2009 Awards Gala in Ottawa, Ontario

The fifth annual Canadian Folk Music awards gala will take place on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at Dominion Chalmers Church, 355 Cooper Street, Ottawa, Ontario (corner of O’Conner), http://www.dcpresentations.com. The awards ceremony will feature live music by April Verch, Old Man Luedecke, Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer, Yonder Hill, Valdy and Caterina Cardeal & Mike Siracusa, followed by a reception for all.

Different strokes
Willis talkin’ about the new, cut Grass

The members of East Coast band The Grass have more in common with their ’60s role models than the inventive musical style and eclectic fashions. Add low- or no-paying jobs, commune living and recreational drug use, followed by friction and break-ups, reformation and a rumoured reunion tour, and it’s clearly a reputation they come by easily.

The story goes that the Grass’s original sextet uprooted from Dartmouth in winter 2007 to a house in Ottawa South so they could plug their alt-country hippy rock into the Ottawa music scene. Read more…

CALL OF THE WILD:
Moose & Pussy: Dirty, gritty, literary

The definition of “erotica” has been recycled more times than a cum rag. It’s been cleaned up and academicized to appease prudes, romanticized to placate suburbanites and disguised to mean anything that’s not porn. That’s why you’ll love Ottawa’s newest erotica magazine, Moose & Pussy – straight-up dirty writing, and editor Jeff Blackman doesn’t care what genre you call it.

“Some say erotica means softcore and porn means hardcore,” Blackman tells XPress. “It’s labels for the same thing, and I don’t think too much about it.” Read more…

THE O-TOWN HOEDOWN:
Not Bad Country for Good Men and Women

Like a rhinestone cowboy, local gem Greg Harris corrals a star-studded line up for fans and bands alike at the annual O-Town Hoedown

Ask people what kind of music they like and what’s the standard reply? Anything but country!

Yet, judging by the Ottawa crowds that cram into bars when cultural export Kathleen Edwards drives into town, as Blue Rodeo annually take their post at Bluesfest or when Alberta’s Corb Lund and Tim Hus sell out Barrymore’s, the country music vibe clicks with Ottawans always spurring them into high gear and cheer. Add to that the number of heads at Fiftymen, Slo’ Tom or Lucky Ron shows and you’ll see that Capital City has enough country fans – and bands – to fill several barns over.

It’s no wonder then that this year’s O-Town Hoedown has exploded from two days into seven, spanning as many venues from August 17-23. Read more…

He’s been a jack of all trades and a free bird on the open road, he calls himself a procrastinator and a bad employee, but tattoo artist Dan Allaston has combined artistic talent with sound business sense to create one of Ottawa’s most reputable tattoo businesses: New Moon Tattoo.

His first shop went up on Burland Street off Carling Avenue in the west end 18 years ago, the second opened in Orleans six years back. Not surprisingly, Allaston is now a staple in the tattooing community and his name reaches far beyond Ottawa. From all the New Moon publicity generated through magazines, web sites, and more than 100 tattoo conventions in 12 countries, Allaston gets calls on a weekly basis from artists and apprentices who want to work for him.

“I don’t think business is complicated,” Allaston tells Guerilla. “Do a good job and charge a good price. And if you do something you love and try to do it well, the money will come.”

Content is their cause. Guerilla looks at Ottawa through a wide-angle lens to create material that is substantial, intelligent, diverse, approachable, curious, experimental, and presented from multiple viewpoints. Guerilla publishes feature stories, essays, images, and a variety of contributions from local artists, arts writers, and cultural observers. Check them out at www.getguerilla.ca.

Private faces, public places

Local photographer Ian Flynn McDonald gets up-close and personal with Ottawa’s indie rock scene

Ottawa’s indie rockers and their fans are the focus of Indie 613, an exhibit by photographer Ian Flynn McDonald.

At one time a perennial fixture on the Ottawa music scene, McDonald photographed bands back in the ’80s before he dropped everything to become a single dad. He has since picked up a new camera and resurfaced to shoot some of Ottawa’s hottest acts, including Tokyo Sex Whale, The Bible All-Stars, The Reverb Syndicate, The Rookers, Manpower, Ninety Pounds Of Ugly and Gun Smoke, to name a few. This will be his first art show in more than 20 years.

In today’s digital age, McDonald’s photos are shared across the Internet, from MySpace to Facebook. Never satisfied with aiming for the high-kick guitar poses coveted by bands for press kits, McDonald steers clear of commercial shots and appeals to the viewer with the artful “not-on” shots that tell a story. He focuses on the inaction he observes during the downtime before and after shows or songs.

“When I go to a show, I’m there from start to finish,” McDonald tells XPress, explaining how he compares to some professional photographers who show up to a gig long enough to take the required press picture and leave. His commitment is noticed by the musicians and comes through in his pictures. Like a hunter who waits patiently for the perfect moment to shoot, McDonald seizes upon the secret moments that others miss.

“The three seconds in between songs or when someone breaks a string and they’re not performing, or ‘on,’ that’s when you get pictures like mine,” he says.

McDonald catches private moments in public venues, exposing a side rarely seen. Over the years, he has become friends with many of his subjects, which has given him access to rehearsals, recordings and off-stage moments. These intimate settings have increased his understanding of the nature of Ottawa’s underground scene.

The exhibit photo of drummer-vocalist Angie Neatby (a.k.a. Angie the Barbarian from Ottawa’s Muffler Crunch), hunched over in a prayer-like pose at her drum kit, demonstrates McDonald’s talent for exposing the essence of public figures. He captures moments in which those performers, whom we perceive as powerful “rock stars,” feel their most vulnerable as they simultaneously drink in an audience’s appreciation and wonder if they possibly have any more to give.

It’s largely owing to McDonald’s own vulnerability that he can see it in others. His introspective approach has been a way for him to get over his innate shyness. Similar to someone who takes flying lessons to overcome his fear of flying, McDonald throws himself in front of the crowd and stage.

“Taking photos forces me to get out of the house,” he says. “Feeling compelled to do it overrides whatever fears I have [about crowds].”

Mick Rock, a rock photographer in the ’70s whose shutter transformed Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and the Sex Pistols into larger-than-life icons, said, “To survive as an artist, it helps if you psychologically have absolutely no option.”

McDonald quietly echoes that sentiment: “I have no choice,” he says. “Once I start taking pictures, I start getting more ideas and then it gets worse and worse.” Where most creative artists welcome the influx of ideas to nourish a fertile mind, McDonald says it can be frustrating because there are so many photos to take and so little time.

“I usually see pictures or I’ll get images in my head before I take them,” he explains. “Then I have to go and find them.”

Capturing the perfect shot is terrifying, and would probably mean stopping photography altogether if he ever accomplished the feat. His subjects, however, make that goal nearly unattainable. McDonald’s appreciation for Ottawa’s music scene owes much to the latter’s diversity, and every rock show allows him to catch a different atmosphere, moment or emotion. His dedication has nothing to do with securing a paycheque or achieving any kind of notoriety, but rather with simply beholding a captivating subject in an interesting light – and, more often, within a passing shadow.

Indie 613 at the Mercury Lounge begins March 16 and ends on March 23 with a live performance by Ottawa’s irreverent alt-country rockers The Bible All-Stars, and with Max Cossette of Six Six Six playing a solo “hillbilly” banjo set. Doors 9:30 p.m.

We’re looking at how this talented musician goes from creating the most aggressive hardcore music with a band to retreating to create Glass Fingers, a personal and folky solo effort on Translation Loss Records.

In a city where side projects are the norm rather than the exception for most musicians, Tweedy stands out as a poster child for musical diversity in Ottawa.

Content is their cause. Guerilla looks at Ottawa through a wide-angle lens to create material that is substantial, intelligent, diverse, approachable, curious, experimental, and presented from multiple viewpoints. Guerilla publishes feature stories, essays, images, and a variety of contributions from local artists, arts writers, and cultural observers. Check them out at www.getguerilla.ca.

Howe to make Maki roll

Howe Gelb takes Kate Maki’s music to new heights

If her stagger-to-the-saloon groove and parlour-blues tunes weren’t enough to grab your attention, Sudbury’s Kate Maki has enlisted the help of eccentric Arizona singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist Howe Gelb to produce her latest album, On High, marking a career high for the former Ottawa resident. Read more…

This Is Your Dad’s Oldsmobile

The Brothers Chaffey are brave old souls in a brave new world

The Brothers Chaffey – Matthew (rhythm guitar) and Curtis (lead guitar) – play the sexiest country-soul music with a blues-rock swagger that one university rag called “your dad’s kinda music.” Rather than take issue with the putdown, Matthew, the elder of the sibling duo, is proud of his old-timer rock-and-country chops. Read more…

Jingle Sells:
Jingles Are the Way for Toronto’s Major Maker

Not all musicians lending their voice to television commercials sound as off-key as the Ontario Freshness Guy. There’s Feist for iPod. Bedouin Soundclash for Zellers. Ottawa’s Andrew Vincent for Old Navy. And now, with spots for Chevy, Telus and Maynards Candy, Toronto’s Major Maker is proving how good jingles grow-a-oh in Ontario–along with the bank account.

“It’s like an actor trying to land a spot by moving to L.A.; it can totally happen, you never know,” says singer-songwriter Lindy Vofjnord about landing success by taking a commercial route with his music partner, Todor Kobakov.

Sell outs?

“The people that criticize, I don’t have any energy for addressing why they’d think this was a bad idea. They can go fuck themselves,” Lindy says politely. Read more…