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Event and Artist Reviews Reviewing Events, Artist and New Releases
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Indie Week 2010 - October 13th - 17th, 2010, Toronto By Don J. Darby
This Indie Week was great for more than just alt-rock bands,
there were several different styles of music and I felt I had
some good choices. I liked the interface on Indie Week’s website; www.indieweek.com/bands,
where you click on the artist’s banner and it spins to reveal a
link to their website. I wish there were links to where and when
an artist was playing on each of the banners because it was a
bit laborious trying to plan my nights.
I was fortunate to receive a media pass to the event, which
gave me a cool laminated “Media” neck tag and a wristband
that got me into all the shows and events. The festival had
two types of performers, there were the bands that were
competing for a chance to play in Ireland and there were
special guest musicians who weren’t being judged. Bands’
scores get posted on the Indie Week website and proceed
through semi-finals and finals with a of battle-of-the-bands
feel.
There is an Indie Week in Ireland as well so there was a
showcase of Irish bands that played at The Hideout (Indie
Week’s headquarters for the festival). We get to hear Irish
bands that win overseas and they get to hear the best bands
from Toronto. There were also industry panels on Saturday,
which included a demo listening session. Overall, I found
the festival very well organized and worth the trip.
Friday,
October 15th, 2010
It took me a while to get downtown and I missed the Atlantis
Blueprint party bus from Barrie, which I intended to go on.
Parking at Kensington Market was cheap however, and I got to
stay later than expected. First, I went to Free Times Café
where I checked out
Maneli Jamal.
This was a nice surprise. Maneli’s guitar playing is as good
as Bruce Cockburn or Leo Kotke; he’s a virtuoso.
He plays
solo acoustic steel string finger style. His style is a mix
of classical and lots of different world music influences
with a hint of jazz. Neil Whitford, guitarist for Candice
Chantrell, who I met later in the evening, told me that
Maneli was in the Guitar Idol competition www.guitaridol.tv.
The back room at Free Times Café was packed full when I
arrived. This is a small room with an intimate atmosphere,
great for seeing a soloist or acoustic ensemble while
sipping a beer and eating a falafel. I managed to capture a
song on video, which I posted here:
Unfortunately I had to rush to catch
Atlantis Blueprint
at the Velvet Underground. This is a trio led by guitarist
and singer Adam Skinner with Brad Barnett on bass guitar and
Raul Ponce on drums. These guys are a solid, hard-hitting
rock trio who are exciting to watch.
They’re not alternative
rock, they’re closer to a classic rock sound with lots of
riffing and unison Bass and Guitar grooves. Adam’s vocals
remind me a bit of Cedric Bixler-Zavala from The Mars Volta
where he slips into falsetto; Adam’s register is more of a
baritone however. He sort of has a David Hasselhoff thing
going on too. Atlantis Blueprint moved on to the Indie Week
semi-finals.
I found the sound of Atlantis Blueprint translated better at
the Velvet Underground because they’re playing one
instrument each and it’s not crowded sonically. Velvet
Underground has cool atmosphere but it’s not fantastic for
sound. The sound guy kept the decibels below the pain
threshold, but the kick drum was pretty boomy.
Funny, on my way to the Velvet Underground, I got on the
streetcar with a guy who looked like he was a member of the
Black Crowes. I was standing there thinking to myself, ‘I
bet this guy is from Black Napalese’. It turned out he was
the guitarist.
Black Napalese
was pretty cool. Anyone as dedicated to growing his hair as
any of the members of Black Napalese shouldn’t turn back
from a career as a rock musician. Adam Skinner commented
that the singer sounded like the Paul Rogers from Bad
Company; I thought he sounded more like Chris Robinson. They
dressed the part too with the guitarists donning some great
outfits from the vintage store. Their guitars were cool too
– I saw what I believe is a Gibson Explorer and also a
Gibson Flying V.
I think the singer moves on stage like a
combination of Roger Daltrey and Chris Robinso. He does put
on a southern accent when speaking to the audience, which
I’m not exactly sure works for him. I also noticed the
guitarists both have Marshall heads running though half
stack cabinets to reduce ear bleeding. I find this is a
reoccurring theme in my reviews with two of the same amps,
usually Marshalls, together blending to create
mushyguitarsound.
The band has a real enjoyable sound though, sort or a
southern rock feel, a little rough around the edges but some
decent song writing from singer Liam Mackenzie, guitarist
Scotty B. Goode and bassist Chris Riel. When I spoke with
Liam after the show, he told me he met Scotty in Vancouver
and they eventually moved to Toronto where Black Napalese
was formed. Members Scott Currie on rhythm guitar and Aiden
Tranquada on Drums complete the band’s lineup.
Next I proceeded to Bread and Circus where I caught
The Breaking Lakes.
This is a four-piece band from Orangeville/Caledon
consisting of David Kalinauskas on guitars and lead vocals,
Matthew Kalinauskas on drums, Jason Masina on keys, guitars
and backing vocals and Ryan Bordihn on bass and backing
vocals.
The band’s instruments consist of a Fender
Stratocaster, a Fender Telecaster and Fender Jazz Bass with
a Roland JunoG keyboard with guitars through Orange and
Marshall combos. Good work guys for differentiating your
guitar tone.
They had their act together, working diligently to keep
their guitars in tune and performing a set that flowed well
while drawing a decent crowd of fans. The drummer played a
bit too hard for the room, but has good solid tempo. They
sound a bit like Foo Fighters meets Lou Reed.
They played a
cover of The Beatles ‘Come Together’, which was a crowd
pleaser. I couldn’t hear the keyboard from where I was
sitting for most of the set; however, when I spoke to
keyboardist Jason Masina I mentioned this and he said it was
just running through the house system.I liked their closing song ‘Sleeping Giants’ which is the
title track off their album, because the guitar crunch was
scaled back and I could hear the piano. The Breaking Lakes
proceeded to the Indie Week semi-finals.
Candice Chantrell
followed with a set of soaring, emotive vocals with acoustic
guitar accompaniment from Neil Whitford. Candice is a
Saskatchewan native who went to school for music in Edmonton
and Manitoba. Although the fans from The Breaking Lakes left
with them, a substantial audience had gathered by the end of
Candice’s set.
Candice classifies herself as Pop/R&B, but I’m not
sure whether she is positioning herself accurately. She puts
Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, Beyonce and Lauryn Hill as
some of her influences, but I hear it neither in her vocal
style nor technique. Candice has a
great singing voice and she is great with the audience;
however,
her vocal style is somewhere between pop and country. She
wants to sound like Faith Evans, but she’s going to have to
settle for Faith Hill (Is that really settling?).
Candice is
versatile and performed a sort of sensual version of ‘I
Want To Hold Your Hand,’ a sappy cover of ‘The Way I Am’
from an Old Navy commercial, and an Aretha Franklin cover
which I have posted below.
Next up was
blueVenus
who was my favourite of the bands I saw at Indie Week. Andrea
de Boer, lead singer, violinist, songwriter and band leader,
put together a great performance with Luke Roberts on
guitar, Charles James on bass, and Tony Nesbitt-Larking on
drums. In talking to Andrea after the show, it sounds like
she assembles an ad-hoc collection of great musicians to
perform her material. The sound is funky and dynamic. I
think she sounds something close to No Doubt and Morcheeba.
Their flyer from the Midpoint Music Festival Cincinnati
advertises ‘Indie Pop/Rock with Jazz and Latin influences,’
which I agree with.
I listened to the album she gave me on the way home several
times and I like it, a unique yet catchy sound. The band was
tight, with an interesting fusion of styles and
musicianship. Somehow the drummer can play a rock style
clearly and without pain to the listener despite the fact
that the band all uses hearing protection. Their sound was
balanced, without any of the instruments crowding each
other. I noticed a difference between the performance and
the CD track for ‘No Time To Waste.’
The album version is
played straight up but the way they performed it at the
show, in the section before the build up with the drums, I
heard the rhythm section doing a bit of an R&B thing. The
kick drum and bass guitar were playing syncopated, locking
together, while the vocals and the guitar were playing more
of a rock style. This was interesting to me as a listener
who likes different styles and doesn’t get confused by a
crossover of genres. I’d like to hear more stylistic
variation on the live performances of these songs.
Saturday, October 16th,
2010
Saturday I checked out the Drake Underground for a couple of
the industry panels. I caught the end of the publishing
panel and stayed to the end of the demo listening session.
This was a great opportunity for bands to have their songs
randomly selected for review by the panel. Constructive
opinions from industry people on how to make a radio hit
were shared with the artists and audience in an interactive
listening session.
In relation to my review of
blueVenus, and their fusion of
genres, there was a particular artist who had his song
reviewed at the demo listening session. The panel’s critique
addressed the song’s Country and Rock elements and they
suggested he decide which genre he is in, and stick to it. I
disagree; what about Wilco? Don’t they sell albums with
their rock and country fusion of styles? For those who get
confused about what category to put an artist in, this might
be a problem, but in my opinion, real new music is created
by the fusion of genres.
The last band of the weekend for me was
Daisy Chain
at the Bovine. Singer/songwriter
Elora Mulligan,
who also performed solo earlier in the festival, put
together Daisy Chain last April and they have played most of
the major venues in Toronto since. This post-punk girl rock
trio definitely has a good idea of who they sound like as
posted on their
MySpace: The Cranberries, The Cardigans and
The Bangles.
Elora told me that she has been writing and
performing for five years and that she also listens to Brit
rock but feels it doesn’t show in her songs. They are well
rehearsed; however, Elora needs to work on differentiating
her songs and enunciating the lyrics, as well as pitch.
Bassist Diana Filc sings unison vocal with Elora at times
and drummer Lindsay Bird keeps decent time and can spin her
drumsticks.
They were misplaced at the Bovine (long name
Bovine Sex Club), as they are two cute young girls with a
young, also cute but very punk drummer. Her mother (I
assume) briskly escorted Diana out of the venue no more than
three minutes after the performance. I’m sorry I didn’t get
to talk to you Diana, but so were the creepy guys lurking at
the back of the club doing Jäger shots.
