am/fm dreams and Ye-Yeti

After a year of me nagging them to start playing shows in St. John's, the mythological creatures from Mount Pearl emerged from from their sarcophagus to play a set at The Ship (opening for The Pathological Lovers and Ye-Yeti). am/fm dreams for those of you who are not in the know; are a very prolific band from out in Mount Pearl who drew a lot of peoples attention last year with a really stellar entry in the RPM Challenge and kept everyones interest by releasing three other albums (including this years RPM challenge entry "The Plaid Album") since then. It was a really solid set, especially good considering it was pretty much their second live show ever. It was a real treat to finally catch them, although as a bit of criticism they didn't play my two favorite songs of theirs "I wish I never met you" and "Always The Follower", but I guess that's the problem when you release six albums before your first show, just which of the songs do you play? They need to chill out a bit as well and bounce around a bit more. Bouncing is important.
Here is a rocker of theirs called "Paper Tiger"


and here is their closer "Spaceship". Notice in this video how I capture the four other people (the video quality unfortunately only lets me pick out two of them though) in my vicinity who were also filming this rare beast for their own blogs or facebooks.



Also that night, I caught Ye-Yeti for the first time, who don't play that many shows in town for the good reason of being too young to legally be in a bar without their parents written permission. Now I was very skeptical of them ever since they made the cover of the Scope's "Hot New Music" issue awhile back. "What?! they're like 15 years old and have only played like two shows! why the hell are they on the cover of the scope (and not me)?" is what I thought. I was prepared to to take that bitter cynical attitude with me through their set but Goddammit! they have matching fez's with "Ye-Yeti" written on them! how can I stay mad at that? So how was their music? you ask. well it was about 95% exuberance and about 5% ability, which honestly, is just about all I'm looking for in a highschool band. I can't say my brain exploded or anything but they certainly had energy and got the people moving. Also they had probably the most interesting musical tastes of any teenage band that I've seen in ages and ages. I started taking a couple of videos but they progressively got more and more naked as the show went on and I suddenly became more and more aware that I am a 30 year old man standing around attentively taking videos of half naked hairless teenage boys gyrating in a club, and I felt very very uncomfortable all of a sudden. Not that there's anything wrong with taking videos of unknowing, half-naked children, I just have a public image I have to keep up you know. Here is a video I took, I don't know what the name of the song is (edit: it is called "Ammit"), but here it is anyway. Cheers.

Sound Symposium Presents: Justin Haynes, Ryan Driver, Jean Martin, Bill Brennan

Last night I caught a really fun concert being put on by the Sound symposium organization. It featured Justin Haynes (who is the most skilled ukulele player I have ever seen), Bill Brennan on melodica, Jean Martin on suitcase with brushes and show stopper Ryan Driver playing a steel street sweeper bristle

with a box and a contact mic as a bass. This was truly something, the fact that he could articulate the notes so well with such a tiny piece of steel and the fact he could make it sound so much like a stand-up bass was crazy. But in advantage to just mimicking an acoustic bass sound he could get all the crazy buzzed out farty noises you'd expect from a contact mic'ed steel sprig. Funtimes. The set started with just the three piece of Justin, Ryan and Jean.

And in the second sert Bill Brennan joined in.


The Sound Symposium is one of the most interesting events this city has. To find out more about it go to soundsymposium.com

My weekend with some bands

Well I was feeling better this weekend having just gotten over a vicious flu (not swine apparently). I decided to break my reclusive streak and take in some tunes. I saw that The Kettle Black was back in town and my head was still a flutter with some vivid memories I have of seeing his set from two years ago, I decided to go down with my (girlfriends) camera and with a new portable Edirol sound recording gadget (also my girlfriends) I was eager to try out. So as a result the videos I took have much improved sound (after I took the time to sync it up to the video) but the picture quality remains the same brutal pixelated mess it has always been.
The Kettle Black is without a doubt the most intense solo performer I've ever come across. He is a one man band who fills the stage with dozens of fancy toys and fills venues with blistering cascades of pure pink noise.



There was a large group of us who went to see him at Distortion on Friday but he was unfortunately put at the end of a six band bill with some badly miss-matched acts and some just plain bad acts that I won't get into. Since he has so much gear and theatrical props involved in his set and since he has no one else to help him set up The Kettle Black didn't get to start his set until 3:15AM! this is after the steel gate is locked and nobody else can get into the bar. So there was just a very sparse crowd of enthusiasts left in the room cheering him on, but did he let this this get him down? hell no! he played one of the most ferocious sets I've seen in a long damn while.



I decided to come check out his set the next day at The Ship, this time opening for "The Gramercy Riffs" and "The Pathological Lovers". The hipster quota of the bar was way off the charts, I spent the night counting Keffiyeh scarves (only four so it wasn't so bad) and the faces of really uninterested people in horrible eyewear. This wasn't really the right crowd for The Kettle Black, but it was stil a good set.
I hadn't really had a chance to check out the much hyped "Gramercy Riffs" before Saturday and by the tight packed throng of people gathered by the stage while they played it was pretty clear who the crowd had come for. So did The Gramercy Riffs live up to the hype?? no not really.. I really can't give them a ringing endorsement, but this isn't to say they were terrible. In comparison to the rest of The Nordic Beat, Mercy the Sexton, Texas Chainsaw pool of bands the Riffs have derived from, The Riffs are welcome breath of tolerableness. I actually really liked most of the songs Mara sings lead on and Lee Hanlon isn't without his charm. While there were 3 or 4 songs in their set I can declare as pretty darn good, the rest of the material suffered from some supremely uninteresting lyrics and tempos that plod along way too slow for a band like this. ughh.. I'm being a bitch on my blog and I should stop before I go to far. Here is a new song of their's I filmed called "Hold my Hand" and while it doesn't sound like Hootie and Blowfish or The Beatles, it does have a passing resemblance to Roy Orbison at the end with the classic break down style.



The Pathological Lovers were on next and as previously blogged, I have total chubby for Jody Richardson's voice. This was there third show in three days and they were in a very special drunken mode throughout the night. Much silliness ensued. This video had to be cut short due to 10 minute limits unfortunately. Anyway, it was nice weekend despite the large leather clad man standing way too close to me while I filmed and the table full of overpriced cupcakes tempting me with their delightfully decorated frostings, even though I totally despise the charity they were going for. Look, I don't care how many monkeys you have to torture or murder, if it means my mom won't get cancer go for it. Kill as many monkeys as you want.

Cara Lee Coleman

Bad ass local songstress Cara Lee Coleman overcame her prolonged absence from the St John's music scene (I haven't seen her on stage in a couple of years) to put on a CD release show last Saturday at the ship with a full band to celebrate her new CD "8 Weeks". It was an really awesome show and it was excellent to see Cara Lee back at it in top form with a really solid backing band. I took a couple of videos of the event, the audio quality on the video at the bottom didn't turn out so great but I enjoy this song too much to not put it up. Hopefully this marks the start of Cara's full return to the music scene. As well, pick up "8 Weeks" if you get a chance, it's a fun and intimate collection of tunes worthy your ear canals.

Night Music

Man was it cold last night! holy crap!. anyway, I had to play a show last night at CBTG's, which was fun and it went over pretty well, but it upset my usual routine which involves heading over to "Night Music" at the Ship (it's the third Thursday of every month). Night Music, for those of you who don't know, is the main venue for experimental and improvisational music in this city. There is a different host band every month (I'm hosting in March, Hoorah!) and in between set's there is an open stage where people in the audience can ask to go up and jam. It's always a blast and a half and over the course of this blog I'll probably end up sharing some of the Night Music recordings I have (I've got a decent collection). Anyway, I missed this month's band "King Andrews Bridge" which I was really curious about since it has Grant King (crazy jazzcat guitarist) and Curtis Andrews (who is the funnest drummer to jam with in this city) and I don't know the bassist Dave Bridger but if he's playing with those two he's probably really good. I missed that one, but I was at last months show with Brad Power, Matt Hender and Elliot Dicks hosting, which was pretty stellar. I think it was the first time they all played together so the night was nothing but tasty improv. Anyway, I took this video of the show, enjoy..