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Breath Grenades – 25 years of Blowing Minds and Bewildering Audiences


By Kent Davies

I wanna play this song but the radio just won’t play,
We’re going to play it now. Hell… we’re not gonna go away.
– Breath Grenades song “Blasting Pad” from CBC radio’s Brave New Waves in 1996.

No one sounds like the Breath Grenades. No one acts like the Breath Grenades. These legendary space rawkers are so far gone from anything resembling a conventional band that they often defy logic. Beginning with their uniquely destructive bass-snyth sound, they do things their own way. In their decades of playing they have only released one rare album. They don’t play out very often, having a sincere hatred for most venues. Few bands stay together for more than a few years let alone a band that has had staple members pass away. But despite the hardships this groundbreaking punk act has managed to stay a band for more than 25 years. Now with the inclusion of drummer/sound/visual arts genius Richard Altman a.k.a. Vinegar Rich, the Grenades: Don Bailey a.k.a. Vom Doom and Al Conroy (Not Half) a.k.a. Vortexo are coming out from the basement to play shows again. On the eve of the first Breath Grenades show of 2011, Vom and Vinegar gave Stylus a history lesson of the Breath Grenades past, present and future. Continue reading “Breath Grenades – 25 years of Blowing Minds and Bewildering Audiences”

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James Struthers + Tyler del Pino // 11-25-11 // Winnipeg Free Press News Cafe

by Megan Carlson

Local Winnipeg artist James Struthers (left) played the Winnipeg Free Press Cafe this Friday November 25, 2011 with opening act Tyler Del Pino (right). The packed cafe enjoyed the upbeat pop styles of these singer-song writers and listened attentively as James played a “dead” Ukulele unplugged standing on top of a chair. Both artists can be found playing all over Winnipeg unplugged and rocking out with a band. James next show is at the Park Theater on December 19th for the Third Annual Acoustic Christmas and Tyler will be rocking out with his band next Friday December 2nd at the Kingshead.

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Ron Hawkins – Straightjacket Love

Ron Hawkins is one prolific mofo. Since 1991, the man has pumped out well over a dozen albums, EPs and singles as a member of seminal Canadian alt-rockers Lowest of the Low, at the helm of his own band the Rusty Nails and as a solo artist. Straightjacket Love is his latest effort, and it follows in the vein of 2009’s 10 Kinds of Lonely.
Fans of Hawkins will find Ron returning to themes of alcoholism, star-crossed love and down-and-out struggle and strife. At best – on cuts like “The Sickness” and “Waitin’ on Something that’s Already Here” – Hawkins finds new ways to explore these themes with, for the most part, stripped down arrangements and rootsy twang. At worst, a few moments – “Kill the Lights,” to pick on one track – come close to kicking the last out of the same can he’s been kicking at since Shakespeare My Butt…
I’ve been a fan of Hawkins’ writing and music for over a decade now, which is half as long as he’s been releasing the stuff. I absolutely love Lowest of the Low’s first 2 LPs, though I’ve never really warmed up to much of Hawkins work with the Rusty Nails or the latter day Low output. However, I’ve had Straightjacket Love on repeat for weeks now, and while a few tracks on the album are forgettable, the bulk of the disc is solid gold. (Independent, www.ronhawkins.com) Sheldon Birnie
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Elliott Brood – Days Into Years

“We grew up right here / Door frames marked with ice and years / Our lives in crooked frames / And kitchen table coffee stains,” sings three piece Toronto act Elliott Brood on the opening track “Lindsay” of their new LP Days into Years, easing you into the rural charm that fills the disc. Days Into Years, released in September by Paper Bag Records, is full of toe-tappin’ twang rock with throaty vocals and the occasional banjo or harmonica. At the forefront of my mind while listening to DIY, I imagine burly cowboys with thick facial hair, impenitent cowboy boots and wide brimmed hats. I’m not going to actually look up their picture, for fear of that my imagination will be dashed by scrawny city-boys in boring collared polos. Regardless of their “authentic cowboy” status, the lyrics are convincing enough for me. The final four or so tracks on the album are full of fond nostalgia, starting with the porch-front strummed “West End Sky” and (continuing on the ‘up-in-the-air’ track-title wave) “Northern Air.” The final cut, “Their Will,” is a wave goodbye with saddles blazing as the boys finish the ten-track set with a final kick to the wind. I would say that you should go check out Elliot Brood on October 29 at the WECC, but by the time this gets printed they’ll be well on the way to their next tour stop. Hopefully you were there. (Paper Bag Records, paperbagrecords.com) Victoria King
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THE CROOKED BROTHERS – Lawrence, Where’s Your Knife?

“I’ve got funk, I’ve got country / I’ve got rhythm and booze/ I’ve got this crooked little heart / I’ve got this thing for you.” And what’s that? Following 2009’s Deathbed Pillowtalk, Manitoba’s The Crooked Brothers (Jesse Matas, Darwin Baker and Matt Foster), bring their signature growling and all aforementioned genres to Lawrence, Where’s Your Knife? along with stories of long winters, epidemics, hope, loneliness, and sorrow. “17 Horses” is one of the strongest tracks on here with its super catchy, up-tempo beat and gruff, indulgent vocals. Feline basslines prowl all over this record but spend a sizeable amount of time slinking and stretching around “Kansas” and “Another Sun.” The dobro, mandolin, harmonica, banjo, fiddle, and violin all lend a great bluesy feel to the 10 songs. A favourite is “Good Man”, a calmer piece so warm with harmonicas and swaying guitars that you can practically hear the love the lyrics express: “There ain’t nothing like a good man / to drag you down / I ain’t nothing but a good man / why do you keep me around?” Another must-listen is “Your Love is a Ghost Town” simply because it perfectly captures the eerie stillness of a dusty ghost town: raspy vocals are set off by an excellently creeping, measured bassline. I cringe at twanging and country music’s notoriously trite verses as much as the next person, but what The Crooked Brothers have come out with this time infuses soul and story into sound in one of the most non-cliched ways I’ve yet seen. (Transistor 66,http://www.transistor66.com) Adrienne Yeung

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Tasseomancy – More than Just Music

By Jesse Blackman

Question: What do you get when you creatively combine the linguistic genius of one sister with the visual genius of another sister? Answer: a musical experience unlike any other.

Tasseomancy refers to the Lightmans’ great-great-grandmother who was a Russian Jew who lost her entire family in pogroms and fled to Canada; to help make ends meet during the Great Depression, she read tea leaves. Tasseomancy is a fancy name for that gift. Romy relates this to seven generations of mysticism in both First Nations and Jewish traditions–these ideas mirror the belief that “your actions will affect seven generations ahead” and “with every accomplishment you are looking back seven generations in order to” understand “the sacrifices” that were made. The sisters are “fans of tea and also anything else that can kind of bring people together… It’s less about stuff weighted by fate, and more so about maybe being honest with yourself in a certain situation–what would you see?”

Tasseomancy, the band, was born out of the desire of sisters Romy and Sari Lightman’s to expand the range of sound they could produce.  “There’s like always threads,” Romy explained. “It’s a continuation of where we started with Ghost Bees,” but the sisters realized that when they only “play an acoustic guitar and a mandolin there is only so much tonality – and you can only be so dynamic.  That music was really contained.”

Ghost Bees came out of the sisters’ time living out in Nova Scotia but when they moved home to the urban environment of Toronto the writing of folk songs felt “insincere.” Romy couldn’t “write songs on [her] guitar by the ocean anymore, living in downtown Toronto.” Before adding amplification, Ghost Bees could play anywhere, even on “lakes and haunted basements.” Romy feels that they cannot play in as many places anymore “because they aren’t as mobile now. Before we had a real nomadic spirit of like picking up an instrument and playing acoustic with no microphones, and like the sky’s the limit.” Continue reading “Tasseomancy – More than Just Music”

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Living With Lions play Music Trader in-store!

By Janet Adamana

Fresh off the European EastPak Antidote Tour with metal-core heavy weights, A Day To Remember and August Burns Red, is ’90s-esque punk rock Vancouverites, Living With Lions. After playing their biggest crowds to date, to sold out shows of up to 4000 people, the boys are back on home soil. They’re crossing the country on the five-city Canadian Hangover Tour, starting in Toronto.
Continue reading “Living With Lions play Music Trader in-store!”

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Hillbilly Highway – Dave Lang is a Beauty

by Sheldon Birnie

There is a guy in Regina named Dave Lang, and he is a fucking beauty. I’ve never met this man, nor seen him to confirm that he is, indeed, a real human. But I was digging through the Mountain of Broken Dreams the other day, here in the Stylus office, and I came across an album by Dave titled Live and in Quonset. Most of what I find in the Mountain goes straight to one of two places: the garbage or the recycling bin. But not this nugget. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Dave Lang is a Beauty”

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Wilco – The Whole Love

Wilco’s eighth studio album, The Whole Love, is an exciting and enjoyable cruise through familiar territory. Of the dozen tracks on the album, none veer the Wilco train wildly off the tracks, though there are some interesting and welcome detours along the way.
The opener, “Art of Almost,” gets wild early, though the rest of the disc fails to kick out the jams to such heights again. The arrangements throughout are tight, interesting, and, of course, catchy as can be. With the exception of the leading and closing tracks, each tune is a compact, easily digestible example of Jeff Tweedy’s pop song writing skills. The closing track, “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend),” is a meandering folk jam clocking in at the 12-minute mark that quite beautifully captures the feeling of a Sunday morning in autumn.
If you’re already a Wilco fan, you probably own this album already. If more than one person whose musical taste you trust has told you that you might like Wilco, you’ll probably dig this album. If you’ve already grown tired of Tweedy & Co’s act, well, you won’t be surprised if this album doesn’t grab you by the balls. Personally, I dig the album, but I’m not about to drop 30 bucks on the LP just yet. But the disc is certainly a creeper, with tunes lingering around in my head days after I’ve politely invited them to leave the party. After a few more spins, I may have to re-evaluate my position and invite The Whole Love in to stay awhile. (dBmp, dbpmrecords.com) Sheldon Birnie