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July 2009: For a complete listing of all the July events at The Biltmore Cabaret, download a printable copy of the calendar here - 565 kb PDF file
| Thursday
July 02 |
Vancouver International Jazz Festival 2009 at The Biltmore Cabaret:
Fond of Tigers w/ Mats Gustafsson and Secret Mommy Quartet
Doors at 8:00pm
Set 1 - 9:15 - 10:15 - Set 2 - 10:50 - 11:50
Tickets $15.00 - General Admission
Purchase Tickets Online - www.ticketmaster.ca |
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Fond of Tigers have been developing their intricate and beautiful sound since 2003. Featuring seven of Vancouver’s leading creative musicians, their nuances and layers explore musical possibilities that range from the smallest gesture of extended technique to full-on bombastic avant rock. Compelling, hypnotic, and absolutely post-everything, this double-drum-kit-led band’s ordered chaos emerges from a combination of meticulous odd-time composition and improvisational abandon. Their debut CD, a thing to live with (Drip Audio), was named one of the best releases of 2006. Last year’s CD Release the Saviours had England’s Wire magazine declare that “there’s a kaleidoscope of pleasure to be had following Fond of Tigers.” With Stephen Lyons guitar, J.P. Carter trumpet, Morgan McDonald piano, Jesse Zubot violin, Shanto Bhattacharya bass, Skye Brooks and Dan Gaucher drums. They will be joined by the wonderful Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, a stalwart of the Scandinavian free jazz scene who has played with European legends Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Paul Lovens, Barry Guy, and Derek Bailey, and with great American artists like Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake. Thanks to Rikskonserter, Sweden.
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| Friday
July 03 |
Vancouver International Jazz Festival 2009 at The Biltmore Cabaret:
Rastrillos
w/ DJ John Cougar (Hey! Soul Classics)
Doors at 8:00pm
Set 1 - 9:15 - 10:15 - Set 2 - 10:50 - 11:50
Tickets $19.50 - General Admission
Purchase Tickets Online - www.ticketmaster.ca |
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“Mexico City-based reggae outfit Los Rastrillos was one of the surprises of the festival. The band played straight-ahead Latin-flavoured reggae with a big sound punched up by trumpet, trombone, and tenor sax. The blend of Tijuana Brass and Trenchtown rock is potent and Rastrillos served it up with charisma.”—Georgia Straight Down Mexico-way the denizens have been blissing out to the cool mestizo-reggae rhythms of the Rastrillos since 1988. The band’s hip sounds fuse reggae with Mexican pop, jazz, funk, and traditional ska. The songs reflect a musical quest for basic human values—friendship, respect, and love. Rastrillos have shared the stage with internationally renowned artists like Black Uhuru, Israel Vibration, and Linton Kwesi Johnson, as well as the best the Mexican music scene has to offer. Get set to groove Vancouver!
Bliss out to the cool Latin-reggae sounds of Mexico’s Rastrillos
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| Saturday
July 04 |
Vancouver International Jazz Festival 2009 at The Biltmore Cabaret:
Ryan Shaw
**Early Show** Doors at 8:00pm
Set 1 - 9:15 - 10:30 ( 1 x 75 mins)
Tickets $28.00 - General Admission
Purchase Tickets Online - www.ticketmaster.ca |
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“So doggone good…holding his own against the sacred Otis [Redding]…prepare to have your soul rocked.”—Los Angeles Times Drawing inspiration from Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, this 28-year-old singer/songwriter from Decatur, Georgia, is out to revive the passion and soul of the golden age of R&B (1960¬1972) for a new generation. His debut album, This is Ryan Shaw (Razor & Tie), combines a powerfully expressive voice with a clutch of great songs both classic (Wilson Pickett, Jackie Wilson) and new. On stage, Ryan brings it all together with a combination of Southern warmth and New York vitality. Using just a small rhythm section with two male backing vocalists, he’s able to stretch his tunes into full-on vocal rave-ups. “So full of fire and conviction, exploding with energy and emotion,” declares the Washington Post. There’s no posturing or mindless booty shaking, no need for contrived antics. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ryan Shaw is the real deal. And he proved it at last year’s Jazz Festival with a devastatingly hot performance. Get there early!
Channeling Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, this 28-year old singer/songwriter from Georgia revives the passion and soul of the golden age of R&B for a new generation.
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Glory Days Presents:
**Late Show!** Doors at 11:20 pm
special guests from Montreal
Barn Burner
and Jaws
With resident DJ's: My! Gay! Husband! & Sincerely Hana
Special Guest Resident DJ's Ian Wyatt, Warm It Up Chris, Expendable Youth & Neil HillBrandt
Photos by Lindsay's Diet - Visuals by Marek & Kellen
Glory Days Facebook Page
Glory Days video trailer teaser on Facebook |
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| Sunday
July 05 |
Daddy-O Productions presents:
Rockabilly Sundays
with Rich Koops and The Koop De Villes plus Special Guests Harpdog Brown
4:00pm - 8:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Kitty Nights
NYC Style Burlesque and Comedy with Burgundy Brixx and friends. With DJ Teddy Smooth
9:00pm to Midnight |
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| Monday
July 06 |
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**Early Show**
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $8.00
An evening with one of Vancouver's best old time folk/country singers and a master of the yodel!
Petunia''s rousing organic sound' is a blend of musical styles wandering freely from country to jazz to blues to French cabaret to Mexican folk to bluegrass and what's this? Slam, he's driving us right on in to Petunialand proper. While he plays all sorts of the 'old standards' consumately, repeat fans call out for his very special originals 'by name'
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Aphrodite at The Biltmore Cabaret:
Joe Ave (SHAHdjs) and Aphrodite (Urban Takeover)
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2350818031&ref=ts
**Late Show!**
Doors 11:00pm
Tickets first 50 - $10.00 - $15 thereafter
Availalable at BeatStreet. Puff, ClubZone, Zulu and Vinyl Records
The Biltmore Cabaret is excited to welcome famed Drum and Bass/Jungle DJ Aphrodite from the UK
DJ Aphrodite aka Gavin King, is the man behind Aphrodite Recordings. It all started way back in the summer of love '88' running an Acid House club called Aphrodite, the namesake has been with him since.
Through various chance meetings with DJs Micky Finn and Claudio Giussani, Urban Shakedown was born. Over the years Aphro's own Aphrodite Recordings and Urban Takeover, a joint lable with Micky Finn followed. The musical progession to Drum n Bass was a natural step over the years through hardcore and jungle.
Aphrodite Recordings is the base outlet for all music with the Aphro signature.
DJ Aphrodite is known for playing out a good vibe that ranges from classics to upfront and exclusive dubplates. Aphro is invited to DJ in countries all over the world.
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| Tuesday
July 07 |
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**Early Show**
Doors 8:00pm - Show 8:30pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party
Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party - DJ's: Ian Wyatt, Man Tears, Andy Dixon, Lil Baby Peace Sign & Pointy Lapointe
**Late Show!**
Doors 11:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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| Wednesday
July 08 |
The Biltmore Cabaret and Metal Blade Records Present:
Bison BC
with Lazarus A.D. & Bogus Tokus
Doors 8:00 pm
Tickets $15.00 available at Zulu, Red Cat & Scrape Records
Buy tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
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The exciting return of Vancouver's metal gods, Bison BC to the Biltmore Cabaret.
“Heavy, man. Real heavy. Jean-jacket heavy…If Mastodon had spent more time listening to Anthrax, they might sound like Vancouver's Bison B.C.” Rollingstone.com
"Riffs, man. Important love of the riff. Honestly loving the shit that you do. You would just, like, do anything for the riff. It's like your child: you create it, and you nurture it, and it grows and it grows, and it turns into this fucking amazing thing that you would die for, because it's your fucking child. And then you send it out into the world, and it destroys things." - Bison BC
“(Bison BC…technical ecstasy that is equally retro and forward-thinking…recalls Iron Maiden in scale and structure…one hell of an album.” Metal Edge Magazine
“Get ready for some friggin ridiculous thrash from Wisconsin (Lazarus a.d) Not bay area thrash, think Master of Puppets era Metallica thrash.” Hails & Horn
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| Thursday
July 09 |
Minto CD Release!
with No Horses and Red Cedar
Doors at 8:00pm
Tickets $8.00
Local rock powerhouses celebrate the release of their new LP Lay it on Me. Formerly known as the Smokes, Minto is joined by two bands that deliver sweet chunks of twang and reverb (something I like to provide at least once a month.. apparently!)
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| Friday
July 10 |
Doors 8:00 pm
Tickets $10.00 at the door
Some fine local bands..
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| Saturday
July 11 |
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**Early Show**
Doors 6pm
Tickets $15.00 available at Scrape Records
Buy tickets online at www.unionevents.com and www.ticketmaster.ca |
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Emerging from the swamplands of New Orleans, Louisiana — a city rich with urban legends of voodoo curses, ghosts and murder — Goatwhore was formed in 1997 by guitarist Sammy Duet (Acid Bath, Crowbar, Ritual Killer etc.). Their history is a winding one marked by lineup shifts, temporary paralysis, haunted studios, and the survival of one of the five most destructive hurricanes in US history. Influenced by the raw savagery of bands like Venom and Celtic Frost, their unrefined, fuck-all approach to black metal first revealed on the Serenades To The Tides Of Blood demo and expanded upon on the now legendary Eclipse Of Ages Into Black debut nearly a decade ago earned the band instant underground credibility. Then comprised of Duet, vocalist Ben Falgoust and guitarist Ben Stout (both of Soilent Green), bassist Patrick Bruders and drummer Zak Nolan, Goatwhore toured relentlessly and by 2003 had garnered a loyal cult following of metal fans old and new. Second full-length Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun was a slower, more introverted affair that transcended well beyond the confines of traditional black metal. Impossibly heavy and lyrically dense, with Falgoust’s and Duet’s high-to-low vocal tradeoffs fusing its menacing atmosphere, the 12-tracks within were met with equal approval and the band quickly returned to the road.
Goatwhore joined the Metal Blade roster for 2006’s monumental A Haunting Curse. Where Funeral Dirge… followed a near-fatal van crash that left Falgoust temporarily confined to a wheelchair and the very future of the band uncertain, the creation of A Haunting Curse saw the four-piece — Duet, Falgoust, and new-recruits drummer Zack Simmons (Nachtmystium) and bassist Nathan Bergeron — fleeing the flood waters of 2005's catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. Undeterred — and perhaps all the more driven by the consistent bout of bad luck — Goatwhore joined famed producer/Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan at Mana Studios in St. Petersburg, FL to unleash their most maniacal offering yet. More furious than its gloomier predecessor, A Haunting Curse fused the tenets of traditional black metal with gritty, thrash-based riffing, machinegun blasts, rabid pace shifts and Falgoust’s possessive snarl. The disc was embraced by fans and media globally, earning an impressive 4/5 rating from Revolver who said of the record, “Tragedy has fueled their fire before, but never this brilliantly.” Outburn called A Haunting Curse "an assault so vicious that listeners may need assistance to stand back up,” while Terrorizer declared, "You'd be hard pushed to pick up a more frighteningly violent piece of work.” Another two years of touring found the band sharing stages with a host of metal luminaries including Venom, Celtic Frost, Exodus, 1349, Fear Factory and Sunn0))). A slot on 2007’s Sounds of the Underground tour and last summer’s Metallica-headlined, one-date-only Ozzfest in Texas only helped spread the troupe’s unholy word like plague.
Abigail Williams is a Symphonic Black Metal band hailing from Phoenix, Cleveland, New York City, New York, New Jersey, and southern California. The band melds together influences from melodic death metal and black metal with a heavy use of symphonic elements and keyboards.
Abigail Williams broke into the scene in summer of 2005 playing a sort of melodic death metal with keyboards but it wasn’t until fall of 2006 when the band refined it’s sound, losing the original singer while original guitar player Sorceron moved to vocals to opt for a more aggressive approach, with the track “Watchtower” shaping the sound of the band into what Kerrang! Magazine has called “The bloody birth of ‘Black Metalcore’” (though the band disagrees with the label). The band then went on to release an EP entitled “Legend” which included new material as well as older songs re-recorded with new lyrics.
The band broke up in early 2007, and rejoined in later 2007. While the band was in hiatus, vocalist/guitarist Ken Sorceron wrote the lyrics and music for most of the tracks on their debut full-length, “In The Shadow Of A Thousand Suns”, giving the band a new, primarily symphonic black metal sound.
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Glory Days Presents:
**Late Show!**
Autacoid
and Humans
With resident DJ's: My! Gay! Husband! & Sincerely Hana
Special Guest Resident DJ's Ian Wyatt, Warm It Up Chris, Expendable Youth & Neil HillBrandt
Photos by Lindsay's Diet - Visuals by Marek & Kellen
Glory Days Facebook Page
Glory Days video trailer teaser on Facebook |
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| Sunday
July 12 |
Daddy-O Productions presents:
Rockabilly Sundays
with Rich Koops and The Koop De Villes plus Special Guests Harpdog Brown
4:00pm - 8:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Kitty Nights
NYC Style Burlesque and Comedy with Burgundy Brixx and friends. With DJ Teddy Smooth
9:00pm to Midnight |
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| Monday
July 13 |
Jon-Rae Fletcher
with guests Bruce Peninsula, Debra-Jean Creelman and Snowblink
Doors at 8:00pm, Show at 9:30pm
Tickets $10.00 available at Zulu and Red Cat
Buy tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
Jon-Rae Fletcher is a Canadian Icon in the waiting... |
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Following an absence from public life precipitated by personal upheaval, Jon-Rae Fletcher remains one of Canada's most intriguing young folk artists. Battering Toronto with the gale of Jon-Rae and the River's alt-gospel revelry, Fletcher should've expected the city to bite back.
In the end, he lost his band, his love and jeopardized his health before retreating to BC for repairs. It's easy then to read the dark, contemplative Oh, Maria as some outpouring of self-conscious reflection. There are certainly elements of Fletcher within "The Story" and "The Big Talker" but they're weaved within a narrative about another tragic figure whose evil is less tangible, his love more complex.
The recurring "Maria" here is idealized salvation, personified for an irredeemable con man, whose story is told against a backdrop of acoustic guitar and tasteful ambiance conjured by players like Darcy Hancock (Ladyhawk) and Kathryn Calder (Immaculate Machine). Singing clear and strong, Jon-Rae Fletcher is back and we're lucky for it. - Review of latest record, Oh Maria - Exclaim
This 10-piece Toronto band (Bruce Peninsula) makes traditional bangers, moaners, ballads and bluesers, with one stomping foot in roots (from plainly sung folk to clanging choral music), the other grounded at the crossroads of rigid indie rock and free post-rock. Lead vocalist Neil Haverty emits a gruff warmth complemented by the coo of co-singer Misha Bower and an all-female back-up choir, while acoustic and electric guitars roll alongside, and drums (used sparingly) build from a mere beat to a thunderous crash. As the tourism site for the band’s namesake (a little piece of Ontario between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron) says, “There is no end to the worlds you can discover in this wondrous place.” - Montreal Mirror
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| Tuesday
July 14 |
Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party
Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party - DJ's: Ian Wyatt, Man Tears, Andy Dixon, Lil Baby Peace Sign & Pointy Lapointe
Doors at 9:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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| Wednesday
July 15 |
The Biltmore Cabaret presents:
The Handsome Family
w/ Cloudsplitter (Dave Gowans of The Buttless Chaps)
Doors 8:00 pm
Tickets $13 available at Zulu, Red Cat & Highlife
Buy tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
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Taking place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes, The Handsome Family releases "Honey Moon" through Carrot Top Records on April 14, 2009. Their eighth studio release, it celebrates the duo's twentieth year of marriage with a series of love songs that sharply contrast the dark themes of their previous seven releases.
Full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature's mysteries, Brett Sparks (music) and Rennie Sparks (lyrics) branch from their usual canon of the dark and mysterious on "Honey Moon", to establish a theme rooted in the tradition of 19th century romanticism. For the first time there is no body count. Not one person dies. There is only one song about a lost love. It is an album of transcendence, of touching the divine, if only for a moment, through our love of someone else, even if he is a katydid. Rennie says of the pivotal point that influenced her writing on Honey Moon, "We were driving over some mountains in New Zealand listening to The Platters singing, "Twilight Time," and I could actually feel that gorgeous song healing little wounds all through my body. Life felt almost unbearably bittersweet after the song ended and I felt I had no choice except to sit down and try to write my way back into that mysterious palace where 'heavenly shades of night are falling."
Fans of vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Inkspots, and the Platters for many years, Brett and Rennie's 'song' as a young couple was, "MyPrayer." The Sparks' also have a profound love for the beautiful songs of great American songwriters like Berlin, Gershwin, and Porter who treat the subject of love with grace and transcendence. Theirs are songs of human beings making contact with the numinous. Their melodies and words are the finest examples of songwriting - mysterious and sublime.
The Handsome Family record all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house. In their live performances they are sometimes up to a six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie. They have toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. examples of songwriting-- mysterious and sublime.
The prospect of composing an album of love songs and avoiding triteness is fraught with peril. Brett explains, "Since we decided that all the songs would address the same theme (love), I decided that musically each onE should be distinct to avoid the pitfalls of other records of this ilk. Each song should be its own world, have its own style. So it's a record of 12self-contained entities. There are tin-pan alley songs, country songs, r & bsongs, a bluegrass song, pop songs, jazz songs, and even rock ballads. This Record represents a concerted attempt to flex all of our songwriting muscles. Honey Moon is more musically and technically complex than anything I have ever done. I fell in love with the studio anew."
Recording all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house, "Honey Moon," is a headphone record with layer upon layer of cool weird treasures waiting to be discovered with successive listens. The twosome's seventh CD, "Last Days of Wonder" (June 2006), was one of Mojo'sTop Ten American Albums for 2006 and was called "an unqualified triumph" by Uncut. Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, The Sadies, Sally Timms and Cerys Matthews.
They have appeared in the movie, I’m Your Man (2005), a tribute to Leonard Cohen as well as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2004). In 2004, a reader's poll in Mojo named The Handsome Family's third CD, "Through the Trees" one of the ten essential Americana records. Andrew Bird's version of their song, "Don't Be Scared" was recently featured in the movie, The Promotion.
The Handsome Family record all their songs in a converted garage studio at the back of their Albuquerque house. In their live performances they are sometimes up to a six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie. They have toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
“Dark, elemental, mischievous and mournful” —MOJO “This is music that moves forward by turning the clock back— haunting, primal and strangely heroic” -The London Times
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| Thursday
July 16 |
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Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is the beats-and-keys solo project of 31 yr old singer, songwriter and Chicago resident, Owen Ashworth. Drawing heavy influence from traditional Americana as well as 80's synth pop and commercial hip hop, the music of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is a curious mix of austere character studies and playful electronic programming.
After recording three albums of cassette-recorded, two-minute exercises in pop minimalism, Ashworth's most recent album, Etiquette, changed the focus from a decidedly utilitarlian aesthetic to a broader production spectrum that finally gave his affecting song writing the space it deserves. In collaboration with producers and musicians like Jherek Biscoff (of The Dead Science and Degenerate Art Ensemble) and Jason Quever (The Papercuts and Pan American Recording Studio), the sound of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has grown to include pianos, organs, strings, flutes, drums, and pedal steel guitars in addition to Ashworth's signature electronics and drum machines.
Live, Owen Ashworth recreates his recordings using a makeshift dub soundsystem. Glitchy drum machine rhythms, battery-operated synths, melodic loops, and hand-triggered samples are routed through various echo boxes and filters to accompany his slow, deliberate vocal style.
Recently, Owen Ashworth has been quietly releasing a steady stream of new tracks by way of limited edition vinyl singles for a number of small labels, meanwhile remixing songs for friends like Dudley Benson and Headlights, and contributing music to several independent American films, such as Medicine for Melancholy and Stay the Same Never Change. Two different CD compilations of his limited vinyl releases and soundtrack work are planned for the coming months, with a brand new album to follow in early 2009.
Cryptacize deals in the unforgettable melody, the forsaken chord and the extravagant sentiment. It's a distinct kind of pleasure they offer, not casual background or 'lifestyle' music. An unlikely synthesis of musical styles, Mythomania (Cryptacize's second) is an album not quite like any other.
Nedelle Torrisi's surefooted and richly nuanced vocal arabesques, like a modern day Freddie Mercury or Ronnie Spector, strangely complement Chris Cohen's guitar, maniacally sped-up a la Les Paul or staccato and funny like Roy Smeck or Adolph Jacobs of the Coasters. Michael Carreira's syncopated drum corps rudiments and pit-orchestra rave-ups propel the songs with a refreshingly buoyant touch that never lapses into rock music cliches.
There are also widescreen cinematic moments that take on a mournful and otherworldly pathos, like Henry Mancini's "Experiment in Terror" but with vocals by Cambodian 60's pop legend Ros Serey Sothea - or like Arabic diva Fairouz singing along to a psychedelic film score by Popol Vuh.
Never ones to follow the rules, Cryptacize have been touring the US in a Toyota Corolla (opening for bands as diverse as Why?, Danielson, Shearwater, Ponytail, Magik Markers, Marnie Stern, The Blow, Mirah, etc.) performing using miniature amps and drums - a sight which has caught many a spectator off guard.
They are a thoroughly unconventional band, but one that is somehow miraculously easy on the ears. Deceptively simple, using modest means to achieve ambitious ends, never predictable, Cryptacize challenges preconceptions about how a song should go or how rock music should make you feel. But in the end, they always leave you with a tune you can hum and lyrics that tell a story.
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| Friday
July 17 |
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Dan Bejar (also a member of the New Pornographers) started Destroyer as a solo home-recording project in the early to mid-nineties. In 1996, he released his debut full length of stripped-down, lo-fi electric folk, We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge. Soon the Destroyer template expanded to include a rhythm section, and Bejar was compelled to head into a proper studio to record City of Daughters in 1998. It was with Daughters that Bejar began to develop his own unique lyrical voice, a voice that continued to evolve and refine itself over the course of his next two records, Thief and Streethawk: A Seduction. Destroyer seemingly had produced its masterwork with Streethawk, a highly refined send-up and condemnation of popular culture, an idea honed to razor-sharp precision. The album became one of the most acclaimed recordings of 2001, and the Destroyer mystique captured music fans and critics alike.
This Night, the Destroyer debut for Merge, is an epic full of indulgences and flights of fancy-the perfect foil to the sleek and streamlined approach of earlier recordings. This Night both baffles and seduces, leaving jaws on the floor and confounding both fans and critics. Bejar took another turn towards the unexpected with Your Blues, his second recording for Merge, wherein he stripped Destroyer down to its barest essentials once again, with MIDI-synthesizer symphonies that explored what Bejar dubbed "European Blues," a vainglorious retreat from American rock traditions, celebrating an exercise in old-world excess within limited means. Those who had been pining for a new Streethawk were left shaking their heads, forced to admit that the last thing Destroyer was ever going to give them was anything close to what they expected (or hoped for). Bejar had everyone right where he wanted: dazed, confused, and not knowing what was to come next.
What came next was yet another triumph. Destroyer's Rubies was hailed as the second coming by many longtime fans and firmly established Destroyer as a critical and commercial success without ever having compromised Bejar's vision at any point along the way. On its March 2006 cover, The Fader proclaimed him "Rock's Exiled King" and we could not agree more. But it was a case of self-imposed exile, as Bejar and company have never had much use for the trappings of indie-rock "fame."
Trouble in Dreams (2008) continued Dan Bejar's lyrical and musical assault on all that is stagnant in modern, popular music. His is a body of work that consistently flouts convention in favor of musical leaps of faith, statements of purpose cloaked in subterfuge, and the joyous refrain of an optimist's heart cloaked in cynicism. Anthems sprawl with shifting layers of guitar and piano, spinning just to the edge of chaos and back, while referencing fantastical realms and mysterious women who may or may not approve of our interloping voyeurism.
Written during an extended stay in Spain during the spring and summer of 2007, Trouble in Dreams is both soothing and jarring, sparing us neither his lyrical bite nor pulling any punches. Trouble in Dreams is yet another brilliant entry in the astonishing Destroyer canon.
Over the course of his career as Destroyer, Dan Bejar has established himself and his band as one of the most unpredictable success stories in modern, popular music. As a songwriter, Bejar is recognized as having few peers. As a musician, he is like the court jester, waiting in the wings, poking fun at those who take themselves too seriously and skewering those who would celebrate commerce as art.
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| Sunday
July 19 |
Daddy-O Productions presents:
Rockabilly Sundays
with Rich Koops and The Koop De Villes plus Special Guests Harpdog Brown
4:00pm - 8:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Kitty Nights
NYC Style Burlesque and Comedy with Burgundy Brixx and friends. With DJ Teddy Smooth
9:00pm to Midnight |
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| Monday
July 20 |
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Ford: v.t. to cross by wading (Webster)
Pier: n. a disappointed bridge (Joyce)
Having cut his teeth playing a variety of intruments in a host of bands in a panoply of styles throughout his youth, Ford Pier set his hand in earnest to writing and performing his own songs in the mid-1990's. His stated objective was to effectively fuse Black Flag and Richard Wagner in a pop song, but kept on thwarting his own design with a melodicism he was powerless to escape, and a deft lyricism which drew attention to itself. In a good way.
His '95 debut release on Wrong Records, Meconium, was a 14-song mosaic of raging post-punk, true-blue country, folk balladry, and avant-garde soul of which The Vancouver Sun's Katherine Monk was moved to write, "If one indie release could speak for the West Coast, this is the one."
Former bandmate Joey Shithead of D.O.A. released the sophomore offering, 12-Step Plan, 11-Step Pier, in 1999 on his Sudden Death label. The record's denser, almost symphonic character was a nod to the amount of chamber music Pier had been composing, and the neo-classical-inflected orchestrations he had been doing for Vancouver songwriter Veda Hille, with whom he toured Europe and North America extensively.
The performing rhythm section he had built up around himself at this time formed the basis for a deliberately scaled-down thirteen-song collection released gratis on his website in 2000. Entitled Besides, it acted as a clearing-house for some of Pier's more straightforward genre-identifiable songs, and commenced the bow-drawing process for the next full album.
That record was entitled Pier-ic Victory, and was released in 2004 by Six Shooter Records. Working for two years on and off with producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda, Ford issued his strongest statement yet of true pan-disciplinary pop, playing up formerly latent groove-oriented elements in the music to compliment the expanded orchestral colours and more extreme noise elements. It was enthusiastically received by press and public alike, and led to more touring throughout Canada and Europe, sharing the stage with the likes of The Organ, The Weakerthans, NoMeansNo, Daniel Johnston, The Constantines, and Sarah Harmer.
He also found time to appear on records by Buttless Chaps, Great Aunt Ida, and Martin Tielli, perform regularly as a guest with The Sadies, The Rheostatics, Carolyn Mark and others, continue to produce chamber and orchestral arrangements for artists such as Ron Sexsmith.
Summer of 2007 saw Volume I of his next collection of work, a six-song EP, released electronically and on 12" vinyl through Calgary's Saved By Vinyl Records. Entitled Organ Farming, it diplays a comparitively austere sonic pallette, as Ford, drummer Don Kerr, and the returning Michael Phillip Wojewoda, as well as guests from Weakerthans, Rheostatics, FemBots, and others, seek to answer the question, "If you were to ditch all those bassoons and stuff and make a Rock album, what would it sound like?"
Volume II is a full-length 10-Song album entitled Adventurism, to be released in March of 2009. Several of the songs from both are already live favourites and are being hotly anticipated by many around the globe.
Ford Pier lives in Vancouver. You better believe he'll be on manoeuvres when those Olympics are going on. |
| Tuesday
July 21 |
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**Early Show** 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party
Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party - DJ's: Ian Wyatt, Man Tears, Andy Dixon, Lil Baby Peace Sign & Pointy Lapointe
**Late Show!**
Doors 11:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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| Wednesday
July 22 |
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LA Punk rock with some local hero's added for good measure!
The best part of Mika Miko is that they are one of the most popular bands in the area, but you would never know that they knew that. If you have seen them live, you know, they are so good and it makes you want to be a part of it. Mika Miko is an exciting thing to witness. They used to have a drummer named Jon Erik, but he left and they got Kate Hall. They got chased by vampires, played in a free mason temple, used to be crusty (but are still crusty at heart) and 4 out of 5 still live with their parents. They rather play at some kids house for a birthday party in the valley and not get paid than play some rock club. See them and you will know the truth about the pony funk.
"They're (Mika Miko) about turning kids onto punk rock at sweat-soaked backyard parties, and that's pretty cool too.” - Pitchfork
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| Thursday
July 23 |
Green Mountain Music Festival Fundraiser featuring:
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $10.00 - all the proceeds are going to Cystic Fibrosis foundation of Canada
The Green Mountain Music Festival is a little grass roots music festival with a heart of gold! All the proceeds from this years festival will go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! All the amazing bands and volunteers have and will donate their services and skills for this amazing cause.
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| Friday
July 24 |
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If Stephen Pastel actually threw Aggi off the bridge and married Black Tambourine's Pam Berry and had four babies that formed a pop band.
Meet The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a New York four-piece who plays dreamy, noisy POP with boy/girl vocals, blissful melodies and blistering drums.
"On its excellent self-titled debut album there’s a mild hauteur drawn from new wave, a thickness derived from shoegaze-pop and a pulse passed down from dance-punk. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart might paint within the lines, but they do so with panache... Warm on the outside, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart seethe with refreshingly mordant wit." - New York Times |
| Sunday
July 26 |
Daddy-O Productions presents:
Rockabilly Sundays
with Rich Koops and The Koop De Villes plus Special Guests Harpdog Brown
4:00pm - 8:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Kitty Nights
NYC Style Burlesque and Comedy with Burgundy Brixx and friends. With DJ Teddy Smooth
9:00pm to Midnight |
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| Monday
July 27 |
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Annie Lennox’s stern, android persona. The asexually metallic voice of Neil Tennant. Marc Almond and Andy Bell’s flamboyant vocals. During the ’80s, the labour-saving potential of the synthesizer allowed for Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell and Erasure to develop a new form. The electropop duo was a perfect yin/yang, the anonymous machine operator and their asexual and ambiguous singer, and it blew the charts wide open. It was a golden age for androgynous, aesthetically sharp British pop. But during the ’90s Britpop extolled the virtue of the band as a gang of men constructing sonic monuments to rock classicism. The pop world was dominated by the boy or girl band, and in recent years the reality telly act or a procession of mutton-Madonna bimbos from across the Atlantic became commercially dominant. The only hope was Girls Aloud but, with their star seemingly on the wane, things on the home front have felt increasingly stale.
Enter La Roux, the boyish Brixton native with her quiff and mysterious co-writing partner Ben Langmaid. A childhood spent listening to folk and rock’n’roll can be heard in the simultaneous appreciation of songcraft and rejection of traditionalism that is evidenced by the ferocious pace of the opening quartet of cut-glass chart-toppers. Led by 450,000-plus-selling banger ‘In For The Kill’, the synths and beats that shape these four killer tracks are determinedly contemporary, making complete sense of the fact that modernist dubstep maestro Skream gave a mean twist to the smash hit. This is no mere ’80s revivalism.
Where electroclash dilettantes mistake digitalism as an opportunity to sing about sniffing hairspray in elite nightspots, Elly Jackson remains down-to-earth. Unlike cheap Lady Gaga or the WAGs of Girls Aloud – and despite the hype showered on to her ruddy quiff – La Roux is a style icon who still lives with her parents and sings simple lyrics about affairs of the heart, her acrobatic voice describing nothing outré as it flirts with and flits around the synthetics.
These, in the hands of the elusive Langmaid, are key. Retro-futurism is the curse of this decade of irony, and recent electropop has sounded dated – a Hoxtonite vision of a future trapped in the museum of what it was supposed to be. Next single ‘Bulletproof’ is reminiscent of Erasure, but it’s pretty much the only overly familiar moment here, and the charts are already quaking before its brutally irresistible chorus. On ‘Tigerlily’ the synth parts at first resemble harpsichords in space before becoming heavily-processed steel drums, a motif that flows through ‘La Roux’, adding an unselfconscious reflection of her multi-cultural South London home. Langmaid’s ‘Quicksand’ is liquid-mercury-smooth but pierced by sharp vocals; ‘I’m Not Your Toy’’s calypso flick no doubt had Lily Allen green-faced during La Roux’s recent support slot. ‘As If By Magic’ and ‘Fascination’ are suave smashers tucked away towards the album’s close.
British pop acts are at their weakest when they perch on stools and attempt Yank R&B, but La Roux keeps her ballads local. ‘Cover My Eyes’ tenderly tackles jealousy as it blends synthesizers with the backing vocals of the London Community Gospel Choir to curiously hymnal effect. Another perfect slow song is closer ‘Armour Love’, Jackson’s voice a weary croon over mechanical crunching as the keys and synths are put to bed.
All of which adds up to a nigh-on flawless album. Just as fluffed ballads and songwriting by committees of television producers have recently ruined pop, even the great ’80s duos perfected singles but never cracked the long-player. Remarkably, with this astounding debut, an unassuming 21-year-old from SW2 has revitalised a forgotten form to make one of the finest forward-thinking British pop albums of recent memory. Sweet dreams are made of this, indeed. - NME review of La Roux's latest record, “La Roux” |
| Tuesday
July 28 |
Live Comedy
with hosts, Dave Shumka & Graham Clark
**Early Show** 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party
Houseparty - Retro Hip Hop Dance Party - DJ's: Ian Wyatt, Man Tears, Andy Dixon, Lil Baby Peace Sign & Pointy Lapointe
**Late Show!**
Doors 11:00pm
Tickets $5.00 |
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| Wednesday
July 29 |
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The bowerbird's long-distance advertising songs are loud vocalizations typically given by a male as he perches in the understory above his bower.
"Bowerbirds, from Raleigh, North Carolina, come out of the same nature-worshipping circles as the Microphones, and are similarly understated: Undersung male-female harmonies, accordion and plucky acoustic guitar, brushed drums, and the occasional violin." - Pitchfork
"The blowzy barbershop harmonies that open "Find Your Mark" evoke Fleet Foxes with terrible hangovers, although this album's release on a sub-label of the experimental music imprint Table of the Elements should give you a clue that this is more than rustic reconstruction."(Review of Megafaun's Bury the Square)
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| Thursday
July 30 |
SSRIs, Ghost House, Hermetic & Char2d2 (Char2d2's CD Release!)
Doors 8:00pm Show at 9:00pm
Tickets $7.00 at the door
Some of Vancouver's best!
Char2d2 (formerly of Bella) will be celebrating the release of her latest EP, produced by Tegan Quin (Tegan & Sara) John Collins (New Pornographers) and David Carswell (Smugglers)
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| Friday
July 31 |
Green Mountain Music Festival Fundraiser featuring:
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $10.00 - all the proceeds are going to Cystic Fibrosis foundation of Canada
The Green Mountain Music Festival is a little grass roots music festival with a heart of gold! All the proceeds from this years festival will go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! All the amazing bands and volunteers have and will donate their services and skills for this amazing cause.
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August 2009:
| Wednesday
August 12 |
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $10.00 available at Highlife and Red Cat
Buy tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
On sale June 26/09
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| Wednesday
August 19 |
Darren Woodhead
w/ Max Ulis, Lorne B, Dansolo and Neighbour
About Woodhead
What's happens after someone has spent years touring the dive bars of North America, sleeping on stranger's couches, eating cigarettes and coffee for breakfast, honing their bass chops in bands that played everything from punk to funk and jazz? They wise up, step out of the van, take their hard-earned musical lessons and become one of Vancouver's premier DJs.
After a brief stop at the well-respected Selkirk College music program and residency at Club Utopia in Nelson BC in the early 2000s. Darren Woodhead took his penchant for getting people on the dance floor, his DIY punk rock ethic and his first-hand experience in song-writing and gigging and fused it together to become Woodhead.
Now a resident DJ at the Lotus Lounge's Signal Saturday, where he spins Tech/Bassline, Fidget House, Indie Electro and Nudisco, Woodhead's climb to the top of Vancouver's dj scene started in dark East Van warehouses and all night dance parties. The release of his Body Language mix cds 1-3, where he fused hip-hop, house and electro, gained him exposure in Vancouver's club scene. He followed it up with his Acid Electrorash mixes, The Signal Sessions Mix Series for Intimate Productions and many pod casts of live dj sets.
From there things took a peculiar yet rewarding turn when, in 2003, Woodhead moved into a little house in Vancouver's gritty east side and developed an eager internet following based on the Sunday night celebrations surrounding a mobile sauna parked in his driveway. Saunasessions.ca and it's podcast quickly grew from a small gathering of friends playing records and sweating at the end of a weekend into a highly anticipated underground event. On any given Sunday one could find themselves sitting next to Darryl Hannah in the sauna, dancing beside a member of The Be Good Tanyas, Tegan and Sara and Royksopp with many of East Van's top djs spinning on the decks.
By 2008 DJ Woodhead was holding down Vancouver residencies at Shine, Lotus, The Dollhouse, Backstage Lounge and Dirty Beats In Whistler and performing under the sunshine and starry nights of highly anticipated festivals like Shambhala outside Nelson BC, Soundwave on Vancouver Island, as well as Mezzanine in Tulum Mexico, Hi-Fi Club in Calgary AB, Tommy Africa's and Maxx Fish in Whistler BC, Spirit bar in Nelson BC.
Check out DJ Woodhead's blend of bass heavy tech house and electro. His songs and remixes are available on Saunasessions.ca, Punch Out (Homebreakin Records' Sister label), Clocktower Records, E.C.I (Korea), Plasma Digital, T.K.G and his own label Skookum Music (launching early 2009). He also contributes remixes to Palms Out Sounds, a well-visited blog out of NYC. |
| Thursday
August 20 |
Pysch Folk rock band and Drag City recording artists from California led by Ben Chasny
Doors 8:00pm
Tickets $12.00 available at Zulu, Red Cat and Scratch
Buy tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
On sale July 03/09
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September 2009:
October 2009:
| Thursday
October 08 |
Timbre Productions presents:
Temporary Residence Ltd. recording artists
Mono
with special guests Maserati
Instrumental band from Japan, on tour to support their 10 year anniversary release “Hymn To The Immortal Wind”.
*** The Mono show, originally scheduled for Monday October 5th at The Biltmore, has been moved to Thursday October 8th at The Biltmore. Tickets purchased for the Oct. 5th date will be honoured at the door on Oct. 8th. ***
Doors at 8:00pm, Show at 9:30pm
Tickets $15.00 available at Zulu, Scratch, Red Cat and Ditch (Victoria) records.
Buy tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
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