Local Feature: Atomis, Illuminated Minerva, Jung People, TRUCK!!!!

Illustration by Nathan Navetto

Whu...huh...wait, it's WHAT year, you say?

So I went to sleep back around August 2010 and suddenly woke up hooked up to a bunch of monitoring machines and it's July 2011 and I have no idea where the middle time went. O_o

In between the inevitable nausea that deep chemical hibernation seems to cause (I'll be ok...gimme a minute), I have been brought out of stasis for a particular reason. Or so this random dossier that's been slid under the door of the observation cell tells me. Allow me to read it out to you: *clears throat*

"Calgary has an absolutely kicking ambient post-rock/metal scene happening right now. We're not quite sure why all these amazing bands are happening at the same time; it might be something in the tap water, but we're not complaining. Spread the word, or face erasure. Also, don't eat the jelly beans."

*eyes the enormous jar of jelly beans that are inexplicably sitting in the corner of the room, unnoticed until now with suspicion*
                                                                                               
(...and scene.)

The above delusion is actually a long and elaborate metaphor for where the inside of my head was like when I first heard Atomis and TRUCK!!!! destroy the Marquee Room. Part of me had decided that maybe I'm just not cut out to actually maintain a written blog since I seem to be so bad at doing it with any measure of consistency. Or lack of fangirling. Most of me had reconciled with the idea that I should just let this place die gracefully (read: in abject abandonment) and have done with it.

And as soon as I heard those two bands, I knew it was impossible. I felt like I had to write about them; like I had no choice BUT to write about them; like I'd be the worst person to exist, ever (minus the guy that invented syphilis and Stephen Harper combined) if I didn't drag this thing back from the un-dead and write about them. Because when you get down to it, it's not about indie posturing or the free stuff or the money or power or the crushing of your enemies or the lamentations of their women (because, frankly, you get none of those things by running a music blog for free). It's about having somewhere to shout from rooftops when you actually FIND amazing music that makes you lose your shite and thrash around like an epileptic cat when you see them live.


Atomis
Formed from the wreckage of Calgary groups Somastate and Pure City, Atomis (pronounced ATOM-iss) sound like the love-child of Tool, Cult of Luna, and Explosions in the Sky by way of Sigur Ros. Which by thunder I wouldn't want to picture in physical terms, but sounds like angels having sex with your eardrums. Add in the amazing visuals/lights produced by insanely talented drummer Nathan Navetto and you've got one of the most mind-meltingly great bands this city has ever had to offer.

These guys are currently trying to get a grant from the Alberta gov in order to record things properly; I want it to happen so much I pray to the Elder Gods every night.
http://atomis.bandcamp.com/


Illuminated Minerva
I could ramble on and on about what this band sounds like, crafting careful and clever analogies, and never get close to the simple brilliance of this description by the band themselves: "Listening to Illuminated Minerva is like riding a Metal spaceship through Outer Space." By turns punishingly intense and unbelievably gorgeous and melodic, they claim inspiration from classic prog sources like Dream Theater, Mastodon, Gojira, and Deftones, yet where another band might have taken all the worst elements possible in that combination (too-long songs, elitist elitism, prog vocals in general), they seem to have come to that logical conclusion that I reached years ago about most prog bands, being that the overwrought vocals were actually getting in the way. This makes them +10 awesome. They're currently in the studio laying down some tracks, so soon I won't be the crazy lady talking about a band that may-or-may-not exist as far as you guys are concerned.

It's also a well-known fact that their time signatures are more insane than Animal Collective's, so you can try clapping along but good f**king luck to you.
http://www.myspace.com/illuminatedminerva


Jung People
The only duo in this feature, Giordano Bassi and Bryan Buss have been playing together in some form or another since time immemorial, but are relatively new as a post-rock/indie/progressive outfit. Don't let that fool you into thinking that there's anything remotely amateur about their sound or capabilities as musicians. Inspired by everything from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think, and Patrick Watson to Wild Nothing, Blonde Redhead, and The Mars Volta, this could sound like a bunch of kids fighting over the iPod but instead comes off as cohesive, lovely, and interesting, thank god. It's clear that these guys are willing to take their music anywhere and everywhere their fancy leads, all while crafting gorgeous, acoustic sonic gems.
Jung People on FBM


TRUCK!!!!
An unbelievably technical and impressive three-piece outfit, TRUCK!! is difficult to find via google or the internet in general given the easy ambiguity that accompanies being named after one of the most common things on Earth (alas, the extra exclamations marks don't really register as search terms). However, anyone that takes the trouble to find them is in for an ear-full of awesome. Even better, they've got an amazing sense of humour (all too lacking in today's "srsbusiness you guys" music environment). In their own words, they sound like: "Chaos and Atmosphere fighting over Elton John's sandwich."

Lastly, any band that gives away their incredible first EP for free online when I would gladly pay for it is instant love.
http://www.truckband.net/

Illustration for "Maelstrom" by Mariella Villalobos

~M

[Live] Sled Island Kickoff: No Age + guests

So, much like everything in life, personal music politics (yes, even those! Wait, it might just be me that has those, but anyways, I digress) are subject to slight hypocrisy every now and again.

"What does this have to do with No Age?" you might wonder.

See also: "What's this I hear about you guys doing endorsement deals?"

See also: "Is this going to be another long anti-Pitchfork rant? Because then I'm leaving."

The answer to all those points, and more, lies beyond this magical gateway of wonder you see just to your left. The one edged with delicious feedback and vocal layers and sprinkled with a touch of avant-noise dust. No...you missed it. Your other left. A bit more...closer...too far! THERE!

Once the distracting faeries and candy-coloured fog has cleared (magical gateways always seem to have this, though at least this one has no annoying rhyming jingle accompaniment), you see a crowded, dimly-lit rock pub with a small stage set across from the booths. There is a sign reading "No Beatniks" above the bar. You might recognize this place...after all, you've been here before, if only in that Sunset Rubdown live review that WHYH did way back.

The place is Broken City; the DJ sucks, except when someone temporarily distracted him from his 70's/80's songs long enough to throw on Mudhoney's "Suck You Dry" for an all-too-brief reprieve from generic radio rock (this probably didn't happen, but I rather like the idea of some mysterious caped crusader sweeping in to knock out the guy that thinks that the crowd at a No Age show are quite obviously fans of Heart-ripoff bands >.>).

You are there, very much because of the force in indie music who you have sworn to revile and loathe for all eternity (especially after that shameful and pathetically shallow-minded review of the new Wolf Parade album...more on that later >.>).

Yes, I owe Pitchfork for my own personal discovery of No Age; I'll give credit where credit is due. This is where the hypocrisy comes in: though I think their outlook towards music, their elitist posturing, and the crippling nature of said outlook on the state of indie music today is somewhat as ridiculous as the gargantuan influence of dinosaur Rolling Stone was back in the day, I generally don't disagree with them when they say something is pretty good. The exception to this is when they gave Justin Timberlake's Futuresex album an 8+ score, whereupon I decided that the blog's fancy touring budget was obviously funded by nefarious means. Apparently, they do endorsement deals too (once again, more on that later >.>).

Anyways, this is ruining the mood, so ignore it as a long, Shakespearean Aside.

The opening acts are perfect warm-ups; excellent local band The Dirty Dirty North (ex. Pants Situation, with the same hooks, more percussion, and more moxie) bring the rock like only they know how, getting the crowd energized and pumped, while Toronto-based progressive no-wavers dd/mm/yyyy (pronounced Day Month Year) clearly remind everyone that anyone expecting traditional verse/chorus/verse song structures devoid of layered effects had better go home. The pummeling of soundscapes immersing an at-capacity bar in sonic texture until you feel it like a solid presence in the air around you is also a good lead-in to the sensory attack of No Age.

Between the arresting energy and passion of the two men onstage, the fever-dream of montage images projected over the scene with lo-fi pixelation and fragmentation, and the kick-to-the-chest of tightly interwoven effects, feedback, vocals, thrashing guitar, percussion, and sheer volume , one doesn't know where to focus, where to look, or listen...it's let go and be taken over by the experience, or perish trying to fight it.

And truthfully, it's a hell of a lot more fun to give in and, to borrow drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt's expression, "lose your shit".

An hour and a half later, partially deaf, disheveled, and feeling almost as if you've been hit with a wave of sound before nearly drowning in it, you leave the tiny bar, a big stupid grin slapped across your face. There's no way you could regret it.

And this is only day one of a four-day multivenue sprawling festival curated by none other than Pavement's Scott Kannberg (i.e. Spiral Stairs) featuring some of the brightest local and not-so-local talents around (Chad Vangaalen to Mother Mother to Wire to Mogwai).

I can safely say I've never been quite so happy that I live in Calgary.


~Ju

P.S: the endorsement deals aren't true. Not a word. Well...unless you count being offered a free Zune in order to market-test the thing. However, in my defense, I state that any and all opinion stated on here in relation to the product will be completely honest. I'm quite neutral when it comes to mp3 players, being a vinyl-junkie and all. XD

Dirty Dirty North
http://myspace.com/thedirtydirtynorth

dd/mm/yyyy
http://myspace.com/ddmmyyyy

No Age
http://www.myspace.com/nonoage