Enjoying Amity Beach’s “Bonfire Etiquette,” Ontario Pop Band’s New Album

Bonfire EtiquetteGoing to a music festival with dozens of acts on the bill, and getting to hear and see personal favorites–maybe bands you’ve only heard on record, or bands you’re getting to see live for a second time–is a distinct pleasure, but another joy not to be overlooked is making serendipitous discoveries of new bands, new music you’d have never heard and enjoyed otherwise. In 2011, the first year I attended NXNE, that happened when I heard Winnipeg band Imaginary Cities for the first time, with dynamite lead singer Marti Sabit; in 2013, the same thing happened for me with Sudbury, Ontario group Almighty Rhombus, a brother band whose sound I found lots of fun; in 2012 one of my discoveries was Amity Beach, a band from Grand Bend, Ontario whose enthusiasm, energy, and hooky tunes I really enjoyed that June night. This was part of the post I wrote the next morning:

Last night’s musical performances were everything I had hoped they would be. Early in the evening, at 8 PM, I went to hear a set by a little-known band called Amity Beach. They were a young five-piece from Grand Bend, Ontario, 18-year olds who play their own songs and some great covers. Afterward, at the merch table I met the dad of the lead singer, who gave me their EP and told me of the band’s origins and how they’re writing and recording their own music. I enjoyed learning about their process. 

Amity BeachAmity Beach

I’ve enjoyed their EP, especially the opening track, “Jake’s Version of Paradise.” I didn’t like all the songs uniformly, but what was good on the disc was very likable. My first impression of them is affirmed now by their first full-length album. It’s called “Bonfire Etiquette” and it’s terrific. They’re definitely evolving as a band, with a fuller sound and a higher calibre set of compositions. I’m really enjoying the new batch of ten songs (nine original, one cover). I hear a bit of Arkells in their sound now, especially the punchy rhythm section that opens the first track “Sunday Nights to Infinity.” The feel and sound is all their own, though, with uptempo, slightly staccato arrangements. Their vocals, mostly by Geoff Baillie, are also getting better, with him singing his own lyrics about off-balance modern moments mixed with persistent striving. My faves are the opener; “Crown Victoria,” with a sort of car+relationship lyric (it’s not an ode to the automobile make & model that dominates the New York City yellow taxi fleet); “Born in the Daylight,” with female backing vocals, and “Comet Stop,” the album closer, with the rueful line, “All we have in common is we made the same mistakes.” The vocals and guitars guitars are stronger, with added accents from horns they play themselves, and bright keyboard sounds. Amity Beach may have a new hand or two on deck, as I think I see some unfamiliar faces on the photo that goes with their new album. At any rate, they’re continuing to grow, and very impressively here.

Band photoThis is a link to “Born in the Daylight” from their soundcloud.com page. I hope you like it, too. I recommend the whole album, which you can sample at their tumblr. Really gets better the more you listen to it.

Live Music this Week–The Deep Dark Woods, Mercury Lounge, Nov. 20

This should be a great live music show, Wednesday night Nov. 20 in NYC at the Mercury Lounge on E. Houston Street. Headliners The Deep Dark Woods from Saskatoon, Sasketchewan are a terrific group with a distinctive folk/roots sound, really good vocals, terrific playing–like that of their keyboard player, whose organ sound makes me feel nostalgic, though I’m not even sure for what–and memorable songs. Come join me if you can. Details at the Mercury Lounge website (the opening acts look good, too). Great music coming off the Canadian Prairies these days, as evidenced by a recent show I enjoyed during CMJ, when I heard the artists showcased by SaskMusic.

Thinking of Toronto Today, and Friends There

CN Tower

Though I live in NYC, I have a kind of sibling-city relationship with Toronto, to which I travel each June for the NXNE festival, and which I’m connected to via the CBC and Internet radio; musical acts I follow; authors I’ve published with; and book biz colleagues over a long time, many of whom are good friends. The escalating situation involving their prevaricating mayor, Rob Ford, has compelled fascination among locals and many outside of Canada for weeks and months, since Gawker and the Toronto Star both reported that Ford was seen by reporters on videotape, smoking from a crack pipe. Late last week, TO Police Chief Blair revealed that his service had recovered a digital file of the tape, which had been missing for months (Ford had denied it ever existed.) At last, things may be peaking today, with Ford’s belated admission earlier that he had indeed smoked crack, supposedly “in a drunken stupor.” Right now, at 4:15 Tuesday, Election Day in NYC, I’m still listening to CBC Radio One from the Toronto newsdesk, as Ford has said he’ll be making one more statement on this day. The on-air people are vamping, just trying to fill up the time while City Hall, or more particularly, Rob Ford, has everyone waiting.

An interval just passed during the writing of this post, as 30 minutes ago Ford came out and gave a statement that was entirely a recapitulation of all his recent evasions and self-pitying refusals to step down. He says he is not stepping down, or even temporarily stepping aside from his office. Please note, the photo above shows the view toward downtown Toronto that I had from my hotel room the last time I stayed there, at the Alexandra Hotel on Ryerson Avenue, a quiet street located between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street on the east and west, and Queen Street and Dundas Street on the north and south. Nice view, huh? That’s CN Tower in the distance on the left.

“I Can Assure People, Hopefully, It Won’t Happen Again”–Rob Ford’s Mentality Compared w/that of US Pols


Despite Canada’s deserved reputation for having a generally more sane public life than that I observe in the political culture of the U.S., the calibre of crazy on display by Toronto mayor Rob Ford rivals anything I’ve observed among American pols. This was especially evident during the weekly radio show yesterday with the mayor and his brother Doug, a City Councillor. Of course, the particular ideological flavor of their mania in distinct from that on display in the States (for instance, there’s no religious rhetoric in their routine), but like many here Ford exudes a faux populism that’s heavy on claims of martyrdom and chastisement by detractors and an unfair media. Again, like many here, Ford and his brother operate in a bubble of their own making, pandering to callers who agree with them, attacking straw figures they set up–ones they can easily knock down–and spewing outrage about supposed flaws in the city, like when a caller claimed he’d observed laggard city workers not working hard at their jobs.
One thing that the Ford situation has in common with dynamics here in the US is that Ford’s followers, or as they’re dubbed in Canadian media, “Ford Nation,” exert a powerful rationalization reflex that’s coupled with an unreasoning belief in their man that’s utterly resistant to plain facts and logic. They do backflips to explain away just about anything that critics point to as evidence of the mayor’s unfitness for office. One example is that last May Rob Ford asserted that no video of him smoking from a crack pipe existed, yet after Police Chief Blair revealed last week that law enforcement had recovered the tape, his fans said, in effect, “How can we even be sure what was in the pipe?” They neatly overlook the fact the mayor had said no tape existed.

Now, those same followers are willing to accept Ford’s vague apologies, even when accompanied by one of the weakest defenses ever uttered by a pol trying to squirm out of an embarrassing incident, spoken near the end of yesterday’s radio program: “I can assure people, hopefully, it won’t happen again.”

In future posts on this blog, I will examine other pols, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who’s borrowed many of the same policies and communications techniques that were used by George W. Bush and his administration, including the muzzling of scientists.