Event Calendar

Friday, March 5th 2010 Back to Calendar

  • Event:
    Basia Bulat w/ Katie Stelmanis
    Campus:
    University of British Columbia
    Event Type:
    Special Events
    Time:
    7:00 pm - 7:00 pm
    Location:
    St James Hall
    Description:

    AMS Events presents:

    Basia Bulat (Secret City/Rough Trade) w/ Katie Stelmanis

    http://amseventsubc.com/site/media/images/album_art_new_web.jpg

    "I don't think I realised the radio had more than one station til I was 11 or 12," Basia Bulat says. At the family home in Toronto, the dial was always fixed to the local oldies station: Motown, Stax, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Sam Cooke. While her mother hunted for someone to do the dishes, Basia and her younger brother Bobby would hide with a radio or tape player, happily rattled by all that song.

    Since the age of three, Basia has been sitting on piano stools and trying to hammer things out. It started with her piano-teacher mum, but along the way Basia's picked up guitar, autoharp, banjo, ukelele, sax and flute. In high-school her instrument was the upright bass - a lone girl among "eight-foot-tall guys, goofing off with the tubas". There's a sense of play that still suffuses her music, jostling under the songs of regret and love, want and joy. When her brother began in his teens to play drums with punk bands, Basia would be there with her demerara voice, joining happily in the jam. When she left for university in London, Ontario, musicians began to drop by her downtown apartment. Many nights were spent with these classically-trained friends, laughing and singing, and together they made a glad, bright noise.

    Basia's 2007 debut, Oh, My Darling, was a success both at home and on the international scene. It garnered a Polaris Prize nomination, and praise from outlets like NPR, who labeled In the Night as one of 2008s great singles, citing Bulat's graceful effervescence and innate understanding of momentum. Breathless, thirsty, and dislodged from dreary nostalgia, Oh My Darling was the spark that set Basia Bulat apart from the raft of typical singer-songwriters.

    Catch Basia Bulat live at St James Hall (3214 W. 10th Ave) on Friday March 5th, 2010.

     

    Tickets: Ticketweb Zulu Records, Red Cat Records and the Outpost (UBC).

     

  • Event:
    Cave Singers w/ Dutchess and the Duke, Moondoggies
    Campus:
    University of British Columbia
    Event Type:
    Special Events
    Time:
    8:00 pm - 8:00 pm
    Location:
    Pit Pub
    Description:

    AMS Events proudly presents:

    Cave Singers (Matador/Sub Pop) w/ guests Dutchess & the Duke (Hardly Art), Moondoggies

    http://amseventsubc.com/site/media/images/cs_web copy.jpg

    Here is the mystery of Seattle’s Cave Singers: They never listened to much folk music, they never intended to play folk music, and more importantly, their guitarist never picked up the instrument until recently. Yet, this strange trio is writing and performing some of the most hypnotizing folk music we have today.

    One listen to Invitation Songs, however, and you’re ready to call bullshit on them. It sounds like an updated version of the Anthology of American Folk Music. Not the graduate-student, learned interpretations of folk music circa 1962, but folk music approached by way of punk rock. It's sparse, melodic, creepy, and alluring, like the widow mourning graveside in Johnny Cash’s “Long Black Veil”. Guitarist Derek Fudesco's bottom-end acoustic work sounds like Mississippi John Hurt's soft, rolling finger plucks. Singer Pete Quirk's appealingly nasal voice simultaneously echoes Arlo Guthrie and a mosquito's buzz. And drummer Marty Lund plays like he's slapping a newspaper on a kitchen table.

    Invitation Songs is the Cave Singers’ debut. It was recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia by Colin Stewart (PGMG, Black Mountain), and its title is appropriate; it is one of the warmest and most welcoming records of 2007. Each track is coated in a dense atmosphere that feels humid but not stifling. The shuffle-stomp rhythms on “Seeds of Night” and “Dancing on our Graves” recall Civil War marches, highlighting Lund’s innate abilities. Elsewhere, on “Royal Lawns” harmonicas sigh and echo back like ghosts in abandoned railway cars. The brooding, washboard-driven “Called” is kin to Ugly Casanova’s chain-gang musings, and Quirk’s mid-song yelps don’t sound planned, but rather like the ultimate summoning of his inner turmoil.

    Tickets: $16 advance @ Ticketweb.ca, Zulu, Red Cat, Outpost