Bob Wiseman and Collapsing Opposites at Western Front

On Friday I got into the Bob Wiseman Show at the Western Front by volunteering to work the merch table for CiTR. (woo free shows!)

Bob Wiseman, if you don't already know, is a musician/comedian/film maker from Winnipeg. He plays an accordion, piano and guitar and used to play with Blue Rodeo and the Hidden Cameras before going solo. I first caught him opening for Final Fantasy at the Norm Theatre and I've liked his music ever since. What is most impressive about Wiseman is the emotional range of his performance. Some musicians are really good at making funny music and some musicians are really good at making sad music, but few are good at being both. Wiseman is one of the few who can do both. He does a brilliant job of going back and forth between comedic moments (like a video he made featuring himself, Kids in the Hall actor Scott Thompson and some comedian I knew the face of but couldn't place deciding what Wiseman should do with a dead body) and tragic moments (like his duet with Leah Abramson who made a surprise appearance to sing "You Don't Love Me", so beautiful).

Though he's a musician, and a damn good songwriter, Wiseman is equally notable for his film making. Throughout the night he showed numerous videos that he had made which he played music overtop of or just watched. Though his videos are funny some of the most impressive were the ones where he integrated his performance with the video, such as one where Wiseman filmed himself performing four backup acapella tracks for himself to play along with.

If you haven't seen Wiseman yet, it is worth the effort.

Collapsing Opposites opened for Wiseman and it was the first time I'd ever seen them electric. (Past times I have seen them have been acoustic shows at the Shed and in bank machines) They played the same music, but it was nice to hear the electric versions of the songs.

I perhaps should have paid more attention to the show itself, but instead I spent a lot of my time chatting with the staff at the Front who were also working. Very nice people.

I stole that photo because it's the one the Western Front used to promote the show. I think it's one of Wiseman's press photos.

I Am Sorry For Your Loss

Local post-punkers Adjective have recently put out a stellar EP. It's a retro affair harkening back to a time when bands like Wire were making the best music out there. This connection isn't surprising as Wire's bass player helped produce the album. I don't want to get too much into the Wire connection because Adjective do stand up strongly on their own and they're more than just a band that sounds like Wire.

The EP is full of urgency in Ryan Riot and Luna Tic's vocals, the driving no-time-for-solos guitars and the rapid drumbeats. You might feel a little agitated by this album's non-stop drive if your'e not in quite the right mood when you're listening to it. It's not designed to be very accessible with lyrics about integers and llamas. The lyrics never come off as silly, but merely as secondary to the music. They certainly exist, but it doesn't seem to matter particularly what the band is singing about.

The EP is more balanced than the bands live performance; they can never quite seem get it quite right in their live mixes. This EP is only six tracks and 17 minutes long, but it's a satisfying 17 minutes. If you haven't heard them yet I'd recommend checking out their myspace and listening to "Monstrous Little Boy".

I was going to plug their upcoming show at Honey, but looking at the interwebz it is apparently right now... so if you are reading this right after I posted it, head down and check them out. They're great!

Viision Quest at VIVO

Last night I went down to Video In/Video Out (VIVO) to check out Viision Quest, and well... some of it was good. The evening was divided into three parts shown as a video screening. This night would have been a lot better as a gallery showing where the audience was not forced to sit through some video shorts which would have been a lot better mounted on a wall in the background.

I'll start with the best of the evening which was the closers with a live video DJing performance by Haunted Beard (Ben Jacques) and Jessica Parsons of DNGROUS ADDRESS. (edit: I learned that Jessica was doing all the VJing and Ben was making noises) They were joined by Justin of Arbour Lake Sghool Collective and GR8-2000 (Tom Whalen) whose roles I'm a little uncertain of, but Tom definitely had a keytar. This was easily the best part of the evening. The live performance they put together was heavy on repeated abstract images in which you could occasionally make out children riding unicorns from an old cartoon, a cat running around and a CGI man walking. Their video was accompanied by jammy electro noise music which was pleasant in the style of Black Moth Super Rainbow though not as catchy. Haunted Beard's usual stuff I would describe as grotesque art rejected from a children's picture book/cartoon. DNGROUS ADDRESS work is usually a well-crafted found art video montage that usually is accompanied by DJs. I like both their individual projects though I didn't feel like they added up to the sum of their parts last night, still worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing.

I honestly wish I had not showed up on time even though it was free. When I see video shorts (or anything really) I hope to see things that will make me say, "I wish I'd thought of doing that" and/or "I wish I knew how to do that." What made up this first third of the evening brought neither of those thoughts to mind. The best of this portion of the evening I would have liked to have seen in a gallery setting so I could sip my drink, glance at the piece, say what I liked about it and then move on.

The second portion of the evening had some redeeming qualities. Young Forever Parts 1 and 2 were funny if a little heavy on the absurdism (It did however contain Alphaville's "Forever Young" for which I awarded it bonus points). It closed with an incredibly detailed stop-motion hand-crafted cityscape which was pretty cool, if not necessarily exciting. I believe it was called Wurld (Abridged) should you ever get the chance to see it.

Viision Quest logo lifted from the VIVO website.

House Party at the Biltmore

Last Tuesday I made a point of popping into the new hip-hop night at the Biltmore. The DJs are madeup of veterans of Vancouver's music scene Justin Gradin from the ER and Sex Negatives (formerly of Mutators), music journalist Mike LaPointe a.k.a. DJ Noremix, Andy Dixon of Secret Mommy and Ache Records, Lil' Baby Peace Sign perhaps better known as half of Nu Sensae and Ian Wyatt of Blastramp. These local hip-hop heads/music nerds spun "the best old school/'90s/'00s rap jams". If you were into hip-hop in high school they were likely playing what you listened to then.

All the DJs and most—if not all—of the people dancing to primarily black music were not black. I don't really know what to say about the racial dynamics of the night, I just thought I should point out that I noticed them. It was a lot of fun to dance to Wu Tang, OutKast, etc. though.

The next one is going to be happening April 21. I will be there.


I lifted that drawing from their Facebook group. I think it's an Andy Dixon drawing, but I'm just guessing.

Julie Doiron Live from the CiTR Lounge

If you were lucky enough to have been tipped off by someone at CiTR you may have had the chance to sneak into the lounge to see Julie Doiron play a special live set for CiTR's live band radio program Thunderbird Radio Hell. Odds are you were not one of the people who caught it as only about 15 people were there. However, whether you did or not it was podcast for your listening pleasure here. Ms. Doiron was joined by her touring buddy and longtime collaborator Fred Squire who drummed and added banter. Speaking of banter Doiron is one hell of a talker. If you want to know when she last went to the dentist (14 years ago), what she's been dreaming about lately (her brother being mean to her after all her teeth fall out) or the state of her taxes (she's a little behind) you can find out all those things and lots more. She's funny, self-deprecating and charming so it's not an unpleasant listen though I do admit I would have enjoyed more music in the music:banter ratio.

The music she did play was special though as it was the first time she'd played some of the songs from her new album I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day live. Her album isn't due out in Canada until the 24th of this month, but as it's out in the States you can download it if you are impatient.

I didn't catch all the songs she played in the set, but "Tailor Song", "Heavy Snow", "Woke Myself Up", "Borrowed Minivans" and "Dirty Feet" all made appearances. In addition to the Doiron-based material they also played a rather nice Ewan MacColl cover and one of Fred Squire's songs, which I don't know the name of, but wish I did. It contained the lyrics "because I do not have a telephone with which to call" which I thought I would be able to google, but google has failed me.

Photo by Ben Lai