Mahogany Frog
WL 360 - Sunday, April 22 – 10pm
Purveyors of: crushing terrified onlookers with a webby fist of sound.

If you want to know if an ecosystem is healthy or not, apparently you’re supposed to check the frogs. If the frogs are scarce or sickly or floating on their backs, there may be some kind of problem.

Always curious about the world around him, Dan Taylor set out with a mason jar and a butterfly net to see how the Winnipeg music scene is faring amidst all this talk of global warming and soiled water supplies. After chatting a little with Scott Ellenberger and listening to the healthy rumbling coming from jazz-rock quartet Mahogany Frog, Taylor is pleased to report that Winnipeg is doing just fine.

But he also returns with a horrible warning! The frogs he found in that godless marsh were fifteen feet tall and carved out of wood, with blazing embers for eyes! And they will break your mind and crush your soft heart with the beautiful chaos of their thunderous night song!

Although it’s not your first time playing Wavelength, the show on the 22nd may be an introduction for many audience members. Care to introduce the band?

Graham Epp and Jesse Warkentin both play guitar and keyboards, Scott Ellenberger on bass and J.P. Perron plays drums.

This band has been around in one form or another for almost a decade, released four albums and played dozens upon dozens of shows. Any big plans for Mahogany Frog’s 10th year?

It’s only been two albums for me, and we’ve got a third one coming out in the fall. We just plan to keep going, which is simple but important. I think that lots of bands call it quits way too early, but we’ve had some really good luck.

You started out in Saskatoon, but migrated to Winnipeg in 2003. How has the move impacted the band? Are the two music communities markedly different from one another in any particular way?

The band found me in Winnipeg, so I can’t really make a good comparison of the two scenes. I do know there is a sound specific to Saskatchewan and Manitoba that’s different from the rest of the country. It’s the sound of all the rest of the country through our ears. I hear it in the diversity of band styles here in Winnipeg. Also there are more bands than us that fit into their own category here in the most isolated city in North America.

Any bands or performers from the West you think should get more appreciation in the national music scene?

Bend Sinister from Vancouver, Ham from Winnipeg, the Summerlad from Calgary and Absentsound in Winnipeg.

You’ve played with some good bands over the years. Do any acts, Canadian or otherwise, stick out as ones you’d still really like to play or tour with?

Best band ever was Green Milk From The Planet Orange! In friggin' Kitchener we played with this tremendous group from Japan. Forget about touring with them, I just want to see them play again before I die!

Mahogany Frog gets to redo the soundtrack for one movie or video game. Which one?

Kill Bill 1 or Double Dragon 2.

Any act, Canadian or otherwise, you’d like to erase from history? Everything else will stay exactly the same, all the same people are born and the timeline is not significantly impacted, that musician or band just doesn’t exist.

For the sake of discussion only, and enjoying the argument it would bring: The Beatles.

Do you have any specific aims for the Wavelength show? What would you like the audience to take away from the show (other than CDs and t-shirts)?

You know, Earth Day, awareness of global conscience. Basically fix the planet if we can.

By Dan Taylor