Mellonova
Ciesla, Blackwell & Associates
Picastro
Frink
Combustion Lente
Bitter Harvest
Thanatopop
122 Greige
Decoy
Skirtchaser
They have lived in England, been played on John Peel, gigged at Whistler and are about to release a new five song EP.
Their name is Mellonova and they have one release to their credit already, by the title of The Hydromatic EP.
Their latest homebase is Toronto, where they have been recording and performing for the last little while. Catch them while you can, they tend to move around a lot.
CIESLA,
BLACKWELL & ASSOCIATES
"Hello, this is Ben Blackwell from Ciesla, Blackwell and Associates... regarding your phone call yesterday to our main office on Grange street in Toronto, Ontario.... Canada..."
///
So began the answering-machine communication between myself and this mysterious outfit. I was trying to recollect what type of officious organization this might have been, and why they may have contacted me. Images of barristers, solicitors and accountancy firms gingerly danced through my head (a pleasing occurrence in itself), but, then, I remembered that the greater interest being served here was music of some sort.
///
Every time I met with Mr. Blackwell (once a member of The Loving Kindness) I was in the process of consuming a plate of some variety of food or other. What strange perceptions he may have of our little collective and my personal gorging habits, I can only wonder, but it matters little.
///
Clarification of C, B&A was given during one of our meetings, but it dispelled little of my original confusion. Beats play a prominent part in the experience, though there is no drummer. Drum'n'bass was reluctantly mentioned, as well as the fact that it wasn't really drum'n'bass at all; I was informed of a debut that involved just the two founding members (Ciesla & Blackwell) in a very ambient mode, and now there is a follow-up show with one more member (Associate, shall we say) for our very own No Beat Radio-presented Wavelength.
///
The explanations may be a bit hazy, but he has assured me that the preparations C, B&A have been going through for their pending show have been fruitful, with ever more beats and details being added to the equation. What this equation may be remains to be seen; who these people really are and what they may want from us, we may never know; but they will appear before our very eyes at Wavelength #8, and we are grateful.
///
- Paddy O'Donnell
Picastro is Liz Hysen - and whoever else joins the husky-voiced singer/acoustic guitarist on stage- which at the current time consists of longtime cellist Stephanie Vittas, electric guitarist Jamie Fleming (ex-Pecola) and drummer Evan Clarke (who returns to Wavelength two weeks after appearing with Holding Pattern).
The small-hours-of-the-morning mood that Picastro perpetrates is so relentlessly dark that it's hard to believe Liz was once played sunny indie-pop with Slowgun, but as this interview demonstrates, she is not without her sense of humour.
Jonny Dovercourt prepared the questions on one rainy day-
You
once told me you play music because you feel a need for public humiliation.
Can you explain this for the benefit of our readers?
Playing onstage has always made me uncomfortable to the point of nausea,
which was an ongoing problem when I started. It hasn't really gotten much
better. So I had to figure out why I kept doing it and I realized it wasn't
because I wanted love or affirmation, but because in some weird way it
forced me to blame myself for things that I had done or said. Whenever
I've been embarrassed or humiliated I get a clearer head, I guess.
Every
member of the mighty, much-missed Pecola has also been a member of Picastro
at one time or another. How did this high turnover (from such a small
talent pool) come about?
I've
known them for such a long time, practically since I've started playing
and it just feels normal for me to be playing with them. Plus they're
all smart, talented and weird in their own ways. I've always liked what
they brought to the band.
Which
Russian film director would you most like to score a film for?
Probably
Dovzhenko, but actually there's this Czech filmmaker Jan Nemec who made
this amazing film called Diamonds of the Night that I would love to score
since it only has 7 minutes of dialogue. But I kind of did, there's an
instrumental Picastro song by the same name.
Complete
the following sentence: "If I wasn't at Wavelength Sunday, I would be?"
Honestly: Watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and getting drunk at
home.
Pretend:
Socializing and thereby pretending it's not Sunday night which is also
not that bad.
Picastro
fans have been waiting many years for the band to release a recording.
Is there an end in sight?
Tell
me about it! It's been hard for me to save up money to do it since the
band is my project or whatever. But hopefully I will record this month
somewhere 'cause I need to have something out by July. So soon, this summer,
I promise.
On a whim, Wavelength decided to throw out all pretensions to objectivity, and let a band tell their own story:
Frink was born from a poster hanging on the wall of that venerable Queen West institution Rotate This in October '98:Dave tears a tag from Larry's poster in aforementioned record store. Telephone tag ensues. Eventually the two play together.
Dave (formerly of Gas Free Oxford) plays East Coast-y indie-folk songs and Larry plays ambient/noise guitar overtop.Under the name Frink, Dave and Larry perform as a duo at various Toronto venues until early '00 when Aidan joins, adding drums and flute to the guitar mix. Veronica is recruited by a drunken Dave after an office Xmas party performance of Tool songs on her cello.
As a 4-piece, they play almost-typical melancholy pop songs thrown off-kilter by weird fuzzed-out noise and unique instrumentation. Forming a thick stew of folk and noise, pop with effect-heavy feedback, and pretty words about former obsessions, Frink set out, to quote Larry, to "give the Toronto music scene a poke in the eye with a sharp stick"
David Dacks and Nick Holmes are two longtime friends who began playing music in high school in North Toronto, and continue to do so as semi-grown-up downtowners, under the name Combustion Lente. Their "slow-burning" music, made primarily with electronic instruments - in fact everything is sampler or CD-generated on stage -is their own weird, funked-up take on dub, that spacy offshoot of reggae that continue to metamorphosize into new permutations, just as Dacks and Holmes musical projects do. (Dave also plays with the Excalceolators and Marzipan, while Nick is sometimes known as Nother.) The duo made memorable contributions to the 1998 CD compilation Trails of Smoke, and recorded a full-length back in '97 (which has yet to see the light of day), as well as couple of live-to-Minidisc recordings, and they plan to do another full-length later this year. To better understand the enigmatic tricksters that are Combustion Lente, wavelength's Jonny Dovercourt decided to talk to two people who may possess the most insight: their mothers. Unfortunately, Dave's Mom was unavailable for comment, but nick's mother, Betty Holmes, was more than happy to participate -
When
did you first realize your son was starting to get into music?
Apart from regular
piano lessons and school music (recorder, bass), I think the first time
I realized Nick was serious about music was when he was in Grade 11 or
12. He got involved in computer-generated music, took a short summer course
in composition at the conservatory, and performed in a concert. Sadly,
neither his father nor I went - we didn't realize what he was doing and
thought it was just a school event (which we did attend faithfully for
the most part). His high school music teacher told me it was amazing and
that he got a standing ovation. Then I knew we'd blown it.
When
did you first realize that he wasn't going to stop any time soon?
When
Nick went off to study Philosophy at king's University in Halifax, I thought
music would be a nice hobby. When he quit university and stated to work
in the business, I thought he might do it for a few years and then go
back and finish his degree. Probably about five years ago, I faced the
music myself and accepted his choice of a path in life. It was around
1992 that I became aware that he and Dave were following up on their shared
interest from high school.
Like
most parents, you've probably been to one or two of your son's gigs. Which
one was the most memorable?
We
heard them play last June in the outdoor space at Ted's Garage on College.
( I may not have the names exactly right.) They were playing with the
Toronto Tabla group, and I thought the drummers were amazing.
What
is your definition of the term "dub"?
Dub
means to take a track from someone's recording and add it to a track of
your own, usually but not always as background. You can also dub from
your own recording; some people have recorded duets this way.
Are
you able to keep track of all your son's various musical projects?
Lord, no! Most of the time I don't have a clue. The CDs we get as presents
help to keep us only a couple of years behind. I also think the music
is getting more accessible - nick's brother says I'm getting more educated.
BITTER
HARVEST
web:http://www.interlog.com/~bitter/
Scott Righteous is Bitter Harvest, and "dark world music" is his bumper crop. Technology makes this one-man band sound like an army of undead: Righteous plays dumbek and other "exotic" percussion instruments and manipulates them live through samplers and loops, to create a sound that bridges worlds old and new. But don't be misled into thinking this is some cuddly, Putomayo-ass shit that you'd hear over the speakers at Starbucks.... this is a man who once was a member of Canada's notorious noise collective Phycus, as has also collaborated with Monty Cantsin (father of Neoism), and new wave dadaist Dave Howard (in Devoured).
Bitter Harvest's 1998 CD Ritual Music for Broken Magick (on Scott's own Gaijin Records) is fearsome, and its recently completed follow-up should up the ante.
Thanatopop are a "thinking" band from St. Catharines, sort of the George Harrison of Southern Ontario music. Jarret Kramer, John Crossingham, and Erik Liddell weren't able to submit a bio in time for the zine, however we managed to track down their Tascam four-track. This interview was conducted by Doc Pickles' wristwatch without permission of either the band members or the Doctor himself:
Wristwatch:
Tick.
Tascam: Thanks, glad to be here.
W:
Tick?
T: I love visiting but I don't know if I'd be happy living here. I'm used
to the easy going life in St. Catharines, getting my head cleaned at the
repair shop, hanging out in Vince's basement.
W:
Tick?
T: No Vince isn't in the band, he's a mysterious associate.
W:
Tick tick tick.
T: I don't really get out much. Being a 4-track, when security sees me
at a club they think I'm just there to record a bootleg.
W:
Tick tick! Tick. Tick tick tick?
T: Sometimes people in medium sized towns have an inferiority complex.
Why does living in a cockroach infested apartment on Queen St. make you
an "artist"?
W:
Tick tick.
T: I don't to mean dis my homies. I blame those pathetic "entertainment
centres" that are sprouting up like termite hills beside the QEW. They
kill your individuality slowly.
W:
Tick. Tick tick tick! Tick?
T: Thank you very much, I'm proud of it, it was a delight to work with
Thanatopop. I was more interested in having fun than changing the world,
but you never want to be just a "fun" four-track or a "serious" four-track.
You want to keep that honest quality about your work if you're trying
to capture something ethereal.
W:
Tick?
T: I guess it's a tie between "Nice Goin' Cap'n" and "The Surgery Will
Be a Success". Sequentially, Four Track Mind is Thanatopop's latest album,
but it's been one year this June since the release.
W:
Tick tick tick tick. Tick tick!
T: I really only get involved when the record button's pushed and of course
during mixing. The guys just got back from playing gigs in Montreal and
Ottawa and now they're loaded for bear, they should be recording later
in the spring. I hear they have a neat new song called "Dark of Heartness".
W:
Tick tick!
T: it's been a pleasure.
A story: It was January 1999 at the Rivoli and Mason Hornet had just given up the stage to Wayne Omaha. We had the privilege of opening for the legendary 122 Greige on the night of their Moving Away From The Sun CD release. A gentleman who had never seen or heard the band asked me what to expect. He had a bottle of Budweiser in his right hand. Nobody had ever asked me that question before. Greige had been around for so long that I assumed everybody attending the release show had been exposed to the mighty Greige in one way or another. They don't play a lot of shows, but they've been together since 1989 and cast a mighty long shadow. Most people I know in my favourite local bands have been under the Greige spell for a while now. I didn't know where to begin the answer.
"Well, they're sort
of like storytellers. Adam's drumming always tells a story, watch for
how he builds in the song."
A blank stare. "Drums that tell stories?"
"Well, actually Matt tells the stories. Usually stories about misguided
love, longing, regret, all my favorite hot buttons. He sings sort of like
Ian Curtis, but he's not as pissed off, sort of an Ian Curtis fronting
Galaxie 500."
Silence. "Ian who? Does he race cars?"
"I don't think so, he's been dead for a long time."
"Oh. So this is sort of an Indie 500 tribute band?"
The gentleman's question was not being answered quite as well as I had
hoped. "122 Greige are alive and well, they're just a bit low-key. You
can dance to most of their songs, though, if that's your thing, - I said,
looking at his bottle of Budweiser.
"Oh, so they're like that guy who got fired from the Oak Ridge Boys."
"No. I'm sorry. I don't mean low key like a baritone, I mean low key in
an understated sort of way."
"Understated. You mean they're Mexican?"
"No. They used to be suburban but now they're cosmopolitan."
Oh. I don't like Russian music."
"You're beginning to annoy me. I'm going to go play pool."
"But you haven't told me what 122 Greige are like."
They're like living upstairs from a drunk with a gun."
"Ah. You sleep with one eye open."
That's it."
Catch 122 Greige and Thanatopop on April 23! - Doc Pickles
Decoy's Bruce Lynn hooked up with Doc Pickles one fine spring day for a word association interview.
Hello Uhhhh- Name
Bruce? Begin
Always Miles The Man Karate Seventies zeitgeist Purple Funny you should
say that - I was just listening to Prince- Rain Eleven I've never gone
as high as eleven Forest Woodshop Perspective Overrated architects Twist
Ashley MacIsaac Redundant Most art Tooth Snakes?
Figure Doubt Latitude Atlantic Ocean Rice Leave it until it's ready Streetcar
A better way to travel than the subway Toast what's that stuff that Australians
put on their toast?
Jacket I need a new one Labrador A place I've never been Plough Snowplough
but I'm thinking skiing snowplough Inca A-spilled-a-outta-my-cuppa Appalachian
Laura Repo Tide Is high Home Depot Just another chain Schultz Aww, Charlie
Brown Pinache Oh yeah I've got it Dredge Cycling home from work Brick
On the lawn Slice Sliver Delay My head Waited (but Doc mistakenly said
"wasted", of course) Almost never Safflower Safflower? What is that?
Receiving The band, Tinker Eel Electric Waylay Yeah my brain is really
slowing now Stipulate For everything Combustion Engine Gutter Cozy Sincere
Yes Gold Overrated Smother I try not to- Smooth I wish I were more- Smack
Never tried it Shade South side of the street Share Love Spade Playing
cards in the garden Depend Disappoint Repel Bounce back Rebellion Easy
in its less subtle forms Galileo Queen Othello Spade Howdy WKRP's Les
Nessman Decoy Code MF Decorate Fraudulent Treacle Candy cane Cleats Tabletop
Stealth Incognito Spittle Only when I drink Reptile Cats Title What you
need LattŽ Never touch the stuff Entitle Approval Lent Belly button
Tunnel Vision can be useful Funeral I missed one by two years Fennel You
have to find a use Enamel Production value Maple Pancakes Pledge Funkadelic
Jaded I hope not, yet Adjust I never think of it that way Dust Human flesh
Studied Valueless Understood Valuable Resistance Never encountered it
Cedars Gummy Radon Chong Oregon Big sky Gregorian A long life Generic
Everywhere Clergy Clerk Yesterday that's so Paul McCartney Understudy
How I got through school Destiny Not to be laughed at or sneered at Dentistry
Nuthin- but trouble Stryper Oh, my Reacts Cycling on Bloor Street Catastrophe
Walk the line Phenomenal That is the line Minimalism Be careful Salamanders
Are they tasty? Ramifications that's the goal Fact People believe what
they want Act Perception Catatonic Alun's heart Tattoo A cry for help
Catch Tony Gabriel number seventy-seven Hatch Human beings Chat I hate
computers Thank you it's been my pleasure
Musicians
always remember their first show. It's a lot like the first time having
sex - it's fun and you're really enthusiastic about it but you know you
could do a more professional job if you could just try it again.
And you would like to try it again as soon as possible.
That energy only exists at a first show, and if any band is ready to jump
in the Wavelength sack and become instant Casanovas it is Skirtchaser.
Roving scribe Doc Pickles hooked up with frontman Fuzzy.
How
did you teach the rest of the band your Skirtchaser songs?
When we first started with the present lineup [Fuzzy's brother Danny on
drums, Alex Durlak on bass], we had a stockpile of songs to play. I almost
always write songs using my four-track. It's easier to present the way
I envisioned the song. After hearing the tapes Danny and Alex usually
mutate the songs into something much better. A song like "The Trouble
With My Lungs" took on an entirely different persona once it was engulfed
by Skirtchaser. Newer songs are much more of a collaborative effort, since
they begin as a tentative series of guitar riffs. Because of this, I think
the newer songs are much better.
When
you go to see a show, what instrument do you pay closest attention to?
I usually try to enjoy the total package that a band brings to a show,
but I'd be lying, if I didn't tell you that I'd noticed the drums the
most. I've been playing them since I was a kid, and it's the only instrument
I was formally taught. I guess I also want to stick up for the underdog.
Out of the local bands I really like what Dean is doing with Kid Sniper
and what Paul is doing with Neck.
You've
been exiled to the other side of the world to go to school (Hamilton to
be precise). Do you miss Toronto?
Yeah, I miss everyday Toronto. I feel like a tourist now that I have to
take a 45 minute drive to get here. There's not too much going on music-wise
in Hamilton, although you can always catch a half-decent jazz band. Every
once in a while, a Sonic Unyon band will be playing, but not often enough.
I also miss the 24-hour amenities such as bowling, greasy food and bus
service.
How
is the sound of Skirtchaser different than that of your other band, The
Connoisseurs?
Rarely do you find a third part in any of Skirtchaser's songs, so I guess
we're simpler than the Connoisseurs. Songs usually go A-B-A-B-destruction.
Skirtchaser is not nearly as loud as the loudest rock band in Toronto,
but I'd like to think that the energy is about the same. I like the fact
that we don't have to switch instruments at all. That leaves more time
for ear-splitting rock and roll. you'll also find that the drummer for
Skirtchaser is superior to the hack they have playing for the Connoisseurs.
Besides that, the bands are identical.
What
is your opinion of duct tape?
Myself, like many others are proponents of the theory that duct tape binds
the world. At the centre of the earth exists a giant ball of rolled up
duct tape, not molten lava.