| Advertisement |
|
Local Guides
|
|
|
Hamilton Music Notes
|
by
Ric Taylor
July 15 - 21, 2010 |
Wax Mannequin’s Label Fantastic!
For the last decade, Christopher Adeney has continually challenged audiences with the music of his alter ego named Wax Mannequin. With his most recent release Saxon, Wax Mannequin further strengthened his touring schedule and his presence on the national musical front. But with no record label to further his endeavours, what’s a Wax Mannequin to do?
It makes sense that given the crumbling music industry, Adeney brings word of a new collective of indie rockers that have started their own boutique, record label and distribution company, Label Fantastic! Its genesis probably can be traced back to when Wax Mannequin travelled to Guelph for a show.
“Wax Mannequin played the first show on the main floor of my dad’s thrift store in Guelph about eight years ago,” recalls Jenny Mitchell, better known as Jenny Omnichord who has also performed with the Burning Hell and the Barmitzvah Brothers. “Wax Mannequin’s persona back then was ‘awkward businessman.’ I didn’t know about his personas at the time, so when he started the show by jogging around my father’s parking lot drinking bottled water, and then started meowing half way through the set, I just thought that that was what he was like in real life. I later saw him in his ‘president of indie rock’ clothing, where he had a handlebar moustache and an American flag bandana, and I realized it was all part of a bigger picture, and I fell in love with everything Wax Mannequin.”
Wax Mannequin and Omnichord would end up becoming fast friends and eventually tour together. But life on the road isn’t usually that much fun. It was one such tour where Adeney had an epiphany.
“I was on tour in Newfoundland — napping in a parking lot in Cornerbrook, actually — and I realized that my friends and I are like weird, poor music superheroes. It would be great to have a club or league, like superheroes do, where we could use our powers to help each other and to make the world a nicer sounding place,” recounts Adeney. “So I called Mathias Kom [of the Burning Hell] to talk about this idea. It was 2 am or something, but it turned out that he and Jenny had just been talking about the same thing.”
Adeney, Mitchell, Kom and Gillian Manford joined to former Label Fantastic!, covering all distribution themselves personally and ensuring each release on their label would be something unique.
“We figured we could do our own physical distribution, because we all tour back and forth so much; we all like promoting our music in strange, audience–involved ways, so that became one of the cornerstones of the label too. We carry each other’s CDs with us, and give out membership cards and whatnot,” says Adeney. “It’s pretty amazing how like–minded we are about how this label thing should go.
“We all have a certain compatible sentiment in our music as well – we sing about many of the same things in our own ways — so it’s fitting that we would have similar ideas about how the label should be.
“My own personal desire to create a new label has just come out of many years of hopping from label to label, putting in various amounts of effort, and feeling good and bad about many different aspects of label life,” says Mitchell. “I feel like I am finally at a point where I am willing to work very hard to support the music I love, and where I am also very happy to keep my earnings in my own hands, to reinvest
them in the things I love.”
Ominchord’s new album, Cities of Gifts and Ghosts, is an obvious labour of love – a vinyl record in a three gatefold jacket that doubles as a cross–Canada board game that is assuredly visually stunning and deeply personal, documenting the birth of her child as she toured the country.
“I used to write a lot about ghosts and animals and skeletons, but then I spent the better part of a year touring back and forth across Canada with a baby growing inside of me, and found it impossible not to reflect on that,” notes Mitchell. “The songs are ordered mostly chronolgical, so there’s a lot of fear and worry in first half, and
then the greatest possible joy of being in love and having babies and enjoying the people in my life, through to the end until everyone is happily in love in their graves.”
With word that the Adeney household is also adding a new baby, Wax Mannequin will prepare his new album and the new home for his growing family this fall. But this summer, the Label Fantastic! continues its distribution cycle with Adeney covering Eastern Canada and Mitchell the west with their respective tours. This weekend, they help launch the label in Hamilton with a special addition to the Mannequin merchandise table.
“The usual shirts, stickers, CDs and buttons are nice, but I’ve always felt that something was missing – for a long time, I wanted to make plaster Wax Mannequin busts that people could put on top of their pianos — like they do with Mozart and stuff,” offers Adeney on the gestation of the new line of Wax Mannequin candle heads. “I loved this idea, and figured that if I added essential oils in the candlemaking process then the candles would have healing properties; you know, sandalwood, wintermint, lavender. They are all very healing smells when it comes to balancing the energies and the spirit and complexion.
“The show is turned into sort of an everything–launch party,” he adds on this weekend’s hometown gig. “Jenny is releasing her record in Hamilton. I’m releasing my candles. It’s pretty amazing how like–minded we are about how this label thing should go. We all have a certain compatible sentiment in our music as well – we sing about many of the same things in our own ways — so it’s fitting that we would have similar ideas about how the label should be.”
The Fantastic Label! showcase happens this Friday, July 16 at This Ain’t Hollywood with Wax Mannequin, Jenny Omnichord and Eamon. The show gets underway at 10 pm at $10 gets you in.
Kori Pop’s From The Outskirts
With a name like Kori Pop, it’s no surprise the Mount Hope native caught the attention of some Toronto and New York music industry types nearly 10 years ago. But Pop (her real name of Ukranian decent from grandparents who emigrated to Canada from the former Yugoslavia) turned away from pop fame at the cost of her integrity and decided to follow a different course for her music.
Pop had already had been recognized as a standout but she wanted to do things her way – or at least not the way of short skirts and knee socks, so she decided to immerse herself in her musical studies at Mohawk College and then at McMaster University. Pop songs fell by the way side initially, but soon began to re–emerge and once she hooked up with local producer Dave King at his Caistor Center Barn Window Studio. A long journey of self–discovery blossomed, and Pop returns from the outskirts of town and of fame with her new CD.
“From the Outskirts is both literal and figurative,” explains Pop on the CD title. “Due to geography, I got used to being a loner at a young age. I live in Mount Hope, a little town just outside Hamilton. This is where I wrote the record. Before I even knew Dave King existed I had come up with the title. It was quite a coincidence then, when I caught wind of Dave and end[ed] up recording in a barn 20 minutes further into the countryside than my own place.
“My musical brain was wired differently because of my education,” recalls Pop on the long time to fashion her debut full–length. “I had to unlearn the mechanics of music to have it become an honest expression again. I am not one those songwriters that can write ten songs in a day. It can take months for one song to feel right in its bare–bones state. Therefore, I did not have an extensive back catalogue when I met with Dave King. I already had an inkling on which songs were the strongest; he just confirmed them for me.”
Pop’s inventive and intricate songs are propelled into the stratosphere by King’s lush and lavish production – offering the best of a Beach Boys type rockestra while maintaining Pop’s own particular identity.
“I was concerned that if we recorded the songs the way I heard them in my head, people may be disappointed when they saw me performing them live with just myself, my guitar and my keyboard,” offers Pop on developing the songs in the studio. “Dave was acutely aware of this fact. Therefore, we built each song around that very structure. We only tried to make what was already there stronger. Every day at the Barn was an adventure. Dave pulled musical abilities and ideas out of me that I did not even think existed. His confidence in me changed my
life. Instead of taking the reins himself, he put them in my hands and taught me how to use them. He has wonderful friends, some of which he encouraged me to consider as additions on the record. Paul Intson, Aaron Harvey and Rob Janson from Sandman Viper Command, Ralf Michelli, Steve Strongman and Roman Klun – as well as a few of my friends, Justin Dunlop, Michael Davidson and Rebecca Hennessy – each came in and lent their own particular brand of magic.”
There is definitely an element of magic to From The Outskirts, but with Pop’s previous experiences, she is content to take her time promoting the disc. An official release concert should happen in September, but for the time being she’ll be offering advance CDs on an eastern Canadian tour. Each concert is special for pop as she simply hopes to take the magic in her world and offer it through her eyes in her songs.
“I feel that taking a situation out of real life and building a new landscape for it is the most interesting way to tell a story,” says Pop. “All songwriters write about the same basic things – love and loss of people, government or faith but each person’s experience with these things is unique.
“Joni Mitchell and Julie Andrews are the two influences I cannot shake,” admits Pop. “Joni’s vocal dynamics floored me when I first heard her. What makes Mary Poppins special, both in character and plot, is the mix of honesty and magic, something I try to impart.”
Kori Pop plays this Saturday July 17 at the Artword Artbar with Hobson’s Choice. Show starts at 8 pm and cover is $10. Click on koripop.com
The Concert to Save the Sky Dragon
The Sky Dragon Centre opened up on King William off James Street North in 2004 with the goal to be a progressive organization to facilitate people’s desire to make a positive difference in the world. Over the last six years, the art gallery, cafe and performance and meeting space has offered a real alternative to politically active and environmentally concerned artists and artisans. But this past spring word came that the centre had hit financial difficulties and with the threat of closure, many have taken up arms to save the Sky Dragon.
Michael Hampson has continually led the charge to make change – even when his own physical means to do so were hampered. “I was drawn to the Sky Dragon’s positive intent,” offers Hampson, who first befriended Skydragon Center Director, Kevin McKay, at several protests 19 years ago. “I learned Chi Gung – a Chinese healing modality and Za Zen – the quiet mind meditation. It helped me deepen my hodge–podge–learn–as–you–go meditations, and were powerful adjuvants when in 2001 I ended up in hospital fighting cancer and became paraplegic. So I have a deep connection with the Sky Dragon. I feel it is a spiritual hub for Hamilton’s activist and artists and people who are working towards creating a loving, sustainable and open–minded community. The Sky Dragon is a space that welcomes all and is forming consociations between divergent groups of concerned citizens.
“There is no other institution doing what these folks are doing so I felt a responsibility and desire to help,” adds Hampson. “Think? Productions has done many shows for other causes at the Dragon and felt their cause was worthy, so decided to do a benefit for them also with some amazing musicians to make it official.”
Hampson’s Think? Productions is offering a benefit for the Sky Dragon with a slew of regulars, but Hampson seems to be confident that in the end the centre is destined to pull through. “It is flying by the seat of its pants because a lot of these concepts are new to us; they have not been modeled for us, so we have growing pains and steep learning curves but I’m proud of the fact that we persevere with open heart and tangible determination,” says Hampson.
“I believe the Sky Dragon Centre will be saved because of its effect on those that interact there and because many good people are behind it.
“I am looking forward to the next benefit there called ‘Saved the Sky Dragon’, smiles Hampson. “I will leave those details for the Sky Dragon to speak upon when it chooses, but things are looking good and this musical soiree and celebration will only help Hamilton’s new spiritual hub keep evolving.”
The Concert to Save the Sky Dragon happens this Friday July 16 at the Sky Dragon, with Martin Verrall, Raphael Keelan, Klyde Broox, Alyssa In The Apple Tree, Sara Inksetter, Matt Jelly, Blue Bottle Flyers, Devon Bristo, Beyond a Wonderland, Sam Klass, Jack Street and more. Click on skydragon.org
|
Share on
 |
I\\\'m ever grateful for your support Ric. Your love of music and those in the Industry is contagious, like a heart felt belly laugh. I wish you well and continued success. Michael Hampson
Posted by michael hampson on July 15, 2010 at 5:48pm | Report this comment
|
