perfume: two ways

I've been wearing my beloved Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf ever since its inception. I'd deviate every now and again to try something new, but always came back to Flowerbomb.  The chemistry of me and this perfume has invoked so many reactions, many of familiarity (how it's become "my smell") and several people have nuzzled their faces into my neck emitting a variety of exclamations.  But somehow I feel like my relationship with Flowerbomb should come to an end or at least take a pause.
Back in 2006, while in Paris, my mom offered to buy me my first bottle, which attracted me because I thought the design was cool. I kid you not, that's how calculated my perfume decisions were: "I like Viktor & Rolf" + good bottle design = winning combination.  I knew nothing about perfume, I tried some here and there but I was far from making an educated choice on what would work on me.  But hey! My math worked! And I have been wearing it since.  For many christmases my Flowerbomb stash would be replenished by my mother who thought it would be an easy and practical gift for her not-easy-to shop-for-daughter. Last christmas was my first one without my mother and my signature scent was dwindling.  I took it as a sign.  Time to move on.

I am taking the very calculated route this time.  No abstract math.  Just test drives.
Clockwise from top left:
-Maison Martin Margiela's Replica, Promenade in the Garden
-Maison Martin Margiela's Replica, Lazy Sunday Morning
-Byredo, Bal D'Afrique
-Byredo, Gypsy Water
-Heeley Parfum, Iris de Nuit
-Atelier Cologne, Silver Iris

I've been feeling a bit multiple personality since starting the tests.  Hopefully I'll be able to strike perfume gold twice.

Speaking of twice here's the sonic version of perfume:

(a phone photo of Alan Wyffels and Mike Hadreas)

Last weekend I attended the Basilica Hudson's Basilica SoundScape, an "antifestival" of music and art and awesomeness in the Hudson Valley.  From improv jazz drumming, performance art, noise bands, and droning electronic music, the night I spent at the Basilica had filled up my senses and The Haxan Cloak's subwoofers rearranged my insides.  (Peep this great roundup article for more.) A more low-key moment in the evening introduced me to Perfume Genius who managed to seduce the audience into a dreamy eyed state. The set included a version of this charming piano duet, which has been looping in my playlist since I got home. Enjoy.

Last look: an enlightened telephone booth buddha at Basilica Hudson.

Live Through This

Live Through This by Anwen Crawford is one of the latest explorations from the awesome pocket-sized series of books 33 1/3 that focus on seminal albums of music history.  As a Hole fan during the albums era, this book was an insightful revisit to the past.  Crawford explores the themes of motherhood, pageantry, vulnerability, feminism-and what it means to be a woman in the male dominated rock n' roll arena.  The rumours of Kurt writing Courtney's music are put to rest by interviews with the album's producers.  While my CD copy of Live Through This is long gone, the memories of the album, its b-sides and bootlegged rare tracks all came flowing back to me.  Did I mention I LOVED reading this book?

My orchid dies a second time.

Tanya Tagaq - Animism

Many moons ago I was introduced to the person and the music of Tanya Tagaq, an artist who created her own solo form of Inuit throat singing which is traditionally performed by two women.  It was a fall evening and Tanya stepped onto the stage, barefoot and very pregnant surrounded by two musicians, violinist Jesse Zubot and percussionist Jean Martin.  Tanya spoke softly welcoming the audience to the continuous set, as if to prepare us for what was to come.

I had been told that a show of Tanya Tagaq was "intense" and I am admittedly pretty sensitive, but from that spoken introduction came a spectrum of sounds that hit me straight in the chest and rearranged my insides.  Almost as soon as the music and vocals reached me, involuntary bio/physiological reactions were taking place, I was instantly tearing up and trying to visualize rainbows and puppies to calm down.
Whew.... that...was...raw.
Did I mention intense?

photo: Jenn McInnis

Tagaq's Animism recently won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize and the tour will touch down in Montreal a sold-out show in Montreal at the Centre Phi tomorrow night.  I had a chance to exchange some words with violinist Jesse Zubot about Polaris aftermath and what we can expect at tomorrow's show.

Have you felt a change in the response to the band since winning the Polaris Prize?

Yes, a change in response to the shows with Tanya has definitely happened since the Polaris Prize scenario...all of a sudden Tanya can barely open her mouth without all the press in Canada freaking out.  Also, every show we've done in Canada since has been sold out and we are even having a hard time getting our close friends into some of the shows!!  It seems like people are now listening to the music on a higher, more concentrated level to everything that goes down, so we have to be in top form!

You mentioned in an earlier correspondence that you were going to do a hardcore show.  Were you being serious?! What can Montreal expect at the Centre Phi show?

Hardcore show!!  Well, that just means a 'no holds barred' full-on smash-in-the-face vibes...There will be some moments of serenity and calmness, but in general the show will probably be very emotional, aggressive and hopefully transcending in some way.  We usually play about 70 minutes with no stopping to create trance-like vibes.

Thanks to Jesse Zubot for the warning.  I'll be the one in the corner crying with kleenex.

the knife

The Knife has landed.
A crew of humanoid aliens from the future came to demonstrate Shaking the Habitual from the bridge of their spaceship and lucky for us, we were able to bear witness to the event.

The queer-tastic brigade warmed up the crowd with some DEEP aerobics- that's Death/Electro/Emo/Protest aerobics for you, stirring up participation from the crowd. The Absurdist Aerobics class [was] taught by a master-teacher-guru-shaman-dictator-aerobics instructor- new age workshop leader, Tarek Halaby (1) who introduced himself as being queer, Palestinian, American and "I like to get shit done."  After a couple of movement warmups, Halaby had the crowd warm up their vocals chanting "yes!Yes!Yes!" and "no! No! No!"- only to remind us that life wasn't so absolute all the time and we practiced chanting "maybe! Maybe! Maybe!"

When The Knife took to the stage their bridge was revealed, complete with customized maracas of irregular polyhedra forms, as well as a stringed tabletop instrument where some bowing and percussion action took place.  Although The Knife in studio is composed of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, for this outing a group of eleven crew members interchanged places, roles and aerobicized dance moves to lead the audience through a twelve song set.  Most of which was less about flexing musical muscles (although there was plenty to love) and more about concepts and performance art that featured plenty of pre-recordings and choreography.

This recalled to mind an early 00's show of Fischerspooner's tour for their album #1.  With their art school roots, the show highlighted the tropes and stereotypes of fame and entertainment with a tongue firmly planted in cheek.  One moment had vocalist Casey Spooner in the balcony on a small rotating platform singing into his microphone.  He paused to take a swig of beer as the vocals kept going deliberately unveiling the lipsync and the artifice of the pop machine.

Now The Knife, Fischerspooner and many others in the pop realm ain't no Marina Abramovic, nor should it be seen as an attempt to create a "fine art" piece, but the allegiance lies in performance art, using their medium to deliver a message and even a smidgen of that self-awareness injected into the popular culture minefield is very welcome by me.

The 8-Day Week of Renata Morales

One of my most favourite places on earth, the Centre Phi (and the DHC of course) announced that they will be having a series of guest-curated events by some of Montreal's creatives.  The list included filmmaker Xavier Dolan, designer Rad Hourani and Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi.  First up to bat was designer and all around visually inclined phenomena, Renata Morales who flexed her creative muscles showcasing a pop-up shop, projections, seven nights of partying and a treasure hunt for limited edition posters. 

 getting up close to Renata's work

the pop-up shop featured designers like Arielle de Pinto, Denis Gagnon, and Complex Geometries
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Inside Morales' head: a tinky-winky greets visitors
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Alex Hercule's bear and Joe Becker paintings

foxtrott takes the stage during the closing night

karneef and a ghostly morales clad projection

Corona Theatre

Oh Corona! It's been a while since I set foot in your ancient walls. More precisely, it's been since 2005 when I last saw a live show here and had the pleasure of doing the Time Warp on stage.  While old movie theatres in Montreal are going the way of the dinosaur, it's great to see some venues are still being cared for.

Some images within the space:

Valtari Mystery Film Experiment

Ok, let's get meta for the end of the year.
That was my tweet on the 9th of December for the Sigur Rós Valtari mystery film experiment screening.  During that weekend of December 7-9, more than a hundred screenings of the project were taking place on all seven continents.  The screening for Montreal was at the more than awesome Phi Centre, where guests viewed 16 shorts inspired by the tracks on the band's latest album Valtari.

And the result? Let's discuss!
The premise was to give the filmmakers creative freedom.  Neither the band nor the filmmakers knew the content of anyone else projects. Knowing this, it is interesting to observe overall themes and imagery that came out of the shorts.

The album Valtari consists of 8 tracks, some of which were used as the sole guide to the video or two or three songs were compiled to create a longer piece.  The most dominant track was "varúð", which was featured in five of the videos.  Overall feel/conjured imagery: atmospheric is a given, moody, end of the world as we know it/economic collapse aesthetic.
Examples:

film #15: varúð by björn flóki

 film #16: leaning towards solace by floria sigismondi

 film #14: valtari by christian larson

Another dominant theme was nature (surprise!)  The sweeping sounds of Sigur Rós dares you not to conjure images of (Icelandic?) landscapes full of dollies and pans of forests and celestial montages.
Examples:

film #8: dauðalogn by henry jun wah lee

film #11: dauðalogn by ruslan fedotow

film #10: ekki múkk by nick abrahams

The films varied in themes, styles and production values.  The music lends itself easily to dance/performance and is represented by 5-6 shorts in the series (depending on your personal interpretation.)

Two dance/performance pieces from top: film #7: varðeldur by melika bass and film #13: varðeldur by clare langan

But things start getting tricky when a narrative is applied; such as leaning towards solace by Floria Sigismondi.  Being a fan of her work since the nineties, I was surprised at the heavy handed voice-over and certain clichéd imagery.  The video featured Elle Fanning and John Hawkes; two actors whose faces and expressions I could stare at for hours, but with the already emotional Sigur Rós track, the extra maudlin touches lacked subtlety that could have taken the clip to the next level.

Floria was not alone in the heavy narrative catagory, but somehow film #9: seraph by Dash Shaw and John Cameron Mitchell fared a bit better.  Maybe because it was an animation.  You be the judge.

But enough with being critical- let's talk about coincidences!  As mentioned earlier, there was no conferring between the directors or the band.

The carving/drawing with glass and making eyes.

Seen in film #3 fjögur píanó by alma har'el and film #9, mentioned above.

Removing peeling paint from walls
seen from top: film #15: varúð by björn flóki and film #14: valtari by christian larson

 

People crying (even in the same aspect ratio!)
from top: film #4: rembihnútur by arni & kinski and film #3: fjögur píanó by alma har'el and yes that is Shia Leboeuf getting all performance art on us.

There is also blonde haired girls with gemstones glued to the corner of thier eyes, plenty of animals, New York City, and snowfall/rainfall. But please feel free to treasure hunt for those yourselves!

I'll take this moment to mention one of my personal faves, a short that features a body covered in what looks like gooey marshmallow, shot in negative?

 film #12: fjögur píanó by anafelle liu, dio lau and ken ngan

That's it for me! Wishing you lots of food, art, film and fashion awesomeness in the new year!
Amusez-vous!

FOXTROTT shields ep

It was one of those satisfying nights where you decide to check out some art/music/dance etc. with no expectations and let the night unfold.  One recent night led me to Notre Dame des Quilles, a bar equipped with two mini-bowling alleys, to take in the sounds of FOXTROTT.

Walking in with not even a vague idea of what I was going to hear, the night began with a listening of the Shields EP to the packed bar.  With the opening electronic strains, beats and vaguely reminiscent of Tori Amos vocals, I was instantly hooked and floored at the same time.

 

After listening to the EP's three songs, FOXTROTT took to the alleys and gave us a stripped down acoustic rendition of the album.  Minimal percussion, a keyboard and two french horns interpreted the songs we had just heard in a new, amazing and re-imagined light.  I was TOTALLY STOKED.  And one bonus song later, it was over, as quickly as it had begun. 

Totally satisfying. I would like some more please.

Friday Night Hootenanny

This is what February is looking like in Montreal.
I was really pleased with the last few weeks of snowlessness (I.LOVE.WINTER- not really.) Alas, my ideal winter couldn't last that long...
But onward we go! It is Friday night after all!

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word Hootenanny as "a gathering at which folksingers entertain often with the audience joining in." Therefore the last Friday of every month at MainLine Theatre, is a gathering of musical folk and bluegrass-ness at the appropriately named Friday Night Hootenanny.

Above are images from last month's Hootenanny. To your left is the lovely Sarah Jane Scouten and to your right is Brad and Mike (ex-Holy Moly/Lake of Stew), and an audience member on her knees holding up lyrics to the very funny vocalist whose name escapes me at the moment.

See how much fun you can have? You can be the one holding up the lyrics spontaneously! This all goes down at 22h30 tonight!

But before then I will be checking out INNI at Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québecois for some moving images.  Aaaand then maybe after that check out an art exhibit at the Fresh Paint Gallery....
While it snows....

Agyness Deyn and Birds of Prey

I recently saw the short film Here, promoting Starwood's The Luxury Collection of hotels.  The film was directed by Luca Guadagnino (who did I Am Love (2009), a heartbreakingly beeeeyoutiful film!!) and conceptualized by Waris Ahluwalia (what does this guy not do?) and (swooon) Tilda Swinton.

The film features Agyness Deyn on a luxurious treasure hunt of sorts to various hotels around the US.  Beyond noting the amazing wardrobe, locations (etc.) of the film, I remarked a moment when Agyness receives a message from an eagle (or falcon? A hawk?) Take a look below.

Notice the name of this post is "Birds of Prey"?  Where is the other bird you might be wondering?  As I am sometimes a little slow with being on top of music, I had only seen the (awesomely styled) clip for Woodkid's Iron (see footnote below!) just recently, and lo and behold what do I see? Why it's Agyness again! This time with a an owl of prey!

But the birdie link doesn't stop there.
Woodkid's Iron was also used as the soundtrack in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Revelations E3 trailer, and what do we see in the trailer?

What?! It's too good to be true! Ummm, yeah it is....
Actually this bird comes from another version of the trailer, the one sans Woodkid.
Close enough right?
..
..
..
FOOTNOTE BABY!
I have to add that the Woodkid Iron video recalled to mind another clip, very different in content but strangely familiar.  I refer to Jay-Z's On to the Next One directed by Sam Brown.  I have lots of love to share about this clip, with its nod to hip-hop symbols, art references and a fischerspooner-ish warrior chick.  Take a peek at both clips and judge for yourself.
...and there is a bird!

Weekend of Guitars

I can pinpoint the moment when I decided folk music (and its related genres) wasn't all that bad.

It was in 2007, I was driving up with a group of friends from Kentucky back to Montreal.
Their ipod was uniquely filled with soft melodies, minor keys, acoustic guitars, and melancholic lyrics.  While I have always been a fan of the list above, somehow the combination always failed to enlighten me.  Or maybe grunge of the 90s and electronic music of my raver era had too strong of a hold on me.  But there came a point when I admitted "yknow maybe Manu Le Malin might be a bit much."

Henceforth the ipod revealed to me the soothing sounds of Great Lake Swimmers and the opening track "Moving Pictures, Silent Films," me being a film nerd, I was sold!

Fast forward to this past weekend where I enjoyed many local sounds from the softer side of the music spectrum.

The hipstamatik picture above was taken at a loft space on Beaumont where we were treated to many musical talents.  One band being No Family, who affirmed that yes, I do love the banjo.  I did not take any images of them, but I found a good clip from a show at Sala Rosa.

The man we came to hear was Beaver, a man about town, a staple of Montreal-ness.  My companions to the show shared their stories of Beaver, the kareoke nights and the old cock n'bull.  I greeted Beaver at the door with a high-five, uncertain if he would remember me from a mutual friend's mother's birthday party. 

And then he played. It was awesome, beautiful and sincere.  I gave him another high-five on the way out.

Rounding up my weekend was a Sunday afternoon show at Vices & Versa with Malcolm Bauld and Abigail Lapell.  I finally picked up Malcolm's vinyl pressing of Covered in Dust, it is awesome! A nice way to end a minus 30c weekend.