CMF Day 4: Jon Rae Fletcher, Herman Dune, Basia Bulat, Elliott Brood, Cuff The Duke

I'm actually amazed at how 'not tired' I was by day 4 of Canadian Music Week or Fest or whatever. It's not that I'm not tired, it's just that I was expecting myself to be twice as tired as I actually felt on Saturday night. Still, I avoided venue hopping and had decided to just simply get my twang on at Lee's Palace for the night. The lineup looked solid, featuring some of the more folk and country oriented acts in the city. It looked like it was going to be a chilled and laid back evening. Turns out, I was only sort of right.
Jon Rae Fletcher started the night off with a distinct crooner's warble that was very endearing. His latest album Oh, Maria stands in stark contrast to 2006's Knows What You Need, with its introspective lyrics and downplayed tempo, and this is the atmosphere that he portrayed that night. The personal upheaval that has surrounded his life over the last few years has been well documented, and even though there is something very somber and reflective about his lyrics these days, his performance was still that of a man who is witty, with a good self-deprecating sense of humour. He even attempted to perform an older song as per an audience member's request, and upon realizing that he couldn't quite remember the rest of the lyrics, he simply bowed out gracefully, with a shrug and a laugh, refusing to take himself too seriously.

Photos: Jon Rae Fletcher @ Lee's Palace on flickr.
Myspace: Jon Rae Fletcher
Next up was Herman Dune from Paris, France. The band is a two piece, consisting of David-Ivar Herman Dune on guitar and vocals, and Néman Herman Dune on drums and backing vocals. The band plays a very quirky brand of folk music that is bent in a whimsical direction that comes across sounding as the bizarre love child of The Mountain Goats, Jens Lekman and maybe Cat Stevens. This being my first introduction to his music, I thought the lyrics were very strong and filled with clever wordplay. The melodies were simple, yet effective, and his voice was honest and powerful, although in a slightly nasal sort of way. He also had a very unique stage presence, that of a bearded traveling vaudeville performer. All of these ingredients together made for an enjoyable and bizarre experience that made me feel as if I was in some sort of cartoon or something.

Photos: Herman Dune @ Lee's Palace on flickr
Myspace: Herman Dune
I can't believe that I haven't seen Basia Bulat since last summer, and apparently a couple of things have changed. First of all, I noticed that Holly Rancher was not in attendance. Is she still part of the band? Does anyone know? Furthermore, I think that Basia has gained a little bit more confidence than the last couple of times that I saw her. She's always had a very sweet unsureness about her, but this time, even when certain things didn't go as smoothly as she likely would have hoped (i.e: sound problems with the ukelele,) she seemed to handle it with great poise and humour. She opened the show with I Was Your Daughter, a song that I'm pretty sure I'm used to seeing her end with. It's such a great song and the hyper handclaps got the crowd involved right away. She did a lot of the usual numbers, and even introduced a couple of new ones, including a great tune that she said was tentatively called Canyonero (named after the SUV on The Simpsons.) The show was lighthearted, even having a little kazoo thrown in for good measure. Her talent continues to amaze me as she always makes playing the autoharp look effortless.

Photos: Basia Bulat @ Lee's Palace on flickr
Myspace: Basia Bulat
At this point, any thought that this would be a nice little laid back evening was dashed to pieces by the time Elliott Brood took to the stage. I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that Elliott Brood was a countrified acoustic band. However, upon speaking to some of the fans in attendance before they hit the stage, it was becoming obvious that the evening was about to be cranked to another level. These guys may have been equipped with acoustic guitars, but they rocked hard! Every song came blasting through the air in a way that had me feeling stupid for forgetting my earplugs, and the band's hyperactive enthusiasm got the crowd whipped into a rock 'n roll frenzy. Partway through their set, they handed out some wooden spoons and aluminum trays and bowls, so as to have the audience provide some thunderous percussion to their songs, and I have to say that we were all having a blast! The crowd started dancing pretty heavily and they did not stop until the show was over. I was exhausted!

Photos: Elliott Brood @ Lee's Palace on flickr
Myspace: Elliott Brood
The evening ended with my hometown heroes Cuff The Duke, and as per usual, they put on a great show. It seemed rather tame after the Brood spazzfest that we had witnessed earlier, but The Duke are such an amazing band that they can truly do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned. They opened with my two favourite songs, Remember The Good Times and Rossland Square, which was great, but meant that I didn't have to spend the rest of the night in anticipation. They played a lot of new songs, which all sounded stellar, and indicated that we're likely to hear something new from them in the very near future. Excited! Wayne Petti played the nice guy again, graciously thanking everyone for attending before rocking out on the final song, If I Live Or If I Die.

Photos: Cuff The Duke @ Lee's Palace on flickr
Myspace: Cuff The Duke

CMF Day 2: The Novaks, The Waking Eyes, Matt Mays and El Torpedo

As is usually the case, I was not able to get out on Thursday night until after 10 or so, and I decided that I was just going to plop myself down at Lee's Palace and check out the lineup there.

I arrived there as Newfoundland's The Novaks were partway through their set. They played some pretty straight forward rock 'n roll that seems to be influenced by riff heavy rock like The Rolling Stones, while incorporating a mid 70's garage sound reminiscent of Teenage Head and the like. Their sound more likely would have better suited a smaller bar-like venue such as The Horseshoe, but they were very accomplished musicians who blasted their bluesy rockabilly vibe quite well. They played mostly original material, presumably from their debut album, and I did enjoy their set closing cover of Eddie Cochran's Somethin' Else.

Photos: My pictures of The Novaks @ Lee's Palace are on flickr.
Myspace: The Novaks

The Waking Eyes are a band that has been on my radar a lot in recent months, and this is mostly due to the incredible buzz that continues to surround them. Their performance did not disappoint. I loved the variety that could be heard throughout their music, and the fact that they refused to simply settle into one traditional style. Being only mildly familiar with their songs, it was incredibly exciting to watch a band that balked at predictability, and kept their artsy sound evolving throughout their set. Although all of the guys are obviously excellent musicians, it was the intensity of Joey Penner's bass playing that really impressed me the most. Almost all of the members however had their chance to shine, switching up their instruments regularly and all taking turns in presenting their own throat tearing vocals. A major highlight (besides the minor tribute to Heinz ketchup the culminated in Heinz t-shirts being tossed into the crowd) was the audience singalong that accompanied Wolves At The Door, a truly great song. It's going to be exciting to see them again in April when they open for The Weakerthans and The Constantines at The Phoenix.

Photos: My pictures of The Waking Eyes @ Lee's Palace are on flickr.
Myspace: The Waking Eyes.

Much like Sloan the night before, Matt Mays and El Torpedo are one of those acts that have been rocking out for years and are way past the point where they need to impress. Although his hard rockin', alt-country tinged East Coast sound is great on record, the live stage is really where Matt Mays shines the brightest. The band opened with two songs from their latest release Terminal Romance, namely Building A Boat and Tall Trees, both of which ensured us all that this was to be a performance of grand rocking proportions! Matt's got a pretty sweet White Falcon Gretsch, and he wailed on that thing several times throughout the night. The setlist featured a good number of songs from the latest release but was by no means limited to those tracks, as he even played songs from his solo album. The main set ended with his biggest hit Cocaine Cowgirl which really brought the house down. For the encore he did an amazing cover of The Stones' Wild Horses, which was followed by On The Hood from their self-titled album. For that song he invited the members of all of the opening bands onto the stage, which resulted in an onstage party that was only surpassed by the wild one that was taking place in the audience.

Photos: My pictures of Matt Mays and El Torpedo @ Lee's Palace are on flickr.
Myspace: Matt Mays and El Torpedo

CMF Day 1: Sloan, Will Currie & the Country French and Zeus

I started off my crazy five days of activity by heading just up the street to The Mod Club to see Sloan, the old reliables, doing what they do best. Opening the evening were a couple of local pop rock bands whose music treads a similar territory to the one that Sloan had crafted almost 20 years ago.
Opening the evening was Zeus, who are a musical amalgamation of bands that I've been somewhat acquainted with over the last couple of years: the 6ixty 8ights and Paso Mino. I was already an especially huge fan of the former band, so seeing Carlin Nicholson hop on stage with his newly acquired mustache immediately assured me that this was going to be a great show. With co-frontman Mike O'Brien, they played a wonderful 60's influenced set that was accessible and easy to enjoy. The songs were mainly uptempo rock 'n roll numbers, with just a hint of rootsy surfadelica thrown into the mix. When hearing their songs, it's easy to be shocked at how accomplished they sound for such a relatively new band. But the fact of the matter is that they have been playing in their own bands for several years, and also working as Jason Collett's band. Add to that the fact that Carlin and Mike have been making music together since childhood, and it's no wonder that they sounded so good. A debut album is hopefully going to be released in the near future.

Photos: My pictures of Zeus @ The Mod Club are on flickr
Myspace: Zeus

I've been meaning to see Will Currie and the Country French for quite some time now, and the fact that Jay Ferguson has been touting them as his favourite live band, only made me more intrigued. They play some of the happiest music I have ever heard, and it's easy to see what the boys in Sloan see in them. Their music is very piano driven, and I definitely hear shades of Ben Folds, McCartney and even a touch of Brian May in the guitar work. They're the type of band that I would love to have pumping out of my iPod while skipping down the street on a bright summer day (which hopefully we'll be seeing again someday soon in Toronto.) Although the songs were rather enjoyable, most of them do have a bit of a sameness about them, and ultimately it's the energetic nature of the band, performance-wise, that I would label as their strongest point. Their album A Great Stage is available now, on Murder Records.

Photos: My pictures of Will Currie and the Country French @ The Mod Club are on flickr.
Myspace: Will Currie and the Country French

What else can I say about Sloan? They put on a powerhouse performance, as usual, that once again proved them to be a real Canadian treasure. There is just something so satisfying about seeing a band that really has nothing left to prove, as they rip through a crowd pleasing set that featured many of the hits, and focused mainly on their more stadium rock type of material. They opened the evening with the one-two punch of Penpals and Losing California, before lunging into a set of material from Parallel Play. For obvious reasons, classics like Coax Me, The Good In Everyone and Everything You've Done Wrong seemed to get the greatest audience reaction, which culminated in a blistering rendition of Money City Maniacs. For me, the best performance of the night was their wicked fast version of HFXNSHC, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite songs in their entire catalog. Although most of my favourite songs by Sloan are some of the more experimental album cuts, there is no question that the straight ahead rock songs are the ones that encourage the greatest audience reaction, and it was great to see them simply doing what they do best.

Setlist: Penpals / Losing California / All I Am Is All You're Not / Witch's Wand / Burn For It / Living The Dream / Emergency 911 / HFXNSHC / Blackout / Cheap Champagne / The Good In Everyone / Coax Me / Ready For You / The Lines You Amend / Everything You've Done Wrong / The Dogs / People Of The Sky / I'm Not A Kid Anymore / Believe In Me / Who Taught You To Live Like That / The Other Man / Money City Maniacs / ENCORE: Push Pins (w/Will Currie & the Country French) / Iggy and Angus / She Says What She Means

[Note: I just took a glance at the Sloan Message Board to see how the Thursday show went, and now I wish that I hadn't. The Marquee and The Moon? Chester? Hate My Generation? Deeper Than Beauty? UNDERWHELMED? WHY? WHY?]

Photos: My pictures of Sloan @ The Mod Club are on flickr.
Myspace: Sloan

Santa Dog - Belle De Jour

It’s impossible not to enjoy life while listening to Santa Dog. Lead vocalist Rowena Dugdale has that distinctly English pop voice that can only be described as breathtaking. Their latest EP “Belle De Jour” is very enduring and you get the sense that this is a band that thoroughly enjoys what they’re doing. While so many other artists are out to rely on rock star strut and ‘tude, Santa Dog tunnels straight to your heart with brazenly catchy hooks that are designed especially to stay in your head for a while. There’s definitely some 80’s influence to their music. You’ll hear a bit of Morrissey, a touch of Blondie and they even remind me a bit of artists like The Sundays, Throwing Muses, Elastica and Fairground Attraction. The EP has been on repeat on my stereo for several days, but I get the feeling that their live show is really where their sense of fun really translates. I am absolutely thrilled to hear that they will be coming to Toronto for Canadian Music Week on March 10th. They’ll be playing at Clinton’s on Bloor St. and there is no way that it isn’t going to be a great show. As winter closes down, some sparkly guitar pop may be just what we need to warm us up.

Downloads:
Rosa (from ‘Belle de Jour’ EP) mp3
Chemical (from ‘The Chemical’ EP) mp3
Delicate (from ‘The Delicate’ EP) mp3

Visit the Santa Dog myspace page.
Purchase all of their music here.
They’ve also got a blog.
The promo picture appears courtesy of Toby Farrow Photography.