SOME WICKED: Dashiell Brown's Blog

John Brown, Newfoundland spoken word aficionado, did his thang on The New Spin with David Day backing him on guitar with some great alt-tuned licks that remind me of John Fahey and other instrumental acoustic guitar greats. I saw these guys down at Natalie Noseworthy’s open-mic night at the Hava Java, and John Brown has been going down there for more than a year now. John Brown initially started at the now defunct Turner’s Tavern.

Here’s the New Spin Podcast of John Brown and David Day, otherwise known as The Hip Replacements. This also features the hit “Once I Went On Medication.”

in sound,

dashiell brown

Hear all my other New Spin Podcasts.

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(photo by Tom Cochrane)

Dan Trouble performed on The New Spin last month as she was getting ready to audition for a major label in Toronto. Here she is playing at The Bovine Sex Club on Feb. 23, opening for Manitoba’s The Brat Attack. We talked about her latest EP Horses with Lazers and why she plays in DADGAD tuning so often.  Jordan Young also made a special guest appearance, backing her up on guitar.

Here is the whole podcast for your listening pleasure.

Dan Trouble will be touring the mainland this summer with her new outfit DT & the Dinosaurs, including J Young on bass. And don’t forget every Tuesday night at CBTG’s, DT with her co-host Andrew Mast host a variety show, opening the stage to a “wonderful host of randoms, hooligans and sometimes even musicians. It’s the only show in St. John’s where you’ll see a Jazz pianist, Ska trio and a Thrash Metal band on the same night on the same stage. ” Thanks, Uke!

Want more podcasts? Here are all the live shows/interviews I’ve had on The New Spin.

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It’s RPM time again, where you record an album only in February, the month of the blah’s. I recorded one last year called Circuit Tree and it was quite the experience. Though I have only just begun to sample some of the albums, I was excited to see that AE Bridger, along with Justin Guzwell, made one this year. AE Bridger is one of the most exciting acts to see downtown here in St. John’s, and rather than reaching for a cup of coffee to wake you up, might I suggest listening to People on Pause for the kind of jolt you probably didn’t know you needed to nudge you out of whatever reverie you might currently be finding yourself in.

People on Pause barrage you with an experimental, psychedelic wash of loosely-based pop music to keep you groovin’, and throwing in a circus of noise and sonic play akin to getting hit with a taser gun lest you get too comfortable. Any fan of Les Claypool’s more experimental side will understand. Remember Sausage?

Even better, you can listen to the whole album online at the RPM site, as well as many others. Highlights from People on Pause are Girl From Blight, Jack-O-Lantern, and Black Mice.

You can also read my review for AE Bridger’s album, I am a Ghostly Leech.

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On his latest album with his latest band, Patrick Molloy and The Manifest’s Who Will Listen? is bold, italicized, and even underlined. He is clearly shooting for the moon on this one, channeling the progressive power rock of Rush a la Vapor Trails, with an Ozzie Osbourne-like wail that sounds surprisingly fresh against today’s trendy pop-oriented music industry and—daring.

Whether his aim was true will actually depend on who will listen but I’m sure radio stations here in Newfoundland and Labrador and across Canada will eat it up. From what I understand, they already are. “Who Will Listen?” was already featured as the Producers Pick on The East Coast Countdown and won the Regional Radio Star National Songwriting Competition for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Patrick Molloy will be representing Newfoundland in Toronto from March 10-14th during Canadian Music Week for the National Prize of the Radio Star competition. It’s apt because his album manages to reflect the smorgasbord of the tastes and styles you’ll hear from so many of the local bands here in St. John’s, from the progressive hard rock of The Pathological Lovers to the more punchy new-wave of The Subtitles.

Though a few songs may feel incomplete or less developed, there are a number of hits here, in particular “Darkness Glows” and “Peace, Now, Today” which I still have in my head. Produced right here in St. John’s by gold and platinum award-winning producer Krisjan Leslie, Who Will Listen? serves up a heaping dish of all that’s fresh and happening here in the St. John’s music scene, and Patrick Molloy must have felt it his duty to deliver such a showcase. For that alone, you can thank him.

Preview his new album online at www.patrickmolloy.ca

Here’s an interview I had with him last year on The New Spin.

(The New Spin airs every Thursday night, 9-11 PM Newftime, 7:30 Eastern on 93.5 CHMR-FM.)

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President’s Choice is not the brand I thought it was, and now I learn Loblaws heavily uses genetically engineered ingredients in many of their products. According to this Canadian Greenpeace Shopper’s Guide, up to 70% of all food items on the shelves of Canadian grocery stores have Genetically Engineered ingredients due to our lovely Members of Parliament who voted down a law to include mandatory labelling of GE foods in 2001. Yes, it’s one thing to have GE foods in the stores, but it’s quite another to have any lack of labelling on those foods whatsoever. This is a crime sandwich. To add further insult to injury, if you live in Newfoundland like I do, you have even less choice because many of the alternative products that are GE-free are not available here, much less any of the produce you can buy since the only stores you can shop from here are Dominion, Soeby’s, Wal-Mart, and Cost-Co. There’s Auntie Crae’s, of course, but you can hardly call them a grocery store. So what are Newfoundlanders to do?

You can do what Greenpeace is doing, calling on Loblaws to remove the offending GMO foods in their inventory as well as label the GE products at the very least. But they’re not even doing that.

According to the Greenpeace GMO guide above, retailers all over the world are refusing to sell GE foods and it is the law to label GE foods in more than forty countries worldwide. Yes, North America would be excluded from that list. Oh, the irony.

Read the guide and educate yourself. (You might also want to stop drinking Labatt and Molson beer; really that just leaves Quidi Vidi for us Newfoundlanders. Who owns Dominion beer? Molson, probably…)

The guide is organized by food category with three emoticons to easily see which foods are “happy” and which are not. Not much on the list surprised me save for President’s Choice. I really didn’t see that one coming. Basically any major brand is unhealthy, just add PC and No Name to the long list of untested crap that we are coerced to eat based on the sheer lack of choice we have in our beloved grocery stores.

At the very least, stop buying PC products until they start labelling them and email Chairman Galen Weston at customer_service@weston.ca and tell him why you are no longer buying PC products and that you’re spreading the word to everyone you know why they shouldn’t either. You can also become a fan of The People’s Choice Against President’s Choice on facebook as well and help spread the word. Everyone who shops at any Loblaws chain needs to know this since they obviously don’t feel your health is worth much.

And now for any of you naysayers out there who think GMO food is being blown out of proportion, who think that it’s safe to eat GMO foods. I’m not going to go into it, all the research is out there, but you can start by reading any book by Michael Pollan, specifically In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma and watch the movie Food Inc. Michael Pollan just wrote a new book Food Rules reviewed here in The New York Times. That should get you started as to understanding the eco-systemical nightmare that is GMO food. If you want a better understanding of the crimes of Monsanto against third-world food production and the devastating effects the WTO and NAFTA has had on these countries, you’ll want to read Raj Patel’s Stuffed and Starved. In a quick summary, basically poor farmers all over the world have been coerced into buying Monsanto’s seeds the same way we are coerced into buying GMO food in our grocery stores, and since these seeds are patented, these farmers will never become independent food producers in the same way that Newfoundlanders will never get to choose what they can fish. Furthermore, these foreign farmers cannot sell their local food in the markets since the cheap high-fructose corn syrup-riddled imports out-compete the locally-produced foods. It’s a nightmare, and we have our beloved institution of direct government subsidies to the soy and corn industry to thank for our corrupt food industry. King Corn is another must-see.

That’s all for now. Stop buying PC and tell Loblaws why. There’s going to be GMO food on the shelves. But at the very least, it should say so right there on the label. And not just PC, on everything.

Please become a fan of The People Against President’s Choice on facebook and help spread the word. It’s the least you can do, eh?

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When it comes to unique Canadian jazz/dance acts, it doesn’t get better or funkier than Halifax’s Gypsophilia, a dynamic seven-piece that’ll blow you away (with their horns, guitars, keys, violin, accordions, double-bass and more) and infuse you with a can of get-yer-jive-on whoop-ass. Largely inspired by Django Reinhardt (like our own Duane Andrews) in sound (and dress!) their quixotic early 20th Century gypsy jazz sound smoothly crosses through genres of swing, be-bop-’til-you-drop, blues, reggae, funk, klezmer, even R&B and Eastern European flava, and anything else they might feel like throwing at you. Further setting themselves apart from other “similar” jazz acts is the fact that they don’t have a drummer, primarily using the guitar and the bass to drive their compelling rhythms, zig-zagging through time signatures and tempo changes like sunbeams weaving through dust. Since they are currently in St. John’s as part of the Wreckhouse Jazz and Blues Festival, I saw their incredible, foot-stomping performance at the Martini Bar on George Street last night and had the pleasure of interviewing Ross Burns, Adam Fine, and Nick Wilkinson in the CHMR studio.

Listen to this exclusive Folkin’ Freak Show podcast, which will also air this Tuesday night at 9 PM on 93.5 CHMR-FM. Only on SOME WICKED (R)

Want to stay updated about The Folkin’ Freak Show. Become a fan! “Folked up music for a folked up world,” every Tuesday, 9 PM. Then stay tuned to my electronic and avant-garde show, Other Frequencies at 10 PM. And don’t forget The New Spin, of course!

in sound,

dashiell brown

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Mopey Mumble-Mouse unleashed some sonic intensity at CHMR in anticipation of their cd-release party on July 4 at Distortion for I am Happy Being Nothing. Listen to the podcast.

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Fresh on the scene out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Matthew Hornell has only been playing guitar since high-school, but his songs aim right for your gut, riding on pure emotion. His well-crafted folk songs draw you in, you’ll be singing along, feeling at home as in front of the campfire with good food and friends. Sounding timeless, yet fresh and bold, played live, his songs are executed with whip-crack precision. And when backed up by Tiffany Hancock’s beautiful and exquisite vocals, the duets become absolute magic. “Goodbye for Now” is purely enchanting, and “Khaki Dodgers” is an immediate hit. You’ll be singing it for days. Matthew Hornell and The Diamond Minds seems to have struck gold, and we should be so lucky they want to share it with us.

–Dashiell Brown, The New Spin and The Folkin’ Freak Show

Local St. John’s folk act Matthew Hornell of Matthew Hornell and the Diamond Minds, and special guest Tiffany Hancock, performed in the studio and played several great numbers on The New Spin. Listen to the podcast here.

For more great folk music, be sure to check out my new show, The Folkin’ Freak Show. Tuesdays, 9-10 PM, streaming online at 93.5 CHMR-FM.

(Photo taken by Jon Janes)

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A few weeks ago, Jon Janes of St. John’s The Mountains and The Trees was my guest on The New Spin. He has a new e.p., Hop, Skip and a Jump, and is playing at the North by Northeast Festival and Conference currently underway in Toronto. Strongly influenced by Iron and Wine, he brought his banjo, guitar, and harmonica and played a few ditties and we chatted folk, which I also play on my new show, The Folkin’ Freak Show, Tuesdays 9-10 PM (7:30 Eastern) on 93.5 CHMR-FM.

Here is The New Spin Podcast, featuring Jon Janes of The Mountains and The Trees.

Here is his website.

“As the name suggests, The Mountains and The Trees will wash over you with simpler times, lost memories, and wonderful dreams.”

– Dashiell Brown, The New Spin

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When it comes to St. John’s musicians, you can’t get any more homegrown than five-time MusicNL Award nominee Ian Foster, but this summer he’s going to spread his roots, embarking on his largest Canadian tour to date, to promote two remarkable new albums, We Begin Here and Found: Music From the Unmade Film, his latest project composed for the 2009 RPM Challenge (my own RPM album is here.) I chatted with him to get a better understanding of who this guy is and what he’s all about.

Ian Foster is not unknown in these parts. He was born and raised here in St. John’s, playing the keyboards in Radio Shack at 10 years old until he got kicked out of the place. His parents then gave him a keyboard and he immediately started playing The Beatles’ songs that came with the book. Seeing this as a signal that Foster seemed to have a knack for this music thing, they enrolled him in private lessons for piano and voice. Foster picked up the guitar along the way, though he didn’t study music at the university; rather, he majored in English and History because he enjoyed the folk/pop/rock idioms of popular music and though he loves classical music, he didn’t want to devote himself to the formal study of it.

He started gigging live in 2003, supporting other musicians, and then went out on his own with the Ian Foster Band, debuting his critically-acclaimed album, Through the Wires in 2006, which captured the live sets his band had been playing. But since the other members of the IFB had other jobs and priorities, the IFB served as a one-shot deal, and Foster has been going solo since, having released Room in the City and now his two new releases.

Where Through the Wires was about methods of communication, Room in the City was about traveling in cities, which had a major impact on him as he started to tour his material, made possible by funding through MusicNL. His latest release We Begin Here is about history. “There’s a weight to history and we feel it. If we don’t feel it, we should—it has to at least be acknowledged,” Foster says.

For example, take his Dylanesque folk song, “Gone with the Good Earth,” driven by his rich acoustic guitar and harmonica. The title, taken from Robert Wright’s A Short History of Progress, laments the plight of the farmer, the entropy of man’s detrimental effect on his land, farming the land until there’s nothing left. “I used to know what it was worth/But now it all seems to be washed away/Gone with the good earth.” History teaches us we must be good to the land. Not only today’s farmer, but the microcosm of modernity surrounding the farmer, is all but destroying it.

Or take “The Pacific’s Waters”, a folk song also inspired by history, in this case, herstory. A 30 yr. old woman sat next to Foster on a Greyhound bus and revealed that she had left her family to go meet a man she had met online, to see if she could escape her failing marriage, her own past which she was trapped by, to see what could be. We must acknowledge history, but sometimes we are compelled to go forward.

The title track “We Begin Here” is the centerpoint of the album and defines its overlying theme: “History is just an art of creating where we begin.” Foster means that history is not set in stone, that it invites many interpretations, and it’s flexible. In other words, as the title of the first track states, “the future is an ocean,” and “you’ve gotta be brave enough to sail.”

When asked about his own future, what his plans were, and whether he felt successful, he modestly told me, “I do…when I get close to writing the songs that I hear in my head…I know it sounds cliché, but I just want to make the music I want to make.” In fact, his aim has always been about communication. If he can make people respond to his music in some way, then he feels successful. He told me about the 1000 true fans theory, that if you can get 1000 loyal fans that will support you, buy all of your music, follow everything you do, then you can make a living doing what you love as a musician. But for Foster, I got the impression this would be the icing on the cake for him. Doing what you love and being able to do it, that’s his ultimate aim, and he feels he’s achieving it.

Indeed, once you listen to his two brand new releases, you will feel it for yourself. We Begin Here and Found are the mark of a man who fears no musical bounds or traps himself in any kind of formulaic song craft or sticks to any one genre. This isn’t songwriting to be ignored but wrapped around you like a cozy blanket that will get better with the wear and tear, especially the Knopfler-like “Different Songs,” perhaps my favorite song on the album, an ode in a way to all the different songs will you hear, not only on We Begin Here, but also on Found: Music From the Unmade Film, which has a Magnum P.I.-like techno number, a ragtimey piano jazz feel, and a gypsy, flamenco track; the album is mostly instrumental and may be somewhat inspired by Daniel Lanois. It is also an enhanced cd, which includes images of the unmade film.

We Begin Here slows to a crawl towards the end, taking you into more contemporary territory, with several power ballads, but the album is quite a journey and utterly memorable, like he’s taken you into a delicate, vulnerable world you never knew existed and want to protect with your life, lest it too be gone with the good earth.

Ian Foster’s tour and cd-release party begins here in St. John’s at The Ship, Sunday, June 21. This will be his fifth tour and his largest to date.  His website is ianfoster.ca.

Listen to Ian Foster this Tuesday on my new show, The Folkin’ Freak Show on 93.5 CHMR-FM, Tuesdays 9-10 PM, newftime, 7:30 Eastern, 4:30 Pacific.

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