Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

September 24, 2008

At some point, I had the pleasure of kicking back and enjoying the cool electronic stylings of Great Lenin’s Ghost! It was a balmy Wednesday evening above a Toronto taco stand, wafting it’s delights to the second floor bar. The idea of Pay What You Can was my indulgence, as was the fact my camera was dragged there for the earlier set of Senor Kasio.

I digress (as I so often do). Great Lenin’s Ghost! hits the stage, and I’m much too tired to continue standing. Thankfully there were people there to take my place in front of the stage, and I sat back and amused myself with my tired musicians while listening to music that greatly resembled the very old Nintendo 8 bit games that were oh so popular when I was 10.

A part of me couldn’t believe my ears, that such music would be popular, since it’s quite simple sounding. But judging by the crowd it couldn’t be denied. And the more I listened the more I started to get into the groove of things as well. You couldn’t really argue that Great Lenin’s Ghost! can’t entertain a crowd, because the crowd was definitely entertained.

Since this band was completely new to me, my favourite was definitely when they covered Rihanna’s “My Umbrella” because it was a song I recognized. And seeing everyone, the band, the crowd, and even the group I was sitting with, who wasn’t a part of the crowd, get into this new remix of such an over-played radio hit… was quite fantastic.

In short, geeky guys can be musicians too. And Great Lenin’s Ghost! are hopefully not offended by that comment

Name: Sonya Kahn
Album: New Beginning
Released: 2007

Website: http://www.sonyakahn.com/
Favourite Song: Party Song (Track 7)

So, while listening to the album that really is beginning to remind me of the hollywood starlets who are gracing the music scene as I type, I am only imagining that as long as Miss Sonya has a good publicist, it doesn’t matter WHAT the album sounds like, as long as she looks the part. But I’d be selling the artist short, which isn’t fair. For one thing, the first website I go to to read up on what everyone else thinks of her? Sonya is a concert pianist. You don’t see that a lot with pop stars. Someone who I can very honestly vouch for that will be able to read music. This makes it exciting.

CD Baby (I get tired of Myspace every so often) is listing alternative, rock/pop and “created by a concert pianist.” The photos in the liner notes don’t disagree, as there is a photo of Sonya sitting at a piano. Two songs in, however, reveal little of the classical piano I had grown to… tolerate in the eight years I had played in my younger years. The more the album plays, the more I hear piano/keyboards and the more I believe that Sonya Kahn is definitely a musician in it’s truest definition.

The diversity in New Beginning is… astounding. Everything sort of sounds like something I would hear on the radio, which would prove Sonya’s commericial pull. The pretty shocking thing is each song I could think of a different radio station to play it. Some would play on the rock & roll stations. Some on the adult contemporary. And most of them will fit the top 40 playlist requirements.

I’m off on a road trip soon. And this is one album that will be making the trip with me. Considering my car doesn’t have the spiffy feature of being an mp3 player, nor does it play mp3 cd’s (my mom’s car does though) I do enjoy the fact that New Beginning is also 13 full tracks, as opposed to some 6 track albums. Not that there’s anything WRONG with it, but 13 songs makes for less cd changes to be necessary, and while driving at 140km/h down a highway, it’s best to not attempt it.

Name: Len’s Haulage
Album: The Hope Museum
Released: 2006
Members:
Michael Sbrocchi – vocals
Mike Novalski – guitar
Even Chochrane – bass
Pete Diculescu – drums

Website: www.myspace.com/lenshaulagemusic
Favourite Song: Underrated (Track 5)

Len’s Haulage is (another) rock band. With some very interesting graphic design for their album art. They don’t sound like an overly religious band, granted religion is hard to pin into one particular genere of music these days, but also the lyrics don’t strike me as particularly deep in religious overtones either. Yet looking at the artwork on the front & back covers and inside the liner notes, I see angels and Virgin Mary’s. Granted, I also see broken hearts, and pick-up trucks, so maybe I’m just pulling what I naturally gravitate towards. (I’m not a religious person!)

Len’s Haulage is a rock band. A pop-rock band perhaps. The first song definitely reminds me of the pop-rock genre, if only it’s peppy and up-beat and sounds a little happy. In the “glass is half full, not half empty” sort of way. I’m letting my imagination run wild here, and just picture that when the band is playing a show, there will be screaming girls in the audience. They sound like a band with screaming girls as fans. (the photo of the band under the CD also leads me to this belief by the way.) Even the slower songs (later in the album) make me think screaming girls would enjoy them. I have a lot of experience in what screaming girls would like to see on stage, seeing as how I spent much of my music-enjoying career being one of them!

Other then my diagnosis of a peppy band, even when the lyrics sound just a bit like it should be a slower song, they’re peppy. The second song, Hang On, reminds me of this the most. My interpretation is someone giving another person some advice. But… still peppy. Granted, I spoke too soon as I’m listening to the third (Limits) and fourth (Small Town Girl) songs, way to make me think something then throwing me a curve ball.

I would definitely want to see Len’s Haulage on stage, on tour, performing. A band that would sound great live needs to be heard live. I can’t figure out at this moment where to see them next is the only downer!

Name: Unknown Component
Album: In Direct Communication
Released: September 16, 2008
Members:
All songs written & recorded by Keith Lynch

Website: www.unknowncomponent.com
Favourite Song: Between Guilt and Relief (Track 4)

From what I can tell so far, Unknown Component is a one-man band. Very admirable to say the least. Even more impressive is if you visit their website, you’ll find that Mr. Keith Lynch has released multiple albums, all with rave reviews and fan favourites.

Once again Myspace is my friend. Unknown Component list themselves as Rock, Indie and Pop. Thirty seconds into the first song on the album and I can’t disagree. This sounds a lot like what I grew up listening to. (Some would argue I haven’t really grown up, and I have a hard time disagreeing with that as well!) Listening to the songs, especially the lyrics, it’s a little hard to hear, maybe due to my headphones not working properly, but I also believe the music may be a bit louder than I had anticipated. And Mr. Lynch sounds like a pretty soft-spoken vocalist, if such a term exists…. interesting.

The songs on the lbum? They all have really long titles. Well, they seem to anyways. Perhaps it’s the font chosen, but all the titles seem pretty intellectual, like some clever play on words where you’ll have to really listen to the album to even understand where the song name came from. I know that song names are a very personal thing for most artists, and I can see Unknown Component putting in much thought into the naming of their songs.

I’d be interested in seeing Unknown Component on stage. For what’s seemingly a solo artist, there’s a lot of components… (not a pun, seriously) to the music that I would just love to see live. I can tell already that Mr. Lynch is a talented musician, and I think live is probably my best bet! So if you’re in Iowa, check out the second CD release party at the Basement of Jefferson Building on September 20th!

July 26, 2008

Alright, first band of the night to actually go see. The last time I saw the members of The Dropjoys, Kevin and Naoko were getting married, and I was one of their photographers. (Congratulations by the way!) They were beautiful, the weather was perfect, and dinner was absolutely divine! Yet… I digress. Well, one more comment. Due to scheduling conflicts and not being able to see them any earlier, I was finally able to get a small wedding gift to the happy couple at this show, which thankfully they loved.

Onto the show. I’ve never been to The Central before. With good reason. It’s tiny. I was expecting something much bigger and grander, but as I’m twisting and winding my way through some narrow passageways, I’m finding myself staring at a stage that is the exact width of one of the “wings” of this establishment. It was interesting to see The Dropjoys, a 5 person band, fit. Dan on drums & Nao on keys in the background, then Steve, Kevin and Carey all standing, for once, very proper and straight, because lord knows if anyone swung the wrong way someone else would have a guitar neck in the eye.

The sound was pretty good in my opinion, seeing as how I know Kevin is a pretty big stickler, he might say otherwise, but I really liked the overall. It was definitely comical to see everyone on such a small stage but everything I think worked quite well. The set list was a bit confusing seeing as how songs jumped from sad to happy to tragic to happy, and by the time I left I could tell everyone who was in the building really loved what they were hearing.

Of course I had to leave early with a secondary engagement, so I’ll leave you all to it!

I think next time The Dropjoys are playing (They played a show August 11th at the Horseshoe) is the Newmarket Ribfest on August 16th. Yet another Rib fest. I’m SO there.

July 25, 2008.

To most people it’s a day to have fun and frolic in the sunshine. To my friend Jana (www.jananas.com) it’s her birthday and she’s going to celebrate it Christmas-in-July-ified! Problem being, this was also the same night that Cousin Alex and Tynur were to celebrate their collective birthdates by throwing a big party at Smiling Buddha Bar including, if anything else, the chance to get up on stage and make fools of themselves in front of all their friends, family and well-wishers.

So what’s a girl to do? I go to both! The fun and exciting part is the fact that it will be a really relaxed environment and the bands are great. Wee Alex is in both which makes for some interesting wardrobe changes, if anything just so the photographers can properly tag which band is on stage at what time.

But seeing as how S.N.A.K. was the first to perform (of which I only caught a portion of their set, being late(!) to the venue) they played to some pretty hip and happening crowds that… for the most part avoided the dance floor like the plague. I avoid it too so I guess I can’t really say anything bad about them. But we get the dancing songs up, and everyone will come up and hang out violating the dreaded Toronto semi-circle.

As Wee Alex changes from a black t-shirt to a white t-shirt, Señor Kasio hits the stage with lots of fun songs about… lots of subjects. We have tattoos, bloody noses, stolen cars and Iraq or Afghanistan or something to do with fake turkeys. Midway through THAT set, of course you have Cousin Alex of S.N.A.K. and Steve of Señor Kasio doing the just-married intertwined-arm shooters, some bump and grind dancing between the both overly-sweaty gentlemen, before more members of S.N.A.K. start hitting the stage in funny sunglasses and overall crowding the very small centre of attention.

I have to admit, I had my doubts that the stage at Smiling Buddha Bar would be able to hold the collective members of both bands, and I was right! Tynur was off the stage the entire time, and Dave! and Steve both were running into the crowd to dance like the fools they pretend to be.

And I think my favourite of the night was the encore of “I Wanna Fuck” if all else, because it was requested by women in the crowd shouting “We wanna fuck again!”

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.”