Winnipeg music & culture since 1989
Microdot is easily the most jovial and fun band that I’ve ever interviewed. I sat down with the whole band: Bill Northcott, Rob Nay, Jen Alexander and Janus Field. During our conversation we digressed on the silliest tangents (see the bit about shrunken heads and tiny instruments) but also discussed the Winnipeg music scene and band dynamic. This is how it all went down… Continue reading “Smurfs and 8 Tracks: Microdot.”
by Sheldon Birnie
The Hillbilly Highway crosses many borders. Provincial, state, international: it doesn’t give a fuck. I cruised myself down the Pembina Highway to America last week in order to check out two of my favourite bands — the Drive-By Truckers and Those Darlins — play at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The trip was short, but sweet as fucking sin. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Cruising the Interstates to First Avenue”
by Ronjan Roy
For the last 20 years or so, Mark Kozelek has been producing albums under different monikers (Red House Painters and current band Sun Kil Moon) which have kept his career going in a trajectory that most artists would wish for. Signed to 4ad in the early 90’s through Mark Eitzel from The American Music Club, Kozelek bounced from a few record labels before starting his own, Caldo Verde in the early 2000s. And with the ability to control his output, he has made a legacy of sad and beautiful moments that give his listeners a space that transcends the usual sense of place.
From the sparseness of the first ep sized release of Down Colorful Hill, to the most recently released Admiral Fell Promises, he has stayed prolific, relevant, and influential. Along the way, he has took a couple of turns in film (most notably in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous), released a book of his lyrics, and put his songwriting style on covers from artists as diverse as AD/DC, Modest Mouse and John Denver.
Recently, Kozelek has released a tour documentary shot in black and white, revealing how lonely and tedious the time spent between the live shows can be. Made with filmmaker Joshua Stoddard, it follows him through airports and hotel rooms, in soundchecks and occasionally on stage. With arty shots and a self penned score aside from the track list, the journal of his trek reveals selected moments of an artist who has been notoriously private in the past. Also lately, he has co-production credits, along with lending his trademark vocals to the new album by Desertshore, released on his label. The instrumental band consists of Phil Carney (ex Red House Painters) and classically trained pianist, Chris Connelly.
For the past few years, Kozelek has taken on playing his solo live shows with a nylon stringed acoustic guitar, showing his love of classical records and elegant fingerpicking style.
Here are some excerpts from the interview I conducted with him (via email): Continue reading “Interview :: Mark Kozelek”
By DJ Stone
Mmmmm brains, brains nom nom nom nom!!
On October 14, thousands of bloody, rotting zombies were seen limping and crawling towards the Pampanga Banquet Hall (old skool rave location) after the Winnipeg Zombie Walk. There were zombie cheerleaders, business zombies, rabbit zombies, and some lady in a blood soaked wedding dress holding her aborted fetus still attached with the umbilical cord :-/
The location of this nine p.m. ’til six a.m. rave was TBA (oooo, secretive) until tickets went on sale, brought to you buy DV8 Audio Visual Productions and Jsquared Entertainmynt. It was a 16+ event; however, they did have a licensed area upstairs for the rest of us who wanted to get our drink on.
This was a two-room event, with the legend himself Dieselboy, as well as ill.Gates, Johnny Narcotic and a slew of local “zombie” DJs as well. Well, it was what everyone came to see, a lot of loud, heavy, bass-blasting, dubstep with a touch of drum-n-bass. I was kinda hoping Dieselboy would have played some of his older drum-n-bass stuff, but I guess dubstep is what the kids want to hear these days.
Who knew the dead could dance so well?! It was pretty packed on the dance floor, rotting bodies flailing around, an overall good party. I give it eight out 10 zombies.
by Kent Davies
Stylus: It was a long process to get your EP off the ground. What happened?
Kevin Focht: Bascially in January our guitarist AJ Schmid had just moved into a new apartment with his girlfriend. Long story short we were holding all the band’s money and our merchandise there and three nights after moving in, the apartment went up in flames. They lost everything and all the band money burned along with the merch. So we had a pretty big loss and our EP release show became a benefit show to recover some of the money.
Winnipeg’s The Ripperz (Chris Sawatzsky, Mark Wiebe, and Travis Warkentin) can largely attribute their amazing live act to their die hard fans. Their new album You Are the Moon comes out tomorrow when they play the West End Cultural Centre, doors opening at 7 p.m. Here’s a recent interview they did on Peg City Groove.
Kent Davies: You’ve been playing for ten years but it’s really been in the last few years that you’ve managed to put out a couple albums and get a huge following. What happened?
Mark Wiebe: Basically the lack of absence. Chris went to Vancouver for a couple years so we couldn’t do much with out him.
Chris Sawatzsky: Then I moved home and had a band to come home to. It energized us to take the band to another level.
KD: Basically your show has become one big rock-sing-a-long. Do you keep that in mind when you’re writing music?
CS: Yes I do. When I’m writing I always think this parts going to be awesome when the crowd sings it.
Darryl Reilly: Do you have a Ripperz Hymn book that you hand out before the show starts?
CS: We were joking about choir robes last show but there’s no lyric sheets. I don’t know if we’ve ever wrote up our lyrics. I’ve seen some people type them up and they’re quite wrong.
KD: Have you changed lyrics because people keep getting them wrong?
CS: No but we encourage our fans to just sing what you think is there.
MW: Whatever feels right for them.
by Sheldon Birnie
The Drive-By Truckers are a band from the Muscle Shoals, Alabama / Athens, Georgia areas. They play southern inspired rock and roll, with literate as hell lyrics and a touch of country and a dash of R&B. They’ve put about a dozen records, give or take a couple, since 1998, most of which I own on LP, CD, or both, and the rest of which I have on MP3. They’ve played thousands upon thousands of shows up and down and all over the Hillbilly Highway, and are hitting Minneapolis right aways.
Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Drive-By Truckers passing on your left”
Photo of SoHoly HeadCase by Taylor Burgess.
More or less, as typed into Taylor Benjamin Burgess‘ CrackBerry throughout the night:
In tents! Some people have brought tents to sleep over for this night, the last show of Absent Sound, as Rob Menard is relocating to Montreal. It seems to be a pretty low-key artsy thing, with film loops being projected on the bands. The ten dollar cover definitely is going to weed some people out—but the motley lineup and the legacy of Absent Sound is sure to make an interesting night, if nothing else. Continue reading “In Tents! // 10-22-11 // The Warehouse”
Photo by Andrew Mazurak at the Walker in Winnipeg.
The Arctic Monkeys came through Winnipeg with Chicago’s Smith Westerns at the Burton Cummings earlier this month and it ended up being a verrrry surprising affair.
Let it be known that Stylus was among the (small?) fraction to see Smith Westerns and we agreed with the majority of this fraction that it was not an overly satisfying part of the evening. It may have been that the band was on a larger stage than their look/sound/performance could handle.. but this was only the seventh show on a stretch with the Arctic Monkeys.. so there is really no excuse for such a drab Winnipeg showcase. And this is coming from many attendees who fell for their 2009 self-titled debut and this years stellar Dye It Blonde..
Continue reading “Arctic Monkeys + Smith Westerns // 10-1-11 // Walker”
by Sheldon Birnie
Once in a while, a rock n roll show is just perfect. It takes you for a ride, lifting you out of the struggles and strife inherent to living as a human being on Earth. It reaffirms your belief in the power of rock, reaffirms why you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of hours listening to records over and over again, shilling out thousands of dollars over the years to buy those records or attend rock shows, buy t-shirts and beer koozies and other useless shit from your favourite bands. Leaves you feeling pumped up and ready to take on the world when the lights lift and the band goes home. Makes you feel alive. Continue reading “Frank Turner + the Andrew Jackson Jihad + Into It, Over It // WECC, 10.21.11”