The Hidden Cameras - Thursday in Kingston

[skelter]

This Thursday at Elixir (April 14), Rock Crew & CFRC present The Hidden Cameras, with special guest Dandi Wind. Tickets are $7 at UBS Exchange, Renaissance Music, Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Elixir and online at www.rockcrew.ca

The Hidden Cameras had yet to release a note of commercially available music when, in early 2002, they became among the most discussed and celebrated unsigned bands in the history of their native Toronto. At the close of the year, they had been the subject of uncommonly sensational features in The Globe and Mail (Canada’s national newspaper) as well as in every daily and weekly in Toronto.

The reasons for the reckless enthusiasm of these usually cautious journals are simple: revelatory live performances that attack and transcend the staid, dispassionate traditions of rock nightclub culture; and the songs of band front-man and mastermind Joel Gibb, a talent of uncommon melodic and poetic gifts. “The Hidden Cameras aren’t famous,” wrote the Toronto Star in July, “but if you believe the buzz, it’s only a matter of time.”

Now, shortly after becoming the first Canadian band to be signed by Rough Trade in the label’s 25-year history, The Hidden Cameras have delivered The Smell of Our Own, surely – and without hyperbolic padding – one of the most enthralling and individual debut albums to come from anywhere in years. The Smell of Our Own is an all-too-rare type of debut – the type that sounds as if it was conceived in its own aesthetic universe, its worldview and core sound already whole. But at the same time, it suggests that The Hidden Cameras are only beginning to evolve.

The Hidden Cameras might fleetingly remind listeners of other great artists, but the heart of the group’s sound is best explained by a flip but accurate descriptor that Gibb created when the Cameras was only the seed of an idea: “gay church folk music.” “’Gay’” meaning ‘happy’,” Gibb says, although his songs have also drawn wide acclaim for their fearlessly explicit but remarkably touching examinations of homosexuality.

‘Church’ refers to the implicit gospel influence in the Camera’s music; the cavernous, cathedral-like air of their recordings (some of the group’s now-legendary early concerts were staged in Toronto churches); and the religious/spiritual imagery that weaves comfortably around the erotic and romantic themes in Gibb’s lyrics.

‘Folk’ addresses not only the central motif of Gibbs strummed acoustic guitar, but the communal, open-door policy that has seen the band swell to as many as 15 on-stage members, including male go-go dancers who strip down to underwear and balaclavas and encourage the audience to sing along to lyrics projected onto a backdrop. “Indie shows, generally in my mind, are associated with people not moving, smoking cigarettes, maybe making little insults to their friends about people who are trying to dance,” Gibb said in a recent newspaper interview. “For us, it’s about engagement. The dancers are there to take away some inhibitions…It’s about enjoying yourself and your body.”

No longer the secret of Toronto and the few Canadian cities lucky enough to have been visited by them, The Hidden Cameras are now poised to belong to the world. Listen to The Smell of Our Own, and know that bands as special as this rarely happen along. And know that one has, just when we needed it.

The following is completely true:

I was conceived in a tent.

My birth name is Dandilion Wind Opaine.

I was born and raised in a cabin without running water, right next to a taxidermy museum housed in a concrete igloo. I lived there for ten years before we drove the 14 hours down to Vancouver. I was impressed by the revolving billboards in the big city because I’d never seen them before.

I met my longtime collaborator Szam Findlay first when we were both 13 at winter camp. I had a crush on him but we didn’t speak or interact for a few years. Then we were cast together in a high school play. Szam introduced me to Alejandro Jodorowsky films and we started our own experimental theatre group in 2000 while I attended Emily Carr art college.

The next year and a half were spent bankrupting ourselves creating a massive solo album/artbook problem for Szam called “Die Hautfabrik” which was licensed in 2002 to Resonant Recordings UK (Acid Mothers Temple / Esmerine etc.) I did some vocals on the mostly instrumental album as well as sculptures for the booklet. The CD sold poorly but garnered favourable press from BBC / The Wire / AMG/ Stylus / and assorted Japanese + Eastern European oddballs… Nonetheless sculpture remains my lifelong passion.

We started the Dandi Wind project in late 2003 as a way to meld our love of theatre/performance with challenging but not inaccessible music. Our songs are about honest incidents that surround us. Since we live in the downtown eastside of Vancouver (the most depressed slum in Canada; the most junkies per capita in North America) our songs are sometimes grim… Currently I live next to the train tracks and the rendering plant where they turn dead pets into glue while pumping cancerous smoke and industrial noise into my mind all day. I’ve escaped to Brazil and Japan on occasion but somehow got stuck in the slums there too.

We make this music because we need to get away from this city and because we have something to offer you don’t find anymore: Charisma and passion. I love to perform and make people FEEL something. We write the lyrics together and Szam does all the music, production and design. We are absolutely independent. This album cost NOTHING to record and was made with a few unpopular decade old synths, a single mic and a monophonic Pentium 2 soundcard. If I can walk offstage unaided then I’ve not delivered a true Dandi Wind performance.

We are currently touring in support of our 6 track EP / CD-ROM “Bait The Traps” (on Bongobeat Records) We called the album this as I used to create small traps to catch rodents and insects in the country and now the tables have turned and I’m caught like one here in city. It is a taster for our forthcoming 12 track cd / full length DVD album “Concrete Igloo” which will be released early in the new year. It will have 7 music videos and other misc. video footage.

http://www.musicismyboyfriend.com

http://www.dandiwind.com

http://www.cfrc.ca

http://www.rockcrew.ca