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weewerk
15... 6 March
2004 Music
by...
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weewerk
cashes in at Canadian Music Week ?!?
Yes indeed, weewerk is presenting an awesome showcase of indie-folk-pop for Canadian Music Week. The six-band lineup features the sublime Singing Saw Shadow Show, the mad banjo of Elliott Brood, aw-shucks chart monsters The Two-Minute Miracles, the delicate Great Lake Swimmers, the incomparably adorable Bartmitzvah Brothers, and Toronto's new saviours Jon-Rae Flether and the River. And in case you fear that we've actually bought in to the music industry, the event also includes interventions by artists Jon Sasaki and Mathieu Beauséjour that defy the machines of commerce - small objects of resignation by Sasaki and a process of monetary infection by Beauséjour.
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Biographies
Singing Saw Shadow Show "Genuine, original and sometimes appropriated compositions played by Seven Singing Saws and Euphonium, with guest appearances by other special and not-very special instruments, accompanied by the subtle but mystifying Balinese and Dadaist inspired shadow show. To the delight of its members, the group began in Spring 2003." The members of the group - James Anderson, Tony Dekker, Shahin Etemadzadeh, John Jowett, Chantale Marentette, Mike Stafford, Shayne Stevenson, and Ian Russell - also play in the following bands and others: Lenin I Shumov, Jon-Rae Fletcher & the River, Creeping Nobodies, Great Lake Swimmers, Damo Suzuki Network, and the WoodChoppers Association.
Elliott Brood call their music Death Country – dark, gritty folk music built around whiskey-drenched vocals and lyrics evoking images of love, loss and murder. In their soul-thumping bluegrass songs, banjo keeps time to a strange and chunky angular stomp, with vicious Kentucky-hardcore acoustic guitar and somber, achingly confessional vocal harmonies. The Toronto-based trio's beautifully packaged six-song debut EP Tin Type is available from weewerk. www.elliottbrood.ca The Two-Minute Miracles Their current and long-awaited album, Volume III "The Silence of Animals", finds the Miracles mining familiar alt-country pop territory, with a few twists and turns to lead you to inner salvation. www.teenageusarecordings.com
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weewerk recording artists Great Lake Swimmers make wonderfully understated, heart-wrenching chamber folk music. Led by songwriter-vocalist Tony Dekker, their haunting sound finds its roots in vintage folk and alt-country colourings, shaped by accordion and piano, lap steel and guitar, with a voice that seems to come from the walls. Their self-titled debut album, glistening with ten poetic songs, is available from weewerk. Click this link to read reviews or order the CD. www.greatlakeswimmers.com weewerk recording artists The Barmitzvah Brothers are a band of youth from Guelph, Ontario, who make eccentric, experimental pop from unusual instruments. Their eclectic style fuses elements of traditional folk, polka, bluegrass, rock, klezmer, punk, and more, and ranges from upbeat to melancholy. They occasionally sing in Hebrew, not because it is their native language, but because it sounds beautiful. Their second full-length record, the magical Mr. Bones' Walk-in Closet, displays a more reflective side of the band than their art-punkish debut. Click here to read reviews and order it through weewerk. In live performances the core trio - Jenny Mitchell, Geordie Gordon and Little Johnny Merritt - are joined by hockey-stick-wielding duo The Lethargians and at times by an unruly, rambling orchestra. www.barmitzvahbrothers.cjb.net
The "country gospel rock blues" of Jon-Rae Fletcher and The River has been taking Toronto by storm since arriving from the west coast. Their live show can be an intense, almost religious experience, delivered straight-up and flavoured with Fletcher's resonating country voice and robo-preacher-style dance moves. The band's latest CD, The Road, was released by Hive-FI Recordings in 2003. Jon-Rae previously released three distinctive hand-made records through Deer and Bird, a collective of musicians sharing his DIY ethic. Link to Deer and Bird or Hive Studios. Art-agitator Jon Sasaki writes for publications such as Broken Pencil, makes media-based art work, and has organized projects such as Instant Coffee's screensaver exhibition. His half-resistant-half-defeated I'VE PAID MY DUES shoe tags will be available at the show.
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