Karaoke Hits The North
By Doc ~ Posted Monday, March 7th 2011Wow the Wavelength "Toronto Show Listings" page is really hitting the spot for me, we have a pretty comprehensive list of shows from people who move me, but I miss Stillepost for potential moments like this: Fans of the Fall frequent THE FALL ONLINE FORUM and as message boards often do, art spontaneously broke out in the form of this fan-released tribute album lovingly cobbled together with submissions from fellow North-Hitters and made available free to the world in a thread on their message board. And Karaoke has made an appearance! It's their first ever downloadable contribution to the omniverse. In case you haven't heard, Toronto's own trainspotter echo to Mark E Smith, Wavelength cofounder Derek Westerholm, he of the Creeping Nobodies (and Parts Unknown!), has joined forces with Michelle Breslin in Karaoke. Michelle is a force in her own right most recently as the mama bear of sadoceanspacebear (and also joined me in Secret Japanese Girlfriend!). Their sound together is otherworldly and I was recently treated to a set by Karaoke at Rancho Relaxo, they incorporate all my favorite things about Derek and Michelle and now I'm a big believer in their incredibeautiful mashed-up tensely loose jingled and jangled and looping bangled aquarium of sound. True story: I helped put together their Rancho Relaxo show and when I sent out the listings I got a very polite but firm reply from one of the weeklies informing me that they don't do karaoke listings! (Full kudos to NOW for having a staffer diligent enough to sort though emails and email me back to sort out the listing in time for print by the way). This story is a listings fable of sorts, nobody recognized the name Karaoke as a name but until they know I mean karaoke, and not karaoke, how could they? It's like having a band name like "Last Show Ever" on a poster!
- I take music personally, I can't help it, music is a reflexive and emotional medium and I willingly subject my feelings to the sounds coming in through my eardrums, because you can't listen to good music without feeling it. Since music is directly connected to the touchy feely part of my brain I am sometimes dissapointed when a micro-band that I love isn't instantly recognized as the awesome band that I know they truly are, it always bugs me on a personal level when another band, made up of people who I don't know personally, pops out of a ready made box from record label somewhere and is well groomed and named by a focus group and is immediately racked next to mini pops at Wal Mart. Life ain't fair for the other 99 percent of deserving acts.
- But life always has a way of turning out beautifully when you least expect it to. Seeing this first available track from a band I love is like seeing the first daffodill leaf sprouting out of the frozen muck of winter. I prefer seeing those first sprouts of spring in random places, like in the muck of muddy gardens, or scattered across the western slopes of the pit in Trinity Bellwoods park, greening over the browns of last year's grass, I prefer these wilder daffodille to greenhouse bulbs stacked next to the checkout of Dominion any day. Music hunters feel the same, the most beautiful musical introductions usually happen by chance, on college radio in the middle of the night, or on the b-sides of fan message board tribute albums. It's always good news to get something out there whoever you are, be you a florist or a musician. Karaoke covers Who Makes the Nazis and you'll find their debut-to-the-omniverse track on the second disc of this intriguing tribute album.