Live Review – Sloan/Ted Leo and the Pharmacists at Mod Club

Day one of NXNE started with a bang down at the Mod Club over on College St. Having grown up hearing Sloan blasting out of radios everywhere and discovering Ted Leo much later on in university, I’d never really made much of a connection between the two bands. But seeing them play back to back really highlighted the pop roots at the core of each band’s songs.

I made it inside in time to catch the opening riff of Leo’s “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone,” what (I assume) was the night’s opening song. This was my fourth time seeing Leo and his revolving group of Pharmacists (drummer Chris Wilson and his massive beard seem to be the only constant), and I have to say it was one of the best. Eternally stuck in high gear, the man seemed to take the 40-minute time limit imposed on the set as a challenge to cram in as many songs in as possible. He ripped through older tracks like his life depended on reaching to the next song, and treated the partially filled venue to about half a dozen new tunes. The band’s sound was greatly improved by the addition of second guitarist James Canty on tour. Leo comes from a DIY punk rock background, but the guy can shred and Canty’s steady rhythm playing gave him the freedom to do so. The best part of the night for me came with hearing the new tunes which, in this humble blogger’s opinion, were all a marked improvement over last year’s tepid album Living With the Living

Sloan hit the stage in high spirits, and they should be. Their recent offerings, including the three-day old Parallel Play, have reinvigorated and re-purposed the Halifax ex-pats, a fact all four members seem to realize; they played nine of the new album’s 13 tracks, including three of drummer Andrew Scott’s contributions. I got the impression that had it not been for guitarist Jay Ferguson’s soar throat, they would have played the whole damn thing. And even though he was audibly ill the few times he stepped up to the mike to speak, he jokingly tried to lead the band into a rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Peppered in between the new tunes were three cuts off Never Hear the End of It and “Everything You’ve Done Wrong” from 1996’s One Chord to Another, the only actual hit they played during the set. On paper this sounds like a wankerish move, but this was actually the most consistent I’ve ever seen them live (they’re usually pretty hit and miss). Their encore ended the show with blazing renditions of “The Good In Everyone,” which Murphy joked was “the most exiting two minutes in music” and “She Says What She Means.” As a testament to they’re dedication to his dedication to his adoptive home and its music scene, Murphy was spotted hours later down at the Horseshoe, chatting with Jim Cuddy and checking out some local bands.

Just Great

A funny thing happened in 2004: rootsy folk music made a comeback.

After the success of Zac Braff’s Garden State, a cinematic paean to life in your twenties, people began talking about Iron & Wine, and their drifting acoustic pop-songs. What followed was a slew of new “folk” inspired acts, from mainstream fare to the neo-psychedelic stylings of Devranda Banhart. Now it’s convenient to lump any goof with an acoustic guitar and wispy vocals into the same category, but the diversity of acts given the “neo-folk” tag should be a clear sign this is more than a passing trend.

“I think it’s a reaction to the digital world,” says Great Lake Swimmers frontman and mastermind Tony Dekker. Even electric-based bands are using technology for good rather than evil, though he’s quick to explain that just because you use keyboards or synthesizers, it doesn’t make you evil.

“I certainly don’t feel part of a movement or anything,” he says.

By his early twenties, Dekker had grown weary of the DIY-style indie rock that was en vogue at the time, and found himself spending more and more time listening to old folk and country records on his turntable. “There is value in these old Leonard Cohen records and in these old Joni Mitchell records,” he realized.

Bands like Iron & Wine often come up when trying to describe Great Lake Swimmers’ music. But to say the two groups sound the same is like saying the Beatles and the Stones are the same by virtue of both being British classic rock. “Moving Pictures, Silent Films,” the lead track on Swimmers’ eponymous 2003 debut, best sums up the group: gently plucked guitar lines accompanied by Dekker’s haunting voice and frighteningly beautiful breaks to hammer home each note.

Like an acoustic Sigur Ros, the music conjures images of the environs in which it was created—but where the Icelandic art rockers use swaths of guitar drone, Dekker uses ambient space, evoking the loneliness of a late November drive across the band’s home province of Ontario. Ongiara, which was released this spring, marks a leap forward for Swimmers. The songs are tighter, the melodies more memorable, but the delicate imagery remains.

“I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted it to sound,” says Dekker of the record. The basic songs were sorted before hitting the studio, but Dekker says he always leaves room for “happy accidents,” while writing the instrumentation for banjo player Erik Arneson and drummer Colin Huebert, who round out the group.

For this record, Dekker decided to call in some favours and enlisted friends and friends of friends for the sessions in London (Ontario). Not used to working with collaborators, Dekker says he learned a lot as a writer from the process. Included on the record are Sarah Harmer, Bob Egan (Blue Rodeo, Wilco) and Mr. Final Fantasy himself, Owen Pallet. Dekker was particularly impressed by Pallet’s ability to write string arrangements for his songs.

“It was pretty interesting to see how other people work,” he says. “It’s neat to watch them up close.”

Great Lake Swimmers recently left Toronto based weewerk records and signed with West Coast mega-indie Nettwerk. Dekker says it’s nice to have “a bigger label with more hands” behind them. Though he insists changes for the group are minimal, he says it’s been nice to have someone else handing things like burning press CDRs and photocopying band bios.

He also recognizes the roads Nettwerk has paved in it’s twenty plus years of operation. “I think it’s nice to be part of that narrative of Canadian music.”

The group completed its first headlining tour in the States this spring, which provided “a real gauge of the people who know about us.” Another tour south of the border is planned following the Halifax gig and other east coast dates—shows which will include Julie Fader on backing vocals. All the touring hasn’t put a damper on Dekker’s role as the group’s songwriter; after the interview he was headed to a studio to lay down the nuggets of the next Great Lake Swimmers record.

This article originally appeared in the September 13, 2007 issue of The Coast.

Small Sins are a sinful pop delight

Small Sins is the product of Thomas D’Arcy’s frustrations with operating in the pseudo-democracy of a traditional band.

After he left The Carnations in 2004, he recorded a bedroom record of dream-like pop songs on his own. Then known as The Ladies and Gentlemen, the record quickly caught fire in Canada and D’Arcy found himself leading a five-piece band on tours across the country.

“It was always just supposed to be a studio project,” he says, on the phone from Toronto. “I work so much more efficiently alone.”

D’Arcy quickly found the hushed whisper of his synthesizer-based tunes rather boring to replicate live as the band developed a much harder rock edge for their shows.

Small Sins released their second record Mood Swings and the separate eight-song The Mellow EP at the end of September. Although D’Arcy says he tried to make the record sound more like the live show, Kevin “The Clapper” Hilliard is one element of Small Sins that cannot be captured on tape. His manic hand claps and sporadic synthesizer blips make him Flavor Flav to D’Arcy’s Chuck D.

“He’s the number one cheerleader,” says D’Arcy. “He still doesn’t know how to use his gear.”

This article originally appeared in the October 18, 2007 issue of The Coast.

Record Review: Sloan – Parallel Play

Okay, so the record just came out today, but already I’m convinced this is the best Sloan record since “Between the Bridges.” The band feels reinvigorated and as they rip through a relatively economical 13 tracks (economical if you consider their last album “Never Hear the End of It” had 30), none of which break the 4-minute mark. Gone are the sluggish clunkers that dragged down “Action Pact” and the kitchen sink individualism that made “Never Hear the End of It” so intriguing and frustrating. This is the return of Sloan as a band. There’s not a bad song in the bunch, with the “Highway 61″ era-Bob Dylan influenced track “Down in the Basement,” one of four songs written by drummer Andrew Scott, being a standout. I mentioned “Between the Bridges” off the top not only because of the quality of the song writing, but “Parallel Play’s” tracks sit elbow to elbow with each other the way that album’s tunes did. Unforunately for the band, upon the first couple listens, like “Between the Bridges,” there doesn’t seem to be any immediate singles that would relaunch the group to the top of Canadian radio. But then again, who the hell listens to the radio anymore any way? If you’ve ever dug Sloan, buy this album.

Sloan play the Mod Club with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Thursday, June 12 in Toronto as part of NXNE.

Live Review – Islands: The Man is an Island

The May 29th Islands show at the Phoenix Theatre was hottly anticipated for several reasons: it would be the first show I’d attend in Toronto, I’d tried and failed to see both Islands, and the Unicorns in the past and I just really loved their last record “Return to the Sea.” So it’s with a heavy heart that I say, the show was a disappointing one.

The departure of founding member J’aime Tambeur between the group’s debut and the recording of their new record “Arm’s Way” has left a void in the group that shows both on their new record and live. Despite being a six piece group, the band definitely felt like it was masterminded by Tambeur’s musical foil Nick Thorburn (which I think it is) with the other five members acting as little more than hired guns.

The band opened strong with new single “The Arm” but failed to really connect with those in attendance, interacting with the audience as little as possible. Thorburn looked awkward onstage, literally in the spotlight while the rest of the band took their cues. The result was a workmanlike set heavy on new material that was relatively unknown to the crowd (the gig was less than two weeks after the new record’s official release). The darker, less quirky tunes off the album (most likely the product of the group’s tumultuous lineup changes) were met with the most lackluster response while the three tracks from “Return to the Sea” that made it onto the set list were greeted with rapturous enthusiasm.

Islands are now signed to Epitaph imprint Anti Records, and the label is likely keen to keep these guys on the road for the next while. Hopefully both the band and it’s audience will become more comfortable with the new material before the next time they roll through Toronto.