Vol. 18 No. 11 • March 8 - 14, 2012
In Our 17th Year Serving Greater Hamilton
Hamilton Music Notes
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by Ric Taylor
March 1 - 7, 2012
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Swords of Texas’ Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die
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As the man that lead 13 Bags of Dicks, Schmoog Lebowski (also known as Luke Meneok) produced eight albums of experimental music but it was
shortly after he’d fired most of the other band members live on stage that he came to grips with what he really wanted to do. During one particularly hot
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summer night, Lebowski decided to explore some of the darker sides of his own personal existence. Fuelled by whatever smoke and liquid
refreshment he could find, he took to his five–string bass, a four–track recorder, beat software, and keyboard and would fashion his own experimental
doom/stoner rock introduction, now dubbed Swords of Texas. Uneasy listening, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die is meant to produce a different
kind of reaction.
“It is very challenging,” admits Lebowski. “I’m telling the story of what I was going through during that period of time but not in obvious ways. I tell the
story more interestingly and maybe not in a way people can immediately connect with it immediately, it does get their attention. It’s not catchy like a
pop song but it might leave you confused. You can’t process it all right away so I hope it makes you come back to it, even if you don’t like it, you want
to know more of what it’s about. That’s the kind of reaction I was expecting to get because this was a very angry project.
“I was reading a lot of Hunter S. Thompson,” adds Lebowski on the origins of the album title. “Too Cool to Live, Too Rare to Die stuck with me and I
identified with that. Thompson was a great symbol of personal and creative freedom and expression. There are a lot of experimentations and
explorations of a lot of the weird, darker, twisted more extreme sides of the spectrum.”
Once fuelled, Swords of Texas is a vehicle that drags you into an otherworldly abyss, not necessarily regular fair on our local stage but a music that
has seemingly developed a worldwide cult following that Lebowski has tapped via internet blogs. The response so far has been resoundingly positive
by stoner and doom rock aficionados. But as a producer, Lebowski has been developing even more of a name.
Another EP release is tentatively planned for the summer but Lebowski is also producing beats for local hip hop MCs and recently gained some
attention by winning a remix contest for the trip hop/electronica outfit from London, England named Unkle.
“I’ve been a pretty big fan of theirs for more than a decade and it was an opportunity that I would have wished would happen and then it did,” smiles
Lebowski. “It was something I always had done for fun and to stay in practice and learn more about production but this encouraged me to think I could
do more with this.
“I just threw in enough crazy sounds and made it all come together – they liked it,” adds Lebowski on the remix of ‘The Dog Is Black’ (still available
on unkle.com). “It wasn’t a cash prize but more for exposure and the chance to work on something that was a huge influence of mine over the years. It
was a positive push forward that’s for sure.”
Lebowski is only limited by his imagination and inspiration and it seems people don’t mind delving into the musical recesses of Lebowski’s mind,
whatever the result.
“Some of the work with 13 Bags could be considered audio vomit because
it was more about me figuring out sounds, recording and who to work with and if you thought that, I’m okay with it,” says Lebowski. “Swords of Texas is
a lot more personal and has more direction.
“And we’re doing a release show for this project that is going to be interesting – a singer–songwriter acoustic set starts off, followed by a band that
could sound like the next Nirvana only tighter and then there’s SoT,” he adds. “There are going to be some interesting visual aids, it’ll be intense, very
psychedelic and lots for the eyes and the ears.”
Swords of Texas play this Thursday March 1 at This Ain’t Hollywood with Dowdy Days and Flashing Amber.
Click on swordsoftx.bandcamp.com
AGH’s Canada, Inc.
There aren’t just paintings and statues at Hamilton’s art gallery. As the Art Gallery of Hamilton film, performance and special events programmer,
Annette Paiement has been injecting a plethora of world class film and live music into the AGH schedule with a variety of events. This weekend, the
AGH offers an event dubbed Canada, Inc. that offers music from around the block and around the world but rather than a geography lesson, Paiement
hopes to offer a cultural exchange.
“It’s a continuation of the music programming I’ve been doing over the last few years; taking musicians from different backgrounds and bringing
them together on stage,” explains Paiement. “We have such a wide group of cultures here in Canada that the Canadian songbook is really changing
quite a bit. Many people are bringing many new musical styles to the table. I met Filimone Mabjaia who has the Tunduro Festival in Mozambique and a
music company called Sonarte Music.”
“Filimone wanted to bring one of his artists from Mozambique here and together we thought we could marry it with the programming we already had.
So this event is a collaborative effort between the AGH and a new company Filimone and I have started called Matapa Music and Arts Organization, a
not–for–profit organization where we’re hoping to bring many more artists from around the world to Hamilton and at some point bringing some
Hamiltonians back to Mozambique.”
Paiement enlists Mozambican singer Wazimbo, Brazilian singer–songwriter Luanda Jones, Toronto–based Arlene Bishop, and Hamilton’s Brian
Melo and Tomi Swick for an evening set to celebrate Canada’s diversity in song that can simultaneously contrast and complement one another.
“Music has no borders, I know when I hear music from other countries, I don’t necessarily need to know what their saying,” notes Paiement. “I can
feel the soul and the energy within the music. In terms of communication, that’s really powerful and that’s a feature of this event.
“Wazimbo plays Marabenta music and it really hasn’t arrived yet in North America but it’s got a really good groove and I think people are going to
love it,” Paiement continues. “Luanda is originally from Brazil and her music reflects that with a little samba and again it’s the groove of the music and
she’s quite the delightful presence. I’ve known Arlene Bishop for many years but was reintroduced to her music recently. Her new CD is really soulful
and the messages behind the songs are quite profound. I love Brian Melo – he’s still newer to the
scene. His heritage is Portuguese and I love what he brings to the table and I love that Tomi Swick is from Hamilton – he’s old school Hamilton and
there’s a lot of soul there, like the salt of the earth.
I think all of these things contrast and complement one another.
“Every year the gallery celebrates a different culture and this time we’re looking at aspects of Canada in our artistic programming,” says Paiement.
“What is Canada? Canada isn’t the typical stereotype. We’ve become this really rich tapestry of diversity and how do we best represent that? I think
that’s in the I Love Film Series, in the AGH World Film Festival and now with this musical programming and Canada, Inc.”
Canada Inc happens this Friday March 2 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Tickets are $26 or $20 for AGH members or $24 for students and seniors.
Click on artgalleryofhamilton.com
Lori Yates’ Tribute to Johnny Cash
Lori Yates was hanging around Queen Street Toronto when the punk that so invigorated that musical hub began exploring country and Yates became
a stand out in that scene that would later spawn the likes of Blue Rodeo and more. She would take a street approach to country music and developed
a decade long career in cow punk and alt–country through the ‘90s but by 2000 decided to set up shop in Hamilton. With a couple of solo albums
under her belt, Yates more recently decided to explore a supergroup that mixed more rock with country featuring Buckshot Bebee, Chris Houston,
Jimmy Vapid and Cleave Anderson but the band dubbed the Evelyn Dicks waned after a couple of years. With the birth of her latest band, Yates
seems invigorated to do a lot more and even came up with the idea of a special tribute to a particularly poignant musical influence this weekend.
“I had been doing this solo acoustic thing for a little bit in support of my last record but I just really wanted to play with a band again and so I put
together this honky–tonk band to return to my old Rang Tango cow punk roots,” explains Yates. “I first got Pete Sisk on bass and he brought in former
Hamiltonian Ted Hawkins on drums and then we got this guitar player I played with years and years ago, like in
1993, named Steven Miller, this American guy I just recently tracked down living in Brantford. We do a lot of old country and stuff in that vein,
danceable honky tonk stuff. I’m having a blast and I absolutely love these guys. It’s inspired some new songs and I hope to record with them soon.
“We came up with the idea of having this great band back up a bunch of different singers for a tribute to Johnny Cash,” adds Yates. “I had been a
part of a tribute in Toronto and people universally love him so why not do one in Hamilton. You get to hear some great Johnny Cash songs sung by
people that you may not have necessarily thought were ever going to sing Johnny Cash.”
Enlisting singers Tim Gibbons, Scotty Campbell, Michelle Titian, Carm Milioto, Laura Hubert, Buckshot Bebee, Samantha Martin, Bob Bryden, Peter
MacAulay, Rae Billing, Mimi Shaw, Chris Houston, Glen the Hamilton Kid, and Tammy Levely, Yates sings and will host the show, a cavalcade of local
talent that focuses on the many sides of cash from the many perspectives the singers bring to the stage.
“To me, Johnny Cash was like my spiritual father,” says Yates on the man and his music. “I had a chance to meet him, which was pretty thrilling – I
didn’t get to say anything too profound to him like I wished I would have but just shaking his hand was like an electrical current that shot through my
body. I’ve always liked him but I guess since he’s died he’s really taken on an almost mythical status. It was his irreverent approach that attracted me.
Johnny Cash was the original punk. People really relate to him and he was so honest and had a lot of his struggles in public.
“And the line up for this tribute show is fantastic with 14 singers,” adds Yates. “I hope for a really surprising and fun diversity to the night. The tunes
we cover pretty much cover the spectrum. It’s not going to be all serious and really it shouldn’t be. If you hate Johnny Cash, it wouldn’t make much
sense to come to this show – but if you like Johnny Cash, it’s going to be a fun one.”
A Johnny Cash Tribute hosted by Lori Yates and Her Nashville Rejects happens this Saturday March 3 at This Ain’t Hollywood.
Click on loriyates.com
Sven Gali’s Dee Cernile
Dee Cernile helped form the original incarnation of Hamilton’s hard rock/glam metal band Sven Gali with Dave Wanless (vocals), Andy Frank (guitar),
Shawn T.T. Maher (bass), and Steve Macgregor (drums) back in 1987. Honing their metal on the hard rock stages across Ontario, Sven Gali signed to
the majors and released their eponymous debut on BMG in 1992. Nominated for two Juno Awards by 1993, for Most Promising Group and Hard Rock
Album of the Year, Sven Gali were hard rock staples on MuchMusic and a national touring act. But as with many major label signings, after their
second album, Inwire, the band ended up breaking up in 1996. Most members pursued other avenues but 11 years after their break up, Sven Gali
reunited for two gigs that were filmed for a tentative DVD release.
Fans at the band’s reunion and at his recent appearances as presenter at the Hamilton Music Awards that were unaware of his illness may not have
suspected anything wrong, as Cernile remained vibrant, full of the rock and roll attitude that he embraced all of his life even though Cernile had been
diagnosed with cancer back in 2009. Cernile was always creative, as inspiring as he was inspired, writing new music and in the process of starting a
new band.
Sadly, at only 46, after a long and courageous battle, Dee Cernile finally succumbed to the disease on Saturday February 25. Our condolences go
out to Dee Cernile’s family, friends and fans. As per the request of Dee, there will be no funeral, but plans are underway for a celebration of his life in
April and you can check this column for updates. V
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