Category: Music

Cutting edge indie music might not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Griffintown, but in the midst of this forgotten industrial neighborhood exists a hidden oasis of artistic creativity, Friendship Cove.
Founded by musician Graham Van Pelt (Miracle Fortress, Think About Life) and artist Jack Dylan, the Friendship Cove has been host to some of the most interesting music in the city, having put on dozens of shows for bands and artists ranging from experimental synth-noise to whimsical folk pop. Since the demise of its similar art/music collective predecessor, The Electric Tractor, which was also started by Van Pelt and Dylan, Friendship Cove has filled the void and come to be one of the most beloved venues in the city. Situated in a modest sized loft, which is also used as a jam space, recording studio, art gallery, and permanent residence, it provides an intimate and aesthetically unique experience for the musicians and the concertgoers. Since it began having shows in October 2005 it has been host to such bands as, Sunset Rubdown, Athletic Automaton, and The Great Lake Swimmers, but more importantly has given many local independent bands and musicians a place to perform.
On Friday, October 26, in celebration of their 2nd anniversary FC will be putting on what could be one of their best shows to date, as Brooklyn lo-fi dance punk duo Japanther, will be joined by local indie synth funkers Telefauna, and Secrets of Mana, to show what friendship is all about.
Japanther is comprised of Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly who sing through telephone receivers and play drums and bass respectively as well as whatever other assortment of cheap Casios and lo-fi tape samplers they choose to bring with them. They’re coming off the release off their latest album Skuffled Up My Huffy, which keeps in tact their past ethos of raw stripped down punk grooves but fortunately due to a slight improvement in production value (it’s not hard to improve on nothing) on this album, gives a better sense of what the band are actually capable of sounding like at their best without being lost in a sea of murky reverb.
“Indie art funk” might be one of the annoying sounding genre descriptions ever (just behind Latino jazz/metal fusion) but that is what Montreal band Telefauna do, and they do it well. They have been performing together since 2004 when they made their debut at Pop Montreal, and have just released a double single entitled Under the Underground Water/Bamboo Shoot.
Kicking off the party will be Secrets of Mana, a new band featuring Kyle Fostner and Brendan Reed from the unfortunately defunct Les Angles Morts. So make sure to get to the show early, because if they’re even half as good as Angles Morts they should not be missed.

Friendship Cove is located at 215A Murray Street.

It’s Wednesday night and the Barfly on St. Laurent is packed. The crowd is mostly in their twenties. They dance, and cheer wildly between, and sometimes during, songs. But this isn’t the latest indie band to come out of the Plateau. Instead it’s something completely different. Colin Perry, who fronts the band, Colin Perry and Blind describes their sound as “early jazz from the 20s and 30s. I guess because I play electric guitar in this band it’s more late 30s early 40s jazz. But we draw from earlier traditions, swing and early blues.” Most of the songs they play were written in the 20s.
While traditional music like this is usually found in concert halls, played for older crowds. But Perry prefers the bars, “it’s nice to play music like this in a place like this, as opposed to a concert hall. That could be nice too, the sound is great but nobody is dancing.” He also has an idea why so many younger people are attracted to his band. “I think more and more young people are getting in to traditional kinds of music maybe they’re getting tired of synthetic forms of music. It seems like young people are into it, they don’t necessarily know about it or know where to find it.” The band itself ranges in age from 26 to 60.
In addition to the 20s sound the band has a look reminiscent of the fist half of the century, complete with suits and fedoras. As well they play instruments true to the era; violin, stand up bass, upright piano and vintage drums.
Wednesday Oct. 31 marks the bands nine year anniversary. The band started as a duo and has slowly grown to the current five piece line-up. The band will mark the anniversary by playing a special show and are encouraging people to come dressed in 1920s costumes.
Colin Perry and Blind play at Barfly at 4062A St-Laurent blvd every Wednesday.

Ashley MacIsaac is a traditionalist, an experimentalist and a prodigy. A rebel, a headliner and an icon. He is eccentric, controversial, praised and cursed. His name has been put up in lights and dragged through the mud. From his home in Toronto, the infamous fiddler discussed rumours, yellow press and his controversial past.

How does it feel being labelled as a highly controversial figure?

I thought Canada was at a stage where it was going to be instantaneous to write about someone being open with the sexual orientation and drug use. As soon as I had seen the first “controversial” press story labelling me as that, I thought, “Ok, if that’s the angle, then I’ll play it that route.”

Do you consider yourself to be a rebel?

No I’m far from it. I’ve focussed on music for nearly 20 years. I gage my personality as an entertainer and as an employed musician. I’m not much of a rebel; I’m just a working musician.

Were you prepared for the world of media, the ups and downs and all that comes with the territory?

It was my choice to venture out into other industry elements and start being involved with record companies, managers, agents, lawyers and accountants. It’s a whole other world of things. It’s not the easiest thing. When you’re hot, you’re hot and when you make big money, you make big money, but that’s not always the case. This is something I knew going into it.

Is there a difference between good press and bad press? Either way you’re making headlines.

Bad press would be when you’re mislabelled and that causes people to find reason to not hire you. Having a career is about longevity. I have had a few where I subsequently sued newspapers or media organizations for things that were said that I felt were defamatory. Those kinds of things can be hard to deal with. Otherwise entertainment press is about sensationalism and getting the most outrageous story. I don’t have a problem with that type. I’ve let things go on for a certain amount of time when I felt that maybe that was the best recourse, to let them dissipate, but eventually I’ve had to deal with them in a more legal manner.

Is it frustrating when the press focuses on your private life rather than your music?

No, I could say that’s part of how entertainment is marketed and sold. The only couple of times that it was blown out of proportion in my perspective were when things were taken out of context or used to state things in a way I hadn’t intended. But otherwise I’m a lover of scandalous extraordinary yellow press. I’ve done close to 4,000 shows in my life and I’ve had two or three shows that the press had made a big stink about. They tend to carry a life on but that’s the nature of the beast.

Was there a moment that you did care about what was said? Has anything hurt you?

There were a few times that I was labelled a racist and called names in certain gay press. I was labelled words that I don’t tend to want to use based on the age of some of my partners in the past, when I was actually really young myself. But I have to sort of take it all with a grain of salt.

Not taken with a grain of salt was your unforgettable and controversial moment on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1997. A kick step lifted your kilt! Was it really an accident like it was written off to be?

No there was no accident involved in it. I was wearing a kilt and I’ve worn a kilt many times. The fact is there was a camera angle that showed what was under my kilt. Conan thought it was funny and I thought it was funny. We rehearsed it in the afternoon and the director thought it was funny and the way they played it afterwards was played as funny. The press followed up on it saying that it was a bad thing, but it was never intended to be that. They could have just cut it or re-taped it, taking five minutes to redo it, but they were quite happy with it and I was too. For how many years has the question been asked, “What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?”

You exposed yourself in your autobiography called Fiddling with Disaster: Clearing the Past. Did it clear the past? Was it a relief?

Slightly but more than anything I had the opportunity to write an autobiography at a very young age with a ghost writer. The book was published without my final edit approval. There were certain things that were misquoted, miswritten and used in words that I wouldn’t use. It came off a lot harsher than I would have said. Dates had been changed and I had to fight in court afterwards over certain things that were said that led to other problems.
The main enjoyment of it was getting a story out about being a young musician coming into the world of media, press and bigotry and trying my best to wade my way through waters. Hopefully other people can take something beneficial from it. That was the main reason why I wanted to write it.

You seem to be open and honest when a lot of artists may clam up concerning certain subjects.

I was brought up that way and as much as I say that an honest to goodness good lie is as honest as you’re going to get sometimes, that’s the thing with press. You have to give them what they want. You’re answering questions that are often prepared and you have to make it easy for someone to write a story.
Honesty can be your best friend and lying can sometimes get you out of problems. Depending on how personal the question is, sometimes it makes much more sense to lie.

How do you feel about liars?

You’d better be a really good liar if you’re going to lie. Don’t waste your time lying to me or about me unless it’s a really good one.

Is it important to stay true to yourself and your heritage? Your music is experimental and crosses over into different genres, still you manage to stay a traditionalist.

I don’t veer too far from the traditional sensibilities. My upbring and my background of music is Cape Breton and being a product of the 80s. These two things mashed together are what my band is like be it making a traditional record, a traditional performance, or a solo violin performance.
But there’s a whole other side of the market, music and albums that I’ve heard or like that will take precedence a lot when I’m making a record.

You got married earlier this year. Will that change your writing?

I haven’t spent a lot of time putting songs out there; I play a lot of tunes. The one record where I wrote the whole album of songs is Pride. That was based on relationships and song writing ability but had a lot to do with relationships of the past. Broken up relations tend to allow for creative ways to be a wordsmith.
Happy relationships? I don’t know. But I haven’t really tried. In the courting phase of Andrew and myself being together I definitely wrote some lyrics. A marriage is sort of the emotional orgasm of courting.
Is it’s easier to be openly gay in the public eye now than it was a few years ago?
It’s nothing to boast about, but I wouldn’t sit back and have anybody tell me that I haven’t been a battering ram for a lot journalists.
Over the last twelve years I’ve seen countless stories everything from when I got married to Andrew to ten years ago about the age of my boyfriend when I was only 19 years old. There was only three years difference in our age.
After I got married Andrew and I have seen hundreds of stories and blogs that were calling it disgusting, shameful, vile and every possible nasty dirty thing. That type of negative scandalous press allows it to be less sensational for someone else.
Is it easier to be gay in the press? I think it’s a little easier now and it should be.
If they’re talking about you, they’re leaving someone else alone. With somebody taking the battering it is a lot easier for other people.
There was Rock Hudson, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, then there’s Ashley MacIsaac.

Move over Metallica and Slayer, and make some room for the new competitors for the metal crown, Saved By Sin. Its members consist of Ben ‘Dynamite’ Poitras on vocals, Cory ‘Cream’ Hamilton on bass, Denis ‘Heavy’ Andre on guitar, and Steph ‘Slick’ Couture on Drums. These new young masters of metal have created a sound that sticks in your head like gum does to your shoe. They’re convoluted melodies made up of dynamic and overpowering bass riffs and a vigorous and relentlessly forceful drumming sound. The immaculate guitar riffs are perfectly combined with snarling power chords and vibrant chugging, and the vocals are fierce and unmerciful but Ben’s hypnotizing melodic singing voice breaks up that wide range of screams nicely.
Saved by Sin were announced as the winners of the Super Nova competition, that also made famous bands like Sum 41. They gave a mind blowing performance at Reggie’s bar last Friday with amazing stage presence and a super tight set. Saved By Sin is a new metal band that matters. Ben Poitras and Denis Andre took a few minutes after the show to talk to us about who Saved By Sin really is.

Where did your nicknames come from?

Denis Andre: I got Heavy in high school I was 6’6″ and 245 lbs.
Ben Poitras: The nicknames are pretty much based on our personality, Cory, our bass player, is known for keeping smooth rhythms, and that is why we call him Cream. We call Steph, our drummer, Slick because of when he was growing his hair out and he could he would always wet his hands and run them through his hair. He was always slicked up.

Where did you get the name Saved By Sin? What does it mean?

DA: It means whatever you want it to mean. I wrote down a whole bunch of names that should never ever even be repeated, but Saved By Sin was one of them.
BP: The meaning of saved by sin does not necessarily mean to live a sinful lifestyle it’s the exact opposite of that; where leading that sinful lifestyle is the thing is what saves you. It makes you realize how to rectify your life and your mistakes so that you are actually being saved by sin because you never know how good life can be until you’ve experienced some of the bad stuff.

How do you describe your musical style?

BP: It’s like delivering hard ons through hard music.
DA: That’s probably the best explanation for it, if there was an explanation for it.

Who are your greatest influences and inspirations?

BP: I would not be singing heavy metal music if it were not for Jessie Leech and Randy Blythe. The “Alive or Just Breathing” record by Killswitch Engaged is ground breaking. It opened my eyes to the talent of having chore screaming at all levels of highs combined with melodic singing parts I didn’t know a human could make these sounds.
DA: To me A New American Gospel changed metal. Everything from New Age Metal to Classical music influenced me in a way.

What other then music inspires you?

BP: It’s all about human awareness, I study people; I admire them and hate them at the same time. Human beings are complex. We have so many angles and we’re not limited to one feeling or one emotion. You could write about people and have a different thing to say every second of the day.

Where do you guys find the passion and energy to play shows?

DA: A lot has to do with each other, we all draw energy from each other; we are all having so much fun, it’s surreal I guess.
BP: I definitely suck it from watching DVDs of my favourite bands.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

BP: I like old classic Poet, it has every thing you could want in a heavy metal song. We got speed metal, blast beats, crazy chugs so you could just plant your feet in a metal stance and rock out. Melodic singing and whaling screams, that to me is all you need in a live show.
DA: Claiming Infamy, because it’s a crowd pleaser and you need to play songs like that to keep the crowd excited.

Speaking of Claiming Infamy, what are the messages or ideals that you are trying to get across?

BP: Claiming Infamy is about a human desire for fame. Everybody wants to be famous, everybody wants to be known but for some people they feel that the easy way to get there is to do something atrocious, like a school shooting, to just want to put there name on the map, just like Ted Bundy or Charles Manson did. That song is pretty much about the human blood lust, the desire to steal from people.

Why the long hair?

BP: First I had to talk everyone into to doing in. For me it just hurts your goddamn head if you don’t have long hair. You don’t have a flow, you look and feel like a dork. So I grew the hair and Steph followed and then Denis. Since Cory can’t grow heavy metal hair we make him shave his head.

What cool effects would you add to your show, price is not an option?

BP: Dancers in cages, and dancers on the ground with strobe lights, maybe a confetti cannon and hot dog vendors.
DA: Strippers.

What is your instrument progression?

DA: I started with the Ibanez, to a Washburn, and now a Jackson, but if I could play anything it would be 1973 Gibson Les Paul.

What did you learn about the music business?

BP: You have to learn how to talk to people and you have to be professional. You wouldn’t even believe how much a 30 second conversation could matter. Where we are right now, playing our shows, most of it has been done over the telephone with people we have never met.
DA: We have learned to manage ourselves and I think we’ve done pretty well so far, we just have to get to the next level.

What would you say your greatest accomplishment as a band has been so far?

DA: Writing new music all the time, it’s about a constant progression.

What would like to see happen for your band?

BP: 100 percent help, we are ready, we want to just make it all about the music, commit to it full time. Any show with our band you are promised a great performance, whether we are playing for empty beer bottles or ash trays you are guaranteed a great time.

Final words of wisdom to our readers?

BP: Dynamite! No wait, keep it real and stay in school.
DA: Peace, love and heavy metal.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there
-Miles Davis

Tues., Oct. 16

-Daath, Dark Funeral, Nagflar
@ Club Soda
-Spoon
@ Le National
-Queens of the Stone Age @ Metropolis

Wed., Oct. 17

– Coco Montoya
@ Café Campus
– Led Zepplica
@ St-Denis Theatre

Thurs., Oct. 18

-Great Northern @ Le Divan Orange

Fri., Oct. 19

-I Am X
@ Café Campus
-Architecture in Helsinki, Lo-Fi Fnk, Panther @ La Tulipe
-Do Make Say Think @ Le National
-Busy P, Justice
@ Metropolis

Sat., Oct.20

-Shout Out Out Out Out, The Golden Dogs @ Cabaret
-Kenna, She wants Revenge
@ Le National
-David Usher
@ Metropolis

Sun., Oct. 21

-Enon, Octopus Project
@ Sala Rossa
-Sick City, Sights & Sounds, The Reason @ Foufouness
-Nightwish, Paradise Lost
@ Metropolis

Mon., Oct. 22

-Amber Pacific, Monty Are I, New Years Day, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
@ Club Soda
-The New Pornographers, Emma Pollock, Benjy Ferree
@ La National

Tues., Oct. 23

-Johnossi, Nico Vega, Shout Out Louds
@ Le National

This Week’s Pick:

Architecture in Helsinki cause these Aussies use all kinds of cool stuff like analog synthesizers, samplers, the glockenspiel, handclaps, trumpets, tubas, trombones, clarinets and recorders. They’ve opened for Yo La Tengo and Belle & Sebastian, a definite go in my books.

Runner-Up:

The New Pornographers

Heavy metal and hard rock were boys clubs; primarily male dominated genres of music. Things have changed. Doro Pesch and Cristina Scabbia, two of the hardest working women in hard rock and metal, talk about what the scene feels like for a girl.
Doro Pesch is one of the few female singers to rise up in the 1980s heavy metal scene. Leading the former German heavy metal band Warlock, Pesch was the first woman to perform in Monsters of Rock. This annual rock festival held in England featured acts like Metallica, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Def Leppard and M

It was an articulate, passionate and fight-ready Patti Smith that showed up to converse with long-time fan and The Nation editor John Nichols during Pop & Policy last Friday. The 60 year-old artist spoke to an audience of around 70 people about the need for communication, her political engagement, and of the hope instilled in her by global Internet communities.
Famous for her music’s politically charged messages, Smith said her mission is to inform people of truths, with little regard to how the information reaches its audience.
“I think of the people as the mass minority, and those need as much information as possible,” Smith said, adding that the greatness of rock’n’roll in lies in it’s accessibility to the people. Sitting with one foot resting on her knee, gesticulating enthusiastically with her slender arms, she said music’s beauty lies in its unifying force. “It’s like the lowest of the low delivering the highest of the high.”
In spite of relatively limited commercial success, Smith enjoys one of the most revered places in rock history, with her induction in the Rock and Roll hall of fame last March testifying her importance to the punk movement. Long time friend and The Clash, Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman, who joined Smith on stage to help moderate the conversation, opined her enduring appeal lies in her empathic ability to communicate other people’s emotions. While Smith coyly hid behind her hands in embarrassment, Pearlman said her integrity is absolute, exactly because she understands the things she writes about “on the deepest possible level.”
Her extraordinary compassionate ability was portrayed in Smith’s recollection of writing Radio Baghdad, a protest song against the war in Iraq. Set as an Iraqi mother’s lullaby to her children, sung as bombs are falling around them, Smith said she used her own motherhood to put herself in that woman’s place, trying to soothe her children, the family victims of a power game they had no part in.
She didn’t want to rehearse the song before recording in order to preserve the raw emotions of “all the horror and all the rage” the imagined mother felt, and after the recording was done, she went home ill with emotional exhaustion due to a setting conjured in her mind of a place she has never been.
Although Smith herself still nurtures the burning flame of defiance that embodied the punk movement in the 70’s, she touched upon the complacency she sees in mainstream culture several times, most notably when asked about her unwavering support of 2000 and 2004 US Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
“I love Ralph Nader,” she replied, likening him to Johnny Appleseed, casting political seeds that will one day blossom into fully fledged trees from which future generations will be able to harvest political apples, to be used for reclaiming the power Smith feels politicians have taken away from the people. To those who attribute Nader with the Democratic Party’s loss in the 2000 presidential election she had nothing but disdain, saying that laziness on the part of a lot of people was at fault, not one man’s fight against a two-party system. “[George Bush won] because a lot of people sat on their ass!” she stated, adding that she thought Nader would be recognized in the future for the work he is doing today “as the beautiful and loving revolutionary that he is.”
Involvement and communication was the thread for the conversation throughout, and when the topic turned towards the Internet and the way it has revolutionized the music industry Smith said she saw great promise in on-line communities such as MySpace, which she called this generation’s CBGB’s. As a young woman, she always tried to encourage people to start their own bands, to find their own voice with which they could protest the injustices they saw around them. Through the Internet it is now possible for her to see that young people today are indeed forming their own bands, finding their own creative voices.
Even though Smith claimed she is like a dinosaur on the Internet, she said she sometimes checks out her MySpace friends’ pages to see what kind of music they create.
“It doesn’t even matter if it’s good or not, the important thing is that they communicate,” she said, adding her “great hope is that they will comprehend [their communication’s power] and perhaps create a [political] party,” toppling the US political system much like they have toppled the music industry through downloading.
That times has indeed changed was apparent by Pearlman’s recollection of the Babelogue lyrics, Smith interrupting him reciting the pivotal line; “I am an American artist and I feel no guilt.”
“But now I’m an American artist, and I feel guilty about everything.”

Chris Burns has certainly changed since first taking the stage as a pimply 15 year old virgin, but fortunately for the Montreal music community, he hasn’t changed too much. He still remains one of this city’s most entertaining and eclectic musicians, currently playing in rock n’ roll super group Nutsak, as well as in various genre bending improvisational ensembles. Over his career Burns has collaborated with over 50 other bands and musicians, from godspeed! you black emperor! to Mike Watt. On Sunday October 14, at La Sala Rossa, 25 years of rock n’ roll glory will be packed into one incredible night, as Burns will celebrate his 25 years of musical madness by reuniting, for one night only, three of his former bands, Slaphappy 5, Bubblegum Army, and Terminal Sunglasses.
The evening will begin with a short set from GlassBurns, an improv duo featuring Burns on guitar with drummer Will Glass, they’ll also be launching their new album The Pain Dingus at the show. This will be followed by a video retrospective including two Terminal Sunglasses music videos, (one of which was banned from Much Music), and their appearance on MTV’s Basement Tapes, hosted by Frank Zappa. After that the reunions begin with the Terminal Sunglasses playing together for the first time in over 20 years, followed by sets from Bubblegum Army and Slaphappy 5. The evening will be capped off with a performance by Nutsak, who have just finished recording their first album.

What was the first gig you ever played?

The show on the 14 is actually the anniversary of my first gig ever, October 15, 1982. At midnight it will officially be 25 years. I was playing bass on three or four tunes, in a garage punk group that had no name. It was comprised of future Sunglasses members Lawrence Joseph on guitar and George A. on drums. Chris Barry, who had been in one of Montreal’s first punk bands, The 222’s, joined us for one number on vocals and saxophone. I was only 15 and my parents were none too thrilled about my playing in a band, let alone in a bar. I can’t recall exactly what the hell we played, but I do know we did a Swell Maps medley and that the song Chris Barry joined us on ended up turning into Terminal Sunglasses’ “My Cat Got Run Over By A Bus”. It was opening up for American Devices at a tiny little place called The Scottish Hall, which was actually some sort of Scottish social club.

When you were playing in the Terminal Sunglasses in the 80’s did you feel like you were a part of the local scene or where you guys just doing your own thing?

I definitely felt like we were part of a certain lineage, though I knew we didn’t really sound like any of the bands that had come before us, nor the bands we tended to share gigs with. When I first started, there really weren’t a lot of local bands playing original music, and by original, I don’t necessarily mean unique, I just mean groups that were getting gigs that weren’t cover bands. It was a very small “scene” if you could even call it that. To a certain extent, I was aware of some of the late seventies Montreal punk bands that had paved the way like The 222’s, The Normals, The Chromosomes, and The Electric Vomit, but I had a bit more of a knowledge of the wave of groups that were playing in the early eighties like the American Devices, The Blanks, Ulterior Motive, The Pseuds, and The Nils. By the end of our run in the mid 80’s, I felt a certain affinity to other underground bands like Déj

The doors swung open at Montreal’s first House of Reggae last week and nothing is left to the imagination. Don’t ask what genre of Reggae you’ll find there because you’ll find it all- lover’s rock, dancehall rooth culture, mento, ska, soul reggae, roots, rock steady, well, you get the picture. and the list is long, each with its own history, its own versions, social and spiritual.
It’s not simply music, as you’ll soon discover, but a world philosophy. And it’s all behind the doors that lead you inside the House of Reggae, located on Sainte Denis near De Maissoneuve Boulevard.
“It’s all here,” said owner and also Producer of the Montreal International Reggae Festival. “There is something for every reggae fan.”
Small, roomy and cozy you listen to reggae inside or, weather permitting, take it out on the terrace out back. With an eccentric mahogany and live bamboo décor and variety of Caribbean beverages and food specialties, the Houe of Reggae become something new amongsl Montreal’s vast variety of resto-bars and lounges.
A stage can handle at five piece band, like Les Racines de Nord, who kicked off the open house last week.
“We’ve been renovating since we took it over last July,” Brumeanu said. “We needed to bring a reggae atmosphere and put a few things into place before we went public.”
Last Saturday’s crowd reached over 150 and listened to Montreal’s La Racine de Nord perform.
While the name itself, House of Reggae, is common in many North American cities, Brumeanu intends to franchise the name to other locations in the Montreal Area. “We know about the House of Jazz, House of the Blues,” he said. “Those clubs have all been franchised and The House of Reggae I intend to franchise in other parts of Canada.”
Brumeanu will not disclose their locations but he intends to remain owner of the next two before he begins the process of franchising others.
Even with the cold temperatures that closed the terrace many were content that a reggae house had come to the city. Rebbeca Dawnings, 32, grew up listening to her father’s reggae records, and thought the idea of an all reggae club fits Montreal. “We have a festival every summer here so it seems logical that something like this would grow from that.”
How can it be, that reggae music is so popular still? “Right from the start, the music attracts pure hearts and worshippers of Jah throughout the whole planet,” said Montreal born Christian Dubois, who travels around North America attending reggae festivals. Dubois is really absorbing everything he’s listening to. “Good thing I’m promoting the good vibes with Reggae,” he said. “The world still needs reggae. Sure certain aspects of reggae has been commercialized, but you can’t turn off its message of peace and unity.”

You can find the House of Reggae at 1693A Saint-Denis.

TORONTO (CUP) — What if your favourite literary characters were real, and they started a rock band? Well, for Harry Potter fans wondering where they can get their next fix of Hogwarts-related goodness, the answer could lie in a little-known craze that has been going on under our noses for some time now: wizard rock.
Yes, it’s true. The phenomenon that started with J.K. Rowling’s series of books, and moved on to include a matching set of movies, now boasts a range of independently formed rock bands based on characters from the Harry Potter series.
The biggest name in wizard rock, not surprisingly, are Harry and the Potters. The band consists of two brothers, Joe and Paul DeGeorge, who take the on-stage personas of Harry from year four and Harry from year seven.
“We didn’t want to fight over who got to be Harry,” joked Joe. “So we figured we could both be Harry from different points in time.”
Although it started off as a last-minute backyard show for friends, the brothers from Boston soon found themselves booking shows in local libraries and increasingly larger venues. Many of the audience members are young fans of the series, and the DeGeorges embraced the idea of using their music to promote literacy.
“[Harry Potter has] gotten a lot of kids-and adults-really interested in literature and reading,” said Joe. “We’ve heard so many stories about kids who didn’t read at all, then picked up the books and they’ve been the gateway books to the world of literature for them. And I think we have to emphasize that aspect of the phenomenon: get kids involved, get kids going to the library for a rock show, and maybe [they will] read a couple of books at the same time.”
At their Toronto show in August however, it was clear that their act has managed to reach an audience of not just the young, but the young at heart. The small downtown venue, the Whippersnapper Gallery, was teeming with university-aged, music-loving bookworms who shared the Potter love and weren’t ashamed to show it.
Harry and the Potters showed an uncanny ability to engage the audience, entering the thick of the crowd for one song and offering high fives all around for the next. Part of the audience joined the two Harrys in a rousing chorus of “Voldemort can’t stop the rock”, and “We’ve got to save Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk”. By the end of the show, spirits were high; everyone in attendance was dripping with sweat and smiling from ear to ear.
Since they started playing five years ago, the band has inspired a whole slew of wizard-rock bands, including The Parselmouths, The Whomping Willows and onstage rivals Draco and the Malfoys. The latter has opened several shows on the Harry and the Potters tour, and the back-and-forth quasi-bitter banter between the two bands is truly a thing of beauty.
Decked out faithfully in Slytherin colours, half-brothers Brian Ross and Bradley Mehlenbacher encouraged the crowd to “party like you’re evil,” and surprised the audience with an energetic cover song, “99 Death Eaters Go By”.
Of course, now that the seventh and final book has been released, these wizard-rock bands face an uncertain future. How long can this phenomenon last? Can wizard rock live on if the books do not survive?
Draco and the Malfoys are optimistic. “This is the best job we’ve ever had in our lives, so we’re going to keep doing it until people stop showing up,” says Ross.
“There’s also a [Harry Potter] theme park coming in 2010, and the fact that they’re going to invest millions of dollars in a theme park – which is not a temporary establishment – means that people are going to be interested in these stories forever,” said Ross. “At least the rest of our lifetime.”

For more information on these bands, visit
eskimolabs.com/hp or evilwizardrock.com.

Music is the art of thinking with sounds.
-Jules Combarieu

Tuesday, October 2
-Dirty on Purpose,
Fujiya & Miyagi @ Lambi
-Gary Husband and guests
@ Theatre Maisonneuve

Wednesday, October 3
-Lily Frost @ Main Hall
-Thunderheist @ Coda Club
-Magnolia Electric Co.
w/ Watson Twins
@ Sala Rossa
-Caribou w/ Born Ruffians
@ La Tulipe
-Pere Ubu w/ Simply Saucer @ Le National

Thursday, October 4
-Fool’s Gold @ Club Soda
-DJ Sasha @ Club Tribe
-Man Man @ Sala Rossa
-Final Fantasy, Ohbijou, Basia Bulat @ Ukrainian Federation

Friday, October 5
-Pride Tiger
@ Bar St-Laurent II
-Apollo Sunshine, Dr. Dog, The High Strung @ Caf

Jessie Baylin isn’t like other girls. She isn’t singing about the club scene, being sexy or the thrills and skills she may have to yank a guy’s crank. The early twenty something songstress has an old heart, smoky vocals and a rich soulful folk rock sound to match. She sounds like a legend waiting to start. Think Stevie Nicks at 24.
Baylin may already be famous by association, opening for the likes of Dolores O’Riordan, James Morrison and being best friends with Scarlet Johansson. But this young lady is making a name for herself and one that will be heard a lot more often. Jessie Baylin is leaving a mark.

Your first festival tour was the Montreal International Jazz Festival with Dolores O’Riordan. That is impressive.

I was so thrilled and beyond excited! It was incredible.

You called your debut album You. Why is that?

The title song was a poem I had written and the title just felt right. Of all the songs on the record it felt like the title song. Then you have my EP of five songs which is called Part of You. It all fits and just sums up the record.

What is your song “Contradicting Words” about?

It’s actually one of the first songs I’ve ever written. There was a moment in my life where I noticed that everything I did seemed to contradict itself. Every want was with some big fear.

What is the first contradicting thing about you that comes to mind?

I golf! There is nothing more that I hate than collared shirts, yet at least once a week I’m putting on khaki shorts and a collared shirt to play golf. I just love it because it’s a very focused game.

Can you break down your song “Leave Your Mark”?

“Leave Your Mark” is about someone that I dated and he was leaving. It’s about the way I’ve been in relationships, like that moment when you realize, “Oh my God, this is very real” but you’re afraid to commit. I was “wanting to love” but feared that.

Do you tell a person that you’re writing a song about them?

Oh, I don’t tell them but they usually figure it out. For a lot of older songs I wrote the person figured out quite often that it was about them.

You were just in Paris. Do you believe the city is as romantic and inspirational as it is made out to be?

Yes! Especially when you’re with your fianc