Slow trip home

Mike Feuerstack may call Montreal home these days, but a good chunk of his musical career gestated in Ottawa as a member of Wooden Stars. I first saw him ages ago at Lucky Ron's with that band (Julie Doiron sang a few songs with them that night, concealed in a massive scarf with her hands in her pockets). He's performed with scads of other bands, so it was probably easy to assemble an underground supergroup for his CD release party at Zaphod's.

Mike sings sensitively!



Mike sings urgently!



Jeff Debutte in red.



Peter X.-rated vocals.



Jeremy Gara takes a break from drumming in The Arcade Fire to add some guitar and keyboards.



Singalong action!



More Gara multitasking.



And finally some more singalong action with Rolf Klausener and his classy satchel.



Hmm, I thought I took some drummer photos. Guess not; Bill Hesselink was keeping time.

• Show reminder: Butterflies and Zebras perform at the Avant-Garde; If you dig The Pack, you might fancy rockin' Toronto blues duo Little Foot Long Foot at The Rainbow, Sandy rounds out the bill. Windsor pop-punkers Tragedy of Mariam and Downline bring a little bit of the Vans Warped Tour to the Elmdale Tavern.

Take a flight

Snailhouse has a new record out, and naturally mainman Mike Feuerstack came down to Ottawa for a CD release show. His opener was Sarah Hallman; Feuerstack played steel guitar on her debut album and the two artists share a similar aesthetic so it all fit together quite nicely. Here's Sarah and her musical partners for the evening. All the photos were shot sans flash so most of them are a bit impressionistic.



Bassist Adam Fogo.



A well-lit Brian Simms.



A very overexposed Sarah.



A less well-lit Brian.



More Sarah.



The whole lot! Which included Matt Ouimet, who doesn't get a photo of his own because it was too damn dark back there.



Lovely as usual.

• Show reminder: Roberto Gell and I-Trinity bring the reggae to Zaphod Beeblebrox.

In translation

What a quiet Monday. I went over to Zaphod's after watching No Country For Old Men and a bite to eat to see Victoria's Italian Edition, Toronto's Foxfire and local twosome Auto Racing. About two dozen folks had the same idea, mostly friends of the bands.

Italian Edition began things with some cerebral alternative rock.


Italian Edition, Zaphod Beeblebrox, July 21, 2008

Foxfire is a Toronto septet who are either Eurosleaze discopop or indie soul dance music ... maybe that's the same thing? I gather they used to call themselves Foxfire Forest but dropped the Forest. All I know is Neil Rankin sings most of the lead vocals, Andre Lowy plays keys and trumpet.


Foxfire, Zaphod Beeblebrox, July 21, 2008

Can't forget Hannah Krapivinsky (the other lead singer, a bouncy lass) and Anna Edwards over on the right.


Foxfire, Zaphod Beeblebrox, July 21, 2008

By the time Auto Racing got on stage the crowd had shrunk to four (at least on the dancefloor). It's a duo, Cosmo on bass and Tyson Hein on drums. When I think of bass duos folks like Lightning Bolt, Pink and Brown and Om come to mind. Auto Racing are neither disjointed minimalist punk nor trance drone. Cosmo plays his six string by hammering on melodies on the higher strings and keeping the rhythm on the lower ones. I found them proggy. I can't think of anyone on the local scene (or elsewhere, for that matter) quite like them.


Auto Racing, Zaphod Beeblebrox, July 21, 2008

An interesting triple bill, mostly in a good way.

• Show reminder: Al-Kinda, Rottaway, Mud Lake and Citizen Folk perform at the Bytown Tavern. Memmaker performs at Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Shanks and so long

The New Bayou is certainly doing good work providing for the punks, with Punk Rock Moondaze and frequent shows. This Vanier Shank/Visitors gig at the end of June was quite well-attended. Unfortunately it's awfully dark, which made it kind of inconvenient for snappy snapping. Either that or I was totally slacking off, because almost all of the pictures I took stunk. Up first, Vanier Shank. They've popped up a bunch of times in my show reminders, but I never had the opportunity to catch them live before now.

Train J. Laing sings and guitars.



Eric Martin drumsalot.



Dave Irwin basses in the background.



The whole lot.



And some post-cap action.



There's been mention of an album in the works on their Myspace. Nothing on shows in the future, though. And now on to The Visitors, another band I seem to have been missing alot - I caught their Zaphod's debut, then ignored them. I'm so fickle. As you'd expect from a band featuring members of The Annoyers and The Creeps, there's quite a sizable Ramones influence.

Skottie Magellan sings!



Antarctic Cat da Gama M.Sc. sings!



Kevo Polo does not sing! At least not here.



The whole lot!



And so on.





Their new CD Lost on the Globe is getting rave reviews, but no word of future shows here either.

• Show reminder: Foxfire, Auto Racing and Italian Edition perform at Zaphod's.

As years go by

The Late '94s attracted a lot of early buzz for their CD release party and it was pretty well-attended. Indeed a good chunk of the audience seemed to recognize the tunes as they were doled out - not bad for a first show. Something about their stuff reminds me of Husker Du and Sugar, though with more of a singer-songwriter bent.

The whole lot! Namely Mike Short on bass, Ryan O'Hagan on lead vocals and guitar, Tristan Knott on lead guitar and Mike Bond on drums - Bond also produced their debut EP.



Ryan rasps!



Tristan leads!



More backing vocals from Mike.



And more drumming from Mike.



And so on!



Singalong action!



More leading.



Big rock moves finish!



The band had so much fun releasing their CD they're going to do it again at Greenfield's Pub with Brights and The Love Machine.

• Show reminder: Manpower, Love Takes Lives and The Ryde perform at Zaphod's.

Living off the land

It's been a while ago now, but there are still a few leftovers from Acres' and Electric Lives' opening sets for The Late 94s. I only caught the last couple of songs by Acres, then heard them in the distance a couple of weeks later when they performed at Bluesfest.

The whole lot!











The recently remixed These Electric Lives had a fun set as well. They weren't quite as bouncy as the last time I saw them, but were even sharper musically, with some prime Britpop sounds. Other than that it's all a blur to me (both mentally and photographically).

Blurry Bryan and Griffon (who was tucked away on the other side of the pillar behind a huge fan for most of the set).



Blurry Gary!



Not so blurry Mark and Gary singalong action!



Drummer Adam.



And so on.









Like many another band, These Electric Lives will be performing at the iheartmusic fest; in particular at Mavericks on August 21.

• Show reminder: Obelysk! and Tauno play Clemow Mansion (which is probably not a mansion, but is on Clemow - No. 326 to be precise). The Polymorphines release their new CD alongside The Mistress at Zaphod's. The Sin Kickers and Power Farm perform at Irene's. Capital Grass & The No-Men and Elizabeth Bruce perform at the Avant-Garde Bar.