The Manvils had quite a year in 2011. They moved from Vancouver to Toronto and celebrated the new release of their EP Black Tornado. They hooked up with producer Sho Murray who recorded their debut CD Buried Love. The concept that they acquired is to record songs in each of their favorite cities – Vancouver, Toronto and Chicago. The band in general are progressing as songwriters and performers as this first EP release clearly shows the creative side of the band in general. They’ve also shared the stage with larger bands including Metric, Stereophonics, Bif Naked, Sonic Youth and Ben Harper just to name a few.

The tracks on this EP Vol. 1 are:

1. Lions of a Lost Tongue
2. Black Tornado
3. Alone With You
4. Castaway
5. Hot Volcano

Starting with the song “Lions of a Lost Tongue” has a good melody but is a bit erratic in the beginning which works well with the Eddie Van Halen guitars. I particularly like the vocal work by Mikey Manville (singer/songwriter/guitars) and as always Greg Buhr (bass) lays down some root chords and is the backbone that is persistent in this song. Jay Koenderman (drums) keeps the beat like melted iron. The EP title song “Black Tornado” has a shifty kind of beat with straight on rock and roll but has confidence woven into the song like a heartbeat. Choppy and fuzzed out  guitars are layered in the song which makes the melody sound like it’s on the dangerous side. ”Alone with You” has a moody and dark melody with guitars that remind me of a murder and mayhem. With lyrics that say “I won’t leave myself alone with you” and “blood on my hands” confirms the feeling. “Castaway” has a definite haunting sound with a moody and dark melody which reminds me of being lost or having lost someone or something. Tense vocals throughout the song pick up the desperation that climaxes with an abrupt end to the song. Wow! “Hot Volcano” is an off-tempo, stop/stutter and frantic melody that works really well with Mikeys’ vocals. Choppy guitars end the song with a little bit of honey that makes the final notes all that much sweeter. Emotions are hard to get across to the listener through a song but Mikey manages to do this well. And his skills as a songwriter show up and are on the same page as the rest of the band. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them on an international stage in the near future.

For all things Manville their website has a lot of information including CD’s, past media articles and a tour sections to see where the band will be touring in 2012. The bands website is here.

I, for one, have had enough of 2011.  Between being harassed at my former job, getting high blood pressure due to harassment and after a 3.5 month of personal time, I took a blood pressure pill that caused 2nd and 3rd degree chemical burns on the lower legs and feet so bad that I may not ever work a full time job again.  Oh well, its done now so I just have to learn to live with what I’ve been left with.  We all are tired of the turkey leftovers of the holiday season, this post will leave you with a sense of curiosity especially if you don’t know the band.

So, this is my list of my favorite music 2010/2011:

10.  State of Shock – Rock’n'Roll Romance (Vancouver BC Canada)

State of Shock is a really tight band that has some kick ass music.  Their newest CD was released on September 20, 2011, and it is a treat to hear a real progression in their songwriting skills.  My favorites:  The F Word, Have A Nice Day and Wish I Woulda Wowed U.

9.  Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (London UK)

Although this is postmortem release it’s a very good collection of songs.  Amy had such huge talent but in the end she had a mysterious death.  RIP Amy.  My favourites: Our Day Will Come and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.

8.  Emily’s Army – Don’t Be A Dick (Oakland CA USA)

A band that consists of teenagers who have a lot of talent and play old skool punk like there is no tomorrow.  And the drummer of this band is Billie Joe Armsrtong’s (of Green Day fame) son Joey.   If this band is playing a show near you, try to go because you won’t be disappointed.  My favorites:  Broadcast This, West Coast and Loch Lomond.

7.  My Chemical Romance – Danger Days:  The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys  (Los Angeles CA USA)

Even though this CD came out in November 2010, I still want to include it here.  I’ve never been a big fan of MCR but this album is very “catchy”; progressive pop-punk-metal.  The vision behind the album with the videos (directed by Gerard Way) does give it that “Mad Max” feel to them plus a comic book storyline.   I look forward to more albums in the future.  My favorites:  Planetary GO!, Bulletproof Heart and Scarecrow.

6.  The Sheepdogs – Lean and Burn (Saskatoon SK Canada)

Hailing from Saskatoon, The Sheepdogs had a fantastic year with this release,:  winning the Rolling Stone cover contest was a major step up from the bar scene clubs, which in turn made their tour awesome.   My favorites: The One You Belong To, I Don’t Know and Soldier Boy.

5.  Shoot The Image – Cranes In The City  (Toronto ON Canada)

A newer band out of Toronto that have very interesting music that has depth and feeling.  Some people know who they are.  Most people only know that the singers have excellent pipes and drama onstage from their emotions .  I definitely look forward to new songs in 2012.  My favorites:  Fortified, Vagabond and Lithograph.

4.  Craft Spells – Idle Labour (Stockton CA and Seattle WA USA)

Back in March the band released “Idle Labour” to good reviews.  I like how relaxing this music makes me feel – like floating about the earth feeling peaceful and looking down at the globe of 7 billion plus inhabitants.  My favorites:  Scandinavian Crush, Party Talk and You Should Close The Door.

3.  Cults – Cults (Manhattan NYC USA)

Cults formed in 2010 while Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin were students at The New School.  They began making music in their spare time to share with their friends, including fellow band Bedhead.  Madeline had previously recorded with punk band Youth Gone Mad on the album Touching Cloth.  Cults self released an EP, Cults 7″ with the track “Go Outside” named “Best New Music” by Pitchfork Media.  I really like the music this band performs and I’m looking forward to a new release soon.  My favorites:  Oh My God, Abducted and Bad Things.

2.  The Rosebuds – Loud Planes Fly Low (Raleigh, NC USA)

The Rosebuds are an indie rock band whose current members are Ivan Howard (vocals/guitar/ drums/ bass/keyboards/programming) and Kelly Crisp (vocals/keyboard/drums/guitar/accordion). Billy Alphin had played drums on the album The Rosebuds Make Out, Wes Phillips played drums on the E.P. Unwind, Lee Waters played drums on the record Birds Make Good Neighbors, and Matt McCaughan played the drums on both Night Of The Furies and Life Like.  Rob Lackey was behind the drum kit during the taping of The Rosebuds Live at the Cats Cradle, a charity only recording (sold at cytunes.org) to help fight for the prevention of cancer, and as well, as on the track “Second Birds of Paradise” on Loud Planes Fly Low.  My favorites: Go Ahead, Woods and A Story.

1.  Mother Mother – Eureka (Vancouver BC Canada)

Mother Mother is a five-piece Canadian Indie Rock band who are originally from Quadra Island.  They are now based in Vancouver BC.  Mother Mother consists of Ryan Guldemond (guitar and vocals), Molly Guldemond (vocals and keyboard), Jasmin Parkin (keyboard and vocals), Ali Siadat (drums) and Jeremy Page (bass).

I personally really dig this band for how well they are as writers who tell a story, much like the Toronto band Shoot The Image.  My favorites:  The Stand, Baby Don’t Dance and Simply Simple.

Thanks for reading and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 to all the readers of this blog!  Cheers!

Jade Sperry

A very Happy New Year 2012 awaits us all.  Cheers!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,500 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

This is a late post but if you’re in Vancouver this evening, in about an hour, a really good band called Cupla are onstage and live!  So if you’re wanting to just pooh on the rain, come down and get crazy with live music!

And if you’re like me and are in your jammies with the windows closed you can watch the LIVE FEED from The Roxy in Vancouver right here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/travisrankin

I’ll be reviewing the show from the live feed as well as testing out some new photography equipment in getting photos from a live feed.  I’m excited and you should be too!

Thanks everyone for checking out the blog during the holidays and a Happy New Year 2012!!!  Big changes coming in 2012 to this site.  Stay tuned!!

Cupla at The Shark Club November 2010.  Photo by Jade Sperry.

Jade Sperry

The Roxy, Granville Street in Downtown Vancouver

I have just received these back from Gabriel Savage of the Vancouver band THE NICHE who were the Band of the Month with CFOX this past October 2011.  There is a lot of buzz about this band because they are a performance based band with terrific music.  They don’t have a lot of music online yet, but that’s only a matter of time before that happens.

I’m reviewing a song that was sent to me called “A LA RUE” which sounds like a carnival trip on the psychedelic side of life.  I’m reminded of 1960′s band The Doors, but, Gabriel takes the song and makes it his own vocally.  I’ve seen this band in action onstage and they are dynamite! Kaylar definitely rounds out the band with her odd sounds from the keys or her sax, Ryley does a great rhythm and lead guitar in this song, new member Chris is funked out with his root bass chords through the song and Mario’s drums carry the song on into infinity.  I really dig this band and its not hard to figure out why.

The current lineup is as follows:

Gabriel Savage – Vox

Ryley Kirkpatrick – Guitars

Chris Seversen – Bass

Kaylar Chan – Keyboards/Sax

Mario Beer – Drums and percussion

The Niche live @ the Railway Club, Vancouver BC – photo courtesy of the band

What goals in relation to the band are you setting now to work towards over the next year?

We’re working towards releasing our EP within the next six months. We’ve just trained a new bass player so we had to take a break from recording for a while. We’re hoping to be able to get everything done by Spring. The songs are all there and ready, now it’s just about having the funds and resources to back us in the process.

What personal goals has the band as a whole achieved in the last year?

For the most part, we’re happy with where we’re at. Everyone’s enjoying the stages as they come and are looking forward to the next steps. Being Fox’s Band of the Month for October had its benefits, and so does playing shows regularly. We’re always happy to hear the good things people have to say after we play for them, so that’s always a bonus. As far as goals though, we’re just happy to have come this far in only a year, and are looking forward to the next stages of our career together.

As a band, what has been the best thing that has happened, and the worst thing?

The best thing is that we’re all still playing with each other and are enjoying our time together. Like I said, it’s always great to hear such positive feedback; it keeps us enjoying what we do knowing that others are enjoying it also. I can’t think of the “worst thing” yet. I think everything has happened in good time and for a good reason.
At first it was a bit of a drag losing Cory and having to go about finding a suitable replacement –which always takes a long time— but now that we’ve got Chris on the team it’s been really great. He’s been a great addition for the band and we all really enjoy working with him.

How do you see the current state of the Corporate Music Industry? Do you think it has changed since the “old” days before the internet? And, how do you feel about the DIY bands that are becoming mainstream? (arcade fire for example)

There’s no doubt that it’s changed, but that’s the way things have to happen. We have to evolve with the world around us. That goes for all aspects of the media. These days, if you want something, you’ve just got to work all that much harder for it, which makes it all the more worth it when it finally happens.
Arcade Fire are doing really well for themselves and that’s great to see.

Do you feel that the band has control over how your music reaches the fans? And if yes why do you feel this way and what factors into that?

Yes, being Indie has its benefits. There isn’t a lot of censorship, and we can pretty much say, do, write, and perform anything we want without any legal binds. There’s no doubt that it would be easier to reach people if we had all of our ducks in order (a finished album/EP/quality videos, etc) but right now, we’re doing everything on a real tight Indie budget so it does make it hard to do the right things all at once.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard your music before?

The mood I get from it is a sense of being aware but not quite at home with your surroundings. Kind of like a sailor who goes out to sea, prepared for the storm, but not necessarily ready for it to happen, you know what I mean? It’s got sort of a heavy, dark, gloomy feeling, but there’s more to it than that. There’s a sense of depth that people probably won’t hear if they’re just dancing or drinking at the bar, but that’s not to say they won’t enjoy it. They just wont walk away as satisfied as the people who were paying attention. I’d really like to try something a little different than what we’ve been doing. Maybe a couple hip-hop tunes, or something considered more “Pop”, just to give it a try and show people that we’re not stuck sounding the way we do, we just choose this sound over others because we feel it gets our message across in a way that isn’t really being done these days.

The Niche on tour – photo courtesy of the band

Who are the primary songwriters in the band?

So far I’ve written all the lyrics, but as a band we all of an equal say in the songwriting process. Sometimes I’ll come up with most of the idea on a guitar or bass, but after the initial blossom I usually pass the idea on to Ryley or Chris to give it some extra flare. I use instruments as more of a songwriting tool. That’s why you’ll only ever see me with a microphone and maybe a maraca on stage. (laughs). Although I do have a harmonica mic, but I just use it to achieve a sort of Tom Waits vocal effect, kind of like a megaphone.

Collectively, how does the songwriting process within the band go? Do you jam it out in rehearsal space?

We all work together to write the songs. Most of the time it starts with lyrics and a melody, but there are a handful of songs that have emerged from just a guitar or bass lick, or some sort of sound from the keyboards. Usually I’ll come into a session with an idea, and then the band will work some sort of arrangement around my lyrics. It all comes together pretty naturally though, it’s really quite a special process to be able to be involved in.

How did you come up with the band name?

I got the idea from “The Birth of Tragedy” where Nietzsche talks about the artistic elements of the ancient Greeks. ‘The Niche’ is meant to refer to the joining of the two different opposing art forms, that of Apollo, god of structure and stability, and that of the more dreamlike & ecstatic creations of Dionysus.
We’ve got an interesting balance of artists in the band, we’re all very different from each other, yet are perfectly suited for each other creatively. I think the name just really sums us up to a point that no other name would be able to achieve. Anyone who reads the Birth of Tragedy will probably get a pretty good idea as to what it is I’m trying to do.

What is your opinion on the music scene in Vancouver? Do you feel that there are enough venues for bands to book shows? And is there a lot of competition as well?

There are lots of venues and lots of bands to play them. There are a handful of swell promotion companies out there, however not many of them have touched us because we’re considered “too different” from most of the other bands in the circuit. I don’t blame them though, we haven’t got enough quality tunes online to really give the promoters an idea of what we’re about. So it’s been a struggle, we’ve had to book a lot of our own shows or team up with bands that we’ve become friends with. But its been fun, I’ve got no hard feelings, I’m pretty patient and forgiving! (laughs)

What bands/singers/songwriters did you all listen to growing up? And why are/were they important to you now that you’re in a band?

We each come from different musical and artistic backgrounds which, when blended together, sound like something that isn’t quite jazz, isn’t quite funk, and doesn’t fall under the typical blues structure, so we’ve been calling it ‘Sonic Rock’. Just sounds, man. A lot of the music is written to be a sort of soundtrack to the lyrics and images we try to convey with the songs.
I can’t really speak for everyone else, but my biggest musical influences were Elvis, Sinatra, and Johnny Cash. One was a performer, the other could croon, and man, could Cash tell a great story.

Before this band you had another band – what happened to Kick The Ashes?

Yeah, I joined Kick the Ashes as their songwriter. It wasn’t really my project, I was just another member. We were together for just under a year until we decided it was time to kick the bucket on Kick the Ashes.

How did you meet all the band members in The Niche? Are there members from Kick The Ashes?

I met Ryley and Mario through Kick the Ashes. We started playing with each other again in 2010 and decided to form another band. From there we had auditions for a bass player, and then Ryley’s girlfriend, Kaylar, came into the picture as the keyboardist & saxophone player.

What’s the best part about being in The Niche?

I just love that my words are being put to use, It’s great to have the opportunity to be able to present your artistic creations in such a personal and engaging manor. It’s really quite special. Plus, it’s awesome having the opportunity to work some of my closest friends on such a regular basis. I don’t think I could ask for anything more, except for maybe a good record contract, that would sure help us out financially! (laughs)

You can find The Niche at the following locations:

The Niche website

Facebook

Twitter

Supernova.com

Release Date for Single: November 1, 2011

Release Date for CD Letters Home: November 26, 2011

by Jade Sperry, Jadedphotography

Vancouver’s Cupla (on Supernova.com) are making waves among the indie scene in the downtown core. They’ve just finished recording for their new CD (entitled Letters Home) and they’ve sent me a preview song to review called “I’m Going”. The song is 3:15 and is very well mixed. The drumming Bill lays down is hard and consistent through the song and the guitars (by Ken and Bobby) sound well blended and well paced (in the bridge the guitars go off in two distinct directions and then come back together and lock in to each other). Tricia has great vocals that are monochromatic which works well with the melody, and I have a feeling that more is yet to come from this talented vocalist. The only downside is that I really couldn’t hear the bass that Travis grooves on very well on this mix as it is buried by the layers of the song. However, I would rate this a 4 out of 5 stars because of the steady flow of the song, the melody and how well the vocals match the melody. And, I’m looking forward to hearing new songs by this undiscovered and talented band.  The lyrics for the song speak of a bad relationship and needing to break free of that and make a new start.

Cupla will be hosting a CD release party on Saturday November 26, 2011 at The Troubadour in Langley BC. Letters Home was recorded at Greenhouse Studios with Chris “Hollywood” Holmes producing.

Just here to give an update since some friends overseas haven’t seen anything for awhile and I don’t want them to worry.  All is well as I went today to get the bandages changed at a public facility.  I have them changed every 3 days at this point.  That may change in the near future.

Today is also the first clinic visit.  I’m nervous as I know there is something wrong with my left foot.  Not gonna go into too much detail there as the peeps that need to know know.  I do have some areas where you can see that the 3rd degree burns have indented the skin down a 1/2″ in some areas.  The layers of skin are growing back.

I know this clinic is going to help me out with the process that my body has gone through, and I’m actually still shedding some skin on the palms, upper arms, and my legs.  So whatever process was happening, it seems that parts of my skin are still going through something.

And that’s that.  I know that everything will work out for the best and in the way that’s it meant to.  Mom is resting on the couch right now as we are tired from getting up early for the bandages.

Cheers all and thank you for your well wishes and the like.  It’s good to know that I have good friends who care.  Rock on and have a great week!

Jade Sperry

First off, I just want to say a big thank you to my friends on Facebook who wished me well and prayed for me while I was in the Hospital.  I am happy to report that I was discharged today, Tuesday October 4, and I am currently at home and resting.  I’m really glad to be home because I honestly didn’t think I would survive this life threatening chemical reaction to see my flat again.

Secondly, I want to thank certain people who I can always count on to help me through difficult times:  my Mom and Dad, Charity and Ryan, Troy, Sim and Erin, Bud and Carol, Gabriel S., Denis, Sue, Marie, Lynn, Carole, Teresa, Christine, Allye, Amanda, Crystal and Jamie, Brian, Paul L., Corina, Leanne, Os, Jordan, Chris S., Russ, Tracey, Eric, Zoe, Mimi and John – plus all the people in the following bands:  Cupla, Ghosthouse, Shoot The Image, Louder Than Love, Like A Marytr and The Niche.  Thank you to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU for you good wishes, prayers and awesome support.  It is VERY much appreciated.

I’m home, safe on the red velvet couch, and my Mom is here to help me out.  I do have a walker as I can’t put any weight on my left foot still.  They need to do more testing on the foot in a few weeks’ time.

Cheers to you all and thank you for visiting the blog here at JadedPhotography.  I’m still here kicking ass and making masterplans for the future.

Jade Sperry

So I’m still waiting to be transferred to another hospital for more testing and to meet a new team of doctors.

In the meantime I continue to walk withe the physiotherapist, rest and eat a proper diet.

More news and updates to follow.

And thank you for visiting the site! Your comments and get well wishes are very much appreciated.

Jade Sperry