Canada Lynx Records: Bands
21 tandem repeats - Folk Band
No Junk Mail Please is the third full-length album from Vancouver’s folk rock gurus 21 Tandem Repeats and the follow up to Never Wanted To Be Anyone. No Junk Mail Please juxtaposes poignant melodies with rustic orchestral accompaniments to assemble simply beautiful results “We chose this title so that we could include a sticker that, once applied to your mailbox, would cease the delivery of admail,” says frontman Super Robertson. “The music is the soundtrack of that sentiment.”
Robertson started 21 Tandem Repeats in 2003, recording a 20-song debut CD on a cassette 4-track machine. An 11-song follow-up was made by Robertson, Alec Macaulay and Chris Hobbs. For No Junk Mail Please, Jazz guitarist Alvaro Rojas joins the three on bass. Guest appearances are from SHOCKK (of Vancouver’s Mongoose) on drums and guitar and Becky Till (voice). No Junk Mail Please also has the strength of a committed songwriting team: Robertson, Macaulay, Shockk, Simian Special and the mighty Roger Dean Young.
21 Tandem Repeats just celebrated their third year playing the Super Robertson Supper Show, which happens every Wednesday evening from 7:30 to 8:30 at Vancouver’s Railway Club. It is a free show and there is performance footage available on the Internet if you care to see. It’s their scene done on their terms…at the very least, it keeps 21 Tandem Repeats playing. Watch for 21 Tandem Repeats to leave the cozy confines of The Railway Club as they support No Junk Mail Please and have supper in your town soon.
Media Reaction For Never Wanted To Be Anyone
“…one of the most successful and important artists in the city” 24 Hours
“…held together fast by folk-infused country rhythms, catchy guitar picking, and an easy-going lyrical sensibility" Spill Magazine
“Witty, guileless and sometimes folksy...The loose sounding arrangements and uncluttered production add to the charm” Winnipeg Free Press
Roadbed - Jazz Pop gurus
Roadbed, comrades of genre mash-up and self-referential hijinks, are back with a new record dedicated to their old headquarters, the Shockcenter. Roadbed are masters of disguise, musical and personal, and like your favourite 'uncle' they never let the truth ruin a good story. Their music may be autobiographical, but it's also accessible, thanks to a humble interest in life's failures as well as it's triumphs. Stylistically and thematically Last Dance finds the band as focused as ever. Let's see, there's jazz, rock, pop, ska, friendship, lost love, bass fishing, self-confidence, family, chess, loyalty, lynx and tigers, good natured hooliganism, creativity, isolation, preservation, self-doubt, making music, the shy and secretive Rallus limicola, and of course, food. But that's what happens when your imagination bone is connected to your determination bone. In the first three songs you'll find proletarian hand-claps, a perfect pop coda, and the best prog fantasy this side of your local SCA. Later tracks highlight the bands tight arrangements and eccentrically dense compositions fleshed out with strings and horns. This record is more than just a scavenger hunt though. There's another element that creeps up on you just like it has on the band - maturity, but it's a modest maturity, the kind that's been tempered by disappointment but refuses to abandon it's dreams or be swindled by the cheap comfort of nostalgia. Twilight, reflection, and turning thirty-five seem to go together so well that you might just sit there contemplating your way to irrelevance. Roadbed, on the other hand, are settling their accounts with the past and cleaning out the closet they will need to hold new ideas.
By Lap
Interior design - Ambient
Interior Design is Shockk’s solo project. He plays guitar in Mongoose and the on-again, off-again Roadbed, and is one of the most ridiculously talented musicians I’ve ever seen, much less hung out with. If he weren’t such a nice, modest guy, he’d probably be famous. With Interior Design, he applies his dexterous fingers to ambient music. I think this is his first CD, after releasing a handful of tapes over the years. It comes packaged in a DVD case with a hyper-elegant sleeve designed by SN Ratio (Simian of Supersimian—see below—who’s becoming Vancouver’s answer to Vaughn Oliver or Storm Thorgerson). Shockk deploys his mastery of beatboxes, effects and jazz licks on music that is a companion unobtrusive. At times this album sounds like Pat Metheny jamming with Boards of Canada. With the exception of “abrasion test,” featuring a touch of trumpet from Roger Dean Young, the music you hear is just the Shockker, his guitar, and machines. The rhythm tracks alone make for a fascinating listen (Shockk’s pretty handy behind a drum set and carries this over when programming beats), never mind his stunning guitar playing overtop—too well-placed and appropriate of tone to qualify as mere noodling. The songs are of a piece while maintaining their separate identities, and several of the longer tracks take some interesting directions. Track 10, “opaque,” nods to Roadbed in the form of samples of between-song banter from Roadbed gigs (if you listen carefully, this blog gets a mention). The distortion drone of “geometric” works as a soothing musical sorbet for a mid-album ear cleansing before the next piece gets going. While some might scoff at the idea that this kind of Ikea-core might be anything but sonic wallpaper, Shockk’s ear for detail makes the music work as both an active and passive listening experience. Bung it on whilst entertaining, or hunker down under the headphones, close your eyes, and start editing together your own private Koyaanisqatsi. A highly recommended accessory for good living.
By Mule
Supersimian
How the Tiger Got Lionized is the first album from the team of Super Robertson (scene kingpin and Supper Show impresario) and Simian Special (whom I know as Roadbed’s last drummer, but is a man of many musical projects), who’ve merged their talents to form SUPERSIMIAN! A couple of good Canadian guys making good Canadian music with a lineage from Neil Young to the Rheostatics and beyond. And, because my Canada is in the Commonwealth, I’d throw XTC into the cluster of references too. How the Tiger… is an aimable, spontaneous (spontamiable?) record, loaded with detailed arrangements and variation ’tween songs. There are a lot of vocals on this album—neither of these chaps is afraid of a microphone—which lends it a density that took me a few listens to penetrate and appreciate what was going on. Fortunately their vocal talents are more than a match for their extroversion. Sim’s a huge talent, with a voice that ranges from a direct, folksy tone to a falsetto that soars into the big sky. Super’s the king of rhythm and feel, able to wrest music from the most mundane phrase…not that the lyrics of SUPERSIMIAN are in any way banal. They’re rather brilliant, actually—filled with character sketches, natural phenomena, and local references. There’s even a tune about hockey for the ultimate toque ’n’ block-heater appeal. Favourite songs would be the Crazy Horse charge of “Bill Von Bacon Tell,” the barely contained abandon of “70s Rock at the Railway” (I’d like to hear this bashed out live sometime), and the amazing “Provincial,” a song I remember from the last few Roadbed gigs I saw, captured on this album in a live recording that trades a few duff notes for an incredible atmosphere. Magic. In fact, the band lineup on this song includes guitarist Shockk (whose latest release I will write about soon), making it a Roadbed reunion of sorts. The inclusion of a version of “Sun Rises,” last heard on Roadbed’s Last Dance at the Shock Centre, re-emphasizes the connection to Super and Sim’s previous band. Graced by Sim’s fantastic graphic design, How the Tiger Got Lionized captures some harmonious heroism from a pair of unstoppable characters.
By Mule