Archive for the ‘Indie Music’ Category
Greg Cockerill will be playing at the Ottoman Lounge Wednesday, April 21st. The show starts at 9PM and is $5 at the door.
http://www.gregcockerill.com
Facebook Event
A bit more about Greg Cockerill:
Described as the perfect blend of indie-Canadiana and commercial music by CBC Radio, The Greg Cockerill Band is now playing full time across Canada in support of their debut record “Summertime & Heartache” Fueled by an all-star, young but seasoned rhythm section hailing from across Canada, the music is characterized by its honest blue collar roots-rock approach. Frontman Greg Cockerill crafts simple songs reflecting the complexity of human emotion and relationships. “I write about my hopes and my fears, we play hard to try to get into these feelings with our audience” Cockerill states. Inspired by songwriters such as Dylan, Springsteen and Young, there is no mistaking the cultural lineage of the music as it rings with authenticity and urgency. After a recent move from Calgary to Toronto and whole new batch of songs in the making the next year of 2010 should be a promising one the Greg Cockerill Band.
JoHnNy DoN’t will be playing the Ottoman Lounge Friday, April 16th at 9PM, $5 at the door. The Saskatoon-based band has been recently touring to promote their latest released debut CD, entitled, “THE FULL CITY”.
MySpace Profile
Facebook Event
There is no real true way to describe the music that is JoHnNy DoN’t. With such a wide spectrum of influences you could say that they play anything and everything that is entertainment, and with each song comes a new surprise and a an irresistible hook that commands your attention. With their high energy performance and comedic banter JoHnNy DoN’t never leaves a crowd disappointed… maybe slightly offended, but never disappointed. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »
Justin Quinton, from the “NoAudience” project has just released his second Podcast (give or take a couple days). To my knowledge, this is the only Podcast coming out Medicine Hat which is quite cool. It’s great to see the start of new forms of media emerge in Medicine Hat. If you missed the first podcast and introduction, please check it out and if you missed the first post explaining the NoAudience project, please view that as well. When I first listened to the Podcast almost a month ago, I was blown away with the quality of production as I was expecting a lot worse being the first Podcast I have ever heard coming out of Medicine Hat.
Justin even gave a shout out to Medicine Hat Media on the second podcast. Sorry for the delay on posting this one; give me a break, i’m currently on my holidays.
Medicine Hat JazzFest 2009 Logo
This year’s Medicine Hat’s own Jazz festival, “Medicine Hat JazzFest” will be taking place from June 19th to the 28th with events happening every day in between. I would first love to congratulate the team that brought together the graphics and design direction for the program booklet, the website, posters, and even the t-shirts – it is really well done and beautifully executed. If anybody knows who did it, I would love to find out.
Anyways, moving right a long, This year’s JazzFest has a crazy amount of events, musicians and gatherings throughout the full 9 days. I was at first going to list them verbatim from the program booklet, but alas, they were really organized and even have an online PDF for your viewing and reading pleasure. I will tell you though that it features more than 30 different events with almost as many different bands or performers.
You can also grab yourself a ticket pass which costs $139, but this allows you to get into every show without a cover charge, so it’s well worth it even if you plan on going to half the events. There’s a couple restrictions though, make sure you read the fine print on the ticket page. If you are really into it, make sure you read through the full program because there is some other events happening not listed in the schedule including events happening at places like Twist, The Ottoman Lounge and Devine to name a very few.
If you are broke, looking for free shows or just don’t like supporting local and national music for some reason (for shame!), there is also plenty of no charge events going on as well. More notably in this category, is the Vespa Youth Stage which will be a free BBQ as well as feature music by plenty of local young talents in the city including Jess Dollimont. This one will take place at Riverside Bandshell First St. S.E. (across from City Hall) starting at noon Thursday, June 25th.
Event Schedule PDF
Full Program PDF
Medicine Hat JazzFest Website
Warped Tour is geared up again for the year and hitting Calgary on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at The Race City Speedway.
Alexisonfire Moshpit, Warped Tour, Calgary 2006 - Photo by dristis-mudra
For those who are unaware, Warped Tour or Vans Warped Tour began in 1994 as a showcase for Punk Rock and Third Wave Ska music. More recently; however, it has begun incorporating different types of genres, including electronica, post-hardcore, metalcore and Christian rock, though punk rock bands still regularly play on the tour.
Along with featuring over 100 bands, the tour will host many more popular bands on the main stage, including Bad Religion, NoFX, Anti-Flag, Flogging Molly, The Bouncing Souls, Underoath, and much more. The tour will also offer half pipes for skaters and bikers (a tribute to the connection between punk and skate), merchandise booths for most of the bands that perform, independent magazines and non-profit organizations/sponsors offering their wares. It is not unusual to see band members at their merchandise booths before and after their performances to meet fans.
Beginning in 2006, Warped Tour has been committed to the Warped Eco Initiative. The cross-country tour buses now use Bio-diesel fuel, which reduces petroleum usage by 30%. One stage is entirely run on solar power. Catering now uses washable dishes as opposed to disposable dishes. And the packaging used is made from compostable corn and potato-starch.
Tickets can be bought through Ticketmaster. Check it out!
Warped Tour
Warped Tour in Calgary page
SoundProof Magazine’s 2008 Warped Tour Calgary coverage
dristis-mudra’s 2006 Warped Tour Calgary photostreak on Flickr
The Fast Romantics are an alternative (indie) rock band from Calgary and are most recently playing gigs to promote their self-titled debut album. Their sound kind of reminds me of a mix between Arcade Fire (to reference a popular band) and something kind of like piano-pop with some jazzy bits – with maybe a little mix of The New Pornographers, Hot Hot Heat, and The Strokes (in some of the synthesized stuff – more notably at the end “Stop Me”). Obviously with all of my references, they are a little hard to categorize, which is nice, because even though the genre isn’t my favourite, their music kept my quite satiated with an interest for they were throwing out on their first release.
The Fast Romantics CD Cover Design
It was all quite varied too, there’s a lot of different sounds going on throughout the album – but not exactly all over the place, it all worked together nicely. Very up-beat, very danceable (like lots of brit-pop and indie-rock) and overall a nice mix. I wasn’t shooting my mouth off about the “jazzy” bits either, “Mr. Magoo” features a trumpet, a clarinet, a trombone and a baritone sax (and a bass/guitar/piano/drums if those count too). If you want to get technical, several tracks also feature a viola, violin and cello as well. Keep in mind though, all of the external instruments are being played by external participants, or “special guests” which I list at the bottom of the post.
The album artwork is very nice with masterful and playful illustrations by Dave Barnes and design by Matthew Angus (the vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist of the band). The illustrations take place throughout the cover, the inside flap, the CD, under the CD and even on the back – it’s all great, beautiful, and typeset mostly in Trajan Pro (to ensure the EPICNESS).
Kirby, also known as John Kirby, is a talented Canadian folk artist and will be playing at The Ottoman Lounge, March 19th, and again on April 17th. Kirby has toured Canada solo three times in 2008 in support of his second release “The Good Fight EP”. Now, on this tour, he has 32 separate dates all across Canada.
The Good Fight EP Cover
Listening through some of his online stuff and even downloading his full set of releases; yes that’s right, you can legally grab all of his music (including demos and other stuff) in good ol’ MP3 form right off of his website here – he seems to be a very talented folk artist in the traditional acoustic singer-songwriter fashion, reminding me of John Mayer in my limited scope. Lots of his music seems depressing or more introspective on a basic level, but as one commenter put it, Craig Webster, on his blog,
“On the surface, you might think songs like “Defeat” and “Lost Loved Ones” are songs of sorrow and despair, but you’d be wrong. Instead, they are songs about overcoming your obstacles, and they show the listener that no matter how bleak life and its situations might look, there is an optimistic way to look at it.”
I think I would tend to agree with him, especially when viewing his first video single “The Good Fight” (shown below).
Videos and links after the jump!
Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 10th, 2009) The Ottoman Lounge will feature CD releases from renowned local musician, Brett Nelson and Thomas DiNinno’s new project entitled “Funs”. There will be DJ sets by The Overtone Documents, Chocolate Blake and Capital RRR’s. On top of all this, Thomas will also be launching the new Medicine Hat local music zine called “Fan Club Music Club”. Admission is $5 as usual but you will also be getting a free copy of the new 32-page Fan Club Music Club zine.
Fan Club Music Club
Show Poster
We’ll have more information about the zine in a later post.
The Ottoman Lounge
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
8:00pm – 11:00pm
502 South Railway Street SE
Brett Nelson @ MySpace
Funs (Thomas DiNinno) @ MySpace
Fan Club Music Club @ MySpace
Blake Jones, Thee Hoolies, and The Stolen Organ Family Band will be playing Tuesday (February 17th) night at The Ottoman Lounge starting at 8:00PM. Collectively they will be bringing you a mix of indie and acoustic rock, while The Stolen Organ Family Band pushes more into the more experimental/psychedelic side of things. There is a $5 cover charge as per usual.
Blake Jones, Thee Hoolies, The Stolen Organ Family Band - Poster
Blake Jones @ MySpace
Thee Hoolies @ MySpace
The Stolen Organ Family Band @ MySpace
Thee Hoolies Live at The Exchange (September 2008)
There’s a Young and Pretty Folk Music Association show going on tonight at CAPE School which means it’s one of those rare all-ages show. Thomas DiNinno, creator of the Young and Pretty Folk Music Association, states that they are talking a break from doing bar shows to do some all-ages shows.
Thwomp - Photo via MySpace
There’s a mixed bag tonight featuring Russia Attacks, an all-girl band from Medicine Hat that sing about Russian history. There’s Thwomp, a Calgary-based Nintendo cover band who cover songs from classics such as Chrono Trigger, F-Zero, Final Fantasy and more. Mordichia is Jonathan Micheal Walker from Medicine Hat who plays music that can be described as techno-indie experimental kinda stuff. Lastly is Ghostkeeper is some genuinely good indie-rock from Calgary.
CAPE School
830A Balmoral Street SE, T1A 0W9
Also keep in mind there is also a Gob show tonight happening in Redcliff (it’s kinda pricey though). Doors open at 8PM and admission is $5, and like I stated before, it’s an all-ages show so bring your babies – I’m talking about newborns and the like – bring em’ all.
Russia Attacks @ MySpace
Thwomp @ MySpace
Ghostkeeper @ MySpace
MORDICHIA @ MySpace
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