I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

iheartthemusic was pumped when we heard that our beloved favourite, Bend Sinister were kicking off the Friday night showcase at the Horseshoe. With the sea of talented and hard working indie bands our fine country has to offer, penetrating a fan base other than the devout indie scene can be a challenge. This performance proved Bend Sinister has the range and appeal to connect with masses. Unbeknownst to front man Dan Moxon, we were on the scene prior to the band’s sound check.  His calm nature was evident as he gathered his thoughts and prepared his set list prior to the show. Once the band hit the stage they unleashed a collective surge of energy which earned them the unwavering attention of the audience for the duration of the show. Stand out tracks included a new addition to their repertoire “Can’t Change Your Mind” and the better known track “Time Breaks Down”. Dan displayed his impressive vocal range in “It’s the Little Things You Do” and the ever uplifting track “Things will get Better”. Featuring an insane guitar riff by Joseph Blood, they finished off the set with a cover of “Don’t Stop Believing”. Check out their website where they are giving away their music for free! Or better yet, see for yourself next Thursday March 25th at the Rivoli!

Next to hit the stage were CMW veterans, The Dudes. These guys are incredible musicians with a lot of heart-displayed greatly through their lyrics. Notable tracks included the cheeky track “Girl Police” and “Pretty Lies” which, front man Dan Vacon remarked “was on the radio” so don’t hate them. Dan has great performance ability, prefacing all songs with relatable stories. He wrote “Not S’Pose to Call” about his ex which he wrote when they “weren’t cool for a while, especially when I broke up with that bitch.” Yikes. While the subject matter may lead one to expect an aggressive sounding track, it is actually an incredibly catchy tune which showcases the bands southern sound. The Dudes kept the passion going with “Mr.Someone Else” featuring the cowbell, which is arguably the best instrument ever. Another highlight included “Ghosts We’re Buried On” which Vacon wrote about his grandfather. We were fortunate to catch up with these likable dudes before the show. Look out for the interview later next week.

It was refreshing to hear the female voice of Antonia Freybe-Smith (Vocals/Keys) when Jets Overhead hit the stage.  Simply put, Antonia brought this performance from good to great. They started things off with an incredibly unified performance of “Sun, Sun, Sun”. It was uplifting, inspiring and memorable, attributes which can only truly be recognized when hearing this song live. With the bar set high, they kept the quality going for the entire set. The bands introspective vibe shone through in their performance of “No Nations”, “Heading For Nowhere” and most notably “Where Did You Go” which marked another exceptional performance. “Where Did You Go” is an absolutely beautiful song, I suggest going to listen to it right now.

Next on the roster was Melissa Auf der Mar; to say the vibe changed drastically would be an understatement. It felt as if we were teleported into the early 1990’s. I suppose this makes sense considering Auf der Mar toured with The Smashing Pumpkins for their 2000 tour and was Hole’s bassist for five years. While there is no denying her talent, it felt like we were in a different decade. It’s a shame her solo career didn’t start earlier. That said, she rocked the Horseshoe. No complaints here. The only thing missing from this performance was pyrotechnics.

Hot Hot Heat hit the stage next and brought us back to 2010. These guys played an amazing set showcasing great new material and the better known tracks “Middle of Nowhere” and “Talk To Me Dance With Me”. Having just signed to Dine Alone records, (which picked up the CMW award last Thursday for Best Canadian Independent Label) their collective energy was palpable.  At the end of the set, Steve Bays (vocals and keyboards) gave a shout out to the couple making out during the whole show. That was funny. Look out for their new album Future Breeds which comes out in June.  

as reviewed by Catherine Russell

photography provided by Mike Palmer

It is quite unique these days to find a band that is musically talented, performs well AND are all related. Well, iheartthemusic found this all in the form of Winnipeg threesome Inward Eye. Anders, Dave and Kyle are three brothers who are making quite a name for themselves. They have already been on countless tours – including one that had them opening for legendary band The Who - and they were also the headliners for the opening night party of Canadian Music Week at Tattoo Rock Parlour. iheartthemusic took some time to talk with all three of them before that opening night show show on March 11th. Check out what they had to say:

iheartthemusic: Being siblings, do you feel your parents had an influence on your decision to pursue music?

David: It was pretty natural actually. I picked up a guitar when I was about 14 or 15 and just kind of played around and showed Kyle some chords. He, of course, quickly got better than me.

iheartthemusic: I guess that’s why he’s the guitarist now!

David: I guess so. Then I eventually got a bass and Anders eventually acquired some drums and we would always be jamming together. We then realized let’s play in a band together. We were sometimes jamming with our friends, but it just seemed easier this way.

iheartthemusic: You guys also got a chance to venture into the US to play some gigs there. How did that happen?

David: It started during CMW in 2005 when we played and some of the record labels really liked us and so word got down to the big wigs in New York City that they should check us out. They ended up flying us down and we did a series of showcases there which was pretty mind-blowing and we got a record deal out of it! So it was pretty good.

iheartthemusic: You’ve done tons of touring since then, such as Warped Tour, Lollapalooza and a stint with The Who, so  what is it about touring that you love?

Kyle: Playing live is the highlight for us as a band. Everything else about touring is hit or miss; you’re stuck in a van for long periods of time, eating poor quality food and not sleeping much, but in the end it’s a lot fun too and you get to see a lot of different places. The stage is the best part though.

iheartthemusic: So where has been your favourite place to play so far?

Kyle: Some of the best shows that we have ever played seem to be out West. I remember we played at the Pemberton Music Festival and that was a really good one. We played on the second stage. We had the mountains all around us and tons of people who didn’t know who the hell we were, which was good because it introduced us to a whole new crowd.

iheartthemusic: You went from playing on the second stage at a festival to opening for The Who, that must have been an amazing accomplishment for the band.

Anders: [The Who] have always been one of our biggest influences growing up, ever since we got into our dad’s vinyl back in the day, so it was just amazing. We played a show down in Austin a couple of years ago and their promoter saw us. We then ended up playing a couple of shows in Canada with them and then when the American tour came around their name came up again and it was probably the best tour we’ve ever done and ever will do.

iheartthemusic: You guys are now on a Canadian tour with Mobile and Bend Sinister. I actually got to speak with Bend Sinister last night and they gave me some dirt on you boys. Apparently you can hold your liquor quite well!

David: Yah, apparently we can for skinny boys! I mean there is only three of us, right, so we get to divvy up the booze three ways, so we’ve learned how to handle ourselves.

iheartthemusic: You also just came out with your first self-titled EP in January and you have a video out for the single “Shame.” It has an unusual concept surrounding it, can you tell us how you came up with that?

David: The director’s name was Rémy M. Larochelle and he approached us because he was really inspired by the song so we just let him have free reign with it. He drew a couple of pictures of us looking like crocodilians or something, but I think the clincher for us was the baboon beating up the priest. We were just like this is the man for us, we are going to offend some people so let’s do it right.

iheartthemusic: You were aiming for shock value then?

David: Yah, it’s great because it goes with the whole theme of the song which is about rising up against the oppressors.

iheartthemusic: You are also hitting up Warped Tour again this summer, are you excited about that?

David: It’s going to be a tough grind. I mean Warped Tour is awesome, but it’s definitely a grind. We get so much exposure and it opens a door to the whole punk scene, which we aren’t really in. We consider ourselves a rock band, so it kind of gets our foot in that door too.

iheartthemusic: How is it living together, working together and being brothers?

Anders: Well, we have done it our whole lives so we are pretty used to it!

David: We are like an old married couple; bitter and resentful [laughs].

iheartthemusic: So after Warped Tour what is the plan?

David: We are going to be hitting the road pretty hard in Canada and come back to the Toronto area and do the “401 milk run” as we like to call it; all the little areas. We are also going to be doing another little stint in New York City. We are going to be releasing our full length album hopefully in the fall, so the EP is just a little taster of what’s to come from us.

iheartthemusic: Do you want to add anything for your fans out there?

David: Please check us out on our MySpace site and give us your comments! Let us know if we are complete tools, or you like what we are doing. Be honest because we will always be honest with you!

photography provided by Matt Vardy

Canadian Music Week comes but once a year so we thought, what the heck, why not get it started a day early. And so, on March 10th iheartthemusic ventured to the Horseshoe Tavern. For us), the band of the evening had to have been Bend Sinister. Comprised of Dan Moxon (vocals/guitar/keys), Joseph Blood (guitar), Henry Alcock White (guitar/vocals), Jason Dana (drums/percussion) and Joel Meyers (bass), their sound is jazzified rock that sounds SO sweet live. We got the chance to sit down and speak with all five of them about life on the road, their upcoming tour, and the story behind their album. 

iheartthemusic: Let’s start with probably the most asked question; where did the name of the band come from?

Dan: It kind of originated right when we were still in high school or rather the summer after graduating when we started jamming in my parent’s basement. We were arguing for weeks about what the band was going to be called. My name was the worst by far it was called Halo for Spaceboy. I was in high school and I thought that was so cool at the time. One of the guys in the band said “well why not Bend Sinister?“ and because he was reading the book at the time he held it up and we all agreed on it. Then we saw the cover of the book, which was this cool image of a person screaming and wincing and it just seemed like this perfect image, so we used that for our first little EP that we did. It was a total rip-off!

iheartthemusic: So you guys met in high school?

Dan: When the band originally formed it was myself and a few friends from high school. Now we’ve gotten a bit of a different line up, but it initially started with that fusion of just being band nerds and really close friends that would jam together and stuff. When it started, we made the sound go in the direction it went, and as time progressed, I’ve slowly kicked each person out and replaced them with the most perfect player for the job [laughs]. The real reason they left was because they realized that their ambitions were otherwise. Usually what it amounts to is people can’t handle touring. Nobody realizes how hard it is to really go out and be away for a couple of months and come back and still pay your rent, barely scraping by to get gas money sometimes. 

iheartthemusic: You guys just did a cross Canada drive to get to Montreal, do you have any stories from the trip?

Joel: There was this one crazy thing in that I wasn’t there [laughs]. I went to visit my mother.

Henry: Whenever I tell people that we drove straight from Banff to a couple hours past Thunderbay, without stopping, people can’t believe it.

iheartthemusic: Any fights along the way?

Dan: I think everybody was pretty much sleeping.

iheartthemusic: So you guys made the drive because you are currently on tour with Mobile and Inward Eye. Can you tell us a little bit about this tour?

Joel: We started our first date in Montreal and, because it’s Canadian Music Week, we’ve picked up a couple of our own shows in Toronto so we won’t be playing with them here. We are then going to meet up with them again in Sudbury and then solid all the way across Canada. The first show was really good, we played at Club Soda in Montreal and it was really exciting to meet the other bands. They are all really nice and we are looking forward to getting pretty drunk with them for the next couple of weeks.

iheartthemusic: You guys also just released a new album in October which is exciting!

Dan: We did our first full length in 2005 and this is the first major release and it came out on October 23^rd of 2008 and that’s what we are touring through this time.

iheartthemusic: The album has an interesting title “Stories of Brothers, Tales of Lovers”, is this a metaphor for what the band represents?

Joel: It is kind of a pseudo concept record. A portion of the songs are about one part of the title and another portion is about the other half.

Dan: The idea was that it was suppose to be a double LP release. One side being stories of brothers and one side being tales of lovers and it works as an album because we tie in a lot of themes and even start it with the same core progression that the album ends on. The second half is directly about these two characters that are lovers and the first half are songs that we wrote after that about specific characters or just nothing to do with the set of lovers, but more about the idea of brothers as a representation of humankind.

iheartthemusic: Well the brothers half is definitely my favourite part of the album.

Dan: Well we will be playing that tonight. On this tour we actually play the brother side almost completely through. We like to perform as much of the album as we can in its order because it has an order for a reason.

iheartthemusic: Tell us about your new video that was released today I believe.

Dan: It was released on MySpace today and was a feature video for the week and has been getting medium rotation on Much Music. I don’t know whether they have to wait until its finished being a MySpace exclusive to actually put it into motion though.

iheartthemusic: How did you come up with the concept for that video? The setting corresponds to your album cover as well, so was that done on purpose?

Joel: Yah that is where it was shot, in the same location.

Dan: The main reason for that [setting] was that with our album cover we were kind of playing on the literary thing much like the name Bend Sinister and so we wanted to do an album with the classic band shot. That’s why we chose the library as it fit with the theme of the album and it made sense to do the video the same way. We wanted to make all of the content have a theme or continuity to it, we are not actually business majors so we aren’t really down with the marketing front, but it seemed to fit for us this time.

iheartthemusic: What’s going on for you guys in the future?

Joseph: I think we could probably do some writing, get some new songs. I know Dan’s got some ideas. Get some fresh stuff out there.

Dan: I thought you would say something more exciting like take over the world. We’ll definitely start working on a new album after this tour.

photography provided by Kristin McCormack

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