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Music to melt byFour picks from the fifth annual
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Under the Snow (UTS) aims to extract music lovers from their homes during one of the year’s most frustrating months, when winter slowly and painfully segues to spring. So step over those curb-side rivers, piles of slushy muck and a season’s worth of dog shit, and enjoy the sound of bands local and international, as selected by UTS founder Jeff Rioux, the man behind Emoragei magazine. The festival’s fifth annual edition, which began yesterday, Wednesday, March 11 and runs through Friday, March 14, continues its mandate to expose willing ears to up-and-comers that fall easily or awkwardly into the categories of post-rock, electronic, shoegaze and experimental music. This is what you can expect from four of the festival’s dozen booked bands. Noah’s Arkweld: Led by Toronto’s Noah Mintz, head of ’90s indie rock band hHead (and more recently renowned for mastering albums by Broken Social Scene, DFA 1979, the National etc.), Noah’s Arkweld has built a musically solid Caspian: Straddling sophisticated ambient music and art metal, these instrumental rockers—Philip Jamieson, Calvin Joss, Erin Burke-Morgan, Chris Friedrich and Joe Vickers—hail from the seaside town of Beverly, Massachusetts, The Counselors: This local quintet, formerly known as Requiem, is one half of the festival’s popping-est bill, but with influences ranging from Coldplay to the Pixies to the Chameleons U.K., they’re no one-note pony. Singer/guitarist Sebastien Theriault, keyboardist/back-up singer Helena Van Bockern, bassist Alias Powell, multi-instrumentalist Anthony Pham and guitarist Robert O’Grady (along with a drummer, unnamed on their MySpace page) craft tunes that could appeal to mall-punk rats, emo shut-ins and classic-rock car people. Over their 12 years together, the band has earned their share of radio airplay, and with their latest LP, In From the Archive, it’s easy to see why. With the Furlongs at la Sala Rossa on Friday, March 13 Yellow6: Yellow6 is Jon Attwood, a composer, producer and remixer (as well as veteran of the early ’80s London punk scene) based in Leicester, England. Ethereal guitars and meditative keyboards are his tools, and drone, repetition, melody, harmony, noise and silence make up the palette he uses to create soundscapes alternately serene, sensual and sinister. Founded in 1995, the essentially solo project has expanded since the first shows in 2000, and contracted again, now often drawing on a pool of five musicians for performances, including singer Ally Todd. With over 50 releases on wax and plastic, myriad remix credits, as well as remixes of his own work, Attwood is the sum of his experience, and his music is the wisdom. With Apillow at Il Motore on Friday, March 14 FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO |
but emotionally fragile vessel fit for rough waters, but filled with lonely single animals. Their melancholic pop craft features Mintz’s masculine tones alongside a small crew of female singers, including Miss Simon Wilcox, who co-wrote one of the band’s most beautiful tunes, “Small Fires.” Following up on 2007’s eponymous debut, the quartet recently released Names for Shapes That Don’t Exist. Though they rarely perform live, the band is known to transfix audiences with exquisitely orchestrated guitars, drums, keys, cello, painted faces and foul language. With Human Highway and the Magic at la Sala Rossa tonight, Thursday, March 12
20 minutes north of Boston. Like much of the art that emerges from the suburbs, there’s a simultaneous sense of longing (for the vibrancy of the big city), and celebration (of the freedom afforded by open space). Musical and emotive tension drives the material on the band’s 2005 debut EP, You Are the Conductor, and their LP, 2007’s The Four Trees, both released on Dopamine Records. With a new album nearly complete, the band may very well preview new material when they unleash their graceful fury here in Montreal. With thisquietarmy at Divan Orange tonight, Thursday, March 12