The Little Red Umbrella: laurie mcgregor

CMW 2015: Ben Lee @ The Great Hall

THURSDAY — Ben Lee has been a massive part of my life ever since I first ‘discovered’ him late one night in the mid-1990s, while I was watching an episode of Much Music’s The Wedge. They played the video for “Away with the Pixies” (from his first solo album, Grandpaw Would) — which was the start of a 20-year long love of his music.

I hunted down everything I could find about him; ordered albums as imports from HMV after countless blank stares from sales clerks; joined an internet fan club to get mix-tape bootlegs from live shows around the world; defended him against my friends who just didn’t understand my love for his sometimes sugary sweet, sometimes goofy, sometimes depressingly sad music. His music was the starting basis for one of my now longest friendships — discovering we were both the biggest Ben Lee fans we’d ever met, listening to those bootleg cassettes on a school bus trip to NYC in 1999 as we stayed awake through sunrise in the Adirondacks, bonding over our shared love of this relatively unknown Australian artist (relatively unknown at least to suburban Etobicoke – our world was not that big).

I’ve seen him live countless times, but seeing him again on Canadian Music Week's Thursday night at the Great Hall filled me with glee. As he bantered with the crowd, excitedly sharing that he’d just played a gig at the Qantas Lounge in L.A., I could feel all the stress of my week washing away. His affable, silly nature has an amazing way of putting a crowd at ease, and making a show feel like an intimate set in your very own living room. Beginning with "Into The Dark" from his album Awake is the New Sleep, he played a solid set of old classics and songs from his upcoming album, Love is A Rebellion. His new music had that rare feeling of instantly becoming new favourites; one — “Everything is OK” — stood out to me as being particularly special. As a chronic worrier, I can see the chorus of “Everything is OK… even when it’s not” becoming a new anthem in my life, to help get me through any new anxious moments. It’s not a complicated song, and the chorus is simple… but that’s one of the reasons I love his music so much. Its simple poignancy has a way of cutting right to the heart of the matter, stripping away all bullshit, making things easy.

Ben Lee's music is honest, and earnest, and true… and that’s the way I like it.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

Words by Laurie McGregor is a Toronto-based dilettante. She likes books, music, soft things, baking, unicorns, robots and has an unnatural love of vending machines. You can find all her posts here and email her at laurie@littleredumbrella.com.

Photos by Adam Bunch, Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project and Toronto Historical Jukebox. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

CMW 2015: For Esmé @ The Mod Club

FRIDAY – Taking their name from the title of a J.D. Salinger short story, Toronto's For Esmé have a big, cool, shiny sign of their band name, and a heck of a lot of energy. Bouncing around and dancing all over the stage, lead singer Martha Meredith sang through the set list in an Emily Haines-esque monotone, while bashing away intermittently on the drum machine in front of her. The band played their catchy blend of electro-pop to a modest, early-night crowd at The Mod Club. But while the audience seemed like they wanted to get into the set as much as the band was, they never quite got there. For Esmé’s songs had that same kind of feeling — it felt like they were on to something great, with an awesome stage presence fueled by the band's energetic excitement, but there was also just a little something missing.

We'll be very interested to catch them again sometime — to see whether on another night at another venue, it all gels into something truly special.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

Word by Laurie McGregor, a Toronto-based dilettante. She likes books, music, soft things, baking, unicorns, robots and has an unnatural love of vending machines. You can find all her posts here and email her at laurie@littleredumbrella.com.

Photos by Carmen Cheung, the Arts Editor for The Little Red Umbrella.

CMW 2015: Evan Dando @ The Great Hall

THURSDAY – Evan Dando walked on stage on Thursday night at The Great Hall for his acoustic set looking like he’d just rolled out of the nineties — disheveled, clad in a baggy t-shirt and still as dreamy as hell. Playing to a fairly small gathering of fans, he moved from song to song at breakneck speed, barely stopping at the end of one before beginning the next. His quiet, striking voice is still as awesome as ever and he genuinely seemed to be happy up there on stage — which was a nice surprise, as his live performances can be a bit of a crapshoot from what I’ve heard (and even witnessed myself when I had a chance to catch his band, The Lemonheads, years ago).

The crowd was eating up everything he played, including two memorable covers. One was Juliana Hatfield’s "My Darling". The other, we figure, might be the most gloriously meta moment in acoustic music history: Evan Dando covering an old Noise Addict song called "I Wish I Was Him", which is an ode to none other than Evan Dando himself, penned by Ben Lee, who had just finished played his own set on the same bill that night.

As the evening went on, it started to take on a more alt-country-rock vibe, as Dando was joined on stage by Willy Mason (who had also played earlier on the bill) and Marciana Jones, who combine to form The Sandwich Police. It was a nice touch, leaving me sad to head back into the night while they were still on stage, their beautiful harmonies following me down the steps and out into the chaos of Queen Street.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

CMW 2015: SIANspheric @ The Horseshoe Tavern

WEDNESDAY – On Wednesday night, at the mid-point of what already felt like a very long week, we headed to the Horseshoe to lose ourselves in the ambient, spacey noise-rock of SIANspheric. The Hamilton-born band was pretty big in the '90s; I remembered them from a really, really awesome Sonic Unyon compilation album celebrating the label’s fifth anniversary… but had never seen them live before. The house was pretty full: a mix of interesting characters and fans who likely hadn’t been out to a show in years (like the guy overheard in the men's washroom who was struggling to remember if the last time he'd been at the Horseshoe had been his stag, or his 40th birthday).

When SIANspheric hit the stage, they melted our ears with a wall of druggy sound, hushed vocals, heavy distortion (no surprise, as each band member had like a million pedals set up in front of them!), long, slow builds into epic-ness. Despite the awesome sounds, the crowd seemed just a little subdued, only quietly responding to Sean Ramsay's suggestion that he wanted to hear a few more “Give 'ers!!!”

Maybe everyone had been having a long week too, but regardless, SIANspheric put on the kind of great show that had me wishing I'd gone out to see them play in their heyday.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

Songs You Can Decorate Your Christmas Tree To

We don’t know anyone who loves Christmas more than Laurie, our Editor-at-Large. She spends our meetings doodling Christmas trees and snowflakes (even in August). To keep her happy, we let her hijack our regular playlist with a special edition of festive songs. Break out the rum, eggnog and sparkly ornaments: it's Bing Crosby, The Muppets and more.

TRACKLIST

1. "Sleigh Ride" - Leroy Anderson
2. "Twelve Days of Christmas" - John Denver & The Muppets
3. "Winter Wonderland" - Liz Phair
4. "Silver and Gold" - Burl Ives
5. "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee
6. "Must Be Santa" - Bob Dylan
7. "Frosty The Snowman" - The Ronettes
8. "Jingle Bells" - Frank Sinatra
9. "Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)" - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
10. "Christmas In Prison" - John Prine
11. "Little Toy Trains" - Roger Miller
12. "Joy To The World" - Sufjan Stevens
13. "Silent Night" - Low

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Originally posted December 10, 2011.

Laurie McGregor is a Toronto-based dilettante. She is the co-founder of The Holy Oak Book Club, a sort-of monthly reading series in Toronto, and seating engineer and curator for Trampoline Hall, a very excellent monthly lecture series. She likes books, soft things, baking, unicorns, robots and has an unnatural love of vending machines. You can find her posts here and email her at laurie@littleredumbrella.com.

CMW 2014: Neko Case @ Massey Hall

FRIDAY — God. I love Neko Case so much. I wish that she and I could be friends and hang out on her farm in Vermont, and ride horses and pet animals together. Maybe this sounds a little weird, but it almost feels like it could be possible. When Neko Case plays shows, she makes you feel like you’re part of the show itself, turning massive venues like Massey Hall into the most intimate settings. Her quirky silliness, goofy chatter with vocalist Kelly Hogan and gentle teasing comments to the rest of the band have you feeling like you’re all buddies, and that you’re down there on the stage with them, rather than being up in the balcony feeling all of your emotions at once. With their bass player ill, the band made several adjustments to the night, which only added to these feelings of camaraderie – they brought up each member of opening band, the Dodos, to take turns on the bass; and during the encore, their guitarist / backup singer performed a beautiful original song of his own.

Gushing about how much they love Canada, and Toronto, Neko and her band played all of my favourite things (which is easy to do, when all of her things are my favourite), spanning from older work with the Sadies from "The Tigers Have Spoken", to her newest emotionally gut wrenching songs from her latest album. As she closed the night with an ode to Toronto, "Ragtime", it felt like she was bringing the evening full-circle, letting us know she feels as welcome in our city as she makes us feel with her.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2014 here.

Photo via NekoCase.com

Words by Laurie McGregor, a Toronto-based dilettante. She watches way too much reality television and wishes that everyone could all just get along. She likes books, soft things, baking, unicorns, robots and has an unnatural love of vending machines. You can find her posts here and email her at laurie@littleredumbrella.com.

CMW 2014: Motel Raphaël @ The Silver Dollar

SATURDAY — Motel Raphaël caught our attention with their catchy single, "Ghosts", which I've had stuck in my head for weeks now. The female-fronted, seven-piece band out of Montreal jammed themselves — vibraphone, trumpet and all — onto the tiny stage at the Silver Dollar and proceeded to steal our hearts with their sweet mix of indie, country and pop. Drawing some comparison from my fellow show-goers to The Dixie Chicks (but in good way!), their songs about love and heartbreak feature memorable lyrics about love and whisky and regret — filled with wisdom beyond their years. The band is still relatively new: their first album will be released this June; we'll be excited to nab a copy of it and listen throughout the summer. We suspect it will be the perfect companion to long road-trips, or on those days when you want to curl up with songs that will cheer you up when you're feeling down.

Also: a vibraphone!

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2014 here.

Photos by Carmen Cheung, the Arts Editor for The Little Red Umbrella.

Words by Laurie McGregor, a Toronto-based dilettante. She watches way too much reality television and wishes that everyone could all just get along. She likes books, soft things, baking, unicorns, robots and has an unnatural love of vending machines. You can find her posts here and email her at laurie@littleredumbrella.com.

CMW 2014: The '92 Blue Jays @ The Handlebar

SATURDAY — I’m not sure what I was expecting when I took off to see the ’92 Blue Jays at Handlebar on Saturday night. A band dressed up in retro Blue Jays jerseys, singing twee songs about baseball? A hardcore punk band singing punk songs about baseball? A band comprised of old dudes reliving the glory days of our World Series winning team?

Whatever it was that I was expecting, I definitely wasn't expecting this band, who kind of looked like they were born in or around 1992 — and thus would have no memories of actually seeing the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays ever play. (I’m a pretty bad judge of age, though, so it’s possible these guys are older than I think.) Playing to a good-sized crowd complete with a drunk guy screaming at them to take off their shirts, they delivered a rambunctiously loud, raw and grunge-y set that had the dance floor moving, and has my ears still ringing today.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2014 here.

CMW 2014: Fitness Club Fiasco @ Baltic Avenue

WEDNESDAY — Deciding what bands to see at CMW can be a somewhat daunting task. With around 1,000 artists to choose from, it is easy to fall into the trap of only going to see names you recognize. Doing so would have you missing out on one of the best parts of a festival like this – stumbling across brilliant new bands that you never would have otherwise discovered. But how do you choose from all of those names floating around the CMW website? We use the same logic we apply to choosing a fine bottle of wine: find some names that make you laugh, and go for it. This logic has never gone wrong with wine, and the same can now be said with my choice to see Fitness Club Fiasco on Wednesday night at Baltic Avenue.

I knew it was a good choice as we watched Fitness Club Fiasco get set up – a five piece from Hamilton (by way of Bristol, originally), with pairs of synths and tambourines gracing the stage. And pretty much from their first notes, we were hooked. These guys have a great blend of synth-poppy goodness that combines gleeful energy with occasional twinges of sadness. At times reminding me a bit of a beautiful mash-up of Postal Service with Mates of States, their vocal harmonies and tight musical arrangements had me wishing I’d found out about them a lot sooner! They sprinkled their set with charming banter, quietly mentioning that they feel like they don’t have a lot fans just yet, then bafflingly following that up by letting the crowd know that they’d made it to the top four finalists in CBC’s Searchlight competition — which, you know, is a pretty impressive feat if you don't have a lot of fans.

With a sound like theirs, it’s obvious that people are starting to take notice, and we think these guys have a chance to be really huge. We hope their fans start pouring in, and you should do yourself a favour and become one soon. You won’t be disappointed.

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MP3: "Goldmine" by Fitness Club Fiasco

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Fan video by Chris Dacol

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2014 here.

Words by Laurie McGregor, a Toronto-based dilettante. She watches way too much reality television and wishes that everyone could all just get along. She likes books, soft things, baking, unicorns, robots and has an unnatural love of vending machines. You can find her posts here and email her at laurie@littleredumbrella.com.

Photos by Adam Bunch.