It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna Rock and Roll…

 

As a musician, I know how hard it is to get recognized, play gigs for people and get the band’s name out in the open. It’s no easy task, I can assure you. However, being a young musician, it always impresses me when I see musicians as young as myself or even younger, making a name for them selves in the business. It was just last month I went to Burlington’s YMCA show to check Burlington’s own Chaotic Blue. The band consists of 16 year olds Matt Browne on guitar, Holden Patteson on bass, Kevin Martins on vocals and acoustic guitar and 15 year-old Dean Farndell on drums. I sat down with the band last week and asked the boys a few questions about their band and the music scene.

 

Sam Payne: How did you guys come up with the name of your band?

Matt Browne: Well we had a box of crayons. Haha no. Um it was an old name my friend and I kind of came up with and I thought it was a cool name and kind of different. So different its always good and you get noticed if you’re different.

 

SP: What genre of music do you guys play?

Holden Patteson: What would you call it?

Dean Farndell: I don’t think you can necessarily define our genre.

MB: You can’t really describe it. We could fit into an indie kind of genre I guess. But we’re all over the place. We could be anything.

HP: There are elements of rock, elements of soft rock, blues influence.

MB: We don’t want to be a band with a specific genre. We play whatever we feel like. We play whatever we want to play.

SP: So when you talk about your influences, what bands influenced you the most?

Kevin Martins: Our Lady Peace!

DF: Zeppelin, definitely.

HP: The Beatles! Pink Floyd, I think.

MB: Definitely Pink Floyd for me.

DF: Lots of older stuff. Zeppelin and Frank Zappa. I listen to a lot of guitar parts too because the complexity sounds really cool.

MB: Mostly big guitar players. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix.

KM: Our Lady Peace!

 

SP: When did you form your band?

HP: Well it started off as just Matt and I in August.

MB: Actually yeah I approached Holden…

DF: Yeah and then it was Matt who approached me, because we had summer camp together and stuff, and he approached me about it. I had just started playing drums about three weeks before that.

KM: And then I came in about a month or so after that. I was playing rhythm guitar.

DF: At the beginning I really didn’t like Kevin.

KM: Then he heard me at the first acoustic show

DF: And I heard him sing and said “Oh my god”.

KM: So about three months later, I started being the lead singer

SP: Who was singing before Kevin?

KM: Matt.

MB: Very decently, I must say. But Kevin is a better singer than I am and more trained.

 

SP: Do you feel that this experience is more special due to the fact that you are young and experiencing some things other bands have yet to experience?

MB: I think we are lucky. Having a band at this age and we’re getting noticed.

KM: We all have a good time together.

DF: And as much as we argue, as much as we bitch at each other, when we get it done, and we all come together, it sounds great. What we have at 15 and 16 is pretty cool.

 

SP: How long have each of you been playing your instrument? Has it always been your instrument of choice?

MB: I’ve been playing for about five or six years now. It’s also been the instrument I wanted to play. I actually started off with piano but I got really bored and so I started guitar. And I’ve just learned by ear. I tried the theory stuff and the lessons but I was kind of just like screw this mentality because I play guitar for the love of playing guitar. I know you have to know some theory but it’s always been for the love of playing.

KM: I have been playing guitar for about two and a half years. And I usually play acoustic. And I sang in the shower for about seven or eight years. And I started singing in a band about 2 years ago.

HP: I’ve been playing bass for three years this Christmas. I first started off with guitar because I found this acoustic at my house. My friend Marcus was telling me “You suck on guitar, take up bass.”

DF: I’ve been playing drums for about seven months now. So not very long actually. But um, for four years before that I played guitar and stuff and unlike Matt I picked up the theory. So I ‘m kind of a guitar geek, I guess you could say because I play boring theory. But I do piano and bass too.

 

SP: What’s you ultimate direction for your band? Are you guys looking to make it big?

HP: I would really like to play a huge show and open for a big band. That’s my goal.

MB: As long as I’m making an impact or changing something for the better in the world, this isn’t a joke. As long as I’ve changed something for the better in the world with music, I’ll be happy.

HP: Yeah Matt plays a chord and it’s like “YEAH WORLD HUNGER! FEED THE CHILDREN”

 

SP: So what advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?

KM: Don’t quit!

HP: Make sure you can get along with the people because they aren’t just going to be your band mates, they are going to become like your family.

MB: It should be fun. I mean, it should be taken seriously, but you should have fun with it.

KM: A band is a dysfunctional family you choose. I got that off Guitar Hero 2.

DF: I mean if you get together and its stiff together, then it will work.

 

SP: How can fans-to-be gain access to your music?

HP: www.myspace.com/chaoticblueband. And then there is our Facebook group; Chaotic Blue.

 

SP: Any final words from Chaotic Blue?

HP: I’m attractive.

KM: I’m single.

DF: This is why it’s good to be in a band.

HP: Never wear green. Ska is dead.

MB: Our message to everybody is music can change things. It can change the world. It’s universal, it may sound a bit cliché but…

DF: Matt was rehearsing that speech last night in his bedroom.

HP: If you party with us, you have to have at least two drinks.

SP: You guys have a long way to go with that.

KM: I challenge you.

SP: I’m Irish.

DF: I’m English.

SP: All right, well thanks guys. And I’m sure we will see you at the top one of these days 

 

The Horrible truth of Live Albums

 

Nothing beats a live album. The essence of a band’s stage performance. The rawness from a cheering crowd. Nothing can top the experience of feeling like you are at the concert right in your bedroom…right?

It’s unfortunate that this isn’t always the case.

It is common sense that your playing ability on a live album should be at par, if not ten times better than what you sound like on your studio album. Unfortunately, fans are becoming more and more disappointed these days, that their favourite musicians can’t live up to their reputation of being good while playing a live show. Ashlee Simpson was booed off the stage of the Orange Bowl when her song “La La” was sung off key and flat. But on her album, she is just as good as the rest.  The band Modest Mouse has been deemed by fans as “Worth listening to on CD” but when it comes to their live shows it’s a “never again” opinion.

But it’s not just the newer artists who have a problem delivering. Even the classic greats have had their major flops, causing fans to think, “What the hell is this?”

Eric Clapton’s “Rainbow Concert”, Van Halen’s “Right Here, Right Now”, The Police’s “Live” are all examples of live albums we simply could have done without.  This is due to poor sound quality, the fact that they don’t even sound like themselves or the songs sound like the same song being played over and over again.

Case in point, on AC/DC’s “Plug me in” DVD set released last fall; it contains one disc with the Bon Scott years and another disc with the Brian Johnson years. Listening to the songs on the Bon Scott disc, you can’t tell one song from the other. You find yourself asking “Didn’t they JUST play this song?”

Not to say that all live albums are horrible. Look at The Who’s “Live at Leeds”, which took Rolling Stone’s top 25 live albums of all time earlier last week, Led Zeppelin’s “How the West was Won”, The Rolling Stones’ “Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out” and Kiss’ “Alive”. These are classic examples of well done live albums that capture the total essence of the concert. It’s great live albums like these that allow the listener to close their eyes, and picture themselves front row center with a lighter (or a cell phone) in one hand and the sign of rock on the other, rocking out to their favourite music.

And that’s the way it should be! Bands should be so amazing live, you never want to hear them any other way. 

 

 

 

The future of Journalism…

It’s hard to really know what the future of Journalism has in store for us inspiring young Journalists. It scares me even now, wondering if there will even be a job waiting for me outside of college.

 

I don’t know about some people, but it depresses me that Journalism is inching its way closer and closer to online based. Not that I don’t mind getting information online, I get quite a few of my music feeds online, but honestly, I love picking up the paper or turning on the radio and getting my news. I can always guarantee I will find some kind of news on both of these mediums. But with the Internet, sometimes it’s a pain in the ass trying to relocate the information you found, and sometimes after a couple of days the information has been taken down.

 

I don’t think anyone has an exact idea about where the future of Journalism is headed. Some say that the future is looking quite bleak for us, but on the other hand, others say the industry is coming into its prime, so we need to embrace it. Who knows, in a few years, they may not need human journalists to be doing this work, they could have robots doing it for us. Sounds pretty scary huh? Damn right it does. But that’s the way every industry works. They are always changing and adapting to meet the needs of society.

 

Let’s just hope we can make our mark in the industry before all that happens. 

 

 

 

 

 

Has God Saved Queen?

Just when we thought Queen would never take the throne again, the band has officially confirmed plans to get back in the studio and record a new album.

It will be the first album of new material since the Freddie Mercury era. It will also be the first Queen studio album to feature their new vocalist former Bad Company and Free singer, Paul Rodgers. The last album Queen put out was 1995’s Made in Heaven, which featured the use of Mercury’s last vocal recording before his death of AIDS in 1991.

One of the new songs, “Say It’s Not True,” was previously released as a free download on World Aids Day last year. The rest of the album was recorded late last year and early this year.

The band has also announced that a tour is also set to kick off two weeks after the September 1^st release of the album.

Queen’s last shows with Mercury were back in 1986; afterwards the band had to stop touring due to Mercury’s illness. Regardless of the loveable front man’s absence, the surviving members of Queen have gone on to reunite a hand full of times, such as the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 and their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Lead Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have also been hard at work as the musical directors of We Will Rock You, a musical featuring 25 Queen songs.

The inspiration to set Rodgers as the new lead vocalist came back in September of 2004. May and Rodgers performed the classic Free song “All Right Now” at the fiftieth anniversary of Fender.  May had wrote on his website, saying that they were both amazed by the chemistry.

“It seemed blindingly obvious that there was something happening here.” May said. “It’s very exciting.”

That’s all it took before the veteran rockers were playing several European dates in Spring 2005. May and the rest of Queen are looking forward to the new album and tour.

“Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising again from the ashes. “ 

 

 

 

A night at the Casbah…

It is always quite a blessing to get out on any given night of the week and see a concert. But it’s even more of a blessing when you go to a smaller club, like the Casbah, for what can only be described as some of the most intimate concerts you’ll ever see.

Last Monday night, I watched one of the best triple threat concerts at the Casbah I have seen in a long time. Like most people, I was mainly there for the headlining band, Dragonette. You may be familiar with their popular hit right now “I Get Around”. Most people there that night weren’t there for the opening bands, which is understandable. I have seen my fair amount of shows to know that the opening acts range from bearable all the way down to crap.  However, from this moment on, I stand very much corrected!

The first opening band was a rock/indie band straight out of Toronto, Sweet Thing. In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting that much from them. My expectations weren’t that high, so even a few good guitar licks would have been better than I thought they could pull together. However, they instantly blew me away. From their Led Zeppelin style bass licks, to heart pounding drum beats, catchy guitar riffs and a more than average looking lead singer who could certainly belt out a tune, I stood front row center and allowed my jaw to instantly drop. Meeting up with leader singer Owen and drummer Tyler Kyte (from the old show Popular Mechanics for Kids) was also an experience in its own. Both guys were extremely down the earth. I asked Owen how he liked playing more intimate shows like the Casbah, where you are literally anywhere from a few inches to a few feet away from your audience.

“Honestly, they are some of the best and some of the worst shows you’ll ever play.” Owen said. “Depends on a few things. And I don’t know what those are.”

I have to admit, I wasn’t totally prepared for what the second band had in store. The only way to best describe Fritz Helder and the Phantoms would be a solid mix of pop, punk. electronic and funk.  Fritz Helder, the band’s leader singer, is what can only be described as the love child of Prince, Andre 3000 and Rick James. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but nonetheless, he was still entertaining. Their stage presence consisted of a rock/emo/goth looking shirtless guitar player, a DJ in the background, the lead singer playing a key-tar (honestly, coolest thing I’ve ever seen), and two dancer/ singers. I really wasn’t feeling the vibe off them all that much though. Don’t get me wrong, they were very talented in what they did. They just immediately, off the bat, were not my style at all. However, I did gain total respect for the band, but mostly the female dancer, Pastel Supernova, when she whipped out a guitar and started playing as if it were nothing. I always admire a good guitar player because I know it isn’t the easiest instrument to pick up and play. But I especially admire the person when they are female and break the stereotype that only good guitarists can be male. I went and spoke with her after their set.  I asked her how it felt to be a triple threat as a singer, dancer and guitarist for the band.

“It didn’t happen by accident.” Pastel said, with a blush in her cheeks. “I didn’t wake up one morning to be blessed with all this. I’ve been dancing and singing for 20 years now. But I think I am pretty decent at the guitar. I mean I’m not great yet. I can get by, but I would love to be great.”

All of this amazing talent finally led up to the big finale: Dragonette. The pop/electro/rock band had, by far, got the biggest reaction out of the crowd. Not only were people screaming for them, but the little five foot five wonder, that is me, had to keep from falling over, due to the fact that people were pushing so hard in order to get closer to the stage. While the other bands made their jitters more known, Dragonette felt right at home on stage. Their presence had a feeling of comfort, like they had been doing it for 20 years. I did feel a bit stupid, being front row center, not knowing some if not most of the words to most of the songs, when there were many people behind me belting out the lyrics as loud as they could. But to hell with them. I felt honoured to be standing mere inches away from this incredible band. I couldn’t believe it when I had the chance to speak very briefly with lead singer, Martina Sorbara, on her thoughts about playing an intimate venue.

“It’s some of the greatest shows you’ll ever play.” Sorbara said.  “Big shows are good too, but you can’t see all the faces of your fans. But when you play a club like this, and you can look out and see every single detail on everyone’s face, that’s what makes it worth it.”

It is, honestly, shows like this one that keep me going out to the Casbah and other concerts in general. I anxiously await for my next date with rock and roll. If you come out, you’ll see me front row centre.

 

Guitar Hero vs. Hero on Guitar?

Human Bandwidth…

We have access to more information than at anytime in history. The question remains: How much information are humans able to process? 

 

Hm. That’s an interesting one to say the least.

 

It is true though. We have so many ways of accessing information these days, its actually quite scary. Not only can anyone turn to a newspaper or turn on the television set, but this new thing, I think its called a computer, really proves this point.

 

Anyone these days can access a computer. And with the access of a computer, comes the access to any information you could ever think of. You could go onto Google, type in any word you want, and find millions upon millions of pages based on that one word. It’s mind blowing in a way.

 

But how much of this information are we really able to process?  Far be it from me to know.

 

But it seems to be the trend that you may not even know what you are reading or looking at when you find the information you are looking for. You just take it, use it and what’s done is done. Are we even processing this information we are getting? Or are we just using it to help us at that point in time with no care in the world about what it means?

 

It seems that we take for granted how easily we can access information. Far be it for someone to go to the library and look up this information in a book, take time to look it up and actually read and understand it.

 

With the information so easily at our fingertips, what is the use of “understanding” anything we are reading.

 

 

Links

www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/searchenginetips.mspx

http://ed.fnal.gov/lincon/tech_find_info.shtml

 

 

New Music genre is Spellbinding

Anybody who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last ten years knows that the Harry Potter phenomenon has brought about one of the largest fandoms to hit our generation. It has drawn fans in from all over the world. From books, to websites, fan stories, and fan art, the Harry Potter bandwagon seems to be unstoppable. However, nothing seems to be more popular than the current trend of music related to the series: Wizard Rock.

 

The Wizard Rock musical movement, which has only been around since 2002, currently consists of more than 300 bands. The music is all based around the world of Harry Potter. While one might think having this many bands based around Harry Potter might be overkill, these bands are all different and so are their styles. They all have a love for Harry Potter, but the way they all show that love is different.

 

McKenzie Stalcup is a member of the band The Tonks and Remus Experience. She explains that the music is purely about expressing love and adoration towards Harry Potter, through music.

 

“It allows people to unite under something. They feel like they’re not alone in their obsession or extreme love for Harry Potter.” Stalcup said. “The music is very addicting. I was on a community on LiveJournal and someone mentioned a band called ‘Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls’ calling them ‘wizard rock’, so I gave them a listen. I’ve been hooked on it ever since.”

 

Stalcup started up her one women band a couple months ago and has been busy at work, writing songs and recording them for her site. The focus of her music is mainly based around two specific characters from the book

 

“Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin are two characters that are near and dear to my heart. I LOVE them as a couple in the books and that’s how it started out. The lyrics I write range from a variety of things. Stuff about Tonks and Lupin (obviously) to general things about Harry Potter fandom.”

 

Even with the end of the Harry Potter book series, these bands are only continuing to gain momentum with the up-coming release of a full-length documentary about the music called We are Wizards.

 

So maybe in the future, when people hear the words “rock and roll” and “lightning bolt” in the same sentence, they won’t be thinking AC/DC, they’ll be thinking Wizard Rock.

 

Reporting Just the Facts? Journalism at its best

In response to the quote… 

 “We know there is a vast morass of information out there that our audiences want us to try to make sense of.  The danger consists in trying to leap above it, not by getting more dramatic or salient or verifiable facts, but by analyzing, speculating, predicting, interpreting – by drawing definitive conclusions while the bodies are still warm.”    Paul Knox, The Globe and Mail     

Wow. Well this ties in a lot to what has been going on lately in my life. “By drawing definitive conclusions while the bodies are still warm”. It seems that every time you turn around, people are willing to come up with conclusions without having all the facts straight. 

But not only in my life does this happen, but in the whole world that is Journalism. Take a look a celebrity news and celebrity gossip websites. It doesn’t matter if the news is close enough to the truth, or has no evidence behind the story what so ever. If its something that will make people jump on the bandwagon and follow, it’s good enough. 

The website TMZ.com is notorious for this. While there is some truth behind some of their stories, others are a misconception of the truth. It is stretched out too far and it’s hard to know what the truth is anymore. But this doesn’t matter to people. As long as it’s entertaining, who cares if it’s true? Right?

It’s sad to know that this is the world of Journalism. That the facts aren’t important anymore.

There are like a side dish to the main course. It’s nice to have, but if you don’t get to it, it’s not a big deal.  The fact that the world of Journalism can now simply fly by on the soul purpose of being entertaining is absolutely disgusting. It is even more disgusting to know that people don’t care. That this doesn’t cause an outrage in people.

Not to say that entertainment isn’t a good thing, but when your story strives off the soul purpose of entertainment, you just can’t wrap your head around it. And I can honestly say, I am scared for the future of Journalism.  

Links

www.tmz.com

www.perezhilton.com 

Saint Patrick’s Day