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BeatRoute Magazine AB print e-edition - April 2017

BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics. Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.

BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics.

Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore. The BC edition is distributed in Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.

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Descendents • Jimmy Eat World • Comic Expo • Timber Timbre • dBridge • 420 Fest • Father John Misty


FIXED<br />

Editor’s Note/Pulse 4<br />

Bedroom Eyes 7<br />

Edmonton Extra 26<br />

Book Of Bridge 28<br />

Letters From Winnipeg 29<br />

Vidiot 36<br />

This Month in Metal 49<br />

FEATURES<br />

CUFF 30-35<br />

CITY 8-14<br />

Calgary Comic Expo, Juggalos, Midtown,<br />

Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Spoken Word<br />

Fest, World Town, Golden Penis, Make It,<br />

Places Please, Wrongs Today<br />

FILM 30-36<br />

CUFF: Fubar 15th Anniversary, Hounds Of<br />

Love, Space Between<br />

T<strong>AB</strong>LE OF CONTENTS<br />

MUSIC<br />

rockpile 16-29<br />

Descendants, Jimmy Eat World,<br />

Fashionism, Close Talker, Tommy<br />

Grimes, Menace, Sum 41, Forbidden<br />

Dimension, Bad Animal, Dane<br />

jucy 39-41<br />

dBridge, Chuurch, Troyboi, Snakehips,<br />

Rumours Rave<br />

roots 43-45<br />

Timber Timbre, Leeroy Stagger, Matt<br />

Patershuk, Braden Gates<br />

shrapnel 47-49<br />

420 Music And Arts Festival, Languid,<br />

Striker, D.R.I.<br />

REVIEWS<br />

music 51<br />

Father John Misty and much more...<br />

BEATROUTE<br />

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief<br />

Brad Simm<br />

Marketing Manager<br />

Glenn Alderson<br />

Production Coordinator<br />

Hayley Muir<br />

Managing Editor/Web Producer<br />

Shane Flug<br />

Music Editor<br />

Colin Gallant<br />

Section Editors<br />

City :: Brad Simm<br />

Film :: Jonathan Lawrence<br />

Calgary Beat :: Willow Grier<br />

Edmonton Extra :: Levi Manchak<br />

Book of (Leth)Bridge :: Courtney Faulkner<br />

Letters From Winnipeg :: Julijana Capone<br />

Jucy :: Paul Rodgers<br />

Roots :: Liam Prost<br />

Shrapnel :: Sarah Kitteringham<br />

Reviews :: Jamie McNamara<br />

This Month’s Contributing Writers<br />

Christine Leonard • Arielle Lessard • Sarah Mac • Amber McLinden • Kennedy Enns •<br />

Jennie Orton • Michael Grondin • Mathew Silver • Kevin Bailey • Jackie Klapak •<br />

Hayley Pukanski • Nicholas Laugher • Arnaud Sparks • Brittney Rousten •<br />

Breanna Whipple • Alex Meyer • Jay King • Alec Warkentin • Paul McAleer • Mike Dunn •<br />

Shane Sellar • Kaje Annihilatrix • Dan Savage • Claire Miglionico<br />

This Month’s Contributing Photographers & Illustrators<br />

Michael Grondin • Hayley Pukanski • Jim Agaptio • My-An Nguyen<br />

Front Cover<br />

Helen Young<br />

Advertising<br />

Ron Goldberger<br />

Tel: (403) 607-4948 • e-mail: ron@beatroute.ca<br />

Descendents - page 16<br />

Distribution<br />

We distribute our publication in Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, Canmore, and Lethbridge.<br />

SARGE Distribution in Edmonton – Shane Bennett (780) 953-8423<br />

e-mail: editor@beatroute.ca<br />

website: www.beatroute.ca<br />

E-Edition<br />

Yumpu.com/<strong>BeatRoute</strong><br />

Connect with <strong>BeatRoute</strong>.ca<br />

Facebook.com/<strong>BeatRoute</strong><strong>AB</strong><br />

Twitter.com/<strong>BeatRoute</strong><strong>AB</strong><br />

Instagram.com/<strong>BeatRoute</strong><strong>AB</strong><br />

Copyright © BEATROUTE <strong>Magazine</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />

All rights reserved. Reproduction of the contents is prohibited without permission.<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 3


pulse<br />

30 BANDS – 3 STAGES – 10 HOURS<br />

Cancer Benefit<br />

Greta Marofke was born a happy, healthy energetic baby, but was soon<br />

diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a very rare liver cancer found in fewer<br />

than one in a million children. Greta started her first chemo treatment<br />

on her second birthday. That was followed by several more treatments<br />

including surgery for a liver resection. Great news followed one year ago<br />

when her tests showed “no evidence of disease.” Then on a routine doctor’s<br />

visit in August 2016 a blood test confirmed the cancer had come<br />

back, and this time she would require a full liver transplant.<br />

Her family reached out extensively to doctors in Calgary, Toronto, and<br />

Cincinnati to determine the best way to treat Greta. Canadian doctors<br />

have done everything they can for Greta, but our health system is not<br />

as advanced as other medical centres in this particular area. Dr. Geller, a<br />

pediatric oncologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, who has a special<br />

interest and extensive experience in the field of hepatoblastoma has<br />

been working closely with Canadian doctors, but is convinced he can do<br />

more to help Greta in the US than is possible to do so here. He has been<br />

involved with nine rescue liver transplants (transplant after resection)<br />

and eight of these children are doing well.<br />

<strong>AB</strong> Health Care will not be covering the cost of Greta’s transplant<br />

surgery estimated to be 1.2 million.<br />

In January, a “Go Fund Me” campaign (.gofundme.com/gretasguardians)<br />

was started and to date $193,000 has been raised, but Greta and<br />

her family still need more money.<br />

On Sat., <strong>April</strong> 29, The Cave and Getto Boys will present 30 Bands on<br />

3 Stages (indoors and out) for 10 hours. The event, 30-3-10, is aimed<br />

solely to help raise funds for Greta’s surgery. 100% of ticket revenues,<br />

beverage sales, festival merchandise sales and a silent auction will be<br />

donated along with 100% of artists’ performances, stage set-up, fencing,<br />

promotions, event management and production services. Location<br />

720 - 16 Ave. NW. Doors open at 11:00 am. $20.00 General Admission<br />

tickets available at Eventbrite.<br />

• Lindsay Chadderton<br />

THE AMAZING VELVET EXPERIENCE<br />

Glenbow Museum<br />

For one night only, witness the most black velvet paintings you may ever<br />

see in one place. One Glenbow gallery will be filled from floor to ceiling<br />

with 200 velvet paintings - the best of the collection of Rick Smith, one<br />

of the world’s premiere velvet collectors. Rick has a history of sharing his<br />

collection with the world - for years he hosted annual Cinco de Mayo<br />

parties to show off his collection. Now, Rick has decided to set his collection<br />

free, and is giving his paintings away to benefit Glenbow.<br />

Rick Smith has been collecting black velvet paintings since 2001,<br />

amassing over 400 from garage sales and pawn shops around Alberta,<br />

starting with a velvet Elvis. The collection began as a hobby to distract<br />

him from a personal health crisis, and became an obsession that led to<br />

Rick “rescuing” as many of the painting as he could find.<br />

Starting with a feature presentation about the history of black velvet<br />

art, followed by live music, a nacho station, churros, cocktails and art<br />

adventures, this party will be a celebration of retro kitsch. Whether you<br />

wear your latest high-fashion ensemble or break out the velour and<br />

bellbottoms, dress to impress.<br />

Party favours: every ticket buyer will go home with a velvety treasure!<br />

Party guests will be randomly matched with their very own black velvet<br />

painting, to be taken home at the end of the night. Which one will be<br />

yours? Some might be considered velvet masterpieces, all are guaranteed<br />

to be a hilarious keepsake from an excellent night out.<br />

Tickets $75 (on sale <strong>April</strong> 1)<br />

6.30pm: Doors Friday May 5, <strong>2017</strong><br />

7.00pm: Feature presentation - an exploration of the history of black<br />

velvet art<br />

7.45pm: The party begins - live music/DJ/nacho station/churros/<br />

cocktails/art adventures<br />

9.30pm: Painting pick up opens - meet your art match<br />

11:00pm: Event ends<br />

SLED ISLAND<br />

Year Eleven<br />

Sled Island is back in Calgary with L.A. renegade Flying Lotus acting as<br />

guest curator, plenty of heavy (Converge, Wolves in the Throne Room,<br />

King Woman) and everything else you’d expect from our hometown,<br />

discovery-obsessed fest.<br />

Indie rock enthusiasts are covered with prominent slots by Cloud<br />

Nothings, Low, Waxahatchee, Land of Talk and Mothers, among others.<br />

If experimentalism and innovation are your game (a field Sled always<br />

nails), look no further than Silver Apples, Hailu Mergia, Thor & Friends,<br />

EX EYE and New Fries.<br />

New this year are the Sled Island podcast (where they unveil ‘sclusies<br />

absent from press releases and public announcements), and the gritty<br />

work of illustrator Josh Holinaty (an ACAD grad and prominent artist in<br />

our community).<br />

Roughly 200 bands are still to be announced, including FlyLo’s curator<br />

picks, headliners from around Canada and the world, and the best<br />

emerging talent juried from nearly 1000 music submissions received by<br />

the festival.<br />

Still to come are announcements regarding visual art, comedy, film<br />

and special events that put industry and interactive moments into<br />

focus. As a multi-disciplinary festival, these programming choices are<br />

likely to tilt the conversation about Sled Island from what bands they’ve<br />

announced to what overall experience they offer attendees –whether<br />

that be pass purchasers, participating performers, delegates, or our own<br />

arts community.<br />

In the meantime, Sled has made neither its second wave nor full lineup<br />

announcements yet. We’ll be reporting again as soon as they do.<br />

Flying Lotus<br />

4 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE


#guitarsforgreta<br />

Saturday,<br />

<strong>April</strong> 29th<br />

MUSIC FESTIVAL<br />

WITH<br />

BANDS,<br />

STAGES,<br />

HOURS<br />

100% OF THE PROCEEDS WILL SUPPORT<br />

GRETA’S JOURNEY<br />

720 16 AVE NW, CALGARY<br />

GETTO BOYS bar & grill • the cave<br />

Thank-you<br />

to our<br />

sponsors<br />

THE CAVE<br />

BRIAN’S PORTA-POTTY<br />

& FENCING


TWINBAT STICKER CO.<br />

your one stop, premier rock ‘n’ roll merch shop<br />

Who’s that wasically wabbit anyway? It’s<br />

none other than Cory Martens,<br />

well-known, well-respected, bad-ass<br />

drummer and punk guitarist who’s<br />

played many stages, many times across<br />

Western Canada.<br />

Standing outside his new biz, Twinbat<br />

Sticker Co., Martens is putting the power<br />

of rock ‘n’ roll into his <strong>print</strong> shop that<br />

specializes in premium vinyl decals,<br />

one-inch buttons, t-shirts, vinyl-cut<br />

lettering, custom signage, vinyl banners,<br />

wall decals, window decals, custom<br />

license plates and guitar picks.<br />

Your one stop, premier rock ‘n’ roll<br />

merch shop? “Yes it is,” says Mr. Martens.<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 7


CITY<br />

JUGGALO WEEKEND<br />

northern gathering promising is gonna bust a big move<br />

“It takes a special motherfucker to listen ICP and love it,<br />

you know?”<br />

After almost 30 years of rocking the Insane Clown Posse<br />

moniker, Joseph Utsler aka Shaggy 2 Dope is as keenly aware as<br />

ever of the stigma surrounding one of the world’s most notorious<br />

and resilient subcultures.<br />

“Most of the fuckin’ world hates our guts. So being a Juggalo,<br />

automatically, you’re gonna be hated on by pretty much<br />

anything. And people think that Juggalos are scumbag thieving<br />

pieces of shit, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,”<br />

Utsler explains.<br />

Juggalos have served as an easy target for the rest of the<br />

world since the term’s official inception in the late ‘90s.<br />

Whether the movement’s resilience is an evolved adaptation<br />

to decades of hate, or a testament to the Insane Clown Posse’s<br />

staying power, is anyone’s guess.<br />

But what exactly is a Juggalo? What brings them up north of<br />

the border?<br />

Despite the movement itself existing for two decades, it<br />

doesn’t seem like a concrete answer has ever revealed itself. But<br />

it’s clear that the Insane Clown Posse has a certain allure to a<br />

certain type of person.<br />

In Utsler’s opinion, the most important quality is<br />

open-mindedness. “But on the top end of the list, there’s[…]<br />

keeping it real. [And] Juggalos are actually some of the most<br />

big-hearted people I know. If you’re broken down on the side of<br />

the road, chances of a Juggalo helping you out are a thousand<br />

times greater than some asshole on his way to work,” he clarified,<br />

with a tinge of passion in his voice.<br />

“I’d rather have a hundred Juggalos at a show over 10,000 just<br />

normal motherfuckers at a show. Juggalos have the heart of a<br />

hundred people each.”<br />

The Posse’s creative well seems pretty far from running dry,<br />

too; after their famed First Deck of Joker Cards wrapped up in<br />

2004, a second Deck was rolled out in 2009 – to the surprise<br />

(and elation) of many Juggalos. Not to mention the complementary<br />

‘Sideshow’ EPs which bridged each EP’s release.<br />

Throw in another half-dozen solo albums, a plethora of<br />

supergroup memberships, and a variety of appearances and<br />

Insane Clown Posse: Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent bringing on their A++ game.<br />

by Max Foley<br />

directorial roles in film and television, and one can’t help but<br />

wonder: what is it about the Insane Clown Posse that makes<br />

them so prolific? Is it because they’re the end-all, be-all when it<br />

comes to doing horrorcore/murder rap the way it’s meant to<br />

be done?<br />

Whatever the case, Calgary’s slated for a hell of a wakeup call<br />

– Juggalos from all around the country will be rallying at the<br />

Stampede Corral for a two-day gathering featuring guests like<br />

Ice-T and Merkules. Utsler’s proprietary blend of understated<br />

enthusiasm and time-tested wisdom bleeds through the phone<br />

as he articulates the ICP’s love for Canada.<br />

“Canada’s a little different – we feel more accepted there<br />

than in America. The general populace doesn’t look at the ICP<br />

the same way Americans do,” Utsler explains.<br />

“There’s more casual listeners up there, and that affects the<br />

energy of the show. We love throwing down for Juggalos, and<br />

they make us bring out our A game; but those other people<br />

watching make you wanna murder the show and really blow<br />

their wigs off. They make us bring our A++ game.”<br />

There’s another key reason why Canada’s earned the affections<br />

of the Posse: the relative ease of obtaining Faygo, a budget<br />

soft drink from the ICP’s backyard of Michigan. Faygo is what<br />

Utsler describes as “the lifeblood of an ICP show.”<br />

“We can actually get it delivered to our shows, whereas in<br />

Europe or Australia we gotta use their off-brand soda, and we’ll<br />

put fake-ass fake logos on them or peel them off. We throw so<br />

much Faygo during shows that sometimes it’s just not practical.<br />

That’s another important part of Canada is that you’re able to<br />

get that precious Faygo. None of that knockoff shit.”<br />

In short, while visits from Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J only<br />

happen every few years, absence does make the heart grow<br />

fonder.<br />

“We fuckin’ love Canada. I’ma eat the fuck out of some of<br />

those motherfuckin’ poontang fries.” Utsler finished. We’re gonna<br />

hold you to that, Shaggy.<br />

The Insane Clown Posse and their friends are hosting Canadian<br />

Juggalo Weekend at the Stampede Corral on <strong>April</strong> 7-8. Find more<br />

information at juggaloweekend.ca.<br />

COMIC EXPO<br />

calling all space cowboys… saddle up!<br />

Comic book culture’s middle-aged poster boy, Kevin Smith.<br />

by Christine Leonard<br />

If the old adage is to be believed, you should “never meet your heroes.” But for fans<br />

of the fastest growing comic convention in North America, that saying could not be<br />

further from the truth. Attracting over 100,000 people in 2016, Calgary’s annual Comic<br />

& Entertainment Expo (AKA Calgary Expo) engulfs Stampede Park and transmogrifies<br />

those hallowed stomping grounds into a multimedia playground that is truly a spectacle<br />

to behold. It’s not the first space rodeo for Calgary Expo’s spokeswoman and mascot, Emily<br />

Expo, but she promises that <strong>2017</strong>’s four day run of fandom will offer up a star-studded<br />

affair that will be the highlight of your terrestrial orbit.<br />

“The last couple of years have been huge for us and we keep trying to present an even<br />

better experience for our attendees,” says Emily Expo. “At the moment the focus isn’t<br />

so much on size as improving the quality of the event for all. Making sure that there is<br />

something for everyone and trying to make sure that everything is well organized and<br />

goes smoothly from an operational perspective.”<br />

Engaging with a public that has so embraced all of its colourful components, Calgary<br />

Expo has swelled beyond the scope of a self-contained entity and has extended its tendrils<br />

into the very core of the City.<br />

“I am quite proud of us as an organization for putting on the Parade of Wonders!,<br />

which happens on the Friday morning of each Expo,” she explains. “To have all these cosplayers,<br />

and the nerds, and the geeks, and the fans parading through downtown Calgary,<br />

and showing their pride in this show that started with 3,000 people in 2006, is really quite<br />

an accomplishment! The route is a little bit different year. We start at 8th and 8th and we<br />

still wind-up at Olympic Plaza, but due to the growth of the event and how big it is it has<br />

become a little too disruptive and we don’t want to annoy people with what we’re doing.<br />

We want to create a community thing that everybody can come and enjoy, so we worked<br />

with the City to develop a new route.”<br />

Back on the grounds, where the Calgary Expo occupies 450,000 square feet dedicated<br />

to the arts of gaming, shopping, and celebrity-worship, it’s all too easy to lose all sense of<br />

direction and monetary prudence. But thanks to the Expo’s handy phone app, Calgary<br />

cadets are less likely to miss their window of opportunity to land amongst the stars.<br />

“We had an app last year and we revamp it every year, as things change and develop.<br />

So, we’ll have that again this year for people who want it. It is really useful for keeping<br />

track of your schedule, especially if you’re into panels and photo ops.”<br />

Aside from a one-off concert appearance by James Marsters at the Expo’s official After<br />

Party, the lynchpin in this year’s special programing is an appearance by the comic book<br />

culture’s middle-aged poster boy, Kevin Smith. Known for his directorial triumphs (and<br />

flops) as well as his podcasting career, and television show “Comic Book Men,” Smith will<br />

be joined by his partner in rhyme, Jay Mewes (AKA Jay), for a separately-ticked event<br />

called “Jay & Silent Bob Get Old” on <strong>April</strong> 29 at the Stampede Corral.<br />

“I’m also super excited for Kevin Smith, because I’ve seen every movie he’s ever done<br />

and I’m a huge Jay and Silent Bob fan. I’m looking forward to hearing his stories and seeing<br />

him on stage with Jason Mewes. I think that’ll be a fantastic event. Although, definitely for<br />

a more mature audience, and not recommended for the kids. I am sure most people are<br />

aware. If you’re at all familiar with Kevin’s brand of humour, you’ll know what to expect.”<br />

Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo runs from <strong>April</strong> 27-30 at Stampede Park.<br />

8 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE CITY


MIDTOWN KITCHEN & BAR<br />

defining Kensington’s new breed<br />

Creating a difference is the key. And in a city flush with new boutique bars and<br />

restaurants, many that are conceptually fresh and smart, Midtown Kitchen & Bar,<br />

located in the cozy hub of Kensington, creates a difference by overhauling the idea<br />

of a neighbourhood pub and stamping it with quality and contemporary character.<br />

Originally from Vancouver, Ric Cutillo, is a chef by trade, a career he started in Spain<br />

and honed in Europe. Stylish and down to earth himself, Cutillo says he wanted “a cool<br />

comfortable space, where it didn’t matter if you were in a pair of shorts, work boots or<br />

a suit, you were at ease and nothing offensive to deal with.”<br />

He also conceived Midtown to be a “North American bistro” that avoided basic,<br />

run-of-the-mill pub food and “all that deep fried madness.” On excursions to Portland<br />

and Seattle with his wife, he was impressed with bars that focused on menus that didn’t<br />

cheap out in any areas. “There’s a lot of great little watering holes that make the most of<br />

everything there. I wanted good steaks, sandwiches and pastas. Good wines, spirits and<br />

good beer. Not just whatever beer and wine out of a cardboard box.”<br />

While Cutillo is proud to promote Midtown’s burgers made from “one hundred<br />

ground chuck, with no mystery meat” as one of their big sellers, the menu has rich variety<br />

of items ranging from small plates of oysters, surf tacos and spiced Brussels sprouts,<br />

to a Cubano sandwich and the Winter Farm pizza topped with mushroom béchamel,<br />

roasted butternut squash, caramelized turnips, roasted walnuts, mozzarella, balsamic<br />

glaze and beet mirco greens. Definitely not pub grub. Keeping it farm fresh, Midtown<br />

gets all of its ingredients from local suppliers and everything except the breads are<br />

made in-house.<br />

Early on Midtown decided to only serve craft beers with 40 different brands from our<br />

“backyard and beyond” to select from. The wine list has a distinct North American focus<br />

on it, and every Wednesday they offer a remarkable 50 percent off all their bottles.<br />

Big changes have swept through Kensington, as 10th Street transitions from a relatively<br />

quiet enclave to a bustling strip of commerce and new developments. Cutillo notes that it’s been a<br />

battle to cultivate change while retaining Kensignton’s character, as the community continuously fights<br />

not to be destroyed by 30 story condo units and big box retailers. He feels Midtown belongs to the neighhourhood’s<br />

new breed. “Almost all of our clientele are locals from the area. That’s who we serve. And I<br />

think that we’re part of the preservation, and part of the change.”<br />

While the bar brought in DJs to play vinyl on the occasional night, they’ve now “jumped in” and switched to<br />

having local bands and musicians every Saturday that lean towards folk rock. “Kensington is very much about<br />

arts and music. It’s that kind of culture. Why not showcase it?” says Cutillo tipping his pint.<br />

Midtown Kitchen & Bar is located at 302- 10st NW in Kensington. www.midtownkitchen.ca<br />

by B. Simm<br />

CITY<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 9


DJD: Modern Vaudevillians<br />

spontaneous collaboration!<br />

This spring, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks brings a<br />

multi-disciplinary variety show to its stage. It’s an<br />

unprecedented level of collaboration even for Artistic<br />

Director Kimberley Cooper.<br />

DJD usually fills all the roles for a show with in-house personal.<br />

For Modern Vaudevillians, however, Cooper says they<br />

had “a short rehearsal process, so I thought it would be fun<br />

to include some artists from the community to contribute<br />

to the production to take a little pressure off us. And I have a<br />

genuine desire to collaborate.”<br />

To name all the gifted artists (including an aerialist, two<br />

clowns, a magician, a singer/actor, a band, and of course DJD’s<br />

own company dancers) would take twice the space here.<br />

And to coordinate the show, Cooper is putting a twist on the<br />

traditional role of a vaudeville emcee to wrangle the acts together,<br />

although she couldn’t speak about the specific details.<br />

“I know how it starts and I know how it ends. I know there’s<br />

an intermission. It’s just figuring out how everything else falls<br />

into place. It’s definitely a puzzle, but it’s a very fun puzzle to<br />

put together,” she says fondly.<br />

This is one of the several ways Vaudevillians pays tribute to<br />

its saucy theatrical inspiration, which was at an apex from the<br />

late 1880s to the 1930s – a frame of time that also encompasses<br />

the beginnings of jazz.<br />

With the short rehearsal time, some artists will be meeting<br />

just days ahead of their debut together on stage, which is also<br />

very much part of vaudevillian tradition – spontaneity. Cooper<br />

sees this as exciting, noting it lends to a good chemistry<br />

and artistic development. “I’m really excited for this show. I<br />

think it’s going to really change and grow through the process<br />

of the performances. I think it’ll be a really fun.”<br />

Modern Vaudevillians runs <strong>April</strong> 20th – May 6th at DJD’s<br />

theatre space on 12th Ave. SE. Matinees at 2pm and evening<br />

shows at 8pm.<br />

BOOKS: All Our Wrong Todays<br />

sci-fi novel mixes haha with reflection<br />

Tom Barren, the central<br />

character in Elan<br />

Mastai’s first novel, All<br />

Our Wrong Todays, lives in<br />

a futuristic 2016 that is very<br />

much unlike the reality of 2016.<br />

Instead of the crime-infested,<br />

disease-plagued, environmental<br />

time-bomb we are familiar<br />

with , Tom lives in an utopian<br />

paradise, a gleaming sci-fi vision<br />

of the 1950s where flying cars,<br />

moving sidewalks and robot<br />

maids shape an everyday pleasant<br />

valley Sunday.<br />

This great utopian was<br />

created by the invention of the<br />

Goettreider Engine in 1965,<br />

a prototype radiation device that had “miraculous energy-generating<br />

capacities expanded to power the whole world.” With its development,<br />

the globe was much safer and clean, equality and consumerism abound,<br />

a comfort zone full of mod-cons.<br />

Tom should be happy, right? Everyone should be happy. But<br />

when an unexpected pregnancy presents the opportunity for Tom<br />

to hopscotch around the universe, he lands (via a good ole time<br />

machine) in a parallel universe in 2016 that is today’s world. There<br />

he discovers that the beautiful futuristic world he comes from,<br />

filled with happy and shiny people and machinery, may actually be<br />

the source of his discontentment.<br />

photo: Trudie Lee<br />

by Colin Gallant<br />

“For my lead character, and the others in his life,” says Mastai, “it’s<br />

about stripping the essentials away and leaving them with less. And<br />

that’s how they, and also the reader, finds out who they are. And hopefully<br />

getting people to think about themselves.<br />

“We spend a lot of time being distracted technology,” adds Mastai.<br />

“It’s insidious in our lives. But the book is not luddite harangue, at all. I’m<br />

not anti-technology, I’m pro-complexity. I like to think about what can<br />

be taken away from their lives, and who they still are, and what can be<br />

taken away and they’d be a different person if they lost it. Whether that’s<br />

society, technology or the people in their lives.”<br />

Because the book is punchy and funny, it’s easy to tag it with a Back<br />

To The Future theme. But Mastai, who grew up Vancouver, references a<br />

combination of Douglas Copeland and William Gibson, two of that city’s<br />

notable writers, as a closer comparison. In addition, Mastai, who’s a successful<br />

screenwriter gaining international recognition with the romantic<br />

comedy, The F-Word, says he simply set out to marry different genres.<br />

“I have a lot of restless interests, and childhood love of science fiction<br />

but never really a chance to write in the genre. I had this idea. Rather<br />

than a movie I thought the book would be the best way to tell the story.<br />

I wanted to do something that had a big science fiction concept, but<br />

also very much about family, love and human connections that give our<br />

lives purpose.”<br />

All Our Wrong Todays was also scripted to have a three-act structure<br />

that could be adapted to film, which Mastai recently sold the rights to<br />

a studio for. The book is a fun, fast-paced romp (chapters average two<br />

pages), dealing at times with sci-fi explanations and the meaningfulness<br />

of life, but also the endearing misadventures of Tom Barren whose penis<br />

changed everything about the world he once knew.<br />

SPOKEN WORD FEST<br />

wild women and song!<br />

by Victoria Banner<br />

Calgary poetry slam team captain Cobra Collins.<br />

S<br />

ince 2003, the Calgary Spoken Word Festival, founded and directed<br />

by multi-award winning poet Sheri-D Wilson, has gained an<br />

international reputation for its progressive and innovative programming.<br />

Keeping the festival fresh, alive and in the spotlight, this year’s<br />

theme is Poetry + Music.<br />

Asked why she picked that particular route, Wilson channels her<br />

inner beatnik and says, “I always want the theme to be an expression of<br />

what I’m jazzed by.” As such, the artists are encouraged to bring music<br />

with their work or to work with musicians.<br />

Leading off the festival, the renowned Western Canadian poet Lorna<br />

Crozier will conduct a workshop that investigates the literary power of<br />

the metaphor and how to work its magic.<br />

Following that is an event called Wild Women and Friends. “Calgary is<br />

a town of spoken word,” says Wilson. “We descend from Aboriginals and<br />

cowboys, the original story tellers, and the new city is always looking for<br />

something cutting edge.” In that tradition, the feisty and prolific Aretha<br />

Van Herk will host a stellar line-up that includes Lorna Crozier, Calgary<br />

poetry slam team captain Cobra Collins, the vibrant writer and filmmaker<br />

Julie Trimingham, along with a fine cast of fierce poets who aim on<br />

getting loud and feminine. As part of the evening, the collective Woolf’s<br />

Voices “will gather us all up as the evening’s Mistress to howl together<br />

in a space of our own.” Wilson will also share the stage with her band,<br />

the ambitious Orbiting Ouroborus, who will be releasing a collaborative<br />

album with Wilson shortly.<br />

Night three features Mighty Mike McGee, America slam poetry<br />

superstar who’s no stranger to the world of rock ‘n’ roll. Calgary native<br />

Andre Prefontaine (now based in Toronto) and Edmontonian Mary<br />

Pinkoski will deliver and delight with their individual brand of hip, rich,<br />

colourful and contemporary Canadian storytelling. The evening at<br />

Festival Hall will heat up with rock-a-billy flair thanks to performances by<br />

the Sadlier-Brown Band.<br />

Wrapping up the festival is Spoken Word’s tradition of community<br />

building with the open-mic poetry slam at the Unicorn Super<br />

Pub, downstairs in the Celtic Cellar. Wilson encourages festival-goers,<br />

curiousity seekers and literary fans to come share their poetry, inspire<br />

and forge ahead to the following year. Even though it’s fresh, progressive<br />

and pushing boundaries, Wilson assures the festival is accessible for the<br />

general public: “Poetry is by the people for the people” done loud and<br />

proud with a musical mash-up.<br />

The Calgary Spoken Word Festival runs from <strong>April</strong> 22-25. Fror more details<br />

on performers, events and venues visit www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com<br />

• B. Simm<br />

10 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE CITY


WORLDTOWN COSMETICS<br />

this town really is your town<br />

Nicky Speer: Personalized service is key in this industry.<br />

Shimmering in a cozy corner of the downstairs level of Calgary’s<br />

Fashion Central, a spot of bright teal tempts enchantresses of all<br />

walks to step inside the sparkly cosmos of WorldTown Cosmetics.<br />

Established in the latter part of 2015, shop owner and makeup artist<br />

Nicky Speer had diversity through individuality in mind as she opened<br />

her doors to a new class of celebrities: Everybody. Whether she is on-set<br />

at an off-site fashion shoot, creating your look for a special event, or<br />

ringing through an item you need but never knew existed, Nicky’s characteristic<br />

effervescence is the personal touch we can all appreciate.<br />

VISUAL ART<br />

gallery goodness<br />

CONTEMPORARY CALGARY<br />

Utopia Factory<br />

Until July 30<br />

Made up of three components, curated respectively by Noa<br />

Bronstein, Lisa Baldissera & Nate McLeod, and Marco Polo & Colin<br />

Ripley, Utopia Factory is an examination of state- and community-building<br />

in Canada. Involving architecture, research, finished and<br />

developing works, this exhibition asks “What is the political life of a<br />

building, place or historic marker?”<br />

ESKER<br />

Earthlings<br />

Until May 7<br />

Sculptor Shary Boyle has organized a group exhibition that explores<br />

the political and personal implications of space and how it<br />

is occupied. With a multitude of mediums showcased by artists,<br />

Boyle sourced her co-exhibitors based on their intimate, personal,<br />

and physical connections to their subject matter. Having been a<br />

popular exhibition since January, time is quickly running out to<br />

see Earthlings for yourself.<br />

by Lisa Marklinger<br />

“I feature eight product lines, and I know<br />

almost everything there is to know about them.<br />

Personalized service is key in this industry,”<br />

Nicky smiles, fluttering her faux lashes. “I want<br />

everyone who walks into my store to feel at<br />

home. I love welcoming people, and I love making<br />

people feel beautiful.”<br />

With ten years of experience in make-up, she’s<br />

done it all, from stage make-up to weddings and<br />

everything in between. You want a day of the dead,<br />

alien-inspired, slightly gothic, pin-up girl look? Call<br />

Nicky. Maybe you want something flawless yet<br />

totally natural? Wonderful! That’s her favourite.<br />

“It takes a lot more technique than you’d think<br />

(to look seamless and convincing). Runways usually<br />

dictate what’s going to be trendy, and spring is a<br />

pretty predictable season in terms of fashion looks:<br />

clean, dewy, radiant skin, shiny lips, pastels. Spring is<br />

change! It doesn’t like to be complicated, and your<br />

face shouldn’t be either!” she says, laughing.<br />

When she’s not busy working her magic on<br />

people at her headquarters, or adding inspiring<br />

ideas to showcase what’s new and now<br />

on her social media platforms, Nicky stays<br />

tirelessly occupied researching the newest<br />

and best of what WorldTown’s hand-picked<br />

brands have to offer.<br />

“Everything I carry has to be operating under an<br />

independent label, that is a huge deal to me. I can<br />

look at their ethics in manufacturing, experience<br />

first-hand how they treat their customers, they<br />

take my feedback seriously.... There’s a lot of personal<br />

and product credibility on the line because<br />

my store is so exclusive. No other store in Calgary<br />

carries any of the merchandise I sell here.<br />

Celebrity sponsors and expensive packaging are great marketing<br />

tools, but so is value, integrity, and accountability. People<br />

are always going to ‘vote with their wallets’. By making these<br />

items more easily accessible, especially with many of them being<br />

organic, sustainable, vegan, and cruelty-free, I feel I really can cater<br />

to anyone.”<br />

Find WorldTown cosmetics on Instagram and Facebook @worldtown_<br />

cosmetics Online store and blog: wtcosmetics.com<br />

Life on Mars<br />

Until <strong>April</strong> 27<br />

In supplement to Earthlings, Esker Foundation curator Shauna<br />

Thompson will offer a transparent look into the exhibition’s<br />

curatorial process and themes. This will include detailed precedent<br />

exhibitions, studio co-operatives in Canada’s North, plus a look at the<br />

complex relationships between the works showcased.<br />

NEWZONES<br />

Cathy Daley<br />

Until wMay 6<br />

Longstanding national treasure Cathy Daley is exhibiting a series of<br />

post-feminist drawings at Newzones from March to May. Using oil pastel<br />

on vellum, Daley examines how fashion and society consider certain<br />

aesthetics of femininity acceptable and others not. It’s a complex<br />

musing that walks the line between interrogation and appreciation.<br />

TRUCK<br />

The Future Behind Us<br />

Until May 13<br />

An international collaboration initiated by Guatemalan-Canadian<br />

artist Romeo Gongora, The Future Behind Us documents the pairing<br />

of Gongora with a host of Congolese artists for a work that looks at<br />

themes in Congolese history and culture via a dystopian lens (the<br />

short sci-fi work Perinium).<br />

MAKE IT<br />

the handmade revolution is alive and thriving<br />

The Makies’ queen bee, Jenna Herbut, with her kitty Phoebe.<br />

After a five year absence, Make It: The Handmade Revolution arts<br />

and crafts fair is back. The origins of this wildly successful roving<br />

event date back to when Make It co-founder, Jenna Herbut, first<br />

came up with a business plan for a marketing class 10 years ago at the University<br />

of Alberta. Herbut’s idea was to develop a business for one of her<br />

handmade creations, a fabric sash belt that she affectionately called the<br />

“Booty Belt.” Her booty plan took off and in short while she was selling<br />

them at over 120 fashion boutiques across Canada.<br />

The upswing in sales and popularity opened a lot of doors, one of<br />

which was selling Booty Beltz as a street vendor at music festivals and<br />

other fun outdoor events. Herbut enjoyed selling direct to customers so<br />

much that she and her brother decided to stage their own festival of fun<br />

by rounding up other creative producers, setting them up with a DJ and<br />

beer garden and unveiling the arts and crafts fair that became Make It.<br />

Their first show in Edmonton only had 30 booths in a community hall. Six<br />

years later, 250 exhibitors where featured at the PNE Forum in Vancouver<br />

attracting over 18,000 happy shoppers. Wildly successful. Yeah.<br />

Herbut cites a number of factors why Make It has been so well received.<br />

One is loyalty of the participants. “There’s an genuine, thriving interest in<br />

the whole handmade world,” explains Herbut. “It’s really amazing to see how<br />

small the production is for these artists, and how big the following actually<br />

is. They have a strong identity that’s shaped by connecting and sharing in a<br />

feel-good DIY community.” The loving bond and between artist and consumer<br />

has evolved into a devoted patronage known as “The Makies.”<br />

In addition to countering the generic, mass production of the digital age,<br />

Herbut feels part of what makes The Makies is a “millennial trend in which<br />

there’s not a lot of opportunity in a broken job market, and this offers new<br />

ways to find employment.” She adds social media, YouTube, online promotion<br />

and stores like Etsy and Shopify are all part of the handmade revolution<br />

“There’s nothing that limits creativity, and no limit to access a large audience.<br />

You can make something and sell it within two hours.”<br />

Online promotion by artists directly involved with Make It also contributes<br />

to its success. In the connected community of The Makies, when<br />

someone pushes their new product online, word gets out quickly and the<br />

buzz is on to see the real thing when it comes to town. “What’s appealing<br />

about craft fairs, is they close the gap between making and selling something<br />

that’s tactile and tangible,” says Herbut. “It just feels good at the end<br />

of the day.”<br />

Make It, Calgary’s Handmade Market is in the Big Four Bldg. at the Stampede<br />

Park from <strong>April</strong> 7-9.<br />

12 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE CITY<br />

B. Simm


PLACES PLEASE<br />

theatre fun<br />

LUNCHBOX<br />

Newfoundland Mary<br />

<strong>April</strong> 24-May13<br />

Newfoundland Mary is the tale of Mary McCarthy Gomez Cueto, a real<br />

Newfoundlander who married a wealthy Spanish business and left The<br />

Rock behind for Cuba. When her husband passes and Castro rises to power,<br />

Mary finds herself back in squalor but comforted by aspiring jazz singer Luis<br />

Gonzalez. This is a story filled with music, class struggle and perseverance.<br />

VERTIGO<br />

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer<br />

<strong>April</strong> 21-23<br />

Blending puppetry, animation and live action, this tender one-man-show<br />

about dealing with grief in a not-too-distant future where sea levels have<br />

risen has captured audiences’ hearts around the globe. The Australian work<br />

has sold out runs in New York, Sydney and Auckland, and will be in Calgary<br />

for three nights only.<br />

THEATRE CALGARY<br />

Crazy For You<br />

<strong>April</strong> 18-May 20<br />

Also referred to as “The New Gershwin Musical,” Crazy For You was first produced<br />

in 1992 on Broadway (for which it won a Tony) and is based on the legendary<br />

Gershwins’ Girl Crazy. The romantic musical features some of the best<br />

Gershwin songs from across their career with favourites like “I Got Rhythm”<br />

and “Someone to Watch Over Me” anchoring the emotional journey.<br />

JUBILEE<br />

Cinderella<br />

<strong>April</strong> 25-30<br />

Another Tony winning classic with music by an iconic duo (this time Rodgers<br />

& Hammerstein), Cinderella is sure to be one of the biggest productions<br />

in <strong>April</strong>, if not all of <strong>2017</strong>. While the classic tale has the music and grandeur<br />

you’d expect (a full symphony orchestra will perform its score live), the<br />

Jubilee has promised a few suprise tweaks.<br />

STAGE WEST<br />

Rock of Ages<br />

<strong>April</strong> 21-June 25<br />

The classic dilemma: Shall we have dinner before or after the show? Well,<br />

why not during? Stage West is bringing back the big, bad rock ‘n’ roll of the<br />

‘80s with their production of Rock of Ages. Set on the Sunset Strip in the<br />

time of big hair and bigger riffs, the show depicts the fight to save the Strip<br />

from demolition and a young janitor’s desires to become a rockstar and get<br />

the girl of his dreams.<br />

GHOST RIVER<br />

Exploder <strong>April</strong> 25-28<br />

The daring Ghost River Theatre are back with a collaboration between their<br />

company and the students of Western Canada High School. Using their<br />

audio-visual technical skills, radical storytelling methods and teen angst<br />

plucked right from the source, Exploder is a tale of teenage intensity told<br />

through visual poetry.<br />

ATP<br />

1979<br />

<strong>April</strong> 4-22<br />

1979 is a work of Canadian political history theatre ripe with satirical humour.<br />

Characters like Prime Ministers Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, Pierre Trudeau and<br />

Stephen Harper use their wits to duke out the path to power. This hilarious,<br />

mature content from the notoriously immature world of politics.<br />

THE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY<br />

Macbeth<br />

May 12-27<br />

One of Shakespeare’s most iconic works, MacBeth returns to The Shakespeare<br />

Company after receiving rave reviews in 2016. Exploring ambition,<br />

power, evil and the supernatural, this is one of The Bard’s most enduring<br />

works for a reason. 2016 reviews called it deeply frightening and specifically<br />

noted the masterful fight choreography. If you’ve never seen MacBeth or<br />

simply appreciate fresh life blown into a classic, this is the show for you.<br />

CITY<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 13


THE GOLDEN PENIS<br />

gender dynamics in dance theatre<br />

by Jennifer Thompson<br />

photo: Citrus Photography<br />

Ah, that agonizing hard on!<br />

Feminism is a hot topic these days, especially in<br />

the context of what it means to men. Stories<br />

about bullying women are still making headlines,<br />

perpetuating male stereotypes. Trump’s “nasty woman”<br />

or “grabbing” comments are popular examples,<br />

but closer to home, the rhetoric of Robin Camp and<br />

accusations of Sandra Jansen reminds us that sexism<br />

is still alive and well. Where most of us want to turn<br />

the other cheek when faced with these cringe-worthy<br />

tales, one local artist, Mark Kunji Ikeda, is asking his<br />

audience to take a close look at the concept of the<br />

domineering male and the gender power struggle, in<br />

an attempt to keep the conversation going.<br />

Ikeda is the creator of The Golden Penis, a “highly<br />

physical” dance performance showing <strong>April</strong> 12 – 16<br />

at the West Village Theatre and is the debut piece<br />

of the Cloudsway Dance Theatre. Ikeda recognized<br />

that there’s a risk in debuting with such a sensitive<br />

and polarizing subject, but feels that theatre is place<br />

to explore the uncomfortable. “I’m interested in triggering<br />

the audience and emotional entertainment,”<br />

says Ikeda. “[The Golden Penis] is about seeing how<br />

women are treated and looking at those dark truths.<br />

I’m hoping the performance will evoke an emotional<br />

response.”<br />

Ikeda was inspired by what masculinity means<br />

when suddenly taking a hard look at his own male<br />

instincts. “I was dropping a girl off on a date and when<br />

she ended it, my first instinct was to keep asking, ‘Are<br />

you sure?’ I suddenly realized that instinct to push was<br />

wrong, and wondered why would I do that?” Ikeda<br />

spent his drive home thinking about that moment,<br />

which are what he and the cast aim to explore in The<br />

Golden Penis.<br />

In addition to the ten male performers and four<br />

female performers, Ikeda has brought on a stellar<br />

artistic team of local visionaries including dramaturg<br />

Christopher Duthie (writer of n00b and Of Fighting<br />

Age) as well as the Calgary Sexual Health Society’s<br />

WiseGuyz program leader (and Calgary theatre mainstay)<br />

Stafford Perry.<br />

The Golden Penis sets out more than anything to<br />

inspire men to become active in the feminist movement.<br />

“To be healthy in your masculinity means to<br />

be healthy in your femininity,” says Ikeda when asked<br />

what he hopes to portray with the performance.<br />

“The interpretation is left up to the audience, and my<br />

biggest fear is that we come off ignorant or insensitive<br />

some how.” Be for warned, this show is not for the<br />

light of heart, expect to be triggered one way or another.<br />

Ikeda describes it as “a game-changing theatrical<br />

performance exploring male privilege, patriarchy, and<br />

gender roles.”<br />

The Golden Penis runs <strong>April</strong> 12-16 at the West Village<br />

Theatre. Created by One Yellow Rabbit protege Mark<br />

Kunji Ikeda, who was named Calgary Arts Development<br />

Emerging Artist of 2015.<br />

14 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE CITY


ROCKPILE<br />

DESCENDANTS<br />

the proud and the few<br />

Descendents have announced a Canadian<br />

tour and it’s tearing-up bucket lists across<br />

the country.<br />

Hailing from Manhattan Beach, California, the<br />

Descendents’ first full-length album, Milo Goes<br />

to College, was released back in ‘82. Over 35<br />

years later, it remains one of the greatest, most<br />

innovative, and influential punk albums to date.<br />

Descendents are creators of fast and melodic<br />

hardcore punk lyrically revolving around girls,<br />

heartbreak, and coffee – but that shit is never decaf.<br />

Since 1986, they’ve consisted of Bill Stevenson<br />

on drums, Milo Aukerman on vocals and mascot<br />

duties, Karl Alvarez on bass, and Stephen Egerton<br />

on guitar.<br />

Hypercaffium Spazzinate is their latest offering,<br />

released on Epitaph Records in 2016. It came 12 years<br />

after their last, Cool to Be You. To learn more, we<br />

chatted with drummer Bill Stevenson about all things<br />

Descendents.<br />

“We were fortunate with Hyper Spazz, because<br />

people kind of loved it. We were hoping for, ‘oh cool,<br />

new Descendents and it’s not so bad,’ and that would<br />

have been enough for us,” Stevenson explains.<br />

“But the fact that everyone loved it, that was great.<br />

Because when we put a record out it’s definitely<br />

because we want to.”<br />

Despite the 34-year long span in-between the<br />

two albums, Hyper Spazz resonates with long time<br />

listeners, who saw it as as a nod to College.<br />

“You’re not the first person to tell me it reminds<br />

them of Milo Goes to College,” Stevenson reflects.<br />

The only and only Descendents are performing near you in May.<br />

photo: Kevin Scanlon<br />

“It wasn’t intentional, but there isn’t quite as much<br />

overdrive on the guitar, so it sounds a little cleaner,<br />

like on College. And Egerton is playing a lot more<br />

parts where he’s using all six strings and that’s how<br />

[original guitarist] Frank [Navetta] used to play. But, if<br />

anything that’s just respect towards Frank.”<br />

He continues, “He passed away a several years ago<br />

and he’s been on our mind a lot, so maybe there’s<br />

a little bit of Frank’s spirit on there and that’s what<br />

people are picking up on.”<br />

Stevenson pauses.<br />

“And for whatever reason, we ended up with a<br />

handful of songs that were really short. And that’s<br />

one of the identifying factors of early Descendents.”<br />

He chuckles.<br />

“We’re definitely known for the short songs. “I like<br />

Food” and “Wienerschnitzel” are 11 seconds. “My<br />

Dad Sucks” and “I Wanna Be a Bear” are like 35 seconds.<br />

“Victim of Me” is 45 seconds. But at the same<br />

time, “Without Love,” “Get the Time,” and “Clean<br />

by Sarah Mac<br />

Sheets,” those are all over three minutes.”<br />

Concentrating on the upcoming tour and<br />

almost 40 years of recordings, the big question<br />

on everyone’s mind is what the set list looks like.<br />

“We’re practicing about 39 to 42 songs. It’s a good<br />

random sampling of what we think are the better<br />

songs on each record. Some albums will have more<br />

songs played than other albums and about 11 off the<br />

new album.”<br />

This new album and tour has given hope for a Descendents-filled<br />

future. Adding fuel to the fire, front<br />

man Milo Aukerman departed from his full-time gig<br />

as a Biochemist. It seems the stars are aligning for<br />

long-time fans.<br />

Stevenson laughs at the observation.<br />

“Well, yeah. We’re going to be quite a bit<br />

more active than we have been in the last 15 to<br />

20 years. But we’re not going that hard. We want<br />

this to remain fun for us. We’re going medium.<br />

We’re doing it in a marathon way, not in a 50-<br />

yard dash kinda way.”<br />

He finishes, “We really appreciate the support<br />

though and we don’t take any of it for granted. We<br />

know we’re just one step away from being that band<br />

that can’t sell out the telephone booth. We’re all too<br />

aware of that.”<br />

Don’t miss your chance to catch your favourite punk<br />

band’s favourite punk band on May 3 in Edmonton<br />

at Union Hall, on May 6 at MacEwan Hall in Calgary,<br />

and on August 25th in Vancouver at the Commodore<br />

Ballroom.<br />

JIMMY EAT WORLD<br />

crafting an authentic symbiosis of message and sound<br />

In 2015, more than 20 years after the band was<br />

formed, Jimmy Eat World returned to the studio<br />

from a one-year break to record their ninth<br />

studio album Integrity Blues. Drummer Zach Lind,<br />

who started off playing the saxophone before<br />

switching to drums at age 10, explains the effect<br />

the break had on the recording while spending<br />

some quality time with his family in Arizona prior<br />

to the band’s upcoming tour.<br />

“I think it made a big difference. I think it was the<br />

first time we’d ever done anything like that where we<br />

really just truly took a break and everyone was just<br />

sort of absolved of any Jimmy Eat World responsibilities.<br />

Yeah, I mean it really gave us a lot of new energy<br />

for making Integrity Blues that we wouldn’t have had<br />

had we not taken that break.”<br />

The band, whose line-up has remained unchanged<br />

since 1995, had high ambitions for the new record.<br />

“The previous album Damage [2013] kind of<br />

sounds like we made it sort of over a weekend at a<br />

friend’s house or something like that. It’s definitely<br />

more casual and a little bit rawer, almost sort of more<br />

like garage band rock. Integrity Blues is like the opposite<br />

of that where we really wanted to make it sound<br />

like a big studio album, like something that was more<br />

intricate, something that has more layers.”<br />

To realize this, Jimmy Eat World went “all out,” as<br />

Lind describes it.<br />

“We did everything in LA. It was the first time<br />

ROCKPILE<br />

Are you listening? Jimmy Eat World is playing a town near you in <strong>April</strong>!<br />

since Futures [released in 2004 and given Gold Status<br />

by the RIAA] that we booked like really classic, great<br />

studio rooms to work in. We hired a producer, Justin<br />

Meldal-Johnsen [Paramore, M83], who was incredible<br />

to work with and really helped us achieve what we<br />

were hoping to achieve with this album.”<br />

The mission seems accomplished with Pitchfork<br />

describing the record as “perhaps Jimmy Eat World’s<br />

best record since Bleed American,” their 2001 album<br />

that was certified platinum. The record combines<br />

variety and the desired big sound with emotionally<br />

matured lyrics. In tracks like “Get it right”, the<br />

restlessness described in the chorus (“I’m destination<br />

addicted, I just gotta be someplace else, never good<br />

time never feel the space to get it right”) is reflected<br />

in the unforgiving beat and a hammering guitar riff<br />

continuing throughout the song, which is only occasionally<br />

interrupted by a synthesizer that adds even<br />

by Christina Zimmer<br />

more tension to the track. “Sure and Certain” only<br />

compares to this in terms of the felicitous interaction<br />

of music and lyrics: the guitars are warmer, the melody<br />

uplifting yet a bit melancholic. Only the rhythmic<br />

drums remain forceful as ever and are stepped up<br />

a beat later on in the harmonious and encouraging<br />

“You are Free.”<br />

Lyrically, the record is encouraging a different<br />

perspective on life, to shift from focusing on a desired<br />

outcome to appreciating the present moment.<br />

“The general sort of theme throughout the record<br />

is about really trying to have a perspective on your<br />

own life and seeing things for what they really are,<br />

appreciating those things for what they are, and maybe<br />

not necessarily some sort of outcome that you’re<br />

searching for,” concurs Lind.<br />

“On the one hand it’s good to have goals.”<br />

Concludes Lind, “it’s good to strive for something<br />

but on the other hand, by being so fixated on<br />

whatever outcome we’re looking for, we can miss the<br />

present moment. We fail to appreciate what we have<br />

now.”<br />

Jimmy Eat World performs at the Commodore Ballroom<br />

in Vancouver on <strong>April</strong> 26th, The Palace Theatre<br />

in Calgary on <strong>April</strong> 28th, The Startlite Room in Edmonton<br />

on <strong>April</strong> 29th, O’Brian’s Event Centre in Saskatoon<br />

on <strong>April</strong> 30th and the Garrick Centre in Winnipeg on<br />

May 1st.<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 17


FASHIONISM<br />

Vancouver’s Mod Squad — a sharp, smart, break out<br />

Fashionism? Fashion fascists? Fashionistas? Some people might tag you as a Mod revival band, but any smart<br />

Mod will tell you that their lock down on style never went out of fashion... Mod is the future for evermore!<br />

What’s your take on that?<br />

JOSH: Sharp dressing is never out of style and the Mod style lasted for a reason. As far as our band style we<br />

were just looking at all these old bands that had a specific look that was tied to their subculture. Like when<br />

punks were punks and Two-Tone was an actual thing with history and rules and not just a tag to sell Fred<br />

Perrys and Shermans. Subculture gave an identity and a space to people that were disenfranchised or looking<br />

for some sense of belonging. It had strict rules because it had to. These days it costs a lot of money to pay<br />

attention to those rules. It’s one of the many reasons we’ll be elbowing our way past you in the thrift stores as<br />

well as the record stores. It’s not just a game to us. We were kicking around names that would help define an<br />

aesthetic rather than just be a throwaway name. Jeff was studying history in College and working as a tailor at<br />

the time and we all joked about how the name was really cheeky sounding. Like we didn’t want to be thought<br />

of as lazy, thrown together kind of group, we try to pay attention to detail and wear our influences proudly. I<br />

think the people that are searching for that stuff can pick it out and appreciate it.<br />

Indeed, there’s a lot going in the band’s sound, a lot of deep roots... Caribbean dancehall, ska, punk, the<br />

Specials, the Jam, Northern Soul, Brill Building., even Mott the Hoople. Not anything in particular, but a<br />

melting pot of style, sound and ideas. How would you describe Fashionism’s music here and now?<br />

JOSH: I never thought the first thing to come out as far as comparisons would be dancehall and ska but I’ll<br />

take it. When we first started we had a definitive approach to play early ‘70s Glam and ‘60s Bubblegum. It<br />

didn’t work out. Our record collections are way too apparent in our playing and though we have lots of Mud,<br />

Sweet and 1910 Fruitgum Company records but we also have thousands of punk singles from ‘76 to ’83. The<br />

glory years of the “new wave” in all of its forms straight through to hardcore punk. It’s what we learned to play<br />

our instruments to and anything that we do is going to be influenced by the same. We’re all big record idiots<br />

so delving into the sounds that influenced that stuff is a big part of it as well. I think that we come across as an<br />

apprehensive, <strong>2017</strong> powerpop band that is critical of the trade off that relates to quality and sincerity for the<br />

immediacy of modern convenience and throwaway culture.<br />

This band is about having fun, seizing the moment, breaking out, bending the rules, and defiance. Mods<br />

may conform to a certain look, but they don’t play the game. Songs like “We Got It Wrong,” “Smash the<br />

State,” “Subculture Suicide,” “Where Have All The Rock ‘n’ Roll Girls Gone”... all your songs throw down the<br />

gauntlet, present a challenge the sterility of gentrification. I’d say Fashionism is radicalism.<br />

JOSH: Yeah, I don’t know that we’re the most political band, but we try not to have the most vacant lyrics<br />

ALL of the time. I think we are a rock ‘n’ roll band that is in extremely scary times and it all relates back to what<br />

we’re playing. Some bands have a really severe political approach, especially when it relates to punk. One of the<br />

most amazing things to me is the Northern Ireland punk scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Civil unrest everywhere and<br />

it’s all so totally fractured, yet a bunch of teenagers come out playing pop music influenced by the New Wave<br />

and record some of the most timeless love songs ever. Like five kids record “Teenage Kicks” and meanwhile<br />

there are car bombs exploding on their streets and very real battle lines are being drawn everywhere. If we’re<br />

doing this properly, and I hope that we are, we can ride the balance between writing songs that are critical of<br />

the world around us while still taking into account that it is very important to make out with someone at the<br />

gig, to fall in love, to live for rock ‘n’ roll and play music that is based in desperation without being negative and<br />

foreboding. Sincerity is everything. Without it, what’s the point?<br />

Fashionism, a super group from Vancouver featuring members of Tranzmitors, The Jolts, New Town Animals, and<br />

the Orange Kyte, play the Palomino Friday, <strong>April</strong> 28.<br />

18 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE


CLOSE TALKER<br />

alchemical live performances and a twice-mastered record<br />

Close Talker’s newest album Lens comes out <strong>April</strong> 21st.<br />

photo: Dylan McAmmond<br />

On the cusp of their third release Lens, Canadian trio Close Talker<br />

are fully geared up to ensure listeners get the full picture of who<br />

they are in <strong>2017</strong>. Lens features songs that emulate the -40 degree<br />

Saskatoon environment they wrote the LP in, pushing that home grown<br />

feel while creating a healthy balance between upbeat tracks and a song<br />

you wouldn’t mind cozying up inside with. From the raw energy in “All<br />

of Us” and the rhythmic “OK Hollywood,” to the album closer “Seasonal<br />

Friends,” there is an overall sense of growth displayed personally and within<br />

the band’s dynamics. Released on <strong>April</strong> 21st, the album’s 10 songs are<br />

an emotive balance of indie electronica rock and pop dynamics, with soft<br />

vocals, unusual signatures in the drums, and angular riffs.<br />

“We made it a bit more drum heavy,” explains vocalist and guitarist Will<br />

by Jamie Goyman<br />

Quiring, who is bolstered by second guitarist and vocalist Matthew Kopperud,<br />

and drummer Christopher Morien. Former bassist Jeremy “Jerms”<br />

Olson is no longer part of the band, so Close Talker decided to fill in for<br />

him. We were “wanting to fill the bass out that way, incorporated more<br />

synths; the album is a snapshot of where we were in our lives really so the<br />

title Lens plays a role in setting the album in place.”<br />

With the entire band heavily playing a part in songwriting, the creative<br />

influence and diversity shared between the three becomes more apparent<br />

with each album produced, specifically hearing the camaraderie they share<br />

and growth they’ve experienced throughout their 10+ year friendship.<br />

“I think that’s what makes us the band we are, when we play together<br />

live we know how to play off of each other’s creativity and know where the<br />

other guys want to take the song before it even happens,” tells Quiring.<br />

Their continuous adaptation of group dynamics and progression through<br />

each album shows Close Talker has found their identity as a band, always<br />

ensuring to expand creatively with each project they work on.<br />

Coming off of their third round at SXSW, the guys of Close Talker are<br />

focused on ensuring that quality is what they are giving to audiences when<br />

they hit their North American and European tours.<br />

“There’s two keyboards, two guitars, bass pedals, drums, a drum pad<br />

and only three of us,” Quiring explains.<br />

“I think we are very intentional with everything we record, with Lens we<br />

had the whole album mastered twice because we were thinking about the<br />

order so much that we had to spend the extra cash to redo it. We are really<br />

passionate about what we create and put out and want to put our best<br />

foot forward.”<br />

With that amount of care put into their music it’s easy to see why Close<br />

Talker has become a favorite of many.<br />

Close Talker’s Western Canada tour includes dates like <strong>April</strong> 28th at Commonwealth<br />

in Calgary, <strong>April</strong> 29th at The Needle in Edmonton, and <strong>April</strong> 30th at Bo’s<br />

in Red Deer. They will be performing with Yes We Mystic and Lost Cousins.<br />

TOMMY GRIMES<br />

taking disco to the jungle on latest LP<br />

Tommy Grimes can be described in a variety of ways. The Edmonton artist<br />

comes across as interesting, eccentric, or in his own words, “sexy.” His latest<br />

album, King of the Jungle, definitely reflects this.<br />

“There’s lots of sexual elements in the music,” says Grimes. He laughs, acknowledging<br />

how titillating his shtick is.<br />

“It’s an exciting album, there’s a lot of energy, sexual energy going on.”<br />

Producer Robert Burkosky played a major influence on its style, says Grimes.<br />

Burkosky drew from different musical influences including [British post punk band]<br />

Scritti Politti, [American dance music artist] Bobby Orlando and [freestyle R&B husband<br />

and wife duo] Nu Shooz. Personally, Grimes finds vocal influence in other artists<br />

like The B-52’s, Blondie, and David Bowie.<br />

The album was completed in only a few short months, and Grimes believes it speaks<br />

for itself. There are eight tracks in total, ranging from title “King of the Jungle” to one of<br />

Grimes’ favourites, “Choke Chain.”<br />

“There’s a special place in my heart for all the songs,” he clarifies.<br />

The disco approach and unique soundscape makes for a stand-alone album that’s<br />

highly unusual when placed in its <strong>2017</strong> context.<br />

“I feel like there’s not a lot of that going on right now,” says Grimes. “That was what<br />

made me excited about working on the sound was that I didn’t hear anything like this<br />

going on or being released recently, so that made it a lot of fun.”<br />

It’s not just his disco sound that makes Grimes interesting, but also his wildly sexually<br />

live persona and bright neon outfits. When asked about his style, Grimes just laughs.<br />

“I do get asked about this, and I never know what to say.”<br />

“Something unexpected always happens at the shows. Last show was really fun, I<br />

did a few costume changes and there was a gorilla on stage, there were bananas flying,”<br />

says Grimes, laughing.<br />

“I played a show in Calgary before where everybody was taking their clothes off,” he<br />

recalls. A gorilla, backup dancers in the form of The Night Sweats, and more might also<br />

make an appearance… Trust me, you won’t want to miss it.<br />

“You never know what’s going to happen.”<br />

Tommy Grimes performs at Local 510 in Calgary on <strong>April</strong> 13.<br />

ROCKPILE<br />

Expect gorillas, backup dancers, and nudity, OH MY!<br />

by Amber McLinden<br />

photo: Veronica McGinnins<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 19


SUM 41<br />

deryck whibley learns to live again<br />

After realizing “I was probably an alcoholic”, Derek Whibley gets his life back.<br />

About a year into Deryck Whibley’s recovery<br />

from kidney and liver failure, an alcohol-related<br />

collapse that put him in a medically<br />

induced coma and left him unable to walk, the<br />

Sum 41 frontman reached a tipping point. The<br />

process was at a halt — hours of daily physiotherapy<br />

didn’t seem to be working and he could barely<br />

stand without excruciating pain. Neither Whibley<br />

nor his doctors knew if he was ever going to get<br />

better. It was no way to live; death by drink was<br />

even a more appealing fate. Then, one night, at<br />

four in the morning, amidst swirling thoughts, a<br />

photo: JW Hopeless<br />

lyric suddenly surfaced.<br />

“What am I fighting for? Everything back and<br />

more.”<br />

He wrote it down. Then another.<br />

“Some days it just gets so hard.”<br />

The lines kept coming, flowing. He had a song —<br />

something to work towards. Words to live up to.<br />

“And then that moment, it sort of gave me that<br />

realization of what it means to actually have faith in<br />

something,” Whibley reflects. “To believe that you<br />

will get better. You don’t know how, you don’t know<br />

why, you don’t know when; as long as you push and<br />

you fight harder — if you think you’ve been fighting<br />

hard already, you gotta fight even harder and you just<br />

gotta believe. And that’s what I told myself. And a<br />

year later, I was finally able to step out onstage and go<br />

out on tour, and now here I am.”<br />

Today, Whibley is happy and healthy — a state he<br />

credits to his journey to sobriety.<br />

“Even if I would have quit drinking before, it<br />

wouldn’t be what it is now,” he maintains. Booze had<br />

simply become part of his lifestyle, reaching its most<br />

excessive after Sum 41 wrapped a three year long<br />

tour in support of 2011’s Screaming Bloody Murder.<br />

Whibley then decided to detach — no music, no<br />

responsibilities. And therein lay the problem.<br />

“I mean, obviously this band has always been<br />

heavy drinkers, heavy partiers, and, you know, I was<br />

probably an alcoholic a long time ago, but really<br />

functioning,” he continues.<br />

“It’s when I lost the function was when I had no<br />

more work to do.”<br />

The aforementioned lyrics would make up the<br />

song “War,” a hopeful track off Sum 41’s newest<br />

album, 13 Voices. The project, the pop punks’ first in<br />

five years, proved to be the key for Whibley to push<br />

forward as he determinedly re-learned how to play<br />

guitar, while slowly becoming comfortable in his own<br />

skin again. As a result, his songwriting is reflective of a<br />

man piecing his life back together. The title track, for<br />

example, refers to the constant noise that blared in<br />

Whibley’s head.<br />

“I actually felt like I was going crazy for a while and<br />

I thought I’d done some serious brain damage that,<br />

like, this is it — this is how I end up like one of those<br />

guys on the street, screaming at nobody,” he says. Cinematic<br />

moments that appear throughout the record<br />

by Sarah Mac<br />

indicate the way Whibley regained his guitar fingering<br />

— playing along to muted Quentin Tarantino and<br />

Tim Burton movies.<br />

Musically, 13 Voices administers a tremendous<br />

punch, which partly comes from the reemergence of<br />

original guitarist Dave “Brownsound” Baksh. Baksh,<br />

who left the band a decade ago, reconnected with<br />

Whibley before his hospitalization and stayed with<br />

his old friend after he returned home. It felt odd<br />

not to play together again, so they did, with Baksh’s<br />

official return also marking Whibley’s to the stage<br />

at the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards. Baksh’s<br />

presence now adds three guitarists to the lineup,<br />

alongside Tom Thacker and Whibley.<br />

“You really notice it live,” Whibley says of the<br />

dynamic, which also includes bassist Cone McCaslin<br />

and drummer Frank Zummo.<br />

“I think that’s where we sound different than we’ve<br />

ever been able to sound before, because we can play<br />

a lot of stuff that is on the record that we couldn’t<br />

do before. It’s a much bigger sound…it’s just a really<br />

full sound. Just being a five piece, it’s so fun. I never<br />

thought I’d like being a five piece, but now I couldn’t<br />

imagine it any other way.”<br />

Indeed, it’s certainly scary, Whibley admits, to<br />

release music that was written from such a vulnerable<br />

place — but getting personal isn’t something new.<br />

He’s always written from his soul and 13 Voices is just,<br />

in many ways, a new chapter. The past may have been<br />

great — but now, Whibley says, “it’s time to take it<br />

into a whole other world.”<br />

Sum 41 performs at the Shaw Conference Centre in<br />

Edmonton on <strong>April</strong> 13th and at Grey Eagle Casino in<br />

Calgary on <strong>April</strong> 14th with Papa Roach.<br />

MENACE<br />

U.K. punk act make Western Canada debut<br />

Legendary UK punk act Menace formed in 1976 and is making<br />

their first ever Western Canada appearances this month,<br />

thanks to a Facebook cold call placed by Chris Schwartz<br />

from Calgary’s Streetlight Saints. A few exchanges later, Menace<br />

was booked for dates across the region with Schwartz and<br />

company in tow. Given their passion for the U.K. group, we had<br />

Streetlight Saints’ member Glen Murdoch chat with Noel Martin<br />

to check in.<br />

NM: We have a real problem with rehearsals in that we live hours<br />

away from each other... In fact I am the only original member and<br />

the only one still living in London. As we have played for a number of<br />

years, we don’t need to rehearse as much as we used to, although we<br />

still do new songs in the set. Generally what we do is rehearse the day<br />

before or the day of the show, which is generally enough for us. When<br />

we are writing for albums, we get together over a long weekend either<br />

in Bournemouth or in London and just play non-stop 12 hours a day.<br />

by Glen Murdoch<br />

Beatroute: How do you feel about modern punk rock as<br />

opposed to how it was way-back-when?<br />

Noel Martin: When we started to play punk there were many good<br />

bands and some bad ones. However, even the bad ones played it from<br />

their heart and really enjoyed themselves. I think today is also really<br />

good and there are lots of really good bands, obviously some of those<br />

bands are still the ones that were around in the ‘70s, [like] U.K. Subs,<br />

999, The Vibrators.<br />

BR: What do you think of the whole Brexit thing? Will that<br />

make it harder to tour around Europe?<br />

NM: It’s very hard to say what Brexit will mean in the future, but if<br />

it’s the same as it was in the past, it will be harder for bands to play<br />

in Europe. All of your equipment, guitars, and amps will need to be<br />

logged with a copy of the list for each border control. There may be a<br />

limit on how much money or how much duty-free (Jägermeister) we<br />

can bring back home.<br />

BR: What are your rehearsals generally like? For instance,<br />

do you have a set time each week in which you practice or<br />

are rehearsals more geared towards prepping for gigs?<br />

BR: You were last in Canada in 2014, in Montreal for a St.<br />

Patrick’s Day gig, correct? What are you expecting in Canada<br />

this time around regarding scenery, people, how the<br />

shows will go?<br />

NM: Yes, we played St. Patrick’s Day in Montréal in 2014. I didn’t<br />

think it was so long ago but I’ve just checked and I’ve got the<br />

glass to prove it... We are looking forward [to] playing in Canada<br />

this time because we will get to see some of the country. I think<br />

apart from the shows, a real highlight for us will be driving over<br />

the Rocky Mountains…. [It] sounds like a bucket list thing to me. I<br />

may even try to stay sober for that.<br />

To finish off, I would just like to say from myself and the entire<br />

band, as I know they feel the same: the fact that we are still playing<br />

after 40 years is, for us, a privilege that we don’t take lightly. We really<br />

appreciate all our fans, all the promoters out there, and all the other<br />

bands that play with us or let us play with them. I wanna say a big<br />

thanks, from all of us, because you make us feel brilliant!<br />

Menace perform in Edmonton at DV8 on <strong>April</strong> 5, in Calgary at Vern’s<br />

on <strong>April</strong> 6, in Victoria at Logan’s Pub on <strong>April</strong> 7, and in Vancouver at<br />

Pat’s Pub on <strong>April</strong> 8.<br />

Noel Martin talks history, gratitude, and good old-fashioned drinking.<br />

20 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE


FORBIDDEN DIMENSION<br />

an Old Fashioned talk about the deadly serious<br />

The Cat and Fiddle Pub is an old funeral home,<br />

fitting for a Forbidden Dimension interview.<br />

But, alas, not the chosen interview location.<br />

The Spicy Hut, a fun favourite of foodies was also an<br />

option, mainly because they have a nice selection of<br />

good but not overly priced bourbons.<br />

In an exchange of emails, PT Bonham, FD’s masked<br />

man behind the drums declined. “No, that is insane!<br />

It is a restaurant. You come to our house and we will<br />

give you alcohol. Not a lot, mind you, but some.”<br />

At the home and FD’s practice space that PT<br />

shares with bassist Virginia Dentata (google vagina<br />

dentata about the folk lore of a “toothed vagina”), I’m<br />

meet with warm smiles, guided to the living room<br />

where a charcuterie board full of meat, cheese and<br />

bread sits on the coffee table along with promised<br />

alcoholic beverage — an Old Fashioned, the crown<br />

glory of bourbon whisky cocktails.<br />

Jackson Phibes, FD’s creative director, is waiting as<br />

well as we begin the topic of conversation, the band’s<br />

eighth full-length recording, It’s A Morbid, Morbid,<br />

Morbid World. PT says it’s a tip of the hat to the 1963<br />

slapstick comedy It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,<br />

“But don’t go looking for any Buddy Hacket bits here,<br />

this serious rock!”<br />

Although framed in FD’s legendary comic book<br />

tradition, Morbid World, along with the first track<br />

played during the listening party, “Blood Drained<br />

Peasants,” evokes some uneasy, even queasy sentiment,<br />

hinting that maybe this record might be a<br />

tad serious, reflecting on the miserable state of the<br />

world. When discussing the track, Jersey Kosinksi,<br />

who wrote The Painted Bird, the disturbing story<br />

of a gypsy boy wandering lost in eastern regions of<br />

Poland at the end of World War II is mentioned.<br />

PT looks at Phibes, chuckles then says, “You should<br />

tell him the real inspiration.”<br />

“Do you remember Speak?” asks Phibes. “The<br />

Hungarian rapper with that video “Stop The War?”<br />

PT and Phibes break into a sing-a-long mocking<br />

the song’s lyrics and melody in very an unflattering<br />

manner. Poor Speak, the video is horrendous. “And<br />

those back-up singers doing the chorus.” adds Phibes.<br />

“They’re so pale, they’re blue! These peasant, stock,<br />

back-up singers with red hair are pale blue, like skim<br />

milk. That’s what their skin was like.”<br />

No, it’s unlikely FD has any serious intention of<br />

wrestling with the woes of the world. Unless, of<br />

course, that involves the lighter side of absurdity and,<br />

or, the darker side of clowning around. Another film<br />

classic enters the conversation: Around The World In<br />

80 Days, a goofy star-studded action farce made in<br />

the ‘50s. PT abruptly says, “Around the morbid world<br />

in 80 graves.” The remark sets off Phibes who laughs,<br />

blurting out, “Yeah, there’s your title!”<br />

But roaming the globe is certainly part of the FD<br />

experience. One of Phibes’ recent musical forays is<br />

writing vigorous rock riffs and flowing melodies that<br />

have a distinctive Eastern European flair: a combination<br />

of playful gypsy-folk and sweeping operatics<br />

fused with the onslaught of duo Iron Maiden guitar<br />

solos. FD puts a gloomy spin on prog-rock. Phibes<br />

mulls over that particular analysis, stokes his beard,<br />

squints his eyes, then poises the question: “So, do you<br />

mean prog-rock or Prague rock?” Ah, there’s no way<br />

out of this funhouse!<br />

One of several instrumental tracks on the record<br />

is a gate-crasher called “Cobraballs,” that begins with<br />

the tribal pounding of floor toms before thundering<br />

down the speedway. The introduction, says PT, is<br />

taken from “the war drums of the Navajo.” Smirking<br />

he adds, “I was trying to get out of Europe and take<br />

it back to North America.” Mission accomplished.<br />

Phibes explains that the idea of cobra balls comes<br />

from old hot rods stickers designed in the ‘60s that<br />

looked like snakes with big wheels attached to them.<br />

“We just changed the wheels into a pair of balls.” PT<br />

pipes in, “Testicles,” to clarify.<br />

Another exotic instrumental is “The Devil Came<br />

Down To The Kanaloa,” a swanky psychedelic surf<br />

number made to swig back spicy, tiki bar cocktails then<br />

sashay out on the dance floor or down to the beach<br />

for a midnight stroll. FD dips into dreamy waters.<br />

Switching it up, “Time Of The Superdruids” opens<br />

with Virginia’s pulsing bassline, reminiscent of those<br />

hypnotic Manchester pill-popping bands from<br />

the ’80s and ‘90s and continues with an infectious,<br />

trippy groove and mood throughout. Shy and sweet,<br />

Virginia’s the rose between two thorns in FD. Yet her<br />

punchy bass playing is a potent driving force giving<br />

the band a newfound, buoyant enthusiasm. Phibes<br />

agrees, “I love the last record we did (Every Twisted<br />

Tree Watches You), but there was such a cloud of<br />

neglect hanging over it. One person was phoning in<br />

their parts when we recorded, and the label we had<br />

sort of lost its distribution when we put it out. ”<br />

Better days ahead. Back to the Prague, er progrock.<br />

“Devil’s Night Park” is a true testament to the<br />

eclectic genius of FD. It starts off with an eerie, piercing<br />

swell of electric guitar sounding like a killer drone<br />

zooming in for the attack, while the bass growls and<br />

rumbles below. PT then slams hard into a militant<br />

burst of stop ‘n’ start rolls before they all crash head<br />

long into a rip-roaring tear down the drag strip. Midway<br />

through Phibes shifts into prog-mode and out<br />

of nowhere slips in a short and sweet, but ambitious<br />

Blackmoresque solo before floating back down into<br />

a surf serenade. “My favourite part,” sighs Virginia.<br />

Around the world in 80 graves indeed! That’s helluva<br />

lot of territory to cover in 3:30 minutes.<br />

And it’s not over yet…<br />

When “Festering Violet” is cued up, PT<br />

interjects, “I like this one. It’s got horns in it.”<br />

No doubt a bit of a deviation for FD. Even more<br />

so as the song builds into a big, brassy movie<br />

theme with its showy production. Similarly, while<br />

“Werewolf Bongo Party” isn’t a radical departure<br />

with its B-movie overtones, the slow, meandering,<br />

beatnik trance certainly has an inviting, unexpected<br />

romantic glow. PT’s breathy werewolf<br />

groans and moans at the end, bring the charming<br />

love fest to a collapse.<br />

Last but not least (including seven songs not<br />

discussed here), “Morbid World” the record’s title<br />

track is begins and the question about “Is this serious<br />

commentary?” comes up again. Before getting<br />

into any of that, PT’s points out, “There’s a real<br />

R&B rave-up going on here,” as the song blasts out<br />

of the sound system. “Yeah, Phibes nods and says,<br />

“A garage rock attempt at R&B. Like white skinny<br />

guys in Cleveland who…” PT interrupts, “Sound<br />

like black skinny guys in New York.”<br />

And the lyrics? Are they about the end of the<br />

world? “No,” says Phibes, “Not the end of the<br />

world. Each verse tells a different story, about<br />

various morbid worlds. Sure, it’s gross, but if<br />

you can see the humour in it, you can get by.<br />

There’s one part about the prehistoric ocean<br />

that once covered this area and all the dead<br />

sea creatures left behind. The idea is nothing<br />

lasts forever, we’re all going to be dead at some<br />

point,” chuckles Phibes.<br />

PT cracks his fablous wide smile, “And the R&B<br />

rave-up will live on.”<br />

Forbidden Dimension is issuing It’s A Morbid, Morbid,<br />

Morbid, Morbid World in CD format, which they feel is<br />

“way ahead of curve these days.” See them live and pick<br />

up the CD on Sat., <strong>April</strong> 22 at the Oak Tree Tavern.<br />

It’s A Morbid,<br />

Morbid,<br />

Morbid<br />

World!<br />

by B. Simm<br />

FD gig poster for Morid World CD release show.<br />

22 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE


live music<br />

Ap 1:<br />

sean hamilton<br />

Ap 8:<br />

sadlier-brown duo<br />

ap 15:<br />

The Frontiers<br />

ap 22:<br />

aaron pollock<br />

ap 29:<br />

jay bowcott<br />

saturday nights<br />

BAD ANIMAL<br />

marking new territory with booze, love, and rock ‘n’ roll<br />

You’ve likely already heard the<br />

spellbinding sounds of Calgary’s Bad<br />

Animal on the streets of downtown.<br />

Their mesmerizing indie rock riffs conjoin<br />

with heart and hip captivating bass,<br />

anchored by rhythmic drums. Fronted by<br />

a forceful frontman with lively vocals, they<br />

create the soundtrack to your perfectly<br />

sweaty night out. Time spent with the band<br />

generally ends the same way: with a room<br />

is full of people blissfully drenched in beer<br />

and sweat.<br />

Bad Animal has left their mark in Calgary<br />

but they are hungry for more. With the goal<br />

of meeting new faces and creating a fan<br />

base that stretches from coast-to-coast, the<br />

five guys are heading east.<br />

“The goal is to be more hung over than I<br />

am now,” jokes frontman Ben Painter.<br />

“We just want to have a blast and make<br />

[each] city ours.”<br />

“We’ve been told it’s a bad idea,” mentions<br />

drummer Trevor Stoddart.<br />

“But, if we want to become a touring band<br />

we need go to the next step,” adds Painter.<br />

The aim is to melt faces, surprise the<br />

unsuspecting, and pull an assortment of<br />

untouched crowds into the riot that is a Bad<br />

Animal show.<br />

“I want people to stop caring and just<br />

have fun,” says Stoddart.<br />

He jokes, “I want people to feel how I feel,<br />

but not look how I look.”<br />

The Bad Animal fanbase has grown<br />

significantly since their inception. After<br />

recording their debut full-length Tonight at<br />

local studio OCL and releasing it to much<br />

acclaim, the band embarked on a tour with<br />

Vancouver garage pop acts JPNSGRLS.<br />

They’ve headlined the Listen Up! benefit<br />

for the Calgary Distress Centre, and were<br />

granted an opening slot for SWMRS and<br />

Blink-182 in Calgary. Now, they’re hitting<br />

venues near you once more to both deliver<br />

and nail new material.<br />

Trying out new songs in familiar places, the<br />

fresh tracks are getting an amazing response.<br />

“People seem to be liking it better than<br />

our old stuff,” says the band, laughing.<br />

“We’re getting better and the new songs<br />

seem to be a good addition,” says guitarist<br />

Marek Skiba.<br />

With new demos to be released in May,<br />

plans to tour twice more this year, and the<br />

potential release of new album, the boys<br />

from Bad Animal won’t be slowing down<br />

any time soon.<br />

Bad Animal’s tour kickoff show is <strong>April</strong> 5th at<br />

Commonwealth in Calgary with Cowpuncher,<br />

Crooked Spies, and guests. Check www.badanimal.ca/<br />

for more upcoming tour dates.<br />

Bad Animal want to spread their love around.<br />

by Jackie Klapak<br />

photo: Alix Au<br />

weekly specials<br />

late night movies<br />

$5 pints, $1 oysters<br />

$1/2 off wine<br />

$2.50 tacos<br />

$7 beer flights<br />

$5 draft pints<br />

$3 jack daniels<br />

midtownkitchen.ca<br />

DANE<br />

it takes two to torch the place<br />

Local sultry rock duo Dane release “Burning Man” in <strong>April</strong>.<br />

It starts with a tiny spark, a crackle as the heat<br />

turns to flame…. And finally, there is a roaring<br />

blaze. The fires of frustration sweeping through<br />

the body start from the tips of the ears, burrowing<br />

into the pit of a stomach, eventually turning it into<br />

a molten rage.<br />

“Burning Man,” the latest single from Calgary’s<br />

precocious low-end duo Dane, takes the listener on<br />

this heated journey. It’s a song they say was born of a<br />

sombre time, that became so much more.<br />

photo: Justin Quaintance<br />

“Even for a sadder song, it still has a punch<br />

and a dance-y vibe to it,” describes drummer<br />

Ethan Muzychka.<br />

This punchy, vibrant intensity has become Dane’s<br />

signature sound. Known for their fuzzed out and<br />

groovy jams, the band especially began taking a hold<br />

on the Calgary music scene after several appearances<br />

at community building weekly Rockin 4 $. With<br />

an appearance at BIG Winter Classic and an album<br />

release under their belts, the band is gearing up to<br />

by Willow Grier<br />

take their sound to greater heights, following up with<br />

a music video and second record release to come later<br />

in the year.<br />

Upon listening to their self-titled debut, it’s easy<br />

to note the attention to detail and strong musical<br />

backgrounds both musicians have. For bassist/vocalist<br />

Trenton Fawcett, who attended Selkirk College to<br />

study Contemporary Music and Composition, there<br />

is a unique challenge to only having two members in<br />

the project.<br />

“We’re trying to bring a different sort of innovation<br />

when it comes to having a two-piece rock band,” he<br />

explains. “It can be seen as limiting, but it’s an interesting<br />

challenge for us to push outside of the boundaries<br />

and create a fuller sound. When people hear us before<br />

they see us live, they tend to think we’re a full band.”<br />

To get a taste for Dane’s chops, they recommend<br />

“Astriction of Inclination,” one of the “first songs<br />

[they] jammed together,” as Muzychka recalls.<br />

“It’s about sexual tension so it really spices up the<br />

vibe when we play it live,” laughs Fawcett.<br />

The track is a slow burn that winds and grooves<br />

through a fuzzed out, sultry build up and well encapsulates<br />

what the duo is capable of. But the true magic<br />

of Dane lies within that live jam.<br />

“With the recorded songs there is a certain level of<br />

amplitude,” says Fawcett. “But when we get to play<br />

the songs live they are so much more explosive.”<br />

The fiery tunes of Dane continue as they release<br />

“Burning Man” on <strong>April</strong> 7th in digital format. Stay<br />

tuned for their music video release in months to<br />

come and catch them live at Getto Boys Bar and Grill<br />

in Calgary <strong>April</strong> 29th.<br />

24 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE


TOURING ROUNDUP<br />

photo: Zach Hertzman<br />

LITTLE SCREAM<br />

<strong>April</strong> 14 at Commonwealth<br />

Scooting away from her jaunt opening for Local Natives, Little Scream drops into Calgary almost exactly a<br />

year since the release of her LP Cult Following. That record saw her expand her indie folk-rock into something<br />

decidedly fresher, thanks in part to contributions by members of The National and TV On The Radio, along with<br />

Sufjan Stevens and Sharon Van Etten.<br />

C.J. RAMONE<br />

May 6 at Broken City<br />

This is not a drill. An honest-to-God Ramone is playing the intimate stage at Broken City. Whether or not<br />

you’re on team Dee Dee, there’s no denying that this is a rare opportunity to catch a member of music<br />

history’s elite in a face-to-face setting.<br />

BRIAN WILSON<br />

<strong>April</strong> 13 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium<br />

The Pet Sounds 50th anniversary tour rolls on with Brian Wilson playing the record in its entirely as well as<br />

some choice cuts from both the Beach Boys’ and his own catalogue. If you need context on the importance<br />

of that record, you’re reading the wrong magazine. Go get your tickets right now, this second, by any<br />

means necessary.<br />

ROCKPILE<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 25


EDMONTON EXTRA<br />

I HATE SEX<br />

screamo quartet enjoying their meteoric rise<br />

I Hate Sex release World of Grief in <strong>April</strong>.<br />

There were no topics left off the table when<br />

<strong>BeatRoute</strong> interviewed I Hate Sex vocalist<br />

Nicole Boychuk at the Art Gallery of Alberta.<br />

We sat on the brightly lit third floor during<br />

Boychuk’s lunch break one afternoon, enjoying an<br />

honest and frank conversation.<br />

Since 2014, the socio-politically inclined<br />

screamo/powerviolence band has thrived on a<br />

fast paced and DIY work ethic that’s allowed for<br />

multiple updates and changes based on what has<br />

(and hasn’t) worked. Boychuk admitted she hadn’t<br />

attempted her unique growl until the very first<br />

photo: Chantal Piat<br />

band practice.<br />

“I thought I could do it and I just went for it,”<br />

she explained casually. “I went to a voice workshop<br />

led by Not Enough Fest and it was awesome to<br />

learn breathing techniques and how to warm up<br />

from people I admired like [bassist] Stacy [Burnett]<br />

and [vocalist] Corby [Burnett] of Mahria. I<br />

can’t sing. That’s why I scream. I’m awful at singing.<br />

I can’t hit notes and I sound like a dying whale.<br />

People ask me questions about screaming and I<br />

have no answers. It’s weird. I just know I can do it.”<br />

The group’s 2015 release Circle Thinking set the<br />

tone for their characteristically abrasive, angular<br />

sound. On the new record, World of Grief, the<br />

shrieked vocals still cut like knives and it’s clear<br />

the band has had time to think about what they<br />

were laying down. The result is a tighter and more<br />

empowering sound.<br />

“When we first released Circle Thinking, we<br />

didn’t think anyone was going to listen to it,”<br />

offered Boychuk, smiling bashfully.<br />

“We just wanted the experience of being a local<br />

band and playing a few shows. I guess now, having<br />

two new band members, it gave us a chance to be<br />

more self-conscious about our sound. There was a<br />

lot more thought about the album as a whole. The<br />

first album we made songs and put them together,<br />

but World of Grief we spent more time talking<br />

about the songs and how we wanted the album to<br />

be. It’s also more me. It’s about my life and immediate<br />

feelings.”<br />

Between Circle Thinking and World of Grief, I<br />

Hate Sex added Matt Wayne on bass and Byron<br />

Mayor on drums. As he has since their inception,<br />

Ashton Burns plays guitar. The line-up change<br />

came swiftly last spring, shortly before the band<br />

set out on a nine-day tour of Japan planned by a<br />

super fan.<br />

“We got a message from someone saying he<br />

loved our band and he set it all up! He drove us<br />

around and we stayed at his house,” explains<br />

Boychuk.<br />

She adds, “It was just the best experience!”<br />

Despite already touring Japan and soon<br />

embarking on a tour of Europe, Boychuk remains<br />

by Brittany Rudyck<br />

somewhat skeptical of the attention I Hate Sex has<br />

received. The band is metaphorically exploding in<br />

popularity, and it’s left the members somewhat<br />

stunned.<br />

“I don’t know why we became so successful. It’s<br />

weird. It’s wild,” she says.<br />

“I like it, but I just don’t get it.”<br />

With the support of U.K. based Dog Knights<br />

Productions, the all-ages and safe space advocating<br />

band will be picking up 500 vinyl copies of the new<br />

album just in time for their tour in Europe, which<br />

begins in late <strong>April</strong> and continues into early May.<br />

“We’re gunna pick them up at a festival we’re<br />

playing so we have to pack around the records and<br />

we’re hoping for the best!”<br />

Massive supporters of the scene as both showgoers<br />

and band members, Boychuk believes in<br />

inclusivity, advocating for the safety and involvement<br />

of all. She seemed optimistic about the hardcore<br />

and heavier scenes moving in that direction,<br />

which perhaps explains why she stepped into a<br />

mosh pit for the first time this past December.<br />

“It was Cold Lungs’ final show. It was such a<br />

beautiful moment,” she reminisced.<br />

“I think it’s a chain reaction of feeling welcome,<br />

feeling comfortable and making friends. I’ve been<br />

going to these shows for a few years now and in<br />

December I was finally brave enough to get in<br />

there. I was wearing a dress, too!”<br />

The new I Hate Sex album World of Grief will be<br />

released <strong>April</strong> 20th. The band will have vinyl, cassette,<br />

and digital versions for sale soon.<br />

SUICIDE HELP LINE<br />

classic punk transmitted through a veil of Pink Jazz<br />

It was in 2013 that vocalist Logan Turner noticed there was a lack<br />

of an older punk sound in the Edmonton music scene. In response,<br />

he created the band Suicide Helpline that year as a recorded solo<br />

project, releasing his first album Ready To Die on December 25, 2013.<br />

“It got a lot of people interested in that ’77 punk sound, as opposed to<br />

that modern punk sound that we largely see in the city,” says Turner.<br />

Fast-forward four years and Suicide Helpline has transitioned into a<br />

high energy, four-piece group. Kevin Maimann, Stu Chell, Adam Orange,<br />

and Turner all knew each other through Edmonton’s music scene, but<br />

it wasn’t until a year ago that the boys decided to turn Suicide Helpline<br />

into a live project. Due to their unique sound, Suicide Helpline has<br />

been able to play at least once a month at a variety of different shows<br />

in Edmonton. Time between performances has been spent working on<br />

Suicide Helpline’s debut full-length Pink Jazz, out <strong>April</strong> 29.<br />

Pink Jazz was recorded in Turner’s basement studio and put together<br />

almost entirely independently. The title reflects the juxtaposition of<br />

gritty punk and the smooth, neon lights of glam that Turner has always<br />

been fascinated by. It’s the diverse musical backgrounds of each band<br />

member that helps give Pink Jazz its unique sound.<br />

“We all bring our own influences in some small way and it gives [the<br />

album] this strange flavour that you can’t quite put your finger on,” says<br />

guitarist Maimann.<br />

Despite their varied musical history, it was the immediate energy and<br />

rawness of punk music that attracted the group to the genre.<br />

“I comically know very little about punk. But rather than getting into<br />

it through listening to other people’s music, I really got into it by writing,”<br />

says Turner.<br />

The inspiration behind many of the songs holds a deeper meaning<br />

for Turner. With the lyrical focus centering on suicide and depression,<br />

Suicide Hotline releases their debut full-length <strong>April</strong> 29th.<br />

they reflect on what music has become for him both psychologically<br />

and creatively.<br />

“Music is very much like a crisis line: something that you turn to in<br />

times of internal struggle and it has been that for me throughout my<br />

youth and hard times,” explains Turner. He adds, “The name Suicide<br />

Helpline means a lot to me.”<br />

Since the release of their self-titled EP last year, the group has worked<br />

on expanding their sound and musicianship. The year has been full of<br />

live shows and testing their boundaries, a process full of musical surprises<br />

that has resulted in songs they originally never thought would work.<br />

“Playing together for the past year has helped us figure out where we<br />

by Jessica Robb<br />

all should be,” reflects drummer Chell. “It’s cool ‘cause we’ve just grown<br />

organically.”<br />

All told, Pink Jazz contains 14 tracks of catchy pop hooks run through<br />

a punk filter, which sums up Suicide Helpline as a band.<br />

“It’s full of songs that you can share with your parents, but still be<br />

offensive to teenagers,” says Turner.<br />

“Take everything you just heard with the title Pink Jazz and let’s<br />

start over.”<br />

Suicide Helpline will perform at the release show for Pink Jazz on <strong>April</strong><br />

29th in Edmonton with Fashionism.<br />

26 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE


BOOK OF BRIDGE<br />

WINT<br />

lo-fi post-punk trio expels new releases<br />

WINT has released two new albums thus far in <strong>2017</strong>.<br />

Brandon Saucier is the mad scientist behind<br />

Lethbridge’s new lo-fi post-punk band, WINT.<br />

Anchored by a forceful, sturdy rhythm section,<br />

the band utilizes an ultra-harsh layer of melodic<br />

guitar tones that’ll have you dishing with your music-nerd<br />

friends for days after attending their show.<br />

The trio currently has three EP’s available on<br />

cassette and Bandcamp. Their self-titled debut was<br />

released in <strong>April</strong> 2015; two years later we received<br />

Revelation and New Content in rapid succession.<br />

“The whole crux of the operation is just to be recording<br />

all the time. So, I try and record songs every<br />

day. At least one,” explains Saucier.<br />

“Most of it’s stuff I’d never want to use but doing<br />

it so often, gems just come out. Then, when there’s a<br />

string of gems, I’ll just put them together and release<br />

them.”<br />

Saucier writes and records alone and has been<br />

experimenting with oddball music equipment since<br />

his teen years. His bandmates, bassist Hope Madison<br />

and drummer Rebecca McHugh, say they usually<br />

don’t learn the songs until they’ve already been<br />

recorded and are up on Bandcamp.<br />

The trio are a collection of friends with similar<br />

likes in sound.<br />

“My roommate/partner [Madison] wanted to<br />

be in the band – I was like, ‘yep!’ Rebecca is just the<br />

drummer in Lethbridge that I like and am friends<br />

with. I played with her in another band [Participation]<br />

that was great. So, it was just super easy.”<br />

After performing vocals and noise in different<br />

versions of the group during 2016, Madison suggested,<br />

“Maybe I should just learn to play bass because<br />

we don’t have a bass player.” Two weeks later, WINT<br />

played their first show with the current incarnation.<br />

January release Revelation gained attention from<br />

local show-goers just as the new year rolled in. The<br />

recordings are a firm balance between aggressively<br />

by Curtis Windover<br />

photo: Courtney Faulkner<br />

lo-fi and GET-OUT-OF-MY-HEAD-catchy (refer to<br />

track six, suitably dubbed “soft spoken”). Although<br />

Saucier’s vocals sit low and his lyrics can be tricky<br />

to decipher, a handful of poetic images jump out<br />

in each song. The EP critiques modern life vaguely<br />

enough to invite listeners to form their own interpretations,<br />

and therefore to ponder their own place<br />

in the modern world.<br />

“I tend to just have these inspiration bursts that<br />

last for weeks where I’m writing every day. Then I<br />

have it all written down in a big binder full of lyrics.<br />

If I’m recording a song I just pull something out and<br />

use that,” says Saucier of his lyric writing process.<br />

Creative bursts were pertinent to the March<br />

release, New Content, but Saucier admits they<br />

won’t be performing a couple of the new tracks live<br />

anytime soon.<br />

“Some songs from the new one were written only<br />

month or two ago,” says Saucier. “And now we’re trying<br />

to learn them but I forgot a bunch of the stuff.”<br />

His focus shifts quickly forward, which gives<br />

one more reason to get your hands on the<br />

cassette before the tracks become lost artifacts.<br />

The simplistic (yet bouncy and industrial) drum<br />

fill in the opening song “Movement” will launch<br />

you into the WINT experience without restraint.<br />

The aesthetic is cohesive, bare bones, and<br />

shouldn’t leave you with many questions, save<br />

one: is there anything the world should know<br />

about WINT?<br />

“All I want them to know is that it’s all about the<br />

music,” says Saucier.<br />

That’s it?<br />

“That’s it.”<br />

Catch WINT live at Vangelis Tavern in Saskatoon on<br />

<strong>April</strong> 15th. Visit wint.bandcamp.com for their latest<br />

releases and future tour dates.<br />

POP UP YOGA LETHBRIDGE<br />

words and photo by Courtney Faulkner<br />

creating accessible space for yoga<br />

The foundation of Pop Up Yoga Lethbridge<br />

is a collaboration between music and<br />

movement, practice, and community. The<br />

organization makes yoga accessible outside of the<br />

traditional studio setting.<br />

“There is no need for a studio,” explains founder<br />

Fabiola Petre in her mission statement for the organization,<br />

which has grown and flourished over the past<br />

three years.<br />

“We believe in yoga as a lifestyle; it´s about taking<br />

yoga into urban spaces, parks, art galleries, retail<br />

stores, coffee shops to hair salons and bars, there is<br />

no limit!”<br />

“Fabiola, the founder, she’s done some work in the<br />

community with bringing live music, like live drumming<br />

and that, to some of the classes,” says Shonna<br />

Lamb, the yogi who has taken on the role of guiding<br />

the organization since Petre moved to Vancouver<br />

this past fall.<br />

“We’ve got a series going on right now, it’s<br />

our second round, and we tie it in with music,<br />

so it takes place at SAAG [Southern Alberta Art<br />

Gallery], so this series is called Vinyasa to the<br />

Visionaries, so vinyasa is a type of yoga, you link<br />

your breath to your movement, you flow, feels a<br />

bit dancey.”<br />

“I’m a product of music for sure, there was always<br />

music going on in my house growing up, so my taste<br />

is super diverse,” says Lamb. “I dreamt this up a long<br />

time ago, but it took a while to get the courage to<br />

put it out there.”<br />

“Now we’re on week eight, and we’ve rolled<br />

through Beastie Boys, Sublime, Nirvana, Pearl Jam,<br />

Black Keys, Florence and the Machine, Led Zeppelin<br />

and we wrap it [up] with [the Red Hot Chili Peppers]<br />

Shonna Lamb and company offer Pop Up Yoga by donation in Lethbridge.<br />

tomorrow. And the group’s grown. We cap out the<br />

hallways at SAAG at about 36 people.”<br />

“It’s this niche that I’ve never really seen before.<br />

There’s a lot of art, you can just tell these are art<br />

folk, it’s like they’ve got their soul on their sleeve,<br />

you know you could just tell. Music, right on,<br />

open-minded, kind. I mean, generally people you<br />

meet on the mat do share those characteristics, but<br />

you can tell these folks have some art to them.”<br />

A part of creating community is also giving back<br />

to that community, which the non-profit organization<br />

consistently strives to do.<br />

“What’s beautiful is that half the proceeds go<br />

to the art gallery,” says Lamb of her Vinyasa to the<br />

Visionaries series.<br />

“Which is fantastic because I don’t know if much<br />

of Lethbridge knows how highly regarded our<br />

contemporary art museum is in Canada, we’ve got a<br />

gem in our midst.”<br />

“Things like this [Pop Up Yoga] help pull people<br />

out of that studio setting and realize there’s so much<br />

more in the community than just the conventional<br />

sense of taking a yoga class,” says Lauren Hart, a Pop<br />

Up Yoga teacher and founder of Lauren Hart Yoga as<br />

well as Hawk + Harvest Market.<br />

“It’s a discipline, but it’s also a community, and<br />

I think that when people start seeing those same<br />

people around it’s going to create this little family. It<br />

already has. It’s amazing. It’s beautiful.”<br />

Classes from Pop Up Yoga are offered weekly and<br />

entry is by donation. They occur on Sunday mornings<br />

at 10:00 a.m. at Casa, the Community Arts Centre<br />

in downtown Lethbridge, as well as Wednesday evenings<br />

at 5:30 p.m. at Southminster United Church.<br />

28 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROCKPILE


letters from winnipeg<br />

MOBINA GALORE<br />

turning discontent into lemonade<br />

Mobina Galore are taking their punk ambitions to the max.<br />

Punk-rock road warriors Mobina Galore<br />

have been building a rep as one of the ‘Peg’s<br />

hardest-working acts, and now it all seems to<br />

be paying off with the release of their sophomore<br />

full-length, Feeling Disconnected.<br />

After putting out their 2014 debut LP, Cities<br />

Away, the power duo of Jenna Priestner (guitar/<br />

photo: Dwayne Larson<br />

vocals) and Marcia Hanson (drums/vocals) inked<br />

a deal with European label Gunner Records, and<br />

more recently joined the roster of New Damage<br />

Records (Silverstein, Cancer Bats, Biblical) for North<br />

American distribution.<br />

Feeling Disconnected, as the title suggests, is informed<br />

by a sense of detachment, spurred on by the<br />

amount of touring they’ve been doing over the last<br />

few years. “We’re always missing things like birthday<br />

parties and celebrations and family stuff,” says Priestner<br />

on the road from Ajax, Ontario.<br />

“But when we’re home, we’re constantly missing<br />

being on the road.”<br />

That push and pull is further chronicled on track<br />

“Suffer,” where Priestner’s anguished shouts tell of<br />

career hardship, and the call of the road over going to<br />

school and finding a regular job.<br />

“I was constantly in this place where I felt like I<br />

didn’t belong,” Priestner says of when she decided<br />

to take a course and explore different career options<br />

outside of music.<br />

“You’re going through the motions of what’s<br />

expected of you—go to school, graduate, get a<br />

job—but I just didn’t want to live that life. I just felt<br />

so empty.”<br />

Reuniting with producer John Paul Peters<br />

(Propagandhi, KEN mode, Comeback Kid) for<br />

their second proper effort, much of the record’s<br />

10 songs are punchy hard-and-fast blasts (hear:<br />

“Going Out Alone”) that run around the two<br />

and three-minute mark. There are fists-in-the-air<br />

anthems (hear: “Vancouver”) that ring of big ambitions,<br />

and the trials and tribulations endured in<br />

order to get to where they are now. Indeed, these<br />

are poppy punk tracks for feeling empowered<br />

and chasing your dreams.<br />

Speaking of which, they just wrapped a tour as<br />

by Julijana Capone<br />

support for Florida-bred punks Against Me! After a<br />

stint through Europe with the band, the girls were<br />

invited to hop on even more dates through the U.S.<br />

and Canada. It’s icing on the cake for a year that<br />

continues to look up.<br />

“Laura [Jane Grace] was like ‘Oh my god, I love<br />

your voice. You have the most amazing voice,’” says<br />

Priestner, recalling her first run-in with the band’s<br />

inspiring frontperson.<br />

“I was like, ‘Oh shit. That was cool.’”<br />

“We’ve both been Against Me! fans for years,”<br />

Priestner continues. “It’s one of those things that you<br />

don’t think will ever happen, and then all of the sudden<br />

you’re on tour with them and they’re the nicest<br />

people ever. It’s just been a dream come true.”<br />

With another round of European dates planned<br />

throughout <strong>April</strong> and May, and some major punk<br />

festivals booked, including Punk Rock Bowling in Las<br />

Vegas, everything seems to be falling into place for<br />

the duo.<br />

“Right now, this is success—being on the road and<br />

playing with bands that we love and admire,” says<br />

Priestner.<br />

“But at the end of the day, success is just continuing<br />

to do what we love.”<br />

Mobina Galore perform on <strong>April</strong> 7 at the Good Will<br />

Social Club in Winnipeg. Feeling Disconnected is out<br />

now via New Damage Records. To purchase it, head to<br />

newdamagerecords.com.<br />

FIGURE WALKING<br />

dance it out with the big other<br />

“To be in a room full of people, if you can make them<br />

dance as a musician, I feel like there’s nothing more<br />

satisfying—watching people connecting in a physical<br />

way,” says Greg MacPherson, one half of Figure Walking, about the<br />

danceability of his latest record, The Big Other.<br />

MacPherson is riding his bike, heading to the inner-city not-for-profit<br />

organization where he acts as director, when he answers the phone for<br />

our interview. The last time we spoke with the singer-songwriter and<br />

socially engaged Winnipegger, he had just released The Big Other’s contagious<br />

first single, “Submarines,” which alluded to an artier direction.<br />

While the album is a debut under the new Figure Walking<br />

banner, Greg MacPherson and ace drummer Rob Gardiner have<br />

technically been performing together since 2011 under the Greg<br />

MacPherson Band moniker. As MacPherson explains, the name<br />

change was an attempt “to hit restart and to take a bit more control<br />

over what we’re saying and how we’re approaching our messaging,<br />

our performances, everything.”<br />

Drawing on dub-oriented grooves and flashes of serrated post-punk<br />

guitar stutters, there’s an exchange of wiry and rhythmic, which works<br />

to console the tension of political and social commentary, deliberately<br />

setting the tone for you to get up and move.<br />

Opener “Sounds” is a response to what MacPherson describes as a<br />

skewed celebration of militarism that is used for “disappointing political<br />

gains,” infused with steady drum hits and frenetic, zigzagging chords.<br />

Elsewhere, vocalist Hailey Primrose, who appeared on MacPherson’s<br />

2013 release Fireball, takes the lead on track “Singapore,” and supplies<br />

backing accompaniment to closer “Funeral,” whose echoing refrain<br />

urges you to “dance until it all makes sense.”<br />

While the songwriter’s lyrics have addressed political and social justice<br />

topics in the past, The Big Other presents issues in more intentional<br />

ways to the backbeat of movement-rousing rock ‘n’ roll.<br />

“There’s so much wrong and unjust and disturbing in our world, and<br />

ROCKPILE<br />

I feel very sensitive to that reality,” says MacPherson. “I’m not the kind<br />

of artist that likes to hit people over the head, but I feel an important<br />

part of my writing is to talk about things that really matter.”<br />

The lingering rally cry “Victorious,” for instance, was written over<br />

several years and revolves around different themes of inequality.<br />

MacPherson says he started to perform the song live shortly after<br />

Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old girl from the Sagkeeng First Nation, was<br />

found murdered.<br />

“I think a lot of historically calloused local people actually started<br />

to feel something on the surface when Tina Fontaine died,” he says.<br />

“That’s the hopeful side of the song, hoping to maintain a sense of<br />

collective responsibility.<br />

“Winnipeg’s a complicated city, and a great city, but it’s not as great<br />

for some people as it is for others,” he adds. “I really feel like we’re in an<br />

interesting time in this city where we’ve potentially turned a corner.”<br />

He notes the Truth and Reconciliation Report, the election of Manitoba’s<br />

fist female Indigenous MLA, the Idle No More movement, a federal<br />

inquiry being called into murder and missing Indigenous women<br />

and girls, and the Dakota Access Pipeline as examples of long-awaited<br />

changes and powerful shifts in a better direction.<br />

If dancing can be a path to conversation and catharsis, The Big Other<br />

seeks to do just that.<br />

“I think people connect with music when they dance,” says<br />

MacPherson.<br />

“If you have politics or issues on the mind, and you can present it in<br />

a way that makes people feel alive, people are more connected…I think<br />

that’s what good music can do for people. I love listening to music that<br />

makes me want to dance.”<br />

Figure Walking perform on <strong>April</strong> 16 at the Good Will Social Club in Winnipeg.<br />

To purchase The Big Other, out via Disintegration Records, head to<br />

disintegration.ca.<br />

by Julijana Capone<br />

Figure Walking aim for political and social connectivity with their music.<br />

photo: Kristian Jordan<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 29


FILM<br />

CALGARY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL<br />

by Jonathan Lawrence<br />

comedy, animation, horror, E.T.s, cereal and more<br />

Wild and weird meets fun and fantasy at this year’s CUFF.<br />

The Calgary Underground Film Festival, now in its<br />

fourteenth year, will be returning this <strong>April</strong> to shock,<br />

startle and surprise local film lovers. Each year, the<br />

team behind the festival somehow manages to round up a<br />

few dozen of the most esoteric, thrilling, thought-provoking,<br />

funny, and downright weird films you’ll ever see, and this year<br />

is no different. Programming Director Brenda Lieberman was<br />

able to tell us all about it.<br />

“I love the lineup this year,” says Lieberman, positive as<br />

ever. Her unwavering optimism towards her festivals, including<br />

the Calgary International Film Festival, is the hard-earned<br />

product of endless hours screening and narrowing down the<br />

exponentially growing number of independent films submitted<br />

each year. Selecting the films that make the final lineup<br />

isn’t as simple as choosing names out of a hat, or by seeing<br />

what other festivals are playing. Calgary’s film festivals are truly<br />

crafted with the city’s audiences in mind.<br />

“We’re always looking for a broad mix of films so we can<br />

appeal to everybody,” she says. “There’s some that are very edgy<br />

or provocative or challenging in different ways, but not for the<br />

sake of it,” acknowledging the simplistic and inaccurate view<br />

that these are films with all style and no substance. “We feel<br />

really passionately about the films [and] connected with them<br />

in different ways. There’s different styles for everybody. We<br />

wanted to make sure we had an animation film this year (My<br />

Entire High School is Sinking Into the Sea). They’re all accessibly<br />

weird, they all have something uniquely amazing about them.”<br />

One such film was a documentary called “Love and Saucers,”<br />

which tells the story about an elderly man who believes<br />

he’s had extraterrestrial communication throughout his entire<br />

life, including having interspecies romance with one. You can’t<br />

make this stuff up, folks, but damn if it isn’t fascinating.<br />

“I love that film,” chimed in Lieberman.<br />

Calgary’s art scene has been growing every year, though it’s<br />

hard to explain why. Perhaps the demographics have shifted,<br />

or social media has improved the exposure to these events,<br />

but regardless, the Calgary Underground Film Festival is seeing<br />

record attendances each year. Lieberman says if last year’s<br />

success is any indication of this year, then they’re in business.<br />

“[It was] the best year we had and that’s what people feel<br />

about this year. If we keep the numbers up we can potentially<br />

expand next year.”<br />

Interestingly, although other underground film festivals<br />

around North America draw bigger audiences, such as the<br />

Chicago Underground Film Festival, Calgary’s version shows<br />

more films and runs longer. “You’re programming to fit your<br />

audience but you’re also having to program a little bit in a<br />

bit of an ebb and flow and with an eye open what is going<br />

on in your city.”<br />

It seems though at this rate that Calgary’s may join the<br />

ranks of Chicago or Boston. Lieberman states that each festival<br />

works closely with one another, which she says “keeps [them]<br />

on their toes.”<br />

Although each film in the lineup looks promising, we asked<br />

Lieberman which ones most excited her, a question which<br />

proved to be as difficult to answer as the dreaded “What<br />

kind of music do you listen to?” After some careful thought,<br />

she conceded that the Israeli film, People That Are Not Me,<br />

and the other world films were particularly worth seeing.<br />

“[They’re] all outstanding. I love all of them.”<br />

That said, she expressed how excited the festival programmers<br />

were to obtain The Little Hours after seeing it at<br />

Sundance, a comedy about a group of emotionally unstable<br />

nuns starring Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman and<br />

Fred Armisen, to name some of the comedic cast. “The second<br />

I saw it, I said this is perfect for our opening,’ she says. “We’re<br />

looking for something that’s going to be really fun to kick off<br />

the festival.” She assures that it’s still going to be accessible,<br />

despite being quirky and edgy. “Having a religious comedy on<br />

Easter Monday we thought was perfect,” she joked.<br />

Despite the growing success of film festivals in Calgary,<br />

it’s not without its challenges. Digital streaming trends have<br />

presented problems for all forms of media, and film festivals<br />

are no exception. Lieberman explains the pace in which<br />

things are moving to Netflix means that film distributors are<br />

not necessarily planning festivals as part of their strategy.<br />

She suggests that the festival might have to consider picking<br />

up films faster than they come out or that they might have<br />

to consider down the road what it means to show a film<br />

that’s already been released. She stresses though that the experience<br />

is far better with an audience. “The point of all this<br />

is that it is more fun to come out to be part of a festival,” she<br />

says. “It encourages conversation.”<br />

One the best aspects of the Calgary Underground Film Festival<br />

is the Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat Cereal Cartoon<br />

Party, which is as fun as it is wordy - so, a lot. Each year, the<br />

festival celebrates retro cartoons and cereal for a day of pure<br />

nostalgia and has grown in popularity immensely. “For years,<br />

we were just in one theatre and we were selling it out and then<br />

we expanded to two theatres,” Lieberman said. “This year’s<br />

Saturday is Earth Day and we’re gonna be switching a lot of<br />

our stuff to biodegradable and compostable. It’s really fun and<br />

crazy and people can bring their kids, people wear pyjamas<br />

and dress up.”<br />

Equal parts fun, odd, and bold, the Calgary Underground<br />

Film Festival has something for everyone. This year, they created<br />

a new online system where if people choose to buy more<br />

than five tickets at a time, they’ll get a much more efficient<br />

price. So max out that dollar and spend some time underground<br />

this <strong>April</strong>. See you down there.<br />

CUFF will run from <strong>April</strong> 17-23 at the Globe Cinema.<br />

FUBAR 15 TH ANNIVERSARY<br />

by Mathew Silver<br />

turning down the suck a decade and a half later<br />

The cult-classic FUBAR will be<br />

screened as part of The Calgary<br />

Underground Film Festival (CUFF)<br />

at the Globe Cinema from <strong>April</strong> 17-23,<br />

almost 15 years after the indie flick earned<br />

a spot at Sundance and established itself<br />

in local film lore.<br />

At its core, FUBAR is a tragicomedy<br />

about two emotionally ill-equipped friends,<br />

Terry and Dean, trying to confront the<br />

ugly literalness of death. It’s a lo-fi portrait<br />

of Canadiana, littered with bits of cultural<br />

realism that continues to resonate with fans<br />

a decade and a half later.<br />

Director Michael Dowse said he could<br />

have never known that the mockumentary<br />

would have such a cultural impact: “Our<br />

goal was to make a good film, and to make<br />

a funny film… but we didn’t expect it to hit<br />

the way it did.”<br />

Dowse, who went on to direct Goon,<br />

said that a mockumentary was the perfect<br />

platform for the film, because the modest<br />

production quality suits the tone of the<br />

film. After spending about twenty thousand<br />

dollars, he knew that he had a decent final<br />

cut of the film and an invitation to the Sundance<br />

Film Festival. What he didn’t know is<br />

that FUBAR would land on the short list of<br />

iconic Canadian films. In fact, a sequel was<br />

released by popular demand in 2010 and a<br />

TV run has been ordered by Rogers Media<br />

and VICE Studios.<br />

The impact is obvious. FUBAR made<br />

a popular house-party beer, glamorized<br />

the mullet, and spawned several quotes<br />

like, “Turn up the good, turn down the<br />

suck” and “Tron funkin blow.” The film<br />

has stayed relevant by preserving itself<br />

in our vernacular and by evoking the<br />

high school experience – even if it’s told<br />

through the lens of two adult males<br />

clinging desperately to their youth.<br />

For me, the appeal is familiar images:<br />

banal white suburban houses with<br />

bottle-strewn lawns, a Canadian flag hung<br />

tastelessly but by necessity in the living<br />

room, and the revelry of a party barely<br />

Relive the nostalgia of this Canadian classic at CUFF.<br />

visible from the sidewalk through a tiny gap<br />

in the curtains; a Stamps’ game, floating<br />

down the Elbow River, and a fence outside<br />

of Western Canada High School (my Alma<br />

Mater, go Redbirds!).<br />

Re-watching the film is an exercise in<br />

waxing nostalgic.<br />

We learn from the title card that the<br />

documentary is “fictional,” with apologies to<br />

all the people who appeared in the movie<br />

thinking it was real. Dowse said this was<br />

done with complete sincerity, but despite<br />

the warning many people still can’t discern<br />

what was pre-ordained by the filmmakers<br />

and what might very well be real people<br />

who stumbled into the scene. In effect, it<br />

blurs the line between mockumentary and<br />

reality and creates a surreal experience for<br />

the viewer.<br />

There’s a scene where two guys fistfight in<br />

High River, and it’s brutally authentic. Which<br />

is to suggest that neither of the guys can<br />

fight for shit but still gave it the good old<br />

college try. It’s scenes like this than lend the<br />

film a raw authenticity.<br />

A decade ago, when I first watched the<br />

movie, I couldn’t tell whether Farrel Mitchner<br />

actually died after taking that seemingly<br />

innocuous dive into the river. It’s only now<br />

that I can appreciate the irony of Terry<br />

showing up to the wake in sweatpants and<br />

a cowboy shirt, and telling the now-cringeworthy<br />

“bin der dun dat” joke. Or even the<br />

fact that Terry and Deaner showed up at all.<br />

And that’s one of the small pleasures<br />

of reliving these things 15 years later. Even<br />

Dowse said that he still gets gratification<br />

from knowing that the movie had a<br />

longstanding impact on people. “I think the<br />

thing I’m most proud of is that people really<br />

hold it close to their hearts. They like it as<br />

much as I cared about it when I made it.<br />

Even 15 years later it’s extremely satisfying.”<br />

FUBAR will be shown on <strong>April</strong> 20th at the<br />

Globe Cinema as part of CUFF. Director<br />

Michael Dowse and star Dave Lawrence will<br />

be in attendance.<br />

30 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE FILM


<strong>April</strong> 17-23,<strong>2017</strong><br />

Any film marked 18+ identifies a film where liquor will be served.<br />

This means no minors will be allowed to attend those screenings.<br />

Please bring valid ID. This is not a film classification rating.<br />

78/52<br />

ALIPATO: THE VERY BRIEF LIFE OF AN EMBER<br />

ARE WE NOT CATS<br />

ASSHOLES<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 91 min<br />

Philippines / Germany, 2016, 88 min<br />

United States, 2016, 78 min<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 73 min<br />

A look at the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s<br />

A group of 10-year-olds rob pedestrians and kill<br />

The strange but tender story of a man who attempts<br />

Adah and Aaron are the biggest assholes in New<br />

PSYCHO, a screen murder that changed the course<br />

without mercy in the underbelly of the Philippines.<br />

to restart his life, but is sidetracked when he meets<br />

York City. The poppers make them worse.<br />

of cinema.<br />

THURSDAY, APRIL 20 - 9:15 PM (18+)<br />

TUESDAY, APRIL 18 - 9:45 PM (18+)<br />

a woman who shares his unorthodox habit – a<br />

proclivity for eating hair.<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 6:30 PM (18+)<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 11:59 PM (18+)<br />

BAND AID<br />

BERLIN SYNDROME<br />

BLOOD MOUNTAIN<br />

COLOSSAL<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 94 min<br />

Australia / Germany, <strong>2017</strong>, 73 min<br />

Canada, <strong>2017</strong>, 87 min<br />

United States / Canada, 2016, 100 min<br />

A couple who can’t stop fighting embark on a<br />

last-ditch effort to save their marriage: turning their<br />

fights into songs and starting a band.<br />

A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive<br />

relationship when an Australian photojournalist<br />

wakes one morning in a Berlin apartment and is<br />

Three mountain bikers embark toward Blood<br />

Mountain. The disappearance of one leads to a<br />

deadly encounter in this gritty thriller.<br />

After losing her job and boyfriend, Gloria soon<br />

becomes connected to a far-off phenomenon<br />

involving a giant monster destroying Seoul, Korea.<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 7:00 PM (18+)<br />

unable to leave.<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 9:45 PM (18+)<br />

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 - 9:45 PM (18+)<br />

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 - 9:30 PM (18+)<br />

A DARK SONG<br />

DAVE MADE A MAZE<br />

DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE<br />

FREE FIRE<br />

Ireland, 2016, 99 min<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 80 min<br />

United States, 2016, 90 min<br />

United Kingdom, 2016, 90 min<br />

A determined young woman and a damaged<br />

occultist risk their lives and souls to perform a<br />

dangerous ritual.<br />

THURSDAY, APRIL 20 - 11:45 PM (18+)<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 2:15 PM<br />

Dave builds a fort in his living room out of pure<br />

frustration, only to wind up trapped by the<br />

fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his<br />

own creation.<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 9:00 PM (18+)<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 9:45 PM (18+)<br />

One of cinema’s most enigmatic directors takes us<br />

on an intimate journey through the formative years<br />

of his life, the events that shape his work and shines<br />

a light into the dark corners of his unique world.<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 4:00 PM (18+)<br />

Set in Boston in 1978, a meeting in a deserted<br />

warehouse between two gangs turns into a shootout<br />

and a game of survival.<br />

TUESDAY, APRIL 18 - 7:30 PM (18+)<br />

FUBAR 15TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING<br />

Canada, 2002, 76 min<br />

G FUNK<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 83 min<br />

GORAN<br />

Croatia, 2016, 86 min<br />

HOUNDS OF LOVE<br />

Australia, 2016, 108 min<br />

A special 15th Anniversary screening of the Calgaryshot<br />

cult classic.<br />

THURSDAY, APRIL 20 - 6:45 PM (18+)<br />

This documentary explores the impact of G Funk, a<br />

style of hip-hop that emerged from Los Angeles in<br />

the ‘90s, combining elements of Motown, Funk, and<br />

R&B with socially-aware gangsta rap.<br />

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 - 7:15 PM (18+)<br />

In a cold mountain region, lives and lies are exposed,<br />

slowly bringing a carefree taxi driver to a disturbing<br />

conclusion.<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 6:30 PM (18+)<br />

In suburban Perth during the mid-1980s, people are<br />

unaware that women are disappearing at the hands<br />

of serial killers.<br />

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 - 9:45 PM (18+)


LAKE BODOM<br />

Finland / Estonia, 2016, 85 min<br />

A gang of Finnish teens visit an infamous crime<br />

scene hoping to solve the murder by reconstructing<br />

it minute by minute in this evocative homage to the<br />

1980s campsite slasher.<br />

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 - 11:59 PM (18+)<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 11:30 AM<br />

OPENING NIGHT FILM & PARTY!<br />

THE LITTLE HOURS<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 90 min<br />

A young servant takes refuge at a convent full<br />

of emotionally unstable medieval nuns after he<br />

cuckolds his master in this star-studded romp.<br />

MONDAY, APRIL 17 - 7:00 PM (18+)<br />

LOST SOLACE<br />

Canada, 2016, 106 min<br />

A young psychopath takes a new brand of ecstasy,<br />

launching a mind-bending trip that causes him to feel<br />

and question his morality for the first time in his life.<br />

THURSDAY, APRIL 20 - 9:30 PM (18+)<br />

LOVE AND SAUCERS<br />

Canada / United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 66 min<br />

David Huggins claims to have had a lifetime of<br />

encounters with otherworldly beings, including<br />

an interspecies romance with an extra-terrestrial<br />

woman. He captures his vivid memories in his art.<br />

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 - 7:15 PM (18+)<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 4:00 PM (18+)<br />

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA<br />

United States, 2016, 77 min<br />

From acclaimed cartoonist Dash Shaw comes an<br />

audacious debut that is equal parts disaster cinema,<br />

high school comedy and blockbuster satire.<br />

TUESDAY, APRIL 18 - 7:00 PM (18+)<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 11:00 AM<br />

PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT ME<br />

Israel, 2016, 77 min<br />

Joy can’t let go of her ex, can’t fall in love with<br />

the new guy, and can’t stop sleeping around with<br />

strangers.<br />

THURSDAY, APRIL 20 - 7:15 PM (18+)<br />

PONTYPOOL – NATIONAL CANADIAN FILM DAY<br />

FREE SCREENING<br />

Canada, 2008, 93 min<br />

A shock radio DJ and his small crew try to make<br />

sense of disturbing reports of a strange virus<br />

affecting victims’ ability to communicate.<br />

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 - 6:45 PM<br />

(18+)<br />

THE SATURDAY MORNING ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-<br />

CEREAL CARTOON PARTY!<br />

1960s-1980s, 180 min<br />

A 3-hour trip into the weird and wonderful world of<br />

yesteryear’s animated antics accompanied by an<br />

all-you-can eat buffet of cereal!<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 10:00 AM<br />

SHORTS: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’<br />

SHORTS: STICKY SITUATIONS<br />

SOME FREAKS<br />

THE SPACE BETWEEN<br />

Various Countries, 2016/17, 84 min<br />

Various Countries, 2016/17, 81 min<br />

United States, 2016, 97 min<br />

Canada, 2016, 90 min<br />

They are good people (and animals), they just don’t<br />

always act that way.<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 4:45 PM (18+)<br />

Roads paved with good intentions can lead to crazy<br />

places.<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 - 1:45 PM<br />

A charming romance between a boy with one eye<br />

and an overweight girl shatters as they confront who<br />

they were, who they are, and who everyone thinks<br />

they’re supposed to be.<br />

TUESDAY, APRIL 18 - 9:15 PM (18+)<br />

A new father discovers his child is not his own and<br />

sets out on a journey to find answers.<br />

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 - 6:45 PM (18+)<br />

Only at<br />

Calgary’s first independent video game arcade.<br />

Play games created by indie developers, completely free of charge!<br />

TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT<br />

United States, 2016, 96 min<br />

An examination of the pioneering life and works of<br />

artist, musician, and educator, Tony Conrad.<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 9:15 PM (18+)<br />

THE UNTAMED<br />

Mexico / Denmark / France, 2016, 100 min<br />

A parable about a young woman raising two boys<br />

in a small Mexican city. Something not of this world<br />

could answer their problems or bring suffering.<br />

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 - 9:15 PM (18+)<br />

THE UNTOLD TALES OF ARMISTEAD MAUPIN<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 89 min<br />

A documentary about the creator of Tales Of The<br />

City, a gay rights pioneer whose novels have<br />

inspired millions.<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 7:00 PM (18+)<br />

CRAWL<br />

CUFFCADE<br />

by POWERHOOF - MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA<br />

Each year CUFFcade showcases A dungeon crawler a newly where your friends control the<br />

monsters! Battle through and power up your hero.<br />

curated selection of the best in new independent<br />

videogames. We have five custom DOWNWELL made cabinets<br />

by MOPPIN - TOKYO, JAPAN<br />

located on the mezzanine level Venture of down the a well Globe in search Cinema. of untold<br />

treasures with only your Gunboots to protect you.<br />

CUFFcade runs throughout the festival, and is free<br />

and open to the public.<br />

MOTHER RUSSIA BLEEDS<br />

by Le CARTEL STUDIO - PARIS, FRANCE<br />

An old-fashioned beat ‘em up with big<br />

doses of adrenaline and trippiness.<br />

OLLI OLLI 2 : WELCOME TO OLLIWOOD


<strong>April</strong> 17-23,<strong>2017</strong><br />

MONDAY, APRIL 17<br />

7:00 PM<br />

OPENING NIGHT FILM & PARTY!<br />

THE LITTLE HOURS<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 90 min<br />

TUESDAY, APRIL 18<br />

7:00 PM<br />

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL<br />

SINKING INTO THE SEA<br />

United States, 2016, 77 min<br />

7:30 PM<br />

FREE FIRE<br />

United Kingdom, 2016, 90 min<br />

9:15 PM<br />

SOME FREAKS<br />

United States, 2016, 97 min<br />

9:45 PM<br />

ALIPATO: THE VERY BRIEF LIFE<br />

OF AN EMBER<br />

Philippines / Germany, 2016,<br />

88 min<br />

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19<br />

6:45 PM<br />

NATIONAL CANADIAN FILM DAY<br />

FREE SCREENING!<br />

PONTYPOOL<br />

Canada, 2008, 93 min<br />

7:15 PM<br />

LOVE AND SAUCERS<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 62 min<br />

9:30 PM<br />

COLOSSAL<br />

United States / Canada, 2016,<br />

100 min<br />

9:45 PM<br />

HOUNDS OF LOVE<br />

Australia, 2016, 108 min<br />

THURSDAY, APRIL 20<br />

6:45 PM<br />

FUBAR 15TH ANNIVERSARY<br />

SCREENING<br />

Canada, 2002, 76 min<br />

7:15 PM<br />

PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT ME<br />

Israel, 2016, 77 min<br />

9:15 PM<br />

78/52<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 91 min<br />

9:30 PM<br />

LOST SOLACE<br />

Canada, 2016, 106 min<br />

11:45 PM<br />

A DARK SONG<br />

Ireland, 2016, 99 min<br />

FRIDAY, APRIL 21<br />

6:45 PM<br />

THE SPACE BETWEEN<br />

Canada, 2016, 90 min<br />

7:15 PM<br />

G FUNK<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 83 min<br />

9:15 PM<br />

THE UNTAMED<br />

Mexico / Denmark / France<br />

2016, 100 min<br />

9:45 PM<br />

BLOOD MOUNTAIN<br />

Canada, <strong>2017</strong>, 87 min<br />

11:59 PM<br />

LAKE BODOM<br />

Finland / Estonia, 2016, 85 min<br />

SATURDAY, APRIL 22<br />

10:00 AM<br />

THE SATURDAY MORNING ALL-<br />

YOU-CAN-EAT-CEREAL<br />

CARTOON PARTY!<br />

1960s-1980s, 180 min<br />

1:45 PM<br />

SHORTS: STICKY SITUATIONS<br />

Various Countries, 2016/17, 81 min<br />

3:30 PM<br />

GREEN THE SCREEN - PANEL &<br />

NETWORKING ON FILM<br />

PRODUCTION (FREE EVENT)<br />

120 min<br />

4:00 PM<br />

DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE<br />

United States, 2016, 90 min<br />

6:30 PM<br />

ARE WE NOT CATS<br />

United States, 2016, 78 min<br />

7:00 PM<br />

BAND AID<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 94 min<br />

SUNDAY, APRIL 23<br />

11:00 AM<br />

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL<br />

SINKING INTO THE SEA<br />

United States, 2016, 77 min<br />

11:30 AM<br />

LAKE BODOM<br />

Finland / Estonia, 2016, 85 min<br />

1:30 PM<br />

THE UNTAMED<br />

Mexico / Denmark / France<br />

2016, 100 min<br />

2:15 PM<br />

A DARK SONG<br />

Ireland, 2016, 99 min<br />

4:00 PM<br />

LOVE AND SAUCERS<br />

Canada / United States, <strong>2017</strong>,<br />

62 min<br />

4:45 PM<br />

SHORTS: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’<br />

Various Countries, 2016/17,<br />

84 min<br />

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME FEATURES ARE PRECEDED BY<br />

SHORT FILMS, WHICH WILL IMPACT THE TOTAL RUN TIME.<br />

9:00 PM<br />

DAVE MADE A MAZE<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 80 min<br />

9:45 PM<br />

BERLIN SYNDROME<br />

Australia / Germany, <strong>2017</strong>, 116<br />

min<br />

11:59 PM<br />

ASSHOLES<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 73 min<br />

6:30 PM<br />

GORAN<br />

Croatia, 2016, 86 min<br />

7:00 PM<br />

THE UNTOLD TALES OF<br />

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 89 min<br />

9:15 PM<br />

TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN<br />

THE PRESENT<br />

United States, 2016, 96 min<br />

9:45 PM<br />

DAVE MADE A MAZE<br />

United States, <strong>2017</strong>, 80 min<br />

Tickets and more infoRmation at calgaryundergroundfilm.com<br />

licensed event-18+evenings-matinees all ages<br />

$10 regular screenings - $8 cuff members / students / seniors |5 Film Multi-Pack $40 / $120 festival pass


HOUNDS OF LOVE<br />

difficult thriller doesn’t stray from under-discussed, troubling issues<br />

To put her parent’s current separation as far<br />

out of her mind as possible, young Vicki<br />

Maloney (Ashleigh Cummings) sneaks out<br />

of her mom’s house late one night. All she wants<br />

to do is let loose at a raucous party for a couple<br />

of hours to forget her daily troubles. Her night<br />

of intended drinking is interrupted when she’s<br />

picked up by a seemingly kind couple driving<br />

down the very same road. Evelyn (Emma Booth)<br />

and John (Stephen Curry) appear to be normal<br />

folk at first, but they carry an uneasy darkness<br />

with them wherever they go. Their offer of<br />

marijuana and an empty booster seat in the back<br />

of their car convinces Vicki that they’re relatively<br />

untrustworthy people.<br />

After drinking a glass of water that’s been drugged,<br />

Vicki is subsequently chained up to one of their<br />

beds. It’s clear that Evelyn and John have done this<br />

kind of thing before. Vicki’s quickly degraded, as she<br />

becomes the victim of a horrifying game of sexual<br />

control. While her freedom is visibly right through<br />

the front door, taunting her at every single moment,<br />

Vicki’s mind begins to race and turn for a way out.<br />

She becomes privy to not only the horrors of her situation,<br />

but also the inner workings of her kidnappers’<br />

collectively deranged psyche.<br />

On the surface, Hounds of Love may at first appear<br />

to be just another run-of-the-mill Australian crime<br />

film. Underneath the basic set-up is a small-scale<br />

character-focused chamber piece. The performances<br />

of the three leads are what truly make the film<br />

THE SPACE BETWEEN<br />

director Amy Jo Johnson makes her touching feature film debut<br />

Don’t miss this all-Canadian indie dramedy at CUFF.<br />

Mitch (Michael Cram) is a pretty insecure<br />

middle-aged guy. He has an unambitious<br />

job at a go-kart track (yet has a<br />

surprisingly nice home for such a career path) and<br />

seems to wallow in self-pity. So when he receives<br />

a letter explaining that his red-haired newborn is<br />

not his, he does not take the news well. Angry and<br />

betrayed, he sets out to find the baby’s true father<br />

and to exact his revenge. Mitch’s plans are tenuous<br />

at best, however. He doesn’t even know what the<br />

FILM<br />

Best bring a blanket to this intense, dark thriller.<br />

work. They’re faultless and feel genuinely authentic<br />

throughout. We feel completely awful for Vicki as she<br />

goes through the trauma of being kidnapped, raped<br />

and tortured. We entirely loathe John for being the<br />

most despicable human being imaginable. Our hearts<br />

absolutely break for Evelyn because she’s also a victim<br />

in her own right. We condemn them and hate them<br />

real father looks like.<br />

Meanwhile, his wife, Jackie, (Sonya Salomaa) regrets<br />

her actions, so she piles her dysfunctional group<br />

of family and friends into a limousine to stop Mitch<br />

and try to save their marriage. Mitch, however, not<br />

the vengeful type, meets an unusual and adorable girl<br />

named Emily (Julia Sarah Stone), and forms a strange<br />

yet humanizing relationship with her.<br />

It’s a quirky, funny, and emotional film, and we<br />

were able to speak with writer/director Amy Jo<br />

for their actions, but also unfortunately understand<br />

why they do what they do.<br />

First-time feature writer/director Ben Young wisely<br />

keeps the film focused on the victim and her kidnappers.<br />

The audience fully understands the perverse<br />

and complex power struggle at work here. Young also<br />

smartly eschews the stock rape revenge tropes that<br />

Johnson about it, which also happens to be her first<br />

feature-length film.<br />

“I was super lucky with that cast,” she said. “Michael<br />

Ironside was amazing. Jayne Eastwood is such<br />

a legend.”<br />

The film’s characters feel real; they are all eccentric,<br />

of course, yet entirely believable. “For the characters…<br />

I definitely pull from people in my life,” she<br />

admitted. “Emilia’s dad, Nick, I wrote sort of based on<br />

my own father, but when Michael Ironside showed<br />

up on set he was no longer Nick. That’s what so great<br />

about seeing things come to life, the actors bring<br />

their own thing.”<br />

The teenage girl Emily is the emotional heart of<br />

the film, hiding deep-rooted pain behind an air of<br />

cheeriness. Complementing the emotional Mitch,<br />

a wonderful father-daughter relationship emerges.<br />

Johnson stresses that Emily needed to look innocent<br />

so that there could be no mistaken romantic relationship.<br />

“Mitch’s journey is to really figure out that<br />

he can be a good father, so we really needed whoever<br />

to play [Emily] to not have a sexy thing that they give<br />

off, and that’s hard to find. But when Julia sent in her<br />

tape I was like, ‘Oh, that’s perfect.’”<br />

Themes are what give a story depth, and the recurring<br />

notion throughout the film is that pain creates<br />

passion. “Ultimately the main theme throughout<br />

the movie is acceptance and forgiveness,” Johnson<br />

explained. “Each character has to go through their<br />

journey to find love in a way. To do that, everybody<br />

had to let go from what they were holding onto.”<br />

We asked Johnson if this theme was close to her.<br />

She stated that it wasn’t the initial intention in early<br />

by Philip Clarke<br />

audiences are most likely expecting to unfold in the<br />

last act. So many films of its ilk all go down the same<br />

path, by giving both the victim and the audience the<br />

instant gratification of a fantastically hyper-violent<br />

finale. The ending, while certainly violent, is never<br />

taken to over-the-top or unnecessarily stylized<br />

extremes.<br />

The film never shies away from any of the ugliness<br />

that the real world has to offer, without ever becoming<br />

overly gratuitous. Young leaves the scenes of<br />

sexual assault up the viewer’s imagination by having<br />

very little of the acts ever shown on screen. Most of<br />

the atrocities are just heard though Vicki’s terrified<br />

screams. The film is undoubtedly a difficult watch<br />

from the very beginning.<br />

Not only does the film discuss the horrific nature<br />

of sexual assault, but it also delves into a deconstruction<br />

of toxic relationships. Evelyn utterly worships<br />

John when she clearly shouldn’t. On top of being a<br />

serial rapist and kidnapper, John’s also an alcoholic<br />

who’s prone to violent outbursts towards animals and<br />

treating his wife like his own personal slave.<br />

Hounds of Love is not a film to be casually<br />

watched on a lazy Sunday afternoon. However, it is<br />

definitely an important film to watch and discuss<br />

afterwards. That way we can help educate and create<br />

awareness on real mature themes that are sadly all<br />

too real in the world today.<br />

Hounds of Love screens at the Globe Cinema on <strong>April</strong><br />

19th as part of CUFF.<br />

by Jonathan Lawrence<br />

drafts of the script, but that by the end of the writing<br />

process, it suddenly became very apparent. “I figured<br />

out that that was everybody’s journey, and I think in<br />

life that’s probably the hardest lesson and the biggest<br />

thing we all have to do is figure out how to let go and<br />

accept where were at or what’s happening and not<br />

try to control everything.”<br />

One of the film’s strong points is its comedic<br />

undertones, which nicely balance out the film’s<br />

dramatic moments. “The heavy subject matter that I<br />

was dealing with, I try to find the levity within it, [to]<br />

be able to laugh at the situations.”<br />

To bring levity to the script, Johnson knew that the<br />

film’s lead needed to have an understated comedic<br />

side. “I wrote the movie for Michael [Cram], I worked<br />

with him on Flashpoint. I think he is just the funniest<br />

guy, but he doesn’t even know how funny he is. He<br />

is Mitch, but I think more sophisticated. I remember<br />

being on set and he’d be like, ‘I don’t understand<br />

what you’re saying.’ He’d get a bit insecure. ‘What do<br />

you want?’ he’d say.” Johnson affects a panicky voice<br />

for Cram.<br />

“There he is, that’s him,” she joked. “One day<br />

he just showed up really confident and a whole<br />

different Mitch and I was like ‘who is this confident<br />

guy on my set?’”<br />

“What are you talking about?” he responded<br />

anxiously.<br />

“There you go, there he is,” Johnson said, laughing.<br />

The Space Between will be shown on <strong>April</strong> 21st at the<br />

Globe Cinema as part of CUFF. Star Michael Ironside<br />

will be in attendance.<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 35


THE VIDIOT<br />

rewind to the future<br />

Assassin’s Creed<br />

The upside to being an assassin is that one-day you might actually<br />

get to kill your boss.<br />

And who would know better than the inherent assassin in this<br />

action movie?<br />

Alan (Jeremy Irons) and his daughter (Marion Cotillard) are<br />

scientists with a clandestine organization out to prevent the<br />

modern-day Templar from enslaving the human race.<br />

To help them locate an artifact that can decode human free<br />

will, the pair abducts a death row inmate, Callum (Michael Fassbender),<br />

with ties to an ancient assassins guild.<br />

Thrust through time into his ancestor’s tunic, Callum learns the<br />

article’s location as well as his captor’s true intentions with it.<br />

Although it is a higher caliber video game movie than most,<br />

this live-action version of the Ubisoft franchise suffers the same<br />

pitfalls as its gaming ilk, namely, bad acting and script.<br />

Furthermore, sending convicts to the 1400s is a smart way to<br />

ease prison overpopulation.<br />

Collateral Beauty<br />

Losing someone is very difficult, especially when they didn’t tell<br />

you any of their online passwords.<br />

Fortunately, the deceased in this drama was too young to have<br />

that many PINs.<br />

Spiraling into depression after losing his daughter, ad executive<br />

Howard (Will Smith) starts penning angry letters to Love, Death<br />

and Time.<br />

When his business partners (Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael<br />

Peña) discover this they hire actors (Keira Knightley, Helen<br />

Mirren, Jacob Latimore) to portray those concepts and confront<br />

Howard publically.<br />

However, their scheme to get him deemed insane makes them<br />

reevaluate their own feelings towards those intangibles.<br />

A failed attempt at an uplifting ensemble, the hokey premise<br />

gets more pathetic and laughable as it limps towards to its<br />

over-emotional ending. Not even its credible cast can save it from<br />

the sentimental scrapheap.<br />

Besides, the only letters you should be sending after losing<br />

someone are those addressed to mail-order bride websites.<br />

Fences<br />

The upside to being a garbage man in the 1950s was that households<br />

only had one garbage can.<br />

But even that can’t keep the trash collector in this drama from<br />

complaining.<br />

Relegated to the back of the dumpster - alongside the other<br />

black sanitation worker Bono (Stephen Henderson) - failed baseball<br />

star Troy (Denzel Washington) shares his resentment with his<br />

co-worker, his wife (Viola Davis) and his two sons on a daily basis.<br />

Over the years his anger, drinking and his adultery drives<br />

further wedges between his loved ones. Meanwhile he wages a<br />

personal war against the Grim Reaper.<br />

Directed by Denzel Washington and featuring an Oscar-winning<br />

performance from Davis, this minimalistic film adaptation<br />

of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play is a powerful, albeit long<br />

winded, portrayal of a multifaceted but ultimately unlikable<br />

character.<br />

Incidentally, movies are better than plays because you aren’t hit<br />

by any of the actors spit.<br />

by Shane Sellar<br />

Jackie<br />

The first thing a First Lady should do after her husband’s been<br />

assassinated is pack the White House silverware.<br />

Mind you, the mourner in this drama has ample time to steal<br />

before removal.<br />

Shortly after his assassination, John F. Kennedy’s revered wife<br />

Jacqueline (Natalie Portman) arranges an elaborate state funeral<br />

for him that is construed as controversial by his brother Robert<br />

(Peter Sarsgaard) and his voters.<br />

She further confounds the public by conducting a Life magazine<br />

interview where she explains to a reporter (Billy Crudup)<br />

that her and husband’s legacy was akin to John’s favourite<br />

musical Camelot.<br />

An artistic take on Jackie’s mental decline following the traumatic<br />

events in Dallas, this beautifully shot biography offers up<br />

an unseen glimpse into the grieving process of the world’s most<br />

beloved widow, masterfully performed by Portman.<br />

And the Kennedys were just like Arthurian legend if JFK was<br />

Guinevere and Marilyn Monroe was Lancelot.<br />

Live By Night<br />

The biggest difference between the Irish mob and the Italian mob<br />

is their choice of starch.<br />

Obviously, the Irish gangster in this drama is partial to tubers.<br />

Run out of Boston after he is caught kissing on the Irish mob<br />

boss’ girl (Sienna Miller), ex-soldier Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck)<br />

ends up in Florida working enforcement for the Italian mafia’s rum<br />

running business.<br />

While he finds love with a local (Zoe Saldana), Coughlin’s<br />

problems aren’t over yet as the local sheriff (Chris Cooper), his<br />

aspiring actress daughter (Elle Fanning) and the local chapter of<br />

the Ku Klux Klan make his transition into the Tampa markets a<br />

bloody one.<br />

Starring, directed and adapted from the novel by Affleck, this<br />

epic length vanity project brings nothing new to the gangster<br />

genre besides ludicrous dialogue, ill-fated white suits and marginal<br />

directing.<br />

Besides, bootlegging isn’t as secure a career in Florida as say<br />

smuggling in Cubans is.<br />

Moana<br />

The best thing about growing up on an island is that it prepares<br />

you for if ever you get deserted on one.<br />

However, the princess in this animated-musical sees no benefit<br />

to island living.<br />

The daughter of a domineering chieftain, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho)<br />

yearns to stray beyond the coral borders of her Polynesian<br />

community, but her father forbids voyages abroad for fear of<br />

sea-monsters.<br />

When she uncovers the real reason behind the leviathans and<br />

of her tribe’s seafaring legacy, Moana and her pet rooster set<br />

sail to capture a shapeshifting demigod (Dwayne Johnson) and<br />

liberate an island deity from captivity.<br />

Although it does not stray far from the proven Disney princess<br />

story standards – an animal sidekick, an overprotective father<br />

and a bevy of songs - it does however do a commendable job<br />

incorporating those criteria in an amusing fashion.<br />

Incidentally, shapeshifting is most useful when you can’t find<br />

a washroom.<br />

Passengers<br />

The downside to hypersleep is lying in your own nocturnal emissions<br />

for 100 years.<br />

Smartly, the cyrosleeper in this sci-fi film wakes up to get his<br />

rocks off.<br />

When an asteroid strikes a spacecraft carrying thousands of<br />

hibernating colonists to their new home, slumbering passenger,<br />

Jim (Chris Pratt), is woken 90 years too soon.<br />

Unable to get back to sleep, or commandeer the controls, Jim’s<br />

desperation results in him rousing a female passenger (Jennifer<br />

Lawrence) to keep him company. But when she learns the truth,<br />

his plans for love are jeopardized.<br />

Meanwhile, damage to the ship’s reactor threatens all life<br />

aboard.<br />

With mediocre effects, dull performances and a stalker-like narrative<br />

masquerading as a love story, this ill-fated voyage distracts<br />

from its creepiness with a boilerplate climax that adds further<br />

insult to the viewer’s intelligence.<br />

Besides, intercourse in space is the same as intercourse on<br />

Earth, just way more expensive.<br />

36 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE FILM


JUCY<br />

DBRIDGE<br />

dBridge reflects on his quarter-century musical journey<br />

by Max Foley<br />

Influential producer and Exit Records boss continues to explore.<br />

Love it or hate it, drum and bass is one of the<br />

most historically significant parts of electronic<br />

music. Consistently overshadowed by more<br />

approachable and popular genres, the veritable<br />

ecosystem that is 174 b.p.m. nevertheless continues<br />

to strive, taking identity-shifting curveballs in<br />

stride and enduring through decade after decade.<br />

Darren White, a.k.a. dBridge, has been there since<br />

the very beginning.<br />

“I’m really proud to call myself a part of the<br />

D’N’B scene, and I’m really glad that it’s sticking<br />

around — as much as some people wish it<br />

wasn’t,” White says, chuckling.<br />

In 1996, White joined forces with [Jason] Maldini<br />

to create grassroots jungle project Future Forces, Inc.,<br />

releasing on guerilla im<strong>print</strong> Renegade Hardware.<br />

From there, Future Forces connected with Vegas and<br />

influential modern-day hit-maker DJ Fresh to birth<br />

one of the genre’s séminal collectives — Bad Company<br />

UK. White then set about establishing a label<br />

named EXIT Records, which exists today as a bastion<br />

of tastemakers influencing drum and bass and its<br />

various far-reaching tendrils.<br />

Notoriously versatile and prolific, dBridge has operated<br />

under so many different solo and collaborative<br />

monikers that it’s liable to make even the most hardcore<br />

fans’ heads spin. Even in the last five years, White<br />

has released under aliases like Heart Drive and Velvit<br />

as well as the ever-increasingly nebulous dBridge title<br />

— the latter of which will likely be commanding the<br />

bulk of his attention this year.<br />

“I’m planning on having a selfish year. I want to<br />

JUCY<br />

write and finish an album this year. It’s about time<br />

— it’s been 10 years since my last,” White explains,<br />

referencing the future-facing The Gemini Principle<br />

LP released in 2008. It sounds like a long time, but<br />

White is modest to a fault, failing to clarify that<br />

he’s released a borderline unreasonable amount<br />

of material in those last ten years. The bulk of this<br />

material consists of literally dozens of solo and<br />

collaborative releases.<br />

Patched in from his home in Antwerp via<br />

Skype, White’s meditations on almost 25 years<br />

of activity are humbling and understated, yet<br />

disproportionately inspiring.<br />

“When you say that, a quarter of a century plus, I<br />

mean... fuck me! It’s something to be proud of, to be<br />

able to stick around this long and (hopefully) stay<br />

relevant in some way,” White says wistfully.<br />

“I recognize that I’m getting to that point in my<br />

life where I want to take a step back and change<br />

things slightly.”<br />

“People used to tell me like, “Oh, [jungle anthems]<br />

“Dead By Dawn, “The Nine,” “True Romance” was<br />

the reason I got into music. And that gives me pause<br />

because they’re not really citing me anymore, they’re<br />

citing people like fucking [redacted], or bloody<br />

[redacted]. So, yeah. Now I’m feeling old.”<br />

“But I wanna be careful not to come across as a<br />

grumpy old junglist,” White clarifies. A little bit of<br />

jadedness is acceptable when you wrote a good portion<br />

of the drum and bass textbook. And he comes<br />

across as anything but when he talks about his own<br />

body of work.<br />

Believe it or not, after 25 years, the anxiety of releasing<br />

creative work hasn’t gone away. Darren White,<br />

then, is the quintessential creative.<br />

“When I DJ, I’m really bad at playing my own music.<br />

I struggle to play it. I’d almost prefer if I wasn’t in a<br />

position where I had to. I’d prefer having other people<br />

play it.” You’d think that after all these years, I’d just<br />

have the balls to get on with it.”<br />

“Even though I’ve been involved with DnB for so<br />

long, there are times where I hate it, and I have to<br />

explore other avenues.” White continues, citing his<br />

growing passion for photography. “But I have this<br />

weird sort of self-doubt. And that probably has to do<br />

with the fact that when you put something out that’s<br />

really personal to you, you don’t really want to hear<br />

what other people think. I don’t really want people to<br />

pass judgment because that’s not why I’ve made it.”<br />

Over time, however, White clearly started to settle<br />

down and own his shit, going through a minor but<br />

palpable transformation. Existential angst and creative<br />

second-guessing aside –- traps every artist ever<br />

has fallen into — White’s contemplative enthusiasm<br />

was contagious.<br />

“After 25 years, I think I still know how to rock a<br />

party.” he finishes.<br />

Those of us eager to put that latent but rock-solid<br />

confidence to the test will have ample opportunities<br />

to this summer. Never change, dBridge.<br />

Catch dBridge at the HiFi Club in Calgary alongside<br />

the Librarian on <strong>April</strong> 15th, and this summer at Bass<br />

Coast Electronic Music and Art Festival.<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 39


CHUURCH<br />

rising Calgary duo shares their story<br />

Calgary duo Chuurch reveal exclusive secrets within this article.<br />

This isn’t the first time we’ve written<br />

about Calgary’s illusive duo Chuurch,<br />

comprised of Jeff Wilson (a.k.a Makemdef)<br />

and Justin MacLean (a.k.a EviCtion). It’s<br />

not even the first time we’ve found ourselves<br />

sitting on a couch together.<br />

When whispers of their name first emerged on<br />

the scene early in 2016, it caught the attention of<br />

many. Their debut performance at the Sled Island<br />

Block Party saw the mysterious duo materialize out<br />

of a murky cloud of intrigue, establishing themselves<br />

as forerunners in the scene.<br />

The two officially met outside Habitat Living<br />

Sound in 2014. MacLean recognized Wilson’s<br />

university ring for St. Francis Xavier; it was from his<br />

hometown school in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. They<br />

began talking, realizing they shared a mutual friend<br />

and mentor who pushed them to pursue music seriously.<br />

They actually had unknowingly both attended<br />

his wake, but it wasn’t until that chance meeting<br />

that they connected, and thus began making music.<br />

Thus far, it’s been an ambiguous, creative, and highly<br />

danceable mix of electronica, house, and hip-hop<br />

that’s dark, sexual, and heavy.<br />

While Wilson attempts to tell the full story,<br />

MacLean fills in the blanks with his drawling,<br />

baritone voice.<br />

“It was fate, it was crazy.”<br />

Fast-forward from their chance meeting to November<br />

18. They’ve converged: MacLean brings his<br />

prolific hip-hop background to the equation; Wilson<br />

brings his university-jazz-guitar-schooling-turned-DJ<br />

background. The result was an unstoppable flow of<br />

original material. Around that time, Dubstep artist<br />

Skream came to Calgary to play a five-hour set. Wilson<br />

brought the DJ back to his house after the show.<br />

“So we had five or six people back and we had<br />

one person that was very, very, very important,”<br />

says Wilson.<br />

Eventually, Skream asked Wilson to put on music.<br />

Wilson obliged, opportunistically vouching to play<br />

Chuurch material for someone he admired. It was<br />

by Paul Rodgers<br />

photo: Michael Benz<br />

kismet: Skream dug it.<br />

“I challenged him to e-mail people, and he<br />

e-mailed [British producer] Switch, and that was the<br />

turning point for not just me quitting my job, but<br />

Justin quitting his job. And that’s what led us a year<br />

later to get down to L.A.”<br />

The duo had not previously been able to<br />

disclose the fact that it was this encounter that<br />

led them to Los Angeles. The relationship formed<br />

with the legendary producer whose clients<br />

include M.I.A. Christina Aguilera, and Major Lazer<br />

opened serious doors.<br />

“He’s the legend, he’s the OG, he’s a huge<br />

supporter of us, he’s our big homie… being around<br />

that guy is honestly like hanging around Jay Z,”<br />

reminisces MacLean.<br />

After an initial five-day excursion to meet Switch<br />

and show him they were real, Chuurch received<br />

some financial backing from friends. They returned<br />

for a three month trip which turned into a tumultuous<br />

but productive two months. The music created<br />

during that period is to be announced; in the meantime,<br />

upcoming live performances are abundant.<br />

“Making music down there was awesome, the<br />

thing is, every time we were making something really<br />

dope, I would get the familiar feeling of us just being<br />

at home.”<br />

Like with all other challenges they have faced<br />

together, they made it work and turned that struggle<br />

into something positive. They returned to Calgary<br />

enriched, having sparked the interest of a larger<br />

international community. Despite finding something<br />

special in L.A., the duo gives serious credit and<br />

respect to the groundwork laid Smalltown DJs, the<br />

Hifi Club staff, and people at PK Sound that helped<br />

Chuurch get established.<br />

Keep watch on what this black-clad, lean bass<br />

hustlers will churn out next, it’s guaranteed to be<br />

something big.<br />

Chuurch perform on <strong>April</strong> 20th at the Commonwealth<br />

Bar in Calgary with Amine Edge and Dance.<br />

TROYBOI<br />

a multi-cultural clash master<br />

There’s a term used when describing opposites:<br />

“worlds apart.” The term indicates<br />

those that are defined by radically different<br />

paradigms. In music, the term is infrequently used,<br />

yet applicable to the fusion of unusual genres<br />

or sounds into a cohesive whole. In the case of<br />

South London’s TroyBoi, and his knack for fusing a<br />

miasma of unique sounds and styles into his own<br />

signature pastiche, it’s perfectly suited.<br />

Signature tracks “Mantra” and “Do You?” exhibit<br />

the varying cultural influences that permeate his catalogue.<br />

Thanks to a mix of Nigerian, Chinese, Indian<br />

and Portuguese ethnicities, there is a kaleidoscope of<br />

sounds that appear in his music.<br />

“From being a baby it’s been imbedded in me,”<br />

begins TroyBoi, who resides in London and goes by<br />

Troy Henry when not on stage.<br />

“My mom, she used to love watching Indian movies.<br />

She would watch them all day, every day. And in<br />

Hindi movies there are so many songs and it’s like<br />

a three or four hour movie. My mom would watch<br />

like two movies a day, that’s like eight hours. Can you<br />

imagine how many songs I was listening to as a kid?”<br />

His father equally gifted him with a love for disco<br />

and funk, and now the sky seems to be the limit with<br />

where he can go with his Trap oriented sound.<br />

After finishing up the last leg of his North American<br />

tour, appropriately dubbed Mantra, TroyBoi has<br />

humbly embraced his highly acclaimed, new found<br />

solo success over the last couple of years.<br />

“It’s been amazing, really, being from London, and<br />

to be able to come all the way out here, to meet and<br />

greet my fans, it’s just really nice,” Troyboi explains.<br />

TroyBoi fuses a miasma of unique styles into a pastiche all his own.<br />

by Jay King<br />

While he’s been involved with the collaborative<br />

project SoundSnobz (with best friend and fellow<br />

producer, icekream), being in great demand solo is<br />

something he’s humbled by and has been cultivating<br />

since the early 2010’s when he began producing,<br />

remixing, and releasing.<br />

“This tour is specifically for the fans. For anyone<br />

who’s maybe never heard the music, this is the one<br />

for them.”<br />

Even though he’s collaborated with the likes of<br />

Flosstradamus and Diplo, having another fellow<br />

producer be such a close friend has really meant a lot<br />

to Troyboi, and he is forthright in expressing so.<br />

“He’s like my brother, right there. We have a whole<br />

bunch of tracks already, and we’re going to be doing<br />

a lot more. It’s been kind of hard to juggle everything,<br />

cause I’ve been away, and he’s been doing his own<br />

thing, as well. But once all the touring is over, and I’m<br />

making more music, that’s when we’re really gonna<br />

come with SoundSnobz, full scene.”<br />

With an obvious appreciation for his humble beginnings<br />

and for clear vision of where he would like<br />

to go, TroyBoi’s ambition is sincere and focused.<br />

“There’s so many things that are motivating me,”<br />

he says.<br />

“From my actual goals, to the fans, there’s a lot<br />

that goes behind the drive and force to get me to<br />

these places, for sure.”<br />

TroyBoi is performing in Edmonton during the Northern<br />

Lights Music Festival. It runs <strong>April</strong> 14th and 15th;<br />

tickets can be purchased at http://northernlightsmusicfest.com<br />

photo: Mitch Schneider<br />

40 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE JUCY


SNAKEHIPS<br />

Oscillate and undulate to the good-ass vibes<br />

Many electronic music acts from deadmau5 to marshmello have made<br />

masks their calling card. After failing to find fans that were willing to<br />

do their face paint on Twitter, U.K. producer duo Snakehips decided<br />

to join the ranks. It was October 31, 2014 at the Hifi Club and it was Oliver<br />

“Ollie” Lee and James Carter’s first, and to date only, performance in Alberta.<br />

“We went in these horrible masks that we bought from this weird costume<br />

shop,” Lee recalls. Carter wore a vaguely unsettling Geisha mask; Lee opted to wear<br />

the face of a smiling grandpa.<br />

Masks aren’t Snakehips gimmick though. It’d be hard to argue that Snakehips<br />

have anything closely resembling a gimmick at all. Their brand of boom-bap, soul,<br />

and new-era wonky influenced electropop is varied, and most importantly, fun.<br />

Lee even has a tough time nailing down what makes Snakehips so ‘Snakehips-y.’<br />

“Everything’s always like in a different style. We never really do the same thing<br />

twice. It’s difficult for us to even say what (our sound) is.”<br />

Whatever that sound is, it’s working. Despite their scene being oversaturated<br />

with producers, and despite the fact that they’ve never released an album, the<br />

duo is causing a rumble. Their breakout, “All My Friends” is a slightly depressive<br />

anthemic ode to wasted nights featuring the sultry singing of Tinashe alongside a<br />

nuanced, drug-themed Chance the Rapper verse.<br />

Up until “All My Friends,” the duo’s biggest claim to fame was an official remix of<br />

a deep-cut by sultry R&B singer Banks.<br />

“It was a pretty wild idea,” says Lee, describing the initial attempt to contact the<br />

rising star. To their surprise, that’s all it took.<br />

“It’s still kind of crazy for us.”<br />

From there, James and Ollie have been releasing hit single after hit single via<br />

collaborations with Tory Lanez, Anderson .Paak, and Zayn. Even their BBC Live<br />

Lounge session, a popular cover segment on the radio station, was a collaboration<br />

with Norwegian star MØ. They’ve also released a single with her dubbed “Don’t<br />

Leave” that’s currently climbing the Spotify charts.<br />

This rapid-fire single output is par for the course with electronic artists, as hype<br />

is fleeting in our digital world. Building up enough material for an album while<br />

attaching your name to big name collaborators has kept Snakehips in the spotlight.<br />

RUMOURS RAVE<br />

the otherworldliness of Fleetmac Wood’s remix<br />

From the moment Rumours was released in 1977, the world’s great love<br />

affair with Fleetwood Mac’s Buckingham-Nicks line-up spiraled beyond<br />

the stratosphere and has continued to burn brightly, lighting up the<br />

rock ‘n’ roll heavens. Taking it yet to another level, Alex Oxley and Lisa Jelliffe,<br />

a pair of English DJs, created Fleetmac Wood in a “sweaty East London basement”<br />

as a remix project and traveling rave party dedicated to the music of<br />

their favourite band.<br />

by Cole Parker<br />

They haven’t totally ruled out more traditional music release strategies though.<br />

“We’re just kind of working out whether we want to do an album or whether it’s<br />

cool to just keep the music going. We’re sitting on a whole bunch of material.”<br />

However they choose to release their music, they’re returning to Calgary soon<br />

to play it. This time, however, they’re not opening; the venue will be bigger and<br />

they won’t be wearing grandpa masks. Their goal remains the same.<br />

“It’s just fun, good-ass vibes,” Lee boasts.<br />

“We try and play as much cool shit as possible. It’s what we want to hear in the<br />

club.”<br />

If you’re a fan of upbeat, punchy and diverse electronic pop, it’s probably what<br />

you’ll want to hear in the club too.<br />

Catch Snakehips at the Palace Theatre in Calgary on <strong>April</strong> 6th.<br />

by B. Simm<br />

Other than celebrating Rumours’ 40th year, why does it make for a<br />

good project to transition into dance music?<br />

LISA: We feel that Rumours is the gateway drug to all of Fleetwood Mac’s<br />

music from the early bluesy stuff with Peter Green, to years after Rumours.<br />

You can’t cannot deny that that album is just full to the brim of incredible<br />

songs, that are extremely varied, and so many talents in the band with<br />

three vocalist. All members are big contributors, they could all be solo<br />

artists themselves. People have so many connections to all those songs,<br />

and such a wide range of different tracks to work with. You have the<br />

driving up-tempo of “Go Your Own Way,” the whimsical and the hypnotic<br />

sounds of “Dreams,” which actually has a loop drum beat in it. Dance has<br />

always borrowed from music before it, which we’re doing the reserve of.<br />

I also think it’s really great to hear some analogue sounds in a night club.<br />

People have this emotion connection, but aren’t used to hearing it in a<br />

club environment where it becomes a new experience.<br />

What can party-goers expect?<br />

LISA: Something that we seen a lot is that the style of Stevie Nicks is not a<br />

gender, it’s a state of mind. We get lot of men, gay and straight, who love<br />

to work a shawl (laughs). Other than the music, there’s this slightly more<br />

romantic visual aesthetic that we encourage and also bring into our set...<br />

this otherworldliness that some of their music evokes.<br />

Rumours Rave descends upon Broken City Friday, <strong>April</strong> 14.<br />

JUCY<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 41


ROOTS<br />

TIMBER TIMBRE<br />

creepin’ in real freaky with a political new record<br />

Timber Timbre releases their sixth studio album in <strong>April</strong>.<br />

Timber Timbre’s music is sexy, swampy, and<br />

makes one want to take off their clothes<br />

and sweat a little. The lyrics drip and ache<br />

with longing and cinematic restraint, in no small<br />

part due to frontman Taylor Kirk starting on the<br />

path of filmmaking over a decade ago.<br />

“I had the idea that I might like to make music for<br />

films and I was serious about making recording,” Kirk<br />

tells <strong>BeatRoute</strong>.<br />

LEEROY STAGGER<br />

new album Love Versus is a lyrical and musical tapestry<br />

15 years in, Leeroy Stagger is releasing his ninth album and is finally<br />

hitting his stride artistically and professionally. Love Versus<br />

is a new collection of songs, written and recorded by Stagger at<br />

his new studio, which he built after winning the Peak Performance<br />

Project in 2015. This marks his first full-length to be recorded at the<br />

new digs.<br />

Stagger is an accomplished producer in his own right, but this time he<br />

teamed up with Colin Stewart (Dan Mangan, New Pornographers), and<br />

is releasing the record on Edmonton’s True North Records.<br />

“I had been in a pretty fog the last couple of years,” Stagger tells<br />

<strong>BeatRoute</strong>.<br />

“Depression, anxiety, uncertainty. This really seems the first creative<br />

emergence coming out of that fog of the last couple of years. It seems<br />

like a perfect storm, I think people are connecting to the truth of it, the<br />

love in it, and it’s uplifting but not watered down.”<br />

Stagger broke down the impending record for us track-by-track,<br />

giving us revealing insights into his artistic process and decade of musical<br />

experience. It gave us revealing and evocative insight into the album,<br />

and is best read in conjunction with listening to the album.<br />

Opener “I Want It All” is a song about “trying to embrace how grateful<br />

I am for what I have as opposed to worrying about the things I don’t<br />

have, or want. It’s an observation on how simple life can be, how beautiful<br />

it can be, if we really look at it.”<br />

The title track, “Love Versus,” comes from when Stagger “was going<br />

through a lot of personal turmoil,” and it’s centred on “whether, or not,<br />

love, in its essence, is all we need. If it is enough.”<br />

The heart of the third track, “Enemy Inside,” “came from the Peak<br />

Performance competition” and was co-written with Mike Edel. Stagger<br />

“brought that song to the producer, he didn’t really like it, he wanted me<br />

to continue writing it, so I put more meat on it and it became “Enemy<br />

ROOTS<br />

photo: Caroline Desilets<br />

“By the time I finished (school) I had made a few<br />

art films, and realized I was making the films so that I<br />

could make the music for the films.”<br />

So, Kirk started Timber Timbre.<br />

“I never even had any idea that I would even share<br />

it with anybody, that I would even play it for my<br />

friends or anyone I knew. I didn’t have any particular<br />

ambition.”<br />

Six albums, two JUNO nominations, and two<br />

Polaris Music Prize shortlists later, things are a lot<br />

different.<br />

It “seems that each time I go to start over to make<br />

something, the whole process is sort of infected with<br />

the idea that it is going to be presented or consumed<br />

or that it has a life that I ought to be concerned about<br />

beyond the basic idea of making it,” explains Kirk.<br />

Timber Timbre’s last three albums has recorded in<br />

a myriad of magical places like the renamed Grand<br />

Lodge No. 24, the studio formerly owned by Arcade<br />

Fire. Other locations have included the National<br />

Music Center in Calgary and the Banff Centre for<br />

Performing Arts, which was a “real dream.” Perhaps<br />

trying to top their previous locations, the recording<br />

sessions for their upcoming sixth full-length Sincerely,<br />

Future Pollution, took them to La Frette chateau, a<br />

studio outside Paris.<br />

“The guy who owns (and runs) the place is living<br />

in Montreal part time and has a relationship with the<br />

music scene here,” explains Kirk of who the album<br />

came to be.<br />

“Leslie Feist had been there, [José] González, Patrick<br />

Watson… so I’d heard about it forever. Then we<br />

had a show in Paris and we came to visit the studio,<br />

to have a look around and they were so hospitable<br />

and the studio itself just had a weird vibe.”<br />

Doubt, at one time or another can seep into artistic<br />

endeavors, no matter the success one achieves.<br />

“The kind of doubt that I had with this recording I<br />

have never had before”.<br />

The writing and recording came during a time<br />

Stagger gives us a track-by-track breakdown of his new record.<br />

photo: David Guenther<br />

Inside,” which is now intended to be the second single. The song is about<br />

coming home to the ghosts of my youth.” The song is a throwback rocker<br />

in the vein of Bruce Springsteen; harkening to Stagger’s 2006 album<br />

Depression River.<br />

“Crooked Old World” features Haligonian raconteur Joel Plaskett,<br />

which came about after Stagger “started opening for him on the coast<br />

by Naddine Madell-Morgan<br />

where Timber Timbre was restructuring as an act and<br />

an entity. All their infrastructure “had to also be reassembled.”<br />

The spooky vibe of La Frette, the political<br />

landscape, and the lingering doubt Kirk felt seeped<br />

into the recordings themselves.<br />

“For the most part people found it weird,” Kirk<br />

states. “Suspicious or something.”<br />

“In the past, we’ve always put out the songs that<br />

we’ve liked or felt were the most interesting. This<br />

time, because we started working with this European<br />

label called City Slang, and the project has more<br />

traction and interest in Europe, they had a stronger<br />

opinion and they felt that [the album’s lead single, the<br />

morose and lo-fi] “Sewer Blues” was a better bridge<br />

sonically between the back catalog and what the new<br />

record sounds like.”<br />

Accordingly, Sincerely, Future Pollution is pure<br />

heartache, and despite the restructuring, just as<br />

freaky and provocative as anything you’ve heard from<br />

Timber Timbre. Anchored by Kirk’s provocative baritone,<br />

it’s bluesy and bleak with swirling arrangements<br />

and melancholic guitars. Be sure to pick up a copy<br />

when it’s revealed to the world on <strong>April</strong> 7th.<br />

Timber Timbre performs at the Starlite Room in<br />

Edmonton on May 2, Commonwealth Bar & Stage<br />

in Calgary on May 3, and The Vogue Theatre in<br />

Vancouver on May 5. Sincerely, Future Pollution will<br />

be released on Friday, <strong>April</strong> 7th, and can be ordered<br />

from Arts & Crafts at https://arts-crafts.ca/releases/<br />

AC130.html.<br />

by Graham Mackenzie<br />

and the two became friends.”<br />

“Little Brother” is a song that Stagger describes as having never “really<br />

done anything like it. I like the vibe, the groove; it reminds me of something<br />

like ‘60s Parisian pop mixed with something like The Clash. I like<br />

the juxtaposition of the guitar against that laidback groove; it’s kinda like<br />

a storm. It highlights the story of the song, the restlessness.”<br />

“Run Rabbit Run” is based on a story Stagger’s grandfather told him<br />

about “a man named ‘Dirty Bill.’ I never set out to write any particular<br />

type of song but this came to me, most of my songs are just cobbled<br />

together pieces of my life and my observations at the time. They all have<br />

some sort of theme, I am really quite proud of this song actually, it’s<br />

kind of a nod to ‘Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts’ on [Bob Dylan’s]<br />

Blood on the Tracks [1975]. It’s also a kind of a stoner’s trip.”<br />

The end of the record features several nods to Stagger’s musical<br />

upbringing.<br />

“Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone” was a way for Stagger to “dip [his]<br />

toe into the waters of punk rock here a little bit,” while ‘Living in the<br />

Future’ carries a “Travelling Wilburys vibe” and ‘$1500 a day’ is a “song for<br />

Elliot Smith.” The record ends with “Until the End of Time,” a “love song<br />

for [his] family.”<br />

All told, it’s an ambitious record with a staggeringly detailed story,<br />

made alive by Stagger’s characteristic richness.<br />

“At the end of the day I’m trying to inspire people to make the world a<br />

better place,” he says.<br />

“That’s the goal; sometimes it doesn’t always feel like that. But I’m<br />

trying to do good work.”<br />

Love Versus is released on <strong>April</strong> 7th and will be available from True North<br />

Records. Leeroy Stagger plays the Gateway in Calgary on <strong>April</strong> 28th, and<br />

the Almanac in Edmonton on <strong>April</strong> 29th.<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 43


MATT PATERSHUK<br />

On writing, performing, recording, and everything in-between<br />

Authenticity serves as the most important<br />

vessel for any musician. Listeners can<br />

smell a fake from miles away, particularly<br />

in the world of folk and roots music; connecting<br />

with your audience and creating an intimate<br />

atmosphere is essential. Enter Matt Patershuk,<br />

who’s skillfully managed to do both.<br />

The low rumble of Patershuk’s husky,<br />

pitch-perfect voice matched with his heartfelt<br />

and smartly penned songs has charmed listeners<br />

across Canada and beyond. His appeal is<br />

unmistakable. The written material ranges in<br />

emotional focus and message. Albums will contain<br />

endearing messages to those closest to him<br />

and heartbreaking ballads; elsewhere lyrics will<br />

contain a strong focus on history and storytelling.<br />

Later, upbeat numbers perfect for two-stepping<br />

and whiskey-drinkin’ will appear.<br />

His Western Canadian Music Award nominated<br />

debut album Outside The Lights Of Town pays<br />

homage to traditional country and roots music<br />

with a distinct small-town charm. I Was So Fond<br />

of You (2016) opens with a raunchy fiddle and<br />

guitar combo with a do-or-die narrative about<br />

working tirelessly for those you love. It ends with<br />

the somber title track, a heartbreakingly beautiful<br />

waltz penned for his late sister Claire, who was<br />

killed by a drunk driver.<br />

Stripped down and intimate, the first two<br />

albums were recorded almost completely live off<br />

the floor by super producer Steve Dawson, whose<br />

history includes working with Old Man Luedecke,<br />

Matt Patershuk is hard at work on his third studio album.<br />

The Deep Dark Woods, and numerous others.<br />

This raw approach perfectly exemplifies Matt’s<br />

affinity for stark honesty and subdued irony,<br />

bringing to light an old soul with a sharp eye for<br />

detail. His sound is not unlike Willie Nelson and<br />

John Prine’s early works.<br />

photo: Peter Patershuk<br />

Just under a year has passed since his most recent<br />

release, and with the help of Dawson’s label<br />

Black Hen Music, Patershuk is hard at work on his<br />

third studio album, to be released in the fall.<br />

“It’s definitely different,” Patershuk tells <strong>BeatRoute</strong>.<br />

“We tracked some things separately in<br />

by Moira Billington<br />

isolation booths as opposed to live off the floor.<br />

There are some hints of early rock and roll and<br />

blues, a bit of a bigger sound.”<br />

There’s an impressive roster of musicians<br />

rounding out the sound, including Dawson<br />

himself, Jay Bellerose, and the alt-country singer-songwriter<br />

Anna Egge.<br />

“I’m very inspired by her music and her singing,<br />

and so glad she’s all over this one,” says Patershuk<br />

with aplomb.<br />

The endless cycle of touring and marketing is<br />

no easy task. Even with label and management<br />

support, it remains daunting at the best of times.<br />

Somehow, with a demanding full-time job and a<br />

family, Patershuk finds peace residing in Grand<br />

Prairie. The fervor of everyday life serves as a<br />

great reminder and disciplinary tool for Matt<br />

to find time for practice and his songwriting.<br />

When teased of this reality where musicians<br />

all need full-time work to support their other<br />

very full-time job of music, Patershuk becomes<br />

introspective.<br />

“I think it’s important to have songwriting as<br />

an outlet. Writing songs is the definition of navel<br />

gazing, and I think it can be dangerous to always<br />

be in that frame of mind. I think it’s good for me<br />

to have that work-life balance.”<br />

Matt Patershuk will perform on March 31st at Geomatic<br />

Attic in Lethbridge, <strong>April</strong> 1st at The Ironwood<br />

Stage and Grill in Calgary, and <strong>April</strong> 7th at The<br />

Almanac in Edmonton.<br />

44 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE ROOTS


BRADEN GATES<br />

doing dishes and makin’ wishes<br />

There’s a wide-skied, blue-eyed optimism in the<br />

words of Braden Gates. His quick witted, fast-picked,<br />

friend-folk songs start from the heart and work their<br />

way to the sleeve in a trail of family anecdotes and street<br />

corner romances.<br />

Gates himself is a soft-spoken, clean-cut Edmonton boy,<br />

with a keen ear for the quirks of the everyday. At the tender<br />

age of 24-years-old, he’s releasing his third full-length studio<br />

album, Much Rather Be Sleeping. But more about that later.<br />

Gates is a prolific live performer, playing around Edmonton<br />

and Western Canada, recently springing to Calgary<br />

for a few sets at Wide Cut Weekend. He often sits with his<br />

audience, swapping between guitar and fiddle, cracking<br />

jokes as he plays. There’s a polish and wisdom to his words<br />

that fit well beyond his years, likely due to his heavy catalogue<br />

that puts most songwriters to shame. In addition to<br />

studio albums, Gates often records on his home computer<br />

webcam, throwing new and familiar songs to his friends<br />

and admirers. This past year, he put out six volumes of<br />

material via the Edmontone Demo Series, so named after<br />

studios where they were recorded.<br />

Gates self-describes the series as “demo-y, weird, eccentric<br />

things.” In his effort to hone his craft, the series found<br />

Gates “playing around with the creative process a little bit,”<br />

a result of “[becoming] a little bit obsessive with songwriting<br />

last year.”<br />

Playing and writing often has helped polish his work,<br />

but he still finds value in the studio process.<br />

“There’s a lot more that can be said in a better way if<br />

you spend more time with it,” Braden attests. “There’s a lot<br />

to be said for audio engineering and production.”<br />

That said, Much Rather Be Sleeping is a rather sparse<br />

offering, “recorded live off the floor with a bass and fiddle”<br />

and only a few overdubs. Written before the Edmontone<br />

sessions, and recorded in 2015, the collection of songs<br />

developed while Gates “was living on Whyte Avenue in<br />

Edmonton and indulging in the scene.”<br />

The record is humble, centred on small sentiments,<br />

built around family and the practise of the everyday.<br />

Gates doesn’t shy away from the big ideas, most notably<br />

the ‘L word,’ but he manages to handle these movements<br />

and moments with a casual friendliness, like a letter from<br />

a friend. It’s a quick and rewarding listen, with a level of<br />

completeness that’s not immediately apparent.<br />

Braden isn’t done yet, and is headed back into the<br />

studio, “recording in November” for a new album due next<br />

year with a mix of songs from the Edmontone sessions<br />

as well as a few new ones. He’s got a few more ideas up<br />

his sleeve as well. Taking a break from being a full-time<br />

musician, Gates has taken to washing dishes, a job which<br />

offers “lots of space to think” and write songs in his head.<br />

This has led to some charming and humorous blue-collar<br />

anthems about the greasy porcelain.<br />

“I am actually working on a ‘Songs from the Dish Pit’<br />

album,’” he says. “[It’s] not even close to being done.”<br />

You can catch a few of these tracks on the Edmontone<br />

sessions, but the truth of the matter is that the work of<br />

Braden Gates is not collapsible into a song, an album, or a<br />

movement. Gates is a hard-working, fast-fingered, songwriter-next-door,<br />

and we can’t wait to see what he brings next.<br />

Braden Gates performs <strong>April</strong> 21 at Jeans Joint in Red Deer,<br />

<strong>April</strong> 23 at Culinary Funk in Canmore, and at the Blue Chair<br />

Café in Edmonton on <strong>April</strong> 28th.<br />

Braden Gates bright third album Much Rather Be Sleeping thinks small.<br />

by Liam Prost<br />

photo: Tyler Sirman<br />

ROOTS<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 45


SHRAPNEL<br />

420 MUSIC AND<br />

ARTS FESTIVAL<br />

pipe dreams do come true by Chrystyn Lynryd<br />

Proof that pipe dreams can come true, Calgary’s inaugural<br />

420 Music & Arts Festival is more than a celebration of<br />

Mother Nature’s bounty, it’s a gathering of some of the<br />

finest stoner rock bands in the land. Branching off of a history<br />

of hosting their own internet show and presenting live bands<br />

under the auspices of the Metalheads United Network, Festival<br />

coordinators CC Getty and Celestia Scarlett, along with co-organizer<br />

Patrick Saulnier, had some inkling of what they were getting<br />

into when they set about orchestrating what has grown into a<br />

four-evening event.<br />

“It was really hard to do,” admits Getty. “We started organizing<br />

and reaching out to bands to see if they were interested. This<br />

music doesn’t get a lot of played a lot a Distortion, so we’re kind of<br />

breaking the mould there. But, we ran through a bunch of names of<br />

bands we love like Wo Fat and reached out to them, thinking that<br />

they’d never message us back. Within minutes we had a reply from<br />

Wo Fat. They were in!”<br />

Once the RSVPs from bands started flowing it quickly became apparent<br />

that there were bigger obstacles to be overcome in establishing<br />

a groundbreaking tradition from the grassroots level.<br />

“We were working with Distortion’s booker when we started getting<br />

push-back on the name of the Festival,” he recalls. “There are many<br />

stereotypes associated with stoner rock and stoner metal, but just<br />

because you listen to it doesn’t mean you’re into marijuana. We really<br />

wanted to take away the stereotypes.”<br />

Incorporating an “expo” of artistic and educational displays for<br />

attendees to explore, the Festival aims to compliment the fun elements<br />

common to 420 celebrations held across the planet with timely<br />

socio-political considerations.<br />

“We’ve found about 30 or 40 vendors, so far,” confirms Scarlett.<br />

“It’s great because Calgary has a tonne of talented craftspersons<br />

and designers. We wanted to create a showcase for people and put<br />

that together with some of your medical marijuana activists and other<br />

interesting vendors from Calgary.”<br />

Medicine for the soul will be in abundance throughout the event<br />

as Getty and company have harvested an epic line-up of bands that<br />

will have audiences returning to Distortion’s doorstep night after night.<br />

Thank the Goddess for onsite food trucks!<br />

“Within the stoner rock canon there are so many different styles<br />

that we wanted to represent,” Scarlett explains.<br />

“We started looking around at bands in Western Canada that<br />

were in the genre and there were so many possibilities for line-ups.<br />

Enough to keep us going well into the future, in fact. So, we tried<br />

to pick a lot of bands that don’t usually play here and layered them<br />

in with Calgary’s favourite bands. It’s an interesting and diverse mix<br />

that offers a unique experience every night for people who are doing<br />

three shows back to back.”<br />

Call it stoner, desert, sludge, doom or swamp rock, those rolling<br />

organic grooves with a hardcore concrete center are a custom fit for<br />

the city’s heavy hitters.<br />

“One of the bands we have playing, Hypnopilot, are probably Calgary’s<br />

original stoner rock band. They played the Distortion anniversary<br />

party and were so fired up for this festival they switched up their set<br />

list,” Getty reports.<br />

“We have over 20 bands playing the festival, but we’re actually<br />

putting together more to play a free show on the 19th. We’re<br />

inviting people to come down and pick up their wristbands and<br />

tickets a day early and to get first shot at some of the merchandise.<br />

We figured we might as well have some bands play while we<br />

get everything set up!”<br />

The 420 Music & Arts Festival features live music, art, food trucks, vendors,<br />

beard contests and more. Head to the festival website or Facebook<br />

for more information.<br />

SHRAPNEL<br />

WO FAT<br />

“Texas Sized” band delivers the swampadelic grooves<br />

The 420 Music and Arts Festival brings stoner rockers Wo Fat to the fold!<br />

There are few things more enjoyable than digging into some<br />

salty, smoky barbeque and that’s exactly the kind of pure<br />

chewing satisfaction that meaty Dallas-based swamp rockers<br />

Wo Fat have on their proverbial grill. Turning raw blues rhythms and<br />

uncluttered doom grooves into sweet psych-rock sustenance for over<br />

a decade, this well-seasoned trio has hung in together through thick<br />

and thin. From the formative rumblings of their 2006 debut The<br />

Gathering Dark, to the fulsome darkness of last year’s full-length release<br />

Midnight Cometh, Wo Fat’s lead guitarist/vocalist Kurt Stump,<br />

bassist Tim Wilson and drummer Michael Walter have consistently<br />

brought home the bacon.<br />

“The good thing about Texas is that it’s got a strong scene for our kind<br />

of music,” says jam-master Stump.<br />

“There’s a bunch of good bands here and a number of excellent<br />

venues to play close by, so you can do a short weekend jaunt and hit a<br />

few places.”<br />

Of course, the group who brought forth molten LPs Psychedelonaut<br />

(2009) and Noche del Chupacabra (2011) had little choice but to<br />

catch fire around the globe. As welcome as the sound of fat sizzling on<br />

mesquite embers, Wo Fat’s heavy fuzz-laden emanations attracted riff<br />

worshiping legions to any stage that was willing to “Book ‘em, Danno!”<br />

“We’ve built a fairly good following worldwide within that genre<br />

with fans of that type of music. We’ve played Desertfest in Berlin<br />

and London, and we’ve done Hellfest in France. Those are really<br />

amazing genre-specific festivals that feature a bunch of bands we<br />

know, so there’s always a reunion kind of vibe. It’s always fun to<br />

hang-out and we find a lot of comradery playing with bands that<br />

are similar to us stylistically.”<br />

The perfect opportunity to do just that, while enjoying some Albertan<br />

hospitality, <strong>April</strong>’s 420 Music & Arts Festival will surprisingly mark<br />

the well-travelled Wo Fat’s first trip to up to The Great White North.<br />

“It’s our first time to play in Canada, so I’m excited about that! We try<br />

by Christine Leonard<br />

to be strategic about the out-of-town gigs we play – like coming to Calgary.<br />

We’re just flying up there and coming back home, but that’s what<br />

we want to be able to do. To pick and choose cool gigs and do those.<br />

Cuz were not making our living off the band - we’re making our living off<br />

the recording studio.”<br />

A Wo Fat run studio you say? We should have known that the proverbial<br />

enemy of the Hawaii Five-O task force was the one pushing the<br />

buttons all along.<br />

“The drummer, Michael, and I run a recording studio together,” he<br />

elaborates.<br />

“It’s called Crystal Clear Sound and it’s actually one of the oldest<br />

studios in Dallas. I’ve been working there for about 20 years. About<br />

four years ago, we bought the place from the previous owners. Yup, we<br />

bought the company. Now we run it ourselves!”<br />

He continues, “That’s where all of the Wo Fat albums have been recorded.<br />

I’ve been recording professionally for a long time, so experience<br />

has taught me the dangers of becoming myopic and going down the<br />

rabbit hole too far.”<br />

It’s not only anchored the band, but given them confidence in their<br />

jams: after all, when you’re making all the decisions, you’ve got to know<br />

when to pull the proverbial plug on a song, album, or jam session. It’s<br />

made Wo Fat the groovy juggernaut they are today.<br />

“Having spent a lot of time in the studio, I know that you just have to<br />

make decisions and stick to them at some point. I would rather do that<br />

commit and go on than leave something open-ended and never finish it.<br />

I think we’re different from some people in having that attitude.”<br />

Wo Fat are headlining the 420 Music and Arts Festival, which goes down<br />

on <strong>April</strong> 20th until <strong>April</strong> 22nd at Distortion. They are headlining day three<br />

of the festival on <strong>April</strong> 22nd alongside Wo Fat, Chron Goblin, Cowpuncher,<br />

Mammoth Grove, and more. Line-up and ticket information are available<br />

at www.420musicandartsfestival.com<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 47


LANGUID<br />

Edmonton crust punks are battle scarred<br />

Languid, we play hardcore<br />

punk.”<br />

“We’re<br />

So begins Edmonton entity<br />

Languid. The band has no Facebook page; they<br />

don’t offer names. When your Bandcamp is<br />

populated with music, who needs a biography?<br />

Rather than pontificate, they record. Rather<br />

than develop a presence online or take pictures<br />

that represent them as some sort of ‘entity,’ they<br />

head into venues and level the crowd with short<br />

bursts of gruff and powerful songs.<br />

“We’re not reinventing the wheel by any<br />

means, we’re playing punk influenced by<br />

Discharge, and bands that were influenced by<br />

Discharge. We make music that we in turn would<br />

want to listen to, paying respect to those that<br />

have inspired us.”<br />

They continue, “We started in the winter<br />

of 2014 and have been constantly gigging and<br />

writing songs since. Our first actual release was<br />

the Demo 2015. There was a litany of delays in<br />

between then and now in terms of releases, but<br />

meanwhile [we] have been very active.”<br />

On their upcoming full length Resist Mental<br />

Slaughter, the band delivers 12 songs. Captured<br />

by Derek Orthner of Begrime Exemious fame, the<br />

record is bare bones. Like their previous recordings,<br />

the vocals are skillfully placed in the mix,<br />

giving the music a live-off-the-floor feel.<br />

The whole package is heavy and gruff, with<br />

skillful integrations. Take the jarring, high neck<br />

guitar solo in “Total Death,” which veers between<br />

STRIKER<br />

shread-aholics do what they do best<br />

Striker released their fifth studio album in February. Come celebrate!<br />

hardcore punk and metal. It’s comparable to<br />

Battle Ruins, with a hefty dollop of attitude and<br />

weirdness. The album cover also veers into punkis-friends-with-metal<br />

territory with its axe-wielding<br />

warrior, reminiscent of the artwork for Bolt<br />

Thrower’s War Master [1991], as if designed by<br />

Voivod’s Michel Langevin.<br />

“Andy from Darkwood Design in Portland has<br />

been churning out some really insane artwork<br />

so we asked him to do it,” says the band. A quick<br />

perusal of his portfolio reveals artwork that is<br />

consistently strong and stark, featuring exclusively<br />

black and white line work and shading.<br />

“The initial idea was to have a single striking<br />

character like the later Anti Cimex records, we figured<br />

the only way to make it better was to splice<br />

it with the first two Iron Maiden records as well.”<br />

Meanwhile, the lyrics encourage you to damn<br />

the man, resist, and fight.<br />

“Everything we write essentially just has to do<br />

with living day to day dealing with the bullshit life<br />

has to offer, the title track is basically just about<br />

not letting the bastards grind you down.”<br />

You heard ‘em. DON’T LET THE BASTARDS<br />

GRIND YOU DOWN!<br />

Languid will perform at the Edmonton release<br />

party for Resist Mental Slaughter on <strong>April</strong> 15th at<br />

the Sewing Machine Factory. Falsehood, Demise,<br />

and Paroxysm will also perform. To purchase a<br />

copy of the album, contact Languid on Bandcamp<br />

or head to your local record store.<br />

This band doesn’t have a goddamn picture, so we used their album cover instead.<br />

photo: Dana Zuk<br />

“We had some time off between tours and had some<br />

great opportunities come our way so we decided<br />

putting out a new album was our best option!”<br />

Thus begins guitarist Tim Brown of Edmonton thrash metal institution<br />

Striker.<br />

The band has released two albums in two years. They’ve done tours,<br />

music videos, won “Metal Artist of the Year” at the 2016 Western Canadian<br />

Music Awards, and performed on the 70,000 tons of Metal Cruise.<br />

The Striker machine has just kept barreling forward, record label or no.<br />

“Well, since we’ve gone independent it’s a night and day difference,<br />

we’ve had so many amazing opportunities come our way since we made<br />

the switch. In the span just over the last year we’ve played more shows<br />

than we had done in the previous three years combined,” says Brown.<br />

Striker was previously signed to Napalm Records but since the contract<br />

by Sarah Kitteringham<br />

by Jason Lefebvre<br />

ended, they’ve been busier than ever and just independently released<br />

their fifth full-length, the eponymously dubbed Striker.<br />

The album demonstrates musically growth from their youthful,<br />

enthusiastic, pure speed metal approach to a much more refined<br />

modern metal sound. The band has grown to include vocal<br />

harmonies, progressive guitar shredding, and complex rhythms.<br />

The overall flow remains true to the ‘80s traditional heavy metal<br />

sound that the band has become known and loved for, but as time<br />

goes on with Striker, they’ve placed a stronger emphasis on more<br />

empowering lyrics and musical diversity. A strong example of what<br />

Striker has become stands with the song “Former Glory,” which<br />

kicks off the album. It’s loaded with dual guitar shredding and an<br />

anthemic chorus that encourages the listener to “do what it takes/<br />

leave the past behind.”<br />

“It’s just a good song all around and we made sure it was loaded with<br />

shred from front to back. The nice thing about being independent is that<br />

we can do whatever the hell we want,” says Brown.<br />

“There’s no label to tell us they don’t like our direction or that they<br />

want different sounds. So in that sense it’s a very creative space to be in.”<br />

It’s also a triumphant space to be in, made evident by the fact that<br />

the band is answering these questions while on a massive European tour<br />

with power metal act Sonata Arctica. They arrive home in mid <strong>April</strong>,<br />

and then play three CD release parties in their home province. It’s nice to<br />

know that nothing will hold them back.<br />

“My amp exploded tonight so that’s about as close as we get,” counters<br />

Brown, laughing.<br />

“We are all really excited to do what we do and nothing is going to<br />

hold us back.”<br />

Striker will perform on <strong>April</strong> 13th at Dickens with Ravenous: Eternal<br />

Hunger and In/Vertigo. They also perform <strong>April</strong> 14th in Edmonton at the<br />

Starlite Room with the Tylor Dory Trio, and on <strong>April</strong> 15th in Red Deer with<br />

Wraith Risen and Bodies Burn Black.<br />

48 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE SHRAPNEL


D.R.I.<br />

beneath the wheel and under the sun<br />

by Christine Leonard<br />

This Month<br />

In METAL<br />

The Dirty Rotten Imbeciles are invading a venue near you!!!<br />

SHRAPNEL<br />

at the airport getting ready to get on a<br />

plane to Puerto Rico to do a show. I had to<br />

“I’m<br />

get up at 3:30 a.m. and I’m a little sleepy,”<br />

confesses D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) vocalist<br />

Kurt Brecht.<br />

“I’m excited cuz we only have one show, but we’re<br />

there for four days. I’ve been there once before in<br />

2012, but didn’t get to go to the beach, we just got<br />

abandoned in some suburb. This time I want to go<br />

snorkeling or something; I’m all over that.”<br />

And, yes, to answer your question, D.R.I. are those<br />

guys dressed in black T-shirts on the beach.<br />

“All pasty and sickly looking. That’s us.”<br />

Soaking up a little R ‘n’ R has taken on new<br />

significance for the legendary hardcore thrash punk<br />

outfit, who emerged from Houston, TX in 1982.<br />

First introduced to the world via the Dirty Rotten<br />

LP a year later, D.R.I.’s fanbase swelled thanks to a<br />

string of blistering releases including Dealing with<br />

It! (1985), Crossover (1987), 4 of a Kind (1988) and<br />

Thrash Zone (1989), with Definition and Full Speed<br />

Ahead following in the '90s. A D.I.Y. punk pioneer,<br />

Brecht and founding guitarist Spike Cassidy scraped<br />

together a following of likeminded hardcore and<br />

metal lovers and, in the process, went on to become<br />

a genre-defining band.<br />

“As kids growing up we didn’t know if there was<br />

an underground music scene. There wasn’t that type<br />

of music then. Only hard rock. We just went to rock<br />

concerts and stadium shows and stuff. And, I was<br />

into the harder, heavier bands. Then, once we discovered<br />

punk rock, it was all over. We were like 'Yeah,<br />

this is way better. Way more aggressive!' and we just<br />

kind of mixed the two together. Hardcore. Hardcore<br />

punk rock. That’s what we wanted.”<br />

Akin to speed metal crossover acts such as Corrosion<br />

of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I.<br />

is accustomed to being at the eye of a human hurricane<br />

that feeds off acerbic wails, high-velocity guitar<br />

work and breakneck percussion. The self-made<br />

quartet, including bassist Harald Oimoen and recent<br />

addition Walter "Monsta" Ryan on drums, harnesses<br />

the energy of the crowd to generate an frenetic<br />

energy that must been witness to be believed.<br />

“I think it’s the music that’s full-throttle,” says<br />

Brecht. “Our performance is just us playing the<br />

songs, we don’t have a big stage show or anything.<br />

The audience is usually the show. I’ve seen some brutal<br />

stuff. I think if you’re at a thrash show you’d just<br />

better expect that you might get walked on or dove<br />

on to. You can always try and stand in the back,<br />

or whatever, but good luck there too. Sometimes<br />

I just see it go wall to wall. No safe places to stand.<br />

Ah, well. Nothing you can do about something like<br />

that; can’t start writing rules. Then it’s just going to<br />

be lame.”<br />

Still packing those venues and generating new<br />

material like 2016’s surprise EP But Wait...There's<br />

More!, D.R.I. is enthusiastic about their Western<br />

and Eastern Canadian tours. According to Brecht,<br />

dividing the nation into two runs of performance<br />

dates in <strong>2017</strong> is the ideal scenario, as it allows him<br />

the flexibility to pursue his non-musical passions.<br />

“It does give you more time for sure. I’m heavily<br />

into gardening. And, I travel a lot, too,” he says.<br />

“We’re super excited about Canada, because we<br />

never get to play there, and a now we get to do two<br />

tours of Canada! We’re getting special shirts made<br />

up! I’m usually out there selling the merchandise all<br />

the time, so I’m talking to everybody.”<br />

D.R.I. are performing in Winnipeg on <strong>April</strong> 21 at the<br />

Park Theatre, on <strong>April</strong> 22nd in Saskatoon at the University<br />

of Saskatchewan, on <strong>April</strong> 23rd in Edmonton<br />

at Union Hall, and in Calgary on <strong>April</strong> 24th at the<br />

Marquee Beer Market & Stage.<br />

<strong>April</strong> is the best, because it’s when shows<br />

start happening so frequently you can’t<br />

keep up with them all. So here weeeeee<br />

gooooooooo!<br />

Head to the Nite Owl in Calgary for the second<br />

annual Extreme Metal Radio festival. It runs <strong>April</strong><br />

6th until the 9th. Bands like Display of Decay,<br />

Planet Eater, Path To Extinction, Vile Insignia,<br />

Graveyard Nemesis, W.M.D, Train Bigger Monkeys,<br />

and more are performing. Shows are $20 each<br />

night at the door, and there will be loots for prizes<br />

and giveaways.<br />

That same weekend in Edmonton, the third<br />

round of the Stabmonton D.I.Y. Fest will be going<br />

down. Los Angeles grindcore acts Vulva Essers and<br />

Zaklocic will be performing, as will Archagathus,<br />

Messiahlator, Tekarra, and many more. If you<br />

dig your music filthy, crusty, political, and fucking<br />

ferocious, this is the fest for you.<br />

If you live in Calgary, there are several shows to<br />

steal your attention on Thursday, <strong>April</strong> 13th. You<br />

could to head to the Striker album release party at<br />

Dickens (just make sure you read our feature on the<br />

band first); you could also head to the Palomino<br />

Smokehouse and Social Cub for Monolith <strong>AB</strong>,<br />

Snake Pit, Regress, and Mortality Rate. Either way,<br />

you’re going to have a blast.<br />

If you’re not heading to the 420 Music and<br />

Arts Festival in Calgary (which, let’s face it, is a<br />

rather ridiculous decision on your part), then<br />

there are several great gig options in Edmonton<br />

Power metal legends Hammerfall perform at Dickens on May 4th!<br />

that weekend. On Saturday, <strong>April</strong> 22nd, Vancouver<br />

sludge mongers Anciients are playing at the<br />

Mercury Room with Dead Quiet, Tekarra, and<br />

Solarcoven. That same evening over at the Forge,<br />

Aggression is playing with Quietus, Skepsis,<br />

and Tessitura.<br />

The stoner gigs are coming hard and fast this<br />

month! On Tuesday, <strong>April</strong> 25th, sludge legends<br />

Weedeater will perform at Distortion with Primitive<br />

Man, Nosis, and Rebuild/Repair. If you dig<br />

your bands getting sister fucking wasted on couch<br />

syrup and delivering a wall of sound, this gig will<br />

deliver yer fix.<br />

Near the end of the month, Blind Beggar Pub<br />

in Calgary has a metal gig going down. On Friday,<br />

<strong>April</strong> 28th, DTR performs with Red Cain and Sage<br />

Rhoades.<br />

With publication dates being the precarious<br />

beasts that they are, there was no way to fit in this<br />

gig for a story, which is a real shame. Nevertheless,<br />

power metal legends Hammerfall are playing<br />

with Delain and Ravenous: Eternal Hunger on<br />

Thursday, May 4th at Dickens. Two days later on<br />

Saturday, May 6th, metal spoof band Okilly Dokilly<br />

will be playing at the same venue. Perhaps then<br />

people will figure out how truly awful they are<br />

musically, rather than marveling at their Simpsonsworship-Ned-Flanders-aping-shtick.<br />

The band will<br />

also be performing in Edmonton on May 7th at the<br />

International Beer Haus & Stage.<br />

• Sarah Kitteringham<br />

photo: Tallee Savage<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 49


musicreviews<br />

Father John Misty<br />

Pure Comedy<br />

Sub Pop<br />

Father John Misty is worth listening to because of the<br />

work his listeners must put forth in order to understand<br />

him. There’s nothing he does that can be taken at face<br />

value, whether it’s a song, album, interview, or short film,<br />

because, as he admits himself, it’s all for show. He admits<br />

this in many ways: he smirks at whatever camera happens<br />

to be trained on him, he over-exaggerates already<br />

melodramatic stage antics.<br />

FJM gets away with this because he is an acknowledged<br />

character; a moniker with which former somber<br />

songwriter Josh Tillman can (ironically) express a<br />

different, truer side of himself. Father John Misty is an<br />

exuberant, attention-seeking, self-serious singer – one<br />

who takes pleasure in what sometimes feels like performance<br />

art. In all of his music, it’s clear Misty’s usually<br />

making fun of someone, but on Pure Comedy, the<br />

third album he’s released as Father John Misty, Tillman<br />

sets his sardonic sights on making fun of humanity and<br />

existence in general.<br />

In 2011, Tillman released his first album as Father<br />

John Misty, the wandering, folk-rocking Fear Fun,<br />

which may be the piece of art most clearly related to<br />

the Misty character to date. It leans heavily on aesthetics<br />

and musical styles established in the early ‘60s and<br />

‘70s by Kris Kristofferson and Neil Young, the latter of<br />

whom Misty name checks on the album’s free-reeling<br />

riff on life in Laurel Canyon, “I’m Writing a Novel.” In<br />

2014, he released I Love You, Honeybear, where he continued<br />

to keep his audience at arm’s length, but draws<br />

back the curtain ever so slightly, bridging the gap in<br />

some ways between the man and the character, even<br />

though his performances then became more stylized<br />

(read: more ridiculous). On “Chateau Lobby #4” he<br />

sings, “Dating for 20 years just feels pretty civilian / I’ve<br />

never thought that / Ever thought that once in my<br />

whole life / You are my first time.” Knowing that as he<br />

wrote Honeybear he married his girlfriend turns his<br />

lyrics from interesting character-wise to touching in a<br />

more tangible, appreciable way.<br />

Now, on Pure Comedy, an album filled to the brim<br />

with references to Misty himself, his past albums and<br />

their obsessions with romancing L.A. life, and pointed attacks<br />

on politics, love, and humanity’s exceptional ability<br />

to absorb and recycle these things, he’s his least funny<br />

– but it suits the present. Another smirking comedian,<br />

arms-crossed wearing a know-it-all persona isn’t what<br />

we need, we need someone known for jokes to revisit his<br />

old seriousness and use how big a deal that switch is to<br />

emphasize his point.<br />

On “Leaving L.A.,” the crux of the album, it feels as<br />

though he’s pointedly acknowledging it’s time to hang<br />

up many of Misty’s most enigmatic qualities in pursuit<br />

of a more personally fulfilling, open relationship with his<br />

audience; a method that, based on the way the songs<br />

come across, and the tone with which he delivers them,<br />

makes it easier for him to comment on the present without<br />

the trouble of framing everything within the context<br />

of this other Self. Still, Tillman displays his relentless<br />

self-awareness; he’s always known exactly how he’s come<br />

across (“‘These L.A. phonies and their bullshit bands /<br />

that sound like dollar signs and Amy Grant’ / So reads<br />

the pull quote from my last cover piece / titled, ‘The<br />

Oldest Man in Folk Rock Speaks’”).<br />

The irony of the album’s first track “Pure Comedy,”<br />

which gives the album its name, is that for the first<br />

time this isn’t in reference to his own kind of comedy, it<br />

seems like it’s a reference to everybody else’s. The song’s<br />

accompanying music video depicts (amid a chaotic<br />

swirl of crude cartoons) memes, viral Youtube clips, and<br />

political sound bites, all of which were cited and used<br />

again and again throughout the presidential campaign<br />

and for a time afterwards. For the first time Misty seems<br />

comfortable not only creating something for his fans to<br />

look at, but something he can look at too, next to them,<br />

with them, instead of across from them at a vantage<br />

point where he can take their temperature and adjust<br />

accordingly.<br />

There is slight disappointment with Pure Comedy being<br />

made of the same (or similar) ingredients found on I<br />

Love You, Honeybear. However, there are some inspired<br />

arrangements from in-demand composers Gavin Bryars<br />

and Nico Muhly, like on the album’s penultimate track,<br />

“So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain,” a song where<br />

Misty sounds tired, resigned to the fact that he’s spent<br />

too much time running from adulthood, and is therefore<br />

destined to become lost, unable to use his latent<br />

self-awareness for anything other than perspective, or at<br />

best to help others. Really, it’s gorgeous. It is reminiscent<br />

of Neil Young in style, and once that becomes clear,<br />

there’s little investigative work necessary to draw it to<br />

one of Young’s similarly themed tracks, “Sugar Mountain.”<br />

Another bright spot on an otherwise musically satisfactory<br />

album comes in the form of the Bowie, “Young<br />

Americans”-esque, “Total Entertainment Forever,” the<br />

only song that balances lyrics and music as perfectly as<br />

anything on Honeybear, where the inclusion of buzzing<br />

horns successfully distracts from the increasingly foreboding<br />

song lyrics – a method of delivery which suits<br />

them perfectly, as throughout the song Misty warns that<br />

although we’re living in the greatest age, where we seem<br />

to be our happiest, it’s all superficial happiness.<br />

The rest of the smartest arrangements on the album<br />

should be considered as such not because they do<br />

anything splashy, but quite the opposite: they leave<br />

large space for the lyrics and Misty’s unmistakable voice<br />

(which has never sounded better).<br />

Even with its similarities to Honeybear, the music is<br />

intoxicating, immersive, and satisfying. Still, Misty has<br />

always been a more gifted lyricist (able to translate and<br />

articulate humanity’s worst, modern insecurities) than<br />

he is a musician, which he acknowledges in a way on<br />

“Leaving L.A.” “So I never learned to play the lead guitar /<br />

I always more preferred the speaking part.”<br />

He bookends the album with the message that none<br />

of this really matters – no matter how good or bad it<br />

all may seem. “We’re hurtling through space,” he sings<br />

on “In Twenty Years or So.” This message, which he<br />

delivers like it’s his ultimate point, contradicts a lot of<br />

what he says throughout the album’s second act. It’s<br />

an indication Misty’s as confused as we are. As he puts<br />

forth a variety of argumentative theses that tackle why<br />

the country is the way it is, where it’s headed, and why<br />

it’s headed there, it’s a comforting notion that he, too,<br />

is unable to make reasoning the present seem like it’s<br />

anything other than a method of throwing everything at<br />

the wall and seeing what sticks.<br />

• Alex Southey<br />

illustration: Cristian Fowlie<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 51


Do Make Say Think<br />

Stubborn Persistent Illusions<br />

Constellation Records<br />

While Canada has a rich and diverse history of musical expression,<br />

few genres are so indebted to our cold, northern climate as<br />

post-rock, and Montreal’s Constellation Records have been at the<br />

forefront of the often scoffed-at niche for so long that no other<br />

label even really comes close.<br />

Sure, there are other ‘big’ instrumental groups, ones that have<br />

managed to grace film scores and art installations alike, but none<br />

are so deserving of their due as Do Make Say Think, and Stubborn<br />

Persistent Illusions — the collective’s first record in eight years —<br />

isn’t so much another fitting transplant into the swell of Canada’s<br />

post-rock repertoire as it is a life-affirming appreciation of the<br />

expressive power of sound in its purest form.<br />

As though brimming with energy from their almost-decade<br />

away, Do Make Say Think open up Stubborn Persistent Illusions<br />

with “War on Torpor,” a five-and-a-half minute anthem of panicked<br />

percussion, fired off with a frenetic urgency reminiscent of<br />

the crescendoing buildups of 2000’s Goodbye Enemy Airship the<br />

Landlord is Dead.<br />

From there, “Horripilation” slips in as the Yin to “Torpor’s”<br />

Yang, showcasing the archetypal Do Make Say Think: sliding bass<br />

lines as addictive as any earworm, brief reposes of crystalline flittering<br />

held together by the puncture of drum-strikes, and enough<br />

turns to keep from dragging out its emotional stay, before slipping<br />

in ceaselessly to the shuddering “A Murder of Thoughts.”<br />

But the tides of Stubborn Persistent Illusions find no break<br />

on the shores of a lacklustre middle ground, instead only being<br />

amplified on “Bound” (along with its sister-track “And Boundless”)<br />

resulting in a bombastic expression of ephemera, pent-up<br />

emotion, left-field signature-switches and sheer rhythm as it rushes<br />

ahead undeterred.<br />

The first two tracks released from Stubborn Persistent Illusions,<br />

“Bound” and “And Boundless,” represent some of the strongest,<br />

most rhythmically jarring, and downright exciting sound-shifts<br />

since “Mladic,” from fellow Constellation label-mate Godspeed<br />

You! Black Emperor’s Polaris-prize winning album ‘Allelujah! Don’t<br />

Bend! Ascend! in 2012 (another track forged from extended<br />

hiatus and triumphant return).<br />

The latter half of the album finds the instrumental group<br />

honing their introspective skills, and from the placid “Her Eyes<br />

on the Horizon” through to the hopefully melancholic “Return,<br />

Return Again,” the group further explores the swelling, humming<br />

fragility found across many of the records from Constellation’s<br />

stellar roster.<br />

In their eight year absence, Do Make Say Think have managed<br />

to reinforce their sound without stagnation, returned to familiar<br />

rhythms without relying on tropes, and Stubborn Persistent Illusions<br />

strikes down the notion that instrumentalists offer nothing<br />

but lackadaisical ambiance.<br />

• Alec Warkentin<br />

52 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE<br />

Drake<br />

More Life<br />

Universal Music Canada<br />

Drake’s newest album, More Life, is stylized as a “playlist” by<br />

the rapper for a good reason. While the track listing is 22 songs<br />

long, it feels like he’s unable to get a coherent message across to<br />

listeners. With a few catchy tunes that are both like and unlike<br />

Drake’s usual style, the overall theme of the album seems like<br />

something we’ve heard before.<br />

Solo tracks make rare appearances on this album, with most<br />

songs including features from a variety of artists like grime<br />

dons Skepta and Giggs, to South African house mainstay Black<br />

Coffee, to a cast of many including Jorja Smith, Sampha, Quavo,<br />

Travis Scott, 2 Chainz, Young Thug, Kanye West, and PartyNextDoor.<br />

It’s not surprising that Drake’s OVO label mate PartyNext-<br />

Door is featured on the album either, continuing a long trend<br />

of Drake hooks carrying the Toronto auto-crooner’s career. It’s<br />

these lacklustre coincidences that make the playlist less than<br />

perfect. It doesn’t help that Drake’s lyrical content covers well<br />

worn territory. Drake’s celebration of success, word of warning<br />

to the haters, and pining for women, are all themes that have<br />

been heavily overdone by him already.<br />

What’s new on this album? Its sound is disconnected, from a<br />

relatively interesting, house-influenced “Passionfruit” to what<br />

sounds like Drake’s attempt at a club hit, the Black Coffee sampling<br />

“Get It Together.” “Portland” sounds like a beat he’s used<br />

in previous albums, with added panflute. While grime features<br />

like Giggs and Skepta definitely add value to the “playlist,”<br />

their lyricism sometimes end up standing out and being simply<br />

laughable, finishing off “KMT” with the lyric, “Batman/da-na-nada-na.”<br />

Looking past what’s not working on this album, some tracks<br />

do have some saving elements. The aforementioned “Passionfruit”<br />

sounds like Drake has finally realized that making things<br />

sound less like Drake means they’re commercially successful. In<br />

the same way “One Dance” infected, or rather still infects, top<br />

40 radio stations, so can we expect “Passionfruit” to follow a<br />

similar path.<br />

It’s no surprise that the Kanye West-featuring “Glow” is a<br />

playlist highlight. “Watch out for me/I’m bound to glow” won’t<br />

go down as one of Kanye’s most lyrically complex hooks, but it<br />

has that signature Kanye infectiousness that adds to an otherwise<br />

mediocre track.<br />

Overall, it seems like the album was a lot of tracks that Drake<br />

had nothing to do with anymore, which explains the “playlist”<br />

stylization of the album. Individually, the songs are decent to<br />

listen to, and it’s the Drake fans are used to and that’s about it.<br />

Fans of Drake don’t expect revolutionary music from the rapper,<br />

but rarely does his music feel like this much of a grab bag.<br />

• Amber McLinden<br />

Future<br />

FUTURE / HNDRXX<br />

A1/ Freebandz / Epic<br />

The king of trap and mumble rap returns to the ad-lib battle with<br />

something to prove, releasing two chart-topping albums in two<br />

consecutive weeks. Unfortunately for Future, this is now a post-Migos<br />

kingdom that is difficult to conquer without a Quavo feature. There’s<br />

no denying Future’s tireless work ethic, but it’s also his biggest downfall.<br />

Instead of creating one great album, Future took the time to create two<br />

bloated albums with practically no features or variety.<br />

FUTURE, the first of the two projects, showcases the Atlanta<br />

rapper’s shallow and generic lifestyle that comes with fame. The lines<br />

about money, drugs, and broads in Atlanta dominate every track, but<br />

they are largely forgettable and uncreative.<br />

On “Might as Well,” Future sounds particularly unconvincing despite<br />

his ad-libs suggesting otherwise: “Either way it goes/We buyin’ out the<br />

stores (for real)/We ain’t never runnin’ out of lean (never).”<br />

Future does his best to heat up the frozen dish he’s serving even<br />

though it would simply taste better if it were fresh.<br />

Although Southside dominates the production credits on this<br />

album, you wouldn’t be able to tell without looking it up. Every trap<br />

beat fulfills its purpose well enough, but only a few tracks stand out<br />

from the rest of the pack. The same could be said for Future’s rapping<br />

on this project: it just does enough to be marketable and enjoyable, but<br />

it turns stale after a few listens.<br />

While there’s no track on FUTURE that compares to “Xanny Family”<br />

off EVOL, songs like “Scrape” and “Zoom” feature varied production and<br />

elite ad-libs that will impress all connoisseurs of hip-hop. There are a few<br />

other standout tracks, but the album would really benefit from a feature.<br />

Anyone - hell, even Yo Gotti - would help break up the Future fatigue.<br />

HNDRXX, the second album, is reminiscent of Future’s R&B days.<br />

Fans of 2014’s Honest will likely prefer this album to the first, but it<br />

suffers from the exact same problems, heightened by the two main<br />

features on the album. Predictably, two of the best songs are “Coming<br />

Out Strong” featuring The Weeknd and “Selfish” featuring Rihanna.<br />

These two singers break up the Future fatigue perfectly, both for the<br />

listener and for Future himself. It seems like Future is at his best when<br />

he is riding off the energy of other artists, so it’s disappointing he didn’t<br />

borrow the talents of his peers for these two projects. Future can hold<br />

it down without help on a few tracks, but he’s not offering enough<br />

individually for two 17-track albums.<br />

Almost as to apologize for the two overly long albums, Future drops<br />

the mic with “Sorry.” This track showcases what Future can do when<br />

he’s possessed by a beat, exorcising record sales and dollar signs from<br />

his mind for over seven minutes. The keys on this track are simple,<br />

evoking Kanye’s “Runaway,” but they are memorable and expressive.<br />

Switching up his flow constantly, Future balances his showboating<br />

with refreshing bars about fame scaring him. If every solo Future track<br />

sounded this inspired, he would have no competition. Unfortunately,<br />

that won’t happen until he realizes less is more. Until then, he’s constantly<br />

sabotaged by his own ambition.<br />

• Paul McAleer


BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 53


Mount Eerie<br />

had to move my own inflection…” while her<br />

voice maneuvers various rhythms, powerfully,<br />

before reaching a long drawl and celebratory,<br />

LOUD, horns. This crescendo brings the song<br />

home and demonstrates the artist’s prowess for<br />

wordplay.<br />

Now at eight albums, Amelia Curran is a<br />

Canadian musical institution showing no signs<br />

of relenting. She’s willing, still, to share more<br />

with her audience, but it’s got to be a trade-off.<br />

If we’re going to get more from her, we’ve got<br />

to start trying a little harder, as she sings on the<br />

second last song “Try,” in our own way, to make<br />

this country a little more loving.<br />

• Trent Warner<br />

Fucked Up<br />

Year of the Snake<br />

Tankcrimes<br />

“Shadows” is one of the finest Future Islands<br />

tracks of all time, largely due to a surprise<br />

Debbie Harry feature. Harry and Herring compliment<br />

each other in a way that demands a<br />

full-length duet album.<br />

Herring’s songwriting and vocals on this<br />

album are its biggest strengths, but that’s not<br />

to say the instrumentation is lacking. Each track<br />

features memorable bass, drums, and synths,<br />

but it’s hard to imagine how the album would<br />

hold up without Herring. Other synth-pop and<br />

indie rock groups spew interchangeable lyrics<br />

without believing in them. With Herring driving<br />

the boat, every song feels genuine and unique.<br />

While “Seasons” remains undefeated as a<br />

single, The Far Field showcases the band at their<br />

best, offering a handful of songs that come close<br />

to taking the crown.<br />

• Paul McAleer<br />

Arca<br />

Arca<br />

XL Recordings<br />

Arca is an artist that exists between worlds.<br />

Intermittently, his beats might attract fanfare<br />

from ravers, art aficionados, or even up and<br />

coming pop stars. If you’re familiar with his experimental<br />

sound, you’ll know to expect dissonant<br />

kick drums, howling synths, or iconoclastic<br />

machine music. His first album Xen was clearly<br />

influenced by classical sounds and melodies, but<br />

by 2014’s Mutant he was forcing a new musicality<br />

unlike anything before it. On his self-titled<br />

third album, he brings his own voice, his own<br />

history, and his own language to the juncture of<br />

these ideas.<br />

While working on the album he was inspired<br />

by his Venezuelan heritage, and walks through<br />

a Victorian Burial Ground (and popular cruising<br />

spot for gay men) in London. As he says, “…so<br />

much poetry: Life. Death. Gayness.”<br />

And there’s a certain melodrama - a certain<br />

pain - that gay men, historically, have evoked so<br />

well. Think Oscar Wilde, think Pedro Almodóvar.<br />

Arca is no exception. Of the eight songs<br />

where his vocals are present (thirteen make up<br />

the album), all are in Spanish, and act in direct<br />

obstruction to their instrumental counterparts.<br />

“Coraje,” a beautiful choral arrangement will<br />

stretch your heart strings and fill you with hope,<br />

before it erodes into “Whip,” a spastic interlude,<br />

which syncopates obtusely and assaults<br />

the listener, catching its stride and shifting to a<br />

rhythmic hip-hop beat in the final counts.<br />

Though his music may not be everything to<br />

everyone at a given time, he offers a labyrinth of<br />

sounds a listener can get lost in, finding harmony<br />

in the edges of musicality.<br />

• Trent Warner<br />

Jom Comyn<br />

I Need Love<br />

Independent<br />

Listening to the new Jom Comyn record, I Need<br />

Love, feels exactly like shaking off the dusty,<br />

dirty snow of winter and s<strong>print</strong>ing into the sun<br />

while wearing sparkly hot pants. Or being able<br />

to fondly look back on a relationship once it’s<br />

over. That good feeling.<br />

The 28-track record features several Edmontonian<br />

all-star appearances including Marlaena<br />

Moore, Jesse Northey, Renny Wilson, Mitch<br />

Holtby and more. It’s broken up into bite size<br />

lovelorn morsels, from tender and earnest to<br />

twangy and sassy. The quality of the album<br />

is in no way surprising, but the sudden shifts<br />

between jangly country on the track “All or<br />

Nothing,” to cavernous and somber tones on<br />

“Echo Chamber,” do offer wide variety. The first<br />

single, “Why Do You Love Me?” has a danceable,<br />

Motown vibe and perks up some of the sadder<br />

tones on the rest of the record.<br />

Each full listen through offers up a new set of<br />

emotions to comb through. Sometimes while<br />

sitting quietly alone in the dark, or up on your<br />

feet shakin’ it. The many layers and flavours<br />

present on this album have already cemented<br />

it as one of the best in <strong>2017</strong> thus far. I think we<br />

have plenty of reasons to love you, Jom Comyn.<br />

Plenty.<br />

• Brittany Rudyck<br />

Amelia Curran<br />

Watershed<br />

Six Shooter Records<br />

After seven albums, it seems a strange shift for<br />

Amelia Curran to be at her most vehemently<br />

political on her latest album Watershed. However,<br />

it’s a welcome change, as her sharp wit has<br />

been present throughout her whole career, and<br />

the political undertones of this album especially<br />

are complemented by the grit in her voice.<br />

Lyrically, she’s always been open, if you’ve<br />

been paying attention and reading between<br />

the lines. On Watershed, she’s more direct and<br />

more readily available – something that can be<br />

attributed to her work as a mental health advocate<br />

in Canada over the past few years.<br />

At her softest and most tender on “Act of<br />

Human Kindness,” Curran calls for empathy and<br />

love to ensure that humanity makes it out of<br />

her perceived darkness. Shortly after, she’s at her<br />

hardest. On “No More Quiet,” she is backed by<br />

Canadian blues artist Shakura S’aida for a feminist<br />

anthem against the patriarchal status-quo<br />

often found in the music industry. She sings, “…<br />

the river has changed its direction, while I’ve<br />

Sitting atop a pedestal that few post-millennium<br />

hardcore bands can even begin to fathom,<br />

Canadian punk outfit Fucked Up have been<br />

downright prolific since winning the prestigious<br />

Polaris Prize almost a decade ago for The Chemistry<br />

of Common Life.<br />

Year of the Snake, the latest 12” in their<br />

acclaimed Zodiac Series, further emboldens the<br />

crew as quasi-art-hardcore forerunners, finding<br />

them mixing methodical, diegetic noise with<br />

vocalist Damian Abraham’s telltale growl over<br />

two new tracks: the 25-minute epic “Year of<br />

the Snake,” and “Passacaglia,” which finds the<br />

group exploring a more introspective, nuanced<br />

approach to heavy and relentless.<br />

While Fucked Up are no strangers to bending<br />

the formula of what constitutes a solid-whilestill-brutal<br />

album, the beauty of Year of the<br />

Snake lies in its ability to avoid common hardcore<br />

tropes: There’s no egregious noise for its<br />

own sake, no shriek or howl that’s not uncalled<br />

for or unwarranted, and even the experimentalism,<br />

something usually frowned upon in hardcore’s<br />

dedicated niche, is done immaculately<br />

and dystopian instrumentals occupy more space<br />

on the album than anything else.<br />

In short,Year of the Snake is a strong release<br />

from a band who obviously knows what they’re<br />

doing, and the only gripe, really, is when the<br />

fuck is the next full length?<br />

• Alec Warkentin<br />

Future Islands<br />

The Far Field<br />

4AD<br />

Around 12 seasons ago, Future Islands danced<br />

their way into the mainstream spotlight with<br />

a career-changing performance. Other than<br />

leaving David Letterman elated and confused,<br />

“Seasons (Waiting on You)” from 2014’s Singles,<br />

landed a spot on nearly every song of the year<br />

list. We’ve been eagerly waiting for new material<br />

ever since.<br />

“Ran” is the lead single from The Far Field<br />

tasked with going toe-to-toe with “Seasons.”<br />

Lyrically, “Ran” is slightly less memorable, but<br />

Samuel T. Herring’s vocal performance carries<br />

the track in a way that few musicians can. A love<br />

song that features the line, “Nobody seems to<br />

me so perfect and so sweet,” sounds like it came<br />

from a fifth grader’s crayon-covered Valentine’s<br />

Day card when read out loud. When Herring<br />

delivers a line like this, it is truly so perfect and<br />

so sweet.<br />

Mobina Galore<br />

Feeling Disconnected<br />

New Damage Records<br />

Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, punk rockers<br />

Mobina Galore have returned with their second<br />

full-length album, Feeling Disconnected.<br />

As a duo, Mobina Galore only have a guitar<br />

and drums in their arsenal, which seems not to<br />

matter since they’re totally fucking killing it.<br />

Comprised of two fierce females, Mobina Galore<br />

are proving to be a force to be reckoned with,<br />

while completely kicking ass in a scene monopolized<br />

by men.<br />

These ladies are dominating the fast, hard<br />

hitting and melodic punk rock style. The vocals<br />

are heavy but belted-out gently when required.<br />

Vocalist and guitarist, Jenna Priestner possesses<br />

a vocal range that many dream of, destroying<br />

both melodious and scratchy stylings at will.<br />

The guitar is fierce and Priestner executes addictive<br />

hooks with ease and at a comparable class<br />

to veteran punk bands. The thunderous beats<br />

are courtesy of drummer, Marcia Hanson, who<br />

also provides the perfectly harmonized backing<br />

vocals. Their sound is an anthemic punk-style;<br />

fast, catchy riffs and aggressive tempos. Tracks<br />

“Nervous Wreck,” “Start All Over,” and “Going<br />

Out Alone” are all stellar examples of the overall<br />

sentiment of Feeling Disconnected. And despite<br />

the title of the record and the underlying lyrical<br />

content, Feeling Disconnected is sure to resonate<br />

with many listeners.<br />

• Sarah Mac<br />

Leeroy Stagger<br />

Love Versus<br />

True North Records<br />

Too often, an artist focuses on using as many<br />

parts of their musical vocabulary on a record,<br />

without concentrating on defining their sound.<br />

Leeroy Stagger’s latest, Love Versus, shows his<br />

uncanny ability to meld disparate elements into<br />

his own, rough hewn roots rock sound. The<br />

result is an album that hits high notes in both<br />

songwriting and production throughout.<br />

Kicking off with “I Want It All,” Stagger uses<br />

a friendly, “Hey Jude”-like chant to examine the<br />

dichotomy of want versus need. It’s interesting to<br />

set this question to a feel that has currency in the<br />

folk-punk style, as though it’s an advance answer<br />

to a possible critique, Stagger cleverly using a bit<br />

of the pop formula to skewer notions of commercialism<br />

while making motions to “tear down<br />

54 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE


eligion,” and in the end, seek balance in life and<br />

career. That’s a tight rope to walk, and Stagger<br />

pulls it off deftly. The title track follows up, with a<br />

slight, chiming chorus riff as a rhythmic counterpoint<br />

to the gently picked acoustic riff, not unlike<br />

a cut from The War On Drugs, before Stagger lays<br />

down a series of questions about the nature of<br />

power, and it’s influence in what we’re brought<br />

up to loathe and fear. The chorus, with its ascending<br />

melody and massive harmony, quickly sets a<br />

standard for the rest of the record.<br />

On Love Versus, Stagger, along with producer<br />

Colin Stewart, and the crack band of<br />

Tyson Maiko, Pete Thomas, Paul Rigby, and<br />

Geoff Hilhorst have dropped an album that is<br />

immediately catchy and rollicking, but Stagger’s<br />

willingness to be unflinchingly honest with<br />

himself never loses sight of the bigger picture;<br />

our care for those close to us, and caring for<br />

the world around us are inextricably linked, and<br />

have more effect on us than maybe some of us<br />

are willing to admit.<br />

• Mike Dunn<br />

Mount Eerie<br />

A Crow Looked at Me<br />

P.W. Elverum & Sun<br />

It’s reductive to try and encapsulate A Crow<br />

Looked at Me purely in its context. This is an<br />

album about the death of Phil Elverum’s wife,<br />

recorded in the room she died in, using her<br />

instruments. Yes, the record is just as dreary as it<br />

sounds, but it’s hardly as simple. Elverum’s work<br />

as Mount Eerie, as well as The Microphones, and<br />

his own name, share a collective downtrodden<br />

temperament, but nothing this forward.<br />

The true genius of A Crow… comes from its<br />

detachment; melodramatic it is not. From the<br />

first line of the first track, Elverum introduces<br />

his own discomfort with the act of grieving<br />

through song. “When real death enters the<br />

house all poetry is dumb,” Elverum whimpers<br />

on “Real Death.” The record is stark, bare, and<br />

strikingly direct. Elverum refuses to entertain<br />

fanciful notions of death<br />

and dying, only it’s unflinching, dark impenetrability.<br />

This groundedness provides a realism<br />

that reinforces the emotionality of the record.<br />

Elverum reveals his grief like an old friend over<br />

coffee: honestly, and with pause, with emotion<br />

welling up in the breaks between the lines. We<br />

know he’s grieving because he tells us he is, but<br />

we feel it because he doesn’t want us to.<br />

• Liam Prost<br />

Prozzäk<br />

Forever 1999<br />

Lefthook Entertainment<br />

There’s something to be said about the movement<br />

going on in the last few years; that whole<br />

resurgence of somewhat popular bands from<br />

the early-to-mid-‘90s, throwing an album down<br />

like “yes! We’re still here! And it’s not just for the<br />

royalty cheques!” Except, IT IS JUST FOR THE<br />

ROYALTY CHEQUES.<br />

It seems we’re living in an era where people<br />

seldom hear the word “no” anymore. Maybe their<br />

label agreed, and said of course the fans want to<br />

hear more, even if the duo has been inactive for<br />

twelve of their nineteen years in the business.<br />

What’s to say, then? You could look at<br />

Prozzäk’s Forever 1999 with the same sort of<br />

wonder and amazement a toddler would look<br />

at anything. Those words don’t always have to<br />

imply a positive connotation, by the way, but for<br />

fairness sake, uptempo, bubble-gummy, radio<br />

electro-pop appeals to some people because it’s<br />

catchy, uncomplicated, relatively easy to ignore,<br />

and won’t cause allergies or homicides.<br />

To this reviewer, it’s like deliberately causing<br />

someone to suffer anaphylactic shock. “Love me<br />

Tinder?” No, stick with “Sucks to be You.” I know,<br />

I know. Be nice. Unfortunately, numbers don’t<br />

lie, and if we can go ahead and compare this to<br />

prescription anti-depressants (big reach there)<br />

it’s safe to bet that out of 100 people, at least 65%<br />

will suffer an adverse reaction to this album.<br />

• Lisa Marklinger<br />

The Real McKenzies<br />

Two Devils Will Talk<br />

Stomp/Fat Wreck Chords<br />

Canadian rebels The Real McKenzies have<br />

returned with a brand-new album, Two Devils<br />

Will Talk.<br />

This latest album is a stellar example of the<br />

McKenzies’ style and sound, which after 25 years<br />

hasn’t slowed down or sold-out. Two Devils<br />

Will Talk is the tenth full-length release from<br />

these rowdy Scottish-Canadians, and the follow<br />

up to 2015’s Rats in the Burlap. Two Devils<br />

features the raw, thundering vocals of founding<br />

member and frontman Paul McKenzie, as well<br />

as his bandmates’ perfected harmonies. Both<br />

accompanied by the classic melodic tempos we<br />

all love raising a glass and singing along to. The<br />

album is reminiscent of early punk-rock scene,<br />

slightly gritty with dark undertones. As always,<br />

the McKenzies combine this with old-fashioned,<br />

Celtic-hymn-style bones, giving the album a<br />

cozy pub feel we’re all familiar with.<br />

And who could forget the bagpipes? A staple<br />

in the McKenzies’ sound, bagpipes can be heard<br />

throughout Two Devils, which is something<br />

their fans look forward to.<br />

<strong>2017</strong> marks the 25th anniversary of the Real<br />

McKenzies and Two Devils Will Talk is a perfect<br />

way to celebrate such a momentous achievement.<br />

An album which pays tribute to both<br />

their Canadian and Scottish roots, as well as the<br />

journey that got them here.<br />

• Sarah Mac<br />

The Shins<br />

Heartworms<br />

Columbia<br />

To be honest, when I first listened to this album<br />

it sort of irritated me. Coming from the camp<br />

that listened to The Shins for emotional reprieve<br />

when going through sweetly powerful and sad<br />

times, this album often feels too happy. Perhaps<br />

it was my own foolhardy intent of listening<br />

while lying morosely in a dark bedroom. The<br />

sounds just clashed.<br />

Upon second listen, walking in a bright, sunny<br />

and warm day, everything clicked into place.<br />

The title track of the album, “Heartworms,”<br />

manages to capture that impetuously squirmy<br />

feeling of being unable to shake a crush, a love,<br />

a feeling. There are moments that feel overtly<br />

BEATROUTE • APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | 55


Beatles-y (the complex mysticism and elation of<br />

“Fantasy Island”), moments that feel like a humble<br />

southern country throwback (“Mildenhall”),<br />

and moments that do touch upon that old Shins<br />

vibe of being somber and saccharine at the<br />

same time (“The Fear,” “So Now What”). With a<br />

perfectly balanced production, this album slowly<br />

scratched and crawled its way into my heart,<br />

like its own little Heartworm. It’s burrowed its<br />

way in and is there to stay.<br />

• Willow Grier<br />

Suicide Silence<br />

Suicide Silence<br />

Nuclear Blast<br />

Trying to improve on deathcore by making it<br />

into nu-metal is like trying to improve a pool of<br />

cold vomit by eating it and turning it into shit.<br />

That’s what California’s Suicide Silence have<br />

done on their fifth and definitively worst album.<br />

Self-titling an album is a bold statement: this<br />

is us, pure Suicide Silence, the closest you’ll<br />

get to a best-of. It’s probably not a good move<br />

on SS’s part to abandon their sound (more or<br />

less prototypical deathcore; death metal and<br />

metalcore mixed without a single good element<br />

of either) in favor of toned-down baggy-shortscore<br />

with a reliance on clean singing that inflicts<br />

every one of vocalist Hernan “Eddie” Hermida’s<br />

inane lyrics on you.<br />

They’ve not only gone nu-metal for no particular<br />

reason but released a bad nu-metal record.<br />

Nowhere do they match KoRn’s groove or Deftones’<br />

soulful slow burn: all that’s left is a band<br />

that could be on the 2006 Family Values Tour,<br />

scheduled mid-afternoon between 10 Years and<br />

Deadsy then forgotten.<br />

• Gareth Watkins<br />

Surf Dads<br />

All Day Breakfast<br />

Grind Central Records<br />

While it is doubtful that Regina duo Chris Dimas<br />

and Gage McGuire are fathers, they are the<br />

talent behind the Surf Dads. After releasing three<br />

EPs, they come at us with their first full-length<br />

album, All Day Breakfast. While it might be a<br />

little bold to call them the fathers of surf, this<br />

album is warm and breezy and encapsulates the<br />

young energy that summer brings. The first of 12<br />

tracks, “Up All Night,” is reminiscent of bands like<br />

Weezer and Alvvays, with the fast guitars, nimble<br />

drums and starry-eyed vocals. It speaks to the<br />

mistakes we make and the remorse that often<br />

follows. It’s like doing the walk of shame in your<br />

head. Beyond the catchy hooks and shimmery<br />

riffs, there is substance in the lyrics. On one hand<br />

you have the track “Pinpoint,” where “dig your<br />

own hole / I’ll pass you a shovel” is hollered out,<br />

only to have Beach Boys like harmonies in “Apologies”<br />

two tracks later. Yet the album flows well,<br />

the energy is wired and to resist the urge to dance<br />

like a maniac would be futile.<br />

• Aja Cadman<br />

Tennis<br />

Yours Conditionally<br />

Mutually Detrimental<br />

Staring at the cover of Tennis’ new album Yours<br />

Conditionally, I can’t help but feel that I’m staring<br />

at a sun-bleached portrait of my parents in<br />

the mid to late ‘70s, shortly after they would<br />

have met. The album harkens to that period,<br />

where my parents were falling in love; my mom<br />

had the same tight curly hair, and my dad had<br />

a hilarious, if not ironic, Gregg Allman-esque<br />

mustache, both like Tennis’ Alaina Moore and<br />

Patrick Riley.<br />

Through its softness, opener “In the Morning<br />

I’ll Be Better,” reminds the listener that your<br />

physical or mental exhaustion can be cured<br />

by morning. Atop Moore’s soft falsetto, the<br />

reminder is bittersweet, like ice cream melting<br />

down the cone and into your hand on a brazen<br />

summer day.<br />

Like a long-term relationship or a particularly<br />

scorching summer, the album kind of<br />

moves in and out of a haze; there are moments<br />

of heartache and grandeur. Besides the above,<br />

“Modern Woman” and “Ladies Don’t Play<br />

Guitar” are two standouts. The first is a heartbreaking<br />

lament for friendships lost, which<br />

uses musical repetition and haze as a means to<br />

an end. The second is a sarcastic take on the<br />

instances where females have been (and still<br />

are) treated as muses, not musicians, in music<br />

journalism. The sting of its wit and of its guitar<br />

don’t go unnoticed.<br />

Unfortunately for Tennis, I don’t think this<br />

album will stand the test of time quite like my<br />

parents (29 years and counting!). It’s enjoyable,<br />

light, airy, and sweet, but fades from mind too<br />

quickly.<br />

• Trent Warner<br />

Western Addiction<br />

Tremulous<br />

Fat Wreck Chords<br />

For fans of San Francisco based hardcore band,<br />

Western Addiction, it is time to rejoice! The<br />

band has finally released their very long-awaited<br />

follow-up record, entitled Tremulous.<br />

Released 12 years after their debut album,<br />

Cognicide, Tremulous was worth the wait. To<br />

produce this record, many of the band’s founding<br />

members were called upon, which rooted<br />

Tremulous with the same aggressive feeling as<br />

their past recordings. The difference from past<br />

releases is the distinctive melodic sound, which<br />

gives the album a twist that both fans and firsttime<br />

listeners will appreciate.<br />

Tremulous is a dark and heavy album featuring<br />

deep, brooding lyrics, but unlike most<br />

hardcore releases, Tremulous features frontman<br />

Jason Hall’s finest attempt at singing. Not the<br />

hoarse, scathing vocals normally heard in the<br />

genre. Songs like, “Righteous Lightning,” will<br />

have you chanting along, while “Honeycreeper,”<br />

will have you yearning for a circle pit. Although<br />

the overall feel of Tremulous is dark, the rhythm<br />

has its highs and lows; upbeat and melodic to a<br />

steady downtempo.<br />

The guys in Western Addiction haven’t lost<br />

their edge in the decade that’s passed, they’ve<br />

fine-tuned their sound and perfected their style<br />

to produce a record worthy of waiting 12 years<br />

for and absolutely one to be proud of.<br />

• Sarah Mac<br />

56 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE


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SAVAGE LOVE<br />

curious minds...<br />

I recently spoke at Curious Minds Weekend in Toronto at the Hot<br />

Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Audience members submitted questions<br />

on cards before the show—anonymously—but the moderator, Lisan<br />

Jutras of the Globe and Mail, and I were having so much fun talking<br />

with each other that we didn’t get to many cards. So I’m going to<br />

quickly answer as many of the questions from the audience at Curious<br />

Minds as I can this week.<br />

My husband and I have been seeking a third for a threesome. After a very<br />

palpable night of flirtation, I asked a mutual friend (as we shared a cab)<br />

if he would be down for a threesome. He said yes, but I was not about to<br />

spring him on my husband that night. So I texted him later about it, and<br />

he has ignored me. What should I take from this?<br />

The hint.<br />

A friend’s BF won’t go down on her no matter how much she asks. She still<br />

won’t break up with him, even though she told me that oral is the only way<br />

she has ever had an orgasm. How do I get her to realize her sexual pleasure<br />

is a priority?<br />

If your friend’s BF doesn’t know oral is the only way she can orgasm, she<br />

should tell him. If she told him and he doesn’t care, she should dump<br />

him. If she told him and he doesn’t care and she won’t dump him, you’re<br />

not obligated to listen to her complain about the orgasms she’s not<br />

having.<br />

I’m a bisexual 42-year-old female with an extremely high sex drive who<br />

squirts with every orgasm. How do I deal with friends—even people at a<br />

sex club—who think you’re a freak because “women aren’t supposed to be<br />

horny all the time.”<br />

If your friends—presumably people you aren’t fucking—complain<br />

that you’re horny all the time, maybe it’s because you don’t talk about<br />

anything other than the sex you just had or the sex you hope to have<br />

soon. If people at sex clubs (!) are complaining about how horny you<br />

are… either you’ve accidentally wandered into a yacht club or even<br />

people at a sex club wanna talk about something other than sex every<br />

once in a while.<br />

My very Christian friend is about to get married. Though she is socially very<br />

liberal, she is pretty sexually repressed. I want to do something to encourage<br />

her to explore her sexuality a bit before she takes a try at partnered<br />

sex. How weird would it be to buy her a vibrator as a shower present?<br />

Don’t give your friend a vibrator at her shower—gifts are opened in<br />

front of guests at showers—but go ahead and send her one. Tell her it’s a<br />

pre-bachelorette-party gift.<br />

Two guys divorced in order to bring a third man into their relationship on<br />

equal terms, and they now plan to start a family with their sisters acting as<br />

surrogates. Thoughts?<br />

Mazel tov?<br />

I am 31. My husband (newly married) is 46, almost 47. He takes FOREVER<br />

to come, no matter what I do. How do we speed up this process? My jaw,<br />

fingers, etc., are all very sore.<br />

Your husband speeds up the process by incorporating self-stimulation<br />

breaks into the blowjobs, handjobs, etcetera-jobs you’re giving him. He<br />

strokes himself while you take a quick breather and/or an Advil, he gets<br />

himself closer, you get back to work.<br />

I’m 47 and my wife is 31. I take a lot longer to come and recover than she<br />

would like. Could you please explain to her that it’s normal for a man my<br />

age to “slow down” and it’s not her?<br />

Happy birthday. And, yes, it’s normal for a man to slow down as he<br />

ages—it’s not her—and there are younger men who take a long time<br />

to come. But such men need to take their partners’ physical limitations<br />

into consideration. To avoid wearing out their partners’ jaws, fingers, etc.,<br />

they need to take matters into their own hands. They should enjoy that<br />

blowjob, handjob, twatjob, or assjob, take breaks to stroke their own dicks,<br />

eventually bring themselves to the point of orgasmic inevitability, and end<br />

by plunging back into that mouth, fist, twat, or ass to blow their load.<br />

I have been reading your column since the early 1990s. Since that time,<br />

what has struck you in the kind of problems people write you about?<br />

People don’t ask me about butt plugs anymore. I used to get a letter<br />

once or twice a week from someone who needed to have butt plugs<br />

explained to them. But butt plugs have their own Wiki page now, so no<br />

one needs me to explain them anymore. But for old times’ sake: They<br />

look like lava lamps, they go in your butt, they feel awesome, and they<br />

typically don’t induce gay panic in butt-play-curious straight boys.<br />

Would you share your thoughts on our prime minister, Justin Trudeau?<br />

I think Justin needs to stop fucking around and legalize weed already, like<br />

he promised.<br />

When are you going to move to Canada already?<br />

See above.<br />

Polyamory after marriage—is it okay?<br />

For some.<br />

by Dan Savage<br />

I’m a submissive gay boy. I saw you walk into the theater tonight wearing<br />

combat boots. Is there any way I could lick your boots clean after the<br />

show?<br />

Sadly, I didn’t see your question until after I got back to my hotel.<br />

Straight male here. My best male friend of 20 years transitioned to female.<br />

I’ve been super supportive since day one, but her transitioning is all she ever<br />

talks about, and it’s getting tiresome. I miss our discussions of bicycle repair<br />

and Swedish pop music. How can I tell her to give it a rest while remaining<br />

supportive?<br />

If she began transitioning last week, then of course it’s all she can talk<br />

about. If she transitioned five years ago and it’s still all she ever talks<br />

about, then you’ll need to (gently) be the change you want to see in the<br />

conversation. Listen supportively when she discusses trans issues and<br />

seize opportunities (when they arise) to change the subject (“So how do<br />

you think Sweden will do in Eurovision this year?”).<br />

Why are so many lesbians into astrology?<br />

All the lesbians I know are strict empiricists. So the more pertinent question<br />

would be this: Whose sample is skewed—mine or yours?<br />

My male partner never masturbates and we have sex only once a week.<br />

We’ve been together four years. I’m a woman. I would like to have sex just<br />

a little more, but he isn’t into it. Is there something weird about me masturbating<br />

a bunch during the week and just having weekend sex?<br />

Nope.<br />

Dude? Trump? WTF?<br />

ITMFA (ITMFA.org).<br />

savagelovecast.com.<br />

mail@savagelove.net<br />

@fakedansavage on Twitter<br />

58 | APRIL <strong>2017</strong> • BEATROUTE

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