Beware! The Leopard

Apologies for the Delays

This week's posts are going to be coming in at odd times and on odd days as my internet connectivity is very limited because I don't have it in my new flat yet. 

Please be patient and normal service will resume quickly (I hope). 

Happy New Year

S.P.

Belated Project Wednesday

As I missed this week's project Wednesday -- here's a belated image for you, and my first from London.  This was taken at night in Belsize Park.

Enjoy,

S.P.

London Fog

Friendly Friday Update

Welcome to the latest feature to be added to SanchoPanza.ca!  Friendly Friday Updates! 

While the other regular categories (Monday's Bands to Watch and Weekly Project Wednesdays) are focussed on providing entertainment and/or education (or is that educational entertainment?), Fridays are dedicated to updating you on my current musical situation.

I arrived in London, England almost 4 weeks ago.  In that time I've managed to secure all of the requirements for living save a job to pay the bills.  I've also managed to join a band.  We currently don't have a name although some have been bandied about (A Forest, Birthday Candles, Ship of Fools, among others).  It all came together rather quickly.  I arrived in London knowing that a band would be formed with my Rockets Fall comrade Tarek, and his guitar whiz cousin Assad, but we figured that we would have trouble finding a drummer.  We were wrong.  Tom Ireland was the first to respond to our Gumtree add, and his drumming style is perfect for what we have in mind.  We've already got two songs well in form and will be coming up with more shortly once the holiday season is over.  Expect us to hit the gig circuit mid-to-late spring with hopefully a festival appearance in the summertime.

For Sancho Panza solo material, there has been a bit of a lull as I await the arrival of my gear which is sitting at Heathrow airport.  I intend to pick it up tomorrow, and will then be able to get back to recording which will be great.  I've got a couple of new tunes written that I will share with you all, and will probably form the basis of my demo which I will be shopping around in a month with any luck.

London is a great city with a lot of music venues, and I can't wait to get out there and perform in some of them.  If you have any tips on your favorite places to play, or go to listen to good music in London town, please drop me a line, I'd love to hear them.

That's it for now.  Keep your eyes peeled for another update next week.

S.P.

Plus a few great songs, minus fame and fortune

D'oh!  Apologies for the Christmas delays.  Here's this week's Bands to Watch.

+/-  www.plusmin.us

+/- {plus/minus}  is an indie band out of New York, New York.   They have a sound  very similar to that of Death Cab for Cutie, but the lyrics contain a bit more mysticism and are not as direct as those of their west coast counterparts.  Led by frontman James Baluyut, {plus/minus} creates beautifully original pop music.  The guitar melodies, vocals, and drums all perfectly compliment one another, they even manage some really good vocal harmonies on the chorus of Steal the Blueprints.  The only downside to {plus/minus} is that they are not an overly prolific outfit in that since their formation in 2001, they have only released two full-length albums and a handful of shorter EP's.  In mid-2007 they released their first DVD which contains a number of videos (many directed by the drummer, Chris Dreaner), as well as many extras. 

I can't wait for them to come out with something new.  In the meantime, here's a youtube version of "steal the blueprints" directed by Chris Dreaner.

 

The Ponys - Ponys Myspace

Chicago's Ponys blend a number of different styles into catchy punk rock music.  These boys have obviously been listening to London Calling on repeat for a long time, as the jangly guitars and 70s punk era vocals draw the listener back to that time, particularly on the track "little friends".  While the lyrics are not very introspective nor necessarily even very poetic (i.e. "I was so sad thinking of the times we could have had, I wanna fuck you"), poetry has never been a calling card of punk.  Now let's not get confused here either.  Ponys are not anywhere close to what many people label "punk" in modern times.  They sound nothing like Sum 41, Blink 182, or Green Day.  This is not pop-punk with emo thrown in for good measure, this is the real deal.  Lo-fi recordings, twangy guitars, thumping drums, vocals shouted above the din; add a soupcon of talent and you have Ponys.  This is everything that punk should have led to. 

 

Weekly Project Wednesdays

More new features rolling out on Sanchopanza.ca.  This week it's photography.  I've finally managed to create a TypePad photo album (more my fault than TypePad's), so you can see some of the shots I've been playing with in the last little while.

First Photos

I'm really enjoying the Pentax K110D I used to shoot all those pics (with the exception of the "abyss" shot).  Now I just need a tripod, because there's some great stuff to shoot in London at night, but it's pointless without  something to stabilize the camera. 

Keep your eye on the Photography link for more updates.

It is my goal to eventually offer the photos for sale as prints that you can order online.  If anybody has knowledge on how to set up something like that.  Drop me a line or comment here.  I would appreciate it.

 

Weekly Project Wednesdays will become a regular feature where I add mp3s, photos, or videos each week.  Keep your eyes and ears peeled for next week's addition.

S.P.

Of songwriters and space

Alright.  It's a Monday night which means guess what......Bands to Watch.  Yessir. 

This week I've got one very new one and an oldy that's coming back into style. 

Nick Drake  http://www.nickdrake.com/index.html

Before Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens, and the modern day singer-songwriter, there was Nick Drake.  Nick was all but forgotten by the mainstream music scene before Zach Braff selected one of his songs for the Garden State soundtrack.  "One of these things first" off Drake's sophomore Bryter Layter is a superb example of Nick's songwriting abilities.  Intricate melodies and a morose voice coupled with fiercely intense lyrics are hallmarks of Drake's style.  Like many icons of the 60s and 70s the biggest shame was that his life was cut abysmally short when he overdosed on anti-depressants.   The tragedy is that he  was never appreciated for his work during his 26 years on this planet.  The only three albums he ever released are intricate beautiful pieces of art, true art.  A box set of his work entitled Fruit Tree has recently been re-released.  I highly recommend picking it up, grabbing a candle, a cigarette, and a glass of great scotch or port, turning it up to 11 and immersing yourself in this long unloved master.

Youth Movies -- http://www.myspace.com/youthmovies

Youth Movies doesn't deserve a normal type of review or blog post.  They deserve something different.

Imagine yourself as a satellite.  You are on a mission to photograph the surface of Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet. 

You are 10,000 miles away from the upper reaches of the jolly giant's atmosphere.  the twinkling of start of a thousand galaxies form the backdrop.  It's still dark, the space is immense.  Equally large is the enormous looming shape in front of you.  You can see the swirling clouds of the mighty planet.  All you can think is that there's a reason they named it after the most powerful of the Greek gods. 

Different coloured clouds swirl into each other; most of the time in a pleasing fashion, but occasionally they clash violently making you appreciate the beautiful collisions all the more. 

You reach the upper layers of the atmosphere.  The clouds are wispy, cool and fresh.  As you descend they get thicker, almost oppressive.  The temperature begins to rise.  Lightning strikes to your left.  Scared, you flee in the opposite direction unwittingly straight towards the Red Eye.  The immense storm has been brewing for centuries and would swallow 3 Earths whole. 

The winds pick up, the storm deepens.  Shivers run down your spine.  You are filled with terror and exhilaration in equal measures.  The colours envelope you, the lightning tingles your metal satellite toes, the wind whips you round and round.  Then...with a BLAM...you're flung back out into the deep reaches of space, your mission unaccomplished, yet you feel fulfilled even as you drift off into darkness.  Alone.

Bands to watch

A new regular segment of Out of Tune Soul begins today.  Many of my regular readers will know that I take pleasure in finding obscure or less recognized bands.  Many of these bands have decent followings, but have not made it 'big' in any sense of the word.  As such, I will attempt each Monday to showcase two or three of the bands that I've found or enjoyed recently.  Maybe one day this will evolve into a weekly podcast, but as I have some research to do before I can do that I will strive to provide links where available.  I make no claims to be the one to "discover" these bands, I am merely attempting to showcase to my readers the bands which I am currently enjoying in the hopes that maybe some of them will enjoy them as well.

If you enjoy this new addition to Out of Tune Soul or have constructive criticism to make it better, please comment.  If you have found a band, pleas share as i am always interested in finding new music.

Cheers,

S.P.

This week's selections are Band of Horses and Straw Hut.

Band of Horses - http://www.bandofhorses.com/

This South Carolina based band (formerly of Seattle) has recently released their second full-length album.  Cease to Begin is an excellent journey through a fantastic musical atmosphere.  The lead off single 'Is there a ghost" showcases the trio's chemistry.  The vocals sit beautifully on top of the mix, in a vein reminiscent of My Morning Jacket, another great southern band.  The group interweaves interesting down tempo melodic sections with raucous guitars that provide the energy required to drive this type of music. Hardly a "new" band, Band of Horses has not yet received the recognition that it duly deserves.

The group is currently touring the American bible-belt and will make a jaunt to Europe in early 2008.  I highly recommend checking them out.

Straw Hut - http://www.myspace.com/strawhut

A recent addition to the Montreal music scene, Straw Hut draws its influences from a wide range of sources including jazz, flamenco, and singer-songwriter genres.  Frontman/guitarist Barry Jones spent much of the last decade traveling around Europe, particularly France and Spain, and the influences are extremely evident in the sounds of the guitar.  Borrowing from the ancient practices of storytelling through song, Straw Hut's lyrics are long winding affairs that do not follow conventional songwriting methods.  Some might call this type of writing pretentious, but somehow the vocals meld together with the guitar, bass, and cajon to create a sublime musical experience. 

Straw Hut is currently playing mostly in the Montreal area.  If you have chance, go check them out, you won't be disappointed.

The sidekick in the new world

Well, I managed to follow my Don Quixote to London.  I don't think Cervantes ever expected his characters to travel so far, especially not by airplane, but here I am. 

The jetlag hasn't quite set in yet, but undoubtedly by two in the afternoon I will be wanting to sleep rather badly.  In the meantime I have to contend myself with trying to setup shop, getting a bank account, a flat, and a temporary job to pay the bills before my Canadian cash runs out. 

London has a very different aura to Ottawa.  The creative scene here is just so much larger its almost incredible.  It feels like a short plane trip has ripped open a new window into my soul.  I had previously been aware of the workings of large cities (heck I grew up in one), but the sheer magnitude of living in a city of 6 million people, with all the comensurate hustle and bustle, is wonderful.  For example, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is playing a show this Sunday.  Thurston Moore has never been to Ottawa outside of Sonic Youth, and there would be no hope in me seeing him solo, but here, in this vast expanse of humanity, it is a regular occurrence.

The musical connections are already beginning to form, I just need to be patient and hope that my equipment arrives unscathed in couple of days.

The adventure begins, and I can taste the future.

S.P.