Lucas Stagg

GREAT BIG GONE

K-W songsmith Lucas Stagg up and left. After a decade or so on the 519 independent roots music radar, Stagg decided it was time to change it up. He packed up his J50 and moved the big city to see what Toronto might stir in him. You’d be forgiven for not noticing. Stagg continues to play at least weekly in the area, (sometimes solo, sometimes with cohort Craig McNair, sometimes with the Lucas Stagg Band), and he’s continued to crank out the annual record or so, now given added weight by his new home at Kitchener’s Busted Flat Records. His inaugural Busted Flat release is Great Big Gone, a record greatly informed by his leaving home, and his most gentle, rich project to date.

“Last summer, (producer), Dan Walsh was a part of a Rick Hutt Produced recording I did over at River Edge Studio,” explains Stagg of his decision to release a loving, largely acoustic record. “It was a big budget production with a four-piece band and all the bells and whistles. I had a bunch of songs that weren’t gonna make the cut on that record because I thought they sounded better with a simpler, stripped down approach. Dan suggested his studio on Lake Erie.”

Great Big Gone’s warm, sparse production and subtle textures suggest an album recorded under serene circumstances. Surely, a couple days on the coast with one’s guitar could be the ultimate serenity of many, but much credit needs to go to Dan Walsh for not only providing those relaxed surroundings, but for fleshing out each of Stagg’s deceptively simple odes to love, home, and beauty, with his rumbling, reverb drenched lead guitar, and his trusty rusty dobro.

“Basically, Tanya Philipovich, (who co-wrote the title-track with me), drove with me out to Port Dover, hung out for a couple of days, and we recorded the acoustics and the vocals. Duane Rutter, (another Busted Flat artist), lives right down the road so he came over and laid some trinkling guitars. Three weeks later I got the record in the mail and Dan had laid down everything else that you hear: dobros, electrics, bass. Dan takes a melody and converts it into a beautiful soundscape. After hearing it, I knew what type of record it was going to be. We actually recorded twelve songs, ended up with seven, and so I called Dan and asked him to do a ‘Dan’ arrangement using the “Great Big Gone” melody. The end result rounded out the record I was hearing.”

Walsh’s instrumental arrangement of the record’s title-track takes “Great Big Gone”’s repetitive, forlorn melody and retains all of the original’s intent, conveying Stagg’s high-lonesome narrative with long, lyrical pedal-steel moans. It’s a soothing capper to seven of Stagg’s strongest tunes, (including his stirring cover of Paul Kelly’s “Little Decisions”, a song seemingly written for Stagg’s voice), and a fitting debut on Busted Flat, a home for which he has much respect.


“I was a fan of the artists on the label, so at a music festival last summer I convinced Mark Logan, (BF head-honcho), to take a listen to the basic tracks. He loved it right away, but it took another six months before he let me know he was interested in having me on Busted Flat. He called me last week when the discs came in and said he put it on in Encore, (label headquarters), and some guy bought it halfway through the first song. We’re taking that as a good sign.”

Stagg’s new label is keeping him good and busy. He’s off to New York City next month for a couple of shows and will return just in time to back his bags for a Busted Flat showcase, up and down the Canadian spine with labelmate Paul MacLeod. It’s a pairing and a challenge that Stagg is excited to tackle.

“I heard Paul was itching to tour, so I called him up and the shows were booked by the end of the week. Busted Flat has earned a pretty good cool name for itself, so I think that’ll help. Paul is an amazing writer and I look forward to stealing a shit-load of guitar licks. We’re playing the right clubs, (twenty dates), for the ‘traveling troubadour’ type shows, out to Hank Snow’s hometown of Liverpool, Nova Scotia and back to Toronto’s Dakota Tavern in October, where I’ll be joined by the band!”

Stagg would hate for you to think that just cause he’s on a cool roots label, with a lovely new acoustic album ready for the fans and a solo tour on the horizon, that he’s forgotten how to get loud and gnarly. His eponymous band will keep that remedied, and plan to prove it with their own release later this year.

“Well, there are two rock records in the works,” he explains. “One is the Rick Hutt Produced record, and the other will be a Lucas Stagg Band record. We just recorded eleven tunes at River Edge, and Busted Flat will be releasing both records in 2009. The band is hittin’ all of the right clubs, right now, so we’re definitely looking forward to having a CD in hand.

“Writing songs and meeting new players keeps me interested in making cool records. If it weren’t for the commitment of the musicians that I’ve gotten to know over the past few years, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”

(originally published August, 2008. Echo Weekly. Kitchener)

Jolly Llamas

Dread City Rockers

“From the beginning we knew that if we were going to make an album, we were going to make a good album,” says Jolly Llamas frontman Brent Hagerman of his group’s long-awaited new record. “There couldn’t be anything half-assed about it. We knew we were going to take our time and work on it until it was done, until it was right. We could have finished it two years ago, but because we did spend so much time with it, we kept hearing things that could improve. Over the course of those years, I think the album really got better and better. Plus we all have jobs and families and Ph.D’s to work on and stuff like that.”

For those counting, it’s been nearly four years since the Jolly Llamas’ (singer-guitarist Brent Hagerman, drummer Ian Mollison, bassist Chris Robinson, organist Scott Wicken), last album, an effort which established their reputation as the area’s finest progenitors of fiery, experimental, roots-based reggae. The new album is Dread City Rockers, which not only delivers the best twelve songs of the band’s career, but also proudly celebrates the band’s deep love and knowledge of authentic reggae music. The Llamas had help though, and they barely had to cross town to find it.

“We did it with Brian Alexanian at Zane Studios in the Belmont Village,” says Hagerman between pulls off of a cold pint on a swelteringly humid day in uptown Waterloo. “The reason we went to him was because, (local singer-songwriter), Mike Alviano told me that he toured with the Wailers and I was like ‘Really?! There’s a guy in Kitchener that toured with the Wailers?!’ So I immediately called him and I was pretty overzealous at the time and I thought it may have turned him off a little, but he was cool. He toured with them in the late seventies/early eighties and he’d been a soundman in Toronto for years, working with all the reggae bands that came through. He had all these amazing reggae credentials and that’s what I was looking for. He had spent time in Jamaica and he knew a lot about the music, so that’s why we went to him. The album took something like three or four years from start to finish, but that’s only cause we wanted to make it as close to perfect as possible.”

Alexanian’s production skills and laundry-list of hardcore reggae cred certainly did much to buoy the spirit of the album, but he was working with guys who could speak his language. Hagerman has devoted the last decade or so of his life to reggae and the Jamaican culture, a fact that might surprise people upon first meeting the demure, white, academic family man from Kitchener.

“Well, I haven’t lived here my entire life” he explains. “I grew up in Bermuda and reggae was the sound when I was growing up, everywhere in the Caribbean. In the early eighties I was pretty much only listening to Yellowman and, of course, Bob Marley. It wasn’t until I came back to Canada though, as a teenager listening to indie rock or whatever, that I found myself really wanting to connect with reggae music again. Strangely enough, Big Sugar was the band that made me realize that. I remember hearing 500lbs and thinking, ‘Oh, here’s a band with a strong reggae influence that doesn’t suck!’ Cause in the eighties there were a lot of bad reggae bands, with a really soft, overly-processed sound. Big Sugar sort of became a template for us when we started the Jolly Llamas, and once we started my fascination just grew. I was listening to a lot of reggae, writing reggae music, and even writing about reggae, (notably a remarkably comprehensive feature on Sly & Robbie for Exclaim!). Then I ended up quitting my job to go back to school and get my Ph.D studying, of course, reggae.”

This detailed study of the tenets of reggae and the Rasta culture was instrumental in raising the Llamas above the level of your average frat-boy party band. Unlike rock ‘n’ roll, in which an evolution from the tried and true methods and traditions of the genre is pretty much essential if a band wants to be relevant and successful, reggae demands that you not stray too far, lest you be accused of dumbing-down a sacred cultural touchstone. It’s a fine line that the Jolly Llamas deftly maneuver.

“I think there are a lot of purists who would agree with that,” concedes Hagerman. “I think the main reason for that is that it’s really easy to play bad reggae. An offbeat here, an upstroke on the guitar there. But if you want to play authentic reggae, you have to go past Bob Marley! You have to delve deeper into the sixties with ska and rocksteady, and Toots & The Maytals in 1967. What we tried to do was learn that stuff and then fit it into our own context. I like to see how far we can take the music, but at its core have it still be reggae. I think with our album there are some very roots-reggae songs, like “Ease Up” or “People Don’t Help People”. But on, say, “Dub City”, we’re trying to take an authentic reggae song, but put a scrappy rock band on top of it. For some people that would be taking it too far, but I’ve always liked experimenting with that. Bands like The Clash and The Ruts did that very well.”

It would seem like an ideal time for reggae musicians. Bands like Bedouin Soundclash have shown that there is a huge demand for reggae music beyond the purists and rastas. They’ve shown that reggae can be for everyone. After all, it’s great dance music and everyone likes to dance, right? Hagerman isn’t so sure.

“I think everyone loves the stereotype of reggae, which is like, you know, “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. People say they love reggae, but mostly they just like happy, uplifting music. That’s fine, but go listen to Bob Marley’s “Ambush In The Night”. That is not happy music. I keep hoping that there is a large audience for reggae, but I haven’t found it yet.”

The Jolly Llamas may find that audience yet. Their love of the genre is as infectious as the hooks that make tracks like “Dub City”, “Toast Coloured Girl”, and “Information Cage” instant classics. With reverence, precision, (and some sweet Hammond work), Hagerman and co. have crafted a definitive reggae album which will hopefully inspire others to follow suit and just say no to faux-reggae.

“You know, when I made the decision to quit my job to get my Ph.D, I knew that I had to make sure that it was something that I was not going to get tired of. I realized that reggae music has fascinated me for the last ten years and it’s just getting more and more intense and I’m not going to get tired of it in the next four years. I can make a career out of this.”

(originally published June 2007, Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)

Revival Dear

REVIVAL DEAR

Discovering your sound does not come easily for most bands. Years are often spent honing your abilities and by the time you’ve found your singing voice, or learned a few guitar licks, you’re ready to write some songs. The first few usually aren’t so hot. It takes a good couple dozen before you find a balance between where your strengths lie and where your inspirations hit your heart. Naturally, as this time progresses and your talents mature, so do your tastes. Whichever band you loved that owned Much Music when you started is maybe by now less important as you begin discovering the classics. Bob Dylan; Neil Young; The Band; Muddy Waters; all the artists that sounded like your parents’ music until you could finally let down your high school blinders and appreciate that maybe the roots of modern music are the roots for a reason. Eddie Orso and Shelley Hayes spent a lot of years playing rock n’ roll in various incarnations before they formed Revival Dear, a group whose hearts lay firmly in the roots-based Canadiana of their heroes.

“Roots music is real, it’s honest,” Orso explains of his commitment to that aesthetic. “I love old instruments, songs about the country and vocal harmonies. Old time music is worn-in and it just feels right.”

Eddie Orso and his partner in music, Shelley Hayes, have a long history of collaboration, but it was a Big Pinkian change of scenery that started turning the gears of Revival Dear, which has quickly become their most successful, (both commercially and artistically), endeavour.

“Shelley and I have been singing together for years now,” he says, “but it wasn’t until moving to Toronto when the name Revival Dear and the sound of Revival Dear came through us. We rented a house and turned the basement into a recording studio and just worked out there for two years. The Band, Bob Dylan, Blue Rodeo, and Gram Parsons were all in heavy rotation and we found ourselves falling into a very rootsy, Canadiana kind of sound.”

The move to Toronto came after several years on the scene in Kitchener-Waterloo, where their former outfit, (Samsara), met with moderate success, but they needed something more. They needed a new scene, with new folks and new ears, and they found a fertile ground, and a good many collaborators in the big city.

“We moved to Toronto to network and get into a bigger scene. Living in a big house with a band was pretty inspiring itself. We developed our sound over the next few years, just soaking up our old vinyl collection. If you learn how to play the mandolin, banjo, or upright bass, you’ll find yourself writing old time roots music. And that is what we did. We have a basement flooded with vintage instruments and away we went!”

“As we settled into Toronto,” Orso continues, “we started going out to open-mic’s and bars to meet people. The C’est What had an unbelievable open jam night. That is where we met, (producer), Terence Gowan. He took a shine to us, as we did to him, and shortly after we were recording our record at Don Kerr’s studio, The Rooster. Most of the overdubs were done at the Rock Basement, (our house in Toronto). We also recorded some finishing touches with Jeremy Darby at Canterbury Studios.”

The result of these sessions is Revival Dear’s self-titled debut, a rollicking, authentic, straight-from-Saugerties revival of the style and tunes that were once perfected by the rebellious vanguard of groups like The Hawks and Gram Parson’s Fallen Angels. Orso and Hayes share vocal duties evenly throughout and certainly immediately recall the best of Parsons’ and Emmy Lou Harris’ duets, but the songs are so crisp and poppy that further inspection reveals even a kinship with Lindsay Buckingham-Stevie Nicks era Fleetwood Mac, (see opening track “Town That I’ve Known”). All thirteen tracks employ a myriad of classy instruments, from the loving mandolin and pedal steel licks on “Century Toy”, the Garth Hudson-esque accordion of “Workin’ Man”, the truly excellent Hammond work on “Give Me The Blues”, and the smatterings of banjo and fiddle dusted across the album. All of this lends Orso’s and Haye’s vocal work a rich bedrock upon which to paint their masterpiece. It’s a remarkable record that can be committed in this day and age and still sound like it could have come from any generation’s roots heroes. Revival Dear have worked hard to make such a record, but it shouldn’t be interpreted as any sort of musical history lesson. After all, it’s only rock n’ roll, and Revival Dear want to see you dance.

“We like to leave audiences feeling like it’s OK to stomp your feet, sing along, and be a part of the show,” Orso explains of their mission. “We like to extend our songs into long piano or harmonica jams and sing ‘til our voices crack. We have fun, and in doing so, so does our audience.”

(originally published June, 2008. Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)

HAVE NO FEAR, THE COAST IS CLEAR

IN-FLIGHT SAFETY RETURN

“I think we are stronger than average as a community because we share a lot of information with each other. We don’t covet our experiences abroad. We come back and share our ideas and try to help each other be better musicians.” In-Flight Safety frontman, John Mullane, is explaining to me, (via his Haligonian home), the benefits of Halifax as a musical breeding ground, and he should know. In-Flight Safety are about to release their first record for a label and rightfully take their place amongst Halifax’s next invasion of cream-of-the-crop Canadian talent.

“I think Halifax breeds a certain type of musician,” he says. “I would attribute this to being on the colder of the two coasts – there’s not much to do in winter but work on music. Also, when you live here, you’re all too aware that you are on the margins of ‘big time action’, so bands and musicians are free to express themselves without any pressure to conform to certain trends you might see in bigger centers.”

The In-Flight Safety story is the stuff of indie legend; the kind of tale that makes a band feel the sky’s the limit. After recording and releasing their debut EP in 2003, (the five-song bedroom recording Vacation Land), Canadian indie darling Emm Gryner caught a set of theirs in Moncton. She immediately declared them her favourite new band and went to work spreading the word. She even managed to get a copy of it into David Bowie’s hands, (she was singing in his band at the time), and he was quick to express his admiration. With these accolades in-hand, Mullane, bassist Brad Goodsell, pianist Daniel Ledwell, and drummer Glen Nicholson played their first NXNE showcase and were named 2003’s ‘Best Un-Signed Band’, and had their EP re-released by Universal. Now, the band is ready to release their first long-player and have found themselves a home at Emm Gryner’s imprint, Dead Daisy Records. Named as an affectionate nod to their hometown, The Coast Is Clear finds In-Flight Safety expanding on the ambient melodicism of their debut, but with slightly higher production values and more specific goals in mind.

“When we started recording the songs that would eventually become The Coast Is Clear, we found ourselves with a proper producer, (Warne Livesy), and in an extremely well equipped studio in Vancouver. We came back to Halifax and tried to maintain the big studio sound for the drums and decided to overdub virtually everything else in my small home studio. In my studio we realized that we were trying to achieve a sonic quality that you really can’t get with limited gear and knowledge. At first we were rather frustrated, but then we just decided to try and make the best record we could make and that’s what we did. We are very proud parents of this record.”

Rife with triumphant melodies, tinkling, mysterious piano passages, jangling guitars, and Mullane’s falsetto croon, The Coast Is Clear is a dense sonic stew, tailor-made for lovers of beautiful, unpretentious pop. It’s quite an achievement that they’ve done it nearly all on their own, and now they’re looking forward to finally getting a little help.

“Before Dead Daisy, we’d been without a label for four years and it’s only just sinking in that we are not alone in this next release. It’s a great comfort to know that you have a core of dedicated people working on your behalf, towards your goals. We feel a little disconnected from Canada’s music center, (Ontario), so it’s been amazing to have people out there representing our interests while we are far away working on music. We don’t even have to worry about the dreaded College radio mail-out, and that’s more than we ever expected. We are happy campers.”

In-Flight Safety are returning to Guelph, (their last appearance being an emotive show-stealer at Hillside), on January 25^th. They’ll be at the Brass Taps with In Transit and Dean Drouillard. Things get started at 10pm. Don’t miss it. In-Flight Safety could very well be Canada’s next favourite band. www.inflightsafety.ca

(originally published January 2006. Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)

519 Revue, 2005 In Review

WELCOMING 2006

Well, 2005 has passed, and it was a pretty decent year for the 519. Some great records were released, and some great shows were played. Old bands were laid to rest and new bands rose in their stead. The rock owned by this city has remained vibrant throughout. Here are some highlights, some unfortunate passings, and some hopes for this bright, beautiful, wide-open 2006.

K-W experimental popsters Humshuttle ushered in 2005 with their second EP of a planned trilogy. By expanding on the blueprint of their 2004 debut, they crafted a moodier, more pensive work, rich with Ben Lee’s hushed poetics and the epic, rolling rhythms of How It Feels To Be Something On-era Sunny Day Real Estate. Though they played sporadically in 2005, Humshuttle did manage to get over to Ireland, where they became men and alcoholics, almost immediately.

Humshuttle weren’t the only locals to birth great music in 2005. A Failure For Every Season left their emo peers in the dust with their debut CD; Hibakusha, after ten long years of toil released their debut to almost unanimous praise as the record of the year; Tony Salomone finally came into his own with his umpteenth project, the Haunches, whose Recording Session Ends In Tragedy EP has owned the CKMS charts ever since. The Vermicious Knid released their finest work, and lamentably, their swan-song, with Smalltown Devotion/Hometown Compulsion, and helped keep their friends in the Sourkeys on the map with a split 7”.

Yes, the births were glorious and many, but the Vermicious Knid weren’t the only ones to lay down their arms last year. Several local stalwarts bid tearful goodbyes, but the cyclical nature of rock ‘n’ roll has given us as much as it’s taken away.

The Babyshakers, after three years of volume and mayhem, played their last show in May, destroying the crowd at Fiddler’s Green before the headliners, Teenage Head, had a chance to. Not one to rest on his laurels, guitarist Tommy Smokes was quick to bounce back with his new project, The Saigon Hookers.

“We are aiming to release a five song EP by spring,” says Smokes, “and hopefully a full-length by fall. We’ll be focusing on playing shows around Ontario and Quebec. We are going to play a lot and bang a lot of heads. It’s gonna be a good year for us.”

Post-rockers the Everyday Faces played their last show in 2005 and left singer/guitarist Rick Andrade free to return to his drum-kit behind the Machines. Their Jam-inspired boogie-pop has made them fast-favourites all across Ontario, and 2006 could easily be the year that they take over.

“We’ll be completing our as-yet-unnamed debut album and slaying audiences coast to coast with our raucous live show,” says Andrade. “We may also throw in a bake sale for good measure.”

In Transit released one of the records of the year with their debut, Morning Watch, built by members of a couple of bands who are no longer with us, (Malaprop, Detrimentals). Their careful balance of Coldplay ambience and fist-pumping anthemics keeps them high on the list of bands to look out for this year.

So we’ve lost a few, gained a few, and with albums on the horizon from The Miniatures, Shannon Lyon, Saigon Hookers, The Machines, The Sourkeys, (and the impending, official reunion of Lucid), 2006 looks bright. It’s nice to be in a town where the rock is always changing, and always great. We’ll see how she goes…

(originally published December 2005. Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)

Rebirth For The Ride Theory

Hamilton has always owned a rich musical history. From the punk rock heyday of Teenage Head’s Frantic City, to Edgar Breau’s revolutionary experimental rock with Simply Saucer, (whose lone contribution to the world of rock, Here Come The Cyborgs, was produced by young, aspiring knob twiddlers Bob and Daniel Lanois), to the ever present, bubbling Hess Village scene, Steel Town is always vibrant with new, high class rock ‘n’ roll. Their newest export is The Ride Theory, a quartet armed with such unforgettable, explosive classic rock chops that they’re starting to gain “next-big-thing” status. Last summer guitarist/vocalist Aron D’Alesio, drummer Noah Fralick, guitarist/vocalist Kyle Kuchmey, and bassist John Smith released their sophomore full-length, In This City, a love letter of sorts to the town that gave them life.

“Hamilton is a really important place for us,” says Noah Fralick. “It’s sort of been our grounding, despite the fact that during the school year we’re not all living in the same place. The Hamilton arts community is well-established and very supportive of everything that comes from the city. We’ve been lucky to get the support of that community, and hopefully we’re adding to it. The culture here is raw and honest and it escapes the pretentiousness of bigger cities like Toronto. We’ve been told that this sentiment carries through into our music, and we’re really proud of that.”

In This City, like Hamilton, is certainly raw and honest. With all the hooks and grit of the White Stripes, and all the vicious, simple melodies of John Lennon at his most buoyant, it careens through its twelve tracks with nary a pause for breath. Its energy is nearly exhausting, but you’d never know it watching The Ride Theory play. As musicians they’re exemplary, with flying fingers, stomping feet, and note-perfect Brian Wilsonian harmonies. Their frenetic, dance-floor filling live shows made them fast hometown favourites, but with In This City as their calling card, the rest of the country is starting to notice.

“We’ve started to get a lot more attention from a variety of sources,” says Fralick, “mostly press and music fans in general. Over the years we’ve tried to work hard despite the fact that we’ve been in school. We’ve played nearly two hundred shows, done two East Coast tours, and had the opportunity to play with some really cool bands. It was nice that the album got us some new attention because it’s made us feel like we’re making progress as a band. I think that being successful means not only making music that we’re happy with, but also with getting other people’s attention. It helps to know that people are tapping into what we’re doing and appreciating it.”

One such person that started to “get” what The Ride Theory was doing was a label rep from Rainbow Quartz Records, home to basically every good revivalist jangle pop band in the world, (High Dials, Denise James, Zine Dines). After meeting with the band, he not only dug it, he wanted to show it off to the world, and his new label seemed to be a good place to start.

“Ted had worked as Rainbow Quartz’s international label rep and he expressed some interest in the album and the band. We developed a solid friendship as Ted was leaving RQ to start his own label, Sunny Lane Records, with another dude named Spencer Shewen. The two of them decided that they wanted us to be their first signing and we thought that it was a grand idea. The album will be re-released by them in April and will be distributed nation-wide by Fontana North. It’s really great timing since we’re all going to be graduating university in May. Sunny Lane seemed good for us because they’re very in-line with what we want to accomplish musically. Working with an indie label is very important to us because it leaves us free to develop without the usual corporate confines.”

Hearing Fralick modestly explain how the band needs to develop is almost funny. In their short life as a band all four members have been full-time students, with jobs, and in the last two years, they’ve released two full-length albums. Anything their 2002 debut lacked has been more than made up for by In This City’s glorious recording. It’s an amazing feat that they’ve even had time to get so much done, let alone do it so excellently. So what sets them apart? There seems to be a new “it” band every six months whose stylish aping of the Stones or the Beatles seems to poise them for great things. But The Ride Theory are the real deal.

“I guess that’s for the listener to decide, (what sets us apart),” Fralick explains. “We’re not very good at telling people if or why we’re good, we just play the music that comes naturally to us and hope that other people dig it too. Maybe that’s what’s different about us. We don’t try to put on some contrived display that’s inauthentic to what we’re doing. We have no time for being pretentious, it’s just not who we are. If you’re honest to your craft, you’re going to be set apart from the majority of bands whose motivations are superficial or non-musical.”

The Ride Theory are throwing a party in Guelph on March 3^rd at Club Vinyl. This shaker will not only be the formal re-release of *In This City*, but it will also serve as the label launch party for Sunny Lane. The sharp-dressed Hamiltonians will be joined by locals Paul MacLeod, the Platonic Shadows, and Spiral Beach.

“Hopefully,” Fralick muses, “we’ll be able to expose the audience to a genuine rock ‘n’ roll experience. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is one of the most misused phrases in music today. Is fucking Nickelback really rock ‘n’ roll? Hopefully we can sway some people towards what we think true rock ‘n’ roll actually is.”

Rock ‘n’ roll may be about to enter a new renaissance. Check it out. $5 at the door. www.theridetheory.com

(originally published February, 2006. Echo Weekly. Kitchener)

Meligrove Band's Interplanetary Conspiracy

MELIGROVE BAND’S INTERPLANETARY CONSPIRACY

The major label record game is a brutal obstacle course of broken hearts and happenstance. Many bands are capable of building brilliant compact discs, brimming with revolutionary, spirit-raising pop rock ‘n’ roll, but so few of them are ever given even the remotest opportunity to reach an audience beyond their peers. The Meligrove Band know this all too well. A live favourite since their teens in Toronto, their tourniquet-tight performances and shimmering, bouncing pop melodies finally caught some attention last year from the big boys. They’ve just released their Jose Contreras-produced major label debut record as V2 Records flagship Canadian act. For Jason Nunes, (singing, guitar, piano), Darcy Rego, (drums), Andrew Scott, (guitar, trumpet, synth), and Mike Small, (bass), it could mean big things, but at this point, they’re just glad to have the support.

“So far it’s been a lot of fun,” says Small. “V2 is different from a lot of the other ‘big’ labels; they’re just four people sharing an office in Toronto and right from the start it’s felt like we’re all friends, not like we’re in some business deal or something. It has allowed us to do a lot of things we haven’t in the past, but we’re still in control of it all. We still design the posters, the album art, we silk-screen our t-shirts at home, but now there are four more people making sure our music gets heard by as many people as possible. That’s pretty awesome.”

Their debut album, Planets Conspire, makes the Meligrove Band a prime contender for Canada’s next cool band. Equipped with the urgent, frantic melodies of Hot Hot Heat, but cut with Nunes playful, heartfelt, (and coyly naïve), vocals, the songs display a flurry of influences, (Beach Boys, Sloan, Flashing Lights), while aping none. Production by Jose Contreras, (the mercurial By Divine Right frontman), keeps the sounds gruff and necessary, with nary a wasted second in any song. His deft hand on the mixing boards, (and no doubt his awfully charming demeanor), did much to influence the finished product and the young Meligrove’s high esteem for him.

“Jose added Jose, (to the album). There’s no one else like him. This was definitely the most fun we’ve ever had recording,” Smalls gushes. “There’s so much I can say about him, but I’ll narrow it down to: By Divine Right are making a new album, so remember to buy it next year because they’re amazing!”

Jose Contreras wasn’t the only one adding something new to the record. Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Scott, (not Sloan’s Andrew Scott), joined the fold shortly after the 2002 release of their previous effort, Let It Grow.

“Andrew has brought really cool guitar, synth, trumpet, and trombone playing to the table. Not to mention poster design and a killer moustache.”

Smalls and the remaining Meligroves have a busy year ahead of them; they’ll be off to the US, the UK, and anywhere else that will have them, (“We are going to play about a billion shows this year. All over the place.”). Before they go though, they’re coming to Guelph. With Planets Conspire in-hand, they’ll be at the Ebar with guests Evan Gordon & The Sad Clowns on February 2nd. It’s all-ages and it’s $7. Everyone in-the-know already loves the Meligrove Band. Do you?

“I’m confident that the people who are supposed to like it are going to like it, if they hear it. And whoever those people are, they’ll get to be our new niche.”
www.meligroveband.com

(originally published January 2006. Echo Weekly. Kitchener)

The Wooden Stars: VLT Addicts

THE WOODEN STARS: VLT ADDICTS RETURN

Five or six years ago, Ottawa’s the Wooden Stars were one of Can-Rock’s hottest commodities. Michael Feuerstack, Andrew McCormack, Josh Latour, Julien Beillard, and Mathieu Beillard, had released three critically lauded full-length records, and their 1999 release, The Moon, had solidified their status as a group of Canadian indie rock’s most important players. In 2000, the Wooden Stars shot their stock through the roof by collaborating with friend and compatriot, Julie Doiron, on the appropriately named, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars LP. Doiron was just coming into her own in her post-Eric’s Trip career, and this record caught so much attention, and was such a leap forward, that they took home the 2000 Juno for Alternative Album of the Year. And then that was it. Doiron kept making lovely, successful records, and the Wooden Stars vanished.

“We had to hide for a few years,” explains Andrew McCormack. “Otherwise, there might have been too many people at our shows or buying our records!” Sarcasm aside, the Wooden Stars felt they’d hit a brick-wall, and that their music might not be of the commercially viable variety. Hit-and-miss shows and tours had soured the band, who, although they’d won a Juno, felt it could be a fluke and that maybe their energies might be better spent. Disillusioned, they took some time off. Side-gigs became a respite, (most notably Michael Feuerstack’s Snailhouse project), but McCormack is pretty vague on the exact whereabouts of the band for the last half-decade.

“Mike has been doing his solo stuff and touring with other bands, (Maritime, Kepler). Josh and Julien live somewhere in New Brunswick and make a living betting on the VLT’s. I can’t remember what I’ve been doing. Five years is a long time.”

Last fall, empowered by their “diminished expectations”, the Wooden Stars sighed a collective “fuck it!” and started playing shows again. Not surprisingly, they have been welcomed back by their brethren with open-arms. But, when you’ve made fans of folks like the Rheostatics, the Arcade Fire, and Hawksley Workman, you must have something beautiful to offer, and McCormack doesn’t see that they’ve changed much in the intervening years.

“We’ve got a little less hair now, but we’re still rocking the party jams.” Now it’s time to get a new album out, and for the task, they’ve turned to a quiet indie label phenom headed by former Inbred, Mike O’Neil. Zunior.com is a label for the artists through and through, one that allows fans direct access to the artist’s music without the regular industry riggamarol.

“We are working on a new record with Jeff McMurrich, (Sea Snakes, Constantines), and we hope to have it released late 2005/early 2006 through Zunior. Zunior.com is basically an entirely web-based label. It saves people the trouble of getting off the couch and going to the record store and then going home and ripping MP3’s. You can just stay on the couch, buy the MP3’s from Zunior and you are good to go. For us, it was a great way to make our record, and back-catalogue available to the world.”

The Wooden Stars will be making their triumphant return to Guelph on August 4^th. Check them out at the Ebar with the Bell Orchestre. $10 at the door. Find out why everyone already loves them. www.thewoodenstars.com

(originally published July, 2005. Echo Weekly. Kitchener)

The Blue Van Are Hung Over

The dudes in Copenhagen, Denmark's The Blue Van are fucking hung-over. When I finally get through to them (intending to speak to lead-singer/guitarist Steffen Westmark), keyboardist Soren Christensen answers his lead-singer's cell.

"Uh, sorry man, can you call back in ten minutes?" he apologetically murmurs through a thick Scandinavian accent. When I do, Westmark answers and is equally apologetic that he's kept me waiting. But it's not his fault. The Blue Van released their sophomore effort, Dear Independence (TVT), days before and are just nearing the end of their longest tour to date. A little bit of sleeping-in has certainly been earned.

"Sorry man, we all just woke up," he laughs. "But now you've got me. The tour has been going good but we're at the end of it now. That's why we just got up. We're starting to have some really late nights! I think tonight is the 39th show. It's been a long haul for us. We've never done 40 straight gigs before, but we've gotten to go all over; Boston, New York, New Orleans, Texas, all over America."

40 nights in a foreign country as a member of Denmark's greatest export since Carlsberg is a helluva way to spend a month a half. However, it's still a little too fresh, (or a little too early in the morning), for Westmark to really be able to process the experience. While the boys in the Van love hitting the road with their guitars and Hammond organ in tow, they're not used to this kind of schedule. In their native Europe, they normally only play a half-dozen or so shows in succession so coming to North America for such a barrage of shows and close-quarters traveling is a little out of their element. But The Blue Van have spent most of their lives together and their coping skills are pretty rock solid.

"We definitely get a little homesick touring over here," explains Westmark, "but we've known each other for a long time. Soren and I have known each other since kindergarten and we've known the other two, (drummer Per Jorgensen and bassist Allan Villadsen), since we were eight years old or something. So we've been together for a really, really long time and we know where our boundaries are, when to back off before shit hits the fan. It's something you learn on the road; how to be together."

The tour may be almost over for them, but the Blue Van have a couple big shows before they head home, opening for Aussie garage-rockers, Jet, a band to whom The Blue Van's Hammond-heavy boogie rock is oft lazily compared.

"Ya, that's gonna be the highlight of our career so far! It's gonna be some mean-ass exposure right there! I still can't believe it. I'm very much looking forward to it. I do think (the comparison) is a little weak. I mean, we do play rock music and so does Jet, but I think they're much more traditional, where we try to really create our own sound."

A sound which they've perfected on Dear Independence. Westmark describes it as "wider" than their 2005 debut, The Art Of Rolling. Less dependent on garage-rock rave-ups, Dear Independence focuses on acoustic guitars and their trademark Hammond organ, an instrument which Westmark claims is utilized far too little in modern rock.

"It's so heavy!" he laughs. "Stupid of us to carry around a big organ like that. But it sounds so good. Classic."

(originally published March 2007. Gasoline Magazine. Toronto.)

Saigon Hookers Say Hello

HELLO ROCK AND ROLL

“Check this out!” Tommy Smokes eagerly says to me over beers on the patio at Ethel’s Lounge while rolling back the sleeve of his Backyard Babies’ t-shirt. He’s just come from getting his most recent tattoo and it’s nothing short of glorious. Perched on his shoulder is a massive Royal Norwegian lion holding a Gibson SG, its tail running down his bicep. On the guitar’s headstock is the letter “R”, for his wife, Rebecca. His new tattoo neatly encapsulates all the things that make Smokes who he is: an obvious, (he’s blond and 6’ 3” with an accent), and proud Norwegian, a born rock ‘n’ roller, and a devoted family man. In Norway he played in many bands but put that lifestyle on the backburner when he came to Canada to study, start a business, and build his family. With his home and professional lives now secure, Smokes has been making up for his few years of neglecting rock ‘n’ roll, and he’s steam-rolled his way onto the Canadian musical landscape with his band, Saigon Hookers. Formed with friends Carmine Romano, (bass), and Shawn Feeney, (drums), the Hookers recorded a debut EP which quickly found its way onto rotation on the Edge 102.1, (courtesy of fast-fan Martin Streek), and managed to play nearly a hundred shows in 2006. Their vicious, precise, and shit-yer-pants loud shows attracted the attention of many eager to help higher-ups, and now they’ve released their debut, Hello Rock And Roll, which is available in stores across the country, (via Addictive/ Fontana North/ Maple/ Universal). The sheer tenacity of the band is remarkable, but it’s been paying off, and the ride is just starting.

“Right now we’re pretty busy promoting the new album,” says Smokes. “We’re doing a bunch of shows with Romeo Liquor Store and the Inner City Surfers, going from London, to Montreal, to Sudbury, Timmins, all over the place. Hooking up with Addictive Records for distribution has landed us some free publicity and they’re hooking up some live-to-air shows and a bunch of interviews, which is pretty cool. Things certainly seem to be happening fast, which is good but much different from a few months ago when I was on top of everything myself. Now we’ve got help!”

Many have taken notice of the Saigon Hookers, eager to hitch their wagons to Smokes’ train. GenSub Records, Addictive Records, and Jagermeister have all stepped up to offer their services, (not to mention innumerable bookers and promoters), but none have been so instrumental as the undisputed king of Canadian underground rock, the one and only Sir Ian Blurton, who offered to record their debut on the cheap.

“We had sent Ian our demos a few months in advance, (of recording), and let him know that we were open to suggestions. When we started recording, we picked the order, got comfortable with his changes, and hammered them down. Ian’s a well traveled and respected rocker all across Canada, so getting to work with him was amazing. He was able to really capture our live sound and make the album sound like real rock ‘n’ roll, which you don’t hear much in current music. We draw a lot of our inspiration from rock recordings from the 70’s, and Hello Rock And Roll definitely has that feel to it. It also didn’t hurt that we had a lot of amazing retro gear at our disposal. They really have some amazing stuff at Chemical Sound. It was a great experience and we hope to work with Ian again.”

Saigon Hookers still only have just over a year of life under their belts and it would be easy for some to assume that they’ve fallen ass-backwards into fantastic luck. While that may be the case to a degree, (it always is), Smokes and co. hold their fates firmly in their own hands, and have achieved their successes by knuckling under, and working as hard as their drunken little hearts will allow.

“We are all very determined to take this band as far as we can, and we love to play. Having played nearly a hundred shows this year has been tough, given our responsibilities outside the band, but it’s something we have to do. It’s hard sometimes leaving the house when you’ve just returned home, but my wife and the boys’ girlfriends have all been great.”

Saigon Hookers will be gracing their favourite local haunt, the Circus Room, once again on October 28^th before they take off again across Canada with Ian Blurton’s C’Mon. Joining them at the Circus will be the ultra awesome Maximum RnR as both bands continue their righteous and never-ending quest for the ultimate level of rock. It’s safe to say that liquor will be mandatory.

“I guess you could say that playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band ain’t the healthiest thing in the world,” says Smokes with a chuckle, “but fast food and beer do go a long way. Until the day after.”

(originally published October, 2006. Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)

K-W's Good Son

K-W’S GOOD SON RETURNS HOME

“I feel like this is the record I’ve been winding up to make for about ten years. On the one hand it was grueling ‘cause we went through a lot of trial and error before we ended up really figuring out what we should be doing. I mean, on a few of the songs we went through two or three completely different productions of the song, from the drum takes all the way down the line. But in that process we eventually came up with something that just felt right.”

Rob Szabo is a lovely man to talk to. It’s rare to find someone who’s been at this arduous rock ‘n’ roll game for so long that hasn’t an ounce of bitterness in them. Instead, Szabo speaks of his work with a wide-eyed excitement, a bubbling joy that is extremely indicative of his recorded work. He’s someone truly grateful for every experience he’s had as a musician, and anxiously awaits the next adventure. His newest endeavour is a benchmark of sorts. He’s just released the very ambitious Like A Metaphor, a CD/DVD package that features new tunes, old re-recorded favourites, and a bonus DVD compiling three stunning new videos and a short documentary depicting his life on the road.

“Our goal with this record was to put together the best collection of songs that I have written to date, regardless of exactly when they were written, and present them in a way that I could translate live either with or without a band,” explains the lanky songsmith of his record’s mission. “I chose to re-record some old tunes for a few different reasons. First of all, I did more touring in the last year than I’ve ever done and it really hit home to me that in the big scheme of things I’m a totally unknown performer. It means people don’t know my history, they don’t know that I’ve already done eight records. When I play live I play songs from throughout my career, so if I’m playing in San Francisco and I play the song “Beautiful” and people really relate to it, they don’t care that it’s a five year old song that I first recorded with my old band, (Plasticine). They want that song! So I kinda feel like, for people that know my history, this is a new CD with a few greatest hits thrown in. For the new folks, hopefully, it’s a just a bunch of bitchin’ songs! Secondly, I’ve always felt like lots of the songs that I’ve done and been proud of never really got a chance, (due to unforeseeables like bands breaking up, or labels going bankrupt, etc.) So now that I’m committed to touring my ass off and getting the word out, I felt like I wanted to give them a second chance.”

Szabo certainly has a renewed vigor for the road. On the Good Son Documentary portion of the DVD, he speaks passionately of his commitment to playing as much as possible. “I’m going to tour like nutters. Two hundred shows a year.” And so he has. Taking his acoustic and his Danelectro all over North America, remaining steadfast in his goals, just bringing it every night. No matter where, no matter who’s there. Nowhere is this manifesto better exemplified than in the footage of Szabo wooing the punk rock kids in a fire hall in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, (a night immortalized in the new tune “The Johnstown Kids”). Between heckles of “Fuck Canada!”, Szabo manages to both trump the heckler and capture the unsuspecting hearts of those in attendance by showing them that punk and pop, Canada and America, aren’t so different after all. It’s this connection that keeps him touring and loving his job.

“Yeah, I still get excited about touring,” he says. “It gets a little funny when you do a really long stretch alone in the van. I did five weeks alone last summer, and of course you get lonely and it’d be nice to have a band around, but that comes with all sorts of other baggage too. I was never one of these guys who got into music because I wanted to get laid or be famous or something. The kind of people I look up to these days are people like Fred Eaglesmith, not necessarily from a musical standpoint, but the guy tours two hundred and fifty days a year! He plays to tons of people in every city in North America and is essentially unknown. I like that. And he has a real connection with his audience. There is no middle-man. He doesn’t have to depend on a label, or the radio, or video stations, or magazines. That to me is success.”

One place Szabo has always been able to rely on for success is Kitchener-Waterloo. Whether it was as the Bobby Baker look-a-like front-man of the Groove Daddys in the mid-90’s, one half of the ferocious dual guitar rock band Plasticine, or as the mature singer/songwriter he’s grown into, Szabo has always been embraced by the town he grew up in. His presence has been more sparse since he’s moved to the big city, (Toronto), but the scene he was instrumental in creating is still thriving and Szabo is glad he can still be a part of it.

“Do I still feel like K-W is my home? Of course. That’s where I grew up, cut my teeth, learned to play, and made my first records. That’s where I came back to after my first tours and that’s where I felt like I was a part of a scene at a certain time. I haven’t lived there for about five years so of course I’m somewhat disconnected, but I still have friends there and hear about what’s going on to a certain degree. I haven’t been feeling like a part of any scene for quite some time because I’ve been traveling lots, and that gives you a whole different perspective on things.”

Lately, Szabo’s career perspective is focused squarely on longevity and constant improvement. He is a dedicated writer and player and is purely interested in the continual betterment of his craft. This is his eighth release and over the course of those albums he’s seen every facet of the rock mythos. So when is enough enough? For people who love what they’re doing as much as Szabo, there is no such thing. All that matters is the next adventure.

“I like the thought of looking into the future at the records I will make and thinking that they will be way better than anything I’ve done to this point. I really kinda feel like I’m just getting started, just scratching the surface and really starting to figure out what the hell I should be doing. That may sound ridiculous considering I’ve done eight or so records already, but I’ve only just finished Like A Metaphor and if I find myself daydreaming it’s always about how we’re gonna make the next record, and what the sounds will be like. That really excites me. It makes me feel like maybe I’ve been doing something right. It’s really the only thing that consistently makes sense to me: keep on writing songs; keep on making records; keep on touring. What else is there?"

Rob Szabo will be releasing Like A Metaphor at the Starlight on April 29^th. He’ll be joined by special guests the Benefits Of Doubt, Charlena Russell, and Steve Strongman. Tickets are $10 in advance or $13 at the door. www.robszabo.com

(originally published July 2006. Echo Weekly. Kitchener.)

The Miniatures Keep Growing

THE MINIATURES KEEP GROWING

“Song-writing comes very naturally to me,” says Miniatures’ singer-guitarist-songwriter Ian Smith, without exultation. “I never force them. Dead Flowers showcases my latest songs which have come a long way through much practice and experience. Travel and different scenery have definitely inspired a new direction to my writing. All the songs on this record are, to a degree, a diary of my life. Lyrically, I try to address the highs, lows, and struggles of being a musician and an artist.”

Smith should know. He and the Miniatures, have been pressing their noses to the rock ‘n’ roll grindstone for nearly a decade and a half now; since they were just a bunch of long-hairs with impeccably left-field music taste in high school. Their earliest incarnation specialized in instrumental guitar freak-outs, (early fans will remember the live favourite, “Rumple Foreskin”, fondly). The band became something of a ‘house-band’ for the one-time epicenter of the local scene, the Volcano, though the band had to sneak into their own shows because of their age. They kicked down many doors opening for established acts and built a sturdy fan-base in lovers of Pavement-esque weirdo-pop. Then, about six years ago, the band changed radically. Smith and co. started taking their art a little more seriously and morphed into probably the most prolific and talented band that this city has ever produced. Smith was turning into a songwriting machine, churning out song after song and bettering himself with each effort. The melodies became richer, the band became tighter, the shows got bigger, and people started to notice. In 2002 the band secured a producer, a manager, and a record deal. Maple Music Recordings, (home to Joel Plaskett, Pilate, Danny Michel, and many others), released the first fruits of the Miniatures’ labours with 2004’s Coma Kid. Their major label debut took the band across Canada, to Britain, the U.S.A., and earned them shows with the likes of Jane’s Addiction and Matthew Good. It was an intense time for the band, rich with staggering successes and frustrating disappointments. Though the album was well received and sold respectably, it did not make them superstars, and that failure alone will get you chucked off most any major label. Luckily, Maple Music was more interested in the potential for growth and set the Miniatures, (rounded out by drummer Nick Skalkos, bassist Ryan Allen, and keyboardist-guitarist Kevin Hundt), to the task of creating their next record, an endeavour that Skalkos remembers with both pride and trepidation.

“Our goal with Dead Flowers was to write the best possible collections of songs that we could. We wanted a cohesive record that represented our coming of age in regards to where we’ve been and where we’re at. Our songs are sincere, honest, and from the soul. We feel this is primarily what sets us apart from other acts who simply base songs around melodies and senseless lyrics. In order to accomplish this task, we went through the grueling ordeal of writing a record, disposing of it, rewriting another one, and traveling back and forth to England to collaborate with other very talented writers who could challenge, contribute, and invite us into unfamiliar territory, both musically, and mentally.”

The Miniatures’ closest collaborator in the U.K. was Scott Shields. Once a member of Joe Strummer’s Mescaleros, Shields is better known as the producer of the Mescalero’s best work. His happenstance meeting with the Miniatures led to him eventually co-writing several tunes and producing the album at London’s Townhouse recording facility, and at Hamilton’s Catherine North Studio, (where Coma Kid was committed).

“We hooked up with Scott after he attended one of our shows in London,” says Smith. “Dead Flowers is the first album he’s recorded since the last Joe Strummer record, Street Core. After Strummer passed away, Scott took a couple years off, so it was a huge treat to have his comeback be our record. This album was different, (from Coma Kid), because we wrote the record over the course of a year, back and forth between here and England. We wanted to record the songs over a short period of time so there would be a cohesive sound with very minimal over-dubs and experimenting, which happened a lot doing the last album. These songs were extremely focused going into the studio, with a lot more attention being paid to the drum-and-bass groove.”

Album namesake and first single, “Dead Flowers”, (which currently sits at #38 on the national charts), is a departure for the band, but very indicative of the album as a whole. The increased attention paid to the record’s rhythms lends the songs a danceable quality that would not be out of place in U.K. clubs where kids dance to the baggy sounds of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. But this isn’t simple dance music. Part Bowie, part Muse, bursting with soul and energy, Dead Flowers truly is the total package. It’s real fucking rock ‘n’ roll! The ballads, (“A Life I Had In Mind”, “Could You Kill If You Had To?”), are Smith’s introspective bests, questioning love and morality with the poise of a seasoned poet. The rock anthems, (“Dead Flowers”, “Sleaze Radio”, “Actors and Soldiers”), are larger than life calls-to-arms, careening with funky, marching rhythms, rolling synthesizers, and Smith’s masterful, tasteful, and reckless guitar squalls. It’s serious stuff, and nary a moment of the record is wasted on filler. Dead Flowers is eleven potential hit singles that come directly from the hearts that created it. Will it be a smashing hit record? Who knows? The Miniatures know they’ve bettered all their previous efforts and built a stunning album, and that’s all that matters to them.

Says Skalkos, “We just feel the pressure to create the best possible work of art we can. There are too many factors that are simply out of our control to anticipate a ‘hit’. Besides, we know better than to set ourselves up for a letdown. What could tank in Canada could be huge in the States. We know that we’ve created the best possible team we could to convey our music to the masses, the rest is up to the people.”

The story of the Miniatures is no simple “local-group makes good” tale. That sells the band short. The Miniatures may be somewhat of a K-W institution, but their history is still being written. In 1996 people may have thought “Rumple Foreskin” was their masterpiece. Today someone may think it’s “Dead Flowers”, and tomorrow Smith may write something that puts their latest album to shame. What matters is that the Miniatures are a band that refuses to halt their journey, or their growth. They will be holding their local CD release party at the Starlight on May 27th and you should be there. Not just to hear vital local artists proving, once again, that they’ve got the goods, but to hear one of the finest groups that exists in contemporary rock ‘n’ roll spilling their guts and kicking some ass in pursuit of something greater. That’s what rock ‘n’ roll is about.

“Dead Flowers is simply a depiction of our struggle to achieve an ambitious goal,” says Skalkos. “We want to leave our listeners with a realistic account of our journey to get here and highlight the dark side of something beautiful. Hence, “Dead Flowers.”

(originally published May 2006. Echo Weekly. Kitchener)