Land of Talk‘s Elizabeth Powell talks about her upbringing, rebelliousness, artistic influences, and latest album, Life After Youth, which is available via Saddle Creek and Dine Alone. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, Planet Bean Coffee, Grandad’s Donuts, Freshbooks, and Hello Fresh Canada.
Lonely Parade is a fantastic band from Peterborough, Ontario consisting of Augusta Veno on guitar, Anwyn Climenhage on drums, and Charlotte Dempsey on bass. Formed around five years ago, Lonely Parade are childhood friends and excellent musicians who have toured throughout most of eastern Canada three times already, even though Augusta is 21 and Anwyn and Charlotte are both 18 years old. They’ve earned a loyal following based on their sophisticated, heartfelt, and humourous rock songs. Out this past September, No Shade is their third album and one of the finest records of 2016. The Lonely Parade are playing the fifteenth edition of Stay Out of the Mall on Friday December 16 at the Ebar in Guelph. We actually caught up at the CFRU studios when they were in Guelph this past October for an interesting and revealing chat about the ups and downs of living in Peterborough, teenaged touring and travelling, many states, courses and studying, childhood dance classes together, highland dancing and me in a kilt, a knife in my sock, bad dancing and zoo keeping, Riverview Park & Zoo, getting into music at 11 or 12 years old, leap year aging, when Ani’s dad John played drums in the Celtic punk band Mahones who should not be confused with Ramones, drum maintenance, elementary school jazz band with Ani and Charlotte, not slapping the bass, the Inbreds and Label Obscura, Jill Staveley of the Burning Hell and Trent Radio, Dave Ullrich and Zunior, Mike O’Neill’s bass playing, Augusta’s guitar playing and Girls Rock Camp and reconnecting with Ani and Charlotte and high school, piano playing, performing at their parents’ dinner parties, Yesterday’s Socks and math rock, starting the Toxic Markers five or six years ago before becoming Lonely Parade, dark humour, “My Mom Got Hit On at a Punk Show,” CBC Radio 3, Strokes and White Stripes and formative influences, cool parents, the Tragically Hip’s Trouble at the Henhouse, the cold road, a candle in the car, missing keys and Wax Mannequin and the pocket system, fast food, little scenes, Charlotte the organizer, Girls Rock Camp’s purpose and potency, everyday sexism, ageism, the new album No Shade and working with Jose Contreras, progressing as songwriters, writing about things that used to bug them, new songs, highland dancing, a day planner, Puberty Hands and cruisin’, painting and photography and an art collective, the song “Duck Hunt,” and then the parade was a little less lonely.
Related links: thelonelyparade.com vishkhanna.com
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DIANA is an electronically inclined pop band from Toronto whose primary members are Kieran Adams, Carmen Elle, and Joseph Shabason. After their 2013 album Perpetual Surrender earned them accolades from the likes of the New York Times, the Guardian, and NPR, DIANA toured a lot and then got back to work on new songs. The result is an excellent, emotionally raw yet playfully fun and infectious record called Familiar Touch, which is out now via Culvert Music. DIANA are gearing up to tour with a giant version of their band and are playing select Canadian and American cities in November and December. They were just in Guelph to play a show so we met up at CFRU for a conversation about studios with carpeting and linoleum, parquet and Parkay and margarine, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, nothing but margarine, a culture of butter in Newfoundland, hardcore butter people, Counting Cows, swimming lessons at a dairy farm, Nutella and honey, peanut butter and butter, Triumphant Schmeer, sweets, throwing out our lunches, ruining my parenthood, all-day cans of soda pop, five Pepsi’s a day, DIANA Googles Stuff On-Air, Caledon and Toronto and St. John’s and Cambridge, union stories, coffee vs. cola, Carmen growing up with all of the things in the Annex in Toronto, sushi, Trinity St. Paul’s Church, Gowan, the ROM and Raffi, decanning, children’s musicians and entertainers, Fred Penner’s indie-rock festival circuit, Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, a four year-old and AC/DC, band merch for kids, Joseph growing up in Caledon with past guest Mike Deane, punk and emo bands like Sinclair, the Irish Centre in Brampton, small town bring downs, Bluetip in a basement, the Pete Best of southern Ontario post-hardcore, Who’s Emma in Kensington Market, when Carmen drove me around St. John’s, Kieran and Joseph end up going to the University of Toronto for music at the same time, percussion profs, living in St. John’s, fact-checking the DIANA bio, Carmen tells it like it is, synthesizer patron-saint and producer Roger Leavens, Kieran and Joseph singing, tweaking together, lyric editing for singing, Carmen’s passion, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, Carmen’s a great vocal interpreter, what’s eating Kieran, a keyword, the song “Confession,” synthesized pop and comparisons to 1980s sounds, touring in President-elect Donald Trump’s America, the great political divide, smugness and hatred, Make America Great Again is now a hate crime, no surprising but life-altering, red and blue states, sadness, white folks should recognize their role in this new reality, Culvert Music in Toronto, the web is worldwide, the song “Cry,” and then it was like butter baby.
Related links: dianatheband.com culvertmusic.com vishkhanna.com
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