Listen to a fragment of it. Music programmed by The Morning After Show host Oswaldo Perez Cabrera.

Every year, for some time now, CiTR radio in Vancouver, and a few independent and college radio stations around the globe, have worked to give modern art a transmitter. The concept of giving art a birthday was introduced by French born artist / peacenik Robert Filliou (associate of John Cage, by the way) In 1963 asserted that 1,000,000 years ago, there was no art. But one day, on the 17th of January to be precise, Art was born …when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Filliou had lofty ideas floating around inside his skull about “relative permanent creation”, an exercise in inner peace to be directed outward and into world peace. A continuing playful anarchy as a way of rejecting “the fascism of the square world”; the world which refuses to break free of conventional wisdom and the inevitable war it falls into again and again. Interestingly, through plan or coincidence, war and the horrors of fascism tend to be recurrent themes in many of the 24 Hours of Radio Art’s sound collages.

These audio-art projects bring to mind other vividly surrealist elements, namely the inter-active game known as “Exquisite Corpse.” This was an activity that usually involves three or more artists (generally visual types) that would start a drawing or montage on a piece of paper. When that artist was finished the paper was folded back or covered so that the next participant could not see what image came before. When the entire piece is finished, an amazingly bizarre picture is presented for the enjoyment of the group. When several stations (or even multiple people in the radio studio) are involved in radio-art and sharing audio over the internet, we have in essence, an audio version of an Exquisite Corpse. Combined with the surrealist’s interest in random or spontaneous creations well, I’m sure the tie-in is all too obvious. Not to say that 24 Hours of Radio Art is all about noise. No. The day is about art and other arts have been known to broadcast. Poets and live musicians have graced the studio with their original contributions. The familial links of the creative arts are concrete and incontrovertible.

CITR’s involvement in 24 Hours of Radio Art has its roots primarily in the sound experimentation of Peter Courtemanche. Peter hosted the Weekly program “The Absolute Value of Noise” from 1988 to 1992. This program featured a wide variety of radio-art and experimental audio – often generated live on the air. This radio show developed into the annual 24 Hours of Radio/ART program (1992-96) – a collaborative event that explored the concept of a “radio-art” station; an event that posed the question: What would happen if your local FM pop-rock station suddenly decided to go to an all audio-art format? The answer may be available on January 17th again. Then again, 24 Hours of Radio Art may also be the answer to the question of what do space aliens listen to at home.

In more recent years 24 Hours of radio Art has been made possible by sound-artists at CiTR such as past program director Anna Friz, followed by experimental program enthusiasts Luke Meat, Bleek, and PD Bryce Dunn and a cast of other wonderful volunteer programmers and submissions from everywhere.  This year we will continue the tradition in the name of Art’s Birthday.

24 Hours of Radio Art will broadcast Midnight to Midnight, January 17th on CiTR 101.9 Vancouver. Online at www.citr.ca

Oswaldo Perez Cabrera is a Mexican journalist living in Vancouver.  He currently hosts and produces The Morning After Show on CITR 101.9 FM, every Tuesday at 11:30 www.citr.ca . He also organizes many local music events including The Indie Pop Vancouver Series, an open mic, Yucafest among other events. Oswaldo Perez Cabrera is a driving force within both Vancouver’s cultural scene and Vancouver’s independent music scene. He is also director of Public Relations at www.vanmusic.ca

Being a writer, you can expect corrosive poetry mixed with Noize music, experimental bands from all over the world. He will take us on a journey of Radio Art from all over the world. Expect music from Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Japan, Russia, France, and all South America and beyond.

Schedule 

Midnight-2 a.m.
Host: Sarah Cordingley
Two hours of weird experimental sound art co-curated and performed by a team of local musicians and artists. Noise, drone, sound collage, minimalist synths, vocal experiments, episodes of instrument destruction, punk poets and more.

2-4 a.m.
Host: Noble & Boyce
The killer apps are a group of artists who do spontaneous ambient creation using music apps developed for apple’s iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone mobile devices. Killer apps shape the aural environment, which shapes human mood and consciousness, and which therefor, thereby, shapes the physical environment, making it difficult to tell the difference between a psychological and a physical environment. Killer apps are a phenomenological convergence of the possible environments. They are a becoming, never repeatable. Killer apps are the atmosphere, the envelop of presence, of being, they are the heavens unfolding in spontaneous creation. Killer apps are the dada joke zenslap that helps mice understand the laughing nirvana. For Arts Birthday, the killer apps are merging emergent aural and visual presence-scapes to make a harmonious scene celebrating freedom, the poetic, the ridiculous and the sublime. For this joyous occasion they will be manifesting everywhere at once: on radio (an experimental film for your ears) and online (an experimental concerto for your eyes). See the sound, hear the image.

4-5 a.m.
Host: Blake Fisher
Blake Fisher is a former Journalist turned Marketer, Graphic, and Web Designer who holds a passion for the fringe side of the music industry. He is a big collector of the avant-garde, art-rock, experimental, and noise genres of music and art and shares his library and insight in his show the Da, Da, Da! Radio Show which airs every 2nd Thursday afternoon on CJSF Radio.

The Da, Da, Da! Radio Show highlights Blake’s focus on presenting some background to the lesser known music styles as he goes into a Discomentary-style program to explain about the artists, their motivations, and the history of where conservatory based music split off into the obscure. Dadaism and Sound Collage are a major focus on his show.

You can check out playlists and back episodes of his show at: http://dadadaradio.wordpress.com.

5-6:30 a.m.

6:30-7:30 a.m.
Host: Mark Richardson

7:30-10 a.m.

10-11 a.m.
Host: Robyn Jacob
Dekumpozers Uhv are a local group that rip apart preconceived notions of music and improvisation. With some musical training mixed with no musical training mixed with playing instruments they’ve never played before, listen to them detune a story and take you on a musical journey.

11-Noon

Noon-3 p.m.
Host: Oswaldo Perez

Oswaldo Perez Cabrera is a Mexican journalist living in Vancouver.  He currently hosts and produces The Morning After Show on CITR 101.9 FM, every Tuesday at 11:30 www.citr.ca . He also organizes many local music events including The Indie Pop Vancouver Series, an open mic, Yucafest among other events. Oswaldo Perez Cabrera is a driving force within both Vancouver’s cultural scene and Vancouver’s independent music scene. He is also director of Public Relations at www.vanmusic.ca

Being a writer, you can expect corrosive poetry mixed with Noize music, experimental bands from all over the world. He will take us on a journey of Radio Art from all over the world. Expect music from Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Japan, Russia, France, and all South America and beyond.

3-4 p.m.
Host: UBC School of Music
Alyssa Aska, Ava Grayson, Dan Marshall, and Ryan Noakes study composition at the school of music at UBC.  During this hour, we will each present one of our recent compositions, discuss our music and the many exciting things that are happening within the music composition faculty at UBC.  We are each involved with the Composers’ Collective, a Vancouver based organization for composers to promote and perform contemporary music, striving to nurture a community of creative musicians, create opportunities where people interested in the arts can converge and learn from each other, raise the profile of members’ artistic voices through public concerts and media exposure, build connections to the wider artistic community by collaborating with other arts organizations in Vancouver, and foster mentorship between established and emerging artists.

Alyssa Aska:
Alyssa is a diverse composer who writes works for various combination of acoustic and electronic instruments, although she primarily focuses on works that combine live instruments with real-time electronic processing. She has also programmed, composed for, and performed on electronic gestural controllers. Alyssa is from Eugene, Oregon, where she studied music composition with Robert Kyr and David Crumb and interactive media performance with Jeffrey Stolet. She has had numerous works programmed in both the US and Canada, and is currently pursuing an M.Mus in composition at the University of British Columbia.

Ava Grayson:
Ava Grayson is third-year undergraduate in the Composition department at UBC interested in developing her fascination with multi-media from the perspective of sensory fusion. She spends a lot of her time thinking about things other than music and the rest of her time finding ways to translate it into music. The concept of space, theatre and Jungian archetype are all large influences and areas of interest in her works.

Daniel Marshall:
Daniel Marshall is a composer originating from Calgary, Alberta. He completed undergraduate studies in composition at the University of Calgary studying under Allan Bell, David Eagle and Laurie Radford. He has composed for a variety of ensembles as well as the electroacoustic medium, including a collaborative installation project in Calgary.

Ryan Noakes:
Ryan Noakes was born in Kamloops, British Columbia, where he grew up thinking life was a musical with his parents constantly playing and singing along with records. An accomplished singer, he has been a member of numerous choirs and vocal ensembles, and has performed in several musical theatre productions. Ryan received his Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the University of Victoria in 2008, majoring in composition with Christopher Butterfield. While at UVic he was a two-time recipient of the Muray Adaskin Prize in Music Composition, and helped to establish two new vocal ensembles. After graduating he was instrumental in the creation of the Vancouver Island Chamber Choir as a founding member, manager, and composer-in-residence. He currently resides in Vancouver where he has begun working towards his Masters of Music at UBC, studying composition with Keith Hamel, and sits on the board of directors of the Composers’ Collective and Vancouver Pro Musica.

4-7 p.m.
Host: Pyra
Pyra Draculea has hosted the Vampire’s Ball on CiTR since 2002, focussing on industrial, noise and experimental sounds. She also makes her own industrial/synth rock under the name maQLu, and has put out three EPs [Blood, Black, and Haze] that have hit college radio charts across Canada over the last year and a half. Fans have described her music as “a beautiful abomination” while reviewers have said maQLu’s music is “a breath of fresh air in the electro scene” [James Wright of Soundsphere Magazine] and “an orchestration of foreign, unsettling industrial rock” [Tom Harrison of The Province].

maQLu also has a hand in experimental and improvisational work such as 2011′s The Maqlu Tarot, and she also likes to compose good old-fashioned WEAM – Western European Art Music. (Well, not so much old-fashioned as new-mangled…)

This is her third year appearing on 24 Hours of Radio Art and programming will feature a progressively warped and twisted symphonic sonata and a collages of loops, spoken word, noise, and synthesized orchestral instruments. She is currently working on a new album, a new experimental/improvisational series to be called Hexagrams and putting out regular installments in her Monday Nite Noise series.

7-9 p.m.
Host: gak
gak has hosted Exploding Head Movies for the past two years and been on CITR Monday evenings since 2008 with music that’s loosely pegged as cinematic, atmospheric and otherwise esoteric. gak spent most of his formative years in Northwestern Ontario and Eastern Finland, where the cold winter air bent far-off radio signals into strange sounds that blanketed the night. Combined with decades of musical training, misguided wanderlust and a seemingly unrelenting voracious appetite for new sounds, gak’s appreciation of art can be both playful and perplexing.

In honour of the Fluxist’s movements 50th anniversary, gak’s set will profile some of the reknowned artists who helped found the idea of 24 Hours of Radio Art. Otherwise, there will be vintage musique concrete, experimental radio pieces from Europe and some glorious noise. Art’s still looking good after these million plus fifty years, so put on a loud tie and tune into CITR 101.9 FM all day January 17.

9 p.m.-Midnight
Host: Bepi Crespan
WEIRDOMUSIC

Plunderphonics. Musique Concrete. Ambient. Cut-Up and Collage. Difficult Music. Spoken Word. Noise.

Featuring selected works by Alva Noto, ANBB, Jaap Blonk, John M Bennett, Cabaret Voltaire, Anne-James Chaton, Vladislav Delay, Einsturzende Neubauten, Philippe-Aubert Gauthier / Noizefer CWU, Myths, Recoil, Severed Heads, Steinski, Tape-Beatles.

Shalini is an upstream fish who has just finished launching her first self-titled EP.  Produced by Winston Hauschild (Nat Jay, Hannah Georgas, Wanting Qu) in Vancouver, British Columbia, her musical style is best described as Indie, Quirky, Baroque and Melodramatic “Theatrical” Pop.

The songs on the EP were written in Shalini’s dark closet – “I have to make music in the closet under the stairs because my grandparents don’t like listening to me sing.  They feel I should be married and working in an accounting firm in New Zealand” – and though the lyrics are “lonely, lost and dreamy”, Shalini has a very powerful and exhilarating voice that turns the songs into uplifting and inspirational pieces.  All 5 songs are potential singles, but Shalini and her fans have chosen to launch the catchy, coming-of-age love song, Freeze Up, as her first official single.   Her music has been compared to the works of Regina Spektor, Danny Elfman, Coldplay, Philip Glass, Lilly Allen, Sarah Maclachlan, and Zooey Deschanel. 

Shalini has been playing around town promoting her record with memorable gigs at the Anza Club and Displace Hashery, just to name a few.  The EP captures live instrumentation featuring Shalini on the piano, harmonium (a traditional accordian-sounding instrument from India) and synths; Niko Friesen (Kelly Rowland, Marcy Playground, Veronica Mars) on drums; Doug Gorkoff (Transiberian Orchestra, Mariana’s Trench) on the cello; Winston Hauschild on bass, guitars, glock and synths; Guru Bhaskar Sharma on the tabla and Marcus Abramzik on the upright bass.

When asked on an interview by album designer/photographer, Vikaash Prasad,”If you could choose any track on Shalini’s EP for the world to fall in love with, which one would it be?”, producer Winston Hauschild answers:

“I think it would probably be Telescope because I think it’s really emotional and it will probably appeal to the most amount of people. I always said that just the composition of the piano piece itself stood on its own. You almost don’t need vocals or lyrics. That song just has it’s own vibe. I think people will fall in love with that song. For me, it was great piano composition that we took a step further with Shalini’s words and lyrics…. It’s a universal song, whereas Life of the Mind probably isn’t and is going to work for a certain demographic. I think for a song that’s going to capture the world, I think Telescope …”  He adds to Shalini, “My vision for you making this record was you coming out of your cage and being able to fly and be free and make music and say “fuck” on record. I thought of her as a bird from under the staircase to out in the world”.

“I am recording a full length album next year,” Shalini tells me about her new year resolution plans on The Morning After Show. “We are making a video right now for Freeze Up, it’ll be my first music video ever!” she concludes.

The music of Shalini is fresh and catchy. The 5 songs are very emotional and really well crafted.  The young career of this performer can only get better, her followers are looking forward to listen to her new creations. In the meantime catch her playing LIVE.

For upcoming shows, music and personal blog, please visit shalini at www.shalinimusic.com.

Photography by Raymond Kam .

Cover art, design and photography by Vikaash Prasad.

Mouthful of Daisy will perform at The Indie Pop Vancouver Series Vol. XII with Quit The City and Karen Fowlie. 1143 Kingsway. 5 dollar cover charge. 2 dollar beer.

Mouthful Of Daisy is a unique blend of female fronted alternative rock. Their upcoming album “Twice Renewed” is laced with melodic guitars, catchy melodies and driving rhythms that will playback in your head for days. They are the band to discover in 2012.

“We want to start promoting our upcoming album “twice renewed” which we recorded in New York with producer and VP of A&R at Chamberlain Records Anthony Santos. It will be released sometime in January or February 2012″ the band said. Check them out when they play this new year promoting their new album. It has been almost five years since their release their first LP 1st Place winner.

Biography

In the spring of 2005, Mouthful Of Daisy came together to focus their unique musical callings. With their first EP “Zero” released that same year, they began to share their creations on the local stages of Vancouver, B.C. In 2007, the band returned to the studio to record their self-produced album “1st Place Winner”.

Since its inception, Mouthful Of Daisy has shared the stage with many local bands and enjoyed many live performances throughout British Columbia, including a few festivals.They have also had the opportunity to share their music through local radio station interviews and plays. Connecting with their amazing fans in a variety of ways allows M.O.D. to understand how their music is experienced by others, which in turns helps to inspire further growth.
In the spring of 2011, with three original members and a new bass player, Mouthful Of Daisy has decided to take things to another level. After being contacted by producer and VP of A&R at Chamberlain Records, Anthony Santos, the band made a decision to record their second album at Killingsworth Studios in New York.
Surrounded by the City that never sleeps and a new sense of inspiration, they recorded their new full length album “Twice Renewed” which is set to be released in early 2012.

Instrumentation
Michella – Vocals
J’ace – Guitars/Piano
AlIx – Bass
Sean – Drums
Discography
“Zero” EP 2005
“1st Place Winner” LP 2007

Listen to the podcast of The Morning After Show on CiTR 101.9 FM where Cole Petrone performs LIVE on studio and talks to host Oswaldo Perez Cabrera.

Cole Petrone is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has been entertaining audiences all over the world. Combining a smooth tenor voice with an artistic finger-picking style, Cole has crafted a unique indie sound that has often been compared to that of modern James Taylor and Paul Simon. Widely acclaimed throughout the music industry, his original and catchy melodies include obvious influences from the Beatles, Neil Young, Burt Bacharach, and jazz standards from the “Tin Pan Alley” era. As a finalist in both the “John Lennon Songwriting Contest” and “Great American Songwriting Contest”, and as acknowledged on “Billboard Magazine” and radio stations throughout North America, Cole’s originals are truly heartfelt gems that resonate with authenticity.

Having lived, worked, and played in over 50 countries, destiny has put Cole in the middle of several iconic moments in history. For reasons he will never understand, Cole lived in Germany during the fall of the Berlin wall, worked in Russia shortly after the fall of communism, spent two years in the Arctic Circle, and as a resident of New York City, witnessed the tragedy of 9/11 first hand. This most ‘improbable life’ has influenced Cole’s songwriting in ways he could never have imagined. Combining lyric, rhyme and melody to tell his “life story”, he has translated his epic journey into a canvas of word and song. His poignant lyrics on loss, love, and the yearning aspects of the human condition have struck a chord with thousands of appreciative fans worldwide. Whether opening for Bon Jovi in front of 20,000 fans, or performing in an intimate venue of 200 people, Cole’s performances always leave an audience wanting more.

Assisted by Grammy-nominated co-producer Michael Creber, and joined by session players who have performed with a “who’s who” of rock royalty – including Elton John, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, KD Lang, Sarah McLachlan, Ray Charles, Ringo Starr and others – Cole has just released his second CD of originals titled “Songteller” – which is now available on all major musical distribution channels.

Check out Cole’s Website here.

Buzz about Cole Petrone

Psychedelic band is ready to make waves in Vancouver with their trippy, well crafted music. Their music is a trip through the psychedelic 60s and 70s seen through a Instamatic lens, imagine driving on an acid highway where the wind is transformed into a soothing slow melody with hints of distortion. Its rock that does not rise their temper. The touch of pop is sublime. I could also tell you they are a Manchester band who were playing with the Inspiral Carpets and the Stone Roses and you would believe me. But their music woos more with a more contemporary  Rock. Its melancholic, but not sad, its a joyous feeling of nostalgia and freshness in a cold beach by the afternoon.

They have two EPs Welcome to the Planetarium and the new one is Moon Aura and they are working on an acoustic album called Purple Sun. “We like to call it sonic rock whatever that is, sort of cracking the distortion a bit and definitively some psychedelic there” tells me Caelin Roza one of the members and singers, “We have three lead singers, kind of Eagles style”.

Caelin Roza, Kelly Leary Baby Bass, Kevin Nakanishi, Timmy Skins.

BIO

Places With Faces ride with the currents, molding an adventurous path of discovery for the greater good. Their free-spirited music is inspired by Vancouver and the ocean, touching on ideas of truth, freedom and the vulnerability of life and love. Brought together by a string of fate, what was once an idea has now transformed into a full movement that portrays elements of beauty in their purest form.

By Spring 2010, Places With Faces completed their first 8 track EP “Welcome

to the Planetarium”, a compilation of demos recorded in 2009/early 2010.

After gaining more experience and exposure in Vancouver, playing almost

every venue possible along with an indie Festival in Harrison Hot Springs.

In the Fall of 2010, they were able to take more time to complete there

second EP “Moon Aura,” recording most of the tracks in a remote cabin in

beautiful Whistler, BC… Moon Aura  was released early 2011.

Along with the release of “Moon Aura” in 2011, Places With Faces are

currently working on their first full length LP entitled “Love on Mars,” an

album involving a lonely astronaut who travels to Mars and back on a journey

of reflection, beauty, hope, and finding love in the last places you would

expect. Love On Mars will be released in the summer of 2011.

Places With Faces is Caelin Roza, Kelly Leary, Tim Arnold, Jamie-son Francis

Bain, and Kevin Nakanishi

Let The Rhyme Of The Run Guide Us Till We Are One…

On Wednesday October 26th I went to The Cobalt to check out Paper Lions who are on Their “Rolling Oyster Review” tour. Paper Lions have been around for a long time, since boys in high school. After releasing three albums under the name the Chucky Danger Band and being nominated for several East Coast Music Awards, winning best Pop Recording of the year for their 2006 EP 6 pack, they changed their name to Paper Lions and have released their new album Trophies under the new moniker.

Paper Lions Interview

Paper Lions where the last band of the night and I made it to The Cobalt early enough to catch the last couple of songs from the opening rock band The Slovos. The Slovos have a funky rock blues sound with good energy and the occasional ethereal riff thrown in. Just a dash of Pink Floyd in their influences but the rocky blues The Slovos puts out is definitely their own.

However the surprise of the night was the second band Good For Grapes. A self-proclaimed “techno folk” band who are a complete pleasure to see live. Their energy on stage is astounding and their furious rhythms brought out the folk stomp in everyone, causing the wooden floor of The Cobalt to vibrate like a folkquake.

Amazing harmonies along with well-crafted lyrics and melodies Good For Grapes will no doubt get bigger and bigger and be around for a long time. A seven piece freight train of folk music, this is a band that you have to check out.

I grabbed them for a quick interview after their show, give it a listen.

Good For Grapes Interview

Paper Lions hit the stage last most of them full and frisky from their oyster shucking party before-hand. Frisky for music that is, these boys are known for their harmonies and they can deliver. After Good For Grapes and their high energy stomp I was a little worried that the melodic indie pop rock would be a hard follow, but it was the perfect way to close out the night.

By the end of the evening the crowd had gathered around the center of the bar in a circle around the band for the final sing along. Paper Lions had a way of bringing everyone together and making us new friends while at the same time making us all feel like very old friends who hadn’t seen each other in ages, marking the close of a pretty sweet night on the Vancouver music scene.

By Claudine Santos

A2D Productions and Family Industries presented Sonic Brew 2.0 at the Anza Club (3 W. 8th Ave.).  This was the second annual eclectic showcase of artists from the Lower Mainland.  Hip-hop, funk, blues-rock, soul, metal and even a little reggae were well represented; local talent included Cander of A2D Productions, Jannette King, East West Groove, EV Collective, Goodnight Buffalo, M.A.S.A.R.O., DJ Baeta, the Sundance Kid, Ill Tone with 1Del, and Payback.

For more information on all A2D and Family Industries’ productions and shows, like us on Facebook (Family Industries) ; (A2D)  or follow us on Twitter @FamIndustries.

Photos by Stephanie Bentzen

Synthcake is one of my favourite upcoming Vancouver bands. I saw them play for the first time at Blim Gallery a year or two ago, I think Nothofagus was playing that night and they invited me. Synthcake was a three piece then. I was impressed with the performance that night, we were like 25 people sipping wine, I think The Rain and the Sidewalk also played that night. Since then, they added Montreal native Kristy Audette (a musician that every band would like to have) and Accordionist Nathan Shubert to their line up and now they are playing to full places like the Cobalt. The singer and keyboard player, Lana Marie Pietre, is the founder and main writer of the project, completing the line up is Adam on the keyboards and sound and Marty on the drums.

Their music reminds me of a circus or a carnival; a modern Danse Macabre, specially the song House Love Ground. According to their description their music is “Twisted, angelic space vocals, fat, grimy synth tones, raunchy, primal dance beats”. To me is like a weird doll dance. The single could be Musicophilia, a very catchy tune; Red raw is a little more theatrical, I love the sound of the warped synthesizers. The accordion and trumpet put the icing in the band, the new additions make Synthcake sound more mysterious and richer; Drip, is a perfect example of this.

There is something Circenses about their act too. When they released their EP Musicophilia, they told everybody to come disguised with costumes; carnival kind of costumes. The event was held at The Cobalt. I wasn’t dressed up but a lot of people were, including the openers: Wizerdz. Not that Wizerdz need an excuse to dress up, they always go out and play dressed as…wizards, they did their job and warm up the people that were itching for action. There were lots of familiar faces in the audience. The other opening band was Tyranahorse who were dressed up as zebras, they have a brand new CD as well with an enormous name, they also impressed the audience with their performance, wait until you hear Teenage Girl LIVE!

The show featured a ice cone machine or raspados as we call them in Mexico, for 5 dollars you could get a treat and a CD. They also had a rotation Ferris Wheel, and a circus performer who was very entertaining, he goes by Neil E. Dee & danger thrill show, he is associated with Sex at the Circus, a local burlesque circus show. Synthcake came with a blast, their music added the missing part to complement an hallucinatory trip that converted the Cobalt into a room that you could only enter through the rabbit hole. The dance floor was full with people dancing to the keyboards’ strokes, the attendees were transformed for that night into dolls, it was like a ballroom of toys jumping around and Synthcake were pulling the strings with their twisted melodies. I don’t know if that gig can be repeated, but be sure you don’t miss Synthcake when they play. You could download their EP here and listen to the podcast of The Morning After Show where they played LIVE! on the air. The show starts with Glenn Chatten and then half way through you will listen to an exclusive interview and performance by Synthcake.

By AJ Lee

“Everyone likes to sing about the devil. Old ladies, little kids—everyone likes to sing about the devil.”

So says Shawn Creamer, vocalist and guitar player for Toronto-based band The Beauties. He and his band mates played a typically romping show at the Railway Club and will be playing at the PNE. Expect high energy and even the possibility of some high-profile secret drop-in guests from this hard-working, seasoned band from back east. And yes—they may indeed sing a song or two about the devil.

“We do this song called, ‘Tired Fired Blues’ that we attach it to a song called ‘Sad Sad Song’ which was written by M. Ward, and we do a very very heavy version of it—that’s usually the crowd favourite. That and “Devil Do” [by Holly Golightly],” says Creamer when I caught up with him last month at the Mariposa music festival in Orillia, Ontario. He and the band had just finished a set of their infectious tunes that had the crowd singing, stomping, screaming—and clapping for more.The Beauties are in Vancouver for their first time this week, with a show at the Railway and a performance with Serena Ryder on Wednesday evening at the PNE. After that, they will be heading out to complete their western tour with shows in Banff, Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer.

Bar band beginnings

The Beauties are Darin McConnell and Shawn Creamer (guitars and vocals); Jud Ruhl (lead guitar); Paul Pfisterer (bass) and Derek Downham (drums). “We were a six piece band—we had a keyboard player, but we went on tour with Blue Rodeo and they stole him,” laughs Creamer.
They were formed in 2006, playing at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern on Sunday evenings, and quickly developed a devoted following for their weekly shows.
“We play every Sunday we’re in town,” says Creamer. “We have a very loyal crowd of people and we’re loyal to them.” When the band began playing the tavern in 2006, fans lined up every Sunday to come and see The Beauties. Five years later, the Sunday night lineups are still a regular occurrence as the band’s popularity continues to grow.

Rising reputation

In 2009, The Beauties were declared “Best Roots/Country Band” by Toronto’s NOW magazine. Their years of performing regularly together at their Dakota residency honed their performance skills as a band, making them much sought-after by other artists—they regularly back up key players such as Ron Sexsmith, Jim Cuddy, Justin Rutledge, Serena Ryder, and Kevin Drew. They have toured Canada and parts of the US with some of these artists, as well as on their own. When I spoke with Creamer in July, The Beauties were preparing to play the renowned Hillside festival, doing two shows there: “We’re playing with Serena on the mainstage, and then we’re going straight to the beer garden to play with Kevin Drew. And then we’re taking both of them back to the Dakota to play three sets.”

In the house

As well as their regular Dakota gigs, The Beauties have also established residencies in other places such as Ottawa and New York, where they have been well received. “We like New York a lot; we play there quite a bit,” said Creamer. Residencies are excellent for fine-tuning a band’s act, providing regular performance outlets and helping them to try new ideas at a venue where they are familiar with the setup and sound. It’s no wonder The Beauties are such a tight band, given their long residency at the Dakota. “We get together for a few hours on Sunday evenings before the show. We get some dinner, we write some songs, and then we go to the Dakota and try it all out,” says Creamer.

Recording plans

It can be challenging, however, for a band that is used to a regular high energy live performance regime to recreate that energy in the studio. Creamer says of recording their first full-length album: “We wanted to sound live because we’re very much a live band. That’s our thing. So trying to do that in a studio…we found it very frustrating at first. We don’t ever play the same song the same way twice. And you have to do it one way when it’s on the record. But that said, I think the record is a good introduction to our selection and sound.” (Check it out here)
The band has also recorded an EP with Serena Ryder, and done some song writing with Kevin Drew. Of the collaboration with Drew, Creamer says: “I don’t know if we’re going to record that or not, but we’re planning on getting in the studio to work on our new record a little bit in November and hopefully get at it hardcore in January and start recording then.”
Catch The Beauties live on CiTR radio’s Morning After Show