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In This Issue: kMNR Readers Help; Grows A Staff Recently, I asked you, my trusty readers, to help me out. To let me know what you think of the newsletter and offer suggestions, gripes, condolences and even a little praise. Although the response hasn't been overwhelming, I do thank those who took the time to drop me a line, even if it was to just say HELLO and ask if I was going to a particular upcoming show. I also asked for my readers to entice me to research bands and/or artists and again, although I have yet to be bombarded, some requests have trickled in and it has at least introduced me to two bands (of many) that I have neglected; The Corb Lund Band and The Postal Service. The former being the spawn of Alberta's well known yet unfortunately now defunct The Smalls; the latter being a band containing a sound that I certainly didn't expect, especially when it's been started by Jimmy Tamborello who enlisted the help of Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard. Look for news from on these bands in the future, and definitely check them out for yourselves. You may have also noticed recently that kMNR has received some research help from Andy Stewart (aka; SHOW)recently, which has been greatly appreciated. I encourage anyone to do the same, even if you suspect that I may already know about a story that caught your eye. I especially encourage the passing of information when it comes to local bands. Keep in mind that the locality if said bands is NOT restricted to Calgary, especially since I have readers in Toronto, Vancouver, Newfoundland and even as far away as Portugal. This week features the debut of a new writer to the kMNR staff, Nick Gouveia. You'll find two stories from "The Rookie" and hopefully more in the future. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! With all that said, I thank all of you for reading, and now, even writing! Enjoy the issue! Once Around With The Turrettes I've been speaking of Calgary's The Turrettes lately, and with good reason. The boys have emerged on the scene around town lately with a few shows, have just finished up recording their next album and have a number of shows lined up over the next month or so. Before we start to look forward with the band, let's take a look back at their history. The band today is made up of Sean and Kevin on guitars, Chad on bass, Linden pounding the drum kit in superior fashion and Ben leading the band with his often hilarious, yet difficult to understand lyrics. Sean and Chad were originally part of a band called Genghis Bong. Once that band dissolved, the group formed through a series of chance meetings that seem to revolved around Ben. Ben met Sean through his sister; Ben and Kevin work together and their original drummer was Ben's brother Dan. This all happened in 2002, and their first release "Sindroam" was released in 2004. For the first few months of the band's existence, they only played covers of mostly Pennywise, Rancid, NOFX, Bad Religion, the Dropkick Murphy's and SNFU. The band's self-proclaimed biggest show was opening for SNFU with a crowd in the high hundreds. The newest member of the group is Linden, who replaced Dan, who's shoes were almost filled by Tony Wilson of The Smalls. Linden was invited to a Turrettes show through a friend of Ben's and once introductions were made, the wheels were set in motion. Linden is pulling double duty, as he's currently the drummer for another Calgary punk band the Madcowboys. They've also been playing a number of shows around town in support of their recently released CD, "A Fistful of Dirty Dollars". In addition to drumming for two Calgary punk bands, Linden is also an accomplished skateboarder and is sponsored by Mission. I recently met with the boys after a rehearsal at their drummer's house and was delighted to hear two songs before they called it quits for the night. I was the first to hear (not including neighbors who may have heard it through the walls) their newest song titled "O.D. Debbie". The song was written that day and is a true about a girl the band knows who overdosed, yet survived. When asked if the name was changed to protect her identity, the group laughed and said no, but they didn't seem worried about her finding out. Before Ben wanted to call it quits on the session, I managed to encourage the band to play my instant favourite Turrettes song, "Stormin' Norman The Mormon Doorman". While sitting in Linden's living room, which sports an impressive display of Madcowboy gig posters, amongst posters of Sublime and my favourite, a poster of Johnny Cash flipping us the bird, we watched Family Guy as they told me all about the new album. The title will be "Each It And I". Read that a few times if you haven't gotten it yet. Kevin then informed me that if he had only one veto in the band, it would be to get rid of the new album cover which depicts a Rhino with an unusually large anus, relieving itself. In addition to the boys prepping the new album for release, they have a number of shows coming up including a unique duel with The Dabblers at the Flying Emu next Wednesday, March 23rd. Ben and Sean are also starting up Screamin' Demon Studios as early as this April. All the gear is being obtained from Sean's brother who used to work at The Beach studio. With all this going on, this band is certainly one that you should keep an eye on. The Cranston Foundation Kick Ass Honestly, I am ashamed to say that it took me this long to discover this local Calgary band. After having a chat with the boys of The Turrettes, I was invited to see The Cranston Foundation play a gig at The Gateway at SAIT and I was thoroughly impressed. The five piece band features Alex Black playing rhythm guitar while singing in unison with Rick Polson. Black handles the smooth melodies with Polson taking up the task of adding a bit of dub and hip-hop stylin' that works immaculately. Jeremy Dow lays down the bass while Amos Bradley handles the lead guitar work and they're all backed by their latest addition, drummer Nathan Giebelhaus. Put those five together, and you get a punk rock sound that has a distinct reggae feel. In fact, the reggae is so prominent in some songs that to look at Black, you'd be pleasantly surprised to hear the vocals. Indeed, this band can rock and groove all at the same time, which makes for a great crowd pleasing formula. The band cruised through an impressively long set that just kept on going. In fact, when they finally wrapped things up, the crown begged for more and the boys had to dig deep into their past repertoire to stretch out the show as long as the audience wanted it to. When they ran out of material to play, it still wasn't enough for those in attendance. That's how captivating this band was. I am at a loss for words to appropriately describe how good The Cranston Foundation are, but there is definitely one way to alleviate that; hear them for yourself. Sadly, the only up-coming show for the band is next Friday, March 25th in Fernie, BC, although the trip would definitely be worth it. The band's web-site states that they are working on a new album which should be available next month, but if you can't wait for the new material, head on over to said web-site to hear some clips. In fact, you can purchase "Sub Urban" and their untitled 7 song CD for exceptionally low prices (less than $10 for both) by download. www.cranstonfoundation.com By: Nick Gouveia They say, “Good things come to those who wait.” Well, Chixdiggit fans certainly hope so. Going on twelve years together, these Calgary punk superheroes are coming back with a brand new album due April 19th titled “Pink Razors”. On top of everything else the album is being released by Fat Wreck Chords. Why is this so big? Well how bout the fact FWC is the punk label in the known universe. With acts such as Face To Face, NOFX and No Use For A Name, not a bad thing to see the boys from Calgary get a label that know exactly what punk music is and where it should be going. But don’t think getting hooked up with a sweet label like FWC changed these boys. The new album is being recorded entirely in Calgary and produced by long time friend Russ Broom. Chixdiggit will be heading out east for three dates including April 28th at the Reverb in Toronto with SNFU. They’ll also visit Ottawa and Montreal before hitting Europe to play the rest of May. Do yourself a huge favor and visit the band's web site right this very moment. The site is super kewl and the band will throw you just about all the info you could ever want on one of Canada’s most underrated acts. www.chixdiggit.com By: Nick Gouveia So I’m surfing the net, doing the rounds, slammin’ a Red Bull and as usual I slide on over to my favorite bands web site to find a letter posted by Dave Grohl himself outlining the new album. So I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, then I looked in the mirror to make sure I wasn’t high. Verdict: The letter was indeed legit. Almost exactly ten years from when the Foo’s released their self titled debut album, the band comes full circle and releases an album for the fans and only for the fans. Rightfully titled “In Your Honor” the Foo’s will release the double album sometime in June. One side all rock to blow your head off, the other side all acoustic, so you get a melo vibe while trying to reattach your head to your body. So what should Foo fans expect, well in Dave’s words, “It will surprise you. It surprises me. Almost a year in the making, from 5 hours of bedroom demos, to warehouses being built from the ground up, to months of rehearsals, to the construction of an 8,000 square foot classic recording studio, to the recording of 40 songs, to the final track list of 20 songs, it is by far the most ambitious project I have ever had anything to do with in my entire life.” In a time of Pink Punk and Cookie Cutter Pop acts the Foo’s have stayed true to bringing their fans the goods each and every time. And this album is certainly paying homage to their fans that only seem to love them more each album. As for possible tour news, no confirmed dates have been set yet but as per Dave “I have a calendar in front of me that is a year long, fucking packed with tours that will spin us around the globe over and over and over again. It makes me dizzy just looking at it. I can't fucking wait.” Well Dave, neither can we! www.foofighters.com Sign #511 The Apocalypse Is Upon Us It's not so much that Fred Durst is suing ten web-sites. It's more the fact that there's a three-minute sex tape of him circulating the internet and people are apparently buying it. Oh yeah, he's also still working on another Limp Bizkit album, which to some could also be apocalyptic. http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000834731 Why Is The Monarchy Still Relevant? So, the Queen of England met guitarists Brian May, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck recently at a party honoring the British music industry and asked them: "And what do you do?" Now, this shouldn't really be surprising. She's the Queen, not the chief editor of Rolling Stone magazine. Oh, and she's old. Not that all old people are out of touch with music, but seriously. Clapton put it perfect and appropriately: "It's great to meet her and it doesn't matter at all that she did not know who we are or what we do. I wouldn't expect her to." http://www.cnn.com//2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/02/people.ericclapton.ap/index.html New Oasis Album Details Finally Available Keeping with the British theme, Oasis have finally announced when the new album will be out, what it's called and even the full track listing. "Don't Believe The Truth" is set to hit store shelves on May 30th with the first single, "Lyla" to be release on May 16th. Noel Gallagher describes the first single as "the Soundtrack Of Our Lives doing The Who on Skol in a psychedelic city in the sky (or something!)." Since no one but Noel himself can speak to that, let's just give you the tracklisting: "Turn Up The Sun" http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/03/1601.cfm The Mars Volta Announce North American Tour Dates It's been just a short time since The Mars Volta release "Frances The Mute" and we are finally beginning to see the North American tour in support of the record materialize. Although most shows are in the US, and more are expected to be announced, there are two Canadian dates so far. The tour starts on April 22nd in La Jolla, CA, which leads up to a May 12th date in Montreal and a May 13th date in Toronto. The band's web site sports a cool flash intro announcing the tour dates and plays a clip from the lead track of the album. If you haven't yet picked up this release, I recommend you do, if not simply for it's strange genius but at least for it's low price of only $9.99 (and I've received reports that it's cheaper at some outlets!) www.themarsvolta.com Warped Tour Announces 2005 Stops The long awaited list of tour dates for this year's Vans Warped Tour have been announced with confirmed line-ups and all. Oh, wait...you can also pre-order tickets too! The tour starts on June 18th in Columbus, OH and wraps up on August 15th in Northhampton, MA. Canadian stops include Vancouver on July 12th, Calgary on July 14th, Quebec City on July 28th, Montreal on July 29th, and Barrie, ON on July 30th. This year's installment of the Warped Tour features The Offspring, Billy Talent, The Transplants, Millencolin, Dropkick Murphys, MxPx, Motion City Soundtrack, My Chemical Romance, Thrice, Avenged Sevenfold, Strung Out, No Use For A Name, The Matches, Dillenger Escape Plan and a host of others. Sadly, not every band will hit every stop, so check out the site to see the current, confirmed line-up for your show of choice. For this particular fan, two bands not appearing at the Calgary show are Millencolin and Motion City Soundtrack, but you will see Toronto band Protest The Hero on the Lyman Says stage. You may recognize that band from an article I wrote about them last summer. For all the details, visit the web site below. www.warpedtour.com Next week has a host of significant releases. First and foremost, hitting store shelves on March 22nd is the fourth full length release from Queens of the Stone Age titled "Lullabies To Paralyze". This latest release is the first QOTSA album without bassist Nick Oliveri after he and long-time friend and collaborator Josh Homme parted ways (some would say Homme kicked Oliveri out of the band, but I digress.) Although recent stories point to the two mending fences, Oliveri did say that the new album was good, but was hoping for something a bit more guitar heavy. He also offered to come back. Also arriving next week are new albums from Moby's "Hotel"; a self-titled release from Lifehouse, the first new Billy Idol in quite some time called "Devil's Playground"; a boxed set from Ozzy Osbourne aptly name "Prince of Darkness"; "Language. Sex. Violence. Other?" from Stereophonics and more. As always, here is Chart Magazine's reviews of this weeks releases. Check out what they have to say about new material from The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Daft Punk, Greg Keelor, John Butler Trio and more: http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/03/1501.cfm Calgary
~~ kMNR v2005.058 ~~ If you would like to hear about or if you have any information on a particular band or artist, please email and I will do my best to cover them. |
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