this is a very rare recording!!!

  Life got so busy, I never had a chance to blog about our first Zaphod's show.  First of all I met Jim at myspace, an Ottawa local ad-man extraordinaire who created all kinds of images and posters for our show.  Zaphod's even featured one of the posters for several days.  All of this excitement around promotion and making new connections with great artists set the stage for a fun show with Jacko opening, Sedrick, then Red Light Saints and Eugene and the Eugenics to close.  We had a very good turnout I thought, especially considering there was a Sens game on that night and it was a Monday!

Zaphod's is a great club to play.  Excellent sound, staff and great atmosphere all-round.  I enjoyed the wide variety of music and all the musicians gave something of their talent that night.  It was a really good time!  Thanks to all the bands and friends and fans who took the time to get out and enjoy some local music.  You all rock.

This is a response to a blog posting at the Red Light Saints myspace.

I've been reading this blog a few times and I want to respond to it!  I absolutely believe there is room for chaos in music.  I realize that I don't do music because I'm good at it.  If I were concerned only with precision and skill I would have hung my head under my arm years ago and packed it in---I just don't have time now for the four hours a day I used to practice when I was a classical pianist.  I came to play the bass precisely because I wanted to shed myself of the uptight expectations of perfection and technique that seemed beyond my reach. I had the  feeling that I was striving for an impossible goal and also to please people with elitist expectations.  I threw away all the score reading in favour of learning everything by ear from recordings.   I know my church choir voice is in there but my love of chaos has always got me teetering between what I know is part of my training, and the side of me that howls at the moon because of all of ugly stuff that has to come out with the beauty and polish.  Yet, I had to learn some of the rules to break them.  Music can be defined as "structured noise", so chaos may be there, but the organization of sounds that make recognizable music tends to subdue the chaotic elements.  The ability to express is a skill too and it takes courage and inner knowledge to find that thing that we want to express.  This is the work of the artist-- the recognition may come or not, but it is beyond the control of the artist to know how their art will be received.  It is only in our control to strive for the goals we set out for ourselves as artists.

I have a friend who recently asked me if I thought she was good enough yet to go out and play for an audience.  I responded by saying that she's not asking the right question.  I think the question you should ask yourself before you hit the stage is "Do I have something to say?  Is there something I feel absolutely compelled to express?"  If you can answer that question honestly, then you're ready!  Isn't that the passion that you're talking about?

I think a perfectly rehearsed concert can be as boring as hell.  All the right notes are there.  I'm aware of the technical abilities of the performer(s) but I have the feeling the musician(s) are going through the motions.  That kind of show makes me feel sad and blue.  It's soul sucking!  There's a Neil Young song that has a chorus in it:  "That's why we don't want to be good!"  Neil Young loves playing with Crazy Horse not because they're good in the conventional sense.  He plays with them because it's all chaos and rough and ready.  It's the soul and the spirit (and fucking beautiful big amps) in Crazy Horse, not the technique .

So my response to your blog is:  Says WHO you should change a thing about your shows?  Who says unseasoned musicians are hurting the integrity of the Ottawa scene?  They're a bunch of party poopers, they're trying to squash the creative and artistic spirit of people who are feeling a need to express themselves, no matter what.  We know the Seattle scene came about because audiences started going nuts for the music (and celebrated the accessibility of their home-town/nearby artists), no matter what genre, and that took on a life of its own and people were overflowing with creative energy.  It's a spooky thing, but the Seattle scene showed it can happen anywhere at any moment.  We can't wait around for it to happen, we just have to follow our dreams.

Some bands that are getting an audience in Ottawa are now rejecting the thought of playing with certain other bands on the local scene because they want to keep the concerts genre specific.  They've got a crowd and I guess they're worried about offending that crowd by challenging their expectations.  I think the whole recognition thing is a tricky one to balance.   It is "commerce" that makes us limit our styles and target audiences etc.---the safe path, the formulas---   I think it'd be cool to have a punk band, a rock band, a ska band, a rockabilly band etc. all in the same night!  Variety is the spice of life!  The mix of uneasy styles you describe in your music is such an incredible strength.  It's like a celebration of the diversity of our moods and spirits as people.  We strive to mix styles ourselves in Sedrick.  We've been told we not only cross genres from song to song, but even within songs!  I think Sedrick is much more conventional than I'd like it to be...I'm always hoping to stretch the boundaries more and more all the time.  I also like to think that we challenge our audiences to think outside of the box.  I feel compelled to perform, I don't know for sure if the music is "good", and I feel that if I worry too much about it I might lose my nerve and pack it in.  I'm still compelled to play with Mary, Jen and Will because I believe our band does have something to say, even if people aren't always "getting it".   Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good, and that's a useful mantra to keep egos in check if/when that recognition comes.

Your band has made me feel like I've got new challenges to take on, because you're offering up so much.  It makes me feel like working harder, a lot harder!    After your last chaotic show I felt that concerts like that hit me in the gut so very rarely, and that's why I've been openly encouraging your band and responding to your blog.  Nothing should get in the way of your bands passion to have your lofty dreams and ambitions.  Broken guitars and unexplained events at shows only add to the beauty and unpredictability of art in the moment.  And hell, you could have all the skill in the world, but it's the power of your emotions, and the belief in your own music/art  that gives your skill credibility.  So my answer to your provocative blog posting is yes yes yes, madness, mistakes, inappropriate actions and blurred reality turn people like me into dedicated fans of your music!  

MUSIC VS. CHAOS, this is still a big question for most people, mine is only one opinion.  We know that the Idol shows are big right now.  That to me is "music" winning over chaos completely.  And then there are artists like John Cage who try to take the idea of "music" out of his art altogether.  (famous for 3'33", where the pianist comes out and sits in front of the piano for exactly that long and doesn't play a note).   This is just more food for thought, the question is still there to be pondered.

Lil/from Sedrick.

The Electric Gallery is quite the place to check out bands.  We had a great time listening to all the diverse talent of the night.  The venue welcomes all ages, and we loved the show time 6-10pm.  That made it a really enjoyable gig, not to mention the enthusiastic audience.  All the bands had something interesting to say, so we thought it was a fab night.  I enjoyed that feeling of being really unhinged for all the fast songs, and the kit teetering and the amps sounding like they were going to blow.  It's a place to feel real and connect with musicians.  Catch a show there soon!

The great thing about myspace is it has helped me to find endless links between local bands.  Bands that share shows, and bands that share similar stylistic influences in the city.  Just the pure variety of it all is great!  I feel like I can make a connection right away with the artist as a fan when I like something about some band's/person's music.  I also know I'll have opportunities to hear the artist many times if I want to because they're local.  So it's just great to get to have a free preview of so much local music.  I wonder what the next advancement of this technology and accessibility will be!