La Strada – New Home (Ernest Jennings, 2010)

I’m calling for the metamorphosis of indie-rock. At some point – hopefully sooner than later – I want to see an indie-rock implosion, a magnificent burnout of Greek proportions where from the ashes of the smoking hull of the vulture-ridden carcass rises a large flaming sign that reads simply: TBD. At this point, it could easily be said that the genre (or whatever you want to call it) has become a little bit stagnant. To say the least.

La Strada are the latest in an immensely long line of Brooklyn-based indie-rock bands who have been garnering a reasonable amount of attention for their sunny, harmony-leaden and largely inoffensive brand of indie-pop. The trouble with La Strada is that they sound like a mashup of every well-received indie band to break out on to the scene in the past five years while adding almost nothing of their own to the mix. Their first proper LP, New Home is not necessarily a bad record, in fact, it’s actually quite a good record: it has catchy melodies, a fun, upbeat tone and the musicianship of the group is obviously very proficient. However, I simply can’t help but feel like New Home is the culmination of everything that is what I’m going to call “the indie sensibility”.

Dig: La Strada hail from Brooklyn, they’re cleverly named after a Frederico Fellini film, they enjoy employing – in abundance  – such elements to their music as catchy vocal harmonies, prominently placed handclaps as well as fairly magnificent string and horn arrangements. Also, their singer has a slightly whiny Ben Gibbard-y singing voice and almost all of their songs feature a bright but pensive trumpet solo. This isn’t to say that this combination of traits is somehow bad – none of these things are bad at all (except maybe the Ben Gibbard part) – rather it is the way that these things function within the band La Strada.

What this is getting at is that La Strada really, really like Okkervil River, Vampire Weekend and The Shins, and they seem perfectly content to be the kind of band that sounds exactly as how one would imagine a combination of the above three acts to sound like. Which, again, doesn’t make for bad listening, just that it isn’t all that interesting and New Home, while probably very good on paper brings little to mind other than a strong sense of been-there-done-that.

Opening track “Go Forward” sets the tone immediately with its soaring harmonies, sparkling guitar lines and eager, snappy snare drum march. The track effortlessly evokes the sort of vaguely rootsy but unusually large sound brought forth by Okkervil River on such albums as The Stage Names and it does quite well for itself, except for the fact that it sounds exactly like any song from that album.

New Home then continues through the sticky-sweet acoustic ballad “Julia”, a song that seems to have been tailored specifically for an appearance on the soundtrack of a Garden State-esque movie. This is followed by a pair of Shins-aping mid-tempo romps, “The Traveler” and “Wash On By”, and La Strada’s clumsy attempt at Beirut-esque Eastern European folk, “Baptism”. From there the tracks simply become slight variations on those themes, with La Strada never really venturing beyond the scope of the contemporary indie-rock canon of influence. The songs are catchy and charming, but they appear as little more than standard indie-rock that says nothing other than that the band listens to trendy music. All of the bands that La Strada echoes – Okkervil River, The Shins, Vampire Weekend, Beirut, Sufjan Stevens, etc – brought something new to the table that was fresh and interesting, that came out and grabbed listeners, forcing them to pay attention. There’s none of that sense of individualism on New Home, only the spare parts of much more powerful models.

-C.S Folkers

Please watch this video of a group of peaceful protesters surrounded and not allowed to leave before being dragged and beaten. They ask the police if they can leave, and get no response. People are crying and a brother and sister and injured, bloodied and separated. This terrifying video shows peaceful people being dragged out at random by their necks, despite their completely peaceful nature. This could happen to you, even if you don’t protest. Some people were just walking to their apartments. A Steel Bananas associate from Mississauga was here, and he was beaten and detained without legal counsel. He didn’t even participate in any protests on Friday or Saturday. As Canadian citizens, it is our responsibility to reject injustice against peaceful citizens.

After seeing the clip of the protester breaking a window looping in mainstream media, Steel Bananas believes this is the essential video for all of Canada to see. A young woman is randomly torn from the crowd as other protesters scream for her release. She is bent over a fence with a police officer’s crotch against her rear as she screams in pain. This video was originally titled “Screaming Girl molested by police” but later changed for sensitivity.

Please remember this young woman if ever you think it wasn’t as bad as protesters claim. This could have been your girlfriend, your daughter, your friend, or you.

As I began to write this, the Toronto Community Mobilization Network’s headquarters were being raided and a stand-off was occurring outside the police detention center. Today I get to be the observer, tuned into CP24 and the Toronto Media Co-op independent media site. I’m fighting back tears as I watch. Democracy isn’t crumbling. The veil shielding its ruins is merely beginning to fall.

Yesterday we were in the thick of things.

Steelbananas columnists Alex Consiglio, Borna Radnik, Karen Correia Da Silva, Curran Folkers, and myself (Devon Wong) along with guest reporter and friend Rachel Kwan and a small group of non-steelbananas friends were out on Friday and Saturday covering the G20 protests. We are sad to say that one of our friends, Paul Toro, was arrested on Saturday night, taken into custody along with over 150 peaceful protesters, members of the independent media, and bystanders in front of the Novotel Hotel on the Esplanade. Rachel, Alex, and I were also present at the Novotel and were the last three people to escape through a back alley with the help of a sympathetic plain-clothed police officer when riot guards moved in and opened fire on us with tear gas pellets and began to charge us while banging their batons against their shields and the walls of the building. They cut us off from Paul and we were forced to fall back.

I am baffled by media reports of violent mobs and dangerous protesters. Apparently broken windows and burnt cars (burnt by yahoos taking advantage of the situation, I may add, and allowed to do so by cops – I wonder why) justify brutal arrests of people who had nothing to do with that destruction. Several times we (Rachel, Alex, and I) were identified by police as dangerous individuals. Police photographed us as we photographed them. Reporters were often targeted as “threats”. Speaking to several police officers, they expressed concern for their own safety. They were frightened of thrown bottles and rocks. Well, I have news for them, they have armor, tear gas, sound cannons, guns, shields, and batons.

Homes sheltering activists were raided this morning. A move straight out of the Gestapo handbook. A journalist from the Guardian was beaten and arrested. See the Toronto Media Co-op for coverage.

The G20 and its institutions are illegitimate, non-democratic, and exploitative. The very fact that it must defend itself with such measures makes this clear. I hear much talk from people who haven’t been surrounded and attacked by riot guards that the protesters are to blame for this mess. I have news for them. The protesters are not the instigators. The G20 and its institutions are responsible for far more daily violence and exploitation all over the world. We’ll stop protesting when world “leaders” begin to put people before profits, human life before the bottom line, freedom before police oppression, nature before industry, stability before boundless “progress”, love before hate, peace before war, equality before exploitation.

Now a huge confrontation is amassing at Spadina and Queen. It’s pouring rain. Police are arresting everyone and anyone. Citizens of all walks of life and convictions alike being treated like criminals. Even mainstream media. It’s naked fascism. Meanwhile, 10 to 14 members of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network have been taken into custody. As if they’re terrorists.  Community organizers, indigenous advocates, poverty activists, disability rights activists, environmental activists — people who make the improvement of human life and the survival of mother Earth their lives’ missions. Terrorists. Yeah, right. Oh yeah, and apparently protesting in Toronto is now illegal… as is walking the city streets.

Steel Bananas’ Editor-in-Chief Karen Correia Da Silva was interviewed by Monica Heisey from She Does the City about Steel Bananas’ new salon series!

Want to use words like ‘post po-mo’  and discuss paradigmatic shifts in our cultural framework? Want to get crunk and listen to some sweet tunes? Want to get your dance on and watch some performance art? This Thursday night you can do all of the above at the Steel Bananas Art Collective’s inaugural Artichoke Review salon at the Bread and Circus. Steel Bananas Editor-in-Chief Karen Correia Da Silva took some time to explain the online culture zine’s plans for their first of three 2010 nights of art and mayhem.

Read the interview here.

Krupke – The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today (Self-Released, 2010)

At a scant twenty-eight minutes, the self-released debut record from Toronto’s Krupke is very likely to pass a listener by if they aren’t too careful. It demands one’s full attention both because of its brevity and because of the inherent complexity of the songs composed by the quirky quartet that flow together as a single entity throughout this surprisingly strong first effort. Blink and you might miss the key changes.

The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today moves so smoothly and swiftly, and is so disparately bizarre and inviting at once that it becomes extremely easy to find yourself completely and utterly lost by the end of it. Or at the very least, woefully bewildered. The band, consisting of a Keyboardist/Xylophonist/Vocalist, a Guitarist/Vocalist, a Clarinetist/Violinist and a Drummer, plays a wild and irreverent brand of energetic, silly and technically brilliant style of polyrhythmic art-rock laced with traces of showtune melodies and throbbing post-rock. If we’re talking comparisons, Krupke might land somewhere between the disarming, theory-heavy artiness of Battles (who might take themselves a little too seriously) and the off-kilter wackiness of Los Campesinos! (who probably don’t take themselves seriously enough). On the other hand, the record itself sounds like Tortoise giving a performance of Hunky Dory.

Trading boy-girl vocals with utterly baffling lyrics over ominous clarinet trills, twinkling xylophones and manic, erratic time changes, the music of Krupke is idiosyncratic to say the least. The effect of the occasionally sinister-sounding musicianship coupled with the band’s extremely warped (not to mention prominently displayed) sense of humour on The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today makes for what will easily be one of the most singular, arresting and ultimately extremely rewarding experiences any listener is likely to have this year.

Beginning with the soft, whimsical introduction of “I’m Sorry Your Pony Died” that eventually swells into a joyful, mysterious cacophony of crashing drums and fervent chants, Pony sets itself on its manic journey through the dark, fragile melodies of “Dirt and Culture” and the alarming, eccentric centerpiece that is the two-part movement of “Monday”/”Monday?” Following the playful Broadway-esque melodies and chants of that epic mini-cycle, all bets are then tossed out into the street and thoroughly crushed by several buses because as soon as this record hits its stride, it becomes a relentless, challenging and fantastical soup of the jarring and the mischevious that flows effortlessly in its madness until its abrupt conclusion.

Throughout we are treated to some of the most hauntingly joyful music to come out of anywhere in an absurdly long time as Krupke ping-pong around a hectic mix of sounds via their unusual instrumental arsenal while vocalists Mike Walter, Joe Verkuyl and Fiona Ryan cheekily trade off non-sequitors, bizarre aphorisms and charmingly silly puns in deliveries ranging from wild chants to lulling whispers to unhinged yelps. Glorious noise ensues as it occasionally seems as though all four members have little regard for what their bandmates are playing at all, however it is obviously all so deliberate that one must quickly adjust to Krupke’s flagrant flaunting of pop conventions and uninhibited humour. Otherwise The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today will be little more than a brief but strange exercise in art-pop weirdness. To the patient listener, however, Krupke’s debut is magical, inventive and utterly winning.

-C.S. Folkers

Steel Bananas‘ GULCH: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose received a smashing review in the latest issue of Broken Pencil Magazine:

Steel Bananas art collective has come a long way since it first started handing out bananas at Canzine in late 2008. They’ve moved on to continually put out a monthly online issue, start a reading series, and to complete another feat with this book. With a zine-aesthetic, Gulch: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose successfully surprises by making a coherent collection out of 50-plus authored pieces. What an undertaking! This inventive book of fantasy fiction, concrete poetry, photo essays and short fiction is brimming with variety, and if you can get past its off-kilter design (which includes a sometimes-sideways and upside-down layout) you’ll be sure to find something worthwhile. Gulch plays with the idea of collaboration and does it well, with a buffet of new and exciting work from today’s up and coming talent.

The first installment of The Artichoke Revue Series is now scheduled for May 20th, 2010 at Bread and Circus in Kensington Market! Bring your friends out for the hot babes wearing giraffe masks, ubu-esque characters, brilliant performances, free hors d’oeuvres, great music, and happy people.

Photos/Matthew Filipowich

Pop, Country & Funk

Spring is nigh and our good friends, Toronto’s frighteningly charming folk-pop “Rubber Soul” enthusiasts Jane’s Party will be hitting the Rivoli with an alarming force March 19 for what will no doubt be the best possible way for you to ring in the Vernal Equinox. To boot, they will be sharing the stage with local bluegrass upstarts The Rucksack Willies, who are just finishing up a month-long residency at the Dakota Tavern. Closing out the night will be none other than the fabulous funk monster, Hemingway, who will be dropping beats so funky we have booked an ambulance for convenient transport of those suffering funk-induced comas to Mount Sinai.

Long story short: this is going to be one hell of a show and you can best believe that Banana Boy will be partying it up large.

JANE’S PARTY:
Born in a garage, but raised on the road, Jane’s Party is a musical band from the Greater Toronto Area. With catchy hooks, bouncy beats, and sweet vocal harmonies, Jane’s Party combines the spirit of the old with new-age “pop & roll”, drawing comparisons to bands such as The Skydiggers, Joel Plaskett and Wilco. In 2009, Jane’s Party established themselves as the “Folk-pop darlings of Toronto” with back-to-back performances at the Now Magazine Lounge in co-ordination with the NXNE Festival. With dates such as The Halifax Pop Explosion, Toronto Indie Music Week, The International Pop Overthrow Festival, and feature performances at The Horseshoe and Hugh’s Room, the band has played over 100 shows alone in the past year in support of their debut full length album The Garage Sessions.

http://www.myspace.com/janespartyband

THE RUCKSACK WILLIES:
The Rucksack Willies started their journey as travelling musicians, free from the worries of the world, wishing only to play good music for good people. They met at Humber College in Toronto and have played in various different places with very different people. So pick up your Rucksack and pull up your bootstraps, cause we’re about to go on a musical journey together.

http://www.myspace.com/therucksackwillies

HEMINGWAY:
I, Hemingway, have only just started my frontier into the vast universe of sound, this cosmic smorgasborg of mutating genres and styles, and I have a long way to go. Yet I can always draw influence from the past: the golden age of disco and funk, when dance music was soulful, warm, and sassy. A time of grooves so melodic and magical that they could tear up the discotheque at night or compliment a nice sunny day basking in the warm ocean breeze whilst sipping champagne on a yacht. Those were the days. Why not bring them back? We have the technology.

http://www.myspace.com/djhmway

BOOSH.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the first installment of the Eggplant Reading Series in 2010! Thanks to our readers Jimmy McInnes, Anna Veprinska, John Nyman and Dave Hurlow, as well as our special musical guests Jane’s Party. See you all next month!

SB Editor-in-chief Karen Correia Da Silva was interviewed about the love behind the home-grown not-for-profit and the GULCH anthology for episode six (MEdia) of the Maker Culture Podcast series. From the series:

In this episode, we get our hands around all types of home brewed media—from books to music. What drives people to get out the ink and paper or turn up the speakers and press record? And why does it matter? We hear from all sorts of people adding their own flavour to the media mix.

Listen here on rabble.ca.