This coming Friday will see the release of Jon Stancer’s debut solo album For The Birds (iTunes preorder) on which, Toronto singer/songwriter Jon dabs his brush in many musical palettes. Produced by Jono Grant (John Southworth), the album is a collection of lush hook-laden pop-rock, connected by lyrical themes that touch on reclusiveness, regret, revision and rejuvenation.
A veteran vocalist and guitarist within Toronto’s alternative music scene, Stancer took a break for several years until he gave in to the urge to make his own album. After recording demos in his home studio, Stancer called on Grant to produce, and the two joined forces at Grant’s Victory Drive Studios in downtown Toronto.
The results on For The Birds contain all the basic ingredients for great rock and roll: energetic drums, buoyant bass lines, bright acoustic and shiny electric guitars, piano and organ, with horns, strings and a range of percussion adding sonic nuances.
Stancer has delved into such mottled territory before, notably on his former band Family Ritual’s 1999 album Saloon, and as a guitarist and vocalist on John Southworth’s 1997 cult classic debut, Mars Pennsylvania.
Stancer, in fact, first started writing original material in his early teens and became a staunch Brian Wilson admirer with goals to create similar, multi-layered pop. On For The Birds, Stancer found that returning to a simpler approach better suited his current creative process, but remnants of his sonically ambitious past make for a rewarding listening experience from an artist whose time has finally come.
Hello
G’day! That record cover clamours for a caption such as “F*ck you guys, I’m having a smoke.”
Good morning!
Ah yes. I enjoyed The Smugglers’ set on Saturday night, at Ottawa Xplosion Weekend. Met up with Grant and cohorts, got to realise that he’s known some Ottawa music people that I know, but for a heck of a long time. Got the book, etc. All told, very satisfying, and I enjoyed their music more than I might have thought (it’s more like power pop than punk, really; you can actually hear lyrics sometimes).
You can usually hear the lyrics in punk, just loudly and frequently off key
Hello hello!
Hi Janet
In punk *live*, I find that I can make out that yes, there are vocals, but I’m still amazed that a few deep fans actually know and mouth the words. Saw that Saturday. Don’t ask me what the words were, although sometimes the fans’ mouthing helped.
But it can be worse. I think I’ve mentioned before that time when I was at Zaphod’s and the band was being loud, so I retreated to the far end of the bar to sup my drink. And the band started shredding *even* louder; I turned and saw that the lead singer was also SCREAMING into the mike. I couldn’t hear a sound from him, so totally washed out was he by the rest.
I thought when the lead “singer” screams it was called Screamo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamo
He might as well have been screaming in outer space, where nobody can hear you.
I was going to ask about The Smugglers show…
The Smugglers were the last outdoor show (under a medium-sized square tent) at OXW, a small, centretown punk and new music 4-day fest. They were certainly the oldest band there. Their set was well attended (considering not many Ottawans know them, IMO), and they were absolutely energetic and ‘on’ — not bad considering The Horseshoe just the night before, getting to Ottawa from T.O., the 30 degree heat, etc.
After The Smugs, bands continued indoors (noise considerations) — blacker t-shirted bands, way louder and punkier. I hung around with Grant, bandmates and old Ottawa friends (f.i. Slo Tom, ex of Furnaceface) for the better part of an hour, had a peek and listen downstairs, went ooooookay and cycled home to a lovely sleep.
Sounds like a great show Benoit!
It actually was a good show. Grant was in fine shape and good spirits.
And as I’d overbought — bought the whole pass — I got to check out the next day a girl who goes under ‘Trails’, to see how she’s getting along. She is now (I think) all of –>17; I first heard her when she was 14-1/2! She had (relatively) blown me over back then, mostly because of her extreme youth + she wasn’t boring, despite her songs being mostly bedroom confessionals. And now of course she’s better.
I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed The Smugglers set in Vancouver as well Benoit. Yes punk has lots of sub genre type sounds. In my mind punk was a different thing than the pop punk that was prominent in the 90s.
I also love following the progress of young local artists. I get quite proud of them like they are my children.
Oh, hi everybody.
Hi DBS
Oh, and also Jon Stancer sounds interesting. I look forward to checking him out later.
I was at a volunteer appreciation gala for the community theatre group Friday night. Much less a gala than I was expecting but it was nice to hang out with some of our new theatre friends. Saturday night I was back on stage doing my interpretation of a mermaid in a belly dance show. Ha! I haven’t belly danced in a show for a while so it was fun to be back dancing not drumming for it. Sunday we had dinner and card games with my dad for Father’s Day. It was a nice weekend. I missed Hollerado though because of the belly dance show. Just can’t do it all.
You’ll catch them next time (just remember to take the big net)
Haha yup.
Take the Bait by Jon Stancer isn’t really my jam but I could imagine chilling on a beach with that song.
Hi. Back.
The ripples of my return keep going on and on, infinite…