Title: Fred Everything
Location: Mercury Lounge, Ottawa
Link out: Click here
Date: 2008-11-20

Fred Everything has over 12 years in the music business and over 100 productions to his credit. Born in Hull and raised in Quebec City, Fred has had a long career DJ’ing various venues around Canada. In 2003, Fred won best Electronic Artist at The Mimi’s award in Montreal. He now lives in Montreal, after having lived in San Francisco and working with Moulton Studios, where he’s working on his label’s 10th release. To hear his latest stuff, check him out at the Mercury Lounge, where he’ll be playing after elodieO on Thursday, November 20th.

Title: DJ Shine
Location: Ottawa
Link out: Click here
Date: 2008-12-06

Jason Spanu, aka DJ Shine, is a Toronto-based electronic music producer/DJ with over 17 years in the business. Signed to Toronto’s Nice+Smooth label, he is also a member of Nelly Furtado’s band whom he spent the last three years on tour with. His sets cover a solid club vibe with genres such as house, jazz, techno and electro. He’ll be playing in Ottawa on Saturday December 6th, about the same time his next album drops, so be sure to check him out.

[UPDATE: Here's more info about the show]

Host: Joe Rowe & Meow Productions
Location:The Cock and Lion Pub
Address: 202 Sparks Street

Joni NehRita passed through Ottawa tonight promoting her new Cd “A fine time”. The atmosphere at the Mercury lounge was comfortable and laid back, those present enjoyed the soulful voice of Joni. She was accompanied by three musicians who have been touring with her. The chemistry between them was interesting to see; the up beat Jazz drumming and funky bass lines gave it the kick it needed to make it a great show. Joni’s Cd is well worth the buy, as it sets the mood for a pleasant night. Check out her Myspace here.

Spin Magazine, Pitchfork, and noted musicians like John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) hailed her 2005 album, Paper Anniversary, and Fellows’ song cycle/score for The Spinster’s Almanac was nominated for a 2007 Dora Mavor Moore Award.

She is currently dividing her time between her work as composer-in-residence at Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers (2007-08), building a pigeon coop, and touring in support of Nevertheless.

Upcoming shows:
3 Aug 2008 20:00 Sappyfest with Leanne Zacharias

Balkan Beat Box lead members include Tamir Muskat and Ori Kaplan along with a Multiethnic group of musicians Tomer Yosef, Itamar Ziegler, Uri Kinrot (Who I had the fortune to see Jan. 2006 at the Mercury Lounge with an amazing Klezmer band, Boom Pam), Ben Handler, Jeremiah Lockwood, Eyal Talmudi and Peter Hess. Balkan Beat Box also collaborate with a long list of musicians from Bulgaria, Morocco, Spain, Israel, and Palestine. Balkan Beat Box’s diverse membership make for a vast array of classical music styles mixed with dub and electronic . Their high energy, carnival sound played Ottawa Bluesfest Friday July 11th at 7:00 pm on the Bank of America Stage right before heading on their European Tour.

The crowd was mixed. True, strong lovers of the eclectic sound of Balkan Beat Box and early birds wanting a good seat for the 9pm show of Canadian favorites, Great Big Sea. Either way the Balkan Beat Box fans took over!
The front of the crowd was dancing, waving and singing with every song. While the seated folk clapped along in glee!

My favorite parts of the Balkan Beat Box show was their recorded hit songs from their album NU MED from JDUB Records, remixed to high energy dance style mixes. Tomer Yosef (MC, percussion, vocals and sampler) was on fire! Leaping from bass bin speakers, dancing with the crowd playing percussions and mixing live. It was unbelievable! I was not expecting such an innovative performance with a highly cultural sound.

Secondary highlight was meeting the band and having them sign my album! Sweet!!!

The Balconies — Rest Up
Politique — Old War Cold War

Just because we ran around Toronto for a week covering Canadian musicians doesn’t mean that we can’t find great acts in our hometown of Ottawa! I was at the legendary Zaphod Beeblebrox to catch two fairly new O-town bands: The Balconies and Politique.

The Balconies

First up was The Balconies, a band that has only been around for 6 months, but performs with a polish and intensity far beyond that short time frame. I believe this is due to the fact that each member performs in a myriad of other Ottawa-area bands, notably Jetplanes of Abraham and the now (sadly) defunct For the Mathematics. Battle-hardened by the experience of larger venues and adoring crowds, The Balconies already seemed too big for the small Zaphod’s stage.

The balance to The Balconies’ music is quite fitting for the brother-sister-boyfriend trio. Each member contributes to the songwriting duties, and you’ll often find all three singing during their most catchy tracks. This fact, along with their small number of songs to date, has prevented The Balconies from establishing any sort of ’sound’, which I consider a total bonus. Each new track is a pleasant surprise that promotes a new element of their music: from power pop to harder rock to oddly trip-hop sexy-time music.

Hi-light of the show: witnessing lead singer Jacquie Neville’s vocal range and power as she strutted and stomped around stage with Telecaster.
Low-light of the show: their EP only has two tracks!!

Politique

It was Politique’s night, however, who were celebrating the release of their self-titled album. Apparently, Politique has been 3 years in the making, which explains how excited the band was to be performing. The excitement quickly spread to the crowd however, because of Politique’s upbeat style of music. Politique rest firmly in the seemingly trademarked Canadian movement of indie-rock electro-pop (see: Metric, Stars), with guy-girl vocals, whirling synths and hyper-dancy beats. Although Politique was celebrating their first release, it was clear that they had already won over the crowd, as many upfront were singing along to every song about the politics of relationships.

Hi-light of the show: lead singer Mallory Giles’ semi-choreographed yet super-cut dance moves.
Low-light of the show: poor EQ’ing on the vocals made it hard for Politique virgins to sing along.

Check out photos from the show on the next page!

Laura Barrett – Time City
Laura Barrett – Robot Ponies

Laura first played a kalimba in front of real live people in August 2005. Something about her plaintive voice and speculative lyrics, combined with the crisp, metallic sounds of the kalimba, struck people’s fancy, so she played another show. And then a few more!

Since then, she’s released two EPs, joined the Hidden Cameras and Henri Fabergé & the Adorables, acted as Music Director for the New York staging of Maggie MacDonald’s apocalyptic musical, “The Rat King,” been nominated for SOCAN’s inaugural ECHO Songwriting prize, and played shows in cities across North America.

Early this year, Laura was signed to Paper Bag Records, who re-released “Earth Sciences” in February 2008 with a remix by Joshua Van Tassel (Stop Die Resuscitate). With the completion of her debut full-length album – slated for an August ‘08 release – Laura is touring across Canada to check out the cities she didn’t get a chance to see in detail before. Please say ‘hi’ to her if you see her in your town or major metropolitan area!

26 Jun 2008 20:00 Buddies in Bad Times Toronto, Ontario
3 Jul 2008 20:00 Rancho Relaxo – w/Ghost Bees, Fall Horsie Toronto, Ontario
14 Aug 2008 20:00 Hugh’s Room Toronto, Ontario

Confederation Park was the home to legendary Herbie Hancock with his Grammy awarded Album “River: The Joni Letters”. The lyrics from the album “River” were written by Canadian artist Joni Mitchell. Herbie Hancock graced the stage with two fantastic vocalists, Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys. Sonya Kitchell’s sound is a cross between Norah Jones, Ella Fitzgerald & Joni Mitchell. While Amy Keys a sound not unlike Tina Turner and Christina Aguilera.
There was definitely no lack of genius musical talent last night! Herbie Hancock was accompanied by Dave Holland on Bass, Chris Potter on Saxophone, Vinnie Colaiuta on Percussion and
Lionel Loueke on Guitar.

Listening to Grammy Award winner Herbie Hancock’s “River: The Joni Letters” is like looking at a painting that hasn’t dried. It was Miles Davis who once told Hancock to “never finish anything” when Hancock played alongside Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams in Davis legendary group in the early ’60s.

“River” focuses on the earthiness of Joni Mitchell’s lyrics interpreted by a plethora of varied vocalist. Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones, and even Mitchell herself all intone exquisitely while Hancock assumes a reverent neutrality.

Herbie Hancock paid a beautiful homage to Joni Mitchell’s eloquent lyrics. Opening the show with the title track from the Album “The River” entitled River, performed by Sonya Kitchell. Then followed by a power-house performance by Amy Keys performing When Love Came to Town from the Album “Possibilities”.

The solo performances by Dave Holland, Herbie Hancock and Lionel Loueke were worth the price of admission alone. Dave Holland’s fingers danced across the strings integrating contemporary aesthetics to traditional jazz. Then briefly accompanied by Herbie Hancock for a rare treat . Herbie Hancock’s solo was meditative, taking lengthy solitary pauses of contemplation. Herbie Hancock succeeded in expanding the public vision of what music, particularly jazz, is all about today. Lionel Loueke’s guitar solo definitely blew me away! Herbie Hancock, even referred to him as the “Secret Weapon”! His background in acoustic, Afro-beat and Jazz was extreamly well received by the audience. People jumped from their lawn chairs and starting to sway to the beat.

As a wrap up to this NXNE-rich week on TransCanadaRadio, we’ve compiled the very best of the great music we saw and heard over the course of the week.

Here are the top 6 bands that all of us at TCR agree were the very best of the best, in no particular order:

David Martel

I went in to see David play with my mind as a nearly blank slate, only having listened to a very short clip of his stuff via his Myspace. But armed with the praise of my friends, I checked him out at Sunrise Records on Thursday, the first day of NXNE and I can honestly say that this guy blew my mind.
Here’s a video of David performing one of my new favourite songs “Stay In” at Café Lola Rosa:

The Wet Secrets

One would think that marching band costumes combined with B52-esque vocals would be far too over the top, but these guys really pull it off. I was absolutely enthralled by their funky beats and brass solos not to mention the cool majorette costumes — very slick. This Edmonton based band really pumped up the crowd and got everyone dancing by playing original songs like “Secret March” and the hilarious “I Teabagged Myself (With Two Really Fucking Heavy Cans Of Paint)” — got a lot of laughing and chant-a-long from the audience.
Here’s a video they put together of “Get Your Own Apartment”:

Rebekah Higgs

The Halifax-bred musician plays within the borders of folk-tinged yet she isn’t afraid to infuse her work with experimentation, incorporating vocal loops and electronic flourishes like her musical inspirations Bjork and Radiohead. She has a wonderful voice and a big guitar. You are doing yourself a disservice by not checking out her cd.
Here’s the official video for Rebekah Higgs ‘Parables’:

Spiral Beach

As Doug said: “Pretty much from the moment they took the stage, they had a packed and sweaty crowd screaming and jumping until they could nary jump and scream any more. I particularly enjoyed the pylons, the speech bubble, and the ET finger-touching moment with the crowd. Check these guys out before they become so big you can’t get as close to the stage as we were last night (check the Flickr feed for evidence).”
Here’s the very, very cool official video for “Made of Stone”:

The Hoa Hoa’s

These Toronto natives certainly represented for the hometown crowd. There music is a combination of groove and evil: you just want to dance and/or punch someone in the face. Their guitarist was great — loud, crunchy, articulate playing — and their bassist set her amp on fire. Major points for the predominance of hollow-bodied guitars.
Here’s the official video for “New Love Too”:

Julie Doiron

What can I say about Julie? She’s my favourite and she didn’t disappoint. She played for a packed-solid club and had the audience singing along to nearly every song. On top of that she was a delightful entertainer: watching her, you knew that she was giving her all and that scores huge with me.
Here’s the official video for “No More”:

As you may or may not recall, the NXNE event I was looking forward to the most was seeing Julie Doiron perform at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.  Well, let me tell you, that day was working very hard against me. I was having some accommodation issues so I was lugging around all of my equipment with me in a backpack.  It then proceeded to totally down pour — thunder and lighting and cats and dogs and all that.

So here’s me, running in 6 inches of water from venue to venue in flip flops with a bag full of electronics while the rain just absolutely pours down on me.  Doug got absolutely stopped up by the rain on his way into Toronto, so I was trying to hit as many venues I could and check out as many bands that night as I could.  Around 10:45pm I decided to make a run for it (in what seemed to be the heaviest part of the down pour) from the Velvet Underground down the street to The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.

Finally made it to the Horseshoe at 11pm on the nose only to find the place completely packed! I managed to find a place to stand about eight rows back which completely sucks for my poor lil’ five-foot-nothing self. Finally, a very nice gentleman sitting behind me saw me struggling to see and offered me his chair to stand on! It was great, albeit dangerous with all kinds of people dancing and drinking at my feet. But at least I got to see Julie — and man, did she put on a fantastic show! She played all the songs I wanted to hear and visually totally rocked out. I’m so glad I finally got to see this talented lady perform!