OH YES! IT’S THE BICYCLES!

They’ve toured across Canada and even released an interactive DVD board game but now the Bicycles have a new album out, one that’s a little bit more mature than their debut.

Previously known for their light, quirky pop tunes, their new album, Oh No! It’s Love keeps to that formula but as the title suggests, love is in the air. The lyrics are a bit more serious this time around. Recording the album was also a change, said drummer Dana Snell.

“When we did the first album, we didn’t have that many tracks, we had to do them one at a time so I had to play a quick track and then everyone else had to fill in their parts on top of mine. But this time we went to Jose Contreras’ good friend David Young’s studio up in north Toronto and we got to do everything together,” Snell said. “The drums and the rhythm guitar even a bit of lead guitar altogether. So it was fun you know it felt more like a collaborative effort in which you can kind of like express a little bit more about the songs”.

While singer/guitarists Matt Beckett and Drew Smith wrote the bulk of the tunes on the album, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Scott contributed three songs and Snell wrote one herself as well, all part of their collaborative effort. Once their parts were complete, their songs were shipped off to their friends, not to hear but to beef up.

“One other thing we did differently was we picked some players we wanted to have on certain songs and we would give them the tracks and give them a month or a couple weeks to just add parts onto it,” Snell said.

Since their last album, the band released “The Good The Bad and The Cuddly: The Interactive DVD Board Game” in the summer of 2007. A new party trend was born, perhaps.

“We did it just to have something in-between to put out so people remember us,” Snell said. “It was probably Matt’s idea, but we wanted some sort of game like a video game then we saw some copies of Nightmare and Party Mania at the house where we practice at, so we were playing those and decided an interactive board game hasn’t been put out in a while. It stopped with DVD so we’re bringing it back.”

With their new album now on store shelves, the band is gearing up for their CD release party on Nov. 8 at Lee’s Palace. With Laura Barrett and Henry Fletcher (both from Snell’s other band Henri Faberge and the Adorables) among others, the Bicycles performed songs from their new album, with their friends taking the stage in between tracks.

“We had a really good time with the first one and it really worked out. We wanted it to be something special and out of the ordinary and not just us playing our songs but involving the people who played on the record and the people who are around us and inspire us, like basically our favourite bands,” Snell said. “It worked out so we thought why not do it again.”

The Last Waltz-ish concept is nothing new to the Bicycles, who did the same thing for their first CD release party in 2006, but this time, having Fletcher on board was key.

“We had the Adorables the first time but Henry wasn’t there so he was really mad that he missed it,” Snell said with a laugh “He was like, ‘Why did you wait until after I was gone?’ As if we could plan it around him. So this time we made it a point of getting him on there.”

-Jon Brazeau

HAPPILY INDEPENDENT: HANGING OUT WITH OH NO FOREST FIRES

Loud music and four sweaty guys jumping around the stage is not an unusual sight at the Horseshoe Tavern and the Oh No Forest Fires’ performance was no exception.

Despite the fact they played at 9 pm on a Wednesday night on Nov. 19, Oh No Forest Fires managed to draw a fair-sized crowd, which they satisfied with their strong bass lines, fast guitars and loud vocals. The Toronto-based band just released their first full-length album, The War on Geometry this month.

The album is an independently produced collection of 11 high energy tracks preformed by band members Rajiv Thavanathan (vocals/guitar/synth), Brock Swanek (vocals/guitar), Matt Del Bueno (vocals/bass/piano) and Adam Nimmo (drums).

Oh No Forest Fires is not the first band for any of its members but it is their favourite.

“We all came from bands who had varying levels of success but when we come together and play its just so much fun. We are all really good friends,” Thavanathan said. “Some of my favorite nights of the month are practice nights.”

Del Bueno and Nimmo were childhood friends who have played in bands together for years. They met Thavanathan when his band opened for theirs in St. John’s and convinced him to move to Toronto. Soon after, Thavanathan saw Swanek playing with his old band.

“I swore that I would steal the guitarist [Swanek] to be in a band with me and three years later, I stole him to be in the band,” Thavanathan said.

The current line-up of Oh No Forest Fires was assembled in February 2008, making them a significantly new band.

Oh No Forest Fires claims the hardest part of their creation was picking their name, a process that took them about seven months. Now, they pride themselves in being able to provide the origin of their band name in one breath, almost:

“Originally we were going to be called Forest Fires because we just like the idea of forest fires, but then we thought the name was a little too safe and not memorable enough,” Thavanathan said at high speed. “So one day, Adam [our drummer] came up with the name Oh No!, but the next day we found out there was a rapper in the states named Oh No! So because we are so incredibly creative we decided to just stick the two names together and to call the band Oh No Forest Fires!”

Now, band name intact, Oh No Forest Fires is ready to do what they do best: play live shows and have a good time. The band has spent several weeks of the past year touring and playing a couple shows each month in Toronto. The aforementioned Horseshoe Tavern is their favorite venue to play.

“Every time you go to the Horseshoe, you know somebody. It’s like Cheers, but with bands playing… And the bar service there is amazing!” Swanek said.

When asked about the band’s future plans, the guys were hesitant to commit to any real goals and were a lot more comfortable stating what they didn’t want to do.

“We’re not that band who is going to get played on The Edge and then get a record contract with Universal and then open for Billy Talent and then play the ACC,” Thavanathan said. “We’re not a fourteen year-old girl band, we kind of scare them. We play all-ages shows and kids generally really like us because we’re exciting but we’re not an autograph-signing, have-posters-of-us-above-your-bed band. We’re just sweaty bearded dudes.”

Oh No Forest Fires seems all around blissful about the state of their band and the fun they’re having. Not having a label definitely reduces the level of pressure a band feels. We are living in a time when bands can afford to make music, perform and receive recognition without necessarily signing to a label. A band can maintain complete creative control over their projects, often without huge overhead costs.

“We’re lucky that we don’t try and sound like anything else. If you play in a garage-punk band, you have to wear a leather jacket and you have to play a certain sound of guitar,” Thavanathan said. “We’re lucky that we can go in and one moment play a country song and the next moment play a space rock tune – we get to play literally whatever we want and that’s the best feeling. We don’t have a label telling us what a single needs to sound like.”

For the time being, Oh No Forest Fires is happy to let their music and energy speak for itself.

“I would really like us to get signed to something we believe in,” Thavanathan concluded. “We will take it as far as we can go but we’re only going to cross one bridge at a time.”

You can see Oh No Forest Fires live on Dec. 5 at Ranch Relaxo or check them out at http://www.myspace.com/ohnoforestfires.

-Allison Smith

Photo by Kyle Hutton
http://kylehutton.com

GREGG GILLIS: MUSIC’S MOST TALKED ABOUT ENIGMA

Gregg Gillis (a.k.a. Girl Talk’s) rise is one that has come as somewhat of a shock to a lot of music critics.

The 2006 success story, Night Ripper, garnered him some serious attention; everything from outrageous live shows, amazing samples and insane groupies all left their mark on the music world. During our interview, Gillis was in between calls, sound check, and what can only be assumed to be another huge gig filled with exposed ass cracks, debaucheries that could set records and overall pandemonium we’ll all will never forget from the last tour.

Gillis started Girl Talk back in the summer of 2000, just before going to college.

“I always considered myself good at math and science, so I usually approach the music using that same process,” Gillis says. “I was studying engineering in college and pretty much all my spare time went to the Girl Talk project.”

The groundwork for Girl Talk began with Gillis experimenting with a lot of different samples. Gillis states he’s always pumped by artists who push the limits, visionaries like Kid 606; a man known for raising the bar in the DJ world and more notably being widely recognized as one of the few producers today who can successfully tackle nearly every electronic genre.

“A lot of my earlier interest in underground experimental music is kind of what pushed my initial interest in music,” Gillis says. “The technique of manipulating a pre-existing track intrigued me. I like to take things to the most extreme you could possibly go and really create an entity of the tracks I use.”

The first Girl Talk release, Secret Diary, was released in 2002 on the label Illegal Art. Gillis explains how getting to this point wasn’t as cut and dry right off the bat.

“They liked my stuff, but nothing got released right away,” he says. “I basically just kept sending them stuff until they felt they had a good amount of tracks to release an album.”

This was followed up with 2004’s Unstoppable. Despite the label’s take on Girl Talk’s style, Gillis says that his use of samples in the first two releases would not fit well in the mashup genre.

“I know a lot of the shit I do is closely related to that scene, but the first two records were more or less just me playing around with samples that I really liked,” he says. “I consider them to be more of a sound collage; I picked through a lot of samples for those two records and I’m glad that it turned out the way I wanted.”

2006 was the year of the Night Ripper. Gillis’ third release took everything that brought him to dance in the first two releases and heightened the overall experience. Sharper mixes, hotter samples, clever use of sound manipulation and distortion made a record that put the clubs on notice, got indie kids grinding, and really solidified Gillis’ hard work and steady climb to perfecting the music he’d grown to enjoy and respect from his early years.

The samples ranged from a lot of Top 40 club bangers that dominated a portion of the early 2000’s and other work from artist Gillis has sampled on previous releases such as Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G, Beyonce, and Atlanta rap diva Trina.

“I don’t consider any of these songs guilty pleasures because a lot of my guilty pleasures are more in the realm of Avant Garde,” Gillis explains. “I’m ready to represent man, I like a lot of the stuff I sample.”

The record also brought Gillis’ use of unauthorized sampling to the forefront. The New York Times have called Gillis, “a lawsuit waiting to happen,” but considering the fact Gillis has not had any problems yet; the party will continue and it definitely does during his outrageous live performances.

Gillis’ work has also allowed for him to dwell into the remix world in 2007. Indie tastemakers like Tokyo Police Club, of Montreal, and Peter, Bjorn and John have all gotten a little love from Mr. Gillis. Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear did a remix for “Knife,” which has really been one of the tracks that has showcased Gillis ability to be a “jack of all trades” in music. While remixes are fun, Gillis says they take away from his prime focus.

“I spend most of my time downtime doing the Girl Talk project and considering the process of making a good remix; I couldn’t see myself doing a lot of them, depending on the person or the timing,” he says.

From 9/10 reviews, half-naked stage performances and the overall world domination that was Night Ripper, Feed the Animals was just a little more than highly anticipated. The album’s release was pushed back from it’s original September release to Nov. 11. The album basically picks where Night Ripper left off as a lot of the notable samples were Top 40 hits of the last two years. Gillis also incorporates samples of very specific eras of popular music; everything from indie rock veterans like Thurston Moore and Yo La Tango, to old school bangers from Eric B & Rakim, Dr. Dre and Salt N Pepa. The record is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, which depending on certain stipulations, allows Gillis to copy, distribute and transmit his work.

Gillis has beaten the odds and managed to use over thousands of samples without getting slapped with a huge lawsuit. Four albums strong and still partying hard, there is no doubt Gillis will continue to climb the ladders of the music world and mix and mash some of the best songs in the game.

“We haven’t had any problems yet,” Gillis says. “When the situation arises, we’ll deal with it accordingly, but for now I’m just to continue making music”.

-Max Mohenu

ROCK’N ROLL NEVER LOOKED SO BEAUTIFUL...

Semi Precious Weapons frontman Justin Tranter talks music, business, weapons, jewelry and why he says “That’s Kunt”

New York's most outrageous, in-your-face trashy glam rock band, Semi Precious Weapons featuring lead singer Justin Tranter, guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan, bassist Cole Whittle and drummer Dan Crean bring back the rebellion, excitement, passion, sexuality, glamour and wickedly catchy songs to rock n roll that has long been missing. 

Legendary producer Tony Visconti (T. Rex, David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, Morrissey) stated "I have been waiting for this band for 20 years!" and then stepped in to executive produce SPW’s debut album We Love You. Steve Conte of The New York Dolls said "Semi Precious Weapons are my new favorite band,” Perez Hilton thinks they are "The Next Big Thing" while music mogul Alan McGee (Oasis, The Libertines) said "SPW is the most important band in America!"

“It’s been a long time coming,” says Tranter “we have been together for two and a half years and I’ve been working at the music thing since I was fourteen.” In fact the band gave away their debut album for free for a year in order to build their fan base and pack clubs for their shows before signing a record deal with Razor & Tie. Tranter and the band also studied music at Berklee School of Music.  “I have a degree in songwriting whatever the fuck that means.”

After accomplishing so much, I wondered what was behind the decision for the band to sign with a label. Tranter wondered the same thing and asked Razor & Tie “I have my own money because I work so hard at my jewelry biz, what is the point of coming to you?”  Tranter explains “they said, ‘it would be like 120 people working for you instead of one’ so that made a lot of sense to me.” That and a generous marketing budget that is ensuring Semi Precious Weapons are everywhere fast.

“Because we did so much work on our own beforehand,” says Tranter, “we got a really friendly record deal.  They really trust our artistic decisions because we built a great fanbase without them so their mindset is just to help us with what we are doing and it will work.”

Part of that work was getting Visconti involved with the album.  “Because I was paying for it myself we couldn’t really afford to have him in the studio all day every day,” recalls Tranter “but he wanted to be a part of it so he signed on as executive producer and his right hand man Mario McNulty came in as a co-producer.”

Tranters way of raising money and the bands profile is his jewelry line Fetty which is sold in Urban Outfitters, Barney’s and at Semi Precious Weapons.com depending on the line. “My high end jewelry line is sold at Barneys all over America which is all diamonds and sterling and retardedly expensive,” says Tranter, “I love it and I don’t ever want to stop doing it.”

“For us its more the concept of the band which is a very balls to the wall AC/DC inspired band with a really flamboyant front man,” explains Tranter about the jewelry’s weapons theme, “and adding that element into an idea of rock n roll that already exists but dropping this other thing into it. So to me the idea of precious weapons it all went together.”

One of Semi Precious Weapons songs and catch phrases is “That’s Kunt,” “I never even realized that people would be so shocked a bout it,” says Tranter.  “Growing up with the family I grew up with, which is the most loving family in the world, but really funny, vulgar, and very rock and roll, I never really thought about it, because my mom says it all the time.” The expression is meant in a positive way, continues Tranter, “then when I moved to NY and met Tommy Couture who makes all my clothes, he said the same thing. He would say ‘oh my god she is so cunt, her outfit is so cunt.’  So I thought it was amazing.”

“That’s Kunt” is the new “Bitchin’” meaning really fabulous, cunt is just a step up, although, Tranter uses a “k” instead of “c.”  “I’m really into rappers and in hip hop music they use so many words that mean something different. You spell it a different way and it changes its meaning.”  Tranters influences are varied, “I’m interested in music with a sense of urgency, whether it’s Kurt Cobain’s type of urgency, Cindy Lauper’s or Little Kim’s urgency, its all over the top and its all really intense and its what I relate to more than anything.

If you missed Semi Precious Weapons the last few times they performed in Toronto, don’t worry, they will return because they love Toronto. “We filmed an internet TV show in LA and I wore this Toronto shirt on the show,” says Tranter, “I cut up this cheesy souvenir Toronto shirt, its super fabulous and everyone asked ‘are you from Toronto?’ and I’m like ‘no, I just love it there, because they love me.’” 

- Diane Foy

http://www.semipreciousweapons.com/
http://www.myspace.com/semipreciousweapons
http://www.thefetty.com/
http://www.fettyjewelry.blogspot.com/
http://www.famejewelry.blogspot.com/

CAUTION: RUMBLE STRIPS AHEAD (OF THEIR TIME)

They don't care about what you want to hear, but they know what you're going to like. They are the Rumble Strips and they have just lost their LP virginity.

The Rumble Strips go way back. Charlie Waller (vocals) and Tom Gorbutt (saxophone) met in primary school and by high school, they had already met their future bass player, Sam Mansbridge, and trumpeter, Henry Clarke. The young, aspiring rock stars got together and learned Captain Beefheart songs from Clarke's father, who was a local musician that ran youth groups for neighbourhood children who wanted to play instruments.

Gorbutt and Waller began making their own music together for an imaginary boy band called Pretty Boystruss.

“After a while it became apparent that although these songs were stupid, there was something about them,” Waller says.

They spent the rest of the summer writing songs for a new imaginary band: the Rumble Strips.

To complete the roster, they reached into their childhood and pulled out old pals Clarke and Mansbridge. Waller also recruited drummer Matthew Wheeler, a former bandmate from Charlie's previous band, Action Heroes.

The Rumble Strips were no longer a figment of Waller's imagination. They soon recorded their debut album, Girls and Weather, over the course of a month in the summer of 2007. Waller compares the process to other famous first times in his life.

“Its like losing your virginity,” he explains. “I'm glad it is done so now we can go on and get better.”

The album has been called “cheery,” “infectous” and “joyful” by various reviewers, but ask Waller and the one word he will use to describe the album is “bawdy.”

With catchy guitar and piano riffs, sing-a-long hooks and blaring trumpets, Girls and Weather is something like a sexed-up sock hop. It draws heavily on 50s Doo Wop and 60s Rock and Roll.

“I love Dion and the Belmonts and The Coasters,” says Waller, who quietly hums 'Yakety Yak'. “I like the simplicity of a lot of the songs”.

“We've never really payed attention to whats going on in music,” Waller admits.

However, they somehow have created an album that is so charming, it has everyone falling in love with it. The band prides themselves on making music for the simple pleasure of bringing people together.

“I think that indie music at the moment is just a mass of people all standing alone,” Waller states, hoping the Rumble Strips will bring something new to the scene. “I want the people who get it to put it on loud and bellow out the window at the agro looking people walking down their street.”

Their next album is slated to be produced by Grammy-award winning deejay Mark Ronson who, earlier this year, produced the Rumble Strips' haunting remix of “Back to Black,” by Amy Winehouse. Before they begin recording however, the Rumble Strips must finish off their first North American tour, during which they made one stop at El Mocambo, on October 26. This is their first time touring outside of the United Kingdom, and they are more than excited to dive into the American music scene.

“Most of the music we all love is American and it is such a massive place. I'm really looking forward to just start seeing it,” Waller says. “I'm sure no one will know who we are, but we don't mind starting at the bottom.”

-Bethany Hansraj

VESTA VARRO BRINGS AN INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE TO INDIE WEEK 2008

I’m at the kick-off party for the fifth annual Toronto Indie Music Week; dedicated to showcasing Toronto’s hottest up-and-coming independent rock bands. So why the fuck are there so many Irish people around?

It’s a Wednesday night and Queen West’s Tattoo Rock Parlor has assembled a reasonably sized crowd; made up of mostly by who I assume to be members of bands that will be performing later this week.

My suspicion is confirmed when an excited dude comes over to me and starts pointing at a photo on the inside-cover of an Indie Week flyer. “That’s me! Right there!” he tells me. “Me and my band are playing at the Reverb tomorrow!” I smile and attempt some small conversation with him which is soon blurred by the noise of the band onstage. They are loud and raw and are performing for an audience whose tattooed members greatly outnumber those who are not. This is not unlike what someone would expect from an indie festival party in Toronto, until the singer on stage addresses the crowd in a thick Irish accent.

The band is FRED, an Irish act, who is followed up by the night’s special guests, a band from Limerick, Ireland: Vesta Varro. They are Indie week’s reining champion, having won the festival’s top prize last year.

The band opens to a warm audience reception, as many people dance and sing along to their lyrics. What Vesta Varro lacks in height (three of their members are less that 5’6”), they make up for in sound. Vocalist Damian Drea storms the crowd with his powerful voice and entertains them with his performance accessories that range from a somewhat temperamental megaphone to a cowbell.

Vesta Varro’s win at Indie Week 2007 led to surprising changes in this year’s lineup. While speaking with Darryl Hurs, the head organizer of Indie Week, he tells me how Vesta Varro has created an Irish presence at Indie week.

“Since their win, I received more than thirty applications from other Irish bands”, Hurs says. “I went over to Ireland twice this summer to hold indie showcases and decide which bands I would bring over to Toronto.”

Hurs arranged an Irish Showcase event on the Friday night of Indie Week at the Hideout and Vesta Varro is headlining.

The members of Vesta Verro are enthusiastic about their participation in Indie Week and their growing Canadian fan base.

“Winning Indie Week 2007 has been great publicity for us in Ireland,” guitarist Keith Forde says.

Forde is a serious looking brunette in a pin-striped suit jacket who is still sweating from his performance that finished only minutes before I spoke with him.

“We have been back to Toronto four times since winning last year and have built a fan base in Canada”, Forde says. “Every show we play, the crowd seems to grow.”

This is true. Two of Vesta Varro’s videos have been played on Much Music and others have been played on American music television programs.

The band is also excited about their new collaboration with Noel Hogan of the Cranberries, another native of Limerick, Ireland.

“We met Hogan in a pub back home and had a few drinks with him, got to know him,” Forde says. “He has a studio in his house and offered to help produce us.”

Vesta Varro is the first band that Hogan has produced.

The band’s drummer, Shane Lee, stands at more than six feet tall and wears a brightly-coloured Kefiyah that seems slightly out of place compared to his husky beard and large stature. Lee talks to me about the band’s plans at this year’s Indie Week.

“We are playing four nights in a row this time around, and doing a performance and interview session with Edge 102.1 and Martin Streak on Saturday,” Lee says.

This seems appropriate; Vesta Varro’s catchy alternative rock sound is similar to the music that Edge, a Toronto-based radio station, typically plays.

I ask Lee how Vesta Varro’s win last year inspired other Irish musicians to try their luck at Indie Week this year.

“A lot of bands back home heard about us winning last year and wanted to come over to Toronto to play,” Lee says. “It really is the cream of Irish music over here this week.”

Irish showcases and international champions may not have been the direction that Hurs and the other organizers of Indie Week predicted their event to head.

But as Hurs says, “The main purpose of Indie Week is us looking for the band that is going to be the next big thing. In 2007, we had fifty-seven bands performing. This year we have ninety!”

For this small Toronto festival, any growth is good and the organizers were smart to embrace the interest of the Irish music scene. It is Hurs’ eventual goal to organize a similar indie festival in Ireland and open the doors for Canadian musicians to showcase their stuff across the ocean.

-Allison Smith

ROCKING OUT WITH BRENT GRUNOW

He has opened for Kid Rock, Buckcherry, Collective Soul, O.A.R, Poison, and the Marshall Tucker Band; he’s been in magazines like Hot Ticket, Spin Magazine, and All Access Magazine; according to his bio, he is “Mick Jagger meets Jim Morrison in a back alley fist fight, with a style of his own.” He is Brent Grunow of Brent Grunow & the Bandits.

Growing up in Saginaw, Mich., Grunow was exposed to a lot of rad artists at a very young age. His parents would put on artists around the house such as, Marvin Gaye, Joe Cocker, and the Rolling Stones, just to name a few. His influences also consist of Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty.

“Tom Petty is a genius if you ask me,” he said.

As a young boy, he would sing in the car with his mom as she gave him tips on his vocal skills. Grunow started playing shows between the ages of 15 and 16 years old. He moved from Saginaw to New York City in 2003.

“Saginaw is so saturated with cover bands,” Grunow said. “Don’t get me wrong, there are a few great bands as well, but no one gets out of Michigan.”

He thought New York would be a great place for him to move to for the music scene. Grunow started working at record company, Everfine Records, and stayed there for about a year and a half but quit his job at Everfine because working there and constantly touring started to conflict with each other too much.

Grunow wrote all the music for his EP, Push and Pull, and also co-produced it along side the talented Bob Iadeluca. Brent Grunow & the Bandits started touring on the album after recording it at Pearl Sound Studios in Detroit, with Chuck Alkazian. Having all his songs written for a couple of years, he gave his friends acoustic copies of the album. They encouraged him to get into the studio and properly record the EP.  He is grateful for that push from his friends.

“I consider myself a songwriter,” Grunow said. “I want people to remember my songs.”

All of his songs were influenced by different times and moments in his life. Grunow plans to be in the studio for the next couple months to lay down more tracks for another album. He plans on touring in the New Year with hopes to stop off and play Toronto. He played Toronto about two years ago with his old band, the Flask, and had such a rad time here, he would like to rock out once again.

To read up more on Grunow, listen to music, look at pictures, and keep an eye out for tour dates, check out his website at www.brentgrunow.com.

-Danielle Cowie

A LOOK AT WINTER GLOVES

If anybody needs some warming up this fall just put on some Winter Gloves and I don’t mean the ones that go on your hands. They are a Montreal-based band that has been together for less then a year and have already been satisfying the ears of many.

This four-piece consists of talented musicians, Charles F., Vincent Chalifour, Patrick Sayers, and Jean-Michel Pigeon. When it comes to the name of the band, Charles wanted something that had to do with winter in the name.  Being from North America he thought it would be appropriate.  One day while he was working at a mountain gear equipment store, he was facing gloves on the shelf, trying to think of a band name, and listening to the radio.  All he had faced for hours were these winter gloves and bingo! A band name was born.

They have described their genre as the ever so catchy term, ‘glock-rock,’ because of their heavy synth, glockenspiel, and indie rock and roll vibe. Before Winter Gloves, Charles was in a band called Lady Grey, which didn’t end up working out.

“We were trying to be Radiohead,” he stated. “Winter Gloves was just so natural.” 

It was the first time he had been on the keyboard for a year and a half and it felt 100% natural to him to be back playing it. Charles wrote and recorded the first (three song) EP, titled Let Me Drive, by himself.  It included the three tracks, Let Me Drive, I Can’t Tell You, and Piano 4 Hands. Charles knew he needed a band so he went out and got one.  The band later recorded the full-length album, titled About A Girl.  He found, after recording and listening back to it, that the album had to be re-remixed to bring it down to a friendlier, less powerful level and is really glad to hear the fans are enjoying it. 

Winter Gloves aren’t just all about the style or the sound.  They are also deeply about the lyrics.  What is most important to them is their songwriting and that it is recognized and appreciated. About A Girl focuses on the experiences that come with moving from the country to the city and the seduction of the urban lifestyle. These guys also love playing Toronto.  When they played Canadian Music Week Charles said “it was awesome…It felt like it was Los Angeles.”  To them though NXNE was more interesting because there were not as many cameras pointing and shooting at them constantly and instead, more people dancing and having a good time to their music.

-Danielle Cowie

On November 18, the synth-equipped Montreal rock act will a play free show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, along with another freebie in the Big Smoke this Saturday (November 15) for CBC Radio's Go!<http://www.cbc.ca/go>

ANOTHER MAN’S TRASH IS A FEMBOTS TREASURE

While working on their latest album, Calling Out, indie rock band FemBots took their home-made instruments or ‘junk-struments’, out of the city and up north.

It was a necessary venture as primary members Brian Poirier and Dave MacKinnon both live in Toronto but drummer Nathan Lawr resides in Sudbury, quite a distance away. They recorded parts of the album in Cordova Lake and Lakefield (both near Peterborough) as well as in Lawr’s basement in Sudbury.

“We started setting up these weekend retreats at family and friends’ cottages and that’s where we did all of the record really,” MacKinnon said. “We started out the first couple of sessions that way. [We] were really [just] writing and figuring out what we were doing. Once the ball got rolling and [we figured out] what the record was going to be like then it seemed to be a good working operation and we just kept going with it.”

When writing the lyrics, MacKinnon took a notepad with him as he wandered Toronto. It was a process which resulted in the song, “The End of the Day,” which was based on a conversation between two school bus drivers talking about fine wines.

“You have to do something that shuts off the conscious part of your brain,” MacKinnon said about why he took a notepad wherever he went. “I used to be able to write when I had a job driving for a living, which was great because the logical part of your brain is occupied doing a job and the non-logical part of your brain is free to roam. Without access to a car at this time, I’ve just had to wander around the city.”

Along the way, the band also had help from Iner Souster, who designed their junk-struments, as well as Paul Aucoin from the Hylozoists, who played vibraphone and organized the horn parts on the album. Aucoin also appears on Laura Barrett’s album, Victory Garden, set for release this month too.

“He’s everywhere. He’s unavoidable,” MacKinnon said with a laugh. “We were fairly far through the record at that point so really we just gave him all the songs and said ‘pick the ones you want to add stuff to and we’ll go from there.’ It was quite lovely.”

The original plan for the new album was for it to be recorded using only junk-struments. After finishing their tour for The City, FemBots spent a year on-and-off working on the album that way until it proved to be a dead end due to the nature of the instruments they were working with.

“It was getting hard to try and get real songs, like what we were coming out with was a strange cross between Bugs Bunny music and electronic dance music,” MacKinnon said. “After we hit a dead end, we just started improvising over those rhythm tracks as a whole band and that was sort of where the record really took off and started to turn into what it is now.”

While it failed, the junk-struments-only concept would have brought FemBots full circle. MacKinnon and Poirier started the band as a home recording project, using power tools, toys and broken down thrift store instruments as their junk-struments. The pair also used tape loops and reel-to-reel machines to create post-industrial folk songs, resulting in wild live performances.

In 2000, they released Mucho Cuidado followed by Small Town Murder Scene in 2003, whose title pretty much explains the ghost town country feel of the album. That record also saw the band use more traditional instruments in their mix. The City was released in 2005, an album that explores the lost history of Toronto. Lawr appeared on the album as a guest musician, splitting time with his own solo act, Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs. Aucoin also provided horns on The City, as FemBots built from their junkstrument sound on their debut to a band featuring piano, guitars and strings.

While it has been three years since the release of The City, to MacKinnon, it hasn’t felt like it’s been too long at all.

“We never seem to be able to write while we’re touring. We just try and go back to scratch and reinvent the band for whatever reason, mostly because we don’t want to repeat ourselves,” MacKinnon said, with a laugh. “Three years, seems a long time but it’s not really, once you actually get into the process.”

Calling Out is released on Sept. 16 on (weewerk), with a CD Release Party at The Music Gallery (197 John St.) on Sept. 26.

- Jon Brazeau

LAURA BARETT: A VICTORY LAP FOR THE ADORABLES

As a member of the Hidden Cameras and Henri Fabergé and the Adorables, Laura Barrett is familiar performing with of large groups. Now, the Toronto musician is also enjoying the thrill of being a solo artist.

After releasing two EPs, Earth Sciences and Ursula, Barrett is ready to drop her first full-length album, Victory Garden (Paper Bag Records), on Sept. 23. Creating the album was an exciting experience for Barrett and it helped take her kalimba-based sound to the next level.

“It really cemented that I was making something big and a bit more representative of what my music can be,” Barrett said. “It was awesome working with (co-producer) Paul Aucoin and an honour too. Overall, it was a great learning experience.”

Other musicians featured on the album include Randy Lee (former bassist for the Bicycles) on violin; Lief Mosbaugh (the Hidden Cameras) on oboe and viola; and Jeremy Strachan (Feuermusik) on bass clarinet and flute. Getting everyone together wasn’t a problem for Barrett.

“We did have to do a bit of wrangling to fit everyone’s schedules but generally, it was done in pieces, so we had string players for a few days and then we did brass separately. We were never all in the room together so that made it a bit easier to organize too,” Barrett said. “It also happened to be a good coincidence Lief and I were in the Hidden Cameras together and I knew when he was available.”

Barrett has been playing her signature kalimba since January 2005. While looking for midi controllers on EBay, she came across an auction for a kalimba, an African thumb piano, and the classically-trained pianist and clarinet player added another musical talent to her repertoire.

Her first live performance with the kalimba came in August of that year at a “Weird Al” Yankovic tribute concert at the now-defunct Toronto bar, the Bagel. Barrett covered “Smells Like Nirvana,” which drew the attention of audience member Henry Fletcher from the band Spitfires & Mayflowers.

Along with fellow Spitfires & Mayflowers member Andy Lloyd, Fletcher gathered Toronto musicians for his next project, Henri Fabergé and the Adorables. Fletcher also reconnected with a friend from Vancouver, Woodhands’ Dan Werb, and borrowed drummer Dana Snell from the Bicycles for his band.

While working at Steve’s Music Store with Adorables bassist Brendan Howlett, Maylee Todd was drafted as an additional guitarist and background vocalist.

“I didn’t actually end up playing a lot of guitar now that I think about it,” Todd said with a laugh. “I was just raging, running around and stuff like that, which was fun to do.”

Following the “Weird Al” tribute show, Barrett became a part-time Adorable, since she had also joined the Hidden Cameras and began working on her solo tunes. Fletcher made Barrett an honourary member by giving her an Adorables coat hanger. When he found out she could also play the clarinet, Barrett was brought on full-time.

“Emotionally, it was a lot of fun to be part of the Adorables, it was so energetic,” Barrett said. “They’re just a fun group of people to hang out with and our tours were more like road trips.”

The group pooled together their pop sensibilities, writing sexy, dance-worthy tunes about lost love on “Crawl Back” and “Favourite Kisses” and paid homage to their ‘home’ on “The Embassy (223 Augusta)”. When performing live, Henri Fabergé and the Adorables let loose on stage and during one particular tour, they were known for convincing audience members to take off their shirts.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this perverse tour or anything but it just kind of ended up being this weird, frat, naked party,” Todd said. “I don’t even know how it started to be honest.”

Along the way, they added part-time Adorables to fill their ranks including the Bicycles, the Meligrove Band and Born Ruffians to join in on the shenanigans.

Henri Fabergé and the Adorables released a self-titled album in 2006 but recently, the band members have focused on their solo projects. Werb returned to Woodhands, adding Paul Banwatt (The Rural Alberta Advantage). The duo dance up a fury, performing electronic tunes with live instruments, most notably with a keytar. Both Barrett and Todd made guest appearances on Woodhands’ album Heart Attack, released earlier this year.

“Dan had a bunch of female singing parts and I was totally down,” Todd said. “That keytar? Amazing. How can you go wrong with a keytar?”

Todd also has her plate full of activities. As a graduate of Humber College’s Comedy: Writing and Performance program, Todd has made a name for herself in the improv field and worked with the Second City troupe. Lately, Todd has been mixing her comedy background with weird fitness shows and she plans to release an aerobics DVD soon. She is also set to head into the studio and record an album of her own.

“There’s some jazz-influence, funk-influence and I’m hoping to kick in a bit of rock,” Todd said. “I’m pretty excited and a little nervous about recording. I really don’t know what to expect.”

Despite all the solo projects, Henri Fabergé and the Adorables will return, possibly in the near future.

“Hopefully we’ll all get back into the studio by the end of the year,” Barrett said, adding with a laugh, “It’s going to be insanely good.”

-Jon Brazeau