Bev Bevan (The Move, Electric Light Orchestra), Chas Hodges (Chas & Dave), Phil Lynott Thin Lizzy and Roy Wood (The Move, Electric Light Orchestra) had some great chemistry – and possible another career – in this little jam.
JUST ANNOUNCED: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band In Vancouver: October 19 at The Centre: The Hits, The History & Dirt Does Dylan
Many veteran bands trade on nostalgia, on replication of past glories, and on recycled emotions from younger, more carefree days.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band trades on a mix of reimagined classics and compelling newer works. The group formed in 1966 as a Long Beach, California jug band, scored its first charting single in 1967, and embarked on a self-propelled ride through folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll, pop, blue- grass, and the amalgam now known as “Americana.” The first major hit came in 1971 with the epic “Mr. Bojangles,” which, along with insistent support from banjo master Earl Scruggs, opened doors in Nashville. Behind those doors were Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, and others who would collaborate on a multi-artist, multi-generational, three-disc 1972 masterpiece: Will the Circle Be Unbroken went triple Platinum, spawned two later volumes, and wound up in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The group will be performing on October 19, 2003 in Vancouver, BC at The Centre on their The Hits, The History & Dirt Does Dylan tour, and tickets are available here.
Was this a cutting-edge combo or a group of revivalists? Was the goal rebellion or musical piety? Yes, to all these things. In the 1980s, the Dirt Band reeled off 15 straight Top 10 country hits, including chart-toppers “Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream),” “Modern Day Romance,” and “Fishin’ in the Dark (co-written by Jim Photoglo, who would join the band in the second decade of the new century). 1989 brought a second Circle album, this one featuring singer-songwriter talents including John Prine, Rosanne Cash, and John Hiatt and garnering two Grammy awards for the band (it later won another, for a collaboration with Earl Scruggs and other fine folks). Circle II also won the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year prize. Circle III was released in 2003, featuring collaborations with Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, and more.
Throughout the group’s lifetime, personnel has changed, with each change resulting in positive steps forward, new ways of playing the old songs, and renewed enthusiasm for writing and recording fresh material. The latest Dirt Band lineup is expanded to six members for the first time since 1968. Today’s group consists of founding member Jeff Hanna, harp master Jimmie Fadden (who joined in 1966), and soulful-voiced Bob Carpenter, who has more than 40 years of service in the ensemble. Those veterans are now joined by singer-songwriter-bass man Jim Photoglo, fiddle and mandolin wizard Ross Holmes, and Hanna’s son, the preternaturally talented singer and guitarist Jaime Hanna.
Blood harmony, thrilling instrumental flights, undeniable stage chemistry … these things are part of each Dirt Band show, just as they are part of Dirt Does Dylan, the first recording from the reconfigured, six-strong group. Produced by Ray Kennedy and Jeff Hanna, it’s a remark- able ride through some of the most impactful songs of the past century, penned by Bob Dylan and taken for a blue highway spin by a great American band, with help from genius-level con- temporary artists like Jason Isbell and The War and Treaty.
A Dirt Band show is unlike any other. For legions of fans, it’s less about the memories than the moment, crisp as an Autumn apple and rich as a royal flush.
The SSIMAs Awards Performers Revealed: Aysanabee, Indian City, Andrea Menard, Plex and Joel Wood
The Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival is honoured to announce the performers for The SSIMAs (Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards) presented by TD Bank Group.
Aysanabee, Indian City, Andrea Menard, Plex and Joel Wood are confirmed to perform LIVE on stage at the National Arts Centre June 6th with more to be announced. The evening will be hosted by Anishinaabe activist, broadcaster, artist and content creator, Sarain Fox. Sixteen awards selected from 250 Canada-wide submissions will be handed out including two international categories and a musical legacy and contribution award.
The SSIMAs proudly celebrate the artistic excellence and accomplishments of First Nations, Inuit and Métis musicians from across the country during National Indigenous History Month. The awards were established by Ottawa’s Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival (SSIF), a multi-disciplinary arts festival that now attracts a live and virtual audience of over half a million people.
Tickets for The SSIMAs start at $20.00 (including tax plus fees) and are available NOW at https://summersolsticefestivals.ca/2023-music-awards/, by phone and in-person at the NAC box office. A limited number of VIP tickets include a reception with an Indigenous-inspired menu by NAC Chef Chris Commandant.
The SSIMAs and SSIF are produced by Indigenous Experiences on behalf of the NIPD Committee comprising Metis National Council (2023 Festival co-host) and other organizations representing Indigenous communities across Canada.
SSIF is grateful to all government funders and corporate sponsors for their ongoing commitment to supporting the stewardship of Canada’s rich cultural heritage.
The SSIMAs supporters include: TD Bank Group, National Arts Centre, Ottawa Tourism, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Rogers TV, Canadian Automobile Association and Donna Cona.
Econoline Crush Are Back With New Single “No Quitter” And Canadian Tour
Everyone has days when they want to give up. Throw in some mental-health struggles and heavy grief, and that urge to just leave just gets stronger. But long-time Vancouver rockers Econoline Crush have the antidote to that urge with their driving, pulsing, fiery new single “No Quitter” from their forthcoming album When The Devil Drives.
The two-time JUNO Award nominees have also announced a west coast Canadian tour, kicking off on June 1 at Powell River, BC and ending on June 24 in Vancouver, BC.
Full of heavy fuzz, a pounding beat, and a soaring, billowy chorus, “No Quitter” is an electrifying earworm full of lifeforce. It starts out with a dreary downbeat mood:
You’re wasted, it’s ok
It’s just that kind of day
Spending all my time thinking how I’m going to pay
The bank, the bills, the rent, the pills, alimony, sad story
the walls are closing in on me
And then the attitude shifts dramatically, where the narrator affirms, “Fuck that noise/ You know it’s going to turn around/ Kick it into gear/ Push it ‘till it plays.”
The song is an ode to David “Ziggy” Sigmund, who played guitar in Econoline Crush from 1997 to 2002, and then rejoined in 2010. He passed away suddenly in March 2022, just as the band’s new album was being mixed, nothing short of a huge personal blow for frontman Trevor Hurst and the music world. Even the album title is an homage to Ziggy (not just to Econoline Crush’s best-selling album and song, 1997’s The Devil You Know).
“‘Needs must when the devil drives’ is a Shakespeare quote meaning ‘do what’s necessary.’ Ziggy used to say that all the time,” Trevor recalls. “When you’re in the throes of addiction, you do what you can to get through it.”
Trevor has had his own struggles with addiction and mental health throughout his life, and so “No Quitter” acts as both an homage to his late bandmate, and as a reminder to carry on, no matter what.
When The Devil Drives is the latest album from Canadian rock veterans Econoline Crush, formed some 30 years ago by frontman Trevor Hurst, now the sole original member. It’s the band’s first full-length album in more than a decade, and it’s accompanied by a documentary film, Flatlander, about Hurst’s second career as a psychiatric nurse. Produced by one-time Miniatures frontman Ian Alexander Smith (SATE, Cassie DaSilva) and mixed by the legendary Jack Joseph Puig, two of the album’s nine songs feature David “Ziggy” Sigmund. The two songs they wrote together – the empowering industrial-strength rocker “Invincible” and the soaring 90s Brit-pop style “Smashing Optimistic” – are the album’s first two singles, followed by current single “No Quitter.”
Originally based in Vancouver, Econoline Crush formed in 1992 and signed with EMI Music Canada in 1994, debuting that year with the EP Purge. The ground-breaking band, which fused industrial music with rock at a time when keyboards were typically only used in pop music, followed up with the full-length album Affliction in 1996, and then their ultimate breakthrough, platinum-selling album The Devil You Know.
Their single “No Quitter,” from forthcoming album When The Devil Drives, is available now.
Econoline Crush 2023 Tour Dates:
June 1, 2023 Carlson Community Centre Powell River BC
June 2, 2023 The Queen’s Nanaimo BC
June 3, 2023 Upstairs Cabaret Victoria BC
June 8, 2023 Blue Grotto Kamloops BC
June 10, 2023 The Flying Steamshovel Rossland BC
June 11, 2023 Cranbrook Hotel Cranbrook BC
June 13, 2023 Bo’s Red Deer AB
June 14, 2023 Dickens Pub Calgary AB
June 15, 2023 The Starlight Room Edmonton AB
June 16, 2023 Party In The Park Festival Whitecourt AB
June 23, 2023 The Waverly Hotel Cumberland BC
June 24, 2023 The Pearl Vancouver BC
Jazz Supergroup PILC MOUTIN HOENIG Release Stunning ‘YOU Are the Song’ Album
No rehearsal. No overdubs. Not even a plan.
None of that is all that unusual for seasoned jazz players. But when the acclaimed trio of Jean-Michel Pilc, François Moutin and Ari Hoenig reunited for the first time in 12 years, there was no question that the magic they distilled all those years ago was just waiting to be plucked from the air the moment they reconvened.
The result, YOU Are the Song, is their first album in 12 years. It’s out May 12 on Justin Time Records. “Instead of talking about music, we let music talk through us,” says Pilc. “Rather than playing music, we let music play us. In lieu of playing a song, we become the song and invite all of YOU to do so.”
Even though Pilc and Moutin knew each other in France in the ‘80s when they attended university together, they strengthened their musical relationship in 1995 when they both moved to New York where they linked up with Hoenig. Their debut in 2000 was followed by three more records before they went their separate ways in 2011.
Jazz Times once wrote: “This remarkably intuitive trio has the ability to collectively bend the harmonic and rhythmic content of familiar jazz standards like taffy……it’s like watching the Flying Karamazov Brothers tossing bowling pins back and forth from across the stage.”
Reuniting at the behest of Justin Time Records, it was like no time had passed at all. “What we do is pure improvisation,” says Pilc. “There is no resistance in the music when the three of us are together.” They assembled in a Brooklyn studio in June 2022 and played for three hours, gathering enough material for several albums. YOU Are the Song is the first.
The result includes spontaneous compositions as well as reharmonized takes on standards such as John Coltrane’s “Impressions” and Thelonious Monk’s “Straight No Chaser” — even the theme from the 1951 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. It’s not free jazz as some listeners might assume from the trio’s three-decade career. It has an emotive heart, with all three musicians serving as leaders. It follows melodic forms, fuels with a unique rhythmic vitality, powers into playground antics and ventures into uncharted sonic territory.
“We’re in a state of concentration,” says Moutin. “We don’t want a rational mindset to get in the way. We are constantly on that crest between control and letting go. It’s a mystery, but we like to not solve the mystery. It’s more important to carry the emotion.”
Turbine’s New Single “Reality” Invents a New Universe Through Turntablism and Bass
“Reality,” the newest single from Montreal-based trio Turbine, alters the perception of the tangible human dimension as we know it.
“When we started working on the ‘Reality’ track, we were looking for a track that would close our show and reach a sort of climax with a peak of intensity,” the trio reflected.
Through advanced scratching techniques and fueled bass builds, the trio invents a new liquid reality, complete with a vocalist interspersing “reality” throughout the two-and-a-half-minute run time. Turbine’s passion lies within the scope of turntablism and saturated beats. While they don’t categorize themselves as DJs, instead a band that thrives during live performances, they do acknowledge their innate ability to create a new world through scratching and spinning.
All group members – Benjamin Bongert, Tony Ragon, and Nicolas Rame – are from France but now live in Montreal, where they meet and master their world-building sound. Turbine strives to achieve a peak experience beyond bass music through each live track they play. Yet, even without experiencing “Reality” live, the hard drum and bass track teleports listeners to a third dimension awash in Ben, Tony, and Nico’s talents.
According to Turbine, each track undergoes extensive pre-production questioning. “Every time we produce a song, we ask ourselves a lot of questions about how we’re going to play it as a turntablist, where it’s going to fit in the set? Which sound will have the most impact? Which one will give the most scenic dimension?” they said.
For “Reality,” the group claimed, “We chose crunchy, Neurofunk-inspired tracks with fast attacks for more dynamism and short but catchy vocals.” Drum and bass rhythms with a split snare underlay the track, calling attention to original drum and bass enthusiasts.
“Once the track is over, we reverse engineer. We explode the track in tens of micro samples that we dispatch between us to play it with the turntables,” Turbine continues.
From the opening sequence, the listener transports into an extraordinary universe only achieved with Turbine’s help. “Reality isn’t real. What you see is what you get,” they said.
The turntable crescendos and fizzles into an explosive bass beat drop that explodes into a powerful drum and bass loop with scratching and synth percussion techniques that melt the brain and make any newcomer yearn to attend a Turbine show. Throughout the track, the same vocals introducing the listener to the universe mutter reality, assuring the listener they realize the greatness they’re witnessing.
Photo Gallery: Louis Tomlinson with The Academic and Snarls at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her through Instagram or Twitter
The Office Experience Is Astonishingly Real And Awesome
As the sun rose above the enchanting kingdom, our eyes widened with anticipation. It was Hannah Alper and my first visit to the magical realm of Dunder Mifflin by the way of The Office Experience at Yorkdale in Toronto, our version of Disneyland, a place we had watched countless hours about and dreamt of experiencing firsthand (the set, not an actual office, we’ve both done that before. It’s not so fun at times.) Clutching our tickets tightly, we could hardly contain our excitement as they approached the grand entrance.
We weren’t the only ones, and although there weren’t any lines, others who explored the various themed rooms were dressed up as their favourite character, which was awesome to see, and made us feel at times we were standing beside the ‘real’ Dwight Schrute.
The Office Experience is a fully immersive and interactive celebration of the beloved television show, The Office. We stepped inside our favorite mid-level regional paper company, explored set recreations, got a closer look at original show props, and shopped at The Office Experience Store. It’s a win-win-win. The Office Experience at Yorkdale were filled with set recreations, original show costumes and props, and opportunities for us to celebrate our favorite moments and characters from The Office to astonishing glee (that’s what she said!)
Starting off literally in the Scranton Business Parking Lot and into the Dunder Mifflin Scranton office. You can also dance down the aisle at Jim and Pam’s wedding, spill Kevin’s famous chili, visit Michael Scott Paper Company, check out every character’s desk re-made to the exact specifications and items left in their working area, and more.
The Office Experience exceeded all our expectations, and you have to go if you’re a fan. As the great Michael Scott once said, “‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. – Wayne Gretzky.'”
- Dates: March 3rd – June 4th 2023
- Location: Yorkdale Shopping Centre (across from the Lego Store); 3401 Dufferin St Toronto, ON M6A 2T9 Canada
- Age requirement: All ages are welcome. Guests 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult who is at least 18 years old. Children 3 and younger don’t need a ticket when accompanied by a parent or guardian.
- Operating hours (time slots available every 30 minutes):
- Thursdays & Fridays: 12 p.m. – 7 p.m. (last entry)
- Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. – 8 p.m. (last entry)
- Sundays: 11:00 a.m. – 6 p.m. (last entry)
- Schedule subject to change during specific periods. See calendar in ticketing page for details.
Toronto Grade 5 Student Sisi Kleiner-Fisman Writes Book On Cancer Experience To Help Others In “SHE WARRIOR”
11-year-old Toronto-based author Siena (Sisi) Kleiner-Fisman details her harrowing but inspirational experience as a long-term cancer survivor with her impactful new book for adults and children alike, “She-Warrior” — available here.
When Sisi was three years-old, she was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Initially, the weight of it all made her sad and angry at being sick and missing out on all the fun of summer. However, when Sisi and her parents traveled to Philadelphia, PA, to receive life-saving radiation, Sisi made new friends and had all sorts of adventures exploring a new city.
Facing her demons head-on with optimism and a relentless spirit, Sisi chronicles her life-changing journey with “She-Warrior”. As Sisi puts it, “Being diagnosed with cancer as a small child, getting through treatment, and now being a long-term survivor is a unique experience.”
What follows is an excerpt from “She-Warrior” detailing one of Sisi’s first doctor’s visits:
“The doctors needed a sample of the cancer (“earth-monster” to Sisi). They wanted to look at it under the microscope to make sure it really was Rhabdomyosarcoma and not some other monster and to help decide which medicine Sisi would need. Sisi actually called the “earth-monster” “Toots” after watching a cartoon episode about a funny little germ named “Toots.”
Years after her cancer ordeal, she woke up one morning with an epiphany. Sisi realized she had an extraordinary story that had to be told. She decided to write this book to help other kids cope with childhood cancer and inspire them to remain hopeful in their journeys and to know that they are not alone.
“Even though my days were filled with uncertainty and fear, with the help of my doctors, nurses, and my mom, I never lost hope, and eventually, I recovered,” says Sisi.
“I decided that telling my story could have such a huge impact on kids who are going through tough times with cancer as I did and telling them my story might help them have hope that they too will get better.”
This story, written by Sisi when she was 11-years-old, will delight children, teens, and adults alike. Featuring original art by Sisi, “She-Warrior” is the true story of an inspiring little girl with a big personality who navigates adversity with humour and resilience. Sis’s debut book is written with a youthful spirit capturing the optimism and resilience of childhood.
Sisi Kleiner-Fisman lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she is a grade 5 student. She loves singing, dancing, performing in musical theatre, drawing and painting, and spending time with her friends and family.
While Sisi still has some hurdles to conquer due to the effects of radiation, she plans to be a child psychologist. Sisi says “I want to help kids cope with their feelings and anxieties because I know what it’s like”. She will impact others, knowing what it is like to be vulnerable and in need of support and encouragement.
MDMP’s New Single ‘Fire’ Blazes With Collaboration Featuring Mike Evans Of UK’s Profiler
Founded, formed and fronted by the enigmatic Jeremey Meyer, the heavy, hard-hitting Hawaiian alt-rock outfit MDMP has collaborated with Mike Evans from the UK metal band Profiler for the electrifying single “Fire.”
According MDMP’s Jeremy Meyer, when he has an idea for a song, he searches music platforms for other musicians or songs with similar motives and sounds. During an intensive search for the perfect sound to interpolate into “Fire,” Spotify stepped up and recommended Profiler to him. So, Meyer reached out to Evans, and just asked him.
“The concept for this song was to reach back to the glory days of nu-metal and be influenced by the likes of bands such as the Deftones,” Meyer said. “The lyrics reach to a place of challenging relationships to whom or what is subject to the listener’s relatable experience.”
With lyrics like “The temptation gets clearer,” the listener relays their own experience to the song. This allows for a universal listening experience. “Will you fight this fire with fire,” Meyer implores through a refrain backed by lingering guitar chords.
This musical collaboration reaches the beaches of Hawaii, the hot mid-summer air of the Midwest of the USA and crossing the Clifton Suspension Bridge of Bristol in the UK. This song is sure to be enjoyable with a low-lit room and a beverage of choice.
