Friday, August 15th, 2008

To The Stars!


Photo by Carrie Musgrave

Obviously no one wants to look past what’s left of the Summer, but you must admit that when there’s as much going on in September as there typically is, it’s not the worst thing for the trees to start turning colours. For example, there’s the annual Word On The Street book and magazine festival taking place on September 28 this year. And while there will be the usual many booths and stalls closing off Queen’s Park and celebrating (and selling) the printed word, this year there’ll also be a music stage sponsored by eye featuring some choice local talent.

Starting at 11AM, there’s be music and literary-type shenanigans from Chris Eaton of Rock Plaza Central, Forest City Lovers, $100, Dave Bidini, Castlemusic, Laura Barrett, Ibi Kaslik, Eric Chenaux, author Nathan Whitlock accompanied by Alex Lukashevsky and capped off by members of Ohbijou. All for frees, of course.

And it’s less in the interests of disclosure than simple pride that I point out that Laura Barrett, my former bandmate gone on to bigger and better things will release her debut full-length album, Victory Garden, on September 23. Congratulations! While the strength of her songwriting always allowed her to transcend the potential pigeonhole of her girl with a kalimba act, I’m pleased to hear that the record evidences some serious growth. A little slice of quirky-to-say-the-least orchestral folk-pop, Garden demonstrates that her lyrical approach has evolved such that they’re not just curious and eccentric, but also intriguingly oblique, and also incorporates much more expansive musical arrangements and also showcases her piano skills. But fear not, fans – there’s still plenty of kalimba.

She’s playing tomorrow night at the Theatre Centre as part of the finale of the Summerworks Music Festival alongside the Sunparlour Players, and both The Montreal Mirror and NOW have feature interviews with her. CBC Radio 3 has also made the recording of her show at NxNE this past June available to stream.

MP3: Laura Barrett – “Robot Ponies”
Video: Laura Barrett – “Robot Ponies”

JAM talks to Duffy.

Oklahoma’s Evangelicals are back for what must be their fiftieth local show this year, this time at Sneaky Dee’s on September 27. Tickets $7.

And the band they played with last time through – Shearwater – you can watch their show in New York City from the past May wherein they played the majestic Rook in its orchestrally augmented entirety at Baeble Music. Glorious.

I realize that this has been a fairly light week, content-wise, but there’s simply been a dearth of stuff happening the likes of which I can’t really recall. Next week, however, should be better. For starters, I just got accredited to cover and shoot Radiohead at the Amphitheatre tonight. Yes. I had planned to just spend the night watching TV, but this could very well be better.

By : Frank Yang at 8:33 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. Melissa says:

    Radiohead! I might see you there! Not that I know what you look like/will actually be able to see the stage, I have lawn seats. Hopefully it doesn’t rain on us.

    Should be good!

  2. Kelly says:

    Oh my! Congrats on the accreditation. I would be too busy wiping tears to actually be able to hold a camera. Haha. It’s gonna be a great show, maybe better than Friday night television!

  3. Mel says:

    Congrats on the Radiohead show! I expect lots of amazing shots!

    Also, thanks for the heads up about the free show on Sept 28th. It makes me feel much better for skipping out tomorrow night. Can’t wait to hear Laura’s album!

  4. the2scoops says:

    Enjoy the Radiohead show – the Montreal show was terrific and the set list covered lots of territory.

  5. the2scoops says:

    PS Laura Barrett is also opening for Royal Wood on Thursday Aug 14th at Hugh’s Room (2261 Dundas St)- good chance to see two of the best performers I saw at NXNE this year.

  6. Frank says:

    yes, but the 14th was last night…

  7. Andrew says:

    Congrats on the getting the photo accred for tonight! Hope to see you there!

  8. dan says:

    frank, I’ll see you at the show as I was lucky enough to get floors. (not that I know what you look like) I am looking forward to some great shots.

  9. the2scoops says:

    *blink* you’re right, last night was the 14th Frank. blanked out on that

  10. hmd1987 says:

    "robot ponies’ is quite choice.
    thank you for the stream