DIVORCE RECORDS presents OBEY CONVENTION no.IV

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks! Thanks! Thanks everyone!! This was by far the best OBEY Convention ever. See you in Halifax next year.

Origins??

2010-05-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

Looks like rain, so we are going to do the Origins event at the Bus Stop Theatre. Stop by around 2pm with anything that makes a sound. Let's finish my 5lb bag of coffee and make some noise.

Matt Elliott talks to Meghan Remy (U.S. Girls) about Springsteen, the internet, making records, and being a loner

2010-05-25T19:06:00.001-07:00

When did you first start singing?
Oh man. It’s hard to answer. I Pretty much always have been singing since I was a kid, just around the house and stuff for fun and recording myself on a little tape player and listening to it back, but probably seriously singing for like the past 5 or 6 years. When i played in a band called Me Con in Portland, which was when I really started singing, and the first time I recorded my voice seriously and had to listen back to it and stuff. But I only have really started experimenting with my voice and stuff and thinking of myself as a singer since I have been doing US GIRLS...so like 2007.

Tell us about the first shows. What kind of reaction could you gauge from the audience?
People mostly just didn’t say anything, there was like no reaction. People would watch and then I would be done and people would kind of clap but they weren’t sure what to do. There would be a few people who would come up and say they really like it, maybe it was people from the bands I was playing with so they liked it, but for the most part I think people could see that I was just starting out trying to do something. I don’t think people really liked it at first, and I didn’t really like it at first. My live set wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing, it was just what I could do at that moment, so it was kind of... most of my first shows were kind of practices really that people unfortunately had to witness.

You started playing live before you were even comfortable with what you were playing?
Yeah. I just decided to do it as a way to get comfortable because I had to do it at some point if I wanted to tour and play music publically, which I wanted to do, I just didn’t want to put out records, I wanted to do something live and to perform for people in that setting. It was like ripping a band aid off – I just had to do it.

That’s interesting because I told you before that I think your songs have a fearless, almost underdog spirit. Do you think that courageousness comes from those early shows?
Maybe. I think I definitely have gotten to where I am now because I just started and didn’t really think about it, I just did it. But I think I have kind of always been the person that I am, and when it comes to being creative and performing, though I maybe have gotten nervous and just didn’t let anyone know it and kind of just did whatever I was doing even if it was terrible, I would always act like it was the best thing I’ve ever done. If you let on that you are having a hard time or don’t like what you are doing its very easy for an audience to pick up on that so I have always just kind of not cared about what reaction I got or what people say. I kind of always did it for myself.

Were you like that growing up?
Yeah. When I would be in a school play or something like that I would always be so energized by it and excited. Even if I screwed up or messed up my line or something it didn’t matter to me. I liked being in front of people and the moment I was in front of them I was in control of the environment that was going on. I like that, I like controlling people’s lives for a few moments.

How do you describe your music when talking with friends or family?
With my family I tell them that I just play pop music and usually they just leave it at that. But with friends, they, you know, they listen to similar music that I do or have a wider range of experiences when it comes to music and live music so they know what’s going on. But really, when anyone asks me what kind of music that I play, I just say pop music because it’s a really easy answer and then people don’t ask anything else... it’s an easy out so I don’t really have to talk...everyone knows pop music so you just say that and it’s the end of the conversation.

There may be more questions if they listen to your record.
Yeah, and sometimes there are more questions. People will ask “Who else is in my band?” and when I say no one else is in the band they’ll ask “How are you just the band?” and I have to be like “well I do this thing...”, You know? Family people and the average Joes don’t really get it...they’re confused.

There’s definitely a loner outlook with U.S. GIRLS and the fact that it’s all you kind of adds to that, but do you consider yourself a social person?
I’m a social person but I also don’t seek out social situations. I’m not the kind of person that needs a lot of people around, I don’t need a lot of excitement and talking and communicating and partying and stuff. If I’m in that situation and I’m around friends or I’m around new people that want to talk to me I’m excited and I like talking to people because I like people, but I’m definitely not one to go out. When it comes to living in Philly and my life here, I don’t really go to shows, I don’t go to bars, I don’t go to parties, and if I do I find myself leaving after I’ve been there for an hour, but not because I don’t like people, it’s just I feel much more comfortable at home.

Go Grey has been out for a few months now. How do you feel the response has been?
I mean, I sold a lot of records when I was on tour and I have heard from friends and people who bought them that they really enjoy the record and they listen to it often and that’s great, but I haven’t, in terms of the press, I haven’t read many reviews or things like that, I try not to read those things, so I don’t know what the professional response to it has been, but the personal response that I have heard from people on a one-on- one thing has been really positive and I personally feel positive about the record. I think it was the best record I could make at the time when I was recording it, so I don’t have any regrets, and there’s nothing I wish I would have done differently. I did the best I could do which is really all I could ask, and I got out everything that I needed to get out at that time.

I guess everyone has different reasons for not wanting to read reviews. What are yours?
Well, it’s probably just that I don’t have a computer so I don’t have time to sit and research stuff, but also, I don’t know, I have known a few people in my life, musicians, who have gotten too wrapped up in reviews and what journalists say about things and I just don’t want to give myself the opportunity to get bummed out on some person having a bad opinion of my work. I rather just hear from someone personally what they think about it instead of what some person on the internet has decided to write. I always much prefer a conversation. I don’t think journalism is bad or evil or anything, but it enables people to either feel really bad about themselves or feel like too good and become egotistical.

I don’t think people even read reviews anymore, they just peek the grade or the score and go by that.
Yeah. Some people really buy their records based on what they read, which is fine, people have a system of buying things based on rating systems or something, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a review or something and decided to go buy it. I’ve just never done that.

Word of mouth is always the best way to find out about something.
Yeah, yeah, having a friend saying “You’ll like this, you should get it” or me already liking the band and I know they have a new record coming out so I just get it. I don’t care about the hoopla or the patting on the back. It’s weird too because it would be different if all these reviews were actually printed and they were in magazines or newspapers, I feel like I would take them more seriously and feel like they were more concrete, but with the internet I feel like it’s so mean spirited, it’s not even real, it’s not reality.

Songs on Go Grey that stick with you after listening. When you said you wanted to write more complex pop songs was it because you wanted to write songs people could remember? These are songs I can sing in the shower.
I don’t know, yeah, that’s the kind of music I like to listen to, pop music that’s got the hook that sticks with you, especially vocally, that’s the kind of stuff I connect with, the good vocal line, whether it’s the actual lyrics or the delivery that gets me, and I think that’s kind of what I was going for, trying to make this strange music that I know how to make but trying to make it accessible and, you know, like a commercial that sticks in your head. You know, there’s nothing better that i could ask for than someone singing one of my songs when they aren’t even listening to it, that’s great because it becomes their song because they’re singing it.

And when people wake up in the morning and start humming your song in bed.
Yeah, that’s great. I like that. I hope people are doing that. That would make me beyond happy and would make me feel like I succeeded.

Well, I think people are doing it. Now you didn’t plan on releasing your first album on vinyl but eventually there was a demand for it. Knowing Go Grey would see a vinyl release, was there anything during the recording process you did differently?
I think I just put a little bit more work into it, I had more time, I knew that people would possibly be spending money on it if they were buying it, and I knew someone was going to be putting money out to actually put it out so I wanted it to be complete and to be the exact vision that I had in mind instead of like the first album, which was really an experiment, and it was what it was, and I wasn’t able to edit it in any way and it was just put on vinyl the way it was. This time, I had the opportunity to have a little more control over what was being put out. I think I just thought about things more.

Are you still playing any material from ‘Introducing’ live?
Sometimes. I only play two songs from that album, I play the Springsteen cover (‘Prove It All Night’) and ‘Don’t Understand That Man’ but I haven’t done the Springsteen cover in about a year and ‘Don’t Understand That Man’ I do sometime s just because I like to sing it, so it just depends on the night.

At this point, are you tired talking about Springsteen?
No, I’m never tired talking about him! (Laughs) He is like my...you know... something that feels religious to me ...it’s why living in Philly is so great because there are so many fanatics here. Like, I actually got to see him in Philly in October which was the best. I had seen him in Chicago and Portland which was amazing but seeing him near where he is from and near where, you know, all his songs are written about this area, and seeing him with people who have seen him for 30 years, people who have been following him and love him and people whose lives are really affected by him and kept them going and giving them something in life, it was really special, and I finally feel like I have found my “Bruce Community”. Like, I’ve always felt for years I was just talking about Springsteen to people and it annoyed them, but now I have met people here who no matter how many times I bring him up or they bring him up we are still equally as excited about it. He has that kind of quality, it’s really incredible to still have that power, he’s like 60 years old, you know? When I saw him play just recently he played for like almost 4 hours and it was high energy and he only had one tiny break but he didn’t even leave the stage, he just went to the side of the stage and dunked his head in a huge bucket of water, like, that was his break. He just fucking gave it, and the tickets we got were $30 bucks and he played for 4 hours. If you go see the Stones your tickets are like $300 and they play for an hour and they suck. Our Seats were amazing, right behind the stage, his stage is completely opened up, we had the best seats because we could see what every musician was doing in the band, like, we were behind and above Max Weinberg, which was amazing seeing him drum because he’s such a powerhouse. Also being behind the stage you get to see the whole audience, like 30,000 people looking at you, you get to see them freaking out and just going crazy, it was the best perspective. It was amazing, and I didn’t even know I was going until the day of the show. The night before the show we had a friend at the house that was going and he was talking about how he was going to see Springsteen the next day and I was so bummed out that I didn’t get tickets. The next day I went to visit my boyfriend at work around 2pm and he was like “what do you want to do tonight?” And I just said, I don’t know, probably make dinner, watch a movie and go to bed or something, and he was like “Do you want to go see Springsteen? And I was like whaaaat? And that day they had opened a whole block of seats that were behind the stage and he got two tickets, it was the best, it was so much better than knowing for weeks that I was going to see him, it was just this thing, like, yeah, I’m going to go see Springsteen tonight. It was amazing.

I read once that you tried to get your album to him. Did that work out?
(Laughs) Yeah, well, I don’t know if he got it but I went to the studio where he was recording and he wasn’t there. It was before my record was out on vinyl, it was just a CDR, I left one for him but I don’t know if he got it. I like to imagine he got it and he listens to it all the time.

What does it mean to be a part of the Siltbreeze roster?
I just feel lucky to get to work with Tom and be a part of his collection of records that he puts out. I think he has a great vision and I think he has great taste and I feel privileged that he likes my music enough to want to pay to put it out, I feel privileged that he even wants to listen to it. It’s special. And he cooks great meals for me too.

What band from the Siltbreeze roster is/was your favourite?
I’ve always really liked Harry Pussy, and when I was in college I got into the Dead C, and now my favourite stuff is, I don’t know the most current thing, but I like Psychedelic Horseshit and I really like the last Eat Skull record and i really like The Mantles record.

When you were touring last year and considering different cities to call home, before you decided on Philly, was a Canadian city ever a legitimate option for you?
Yeah, I mean, I really liked Toronto and I really liked Montreal a lot, I definitely considered them but the opportunities for places to live and work weren’t just there, but I would love to live in Canada some day. I think Toronto is an amazing city, its super diverse and they have amazing food and seems like there’s a good music scene, and I really like Montreal too because people seem to be doing amazing things there and it’s so beautiful there...it just wasn’t right for me at the time.

You sing over tapes at your live show. What happens when you’re touring and your tapes get lost or fucked up?
They have never gotten lost but on my first show on my first European tour when I used to play with reel to reels I went to plug it in and it was broken but I dodged a bullet because I was able to get another one the next day. Dealing with the reel to reel was a lot riskier because it’s like a dinosaur really, you can’t just get another one, it’s temperamental, and if something breaks you can’t just get a part for it. But it was something that I kind of enjoyed dealing with, the risk. I felt like, although no one could understand it, it was part of the performance for me, dealing with this old equipment that I had a personal relationship with. I was almost praying to the reel to reel machine every night to work, you know? Like, please work. That was the only thing I could do was pray to it and like worship it to get it to work because I didn’t know how to fix it or what to do. Now that I use cassettes it’s easier because you can get a cassette player pretty much anywhere even though prices have gone up and they don’t make as many as they used to, but I have a lot of tapes with songs and just found sounds and drum beats and things so even if a bunch of my tapes got fucked up I could make something out of it. I haven’t had too bad of a problem yet but hopefully I’m not cursing myself right now by saying that.

Tell me a little about the transition from being hunched over equipment on the floor to having things laid up on a table in front of you.
You know, standing up was something that I wanted to do for a long time but I would think about it and when it was time to play I would just set up on the ground because it was easier than trying to find a table, and it was also just a little bit easier because I felt more isolated to kind of hunch over and be in my own little bubble and I didn’t really have to look at anybody and it was still a really personal thing still. Then one day I played a show in new York and I set my stuff up on the ground but I just stood up, and I stood up for the whole set, and it felt fine even though my knees were shacking and I actually had to look people in the eye, but it’s been a lot better now that I’m standing up, I feel like I take more time to set up my equipment and I sing better now that I’m standing and my whole body is in a straight line instead of a curved, hunched ball on the ground. So it’s been a good thing for me and I feel like I have more of a performance now even though I still really don’t have any performance, but at least now I’m looking people in the eye which kind of, in a way, allows me to connect with people. I have to face the reactions of people when they are experiencing my music, you know? Some people leave, some people plug their ears, some people are confused and I can tell, some people are really happy and dance and I see all that and it’s nice. I still just kind of play in a continuous line, I don’t ever stop and wait for a reaction, I just play and do my thing because I don’t want to waste anybody’s time and I don’t want to take any time away from a band that’s playing after me, so I still just play in a continuous line but now I have to see what people do during that line.

What does it mean to you to be a part of an all-female compilation like the Estrogeneration record that NNF released?
It feels special. I grew up listening to Riot Grrrl music and worshiping kind of like...I don’t know... feminist culture and things like that. It feels good. It feels like I’m accomplishing something that I wanted to do when I was 14 and listening to Bikini Kill. It feels good to be just represented on vinyl with a bunch of other woman just doing what they’re doing, and everything we’re all doing is different and unique and our personal perspective and I like it. I feel like it’s a record that can’t be critiqued because it’s just really honest and upfront, I almost feel like it’s a zine or something.

I had a chance to listen to a song from your new 7” – Lunar Life- Sounds different than the stuff from Go Grey. What can you tell me about the song?
I’m not playing organ on it at all...a friend of mine is playing on it. One day we just decided to get together and play music and I was doing this weird drum machine beat and my friend just kind of played over it. I recorded it and took it home and I probably did 40 different vocal takes over it, like, I couldn’t get one that I liked. I ended up just doing one and made myself stick with it and then just decided that it was going to be the one that I was going to go with it. It’s a really weird song. I felt like it was at a time when I was feeling really desperate and kind of self-conscious about my voice. I’m happy about how it turned out because I was trying to perfect it for so long and then I just ended up deciding to accept its imperfections and just go with it. I think it’s a good song...it’s just kind of...you know...it just is what it is.

Your voice kind of reaches a new level on that track.
Yeah, I mean, I wanted it to reach a new level, and I think that’s why I re-did the vocals so many times and why I became so self- conscience about it. I re-did it so many times and I was thinking about it so much, whereas I usually just kind of do it and don’t think about it so much, I just kind of let it be and flow naturally, but with this one I was really trying to...I was going for something but I just couldn’t get the effects right and I kind of just gave up and said fuck it. I think the vocals on that song are pretty bare and raw and I think mostly it’s just hard for me to listen to which is why maybe I feel a little weird about it.

You did the artwork for that 7” like you do for all your releases
Yeah, I’m an art student, I graduated from art school, and I always made collages and drawings and thinks like that, I’ve always done the artwork for every band that I’ve been in. I love music art work, you know? I think it’s great to create visuals that go along with the music that you make. That Dirty Beaches 7” that’s coming out is the first record that I’ve done where I haven’t done the artwork, I mean other than comps and things, which is a different story, but I didn’t do the artwork for that but I really like the artwork that was made and I feel good about it, but I’m also definitely a control freak which is why in think I make a lot of the artwork for my records (laughs).

Speaking of, what's the status of the Dirty Beaches split 7inch?
As far as I know, I think it should be on its way. I was sent the master of the songs about a month and a half ago and I approved them and so as far as I know it’s at the press and should be coming out soon, I hope soon because I’m excited about it. I love Dirty Beaches and I’m really excited to hear his stuff on vinyl. I have three songs on my side just because I had some songs that would fit and I wanted to fit as much on there as I could because why not? So I have three songs that I only played live, but maybe they are on the internet, I don’t know. A song called “Today” one I think is called “Excerpt” and the other one is called “My Marie”. They are all songs that no one has heard yet so we will see how it goes.

Since we’re talking about 7 inches, do you have an all –time favourite?
Oh my god, that I own? Oh man, it’s hard because to me there’s a difference between a 7” and a 45, you know? A 7” to me has a certain punk quality or something, like, it’s modern, and I don’t know what would be my favourite modern 7”, I couldn’t say, I don’t really have many, but in terms of old records there’s countless singles that I own that are really important but I couldn’t say that I have a favourite.

Would you say that a 45 is more R&B/Soul ?
Yeah, to me a 45 is a single more so, like pre-85 to me or something, and 7” to me, just in my book, is more modern, i don’t know, i never owned many 7 inches, i own a lot of 45s but i don’t buy many new records.

What was the last new record you bought?
The last new record I bought? Like, a new record that I bought? Like still in plastic? I bought some records recently for my boyfriend as gifts and I listen to them, but the last new record I bought I couldn’t tell you. I got him this comp that’s called The Wolf Den, it’s like a collection of southern blues and gospel recordings from the 50s and 60s, it’s really good and it just came out. Probably the newest records that I bought are like Mississippi Records stuff, I buy those when I see them and when I have money. I love them and I listen to them to death, so that’s probably the newest stuff I bought and they are all old songs. A lot of the newer records that I have are friends’ records or I get them through labels or tom from Siltbreeze will give me the Siltbreeze stuff and I listen to that and I love it, like, I listen to the Eat Skull record and, like, I feel like my copy won’t even play anymore, you know? But I just don’t buy new records because a lot of the time I don’t have the money to spend on them and a lot of the times I go to record stores I am just more drawn to the old records.

I know you listen to a lot of older music, R&B, etc. What have you been listening to lately?
Lately, Wes and I have been going through all of our cassettes. I have a cassette of the Inca Ore/Grouper split and I’ve been listening to that a lot, and The Chickens cassette, and I’ve been listening to Patti Smith a lot, Springsteen of course, and revisiting a lot of Thin Lizzy records, and I’ve been listening to a lot of country music, like a lot of Tammy Wynette, and like some female country singers, but mostly old stuff, nothing fun, you know? (Laughs) Just tapes, like, I have a mix tape that has Royal Trux and Hasil Atkins and Gun Club that I’ve been listening to a lot, but everyone knows that stuff and I guess it isn’t too fun.

So you know, the Chickens 7” was just released.
Yeah, yeah, Chickens are amazing, both of those guys live in Philly and the bass player also plays bass in my boyfriend’s band (Hot Guts). It’s weird because when I first moved to Philly, the first person I played music with was Kyle, who is the main guy in Chickens, and they both play in FNU RONNIES too, and so he and I were messing around with samples with real drums and then playing guitar and bass over them, we wrote about three songs and nothing really came of it, but one of Chickens songs is one of the drumbeats we made, so that’s cool. He’s like one of the only people I’ve played music with in Philly. Mike (Reser) who plays organ on Lunar Life is the bass player in Chickens. I played a lot of music with mike, and I played with Kyle when I first moved here and on the new FNU Ronnies record I sing on one of their songs, so I pretty much just play music with those two guys and play music with Wes at home (laughs). Chickens are amazing, I really like them and they are really wild live.

On the Atelier Ciseaux blog it says “Meghan Remy chose Philadelphia”. The city is so much like you, gritty and tough, that I tend to think that it’s the other way around and that Philadelphia chose you.
It’s really funny because the last time we talked you were talking about Philly sports teams having grit and comparing Philly to my music, and I really thought about it and I was actually talking about it tonight too. I do think that Philly chose me in a way, I mean, I came here and I decided to move here, but it’s like it was waiting for me to show up or something (laughs). It feels good, this is the first place I ever lived where I didn’t see myself leaving, so we’ll see.

You're currently saving money to record a new record with a full band in studio. Can you let us know some new songs and what direction you think it's headed?
You know, I want to record with a full band, but I also want to keep it in my style of doing things, so I’m sure on the record there will be songs with just me on them. It could end up being that the full band is just me but recording everything, you know? I definitely want to continue in the kind of structured pop vein, but I’m definitely feeling like I want to start scaring people a little bit more and maybe be a little more aggressive and get some stuff out. We will see, I have no idea, I haven’t even started recording, I mean, I’ve started writing but it’s still in the works and there’s no plans for it to come out soon. Who knows? It could morph into being a lounge record (laughs). One song I just wrote this past week is called ‘Daddy’s Out Of Town’, that’s the newest song.

Thanks for your time!
Thank you! I’m excited about Halifax and the festival and getting a little vacation. It won’t be much of one because I fly in and play and then I leave again the next day, but I hope to see some music and meet some people and stuff, and I hope that people will come out.

http://www.myspace.com/usgirlssst
http://www.siltbreeze.com/usgirls.htm

U.S. Girls, Homostupids, Ultrathin, Mess Folk, Meat Curtains, DJ PLEASE! @ The Khyber - 10:30pm, May 29th - $8 advance $10 door

(((SOUNDS))) FREE 15 SONG DOWNLOAD

2010-05-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

1. U.S. Girls - Red Ford Radio
2. Dirty Beaches - Sweet 17
3. Chanteuse - Hatred
4. Paul Metzger - Orans (excerpt)
5. d'Eon - Almost out of Time
6. Homostupids - R. Companion
7. Bad Vibrations - Think About Life
8. Mess Folk - I Shit Blood
9. D/A A/D - Death Stalks
10. Pierre Bastien - Avid Diva
11. Play Guitar - Sleep
12. Slim Twig - Patty Ann
13. Dog day - Concentration
14. Long, Long, Long - It's at night that you might
15. Charles Blazevic - Bleakwave

Download here - http://www.mediafire.com/?xztvcafxwmi

Who's buying BWAGG some Donairs?

2010-05-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Brett Wagg is the owner and operator of tape label Campaign For Infinity and drummer of some of Montreal's best and most progressive bands, Ultrathin and The Pink Noise. Brett is an incredibly ambitious young man, and a huge supporter of creative and challenging music; traveling all over the continent, booking shows, hustling music, producing it, and djing it. 2010 sees the birth of his new vinyl label NO VACATION with releases by Dead Wife and Teenage Panzerkorps and more releases on CFI with artists across North America. Brett's band Ultrathin will be taking the stage at this year's Obey Convention and we are psyched to host them, they have been rocking jams across the eastern seaboard and it is about time for their Halifax debut. Brett kindly took the time to answer some questions.

Z - Producing underground music is a tricky, sometimes thankless job, what got you interested/started?

B - I would say that growing up with an interest in underground music would be how I got started in this. Wanting to be more involved in music than I was at the time, I bought a tape duplicator from a Church and just had it kicking around for a bit being for the most part unused. The first tape that I released was a 60 minute RADRAT tape that was put together of jams and collaborations dating back to the early '00s. It was put together for a tour that we did of eastern Canada in May of 2008. I ended up at the 2nd Obey fest after this, and a few months later released a live tape of the Shearing Pinx and Be Bad sets from the fest. I started contacting other artists about doing releases and around this time things in Montreal started to blow up and things just sort of grew from there.

Z - How would you describe Campaign for Infinity's sound or philosophy?

B - Initially it was just a vessel to release music made by myself or my friends but now I would say that the sound is reflective of current artists that I really like. A lot of labels get stuck on one particular sound and I don't feel like that is the case with us. Lo-fi, psychedelic rock, garage rock, noise, and minimal synth are all labels that could be used to describe certain releases, but they can't be applied across the board. Philosophy? No good, haha.

Z - Tells us a bit about No Vacation, how it came about, and can we expect to
see the same breadth of different artists?

B - No Vacation Records is myself, Arin Gintowt and Dominiq Alexander. It`s the same people, but our vinyl imprint. I had been talking with Dead Wife about doing a 7" for almost a year and this fall we started to get that project pressed around the same time we got in touch with Teenage Panzerkorps (Der TPK) about doing a release. Their 2nd LP on Siltbreeze, Games for Slaves and last years Knut Hamsun EP on Captured Tracks, were some of my top records of 2008 and 2009 and I`m really happy with the way this new record sounds. I think I might have some copies at Obey if all goes well. I think there is going to be less Canadian content with NVR moving forward, but time will tell.

Z - Montreal is a hustlers city, especially if you are Anglo, it seems you have to make your own breaks and be resourceful. How has this climate filtered into how you produce music?

B - Ha, It gets filtered pretty directly I guess you could say. Making breaks and being resourceful aside, I`m lucky enough to have a lot of good people around to help me out, which is probably the most important thing.

Z - Coming to the Obey Convention will be a return home for you of sorts, since you grew up outside of Halifax, what will this be like?

B - It's going to be great, the lineup this year is amazing, and there are going to be so many friends from all different walks of life in town. I`m really looking forward to playing with US Girls and Homostupids, they are a couple of the more exciting bands I have seen in the past few years. I am going to eat a Donair everyday for the entire week.

Z - RAD!

http://campaignforinfinity.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/ultrathinmtl

The Robins play Halifax for the first time since 1982!!!!!!

2010-05-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

Moncton's Robins claim to be the Maritime's very first active punk band (3rd in existence). Originally called 'The Fly Frogs', they formed in April 1980, played a slew of shows on the East Coast, then called it quits in April 1982. The members went on to play in a bunch of great bands including Eric's Trip, Thee Suddens, Cancer Society, Idee Du Nord, Elevator, MEN, Burnt Offerings and No Explanation. They did release a self-titled cassette in 1980 that I'm sure would be as hard to find today as that Da Slyme 2LP from Newfoundland's first punk band. Thankfully, the Robins reformed and recorded a proper full length with Rick White that just saw release on their 29th birthday in April 2009. This Thursday's show at OBEY will be the Robins first time playing Halifax since February 1982. THIS IS NOT TO BE MISSED!!

Bad Vibrations, The Robins, Fuck Montreal, L/P @ Gus' Pub, May 27th - 10:30pm - $6
The Robins

Schedule, Tickets, Info++

2010-05-21T18:40:00.001-07:00

Since some of you may end up on this blog without ever checking out the main OBEY Convention page over at the DIVORCE site, I thought it would be a good idea to post some important information right here.

___________________

>TICKETS & PASSES IN REAL LIFE AT LOST & FOUND (2383 AGRICOLA ST.)

>TICKETS & PASSES ONLINE

>OBEY CONVENTION ON FACEBOOK

>DIVORCE ON FACEBOOK

>DIVORCE TWITTER

:::::SCHEDULE:::::

Thursday, May 27th

(((((Hidden Windows Opening)))))
Art by Stacey Ho and Lindsey Nolan,
Eleanor King, Vanessa Rieger and Kevin Hainey, Robbie Shedden
Sounds by Torso & Dark Cross, D/A A/D
Khyber 6:00pm-7:30pm
FREE

SUDDENLYlisten presents:
Pierre Bastien (France)
Buddha Box 2.0 - Guitar Orchestra
Tim Crofts
Khyber 7:30-10:00pm
$8 advance $10 door

Sewercide Records Presents:
Bad Vibrations (7" release)
The Robins (Moncton)
Fuck Montreal
L/P
Gus' 10:30-1:00am
$6 door only

Friday, May 28th

Beau Labute Art Opening
Les Beyond (Montreal)
Chanteuse
Lost & Found 6:00-7:30pm
FREE

Weird Canada Presents:
Paul Metzger (Minnesota)
Amen Dunes (New York/Beijing)
Gown & Ryan Kirk
Chris d'Eon
Chik White & Even Cardwell
Screening of Broken Deer Video by Alice Cohen
Bus Stop Theatre 7:30-10:30pm
$7 advance $8 door

Sled Island Presents:
Slim Twig (Toronto)
Dirty Beaches (Montreal)
Duzheknew
Catbag
Light by Jacqueline Lachance
Czech Tapes found by Craig Leonard
Khyber 10:45-1:30am
$8 advance $9 door

Saturday, May 29th

Anchor Archive Presents:
Crowd Control Sound & Art Fair
records + zines + art +
CKDU DJs
Radiator Collective Showcase
Bus Stop Theatre 11:30-4:30pm
FREE

Pigeon Row Presents:
Dog Day
Holy Cobras (Ottawa)
Cold Warps
Cop Shades (Moncton)
Bus Stop Theatre 7:00-10pm
$10 advance $10 door

U.S. Girls (Philadelphia)
Homostupids (Cleveland)
Ultrathin (Montreal)
Mess Folk (Cape Breton)
Meat Curtains
dj please!
Khyber 10:30-1:30am
$8 advance $10 door

Sunday, May 30th

Origins : Public Free Music Experiment
Random Location TBA 2pm
FREE

Campaign for Infinity Showcase + Weird Canada BBQ
Lost & Found 3:30-5:30pm
FREE

Noyes Records Presents:
Play Guitar
Omon Ra II
Long Long Long
Charles Blazevic
Bus Stop Theatre 7:30-10:00pm
$7 advance $8 door

For more info, head to divorcerecords.ca

Seth Smith talks to CCCCCCCC about caging birds and not being clean

2010-05-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

c - I heard you recently bought a live chicken. Is this true?

s - Ever since the day I hatched from my mother's egg, all I've really wanted was be a bird. I surround myself with new born chicks at all times. So we got a shipment of four the other day. Bell, Sims, Onion and Chips, welcome to the family.

c - How big is your chicken cage? Can the chicken stand up and/or turn around? If so, do you think the added movement will make for better eggs?

s - We feed them everything we can to make the eggs as huge as possible. We've tried every combination. So far we've found that and Mars bar and Pepsi work the best. As for their house, I built them a really nice one but they just poop all over it and talk in gibberish. So I don't know if they like it.

c - How has living in the country made Dog Day a better/worse band?

s - It's been positive overall. I kinda feel like how those chickens must feel coming from the factory. The only thing I can think about it that is bad is that I can't get any work done anymore… All I do is sit outside tripping out.

c - What is a dirt bath? How is the water at your house? Are you still dirty when you get out of the tub?

s - We make our own water here for the most part. And it is a little weird, so we have to take 3 or 4 showers a day to get clean.

c - I know you are veggies, but is killing your own food alright? It's right there.

s - Yeah, I just finished slaying an avocado. It pains me, but I know it's for my own good. I've been trying to prove plants have feelings for years.

c - When will you have a new album? What will it be like inside?

s - It's in the incubator forming. And yes it will be golden yellow incased in a frosty white goo. It will be finished as soon as we stop tripping out.

c - The line-up for your OBEY Convention show this year seems kind of punk. I really think Dog Day fit on a show like this, especially considering the weirdness on both of your releases for DIVORCE. Can we expect anything unusual on the 29th?

s - I don't know, I'm out of sync with the planets right now so I can't predict the future any more. Are you a Sagittarius?

c - Last time you played at the Bus Stop things got out of hand? Will you control yourselves this time around?

s - Stop hyping me. I'll do exactly what we agreed on. I have an identical twin brother named Eel and sometimes I let him stand in for me. So when I'm not preforming properly, it's usually him.

c - Have you been soured by your experiences with DIVORCE? Unprofessional? Not trustworthy?

s - I love Divorced. I think he's doing a great job. He's in his prime. I just hope he doesn't die like Nirvana did.

Thank you!

Dog Day, Holy Cobras, Cold Warps, Cop Shades @ The Bus Stop Theatre, May 29th - 7:30-10:00pm - $10 advance $10 door - wet/dry

Tickets
Dog Day

Weird Canada & Texture Magazine's Jesse Locke Interviews Slim Twig

2010-05-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

JL - Rockabilly has a long history of ‘cool’ (The Cramps, Nick Cave, John Spencer, etc.) but I feel like for the longest time its name has been sullied with associations to Vans Warped Tour type bands, jocks with pompadours and unfortunate offshoots of 'psychobilly,' 'horrrorbilly' and all that other junk. Happily, recent years have seen it being reclaimed and brought back to its radical roots by people like yourself, Johnny Dwyer and Dirty Beaches (also playing Obey this year). What’s your take on all this?

ST – It’s revealing to me that you zero in on rockabilly’s ‘coolness,’ as it’s that simple quality I’ve tried to co-opt in my own music while discarding much of its instrumentation, song form and attitude towards experimentation. My vocal persona naturally gravitated towards an affectation of sounding (or maybe just feeling!?) cool. I find it easier to sing within this attitude. Many of my lyrical themes tend to sit uncomfortably without the presence of some kind of attitude or characterization. Frankly, I feel more comfortable soused in tape delay! In this way, the reference of the style in my music feels to me like an evolutionary necessity in pursuit of expressing the themes I am concerned with. This swagger is my only real connection to rockabilly. I don't pursue any kind of relationship with that community (psycho, purist or otherwise)... I do really dig what Dirty Beaches, and Thee Oh Sees are up to, but am personally kind of tired of the association.

JL - Suicide are another band who twisted the style and attitude of rockabilly into something completely different, and you’re often compared to them as well. With MIA's recent song sampling “Ghost Rider” and Bruce Springsteen covering “Dream Baby Dream” a few years back it also seems like they’re re-entering the mass consciousness in a big way. Do you consider Suicide a significant influence?

ST - For sure. I discovered Suicide at 13 or 14, reading an article in Spin magazine of all places about Industrial music. It was also one of the first LPs I bought (instead of the CD)... So they’re pretty formative for me in a couple ways. Records that change your perception of the boundaries of music are truly rare, and are the most special kind – that was definitely one of the first for me. As well as enjoying Suicide in a really visceral, cathartic level, I find them cerebrally engaging which is my ideal musical combination. Idea driven music that makes you shake your ass, or freak out a little. Their ‘Rehearsal Tapes’ record is a favourite of mine. It sounds beamed in from another planet. I’m glad that people like Alex (Dirty Beaches) are picking up that torch a little bit, as it’s important music that seems to be bubbling to the surface only now, 35 years later.

JL - Following the release of your full-length, Contempt!, you’ve been offering up a flurry of mixes, mixtapes and side-project collaborations as free downloads on your blog. What do you like about getting all this music out there?

ST – I’m desperate to gain acceptance into the hip hop mixtape culture. I love the model, and I think it’s the most exciting format for getting music out there these days. It’s fast, it’s cheap, it embraces re-appropriation and fosters conversation between artists. It spawns sub-genres. It’s totally invigorating. I think it’s my version of getting a twitter account. I miss the days when pop stars had some kind of mystique about them. We all seem to bare everything these days which I find tiresome. Having said that, I think there’s value in exposing the evolution of an artist – this is where I'm at creatively these days, this is the music that inspires me. My mixtapes and DJ mixes (if you can call them that) are my opaque attempt at reaching out to whoever may be interested.

JL - Your mixtape Spit It Twig Vol. 2 also includes you sampling and singing over well-known songs like The Beatles' “Glass Onion” and “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”. Are you ever worried about getting in trouble for copyright issues, or do you just blast full-steam ahead punk rock style?

ST - Ha. I think I’m pretty self-deprecating when it comes to the size of my audience... I think it’s pretty limited, so I would be surprised if any of this music leaks out to someone who might feel endangered by my reach! (Having said that, I would be honoured to engage in legal recourse with John Lennon or Lee Hazlewood’s respective estates!). A large part of my protocol as a songwriter has to do with re-contextualizing existing music. Contempt! was crafted almost entirely out of samples (with a few well hidden famous ones), and because of the non-remunerative nature of the mixtapes I feel pretty emboldened to just take whatever fancies me. It’s more fun that way... I suspect music is moving further and further into this grey area... Sampling hardly feels like the revolutionary act that it might’ve 30 years ago, but I still find it to be a pretty modern way of going about making non-hip hop pop songs.

JL - What was it like acting in The Tracey Fragments with Ellen Page? Have you stayed in touch with her, or has her head swelled too much after the ballyhoo over Juno?

ST – It’s kind of a blur. I was the sickest I've ever been on set of that film. I get really laid up whenever I have some kind of serious responsibility like that, so when I had to carry her down the hall in one of the scenes she felt like a dumpster when I’m sure she weighs about 85 pounds! We haven't stayed in touch, so I really can’t comment on any swollen-head syndrome. She seemed like a nice girl though, and a decent kisser.

JL - Any other film projects in the works?

ST - Yes! I play a juvey-imprisoned pacifist in the upcoming film Dog Pound. I also just finished scoring a collaborative feature film project with my filmmaker parents Ross Turnbull and Jennifer Hazel which I also performed in. It’s a lo-fi vaguely sci-fi film about doubling, voyeurism and the dangers of self-deception called Sight Unseen. The film is reminiscent of some of David Lynch or Cronenberg’s work but has a more naturalist flavour. It’s very original. It was an intense experience (again, responsibility!), which has proven to be very rewarding. I hope to release a soundtrack record (maybe in mixtape format) composed of the music I made.

JL - I understand you're also a big fan of David Lynch. My fave film of his is Wild At Heart. What's yours?

ST - David Lynch is a hero of mine, maybe my favourite living artist. Lynch on Lynch really helped me develop my own creative process; it's like a bible. I love his more abstract work like Mullholand Drive or Lost Highway. They seem to suggest the illusion of a glossy Hollywood film, without actually embodying it, which is sort of my rough intention with my own music in the context of suggesting a pop song. Some of his films give me a similar sensation to that of watching a horror film, but they aren't horror films they're dread films. My favourite film – ever maybe – is Blue Velvet. Everything about it is perfect to me: the structure, the look, the themes, its provocations. It’s so stimulating, and sensuous and terrifying all at once. A winning combination.

JL - Looking into the crystal ball, can you imagine rockabilly making a big comeback followed by an inevitable backlash and then another trend coming up? What do you think that might be?

ST - Yes, Chillabilly. It's coming, trust me. We're all gonna love it, and then we’re all gonna loathe it. Slim Twig Chillabilly Thrills Vol. 1. Look for it on my blog summer 2010. In all seriousness, me and this band Actual Water from Toronto are trying to kick-start this new thing 'Croquet Wave.' We're trying to get Kevin Ayers to remix some shit for a Pitchfork special we have coming out soon. Straight the fuck up.

---------

Slim Twig, Dirty Beaches, Duzheknew, Catbag, Jacqueline Lachance @ The Khyber, May 28th - 10:45pm - 1:30am

Slim Twig
Weird Canada
Texture Magazine

The Other Halifax

2010-05-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

I happened to be around some rather bad radio the other day. The host was spouting on about one or another of those formulaic Halifax artists that have come to define our region to so many people. Not my thing. But the 5 minutes of mediocrity did remind me of all the fantastic music that IS pouring out of Halifax. Our city's underground has been on fire for a lot of years, and it's one of the big reasons we do this festival.

With something like 17 bands coming from away for OBEY IV, it was impossible to include anywhere near all our favorite locals, but we squeezed in as many as possible. They are listed below along with the pics and ultra-serious bios they sent us for the guide. We are so grateful to all of them for being in the mix this year. Check all of this...

Meat Curtains
The Meat Curtains were born out of wedlock last summer when all four girls were discovered on a CTV Live @ 5 talent search. They bonded over their shared love of sequins, teenaged boys, ham sammiches and active wear.
"Like Maya Angelo fronting TLC" -Bruce Frisko
www.myspace.com/meatcurtainsband

Cold Warps
A combination of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Ramones, but without all the sucky parts, and ten times better, and 20 times more talented, and 100 times more handsome. And also all the songs are about awesome things like science fiction and the internet. Faster, fuzzier, and way stupider, Halifax/Ottawa garage-punk at it's whatever-est.
www.myspace.com/coldwarps

Catbag
CATBAG accidentally materialized as a surf punk improv duo in 2008 and has since transformed into its darker hypnotic offspring--industrial lounge music--with the addition of free form saxophone. Catbag released the cassette "Creamweaving" in March 2010 and eagerly awaits its new self-titled 12" vinyl in time for Obey Convention IV. Catbag is Mitchell Wiebe, Craig Leonard and Dave Ewenson.
www.myspace.com/catbagsurfpunk

Duzheknew
Duzheknew formed in late 2009 when Halifax-based artist and musician Adam O'Reilly was in New York working as an artist assistant. What started out as a home-recording project in a new city turned into a creative outlet tapping into New Wave-era bands of the past such as: The Fall, Talking Heads, DNA, and more.

Adam O recorded a set of songs with Aron Sanchez from Polyphonic Workshop in Brooklyn (who produces Japanther) and received interest from the prolific pop-extradonaire R. Stevie Moore to collaborate on an upcoming split 7'. It didn't take long for his friends and peers back in Halifax to recognize that something special had happened to Adam O with Duzheknew while in he was away.

Duzheknew incorporates drone based compositions with no wave rhythms and lyrical vocal style reminiscent of Magnetic Fields / Smog to create atmospheric, engaging and artfully produced weirdo rock music. Live, the band shows obvious influence from early ninties grunge rock in the tones of the instruments, creating songs about sex, food and social politics, surrealist tales, and imagist dialog.
www.myspace.com/duzheknew

Dog Day
Somewhere in the deep woods of Pennant, four unusual companions join together in ritual to try and fix themselves with pop music. On rare occasion they come out of hiding to present their findings.
www.myspace.com/dogdaytheband

Gown & Ryan Kirk
Gown and Ryan make their live debut, sort of. You may have seen the horn/vocals finish to the omon ra/gown blow out jam at last year’s obey.... what to expect is up in the air. It could be an acoustic session, an eastern jam or a free jazz/psych blow out. It all depends on how the harmonic cosomogenesis (http://www.delphiassociates.org/) is flowing on the 28th. We are thinking along the lines of Flynt, Neil and the Dead(C), but who knows after the full moon.

Fuck Montreal
Fuck Montreal are easily pregnable by bacteria and other contaminants, resulting in serious risk of fatal infection.
Jenna, Alex, Jonathan and Blair are a skin disease characterized by a thickening of the keratin layer in fetal human skin. The band contains massive, diamond-shaped scales, and tends to have a reddish color.
http://www.myspace.com/fuckmontreal

Bad Vibrations
Raw, dark and steady, Bad Vibrations cut through every room and tear holes in the crowd and walls. Made up of two preacher’s sons and the daughter of a Japanese businessman this punk trio bring melodic dirge from the darkest corners of reality and present it in the new light for young and old. Come celebrate the release of their new 7 inch ‘Under Pressure’ in this new era of grunge chords and broken dreams.
www.myspace.com/bdvbes

D/A A/D
Over the last 6 years, Halifax transplant Alex Pearson has been creating some of the the darkest synth doom imaginable as D/A A/D. Equipped with a modular analog synthesizer Pearson sets out to engulf his audience with sub frequencies, while conjuring auditory apparitions with harmonic overtones. Pearson tries to avoid all the regular synth cliches and forge a new direction.
www.myspace.com/analogdoom

Chuck Blazevic
Since 2008, Chuck Blazevic has been primarily recording and performing under the Dreamsploitation moniker – including performances at Nocturne, Pop Montreal and The Atlantic Jazz Festival. His debut album, The Soft Focus Sound of Today, has been featured on The Signal (CBC Radio 2), in addition to making the Textura 'Top 50 Albums of 2008' year-end list. At Obey, Blazevic will showcase his latest work, which is characterized by spectral guitar treatments, worn textures (via damaged tape), and the energetic rhythms of the post-punk era.
www.myspace.com/accentblue

Chanteuse
Robert Drisdelle's Chanteuse project began with a collection of idiosyncratic covers of french pop tunes, but has overflowed into a multitude of DIY explorations: timbral workouts, mid-fi soundtrack sendups, chamber music, and a particular melodic sense that perhaps shouldn't go with any of it but somehow does, maybe. Chanteuse's OBEY set will involve a trio of winds and strings.
www.myspace.com/moresift

Tim Crofts
One of Halifax's most versatile pianists/improvisers, Tim Crofts has performed with Upstream Music, suddenlyListen, Symphony Nova Scotia, Jerry Granelli, Fred Frith, Eddie Prevost, Ghettosocks, IriSs Lab, Zokugaku and Joe Maneri. Tim will be performing new works for solo electronics featuring circuit bent and analog technologies. “The Piano is cool and all.... but I want to melt brains.”- Crofts
www.myspace.com/timcroftsmusic

L/P (Truro is close enough)
L/P, from Truro, Nova Scotia started in August 2008 and we are a post-punk/rock band. Previously a three piece band, we are now a four piece band with one proper release; E/P #1 (April 2009). L/P takes from eclectic influences and loves to rock n' roll. This summer we are releasing a 7" with a label from St.John's, Newfoundland.
www.myspace.com/bitemylp

Torso & Dark Cross
Hate noise body response
http://www.myspace.com/torsodeath

Long, Long, Long
Long Long Long is a rock band whose founding members came from Seattle, Washington, USA in the early 1970s. Going through several lineup changes, the only constant members of the group are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music.
http://www.myspace.com/longlonglonggg

Chik White & Evan Cardwell
I will head onto the icy bay. Fight the eagle and the bear to lay my head on that frozen flesh. Close my eyes. Dream of warm summer winds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzhr2gqsEWY&feature=related

Pierre Bastien's Robots of Sound

2010-05-06T16:41:00.000-07:00

Pierre Bastien is a French composer and multi-instrumentalist who travels the globe with an 80 member strong robotic orchestra built from Meccano. The mechanical musicians, often propelled by circuit bent turntables, jam on everything from Chinese lutes to violins. Once the robots lock it down, Pierre steps in with some human powered accompaniment, usually on trumpet. To top it all off, during the live performances the production is videographed by four cameras and projected in real time.

Bastien's music sounds like those fantastic childhood dreams we all once had when our minds were loose and free. Whenever I listen to this stuff waves of nostalgia wash over me. It's all very unusual, and I cannot wait to check it out live.

Special thanks to the RE:Flux in Moncton for helping to make this happen. Expect it to be a highlight of our festival.

**Photo by Herbert Gairhos

SUDDENLYlisten presents:
Pierre Bastien (France)
Buddha Box 2.0 - Guitar Orchestra
Tim Crofts
Khyber 7:30-10:00pm
$8 advance $10 door

http://www.pierrebastien.com/
http://www.myspace.com/pierrebastien9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGJUYp-lp5Y

Bad Vibrations get serious with Sewercide Dave

2010-05-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Sewercide Dave caught up with this teen sensation right before they left for a bunch of Canadian dates....

D - The band has released a cd, have a new record coming out, an upcoming eastern canadian tour starting on May 5th and i'm sure some other things that haven't come to light yet. For a fairly new project it doesn't seem like you guys are wasting any time. Do you feel like as a band with other musical commitments that Bad Vibes is taking a front seat to other projects right now?

B - I feel we're doin ok productivity wise, but to tell you the truth i wish we could do more. We have so many songs right now on the back burner, we're trying to catch up to ourselves. I'm sure this will start happening now that Evan's four track is working again and the cat is dead.

I guess Bad Vibes have taken the front seat for me because of how natural it is make this kind of music with these good people. Rock riffs come easy to us and are rewarding to play live and that is why I like playing in this band. As far as the others, there may be other reasons involved, but i am quite sure we could all agree that we like making noise and drinking together.

D - Halifax seems to be experiencing a great and thriving time in music right now. Having played quite a bit over the years, how do you feel about the current state of the local music community?

B - Halifax is a weird little city, that likes to mix things up. That is why shows can be quite diverse but still feel comfortable and make sense. The scenes don't seem quite as segregated and specific as scenes in bigger cities, at least this is what I've observed through touring with DD and The Hold in the past. I don't know if Halifax is better than ever before, there has been many exciting eras, i do think it is as confusing as it ever was, in a good way.

D - With so many sub-genres branching off from punk music, where do you feel a group like Bad Vibrations fits into that?

B - I don't have a clue where we fit really. I think we're aggressive and slightly evil but sweet sometimes. Is this punk? Who knows, maybe it's motorcycle rock or bum core. I think someone who has Black Flag, Joy Division and The Byrds in the same record collection might get us.

D - What can people expect from the band's upcoming record?

B - I feel our new record is a rawer and heavier affair, there is more intensity in the key of E and death polka beats going on. We like it (boo boos and all).

D - One of the songs you do called "Pick It Up" was recorded before with Evan's project Secret Colors and Husband & Knife's song "Career Suicide" was rerecorded by Dog Day while KC was playing drums for the group. Is there a particular reason that you've done this other than the idea of having a different take on the same songs?

B - Nope, I'd say it is having a different take on the song, that is it. By the way Evan kidnapped a wizard yesterday and gave it a DNA shower.

D - Anything you care to add about the group before we cap things off?

B - Thanks, hope we meet again. . .

________________

Bad Vibrations (7" Release)
The Robins
Fuck Montreal
L/P
May 27th Gus' $6 door

http://www.myspace.com/bdvbes

HOMOSTUPIDS Answer Some of Brendan Neima's Questions

2010-05-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

B - First of all, could you talk a bit about Cleveland and how the city influenced Homostupids' music?

H - Living in an urban environment you can walk down the street and absorb the wafting scent of dogshit. You see small babies rolling around in the street with and without their dirty diapers. Hamburgers being grilled in the summertime and landlords tossing renters out of 3rd floor windows. The bodies flying from the sky and splattering into the pavement in front of you.

B - Your blogspot references Homostupids' performing your "wild new music style". What changed within Homostupids that affected your music?

H - Our manager runs the blog. But I do like the sound of that. I would love to hear the sounds of Wild New Music! You too?

B - "The Load" is a pretty dynamic hardcore record. But some of the strangest shifts are songs like "Therapist" and "Candy-Candor", how do you feel those songs fit into your sound?

H - I can't remember which song is "Candy Condor", it's a great name though. But "Therapist" is a very special song for us. It's actually a sort of a cover song of "I live to be Hated" by G.G. Allin and the guitar on it is played by Homostupids guitarist Josh's 2 year old daughter. But it fits in with our sound because it is our sound. We made it. We are a wonderful band and we can do whatever we want to and it's great. Anything. Our sound is just wonderful sound.

B - Has she been given a full time position in Homostupids?

H - Spiritual Advisor

B - Do you have any idea of what to expect when you guys come to Halifax?

H - I expect we will be drinking lots of beer. What do you think we should be eating?

B - Donairs.

POOR?? LOADS OF FREE EVENTS!!

2010-04-27T18:14:00.001-07:00

We really wish everything could be free, but there are hard realities when it comes to putting together a weekend with artists from all over the continent and beyond. That being said, we are offering more FREE events than ever before. So there's no excuse. Everyone can get involved. Check it out....

Beau Labute Opening
Struggles and strange loops in collaboration with the future and the past -- a slow growth of mutant permutations through complicated minimalism. Layered drawings and paintings are cut and collaged, reinterpreted, and recombined to combat a never-ending flow of small mistakes -- obscuring and revealing plans within plans within no plans, circles and lines in that endless swamp of passing time.
Friday, May 28th, 6-7:30pm at Lost & Found with sounds by Les Beyond & Chanteuse. FREE AA

Campaign for Infinity Showcase
This year Obey fest falls on our 2 year birthday, and we've decided to throw a party! Coupled with the Weird Canada BBQ, There will be special anniversary releases, deals, and live performances from PIG, FRIENDLY DIMENSION, and THE ETHER.
Sunday, May 30th, 3:30-5pm at Lost & Found. FREE AA

Crowd Control Sound & Art Fair
The Obey Convention and Anchor Archive will once again present a special celebration of DIY culture. We have invited local and traveling record labels, zine makers, screen printers, and other talented folks to show off their wares for the day at the Bus Stop Theatre. Besides lots of tablers, the event will also include DJs from CKDU and Radiator Collective Showcase.
May 29th, 11:30am-4:30pm at the Bus Stop Theatre. FREE AA

Hidden Windows
Over the course of the festival, the Khyber Centre for the Arts will feature 'Hidden Windows', an exhibition of works by Kevin Hainey and Vanessa Rieger, Stacey Ho and Lindsey Nolan, Eleanor King, and Robbie Shedden.

‘Hidden Windows' takes its name from a video piece by Rieger and Hainey, a composition of lost moments taken from open webcams. Taking off from this title, the remaining works in the show also offer different views into thinking and seeing. Minimal drawings on found record sleeves are presented by Eleanor King. Rob Shedden exhibits his 'sightless' Polaroid portraits. Accompanied by Lindsey Nolan's drawings, Stacey Ho shows two audio pieces about each of her grandmothers.
Opening Thursday, May 27th, 6-7:30pm at the Khyber with sounds by Torso + Dark Cross, and D/A A/D. FREE AA

Origins
All music grows from improvisation, so improvisation is the earliest musical expression. Improvisation communicates culture and the sharing of ideas, so improvisation is the embryo for revolution and creation. Come and participate in an open musical experiment. Build, create, and destroy community through improvisation. All ideas and instruments welcomed, from rocks to iPhones.
May 30th, 2pm at a location TBA on our blog. FREE AA

Radiator Collective Showcase
The Radiator Family are a group of friends who build sounds. Many bands and artists make up the strange collective of artistic miscreants. Their showcase will range from fragile melodies to sonic grunge noise. Catch them at the Bus Stop Theatre during the crowd control sound and art fair.
May 29th, 3:30-5pm at the Bus Stop Theatre. FREE AA

Dirty Beaches / Omon Ra II Cassette

2010-04-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

Dirty Beaches/Omon Ra Split C30 on Campaign for Infinity

This release has too much OBEY Convention content to ignore. Two great Montreal acts on the best tape label going in Canada. It's limited to 100 and almost gone.

order here

I LOVE THIS POSTER!!!!

2010-04-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

BIGGER ON OUR SITE

Sell Your Wares at the Crowd Control Sound & Art Fair

2010-04-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

Crowd Control Sound & Art Fair - Bus Stop Theatre
Saturday, May 29th 12PM-4:30PM
This spring the Obey Convention and Anchor Archive will once again present a special celebration of DIY culture. We are inviting local and travelling record labels, zine makers, screen printers, and other talented folks to show off their wares at the Bus Stop Theatre on May 29th. Besides lots of tablers, the event will also include DJs from CKDU and a Radiator Collective Showcase. The fair is absolutely free to the public, so we expect big crowds. Tables are ONLY $15 and very limited. To book a table, please email crowdcontrolsoundandart@gmail.com

Dirty Beaches Reverb Wash hits Halifax's Shores for Obey.

2010-04-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Dirty Beaches rockin' the rooftop. Photo by Caley Jones

Alex Zhang Hungtai is the conduit for the one man band Dirty Beaches. The project, now in its 5th year, has taken Alex wide and far, literally and metaphorically. Alex has performed in China, and in the last year completed two US tours. His music has also traveled a long way; initially a more introverted, experimental project, Dirty Beaches has evolved into a full on violent-twist-jive-rockabilly-whiskey throw down, with a penchant for doo-woppy ballads. 2009 was a breakout year for Alex, with releases on Night People and Fixture. In 2010 Alex has been busy on the road and lining up a solid release schedule, including a full length LP on Night People, splits with fellow Obey Performers U.S. Girls and my group Omon Ra II (On Campaign for Infinity), and an archival release on Beijing label Rose Mansion Analog. I am over-the-top-excited to have Alex perform at this year's festival. Alex is a tremendous artist and I know his visceral and veracious performances will have a profound affect on the Halifax audiences. Below is a short interview I conducted with Alex last week:

Z - Since you moved from Montreal to Vancouver you've been incredibly busy. Why do you think 2009-2010 was/has been such a break-through year for you?

A - Being isolated from your friends always encourages productivity, albeit painful at times. My definition of friendship is much like the concept of family. I grew up without my family after age 14, so I spent a lot of time with friends growing up. There were older brother figures that I looked up to, and it has shaped me into the person I am at right now. Without them and those experiences, I am nothing. Those experiences morph into soundscapes in my music, or themes, even. They will always be there, like re-occurring characters.

Another reason for this year's intense schedule would be credited to my release on Night People, ever since my first tape release with them, I have been getting a lot of offers from labels, tour requests, etc, along with blog reviews. I hate letting people down, so I put the mileages into it. Been very lucky on those tours, making just enough money to get from one city to the next, with gas and what not into consideration as well. Met a lot of kind people on the road that gave us a little extra cash just so we could make it, and to the people that bought my merch, my thanks goes out to them.

Z - What's it like making music for you on the West Coast?

A - This year's winter in Vancouver has been so mild in comparison to Montreal that I almost secretly chuckle to myself whenever I look out the window. The area I live in (Hastings Sunrise) has a lot of trees, mountains, and old people. When I first arrived in October 09, I would listen to the twin peaks soundtrack my friend Conor got me for my birthday, and take little walks. However, there is one similar coincidence that my Montreal apartment shares with the Vancouver one: they are both very close to the train tracks. I love trains. oh boy. I like how they look, how they sound, I love walking on train tracks, I love riding trains, I love everything about them. Sometimes at night you can hear the train whistle, and it makes you want to be on that train, and just leave town. But that's just me. In China you can still smoke on trains, too. Although that's slowly changing now. I heard they banned indoor smoking in Shanghai this year. I hope it was only a rumor.

Z - One of things I really dig about Dirty Beaches is its exploration of minimalism. For the last five years you have used basically the same simple equipment and have created a world of sound, always light on resources but heavy in sound and spirit. Can you explain your approach and how you keep things fresh?

A - The approach to minimalism came out of necessity. My first release on Fixture was recorded with multiple tracks, with overdubs and layers. The problem was, I could never play it live. I had a hard time dealing with other people playing them, because they never got it right. I hate being the tyrant type too cuz I've been in bands with them when I was younger. So I never wanted to become that person where you write all the stuff and force, trick or manipulate other people to play the parts that you wrote. That shit is whack. And fucked up too. I think Bands should be formed out of friendship, and the idea of collaboration in mind.

Once I got over the idea that I was not going to be in a band, but a solo performing artist, things started to open up. I began recording my materials LIVE, almost identical to my live set up so I could translate my performances onto recording.

Whenever I'm out of ideas, I just watch a shit ton of films that have been on my watchlist. Lately I've been really into Tsai Ming-Liang, and Hou Hsiao Hsien (both based in Taiwan) and random forgotten gems from the 80's (like Willem Dafoe's first role in THE LOVELESS). Nick Cage and Val Kilmer flicks in the 80's are great too. I watch them when I'm sad and Val always cheers me up. He's the best.

Z - Given now that you are in your 5th year of the project, how do you hear the next 5 years of Dirty Beaches? How can we expect your sound to evolve or change?

A - I know I will always be making instrumental music. I've been doing that for the past 10 years. So I don't think that's gonna stop anytime soon. I've also started to make videos, and am currently working on my first short film, which is kind of a pilot for a digital download series part detective/film noir and other genres mixed in, starring my friend Bernadino Femminielli, who is a amazingly gifted musician based in Montreal. It will be fun to score it.

In terms of more ambitious ideas for dirty beaches, I'd like to try making sound installations for DIY spaces. I had an idea for the album HORROR that I put out on Fixture, but it was too costly financially to realize.

Z - Will Dirty Beaches always be a one man band and are you working on any collaborations?

A - I think dirty beaches will always be a one man project. Like films, that main character will always be longing for a place where he does not belong. An eternal damnation from home, misplaced, in exile, with nothing to hold onto.

However, I would love to throw it all away and start a new band that's not about any of that stuff I just mentioned.

http://www.myspace.com/dirtybeaches

Song of the year! True Blue, video by Alex Calder

Slim Twig - Style and Sound

2010-04-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

We're all psyched that Slim Twig is coming to town for this year's OBEY Convention. You may recognize him as 'Billy Zero' from Bruce McDonald's fantastic 2007 film Tracy Fragments starring Ellen Page. He killed it in that movie, but his musical output may even more impressive. What's so great about the guy? Why do we think he fits our festival so well? It's the absoluetly ingenius combination of styles that he's come up with. So fresh to these tired ears! Slim Twig is this fun-as-hell rockabilly sound and persona all twisted into a bunch of crazy avant-garde tomfoolery. Think Elvis meets Merzbow. It's big time entertainment that's not scared to fuck things up in your brain. Check out the above video that Dona Arbabzadeh did for his track Birthing and Birthing from the Derelict Dialect EP. And there's more over here>> http://www.myspace.com/slimtwig

Ottawa's Kaleidoscopic Holy Cobras

2010-04-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year these guys sent DIVORCE a curious cassette packaged in some cryptic photocopy of a female cult ritual or some other kind of weirdness. What I'd heard of Holy Cobras in the past I liked, so I slipped the tape in my deck and gave the volume knob a crank. Damn! This little demo was the best thing to arrive in my mail box all year. I still listen a couple times a week. It's pure psychedelic rock gold--laid back, hazy riffs and manic frontman washed in reverb and delay. Simple, perfect, and amazing. To top it off, I'm told they have one of the most nerve wracking live shows around. We had to get them. Here's a schedule hint: in an effort to keep the lineups strange, we put Holy Cobras on with Dog Day. See you there. MYSPACE

PAUL METZGER - 23 String Banjos & Lobotomized Guitars

2010-03-31T16:17:00.000-07:00

The late night punk hootenannies at the OBEY Convention often grab up a lot of the excitement when festival weekend roles up, and there's good reason. We've had some chaos at the Khyber, for sure. But some of the most mind altering performances happen in the quiet spaces earlier in the night. Expect a jaw dropper when Paul Metzger hits the early stage. Anyone who digs instrumental banjo and guitar (think Tacoma Records - John Fahey, Robbie Basho), deep improvisation, and/or mutilated acoustic instruments needs to check this guy out. Metzger has played over 500 shows, sharing the stage with folks like Boris, Sir Richard Bishop, Low, Six Organs of Admittance, Gang Gang Dance, and so many more. He's one of the acts I'm most excited to see, so expect more on Paul as the fest gets closer. In the meantime, check out his site for a bunch of free music - www.paulmetzger.com

OBEY Convention IV !!!

2010-03-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

OBEY CONVENTION IV
MAY 27-30 HALIFAX
__________________

DIVORCE is pleased to announce a fourth installment of The OBEY Convention, Halifax's springtime festival of new music & arts. This year expect incredible live music, light shows, installations, a zine & record fair, record releases, an art opening, free shows, workshops, and lots more.

Full line-up, schedule, tickets, and passes coming in April.

U.S. Girls (Philadelphia - Siltbreeze) www.myspace.com/usgirlsss
Slim Twig (Toronto - Paper Bag) www.myspace.com/slimtwig
Paul Metzger (Minnesota - Locust) www.myspace.com/paulmetzger
Pierre Bastien (France) http://www.pierrebastien.com/
Amen Dunes (Beijing/New York) www.myspace.com/amendunes
Homostupids (Cleveland - Load) www.myspace.com/homostupids
Holy Cobras (Ottawa) www.myspace.com/holycobras
Dirty Beaches (Vanvouver) www.myspace.com/dirtybeaches
Dog Day www.myspace.com/dogdaytheband
Ultrathin (Montreal) www.myspace.com/ultrathinmtl
Play Guitar (Montreal) www.myspace.com/playguitarplayguitar
Purple Knight (Moncton) www.myspace.com/purpleknight1974
Les Beyond (Montreal) www.myspace.com/lesbeyond
Mess Folk (Cape Breton) www.myspace.com/messfolk
Gown & Ryan Kirk www.myspace.com/divorcerecords
Bad Vibrations www.myspace.com/theyproject
Omon Ra II (Montreal) www.myspace.com/theyproject
Cop Shades (Moncton) www.myspace.com/copshades
Cold Warps www.myspace.com/coldwarps
Catbag www.myspace.com/catbagsurfpunk
Duzheknew www.myspace.com/duzheknew
D/A A/D www.myspace.com/analogdoom
Meat Curtains www.myspace.com/meatcurtainsband
L/P www.myspace.com/bitemylp
Charles Blazevic www.myspace.com/accentblue
Chanteuse www.myspace.com/moresift
Tim Crofts www.myspace.com/timcroftsmusic
Chik White www.jewsharpguild.org/
Buddha Box 2.0 (Guitar Orchestra)
Radiator Collective Showcase
Campaign for Infinity Showcase
Installations by Kevin Hainey, Eleanor King, & Stacey Ho
Crowd Control Sound & Art Fair
Light Shows by Jacqueline Lachance
Sunday Morning Free Noise Worship
Festival Art by Lisa Czech
Czech Tapes??
Workshops
::much more TBA::++++++++++

2009-10-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, to tide you over until The Obey Convention IV DIVORCE is teaming with the HPX to bring you a showcase of some of our current favorite Canadian bands. I'm sure you'll all remember heavy doomgazers NADJA; the two piece who shook Obey II at the Bus Stop Theatre in '08 are back for the first time since to do damage. Plus it's the return of MTL proto-punkers GRAND TRINE (ex- Be Bad now with a new drummer and new sax player!) who will be releasing a 12" entitled SUNGLASSES on DIVORCE this January. Also in HFX for the first time we want to welcome Montreal's glue-wave no-w(e)ave Italo-speed queens DEAD WIFE. This night is rounded out with top notch local favorites HUSBAND & KNIFE and SECRET COLOURS!

HPX & DIVORCE present..

NADJA (Toronto, Alien8, Conspiracy+++)
GRAND TRINE (ex-Be Bad DIVORCE/Alien8)
DEAD WIFE (mtl tmz punx)
HUSBAND & KNIFE
SECRET COLOURS

This is SURE to be one of the highlights of the HPX. Don't miss it!

THANK YOU

2009-05-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU

to all the volunteers! Anyone who did sound, worked the doors, pitched in, organized, alleviated stress, contributed, attended, enjoyed, etc etc etc. We love you. We appreciate you. And we couldn't have done it without you. This was huge and we pulled it off together due to a lot of people's hard work and cooperation!

We might keep posting here so check back for the afterglow. I feel like this year really had an expanded spontaneous atmosphere (parking lot shows! VLT room shows!) and also just a better cross section of the community and a lot more to offer. The zine fair was taken new level thanks to Anchor Archive stepping up to the plate! Hard Light's program was so much more diverse and expansive. I am pleased with everything and everybody. You did a great job.

Thanks!

MEDIA BLITZ - OBEY BEGINS TODAY!

2009-05-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

DON'T DIS OBEY by Steven Cooke (*click the digg this button please)

Tyvek Feature in The Coast by Laura Kennis
Blasted History of Noise Live Sound Art Installation by Sue Carter Flinn
Cosmic Bubblgum Art Opening by Sue Carter Flinn

Okay. It's been fun blogging up a storm these past few weeks but I am leaving for tour now. I think the framework is in place for a wonderful & exciting weekend with a lot of fun to be had. Everyone rep a cool-dude-attitude.. THE OBEY CONVENTION NO.3 BEGINS TODAY!

AWESOME OBEY POSTER BY WALTER SCOTT

2009-05-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

RSVP!

Poster by the eternally talented Walter Scott of the band DEAD WIFE. Check out his blog!

INTERVIEW WITH COSMIC BUBBLEGUM

2009-05-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some full, unedited answers to questions asked by Sue at The Coast regarding my art show this Thursday at Lost & Found. I'm totally psyched to see ECT and Friendly Dimension perform at the opening. Be there! 7pm!

WHAT IS COSMIC BUBBLEGUM?

Cosmic Bubblegum is the name I used for graphic design and commissioned artwork from 2006 until 2009. 'For Your Pleasure,' the show at Lost & Found will be the first and only retrospective of that work. I am retiring from doing all hired art and design to focus on making music with a pop group called COSMETICS and a solo recording project called CERAMIC BLACK PANTHER. I'm also starting a business customizing vintage denim jackets with look-specialist Aja Robb - street gang style, totally tough. It's time to focus on those things.

I REALLY LOVE YOUR AESTHETIC. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT?

Cosmic, handmade, glamourous, tough, pop. (thanks sue!)

THERE'S DEFINITELY A VINTAGE APPEAL. DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A NOSTALGIC PERSON?

Not at all. Maybe some people think that because I do a lot of the work by hand, and downplay more obviously digital elements. I like the idosyncricities and imperfections that happen when you do things that way - even when you try to make them perfect, they're always a little off - it's more interesting to me.

I usually hate nostalgia. I like living right now and would prefer to romanticize the future as opposed to the past. One of the most boring, conservative ideas is that something was better in the past, and that we need to recapture or recreate it - that's why so much rock'n'roll is boring now.

I like borrowing from lots of different eras and aesthetics, but I try to combine them into something personal, that looks like it isn't from any specific time. I want the things I create to seem like they come from no particular era or historical genre - but from outerspace, or a dream.

ARE YOU ALWAYS COLLECTING IMAGES FOR FUTURE USE? WHAT ARE YOU DRAWN TO?

Not anymore, since I am not doing this sort of work anymore. One of the reasons it isn't as interesting to me anymore is that I don't want to rely so much on found images - I want to create my own now. The supply of unused, cool images is drastically dwindling anyway... everyone has seen them already. It's like all the good obscure records - everyone knows about them now (that's not a bad thing).

Things I am drawn to include: disco record sleeves, Roxy Music, 70's fashion store Biba, mirror, metallics, black-on-black, my girlfriend, art deco, punk cut + paste, UK psychedelia, white fur, fake jewels, black silk stockings, eyes, lips, nice hair, heart-shaped sunglasses, dazzling patterns, interesting personalities, exciting music...

IT APPEARS LIKE YOU HAVE DEVELOPED YOUR OWN SET OF ICONOGRAPHY, E.G. CERTAIN PATTERNS, CIRCLES, FONTS. DID THOSE DEVELOP OVER TIME? DO YOU PICK UP NEW ONES AND ABANDON OLD ONES?

In everything I make, I really try to have it be a reflection of my inner world and personality, as opposed to any particular aesthetic genre or design trend. I've never tried to have a professional career doing this sort of work, for me it is a tool to construct my own reality - to build a world around myself that's exciting... the dreamworld I want to live in.

Because of that, the work has defiantly have gone through different aesthetic phases. When I'm into something I just ride that train while it lasts, because something new always comes along.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN VANCOUVER?

I'm from Halifax, and I went to school at NSCAD. After that I lived in Montreal. I've been in Vancouver since late-2006. I want to live in Portland next.

GIANGANTIC NEW TYVEK INTERVIEW FROM CHLOE LUM

2009-05-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

Montreal's Chloe Lum (Aids Wolf/Seripop) just posted a huge interview with Tyvek for the blog we write for: theeouternet. It's a good read. When you are finished with the new Tyvek interview look through the achieves, the blog has tons of contributors and interviews with Sightings, Six Finger Satellite, Nu Sensae, Graffiti Island and lots of record reviews and more more.

Also the band I posted about previously from Truro, Nova Scotia PIG have just posted new tracks from their next tape. Amazing leap forward. They will probably become your new favorite local band. Two new tracks 'I cut my honey' and 'Kim Deal's Demo Cassette' were posted yesterday. Take a listen to both they are quite different from each other.

Shirts & Bags

2009-05-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

That good man Christian Simmons made us some cool shirts and bags...

interview with Françoise Provencher

2009-05-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Françoise Provencher has a Masters of Science in experimental condensed matter physics, and is currently studying digital music at Université de Montréal. Her short film, sous le microscope, is a animation made from magnified images of crystals using microscopy techniques. Sous le microscope will be screening as a part of Hard Light, a video event at the Khyber Centre for the Arts. You can find out more about the film here.

Explain the process for making this video.

I was looking at the growth of crystals with a microscope to understand their structure. I took a few photographs of the crystallization process to show my colleagues and they were stunned by the beauty of these images -- and so was I. So I returned to the microscope and took thousands of photographs that I assembled frame by frame to make this film. During this process, I met Albérick who offered to help me out with the soundtrack. So one evening we went to my lab with Pier-Emmanuel and we recorded various lab sounds, and another day P-E and I recorded the piano parts and the glockenspiel. I gave the film to Albérick and instructions about some musical cues, and he did all the magic.

What are we looking at under the microscope?

These are organic crystals, which means they are made from carbon based molecules. In this case, it's a perylene tetracarboxdiimide derivative. This stuff can self-assemble in various shapes and sizes -- spheres, feathers, needles...

What can art learn from science and vice versa?

I don't know if art can learn something from science, but artists can definitely learn from scientists and vice versa. Both disciplines strive to express something about the world (be it in the form of music or equations), and it needs a great deal of creativity and exploration to do so. Artists and scientists have a lot in common and should talk together more often.

What led you to study first science then music?

As a teenager I did both, but I had to decide between my two passions when I entered college. I figured that it would be easier to study science while doing music on the side than vice versa. During my physics studies in university, I took a few classes from the electroacoustic music curriculum "on the side", and I liked it so much I decided to take a break from science to work on music full time. Soon enough, I will be back in physics to pursue a PhD, and I plan to continue to go back and forth between science and music, and combine the two when I can.

Tell me a bit about the audio of sous le microscope, and about the people who made it.

The audio is a mixture of instrumental sounds (piano and toy glockenspiel), lab sounds and data sonification. Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay, a good friend of mine who is an astrophysicist by day and a pianist by night, did the recordings and played the piano. I'm very fond of his work; he recently released his first album "Pas assez (pour deux)" on walnut+locust, a label run by Albérick, aka .cut. Albérick is a post-rock and electronic musician, very active both in Montreal and France. His two main musical projects are The Montreal Nintendo Orkestar and .cut, hence the ".cut and friends".

Define:
natural : not man-made
art : expression
beauty : what strikes the human mind

What inspires you?

Nature, in it's widest definition (atoms, galaxies, trees, birds, etc...).

What are you working on now? Any upcoming projects?

I just finished an electroacoustic work entitle "Heiwa", which is about peace. Also, I plan to make a sequel to sous le microscope, but using different imaging techniques.

COSMETICS @ MUSIC WASTE

2009-05-16T15:06:00.001-07:00

Promo pic for the MUSIC WASTE festival in Vancouver. Canadian weirdo fests have to have each other's backs. Looks like fun. Check it out.

Don't forget to RSVP to the show.

NEW 'GRAND TRINE' TRACK POSTED

2009-05-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

We just put up a new track recorded for the upcoming split with Holy Cobras on Bruised Tongue.

GRAND TRINE 'MONOCHROMATIC YOUTH': posted here.

Plus we just found out the sold out 1st release 'Free All Psychic Centers' will soon be reissued digitally by Alien8 Recordings (home of Acid Mothers Temple, Merzbow, The Unicorns, Les Georges Leningrad etc).

We're pretty excited to visit Halifax. I can't wait to see some old friends & hang out. Thanks. See you soon!

2009-05-13T05:27:00.000-07:00

Audio Visual Improvisation with Amanda Dawn Christie
Saturday May 23, 12PM-2PM @ North Street Church
Learn to improvise with visuals as well as with sounds! Work with 16mm film projectors, loops, prisms, and mirrors as an act of visual improvisation.
Intro to Electronics with Adam Kelly
Sunday May 24, 1pm @ Roberts Street Social Centre
Learn some basic electronics skills, including noise-making and circuit-bending.

Sound Recording with David Parker
Sunday May 24, 3pm @ Roberts Street Social Centre
Play around with a digital recorder and learn some tips for sound recording that can be used in a variety of ways, from creating artistic field recordings of sounds and spoken word, to doing interviews and creating radio content.

Improvisational Music with Garth Hardy
Monday May 25, 7pm @ Roberts Street Social Centre
Bring your instrument(s) of choice to a discussion about the state of improvised music, types of improv strategies for success, and doomed performances. Then workshop a score for a silent film to be performed.Friday May 29.

also check out the Crowd Control Sound & Art Fair
Sunday May 24, 1-5pm @ North Street Church
Tables selling records, zines, comics, screenprints, crafty things, and lots more …. Plus bands and performances!

COSMETICS - TUFF TRAX - PREVIEW MP3s

2009-05-12T03:19:00.000-07:00

COSMETICS are always busy working on demos. We have a couple of releases planned for 2OO9 on the mysterious (even to us!) TUFF TRAX imprint.

Here are a couple of the recent versions of songs we're working on:

COSMETICS - HONEY HONEY (may 2OO9 demo > rough mixx)

MP3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/5u4oiy

COSMETICS - THE CRIES (may 2OO9 demo > rough mixx)

MP3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/xgnttr

NIC + AJA

My Scores...

2009-05-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

As I will be performing as a part of the zine fair, I thought I should include some information about myself. So, I have uploaded a couple pictures of my scores for you to peruse. I'll try and get some videos up in the next week as well.. stay tuned....
www.myspace.com/zacharyfairbrother

Truro's PIG will release a NEW tape at Obey No. 3

2009-05-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

I got an email from the Truro band PIG last week asking me to design something for their new Cassette 'Elbow Witch' which they will be releasing at the METZ (Toronto, ON) show at North St Church May 23rd. This is what I came up with. Check out the band RIYL: Scratch Acid, Sonic Youth.

Read an interview with the band: JunnnkTank Webzine (PEI)

Watch them rip up a house party:

NEW ECT 7inch

2009-05-10T01:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the new ECT split 7" with Reclusive Mute (Gary Flanagan). You can catch ECT (ex-Gilbert Switzer) w/ The Friendly Dimension (also ex-Gilbert Switzer) for FREE at the 'FOR YOUR PLEASURE' art opening at Lost and Found on May 21st. Take the money you would have spent on admission and pick up this new release and some art prints. And then tuck in early because it's going to be a long weekend.

interview with Leslie Supnet!

2009-05-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

Leslie Supnet has been all over the place. This year she's screened at Toronto's Images Festival and her work was published in Walrus magazine. Come see Leslie's short video, The Animated Heavy Metal Parking Lot, at Hard Light on Saturday May 23rd! You can check out more of her work at www.sundaestories.com.

How did you find Heavy Metal Parking Lot? What drew you to it?

My partner Clint introduced me to it. He's quite the cinephile, so we watch a lot film and video together.

I have a lot of respect for creators who can make something out of nothing. You can have no budget, and lo-fi equipment, but the film itself can transcend the means of its production if the content is good enough. One example of that is Jeff Krulik and John Heyn's Heavy Metal Parking lot circa 1986. A great slice of life documentary.

What is your process for animation?

I did stop motion with paper cut outs, and shot it frame by frame with a digital SLR camera. The JPGs were then edited together.

What do you like about video as a medium?

What makes video interesting is its real-time aspect, and the errors you come across during the process.

Do you see a distinction between handmade and digital or commercial processes?

Yes. In terms of animation, most of the large commercial animation studios outsource the actual animating to smaller studios in Asia and India, as a "cost-effective" means of production. The slow, introspective, and rewarding artistic process of animation becomes meaningless.

Handmade, DIY processes, whether digital or analogue are much more meaningful and interesting modes of expression.

Why are you interested in working with the past?

I like to collect old things, especially old junk, vintage scrapbooks and other paper ephemera. So working with nostalgia has come naturally with the materials I am using.

How does nostalgia work? Why do certain things resound and stick with people?

I think a lot of kids in our generation are dissatisfied with the way the world is, both politically and culturally. One way to deal with that is through nostalgia - looking back at an idealized past. But nostalgia is only a temporary fix. Which is good, it forces us to become cultural producers of some kind.

Define:
happiness - Google Image Search.
art - Bruce Bickford!

What inspires you?

Awkward moments. Tragedy.

What are you up to? What's coming up next?

I'm working on a 16mm animated film. Animation is fairly new to me, and I've mostly worked digitally, so I'm excited to some analogue work. Back to the basics.

Film ((MUSIC)) Improvisation Workshop by Amanda Dawn Christie – May 24nd, North St. Church

2009-05-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

Workshop participants will learn how to work with film projectors in non-traditional and improvisational methods for live performance. The first section of the workshop will involve familiarity with common modifications done to projectors (including the addition of potentiometers for speed control, rheostats for lamp intensity control, switches for fans [to burn film at will], and foot switches for power. Next, the participants will have a chance to experiment with optical manipulation of light through the use of prisms, mirrors, anamorphic lenses, optical difractors, among other devices. At first the participants will only work with white light from the projector, in order to get a sense for what each device does, and in order to get a feel for keeping the most simple possible image (a white square of light) interesting and active for as long as possible. Next the participants will begin to work with film loops and with each other. They will learn to identify and change film loops quickly in the dark. The last two hours of the session will be spent in improvisation jams, in which participants will improvise together with music for 20 minutes at a time and then stop to discuss what did and didn’t work, before moving on to the next jam session. An emphasis will be put on learning to listen with one’s eyes and on being sensitive to what else is going on in the space both visually and aurally. The workshop will culminate in a public performance with live musicians. www.amandadawnchristie.ca
(((Musicians and Film People register @ zacharyfairbrother@gmail.com with ‘workshop’ in title. Limited to 6 People!)))

TYVEK - ONE OF THIS YEAR'S HEADLINERS

2009-05-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

MAY 23rd
Tyvek (Detroit)
Black Feelings (Montreal)
Grand Trine (Montreal)
Stolen Minks
The Ether
BHN Part 2
Khyber Ballroom 19+
10:30PM-2AM | $9 Door

Obviously rock and roll bands from the Motor City have a certain pedigree to live up to (see: Stooges, MC5, ? & The Mysterians, Alice Cooper, Frijid Pink). The current crop of Detroit bands: Tyvek, Frustrations, Fontana, Human Eye certainly do. People are getting pretty excited about the whole X!Records scene - and with good reason. I would say Tyvek are definitely leading the pack. I had a chance to see them twice in two days at last year's Pop Montreal festival with Vivian Girls. I don't think any other garage rock band I've seen live last year made me want to lose my shit that much. They have a new album coming out on Siltbreeze which is pretty exciting. Most people are holding out for the Vinyl because this is the year 2009 and compact discs are for dads.

They are also on this awesome comp which was just released. Here is the review that will be included in the next issue of Vice:

While the city of Detroit is busy reprising its role in RoboCop, all the gawky white kids from the suburbs have evidently teamed up with all the cool black kids to hang out in the rubble and start a bunch of bands that sound like Government Issue and Suburban Lawns and sometimes even, like, a really fuzzy AM-radio version of GISM. Judging by the photos on the back of this comp, marauders have already made off with all the scenefolk’s women, but that’s fine with me—nothing wrong with a bunch of guys getting together and reveling in their unabashed guyhood in a city with 50 percent literacy. Shit, I haven’t been this excited about a place turning into hell on Earth since I invaded Baghdad.

THE US ARMY

Here is another video of Euro-Tyvek (Euro lineup has keys)from last week:

The second headliner at the show at the Khyber Ballroom will be Montreal's Black Feelings. Who are dropping tracks they recorded with one of the dude's from Godspeed ! You Black Emperor left and right on 7inches, tapes, cdrs etc. They just got back from a tour in the United States. Their singer/drummer is flying home from tree planting (note: they are lovable enviro-heroes too!) just to do this week long tour and play Halifax. The band features ex- members of Les Angles Morts and the Arcade Fire(seriously). The sound is sort of post-apocalyptic-tribal-prog-pop if that makes any sense. Actually that makes it sound terrible but make no mistake Black Feelings are great.

Grand Trine I can't really talk about without it being a huge conflict of interest. But it's ex-Be Bad. When that band broke up we all went our separate ways and started new projects. So this is mine and I'm into it.

Opening the show we have great locals bands. No. 1 is the Stolen Minks who honestly I haven't seen in several years but I know at some point they became huge road-warriors touring constantly through the U.S and Canada and playing with the like of The Black Lips. I can remember their first shows oh so many years ago but I am excited to see them as seasoned veterans. I have tons of respect for any band from Halifax that gets in the van and puts the pedal to the metal.

(Photo by Paul Rodeo - I didn't ask for permission but I'm sure it's cool)

And then starting out the night is a Halifax band I am very anxious to check out. The Ether started a few months after I moved away, but I am told they are contenders for the Gilbert Switzer crown. I know they are putting out a release on Brett Wagg's Campaign For Infinity label soon, and they show how modern they are by offering their previous releases for free download on their myspace. They keep the No(w)-wave flame flickering for Halifax along with Electro Chiac Therapie after the collapse of Crazywave in '07.

Okay on top of all that everyone's favorite NSCAD nutty professor will be DJing with another installment of "BLASTED HISTORY OF NOISE". Craig Lenord released a LATHE CUT OF early demos of the L.A synth-punk legends THE (FUCKING) SCREAMERS a few years ago. Are you kidding me? This guy is so cool! He once converted his apartment into a movie theatre and held projection screenings of Blank Generation and the Dead Boys live in Toronto. There is a lot to talk about with Obey and with all the excitement of some of the other stuff I don't think we have had time to properly explain how awesome this gentleman and his DJing series will be. He will provide the official soundtrack of the festival.

Get excited. Get advance passes ($30 works out to less than $1 per band!). Tell your friends. Book time off work. This weekend is gigantic. R.S.V.P to this event on FACEBOOK.

Crowd Control Sound and Art Fair!

2009-05-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

The Obey Convention presents ... a special celebration of DIY culture!
Sunday May 24th at the North Street Church, check out local and traveling record labels, zine makers, screen printers, and other talented folks. The fair is absolutely free to the public, and will include workshops, live music, and an audio/video zine listening booth.
The list so far includes Divorce Records, Birch Control, Anchor Archive Zine Library, Snapped in Half Records, White Elephant Buttons, Britney Spears: Black Metal Idol zine, wanderlust, CKDU-FM, Sublime Creatures, Retirement Records, Yo Rodeo, Hello Daylight and more!
Expect to see records, comics, zines, buttons, t-shirts, drawings, tapes, art pieces, screenprints, mix tapes, notebooks, screenprinted and sewn things, unique and crafty miscellany and lots more!
Tables are $15 and very limited. To book a table, please email crowdcontrolsoundandart@gmail.com.

The Ether - No Fun Sexy

2009-05-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Ether are definitely one of Halifax's most exciting bands. Their highly energetic stage show is passionately confrontational and should not be missed! On their own they are some of the best people I have ever met and they even put out a record free for you to download, check it out!

No Fun Sexy

Omon Ra Performing Leonard Cohen's "The Old Revolution" + New Music Video

2009-05-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Harrrrrrrrrrrrd Lite

2009-04-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

still from "for the lucky and the strong" by Kim Sheppard

Clint Enns - The Death of Natural Language

The Death of Natural Language is an ascii animation of a plane crashing. The abstracted image mediated by ascii text parallels modern human communication; meaning is often lost or misinterpreted by the process. The music is 'miko' by the beans.

Clint Enns resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is currently a masters student in mathematics at the University of Manitoba. His interests include cinema, model theory of rings and modules, natural language as a biological phenomenon and the logical vocabulary of natural language. Clint has been an avid cinephile for many years, and has only recently started making films. He is currently a member of the Winnipeg Film Group and Video Pool.

Clint on vimeo

Kevin Hainey - Alluvium; Dwight Leaves

Kevin Hainey is an independent artist living in Toronto who expresses himself in the mediums of film, literature, music and visual art. He has worked as a professional freelance journalist for magazines such as Eye Weekly, Skyscraper and Exclaim. In 2004, at the age of 24, Hainey self-published his first novel, Thought Preserve, which featured artwork by cartoonist Chester Brown. In 2005 he co-founded the noise-rock band Disguises and started the Inyrdisk micro-label. In 2006 Hainey helped organize Toronto’s massive Bummer In The Summer festival, producing, directing and editing a grass-roots feature-length film to commemorate the event. That year, he also co-founded the psychedelic noise-rock band Cave Dudes. Over time he has written a number of works for stage and screen, recorded with scores of musicians, and directed some short Super 8mm films.

www.kevinhainey.net houses everything you need to know about Kevin Hainey.

Jesse Harris - NO TITLE

Jesse Harris is an artist from Toronto. His work primarily deals with popular language and counterculture.

His video was recorded by bonfire at a country club in Guelph, Ontario. Sound by Karl Skene and the artist.

Matt King - Mountains

Matt King can you please direct me to the lyceum? If I do this, then i can do that. Over here, over there kind of thing. In Toronto, his wallows be gone for time itself. dd/mm/yyyy fingers his butt on sax. Where I am, you can see it in synthetic landscapes constructing ideas to obey. He went grocery shopping and made this video. He other also makes a wooden cloud of dollar stores if kaleidoscopes or brownies until postcards and conventionally convenient...the video. A bookwork of Matts is in the collection of the Toronto Public Library.

Matt's art on blogspot

still from "The Death of Natural Language" by Clint Enns

Sarah Lipstate - Interior Variations

Sarah Lipstate is a Brooklyn-based sound artist and filmmaker. She has performed in Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Army, and as a member of Glenn Branca’s 100 guitar ensemble. In March 2008, Lipstate joined Parts & Labor as their new guitarist.

Last year, Lipstate performed as part of the Underground at the Abrons performance series at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In December, she played at the Un Son Par Là, Music of Today festival in Nîmes, France. She recently performed in the revival of Rhys Chatham and Karole Armitage's Drastic-Classicism as part of the Think Punk! program at The Kitchen in NYC.

Her short films have screened for two consecutive years at SXSW, and earned Lipstate the "Diamond in the Rough Cut" award for exceptional emerging filmmaker at Cinematexas 2006. Her short, "Memory Scars," screened at the Reel Venus Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives in NYC in October 2008.

Sarah's website

Ian MacTilstra - Portrait of the Artist as a Feedback Loop; Tits n Math

Ian MacTilstra has been incorrectly described as "Co-founder and leader of the DUP, Member of Parliament for North Antrim, founder of the Free Presbyterian Church. Controversial and charismatic Protestant leader in Northern Ireland for four decades. Rabidly anti-Catholic." At numerous institutions, he has studied psychology, philosophy, computer science and visual arts. In 2007, he founded The Dustbin, a provisional autonomous territory in Vancouver's Commercial Drive neighbourhood, serving as a mostly unscheduled, nonjuried venue for alternative and emerging work. His art has been shown in North America, the U.K., Europe, Russia, Australia, and Japan.

Jesse Frank Matthews - EMF

From microwaves to cell phones, the invisible and intense charge of electric energy and the field it produces blankets our peripheral environment. EMF addresses this phenomenon through audio (fridge motor) and visual (found footage) manipulation, conveying a sense of awareness of our own insular environments, and then being robbed of that.

Jesse Frank Matthews makes art; sometimes visible, sometimes audible often together and sometimes neither. Graduated from NSCAD in 2007 and showing work periodically while making work constantly.

Jesse on blogspot
and myspace!

Zeesy Powers - X

X was commissioned for a series of short films on the alphabet. It is composed of 192 individual paintings, and is about sex.

Zeesy Powers is an interdisciplinary artist who works with the body, spectacle and theatre. Her work combines painting, animation, puppets, dance and whatever else happens to be at hand, including other people.

Zeesy's site
and on Youtube!

still from "X" by Zeesy Powers

Françoise Provencher - sous le microscope

The images of this animated short were acquired via polarized light microscopy, while the music was elaborated from laboratory sounds, spectroscopic data sonification and instrumental samples. The images were not treated in any way to show the raw beauty of nature that scientists are sometimes confronted with.

Françoise Provencher, Masters of Science in experimental condensed matter physics, is currently studying in Digital Music at Université de Montréal. Her works focus mainly on the interplay of science and art. The soundtrack of Sous le micropscope is a collaboration with the Montreal based French post-rock artist .cut and the pianist Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay.

sous le microscope myspace

Tobias Rochman - The Cosmic Serpent

The Cosmic Serpent is a self-portrait set in space and explores veiled Occult symbolism through the use of iconic images such as golden retrievers, burgers, ak47s, denim and black roses. It was shot on a green screen at Concordia University this past February and features an original instrumental synthesizer score entitled 'SATURN' by Grand Trine.

Kim Sheppard - for the lucky and the strong; I Can't Keep Up

I Can't Keep Up has been gathered from footage and audio found on YouTube. The video moves through a landscape of child performers and over saturated scenery, examining family relationships and the ways in which they hold us and alienate us. Building a document of personal history from the documentation of other people's families the refrain "I can't keep up" seems more a declaration of separateness than a call to slow down. At once voyeuristic and introspective I Can't Keep Up is part two of a video tryptich made from Youtube-sourced footage that also includes All of What You Have, and Here We Are.

For the Lucky and the Strong is a chorus of nine separate women singing one song into their webcams.

Kim Sheppard, born 1982 Woodville, Nova Scotia, graduated, 2006 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, BFA Interdisciplinary Studies. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally, most recently as part of ArtCity festival, Calgary and at the Hamburg international Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany. She now lives in Toronto.

Leslie Supnet - The Animated Heavy Metal Parking Lot

An animated tribute to Jeff Krulike and John Heyn's 1986 video documentary classic, Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Remaining faithful to no-budget film making, Supnet reconstructs her favourite scenes using cut-out characters made out of aged paper, glue and ink.

Leslie Supnet is a visual artist from Winnipeg, MB Canada. Leslie recreates vestiges of personal history, incorporating a healthy dose of melancholy, nostalgia, and humour.

Leslie is on The Internet

'HARD LIGHT' EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO SCREENINGS

2009-04-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Matt King of DD/MM/YYYY has a short video entitled 'Mountains' which will be screened along with 11 artists at this year's installment of HARD LIGHT at the Obey Convention No.3. As you can see Matt had a bit of a rough tumble recently and we wish him a speedy recovery. His band plays Halifax often and I am sure you all know by now he's a swell dude. Check out his art blog here and post some wellness wishes here: http://mattkingart.blogspot.com/

DOG DAY - HAPPINESS

2009-04-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

This is the new video for their first single "Happiness". Directed by Seth Smith.

OBEY iii POSTER in NITE LITE COLOUR

2009-04-25T23:36:00.001-07:00

TYVEK VIDEOS

2009-04-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

I will post more information on this band soon. Right now Tyvek are touring Europe and here are two videos from the last few weeks:

moldee oldeys

2009-04-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

some well-loved youtube clips, and an interview with Darcy of divorce records that never got printed, maybe one or two years old

What communities do you belong to, and what is your role in these communities?

I suppose I belong to the underground music community in Halifax, and because of the label and the bit of touring I've done, I'm somewhat involved with fringe music scenes in other places in Canada. In general, I also like to think I'm a participant in some kind of overall DIY movement. As for my role(s), I'm a musician, fan (and aspiring archivist), and label operator.

How did you first start doing Divorce records?

I'd been briefly involved in the music industry. For some reason, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Like so many people have done in the past, I just decided to do things my own way. I started photocopying album covers, dubbing tapes, selling albums from my bike, etc. Divorce was basically a logo for anything I wanted to do for a number of years.

What keeps you in Halifax?

I long ago decided that this was my home. Halifax has been a great city for me – I have no desire to leave. Halifax is the perfect place if you're into culture but don't like big cities.

What makes art/music/culture engaging/relevant/important?

The great thing about art is that you can't really answer this question. Art works on so many levels. I suppose some kind of honesty is necessary. Besides that, who knows.

What reoccurring themes do you see in your own work?

Because of struggles in my personal life, I suppose much of what I've done in music has naturally dealt with depression and mania. Following from this is a trend towards isolation. Punk music has always been an expression of isolation – difference from society at large. Experimental music also deals with this by creating new sets of rules that aren't decipherable to people - the result is a polarization between the artist's 'group' and mostly everyone else. Experimental music is also a 'fuck you' to the usual ideas of what artist achievement may mean. People obviously aren't doing it to be stars or for financial gain. Punk music use to be the same, and in some cases still is. Maybe I'm off topic...

Explain the role of the following to your work and practice:

-awareness/autonomy

Do you mean trying to convey some form of awareness? – forcing people to see things my way? I probably do this in The Hold. I'm definitely trying to drive some points home.

-confrontation

I like forcing people to participate or react. Confrontation forces people to make decisions about what they are going to accept and what they think is offensive or trash. Aggressive and/or upsetting music is perfect for this.

-catharsis/neurosis

Music and the performance of music is one of the only ways I escape from my own neuroses. In this sense, everything I do is selfish and a form of therapy. But I feel it is also a sign that what I'm doing is honest, and I assume many artists operate this way. I guess you can only hope the audience finds a bit of transcendence as well.

How do you find a balance between the cerebral and the instinctive elements of creation?

The instinctive element comes through in performance. Something takes over during performance. I guess you'd call it instinct – it feels very primal, like it is from somewhere deep. By performance, I mean any act of playing music (or whatever), not just on stage. So, the act of performing is instinctive on some levels and informs creation. As for the cerebral element, I'm mostly into art that stimulates thought of one kind or another, so I attempt to guide myself through interesting concepts. I usually have something in mind before I sit down and make music. Sometimes I make elaborate diagrams of what I'd like to realize.

What got you into punk and music?

Until the age of 16 or so, I was mostly allowed to listen to Christian music. At some point, somebody played me a few minutes of The Dead Kennedy's. It changed everything for me. Even now I think of it as a reference point for what music really stands for. That said, I never got fully into punk music. I've always been into a wide range of stuff, but I think everything I like shares characteristics with that early interpretation of DK.

What's the relationship between music and other forms? Say, performance, the visual, or language?

Well, I think all art shares similar characteristics. So music is the same as any other form in that it expresses a unique vision of things. But when music is combined with any other form it makes this vision more dynamic or changes it. If someone performs a piece of music, the audience will likely take something different from the experience than if they simply listened to a recording.

How have your practices changed over the years? Why do you think this is?

Well, my creative impulses are getting progressively more obscure. When I was young, I was most interested in songs and different rock/pop formulas. Now I'm interested in a lot abstract music and the more unusual places this music can lead. But I guess my practices haven't changed much - I still attempt to play instruments, etc. I'm just coming from a different place now.

Also, because of the label and the distro I'm turning into more of an administrator. It's not as bad as it sounds. I'm becoming more of a fan of music and culture than I've ever been – I have an insatiable desire to listen to music these days.

What's your favourite music to dance to?

I don't dance.

What's the best thing to do when winter comes around?

Work on shit.

GRAND TRINE

2009-04-22T18:22:00.000-07:00

After the spectacular break up of Be Bad at last year's OBEY Convention, the various members all went on to new projects. One of the bands to emerge from the ashes is Montreal's heavy psych trio Grand Trine. Their sound mixes loads of weird rock influences including Simply Saucer, Chrome, and The Stooges. You can also hear a Suicide flavour in the minimalist runs, straight beats, and wild yelps. A few months ago they released a cassette on Montreal's ultra-cool Campaign For Infinity label. The tape sold out in a few weeks. They now have US and Canadian tours planned, and a full length LP in the works.

Today the CBC included Grand Trine in a piece on 'weird ((Canadian)) punk. Other bands featured include Aids Wolf, Red Mass, Duchess Says, and Les Georges Leningrad. Listen to the podcast HERE.

Grand Trine are certainly a reason why the Saturday night show at the Khyber is a stacked bill. Expect this band to give 200%

____________________________________

Tyvek, Black Feelings, Grand Trine, Stolen Minks, The Ether, BHN Part 2 @ the Khyber, May 23rd >>> 10:30PM-2AM $9

DIVORCE RECORDS TURNS 10 YEARS OLD!

2009-04-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

DIVORCE RECORDS IS NOW 10 YEARS OLD! 30 releases and the future is bright.

D28 Husband & Knife - More of Them (Than us) C-30
D27 Gown - The Old Line LP
D26 Husband & Knife - An End LP
D25 Be Bad - Everything Went Bad C-39 SOLD OUT
D24 Shearing Pinx - Haruspex 7"
D23 East vs. West C-20 SOLD OUT
D22 Vennt - S/T EP CD
D21 Be Bad - Vision Correction CD
D20 Unicorn/Torso Split CD
D19 Husband & Knife / Dog Day – Bordon Sessions C-20 SOLD OUT
D18 Dog Day- Thank You EP CD
D17 Torso - S/T CD-R SOLD OUT
D16 Husband and Knife - Welcome Back CD
D15 Be Bad/Attack Mode Split 7"
D14 Die Like An Animal Dies - CD-R SOLD OUT
D13 Gilbert Switzer/The Hold - State of Nature 7"
D12 Gilbert Switzer – American Idols Cassette SOLD OUT
D11 Be Bad / Gilbert Switzer – Floppy Disk SOLD OUT
D10 The Hold – Tour VHS SOLD OUT
D09 The Hold – Need CD-R SOLD OUT
D08 Hookerblood – Beer Can Ashtray CD-R SOLD OUT
D07 Hi Firey – Don’t Worry About The Future CD-R SOLD OUT
D06 The Hold – NOISEBLOODASSAULT CD-R SOLD OUT
D05 Shit Cook – Part Knife CD-R SOLD OUT
D04 Shit Cook – Run To The Gun CD-R SOLD OUT
D03 Made In The World – Street Lines CD
D02 Made In The World – S/T CD-R SOLD OUT
D01 Dead Roads – Murder in the Trees C-20 SOLD OUT
Crowd Control Sound & Art Series
CRO1 Tanya Busse & Lindsay Dobbin Zine+CD-R
CRO2 Torso / GACK / Sandy Saunders Zine+CD-R SOLD OUT

DOG DAY VIDEOS BY RICK WHITE

2009-04-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Dog Day (AA Album Release)
Husband & Knife
Bloodhouse
Chris D’Eon (C-30 Release)
BHN Part 1
North Street Church AA
7:30PM-10:30PM | $7 Door

some things that will NOT be screening at OBEY

2009-04-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

but watch them anyway.

Hard Light is a video art screening that's happening as a part of the festival. There's a set program featuring twelve artists, but who knows what will go on, since oh-my-goodness the event also features an open screening?!? May 23, 3-5 at the Khyber Centre for the Arts!

Clint Enns
Françoise Provencher
Ian Mactilstra
Jesse Frank Matthews
Jesse Harris
Kevin Hainey
Kim Sheppard
Leslie Supnet
Matt King
Sarah Lipstate
Tobias Rochman
Zeesy Powers

Keep checking this blog. More program deets to follow

Zeesy Powers - Quilt

Clint Enns - Winnipeg Stories: Sacrificial Memories

Leslie Supnet - A Small Misunderstanding

Fuck Montreal - Headphones

Matt King - Artist's Life

Sarah Lipstate - Radiation in Moderation

VANCOUVER'S COSMETICS

2009-04-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

photo: Mark Gutknecht

Friday, May 22nd

Cosmetics (Vancouver) ████████████████████████████
Sex Negatives (ex- MUTATORS) (Vancouver) █████████

Soaking Up Jagged ██████████████████████████████
Roomdoom (ex ZAAT) ████████████████████████████

BHN Part 4
Khyber Ballroom 19+
10:45PM–2AM | $7 Door

http://www.myspace.com/cosmeticscosmeticscosmetics

This show will be a great opening night party. Cosmetics RIYL: Glass Candy, Roxy Music, Dark Day. I'm excited about this show because it's the first time we will have any sort of dance music at Obey and they are certainly the most glamorous act we have ever had. An event like this really adds to the diversity of the fest; at the same time the underlying current is obviously talent & good taste. Cosmetics recently stepped up their game and are working on a new tour disc (on their own Disco Fizz imprint) which will be ready in time for the show. They just got back from playing a small string of dates with Jeremy Jay (K Records) in Olympia and Vancouver too. This year the Obey Convention really has something for everyone and opening night promises to loosen you up.

VIDEOZ

2009-04-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of great videos by bands playing OBEY this year. Both songs available on cassette only. ha.

Husband & Knife - Anyway

Omon Ra - Nice To See You Again