Kazoo! #132: Feb. 16th: THE ELWINS / PURE JOY / ESTHER GREY @ eBar

THE ELWINS:
theelwins.bandcamp.com/
Ontario independent pop act The Elwins are a part of a vital practice of D.I.Y. pop eccentrics whose ’60s swoon-worthy melodies unabashedly ignore current trends in indie music. This is a band that reminds one of exactly what can be very good about rock and roll; simplicity and solid songwriting backed by some naturally talented young musicians. The Elwins are a true gem among other independent artists.

PURE JOY:
www.purejoy.ca/
Combining hook sensibilities, layers of vocals, and lyrical whimsy, Pure Joy offers a unique brand of pop-rock that you can move around to. Influenced by 60s pop, 70s new wave, and little bit of 90s alt-rock, these Guelph, Ontario troubadours focus on catchy songs about emotion, ambition, and the human condition, as well as blurring the gender line for voices. Concocted from former members of Texting Mackenzie and Dancehall Free for All, Pure Joy delivers 60s influenced pop/rock with the emphasis on vocal harmonies and a less-is-more approach to performance.

ESTHER GREY:
esthergrey.bandcamp.com/
A new project from Steph Yates. Steph plays the banjo, she is joined by Tyson Brinacombe on drums and Gin Murray on accordian. Esther Grey have just released a split cassette tape with Tyson & His Game Boy on Cassettestival (Guelph’s new tape only label). Haunting lo-fi folk music with an experimental glimmer, one of Guelph’s newest and best!

Thursday February 16th
@ eBar (41 Quebec St)
All Ages / LIC
Doors 9:30pm, Music 10pm
$7 Cover

Simply Saucer Touring Revue – March 3rd @ Jimmy Jazz

Kazoo! & Wavelength present:
THE SIMPLY SAUCER TOURING REVUE
A three-day tour celebrating the legacy of Ontario proto-punk pioneers Simply Saucer and their classic album, Cyborgs Revisited.

Featuring:
Edgar Breau
with Ghostlight
plus: Karaoke
and Hybrid Moments

Saturday March 3 — Guelph @ Jimmy Jazz, 52 MacDonell Street. 9pm • Free

Simply Saucer are true living legends in the Canadian music community. First emerging from the steel belt town of Hamilton, Ontario in 1973, the Saucer were unlike any other band on the scene at that time – influenced by The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Sun Ra and Stockhausen, they were possibly the only Canadian band in the proto-punk movement, a north of the border equivalent to Pere Ubu and the Cleveland scene.

After moving to Toronto and being a part of the punk rock explosion, Simply Saucer called in quits in 1979. Their lone album Cyborgs Revisited inspired a generation of Canadian underground musicians, especially after its re-release by Sonic Unyon Records in 2003. Simply Saucer re-united in 2006, and the band remains active to this day. Cyborgs Revisited is rightly considered one of the greatest Canadian albums of all time, and songs such as “Bulletproof Nothing” and “Dance the Mutation” are undisputed classics. Frontman Edgar Breau has also maintained a fruitful parallel career as a solo singer/songwriter.

The Simply Saucer Touring Revue is the brainchild of Derek Westerholm, musician with Karaoke and The Creeping Nobodies, host/programmer of No Beat Radio on CIUT 89.5 FM and founding member of the Wavelength collective. A weekend long tour to three Southern Ontario cities, the Revue will celebrate the legacy and influence of Simply Saucer, as all the artists on the bill will perform material from “Cyborgs Revisited” alongside their own material. Saucer frontman Edgar Breau will be joined on-stage by Toronto psychedelic rock enemble Ghostlight, the improvisational alter ego of Canadian shoegaze pioneers Mean Red Spiders. The full Simply Saucer band will appear at the March 2nd Hamilton show only. Opening sets will feature two Toronto electric guitar duos: Karaoke (Michelle Breslin and Derek Westerholm) and Hybrid Moments (Matt Vocabulary and
Wavelength founder Jonny Dovercourt).

Edgar Breau:
edgarbreau.bandcamp.com
Edgar Breau is the founder, leader, singer, guitarplayer and songwriter for internationally acclaimed Canadian cult proto-punk-psych band, Simply Saucer. Cyborgs Revisited, recorded in 1974 but only belatedly released in 1989 was a fusion of the DNA of the Velvet Underground with early Pink Floyd, with lo-fi kitchen sink electronics humming in the blurry background as Edgar warned of Cyborg invasions, instant pleasures and illegal bodies in a world gone very badly astray. In 1979, after the band’s premature demise, Edgar retrofitted a Grit Laskin engineered acoustic guitar into his neo-Acadian psych and inspired by American primitive guitar icon John Fahey’s groundbreaking instrumentals, embarked on a new songwriting career, in the relative seclusion of his home, immune to the great transmogrifications of the nascent new wave scene. He emerged in 1989 to record a solo album, Canadian Primitive, at Grant Avenue Studio. His new recording is called Patches of Blue and is a genre-hopping tour de force of songwriting inspiration arranged by some very heavy studio musicians including Bill Dillon (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson) and Brian Griffith (Willie Nelson, Dan Lanois), with guests Colina Phillips and Mike Trebilcock (Killjoys), not to mention legendary Simply Saucer bassist Kevin Christoff. Patches of Blue, a Feb. 2012 release, has already garnered great acclaim. Toronto Star columnist John Sakamoto in his Anti Hit List column, said “Abandoning the electric (and electrifying) mayhem of his legacy, the solo Breau has created a sublimely atmospheric kind of melancholy that will be familiar to acolytes of everyone from Chet Baker to Robert Wyatt.”

Ghostlight:
myspace.com/ghostlightband
Once described by Eye Weekly (RIP) as an “Eight-legged Kraut-Rock War Horse” Ghostlight has always managed to confuse and confound any sense of classification. Since its inception in 2005, the ensemble has stumbled along its singular and solitary journey practicing its unique brand of “Decomposition.” Not fitting in the improv scene or with the local experimental music ghetto, Ghostlight seems to have found its niche within Toronto’s noise scene. Developing close ties with Disguise and releasing the critically lauded Shade grown on Kevin Hainey’s InYrDisk label. Currently working on a new release slated for Spring 2012.

Karaoke:
okkaraokeok.bandcamp.com
Karaoke are a duo. Literally, “karaoke” means “empty orchestra.” This seems appropriate. Michelle Breslin (ex-Sadoceanspacebear) and Derek Westerholm (ex-Creeping Nobodies) are female/male vocals, guitars, loops, percussion, pedals, toys, and so-forth. At turns, savage and serene, haunting and haunted. They perform in lofts, galleries, garages, basements, music series, clubs, wherever so they happen to be.

Hybrid Moments:
hybridmoments.bandcamp.com
Hybrid Moments hold guitars and play amps. Jonny Dovercourt and Matt Vocabulary’s duo format is strictly guitar, effects and amps, and their approach is a combination of free improvisation and instant composition, though some songs and uniquely arranged pieces may also play a role. Staying true to their punk rock and indie pop roots, while exploring their mutual interests in minimalism, noise and drone music, Hybrid Moments have been known to call their sound “improv space punk.”

TWELVE: The Wavelength 12th Anniversary Festival – Toronto

Since Kazoo! began in 2006 we’ve been inspired by the folks at Wavelength in Toronto. Their dedication to presenting genre-smashing line-ups, supporting their local scene and their focus on making shows accessible through PWYC cover charges have been a huge influence on how Kazoo! is run.

Over the years we’ve had the pleasure of working with Wavelength in 2010 to co-present a show at Kazoo! fest. This year, as part of Wavelength’s annual Anniversary Festival ‘Twelve’ we are co-presenting a set by Hamilton based electro-skwee genius Motëm on Sunday February 19th at the Garrison.

We’re also looking forward to working with Wavelength at Kazoo! fest in April for a special co-presentation as well as in March to co-present the Simply Saucer Touring Revue March 3rd in Guelph. We’ll be announcing more details about those shows in a few weeks. In the meantime, come celebrate 12 years of Wavelength Feb 16-19th in Toronto. You can find details about the festival and the Kazoo! co-presentation here.

Kazoo! #131: Feb 2nd: BOCCE (album release) / PARADISE ANIMALS / NICK STORRING @ eBAr

BOCCE:
www.kwbocceclub.com
Waterloo, Ontario based electronic-rock band Bocce have a new album and live performance. The self-produced kraut-rock inspired album (entitled Future 1.0) takes a look into the future according to yesterday. Visions of flying cars, jet packs and silver jumpsuits that once brought hope and excitement are revisited through Bocce’s synthesizer based music. The live show is an audio/visual multimedia experience. Bocce is Tony Salomone, Nik Must, Mike Bond and Ben Ong. They have toured throughout Canada and played several music festivals including Pop Montreal, Hillside Inside, LOLA and Canadian Music Week. Future 1.0 will be released in February 2012 as a free or “pay what you can” digital download.

PARADISE ANIMALS:
paradiseanimals.bandcamp.com
Venture back to the late 70′s and early 80′s where music was raw and emotional; this is where Paradise Animals exists. In between writing and recording his sophomore album with Toronto/Guelph based Indie-Disco-House outfit Green Go, multi-instrumentalist Mark Andrade opted to take some time for himself. With what was a shoebox of unfinished ideas and sounds, Andrade tied up his musical & emotional loose ends, added infinite layers and textures, and released them as songs under the guise of Paradise Animals. He then called on some friends to help actualize his new project. Paradise Animals is a chameleon; a band that frequently sheds its skin. What might first appear in shades of grey as ambience set against spastic noise can swiftly transition into a soulful dance party of red, yellow and shimmering blue.

NICK STORRING:
www.nickstorring.ca
Nick Storring is a Toronto based composer, cellist and improviser with a wide palette of interests, ranging from warped dance music to electroacoustic music, experimental pop to chamber music, and even collaborations within various “non-Western” traditions. His work regularly accompanies theatre, film and intermedia projects. Apart from making regular solo appearances with cello, voice and electronics, he also plays in Picastro (Polyvinyl Records), and Toronto-based Son Jarocho (Mexican folk music) group Café Con Pan. He has collaborated live and in the studio with Nadja, Sandro Perri, Daniel Johnston, Araz Salek, Laura Barrett, Rhys Chatham, Wyrd Visions, Andrew Timar, Castlemusic, Eddie Prévost, Diane Labrosse, and Damo Suzuki (of Can). Expect his live set to be a weird blend of processed beat-boxing, swooping cello soloing, and layered vocals.

Thursday February 2nd
@ eBar (41 Quebec St)
All Ages / LIC
Doors 9:30pm
$8

Kazoo! Fest seeks Zine & Comic Expo Coordinator!!

That’s right! We need a Zine & Comic Expo Coordinator for Kazoo! Fest 2012. The event happens Sat. April 14th as part of Kazoo! Fest. The Zine & Comic Expo Coordinator will be responsible for overseeing the organization of the entire event with the support of a team of volunteers; plans and organizing begin in early January. Are you interested in Zines and Comics? Are you involved in DIY publishing culture? Are you an amazing person who likes to make amazing things happen? This could be a fun project for you!! If interested contact Brad Mc by email: kazookazoo@gmail.com (By Jan 9th at latest!). Kazoo! Fest is entirely run by volunteers so this is a volunteer position.

A summary/preview of last year’s Zine & Comic Expo is here.

Please pass this along to anyone you think would be interested. thanks!