(Jessica Rhaye. Photo contributed.)

Six years passed between Jessica Rhaye’s debut self-titled album and her 2006 follow-up, Short Stories.

She wasn’t about to let that happen again, and the singer-songwriter from Saint John has proved that by releasing her third album, Good Things, only three years after her sophomore effort.

“There was a huge gap between the first record and Short Stories, but I think that was because I was in school, and I think I really needed to take the time and mature and really own my craft of songwriting,” she tells EastCoastNoise. “And I wrote a lot of tunes that didn’t make Short Stories, so I had a lot of tunes left over, so the whole songwriting process didn’t take quite as long.

“But yeah, I’d definitely like to keep moving at this pace.”

Rhaye’s third album is a more acoustic-based, stripped-down affair than Short Stories was. The new album, released independently only a few weeks ago, came out of a tour of England Rhaye did with New Brunswick’s Matt Andersen and Nova Scotia’s Dave Gunning a few years ago.

Usually when Rhaye performs, she does so with just her vocals and an acoustic guitar, so she decided to take that approach on Good Things.

“I was (in England) by myself, and we were each doing our own solo acoustic shows,” Rhaye says. “It was going along really well, and I think people were looking to buy the music as they had heard it. And at the time, I was playing a lot of the new tunes which are on the new record. That’s kind of where it started. I thought maybe it was time that I record something that sounds like what I do acoustic.”

Rhaye’s earlier efforts weren’t over-produced, but they had a bit of a pop sheen that is less present on the new record.
The new album, produced by Ed Woodsworth in Cape Breton, features a few of Rhaye’s earlier tunes which she wanted to revamp a bit, as well as a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” which has been a staple of Rhaye’s live show for some time.

“I brought back Time Out, which was on my very first record. I just thought it would work well with the new tunes, and I kind of thought it was time to bring it back and, I don’t know, kind of make it a little bit more mature sounding, which I think it does … (I) got rid of the children’s laughing. And I brought back Holding Out (from Short Stories) too, which is kind of funny. It’s probably the version which we should have started out with first because it’s kind of the root of the song. On Short Stories, we did the more produced, almost dance version of the song.”

Rhaye wrote some of the new album herself, but she relied on help from songwriter friends – or “song doctors” as she calls them – Dave Gunning, Ken Tobias and Asif Illyas (Mir) for others she co-wrote.

And for the title track, Rhaye met up with legendary Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith.

“I was definitely nervous,” she says of working with Sexsmith when he was in New Brunswick for some gigs. “But once I got talking to him and kind of settled into the songwriting mode it was no big deal really. It was a big deal, but it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be. He really brought that song around. I had a verse and sort of a chorus and he really helped me fix up the chorus and he helped me write the second verse and he wrote the bridge, so he really brought that song around.”

With Good Things now out, Rhaye has some summer concert dates lined up, a proper fall tour and even some possible gigs planned for outside the east coast.

She also has a DVD called Good Things From The Stage in the works. Produced by Hemmings House Pictures, it will feature live performances, interview footage and behind-the-scenes clips from the making of Good Things.

“We were in Riverview last June when we did the live recording part of it. It was originally just supposed to be an EPK, a press release we would send around to different people to try and book shows so they could see what I do live.”

The project quickly turned into something more expansive that Rhaye hopes will be released as soon as next month.

A sample of the new DVD along with tons of other information on Rhaye can be found at her new online home here.

Rhaye’s upcoming dates include:

June 26 – The Mason Jar Speak Easy & Cabaret – Sussex, NB
July 4 – Harmony House – Hunter River, PEI
July 11 – Salty Jam Festival – Saint John, NB
Aug. 16 – Outdoor Ampitheatre – Cambridge Narrows, NB
Sept 2. – The Carleton – Halifax, NS
Nov. 13 – Brush of Hope Event at the Delta Brunswick – Saint John, NB
Nov. 20 – Capitol Theatre – Moncton, NB

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(The Novaks, left-right, Mark Neary, Elliot Dicks and Mick Davis. Photo contributed.)

Mick Davis bemoans the loss of spontaneity and of real guitar heroes in rock music. The Novaks singer and guitarist says technology allowing bands to fake things in the studio to get a perfect sounding recording is killing emotion and feel in rock music today.

But Davis hopes his Newfoundland band can help change that.

“Singers today in these power-pop, whatever you call them, punk groups on the radio, they never sing through a whole track, you know, or at least it doesn’t sound like it to me,” he says. “Because of ProTools, they can sing the chorus, and if they get it right the first time, they cut-and-paste it into the other two places where the chorus is.

“Instead of, when you listen to a Lenny Kravitz song, when he goes, ‘ooh yeah,’ or ‘rock on, guitar solo,’ you don’t hear that anymore because nobody’s actually sang through the whole take, and you’ve lost all that feel and improv, you know. And it really sucks. There’s no guitar solos on the radio anymore … there’s no guitar heroes. That video game is huge now, and I think that might be in our corner,” he says with a laugh.

“I’m not saying I’m a guitar hero, but at least there’s guitars prominently on the album.”

Davis was chatting with EastCoastNoise recently about The Novaks new album, Things Fall Apart (Sonic/Warner), which was released two weeks ago. The trio’s sophomore effort comes four years after the band’s self-titled debut, a long time for any band to wait around.

Tonight at The Rock House in St. John’s, the band hosts an official CD release show.

Apart from a concert here and there, the band has mostly laid low since touring finished for its debut a few years back.

But a lot has changed for the group. Most notably, guitarist Chuck Tucker left The Novaks prior to the recording of Things Fall Apart last year, leaving Davis (vocals, guitar), Mark Neary (bass, vocals) and Elliot Dicks (drums) a trio.

“Just before we made the record, (Chuck) said he had a job offer and he wasn’t sure he was gonna do, so we said ‘Well, if you’re going to leave, you should leave now before you put your face on the album.’ That wasn’t any big deal or anything, he just wanted to go that way and we said, ‘Well, best to ya.’

“We all sort of knew that he’d sort of go off that way, be a regular person,” Davis continues. “He got a great job offer and I think he’s more of the type that would like a family and a house and all that. The rest of us are crazy. I don’t think he was so meant for the road as the rest of us.”

It takes a special type of person – or a crazy one, as Davis describes – to want to live a life on the road. While the hour or two each night of playing to fans is supposed to make the lifestyle worth it, many bands will tell you living away from family, friends and your own bed gets to you after a while.

“You’ve got to not mind scrounging, just going in the hole, making it work no matter what,” Davis says. “Everyone else in the group now will do whatever it takes. When we’re home we play gigs or do whatever work we have to do to keep it going, but we will never latch on to anything that will keep us here.

“You’ve got to be crazy in a sense; you’ve got to believe in it. I can’t do anything else, I have to do this. Sometimes, you, in a town like this, like St. John’s, you hang around with so many people who play .. it’s a real close-knit scene and everything, but sometimes you forget that most of the people you’re with are not going to be doing this forever, you know. A lot of groups or bands start in college and when they get their degree, it’s over. That’s not us. The Novaks or bust for me.”

Davis says he’s always known the rock n’ roll lifestyle was for him.

“I never went to school. I had a couple little jobs that didn’t last very long, washing dishes one time when it got really bad. Besides that, it’s been from playing for pizza to playing for $50 to being in all the papers and playing for nothing,” he says, laughing.

The singer says playing as a three-piece has forced The Novaks to work harder and it’s made them a better band because of it. In the last few years, the band has gotten to be more business savvy as well.

“The new record to me is very honest, for me. It was just songs that I wrote, you woke up in the morning and this is what came out, whereas the first record was sort of … when I wrote those songs I didn’t even know that we’d ever make a record. There are songs on there where the influence is on the sleeve. Like, I think I have a Rolling Stones song, so I’m going to write one like that.’”

But the band has come into its own on Things Fall Apart, 12 tracks of classic rock n’ roll sounds that wouldn’t sound out of place next to old Tom Petty records.

Davis doesn’t deny his influences, but he says he gets tired of hearing comparisons to Petty, The Rolling Stones and other bands.

“The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty always come up with us,” he says. “And that’s fine because people love those guys. That’s no insult or anything. But it just gets tired after a while.

“The key is longevity because then they’ll start comparing young bands to you. That happened to us really early on. I remember somebody getting one of those (Canadian Music Week) report cards from ChartAttack, there was a young band and they said that they sound like us. It was like, ‘Jesus, we just got here ourselves. They were probably highly insulted,” Davis says with a laugh.

Davis, wanting to get away from comparisons to other bands, actually didn’t want one of the new album’s tunes, ‘Under Those Wheels,’ to be on it as it sounds too much like a tune by The Faces, ‘You’re So Rude.’

But Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar, Grady), who helped the band out on the new record, loved the tune and threw in his bid to keep it on the record. He went so far as to play the tune for his neighbour in Austin, TX, Ian McLagan, keyboardist for The Faces.

McLagan liked the tune and agreed to play keyboard on it. Needless to say, Davis put his concerns aside and the tune is on the album.

“So if anyone says, ‘you ripped off the Faces,’ I can say, ‘well, one of the Faces is on it,’” he laughs.

The Novaks host its CD release show tonight at The Rock House in St. John’s, and the band’s next Maritime date will see the group on a bill with The Trews, Thornley, Econoline Crush and headliners KISS on July 18 on the Halifax Common.

For Davis, the gig is a bit of a dream come true. He says growing up he was a huge KISS fan.

“The other guys, no … me, yes,” he admits. “I was a maniac. I think most kids were about KISS. Not so much anymore, but I’ve got a soft spot for them. If you’d told me about this when I was 10 years old, I’d have shit my pants. But the boys, Mark and Eliot never listened to a KISS record in their lives.”

Going forward, Davis is just looking to play for people again and promote the new album. The band has Ontario dates with Matt Mays & El Torpedo and a reunited Change of Heart over the next few weeks.

A video will also be shot for the band’s single “There Goes The Night.”

If you haven’t heard the new album yet, Davis says it represents just how The Novaks sound on stage, playing scrappy, guitar-based rock n’ roll.

“I’m proud of the record, but it was made in 10 days,” he says. “Ideally, I’d love to go in and make a Beatles record and spend a year on it, but if I look at it like, ‘Well this represents the group live,’ then I have no qualms with it. It’s full of flubs, full of mistakes. We didn’t use a meter, drummer didn’t play to a click, nothing like that. It’s very real. It’s going to be tough competing on the radio with all the robotic, sort of sterile stuff, but hopefully it’ll help change it.”

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(Moncton-based singer-songwriter Melanie Keith will release her debut album this week. Photo contributed.)

Moncton singer-songwriter Melanie Keith promised me just over a year ago that her debut solo effort would be released in June.

She didn’t lie, but I was expecting she meant June of last year and not June of 2009.

Another year has passed, but finally – officially – Melanie Keith & The Strombachs will release its seven-song debut this week with a show at Moncton’s Empress Theatre on Thursday.

The release has been marred by delays and disasters.

After recording with Moncton songwriter and producer Robin Anne Ettles in 2004 for the Imitating Hercules project, Keith started her solo project, The Strombachs.

Fast forward to 2007 and Keith recorded her debut album, which soon had to be scrapped due to a serious production error. The album was tracked and ready to be mixed, but there were problems with what the studio delivered for tracks to the mixer. The studio refused to fix the problem, and Keith was left with tracks that were unusable.

She ended up getting a grant to help fund the album, but it wound up only covering the cost of the initial, unusable recording.

When she was finally able to re-record the album, with Ettles producing and playing every instrument but drums (Al Bourgeois), Keith had no money left to have the CDs manufactured.

“It’s killed me to make all of these decisions all the way along,” she said in an interview this week. “It really has. It’s embarrassing. You do an interview or you say something’s coming out and it doesn’t happen … but by the same token, it was a really good decision because things that have led up and have happened since then have kind of made it more useful to be releasing it now.

“I think things kind of got fast-tracked really fast for me in 2005. We entered this battle of the bands thing, and we won it and there was pressure to get an album out, and I didn’t even have time to sit and think of where I wanted to go or develop myself as an artist.”

Since that time, Keith says her sound has drifted a bit from pop-rock to an Americana sound in the vein of Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow.

She’s also started her own record label, MerleSong Records, and she has national distribution through Fontana North/Universal Music and online through MapleMusic.

A lot has happened, and Keith admits she’s both nervous and excited for Thursday’s CD release show. For it, Keith is arranging to have the hour-long show broadcast on her website. She will also Twitter throughout the day so fans can keep track of the CD release chaos.

“I’m nervous more about all that technical stuff because I’ve never done it before,” she says. “So I just hope that it all works.”

She’ll also be shooting a video over the next few days for one of the tunes from the new album.

In addition to playing all the shows she can around the east coast, Keith is preparing a cross-Canada and potential U.S. tour for the fall. She’s even in early discussions to possibly tour the U.K.

The Strombachs were also chosen to be one of about 45 bands showcasing at the Contact East convention Oct. 1-4 in Moncton, which could land her more gigs.

In the meantime, she has an album to release.

“I just hope it’s worth waiting for,” she says with a laugh.

Watch Keith’s CD release show online here Thursday at 6 p.m. If you’re in Moncton, the show is free to attend.

Here are Melanie Keith & The Strombach’s upcoming tour dates:

Thursday, June 11 – The Empress – Moncton, N.B.
Friday, June 12 – Relay For Life in Moncton, N.B.
Saturday, June 13 – Ruthie’s Pub & Eatery – Victoria, P.E.I.
Friday, June 19 – Sessions Café – Rothesay, N.B.
Friday, June 26 – Bridge Street Café – Sackville, N.B.
Tuesday, June 30 – The Capital – Fredericton, N.B.
Saturday, July 25 – O’Brien’s – Riverview, N.B.
Saturday, Aug. 22 – GreenFest – Clairville, N.B.

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(The Motorleague, from left: Ryan McDonald, Dana Robertson, Don Levandier, Nathan Jones.)

The Motorleague rose from the ashes of Moncton rockers The Ditchpigs a few years back. They’ve quickly developed a reputation for high energy shows and catchy-as-hell songs that blend poppy hooks with an onslaught of noisy, loud guitars and a driving rhythm section – feelings of frustration and anguish turned into anthems that have rocked bars from Halifax to Toronto.
The band features the talents of singer-guitarist Don Levandier (The Ditchpigs), guitarist Nathan Jones (I Capture The Castle), bassist Dana Robertson (HOPE) and drummer Ryan McDonald (Broken Radio Sound).
Tonight in Moncton, the band will release its first full-length album Black Noise (the follow up to EP White Tape). The band has teamed up with Fredericton-based Forward Music Group to release the album nationwide on Tuesday, May 19.
Black Noise was recorded in June 2008 in Toronto at Chemical Sound studio with producer and guitar-god Ian Blurton at the helm as producer.
First single “Hymn for the Newly Departed” is now at radio and the band has a video in the works for the tune. A series of east coast dates are planned (see their official site for details).
The Motorleague singer/guitarist Don Levandier answered some questions from EastCoastNoise via e-mail this week. Guitarist Nathan Jones pitched in a few comments of his own. Read on …

EastCoastNoise: Black Noise is coming out May 19, CD release is Friday in Moncton … what else is happening or on the horizon?
Don Levandier: Right now we’re excited to get the first video out and see how that goes.  We’ll be making the usual stops around the Maritimes for May then gearing up to break our ‘we’ve never been further west than Toronto’ mould. That won’t happen until the fall though.  Other than that we were supposed to do a gig with Fred Penner in Newfoundland at a conference – but it looks like we’ll be playing the day after him with Tom Fun – which is equally cool – but not really – I mean … FRED PENNER.

ECN: What’s the scoop on the video for “Hymn for the Newly Departed”?
DL: The scoop is that it should be out soon – I’m not 100 per cent sure on the timeline but we’re going to show a version of it at the CD release – then launch it officially on Eastcoastnoise.com. After that we’ll see who’ll play it.
The video itself was shot by The PostMen who are a local production company that shoots for CBC / CTV / STARS and more – they wanted to try making a music video because they’d never done so before – we wanted to make a music video for the same reasons – voila.
Nathan Jones: Video was produced by our friends at The Postman. We were lucky enough to have 40 friends come and hang out with us for a day while we put everything together. The final version is going to be publicly debuted on Friday, May 8 at The Paramount during the album release party. After that it will sent to Much Music/MTV and other places as well as being plastered all over the Internet. Special thanks to Marc Savoie, Marcel Gallant, Felice Grana, Michael Cowie and Mel Flanagan.

ECN: You guys recorded this album last year with Ian Blurton in Toronto … what was that experience like for you as a band? How did it compare to recording CDs here in Moncton in the past and what did you learn from it?
DL: It was a lot tighter.  We had one week to do the entire record – where at home you record as you please – and take as long as you like. It was also weird having more than one person (record) your band. In Moncton we’re used to working with Kyle McDonald, so it’s very one-on-one, whereas in Toronto we had Ian as a producer and two engineers for the drums and bass parts.

The guitars and vocals were done with Ian after that – it was really weird playing or singing in front of the guy.  It wasn’t too bad until we’re sitting in the studio and a studio hand starts going ‘OH MY GOD…THAT’S IAN BLURTON’ – then it started getting a bit weird.  But after the first day or two of doing vocals and guitar – the jitters were gone and it was down to business.

As far as Blurton goes – he’s way smarter than you think.  I always got this hairy caveman vibe from him – but he’s actually really articulate and well spoken.  You don’t expect that from him – because at shows he’s quiet – but the guy is very smart and great with computers.

As for learning – I think he took away a lot of my crutches.  Things like doubling up vocals or tons of vocal harmonies are what I’m used to doing – but in this case 90 per cent of the vocals are straight – one vocal, no harmonies – so it really made me push to sing better rather than rely on layering.  He taught us that simple is often the best approach.
NJ: It was awesome having an outsider’s opinion on the songs, especially an opinion that we all so obviously respect. Ian has had a hand in some of the best rock records this country has produced, whether it’s his own bands or something he’s produced.

Being in Toronto was probably the best part of making this record. When you’re at home trying to do something like this there’s a lot of distractions going on – work, family, day-to-day life stuff. When you’re away from home and out of your comfort zone, all you have to really focus on is the task at hand, there’s no putting things off until next week or next month. Things had to be done so they got done.

ECN: Why did you choose Blurton to produce and what was he specifically like to work with?
DL: Originally we wanted to do the next Ditchpigs record with Jon Cummins (Doughboys / Bionic) and that plan carried over to The Motorleague.  We never had any solid plans – just an idea of that’s what we want – and we had heard that Cummins was up for the idea (although I never spoke to him personally).  At North-by-Northeast 2007, I mentioned to Ian – who was hanging out with PJ (Dunphy, former Motorleague bassist) – that Cummins was hopefully going to produce.  Ian said, ‘Fuck him, I’m doing it.’ EXACTLY one year later we were in Toronto making the record.

Blurton produced 2 of my all time favourite records (by The Weakerthans) and played on another two (Steel Teeth by Change Of Heart and Blurtonia) – it was a no brainer.  We knew the guy a little, so that helped too, it wasn’t like going into the studio with a stranger. And we knew he’d know our sound – we weren’t worried about him changing it too much.

ECN: On this album, and the last EP (White Tape) … the songs, at least on the surface, sound pretty pissed off – frustration over jobs, relationships … what gives? Will we ever see a happy Motorleague tune?
DL: No. I heard Gordie Johnson speak once – and he said it best – ‘write what you know about.’  A lot of the anger is introspective – while other songs are 100 per cent specifically aimed at certain events and people.  I spend a lot of time biting my tongue with Monctonlocals.com (website and message board Levandier runs)  – I don’t do that with The Motorleague.  I think the songs need to be angry to be good – so ‘You Wear Me Down’ is probably as happy as you’ll ever get.

There’s also a line – I’ll bring a song to the table and if it’s too far wuss or happy – it will get knocked down to ‘not a Motorleague song.’ I have an albums worth of stuff that went that way.

ECN: Does the album name signify something? Black Noise … and hey, White Tape?
DL: Black noise, while not the mathematical opposite, is the figurative opposite of white noise.  White noise can be used as a masking agent – this really can’t be used as such.

We wanted to continue to point out the irrelevance of mediums – hence the tape on the CD (artwork).  Now we’ve got an iPod playing a CD with the picture of a tape on it – it’s just ridiculous – so we knew that Black Noise had to stay on theme – to be a true successor to White Tape. For a while the title was You Know This To Be The Truth but that didn’t feel right – Black Noise felt right for the songs.
NJ: Black Noise is kind of a play on words. We were going with the colour theme and White Noise is an audio signal that spans the full audio spectrum at an equal level, not moving. So black noise is music? Yeah, we made it up.

ECN: You’ve got a professionally produced album in the can, a single on radio locally and a video in the works and I suspect tours are in the works as well – clearly you guys are serious about this … how far do you want to see the band take things? Do you want to stick to Moncton and do the occasional tour outside of the Maritimes, or are you guys prepared to drop everything and make this a full-time gig?
DL: I doubt there are any bands that wouldn’t want to make it a full-time gig. The minute bands make a poster, book a gig, and sell something (merch, CD) then they’re pretty much saying – they’d go that route if offered, and so would we, but it will never come to that. The ideal situation for us would be to get the single doing okay, tour as much as possible without losing our jobs /houses – and get to see the world  in the context of the band.

Bands with tons of success still have to lay down jobs when they’re not on the road – and I don’t think we’ll ever be any different.  We’ve got our goals set on seeing the west coast, and getting off the continent and those are attainable goals now – after that it’s all frosting.

ECN: Each of the band members have varying degrees of experience and success playing music with other Moncton bands over the years – how can you benefit from the experience you all have?
DL: For me personally, it’s what I write about, things that I’ve seen/done/been subject to – it’s where all the angst and sarcasm comes from, in addition to other things like the corporate American workforce. I think not being successful with The Ditchpigs has given me more drive to be successful with The Motorleague – to show people that we were on the right track – and could have done okay doing what we were doing.

Kind of a ‘fuck you’ to your old girlfriend by showing off your new one – immature for sure – but there’s some of that in there for me.  I’d like to say all the booking contacts and all that jazz were a plus – but honestly when we started The Motorleague it wasn’t as easy as going, ‘Hey, we used to be in The Ditchpigs, can we play your bar?’ We had to start from scratch.

ECN: Since the band’s inception, you’ve added a new drummer and bass player – is this the line-up you see will stick together going forward? Is everyone committed to the project with so many other things (bands, jobs) to consider?
DL: Everyone is as committed as they can be without having the house of cards collapse down around them. We do all have jobs and other demands on us – so we’ll move forward with this lineup until it’s not possible to do so – but we won’t miss tours or dates that are worth doing – we’ll make due.

ECN: What challenges do you face on the road ahead trying to get the album on radio and the video on TV?
DL: Money, money, money, money, money. Getting the song on the radio is expensive. Touring is expensive. We’re applying for every grant out there – if we get some real money coming in we’ll be able to give the record the attention it deserves.  If not it – there will likely be boxes of it in my attic next to my copies of Someone To Hate More Than Yourself (The Ditchpigs’ swan song record).

ECN: The Motorleague’s sound sort of straddles a fine line between really catchy choruses and almost poppy hooks that seem a natural for radio, but you have a certain edge and a bit of a punk sound that still gives you credibility amongst those who wouldn’t turn on a radio station to save their lives … is that something you’ve ever given any thought to? Is there effort made to try to make the band sound a certain way or is this just what you do?
DL: The older you get, the easier it is to write songs that are radio friendly. With age, there seems to be a certain ‘okay’ level with making music your parents like. I didn’t get wussier on purpose and honestly I can’t tell the difference with how I wrote for The Ditchpigs to how I write for Motorleague except for in The Ditchpigs I’d bring songs to the table and the pussy ones would get cut out.

In The Motorleague, that happens less – still happens though. I’ve got tons of songs that are completely soft, not heavy at all. One day I’d like to put out a solo record with all that other shit on it. But I think the guys in The Motorleague have all been in loud bands that weren’t cut out for radio, they’ve been there and done that, now they’re willing to try something different – at least that ‘s how I see it – they may have a different view.

I think if a song is good enough anyway – it will become radio friendly.  I mean – you can go from Sum 41 to Marilyn Manson – who sound nothing like each other but both pushed the envelope of what the radio was playing.

The Motorleague is hosting two release shows tonight (Friday, May 8 ) in Moncton. The first show is an early, all-ages show to be held at Moncton’s Aberdeen Cultural Centre on Botsford Street with a start-time of 6 p.m. Slain on Second Ave., Twelve, Sigil of Aeons, The Short Fused and Neverdie are also on the bill. Price is $5 at the door.
The second show is a licensed show at The Paramount Lounge on Main Street in Moncton. Joining the band will be Shelter With Thieves, Myles Deck And the Fuzz and Static in Action. Admission to the late show is $10 or $15 with a CD.

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(Bill Plaskett joins his son Joel on the younger Plaskett’s new album as well as his current tour. Photo by Ingram Barrs.)

“If you walk, you rust,” Joel Plaskett said, quoting a line from one of his own tunes.

It was an appropriate choice of words if there ever was one.

Plaskett graciously took some time to chat with East Coast Noise a few days ago, but he was in the middle of leaving a radio station interview to head back to Fredericton’s Playhouse theatre to do soundcheck for that night’s concert.

ECN caught him just prior, during and at the end of a cab ride, not to mention between other interviews.

Plaskett quoted the line from the tune “Run, Run, Run” off his new album Three (Maplemusic) when asked if he was always as busy as he was that afternoon.

He says it’s good to keep moving and keep changing things. Otherwise, you might just rust.

Plaskett, singer-songwriter and leader of the Joel Plaskett Emergency as well as his own solo project, just wrapped the first few east coast dates on his tour in support of Three, a triple-disc record.

It’s a huge project that has garnered him some of the best reviews of his career.

It started when Plaskett noticed that he had a handful of songs coming together where each title was one word repeated three times.

Always one to grab hold of a theme or concept and run with it, Plaskett turned that little theme into the most expansive and time-consuming album of his career. While it’s a solo record, he invited several guests to perform on the record, including singer-songwriters Rose Cousins, Ana Egge and Plaskett’s father Bill Plaskett.

Each disc is its own separate record – the first one deals with departure, the second with separation and the third with reuniting. Each disc is linked together, which Plaskett says was a challenge to accomplish.

“It was a different record to finish, to sort of see through to completion because there was just so much material,” he says. “I found that recording and composing the songs was not a big deal, you know, it was just getting it all mixed and mastered and getting the artwork done and you know, to really see it through. I wanted it to be like a special package to look good and sound good and be complete.

“It took me a long time because I had to focus essentially on three records to decide how they would be connected and how many songs I would use.”

There are 27 songs on Three, but Plaskett recorded three more which didn’t make the cut (they’re now available as a 7” single from his record label New Scotland Records). He says it was a challenge to make three records and connect them all without losing the overall focus of the project.

“Sometimes I’d have the moments where I was like, ‘Is this any good?’ I’d been focusing on it too hard like looking through a pinhole, you know what I mean? And because so much of it was done by myself in the studio, yeah, I needed some perspective.”

To help him sort it all out, Plaskett took the album to his good buddy Gordie Johnson (Grady, Big Sugar) in Texas to mix the album and give him some fresh perspective.

Johnson, a friend to many east coast bands, was happy to help out, Plaskett says, explaining that Johnson has a way of helping an artist find exactly what it is they’re looking for.

In the day and age of hit singles and artists of the month where albums are becoming more and more like dinosaurs, Plaskett admits he was a little concerned how people would react to a three-disc album.

“I was concerned certainly about how people would react to a triple album because it could be dismissed or just considered pretentious or something. But I also thought it’s hard to get noticed these days, you’ve got to do something dramatic, you know? So that’s what I aimed to do, just to make something that felt really good to me and took me places I’d never been as a writer.

“And I love thinking conceptually, and something this elaborate was frankly kind of fun and exciting and I thought well, if it’s exciting for me then hopefully my audience is going to go, ‘Oh cool’ as opposed to ‘Eh whatever, it’s a really long record. Who cares?’”

Plaskett says he gets a kick out of flying in the face of what’s considered normal these days, but ultimately he just cares about records and he enjoys telling a story over the course of a long recording.

On the road with the singer-songwriter this time out is Cousins, Egge and Bill Plaskett.

“It’s got lots of variety even though it’s an acoustic show, and that’s what I’m really enjoying,” Plaskett explains. “It’s a nice balance between still  making it feel a little spontaneous and rock n’ roll even though we’re standing there with acoustic guitars. ”

The Emergency, Dave Marsh and Chris Pennell, will join Plaskett and company for a few select dates on the tour, notably two gigs in Halifax that are coming up at the end of May.

Three is in stores on CD now, and it’s available online here. The album will be released on vinyl via Plaskett’s own New Scotland Records shortly, with pre-orders being shipped this Friday. For more, check this out.

Joel Plaskett, along with Rose Cousins, Ana Egge, Bill Plaskett and The Joel Plaskett Emergency, will perform in Halifax at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Thursday, May 28 and Saturday, May 30. The second show is already sold out, so if you’re interested, you’d best pick up your tickets soon. Plaskett’s only other east coast date coming up soon is Tuesday, June 30 at Market Square in Saint John, N.B.

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Halifax emcee Classified (née Luke Boyd) has been working, do-it-yourself fashion, for over a decade making a name for himself.

He built his name from the ground up, releasing several independent releases including his first LP Union Dues in 2001, the Juno-nominated Boy-Cott-In The Industry in 2006 and Hitch Hikin’ Music in 2007.

Amazing for a young hip hop artist based out of his home in Halifax, Classified has sold well over 40,000 records in Canada. Recently, he won the 2009 East Coast Music Award Fan’s Choice Award.

This week, Classified’s latest disc, Self-Explanatory, hits store shelves and already his single “Anybody Listening” (video embedded below) is getting regular play on MuchMusic and radio stations across the country.

Classified had a little extra help with this new release. A few months back he signed a deal with Sony Music Canada. While this might seem curious coming from a guy with a D.I.Y. attitude and history, Classified told East Coast Noise recently that it really hasn’t changed much in terms of how he does things.

“I’ve always been doing everything myself,” he says. “Manufacturing, marketing … now it’s on their heads. They’re still letting me do my thing. They said, ‘OK, go do the record,’ and I handed it in when it was done.

“I’m still making the same amount of money,” he continues. “But I get to focus on the music.”

That’s just the way he likes it. “I don’t like doing the business shit,” he explains.

With Self-Explanatory hitting stores this week, Classified has a busy schedule ahead of him. A cross-Canada tour kicks off in Vancouver April 23 and it runs pretty much non-stop until a show in Halifax on June 5. He’ll follow that up with festival dates in the summer and a tour of Australia in August.

Plus, he is still producing Halifax-based artists.

That’s not all that is keeping him busy, however. Classified is now the proud pop of a six-month-old daughter.

Things have been busy and stressful, he admits, but he adds that this is what he loves to do, so he’ll take the stress.

Asked if having a child will affect his music in any way, he says with a laugh, “I’m not doing a bunch of daddy-daughter songs yet. But it will likely change my perspective on things, on life.”

Classified will perform these east coast dates in May and June:

May 29 – Saint John, N.B. @ Ozone (19+)
May 30 – Fredericton, N.B. @ Capital Exhibition (All Ages)
June 5 – Halifax, N.S. @ The Palace (19+)

Here is the video for Classified’s current single “Anybody Listening.”

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(Photo contributed)

Moncton rock band The Watermen is releasing its sophomore effort, 11,000 Days, tomorrow night (Wednesday) at the Rockin’ Rodeo in Moncton with guests Neon Highway.

The band (Marc Little, Mike Gaudet, Clinton Fernandes, Tom Thompson, Gilles Savoie) released its debut record two years ago.

“It’s a great feeling – album number two,” singer Marc Little told EastCoastNoise in an e-mail. “It’s really a serious milestone. Most bands never release number two.”

The album will be released nationally on March 17 via Prism Music, distributed by Fontana North/Universal.

“The new album 11,000 Days is something the band is very proud of,” Little says. “We enjoy playing the songs, and I am proud of my vocal message. It’s just a blast really, is all it is. Good times really. Not really sure what to compare it to however. I would think if you’re a fan of Tom Petty, new Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Doc Walker, Johnny Reid … you may just take a liking to The Watermen.”

By gigging around town, playing open mic nights and so on over several years in Atlantic Canada, Little has managed to build his name up.

“Momentum is a very fickle thing,” he says. “It has to be capitalized upon immediately.  We’re really hoping for a lot of airplay out west. We don’t even bother trying to get airplay in our hometown. Because a local band is always a local band in their hometown and there is almost contempt for local bands.”

Little says radio stations are very “cookie-cutter” and unwilling to break the mold and try out new artists, but he’s hoping to drum up airplay out west. That said, if a music director in Atlantic Canada is willing to give the band a chance, they certainly have Little’s blessing.

Even if radio won’t pick up the band, you’ll be able to hear three of the band’s new songs on The Global Television show Biker TV in spring/summer of this year.

After launching the album in several cities, the band will be on the hunt for gigs across Atlantic Canada.

Also, the band is already working on new material for its next disc with Alex Call (Huey Lewis and the News). Little says he and Call have been bouncing song ideas off each other.

Opening for The Watermen tomorrow night is Rik Reese & Neon Highway. The band just wrapped up some performances at the ECMAs in Corner Brook, NL, during which they were asked to perform at some festivals in the United Kingdom.

Since releasing its album, Mama Raised a Good Boy, last summer, Neon Highway has opened for The Kentucky Headhunters, Julian Austin and Matt Minglewood.

The album was chosen on the list of Top 12 Canadian Country albums for 2008 by Country Music News.

Advance tickets to tomorrow night’s show are $15 at Rockin’ Rodeo, Ayer Convenience, Spin-It CDs & DVDs and Maggie’s Flowers in Riverview. Advance tickets come with a copy of The Watermen’s new album. Admission is $8 at the door.

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In the 1990s, Celtic and roots music experienced a rebirth of sorts with a handful of bands and performers who took traditional sounds and blended them with pop and rock to create sounds that made old style music fresh and even “cool” again.

Great Big Sea, Natalie McMaster, Ashley MacIsaac and The Barra MacNeils were all a part of this resurgence. Right along with them, Newfoundland band Rawlins Cross took trad music by storm, rocking it up and adding a pop sheen that made it exciting for a new generation of fans.

Cross formed in 1988 and throughout the ‘90s had several hit singles, including “Reel ‘n’ Roll,” “Colleen” and “Long Night.”

In 2001, the band wound down. Each member went their separate ways, some having children, others seeking work outside music. But each of the band members kept music in their lives, so it’s no surprise that seven years later, Rawlins Cross is back to doing what it does best – performing.

Brothers Dave and Geoff Panting, Ian McKinnon, Joey Kitson, Brian Bourne and Howie Southwood reformed the band earlier this year, and the group released Anthology, a collection of 16 tracks including their biggest hits and three new tunes.

Ian McKinnon spoke to East Coast Noise shortly before Christmas to talk about the rebirth of the band and what lies in store for its future.

In spring of this year, McKinnon, who plays bagpipe, tin whistle, bodhran, percussion and trumpet with the group, says he and the rest of the band were “getting quite ambitious for the group again.”

Around the same time, a Warner Music Canada representative approached the group about the possibility of compiling a greatest hits CD.

It was a sign of things to come, but initially the group wasn’t sure after seven years how it would gel. When Rawlins Cross split in 2001, it was amicable. The band mates remained friends, they just wanted to concentrate on other projects. But still, after seven years, it could prove difficult to get back in the swing of things.

“Creatively, we felt it was time for a break,” McKinnon explains of the split.

The strange feeling upon reuniting didn’t last. Very quickly, once the group finally performed together, it “felt like we hadn’t left the stage.”

The band rehearsed and recorded Anthology’s three new tracks, “Look Ahead,” “Make The Change” and “The Story” in St. John’s in August.

“We released this record just a couple of weeks ago and the reception has been great,” he says. “If feels very much like we’re picking up where we left off.”

He says the band is “new and improved” in that they have more experience in life, music and business.

Asked of the shelf life of the reunion, McKinnon says the band is “feeling our way through this,” but he adds that there are a lot of opportunities that lie ahead for the group.

Currently, Rawlins Cross is planning some festival dates across North America and Europe for next summer.

You can catch the rejuvenated band on New Year’s Eve on CTV’s annual Year’s Eve bash in Halifax.

Since this interview, a spring east coast tour was announced by Sonic Concerts.

Rawlins Cross will perform the following dates: April 14 at Moncton’s Capitol Theatre, April 15 at Glace Bay’s Savoy Theatre, April 16 at Saint John’s Imperial Theatre, April 17 at Fredericton’s Playhouse and April 18 at Halifax’s Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. Tickets are on sale now.

While McKinnon wouldn’t go too deep into what the future may hold for Rawlins Cross, from the way he spoke of the group, it’s likely the tour dates that are currently being planned are just the start of things to come.

“Music is a passion for all of us,” McKinnon says. “I expect at this point that Rawlins Cross will be fairly active for many years to come.”

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Moncton most stylish punk rockers Knife Party will release its debut EP, Just Like You, Only Better, this weekend with at Doc Dylans on Main Street in Moncton.

The five-piece formed last year from the ashes of two other Moncton projects, and it has spent the last year honing its sound, playing shows in Moncton and recording the group’s debut with longtime Moncton engineer and music geek Kyle MacDonald.

The group is made up of Little Danny Whore Moan (vocals), Davey Romance (guitar and vocals), Kayle “Killington Stabb” Piercy (guitar), Johnny Marnix (bass) and Jedi Eric (drums).

The formation of the group is a little confusing. Jedi Eric was sort of the catalyst for the group coming together. He says after seeing the rest of the band in their previous group, Danny & The Cunts, he knew he wanted to work with them.

“They had such a unique sound and the front man, Danny, was amazing. Their drummer at the time, Kayle, had the oddest style I’d ever heard.

“I still am not certain if he was the greatest or worst drummer I’ve ever seen, but whatever it was just created this intense experience to see and hear in cohesion with the guitars and Danny’s raspy, violent vocals. As soon as I’d heard that Danny quit … I decided I was going to work with this band somehow.”

Eric would get his wish, but it took some time. Danny’s band broke up, as did Eric’s project, the Fuckhead Bastards. What followed was a mix-mash of projects that eventually led to the Knife Party forming. But when the group’s original singer, Fat Marc of the Bastards, developed serious throat issues, he was forced to quit.

The band spent the next six months looking for someone to replace Marc, but it proved difficult as they were looking for someone unique to counter the band’s Ramones-inspired garage punk. They went through about eight singers before Eric decided he wanted to give Danny a try. His former bandmates weren’t too keen, but Eric wasn’t about to give up.

“Being the resourceful little bugger I am, I devised a trick, if you will, where I brought up the two projects I was currently working on and asked Danny if he’d like to try out for one, but didn’t specify which.

“He, naturally, assumed I meant the project not containing the entire band he had left eight months prior, and by the time the jig was up, he was already there anyway. After a few awkward minutes that would make The Office cast blush, he decided to give it a shot. It immediately just felt right.”

The band was quick to settle on a sound and even an image, with their black dress shirts and pink ties.

“We just didn’t want to be lumped in as another run-of-the-mill punk rock band, so we thought the best way to stand out onstage was take our style polar-opposite,” Eric says. “Instead of dressing homeless, we dressed corporate and classy, but added the pink ties for that touch of sass. Also, because it made our bass player uncomfortable to wear pink. Another benefit was it made us more recognizable. It creates a band image …

“We’re the ‘guys that wear the sissy little pink ties,’” he explains. “Then it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, those guys. They suck.’ Or whatever.”

The band has stayed in the Moncton area playing regularly, and they’ve kept busy in the studio too. While they are releasing their debut this weekend, a follow-up is already in the works. It is tentatively titled Stabba Dabba Doo or Stabbey Road. MacDonald is once again penciled in to record the project.

Unfortunately for those outside Moncton, you may not get the opportunity to see Knife Party anytime soon. Eric says the band is content to play in and around the Hub City.

“It’d be awesome to tour at some point, but we’ve barely established ourselves here, let alone out of New Brunswick. If we want to play to 15 people, we’ll book ourselves locally,” he says with a laugh. “Nah, we’re fine playing pretend rock stars once a month for now.”

However, if you check out the band’s myspace and dig their tunes, you can order the new album through the band’s label, the newly revived Superbob Records, or via Paypal by contacting the band through their myspace page.

Opening for Knife Party this weekend at Doc’s will be Shortsleeve, Blueberry Swing & The Joint and Chaos Death Squad. Door is $4 if you dress up (shirt and tie), $6 if you don’t. Eric says as long as you make the effort, you’ll get in at a discount.

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