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Ep. #113: Julie Doiron

Julie Doiron is a talented and prolific singer, musician, and songwriter based in Sackville, New Brunswick. She first gained attention in the world-renowned band Eric’s Trip before going solo for a successful and busy trajectory of her own. Over the years she’s worked with many people and contributed to records by Daniel Romano, Mt. Eerie, Gord Downie, Shotgun & Jaybird, Herman Dune, Baby Eagle, and many more. Among her most notable collaborations was with the Wooden Stars; they released a self-titled record together in 1999, which was critically acclaimed and won a Juno Award, one of the first notable instances that Canada’s mainstream music industry acknowledged this country’s underground music community, which flourished in the 1990s. Many years later, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars are playing a small run of shows together this summer at the Arboretum Festival in Ottawa on August 20, the Horseshoe in Toronto on August 21, La Sala Rosa in Montreal on August 22, and the Peterborough Folk Festival on August 23.  Here, Julie and I talk about my soggy bike ride home, bad weather and the wind currents thing, the 15th anniversary of Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars, the indefinite ‘indefinite hiatus’ that Wooden Stars have been on, just reboot it but don’t sit on the modem, Louis C.K.’s technology bit, the girls loved Michael Feuerstack, the Underdogs and skateboarding gangs, if it feels good do it, working with the Wooden Stars, Broken Girl, Sub Pop and Joyce Linehan, making the LP, three-os and G.E. Smith at CMJ, working with Eric’s Trip versus the Wooden Stars, fingerpicking, the Forest, receiving the reception for the album, the Juno Award, Josh Latour, running out of records, playing New Year’s Day at the Air Canada Centre, I pre-produce the next Julie and the Wooden Stars record, cover songs, almost retiring after the release of So Many Days, enjoying life, kids, and making music again, a new band Julie’s in called Weird Lines, making a duets record with Rick White, including questions in your answers, juliedoiron.ca not .com or .cl, Julie’s song “Life of Dreams” is in an iPhone commerical, the song “Gone Gone,” and then it’s goodnight nobody.

Related links: juliedoiron.ca vishkhanna.com

Julie-Doiron

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #75: Michael Feuerstack

Michael Feuerstack is a well-respected, sophisticated and possibly underrated singer, songwriter, and musician who is based in Montreal. For many years he played in a Ottawa band called Wooden Stars and also nurtured his own project, Snailhouse. Last year he released an LP called Tambourine Death Bed, his first record under his own name, and he’s due to release a new, collaborative effort as Michael Feuerstack & Associates on April 19 called Singer Songer (Forward/Headless Owl). He’s scheduled to play Kazoo! Fest in Guelph (April 9-13) with more tour dates to follow. Here, Mike and I discuss doing this episode in my living room, weird weather, true facts, purple seagulls, tasty coffee, celebratory enthusiasm, the musical shift between Snailhouse and Michael Feuerstack, home recording, my lack of preparation for this interview, Mike’s relationship with the press and his interest in how he’s perceived, antagonism vs. cynicism, Mike’s hardcore punk past in Moncton in the band the Underdogs with Rick White of Eric’s Trip, my son’s blue puck, Mike’s musical origins and early collaborations with White and Julie Doiron, how Wooden Stars began, what punk rock means, and why the gruelling lifestyle of lowly rock bands makes it tricky to keep them together, the intermingling of earnestness and irreverence, how Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are really funny, and the connection between music and comedy, how working as ‘Michael Feuerstack’ might be a confluence of every kind of music he’s ever made, my desire to get everyone to say they’ll “Yahoo! it” instead of “Google it,” some details about his forthcoming album Singer Songer, which includes vocals by the likes of Mathias Kom, Devon Sproule, Bry Webb, Leif Vollebekk, John K. Samson, Jessie Stein, Jim Bryson, Angela Desveaux, and Little Scream, the song “Leave Me Alone,” and more.

Related links: michaelfeuerstack.com vishkhanna.com

michaelfeuerstack

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Categories
News

**NEWS** JULIE DOIRON REPLACES RICKWHITEALBUM AT Stay Out of the Mall IX

Hello,

Due to inexplicably unfortunate circumstances, this past Wednesday I learned that RickWhiteAlbum was cancelling his scheduled appearance at Stay Out of the Mall IX. I wish Rick well and hope he does make an appearance in Guelph again some point soon.
Luckily, his Eric’s Trip band mate Julie Doiron has agreed to take his place on this Wednesday December 15th bill with One Hundred Dollars and Richard Laviolette and the Oil Spills. Julie simply killed it at last year’s SOOTM show, she’s easily the best possible person to fill in for Rick, she just this week won the 2010 CBC Radio 3 Lifetime Achievement Bucky Award and I consider all of this a birthday miracle (Wednesday is my 33rd birthday).
More info about Julie is available below. Ticket refunds for the Wednesday night show are available at the Bookshelf and at the door the night of the shoe for people bummed about Rick’s departure. Please spread the word about this.
Thanks for supporting Canadian arts and culture.
vk
p.s. Happy birthday to me!

KYEO & The CSA Present:

Wednesday December 15, 2010
+
Thursday December 16, 2010

Wednesday’s Line-up:

Julie Doiron
One Hundred Dollars
Richard Laviolette & The Oil Spills


Julie Doiron
Here’s a bunch of words to describe Julie Doiron: happy, positive, hopeful, excited, and especially, rocking. Yes, you’re reading that right. In the past, people were used to reading things like sad, quiet, acoustic, thoughtful, and reflective. That all changes with her latest disc, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day. Meet the new Julie Doiron.
Julie Doiron’s always been pretty easy to figure out. More than any other songwriter, you can tell exactly what’s going on in her life, as she lays it all out in her lyrics. She’s direct, and painfully honest, but she can’t help it. “I just sing about what’s happening,” she admits, resigned to her style. “I don’t know how to do anything else. I don’t know how to write any other way. I’ve wanted to…I’ve tried! Because sometimes I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be so direct, but I don’t know how.” In the past, listeners have shared in the heartbreak ofloneliness, the break-up of a band, the grind of raising young kids, and the dark fears anyone can slip into during a relationship. While thedirect approach is still all over this new album, this time she’s almost the happiest woman in town.
Julie began her career in music in 1990 at the age of 18 in Moncton, NB, playing bass in Eric’s Trip, one of the most revered Canadian indie-rock groups ever. The first of many maritime Canadians signed to Sub Pop, Eric’s Trip found international recognition until their break-up in 1996. Julie’s gone on to have a successful solo career, collaborate with the amazing folk trio Daniel, Fred & Julie and she recently was awarded the 2010 CBC Radio 3 Lifetime Achievement Bucky Award.


One Hundred Dollars

Dubbed the urban denizens of Canada’s country music scene, One Hundred Dollars lends a window into what country music might have become had the industry not been overtaken by popular music production and trite subject matter. Simone Schmidt (voice), Ian Russell (accoustic guitar) and Stew Crookes (pedal steel) were set to release their first EP Hold It Together, in the summer of 2007, but leukemia got up in Russell’s blood. Holed up in the house for months together during the difficult chemotherapy protocol that followed, Schmidt and Russell took the time to craft more original tunes. Playing whenever the protocol allowed, they got a gig opening for Rick White (Eric’s Trip, Elevator), who invited them to record with him. Russell called on his former band mates from Jon-Rae & the River, David Clarke (the drums), Paul Mortimer, (bass- Kyle Porter took on bass duties in 2009, freeing Mortimer to assume his vocation as lead guitar) and Jonathan Adjemian (piano and organ) to lend some texture to the tunes.
The result was Forest of Tears, their first full length album on Blue Fog Recordings. Recorded in 13 hours at Elder Schoolhouse, Forest of Tears was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize, and has garnered critical acclaim for its compelling story telling and masterful performances. Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner comments, “Forest of Tears heralds the arrival of Schmidt as a preternaturally gifted singer and lyricist, and of Russell as perhaps the only extant songwriting foil with the talent to make her dense, poetic diction sound effortlessly musical.” Critics have given One Hundred Dollars’ kind of country the prefixes “alt -“, “traditional”, “psych-“, “real,” alike, serving as testament to the band’s ability to draw all audiences- even those who think they hate Country – into the genre. The band has comfortably shared bills with Hardcore punk phenom Fucked Up, country roots songstress, Carolyn Mark, indie rock matriarch Julie Doiron and orchestral pop icon Owen Pallett[/b].
The band is currently working on a new album while releasing a series of singles as part of their “Regional 7 Inch” project. It sees vinyl 45’s released throughout the continent – the songs focus on subject matter that is regionally relevant to the place out of which the label is based. They are touring all over North America.


Richard Laviolette & The Oil Spills

Richard Laviolette writes a hundred songs a year. Songs of clever, heartfelt, rolling lyrics, sung in a strong, full voice. Echo and melody. Laviolette’s voice is a deep well of water. His lyrics are brilliant scraps of paper. Letters written home. He sings about death, anti-colonial struggle and long distance relationships.
All Your Raw Materials is Laviolette’s fourth album, and his first with The Oil Spills. Originally released independently on CD in September, 2009, the album was recorded live-off-the-floor at the legendary House of Miracles in London, ON the previous summer. Earlier this year, You’ve Changed Records was happy to make this album widely available and to offer it for the first time on LP.
The Oil Spills are Geordie Gordon (The Magic, Barmitzvah Brothers, Islands), Meredith Grant, Greg Denton, Mike Brooks (Gregory Pepper and his Problems, Kae Sun), Lisa Bozikovic, Matt Reeves, and Jenny Mitchell (Barmitzvah Brothers, The Burning Hell, Jenny Omnichord). This highly talented cast step up to the plate and deliver a darling country album inspired by a childhood full of waking up on weekends to country, gospel, and bluegrass records blasting from the living room, records such as George Jones, Tammy Wynette, The Judds, Dolly Parton, Roger Miller, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Bob Wills, Neil Young’s ‘Old Ways’, and The Nitty Gritty Dirtband’s ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’.

Thursday’s Line-up:

Zeus
METZ
PS I Love You


Zeus

Close your eyes and think of an ancient time when your word was only as good as your unwavering instinct to capitalize. The bridge that you must cross to meet your means to continue forward is governed only by the vulnerable sincerity in your desire to touch a soul and lift a spirit. For Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson, a destined musical pairing known as Zeus, their new lofty pop and roll offering plans to do just that. For two kindred music men who feed on studio termites and work out the kinks on late night streetcar rides, there is only one who provides the force and guidance required to spawn such a special contribution. A force of nature that has been a spontaneous and spiritual ascension through the changing seasons of 2007/2008 Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson came together as natural as do the pages of time turn. When they met in 1996, an unavoidable and uncontrollable musical field fire broke out. Over time and several separate musical endeavors, the persevering blaze pushed them to the edge of their own creative limits, presenting them together again, fiery-eyed and ready at the foot of the gate that would behold the kingdom of Zeus. There, they were to willingly or unwillingly occupy this land as a counter melody to the song of the mighty one, eventually assuming their inherent roles now commonly known as the “Zeus Twins”. Soon after creating their first compositions, they were humbly presented to the mighty one, and He was pleased. And so it went, in its carefree and whimsical antic, the days spent here filled them with poignant melodies and shocking musical arrangements. Feeding off of each other’s incredible productivity rate and their want to please, the twins do most everything together. Writing, arranging and recording in their own studio, sealed by a tight and thick brozone layer. This is a natural walk of life for the boys. The first recordings of the Zeus project came about without anticipation, agenda or even structure. Furiously and expeditiously, with the help of a tightly knit and brotherly foundation, the boys forged a bundle of compositions that now await the imminent approval of their higher power, which will then be unleashed unto the world, as Zeus. Mike and Carlin have spread their music to the world in other creative band efforts as well. Trading under the names the 6ixty 8ights, Paso Mino, and merging with friend strengths, the Golden Dogs and Major Grange, Zeus now bears the accumulated fruits of these experiences, but with something magical added. Mike and Carlin have discovered that for their particular brand of pop that rocks in the city (with a mistress in the country), there is only one way. Teamed up in managerial status with roots legend Jason Collett, Zeus plans to spread their words and music to the masses late this year. Giving a new twist to a good ol’ rock n’ roll sound with songs that hit you on impact, Zeus will occupy a presence that has been dormant since the golden age of precious melodies and 45s. Continuing on as naturally as when it began, bred from the love of music and symbiotic intuition, this undeniable body of work will crash down on traditional melody gluttons and hipsters alike, leaving non-believers to stand in the shadowed corners of Zeus’ musical gymnasium to look but not touch. The sky has opened for Zeus, making it a passage, not a limit. The enlightened, who knowingly follow, will be given the key. They will bask in the decorated lands of inspiration, with songs that have the strength to move mountains and the longevity to harvest seasonal desire. The electric bolt of Zeus is now pointed at us all. Time will wield his way.


METZ

Toronto based noise-makers METZ demonstrate dangerously delicious, deliberately dogmatic delicacies of disturbing distortion. Their dour dedication to drastically disparate dissonance is delightfully documented on the dumbfounding discs “Soft Whiteout”/Lump Sums 7” and “Ripped on the Fence”/Dry Up 7” deservedly distributed daily by WE ARE BUSY BODIES. METZ are the best band in Toronto today.


PS I Love You

PS I Love You has been performing in Kingston, Ontario since 2006. The band was originally the solo vehicle for multi-instrumentalist Paul Saulnier. Paul has performed in everything from a country-rock band to improvised noise duo. PS I Love You was intended to be his experimental, sort of weird pop music outlet. He would play shows with guitar looping pedals and keyboards and lots and lots of gadgets and gimmicks. He later recruited Benjamin Nelson on drums to replace the often inconsistent Casio drum machine and was probably the best decision of Paul’s young adult life. All of a sudden PS I Love You’s weird little songs were becoming mini, soaring rock anthems! Soon thereafter, they formed a strong friendship with John O’ Regan (Diamond Rings, The D’urbervilles). The band soon released the split 7″ inch single with Diamond Rings,’ “All Yr Songs” as the a-side and PS I Love You’s “Facelove” as the b-side. The single saw an amazing response, and eventually sold out. The singles success took the young band by surprise. Soon thereafter, folks outside of Kingston began demanding the band travel and perform. This marked a new beginning for PS I Love You. They are are now a fully realized duo, and released their critically acclaimed debut album, Meet Me at the Muster Station earlier this year.

Special Guest:

DJ Charless

Wednesday December 15 & Thursday December 16, 2010
The Ebar 41 Quebec St. Guelph
Doors at 9:30 PM BOTH NIGHTS
All-ages/Licensed BOTH NIGHTS

$10 with non-perishable food item / $12 without
SEPARATE TICKET CHARGES FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL NIGHT

Tickets Available:
The Bookshelf – 41 Quebec St. – Guelph
Orange Monkey – 005 Princess St. – Waterloo
(non-perishable food items will be accepted at ticket outlets)

Proceeds benefit The Canadian Cancer Society towards leukemia research in memory of Sharon Marshall.
All food items collected will benefit the Guelph Food Bank.

musicprogramming [at] gmail [dot] com

UPCOMING KYEO/CSA SHOWS:

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 15: STAY OUT OF THE MALL IX – JULIE DOIRON – ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS – RICHARD LAVIOLETTE & THE OIL SPILLS @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. – GUELPH – 9:30 PM – $10 w/food donation /$12 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.cancer.ca www.juliedoiron.com www.myspace.com/1hundreddollars www.myspace.com/richardlavioletteandtheoilspills

THURSDAY DECEMBER 16: STAY OUT OF THE MALL IX – ZEUS – METZ – PS I LOVE YOU @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. – GUELPH – 9:30 PM – $10 w/food donation /$12 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.cancer.ca www.themusicofzeus.com www.myspace.com/metztheband www.myspace.com/psiloveyouband