1-Speed Bike is the DJ and mobile soundsystem alter-ego of Aidan Girt, drummer for Montreal-based bands Exhaust and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Making his first appearance remixing tracks on an ancient 12-bit AKAI sampler for Exhaust’s debut record, 1-Speed Bike went on to build a large sample bank sourced from his own live drumming and made a full-length album (with full 16-bit resolution) for Constellation in 2000. He has also moshed things up at numerous street actions and benefits over the years, and has gone on to release a series of records on Broklyn Beats. Aidan was a member of the Montreal Anarchist Bookstore collective and lived in Amsterdam for a while before settling into a cabin in the woods outside Montreal, where he continues to speed things up and slow things down at his home studio.

2008-06-28T12:40:19-04:00

10 1-SPEED BIKE 9

1-SPEED BIKE

2008-06-28T13:55:46-04:00

1-speed-bike Black Ox Orkestar began in the summer of 2000, the project of four Montreal musicians exploring their common Jewish heritage for sounds that could speak to them today. Listening to pre-war recordings of Jewish and non-Jewish music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, they wanted to capture the rawness and emotional intensity they heard there. They also threw their own musical histories into the mix, their years of playing out-jazz, punk rock, or weird folk, creating not so much a fusion of old and new as a way to tear the old sounds from the past and make them resonate in the present. The band tries to be true to the strangeness and beauty of these archaic songs, translating them into new forms, and writing new material that continues an imaginary tradition still humming in their ears. On Yiddish The Yiddish language has always been at the center of the project. A unique mixture of German, Hebrew, and Slavic elements, it was the everyday speech of Eastern European Jews for centuries. The voice of the Jewish political and artistic radicalism of the 19th and early 20th centuries was uttered in Yiddish. Suffragettes, sweatshop activists, anarchists and modernist poets all participated in a global, cosmopolitan culture that followed the exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe. This flowering of modern Yiddish was cut short by the Shoah and by the emergence of the state of Israel, which enshrined Hebrew as a national Jewish language. Yiddish was all but pronounced dead when an unexpected revival of its literature and music began to take shape in the 1970s. Why They Sing The ongoing revival of Yiddish culture has opened up a space for a new Jewish radicalism which explores the variation and hybridity of Jewish life in the diaspora, while questioning the defining centrality of Israel. Black Ox celebrates Yiddish diasporic art as a living alternative to state culture in every form. They use Yiddish as a code meant for deciphering, a message from the recent past that cautions against the separation of peoples. As a hybrid tongue, Yiddish has never stood for disengagement and enclosure; it has always thrived on contact and exchange. New Jewish Music By creating original song-settings for Jewish folk ballads (which traditionally were sung a cappella), by writing and performing new, politically-charged Yiddish texts, and by borrowing freely from traditional and contemporary musical sources, Yiddish and otherwise, Black Ox Orkestar hopes to challenge the artistic and political orthodoxies that would try to define the meaning of ìnew Jewish music.î The Players Thierry Amar (contrabass) is a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion. He has contributed to countless recordings and live musical projects in Montreal, figures prominently in the jazz and improv scene, and currently studies with Jacques Beaudoin of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He co-founded the Hotel2Tango recording studio, where he works as a recording engineer. Scott Levine Gilmore (vocals, cymbalom, guitar, mandolin, saz, violin & percussion) studied Yiddish Literature at McGill University in MontrÈal. He currently plays in Silver Mt. Zion and Friends of Cush (with composer Sam Shalabi). Former musical projects include Luftmentsch Fareyn (with Josh Dolgin, aka So Called). He was a founding member of Le Petit Theatre de líAbsolu, a puppet theatre that toured a childrenís show through Israel and the occupied West Bank in the fall of 2003. Gabriel Levine (clarinet, guitar) played in MontrÈal groups Sackville, Friends of Cush (with Sam Shalabi) and the Wild Lawns. He has worked in Vermont for the Bread and Puppet Theatre, and was a co-founder of Le Petit Theatre de líAbsolu. He is currently finishing a post-graduate degree in Social and Political Thought at Torontoís York University. Jessica Moss (violin) has been playing her instrument since she was five. Breaking with her classical training early on to seek out more exciting and innovative ensembles and genres, she has been a part of many bands and collaborations in Montreal, and has been a guest player on numerous records in Montreal and Toronto. She plays in Silver Mt. Zion, creates illuminated boxes, and makes soundtracks for film.

2008-06-28T13:03:41-04:00

15 BLACK OX ORKESTAR 14

BLACK OX ORKESTAR

2008-06-28T13:57:25-04:00

black-ox-orkestar Clues was founded by Alden Penner and Brendan Reed, both active for years in the Montreal music scene. Alden was one-half of Unicorns, a band that burned bright and fast at the beginning of the century, and Brendan has been a member of a number of groups, including the endless, Endless Forever. They began building Clues quietly and in near-secrecy during the summer of 2007, playing a series of unadvertised shows in small Montreal venues. Their early performances elicited passionate responses and made it clear that Alden had an awesome batch of new tunes in the works, a glorious voice to deliver them with, and a brilliant foil in Brendan as his co-conspirator. By 2008, friends Ben Borden, Lisa Gamble, and Nick Scribner had been recruited from the Montreal art and music scenes; a few more exuberant shows went down, the sound building and strengthening every time. With the band's foundations fully cemented, Clues began work on a debut record towards the end of the year. During live shows and on recordings, the band share and trade-off on an extensive array of instruments and create a twitchy, urgent, utterly original music that expands Montreal's (already diverse) pop music lexicon. Clues incorporates multiple drummers, horns, a table of fried electronics (including a Commodore 64 and an OLPC), saw and pianette alongside their trusty electric guitars and basses. Through their founding and early work as a band, Clues has remained close to home, dedicated to collaborating with and supporting fellow independent artists. In 2008, Reed started <a href=http://VillaVillaNola.com/>VillaVillaNola</a>, a digital music store featuring recordings by predominantly local artists who have flourished underground but who otherwise receive sparse attention. Strong ties to the independent music community, together with shared ideals, led Clues to collaborate with Montreal's Constellation, who released the band's debut record in May of 2009.

2009-02-12T15:43:33-05:00

26 CLUES 26

CLUES

2009-05-28T12:04:04-04:00

clues Do Make Say Think came together in Toronto in 1995-96 and self-released their self-recorded, self-titled debut CD in 1997. Constellation Records re-issued this record the following year and have worked with the band ever since. Four of the founding members continue to play in the group: Ohad Benchetrit, James Payment, Justin Small and Charles Spearin. Jason MacKenzie played drums, keyboards and electronics on the first two records, and Dave Mitchell joined in 1998. The band has relied on regular contributions from horn players Brian Cram and Jay Baird in recent years, both on record and in concert. Do Make Say Think have consistently released superlative and critically acclaimed instrumental rock albums that feature highly original hybrids of psych, jazz, punk and electronica. They surpass the all-too-familiar confines of generic post-rock with every album, and are one of the few bands working today that manage to forge compelling instrumental rock with just the right balance of noise, narrative depth, compositional acumen, inventive mixing and editing, and melodic hooks. They have fostered a devoted audience in North America and Europe, and have toured extensively on both sides of the pond. Do Make Say Think records are marked by a fiercely independent approach to recording and mixing that is re-imagined for each release, but which always remains the band's own; Charles and Ohad have emerged as a distinctive production team, now working out of Ohad's Toronto studio th'Schvitz. Members of DMST are involved in numerous other groups as diverse as Justin’s messy garage-soul rave-up Lullabye Arkestra; Charles’ collaboration in playing and producing with Kevin Drew in KC Accidental and Broken Social Scene; and Brian Cram's schlock-metal outrage Gesundheit, which has recruited various DMST members for recordings and Eastern European tour sludgery. James co-founded New Glue records to document local projects in Toronto.

2008-06-28T12:27:48-04:00

5 DO MAKE SAY THINK 4

DO MAKE SAY THINK

2008-06-28T13:53:12-04:00

do-make-say-think Elfin Saddle is the evolved musical project of scavenger artists Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie. Prompted by their need to downsize an accumulation of musical instruments and objects in their migration to Montreal from Victoria, BC, Elfin Saddle focuses on the creative use of a compact array of acoustic instruments, including prepared accordion, banjo, and guitars, musical saw, and ad-hoc percussion setups. Having collaborated for years on various visual art and sound projects, Elfin Saddle is a fresh culmination of the ideas and ideals shared by both artists. Emi, originally from southern Japan, moved to Vancouver Island in the late 90’s and was immediately fascinated with the lush landscape and local flora. She began gardening and building visually complex, mechanical assemblage sculptures, which she began to exhibit in local galleries. Jordan, who was also living on the island and working a similar vein in art school, happened upon one of these sculptures. Recognizing the eerily similar themes in each other’s work and sharing an affinity for the natural landscape, the two quickly became friends, triggering an extended wave of collaborations. Sound Stories, a musical project of Jordan’s at the time that incorporated homemade sound machines, prepared records, storytelling, and a revolving cast of friends, was eventually joined by Emi. The two also began playing frequently as a duo and made several recordings that were released on Westhome, Jordan’s own small imprint. They also began to collaborate on unique multi-sensory art installations, comprised of old motors, timers, organs, plants, and other found junk, carefully composed to create bizarre landscapes and dream-like atmospheres and to execute loops of movement and sound. Their series of exhibitions with fellow Victoria artist Scott Evans, received considerable attention. Since arriving in Montreal in 2006, Elfin Saddle has been steadily gaining audience and acclaim for their original and emotive live performances. Having released Gigantic Mother/Wounded Child on Kill Devil Hills Records in early 2008, they are proud to be releasing their follow-up, Ringing For The Begin Again, on Constellation. A recent addition to their recordings and live performances is Nathan Gage (Shapes and Sizes, owner of Phonopolis record store in Montreal), rounding out their sound with thick drones and subtle bursts on double-bass and tuba. Emi and Jordan are currently working on an extensive stop-motion/time-lapse film, featuring the growth of plants and the animation of a large collection of scavenged objects.

2009-02-25T16:32:35-05:00

27 ELFIN SADDLE 27

ELFIN SADDLE

2009-05-18T18:44:44-04:00

elfin-saddle Elizabeth is a singer and guitarist writing raw, uncompromising gothic folk/blues music with modern dissonances and timeless catharses. She was born in Montreal and has been unleashing her devastating voice in chillingly controlled doses around town for a few years now. Vajagic has performed solo and with a rotating cast of support musicians, and has most recently worked with Mike Moya (Hrsta), Eric and Gen (Hangedup) and Harris Newman as a live band, notably on the Constellation European Roadshow in 2004.

2008-06-28T13:01:58-04:00

14 ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC 13

ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC

2008-06-28T13:57:03-04:00

elizabeth-anka-vajagic Eric Chenaux experiments with guitars, ballads, electronics and tunes as an improviser and songwriter with an affection for balladeers such as Betty Carter, Howard Skempton, Willie Nelson, June Tabor, Sade, Tony MacMahon, Archie Shepp, Jimmy Van Heusen, Nic Jones, Carla Bley, Peter Cusack, Anthonello de Caserta, Waterson:Carthy, Pascal Comelade and Paul Bley. Chenaux's songs begin as singular vocal lines and become thorny with his elastic and mouthy guitar playing. Of this guitar playing, Toronto critic Carl Wilson writes, "Ornette Coleman might call it harmolodic. Chenaux might call it an amazing background. His strings chime with all those thoughts at once. I adore the way he teases out a melody, never beginning a phrase so much as joining one already in progress. The sound quivers and multiplies such that I picture his strings fraying and sprouting into more strings, weeds, nests, marshes, frogs' tongues, cancelled coins, nickel pipes, drainage systems, catacombs, coral reefs… I could pick Chenaux's guitar out of a lineup within a few woozy notes, because it's no longer confined to the orthodox pluck, squawk and scrape of [Derek] Bailey-influenced guitar improv; instead it has absorbed Bailey's open field of possibility into a love of song. And the songs are strong enough to take it". In the 1980s and 1990s Chenaux sang and played guitar in the post-punk band Phleg Camp and later wrote songs with the guitar duo Lifelikeweeds. In 2001 Eric co-founded the Toronto-based record label Rat-drifting, on which he releases the music of friends and collaborators. Rat-drifting projects to-date include The Guayaveras and The Draperies (fried improvised polyphony with Chenaux, Ryan Driver and Doug Tielli), and The Reveries (again with Chenaux, Driver and Tielli), an ultra psychedelic sweet-lounge jazz trio who sing and play jazz standards with cellphone speakers placed in their mouths to amplify each others instruments. About the latter project, Martin Arnold (another Chenaux collaborator) writes, "experiencing it is like encountering delicate ultra-lounge psychedelia picked up from afar on a static-ridden short-wave radio." Chenaux plays with, and writes tunes for, the jazz quintet Drumheller and has written music for Arraymusic ensemble, neither/nor ensemble and the CBC program Brave New Waves. Currently, he collaborates with improvising dancer Aimée Dawn Robinson and the two recently performed and taught in Kuala Lumpur. Chenaux has collaborated with kinetic sound-artist Marla Hlady on the Soundballs project with Arraymusic and he continues his multi-disciplinary interactions in a current project with Ame Henderson, Michael Trent and the dancers of Dancemakers, writing the music for the April 2008 program Double Bill #1. As an improviser Chenaux has played with a wack of folks including Han Bennink, Murray Favro, Michael Moore, Kurt Newman, Pauline Oliveros, John Oswald, Michael Snow, Rachel Wadham and Zack Wallace.

2008-06-28T13:13:56-04:00

20 ERIC CHENAUX 19

ERIC CHENAUX

2008-06-28T13:59:15-04:00

eric-chenaux Carla Bozulich is best known as the singer from LA-based band Gerladine Fibbers and as the woman who re-made Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger -- with Willie Nelson as a special guest. Carla has one of the most unique voices in any genre. Her work is at once brutally raw and weirdly visionary. Born in New York City, she grew up a tomboy and girl protector in San Pedro, CA. Carla's first appearance on record is Gary Kail's album from 1982 called Zurich 1916, on which she does dada-inspired worldplay, "you know, telephone and vacuum cleaner stuff". She sang in a couple of groups – the Neon Veins and Invisible Chains, the latter of which recorded an album for The Minutemen's New Alliance label when Carla was 18 years old. Carla disappeared from daylight for a few years, re-emerged, and was soon causing traffic jams as the gamine howler in the confrontational sex/sound assault outfit Ethyl Meatplow. In 1993, before Ethyl's last gasp, Carla founded The Geraldine Fibbers, going on to record and tour incessantly with that band until 1998. Scarnella followed, a duo formed with Nels Cline, and a decidedly uncommercial, open, experimental project. In 2001 she scored a Los Angeles production of Jean Genet's The Maids and the award-winning feature film By Hook Or By Crook, which she also scored and for which she compiled the soundtrack, went to Sundance in 2003. That same year saw the release of Carla's new rendition of Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger. She has also explored mixed media and performance art, including a commission for The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In 2005 Carla rekindled a decade-old connection with Montreal-based musicians affiliated with the Constellation label, leading to a recording at that city's legendary Hotel2Tango studio, and the release of her Evangelista album on Constellation. Received with high critical praise, the record would find its way onto many year-end best lists, and lead to extensive touring around Europe and North America, including performances at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (Canada) and Bad Bonn Kilbi (Swizterland) among others. In 2007, Evangelista became the official band name of Carla's project, and her follow-up record for Constellation was once again recorded at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, with core co-conspirators Tara Barnes and Shahzad Ismaily, and contributions from a large cast of Montreal-based musicians. The first record bearing Evangelista as a band name was called Hello, Voyager and came out in February 2008. Subsequently, Evangelista landed on the cover of UK music magazine The Wire in June 2008, and Hello Voyager also made that and several other mags’ year-end lists. Bozulich/Evangelista continued to tour tirelessly in Europe and North America after the Hello Voyager release, including appearances at Le Weekend in Scotland and the Ruhrtriennale in Germany (with Carla in collaborative performance with Marianne Faithful and Marc Ribot). Since 2008, Evangelista has coalesced around a core trio, with Bozulich and bassist Tara Barnes now joined by keyboardist/sound artist Dominic Cramp. Montreal sound-artist Lisa Gamble is also a regular contributor to Evangelista's writing and recording, and has occasionally joined the band on the road. The spring of 2009 found Carla, Tara and Dominic in Montreal, once again recording at the Hotel2Tango studio where the previous two albums were made. Their latest record Prince Of Truth (release - October 2009) is Evangelista's strongest work to date, and includes a wide cast of friends and guests, including Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith, Jessica Catron, Nels Cline, Devin Hoff and Montrealers Thierry Amar (Silver Mt. Zion) and Nadia Moss and Jonah Fortune (Witchies). FOR USA PRESS RELATIONS: Marisa Handren FOUR PAWS MEDIA <a href=http://fourpawsmedia.com > www.fourpawsmedia.com </a> pumpkin@fourpawsmedia.com 908-310-1821

2008-06-28T13:11:49-04:00

19 EVANGELISTA / CARLA BOZULICH 18

EVANGELISTA / CARLA BOZULICH

2009-08-11T17:35:55-04:00

carla-bozulich-slash-evangelista Exhaust is a bass, drum and tape trio that crashed through various Montreal venues in a series of semi-controlled explosions during the mid-90s, with an early vinyl release on Constellation appearing in 1998 (issued on CD two years later). As other projects began to dominate the players’ schedules, Exhaust have played only sporadically since 1999 but re-grouped in the summer of 2001 for a short tour and month-long cabin retreat, where their second album was recorded. Exhaust is: Aidan Girt (drums), Mike Zabinski (tapes), Gordon Krieger (bass, bass clarinet). Aidan Girt was also drummer in Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the brain/ears behind 1-Speed Bike.

2008-06-28T12:24:50-04:00

4 EXHAUST 3

EXHAUST

2009-09-28T10:43:30-04:00

exhaust Feu Therese formed in 2005, in the wake of Fly Pan Am’s indefinite hiatus, and includes FPA guitarist and performance artist Jonathan Parant. Together with prolific experimental musician Alexandre St-Onge (bass, electronics), Stephen De Oliveira (keyboards, electronics, guitar) and Luc Paradis (drums), the band put on a series of explosive live shows through 2005 and recorded their debut record towards the end of that year. Jonathan Parant is a guitarist and founding member of Fly Pan Am, with four records on Constellation. He has released a solo record on Squintfucker Press and orchestrates various sound and performance art happenings around town. He helps run the Sala Rossa concert venue in Montreal. Alexandre St-Onge is a bass player, electronic musician and performance artist. He has been involved in innumerable bands and projects in Montreal over the last decade, including Undo (with Christof Migone), The Shalabi Effect, Et Sans and Klaxon Gueule. He has released four solo records, on labels including Squintfucker Press, Namskeio Records and Alien8Recordings. He has toured extensively around the world, in various bands and as a solo artist. Stephen De Oliveira is a sound artist, soundtrack composer for B-movies and documentaries, and graduate of the electro-acoustic program at Universite de Montreal. He also works with multi-media installations. His latest opus, one-year-old daughter Camille, is a co-production. He also has twelve birds. Luc Paradis is a visual artist, painter, illustrator, drummer and dishwasher. He has shown paintings drawings in several group and solo shows, contributed to artwork for records by Silver Mt. Zion and Diebold and has been involved with the Heavyweight street art crew in Montreal. Feu Therese is his first recording.

2008-06-28T13:09:05-04:00

18 FEU THERESE 17

FEU THERESE

2008-06-28T13:58:32-04:00

feu-therese Le Fly Pan Am formed in Montreal in 1996 and played their earliest shows with many of the city's emerging instrumental/experimental rock groups (including Exhaust, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and The Shalabi Effect) in various alternate venues and extra-official warehouses during the late-90s. The band’s four founding members worked through four Constellation release from 1998-2005 and went on hiatus in 2006. They are: Roger Tellier-Craig (guitars, tapes, electronics); Jonathan Parant (guitars, tapes, electronics); J.S. Truchy (bass, tapes, electronics) and Felix Morel (drums, tapes, electronics). Eric Gingras (guitars, organs, percussion) joined the group in 2002. The band's first release was a split 7" with Godspeed, issued by local zine aMAZEzine in 1998. They began recording their first full-length later that year, released as a self-titled CD and 2xLP by Constellation in 1999. As Montreal's rock instrumentalists began to cross-pollinate and collaborate during this period, Fly Pan Am teamed up with sound artist Alexandre St-Onge; they premiered their first joint piece at Constellation's Musique Fragile concert series in 1998, and went on to record it for their first album. St-Onge has remained a regular guest, appearing on various tracks throughout the band's recorded work. Fly Pan Am has also frequently collaborated with electronic artists Tim Hecker and Christof Migone, including a number of unreleased recording sessions, of which a sample can be heard on Constellation's Song of the Silent Land compilation, as well as on one track from N’Ecoutez Pas. Roger was recruited by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1998, touring and recording heavily with them until he left the band in 2003 to focus on Fly Pan Am and other projects. His collaboration with St-Onge in the duo Et Sans has yielded two albums, on Locust and more recently, on Montreal’s Alien8 Recordings. Jonathan, J.S. and Felix have all been involved in various noise, improv and hardcore bands and events over the past 6 years; Jonathan released a solo record on Squintfucker Press in 2003 and plays in noise/vocal trio Sirenes. J.S. helps run the Sala Rossa concert venue in Montreal. Felix has played with Boredoms/Mike Patton-inspired improv band Goa! and noise trancers Strobes. Fly Pan Am has toured Europe and North America numerous times, sharing bills with GY!BE, Do Make Say Think, Stereolab and Broadcast, among others. They have performed twice at Fonderie Darling, the Montreal installation art centre run by Quartier Ephemere. They spent a week performing in Portugal in 2002, at the invitation of Visao Periferica, and played the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in 2004.

2008-06-28T12:31:11-04:00

7 FLY PAN AM 6

FLY PAN AM

2008-06-28T13:53:54-04:00

fly-pan-am A mysterious 4-track cassette was first delivered to Constellation in the summer of 1998, and through the thick mists of tape hiss and reverb-drenched guitar, we heard the magic. Frankie Sparo is a moniker of Chad Jones, unparalleled wordsmith and scrawny performer. From his earliest Montreal solo performances accompanied only by guitar - including his first show in town, at Constellation's Musique Fragile concert series - Jones has rallied beatboxes and broken MIDI patches to his off-kilter rhythm cause and signed up various Montreal players to realise his unique arrangement ideas. Nadia Moss joined as an official second member for the composing, arranging and recording of Welcome Crummy Mystics, and together with Jessica Moss and Scott Levine Gilmore (both of Black Ox Orkestar and Silver Mt. Zion), comprised Frankie Sparo's short-lived but much adored full-band incarnation. Jones quietly put Sparo on ice in 2004, in a scarcely noticed move forecasted by his own "A Citizen's Farewell". He recently started work on a soon-to-be-unveiled project, which he describes as "a little more uplifting".

2008-06-28T12:39:28-04:00

9 FRANKIE SPARO 8

FRANKIE SPARO

2008-06-28T13:54:52-04:00

frankie-sparo Glissandro 70 is the studio project of Craig Dunsmuir and Sandro Perri. They are based in Toronto, and their debut album was written by Dunsmuir with Perri and produced by Perri with Dunsmuir. Craig Dunsmuir has played bass in Currently In These United States, Celestino, Kid Sniper, Eudora, Nouns, Anglers Arms and the rock-band incarnation of Polmo Polpo. Past home-burned whims include CD-Rs by CD Piks, Danger Figure Centre and The Craig Dunsmuir Kanada 70 Solo Guitarkestra, while new plans for solo performance involve cover projects New Jack 70 and The Sheeet. A recent addition to CKLN-FMís longstanding ìWired for Soundî program, he has spent the last year recording and broadcasting live sets from the more informal and intimate end of Torontoís music underground. Sandro Perri is a musician and producer best known for his work as Polmo Polpo. His debut came in 1999 via his own Audi Sensa label, followed by a steady trickle of releases on Alien8 Recordings, intr_version, Constellation and Supesharu (recently as Continuous Dick). All the while, Perri has held the lap-steel chair in Great Lake Swimmers, and has guested on records by Harris Newman, Sawko and others. Lately, he has been singing songs with some of Torontoís finest improv and out-music players, offering up vocal re-interpretations of his Polmo Polpo material. Dunsmuir has also taken part in these outings, but Glissandro 70 remains a wholly different thing.

2008-06-28T13:07:47-04:00

17 GLISSANDRO 70 16

GLISSANDRO 70

2008-06-28T13:58:08-04:00

glissandro-70 Godspeed You! Black Emperor began with Efrim, Mauro and Moya in the early 90s, playing a handful of shows and recording a self-released cassette as a trio before deciding to transform the group into a large band. Recruiting numerous Montreal musicians through 1995-1996, GYBE mounted sense-rattling wall-of-sound performances, featuring as many as 14 musicians and several 16mm film projectors, before recording their debut vinyl-only Constellation album in 1997. They transformed a warehouse space into the Hotel2Tango, a DIY hive of activity with band rehearsal rooms, silkscreen and wood shops, and weekend shows that took place under the radar. The group settled into a permanent nine-member line-up by late 1998, with Aidan and Bruce on drums, Thierry and Mauro on basses, Efrim, Dave and Roger on guitars, and Norsola and Sophie on cello and violin respectively. The band toured and recorded incessantly from 1998-2002 and gained a reputation for mesmerising live shows marked by orchestral dynamics, epic rock power and clunky, beautiful film loops. GYBE announced an indefinite hiatus in 2003.

2008-06-23T18:30:06-04:00

1 GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR 2

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR

2008-10-02T11:17:04-04:00

godspeed-you-black-emperor Hangedup is the Montreal-based duo of Gen Heistek (viola) and Eric Craven (drums). The two met in 1995 while playing in Sackville and formed Hangedup in 1999. They released their eponymous debut in May 2001. Kicker in Tow followed in October 2002 and Clatter for Control in April 2005. Hangedup play battle hymns for shut-ins, tightrope walkers, and urban bicyclists. Hangedup channel dead Roma musicians from Slavic republics, playing east European folk tunes backwards, skipping every 3rd note. Hangedup write road songs for model train enthusiasts. Hangedup compose soundtracks for slow-motion automobile accidents and use leaded gasoline every chance they get. Hangedup are unique operators of their chosen instruments, and have mastered a signature sound that is well ahead, and far behind, the times. Heistek’s vertigo-inducing viola runs through hallucinating loopers and warranty-voided amplifiers. Craven’s inimitable sound fuses auto shop discards with home-wiring experiments and fifteen-year-old drum skins. Sometimes soaring, occasionally distressing, Hangedup are the sound of tomorrow, only tomorrow was this morning, just before you left the house. And you left the stove on. Hangedup has toured extensively in Europe and North America, including performances at All Tomorrow's Parties in England, the Printemps de Bourges in France, the Domino festival in Belgium. At the Rhaaa Lovely and K-RAA-K festivals, also in Belgium, they headlined and were widely declared the highlight of these events. The K-RAA-K show led to friendship and collaboration with Tony Conrad, who also played that night. Conrad joined Hangedup for several North American shows and a series of recording sessions in 2004. Since moving to Montreal in 1987, Gen Heistek has been a member of many bands, including Pest 5000, Sackville, Set Fire To Flames and The Mile-End Ladies' String Auxiliary. She has played with Sam Shalabi, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic and many others. She wrote for CBC Radio’s Brave New Waves and now co-owns Local 23, a fripperie and purveyor of locally made stuff. Eric Craven moved to Montreal in 1993, having previously played in various punk bands in his native Victoria. He has been a member of Shortwave, Sackville and Blackout, and has thrown down his unparalleled rhythm thing, on record and in concert, with Mitchell Akiyama, Polmo Polpo, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, Silver Mt. Zion and Hrsta, among many others. He composes extensively for dance in Montreal, and is currently tending to an impressive bicycle graveyard in his back yard.

2008-06-28T12:59:02-04:00

12 HANGEDUP 11

HANGEDUP

2008-06-28T13:56:24-04:00

hangedup Hrsta (pronounced her-shta) is the brainchild of singer and guitarist Mike Moya who, along with a revolving cast of musicians, has performed under the name since 2000. Moya was a founding member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and was a core member of other Montréal groups Molasses and Set Fire To Flames. He has frequently played as part of Elizabeth Anka Vajagic's band, and in various other projects. Hrsta's critically lauded debut, L'éclat du ciel était insoutenable, was released on Fancy records in 2001. Work with Molasses and Set Fire To Flames kept Moya busy through 2001-2004, and he regrouped Hrsta in 2004 to record the band's second album, Stem Stem In Electro, released on Constellation in 2005. This recording featured a large cast of Montréal musicians, with Brooke Crouser (organ, guitar, effects) and the rhythm section of Harris Newman (bass) and Eric Craven (drums) emerging as consistent Hrsta members for studio and live playing. Hrsta toured extensively in Europe in 2006, with Moya and Crouser forming the core of the touring group, and Crouser establishing herself as Moya's primary writing partner, further shaping the Hrsta sound with her array of acoustic and electric organs and effects. The results of this collaboration can be heard on Hrsta's third record, Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes, released on Constellation in the fall of 2007. Hrsta harnesses traditional and otherworldly sound as Moya sings lyrics cribbed from lost faerie tales in a voice that recalls a more blissed-out Daniel Johnson or a less blissed-out Wayne Coyne. Moya's electric guitar work is unique and recognizable to many from the early Godspeed records - a haunted, reverb-drenched, oscillating siren-sound, guided by a focused and soaring melodic sense. Eric Craven is half of the duo Hangedup, and has worked extensively with numerous other artists of note, including A Silver Mt. Zion, Tony Conrad, Sackville, Sixtoo, and Mitch Akiyama. Harris Newman works primarily as a mastering engineer in Montreal. He has released two solo albums of fingerpicked guitar under his own name, and has appeared on recordings by Esmerine, Sackville, Hangedup, and many others. Brooke Crouser is a member of Jackie-O Motherfucker and Set Fire to Flames. She has toured and recorded extensively with various groups, most notably the Swords Project.

2008-06-28T13:05:51-04:00

16 HRSTA 15

HRSTA

2008-06-28T13:57:45-04:00

hrsta Jem Cohen has made over 40 films built from his own ongoing archive of street footage, portraits, and sound. Many of these explore the collision between documentary, narrative, and the experimental. Some are city films, others collaborations with musicians; most connect the personal with the political, all are hard to categorize. In 2008, Cohen worked with Patti Smith on a series of short films and installations for her show at Fondation Cartier in Paris. In 2006, three films, BUILDING A BROKEN MOUSETRAP (The Ex in New York), BLESSED ARE THE DREAMS OF MEN, and NYC WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Fest. Jem’s feature, CHAIN, premiered at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival and in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. CHAIN received a 2005 Independent Spirit Award, and was broadcast on ARTE in Europe and the Sundance Channel in the U.S. Cohen’s Fugazi documentary, INSTRUMENT, which premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, covered a ten-year arc, as did BENJAMIN SMOKE, (co-directed with Peter Sillen). Earlier works include LOST BOOK FOUND, BURIED IN LIGHT, AMBER CITY, and BLOOD ORANGE SKY. In 2005, Jem curated the Fusebox Festival; four days “at the crossroads of film, music, and activism,” with the Evens, the Ex, Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, Thee Silver Mountain Elegies Play War Radio (members of Silver Mt. Zion and HangedUp), Guy Picciotto, T.Griffin Coraline, and Jerusalem in My Heart. Cohen’s other work with musicians includes film/music collaborations with Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Vic Chesnutt, Terry Riley, Elliott Smith, Sparklehorse, R.E.M., Jonathan Richman, Blonde Redhead, Stephen Vitiello, gand the Orpheus Orchestra with Gil Shaham. Cohen has had retrospectives at the National Film Theatre in London, BAFICI (Buenos Aires Intl. Independent Film Festival), Gijon Film Festival (Spain), and Cinematexas. His works have been broadcast by the BBC, PBS, ZDF/ARTE, and the Sundance Channel, and are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, and Melbourne’s Screen Gallery. Cohen co-produced Vic Chesnutt’s North Star Deserter record. He will have his first show of still photographs in 2009.

2008-11-07T13:40:01-05:00

24 JEM COHEN 24

JEM COHEN

2009-07-01T15:41:16-04:00

jem-cohen Land Of Kush is a large orchestra assembled and directed by Montreal composer and musician Sam Shalabi, one of the city's most unique and prolific players over the past decade. Shalabi performs constantly on electric guitar and oud, with regular appearances in numerous jazz and free improv ensembles, membership in a kaleidoscope of avant rock bands, and at the compositional helm of various musical assemblages large and small. Shalabi has seen a dozen full-length album recordings released in the last eight years, under his own name and with Shalabi Effect (on Alien8Recordings) and as a member of Molasses, Detention, Po, 'Gypt Gore and Nutsack. His eponymous albums often include genre-defying compositions for larger ensembles and Shalabi has also mounted many live performances and commissioned compositions for hybrid orchestras that have gone largely undocumented. Land Of Kush is among the most ambitious and impressive of these: the group involves over 30 musicians and two dozen different instruments, including a cluster of strings, horns and woodwinds, multiple percussionists, bassists and guitarists, four vocalists, electronics, snyths, darbouka and oud. Land Of Kush has performed a handful of times in Montreal over the past couple of years. Most recently, the group premiered new works at the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival in June 2008 and at Pop Montreal in October 2008. The Suoni piece, in five movements, was recorded in studio at the invitation of Constellation in late summer 2008 and released as the Against The Day album in spring 2009.

2008-12-31T13:10:28-05:00

25 LAND OF KUSH 25

LAND OF KUSH

2009-07-01T15:43:33-04:00

land-of-kush Lullabye Arkestra was formed in the summer of 2001 by Justin Small (drums) and Katia Taylor (bass) and are currently based in Toronto. Justin is also member of Do Make Say Think. The Ark began by writing minimal, stripped down and raunchy rock songs using their signature fuzzed out bass sound and banshee vocals. They combined elements of hardcore punk with 60’s-era soul creating an unusual yet raw and energetic sound. That first summer they recorded "Bzaster", an 8-song CDR release which was self-produced with handmade covers and sold only at shows and a few select record stores in Toronto. For this recording they called upon Do Make Say Think members Ohad Benchetrit (saxophone) and Charles Spearin and Brian Cram (trumpets) who added to the soul-inspired songs. In 2002 Small and Taylor recruited Shelton Deverell (Tangiers, Z’Howndz) on organ. Deverell’s gospel-influenced style of playing added sweetness and density to the Ark’s sound. They began playing live with Benchetrit, Spearin and Deverell and also called upon Jason Baird (Do Make Say Think, Feist) for saxophone and Randy Ray and Marco Landini for backing vocals. From this point, Lullabye Arkestra’s live performances consisted of anything from two to twelve players. Other musicians who have since joined the band on stage are Julie Penner (Fembots, Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene) on violin, Bryce Kushnier (vitaminsforyou) on saxophone and keyboard, Joann Goldsmith (The Old Soul) on trumpet and Amanda Newman on trumpet. Lullabye Arkestra’s soul-core sound is continuously evolving with influences from grindcore to garage, pummeling rock epics to soulful crooning, and rave-ups to throw downs.

2008-06-28T13:15:33-04:00

21 LULLABYE ARKESTRA 20

LULLABYE ARKESTRA

2008-06-28T13:59:36-04:00

lullabye-arkestra Re: is the sound project of Aden Evens and Ian Ilavsky, who first met in the Philosophy department at McGill University in 1990 and began working on music together in 1996. They gather source material in a variety of ways: controlled site recordings, random field recordings, instrumental improvisations, live and programmed beats, and lots of filter bank knob-twiddling. Their two records on Constellation use the computer as compositional tool, serving to recover and re-assemble disparate elements into semi-coherent sonic narratives. Aden Evens graduated from Harvard with a degree in Philosophy and Math, spent a few years programming computers in Boston, then moved to Montreal in 1989 and wrote his PhD on Deleuze, Heidegger and Neitzsche at McGill. He taught various courses in Philosophy, Literature and Sound Theory at SUNY Albany, the New School in NYC, McGill and Harvard during the late-90's before landing a professorship at MIT. His first book, Sound Ideas, was published in the 'Theory Out of Bounds' series by Minnesota Press. His academic and published work focuses on questions of digital and analogue sound, the ontology of noise, and the cultural implications of digital media. He lives in Arlington MA with his wife, two kids, two cats and big dog. Ian Ilavsky left school to bake bagels and play in post-punk band Sofa in 1992, joined folk-punk group Sackville in 1996 and co-founded Constellation Records in 1997. He curated and produced the Musique Fragile concert series from 1997-1999, which featured some of the first performances by emerging experimental musicians from Montreal and the surrounding region. He has contributed to recordings by various Montreal bands, both as engineer (Fly Pan Am) and musician (Hangedup, Frankie Sparo). He joined Silver Mt. Zion in 2001 and co-founded the very loud drum and bass duo Diebold in 2003.

2008-06-28T12:44:15-04:00

11 RE: 10

RE:

2008-06-28T13:56:05-04:00

re This Montreal-based group made wonderful damaged roots music in various incarnations through the mid-90s, guided by the songwriting of singer/guitarist Gabe Levine and the string-playing of co-founder Genevieve Heistek. Harris Newman was a regular presence on bass, and Kurt Newman (no relation) played varoius instruments before leaving the band to return to Toronto and evenutally, Austin USA. Ian Ilavsky filled in on guitar beginning in 1996 and various players, including Pat Conan and Eric Craven, occupied the drum chair. Charting a path through country and pop traditions, always with a deft lyrical touch, Sackville developed a highly original and evocative sound that distilled a wide range of folk, rock and avant influences. The group slowly disbanded at the turn of the millennium. Members have gone on to play in Hangedup, Black Ox Orkestar, Set Fire To Flames and Silver Mt. Zion among others.

2008-06-28T12:28:36-04:00

6 SACKVILLE 5

SACKVILLE

2008-06-28T13:53:30-04:00

sackville Sandro Perri is a songwriter and producer living in Toronto, Canada. Originally trained in jazz, and playing primarily guitar, electronics and percussion, he composes, plays and produces music that falls on multiple points across a broad spectrum of styles and genres. He is best known for his instrumental/electronic work under the Polmo Polpo moniker, which combines long-burn drones, submerged rhythms and various instrumental sources (slide guitar, strings, accordion) to make shimmering, pulsing tracks embedded with gorgeous melodic hooks. Between 1999 and 2002, Sandro released a series of 12"s (by Cog, Dot Wiggin, and Polmo Polpo) on his own Audi Sensa label. These early Polmo Polpo tracks were compiled and re-issued on CD in 2002 by Alien8 Recordings, after which Perri began work on a proper full-length, issued by Constellation in 2003. In recent years, Perri has been singing original songs either solo (employing kick drum and guitar) or with a rotating cast of improvisers in a project under his own name. A self-released CD-R of such recordings was re-issued by Constellation in 2006, featuring re-interpretations of tracks from his Polmo Polpo oeuvre, marked by vocals and live group playing - and notably, no 'electronics'. A full-length recording of brilliant new tunes was released on Constellation in the fall of 2007, where one can hear musical influences as diverse as post-tropicalia Caetano Veloso, Vanguard-era Skip James (and his weary falsetto), and the 60s-era axis of hybrid songwriters like Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Harry Nilsson and Fred Neil. All of this filtered through the beautifully cracked musicianship of some of Toronto's finest young avant and improv players, and guided by Perri's wonderful melodic sense and brilliant lyrics. Sandro has toured extensively as Polmo Polpo, was part of the Constellation European Roadshow in 2004, was invited to Winnipeg's Send+Receive festival that same year, and played Montreal's MUTEK electronic music festival in 2005. Sandro has also performed at All Tomorrow's Parties (UK), Domino (Belgium), Printemps Du Bourges (France) and Klangtransfer Ost-Fest (Germany). Sandro has played and released music as part of Glissandro 70, Double Suicide and Dot Wiggin. Other past and present collaborators include Great Lake Swimmers, Eric Chenaux, Adam Marshall, Andre Ethier, Sawako, Detective Kalita/The Michael Parks, Andy Swan, Barzin, The Singing Saws and Tinkertoy. Behind the board, Perri has engineered, produced or mastered recordings by Alex Lukashevsky, Deep Dark United, CJ Boyd, Off The International Radar, Castlemusic and more. He has also remixed material for the likes of Stephen Malkmus, Under Byen, Ultra Red, Greek Buck, Nilan Perera and Luis Jacob. He does most of his production work out of his Toronto home studio, The Honey Pot.

2008-06-28T13:00:36-04:00

13 SANDRO PERRI / POLMO POLPO 12

SANDRO PERRI / POLMO POLPO

2008-07-10T14:25:18-04:00

polmo-polpo-slash-sandro-perri a silver mt. zion was born in 1999. thierry (contrebasse), sophie (violin), efrim (piano), mark (electric bass). we played our first show at the constellation loft. efrim wrote the music in pencil in the pages of a dollar store notation book=a failed experiment in self-taught music theory that did not stick. later on, we recorded those songs onto 1/2-inch 8-track at thee mighty hotel2tango. mark moves to england and aidan plays some drums. wanda was dying, and we made the record for her. efrim sings on a song that he wrote on a schoolbus in the middle of a clearcut north of thunder bay when godspeed was still broke. while designing the LP's insert card, we change our name to "thee silver mt. zion memorial orchestra & tra-la-la band". a couple of years later and we book our first tour. european winter. we add three new members= beckie (cello), ian (guitar), jessica (violin). spend three weeks rehearsing, a pair of local shows, and then we get on an aeroplane. 5 weeks of playing quietly to drunks, and a bad digital piano. live-sound by german paul. we wrote "the triumph of our tired eyes" on the road. came back home and recorded our second LP straight away. mixed it slowly, before and after the riots in quebec city, and named it "born into trouble as the sparks fly upwards". hardly any piano this time, but a whole lot of bowed strings and very many noisy guitars. a year and a bit later. we write a bunch of songs in our jamspace and record our third LP. "this is our punk-rock, thee rusted satellites gather and sing". the neighbourhood's changing, and nobody's laughing at america's president yet. aidan plays some drums again, and we hustle up an amateur choir. we decide to tour again, but loud this time. scott from black ox orkestar joins us on drums and guitar. we set up in a semi-circle and tear each other's heads off. also, we start group-singing together. first show with this lineup is at clinton's in toronto. a handful of shows during canadian winter and then back over the ocean again. nick does our live-sound but then disappears, so radwan takes the reins. we tour steadily for the next few years, and record "horses in the sky". the world, as always, seems totally fucked. we record one of the tunes around a campfire in the laurentians. emma the dog spends the night staring balefully into the darkness as the embers fade. we tour north america proper for the first time. colorado is a lowpoint, as is saskatoon. somewhere in the middle of all that noise, scott leaves to be an american again. eric from hanged up takes his place. more tours, more highways. we record "13 blues for thirteen moons", the first time we make a record of songs that we've played live forever. pitchfork implies that we're terrorists and we license a song to the abc television network. more touring and then beckie, eric and ian leave the band. a summer of regret, and we drop the "tra-la-la band" from our name. dave becomes the new drummer, and efrim is the lonely guitar. we tour europe again and play many places that we've never been to before. the global economy collapses while we play latvia. tristan is the new sound-dude. poland is heavy. we record "kollaps tradixionales" in the summer of 2009. jessica and efrim have a baby. the new record's got songs that we wrote as the tra-la-la band, and a couple of new ones too. touring again, and we're ten years old. in our own country we're pretty much invisible. we believe in what we do, and move forward slowly. we're lucky and we know it. we earn an honest living, though it gets harder all the time. see you on the road...

2008-06-28T12:36:18-04:00

8 SILVER MT ZION 7

SILVER MT ZION

2009-12-28T16:33:31-05:00

silver-mt-zion Sofa was a band from 1993 to 1997. Born of quiet desperation, the four founding members stuck together for the duration, devoting themselves to the sonic transmission of isolation, neurosis and loss, picking up the odd sympathetic listener along the way. Brad Todd (voice) met Keith Marchand (drums) while teaching a summer course at Concordia University’s department of Fine Arts (where Brad had just absconded with an MFA). Joined by Ian Ilavsky (guitar), the band was born and began playing and recording with Jon Ascencio guesting on bass (he would go on to co-release Sofa’s first 7”). Scott Clarkson was recruited as permanent bassist a few months later. Sofa played dozens of local shows through the mid-90s and recorded constantly, issuing several cassette releases over the years before recording what would be their first and last official full-length CD in 1996. Abject and sustained poverty kept them locked down in Montreal for the most part, though they caught the enthusiastic ears of The Geraldine Fibbers in 1997, who then invited them to play some shows in the American Northeast. The group disbanded amicably, though perhaps prematurely, at the end of 1997. Brad, though originally a painter, has gone on to a prolific career in digital arts, showing internationally and teaching at Concordia. He has supplied many of the photographs and other images that have adorned Constellation catalogues and webpages from the label’s beginnings (including the CST ‘cage’) and offers a world to discover on his Teleshadow website. Keith has gone on to play drums in The Delmarva Scheme, Quinimine, and currently, The Donkeys. He also works as an arts writer and builder. Scott moved to NYC in 2002 to pursue theater acting and continues to make a go of it south of the border. Ian co-founded Constellation and has gone on to play in Silver Mt. Zion and Re:, as well as guesting on records by Hangedup, Frankie Sparo, and many others.

2008-06-28T10:25:38-04:00

3 SOFA 1

SOFA

2009-07-01T15:42:28-04:00

sofa The Dead Science began life as the The Sweet Science; singer/guitarist Sam Mickens and brothers Jherek Bischoff (bass) and Korum Bischoff (drums) formed in mid-2000 and self-released the CD-R album Galactose that same year. Forced to change their name in 2003 by a pre-existing "Sweet Science" band, The Dead Science was born, signed to Berkeley-based indie Absolutely Kosher, and released their proper debut, Submariner. During this period Sam and Jherek served as both recording and touring members of Xiu Xiu and members of the Butoh-based performance ensemble/punk-jazz orchestra Degenerate Art Ensemble. The self-recorded EP Bird Bones in the Bughouse followed in 2004, and included the band's lauded leftfield cover of Terence Trent D'arby's "Sign Your Name." In late 2004, drummer Korum was replaced by Nick Tamburro, and the following year the band released their second full-length, Frost Giant, recorded at the venerable Bear Creek Studios with producer Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Redhead, Black Heart Procession, Afghan Whigs). The band's touring schedule increased dramatically and in the years since they have toured the US and Europe extensively alongside bands including The Blood Brothers, Xiu Xiu, Celebration, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, and Carla Bozulich's Evangelista. In 2006 they released the more experimental and subdued EP Crepuscule With The Dead Science on Portland-based imprint Slender Means Society, which included two outtakes from the sessions for Frost Giant. A great deal more touring followed, along with a string of small, vinyl-only releases. The band is now set to release their strongest work to date, the new album entitled Villainaire, on Constellation. They will tour tirelessly in North America and Europe from May through October 2008, with the album set for release in early September.

2008-06-28T13:24:22-04:00

22 THE DEAD SCIENCE 22

THE DEAD SCIENCE

2008-06-28T14:01:16-04:00

the-dead-science Tindersticks are a legendary UK band that formed in Nottingham in 1991 and put out a series of dark, majestic albums throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. After a 5-year hiatus, founding members Stuart Staples, David Boulter and Neil Fraser reformed the band and produced "_*The Hungry Saw*_"://cstrecords.com/releases/cst055 in 2008, striking up a new relationship with Constellation records for the North American release. The album received broad critical acclaim and signaled a true return to form, as did the band's ensuing live shows, which included a long-awaited return to North American shores during their spring 2009 tour. Tindersticks will release their 2nd album "_*Falling Down A Mountain*_"://cstrecords.com/releases/cst065 with Constellation in North America on February 16, 2010. "*TINDERSTICKS on WIKIPEDIA*"://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tindersticks "*TINDERSTICKS on ALLMUSIC*"://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:dxfyxqr5ldje For North American press and promotional relations please contact: Jessica Linker "*Pitch Perfect PR*"://www.pitchperfectpr.com/contact.html 773-784-4335 info@pitchperfectpr.com

2008-06-28T13:40:33-04:00

23 TINDERSTICKS 23

TINDERSTICKS

2009-11-11T11:37:49-05:00

tindersticks Vic Chesnutt is the real deal, a man who lives for music and who has tirelessly deployed his impish, surly, witty, unflinching perspective in hundreds of songs featuring brilliantly unique wordsmithery and a profound playfulness that thumbs its nose at a life of seriously hard knocks. Vic’s prolific writing – chock of full of real irony, wonderful turns of phrase, humour, rage and tenderness, brutal literalism and ornate observation – constitutes a truly original voice and reflects a truly indomitable spirit. Chesnutt has worked with many collaborators over his twenty-year music career, notably with Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) who produced his first couple of records in the early 1990s, and over the past decade with musicians and groups as diverse as Widespread Panic, Lambchop, Bill Frisell, Jonathan Richman (with whom we has toured many times over the years) and Elf Power. His first album for Constellation, North Star Deserter (2007), was also his first collaboration with Thee Silver Mt. Zion (among other label-affiliated musicians in Constellation’s home town of Montreal) and Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, in sessions orchestrated by mutual friend and celebrated New York filmmaker Jem Cohen. <a href=http://cstrecords.com/releases/cst046/audio_files> LISTEN </a> USA music magazine Paste ranked North Star Deserter the best of his numerous collaborative albums over the last dozen years, and the record was widely acclaimed, signaling a true return to form for Vic (though it remained rather criminally overlooked in the USA). A core group of players emerged from this first recording to accompany Vic on two European tours in support of the album: Thierry Amar (bass), Efrim Menuck (guitar), Jessica Moss (violin) and David Payant (drums) all of Thee Silver Mt. Zion, along with Guy Picciotto (guitar) from Fugazi, and Nadia Moss (piano, organ) and Chad Jones (guitar) from Witchies (and previous outfit Frankie Sparo). This same troupe reunited for Vic’s second Constellation album, At The Cut (2009), once again recorded by Howard Bilerman at Hotel2Tango in Montreal. The Vic Chesnutt Band features an explosive group of arrangers and players, allowing Vic to conjure howling rage and devastating fragile grace in equal measure. The band represents a return of sorts for Guy Picciotto as well, who has kept busy as a producer in the years since Fugazi's indefinite hiatus, but for whom this project represents his most sustained return to guitar playing and full-on 'band duty' (and a welcome one it is). Chad Jones and Nadia Moss are two of Montreal's best-kept musical secrets, though those who've heard and remember Frankie Sparo's Constellation releases will be familiar with Chad's brilliantly angular guitar playing, Nadia's lovely touch on piano and organ, and their combined ear for arrangement. Thee Silver Mt. Zion players are well-known for the raw power and intensity of their live playing and the inventiveness of their unique contribution to a punk rock/protest music cannon that embraces classical, psych, blues, rock and folkways tropes. Shortly after the release of North Star Deserter most of the players set out for a debut European tour, which included a special performance in collaboration with filmmaker Jem Cohen titled Empires Of Tin, commissioned by the Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival). This 'film hallucination' with live soundtrack was itself recorded by the Viennale and subsequently issued on DVD as a co-release with Constellation. <a href=http://cstrecords.com/promo/cst056/sections/clips.php> WATCH CLIPS </a> One of the songs from Empires, "Coward", would go on to appear as the lead-off track to Vic's second album with this band, At The Cut (release in September 2009). Vic Chesnutt has a well-deserved reputation as a merry prankster of sorts, but also as a true original -- a writer/musician who has consistently communicated real emotion and meaning through wry observation and dry wit. Chesnutt's work with his band in concert and on these Constellation albums is his most defiant, his angriest, his most honest, and his tenderest and most personal. Vic is making some of the strongest -- and certainly the most mature -- music of his wonderful career. And if this music finds him explicitly staring down (and thumbing his nose at) the face of mortality and working itself deeper into narratives about memory and place and loss -- well, Mr. Chesnutt certainly knows of what he sings (having survived a car accident at age 18 that confined him to a wheelchair and has subjected him to an endless cavalcade of complications, procedures, emergencies and towering medical bills ever since), and he sings it without nostalgia, refusing to sentimentalise or platitudinise anything about his profound sense of place (the South, the wheelchair, 21st century America during the bubbles and the terror wars,). It is refreshing to hear how Vic Chesnutt sidesteps any of the obvious Southern Gothic tropes, lyrically and musically: no vaulted arches, gaping abysses or burning fields here – no ‘voicing’ of the preacher or the devil, no putting on airs. Vic manages to sing authentically and wholeheartedly, railing against his personal fate without bitterness, without apology, with a sardonic and sometimes angry poetics of the passionately humanist and secular variety: framed by the back porch, championing a humble wisdom, a sincere ethics (without moralising) and a natural literateness. Certainly permitting a wisecrack or three, but never allowing for anything hackneyed or cornball, faux or forced. Since 1990, Chesnutt has released 15 critically acclaimed records; been covered by a number of artists on the tribute album Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation (including R.E.M., the Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna and Sparklehorse); was the subject of the 1992 PBS documentary Speed Racer and appeared in the Oscar Award-winning film Sling Blade.

2008-06-23T22:46:19-04:00

2 VIC CHESNUTT 21

VIC CHESNUTT

2009-07-29T16:18:48-04:00

vic-chesnutt