Sound Salvation Army

Get psyched Regina! It’s the greatest time of the year once again, our extremely wonderfully-booked and comparatively-tiny Folk Festival is moving in on the park near my house again!

Live reviews will follow for the next couple of days (mostly the smaller, free shows since I could only afford passes for Friday’s main stage show), but here’s a run-down of where you need to be and when in order to see the acts I’m anticipating most!

For easy reference I’m cribbing from the festival program: free stages are annotated as #1, #2, and #3. The first is in the south-west quadrant of Victoria Park, the second is in the north-east, and the third is actually outside the park on the Scarth Street Mall. Let’s go!

Basia Bulat
The Ontario songstress is big in Europe (as far as I know) but she’ll be a big presence in Regina this weekend. Check out our review of her debut album, Oh My Darling, right here. One of the best releases of last year and, according to Tanis, she’s a pistol in a live setting.
Free stages: songwriter showcase on “Songs of Home”, 1:30pm Saturday (#3); songwriter showcase on “Travel Songs,” 3:15pm Saturday (#2)
Main stage: Friday, 7:00pm

the Deep Dark Woods
Yeah, these guys are going to be tired by the end of Saturday night. They’re playing THREE shows on the free stages in the afternoon and a teaser set on the main stage and then another full set at the after-party. Seriously, don’t miss these guys. They’re world-class songwriters hiding in our own backyard. More on their latest album Winter Hours in this post.
Free stages: songwriter showcase with Saskatchewan artists, 12:4pm Saturday; songwriter showcase on “Travel Songs,” 3:15pm Saturday; full set, 4:30pm Saturday (#2)
After party: 12:30am Saturday night/Sunday morning, the Legion on Cornwall Street
Main stage: teaser set, 9:10pm Saturday

Ghost Bees
They may not be telepathic, but as we’re both twins I feel a certain psychic connection to the Lightman sisters (not really). Regardless, these two make sounds that are as creepy as they are beautiful. Mandolin alert!
Free stages: songwriter showcase on “Broken Love Songs”, 4:00pm Saturday (#3); full set, 1:45pm Sunday (#2); songwriter showcase on “Story Songs,” 2:45pm Sunday (#2); songwriter showcase on “Water,” 4:00pm Sunday (#3)
Main stage: teaser set, 6:50pm Saturday

Matt Goud
Regina’s version of a hardcore hero turned acoustic troubadour. If you haven’t already he’s worth hearing.
Free stages: full set, 11:30am Saturday (#3); songwriter showcase on “Broken Love Songs”, 4:00pm Saturday (#3); songwriter showcase for local artists, 12:45pm Sunday (#3); songwriter showcase on “Making a Stand,” 2:00pm Sunday (#1)
Main stage: teaser set, 6:50pm Sunday

Iron & Wine
Duh. Come on. Co-headlining Friday night. Check this post for more on Sam Beam, from which you can listen to “Flightless Bird, American Mouth,” the single most-played track we’ve ever featured on this site. Yes, it probably is because of Twilight.
Main stage: Friday, 9:45pm

Dave Lang
A wry, tongue-in-cheek singer-songwriter and local musical magnate that doesn’t play often enough for my liking. Emcee on the main stage Saturday, but catch him doing a songwriting showcase on Sunday for nothing at 3:15.

Andy Shauf
Modesty is a curious thing. It comes to some as second nature, and Andy Shauf is a great example of that. The dude was writing songs for like six years or something before he even bothered to tell anyone. Now he’s got his first LP up for sale across the world and it’s good.
Free stages: songwriter showcase on “Songs of Home”, 1:30pm Saturday (#3); full set, 3:15pm Saturday (#1); songwriter showcase for local artists, 12:45pm Sunday (#3); songwriter showcase on “Making a Stand,” 2:00pm Sunday (#1)
Main stage: teaser set, 9:55pm Sunday

Socalled
This dude is crazy. He’s a Quebecer that can and has done pretty much everything there is when it comes to music and I’m not exaggerating. He programs MIDI instruments and plays accordion with equal fervor. Free shows: Remix 40 set, 11:30am Saturday (#1); songwriter showcase on “Radio 3 Wishes,” 2:45pm Saturday (#3); songwriter showcase on “Fat Beats and Funky Rhymes,” 11:30am Sunday (#1); songwriter showcase on “Global Electronica,” 4:00pm Sunday (#2); magic show on the kid’s stage, 2:30pm Sunday
Main stage: 8:15pm Sunday

Volcanoless In Canada
One of Saskatchewan’s best-kept secrets. Triple-guitar’d, energetic pop rock that spans a ton of genres. Super-tight! Just released a new album to boot.
Free shows: songwriter showcase for local artists, 12:45pm Saturday (#2); songwriter showcase for local artists, 12:45pm Sunday (#3); full set, 1:45pm Sunday (#3)

the Wailers
My biggest regret! If I could afford to get a weekend pass I would’ve just so I could see these guys. We may not do a talk a lot about reggae on this site but you can’t argue with the legacy of this band.
Main stage: 10:40pm, Saturday

 

 Andy Shauf - Your Heart [2:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 the Deep Dark Woods - the Gallows [4:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Volcanoless In Canada - She Moves [2:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Dave Lang - I Like Roads [3:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Basia Bulat - I Was A Daughter [2:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So much awesome! Click on band names for purchasing links!

Pat entries Andy Shauf, Basia Bulat, Canadian content, Dave Lang, Folk Festival, Ghost Bees, Iron & Wine, Matt Goud, Regina, Saskatchewan, Socalled, the Deep Dark Woods, the Wailers, Volcanoless in Canada

A friendly reminder from your favourite u-loving neighbours from the north: It’s Canada Day. For five more minutes! Hooray!

I used to love Canada Day when I was a kid. Because it meant that somewhere, somebody would be serving vanilla cupcakes with white frosting and red and white sprinkles. Today, I was sadly without sprinkles. Unless you count the rain, which meant very sad fireworks. But I do have a six-pack of Sleeman’s in the fridge and an iTunes playlist filled with songs that contain a bunch of Canadian references Americans won’t get. That’s gotta count for something.

We’re so weird up here with our snow, our maple syrup, our free health care and our great, unknown musicians. We have more amazing musical acts nobody’s ever heard of than you can shake a stick at! I’m both resentful and resigned to that fact. Like, it’s AWESOME and you don’t know what you’re missing, you ignorant buffoons who think of Canada and think of Nickelback and Anne Murray and Celine Dion! On the other hand, get away from my favourite bands, America! Get your own! KnowwhatImean?

It’s rare that I just go buy an actual physical album without worrying if it will be any good. Rarer still is the purchase of a TRIPLE album without worrying if it will be any good. Who the heck even MAKES a triple album nowadays? Probably the same guy who makes a concept album about being a teenage rocker in the Maritimes. Probably the same guy who rhymes Saskatchewan with Catchin’ On. Probably the same guy who falls asleep with the TV on because at 3 a.m. they play O Canada. Probably the same guy who owes a lot of his recognizance to the fact that Canadian store Zellers used his song in a commercial. Probably the same guy who writes a song about loving a town (Halifax) with the same ferociousness that he hates another (Kelowna).

Joel Plaskett is the PERFECT example of a guy who is incredibly popular in Canada, yet will probably never become a HUGE success in the U.S. And I’m sure he’s fine with that, just as I am sure many people don’t understand why he’d be fine with that. Sometimes, it’s enough that your countrymen and women love you.

Hell, I could be wrong about that, though. Because other times, it’s nice to have Sir Paul McCartney hand pick you to open his only Canadian show on July 11 in Nova Scotia. It’s fitting, since to me, Plaskett’s music has always felt like hallowed middle ground between the seedier side of the Beatles and the friendlier side of the Stones. Macca can’t go wrong to have an intensely local artist with cross-country appeal open his show.

Plaskett has always stayed true to his roots. He relentlessly tours the country, but calls Nova Scotia home. His shows sell out everywhere (except maybe Kelowna) because he just keeps throwing out pop songs that are both extraordinarily catchy and deeply personal. In short, he does exactly what all great artists should do: Makes everybody who listens to his music feel like he wrote the song just for them.

Down at the Khyber is an album full of straight ahead rock and roll that is perfect to listen to if you happen to be driving anywhere in Canada. And not just because Plaskett liberally sprinkles his songs with references to cities across the country. The title track has Plaskett in Edmonton, longing for home and the Musquodoboit Harbour. Meanwhile, the tune It’s Catching On brilliantly rhymes the title with Saskatchewan, Light of the Moon relates the touring artist’s feeling that “this country’s a coalmine and I’m a canary” and tells of the desire to “flirt with the waitress in Sault Ste. Marie.” And what to say about True Patriot Love? Who among us (Canadians) hasn’t fallen asleep with the TV on, only to wake up to the CBC’s end of programming music — the national anthem. Oh, Canada! True patriot love, and all that jazz.

Lest you think all Joel Plaskett is good for is referencing Canadianisms, there is Through and Through and Through. In a world that loves singles, he is endlessly experimenting with the album format and Three is probably his craziest venture yet. It’s three albums, each with nine songs apiece, many with one word repeated three times as the title. Three is a magic album and Through and Through and Through is the first single that reminds us that “good things come in threes.”

I think you should help make it THE JAM of this summer because the imagery? It’s beautiful, thanks for asking. If anybody ever wrote the lyrics “I’m the Berlin Wall, I’m a communist/You’re a wrecking ball in a summer dress” for me, I’d be hopelessly devoted. I love the harsh horns and the lazy licks and its lyrics are achingly sweet and tasty, like a melted Freezie. The female vocals featured on Three are a welcome addition that allow Plaskett to ease up on his falsetto, but his witty lyrics and hooky pop sensibilities are still there. Gosh, he’s so great! All I want right now is a balcony or a back porch so I can laze around and listen to this slice of summer on repeat.

What’s that? You want a few MORE songs about Canadian cities by a couple of my favourite Canadian bands? Who am I to protest?

Hello City is from the Barenaked Ladies’ first album Gordon. Pat and I have both said that we would unironically include Gordon in our top 10 desert island records. It’s fucking awesome, both for the novelty songs the Ladies were peddling (the sweet and funny Be My Yoko Ono, the painful truth of Grade 9 and the very pointed New Kid On the Block), the more serious and wistful laments (Wrap Your Arms Around Me, What a Good Boy and the Flag) and stuff that sits somewhere in the middle (like Enid, Brian Wilson and Hello City).

Hello City is about Halifax. I don’t know why I like songs about Halifax so much, maybe because I’ve never been there, but long to go. Before I moved to Ontario, I had a really specific idea of what it would be like to live here. Like I’d feel more Canadian somehow. I remember hearing postal codes from Ontario at the end of TV shows I’d watch as a kid. I used to think those that started with N and M were so exotic. Much better than boring ol’ S. Now that I’m here, I feel a pull to head even further East because that’s clearly where the magic happens.

Anyway, I love Hello City both for its references to Halifax and its musicality. BNL are much more than a gimmick band with one hit. They’re accomplished musicians and vocalists. Somebody from America once asked me how embarrassed I was that the Barenaked Ladies were from Canada. After I stopped choking to death, I was all “What the what?” Why would I ever be embarrassed of the Ladies? It’s not my fault America turned them into a one-hit wonder. One Week isn’t TERRIBLE, but if you ask me, Stunt is where it all starts going wrong, mostly because other people found out about them. See? I jealously guard my favourites. I should’ve stayed a little closer, I guess, because after Steven Page left the band, I don’t know if they’ll ever be the same. I miss their earlier music, which you can buy on iTunes and Amazon.

On the other end of this equation is The Parkas. On the edge of being known beyond their southern Ontario beginnings (and Emmet’s blog), they are good. Really, really good. Their lyrics are clever, their song titles are witty, their music is dirty, country/rock-tinged fun and you should buy their albums. I’m partial to their song My Life of Crime from the album Now This is Fighting (on sale now at Endearing Records), because it is full of references to Guelph. Yep. The Parkas are good little Royal City rock and rollers who name check Goldie Mill, the Speed River AND St. George’s Square. But the lyrics are only part of the reason I love it. Right at the heart of the song, there’s this sparse bit populated by just a lonely bassline and that urgent, growling vocal. The moment is broken by a guitar riff straight off the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. The song slowly builds back up into a whirling, sorrowful dirge that laments their lack of funds and wasted ambition.

The Parkas are releasing their third full-length album later this month in Toronto. If you’re in the T dot on Saturday, July 25th, head down to the Silver Dollar and check out The Parkas play a raucous show with Whitebelt Octopus. Get it while you can. From the latest state of the nation on their website, it sounds like they might be getting ready to take an extended break.

 

 Joel Plaskett - It's Catchin' On: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Joel Plaskett - True Patriot Love : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Joel Plaskett - Love This Town: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Joel Plaskett - Through and Through and Through: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Barenaked Ladies - Hello City: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Parkas - My Life Of Crime: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tanis entries Barenaked Ladies, Canada Day, Canadian content, Guelph, Joel Plaskett, Saskatchewan, The Parkas