The great concert conundrum of March 30, 2012...

I know, I know, it is super lame of me to get all in a kerfuffle about a problem so small as having to choose between two concerts on at the same time, but when those two concerts arre Library Voices (at Casa Del Popolo no less!) and Northcote (at Raw Sugar and on their last tour for a while...) its a dilemma for the ages- or at least one to make me have a major John-Green-style hands-in-hair-frustration session...

To be fair, I AM seeing Library Voices in two weeks when they come through town with Yukon Blonde, but I was really looking  forward to seeing them twice in a month (yes, they are THAT GOOD live), but when I heard Northcote was going to be playing the same night, I knew the choice I had to make... and it was definitely the right one.

The show was a part of the Junofest weekend here in Ottawa, and the first two performers were local fellas of the guy-with-guitar persuasion. The first performer (The Coastline aka the drummer from Sparrows) is just barely seventeen and a clear fan of Dashboard Confessional. That's not really a good or a bad thing, but its an inescapable comparison that just has to be made. In fact when a friend of mine asked him after the show "Hey did anyone ever tell you you sound just like Dashboard?" his face lit up and he gleefully responded "Really? They're like my favourite band! Thanks!"

Sometimes you get the odd experience of seeing someone in the midst of their creative development- that was exactly what it was like watching The Coastline perform. What do I mean by that? His songs are well written but all super short. His lyrics are perfectly 'that age' (When a friend becomes too cool to be friends with you anymore, when that girl moves away, when you're trying to decide what to do with your life...). And while his banter started off promisingly, it was clear he is used to being behind the drum kit, and not the main focus. Though embarrassing earnest, it was also increasingly entertaining- case in point: "So I asked her out, y'know just for coffee or whatever, but she didn't respond to my facebook message... oh man I am such a seventeen year old!" Definitely one of those acts I'd be really interested in seeing again in three or four years and remembering when I saw him play 'back in the day'

Next up was Cory Leveque, a bit older than seventeen, but also from Ottawa. Besides the excessive swearing (not offensive, just at odds with the rest of the evening- "Sorry 'bout all the swearing guys- I'm a construction worker, I can't help it!" he quipped) it felt like sitting around in someone's living room listening to the friend of a friend strummin' on his guitar and singin' about gals he'd lost and stuff he had to get off his chest. I'm sure this was helped along by our comfortable seats on the ancient corner-couch (Raw Sugar offers nothing if not eclectic and conformable seating!) but it was a nice relaxing sort of set, a good middle-of-the show, and chance to lean back and drink a pint before the always-energetic Northcote.

There was some discussion about whether we would maintain our comfy-couch seats for the entire evening, but all that went out the window when Matt, JJ and John took the stage. Yeah, we pretty much leapt over the table to stand in front with the rest of the small but very excited crowd.

Actually this one is from last time Northcote was in town (by blurasis)

Seeing Northcote perform live is an incomparable experience. The energy, the pervasive happiness, the raspy voice, enthusiastic drumming, and entertaining bass playing (I beat my previous record at Raw Sugar, this time getting hit with the bass guitar a total of three times) are tough to top.  The last time I saw Northcote perform, I had never heard of them, didn't know any of the songs, and still had an amazing time (one of my top five concerts of the year). We sat right up front. I got to play the tambourine. We bought both cds because we couldn't decide on one... This time was just as enjoyable, only we looked forward to it for weeks, we already knew all the lyrics, and we chatted with Matt afterward about bands from Regina, life in Victoria and Library Voices playing in Montreal. I love Elliott Brood live, I really do. They're my favourite band, they're incredibly talented, and they are some of the nicest guys I've ever met, but I'm not sure that any performer can ever remotely hope to compare to the combination of talent and friendliness that is Matt Goud.

Overall the show was fine, but Northcote's performance alone was well worth the admission price. the only bad part was that they were only able to play for an hour. I look forward to their next tour, whenever that may be, and if you happen to be lucky enough to catch them at one of their next stops or live in Victoria, you should definitely check them out. Definitely.

Parking-Lot Encores and Stunning Production...

When I was a kid we used to drive up to the cottage late at Friday nights, and after we had brought everything up from the boat and scarfed down a few hot dogs, my dad would put on the French radio station and fall asleep on the couch while we played cards on the carpet. This was a looooong time ago, but I recently rediscovered a love of French-language music, and have been slowly building my French-concert-going repertoire. I started with a Karkwa marathon at hillside last summer, and last night added Marie-Pierre Arthur to the growing list.

I first heard Arthur on CBC radio a few years ago with her single 'Pourquoi' off of her self-titled debut. I lived in Halifax at the time and despite searching several record stores was unable to locate a copy of the album. After a while I kind of forgot about her until a friend mentioned that she was coming to town. I really only knew that one song, but I had loved it so much that I jumped at the chance to see her live. Good. Call.

Not only does Marie-Pierre have an amazing voice- throaty and deep but crisp, she could make singing the alphabet beautiful- but her band members were equally talented- and entertaining! Each of them were super into their playing, but not so much that they weren't able to interact with the others and with the audience. Quite the opposite in fact. Playful banter and a post intermission (yes there was an intermission, weird but it worked, and made for an excellently long concert!) sing-off between the drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and guitar/banjo player during a rousing cover of "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Now I don't usually write about concert production unless its really really bad- I mean if the band has to stop part way through their set to help the sound-guy re-mix (Cuff the Duke at Maverick's.... yeesh!) it kind of needs to be at least touched on- but the production side of this concert completely blew me away. We walked in to the very small university-type auditorium space- not usually the ideal venue for a rock show- but the thin layer of smoke hovering in the air and the old-school speaker-cabinet-style lighting made it work. The sound quality was crazy good- clear vocals, perfect balance, enough bass to feel but not too much, crisp keys, guitar and drums, and plucky banjo- everything sounded like the way it was most ideally meant to sound. And the lighting... perfect. Rock'n'Roll but with all these little touches that just brought it all to life.... fantastic!

Despite the lecture-hall setting, the crowd was clearly in a head-bopping mood and lost no time in getting into the music. By the time the band broke out the banjo for a few folkified re-imaginings of some of their older stuff people were all but dancing in their seats (ok, ok, there were a number of us actually dancing in our seats...). Throw in a couple of audience sing-a-longs and she had us in the palm of her hand.

The second half started off with an incredibly sad ballad to a friend departed then segued into upbeat and boppy tunes like 'Emmene-moi' and 'Pourquoi' before finishing off with a powerhouse of four quick ones culminating in a huge standing ovation. Capping it all off, a grinning Marie-Pierre shouted 'meet us out in the parking lot!" before running off stage... a slightly confused audience looked at one another before quickly deciding she was serious and filing out into the parking lot. We were then treated to several acoustic sing-a-longs in the surprisingly beautiful acoustics of the concrete and pavement on an unseasonably warm March evening.

Before the show, while eating at a Thai restaurant down the street, I had a sneaking suspicion that the small brunette and overly bearded dudes at the next table might possible be the band we were about to see... It seems odd now to have been unsure of what they looked like mere hours before having them emblazoned on my brain at one of the most memorable concerts I've ever been to...

Sometimes I take mixes a liiiiiiitle too seriously...

I may or may not have spent about six hours over the past three days assembling an epic mix for my friend's thirtieth birthday. It came about in something of the following fashion:

"So I'm gonna make the cake, and pick up the beer, and turn on the Christmas lights [our 'grown-up' version of balloons tied to the front porch]... anything else you'd like me to take care of" 

"... Oh yeah, you could throw some music together, maybe a playlist or something...?"

Throw together a playlist, pshaw, who do you think I am? Someone who... just... throws together a playlist?!? I mean really....

Making a mix is a delicate and time consuming thing. Making a mix for someone else is doubly so, but making a mix for someone else's party, and a Big Birthday at that... well apparently that takes a very. Long. Time.

Step 1) Alphabetically go through my entire itunes library looking for songs my friend would like.

Step 2) Secretly rip several of her favourite CDs onto my computer and added some of those songs.

Step 3) Cull the list, removing any excessively represented bands (max of three songs per group)

Step 4)  Begrudgingly remove songs I knew were on there more for me than for her.

Step 5) "Randomize"

I don't perhaps give computers the respect they're due... manually randomizing things is near fracking impossible! Clicking on songs, scrolling down the list and dropping them wherever they happen to land, then repeating over and over and over again... yeah that was a good two hours right there.

Step 6) Song-to-song transitions

... the most important part of any mix-making venture. Sure the songs you pick are important, but having them flow properly, having the chords blend seamlessly or jar your ears in just the right way, having the right balance of boppy, slow, old, new, clear, grungy... that takes time. Three. Hours.

It may be fifteen point three hours long (in the words of my sister: "Sweet Jesus, when is she even going to have time to listen to all that!?!") , but I take my mix-making responsibilities seriously, especially when the fate of a thirtieth birthday hangs in the balance (or so I like to think)!

The Epic Detour that is making car-mixes

So I recently read Amy and Roger's Epic Detour- yes I know its YA fiction, but I am kind of on a huge YA fiction kick right now and have stopped trying to justify it because YA FICTION IS AWESOME. Seriously. Why are so many amazing authors writing for teenagers and pre-teens? Nevermind, I don't care why, I will read their books anyway and enjoy every last one of them. Ok, so maybe not every last one. maybe just the really good ones. but there are lots of them! LOTS!

Back on track here- I'm not going to tell you too much about the book, not because it wasn't excellent, but because that's not really the point of this. All you do need to know that the book is about an epic road trip which, like all good road trips, involves a lot of listening to music.and there are lists. Tracklists of the playlists. Lists of the lists. Also lots of other random ephemera that I completely fell in love with, but the lists, the tracklists!

In situations like these, the Garden State Sondtrack  situations, the High Fidelity situations, the times when you read something or watch something and its soundtrack just resonates with you you are presented with this amazing opportunity to discover a craptonn of new music, music that you not only enjoy as individual songs, but music that you enjoy as a collection, whose particular bands get to become a part of the type of music you like, not just the albums you have on our ipod. What I don't normally expect, is to see lists of music in a book populated by groups and songs I already know and love. Sure there wasn't any Elliot BROOD, but there was plenty of The Decemberists, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Sufjan Stevens, Frightened Rabbit, Pedro the Lion, Carla Bruni... not your normal run-of-the-mill bands, but also not your normal-indie-darlings either. Sure there was some The National in there, but the randomness of everything else just made me want to listen to every song in the book right then and there. Author Morgan Matson not only hit upon a musical recipe that happened to resonate with me, she was also right on in the important relationships between roadtrips and music. Music Mixes, Road Trip Mixes to be precise.

Music puts quotes on your life. Not for everyone, sure, but for a lot of people, myself included, there is something about the right song at the right moment that can make you cry, make you smile, make everything make sense in a way that few other things can. On top of that there is something about listening to music in the car, about taking the music with you, about how the relationship between the lyrics and the tune and the landscape become reciprocal... (Like how I cannot hear Graveyard Train without being transported to a five hour drive through Algonquin park having left all of my other cds securely sitting on my dresser... You wouldn't think that Australian Horror-country would make me think of the Canadian shield and fields full of cows, but now it does. Just like Snow Patrol is a tire graveyard in Cape Breton, and Eve6 means three am in the middle of the summer driving down the 404 ).

There's the pre-existing album relationships sure, but those created by the mix tape are even stronger. Because each song had to have some sort of significance to you to end up on the tape to begin with, some reason for being. And then you get to experience the changing of that relationship, the slow shift from "I loved that song Amy played at that party" to "This song is a place, is a road, is a specific time and a specific place during a drive I'll never forget."

As an aside here I'm just going to mention that I AM aware that no one makes mixtapes anymore. I realise that now its a mix CD or more often a mixed playlist on your ipod, but I am always going to call it a mixtape because thats what they are to me and thats how I approach them- carefully crafting the song-to-song transitions, the lengths of the album, balancing how many you've got of each band, each type of music, making one for keeping you awake, one for sunny days, one for the rain, one for snowstorms... I've got nothing against youngins, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I instantly have a certain level of respect for someone if I find out they grew up making actual mixTAPES.... Because its both the act of creating the mix and the process of its transformations that makes it so special.

Amy and Roger... made me want to take an epic road trip, sure, but what it really made me want to do was sit down and spend hours and hours creating new car mixes and then take them out for a stroll, listening as they shift and change and become places in my memory. What more could you ask of a song?

I tried to come up with a clever title...

...but really I just wanted to write "Man I love the Avett Brothers!!!"

Have you ever discovered a band only to somehow completely and utterly forget about them? It happens to me more often than I would like to admit (I rediscovered Paper Lions on my ipod only last week!) and it happened with The Avett Brothers just this afternoon.

I remember the first time I heard this song; I was going through a pretty crappy time. I hated living in the city,  I and I was really really missing my family and the line "Always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name" made me cry like a baby.

Likewise I felt like I was always trying to pretend that everything was fine, and it completely freaked me out that everyone seemed to think I was totally alright while I was falling apart inside. The line in Head Full of Doubt... "There's a darkness upon me that's flooded in light... and I'm frightened by those who don't see it" seemed to describe exactly how I was feeling in a way that somehow didn't make it feel worse. Also the video is absolutely beautiful.

Looking back on those two songs now seems strange, they bring back those memories, but also somehow mean something completely different to me now. "Decide what to be and go be it." Apparently I was listening more closely than I thought...

Robots!Everywhere!! Everywhere.

I've always been interested in the impact a venue/an audience/a setting has on a performance. The Kee To Bala is one of my all time favourite venues, though the Black Sheep in Wakefield is quickly catching up, and Ottawa's Raw Sugar makes every show feel like its in someone's living room... I could literally go on for pages and pages about the highs and lows of various concert-houses across the country, but today I have for you an interesting story, a case study if you will of one band, two venues. Robots!EVERYWHERE!!, everywhere.

On Family Day, instead of visiting with my actual family, I headed over to Ottawa's Gem of a pub, The Manx, to see Phil perform an acoustic set with Larissa on Glockenspiel, and my good friend Tall Josh Pruner on guitar. Phil's usual gig involves a lot of drum machine, wonderfully messy guitar, and homage to B.A. Johnson- there was of course the presence of B.A.'s ghost in the form of a brilliant cover of 'My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo' but overall in the cozy basement pub, was more of a low key affair. It was great to hear Phil's always-entertaining lyrics, and watch the three friends just have fun Playing Songs.  I have always been a fan of loud punk music, but as I've gotten older I've also developed a taste for checking out the acoustic versions of the songs, taking a moment to really hear the lyrics in their entirely before hearing their quicker and messier cousins. I'm a lyrics gal, and understanding the words the singer is singing always makes me like the song more. With such gems as "I like talking to strippers like I'm a hockey player" Robots!EVERYWHERE!! is certainly no exception.

Last night, however, I caught Robots!EVERYWHERE!! in his natural habitat, as it were: Maverick's. You may remember me mentioning Maverick's as the worst venue in Ottawa (an exaggeration, I'm sure, but not a very far stretch) but I will admit that some bands just belong there. Not belong in that they are horrible, and so belong in a horrible venue- rather the opposite! They seem to fit there in a way that makes the venue itself better, that they make Maverick's somehow make sense. Cuff the Duke does that in a way that baffles and amazes me every time, and Robots!EVERYWHERE!! did a fantastic job of the same type.

I enjoyed the acoustic show, but this is clearly where you should experience Robots!EVERYWHERE!! In his full B.A. Johnson-style glory Phil sped through song after hilarious song (accompanied by enthusiastic audience sing-a-longs), performed numerous costume changes (continuously egged on by the self-same audience to "take it off!!!"), and played several super-speed encores.

Sometimes when you see a band do an acoustic set its like a while different group, it sounds nothing like them and you come away either disappointed, or wishing they always played acoustic. Other times you just wonder who the hell this is, and how they are even remotely related to their normal incarnation. With Robots!EVERYWHERE!! it was neither of these- Phil fit the music to the venue and to the audience without sacrificing anything of the Robots!EVERYWHERE!! experience.


Excellent job Sir, keep up the fine work.


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If you are a fan of entertainingly hilarious pop-indie-punk you should definitely check out Robots!EVERYWHERE!! for free!