Jenny and Richard

Thursday night, I treated myself to a night out at a concert. I caught Guelph, Ontario's Jenny Omnichord (of the on-hiatus Barmitzvah Brothers) and Richard Laviolette at local tea/music house The Art We Are. I arrived a bit early to talk to both of them and get station IDs.

Jenny was very kind, though a bit distracted with her 2-year old Otis, and Richard was quite friendly and engaging. They took their time getting to the performing area, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Jenny Omnichord plays a strange electronic instrument called an omnichord (natch), which is sort of like a cross between a player organ and an accordion, but you play it on your lap like a steel guitar. You can see her playing it here. It has an eerie sound sort of like a theremin. Jenny's set was cute and her music has a wonderful lo-fi indy sound, sounding like it was kind of thrown together in a sort of dada-ish way, but clearly structured and warm, despite the 70s space-age sound of the omnichord. Her vocal style reminds me a lot of Kimya Dawson and the music is similar to B.A. Johnston or a mutant lo-fi version of They Might Be Giants. She also played a Mayor McCA cover, a name I haven't heard in years. Otis provided his own entertainment, wandering around looking for something to entertain himself, checking out the bookshelves and generally being a cute little gremlin.

Richard's set was equally as disarming, but for different reasons. Richard is a thin and friendly person, but the voice inside of him is more like a young Bob Dylan, both in power and in passion. His work is definitely on the broke-down country side of things, but he often sang like a protest singer too. Most folk style singers may slack off on their guitar playing, simply strumming along, but Richard played a bit like John Fahey (Richard did a short cover of Fahey's Sligo River Blues to start his set). Richard was a very pleasant surprise and well worth your time if you get to see him. Here's Richard with a full band, playing Funeral Song.

I bought both of Jenny's solo albums and you should too. She's on her way East back to Ontario now, so catch her if you're on the tour route!