The Hippodrome

Crabapples (Live) Download

Photograph by David Waldman

Think for a second about the number of times you’ve asked an artist what their biggest influence is. Now think about the number of times you got Alan Lomax (a storied ethnomusicologist who traveled the American south collecting field recordings) as an answer. “We’ve always wanted the Lomax influence to be just a piece of what we do,” says Neil Haverty, who sings and plays guitar, snare, and metalophone in Bruce Peninsula. “It showed us a lot about what it takes to be really good singers and gave us an authentic alternative to some of the more contrived, affected singing that happens in indie rock.”

Judging by what’s come my way, Bruce Peninsula seems to deliver one of the most authentic vocal performances I’ve heard in quite a while. All eleven members — Matt Cully, Misha Bower, Neil Haverty, Andrew Barker, Steve McKay, Isla Craig, Katie Stelmanis, Casey Mecija, Kari Peddle, Maya Postepski, and Leon Tahen contribute to the choir. The band has begun work on their first record which I predict will make some serious waves, pun half intended. Haverty tells me it’s being recorded all over Toronto, most recently at St. George the Martyr, a huge Anglican church.

Even with quite a smaller budget than Canadian cohort’s The Arcade Fire’s church project, also known as Neon Bible, there’s reason to believe that this record will have some serious soul. This notion is reinforced not only by one of Final Fantasy’s engineers (Leon Taheny) manning the knobs and contributing musically, but also by the painstaking construction of the dense vocal parts that the band takes such pride in.

Understandably reluctant to pigeonhole themselves in any stylistic niche, Haverty, under duress, suggests a similarity to pop experimentalists like Smog, The Dirty Projectors, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. “I was once told that we sound like Will Oldham fronting an aboriginal women’s choir,” Haverty says.

I can’t imagine that could be taken as anything less than a compliment, especially for this culturally fascinated super group, although I have trouble hearing it. I suppose its not hard to believe when you consider that BP has been playing Washington Phillips and Vera Ward Hall covers since day one, which have also been covered in recent years by Mr. Oldham himself.

The Hippodrome’s track available for download, “Crabapples,” was recorded live at last month’s Dog Day Afternoon Music Festival in Toronto. Bruce Peninsula has largely been a live act, and until their upcoming album is finished this Christmas, this track is a pretty good representation of what the band is all about. In order to preserve this “liveness,” BP opted to record some tracks on the upcoming disc in live takes, which will hopefully contain the same power and intensity of “Crabapples.”

“We’ve been careful not to play too much,” Haverty says, “because a band that plays any gig that comes their way is either going to burn out really fast or make people sick of them.” This maturity is rare in bands who haven’t even dropped their first record, and speaks volumes about these Canadians who may soon make every hipster in North America add Alan Lomax to their record rotation.

Maladroits Union Download
Times Are Hard Download
Come Go With Me Download

Getting into music through another artistic medium is fairly common these days, but rarely does it really allow the musician a new and original way to create. Alex Bogs, founder and leader of Bogs Visionary Orchestra, didn’t start looking into musical performance until he was confident enough in his visual art to start exploring other forms of creative output. Growing up with a passion for drawing, Bogs knew art would play a significant role in his future and in college switched majors from illustration to fine art when he realized it was more important to make art as a lifestyle rather than a career. For Bogs, being an artist means sharing the art you make with the people you love and people who appreciate what you create. Bogs’ primary musical project is just this — an admirable culmination of his work between friends and the artists he respects.

Bogs is unique in several ways, especially in his musical upbringing. Though raised on a steady diet of Morrissey and Sex Pistols, Bogs never enveloped himself fully into a specific musical culture, until he came around to “the strange world of 1930’s old-time music.” Finally finding a niche for himself in the wide world of music, Bogs had a place to get “excited about listening, collecting, and learning about the artists of that period.” Indeed, Most of BVO’s musical inspiration comes from the sounds of the 30s, resulting in a product as refreshing as it is genuine.

This affinity for the 30s piano bar style has allowed BVO to experiment with many now unconventional instruments. Besides the standard bass/drum/guitar, BVO has seen (to name a few), cello, lap steel guitar, violin, jug, harmonica, musical saw, and piano pass through the studio. A favorite instrument, you may ask? “I love the banjo!” Bogs proclaims unabashedly. Bogs favors the plectrum banjo, like a five string banjo sans the high fifth string. “It’s like having a backup singer, percussion and melody all in one.”

BVO’s originality can be traced back even further than Bogs’ predilection for unconventional instrumentation. Taking a normally backwards approach to creating music, Bogs began random experiments with guitar sounds and structure while still in college. While many skip past this phase and stick to the basics, Bogs found it most interesting to search for ways to make the guitar “talk” within its natural constraints. Fittingly, BVO’s latest disc, Maladroits Union, is unique in its minimal guitar effects. Instead of relying on overwhelming pedals and modulations, the songs available for download here and on the record achieve great sonic intensity through off kilter-vocals, interesting composition, and a rock-solid do-it-yourself ethic.

When questioned further on this DIY ethic, Bogs said that he didn’t “consider DIY as a term in opposition to commercial music or art. For me being creative is a natural and healthy part of being human. I believe most people don’t create because they think they need to create something as refined as the commercial counterpart to the artistic expression they want to work in. A lot of the other stuff I do and am (a husband, father, teacher) although wonderful in their own ways, doesn’t fulfill me in the same way as making art.”

So there you have it folks, a visual artist with a musical mission to create and not just consume! Do yourself a favor and pick up Maladroits Union, Bogs Visionary Orchestra’s latest relic that is as eccentric as it is beautiful.

Hello dear readership!

I’m writing this post to let you all know about a few changes to The Hippodrome. First off, let me apologize for the lack of updates in recent days. It’s been an extraordinarily hectic two weeks, but this is still no excuse. We have a feature slated to go up tomorrow, as well as another later this week, so I assure you, we’ll soon be back in the swing of things.

Other than that, there are a few notable updates to the site. First of all, we’ve just changed our permalink structure from that annoying format of p=? to a much more logical one. This means that if you had linked to a post before, you’re going to have to change it to the new structure, which for features, will always be www.thehippodrome.org/name-of-artist-featured. Easier for everyone!

Also, some of our artists are already getting quite a bit more attention, which means we will now have a “where they are now” section, keeping you updated on what our artists have been doing. This section will detail record deals, major shows, and other prominent media attention.

Say it with me folks, “stay ahead of the heard!” Peace out.

An Empty Glass, Half Full Download

“As far as the electronic influences in my music,” says Alex Mitchell (a.k.a. The Ecstatic Suffering), “I feel like I’m just trying to make it as a singer songwriter, but I’m using all of the toys that I have at my disposal.” While they are merely toys to the composer from tiny Etobicoke, Ontario, they are responsible for a brand of music that sounds like a mix of Tricky, DJ Shadow, and The Books. It is a refreshing brand of sample based music, and one that I have grown to regard as an important part of the genre.

While Mitchell’s work runs the gambit from a quirkly brand of singer-songwriter to experimental electronic amalgamation, Mitchell’s philosophy about sampling is a refreshing and original one. “I think one of the ways to make legitimate sample based music is to try to sample good sounds, rather than sample good music. I feel like there’s a parallel between trying to get a good sound out of your trumpet, and finding that perfect half-second sample in an old T.V. documentary soundtrack. In both cases, it’s about getting a good sound that you can use to create good music.”

Growing up with jazz, Mitchell was soon turned off to the style after notable pretension from his colleagues. “All the jazz guys say ‘you just gotta feel something and then express it through your horn’, but what most of the guys I knew were saying was ‘I can do this better than you.’ Jazz musicians are just as elitist as punks and scene kids.”

It’s therefore quite interesting that The Hippodrome’s featured track, “An Empty Glass Half Full,” shows Mitchell utilizing samples from master jazz crooner Chet Baker. The rearrangement of Baker’s phrases, taken from the end of “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” are strikingly well constructed and culturally pertinent to boot. Indeed, this track is an excellent example of Mitchell’s past merged with his current medium, and a clever composition from any angle.

You can read what you want into it, but “An Empty Glass Half Full” sounds like a pretty genuine description of the American Dream shrinking down to nothing more than a puddle. While this was Mitchell’s idea from the start, make sure to note the subtleties of the carefully spliced background vocals, as well as the shrewdly placed clips from Mitchell’s copious supply of old infomercials. Yes, it’s hard to tell that they’re infomercials just from the music, but we’re into historicism here at the ‘drome, and the fact that Mitchell managed to cram all this into a cohesive four minute piece is astounding. Make sure to check out his non-electronic work as well, and be careful jazzers with what you record, no sound is safe from The Ecstatic Suffering.