The Art We Are usually plays host to
small, acoustic acts. On September 1st, the acts were
small, but definitely not acoustic.
Calgary's Hello Moth was through town
with ba:zel, an electro-acoustic act from Prague in the Czech
Republic. Both bands had been on a long cross-country Canadian tour.
Ba:zel are a duo, made up of Ewelina
Aifen Chiu on vocals, piano and flute, and Daniel Vlcek, playing
guitar and manipulating a production board. Ewelina has an
enchanting, ethereal voice, and accented her singing and playing with
rhythmic dance moves and swirling arm movements. Daniel mostly played
with a sample board and manipulated the piano sound, but did play a
guitar on a few tracks. Mostly, the music had a classical feel, with
a healthy dose of electronics and post-punk.
Hello Moth met up with ba:zel thanks
to fellow Calgarian Foonyap, who toured with ba:zel during a European
trip in the summer. Hello Moth plays a sound straight out of the 80s,
swirling, crisp synth-pop with vocals reminiscent of Howard Jones or
Jimmy Sommerville of the Communards. Hello Moth's musical set up with
a simple Casio keyboard and a sampling pedal. He'd play short bits at
the start of each song, sample them into the pedal, then layer the
bits together to make the base of the song, then sing and play a bit
over top of the samples. The result is a full band sound with very
little effort.
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
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The Von Zippers - Truck Stop Nun (Da Slyme)* - Oh Canaduh 2 (Lance Rock) Devo - Satisfaction (Rolling Stones) - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Warner) Devo - Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails) - Pioneers Who Got Scalped (Rhino) Superchunk - Girl U Want (Devo) - Freedom of Choice (Caroline) Maria in the Shower - Wealthy Poet (Geoff Berner)* - Festival Man (Independent) Liquid Jesus - Stand (Sly and the Family Stone) - Pump Up the Volume OST (A&M) Michael Bridge - Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)* - Overture (Independent) Scala - Creep (Radiohead) - On the Rocks (PIAS) Red Arms - Academy Fight Song (Mission of Burma)* - Let Every Nation Know (Independent) The Jolts - Diamond Dogs (David Bowie)* - Shake Sampler Vol. 2 (Shake!) Beat Crusaders - Debaser (The Pixies) - Tribute to the Pixies (Invisible) Ethan Gold - Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Bauhaus) - Live Undead Bedroom Closet Covers (Elektric Gold) Weird Al Yankovic - I Love Rocky Road (The Arrows kinda….) - Weird Al Yankovic (Scotti Bros)
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
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D.O.A. - Woke Up Screaming* - Something Better Change (Sudden Death) Bad Waitress - Rabid Dog* - Party Bangers Vol. 1 (Royal Mountain) Pegboy - Never a Question - Fore EP (Quarterstick) The 427s - Julie Newmar’s Guitar* - Stay Gold (Stingray Sounds) Thunderpussy - Badlands - Thunderpussy (Stardog) King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Down the Sink - Gumboot Soup (ATO) Ghost of You - Tempest - Black Yoga (Indies Scope) Virtues and Failings - Just an Echo* - Virtues and Failings EP (Independent) Bison - Dark Skies Above* - Earthbound (No List) No Liars - The Unheard* - The Cause and the Cure (Independent) Smitt E. Smitty - Sugar Blast - Just a Modern Guy (Independent) Death from Above 1979 - Cold War* - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine (Last Gang) Rocket 3 - I Choose Love - What's the Frequency? (Independent)
One of the last festivals of the summer season in the BC Interior is the Nimblefingers Festival, held on the last weekend in August in the small town of Sorrento, BC. Nimblefingers focuses mostly on traditional bluegrass. It centers around a week long workshop schedule for musicians, held by the veteran performers invited to the festival, who cap the entire week off with a one-day music festival held in the Sorrento Centre.
The festival is a small one, with just one main stage, and a small afternoon side stage. Most of the action can be seen with just a short two minute walk in between the stages. The weekend was still suffering from the lingering forest fire season, so there was some haze during the day, but nothing too serious.
We got there in the late afternoon, in time for the 3 PM concert, The Bucking Mules, a four-piece band from the Carolinas. They played a high-energy style of bluegrass, mostly focused around the fiddle, but also featuring some spirited banjo during their set.
Eli West, from Portland, Oregon was featured next. He played the guitar and the banjo, plus sang, and used a rotating cast to duet with throughout the set. Guests included John Reischman, the Romeros, Chris Coole, and members of the Bucking Mules. West's vocal style was clean and perfect for dueting.
Every year, the festival puts together a band filled with some of the best musicians of the festival called the Nimblefingers All-Stars. Canadian Craig Young was the leader of the band, combined with Keith Yoder (mandolin), Todd Livingston (dobro), John Mailander (fiddle) and Danny Booth (bass). The band took the crowd though a number of old favourites, giving every member a chance to solo and play.
After a dinner break during the Special Consensus concert, we were back for the Lonesome Ace Stringband, a modern bluegrass trio from Toronto. Led by Chris Coole, a fantastic banjo player, they ran through a set of old time folk music with a modern feel, with just a few traditional tunes. They focused a lot on innovation and modern styles, with a strong background in the old-time folk tradition.
The headliners were the Greg Blake Band. Greg Blake, like Lonesome Ace, were fresh off of the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival, where they played, then took off down the road to Sorrento for the Nimblefingers Festival. Greg Blake is a wonderful guitar player and vocalist, equally good at traditional country tunes as in traditional bluegrass. He had a six-piece band that played very traditional bluegrass. They were amazingly tight, stringing together solo bridges and vocal harmony with almost no breaks. The band members played off of each other expertly. They were very good at three-part vocal harmony, with Greg Blake leading the vocals, into Blake stepping aside for banjo player Patrick Sauber and Danny Booth joining him on the same mic for harmony. The band also featured some fantastic fiddling from Katrina Nicolayeff and another appearance from mandolin player John Reischman.
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
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Teenage Wedding - St. Maria* - The Sophia of Teenage Wedding (Independent) Oxlip - Outshine the Devil* - Wolves! Cried the Maid (World Peach) Whisper Suite - Broken Runaway* - Love Notes (Independent) Frog Eyes - A Strand of Blue Stars* - Violet Psalms (Paper Bag) Superorganism - Everybody Wants to Be Famous - Superorganism (Domino) Blood Wine and Honey - Loosefoot - Fear and Celebration (Do Right!) Uni - Electric Universe - Uni (Independent) NOIA - Too Much Attention* - Maybe Forever (Independent) Mudhoney - Let it Slide - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (Sub Pop) Male Bonding - Mysteries Complete - Endless Now (Sub Pop) Comets on Fire - Jaybird - Avatar (Sub Pop) Hello Moth - A Song About Transience* - Slave in a Stone (Independent)
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
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cub - Motel 6* - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact) NoMeansNo - The Graveyard Shift* - One (Wrong) pooched - Lashes* - wut does music mean to U? (Independent) Hansmole - Gourmet Bathing* - Bitter Herb (Independent) Sparkmarker - Tamarack* - Products and Accessories (Independent) Shearing Pinx - Blood Corridor* - Poison Hands (Independent) Volcano Calculator - Golden Horns* - Volcano Calculator (Ulusulu) Gesture - Trains* - No Past, it Started All Over Again (Independent) Bridal Party - Man of One of My Dreams* Dumb - Cowboy* - Seeing Green (Mint) Calpurnia - Louie* - Scout (Royal Mountain) Crack Cloud - Empty Cell* - Anchoring Point (Independent) Brilliant Orange - Happy Man* - Last Call (Zulu)
Day 2 of my Salmon Arm Roots and Blues experience started where yesterday started: at the Shade Stage. We showed up just in time for the Herald Nix workshop. Nix is a Salmon Arm native who put his own stamp on the punk and indy scene in Vancouver in the 80s. He was an original innovator in dark roots music, merging blues, country, folk and punk. The workshop was run by the always entertaining Vancouver-based accordionist Geoff Berner, who introduced each performer, who did a version of the own favourite Herald Nix track. The line up was stellar, featuring Pharis and Jason Romero, Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage, Bill Kirchen, The Lonesome Ace Stringband, Steve Dawson, Monkeyjunk and Russell deCarle. Berner himself did a version of "What a World", replete with profanity, but stripped out and made weird the only way he can.
Sticking around at the Shade Stage for the Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch workshop, where some real collaborative magic happened. This one was hosted by Pharis and Jason Romero, who led the ensemble to play some of their favourite country and roots songs. American bluegrass and country act Greg Blake, and his fiddler played a Johnny Cash tune. Nova Scotia's legendary country singer Cindy Church teamed with BC dobro player Nathan Tinkham for a version of "Satin Sheets". Bill Kirchen did a version of "Looking at the World Through a Windshield" and legendary American country artist Jimmie Dale Gilmore growled his way through a couple of tracks. The ensemble worked to play with each other, with each performer signalling another one to take the bridge and solos. Bill Kirchen was especially good, improvising and breaking out into bridges like the seasoned veteran guitar player he is. This was one of the better concerts of the weekend.
Off to the Barn Stage for Russell deCarle and Steve Briggs. deCarle is an ex-member of the legendary Canadian country band Prairie Oyster and has been performing solo for a few years now. His style has been moving more in the country swing direction, and he's put out an album of jazz songs as well. As expected, deCarle played a solid set of country, blues and swing, and his voice was in a sultry top form all set. Cindy Church was a surprise guest for the middle of his set, performing a series of duets with deCarle.
The Barn Stage was host to the legendary Jimmy Reed, who plowed through a tight set of blues standards. Disappointingly, he did play exactly the same set as he did on the Main Stage the previous night.
Major Love was the first indy-rock band of the day. This new band is formed of Colleen Brown and members of Edmonton based band Scenic Route to Alaska. They had just released their debut album and spend most of their set playing tracks from that new album. They have a upbeat and melodic rootsy take on indy rock and already tightening up their sound.
Steve Dawson next played the Barn Stage. He is a truly talented guitarist, playing both standard guitar and a lap-style guitar. His set was a fascinating mix of country, blues, rock and roots. He brought in fiddler and trumpet player Daniel Lapp for his set. He even busted out a couple of track of traditional 30s Hawaiian guitar tracks.
Off to the Main Stage for the final two concerts. French-Canadian band Oktopus were on the stage, and were easily one of the most inventive bands of the Festival. They played a mostly instrumental style of Eastern European folk, French-Canadian folk, klezmer and classical, formed of a fiddler, organist/pianist, clarinetist, and two ranges of trombone. They were incredibly entertaining and their music was a style rarely heard at summer festivals in Western Canada.
Capping off the festival was Canadian blues rock legend Colin James. His band was an 8-piece cobbled together from two members of Monkeyjunk, saxophonist David Babcock (who played with the Salmon Arm House Band all weekend), trumpet player Daniel Lapp and parts of his own band. Despite being put together over the weekend, the band was incredibly tight. James himself was very entertaining and highly energetic, and played most of his hits like "Five Long Years" and "Why'd You Lie". He even played some tracks from his upcoming new album, due out in September. Great cap to the entire festival!
