February

Wavelog

Interview! Ell V Gore

By ryan ~ Posted Wednesday, February 6th 2013

Purveyors of: Punk goth after-hours club soundtracks
File next to: The Cramps, Joy Division, The Contortions, Wipers
Playing #WL13 Thursday, February 14 @ The Shop under Parts & Labour

Ell V Gore has been likened to The Cramps meet Joy Division, a comparison that doesn’t really capture their propulsive energy. Part of that comes from their mic-chewing frontman with a neo James Chance swagger, Elliott Jones. Coming out of the Burnt Oak Records DIY scene in Guelph before coming to Toronto, you may know him from his former project Brides, or perhaps as one of the brains behind Pretty Pretty, which started as a monthly dance party and has evolved into a mostly electronic record label hosting the likes of Yacht Club, Prince Innocence, Kontravoid, Tarantula X and Sins. A guy with this much going on can be tough to keep tabs on, so Wavelength’s Ryan McLaren emailed Elliott on a cold and blustery night to get up to speed.

You don't strike me as the kind of person that likes to talk about himself. How do you feel about answering questions about your band?

I’ve been warming up. I’ve got a lot on my plate coming up for EVG, so I figure I better start exposing myself and my beautiful band to the world. Consider this step number one, year of the Gore. Fire away, dude.

You have a new EP coming out this year, yeah? Can you tell us a bit about it? Where/how did you record it?

Yeah, it’s completely done. Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Yacht Club) and Last Gang Records teamed up to create a new, exciting sub-label, and I’m stoked to have my record as their first release, due out in April. We recorded it with Brandon Hocura at Polyphasic Studios. Dude is super easy to work with and I’m very happy with how the record turned out. It’s a total late-night rock record. Dark and sexy.

Are you releasing it on Pretty Pretty?

PP will be helping with the release of our debut EP, yes. Even though this will be PP’s first “rock” record, it still makes perfect sense. I gather the freaks who come out to our parties and follow our records will dig this one.

What's in store for Pretty Pretty Records this year?

We’ve got a couple releases set for spring. Sins — the slow dance dark lord of Canada. I sang on a track for his new record. It’s disgusting, real good stuff. Josh McIntyre and Talvi Faustman (Prince Innocence) are releasing their debut EP with us as well. It sounds like goths eating Menchie’s… real sexy stuff. Also Tarantula X's new EP is gonna drop soon. Dude’s a serious techno master, super excited to see this one blow up. His Crystal Castles remix is getting major attention. But yeah, other than that we are going continue doing our monthly dance parties and living like it’s 1984.

Are you going to tour this summer? Where are you planning to go?

There’s a string of dates we have planned for the States and Canada in April after our record drops. Keep your eyes peeled for the Gore.

Outside of the band, what are you listening to right now?

Been listening to a lot of jazz lately (I even auditioned for hosting a show on Jazz FM 91.1), sci-fi soundtracks, Steve Reich, Crime, Roy Orbison, Throbbing Gristle, complete Swans discography, my usual industrial/EBM addictions and also recently I’ve become obsessed with Montreal producer Femminielli. Dude’s a modern Giorgio Moroder.

Interview! This Mess

By Joe Strutt ~ Posted Tuesday, February 5th 2013

Purveyors of: The punk-rock power-trio tradition
File next to: Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr.
Playing #WL13 Thursday, February 14 @ The Shop under Parts & Labour

Gather ‘round, young’uns, and hear this tale. Back in the day, whenever you bought a tape from SST Records, it would always come with a catalog, a large sheet printed on the thinnest of paper and folded into a square small enough to cram into the cassette case. It would start with a marquee list of the label’s stars, but the bulk of it was in tiny type, listing the label’s foot soldiers — bands you woulda never quite otherwise heard of in those pre-internet days, whose names would take on a kind of secret glow, just by association. This Mess are not one of those bands on that list. But man, they coulda been.

However, This Mess are also a band strongly rooted in the Toronto of this very minute, yet following in a long line of bands linked to the Wavelength organizing team.
When he’s not drumming with This Mess, watch for stage manager Adham “Madman” Ghanem keeping things running on time, and buy him a beer to say thanks. Mechanical Forest Sound’s Joe Strutt spoke to guitarist/yowler Matt NL (also seen on WL’s stages with Hybrid Moments) about getting it done, DIY-style.

If This Mess toured a supermarket chain, it'd be No Frills. What does “we jam econo” mean to you?

We started the band with one simple rule: No songs over 3.5 minutes. Most of them end up being closer to one minute these days. One song equals one musical and lyrical idea, just like our biggest influences, Rush and Yes. OR: Ass, grass, or cash. No one rides for free.

Lyrical content. Truth to power. RONALD REAGAN. Status quo. Global capitalism. Aaargh!

Those are all things. Things that we believe in. When we say “party,” we mean getting wasted on self-righteous indignations.

What plans does This Mess have to deal with two (six? ten thousand?) more years of Rob Ford?

A combination of screaming and poutine cures all wounds. WE LOVE ROB FORD.

Speaking of poutine, what are the top three late-night places to eat after a gig?

The High Park washrooms, Chinatown, Pizza. In that order.

I've heard rumblings that there's an album coming out. What can we expect?

We have a 22-song, 29-minute album about to be released on glorious tape cassette and download. It should be available sometime in the next month, but since it’s 100% DIY, delays are inevitable. We recorded it ourselves in a terrible sounding room over the last few months and some demo previews will be available soon.

Assuming it isn't done cut-and-paste, old school zine style, I could sort of imagine a Raymond Pettibon-type thing for your album cover. If he were unavailable, who would be your second choice?

Rick Fork! Or if he's not available, Craig Stecyk. Alternately, any six-year-old with a photocopier and some tape.

Announcing: The WL13 In-Store Series!

By jonny ~ Posted Monday, February 4th 2013

Exciting news! We've expanded the Wavelength Music Festival THIRTEEN line-up to include a series of FREE ALL-AGES IN-STORE performances plus guest speakers in local independent record shops across Toronto. The festivities will kick off with a pre-festival launch party at Sonic Boom (Annex) on Wednesday, February 13th with sets by Dusted and Absolutely Free, followed by solo performances from Andre Ethier and Laura Barrett, both interviewed live on stage by author/blogger Carl Wilson on Saturday, February 16th at Soundscapes. The in-store series will wrap up on Sunday, February 17th at Grasshopper Records with a punk-themed afternoon featuring a set by noisy garage punks The Soupcans and a talk by author Sam Sutherland.

The expanded festival line-up also includes:

  • Art Environment created by Adrian Dilena
  • Live Burlesque with The Harlettes joining Legato Vipers on stage
  • New Visuals by Live Action Fezz to accompany Doldrums
  • SPECIAL GUESTS to be announced for the Sunday night festival finale!

Here are the complete festival listings!

** IN-STORE SERIES: Wednesday Feb. 13 @ Sonic Boom (Annex), 782 Bathurst St. **

Dusted (Toronto - soulful basement indie rock w/ members of Holy Fuck & Ohbijou / Hand Drawn Dracula Records) 

Absolutely Free (powerful prog-rock with soul / ex-DD/MM/YYYY / Toronto’s best new band?)

8pm • ALL AGES • FREE!

 

Thursday Feb. 14 @ The Shop under Parts & Labour, 1566 Queen St. W.

Lullabye Arkestra

Ell V Gore

Fresh Snow

This Mess

* Slow-Pitch feat. Colin Fisher (turntablist trickster joined by sax playing guest from Not the Wind, Not the Flag and Bernice)

+ DJ Jesse Locke (Weird Canada)

9pm • $10 adv / $13 door • 19+

 

Friday Feb. 15 @ Black Box Theatre – The Great Hall Downstairs, 1087 Queen St. W.

* Doldrums feat. Live Action Fezz (“Lesser Evil” ALBUM release – with NEW VISUALS created by the Mansion parties artist)

Cadence Weapon

Blue Hawaii

Blonde Elvis

Thighs
+ co-presented & DJed by Silent Shout

9pm • $15 adv ($25 incl. Doldrums album purchase, Ticketfly only) / $18 door • 19+

 

** IN-STORE SERIES: Saturday Feb. 16 @ Soundscapes, 572 College St. **

Andre Ethier (one-time Deadly Snakes frontman gone solo troubadour / Blue Fog Recordings)

Laura Barrett (Toronto / kalimba popster shows off new tunes for piano!)

Both interviewed on-stage by:

Carl Wilson (author, Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste and blogger, Back to the World)

5pm • ALL AGES • FREE!

 

Saturday Feb. 16 @ The Great Hall Upstairs, 1087 Queen St. W.

Do Make Say Think

Evening Hymns feat. visuals by Jared Raab

Sarah Neufeld

Doom Squad

Bernice

+ DJ Max Mohenu

+ Food by FeasTO

9pm • $15 adv / $18 door • 19+

 

** IN-STORE SERIES: Sunday Feb. 17 @ Grasshopper Records, 1167 Dundas St. W. **

The Soupcans (Toronto - noisy garage punk trio / Telephone Explosion Records)

Sam Sutherland (talk by author of Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk)

4pm • ALL AGES • FREE!

 

Sunday Feb. 17 @ The Garrison, 1197 Dundas St. W.

Cookie Duster

The Magic

Henri Fabergé & the Adorables

* Legato Vipers feat. The Harlettes (surf-rock with LIVE BURLESQUE)
Cell Memory & Castle If

+ Special Guests to be announced!

Co-presented with Kazoo!

9pm • $10 adv / $13 door • 19+

 

PLUS – EVERY NIGHT FEATURES:

* Art Environment by Adrian Dilena

Projections by General Chaos Visuals

And your host, MC Doc Pickles!

 

Single night tickets $39 All-Access Passes are available online at Ticketfly.com and in stores (no pun intended) at Rotate This and Soundscapes.

Interview! Henri Fabergé

By Doc ~ Posted Sunday, February 3rd 2013

Purveyors of: 2006!
File next to: The Bicycles, Laura Barrett, Woodhands, The Rural Alberta Advantage
Plays #WL13 Sunday, February 17 @ The Garrison

Henri Fabergé, the alpha Adorable, is not a megalomaniacal hothead like his answers might suggest. In fact he is very consciously turning down the heat, going easy
on me because he can sense my softball questions mask a deeper understanding of the art behind the Adorable. I first met pretty much the whole original Adorables lineup at a drippy night at the Boat (the ceilings dripped, not the bands) when Paul Banwatt (Rural Alberta Advantage, Woodhands) asked me to emcee his birthday. All of his friends performed in various capacities. The Adorables didn't actually play – I had to wait until a Wavelength to see the full glory - but the component parts have all spun off into the world and have fertilized it with pop sensibilities and rock opera panache. This special reunion of the Adorables will be a sight to see, even before they play a song, just to see the whole who’s who of who’s who are in this band. Not all of the members will be able to attend (Maylee Todd, for one, will be out of the country), but watching the cavalcade swirl around Henri will be something to witness. Doc Pickles questions, Faberge replies.

I need to know more about your acting background. Is it acting? Is it art?

The world is a stage, as they say, and we all merely cling desperately to that stage as it barrels recklessly towards the inevitable engulfment of an angry sun. Am I putting on airs? Do I yearn to change your mind or win your accolades? I act out, certainly, and up, but never on. I perform to accompany my drink, to attract paramours, because it is a sickness. You speak of “art” as if my intentions were noble, but art is merely masturbation for fools and politicians.

It is 2004, anything is possible, everything is happening all the time, people are calling it Torontopia, everybody is going to be famous forever…. What happened?

I was never a part of your so-called utopia, and I wish you would stop calling my collection of retrobates an “indie collective.” Such nonsense. Never has there been such a petulant dictatorship, and we were only ever passing through. This glad-handing arrangement of reciprocated accolades you speak of, what truthful outcome could there be? This country of yours is a scattered shard of dishonourable colonialists, yet it purports a cult of celebrity? If you doubt that you are a passionate and clever soul with something beautiful to say, you are probably right. Abandon the pen and make my collar stays.

It is 2013, promises unfulfilled, the lingering sense that humanity's best days are behind us… what gives us hope?

A hot-blooded companion and a bottle of single malt.

If you are the universe trying to express itself through matter, what has been left unexpressed that needs expression?

I am the universe, have you not been paying attention? Mankind refuses to engage in meaningful discussion about how meaningless we are, so I'd just as well watch from afar as we fuck and fight our way out of the confused haze of this singular reality. The most I can hope for is a selfish transference of self into dark matter, preferably reborn as a small but attractive planet. I've almost had it with being a star.

Where would you rather live? Heligoland or Tomorrowland?

Heligoland... a low point in my misadventures. One does not expect a holiday resort to offer religious fanaticism and a deadly plague as recreation. Tomorrow holds nothing for me, as I refuse to adhere to the absurd notion of linear time. I shall live inwards, and sometimes outwards.

Take a moment to tell us all in an over-the-top manner how fantastic Maylee Todd is as an artist and a human being.

This is preposterous. Dress up a raving lunatic in lipstick and the whole world falls for the charade?! When I won Maynardo the Beast in a game of dice with a drug-addled poacher, I thought perhaps she might be a novel addition to my traveling sideshow. The public was unprepared for her debut “performance” — she spits, she shits, she shrieks gobbledygook and then she devours your unattended child. You want to bask in the majestic beauty of this refurbished “Maylee Todd?” Spend a month — nay, an hour — in the same carriage and see if you don't get a gouged eye as recompense for your idiotic affections.

Photo:"The Prince" shot by Carl W. Heindl

Interview! Cadence Weapon

By Doc ~ Posted Saturday, February 2nd 2013

Purveyors of: Futuristic electro rap
File next to: Dizzee Rascal, Aphex Twin, De La Soul, Edmonton
Playing #WL13 Friday, Feburary 15 @ Black Box Theatre/Great
Hall Downstairs

Cadence Weapon first played Wavelength back when we were at Sneaky Dee’s. He was a smooooth and catchy rapper who thought a great deal about all things. Soundcheck thoughts, where to sit thoughts, what to think about next thoughts. He had wheels in his head continuously turning all the time. During the intervening years he’s been Poet Laureate of Edmonton, twice nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, and currently seems to be hanging out spiritually in Montreal. Cadence Weapon has become a rap instuitionist, weaving together music and sounds into an astute observation woven into a taut package of lines and rhymes. Doc Pickles sought him out to answer some burning questions.

I have to be honest, the last time I saw you live was in 2005 at Wavelength. Since then, a lot of cool things have happened in your life, but the coolest has to be that you were the Poet Laureate of Edmonton. Did they commission poems? Wait for you to offer one? How did your opinion of your hometown change after being a Poet Laureate?

I was asked to write a minimum of three poems a year for two years and I was periodically asked to perform at different city events. It also involved me talking to schools and taking part in other arts initiatives. I’ve always been interested in the history of Edmonton and how it hasn’t been recorded very much in the past. It hasn’t been chronicled as much as New York or Montreal or wherever. When I became Poet Laureate, it was another opportunity to publically explore the history of the city. I wouldn’t say it changed my opinion, but it definitely helped me gain a more intimate knowledge of where I’m from.

Since 2005, you’ve toured the world. What’s the most disappointing thing about touring the world? What’s the most universal constant you notice about moving from place to place?

The most disappointing thing is not getting to actually spend very much time in any one place. You’re usually around for less than 24 hours and most of that time is spent inside a bar. I’ve still had some dope adventures though. The universal constant is people eating shitty food at night. Without fail, people everywhere crave greasy food after they’ve gone to the bar.

What do I need to know about Waterton Lakes National Park?

I went there as a part of the National Parks Project. I made music with Mark Hamilton and Laura Barrett in the wilderness and it was documented and aired by the Discovery Channel. Red rocks like you wouldn’t believe. Buffalo jump. Haunted hotel surrounded by water. Cool zone.

Holy shit, you have Buck 65 on one of your tracks. That’s not really a question. Do you just leave a space in the track for the “Feat.” or do you write his part?

Rich wrote his lyrics, but I came up with the concept. I wrote the music for the track and made that section different to suit the change in character from mine to his.

Your third album sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into it, but it also feels very relaxed and natural. I can’t put my finger on it, but I think you’ve changed from thinking about how words fit together around what you’re thinking about on Breaking Kayfabe - which seemed very smart and clever, and now you’re thinking a lot about the syncopation of how the sound of words together on Hope in Dirt City which seems to me to be very nimble and muscular. Are you spending your conscious thinking energy on other things?

I love words and their potential. I like to explore different ways of using words to translate ideas. But I also enjoy sculpting music. I’m constantly thinking about music. On Hope In Dirt City, I aimed for an organic sound and I was inspired by other genres of music and their processes for making it.

Do you ever over-think a song? Or is it real life things that get over-thought?

I over-think at the grocery store. I’m always looking for the perfect tomato.

Interview! Blonde Elvis

By Joe Strutt ~ Posted Friday, February 1st 2013

Purveyors of: Guitar pop for the bemusedly bitter 
File next to: Brian Eno (the pop records), Elvis Costello, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Orange Juice
Playing #WL13 Friday, February 15 @ Black Box Theatre/Great Hall Downstairs

Blondes — you may have heard this before — have more fun. Blonde Elvis is a project where Jesse James Laderoute can let down his (decidedly non-blonde) hair, making for a contrast to the tense post-punk/neo-krautrock of his other band Young Mother, who released the fabulous Future Classics LP last year. Joe Strutt sat down with Jesse to pick his brain.

What is a Blonde Elvis? And how does that name reflect on the band's sound?

The name Blonde Elvis is an effort to take the piss out of how performers
self-consciously manipulate their image to create exhilaration in their audience. Our culture, vacuous and image-obsessed as it is, deserves it. It’s supposed to be kinda funny. Also, it’s an objectively good band name.

What makes this different from the other music that you're making right now? Please answer in the form of an analogy: “Young Mother is to Carl Sagan as Blonde Elvis is to _____.”

Young Mother is to Carl Sagan as Blonde Elvis is to Christopher Hitchens.  Bitter, drunk, sarcastic and good for a soundbite.

In the live performances I’ve heard, there’s much more of a loose and rambunctious quality than in the recordings you have online. To pick out one thing, the keyboard really drives things forward. For you, is the outcome driven by collaboration or are you finding people who can implement a sound you're hearing in your head?

Well, the live band is a totally different entity than the recorded music.  I work on the records by myself and the live band is its own thing. So yes, the live band is the result of collaborating with the talented musicians in my band. Recorded music and live music aren’t intended for the same acoustic or social environment. As long as they’re both good in their own right, that’s all I care about.

You once joked that Blonde Elvis was “me trying to sound like Teenage Fanclub,” but that does comes through. I also hear a certain vein of soulful rock'n'roll played with a bit of punk intensity, like Graham Parker, or a bit of Attractions-era Elvis Costello. Both of them were known at one time as angry young men. Do you think that fits in with your
musical persona?

I’m a fan of that kind of stuff for sure, though I wouldn't say that it's necessarily what I'm going for. I’m a huge fan of Nick Lowe and I really enjoy the sound of the records he produced for Costello. I think I'd take Jesus of Cool over My Aim Is True, to be honest. It’s less angsty, and in my opinion, bemused bitterness is more interesting than outright misanthropy. [Laughs] Anyway, we’re still a young band. We’re still working it out, though I would say that largely the looseness comes from the booze we consume. Getting drunk lowers your I.Q. by 10-15 points and ritualized dumb fun is an ecstatic experience. Drinking at a loud rock show is a sacrament.

For some perverse reason the band's name makes me think of the cover of Sally Can't Dance. Have you ever thought of going for that look?

[Laughs] One of the worst album covers ever! As far as our look is concerned, we try to dress in our Sunday best. Rich (Forbes) has worn a cape at least a few times. We have only one rule: no blue jeans.

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