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sometimesalwaysmusic · 7 years

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SLACK BRIDGES

Slack Bridges (SB) has been making waves in the capital, having played many of the major and up-and-coming festivals in the region in their (relatively) short lifespan. In advance of their debut LP release show at the Rainbow Bistro, we caught up with bassist Garrett Bass for an in-depth conversation on influences, guests in their live show and maintaining their serious momentum moving into 2018.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slackbridges/

Web: http://www.slackbridges.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slackbridges/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/slackbridges

Upcoming Release: Joy of Joys (LP, Nov 2017)

Upcoming shows: Saturday, November 11 - Slack Bridges LP Release, with Mushy Gushy & Zattar. The Rainbow, Ottawa, ON. 9PM.

SA: How did Slack Bridges come to be? SB: In 2014, Chris (guitar) and myself had just started rehearsing with a local soul group and we realized we’d rather just work with each other. We started meeting up semi-regularly and putting some song skeletons together, but a combination of us having trouble finding a singer and both pretty busy meant that the songs just sat there for about a year and a half. In late 2015, I heard an album by an old pal Matt Gilmour under his alias “Gold Bonds” and really loved the sound of his voice. I showed Chris and we decided to reach out and see if Matt liked any of the tracks. The rest happened pretty quickly - Matt joined, he recommended our drummer Paul, I tracked down our keyboardist Marcus and things started coming together. Now as we release our first full length (we put out an EP last May), we have Zac Sedlar on alto sax and a few musicians who play off and on with us.

SA: What bands, musicians or artists would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? SB: As a group of people, our tastes in soulful and funky music are pretty diverse, but we all speak the same language. So, half of the time we’re referencing the vintage stuff, from Chicago style soul like Curtis Mayfield, southern soul like Don Bryant, Anne Peebles, etc. and jazz fusion pioneers like Herbie Hancock… and then the other half of the time we’re referencing classic hip-hop and modern R&B guys like Anderson .Paak, Kendrick, etc. I think it’s pretty cool that you can be so varied but still under the same umbrella. When we’re writing we’re referencing across the map.. “hey can you try some Chicago soul strings at that part?” “Can we get some of that Saturday Night Live sax ripping in the background here?” “How can we get a big Kendrick-style Moog bass on this one?” It’s cool! This type of diversity really shows through on our new record. We really do yield influence from the history of soulful music throughout the ages.

SA: Thus far in the band’s lifetime, what has been your biggest success? SB: We played Bluesfest this summer, which was pretty great. We also played Ottawa’s first soul music fest this year which some of us played a big role in putting on. It was really cool to see this kind of music as a community-builder, and a way of bringing people together. I’d say the biggest success has been getting a grant from the Ontario Arts Council though. It was really cool to have a big agency like that believe in what we’re up to! Plus it allowed us to take the album we’d been picking away at and get some guest musicians on it, get it professionally mixed, mastered, pressed on vinyl… we would be dropping a very different product right now without that cash. It's safe to say that we are proud of our record and earning that grant.

SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? SB: We’re mainly 9-5ers and being in a band can be a big time management piece compared to how it used to be when we were kids. We’ve got 6 schedules to work around and we’re always trying to find a fine balance between being fun, efficient and reducing burn-out. For example, I’m a teacher and Matt is a grad student, so we work hard all year and then have summer off. Right at that point, Chris starts working 10-12 hour days at all the festivals. It’s a lot of juggling to get people together and gett’er done. Fortunately, when we all get in the jam space and play music together it’s a blast and definitely cathartic.

SA: How do you approach the song-writing process? SB: I actually had a friend read the back of the album and say “oh come on, you guys don’t actually all write the songs together. Who brings in the song?” To which my response was… yeah, actually, we do, and it’s crazy. Haha! Usually someone busts out an idea and we just jam the hell out of until we have a song. I’ll record what we have and dump it onto the net, Matt will brainstorm and revise some lyrics for the following week and we’ll keep at it for about 4-5 weeks until it’s a done deal. Sometimes, we improvise or revise for fun, but crafting a song is one of the funnest parts of being in a band for all of us, and we compose democratically. I think that our new record is definitely a reflection of this democratic and diverse approach too.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? SB: I’ve been here for about 12 years and it’s better now that it ever was. There’s a ton of variety! I feel like you could see a wide array of music any night of the week if you’re not too picky about genre. I can name a few artists worth watching in just about any portion of the scene… soul/funk, jazz, punk, rock n’ roll, garage, reggae/ska, indie, songwriter, folk, celtic, gypsy. We feel lucky to be part of Ottawa's music infrastructure, and are excited to grow with it as it becomes more accessible to others. It's always sweet to see new people come out, new bands, labels, venues, and organizations dedicated to improving our creative community.

SA: You are set to release your debut full length album, Joy of Joys, at the Rainbow Bistro on November 11. Social media tells us that you've been rehearsing with Olexandra from the Peptides. Can you tell us how that rehearsals have been going, and what can fans expect from your upcoming release show? SB: Our set is feeling great! After festival season it’s nice to be able to add some new material. We have some really fantastic people joining us on the 11th. Olexandra has been a huge supporter of this band and does such a great job with the Peptides, so it’s awesome to have her come up for a bunch of songs. We’ll also have Nick Dyson crushing it on trumpet and a couple other surprises up our sleeves. Expect a fun, intense, energetic, dynamic, and powerful set. We will be be playing songs off of our new record, as well as some brand new material. There will be lots of opportunities to dance and wild out. Our friends DJ Zattar and Mushy Gushy will also be playing some killer tunes as well. It's going to be a really great party.

SA: Given each band members' history with bands of a variety of genres, what made you want to follow this style with this band, and how has your song-writing approach compared or contrasted with past projects? SB: For most of us, we’ve just really always wanted to play in this kind of group but it wasn’t a possibility a few years ago. In terms of songwriting, half of us come from a punk rock background where you jam out a song until it sounds good, and the other come from a jazz or blues background where you improvise and really explore an arrangement. Put the two together and it makes for some really fun songwriting. That being said, we all have a fascination with complex, impressive, and tastefully executed music from the heart. That remains consistent in our songwriting, but our new record shows an honesty and maturity in how we have evolved as people and songwriters alike. That growth is something we all go through.

SA: Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, House of Paint, and the list goes on. You guys have hit a lot of the major festivals coming through Ottawa thus far. Though this is quite the enviable position, how do you keep this kind of momentum building, given all the tremendous successes that 2017 had for the band? SB: We managed to do a lot without an official LP out, which was pretty amazing! A lot of what got us into those festivals was word-of-mouth, which we’re super grateful for, but we’re really excited to be able to push a unique record that we put a lot of work into and give new listeners a clearer idea of what we do. I think now the goal is to keep building momentum, enjoy writing and releasing even more material, and see if we can take our momentum to some of the bigger festivals in Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, etc.

SA: What comes next for Slack Bridges post album release, and moving into 2018? We wish you guys the best, and good luck! SB: We’ll just be trying to get the record out there for the next little bit, hopefully collaborating with some more great Ottawa talent in the process. Otherwise, we’re just going to keep experimenting and writing soulful music and try to represent Ottawa one funky track at a time!

#slackbridges #ottawa #newmusic #funk #soul #joyofjoys #albumrelease #houseofpaint #ottawabluesfest #ottawajazzfestival #rainbowbistro #thepeptides #ontario #canada

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avaliveradio · 6 years

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"New Rock Music Release from Rte. 2 Sniper 'Ground Zero'

I told myself when I start saying "I don't feel like going to the studio". Then it's time to hang it up. I hope I am in the ground before that happens.

Artist: Rte. 2 sniper

New Release: Ground Zero

Genre: Rock

We are 3 old guys from Boston Massachusetts. We use to play all the big clubs in the Boston area when the scene was at its peak. Since then we write, record and discard one CD after another in our outdated studio.

We are called Rte. 2 Sniper. Our latest CD is called "New Duds". The featured song of the album is called Ground Zero. It's a straightforward rock song with simple lyrics about the expected or unexpected end of days. It's hard to pick one song since our genre has a vast range of styles. We picked this one because of its relatable 3 chord, simplistic verse-chorus arrangement along with a short story to go along with it.

As an indie artist there are certainly challenges. The oversaturated, digital music age. I will give you a "when I was a kid" example. Back in the heyday, there were only a couple of ways to learn how to play, and most of it was taught from friend to friend or you listened to an album and played along. So, it was difficult to be super technical, so most bands were playing with more feeling an emotion. It was also a lot of work to get to the "play out in the clubs" stage. There were also more clubs than "good" bands back then, so bands would actually get paid either with actual money or at least free beer and food. Also, it made the band circuit more of comradery thing. You would get on a bill with bands that you have been booked with before. Sometimes, multiple times. We all got to know each other and we either supported each other's shows or went to shows just to heckle each other. NOW, everyone and their brother can play an instrument. Specifically guitar, and everyone is fucking pissa! I have never seen so many talented people out there on youtube, facebook etc. and they get younger and younger and more pissa and pissarer...... It blows my mind. Like I said before, we are rocking the same chords to make songs and these kids are tearing up the neck! But drummer Chris Raffi ALWAYS says to me when I get annoyed by all this talent that is saturating the digital music age, "Ya, they are GREAT, BUT, can they write a fucking song? Can they write something that you'll remember, or not want to make you shut it off? Most of the time my answer is no, they can't. Or at least I haven't heard a hit come out of any of these prodigies.

As a way to learn now, there is so much information, learning tools, technology, apps, sounds etc. That I hope the human soul doesn't get lost in all of it. Back in the 90's you could see the tip of this saturating iceberg and songs started to lose that personal, real, speaking to me feeling. Superdrag said it best. "Who sucked out that feeling?" All we can do is keep going, and NEVER lose the love or the built-in passion. We still love getting together weekly, even after 35 years and still get excited that we are getting together to either write, record, play live or just have a beer and reminisce, create, but most of all, we make sure we laugh our balls off at least once per visit. There are lots of laughs, but you need that one gut-wrenching, can't breath one......fun times. Well, me personally (Tim Dooley, bass player, singer), I was brought up with music all around me. My mom was a radio singer and a member of the USO in the 30's and 40's. She was singing as an amateur and professionally since she was 10 years old. My dad and his brothers were all musicians and were all playing Irish and Celtic songs in my grandmother's triple-decker in South Boston (Southie) and eventually started playing out around the city. That legacy lives on through sons and grandsons. The Dooley Brothers. Chris Raffi, drummer for Rte. 2 Sniper says: I knew instantly that I was bound to play drums from the minute I saw a live drummer playing a live drum kit. It was magical and I knew right away that's what I wanted to do. Denny Cahill, Guitarist for Rte. 2 Sniper says: I don't remember NOT wanting to play music. It's been a significant part of my life as far back as I can remember. Obviously, there is something in our souls that motivates us, because we have been playing together since the early 80's and we haven't been paid or played any live shows since the 90's. (except one in 2012 at a Halloween Party, what a blast)

Call it passion, love for music, love for bandmates, or just call it something to do creatively.

LINKS: https://www.reverbnation.com/rte2sniper https://rte2sniper.bandcamp.com/track/ground-zero https://rte2sniper.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/man-in-6

Feature created by Jacqueline Jax Submit your music for a feature: www.avaliveradio.info/airplay

#Boston #rock music #Rte. 2 Sniper

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dentsolivier · 7 years

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’77 Fest 2017 @ Jean Drapeau – 28 July, 2017

Rancid

Ever since the Warped Tour started to skip over our fair city a few years ago, there’s been a punk-sized hole in our Montreal summers. Pouzza Fest has carried the torch admirably, but there’s really nothing quite like a day of punkin’ in the park on a nice summers day. Clearly, a group of punk promoters here felt the same way; after booking punk rock shows for over 25 years, they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Enter ’77 Montreal. 13 bands across 2 stages in a small section of Parc Jean Drapeau, blessed with a rare day of dry weather in this bummer of a summer. No bands overlap either – the bane of many a festival. This year’s inaugural event, likely due to the schedules of the headliners, takes place on a Friday, so crowds are a little sparse to begin with, which makes sense. After all, many of the “punks“ towards whom this line-up is aimed are now grown-ups with full-time jobs who can’t get a day off frivolously… or perhaps it’s just me!

Jake Burns

After the bizarre request to surrender the top of my plastic bottle (note to organizers, despite the various admonitions around the site, this makes staying hydrated quite difficult, irrespective of the presence of water filling stations, if I can’t actually store it in my pocket for when I need it), I finally enter the venue midway through Jake Burns (of Stiff Little Fingers fame) set, which is the perfect soundtrack to a relaxed afternoon in the park if ever you heard one. It sounds especially chilled in comparison to what follows next: New York hardcore legends Madball.

Madball

The chilled vibe is obliterated within about 2 seconds of the first song, as the crowd explodes into life in the mid-afternoon sunshine. Frontman Freddy Cricien is an engaging one: he patrols the front fence right off the bat, and, as if the crowd isn’t already involved enough, waves his finger like a lasso, the universal symbol to start a circle pit, to which the hardcore-heads duly oblige. He’s funny too, introducing Madball as “a brand new band working on their first album,” and declaring “we love coming to Canada…but not the border.” An explosive 45 minutes.

Madball

New Jersey’s finest The Bouncing Souls are immediately up next, and draw another huge, excitable crowd. Frontman Greg Attonito skanks his way onto the stage and launches right into the epic Manthem, and they keep up the frenetic pace on Late Bloomer. Greg roams the front fence too, shaking hands and high-fiving as many as possible, and then darts up the aisle that splits the crowd down the middle right to the sound desk on Lean On Sheena, accompanied by a huge sing-along from the rabid crowd.

The Bouncing Souls

Gone sounds epic too, and after wishing everyone “have a great night, have a great everything!!!”, they wrap up a brilliant set with the classic True Believer. The pit picks up once more, and due to a bizarre design on the smaller ‘Scene Ouest’ stage (in which the middle of the floor area is raised a few inches up compared to the left and right sides), those at the edge of the raised area are thrown off the edge during the crowd surge (including myself). Thankfully, no damage is done, save for one punk’s young daughter who leaves the area in tears, but such a floor design is certainly asking for trouble in the form of sprained ankles and tumbles. Another note to the organizers there then…

The Bouncing Souls

Old school So-Cal punks The Vandals follow, and despite being physically older dudes, clearly haven’t gone all ‘grown-up.’ Opening with Its A Fact (complete with comedy guitar solo) and Take It Back, frontman Dave Quackenbush then dedicates People That Are Going To Hell to himself. Seriously, these guys were joking about on stage way before Blink 182 made it mainstream.

After Cafe 405 and Pizza Tran, Dave demands to see himself on the huge screens on the opposite stage during Live Fast Diarrhea, all to no avail. Still, he sparks a huge sing-along to the chorus, and you know that The Vandals are the only band who could get a whole crowd to yell “Diarrhea” and make it sound anthemic. Oi To The World and the brilliant The New You follow before Dave and bassist Joe Escalante once again address the crowd: “you know The Vandals, we like to address political shit; we know your President, he’s fuckin’ good-looking, he could be a Kardashian!!”

The Vandals

On I’ve Got An Ape Drape (their ode to mullets), Dave replaces ‘Queensryche’ with ‘Bouncing Souls’ to declare “I’ve been growing that one braid back there for years / I’ve had it since the first time I saw Bouncing Souls!!!”, much to the amusement of anyone who actually caught the joke. And Now We Dance, Anarchy Burger, My Girlfriend’s Dead are blazed through next, before the set concludes with I Have A Date, and the biggest goofball of all of them, guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, heads into the crowd, onto the sound tent, dancing crazily for the video screens. Anyone who didn’t know The Vandals before today will certainly not forget them in a hurry; 50 minutes of ridiculous genius fun.

Many bands to this point have expressed their excitement at seeing punk legends X at this festival, who in the words of Dave Quackenbush, are “the only band here that really live the spirit of 1977” (after which this very festival is named). Indeed, even Mac DeMarco has turned up for them, watching their set from the side of the stage and singing along to We’re Desperate (at least I think its him…). However, it seems that most of the crowd uses their set as an excuse to grab some food, as the crowd is notably thinner at the front during their set. Not that any of the band seem to notice, or if they do, they don’t seem to care. Oozing cool, frontwoman Exene Cervenka has her hands in the pockets of her X hoodie, and you know how cool you have to be to get away with wearing your own merchandise. Aside from a cover of a 1920s country song (since “the 1920s were way more punk than the 1970s,” according to Exene), the set is unmistakably old-school punk, and sounds as timeless as it did back in the day.

After lining up for 40 minutes for a supper of 2 waffles (and that was the shortest of the line-ups for the 3 food trucks available to service the entire festival; one had sold out already. Note to organizers: more food trucks are needed for an event of this size!), it’s time for the first of the co-headliners in the form of Massachusetts legends Dropkick Murphys. It’s hard to know if it was them or Flogging Molly who first merged the Celtic influence with punk, but it’s a sound they’ve never strayed from across their 9 studio albums, and why would they? It’s clearly beloved by the thousands now assembled for their set. Indeed, it’s traditional celtic music and tin whistles that signal their arrival on stage, and after a melancholy intro, the pit explodes into life with the first bars of The Boys Are Back, and is swiftly followed by Blood and bagpipes.

Dropkick Murphys

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya starts out very traditionally with a mandolin, before again erupting into life, and the energy of the crowd is palpable. Some down-time arrives with a stirring cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone, which is followed by the anthemic Rose Tattoo, which sounds even more fantastic in conjunction with the sun setting over the trees around the venue. The pit erupts back into life with The State Of Massachusetts and I’m Shipping Up to Boston. At this point, various members of the crowd gatecrash the stage and dance and sing with the band, and remain there for Until the Next Time, and in fact are joined by even more of the crowd; the stage is pretty packed by the end. A cannon-blast of confetti into the crowd wraps up the epic set.

Dropkick Murphys

For the first time all day, there’s a lull in proceedings, with no bands playing, as Rancid‘s crew set things up on the same stage Dropkick Murphys just vacated. The tiredness of a busy week at work and an afternoon on my feet in the sun begins to set in, and I wonder if I have one more band left in me. Of course, when that band is Rancid, there’s absolutely no way I’m leaving early, and as soon as Tim Armstrong staggers onto the stage and sings the opening notes of Radio, the tiredness evaporates and euphoria takes over, as they blast through classic after classic, as Roots Radicals, Journey to the End of the East Bay, and the bass-shredding Maxwell Murder follow soon after. Its amazing stuff.

Rancid

During The 11th Hour, Tim tells us how they and Dropkick Murphys participated in a draft as to which band would headline each night, and he chose Montreal! The crowd roars approval at his choice; tonight, there really couldn’t be anyone else headlining. Guitarist Lars Frederiksen rips through Ghost Of A Chance, despite some obvious annoyance at some clowns who intermittently throw junk onto the stage, and when he proclaims “we’re gonna take you back to 1995 to a little record called And Out Come The Wolves,” the ska vibes of Old Friend kick in and get everyone dancing once more.

New song Where I’m Going follows that ska vibe perfectly, despite being over 20 years younger. For It’s Quite Alright, Lars asks for circle pits either side of the central aisle, which the crowd are happy to provide, and they keep this up for Buddy. Fall Back Down is met with a huge clap-along, and ends in a huge sing-along for the last chorus The timeless Time Bomb brings back the ska vibe once more, before Ruby Soho closes out the main set with the biggest sing-along of the set so far. A truly magnificent hour of music, from a truly magnificent band.

Both Rancid and Dropkick Murphys emerge for a combined encore of covers, consisting of Cretin Hop (Ramones), I Fought The Law (The Clash) , Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash) and TNT (AC/DC) , to bring the festival to a carnival sort of conclusion, before leaving the stage and leaving the tired but elated crowd to fight their way onto the Metro and back home.

Setlist Radio Roots Radicals Journey to the End of the East Bay Maxwell Murder The 11th Hour Nihilism East Bay Night Dead Bodies Ghost of a Chance Telegraph Avenue Old Friend Where I’m Going Salvation Bloodclot Black & Blue Olympia WA. It’s Quite Alright Buddy Fall Back Down Time Bomb Ruby Soho

Encore Cretin Hop (Ramones cover) I Fought The Law (The Clash cover) Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash cover) TNT (AC/DC cover)

Will this Festival be a regular thing, or a one-off? One would hope the former, since the video screens read “see you next year” on the way out. Here’s hoping so – despite a few minor glitches and gripes, the first edition of ’77 Montreal was a resounding success, and here’s hoping for many more years punkin’ in the park!

Pale Lips

This mighty creature was hanging out in the Monster energy tent

This little guy emerged from out of the shadows of the Monster Energy tent to have a quick nibble and was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Its not a common occurrence, to find a rodent that digs the Dropkick Murphys.

Barrasso

Genetic Control

The Kingpins

The Creepshow

Hairdressing in the Monster energy tent

Review – Simon Williams Photos – Kieron Yates