CATL Coming to Frolic at Phog

 

After listening to Toronto band catl’s newest album Soon This Will All be Gone, I expected the frontman to be some wild man who would talk so fast I’d have a hard time keeping up. So I entered our phone interview with a bit of trepidation.

What I was met with surprised me.

Jamie is just a really laid-back guy, happy to answer questions about his band, and quick to chuckle during a conversation.

But that chill attitude is likely to change once he gets on stage at Phog Lounge on Friday night.

“It’s kind of a party atmosphere,” he says, “that’s kind of our thing. You know, the music is simple enough that people wanna dance to it, and that’s what we want.”

Jamie is one of three members that comprise catl. His job is mainly vocals and guitar, and he is backed up by Andrew Moszynski on drums and Sarah K handling vocals and any other thing the band decides to toss in.

Catl’s unique sound is largely defined by Jamie’s style of guitar playing, the product of an unfortunate accident.

“I actually picked up that finger-pickin’-country-blues-hill style back years back,” he says, “I hurt my hand really badly in an accident and I kinda had to change the way I had to play. It actually freed up the one damaged hand and made me play more with my right picking hand, so it’s kind of a forced entry into that situation.”

Jamie also credits his love of music from the 1920s and 30s for much of catl’s sound.

As much as a country band from Toronto might seem a bit odd, the frontman believes that where he calls home doesn’t matter, as long as he’s honest with his writing.

“I think everybody can relate to it. The morals, good and bad, or good and evil, it’s a light and dark kind of thing,” Jamie explains, “You can tell where we’re from, if you look a little further into the lyrics. Like, I do have those urban references in there for sure.”

The band’s most recent album was released in April, and half of it was actually recorded right across the river at Jim Diamond’s studio in Detroit.

“It’s great going down there, and he just has a sound, and we go in there and do our thing, and he does his thing, and that’s the way it comes out,” Jamie says of Diamond’s recording technique, “You know, his studio kind of sounds like it sounds, you know, we don’t have much input into that, we just write the songs and play the instruments, and I kind of like that relationship, and he knows exactly what he’s doing.”

For this weekend’s show, catl will be joined by Detroit music veteran Danny Kroha of The Gories, who will be opening the show with his traditional blues style. Kroha contributed some harmonica to catl’s latest record, and the band is hoping he’ll join them for a bit on stage, as well.

For catl’s first visit to Windsor in two years, the band is really hoping to see a good turnout, and promise to deliver a drunkenly good time to all who attend.

Catl and Danny Kroha will be playing Phog Lounge on Friday, November 9, 2012. Doors are at 10 pm, 19+ are welcome, and admission is $5 at the door. 

 

Wed. July 13: An Unsettling night at Phog

The Montreal collective known nationwide as The Unsettlers will be playing an intimate showcase this Wednesday night at Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West) and if you don’t get your tickets soon, you may be on the outside looking through foggy Phog windows. This 10-piece gypsy symphony is coming in hot off the heels of critically acclaimed performances at the Montreal Jazz Festival as well as two solid performances at this year’s Festival Epicure into a venue that holds but 65 people. On past visits to Windsor, they’ve played far bigger rooms, but this time, things are going to get sweaty.

The Unsettlers are a hard band to categorize musically. With ten members adding their sounds (and with ten unique personalities attached), the band is like a jamboree of emotions, ranging from the whisky melancholy to the excitably gypsy. Somewhere between Tom Waits and Gogo Bordello, you’ll find The Unsettlers and even that description is pushing it. When the ashes settle, when you’ve run out of record store/radio created sub-genres of music (East Euro indie gypsy-folk swing?), all you’re truly left with is a sound that is 100% Unsettlers.

Two of the principle music writers have close ties to Windsor-Essex. Pianist Dustyn Lucas (who resembles a five and dime Schroeder from the Peanuts comics on his little piano) is from Kingsville and frontman B.W. Brandes is a long time veteran of Windsor’s music scene, toiling in the popular ’90’s band Big Daddy A & The Merves as well as serving as the bassist in the psychedelic rock supergroup The Golden Hands Before God… during their last year of playing and touring. But whatever their Windsor roots planted, it was their almost Muppet Movie travels that created the entity that is now the Unsettlers.

Gestated on the West Coast, where Brandes and Lucas teamed up with the lovely Genevieve Schreier and Brie Nelson as well as Sudbury native Santosh Lalonde, they relocated to Montreal where they picked up more members, swelling to the ten piece congregation of impressive musicians and even more impressive drinkers, creating a groundswell of music that is as undeniably infectious as the band is talented. They’re still touring promoting last fall’s ambitious and epic double CD Oil & Blood, a Coen Brothers-esque carnival ride of death, love and graveyards that served as a monstrously fun follow-up to the haunting self titled debut from a few years previous. In that the past few years, they’ve played countless shows and festivals (including this year’s Montreal Jazz Festival, several Montreal Fringe festival appearances, shows at the prestigious Montreal concert Osheaga, and a run playing at an actual carnival Quebec), recorded a live EP for CBC Radio (which essentially previewed some tracks for Oil & Blood mixed with some favourites off the debut), and played more shows in a year than some bands play in their career. And in between breaths, members of the band have created side projects (using principally each other) such as Brie Nelson and Her Other Men, Bad Uncle and Deer Ashes, Dear. This is a family who lives together and plays together. They know each other’s intricacies and delicacies so well, that they’ve created the perfect commune of music and social interaction.

And all of that is evident when you watch one of their shows. This isn’t just a group of ten musicians playing to check each other’s ego. Each note is carefully inserted, each line spit with the ferocity it deserves, each moment is fully and absolutely realized – this is a show. This is the way music was designed to be presented by people who enjoy each others’ musical company equally as much as they enjoy yours.

In anticipation of the rush of people expected, Phog is preselling tickets for this show, so one would advise you get there soon. Tickets are $10 each for an evening with The Unsettlers (no opening act, three straight hours of show) and it’ll be worth all the oil and blood in the country.

An Evening with The Unsettlers, Wednesday July 13, Phog Lounge (157  University Ave. West), 9pm, $10 in advance and door, 19+

The Windsor Scene with Lauren Hedges

Playlist for July 6, 2011;

Dstruct.O – Nuclear War (Drumstep EP 02 – 2011)

The Unsettlers – Dead and Gone (Oil and Blood – 2010)

Justin Faubert – Mother Nature (Justin Faubert – 2011)

The Blue Stones – More to Life (The Blue Stones – 2011)

StateSideSin – River (The Windsor Zene December Sampler – 2010)

MicLordz and Sauce Funky – Why U So? (Funk You Up EP – 2007)

The Classix – Girl Like You (Live What You Love EP – 2011)

Blurt – Can You Feel It? (The Love) (The Upsides of Effort – 2007)

Falling with Glory – Fight with Honour (The Windsor Zene January Sampler – 2011)

Beijing Bike Club – The Past (The Windsor Zene January Sampler – 2011)

Radio Adelaide – Sex on the Side of the Road (…And On The Brighter Side of Things)

Weirdonia – Green Tables (Single – 2011)

TON – Gutting (Going Places – 2011)

The Nefidovs – Animal Love (Set Faces to Stunned – 2011)

Impending Doom – Aeon of Dreams (Cadeus Sacrilegae)

Faithful Unto Death – All Talk (Coming Home – 2011)

High Mother – Zombie Star (Gotta Get Love – 2011)

As far as exciting shows this week go, there are a couple, but only one has me crazy pumped.

Five Alarm Funk! This ten-piece funkily eclectic group hails from Vancouver, and will be taking over the stage (and then some) at Phog Lounge on Friday, July 8^th. They’re playing Burlington on the 7^th and London on the 9^th, but are nice enough to be taking a detour to Windsor for your entertainment. This show will probably sell out, so advance tickets might be a good idea. You can get them at the venue for $12, or try the night of the show and pay $15. But whatever you decide, remember to bring your dancing shoes, as this is not a show that will have you leaning against walls with your arms crossed.

On Saturday Villains Beastro is hosting a free show with StateSideSin and Diesel Junkies, which is recommended because not only is the price right, the venue is stellar (I’m actually enjoying their atmosphere and Chicken Parmageddon Panini as I write this…) but the bands are good too! Groovy rock ‘n’ roll sure to entertain as the evil eyes of the cinema scoundrels that adorn the walls look on.

Tune in next Wednesday between 5 and 6:30 for more of what is happening in your local music scene.

Tues. June 28: Austin, Texas noisepop sensation Ringo Deathstarr hits Phog Lounge

“There is a direct line between My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Ringo Deathstarr. And it stops at Slowdive Central. If you retain any fondness for those three – and are mentally aroused by a spot of melody-heavy guitar pop – you will adore the ‘Starr” The Guardian (UK)

One of the most exciting sounds to come out of the UK at the tail end of the 1980’s and into the new decade of the ’90’s was the merging of noisepop (My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Slowdive) with the shoe-gazing (Chapterhouse, The Pale Saints), creating a new breed of noise-gazing (yeah, I totally made that genre name up). Bands like Spacemen 3 became Spiritualized, Primal Scream found its Screamadelica, and The Boo Radleys re-introduced us to “Lazarus”. And while some bands have touched on the genre in doses (such as Pink Mountaintops, The Besnard Lakes or Deerhunter), it’s never been so perfectly and deliciously replicated as by an unlikely band from an even unlikelier state (Texas). The Austin trio known as Ringo Deathstarr.

Currently on their first headlining tour to support their debut full length, Colour Trip (on Sonic Unyon Records), Ringo Deathstarr are no stranger to the road. They’ve spent the past few years honing their sound on tour with such acts as The Dandy Warhols, A Place To Bury Strangers, Black Angels, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead and The Raveonettes. And this Tuesday they chose Windsor’s own Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West) as their area stop.

If those sounds weren’t enough to entice you, opening the show are Windsor’s own Cellos, a fairly new band (recently featured as an Emerging Artist here on TWZ) featuring three of Windsor’s most respected and accomplished players – Singer/guitarist Kyle Marchand (Orphan Choir, What Seas What Shores), bassist Joe Rabie (Surdaster, Red Rows, Star Trek: The Band) and drummer David Allan (Poughboy, Explode When They Bloom, Which Witch). These guys have developed a passionate and local following with only a handful of shows under their belt and their mesmerizing live show is creating a well deserved buzz.

This show by all accounts should be packed. Ringo Deathstarr are starting to gain some real indie buzz momentum that feels like what happened when bands like Tokyo Police Club or Arkells played Windsor. You could almost feel their stock rising as they were playing and deep in your heart you knew that the likelihood of them playing a venue as intimate as Phog Lounge (or even Windsor) are pretty scarce.

Do yourself a favour and cancel whatever plans you had for Tuesday night. Head to Phog for 9pm. And let your ears come on and feel the noise.

Ringo Deathstarr (Austin, TX) with special guests Cellos, Tuesday June 28, Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West), 9pm, 19+

 

The Windsor Scene with Lauren Hedges

Lauren Hedges

First things first, the playlist from this week’s installment of The Windsor Scene, also available as a download.

Dave Russell – Toys (Unnatural Disaster – 2010)

Fresh Breath – Speed of Sound (The Speed of Sound – 2010)

Jordan Dollar – Flight (Move Forward II – 2010)

Acousticfire – Sorry Old Man (The Windsor Zene Sampler February – 2011)

Goliath – Facebreaker (Funweiser EP – 2011)

Assassinate the Following… – Sinful Beginnings (Assasinate the Following…)

Fuck The Facts – Fingers with Candy Tips (Collection of Splits 2000-2004 – 2005)

Tony Coates – Beautiful (2010)

Anonymous Bosch – Death, Metal, and Blues (Anonymous Bosch)

Awake to a Dream – Tainted (2011)

ATM – Crusty Barnacle (ATM/Gnarlie Murphy Split – 2010)

Shortcut to Last – It’s Not Enough (I Know You’re Not One For Serious Situations – 2010)

Riverside – The Best is Yet To Come (Newspeak)

Time Giant – Lobotomy (Grow – 2011)

Sewing with Nancie – Naïve (The Same Three Chords – 2000)

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Muscle Relaxants (Departing – 2011)

Lonesome Lefty & The Cryin’ Shames – Back to the Sugar Camp (Souvenir Album – 2011)

Yellow Wood – Be A Little Braver (Son of the Oppressor – 2009)

Yellow Wood – Picture (Son of the Oppressor – 2009)

And a few notes on the show;

Thanks to Dave Russell for the nudge towards his tunes! Anonymous Bosch did a similar thing this week as well, informing me of their newly-submitted album. There are a lot of CDs in our library, and I have yet to find the time to become familiar with all of them. Requests for music, whether they’re coming from artists or fans, are always welcome and appreciated. So what do you want to hear?

Awake to a Dream, Tony Coates, and Shortcut to Last are rad for supplying their music after I asked for it. Thanks for helping to build the show, and CJAM’s local library!

Anyone else interested in having their albums added to our selection of local artists can feel free to drop CD’s (or vinyl!) off at the station in the basement of the CAW Student Centre at The University of Windsor.

This past week I was in attendance at a number of sweet shows.

Last Thursday, which also happened to be St. Patty’s Day, I spent my evening at The Coach, and as my alcohol consumption went up, I remembered more. Yes, I know this makes no sense, but there it is. What this translates into is this; of The Kettle Black I remember a dude with a guitar, some black curtains, and weirdness. So, that is to say, not very much. On to Devilz by Definition, then. Metal. Lots of mids, high-pitched screaming. We’re getting better. So next came Awake to a Dream. A ukulele cover of The “Last Saskatchewan Pirate” by The Arrogant Worms, and I geeked out. Music from Sonic 2. I geeked more. It was awesome!

Sunday night was Shared Arms, Everyone Everywhere, and The All Night in an all-ages show at Phog. Pop-punk at it’s finest. The moshing had to be continually squashed, and the crowd sang as loud as the bands, even when they weren’t hijacking microphones. It made me really appreciate and wonder at the dedication of music fans in Windsor, that they learn the words to every single song of the local bands they love. It’s great to see, you won’t find it quite the same anywhere else.

Tuesday night was the debut of Cellos in the opening slot for KEN Mode. I unfortunately had to miss the first band thanks to work, but folks tell me it was quite the experience.  My first encounter with KEN Mode was pretty damn awesome, but I don’t know how to describe it. They can’t be defined by a single (or even 3) genre. It was for sure heavy, and the mixing of an Orange stack with a Mesa head almost made me cry I loved it so much. Instead of trying and failing to describe this music, how about you just listen to it.

Friday the 25^th is a very busy night in the Windsor music scene, but I’ll give you the rundown on my show of choice (and believe me; it wasn’t an easy one). At The Blind Dog you can see Silver Glory, Awake to a Dream, Nuclear Sunrise, Bleach, Jonas & the Massive Attraction, and Anonymous Bosch for only $10 (with the purchase of an advance ticket).  A night of rock’n’roll at it’s finest. Pretty stoked for this one.

But any show you choose in Windsor this weekend, whether it’s Tony Coates at Taloola, Fuck the Facts at The Coach, or Freedom Within at Trees, it’s gonna be great, because Windsor fans are half the fun of these shows, and they’re sure to be packing each one of them.

And as an extra special tip, if you tune in to the show next Wednesday between 5 and 630 you’ll have a chance to win a pair of tickets to the upcoming Perpetuate CD Release Show with Baptized in Blood and Betrayer. That’s right, free tickets to a sweet metal show. What more can you ask for?

Sun. March 20: Shared Arms may be Windsor’s best kept secret

A long time ago, in a skate park far far away, there was a band named Blurt. They were fun, energetic punk rock that had soundtracked more house parties than Pearl Jam “Ten” did in the early 90’s. The undisputed kings of the all-ages shows, they brought a more mature craftsmanship to a genre known more for its menace and lack of musicality. The Blurt song “Kingston Forever” is still a classic Windsor punk song.

Photo courtesy band's Facebook Page

But for whatever reason – be it timing, or perhaps a desire for something slightly different – Blurt never fully exploded in Windsor’s larger musical spectrum, despite countless out of town shows and a legion of underage die-hard fans. Finally, the band – consisting of Jesse Fellows on vocals and guitar, Joey Acott on bass and Anthony Maniscalco on drums – dissolved.

Fellows and Acott remained musically active together and the itch to write and perform shone through again and they recruited drummer Mat Stewart and create a new beast. The magnificent Shared Arms.

With a new name, their direction and attitude grew. No longer the skate punk of their youth, the songwriting matured closer to Mike Ness of Social Distortion in melody, but still retaining the piss and vinegar that dripped from their brows from their gestation years in Blurt. Like a punk Phoenix from its own ashes, they rose with a punk rock wrecking ball that is as polished as it is dangerous. If Orphan Choir was the punk scene’s Beatles, Shared Arms would have to be its Rolling Stones (Shared Arms are actually share the same label as Orphan Choir, Tragicomedy Records, run by Orphan Choir’s Jim Meloche and  Shared Arms’ Acott).

Still playing in support of last year’s Ill Sessions, Shared Arms has been gaining the praise of the national music media as well, with a glowing review for their latest record by Exclaim! Magazine, Canada’s premiere independent music magazine. Reviewer Aaron Zorgel called the release “a collection of extremely impressive, diverse, interesting and inventive punk songs” and that the band “are one of the best active punk bands in Canada”. Zorgel went on to conclude that Shared Arms “are skate punk revival that will show even the most jaded ’90s punk fans that this music still has a place in the Canadian punk scene.”

Here’s a fan video taken from the last time they played Phog. A packed house.

Well, Shared Arms returns to Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West) this Sunday night for what seems to be yet another great Sunday showcase at Phog Lounge (with recent success with Rah Rah and the upcoming Rural Alberta Advantage). For those of us who have Mondays off, it’s nice to have a great option for live music on a Sunday night.

As you can see by the video, their shows get full. And this Sunday’s special early show (it’s all-ages, so it has to be over by 11pm) will be starting at 9pm (doors are around 8pm) with a $5 cover.

They’re being joined by a couple of touring bands, Everyone Everywhere – a pop-punk band from Vancouver – and Winnipeg’s The All Night.

Shared Arms with special guests Everyone Everywhere and The All Night, Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West), Sunday March 20th, all-ages, 8pm (show starts at 9pm sharp, over at 11pm), $5 at the door

Tues. March 15: Michou’s Mike Hargreaves launches new symposium on “What Music Means?

Tonight at Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West), Michael Hargreaves hopes to start something positive.

In what he hopes to be the first of many, he’s launching a symposium for discussion and brainstorming, simply asking “What does music mean to you?”. These pow-wows are scheduled to happen once a month, presumably all in the intimate four walls of Phog Lounge.

The idea is to have guests each month, from national touring acts to local musicians, and in Hargreaves’ words “to talk about favourite songs, song writing, and overall values in music. The goal: to hear as many perspectives as we can on music, and how it plays a role in our lives, why we think it’s good, and why the hell we care about it so much.”

It will be a way for musicians to interact on a grass roots level with the music audience and determine what is it that makes you come back to their shows? Why do you choose to follow one band or musician more than another? How can we as music fans save the music industry from becoming a Walmart rather than a L’Ouvre?

The guests for tonight’s debut are Stefan Cvetkovic (who plays solo under the name Efan! and also plays alongside Hargreaves in recent XM Radio Verge Artist of the Year winners Michou) and Martin Schiller, whose credits currently include What Seas, What Shores, 87 Things For The Future, Poughboy and Star Trek: The Band.

The event begins at 8pm tonight and it’s free to all those who wish to attend.

Wed. March 9: Five Alarm Funk bring the noise to Phog

Here’s something that may seem obvious considering the venue: “It’s gonna get crowded tonight”.

Not just because the band in question, Vancouver’s Five Alarm Funk, had a standing room only show last time they brought their 10-man ensemble through Windsor, but because, well, there’s ten of them. Ten. But with a sound as eclectic as it is huge, you’ll soon discover that each member is as essential as the next, despite the fact that their guitar neck is poking your poutine or the bass player keeps drinking your pint of Stonehammer. Tonight, Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West)’s dance floor will be a series of fleshy undulations.

Five Alarm Funk are a hard band to categorize. Their horn section will automatically have people clamoring they’re ska, but I don’t exactly hear a full on ska sound. It’s about as ska as Frank Zappa was funk. Zappa was funky at times, sure, but I don’t think you’d ever find Zappa in the funk section. Five Alarm Funk are an ensemble of music enthusiasts but perhaps also musical nihilists. They take a multitude of genres, dismantle them piece by piece, then reconstruct a new monster using only the parts they deem the tastiest.

Choreographed dance moves with explosive stage energy propel this show, as the band, touring in support of their third and latest album, Anything is Possible, will undoubtedly spill from Phog’s cozy stage to the floor, where it will only be a matter of time before it’s full of the writhing sweaty music fans that Phog has honed and nurtured.

In short, get ready for another of Phog’s crazy dance parties.

Opening up the show are locals The Nefidovs.

Five Alarm Funk with special guests The Nefidovs, Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West), Wednesday March 9, 9pm, 19+

Thurs. Mar. 3: Punk rawk rolls into Phog for pint and poutine

One of the ways you can tell a scene is on the up is when the venue’s genre lines are blurred. When you see metal guys at pop shows, or folk singers at punk shows, etc., it’s an indicator that people are transcending genre preference for talent preference, which translates that the scene is healthy.

One of the venues that subscribes to this is Phog Lounge, who in the past year have added a lot more acts outside their norm, such as hip-hop, metal and punk rock. This Thursday marks a full on punk show of varying degrees, led by a couple bands from Montreal.

Old School Politics are a Quebec punk-pop band who have been around for about six years and though they may have started rough around the edges, they’ve polished up quite nicely. Their sound is reminiscent of California punk like NOFX, pre-Dookie Green Day or early Blink 182. And while vocally they remain in the safety of the pop-punk melodica, at times their guitars stray to the outer rim where they tread just a little bit into the Bad Religion marshlands (such as on the track “Got It”). Their sound is that of a punk band growing up, when the anger is turning into joy of playing well crafted songs instead of just making a racket, when the revolution is more about positive empowerment than just reckless abandon.

The Hunters are another Quebec punk band whose sound reeks of a found maturity. The punk angst is still there but their musical appreciation is akin to Windsor’s own Orphan Choir, in that it seems to have amalgamated their original punk rawk DIY ethic and absorbed in other found music stylings into their pantheon. Their sound swirls with throw back sounds that are as much The Clash via Combat Rock as they are street punk. These guys have been work horses the past few years, sharing the stage with many of punk rock’s heavy weights, such as Bad Religion, Agnostic Front, Anti-Flag, The Casualties, Mustard Plug, Subhumans and more, including a stint on the Vans Warped tour.

Opening the stage are two local punk bands from different sides of the street. The Nefidovs are one of the scene’s fast rising star (they’re on the February FREE Music Sampler), incorporating a punk rock credos with a ska vibe and one hell of a live show (as witnessed last Friday when they opened for the Benito Band and FourLetterWord at The FM Lounge). Starting things off are The Rowley Estate. Think if Orphan Choir had stayed more traditional head on street punk with a touch of the Oi! gang vocals. These guys are still running on piss and vinegar and sometimes you need to be reminded of what it meant to be punk rock in the first place.

This is a great line-up that shows four very different punk bands at different stages of their development, which will only benefit them all. The veterans will feel the hunger of the young ones nipping at their heels and reminding them of their roots, while the younger bands will see the result of what a good polishing can do to any genre.

Old School Politics and The Hunters with special guests The Nefidovs and The Rowley Estate, Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West), Doors 8pm, 19+, $5

Fri. Feb. 25: Wax Mannequin returns to tear down the walls at Phog

As someone who’s spent a fair deal of time in Hamilton, I’ve often felt like Steeltown is like a sister city to Windsor (if the sister was on a mountain). Both are tightly linked to its strong union and blue collar work ethic. Both people are hardened to the realities of fluctuating and crippling unemployments which have forced the community to embrace one another with an iron clad sense of loyalty.

So it’s no wonder that Hamilton’s Wax Mannequin has been so embraced by Windsor music lovers. He tours Canada relentlessly (and more recently with forays into Europe) and he always makes sure that Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West) is one of his tour stops. Sometimes several times a year. In fact, I’d wager he’s played Phog more regularly than some Windsor bands. He’s like if Henry Rollins or the New York’s David Johansen had chosen to follow Woody Guthrie or Tom Waits rather than heavier rock and roll. A frantic and captivating showman with a true sense of life in his lyrics, his website states that “(he) now finds himself a forerunner in a strange new movement: roaming recluses and attention-seekers — solo-performers, equipped with laptops, damaged instruments and decaying minivans, making new sounds, informed by hard travel and rough living.”

He’s bringing along a friend from Guelph by the name of Jenny Omnichord, which is the stage name used by multi-instrumentalist Jenny Mitchell when she’s not playing with the bands, Barmitzvah Brothers or The Burning Hell. Under her solo guise, Jenny has released several albums and an EP, as well as the collaborative children’s album, Charlotte or Otis: Duets for Children, Their Parents and Other People Too, which featured collabrations with Andy Magoffin (Raised By Swans, Two Minute Miracles), Wax Mannequin, Shad, Kim Barlow, Ida Nilsen (The Choir Practice, Buttless Chaps), Old Man Luedecke and Tony Dekker (Great Lake Swimmers).

But a word to the wise. If you’re even remotely interested in checking this out, get there early. Wax Mannequin’s legend proceeds him at Phog and more often than not, his shows are packed and sold out by 11 o’clock. So unless you want to be left out in the cold trying to peer through foggy windows (no pun intended), I’d suggest you set 10pm as your target time to avoid missing any of the show…and getting in.

Wax Mannequin with special guest Jenny Omnichord, Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West), 9pm, 19+