It’s very
profound.”
Picking which songs to cover is mostly a democratic
process. While every member can veto song
ideas, a number of the chosen songs don’t necessarily
appeal to Slawson, and he likes it that way.
“I don’t know if it’s a layer of irony that gets put on
MICKFEST
giving back to a man who gave it all to the local scene
it when the guy that tries to sell the song doesn’t
really like the song but somehow it works. There’s
some kind of tension. I think most bands when
they actually achieve what they set out to achieve
like 100 per cent they probably wouldn’t be as popular
or as resonant than if they had just tried and
maybe made 60 per cent of the way or less. Supposedly
the Talking Heads wanted to sound like a
Motown band. If that were the case, they would
probably still be playing in bars.”
Not all songs work out and that sometimes
means dropping a favourite. For Slawson, deciding
which he was most disappointed to drop was easy.
“The Easybeats. It doesn’t work for us because
The Easybeats did it perfectly,” he says. “There’s nowhere
to go but down from The EasyBeats’ version
of ‘Friday On My Mind’ or anything else they did.”
According to Slawson, finding and putting together
songs has gotten a little more difficult over the
years too. “It’s gotten harder because we don’t live
in the same town anymore so it’s not something
that just sort of organically comes up from us playing
together all the time. I think a lot of bands that
have been together 20 years don’t play together
all the time either. Considering how many fucking
best-of records we’ve put out, I guess it’s kind of
gotten harder. If that’s any indicator.”
While the process might take a bit more work,
the live show is something different altogether.
photo by Corinne Kuan
The Vancouver music scene is joining forces to support Mick one of our city’s rock heroes.
The original heroes of cover love share the energy and spectacle of their greatestest hits.
STEPAN SOROKA
Reading through a list of bands Mick Tupelo has
been involved in is like taking a decades-long
trip through Vancouver rock ‘n’ roll history. His
resume begins with The Bill of Rights, who along
with contemporaries like D.O.A. and Death Sentence
helped form a distinct Vancouver sound
amid the hardcore punk explosion of the early
1980s. An “intensely political band who combine
new music with crunching guitars and harsh gravelly
vocals,” according to Vancouver fanzine No
Cause for Concern, The Bill of Rights released two
EPs with Mick heading up bass duties. Later, Mick
would do the same for The Bill of Rights’ contemporaries
House of Commons, one of the few
bands who bridged the Vancouver/Victoria scene
divide during the 80s.
In the 90s, Mick took up guitar, vocal and
stand-up bass duties in The Deadcats. Known
as “the godfathers of Canadian psychobilly,”
The Deadcats boasted a career that lasted a full
two decades, including seven albums, numerous
North American tours and international releases
on labels in Japan, Germany and England. Add to
this a number of shorter-lived projects like Los Nitros
and The Highsiders and you begin to get an
idea of Mick’s musical longevity and breadth. As
far as rock ‘n’ roll goes, this guy is a lifer.
Unfortunately, in 2010 Mick was diagnosed
with muscular dystrophy, a degenerative muscle
It’s clear from his voice that, despite some negative
experiences (“I had a whole gallon jug of piss
thrown on me once. So they’re not all positive!”),
he’s just as excited to play live as he’s ever been.
“To me, live keeps getting better. You can put the
truth to the lie of the recordings. You can bring the
fire in your guts and ridiculous costumes. The music
is secondary to the energy and spectacle. That’s
the fun, dancing around and sweating and getting
my yayas out. I love playing live, that’s kind of the
whole point of it for me now.”
Me First & the Gimme Gimmes perform
May 3 at the Commodore Ballroom.
disease with no known cure. As his condition
worsened, Mick was forced to stop playing music
as well as to retire from the job he had held
for 20 years. Robbed of both his livelihood and his
passion, Mick became a self-described shut-in, requiring
a wheelchair to get around and suffering
falls that further exacerbated his already unmanageable
medical bills. With no signs of improvement
and a couple of unrelated surgeries looming
on the horizon, Mick’s prognosis was not looking
good. That’s when several friends decided to step
in and organize a fundraiser.
“I’m super happy to help out an old scene contributor
like Mick,” says Seamus McGrath of Not
Yer Buddy, who is handling the promotional aspect
of the show. “We’ll be doing a raffle at the
show and launching a corresponding GoFundMe
campaign.” The bands playing the fundraiser,
which takes place at Pat’s Pub on Friday, April,
21st, are all composed of Mick’s former bandmates
and good friends, who are hoping to raise
some money towards, among other costs, the
$17,000 required for Mick to get a new power
wheelchair.
Mickfest 2017 takes place at Pat’s Pub on
Friday, April 21st and features The Bad
Beats, Wett Stillettos, Cawama, Wichita
Trip, The Deadcats, Steady Teddy and the
K-Train Babies, Country Club Hustlers and
Crimson Clovers.
10 MUSIC
April 2017
April 2017 THE SKINNY
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