Frank Turner makes history in Toronto

Frank Turner has come a long way in North America since I tried to interest people in his Campfire Punkrock EP five years ago, first saw him on a small rooftop at the South by Southwest Music Festival in 2009 and witnessed him playing to an almost empty Molson Amphiteatre later that year while opening for Offspring.

Turner launched his 2010 North American tour in my living room in front of 30 of my friends and is now selling out shows across the continent. More than 1,000 people turned out for his all-ages concert at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on Friday night, making it his biggest headlining gig ever outside of the United Kingdom.

Turner was obviously jubilant with the turnout and rabid singing along by many in the audience, and it was reflected in his ebullient performance with his backing band, The Sleeping Souls. He opened with "Eulogy" and went on to play a mix of older material and songs from his latest Epitaph LP, England Keep My Bones.

A Canadian flag with Turner's name emblazoned across it was thrown on stage towards the end of the 75-minute opening set. It was draped across the front of the drum kit before briefly gracing Turner's shoulders during a surprise closing number: a cover of Queen's "Somebody To Love." So that's what Freddy Mercury would have looked and sounded like if he was a raging heterosexual.

Turner's encore began with a solo acoustic cover of Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel," which he introduced as a Toronto song. When I gently chided Turner and told him that Cohen was from Montreal when we met for drinks at a local pub after the show, he said he realized he'd made a mistake as soon as the words left his lips -- but it was too late to turn back. The song should go over well if he pulls it out again tonight for his show at Montreal's Corona.

Turner remained alone on stage for "Ballad of Me and My Friends" before The Sleeping Souls returned for a rousing run through "Photosynthesis" wherein the singer urged everyone in the house -- including the bartenders and security guards -- to sing the anthemic chorus. They did, and Turner rewarded the diehards up front by diving off the stage into their outstretched arms.

Slowly but surely, Turner is becoming a star. That's certainly the case in Toronto, at least, which he's claiming as his second home after London.

The British artist's Canadian tour is almost over, but he'll return next spring as part of an exciting double bill that I'm already looking forward to but can't yet reveal.

Drunk fun with Kepi and Chixdiggit

Groovie Ghoulies' World Contact Day was one of my five favourite albums of 1996 and the Sacramento, Calif. pop-punk band was a very entertaining live act back in those days as well. The group has pretty much flown below my radar for most of this century, however, and broke up in 2007. But lead singer/bassist Kepi Ghoulie hasn't retired.

Kepi showed up at Toronto's Sneaky Dee's on Thursday night with Chixdiggit — fronting a set of his own with the headliners backing him and then taking a secondary role as bassist with Chixdiggit when guitarist K.J. Jansen shifted to centre stage for the second set.

Like with his previous band, Kepi plays short, sharp bursts of music grounded in '60s garage rock and pop and '70s Ramones-styled punk. His 12-song set included "Supermodel," "Hey Kepi Let's Go," "Girlfriend," Chixdiggit's "Quit Your Job," "Chupacabra" (his own song, not the Chixdiggit one), "Love On Demand," "The Beast With Five Hands," covers of Chuck Berry's "Don't Lie To Me" and "All Aboard," and lots of comedic banter in between.

The clock struck midnight and it was time for Chixdiggit's first Toronto performance in eight years. I believe I went for Mexican food and whiskey sours with the group, Fat Wreck's Melanie Kaye and a few other friends before that show, and it seems hard to believe that it was that long ago.

The Calgary band is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and playing all-request shows in response, but Jansen conceded that it couldn't play every song called out by audience members because it had forgotten how to play some of them. The passing of time seemed to mean less to many in the crowd, who were singing along to songs as if they heard them on the radio every day.

"Welcome To The Daiso" opened the proceedings, and the race through snotty three-chord pop-punk songs began. Personal favourite "I Feel Like Gerry Cheevers," "Gettin' Air," "Miso Ramen," "I Drove the Coquihalla," "Chupacabra," "Found Love," "I Remember You," "Spanish Fever," "Henry Rollins Is No Fun," "Where's Your Mom," "I Should Have Played Football in Highschool" and "I Wanna Hump You" were included in a 50-minute set.

But the boys weren't done yet. Kepi is apparently shooting a Chixdiggit documentary with his iPhone (he put it in his mouth and filmed during "Spanish Fever") and there was more potential footage to be had.

Jansen, with his trademark "Let's hear it for that" line, was as funny as Kepi in between songs. He's slightly bulkier than eight years ago, so perhaps that had something to do with him not utilizing another signature move: placing his mic extra low and singing from an awkward-looking position.

Despite becoming a father over the past few years (his wife is Kathy Camaro from The Riff Randells), Jansen still likes to drink while on the road and said he was feeling the effects of quite a few -- egged on by Kepi's chants of "Get drunk!"

Jansen's voice was a bit strained after some recent misbehaving in Halifax, and it showed when he returned to the stage alone for "Born in Toulouse." His bandmates helped him finish the song and stayed on for an encore that was almost as long as the main set and included "Ohio," "Quit Your Job," "Hot N Horny," "You're Pretty Good," "Thursday Night," "Toilet Seat's Coming Down," "My Restaurant," "J Crew" and "Geocities Kitty."

I was feeling lethargic from a cold and apparently missed the most exciting ending ever to a World Series game to attend the show, but the enjoyment derived from those three hours helped make me feel a bit better the next morning — and I probably exceeded my healthy quota of baseball-watching weeks ago anyway.

This was a nostalgic trip, but the good times still resonate.

Jim Fidler previews new album with three EPs

I wrote about my appreciation for Jim Fidler's music, and the friendship between us that grew out of it, in this spot two years ago when I heard his From The Inside Out album. It became one of my favourite records of 2009 and was robbed of the best reggae album Juno Award nomination it deserved.

Jim has a new album titled Up That River coming out in December, but he's introducing it with a trilogy of EPs featuring material from the LP, dub mixes and acoustic versions. I've listened to the first two, and he's on to something good again.

All the material was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jim at his Roots Cellar studio in St. John's, Nfld. He produced, engineered, played most of the instruments and sang lead. 

The first EP opens with "Intro (Joesph)," a short number featuring Jamaican-born Newfoundlander Keith (Joseph) Rickman talking about Jim in an excerpt from a forthcoming documentary about this multi-talented man being made by his wife Lillian.

Jim played me "Be Free" and "Leslie Street" in his studio when I was in St. John's for the 2010 Juno Awards. I liked them both right away and I'm glad that more people will finally be able to hear them. "Be Free" is a melodic roots reggae number with female harmonies not unlike those of Bob Marley's I Threes. It also comes in a dub version. "Leslie Street" is lyrically moving and showcases the best of Jim's voice along with some well-played guitar lines.

The EP is rounded out by "Operation Africa," which has a lighter pop funk groove along with jazz and reggae influences.

I've heard Jim perform Marley's "No Woman No Cry" before, but he'd never recorded it until recently for the 2 EP. And he goes one better by including a dub mix along with his interpretation of the reggae classic. Rory Hoffman, the only musician other than Jim to contribute to these two records, adds some sweet saxophone and clarinet to both.

The 45-second "Here Come the Katz" leads into "Cats Will be Katz," a largely instrumental number with jazz elements and the recorded debut of Lillian's voice. I prefer "Me," a rhythmic track with a fun mix of blues, pop and harmonica by Hoffman.

The third EP should be arriving soon, and all of them can be purchased from Jim's website. Each EP purchase entitles the buyer to a three-dollar coupon towards the purchase of Up That River.

Dirtbikers, Mystery and Devils

Toronto's Mitzi's Sister is just calling itself The Sister these days, and the place has changed substantially since my last visit. The restaurant/bar/music venue has been renovated, the bar has been moved to free up more space and Durham County Hop Head cask ale is available. All of the changes are for the better.

The Legendary Dirtbikers

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the semi-regular appearance of The Legendary Dirtbikers at the Parkdale hangout. And that's a good thing, too.

If the band has a primary singer, I guess it would be bassist Mark Gabriel (Knockout Pill, Holy Microphone). But guitarists Fred Robinson (UIC, The Chickens, Possum, Holy Microphone) and Duncan Blair (The Mummers, The Dickens) also take lead on occasion and all three men contribute harmonies. Drummer Peter Timmins gets to stretch out from his regular gig with Cowboy Junkies and pound the skins harder and faster.

I'm not exactly sure how I'd categorize what these veterans do, or who I'd compare them to, other than to say they do it because they love it and not because they're trying to become the next big thing on either commercial radio or with Pitchfork-obsessed hipsters. It's definitely guitar-driven, pretty loud and touches on a few styles. None of the members are particularly strong singers, but their voices suit their material just fine.

"Another Country Song" was dedicated to me after the fact by Robinson, and I also enjoyed "Last Call," "Watching The Neighbours Watching TV" and "Still Remain."

Gabriel left the small stage after what he thought was the final song. But members of the headlining act, the young British mod punk trio The Targets, called him back with the threat that they wouldn't take the stage until they heard the Dirtbikers single "First Dog In Space." He obliged and I'm glad he did. I love that song.

I saw The Targets on a previous Toronto visit in March and, while I liked them, I elected to move on to The Silver Dollar to see Puerto Rican garage rock band Davila 666. 

White Mystery

Chicago's White Mystery was up first, however. The sister/brother duo of guitarist/singer Alex and drummer Francis Scott Key White look like hippies, but certainly don't play like flower children. The lyrics were often hard to decipher, parts of the set were a bit too raw for my tastes and some songs were definitely better than others, but I ended up being mostly won over by the visceral power.

Davila 666 came on just before 1 a.m., and the San Juan sextet was impressive from the get-go. There were none of the props, costumes or dancers I'd heard that performances can include, but the music was enough for me. The group came across like a better behaved Black Lips and, while I'm not familiar with its two albums, I'm happy to report that the buzz about the band that came out of the South by Southwest Music Festival in March was warranted.

The Spanish cover of "Hanging On The Telephone" was a very pleasant surprise that I appreciated almost as much as the woman in front of me wearing a dress dedicated to Blondie -- who compensated for the guy behind me who kept asking if I had any mescaline.

Davila 666

I swear I could feel the floor move under me at one point, which I don't know says more about the enthusiasm of Davila 666 and its fans or the structural soundness of the club, but no damage was done during the 40-minute set and two-song encore. Being from Puerto Rico may give Davila 666 a bit of a novelty factor, but this performance proved that it doesn't have to rely on it.

Shonen Knife: Osaka Ramones

Shonen Knife has appeared in Toronto each fall for the past two years, and that tradition continued Thursday night when the Japanese trio rolled into the Horseshoe Tavern. But there was an added treat this time as well, an appearance by alter-ego group Osaka Ramones.

I wrote in my MSN.ca column two years ago that Shonen Knife was my favourite all-woman band of all time (I'd provide a link to the top 30 list, but all of my blogs were removed from the site once my contract ended), and this latest performance did nothing to shake my belief.

December will mark Shonen Knife's 30th anniversary. Looking at lead singer/guitarist Naoko Yamano, you'd think she'd started the band out of the womb. But the youthful looking musician turned 50 last year. The rhythm section has seen a few changes over the years, and is now composed of effervescent drummer/singer Emi Morimoto and head-banging bassist/vocalist Ritsuko Taneda. This show was the first of a 26-city North American tour and attracted a healthy crowd of others like me who've fallen under the group's spell of fun.

No-one should have been disappointed with the song selection in the opening 45-minute set, as it included "Konnichiwa," "Twist Barbie," "Rock Society," "Capybara," "I Am A Cat," "Devil House," "Redd Kross," "Anime Phenomenon," "Banana Chips" and a few others. The trio's wide smiles and appreciative addresses to the audience showed that the ladies were enjoying playing their blend of girl group pop and three-chord punk as much as we were appreciating hearing it.

"Capybara" had a ska-based chorus that had some folks skanking, "Devil House" prompted some fans to crowd-surf and the "Hey ho, let's go" chorus of "Redd Kross" foreshadowed what was to come in the second set after the women changed from their customized matching outfits and returned to the stage looking like Joey, Dee Dee and Marky in jeans and black leather jackets.

Osaka Ramones were in the house and a 20-minute set featured a number of classic covers from Shonen Knife's new Ramones tribute album on Good Charamel Records. Label founder and Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac, largely unrecognizable under his toque and behind glasses, was snapping photos from the side of the stage as the second part of the performance started to unfold.

There were a few minor twists thrown in, but, by and large, renditions of "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Beat on the Brat," "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," "The KKK Took My Baby Away," "Rock and Roll High School" and "Pinhead" were pretty faithful to the originals.

There was no encore, but Shonen Knife happily stood at the merchandise table posing for photos and signing records and T-shirts. A couple of friends who  hadn't seen the group before came away impressed, and I was a satisfied Shonen Knife customer for the sixth time.

Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls make sense together

Colleen Green

It must be tough for the spouses of touring musicians, who are often away for weeks or months at a time trying to earn a living.

Crocodiles frontman Brandon Welchez and Dum Dum Girls lead singer Kristen Gundred have found a solution. The husband and wife have taken their respective bands on the road together, and they rolled into Toronto's Lee's Palace on Sunday night along with opening act Colleen Green.

I'd never heard of Green, but her fetching looks, green velvet mini dress and dark sunglasses caught my attention when I walked into the club. She was alone on stage playing electric guitar, and it took a few seconds for me to realize that she was covering Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' For You." I liked the arrangement and enjoyed the last song she performed, which used a programmed rhythm track, as well.

San Diego's Crocodiles packed the Silver Dollar when I caught the quintet during the North By Northeast Music Festival in June, but it seemed just as comfortable on the larger stage and in front of more people at Lee's. Welchez is a dynamic leader, whether he's playing a guitar or jumping around with his mic while singing. The group was showcasing some new songs and the lyrics were difficult to discern, but the sharp-edged guitar shooting through the wall of sound combined with the energy emanating from the stage to make words a minor concern.

Crocodiles

Crocodiles come across as Echo & The Bunnymen on amphetamines, with a large dollop of Jesus and Mary Chain and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. And when Gundred came out to duet for a song, a Raveonettes vibe was added to the proceedings towards the end of the 40-minute set.

The four black-clad women of the Dum Dum Girls came on at 11:15 p.m. and their rumbling instrumentation with '60s pop underpinnings carried on the momentum. "Bedroom Eyes" and "Wasted Away" were my favourite songs, though "Bhang, Bhang, I'm a Burnout," "Rest of Our Lives," "Hold Your Hand," "Teardrops on My Pillow," "It Only Takes One Night" and "Only In Dreams" ensured that I didn't lose interest.

Dum Dum Girls

Gundred writes solid songs and has a fine voice, and her bandmates' harmonies complement it well. The women have a sexy image and play well enough to overcome any accusations that they have little beyond that, even if there's nothing particularly groundbreaking in their music. But when your influences include The Ronettes, Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Jesus and Mary Chain, Patti Smith and Mazzy Star, there doesn't have to be.

I don't think I've ever heard The Smiths' "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" covered before, but Dum Dum Girls changed that and did a good job with it to end its 55-minute set.

Crocodiles keyboardist Robin Eisenberg joined the lineup for the lone encore number, the appropriately titled "Coming Down." The slow, brooding song wouldn't have been my choice as a closer, but Mariano Rivera can't pitch every night. Still, Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles were both winners on Sunday.

A night with Bob Gruen and The Aggrolites

photo by Jeff Ross

Legendary rock music photographer Bob Gruen launched his new book, Rock Seen, with an exhibition of some of his best known shots at Toronto's Liss Gallery on Saturday evening.

I interviewed Gruen a few weeks before his 2008 show at the same gallery and spoke to him briefly again in between admiring his work, chatting with friends, munching on pizza and enjoying cocktails named after the New York Dolls and Iggy & The Stooges.

If you're a fan of John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie, Elton John, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen and other music icons, you'll want to get to Liss' Yorkville Avenue gallery to see Gruen's work.

After post-exhibit drinks with a couple of friends, I headed west to Lee's Palace. I walked in to hear New Hampshire reggae band Roots of Creation covering Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives." It was a good start, and the band's original roots reggae material was certainly palatable — if not exceptional.

The Aggrolites came on stage for their headlining set of "dirty reggae," which mixes reggae, ska, soul and rock steady. There were a couple of different members in the all black-clad quintet since the last time I saw it, and the performance lacked some of the vitality of earlier shows I'd seen the Los Angeles band play, but the group definitely has musical chops and knows how to entertain a crowd.

Singer Jesse Wagner had an injured finger and wasn't able to play guitar, which didn't help things. But there were still a number of highlights, including a cover of The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "Complicated Girl" from the group's recent series of 45s, "Banana" (which it previously performed on children's television show Yo Gabba Gabba!), "Someday," "Free Time," "Mr. Misery" and "Dirty Reggae." The 65-minute set was followed by an encore that ended things on a positive note with "Countryman Fiddle" and a cover of The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down."

Life is a Highway is paved with Canadian gold from the '90s

The creators of television specials on Canadian music in the '60s, '70s and '80s are back again with Life is a Highway, a two-part look at the Canuck scene of the '90s.

The hour-long first episode aired last week and, even though it opened with a section on Bryan Adams, I still enjoyed it. I especially appreciated coverage of Spirit of the West, Rawlins Cross, Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Doughboys, Odds, Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous and Rheostatics. Some of these groups experienced substantial commercial success. All of them were deserving of it.

I learned that Brad Roberts came up with the chorus and title of the Crash Test Dummies hit "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" because he couldn't think of words to use in its place, while the episode also highlighted the contributions of the likes of kd lang, Tom Cochrane, The Rankin Family, Leahy, Great Big Sea, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster, La Bottine Souriante and Loreena McKennitt.

In addition to music from and interviews with these artists, the show also revealed the thoughts of other musicians and music industry representatives on their efforts to raise the temperature of the Canadian music climate, including Michael Kaeshammer, Ian D'Sa, Sam Roberts, Brendan Canning and managers Jake Gold, Jeff Rogers, Chip Sutherland and Mike Campbell.

Part two airs tonight on CBC's main network at 8 p.m. and will be repeated Saturday night on CBC News Net. A big part of its focus is on a quartet of women who became international superstars in the '90s: Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Shania Twain and Alanis Morissette. Another Canadian female who became big at home but didn't quite reach such lofty heights elsewhere, Jann Arden, also gets her props.

Ron Sexsmith represents the male singer/songwriters, while Our Lady Peace, Blue Rodeo, The Tea Party and Big Sugar are among the primary rock bands. Bran Van 3000's eclectic approach gets more attention than most people who think of it as a one-hit wonder through "Drinking in L.A." might expect. I was especially pleased to see the groundbreaking Dream Warriors spotlighted, while Snow, Rascalz and Bass Is Base show the eclecticism of Canada's hip-hop community.

Like in hour one, there are lots of live performance and video clips interspersed with interviews with some of the aforementioned artists as well as Choclair, Luc Plamondon, David Foster, Maestro, Dallas Good and manager Terry McBride.

I entered the music industry in 1991 and edited its trade magazines throughout the decade until 2004, so Life is a Highway's content is very familiar to me and isn't as informative as the earlier decade retrospectives. But there's probably material that's revelatory to more casual music fans, and the shows are put together well.

Producer, writer, researcher and interviewer Nicholas Jennings deserves a breather. But after that well-earned rest, it's time to get on to a show on the 00s.

Arcade Fire deserved the 2011 Polaris Music Prize

The 2011 Polaris Music Prize grand jury made the right choice in awarding a $30,000 cheque to Arcade Fire and naming The Suburbs the best Canadian album of the year on Monday night.

I was one of the 200-or-so jurors who helped select the short list of 10 albums, but my role wasn't really that large. I hear that I was one of just three Polaris voters not to have any of the five choices marked on the initial ballot make the long list of 40 contenders. But two of my choices from those 40 made the final 10, led by The Suburbs.

It was fourth on my ballot but had a clear lead over my fifth and last choice, Ron Sexsmith's Long Player Late Boomer. Timber Timbre's Creep On Creepin' On was probably my third  pick, even though I didn't vote for it.

Monday's show, held at Toronto's Concert Hall in the Masonic Temple and hosted by CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence and MuchMusic's Damian Abraham (who won the Polaris two years ago as the lead singer for Fucked Up), featured performances from six of the 10 finalists.

Sexsmith was first up and impressed with a great mid-tempo pop song, "Believe It When I See It," before finishing with "Everytime I Follow."

Austra's performance was dramatic and theatrical, but the whole thing was too precious for my tastes.

The first impression I got of Montreal rock band Galaxie was that it reminded me a bit of a francophone Big Sugar. Singer/guitarist Olivier Langevin is a very good player, and his riffing made Galaxie the hardest rocking outfit of the night.

Timber Timbre may have received the biggest audience response for its two songs, and deservingly so. The trio was fleshed out with a small string section, and the combination of singer/guitarist Taylor Kirk's deep voice and the dark and foreboding music coming from him and his bandmates during "Bad Ritual/Obelisk" and the album's title track had me thinking about Nick Cave.

Braids' Native Speaker was a favourite on Canadian campus radio, and I can see why, but the group's dependence on effects and singer/guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston's sometimes high-pitched voice failed to hold me in thrall.

I appreciate Hey Rosetta!, but I'm not as committed to the St. John's, Nfld. group as others I know. Still, the band's performance of "Bricks" and "Yer Spring" ended the performances on solid ground.

Destroyer, The Weeknd, Colin Stetson and Arcade Fire didn't perform, but the Polaris-winning combo's Win Butler, Jeremy Gara and Richard Reed Parry flew in after headlining the Austin City Limits Festival the night before to accept the accolades and their large novelty cheque.

With only six of 10 acts playing, I can't understand why the show stretched out beyond three hours. And the long waits between action on the stage were made worse for those of us in the balcony, as the pads that were there in past years were nowhere to be found and sitting on cold concrete for that long doesn't really equate with the word gala.

But, unlike in past years when there were heated discussions on the merits of the winner at the post-gala party at The Drake Hotel, most people seemed satisfied with The Suburbs taking the prize. And that's the way it should have been.

Jim Jones Revued

Jim Jones Revued

Friends who'd seen England's Jim Jones Revue at the in Austin and New York City, and were instrumental in getting the group to come to Toronto, promised that Tuesday night's show at the Horseshoe Tavern would be one of the best shows I'd see this year.

The group attracted more than 300 people, which was a lot more than was originally expected — and probably somewhat attributable to last week's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. While I certainly enjoyed the quintet, it fell a bit short of being the amazing experience I'd been primed for.

The Jim Jones Revue takes elements of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, The Rolling Stones, The Faces, The Mooney Suzuki, The Sonics and Creedence Clearwater Revival and then turns up the volume and adds punk enthusiasm and aggression to a blended core of rock and roll, soul, blues and rockabilly. The band members were all dressed in black, making them look as dangerous as they sounded.

Jones, the former singer of late '80s garage/psych rock revivalists Thee Hypnotics, fronts his current band with and without a guitar. He's joined by ace guitarist Rupert Orton and a solid rhythm section of Gavin Jay and Nick Jones, but it's boogie-woogie pianist Henri Herbert who really helps make The Jim Jones Revue stand out. His vintage sound is straight from the '50s and sounds refreshing in this age of electronic gimmickry.

When Jones isn't using his roughly hewn voice to belt out a fast-paced repertoire of songs, he's pulling out the old cliche of pitting cities against each other to try and get a bigger audience reaction. He encourages crowd participation — with profanity — but I'd rather clap and sing along when I feel like it without instructions.

The band brought its own sound man, but what came off the stage was a bit muddy at times and so loud that it drove a few customers out the door. I was fine with earplugs, but it probably wouldn't hurt to turn things down a bit.

And it would help to have a few more top-level songs. The Jim Jones Revue's second album, Burning Down Your House, was released in North America last month. But the band's reputation has been built on its incendiary concerts, not on its songwriting.

A Jim Jones Revue performance is a great way to spend an hour. Whether the band can grow beyond that artistically remains to be seen, but it already has an energetic head start on most other combos on the club circuit these days — and sometimes that's enough to keep both the musicians and their fans happy.

Fat is where it's at with Bad Manners

My Saturday night stroll down memory lane that began with seeing The Lowest of the Low and Weddings Parties Anything's Mick Thomas and Mark "Squeezebox Wally" Wallace at Toronto's Massey Hall continued a little later on to the northwest at Lee's Palace with Bad Manners (photo by Jeff Ross).

The band was part of the British ska revival and the group's Gosh It's… Bad Manners, Forging Ahead and Klass albums got plenty of play on my turntable when I was a teenager in the early '80s. The group was (and still is) fronted by Douglas Trendle, who all but his closest relatives know as Buster Bloodvessel. If you can imagine '80s wrestler King Kong Bundy energetically singing and dancing with a big grin on his face, that was Bloodvessel back then.

My first opportunity to see Bad Manners was the summer of 1987 when I was living in London, England and I caught a show at Dingwalls in Camden. I skanked with the skinheads up front throughout the set and talked to Bloodvessel afterward. He gave me his address and told me to come around for a visit so he could give me some records and then we could go out for drinks and an interview. This was the pre-cellphone and Internet era (yes, kids, such a time actually existed) and Bloodvessel said he didn't have a home phone, so I wrote him a letter and then just dropped by his house one day, but we didn't connect.

I didn't see the man again for more than 20 years, when Bad Manners came to Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern. Bloodvessel underwent laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery in 2004 and he was barely half the man he was back in the band's prime commercial period, when he tipped the scale at well over 400 pounds. It was another sweat-fest of a show, and I caught up with Bloodvessel afterwards. I chastised him for letting me down a couple of decades earlier, but of course he didn't remember.

We arrived at Lee's just in time for the beginning of Bad Manners' 12:15 a.m. set this past weekend, and it was jam-packed with singles and other favourites from the catalogue. I'd taken enough notes earlier in the night reviewing the previous show and just focused on having fun, which wasn't difficult, so I'm relying on memory when I say that the set included "My Girl Lollipop," "Walking In The Sunshine," "Only Funkin'," "Gherkin," "Samson and Delilah," "Fattie Fattie," "Ne-Ne Na-Na Na-Na Nu-Nu," "Just A Feeling" "Special Brew," "Wooly Bully," "Lorraine" and, down the home stretch, "Can Can" and "Lip Up Fatty."

It wasn't quite in the same league as last summer's Specials show, but I'd definitely put it up there with the last few shows I've seen by Dave Wakeling's English Beat. I'm well past that snub of almost a quarter-century ago, and Bad Manners is firmly back in my good books.

Ken Kesey's "Magic Trip" on film

My friend Graham Kennedy showed four of his photographs, inscribed with words describing some of the reasons he's leaving Toronto and moving to St. John's, Nfld. this summer, at Toronto's Oz Gallery (134 Ossington Ave.) on Saturday night.

Photos from Anthony Macri and David Todon also adorned the walls for the exhibition, which had its opening reception last night and runs until May 29. I caught up with Graham, discussed his work and found out he was a big Ken Kesey fan as we chatted over a beer before it was time to head off and see my first film of the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

"Magic Trip" is director/producer Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood's portrait of author Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," "Sometimes A Great Notion") and his Merry Pranksters as they took an acid-fuelled trip across the United States in a brightly painted 1939 International Harvester school bus dubbed "Further" to visit the 1964 World's Fair in New York City.

The trip was filmed by the Pranksters on 16-millimetre cameras that none of them knew how to use properly, and the more than 100 hours that was shot never synched with the accompanying audiotape, so much of it has remained unseen until now. Using this raw footage in combination with occasional re-enactments, the award-winning filmmakers have brought this "Magic Trip" to life for those of us who've only previously read about it.

Kesey's first experimentation with LSD took place as part of 1960 clinical tests at Stanford University, while he was an aspiring Olympic wrestler, for which he was paid $25 a day. Audio excerpts of what he was feeling and seeing during those tests are included in the film, and he enjoyed the sensation so much that his interest in acid soon became far greater than his original intent of trying to help the medical community find a cure for insanity.

Novelist Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" opened Kesey up to new ideas as much as drugs, and Neil Cassady (who the character Dean Moriarty from the book was based on) was invited to drive "Further" from Kesey's La Honda, Calif. residence to New York City. Copious amounts of speed kept Cassady behind the wheel and talking incessantly while other Pranksters consumed LSD in equally large volumes.

Mini profiles of the Pranksters who set out on the bus — including Ken Babbs, Jane Burton, Page Browning, George Walker, Mike Hagen, Ron Bevirt, John Babbs, Paula Sundstren (also known as "Gretchen Fetchin" and "Slime Queen") and "Stark Naked," who wandered off, was arrested and put under psychiatric surveillance during a stop in Houston — add context to the story. Some of the surviving members also add their thoughts about what they can remember from the adventure.

But it's the footage that really makes the movie. Watching these people (a couple of years before the term hippie was coined) ride on top of the bus as it rolled down the highway, and stopping along the way to trip out in a variety of locales, is what most historians or the merely curious will want to see. The 90-minute film provides a number of opportunities to play voyeur.

When the Pranksters ultimately make it to New York, they're generally disappointed by the World's Fair and meeting beat icons Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg and east coast psychedelic drug guru Timothy Leary. The Moody Blues' psychedelic "Legend of a Mind" (which includes the line "Timothy Leary's dead") and other songs create an appropriate and entertaining soundtrack to put the film in even better context.

Cassady didn't make the return trip to La Honda, so the other male Pranksters took turns driving — and apparently swapping partners with some of the wives and girlfriends who were on the bus. Kesey and other Pranksters hosted several "Acid Test" parties, many of them featuring performances by The Grateful Dead, until LSD was outlawed in 1966.

Kesey was arrested for marijuana possession in 1965 and spent five months in jail before he moved to his family farm in Oregon, where he spent the rest of his life before passing away in 2001 at age 66. He never really lived up to the promise shown in his first two novels. Whether that can be blamed on all of the LSD he took remains a matter of debate.

You don't have to be an acid head to enjoy this "Magic Trip."

In Conversation with The Jayhawks' Mark Olson

The Jayhawks opened a five-city tour in Toronto on Tuesday, the same day that the band's long-out-of-print Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow The Green Grass albums were reissued by American/Legacy.

Singer/guitarist Mark Olson spoke to me a day earlier about the past, present and future of The Jayhawks. Here's how our conversation went:

Tell me about the new Jayhawks album you’re working on and the songs that will be on it.
“We started to work on songs in the springtime. Gary (Louris) came out to my place in Joshua Tree and we still wrote the way we’ve always written. We each bring in parts and pieces and put them together, and we each bring in a couple of more fully conceived things and work on bridges. We started to build a collection of songs.
"I went to Minnesota in the summer for a couple of weeks. We wrote at his house and went up to my sister’s cabin. And then he came out once more to California to work on some more songs. We got a big collection of songs together. I was going on tour with my Many Colored Kite record and I took the whole month of November off and went straight to Minneapolis. We rehearsed with the band for a couple of days and then went into the studio and started to record the songs. It’s now basically done. It just needs some final mixes.”

How many songs did you write compared to what will be on the record?
“We have 14 songs, and 11 or 12 will be on the record. We wrote more, but we didn’t record that many. We don’t have the time to go in and record like we did when we made the earlier Jayhawks records, when we’d record 20 songs or something crazy like that. That’s poor use of time.”

Is that the older voice of wisdom talking?
“Oh yeah. I learned that lesson. I think the best thing to do is record 13 songs and then pick from them.”

Can you tell me anything about some of the new songs?
“There’s a song called ‘Black Eyed Susan.’ That song’s about someone you had met more in the night life and how that type of life — living at night — doesn’t lend itself to being healthy and productive and really having a shot at a good life.
“There’s a song called ‘Mockingbird Time.’ That’s about looking back at someone’s life and realizing where you could have gone wrong and how you’re going to overcome that.
“So there are two songs with two titles and the basic outlines of the story themes.”

Are either of those potential singles, or are you even thinking about singles?
“We don’t have the final mixes done, so that would be getting a bit ahead of ourselves.”

Is there a label in place yet?
“Oh yeah. Rounder Records.”

Do you have any idea of a release date?
“Those things take time. I can tell you five or six months, but you never know about that.”

The reissues were originally supposed to come out in October, but were pushed back to now. Was that done to coincide with the tour dates, or was there another reason?
“I don’t know what the order of events was. Maybe because the records were pushed back we pushed the tour dates back because you want to tour when the records come out.”

How difficult was it for you to leave The Jayhawks in 1995?
“It wasn’t difficult. I’d reached a point in my life where I knew deep inside that I had to do something different. I’d been in the band for over a decade and felt like it was the best move. I still feel that way. I had a wonderful life post-The Jayhawks with a lot of musical experiences. I travelled all over Europe pretty much every year and went off in different directions. I went to school and did a lot of things.
“In 2001, Gary and I got together and worked on a song and made plans to do some touring in the future. Since then, we’ve been working off and on. It was finally after we made the Mark and Gary record that we decided to do this thing with the band. The reissues were coming out, so it was a good time to do it. These albums haven’t been in stores for years and years and years, so in a way it’s been kind of word of mouth as far as these albums are concerned.
"I don’t mean to make light of a decision to leave a band that had been together for 11 years, but there is a voice inside of each of us and we need to know when to try other things. There are also private things and personal lives. Once I decided to do it, I didn’t hesitate.”

How easy or difficult a transition was it when you and Gary got back together?
“I thought it was very smooth. We came up together writing songs in either his house or my apartment and bringing them to the band. We spent a lot of years in Minneapolis prior to making Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow The Green Grass where we weren’t a touring act at a national level. We were working regular jobs and looked forward to rehearsing on Tuesday and Thursday nights and our gigs on Saturday nights, and maybe a drive to Chicago to do a gig.
"That was over a seven-year period of time, so we had a lot of experience together listening to music and discovering different writers and different groups and researching back, going from the Burritos to The Byrds to The Louvin Brothers to The Everly Brothers. We kind of came up together and apprenticed together, so it was no problem getting back together and working again. We know how each other reacts to different situations, songs and ideas.
"As far as harmony singing goes, Gary has a great natural gift with a melody high and I, for some reason, had always had the counter-melody low. So it just works. We don’t really have to plot anything out. It’s just how our voices go together in the different kinds of melodies we hear.”

How do you compare The Jayhawks of today to when you were in the band in the ‘90s.
“I think the singing’s better and the playing’s better. We’ve continued to play through all of these years. There’s a bigger range of material. I feel we can play very long concerts and hold the audience. There are just a range of skills that we’ve developed over the years, and I feel that we’re better.”

Are you following a similar path musically?
“When we’ve gotten together and played recently, we’ve played songs from all of those albums. We built up a bunch of material over that period of time, and that’s what people want to hear when they come out. They want to hear songs that are off the records. We still play songs that aren’t on the records. We still have a number of B-sides that we really liked that we’ve relearned and we play them. But it fits in with all of the other records.
"It’s not some radical departure where we have a huge kick drum going with some kind of computer-generated synth sound. It’s two guitars, a keyboard, harmony singing and classic songwriting. When we started out, we wanted to try and write songs like Neil Young and Bob Dylan that would last. I can still put on that material today and it really moves me.
"‘Hey Mr. Tambourine Man’ is just this crazy song with this philosophy. I like to listen to that kind of music and I wanted to try and write music that way, so it would last. If someone wants to come out and hear us now, it’s because the music has lasted and it means something to them.”

What’s in The Jayhawks’ future for this year and beyond?
“We do this tour and the two reissues are coming out now. Hopefully there’s going to be more interest in the band. That’s why we went ahead and made another record. If there is going to be more interest in the band, these reissues will remind people that we were a really good band.
"When I was in the band, I did everything in my life to play the best music I could. Gary and the band are formidable musicians that went on to make three other records without me when I went on to do the (Original Harmony Ridge) Creek Dippers. We gave it everything we had when I was in the band, and afterward they did too. And now these records will come out and hopefully remind people of that.
"And we’re going to give them another record. We’re going to do everything we can to establish ourselves as a top quality act to tour America and Europe. That’s what they can expect. We have shows in Europe and America.”

Looking back now, can you describe The Jayhawks’ influence and legacy?
“I’m not an expert on that. We were influenced by so many different things that we followed in a studious way back and forth and up and down. We looked at the different paths that different bands took.
"I’d really like how that groove worked into that melody and different things like that. It was the sound of that acoustic guitar and that strumming pattern and finger-picking pattern and that drum beat. It’s things that make you feel good and that you try to create something on your own that makes you feel that way, even though it’s not the same thing. It’s like an historical line of music.
"For me and bands that we’ve been around, I don’t know if we’ve influenced them in the same type of mindset. I’ve always thought of this kind of music as music that people who pick up guitars and want to write songs would enjoy. It’s not like alt.country, or whatever you want to call it, has ever been a major youth movement.
"It’s generally from going out to the merch table and meeting people over the past 15 years. The people who come out and hear this music are people who have played acoustic guitar, have played electric guitar, have started a band at some point and have a regular job, but in their spare time put together a band and have some knowledge of why we’re playing this music.
"It’s joyful to play music. It’s joyful to try and write a song. When you do actually write a good song, there’s no other feeling like it in the world.”

Are the band members working on other projects at the moment, or is everyone just focused on The Jayhawks?
“There’s been so much going on with the making of this record and now this touring coming up that I’ve been focused on this all of November. And then in December I went and played in England and Italy. And now I’m back and focused on this. And then in February I’ll play America Mountain Stage and the Folk Alliance, and then I’ll go back to Spain and then I’ll come back and get ready for summer touring that has to do with The Jayhawks.
“Gary does some producing and I think he has some songwriting sessions coming up. As far as Marc (Perlman) and Tim (O'Reagan) and Karen (Grotberg), I can’t give you their exact schedules right now.”
 
Is there any significance to opening the tour in Toronto?
“None, as far as I know. When tours are put together, they’re put together because of offers, time, weekends and things like that. I’ve always enjoyed playing in Canada, but I have no idea. I’m glad we’re here and playing in Canada, but when they put together tours they don’t ask the band.
"No-one calls the band and says, ‘Hey fellas, where would you like to open up your tour this time? It’s been 10 years. What would make you feel special?’
"Nobody does that. Give me a break. It’s not the way it works. It’s the way the real world is. We don’t call up anybody and say, ‘We have good friends in Louisville, Kentucky. Let’s open this tour in Louisville, Kentucky because I haven’t seen these people in 10 years and I want to see them.”

How come you’re doing two-night stands playing the full albums in their entirety in New York and Chicago, but nowhere else?
“Because they made the offers for that. They wanted us to do that and I have a feeling about that.
"A lot of people listen to music for a couple of years in college or post-college. There’s not a great number of people who follow music over a 20-year period and are reading Mojo magazine and Rolling Stone and going to a record store once a week and following new releases. There’s not a huge number of people who do that over a 20-year period. Most people get into it for a period of time and then they move on to other things, like cross-country skiing or working two jobs. A lot of people have to work two jobs to keep their head above water. Or they get married and their partner really can’t stand to listen to music all of the time.
"When you’re in a band, you do because you enjoy music and you love music so much that that’s what you spend your life doing. You’re always thinking about it. You’re always trying to write new songs because it’s a joyful thing to write new songs.
“I experienced this when I was 16 years old. I went out and bought Bob Dylan’s Live at Budokan and I couldn’t believe how he had changed the songs that I loved so much. I couldn’t imagine how someone could change something that seemed so perfect and special the first time.
"Now people come to our shows and maybe they leave saying, ‘I really wanted to hear that song off of Tomorrow The Green Grass, but they didn’t play it, darn it. What’s up with those Jayhawk fellas?’
"I hear that at the merch table. They come up and say, ‘I wish you would have played that one.’ And I feel kind of bad for them because we’re trying to play new material all of the time and keep expanding our repertoire and keep working on different lyrics and different melodies. But people definitely want to hear songs from that period of time when they were listening to music. Maybe 20 per cent of people are following music their whole lives and it’s everything to them and they’re aware of all the records. But I find that most people don’t have the time.
"They listen to Hollywood Town Hall or Tomorrow The Green Grass or any of the other records, and they want to hear the songs from that record. So they’ve been telling the promoters. This is an ‘audience speaks’ moment. The audience is speaking and they’re saying, ‘When I listen to The Jayhawks, I want to hear that record.’
"So the promoter tells us, ‘The people want to hear the record and are willing to pay to hear the record.’ We go, ‘Right on, we’re going to play the record for them.’
"So we’re going to go up there and play the record and then afterward we’re going to try and break out various songs from different eras and some of the B-sides that never made it through to be recorded. I think it’s kind of a neat thing. The audience has spoken with the almighty dollar and said, ‘We’re going to go to the shows where they play the darn record.’”
 
What kind of a set should I expect in Toronto on Tuesday night?
“You’re going to get the full show with songs from different eras — The Full Monty. You’ll get songs played full bore with emotion and passion.”

I have one last question for you, which may be a bit of a strange one. I read an interview with Steve Wynn on the weekend where he said that you had auditioned to be in The Long Ryders.
“Yeah, I did.”

Is there anything you can recall of that?
“I was living with my grandmother and had just graduated from high school and I was really interested in playing music and being in a band. I had gone out to see The Long Ryders and Green On Red, and Green On Red didn’t have an opening for anybody or else I would have tried to get into that band.
"So I walked in there, and The Long Ryders were really nice guys and they let me play the bass. I wasn’t fantastic on the bass, but I was just starting out. That’s what you do when you start out. You go out and you try and get into a band. I eventually did get into a band. And by being in a band, I just kept learning and learning.
"I think The Long Ryders had someone else in mind. But I’m like anybody who does anything. If you just keep at something, good things will come to you. I was a little green around the ears. I was just starting. But that didn’t stop me. I would have joined any band, and I needed to join any band just to get experience. That’s what you have to do when you’re starting. You have to get out there and try to join a band. And the first instrument of choice is the bass.”

That’s what I played in high school.
“Yep. You pick up the bass and start answering ads.”

It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t that good, so I gave up that dream pretty quickly.
“That didn’t stop me, and I improved. Thanks, that was a good question. And thanks for doing the interview.”

You can read my MSN.ca article on The Jayhawks here.

Maple Leafs practice at Trinity Bellwoods Park

The Toronto Maple Leafs held their annual outdoor practice this morning, this time in my neighbourhood at Trinity Bellwoods Park.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Rona Canada put $125,000 into refurbishing the park's rink, including installing new boards, and clubhouse renovations. Hopefully the washroom won't be as disgusting as it's been in the past when I start playing softball again there (on the diamond that was used as a parking lot for cars of fans who came to see the practice) in the spring.

There was a healthy-sized crowd in attendance, and it looked like a lot of young kids took the morning off from school to attend.

The Leafs were on the ice for less than 45 minutes in a practice that consisted of light skating, a shootout drill and a three-on-three scrimmage with no hitting. I hope this was just for the benefit of the children watching, because if the team normally doesn't practice any harder than this for coach Ron Wilson, it's no surprise that it's so bad. Well, that and the distinct lack of quality talent that Brian Burke has assembled.

I went to Tim Horton's beforehand to get a coffee to keep me warm while I was watching the practice. Luckily for the Leafs, Tim's doesn't sell waffles.

The city councillor for my ward, Mike Layton, was on hand and spoke over the public address system. His voice sounds a lot like that of his father, federal NDP leader Jack Layton.

Rob Ford also attended and addressed the crowd. Considering how little electoral support he received in this ward — which has long been Joe Pantalone's turf — I was surprised that I seemed to be the only person booing our 300-and-some-pound mayor.

I was given a Leafs toque, which I can now accessorize with the Leafs scarf I've had for years. I don't lose toques as often as the Leafs lose games, but I misplace them often enough that it will come in handy.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone who reads this.

Suckerpunch, Dodge Fiasco frontman goes solo

"The Kid" has grown up.

Christopher Dignan was still in high school when he formed Suckerpunch more than 20 years ago. The singer/guitarist was a sexy and swaggering frontman for the Toronto group that played a swampy, punky version of rockabilly that made it a hit in local clubs — even if it didn't receive the widespread recognition I thought it deserved.

The band broke up in 1996 and I can still remember its last show (or at least one of its last shows) in the basement of a friend's house. Suckerpunch was missed, but Dignan soon formed Dodge Fiasco. Like his previous band, it included his older brother Sean on drums. And also like Suckerpunch, it rocked.

Dodge Fiasco is still around, but Dignan is now independently releasing his first solo record: the excellent Let The Sparks Fly. The multi-talented singer, songwriter and musician shows just how far he's come musically on this 14-song, 42-minute disc.

Dignan wrote and mixed all the songs and played all of the instruments on it, with the exception of saxophone and organ on two tracks. Dignan honed his chops on bass with The Kensington Hillbillies and on drums with The Midways, whose ultra-fun and garage-based Pay More And Get A Good Seat was one of my favourite albums of 2003.

The maturing that Dignan has done over the years shines brightly through on Let The Sparks Fly, which showcases more variations in style and substance than the two bands he's most closely associated with.

Opener "Gonna Move" is a rocker that cooks with gas, and it's followed by the more rockabilly-oriented "My Time Will Come." "I'm Feeling Good Now" follows a similar path.

There's a classic '60s pop vibe running through "Too Long Without You," "Certain Kind Of Girl" and "Tap On Your Window," which features pleasant harmonies. "My Back Pocket" could have been a new wave song from 30 years ago.

Dignan shows his guitar prowess on "Move Them Bones" and proves he's no slouch on the skins with the drum rolls on "Hurtful." The organ will prick up your ears on "It's You."

The guest saxophones add a nice touch on the sexy, mid-tempo love song "Say There Beautiful," and there's a rootsy edge to "Black Barn."

The album ends with the title track, which starts slowly but builds in intensity as the song progresses.

As much as I liked Suckerpunch and Dodge Fiasco, Let The Sparks Fly is the crowning achievement of Dignan's career so far.
 
I can't see Let The Sparks Fly not being on my ballot when I submit it for next year's Polaris Music Prize, which will recognize the top album released in Canada over the last half of 2010 and first half of 2011.

You can hear "Gonna Move," "My Back Pocket" and "It's You" here.

Let The Sparks Fly will officially be launched on Dec. 1 at Toronto's Lula Lounge. This special performance will see Dignan joined by a band featuring Glenn Milchem (Blue Rodeo), John Borra (The Screwed) and Derrick Brady (Dodge Fiasco, Hawksley Workman).