| ALVY SINGER Hava Nagilah and a happy new year, readers! I hope your last night of 2006 was as fun as mine. There were champagne cheers, there were sloppy smooches and then there was a hangover made better by matzo ball soup. Now oy vey, let's get down to business. The most exciting local show of the month, as far as I’m concerned, is on January 12 at Broken City. Twee-pop whiz-kids Woodpigeon are co-headlining with my favorite Calgary band Azeda Booth, alongside the undeniably gorgeous up and comers The Consonant C. Take a tumble down to myspace.com/theconsonantc for a taste of their tinkling ivories, lush harps and the powerful pipes of Miss Laura Leif – I promise you won’t be disappointed.
The Marquee Room is shaping up to be the hottest new venue in town, thanks to the tireless efforts of manager Chris Vail. Located at 612-8th Avenue S.W. (the upper level of the Uptown cinema), the stylish ’60s style lounge has already played host to Gaye Rage, Beija Flor, Dojo Workhorse and a John Lennon tribute night and is now presenting Mallard (the new project of the Cranston Foundation’s Amos Bradley) and those good-looking garage-rockers The Pine Tarts on January 20. Keep your eyes peeled to myspace.com/marqueeroom for more show info and funny blogs.
Drummer Dean Martin is pretty much the man of the hour in January, with more musical projects than this city will know what to do with. First out of the gates is a show at Broken City on January 19 (also his birthday!), where he will triple up on drum duty for his bands The Summerlad, The Ex-Boyfriends and Martin Fulton Overkill. So why has he decided to torture himself like this, on his day of days?
"Torture? No way! It’s a total dream to be playing with some of Calgary’s greatest musicians and doing this is the coolest thing I could ever do on my birthday," he says.
And how has Martin prepared himself for the marathon evening?
"I’ve been playing the show in my mind, it’s all mental," he explains. "Who knows, I might even break a sweat."
Speaking of The Ex-Boyfriends, Martin’s guitar-lovin’ punk band now have a new album in the works.
"We’ve got 10 to 12 new songs that we’ve been playing for awhile now, and will start recording at the end of January," he says.
The CD currently going under the title The Claw, will be recorded at Acoustikitty studios, and (as Dean estimates) should be released by late spring.
The Summerlad also have a few new tricks up their sleeves and plan to unleash their infamous 42-minute City of Noise song-suite in audio, video and live music formats. Again, I’ll let Dean give you the details.
"We’ve finished a rough mix of the new CD, City of Noise, and it will debut at the High Performance Rodeo on January 20 after the Zaireeka listening party, two years after first performing it for HPR in 2005," he says. "The music is one track, 42-minutes long, themed around the day in the life of a city.
"As for the video, we’re trying to sort out money and other hurdles. It’s going to be a full production on 35 mm film, with constructed sets, green screens, the whole works. We’re aiming to start shooting the video in March. To help raise funds, The Summerlad will be performing My Bloody Valentine covers on Valentine’s Day at the Marquee Room."
How fitting! So why have they decided to re-record City of Noise now, two years after it was originally premiered?
"We just thought that we could make a very interesting album for our own headphone listening pleasure," says Martin. "It was so well-received and tons of people at the time wanted a copy to go home with. We thought this could be a good way of showing off something very different and lets face it, a 42-minute song is not too common. It took us this long to finally finish the project only because we’ve been so busy with other activities."
Those other activities he’s talking about are the Summerlad-curated RAMP nights, which take place at Broken City on the first Thursday of every month. Sneak on down to myspace.com/rampcalgary for event listings and more avant-garde fun.
Hot Little Rocket have a new album, too (recorded by Steve Albini, which sadly hasn’t been released yet either. Nonetheless, you can still catch the hyper-intelligent indie-rock four-piece at the HiFi Club on January 20, alongside openers Audio Rocketry. Oh and FYI, one song from the HLR Albini sessions is up at myspace.com/hotlittlerocket.
The nice fellas (and Woody Allen fans) in Secret Broadcast have asked me to describe their sound this month, so guys – it’s my pleasure. Warm and free-flowing vocal stylings float over Strokes-inspired guitar melodies and frenetic hi-hat-heavy dance beats, all adding up to some easy-on-the-ears rock ’n’ roll. If that sounds like it’s up your alley, you can catch the handsome trio at Tequila on January 11, or at the SAIT Gateway on January 26.
If you haven’t heard anything about Red Not Evil in a while, it’s probably because they changed their name to Grandfather Fire and the Holy Morning. That said, they've now recorded a new album for the Vancouver/Calgary based Vulpine Records, have recruited a new member in multi-instrumentalist Jzero Schuurman and are planning a CD release show for the end of January or early February. Neato!
Finally this month, The Rocky Fortune are offering fans free ringtones, available online. Hit up https://therockyfortune.mstore.xingtone.com/ and pick from their songs "Priceless Vices," "Drop Me in the Well" or "Three Sheets." It’s like a phone serenade by singer Todd Gesshe, except this time it’s not a drunk dial!
If you’re a local artist doing something interesting and want to have it written about, drop me a line at either alvy411@hotmail.com or myspace.com/alvy411. |
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