>Dial 6-1-3_

Between 2 of the bigger Canada Day music happenings alone, there will be THIRTEEN LOCAL BANDS playing. That’s right, it excites me so much that I had to shout it.
Don’t miss this incredible chance to expose yourself to a tonne of local talent… some of the best bands in the city will be playing.

With that said, dial613 presents to you:

Your guide to Music in Ottawa on Canada Day, 2006
Avoid public drunkenness laws by ducking into one of these. (Because then it becomes private drunkenness, hence it’s allowed, right? Or something.)

Starting with the 3 biggest parties:

—>Parliament Hill/Major’s Hill Park: music, culture, snowbirds, free.
I’m not going to be cheesy about this. There will be no line like “no matter what the weather, you’ll be able to see Stars on Canada Day,” or “Canadians downtown might find themselves Stars-struck on July 1.” Nope, not gonna happen.
Anyway, I can’t give much detail on where and when, because the NCC’s website keeps crashing my computer (and I can’t buy a new one because of the taxes I pay them, har har). But I can tell you some of the who: Kyle Riabko, Aselin Debison, and Colin James will all be performing. You can also see Buck 65 and K’naan (the ones who should be performing?), at the songwriter’s workshop at some point during the day. When? I don’t know. Be sure to save all your work first, then click here and find out for yourself.
You also may be interested in this incredibly cool 10 year project that is made of bones and wood and metal from all over the country: The Canadian Guitar.
Oh, and Stars come out on at 9:30. Dammit.
DOWNLOAD: Stars – Soft Revolution (website)

—>Zaphod Beeblebrox: 12 hours (2PM-2AM), 5 bands, 2 DJs, $5.
5 of the above-mentioned 13 local bands will be at Zaphod’s annual 12 hour Canada Day “partaaaaaay” (give or take an ‘a’). The bill features “newcomers” and dial613 faves Jetplanes Of Abraham (myspace) playing their 3rd ever show at about 8:30PM, along with another large local band that borrows its members from a handful of local groups (strangely, pretty much the same ones as Jetplanes?), Eastborough. Also taking the stage will be Golden Bulldozer, Grampapunk, and En Garde.

—>the parking lot outside Capital Music Hall: 12 hours (2PM-2AM), 8 bands, 1 DJ, $5.
The other 8 local acts will be playing in at the inaugural staging of The Live 88.5 Big Money Shot, a(n unfortunately-named?) competition between local bands for a ridiculous amount of money for recording and equipment. So go see the likes of The Coggs, The Love Machine, and Donkey Punch try to kick the shit out of each other for money, woo! Headlined by The Architects (myspace), who play some very palatable pop with a nice and shiny polish that’s not so common around here. Click here for the full lineup.

To see the what’s happening at Babylon, The Black Sheep Inn, Club Saw, and Maverick’s: click here.

—>Babylon: 10 PM doors, 4 MCs, $10 advance.
Louis Logic, Jr. Flo, and locals Illo and Kid SL will all be doing their thang and spitting mad rhymes over crazy beats on Canada Day. In other words, I’m not sure who they are. But I have a feeling my prediction will be correct.

—>The Black Sheep Inn: 1 band, 50 men (heh), $10 advance.
It’s the 3rd annual Fiftyday out in Wakefield, which means… you guessed it… Fiftymen (website) will be on stage. If you are one of the few drivers (or have a friend who is) on Saturday, and feel like running away from the sweaty drunken masses, this is a dandy alternative to have. Fittycent will also be making an appearance. If that means a Fiftymen hip-hop cover set, I will be really sorry I missed it.

—>Club Saw: 12 hours (2PM-2AM), 2 bands, 4 DJs, special guests, $?.
It’s 12 hour bash #3, with locals Muffler Crunch (myspace) headlining. Also performing are Montreal’s Les Abdigradationnistes, and DJs CPI, Jason Pelletier, BEAR Witness, and Lynne T (a Lesbian On Ecstasy).

—>Maverick’s: 9 or 10PM, 1 band, free.
Peterborough’s James Mckenty & The Spades (website) play some funtimey folk-rock. Sounds plain, but I have this strange feeling it could be a sleeper out of the Canada day options here.

Reminder: The Infringement Festival and Ottawa International Jazz Festival will still be running as well.

dial613’s schedule?
The logistics are pretty iffy, but the bands on the to-do list (no, not that one), in rough chronological order:
The Love Machine
Jetplanes Of Abraham
The Architects
Stars
James Mckenty & The Spades
…along with whoever is closest to me before/in between/after each one.

So.. What’s your schedule going to look like?

I never realized how heartbreaking a ukelele could be until I came across The Luck.

Consisting solely of Jacob Bryce (though I bet his friends get to call him Jake), who also fronts Kelp residents The Recoilers, The Luck combines a bunch of ragtag instruments and sounds to make music that is stripped down but far from empty.

dial613 doesn’t like to ever really say much about individual tracks, in the belief that the first judgment a listener makes about a song should be based on the music alone. But The Luck’s sincerity and non-holding-back are contagious… so quick, here, take these and listen now:

DOWNLOAD
Unreleased Tracks from 2005 ..because there hasn’t been a release. (Yet?)
—>Battle Won Battle Lost
—>Leave Me
—>We’ve Got It All Out… (has an M. Ward kind of feel to it)

Ok, so…
Did you listen?
Promise?
Completely honestly?
FOR REALS???

Alright then, you have permission to continue:
Battle Won Battle Lost – is hands down one of the most bitterly beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. It has all the components of a cheery song: a peppy bass drum beat, ukelele, handclaps, and even whistling… but somehow combines them all in a way to make a wistful, bare-bones song that sounds like it’s yearning for something more.

Leave Me – follows in a similar vein, but standing out is a phone ring/conversation at the end which perfectly serves The Luck’s romantic aesthetic of a solitary guy pouring his heart out in a downtown apartment somewhere, leading a double-life between the inside and outside of his recording space.
(And yes, I’m probably reading way too much into what may have just been a recording blooper. But it just works so perfectly.)

Other words I tried to use in this post but couldn’t: “desperate”, “awkward”, “funshine”. But I’ve been trying to use funshine for a while now…

This side project of Bryce’s doesn’t seem to be too active: he last logged in to The Luck’s myspace June 16 (somebody send this man a friend request!) and has only played two shows, the last of which was almost two months ago. But it looks like there will be a couple more throughout the summer… when they happen, they’ll be listed on the sidebar to the right.

The Luck on:
the internet/myspace

Peter Elkas will strike a pose (and possibly shill a new fragrance?) at Maverick’s on Friday

With the exclusion of Canada Day, the number of shows has died down compared to the last couple weeks, so it looks like this may be the calm before the Bluesfest storm. And, unless a bunch of shows pop up suddenly, this calm will border on eery with a two-week span.
Meanwhile, there’s still The International Jazz Festival to keep you busy up until the end of this week, along with a handful of solid local acts including Turning Into Salt and The Love Machine.

Check back Friday (maybe even Thursday, wow!) for a guide to the cornucopia of music you can catch on Canada Day in Ottawa.

Is anybody playing this week that is not on the list?
And, still looking for Jazzfest recommendations… anybody?
Ok fine, so if you won’t be there, then who will you be seeing instead?

06.26.06
The Brat Attack with North Lincoln, Forty Cent Fix at End Hits
No Trumpets Please (among others) at Jazzfest

06.27.06
Brad Mehldau (among others) at Jazzfest
Socalled with (ex-Lederhosen) Lucille at Babylon
Turning Into Salt* with Chemical Swing, January/February, The Get Sets at Maverick’s

06.28.06
GOOD2GO* at the Aloha Room (bottom floor of Barrymore’s)

06.29.06
The Love Machine* with TAM! at Cafe Deckuf

06.30.06
Peter Elkas with The Burt Neilson Band at Maverick’s
—>DOWNLOAD: Party Of One
—>DOWNLOAD: Skipping Stone
—>DOWNLOAD: Still A Flame
Syrup Girls w/ Women On Wax, F!ghtF!ghtF!ght*, Lady Ms. Myrrh at Barrymore’s

07.01.06
(Look out later in the week for the official dial613 Canada Day guide)

07.02.06
Night off to recover from the city’s collective Canada Day-after hangover..

* denotes local act

Just a quick reminder that The Ottawa Jazz Festival kicks off tonight.
dial613 will not pretend to know much about the performers, but from reading the general press, it looks like you could go on pretty much any night and be satisfied (I should hope so, anyway).

Regardless, a handful of performers that I know and like are listed just to the right of this post in the (613)shows section.

Anybody have recommendations? If you could recommend just one act (or 2 or 3 or..), what would it be?

The Department Of Foreign Affairs fit in just fine around here. Mixing a country twang with rock and the occasional pop hook, their music can be excitingly diverse, but it’s all rooted in toe-tapping, head-bobbing melodies and catchy choruses featuring pedal steel, strings, spot-on harmonies, and a piano that, a little surprisingly, fits right in with the rest.

DOFA keep their tracks wonderfully tight and clean, a reflection of the sleekness and professionalism in their songwriting and production.
The tunes are nice and simple, letting a listener get right into a song the first time around, but there are still plenty of layers left to dig through over repeated listens.

The end product is a sound that’s perfect for a hot, sunny day… but one where you turn down playing volleyball (or checking out the ladies) at the beach in favor of climbing into a 4×4 and heading for a drive down a dirt road off Highway 7.

The band has kept busy playing shows, including a scorching set just the other week at NxNE, on the strength of their first two albums (Stories Up High and For Whatever Ails You) which were both released in 2004.
But listen for some new material in their coming dates, because they’ll be releasing their third record sometime this summer.
Go see them live this Saturday at Zaphod’s with The Diableros.

DOWNLOAD
From 2004’s For Whatever Ails You:
—>Take A Picture (an opening line channeling neil young that oh-so-smoothly transitions into an old-fashioned clap-along)
—>Skeptic Tank (sweet sweet harmonies)

From their upcoming release:
—>stream 3 tracks

The Department Of Foreign Affairs on:
the internet
new music canada
myspace

John K. Samson and The Weakerthans can make you feel warm and fuzzy inside

Show highlights this week include Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans, who bring their Impossible Distances tour to town on Tuesday, as well as Danny Michel & his yet-to-be-revealed All Star Band on Wednesday, when he will be having his official Ottawa CD release party for Valhalla. It also looks like it’ll be his last stop here for a while, so catch him while you can. Also, The Ottawa Jazz Festival gets going on Thursday.

On June 24, I guess we’re having our own little St-Jean-Baptiste day celebration, with a total of six seven eight dial613-listed shows on June 24.
At which show will you be celebrating the patron saint of Quebec?

Which show(s) do you recommend?
Are there any that have been left out?

06.20
The Acorn* w/ Kat Burns & The Forest City Lovers, Ohbijou at Black Sheep Inn
—>DOWNLOAD: Plates & Saucers
The Weakerthans w/ Angela Desveaux at Capital Music Hall
DOWNLOAD
—>Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault)…
—>Reconstruction Site
—>Aside
—>Letter Of Resignation
…and one other

06.21
Danny Michel* All-Star Band w/ Harmony Trowbridge at Black Sheep Inn
—>DOWNLOAD: Perfect

06.22
Ottawa Jazz Festival begins

06.23
The October Sky* w/ Our Mercury, For The Mathematics* at Zaphod’s
Immaculate Machine w/ The Ride Theory at Babylon
—>DOWNLOAD: Broken Ship
Justin Rutledge w/ Ndidi Onukwulu at Black Sheep Inn
…and one other

06.24
The Creeping Nobodies w/ Ennuie*, The Bridegroom* at Club Saw
The Diableros w/ The Department Of Foreign Affairs* at Zaphod
…and six others

06.25
Bedouin Soundclash at Ottawa Jazz Festival

* denotes local band

dial613 is the word on everybody’s lips. Although I think it may have something to do with the new phone system being implemented here, where you actually have to dial 6-1-3 before some local numbers now because of the stupid amount of phone numbers that are needed for all the cell phones.
So it’s like,

A: “Hey, man, this phone number isn’t working, are you sure you gave me the right one?”
B: “Yeah, did you DIAL 6-1-3?”
A: “Oh right, I forgot.”

And that, my friends, is called publicity.

Anyway, here are selected pictures from Westfest, day 2. Because the camera was left at dial613 headquarters on day 1. Oops.
So look at them by clicking the “click to see” link that is just below and stuck to the left margin.

On Day 1, dial613 stopped by the Royal Canadian Legion, where everoone (sic) was welcome for some cheap french fries and impressive karaoke.

I wonder who is in charge of this sign. Maybe the person who was supposed to take it down didn’t do it and so they were fired. And now nobody is going to do anything about it until they hire someone else. I liked it.

I was really surprised (and delighted) by all the murals that were scattered throughout Westboro. These are just a few.

On day 2, dial613 visited an art exhibit by H’art Of Ottawa, an art program for developmentally delayed/disabled kids, in this neat church that apparently is 100-and-something years old and was designed by the same guy who designed the parliament buildings. The art was actually really neat and nice to look at, bright colours and stuff.

I just liked the umbrella.

This guy was walking up and down the entire closed off section of Richmond for both days of the festival. I salute him for it. And I also salute his picture on the sign. Really, all real estate agents’ official pictures are bordering on art.

Kellylee Evans on day 2. Very charismatic on stage, and off: she left the stage and joined the crowd midset to lift everybody (literally) off their seats, one at a time. And it worked, barely anybody sat back down, and the majority danced through the rest of the set. So she deserves some props here.

Hilotrons on day 2. By 5 minutes into their set, lead singer Mike Dubue (although during the set, I think he said his name was Steve?) will already be sweating like no other, it’s incredible (and was that worth mentioning? probably not). A bouncy and energetic set, as always.

The Acorn on day 2, with some really funny stage banter, and my favourite set of theirs that I’ve seen so far.

The Golden Dogs will be in your face at Maverick’s Friday night

I’ve already said my share on the The Golden Dogs and their absolutely rock-n-roll live show, so I won’t add much more, other than be sure to keep your head up. They seem to have a tendency to knock things around whenever they visit: last year at Maverick’s, it was a repeatedly falling mic stand (and lead singer), and at this year’s Tulip Festival they upped the ante with a drum kit that refused to stay in one piece.
dial613 is considering wearing a hard hat out to this one.
—>DOWNLOAD: Elevator Man
—>DOWNLOAD: 2 more tracks, both from the forthcoming Big Eye Little Eye

For something mellower, try jazz-hoppers (genre-schmenre) Kobayashi at the Black Sheep Inn.
For beats and poetry, see Spesh K with local spoken word artist John Akpata at Zaphod’s.

also:
a) this weekend, and all the way up until June 25, stop by the Fringe Festival, an arts showcase featuring all sorts of local theater production and visual art.
b) on Sunday (June 18), head over to see what is surely Not Your Grandma’s Craft Sale, presented by Ladyfest and punkottawa.com, which includes tons of wearable, neat-looking, and handy DIY crafts from local independent artists.

lastly:
-shiny new faq is being made. so, if you want a question about dial613 answered, just ask it frequently over the next 24 hours or so.
-look for dial613’s westfest pictures to be put up sometime this weekend

Folk-rock career musician Danny Michel first made a name for himself in the city while playing a residency at Elgin Street’s Manx Pub back in the late 90s, then continued to grow his reputation during a short stint as a member of locally-based (and now-defunct) Starling, after which he kept working at it as a solo artist with frequent sets at The Black Sheep Inn.

On June 13, the 2005 Juno nominee (for “Best New Artist”… hmmm) released his 7th solo album, Valhalla, which is his 3rd in 4 years. The album has already garnered attention from David Bowie (to whose songs he dedicated 2004’s Loving The Alien), which may be the good omen his years of hard work deserve… hey, it worked for The Arcade Fire, didn’t it?

Not only has Michel survived on the scene for so long, but he has avoided letting his music become stagnant; his sound has evolved with every new album. dial613 has’t had the chance to pick up Valhalla yet, but judging from the sampler available on his website, it sounds like the trend has continued.

And, on top of all his musical talent, he’s also a nice guy to boot. Awww.

Danny Michel has been revealed as The Black Sheep Inn’s surprise performer on June 21, where he will have his Ottawa CD Release Party, although his all-star band remains a mystery (Emm Gryner? Luke Doucet?).

DOWNLOAD
From 2006’s Valhalla
–>It’s Not The End Of The World (new single)

From 2004’s Loving The Alien
–>Ashes To Ashes (inspired by Bowie’s Space Oddity)

From 2003’s Tales From The Invisible Man
–>Perfect (dial613’s pick; and is that a dog?)
–>The Invisible Man (that is one dirty backbeat)

Danny Michel on:
the internet
new music canada
myspace

Just a quick report: links to download mp3s will actually work now. (right click the link, choose “save target as”)

dial613 was having some major issues with reliable file hosting, and so a lot of the mp3 files which had been posted (read: all of them) were likely useless. But no more!
e-mail dial613 if you notice any problems from this point on. Because you didn’t before. Jerk.