Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The bobblehead speaks!
The Skinny sits down with legendary DOA frontman Joe “Shithead” Keithley
By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny
“We still raise shit, we’re still good live and we keep trying to say stuff about what’s going on and I think that’s really the key,” Vancouver’s legendary godfather of punk, DOA frontman Joe “Shithead” Keithley said recently at a Vancouver coffee shop.
Wielding his iconic Gibson SG, Keithley is the band’s only original member, backed by bassist Dan Yaremko and drummer James Hayden. His music has inspired legions to question the world and work to change it—embodying the true spirit of punk.
“The thing that’s made DOA different,” Keithley revealed, “is that it’s always been a progressive band with new ideas and politics. There’s a certain sense of nostalgia with DOA of course, I realize that, but it’s not a nostalgia act because we’ve at least tried to be progressive and forward thinking as time has gone on.”
And it’s because of that inherently progressive nature that DOA’s music and message have been able to transcend three generations of punk rockers—even garnering the band its own day: December 21st is DOA Day in Vancouver, which undeniably speaks to the impact of the band.
Co-produced by Chon and Keithley at Vancouver’s Profile Studios, DOA’s 13th studio album, Talk- Action=0, promises to be “up to DOA standards.” The album was fittingly due out on May 1st, the People’s Day, on Keithley’s own Sudden Death Records, but has since been pushed to June 8th.
The album’s title, a long time slogan for DOA, was originally the logo on the cover of a Vancouver anarchist magazine called Open Road. “We asked them if we could use it and being anarchist they said ‘Yes, of course you can, the world’s yours,’ so we did.”
“We went through a few title ideas and then finally settled on that as being the ultimate DOA slogan,” said Keithley. “I think if you don’t get out and try to change anything in this world, then you’re in a position where you don’t have a right to complain. I believe that real change always comes trough people power.”
The effort, a stark return to the band’s grittier roots, features such titles as “That’s Why I’m An Atheist” about scandal among the clergy and “I Live In A Car,” about the plight of those forced to do so. As compared to previous albums, the recording process was relatively quick—indicative of a veteran act.
An updated version of “Royal Police” from DOA’s seminal Disco Sucks EP also appears on the album. “It’s now called ‘the RCMP,’” said Keithley. “We changed the words a little bit to talk about Robert Dziekanski and people getting tasered and cops investigating themselves and stuff like that.”
DOA also includes a couple of choice covers such as Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore” and Bob Dylan’s “the Times They Are A-Changin’” mixed in with blistering bursts of punk such as “They Hate Punk Rock.”
Reputably the hardest touring band to ever cram in the back of a converted milk truck, DOA heads to Europe in April and the US in June. The band will start in Germany and move through Italy, Slovenia, Denmark and Holland.
He noted that the band has always had a very positive reception in Europe. “DOA’s got a really strong following there just with the political connection, just with the activism. We always play in squats or for political events over there.”
Indeed, DOA has had the opportunity to play in some pretty interesting places. Last year the band even ventured to China. “I think we’re, if not the first, one of the first political punk bands to go over there,” theorized Keithley. “When you go you have to submit some lyrics to the censors…so we kind of picked some songs that weren’t political, right? And we’d never written a song about Tibet or the Falun Gong so it was no problem.”
Despite looking as if they’d just come from an Exploited concert circa ’84, the Chinese punks surprised Keithley. “The bands were generally really good—I was pretty surprised. And the crowds were good. They didn’t understand very much of what we said though,” smiled Keithley, who hopes to go again next year.
But his plans reach even further than China. “We’ve never been to South America, we’ve never been to Africa, never been to the Middle East, and never been to Russia,” he said. “I have a friend in Brazil who’s going to try and line up a tour in November to go to Brazil and Argentina, so that’ll be something.”
Closer to home, in late February, DOA played an anti-Olympic show at the Rickshaw Theatre. Keithley set the record straight on his stance. “I’m a big fan of sports and of course I followed both the Canadian hockey teams closely,” he said. “But VANOC operating ahead of time in a very undemocratic manner was a really key point behind why we’d have something like the anti-Olympic show.”
“And the other thing: the IOC is really an arrogant bunch that won’t listen to anybody and they push everybody around and they have all their own rules. But they’re so concerned with money and I’m afraid that’s their problem. It’s great if [the sponsors] donate to the athletes, but they pretty well close everybody else out.”
Keithley worries that the stringent rules imposed during the Olympics were of an undemocratic nature, such as protests only being allowed in specific zones and a moratorium on handing out pamphlets. “You go to any major city in the world and people are handing out leaflets. Usually it’s for crap, but sometimes it’s political stuff, and that’s part of the political process in a western democracy. To subvert that is a bad thing. Even if they’re saying it’s only temporary. It sets a bad precedent if you ask me. These democratic rights that people fought hard for and died for and were imprisoned for have to be maintained.”
He also mentioned the unfairness of holding the Paralympics after the Olymp-ocalypse, suggesting they be held either before or during. “I think that’s one of the fuck- ups of this Olympics and other Olympics. They need to get more attention on the Paralympics because it’s a pretty cool event and it’s not the heavy commercial thing that the regular Olympics are.”
An anti-Olympic song was written specifically for the rally, the release of which was halted by the likelihood of a barrage of lawsuits. The controversial lyrics of the song have since been reworked, the new version of which appears on DOA’s latest release. “It was originally ‘the oh-oh-lympics can go-oh-oh to hell,’” Keithley sang. “But we took that same song and we changed it and now it’s called ‘Tyrants Turn in Hell.’ So now it goes ‘the bloody, bloody tyrants can go-oh-oh to hell.’ Same tune—just changed the words and now it’s about tyrants around the world.”
The original lyrics however, are not lost. They may appear in the next book Keithley has planned, the follow up to I, Shithead: A Life In Punk. The book would include “pictures and posters and lyrics throughout the history of DOA and opposite would be a little story or anecdote about how each of these things came about.”
It’s hard to imagine, but Keithley certainly isn’t out of ideas. “I’ve got a few things in the back of my head but not all of them have come to fruition yet, but they will,” he said. “And like Bob Dylan said ‘I’ve got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane.’ I feel the same way.”
The Philadelphia based Aggronautix, a company responsible for not one, but two runs of gory GG Allin effigies, recently commissioned one thousand headbanging “throbble heads” in Keithley’s likeness. “I think it’s pretty funny because my buddy Ford Pier said that ‘if I have my own action figure, I know I fucking made it,’” laughed Keithley. “I don’t think of it quite that way, but it’s just a funny statement.”
Considerably more charming than Allin’s, the figurines are available through the Aggronautix website or exclusively in Vancouver at Scratch Records. “It’s cool I guess, and a few people have already commented that if you want to get Joe to agree with ya, you just got to get the bobble head and get him to nod yes, right? My band mates will get one…”
By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny
“We still raise shit, we’re still good live and we keep trying to say stuff about what’s going on and I think that’s really the key,” Vancouver’s legendary godfather of punk, DOA frontman Joe “Shithead” Keithley said recently at a Vancouver coffee shop.
Wielding his iconic Gibson SG, Keithley is the band’s only original member, backed by bassist Dan Yaremko and drummer James Hayden. His music has inspired legions to question the world and work to change it—embodying the true spirit of punk.
“The thing that’s made DOA different,” Keithley revealed, “is that it’s always been a progressive band with new ideas and politics. There’s a certain sense of nostalgia with DOA of course, I realize that, but it’s not a nostalgia act because we’ve at least tried to be progressive and forward thinking as time has gone on.”
And it’s because of that inherently progressive nature that DOA’s music and message have been able to transcend three generations of punk rockers—even garnering the band its own day: December 21st is DOA Day in Vancouver, which undeniably speaks to the impact of the band.
Co-produced by Chon and Keithley at Vancouver’s Profile Studios, DOA’s 13th studio album, Talk- Action=0, promises to be “up to DOA standards.” The album was fittingly due out on May 1st, the People’s Day, on Keithley’s own Sudden Death Records, but has since been pushed to June 8th.
The album’s title, a long time slogan for DOA, was originally the logo on the cover of a Vancouver anarchist magazine called Open Road. “We asked them if we could use it and being anarchist they said ‘Yes, of course you can, the world’s yours,’ so we did.”
“We went through a few title ideas and then finally settled on that as being the ultimate DOA slogan,” said Keithley. “I think if you don’t get out and try to change anything in this world, then you’re in a position where you don’t have a right to complain. I believe that real change always comes trough people power.”
The effort, a stark return to the band’s grittier roots, features such titles as “That’s Why I’m An Atheist” about scandal among the clergy and “I Live In A Car,” about the plight of those forced to do so. As compared to previous albums, the recording process was relatively quick—indicative of a veteran act.
An updated version of “Royal Police” from DOA’s seminal Disco Sucks EP also appears on the album. “It’s now called ‘the RCMP,’” said Keithley. “We changed the words a little bit to talk about Robert Dziekanski and people getting tasered and cops investigating themselves and stuff like that.”
DOA also includes a couple of choice covers such as Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore” and Bob Dylan’s “the Times They Are A-Changin’” mixed in with blistering bursts of punk such as “They Hate Punk Rock.”
Reputably the hardest touring band to ever cram in the back of a converted milk truck, DOA heads to Europe in April and the US in June. The band will start in Germany and move through Italy, Slovenia, Denmark and Holland.
He noted that the band has always had a very positive reception in Europe. “DOA’s got a really strong following there just with the political connection, just with the activism. We always play in squats or for political events over there.”
Indeed, DOA has had the opportunity to play in some pretty interesting places. Last year the band even ventured to China. “I think we’re, if not the first, one of the first political punk bands to go over there,” theorized Keithley. “When you go you have to submit some lyrics to the censors…so we kind of picked some songs that weren’t political, right? And we’d never written a song about Tibet or the Falun Gong so it was no problem.”
Despite looking as if they’d just come from an Exploited concert circa ’84, the Chinese punks surprised Keithley. “The bands were generally really good—I was pretty surprised. And the crowds were good. They didn’t understand very much of what we said though,” smiled Keithley, who hopes to go again next year.
But his plans reach even further than China. “We’ve never been to South America, we’ve never been to Africa, never been to the Middle East, and never been to Russia,” he said. “I have a friend in Brazil who’s going to try and line up a tour in November to go to Brazil and Argentina, so that’ll be something.”
Closer to home, in late February, DOA played an anti-Olympic show at the Rickshaw Theatre. Keithley set the record straight on his stance. “I’m a big fan of sports and of course I followed both the Canadian hockey teams closely,” he said. “But VANOC operating ahead of time in a very undemocratic manner was a really key point behind why we’d have something like the anti-Olympic show.”
“And the other thing: the IOC is really an arrogant bunch that won’t listen to anybody and they push everybody around and they have all their own rules. But they’re so concerned with money and I’m afraid that’s their problem. It’s great if [the sponsors] donate to the athletes, but they pretty well close everybody else out.”
Keithley worries that the stringent rules imposed during the Olympics were of an undemocratic nature, such as protests only being allowed in specific zones and a moratorium on handing out pamphlets. “You go to any major city in the world and people are handing out leaflets. Usually it’s for crap, but sometimes it’s political stuff, and that’s part of the political process in a western democracy. To subvert that is a bad thing. Even if they’re saying it’s only temporary. It sets a bad precedent if you ask me. These democratic rights that people fought hard for and died for and were imprisoned for have to be maintained.”
He also mentioned the unfairness of holding the Paralympics after the Olymp-ocalypse, suggesting they be held either before or during. “I think that’s one of the fuck- ups of this Olympics and other Olympics. They need to get more attention on the Paralympics because it’s a pretty cool event and it’s not the heavy commercial thing that the regular Olympics are.”
An anti-Olympic song was written specifically for the rally, the release of which was halted by the likelihood of a barrage of lawsuits. The controversial lyrics of the song have since been reworked, the new version of which appears on DOA’s latest release. “It was originally ‘the oh-oh-lympics can go-oh-oh to hell,’” Keithley sang. “But we took that same song and we changed it and now it’s called ‘Tyrants Turn in Hell.’ So now it goes ‘the bloody, bloody tyrants can go-oh-oh to hell.’ Same tune—just changed the words and now it’s about tyrants around the world.”
The original lyrics however, are not lost. They may appear in the next book Keithley has planned, the follow up to I, Shithead: A Life In Punk. The book would include “pictures and posters and lyrics throughout the history of DOA and opposite would be a little story or anecdote about how each of these things came about.”
It’s hard to imagine, but Keithley certainly isn’t out of ideas. “I’ve got a few things in the back of my head but not all of them have come to fruition yet, but they will,” he said. “And like Bob Dylan said ‘I’ve got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane.’ I feel the same way.”
The Philadelphia based Aggronautix, a company responsible for not one, but two runs of gory GG Allin effigies, recently commissioned one thousand headbanging “throbble heads” in Keithley’s likeness. “I think it’s pretty funny because my buddy Ford Pier said that ‘if I have my own action figure, I know I fucking made it,’” laughed Keithley. “I don’t think of it quite that way, but it’s just a funny statement.”
Considerably more charming than Allin’s, the figurines are available through the Aggronautix website or exclusively in Vancouver at Scratch Records. “It’s cool I guess, and a few people have already commented that if you want to get Joe to agree with ya, you just got to get the bobble head and get him to nod yes, right? My band mates will get one…”
Vancouver Killing Spree proves it’s really not about murder
By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny
Despite its rather aggressive moniker and sound, the gentlemen of Vancouver Killing Spree are amongst the most honest and genuine you’ll ever meet—which, combined with a love of music and endearing band dynamic, shines through both on stage on and on record.
The Skinny recently sat down with frontman and guitarist Brad Anderson, bassist Jesse Weymer and drummer Jamieson Cleary at their jamspace.
It all began very organically. Anderson and Cleary decided to part ways with the bassist of their previous project, Muskellunge, and change gears musically. Emerging from a Northern Saskatchewan mine just in time, Weymer moved back to Vancouver. An old friend of Anderson’s, he was an instant fit. “He’s one of the best bass players I’ve worked with ever,” said Anderson.
“Awe,” chimed in Weymer. “I’m going to get all misty eyed.”
From there, the trio played a few shows as Muskellunge.
What’s a Muskellunge you ask?
“A 90-pound North American freshwater-fish that eats ducks,” revealed Anderson.
“And rumoured to eat babies—but no one’s ever proven it,” said Weymer, providing the colour commentary.
The trio wrote a song called “Vancouver Killing Spree” and were amazed by the crowd’s reaction to the somewhat ferocious title. “It felt right,” said Anderson. “It’s kind of the opposite way people usually go—a band named after a song.”
“There was no way we could’ve kept calling it the same name because it wasn’t the same thing at all,” added Cleary.
Though the title was originally meant to reflect on the senseless gang violence prevalent in the city, it changed once adopted as the band’s name. “Whatever you do in life, you’re killing it,” said Weymer of the drive to do your absolute best daily.
Musically, the best description of the band comes courtesy of an anonymous Myspace fan: “It’s not punk, it’s not metal, it’s not rock, it’s not roll…it sounds like all those things got in a knife fight and punk and roll won.”
“[Jamieson’s] into punk, my influences come from metal,” said Weymer. “And Brad…he really likes Celine Dion.”
“The woman has an amazing voice,” Anderson justified. “I don’t necessarily like her music; I only listen to it when I’m alone in the dark crying in a corner. She’s good.”
“I should’ve said Brian Adams,” Weymer joked. “I’m really sorry…”
VKS released a five song EP called It’s Not About Murder… in October. “We just really wanted to have something to be able to give to people and show off what we were doing,” said Anderson.
“Here’s a CD, give us a show,” mused Weymer.
“So we decided it was important to put out an EP,” continued Anderson. “Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have. Personally I prefer full-length discs, but we had no idea how long it was going to take.
“When we write songs, we’re very meticulous about it,” he said of the care that goes into crafting each track. “We don’t like to just throw something down and call it done. It’s more, find something that really inspires us and then let it mature.”
“Loud” Chris DeMarcus took the recording helm, while Dave Denofreo was responsible for the morphed photo art. “He did everything short of actually coming to our houses in the morning and making coffee,” said Anderson, offering a tongue-in-cheek note. “Chris, if you’re reading this, please make sure next time we come in and do some work you’ve got some coffee made.”
Most of VKS’ music stems from a bass riff that either Weymer or Anderson will bring to the studio. “I really like playing when I’m smoking on the back of my deck,” said Weymer. “Some of it I can bring into the studio, some of it I just sort of leave on the deck. Whatever I feel at that time, I try to carry that with me.”
“Then I generally take the roots of what he’s using and I do something completely different,” smiled Anderson. “I like dark sounding music, so if there’s sort of rising progression that he’s working on that sounds…chipper, I take an axe to it and build a guitar riff that makes it sound like it’s falling down the stairs.”
“There will be no happiness in our music!” said Weymer.
“A lot of the stuff that I write about is inspired by things that generally make me unhappy or piss me off. It’s a very big outlet for me,” said Anderson. “If I didn’t have music, I’d…I don’t know…”
“Be a mass murderer,” interjected Weymer.
“I’d be a mass murderer.”
At times, Anderson’s lyrics are intensely personal. “I usually just put down exactly the words that are on my brain that fit well into the spaces and 100% of the time they’re reflective or metaphoric of something that’s going on in my life,” he said.
Cleary is responsible for linking Anderson and Weymer’s thoughts together, which to some might seem daunting. “It’s easy,” he said, “because there’s so many options. It’s just kind of easy for me to play the way I want too; I don’t have to play it a certain way ‘cause none of us really play anything by structure.”
“That’s something I really like about playing with these guys,” said Weymer, “it’s just no holds barred. I’m allowed to do whatever I want.”
“It’s never good unless you’re playing your heart out,” added Anderson.
Vancouver Killing Spree begins its tour at the Bourbon May 13th, an anniversary of sorts.
“Our first show as Vancouver Killing Spree was at Pub 340 on May 13th of last year,” said Anderson. “This year we’ve played on February 13th, March 13th, almost every show we’ve played has been on a 13th…we need to break that mold, so we’re going on tour.”
“Expect intensity,” said Cleary. “That’s the bottom line.”
“Come out ready to have fun,” said Anderson. “Come ready to throw out your inhibitions and get covered in beer if you like that kind of thing. If not…I’d take a couple paces back.”
The band tours throughout BC and Alberta in May and has been shortlisted to play Calgary’s Sled Island festival. Watch for a full-length album later this year.
Despite its rather aggressive moniker and sound, the gentlemen of Vancouver Killing Spree are amongst the most honest and genuine you’ll ever meet—which, combined with a love of music and endearing band dynamic, shines through both on stage on and on record.
The Skinny recently sat down with frontman and guitarist Brad Anderson, bassist Jesse Weymer and drummer Jamieson Cleary at their jamspace.
It all began very organically. Anderson and Cleary decided to part ways with the bassist of their previous project, Muskellunge, and change gears musically. Emerging from a Northern Saskatchewan mine just in time, Weymer moved back to Vancouver. An old friend of Anderson’s, he was an instant fit. “He’s one of the best bass players I’ve worked with ever,” said Anderson.
“Awe,” chimed in Weymer. “I’m going to get all misty eyed.”
From there, the trio played a few shows as Muskellunge.
What’s a Muskellunge you ask?
“A 90-pound North American freshwater-fish that eats ducks,” revealed Anderson.
“And rumoured to eat babies—but no one’s ever proven it,” said Weymer, providing the colour commentary.
The trio wrote a song called “Vancouver Killing Spree” and were amazed by the crowd’s reaction to the somewhat ferocious title. “It felt right,” said Anderson. “It’s kind of the opposite way people usually go—a band named after a song.”
“There was no way we could’ve kept calling it the same name because it wasn’t the same thing at all,” added Cleary.
Though the title was originally meant to reflect on the senseless gang violence prevalent in the city, it changed once adopted as the band’s name. “Whatever you do in life, you’re killing it,” said Weymer of the drive to do your absolute best daily.
Musically, the best description of the band comes courtesy of an anonymous Myspace fan: “It’s not punk, it’s not metal, it’s not rock, it’s not roll…it sounds like all those things got in a knife fight and punk and roll won.”
“[Jamieson’s] into punk, my influences come from metal,” said Weymer. “And Brad…he really likes Celine Dion.”
“The woman has an amazing voice,” Anderson justified. “I don’t necessarily like her music; I only listen to it when I’m alone in the dark crying in a corner. She’s good.”
“I should’ve said Brian Adams,” Weymer joked. “I’m really sorry…”
VKS released a five song EP called It’s Not About Murder… in October. “We just really wanted to have something to be able to give to people and show off what we were doing,” said Anderson.
“Here’s a CD, give us a show,” mused Weymer.
“So we decided it was important to put out an EP,” continued Anderson. “Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have. Personally I prefer full-length discs, but we had no idea how long it was going to take.
“When we write songs, we’re very meticulous about it,” he said of the care that goes into crafting each track. “We don’t like to just throw something down and call it done. It’s more, find something that really inspires us and then let it mature.”
“Loud” Chris DeMarcus took the recording helm, while Dave Denofreo was responsible for the morphed photo art. “He did everything short of actually coming to our houses in the morning and making coffee,” said Anderson, offering a tongue-in-cheek note. “Chris, if you’re reading this, please make sure next time we come in and do some work you’ve got some coffee made.”
Most of VKS’ music stems from a bass riff that either Weymer or Anderson will bring to the studio. “I really like playing when I’m smoking on the back of my deck,” said Weymer. “Some of it I can bring into the studio, some of it I just sort of leave on the deck. Whatever I feel at that time, I try to carry that with me.”
“Then I generally take the roots of what he’s using and I do something completely different,” smiled Anderson. “I like dark sounding music, so if there’s sort of rising progression that he’s working on that sounds…chipper, I take an axe to it and build a guitar riff that makes it sound like it’s falling down the stairs.”
“There will be no happiness in our music!” said Weymer.
“A lot of the stuff that I write about is inspired by things that generally make me unhappy or piss me off. It’s a very big outlet for me,” said Anderson. “If I didn’t have music, I’d…I don’t know…”
“Be a mass murderer,” interjected Weymer.
“I’d be a mass murderer.”
At times, Anderson’s lyrics are intensely personal. “I usually just put down exactly the words that are on my brain that fit well into the spaces and 100% of the time they’re reflective or metaphoric of something that’s going on in my life,” he said.
Cleary is responsible for linking Anderson and Weymer’s thoughts together, which to some might seem daunting. “It’s easy,” he said, “because there’s so many options. It’s just kind of easy for me to play the way I want too; I don’t have to play it a certain way ‘cause none of us really play anything by structure.”
“That’s something I really like about playing with these guys,” said Weymer, “it’s just no holds barred. I’m allowed to do whatever I want.”
“It’s never good unless you’re playing your heart out,” added Anderson.
Vancouver Killing Spree begins its tour at the Bourbon May 13th, an anniversary of sorts.
“Our first show as Vancouver Killing Spree was at Pub 340 on May 13th of last year,” said Anderson. “This year we’ve played on February 13th, March 13th, almost every show we’ve played has been on a 13th…we need to break that mold, so we’re going on tour.”
“Expect intensity,” said Cleary. “That’s the bottom line.”
“Come out ready to have fun,” said Anderson. “Come ready to throw out your inhibitions and get covered in beer if you like that kind of thing. If not…I’d take a couple paces back.”
The band tours throughout BC and Alberta in May and has been shortlisted to play Calgary’s Sled Island festival. Watch for a full-length album later this year.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Reviews: No Fun City
No Fun City premiere starts important dialogue
By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny
I first heard about No Fun City when filmmakers Melissa James and Kate Kroll were guests on CBC Radio 3’s Lanarama last year. The show was about the vanishing venue and their local and in depth spin on the issue immediately struck me as important. Instead of sitting idly by as the number of venues in Vancouver quickly dwindled, they decided to try and do something about it.
The sold out world premier Monday at the Pacific Cinémathèque made much of what you might think apparent about running a venue in Vancouver, but also illuminated a lot of underlying issues.
The film chronicles the struggles of promoters in the city, four in particular: the Cobalt’s Wendy13, the Sweatshop’s Malice, the Rickshaw’s David Duprey and the E.R.’s Justin Gradin and Keith Wecker as they, and many others, fight to find a home for local live music within the stringent legal parameters imposed by the city.
Wrought with red tape and bureaucracy, acquiring and maintaining a venue in Vancouver has become nearly impossible. And as venues close, few, if any crop up to replace them. Not for lack of trying, simply by lack of opportunity. The reality is that a venue without a permanent liquor license likely won’t survive.
James and Kroll offer a myriad of perspectives from Vancouver City Councillor Heather Deal to an outraged condo resident, but still manage to maintain a strong story line surrounding the main characters as they try to help foster a community. In fact, that’s what really became really clear in the film: while these venues may not always be the most luxurious, they have heart. They mean something to their patrons. And it’s the drive of people like those whose journeys are chronicled that are at the centre of that.
All in all, the film showed a realistic picture of what it takes to get a venue off the ground and the passion needed to even fathom doing so. It also showed that the loss of a venue such as the Cobalt (Vancouver’s CBGB’s) is devastating to the community, aken away by a piece of paper.
The message and bottom line of the film is that venues will continue to be lost unless people start supporting them—it’s as simple as getting out to a show.
Mixed in with raw concert footage and thorough interviews, was really beautiful cinematography capturing the Vancouver skyline and providing a nice contrast to the edgier venue shots. Elements of humour humanize an otherwise serious look at the situation as well. A lot of love and hard work clearly went into this.
The crowd laughed along when it was appropriate, nodded in agreement, shook its collective head in disbelief and even let out the occasional ‘boo’ as the story progressed offering a glimmer of hope with the opening of the Rickshaw.
During the Q and A with James and Kroll following the screening, Heather Deal addressed concerns saying essentially that the city only hears from those against venues, but rarely those for. Thus, their concerns must first be addressed. She encouraged the opposing side to write letters so that their views may also be heard.
The film will screen in LA, Calgary and hopefully in Montreal and is slated for an eventual DVD launch—if James and Kroll can find a venue that is. A vinyl soundtrack may also be on the horizon.
Advance tickets to the second screening May 16th at 4pm at the Pacific Cinémathèque are sold out, however tickets may still be available at the door.
http://www.nofuncity.org/
By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny
I first heard about No Fun City when filmmakers Melissa James and Kate Kroll were guests on CBC Radio 3’s Lanarama last year. The show was about the vanishing venue and their local and in depth spin on the issue immediately struck me as important. Instead of sitting idly by as the number of venues in Vancouver quickly dwindled, they decided to try and do something about it.
The sold out world premier Monday at the Pacific Cinémathèque made much of what you might think apparent about running a venue in Vancouver, but also illuminated a lot of underlying issues.
The film chronicles the struggles of promoters in the city, four in particular: the Cobalt’s Wendy13, the Sweatshop’s Malice, the Rickshaw’s David Duprey and the E.R.’s Justin Gradin and Keith Wecker as they, and many others, fight to find a home for local live music within the stringent legal parameters imposed by the city.
Wrought with red tape and bureaucracy, acquiring and maintaining a venue in Vancouver has become nearly impossible. And as venues close, few, if any crop up to replace them. Not for lack of trying, simply by lack of opportunity. The reality is that a venue without a permanent liquor license likely won’t survive.
James and Kroll offer a myriad of perspectives from Vancouver City Councillor Heather Deal to an outraged condo resident, but still manage to maintain a strong story line surrounding the main characters as they try to help foster a community. In fact, that’s what really became really clear in the film: while these venues may not always be the most luxurious, they have heart. They mean something to their patrons. And it’s the drive of people like those whose journeys are chronicled that are at the centre of that.
All in all, the film showed a realistic picture of what it takes to get a venue off the ground and the passion needed to even fathom doing so. It also showed that the loss of a venue such as the Cobalt (Vancouver’s CBGB’s) is devastating to the community, aken away by a piece of paper.
The message and bottom line of the film is that venues will continue to be lost unless people start supporting them—it’s as simple as getting out to a show.
Mixed in with raw concert footage and thorough interviews, was really beautiful cinematography capturing the Vancouver skyline and providing a nice contrast to the edgier venue shots. Elements of humour humanize an otherwise serious look at the situation as well. A lot of love and hard work clearly went into this.
The crowd laughed along when it was appropriate, nodded in agreement, shook its collective head in disbelief and even let out the occasional ‘boo’ as the story progressed offering a glimmer of hope with the opening of the Rickshaw.
During the Q and A with James and Kroll following the screening, Heather Deal addressed concerns saying essentially that the city only hears from those against venues, but rarely those for. Thus, their concerns must first be addressed. She encouraged the opposing side to write letters so that their views may also be heard.
The film will screen in LA, Calgary and hopefully in Montreal and is slated for an eventual DVD launch—if James and Kroll can find a venue that is. A vinyl soundtrack may also be on the horizon.
Advance tickets to the second screening May 16th at 4pm at the Pacific Cinémathèque are sold out, however tickets may still be available at the door.
http://www.nofuncity.org/
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
HOT PANDA AT HIVE 3 MARCH 12 2010
Alright who wants to get their crunk on?” inquired lead vocalist and guitarist Chris Connelly. “Three people… cool.”
Quirky Edmonton quartet Hot Panda started off the Cultural Olympiad portion of the Paralympic Games with a modestly short set at Hive 3, an experimental theatre showcase. The band, which used to rehearse in a coffin factory and tour in a ’77 ambulance, is in town recording the follow-up to 2009’s Volcano… Bloody Volcano before heading off to SXSW...
For the rest of the review and pictures check out Guttersnipe.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
D.B. Buxton
By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny.
Transplanted from Edmonton, D.B. Buxton is probably the single most dedicated and hardworking musician in the biz. Not only has he actually been successful in making a living busking for 15 years, but aside from maintaining a solo project complete with forthcoming album, he also does time in three other bands: the Orpheans, the D.B. Buxton Revue and Adults Contemporary. On top of all of that, he moonlights as a producer, plays seven instruments and is one hell of a dancer. In fact, you’ve probably even seen him busking along Granville on particularly busy nights wielding a boxy red guitar. He has paid his dues and then some and, if there is any justice in the world, he will be the next big thing.
An enthralling and multi-talented Buxton recently sat down with the Skinny at a Broadway coffee shop to discuss the enigma that is D.B. Buxton.
“Things were real messed up,” Buxton candidly admitted of his restless childhood. “It’s cliché to say, but it was an exceptionally bad version of a working broken home. My mother was very physically and mentally disabled and my father was having some kind of mid-life crisis, so I was kind of left to my own devices and what resulted from that was me getting into a lot of trouble.”
His father had a musical background, playing with a band early in Buxton’s life. To support his growing family, he took on a job at CBC Radio Edmonton putting music on the backburner until Buxton was in his teens. “There wasn’t really any music around the house,” he said, “but after my parents split up, my dad starting getting into music more and at that time I started playing piano a little and awhile after that I started playing guitar.”
Buxton was in trouble with the law and consequently kicked out of school at fourteen. That was the crux, the moment he decided to start playing full time.
“I started playing music as my main thing because it was kind of the alternative to selling drugs or anything I could have done as a teenager,” he qualified. “In my hometown, there was a strip that was very much the Bohemian-artsy-neighborhood where people busked on the street and I was able to figure out how to make a living doing that. It was also a very good place to put my energy.”
At sixteen, he moved in with a friend whose dad had been an avid roots record collector and had passed his collection to his son. “Living with him, I got very much into that and I learned how to play those styles and listened to a lot of that music.”
His strong blues influence, particularly electric blues and Chicago blues, comes from listening to a CBC show hosted by Canadian blues icon and owner of Stony Plain Records, Holger Petersen. “Everything I love about music kind of ties back to the Blues,” said Buxton. “It’s the most stripped down, most simple, most emotive style of singing, style of music, of all popular genres.”
“I don’t care what it is,” he said of his preferred genre, “it has to have a lot of soul. And that kind of soul you hear in rock, soul and R and B, it all comes straight from blues, so I always feel a serious connection to blues, no matter what I’m doing.”
For Buxton, out of necessity and in answer to promoters throwing money at a burgeoning rave scene, busking on Edmonton streets came down to making a living. “There really wasn’t any music scene to speak of,” he said. “I didn’t really have the skills or the education, so I didn’t have a lot of career options and I was a very stubborn independent minded kid. And I sort of by random chance found a way to be my own boss and live my own life.”
Eight years in, very little was falling into place. “I was always so poor, and so in my own world...outside of busking, all I was doing was reading books, just sort of trying to find my own inspiration—so self-involved in a sense. And because there was nothing going on, no one ever asked me to do anything.”
In 2000, Buxton decided that he would never again live anywhere he couldn’t play music 24/7. And in 2002/2003, he found a place that would facilitate that chosen lifestyle—and others followed. He found an empty building and converted it into a living space, making a deal with the absentee landlord in exchange for a break on the rent. Classic slum lord tactics worked in Buxton’s favour and would unexpectedly benefit his career.
“Slowly, one by one, groups of people started moving into that building, groups of other musicians and artists and that’s when I started playing with people,” said Buxton. “For the first time since I was a teenager, I started being a little more proactive and my attitude became ‘I need to do ‘something.’ Obviously playing on the street was going nowhere; I’d been doing it for so long—I’m the best busker in Edmonton. But what does that mean? On a resume not much.”
He soon started playing with an extremely eccentric hip hop collective called Eshod Ibn Wyza, as well as DJing and producing hip hop. “The underground hip hop people were the most interesting because they didn’t care if it was weird as long as it had a good beat; as long as it was cool then they wanted to get on it.”
Following in his father’s radio footsteps, he started working at CJSR hosting his own show, doing sound design and producing ads. And slowly, he started to gain momentum.
In 2006, he was offered a show for the first time in his life. The woman who owned a hipster bar on the decline just around the corner from where busked believed in him, fronting money for a photo shoot and ads in the paper. “I’d been doing music for twelve years at that point and never had I had anyone put any kind of faith like that into what I was doing, so it was huge…I felt like okay, maybe there is something happening. After all these years, maybe it’s gonna happen for me.”
And were it not for a CD, nothing would have. Buxton admits that the only people he usually gave CD’s to were women he was trying to impress. “If I was trying to get with a girl then I’d give her a CD of my songs,” he said coyly. “Other than that I was kind of very protective.”
The great success of that show would become the incentive for Buxton to finally start a project of his own: the D.B. Buxton Revue. And for two years following, he kept extremely busy with two radio shows, writing and producing music, rehearsing and playing shows and eventually recording a full length record entitled No Refund. The band also toured across Canada and back, leaving Buxton feeling discontent with going back to a life of busking in minus thirty.
“I got frost-bite numerous times the last winter that I played,” he revealed. “I just…I couldn’t do it. I’d told myself over the last three winters that I couldn’t do it, and that last winter, I really couldn’t.”
The answer came in the form of a friend who offered Buxton a place in Vancouver in exchange for his in Edmonton. “A good friend of mine who was a big supporter of my music, said ‘come, I have a place in Vancouver. It’s cheap rent. I’ll take over your place ‘cause I have a good job offer in Edmonton.’ So we traded places and that’s how I ended up here. And this seemed like a great place because it’s warm in the winter so I knew I wasn’t going to freeze to death…”
Once in Vancouver, the Orpheans came together very organically out of the ashes of the Green Hour Band. Nick Eccleston and Randy Kramer were looking for a new project after their singer, Thomas Rowe, moved. “He left to go to Spain and chill out there for awhile,” said Buxton. “So I played a show opening for them and because Thomas left and these guys weren’t doing anything, I asked them to form a band. And now, I feel like the material we’re writing is getting better and better. And it’s obviously old-fashioned and it’s kind of anachronistic, but it feels truthful.”
The band has been playing regularly around Vancouver and is developing a steady following with plans to release a 7-inch featuring two songs shortly. “We recorded some demos and there’s something about them that everyone’s super happy with, so rather than scrapping those and trying to rerecord and do a whole full-length album it seems like it’d be a really great thing to put out at least a couple of songs the way they are now. We think that would be a good first step.”
The connections Buxton made while in Eshod Ibn Wyza has led him to a myriad of interesting opportunities, including producing Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton. “I remember my first professional contact with him was him insisting that I was going to be in his first music video as a dancer,” recalled Buxton. “Dance is something that I’ve done for a pretty long time, something that’s been an important part of me. It didn’t really work out, but we stayed in semi-close contact.”
A remix of Buxton’s song “Sex With My Ex” appears on Pemberton’s latest collection Separation Anxiety, which is available on a pay-what-you-will scale on his website. Buxton sent Pemberton his music knowing he’d want to remix it. “So he did and his record company got very excited about that song because it’s a very good song and so that ended up being the single off of his mix tape.”
Buxton also contributed to a forthcoming project of Pemberton’s. Pemberton currently serves as Edmonton’s Poet Laureate.
Buxton is also working on a project called Adult Contemporary with his former DJing partner turned roommate Jake Swanson. “We started that project pretty much because we have similar tastes in very kind of dated sounding pop music,” he said of the project designed to get Swanson back in the game and his music out there. “I write so much music so it’s just another outlet for that.”
Buxton is just finishing the artwork for his forthcoming solo project called Dirty Dance Party. The album, which has been on the shelf the last few months, features a duet by Buxton and Pemberton. But he’s not happy with the album cover yet, but he plans to throw a wild dance party to remedy the situation. “I think the only way I’m going to come up with something I like is to throw a dirty dance party and have some photographers there just shooting the randomness,” he laughed. “It’s just such a good excuse to have a sleazy party—and people can actually be listening to the music while participating.”
Look for several new D.B. Buxton projects including Dirty Dance Party and an Orpheans EP soon.
Adults Contemporary play the Railway March 3rd 2010.
The Orpheans play March 10th at the Biltmore.
Transplanted from Edmonton, D.B. Buxton is probably the single most dedicated and hardworking musician in the biz. Not only has he actually been successful in making a living busking for 15 years, but aside from maintaining a solo project complete with forthcoming album, he also does time in three other bands: the Orpheans, the D.B. Buxton Revue and Adults Contemporary. On top of all of that, he moonlights as a producer, plays seven instruments and is one hell of a dancer. In fact, you’ve probably even seen him busking along Granville on particularly busy nights wielding a boxy red guitar. He has paid his dues and then some and, if there is any justice in the world, he will be the next big thing.
An enthralling and multi-talented Buxton recently sat down with the Skinny at a Broadway coffee shop to discuss the enigma that is D.B. Buxton.
“Things were real messed up,” Buxton candidly admitted of his restless childhood. “It’s cliché to say, but it was an exceptionally bad version of a working broken home. My mother was very physically and mentally disabled and my father was having some kind of mid-life crisis, so I was kind of left to my own devices and what resulted from that was me getting into a lot of trouble.”
His father had a musical background, playing with a band early in Buxton’s life. To support his growing family, he took on a job at CBC Radio Edmonton putting music on the backburner until Buxton was in his teens. “There wasn’t really any music around the house,” he said, “but after my parents split up, my dad starting getting into music more and at that time I started playing piano a little and awhile after that I started playing guitar.”
Buxton was in trouble with the law and consequently kicked out of school at fourteen. That was the crux, the moment he decided to start playing full time.
“I started playing music as my main thing because it was kind of the alternative to selling drugs or anything I could have done as a teenager,” he qualified. “In my hometown, there was a strip that was very much the Bohemian-artsy-neighborhood where people busked on the street and I was able to figure out how to make a living doing that. It was also a very good place to put my energy.”
At sixteen, he moved in with a friend whose dad had been an avid roots record collector and had passed his collection to his son. “Living with him, I got very much into that and I learned how to play those styles and listened to a lot of that music.”
His strong blues influence, particularly electric blues and Chicago blues, comes from listening to a CBC show hosted by Canadian blues icon and owner of Stony Plain Records, Holger Petersen. “Everything I love about music kind of ties back to the Blues,” said Buxton. “It’s the most stripped down, most simple, most emotive style of singing, style of music, of all popular genres.”
“I don’t care what it is,” he said of his preferred genre, “it has to have a lot of soul. And that kind of soul you hear in rock, soul and R and B, it all comes straight from blues, so I always feel a serious connection to blues, no matter what I’m doing.”
For Buxton, out of necessity and in answer to promoters throwing money at a burgeoning rave scene, busking on Edmonton streets came down to making a living. “There really wasn’t any music scene to speak of,” he said. “I didn’t really have the skills or the education, so I didn’t have a lot of career options and I was a very stubborn independent minded kid. And I sort of by random chance found a way to be my own boss and live my own life.”
Eight years in, very little was falling into place. “I was always so poor, and so in my own world...outside of busking, all I was doing was reading books, just sort of trying to find my own inspiration—so self-involved in a sense. And because there was nothing going on, no one ever asked me to do anything.”
In 2000, Buxton decided that he would never again live anywhere he couldn’t play music 24/7. And in 2002/2003, he found a place that would facilitate that chosen lifestyle—and others followed. He found an empty building and converted it into a living space, making a deal with the absentee landlord in exchange for a break on the rent. Classic slum lord tactics worked in Buxton’s favour and would unexpectedly benefit his career.
“Slowly, one by one, groups of people started moving into that building, groups of other musicians and artists and that’s when I started playing with people,” said Buxton. “For the first time since I was a teenager, I started being a little more proactive and my attitude became ‘I need to do ‘something.’ Obviously playing on the street was going nowhere; I’d been doing it for so long—I’m the best busker in Edmonton. But what does that mean? On a resume not much.”
He soon started playing with an extremely eccentric hip hop collective called Eshod Ibn Wyza, as well as DJing and producing hip hop. “The underground hip hop people were the most interesting because they didn’t care if it was weird as long as it had a good beat; as long as it was cool then they wanted to get on it.”
Following in his father’s radio footsteps, he started working at CJSR hosting his own show, doing sound design and producing ads. And slowly, he started to gain momentum.
In 2006, he was offered a show for the first time in his life. The woman who owned a hipster bar on the decline just around the corner from where busked believed in him, fronting money for a photo shoot and ads in the paper. “I’d been doing music for twelve years at that point and never had I had anyone put any kind of faith like that into what I was doing, so it was huge…I felt like okay, maybe there is something happening. After all these years, maybe it’s gonna happen for me.”
And were it not for a CD, nothing would have. Buxton admits that the only people he usually gave CD’s to were women he was trying to impress. “If I was trying to get with a girl then I’d give her a CD of my songs,” he said coyly. “Other than that I was kind of very protective.”
The great success of that show would become the incentive for Buxton to finally start a project of his own: the D.B. Buxton Revue. And for two years following, he kept extremely busy with two radio shows, writing and producing music, rehearsing and playing shows and eventually recording a full length record entitled No Refund. The band also toured across Canada and back, leaving Buxton feeling discontent with going back to a life of busking in minus thirty.
“I got frost-bite numerous times the last winter that I played,” he revealed. “I just…I couldn’t do it. I’d told myself over the last three winters that I couldn’t do it, and that last winter, I really couldn’t.”
The answer came in the form of a friend who offered Buxton a place in Vancouver in exchange for his in Edmonton. “A good friend of mine who was a big supporter of my music, said ‘come, I have a place in Vancouver. It’s cheap rent. I’ll take over your place ‘cause I have a good job offer in Edmonton.’ So we traded places and that’s how I ended up here. And this seemed like a great place because it’s warm in the winter so I knew I wasn’t going to freeze to death…”
Once in Vancouver, the Orpheans came together very organically out of the ashes of the Green Hour Band. Nick Eccleston and Randy Kramer were looking for a new project after their singer, Thomas Rowe, moved. “He left to go to Spain and chill out there for awhile,” said Buxton. “So I played a show opening for them and because Thomas left and these guys weren’t doing anything, I asked them to form a band. And now, I feel like the material we’re writing is getting better and better. And it’s obviously old-fashioned and it’s kind of anachronistic, but it feels truthful.”
The band has been playing regularly around Vancouver and is developing a steady following with plans to release a 7-inch featuring two songs shortly. “We recorded some demos and there’s something about them that everyone’s super happy with, so rather than scrapping those and trying to rerecord and do a whole full-length album it seems like it’d be a really great thing to put out at least a couple of songs the way they are now. We think that would be a good first step.”
The connections Buxton made while in Eshod Ibn Wyza has led him to a myriad of interesting opportunities, including producing Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton. “I remember my first professional contact with him was him insisting that I was going to be in his first music video as a dancer,” recalled Buxton. “Dance is something that I’ve done for a pretty long time, something that’s been an important part of me. It didn’t really work out, but we stayed in semi-close contact.”
A remix of Buxton’s song “Sex With My Ex” appears on Pemberton’s latest collection Separation Anxiety, which is available on a pay-what-you-will scale on his website. Buxton sent Pemberton his music knowing he’d want to remix it. “So he did and his record company got very excited about that song because it’s a very good song and so that ended up being the single off of his mix tape.”
Buxton also contributed to a forthcoming project of Pemberton’s. Pemberton currently serves as Edmonton’s Poet Laureate.
Buxton is also working on a project called Adult Contemporary with his former DJing partner turned roommate Jake Swanson. “We started that project pretty much because we have similar tastes in very kind of dated sounding pop music,” he said of the project designed to get Swanson back in the game and his music out there. “I write so much music so it’s just another outlet for that.”
Buxton is just finishing the artwork for his forthcoming solo project called Dirty Dance Party. The album, which has been on the shelf the last few months, features a duet by Buxton and Pemberton. But he’s not happy with the album cover yet, but he plans to throw a wild dance party to remedy the situation. “I think the only way I’m going to come up with something I like is to throw a dirty dance party and have some photographers there just shooting the randomness,” he laughed. “It’s just such a good excuse to have a sleazy party—and people can actually be listening to the music while participating.”
Look for several new D.B. Buxton projects including Dirty Dance Party and an Orpheans EP soon.
Adults Contemporary play the Railway March 3rd 2010.
The Orpheans play March 10th at the Biltmore.
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