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STREET VIEW: Architectural street art in Hull lets people play “Instagram” on a giant scale

For a low-tech Instagram-like effect on old Hull, there’s no better view than from inside Papa, the work of architectural art along Boulevard des Allumettières en route to cottage country. An appreciation for public art in the time of technology  BY FATEEMA SAYANI

Instagram wasn’t on Hal Ingberg’s mind when he created Papa, but the effect of looking through the glass panels provides a similar outlook. Photography by Christian Lalonde / Photolux

BEYOND THE FRAME

Instagram wasn’t on Hal Ingberg’s mind when he created Papa, but the effect of looking through the glass panels provides a similar outlook. Even delivery cars from the nearby St-Hubert look retro chic. The Montreal architect’s work was the winning submission in a national public art and landscape integration competition launched by the National Capital Commission in 2007. Papa was unveiled in 2010.

SITE SPECIFICS
An angled glass wall directs pedestrians and cyclists into the public space from the boulevard, while a long, zigzagging bench helps demarcate the space and encourages people to stop and stay awhile. At its peak, the wall measures 14.4 metres and decreases to a height of 2.4 metres, mimicking the height of a nearby condominium tower at one side and the mid-century housing at the other side. The structure serves as a gateway into Parc du Sentier-de-l’Île.

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  |  May 23, 2013 at 9:16 am

SOUND SEEKERS: Fame! Fortune! Creativity! Revealing the secret desires of Rock Lottery participants

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

The Ottawa Rock Lottery is a big ol’ love-in for the local music scene. It’s the community cup of spontaneous music-making that happens annually with proceeds going to charity. The fifth edition takes place this weekend with 25 musicians participating.

Daniel Spence, centre, of The Pelts will participate in the fifth annual Rock Lottery.

It works like this: on Friday night, organizers put the names of individual musicians into a hat. They draw out five names at a time and put those people together to form an insta-band. Over the next 24 hours, those five new bands create a half-hour set of original music to be performed on Saturday night for all to see.

The hilarity, camaraderie, rivalry, shining moments, and flubs are what make the show interesting, particularly to those who see live music often and are familiar with the city’s band-folk. The Ottawa Rock Lottery deck-shuffling allows those people to display talents that may be hidden in their other bands — or perhaps the deadline pressures will be evident. As organizers promise on their Facebook page: “It could be great. It could be awful.”

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  |  May 16, 2013 at 3:56 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: Have You Done the Pee Dance? Hey Buster releases second CD of kids’ music

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

Three years ago, singer-songwriter Sherwood Lumsden rounded up the dads in his Preston Street neighbourhood to form a band. He knew Matt Young and Geoff Paisley for years before that — but he never knew their vocal talents until they started writing songs for their kids as the band Hey Buster.

The new album features cover art by Sherwood Lumsden’s son, Thomas Slaughter, 7.

Between the three dads — plus newest recruit Tom Stewart (Furnaceface, Slo’ Tom) — the band members have nine kids from the ages of two to 9. They write tunes for little ones without the preachy educational elements common to kids’ music. Their style hits somewhere between Junkyard Symphony and Robert Munsch with lyrics about family life that are observational and funny. Hey Buster’s first album called Bing Bang Bong was released in 2010 and includes songs about poo, pee, pink eye, and getting lice.

The song “Lice Twice” is about an experience familiar to parents of grade-schoolers. It rhymes hats with gnats. The chorus of “Pee Dance” describes the contorted moves kids make when they clearly have to go. “Oh no, I don’t have to go. No siree, I don’t have to pee!” goes the chorus.         

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  |  May 9, 2013 at 3:56 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: John Allaire and the Confederation bring strings and sticks and other skills to Irene’s Pub

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

Songwriter John Allaire put on his photo-hacking hat and did this stitch job for me. It’s a pasted-together pic of some band mates he’s corralled for a weekend gig. It was a quick-and-dirty deal (the photo, not the band-herding, natch). We here at Ottawa Magazine needed a photo to run with this column and the task of rounding up musicians rarely squares well with tight web deadlines.

Four players and one twirler. (That’s a drumstick. He’s not flipping you the bird). Photo by John Allaire

This banner image is a poor replacement for the real thing; it lacks all of the characteristics of a live setting: the vibrancy and sizzle that boils over when those with six strings and salty humour gather for a show.

That’s set for this Friday at Irene’s with Allaire at centre stage with a band of O-town all-stars. The band is called The Confederation and comprises Anders Drerup, Lynne Hanson, Kevin “Breeze” Smith, and Dean Watson.

Here’s a primer, from Allaire, on his band The Confederation:

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  |  May 3, 2013 at 10:30 am

SOUND SEEKERS: Dropping Drawers and Rhymes — MC Jesse Dangerously does Strip-Hop

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani 

How does “strip-hop” work anyway? Is it like a drinking game where you chug at the appointed cue? Hear a three-syllable word and everyone peels?

Jesse Dangerously, Pillar of Nerd Rap and Frequent De-Clother. Photo by James Dechert

“It’s not that integrated—I wish,” laughs Jesse McDonald, the Ottawa MC who goes by Jesse Dangerously.

Strip-hop isn’t about dropping your drawers for a choice rhyme; rather, it’s a night of performances by members of the city’s burlesque scene interspersed with music by electro pop team Billz & Woo and MC Dangerously.

“People are accustomed to me taking my shirt off at shows,” Dangerously says of his on-stage showmanship. Off-stage, on gig posters and websites, he subtitles his handle with the words “Genuine Independent Rap Legend,” in keeping with the genre’s boast-and-hype conventions.

Dangerously figures the burlesque organizers approached him for his messages about feminism and being body positive. Some of his rhymes push for loving pudginess:

“Although jerks have mocked that I’m fat since age ten / I work it, I rock it; ask your girl or a gay friend!”

“Half-stepping cats packing weapons ask for rap lessons / while I slap bad physicians on behalf of vengeance for Fat Acceptance.”

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  |  April 26, 2013 at 1:40 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: Shannon Rose riffs off Jon Bon, dancefloor fire at the Merc, plus Stompin’ Tom saluts, dub reggae and more

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

Of all places to pull from.
Director Steve Matylewicz is taking inspiration from the Bon Jovi song “Wanted Dead or Alive” for Shannon Rose’s next music video for her song, “If We Come True.”

Photos: Shannon Rose: She’s not a cowboy on a steel horse ride. Photo credit: Mauricio Ortiz

It’s a bit of a head scratcher, because the musicians’ styles couldn’t be further apart. Rose is an Ottawa pop songwriter concerned with all life’s little moments, while the pride of New Jersey wants to blow stadiums apart with eardrum blasting rock songs.

To clarify, Matylewicz — part of Rose’s band The Thorns and her spouse — says he likes the video’s context. (If you haven’t seen it in a while, “Wanted Dead or Alive” takes highlights from a day in the life of the band).

He’s not so inspired by the video’s style of painted-on pants, teased hair, and dudes making cheesy guitar sex face. Rather, he’ll apply the concept to a day in the life of Canadian indie artist Shannon Rose. The video will show Rose doing musician things including a sound check, being interviewed by a music writer (I’ll be making a cameo) and playing a show.

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  |  April 18, 2013 at 2:38 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: The shows coming up this weekend and beyond, featuring Bonobo, Slo’ Tom, New Country Rehab, and more!

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

Slo' Tom, shown here in shit disturber mode, will be playing the Atomic Rooster this Saturday. He'll show his twangy side when he takes part in a Stompin' Tom Connors tribute on April 19.

Tom Stewart is centre stage Saturday for a country set under the name Slo’ Tom. Stewart has a long history in Ottawa (see: Furnaceface) and keeps a hand in a number of bands with various musical styles from troubadour to sludge-metal. When he’s feelin’ a little bit country, you’ll find him with slinging country tunes his backing band, The Handsome Devils, or going it alone like a cowboy.

Stewart headlines solo this Saturday at the Atomic Rooster. In addition to playing songs from a forthcoming CD with the working title, I’m Sick, Stewart will be in country icon mode as he warms up for the April 19 Stompin’ Tom Connors tribute, where a number of Ottawa artists will be covering Connors classics. Stewart will be playing “Good Bye Rubberhead” and “The Consumer,” and describes the latter as “the punkest song in Connors’ catalogue.” The Seasick Mammas open the show. It’s the country side-project from members of the Glorious MoonRockets. Look for a new seven-inch single from Slo’ Tom & The Handsome Devils on Ottawa label Pretty Bad Records in the coming weeks.

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  |  April 11, 2013 at 4:20 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: Chatting with Brad Weber of the electronic project Pick a Piper, which plays Pressed on Sunday

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

Pick a Piper plays Pressed on Sunday. Photo by Scott Barber.

Brad Weber was on tour as a percussionist with electronic act Caribou when ideas for a new project came to him.

After the tour, when he returned home to Toronto, he’d hammer out his mental scrawling on a keyboard or drums to shape the songs that eventually formed the material for his debut self-titled EP under the band name Pick a Piper.

“The songs started as a drum loop or a little melody that I created on a laptop while on tour,” Weber, 31, says. He would bring the best loops back to the rest of the Pipers (Angus Fraser and Dan Roberts, both friends from Weber’s hometown of Waterloo, Ont.) and they would add their two cents. He would chop up bits of the top ideas and meld them into tracks.

The resulting album was released this week on Mint Records. It’s very much in the vein of Caribou with jolty electronica and plenty of warm touches created from live instrumentation to upend the laptop-created sound.

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  |  April 4, 2013 at 4:36 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: Long-weekend roll call — MC Boogat, A Tribe Called Red, and other shows you should be checking out

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

A cultivated, curated guide to the best Easter weekend happenings. Hop to it! (Groan.)

MC Boogat plays Ritual Nightclub on Saturday. Photo by Philippe Sawicki.

For Fans of QC MC Poirier
Quebecois MC Boogat raps like his moniker. His words spill out in “boos” and “gats” with a gruff tone reminiscent of his contemporary and collaborator, MC Poirier. Unlike Poirier, who raps in French, Boogat rhymes in Spanish to a jagged beat, which he says represents the future of Latin music. Boogat (aka Daniel Russo Garrido) released his first full-length Spanish-language album, El Dorado Sunset, in February. It’s a dynamic blend of rough and smooth and the jarring effect makes for some ear-tangling tunes. Boogat plays Ritual Nightclub Saturday. DJ Nom de Plume (from Radio Radio) opens.

Don’t Miss the Opening Act
Sigur Ros is the headliner at Scotiabank Place on Good Friday and we all know how much they’re praised for their stratospheric Nordic-ness etc., etc. Alas, I must make a case for the opening act, Tim Hecker, who’s been on the Canadian electronic scene for ages and can spin out that complex, high-art, electro-fuzz, head-searing stuff like the best of them. Doors are at 7, showtime is 8 p.m., tickets range from $40-$60, plus all those unexplainable, overpriced service charges.

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  |  March 28, 2013 at 1:15 pm

SOUND SEEKERS: Phantom Shores’ release show — plus eight more concerts to rock your weekend

Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

The members of Phantom Shores, from left to right: Craig Mainprize, Ken Ain, Renée Leduc, Dave Smith, and Jenny Nasmith. Photo by Chris Barron.

There are shades of the mid-2000s Ottawa music scene in the new album from Phantom Shores. Fans of two now defunct bands: Jetplanes of Abraham — the six-member indie-rock riot, and chamber rock act As the Poets Affirm — will find familiar strains in the Phantom Shores’ debut album called To the Woods.

The musical constants are singer-songwriter Craig Mainprize, ex of Jetplanes, and Renee Leduc, former strings player for both bands. Mainprize brings a fiery folk vocal to a placid musical genre, while Leduc gives each of the 12 tracks a warm weight with violin, viola, keyboard, and accordion flourishes. Adding to the texture and feel of the tunes are Dave Smith (percussion), Ken Ain (bass, guitar), and Jenny Nasmith (vocals, percussion) with guest album artists Derrick Rathwell (bass) and Celeste Cote (vocals).

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  |  March 21, 2013 at 4:31 pm

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