Karma Controllers channel a wide breadth of influences into a cohesive blend of indie- rock and jazz. Their new album, Sirens, is the result of carefully crafting those influences into a focused whole. Ambitious, but never self-important, Karma Controllers have created a unique album that stands out from the crowded Canadian indie-music scene.

With Sirens, Karma Controllers draw upon their contemporaries like Stars and Nada Surf. Helen Kuan’s vocals are reminiscent of Jenny Lewis, Jack Jamieson attributes Sondre Lerche as an inspiration to his guitar playing, and Jesse Paul’s drums owe as much to big-band jazz as they do to modern rock styles. Those influences are combined with a love of classic composers like Cole Porter as well as modern Japanese jazz bands such as Soil & “Pimp” Sessions.

Sirens is an eclectic album that features lush instrumentation including guitars, glockenspiel, mandolin, accordion, horns, flute, keyboards, drums and string sections. Each song is different and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The band describes their production method:

“We don’t limit ourselves on record to what is possible to perform live, we use a lot of instruments and certainly have a lot more going on at once than we could do without overdubbing. That being said, we make sure our songs sound great in both settings – our songs need to work live, when we’re more limited with our instrumentation, and the most important thing is to have a solid foundation of melody and song-writing.”

The Longest Year opens the record with folky mandolin and becomes a rich sounding rock song. Whisper Sister features back and forth male-female vocals and a wailing horn section. Searchlights 2 begins as a silky jazz tale of longing for an ex-lover and evolves into a spy-themed, orchestra accompanied climax. Throughout the album, lyrics express the difficulties of travel, ambition, and abandoned loved ones, with each song revealing different facets of these themes.

Sirens is a confident album by Karma Controllers and demonstrates that they are not afraid of forging their own musical identity.

Click to listen to Marie-Josée Houle’s “Blase D’La Vie” marie-josee-houle-blase-dla-vie

Marie-Josée Houle was born in Val d‘Or, Quebec and raised in Edmonton, Alberta and celebrates her dual cultural roots through music. She sings and writes fluently in both English and French, she brings the Townships to the Prairies and beyond. This lady scores major points with me personally for having been classically trained on the accordion at age five. But, like yours truly, her musical history is as varied as her hair colour. In 2000, she took up the electric bass and saxophone in order to form two very eclectic projects in Edmonton: “Pangina”, an all-girl punk band and “The Elevators”, a post-modern muzak band. Her reconnection with the accordion coincided with a move to Ottawa in 2003 and culminated in the world music collaboration known as “Casadore.” The success of that project – including a performance at the 2005 Ottawa Folk Music Festival – served as a springboard for her solo work.

Her solo debut, Our Lady of Broken Souls, was released in March of 2007 to much critical acclaim, including a nomination for Best Folk Album of 2007 by the Ottawa Xpress alongside local folk sensations Jim Bryson and Andrea Simms Karp. The album charted and received solid airplay on local college and community radio stations across the country.

Take this paragraph break to go pick up her album at CD Baby but make sure you come back and read all about her upcoming concert dates!

(Back? See, that was painless.)

Right now Marie-Josée is busy with her many musical and artistic endeavours, performing and recording with a multitude of musicians, working with theatre groups and filmmakers.

2007 saw her play the main stage of WestFest, play Toronto’s Nuit Blanche, embark on her first successful cross-country tour, and recently share a stage with other celebrated female Ottawa artists like Kellylee Evans and Kathleen Edwards for a live recorded performance for a CBC Radio 1 broadcast.

As 2007 brought her international shows in England and Norway, she aspires to continue to transport the streets and cafés of Paris to the clubs, theatres and festivals of Canada and beyond.

In this video: Tebo interviews accordion player Marie-Josee Houle on ‘The Rocks’

Upcoming Shows:
7 Jun 2008 13:00 Lisa Poushinsky’s Famous Round Barn Party Russell, ON
4 Jul 2008 20:00 w/ Guelph’s Meredith Grant Rasputin Folk Café Ottawa, ON
5 Jul 2008 20:00 w/ Michael Reinhart The St-Ambroise Montreal, ON
6 Jul 2008 19:00 Gladstone Hotel Toronto, ON
7 Jul 2008 20:00 w/ Ginger St. James Pepperjacks Hamilton, ON
8 Jul 2008 20:00 The Spill Peterborough, ON
9 Jul 2008 21:00 Alex P. Keaton London, ON
10 Jul 2008 21:00 w/ Ginger St. James Blue Moon Lounge Burlington, ON
12 Jul 2008 20:00 Loplops Sault Sainte Marie
13 Jul 2008 21:00 The Apollo Thunder Bay, ON
15 Jul 2008 20:00 Lady of the Lake Brandon, MB
16 Jul 2008 21:00 Bushwakkers Regina, SK
18 Jul 2008 21:00 Café Vivant Saskatoon, SK