Nufunk & Jambands.ca Kevin Breit & Sisters Euclid + Gratefully Deadicated

[zero]

This should be a great great night all around. I ran into Ian DeSouza the monster funk bass player from the Sisters again yesterday on the street and reminded him they had to 'trip it up' for this audience. Honestly a classic Sisters show is really for their amusement in a way and often rippingly complex and sometimes downright challenging. With a dancing jovial audience all bets are off.

[bradm]

What time are the doors opening? I'd assume that with Electric Meat starting at 9pm they'd be open at 8pm, but the earliest door-time listing I've seen is 9pm.

Aloha,

Brad

[Jay Funk Dawg]

We'll be there starting at 7pm - doors officially are at 9 pm, but we'll let people in before.

Electric Meat have unfortunately had to cancel because of a member who couldn't make it.

Kevin Breit & The Sisters will hit the stage by 10:30 PM (which is usual Orbit Room Time I'm told)

I hope some skanks can make it and bring a couple of friends... gonna be a rager!

[zero]

Hope to see some of you cats tonight.

[Jay Funk Dawg]

Gratefully Deadicated Soundsystem added!

[c-towns]

I was gonna go until I read that.

[SaggyBalls]

Truthfully the reason you don't read music journalism like my Sisters interview is it doesn't pay.

The reason that you don't see that type of 'journalism' is not because it doesn't pay but it's because people wouldn't read it and start flipping through the magazine.

That's an interview that I'm confident would get passed over for a paycheque and would be a special feature for an online magazine, that would get the author press creds for everything s/he would add to an organization.

Great interview though. I wish You were writing for a living (and writing pieces that would keep you in the biz to let you write these fanbits)

[c-towns]

Did anyone show up?

[ReDD]

I want to say in advance that this was my first time seeing Kevin Breit and the Sisters and also my first time seeing a show at the Rivoli. Nice venue. There was a small crowd in attendance which seemed to clear during set break. I was impressed through and through.

Kevin's playful banter (complete with some bum shaking and suggestive comments) with the audience was a huge highlight as well as multiple big soulful guitar riffs. The boys were on, loud and definitely had everyone's undivided attention. I think there playing style almost demands it. I appreciated the explosive funk and jazz sounds and even got a little choked up when they started playing Hank Williams I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.

Finishing up there second set Kevin was asked to belly dance and they ended up playing an Indian inspired riff encouraging a crowd of 4 to dance for him with a wonderful, comedic display of hip shaking and arm twisting.

A fun filled night all round.

Thanks Jay!

[c-towns]

Are you saying there was a crowd of 4 by the end of the night?

[ReDD]

No, no. Just 4 dancing.

[mark tonin]

Thanks for the review ReDD. Your comment about the band's playing demanding the listener's attention makes a lot of sense to me.

Peace, Mark

[bradm]

Sisters Euclid

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Rivoli

Toronto, ON

Set I

-----

Faith Cola

Frank And Earnest

I Should Be With You

Sylvester

Southern Man (Neil Young)

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)

Rigged Noose

Set II

------

Blues In Orbit

cd banter >

Play Me A Rock And Roll Song (Valdy tease)

Tumbleweed Tea

Lowell

belly dancing

Jesus The Kid

Aloha,

Brad

[bradm]

That was one of the most jaw-dropping Sisters Euclid shows I've seen. With as much respect as I have for The Orbit Room, and their hosting of Sisters Euclid for, what, the last decade or so?, it's a tiny place. At Rivoli, there was a lot more room to fill, and Sisters Euclid did that, wallofsoundly. The bigger stage gave the band members room to move, with Kevin shaking what he had, and rubbing the rest of it against himself a lot, and a finale that had Gary step out from behind the drum kit to the front of the stage and full-bodily and lungefully conduct the other three members, in a blamp!, blampblamp! kind of way.

The new keyboard player, Mark Lalama, was a lot more present, sonically and musically, compared to the show I saw at The Orbit Room in December. (I think I had a flash-side* of Jeff Heisholt playing keys with them, visually and musically.)

[We] are releasing a limited edition collection of live recordings from Germany during that time (release date' date=' Feb. 22, 2010).[/quote']

My life will not be complete until this is released domestically and I acquire a copy of it.

My life may be complete now.

Aloha,

Brad

* Like a flash-back, but not flashing straight back to the way things were, more flashing over to the side to the way things could be.

[zero]

I don't think that setlist adequitely conveys what a monstrous show that was. Brad really got at the crux of the nut about the size of the venue, height of the ceiling, amplification and room to move (Kevin was literally doing hoochie coochie striptease type over the top weirdness). They also definitely tailored their set to the jovial but slimmish crowd, I have to take back a bit what I said about HPD it turned out to be a good warmup band and the audience got into it and Jay was having a great time.

Basically the Sisters just came out of the gates running and that first set is sort of a stock set that they've been running Lalama through so he really had it down. Faith Cola is just so anthemic and the head is incredibly inspiring and builds wonderfully. Sylvester is something else entirely and taking shape. Frank 'n Earnest is easily their most monstrous funky number and as it's penned by DeSouza it's a showpiece for his modular funky mode of playing which was really muscular and evident all night. I Should Be With You, Brad explained was a new Kevin original which he sung beautifully about clearly his wife Trish.

And then there's Southern Man. I would have to say that because clearly this is a jazz funk rock composition that follows some of the main cues and vocal lines of Neil's original - well clearly it doesn't sound like a Crazy Horse version without the vocals. Kevin piercingly plays Neil's voice on slide (which was almost completely unadorned all night by any effect whatsoever) - like pierced in the eye painfully on point wailing notes. Then the band just sort of eviscerates and spills Southern Man's guts on the killing floor. Literally that good. Like on a head full of half decent drugs any of you would have swallowed half your tongue. Also, and Brad asked me at the time to come up with a word for this figure that Lalama was playing on the Wurlitzer that was eery and fucking scary and the frame on which Southern Man was built. I think he said 'voices screaming from hell'. It was a baroque sort of thing like a little minuet or something that wouldn't have sounded out of piece on a harpsichord and isn't anywhere evident on the original but gave the entire song a spectral quality.

I literally wanted the night to be over and thought it was it was such a complete and tight set of music - with a good shape. Yet they plowed through an even more monstrous second set again leaning on DeSouza's funk modes that made the band sound decidedly more pleasing on the whole and listenable - more inside than outside in jazz terms.

Can't really get into the second there's a bunch that could be said. In particular it needs to be said that I would describe Lalama as fully integrated into the Sisters sound now. His accordion playing in particular was deft and truly beautiful throughout the evening, the Southern Man bit, every contribution he was making was well thought out and showed great listening. This was really evident on Lowell which again like Southern Man, and I didn't realize this until really just that night, sort of takes Lowell George and the Little Feat sound (in this case a bunch of distinctive sounds condensed into a deceptively 'simple' song) capturing the group dynamic and Lowell's actual sorrow and singing voice. Because Rob Gusevs was limited to the B3 Hammond, Lalama is really able to explore some funkier more contemporary if you like sounds that echoed Bill Payne's playing.

[edger]

Sounds like a great night.

[bradm]

Kevin piercingly plays Neil's voice on slide (which was almost completely unadorned all night by any effect whatsoever)

I found it interesting that, at the Folk Alarm show the night before, Kevin had a pretty big pedal board, including at least four Z.Vex pedals, and he used them, especially in the last tune, which got Lauzonic at times.

But at Rivoli, I could see his tuner sitting on top of his amp, but there didn't seem to be anything sitting on the floor; it was blazing un-effected Breit tone all night long.

Aloha,

Brad

[DevO]

Thanks for the reviews! Sounds like a good show. I was at the Phoenix for Tinariwen (great show as well). Brad, how was the Folkalarm show? Did Harry make an appearance?

[boiler]

Great review Luke. I wish I could have made it for the second set but 6:00 am will sneak up on ya quickly. I really liked the HPD set. Their current drummer really hits the skins hard and seems to really drive a band, fantastic keyboard player and Jay's guitar playing seems to be constantly getting better. The trombone was also interesting although he seemed at times to struggle to find his parts. I was a little scared to see that instrument on stage in such a small room as it`s such a loud instrument but my worries subsided quickly.

The Sisters were awesome. It`s a shame that they play in front of such small crowds for $10. They could easily be on the same stages with a band like MMW and making real money. They are to the Jazz world what Anvil is to the metal world.

[zero]

The reason that you don't see that type of 'journalism' is not because it doesn't pay but it's because people wouldn't read it and start flipping through the magazine.

That's an interview that I'm confident would get passed over for a paycheque and would be a special feature for an online magazine, that would get the author press creds for everything s/he would add to an organization.

I'm going to take away the good part of that with a seriously necessary correction. Yes this interview was geekish and geared towards an audience heavily invested in music, yes it would likely (as currently cut, but could have been cut a thousand other ways) be passed over for a paycheque by a Canadian publication and yes press credentials are helpful to have but relatively easy to obtain (if you feel you even need them which often you don't if the artist doesn't have a publicist or manages their own affairs).

The caveat is that there is a place for this sort of journalism and that word does not belong in quotations. In fact I frequently read pieces (clearly of a much higher calibre) that are just as in depth on artists like Bonnie Prince Billy, Sonic Youth and John Zorn (the latter read like a doctoral thesis on the 'psychogeography of the Downtown NY jazz scene') in the New Yorker for instance. Likewise the NYTimes music critics, in particular jazz critics, are at very least highly versed in music theory and more likely actual players themselves. But these publications draw the best and brightest from around the world, in terms of readership and writers, so this is no surprise.

Let me assure you this sort of Journalism definitely doesn't pay. The attitude of most 'writers' (here I would use our own Shain Shapiro as a perfect example) is that they want to make a little extra pocket money and build a portfolio but mainly the money so they shop around ill considered and poor pieces that in the glut for constant content publications pick up (errors and all despite having editorial staff on salary to catch these things). In any case I am essentially writing essays and, yes, happily due to the lack of editorial constraints on this outlet can run them where hopefully someone who cares will read them and more importantly that the artists true fans and the artists themselves will be happy with the end product.

That's the thing really is that I have always written for the artist. I feel I have been given a great gift from certain artists and instead of listening to an album 3 times, doing 3 google searches and sitting down to an ill conceived review of an album that may have taken a group of individuals a year or more to produce- I try to repay that favour with hours of unsolicited research and artisinal mulling over specific phrasings, iterations, questions and latent meanings. Fortunately I'm able to deploy the critical vocabulary of modern poetry, music and contemporary philosophical theory but more than anything I just ... wait for it... TALK TO MUSICIANS.

You think you know what you're talking about here but you actually don't. Let me take a very plain example that ties in oddly to Sisters Euclid- one band I have been working on lately is Zeus and despite two cover stories (Now and Exclaim! you tell me what's wrong with the latter) nobody has really gotten that story right. Why? Well in Zeus' case again lazy writers and editors are in to much of a rush to jump on a bandwagon and in this case making way too much of very very loose connections to the Broken Social Scene. Exclaim! has scores of editors and fairly high standards and templates for their various features. Their Zeus cover story contains at least one glaring error or ommission. Yet no one asks anymore of them and really they're in the business of selling whatever CD distributor is servicing them that day no matter how hard they deny it.

This is obviously already way over involved but let's say the sorts of people who end up as 'music journalists' are likely not the same people who hatchet away at their instruments (for thousands of unpaid hours), nor are they the type of people to dance their asses off 'til 2 in the morning on a weeknight in the basement of the Dakota Tavern. As a result there tends to be a focus on style over substance, appearance over actual significance, personnel connections with other bands that are otherwise largely insignificant and in particular a severe bias against any band (including Zeus, who make up for it with their 'indie cred') that is performance based which is to say their live show is integral to their recorded output.

What's the connection to Sisters Euclid? Being the co-founder of the most hyped band in Canada, the new new Kevin Drew, clearly doesn't pay either. Zeus' Carlin Nicholson was mixing the front of house sound.