NXNE Extra Series: My Morning Jacket w/ The Besnard Lakes @ Kool Haus

When I first heard Evil Urges, my initial reaction was to wonder just exactly what particular evil it was that urged My Morning Jacket to record this album. I admire their desire to experiment with new ideas, but I also thought the switch from deep fried southern jam rock to funky experimental Prince-like falsetto was just a little bit too drastic for my tastes. Upon further listening, if I try real hard, I guess I can still hear the quality musicianship of these five boys from Kentucky, although I can't say that the album has really grown on me with time. However, since I listen to their earlier works with reasonable regularity these days, I figured it would still be awesome to catch their live show, since I've still never done it. That, and I knew there was a good chance of getting in to see them with my NXNE badge. I also figured that even if the new material doesn't translate too well to the live stage, I can always count on The Besnard Lakes, who were the openers of the evening.

I realize that it's not for everybody, but I think that a live performance by The Besnard Lakes is always a trip. Jace Lasek and his significant other Olga Goreas have a way of creating psychedelic sounds that seemingly have the ability to transcend space and time. If you wanna talk about a cool sounding falsetto, Jace has got it. It comes across to me as sounding as if Brian Wilson had chilled out in a sandbox full of helium as opposed to, um, sand. The vocals are a very unique contrast to the spacey sounds and haunting lyrics emanating from these Montreal mysterians. The set was rather short this time, only about six or seven songs, but as we all know, their songs are certainly anything but brief. From what I can remember, they mostly stuck with songs from Are The Dark Horse, their Polaris prize nominated sophomore. Devastation sounded incendiary and Disaster was also a highlight.

Photos: The Besnard Lakes @ Kool Haus on flickr
Myspace: The Besnard Lakes
Download: And You Lied To Me mp3


Thanks to my photographer friend Walid, who was standing right in the designated photo pass section, I was able to catch a sneak peak at the MMJ setlist beforehand, since he took a picture of it. The setlist gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand, it looked great because it featured a decent handful of songs from At Dawn and It Still Moves. The encore in particular looked killer. However there seemed to be way too many songs from Z, which was their last album and one that I also didn't like that much. The set list also just looked long. Period. That worried me since I had just come off quite the whirlwind of a rock 'n roll weekend and I didn't know if I had the stamina left for a two hour show. So that sounds like an awful lot of negativity going in, doesn't it? And what was the final verdict?

Well, basically there's a reason why My Morning Jacket is considered by many to be one of the best live acts out there these days. This show was one fantastically solid jam. The band was beyond tight, and you didn't have to be a musician yourself to figure out that these guys are masters at their craft. Jim James clearly loves what he's doing, and he certainly should be campaigning as a candidate for most dynamic performer. He's also got the chops to back up such claims. There were moments where he donned a cape, and there were also times when he slid across the floor in a rock star pose while singing his little heart out. All the band members are spectacular, but drummer Patrick Hallahan in particular is an animal (as can be seen in the photo I took above!) I thought the songs from Z sounded a little bit more fleshed out in a live setting, and I feel that the same is sort of true for some of the Evil Urges tunes, only less so. (I will add that there is simply no saving Highly Suspicious, a truly dreadful song as far as I'm concerned.)

As I anticipated, the encore was money, featuring Steam Engine, Run Thru and One Big Holiday. These songs are tailor made for the live stage, and the majestic sounds that these killer jams created busted through that Kool Haus stage with reckless abandon, leaving me intensely satisfied! That satisfaction was saturated in zealous fatigue, and my feet felt as if they has accidentally been charcoaled on a George Forman grill, but otherwise, I think the evening, as well as the rest of the NXNE festival was a rousing success.

Photos: My Morning Jacket @ Kool Haus on flickr
Myspace: My Morning Jacket
Download: Evil Urges mp3


And so ends my coverage of this year's festival. I had a lot of fun being introduced to new bands at the same time as checking out some of my old local reliables. I hope that next year the festival doesn't coincide as much with so many personal non-festival related activities, but I think that this is probably wishful thinking since June is always a busy time of year for me. I am sorry that I missed out on the Six Shooter Records sponsored free backyard bbq event, and I would've liked to catch some of the in-store performances, but this is the busy life that I lead. I still think that 18 bands in 4 days is making pretty good use of my badge, and by far the majority of them were gooder than good, so yay me! Here's to doing it all again next year!

'Sup In June?

Short answer? Tons. Grab yourself a drink and some cereal, sit back and relax because this is going to be one lengthy post. June is a month of legends and NXNE and it's going to be so full of the rawk that I'm going to make sure that I chill out a little bit in July. I won't pull another January hiatus or anything, but I'm fairly sure that June is going to cause me some significant wipe out action.

Things get all started tomorrow night when I see the reunited Eric's Trip at The Mod Club. For those that aren't in the know, the Trip are one of the truly great lo-fi bands of the 90's, cranking out four official CD's and several independent EP's and cassette releases during that time. Since then, Rick White and Julie Doiron have gone on to have some more success in their own write, but nothing compares to the insane heartbreak fueled distortion that they created when they were together. I've been listening to Love Tara and Forever Again all day today in preparation for the show, and it's amazing how well those songs hold up. Can you tell I'm excited? When picking up the tickets, the brother at Soundscapes told me that I should be sure not to miss the opening bands because they're also spectacular. He's got impeccable taste so I'll take his word for it. They are Quest For Fire and $100.

Myspace: Eric's Trip
Myspace: Quest For Fire
Myspace: $100.

If seeing Eric's Trip isn't enough, Sunday June 8th marks the day that I FINALLY see R.E.M. In the next few days, I'll be composing my love letter to R.E.M. that will help you more fully understand why this is such a big deal for me, but for now let's just say that, in many ways, R.E.M. has made me the obsessive musical compulsive that I am today. Also, Accelerate is their best album in 15 years. The opening bands are not too shabby either and you may have heard of them also. They are Modest Mouse and The National. Familiar with them? Opening for R.E.M. should give them that little push that they need in their little careers. (YES! Sarcasm, give me more!!!) It's been a long time since I've been to a show in an amphitheater setting, so we'll see how I handle being in the 200 level as opposed to being up front like I always am. Hopefully I don't get too grumpy.

Myspace: R.E.M.
Myspace: Modest Mouse
Myspace: The National
Video: R.E.M's Hollow Man on youtube

Which brings us to NXNE! Boy, did I have a hard time deciding where I was going to go. There's a lot of great stuff going on, but a whole whack of conflicts as well. However I think that I discovered a feasible schedule that has the greatest number of good bands with the least amount of traveling. So take a deep breath .... and here goes:

The fest doesn't officially start until Thursday June 12, but there are a few early shows that are part of the NXNE-Extra series. Wednesday night (June 11) I'll be trying to attend Lightspeed Champion at Lee's Palace. This might be tricky since the press badges are not available for pick up until Thursday at noon, but I'm trying to see what I can do. I'd like to get in though because I think that this will be an incredibly fun way to get the festival started.

Myspace: Lightspeed Champion

On Thursday night (June 12), I plan on making my way to The Supermarket to see Cancel Winter (10pm), followed by Amos The Transparent (11pm). Amos' Jonathan Chandler eluded to the fact that this was going to be a very exciting and different show the last time that he was in town, so I'm looking forward to finding out what he meant by that. I would go and check out Sloan at The Mod Club, but I'm not available until 10, and they come on at 9. However, there's a rumour circulating that they will be heading on up to Lee's Palace afterwards for a 1am show. If said rumour is true, then I'll be leaving after Amos The Transparent's set and heading down to Lee's. If not, then I'll just stay put and check out Great Bloomers (midnight). Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Myspace: Cancel Winter
Myspace: Amos The Transparent
Myspace: Sloan
Myspace: Great Bloomers
Stream: Sloan's Parallel Play on yeproc records.

And here's a short list of the band's that I also want to see but can't due to there only being one of me: The John Henry's (Criminal Records @ 7pm & Dakota Tavern @ 10pm); Krief's Black Diamond Bay (Clinton's @ midnight); Danielle Duval (C'est What @ 10pm); Melissa McClelland (Dakota Tavern @ 11pm); The Coast (The Horseshoe @ 9pm); Two Hours Traffic (Rivoli @ midnight) and Key Witness (Velvet Underground @ 8pm)

I'm going to try to start things off a little bit earlier on Friday night (June 13) by zipping on down to Yonge and Dundas Square to see Hospital Bombers at 8pm, followed by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists at 9. The rest of the evening was very difficult to choose but I think I settled on seeing Julie Doiron (11pm), followed by Evan Dando (midnight) at The Horseshoe. I loved The Lemonheads but they're another band that falls into the love 'em but never seen 'em section of my life. Afterwards I might take a chance and tunnel through the center of the Earth to catch Swervedriver (1am) at Lee's, but I'm really not going to get my hopes up for that.

Myspace: Hospital Bombers
Myspace: The Lemonheads
Myspace: Julie Doiron
Myspace: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Myspace: Swervedriver
Download: Julie Doiron's No More mp3

Download: Julie Doiron's Snow Falls In November mp3


And here are the acts that I wanna see but cannot on Friday night: Will Currie and the County French (Drake Hotel @ midnight); Ruby Coast (Drake Hotel @ 9pm); Songs From A Room (El Mocambo @ 9pm); Jason Plumb and the Willing (Gladstone @ 11pm); Beth In Battle Mode (Holy Joe's @ 11pm); Oh No Forest Fires (Kathedral @ 9pm); the whole line-up at The Reverb was very very tempting, namely The Priddle Concern (9pm); Great Lake Swimmers (10pm); Laura Barrett (11pm); The Meligrove Band (midnight); and Justin Rutledge (1am). Missing Fox Jaws (Rivoli @ midnight) and Golden Hands Before God Conducts Incredible Magic Band And The Spirit (Savannah Room @ midnight) is also killing me! But I had to go with Dando because opportunities to see him are far less frequent than the other local bands. And I've seen Fox Jaws five times. And I'll likely see them many more times. This year.

And now for Saturday night (June 14th)! If Thursday and Friday night are as action packed as I think they'll be, then I'm going to look forward to spending time with my wife on Saturday because it is our anniversary. 11 years! Where does the time go?

However, once dinner and a movie is done, the wife and I are still planning on catching a couple of shows and here's the plan. Spiral Beach (10pm), followed by Hey Rosetta! (11pm) at The Horseshoe. Some may feel it's sacreligious to exit before Matt Mays and El Torpedo (midnight) takes the stage, but I've been looking forward to the next show at Lee's Palace for a long time. We start with Miss Derringer (midnight), followed by another blast from the past in Redd Kross (1am). Should be fun! If we still have an unbelievable amount of energy, then we might go to El Mocambo to see Patrick Krief's latest project entitled Black Diamond Bay (2am) But probably not.

Myspace: Spiral Beach
Myspace: Hey Rosetta!
Myspace: Miss Derringer
Myspace: Redd Kross
Download: Spiral Beach's New Clouds Hot Clouds EP for free at Zunior.com

I wish that I could see these bands too but alas, I cannot: Entire Cities (Cadillac Lounge @ 1am); Revival Dear (Cadillac Lounge @ midnight); The Two Koreas (El Mocambo @ 11pm); The iSpies (El Mocambo @ 10pm); The 6ixty 8ights (Hideout @ midnight); Serena Postel (Free Times Cafe @ 11pm); Tin Bangs (Kathedral @ 1am); Grace Emily's (Neu+ral Lounge @ 8pm); Foxfire (Reverb @ 11pm); Magneta Lane (Rivoli @ 1am); Matthew Barber (Rivoli @ 10pm); Spookey Ruben (Yonge-Dundas Square @ 7pm) and Bran Van 3000 (Yonge-Dundas Square @ 9pm)

Exhausted yet? If you've read this far, you're the king. But wait there's more! On Monday (June16), I'm breaking my promise and actually going back to the Kool Haus to catch Besnard Lakes with the mighty mighty My Morning Jacket, one of the greatest live bands ever in the world ever. I am puh-huh-mped about this one!

Myspace: Besnard Lakes
Myspace: My Morning Jacket
Download: Besnard Lakes' And You Lied To Me mp3

Download: Besnard Lakes' For Agent 13 mp3


And so ends my ridiculously full month of June. Unless you include Ohbijou with Jill Barber at Harbourfront Center on June 28th. Which I don't see any reason why you wouldn't.

Myspace: Ohbijou
Myspace: Jill Barber
Download: Ohbijou's St. Francis mp3

Download: Ohbijou's Steep mp3


Whew.