BDK Update

Noiseography crew

I did another guest review for Noiseography, this time I reviewed the Caribou and Rich Aucoin sets from The Paragon on friday night. You can read them here.

BDK News

I usually don't post news items on here, but I am so impressed by this I had to post it. Legendary Jazz drummer Jerry Granelli (Vince Guaraldi Trio, Light Sound Dimension, etc) has not only recorded his first ever solo drum record, he recorded it in Halifax with our own engineer mastermind Charles Austin and it's being released in a limited run by Halifax label Divorce Records (with artwork by Yo Rodeo, completing the trifecta of local involvement).

Granelli began his career as a pupil of Joe Morello, whom I previously wrote about here. He went on to have a long successful career as a free jazz, improvisational and psychedelic musician. He has played with some of the greats, such as Bruce Frisell and Ornette Coleman, and he was also the drummer on the soundtrack to a Charlie Brown Christmas.

This is a huge accomplishment for our local boys and a step forward for Granelli, who always seems to be pushing his limits. The album is available for pre order on the Divorce Records website, and here is the official press release.

"Jerry Granelli has lived a mythic life. He drummed in some of the biggest jazz outfits of the 50s-60s, including Vince Guaraldi Trio and the Denny Zetlin Trio. Like many of his peers, Granelli could have played it safe and made a comfortable career doing traditional jazz into his old age, but instead he dove into the new worlds of free and psychedelic music that were opening up around him during the hippie era in San Francisco. In the early 60’s he led one of the first free jazz bands in America. They did a three month opening spot for Lenny Bruce and toured extensively through Europe with the Grateful Dead, playing completely wild and spontaneous sets night after night, often to the scorn of unsuspecting audiences. A few years later he joined Light Sound Dimension (LSD), an outfit that paired marathons of free, amplified jazz with projection painting, effectively launching the first ever psychedelic light and sound event at the San Francisco Art Museum in 1967. LSD was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since those early years Jerry has played with an impressive list of innovators including Bruce Frisell, Ornette Coleman, Jamie Saft, and Anthony Braxton to name just a few. And at 70 he still travels the world playing and teaching new music.

Despite all his accomplishments, until we asked, Granelli had yet to make a solo drum record. For us it seemed fitting that after a life behind the kit, Jerry finally go it alone. No one, including Jerry, knew what to expect, but the results are remarkable. All the tracks on 1313 except one were played with no overdubs, and most were done in a single take. For those of us involved with documenting the session, it was a magical night. 1313 is dark, masterful, and bravely unique --- an outstanding new exploration of percussion and sound by a man who has been challenging himself musically for 60+ years. Here at DIVORCE we have never been more excited about a release. Engineered by Charles Austin. Produced by Charles Austin, Jerry Granelli, and Darcy Spidle. Mastered by Weasal Walter. Art by Yo Rodeo. Edition of 600 copies. Mail order version includes a CD. SHIPS IN EARLY JULY."

Indie Spotlight: The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

The schizophrenic drumming of Paul Banwatt (also of Woodhands) is like a puzzle piece that is slightly misshapen so you shove it down with your thumb to make it fit. It should feel out of place in the mid tempo party-folk songs of The Rural Alberta Advantage, but it doesn't. Instead it shifts the feel of the songs into something erratic and epic, a foundation that is always moving.

This is no more evident than in Don't Haunt This Place where the drums take center stage, swirling around the vocal and getting in quick cymbal shots and jabs. His time is perfect as he plays quick rolls and off kilter patterns seldom heard on folk records. In Drain The Blood, Banwatt's hands are all over the place but his kick drum foot is locked in tight with the bass. When the chorus comes in he unleashes a succession of tom and snare rolls. His drumming takes on a more aggressive feel in Luciana, the cymbal swells and rolls have a high tempo psychedelic feel to them, and he keeps his kick drum pumping through the track.

The drumming on this record wouldn't be so notable if the songs weren't so damn awesome. once in a while Paul will take a lesser stance and let the songs really come through. In The Air he stays on track with a cool kick snare pattern while the keyboard and vocals take charge. All in all, Paul's patterns are a step out of the ordinary for this kind of record, the songs benefit from having someone play outside of the original frame of the piece. It doesn't necessarily work for everyone, but for the RAA it's a recipe for success.

Black Mountain - In The Future

I think if I had millions of dollars and the ability to make movies, I would have Black Mountain on my payroll to score everything I do. It's really hard to blend darker elements of rock, prog and psych, keep it at a mid tempo and still manage to play powerful epic songs. When it fails you get just another shitty rock band. When it works, you get an album like In The Future, perfect in its idea and execution. Critics subsequently lose their minds over it.

If you've never heard this album then I can't really describe it for you, it sounds like everything that has happened in music already, yet there has never been anything like it before. Personally, I like it because it sounds like an album The Melvins (whom I love) would make if they could just focus. Every part feels thought out to the last detail, everything from tone to themes to lyrics to melody to mic placement and production. The drums sound like they were recorded in the hull of a warship on its way to lay waste to the shoreline of its enemies. It also helps that Joshua Wells has the patience of a saint. He knows when to sail along quietly and when to launch the cannons.

Wells can keep time with the best of them, but where he really shines is with his toms. Evil Ways is driven by a twisted version of the Bo-Diddly tom beat, and towards the end we get few glimpses of Wells' skill on his instrument, enough to let us know that he knows what he's doing, but not so much as to come off as pretentious. Tyrants is the second longest and most epic track on the record, and most of the time Wells is stomping along with muddy, thunderous tom beats and rolls. It's never extravagant, always the right amount of flash and focus, and his drumming keeps things interesting for the entire 8 minute song.

Wells is patient with his approach. In Queens Will Pay he spends half of the song in silence, the tension building as you can sense him lurking in the shadows. Finally he attacks, and with a wash of cymbals he conquers the last minute of the track. The whole album is littered with examples of mature, focused musicianship and it deserves all the praise it acquired.

This is an album I will listen to until I'm old and deaf, I just know it.

BDK Update

So I just got back from a two-week tour (hence the no posting) and I'm still getting settled so give me a few more days to get some stuff up. In the meantime, we filmed a bunch of stuff on the road and you can check it out while I sort myself out.

First off we filmed a spoof episode of MTV Cribs in Waterloo.

And here are a series of short blogs from our trip.

There that should keep you occupied for a while.