Mercurial

Maybe tomorrow, I'll wanna settle down...

It's St. Patrick's Day and you know what that means. 

Shamrock Shakes! Oh yes. 

I have been waiting for this since last year's adventure in driving to two different McDonald's restaurants before finding staff who even knew what we were talking about. 

Hear me now, you fast food gods! I will have a Shamrock Shake by the end of this St. Patrick's Day! Minty refreshment, you will be mine!

Also, this is the day when St. Patrick is recognized for allegedly driving all the snakes out of Ireland. 

St. Patrick: Get out of Ireland, snakes! 

Snakes: With pleasure! 

So on this day, enjoy your green beer, listen to some Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, drink some Irish whiskey and raise a glass to shamrocks, blarney and um, Bono. Or whatever.  

I look forward to finding green vomit in various downtown spots for the next day or so. 

Slainte, Guelph! 

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On to the music! 

I will be honest and up front: I do not really like Great Big Sea. But I'm sure there are many who do and I'm sure those people are in for a good time at the Sleeman Centre tomorrow when the band comes to town. But for me, they are relegated to bad pub music. A step below even the Tragically Hip, the country's most overrated bar band.  

Wait. I lied. There's that one Great Big Sea song that I like. Mary Mac. I'm just impressed they never screw up the words.  

So say you're like me and you don't like Great Big Sea. Or say you wanted to support a local musician instead. 

Well lucky you!

Luke Michielsen and his band, the Baby Einsteins, Waterloo's Stephen Trothen and another Guelphite, Chris Yang,who is a member of the burnt oak posse are at Van Gogh's Ear tomorrow night. 

Michielsen sings with the plaintive wail of Neil Young, references him repeatedly in interviews (like this one from Nightlife) and in album art and does a pretty durn good job of appropriating the style without outright copying it. Besides the Neil Young comparison, I hear a lot of Joel Plaskett-esque tones in his voice. 

Most of the songs can be described as "brooding yet hopeful folk-rock." And describe them that way Michielsen does. The music is a lot different from his last group, Slowking, but I like this stuff better. 

The songwriting on this album, Burn to the Ground, is more honest and sad and sometimes, sad music is just what you need. But I also really like Whenever You Hear This Song, a loose, jangly sweetheart of a love song performed with his partner, Sarah Cook. 

Check out their tunes and go see the show. 

And if you haven't gotten enough live music, you can go see Tokyo Police Club and Hamilton's Young Rival at U of G's Peter Clark Hall this Saturday. 

I tried to see Young Rival at El Mocumbo in Toronto for Canadian Music Week Saturday, but we decided to go see Elliot Brood and Cuff the Duke at Lee's Palace instead. It was a tough call, but Elliott Brood played such a rocking, hardcore set of stinging, sweaty death-metal country that I do not regret it one bit. I'll catch Young Rival another time. 'Cause I just love that tarnished garage rock style. 

****

Now for something I do regret: this will be my last post for Mercurial. 

Friday is my last day at the Mercury and then it's on to something else. Don't know what yet, but until I figure it out, I will continue to write about the Guelph music scene at Sound Salvation Army, a collective music blog I write with several talented dudes from across this great nation. 

Still want your local band promoted? Still got a burning desire to tell me all about your band or send me an album you want reviewed? Still want people to know when you're playing a show? Still want to tell me how wrong I am about Great Big Sea being terrible? That's great! Because I still want to hear about all those things! 

Write me at tanisfowler@gmail.com. I promise to get back to you. Or at least, to not immediately delete your email. 

 

There's a voice that keeps on calling me.

Down the road, that's where I'll always be. 

At every stop I make, I make a new friend!

Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again. 

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. 

Until tomorrow, I'll just keep movin' on.

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tanisfowler@gmail.com 

Bustin' makes me feel good!

I ain't afraid of no Ghost Whisperer! 

You guys, I have been waiting to post this entry since I started this blog! What could Guelph possibly have to do with Ghost Whisperer? 

I'm glad you asked. 

I started watching this show as sort of a joke. It's pretty ridiculous. 

It's about a woman who sees ghosts and helps them cross over into the light. Yeah. It's dumb. 

There's wooden dialogue, many plot holes and at least one glamour shot of Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage per show. It's usually in some preposterous nightgown. 

Like the one at right.  

This show was so bad that I started making fun of it on another blog in which I and a few friends watched and made fun of bad TV shows. 

Ghost Whisperer was an early target and it continues to be hilariously awful. The fourth season is no exception. 

Melinda (that's J.Lo.Hew's character) and her husband, Jim, start out really happy. They're trying to have a baby and he's applying for med schools and she's happy whispering ghosts and selling overpriced antiques. But all is not well in small town America. 

Spoiler Alert! Jim is shot! He dies in the hospital and of course his ghost sticks around, begging Melinda not to look at his corpse because he always wants her to remember him as healthy and alive. 

So she cries. A lot. A LOT. This is quite a feat, because she wears a metric tonne of eye makeup. 

At this point, I was pretty sure it was a fake out and they'd find some way to bring him back. But that did not happen.  

Because then Jim's funeral happens. And they dance to Good Lovin'. True story. It's cheesy, but they do a not bad job with the scene. It's almost good. Until Melinda starts slow dancing with Jim's ghost like nobody can see her. Like the song isn't a freakin' fast rock and roll song! 

But that's not the stupid part. Yes, in fact, it gets MORE IDIOTIC.

Jim's ghost hangs around for awhile until even Melinda is like "Dude, you need to cross over. Do you see a light? Go into it!" But oh no, he don't.  

Instead, he waits for the perfect moment. IE: A tragic car vs. motorcycle accident. The motor cyclist, Sam, is killed. Melinda watches his spirit cross over into the light. And Jim takes this opportunity to jump into the fresh body, which just happens to be right there on a stretcher. If you don't want spirits to jump into bodies, maybe you shouldn't leave them laying around like that!

Sam starts coughing and Melinda rushes over all "Jim!? Jim!?" 

It's a miracle! Jim is alive! Except he doesn't look like Jim, played by David Conrad. 

Instead, he looks like Sam, who doesn't remember anything about being Jim. 

And that's where our connection comes in. Because Sam is played by Toronto actor and University of Guelph grad Kenneth Mitchell. You might recognize him from the CBS show Jericho, which was cancelled, then brought back, then cancelled for good.  

Or, if you ever watched university soccer when Mitchell was here, you might recognize him as a striker for the Gryphons. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture. 

I never watched Jericho, so I can't say much about his acting chops on that show. But his role on Ghost Whisperer, though important, is kind of weird. Because I don't think I've seen him utter one word. Most of Sam's scenes are played by David Conrad, the actor who plays Jim, because when Melinda looks at Sam, she sees Jim's soul. When other people look at Sam, they see Kenneth Mitchell. So the only time we see Mitchell is when he's reflected in a mirror or window or something. I keep hoping they do a little more with that, but I don't think they will. 

Next time you watch Ghost Whisperer — and I totally know you will because sweeps are coming up and Melinda just told Sam that he's really Jim and Sam thinks she's crazy and, oh it's getting nuts and you don't have anything better to do on Fridays anyway, right? — check him out! 

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tanisfowler@gmail.com

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

A friend who works at the Toronto Star posted a facebook note earlier today noting they were working on a story about Barbie for the doll's 50th anniversary and were looking for comments from people who'd mutilated their dolls as kids. 

At the tender age of seven, my toy box became a regular house of horrors. I chewed the plastic/vinyl feet of my Barbies (Mmmm.... petrochemicals. When I get cancer and die, I'll blame it on Barbie's delicious toes), beheaded Barbie and traded her head for Ken's, drew tattoos and cut and dyed hair. There were also Barbie/G.I. Joe orgies (She had one memorable encounter with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, which we really shouldn't speak of) and because I had a ton of Barbies, but only one Ken, Barbie and her friends did a lot of experimenting. I don't think Ken was a big fan of the ladies anyway. I mean, molded plastic underwear? Who are you protecting yourself from, Kenneth?   

Once, after discovering that Barbie's legs contained wire, stripped her leg from the knee down. From then on, I pretended she'd been in a tragic Lambourghini accident and needed an emergency amputation and would forever after require a metal prosthetic limb. It was a sad day in Barbie's perfect world.

My note resulted in a flurry of email exchanges followed by a quick phone interview from the reporter in Toronto. We discussed my many mutilations and how I felt about them. Mostly, I think it was a natural curiosity about taking things apart to see how they worked and putting them together again to better suit my own imaginative whims. 

The reporter laughed when I told her about my doll's amputation and jokingly asked if I was a doctor now. I told her that I'm an editor and she said many of the editors at the Star had also confessed to taking their Barbies apart. If you wanted to draw a conclusion from that, you probably could: Part of my job as an editor is to take stories apart and put them together in a different way. 

It's interesting to me that out of the box, Barbie supposedly represents the perfect, ideal woman. But she clearly isn't perfect to the little girls who play with her, judging by the many ways they change her to better suit their needs. 

I had short hair as a little girl. Barbie didn't. So I gave almost all my Barbies short hair cuts. I wanted a tattoo. Barbie got many before I ever had one. Dying Barbie's hair with a highlighter or marker was a form of rebellion long before I ever reached for the Manic Panic myself. Barbie was like a blank slate for me to practise being a girl and a woman. I'm not a happy homemaker and neither were my Barbies. 

I also think it's interesting that after girls started cutting their dolls' hair and dying it with different coloured markers, suddenly there were a plethora of Barbies on the market with growing hair, hair extensions or colour-change hair. Anything to make a buck. 

Speaking of bucks, for the week of March 9-14, participating retailers will sell the 50th anniversary throwback doll being marketed for the anniversary at the original 1959 Barbie's price — $3.

Also, though I am an adult female, I would totally buy this awesome Barbie and not mutilate her:

Anyway, if you pick up a copy of the Toronto Star tomorrow, I may be in it. Try not to be disturbed by my creepy Dr. Frankenstein tendencies. 

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com

Flame wars: Flaming Lips Vs. Arcade Fire!

See what I did there in the post title, with the band names and the temperature references? I almost went with Hot Hot Heat instead. Aw, I'm so punny! (That one's for you, Magda.)

OK, so Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne is always, always, ALWAYS running his mouth about something. He's dissed Beck, the Arctic Monkeys, Richard Ashcroft and Radiohead, to name but a few.

Now he's set his sights on Canadian indie darlings Arcade Fire.

Dudes. This is like Iron Chef, but with music. Battle Indie begins! Bands, I say unto you: Allez musique!  

Vs.

According to Coyne during a Rolling Stone interview, Arcade Fire are "pompous" and treat their audiences, um... poorly. He goes on to say that unlike Justin Timberlake and The Edge, Arcade Fire are big meanies.

Arcade Fire's would you care to respond? Why yes, yes they would. Win Butler posts a message via their official website. It amounts to a bemused, slightly passive aggressive "Ummmm...what the what?"

The whole thing is kind of weird, since if I were to make a list of "awesome concerts you should see before you die" both bands would be on it.

Ultimately, though I love Arcarde Fire, I'd bet the farm that Coyne will come out the victor in this dustup. A) It ain't his first time at the rodeo. B) I don't care how many marching bands you lead through an audience, Coyne literally puts himself into a bubble and walks into the crowd. Fierce!

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com

School's out forever! OK. Just the weekend.

You may have missed it, but last month, we featured Jay Stewart jamming out on the front page of the Mercury with a small story about the Interschool Battle of the Bands, where high school groups of all stripes go head to head to earn a spot at Hillside Festival. Jay's band, Funkameleon, didn't win the competition, but they DID line up a gig at John F. Ross' E.L. Fox auditorium. 

Funkameleon performs an all-ages show Friday night with The Suit and Odd One Out at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $5, available at John F. Ross.  

John F. Ross student Jay Stewart rocks out with his band Funkameleon during last 

month's Interschool Battle of the Bands at John F. Ross. GCVI's Union Black walked 

away with third place, Bishop Macdonell's F.O.B took second and Red Rosary from 

St. James left with first prize as well as a spot at Hillside Festival next summer. 

(Guelph Mercury/Nick Iwanyshyn)

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@gmail.com

Bursting into song

Meet Mitchell Moffit. Mitchell is a U of G student who could be making you very jealous if he's chosen to fill the "best job in the world." He applied for the position of caretaker of a tropical island in Australia. Duties include getting the mail, cleaning the pool and feeding the fish. Oh, and blogging about how fabulous life on the island is. 

Check out the video he submitted as part of the application process:

I wish Mitchell the best of luck. And if he is chosen and is somehow unable to fulfil his duties as island caretaker, my career schedule just freed itself up.

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Last week, I wrote about Gentleman Reg's new album, Jet Black. 

Tomorrow, you can see him perform for free. All you have to do is get out of bed before noon and head to U of G's University Centre Courtyard. The concert will be broadcast live on CFRU 93.3 FM. Check him out now, because he's headed to Austin's SXSW, later this month. That's where awesome Canadian acts go to get discovered by the rest of the world. I've been listening to Jet Black all week and it's so infectiously hooky that it has been singlehandedly improving my mood. 

Tomorrow's show appears to be the first of several in a series of free noon-hour concerts at U of G. Same time, same place next Friday, Jenn Grant will be performing songs from her most recent album, Echoes, available at Six Shooter Records. 

You're welcome in advance. 

Posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com

What the kids are listening to nowadays

Every so often, I like to remind my ancient, fossilized self that I was once a young person. Then I hear a song that makes all the kiddies scream and I kind of shudder.

I can't really pretend to love the music that Shiloh makes, but it's not for me. It's for the kids. And I love da kids! One of my colleagues says his young daughter loves Shiloh's song Operator and sings it all the time. And that's all that really matters.

Tonight, Vinyl plays host to Distance Between Stars, Chasing Amee, The Canned Goods, Metro Heroes and yes, Shiloh.

The great thing about a show like this is, fans of one band are exposed to the music of other bands. So I sincerely hope that Shiloh fans enjoy the show and also find some new favourites.

Of all these bands, I really only know two. Distance Between the Stars are a Hamilton group with punkish leanings. They're fantastic. You should check their music out. The Canned Goods, well, you just have to take my word for it as I can't find any music of theirs online to link to. Yet.

I chatted with the band today for a story we're working on, then Mercury photographer Ryan Pfeiffer went out on the town with them to collect a few photos. And we got more than we're ever going to be able to use with an article, so we thought we'd show them off! Visit our Mercury Visuals blog for another shot with 90% more bad graffiti.

                                             Ryan Pfeiffer, Guelph Mercury

Guelph-based band The Canned Goods featuring, clockwise
from left, Ben Millar, Alexis Troyak, Tyler Bersche and Elliott
Gwynne.

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com

It's Friday night. Do you know where the coolest shows in town are?

Eleven Presents: Whale Tooth, Burn Planetarium, Saskatoon Guitar Destroyer @ Jimmy Jazz
Show starts at 10 p.m. 19+ only, no cover.

Saskatoon Guitar Destroyer is actually not from Saskatoon, but Toronto. Liars. But this prairie girl won't hold it against the band. Especially because of the awesome high-hat action on the song Every Kid In This Town. It's so subtle that it just skims along over everything else, barely perceptible. But if it wasn't there, you'd miss it, and that's something to be proud of. Bumble Birds is just a fantastic waltz through rhythms and loopy little jazz flights of fancy that I don't want to say too much about it, lest I ruin the magic. Go see and find out.

So many up and coming Toronto bands are making their way to the top via Guelph. It's good to see, better to hear. Last summer, Guelph group Burn Planetarium posted a review that they wrote of their first ever show. Result: Hilarity. They've improved since then. Vastly. I've sung their praises before and I've no doubt I'll do it again. They remind me a little bit of Tokyo Police Club. The last time they updated, it was to let everybody know they were recording a new EP. They estimated it would be out in March. I can't wait to hear it.

Whale Tooth singer Elise LeGrow has the same warm timbre in her voice that Sarah Harmer does. And that is a real treat, because this band is TIGHT. Their writing is also superb, with songs that are short, sweet pieces of pop of the type you could expect of poppier singer songwriters in the 70s. If you hate pop records where every song sounds the same, if you are looking for a band that produces music that is the polar opposite of the aural turds squeezed out by Nickelback, if you like She & Him, if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, go see Whale Tooth tonight.

Louise Kent @ Carden Street Cafe
Show starts at 10:30 p.m., tichets are $10 at the door

Songstress Louise Kent is at the Carden Street Cafe tonight, singing songs from her new album, The Small Things. She's on the new label, Me To We Music, which is bringing something new to record labels: A consience. The label is part of the Me To We movement, brought to you by Craig and Marc Kielberger of Free the Children fame. Kent is not only a singer and performer, but a motivational speaker and Executive Director of Me To We.

Her record The Small Things is the debut album for Me to We Music and the label is raising awareness about social issues, as well as supporting Free the Children projects around the world. If the success of Free The Children is any indication, then I think Me To We can certainly inspire youth to "be the change."

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com

Don't worry, be happy!

So we're all a little bummed by layoffs and things around here, but one thing that never fails to make me happy is new music. The tunes I have been rocking lately, let me show you them:

First up, I must say my heart swelled to see Guelph boy Gentleman Reg's song How We Exit from his new album Jet Black named Single of the Week on iTunes. Yay!

Every time I go to a show here or in Toronto with my friend Steph, we see Gentleman Reg. He's hard to miss. The Yellow Stereo also has a Gentleman Reg track called You Can't Get It Back. Oh my, are they good. There's a rushing urgency that's utterly cheerful. It's like there's a puppy waiting for you at the end of every song. You heard it here first, folks. Free puppy with purchase. So get on over to Zunior and buy the album.

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I've been in love with her music since she was doing jangly, fun-filled honkey tonk, but Neko Case really came into her own on Furnace Room Lullaby, an album full of dark, sweeping, Americana. And her voice - my God! - her voice! It is summer strawberries and lush chocolate cake. It's an afternoon in the bathtub and a golden wave of grain in a Saskatchewan field. It's a cracked asphalt road hot on your bare feet and it's a sprout pushing up from the ground. It is everything and nothing and you can't fight it, so you might as well feel it. 

If Neko's mighty voice made her famous, her lyrics and music are making her an icon. Her albums dip  and swell in all the right places and her strong D-I-Y ethic has made her tough as nails and experimental in her marketing. She recently promised that for every MP3 blogger who posted an MP3 of her first single People Got A Lotta Nerve, she would donate cash money to Best Friends Animal Society. Talk about embracing a medium that many artists shun. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. Le sigh. I have a huge girl crush on her. 

I would sell you my soul and eternal gratitude for tickets to her upcoming Toronto show. Seriously. You could take your pick of any soul or soul-related products I might have on my person.

I've been cranking the volume to 11 while listening to a few leaked singles from her upcoming album Middle Cyclone, available for preorder on the anti website and out in stores March 3.

It's been far too long since she released an album and she's got a lot to live up to since 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. It is rare indeed when I find an artist that I love enough to just go to the record store and buy their album, unheard, trusting that it will be good.

But if I have nothing else, I have faith in Neko Case.

***


One of my favourite albums of 2007 was Good Bad Not Evil by Atlanta psychedelic garage rock group The Black Lips. A collection of shuffling, grimy, bare-bones rock songs, it was filled with country wail and a punk fury. Their songs Bad Kids, O Katrina and Veni Vidi Vici made me feel like a badass. I tried to see them opening for the White Stripes, but for some reason, by the time I looked into it, they were no longer on the ticket. Their new album 20 Million Thousand sounds awesome so far. I'm digging the fuzzy, frantic Short Fuse right now. Check out the video:

***

The final band I've been anticipating a new album from for, ooooh, years, is French power pop group Phoenix.

I heard their song Rally on an episode of Veronica Mars and fell in love. Their new album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, isn't out until May 25. Oh, but I want it now! And so do you, I bet. But don't fret. They're nice guys. So they're offering a free download of the single 1901 on their website, wearephoenix.com. Go get it! It's a pulsing, pounding musical adventure! With pink flash animation!

So that's what I've been listening to lately! Do yourself a favour and seek out some new music.

And do check in for some more local concert dates coming later today!

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com

He's a poet. I didn't know it.

To me, much of the poetry of today rings false. Especially when it's read out loud. I don't know why I don't like it. It just feels fake. Like the poet is ... trying too hard. Give me a standup comic who works blue or a morose monologuist any day of the week. Call me a rube if you want, but I guess my taste never evolved much past "there once was a man from Nantucket..."

But I had to get over that irrational hatred of poetry. Because I heard a few of my favourite artists praise Vancouver aritst C.R. Avery. Tom Waits and Charlie Musselwhite among them. Their word brooks no argument from me. They liked him, so I felt honour-bound to check him out.

Never schmaltzy, always raw, definitely real, funny and fierce, C.R. Avery is a harp player (that'd be a harmonica), a beat boxer (yes, that kind) and a spoken word artist (I hear tell they called 'em poets once) who sells out almost every place he plays.

It's like listening to a Tom Waits record that's been steeped in Leonard Cohen and Neil Young with a side of, I dunno, Biz Markie.

C.R. Avery will be at the Carden Street Cafe tonight. Woe be upon the poor souls who do not have reservations. Call 519-837-2830 to make yours. The show starts at 10:30 p.m. Tickets will be sold only at the door.

posted by: Tanis Fowler, tfowler@guelphmercury.com