Canadian Music Week 2009 – Recession Reviews

Over here in North America, as I’m sure you’ve heard, there’s a huge lack of funds, jobs, cheap drinks… However, for the one week of the year that is Canadian Music Week, there is anything but a lack of music in the great big busy city of Toronto. Talent from all corners of the globe are parading around our downtown core schmoozing, rocking, stalking… you name it!

By no means intending to make light of the current economic downward slope (well, maybe a little), I have decided to get in to the recession spirit and write these ‘CMW Recession Reviews’. I have limited myself to only five sentences about each band I saw. Lucky for you dear reader, you’ll save some time getting through my weekend adventures and I’ll get right to the point in most cases and hold off on unnecessary banter. I highly suggest you check out some of the talented artists I touch on below…

- - -

Thursday March 12th – My First Night on the Town

$100 @ the Horseshoe Tavern
As first band of the festival (for me) the bar wasn’t set very high just yet. I quite like $100 and their old-timey country folk jams, but that’s not to say there is anything particularly original about the songs front woman Simone Fornow and her bearded backing band are crafting. Judging by their stage language (if there is such a thing) the band is a close musical unit of friends and that’s always best with this type of twangy plaid-endorsed rock. Something that really gets under my skin, no matter how great the artist is, is front women or men who think it’s a great idea to play charades to their lyrics while they are singing them. Unfortunately Fornow was one of these types, which was extremely distracting and kept my mind significantly off their honest home baked Dylan-inspired set, and more fixated on what awkward hand actions I could brace myself for next. MySpace

We Are the City @ the Supermarket
As part of the Music BC Showcase, Kelowna’s We Are the City made the trek over to Toronto to grace us with their extremely diligent blends of post-rock indie-pop bliss. I really only know two bands from Kelowna, and both of them are truly amazing, which leads me to believe Kelowna is breeding pure indie-rock gold out there in the mountains! Taking cues from foreigners like Sigur Rós and Múm, and blending them with organic Americana rock spirit (Wilco, the Shins) just might be the perfect combination to reinvent the wheel, and quite possibly the answer to this country’s stale revolving door of young talent. If they keep these types of live sets up and manage to translate this energy on to their debut album, there will be no stopping them from all kinds of success!
MySpace

Megan Hamilton & the Volunteer Canola @ Rancho Relaxo
A key player in the Toronto music scene, Megan Hamilton is a personal favourite for a few reasons. Starting with her uncanny and unique lyrical wit, paired with her charming sense of melody, puts her in the ranks with great songsmiths like the super indie femme fatale Julie Doiron, or the cannon-residing Daniel Johnston. This night Hamilton was armed with her new backing band, which features a guitarist who filled in some of the cuts off her forthcoming album, ‘See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard’, with hands down this city’s best falsetto back-ups. Her set was inspired to say the least, and it was unfortunate there weren’t more in attendance to witness her sultry ballads turn into captivating soundscapes on the small Rancho Relaxo stage. Regardless, she is gearing up for a big year and I suspect the live set can only get better and stronger from here on out. MySpace

Matt Mays and El Torpedo @ Lees Palace
One of the main headliners of the festival, probably the ‘biggest’ artist I personally saw all weekend, Matt Mays (pictured) is no stranger to the stage. A rock star in every sense, the ballsy frontman romped across the stage with his shirt buttoned six buttons too low, wielding his weapon of command – the almighty axe. Hammering out gut-wrenching east coast heartbreakers one after the next, the Halifax-bred band poured every ounce of themselves into the entirely tight and explosive live set. The crowd was in a daze of excitement as the songs just kept flying at us harder and more furiously than the last. The night culminated with an epic moment, when Mays invited a friend on stage and sang a “camp fire song” with only one guitar player strumming and five grown men shouting into one mic – bro-love at its finest.
MySpace

- - -

Friday March 13th – The Night With No End. Well Kinda.

Dinosaur Bones @ the Horseshoe Tavern
I’ve written about them before to you UK followers over there, but I will do so again. Toronto’s Dinosaur Bones have something very special and it comes in the form of their truly well written and hard-hitting indie-rock songs. It becomes even more apparent that their brand of dark and haunting, yet endearing tunes are itching to be chart toppers when they take to a live stage, including their early set at the ‘Shoe this Friday. What truly draws me in, and did so with most of the crowd (I noticed), is their ability to construct catchy hooks so honestly in songs like ‘Royalty’ and ‘NYE’, yet never do they once come off sounding like a pop band. Their New York-inspired swagger may evoke comparisons to The Strokes and The Walkmen left and right, but they’ve got something a little bigger than that – a universal urgency and lyrics that allow each listener to fill them with their own thoughts/experiences, yet they don’t sound vague in the least when lead singer Ben Fox sings them with his eyes closed into the mic. This is a rare skill, making Dinosaur Bones a great find and possibly the most groundbreaking new Canadian band at this current moment.
MySpace

The Junction @ Sneaky Dees
The Junction are a balls-out rock outfit that has been circulating central Ontario for the past six or seven years. They’re notorious because of their ability to craft great group chant-alongs and hand-clapping frenzies. The room was packed wall to wall, getting a drink would probably take you a few hours, and the boys were looking sharp! Joined by a new member who will be added in to the fold, the four-piece took charge of the room with their anthems. New single ‘My Love Was There’ is sure to take these Brampton boys to new heights, and proves they have finally figured out their sound and decided it lies in east coast-inspired rock and roll with some dark undertones, and undeniably a lot of heart. (This is good news!)
MySpace

The Februarys @ Tattoo Rock Parlour
Commercial radio’s new darlings The Februarys are anything but up my alley. Regardless, I support Wind-Up Records and caught the band playing the Wind-Up showcase at the Tattoo Rock Parlour, probably one of my least favourite venues in the city. Their poppy sing-along rock isn’t offensive, just nothing new. They do it well though, with catchy-as-hell choruses and abrasive hooks. Front man Lucas Lawrence has a great voice that you can’t avoid wanting to sing along with, but unfortunately their brand of pop will always leave them in the guilty pleasure category of my playlists. But hey, it could be worse!
MySpace

Cheesecake (literally) @ Free Times Café
Sure, this isn’t a band or a showcase but it deserves a mention nonetheless. We had to stop mid-city-stroll at the best little café/restaurant - Free Times Café. Their homemade strawberry cheesecake is ridiculously incredible. Simply, the perfect ammo I needed to keep me going all night and at a very affordable price, might I add (keeping the recession in mind)! And then we were off to the next venue of choice!

Black Hat Brigade @ Rancho Relaxo
Rancho Relaxo proved to be a tad too small and under-ventilated for the 150 or so people trying to cram into it. Local art-rockers Black Hat Brigade capitalised on the sweaty, inebriated audience with their set stuffed with post-rock translucence, building catchy and messy explosions bordering on pop sing-alongs at times. Wearing their Modest Mouse and Wolf Parade influences proudly on their sleeves, Black Hat Brigade borrow from the best and then expand and take the comfortable dance rock into foreign terrains, adding frantic tambourine hitting and spacey roofless jams into the puzzle. In a live setting it turns into a very jaw-dropping affair where you can do one of two things – dance like a maniac, or just stand with your eyes glazed over and start drooling a bit until one of your drunk friends hits you and is like, “Dude!!!” I did the latter, go figure!
MySpace

Amos the Transparent @ Rancho Relaxo
Ottawa’s Amos the Transparent followed Black Hat Brigade with their much more chilled-out set, but that’s not to say it wasn’t captivating. Frontman Jonathan Chandler has some real talent and knows how to craft pop songs that are just right. Their buoyant melodies filled the club and forced many up to the front of the stage. Their single ‘Lemons (BigPondLittleFish)’ is undeniably a perfect pop song and when fleshed out by the band sounds like a stunning indie-pop acoustic orchestra of noise. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch all of their set, as I rushed off to the Horseshoe to catch my next band, but I enjoyed what I did see/hear.
MySpace

The Schomberg Fair @ the Horseshoe Tavern
For a band to play a 2am set and get the drunkies up and out of their seats, it should very well be a band like The Schomberg Fair. They brought their angry, country speed gospel to the late-night crowd the only way they know how –viciously and unapologetically. Seeing The Schomberg Fair is unlike any experience I or presumably you have ever had with a band: they’re a three-piece and they basically just get up and yell at you for 30 minutes straight with their guitars and banjos; it gets offensive sometimes, but it’s all in good fun. It’s crazy they’re only a three-piece, but any more members on stage and things would get downright dangerous. Their bassist has this deep growl, with which he spews a few back up vocals in behind frontman Matt Bahen’s very Tom Waits-y croon, making the band incredibly memorable and quite simply unique.
MySpace

Saturday March 14th – The Day with no End. Actually.

Peachcake @ Trash Palace (daytime show!)
Gah, I don’t even really want to write five sentences about this band. Aside from being quite annoying on the ears (atrocious Casio beats glistening with nasally vocals), their live show irked me even more. Gimmicks out the wazoo! The band travels with a treasure chunk of fedoras, glitter sparkles, costume changes, and Fisher Price keytars and… come on! Aren’t we in a recession here? Who has the money to transport such items all the way from LA? (or Planet Awesome as their MySpace states.) Not to mention the audacity to bring them on-stage while your frontman marches around with a cane touching people in inappropriate places, hanging off the rafters, and taking his clothes off. This might be allowed, if their music was somewhat impressive, but the whole package I could have done without, thank you.
MySpace

The Great Bloomers @ Trash Palace
Gearing up for the release of their new album in May, The Great Bloomers have established themselves as a must-see band in and around Toronto. Much like the Wooden Sky and Plants & Animals, they slide in nicely to the local scene with their home-brewed melodic folk rock. They have their sing-alongs down pat, and their flourishing yet humble build ups; I also found a lot in the lyrics that I was impressed by, so what’s not to love about these cats? Sure they might not be breaking new ground entirely, but they are by no means treading stale water. I look forward to hearing the new album and watching them grow in to their own place in the Canadian music landscape.
MySpace

Dinosaur Bones @ Trash Palace
Yes! I saw them last night, ok! But thanks to my self-constraining five-sentence limit, I didn’t really get to go into too much detail. Let me elaborate: their daytime set was great again, of course. It was during this set that I figured out what my favourite song of theirs is, a new not-yet-titled cut that doesn’t really have a chorus and it just starts and ends with the same verse. The song doesn’t really ‘go’ anywhere, but it’s where it sits that is the most appealing aspect to me. I feel bad typing about it because you can’t even go and listen to it (sorry!), but nonetheless it sits in a kind of sad, yet hopeful and blatantly honest place. The ability to capture different moods and feelings in every song they write puts this band lightyears ahead of their peers… go to their MySpace and listen to ‘Life in Trees’ (or any of their songs for that matter) - you’ll know what I mean.
MySpace

The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Trash Palace
The oft-buzzed local three-piece headed by songwriter Nils Edenloff was the band to finish off the adorable daytime show (presented by the Musebox and local promotions company No Shame). I had a hard time getting through to the songs they were crafting beneath Edenloff’s rather bold, nasally, and by no means soothing vocals. Simplistic acoustic folk shanties as they are; I enjoyed the melodies when I could hear them and firmly believe that someone in the band, although they might not admit it, has a past riddled with late ‘90s emo. I’m assuming Dashboard Confessional and Get Up Kids definitely played a part in these delectable and romantic indie-pop songs and only a true emo fan wouldn’t be able to hear it. They are by no means an emo band; they are an organic acoustic indie-folk/rock band (what?), but believe me, there’s something very peculiar about the way they write their songs which could be a good thing or bad depending on whose ears they fall on.
MySpace

The Courtyard (literally) @ Trash Palace
Again, not a band but the weather was just so nice and the little venue that was Trash Palace (more like a basement/loft/workshop sort of thing) had one of the cutest little courtyards I have seen. The whole atmosphere of the daytime show, paired with the adorable courtyard, made the whole experience that much better.

Club Sandwich (literally) @ Johnny Rockets
Ok. I’ll stop, but I just love food. Food takes a close second beside music in my life. Anyways, in brief – this club sandwich sucked big time. I was very unhappy with my selection, not to mention their carelessness for the art of making a club sandwich. Sheesh!

Parlovr @ the Drake Underground
Montreal’s latest CBC Radio 3 chart-topping export Parlovr (pronounced Parlour, I think) are young and vicious! This is part of their charm when they play live sets: just a three-piece, they crank out roaring guitar post-rock and shout their lyrics between synth-heavy dance waves. Think the Black Lips or the Mars Volta with a steady diet of Franco-indie rock (Handsome Furs, Sunset Rubdown) then wrap it in some crazy loud group shout-alongs and nerd-rock jams and you have Parlovr: Canada’s next huge thing. Mark my words, their Montreal roots will only extend so long until the country claims them as their own and they dazzle the masses overseas; UK, watch out for these ideal Foals and Does it Offend You, Yeah? tourmates.
MySpace

Modernboys Moderngirls @ Rancho Relaxo
Undergoing some recent line-up changes, the Toronto group recently shed some of their excess members and dwindled back down to core founding members and songwriters Akira Alemany and Brett Millius. Watching a two-piece perform their garage-rock anthems would have been kind of boring, so lucky for us they brought along friends and members of the Toronto indie rock elite - Dave Wickland, keyboardist from Dinosaur Bones, filled in on keys, and Rajiv Thavanathan, frontman from Oh No Forest Fires, jumped in on bass. Pretty girls were smashed up against the front of the small stage singing their hearts out to the band’s undeniably hip hits. Little did I know single ‘My Baby Says Boy, Don’t You Ever Go’ would be left spinning in my head for the coming month. MBMG write damn good songs that have the universal accessibility to turn heads, not just in Canada but also overseas. They mash Britrock influences with dance rock, melding them all together with unforgettable choruses and hooks and then simply rock the fuck out on stage. If that’s not the formula to success, I don’t know what is.
MySpace

The Day with No End @ the Day With No End
I went to an after party. Did I mention that I was seeing Peachcake play at 1:30 pm earlier this day? Or that I was out until 4am the night before watching Black Hat Brigade’s second set? Needless to say, CMW only comes once a year so I decided to hit it hard, much harder than my body could have hoped or appreciated. I ended up getting home at 7am on Sunday morning.

- - -

Good night CMW, good morning recession reviews. There you all have it. Come visit Canada to get a taste of all this madness yourself! Cheers!

Photo: Bob Battams