Five Blank Pages

I had the chance to talk to Noyan from one of my favourite bands around Toronto, Five Blank Pages, about the recent line-up change, the upcoming Two Way Monologues festival, and what the future of Five Blank Pages is going to look like.

Mike: How have things changed for the band since the release of Last Blush?

Noyan: We managed to get lots of college radio play with the album, charting high nationally, and we played many a show to support it. Things have been going very well but as the band begun taking up more and more time, Chelen and Rajiv decided to leave to pursue other interests. We had a huge show in early February at the Horseshoe Tavern to celebrate their time in the band with us. Since then, Pinar and I have been busy writing and taking some much needed time off from playing live.

Mike: What do you think are the best and/or worst elements of the music scene in Toronto?

Noyan: I think with any metropolis, there are just so many venues and so many bands and artists that there's just too much available to you. I know that seems like a silly thing to say but I think the average concert goer in Toronto can take for granted the quality of music that is around them, just because it is so readily available, every night of the week. It's definitely hard to impress that person. But, at the same time, for the person that can appreciate it, they can catch amazing music, at any given time pretty much in Toronto.

You can check out the rest of the interview here.

Zygiella III pictures + TWM updates

Last Thursday out at Rancho Relaxo, our good buddy Tyler Wade held his monthly Zygiella showcase. Even though it wasn't the greatest turnout, the bands put on a really great show. So that's a shame for everyone who didn't make it out. The Liras, Black Hat Brigade (soooo good!), and The Diamond Teeth were all shot by me that night, photographically of course, and obviously they are up on my flickr.


As far as Two Way Monologues news goes, the word is out about the release of our compliation CD that celebrates a year of putting on shows at the Rancho. It's got tracks (some are exclusive to this disc!!) from Amos the Transparent, Barons and Lengthy, Beth in Battle Mode, The Coast Guard, the Cheap Speakers, The Eatons, Five Blank Pages, Fox Jaws, Key Witness, Mark Berube & the Patriotic Few, Numbers & Figures, Oh No Forest Fires, Roflcopter, the Schomberg Fair, and Tin Bangs.

This is coinciding with the anniversary festival going on next weekend at Rancho. You can check out the Thursday, Friday and Saturday events on facebook.

Also, Dan Wolovick, Jenny Charlton, and I are working on a bunch of stuff to get out before the shows next week to hype things up. Jenny is working on a B-sides collection of pictures from the past bunch of showcases, and I'm going to be doing interviews with Five Blank Pages and Beth in Battle Mode soon. So keep your eyes out for those.

Come on out and buy me a drink next weekend!

Mike

Les Handclaps

The interview I did last weekend with Montreal's Les Handclaps is up on Two Way Monologues now. I have to give another special mention to Jenny Charlton for the awesome photos!

I'm going to be shooting for the third Zygiella showcase tomorrow night at the Rancho. The Liras, Black Hat Brigade and The Diamond Teeth are gonna be out there. So swing by if you're around and if not, be sure to check back soon to see my pictures from it.

OPOPOopopoOPOPOopopoOPOPOopopoOPOPO

Last Friday at the Rancho, we had a great line up. My buddy Evan Bender, who I went to primary and high school with, was playing there with his band The Assistants. It was sweet to see him out there. I also had the chance to interview the two headlining bands, OPOPO and Les Handclaps, before the show.

So for the first interview, OPOPO, our photographer Jenny Charlton (who shot the accopanying photos), and I went over to Nirvana and had a drink as we went through the interview. You can check out the interview over at Two Way Monologues.

The summer wind....

So I'm going to get a little dear diary on everyone now, but I'm real excited for the summer and need to vent.

First of all, I managed to score myself a great apartment. It's right down the street from Rancho Relaxo, where we have the Two Way Monologues shows all the time. Mars Food is right around the corner so don't worry mum, I'll be eating a balanced, greasy breakfast every morning. I have two sweet roommates and the apartment is real nice. Bonus points.

Next up, I'll be working with Community Bike Network for the summer. Ill be recycling old bikes to be rebuilt. It's great because I'm sure everyone knows how big into bikes I am, but this is better than working at a bike shop or something because it's more like giving back to the cycling community.

And of course there's Bike Month. I haven't figured out all of the events that I'm going to take part in yet, but Kery and I definately want to take part in Pedals and Paint. It's being put on by Spacing Magazine (who I'm hoping to intern with next year) and it's pretty much an art project where participants go around the city and spray paint all the abandoned bikes that are still chained to posts. It's a very 'Kensington' thing to do, but I think it's a great idea. There's a ton of savaged bikes just sitting around downtown and it looks pretty trashy, adding a bit of bright colour will at least add to the landscape a bit more... or maintain the status quo.

I'm a little sad about leaving campus for the summer though, because I have just recently discovered the West Humber Trail. It's a 17 km roundtrip that goes fromthe 427 and Finch, all the way out to Islington, following the Humber River. It's great because it passes right behind residence. The western strech of it is real nice because the pavement is in better condition so I can ride 'no-hands' for long periods of time. I've been riding it every day since the weather has turned nice.

There's going to be a lot going on with TWM soon too. We have a compilation album coming out soon with a lot of the bands who have played our showcases. This is coming out in May and is going to be celebrated with a three-night CD release party at Rancho Relaxo featuring (I think) 12 of the 15 bands on the compilation. Mark Berube is headlining the entire event and judging by the 2 previous shows he's played with us, this is going to be a BIG three nights!

Also, I'm going to be sitting down for some quick interviews with OPOPO and Les Handclaps tonight before they hit the stage at the Rancho. So keep your eyes posted for that soon.

TWM presents...

Last Friday, Two Way Monologues hosted Northwest Division, Megan Hamilton & the Volunter Canolas, Deromantic, and the Ugly Bug Band at Rancho Relaxo. Our photographer Jenny Charlton couldn't make it that night, so I swung in to action. Here's a few samples, the rest can be found on my flickr.

Magworld photo shoot

These are some shots from the photo shoot I did today for Magworld. After 3+ hours, 5 lighting kits, and about a hundred shots, I had the 3 we needed. Big thanks to Esteban and Genevieve for their lovely arms!

Aloha - Light Works (twowaymonologues.com)

Here's a review I just did for Two Way Monologues:

Aloha – Light Works

By Michael Bulko

The new, ‘sort of’ EP by Aloha, called Light Works, comes across as a beautiful, near monumental force, with a lot of strength, and specifically honesty, to its sounds. I feel like I’d be doing a real detriment to the music by loading this review up with some lame anecdotes that won’t let the music speak for itself.

On a whole, Light Works boasts a very rich and textural sound. It is all unified in the dream-like calm and mountain lake-clarity of the compositions. There isn’t a single moment in the EPs twenty eight minutes that comes across as harsh or abrasive. The album’s cover, which depicts a ghostly tree visage, is a perfect compliment to the accompanying music’s ethereal approach...

You can read the rest here.

Mike

Octoberman Interview (Canadian Music Week special)

Here is an unpublished feature I wrote for Two Way Monologues last March.

By Michael Bulko

There’s this ongoing image of musicians living on the road. Whether it is in huge entourage-filled cavalry of tour buses, or modest utility vans with equipment and musicians strewn about indiscriminately, the musician’s lifestyle is always portrayed as a nomadic existence.

But this image seems tame when compared to Marc Morrissette of Vancouver BC’s Octoberman who seems to relish in, and whose music is usually created by, escape and travel.

“I always seem to get a lot of writing [done] when I’m on the road. To me, the perfect place to write is in some dodgy motel room.”

Morrissette left the Vancouver based band Kids These Days in 2003 in a last-minute decision to join his girlfriend on a backpacking trip through South East Asia, Turkey, London and Amsterdam.

“I brought along my guitalele (ukulele-sized guitar) and would pull it out when waiting for trains or buses,” he says when reminiscing on the experience. “The locals would sometimes stop and listen or ask to try it out. It led to some interesting interactions.”

While on his travels, Morrissette continued writing songs and it was after he returned to Vancouver that he recorded those songs at a friend house; creating Octoberman.

“In the end, only half of those songs made it on the album,” he says of the songs that he wrote during his sojourn. “But the rest still had a kind of wandering theme to them.”

The album was Octoberman’s debut release, 2005’s These Trails are Old and New, which featured Rob Josephson and Jason Starnes from Kids These Days as well as other Vancouver talent. These Trails… helped to establish Morrissette with a rave review in the Globe and Mail as well as attention from many other Canadian publications. Octoberman’s seven-track live-recorded Laguardia EP was released the following year, and serves as a testament to the intimacy of Morrissette’s solo acoustic performances.

But Octoberman isn’t always a one-man show. Morrissette has been known to be accompanied by up to seven people on stage at times. Morrissette says he likes seeing what ideas his other band mates bring to the table, but also enjoys the challenges of “trying to hold things down on [his] own”.

“I’m generally open-minded to what the songs can sound like. Some of them work better either solo or with a band but it is fun trying out different arrangements.”

Last year’s full length Run From Safety saw Morrissette return to the studio backed by many more friends and musicians than before, and this is evident in the music. Many listeners have been noticing Octoberman starting to adopt more inspiration from the sound of Kids These Days, which Morrissette agrees with.

“Every Kids member plays or sings on the new record, so it makes sense that it has a bit of that vibe.”

As for his CMW show at the Reverb on March 7, Morrissette says he is taking to the stage as part of a six-piece, and that fans can expect some new songs to show up during the set.

Octoberman will be going to Ottawa in April to start recording a new album with Dave Draves (Wooden Stars, Jim Bryson, Kathleen Edwards), and then to Portland this summer to finish with Larry Crane (Stephen Malkmus, Elliott Smith, Cat Power).

“We just played a show in Vancouver where we played mainly new songs” he says.
”And people pointed out that we are a lot noisier than we used to be.”

“I guess that's a good thing, if you like noise.”

web conquistadors, you are my friends! you are my bane!

So this has become the new center of my blogging realm. Unfortunately, Conan the Grammarian was already taken!

This blog is going to serve as the central hub for, at least most of, my work. There is already an rss feed in the corner featuring my Digital Music news blog at Two way monologues. I will have my own postings that are specific to this blog, but also I am going to start posting links to my reviews for Two way as well as other articles I have published. It may also feature my photography in the future, but that is too daunting a task at the moment!

Thanks for checking it out.

Mike