TWITCH: Issue #5 of MONGREL ZINE - NOW OUT

www.mongrelzine.ca

TWITCH: FLEMISH EYE BALL - MAY 16 @ RCL

TWITCH TWITCH TWITCH
YOU DONT WANNA MISS THIS GIG AT THE #1 ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION, DOWNTOWN CALGARY - MAY 16!
CHAD VANGAALEN, WOMEN, PALE AIR SINGERS, GHOSTKEEPER, AND A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE BY THE ONE AND ONLY JULIE DOIRON!

TWITCH: JACK HARLAN

LOVE COME AROUND
BY A.R. Howerton

Jack Harlan is a Canadian folk-rocker who has made his way from coast to coast, starting in Calgary, dominating the Vancouver scene and slowly moving east until landing in Niagara Falls, where he now steadily works both sides of the falls and has become invested in US culture as much as in his native Canadiana.

On LOVE COME AROUND, Harlan’s fifth album and third indie release, his down-home folk sensibilities are focused primarily on protest songs, a subset of folk that has long been associated primarily with the revolutionary 60’s. The truth is that protest songs have been a part of folk music since the dawn of time and Jack Harlan reminds us of this by creating throwbacks to the songs of the Great Depression, especially the dusty rambles of Haywire Mac, the social laments of Woody Guthrie and the political awareness of Lead Belly.

Jack Harlan wears all of those influences, and more, on his sleeves. He’s been compared to Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Loudon Wainwright and has been labeled some variation of ‘the new Dylan’ time and time again. Thankfully, homage never degrades into imitation. Harlan adheres to the raw acoustic guitar/vocal techniques of his forebears and uses the style to great effect. Soul-searching songs of salvation, workin’ man’s laments, and good, ol’ fashioned love ballads flow together to create a dark velvet sea of emotion that is not only good for what ails ye, but is also endlessly listenable.

There are several tracks dealing with the American situation in the New Century. Economy Of Love, the lead-off track, is a ballsy plea for community and social sensibility to overtake the interests of a corrupt government. Secret Behind The Sun is a hard look at the poverty, hopelessness and ‘ashes of American dreams’ that have steadily risen to choke out the US in the wake of the Bush administration. Those songs of revolution flow in and out of heartfelt urgings to ‘start your revolution’, the original title and the main message of LOVE COME AROUND. The haunting This Time Around takes shades of recent pop culture and spins them into a quietly stated message of personal rebellion. Down From The Mountain and Be Not Your Failures are decidedly more uptempo numbers, but no less inspiring. The message is clear and true and good. Jack Harlan is urging us all to step up, be counted and make our mark for ourselves, our community and our world. Be good and you will be free. It is a powerful message that, while by no means new to folk music, has never been more urgently needed.



Check it out at http://www.jackharlan.com/music.htm

And order LOVE COME AROUND on
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Come-Around-Jack-Harlan/dp/B001EGFWH0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1234378025&sr=1-1

Or at http://cdbaby.com/cd/jackharlan2

TWITCH: DAVID BYRNE

ONCE IN A LIFETIME PRETTY MUCH SUMS IT UP
By Bad Tempered Zombie

David Byrne
Jack Singer Concert Hall
February 23/09

David Byrne is still inventive, still relevant, still has incredible pipes, and I would hazard to guess that he is still the man whom many heterosexual men crush on.

We had seats up in the nosebleeds of the second balcony for the David Byrne concert last night, but they turned out to provide a rather fabulous overview of the spectacle that ultimately unfolded on the stage. Dressed from head to toe in stark white, including Mr Byrne's fabulous shock of hair, the eleven band members, including three dancers, put on a gloriously avant-garde extravaganza, which was joyously received by the packed house.

The show kicked off with a funky rendition of the latest David Byrne/Brian Eno single Strange Overtones, and the menu for the night featured selections from the current Byrne/Eno collaboration, as well as drawing from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and of course from those incredible Talking Heads albums.

Given David Byrne's senior statesman of music status, I have to admit I was rather expecting a singer-songwriter evening, but nothing could have been further from reality. This was a SHOW, a highly choreographed mélange of music and theatre and experimental ballet, strange and beautiful. For a musical concert, especially one in monochrome, it was an intensely visual experience. There was always something intriguing happening on stage, whether it was the dance during Life is Long which had the three dancers and Byrne rolling about on office chairs, a finale with everyone on stage donning a white tutu, or that incredible moment during Once in a Lifetime when the boy dancer leap-frogged over David Byrne's head, and all the while Byrne paused not his singing and guitar playing.

Although visually David Byrne could easily have passed as a cult leader, dressed all in white as he was and with that commanding presence of his, he was anything but autocratic during the performance. Often, he would blend in with the dancers or the singers and mimic their movements, or fade to the background of the stage while the dancers took over centre stage.

The audience was dancing gleefully in the aisles during the entire second half of the performance and joyfully clapping along with all their favourite Talking Heads numbers. I'm pretty certain that if David Byrne had offered up kool-aid and a chance to ascend to the mother ship, at least 75% of the audience would have taken a drink. Never before have I seen three encores at a concert. I expect it will be a long while before I do again.

http://www.badtemperedzombie.blogspot.com