Roxanne Tellier: Bits and Pieces

I’m In lunch bag let-down mode. Had too much fun in May, what with all the activities and gigs, and June has so far been one of the worst clunkers of the year, weather wise. I even apparently missed the biggest (ooh!) sports news this week when LeBron James accidentally flashed 18.5 million viewers during the NBA Finals.

(Paging Janet … Miss Jacksonif you’re nasty. LeBron’s gonna need some wardrobe malfunction tips.)

I learned how to bring a banana back from the dead, which is either incredible science or the dawn of the banana Zombie apocalypse.

Pope Francis is about to unleash an Encyclical calling for an end to the ‘tyrannical’ exploitation of nature by mankind. He’s also not too happy about social inequality, saying, ““Much of the world remains in poverty, despite abundant resources, while a privileged global elite controls the bulk of the world’s wealth and consumes the bulk of its resources.”

I sure hope the Pope has a food tester on staff. He’s gonna be needing those Swiss Guardsafter  Thursday. According to this video, he’s also in serious pre-bout training, with a pretty heavenly coach.

I completely forgot that Cam Carpenter had tipped Pat Blythe and I last month to the Analogue Gallery’s presentation, “Women in Rock,” until I read Sook Yin Lee’s comments in the June 5^th edition of Filler Magazine.

The exhibit featured candid and posed photos of such luminaries as Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Amy Winehouse, Marianne Faithful, Blondie and more. Sadly, today is the last day of the showing, but you can always count on seeing – and buying, if you’re so inclined – fabulous photos at the Queen West studio.

Xprime’s Phil Taylor tipped his Facebook friends to this little video gem. I had never heard of the group, but … in for a penny, in for a pound.

Ivory Hours, an alt-pop band from London, Ontario, has a new video, ‘WarPaint.’  Visually, the video owes big props to Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know.” The song itself is a catchy tune that questions how and why we deal with passive aggressionin ourselves and those we love.

You can catch Ivory Hours at Sneaky Dees on Friday, June 19, as part of NXNE, or on June 27, at the band’s London Music Hall album release party.

One of the bands I’d hoped to hear during Canadian Music Week (CMW) was Busty and the Bass. I’d heard good things about their electro-funk/soul music, so I did manage to look them up on the ‘net. This nine piece group of McGill University music students won the “Rock Your Campus” competition in 2014, taking home a $10,000 cash prize.They also opened for the Arkells in a sold-out performance in Montreal.

The spirit of Montreal lives in their look and sound. There’s an EDM undercurrent that is undeniably contagious, and a sense of style, of comfort in simply being within their own skin, no matter how that appears to anyone else. I miss Montreal.

Download their album “Bustified” here. To whet your taste buds for their upcoming EP “GLAM”, catch them live at the Garrison on Friday June 19.

Same night, same place, you can see hip hop fushionistsTiny Danza. (hold me closer, Tiny Danza!) Busty tastes like Montreal; Tiny feels like sandpaper smoothing down the grit of Toronto to reveal the heart beneath. Love the pop overlay on a soulful groove in this lyric video.

Toronto siblings Trevor, Jaclyn and Allie Blumas  areDoomsquad, a synth-pop, psychedelic , digital ambiance, world band. Fresh off a European tour, they’ll be at Lee’s Palace this Wednesday and at the Garrison on Saturday at 2:00 a.m.  The video’s swirly, out of focus imagery nicely jibes with the trio’s sound.

Another Toronto band I missed during CMW (hey – there were 1000 bands! I’m only one small French girl!) is pop throwback Allvays. This is beach music, a radio friendly indie sound with a little girl lost vocal surfing over top of the requisite trash can sounding drums.

They’ve been everywhere lately. Mayor John Tory caught the band at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin,Texas, and tweeted that lead singer Molly Rankin “does us proud” and that the band is “great Toronto talent.”

For more Alvvay, they’ll be at the Way Home Festival in Oro-Medonte, Ont. July 24 – 26, and at Montreal’s Osheaga Music Festival July 31 – Aug. 2.

Another summery, beachykinda sound is coming from siblings Jay and Stefanie McCarrol of Brave Shores. The Toronto-based indie electro-pop groupformed in 2013 and scored big right off the top with a made-for-TV single “Never Come Down.” With a sound that fuses Daft Punkand the Go Go’s, they’ve have taken independent radio and YouTube by storm.

Brave Shores were part of The Silver Dollar Room’s “Class of 2015” Best Indie Bands showcase in January, and yes, at CMW, which I also missed. But you can catch them on July 25 when they play at Barrie’s Way Home Music Festival.

Something about the buzz and marketing on Leon Bridges just rubs me the wrong way. I missed him at CWM as well, though he was someone I’ve heard a lot about recently. The 25 year old Texan appeared out of the blue last year, and was immediately hailed as “the new Sam Cooke.”

NPR is all over this guy. I don’t get it. For me, the kid’s not ready. The writing is juvenile. The singing has nothing of the velvety smoothness or effortless pop delivery of Sam Cooke. The video is like a rose coloured reminiscence of American Bandstand’s ‘soul’ performances. But he’s no Sam Cooke.

http://www.npr.org/2015/06/13/413660949/bridging-the-decades-leon-bridges-soulful-coming-home

You can keep Leon Bridges, I’m back burnering him until he’s got more to say. For now, I’ll stick with bands like Vintage Trouble, who’re already kicking butt and taking names.

Or I’ll re-visit the delectable musicianship of Dirty Loops. This video filmed at NAMM earlier this year highlights Henrik Linder’s bass.

Not content with missing over 900 bands at CMW last month, I’m now gonna be missing another umpteen bands at NXNE, which runs from June 17-21, although I may head down to catch some of the free shows at Dundas Square. Pat Blythe will be the designated driver on your trip through the NXNE madness.

Me? I’m sitting this one out …

See you next Sunday!

=RT=

Roxanne’s column appears here every Sunday 

Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com

Roxanne Tellier has been singing since she was 10 months old … no, really. Not like she’s telling anyone else how to live their lives, because she’s not judgmental, and most 10 month olds need a little more time to figure out how to hold a microphone. She has also been a vocalist with many acts, including Tangents, Lady, Performer, Mambo Jimi, and Delta Tango. In 2013 she co-hosted Bob Segarini’s podcast, The Bobcast, and, along with Bobert, will continue to seek out and destroy the people who cancelled ‘Bunheads’.