The Stars came out to shine

Torquil Campbell (left) and Amy Millan

Pale roses filled the stage, creating a funeral-like atmosphere, as Montreal-native indie-pop group Stars previewed their upcoming album The Five Ghosts at Toronto’s Mod Club on May 5.

Since the new album will not be released until June 22, the excited audience could have only recognized a few new songs. The crowd grew quiet once the show started, soaking in the fresh material.

The sing-along really started when the band played "Fixed," the first single off their new album.

The most memorable song from the new album was the hauntingly beautiful "The Last Song Ever Written," with "We Don’t Want Your Body" as a close second.

Despite the band’s home base in Montreal, they introduced themselves as “growing up around the corner,” giving the impression of a big band coming home.

The show was the second stop on the band’s North American tour that began in Ottawa on May 4 and is scheduled to end Guelph on July 25.

The band thanked the audience for coming and said they felt lucky to be able to play for a sold-out crowd that did not know most of the songs.

The new songs were excellent, consistent enough with their previous material. The electronic indie pop sound hasn’t changed too much and the songs still told stories of love, heartbreak and death. However, there was enough growth in their sound as to not seem repetitive.

The heavily synth-based songs are more comparable to their 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire than their 2007 followup In Our Bedroom After the War.

Chris Seligman displayed his consistent expertise on the keyboards with Evan Cranley setting the beat on bass. This duo is credited with writing the bulk of the band’s music.

The sweet, sultry voice of Amy Millan harmonized perfectly with Torquil Campbell, creating melancholic but beautiful vocals.

The biggest problem with the show was the venue; the air-conditioning broke down, causing a sweltering heat. Organizers passed out water bottles, a generosity not always seen at ridiculously hot concerts.

The band however, laughed it off asking audience members to put away their cameras for a moment so they could spray the crowd with water.

Campbell insisted fans drink lots of water to avoid passing out.

You wouldn’t want to faint at a Stars concert, he said. “That would be like fainting while having tea with your grandmother.”

He jokingly urged audience members to alert the band if they felt too hot by screaming out “I’m not OK!”

One distinctive feature of the show was the encore. Before the tour began, the band asked fans to vote for the songs they wanted to hear. They picked the top five songs to play at each show. At the Toronto gig, the top five were "Your Ex-Lover is Dead," "Take Me to the Riot," "Ageless Beauty," "One More Night" and "Heart."

This portion was more like a typical Stars show, the crowd able to sing along to their favourites.

The often melancholic sounds matched the funeral motif, fitting with the new ghostly lyrics. Band members even threw flowers petals in the air or handed roses to audience members.

The band urged fans to buy the new album on vinyl to get the full experience, recommending they listen to it from start to finish while relaxing on a balcony. No matter how technology has progressed, they insisted the music just always sounds better on vinyl.

In all, the band put on an excellent show, giving fans an early taste of what’s to come - a tease that’s sure to keep them craving more.


Originally published with The Charlatan, Carleton University's independent student newspaper.

Coming up...

I'll be checking out a few upcoming concerts so stay tuned for those reviews.

Up next:
The Weakerthans, Horseshoe Tavern, May 25
Johnny Hollow & Attrition, Neutral, June 6
She and Him, Sound Academy, June 9

I adore the Weakerthans. There's something about John K. Samson's voice that just makes my heart melt. It just sounds so honest and pure. The first time I saw them last year, I didn't know a lot of the older material. I often find that this makes the concert less enjoyable with all of the songs sounding the same. But not the Weakerthans. I'll never forget John pacing the stage like a wandering troubadour, singing the sad Virtute the Cat Explains his Departure--nor the prequel, A Plea from a Cat Named Virtute. It's one of those songs that raises my spirits every time I hear it.

I've been a huge fan of Johnny Hollow for a while now. The band members are such nice people and the music is completely unique. I can't find any other band that matches Johnny Hollow in their sweet haunting melodies and their excellent stage presence. I remember once seeing them and something went wrong with the keyboard sounds. However, since Vincent Marcone (the excellent artist and keyboardist) plays his electronic parts live (self-described as a "human drum machine) they were able to laugh about it and keep going. Much better than the pre-recorded backtracks that I find all too often at concerts these days.

I've never seen Attrition. I remember hearing of them a while ago when the violindustrial Emilie Autumn said they used her original material without her permission on their album. Don't know the truth behind this story, but alas, if their music is anything like Emilie Autumn's or Johnny Hollow's, I'm sure it'll be an interesting night. Looking forward to it.

She and Him is a band I've only discovered in the past year. They released their second album, Volume 2, in March. But it's Volume 1 that's the real gem. I've fallen in love with Zooey Deschanel's sweet old-style vocals and M. Ward's soft, relaxing accompaniment. From the opening track, Sentimental Heart, I was hooked.

Twins' tour Ottawa-bound

Indie rock duo Tegan and Sara are not new to the music business. They’ve been releasing studio albums since 1999, and have collaborated with many big artists, including Against Me! and Tiësto.

In fact, their latest release, Sainthood, is their sixth studio album. It also marks the twins’ first attempt at writing songs together.

“It was quite challenging to sit in a room and watch someone else write and give suggestions without hurting each other’s feelings,” Tegan said on the phone from Vancouver, where she currently lives.

Sara lives in Montreal, which is why Tegan says the Internet has been particularly useful over the years when they were simply collaborating on songs, as opposed to writing side by side.

In the end, only one co-written song, “Paperback Head,” made the cut for the album, but Tegan says the writing experience was an interesting one.

“Considering we’ve collaborated with each other on records for 14 years, it was really nice to try something new, and I feel a real attachment to those songs,” she said.

Both women write their music first, adding the lyrics later, Tegan explained, citing their classical training as the reason for this process.

Although they were trained on the piano, Tegan said she is more confident writing on the guitar — the instrument on which she wrote her first 100 songs.

“I think our band is pretty all over the place,” she said, explaining that some songs are predominantly guitar-based, while others focus on the keyboard. “The song really ends up calling out for what it wants.”

The cover art for Sainthood comments on people’s expectations of them because they are twins Tegan said.

“We’re constantly being analyzed as a partnership and people are always talking about the way we look,” she said. “We’re very different. We live in different cities, and I don’t think we look much alike at all, but we decided it might be fun to play with this idea of being identical.”

The album cover shows Tegan sticking her head through a cardboard cut-out, with Sara, dressed like the figure, in front.

“We were playing with the idea that part of me was real, but part, I’m projecting,” Tegan said, adding that some people might not notice that it’s cardboard. “I’m doing such a good job at projecting this image that you may not even know that I’m projecting an image. You might just think it’s me.”

The band is currently playing sold-out shows across Canada, performing 27 songs per night, according to their Twitter feed, with Australian band An Horse — a band they have been planning to bring on a Canadian tour for years.

Tegan said Sara has been highly involved in An Horse’s career, ever since they met at a record store in Australia.

“Besides our personal relationship with them, I think they’re fantastic writers,” Tegan said. “Everywhere else in the world where we’ve toured with them, they’ve done so well and I just felt it was the right fit to have them for the tour.”

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Originally published in the Charlatan, Carleton University's independent student newspaper

Die Mannequin Concert Review

Die Mannequin
Friday, Dec. 1, 2009
Live Lounge

Care Failure, the leading lady of the Toronto punk band, Die Mannequin, rocked the stage with her incredible style and performance Dec. 4 at Ottawa’s Live Lounge.

She began the show crawling across the stage, as Anthony Bleed, the bassist, mimed shooting her with his guitar. She stumbled around the stage, making the fans scream as the band began its raw punk set.

Although the band recently finished a tour with Marilyn Manson, playing arena shows across the nation, Failure said the band much prefers smaller venues.

"If I had my way, there'd be no stage — just the crowd," she said. I can see why.

Failure jumped off the stage into the audience, singing part of “Where Poppies Grow” while she was immersed in the crowd. She pulled audience members up on stage to join her for “Autumn Cannibalist.”

I have never seen so much audience interaction at a concert, and I don’t think it could possibly work as well in an arena venue.

She finished the show by crowd surfing to the back of the venue, where she spent time at the merchandise booth meeting fans and signing autographs (or in some cases, messages written on their breasts).

Many of the songs on the set list were not on either of the band’s major releases. They did not play “Saved by Strangers”— one of their biggest singles. Instead, they did a cover of a Turbonegro song.

Die Mannequin’s performance of “Bad Medicine” had many audience members singing along. It was complete with Failure singing into a megaphone to imitate the vocal effects from the recording.

The merchandise seller mentioned that the show was a late one because Failure wasn’t feeling well. It didn’t show in her performance.

It was a high-energy, microphone-throwing, bruise-inducing, punk rock show.

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Originally published in the Charlatan, Carleton University's independent student newspaper

Tegan and Sara - Sainthood (Review)

Sainthood
Tegan and Sara
Warner Music

4/5

The new album Sainthood from Canadian twin duo Tegan and Sara is an excellent collection of synthesizer-driven songs predominantly about troubled love.

The album is a natural progression from their previous album, The Con, in that the apparent mood is different but the style and music is essentially very similar.

Many of the songs seem to have a more positive and upbeat sound than the sad melodies found in many songs on The Con.

The first single, “Hell,” has a more radio-friendly pop sound compared to their previous singles.

However, the songs don’t stray from what fans have come to expect from Tegan and Sara – expressions of melancholy love affairs, supported by guitars and synthesizers, and fronted by their unique vocals.

The vocal style is what sets this band apart from the abundance of popular indie-sounding bands. Tegan and Sara sound similar, as one would expect from identical twins, but there is enough difference to distinguish between them.

One voice complements the other, and their vocal harmonies are just as striking as in their previous albums, though not as prevalent.

On first listen, the most memorable song is the opener, “Arrow.” The synthesizer-based song has a distinctive edgy sound, and demonstrates how effectively the band uses their vocal harmonies.

On their blog, Tegan explained the first single was inspired by a headline in the Vancouver Sun, which described her then-new neighbourhood in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as “four blocks of hell.”

The lyrics, like most of their other songs, are about a troubled romance, in this case, unrequited love.

While the album is a solid offering to hardcore fans and newcomers alike, it doesn’t leave as strong an impression as The Con did.

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Originally published in the Charlatan, Carleton University's independent student newspaper

Cancer Bats grow beards, fan base

Cancer Bats can do more than just grow facial hair. The group are currently on tour promoting their latest hardcore record, Hail Destroyer, and will be hitting Mavericks on Feb. 16. (Photo provided)

Whether it’s their loud, aggressive sounds or the fact they say they simply love to play music, the Cancer Bats have erupted onto the hardcore music scene this past year.

Singer Liam Cormier described the band’s sound as “dirty, rock ‘n’ roll and hardcore.”

Their new album, Hail Destroyer, will be released April 22 but Ottawa fans will be able to get their Cancer Bats fill early when they play a show at Maverick’s Feb. 16.

“Ottawa’s always been one of the best cities for us, like where we’ve done in Ontario, or Canada, or even in general,” said Cormier.

“Every time we go back, it’s always the best.”

This Toronto-based quartet has only been around since May 2004 but it quickly found success touring with bands such as Alexisonfire, Rise Against and Billy Talent.

The group has played shows in venues with capacities in the thousands, such as when it opened for Billy Talent at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre in front of 17,000 people.

“We’ve also got this whole tour with [the Bronx] and Rise Against in Europe,” said Cormier.

“One of my favourite [bands to play with] is probably the Bronx [...] so getting a chance to tour with them was awesome.”

The Cancer Bats have been on many tours around the world since the release of their debut studio album, Birthing the Giant. Recently, their unique sound has been getting them recognized by fans in countries far from Canada.

“When we were going to Australia to play some shows there, we had a layover in Singapore,” said Cormier.

“We were just in the middle of the airport and this kid in a coffee shop actually recognized us in a band and knew who our band was.”

Cormier said the band’s unique name originated from drummer Mike Peters’ childhood.

“When he grew up, his family lived out in the woods, and they built a cabin,” explained Cormier.

“There were bats that lived in the ceiling and so when Mike was a kid, he used to tell his mom that he was scared of these bats because he thought that they would give him cancer.”

The band has gone through multiple lineup changes, and is now made up of Cormier and Peters, as well as guitarist Scott Middleton, with whom Cormier started the band.

The newest addition is bassist Jaye Schwartzer.

Though Cormier said Schwartzer did not contribute to the upcoming album, he has been touring with them for many months.

“Official, full-time headbanger, we could say that,” said Cormier, adding that Schwartzer did contribute to teaching the rest of the band how to grow beards.

“We like having a lot of fun with what we do,” Cormier said.

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Originally published in the Charlatan, Carleton University's independent student newspaper