Photograph by Vanessa Heins
It’s been a busy few years for Hey Rosetta!, Newfoundland’s premier indie music export. They’ve become a fixture on the Polaris Prize shortlist and toured their ambitious Can-rock virtually non-stop, though judging by their multiple sellout crowds at the cavernous Phoenix in Toronto this week, the country is still in the mood to hear more. In that spirit, I joined frontman Tim Baker and cellist/guitarist/utility outfielder Romesh Thavanathan on one of the band’s rare days off for a traditional Toronto burrito lunch. Read on if you’ve ever wondered about the hidden gems of the St. John’s music scene, or how to start a rock band without owning an electric guitar, or what kind of burrito a true Newfoundlander enjoys.
Hey Rosetta! – Yer Fall
Hey Rosetta! – Welcome
Josh: First things first. What kind of burritos did you get, and why?
Romesh Thavanathan: I got the large halibut, because I’m a baller.
Tim Baker: I got the small halibut, because I’m not a baller, or at least less of a baller.
Josh: With a couple days off in Toronto before your next show, what are you getting up to?
Both: Recovery. [Laughs]
Tim: It’s been a long run and a long time since we’ve had any days off. I think the last time we had a few was a month and a half ago, when we got to Australia.
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Photograph by Chris Graham
Who are Library Voices? They are a seven-piece pop group from Saskatchewan whose new album Summer of Lust should be popping up on a number of Best of 2011 lists. They are fun-loving literary types who will probably kick your ass at shot chess. They write with one foot in the 1960s and the other in the not-too-distant future. In short, they’re a bit like Vampire Weekend, except that they’re Canadian and don’t give you a mild urge to punch them in the face.
As they endeavour to spread their name (memorably misremembered by a friend-of-a-friend as “The Shushing Librarians”), the live act should help. Library Voices bring serious weapons-grade energy to every show. Eoin Hickey-Cameron (above: top centre), for example, isn’t a bassist out of Central Casting lurking in the corner in a hoodie. He’ll jump up on a monitor or kick drum, get soaked with sweat by the end of the third song, trade stupid faces with the sax player, flop his hair back and forth like a really gross shampoo commercial—and there are seven of these guys. The notoriously dance-averse Horseshoe crowd at their recent Toronto show even showed moments of bopping and swaying, if not, you know, actual dancing.
I sat down with 28.6% of the band, namely songwriter/synth player Mike Dawson and guitarist Brennan Ross (above: far right and far left, respectively), to talk about audiobooks and how to get kicked out of one’s apartment.
Library Voices – Generation Handclap
Library Voices – If Raymond Carver Were Born in the 90′s
Josh: How’s the tour been so far?
Brennan Ross: It’s great. It’s hard to really tell when it started—it’s been sort of perpetually going on. We went out to Victoria and Halifax and back, we’re starting to go into the States.
Josh: How do you find it touring in the States as a Canadian band?
Mike Dawson: It’s sort of like starting over. We’ve been feeling really well accepted when we meet people down there, when they discover our band, but people aren’t aware. In Canada people are a little spoiled because having access to bands from the States is second nature. They might as well be from down the road. It’s not the case the other way round—because there are so many incredible bands in the States, they’re not always so aware of what’s going on in Canada. So in that capacity it sort of feels like a first tour sometimes, building crowds and meeting people, sleeping on the floor at the sound guy’s house. With his six roommates. But it’s awesome. It helps you keep yourself in check.
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Over the course of their 23-year career, leather clad Japanese trio Guitar Wolf have managed to release 23 consistently grimy punk rock albums (including one which claims to be the loudest ever recorded), toured the world 10 times over, and starred in a cult horror film where they battle zombies from outer space. The band plays a unique, over-the-top brand of punk which they call “Jet Rock ‘n’ Roll”, a sound inspired by ’70s power chord punk played at excessively loud volume. Guitar Wolf has a reputation for playing some of the wildest shows in Japan, but now they’re touring North America with a few Canadian dates, playing Toronto and Montreal earlier this week and Vancouver next Wednesday, May 25. Prior to the start of the tour, I was scheduled to catch up with band in Nagoya, Japan, only to have that meeting fall apart following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Thanks to the magic of the internet, I was still able to get in touch with Seiji, leader of the pack.
Aleks: How would you describe the music of Guitar Wolf?
Seiji: Motorcycles, leather jackets, space, and SEX.
Aleks: Where have you drawn influence from?
Seiji: Bruce Lee and Elvis. I just wanted to do cool action like them on stage.
Aleks: Were there any bands like Guitar Wolf in Japan when you started out?
Seiji: There was no such band like us!
Aleks: Were you well received by audiences in Japan back when you first began playing?
Seiji: We were too crazy. Not a lot of people came to see us when we started the band.
Aleks: Your first record, Wolf Rock!, is very lo-fi, very raw. I read that it was recorded mostly in a basement with almost no recording equipment. Is that true?
Seiji: It was recorded in a practice studio. Most of the songs were recorded with a 4-track cassette tape and for some songs we even used a Walkman.
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Photograph by Nick Helderman
As a fan of one-person music projects and guitars layered with lyrics of love, Montreal-based Miracle Fortress dovetailed perfectly into my music collection. The summer of 2007 was bathed in the melodies of Five Roses, a beautifully dense album which made it on our list of top 20 Canadian albums from the aughts. When Van Pelt returned to Toronto in March for Canadian Music Week, the difference was striking. Accompanied by a drummer and effect lighting, he provided a danceable live preview of Was I the Wave?, his second full-length, released on April 26 by Secret City Records. I recently spoke with Graham over a static-ridden Skype connection about his new album and old influences.
Miracle Fortress – Raw Spectacle
Miracle Fortress – Maybe Lately
Sabrina: It’s exciting that you have some new material coming out; we haven’t heard from Miracle Fortress in a couple of years. In the hiatus, you have been doing a lot of touring and recording with Think About Life. What’s the future looking like for that band?
Graham Van Pelt: We’ve been working on a new record; we’re in the recording phase now, just getting some songs mixed. The group has been writing pretty steadily for a couple of years since Family.
Sabrina: I read that you deliberately avoided any influence of music from after 1980 while recording Five Roses. Immediately upon listening to Was I the Wave? it seems like you have turned full circle on that quest.
Graham: Wouldn’t a full circle mean that I’m still the same?
Sabrina: This is true. I guess I should say a semi-circle. Do you feel like it was an active decision to change your approach?
Graham: It definitely was not an active choice to focus on any particular era. I started adding different elements and sounds into the music, especially drums and drum patterns. It ended up leading things into new territories. But there wasn’t any real premeditation about where I wanted to arrive. It’s always a goal of mine to explore something else every time I work on a piece of music. I just keep myself occupied by finding new challenges and combinations. A lot of it is just experimenting: setting up a bunch of gear up and not really knowing what you’re going to do. Let the experiment progress, and in the end if there’s a germ for a song then you’re pretty lucky. I take it from there.
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All Photographs by Vanessa Heins
When last we spoke to the Rural Alberta Advantage, Canada’s premier suppliers of hard-driving indie folk and small-town nostalgia, they were a friendly, fresh-faced band with the glow of recently signing with Saddle Creek for their debut album. Recently at South by Southwest, they were a friendly, fresh-faced band with the glow of recently dropping their outstanding sophomore album. They look good in glow. Ca Va Cool’s Josh Penslar joined forces with Mathew Katz of Colorado’s KDNK Radio in an alley behind Home Slice Pizza in Austin, Texas to talk with the trio about their SXSW experiences, being Canadian in the States, the proper relation between Texas and Alberta, and what covers the band is secretly prepared to play if you ask nicely.
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Eye of the Tiger
Ca Va Cool: How’s the festival been so far? Exhausting at all?
Amy Cole: I dunno, we’ve been good. Yesterday we played our shows and we went back to the house we’re staying in and went to bed at an extremely reasonable hour. I think it was 11 PM. [Laughs] We’re really boring. But it was good for us, because now we’re energized for the rest of the fest. We had a long drive the previous day, so now I think we’re ready to really experience things.
CVC: Where were you guys coming from?
Amy: Atlanta.
CVC: That’s a big one. So I hear you’ve played South By before. How does this year compare?
Paul Banwatt: I mean, we’re veterans, you know? We’ve been around the block. For example, we call it ‘South By’. We don’t feel like we have to…
Amy: I just say South.
Paul: Sometimes we’re just like S-X.
Amy: You know what I mean.
Paul: Every year is fun here. Our first year was definitely special cause we came down and got signed. So every year after that is a bit of a disappointment because we can never top that experience. But it’s still really fun and everyone keeps coming out to our shows. We’re playing like six shows, so the fact that there’s people there at every single one, that’s crazy.
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