Wet Nose Hero CD Release Party - Eastern Bloc, August 29th

Posted on August 30, 2008

What do you picture when you hear the name Wet Nose Hero? I see a cute little puppy looking at you with his big eyes and wet snout. I also see the naive innocence of a dog ready to jump when you jump. There’s something very genuine and almost childish about the hero-ness of a dog. In both of these senses, the name is very fitting of the local band Wet Nose Hero. Their music is cute, genuine and unpretentious. Last night, with a fantastic live show and party, they were launching their new CD, Congratulations Ha Ha Ha, at the Eastern Bloc.

Sarah Mangle’s voice has the fervor of a child who sings its favorite song. Though this not the type of singing we’re used to hearing so much, and because of that it took me a few listens to get used to, but it’s lovely sweetness has finally drawn me in. Much like Joanna Newsom’s quirky lyrical and vocal style, Wet Nose Hero is an acquired taste; for that exact reason I feel that it has something special about it that stands out from other local acts. Don’t take the “childish” reference too far though, it’s not crackly and off key; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Leading the band with Ukulele in hand, Mangle has a sweet voice to sing her simple and authentic lyrics.

What really struck me when I first heard the band though (and amazes me continuously) is the string section of the band. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a great string section. The thing is, over the past few years, Indie musicians have been introducing non-traditional instruments into their bands. Like a friend of mine once said about Indie bands: “OOO, so you can put a French Horn or a Ukulele into a Rock band. So what? Do you really think that’s all it takes to make you special or unique?” Truth is, no. A quirky choice of instruments does not a good/unique band make. You have to be able to do more with it than play them well. You have to be able integrate the instruments of a band in a unique manner and make some good music while you’re at it in order to be noteworthy, right?

Like someone else pointed out to me last night, most Indie bands that have strings don’t really give them the same supporting role and qualities that they originally had in orchestral ensembles. With four members on the strings, a leading Ukulele, a supporting Euphonium, and the occasional drums and piano, it’s still not the choice of instruments that makes Wet Nose Hero a unique band. It’s the brilliant string arrangements that makes the essentially simple songs soar, giving them a solid classical edge. Wet Nose Hero and their new album is a fantastic effort that adds itself to the list of noteworthy Montreal talent. Their live performances really live up to their album as well. Congratulations Ha Ha Ha!

Photo by SarahBrideau.com

Died Young Stayed Pretty - A Movie About Rock Posters

Posted on August 28, 2008

Ever been struck by one of these fantastic works of art pinned up on telephone poles while walking around the Mile End? I’ve always been intrigued to see who are the people who put so much effort into creating something so beautiful yet so ephemeral for the sole purpose of advertising a Rock show. Sure, it’s the case for most advertisement out there, all ads die eventually, but more and more, you’ll see hand-made works of art being collaged or silk screened by local artists expressing visuals that are surprising and striking enough to make you stop and look to see who’s the band that’s behind that poster.

Like I said, I’ve always been intrigued by the posters that show a bit more thought and human process than most ads you see out there, which is a reason I was extremely interested in watching the movie directed by Eileen Yaghoobian, Died Young Stayed Pretty to find out more about this art form. The movie premiers tomorrow at the Festival des Films du Monde.

Postering for Rock shows basically began with the early days of Punk music and hence, in its very roots, it’s the rebel child of the ones who like to shock in a creative way and the ones who like to Rock. Though the practice has been controversial (often banned, even more often defaced), it has found a way to spread in the world of Underground Rock, through all genres and styles, for the last few decades.

Artists can be sketchy people (no pun intended), and the movie certainly reflected that reality on more than one level. The thoughts expressed in the film are often non-linear, outside of the box, even disconnected as one jumps to the other, and the movie, like the ideas presented, is laid out as such. You’ll see a lot of images of posters and hear a lot of personal thoughts from the people who make the posters, but nothing about this is presented in a straight-up interview style. I’d describe this movie as a being really good friends with silk screeners and poster makers for an hour and a half. Personally, I enjoy going off and letting myself being carried by an unsteady flow of thoughts, but you should be warned that it’s not always easy to follow the fragment of these imaginative minds.The presentation is choppy and put together in a very artsy manner, sort of reminding me of a movie version of the collages.

What I really enjoyed about this though is that this documentary doesn’t pretend to lay out the entire history of posters in the standard, sterile form that documentaries tend to take. They touch different facets surrounding the subject without necessarily presenting it as a clear issue or spending too much time on one subject in particular. This creates a very spacious and free type of film in which there’s room for a lot of ideas and thoughts for which there wouldn’t be room in a more standard form. The people who made the movie chose artist from all over North America to be interviewed in the film; artists who use different techniques (i.e. silkscreening, collage, stamps, etc.) and who live their art through a palette of very different realities. This makes for a very flavorful and interesting mix of artistic insights about the world of Rock posters. If you’re intrigued by the colorful and zany form of art, go see it, it’s worth your while for sure.

Show times are Friday, August 29, 2008 @ 7PM, Saturday, August 30, 2008 @ 1PM, and Sunday, August 31, 2008 @ 5PM, all of which are presented at Cinéma ONF/NFB

Other People’s Kids

Posted on August 20, 2008

Radiohead @ Parc Jean-Drapeau - August 6th

Posted on August 9, 2008

As most of you probably know by now, last Wednesday one of the biggest bands on the planet for the last 10+ years were playing at Parc Jean-Drapeau. The show was definitely the biggest one I’ve ever attended. A total of 35,000 people attended the show, which ended up selling out at the door: an impressive statement for the huge outdoor venue. It was muddy and moist, but thankfully it wasn’t as rainy as the forecast was calling for.

By now I’ve had a chance to read around a bit to see what the other medias are saying about the show, and from what I’ve read, La Presse gave it a complete rave which I feel is a bit excessive but extremely well written and not entirely off the track. The Gazette basically gave you a pretty good idea of what the set-list was but not much more. I’ll give you a roundup of how I experienced the biggest event I’ve ever attended.

I’ve been listening to Radiohead since Pablo Honey (1993) and in all the bands I’ve been listening to in my life, this band is the longest and most steady run on my stereo. I don’t listen to them all the time, but I never really stopped liking them after a while, which isn’t the case for many bands. They’re classic. Though some of their songs give me a way-back flashback, they age well and still sound amazing to this day. There’s something to be said for a band that created something great 15 years ago and still manage to put out fantastic albums and shows to this day. In the last 20 year, I think only Madonna has been able to equal the notorious band’s success and iconic status. But even album after album, I think Madonna had focussed more on renewing herself over and over, while Radiohead has been on a steady incline in evolution, remaining withing their own realm of style yet still managing to sound fresh album after album.

That being said, I’m probably not the only one who felt that if there’s one show you had to go to, even if you never-ever go to live shows, this was it. I ran into some friends who drove an insane amount of hours in a short few days just to drive up and down to Montreal for this.

My number one complaint about this show was that there was simply too much people. On the bright side, we didn’t suffocate from being enclosed indoors with that much people. The occasional breeze was a relief. I got shoved and kicked while trying to move an inch to get away from the girls who were singing loudly and off-key in my ears (sorry, I went to hear Thom, not y’all) and elbowing me constantly. To give you an idea, if you were at Osheaga last weekend, the lineup to enter the site went from the bridge to the MEG stage and back up. I’d be willing to guess close to a kilometer at the very least. Actually, the lineup and crowding began at Berri-Uqam Metro where one had to be patient and wait a while, sardine-style, in the never-ending corridors. I feel bad for the people who were actually going to Longueuil after a long day’s work, trying to get home in that madness. Moving through the crowd was an enterprise in itself. The real insanity was after the show though. And I will say that I was impressed at how patient and contained the people were after all this was over.

Now that I got that one off my chest, the show was extremely well-done. The decor was made up of pretty cathedralesque LCD sticks that hung from the stage top and lit up in a variety of different ways, as well as a bunch of screens that gave people really great and aesthetically fantastic close-ups on all the members. I think I can speak for all of us 35,000 people when I say that the height of this screen action came when Thom gave us intimate stares through the tiny camera on his microphone while he was singing You and Whose Army.

His voice was steadily perfect throughout the entire two hours of the show; as far as live performances go, the quality often varies and can easily disappoint, which wasn’t the case here. The musicians played flawlessly and with great energy as well. I was a bit worried about how this would sound outdoors, especially after having attended Osheaga where, despite their best efforts to control the sound, I realized that shows in wide open spaces greatly affects the sound quality. However, I can honestly say that Wednesday night, the sound was fantastic. The bass didn’t vibrate unpleasantly from too much amplification, and all instruments could be heard clearly and in perfect balance.

They played songs from every album except Pablo Honey, so there was something to please every type of fan there. It must be said that their repertoire is pretty impressive, and the amount of hits they have had over the years is more than a few. They played most hits that people wanted to hear: the masses were pleased and thrilled by what they heard, and so was I.

Personally, when it comes to their records, I have a tendency to like the more electronic stuff a bit less than the rest. However, live it was the complete opposite for me. I felt that they were a bit freer with this type of stuff and experimented a bit more, which is just to say that they drew outside of the lines with it. To me, this is the ultimate enjoyment of seeing a band I love play live. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more of that. The rest sounded flawless, but maybe a bit too flawless for my personal taste. I was hoping for a bit more craziness and insanity on their behalf in terms of hearing actual performance that falls outside of the albums’ shell. I wasn’t surprised by any of it and was secretly hoping that they would blow my mind with genius live additions and unexpected flares. But I’m a dreamer, and I can’t be too disappointed when life doesn’t quite live up to my own bubble. For a great musical performance, it was one for sure, which makes it hard to say anything objectively bad about it.

The few songs that featured some of their jazzed up electronic endeavors was where I was seriously thrilled by the show. Where the classic, album-resembling stuff was interesting though was where I noticed the way they actually went about making the strange sounds that seem pulled out of a fantastic impossible musical realm. At the beginning of Lucky for example, I saw the guitar player messing around with the tuning part of the strings to create the eerie atmosphere. The backup vocals were also “particulièrement réussies”. In a way, it is impressive to see record-like quality being interpreted in a live environment, and I realize that this is what many people reach and hope for when they go see their favorite band play a live show. So they delivered something great for all Radiohead lovers who were there, and that I felicitate.

Photos by SarahBrideau.com

Osheaga Day 2

Posted on August 6, 2008

Day two of Osheaga started off with a bang for me. I managed to get out of work early and get down to the island just in time to see The Kills play. They were warmly recommended by a dear friend of mine, but we have pretty incompatible taste in music, so I basically just went down there to snap a few shots of them for him. Turns out, I’ve heard these guys before and they’re pretty freakin’ great. I really loved seeing those sexy Brits play, I just wish it would’ve been a lot darker, and I would’ve been slightly more intoxicated instead of still decompressing from work. Their style is dirty, sexy, garage-ish rock with that sexy British flare, or as Mike describes them: “Lou Reed’s sister having sex with a robot from the ’90’s”. They’re hard but not heavy, very dark, and their sound smells of old leather, cigarettes and booze. I will desperately chase this band down until I can see them play again in a better (darker) setting.

Then, I spent a few hours wandering around unsatisfied. The Weakerthans were never really my thing and they didn’t really impress me live any more than I hoped. The Black Keys sounded like a better version of The White Stripes. MGMT bored me half to death with their lack of substance and superficial poppiness. Gogol Gordello didn’t turn my crank and Duffy made me cringe. I realize that it probably sounds harsh, especially since there were so many fans there enjoying themselves and having a great time. I’m super happy for all these people and don’t think any less of them for it, but this is just my taste and between the hours of 5 and 8 PM, I almost decided to go home early. I probably would have if there wasn’t a totally great lineup getting ready to explode.

Broken Social Scene was a fabulous treat after all that waiting around. I sort of lost interest in the band for a while after they became so huge, but the bottom line is, they’re awesome musicians with great talent and solid songs. Live, the only thing I can really say, and forgive my French here: voilà un groupe avec le sens du spectacle. They create something epic with a subtlety that sucks you right in. I was just sort of bopping around taking pictures and enjoying them until they played Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl. This song rises in intensity so slowly, with the sneaky repetitions of a poem that had me singing at the top of my lungs by the end of it. I have to confess that some of my favorite Canadian musicians are part of this collective (members of my two favorite bands: Apostle of Hustle and Do Make Say Think - I also have a soft spot for Amy Millan) and I was insanely excited to see them play together. The crowd jumped right into the giant craziness as well. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the giant stage move from the sheer intensity of their screams when Kevin Drew commanded it as a therapeutic gesture.

With not a second to waste, I ran over to see Radio Radio who amazed me with their charisma and slick rhymes in chiac. Yes, so they’re from my home and I might be a little biased, but I honestly loved their set so much, it hurt to have it be so short.

Since the MEG stage was behind schedule, I got a chance to check out a bit of CSS who also impressed me quite a bit. They were very entertaining to watch, their songs were easy to get into and they had a fantastic stage presence.

Then came Chromeo. What can I say? Much of their music is pre-programed, but there’s still quite of bit of stuff that they actually do play live, which made it interesting. This two man band is just as good and steady live as they are on their albums. Their main guy also made a great connection with the public and sounded like one of these super nice guys, which gave the big show an intimate atmosphere.

Altogether the festival was enjoyable, though I have to say that I enjoyed the evening lineups quite a bit more than what was going on during the day. As I was reading in La Presse yesterday, I also felt that Osheaga still feels like it’s a bit confused as for the direction they’re trying to take in terms of what type of festival they’re trying to put together. It’s not completely alternative, and still far from being a family festival. Many of the artists I saw were excellent, but I didn’t feel like the lineup was solid. I do get the whole variety factor though; it was nice to get the chance to check out new acts and I did have a good time.

Also, it’d be nice to have at least one cheaper food option on site and I’m pretty sick of having various businesses take advantage of the generous public. Thing is, with these all-day events, you don’t really have a choice but to eat at one point in the long day. But then again, maybe I’m just too broke to see the wider picture.

Osheaga Day 1

Posted on August 6, 2008

For the last two days, I’ve had the immense pleasure, along with other of our writers, to attend the ever-growing music festival Osheaga. It’s been over 10 years since I first attended a music festival at Parc Jean Drapeau. In fact, one of my first trips to Montreal was to come see the Vans Warped Tour 1997. Though the food and drinkables were grossly overpriced - the cheapest food being one corn on the cob for a whopping $3 (as you can usually expect from any festival) the experience was altogether a whole lot of fun. It gave me a chance to check out a bunch of bands I’ve been meaning to see for a while and discover new ones as well.

My first day began with The Tom Fun Orchestra: a rowdy bunch of Cape-Bretonners who also happen to be great musicians. Their style is a folky-swinging-rock which benefits from a variety of the numerous band members individual influences. The singer’s raspy voice and the steady strong beats give a certain electricity to the clear traces of Maritime folk that guide the musical trajectory taken by this band. Don’t be mistaken by picturing a more laid-back folk sound though. The East Coast sound is more about stirring up a barn burner than about sitting around a camp fire. It swings and entertains crowds and the musicians have that part down as well. Though it wasn’t quite late enough in the day to benefit from a drunken crowd yet, I think they still managed to get a few hips shaking.

While that was going on, I hopped away quickly to check out a bit of the Polaris-nominated Plants & Animals. Maybe I didn’t see enough of it to judge, but it seemed like there was something missing to their performance. Like a friend of mine pointed out, perhaps it’s the album’s beautiful instrumentation, which wasn’t on stage with the trio, that sort of left a lot of space to be filled in my expectations. For what they were though, only three musicians, they did a pretty good job and sounded good. Satisfactory, but definitely not a revelation.

After that, I ran over and caught Metric’s show at one of the bigger stages. I’ve seen this band a few times before and really enjoy their music. The superbly hot Emily Haines was wearing a funky shiny-blue suit and her voice sounded up to standard. However, this performance left me sort of “meh”. The stage movements felt planned and lacked spontaneity. I saw her do the exact same dance a while back right before they launched Live It Up. Nothing bad, simply no better than remembered it to be the first few times around.

I heard Sharon Jones while I was taking a social break from the concerts. I was duly impressed that Osheaga would bring such a solid and soulful act to their stages. To that I say “Bravo”!

As the “sun” was gearing towards a more serious dip, Cat Power took over one of the main stages. I remember a friend of mine, who’s her world’s biggest fan, telling me about a show of hers he saw some years ago. When he saw her, she went on stage, sat at a piano, played one song and started bawling and left the stage in a panic. Apparently she has had some issues with performing in the past. Needless to say my friend was disappointed, which is one of the reasons why my expectations of this were sort of low. Seriously, I was impressed. Unbelievably impressed actually. Her voice sounded wonderful, her mellow yet intense sounds were soothing, and she was backed up by some really great musicians who had their shit together. Her performance was nice and heartfelt. Sincerely, I enjoyed seeing her live a lot more than I have enjoyed her last few albums.

The legendary Iggy and The Stooges followed shortly after. There was no way anyone watching this sweaty shirtless man throw himself around on stage could do anything but smile. At least I couldn’t wipe mine off if I tried. The sixty-two year old icon gave the enthusiastic crowd a fantastic performance with more energy and juice than any band I’ve ever seen on stage. Not only was he energetic and intoxicatingly fun to watch, but his voice and his band sounded as fresh as it does on the recordings dating from the late-sixties.

After bouncing around with my friend’s baby to the sounds of The Killers for a while, I headed back over to the Tree Stage to catch The National Parcs‘ fantastic show. This band has a creative way of mixing interesting nature-sounds into their hip-hop beat and puts on an energetic and almost theatrical performance that is definitely worth seeing. I was majorly impressed by these guys and their superb stage-dynamics. They also had a very cool visuals going on throughout the show, much more than you usually see during a live music performance, which was pretty great.

Photos by SarahBrideau.com (more pictures)

It’s Summer

Posted on August 1, 2008

Boubou, originally uploaded by Sarah Brideau (dot com).

Hey folks,

It’s summer, so I hope you’ll forgive my unsteady flow of postings. I have a bunch of entries that have gone into Midnight Poutine, but that, despite my best efforts, weren’t really great enough to slip into here.

Coming up in the next week: Osheaga Music Festival and Radiohead.

Should be interesting. Stay tuned.