Kingston Pride

Kingston Pride is this weekend! Visit http://www.kingstonpride.org for events.

Interview with John McTavish, a Pride organizer:

Carmen Elle

[From http://www.carmenelle.com]
18-year old indie-folk artist Carmen Elle (real name: Carmen Yanuziello) started playing guitar as a young child — the by-product of artistic parents — and dreamed of being the best female guitarist in the world. When teen angst hit, she abandoned that dream in favor of singing to accompany her guitar. However, after being strongly advised never to sing again, she took a brief hiatus from vocalized expression. Eventually, she shunned the opinions of others and began singing with much flair in school washrooms and in her basement.

Carmen made the transition to open mics and public stages and now plays regularly at venues around Toronto, including The Drake Hotel, Sneaky Dees, and the Gladstone Hotel, as well as at festivals like Mariposa and NXNE.

As of late, Carmen has been recording demos in her bedroom and experimenting with sound. She also musically confabulates with her fellow minors, The Whoremoans and Spiral Beach. One day Carmen wants to be Martha Wainwright. Until then, she’s content to play any shows that come along and continue on experimenting with sound.

Carmen Elle opened at Ale House last night for Serena Ryder. MORE SOON!

Serena Ryder

[From www.serenaryder.com] Serena Ryder is just 23. But her voice, a deep, bluesy, soulful instrument that has drawn comparisons to Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin, makes her sound much older. Artists like Serena don’t come along very often. Blessed with a three octave range, she has the ability to tackle any musical style and win over crowds wherever she plays

Ryder’s extraordinary major-label debut, If Your Memory Serves You Well, features the Millbrook, Ontario native covering vintage Canadian songs with remarkable authority – some of them written more than 70 years before she was born. From Shelton Brooks’ “Some of These Days,” recorded by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday,” to Percy Faiths’ “My Heart Cries for You,” previously recorded by Ray Charles and Ben E. King, Ryder sings with enough passion and conviction to make them her own. She also delivers a stunning rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Sisters of Mercy” and a scorching version of “This Wheel’s on Fire,” which Bob Dylan co-wrote with The Band’s Rick Danko.

If Your Memory Serves You Well is as much a testament to Ryder’s talent as it is a tribute to the enduring strength of these songs. “It’s amazing how much this material makes more sense the older it gets,” says Ryder. “A lot of the songs speak to the political time in which they were written, but they also resonate with what’s going on today. That’s the mark of a great song.”

Ryder comes from strong musical roots. Her Canadian mother was a touring backup singer and go-go dancer, while her Trinidadian father was a percussionist and guitarist with the Caribbean folk outfit The Tradewinds. After recording a live EP in 2002 at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec, Ryder was signed to the Isadora Records label and issued 2004’s Unlikely Emergency, which quickly garnered rave reviews as Ryder toured music festivals across North America and as far away as Down Under. The Boston Globe was impressed by her “outstanding” vocal range and predicted she’d become a “major force,” while Australia’s Brisbane Mail Courier credited her “maturity” and her three-octave voice that “sometimes soars, growls and then curls up around the notes like a lazy cat.”

If Your Memory Serves You Well will expose Ryder’s talent to an even wider audience. “Doing this record is a really important step for me in my career because I’m learning so much from performing this material,” says Ryder, who adds that covering songs like Zal Yanovsky’s Lovin’ Spoonful nugget “Coconut Grove” and Paul Anka’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” struck strong personal chords. “This music feels very natural to me,” she says. “When I sing these songs, I’m really singing what I need to be singing right now.” Clearly, the songs have inspired Ryder, but she, in turn, has breathed new life into these timeless Canadian classics.

I had an interview last night with Serena Ryder. I apologize for the background noise – we were sitting outside at the Ale House canteen having a beer.

MORE ABOUT CONCERT SOON!

Tags: serena ryder, ale house, music, kingston, artist

Upcoming Shows

June 1 (Fri) – Danny Michel, Grad Club
June 2 (Sat) – Everlea, Notre Dame-Regiopolis High School; Jen Militia and Clock Strikes Music, Clark Hall Pub; You Say Party! We Say Die!, Ford Plant (Brantford)
June 6 (Wed) – Serena Ryder, Ale House
June 7 (Thurs) – Nich Worby, Entire Cities, Dukes of Archipelago, and They Were Valleys – Clark Hall Pub
June 9 (Saturday) – Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs, Island Grill on Wolfe Island
June 14 (Thurs) – Stabilo, Pilot Speed – Joy Supper Club
June 19 (Tues) – Sarah Harmer, Grad Club
June 21-23 – Emily Fennell, Christina Foster, Tangible Ears, Knock Knock Ginger, Nich Worby, Entire Cities, etc. – Skeleton Park Music Festival (Kingston)
June 21(Thurs) – Weakerthans, Underground (Hamilton)
June 22 (Fri) – OK Go and The Fray, Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto
June 23 (Sat) – Cliks, Dance yourself to death – Toronto Pride
June 24 (Sun) – Hunter Valentine, Toronto Pride
June 28 (Thurs) – Laura Barrett and the Dirty Colours, the Artel
July 7 (Sat) – Mute Math – Ottawa Bluesfest (River Stage)
July 8 (Sun) – Hawksley Workman, Ohbijou – Ottawa Bluesfest (Blacksheep Stage), White Stripes – Ottawa Bluesfest (MBNA Stage)
July 13 (Fri) – Built to Spill, Metric – Ottawa Bluesfest (River Stage), Tokyo Police Club – Ottawa Bluesfest (Blacksheep Stage)
July 14 (Sat) – Danny Michel – Ottawa Bluesfest (River Stage)
July 21 (Sat) – Hawksley Workman – Huntsville
Aug 11 (Sat) – Holy Fuck, Apostle of Hustle, Nich Worby, etc – Wolfe Island Musicfest
Sept 9 (Sun) – Metric, The Smashing Pumpkins, Bjork, The Killers, Interpol, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse – Virgin Festival

Everlea Interview

I had an interview with Justin Dube, the lead singer of Everlea. They’re playing this Saturday at Regi, so be sure to check them out.

[From http://www.myspace.com/everlea%5D Everlea is a pop, rock and ghettotech band from Kingston. With Justin Dubé on guitar and lead vocals, Casey Shea on guitar, Brendan Soares on drums and James Young on base, Everlea has been described by Sonic Music as a pillar of the independent music community. Armed with a collection of masterfully crafted pop-rock songs, a high-octane live performance, and a work-ethic that skirts the line between passion and obsession, Everlea is captivating audiences and winning over fans one venue at a time.

In 2005, Everlea was named Best Non-Local Act at IndieWeek Toronto. Audiences in the US have also extended a warm welcome to the band, with American music lovers buying more copies of their first album “Friends Hurt Friends” than fans from Canada, Europe, and Asia combined.

Everlea has finished their new self-titled album, and is now embarking on a promotional tour where they will continue to spread their sound to eager ears and open minds.
Everlea’s CD release party starts at 6 tomorrow night at the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Auditorium, which is located at 130 Russell Street. Cain and Abel and Lights over Acadia will also be playing. The show is all ages and tickets are 10$ in advance or 12$ at the door. Tickets are available at SoundWorks, Sunrise records, the Kingston Guitar Shop, Renaissance Music and Brian’s Record Option. Visit www.everlea.com or www.myspace.com/everlea, or email theband@everlea.com
Sources: www.sonicbids.com, www.purevolume.com, www.brookreynolds.com

Everlea Interview on CFRC, May 29/07

Tags: everlea, justin dube, music, kingston, artist

Cliks Interview

With Lucas Silveira on guitar and vocals, Morgan Doctor on drums, Nina Martinez on guitar and Jen Benton playing base, the Cliks have a sound that’s completely different.

[From www.thecliks.com] “Their new album Snakehouse reveals a band of such primal power and unguarded emotionality that it will take your breath away. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, I’ve fallen down/But I can get up,” sings Lucas Silveira in a voice at once scarred and defiant, over a pummeling rhythm section and a guitar riff of barely controlled fury. This unambiguous declaration kicks off “Oh Yeah,” one of 10 fiercely expressive tracks on Snakehouse, and it could serve as the credo of the Toronto trio, as well as summing up the personal narrative of Silveira, a writer/singer and guitarist of uncommon talent and audacity.

This song, the album’s emotional and thematic centerpiece, “expresses everything about who I am, where I’ve come from and how this album came to be,” says Silveira, who’s as intense in conversation as in performance. “I went to a place I thought I’d never get out of, and I think a lot of people go there-losing trust in somebody you love, losing faith in yourself, falling down, picking up the pieces and saying, ‘Y’know, I’m gonna be OK.’ It’s experiences like that that make you who you are and give you your strength.”

Another stunner, opening track “Complicated,” leaps out of the speakers like a Pitbull with fangs bared, building to a series of explosive climaxes before hitting a bridge that takes the song to another level altogether. Just as captivating is the band’s improbable transformation of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” into a seething rock anthem, driven by a hopped-up reggae groove that shows you what a super-tight unit this is. Listening to these indelible tracks, one can understand why The Cliks have frequently been compared to the original Pretenders, as the multitalented Silveira writes and sings with the unbridled intensity of Chrissie Hynde while also playing electric guitar with the thrilling dynamism of the late, great James Honeyman-Scott.

On Snakehouse, The Cliks have created something mysterious yet transparent, specific yet universal, timeless yet intoxicatingly new. This is music that seems to emanate from a parallel universe, one where fundamental distinctions are blurred, living passionately is the highest level of existence and rock & roll is the ultimate form of expression.

A final suggestion is play their music LOUD, and prepare to have your preconceptions obliterated.”

The Cliks played at Ale House on Friday, May 25th. A band called We Are the Take opened for them, they were pretty good and made me want to get their album afterwards. The crowd wasn’t too big (which isn’t surprising during the summer in a university town), which made the show really intimate. We were sitting just a few feet away from them, close enough to be able to smile at the band members and have them smile back while they played. The songs that got us the most pumped were “Complicated”, “Oh Yeah” and “Eyes in the Back of My Head”. Equally awesome was their rendition of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River”…they added in a little bit of Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” to the middle of it, and Lucas’ little wink to the crowd while singing “to the left, to the left” just made it that much better.

After the show, the band came out to sell merchandise and talk to people. I got a picture with Lucas, who recognized my voice from the interview and said he thought that it might be me when he looked out into the crowd and saw me (we did a phone interview, so I never actually met him until the concert). So that was pretty cool.

I also got to meet some of the other band members, Nina Martinez (guitar) and Jen Benton (bass). I told Nina she looked like Leisha Hailey from the L Word, and surprisingly she said that no one had ever told her that before! I’ve been listening to her other band, Dance Yourself to Death, and they’re pretty awesome too so I definitely want to go see them play at Pride. Jen Benton was really nice as well, I found out afterwards that she’s from Hamilton and actually went to the college right next to my high school! She has another band too – an acoustic/folk/pop band called August – but they’re taking a break from shows while Jen is on tour with the Cliks.

I got them all to sign a Cliks poster for me, and picked up a t-shirt and some pins. They told me they’d be doing a Pride show again this year, so I hope to see them there! They’re also going to be playing on the True Colours tour with Cyndi Lauper.

Check out their music at www.myspace.com/thecliks or www.thecliks.com

Sources: www.thecliks.com

Concert photo: Becca Taylor

Cliks Interview for CFRC, May 25/07

Tags: cliks, jen benton, nina martinez, morgan doctor, august, dance yourself to death, ale housemusic, kingston, artist, interview

Econoline Crush Interview

Econoline Crush will be playing at the Joy Supper Club on Wednesday.

[From www.wikipedia.org] Econoline Crush is an industrial alternative rock band from Vancouver, Canada that was formed in 1992. Though originally from Seattle, they eventually moved to Canada, which is where they have been the most successful. Notable singles include “Wicked”, “Home”, “Sparkle & Shine”, “Make It Right”, “All That You Are” & “You Don’t Know What Its Like”.
Econoline Crush – with vocalist Trevor Hurst, guitarists Robbie Morfitt and Ziggy, drummer Nico Quintal, and bassist Don Binns — have made quite a name for themselves in Canada. They’ve enjoyed major chart successes, and have opened Canadian and European tours for the likes of KISS, the Young Gods, Die Krupps, and the Tea Party. The band started when singer Hurst moved to Seattle and answered an ad for a new band in a local music paper. Taking their name from a French novelist’s book called Jeu de Fountaine – in which econoline crush was a drug that gave the hopeless a sense of optimism – they mixed alternative guitar-rock with electronic music. After moving from Seattle to Vancouver, they built a following for themselves with albums such as 1994’s Purge and 1996’s Affliction. But their greatest success turned out to be The Devil You Know, which quickly went gold upon its release, and is fast approaching platinum in their homeland. Their fourth album, Brand New History, went for a more dynamic approach in capturing the band’s live energy.

After their album Brand New History, the band seemed to be on hiatus or disbanded, since Trevor Hurst had started his own band called simply Hurst. However, as of January 2007, Econoline Crush have gotten together again and are currently on a tour around Canada.

Econoline Crush will be playing on Wednesday at The Joy Supper Club at 178 Ontario Street. Tickets are 15$ in advance or 20 at the door. Doors open at 8 and the event is 19+

Here is my interview with Econoline Crush, who were supposed to play at Joy Supper Club on May 23rd. Check out their music at http://www.myspace.com/econolinecrush2007

Sources: www.wikipedia.org, www.chartattack.com, music.yahoo.com

Econoline Crush Interview on CFRC, May 20/2007

Tags:econoline crush, trevor hurstmusic, kingston, artist, interview

1st Entry

The mandate of Kingston Lives is to connect Kingston students with what’s happening in the community. This is the place to find theatre and movie reviews, interviews with visiting bands, as well as articles and podcasts about current issues or just whatever people are interested in. There will also be a calendar with upcoming shows and events in the area. Kingston Lives offers students the opportunity to express themselves online through any medium, whether it be words, audio, video or art. Anyone can submit material of any subject or point of view, as long as it isn’t offensive.

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