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  5. Sarah Slean - Saturday in Kingston

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    Rock Crew Productions and CFRC 101.9 FM are very proud to present Sarah Slean with special guest Tomi Swick at Sydenham Street United Church on Saturday, November 12. Doors open at 7 PM, this is an all ages event. Advance tickets are $12.00 (including service charges and GST) and on sale now at the Grand Theatre Box Office at 613.530.2050 or http://www.grandtheatre-kingston.com

    Toronto, ON – Sarah Slean's fourth full-length album, "Day One, " was recorded over a five month period in Toronto and was co-produced by Slean along with Pete Prilesnik (Sarah Harmer) and Dan Kurtz (of live house band The New Deal) . The album was written during a self-imposed 4 month retreat into the woods where Sarah spent countless evenings in her log cabin in total isolation, thinking, drawing and composing new material.

    "Day One" features guest appearances by Toronto singer-songwriter Howie Beck and Billy Talent guitarist Ian D’Sa. Beck appears on “Vertigo,†while D’Sa can be heard on the album’s first single, “Lucky Meâ€. "Lucky Me" is her most successful radio single to date, and received substantial radio play at HOT AC and TOP 40 across Canada. Her latest single "MARY" is currently being worked at radio.

    Fresh off a 15 date tour in France supporting her friend Buck 65, Sarah will perform a selection of songs from past albums with just her and a piano. Fans who have previously witnessed Sarah in this intimate format know that this makes for an amazing evening as the audience will have a chance to experience how her songs were originally written - just Sarah and her piano. Come out for an wonderful and unique evening with Sarah Slean - intimate and solo.

    http://www.sarahslean.com

    http://www.myspace.com/tomiswick

    http://www.cfrc.ca

    http://www.ssuc.org

  6. Danny Michel w/ Justin Bird - Nov 10 at Elixir

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    This Thursday, Nov 10 at Elixir (14 Garrett Street), Rock Crew presents Danny Michel with special guest Justin Bird. Tickets are $8 advance at Zap Records, Chumleighs, Destinations, Renaissance, Brian's Record Option, Elixir and online at www.rockcrew.ca

    He was been called “a candidate for national treasurehoodâ€. Danny Michel is a clever songwriter, a captivating live performer and a crafty musician. Danny has built a loyal following in his native Canada through cross-country touring and a steady release of critically acclaimed albums.

    After several years playing in the bands the Rhinos and later Starling, Danny began his solo career with the inventive and creative self-produced Fibsville (1999). Read the back cover and the listener is asked to ‘just say no to random shuffle’. Inside, there are songs ranging from his ode to a Brad Pitt stalker (Coalmine), the tale of his Cadillac hearse (Smell of Gas), his experience of opening for one of his musical idols, Frank Black (Mr. Black) and a song referencing the band leader on the Titanic, Wallace Hartley (Hartley). Fibsville was followed in 2001 with In The Belly of a Whale. Yet another self-produced album, Belly … found a wider audience, who discovered an irrepressible talent. Lyrically, its main focus is on the matters of the heart, in particular the broken variety. ‘We’re Gonna Be Alright’ hides a tale of loss beneath a steady Keith Moon-like drum beat. ‘Toledo’ explores the vacuous road weary state of longing for home, while ‘Fireworks’ tells a vivid story of a dream inhabited by Ronald Reagan mask wearing bandits and fireworks selling weirdos. Danny toured Belly… with a can-rock dream band of Luke Doucet (Sarah McLachlan) on guitar, Emm Gryner (David Bowie) on bass and Gavin Brown (Sarah Harmer) on drums.

    Following a full year of touring, Danny retreated to the country. He settled in a boathouse on a picturesque lake outside of Guelph, Ontario. Eventually he set up a studio and whiled away his days writing and recording. The result is the aptly named Tales From The Invisible Man (2003). Released on upstart indie label, MapleMusic Recordings (Sam Roberts, Kathleen Edwards, The Dears), Danny’s music continued finding an expanding audience. Tales… earned Danny a Juno Nomination for ‘Best New Artist’ in 2004. The album found Danny in vintage form and showcasing his diverse talents, from the power pop of ‘Two Hearts’, an ode to his fixation with childhood memories of growing up in the ‘70’s (I got no beepers, no pagers, just Farrah Fawcett, Lee Majors) to the folksy tale of a mining disaster (Thunder in the Mountain) to the Tom Waits-like sounding title track. Recorded almost entirely at his home studio, and not enough to merely self-produce, Danny played almost all the instruments on the album as well.

    In between steady bouts of touring, Danny returned to his lakeside home studio to begin work on a project he had wanted to do since he was in his teens, a cover album of David Bowie songs, his favourite musician. 2004’s Loving the Alien….Danny Michel Sings the Songs of David Bowie, is more than just a long titled tribute record. He steers away, for the most part, from Bowie’s more popular songs, and instead focuses on the Thin White Dukes more obscure numbers like ‘Andy Warhol’ and ‘DJ’. The one hit covered, ‘Young Americans’, is turned into a country leaning acoustic strum.

    The summer of 2005 was a busy and fruitful one for Danny. He had the honour and pleasure of playing guitar in Sarah Harmer’s band as she crossed the country headlining her own theatre shows as well as doing the Folk Festival circuit. Danny also hit the Folk festival circuit for his own solo shows, winning over fans from Mariposa to Vancouver. He won the CBC/Galaxie Rising Star award at the Edmonton Folk Festival, arguably the country’s largest and most prestigious festival. Danny was also quite busy off the road. He recorded with Andy Kim (Sugar, Sugar) and Gentleman Reg as part of the CBC ‘Fuse’ radio show. As well as putting the finishing touches on his own record, Danny produced Edmonton’s alt.country upstarts the AASoundsystem.

    Danny’s forthcoming album, on MapleMusic Recordings, will be released in March 2006.

    Justin Bird:

    - Developed skills as a performer and songwriter in Moncton, NB

    - Moved to Kingston where he produced five records: Shine, Gaudi Birds, For The Living, Glatisant, and Return To Form

    - Canadian Musician magazine best described his music as “soar o’er the moon rockâ€

    - Known for his sometimes raw, passionate performances

    - Comparisons have been drawn to Bowie, Morrison, and, oddly enough, k.d. lang

    - Is currently working on a new record, Beyonder

    www.dannymichel.com

    www.justinbirdsanctuary.com

    www.elixirnightclub.com

  9. Serena Ryder - Saturday in Kingston!

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    This Saturday, November 5, Rock Crew Productions proudly presents Serena Ryder with special guests The Frontier Index at The Grad Club (162 Barrie Street). Advance tickets are $8 and on sale now at Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Renaissance Music, Destinations, Grad Club and online at www.rockcrew.ca

    “Ryder …won over every person in the room with her vivacious personality, lovely voice and great songs. Her performance left you confident you'd just witnessed an artist who, for once, not only deserves the hype – she transcends it “

    NOW Magazine

    After a lifetime of performing, Serena Ryder stands poised on the brink of her biggest things. Armed with a rivetting stage presence, powerful three-octave range and songs of intense passion, she invites the listener to observe her soul stripped bare.

    Belying her 21 years, Ryder has already sung with the likes of Bobby “Blue†Bland and Texas legend Jimmy LaFave. She has played festivals in every part of Canada, appeared in dozens of tiny alternative music clubs in major cities and been part of the Toronto Women’s Blues Revue. Over the last year, she has toured across Canada, France and Australia, headlining shows and supporting other such compelling artists as Hawksley Workman and Steve Earle.

    Serena has been surrounded by music all her life. She was born into a performing family, where her mother was a touring back-up singer and go-go dancer, while her father was a gigging percussionist and guitar player. Raised in Peterborough, Ontario, she could sing before she could talk and her first gig was an impromptu performance of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It†when she was two. At 16, she made her first CDs, she now embarks on her first international release with Unlikely Emergency.

    The genesis of Unlikely Emergency goes back to the summer of 2003, when hawksley workman invited her to use his schoolhouse studio in Huntsville. Over several weeks she honed the songs and recorded them on her own – playing guitar, drums, bass, harmonica, banjo, and keyboards.

    Workman was mightily impressed with the results and signed Ryder to his Isadora Records imprint. In early January, he invited her back to the studio and — playing drums, guitars and banjo — produced 10 songs in an intense three days of recording. With Derrick Brady on bass and Todd Lumley on organ, workman was anxious to capture the energy of her live performance and the passion she brings to her songs.

    Unlikely Emergency opens and closes — as do her live shows — with a capella songs that book-end the powerful, deeply felt songs between them. With the exception of one song, her show-stopping version of “At Last,†re-popularized by Etta James, Serena wrote all ten songs on the album.

    The results are irresistibly forceful as her distinctive voice growls, struts, scats and screams. The opening track captures it best:

    “I‘ve been around for long enough to know that / Everybody needs to sing / No matter if you’re all alone or surrounded / By a thousand people with a thousand things / You gotta sing sing sing sing sing out loud / Don’t you dare holding nothing back…â€

    Serena Ryder holds nothing back and Unlikely Emergency lures you to do likewise.

    Frontier Index grew out of the most humble of circumstances. Two years ago four music fanatics from Stratford, Ontario (Corey Hernden, Mick Jackson, Matt Francis, and John Hunter) gathered in a small kitchen in downtown Toronto. Armed with acoustic guitars, three voices which were born to sing together, and aided by the occasional slug from a bottle the boys played late into the night for themselves and anyone who happened to drop by. In this way, slowly and gracefully, Frontier Index was born. Upon leaving the kitchen, early gigs were surprisingly well attended. Since then, it’s been a game of catch-up. From gigs with the infamous Dan Burke at The Silver Dollar, to becoming something of a mainstay at Toronto’s Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, the boys have become a sonic force to be reckoned within the Toronto music scene.

    Before long, their reputation for great live shows brought the boys to the attention of Rainbow Quartz Records, who duly signed them in the fall of 2004. Working through the winter of 2004, Frontier Index recorded their debut album with indie guru Andy Magoffin at his illustrious House of Miracles in London, Ontario. The product of these long winter nights in the studio was a “live†feeling album that runs the gamut from bone rattling to tender hearted, complete with summer sweet harmonies, and all captured straight off the creaky wood floors of Mr. Magoffin’s humble abode; assisted by friends both old and new.

    “Frontier Index†the band’s Debut self titled CD was released by Rainbow Quartz Records on June 28th, 2005 in Canada and distributed by MapleNationwide.

    Ya’ll been Warned!

    www.serenaryder.com

    www.thefrontierindex.com

    www.gradclub.ca

    www.rockcrew.ca

  10. Slaves of Spanky - mini East Coast tour this weekend

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    Thursday, Nov 3 - The Capital (Fredericton)

    Friday, Nov 4 - Brennan's (Charlottetown)

    Saturday, Nov 5 - The Attic (Halifax)

    Slaves of Spanky are Kingston’s velcro shoe-wearing, shit-hot RAP jam superstars. MCs Chuck Badminton and Cap't Footbags wear fresh helmets and bust forth with lightnin' hot RAPS while the funk is brought by Suganutz (Rhodes, synth, Alphabet desk), Speedgrease (electric upright bass) and Marf (drums). The beats and grooves from the band keep the rumps shaking vigorously, but it's the MCs in the spotlight with a high-energy and goddamn hilarious performance that never ceases to be anything short of incomparably fun. Check out the pork-chop bling action and the rockin’ synchronized leg lifts in mid rap.

    Chuck and Footbags started the SOS Crew as two rappers and a drum machine in the small but sexy town of Tamworth, Ontario in 1996. Realizing that digital gadgets (especially watches and computers) were on the way out, SOS became a live band, bringing in a local jazz/funk trio (Suganutz, Speedgrease, Marf) to supply the hot RAP rhythms. Now, it’s two MCs and a backing band of schooled funkateers fuelled on cheeseburgers and donuts, and Slaves of Spanky have become fresher than TV's McGyver at the peak of his short and lucrative career. DAMN.

    Currently based in Kingston Ontario, Slaves of Spanky are RAPPIN' and crap-talking their way into the hearts of millions, filling clubs across Eastern Ontario and opening for such acts as Sum 41, Pocket Dwellers, Choclair, Drums & Tuba, Sweatshop Union and Grand Buffet. The new SOS album ‘Gas Money’ was released October 29.

    www.slavesofspanky.com

  11. The Golden Dogs w/ Pelt - Thursday in Kingston

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    Rock Crew Productions, CFRC 101.9 FM and Elixir Nightclub are very proud to present The Golden Dogs this Thursday, November 3. Tickets are $8 advance at Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Renaissance Music, Destinations, Chumleighs, Elixir and online at www.rockcrew.ca

    The Golden Dogs will be heading into the studio next week to record their follow up to Everything in Three Parts with producer Paul Aucoin (who produced the new Cuff The Duke record, and also plays in The Sadies, FemBots, Hylozoists, CTD, and several other bands). So, this is the last chance to see The Golden Dogs again for quite a while ...

    www.thegoldendogs.com

    www.myspace.com/peltband

    www.elixirnightclub.com

    www.cfrc.ca

    www.rockcrew.ca

    COMING SOON:

    Serena Ryder w/ The Frontier Index - Nov 5 at The Grad Club

    Danny Michel w/ Justin Bird - Nov 10 at Elixir

    Sarah Slean w/ Tomi Swick - Nov 12 at Sydenham Street United Church

    The Road Hammers w/ Jim Patterson - Nov 13 at Stages

    Holy Fuck - Nov 17 at Elixir

    Slaves of Spanky - Dec 1 at Philthy McNasty's

    Brian Borcherdt & Wax Mannequin - Jan 27 at Clark Hall Pub

  16. Craig Cardiff w/ Stephanie Leah Gora - this Thursday in Kingston

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    Elixir Nightclub and Rock Crew Productions proudly present Ottawa singer-songwriter Craig Cardiff with special guest Stephanie Leah Gora this Thursday! Tickets are $8 advance at Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Chumleighs, Renaissance Music, Destinations, Elixir and on-line at www.rockcrew.ca

    Craig Cardiff - “Singer-songwriter. Prone to fits of edginess and obnoxious honesty. Songs about being barefoot; being full of cancer; about pouring yourself out; being worth love; being the kite that gets caught on the power-lines; being a geek; about driving out February; songs about you. Thank you very much for your ears.

    Often accompanied by double bass and drums. Once, in Cleveland, I watched Buddy Guy perform freedom and thought about thirty years, four weeks and five days past the actual date that the song still made sense. Singing songs that need to be sung. Had an epiphany once. Thinks his van can make it all the way to Peggy's Cove, where the land stopped and planes fell to sleep in the water.

    Not comfortable writing musical bios and/or resumes. Play accordion, harmonica, guitar and sing. Fairly regularly. Blessed to know so many wonderful musicians who will accompany/tolerate me. Hurled challenge at Walter Ostanek during a drunken rampage at a rare public appearance (the drunken rampage was mine and the rare public appearance his) for a polka-off, which was never recognized. I asked him to wager his Juno. Often found in living rooms and church basements.â€

    Stephanie Leah Gora is a singer-songwriter from Hamilton currently living in Kingston studying at Queen's University. She has been learning music for most of her 22 years and has been performing for the past 5.

    In 2003 she and guitarist James Young formed an acoustic rock band, Go Lightly, along with bass player Matt Tremblay and drummer Vic DaSilva. Go Lightly played a number of gigs in Kingston and Montreal, opening for the likes of Throwback and the Fembots.

    For the past year, Stephanie has been on something of a hiatus due to an overwhelming school schedule. However, 2005-2006 promises to be a more creative year and she will be recording a new demo in November and touring whenever her studies allow.

    www.craigcardiff.com

    www.elixirnightclub.com

    www.rockcrew.ca

  17. Tricky Woo w/ Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band - Kingston

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    There's no kidding around about the greatness to be witnessed tonight. This is rock n roll music. It's just not proper that you should miss it. Tricky Woo takes the stage around midnight, and opening sets will be performed by Starvin' Hungry and our good friends The Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band. You can still get $7 advance tickets until 5 PM at Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Chumleighs, Renaissance Music, Destinations and Elixir.

  19. Black halos/Illuminati/Crash Kelly - Saturday in Kingston

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    Rock Crew Productions and Kingston Punk Productions present The Black Halos, The Illuminati and Crash Kelly, this Saturday, October 22 at Clark Hall Pub. Tickets $8 advance Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Destinations, Renaissance Music, Clark Hall Pub and www.rockcrew.ca

    This show is 19+ (general public)/all ages (Queen's students only)

    Ever since this beautiful nightmare began back in 1994, The Black Halos have always been an entity on its own comprised of 5 individuals who have united with the soul purpose of keeping the idiot savantness of the music we love alive at any cost. From taking on tours that even to the most experienced and die hard bands seem impossibly ridiculous consisting of some of the most legendary/highbrow theatres and ballrooms as well as some of the darkest shitholes and unknown venues no crowd has been denied or unmarked by our passion, insanity, and debauchery.

    Throughout the history of rock'n'roll, punk, alternative or whatever the magazines are calling it now, too many bands could be given as reference points but even though we have studied the maps of the masters we still refuse to learn from their past mistakes and have chosen to seek our own uncharted course to glorious errors. It’s a rough road full of speed bumps and potholes with no breaks but after all we still call it rock'n'roll and we hope you'll join us for the ride!

    The Illuminati are not a typical modern band. There is no gimmick. There is only the consuming roar of elegantly crafted rock music. Taking their name from the shadowy secret society purported to control the world, The Illuminati are the majority share of the now-defunct garage metal band Tchort.

    They offer a refreshing return to musical virtuosity - conjuring wild spectres rock 'n roll's greatest legacies. Sneaky details like moments of metal-blues fusion and impeccably written noodley jazz codas recall a time before today's genre-bound constraints. It is time to expect more music. It is time to return to a sense of wonder. It is time for The Illuminati.

    There was a magical time in music where one could turn on their favourite FM radio station and be rewarded for their efforts with a stream of truly classic rock n' roll. The sounds of T-Rex melding into Thin Lizzy… the Alice Cooper Group played back to back against a Cheap Trick album track. The 70's era of rock n' roll was a time when the purchase of an album was a sacred rite of passage, attending a concert equivalent to a mass religious experience, when the image and art of the rock n' roll performer merged as one. Crash Kelly wants to take you back... Ladies and gentlemen, please adjust your Hi-Fi players for the next rock n' roll transmission.

    Crash Kelly is the soulchild of Sean Kelly, a Toronto session musician who has toured and recorded with some of the biggest names in Canadian music. After years of playing sideman to various and sundry artists, the Rock n' Roll animal in Sean could no longer be contained. In 2002, Crash Kelly was born. Crash Kelly comes by its influences honestly. Weaned on Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, KISS and T-Rex, Sean quickly fell under the spell of the sound of twin guitars, slamming glam-rock beats and performance based rock n' roll courtesy of his older sister's record

    collection.

    Being a child of the 80's, Sean was able to separate the wheat from the chaff of the hard rock artists of the famed Sunset Strip. Early Motley Crue and Hanoi Rocks are considered essential listening in the Kelly household. It’s the combination of these influences filtered through the classic 70's structure and sound that forms the foundation for Crash Kelly.

    Crash Kelly's debut album, "Penny Pills" was co-produced by Sean and "Killer" Ky Anto, of Robin Black and The Intergalactic Rock Stars fame. Ky's production expertise and shared love of classic production style resulted in an album that honestly represents the spirit of hook filled, swaggering rock n' roll. On stage, Crash Kelly has evolved into a well-oiled rock n roll machine with Sean Kelly on lead vocals and lead guitar, Allister Thompson on guitar and backing vocals, Jeff Pearce on bass guitar and backing vocals and Eric Michael Herrmann on drums and percussion. With their recent multi-album, worldwide signing to Los Angeles based rock n roll label Liquor and Poker Music, you can rest assured that the Crash Kelly onslaught will be global in nature. This is an act that thrives in the live arena. They're coming to your town, they'll help ya party it down...

    You get my drift? Cool.

    www.blackhalos.net

    www.theilluminati.net

    www.crashkelly.ca

    engsoc.queensu.ca/clark

    www.rockcrew.ca

    www.kingstonpunk.ca

    OTHER SHOWS COMING SOON:

    Tricky Woo w/ Starvin' Hungry & Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band - Oct 20 at Elixir

    Craig Cardiff w/ Stephanie Leah Gora - Oct 27 at Elixir

    The Golden Dogs w/ Pelt - Nov 3 at Elixir

    Serena Ryder w/ Frontier Index - Nov 5 at Grad Club

    Danny Michel w/ Tomi Swick- Nov 10 at Elixir

    Sarah Slean - Nov 12 at Sydenham Street United Church

    The Road Hammers w/ Jim Patterson - Nov 13 at Stages Nightclub

    Slaves of Spanky - Dec 1 at Philthy McNasty's (no cover!)

  20. Luke Doucet/Fembots/Whitey Houston/Shout Out Out Out Out

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    From today's Queen's Journal - http://www.queensjournal.ca/articlephp/point-vol133/issue14/arts/lead2

    TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2005

    FemBots release gem of an album

    By Brendan Kennedy

    It’s always nice to see a hardworking band hit their stride and be rewarded for their effort.

    With the release of their third album—The City—on Paper Bag Records last month, the FemBots are at last garnering the kind of attention that has seemed to come easily to some of their PB label mates, but has always (up to this point) appeared just out of reach for the veteran Toronto scenesters. The City has been receiving high praise from our country’s indie tastemakers, scoring several four-star (and five-star) reviews and spurring eager music critics to include it in early declarations of Canadian albums of the year.

    And good for them.

    From Mucho Cuidado’s found-sound collage freakout, to Small Town Murder Scene’s inner-city, death-country balladry and now The City’s nostalgic longing for a lost history, the FemBots have been making some of the weirdest, spookiest, coolest and most original music in ... well, anywhere.

    The FemBots are Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier. While neither are robots nor femmes themselves, they are the mad scientists behind the band’s experimental urban twang.

    The high school chums played together in ’90s alt-rock bands Dig Circus and Hummer before starting the FemBots simply as a recording side project and outlet for the ideas that wouldn’t fit in with their other bands. Since then, though, their crazy ideas have grown into three great albums.

    They make country music for city dwellers that conjures up images of rickety record players and screeching tape reels coming alive in the middle of the night, as if the ’80s kids’ show Today’s Special were set in a pawn shop instead of a department store.

    With The City, however, the band has made their most accessible record yet: more verse-chorus-verse, less Teddy Ruxpin tape player.

    “When people think of it as being a dramatic shift from one record to another, it’s maybe because they don’t see all the stuff that goes on in between those records,†MacKinnon told the Journal by phone before kicking off their cross-Canada tour on the East Coast.

    “What happened from Mucho Cuidado to now, is that somewhere along the line we started touring with a larger band and the sound we’ve arrived at now has been a natural outcome of that,†he said.

    But MacKinnon and Poirier have always been more than just a couple of noodling button-pushers. Amid Mucho’s and Small Town’s beeps, whirls and answering machine messages were campfire singalongs like “Ice Cream†and orchestral alt-country rockers like “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.â€

    And it’s not like the ’Bots went CMT on us or anything. The songs on The City still possess the same haunting quality of the band’s earlier work, and there’s still singing saws, xylophones, wine glasses and typewriter noises, but this time they flushed it out with horns, strings and vibes instead of thrift store noisemakers.

    “We never hit a point where we sat down and said we wanted to make a record that was easier on people than the other ones might have been,†he said. “It’s just the way it happened.

    “The records kind of take on a life of their own once you’re midway through working on them,†he said. “A lot of music happens accidentally, and even if you’re the one creating it, you don’t necessarily know what it’s about or why it’s working the way it’s working until much later.

    “And God knows the next one might be all annoying grating noises.â€

    Not only is The City the FemBots’ most musically accessible record to date, it’s also the most lyrically developed. In The City, MacKinnon painfully laments what he considers to be the incremental destruction of Toronto’s history.

    “One of the central things in a lot of the songs on this record is trying to catalogue the history of our city,†he said. “Toronto is always trying so hard to be world-class and wants so badly to be recognized as a such a great city, but in order to get to those places, we’re really willing to whitewash over our history—especially the less glamorous parts of it.

    “As a city, it does have a long and very interesting history, but the majority of people that live here have no clue what it is and there’s so little visible remnants of that history—we’ve just destroyed it.â€

    While MacKinnon and Poirier are the main composers and ringleaders of the band in the studio, on stage the FemBots appear in a variety of incarnations—drawing from a rotating posse of percussionists, bowers and noisemakers—making almost every show different from the one before.

    At tonight’s show at The Grad Club, MacKinnon and Poirier will be joined by The Weakerthans’ Jason Tait and Greg Smith on drums and bass, respectively, as well as Julie Penner on violin and Paul Aucoin on vibraphone.

    There are too many bands in this country that quit before they ever hit their prime (*cough* Thrush Hermit *cough* Fur Packed Action and basically every great band from the Maritimes, save Sloan), unable to deal with the stresses,—both economic and emotional—of touring this vast, mostly empty landscape. So, it’s great to see a band like the FemBots hang in there long enough for things to start paying off.

    “We’ve been doing it long enough that for us it’s always been that as long it’s getting a bit better every year, then that’s really the best thing you can ask for,†he said.

    “It’s a pretty modest goal, but the reward is in the work, so as long as you’re able to do the work, then that’s really all you can ask for.â€

  23. Tricky Woo w/ Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band - Kingston

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    Tricky Woo is coming back! Rock Crew and CFRC present Tricky Woo at Elixir on Thursday, October 20 with The Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band and Starvin' Hungry.

    Montreal’s ambassadors of bombast, Tricky Woo, are widely acknowledged as groundbreaking heroes of rock and roll’s newest generation. With four full-length albums under their belts and a reputation as one of the world’s most incendiary live acts, Tricky Woo have travelled from here to Timbuk2 to spread their love-filled message of pure, unadulterated, total guitar warfare.

    Nominated for a Juno Award in the "Best Alternative Album" category for their 1999 genre-defining hard rock masterpiece "Sometimes I Cry", Tricky Woo have also seen several of their songs appear on heavyweight American television shows like Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The band went on hiatus in early 2002 after touring intensively behind their chart-topping college radio smash album "Les Sables Magiques". In the brief time that they were away, the band received more accolades and words of reverence from music fans around the world than it ever had while it was active.

    Words like "legendary", "seminal" and "maddeningly ahead of their time" are thrown around like rice at a wedding when mention of the band is made. Heeding the call, Tricky Woo have regrouped and are poised to re-invent popular music, yet again, with First Blush, in stores now. This latest installment in the Tricky Woo discography promises to be the band’s penultimate expression of paint-peeling, mind-shattering guitar rock.

    Featuring original members Andrew Dickson on vocals and lead guitar, Adrian Popovich on lead guitar, Alex Barbeau on bass and new addition Patrick Sayers on drums, “The Woo†is most definitely on top.

    Starvin’ Hungry is a rock n' roll band. Many different styles of rock, pop, punk, soul, blues and all affiliated stations are observed and investigated in Starvin Hungry's music but none are slavishly imitated. Their only objective is to move their audience inside and out by singing and playing really, really good songs. The brainchild of John Milchem, Starvin Hungry was birthed in Toronto in 1995. In the spring of 2000 John decided to move to Montreal. A year later, Starvin Hungry was reborn with the recruitment of beat-master Spencer Warren on drums. After playing as a two-piece for several months, an impressed Eric Larock, just out of Tricky Woo, offered his immense electric bass talent to the band and could not be refused. By summer 2002 the line-up was completed with the addition of soon-to-be-renowned guitarist Scott Mucklow. In early 2004 Eric left to rejoin the recently reunited Tricky Woo and the fantastic Dave Lavoie, formerly of Soft Canyon, took over bass duties. The band's debut album, "Damnesty", recorded in four days during March/April 2003 at Breakglass Studio in Montreal will be released by Grenadine Records on May 25th 2004. Production duties were carried out in high style by gonzoid rock genius Jonathan Cummins of Bionic fame. Feats of recording engineering were performed by Breakglass' own Jace Lasek. Containing eleven sonic mood swings, the results speak for themselves.

    The Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band formed in 2002 when five students of Queen’s University bonded over their dissatisfaction with the state of modern music and the love of things loquacious. Drummer Connor Thompson and keyboard player extraordinaire David Wencer were coerced into friendship in September of 2001 when the duo were subjected to each other’s company as roommates in Morris Hall. Soon after, a guitar-toting character from down the hall by the name of Colin Pendrith expressed interest in joining the racket-making entity that was room 233. The addition of Pendrith set the wheels in motion for impromptu late night jam sessions and their subsequent noise complaints. Not to be deterred by the studious habits of fellow scholars, Wencer, Thompson and Pendrith (who comprised the short lived super-group WPT.) decided to enlist the voice and irrelevant physical appearance of Daniel A. Quinlan.

    The mighty Quinlan brought a new dimension to the rapidly crystallizing sound of the Kingston trio (not to be confused with The Kingston Trio) with his smooth guitar lines and jaw-dropping vocals. The final piece of the Kerouac puzzle was added when bassist Jamie Cousin showed the boys in true Spinal Tapian fashion what it meant to have a "big bottom."

    The Jack Kerouac Knapsack Band was now complete. The JKKB then set to work writing original material and playing an eclectic yet obscure collection of cover songs. The debut JKKB performance rocked a packed house at Clark Hall Pub on January 22nd 2003. In the time since, the JKKB has played upwards of fifteen shows to satisfied audiences. Highlights in include an outdoor performance for the Downtown Toronto Music Festival on the corner of Duncan and Adelaide in downtown Toronto on September 6th 2003, a show with the Mudmen on October 15th 2003, and an opening spot for April Wine on November 22nd at the Cocamo Nightclub in Kingston. The band was also a finalist in K-Rock’s Bandslam 2005 competition.

    Recently the JKKB has recorded a three song demo (included for your listening) at "Longshot Media" in Kingston. The band plays frequently in Kingston, where the members attend their third year of university. Their growing fanbase has allowed the JKKB to continue bringing its unique sound to music fans of all types. Future goals include recording and pressing a full album, and touring throughout Ontario and Eastern Canada. The JKKB possesses the combination of solid musicianship, innovative songwriting, electric live performances and motivation that are the groundwork for a successful music career.

    www.trickywoo.org

    www.myspace.com/thejackkerouacknapsackband

    www.newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=8112

    www.cfrc.ca

    www.elixirnightclub.com

    OTHER SHOWS COMING SOON:

    Luke Doucet/FemBots/Whitey Houston/Shout Out Out Out Out - Oct 18 at The Grad Club

    Broken Social Scene - Oct 19 at Grant Hall (SOLD OUT!)

    Black Halos/Illuminati/Crash Kelly - Oct 22 at Clark Hall Pub (all ages!)

    Craig Cardiff w/ Stephanie Leah Gora - Oct 27 at Elixir

    The Golden Dogs w/ Pelt - Nov 3 at Elixir

    Serena Ryder w/ Frontier Index - Nov 5 at Grad Club

    Danny Michel - Nov 10 at Elixir

    Sarah Slean - Nov 12 at Sydenham Street United Church

    The Road Hammers w/ Jim Patterson - Nov 13 at Stages Nightclub

    Slaves of Spanky - Dec 1 at Philthy McNasty's (no cover!)

  25. Luke Doucet/Fembots/Whitey Houston/Shout Out Out Out Out

    in Soundboard

    Posted

    This Tuesday, October 18 at The Grad Club - Exclaim presents 'Four For Fall' featuring Luke Doucet, Fembots, Whitey Houston, and Shout Out Out Out Out!

    Tickets $10 advance at Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Destinations, Renaissance, Grad Club and online at www.rockcrew.ca

    You don't have to read a book to know that finger printing is only compulsory for criminals. But first they must be caught, and let's face it, Luke Doucet is the ultimate catch. Yet with nothing more than his weathered axe and a pocket full of songs, he continues to outwit his pursuers, living very much outside the law.

    Those are Luke's prints all over town, great inky smears on the sides of buildings and along the frames of doors. All of them clues to what he means to do, what he always does, what Luke truly is: a magician really. A thief of his caliber can be nothing less. He casts his songs like spells, opening your chest as if by its own volition, stealing your heart right out of its cage.

    On two cold nights in January, hundreds of people waited for hours in the freezing cold to squeeze into Toronto's Rivoli and see Luke play his stellar two drummer band featuring Blue Rodeo's Bazil Donovan and Glen Milchem, and Paul Brennan (formerly of the Odds, Big Sugar and more). This powerhouse quartet put on a show worth listening to in repeat, and Six Shooter Records proudly unleashes it to a salivating public. "Outlaws [live + unreleased]" features new songs as well as fan favourites from his solo and Veal repertoires.

    Luke Doucet gets around. Singer/songwriter, producer, guitarist, Veal ringleader. Sarah McLachan, Blue Rodeo, Chantal Kreviazuk, Oh Susanna, Delirium, Danny Michel and many more have all lured Luke into joining them onstage and/or in the studio. His debut solo album Aloha, Manitoba received rave reviews in Canada and the US and was recently released in Europe and Australia on Hot Records. After touring to promote the acoustic Aloha, Manitoba, Luke greased his hair back, puffed his chest out and hit the road with Nik Kozub & Chang to spread the word about Veal's The Embattled Hearts. After months on the road, Luke holed up in the studio to lend his production talents already evidenced on NQ Arbuckle's debut Six Shooter release, "Hanging the Battle-Scarred Pinata", to Melissa McClelland's "Stranded in Suburbia" for Orange/Universal. He's just finished producing NQ's follow up, while also working on his own solo record, due out in 2005.

    With a stronger lyrical focus and a richer, more collaborative sound, The City is a story of stories – a sometimes affectionate, sometimes angry ode to the FemBots hometown, its buried past and uncertain future.

    The FemBots began as a home recording project of Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier. Their debut, Mucho Cuidado (2000), featured songs written and performed on power tools, toys and broken down thrift store instruments. The duo quickly carved a unique space in the Toronto music scene bringing their post-industrial folk songs to the stage using tape loops and reel-to-reel machines mixed with often frantic live performances. Their critically-acclaimed second release, Small Town Murder Scene (2003), pushed the weirdness and angularity of their debut into the background and adopted a more atmospheric approach that bridged the gap between the extremes of their sound. The result – an album where murder ballads float above a collage of found sounds and somber instrumentals break into festive sing-alongs before crumbling into mechanical noise.

    Following the release of Small Town Murder Scene, the FemBots spent two years touring North America. Somewhere along the way the duo expanded to a full band.

    The FemBots began work on a third record at their Junkshop studio in the spring of 2005. Casting off the cut and paste approach of their previous efforts, they brought together some of Toronto’s finest musicians including: Jason Tait (Weakerthans) on drums, & vibraphone; Greg Smith (Weakerthans, Martin Tielli) bass; Julie Penner (Bob Wiseman) violin; James Anderson (Singing Saw Shadow Show) banjo, singing saw, wine glasses and typewriter; Nathan Lawr (Royal City) drums; Mark Hansen (Ron Hawkins and The Rusty Nails) drums; Krista Muir (Lederhosen Lucil) vocals on The City; Lawrence Nichols (Lowest Of The Low) harmonica; The Crying Out Loud Choir; Jeremy Strachan, saxophone; Joe Shabason, saxophone; and, Bryden Baird, trumpet; with horns arranged by Paul Aucoin (Hylozoists, Sadies).

    The resulting album, The City, unveils a rich, authentic, sound that builds upon the FemBots earlier work while moving in new directions. Banging piano chords, catchy choruses, soulful vocals, swinging guitars, woven string and horns push the stark black and white vision of their earlier albums into full technicolour bloom all the while remaining true to the emotional core of the songs. At its heart The City is an homage to the band’s hometown – its victories and failures, told in vignettes of everyday life (So Long and My Life in the Funeral Service), odes to lost neighbourhoods (Demolition Waltz), and laments for a place whose history is being buried under waves of condo development (History Remade). However, the FemBots are not jaded, their love for their city also comes through clearly on this album. At times raucous and loud, at others mournful and haunting, The City is the FemBots most personal album to date.

    The FemBots have drawn comparisons to Califone, My Morning Jacket, and Wilco but their sound is not easily categorized. Neither alt-country, nor indie rock their music is perhaps best described as ‘Americana’ placing a strong emphasis on songwriting and lyrics while allowing room for experimentation. Influenced by a wide range of music - from Rock ‘n Roll, Blues, Soul, Country, and Folk - they continue their genre bending approach, honing a new style from the old. With each new album the FemBots transform in ways unforeseen, yet strangely familiar.

    f this is a dude ranch, where are all the dudes? cuz all I see is haters that I?m chasing out of town!"

    Shout Out Out Out Out = two drummers + four bass players + two samplers + five synthesizers + five cowbells + two octapads + one vocoder. Shout Out Out Out Out plays volatile dance music.

    Shout Out Out Out Out is made up of nrmls wlcm label bosses Nik Kozub and Jason Troock, Whitey Houston members Lyle Bell and Gravy, sketchy casanova Will Zimmerman, and a lil' spazz named Clint Frazier. They are a live spectacle, leaving jaws dropped and dance floors filled with their chaotic blend of epic bumpin'. Hell yes, let us do the electro rock and dance the night away.

    Whitey Houston is an Edmonton based rock and roll duo comprised of Bassist/vocalist Lyle Bell (sometimes known as Whitey) and Drummer Rob Hoffart (always known as Gravy). The rock duo have known each other since the mid 90's, playing together frequently and finally making the decision to continue as a 2-piece after the disintegration of their previous effort Slow Fresh Oil in the fall of 2000. Already complementary as a rhythm section, the two revamped their set-up and sound in an attempt to maximize their sonic possibilities. Their efforts yielded a previously untapped musical synergy anchored by Bell's inventive stereophonic bass chording and Hoffart's increasingly blistering tempos. It was pure, feral rock and roll complete with the right mix of swagger, humour, and arm windmilling. Fuelled by both Bell and Gravy's audiophile and vinyl loyalist backgrounds, the new sound pulled from diverse influences, from the garage soul of The Pretty Things and The Sonics to the arena rock pomp of Thin Lizzy, early AC-DC and Motorhead. Obscure 60's R&B screamers, '77 punk and 80's metal, all were absorbed into the mix that would produce Whitey Houston's particular brand of frenzied rock 'n roll.

    Presented by CFRC 101.9 FM - www.cfrc.ca

    www.fembots.net

    www.lukedoucet.com

    www.whiteyhouston.com

    www.nrmlswlcmrcrds.com

    www.exclaim.ca

    www.gradclub.ca

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