Jimmy Swift Band/The Golden Dogs - this Thursday!

[skelter]

Rock Crew Productions, Elixir Nightclub and CFRC 101.9 FM present THE JIMMY SWIFT BAND & THE GOLDEN DOGS, this Thursday, September 29!

Tickets are $8 and on sale now at Zap Records, Brian's Record Option, Chumleighs, Destinations, Renaissance Music, Elixir and on-line at www.rockcrew.ca

Both of these bands are absofrigginlutely amazing live ...

JSB - “Solid songs... amazing improv jams... one of the hottest live shows you'll see anywhere!â€

GuitarsCanada.com

GD - "All that shit you've heard about The Golden Dogs being the best live show in the country, and you were all like "whatever, that's just hype" - well, you were wrong and stupid." - Chart (http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/2005/03/0528.cfm)

www.thejimmyswiftband.com

www.thegoldendogs.com

www.cfrc.ca

www.elixirnightclub.com

[zero]

Both of those hyperbolic quotes quite suit these two great ensembles together on a strong bill.

[skelter]

Here's the bios of these two bands, for all you reader types!

In the four years since their inception, The Jimmy Swift Band has gained a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in Canada. After years of touring, two studio albums, and their most recent live effort The Rebirth of Hooch, The JSB have built and extremely loyal fan base from coast to coast and beyond.

Half of The JSB’s repertoire consists of organic instrumental material with influences ranging from Daft Punk to Pink Floyd, while the other half displays mature songwriting, powerful vocals, and memorable melodies within the framework of concise arrangements. Although both elements of the band’s sound are starkly different, they combine the two effortlessly to bring the audience on an unforgettable journey with each show.

The Jimmy Swift Band have been an integral part of the Canadian independent music scene for the past few years. Their CDs have each sold more than 7000 copies, and fans regularly travel hundreds of kilometers to see the band perform. This has made them a hot commodity in the club circuit - selling out rooms from Halifax to Vancouver. JSB songs have appeared in movies, television commercials, skateboarding videos, and have charted on many Canadian radio stations.

2005 will see The Jimmy Swift Band return to the studio for the highly anticipated follow up to 2003's Onward Through The Fog. With a wealth of new material and experience behind them, the JSB are poised to become a household name in Canadian music.

The Golden Dogs

By Allison Lang

A fan from Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Let me tell you about the balmy June evening when I first discovered the band that brought rock and roll back to my hungry heart. I was jaded. I had played my copy of You Forgot It In People to death. I was tired of attending rock shows amongst cold-hearted shoegazers who broke their straight-legged, acid-washed stances for no one. "Dance, fuckers!!!" my heart and loins implored, but, imprisoned by the icy gaze of the black-clad bands onstage, my desperation remained muted.

I was thus hipstered right the fuck out. I needed a change. I needed, in the words of Ace of Base, a sign. Then, one night, my tired cotillion slouched to the bar. We were prepared to drown our summer aches and pains and, God willing, nod our heads a little.

We weren't ready for The Golden Dogs.

The motley crew that assembled on the tiny stage and launched into the soaring strains of "Birdsong" were unlike anything I had ever seen before. Parts of them seemed familiar. The impossibly lanky lead singer looked like Tom Petty but cavorted and yowled like a pre-haggard Iggy Pop. The pretty keyboard player displayed signs reading "HOLY SHIT!" like a cigarette girl at a bullfight - when she wasn't shaking the hell out of her tambourine. The bassist perched bouncingly above us on a speaker, while the straight-faced drummer pounded with a ferocity that was anything but straight. But the thing that was completely new was the way the figures onstage made our bodies feel like they were splitting into pieces. I wanted to wiggle my ass and jump and fuck and dance and drink and fight. I had not felt like this seeing live music for a very long time.

That's what happens with The Golden Dogs. One minute you’re sitting, smiling curiously, asking your buddy “what’s with the band?†The next you’re on the dance floor doing high kicks, pouring beer on yourself, and screaming for everyone to say hello to the man in the elevator.

Let me introduce you to the band.

The tall guy in the front, that’s Dave Azzolini. He writes and arranges all of the songs with the help of the leaping lady at the keyboards, but we’ll get to her in a minute. It’s been Dave’s band from the very beginning. He plays guitar and ukelele and sometimes “guitarkele†and if you don’t know what that means, good. He can scream like a banshee and coo like a bird. Jessica’s the girl on the keys. She and Dave have been partners-in-crime-and-love since 1998. Her voice blends with Dave’s with an inherent and eerie perfection. On the bridge to “Faster,†their vocals would make even Frank Black and Kim Deal bite down on their knuckles with the beauty of it all. Entwined, their voices ring with twilight purity.

Let’s shuffle past these lovebirds to the drummer, Beau Stocker. He’s been with the band a year and a half, and although he isn’t screaming like Dave or bouncing like Jessica onstage, he’s considered the spine of The Golden Dogs. “Without Beau,†Dave says, “we’d be nothing.â€

The Golden Dogs’ lineup has gone through a bit of shuffling since the band formed in 2000, and the last two miscreants onstage form the band’s latest incarnation. Carlin Nicholson is the man with the other guitar who is a natural when it comes to 60's inspired harmonies and ballsy lead guitar lines. Then there’s the fresh blood, the young one, Taylor Knox. Although his terrifying prowess on bass is nothing to sniff at, he first caught the attention of the band at one of their shows, expressing his fervent and vocal adoration of Paul McCartney. Considering most of The Golden Dogs are obsessed with The Beatles, such a fact couldn’t hurt his case. He also looks like the younger brother that Dave never had.

Now you’ve met the band. Aren’t they so wonderfully nice for a group that rocks against the dying of the light? How strange that such a good rock band can lack so many of the trappings of good rock bands - the egos, the contrived glamour. The Golden Dogs have travelled across Ontario a million times over to prove themselves to us with candor and grace. “Birdsongâ€, their album/set opener, encapsulates their honest and simple desire: to write beautiful music, to rise above the vagaries of industry hearsay and be real.

In light of the praise I’ve heaped upon these young lions, you might just consider me another rabid, sweaty-haired scenester, and that’s fine. But do us all a favour and listen to the album Everything In 3 Parts before you make your final appraisal. Convince me that it isn’t a beautifully diverse, shiny production. Convince me that this isn’t a band whose validity lies far beyond the buzz of being “the next big thingâ€. Convince me that “Yeah!†doesn’t hold ranks with the best Canadian rock songs of all time, and “Anniversary Waltz†doesn’t make you sigh…even a little bit, when your friends aren’t watching. Convince me that The Golden Dogs don’t make your hard little bastard of a hipster heart soar. I’ll listen to you with one ear. The other will be cocked towards the stage, waiting to hear that song, cause I feel it coming on.

[zero]

That's what happens with The Golden Dogs. One minute you’re sitting, smiling curiously, asking your buddy “what’s with the band?†The next you’re on the dance floor doing high kicks, pouring beer on yourself, and screaming for everyone to say hello to the man in the elevator.

Let me introduce you to the band.

That's what happens with The Golden Dogs. One minute you're sitting side stage at the lesbian hippy rock drumstravaganza quietly waiting for your mushrooms to kick in the next you're on the dance floor doing high kicks, pouring beer on yourself, flipping the band the mock ironic bird and the next thing you know the smacky thing front man is pointing at you and his lace up boots are planted firmly on your sternum. If you're lucky he'll out you as a disease ridden sexual miscreant and ruin your chances of ever getting laid at said lesbian hippy rock drumstravaganza ever again. I still say that Phil Collins back in '94 was doing the same thing only much better.

[bradm]

I've seen The Golden Dogs about four times now, and usually with bands that exude a lot of aggression, and negative aggression, at that (with fuzzy gutiars, screaming vocals, and harsh sounds). The Golden Dogs, on the other hand, have such an exuberant feel to them, brash, explosive, and still aggressive, but in a fun way, that you can't help but get swept up.

I was talking to Velvet on Saturday (during the 19+ late show by the Dogs) about Dave as a guitar player; Velvet's comment: "He's deadly." He is: from straight-up rock leads, to chording that would fit into a two-tone ska band, to wall-of-sound fuzzy stuff, to, well, whatever the song needs, he can do it, but in such a way that you probably wouldn't notice, as he's not a guitar slinger, he's a musician who supports the songs, and uses his guitar as a prop that's part of the show. (On Saturday, at the early show, at one point, his guitar started feeding back, but the feedback wasn't just a howl, it was coming in waves, waxing and waning repeatedly. Dave went for it, and did a sort of "interpretive dance" that made it seem as if his movements were orchestrating the feedback, almost as if the positions of his arms and body affected the acoustics of the stage so as to change how sounds were resonating between the guitar and amp. It was, hands-down, the best feedback I'd ever seen live.)

I think The Golden Dogs is the best club rock'n'roll band I've ever seen; the best all-around rock'n'roll act would probably be Ween. (Note that I've seen better and more enjoyable music by other bands, but TGD and Ween embody what I think rock'n'roll is all about.)

Aloha,

Brad

[skelter]

I've seen The Golden Dogs about four times now, and usually with bands that exude a lot of aggression, and negative aggression, at that (with fuzzy gutiars, screaming vocals, and harsh sounds). The Golden Dogs, on the other hand, have such an exuberant feel to them, brash, explosive, and still aggressive, but in a fun way, that you can't help but get swept up.

I was talking to Velvet on Saturday (during the 19+ late show by the Dogs) about Dave as a guitar player; Velvet's comment: "He's deadly." He is: from straight-up rock leads, to chording that would fit into a two-tone ska band, to wall-of-sound fuzzy stuff, to, well, whatever the song needs, he can do it, but in such a way that you probably wouldn't notice, as he's not a guitar slinger, he's a musician who supports the songs, and uses his guitar as a prop that's part of the show. (On Saturday, at the early show, at one point, his guitar started feeding back, but the feedback wasn't just a howl, it was coming in waves, waxing and waning repeatedly. Dave went for it, and did a sort of "interpretive dance" that made it seem as if his movements were orchestrating the feedback, almost as if the positions of his arms and body affected the acoustics of the stage so as to change how sounds were resonating between the guitar and amp. It was, hands-down, the best feedback I'd ever seen live.)

I think The Golden Dogs is the best club rock'n'roll band I've ever seen; the best all-around rock'n'roll act would probably be Ween. (Note that I've seen better and more enjoyable music by other bands, but TGD and Ween embody what I think rock'n'roll is all about.)

Aloha,

Brad

this is brilliant

[Tooly]

anyone else been voting to get JSBs video onto muchmusic?

[Lazlo]

The porn video?

[Tooly]

yeah

[skelter]

Bottom line: this show is gonna be fuggin sick. Tickets will be available throughout the day at Zap, Brian's, Chumleighs, Renaissance and Elixir ...

Doors at 9 PM, Golden Dogs at 10:30, JSB at midnight!

[zero]

Love those comments Brad. I think I've said it here before but the unfortunate thing, as great as this lineup is, was the turn over in the band members. The original guitarist Micah and bassist Michael (or vice versa) were from Thunder Bay or Sudbury and old buddies of Dave's and Jessica's and closer in age to them. They were far superior players and had a dynamic, timbre and tone that was unparalleled. I heard them do an obnoxiously loud feedback drenched Helpless that made me quiver. Micah as I recall is the engineer on the 3 parts album as well. I wonder if any live shows from that era even exist. Seriously though it was a far different band and really thick.

[bradm]

zero: At JSB tonight, I gave Aaron a copy of The Golden Dogs show I taped at Mavericks back in June (the same one I gave you, I think), so they could prepare themselves for having the Dogs open up for them tomorrow (or is it to-)night.

It was also the best JSB show I've ever seen.

Aloha,

Brad

[Jakis]

I echo brads words, JSB were great tonight. Best JSB show I have ever seen as well.

[zero]

I've had many 'best JSB shows' having seen them an embarassing number of times over the past 10 years (egads!) but I have to concur that with this new drummer and having a consistent keys player in Aaron as long as they have I was pretty damn blown away by their sound right now. The transitions were ultra honed, the new material respectable, the improvisations inspired. Love to hear how this show went tomorrow, presumably JSB closed? Hard to imagine the Dogs following them in terms of a dance party but I could easily eat those words.

[Tooly]

so im guessing no one is voting their video onto much then?

[color:purple]thats some good support for em guys, im sure they thank you

[peipunk]

Ummm, props for supporting the boys, I'm sure they appreciate it, but the thread you put up about their video was almost a year after the video was released. I voted last winter.

[Jaimoe]

The Dogs' video still pops up on Much from time to time. It also still airs on the Loud digital video channel. I'm pretty sure I've seen it on MuchMoreMusic too recently. The video has legs and cross-TV music market appeal.