Long time no see

I'm getting back into the swing of things, and that meant heading over to Bar Robo on Friday to see Organ Eyes. In the last few years I've seen Sam solo on several occasions, but heard nothing of her band with Cam - well, looks like it's still a going concern. They played Ottawa Explosion this year, and have an upcoming show at Targ Oct. 10 with Weaves and Bonnie Doon. Here's Sam and the rhythm section!



Bass action with Travis (of Fire Antlers)!



Guitar action with Cam!



Percussive action with Jon!



Sam adjusts!



Cam sings!



Deli sign action!



Closeup action!



More drumming!



Ocular action!



Hoan played a wonderful set; they have a standout vocalist in Alex Nicol and a cool, sombre take on the new wave, post-punk sound.



Synthetic action with Mike!



Alex hits!



Guitar action with Ouss!



Gripping action!



Guitar action!



A fine show!

From puberty to hussy

Black Squirrel Books offered up a diverse bill last week, with sets from electro chanteuse Pipahauntas, punk duo Puberty Hands and sludgists HSY.  Puberty Hands were up first. Like so many other hotly tipped acts they hail from the musical nexus of Peterborough; their stripped down sound would make them a good match for a group like The Nymphets. This was their first show outside their home town and third altogether. (You can download their album for free from Bandcamp, BTW.)



Candice sings!



Augusta shouts!



Gear-switching action!



More Candice!



Extra Augusta!



A shouty bit!



Pipahauntas was on next, as with her show at St. Alban's for Megaphono, she had Patric disk-jockeying for her.



Sam sings!



Shelved action!



Extra Sam!



Patric scratches!



HSY turned up the volume for their heavy set. Here's band founder Jude, who started the group out as a solo noise project.



Electronic action!



Anna works the feedback! She was at Black Squirrel in April 2015 performing for her much-different solo act Anamai.



Kat hits!



Extra Kat!



Anna sings!



Jumping about with Jude and Link!



Jude sings!



More guitar!



A fine show.

Spreading the gospel

Another year, another Megaphono festival. Once again Jon Bartlett and Co.'s Ottawa-music-promoting extravaganza brought a bunch of great acts to the capital, in addition to various folks with knowledge to impart about the music business, and with several shows a day it was possible to spend very little time sleeping. I didn't get out to all the acts I wanted to see (I was feeling abit under the weather) but still managed to catch a bunch of good stuff, starting on Tuesday at St. Alban's with Pipahauntas. For this gig she was backed by Patric on turntables.



Blue action!



Sam sings!



Adjusting action!



Emilie & Ogden come from Montreal, Emilie being Kahn and Ogden being her Lyon & Healy 34-string lever harp.



And so on!



The Acorn finished things off; it's been quite a while since I saw them (Bluesfest 2008 to be precise), but I've seen Rolf and Pat performing since then in Silkken Laumann and backing Jon Hynes. Here's Pat, shaking things up.



Rhythm section action with Martin Charbonneau!



Rolf sings!



And speaking of Silkken Laumann, here's Adam Saikaley.



More Martin!



Nutty action!



Guest vocal action with Caylie of Boyhood!



That done, I took the bus down to Ottawa South for a show at the House of Targ (and some perogies, I was getting a bit hungry). I missed the first act of the night, local art-rockers High Waters, so the next combo in front of the lens was Réglement 17, a metal-prog outfit named after Ontario's anti-francophone legislation of the early 20th century. Here's Cathy Vallières and Daniel Sauvé, along with Kevin Daoust, back left.



And here's some more Cathy with bassist Xavier Bélanger and violinist Patrick Pharand.



Extra Patrick, and drummer Éric Pitre!



Faceoff action!



Xavier sings!



Guest vocal action with Le R!



Regulated action!



And so on!



Singalong action with Kevin!



Now would be a good time to say that the lineup for the late show was a little odd, since it went from industrial prog to francophone rap. Patchostars - a.k.a. - Ken Patcheli Likiti - comes from Congo via Herault, France, and started things off with a rap about child soldiers.



And so on!



An interesting end to the day.