It’s a near perfect August evening – hot without being sweltering, vanilla ice cream in a cup and conversation about music, travel and inspiration with one of the city’s newest and arguably most talented groups, Bog River.
“In the ninth grade, I had a really awesome band teacher who just made me want to go to band camp every year. He just made me love music,” Ben Hadaller of the local folk trio tells me as the four of us sit around a picnic table at Sub Zero Ice Cream. Carly Dow, lead vocalist of the group, jokes that the extent of her family’s influence in her musicality came from the occasional inebriated family member banging on a piano at parties. On her left, Dave Barchyn, former associate at a music store, explains that, “If you work at a music store long enough, you end up owning a music store.” Continue reading “Bog River – Muddy and Simple”
For Cole Peters and Chris Jacques two years ago, it all began as an outlet to release their music but since Prairie Fire Tapes’ inception, Jacques has made seven albums under the name White Dog—some really cool and psychedelic, but most others approach horrifying parts of your brain. Since he’s going to be a performer at this year’s send + receive festival, both of his tape labels are releasing killer stuff, and his own music is taking wild turns, Jacques welcomed me up to his “East Berlin” office space which he shares with No List Records so we could discuss shit.
Mostly, I just wanted to know why his music is usually such a head-trip.
“It’s not meant to be creepy or dark or anything,” he said. It’s because of being a high school guidance councilor that he internalizes a lot of the darker side of the human nature. “I deal with people every day in their psychological needs and hear lots of crazy shit from kids and then their parents about what’s going on in their lives. My teaching has always dealt with people who are marginalized, or downtrodden, abused, and all that kinds of crazy shit. I’m a history student, so a lot of that stuff—things about rebellions and resistance come through as themes in my stuff a lot of time.” Continue reading “White Dog – Noise Below the Wall”
rock and roll. this is dirty, distorted and extremely unslick. i can hear traces of the cows, jon spencer and a little hot snakes. uncomplicated and joyously so. this is rock and roll in its truest form. nice to see it coming from a local act. do yourself a favour track this record down and crank it out of your car stereo driving through the suburbs. then go see them, raise a bottle of standard and bask in the sounds. “party with ghosts” and “come out! get in!” are standouts. (Independent, myspace.com/bwsgmusic) c.frsn for Stylus Magazine
By Taylor Burgess
“Their life was so rooted and so land-based,” said David Fort about some Hutterite farmers who they had come across during last year’s Assiniboine River Music Armada. This is the second year that Twin will be embarking on the tour, departing down the Assiniboine from Brandon, canoeing with their instruments and playing everyone along the river, regardless of who’s living or staying there.
“Remember that one gal,” Fort said. “After we asked they had said, ‘Oh, we have so much food.’”
Leslie Brown, Fort’s partner and fiddle player, chimed in, “We were talking about how we had taken some corn from the field, and she said, ‘Oh, did you see our garden? We wouldn’t have even noticed if you took it.’”
David Enns, who also plays guitar in Twin, said, “She just started listing all the things that were in season that would have been good to take.”
And on cue, singer and percussionist Ally Leenhouts erupted into her jubilant laugh which regularly echoed in the plant room of the Oikos Co-Op while I spent time with the full band and, from the sounds of it, is a regular occurrence with her roommates and bandmates, members of the latest band to uphold the lineage of reputable bands that have come from the so-called “Mansion.”
These four individuals make up the newest and most solidified line-up of Twin, which began as the solo acoustic project for David Fort, who’s better known as a writing force behind Absent Sound. He has played under his acoustic pseudonym for five years, but the line-up only solidified last year. “Really, I had an acoustic guitar long before an electric one. You could say it’s about time.”
Together they recorded a number of tracks of Sharing Secrets with Strangers, an EP which strikes at the core of human experiences and eschews timely references to string together proverbial tunes about life, death and love. Outwardly, the EP is a departure from Absent Sound’s recordings with its traditional folk instrumentations, yet it’s still totally enlightened by untraditional chord voicings and progressions. “In terms of the guitar-work goes, I’ll spend a lot of time on the mood,” says Fort. “I like to create a visual landscape— I’m getting pretty obsessed with things that don’t need to be there.” Lyrically, he says that his inspiration comes from internalizing characters, and take bits and pieces from his life and rearrange them. “To create a dreamscape that is a lot closer to reality than the dream realm, if that makes any sense.”
Before Dave Fort and Rob Menard played together in the Absent Sound, they kept crossing paths in Flin Flon and Saskatchewan. In Flin Flon, Fort says that he grabbed inspiration from whatever music was around, like music videos and TV documentaries about musicians, as well as taking trips to Winnipeg and Saskatchewan and blowing 200 bucks at record stores.
“Flin Flon was interesting enough that we would all appear at shows in community centres, little outdoor festivals, you know, shows at your high school. Flin Flon is a funny town. It wasn’t overly restrictive, not like when I hear about other some other small towns.”
Dave Fort had been canoeing since he was a kid, “fortunate to go to a camp with canoe trips.” But Fort probably wouldn’t have guessed that canoeing (alongside his music) would lead him to the L.A. River, and land him in a heap of trouble. But despite giving me the basic details of what happened to Twin on the L.A. River, Fort wanted to steer away from that in our interviews—there was much written about the event in California already and, as he pointed out, some reports had reduced the event so much that Twin wasn’t mentioned as a musical group so much as they were bulleted as a group of Canadian rabble-rousers.
What did happen was that Twin, with an L.A. filmmaker and his band, embarked on the recently declared “navigable” L.A. River, much in the same fashion as the Assiniboine River Music Armada, playing shows as they canoed down the river. “I was overwhelmed how beautiful the river was,” says Fort. “You would see these high cliffs that are falling into the river, or a tree growing with its roots sticking out. Then you’d turn a corner and run into 50 cows in the water. It was a really lazy river.”
The filmmaker, Danny Louangxay, had creative control to capture the trip as he saw fit, and Fort plans to soon screen the documentary here in Winnipeg. “He got great super 8 of the L.A. River, I’d say of about eight different micro-climates.” Without hesitation, Fort invited Louangxay to bring his band, Tiny Little, and they too joined Twin on the Armada. However, the documentary isn’t all nature-and-harmony, as their trip was stopped short by officials.
The group had canoed 15 of the river’s 51 miles and then were singled out by a police helicopter, which told the bands to get out of the river. They were given citations for loitering on the riverbed, which were written by two seemingly reluctant police officers, according to the band. All of this came despite the reason that Fort wanted to canoe on the L.A. River in the first place—that it was recently declared navigable by the Environmental Protection Agency, allowing people to swim and fish in the river once again.
“The initial inspiration for the canoe concept was finding the unifying factor for humans, which are life and clean water. You can’t argue with that. The essence of the idea being, having people around clean water, and how much more do you need?”
The band is set to appear in court again, but in the meantime, they’re focusing on the positive and going to be embarking on the Assiniboine. They’re inviting anyone who’s interested to join in on the trip, promising unforgettable sights and nothing but hospitality from wonderful Manitobans.
The departure happens on Friday, August 5 in Trees Blood Farm at Brandon, with stops in Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Fairholme Colony, Long Plains First Nation, and Portage La Prairie’s Island Park before landing in Winnipeg on Sunday August 14 at the Winnipeg Graffiti Gallery for 8 p.m. For more information, contact Twin at [email protected] or find updates at Twin’s Facebook page.
Twin has plans to write new material and record in the near future.
Some of this story takes notes from Long Beach Post’s “One Band, Two Canoes and Citations for Navigating the ‘Navigable’ L.A. River” by Greggory Moore, published February 28, 2011.
Cole Peters, co-founder of Prairie Fire Tapes, has created a real minimal affair with this cassette. Really minimal—the intro to “Ivory, Ether and Blood” is reminiscent of György Ligeti’s eerily terse two-note piece in Eyes Wide Shut, and the rest of this song is a primordial cesspool of ambiguous morality. Such a minimal affair—she touches his wrist when he reaches for his drink, and they both come and die a little inside, never telling anyone—that minimal. Peters, who’s normally doing his HNW (harsh noise wall) thing as Gomeisa, takes his guitar drone project Secret Girls away from the apocalyptic, and more toward the mystical—extraterrestrial overlords keep watch, waiting for the signals to impart infinite knowledge. There’s much tension and peace beneath the surface of In Hiding, and it is up to your conflicting levels of psyche to unearth it all. (Prairie Fire Tapes, prairiefiretapes.com) Taylor Burgess
Basham’s latest is dripping with Mortfell Oktorium’s goofy-yet-relatable character of humour and DIY production, in the form of some seriously up-tempo numbers. Seriously, no one can deliver a punch line like that of “Bad Mood:” A mermaid pops out of the river and makes a come-hither motion. “I wasn’t really in the mood / But I didn’t want to be rude! / She was quite the dish / And I wanna return that fish!” This is his third solo album as a follow up to Thick and Thicker, and he recently, to really prove that he’s serious, started playing with The Upsides and they’ve donned themselves The Girth. Unfortunately, length is seriously lacking here (none of these tracks break the 2-minute mark) but that’s not a problem as they certainly are thick with lightning-quick quips and proto-punk energy. “Seriously Not Serious” is the album’s “Marquee Moon” as the most serious number (or is it?!) with Basham analyzing his own talents and it ends with a palatable guitar duet in under a minute and forty seconds. (Independent, www. soundcloud.com/stevebasham) Taylor Burgess
The Absent Sound’s fifth release opens with “TV Song,” containing the simple and resounding message; “Talk back to your TV as if it had something to say.” The guys from Absent Sound have always put an astounding importance on community, having organized the semi-annual celebration of Element Sircus for years, and this album is a call-to-arms for those looking for more than a mundane electronic/escapist life. It’s obvious that Turn Them Off is the product of A.D.D.-free minds. Absent Sound negotiate these five-minute-plus songs in a pretty calm and collected (though energetic) headspace and the band’s songs turn slowly from start to finish, revealing more mysterious layers as they go along. The time signatures and tempos of “Occupying Home” shift prismatically like few other bands in the city (except maybe their peers Mahogany Frog) could replicate, and the self-effacing angst of “Stuck in Line” is for great dramatic effect. Closer “Hip Hop Knights” keeps its groove for a good seven minutes, making it a great ethereal pop song that closes the album and echoes off into the distance. (Independent, www.absentsound.bandcamp.com) Taylor Burgess
This CD was recorded over five shows and six months—and a little bit of a warning—the music on this CD is freeform. It isn’t for the faint of heart or mind. But the music on Live Fragments every bit emotionally and cerebrally fulfilling as any other genre. Greg Hanec and Sarah Otsuji use both electronic and acoustic instruments; they electronically manipulate to the point of knotty loops and use their instruments like virtuosos, and drench it all in delay like Bitches Brew. It’s a solid set of improvisations and is highly recommended for putting you in alternative headspaces. The minor disheartenment of this disc is the “Fragments”—some of the tracks fade out to silence prematurely, and fade back in to a different part of the show. Given the post-modern nature of the music, the album could’ve been given a post-modern treatment like Burning Star Core’s Papercuts Theater, which was made up of 40 live recordings and arranged into four non-stop parts. This is totally nitpicking though, and Live Fragments is another find in Winnipeg’s lawless noise scene. (Independent, www.myspace.com/greghanec) Taylor Burgess
One of Winnipeg’s most thrilling live acts is releasing their first full-length in July on local family label Transistor 66. I sat down at the Legion in the Exchange District with band members Julia Ryckman, J.P. Perron, and, later on, Patrick Short for some cheap beverages and to exchange a few words with this local trio regarding their highly-anticipated debut.
Stylus: To begin, out of curiosity I have got to know, why This Hisses and not The Hisses?
J.P. Perron: It’s kind of a weird iteration I guess, but not really. There is actually a funny quote addressing that on the new album. [Reads] When attempting to enunciate the group’s moniker, most tend to slur over the words carelessly, gurgling some incoherent mumble. However, such a cavalier introduction to This Hisses is calamitous at best. Stylus: Brilliant and accurate, as I clearly demonstrated when this interview began.
JPP: Yeah I do that as well just the other day I called us The Hisses. People tend to like it though, however I can imagine that radio announcer would not.
Julia Ryckman: Also, ‘this’ is a word that hisses, which adds to our name. Stylus: Each of you have been submerged in the Winnipeg music scene before with other acts such as The Gorgon [Julia], Mahogany Frog [J.P.] and Under Pressure and Electric Candles [Patrick Short]. But how did This Hisses come to be?
JR: When The Gorgon broke up, I had some songs I wanted to try and I thought of Pat because we had talked and jammed before. I also wanted to work with J.P. because he had always been my favourite drummer in Winnipeg and I knew he was available because he had just moved back from Montreal. I asked him at a party if he wanted to jam, but he was very guarded. Continue reading “This Hisses – Super Sibilant”
About to begin its second year, Manitoba’s firstelectronic music festival is getting ready for four electric days and nights.
Starting tomorrow, June 23 and running until Sunday, the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition (MEME) features a slew of aural and visual talent. International headliners include Thomas Fehlmann (Berlin, The Orb) and Dandy Jack (Geneva) alongside national and local performers like Hitori Tori (Vancouver) and Winnipeg’s own Venetian Snares and LeBeato. Meanwhile, visual artists Amber Solstice, mrghosty, Rylaan Gimby, and jaymez, among others, will be busy keeping your eyes entranced.
Inspired by Montreal’s legendary Mutek festival, MEME’s free outdoor performances at Old Market Square and club shows are where people have the chance to be exposed to local and international talent they might never hear otherwise. And the festival organizers have injected more international flavour into the festival this year. “A lot of the music is dance music, but a lot of the songs are quite listenable,”says Nathan Zahn, producer and DJ. He’s also excited about the beer gardens and food stalls, which were absent last year. “It’s nice for people to come out on a warm afternoon and enjoy the sun, or in the evening, to come and dance, sit and hang out with their friends.”
The shows at the Zoo, Whiskey Dix and Alive will also be different from your usual club scene. Zahn is enthusiastic about showcasing music that’s not your standard Top 40 and projected visuals which will make for a more immersive experience. International and local VJs promise that MEME will be more than just a music festival. “A lot of them are cutting and pasting from classic TV shows, cartoons. The whole thing about VJing is that it’s not just some people putting on some cool visual show; they’re actually mixing different sources of visuals live, almost improvising,” Zahn explains.
This year’s event also involves two half-day workshops on June 24 and 25 on how to make electronic music, with presentations from performing DJs.
Visit www.memetic.ca to see what you’ll be hearing and where.
