An art exhibition with a slightly criminal twist is being held tonight at The Rummer Runner, the pub in the basement of the Walper Terrace Hotel. Mugshots Noir will feature the black and white portraits of would-be jailbirds from around K-Dub who posed for photographer Dan Forsey. The Rum Runner is a fitting venue for such a show, given its prohibition-era atmosphere. The models did not actually commit any crimes to get their mugs shot (none that we know of, anyway).
The work of several other local artists -- Kate Georgina Cox, Tanya Marie Smith and Sarah Kernohan -- will also be on display. And members of KW's brand new burlesque group, Revue Royale, will be mincing around as well. The devious fun starts at 9 p.m.
This Friday night marks the culmination of the first-ever Within Earshot Music Video Contest, as the winner and two runners-up will hit the stage at Maxwell's Music House in Waterloo to show off the musical chops they teased in their top-ranked videos.
Dan Bossenberry of Elmira will headline the gig, since the video for his song Come Alive earned the lion's share of online voting during the contest. Joining him onstage tomorrow night will be Kitchener folk-pop group Calliope's Radio and local piano man Allister Bradley. Read the full story about the show.
Tickets for tomorrow's concert are a mere, piddly, inconsequential 7 bucks, and all the monies will go straight back to the musicians (which should help them pay off the costs of making their fabulous videos in the first place...). Plus Dan will enjoy the added bonus receiving his $1,500 grand prize at the show -- a decent chunk of change for a teenager with his sights set on college.
Dan and Allister went on Roger's Daytime earlier this week to hype the show. Check 'em out!
It's a tradition as old as blues music itself: a bunch of talented players get together in a room and take turns showing off their chops. The rhythm section lays down a solid 12-bar blues progression and a guitar player improvises a solo, or a harmonica player wails on the mouth harp. It's been happening in pubs everywhere since the early days of the Mississippi Delta, and it will probably carry on until the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse come riding in.
And now that the information generation is officially upon us, the open-stage blues jam can be experienced in an entirely new way.
Get this: the weekly Wednesday night blues jams at The Still (pardon me, Bobby O'Brien's, as the downtown Kitchener drinkery was re-christened last year) have taken on a high-tech twist. The jam sessions are now broadcast live on the interweb, so if you can't make it to the bar, you can still revel in the bluesy goodness. All you have to do is visit the Popular Minority website tonight, or any Wednesday night, and sit back, relax, and groove to the music. And hey, crack a beer too -- you've earned it.
The house band at Bobby O'Brien's, Soul Mission, is a rock-solid outfit fronted by saxman Dave Rodenburg (read my review of their CD), and backed up by some of the most solid players in the KW. And you never know who might hop onstage with them and tear it up. See it in-person every Wednesday at the bar, or not-quite-in-person at home in front of your computer. Just don't yell out a request for Freebird.
I just finished chatting with Richard Reed Parry, best known for playing a whole whack of instruments with Montreal's indie-rock superheroes Arcade Fire. Somewhat disappointingly, though, he didn't really want to talk about Arcade Fire (his words: "I don't really want to talk about that."). Hmph. Fair enough, I suppose, since our interview was supposed to be about his other très cool band Bell Orchestre, since they're coming to the Starlight in April. But he wasn't even especially chatty about that either. I mean, he dutifully answered my questions about his influences and his inspirations and such, all of which will go into the article I must now write for the paper, but the conversation just seemed a bit... I dunno...limp. He did say he was feeling under the weather, and perhaps I'm having an off day as an interviewer. I did, after all, forget to ask him the one thing I really, really wanted to know about: his habit of wearing a motorcycle helmet onstage and pounding the crap out of it -- and pounding the crap out of anything or anyone who gets in his way. Check him out in this Arcade Fire concert video. he's dude who looks kinda like Napoleon Dynamite and starts going rather bonkers about halfway through the song.
Do you ever just feel like going to a bar, guzzling a bunch of frothy brews and banging your head to some feel-good-party-rock band? If so, tonight is a perfect chance for you to do so (and if not, what's wrong with you, you weirdo?).
Tonight is when My Wicked Twin, an unabashedly retro rock band featuring former members of Helix, plays Maxwell's Music House in Waterloo. You remember Helix, right? "Gimme an R!" and so forth? Well, My Wicked Twin plays essentially the same kind of anthemic riff -rock, with songs about drinkin' and partyin' and sexin' (and a peculiar song called One Big Bad Whoopie). If you've ever had a mullet, or ever worn a tattered jean jacket with a Motley Crue iron-on patch on the back, or ever flipped the devil horn salute and used the term "Give'er," then you'll probably love My Wicked Twin. You can read my full review of their debut CD here.
For a taste of what My Wicked Twin is all aboot (Canuck pronunciation intended), here's a live video for my favourite song off their brand-spanking-new album Decibel City, called That Kind of a Love. Party on, dudes.
Sure, his call came roughly 4,310 minutes later than originally scheduled, but the dreamboat from The Partridge Family finally called this morning, ending my weeks-long saga of trying to pin him down for a phone interview.
Cassidy offered no explanation as to why he didn't call three days ago, as previously planned, but he did explain why he was 20 minutes late calling for this morning's rescheduled interview: "I overslept," he said. "I forgot to set my alarm." Fair enough. These things happen.
But later in the interview, completely unprovoked, Cassidy then told me how he prides himself on being reliable and punctual. He said, and I quote, "I try to be, and I always have been, prompt. I try not to make people wait, because what that says to them is that you think your time is more important than theirs, and I really don't feel that way."
The punchline: immediately after wrapping up his phone interview with me, Cassidy postponed his scheduled interview with a columnist at the Waterloo Chronicle, bumping it to next Tuesday.
But I'm not angry with the ever-smiling 58-year-old manchild. He was exceedingly friendly during the half-hour interview, if perhaps a little boastful (he reminded me -- twice -- that he was the biggest selling artist in 1970). The full details of the interview, minus the dull bits about him oversleeping, will be in a forthcoming story in The Record. I might even check out his concert at Centre in the Square on Feb. 6, since "I Think I Love You" is undeniably a bubblegum pop classic (though I still prefer the Monkees' "Daydream Believer").
In the meantime, I invite you to enjoy this blast from the past, and ponder this question: did some prankster glue his shiny pant-legs together?
Don't ask me how or why, but somehow the song "Come With Me" -- a bowdlerized bastardization of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir with rapping by Puff Daddy (P.Diddy? Poo Diddly?) -- ended up on my iPod. I was surprised and mortified by the appearance of the song while listening to the iPod on shuffle, and I can only assume it was the result of a late-night drinking/downloading session (I call it "drinkloading," and it's how I discovered the some fantastic bands like Pelican and Aereogramme, so it's not always bad thing).
Anyway, I decided to give Come With Me a listen, since I recalled it was on the soundtrack of that horrible Godzilla remake that came out a few years ago. As I listened to D. Piddly boast and brag, it dawned on me that I might just be listening to the worst rap lyrics ever written. Here's a snippet:
Huh huh, yeah
Huh huh, yeah
Huh, huh huh, yeah
Huh, huh huh, yeah
Huh, huh huh, yeah
Huh, huh huh, yeah, yeah ... Know I'm lacking, backtracking
Where I met you, pistol packing
Itchy finger, trigger happy
Try to trap me, bad rap Wiretap me, backstab me
Break the faith, fall from grace
Tell me lies, time flies
Close your eyes, come with me Come with me, yeah
Come with me
Huh huh, yeah....
Notice that he actually uses the words "bad rap," as if to acknowledge the kindergarten-level rhyme scheme in his own lyrics? He might as well had followed up with a verse like: See a cat, cat in hat, rat in cat, fat cat naps, slap that cat, uh huh huh, yeeeeah..
Anyway, I am convinced that the words to Come With Me could be the absolute worst song lyrics ever penned, but I'm willing to concede there are many contenders for that dubious throne.
Other abysmal lyrics include these horrible gems: - "Only time will tell if we stand the test of time" -- from Why Can't This Be Love by Van Halen. - "I'm as serious as cancer, when I say rhythm is a dancer." -- from Rhythm is a Dancer by Snap. - "The Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist!" -- from Courtesy of the Red White and Blue, a 9/11 reaction country song by Toby Keith.
Can you think of a song with lyrics that out-stink these? Post a comment. Until then, I think the prize still goes to Poo Doodly's "Come With Me." Uh huh. Yeah.
It's official: Waterloo's rockingest blues band is now Canada's rockingest "new" blues band. Last night at the Maple Blues Awards, Daddy Long Legs took home the prize for Best New Artist (despite the fact that Daddy Long Legs has been doin' their thang since 2001).
What's new about the band is their album, King for a Day, which came out last and captured the ferocity of their killer live shows. If you get a chance, see these boys live -- you'll understand immediately why they deserved to win the award.
Don't miss their hometown celebration concert at The Boathouse in Victoria Park on Jan. 30.
Every music lover in the K-Dub should send some positive good-luck vibes in the direction of Toronto tonight, since local blues troubadours Daddy Long Legs are nominated for a Maple Blues Award.
If you've seen these guys playing around town (and by now you really should have), you'll know why they totally deserve to win the award for Best New Artist of the Year. They're not actually new, mind you, but their album King for a Day came out in 2008 and knocked a lot of socks off (read my review). Oh, and their harmonica player Junior Malleck has the most gnarly mutton-chop sideburns on the continent, which will surely give them an edge at the awards.
Because you can see some dude dressed up like Darth Vader doing a wicked remix of John Williams' Imperial March from Star Wars on a pair of turntables:
Colin is an arts and entertainment reporter at the Waterloo Region Record. He's your brother from another mother.
Got a CD you'd like reviewed in The Record? Got a concert coming up you'd like publicized? Got some snacks you'd like to share? Contact Colin at chunter@therecord.com
Hey Waterloo Region bands, enter the Within Earshot Music Video Contest to win 1,500 bucks cash and more.
