Sisters Euclid Article in the Toronto Sun

[Basher]

Sexual Feeling

Sisters Euclid get different vibes from men and women

By ERROL NAZARETH

Fri, April 11, 2008

You'd expect some element of familiarity and stability to play a part in ace guitarist Kevin Breit's playing every Monday for 13 years in the same club, with the same two friends.

At most, you'd expect him to say the weekly gig gives them the opportunity to woodshed and experiment. And while those are definitely factors, they don't top Breit's list.

"Getting together once a week for as long as we've been getting together ... never is it the same audience or the same music," he says, prior to performing at the Orbit Room with Sisters Euclid. "The people bring out a different energy and certain audiences..." He trails off.

And then Breit, one of the most innovative guitarists on the scene, says something I have never heard a musician say.

"It's always been my experience that when you have a lot of women in the audience, it brings out good. And I don't mean that in a sexual way. Women can really bring out the melody, and I find the band really plays to that. I find women are an amazing audience."

Breit, who's played with heavies such as k.d. lang, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson and Rosanne Cash, illustrates his point with an observation he made when performing with Supergenerous, one of several genre-bending groups he plays with.

"One thing about Supergenerous that I loved was that whenever we played, we got 50% women and 50% men, and we could always draw on rhythm and melody, which I feel is male and female," he says.

"But, when we'd open for someone like (eight-string guitar wiz) Charlie Hunter, it'd be a totally male audience and the women who were there had been dragged there.

"And I found that those nights were kinda weird. It was very rhythm-oriented, and that's when I made the connection that the female contingent always brought out space and melody. And, by far, that's when Sisters Euclid sound the best."

If you haven't popped by the Orbit Room on a Monday night, sample the Sisters' just-released sixth CD, Faith Cola, to get an idea of what goes down at the College Street club. You'll hear four envelope-pushing musicians -- Breit, bassist Ian DeSouza, drummer Gary Taylor and keyboardist Rob Gusevs -- stretching out and effortlessly bridging the gaps between blues, jazz and rock. The result is music that's spacy, visceral and edgy but never inaccessible.

Hard to categorize? You bet.

As Breit says, "None of the blues people think we're a blues band, none of the jazz people think we're a jazz band and the rock people don't think we're a rock band. But, it seems like everybody who likes the band gets it."

And then there are those who don't, who criticize the Sisters for overplaying and showboating. Writing them off as show-offs, though, is straight-up ignorant. Since when did it become a crime to improvise and to explore sonic possibilities?

Breit's aware of the attacks.

"We could really be clever and experiment for the sake of experimenting," he says. "But, from the very first record, our motto was 'clever isn't us.' When you get to a certain level of being a musician, you have the artillery because you play all the time."

The fact that Sisters Euclid have never rehearsed before a show, and that Faith Cola was recorded in two days, is testament to the chemistry the four virtuosi share.

"The deal we'd made between ourselves (when recording the album) was that we wouldn't listen to playback, so if it all felt good as it was going down, we wouldn't put down our instruments and go in the control room and listen to it," Breit says. "While we were packing up, our record would be playing in the studio and we'd go, 'That's pretty cool, how many takes do we have of it?'

And the engineer would say, 'One,' and we'd say, 'Good, let's keep it.'"

[djmelbatoast]

So, he's not friends with one of the band members?

[Ms.Huxtable]

So, he's not friends with one of the band members?

Of all the things in the article, that's what I was left with as well. Hmmph.

Thanks for posting that. I got some melody for you Kevin. I need a Sisters fix!

[DevO]

So' date=' he's not friends with one of the band members?[/quote']

Of all the things in the article, that's what I was left with as well. Hmmph.

Thanks for posting that. I got some melody for you Kevin. I need a Sisters fix!

I didn't get that at all.. Where does it allude to that? All I got out of it is that Breit likes to play more sexy guitar solos when there are lots of ladies in the house.

[djmelbatoast]

You'd expect some element of familiarity and stability to play a part in ace guitarist Kevin Breit's playing every Monday for 13 years in the same club, with the same two friends.

[bradm]

So' date=' he's not friends with one of the band members?[/quote']

Of all the things in the article, that's what I was left with as well. Hmmph.

Thanks for posting that. I got some melody for you Kevin. I need a Sisters fix!

I didn't get that at all.. Where does it allude to that? All I got out of it is that Breit likes to play more sexy guitar solos when there are lots of ladies in the house.

Sexual Feeling

Sisters Euclid get different vibes from men and women

By ERROL NAZARETH

Fri, April 11, 2008

You'd expect some element of familiarity and stability to play a part in ace guitarist Kevin Breit's playing every Monday for 13 years in the same club, with the same two friends. [emphasis added -bradm]

Aloha,

Brad

[DevO]

I think he was just saying that the audience demographic, as well as the nature of the music, is always unpredictable and always changing.

[Hal Johnson]

Thats how I read it too Brad. There's a reason i live in the worlds smartest place afterall

[bouche]

I could use another sisters fix.

[dimafleck: the living legend.]

i've always hated being at show, especially one thats supposed to be dancable and full of energy and being surrounded by nothign but dudes 3 rows deep on all sides. i just cant do it.

i don't care to talk with girls (because girls are idiots) at shows. i just need them there.

the jam scene is horrible for that shit...because in the event that there is a female in the room, she is usally hideous.

[bouche]

i've always hated being at show, especially one thats supposed to be dancable and full of energy and being surrounded by nothign but dudes 3 rows deep on all sides. i just cant do it.

i don't care to talk with girls (because girls are idiots) at shows. i just need them there.

the jam scene is horrible for that shit...because in the event that there is a female in the room, she is usally hideous.

how many chicks did you just offend in that post?

[dimafleck: the living legend.]

its a well known fact that girls don't know anything about music, and the ones that do, you marry.

[bouche]

its a well known fact that girls don't know anything about music, and the ones that do, you marry.

[color:purple]oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about the well known study that proved that.