attack in black

Wolfe Island Musicfest ’09

This is still one of my favorite music festivals around. For those who enjoy community, music, friends, good value and fun, make the trip.

Wolfe Island Musicfest

Aug 7th and 8th

This is a non-profit event. Raising money for our local community centre. Ain’t too fussy just tons of fun.

Friday Aug 7th

TownHall Concert featuring:
Sarah Harmer
Rocky Roberts
Bahamas

Flying V Productions showcase – General Wolfe Hotel 10:30pm
Woodhands and P.S I love u

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper showcase – The Island Grill 10:30pm

Bidiniband, The Billie Hollies, Shade, The Gertrudes.

Saturday Aug 8th

Holy Fuck
Busdriver
The D’urbervilles
Ohbijou
The Rural Alberta Advantage
Attack in Black
Julie Fader
and more to come:)

tickets avail online at ticketscene.ca
50.00 weekend pass includes 2 night camping

‘Jackson Square’ by Arkells. Keep an eye out for this band

I like watching bands get better. And from these earlier posts, you can see that I’ve been watching this 5-piece band from Hamilton (with songs about factories) grow into a powerhouse live band with a great album to back it up. Charlemagne became Arkells and Arkells have come into their own.

This year the band signed a deal with Dine Alone Records (City and Colour, Attack In Black) and it seems to have steered the band in the right direction. They went into the studio and did two things very well. With the help of producer Jon Drew (Tokyo Police Club, Fucked up) not only were the older songs off the Deadlines EP rerecorded/modified and made better, 7 new songs were recorded to aptly capture this bands’ ability to grow as songwriters and break out of familiar molds from their previous work. No longer can one say that this band sounds just ‘Springsteenesque‘ or like another version of the Constantines. Sure, you can hear elements of each somewhere on this album, but there is no longer a one-word description of what they sounds like.

The record is bound together by bluesy rock-riffs, group-vocal choruses, memorable melodies and a dynamic mix of guitars, organ, bass, drums and sweat. The re-worked songs on the album start strong (Deadlines as a killer lead-off), remind us of classic ’80s OV beer commercials (Ballad Of Hugo Chavez), bring back the harmonica (No Champagne Socialist) and lend the drums from the Foo Fighter‘s My Hero (Abigail, my favorite song on the record). The new songs are hooky (Pullin’ Punches, John Lennon) and emotive (I’m Not The Sun).

All the songs flow into each other like a live show.

Catch this band on tour right now, currently supporting Matt Mays & El Torpedo across Canada. Great fit for a lineup, I’d just be concerned if I were the headliner. You never want your opener to rock the crowd harder than you plan to. Tourdates on their myspace page.

Here’s the 2nd track off the record. Enjoy.

Pullin’ Punches. If you like Eagle*Seagulls‘ Photograph, I’m pretty sure you’ll like this one.

[audio:http://www.indiemusicfilter.com/audio/pullinpunches.mp3]

Empire Air

Dan Romano

Stuck inside while this winter storm rages. If you’re thinking it’s unlikely you’ll be leaving your confines to trek through the snow anytime soon, have a listen to Empire Air. The indie duet is a side project by Daniel Romano of the Welland, Ontario pop-punk act Attack In Black (2007 NXNE Favourite New Indie Release), and East Coast singer/songwriter Allie Torrance.

You may pause at the idea of listening to a side project of a pop-punk group, but if you’ve ever listened to the Evens (Ian MacKeye’s side project) you’ll have a solid idea of what to expect out of this venture… and it’s not particularly punk like.

The duo have yet to release enough music to create a record, but they have posted a video (below) for their cover of the Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra song Some Velvet Morning. I also recommend checking out the track Ballad of a Windy Lady on their MySpace.

[myspace]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26165676[/myspace]