Another country, another bar band.
This time, an urge to hear live took me to the Bar do Tunnel in Évora, Portugal. Évora is a fascinating city about midway up the country, east and roughly level with Lisbon. Out dates back to Roman times, but lots of other interesting sites, particularly the oddly not creepy Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones).
This time, no open mic. Just a solid bar band doing well-known covers. The place was steamy and packed. Glad to see live music draws well.
This post comes to you from the lovely city of València, Spain, where we have enjoyed a spectacular sunny day with 23°C temperatures – at the end January!
Last night, I decided it was time to see what the locals enjoyed for live music, outside of the buskers working the tourists. A quick Maps search pointed me in the direction of Radio City, a mere 15 minute walk from where I was staying.
I’m happy to report its was a real jam, with an unpredictable roster of players lined up right of stage (there did not seem to be a sign up of any kind). Each player has one or maybe two songs max, so the turnover was quick.
Things got underway shortly after 9, and went nonstop to 11ish. The house was packed and the talent was solid for the most part. There were some uncharted moments, all par for the course at a jam. I did not get to play regrettably as I had not figured out the protocol in time, but I would highly recommend this venue if you’re ever in València.
As usual, be well!
With so much going on, both personally and musically on side projects, the Cats have been sadly neglected…
But no longer! We are back in the studio, aka the ManCave, aka my place, to revisit a number of songs. They are being re-tracked as they were never had more than a homespun demos, with programmed drums and bad bass by me.
Having learned a lot more about mixing also pushed towards that outcome.
The opportunity to review, and in some cases, rearrange the songs is very exciting. New ideas and approaches, key changes, and a desire to capture better performances rather than just get the thing down should make these new recordings much better than the old demos. That’s the hope anyway.
So below is a brief video of one of our sessions. Thanks to Chris and NeMo for their talent, energy and Sunday afternoon.
More to come and hopefully a release soon.
I don’t know if it’s laziness or lack of practice, but I have not been doing due diligence to this blog.
Sorry!
Let’s try it again, shall we?
There have been side gigs, even doing sound, to keep me distracted, and some recording has been happening as well. Not like I’ve given up on music. In fact, I hope to have a few singles out shortly as soon as I can the guys into the ManCave to cut their tracks. I should have something to announce on most social media; Facebook, Instagram, Threads, BlueSky too now, but definitely not X. Those who know me get why.
Gigs are intermittent, a tribute to the challenge of performing all-original material, but thankfully, a tight network of mutually supportive musicians helps when possible. One such occasion is this Saturday, November 23 at the Black Swan Tavern on Danforth. The Cats have played there many times and it’s always a great venue. We’re opening for Sal Indigo aka Salabama aka Fishman with special guest Bruce Moore subbing on bass as NeMo is out of town with Reggadiction. I would not be surprised if others grace the stage as well. You’ll just have to come down to find out!
We’ll also be backing up so a full gig! Please note this is a late afternoon gig starting at 4, which could be great benefit for bar both hoppers AND early-to-bedders. Hope
2023 has been a very strange year.
Plenty of highs and far too many lows on a personal level. Here’s hoping the latter are passed.
It was also quite a year for variety, as I expanded the opportunities to play with other performers and unquestionably grew and learned from that.
Perhaps it was a bit distracting though.
So 2024 is resolved (so far, ha!) to be a back-in-the-saddle year for Félix & the Cats. The last month or so have been dedicated to gear upgrades and rationalizations. The voice lessons with the awesome Jaclyn Serre are starting to pay off too. A bit more commitment to getting the word out (yes we have stickers – thanks to Simon Quayle) and hustling gigs are also on the radar, as is a recommitment to this blog.
Oh, and I grew a beard.
Those devil-horned guitars conjured up a wicked spell yesterday at the monthly Green Dragon Pub jam.
Past and current Wayling James Band guitarists Larry Gould, Justin Bunn, and yours truly all independently decided the best guitar for the job was the Gibson SG, or reasonable facsimile. Was it the electrical hum from the streetcar wires that guided that choice, or the Devil’s instrument?
Regardless, it turned out for the good as this was one of the best jams I’ve been a part of in 2023. Here’s a sample – my solo is a bit old school, but it goes with the tune. Thanks to Phil Snowdon for the recording and Mac and the Dragon for hosting. Musician credits are in the video.
The Green Dragon Pub hosts this jam on the last Sunday of each month, from 6 to 9.
For those unfamiliar with the title of this piece, this French expression points to the obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible behaviour associated with privilege. As I count myself in the latter category, through a bit of skill, but mostly luck and a lot of help from loved ones, friends and colleagues, I feel duty bound to return that support.
Hence the topic of this blog post.
For over six months, my friends in Monkey Fightin’ Snakes (who I’ve posted about way back as well) have hosted a Thirsty Thursday Open Mic at the Duke on Queen East at Leslie.
The venue is in keeping with a rock crowd, grungy but in all the right ways, MFS will back up anyone effectively, the gear is good, the stage large and there’s a sound tech too.
So it’s a mystery to me that the turnout has not been spectacular. This has to change.
There are so few good rooms for musicians to perform now. Yes, I know an open mic doesn’t pay, but neither does staying at home watching Netflix on a Thursday night. It’s a chance to see/hear what other players can do, workshop new songs, and network too. You might even enjoy a beer!
So, musicians, get out to the Duke and let’s get that list of jammers to look like the chalkboard at the old Relish (may it rest in peace)! Thursday evenings, signup starting at 8:00. Bring friends.
I’ll be there.
So many distractions!
While the Cats were away, the mice that are other projects did play. I’ve been fortunate to have had both studio sessions (John Mahler, Chris Scian and Arch Rockefeller notably) and live shows with other bands (i.e., Wayling James Band, Phil Snowdon and the Two-Fours).
Still, the Cats have managed to squeeze in a few mini shows at the Linsmore Tavern where we premiered some new and/or revamped material this past summer and have another show there on November 14 for again newish stuff. We’re also made our first appearance back on August 8 at the Dakota Tavern. Definitely excited by that.
Other venues have been approached so fingers crossed. Original music is a hard sell.
Still, to finally get things back on track, here is a demo of our latest tune. Can’t figure out the title? Me neither. It came from a deliciously mangled auto-correct text I received. The rest of the song wrote itself from there.
Inky Be Budge For 4 © 2023 Robert Pelletier/Félix & the Cats
It’s been a while, hasn’t it!
Not for lack of interest, but more a lack of material.
Fortunately, things seem to have eased up enough for me to get out there, really out there, and catch some live shows. So, on this long-deferred holiday in Europe, I was able to catch two shows at two very different bars in two very different cities.
The first venue was a club in Glasgow, the Howlin’ Wolf. It was a Sunday night, perfect for open mic/jams and that was exactly what I found. The house band, Killing Floor (all you Blues people will get that) opened the evening, then a continuous flow of guests went on stage for 3 or 4 songs each. Excellent playing throughout, leaning more towards the rockier end of the scale (tapping anyone?). Vocally, some standout performances, particularly by bassist/singer and performance rustler Charlotte Marshall, who played with calm confidence and sang with a Steve Marriot like intensity. I wish I could have stayed longer.
A few days later, more blues in Reykjavik, Iceland. This on a Thursday night at a club called Dillon. A more straightforward performance (no jammers), local band Beggi Smári performed blues with a slight jazz inflection, at least from what I could tell from the guitarist’s approach.
The latter had a more subdued vibe than the packed larger club in Glasgow, with the audience more attentive, concert like. Still, both shows featured solid playing by the rhythm section, and a fair bit of flash by the guitarists. On the vocal front, Glasgow was a slam dunk. Sorry Reykjavik!
You can hear for yourself in these two videos. Enjoy!
It’s been a long time since the last post. A combination of distractibility, lack of discipline, isolation and Zeitgeist anxiety meant I had neither the focus or the material to maintain a regularly published blog.
On the positive side, that time off led to new opportunities and a safe, flexible way to get things done on the studio side.
Late in 2021, I received a message from Chris Bender, our brilliant FatC drummer, about an opportunity to sit in as a second guitarist in another band he was playing with, Wayling James. That’s where I met Tim Wayling, the lead singer and and co-composer in the group.
I began to think about how his voice might fit well (read better) over my songs. He kindly agreed to try out a few songs that inspired him.
All tracks were recorded remotely, guitars, keys, some bass and back up vocals here*, better bass at NeMo’s, drums at Chris’s, main vocals and harmonica at Tim’s. All tracks were Dropboxed back and forth, then mixed here at Mancave Studio.
Probably the most interesting song in terms of process. It was originally tracked on an iPad mini while on holiday in Ireland. I originally wrote about it here, including the original demo. To update it, Chris recorded “real” drums to replace the Garageband programmed version, and of course Tim replaced all my vocals—thank you! All the guitars were as originally tracked with a Dano Pro through an iRig interface directly into the iPad. The clarinet bit and the bass were tapped onto the iPad using Garageband’s built-in interface. To remix, everything was imported into Logic Pro X.
The oldest tune on the mini EP, it’s been a standard in our live shows for years. This one was re-tracked in Logic as the original multitrack GB file was lost, although the demo is still around. Probably for the best anyway. Tim brought to it his harmonica (which I had always wanted for that tune), and an inspired performance on vocals.
As this was the third song worked on together, we were now pretty comfortable with the process. This is another one where the original multitrack was lost although a mixed emo was around. Once I removed the vocals using an online algorithmic website that was used as a bed track for everyone’s parts. I also used a reverse process to isolate my original vocals. Although the latter produced some odd digital artifacts, I ended up adding that in a little bit on some verses as background, just cause.
So in the end, besides the bit of BU vox mentioned above, everything was redone, and far better than the original IMHO.
Well, I hope you will go to our Bandcamp site to listen to the songs in full! There is a download link (PWYW). If you haven’t already, you can also check out some earlier songs.
As for us, honestly, at the time of writing, I don’t know. I am still cautious about a return to live performing, and herding these Cats is always intrinsically challenging due to our various musical and life commitments. All I can say is stay tuned.
Until then, be well!
felixandthecats.com 