After touring for three years with bands like the Locust and Pig Destroyer, Child Abuse has once again dropped an album that can only be described as bizarre. A not-so-subtle blend of math-rock, death metal and free jazz, the New York trio’s second album Cut and Run is a new direction both for metal and for electronic music. Though a metal band without guitars may seem like a pizza without cheese, these guys pull it off without a hitch. Heavily distorted synth takes the lead while the bass and drums thrum out a palsied foundation for the almost Dadaist vocals. This album is far from conventional metal and makes Mayhem seem like Buddy Holly in comparison. Fans of Fantômas and the Locust rejoice! Everybody else, run and hide! (Lovepump United, www.lpurecords.com) D. C. S. Murray
Rob Vilar’s Story Time – Beach House
By Rob Vilar
02:37 a.m. On a seaside pier, parts unknown.
With a splash of some unknown abrasive alcohol awakening me out of my stupor, I find myself bound to a straight jacket on a seaside pier. A foreign-looking Henchman and two of his goons look me over.
“You were gone there for a while,” says the Henchman in his thick South African accent.
“Yeah tell me about it,” I reply.
“Rob Vilar,” he says while taking a shot of the rough stuff from his flask, “You don’t know me but I know you. I am the man who is about to change the course of your history. Months ago we were running illegal MP3s on music blogs for advertising revenue from California Apparel. It was a great windfall for us… the money, the skanks that would sleep with us for publicity. It was a dream. We also ensured no artists got any cash for their original compositions. Anyways, it was all running perfectly, until you had to come with your Story Time reviews, and try to be funny, call our shit out and everything. Fuck you, Vilar. But you know what? Now you are alone. All your colleagues dead, except that slut partner of yours.”
“Well, knowing her, I’m pretty sure she has someth-”
“SHUT UP!” He screams as he pistol whips me across the face. “You see that house burning on the beach? That was your home, I presume. Well, just think in the morning when there’s nothing but a smouldering ash of what was once your house, you will be laid to rest at the bottom of this ocean. Fully intact and preserved for the rest of time. Our way to honour you Vilar. But your partner, once we get ahold of her…”
“You son of a bitches!” I yell while struggling to get out my straightjacket.
Flaming Lips coming to Winnipeg! (!!!!)
It’s really happening! Wayne Coyne and his troupe of musical hedonists will hit the stage at the Burton Cummings Theatre on September 21. The show is presented by CKUW and here are some relevant details:
THE FLAMING LIPS
With special guests
ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 , 2010
BURTON CUMMINGS THEATRE
Doors: 6:30 Show: 7:30
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 28 @ 10AM
Tickets at Ticketmaster and also Rogers Wireless Box Office.
Tickets (incl. GST) $25.00 & $45.00 (Plus service charges)
GENERAL ADMISSION ORCHESTRA / RESERVED BALCONY SEATING / ALL AGES
Review: Tom Keenan – Romantic Fitness
Actor/artist/drunkard Tom Keenan’s long-awaited solo debut is a dose of stark poetic folk-rock that tells tales of punch-ups at weddings and glue huffing criminal rampages. Similar to a folky version of the Eels, Keenan’s wonderfully dark lyrics complement the seemingly uplifting, light-hearted folk ballads. Standout tracks include: “Please Don’t Think Less of Me,” which deals with an assumed dead body and features agreat-sounding organ section. Also: “I don’t Want to Lie Down,” a song about starting a drunken brawl at a wedding with the father of the bride. Easily best track on the album is the country twang foot-stomper “River St.,” which features a catchy chorus you can’t help but fall in love with. Much like his brother Patrick Keenan, Tom has one heck of back up band including the D-Rangers’ Jaxon Haldane, Twilight Hotel’s Dave Quanbury, the Waking Eyes’ Matt Peters and Jicah’s Jeff Bruce. (Independent, www.myspace.com/tommydouglaskeenan) Kent Davies
Review: Boats – Cannonballs, Cannonballs
The sophomore album from one of Winnipeg’s most fully-realized bands plays through like a Saturday-morning cartoon jamboree, with Mat Klachefsky’s high-pitched singing, fast-paced songs, and sing-alongs around every other corner. Most of Klachefsky’s lyrics either seem like they’re about growing up (“Haircuts for Everybody,” “Summercamp vs. the Fake Moustache Tree”) or they seem like they’re coming from a naively young point of view (“Sunrise on the Muffin District,” “Movie Scores; We Hummed”), even though they’re way too absurd for even a kid to think of. But whether you’ve got an inner-child to appeal to or not, most songs chug along to the shuffle of a keyboard’s preset drum pattern or some oddly propulsive drum beat, making them intrinsically happy. And Klachefsky and co. have come in and made them catchy, one thing that they do quite well. If you’re ever in need of a sugar high, this album would definitely do you just as well. (Majestic Triumph, www.yeahboats.com) Taylor Burgess
Preview: Sleep… in the Gallery
Maybe it’s because it’s raining in Winnipeg today that the idea of curling up and listening to some sonorous sounds is appealing. Of course, regardless of the weather, there’s a lot to recommend the happenings at Ace Art this Thursday, May 13. Vancouver drone-maker Empty Love and Winnipeg’s experimentalist Chris Bryan (formerly 3x3is9) will perform. Attendees will also be treated to a short film program featuring the work of Clint Enns, Kelsey Braun, Andrew Milne + Cam Johnson, Montreal’s Sabrina Ratté and former Stylus cover artist Leslie Supnet (whose illustration is pictured above right).
Doors are at 8, the films start at 8:30, followed by the live sound performances.
Organizer crys cole urges you to “bring open ears and a pillow, sleeping bag or whatever makes you cozy.” I say, take her up on it!
Bob Wiseman–Musician, Playwright, Wiseguy
By Kevan Hannah
Musician, songwriter, director, actor, playwright—Toronto’s Bob Wiseman has built a 25 year career upon finding new roles to play, crashing and bleeding into each other to create an art that is uniquely his own. It’s transformed Wiseman’s live performances into an audio-visual spectacle, backing his music with evocative, original films written and directed by the man himself. He was kind enough to spend some time talking to Stylus about his performances, which Winnipeg audiences can experience for themselves at the Ragpickers Theatre this Saturday, May 1.
Stylus: You seem to be constantly spinning as many creative plates as you can. How are things going for you these days?
Bob Wiseman: Pretty good. I wrote a play about my experiences with lawyers and the music business. A lot of that is funny, and I’m mounting that at the Uno Festival in Victoria later in May, and then at several Fringe festivals over the summer, including Winnipeg. And I just was in Europe, over the last six weeks.
Stylus: How did you branch out into writing for theatre?
BW: I’m not sure, there’s a few stories I could tell. But I guess foremost, being from Winnipeg, originally, you move to a bigger place like Toronto and it’s thrilling that there are so many arts, there’s a critical mass of people to make a lot of independent art viable and I like attending a lot of things. So I’ve always been interested in theatre. Specifically, I wrote this play because this theatre festival in Toronto called SummerWorks, and they have a music component. They asked me if I would play a party several months before the festival was going to begin, because they thought I would be one of the music people. But they were kind of charmed with the films that I have that three of them by the end of the night were like, “You know, you should just do this as a play.”
Continue reading “Bob Wiseman–Musician, Playwright, Wiseguy”
Sound advice: Two shows you do not want to miss
I know that Monday and Tuesday nights are generally reserved for laundry and/or recovering from weekend revelry, but please, Winnipeg, I implore you — break with tradition and go see these two early-week shows.
1. MISS EMILY BROWN – MONDAY, APRIL 19 at the MONDRAGON, 9 p.m.
$7, with openers Ben Wytinck and Steve Brockley (Montreal)
Hopefully our feature on Emily Millard, a.k.a. Miss Emily Brown, sparked your interest. Her expert manipulation of her instruments — from voice to autoharp to guitar and banjo — coaxes out sounds that bring the old into a starkly modern context. Check her out on MySpace, or watch this little video to get a better picture of what to expect at tonight’s show:
Miss Emily Brown – In Technicolor from Benjamin Schuetze on Vimeo.
2. BABY DEE – TUESDAY, APRIL 20 at the WEST END CULTURAL CENTRE, 8 p.m.
$12, with opener Keri Latimer
Baby Dee adds new meaning to the term “uncategorizable.” Her music takes a lot from classic cabaret, but throws in heaps of church music as well as the brutal honesty of the folk singer-songwriter tradition. Her voice, heartfelt and rich, only adds to the glorious ambiguity of it all. Learn more on her website or on MySpace.
Here’s a video of her performing my favourite track from her new record, Songs for Anne Marie.
Miss Emily Brown – Era to Era, Coast to Coast
By Jenny Henkelman
Flowered wallpaper, little-known Catholic observances and wartime longing—things and feelings pretty far removed from most young musicians, including Emily Millard. But Millard, who performs under the name Miss Emily Brown, explores them all on her new album, In Technicolor. It’s a gorgeous album, with warm acoustic and electronic sounds, with Millard’s effortless soprano colouring in her clever but heartful folk songs. Stylus exchanged electronic letters with Millard during her current tour, which stops in Winnipeg on April 19 at Mondragon.
Stylus: You used your grandmother’s wartime diary as inspiration for the songs on this album. What drew you to choosing an artifact and using it for inspiration in this way? Is your songwriting process different when you do it this way?
Miss Emily Brown: I first discovered my grandmother’s journal when I was about fourteen. It was on the bookshelf in a zippered leather case with my grandfather’s Second World War medals and Air Force papers. For years I had thought of researching the details of her journal and writing songs about it, mostly as a way of getting to know the grandmother I never met. Last year I was finally ready to do that. My songwriting process wasn’t so different for the songs on In Technicolor. I really like to write about other peoples’ life experiences. It helps me understand them better. I find that when I write about the lives of others, the songs last longer because I don’t out-grow them like I do with songs based on my own feelings. I love finding pieces of writing or hearing stories and then boiling them down to a few verses of song.
Continue reading “Miss Emily Brown – Era to Era, Coast to Coast”
Vampires – Will Give You the Clap
By Taylor Benjamin Burgess
For the past year, Vampires have been racking up bigger and bigger live shows, including the past two Element Sircuses and the always-packed Cabaret! at the Standard. When this guitar-and-drum duo plays, they navigate some sweat-drenched territory between southern rock and Interpol, whipping the crowd into head-swinging and dancing. And if that isn’t enough, Josh Butcher and David Dobbs stop in the middle of their set, trade instruments, and keep on going. After building a local following, they’ve gotten around to recording, with the help of Jeff Patteson of Home Street Recording and some new rented gear. Stylus eventually wrangled a 15-minute phone call out of David Dobbs.