BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [May 2018]

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MOMENTSFEST friends, love and rock ‘n’ roll Changing lives, one power chord at a time. For the fourth year in a row, some of the very best in Treaty 7 Territory talent gather in Siksika for an all-ages festival to rule them all. MomentsFest, now a two-stage, 29-band bash at the Siksika Pow Wow Arbor, is the passion project of the excellent lads from the legendary Alberta punk band No More Moments. In true DIY punk fashion, Carlin Black Rabbit, Cory White and Emmit Maguire created a festival from scratch that continues to grow from its own momentum. “The first year we ran four bands on two stages. It was just a super DIY thing, we wanted to keep it simple,” Black Rabbit says. “The second year we tried 16 bands. Last year we went extravagant, booked 28 bands, started earlier in the daytime and we had a great day.” This year’s festival is locked in at 29 bands on two stages. Talent ranges from the ravenous deathcore of Plaguebringer to the acoustic stylings of Spencer Jo. White says MomentsFest takes a multi-genre approach to combine the various scenes that make up Alberta’s music community. “MomentsFest is about creating a good time with friends and it’s about building friendships,” White says. “Having a good assortment of genres is a great thing for getting people together as well.” For the organizers, a massive aspect of bringing people together is including the youth. MomentsFest is not only all-ages, but also has a zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol. For White, MomentsFest is a great way to showcase music as an alternative activity for Siksika youth. “That’s why we have it out on the reserve, to get some of the kids down there because there’s really nothing to do on the reserve. As a cause of there being nothing to do, people go down [negative] paths,” White says. “It’s important to get the youth to experience music — to maybe encourage them to pick up an instrument and spend a lot of their time playing music rather than drinking or doing 26 | MAY 2018 • BEATROUTE BY MATTY HUME drugs and going into those paths.” “I want to break that stereotype of the reserve,” Black Rabbit adds. “Everything you see on the news is always bad, so with Moments- Fest, we just want to showcase the good. This is community based; we started from nothing for this.” The ultimate power of punk rock’s positive influence comes from Black Rabbit’s personal experience with the music he loves. “For me, punk rock and metal — heavy music — kept me out of trouble as a teenager, right? So I wanted to use it as my filter and give back to these kids,” Black Rabbit says. “And hopefully when I’m older, I can rely on someone to put on a show while I’m being old and doing other things.” Tied closely to the hope of a positive impact on the community’s youth, MomentsFest also champions Indigenous representation in music. One-third of the bands playing at MomentsFest are Indigenous and are not limited to Siksika, with bands coming from as far as Regina, Saskatchewan. MomentsFest appears to be just the beginning, as its effects are rumbling far and wide. “I had people reaching out to me from smaller communities, smaller reservations, wanting us to come play,” Black Rabbit says. “It was just the start of something. And that’s the plan in the future, to try and get to these small reservations, do a showcase and do workshops for these kids.” “We just want people to come out and have a great time and that’s all we can ask for,” White says. With a line-up that includes both of Black Rabbit’s bands (Iron Tusk and No More Moments), Chief N’ Council, Sharkweak and The Detractions, a headbanging good time is guaranteed. Catch No More Moments, Black Mastiff, Plaguebringer and many more on May 12 at Moments- Fest (Siksika - Calgary). FROG EYES hothouse wallflowers After 17 years of collaborating and participating in Canada’s diverse music community, the Vancouver-based experimental pop masterminds Frog Eyes are closing the book on a weird and fruitful career with Violet Psalms (Paper Bag Records), their eighth and final full-length. It’s a carefully crafted musical collection of tension and unease coated in hopeful melody. According to Carey Mercer, Frog Eyes’ lead singer and guitarist, Violet Psalms isn’t so much a headstone, but rather an indicator of a specific point in time. “It seems like there’s been some kind of demarcation line created in the past couple years where it feels inappropriate to carry on a project that started, in a sense, pre-climate change, in a sense, pre-Trump. Frog Eyes was birthed in a different time,” he says. He explains that Violet Psalms was designed to be disorienting and introspective, mirroring the strange times we find ourselves in. “Let’s just put a nice end to it, and you know, the band comes with so much baggage, and when I was making the record I never thought it would be the last one, but it just feels like a right to time to put an end to the name and its legacy and hopefully gain a new perspective.” Unlike their previous releases, Mercer self-recorded Violet Psalms in a studio he built in his Vancouver home with the help of drummer Melanie Campbell, keyboardist Shyla Seller and bassist Terri Upton, which gave him control over both the sonic elements and ideas. “From the first instant I started making music I was very jealous of the engineer’s knowledge, like, ‘Why do you put this mic there? These are my songs, why do you get to determine how it sounds?’ So much of the engineering affects the end product,” he says with a laugh. “We didn’t want that. We wanted this claustrophobic, disorientating, swirl of drums.” Thus, in an attempt to take the sonic qualities of this record to a new level, Mercer Frog Eyes draw the shades on Violet Psalms. BY MICHAEL GRONDIN got creative. “Every time you listen to a record, every instrument and microphone is obviously placed, and there’s a cohesive totality to the sound. Let’s fail miserably at mimicking that, and in our failure, let’s create something with a distinct imprint,” he explains of his end game. Displaying many such examples of Frog Eyes’ outside-the-box techniques, the finished product is “a gnashing jubilee.” “There’s always an image, or a flickering essence that you try and capture, and sometimes it changes in the process, or when you listen to the record after, or when you hear other people’s impressions of it,” he says. “When it started, I was thinking about shadows, and shadow puppetry, and silhouettes. This idea of creating depth where depth can’t exist, you know?” Apart from the band’s last tour under their amphibian moniker, the next developmental stage in Frog Eyes’ evolution has yet to be unveiled. An exciting prospect for Mercer, who is the first to acknowledge that the only real constant is change. “I spent half my life building this studio in my mind, and then after we built it for real and made this record, I went and sold everything. I don’t know if you have to be happy when you make a record, but you should at least be engaged and focused,” concludes Mercer. “It took a very long time, and a lot of dedication to learn how to make a record on your own, to compile tracks, to make them fit. And a record, in general, is a real magical thing we take for granted.” Frog Eyes’ new LP Violet Psalms drops May 18 on Paper Bag Records. Frog Eyes perform May 11 at The Office of Surrealist Investigations (Kamloops), May 12 at Milkcrate Records (Kelowna), May 25 at Copper Owl (Victoria), May 26 at China Cloud (Vancouver). photo: Lauren Ray ROCKPILE
PALOVERSARY Palomino and friends celebrate a vinyl anniversary BY CHRISTINE LEONARD The Palomino’s new “Smokeout 6” LP compilation will be handed out May 12th at their 14th Anniversary Party. Ready to notch a decade and a half of “This will be our sixth. Only 500 copies being a Calgary landmark into their are being pressed. The line-up is always historic doorframe, The Palomino has become a staple of the local music and food they offer, sometimes we ask — no real ‘Friends of The Palomino.’ Sometimes scene. Simultaneously holding the title science. It seems to just happen.” of familiar watering hole and source of Free with your paid admission, this never-ending surprises, the well-worn and sought after 33 ⅓ rpm platter is exploding with two hefty sides of country-fried much-loved eatery and live music venue has never strayed far from its mandate. rock, succulent pop, drunken hardcore “Two floors of good times,” summarizes general manager and talent buyer Dan ing Crystal Eyes, Allovers, Body Lens, and blackened metal. Admirers includ- Northfield. “Beers, bands and BBQ. We Child Actress, Forbidden Dimension, are Calgary’s original barbeque joint! Our Whitsundays, and more, have all thrown Smokey Bourbon Caesar has also cured down a single stand-alone track to grace many a hangover.” the hallowed bar and restaurant’s latest Amen to that tender mercy! party-mix. And, while Northfield perpetually has his ear-to-the-ground when it Recharging the city’s batteries after an agonizingly long winter, The Palomino’s comes to scouting talent, it is admittedly annual self-celebratory shindig promises difficult to play favourites within such a to restore balance to the seasons and tightly knit scene. one’s bodily humours. The cure for what “The Palomino is kind of like your ails ya? Traditional anniversary gifts of Mum. She is equally ‘stoked’ for all the meat and music, of course. bands,” he explains. “Tom Bagley designed “This is the Palomino’s 14th anniversary. Jared, Arlen and I will be celebrating Rock always support us. We would never this year’s cover and our friends at Big our seventh here,” confirms Northfield. be able to put it all together without the “I believe the 14th year is ivory? I think it guidance and help of our friend Todd.” would be frowned upon if we gave away The next best thing to enjoying anything made from elephant tusks! this variety vinyl release is having the At The Palomino we like to think every opportunity to enjoy some live tunes, anniversary is ‘vinyl.’” especially when they’re performed within That can only mean one thing; the the Smokehouse and Social Club’s brisket-scented brick walls. return of The Palomino Smokehouse compilation record! “We reached out and invited a lot of bands to play our anniversary show and have curated a diverse evening of music. Presently, we have Mark Mills (Vancouver), BRASS (Vancouver), Doug Hoyer Band (Chicago), Hairnet (Calgary), Body Lens (Lethbridge), Red Hot Gospel (Edmonton), Monolith AB (Calgary), Gone Cosmic (Calgary), Old Apartments (Calgary) confirmed and possibly more to come.” More to come. That’s exactly what The Palomino has in mind as mid-town Calgary casually strolls into its saloon and blows out the candles on another rafter-raising year. “We are still open and I think people like coming here…Honestly we just enjoy seeing folks leave with a smile on their face after spending some time at The Palomino,” he continues. “We just do our thing; good BBQ served in a comfortable environment by friendly peeps, keeping up an exciting live program for interesting people and making sure The Palomino is a venue, with a ‘No Jerk’ policy, that is welcoming for everyone. Is it worth celebrating? Who knows? I guess we will find out on May 12 if it is…” The Palomino’s Anniversary Party and LP Release with Doug Hoyer Band, Gone Cosmic, Body Lens, BRASS, and more goes down May 12 at The Palomino Smokehouse and Social Club (Calgary). ROCKPILE BEATROUTE • MAY 2018 | 27
Page 1: FairyTales Film Fest • Sheer Mag
Page 4: PULSE Art Gallery of Alberta LandMa
Page 8: INTERNATIONAL AVENUE COMES ALIVE!!
Page 11 and 12: THE COLLECTING DETECTIVE Movie coll
Page 13: som. Watch how many energetic influ
Page 16: Double down the depths of hell The
Page 21 and 22: ROCKPILE THE ALLOVERS a tale of two
Page 24: PRE NUP the devil’s in the detail
Page 29 and 30: SHOOTING GUNS welcome to flavour co
Page 31: A Get Down sampler photo: Michael G
Page 35 and 36: TG Juice: Fre Tekle Fassil Ethiopia
Page 37 and 38: STUYEDEYED with love from New York
Page 39 and 40: THE HEARTS slightly more sombre, sl
Page 41: MERCY FUNK just wants you to feel g
Page 44 and 45: PICTUREPLANE First discussion of ne
Page 47 and 48: ROOTS JILL BARBER her head and hear
Page 49: ASTRAL SWANS lifting the whole damn
Page 52 and 53: HAMMERFALL architects of the metal
Page 54 and 55: musicreviews Courtney Barnett Tell
Page 57 and 58: While the album is much more spacey
Page 59 and 60: the national anthem as a protest to
Page 61 and 62: PRVIS, Slenderbodies The Palace (Ca

BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [May 2018]

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