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Sports

Concordia coaching staff welcomes a winner

Women’s hockey team adds four-time Olympian Julie Chu as an assistant coach

What does an Olympian and professional hockey player do with her four Olympic and nine World Championship medals?

“I go to bed with all of them,” chuckled Julie Chu. “No, that would be creepy.”

Chu, 32, was named an assistant coach for Concordia’s women’s hockey team late last month, and she brings along quite the pedigree.

Growing up in Fairfield, Connecticut and learning to lace up her skates by the time she was eight, Chu could never have imagined where hockey would take her.

“Mostly because girls’ hockey was non-existent when I started to play,” said Chu. “I was the only girl on a boys team and often could go through an entire season without seeing another girl hockey player.”

Learning to play hockey with her brother and his friends, hockey was a pastime, albeit, one that she was very good at. Then when Chu was 16-years-old, women’s hockey was recognized as an Olympic sport and she knew what she wanted to do.

“[In 1998], I watched women’s hockey become an Olympic sport and my world changed,” said Chu. “ Suddenly, I could have dreams of going to the Olympics. And fortunately, with a lot of hard work and many things falling into place, I have been able to participate in four Olympic games.”

Since she was 20, Chu has been an Olympic athlete. That statement alone is an unbelievable accomplishment, one that Chu does not take for granted.

“It’s been an incredible journey that sometimes I can’t believe I have been so fortunate to experience,” said Chu.

Two of her favourite moments as an Olympian occurred back in 2002 at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The first was when she pulled on her jersey with “U.S.A” scrawled across the front for the first time. Years of vigorous work and daydreaming about this moment had finally paid off. The second was when she took part in her first opening ceremonies.

“I have always been a fan of the Olympics and watching as the athletes marched into the stadium has always given me goosebumps. So being able to do it myself was an unbelievable experience,” said Chu.

By the end of her most recent Olympic adventures, in Sochi’s 2014 Winter Olympics, Chu was given an honour that even she did not expect. The day after team U.S.A lost to Canada in the gold medal game, Chu found out that she had been nominated by her fellow Olympians to be the flagbearer for the closing ceremonies.

“It’s been months since the Olympics and I still can’t process it. I’ve always thought it would be incredible to carry my nation’s flag, but it wasn’t something I aspired to [do], because it wasn’t really on my radar of possibilities,” said Chu.

While representing her country in Salt Lake City, Turin, Vancouver and Sochi, Chu learned to hone her craft. For that, she attended Harvard from 2002-07 and played for the Crimson. The prestigious university was much more than a place to earn a degree and play hockey. Harvard taught Chu life lessons that she carries with her to this day.

“The thing I learned most at Harvard was our team concept of ‘team first.’  It is the idea that each one of us as individuals has an important role on the team,” explained Chu. “It’s a culture that acknowledges the importance of individual roles, but puts the emphasis on the team success. I think it’s a mentality that can be used in all areas of life.”

During her five years at Harvard, Chu would become the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and eventual captain of her Crimson team. After graduating in 2007, that’s when Chu took to the idea of coaching as a possible career. That year Chu took an assistant coaching job with the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs and realized that, even after her playing days are over, hockey will be a big part of her future.

“There were not many days that were actually work, because I was enjoying myself so much,” said Chu.

Between her own playing career, multiple coaching stints and training for her Olympic squad; Chu wanted a place to settle. She had been training in Montreal over this past summer and reached out to Les Lawton, Concordia’s women’s hockey head coach.

“I wanted to work with a team that was eager to learn and willing to work hard.  The women’s team here is definitely committed to getting to the next level, which makes coaching fun,” said Chu. “For me, I just want to bring great energy to the team atmosphere and share what I’ve learned in my years playing with the national team or coaching on various teams with the players.”

Understandably overshadowed by her Olympic success, Chu also donned her American jersey at the World Championship level and is currently playing for the Montreal Stars in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.

While she’s not sure about competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, Chu is definitely looking forward to her time as an honourary Concordia Stinger.

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Music

Jan Dutler busks and livens up Montreal streets

The musician performs solo by looping harmonica, beatboxing, percussion, ukulele, trombone and vocals

Walk down Ste-Catherine St. on almost any day and you’ll see someone playing guitar, their case open, asking for change in exchange for a melody to brighten your day. Climb the stairs out of Guy-Concordia metro or pass by Place Jacques-Cartier and you’ll probably see something similar, maybe with a different face or instrument.

While we’re all guilty of ignoring some of these music makers at one point or another, some buskers are too talented to pass-up; buskers like Jan Dutler. His act, called Caravonica, is a one-man band. Using a looper, Dutler combines harmonica, beatboxing, percussion, ukulele, trombone and vocals to create his music live on the street corner or stage.

The 28-year-old multi-instrumentalist, who sings in multiple languages, is from a small town in Switzerland called Hütten, which has “more cows than people,” according to Dutler. His music career started when he joined a marching band as a percussionist in 1996 at the age of 10.

“I nearly stopped playing music when I was 15, but then a friend handed me an AC/DC tape and I thought, ‘Drums are actually a cool instrument,’” Dutler said. After spending a few years playing covers of metal songs with his friends, he shifted his focus entirely in his early 20s.

“I got into Blues and played in other bands, that’s when I started to play harmonica,” Dutler said, “ I’m a bit of a fanatic about harmonicas. I think I have about 30.”

Not simply a collector, Dutler explained that “every song is in a different key and what most people don’t know that there are different tunings than just the Blues Harmonica,” said the musician. “The different harmonicas open whole other dimensions.”

Shortly after discovering the harmonica, Dutler was introduced to the artist who inspires his current performance. “A friend showed me the music of a guy called Son Of Dave,” Dutler said, “I was blown away by just one person with his harmonica, boxing beats with his mouth, shaking a tambourine or a rattle, and stamping his foot. Recording everything in a loop pedal.”

From there, Dutler built a specialized suitcase, which doubles as his drum kit, and hit the road as a performer. Most recently, he passed through New Zealand, Australia, Massachusetts and even played at this year’s Halifax International Busker Festival in July, and Prince Edward Island’s Busker Festival in August.

“While traveling in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and P.E.I, people kept telling me how awesome Montreal and Quebec is,” Dutler said. “This, and the fact that I want to learn more about performing, [is what] brought me here.”

Caravonica will be in Montreal for the foreseeable future, as Dutler is currently taking classes at Francine Côté’s Clown and Comedy School. “I like the idea of one-man entertaining. It’s fascinating and challenging,” he said.

Dutler hopes that his music inspires others to “play music in the streets, share art in public spaces and try different instruments.” Anyone wishing to try different instruments can contact him in person or through Facebook for ukulele and harmonica lesson or to just “meet up and have a jam.”

If you want to see Dutler in action you can catch him at Le Dépanneur Café at 206 Rue Bernard Ouest, every Saturday at 11 a.m., or at Marché Jean-Talon on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

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Music

No more acrobatics for The Frisky Kids

Photo by Brandon Johnston.

Searching for the true meaning of rock ‘n’ roll, this local band found love and rebellion

The Frisky Kids were born rebelling. On the far West side of Montreal, in a Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue basement, Calum Dowbiggin Glew and Matisse Gill were busy paying off noise complaint tickets—the result of plugging in to write their cool cocktail of catchy tunes. They drew from the clean pop sound of ‘60s Beatles and Kinks, but their sound also reflects the dirtier energy of garage rockers like Ty Segall, Tame Impala, and The Strokes. Appropriately, their songs are quite frisky.

Neighbours might not have appreciated the lively tunes rattling the homes of the above dwellers, but The Frisky Kids have garnered much attention lately and landed the seventh spot on the CBC Rock Your Campus competition.They ascended the ranks with their bubbly songs, but may have gotten extra attention because bassist “[Gill] is a sex symbol in New Zealand. He’s on every magazine,” Glew joked.

Staying true to the nature of rock n’ roll, the trio isn’t as clean cut as they appear on stage; with dress shirts and the occasional tie.

“In one of our videos, me and [Gill] and our old drummer [are] showering together. We got a lot of negative reaction to that,” said Glew. “Whenever people tell us to do something, we’re kind of like kids, and we don’t do it or we do it the opposite way. It’s kind of childish—it’s to piss them off. I don’t know why that would make anybody strictly uncomfortable—and Matisse, he’s definitely arm candy, so we’ve gotta advertise what we got. Like The Black Lips, you know, how they kiss on stage.”

“It’s an essential part of rock ‘n’ roll. People forget that—it’s not about controversy anymore,” he continued. “It’s all about going on and doing a good set [now]. Rock and roll … it’s supposed to be a bit rebellious … If you can’t even have a shower scene together, [that] feels really bizarre.”

In addition to an intimate brotherly love for each other (as well as promoting water conservation), Glew and Gill, and new drummer Alex Paul, were attracted to the feeling of camaraderie and love bubbling from the music scene—especially at the shows of Mac DeMarco, Ty Segall, The Black Lips, and King Khan.

Photo by Brandon Johnston.

“We were going to a lot of these garage rock shows where people were just going nuts, like, dancing but not really moshing, because it’s not absolutely violent,” Glew said. “Kind of just dancing really close together—getting up on stage, jumping off stage, getting back on stage—it felt like that’s what rock ‘n’ roll used to be, and now it’s just not. So we really wanted to go in that vein of thinking: really fun live shows.”

The frontmen bound around during their show and try to cook up a feeling full of zest and love. Tightly packed in a happy bouncing crowd at a concert, Glew feels closer to what rock was meant to be—rebellious. The band sometimes rocks too hard, though:

“One night we were going to our hometown of Hudson to play this music festival. We kind of got drunk the night before [the show] and we were climbing our old primary school. We did a jump—it was a little reckless because our drummer broke his leg that night. The day after, we had to play, and it was just me and [Gill]. It was a pretty crazy night!”

 Glew has given-up on pursuing acrobatic endeavors since then, but when it comes to pursuing girls and playing the field, the band admits that they fall short. The Frisky Kids, Glew explained, aren’t very frisky at all.

“It’s kind of an ironic name, too, because we’re not frisky. When we thought of ‘frisky’, it meant ‘really forthcoming with girls’, which our circle [of friends] knows we’re not like that. It was a kind of joke,” Glew said.

Glew and Gill felt at odds with the club scene that swept-up their friends throughout teenagehood. The top 40 songs with their repetitive rhythms didn’t do it for these musicians.Their song, “All the Girls,” isn’t about scoring big under the revolving disco ball, it’s “actually about the guys who do get all the girls, and all the girls who go to all the guys—that’s not us. It’s kind of a disassociation with the club scene,” Glew said.

Luckily the band chose the name that they did. They had started off by calling themselves ‘The Herpes’: “we were like ‘well, this is just stupid and it’s going to creep people out,’” the guitarist said. Who knows, maybe if they’d stuck with ‘The Herpes’ they would have scared away those people making noise complaints.

On a final note, Glew adds: “Vote Liberal. Eat local. And god bless the Queen.”

The Frisky Kids play Divan Orange Dec. 4 with The Beaches. For more information on The Frisky Kids, check out Facebook.com/TheFriskyKids

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Music

Q&A with Joy Division & New Order’s Peter Hook

Photo courtesy of Craige Barker.

Hook answers questions about his musical past, current shows, and revisiting classic songs.

It is difficult to know where to start when discussing an individual whose contributions to the history of music have been incredibly influential. That being said, Peter Hook is one such individual. If you are familiar with iconic British post punk band Joy Division and the subsequent alternative sounds of New Order, or the bands Monaco, Man Ray and The Light, then you have been privy to the brilliant work of Peter Hook. From playing bass guitar in Joy Division and New Order to starting his own nightclub and creating a Master’s program in Music at the University of Central Lancashire, Hook continues to engage in many facets of the industry. He is currently on tour with The Light, which includes members who form the band Monaco, as well as his own son. Peter Hook and The Light will be performing songs from the New Order albums: Low Life(1985) and Brotherhood (1986) on their current tour, and will be opening their sets with selected works from Joy Division. They are not to be missed.

The Concordian (C): I know you played Joy Division albums on tour before, so what inspired you to tour again, playing New Order material specifically?

Photo courtesy of Craige Barker.

Peter Hook (PH): It’s all been part of a process, really. I plan to play every track that I’ve ever recorded before I shuffle up to join [deceased] Ian, Rob and Tony upstairs. It began when I saw that Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream was planning to play Screamadelica live back in 2010 that I had the idea of performing Unknown Pleasures as well. The gig sold out in just a few minutes, which was amazing, so we added a second night. That really was supposed to be it, but then we were invited to come and play all around the world, to some truly great audiences. When I saw that people were enjoying it, we decided to progress the show and perform the second album, Closer,  live. We followed this by performing the last Joy Division album release, Still, live which meant that we had then played every single Joy Division song live once again.

As we had played all of this material, going on to perform the first two New Order albums was the next step in the journey of this project. Now we’ve come to perform the next two albums, Low Life and Brotherhood, and the singles from New Order from 1983 to 1987. That includes some great material including “Confusion,” “True Faith,” “Bizarre Love Triangle” as well as the lesser known and lesser heard album tracks like “Let’s Go.”  I am very proud of the members of The Light and I think they do a great job in performing this material live.

C: Were other members of New Order interested in touring with you? Or did you set out to do a solo tour?

PH: I have to stress that it’s not a solo tour, the band (Pottsy, Kehoe and Andy Poole) are all people who were in Monaco with me, and because I’m doing vocals, my son, Jack, fills in and doubles up on bass duties with me. It’s called Peter Hook and The Light, but I  would much prefer it to be called just The Light. However, the nature of what we’re doing, playing the back catalogue means that its becomes necessary to use my name.

C: Are you finding younger or older audiences at your shows? I realize this probably depends on what material you are choosing to play, as in old vs. new albums.

PH: Not really, in fact if anything you find that the Joy Division audiences tend to have a greater make-up of young people than the New Order albums we are playing, but both attract a mixed crowd which is testament to the ongoing influence of both bands. Joy Division does seem to hold a greater fascination with young people if anything. I’m surprised in a lot of ways at the amount of Joy Division t-shirts that we see at the gigs, more than New Order even at the New Order gigs.

C: As a musician, do you find you need to be in a specific space or mindset to work? Can you write on tour or do you need to be at home?

PH: Ideas come to me all the time, on the road, at home, but yes to work properly and write new material you do need to allocate time and also get into the right mindset. It is something that has been lost with the advent of technology, sitting in a room as a band and knocking out ideas on your instruments. That was how we always worked with Joy Division and in New Order prior to sequencers, drum machines and technology coming in. There are advantages in the use of technology, but for pure songwriting, I do believe the best results come from jamming with band members on ideas.

 C: A lot of bands have cited you, New Order and Joy Division as inspiration for their own music and material. So, do you ever listen to music and hear your influence or similarities in sound?

PH: Being an inspiration to other bands is quite funny really. It’s a great compliment but sometimes I hear it and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes it is really apparent like with White Lies and Interpol, but other times bands are compared to us and I don’t really see it. Nonetheless, I still find it hugely ingratiating to have been in two bands that have shaped the course of popular music over the past thirty years. It is always good when people cite you and say you’ve had a positive effect on their lives.

C: From playing in bands years ago in Manchester, to creating house music inspired by the Hacienda, how have you seen the music scene in England shift?

PH: There have been so many changes, not only in England, but across the world since I started out—that [is] a difficult question to answer. You have to take into account technology and the Internet, the nature of the industry and how it has changed, the decline of vinyl and CDs as a mass market product (which I don’t believe has been replaced by downloads) and much much more.

I suppose The Hacienda did inspire the advent of dance music in the U.K. but there were other factors and influential people championing dance music throughout the ‘80s. Now it has become the staple of the charts where all music seems to owe a debt to house music. Yet bands are still current and exist alongside dance music, and there are even live dance acts like Underworld and The Prodigy. There’s so many new developments, but in a lot of ways, performing live, gigs and club events are relatively the same arts they always were; just in the modern day and modern versions of them.

C: I know you’ve dabbled in electronic genres, but a lot of your work is considered to have a more new wave, rock/pop sound. Is there a genre of music you prefer to listen to? Is there a genre you prefer to perform?

PH: I listen to a lot of dance music at home for DJing and also make dance music as Man Ray with Phil Murphy but also listen to bands and hip-hop. I really do have diverse tastes, from Metronomy, to The National to Drake. I tend to listen to things at the gym three mornings a week, so I get through a lot there. As for playing live, I think I’m very much in the band/rock bracket although with the New Order material, a lot of it is electronic. As a DJ, I play a lot of upfront dance music and classics, so I have a foot in both camps really.

Peter Hook and The Light play Club Soda Monday Nov. 10

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Music

The Gay Nineties party like it’s 1899

The band celebrates the 1890s, a decade touched by new art, literature, and optimism

Between the 7 a.m. wakeup calls and the 13-hour cross-country drives to reach their next show, The Gay Nineties try find time to read, unwind…and have some daytime Merlot.

Just last week, vocalist and guitarist, Parker Bossley, was in Toronto representing the Vancouver-based band at the CASBYs, an awards ceremony that showcases alternative and independent Canadian acts. Though in Toronto, the other boys in the band, Malcolm Holt on drums, Bruce Ledingham on keys and Daniel Knowlton on bass and vocals, were on their way to their next show in Fredericton, N.B..

“The thing about touring…is that it’s not that exciting,” said Bossley. “I’m kind of constantly on tour. Some might say that I’m just running away from my problems,” he joked.

Bossley, who also plays bass full time with CASBY-nominated group, Mounties, worked for a long while as a session musician before forming this band.

“My real passion was always songwriting,” he said. “So I quit all my other bands, sold my bass guitar and equipment, and started a band.”

Calling up his longtime friends, Holt and Knowlton, and then later Ledingham, The Gay Nineties were born. They had previously released Coming Together, essentially an EP collection of four songs. Not just a cheeky play on words, the Coming Together EP personified the group’s musical process and style.

“We knew the sound of that EP wouldn’t be our sound forever,” said Bossley. “That’s the sound of a band trying to find their sound.”

Since then, they’ve been on tour promoting their upcoming EP, Liberal Guilt. Although officially slated to be released in late November, the album’s been on soft release at their shows, giving people a taste of their infectiously catchy and melodic breed of alternative rock. It’s at times psychedelically charged, with moments of glowing indie-pop, that’s garnered them comparisons to the likes of The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys.

“It’s absurd…but nice?” said Parker. “We’ve found what our sound is going to be for the next few years.”

Comparisons aside, The Gay Nineties are immensely proud of Liberal Guilt. Bossley rarely forces his friends and family to listen to his music, but just couldn’t hold back with this one. “I’m a critic. I criticize the things that I do, but I’m very proud of this,” he beamed, adding, “We listen to it in the van, that’s a good sign. This is the most proud I’ve ever been.”

Fans of The Beatles, The Gay Nineties admire the Liverpool lads’ simple style, both lyrically and instrumentally. “What I appreciate the most about The Beatles is that they’re challenging you, but your ear never notices,” said Bossley.

“I think art should change, if it’s real. Everyone changes every single day and every single month.”

Their appreciation for all things Beatles doesn’t end there: on “Turn Me On,” off the upcoming EP, they lift directly the eternally lovely and whimsical lyrics: “Somebody’s knocking at the door/Somebody’s ringing the bell/ Do me a favour/Open the door/And let ‘em in” from Paul McCartney’s 1976 hit “Let ‘Em In”.

Drawing inspiration once again from the past, the band’s name itself is a reference to the 1890s. The decade, which was at the center of what was known in parts of Europe as La Belle Epoque (The Beautiful Era), was characterized by an explosion of art, literature, and optimism.

“There were a lot of amazing and liberating things happening,” said Bossley. “The Gay Nineties is this fun way of sharing this feeling that we wanted to convey.”

The feeling in question, is that of celebration and overall happiness which can be felt  throughout Liberal Guilt, since the band writes songs so that “people can enjoy them.”

Two singles already out, including “Letterman,” with its accompanying music video that sees the band spoofing the classic late night talk show format, The Gay Nineties are already looking ahead. “We’re about to go into full on writing mode. We want to follow this EP up pretty quickly with a full-length. We’ve pretty much got half of it written, ready to go,” said Bossley.

“We don’t really have time to waste, so we’ll be diving right into it,” he continued. “But we will definitely be sipping wine while we do it.”

The Gay Nineties had to cancel their Montreal date, but will be passing through Montreal in the near future.

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Music

Ben Frost explores new realms

The artist’s ambient and eerie soundscapes will chill you to the bone

From behind the mast of a U.S. Naval aircraft carrier, an X-47b drone drifts like a slow blade through the clear blue sky. It is unmanned and unfeeling, a stark and minimalist act of geometry coming in for landing. It is the paragon of modern death, and comes accompanied by the vicious, unearthly sound of engines and steel piercing through the cold November wind.

Death Is Elsewhere is an entirely wordless 8-and-a-half minute documentary film hosted on Vimeo, depicting the aforementioned aircraft touching down in slow motion aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Nov. 10, 2013. It was created by director/producer, Richard Mosse, cinematographer/editor, Trevor Tweeten, and sound recordist, composer, and designer Ben Frost. Your level of enchantment with the awful sound the drone makes as it descends and, in general, with the theme and emotional impact of the video is probably a good indicator of the potential enjoyment you’ll derive from the artistic efforts of this last.

Broadly, Frost’s music can be defined as “fearsome,” much like the prospect of a computer-operated killing machine hovering noisily outside your window. His soundscapes are dense and dynamic, rolling seamlessly from stark, minimalist landscapes to towering, jagged symphonies of abrasive catharta.

Most songs find their logical centre only at the far bottom of the mix, coalescing around a warped, broken rhythm, or otherwise at the very top, driven — or rather kept stationary — by a calculated metallic blink in the middle distance. It is ambient music at its very best: moody and hypnotic when it wants to be. It’s also more than able to lever your soul into a state of sustained chthonic euphoria when the sounds at work seem to come to that consensus.

Because that’s just it, Ben Frost possesses that rare genius for letting the tools he operates make decisions; apparently at their own volition. This is especially evident on his newest LP. A U R O R A is a consistently phenomenal work that feels less like an album and more like a tour through an icy industrial wasteland on some as-yet unknown deliriant drug. “Nolan,” the second track on the album, kicks open the door with all the reckless animosity we might expect from a hyperconscious cyborg of that name. It settles down or flourishes like the whims of a diseased and ambitious psyche confronted with the insurmountable laws of nature. We are filled with dread but also with a strange hope, derived from an inescapable emotional and physical sympathy. The beat works on our muscle memory as the spirals of beautiful noise turn our gaze toward the conditional worlds of the dream.

Frost’s live shows usually consist of him behind a set of laptops and keyboards with two full-kit drummers on either side and extensive lighting. That alone is enough to foretell an insane evening. He plays this Wednesday, Oct. 22 at La Sala Rossa.

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Music

together PANGEA’s Bubble Grunge POPS

Photo by Alice Baxley.

The trio makes music to match their nights of hitting-up every party on the block

Danny Bengston smokes a fat spliff next to his bandmates, William Keegan and Erik Jimenez, who are making-out passionately under a gushing showerhead. In other words: together PANGEA is closer together than ever.

That’s one shot from their new official video for the song “Offer,” which follows the band and their equally wild-streaked friends around drummer Jimenez’s 25th birthday party.

“That was just a pretty typical party. We had our friends coaching us—having us do things that we might not necessarily do, but we might also do…” Bengston laughs.

These SoCal, so cool, pop-punks operate on a level of debauchery your wildest night can’t compare to. Between their infamous all-ages shows at DIY L.A. venues where kids barely remain right-side-up, together PANGEA live a lifestyle of hooliganry within the grimy and glamourous neo-Southern California music scene.

Photo by Alice Baxley.

“Especially in the last year, so many of our friends who were in the bay area moved down to L.A. for various reasons,” Bengston said. “L.A.’s a huge city, but everyone who plays music—at least all of our friends—are within a 10 mile radius. There are just so many people in so many bands. We’ll go to a party and mostly just be hanging-out with bands we’d be touring with anyway. Everyone’s really supportive; it’s really fun.”

Under L.A.’s blazing sun and oscillating waves of heat, a thriving web of innovative bands is squeezing out some of today’s best music. together PANGEA has followed suit — they’ve torn-up the scene enough to have a name given to their style of music; just like The Black Lips’ “Flower Punk” and The Growlers’ “Beach Goth.” (Two bands, moreover, with whom together PANGEA are friends).

So the band plays Bubble Grunge, “mixed with a smooth Skronk,” Bengston adds, and their Bubble Grunge music is something of a musical marvel. It’s as if the trio managed to bottle the energy buzzing from their party scene, while on a song like “The River,” also hitting listeners with a heated nostalgia in their chords.

Living Dummy, their second album, has been the anthem of so many sweaty kids in the together PANGEA crowd who’ve yelled the lyrics back to the band night after rowdy night. A trend even emerged among fans to get a heart with the name of their song, “Too Drunk To Cum,” tattooed on their bum.

“Actually, The Orwells just took a photo of a kid with a ‘Too Drunk To Cum’ tattoo the other day,” Bengston said. “I think we’re a little more concerned about what his girlfriend might think, but she was like super stoked about it. There’s a few kids with the heart and the “Too Drunk to Cum” [written] in it. It’s all started by kids. It’s cool—I have a lot of tattoos that people might think are shitty, so I’m all for it.”

Jumping from Living Dummy’s lo-fi songs about wild nights, impotency, and love lost, the sultry songs that come crashing out of their third album, Badillac, are more polished, and maybe more tamed.

“When we did Living Dummy, [Keegan] and I were both in long-term relationships, and we had been playing house parties rather than actual venues,” Bengston said. “When Badillac happened, William and his girl at the time broke up; my girlfriend and I broke up. Badillac’s overall a much darker, heavier record. I think that sort of reflects what we were going through when we were writing it.”

The trio saddled down among the drained beer cans in Bengston’s L.A. home to pour their souls into the new songs: some written from behind the angry eyes of a heartbroken lover boy. Others about the musicians’ lives: partying like full-time punks and diving into drunk and drugged days and nights. Badillac is a coming together of confusion and clarity, and of

raunchiness and sweetness, all sung in Keegan’s high-pitched screeches blazing throughout the record.

“It’s fun to play pop-y pop songs, but we try to move and always make a different record… experiment with new sounds and ways of making songs,” Bengston said.

‘Badillac’ is a made-up word by the band that doesn’t really mean anything, but “later [Keegan] found out if you google Badillac, it’s really souped-up Cadillacs or low-rider Cadillacs,” Bengston said. When asked if together PANGEA feels they relate to pimped-out Cadillacs in any capacity, Bengston replied: “I don’t know if we relate to cool Cadillacs… maybe like cool Ford Pintos!”

In a less decked-out van, the band is bumping around North America, Bengston staying sane on tour by “playing FIFA and eating sunflower seeds.”

The supercontinent doesn’t exist anymore, but luckily, together PANGEA’s a super band, and if you don’t check them out: get. bent.

together PANGEA plays La Sala Rossa Oct. 28 on the Burger Records Caravan of the Stars tour.

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Music

An endless supply of Foxygen at Le National

Photo by Sam Haughton.

Foxygen and newly assembled Star Power band put a modern spin on classic rock influences at their Oct. 12 show

Seven years removed from their 36-track space opera debut, Jurrassic Exxplosion Phillipic– recorded when principal members vocalist Sam France and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Rado were just 15–Foxygen still have an unrequited love for ostentatious quantities.
Bursting on stage with a minimum of warning, the nine members of the newly-gathered “Star Power” band roused the audience at Le National into a state of universal ecstasy; the irresistible throwback soul of the opener, “How Can You Really,” acting as the emotional blueprint for the whole evening.
Rado’s vibrant keys, the dual guitars of Jared Walker and Kevin Basko, a bombastic rhythm section composed of Shaun Fleming and Justin Nijssen, and the glitzily-garbed trio of backup vocalists, Jaclyn Cohen, Emily Panic, and Nina Joly, all appeared relatively sane and well-mannered compared to the frontispiece of the whole affair. Sporting only a five-sizes-too-small blazer, a pair of skinny jeans, and perhaps two fluid ounces of eye makeup, lead vocalist, Sam France, managed to convey the infectious energy of nearly six decades of extravagant music in just under an hour. He did this by leaping nimbly from monitor to monitor, wrapping mic cords around his neck, wrestling with audience members (the blazer a mere memory by this point) and decimating close to half a dozen mics in the process.

Photo by Sam Haughton.

All this stays true to the Foxygen sound, which attempts to bring a modern lo-fi approach to the history of rock music. The band was ridiculously tight considering the sheer number of stylistic changes that happen in the course of any given song. France’s vocals alone sounded like a Hunky Dory-era Bowie with a Lennon attitude and some Jaggery “awww yeah”s thrown in for good measure. The classic rock influences are close to infinite, and this was well-reflected by a distinct age gap in those attending: the crowd was made up of both people under the age of 25 and above the age of 40, and both categories seemed to enjoy the set equally, although with differing levels of mosh-pit participation.

The show as a whole was feverishly enjoyable, but left something to be desired in terms of emotional depth and cogency. Much like their albums, Foxygen did a lot of things very very well, but lacked a central “theme” to tie everything together besides sheer talent and bravado. After 20 or so relatively short and equally energetic songs there’s only so much sincere dancing you can do. All in all it was worth the price of admission, but didn’t reveal any dimensions of Foxygen’s music not present on their very fine records, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic and Take The Kids Off Broadway, and made me less inclined to tell my friends about the show than excited to hear the fruits of their new big-band labours, on the forthcoming album, …and Star Power, out Thursday, Oct. 13.

Finally, some words should be spent on opening band, Dub Thompson, who variously impressed and confused the crowd with a unique though as-yet fairly uncertain blend of Check Your Head-era Beastie Boys and synth-heavy dub, which at times managed to be more interesting, rhythmically speaking, than the headliners

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Music

The Glorious Sons revive rock n’ roll

Photo by Jesse Baumung.

The band writes songs that cite their experience growing-up in middle class families

Eleven short months ago, The Glorious Sons released their first album, Shapeless Art, and their career took off from there. The five-piece band from Kingston, Ont., are still new to anything resembling fame, but after having won a handful of awards and embarked on three Canadian tours, people have really started to pay attention. Their newest album, The Union, dropped mid-September and the group is currently touring with Airbourne.

The Concordian recently spoke to the industrious band’s lead singer, Brett Emmons, about The Glorious Sons’ music and how he got to where he is today.

Many would say that rock and roll is dead — that it perished along with the musical relevance of MTV and the financial viability of the record store — but Brett Emmons thinks otherwise. The Glorious Sons don’t like to limit their music by categorizing it in a single genre, but Emmons would definitely prefer to be called a rock band than an indie band.

“A lot of indie bands are really just rock bands. They’re really just afraid to call themselves rock bands for some reason, but if you think of [a group] like The Beatles, they were a rock band. You could even call them a pop band,” Emmons said.

Photo by Jesse Baumung.

From an early age, the vocalist spent all of his money on AC/DC albums. Emmons was brought up on rock. “My brother [Jay Emmons, now the group’s guitarist] used to read me Led Zeppelin’s biography when I was like five years old. It was like a bedtime story growing up,” he said. To this day, Emmons’ favourite bands include many rock legends: “I look up to Bruce Springsteen and a lot of other people too,” Emmons said. “I don’t think you’d pinpoint the influence. You’d see hints of it– hints of The Doors, of My Morning Jacket, Kings of Leon, even a little AC/DC, but we never really believed in sounding like anyone else.”

When Emmons was in grade 10, he began writing music. Later moving to Halifax, N.S., for school, the vocalist dropped out to pursue his musical ambitions and began playing venues around the city. “I decided to take the leap and commit myself to music,” Emmons said. “I didn’t think to myself ‘if’ I could make it; I just went for it. I always believed if you work your hardest at anything, you’ll make it. My dad taught me that at a young age.”

At the same time in Kingston, the foundation of what was to become The Glorious Sons was being laid down.

“Andrew [Young, one of the group’s guitarists] and Adam [Paquette, the drummer] were jamming in [Paquette’s] garage and not having much fun,” Emmons said. “The other two were jamming in another garage. They knew each other, got together, and jammed once. They wrote a song on their first jam then became a band.”

Back in Halifax, Emmons was having a rough time following his dream: “When I quit school, I was getting myself into trouble, partying a bit too much — a lot, actually. Things weren’t working out when I was playing in Halifax. I hadn’t made a splash on any music scene.” That’s when, about three years ago, a phone call and a dash of fraternal love changed everything for the vocalist.

“When my brother called me home to join the band, it was a weight off my shoulders,” Emmons said. “My brother’s always been kind of my best friend. He’s been like my security blanket. We’d always said that we’d do this together one day.”

The band’s new album, The Union, is meant to pay homage to the members’ families and their own past struggles. “The concept is blue collar, it’s called The Union because we grew-up in middle class families who worked their ass off for their children,” Emmons said. “You can’t write about something that you don’t know. Chris (Huot) was a plumber before and we all had those kinds of jobs at one point.”

Every member of the band is a songwriter, according to Emmons. “We’re always writing — I don’t think we’ll ever be short on material for an album.”

Before going on tour, Emmons has created a ritual of sorts: “It’s kind of become second nature now: go to my vocal coach to tighten my voice and try not to drink for a week before we leave,” said the singer.

While many musicians have mixed feelings about the touring experience, the frontman seems to prefer life as a nomad to life at home. “I feel more restless at home than I do on the road. When you get home there’s so many people to see and so many things to do. When you’re on the road you can just settle in and do your job.” Emmons will get his wish of more time on the road, as The Glorious Sons will be touring straight through to December. You can expect, in Emmons words, “a sweaty, bloody, rock and roll show” when the band plays the Corona Theatre in Montreal on Oct. 16.

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Music

Get into Into It. Over It.

Photo by Mitchell Wojcik.

Evan Weiss sets out to play more solo shows and record a new LP

“There has always been a great scene and a great collective force of people that are working together, even if they don’t play the same style of music or want the same things. You know, it’s a pretty fortunate place to be.

-Evan Weiss on being a musician in Chicago.

At the suggestion that he puts on quite the balancing act, Evan Weiss, of Into It. Over It., answers “you’re tellin’ me!” He then ironically adds that he doesn’t like to multitask. Weiss’ solo project, Into It. Over It., has just turned seven years old. Having done countless shows and releasing numerous splits, EP’s, compilations, and two LP’s, he will soon be working on a third album. Weiss has done all of this while juggling side projects in bands such as Pet Symmetry, Their/They’re/There, and Stay Ahead of the Weather. He has dabbled in emo, indie and math-rock genres.

Weiss says he prefers to focus on one thing at a time and divide his creative endeavours. “You know it definitely helps to put time aside and make sure that I am not losing my mind… With bands like Their/They’re/There or Pet Symmetry, which are super casual, I kind of wait for the other members to be like “Hey, we’re ready to write” and then I show up! Whereas, for Into It. Over It., I have to set aside specific downtime to be able to work on things.”

So Weiss has no special secret when it comes to endless creativity and multiple band affiliations; he simply prioritizes.

Having been on the road promoting his full-length album, Intersections,  since September 2013, Weiss has a few more months planned of touring in North America. This last leg includes playing solo shows with the band Lemuria. Having played solo shows for the first five years as IIOI, Weiss realized earlier this year that he was missing the intimacy of a solo gig. He honestly admits that he misses “being able to goof-off and communicate more with the crowd…it’s a more casual atmosphere when I’m by myself-but equally rewarding and equally fun to do [with a band].”

Photo by Mitchell Wojcik.

When asked if he could tour with any band, past, present or future, Weiss doesn’t hesitate. He blurts out, Pearl Jam, then, continues, “I mean I’m thirty years old. They’ve been my favourite band as long as I can remember having a favourite band.” So, Eddie Vedder, if you’re reading this, you know what to do…

After touring, Weiss will hopefully be able to get back into writing and recording this winter. Plans for the new record, which will be co-written with drummer Josh Sparks, include an attempt to eliminate distractions, particularly of busy city life in Chicago, and to experiment with analog synthesizers. Having used a Moog and experimented with a glass harp on Intersections, Weiss is eager to become familiar with analog synthesizers since he explains it isn’t something he has really learned how to use. Inspired by the music of Brian Eno and David Bowie of the ‘70s & ‘80s, Weiss hopes to “…see what kind of weird sounds [he] can make.”

Along with experimental synth rock and pop, Weiss says he listens mostly to instrumental music and a lot of jazz. Call him old-fashioned, but this music fanatic has some pretty spectacular ‘set-ups’ in his home for listening to his eclectic collection. “We have a record player in every room,” shares Weiss. “It’s really nice to be able to just listen to records everywhere in the house.”

In this age of 99-cent downloads and snippets of MP3’s here and there, the idea of taking the time and listening to an album in its entirety seems an altogether unlikely possibility. This makes Weiss’ vinyl dedication admirable and also enviable to those who don’t even have one record player – let alone four!

Weiss has his own philosophy when it comes to writing and recording an album. His intention is for the album to be played from start to finish and sound like a complete thought. Discussing the concept of an album as a complete work, Weiss says “you’re meant to put it on, sit down, and enjoy it. I’m probably a dying breed with that kind of mentality, but that’s what I enjoy and that’s the thing that I want to make.”

No, Evan, you aren’t a dying breed and thank heavens for that. Stores like Urban Outfitters obviously realize there is a new generation of vinyl addicts and they’re cashing in on that trend. Then again, at least the trend is helping to reinforce the importance of supporting the artist and experiencing the album as a complete work.

For IIOI, the first song written when creating a new album determines the overall vibe of the record. While both albums are dynamic, 2011’s Proper has a louder, rock tone– the result of the first song falling closer into the rock category. Intersections has a more subtle tone and was established with a mellow finger picking sound found on the track “Your Antique Organ”. Weiss emphasizes that “…you [might] pick-up a record from a band and that record doesn’t sound like the record before, or the record after, but it definitely sounds like it is its own record.”

We don’t yet know the tone of Weiss’ next record, but we can deduce that it will follow the path of the previous two. When you sit down to listen to it for the first time, play it from start to finish; let it be a complete thought.

Into It. Over It. plays Cabaret Underworld with Gulfer, Kittyhawk and Foxing on Oct. 8.

Categories
Sports

Concordia’s king of the hill

Star pitcher Andre Lagarde is almost unhittable when he’s on the mound.

Every starting rotation needs a go-to pitcher: a dominating presence on the mound, with an arsenal that can deliver a gem when called upon. For the Concordia Stingers baseball team, that man is veteran pitcher Andre Lagarde. Armed with a devastating fastball, Lagarde is Concordia’s ace.

Entering his fifth year with the Stingers, Lagarde’s most recent victory came at the expense of the McGill Redmen, at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park in Côte-Saint-Luc on Sept. 23. The southpaw fired a stat line of five innings pitched, two hits given up, zero earned runs, six walks and six strikeouts. Numbers that good are enough to give any team a sure-fire win. Lagarde’s advantage on the diamond is not hard to spot. His velocity is a cut above and it is an asset that his long-time head coach, Howard Schwartz, has had the privilege to watch.

“The guy throws gas,” said Schwartz, recalling his first encounter with Lagarde. “I watched him throw and noticed he had very tight mechanics.”

Schwartz’s first piece of coaching advice to Lagarde had nothing to do with how he threw the baseball, which can reach up to with 90 miles per hour on the radar gun. Lagarde’s natural talent would evolve over his first year under the watchful eye of Schwartz.

“I told him that he needed to breathe. Relax. Mental focus,” said Schwartz.

Lagarde’s emergence as a force on the mound is only half his story. Concordia’s ace is also a solid contributor at the plate and his speed is a catcher’s nightmare when running the base paths. When he’s not on the mound, he’s playing stellar defense in center field and putting that arm to use. Lagarde forces opposing runners to think twice about scoring an easy run from second base.

“He’s a joy to watch play,” said Schwartz. “He’s a special character. He’s funny, and a bit of a loose cannon.”

His value to the team goes beyond statistics, however. Schwartz wasn’t shy or hesitant about what Lagarde means to the Stingers.

“He’s our backbone, our captain. He’s a role model and he respects the game.”

Like all players, Lagarde has aspects of his game that he needs to improve on. A starting pitcher needs to be composed even in the tightest moments.

“He needs to control his intensity,” said Schwartz.

Lagarde sometimes lets that fire emerge after striking out or giving up a walk, but it is the nature of a true athlete who is immersed in his passion. That flash of self-annoyance comes from the same place that his respect for the game is rooted: a sincere love of baseball and his team. Any doubters need only ask to see his jersey number tattooed on his ribcage in Concordia colours.

Drawing comparisons wouldn’t be quite fair. Lagarde, as you can tell, is unique. You can spot him a mile away by his six-foot-three, 210-pound frame. Coach Schwartz likened Lagarde’s work ethic and the respect he earned from his teammates to that of Derek Jeter. As for his untouchable fastball?

“Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson,” said Schwartz.

Lagarde’s respect for the game doesn’t come without a hint of swagger. After shutting down McGill’s batters for an afternoon, Lagarde couldn’t help but admire his work.

“I gave them six free base runners and they couldn’t score a single earned run off of me.”

Lagarde is just as competitive off the baseball diamond as he is on it. Having graduated last year with a Bachelor’s in Statistics with a 3.40 GPA, Lagarde’s joy of learning led him to enroll in further classes this fall.

Schwartz realized that his star pupil, now in his final season as a varsity athlete, will have to move on.

“He’ll be one of the players that will be sorely missed,” said Schwartz.

Schwartz noted that he never forgets anyone he coaches, but that Lagarde has had such an impact on the Stingers, forgetting him would be impossible.

There’s a star in our midst who tosses gems on the regular. He is one shining reason, out of many, to check out a Stingers game. Their exciting brand of baseball is only amplified when Lagarde is mowing down batters with overwhelming efficacy.

Concordia’s next game is on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. when they travel to McGill to square off against the Redmen.

Categories
Music

Christopher Owens owns our hearts

Press Photo.

The former Girls frontman offers up advice to those hesitating about pursuing their dreams

“I’m a little nervous,” Christopher Owens said while he sat in his San Francisco bedroom about to perform his song, “Oh My Love,” alone with his acoustic guitar back in 2010. Maybe it’s Owens’ soft boyish voice over his delicate guitar playing. Maybe it’s his perfectly crafted lyrics—“You never said you might be leaving, you never let-on with those eyes. You always said it was forever, you always told such pretty lies”—but Owens writes love songs like no other. Even if there’s no one special in your life, his songs hit you in such a way that will have you falling in love with the nearest lamppost for two minutes and 30 seconds.

“The important thing for me is to write honest songs—lyrically. I start from a very simple, honest place and then it seems to go pretty smoothly from there,” Owens explained.

The former Girls frontman just released his second solo album, A New Testament, which strays from the songwriter’s indie-rock sound. A New Testament is a country album—perhaps a nod to Owens’ move to Texas after his tumultuous childhood.

Owens grew up travelling the world with his family, who were members of the Children of God New Religious Movement. They strictly observed the church’s rules: his brother died at the age of four due to the church’s reluctance to use any modern medical assistance. The song “Steven” off the new album is about the loss of his brother. At the age of 16, Owens ran away from the church and followed his sister to Texas. He spent nine years there, working backroom jobs, and eventually was hired by wealthy oil tycoon and artist, Stanley Marsh III, as his personal assistant. Marsh’s guidance and role as a father-figure helped sooth the turmoil of the young musician’s heart and mind. With Owens’ move to San Francisco, the rest is history—his widely popular band Girls, his solo debut Lysandre, and now A New Testament.

Though the ears of our generation are less attuned to gospel and country-sounding music, the songwriter’s honesty spills out of the album between the guitar and bass riffs’ southern drawls. Everything Owens writes is a window into his life—the album isn’t just a group of catchy songs, but an insight into his mind. He becomes, in his solo career, a musical auteur.

Perhaps we’re drawn to his music because he feels so deeply, but also because he possesses the talent for communicating those feelings so beautifully.

Press Photo.

“There’s love that hits you like a ton of bricks, all at once, that can really throw you off or come as a surprise. There’s love that slowly builds and grows on you or comes from somewhere unexpected. I’ve experienced both—I think maybe that’s why I’ve come to respect the feeling of love. I think it’s not just one thing: not only romantic or only dramatic. It’s an intricate part of life…It’s just something that, throughout life, you’ll see in so many different ways—over and over again,” he explained.

In different words, and to reference some Girls lyrics, Owens has a bony body and a mushy soul. He’s been at the bottom: at one point in Texas, he fell into the die-hard punk scene, and got a Bad Brains tattoo. He’s been famously quoted in The Guardian back in 2011 as calling heroin “the drug you can only relate to as the warmest hug you’ve ever received.”

The pop-star, who found his calling in writing songs at the age of 28, speaks candidly to those with a passion or fire burning inside them—especially to those who see the fire dwindling. He speaks to The Concordian while walking down a street in D.C., his words beaming from the phone speaker:

“Without trying to sound too cliché, I would say: ‘don’t give up—hang in there,’ because those things are important. If you are somebody who’s actually going through a crisis with your dreams… I think the bigger disaster would be to just settle for some type of life without a passion or without a purpose. It can be brutal—it can take ages—sometimes an entire lifetime,” he said.

“Just make sure that you’re looking at everything. For a long time I wanted to be a painter and it was very important to me; I never achieved that. I never found a good feeling for painting; I never had any good ideas. But then songwriting came along and I was able to let [painting] go because I realized I had a general need to express myself—it didn’t have to be through painting. Maybe, sometimes, people can get fixated on finding themselves in one way, maybe it doesn’t have to be like that. It comes from somewhere unexpected sometimes,” he said. “So, basically, don’t give up on the greater goal of fulfillment or happiness. It’s hard to talk about these things without sounding cliché. But it’s true; you should not give up.”

The Concordian: Are you in love with love?

Owens: “I do appreciate love and I think love is better than anger or hate. To say someone’s in love with love—I don’t know what they’re saying. I’ll take it but I’ll just have to accept it as a general compliment.”

“It’s hard to talk about love,” Owens says, but he makes love seem effortless to sing about.

Owens plays Petit Campus on Sept. 30.

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