Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

So I’ve started to promote the blog on Myspace, mostly by hitting up bands and adding them as friends.  (www.myspace.com/bigrockfinish) I fully admit in that I’m cheating and using an automated system, I can’t help it, the idea of sitting and clicking over and over again on the “Add Friend” logo on band pages sounds daunting, especally since bands usually have their music in the myspace player, which has a tendancy to crash my browser. (I will be getting a new, less-crashable computer soon!)
The response so far seems pretty good.  I’ve stumbled upon bands who are already telling me about upcoming shows they’re doing, bands who are informing me about their next EP releases and trying to figure out how to get demos/EP’s to me, and I’ve even found a few willing writers who will hopefully bring this site more music than I would know what to do with.

I’m also getting excited the release date of this site is becoming closer. I can see the little count down on my first pending entry.  I’m also seriously nervous since I still have so much of the back-end programming I need to coerce my friends into helping me with because I can’t figure PHP out to save my life.

Alas, I’ll sign off now, and continue to plug away!

Bah, I still have to backdate an entry about the latest jemo show.  I’ll do that next!

~rokky

jemo played a set tonight at Lee’s Palace in downtown Toronto, a part of a HotBoxx show among five bands in total. Rumours have it that jemo brought out the most number of people of all five bands, played third on the list, and totally rocked.

There’s something about venues in Toronto. They dislike the heat. Considering we’re located in Canada, this can many times wreak havoc on artists/musicians. There’s no hot water, so you’re washing your hands in filtered Lake Ontario, there’s no hot air, so you’re drying in a torrent of arctic wind, and there’s no heat, leaving your band, your fans, and your instruments, no better inside than outside. Tonight was also one of the coldest nights thus far in Toronto.

jemo started with a new song I haven’t heard of yet, and which jeff’s guitar also felt like acting up, the low E string had de-tuned itself to a note unheard of. To the unknowing public, we thought it was part of the experimental aspect that is jemo, but while noting jeff’s confused look while he attempted to keep playing, while re-tuning the string gave away the idea of him experimenting beyond understanding. james from the band also wore a birthday hat for the first two songs.
Besides the Wardrobe equipment -malfunction at the beginning, the set was just as amazing as I had always pictured it would be. twenty-eight minutes of jemo included new songs, favourite songs, and jokes about bathrooms, Madonna’s phone number, and embarrassing the famous and well-sponsored drummer.

I wouldn’t miss the next jemo show for the world. It’s fun writing about them.

Surprisingly enough I’m not that fond of randomly messaging people, so the idea of approaching people, and bands, is a toughie for me.  I’m getting the hang of it a little more though.  I’ve sent messages to everyone that I’ve reviewed so far for live shows just now through myspace.  Granted, the majority of these bands are also my friends so it wasn’t nearly as hard, but there were a few musicians/bands that I didn’t really know before their set and still don’t really know well afterwards.

I hope everyone likes what I wrote about them.  I did all of the reviews thus far all in one day, and there’s only so many ways to say “That was awesome”  I’m getting feedback already and it seems so far people are liking what I write about them, and are announcing to their fans that they’ve been written about, which is always cool.
But yes, www.BigRockFinish.com has a myspace page.  If you’re interested in becoming our friend, check us out at http://myspace.com/bigrockfinish

Great.  So after giving in and agreeing to do live show reviews (for shows that I go to personally, and this will be on a case-by-case basis) I finished writing 7 reviews of what I consider to be important shows I have gone to in the past six months.  They’re all backdated so the dates of the posts correspond to the date the show happened.

It’s definitely a lot harder writing about shows from that long ago, rather than about the ones that happened yesterday.  I know I’m a very wordy person and I’ve been trying to keep it brief but I don’t think that will ever really pan out for me.  Well I’m glad to have been introduced to another great artist from last night, and I have more CD’s I can review.

I hope my little volunteer writers are also writing away! We have a big day coming up pretty soon!

So Tim Tibbitts (www.timtibbitts.com) is another artist who I didn’t know, and “discovered” by association of going to see another artist playing the same show (Chisai Jackson opened the night, Tim was up next. The show finished with Matt York, who I unfortunately did not stay to watch because I was way too tired.) The show was at the Lost Lounge, formerly known to me as the Sound Lounge. Tim claimed this was the best acoustic venue in Canada, and seeing his extensive touring, I wouldn’t doubt him for a moment.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when he came up on stage, by himself, with a guitar, and a myriad of electronic gizmos on his… I guess his pedal board. It was shaped more like a box from my recollection. Having never heard him sing, let alone speak, somehow his voice totally caught me by surprise. I wouldn’t have pictured him to sound how he did, not that I can describe how I did picture him to sound like, but I definitely did not expect that voice, to come out of him. IT was a pleasant surprise since I really liked what I was hearing.

Tim performs solo, as well as with a full band from my understanding, but this was my first time seeing him so I have nothing to really compare to. Pretty early I was introduced to one of the gadgets before him, something that made his voice sound like the voices of 4 people at once. In perfect harmony. It was pretty interesting, I didn’t know such devices existed. Made backing vocals so easy for one person to do. Another that was really cool, was something that recorded what Tim played, then looped it throughout the song, so he had basically a rhythm guitarist and a lead guitarist at the same time. Very interesting to see this solo act become a one-man band.

The songs are very catchy and I would dare say “radio friendly” since not a single song was offensive in any way, and is something everyone could groove to, whether you knew the artist/song or not. Tim mentioned how his songs are doing well everywhere but Ontario, so if I visited friends out west maybe I’d hear about him more than I do.

I loved the descriptions of how he came about some of his songs. Like one of the songs he wrote for his wife, as “the mushiest song he could ever write” to get a romantic reaction out of his wife (which worked he said.) Or the love song he wrote about his car, and named his car “Monica” because it was the closest name that sounded like the phrase “My New Car”

For a string of acoustic love songs written about wives, mom’s and cars, these songs were not the sappy slow songs I’m used to thinking about for acoustic love songs. They’re upbeat and songs I could probably not be bothered if I had to listen to it all day long.

I can’t wait to review the album titled Portraits, that’s being re-released on January 30th.

Tim Tibbits plays again with Chisai Jackson, Matt York (and Angie Nussey) on January 27th at The Red Rooster Cafe in Burlington Ontario. I read rumours that both Tim Tibbits and Angie Nussey will be recording live DVD’s at this show.

I’ve seen Chisai Jackson (www.chisaijackson.com) for the first time last summer when they played the same, yet different, venue with jemo. I have his recorded album which includes a full band, yet all of the shows I’ve seen are him by himself with an acoustic guitar. Returning from a successful “Four Voices Tour” with some of his closest friends, this was Chisai’s first solo show in a while. It was hosted at the Lost Lounge, inside the Executive Snooker Club in Mississauga, Ontario. (The last time I saw Chisai here, they called it the Sound Lounge, and had since completely renovated the space)

The set promised to be a full set, and over an hour in length. Chisai delivered. From what I’ve been able to gather from his songs, they’re all very personal, and introspective to who he is and what brought him to this point. More on that when I review his album.

It’s a very quiet show when there is only one person on stage, and at the same time I’m still blown away by the range of songs, where some are quiet and melodic and into what I would consider a ballad and sappy fun and happy, there are also songs that are filled with I’d say are emotions not everyone wants to display to the world. You can feel the music before you hear the lyrics or watch him on stage.

Lots of songs and lots of explanations of songs went on this night. I always like artists who have time to talk about what’s going on in their lives, musically and not, just to get to know them better beyond what I would take away from their music. Like how he was at work and the girls he works with (who were also present for the show) were teasing him by putting stickers on him. Where he works I know not, but it’s a funny little story either way.

Chisai’s website claims that every show is different, and when I think about the shows I’ve gone to, I can agree. They’re all similar so far in that it’s always been him solo on stage, but the vibe to me, the feeling, the atmosphere, it’s different every time. It might be me, it might be the venue, but it’s true.

Chisai plays next January 27th at The Red Rooster Cafe in Burlington Ontario. (With Tim Tibbitts Band, Matt York and Angie Nussey)

So I’ve had a lot of people message me (both bands, and fans of indie music) ask me if I plan on reviewing live shows.  I didn’t at first, I figured that reviewing albums at my own leisure would be enough work, without having to go to shows and be critical and analyze everything that passes before me.  Especially since my memory is not always the best and I may forget half of what happened.

Alas, I’ve always been one to succumb to peer pressure, and I will likely be back-dating a bunch of shows I’d been to in the past two months or so (depends on what I feel like) and will be writing short reviews on shows that I end up attending.

I promise nothing fancy.  They will likely be quick and to the point, and speak more of odd quirky things that happen just as much as I speak about the music.  There will be no proper format for reviewed shows other than my own interpretation and feeling on the event.

And I do work a full-time job, that gets me up very early in the morning.  I can’t make it out to every show, especally if I feel my precious few hours to myself at night are better spent sleeping when I need to be up before the crack of dawn.  This may end up being a live-review section of all my friends bands, but whatever.  It’s music. It’s all good.

Let the reviewing begin!