This week’s blog is coming to you from the hot and sunny Dominican Republic. I wish I could say it will be about some hot band I saw performing here, but alas, the reason for me being here are less entertaining, and much more personal. So instead, let me tell you about last Tuesday at the Linsmore (in context, it feels very weird writing this). The evening had the customary three acts. 

First up was Richard Charles Moulaison whose powerful voice occasionally verged into Joe Cocker territory. Good territory!

Then came Marinol Nation, or a chunk of it anyway, who had traveled from Sarnia for this show. Great lyrics; Two Snakes and Should Have Been Dead stood out for me and exemplified their raconteur approach to writing. 

Finally, and the main reason I was there was singer Leanna Yamada, accompanied my Chuck Majic on the guitar. Leanna is a work friend (Tyler Ellis‘ has an great song on that subject with his own twist on it). She began working at my school this past September. I will not be appropriate to do a performance appraisal here and now, but it’s safe to say the kids and parents really like her. 

I have seen Leanna and Chuck perform before, and vice versa, so it’s easy for us to share contacts for gigs, update each other on when we are next performing and sound each other out on various musically related topics. 

Last Tuesday was the best I have seen and heard. The focus was there, the energy was up, and the confidence and coordination much more palpable. It was great to see Leanna play guitar for a song as this gave Chuck more room to improvise for his solos. I hope to see more of that. 

I am told that Chuck and Leanna met at university and struck up a musical friendship from a common desire to write and perform their own compositions. I’d say it has worked well so far, and even better is to come.

Here is a bit of a song to give you some idea.

https://instagram.com/p/BSNM99TFVbt/

Before signing off, thanks again to Sam Taylor for a vocal intervention house call this past week. I’m hoping to put some extra focus and effort into that aspect of the performance. These things take time, so please don’t expect miracles overnight, but I am trying. 

Until next week, I am off to the pool. Be well!

Last week, I had intended a post on today’s topic, which got put off because of the death of Chuck Berry. Here it is now.

Earlier this month, the band did a show at the Linsmore Tavern as part of the Indie Tuesday Series. After our set,  Mrs. Félix-and-the-Cats points out to me a nice young man the audience, whom she had recognized from earlier in the week, as she had spoken to him and his father at Canada Blooms, the biggest garden show in the country.

Mrs. Félix-and-the-Cats, a very dedicated garden writer/blogger and consultant (check out the linked sites!), had been at the show to hear (and later give) a presentation, and had spoken with the aforementioned young man, Ben Cullen, and his father Mark.

For those clueless about gardening, Ben Cullen is a horticultural consultant and presenter, and comes from an illustrious gardening family: his father Mark is a renowned garden writer, educator, broadcaster and Order of Canada  recipient, and his grandfather was Len Cullen, a horticultural pioneer in Ontario, who created Cullen Gardens & Miniature Village, a popular tourist attraction in Whitby, Ontario that was a favourite of families until its closure in 2006.

Embed from Getty Images

 

To top it off, just this past week, we both met Ben’s aunt, Sue Cullen Green, when she introduce Mrs. Félix-and-the-Cats as the keynote speaker at an event in beautiful little Brooklin, Ontario.

Anyway, after the Linsmore set, Ben came to say hello and pay the band some very nice compliments. He had just moved back into the neighbourhood and very much enjoyed the presence of the Linsmore in the area. We had a lovely chat.

So the point of all this? The world is indeed a small place (still wouldn’t want to paint it, though) and one can meet a lot of nice people travelling through. It would not have guessed until now that there would be an intersection of my “world” and my wife’s, but I’m glad I was wrong!

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On to news: new show! Please mark your calendars for Thursday, May 25, 2017, when NeMo and I will be doing a special one-hour “acoustic” set at the iconic Eton House, on Danforth, just east of Pape, as part of its M Factor Redux Weekly Indie Music Series. Hosted by the brilliantly talented Elana Harte and her band, the show starts at 8:00 — good for a school night! This will be a good one to catch rarely performed material, given the special format.

Also, don’t forget I have my Birthday & Day-Job-Retirement Bash at Relish Bar & Grill this coming April 22 (a Saturday), starting at 9:30. A very special show!

Until next week, be well!

I had another topic in mind for this week, but that will be deferred following the news of Chuck Berry‘s death.

This one struck me harder than Bowie or Prince, no offence to these other artist’ legacy. Many of the headlines celebrate his accomplishments as a rock and roll pioneer and innovator in a musical sense. No argument there. To say he was more or less innovative than any of the great blues guitarists is an argument for another time. I honestly don’t care whether he originated those licks, but to a huge number of young rock guitarists growing up in the seventies, and even later, his aproach was the entry point and the home base. Any decent player could easily learn these songs and spin them in his or her own way. His music was both unique and completely malleable.

But it’s as a performing guitarist that I think he had the most enduring impact. Chuck Berry was the prototypical rock star guitarist, and created the template for the mad, lusty, joyful swagger of swinging that guitar around right in an audience’s face. It looks and sounds loud and crude, but man is it fun, and it hasn’t stopped.

All rock guitarists owe him a lot, perhaps everything. He will be missed.

Here he is featured in the movie “Hail Hail Rock ‘N’ Roll“.

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So, it’s been a busy week.

Tuesday was the show at the Linsmore with friends Michael Sheen Cuddy and Arch Rockefeller sharing the bill. Thanks to all who came out (I thank you individually here). The show also brought about some reflection, and I may share that in a future post.

Thursday night brought the out to the Eton House tavern on Danforth near Pape to catch an unplugged set by friend Fraz Milne, whom I have spoken of previously. It turns out that they have an Indie Music night each Thursday, for which Fraz played the second set. The evening is hosted by Elana Harte, who you can watch and listen to here (sorry, the video won’t embed). Awesome singer! https://www.facebook.com/emma.oneill/videos/10158285300075580/
I’m sorry I could not stay for  Wendell Ferguson, but here is a bit of him below.

Instead, I finished the evening at the Peppery Cat for one of Mike Sedgewick‘s inimitable blues jams, where I rocked out some frustrations, doing originals which the band picked up fantastically!

The week ended at C’est What for T.C Folkpunk‘s newest CD, Hearsay Is 20/20, listening party. I wrote more at length about T.C. in an earlier post here; always the gracious host, he introduced me to RexySpice (self-confessionally not your average lyrically driven violently acoustic unintentionally comic singer songwriter), with whom we all share similar yet uniquely slanted approaches to songwriting. I look forward to the opportunity of hearing him at a live show soon.

Unless someone famous passes on next week, the planned-on post for this week will be covered then. Be well! I mean it!

For people attending this Tuesday’s March 14th show at the Linsmore (and I hope a lot of you will), I have added one of my newer songs on the set list.

This one is called Waterline, and retells the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark, but from the animals’ perspective, and more specifically, a frog’s.

I found it interesting how this narrative of ultimate reset focused on land dwelling creatures. For anything living in water, it may have been a bit a “meh” event.

The first verse introduces the story, then the second highlights the anthropocentricity of the narrative. Finally, in the third, I draw to draw a parallel to climate change, set up by the bridge. Yeah, it’s heavy-handed, but it gets the job done. The breakdown before the bridge is silly fun, and an homage to the B52s Rock Lobster.

I hope you like this one, and look forward to your feedback at the next show.

Until then, be well!

Waterline ©2017 R. Pelletier/Félix and the Cats

Verse 1:
He is a mangy dog
She is a feral cat
It seems I am a frog
I guess that’s where it’s at
We’re on to see a man
Who’s building a big boat
Cause when it starts to rain
We’ll either sink or float

Verse 2:
The man chooses who’s on
And who to sacrifice
Creatures who’ve done no wrong
Will pay a heavy price
A good thing I can swim
I know I’ll last this out
For others it is grim
Unless you are a trout…

Breakdown: (ad lib)
…or a salmon, a herring, a pickerel, an eel, a whale, an octopus, a lobster, a crustacean of some kind, a squid, a mollusk, a bottom feeding invertebrate…(etc. ad lib)

Bridge:
The people did not heed the signs
They did not do what’s right
So now the rain keeps falling down
For forty days and nights

Verse 3:
Some call this story true
Some call it metaphor
I’ll leave that up to you
And what you’re looking for
What’s best for you and me
Keeping that tale in mind
We’re not to blind to see
The rising waterline

I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting many talented people on this latest journey. Amongst the most broadly gifted is Rob Greenway. Rob is a voice actor by trade, but also a graphic artist, producer, singer and drummer. In his alter-ego personage of Brilliant Fish, he has performed many times at Relish assisted only by a looper pedal to paint broad sonic landscapes in improvised and highly absorbing vocal performances. Rob also sits in on drums on the rare occasions when Paul Brennan and Jace Traz are not available for Relish Bar and Grill’s Stir It Up Sundays, and is the full-time drummer for the “metaphysical blues” group Cadre, and ensemble of top-tier Toronto musicians. That aspect alone is worth it to catch Rob perform.

As Brilliant Fish, he has released a number of albums and singles that highlight an imaginative approach to songs, such as this brilliant(ha!) cover of Hank William’s Cold, Cold Heart, that spreads a layer of sinister anger over the original heartbreak of the original.

Just recently, Brilliant Fish has launched his own radio show, The Upstream on Mixcloud. I have admittedly not listened to radio for a long time, is this is the first time in ages something like this has drawn me in and held my interest. The songs are often new (to me anyway), and juxtaposed in a aural narrative that keeps you captivated. I highly encourage everyone to listen.

 

My only question remains, how does he find the time to do all this!

 

To close off, I want to remind everyone that we are very excited to be playing in just over a week at the Linsmore Tavern, and part of Indie Tuesdays, on March 14. This show finally gets the original FatC lineup back together, with Paul Brennan on drums, Neil (NeMo) on bass, and yours truly. Expect some new songs, some favourites and a high energy set, cause I picked  ’em that way. This is an outstanding evening to catch new talent as the second set will feature Michael Cuddy (who wrote a lovely invitation for the show here) and the third, Arch Rockefeller, two master songwriters whom I greatly admire. We start at 8, so don’t be late.

Until next time, be well,

Firstly, I toot my own horn a bit and declare this is the first year anniversary of this blog. Thank you to the small but growing number who follow it.

While I take some pride in that fact, it is small potatoes compared to the day-in-day-out commitment of professional journalists like my friend and former Nerve bandmate David Israelson, and Toronto Star pop critic Ben Rayner. The latter wrote a very interesting piece earlier this month entitled Is Toronto facing a live-music crisis? that highlights concerns with recent club closures and a commitment the Mayor John Tory has made to making Toronto a “music city”.

I wrote a blog a while back that outlines my concerns and opinions about the music scene and its challenges. A bit ranty, I know. The gist though is that the club-going public, particularly for the small venues where emerging artists first start performing, is not very inclined to pay cover charges, or even drop a few dollars in the tip jar for the artists. Changing that mindset against an acceptance of “free music” on demand is probably not achievable in the short term. Given the costs of operating a club, that leaves the performers with little or nothing, or less, in their pockets. Many musicians pay to play in this city, just ask around.

I am glad for the note of optimism in Mr. Rayner’s article, and I’m hopeful the mayor will indeed communicate with Austin and other cities for “best practices”, but more importantly execute on concrete solutions. A broad declaration of wanting Toronto to be a “music city” without support is wishful thinking.

Perhaps the city could start by providing a form of tax credit to clubs for payments to live performers, to encourage them to compensate the bands something more than a feeble honorarium or a free beer. This would encourage support for live music at the grassroots. I hope the city avoids supporting specific clubs exclusively, despite their storied past, as the impact of such measures would be narrow. The other action the city could take is a campaign to elevate the status of all musicians in the city, from buskers on up, as their active presence is part of what makes this city one of the best in the world.

To all my musician friends who follow this blog, I encourage you to read the Star article, and respond to the mayor’s invitation therein.

“I think he may have an idea or two,” said Tory. “I’m all ears.”

Until next week, and to more in year two, be well.

This week’s Sunday night Stir It Up at Relish was a momentous occasion for a lot of reasons. I have written a post specifically about Relish Bar and Grill before, but good things are worth repeating.

Last night was the 7th anniversary of SIUS. Originally hosted by Paul Brennan (Félix and the Cats’ fave drummer), and Phil Jacobs for two years, the latter replaced by Danger Bees composer and front man David Macmichael, Stir It Up Sundays is Toronto’s best original music open mic, both in terms of quality and broad musical styles. It is definitely one of my happy places. The success of Stir It Up is due to these guys’ guidance, encouragement towards artists still discovering themselves, and a subtle but effective curation of the talent that performs there every Sunday. Of course, none of this would even be possible without the vision and support of Relish’s owner and chef Joanne Clayton. Thanks, Joanne!

Beyond the milestone celebration, the evening was special in other ways too. First, my good friend Sal (Salamander) Borg and SIUS regular introduced his new Trump song, which you can view a segment of below.

Another Robert (Hyde this time) had his first taste of performing at SIUS after years of prodding on my part and did a great job. I hope he will make it back soon.

Regulars Michael Cuddy (soon to be recording at Tim Bovaconti‘s studio with the above mentioned Paul and David), Jace, Ryan, Steve and more performed, and I had a set in there somewhere.

The biggest surprise though came for seeing a new (for me) band called Mauve Grove perform. As the band started into their first song, I kept staring at the guitar player (Babs) thinking he looked awfully familiar. I suddenly realized this was a kid I had taught when he was in my grade 5 class. Even back then as an 11 year-old, he was showing promise on guitar, all part of a class project we had going on. I cannot seem to locate that recording at this time, but Babs may choose to share it, as he told me he still has a copy. If I find it, I will update this post. In the meantime, here is something much more current from Mauve Grove.

Until next week, be well!

Last night’s show at the Amsterdam Bicycle Club was something new for FatC despite having played there a number of times. The twist came when drummer Greg Anzelc had to call in sick unexpectedly, and despite half a dozen potential other drummers being called, no one was available. The choice was simple: cancel or carry on. I chose the latter and NeMo was happily on board to try something new. We would be a Félix and the Cats of 2 (kind of a Circle of Venn thing).

So I left the electric guitars behind, and dusted off my Simon and Patrick S&P6 Cedar acoustic for the show.  NeMo brought his fretless bass. We weren’t really sure how the songs would sound redone in acoustic context, but we figured inspiration would come to us.

Well, in the end, it turned out just fine. The crowd was great, if a bit skittish about depositing to the band tip box, but NeMo and I left happy in the knowledge we have a new way to perform. Expect more of this in the next while.

Earlier in the week, I attended the Indy Tuesday show at the Linsmore. This is now my favourite venue for seeing new talent. Every show is a surprise, and this past show was no exception. The standout for me was the very original (despite a cover of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer) 3 Minutes to Forever (3MF for their fans).

3MF features Stevie Joe Axolotl on guitar, vocals and interesting head ornaments, the AntiChris on bass and vocals, Susanimal on keys and vocals, and Loaf on drums. Their sound is rock with a generous helping of quirkiness either lyrically (wish I hear them better at the time) and musical constructions that aren’t afraid to deviate from the norm. They play with good energy and fun, and are now on my list to see again when an opportunity presents itself.

For your listening and viewing pleasure, I include below a video recording of them performing Late Night Visitor.

Finally, and as promised last week, the actual recording of I Love Me. 

I Love Me ©2017 R. Pelletier/Félix and the Cats

Until next week, be well!

The past week and the next are likely busy, due to report card season at work, and an upcoming show at the Amsterdam Bicycle Club on February 11. It should be a good one! The show starts between 10:30 and 11:00, as soon as diners are finished at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

So for this week, here are the lyrics only of the latest song, which is still in the midst of being tracked. Check back next week for completion. I’ll try to have it ready for the ABC.

It’s inspired by the current trend of non-stop selfies that are a sign of the times. However I did not want to infuse it with meanness; there’s more than enough of that around. So I though I’d write it in first-person and spin it to try to understand why people would post pictures of themselves so consistently. I don’t really know. It’s creative licence.

No offense is intended.

 

I Love Me ©2017 R. Pelletier/Félix and the Cats

Chorus
I…..
I love me
I love me totally
So unabashedly
I love me

I…
I love me
Associatively
So self-promotingly
I love me

Verse 1
A selfie in the broad daylight
A selfie in a moonlit night
A selfie when I exercise
A selfie when I’m in disguise
A selfie when I’m looking cute
A selfie in my birthday suit
A picture tells a different story
When it’s taken in the lavatory

Chorus

Verse 2
A selfie when I make a face
A selfie in my favourite place
A selfie with my favourite hat
A selfie playing with my cat
A selfie driving in my car
A selfie playing my guitar
Must share my fascination
Or is it overcompensation

Bridge
A daily dose of narcissism
Wards off depression and cynicism
Better loving myself
Than hating everyone else.
Everybody look at me everybody
No, not you

Verse 3
A selfie with my mom and dad
A selfie of me feeling sad
A selfie with some long-gone friend
A selfie when at my wit’s end
A selfie often on my own
A selfie when my love has flown
A picture says it loud and clear
I will survive, and persevere

Final Chorus
I….
I love me
I love me totally
So unashamedly
I love me

I…
I love me
So self-supportingly
Maybe self-healingly
I love me

Until next week, be well! You can post a selfie to show it.

 

This week, I return to the theme of fellow musicians, whose path I have crossed, or, Camino-like, are on the journey like me. The first is Tim Cameron, aka T.C. Folkpunk.

I met Tim for the first time when he worked at a local guitar shop. He was always the person I preferred to see for good counsel and and even just to chat. During those visits, I discovered he was also a performer (a guy working at a music store that also played—what gives?) and started checking out his shows.

At first it puzzled me that a guy belting out songs strictly on an electrical guitar would not work with a band, but I was soon enlightened as I discovered that Tim was a rare breed of performers working in that mode, Billy Bragg perhaps the most well known internationally.

The format Tim plays in, like folk, allows the lyrics to shine through, and he is a master at witty, thoughtful, socially astute, and sometimes cutting compositions. And sometimes just fun and clever too. A favourite of mine is Here Crumbles the Bride, with it’s Dylanesque (Bob) jolting and absurdist imagery. Musically, his songs have a deceptively simple power pop feel, but if you know something about music, and watch and listen to the chord changes more closely, as I did last week when he played the Linsmore, one appreciates T.C. knows his craft.

Any guy who can include  kangaroos in the lyrics is okay with me.

Tim has also found another voice in the movies, composing songs AND playing a major character in Love in the Sixth, an independent musical comedy released in 2015 directed by Jude Klassen.

 

T.C. Folk punk’s latest collection is Hearsay is 20/20, available through his site or directly at Bandcamp, and is getting airplay not just here in Canada but around the world. Here is Tim talking about that and one featured song:

Hearsay Is 20/20 has been doing really well, with airplay in Spain, Sweden, and of course Canada. I’m expecting to get some airplay in Columbia, New Zealand, USA and the UK within the next week or two as well.
I know everybody’s really busy, and trying to absorb a whole album can be a lot to ask these days, so I thought I’d send out a quick email that focuses on just one song. A measly two-minutes-and-three-seconds worth of tuneage.
The featured track in question is Sort Of Like Danielle. It started life as three separate song bits, all of which were in different keys. I tried lining the pieces up in the same key, but that meant that some parts were either to high or two low for me to sing. So I thought stuff it, the song can just modulate all over the place, because that will be cheaper than singing lessons… As a result, “Danielle” is in the key of E.
And then F#.
And then G for a bit.
And then back to E where the whole ride starts over again.
Anyway, you can give it a listen (and also buy it if you’re so inclined…) on Bandcamp right about HERE.
I was working on it around the time I dove into production on Love In The Sixth, so there are a lot of filmic illusions floating around in the lyrics (you can read those lyrics on the Bandcamp page too, by the way).
Two minutes and three seconds. You better get dancing or you might miss it!
Enjoy!
T.C.

Tim is probably the most original performer I know, and as you look through the back catalogue on his site, one of the most consistently dedicated to his art. Unique is a cliché, but in a while, it needs to be dusted off and correctly applied. With T.C. Folkpunk, it fits.

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The flip side of that is the cover band, sometimes seen less favourably by “real musicians”—just Google it. This view is wrong-headed (I am using my nice words). I have spent the large part of his musical life performing covers, and still enjoy playing them. The fact that FatC doesn’t play any (something that is NOT carved in stone) is a choice I made for this specific band and comes with its own pluses (creative expression) and minuses (few people know the songs). For now, I enjoy the challenge of seeing with songs stick with the audience, as this helps develop my craft. That does not preclude playing them in another context, as I did last summer.

With that in mind, last night, the missus and I went out late to the entertainment district at a club called UG3 to meet with #1 daughter, and see her boyfriend’s band The Lonely Hearts.

First of all, let me say we were by far the oldest people in the place. The place was packed with young, healthy, and progressively drunker 20-somethings, many more than FatC have ever had in any audience, and all were having a great time. When the band came on at about 11:30, they immediately packed the dance floor with mostly vintage covers of rock and Motown classics, delivered with a solid raw edge sound and energy that unified the set. All the kids in the audience knew the words too. Rock is NOT dead.

I really like these guys. They play good solid stuff, their audience loves it, and obviously so do they. The band is fronted by Omar Saab on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. Omar has great range and expression, and a healthy growl, reminiscent of Bryan Adams at times. Dave McCamus complements by singing solid backups, and playing biting lead on what looked like either a rare or modified version of a Gibson Melody Maker. Graeme Moffatt is a delight on bass, freely running Entwistle-style through the chordal changes with a melodic style steeped in the rock style of the 60s and 70s.  Regular drummer Curtis Courtemanche unavailable for last night’s show, but luckily Murph Stone sat in. He clearly knew the songs and delivered them well, and looked like he was enjoying himself too.

 

Omar tells me that they are at the Cameron House this Friday, February 3. I am planning to be there and I hope some of you can join me.

Until then, be well!