Spinner

Patti Smith Summons Musical Ghosts at Art Gallery of Ontario Performance

Liisa Ladouceur — 2013-03-08T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, Exclusive

Art Gallery of Ontario

Patti Smith knows how to commune with the dead. She can even bring them back to life.

Arthur Rimbaud to Allen Ginsberg, Amy Winehouse to her late husband Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5 -- throughout her two sets at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario last night, Smith paid homage to the many artists who've inspired her, the "chosen ancestors" who have passed on physically but, in the words of her song "Ghost Dance" shall live again.

The two hour-long acoustic sets -- intimate, 400-person capacity affairs held beneath the gallery's beautiful spiral staircase -- were presented in conjunction with her photography exhibit Camera Solo, currently on display. Tickets had sold out in record time and gallery patrons without access to the concert space crowded around speakers to listen in or craned for a glimpse of the punk rock poetess through the security barricades. Smith emerged, with her daughter Jesse Smith on piano and bassist Tony Shanahan, and proceeded to enthral the audience with a selection of songs that celebrated art and life.

10 Musicians Turned Photographers: Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, Bryan Adams & More

Liisa Ladouceur — 2013-03-07T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, The Hit List

Michael Stipe

Successful touring musicians often live fishbowl lives -- the center of attention, gawked at, photographed.

Now more than ever in this age of camera phones and instant uploads they rarely escape the public's gaze. Some of them turn the tables, picking up their own cameras and looking back-at their audiences, at the world.

Singer Patti Smith -- a long-time multimedia artist whose exhibition "Camera Solo" is on display at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario until May 19 -- is only the latest example of a musician who has embraced photography on a more professional level.

Here are 10 musician/photographers whose work, whether found on Tumblr, in museums, or in fine art books, often offers a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a rock star.

Patti Smith, Camera Solo: Punk Pioneer's Pics of Pope's Slippers, Neil Young's Guitar

Liisa Ladouceur — 2013-03-07T10:15:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Music Appreciation

Kevin Winter, Getty

Patti Smith, punk pioneer and unlikely art photographer wants to make one thing crystal clear.

"I don't consider my photographs blurry," said Patti Smith. "I think they are atmospheric."

Smith was speaking at a press conference this morning about the black and white images in Camera Solo, an exhibition of her photography and personal objects currently on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, where Smith will also perform two sold-out shows March 7. The artist, who primarily uses a vintage Polaroid camera, pointed out that sometimes it's a result of having to shoot on expired film, and that if she wanted a sharp photograph she could use her cell phone.

"I could transfer it to black and white and there you have a perfect shot," said Smith. "I'm going for the atmosphere of something."

The atmosphere of the 70 photographs presented in Camera Solo is one of intimacy and romantic gloom -- close-ups of the graves of famous poets (Whitman, Baudelaire), the beds in which they died (Keats), her late father's coffee cup. On the wall, a quote: "I have a strong relationship with the dead, even a happy one."

Moby on His Bucket List, Why He's Playing Coachella and Being a 'Weather Nerd'

Liisa Ladouceur — 2013-02-01T15:20:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, RPM, Q + A, EDM

Jeff Pachoud, AFP

Sometimes you can forget that Moby is a musician first.

His prolific tweets and online journals are filled with his striking architecture photography and outspoken rants on social issues. His calendar is filled with gigs like "Presidential inauguration party" and political fundraisers (he's hosting one for Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti February 7, alongside Will Ferrell and Jimmy Kimmel). But the 47-year-old L.A. transplant is at heart still a producer of music.

He's currently working on the follow-up to 2011's Destroyed and DJing select festivals, including the inaugural Brrrrr! winter music fest in Toronto this Friday and a little party in California called Coachella. Moby spoke to Spinner about his DJ ethos, his life's to-do list and being a "weather nerd."

Skinny Puppy Say 'hanDover' Isn't Intended to Bolster 'Occupy' Movement

Liisa Ladouceur — 2011-10-25T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, RPM, New Music, New Releases

Courtesy of Skinny Puppy

Almost 30 years in, Skinny Puppy still has bite. The Vancouver-born industrial music pioneers have released a cutting indictment of global economic chaos and collapse in the form of 'hanDover,' their 11th studio album. But as singer Nivek Ogre explains, 'hanDover' isn't so much a political protest statement as a reflection on their own personal struggles within the music business of late.

"We went through an insolvency with our German label, SPV," Ogre tells Spinner. "Before our last tour [2009's In Solvent See], our album was supposed to be delivered, but we didn't know if it was going to be delivered into a black hole, if SPV was going to exist. We were dealing with accountants from the German government. It was a pretty strange 'handover.'"

Dallas Green Says Alexisonfire Was 'Killing' Him, Is Fine Being 'The Villain' After Split

Liisa Ladouceur — 2011-08-08T16:20:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, Holy Hell, Q + A

Dine Alone

When Alexisonfire announced they were splitting up last Friday with an official band statement by singer George Pettit, the Canadian punk band's other singer, Dallas Green, was doing what he's so often doing of late: Touring solo under his other moniker, City and Colour.

It was precisely this dual life and schedule that led him to leave the band he co-founded in 2001, a decision he took back in 2010 and kept quiet about until now. After performing a City and Colour set at Lollapalooza in Chicago this Sunday, Green sat down to explain why he felt it necessary to choose one project over the other and how he feels about the idea of a future Alexisonfire final tour.

The press release said you quit over a year ago. Why keep it a secret until now?

I wanted to do it 15 months ago. But when I told the guys that I was planning to leave the band when we finished touring at the end of last year, they didn't want to say anything because they thought it put a lot of pressure on them to come up with a decision right away about what they were going to do. I wanted to announce that I was leaving the band so that people who maybe weren't going to come to those shows because "I've seen Alexis five times, I'll wait 'til they come through again" would know that it was going to be the last time you'd get to see Alexisonfire as what we were.

But everyone else wanted to wait, and I respected their wishes, because everyone knew what I was going to do, and obviously they were shocked and didn't have a gameplan. Then as time went on, it started getting tough because I was doing press for my new record and I had to lie. I felt really weird about lying about it, so I tried to answer it a vague way so that when it did come out it didn't sound like I was completely lying. But I was.

Death From Above 1979 'Do It' in Sign Language at Lollapalooza

Liisa Ladouceur — 2011-08-07T14:54:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Daniel Boczarski, Getty Images

One of the most unique aspects of a Lollapalooza main-stage performance is the sight of American Sign Language interpreters at the front of the stage, signing the lyrics live with much rock 'n' roll attitude. Canadian duo Death From Above 1979 put one ASL worker to the best use on Saturday afternoon, incorporating her into their finale.

The reunited drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger (sporting all white and a new blonde shaggy do he recently tweeted may be "too weird for Chicago") and bassist Jesse F. Keeler (dressed in bad-guy black) had already delivered many favorites from their 2004 disco-punk classic 'You're a Woman I'm a Machine,' playing beneath a black-and-white tombstone banner proclaiming "Death From Above 1979, 2001-2005."

Tinie Tempah Leads British Invasion at Lollapalooza

Liisa Ladouceur — 2011-08-06T12:05:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Roger Kisby, Getty Images

There was a British invasion on the opening day of Lollapalooza in Chicago on Friday, headlined by Muse and Coldplay and featuring a killer set from UK MC Tinie Tempah. As the sun went down over Millennium Park, young people not even yet born when the festival launched 20 years ago rushed the new Google+ stage to witness the 22-year-old rapper bring his Mercury Prize-nominated debut 'Disc-overy' to life.

It was clear Tempah was here for a takeover: T-shirts and other swag rained down constantly over the crowd as he launched into 'Love Suicide,' a track he reminded us was included exclusively on the US version of the record. He did the same with the hit 'Till I'm Gone,' apologizing that his tall friend Wiz Khalifa could not appear. None of his notable guests showed up, actually, but despite using pre-recorded tracks to incorporate their vocals, the set was very much alive, thanks to a crack five-piece band that included drums, bass and acoustic guitar.

Alexisonfire's 2010: Touring Australia, Hoarding Guitars and Meeting Motörhead

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-12-20T11:30:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Exclusive, New Music

It sometimes seems as if Alexisonfire have been on the road for 10 years straight. Since forming in 2001 in St. Catharines, Ontario, the post-hardcore outfit has been enjoying the kind of schedule that comes with modest indie success, packed with Warped Tours and European festivals and opening slots for the likes of Billy Talent, Cancer Bats and Anti-Flag.

And this year was no different. They continued to tour in support of 2009's 'Old Crows/Young Cardinals,' including trips to Australia and Japan. They made headlines with their appearance at the Vancouver Olympics (cut short after a crush of fans broke through a barricade and audience members were trampled underfoot), and their performance of 'Tom Sawyer' at Rush's inauguration into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in March. Singer-guitarist Dallas Green also toured for his other project City and Colour while singer-guitarist Wade MacNeil squeezed in dates for his resurrected Black Lungs project.

There were a few releases, including Alexisonfire's 'Dog's Blood' EP and Black Lungs' 'Valley of the Dolls' seven-inch, but the band is going to need some time off to conjure its next record. MacNeil took a moment while home for the holidays to look back at the year that was, and glimpse at what's to come.

Alexisonfire Rock Out in Honour of Record Shopping in Toronto

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-12-18T09:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, Exclusive, New Releases

The press release trumpeted the event's live stream on Facebook, but the point of Alexisonfire's intimate in-store in Toronto on Friday afternoon seemed significantly more old school: celebrate record shopping.

The band, in town for two shows at the 3,200 capacity Sound Academy club, performed for about 100 fans in the basement of Sonic Boom Records, a low-ceiling, wood-panelled space filled with rows of vinyl records, oversized monster props once used for window displays, and a choice selection of cassettes and 8-track tapes.

"I have wanted to play down here for a really long time," guitarist Wade MacNeil told Spinner shortly before the band stepped onto the tiny stage. "I saw Monotonix here once, and it was the best. Plus, I really like coming here to buy records."

Interpol Discuss New Album, Backlash and Why They're 'Glad' Carlos D Is Gone

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-09-07T15:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Exclusive, New Music, Q + A

It's been 13 years since Interpol formed in New York City and eight since the band's debut, 'Turn on the Bright Lights,' dragged post-punk from the shadows back into the (in their case, red) spotlight. So what if they haven't turned out to be the second coming of Joy Division or the next U2 (although they are opening for them) -- there's nothing wrong with being this generation's Depeche Mode, outlasting the trendy scene they helped spawn, and looking damn good doing it.

Singer Paul Banks, guitarist Daniel Kessler and drummer Sam Fogarino may be down one man since bassist Carlos D. split camp, but with the release of their self-titled fourth album, they're far from down for the count. Drummer Sam Fogarino spoke to Spinner from a Toronto tour stop to ponder the pleasures and perils of being Interpol.

Since Interpol started, what's been the biggest change in the band?

Innocence. It's gone.

All of it? That sounds sad.

Well, with the loss of innocence comes experience and confidence. So, we're a bunch of well-read whores now. [Laughs] The other big thing is that you lose the chips on your shoulder. You realize that a lot of people that were citing Manchester as this Interpol influence, a lot of that was in a good light -- it turned people on to us.

Holly Miranda Ignores 'Superfluous' Hype

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-07-21T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Exclusive

Holly Miranda took a winding road to her first solo record. As a teen, the singer-songwriter moved from Detroit to New York City to pursue music, quickly landing a then-coveted major label record contract. But her deal with BMG turned sour, leaving her music in the label's vault. Then came her band, the Jealous Girlfriends -- a Brooklyn indie rock outfit that released two albums and landed a track on 'Grey's Anatomy.' Finally, this past February, Miranda's solo effort, 'The Magician's Private Library,' was released on XL.

Playful, yet cinematic, with production by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio and Katrina Ford of Celebration, the record fleshes out Miranda's piano-based arrangements with ethereal grace. After getting a blog nod from Kayne West, the 27-year-old singer has been constantly in motion. Miranda spoke to Spinner in Toronto about the importance of good neighbours and what it means to be Kanye-approved.

Your record is about dreams. What kind of actual dreams or ambitions did you have when you started to make it?

I don't think I really had any ambition. I just wanted to make a record that was solely mine because every time I had tried before, well, there was a bum deal that I had to walk away from, or I was recording on my own and didn't know what I was doing. I tried to make a solo record that became the first Jealous Girlfriends record, and then I made another record with them, which was a collaborative writing thing. I just wanted this to be my thing, you know? Not in a controlling way, but in a non-compromising way.

Iggy Pop and the Stooges Display Their 'Raw Power' at NXNE

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-06-20T12:35:00 00:00

If there's a world record for biggest mosh pit in a town square, Iggy Pop and the Stooges might have just broken it in Toronto Saturday night.

Headlining a free outdoor concert as part of NXNE, the Detroit punk legends attracted half the city (OK, more like 10,000) to downtown's Yonge-Dundas Square for a ferocious 90-minute show. The surrounding streets were shut down early in the evening, but the bodies kept arriving, pushing their way into position. And then Iggy Pop lept onto the stage to the opening chords of 1973's 'Raw Power,' and instantly transformed the seething mass of fans into one giant pogoing, screaming, extremely sweaty pit of joy.

"We're the remains of the f---ing Stooges," Pop shouted early on, "and before we die, we're going to do it with you."

The 63-year-old singer did a lot of things to that crowd.

Zola Jesus Takes Her Dark Music to Bright California

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-06-18T14:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Exclusive, Canada

There are good reasons the press keeps calling Zola Jesus a Goth. Her musical musings are pitch-black unsettling, eerie lo-fi atmospherics created with minimal synths and drum machines that echo the cold melancholy of Joy Division. And her operatic voice sounds like the second-coming of Siouxie Sioux. But the gloom of her recent recordings 'The Spoils' and the 'Stridulum EP' may soon turn to something sunnier: the Madison, Wis. native (real name Nika Roza Danilov) is headed to California.

"I'm moving to Los Angeles because that's where my fiancée lives," explains the 21-year-singer in advance of her NXNE festival showcase in Toronto. " I am hoping that I can battle the cliché lifestyle that people associate with the West Coast. But I don't know. All I know if that it's very sunny and very warm. I guess I'll find out how that affects my music. It's going to be sweaty."

NXNE Festival: 10 (Other) Fun Things to Do in Toronto

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-06-15T19:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, The Hit List, Canada

With more than 650 bands playing over five evenings, North By Northeast will keep you very busy late into the night. But visitors to Toronto can fill their days with cheap tourist adventures in this clean and compact city. Here are 10 suggestions for fun times out and about that are worth setting your alarm clock for.

Climb the CN Tower

So it may not be the world's tallest free-standing structure anymore (damn you, Burj Dhubai!), but this lakeside landmark is still the biggest, most phallic tourist draw on this side of the globe. An elevator swooshes you 342 metres high to the observation deck, featuring an acrophobia-inducing glass floor. For the brave, we dare you to lay on the glass and peer straight down, although don't recommend singing Owen Pallett's 'CN Tower Belongs to the Dead' while doing it.

Mapify It!

erinbraham, flickr

Adult. Premieres Short Horror Film

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-05-12T17:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Exclusive, Movies, Canada

Detroit synthpunk duo and budding filmmakers Adult. have announced the release of the second film in their 'Decampment Trilogy': the Midwestern horror short 'Traditions.'

But the scariest thing for fans may be that they will probably never see it. Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus like to keep their films under wraps even after they've wrapped -- their 2008 short 'Decampment' has only screened three times (in Detroit, LA and Mexico City) and has never been made available for sale or viewing online.

'Traditions' is destined for a similar fate. It will get a world premiere on May 30 at a special event in Toronto, a double-bill with 'Decampment,' and feature Adult. performing their live score. After that, not even the band is sure when or if they will screen it again. Not that they'd tell you if they were.

"It's a bit of a secret society," Miller tells Spinner.

Justin Rutledge Tests Out Lyrics on Facebook

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-05-10T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Exclusive, New Music, Canada

Many acts road test new material on stage before going into the studio. Toronto singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge had another idea: he posted sample lyrics from his new album, 'The Early Widows,' on Facebook. As he was writing, snippets and sketches of ideas would be posted as status updates for friends and family to comment on.

"Sometimes I would get two thumbs up, and other times people would be like 'WTF?'" Rutledge tells Spinner. "It was a really good way to gauge the strength of a line outside of the song. I didn't strike anything if it wasn't popular but it was an interesting social experiment."

Rutledge had an even greater test audience in Canadian literary icon Michael Ondaatje, author of 'The English Patient.' Songs on 'The Early Widows' were originally written for a theatrical production of Ondaatje's novel 'Divisadero,' and are based on the characters from the book. The author eventually returned the favour by meeting with Rutledge to offer advice on his lyrics, even getting co-writing credit for his contributions to the first single 'Be a Man.'

MGMT Discuss Brian Eno's Sorcery, Sarcastic 'Congratulations'

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-03-24T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Exclusive

The word is out on the new MGMT album. Responding to the leak of 'Congratulations' (due out April 13), the band posted a stream of the entire thing on its official site. Now the world can hear that Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden haven't totally lost the plot, they're just following some winding roads. The nine tracks of summery psychedelia may not bear much immediate resemblance to their cross-over synthpop smash hits 'Kids' and 'Time to Pretend,' but the experiments don't veer too far away from the pop pleasure zone, either.

There's no doubt that 'Congratulations' is a priority release for MGMT's label, Columbia -- the band's debut, 'Oracular Spectacular,' sold more than a million copies worldwide, after all. If that's put any pressure on the lads from Brooklyn, N.Y., they're trying not to make a big deal of it. In fact, Goldwasser tells Spinner he enjoys the privileges of being a major-label superstar.

Were you deliberately trying to avoid making a pop record this time?

People who only know three of our songs, or are living under a rock, might expect us to do a straight-up pop record, but I don't think we need to. We want to broaden the notion of what pop music can be, so of course it's a kind of pop. But we're definitely not trying to fit in at all. I'm pretty ignorant of what is popular at any given time anyway.

One thing that hasn't changed about MGMT songs is that they are still very playful. Is making music a way for you to have fun?

Music is a way to be playful, for sure. We're not necessarily the happiest people in the world, but music does make us happier. I mean, we do take making music seriously; we just don't get hung up on categories. That's when music starts to sounds like a joke -- when you talk about it too much. We're trying to be very clear -- we're not trying to be ironic, and just because we're going for something different than that doesn't make us pretentious.

Gemma Ray Fights Laryngitis, Covers Etta James and Mudhoney at Canadian Music Fest

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-03-13T14:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Canada

When your voice is shot from trans-Atlantic jetlag and a cold virus, your guitar gear was partly damaged en route and the howling rain is keeping the audience away, what's a girl to do? If you're England's Gemma Ray, then you sing the blues.

The Jimmy Page-approved femme fatale is appearing solo at Canadian Music Week / Canadian Music Fest in support of her latest album, the ethereal pop-noire collection 'Lights Out Zoltar!' But after apologizing for her cold-induced "man voice," she launched instead into a series of covers that turned her raw, threatening-to-croak delivery into the perfect companion piece.

Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "Swamp Snake" by Alex Harvey were transformed into eerie, slow burns of pain and longing. Suddenly Ray, oh-so-cute in her '60s mini-dress with flowers in her hair, seemed a lot more dangerous. Or maybe it was the way she played slide on her vintage Hagstorm guitar (dubbed "LL One Arm" in sparkly silver stickers) with a kitchen knife.

New Buffalo returns as Sally Seltmann for Canadian Music Fest

Liisa Ladouceur — 2010-03-12T20:05:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Canada

Sometimes festival buzz can be a buzzkill. Singer Sally Seltmann, formerly known as New Buffalo and forever known as co-writer of Feist's '1234,' opened the hotly tipped Arts & Crafts showcase at Canadian Music Week / Canadian Music Fest last night but her pretty piano songs were at a pain to be heard by an audience eagerly awaiting award-winning singer Dan Mangan and murder balladeer Timbre Timber.

Typical festival experience for the newbies, right? But as Seltmann pointed out -- twice -- she flew over from Australia for the privilege of being drowned out.

Her new album (and first under her own name), 'Heart That's Pounding,' is scheduled for release on A&C on April 6. She played the first single, the joyous retro pop 'Harmony to My Heartbeat' with gusto and a full band, which reverberated around the majestic Great Hall theatre and yet landed on mostly deaf ears.