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IN Bed WIth
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Iron Man
Dave
Martone
+PLUS
No moRe BUSh
WheRe hAve All
the IdolS goNe?
dAve “the RAve”
ogIlvIe BRINg It oN!
JANUARY 2009
gonzomagazine.ca
CAN
JAN. 2009 / Issue 2 Vol 1
e
d
i
t
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10
05
INPUT
CD and DVD Reviews
By John Kereiff
10
Adam Sandler
An Interview with
adam sandler
By Fred Topel
13
film review
A celebration of
human spectacle
18
By Dean Unger
14
cast iron music
Pushing the boundries
with canadian guitar
prodigy, Dave Martone
By Trent Jackson
18
Rattling the bones
Will Obama’s Eloquence
be enough to excuse
crimes against humanity?
By John S. Hatch
22
the canadian
idol experience
Suzi Rawn reflects on
her Canadian idol
experience
By Dean Unger
24
Dave “Rave” Oglevie
Reflections of a
Record Producer,
Engineer & Re-Mixer
By Nathan Stafford
30
That’s Gonzo
Mathew Good, Bryan
Adams, Nickelback
and Nine Inch Nails
By Jennifer Conklin
14
22
Editor’s letter
or’s
Edit
This is your brain. This is your brain on
culture. Welcome to the second issue
of Gonzo Magazine - cerebral yoga for
the gray matter. Timing is everything.
Canada is a young nation measured in
centuries – not millennia, fought over by
three European nations and the Union
to the south; it’s landscape scarred by
epic battles – the Red River Rebellion,
countless frontier skirmishes, the War of
1812, the Fenian Raids; home to countless
aboriginal communities who quite rightly
claim first rights; we’ve fought epic labour
wars – all of which combine to form our
dynamic and completely original cultural
character.
Because we have a young nation, Canadians are in the unique position to, at
least in part, help create and nurture this
dynamic cultural identity, as diverse as it is
richly woven.
For our relatively low per-capita population, Canada has also produced more than
its share of successful musicians, producers, writers, inventors and innovators, all
coming together to signal our coming of
age on the international scene.
The likes of The Band, Robbie Robertson,
Steppenwolf, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young,
STAYTUNED!
The G Team is hard at work bringing
you closer to what you want to dip your
gray cells into…
We’ve got you covered on what’s sizzling
in the Canadian Music Scene, with
thorough coverage of the Juno Awards
and up close and very personal interviews with your favourite musicians.
You can’t beat Gonzo on getting you the
news, gossip, and hey why not a little
fantasy too!
Coming soon, dig out your cowboy
boots and buttless chaps. We’ve got
what’s hot coming straight to you from
the BCCMA (BC Country Music Association) and the CCMA (Canadian
Country Music Association).
4
r
e
t
t
Le
Gordon Lightfoot, Donald Sutherland,
Stevens? Charles Frederick Banting Innovator of insulin, Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, we
invented basketball and five-pin bowling.
Burton Cummings… April Wine, Rush,
Triumph, Bachman Turner Overdrive,
Trooper, Sweeney Todd, Chilliwack,
Tom Cochrane, Bryan Adams, Loverboy,
Platinum Blonde, Helix, Colin James, Jeff
Healey.
Musically speaking, the growing harvest
of Canadian bands seemed to culminate
in the 1990’s when radio stations found
they no longer had to sweat to meet the
CRTC’s 25% Canadian content guidelines. Since then the number of bands
making it big has risen exponentially on a
yearly basis. But it’s not just the golden-haired babes
of the money machine that get lip service
from company brass and comprise the
staple media diet. There’s an Indie scene
bursting at the seams with incredible
talent. Bands are producing and promoting themselves independently, using the
digital medium to carve out a completely
viable and thriving marketplace where
interaction with supporters is up close and
personal. Keeps the big record companies
paying attention as they figure out how to
earn their vittles in this new age of music.
Gonzo Magazine was created to fill the
void of coverage on this thriving new
cultural vista. Not only do we embrace local and national music scenes, we cast our
light into the corners of the vast cultural
landscape to flesh out stories that matter.
The business of Canadian music and Canadian culture is in need of fresh thinking.
In this, our second issue, we take an inside
look at the challenges facing the Idol
industry; our crack culture correspondent,
Trent Jackson talks with Canadian guitar
prodigy, Dave Martone; Adam Sandler
talks about his new movie and his own
storytelling antics at home; there’s a cutting retrospective look back at the legacy
of the Bush administration, we go behind
the scenes with Vancouver producer Dave
(The Rave) Ogilvie and tons more.
If you read something you like - or don’t
like - and have something to say about it,
or if you’d like to suggest an article idea,
drop us an email. Enjoy!
Dean Unger
Senior Editor
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Teena Clipston
604-701-6560
[email protected]
And for those only interested in the
buttless chaps, we will be dipping our
noodle into a little sex in city, Vancouver
style.
That’s not all. Stay tuned for 2010
Olympic coverage, political rants,
celebrity interviews, travel, contests, and
everything Gonzo!
We will not, however, be printing
our favourite drawings, poetry and or
recipes… or any other lame-ass shit. Get
your Gonzo on!
Teena Clipston
Publisher / Editor-in-Chief
Senior Editor
Dean Unger
[email protected]
Creative Director
Jenn Compeau
[email protected]
Advertising
Brad Krauza
250-870-0576
[email protected]
Teena Clipston
604-701-6560
[email protected]
Contributors
Jennifer Conklin, John Kereiff, Lori Wilbur,
Nathan Stafford, Trent Jackson, John S. Hatch, Fred Topel
Subscriptions to Gonzo Magazine
are available for $30 per year + GST www.gonzomagazine.ca
Copyright © 2008. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in
whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher.
All rights reserved.
INput
By John Kereiff
LUCKY
The John Henrys
(9LB Records)
***
SONGS FROM THE STREET
Murray McLauchlan
(True North) ****
On a snowy night in early December, I can’t think of a better way to stay warm
than surrounding myself with the 36 songs on this 2-disc career spanning set.
I hadn’t thought of McLauchlan in years before I saw this in on the shelf at WalMart. As I flipped it over for the track listing, a million memories threw me against
the wall - from the ultra-goofy years of teenagedom in the 70’s, to my first fulltime radio deejay job in 1980, to becoming a father and a marriage casualty. It was
startling to realize that Murray’s music had been in my life for that long.
As the liner notes by Nicholas Jennings point out, “The best writers are alchemists,
wordsmiths whose magic transforms personal experiences into universal truths.”
Whether McLauchlan is singing about growing up, workin’ hard or growing old,
you’ll see a part of yourself in almost every song- and therein lies his magic.
The liner essay also mentions a time, when playing the Philadelphia Folk Festival,
that McLauchlan’s room turned into jam headquarters. As he traded stories and
played songs with Tom Waits, John Prine, Jim Croce, Steve Goodman and Loudon
Wainwright III- how friggin’ cool is that?!?
Centered mainly on that instantly recognizable voice, acoustic guitar and blues
harp these songs are good company, pure and simple. Dig deep on this one and
“Songs From The Street” just might become your new best friend.
KEY CUTS: “Farmer’s Song”, “Shoeshine Workin’ Song”, “Down By The Hemry Moore”,
“Whispering Rain”, “Try Walkin’ Away”, “Red River Flood”
Is there such a thing as garage country? After
spinning the latest from the Ottawa based The
John Henrys, you’ll agree that there is.
“Sweet As The Grain” bounces off of Neil
Young, Steve Earle and Blue Rodeo. The name
comes from traditional songs about a fabled
railroad worker who challenged the first steam
powered drilling machine in a contest of man
against machine. “We picked ‘The John Henrys’
for our name because the story has so many undertones that we can relate to,” says singer/guitarist Ray Sabatin Jr. Indeed, they’ve latched on
to the tradition of story telling songs, something
there isn’t nearly enough of.
There is more to The John Henrys than a
‘country music’ label implies but it’s also not far
off the beam. Besides, according to the photo on
the back cover, they’re not afraid to wear those
swanky silk cowboy shirts with the flowers on
them. Tongue in cheek? Maybe. True, there’s
a Dick Dale-style guitar line that recurs in
“Thought Yourself Lucky”, but that song feels
like The Byrds or Gram Parsons as much as anything else.
If your idea of country is the ultra-slick pleather
that Nashville grinds out these days, you might
not fully grasp this- but if you enjoy a good story,
The John Henrys are your boys.
KEY CUTS: “Ain’t Gonna Drink No More”, “Lost
In The Canyon”, “No More Rock ‘N’ Roll”
5
INput
SWINGING FROM THE
CHAINS OF LOVE
Blackie & The Rodeo
Kings
(True North)
****
What started out in ’96 as a tribute to Canadian
songwriter Willie P. Bennett, turned into a real
band. True North sums up Blackie’s 12 year, five
album career with a ‘Best of ’ that, like a good
book, I just can’t put down.
Blackie & The Rodeo Kings are Tom Wilson ( Junkhouse), Colin Linden (he’s produced
Bruce Cockburn & Colin James) and Stephen
Fearing. They realized there was a tasty chemistry when the three of them got together and
decided to pursue it, particularly after a gig in
Toronto. “I remember it being as rough as a
bear’s arse” laughs Fearing. “We got off the stage”
recalls Wilson, “and we said ‘what the f**k was
that? Whatever it is hey, do you want to do that
again?”
Like many great collaborations, these Kings are
greater than the sum of their parts. From their
own songs to stunning covers of Fred Eaglesmith’s “49 Tons” and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom
Prison Blues”, you’ll have a tough time convincing your stereo to give this one up. Their folk,
blues and rock blend is combustible and the
booklet contains a twenty page history of the
band by Rob Bowman that catches you up nicely
with the group’s history. A ‘Best of ” should make
you want to hear more, and that’s just what this
does.
KEY CUTS: “49 Tons”, “Folsom Prison Blues”,
“White Line”, “Stoned”, “Water or Gasoline”
6
NORTHERN SOUL
54-40
(True North) ***
One of Canada’s most popular bands is back with their first album since 2005. A magnificent “Yes To Everything”. Much to every 54-40 fan’s delight, this disc offers more of
what makes these guys a genuine Big Deal- great riffs, catchy hooks and a driving beat
that makes driving too fast a pantload of fun.
These guys have sold over a million albums, spawning a dozen top ten radio hits that get
you singing along before the first chorus. That continues here as “Snap”, the first single,
has that unmistakable 54-40 sound. Neil Osborne’s voice is instantly recognizable and
the band continues to perfect the craft of songwriting.
There’s a darkness to 54-40’s songs that attracts me. You might expect the title song to be
an uplifting rocker, but it’s a heart-breaking ballad about parents sending their children
off to war and having them come back in coffins. It’s ridiculous that songs like this still
need to be written.
“Northern Soul” will have you tapping your size tens, singing along and thinking, often
at the same time. “Oh my darlin’ how I fell for you/ on the shores of darkness I fell too
soon/ teach me love and how to hold on to your fire.” Yeah, that Neil Osborne sure has a
way with words- whew!
Bottom line: if you like 54-40’s other stuff, you’ll dig “Northern Soul” too.
KEY CUTS: “Northern Soul”, “To Face Your Eyes”, “The Chant”, “Snap”
MediaKit
To Book an ad call
Brad Krauza
250-870-0576
[email protected]
Teena Clipston
604-701-6560
[email protected]
08
An
Interview
with
Adam Sandler
Now that Adam Sandler
is a daddy, he’s making
movies for the whole
family. His latest, Bedtime
Stories, opened on
Christmas day to give
families a heartwarming
laugh while the kids were
home from school. Since
it was a hit, expect to
see more family friendly
comedies coming from
Sandler’s camp.
The star of Billy Madison and Happy
Gilmore, and singer of At a Medium Pace,
hasn’t gone soft though. He’s got an edgy, Rrated comedy in the works with Judd Apatow. In Funny People, a movie in which he
plays a dying stand-up comic alongside Seth
Rogen, will be out this summer.
We caught up with both Sandler the family man and Sandler the comedian over the
holidays.
Q: What kind of bedtime stories do you tell your
own daughter? Do you mostly make them up or
do you read books to her?
AS: I read in the morning to little Sadie. Really, I’m not great at the bedtime stories. The
bedtime stories are supposed to put the kid
to sleep. My kid gets riled up and crazy and
my wife has to come in and go, ‘Alright, get
out of the room.’ But in most of the stories I
make up for her, it’s similar to the movie. She
gives me a subject, and we go from there. Every subject she brings up has to do with food.
It’s always like waffles. Okay, there was a giant waffle and he met a blanket made out of
10
by Fred Topel
pancakes. And then the river made
of syrup they had to cross. I swear
to god, every story, and then at
the end of every story she’s like,
‘Cookies.’
Q: Did she like the movie?
AS: I have a new dog
named Baboo and I
showed Bedtime Stories
to Sadie, who’s two and
a half. I brought home
a copy, a DVD, and she
watched it for about an
hour and overall it was going well until she started saying, ‘Later, later.’
I said, ‘No, come on, let’s finish
it, let’s finish this thing.’ ‘Later,
later,’ she said. And I said, ‘Come
on, we’re almost done.’ And she
said, ‘Baboo, eat Daddy’s movie.’
So I was like, ‘oh all right. It’s not a
good review.’
I hope my kid enjoys the movies I’ve
made and enjoys some of the movies in the future. I don’t think she’s
going to dig them until she’s maybe
14 or 15 or something, or 10, but I
know I’ll continue to show them to
her her whole life, ‘Watch Daddy
now. This won’t affect you the way it
affected all of America.’
Q: What were your favorite bedtime
stories growing up?
AS: The “I Think I Can” story was
big in my life. My sister was going
to dental school and I guess I used to
say it to her all the time because she’d
be crying about how much studying
she had to do and my parents would
put me on the phone with her. We’d
be talking about the little engine that
could and the whole “I think I can,
I think I can,” thing. She said that it
helped her at least smile going through
the stuff. So see all the joy I’ve been
bringing people for so many years?
How about a big hand for me?
Q: Do you want to make more family films in
the future?
AS: Absolutely, I loved it. I had a great time
and it’s bizarre; when the kids are laughing in the audience, I tear up. I think I did
a good thing. I’m happy to hear kids laugh
and I’m happy it gives a place for parents to
take their kids. I keep thinking about grandmas, because of my mother. My mother will
sometimes take my kid to a movie and I’m
like, ‘Oh, that’s going to be cool - grandma
having a nice time with the children.’ I did
have a great time doing it. I’d love to do it
again.
Q: What was it like going back to R-rated
movies after making a kids’ movie?
AS: When I was shooting [Bedtime Stories],
I was like, ‘This feels good. I come home at
night, I see my kids, I feel like I’m a good
person.’ Then, Judd Apatow, he’s a longtime
friend of mine, wrote a movie and asked me
to be in it, and I was like, ‘okay’, and I come
home and feel so filthy, and so sad. I can’t
look the kids’ in the eye sometimes. I’m like
‘Oh god.’ So no, I’m not making every decision due to my children, but I do hope they
never see these other movies. I do want to do
more family friendly movies but it’s not going to be my way life. I’m a comedian.
Q: Did you get any advice from your family
growing up?
AS: I never got a speech from my father:
‘This is what you must do or shouldn’t do’,
but he led by example. He wasn’t perfect. He
had a temper. I took some of that with me.
He would snap sometimes. But as he got
older, he started calming down. He learned
about life, but the thing that he taught my
whole family was that family itself is the
most important thing and no matter what, if
a family member needs you, you find a way
to be there, you go and help out. He made us
feel comfortable, made our family feel comfortable and respectful to other families.
Q: Did you get your sense of humor from him?
AS: Well, part of my father having a temper
led to me developing a sense of humor trying
to calm the old man down.
Q: You act, do music, produce… Which is the
most difficult?
AS: None of them are difficult. I have fun
doing them all. It’s not like I’m a producer
who goes over budget everyday and I have
numbers to run. I produce, I help to get the
best stuff on the screen, that’s all I do. When
I write, I just sit down with my friends and
come up with ideas. When I act, it’s the same
thing. It’s all about team work.
Q: How do you decide which films you want to
be in and which films you just produce?
AS: I don’t know. If it’s something I feel I
can do right, I’ll take it on. Others I think
Schneider and Spade
would be
funnier
at than
me, I tell
them to do it.
Q: Is Funny People
a new kind of challenge
for you?
AS: There have been times when
I’m scared. I’m very sick in the
movie. I find out I’m dying in the
movie and I have to do a lot of stuff like
that. I come into work thinking, ‘Oh
man, this is going to be a rough day,’
and I have to think
about stuff I don’t like
to think about.
Q: You’ve done drama
before though.
AS: I swear to god, doing Bedtime Stories,
that was my dream
when I was young
and I became a comedian. I didn’t come out
here to do movies like
Reign Over Me. That
wasn’t on my mind
as a kid, growing up
where I was like, ‘Oh,
I want to be a movie star.’ I wanted to be
Eddie Murphy, and that’s all I wanted to do.
Then I got these other opportunities and I
tried my best at it. Bedtime Stories is great
because I show up on the set, I’m happy as
can be. I feel good there.
Q: How do you always find roles for Allen Covert and Rob Schneider?
AS: Sometimes it’s like they visit me on the
set and we say, ‘Throw this hat on and say a
line.’ I hang out with those guys all the time,
so if we’re doing a movie, I want to be around
them and try to write something funny they
can use. I usually ask with a threatening tone:
‘Would you like to be in my movie?’ and stare
‘em down. They say yes because I’m bigger
than they are. g
kvi travel
DAVID L’HIRONDELLE
Travel Specialist
[email protected]
Toll Free: 1.877.717.1927
#140 - 2463 Highway 97 North - Kelowna - British Columbia - Canada - V1X 4J2
Ph: 250.980.1600 Fax: 775.416.8022 B.C. REG. # 26896 CLIA# 00-326233
11
A Celebration of
Human Spectacle
by Dean Unger
Since the first of the
recent spate of
eco-documentaries hit the
video store shelf back in
2004, the movie industry
has maintained a regular
staple of DVDs featuring
human stupidity and
excess at the expense of
the environment.
For those of us that can remember, the message hearkens back to the early 1980’s when
David Suzuki began his lifelong campaign
for responsible stewardship of the planet. His
argument still carries weight, dangling there
before us like a mother thrusting Grandma’s
Stieff Teddy Bear in our faces, its arm in one
hand, its limp body in the other, while uttering that dire phrase: just what have you
done?
The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich (2004), Al Gore’s An Inconvenient
truth (2006), the Planet Earth series (2006),
Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour (2007), The
Great Global Warming Swindle (2007)…
doubtless they all pose important questions,
and are reasonably entertaining. But are we
getting the message? Are we acting on the
information? Or are we simply allowing ourselves to be entertained?
Human folly and general apocalyptic conjecture is not new in the movie realm either.
Low-budget, B-movies featuring the demise
of the planet first started flickering on the
silver screen as early as 1933, with Deluge
and When Worlds Collide. The early forebears of the genre reached a plateau in the
late 1970’s and into the eighties with China
Syndrome and Silkwood, and culminated
in the nineties with Erin Brockovich. From
there the camera angle slowly shifted away
from movies featuring plot lines with a hint
of social conscious, to the other end of the
continuum: fear-mongering and self-deprecating big budget epics like Earthquake,
and the undersold Children of Men, to Lisa
Simpson’s Lake Springfield pollution lecture:
“An Irritating Truth”, a laconic treatment of
an environmental catastrophe created by
Homer Simpson.
Recall for a moment, the first horror flick you
saw as a kid and how for months after, alone
in your room, you were terrified at the possibilities that lay hidden under the bed. Five,
perhaps six movies and several years later the
edge had worn off; the genre no longer carried the same wholesale investment in fear.
Could not this sobering procession of human spectacle movies desensitize us to the
reality of the impact we have on the planet
and dull our inclination? I’ve already seen
Gore and DiCaprio’s films, do I need to see
another DiCaprioesque oratory – a shuffled
deck of facts and a somber-faced narrator,
barely breathing, uttering his funeral dirge.
Many producers would argue that all they can
do is deliver the goods. They can do nothing
to ensure that the lines between entertainment and a force for real quantifiable change
are not blurred. In perhaps a weak-kneed effort to establish credibility, many apocalyptic
feature movies incorporate a statement by
some well-thought scientist or environmental group figure-head as to the efficacy of the
movies premise.
In an interview for Timesonline, Tony
Mitchell, director of the London disaster
movie Flood, spoke about the timeliness of
the movie and its potential effect on viewers.
He explained that he didn’t want his audience leaving the cinema in a somber depression and seemed to make the distinction
that his movie was purely for entertainment
value: “Let’s not get carried away with ourselves, global warming can be a mood killer.
I don’t think that people who see the film
will be quaking in their boots and worrying
about their homes.” Yet the threat is very real
for many people.
Conversely, Some may argue that war is
very real in many places in the world yet
we continue to make movies about it purely
for entertainment value. Most of us believe
wars are something we are powerless to affect so don’t entertain the notion of trying to
change policies or potential outcomes. War
is something that happens outside our realm
of influence, fomented and carried out by
“they” and “them”.
Trouble is, where foreign policy is concerned
we have our finger on the collective trigger.
If something isn’t working we simply change
our policy, our approach, and change the
outcome. The environment is a different sort
of creature. We have no control over forces
we’ve set into motion decades if not centuries ago. And many people in positions of
power seem oblivious to these consequences,
even when they are beat over the head with
the Kyoto Accord and receive paternalistic
admonishments from Mr. Suzuki. Rest assured, the environment and global warming
will continue to be a campaign platform, and
fodder for the Hollywood grist mill… as
long as it is in vogue.
A list of the various travesties brought about
by human ignorance here would be redundant. We have established a dependable track
record clearly showing our ineptitude at responding appropriately to curb our behavior
to avert environmental disaster. The consequences of global Warming are just another
inevitable result in our portfolio of human
ignorance. Though admittedly, Al Gore did
do a service to humankind, as mentioned,
Mr. Suzuki has been packaging and repackaging the same message for decades. And the
ground has come slowly indeed.
Human folly has become a spectator sport,
kindred to the Roman coliseum: look what
it’s like to be eaten by a lion; kindred to public executions: look what will happen if you
steal bread or miss church?
We need to resist the urge to sit on our respective couches with mouthfuls of popcorn
muttering indignantly at “they” and “them”,
“the faceless corporation” that plows ahead
oblivious to consequence, the nameless mass
of people streaming down metropolitan
streets in their SUV’s, bumper to bumper on
clogged superhighways.
Will big budget movies make a difference?
Probably not. Will Al Gore and DiCaprio
make a difference? Only to the degree that
people realize this is not entertainment but
a call to action. Will Hollywood continue
to make eco-documentaries? Patricia A.
Michaels, environmentalist and nature photographer so aptly points out, “the degree to
which the environment stays front and center ultimately depends on how well it sells.
As the well worn saying goes; the color of
Hollywood is green”. g
13
Cast
Iron
Music
Pushing the
boundaries
with Canadian
guitar prodigy,
Dave Martone
By Trent Jackson
Dave says he’s tired of fighting
with snow and empty bottles
and girls and obligation. Being holed up in his East Side
home is getting to him. He
tells me they just got nailed
with another dump of snow
and that he expects to be stuck
in the house for three days eating food and sleeping.
It’s some body’s idea of a cruel joke – the worst
kind to play on a society of coastal city dwellers
who are used to a temperate climate; weather
that’s usually mild-mannered, like the country itself. This is weather they’ve not seen the likes of
for as long as the young can remember and the old
care to forget.
So much for Global Warming he says.
What Global Warming? I can feel the Klutlan Ice
Cap pushing at my rubber-soled hi-tops as I battle
the creeping glacier with a rum and coke in one
hand and a blow-torch in the other.
I decide right off that this man and I have something in common.
I hear he’s somewhat of a minstrel so I ask him
when he started playing; about the first time he
heard the melodious pinning’s of steel string over
wood; the very moment he was struck with epiphany after which his life would never be the same.
“I started playing around 10:30 this morning,” he
says, laughing. “What a fucking ass-hole eh?” he
says of himself. I tell him I couldn’t yet agree as I’d
only just met him.
“No. Really. I started when I was six years young.
A long time ago. I didn’t even want to play the
guitar. My father forced me to play. It was the
repetitive beatings that did it for me. That’s what
fathers’ want – they want their sons to live the life
they had lost, and failing that, they want them to
follow-in their footsteps.”
Dave tells me when the beatings stopped working,
his dad would bribe him with money.
“He would pay me ten cents an hour to play. We’d
keep track on a calendar on the fridge. At the time
I had an obsession with Hot Wheels so I would
save up money from the hours of classical composition torture and then as penance I’d go out and
buy the best cars on the market with the blood
money I’d earned.
“Classical was all I knew. After playing a couple of
years I was starting to actually enjoy it. As far as I
was concerned, guitar was a clean instrument,” He
pauses looking out the window, at the snow.
“I guess the epiphany really happened when a
friend of mine brought over Black Sabbath’s
Greatest Hits. I shit my pants when I heard that
album. At that point I’d never heard anything like
it. Imagine a little kid always hearing antiseptic
classical music and all of a sudden hearing Iommi
cranking out his wicked riffs. The guitar is screaming, and the drums are pounding and Ozzy is biting the heads off people. When it was over I’m sitting there thinking, what the fuck just happened?”
Dave tells me that after his virginity was inadvertently stolen by the unholy trinity known as Black
Sabbath, Dave immediately sought council with
his father.
“Then the beatings really started,” Dave laughs.
Dave started writing when he was seventeen, after making the pilgrimage to Fanshawe College, a
recording and engineering school in London, Ontario, where he cut his teeth academically.
“At the time my biggest influence was Yngwie
Malmsteen, and everything I wrote and played
emulated Malmsteen, which was of course ridiculous because the guys a monster.”
At this point it occurs to me that, as a matter of
course, someone should have advised a more practical trade?
“It’s like I said - my Dad, he’s the one who forced
me into it,” says Dave. “He was a bricklayer all his
life, and before I went off to school, he had me
work with him. He worked me like a freakin’ dog;
ten hour days carrying twelve inch blocks with
your hands. I went threw industrial strength gloves
like silk underwear on a truck driver. My hands
were crippled. Then I had to go to band practice
after that. At the end of it, just before I went off to
college, Dad took me aside and said, ‘You worked
really hard. I wanted to show you what it’s like to
have to work a shitty job every day of your life. I
hope that you don’t have to do what I did. So go
and make a career in music. Do what you love.’
“You know if you’re lazy in this industry
you’re not going to get anywhere. Whose gonna do
it for you? I’m glad that he made me carry those
twelve inch blocks around.”
Before talking to Dave, I spent several days listening to his music. I could tell straight away he was
trying for something, the bigger picture, trying to
get behind the cozy veneer of modern convention;
he lived and played on the fringes of accepted
forms, and at one point in his storied career, played
that raucous brand of heavy metal called thrash
– the kind of music that threw beer in your face
and hugged you all at the same time; that kicked
you when you were down and helped you back up
again so you could keep partying. I couldn’t help
but point out it wasn’t a huge market segment. I
wondered aloud if he still dabbled in thrash or was
it merely a phase?
15
“I used to play in a thrash band,” Dave
agrees. “ I used to listen to Anthrax – Fistful of Metal, Raven, Helloween – Walls of
Jericho, Slayer, early Metallica. I never really
enjoyed the solos though. Looking back, it
seemed like a lot of nonsense. I was in it for
the heavy riffs.
“I really have lost my taste for progressive
metal. For me it became too angular, too
clinical, too mathematical and predictable.
Not like punch-you-in-the-face or anything,
but it lacked the weirdness that I covet now.
“My style was informed also from listening to Art Rock, like Dream Theatre, and
Rush, too, was a big influence. By the late
nineties I was more or less finished with the
genre. In 1999, when we had finished with
the Zone album, there was a song we did
called Seventh Dimension. It was ridiculous
– it was like thirteen minutes long. It was
one of those epic songs that were big in the
seventies and eighties – lots of melody. But
Ridiculous nonetheless. It’s really ridiculous
and I’m not ever going to write anything like
that ever again. But I think everyone has to
go through their periods of development. It
all influences what they eventually become.”
Now he’s a philosopher too. Great. I try to
throw something cerebral at him, just to
see if it’ll stick. I ask him, ‘Does everything
spring from what has gone before? Is it really possible to come out doing completely
your own thing? Is it something you have to
think about? Or does it just fall in your lap,
the way a warm pizza might fall in your lap
when you’re drunk and hungry?’
At first it’s as if he doesn’t quite know what
to say. There’s an awkward pause.
“I listen back to the stuff I was writing when
I was trying to be like Malmsteen and I’m
amazed I couldn’t see how retarded I was
being. I mean, the guy was a master - he’d
already done it, so there was no point in my
trying to do the same thing again. There are
so many people that do that in the music
industry – basically replicate what someone
else has already done. The point is, most successful musicians get big because they came
out doing something different from the
start. Sure there are others who come along
and mimic what’s already been successful but
they will never be as big as whoever did it
first. They just imitate. Myself included. It’s
like I said, when I started out it was about
copying what had already been done. I had
nothing to say that was new or original.
“By the time I was 21 or 22, I was going to
Berklee College in Boston, and I made a pact
with myself: ‘starting today, I’m not going to
play anyone else’s stuff anymore. I’m going to
stop playing everybody’s licks and only play
what I have of my own. In order to do this
16
I had to imagine that if I did play anyone
else’s stuff I was going to be shocked with
twenty-thousand volts of electricity and be
killed instantly. That was my mantra.”
I flinched. I couldn’t decide whether this
man was mad or brilliant… Perhaps a bit
of both. He told me that for the first year
of his pact, he played the worst shit he’d every heard in his life. He persevered; digging
deeply into the vagina of Hathor, Goddess
of Rock; throwing stones at the three lesbian muses, distracted as they are with their
own beauty. Like Odysseus, Dave returned
from his long inward journey holding up
the reward: his own voicing, his own way of
relating to the guitar, the guitar itself, now
his loyal bitch.
“I taught myself to listen to music differently,” Dave says. “I taught myself to listen
to different music. All of a sudden I noticed
some of the elements I was hearing starting to creep into what I was playing and
it began to take shape. I started to think
about the guitar and music as “sound” and
to experiment with it. It wasn’t about subconsciously thinking about creating my own
sound; it was basically trying not to imitate
other peoples sound. Doing that resulted in
something completely my own, what people
now call the Martone sound – whatever the
hell that means.”
The whole thing had taken an unexpected
turn. I realized at once I would be remiss
not to try to wring some sonorous nugget of
truth from this man for anyone who’d care
to read the ramblings of this half-cooked
Don Juan.
I’d have to think on my feet. I suddenly
recall a conversation I’d overheard in the
room next to me at some dive that had been
inundated by a busload of groupies from a
Metallica concert.
“It sounds as though you like to hit very dip,
bend and peak. This seems to be one nuance
that at least in part defines your style,” I say,
pausing for a drink of Rum. “Do you find it
a challenge to play the back-beat or build
tension by manipulating what you don’t hit
as much as what you hit?
Dave laughs. “Good question,” he says, my
ruse undetected. “It’s a symptom of a young
player. As your music education and your
awareness grows, as you evolve as a musician,
it becomes more about the space in between
the notes that make the notes act and react
up with one another. It’s as much about the
notes you don’t hit as the ones you do. And
you can’t tell that to a young player.
“My dad kept saying to me when I was
young, ‘turn that cast iron music down.’
I would say, ‘Dad its called metal.’
‘I don’t care what the fuck it’s called,’ he’d
say. ‘Turn the fuckin shit down.’
So I realize now that it’s the space you put
in front of something that’s important. For
instance if you have a band that likes to play
fast, if you listen to them play fast for four
or five minutes, you get bored. It doesn’t
sound as effective as when they first started.
On the other hand, if you have timing and
hesitation and anticipation, you can build
up from something that might be mellow
into something incredible that just slams
your face into the wall - because it’s such a
contrast. It’s one of the things I like to play
with. It’s one of the key ingredients in my
music and my experimentation.
“I used to think in terms of systems and
theory of music but now I play by ear – I
go where it sounds like the music should go.
It’s like passing through doorways into the
next logical passage.”
Now he’s on a roll. It’s like I’m not even
there. So I let him go.
“…It’s a question that comes up a lot. When
it comes to writing songs many people get
lost in structure. I try to get my students
to think about structure. I ask them to
pick their four or five favourite songs and
pick apart the arrangement – I don’t mean
theory wise, I mean simple structure; how
many measures in the first verse, how many
in the second, is there a bridge? How many
measures in the chorus and so on. And what
happens is they’ll probably see a similarity
in their top four favourite songs and go, ‘Oh
wow I had no idea’. It’s an exercise in perception. You start to see the big picture – the
song will lead up to its logical conclusion;
the ending is the sum of its parts. Suddenly,
for most people, looking at it this way, song
writing starts to make sense.
I try to get across that there are really only
twelve notes in music. And you can play either a major variation or a minor variation.
I try to get them thinking about using each
note as a springboard into the next part,
finding their way using as many of the senses as possible – touch, vibration, sight and
sound, sometimes I swear I can even smell
sound. I try to envision it that way.”
While he’s talking, I light a cigarette and
stare out the window at a young man in
an old jean jacket and tattered corduroys,
strumming a beat-up guitar for change on
the corner. I asked Dave if he thought a person should get an education in music before
setting out on the road in search of fame
and fortune. I told him for all his education,
I knew a guitarist with nothing but street
smarts and a fine guitar, could probably
whoop his ass. ‘Lookin at him right now,’
I say.
“I’m not sure how to comment on that. Fine,
go to some of these schools, but your dad
better be a doctor and your mother a lawyer.
Because it’s so much money, it’s absurd. I
think it’s probably cheaper to go to Harvard
to become a lawyer than it is to go to Berklee. And there’s no pay-off to go around saying ‘Oh I got my degree in songwriting for
$150,000 US dollars. Now what?
“But that being said, there are so many
things that they teach there; they teach you
to analyze and to pull apart and dissect. But
it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be
a rock star or be famous. That’s the fallacy a
lot of kids have to overcome. Do it for other
reasons – not to become famous. If it happens to work out that way, great.
“What ultimately winds up happening is a
lot of them end up smoking weed and drinking and they fail. They’re away from home
for the first time and they just can’t even put
two feet in front of each other. To answer
the question, I think that any education,
any information and any knowledge is great
knowledge – all the time and in anything.
It doesn’t mean you have to go to a huge
school. There are so many on-line sites that
teach, there’s so much stuff on YouTube. It’s
out of control.
“Speaking of YouTube, it’s a wonderful tool
for marketing, for breaking in,” he says, stirring me from my trance. I forget about the
busker, thinking I’d better pay attention.
“There’s got to be something to it. You look
at some of the stuff that people are getting
300,000 hits on. All those 300,000 people
are looking at something. That’s not saying it’s not always good – a lot of times it’s
crap. But if all those people are looking at
the crap and know the name of the guy who
made the crap, then it’s got to be good in
some way right?”
The three Rum and Coke’s I’d had since the
interview started were getting to me. Suddenly I felt like I was trying to ride three
bikes at once? I heard somewhere Dave
played with Joe Satriani. He’d played with
Satriani and Vai for that matter.
“I never actually played with Steve Vai. I
hung out with Satriani. I never have partied
with either of them. It’s more of a friendship, business type of thing as opposed to
a let’s-kick-our-feet-up-and-smoke-somecrack kind of thing.
“Basically we are who we hang out with
and we get where we are because we’re not
smoking crack. They’re (Vai and Satriani)
there because they persevered and pushed
beyond the limits of what they believed they
could do. Of course there’s a certain element
of luck and finding the right people too.
“Sound to me is amazing,” Dave says.
“What I did do at engineering and produc-
tion school, I took a lot away from it. I have
this acute sense of hearing. It’s like I’m almost blind and I’m always trying to feel my
away around, to understand the alchemy of
sound. For me, sound is like painting with
colour. When I’m in it, it seems like anything’s possible.
Dave Martone has played professionally for 27
years, with some of the world’s most elite musicians. He’s kept company with 3 Doors Down,
Steve Morse, Jennifer Batten, Paul Gilbert,
Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman, Seymour Duncan, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani and
drum greats Chester Thompson, Mike Portnoy,
Greg Bissionet and Gene Hoglan.
Martone’s last record “Clean” has just been
released by Magna Carta Records from NY
www.magnacarta.net with world wide distribution.
The amazing Daniel Adair (drummer for
Martone ) who also plays with Nickelback as
well as David Spidel were integral in the making of this album!
Martone also works for the National Guitar
Workshop
www.guitarworkshop.
com as well as Berklee College of Music
www.berklee.edu
doing
clinics/master
classes for them. He has directed 3 successful School of Rock Guitar Sessions for
Tom Lee Music in Vancouver Canada.
www.tomleemusic.ca g
Rattling the Bones
Will Obama’s Eloquence be enough to excuse crimes against humanity?
by John S. Hatch
It is generally considered a
courtesy for a newly inaugurated President to overlook any sins of the past
incumbent in the interests
of ‘looking ahead’ and in
the knowledge that the
same good manners will
be repeated after his/her
own end of term.
The most extreme example of this was
Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon after the latter’s ignominious resignation. Arguably necessary for the health of the nation
after its ‘long nightmare’, it was nevertheless
handled badly, and Ford paid a price by becoming a one-term President.
Not to trivialize Nixon’s crimes (and part
of the flawed pardon process meant there
was no allocution, no admission of guilt, no
mention of the many crimes besides Watergate), the three articles of impeachment
[1] mentioned the actual break-in, coverup, including the payment of ‘hush money’,
misuse of the FBI and IRS, ignoring subpoenas, spying, and such matters (remind
you of anyone?).
For these ‘crimes and misdemeanors, he
undoubtedly would have been impeached,
but he resigned to avoid that outcome, and
was pardoned for any of his actions which
might have crossed the line into illegality.
However one might have wished to see Mr.
Nixon brought to account, no one argued
that the pardon itself was illegal. The matter was handled constitutionally, and people
got back to their lives and the nation tried
to move on.
But what of Mr. Bush? It could be argued that his domestic crimes far surpass
anything done by the Nixon Administration, and while some saw Nixon,
Kissinger, McNamara and others
as international war criminals, there again
Bush has far surpassed Nixon in the number and nature of crimes against humanity,
if not the numbers of dead. It’s hard to keep
track once you surpass a million corpses.
[2]
And yet in Bush’s case, impeachment
has always been ‘off the table’ due to the peculiar spinelessness of Nancy Pelosi and the
Democrats, and their willingness to sell out
justice to gain power that they’re too servile
to exercise in any meaningful way.
Having stated that he would request
that his new Attorney General investigate
whether crimes were committed during the
previous Administration, Mr. Obama seems
to be distancing himself from that view, as
if investigating the most serious crimes
known to man would somehow constitute a
distraction. From what? And isn’t that what
Mr. Bush said about an investigation into
9/11 even as the public clamored for one?
An investigation into
America’s
greatest terrorist attack would
distract
f rom
the
war
on terror, said Mr. Bush (or was it Inspector
Clousseau?). [3]
Indeed there would be a lot to investigate: domestic spying on a colossal basis,
domestic illegal detention and torture, misuse of the FBI, ICE and other federal organizations, ignored subpoenas, illegal signing
statements, treason…
The AG would be kept busy on the foreign policy front too. Kidnapping (Italy has
warrants out on 22 CIA operatives with
regard to one case alone), illegal detention,
torture (which we know with certainty was
planned at the top) [4], vile torture - possibly the lowest indulgence of which humanity is capable, embraced with zeal by
an administration which uses terror to fight
imagined terror. (Given a preponderance
of evidence, many of us do not believe that
9/11 was concocted in a cave, but perhaps
in boardrooms a lot closer to home.) Then
there is the matter of two illegal invasions.
Attacking Afghanistan had nothing to do
with capturing Osama bin Laden, who it
seems is more valuable as bogeyman on the
loose, and everything to do with establishing and protecting an oil pipeline. There has
been precious little rebuilding but plenty of
indifferent collateral damage. One woman
who lost her home and her entire innocent
family was called a beggar by American officials and was ordered off American embassy property in Kabul. And there has
been plenty of innocent fodder for Bagram,
Guantanamo Bay, and the many secret dungeons to justify the unjustifiable and bogus
‘war on terror’.
The invasion of Iraq was as absurd as it
was brutal and criminal. The MSM didn’t
report what went on in Fallujah. Indeed,
America seems now in the business of murdering journalists who simply do their jobs
[5], where almost no structure escaped severe damage. Water and power infrastructure were deliberately destroyed. America
did what it falsely accused Saddam of doing in Kuwait—it kicked seriously ill patients out of a hospital in order to make
room for potential American casualties. It
bombed others. American forces prevented
‘military-age’ males, roughly 12-65 years
old, from leaving the city and then declared
a ‘free-fire zone’ on anyone remaining.
They used white phosphorus and thermobaric weapons. They used snipers against
unarmed civilians. They killed, and killed,
and killed. [6] It was like Poppy’s ‘Highway
of Death’, [7] but worse. Congratulations,
Junior, you finally outdid the old man. Not
even animals were spared.
A new day needs to dawn in America,
and that is what President elect Obama
has promised. But that can’t occur if the
past is not acknowledged and reconciled.
A harmless skeleton or two left behind in
a White House closet is one thing. But in
this case the rattling of bones could drown
out Mr. Obama’s eloquent voice and poison his Presidency. If it’s indeed time for
change, then it’s time to stop pretending
that America can do no wrong, and to bring
criminals to justice, whoever they are. g
Notes: [1] Nixon Articles of Impeachment http://www.watergate.info/impeachment/impeachment-articles.shtml [2] Casualties of American Recent Invasions http://www.unknownnews.net/
casualties.html http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War [3] Bush on 9/11 http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/04/b44775.
html [4] Torture from the top http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/06/17/BL2008061701006.html http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten18-2008jun18,0,6744652.column [5] Targeting American journalists http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0209-01.htm http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0218/dailyUpdate.
html http://www.infowars.com/articles/iraq/strawman.htm http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n11857350 [6]Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre http://www.democracynow.
org/2005/11/8/u_s_broadcast_exclusive_fallujah_the [7] Highway of Death http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Death John S. Hatch is a Vancouver writer and film-maker.
The
Canadian
Idol
Experience
by Dean Unger
In the wake of season 7
of Canadian Idol having
been cancelled, season
3, top four finisher, Suzi
Rawn, reflects on her
CI experience – before,
during and after - and
discloses a behind the
scenes perspective of the
pursuit of stardom.
What does it take to win the music
lottery? A combination of the right look,
stage presence, talent and perhaps an element that figures in more than you’d expect: being in the right place at the right
time.
Before making her debut on Canadian
Idol, Suzi Rawn was the front-line for her
Kamloops, B.C. band, King Size Suzi. Together, they toured British Columbia and
Alberta, and recorded two full-length albums over a period of two years, with Suzi
acting as agent, manager and publicist.
In 2005, desperate to gain some
ground in the business, Suzi tried out for
Canadian Idol and made it through to the
top ten. Quickly becoming a fan favourite,
it looked as though Rawn might make the
grade, but wound up being voted off after
making it to the final four.
As proven by the past successes of Idol
undergrads, if a contestant makes a good
showing, develops a solid fan-base, and
places top five, they still have a crack at
making something out of the publicity afforded by being on national television.
The reality of what we see on television is
far from what actually takes place.
“There’s a lot people don’t know,” says
Rawn, “Despite being a better person for it,
the experience left me with some concerns
about the industry and the way people are
treated.”
“Before I chose to try out for Idol, I struggled with the stigma that I would somehow
be selling out what I had been trying to build
with King Size Suzi - a reputation and a
brand. I was worried that if I took the chance
and lost, it would hurt what I had already
done in my career.”
But despite early misgivings, she took the
leap of faith.
“One of the first surprises for me was that
during national audition week, contestants
have to go through not one, but two auditions judged by the show’s producers before
they get to the celebrity judge panel,” Rawn
says. “The really bad ones that wind up humiliating themselves on national television
are chosen for just that reason.”
Like any business, the network and the
record company are in it to make money.
Tight schedules, very little, if any, creative
input and having virtually every moment of
every day scheduled, are all part of the experience.
“Most of the viewers, and the contestants
themselves, go into it thinking that the truly talented will rise to the top and that the
system is an unbiased representation of true
talent,” Rawn says. “Even for those who get
voted off early, Idol has become a viable option for musicians trying to break into the
market, as evidenced by Daughtry, and Hedley lead singer Jacob Hoggard. Before most
of these people became recognizable on the
show, they were unknown’s who had not performed outside their shower stall or in their
car driving to work. On the surface, exposure
on Canadian Idol means - for those lucky
enough to make it to the second audition
stage - their face and their name becomes a
potentially brandable product.”
The elephant in the room however, appears to be the actual process the contestants go through to be part of the show. Past
contestants are saying the opportunity may
not be all it’s cracked up to be, or, at the very
least, was not what they expected. Others are
content to have experienced the lifestyle for a
brief interlude and are happy to let it go like
yesterday’s half-sweet frappacino cup.
For Suzi and her band, the experience proved
initially to be a windfall. “We all felt like we
were on the verge of something big, selling
out shows, selling all our merch, being really
busy and well-known… It really is amazing
when you feel like everything you’ve worked
so hard for is finally showing results. We
were so close we could almost touch it.”
The wave came to a sudden crash after the
record deal was signed. Suzi says she noticed
her band was slowly being forced out of the
equation by record company management
who cited the need for a more professional
look and feel.
“The further you go down the Idol rabbit hole,
the more individual brand power is there for
the taking,” says Rawn. “It’s a great marketing opportunity. Beyond that, be prepared
for the reality of the industry itself. Much of
what happens is beyond the singer’s control.
You are quite literally, along for the ride. The
contracts, should you decide to go through
the Idol and Idol affiliate networks, can literally, if not handled right, wind up holding
your career hostage for several years.”
In the end, even for the contestant who takes
the Canadian Idol title, the ride may only
last as long as the nine months they are on
tour with the Idol entourage. After that, the
star-making machinery is often pulled out
from under them and they are left to fend
for themselves.
For those who are unprepared, it can be a
rude awakening. For those who know some
of what to expect – it can be a great opportunity.
“Just remember going in,” says Rawn, “There
is no free ride.
Case in point: RCA Records announced last
year that it would drop fifth-season runnerup Katharine McPhee, the latest American
Idol finalist to be dropped from the BMG
label following Ruben Studdard, and Taylor
Hicks. McPhee’s camp contends that she
simply wasn’t given the marketing or promotion she needed for longevity in what
boils down to a fickle market.
Is it a case of the product simply not being
what the market wants? Or a case of the
industry clearing the way for the next big
thing? Aka: next year’s idol.
Music producer, and former lead singer of
Moist, Mark Makoway, in his book, “The
Indie Band Bible,” comments on the problem in relation to the industry in general, explaining that most recording funds are often
used up making an album.
“Video expenses are usually charged back to
the artist’s royalty account, so the reality is
that most artists never actually see money
from the sale of their records. Money generated from album sales essentially goes to
make and promote the album. Artist’s do
receive money from other sources: live performance, merchandising, and publishing,
and performance royalties.” Essentially it’s
a money machine geared toward short-term
profit using a cookie cutter formula that is
recycled from year to year.
Jacob Hoggard (Hedley) made the decision to break free from any Canadian Idol
contract obligations and recordings that he
would have had no control over. It was, in
all likelihood, a business decision to use the
platform to promote himself and his band.
Given his success, let history speak for itself.
“Overall I took it so seriously that I kind
of wrecked the glory part of the experience
for myself,” says Rawn. “I wish that I knew
what I know now. As much as the show is
a competition, it was far from it backstage.
It was more a competition against one’s self:
self-confidence, stage fright, performance
capability. Song selection for me was also
very stressful because the themes of the
show were never in my comfort zone and
there was little choice in song selection. We
got to choose from what was available and
what fit the show.”
“Although there were many percs like getting free phones, to special treatment and
national recognition, people have to aware
of the myth around the lure of success and
be real about how the experience will affect
your life regardless of the outcome.”
After all of the legal positioning and her initial disappointment with her experience of
Canadian Idol fame, Rawn says she lost her
passion for music for a while.
“When nothing happened with the band
and the management team I was placed with
after Idol, when I realized the manipulation
behind the whole thing, I went from thinking my lifelong dream was about to come
true, to losing everything: financially, with
relationships, and, I believe, with my integrity as an artist. I had to completely re-evaluate where I was and what I expected from
my career.
“After a time of transition, I started playing
music again with friends, wrote a bit, and
started experimenting with solo stuff, electronically. At the moment I’m transitioning out of Rock and doing a D.J course at
The Rhythm Institute, in Vancouver. I had
to rediscover making music for the joy of it,
not thinking about what “genre” my music
would fit into for radio, or how people would
respond to it in dollar signs. All of that was
antiseptic to my creativity. So this time I’ll
just lay down what I’m into.
“Too much of the time, people get sucked
in and sheltered by their current reality. If
someone from our western culture, with all
the luxuries we take for granted, were to go
and live in a cave in India for a week without all of the things they rely on, they’d sure
learn a lot about who they really are.
At the end of the day, music is part of who I
am, and I’ll always do it.”
Suzi is currently working on her second solo
album in Vancouver, B.C. g
23
Dave
“Rave”
Ogilvie
Reflections of a Record
Producer, Engineer & Re-Mixer
By Nathan Stafford
David Bowie, Nine Inch
Nails, Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue, The
Grapes of Wrath, Killing
Joke, The Odds, Violent
Femmes, Skinny Puppy.
These are a few of Dave
“Rave” Ogilvie’s clients.
Always leaning on the innovative, looking for
what’s new, and not afraid to venture outside
his boundaries, Dave Ogilvie’s journey has
led him around the world and back again.
His studio career began as assistant engineer to the late Bruce Fairbairn (Van Halen,
Aerosmith, Loverboy). Soon, the twentysomething began taking on projects of his
own, usually working in the wee hours of the
night. His first producer credit was on 5440’s critically acclaimed Green Record.
“I was Bruce’s guy at Mushroom. I was assisting on a 54-40 session, and they got
sick of the person they were working with
and asked me to come on-board. I was like,
‘Wow, I ‘d love to.’”
Eventually, studio work led Dave to cross
24
paths with Industrial Rock pioneers Skinny
Puppy. He went on to produce, engineer and
mix 9 albums and 10 - 12” singles for the
band. This injection of new blood helped
Skinny Puppy break new ground, while Dave
established himself as a pioneer of an exciting
new sound that mixed electronic, metal and
Goth.
“With Skinny Puppy, I got to travel a lot. I
met Al Jorgenson from Ministry, ended up
working with him a lot. I met Trent with
Nine Inch Nails, Severed Heads from Australia, and all of a sudden, I was able to leave
Vancouver and get into the international
market, which is a hard thing to do.”
Dave built a reputation early on for experimenting with new sounds, new mediums,
and the use of computers in rock music.
“Back when computers first came along, I
was like, ‘Bring it on!’ Computers are a necessity for us now, and to use them in music
is just second nature.”
Industrial-God Trent Reznor has been a
staunch supporter of Dave’s work, enlisting
him to work on some heavy-duty projects
over the years including Marilyn Manson’s
Platinum-selling record “Anti-Christ Superstar”.
“Making that record was a lot of work because we had to create everything from
scratch. We didn’t use any guitar amps on the
entire record. Basically all we did was work.
Once and a while we’d go out to a movie.
I’d hate it, because we’d all be ready to leave
but we’d have to wait for Manson to put his
make-up on.”
In 1997, Motley Crue hired Dave to work on
Generation Swine. With the return of Vince
Neil, they planned on re-releasing their ’83
hit single “Shout at the Devil”. But there was
just one little snag when they hit the studio.
“We got down to doing vocals, and Neil
couldn’t even come close to hitting the notes.
Finally I just cut my losses and went to Tommy & Nikki and said, ‘I gotta use the old vocals’. I fit the vocal tracks from the original
song into this whole new recording.”
In 1997, Dave worked on the Nine Inch Nails
song “The Perfect Drug”. The song was written for the David Lynch film, Lost Highway,
with subsequent re-mixes released on The
Perfect Drug Versions, or Halo 11, EP.
“I got to deal with David Lynch while we
were doing this, and that was a whole other
concept. Here’s a filmmaker that I love, and
he’s turning to me going, ‘It’s really nice,
Dave, but I think it should be a little more
blue.’ I looked at Trent, who’d been dealing
with the guy for 3 weeks. ‘What does he
mean? What does ‘blue’ mean?’ Apparently
that’s how he perceived things – everything
was on the colour spectrum.”
The Perfect Drug is one of the most successful singles in Canada, sitting in the Canadian Top-50 Singles charts for 208 weeks on
Nielsen SoundScan.
Another Reznor connection came with the
re-mix of “I’m Afraid of Americans” by
David Bowie. Ogilvie produced the re-mix,
featuring rapper Ice Cube. Dave says he narrowly averted disaster with this song. He sent
the tracks to Ice Cube in L.A. where Cube
would add his own vocals and then send the
song back for mixing.
“I put the tape on, and I see they’ve done 4
vocal tracks. So I put on the first track and
it’s West Side Connection and Ice Cube is
going ‘Yeah. Yeah. Come On.’ And you can
hear them opening beers and smoking joints.
Track 2, more of the same. I guess it’s gonna
be on these last 2 tracks. Track 3, more of the
same. Track 4, I got a 20-second bit of rapping. That’s it. We just paid 25 Grand, and
they gave us nothing.”
Despite his disappointment with how things
had progressed, Dave still managed to turn
the track into something interesting. In the
end he managed to loop Ice Cube’s vocals
with Bowie’s and got an unearthly mix like
something from another planet. Bowie must
have been pleased in the end, as the track was
included on a CD/Vinyl Single, which was
released in the U.S. by Virgin.
With such massive success under his belt,
Dave soon had record executives calling him
about his own music.
“One record label approached me and said,
‘Do you have any music that YOU want to
do?’ I said yes, but I never have time, I’m
always working on other people’s records.
They said, ‘Why don’t you give us some of
your demos’ but I didn’t have any at the time.
I had pieces of songs. I didn’t have a singer or anything, but I told them, ‘Yes I have
a singer’, and I thought of Katie B. I liked
her, I liked the sound of her voice, so I approached her and said, ‘Do you want to sing
on some songs? I think I have a record deal,
but I don’t have a band.’ We did some demos,
it turned into Jakalope, and all of a sudden, I
had a record deal and this whole new world
opened up for me, being in a band and labels
and all that. The last four years, I’ve been seeing a whole different side of it.”
The Jakalope project lives on with new singer
Chrystal Leigh, formerly of The Perfect
Strangers and Kelowna/Vancouver band
“Closing Iris”. Check it out online at: www.
myspace.com/jakalope or www.myspace.
com/daveogilvie
You can be sure of more boundary-smashing
music from Dave in the years to come. His
methods are unorthodox, and he gets results.
More than a producer, more than an Engineer. Dave works with a band, he doesn’t just
record them or mix their songs. He becomes
a 5th or 6th member of that band. When
Dave is in the mix, the artist-producer relationship takes on a whole new direction, and
the result is evident in the final product.
“You can’t be lazy. If you want to be lazy, nobody’s gonna notice you,” says Dave. g
Dave’s
Career at
a Glance…
> Dave heard The Talking Heads’
record “Remain In Life”
> Attended recording school in Montreal
> Moved to Vancouver, began working
at Mushroom Studios
> Within 2 weeks of arriving, became
Bruce Fairbairn’s go-to studio assistant
> Produced bands like 54-40, Grapes
of Wrath, The Doughboys on his down
time
> Met Kevin from Skinny Puppy, forged
a relationship with the band
> Ventured outside the Vancouver
Market
> Worked on Nine Inch Nails’ “March
of the Pigs” singles remix album
> Co-produced Marilyn Manson’s
Platinum-selling album “Anti-Christ
Superstar”
> Moved back to Vancouver, had a
family
> Started the band Jakalope, wrote and
produced 2 albums
> Recently recorded 16mm, Birthday
Massacre, Xavier Rudd
> Re-Mixed Puscifer track for Maynard
James (Tool)
To be continued….
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Home of the
Best Country
Music in the
Okanagan!
1978 Kirschner Rd. Kelowna
Night Club &
Liquor Store
28
Salmon Arm
Lori Wilbur on
Still Alive and Well
Festival goers singin’ the
blues over the announcement that the 2009 Pemberton Festival will not take
place this year can find solace in knowing the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues
Festival is “still alive and
well” with acts like Johnny Winter and Bedouin
Soundclash, now signed to
play this summer’s festival,
August 14th-16th.
Once perceived as a
sort of little sister to some of
the larger fests
in the country,
Roots and Blues has developed a reputation
over its seventeen-year history for presenting
line-ups that allow it to hold its own with the
big boys of the western festival circuit like
Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. Worldrenowned artists like the Neville Brothers
who appeared last year, fulfill the crowd’s desire for higher profile acts, but the real appeal
of Roots and Blues lies in its presentation of
lesser known up-and-coming acts like Baskery, who also performed in 2008. The flaxenhaired trio of Swedish sisters’ frenzied banjofunk had the grounds buzzing with as much
excitement as much bigger acts, selling out
their vast CD stock by mid-weekend with
attendees clamoring for more.
The Festival’s solid reputation for this type
of diverse presentation and its topnotch
line-ups are what keeps fans coming back.
“Roots and Blues delivered a great combination of artists last year,” says Andrew
Foulds of London, Ontario who already
has his tickets for the upcoming Festival.
“Everything from newer bands like Plants
& Animals to some of the older bands like
Spirit of the West and the Nevilles. I grew
up in Kamloops so it’s nice to go back and
visit beautiful BC and catch some great
music at the same time.”
Over the years, the Festival’s rural location
in the city of Salmon Arm, BC at the top
of the Okanagan Valley has produced more
than music onsite, spawning some interesting moments for those in attendance with
some of the harshest and also some of the
most breathtaking elements nature could
send its way. In 2001, the tranquil nighttime
skies set a perfect canvas for an organic lightshow as the aurora borealis flickered above
for all three nights of the event, accentuated
by a dazzling display of the Perseid meteor
shower on Sunday night, just prior to Great
Big Sea taking main stage to close out the
Festival. In 2003, forest fires in the region
rained falling ash over audiences for its three
day run, creating an eerie veil overhead while
blackouts in the east that same year also resulted in some of the performers having to
be replaced due to cancelled flights in other
regions.
Never a dull moment to be had at Roots
and Blues. With an iconic blues figure like
Winter who still plays as if his arms were on
fire, and bands like Bedouin Soundclash already onboard, it’s a sure bet the 2009 event
will host one of the most exciting line-ups
to date. Log on to rootsandblues.ca for the
latest on artists being booked and ticketing
information or call 250-833-4096. g
Travelat’s
th
O
Z
N
GO
by Jennifer Conklin
Validity
Matthew Good realized quite recently that someone just
wrote a book about him. He was never interviewed, nor
were any of his family or friends. He assumes that it’s written from things read online and in print. Needless to say
he is rather peeved. I have read biographies about artists
that were not authorized but I always read it knowing it
was an opinion and likely not a true telling of the artist’s
experience.
Taken from Matthew Good’s blog post titled It Never
Ends:
I seem to be under the misguided impression that when someone
pens a biography about you that you do not endorse, nor are
contacted about, that it must be labeled an ‘unauthorized’ biography. Interestingly, someone has taken it upon themselves to write
a biography about me, without my knowledge, that claims to
detail my life based on, well, nothing. I wasn’t interviewed or
contacted, no member of my family was interviewed or contacted, nor were any of my friends. Thus, one can assume that
much of it is based on – I don’t know… Internet history? How
can anyone claim to write about the making of records unless
they interviewed those involved and expect anyone to take it at
face value? I have no idea if it (the book) goes into my personal
life, but that runs the risk of a serious law suit depending on
whether or not inaccuracies were included that were not fact
checked by contacting those that represent me (not to mention
private legal encumbrances that would land certain parties in
serious hot water).
Beyond that, the title of the book is hideous – “Ghosts In the
Machine”. Not exactly original. Then again, it looks to have
been published by a very small company or one of those ‘do it
yourself ’ deals, so I suppose that’s to be expected.
I haven’t read it, nor do I plan to. In fact, I don’t sanction it
whatsoever as any representation of me, my work, or my personal history.
Because Matthew Good is very open online about his life I guess
one could assume they had the makings of a bio-book, but come
on! I read his blog daily, I’ve read the old school manifestos; I’ve
even exchanged emails with him on occasion and had the pleasure of having an online spat with his ex-wife. Could I write a
book? Of course. Would I? Nope.
It’s a little too paparazzi for me. Putting someone’s life to paper
without even having spoken to him or her directly makes the
whole process dirty somehow. So, no, I will not be buying this
book.
Stalker Scariness
Bryan Adams, now living in the UK, has a Romanian
mom/son stalker team on his trail. Adams, who has a
home in Chelsea, signed an autograph for the mom and
son in a London restaurant and they proceeded to follow
30
Trent Reznor
him around and wouldn’t leave him alone.
According to the Daily Mail, Adams went
to the police and they advised him on some
safety issues and helped install a panic alarm
but thus far it is all still being investigated.
If Bryan Adams can’t live a low profile life,
stalker free, there isn’t much hope for anyone
who is afflicted with the curse of fame.
I know, I know, it’s in the job description. Do
you think Britney Spears signed up for what
her life has become? My teenager recently
made me watch Britney’s For the Record
documentary. Couldn’t help but feel a lot
of empathy for the young tart. At one point
when she said she did not know a life any
different than the one she’s got, all the attention, camera flashes and parasitic hangers-on.
I started to see her more as a regular person
trapped in a really fucked-up realm of reality.
She is as easy to dismiss as she is to covet. I
am not saying she is my new BFF or anything (I’d need a reality TV show to pick a
new one of them!) but you can’t help but feel
a little sorry for the flailing lass.
Speaking of Lame
Is it just me or does the new Nickelback album, Dark Horse, sound just like all their
previous records? I am sure this isn’t news to
anyone so I don’t know why I am going to go
off about it but I am.
They have clearly found a formula that works
for them; it generates income, wins them
awards, and brings them fame. But much
like most popular music acts of our time, I
find myself unable to make mention of art or
quality whilst discussing this bands music.
I admit right off the bat I have never purchased a Nickelback album but I somehow
know all their older radio hits. These days I
listen to a radio station that refuses to play
any Nickelback songs (The Zone 91.3 FM
in Victoria, BC). This prompted me to go to
their website where I listened to “Gotta Be
Somebody”. Yeah…it sounds like any/every
other NB song I have ever heard. I will go
out on a limb and ASSUME the rest of the
album is more of the same.
It’s catchy I guess, but so generic. The older I
get the more I expect from the music I listen
to. I already have a collection of the mindnumbing crap from when I was a teenager,
now I want music to mean something, tell a
story worth hearing, make me reach deep and
gawd forbid: THINK. I want to be amazed;
I do not want to be fed something generated
to perpetuate a mindless market.
Currently I can download ANY music I
want to for free, yet I still buy albums because I want to support artists and their art.
Nickelback to me is a machine, punching out
the same crap they always have, no evolution,
no growth.
As William Shatner would say “I can’t get
behind that!”
Reznor Resonates
Saw Nine Inch Nails Dec 5th in Victoria.
WOW. I am not a fan of big arena shows but
Mr. Reznor and Co. kicked my ass. Not only
was the music in fine form, the stage show/
lighting/visual effects were astounding. It
was reminiscent of seeing Tool at the same
venue a year prior.
They had cameras set up around the venue,
projecting on the giant screen at the back of
the stage. The screen was split into boxed sections, some of the boxes were showing live
images, some were showing pre-recorded
images/video (someone bent over a washroom sink getting their hump on), some were
showing a live feed of fans rocking out, the
band, etc.
During “Closer”, Trent Reznor would move
out of sight, to the rear of the stage and sing
into the camera positioned to project onto the
giant back screen. “Hurt” was incredible live,
despite the young drunk girl who wouldn’t
stop screaming like a banshee in my ear.
It was all really amazing.
I got a great laugh out of the venue’s stand
on cigarettes. It was widely publicized that if
you showed up with cigarettes in your pocket
or bag you would not be permitted entry
until you got rid of them. Fair enough. As a
non-smoker I am a little bit in love with the
“smoking in public” crackdowns but that’s
just me. The funniest part of it was, once inside and seated, the smell of pot smoke hit
you like a cement truck. Nice work guys.
Chad Kroeger
31
Editor’s letter
s
t
r
s
e
t
c
n
e
n
v
o
c
&e
> Jan 15 - Vancouver
Tha Railway Club
Bob Kemmis, Ben Sures,
Poor Elijah
www.therailwayclub.com
> Jan 15 - Vancouver
O’Doul’s Restaurant & Bar
Live Jazz
Karin Plato Trio
www.odoulsrestaurant.com
> Jan 16- Vancouver Rio Theatre
All Ages Show
Kathleen Edwards
www.livenation.com
> Jan 16 - Kelowna
The Habitat
Music BC Interior Office
Launch Party
w/live entertainment
www.musicbc.org
> Jan 16 - Vancouver
The Railway Club
Team Winston Showcase
Wanting, Nat Jay, Savannah
Leigh Band, Winston
www.therailwayclub.com
> Jan 16 - Vancouver
Trees Organic Coffee
Friday Music Night
Various Artists
www.treescoffee.com
> Jan 16 – Cumberland
The Waverley
Mobadass
Feat. Wide Mouth Mason
co-founder Earl Pereira
www.waverleyhotel.ca
> Jan 17 - Victoria Sugar Nightclub
The Return of Los Furios To
The Island
Los Furios,
Brave New Waves
www.ticketweb.ca
> Jan 17 - Vancouver
The Media Club
Sex With Strangers
Adjective, The SSRI’s,
ACCOST
www.themediaclub.ca
> Jan 17 - Victoria
Alix Goolden
Performance Hall
Kathleen Edwards,
Dustin Bentall
www.ticketweb.ca
> Jan 18 - Victoria
Lucky Bar
Atomique Productions and
Kool FM Present…
Lights, Chad Michael Stewart
www.ticketweb.ca
> Jan 18 - North
Vancouver
Capilano College Performing
Arts Theatre
Cap Folk & Roots
Les Yeux Noirs
(604) 990-7810
> Jan 21 - Vernon
Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre
Rebuild Hurlburt Presents…
Randy Bachman
www.ticketseller.ca
> Jan 22 - Vancouver
Richards on Richards
AMS Events Presents…
Hey Ocean!
www.amsevents.ca
> Jan 22 - Victoria
Logan’s Pub
Island Metal Feast
Archon Legion, Unleash The
Archers
www.loganspub.com
> Jan 23 - Vancouver
The Balmoral
Princess Productions Presents…
Cockney Rejects
www.ticketmaster.ca
> Jan 23 - Vancouver
Pat’s Pub & Brewhouse
The Stereo Three Do Pat’s
Pub!
The Stereo Three, Rockpile,
The Living Deadbeats
www.patspub.ca
> Jan 23 - Vancouver
The Railway Club
CITIZENS FOR AIRPLANES
CD RELEASE
Citizens for Airplanes, Matthew Walko, Carlo Dizio, Way
to go Einstein
www.imuproductions.com
> Jan 23 - Vancouver
The Commodore Ballroom
> Jan 22 - Vancouver
Richards on Richards
AMS Events Presents…
Hey Ocean!
35
Editor’s letter
s
t
r
s
e
t
c
n
e
n
v
o
e
c
&
Randy Bachman & Wil
www.livenation.com
> Jan 23 - Coquitlam
Red Robinson Show Theatre
Honeymoon Suite, Prism
www.ticketmaster.com
> Jan 24 - Vancouver
The Media Club
Tenant
Dreams of Treason, Cry
of Silence, Finite State
Machines
www.imuproductions.com
> Jan 24 - Courtenay
Old Church Theatre
A Winter’s Eve Concert
Strathcona Symphony
Orchestra
(250) 337-5205
> Jan 24 - Victoria
Metro Theatre
Atomique Productions
Presents…
Jeremy Fisher, Hannah
Georgas
www.ticketweb.ca
> Jan 24 - Victoria
Sugar Nightclub
Rotting Christ
Manic Ritual, Epicurean
atomiqueproductions.com
> Jan 24 - Kelowna
O’Flanagans Pub
Mountainstock Music
Festival
Hardwire Spears, Girl Goes
Electric & More
mountainstockfestival.com
> Jan 24 to Feb 1
Prince George
Various Venues
COLDSNAP MUSIC
FESTIVAL
Alex Cuba, Marc Atkinson
Trio & More
www.coldsnapfestival.com
> Jan 25 - Vancouver
The Media Club
Pro Soul Alliance
Launch Party
Performances by Pro
Soul Artists
www.prosoul.com
> Jan 26 - Vancouver
The Centre in Vancouver for
Performing Arts
Theory Of A Deadman
www.ticketcity.com
> Jan 27 to Feb 7
Vancouver
Performance Works
34
PuSH International
Performing Arts Festival
Dean Wareham,
Gunshae & More
www.pushfestival.ca
> Jan 30 - Victoria
Sugar Nightclub
Bison BC, Hierophant,
Crown the Wolf
www.sugarnightclub.ca
> Jan 30 - Victoria
Soprano’s
The Switchblade Valentines
www.ticketweb.ca
> Jan 31 - Vancouver
The Red Room
Magnetized
Productions Presents…
Nylithia, Red Ant Army
www.myspace.com/magnetizedproductions
> Jan 28 - Duncan
Duncan Garage Showroom
Colin Linden
www.duncangarageshowroom.ca
> Jan 28 - Vancouver
The Orpheum
KODO DRUMMERS OF
JAPAN
(604) 665-3050
> Jan 30 - Vancouver
The Bourbon
TARL, JORDAN CARRIER,
Colette Trudeau
www.imuproductions.com
> Jan 30 - Vancouver
The Railway Club
LOS CAMINOS CD
Release Party
Los Caminos, Swank,
MEXICAN DRUG PATROL
www.imuproductions.com
> Jan 31 - Vancouver
The Bourbon
The OUTLIERS STOLEN
GEAR FUNDRAISER
The OUTLIERS, Black Mondo
Grass, ANATHEMATIC
www.imuproductions.com
> Jan 31 - Vancouver
Richard’s On Richards
Divine Brown
www.livenation.com
> Feb 1 - Metchosin
New St. Mary’s Church
Touchig Bass With
The Classics
Sooke Philharmonic
Chamber Players
www.sookephil.ca
> Feb 1 to Feb 8
Victoria
Various Venues
The Victoria Film Festival
victoriafilmfestival.com
> Feb 1 to 11 - Vancouver
Norman Rothstein Theatre
The Emperor of Atlantis
Live Staging
www.cityoperavancouver.com
> Feb 2 - Vancouver
The Commodore Ballroom
Cradle Of Filth
w/ Satyricon, Septic Flesh www.livenation.com
> Feb 3 - Surrey
Bell Performing Arts Centre
Jaydee Bixby, The Higgins
www.livenation.com
> Feb 5 - Victoria
Sugar Nightclub
Bob Marley Birthday Bash
Rasta Reuben, Selassie
iPower, Fredlocks Asher
www.ticketweb.ca
> Feb 5 - Prince George
CN Centre
Loverboy
www.onlineseats.com
> Feb 6 - Vancouver
The Orpheum Theatre
Vancouver 2010 Cultural
Olympiad
Broken Social Scene, Tegan
And Sara
www.showtimetickets.com
> Feb 6 - Nanaimo
Port Theatre
Bob Marley Birthday Bash
Fredlocks Asher and Rasta
Reuben
www.porttheatre.com
> Feb 6 - Vancouver
The Beaumont Stage
Vancouver City Limits
Wanting
www.myspace.com/wanting
> Feb 7 - Vancouver
The Bourbon
The DARKEST OF THE
HILLSIDE THICKETS
www.imuproductions.com
> Feb 8 - Vancouver
The Commodore Ballroom
Meshuggah
www.livenation.com
> Feb 8 - Kamloops
Interior Savings Centre
The Rankin Family
www.onlineseats.com
> Feb 9 - Kelowna
Kelowna Community Theatre
Bryan Adams
www.onlineseats.com
> Feb 10
Saltspring Island
Artspring
Daniel Okulitch
www.artspring.ca/tickets
> Feb 11 - Vancouver
The Commodore Ballroom
LYKKE LI, Wildbirds and
Peacedrums
www.timbreproductionsconcerts.com
> Feb 12 - Vancouver
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Sarah McLachlan
www.sarahmclachlan.com
> Feb 12 - Vancouver
The Red Room
Wide Mouth Mason
www.myspace.com/magnetizedproductions
> Feb 13 - Vancouver
The Commodore Ballroom
Murder City Devils
www.sealedwithakisspresents.com
> Feb 13 - Vancouver
The Railway Club
DANNY ECHO CD RELEASE
PARTY
Danny Echo, Cinderpop,
Arctic
www.imuproductions.com
> Feb 13 - Sidney
Mary Winspear Centre
Double Diamond, TUSK
(250) 479-3076
> Feb 14 - Nanaimo
Red Martini Grill
The Lounge Lizards
(250) 753-5181
> Feb 16 - Vancouver
St. James Community Hall
Rogue Folk Club
Stephen Fearing, Dave
Gunning
www.roguefolk.bc.ca
> Feb 17 - Vancouver
Vancouver Public Library
Central Branch
Music of the Whole World
(FREE show)
Vancouver Inter-Cultural
Orchestra
604-331-3716
> Feb 17 - Victoria
Element Nightclub
Kardinal Offishall
www.elementnightclub.ca
> Feb 17 - Victoria
Sugar Nightclub
Kool Keith
atomiqueproductions.com
> Feb 18 - Vancouver
The Bourbon
Three Chord Rebel Productions Presents…
PAYDAY MILLIONAIRE,
The Emangolons
www.myspace.com/
gordberry
Feb 20 - Vancouver
The Biltmore Cabaret
A.C. Newman
www.biltmorecabaret.com
> Feb 20 - Vancouver
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
David Byrne, Brian Eno
www.livenation.com
> Feb 20 - Victoria
Lucky Bar
The Laundronauts
www.myspace.com/
cloveandanchor]
> Feb 22 - Vancouver
Richard’s on Richards
The Yardbirds
www.rockitboy.com
> Feb 23 - Victoria
The Red Jacket
LA Riots
atomiqueproductions.com
> Feb 26 - Victoria
Royal Theatre
Bill Frisell, Russell Malone
www.jazzvictoria.ca
> Feb 27 - Vancouver
The Commodore Ballroom
Hawksley Workman
www.ticketmaster.ca
> Feb 27 - Esquimalt
Esquimalt Legion
Mile Zero
www.milezero-band.com
> Feb 27 - Port Alberni
Capitol Theatre
Shona Le Mottee
(250) 724-3412
> Feb 27 - Duncan
Duncan Garage Showroom
Prevedoros, Golden and
Joy duncangarageshowroom.ca
> Feb 28 - Vancouver
The Peanut Gallery
(436 West Pender)
Hard Feelings,
Defektors, B-Lines
www.myspace.com/
toothextratction
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