March 25, 2009
Shows! Julie Doiron with $100, 27 March @ The Grad Club
Hey Folks.
Just another weekend around here with some stellar music as per usual. Our good friends at The Grad Club have put together a great bill featuring $100 and Julie Doiron. Yesterday Doiron released her new album “I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day“, which I have only had the opprotunity to listen to a few tracks but what I have heard I dig a great deal. Check out the lead single:
From the admittedly quick (and partial) listen the new record seems to continue on Doiron’s path of intimate storytelling but without being as raw as “Woke Myself Up” – indeed there seems to be glimmers of happiness on this record, quite a change from here previous outing. Also, there are shades of Eric’s Trip in the distorted guitar which I heartily approve of. I am looking forward to picking up the album at the concert and hearing the record in its entirety.
It is undoubtedly going to be a great show. Get your tickets here – they are going fast and this show could very well sell out.
Here is a list of some upcoming shows (there are a million more – check her site/space for full listings)
March 25 Hamilton, ON @ Pepper Jack’s
March 26 Toronto, ON @ The Horseshoe w/ 100 Dollars and Rick White
March 27 Kingston, ON @ Grad Club w/ 100 Dollars
March 28 Montreal, QC @ Il Motore w/ 100 Dollars
April 2 Julie will be performing on CBC’s Q !
April 2 Waterloo, ON @ Starlight w/ 100 Dollars
April 4 Brantford, ON @ The Ford Plant (all ages)
April 3 London, ON @ Chaucer’s (122 Carling St.)
April 5 – Peterborough, ON @ Montreal House
I don’t have any live recordings of my own to share today (the radio session i had of JD that I was going to use sounds less than wonderful and not worth posting and the recording I made of the $100 from the amazing Fucked Up Hallowe’en show this past October imploded under the sheer weight of its awesomeness [well, a disc format error]) but you can check out this 2002 concert from Schedule Two and here are a couple of Julie Doiron vids for you.
Julie Doiron at South Union Arts, Chicago (June 2007)
Part 1:
Part 2:
“Sweeter” live in Brantford (2007)
and very timely given that the Cons (with the Weakerthans! almost sold out! tickets here!) are playing in Kingston on Sunday.
Julie Doiron with the Constantines “Why I Hated August 93”
Buy Julie Doiron’s cds from Jagjaguar. And have you heard the record she released late last year with Mount Eerie & Fred Squire? It is called Lost Wisdom and it quietly became one of my favourite records of 2008. Get it here.
March 9, 2009
Rock Plaza Central, Queen St. United Church, Kingston, 11 April 2008
photo by Blurasis taken at Barrymores, Ottawa, 12 April 2008.
Next week, from Tuesday, March 17th to Friday, March 20th, the astoundingly resourceful and generally all ’round wonderful Apple Crisp will be hosting a free music festival at locations around the city. There will be nine bands from near and far, and each evening the Apple Crispers are offering up something stellar. Check out the AC site and the poster at the bottom of the post and be sure to get out and see some great live music.
I am perhaps most excited about seeing b(oot)log favs Rock Plaza Central (for previous RPC post see here). I’ve seen them play several times in the past and each and every time they have been fantastic. Onstage their music oscillates from gentle and refined to raucous and raw. Chris Eaton and co. have a stellar stage presence, frequently telling stories and jokes, giving background on the songs, or having fun with his bandmates. The richness of the music complements the lyrical content which takes listeners to dystopian worlds, to the bottom of the ocean, to Sackville, and as far as Eaton’s imagination can take him. With a new album due out in May, I look forward to seeing exactly where he will go next.
Below you will find my recording of RPC’s show from about a year ago. It was a gorgeous concert in an amazing, now condemned, venue. They played an excellent set drawing primarily from “Are We Not Horses,” with a few older gems and a couple of new songs. The band is going to be playing a few shows in Ontario this month and I am told that they will have a tour-only EP for sale which will have a couple new tracks as well as some alternate versions etc. Get to the show early to avoid disappointment (they will be selling copies online as well). Dates can be found on their Myspace.
19 Mar 2009 Apple Crisp Festival Next Church w/ Reuben deGroot, Kingston
20 Mar 2009 Call the Office w/ Timber Timbre, London, Ontario
21 Mar 2009 Horseshoe w/ Key Witness and Afie Jurvanen (from Feist), Toronto
22 Mar 2009 Casbah w/ Akron/Family, Hamilton
Rock Plaza Central, Queen St. United Church, Kingston, 11 April 2008
1. a typo on the altar (talk)
2. Our Pasts, Like Lighthouses
3. (talk)
4. My Children, Be Joyful
5. (talk)
6. When We Go, How We Go (Part 2)
7. can’t remember what the chords are (talk)
8. I Am An Excellent Steel Horse
9. trumpet of shame (talk)
10. (Don’t You Believe the Words of ) Handsome Men
11. a lot funnier when we practiced it (talk)
12. Gutterdance
13. (talk)
14. Fifteen Hands
15. people don’t get beat up in Sackville as much as they used to (talk)
16. Stereotrucks
17. microfiction (talk)
18. Last Band on The Earth
19. “fall far from the light” (The Wrong Side of the Right?)
20. one more (talk)
21. We’ve Got A Lot to be Glad For
22. psych out thing (talk)
23. Anthem for the Already Defeated
24. makes up a lot of stuff (talk)
25. The Things That Bind You
You can pick up Rock Plaza Central’s albums through their myspace or digitally from Zunior.
March 8, 2009
Show & Review! Torngat La petite Nicole – @ the Grad Club 13 March 2009
photo taken by Allsoldout at Toronto’s Harbourfront, August 26, 2006
Torngat, one of my very favourite bands, released a wonderful little album on March 3rd called “La petite Nicole” and they are coming to the Grad Club on March 13th to promote it. Seeing Torngat play live is an absolute treat and you all should go and allow yourself to be caught up in the majesty of hearing their music in person.
The new album starts, oddly, with an “Interlude”. This makes me wonder if La petite Nicole should be seen as following directly on from their fantastic 2007 release “You Could Be“. Certainly the albums share a similar overall tone, which originates in the rather idiosyncratic instruments employed by the band, but their sound has moved in some new directions here. There are hints of darkness found here that were largely absent from their earlier albums. Particularly striking is the track ‘L’ecole pénitencier’ which begins with layers of dissonance which give way to a driving rhythm. These elements, combined in different ways, show up again on ‘Turtle Eyes & Fierce Rabbit’ which jolt the listener after the dreamy ambiance of ‘6:23PM’. Finishing with the unhurried “Going Whats What”, which builds slowly for six minutes before gently revealing its gorgeous, full self, Torngat leave me extremely happy but wishing for more.
For you to get a taste, here is the title track:
I am extremely sad that I will not be able to see them play on Friday – with local ambient instrumentalists Cities Turn to Sand, who do not appear to have a website – because I am out of town (but I do get to see the Handsome Furs show put on by I{Heart}Music on the 12th, which is a pretty good consolation – tickets are still available, Ottawaians, but going fast so go get ’em now) so I insist that you go and report back to me on how amazing it was. Full dates can be found on their myspace.
12 Mar 2009 Casbah, Hamilton
13 Mar 2009 The Grad Club, Kingston
20 Mar 2009 SXSW at El Sol y la Luna with Sam Roberts and Melissa Auf., Austin, Texas
26 Mar 2009 Le téléphone rouge, Sherbrooke
27 Mar 2009 Le Zaricot, St-Hyacinthe
28 Mar 2009 Vieux St-Pierre, Victoriaville
2 Apr 2009 Le Poisson Rouge, New York
9 Apr 2009 Zaphods, Ottawa
11 Apr 2009 Call The Office, London, ON
Bonus mp3s from Torngat’s Grad Club show in October, 2007 (a few more songs from that show can be found here)
* Finger Painting
* Surf
Do yourself a giant favour and pick up La petite Nicole, and their other albums, digitally and physically, from Alien8.
March 2, 2009
SOOOO contest winner
Congratulations to Dona who is now the proud owner of Shout Out Out Out Out‘s sweet new record “Reintegration Time”. Thanks to all who entered. If you didn’t win, don’t fear – the record is released in Canada tomorrow and you can seek one out for your very own. Head on over to Six Shooter or NrmlsWlcm and they will hook you up.
The ShoutSet have filmed a video for “Coming Home” the slamming cut which features Cadence Weapon. That video doesn’t appear to be available yet but a pretty cool making of is – see Shout Out Out Out Out on fire! (I’ll update the post when it does get released)
B(oot)log 