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Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
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Local heroes
21 Local CD's Reviewed
John Kendle
It seemed like just yesterday that we closed the book on the last
Uptown overview of local CD releases.
Yet here we are again.
Ten days from the first ‘official’ day of spring.
The days are getting longer, it won’t be long…
Won’t be long till summer comes, and the boys are here again.
Snapping out of our Thin Lizzy reverie for a moment, this quarterly
roundup of local releases features 21 discs ranging from punky
ska to torchy jazz singing; Christian rock to acid-tinged psychedelia;
a breadth and scope which proves that you need never be a bored
music fan in this local scene.
You do need to get us your discs, though. Trouser Mouth was going
to send us one for this round of reviews, but sold out of their
first pressing before they could. Greg MacPherson has a new EP
out that we couldn’t quite get our hands on, and we never
could find Tangled.
So make it easier on us next time around. Please.
If you are a local performer who wants to be reviewed in Uptown’s
next local CD roundup in June, then get your disc to us!
Mail, courier or drop off submissions to:
John Kendle
Editor
Uptown Magazine
202-63 Albert St.
Winnipeg, Man.
R3B 1G4 Note: We don’t review demos. Uptown readers
must be able to purchase your CD somehow (offstage and online
sales are cool) in order for it to qualify for review. Other
than that, there are no restrictions.
All reviews by John Kendle, except where noted.
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All
the Kings Men
Sunday Night at the Head
(Independent)
B
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Never caught the Sunday
night jam at the King’s Head? Then this disc will change
your mind. ATKM is exactly the kind of fluid, laid-back rock act
that makes a jam night a pleasure. In this case, the unmistakable
bass guitar virtuosity of Spider Sinnaeve, the funky fingers of
keyboardist Leonard Shaw, the fresh feel of Christian Dugas (this
city’s fastest rising drum talent) and the silky voice and
Stevie Ray-ish licks of Pat Wright combine on 10 tracks of simple
jamming pleasure. There’s nothing fancy here — four
extended standards from the likes of SRV, The Beatles, Stevie
Wonder and Jimi plus six broad-ranging originals which serve as
showcases for the free-flowing, soulful talents of each of this
band’s members. Put this is on as party music and you won’t
disappoint a soul. |
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Steve
& Sarah Bell
Sons & Daughters
(Signpost Music)
B
Website: www.steve-bell.com
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This is almost in a class
by itself. Steve Bell has been one of Winnipeg’s most successful
musicians for the past two decades because he has one of the best
alto voices in the business. Couple that with his exquisite guitar-playing,
then add his ear for laid-back, always-in-the-pocket arrangements
and you’ve got a guy who’ll make you forget about
your Sting records for good. On Sons & Daughters, Bell’s
eldest child, Sarah, joins in with a plaintive alto which could
one day strike out on its own. As ever, these are beautiful songs
of ministry and love, but two tunes, especially, stand out. We
Believe in Love is one of the most personal tunes Bell’s
ever written while I’ll Fly Away is a father/daughter duet
that should be heard everywhere. The piano of Mike Janzen is tremendous
throughout, and Air Jam is confirmation of Bell’s understated
mastery of the guitar. The album closes with an All In the Family
version of Paul Simon’s 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’
Groovy) as Bell’s sons Micah and Jesse join in bass and
lead vocals/guitar, respectively. |
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Eagle
& Hawk
Mother Earth
(Arbor Records)
B+
Website: www.eagleandhawk.com |
There’s good reason
this band keeps winning awards (an Aboriginal Music Award and
a Juno to date) and works all over North America and Europe. As
Mother Earth (also up for a Juno this year) amply illustrates,
Eagle & Hawk is a creative blend of guitar-based rock, funk,
tribal sounds, Aboriginal imagery and good old honest emotion.
On this album, co-produced by the band and Winnipeg rock vet Chris
Burke-Gaffney, Eagle & Hawk touch all the bases. There’s
the modern rock and funk sounds of I See Red and Cowboys &
Indians, the Aboriginal touches of Sundancer, pow-wow sounds from
Circle Intertribal and the idealism of World City. Singers Jay
Bodner and Spatch Mulhall are in fine form, and the lyrics (mostly
by band founder Vince Fontaine) are an experience in their own
right. Everyone who lives south of Portage Avenue should be required
to read Indian City, a hip-hop flavoured funk/rock rant on the
cancer that haunts the heart of Winnipeg. |
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Easily
Amused
Simple Stuff
(Independent)
B+
Website: www.easilyamused.ca
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This duo of Keith MacPherson
and Renée Lamoureux is doing it right by building a strong
fan-base through strenuous touring of the American small college
and coffeehouse circuit. Now they’re taking the next step
with their second full CD, eschewing their spare, acoustic pop
sound in favour of a muscular (but still lean) electric sound
produced in Toronto by Creighton Doane (who sits in on drums as
well). The fatter sound suits them, too, as these deceptively
simple songs are given a punch that’s seemed lacking in
previous material. In an album full of gems it’s hard to
single out tracks for mention — but Song for Belfast (a
tune which captures the wonder and disappointment insulated North
Americans often feel about Northern Ireland) and Ms. Eliot certainly
ring true. The title cut is also a gem — a country-ish female
point-of-view on eyeing a boy in a bar. Bonus points are due,
too, for recording Only a Girl in French, as Juste une fille. |
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Scott
Hinkson
Music for the short film "Man Alone’
(Independent)
B
Website: www.scotthinkson.net/index–shtml
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Once a member of Far Gone
with Jet Setter Trevor Tuminski, Hinkson is now the main man behind
Talent Show Finalist. On Man Alone, however, he retains his own
name and puts together a soundtrack that sounds like it does what
it’s supposed to do; that is, augment and complement the
visual imagery without being overbearing or jarring. Without benefit
of a film screening, it’s hard to say for certain, but if
Man Alone is about feeling disconnected, restless, haunted and
morose, then Hinkson has handily captured the mood with this collection
of low-key, sombre acoustic guitar, tape loops and atmospheric
swirls. Wouldn’t be a bad soundtrack for mid-winter Sunday
stasis, either. |
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The
Home Team
Stay Calm EP
(Independent)
B
Website: www.thehometeam.net
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A four-piece emo outfit
from Landmark, Man., The Home Team is signed to Rocketstar Recordings
in the U.S. This five-song outing is something of a stopgap —
a way to keep interest going since the release of the full-length
Time and Place album in 2002 and while the band looks to record
another long-player. As such, this is a fine introduction to the
earnest singing of singer/guitarist Jon (no last names here) and
to the band’s impressive, literate songwriting. The vocals
are well-up in the mix, so there’s no mistaking this quartet
wants its words to be heard. The pop-punk froth of Dust for Prints,
Clearwater and the title track is well-balanced by You Failed
the Polygraph, I’m Told, and For Rent/For Sale, two dynamic
tunes that are a fine example of the growing influence of The
Weakerthans (a very good thing). |
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The
Horribly Awfuls
We Fight Like the Crips and Bloods
(Conifera)
B
Website: www.coniferarecords.com
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Ah yes, transparent irony.
Any band with a name and an EP title like these has to know that
no one’s going to believe them. Have faith, instead, that
this seven-song debut is a showcase for the witty songcraft of
singer/guitarist Gareth Williams, ably aided by bassist (and Poets
leader) Tyler Shipley and drummer Matt McLennan. Vaguely cowpunk
in tone, deliberately unruly and unpolished in others, We Fight…
is nonetheless a staggering work of extraordinary genius. OK,
maybe not. But it is a clever, tongue-in-cheek romp which contains
a love song to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a tuneless
acoustic cover of Like a Virgin. The Awfuls also suggest that
Phil Collins is an antidote to depression and sing the praises
of cutting a baby into tiny pieces. A little goes a long way here,
to be sure. But The Horribly Awfuls are a new twist on an old
Winnipeg tradition — silly music played by serious musicians
whose talent always seems to shine through. |
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Cat
Jahnke
Cathartic
(Independent)
B
Website: www.catjahnke.com
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This six-song disc is
the aural calling card for a self-described “Mennofolkie”
(she’s one of a loose-knit group of young, musically inclined
Canadian Mennonite University grads) whose girlish voice and earnest
lyrics may deceive you into thinking she’s a well-meaning
wannabe. But don’t be so quick to dismiss this. Jahnke steals
from 17th century poet/dramatist Ben Jonson, invokes the lover’s
moon of German composer Arnold Schönberg in The Electric
Cock Song (NOT what you think) and reveals that she’s learned
a thing or two about manipulative relationships in A Sweet Love
Lie. Her slower, more spare material is her best here, but this
disc just whets the appetite for the full album to come in fall
2004. |
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Jaylene
Johnson
Finding Beautiful
(CMC Distribution)
B+
Website: www.jaylenejohnson.com
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On this, her second full-length
CD, Christian singer/songwriter Jaylene Johnson has really hit
her stride — delivering 10 pop/rock songs of delicate beauty
and immaculate faith. Rather than sing scripture or set psalms
to music, Johnson prefers to write songs as mini-narratives, using
metaphor, allegory and straightforward prose to give her thanks
and sing of her devotion. In producers Eldon Winter and Stephen
J. Rendall, she has also found a pair of musicians perfectly capable
of setting and arranging her songs just so — nothing feels
out of place here. Jaylene’s whispery alto is front and
centre at all times, while each tune is rooted in either piano
or acoustic guitar but bathed in the sort of soft, atmospheric
sounds which only augment the simple beauty of her message. |
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Joel
Kroeker
Melodrama
(True North/Universal)
A
Website: www.joelkroeker.com
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Local boy moves to Alberta
to get ethnomusicology degree, moves on to Vancouver and signs
recording deal. Returns home with major release and a sheaf of
positive press clippings under his arm. If ever there was a poster
child for Winnipeg’s ‘show me’ attitude, Joel
Kroeker would probably be it. Well, consider yourselves shown.
This is an accomplished, mature package of songs and stories that
will have you following along even as you marvel at Kroeker’s
guitar-playing, or play spot-who-he-sounds-like when he sings
(some say John Mayer; I hear Ron Sexsmith inflections). Production
by Danny Greenspoon ensures a warm vibe and, when he’s really
rolling with a full band, as on With Me or Blue Moon Lounge (a
song which points out just where all Randy Bachman’s praise
is coming from), Kroeker is not just full of promise. He’s
the real deal. |
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Mahogany
Frog
Mahogany Frog Vs. Mabus
(Independent)
B
Website: www.mahoganyfrog.ca
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Seven years and three
albums into their eclectic, psychedelic space-rawkin’ career,
the four wizards of Mahogany Frog have almost fully realized their
far-out sound. Key to the Frog’s neo-kitschy feel (and this
is a good thing) is the Moog mastery of Jesse Warkentin and Graham
Epp. This synthesizer once ruled the airwaves (thoughts of Rick
Wakeman come flashing back), and now the overlooked-by-modern-hi-fi
machine brings a delightful retro feel to MF’s spaced-sonics.
The Frog is very near jazzy in cuts such as The Third Machine
and the 17-minutes-plus epic Paul’s Overalls Hold Mould
(which could be described as Zappa-esque). There’s not much
that’s tremendously new or overwhelming here, but hearing
four musicians playing music they love for its own sake is still
a pleasure. |
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Kathy
Milne
Waiting for the Miracle
(Independent)
B-
Website: www.kathymilne.com
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Milne is a 32-year-old
singer/songwriter making her recording debut with this 15-track,
hour-long outing. As such, she offers up some intense and invigorating
tunes in a spare, acoustic format, featuring her haunting voice,
her guitar and acoustic lead guitar from accompanist and producer
Ian Forsyth. Deeply concerned with spiritual discovery and personal
growth, Milne pens tales which plumb the depths of emotion and
which also celebrate the joy of finding light. At times, though,
the effect of Waiting for the Miracle is almost overwhelming.
A lot of this is heavy stuff — well-sung and prettily played,
absolutely — but it could also use some sonic dynamism and
perhaps some full-band arrangements. We await her next move. |
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Debra
Lyn Neufeld
Lock Up Your Sons
(String Breakin’ Records)
A
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Winnipeg’s blues
community is small and close-knit — sometimes almost insular.
And when one of its own steps out, he or she has the full support
of everyone involved, musically and otherwise. So it is that Debra
Lyn Neufeld, Winnipeg’s foremost blueswoman, slips from
the vault and onto centre stage with 12 stunning tracks which
showcase not only her keen knowledge of the form — lyrically
and musically — but also the shining abilities of those
with whom she works. This album is a seamless whole, a Chicago-style
rip-snorter that flows smoothly from the guitar-drenched opener,
So Hard, to the shuffle of I’m Alright and the uptempo,
Hand Jive-inspired romp of Attitude Town. Outstanding sidemen
include guitarist Chris Carmichael (he’s my brother-in-law,
yes, but the guy can play), vocalist Scotty Hill and drummer Ken
McMann, who holds everything together and makes it seem easy. |
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Subcity
Dwellers
Let’s Get This Shit Started!!
(World Conquest Records)
B+
Website: www.wcrecords.ca
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Very tasty ska-punk in
the Rancid/Ivy vein from a creative Winnipeg crew that certainly
knows the score. It’s all here — the intoxicating
guitar scratch, incessant drums, loping bass, the ‘whoa,
whoa’ chants, raw-throated lead vocals and the frantic toasting
as songs build to climax. These boys know how to bring it down,
too — injecting these five slices of raw energy with haunting
vocal breaks and some very smooth, jazz-inflected tenor sax work
unlike that heard on any previous local ska and ska-punk releases.
Keep watching for this band and its punk cousins The Brat Attack.
They’re onto something good. |
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superNature
angry red planet
(Independent)
B+
Website: www.supernaturemusic.com
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Here’s a German/Canadian
electronic rock project featuring a dramatically inclined Winnipeg
singer (Kim Hines) and a German musician/producer from Köln
named Carsten Schmidt (aka Cazy). Together they’ve created
a trans-Atlantic rock/dance/trance hybrid that’s animated
both by Hines’ evocative vocals and Cazy’s penchant
for messing with arrangements and instrumentations in an always
inventive fashion. Hines can be Kate Bush-ethereal one moment
and Shirley Manson-guttural the next, while Cazy happily putters
with electronic ragas, crashing drum samples, sheets of electric
guitar and spare, pretty acoustic passages. With something new
on almost every track (two mixes of The Devil is in the Grey are
included here), superNature is never boring and nearly always
compelling. |
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Tall,
Dark & Hammered
Tall, Dark & Hammered
(Independent)
B
Website: www.t-d-h.com
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Here we go. An unabashed,
balls-to-the-wall, honest-to-goodness and thank-Christ-it’s-about-time
heavy rock band which doesn’t give a shit about indie street
cred — or where its members end up spending the night. Six
songs of old school rock ’n’ roll recall the glory
days of The Zoo in the late ’80s while at the same time
pointing out that good, old-fashioned wailing guitars and soaring
vocals can be — and are — vital elements of boot-stompin’
good times. Boyz of Noize, Needle and Dragged Through the Mud
set the party-till-you-lose-her pace, while the acoustic, bluesy
vibe of Out to Lunch acknowledges the heartache that can be caused
along the way. |
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Rosemarie
Todaschuk
Come Dance With Me
(Todazz)
B-
Website: www.rosemarietodaschuk.com
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Todaschuk is a graduate
of York University’s School of Music and a music and theatre
arts teacher in the Seven Oaks School Division. So she knows what
she’s doing on this selection of standards (Sentimental
Journey, Come Dance With Me, Cheek to Cheek, Fly Me to the Moon,
etc.) and one original, My Man, which features lyrics she wrote
and set to a traditional Ukrainian tune. Of her interpretations,
the spry invitation of Come Dance With Me stands out for its precise
phrasing, bouncy arrangement and the saxes of Sasha Boychouk.
My Man, meanwhile, comes off as a noble effort, but rather pales
beside the work of Berlin, Cahn and Gershwin. |
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Art
Turner
Jade
(Redtail/Festival)
A
Website: www.artturner.com
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Art Turner’s is
one of my favourite Manitoba music stories. He’s a motocross
racer/photographer turned guitarist who picked up the guitar seriously
at age 31 and has achieved international acclaim for his energetic,
rousing finger-picking guitar style. On his first two discs, Turner
employed other musicians but Jade finds the performer simply out
there — all alone with his guitar and his talent. He doesn’t
disappoint at all and will fill the room with beautiful sounds,
using the entire neck of his guitar and playing percussively with
almost palpable energy and aggression (just check out Good Hands
for an idea of what an acoustic guitar can do). Jade will only
help to cement Turner’s burgeoning reputation. |
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Kim
Wright
Everyday That Scares You
(Independent)
B+
Website: www.kimwright.ca
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This is the recording
that could well push Kim Wright to the forefront of Winnipeg up-and-comers,
striking a fine balance of punk-fuelled, almost poppy numbers
with moody, mid-tempo concoctions. Of the former, Troy and Girlfriend
are tremendously catchy, uptempo album openers while, of the darker
material, songs such as Fall Apart and Crawl will probably have
some industry types mentioning Amy Lee as they struggle for comparisons.
But this isn’t simply derivative material. This Studio 11
recording, produced by Brandon Friesen and Paul Scinocca, captures
the sound of songs of a young woman finding her voice —
and setting off alarm bells. |
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Ronnie
Burla
Don’t Do That
(RnB Records)
B
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If you need a nice dose
of good time, 50’s-era rock ’n’ roll, look no
further than Dauphin,’s favourite son, Ronnie Burla. On
this independently released 11-tracker Burla rips a page or two
from the Dave Edmunds stylebook, penning the kind of songs that
almost everyone can relate to in some personal way. Frig It and
Another Notch On Your Belt seem like differing takes on adult
romantic tangle while One Last Chance would soften even the hardest
of hearts. Guitarists Grant Siemens and Len Milne get extra riff
points for keeping things popping, while vocalist Jenny Butler
sweetens the harsher edges with her spot-on backups.
Jeff Monk |
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