Reviews

Old Man Luedecke: Tender Is The Night

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/21/2012 - 12:07

True North

Somewhere between foot-stompin’ Tom Connors and a banjo pluckin’ Gordon Lightfoot lies the world of Old Man Luedecke. It’s a warm and cozy place in the Country where seldom is heard a discouraging word. Lotsa kickass banjo plucking though, on both the Appalachian and Countrified sides of the fence, igniting tunes that can start mellow and go melodically nuts.

So OML is not into re-inventing the wheel but he has some new subject matter to burn rubber on. For one big thing, the ramblin’, gamblin’ troubadour’s now a dad and new Juno winner, the kind of things that’ll bring a body in from the cold. That’s the meat on the bone here; the reflective observations of an outsider now pretty much all the way in.

In keeping with the new Countrified focus, the album was cut in Nashville with a slick production aesthetic, which augments the songs and pushes OML’s bluegrass chops to the fore. The killer track here is ‘Song for Ian Tyson’, which melds Canadian prairie country with Nashville grooves.

If that’s not change enough, the thing’s got a heavy Biblical component, which at times drowns Luedecke’s native wit and humour in its earnestness. We’re talking about ‘Long Suffering Jesus’ and ‘Jonah and the Whale’ in particular.

John McDermott and Friends at Koerner Hall (Toronto)

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/21/2012 - 10:46

Submitted by Sandy Graham

When you arrive at a John McDermott show he does the unthinkable in soft seat theatre artist behaviour – he is at the door pre-show to greet his fans. As I walked in, there he was, in comfortable clothes, wrapping his arms around various people as they walked in with their tickets in hand. Warm start before he even starting singing all the classic Christmas songs with his big Irish/Scottish lungs.

McDermott walks comfortably on stage, warmly saying hello to the audience, and giving a quick wave across the stage to his band. Right from the start, he has the audience in the palm of his hands, casually strolling the stage, leaning on a small stool, and telling great stories in between all the songs of the season.
From his rendition of Murray McLauchlan’s ‘Old Tin Star’, ‘Christmas in the Trenches’, (a memorial of the Christmas Truce of 1914) ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ all done McDermott style; with very acoustic touches made possible by his brilliant guitarist and musical director, Jason Fowler. The licks and trills are so great that McDermott quips ‘Don’t encourage him folks’. The Canadian tenor effortlessly hit the highs and the lows in his delivery of ‘Ava Maria’ as well as ‘Oh Holy Night’. All the while telling you jokes about his trials and tribulations of finding and keeping a band together.

Modern Superstitions: Modern Superstitions

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/14/2012 - 00:41

Last Gang

It’s been a great year for hard rockin’ gal shouters, with spectrum-spanning acts from Hannah Georgas to Colleen Rennison making breakout moves. Add Rosaleen Nyssa to that list, cue up the Modern Superstitions album and brace yourself. She comes out of the blocks dancing on the bar and doesn’t let up for the full three minutes and ten seconds of ‘Last Night’s Dress’. That kicks open the door to a stream of feel-good rock’n’roll stormers; ‘Bad Habit’, the poppy ‘I’m A Coward’ and centerpiece ‘Hometown Radio’ all work as showcases for Rosaleen’s power rock vocals.

Not that she can’t do sensitive; ‘Way I Want’ veers close to folk rock and girl goes all heartfelt and balladic on ‘Bandits’. With the dynamic duo of Brian Borcherdt (Holy Fuck) and Ben Cooke (Fucked Up) producing though, you aren’t coming to this album for da mellow. It’s more about the red-lining, throat-shredding vocals on ‘String To The Sun’.

This is the kind of album that blows away sub-genres with an approach and style of music that won’t disappoint anyone with an ear for a good time.

Lenny Stoute

Trent Severn: Trent Severn

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/14/2012 - 00:40

Outside

This album is sooo Canadian it should come packaged in a Hockey Lockout sweater. That’s about the only major Canadian thingee not covered by this trio of folk babes. Some of the song titles alone (Bluenose On A Dime, Like A Donnelly, Muskoka Bound, Mulroney Times) push it perilously close to the Bob and Doug parody zone.

Thankfully, the harmonizing and individual vocal chops of band members Dayna Manning, Emm Gryner and Laura C. Bates are strong enough to skate over the sometimes over the top lyrics. First and foremeost a vocal ensemble, Trent Severn, named after that famous Southern Ontario canal system and the stomping grounds of all three ladies, have opted for a sound coming out of American mountain and roots music and Canadian folk traditions.

It’s a fine format for demonstrating harmonies and the ladies make the most of the opportunity. Such as ‘Bluenose On A Dime’ , which features a neat guest shot from Joel Plaskett, ‘Wild One’ and soulful album opener ‘Snowy Soul’ are superb examples of the harmonic craft at its most engaging and down right beautiful.

The basic instrumentation of banjo, bass, fiddle and guitar with the barest colorations of other instruments makes for an effective mix, highlighted in the appropriate places by Laura Bates; inspired fiddle riffage.

Long Live Rock – The Who Townshend and Toronto

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/14/2012 - 00:32

Submitted by Bill Delingat
Photo Credits: Tracey Savein

It has been 30 years since Rock lost the Shining star of John Lennon.

Everyone knows where they were that night and he will live on through his music for generations to come. Lennon was not the only one that was taken from us all too soon. Many had passed before him; Jim Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, Dennis Wilson, Kurt Cobain. Crazy Horse Guitarist Danny Whitten as well as Neil’s personal roadie Bruce Berry was also lost at a young age and that tragedy became Neil’s first dark album and a song written called “Tonight’s the Night” as Neil lamented the loss of his friends.

Wool On Wolves: Measures of Progress

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 10:09

Independent

There have always been five songwriters toiling in Wool on Wolves but it’s taken this third album for the variety that implies to show up. The previous pair were given over to establishing a solid footing in classic folk-rock and wonderful though that is, it’s a crowded field. The Edmonton dudes have wisely chosen to step a little further down that road, while checking out a few side streets.

While song structures and arrangements lean towards more rock than folk, pop tunes and r’n’b horns show up for the crew’s partiest album to date. From the six-minute long, tension filled opener “Unsuspecting Ways” dropping into the swinging, horn-driven single ‘Midnight Avenue’, WoW serve notice this ain’t gonna be like you think.

For one thing, they’ve done a good job of dodging the pitfall of having all the songs sound the same, while managing a consistency of sound. Likewise with the song structures; word is the songs here are the product of collaborative piecings together, which smartly stick close to the band template of setting up melodic and rhythmic expectations, then doing a 180 and taking a song in a very different direction, sometimes taking yet another turn before resolution, as in ‘Unsuspecting Ways’.

No slaves to the pattern though, as they show with ‘Be The Change’, a straight up punchy rocker which surprises by being exactly that.

Hannah Georgas: Hannah Georgas

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 10:07

Dine Alone

Hannah Georgas’ debut album This Is Good having made the Polaris long list, much is expected of this follow-up. Turns out it’s not so much follow-up as sharpish left turn.The overall vibe is upbeat, more assertive, a good match with the very forward-mixed electronics. This sounds like Georgas’ shot at cutting out some space for herself on the dance floor, a huge departure from This Is Good, which didn’t much care if you liked it.

Georgas has never ducked away from being labelled a ‘confessionalist’ and this batch amplifies that stance. The kick is how easily they morph into dance floor electro-bangers. For which the lady heaps much credit on Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh for making her musical wish come through. Said wish being a mashup of her signature confessionals and catchy electropop.

While not everything is dance floor ready, she’s managed a consistency of atmosphere with room for the stuff in her rear-view mirror.

On the gorgeous opener, Elephant, she sings of fearing her fate atop heavy, druggy synths, ‘Robotic’ is killer as a showcase for her fragile vocals and the skill at which she’s making the change in direction, blending the theatrical and wistful to powerful effect.

Crystal Castles: (111)

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 10:19

Last Gang

Edgy electro pop duo ease up on the confrontation and get ready to go for the money. The end result is more shoot yourself in the foot than hit bound mainstream sound. Which is the biggest problem here; nothing wrong with changing up the sound but it's best done in small steps, unless you’re Neil Young.

That said, the team of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass is too inherently subversive to dismiss this sharp turn sideways as self-indulgence. Except for anything resembling a hook or catchy melody, everything we like about CC is here. The deep, dark conflicted electro groves, the horrific lyrics, menacing bass runs and Alice’s banshee wail are all on deck here. Just a little messed over is all.

Especially, somebody’s in love with the reverb and it doesn’t do the vocal mix any favours. A shame, since Glass’s lyrics are a big part of the CC appeal and lines about selling your bones for ivory and protecting us from all the things she’s seen are enticements for digging through the reverb for the rest.

Sonically, the manic mashups of the first two album is replaced by a more focused, more inhibited flow of beats which work well in some places ("Affection"), not so much in others ("Mercenary") and towards the end, sounds a litle same same.

The League of Notions: The League of Notions

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 10:18

Treaty Records

A joyous shambolic noise with sonic links to rock’n’roll satirists from Frank Zappa to the Barenaked Ladies, Talking Heads to Rich Aucoin. The self-described East Side guys of TLON are Corey Cosineau (gtrs, vcls), Kashiro Figueroa (bs) and Phil Hill (drms, percs, whistle, vcls) and they’re working their own little corner of the zany aesthetic like manic street preachers.

Which explains the album’s 17 tracks and its helter-skelter street party vibe. Beneath the boogie, there’s no mistaking they’re knowingly dancing in the darkness of urban disaffection. If there’s connective tissue here, this is it.

From the opening one-two of ‘The Park In The Dark’ and ‘Jar Food Man’ to the close out pair ‘Living On The Sidewalk’ and ‘Hope’, the collection’s spattered with the tears of a clown. A dancing clown.

Despite its 17 tracks, the album never overstays its welcome thanks to the speedy nature of the tunes. It’s not quite gone in 60 seconds but that aesthetic prevails. If you don’t get this one in 2.28 (average song length here) no worries, another quick tickler’s coming right along. Sooner or later you’ll hear something that’ll connect with you.

Jon Patterson: New Beginnings

Submitted by cashbox on Fri, 11/30/2012 - 10:16

Submitted by Don Graham

Singer/songwriter Jon Patterson is that warm coat on a cold day. His songs are personal accounts that everyone can relate to. He sings and writes with the voice of experience but with a touch of innocence that shows his vulnerable side and makes it easy to connect and relate to his music. To say that Jon took the scenic route to get to his first CD recorded would be an understatement but it was well worth the wait.

Jon grew up in Ontario, in the blue collar town of Oshawa, and has carved out a life consisting of music, writing and being a father to three boys. All of this has formed the man that Jon is today and a listen to his CD ‘New Beginnings’ will give a great look at that life while relating a lot of his experiences to your own. This album is well thought out, well produced and masterfully sung.

Jon’s dad was a military man so the opening cut ‘Hero’, is a natural for him to sing and write. This song springboarded Jon into the military limelight allowing him to perform at many military functions and troop gatherings. It is probably his best known tune but when you listen to the rest of the album you discover there is much more to the man.