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Three years have passed since New Orleans alternative-rock/indie-rock band Mutemath made a big impression on fans and the public alike with their 2006 debut record.

Garnering some mainstream airplay for their single "Typical," the band were road-hogs, taking their explosive live show to their own audiences while also opening for Matchbox 20 and Alanis Morissette.

Mutemath's newest record Armistice finds the band exploring a more experimental side of making music. Or it could be their most commercially accessible record to date. It all depends on the listener's perception, according to Mutemath vocalist Paul Meany.

"For every person who says our new record is more experimental than our debut was, someone else will say they find it to be more commercial," Meany says from his home in New Orleans. "The only consistent feedback we are hearing is that people are hearing the record from a bunch of different perspectives and we think that's great.

"It took us a little while but I think we were able to finally get something recorded that we were all vibe-ing off of. Whether it is a more commercial or more experimental side of us, we try not thinking about it ... This record has uncovered the true soul of this band."

Helping to shape the future of the band and the 12 songs on Armistice was the endless road work the band did to promote their debut record.

"We assumed that we would be making another record so we had been writing during sound checks and on the tour bus and ended up having a collection of 15 to 16 songs. But we came off the road and wound up not liking any of those songs.

"We had to get off the road, get in a whole new headspace and hope the songs would just come to us. That's what this record became," Meany says.

Prior to heading into the recording studio, Meany admits that ambition amongst the band members was at an all-time high but when they actually reached the studio, things got a little more complex.

"It was noble to think that we could sit down and make a great record but when we got in the studio, things changed. Every one of us in the band was hearing song ideas from different places which lead to differing opinions on where the songs were going to end up," Meany notes. "We realized that we needed a producer to help mediate a lot of these ideas."

Dennis Herring, producer of bands such as Counting Crows, The Hives, Modest Mouse and Elvis Costello, would step in and fill the role of producer for Armistice.

"Dennis wound up being the right guy for the record," Meany admits. "He was of the mindset to forget about those 15 to 16 songs we had written on the road. And though it was hard to let go of those songs in a way, it really was the right decision to shelve those songs and start writing new ... When it came to making the record, he encouraged us not to worry about the recording and production aspects of the record. He insisted we write and perform and nothing more and it ended up working really well."

Having recently celebrated Armistice's release in their hometown of New Orleans, the next step for the band is getting prepped to ensure their new material translates into the live setting as they will spend time in rehearsal.

"We want to ensure that our new songs are road-prepared before we start full-on touring in the fall. When we were recording, we weren't thinking about how these songs would be taken live; we had immersed ourselves into making a record."

"And in the thick of recording," Meany continues, "I would often think 'how can we pull this off live?' But at the end of the day, we took the chances we needed to take for this record. What the band is dealing with now is uncharted waters in the sense that we are playing songs that are not road-tested ... We will be trusting the chemistry that we had in the studio to translate these songs live."

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Weirdo-rock. No, it's not a commonly known genre of music. In fact, I just made it up this very moment.

Truth is though, Moncton band Something Delicious aren't comprised of weirdos; they are very nice guys. But they do rock in an abstract sort of way.

Rather than being your typical four-on-the-floor band, these guys pepper their progressive songs with time signature changes and shift from aggressive heavy-metal styled vocals to pop and even funk music, all within the same damn song.

If you need to hear these guys for yourself, they've got an excellent new CD (No Fun Intended) available now and are playing an all-ages show at the Firehall on Assomption Boulevard, Moncton on Friday September 11.

Formed as a trio in 2006, the band has since expanded to quartet status although they have held firm to their musical style ­"" or lack thereof.

"We just wanted to try something different from the punk rock and rock and roll bands we were playing in because it wasn't so much what we were listening to anymore," affirms Something Delicious vocalist/guitarist Jonah Hache.

The band set about making No Fun Intended in 2008 at the home of one of their former guitarists. One listen to the complexity of some of the material on the record makes one wonder about how difficult the process of recording really was to the group.

"We made a map of the timing and time signature changes with a click track so it would change as the arrangement would," confirms Hache.

"I find that the record is fairly raw," he continues. "We didn't layer guitars and kept the vocal layer technique more sparse than most other heavy music styled bands would do. Knowing our sound was so bizarre, we didn't want to add things we couldn't pull off live."

One area that required a little finesse was pulling off the band's complex timing changes in concert. According to Something Delicious drummer Geoff Moss, getting the timing changes down took a little practice but once the band got them down, they became second nature to the group.

"The first dozen shows or so shows we played, there would always be a slight slip up. Like counting 13 bars instead of 11, playing two bars instead of three, etc. We would notice right away but anyone listening wouldn't have been able to tell," Moss says. "Having the album recorded to a click track really solidified all the parts where there was the least bit of confusion. But it also locked down on anyone making any mistakes because with the CD now released, people would pick up on the mistakes."

Hache and Moss admit reception to the CD within the region so far has been positive overall. But on the flip side, they have received what they consider to be "hilariously unimpressed" reviews as well.

"My favourite quote was something like 'If they were Japanese, they'd be massive. Unfortunately, they're Canadian,'" Hache says.

"We've received some absolutely amazing reviews chalk full of praise and spirit-warming mojo comparing us to Primus, Rancid, Horse the Band and a few other bands that we are akin to," Moss continues.

"Others though have expressed how they can only make it half-way through the album, reassuring us that 'this is a brilliant example that original does not always equal good.' All the same, it is great feedback for our debut record. The next album will be a blast."

Come on out and see the unbroken-spirited Something Delicious playing alongside Iron Giant, Prophets Of War and more on September 11. Admission to the show is $10 and is open to all-ages.

On the web:

www.myspace/com/somethingdeli

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Halifax-based folk singer Amelia Curran has a brand spanking new CD on store shelves and is playing a couple of shows in New Brunswick to help promote the fantastic roots-inspired record.

A multiple past East Coast Music Award nominee, Curran returned to her home province of Newfoundland to make Hunter Hunter, her fifth record. It was something she had been yearning to do for quite some time.

"In 10 years, I had never recorded in St. John's," Curran affirms down the line from her adopted home of Halifax. "I had made four records in Nova Scotia and really wanted to return home to Newfoundland and work with people I had known my whole life; work with my mentors."

Curran goes on to note that making her home in Halifax specifically was never truly in the cards, but that she was simply looking to leave Newfoundland and ended up in Nova Scotia.

"I flew the nest, so to speak. Getting out of Newfoundland was important to me," Curran says. "Funny enough when I was living in St. John's, I was telling people I was meeting someone in Halifax and we were going to make a record but it hadn't been the plan at all. Incidentally though, I did end up meeting up with that person I had told people I was going to meet up with and we did end up making a record together."

Curran admits that when it came to writing her newest record, the shadow of her previous album War Brides was hanging heavily over her.

"War Brides was definitely an intimidating record to follow up," Curran admits. "It is almost as though it was my first record where I had settled into my own skin as a song writer.

"It's like War Brides was the little album that could; it's my best selling record and when it came time to follow it up, I ended up doing a lot of rewrites and do-over's and ended up being really concerned about ensuring that every aspect of my new record was correct."

Curran is one of many artists featured on Warner Music Canada's compilation Atlantic Voices, which shines a light on the immense female talent hailing from the Atlantic Provinces. She sees her involvement in the project as a win for her as well as for her friends.

"Personally, I've discovered artists via compilations. Atlantic Voices is a great, regional 'Women and Songs' type of idea. I think compilations like this appeal to the public as people will always be looking for something they haven't heard of before," Curran says.

As we prepare for the fall season, Curran's tour schedule is quickly filling up with tour dates. She will be playing here at home in Canada as well as having shows in England, Ireland and Belgium on her slate.

Some of Curran's tour dates, including those shows in Saint John and Fredericton will feature Curran and her full band, while other markets like Western Canada will be Curran performing alongside bandmate Andrew Dale.

But before the first show even takes place, she admits that she has to find her second wind somewhere along the way.

"Summer has really worn me out," she confesses with a laugh. "I'm positively thrilled about my record but am also looking forward to painting my kitchen."

Catch Amelia Curran at the Blue Olive in Saint John on Thursday September 10 while fans in Fredericton can see her at Evergreen Theatre on Friday September 11.

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The Moncton music scene, like that of almost any city in this great nation of ours, has seen its share of ups and downs throughout history. No matter where they lie geographically, there is an inevitable ebb and flow to music scenes that cannot always be anticipated nor prevented, for better or worse.

Photo by Ray 13

The Strawmen

Since 2003, many bands within the Moncton music scene and beyond have used the Monctonlocals website (www.monctonlocals.com) as a promotional tool for their music. The site provides bands the opportunity for exposure to potential new fans while still keeping them connected with their established fan base.

Contrary to any pre-conceived notions that you might be expecting, the site is not a clique nor does the site or visitors to the site support only one specific genre of music.

Indie rock bands stand solidly beside their colleagues in jazz and heavy metal bands without reservation. Musical boundaries on the site are fuzzy at best and many wouldn't want it any other way.

Over the past few years, an initiative known as Support Local Music Week has been growing in popularity with both fans and the bands who utilize the Monctonlocals website.

As a musician himself and member of Moncton group The Motorleague, Monctonlocals site administrator Don Levandier says that Support Local Music Week was designed to give people the opportunity to check out groups and musicians that they might not normally take the time to investigate on their own, exposing both fans and bands to local acts which they might not have been familiar with.

"We always wanted Monctonlocals to be a home for local music when shows weren't going on," site administrator Don Levandier begins. "The site was designed to appeal to the non-musicians as much as it was for the people in the bands themselves."

"You would truly be surprised at how many local band members aren't in the loop on what's going on with the bands in their own backyard. So as a result of this, we wanted to have a week where everyone went local, supported one another and checked in on great Moncton-based bands."

Levandier is the first to admit that Monctonlocals.com went from being one of the most reliable sources for show information in the city to becoming "almost unnecessary" extremely quickly.

"With the advent of Facebook, Twitter, and online social networking in general, the site has become almost obsolete," he notes. "That means that we had to start looking at including more exclusive content like video footage and original video content in order to stay relevant."

When a recent discussion about expansion surrounding the Monctonlocals site arose a few months ago, Levandier says that one of the first items of discussion agreed upon was to incorporate video content from local bands.

And with one visit to www.youtube.com/monctonlocals, visitors can check out video footage of Moncton bands past and present including groups like current local fan favorites such as Iron Giant and Hope while also featuring 'newer' bands like Louder Gabriel and Heavy Doobie.

The Monctonlocals You Tube channel is an ongoing work-in-progress. Levandier says that he is continuing to upload footage onto the website to give visitors more local content which they might not have found otherwise. He has essentially helped create a one-stop video shop for those interested in delving more into what the Moncton music scene has to offer.

To date, the feedback concerning the newly launched Monctonlocals YouTube website has been overwhelmingly positive.

"Since posting the Monctonlocals YouTube channel, we have had a lot of feedback from people that didn't necessarily know that some of these shows and events were even captured on video," Levandier says. "People have been very receptive to seeing footage of bands, some of which they were a part of, performing at shows through the years."

The advent of the Monctonlocals YouTube channel has encouraged many fans and bands to ask Levandier about contributing their video footage of shows shot throughout the years to the growing collection found online.

"I've had a lot of inquiries from people contacting me about old footage that they have and wondering if it could be added onto the site. So with these people and potential 'new' footage coming forward, we are really looking forward to digging through some video archives over the next month or so. I think a lot of valuable footage is going to surface from Moncton's musical history."

The creation of the Locals YouTube channel means that bands and fans can expect to see more video cameras popping up at upcoming events and shows with the intent of posting the footage on the website.

With 20 videos currently posted, the number of videos featured on the YouTube channel is set to grow exponentially over the coming weeks and months. And though the current number of videos being offered may seem small to some, you should keep in mind that it is a love of music and specifically of Moncton's relatively intimate music scene that is Levandier's motivation.

"It took a solid week to get the footage ready to go online and much more is still being uploaded now. So 'Support Local Music Week' really isn't completely accurate "" it's more like Support Local Music Month. I'm hopeful that this will ultimately help drive a renaissance of local music support," he says.

Don says that one of the biggest benefits of the week dedicated to the celebration of local music is seeing the content and music spread virally throughout other social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, ultimately reaching people who either don't use or might not be familiar with Monctonlocals.com.

In many ways, this is the best case scenario of what can and should happen when it comes to local bands receiving promotion"" it shouldn't matter where people find the content, as long as they are finding or discovering it to begin with that is more than half the battle.

All of the above should go without saying- local bands should receive support year-round and not necessarily just for one or two weeks during the course of the year. The Support Local Music Week initiative is one of many smaller steps which are bound to encourage people to do year-round what Levandier hopes to accomplish during that one week: help people to realize that Moncton has a vibrant and vital music scene that should not be ignored at any time and can always use your support.

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Chances are you've heard Ryan Dahle's songs even though you might not recognize his name right off the bat. That is all about to change with his new record, Irrational Anthems.

Dahle was one of the guitarists/vocalists in the Canadian rock band Age Of Electric and also fronted the group Limblifter. During the mid to late 90's, Dahle was on a roll, earning seven radio hits and four Juno nominations between the two bands for songs like Limblifter's 'Tinfoil' and 'Remote Control' by Age of Electric.

Age of Electric went their separate ways in 1998 after more than a decade of slugging it out and striving to achieve a level of notoriety that only really came their way during their final few years together. When asked for the reasons behind their split, Dahle hesitates for a moment and then explains.

"That's a tough question," he admits down the line from British Columbia. "We had worked so hard for a long time and I guess it just started to wear on all of us within the band."

The end of Age Of Electric wasn't an explosive or controversial thing by any means, according to Dahle.

"We ended up playing two really big shows with Our Lady Peace and broke up amicably between those two dates. We have a lot of great memories and truly had a great time while we were together."

Limblifter would become Dahle's primary musical outlet and would go on to make two other great records (2000's Bellaclava and 2004's I/O) before Dahle would somewhat voluntarily fade into the background of the Canadian music scene.

Dahle remained entrenched in helping music be created, just not in the performing sense. He became a self-professed "studio rat," amassing recording equipment and building his own studio, the RecRoom, in Vancouver's Song City Complex which is also home to Greenhouse Studios.

Dahle has had the opportunity to work on many projects and in many different facets including recording, mixing and mastering. Not only did Dahle know his way around a mixing board, he would also help artists find the exact sound that best suited the songs being recorded. Even though the process of finding the perfect match of guitars and amplifiers could be an arduous process, Dahle recognizes the importance of the music sounding just right for the final product.

One of the most impressive credits on his resume is having mixed the upcoming Hot Hot Heat record.

"I've concentrated on making great sounding records with good equipment. Having the opportunity to have mixed the Hot Hot Heat record was a huge privilege and one I am very proud of, considering a band of their stature chose to work with me.

"I initially fell into the studio work by accident but welcomed it as it was a break from performing," Dahle says. "After awhile though, everything goes full circle and I came back around to song-writing. I realized that writing songs is kind of a luxury."

The renewed interest in song-writing would ultimately produce the 12 tracks on Dahle's new record Irrational Anthems. Recorded over the course of a year, Dahle admits the record has been completed for a year and a half. Dahle has been taking great care in the advance setup of his new record. He wanted to ensure all the right people were in all the right places and lending their support to his record prior to the album's release.

But rather than returning to the relative safety blanket of the Limblifter name, Dahle opted to release the record under his own name instead.

"I was actually torn between using the Limblifter name and releasing the record under my own name," Dahle explains. "I wanted to make and sell my new record without any kind of history being attached to it and received a lot of encouragement to go this route from my band mate Megan."

In this writer's opinion, selling his new record will not be a problem for Dahle. Irrational Anthems will be the catalyst to return him to the forefront of the Canadian music conscious. The 12 tracks on the record show a definite maturity in Dahle's song-writing, incorporating strings on songs like "Target Practice" while keeping the pop and power-pop edge that he is known for on tracks like "Chop Chop" and "Sixes and Sevens."

Shows in the Maritimes aren't currently on Dahle's tour schedule, but admits he would love to make it out to this part of the country before long.

"I think it's realistic that it will take some time for people to find out about this new record so we are thinking this might be more of a possibility in the spring."

Irrational Anthems is in stores and available online now.

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Over the course of his career, Danny Goldberg has worn many hats. He has worked with some of the world's biggest bands and at some of the biggest record labels in the US while also having logged miles as a journalist.

The title "author" is one of the most recent titles for Goldberg; his newest book Bumping Into Geniuses chronicles many capacities of the music business in which he has worked as well as some of the relationships and friendships he has cultivated over the past 40 years.

Goldberg is currently artist manager for musicians including The Hives, Steve Earle and Canadian indie darlings Stars. Gold Village Entertainment, formed in July 2006, is a return to the management field for him; from 1983 through 1992, his company Gold Mountain Entertainment oversaw the careers of Nirvana, Hole, The Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth.

In the time from 1992 through 2006, Goldberg held various positions within the music industry including CEO of both Mercury Records and Warner Brothers Records in addition to having founded independent label Artemis Records, the number one US indie label in terms of market share from 2001 through 2003.

He began his career in the 1960's as a music journalist, writing for prestigious publications including Rolling Stone and Billboard Magazine, for whom he covered the Woodstock Festival. He would move on to do PR for Led Zeppelin and ultimately ascend to the post of Vice President for Zeppelin's Swan Song label.

But the music business is a far different beast in 2009 than it was as recently as 10 years ago. Physical music sales are in a constant state of freefall as consumers turned to file-trading on the internet, a practice from which the industry has yet to recover from or find a solution to that will restore them to their former glories.

"I think that labels really don't know what to do," Goldberg says from his New York office. "But it is the same for the movie industry; it is not just record companies that haven't come up with a replacement for lost revenue due to people getting their property for free. It is not an easy solution."

Goldberg goes on to say that digital music sales vary from artist to artist among his roster, but estimates that digital music sales make up between 50 and 65 per cent of some of his artists' total sales.

He says that this figure is lower in Europe by comparison and even lower still in Canada. None the less, Goldberg sees the silver lining.

"A digital sale is still a sale. Where artists and companies are suffering is from the non-sales of product such as downloading. That is a huge percentage lost but is a product of the technology of our world today."

One facet of the music business that is showing no repercussions of the music sales slump is the live concert portion of Gold Village's artists. Goldberg states that the live show business continues to be a very reliable outlet for his clients, admitting that the live show has become a much bigger percentage of the business for his acts. "I think that all artists have to be prepared to adjust to changing times. The course of making videos, making records and marketing bands has changed significantly in the past decade," Goldberg says.

"There is certain marketing that can be done via the internet that is far more efficient than the old days of doing mail outs via fan clubs. But honestly, I'm not sure whether the benefits of that can adequately compensate for the loss of billions of dollars of income that the labels are facing."

One of Goldberg's past artists certainly had no trouble finding an audience for their music.

Bumping Into Geniuses has a lengthy chapter dedicated to Nirvana where Goldberg states his relationship with their late front-man Kurt Cobain was "the most important of my professional career."

"I remember how sweet he was but he had a terrible drug habit," Goldberg reminisces. "Of course, he was a different person when he was stoned than when he was not. But when he was not stoned, he was one of the kindest, sweetest and most considerate people I had ever met. He was always steps ahead of everybody in his orbit."

Nirvana's success has been defined as a turning point in the history of music, closing the era of "hair metal" while giving commercial success to a genre of music that had long been relegated to underground circles.

In this writer's opinion, few bands since Nirvana can lay claim to having impacted music the way Nirvana did.

Does Goldberg foresee such a drastic musical revolution taking place again?

"I think the word revolution is too strong of a word, but absolutely, it has and will happen again," Goldberg states. "Different generations of fans yearn for something new; something that will make them stand out from their parent's generation. Youth help to reinvent culture every few years based on their need for their own identity in the world they live in.

"It was true of artists like Elvis and Michael Jackson and it will be true of future artists that can revolutionize the world with their talent and their songs."

Danny Goldberg's book Bumping Into Geniuses is in stores and online now.

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One of Moncton's finest punk bands is launching their brand new CD at The Paramount Lounge on Main Street, Moncton on Friday August 28. The Kamalas were formed in 2008 by guitarist and vocalist Elle Shapiro and drummer Salty, both of whom were members of The Damnsels. Rounding out the Kamalas lineup are bassist Jessup and guitarist T-Ray. The band's new self-titled CD was recorded in Moncton by engineer Kyle McDonald, who has also recorded efforts by Moncton bands The Peter Parkers as well as the debut (and only record) by the recently disbanded Blood Royal.

Recorded and mixed between June and August of this year, The Kamalas will be venturing to Quebec City, Ottawa and Toronto for shows prior to their Moncton date. Shapiro admits that this means that their Central Canadian fans will have first dibs on their shiny new disc.

"Hopefully that doesn't piss anyone off!" she quips.

Making enemies shouldn't be a concern to Shapiro. This is a band that can let their concise, tight songs do the talking for them and won't come out any worse for wear. And though the band's new music will soon be finding its way to CD players everywhere, Shapiro admits that releasing their music on vinyl wouldn't be out of the question if "we weren't such poor bastards!"

With a potential new seven-inch single in the works for the spring, expect to hear more from The Kamalas in the near future. Their new CD is only the beginning of a very good thing.

Fans can pick up The Kamalas' new CD at Spin It Records on Main Street and Live Wire on Mountain Road in Moncton. Those outside of the city anxious to hear these fantastic songs for themselves can order the disc via the group's Myspace site.

Also on the bill for The Kamalas CD release show are The Varsity Weirdos, The Rivermunks and The Cobra Jets. Admission to the show is a measly $8.

On the web: www.myspace.com/the3kamalas

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1755 on the road again throughout New Brunswick

Legendary Acadian band 1755 is gearing up for their first tour in 25 years as they play shows throughout New Brunswick over the next month and a half. The tour stops are unique in the fact that the band is playing many smaller communities which might not normally have the opportunity to often welcome live bands, let alone one with the reputation of 1755.

1755 originally formed in 1976 and according to vocalist Roland Gauvin, the group rarely had a break away from the cycle of writing and touring in the time that they originally performed. Gauvin says their schedule definitely played a part in the band deciding to go their separate ways in 1984 at the conclusion of their "100 Pour 200" tour:

"As a group, we never had the opportunity of having down time away from touring or rehearsing new material. We had truly given it our best but we were starting to want to pursue other interests outside of the band."

During the 1994 Congres Mondial Acadien in Moncton, 1755 played a triumphant, sold-out reunion show at the Moncton Coliseum. Gauvin admits that the crowd's reaction at that show was truly overwhelming to the group and said that the emotion at the Coliseum was evident as soon as attendees set foot inside the venue.

That August evening in 1994 would prove to be the catalyst in the group continuing to perform throughout the years to the present although each of the band members has continued their pursuit of interests outside the band.

"Every one of the band members has continued in the music industry in one way or other," Gauvin explains. 

"Pierre Robichaud has released two solo albums; Kenneth Saulnier has been a part of a few different groups including Suroît, Beausoleil Broussard and Expresso SVP. Ronald Dupuis is involved in numerous groups while Donald Boudreau has spent the last 15 years as a musical interpreter at the Fortress of Louisburg and has worked on various musical projects in Cape Breton."

As for Gauvin himself, he has recorded three albums with Les Mechants Maquereaux in addition to a solo record and a holiday album he recorded with Les Muses and Belivo.

It is obvious that music continues to run deep in the veins of the 1755 band members. Although Gauvin confirms that the band is still considering writing new material, he admits that their live shows are sticking with the songs they know that people want to hear.

Given the consistent popularity of the group's concerts, fans don't seem to mind the lack of new material in their set. Gauvin estimates that combined sales of their albums (on both vinyl and CD) are near the 150,000 mark. Not a paltry sales figure at all.

And as far as Gauvin is concerned, fans don't have to worry about the band going back into hibernation anytime soon.

"We are lucky in that there is still a demand for the band. We still take such enormous pleasure in performing for the audiences that continue to come to our shows," Gauvin says.

1755's next live performance is slated to take place on Friday August 14 at Dover Park in Dieppe. Their special guests for the evening will be Cayouche and Dominique Dupuis. The group is continuing to play throughout New Brunswick through the remainder of August and September. A complete listing of their upcoming shows can be found on the band's new website (www.1755.capacadie.com).

Tickets for all 1755 shows are available online at www.billetterieacces.ca.

Halifax band The Got To Get Got are on their way back to the Maritimes after almost two weeks worth of shows in Central Canada. They are promoting their new record, Sahalee and are slated to play Saint John at Akhord on Friday August 14.

Lead by former North of America member Mark Mullane, the group was formed in 2000 as two separate factions using the same band name but based on opposite coasts of Canada. They recorded a four-song EP in this manner with each coast contributing two songs to the EP without the other faction having heard their counterpart's contributions until the product was pressed and completed.

The group ended up working in a few different studios during the creation of Sahalee as Mullane, bringing in many guest players in the process to help flush out the record's sound. It was recorded in a relatively quick fashion; the group started to record on December 4 and had the main tracks layed down by the time the holidays rolled around.

"All three engineers at the three different studios we used were people that I truly respected and had worked with in the past.

"The extra players on the record were necessary because we don't play the instruments they play or they were our friends and we wanted them on the album because we love them," Mullane explains.

Sahalee is the type of record that brings listeners on an adventure from its opening notes. Rooted in pop, the record is packed with gang vocals, jangly guitars and brims with a positive energy that will keep you tuned in until the final notes of the album ring out.

Being on the road is becoming second nature to the group with them having logged many miles to date with many more to follow. Mullane tells [here] Magazine that their recent tour dates in Atlantic and Central Canada have been wonderful so far, noting:

"We've played in an abandoned theatre in Sackville, NB with a hole in the ceiling that looked like the devil crashed through on a parachute and left a bloody trail down the wall; we embraced a wonderful hometown crowd in Halifax; we played to all our lovely friends old and new in Montreal; ate Sri Lankan buffet in Ottawa, played Hamilton and softly strummed our hearts out at a handmade clothing shop in Toronto. Things are absolutely wonderful."

Once the group's tour dates wrap up at the end of August, Mullane says the group will be headed back into the studio to commit some demos to tape, including some unfinished tracks from the past that need some further refinement.

One thing that is for certain is that there is more music and shows to come from The Got To Get Got. So go on, get yourself some of the group soon.

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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania punk outfit Anti-Flag recently released their seventh record, The People Or The Gun, an album that finds the band continuing their tradition of speaking their minds on everything from religion to the state of their country.

Formed in 1994, the band has returned to the world of working with an independent label for their newest album after producing two records for RCA, a major record label. The move to a major label was a surprise to many with some worried that the band's political agenda would be compromised by the influence of a large corporation. Those fears were laid to rest however with their first major label album (2006's For Blood and Empire) as the band was as vocal as ever on the issues that concerned them.

If anything, the time spent on the RCA label helped bring Anti-Flag's message to much a broader audience than they might have reached via an independent label. And according to Anti-Flag bassist/vocalist Chris #2, it was a worthwhile experience, as brief as it was.

"It was a great experiment," he starts. "We definitely got more out of them than they got out of us. It was great to spend their deep pockets on our ideals, however we are very happy that time period is behind us."

As the United Stated emerge from one of the darkest time periods in their history under the presidency of George W Bush, his actions of the previous eight years will continue to provide fuel to the outspoken group for many years to come.

While Chris is happy with the changing of the guard at the top of the political chain, he is wary of the expectations being heaped upon the shoulders of current US president Barack Obama.

"Obama is not the saviour of our souls. He is a part of raising the social conscience of the global political landscape. His triumphs are yet to be seen, but he seems to have the US on a much greater path than McCain would have," he states.

The newest Anti-Flag record was made in the band's own studio, a liberating experience for the group which Chris tells [here] Magazine allowed the record to be completed fairly quickly.

And while the group will continue to be outspoken advocates for the causes important to them, Anti-Flag also have a generous side to them not often seen with musical groups of any genre.

They have created two non-profit organizations with the intent of educating others to find their own voice.

The first organization, the Military Free Zone (www.militaryfreezone.com) aims to educate students that the US government is collecting their personal information via the "No Child Left Behind" bill. The American public school system turns over student's personal information to the government so it can then be used to recruit people into the US Army.

The site offers students the necessary paperwork so that they are able to opt out of the military's info collection while also encouraging visitors to sign petitions against this practice. Also provided on the site is a link to the e-mail contacts for the US congress representatives for any given zip code in the US for people to directly contact their congressional reps to voice opposition against the bill.

Chris states that military recruiters act in a predatory manner and lead potential university students to believe that joining the military is the only way that they will be able to afford a university education. The Military Free Zone website offers a comprehensive breakdown of the exact monies people can earn by joining the military and emphasizes to people to not be lured by the promise of their education being completely covered.

The second organization created by the band is the Underground Action Alliance (www.undergroundactionalliance.org), whose aim is to engage youth to contribute their energy, ideas and excitement to work for equitable social transformation. Activists involved with the UAA are encouraged to speak out against racism, homophobia, sexism, poverty and war among other causes.

Indeed, Anti-Flag are a band who put words into actions rather than just sitting idly by waiting for others to pick up the torch for change.

The People Or The Gun is available for purchase in store as well as online.

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Halifax via Florenceville, New Brunswick band Telfer has a star on the rise in the Atlantic Canadian music scene.

The group was last year's winners of the CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Showcase at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton and recently released their debut full-length record Born This Morning.

The group is performing in Saint John at A Khord on August 7 and in Fredericton at The Capital on August 8.

The members of Telfer started casually playing together in 2002 with the current lineup of the band having been together since 2007. Even with their relatively young tenure in the business, it has been a whirlwind experience for the band thus far; something that Telfer guitarist and vocalist Tommy Green Jr. is quick to admit:

"I find it crazy to think about what we've been through as a band already," Green starts. "Before we had even played a show, we had recorded an EP and then spent a year promoting that.

"And now that our full-length album is done, we're super excited. We feel as though the songs on the record are miles above the quality of songs on the EP. We feel as though we have come so incredibly far in the past two and a half years."

The ball got rolling on the new Telfer record not long after their Rising Star Award win at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in 2008. Ironically, not all band members were initially on board with entering the group for the competition.

"We were on the fence about whether or not to enter Telfer for the Rising Star Award," Green states. "A couple of the guys in the band were hesitant as they didn't think we would be considered to be bluesy enough for the festival. But then to go from being on the fence to actually winning the Rising Star Award was unbelievable; it ended up really boosting our confidence."

The group spent the first three months of 2009 holed up in a practice space in Halifax solely for the purpose of writing new songs.

"We had never booked time off before, so to speak. We had a lot of songs that could have been album worthy but we ultimately wanted to have 10 great songs on the record," Green explains. "We had 15 songs written for the record and then went with what we felt was the strongest 10 for the final cut. We wanted each of the songs on the record to have their own character and shape."

The group spent four weeks at Sonic Temple studios in Halifax making Born This Morning, a record that "delights listeners with funk inspired rhythms and gripping vocals that are cleverly guided by a dazzling blues-rock guitar lead."

And while future touring plans for the group are still being flushed out, Telfer is planning to return to Ontario this fall to help capitalize on a round of shows the group did there last October.

"The Ontario tour dates we did last fall were a blast. We did one round of dates and then had returned in October 2008 for three weeks' worth of shows. And during those most recent shows, we could see the result of the first bunch of shows we had done. We could see that we had carved a nice little path for ourselves and can't wait to get back there this coming October."

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If you weren't already aware, 2008 was proclaimed the year of Toronto heavy-metal band Anvil. In the past year and a half, the group has achieved their biggest taste of success since their formation in 1973.

 

As teens in high school, Anvil drummer Robb Reiner and vocalist/guitarist Steve 'Lips' Kudlow made a pact with one another that they were going to be in this band together forever. And they meant it. After having faced career ups and downs that would have torn most bands apart in a fraction of the time, Reiner and Kudlow stuck to their guns and to their belief in the band, refusing to throw in the towel at any point.

With an impressive 13 albums in their discography (the first having been released in 1981), Anvil had all of the hallmarks for success long before 2008-2009. Best defined as a band with a raucous attitude, thundering drums and buzz saw guitars, there is no reason why the band should not have achieved the success akin to the bands they had toured with including Bon Jovi, The Scorpions and Whitesnake.

Fate works in strange ways though. You can blame bad band management or shoddy record contracts; the fact of the matter is, Anvil hasn't always had an easy go.

A chance meeting with a dedicated Anvil fan at a show at the Marquee Club in London in 1982 would prove to be crucial to their success in the current decade. At that show, the band met a teenage fan named Sacha Gervasi. Gervasi was enamored with the band, even going so far to become a roadie for the group on one of their Canadian tours while he was supposed to have been visiting his father in New York.

But as the years passed, Gervasi and his friends in Anvil drifted apart. While Anvil continued to make records and toil away in nightclubs, Gervasi attended the graduate screen writing programme at UCLA and ended up writing the Steven Spielberg directed movie, The Terminal.

After many years of non-communication, the two parties would reconnect via the internet. Gervasi invited his old friends down to LA for a weekend where the band members presented him with the complete Anvil catalogue, oblivious to the huge success that Gervasi had achieved.

It was at this point that Gervasi decided that an Anvil documentary was a necessity. Few bands had been through the proverbial ringer like Anvil had; what was even more remarkable was that the band members remained committed throughout the ups and downs they had encountered.

"When Sacha told us he wanted to make a documentary on the band, I felt like we had won the lottery," admits Anvil guitarist/vocalist Steve 'Lips' Kudlow. "I mean, here's a guy who has worked with Steven Spielberg, is a known Hollywood writer and he wants to make a movie about my band? It was such a no brainer."

Kudlow says he felt it important that Gervasi focus on the present-day Anvil rather than making their history the movie's focus. Included in the documentary is a European tour which, in true Anvil fashion is highlighted by ups and downs.

"That European tour wasn't as hard as people think it is. That's what the road is about," Kudlow reasons.

"I've been doing this for 35 years man," he continues. "I'm sure most people saw that part of the movie and thought 'how could do they do this?' but it provides a look at what bands lives are like prior to you seeing them going on stage."

As also seen in the movie, Kudlow notes that their European tour was done via camper bus, more for economic reasons than for dramatics, though.

"We've been touring North America in camper buses for the past 20-30 years so the mode of transportation wasn't new to us. We had never toured Europe in a camper bus though; we thought it would be fascinating and a lot of fun. I think it made for an incredible movie.

"If we had done that European tour on a bus, our movie would have ended up looking like every other 'band on tour' movie out there.

"It was a disaster waiting to happen but we were making a movie so our attitude was simply 'let's go out and do it!'" Kudlow says.

Indeed, Anvil: The Story of Anvil has helped give the group a second lease on life, a long 25 years after they could have originally hit it big. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and went on to win the Audience Awards at the Los Angeles and Sydney film festivals.

Rolling Stone proclaimed the movie to be "the year's best rock movie" while celebrities including The Osbournes, John Mayer and Keanu Reeves have touted the movie for its heart-wrenchingly honest portrayal of the band.

Among those who have taken in the film are the one and only Angus Young, the legendary schoolboy guitarist from AC/DC. After Young saw the documentary, he extended an invitation to Anvil to open AC/DC shows in Moncton, Boston and East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Frankly, it doesn't get much bigger than being hand-picked to play shows with AC/DC.

The newfound opportunities coming Anvil's way aren't lost on the band, however. They realize that few bands are given one shot at success, let alone a second chance.

With that, the group is busier than ever which means loved ones at home are seeing less and less of the guys in the band. The members of Anvil have gone from working jobs to support recording and touring schedules to making Anvil their full-time job.

"We've been very busy and it ends up having an effect on the home situation. I'm not around as much and that can be stressful," admits Kudlow. "Life comes in balances though and you have to accept the good with the bad."

For better or for worse, their schedules won't be clearing anytime soon:

VH1 are releasing the Anvil documentary on DVD this coming October with the band set to tour Australia and Japan in the near future as well. For those overseas shows, Kudlow says that they are bringing audiences the Anvil Experience where the band performs immediately after the movie is screened in theatres.

If there is one huge takeaway from the Anvil story, it is that a strongly-rooted determination does pair with good fortune from time to time. It also shows that good things come to those who wait even if it means 25 years of waiting.

Anvil will be performing alongside AC/DC on Thursday August 6 at the Magnetic Hill Concert Site. Tickets are available online at http://tickets.moncton.ca.

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Both Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs (of all-girl band The Bangles) have each found the sweet taste of critical success in their respective music careers over the past two decades. The duo has paired up for two volumes of music where they revisit some of their most favourite songs from decades past. 

The most recent volume of these songs, Under The Covers Volume 2, sees the pop pair covering songs from the 1970s. And a diverse set of artists they cover: The Raspberries, The Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, George Harrison and Yes are among the 15 bands and musicians covered on the 16 tracks on the record. (The duo covers two tracks from musician and producer Todd Rundgren).

Sweet tells me that he and Hoffs first met when Sweet was playing an acoustic show at a music store in Santa Monica, California. The pedal steel player who was sitting in with him for the show was working on a record of Hoffs and Sweet had suggested that she stop by to lend her vocals to some of the songs.

The two quickly hit it off from there, discovering a mutual love of music rooted in the 60s and beyond. According to Sweet, the song selection over the two Under The Covers records has been driven by a love of those specific bands and songs rather than trying to capture the 'essential' songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

"The song selection process between us has been very haphazard," Sweet admits down the line from his home in California. "We didn't go into these records with a master list of songs we each wanted to cover. In 90 per cent of cases, it was the songs that we both got excited about which would make the cut.

"The 70s record (Volume 2) is very different from the 60s record in that it touched a lot more chords in us because of the memories centered on those songs."

Hoffs certainly has no lack of memories associated with many of these tracks and is delighted to share her memories with [here] Magazine:

"The Todd Rundgren songs and his album Something Anything I totally associate with being 17 years old," Hoffs explains. "I graduated high school in 1976 and that record was my whole summer that year, through the time of transition from high school to college.

"Yes was a band that my older brother got me into. I loved Jon Anderson's voice and Steve Howe's guitar playing. I remember my brother bringing home a book or program from one of their concerts and I was just completely taken with them," she says.

Those purchasing Under The Covers Volume 2 via online retailers such as iTunes have the option of purchasing a deluxe version of the record where listeners are treated to an extra 10 tracks from the duo.

This collection of extra songs that primarily focuses on slightly different sides of the 70s: Covers included among the bonus set are songs by Television, The Ramones and Queen. Sweet and Hoffs both felt strongly about the bonus tracks but didn't feel they necessarily fit well among the rest of the collection, hence the relegation to bonus or deluxe edition status.

"The Ramones were one of the reasons fixed in my mind of why I wanted to be in a band," Hoffs says. "They were the ultimate band to serve as a transition from these giant stadium acts like the Stones and Led Zeppelin into something more real and artistic."

Even with the economy in tatters, Sweet and Hoffs are taking their songs to the road this coming fall. Hoffs noted that the duo will be playing acoustic shows in venues like coffee houses to create a more intimate feeling and closer relationship with their audience.

"In July, we played our first show together at the Grammy Museum and it was in this acoustic format. The songs are very stripped down and we found that it made the songs all about the emotion and the melodies," says Hoffs. "Even in The Bangles, we have never pursued the acoustic side of things. I find it exciting because there's no place to hide. I found it a little bit scary but it is a lot of fun."

At the end of the day, do a couple of seasoned vets like Sweet and Hoffs concern themselves with how their versions of these songs are received by the original artists?

"You're always worried about how the artists will like your version of their song," Hoffs laughs.

"But having the opportunity to have Lindsay Buckingham play on Fleetwood Mac's 'Second Hand News' and Dhani Harrison come in and bring his positive energy to George Harrison's 'Beware of Darkness' was awesome. Having these guys in my studio was mind-blowing and a little surreal."

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs' latest collaboration Under The Covers Volume 2 is in stores and available online now. I highly recommend checking both collections out for those needing a pop-filled dose of nostalgia added to their day.

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Pop musician and former New Brunswick resident Jennifer LFO is returning to her birth province for a show in Saint John at the Blue Olive on August 1. She is promoting the recently released Songs From The Alien Beacon album, made with the assistance of famed Canadian producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda in his Toronto studio.

Jennifer LFO was born in Saint John and relocated to Hampton where she spent her days on her parent's hobby farm. She remained in New Brunswick until she completed high school then spent a year in Quebec City before relocating to Toronto.

"I was always involved in music and drama and didn't really understand that these things could still be pursued by staying in New Brunswick," she says.

"Once I moved to Toronto, I started joining bands and pursuing acting. And at this point, I am still able to do a lot of acting and voice-over work to support my music. I'm hoping the tide will turn a little bit to allow music to be the dominant force in my life".

Songs From The Alien Beacon, her third record, was recorded in Wojewoda's studio over a three to four month period, an eternity to most musicians. But the extended recording sessions were born out of necessity as well as an experimental vibe which she and Wojewoda explored during the course of making the record.

"Making the record was woven into the patterns of what was happening around us. I got into studio when the chance presented itself," Jennifer notes.

"Michael and I would take a chunk of time and work on my record. Then Michael would go work on someone else's record. Some might consider the process to be disjointed but I loved it as it gave me time to look back on what I had done and then come back and tweak things further.

"It really helped me to gain a different perspective and allowed both Michael and I to contemplate what we were doing. It took a little longer then most records should take to make but I feel as though it paid off," she says.

According to the artist, the extra time spent making the record gave her the opportunity to add a full pallet of instruments, resulting in a very specific sounding record.

Having a studio and various musical instruments at your disposal could be both a blessing and a curse as the recording process could have theoretically gone on forever. "I'll be the first to admit that making this record was very experimental. Michael encouraged me to be open to different ideas and not worry about any preconceived notions about what the final product would be," Jennifer says. "There was always the temptation to keep going with recording and constantly adding more things into the mix but I also wanted to finish the record and get it out there. I got tired of telling people about the great record I was making without a finished product."

Jennifer LFO's upcoming show in Saint John will actually mark her first performance in the province, something that she is really looking forward to.

"I've never actually played anywhere in the Maritimes with my band. I am very excited to be bringing them out!"

Jennifer LFO's new record Songs From The Alien Beacon is currently available for sale via her website as well as via iTunes.

On the web:

www.jenniferLFO.com

www.myspace.com/jennfoster

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Shediac's got the blues coming to them. No, this has nothing to do with a decline in tourism, the economy or anything of the like.

 

 

They literally have the blues coming to them.

From Friday July 31 through Sunday August 2, Shediac will be hosting the third Shediac Blues Festival at different venues throughout the town. The festival is attracting local names like Theresa Malenfant and Glamour Puss performing alongside notable artists such as Wes Mackey and Fredericton's Keith Hallett.

Wes Mackey will be performing on Sunday August 2 at the Festival Tent. Born in the Southern US, he has had the unique distinction of having played in the backing band for such renowned blues artists like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker and even backed up Motown legends Martha and The Vandellas.

"Way back in the day, I played in a band called The Rock n Roll Kings," Mackey explains from his hotel room in Montreal, "and we used to back up all of the acts which came through the University of Georgia for shows.

"There was no rehearsal and absolutely no advance notice of what songs these guys would be playing during their set. You just got up and played!"

The list of artists that Mackey has backed is impressive to read about now so it is all the more astonishing to hear him admit that at the time, backing these guys really wasn't that big of a deal.

"They were all just regular guys; there was nothing special about them then. Now it's a lot bigger of a deal when we talk about them; a lot of those guys have gained legendary status in the blues world."

Mackey even had the chance to perform with another Motown star.

"One time I was playing in New York City at a club called Smalls Paradise," Mackey relays. "It was owned by Wilt Chamberlain and was directly across the street from the Apollo Theatre. Stevie Wonder would drop by and do guest spots with us after his shows across the street; it was right around the time of his hit 'Signed, Sealed and Delivered' and was a pretty cool thing to be a part of."

Sharing a bill with Wes Mackey is Moncton blues band Glamour Puss, who is reemerging into the music scene after lying low for a period of time. Glamour Puss guitarist/vocalist Travis Furlong is looking forward to the band's return to the stage and to the blues festival specifically.

"The Shediac Blues Festival is going to be awesome. We know we will be seeing many familiar faces and can't wait to make new friends at the show," says Furlong. "Having a blues festival so close to home and in a beautiful area like Shediac is a huge treat. We are proud and excited to be a part of such a well-planned event."

While rock and roll and country music festivals have proven their popularity in the Maritimes, the blues festival is catering to a growing number of fans and according to Furlong, gives a much needed boost to the genre in the Maritimes and beyond.

"An event like The Shediac Blues Festival is integral to the growth of blues talent and gives a much needed venue for established local and international blues acts," Furlong states. "Perhaps most importantly, the blues festival gives fans a chance to hear their favorite music, or to find blues music for the first time. Young people are growing tired of formulaic music and are turning to local young blues and jam bands for something real."

Nick Cormier is a member of the Moncton-based Eric and the Blues Band, a relatively young act who cite artists like Led Zeppelin, Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran among their influences. They will be using the festival to showcase their songs after answering the call for submissions that was put out by the festival.

"My father mentioned an article in the Times-Transcript mentioning that the festival was looking for bands. I submitted some material from the band and a few weeks later, we got word that we had been accepted," Cormier says.

Indeed, the blues aren't an old man's game anymore, although some would dispute that it was never was exclusively so anyway. To help drive interest in the blues across various age groups, the opening night of the festival will see a "battle of the bands" competition that will see five bands, including Cormier's, compete for a $2,000 prize.

Furlong sees much value in such a competition, as it can only serve to further develop younger acts taking an interest in the blues and helping to ensure blues bands for audiences in the future.

"The mainstream rock and country festivals that the region has hosted have done a great job at getting our area on the map," Furlong says. "Now, I think we should shift our focus to helping local blues bands to be some of the opening acts for these huge shows. Getting exposure for our homegrown blues talent to promoters, managers and others within the industry is the next logical step."

Cormier agrees with Furlong, noting that he would consider it to be a great feat to see blues acts take a more prominent role in festivals that are not typically blues-oriented, such as the recently held Evolve Festival in Nova Scotia.

With the public's support, the Shediac Blues festival will serve to fuel interest in the genre and continue to flourish over the coming years. Support of the smaller music festivals is just as important if not more so as the large scale festivals as it shows that the region is able to financially support multiple music festivals and also show that there is a demand for non-commercial music as well.

I highly recommend taking in some of the best new and established blues talent at the Shediac Blues Festival.

For more information on the Shediac Blues Festival, call (506) 532-5333.

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Canada has been a hotbed for music in the past 40 years having produced jazz greats like Oscar Peterson through indie-rock heroes Eric's Trip and Arcade Fire to classic rock like The Guess Who.

 

  

One genre that the country hasn't been so quick to beat our respective chests over, however, is that of dance music. But with any luck, Montreal band Creature will lead the future charge of Canadian dance music.

Formed in Montreal in 2004, the members of the band knew one another from various other groups within that scene but hadn't actually made music together.

"We ran into one another at a party and started discussing our influences. We were all into bands like The Cure, Joy Division and New Order and figured we should try practicing to see where it leads," Creature keyboardist and vocalist Cowbella explains. "And even though we had all played in so many other bands, each of us was immediately comfortable within the confines of Creature."

And though bands such as Creature and the Scissor Sisters are starting to make inroads in North America, Cowbella admits that they have been accepted with open arms in Europe and in France specifically.

"We've had great shows in Montreal and Toronto but when you get outside those major metro areas, crowds are a lot more reserved and slower to get into the show. We can usually get the crowd up and dancing by song seven in our live show but at that point, we've only got a few songs left to play!"

Indeed, Europeans seem a little more free-spirited and embracing of different styles of music, something Cowbella agrees with:

"The major difference is that dance music is really big throughout France. It is seen as an art where here it is considered to be more of a pastime. I think it's the same with hip-hop.

"It seems as though the audiences in France can appreciate the musical layering and how the instruments interact with each other."

Earlier this spring, Creature had the opportunity to bring their music to China, playing Beijing and Shanghai as well as other cities over the course of three weeks. And even though the language barrier proved to be challenging to the band, music is a universal language which the Chinese understood loud and clear.

"The crowds were very enthusiastic," Cowbella recalls. "It is such a different environment to be immersed in though.

"There was so much raw energy there; people drinking out on the streets and just ready to play hard in general.

"It is an interesting cultural mix though. Musically, the Chinese heard Jay Z at the same time that they heard The Clash and Nirvana for the first time so you see and hear a lot of diversity in the music being made by these new Chinese punk-oriented bands."

So if you've got a pair of dancing shoes that you're aching to break in, bring yourself down to The Blue Olive in Saint John where Creature will be performing on Friday July 31. On the web: www.creatureband.com

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Atlantic Canada has always been home to a variety of music from the traditional celtic music that the region is known for to punk and heavy metal bands.

Five years ago, a record label with its roots in heavy metal and specializing in "exposing the seedy underbelly" of the Canadian East Coast was formed in Halifax by Josh Hogan. That label is Diminished Fifth Records and is helping bring Atlantic Canadian metal to the global stage.

In the last three years, the label has released seven albums and has secured distribution for their product throughout Canada, the US and the UK.

Truth is, the Maritimes have always had a viable heavy metal scene, but it hasn't truly been given due attention. Adding fuel to this fire is the fact that this past year's East Coast Music Awards ceremony was the first year which had a category dedicated to heavy metal and loud music. Better late than never, I suppose.

As coincidence would have it, Hogan was a vital part in this category being created, working behind the scenes with the East Coast Music Association for over two years before the category was finally added in 2009. But adding a category into the mix of an established awards show and conference isn't a simple task by any means.

"Introducing the category took a long time because the metal scene in this part of the country has always been underground. Had we not started a petition in the summer of 2007 to show that such a category would be supported, I doubt that the wheels would have turned," Hogan explains. "We had to submit a formal proposal to have the category introduced and then it turned out to be a 'chicken or the egg' scenario. The East Coast Music Association couldn't necessarily support the creation of a category for a genre that did not have any members and the potential members who are in the metal bands didn't want to join the association if they were not going to be represented with a category."

As fate would have it, the inaugural year that the heavy metal/loud category was introduced, the award found a home with one of the bands signed to Hogan's label "" Moncton's Iron Giant.

Indeed, if there's anything Hogan seems to be acquainted with, it is hard work and determination. It is good to note that others beyond the Canadian borders are taking note of Hogan's work ethic as well.

Recently, Diminished Fifth Records signed an American distribution deal with Relapse Records, home to legendary Canuck metal pioneers Voivod as well as The Dillinger Escape Plan, F*ck The Facts and Brutal Truth. This means that Hogan's bands can count on a solid distribution chain south of the border, giving groups like Gallactus and Orchids Curse the opportunity to spread their gospel to their American neighbors.

The affiliation with Relapse has Hogan on cloud nine as the label is one of his all-time favorites and has spawned many of his favorite bands as well.

"Oddly enough, Relapse had approached me about doing this deal, which makes it even better!" Hogan enthuses. "After we had announced our affiliation with Sonic Unyon Distribution in Canada, Brian from the label e-mailed me to find out who was handling our catalogue in the US. And the rest is history!

"When I started the label, I had little in the way of expectations in the very beginning. I initially started the label as when it came time to release my band's debut album, I realized there was little to no support for the East Coast metal scene. And then by the time we released the first compilation CD (The Music of Artisanship and War), I knew this was something I had to keep doing.

"To look back on the last three years, I've overwhelmingly exceeded my initial expectations of the label."

If there is one thing that is clear though, it is that Hogan is in it for the long haul, as demonstrated by his steady focus and determination which has got the label to where it is today. And even though the label isn't raking in the millions yet, Hogan is able to foresee a time that his day job might be a thing of the past, allowing him to focus on the label full-time.

"I'm still working a full-time job but for the first time ever, I can foresee a time where I might no longer need the day job. Both Diminished Fifth and Hogan Media Relations (a publicity company Hogan recently started) have grown rapidly in the past six months.

"At this stage in the game, I am still trying to pay off the massive debt I ran up in the first two years of operation and am reinvesting all revenues back into the business."

Now don't go getting the impression that Hogan is one to complain; truth be told, he's too busy mapping out future label releases to bellyache about the fact his label isn't turning a profit yet. It's a love of what he does that is propelling him forward.

The label's next release will be Black Moor's debut album 'The Conquering' which will be available on August 25 in Canada. Later this fall, Thy Flesh Consumed releases their newest.

"Our third release is still a bit of a secret but I can say that it centers on a New Brunswick-based band and will be announced at the end of July."

For more information on Josh Hogan's label, check out his website at www.diminishedfifthrecords.com; Hogan Media Relations makes its home at www.hoganmedia.ca.

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On Friday July 24, The Centre for Speed Motorsports Park in Shediac is hosting the first show in what will hopefully become an annual ritual at the speedway. The venue is hosting a classic rock show with this year's show featuring legendary Canadian band The Headpins playing alongside Moncton bands Loaded Dice and Glamour Puss.

 

Originally formed as a side project to their band Chilliwack, Bryan Macleod and Ab Bryant founded The Headpins and recruited vocalist Darby Mills and drummer Bernie Aubin to complete the lineup. Mills gained instant recognition for her powerful vocal delivery and the band quickly shot to stardom, sharing stages with Loverboy, Heart and Kiss while their records would go on to attain gold and platinum status in Canada.

As far as Loaded Dice vocalist Don Coleman is concerned, Mills is one of Canada's greatest female rock vocalists of all time.

"They have garnered so many hits like 'Don't It Make Ya Feel', 'Turn It Loud' and 'Just One More Time' during their career," Coleman says. "There is a demand for live performances from bands from this era; fans who saw them in the past and want to relive the experience and then the demand from younger fans who have never had the opportunity to see them."

Loaded Dice is a Moncton band made up of vocalist Coleman, Paul Leblanc, Craig O'Neill, Dave LeBlanc and Freddy Prosser. The group plays a variety of cover songs including tracks by AC/DC, ZZ Top, Deep Purple and Bryan Adams.

And although Moncton group Glamour Puss has been laying low in recent times, the band never actually split up, contrary to rumors.

"We never broke up," Glamour Puss leader Travis Furlong confirms. "We still love playing together; I think that the friendship that we have is rare.

"We just aren't in people's faces like we once were. Glamour Puss has been together now for almost 15 years, and were on the road for probably 11 of those years. Right now, the members of the band are enjoying work in some side projects while we're still finding ways to grow musically within our band."

Coleman has been working with the show's promoters to help ensure the success of the event. According to him, tickets for the show are selling briskly and that one successful show will lead to another that will lead to another that will lead to another.

"I think the goal of this type of show is to help create an affordable alternative to the big festival shows that are so popular in the region. The show will bring spectators a more personal concert experience that includes an excellent venue, friendly staff and world-class entertainment," Coleman states.

There are two tiers of tickets available for the show: regular tickets to the show are $25 while you might want to entertain picking up VIP tickets for roughly double the price.

The VIP ticket includes preferred spectator seating, food and beverages as well as onsite parking for a reasonable price of $49.50.

Additional information on the show can be found online at www.centreforspeed.com or by phone at (506) 388-2415.

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Formed in Toronto in the mid 1980s, roots-rockers The Skydiggers emerged from the city's music scene at the same time as Cowboy Junkies and Blue Rodeo.

The group is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a retrospective CD entitled The Truth About Us; an impressive 22 track compilation heavy on memorable melodies that will leave the listener wondering why the band haven't yet achieved massive success akin to that of Blue Rodeo.

Founding member Josh Finlayson notes the disc does indeed mark a milestone in the band's career:

"It was nice to participate in the ceremony of going through our catalogue. I'm not usually one who likes going through the past but looking back on your work, you can gauge where you are at as a songwriter at that specific time. One of the most interesting aspects of this record for me was having the chance to choose songs that we felt were real benchmarks in our career as opposed to including only 'hits.'"

With the modest success that has come The Skydiggers way in the past, the group has entertained a somewhat revolving door of musicians backing Finalyson and vocalist Andy Maize.

"Andy and I often play as a duo but the premise of doing this retrospective was the 20 year benchmark we had reached; the band hasn't always been a full-time band though."

This has allowed Finlayson to pursue other opportunities outside of the band including record production (Finlayson produced the latest record from Moncton band The Divorcees) as well as performing on records by Gord Downie, Mary Gauthier and Tom Wilson from Junkhouse.

Nobody says that the music business is an easy life though. Throughout The Skydiggers' career, the band has lived through no fewer than three record deals with three separate labels.

"Our first record was on Enigma which ended up going out business," Finlayson says. "Out of those ashes came FRE and long story short, they didn't have the funding in place to sustain their operations."

The band released three records on FRE before signing to Warner Music for their fourth record (1997's Road Radio) which is the only title in their discography to be issued on a major label.

"When we signed to Warner Brothers, we were under the naïve impression that they were going to partner with us, when in fact they weren't. It really was a one-sided relationship."

The group has been independent since Road Radio, and according to Finlayson, being independent has its pros and cons.

"There is a two-sided reality to being independent. Even in today's day and age, having a record deal doesn't give you a huge advantage but there are definitely some pluses. Having the money and resources to promote what you're doing is sort of a key to success," he said.

"But the reality is that there are so many bands competing for consumer's dollars. Even for a band like us who have sold respectable amount of records, our challenge right now is figuring out how we reconnect with our fans," he admits. "It's hard to rise above the din of the other music that's out there when you're an independent band.

"One great aspect about being independent is that you have the freedom to do what you want, when you want not to mention you own everything at the end of the day. After our experience with Warner, we realized our autonomy was more important to the band then an association with a record label."

Finlayson is hopeful that they will be successful at reconnecting with those fans that enjoyed the group during the course of their career but that there are a couple of different factors that they have had to consider:

"I think the retrospective is a good start," Finlayson says. "We're lucky that we put in a lot of hard work and we've always had a loyal fan base.

"I don't think anyone is denying that rebuilding the band is going to take some work and some patience. The days of us starting our shows at midnight are done; our fans have jobs, kids and lives that it wouldn't be conducive for us to go out and play a bunch of bar shows.

"We have to find the right venues to play in each city that will entice those people to come out to see us. That is the challenge we're faced with and what we have to figure out.

"But it's something we are looking forward to."

The Skydiggers first career retrospective The Truth About Us is available for purchase in stores and online through most major retailers such as iTunes and Amazon.

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Cork City, Ireland pop band Fred is making their provincial debut on Friday July 17 when they perform at The Blue Olive in Saint John. The group is touring through Atlantic and Central Canada behind their latest record Go God Go which was released nation-wide this past March via Toronto independent label Sparks Music.

Listeners interested in exploring what Fred is about will be delighted to uncover a band intent on having a good time. Pairing tush-shaking rhythms with fun keyboards, Fred are making some of the most infectious pop music available today.

Reached at his band's rehearsal space in Ireland, Fred guitarist Joseph O'Leary is downright jovial, chatty and emphasizes how much the group is looking forward to their return to Canada.

"Every time we go to Canada, the shows get better and better," O'Leary says. "One of the first Canadian shows was when we played the North By Northeast Festival in Toronto last summer. We were fortunate that the show was sold out, which was great, but even the people from our label Sparks couldn't even get in to see us!" he laughs. "Things have really fast-forwarded at a great pace for us."

The group's latest record Go God Go (their third album) was released in Europe in May 2008 and saw the band earn accolades from the likes of influential music papers such as NME. O'Leary says that while they have always made music for themselves first and foremost, earning reviews from papers like NME certainly isn't a bad thing to have on Fred's resume.

"There's no question as to its helpfulness but we've never gone seeking the press or making music specifically for the purposes of getting good press. Maybe that's why it has taken us the length of time it has taken us to reach a level of success!" O'Leary laughs.

"We've never worried too much about whom we are getting kudos from but it certainly is great to get it. It definitely helps bring more people out our gigs and helps with radio play as well. We just keep digging away and going about our business."

Indeed, things are picking up for the Irish quintet on both sides of the ocean:

iTunes recently featured Fred track "Skyscrapers" as their complimentary download of the week which scored the group 25,000 downloads.

On the opposite side of the world, the group managed to simultaneously chart two singles ("Skyscrapers" and "Running") and have secured a slot on the Oxegen Festival; one of Europe's biggest music festivals which will expose them to over 100,000 spectators.

Music festivals in Europe tend to bring diverse genres and bands together in a way that seems to be slowly catching on in North America. As a general rule, Europeans seem willing to embrace non-mainstream bands and make them superstars.

"Generally speaking, that's true. And I am sure Canada is the same as this, but when you get into different territories and areas, audiences can be very different.

"Ireland is very embracing of all different kinds of music," O'Leary continues. "We've done gigs throughout Europe and I can safely say that the Irish love their music.

"We did a show in Norway, a country where people really love their heavy metal and soft rock, interestingly enough. And during the show, the crowd was really subdued and just kind of stared at us but once the show was done, we found out they really dug us. So really, it's different everywhere you travel."

With Go God Go finding new life in Canada after already having been on store shelves for a year in Europe, O'Leary says the band is preparing to start writing songs for a new record and then clarifies:

"If our manager is reading this, the new record is written!" he laughs.

"We definitely have some great ideas being thrown around but nothing concrete yet. But we will start the writing process soon. Our manager wants to maintain this momentum we've got working in our favour so he'll be anxious to keep us working."

I'd highly recommend you not miss your chance to see this rising Irish pop band while you have the chance to do so!

For more information on the group, head over to the official Fred website at www.fredtheband.com.

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Vancouver sextet The Brandon Paris Band is headed to New Brunswick for shows in Fredericton and Moncton next week for what will be their first trek into the Maritimes. The band is supporting their most recent record Pocket Full Of Holes, which was independently released this past April.

The group, who mixes rock, pop and reggae into a potent mélange of music is quickly earning a reputation for their powerful and energetic live show, which according to vocalist Paris, has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

"Every one of our shows is highly energetic and interactive. That seems to be the feedback we receive from club owners after our shows, as well. A lot of club owners say the band is electric when we are on stage and it makes for a brilliant show," Paris says. "I think we tend to be good at waking the crowd up if the audience is a little on the reserved side. And the fact we are mixing these different genres of music attracts hip hop fans and rock and roll fans in equal amounts."

The Brandon Paris Band is staunchly independent, overseeing their own show bookings and management and has even managed to place the video for their song Can't Hate You in medium rotation on MuchMusic. This independent spirit was largely fanned by the flames of disappointment the group experienced with a former label that they had been signed to.

"We had been signed with Koch in 2006. We had a single which was charting which was really exciting but the label only got our record released seven months later. It was a nightmare," Paris says. "Once the record was released, it wasn't properly promoted; there was no money for marketing and promotion so it was virtually dead."

Paris says the experience was a key part in furthering their development and was a huge motivator in them seeking to take the power back into their own hands.

"We're constantly learning about the business," he admits. "We have been able to build excellent relationships with people at radio, in the media and club owners. I really don't think our relationships with these people would be as strong as they are if we were depending on others to do the work for us."

"We are hoping that these relationships will help financially sustain the band in the future and allow us to continue making music for years to come."

With over 30 dates booked across the country on their current tour, it seems as though the band's hard work is paying off. Paris admits that radio has been a little reserved in picking the band's songs up for airplay but that they are winning people over one by one.

"As a general rule, people are very open to new music and our band. Radio is a little more careful when supporting a band like ours though which crosses so many different genres.

"We've heard we are too reggae for rock stations and too much rock for other stations," Paris says. "We understand that radio doesn't want to risk losing or alienating their listeners but as we get out there, we are definitely seeing progress being made, which is all we can ask for ... "People don't tend to get us as a group until they see us live."

The band will play at the Paramount Lounge in Moncton on Thursday July 23 and in Fredericton at the Musiplex on July 24. The group calls www.brandonparisband.com their online home.

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Described as "an exceptional, eclectic singer/songwriter who defies easy characterization", David Ward is stopping by Crumbs Café in Fredericton to perform on Tuesday July 21.

Ward spent almost two years promoting his debut record Never Meant To Know before travelling to Ghana, West Africa to study traditional drumming, song and dance under the tutelage of the Kusun Ensemble.

"I was in Ghana West Africa for a total of four months "" one month on the coast studying music, song, and dance and the other three months inland, up in the mountains in a rural community called Ejura where I taught music, math, English and PE," Ward explains.

"Living in Ghana was an incredibly valuable experience for me. First and foremost, being in Ghana strengthened my belief in community. Though I felt myself an observer most of the time, I never felt as if I didn't belong and that's because of the people and the incredible spirit that seems to pervade across the country. Everything appears to be shared from food, to lodging to music and art. It is an incredibly generous and spirited culture."

Ward is a committed advocate to change in the community through various endeavors and initiatives known as CHANGE projects. At his shows, Ward places a guitar case or piggy bank at the front of the stage which he uses as a pressure-free way to encourage the audience to donate their spare change for use in his various charitable projects.

"I think my experience in Africa had a large effect on why I do these CHANGE projects "" this idea of community," Ward says. "Just by living we affect the world around us so I figured why not affect it in a positive way and take a few extra steps to make a few greater changes in our community "" be it our local or our global community. The idea of community is one of the most powerful in the world to me and if we treat others like they are a part of our community "" which they are "" I feel there would be a lot more understanding, warmth and positive growth."

Ward recently finished up residencies at a couple of intimate Toronto music venues, temporarily relocating from his BC home.

"Both of my Toronto residencies lasted from January to June of this year and ended only because of this tour I am embarking on. The residencies had provided me with a place to spread my wings, learn what works in my show, consistently re-evaluate my art so I can find out where it fits and feels good for myself, and garner new fans.

"Living there gave me many opportunities to explore the work of others. It is such a vibrant city and can be overwhelmingly so because of the high volume of unique, quality events happening daily."

This summer, Ward is embarking on a 20 date, solo Eastern Canadian tour with half of those dates slated for the Maritimes. With acclaim from across much of Canada and Europe this will be David's first foray into the east coast of Canada.

So if you're in the mood for some unique music on Tuesday evening, make sure you stop by Crumbs Café on King Street in Fredericton to catch David Ward. Those interested in discovering more about this exciting artist can visit his website at www.davidwardmusic.com.

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Everybody and their dog knows that the internet has revolutionized the way we interact with the world around us. In the pre-internet days, we bought our music in record stores and we watched television in our living rooms. Times were pretty simple.

 

But as times change, so do the opportunities for innovative new programming to find a foothold in a business that has been largely dictated by big networks raking in millions of dollars in advertising each year.

Aux TV (www.aux.tv) is a Canadian-based website which plays host to over a dozen different music-related shows. Although their shows are strictly internet-only at the present time, they will be moving into traditional TV broadcasting avenues this fall when they launch the Aux Music Channel. The station, which bills itself as "real music television" plans to feature live performances, music videos as well as artist profiles and interviews.

One of the shows currently broadcast on the aux.tv website is Master Tracks. Hosted by Moe Berg and Laurence Currie, an episode of the program runs under 30 minutes and features the duo working with a band with the ultimate goal of going "from demo to download in one day".

Truthfully, the program couldn't have selected better hosts to rely upon to help the bands they are working with in achieving this goal.

Berg is the front man for the fantastic Canadian rock band The Pursuit of Happiness, who toured the world throughout the late 80s and into the 90s. While the group doesn't have a whole lot on the go these days, their hits I'm An Adult Now and She's So Young, among others, have been burned into the Canadian consciousness. Over the past decade, Berg has been steadily building his production resume, including work with The Cliks and Robin Black.

Currie is a producer and engineer who has worked with bands such as Sloan, Buck 65 and Moncton's own Hope. From 1995 through 2005, he ran Idea of East Studios in Halifax before moving to Toronto to further pursue recording and production opportunities. When it comes to Master Tracks, Currie is the engineer responsible for recording the band's performance. He helps to ensure that the recording process meets the technical specifications needed to have a quality final product.

Berg explains the process behind their show in a little more detail for [here] Magazine:

"I do one evening of pre-production with each band so that the song is together before we hit the studio. There is still some massaging of the song once we start recording at Metalworks Studio but it would be too much to have the band have to relearn a song and then record it all in one day."

So far, Berg and Currie's track record is flawless to date in meeting the one day turnaround they are tasked with:

"We haven't had to go 24 hours with a band yet," Berg says. "The biggest challenge is exactly that though, getting absolutely everything done in one day.

"Some days everything goes well, the band is tight, they come prepared and the day goes fairly easily. Other days though, technical problems arise and it takes a little longer.

"We've always gotten great results though. All the bands we've worked with have been really good bands," he says matter-of-factly.

To date, Master Tracks has shot 13 shows with another eight slated to be shot in August. Berg isn't one to be complaining about business being so good.

"Initially, Laurence and I were picking the bands we wanted to work with for the show," Berg states. "Now that the show is on air though, we are getting requests from bands to work with them."

With Aux's traditional TV channel launch imminent, Berg and Currie just might find their schedules becoming even more hectic. Once their show starts reaching an even bigger demographic of potential bands and musicians, I suspect there will not be any shortage of groups eager to leverage the experience which Berg and Currie bring to the table.

To watch Master Tracks, head over to www.aux.tv and watch the duo work their magic with some of the country's best up and coming talent.

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Saint John band 16th Avenue is headed to Moncton to play a show at the Riverview Kiwanis Skate Park and Youth Centre on Friday July 17.

 

 

Formed in 2003, the punk-pop group is continuing to promote their 2006 record In It To Win It. The group has moved approximately 1,500 copies of that record between physical sales and via online avenues such as iTunes. They received decent radio support and airplay for their single "Tentativa Favorita" which led to the group touring across Canada twice and around the East Coast even more.

16th Avenue Drummer Chris Claessen says this taste of success also helped to broaden the group's fan base and give them the motivation to do their best, to top it with their new record which is slated for release in early 2010.

Last summer, they went to Toronto to record their new record with a relatively big name producer (who shall remain nameless). However, those sessions didn't work out so well, to put it nicely.

"We had aimed to record the follow up to In It To Win It in Toronto last summer," Claessen begins to explain. "We felt as though we had grown, our songs were a lot stronger and we were very happy with the direction we were taking."

The experience was the first time that the band had worked with a producer who also excelled in song writing.

"It was hard watching some of our favorite song parts disappear but we were learning how to create hit songs," Claessen says. "A few weeks of recording and partying turned out some great material and all of us were eager to reach the finish line.

"Assuming the producer's guidance was what we needed, we found it odd when he told us we weren't recording for a whole week while we rented a very pricey house in Toronto. And once we got back to recording, everything was different. Our producer was really deep in to some addiction issues and it is not a good environment to be in when your producer is never there, and when he is, he is barely coherent or conscious."

Tensions mounted and eventually, the producer pulled the plug on the entire project. The producer turned over what had been recorded to the band, telling them they could choose to do with the songs whatever they wanted.

Returning to Saint John without a record and no plans to finish it "" not to mention $30,000 of debt and broken spirits "" was the last thing that 16th Avenue wanted or could have expected. Claessen says the band was unsure if they could even continue because of the financial and emotional strain that their experience in Toronto had brought into the group.

But one important trait of any band is to be able to pick up and move on, even when the cards are seemingly stacked against them.

"At the end of the day, we have a bond that won't easily be broken. That experience made us stronger; we have never been more excited with the new songs we have written," Claessen states.

Indeed, the future is looking bright for 16th Avenue with tour dates and more in store for the band over the summer:

"We are currently gearing up for an East Coast tour which will take us through the Maritimes over the next couple of months and included in there is our first Moncton area show on the 17th, which we are really looking forward to."

With a video for "Tentativa Favorita" ready for release and plans to record an EP this fall, it seems there will be no stopping 16th Avenue anytime soon.

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Almost eight weeks ago, [here] Magazine ran an article on a music group called Under Pressure Music (or UPM for short). Now it isn't often that we would run a follow-up article on the same band, unless they have got some major news to report.

UPM consists of only two members, one of whom lives in Moncton, the other in Stratford, Ontario. Using the internet, they fire off songs to one another for completion and have worked in this manner for the past while. In fact, the two friends and band mates have not been in the same room in the past decade.

Intriguing, isn't it?

UPM has garnered massive airplay via their Reverbnation website located at www.reverbnation.com/underpressure. To date, they have amassed over 115,000 plays of their songs, which tend to straddle many genres of music rather than sticking to just one.

The band's latest fortune and good news comes with thanks to Microsoft. They were asked to forward an e-mail to ten of their friends for the chance to get $2,500 from Bill Gates himself. If you didn't already know, that last statement is a joke.

In all seriousness though, their newest stroke of luck does in fact come from Microsoft. Not long ago, the software giant reached out to the influential music websites Reverbnation and Myspace to gauge their interest in running a pilot program to examine the feasibility of helping influence the way that music is distributed across the web.

Visitors to www.myspace.com/windows will discover that UPM are one of 1,000 artists whose songs are available for download. And it is not strictly limited to independent artists:

UPM is kept company by other bands such as The Lemonheads, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, and Bif Naked.

"Based on numbers from our Reverbnation site, we've been told to expect upwards of 50,000 downloads of our song 'Too Late'," UPM member Doug Biggar explains. "And even with 1,000 songs to choose from across the globe, we've been lucky enough to sit among the Top 100 of all genre popularity polls. The key to an opportunity like this is to really promote the hell out of yourselves."

Biggar explains that this promotion has been given a soft launch, meaning Microsoft have let the bands shoulder the responsibility of the promotion to date.

"We believe that they are just letting the artists do the initial marketing around this to see how much interest is being driven to the site. Once they have been able to get a sampling of the traffic, interest and downloads being driven to the site, Microsoft are then supposed to be launching ads to help promote this even more.

"It was hinted to us that Microsoft are gearing for what they hope will be serious competition for Apple's iTunes and want to give exposure to independent bands in a way that was just not possible before," Biggar says, acknowledging that the final product model may differ greatly from what is currently being offered to consumers.

Regardless of what's to come with the future of this promotion, being given the opportunity to be involved with the initial launch was indeed no small feat for any of the groups involved.

Another thing that is for certain is that the benefits which Under Pressure Music stands to gain from this promotional push are huge. Even if the band scores a modest 10,000 downloads of their track, that many more people are then acquainted with what UPM have to offer their fans.

"¦And I would say that is just about all any band can ask for in today's ever changing musical landscape."

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If there is one thing that roots-country troubadour Justin Townes Earle has inherited from his father, it would be his knack for not mincing words. And if there is one other trait that is clear as day during the course of our conversation together, it is that Justin Townes Earle has a great grasp on where he has been and where he is headed in life.

 

The 27-year-old Earle was born in 1982, just a few years before his father's music career would take flight in a major way. Some might argue that the younger Earle playing music is as natural as Colonel Sander's kids going into the chicken business.

Justin cut his teeth in his father's band The Dukes on and off for a number of years through the 90s and into the current decade. His solo career came about after being kicked out of his father's band for escalating substance abuse after which point he intended on quitting music. "My substance abuse never interfered with my live performances," he says down the line from Madison, Wisconsin. "But it was going to start doing so; it was f*ck*n' my life up. After I was pitched out of The Dukes, I sold all my guitars and didn't write a single song for two years. I had given it all up.

"But then I realized that I had the choice of dying in the streets or making something of myself," he admits. "And finally, I decided that I didn't want to be another link in the white trash train even though I will always be white trash from Nashville, Tennessee."

From the desolate feel of the album's track to the bluegrass slant of "Halfway to Jackson" and "They Killed John Henry", Midnight At The Movies is an enthralling and compelling listen for fans of his father as well as Hank Williams Sr. Even Earle's take on The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" is exquisite; infused with touches of mandolin while still staying true to the original.

White trash or not, one listen to Earle's newest record and the listener is taken into his world; a world where his songs and lyrics betray his relatively young age and show an old, experienced soul doing what he does best: telling stories and making music.

Earle is extremely grateful for where he is at today and admits that the experience with his father gave him a wealth of knowledge that he is using to this day.

"I learned a lot of things about the business and how it runs. I had no false ideas that I was going to start making music but it is a little different for me than it is my Dad. He walks out of his bus, gets handed a guitar and plays his show," Earle laughs.

"While I was on the road with The Dukes, it was more important for me to learn the business side as opposed to the performance side so I took notes of how people in the crew interacted with the venue crew and things like that... And performance wise, I learned to avoid dead space between songs. I grew up in the south and all my first gigs were all little honky-tonks where once you lost crowd's attention, it was hard to get it back."

Justin was given his middle name Townes as his father's tribute to Townes Van Zandt, a Texan singer-songwriter and a hero and mentor to the elder Earle. When he and Van Zandt met in the 1970's, Steve was immediately enthralled by Van Zandt's troubadour life. Did Justin ever have the opportunity to meet his namesake?

"I met him when I was a kid. He was a very dark but interesting man," he says. "When my Dad met Townes, Townes was 25 years old. Townes was a pretty man, wrote beautiful songs and was wild as shit. He had the ultimate poetic troubadour life at that point and everything went great for him for a long time but then it all started to fall to pieces.

"I'll put it this way: It would be really wonderful if we were just musicians. But it's called the music business for a reason."

With such deep roots and experience in the music business, Earle need not worry about his destiny in the biz. The richness that his music holds will keep him busy for much longer than he needs to worry about.

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Austin, Texas born roots-pop singer-songwriter Rhett Miller is about to embark on an endless trail of promotion to support his excellent new self-titled record which hit stores on June 9.

In addition to being a solo artist, Miller is also the vocalist-guitarist for the Old 97's, a group which has earned cult-status fame among Americana music fans. His solo work stands apart from the 97's if only due to the poppy edge brought to many of these songs. And while his new record maintains that pop edge, there are some gloomy undertones and lyrics to be found among the dozen tracks on the record.

When Miller set sail to make his new record, he had envisioned it as being a stripped down, acoustic record. But in the first 20 seconds of the record's first track Nobody Says I Love You Anymore, it is clear that the all-acoustic vision which preceded the record didn't end up becoming a reality.

"I'll be the first to admit that my finished product is rarely anything like I imagine it being in my head," Miller laughs from his home in New York. "The move from this record being an acoustic record into the one it became wasn't a conscious thing at all; as the record progressed, it just grew into the record it became.

"The real turning point when the record became what it is, is when John Dufilho from Apples in Stereo got behind his drums. He's a monster but he is not a muscle drummer by any means," Miller explains. "John came into the studio, listened to the songs and ultimately helped dictate how the songs ended up."

Miller goes on to say that some of the songs he expected to be album tracks (or the non-singles) ended up being some of the strongest and his favorite songs on the record once Dufilho added his touch to them.

"Take a song like Nobody Says I Love You Anymore and you've got a song that is a waltz but is set to these John Bonham-sized drums. To watch things like that happen while making this record was incredible."

The darker tones to Miller's new record partly stem from the death of his grandmother as well as that of his hero, author David Foster Wallace. Wallace committed suicide in September 2008 and though the two had never met, his influence on Miller was deep:

"I read all of his works, with the exception of Infinite Jest; it was just way too much for me to digest," he says. "And it is funny as over the years, I had often considered reaching out to him to see if he would be interested in somehow collaborating and maybe do a video together or something like that ... Obviously, I'll never have the chance now."

In addition to having a new record ready to promote, Miller is getting set to launch a unique tour with his pals the Old 97's. The tour set-up is unique in that both Miller and Old 97 band mate Murry Hammond are opening the show with individual acoustic sets before the whole band unites on stage to play a full-on set of Old 97's material.

The tour dates with the 97's runs through to the start of August after which time Miller is going to be heading out with his band for a headlining tour.

Miller also spoke of a potential couple of big tours that are in the works for him.

""¦But I can't say who the tours are with," he says, his smile palpable through the phone. "I definitely don't want to jeopardize anything by saying anything more than that."

With a record as strong as his latest in his arsenal, we have a feeling that Miller isn't bound to remain an opening act much longer.

Rhett Miller's new record is in stores now as well as through the usual online music e-tailers like iTunes and Amazon.

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Long-running Canadian roots-rock band Blue Rodeo is returning to New Brunswick with a one-off show in Miramichi on Friday June 26.

Blue Rodeo singer/guitarist Greg Keelor recently checked in from his management's offices in Toronto and had much to say about the band's March 2008 trip to Afghanistan: "It was an eye-opener to be there. Once we arrived, it felt like a much bigger war than what news outlets ever let on that it was. It was amazing to go and play for the troops and be good will ambassadors."

Keelor says that the jobs which the soldiers are tasked with are not necessarily easy nor differ a whole lot from day to day. According to Keelor, this ended up giving everyone who went on the trip an even greater appreciation for the work being done by our Canadian troops.

"Most of the people at the base in Kandahar are support staff covering fields like communication and transportation. Those soldiers and personnel go to work and do the same thing, seven days a week which I'm sure has to be monotonous, so it was a real pleasure to be able to give them a little something different to look forward to."

While the band was overseas, they teamed up with some NHL Old Timer Hockey Players to take part in a ball hockey game against the Canadian Forces Soldiers. The ball hockey game proved to be extremely popular with the soldiers stationed there, with over 200 soldiers having signed up hoping to make the final cut of the Forces team.

As for what the group is up to nowadays, Keelor reports that Blue Rodeo is currently in the studio, recording their twelfth studio record. For their newest record, the band is working with Producer Darryl Neudorf who has worked on records by Neko Case, Sarah McLachlan and Justin Rutledge to name a few.

"All of the songs are written," Keelor divulges, "and we are half-way through recording. We are splitting our time recording between my farm and our studio in the city."

Keelor says that the band has a date of October 2009 penciled in for the record's release with the inevitable Canadian winter tour to follow soon after.

Fans of Blue Rodeo will definitely want to check out what will most likely be their only provincial appearance this year on Friday June 26 at the Miramichi Culture Fest, taking place at the MiramichiAgricultural Exhibition Association located at 24 Church Street. For information on the show and support acts, visit www.miramichifest.com.

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Halifax indie rockers Dog Day are wrapping up their Canadian tour with a show in Moncton on Friday June 26. The group has been on the road in support of their newest record Concentration (their second full-length) which hit stores in April.

 

Dog Day began in 2005 as a recording project for Seth Smith's folk-oriented songs following the demise of his former band, The Burdocks. Soon after, he was joined by Nancy Urich (also of The Burdocks) and KC Spidle & Crystal Thili of hardcore act The Hold. This line-up led Smith's songs down a more punk-influenced path of power-chords and one-note leads.

Their debut LP Night Group earned the band accolades from Billboard and Spin Magazine while the group toured relentlessly through Canada, the US and Europe. Their extensive tour schedule ended up playing a significant part in shaping their newest record.

"Touring definitely had an influence on this record. I remember we wrote 'Rome' in Italy after a wild euro-dance party the night before," says front man Seth Smith. "You're exposed to a lot of different music on the road that you may not normally hear. I think it helped us have a fresh perspective going into the recording."

The bulk of Dog Day's new record was recorded in the fall of 2008 in their own studio in Halifax. Once the group completed the basic tracking for Concentration, they decamped to Water Music Recorders in Hoboken, New Jersey to finish the record with producer John Agnello who has worked on records by artists such as Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth and Redd Kross.

"John had an open window of two weeks and liked the material so off we went. Everything he did was great; he's got great taste and is a total pro. The band had spent a lot of time with these songs and I think it helped to have him take things over with a fresh ear. He had a knack of finding the charm of a song and expanding on it. We had a pretty clear vision of what sounds we were looking for going in and he really helped us nail it."

Each of Concentration's 11 songs are draped in shadow and melody, ranging from driving hooks of "Wait it Out" to the melancholic calm of "Rome." Concentration sees the band weave together a sound perfect for dancing with the skeletons in the closet.

Dog Day's upcoming Moncton show brings their Canadian tour to a close. While on the road across the country, the band had the pleasure of playing seven dates with Moncton's own Julie Doiron.

"We love touring with Julie and company; I really feel like we're family now. Julie and her band sounded really good this tour, a really rocking band. The crowds were very enthusiastic and we had the chance to meet a lot of interesting people. It was rad."

The band has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Doiron and her cohorts in Moncton band Eric's Trip. The two bands toured together in the summer of 2008 and revisited the relationship this March when they recorded a four song EP with Rick White, including a song that White had written specifically for the band. These new songs will see release this summer on 7" vinyl by Divorce Records and digitally by Outside Music.

So could Dog Day one day ascent to be the indie rock kings and queens of the Maritimes? I suspect that the band would be too humble to accept such a title but they just might find themselves saddled with it none the less.

Dog Day will be performing at the Manhattan Bar & Grill in Moncton on Friday June 26. Also performing will be their special guests Thee Requiems and Purple Knight, the latter of whom is celebrating their 35th anniversary together! Admission to the show is $8 and is restricted to those 19 years of age and older.

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This coming weekend, the City of Fredericton officially throws its hat into the summer music festival ring with the inaugural FredRock festival.

While the City of Fredericton has built an incredible international reputation with the annual Harvest Blues and Jazz Festival, branching out to more mainstream acts was somewhat inevitable. The festival is offering music fans in Atlantic Canada to see veteran acts like The Black Crowes and Live alongside a healthy dose of Canadiana rock bands like Matt Mays, Fredericton's Age of Daze, The Respectables and Die Mannequin.

According to the festival website at www.fredrockfestival.com, the weekend should look something like this:

The festival gets underway with an indoor show at the Capitol Exhibition Centre on Friday June 19 with a slate of DJ's including DJ Noematus and Skratch Bastid spinning tunes. Doors at the exhibition centre open at 9 p.m. Friday evening.

Saturday June 20 is when the bigger names start rolling in to perform. Doors open at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon with She Roars slated to take the stage at 3:45 p.m. They are scheduled to be followed by Fall and Divide at 4:30 p.m. and Ross Neilsen and the Sufferin Bastards at 5:30 p.m. Quebec band The Respectables, currently invading radio stations everywhere with their Gordie Johnson-produced hit "Sugar" are slated to hit the stage at 6:30 p.m.; Halifax's Matt Mays takes the stage at 7:45 p.m., followed by Atlanta band The Black Crowes at 9:30 p.m..

The final day of the FredRock festival should play out as such: Doors open at 2 p.m. with The Nancies on stage at 3:15 p.m. Futures Past is up at 4 p.m. with BM Linx at 4:45 p.m. Toronto band Die Mannequin, who have shared the stage with both Guns N Roses and Sum 41 in the past, take the stage at 5:45 p.m. Fredericton's own Age of Daze hit the stage at 6:45 p.m. while Pennsylvania rock band Live will close the weekend off, starting at 8:30 p.m. Sunday evening.

Saturday night's performance by The Black Crowes will be the first time they are performing in New Brunswick in almost two decades since they stormed charts worldwide with their gritty, southern rock n roll. The band's most recent studio record Warpaint was released last year after a seven year absence from the studio. The even more recently release Warpaint Live features the band performing their newest record in its entirety along with some carefully selected cover songs before a thrilled Los Angeles crowd.

Since rising to fame in the mid 1990s with their sophomore record Throwing Copper, Live have continued making and releasing records. Their newest record is also a live effort, "Live - At The Paradiso Amsterdam"; a CD/DVD set which also features two new songs from the group.

Fredericton band Age of Daze will take the stage just prior to Live on Sunday evening, much to the delight of their hometown fans. FredRock Festival organizer Mike Babineau says that the organizers were flooded with e-mails from fans asking if the band would be performing at the festival.

"We weren't able to confirm Age of Daze appearance at the festival until just a couple of weeks ago. Their schedule is pretty packed and we are very happy that we were able to add them into the lineup of the festival."

After Age of Daze appearance at the FredRock festival, the band has shows scheduled with bands such as Theory Of A Deadman, Billy Talent, Collective Soul and Hinder in their sights.

But with concerts from AC/DC, Paul McCartney and Kiss are all slated for Atlantic Canada music fans over the next two months; it is a stark reality that consumers only have so much disposable income to go around; some are worried the even bigger names being featured elsewhere later in the summer could affect the final attendance count at FredRock.

However according to Babineau, things are right on track for meeting their expectations:

"We are pretty happy with the way things have been going in terms of ticket sales," Babineau says. "We feel that there is a good buzz around the Maritimes leading up to the show. We have gotten a lot of e-mails from people planning on traveling to Fredericton who are looking for places to stay.

"We are close to where we want to be in terms of sales and are optimistic for a large walk up crowd once the weekend arrives."

The Exhibition Centre isn't going to be the only place to catch bands over the course of the weekend though. Venues throughout Fredericton like Crumbs Café, Nicky Zee's, The Capital Bar and Sweetwaters are playing host to bands and artists like 16th Avenue, Awake By Sunday and Ashley George.

Even with such a great lineup of talent scheduled to play over the course of the weekend, 2009 will prove to be a testing ground of sorts for the FredRock Festival. Babineau acknowledges that the show's promoters are anxious to see how this year's festival goes before deciding how to proceed in the future.

"We will sure see how this year turns out. After the weekend is over and the dust has settled, we will then look at next year. We would like to make the FredRock festival an annual event; we truly feel that Fredericton should and can support this type of festival going forward."

With Moncton and Halifax both established concert centers in the sense of playing host to large scale draws and names, does Babineau believe that the population of the Maritimes can support the addition of new cities into the concert scene?

"Ultimately, we want to give Fredericton its own place within the rock concert scene in the Maritimes. We would love to keep the younger demographic here in the city to invest their money in local businesses," Babineau states matter-of-factly. "We've seen the positive impacts that the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival has brought to the city and we are keen to help contribute to the city's success."

The FredRock Festival runs from June 19 through 21. Complete details including ticket prices can be found on their website at www.fredrockfestival.com.

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Halifax rocker Matt Mays will be on stage in Fredericton this coming weekend as a part of the FredRock festival. Mays is performing alongside The Black Crowes and The Respectables and others on Saturday June 20 at the Capital Exhibit Centre and Raceway.

The band's most recent record Terminal Romance hit stores last July and in typical Matt Mays fashion, he and his backing group have toured Canada relentlessly.

According to Mays, the group has been building their following in the US as well.

"The Northeast US is particularly good to us. We do well in centers like New York and Philadelphia but for Terminal Romance, we haven't done too much in the way of touring the US to date," he says. "Terminal Romance was released in the States last winter and given the fact that it's not really the most ideal time to tour, we did tour there a little bit but decided to give touring a bit of a break."

It was on this short American tour that their touring festivities ground to an abrupt halt when a death in one of the band member's families caused them to retreat home to the Maritimes for some downtime. But according to Mays, the unfortunate circumstances actually proved to be a blessing of sorts, even in such negative circumstances.

"We had a quick meeting to determine where to go from there and I had decided it was probably best for us to take a break. And in retrospect, it was the best thing that we could have done," Mays says confidently.

"I can't quite pinpoint the reason why but I just had a gut feeling that we should end that tour then and there. The time off gave us time to reassess what everyone in the band does which is valuable. We're all such good friends in the band; I just want everyone to be happy with their role."

Mays speaks highly of those he plays and has played with but understands the lure of the road can become less appealing, especially as some band finds new responsibilities entering their lives:

Long-time Mays drummer Tim Jim Baker stepped away from the band just prior to the end of 2008 to spend more quality time with his child (and has another child on the way soon, Mays said). Another band member just simply wanted to get off the road.

These are the trials and tribulations a musician gets to deal with. It's not all bad news though:

The vacancies left behind by the departing band members have allowed a couple of Mays cohorts from his days with The Guthries to step up and fill those positions, something Mays is thrilled about. But with only a scattering of dates between now and the end of the summer, what can fans expect from Mays and company in the fall and beyond?

"I've been working on a really great set list for these upcoming shows we've got scheduled," he confirms. "I'm also constantly working on new songs."

"I fully expect we will attack the US some more come the fall. I'd love to have another record out fairly soon but at the same token, I don't want to get ahead of myself. I feel that Terminal Romance has some life left in it still."

Matt Mays is appearing on Saturday June 20 at the Fredrock Festival as one of the opening acts for The Black Crowes. Complete show and festival details are available at www.fredrockfestival.com.

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Melodic rock band Live are headed to New Brunswick this weekend to close out Fredericton's FredRock Festival this coming Sunday night.

Since vaulting to stardom in the mid-1990s, the group has captured people's hearts with hits like "I Alone", "Overcome" and "Lightning Crashes". With worldwide record sales of over 20 million, they have often been compared to heavyweights such as U2 and Sting while also earning the respect of current generations of musicians like hard rocker Daughtry.

The group's Fredericton show is their only Atlantic Canadian appearance and only one of four Canadian dates the group is slated to play before wrapping up their current tour towards the end of July.

When Live front man Ed Kowalczyk recently checked in with [here] Magazine from his home in California, he said that Live are looking forward to their upcoming New Brunswick show.

"I am looking forward to getting out there. Live has been going out on small tours with dates here and there but we haven't undertaken any widespread touring this year."

Among the dates currently on schedule are a handful of solo shows for Kowalczyk which are spread between the US and Europe. Those solo shows are merely the tip of the iceberg, however.

"It has been a creative year for me personally," he says. "I've been busy writing material for my solo record and am just really taking it month to month and day to day."

Kowalczyk then confirms that he is at the half-way point of writing a still untitled solo record with a still undetermined release date.

"All the songs I write start on the acoustic guitar," he explains. "I've always done acoustic style shows for promotional purposes with Live but this year, I decided to start to do full solo shows and really explore those smaller venues and connect with the audience on a more intimate level. I've been having a great time doing it, even with the venues slowly getting larger and larger."

Live's most recent release is the live CD/DVD combo "Live At The Paradiso "" Amsterdam" and was released via independent label Vanguard. Kowalczyk said that the live record was a one-off deal with the label and is excited about the prospects of looking at options to release his solo record.

"I am really enjoying the freedom of going project to project with no real deadlines to meet. I've been associated with major labels for the bulk of my career and love the openness I have available to me now," he admits. "There are so many possibilities and options out there now that weren't available to artists as recent as 10 years ago. I am really looking forward to how I can use the web and get music to the fans without having to worry about meeting a deadline that was set for me by somebody else."

Those looking to stay updated with Kowalczyk as he performs and ramps up work on his solo album can stay current with him at www.eddieklive.com. A quick browse of the website shows a batch of video blogs, written blogs in addition to offering visitors a free MP3 download of one of his songs. He also promises that audio "bootlegs" of his solo shows will be made available on the site.

Don't miss what could be one of Live's last shows in quite some time when they play the FredRock Festival in the New Brunswick Capital City this weekend. Details including ticket prices can be found online at www.fredrockfestival.com.

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If you have been anywhere near a radio in the past few weeks, there is a very good chance you've already had a chance to hear Quebec band The Respectables ever-growing hit "Sugar". The song is spreading like wildfire, combining a distinct Black Crowes style of southern rock n roll with the swagger of the Rolling Stones which makes many think that bigger success might not be far off in the distance for the group.

That brings us around to Sweet Mama; their latest record and the band's first for Universal Music Canada. According to affable vocalist and rhythm guitarist Sebastien Plante, the new record feels like a rebirth in some ways even though the group is approaching 20 years together.

"Sweet Mama is our first truly produced effort as well as being our first record for Universal. To be completely honest with you, it is the record we have wanted to make for years. We're also very lucky that we're getting such a great response so far; it is such a great feeling at this point in our career. It is great to have another shot at success."

Helping the group work towards achieving their vision was producer Gordie Johnson, formerly of Big Sugar and current leader of Grady. Plante has nothing but the highest regard for Johnson:

"We have become really great friends with Gordie. He brought a lot of great ideas to the table while we were making the record and he also helped ensure that my lyrics were proper since English it is my second language," Plante says.

Sweet Mama was recorded partially in Montreal before the band relocated the proceedings to Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studios in Texas. While in Texas, a very special guest stopped by the studio to lend his chops to the record.

And no, it wasn't Nelson himself who dropped in, although Plante admits that the band would have loved to have met the legend.

It turned out to be former Small Faces member Ian McLagan who added piano and organ to four of the tracks on Sweet Mama, including "Sugar". Plante's enthusiasm at the mere mention of McLagan's name has him buzzing down the phone line from Montreal.

"We were talking one day about who we could get to come in and play the keys on short notice. At one point, Gordie casually says 'Let me make a call' and a short time later Ian comes in. It was so amazing!"

Don't miss your chance to catch The Respectables at one of their two upcoming shows in the province. They will be performing at the newly opened Moncton Ale House at 841 Main Street, Moncton on Thursday June 18. They are also playing in Fredericton, taking the stage at the FredRock Festival at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday June 20.

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Halifax native Melanie Doane is hitting the road to continue promotion on her latest record, A Thousand Nights, with an amazing 10 shows scattered throughout the Maritimes over the next couple of weeks. Included among those dates are two New Brunswick shows: Doane is playing the Capitol Theatre in Moncton on Wednesday June 24 while she visits The Blue Olive in Saint John on Friday June 26.

Multi-instrumentalist Doane has had a fruitful career to date, releasing five studio records as well as one live record. Doane has been fortunate enough to experience life as both a major label artist as well as that of an independent artist. Her first album Harvest Train was self-released where for her next two records, she was on board with Sony Music Canada. Those records (Shakespearean Fish & Adam's Rib) help provide exposure to Doane on a national level, with the latter record achieving Gold sales status in Canada for over 50,000 units sold.

"I enjoyed my years with Sony very much," Doane says. "I got the benefit of a big company getting behind my music and it was all very exciting. For now though, I love being in control of every aspect of my music and using the various resources I have available to have a really fun time with it."

Aside from her own career, Doane keeps busy writing and performing with others. She counts herself as a member of actor Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band and has toured Canada both on her own as well as with Barney Bentall and the Bluebird North concert series. Doane has also had her songs featured on hit TV shows like "Flashpoint" and "Brothers and Sisters". Keeping Doane's calendar full doesn't seem to be an issue.

Among the many shows she is slated to play here in Atlantic Canada are a couple of dates at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, Nova Scotia. Doane's upcoming appearances at the festival are fitting, as she shares familial ties with the late folk singer:

"Stan was my cousin. It was really great to grow up with a 'famous cousin' and know that it was possible to be a songwriter in this world. I recall him being at our house a few different times when I was a young kid. His Mom and Dad are who I know best and I mostly remember my big sister and parents coming home elated after his concerts."

With a seemingly constant full plate of activity and a rich musical heritage running in her blood, Melanie Doane could very well be destined for the same infamy which her cousin has found as time goes on. If you're interested in checking out Melanie's concert in either Moncton or Saint John, details are available online at Melanie's site at www.melaniedoane.com.

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Moncton musician Mel Keith has been an integral part of the local music scene over the past decade and on June 9 her newest CD, Mel Keith and The Strombachs is hitting stores nationwide.

One of the first items to note about Keith is the change in her band name. Over the past few years, she has performed under her own name as well as that of The Strombachs. It was a cross-Canada tour she undertook solo which was billed as The Strombachs everywhere she went that prompted the name change.

 

"On many dates of that tour, I would show up to Venue X to play a show by myself and the promoters would more or less be looking for my band," she laughs. "And here in the Maritimes, I play a lot of solo shows, so adding my name in conjunction with that of The Strombachs made sense."

The last record Keith was involved in was in 2004 with songwriting partner Robin Anne Ettles. The duo named themselves The Ettles-Keith Project.

The CD Imitating Hercules was a collection of eclectic songs which were pitched to film and television with some pleasant success: One of the tracks off of that CD as well as one of the songs on the newest disc were placed in surf videos with a production company based out of Australia.

So here we are five years later and Keith is finally getting around to releasing her sophomore record. It's been a long journey for her though.

"I went into the studio and made my record but when we arrived at the mixing stage," she explains, "the engineer had determined that the tracks weren't usable.

"We spent a lot of time trying to make things work and get the situation resolved without having to spend a lot of money rerecording everything. But ultimately, it couldn't be resolved and we more or less ended up having to scrap that record."

Scrapping a record isn't something you hear of often, especially in the world of independent artists. To boot, the scrapped sessions had received grant funding from the Province of New Brunswick, making the situation that much more bitter to swallow.

To Keith's credit though, she doesn't seem bitter about the situation.

"I truly believe that everything happens for a reason," she explains, "and having the opportunity to make the record a second time was good in a few different respects.

"The most noticeable difference between the two recordings is that the first time around, the record had a pop-rock type of vibe to it. When it came time to record again though, it was more of an Americana vibe running through the songs."

Having been described as a meld of Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams, the Americana tag suits Keith well, especially since she is the first to admit that she is inclined to write pop-songs first and foremost.

"When we started making the record again, many of the songs had slightly morphed and evolved from the versions we made the first time around," she says. "Ultimately, it helped me find my own sound, so maybe it was all for the best."

"When I realized that the record was going to be delayed, there was a huge sense of panic," Keith admits, but as time progressed, I realized that I was the one making myself panic.

"Then I worried about the songs sounding dated by the time the record was going to eventually come out and again, I had to take a step back and just be confident that the songs would sound as good two years down the road as they did then."

Ettles produced the artist's new record, wrote one of the songs and co-wrote another track.

She was a most valuable contributor, says Keith, playing all the instruments on the record except for the drums, which were recorded by Al Bourgeois.

"Robin Anne did a stellar job with this record; her guitar solo on 'Don't Walk Away' is fantastic! And I can't say enough about her patience with this project given the delays we faced," Keith says.

Back in February of this year, Keith attended the East Coast Music Awards in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Although Keith admits the environment there is right for the musician who is simply looking to party it up all weekend, she had her battle plan drawn up prior to hitting The Rock.

"Once you decide what you want to get out of the ECMA weekend, it can be a very useful resource," she says.

"I had planned on doing a whole lot of networking and handshaking and that became a reality for me this past year.

"I made a lot of great contacts that I'm in touch with regularly; I also had the luck of being at the right place at the right time on more than one occasion which turned out to be a huge benefit."

Keith's schedule is about to pick up significantly with some touring around the Maritimes this summer and also has a major showcase opportunity coming up with Contact East this coming fall.

Contact East assembles talent buyers from all over Canada, the U.S. as well as the U.K.

Keith and the Strombachs were one of only 45 showcase applicants who had applied for a showcase who are actually receiving one. To be picked to showcase among 200 applications has as much to do with the strong material she brings to the table as it does luck.

This good fortune is not lost on Keith

"I'm thrilled for the opportunity!"

Promotional efforts for the record are starting to ramp up as well. Keith already has one video from the record completed; You Shine was shot and directed by Colleen Furlotte at Moncton's Capitol Theatre while plans are in the works to shoot a video for Don't Walk Away soon.

And as far as Keith is concerned, she has got all the time in the world to promote her new record.

"The record has been so long in the making," she says.

"I will be happy to have it out and grateful for every opportunity we have come our way. Long gone are the days of records having a limited shelf-life."

Limited shelf-life need not be a concern of Keith's. These songs will stand the test of time well and are bound to bring her success, whether it be one month after the record's release or one year.

After all, good things do come to those who wait.

The Mel Keith and The Strombachs CD is on Keith's own MerleSong Records, distributed by Fontana North/Universal Music Canada and is being launched by the band Thursday June 11 at the Empress Theatre, located behind the Capitol Theatre on Main Street in Moncton.

There's a parking lot behind the Capitol and the Empress entrance is off adjoining Robinson Court. Admission is free! The celebration runs from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Visit www.capitol.nb.ca for more information.

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Vancouver rock songstress Bif Naked has been out of the spotlight for the past few years but they have been anything but normal downtime for the artist.

After spending an almost solid two years on the road promoting her last record Superbeautifulmonster, Ms. Naked (nee Beth Torbert) married sports writer Ian Walker in Vancouver in September 2007.

The happy couple's wedding vows were almost immediately put to a test when in January 2008, Naked was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The fact that Naked is the epitome of health, working out regularly and leading a vegan lifestyle left her fans stunned once her diagnosis was made public.

But with her strong personality and determination to kick cancer's ass, Naked not only underwent treatment to battle the disease, she also did the (almost) unthinkable by starting to make a new record during the course of her treatment.

"I am still going through treatments for my cancer," Naked confirms, "but I was not going to let it stop me from making a new record. It was like, come hell or high water, I was getting a record made."

So in the midst of 17 rounds of chemotherapy treatment and radiation treatment through the fall of 2008, she found the strength to make a new record (The Promise), which was released on May 5.

"Overall, recording was a great experience," Naked shares. "We had a studio set up just up the road from where I live so I'd shuffle there in my slippers and give it all I had.

"Some days were great; I'd last all day without any problems and other days, I'd barely last an hour before I would have to return home."

Although I am certain that Naked did not lack perspective on what is important in life, her battle with cancer certainly helped deepen that understanding of the world around her.

"When I was in my 20s, I went to India to see where I was born and got a real perspective of the Third World," she says. "THAT changed me forever. But really, everyone has their own bag of shit they carry; everybody does.

"I truly feel bad for the people who walk around the world unaware. I think they are really missing out on thoroughly enjoying life and simple things like sharing an organic apple with their kids."

If there is one thing that is certain, it is that Naked is still firmly in control of her career.

Although her label has changed distribution homes on occasion, her label has now shacked up with Fontana North whose parent company is Universal Music Canada.

"My label has evolved and morphed and has allowed me to sustain my career all these years," she explains.

"It has been and always will be an artist driven endeavor. We've been really lucky in terms of the labels we have worked with in the past and are excited to now be a part of the Fontana world."

Her label, Her Royal Majesty Records, has evolved indeed and now finds itself amid the International Arts Music label, which is also home to rapper DMX and Canadian country star Jaydee Bixby.

Even with such gargantuan challenges behind her, she sounds as though she hasn't skipped a beat on her new record. The piss and vinegar that has played such an integral role in her songs looms largely in many of her new songs as well.

The enthusiastic tone of Naked's voice takes a very cute turn when talk turns to married life.

"I was diagnosed just a few weeks after my honeymoon and I will tell you, there is no better crash course for getting to know your spouse than going through a challenge like what we endured.

"Ian and I are best friends and I think my battle served as an integral part of deepening our relationship. I am so very happy that we were able to successfully navigate an illness like this and emerge with an even deeper bond."

Ken Kelley is a music reporter for [here] magazine. In conversation with ... is an ongoing feature chatting with some of North America's most relevant artists.

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If there is one thing that can be said about the fans of Atlanta's Butch Walker it's that we are a dedicated bunch. Any fans of Walker will gladly preach to anybody who will listen about how brilliant and clever of a pop/power-pop songwriter Walker is.

His latest record Sycamore Meadows was released in November 2008 on independent label Original Signal Recordings, his first for the label after having recorded two criminally under-promoted records for Sony Music.

Walker is far from being a solitary man by striking out on his own to seek better fortune that what could be offered by a major label. This new path he ventured down led him to create the website www.therecordbusinessisfucked.com (which currently redirects visitors to Walker's primary website) which according to many wouldn't be all that far removed from the truth.

So does Walker truly believe the music business is that messed up?

"I mean it playfully but it is positively said as well. I think that the way bands and musicians are doing things now is more do-it-yourself then it's ever been and I'm pretty excited about that," he says. "The control is being taken away from people who really don't know what they are doing or what to do with artists nowadays. And incidentally, the quality of music coming out is shooting through the roof; people are getting the opportunity to hear stuff that would have never had the chance to be heard otherwise. The kids finally have a choice of what they want to hear; they can seek it out for themselves and are taking that power back instead of being told what to listen to by some old dude in a suit."

If there is one fact that becomes immediately clear in my conversation with Walker, not only is he extremely humble but he also makes it known that he is in this business for the long haul. Although he has yet to really strike gold as a musician, he has built a more than respectable name for himself as a producer. In the past five years, Walker has found much success producing artists as diverse as Katy Perry, Pink, Hot Hot Heat and Avril Lavigne.

This success in producing artists no doubt helps Walker pay the bills and allows him the opportunity to pursue his own musical career in his free time. Walker has experienced a degree of success as a musician; his previous band Marvelous 3 had a minor hit with their 1998 song "Freak Of The Week" however while speaking to Walker, it becomes evident that he is striving for longevity rather than just 15 minutes of fame:

"When you look at bands like The Flaming Lips or Radiohead, bands that haven't had a 'hit' on radio and video for quite some time but continue to build their fan base regardless, that's what I am hoping to achieve," he admits. "I think I'm in a good position but nowhere near as popular as either of those bands. I am very satisfied with the dedicated fans I have; I take a lot of comfort knowing I will have fans out at my shows at almost any city I visit."

Walker's profile as a musician is indeed continuing to rise. This past February, he made his national TV debut on the Ellen DeGeneres show, performing his latest single "Here Comes The"¦" with his good pal Pink. Walker says that he doesn't know of anybody who would dare turn down such a huge opportunity for exposure and remarked that the inevitable sales bump that happened the week after his appearance was a nice little perk as well.

The past few years haven't been a complete walk in the park for Walker though. In November of 2007, wildfires in the State of California destroyed Walker's home (which was located on Sycamore Meadows), taking with it his possessions, years of memorabilia and master recordings that cannot be replaced. But even in the face of this adversity, Walker hasn't let his previous misfortune drive him away from the state:

"I'm still out at the beach in California," Walker confirms. "It is so peaceful, I love it. I live in the country in a shack with a bunch of surfer guys who don't ask me too many questions about my day job. Plus there is a recording studio in Santa Monica which I just took over and am really excited about the opportunity to make more music."

Walker is slated to perform some West Coast US dates and will soon after be heading to Japan and Australia where Sycamore Meadows will soon be released. And apparently, he plans to put his newly purchased studio to good use as well.

"I'm going to start making a new record at the start of June and am hoping to have it completed and released for the big American tour that we will likely undertake in the fall," Walker says.

"Lucky for me, I'm not too in demand at the moment so I can work on my own schedule."

Hopefully Walker's good luck in producing successful songs starts to shift over to his own music career before long. He is really one of this decade's best kept pop musical treasures that will leave you wondering why he isn't a huge rock star by now.

Sycamore Meadows is in stores now and is also available online at most major retailers like Amazon.com and iTunes.

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In stores now is a wonderful 14-track compilation entitled Atlantic Voices. Released by Warner Music Canada, the compilation features some of the Atlantic region's finest female singers and songwriters, including Moncton's Julie Doiron, Meaghan Smith and Catherine MacLellan. 

Overseeing the compilation is John Poirier, the Atlantic Regional Manager for Warner Music. Poirier is far from a novice in the business; he has put his good ear for music to great use in the past, having also overseen the Atlantic Standards Series released earlier this decade. The two Atlantic Standards volumes of music that have been released to date focused on more traditional east coast music with bands like The Barra MacNeils, Great Big Sea and The Rankins among many others. Atlantic Voices isn't rooted so much in tradition as it serves to simply give some great songs broader exposure.

In addition to having selected the artists for Atlantic Voices, Poirier also sequenced the record as well as serving as the project's art director.

"Atlantic Voices was created in order to expose the incredible diversity of musical talent originating from Atlantic Canada," Poirier explains. "Every one of these songs can stand up to anything offered by other artists in the rest of the country; every single track on the record is stellar."

Atlantic Voices contains a broad cross-section of music, from Sherry Ryan's organ-guitar classic "Leave The Lights On" through Ruth Minnikin's melodic song "Depend On This", there is something sure to please everyone on this record. And it will also show that the east coast has a vibrant singer-songwriter contingent to show off to the rest of the country.

Jenn Grant, whose track "Sailing By Silverships" is featured on the record, is also responsible for the Atlantic Voices cover artwork. She agrees with Poirier's above statement and adds:

"The record is a great celebration of East Coast music and songwriters. A lot of my good friends are featured on the record and it's a lot of fun for all of us to be brought together like this."

Grant then took the opportunity to explain the inspiration behind the cover art:

"Around the time I was working on the artwork for Atlantic Voices, I had been doing some carving with wood, so I decided to try that again for this project. I wanted the face to project a symbol of power and beauty while I wanted to be sure to include water as one of the representations of living on the east coast.

"Rebecca Kraatz designed the cover artwork for Joel Plaskett's Ashtray Rock CD, which I really loved, and it served as an indirect inspiration on this work of mine, as well."

Christina Martin, whose track "Two Hearts" is on the disc, takes the importance of the compilation a step further saying, "I think it's an honour to be on the compilation with these women. It is always a challenge to get your music out to people and Atlantic Voices serves as a great opportunity to get our music out to more people.

"These types of compilations also allow us to reach other markets that we might not have been able to otherwise reach."

Martin acknowledges that breaking out of any music scene can be a tough go for anybody however seeing some of her friends making a full-time go of it inspired her to leave her full-time job and pursue music as well.

"I was really inspired by Rose Cousins; to see her make the move, quit her job and turn to music full-time was great. That inspired me," Martin admits. "I had been playing music for years and never thought it possible to do it full time. But then I started seeing others like Jill Barber make it happen for themselves and figured that there was no reason why I couldn't do it too!"

Indeed there is a bevy of talent waiting to be discovered as well as those needing your support. So pick yourself up a copy of Atlantic Voices and tune yourself into some amazing homegrown talent.

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Chicago heavy metal band Disturbed are headed to the Maritimes for their inaugural visit next week with shows slated for Moncton and Halifax. Brought together by a common love for classic heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, they have gone on to sell over nine million record thanks to hits like "Down With The Sickness", "Stricken" and their cover of Genesis track "Land Of Confusion".

If there is one genre of music that has had staying power over the past 20 years, it would be heavy metal. Regardless of musical fads that weave their way in and out of public consciousness, bands like Slipknot, Metallica and Disturbed can be counted upon to head straight to the top of the charts whenever a new record hits stores.

Disturbed guitarist Dan Donegan is proud of this fact, stating:

"There is a fan base that has always been there for heavy metal and I think that's a big reason behind its staying power," he begins. "Metal fans are always looking for something with substance; the music is like therapy for them, it's like a release.

As a band, we stay true to what we do and don't second guess ourselves. I think what has really helped our career is the fact we love to play live and try to incorporate the crowd as much as we can in our live show."

On the band's website, Disturbed have launched "The Bootleg Series", where three to five days after they perform in any given city, fans are given the opportunity to purchase the concert which they attended.

"Rather than have our fans have to settle for subpar quality audio recordings, we wanted to offer a degree of quality control over the product and this allows us to do that," Donegan explains. "We wanted to give our fans something to remember the shows by."

To date, Donegan says the bootleg series is audio-only but admits that the band has started giving thoughts to releasing a video retrospective which would incorporate footage from the road among other features.

"We have a couple of videographers with us on the road and we have been trying to record as many shows as we can. Right now, we have a lot of video footage that we plan on using to help document the first 10 years of the band.

"This tour has been great so far, it's been a very good run. The downturn in the economy is hitting everyone though," Donegan concedes, stating that their shows in some of the US markets have been better than others. "With the Music As A Weapon tour, we're trying to put together a festival environment type of tour to help give people more value for their dollar."

The Music As A Weapon tour, which also features Killswitch Engage and Lacuna Coil among others, is wrapping up dates in the US prior to Disturbed hitting Canadian shores.

Joining the band for their shows in Canada are All That Remains (whom Donegan said he is 'dying to see'), Skindred, as well as Vancouver's Art of Dying.

Indeed, if there is one thing Disturbed know well, it is life on the road. A quick glance of the tour date archive on their website at www.disturbed1.com shows the word "break" doesn't exist in their lexicon. By the time the group wraps up this leg of their tour at the start of July in Europe, they will have been on the road for well over two months.

"We come home on the Fourth of July," Donegan starts, "and for the first time in a long time, we are going to get to enjoy some of the summer at home."

Disturbed's break might last one whole month until August, when Donegan says he expects that they will re-group and begin the writing process for a new record.

"Our drummer Mike Wengren and his wife are expecting a baby in November. I would like to have a good head start on writing new material before Mike becomes a Dad and that brutal Chicago winter sets in," he says. "I expect recording our new record will start sometime in January 2010."

If history has taught us anything, that still to be recorded Disturbed record will find a home near the top of the charts upon release and can be expected to be followed by the group's endless touring schedule. After speaking with Donegan though, you know they wouldn't want it any other way.

Disturbed along with their special guests will be performing at the Moncton Coliseum on Friday May 29. Tickets for the show are available from the Moncton Coliseum Box Office at (506) 857-4100 and online at http://tickets.moncton.ca

Back in 1998, life really couldn't have been much better for the members of the Texan power-pop band Fastball. After an indifferent reception to their 1996 debut record, their 1998 sophomore album All The Pain Money Can Buy launched them onto the charts in a big way. Their hits "The Way", "Fire Escape" and "Out of My Head", helped the group sell over a million copies of that second record before they would be unfairly banished to "Where are they now?" status with their follow-up efforts.

Truth be told, Fastball don't really have a dud record in their arsenal of five studio records. While some bands veer from their original vision and make their arty record or their noisy record or what have you, Fastball have always stood by what got them to where they were: creating witty, irresistible pop songs in the retro vein of The Beatles while still appealing to fans of modern power-pop groups like Fountains of Wayne.

Luckily for their fans, the group has re-emerged with a terrific new record (Little White Lies) and a new outlook on a business that can jade even the most seasoned veterans.

Little White Lies is the band's first studio record in five years. According to Fastball guitarist and vocalist Miles Zuniga, it was a much-needed break for all concerned:

"After Keep Your Wig On (the group's 2004 record), the band wasn't in the best of places," Zuniga starts. "Our label at the time wasn't helping matters; there were some issues with our management plus we had some stuff to work out between us in the band. We knew that we were going to have to look at restructuring ourselves so to speak and at the time, we weren't ready to do it. But for the sake of the band, we agreed to walk away from Fastball for a period of time and let the dust settle."

So what did Zuniga do to fill his unexpected downtime?

"I ended up playing in bands with some other people which ended up making me appreciate my colleagues in Fastball a lot more. I had fun but realized that a lot of people aren't as dedicated as the guys in this band and I'm very fortunate to have that."

One noted change with Fastball's latest record is the fact that it is an independent release for the group after having recorded records for both Disney-owned Hollywood Records and noted independent label Rykodisc. Does the band feel liberated to have cut ties with labels as many of their peers are also choosing this route over signing with major labels?

"Being in control is a great thing," Zuniga acknowledges. "There are some downsides, the major one being that we have fewer resources available at our fingertips "" we've got to work a little harder for them, that's all. That being said, just because you're on a big label doesn't mean you get to use their all of their resources though. It's all based on sales so if you've got a lot happening for your band, the more doors that open within the label for you."

Zuniga is quick to point out that in terms of stability, their tenure at Hollywood Records was the most stable the band had experienced:

"A lot of people within the music industry are always on the lookout for better opportunities so you tend to have a lot of personnel change-over and that can affect the promotional efforts behind your record as well," he says. "One reason we had parted ways with Hollywood was because our A&R man had left the label and encouraged us to head over to Rykodisc with him. We thought he was a cool guy and we felt as though Ryko would have our backs, much like Hollywood did but soon after we had handed our record in, a number of things had changed internally at Ryko. The label ended up getting a new President and although no one would necessarily say it, the feeling was that the 'new' Rykodisc President hadn't signed us so the support for Keep Your Wig On wasn't there from the get-go."

It's not all bad news for the band though. One positive aspect that has developed within the group over their past two records is that the songwriting process has become more collaborative. In the past, each member claimed credit for what they brought to the band in terms of songs. Zuniga acknowledged that although Fastball hadn't experienced any adverse feelings towards one another over who racked up the most hits, the potential for negative feelings working their way into a group over an issue like this is very real.

So with one 1-million selling record to their credit, does Zuniga concern himself with reaching that apex again with Fastball?

" ... I think it is a pipe dream to think we'll be huge again. I think if you've got the right marketing behind you, you can sell anything; it doesn't necessarily make it good though.

"The reality of the situation is that we've been away from people's minds for the past five years so all we can do is take it one day at a time. We're content with that for the time being."

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Moncton punk rock band The Motorleague has been growing their fan base in New Brunswick and throughout the Maritimes based on the strength of their live show and their melodic, high-energy songs.

The group is getting ready to celebrate the release of their first full-length record Black Noise, which hits stores nationwide May 19.

For their brand-new record, The Motorleague find themselves associated with Fredericton's Forward Music Group.

Although they were intending to release the record independently, Forward stepped up to the plate and offered to lend the band their expertise to make sure maximum listeners will be exposed to the group. "It's fantastic because it feels like we have a team working on the record and pushing the record on our behalf," says vocalist/guitarist Don Levandier.

"The label has a library of resources and contacts that we wouldn't have had access to. Plus, having our record associated to a label will help it be taken more seriously by those who don't know the group.

"Going with Forward seemed like the most logical way to help bring the band to the next level."

With distribution through indie distribution powerhouse Sonic Unyon in Hamilton, Ont., not only will this be The Motorleague's first full-length release but it will also be the first national release for the group.

Forward is home to many other New Brunswick bands, but The Motorleague's record sees the label moving away from the perception it being jam-band oriented.

Guitarist Nathan Jones concurs, stating: "I think our record is definitely outside of the Forward norm to date in terms of expanding the diversity of the genres on their label.

"I think that James (Boyle, label owner) doesn't want Forward to be pigeon-holed into a certain type of band or sound."

Black Noise was recorded in June 2008 in Toronto at the famed Chemical Sound studio where others such as Death From Above 1979 and The Weakerthans made records before them.

Ian Blurton, current front man for Canadian rock band C'mon, oversaw the proceedings in the role of producer.

Although The Motorleague and C'mon have shared many concert stages in the past, this was the first instance where the group had a chance to work with Blurton in a different capacity.

"Ian had us try a number of things on this record that were different from what we were used to," says Levandier.

Asked to elaborate, Levandier said Blurton eliminated him doubling his vocal tracks while also adding other instruments like the trumpet on Hymn For The Newly Departed to help flush out the sound.

"I wasn't a fan of the trumpet in the beginning," admits Levandier, "but the more and more I heard it, the more I got used to it. Now, I can't picture it not being in the song."

In addition to having a new record to release, the group also has a video for their song Hymn For The Newly Departed being shown on the night of their CD release at the Paramount Lounge.

The video was shot at the neighboring Manhattan Bar and Grill one Sunday afternoon in March.

Moncton video company The Postman, which normally does work for the CBC and Radio-Canada, shot the video and this marks the company's first foray into the field of music videos.

"It was a long day," recalls Jones. "We went in at 9 a.m. and walked out of there at 9:30 that night. The extras in the video were at the bar for over eight hours and we ended up shooting footage for six and a half of those hours."

"We were lucky enough to have 50 of our friends come down and hang out for the day for nothing more than pizza," rejoins Levandier.

"They simply came just to hang out and see everything go down. It was incredible."

With music channels playing fewer and fewer music videos with each passing day, some might argue that investing time and even the smallest amount of money into one is like flushing money down the drain.

"We realize that stations like Muchmusic don't seem to play much in the way of music videos anymore but we will submit it to them nonetheless," says Jones.

"What do we have to lose?"

Levandier jumps in to complete the thought:

"YouTube is the dominant format for videos these days; iTunes is selling music videos; people post videos on Facebook.

"There are so many other outlets which can be just as effective and give the band exposure that if Muchmusic don't pick up the video for rotation, it's not going to be a big defeat or anything."

"I think that people will be surprised when they see the final cut," agrees Jones.

"From what I've seen, it looks really cool."

With a brand new record and video in the can, the next logical question for the band would be what kind of touring and promotional efforts they are going to put into the record.

"We are aiming to tour as much as possible without having to quit our jobs," says Levandier, which echoes the reality faced by many bands throughout the country.

"Our expectations for the record are realistic though; Forward would love us to go across Canada and I would love to do it. I'm also really interested in trying to get the band to Europe for a tour."

"That's another definite perk coming from our relationship with Forward," says Jones.

"They have artists who have toured where we would like to find ourselves touring . . . that brings their contacts (to our) shows.

"We are also very lucky in that we have had other bands like White Cowbell Oklahoma and The Real Mckenzies tell us that if we plan on heading to Europe, they have recommendations they can pass along to us in terms of clubs to play and clubs to avoid. We're incredibly lucky to have such great people to rely upon."

Fans of The Motorleague will have two chances to help them celebrate the release of Black Noise on Friday May 8: The first show is an early, all-ages affair to be held at Moncton's Aberdeen Cultural Centre on Botsford Street with a start-time of 6 p.m.

The second show that night is a licensed show at the Paramount Lounge on Main Street in Moncton.

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After criss-crossing Canada a whopping four times over 18 months starting in 2006, Moncton honky-tonkers The Divorcees are all set to launch their stellar new record Last Of The Free Men on May 5.

 

The group has their CD release party scheduled for May 1 at the Oxygen Club in Moncton as well shows planned on May 8 in Fredericton at the Capital Bar and a May 21 show in Saint John at 3 Mile's Club Monte Carlo.

The group "" singer guitarist Alex Madsen, guitarists Danny Roy and J Byrd, bassist Denis "Turtle" Arsenault and drummer Brock Gallant "" won the 2008 East Coast Music Award for Country Album Of The Year.

This was no small feat for the group, considering they were up against East Coast heavyweights like George Canyon and Jimmy Rankin, among others.

Gallant said that the band started pre-production for their new record in Moncton.

Producer Josh Finlayson (The Skydiggers) flew in to the city to help them fine-tune their songs prior to hitting the studio.

"The demo sessions with Josh went extremely well; we ended up only having to do two second-takes on all of the demos," Gallant says.

Once the band got into The Tragically Hip's Bathouse Studios to make the actual record, the group was faced with a case of the 'red-light scaries.'

Things started getting a little tense when the group found they were having trouble translating the easy-going nature of their demos to the final product.

By day two, though, it was a much more relaxed situation with Gallant giving credit to Finlayson for bringing the group together.

"Josh had an incredible calming effect on us," Gallant admits.

"He kept us focused through the duration of recording and what was cool is that he made one-on-one time with each band member to discuss their roles and parts. He was truly the perfect producer to keep us from tripping over our own feet."

With their sleeping accommodations located just upstairs from where they recorded, the group pulled their new record together in a mere 14 days.

According to Gallant, getting away to Kingston, Ontario allowed the band to focus solely on the task of making a new record.

"We had discussed recording in Halifax and traveling back and forth to Moncton every once in awhile for breaks but we ultimately decided that getting out of the Maritimes was a must so that we could be totally immersed in the record and not have those outside distractions."

And according to Gallant, Paul Langlois, one of the guitarists from the Hip, was very accommodating in helping make sure the band had the right instruments to suit the recording.

"He totally didn't hesitate about going into his band's collection of guitars and basses and having us try all kinds of different instruments until we found the right sound, depending on what suited the song. He was fantastic!"

So it's safe to say that the band had a pleasurable experience making their latest record.

But one area that Gallant admits the band is currently struggling with is the 'country' label bestowed upon them.

"As a band, we believe what we are playing is country music but to others, it's almost as though we exist amongst the underbelly of country," he starts.

"It's one big reason why we tend to label ourselves as 'hardcore honky-tonk'. There are such negative connotations with the country genre outside of the genre itself; we don't know how comfortable we are being labeled as country music.

"At many of our shows, we get approached by someone who says that they don't like country music but that they like us, which we take as a compliment.

"In our live show, we try to build that relationship with the audience and sometimes the show ends up being more of a rock show than anything else. The country tag ends up being kind of a dirty word."

Tying directly into the band's feeling alienated from the country music genre is one unusual instance the group found themselves in on a recent tour stop in Calgary.

The bar the group played that was steeped in country history and even included a saddle from Gene Autry amongst the memorabilia.

Over two nights, the band played to more than 2,000 people but when it came time to book a return visit, the club told them that they wouldn't be able to have them back.

"Some members of the club management felt that the group's brand of country wasn't accessible enough for their crowd," says Gallant.

"Where we didn't fall back on modern country and cover some modern 'hits', they decided it was in their best interests to cut ties with the band for the future."

As I picked my jaw up off the floor after him having shared that story, Brock and I discussed how modern country radio and TV ignores those responsible for the genre itself.

I've long lamented that true country talent like Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson couldn't get arrested by country media outlets these days.

This perhaps explains the fact that these artists are finding homes among non-typical country music labels and are more likely to receive airplay from Americana radio than anywhere else. It is a fact that is not lost on Gallant.

"Joel Stewart at CMT Canada has been a great help to the band although he makes no qualms in stating that he doesn't know where The Divorcees fit in among other CMT artists," he says.

If you were to sit down and watch CMT for a solid hour during the run of the day, chances are you would see very little of what I would consider to be true country music, at least in the same vein as The Divorcees.

Modern country music is more akin to light rock than anything else, although there are some obvious exceptions, as singer Alex Madsen notes.

"Here in Canada I would say artists like Tim Hus and Corb Lund set a great standard," he says, "as does Romi Mayes, Ryan Cook, and others involved with the grassroots Canadiana movement. In the United States, there are artists like Dale Watson, who are simply fantastic, as is Hayes Carll.

"Jamey Johnson has made a huge impact in the US country business, being an outlaw who has managed to cross over into the mainstream market. Marty Stuart is a great preserver of all things country, too; I hold him in high regard."

The best that the band can hope for at this point in their careers is to keep fighting the good fight and to win fans over one at a time.

"Is it gratifying that Trace Adkins stood up in front of 60,000 people and said 'I like what The Divorcees are about'? Incredibly so," Gallant notes with pride.

"Does it help that a few writers from The Times & Transcript felt that we had one of the best performances of the day at the 2007 Tim Mcgraw-Faith Hill show at Magnetic Hill? Of course it does. It helps to validate what we are doing as a band and there is no one prouder than ourselves, no matter what the future may bring."

On Friday May 1, The Divorcees will officially launch their new album Last Of The Free Men at Oxygen Nightclub, Westmorland St in Moncton.

Their special guest for the show is Samantha Robichaud.

Advance tickets are $10 and are available at The Manhattan Bar and Grill. Tickets will also be available at the door at a cost of $12.50.

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Halifax native Joel Plaskett's music career is building momentum with each successive release.

His 2007 record Ashtray Rock garnered him a remarkable six East Coast Music Awards and was also in the running for the annual Canadian Polaris Music Prize.

He is out promoting a new record (the recently released Three) which is sure to bring him even more success.

The first time I made contact via phone with Plaskett for this article I had the misfortune of waking him up although, he said his alarm had sounded at the exact same time I called.

Even though he sounded a tad groggy, Plaskett did his best to make me not feel guilty about having stirred him from sleep.

"I just need 15 minutes," he said. "Can you call me back?"

How could I possibly say no to such a nice guy?

I first met Joel Plaskett in the early 1990s when our respective bands were slugging it out in the trenches (a term I use loosely) of the Maritime Music Scene.

Basking in the glow brought to the region by bands like Sloan and Eric's Trip, our bands might have chosen different musical paths but we identified with each other if only because we were all essentially the same age.

But more on Plaskett's history in just one moment.

A short 15 minutes later, I reach Plaskett again and began an insightful and delightful 45-minute conversation with one of the East Coast's best talents.

Joel Plaskett together with Rob Benvie and Ian McGettigan formed pre-high school group Nabisco Fonzie.

They then changed their band name to The Hoods before deciding on the name Thrush Hermit in 1991.

For a band who played their first show at the Shearwater Yacht Club for a pizza, they would go on to share the stage with bands like Urge Overkill, Guided By Voices and Redd Kross, as well as being mentored by Halifax compatriots Sloan while also scoring a major label deal with Elektra Records.

After releasing their triumphant Clayton Park record in 1999, the band called it quits at the top of their game, much to the disappointment of fans everywhere.

"Rob had decided that he didn't want to do it anymore but there was also a divide in terms of the direction of the band, which was changing," Plaskett says of the split.

"If I look back on the situation now, I could have seen it coming but after Rob made his decision, Ian and I more or less decided that it should be the end of Thrush Hermit if Rob wasn't involved since it was the three of us who started the band."

Deciding to pack it in when fans feel a band is really coming into their own is quite the courageous decision. Did Plaskett ever feel worried about what the future would bring?

"I definitely remember thinking 'This is a drag, where do I go from here?'" Plaskett starts . . . before qualifying that he had already started amassing songs for his solo work.

Plaskett's debut solo effort In Need Of Medical Attention was actually completed prior to his group's final record coming out.

"We all had musical interests outside of Thursh Hermit," Plaskett continues, "and it wasn't an acrimonious split by any means. Looking back upon it now, the music is almost less important than the experience and all that we learned."

Indeed, there were fond memories for Plaskett from his days with Thrush Hermit but one can't discount that it must have also helped shape exactly what he wanted from his solo career.

"Absolutely, Thrush Hermit helped me define what I wanted the next time around and that was to front a band as a singer instead of being one quarter of a bigger unit," he says.

"Being part of a democracy was cool but I realized that I wanted to be in control. That being said, I love the collaboration aspect of my work with The Emergency (who serve as Plaskett's backing band); we felt like a band right away so it's like the best-case scenario all around."

For those who have not had the good fortune to see Joel Plaskett perform live, he is one of the Maritimes' most charismatic front men. The girls love him and there is no shortage of musicians who would kill to be him.

This natural charm combined with the killer pop songs he pens make for a potentially lethal combination.

While he had a core audience from the beginning of his solo career, his fan base grew exponentially after his song Nowhere With You became a Top 10 hit at Adult Contemporary Radio, as well as being prominently featured in a Zellers commercial.

It all builds a seemingly perfect storm of publicity for Three, his newest and most ambitious record to date comprised of three CDs of nine songs each.

You read that right. In a day and age where the single is king and the album format is dying a painful death, Plaskett delivers 27 songs with nary a stinker among them; a remarkable feat for any musician.

What is even more remarkable is that Plaskett had originally worked on 33 songs for the record, leaving fans to wonder when they will have the fortune of hearing those 'missing' six songs?

"I actually only have the bed tracks for three of those six songs," Plaskett says. "The other three are fully completed and were originally going to be included on the record but I ended up cutting them off to help avoid some repetition and tighten the record up some."

The tracks appearing on Three were recorded by Plaskett himself in his home studio and although the members who comprise the Emergency appear throughout the record, this is by-and-large a Joel Plaskett record as opposed to a Joel Plaskett Emergency album.

Helping give Three its homey, intimate appeal is fellow Haligonian Rose Cousins, Brooklyn native Ana Egge and Plaskett's father Bill, a longtime musician himself.

All three musicians will be accompanying Plaskett at his upcoming shows in New Brunswick as well as the shows in Western Canada.

So in other words, longtime Plaskett fans attending his upcoming shows will be treated to a low-key but intimate performance of both new material and nuggets from his past.

"For these shows, I'm going to be doing a two-set acoustic show and along with my material, we're going to be incorporating some of Ana's and Rose's songs," Plaskett tells me.

So with his stock rising across the country, do the Maritimes have to concern themselves with losing Plaskett to a big city like Toronto or Vancouver?

Not too likely, according to the musician.

"I like the Maritimes because it's familiar, low key and relatively affordable," he says. "In Dartmouth, I can turn music off, zone out and get away from it if I need to, which isn't so easy to do in a big city like Toronto.

"I like the fact there's a music industry here but it's a lot less present in everyday life; even the most commercial musical artists on this end of the country give off a vibe that they're playing music because they want to and not solely for chasing fame.

"As big as Halifax is, it is still a small-town feeling out here and it's easy to see when people's intentions are wrong."

Level headed, polite and grounded; there is no doubt that no matter how successful Plaskett is with his music, he is a Maritimer through and through.

Joel Plaskett will be performing at The Fredericton Playhouse April 22; at Saint John's Imperial Theatre April 23 and at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton April 24. Ticket information is available from each specific venue.

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Halifax musician Meaghan Smith is living a dream.

While many musicians can only dream of being able to carve a living out of making music, the past few years have been kind to her and helped enable her to do pursue this as a full-time option.

She has also spent a fair amount of time touring and will be performing at the Moncton Coliseum as the opening act for KD Lang on Friday, April 17. 

Smith's most recent release is The Cricket's Quartet, a four-song EP/DVD combination package that hit store shelves on April 7 a few months after its online release.

The EP is merely a tease of greater things to come from Smith.

Reaching back to the 1930s and '40s era of music, Smith's voice is truly captivating whether singing ballads such as Drifted Apart and I Know or tackling the big band sound on If You Asked Me.

Smith explained the reason behind the formerly online-exclusive release:

"Ultimately, I wanted to have something to sell and to tour behind. I'm relatively unknown and I wanted to have a good way to introduce myself to people.

"I'm also an animator and wanted the DVD included for the visual aspect and interpretation of my songs. By releasing the video and music package together, I thought it would help give fans a little more insight into who I am."

Shortly after having her song 5 More Minutes placed in the TV show Grey's Anatomy, Smith signed a major label record deal with Sire Records out of the United States.

With many artists choosing to go the "indie" route these days, Smith didn't take her decision to sign with a major label lightly, stating:

"I had considered going out on my own but when I started hearing from labels and what they could do for me, I had to consider it as an option.

Signing with a major label isn't for everybody but for the amount of people I want to reach, I want to be established and can't really do that on my own," Smith says.

"I need a label that can invest money and time in me but that also have people that can work my record and help me make my career and what I want it to be.

"There is no question that Sire has contacts that I wouldn't have access to otherwise. Record labels are slowly changing with the times and I think now more than ever, labels are realizing that artists are an investment and are being really careful with who they sign and are looking for longevity out of the artists they are signing."

Given her fantastic music, business smarts, level head and dynamic personality, Smith should have no trouble finding staying power amongst the masses.

Meaghan Smith will be the opening act for KD Lang at her stop at the Moncton Coliseum on Friday April 17. Information on the show can be obtained by calling the Coliseum at (506) 857-4100; online at www.monctoncoliseum.com. Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.moncton.ca.

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Let's get things straight right off the bat: Rising Canadian country music group One More Girl is actually comprised of two girls, not one.

 

But don't be fooled by the relatively young ages of band members and siblings 19-year-old Carly McKillip and Britt McKillip, 18.

When the girls checked in with me, they were a half-hour late reaching me by phone. Could this be a sign of success getting to their heads?

Hardly. I did my best to feign anger when Carly called to check in; she immediately apologized for the tardy phone call:

"We're driving to Regina and the cellular coverage isn't the best."

Okay, that sounds like a plausible excuse.

With my 'anger' dissipated, Carly laughed when I told her that if our line was unexpectedly disconnected, I would just make up the remainder of the interview and run that for the article on the group.

The fact she's a good sport with this scores her many make-up points for the late phone call. Nice play, McKillip.

Even before the McKillip girls were born, they were bound to have music running through their veins. The McKillip siblings' father is Tom, a musician and producer who has been in the business for more than 30 years backing artists like Lisa Brokop and Tom Jackson.

So it would seem natural for his offspring to become involved in music but before the girls would find their way in the music world they would take a brief detour into acting.

"Essentially, we started singing as soon as we could talk," Carly explains. "But acting kind of fell into our laps.

"We had a babysitter who was an actress herself that got us hooked up with an agent who is still our agent today."

Carly admits that their parents were obviously not looking to get the girls into acting at such a young age (Carly was four years old, her sister three) however their early start no doubt helped pave the way for some of their more recent acting endeavors.

Britt appeared in the critically acclaimed show Dead Like Me while Carly has most recently appeared in the CTV series Alice, I Think.

On the music side of the equation, things aren't looking too shabby for the group, either.

They currently find themselves in the opening slot on 20 dates with fellow Canuck Johnny Reid, which will see the group travel from Alberta right through to the Maritimes.

And on top of that, the girls have an upcoming release of their debut record Big Sky on May 26 to look forward to. It's certainly a lot for the duo to look forward to.

"Part of me wished that our record was going to be in stores for the dates with Johnny that we are doing now," Carly said.

"But we made the decision to hold off the release date and I'm happy we did so now. It gives us the opportunity to create a little more of a buzz around the record's release."

The sisters have already released one single from Big Sky (I Can Love Anyone) and are getting ready to have their second single Misery Loves Company serviced to radio and to video outlets like CMT soon.

So what does the future hold for the group once the dates with Johnny Reid wrap up?

"We are hoping for a busy summer with a lot of festival dates," said Britt. "Things seem to be getting busier for us all the time so that's definitely a positive sign. Our schedule is filling up rather nicely."

Don't miss your chance to catch One More Girl when they perform as the opening act for Johnny Reid at the Moncton Coliseum on April 22 and at Saint John's Harbour Station on April 23.

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