TRANSCANADARADIO is proud to celebrate Canada’s Current Cultural artists and their locations! Traveling across Canada’s vast surface and finding the best of the under and above-ground artists who are rooted in, Soul, Funk, Reggae, Beats, House, Breaks and all that afro-Jazz… and where to check them out in your favorite Canadian city! Pack your bags! We’re going on a road trip!
Title: ElastoCitizens Location: The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto Link out: Click here Date: 2009-01-02
ElastoCitizens are purely about getting you to dance. Their grinding guitars, nasty girl-group dancing , feedback basslines, a heavy horn section and multiple singers make their concerts an electrifyingly original live music experience. Their MySpace is only showing 1 show and so I’m hoping it will be killer. If you’re in Toronto, see them play at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern on January 2nd, 2009. Even if you’re still hung over from New Years, go see the show and use the booze-shakes to make your dancing skills all the better.
Escape Goat Records and Bruce Peninsula proudly present a freshly-issued piece for your crates. A document of Bruce Peninsula’s earliest rally-calls, this 7″ record collects 3 traditional songs, as ingested and interpreted by the many heads and hands of a Toronto-based clubhouse band.
About to release their fourth album, Calling Out (2008), the FemBots have set off in yet another direction while in many ways returning to their beginnings. Born out of improvisation and experimentation, Calling Out sees the FemBots once more stretching themselves musically to produce an album that is daring yet accessible.
The FemBots began as a home recording project of Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier and their debut, Mucho Cuidado (2000), featured songs written and performed on power tools, toys and broken down thrift store instruments. The duo quickly carved a unique space in the Toronto music scene bringing their post-industrial folk songs to the stage using tape loops and reel-to-reel machines mixed with often frantic live performances.
From somewhere beneath the swelling strings and synths, the angular guitars and pulsating beats, cleaves the voice of Jamie Fooks of Jane Vain & the Dark Matter. In early 2003, Fooks started writing songs by her self in her basement apartment, to deal with the remaining demons of a reckless adolescence. Somewhat deterred by an open mic night that ended in tears, Fooks was encouraged to continue performing by the support of friends, and the interest of current guitar player Dillon Whitfield (of Raccoon). With the addition of Whitfield’s haphazard guitar playing, the foundation of Jane Vain & the Dark Matter was laid.
The duo played a string of shows, accompanied by only drums beats and bass, programmed by Fooks. These shows attracted attention from fans, promoters and other musicians.
Now, accompanied live by a rhythm section, (Shawn Dicey of Ox on drums, Markus Lake of The Incandescence on bass) Jane Vain & the Dark Matter have released their first full length, Love Is Where The Smoke Is, on Edmonton’s Rectangle Records, and are embarking on another national tour in support of their record. The record features contributions by local musicians Mark Hamilton, Foon Yap, and Annalea Sordi of Woodpigeon, Jesse Locke of SIDS, and Matt Flegel of The Cape May. Inherent in the music is a kinetic energy, as if Jane Vain & the Dark Matter are aiming for anxious chaos, but achieving a careful clarity.
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. To continue reading about Julie Doiron’s show at the Horseshoe, click here.
(Above player features 5 tracks including: “No More”, “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard” (a Paul Simon cover), “Snow Falls In November”, “Too Much”, and “Dark Horse.” Julie’s albums can be purchased through her website.)
Julie Doiron has been one of my favourite Canadian musicians for at least 15 years now. “The Best Thing For Me” is still on every mp3 playlist I ever create. She’s got a very unique voice and I’m super excited to see her play at NXNE next week! This will be the first time I’ve ever seen her perform live - I’ll be sure to give a full report on my girlish-glee filled experience.
Julie Doiron began her career in music in 1990 at the age of 18 in Moncton, New Brunswick playing bass in Eric’s Trip, (name from a Sonic Youth song title) a folky yet psychedelic band that was to become the undisputed underground darling of Canadian Music. Eric’s trip were the first of many maritime Canadians signed to Sub Pop and found international recognition releasing several albums and touring widely. Following 1996’s Purple Blue, Eric’s Trip announced their break-up. Continue reading ‘The Best of NXNE: Julie Doiron’
