Nuit Blanche : Guelph Style

Last night was a busy night for taxi drivers. Not only was it Orientation week, it was also the Jazz Festival AND Nuit Blanche and just as an added bonus, it was also a full moon! Downtown Guelph was packed with students, artists and patrons of the arts all taking in the vast array of entertainment.

There were free music shows all day and all night at the Jazz Festival Tent, as well as in various locations around downtown. There was funk in an alley, a brass band in the square and improvised jazz in City Hall. The art installations were also at least as good as anything I saw in Toronto's Nuit Blanche last year. A drum set being played by water dripping from IV bags, paper butterflies hanging in trees by the water's edge, and a video showing how children see the world accompanied by apples and penguin crackers for snacks. Even the gimmicky stuff was cool - an advice booth, an artist drawing portraits through verbal description alone, and fire-breathing buskers.

It was quite a spectacular night to behold and though I wasn't able to do or see everything, I was constantly entertained and amazed by the creativity coming from this great city. I greatly look forward to next year's round of installations and who knows, I might even join in!

Hollerado

The most energetic show I experienced at Hillside was Hollerado. I was still on a high from seeing Mother Mother and I drifted into the Island stage tent in which an unimaginable amount of people packed themselves. They were packed in like sardines. People were standing on picnic tables which gave the illusion of a sea of people frozen in mid-wave. It was beautiful.

The music was energetic and the musicians were putting their all into it. It was a zillion degrees, everyone was sweating and dancing and having a great time. Massive glowing orbs bounced around the crowd and at one point a confetti canon was set off. It was magical. It helped that I was a bit tipsy as well....

At the show, they did a rehashing of Amy Winehouse's Rehab to commemorate her death, which was either the same day or day after it was announced. They also covered The Bird is the Word, which was surprisingly amazing.

The album Record in a Bag is a great party album, especially the song Juliette. I also really enjoy Americanarama, Fake Drugs and Hard Love. Solid band to listen to with an incredible vibe. Fantastic.

Paper Lions

Paper Lions played at the same time as Common Grackle at Hillside and therefore I didn't get to listen to as much as I would have liked of either. Since the show however, I have listened to Paper Lion's album, Trophies, and decided that I very much like it. There's quite a few good songs from that album. I suggest looking up Mr Strawberry Man and Travelling

They're pretty hipster, like many bands that were at Hillside with a strong rock influence. Electric guitar, drums, bass, vocals...pretty typical make-up for a rock band and it works quite well. Their songs are bouncy and have a habit of sticking in your head long after the last chord has been strummed.

Common Grackle

While I was lying in a tent with my friend at Hillside, we looked through the band guide and read aloud the more interesting descriptions. One of them was for a band called Common Grackle in which several somewhat conflicting genres were said to have been fused together to create their music. After reading it, we decided we had to check them out and see just how it all meshes together.

Unfortunately we didn't stay too long since there were several talked-about bands at that time to go see, but the few songs we listened to were pretty awesome. A little rockabilly, with a modern hipster twist and some questionable lyrics, strange I know, but the tunes were delightful and catchy. I since looked them up on Youtube and now I feel the need to learn to play At The Grindcore Show.

*For some reason the video won't cooperate*

Mother Mother

I missed a fair bit of Saturday at Hillside, but I made sure to come for Mother Mother. This is the band that I was absolutely the most excited to go see. I listened to their previous two albums quite a lot over the past year and couldn't wait to see how their live performance compared to their recorded music.

First off, if you haven't heard of Mother Mother, take a listen to (at least) their title tracks for the last two albums, Touch Up and O My Heart. Extremely catchy music that you just want to dance to. Honestly, I don't even care what it's all about or what the music is really saying. It's damn good music and I would listen to it even if it was telling me to hate the world and murder everyone. Which isn't at all what it's all about, but you get the point.

They just released their new album, Eureka, and I highly recommend it. I've been listening to it since Hillside, along with a few other albums, and so far I think my favourite song is My Baby Don't Dance, but all of the songs are awesome. This band just continues to go above and beyond my expectations.

They're very hipster and remind me a little of the B52s with the crazy female vocals and just the style of singing in general. However, it wasn't until I saw them live that I realized how phenomenal of a voice Jasmine Parkin has. Just incredible. The other thing that particularly impressed me was their outstanding showmanship. Many bands sound less good live because if you make a mistake, you can't erase it and do it over like you could in a recording studio. This is not the case with Mother Mother. They're a very tight band who know how to put on a good, flawless show. I didn't notice a single mistake, their sound levels were good and the transitions between songs were seamless. If you can get out to see one of their shows, I absolutely recommend that you go see them. I had high expectations for Mother Mother and they delivered!

Hillside

I will soon be posting about the different bands I saw at Hillside with a little more detail, but I wanted to write an overall post to prove that I didn't fall into a hole and get captured by gypsies.

First of all, I've got to say that volunteering is the way to go. You only pay $18, donate 12 hours of your time and in exchange you get full Hillside access, free food and a place to camp with other lovely volunteers. It's an incredible sense of community and fellowship while volunteering as well. You've all got the same bracelets and thus can easily recognize other volunteers, which greatly simplifies friend-making because you can always open with "So, what's your volunteer job?" and suddenly you're friends with William Lyon Mackenzie King's great great grandson and he's juggling an apple, a felafel and a cup for your amusement.

Also, the performers eat where you eat, and in a couple cases, camp where you camp. But no one goes all fan-crazed and stupid. Everyone remembers that musicians are people too, not superheros or rare magical creatures like we would all like to believe. You might get to talk to your favourite bands and realize just how much cooler and dynamic they are than you had initially thought.

Even if you're not volunteering though, there is just so much going on all at once and it's ALL amazing! There are cool workshops all day where you can meet fabulously talented people and have them teach you a new skill or introduce you to a new way of doing things. All the while, every stage has something cool going on. There are jam sessions between bands from all genres and you're guaranteed to hear something you've never heard before. There was a person who's instrument was a chain that they hit with a hammer, rhythmically.

Beyond the incredible workshops and mind-blowing music, there's a wide array of artists and vendors selling things that you'd never dreamed existed and all the food is great. But more than anything else, the best part of Hillside is the people. Everyone is happy and open to making friends. You feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself and far more meaningful. Everyone feels like a cousin or a neighbour and, in some cases, brothers and sisters.

I can't wait to write more about the bands that really struck a chord with me. There were a bunch!

Dear Henry

I just finished writing a song inspired in part by that old comedic song "There's a Hole in My Bucket" except that in my song, Henry and Liza are at a breaking point in their relationship where they're very hurt, but trying to make it work anyway. And it most certainly is not comedic. Henry was unhappy and cheated on Liza, but they're trying to work through it. Very touching. If I had it recorded, I would post it...but I live in the stone age computer-wise.

Restored

The past couple days have been all about fixing my guitars. The acoustic's neck was inching away from the body, making the action ridiculously high which in turn made it difficult to play higher up on the fretboard. We fixed it by putting some heavy duty carpenter's glue in the crack and then tightening it to the body with a ratchet strap. After a day of drying and the addition of new strings, it's good as new!

The electric appeared to have troubles with the circuitry, but when we opened it up, nothing seemed amiss. So we screwed everything back into place and it worked again like new! Turns out it just had a few screws loose. I suppose it's not just dogs that mimic their owners, eh?

So now I've got two working guitars, a mic and a keyboard! I still need a mic stand and preferably a second amp, but that'll come. All in good time. I'm kind of hoping now that when friends come over, we can all try to play together. Wouldn't that be fun?

It may sound silly, but restoring those guitars, especially my electric for some reason, makes me feel like I'm alive again. Not that I was feeling particularly dead before, but it's like waking from a sleep that felt very real and you realize 'Now THIS is real!'.

I'm Back, Baby

Back in my glory days a number of years ago, I went on a mad song-writing spree and wrote enough songs to make an album, and they weren't too bad either if I do say so myself. The plan was to save up some money and get myself to a  recording studio to make an album that I could then sell at shows (because obviously people would just want me to sing for them once I had an album). Sadly, university happened and my plans to save money to record an album were taken from me...for tuition.

I more or less gave up on my dreams and studied like my life depended on it. Having just graduated, I can now recognize my folly. There was no need to study that hard. A 70 would have sufficed, there was no need to make the Dean's list every semester (except for my irrational needs). I could have spent that time becoming a pop superstar...or a psychologist popstar.

Now that I have copious amounts of time to kill while waiting for employers to call me and tell me I have an interview, I've slowly been bringing music back into my life. Well, maybe not slowly as I joined a band before school ended and recorded a bunch of my songs for the whole world (read: for a couple friends and immediate family) to hear. But I was still nervous about one thing in particular: would I still be capable of writing music after all this time?

The answer: YES! I didn't think I had it in me anymore, but it turns out I do. I wrote a song today...mind you, it's not really totally done, but done enough to say I wrote a song. Like, a  few verses and a chorus with music. And what's more, I actually like it. It's simple and captures a feeling that I often have - not wanting to get out of bed when it's rainy outside. Ok, so that sounds lame, but I swear it's good. You'll see. You'll all see.

Adventures in Abandoned Factories

A few weeks ago, I was on Kijiji looking for a job and decided to check out the community musician section of the site. After sifting through a bit of the posts, I happened upon a band looking for a female singer. Intrigued, I clicked no it to read further.

Their criteria was that you had to like Tom Waits, Billie Holiday and the Ramones. I like all those things...but could not for the life of me figure out a cohesive way to integrate those styles. So I emailed them gushing about my love for Tom Waits, old jazz and a variety of other styles.

A day or two passed and I received an email back. They wanted to have an audition/jam session at night time and gave me the address of a part of the city I'd never been to before. I Googled it so I knew where I was going, and it seemed alright. Close to bus stops. Walking distance to downtown. The email was sent by, I kid you not, Zoltan.

Upon reading that name, all I could think of was that bad teen movie Dude Where's My Car? in which there's a creepy group of nerds in bubble wrap suits who enthusiastically yell ZOLTAN! to pay respects to their alien leader.

In the meantime, I was given a few songs to learn so we could 'jam'. I'd never jammed before...this was a foreign concept. I wrote music quietly in my kitchen by myself...sometimes I sang in the shower. But it was always a solitary thing. I was once in a band...but we only played one song and it was really awkward and weird. I was pretty nervous.

So the day came when I would be jamming with Zoltan. I got into a bus that I'd never gone on before, got off at what I thought was the right stop (it wasn't) got momentarily lost and then was able to get back on track. Looking around I noticed that though I may live in the West ghetto where everyone lives in a crappy apartment building where people do crack in the parking lot, this was definitely the East ghetto where everyone lives in a run-down house that has plastic wrap instead of windows and old, rotting 2x4s instead of lawn furniture. Finally I got to my destination and noticed that the building looked very much abandoned.

After a few minutes of peering in dusty windows and trying to open the locked doors, Zoltan showed up. Turns out he's from the former Yugoslavia so the name makes a wee bit more sense. He showed me inside the building, which was an old abandoned factory, and I met the other band member: Brian. Then I made the mistake of asking where the bathroom was. Zoltan looked around and laughed a bit nervously. He mentioned something about talking to the guy that owns the place and how it needs to get worked on. When we arrived at the bathroom, I was a little horrified. It looked like a prison cell, but dirtier than you'd expect a prison cell to be. Like, if they were in the process of destroying a prison cell. But I had drank excessive amount of water because I was nervous and wanted my voice to be in good condition. I had to pee.

I will leave out the gory details, but I'll just say this. I am never going to drink any amount of liquid before band practice.

After the bathroom incident, I was able to keep it together enough to go through with the jam session and it was incredibly fun. I was nervous, and that negatively impacted my abilities, but they seemed to think I was still good enough so now I guess I'm in a band. A band that practices in an abandoned old factory at night in the East ghetto, with Zoltan and Brian, the two most juxtaposed names in existence.

Schizophrenia

Do you ever find yourself liking things for ridiculous reasons? I decided I loved the song Schizophrenia by Jukebox the Ghost (incredible band by the way) but...despite the song actually being really really good, I think I like it that extra little bit solely because it's entitled Schizophrenia, a major psychiatric disorder/disease that is of particular interest considering I am a psychology major.

Jukebox the Ghost manages to create a sound that almost perfectly matched my conception of the disease. I've never been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but I imagine if I did, I'd feel pretty cracked out a lot of the time and extremely conflicted. Now, because of my lack of diagnosis, I can't tell you it's accurate...though I do know a few people I could ask...BUT either way, it's a wonderful song and I highly recommend you take a listen.

One piss-off though: I'm Canadian, and despite being on tour with the Bare Naked Ladies, which are hugely popular in Canada, I couldn't find a tour date for Toronto. Tsk tsk.

So, dear reader, have you ever discovered you liked something mainly because of some more or less insignificant detail?