NORTH BY NORTHEAST 2009 PART UNO

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July 12, 2009, 04:35 PM

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I always love North By Northeast and every year it’s different yet the same. Thursday June 18th is when NXNE started for moi, kicked off with the Peace Dot Love Festival at the Kool Haus in Toronto more about that later.

For all of you newbies that have not heard of North By Northeast it is a week of musical discovery and networking. Films, 500+ Bands and industry affiliated conferences. Everyone who is into music or aspires to be in the music industry needs to hit up one festival if not all. As always the most difficult part is choosing bands to see and how likely is it that I will reach them in time to check their sets. Many of the bands I saw are not even worth a whisper; there was a lot of bouncing in and out of venues due to the assiness of the bands and the usual missed sets. Although I didn’t get to see a film I managed to check a Demo Derby, where artists submit their demos and a panel of music industry experts critique their tunes. This year’s panel for the UMAC derby was; Montreal’s very own Gangstress; Empire Isis, Producer Derek Brin and founding member of The Wu-Tang Clan the one and only Gza aka Genius.







Gza wasn’t even scheduled to jibber but Will Strickland, President of the Urban Music Association of Canada (UMAC) and host of the Demo Derby asked him to join the panel once he finished his interview with the Legendary Fab 5 Freddy; all of this was due to some other members of the panel flaking out. That is so not cool, how can you back out on something last minute! The flakes were not missed Gza is far more experienced in the biz than the no show’s and Isis is incredibly intelligent; she knows what she’s talking about, she lives it every day. Producer Larrie Derek Brin was new to me, I had no clue who he was prior to this but he did give the artists some valid critique. The artists who demoed their tunes got a nice slice of real talk about the music business, constructive criticism regarding their tunes and a chance to network with all that were present.





As I mentioned earlier, before the demo derby “Gary Grice” aka The Gza had an interview with the legendary ‘Fab 5 Freddy’. If you don’t know who Fab 5 Freddy is, do some research! Hip Hop Historian to Graffiti artist extraordinaire he was at the birth of Hip Hop and Rap so it was only right for him to interview The Gza. I’ve never waited so long in my life for an interview! It was scheduled to start at 1:00pm but didn’t get underway until about 3:30 and I thought I was going to miss it! No such thing! I made it with plenty of time to spare, I wandered, smoked, jibbered and every half hour that would pass the interview was to start in 10 minutes, yet we all were still waiting. Glad I only had to linger for about an hour, some people were waiting for two or three hours prior. Finally The Gza arrived and the interview began, if I wasn’t filming or taking photos I would probably have passed out. Majority of the time Freddy was jibbering, barely giving Gza a chance to speak rambling on disjointedly at times. Fab 5 Freddy talked so much about himself he should have just interviewed himself. The questions that did make it through were redundant; the introduction to the query’s usually had nothing to do with the question itself and the direction was all over the place. A few questions were about the origins of ‘The Wu’ how Martial Arts influence the group and plenty of Chess talk. Clearly Fab 5 Freddy needs to retire, he is amazing for what he has accomplished but it is time to let it go, especially when the artist has more A.D.D. than the audience.










I was dying to migrate but there was more sittage at the Demo Derby. I can’t handle sitting for more than half an hour at a time. The migration over to the other conference room was a great break! I was excited, elongating the walkway for as much as I could just because I knew I had to sit for another hour or so for the derby. Gza and Isis both performed at the North by Northeast festival, Gza was scheduled for Sunday the 21st the exact same time and date as The Much Music Video Awards. Empire Isis did a set at The Drake Underground on Friday the 19th, which is a far better venue than the spot they put her at for CMW. It’s too bad I missed her whole set! I got the middle of the last track and I was so frustrated, I wanted to check her full set but according to my schedule her set was an hour after the band I was checking...lies! The schedule was way off! From the little piece I caught of the performance the most that stood out was the energy. The whole vibe was different; you could tell she was enjoying herself coming off more genuine than her previous Toronto performance. I need to go check her again to see a real full set! I managed a few photographs of the Empress in action for you all.





The band I was checking at the Rivoli before I was to hit the Drake was ‘AM Glory’ from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their myspace says only three larries in the band but when I checked them at the Rivoli there were four. Their music is Pop Punk, as much as they would like to call themselves Punk; they are not straight up Punk. The stage performance is lively; they do know how to work the stage using their instruments well whilst keeping the music tight. Lead larrie tried to get the crowd hype with the usual stage banter but there was not much of a crowd to sway.












The vocals were not for me I am not a fan of the band because of this fact. There were times when the vocals were sturdy but the cracking is what stuck out to my ears and that happened more than once. Nothing unique about the tracks or the vocals they just blended with the thousands of sound-a-like bands. This band has their live show to go by and I’m sure people will like their music, Simple Plan has a market as does The Stereos.









Speaking of The Stereo’s, I caught the last track of their set at the Kool Haus where they were performing as a part of the ‘Peace Dot Love’ festival a North By Northeast extra series. Gene Simmons signed these larries to his label and they are being distributed in Canada by Universal Music Canada. The big deal about these little guys is still unknown; two words ‘Auto-tune’!

Why?!! A little bit is alright but people have taken this stupid ass Auto-tune bullshit too far! This is all T- Pain and Lil Wayne’s fault! Thank God Jay-Z dropped the “Death of Auto-Tune” track because it’s in serious need of an assassination. I didn’t film or take any photos as they weren’t worth the space on my memory cards and I missed the camera call, so very glad it worked out that way. The song that I caught was filled with Auto-tune nonsense and from the feedback I got from a few people, I didn’t miss much because their whole set was autotunetastic.












I wanted to check Rebel Emergency and USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seekers) because they are two of the best bands in Toronto! I have covered them before and will continue to re-cover them because they deserve all the coverage in the world. Both bands have worked their asses off to get to the point where they are and still fighting their way through. Rebel Emergency is to drop a new record near the end of August. I’m excited to hear the new tunes. Rebel Emergency threw it down at the Kool Haus, the people loved them. There was a minor incident during Roddy Soul’s trademark crowdsurfage but he is OK and rocked it thoroughly. Bassist Neil “Yagga Bucci” came to life this time vibing it out with his bandmates! Geoff Star was stellar on that axe! He worked the crowd jamming on the barricades getting all the teenies excited; it was very amusing. Of course we can’t forget the beat keeper Sir Jeremy Kleynhans; he had his own little solo for a minute and as usual he didn’t miss a beat. If possible, you most definitely need to check Rebel Emergency live.











Before USS was ‘Down With Webster’ I had yet to see them live, they are one of the bands I always miss but I finally managed to catch their set only because I stayed at one venue for the beginning of the night. They were having some serious technical difficulties and the singer was not up to par with the rappers, they outshone the singer. The singer’s vocals were dry and strained lacking solidity and likability in his tone. From the rest of the group there was charisma and character they knew how to keep the crowd on their toes. A pretty decent performance minus the singer’s voice and technical difficulties, this band is extremely overrated.












USS was the last band of chosen coverage for this day, there were other bands in between but they didn’t make the cut, I didn’t like. The guys from USS always give it their all every time; the live show is so entertaining it’s causing a stir on the Canadian music scene. Nobody out there today is like them; this duo is truly one of a kind. I’m sure in due time there will be a pile of abee’s starting to form, imitating their crazy stage antics trying to cop their sound and swagger. Ashley “Boo-Shultz” Bucholz and Jason “Human Kebab” Parsons from Toronto are Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker “USS” for those who still don’t know. These guys killed it! They know how to work the crowd and keep them interested throughout the entire performance. The crowd wanted more as usual, chanting “Encore, Encore” after USS wrapped their set. Newbie bands should take notes from bands like USS and Rebel Emergency they know what they are doing.















That is the end of the Peace Dot Love fest coverage, now onto another day another adventure. ‘The Latency’ was the first band I saw on the Friday, the venue was outdoors at the Mill St. Brew Pub stage set up to the left of the Yonge Dundas Square main stage. These guys are from Vancouver, BC and recently signed with Maple Music Recordings. I have never seen these live and was hoping I wasn’t going to run away from this little beer garden set up. The band took to the stage and were not shy about it. They got straight down to business, jamming on that stage in the middle of the afternoon. The music is not something I will listen to but I clearly understand their vision.

The guys from the ‘The Latency’ are much better than ‘The Stereos’ displaying real talent, auto-tune free, tight music. Although the band’s sound is nothing new the passion for their music is apparent. A little work needed on the harmonizing and enunciation of the words but that’s about it.














There was so much going on I couldn’t decide where to go , what to do, who to see, my schedule went out the window on the first day. I managed to catch a slice of ‘Oh No Not Stereos’ set at The Hideout and was glad I did!!

They were the first band I ever saw at North By Northeast when I volunteered for the festival way back in 05’. Haven’t seen them since and really wanted to see them again. They were on my schedule but I couldn’t catch their set at the Elmo as originally planned. It was a pleasant surprise when I found them playing the Hideout which was the chill spot for NXNE.

They were rocking it out, a definite superior performance even better than the first time I saw them, they were much more comfortable with the stage and the vocals were stronger. I wish I took photos but I didn’t, it was two in the morning and I was done with work for the night. I just had to mention them, they get special daps. Will check them again when they reach back to Toronto someday from sunny California where they missioned from. Stay tuned North By Northeast NUMERO DOS in a few.

©2009FRIDAE™

LINKS:
Altsounds.com | Independent Music Journalism
NXNE 2009 | June 17 – 21 | TORONTO CANADA
Empire ISIS
GZA on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
Derek Brin (Producer/ Mix Engineer) on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
Fab5Freddy*|*
Rebel Emergency on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
USS
AM Glory on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
www.ohnonotstereo.com
TheLatency.com
YouTube - fridaetv's Channel

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