Tag: Guelph

Ep. #103: Culture Reject

Post author By vish
Post date May 27, 2014

Culture Reject is the moniker of Michael O’Connell, a talented singer, songwriter, and musician who calls Toronto home. After years in the Guelph band Black Cabbage, O’Connell eventually went solo and has released two full-length albums as Culture Reject, including last year’s Forces. He and his band are playing the Hillside Festival in Guelph this July 25-27 and a while ago, he invited me to his home for breakfast where we talked about Guelph, Black Cabbage, and the Neutron Stars, sitting down when you pee, rice and peas and coconut milk and spices and hard-boiled eggs and peaches, tropical music, how to reggae it up, Cuba, white guys with guitars, how Black Cabbage happened and compromising, Nick Craine, touring Canada by bus with an ambitious Aaron Riches, tinkering with Culture Reject’s first record, how the new record Forces was made at 6 Nassau St., Tristan O’Malley’s transient, permanently on-loan synthesizer that is never coming home, the mystery lodge, how Forces reflects Toronto, people need to talk to people, misusing “the theme,” communication and modern parenting, the written word is the written word, maybe texting is good for us, maybe phones are bad for us, White Whale Records, the importance of playing great shows, sketch.ca, the song “Quicksand,” and no mas.

Related links: culturereject.bandcamp.com vishkhanna.com

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Tags 6 Nassau St., Aaron Riches, Black Cabbage, Cuba, Culture Reject, Guelph, Hillside Festival, Michael O’Connell, Nick Craine, sketch.ca, the Neutron Stars, the written word, Toronto, Tristan O’Malley, White Whale Records

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Ep. #96: Nathan Lawr

Post author By vish
Post date May 1, 2014

Nathan Lawr is a talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who lives in Guelph. Over the past 20 years, Lawr has been a go-to drummer for people like Jim Guthrie, King Cobb Steelie, Royal City, FemBots, Bry Webb, and more. When he emerged as a folk-pop songwriter in his own right about 10 years ago, Lawr’s love songs had bite and topical, political implications, which eventually morphed into his most outspoken band yet, the Afrobeat-inspired MINOTAURS. Lawr is also greatly invested in social change and democracy and has worked with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association to develop the Canadian Artists for Civil Liberties. He has helped organize a 50th anniversary celebration of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on May 3rd at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church in Toronto, which will feature musicians, spoken word performers, dancers and visual artists who have all come together to celebrate freedom of expression in the arts. Here, Nathan and I discuss ‘Uncle Natey’s Grump Shack’ and cheering up, why he’s working with civil liberties organizations and putting the ‘active’ in activist, how social media doesn’t necessarily encourage dialogue, how freedom of expression is non-partisan, how our freedom was infringed upon in World War I, getting younger/busy people interested in political discourse and fostering opinionated engagement, change and people in the streets, what the Donald Sterling/NBA fiasco teaches us about protective face-saving, Nathan’s fondness for H&M’s line of socks and how righteousness is undermined by accusations of hypocrisy, the theme from Peter Gunn and his history as a musician and music fan, the video game Spy Hunter, drum lessons, Fugazi and Primus, not loving guitars but being ok with pianos, knowing when to fold ‘em, playing in King Cobb Steelie and their pioneering approach to punk, the politically-charged city of Guelph and having tolerant parents, here comes the argument, how Nathan did not turn out a punk, my unfocused, unnecessary curatorial advice to people programming variety shows, arbitrary references to Feist and “farting on sandwiches,” why some famous people won’t vouch for things they actually believe in and why some topics are ‘hushed,’ Nathan’s ill-fated and traumatizing attempt to bring musicians and Toronto Police together for a hockey game to raise awareness about civil liberties, why talking shit out is important, Nathan’s great regrets about leaving the band Royal City and our fun American tour in October 2000, his future music plans, the MINOTAURS song “Make Some Noise,” and then we just spent the rest of the day farting on sandwiches.

Related links: minotaursband.com ccla.org vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #88: Vanessa Dunn of Vag Halen

Post author By vish
Post date April 11, 2014

Vanessa Dunn is the lead singer of Vag Halen, one of Toronto’s most exciting and confrontational rock bands. On Facebook, they describe themselves as “Toronto’s feminist art rock band that brings the bad with a dash of ass! Armed with a repertoire of classics, Vag Halen muff dives into the salty cock rock waters, blowing nether regions with their commitment to all things queer and all things rock.” Having seen the band myself, I can verify that that is all totally, totally true. Vag Halen storm Guelph on April 12 for a set at Kazoo! Fest at Van Gogh’s Ear. The band is on at 11:30 PM sharing a bill with Whoop-SZO, Biblical, and Legato Vipers. Here Vanessa and I discuss the pizza in Parkdale, growing up in Scarborough and celebrating the suburbs, where Vag Halen came from and what it might stand for, Katie Ritchie of the Organ, good Van Halen (David) and bad Van Halen (Sammy), how the band covers songs by different cock rock, hair metal bands who are male-centric, as an attempt to assert and understand the role of women and queer culture in such realms, the sexy, revealing attire and stage presence of Vag Halen, the power and cultural contributions of Tawny Kitaen and Miss Elizabeth, Vanessa’s acting background, whether or not we’re well past the era where musicians can get away with blatantly misogynistic and homophobic aesthetic stances, Nirvana’s decision to perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with women like Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, Lorde, and St. Vincent filling in for Kurt Cobain, why Axl Rose is the worst, most complex person, how personas or behavioural patterns in musical genres can perpetuate problematic lyrics and attitudes, running into Alice Cooper at a restaurant, Vanessa’s love of Depeche Mode and the Jesus and Mary Chain but her passion for hard rock, whether Vag Halen will ever write its own songs, the generally positive reception for the band in Toronto and Vanessa’s place as a role model, what’s new in Vag Halen’s set these days and why things are gonna get heavy at Kazoo! Fest, and nothing more.

Related links: twitter.com/VagHalen kazookazoo.ca vishkhanna.com

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