The Cadillac Lounge was almost exactly what I had imagined. Hubcaps lined the stage, Elvis photos and leopard print sheets adorned the walls and a beer tap made out of a guitar head turned out drinks. The owners were certainly swinging for the blues-rock bar fences. It was a cool vibe for a music venue.
McMaster’s own Of Gentlemen and Cowards made the trip down to the Lounge on Thursday evening for their first time playing at the famed Canadian Music Week. The annual CMW is an exposition of over 1000 artists in 60 venues throughout downtown Toronto and brings together all of the major (and minor) players in the industry. Needless to say, if you’re an up-and-coming band or simply want to get into the scene, this week is of paramount importance for that next step.
Of Gentlemen and Cowards were in the opening slot, set to start off a night of five bands. After a quick sound check, Simon Edwards (vocals/guitar) arrived in an impressive fashion, stepping into the Lounge 40 minutes before set time directly off of a flight from Texas. He jumped right into band mode and prepped outside with the others with vocal exercises. A small crowd had gathered by the bar for the 8 p.m. start.
They got right to it, launching into “Save Me,” the track they performed this past fall on the Late Show with David Letterman. Midway through, the song dropped into its breakdown with a driving guitar solo from Christian Fedele (lead guitar/vocals) and the show’s intensity was kicked into gear. Following that was the fantastic upbeat groove of “Rum & Coke.” The transition between songs was notably smooth on stage. Edwards addressed the crowd several times, thanking CMW and everyone who came out, and John Dawson (bass/vocals) recounted the story of Edwards’ narrow arrival to the venue.
The band played a total of eight songs which covered a mix of their recorded material, unreleased tracks and a cover of “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” by Blue Rodeo. The tail end of the set ended things off strongly with the catchy showpiece “Paper Planes,” the set-staple “One of Those Days,” complete with an impressive call-and-response harmonica and guitar solo jam, and lastly the expansive “Weatherman Blues.” The latter was as huge as it always is live, with masterful instrumentation, a bridge of “So now let’s let the rain fall” and a string of soaring solos at the end. A special mention goes to Jake Warren (drums) for an impressive job of maintaining the set’s heightened energy and for leading the charge into well-executed transitions from song-to-song.
The entire performance was a well-calculated crescendo of momentum that built to a climax and elicited worthy applause and cheers at its end. This was one of the band’s finest sets to date. With graduation within the member’s sights and new recordings to be released soon, this summer is going to be a big one for Of Gentlemen and Cowards.
By: Lucas Canzona
Following the release of their widely successful Record in a Bag in 2009 and subsequent extensive tour schedule, indie-rockers Hollerado present their latest offering, White Paint, to much anticipation in the Canadian music circuit.
The band has come to be known for their do-it-yourself approach and endearing touches on everything they call their own, including a hand-drawn website, an album filled with confetti and other goodies, a Twitter that churns out horse facts and an obsession with nachos.
Formed in 2007 and originally from the town of Manotick, Ontario, the band is made up of four best friends since childhood: Menno Versteeg (vocals, guitar), Nixon Boyd (guitar, vocals), Dean Baxter (bass) and Jake Boyd (drums). White Paint was put out on their own Royal Mountain Records, which is also home to the Toronto-based Topanga.
White Paint shows a band that is all-grown up but still knows their sound. Right from the start of the opening track, “Wonder, Velocity, Charlie and Me,” things are distinctly Hollerado-esque with spaceship samples and soaring group vocals proclaiming the vastness of the world. Both guitarists’ work on hooks is evident through the entire album.
“Lonesome George” stands out as an example of the band’s fine storytelling work, recounting the last days of the only remaining Pinta Island tortoise. (The track was previewed when the real Lonesome George passed away.) The use of narrative is also present on “I Want My Medicine,” an ode to a man who painfully sells his record collection to fund pharmaceuticals in the hope that he will live another day.
A favourite for me on the record is “So It Goes,” a high-energy track Versteeg wrote about his grandfather’s experience during WWII. Captured by Germans, he claimed to be a horse doctor even though he knew nothing about the trade. He would either hope the horses recovered on their own or proclaim they were beyond saving. Upon being found out, his life was spared by a sympathetic German soldier for whom he later testified at Nuremberg regarding his kindness. Such stories often accompany new tracks throughout Hollerado’s live show.
Despite the new lyrical maturity, White Paint is still musically fun and danceable. Guitars soar and charge through the choruses, and solos are pulled out on a few tracks. A special mention goes to the rhythm section of drummer Jake Boyd and bassist Dean Baxter for providing a fresh foundation to build on. White Paint is raw in the right ways but solid enough for a sophomore release. This is a band that loves what they do.
By: :Lucas Canzona
The evening of Sunday Feb. 17 a homecoming of sorts took place in downtown Hamilton. 227 people eagerly flooded into This Ain’t Hollywood to see Arkells play their first hometown show in over a year. The show was a secret one only announced on Friday morning, and proceeds benefited Boys and Girls Clubs of Hamilton. It was sweaty, loud and passionate show - everything the band has come to be known for.
The show was dubbed “a celebration of downtown Hamilton,” and as such, tickets were only available in hard-copy from downtown icons Dr. Disc and Cheapies Records. As if there was any doubt in the show’s buzz, it sold out in less than 15 minutes. Thanks to a break in classes, a spur-of-the-moment decision and a dash across Main to catch a bus, I managed to get my hands on two of them.
New Hands, young natives of - you guessed it - Hamilton, were chosen to warm up the crowd just after 10 p.m. Their new-wave indie-rock goodness got plenty of heads bobbing and rightfully garnered some new fans. Midway through their set, vocalist Spence Newell asked, “So who’s excited to see Charlemagne?”, eliciting a few cheers and laughs from fans who knew Arkells’ former moniker back from their McMaster days.
The headliners were introduced by the amiable venue owner Lou Mollinaro, with a short story about booking Charlemagne when they were just a fledgling quintet. Mike, Max, Nick, Tim and Anthony followed to take the stage to overwhelming cheers. Here was a band who, just four days prior, had opened for Canadian heavyweights The Tragically Hip at a sold out ACC, playing to 13,000 people. After the show frontman Max Kerman told me what the change in audience was like: “tonight was much more fun. And more sweaty, too.”
They got right to it: launching into “Tragic Flaw,” a song that has been around since their Deadlines EP, followed by the infectiously-cheerful “Michigan Left” and 19 other songs that spanned almost their entire catalogue. The band’s raw, energetic, soulful sound was proudly and loudly exhibited.
Picking highlights for a show that cemented itself as the best you’ve ever been to is difficult, but my standouts are: “Abigail” (and its necessary ode to the Jackson Square food court), “Oh, the Boss is Coming!”, “Ticats Are Hummin’”, “Where You Goin’” and a cover of the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah”. Max constantly exhibited his impressive stage presence, talked about the HSR and sung a verse of “Whistleblower” with me.
The show’s encore saw New Hands and some venue staff on stage for two covers; the crowd-pleasing, dance-inducing “Book Club”, where the audience contested Max for the loudest singing of its retrospective lyrics and Hamilton name-drop; and lastly a send-off with John Lennon, an ode to nights at McMaster and living in Westdale, among other things.
The audience danced through the entire set. The sober people sang, the drunk people sang, and genuine smiles flashed across the faces of the five as they played their hearts out.
It all started not so long ago. Arkells met through a collective love of music and an ambitious dream to make it their jobs. They got kicked out of the basement of Woodstock for jamming too loudly. They lived in student houses. They took courses, wrote papers and did and didn’t go to class. They named themselves after the Westdale street where a couple of them lived and rehearsed. They devoted endless hours to their craft and weathered the early struggles it brought. A change of keyboardist didn’t slow their momentum. Today it seems they’ve figured out what works: talking to fans after shows, sending out signed postcards at Christmas, interacting through social media, releasing surprise recordings and collaborations.
Arkells have had quite an evolution since the 2006 McMaster Campus Music Explosion. Guitarist Mike DeAngelis explained his initial hopes for the band: “I didn’t have big expectations at first. Back then I just wanted to open for another band at the Casbah, that’s it. When Max called me and told me we got a spot doing that, I couldn’t believe it. I thought I couldn’t do it.”
Even with their seemingly-endless tour schedule which has brought them across continents and a fan base that has quickly multiplied, Arkells are always quick to acknowledge their humble roots and be grateful for where they’ve risen to. They have proudly taken on the role of Hamilton’s rock ambassadors while hitting new stages and crafting new material. Even though each is originally from another city, the band was born in Hamilton, and they’ll undoubtedly continue to tell that to the world. Their tenacity and ambition has garnered them their deserving success, past, present and future. If you weren’t aware of it yet, the future of this band is definitely something to watch.
Lucas Canzona
It’s that time of year again. Sure, I partially mean winter, because the depths of a truly Canadian season are upon us and many are finding themselves longing for the warm days of a past that seems a distant memory. But really, the coldest days of our year bring with them a time when social media becomes saturated weekly with the multitudinous announcements of summer music festivals to come. Eager fans might welcome the announcements as a chance to scour press releases for their favourite acts, but others see it all as an overly-commercialized fight in a crowded market.
It’s true that music festivals have exploded to gigantic proportions in the past while. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for instance, saw 10,000 people attend its inaugural event in 1999, while 2012 saw the festival’s first weekend’s 240,000 tickets sell out in under three-hours’ time. It really does seem that every major city and every music genre today has its own festivals to celebrate and capitalize on its market of music lovers. Toronto alone is host to an innumerable number of festivals, from the multi-day, multi-venue North By Northeast to the bro-step pull of VELD to the big rock headliners of Edgefest. New on Toronto’s plate this year is Field Trip Festival, which is being spearheaded by the ambitious Arts & Crafts record label to celebrate its 10-years of existence and give its artists a venue to be showcased. Headlining Field Trip will be Broken Social Scene, for whom the gig is a one-off since the indie-rockers are reuniting especially for it.
The diversity of music festivals that presently exist is unprecedented, especially considering how unique the idea of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was in 1969. That infamous event proved to be a turning point in rock music history, as 500,000 concert goers descended on a piece of farmland in Bethel, New York to celebrate “three days of peace, love and music.” Subsequent large-scale events followed when people realized the untapped potential, monetarily and socially, of huge music gatherings. Pioneers of the movement that have expanded exponentially to prominent names today are Perry Farrell’s Lollapalooza that takes place in Chicago and Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival. Other names have emerged and garnered their own piece of the market share, such as Bonaroo, Outside Lands, Sasquatch and Austin City Limits. Most interestingly, a festival exists for very specific types of bands in the town of Fucking, Austria. Since 2000, the Festival of the Fuck Bands has welcomed several North American natives including the likes of Fucked Up, Holy Fuck and Starfucker. It takes place over three days and aims to give “fuck” bands a stage for their music and encourage discussions on free speech and looking beyond labels.
Whether you’re looking for a new experience in your home town or your eyes are glued to Osheaga’s twitter for the first mention of your favourite songwriter, here’s hoping that you can find the festival that’s right for you.
Lucas Canzona
Passion Pit’s earliest roots stretch back to 2007, when frontman Michael Angelakos produced a Valentines mixtape of songs for his girlfriend. The recording, Chunk of Change EP, turned into some low-key live performances with the vocalist singing alongside his laptop. Later, at the behest of his friends, this turned into a full band that sang at several well-known Boston venues. Passion Pit’s success came quickly. Keyboardist/guitarist Ian Hultquist sums it up: “It was actually really scary how fast things were rising for us, even though it was on a small scale ... When Jeff and Nate [bassist and drummer] joined, it really started feeling like a band … everything just felt complete.”
The origin of the group’s name stems from a piece in Variety magazine that dubbed drive-in movie theatres “passion pits” because of “their privacy and romantic allure for teenagers.” The aforementioned vibe is felt strongly across Passion Pit’s newest release, Gossamer, especially through the duration of tracks like “Constant Conversations,” where Angelakos’s rhythmic crooning is backed up by layers of lofty harmony and a chorus of whoa-oh-ohs. “I’ll Be Alright” offers the quintessential wall of synthesized pop that the band has come to be known for, while “Take a Walk” and “Hideaway” sound summer-festival-ready. The choruses in “Cry Like a Ghost” are drawn-out and have a distinct shoe-gaze feel to them.
Lyrically, Gossamer is potent, heavy and personal, but it’s easy to turn your mind away from the stories and get lost in all the synth-heavy layers. The songs explore issues ranging from alcoholism to self-worth and mental illness. They provide a narrative for being lost in an overly-stimulated society. “Love Is Greed” put me in a pensive state with the lines “love is just greed / it's selfish and it's mean / you follow or you lead.” Angelakos talked about love in a post-release interview, saying “On a literal level, love does not make sense, but that's what makes it love."
If Chunk of Change audibly resembled an atmospheric ode to a girl and the band’s sophomore release, Manners, sounded like the product of a young, ever-restless mind, then Gossamer presents itself as an introspective hook-laden masterpiece. This record is grown-up yet youthful, methodical yet chaotic. The quintet was able to distill much of its brilliantly upbeat attitude into this recording which went on to peak at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart and #4 on ANDY’s top 10 list.
By: Lucas Canzona
