Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Nathan Down at Tattoo Rock Parlour

October 16, 2008

Alright! I’ve been stalking Mikey S for a long time now. First time I saw him, he was in State of Worth, dancing in a chair after his set. Then he got picked up by Strap-On Tools. He played one show with Paul Burke. He found his way into Harlot. And after hooked up with Fuscia. Then next I hear, he’s playing with some dude called Nathan Down. (Are musicians allowed to be sluts?)

Anyways, the first time I went to see Nathan Down play, I was hoping for the full band, but due to alcoholic cut-backs and the last-minute-ness of the show (I believe they were added to the bill two or three hours before they were to hit the stage) no one had any gear, and Nathan went at it solo. And sober. So months later, this was my first time seeing Mikey on stage in a pretty long time actually, and I was really excited to see Nathan Down’s music with a full band, rather than just the one guy (topless guy, but still) on stage.

Definitely wasn’t disappointed, as with a full band Nathan Down is definitely full of energy. There was a big crowd, which was awesome to see, and since I don’t get out much, was quite surprising considering it was a Thursday night. But no one really seemed to care that it was a school night. Oh… those were the days…

Anyways, for some reason it didn’t occur to me that there would be a lot of people on the stage, since I’d never seen the full band before. And I was definitely not expecting it to be as packed as it was. But there they all were, drummer, bassist, guitarist, guitarist, guitar + vocalist. And it sounded great and not over-played at all.

The one thing about Nathan Down is I never really expect acoustic guitar and sort of… that hard-rock forceful type singing to really be on the same stage. And it surprises me every time I see him or listen to the myspace. But seeing the state of his guitar, and how hard he must play on it… you see he definitely rocks out on that thing.

Back to the show. It was fun. Whoever wasn’t flirting with the audience, the band was like… flirting with each other, or something. And I just love when a band interacts with each other, instead of ignoring each other like other bands that I’ve seen. Being in your zone and playing in your element is one thing, but having fun on stage and just being a bunch of guys, is totally another.

And it seems that the cover of “Pony” is really popular with all the ladies, since the build-up to it seemed endless, with as much girlish screaming as anyone could possibly expect from a crowd for an indie rock show. I don’t blame them. It’s a great rendition of the song. And I’m sure it’d get just about anyone into a frenzy.

I giggled a little inside when the sound guy put on the house music and turned up the lights after Pony, because everyone was expecting one more song. With the language only bands and sound-guys understand, the audience finally got their last song before the band packed up. And it was just as awesome as the other… I lost count, of songs.

Well, I don’t have a clue when Nathan Down is playing next, but definitely I’m going to try to get out to see it!

Name: Alyson Greenfield
Album: Tuscaloosa
Released: 2008
Members:
Alyson Greenfield - piano, guitar, keyboards, tambourine, handclaps, vocals
Jason Mercer - bass
Geoff Hug - drums
Denise Barbarita - background vocals, bowed guitar & guitar
Rich Kulsar - percussion
D-Sharp# - Viola

Website: www.alysongreenfield.com
Favourite Song: School (Track 4)

Again, an artist who was actually happy with the idea of me reviewing them, enough to send a second effort to me. I’m honoured and grateful! Since it’s getting tough to get music from the masses (seeing as how… well what can I say, Myspace kind of sucks these days) so here we go. Let’s listen to some more Alyson Greenfield! Oh, but one thing I just have to mention. I hate plastic wrap. Drives me insane because it’s nearly impossible to open. I received a CD opener as a gift from a management company that has been invaluable (sorry to them, I scratched the name off!) but it wouldn’t work with Alyson’s CD since it didn’t fit. And it took me… about 20 minutes to get the plastic wrap off since I had no sharp utensels at my disposal.

You know I probably won’t agree with any type of label that Alyson Greenfield has set for herself? Every song sounds so different from everything else. And every song I’ve heard so far from her defies logic. The strangest thing is her songs remind me of how the Simpsons are written. How… the beginning of a song and the end to a song sound completely different, and only in hearing the whole thing at once will you be convinced it’s the same song. But there’s no defining moment where it changes.

Honestly, anyone who knows me knows that I was made to play the piano for many many years of my life. And I never found anything beautiful about the music that would come out when I sat near the thing, because I never really considered myself a musician. And because of that, I think I am always in a type of disgusted awe where beautiful music is able to come out of the instrument, and how I was not one of the people able to do it. Quiet jealousy probably.

Alright, so where I would listen to Alyson Greenfield, I honestly don’t know. I can think of a pretty wide collection of friends of mine who would really love to give a listen, and I’ll probably pass the CD along to at least a few of them. I’m starting to think of new music in terms of who else might enjoy it. And at this point, I’m thinking of the people who are a little bit hippy-ish, and those who always have had a penchant for all things “on the strange side of normal.”

So I wasn’t expecting to spend tonight at a show, I mean, come on. It’s a school night. Then again, I didn’t have to be at work until late because there would be no power for a large majority of the morning, and I spend too much time on Facebook as it is, and found a message from Nathan Down saying he was just thrown into a show at the Reverb. Now, seeing as how I haven’t seen Mikey S perform in a while, and I haven’t seen him perform in this particular group, I thought why the hell not, I would already be downtown, and was pretty sure I could wrangle a dSLR from someone before showing up.

Two things.

When a set is announced at 5:05pm and is going to be happening at 8:30, it is extremely rare that you will be able to find everyone you need. I showed up around 9pm to meet and greet Mikey and was haphazardly introduced to “the gang” and to find out that Mikey would not be performing, as no one could find the band’s drummer, so Nathan would be performing solo.

When a venue has its liquor license pulled the night before the night of a performance, generally you will not have heavy crowds coming out to see the bands. I felt the wind whistling through my hair, or something equally poetic. I found it just a little bit hilarious, but found it absolutely appalling that the venue was now charging $3.75 for a 500mL of water.

I need to stop being so long winded.

So, Nathan was first to go on stage. And I really had no idea what to expect. I’d never listened to the sound clips or watched video clips online. I was expecting a guy and a guitar, in some nice sort of soothing type of mellow music, as he looked like a nice soothing mellow kind of guy.

Blown away, would be one way to put it. I did not expect the power in Nathan’s vocals, his voice, and just how he performs. I realize now that he would have made more sense with a band, since everything he did seemed just a little overpowering for a one-man show. But he had the skills, and everything sounded great.

Everything looked great too. Early on in the set someone in the crew yelled out at him to take his shirt off, and he made a comment about it being well known that he’s very shy. Now, I was beginning to recall many photos of Nathan Down sans shirt, so I was confused by all these comments. However when it was suddenly proclaimed that “It’s too hot in here!” I was now seeing a man with no shirt on strap a guitar around his shoulders. And the show went on.

I definitely enjoyed the show, even with the lack of alcohol, and lack of… crowd. I definitely felt bad for every artist that was scheduled to be there, because it’s honestly quite painful to sit at a venue with nothing to drink. Mikey promises to let me know of the next Nathan Down show that will happen, and I am looking forward to it!

Fuscia (www.fusciamusic.com), lord knows how, was invited to play inside of a West 49 store in Vaughn… the one inside Vaughn Mills Mall in Ontario. Now to anyone who knows, this is one of those very yuppy malls that is a bit of a big-box discount store type feel with the giant Holt Renfrew Last Call store, but also has go-kart tracks and some pretty pricy stores in it as well.

So the boys are playing, and I follow Mikey S around like a lost puppy at times, and decided it would be an interesting place to go see them play.

Previous to this I had only seen Fuscia with a full on band, and everything is plugged in. I knew this was likely not going to happen inside a mall, but really didn’t know what to expect.

I got there just in time to meet up with the guys and talk to them about the photos that I take and the stuff that I do. In the end there was very little to set up. Mikey got to stay electric on his bass but with one of the smallest amp’s I’d ever seen. The guitarist was on an acoustic guitar. The singer had his microphone and a bottle of water, and the drummer was a part of the audience for the majority of the set.

The songs sounded awesome. A little strange in that they didn’t have all the power behind them that you would normally expect from a pop-rock band, but it was really nice to hear. That the musicians had talent and it really showed through when they performed the way that they did.

Sure it was one of the stranger places I’d seen a band play, but then again my friends in jemo did a tour mainly consisting of starbucks and chapters one summer. That must have been equally strange for them as well.

So here’s my ode to Fuscia, who seem to have sadly parted ways since the last time I spoke about them. But we’ll always have the memories. And I have a bunch of awesome photos.

One of many jemo (www.jemo.net / www.jemounofficial.com) shows that I have gone to in the past year, without exception this was a great show. Ciao Edie Roxx is a small little place just off of College and Bathurst in downtown Toronto. Has an oddly shaped room, stage, and a smoke machine, caters to what I would classify as a more up-scale, pay $10+ for a martini (I’m taking a wild guess at price here) where people would venture to after work.

The set was great. jemo as always sounded very tight, well put together, and had lots of fun. Songs that I recognized I have no problem singing along to, and new songs are always great to hear and remember for when they are finally recorded and released.

They also played a new (to them) R&B cover this night, “Crazy” By Gnarls Barkley. Which was surprising and really good. I’d only heard the song a few times (even though it was a top song very recently) and the way jemo interpreted it, and changed it around just enough to fit their style of music, was truly inspirational.

Not much else to say other than it was a great set.

Edit: There’s more to this story!
Alright, more than a year later I’ve got more to say!
I still think this show was awesome. It may not be a surprise to all of you, that I run the jemo unofficial fan site due to Jeff’s unfortunate lack of HTML abilities. And it’s there I posted a clip of the show from that night. Truly a great way to sing a song, make it your own. I believe it was the Barenaked Ladies (a great Canadian band) that made mention to bands doing covers, to not try and be the original artist, it’s much better to be your own artist with their song.

And other than that, that’s always been a GREAT venue. It’s really tucked away and not very noticeable. I do know that the drinks are just a little bit pricey, but overall, I miss going there, and need more musician friends to play at that type of venue.

Name: Cara Cortese
Album: In This One We Go Down Singing
Released: 2007(?)
Members:
Cara Joanne Cortese - Vocals & Guitar

Website: www.myspace.com/learnitbyheart

Favourite Song: Track 7 - Walk the Beaten Path

Myspace says Indie, Alternative & Pop. I will add Acoustic because generally Cara’s songs involve not much more than her voice and her acoustic guitar. Whatever we call her music, I find it easy to listen to, upbeat and generally pleasant. The unfortunate thing with music that is mainly acoustic guitar and not much else… is it always has a feeling of “I’ve heard this before” It’s pretty hard to make one instrument that has a very distinct sound to… sound unique every single time. I greatly enjoy listening to this album whether or not I get a feeling of deja vu with every other acoustic song I’ve ever heard.

Every song Cara performs on this album is a little story. Every time a new track starts I feel like I’m being lead down a story path of someone’s life. I wouldn’t hesitate to guess that they are likely bits and pieces of Cara Cortese’s life I am now living with her through her music. As is what many musician write about, what they know best. It’s great when musicians can be so open. Enough to let the world know what their middle name is. (I just had to say that, she makes a point of it on her myspace, heh.) I know my favourite song is listed as Walk the Beaten Path, but I have to say a very close second is Going Down Singing as the last track. It just… fits!

I would listen to In this one we go down singing (okay, the album title… a little long for my liking because I have to type so much!) in my car… but not late at night because it’s a relaxing type of album and might possibly make me drowsy. But I wouldn’t mind listening to this while I try to sleep since it *IS* such a relaxing type of music. And definitely at the type of house party where there will be no heavy boozing and loud obnoxious people. Quiet people and quiet music.

Wendy was the third act that I saw at the International Pop Overthrow. And this was one interesting set.

She came on just after the Drop Joys, who I was “hired” to go take photos of. And it was an interesting night. I watched out of the corner of my eye her, and her band setting up, and looking somewhat confused, and just a little baffled. After some wrestling with an electronic keyboard and some wires on stage, a secondary keyboard came out and was set up, plugged in and away they went. Here I was thinking “Wow, I know people bring two guitars, but seriously, who brings two keyboards?”

The answer? No one. Wendy ended up having to borrow a keyboard from another band who was playing later that night. I never did figure out the reason why, but it looked like the one she brought just wasn’t compatible with what was on stage.

Funnier still, the announcer went on stage to introduce Wendy, and we were all standing/sitting around listening, and found out that she has an amazing gift and ability to throw together a band wherever she goes. Kevin from the Drop Joys told me it was because her band either up and left, or refused to travel to Toronto for the show. And mentioned how he saw her posting on craigslist just a few days ago. The drummer and bassist allegedly met the day before to rehearse, and they both had sheet music on stage.

The songs were really nice. It was pretty interesting because Wendy is also of Asian descent, and I very rarely see Asian people performing on stage at a pop/rock type of venue. Especially Asian females. And she’s got a lot of power behind her voice that I really wasn’t expecting. There were moments where I was worried for the borrowed keyboard she was playing on, because those keyboard stands don’t look like they can stand up to a rockin’ out chick like Wendy.

Unfortunately I had to leave partway through Wendy’s set, but what I saw, I really liked, and I do hope I can bump into another one of her shows, because from what everyone else told me, it was pretty awesome by the end of it!