Go North Music Festival Band Spotlight: Elliott BROOD

Last, but certainly not least: your Juno-winning Go North festival headliners Elliott BROOD.

For us in 2009, Elliott BROOD is where it all began. We first met in person at an Elliott BROOD show at the Majestic Cafe in Detroit, two Radio 3 bloggers doing what the community still does: meet up to share our love of the music and support the artists who make it. In those days, the band was still handing out wooden spoons and garage sale pots and pans for a raucous "Write It All Down For You." We still think their second full-length album, Mountain Meadows, is one of the most perfect Canadian indie albums ever made.

Their latest album, Ghost Gardens, is as nostalgic and poignant as those cherished memories, with of course some signature dark and cavalier foot stompers. In between, there was Days Into Years and a Juno for Roots & Traditional Album in 2015 for Work and Love. In between, we've been to The Ark in Ann Arbor to Bell's in Kalamazoo to Lee's Palace in Toronto to Windsor and Detroit again to see them. And this weekend, on Sat. Jul. 14, we'll be seeing them on St. Joseph Island.We hope to see you there.

Go North Music Festival Band Spotlight: Shred Kelly

If you haven't made plans for next weekend, now's the time! Tickets for the Go North Music Festival on St. Joseph Island, Ontario are only $40 ($15 for attendees ages 13-18) until the day of the festival. Wait for the gate on Sat., Jul. 14 and they're $50. Still a bargain for a great line-up of artists that includes Shred Kelly.

Over the years, some bands have become really special to us, and Shred Kelly is one of them. We discovered them in late 2011 at Windsor's Phog Lounge, and fell in love forever with their folk on steroids, fueled by Tim Newton's blistering banjo. They've delivered some of our most memorable shows, like NXNE 2014 at the Dakota Tavern, regularly appeared on our top show lists, and played at our wedding in Trinity Bellwoods in 2013.

Perhaps best known for their anthem "I Hate Work," we're also in love with their newest album, Archipelago. It's their most mature work to date, and really shows, and showcases, how far these shredders from the slopes of Fernie, B.C. have come.

Go North Music Festival Band Spotlight: Harrow Fair

If you love Great Lake Swimmers, that doesn't mean you'll love Harrow Fair.

If you love Sunparlour Players, that doesn't mean you'll love Harrow Fair.

But if you rebel against the "if you love this then you'll love that" mentality like we do, and instead love when two great talents come together to form something old and something new, then you'll absolutely love Harrow Fair at the Go North Music Festival on July 14 (that's less than a month!).

We first experienced the fortuitous union of Great Lake Swimmers' flame-haired former fiddler Miranda Mulholland and Sunparlour Players' Andrew Penner in 2016 at Home County. After the revelation that Mulholland has a voice as wicked as her bow, their stripped-down, hometown tent revival sound and powerful duets made us repent and then put their album A Call to Arms on repeat.

Go North Music Festival Band Spotlight: Fast Romantics

Of the three top-billed bands playing the Go North Music Festival on Sat., July 14, Toronto's Fast Romantics are the only one we haven't seen. Their live show gets a lot of love though from the R3 crowd, and we've heard enough to know they can write a pop song like nobody's business. SOCAN agrees: they won the foundation's national songwriter prize for "Julia" in 2016.

Mark your calendar: Go North Music Festival, July 14

St. Joseph Island, Ontario is a long way from Detroit and Windsor. But when we heard about the Go North Music Festival and saw this year's lineup, we knew N2DS2W had to go north on Sat., July 14 to support it. Stay tuned as we highlight Go North's sophomore appearance on the summer music festival scene in the coming weeks.

A Place Called Grace: Black Women Rock!

We went to Black Women Rock! for a chance to see SATE, a Canadian powerhouse rock/funk/blues singer we'd admired since hearing "A Place Called Grace" at the turn of the decade. The $45 tickets were pricey by our spoiled standards but we felt good about supporting the show. The venue was a novelty: the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. So was CeCe Peniston in the lineup. We didn't know anyone else on the bill except "honored guest" Nona Hendryx; seemed like we'd heard that name somewhere.

Guitar Gabby

We missed most of the first artist's set, Atlanta's Guitar Gabby and her brilliant green guitar, because one of us had to buy earrings from a vendor in the museum's beautiful lobby. But once we took our seats inside the auditorium, the next three artists had our full attention: Ideeyah, Sylvia Black and rapper Mahogany Jones. The backing musicians quickly earned our applause, especially bassist Tracy Wormworth from the B-52s.

Ideeyah is an electro and soul singer from Detroit

Sylvia Black

Mahogany Jones

Jackie Venson

Each artist's set was introduced by award-winning poet, publisher, performance artist and Black Women Rock! founder jessica Care moore. According to Moore, the next artist left the audience at PJ's Lager House gaping earlier this year. Jackie Venson's natural talent on the guitar and versatile voice left us amazed as well, and immediate fans. We bought one of Venson's CDs during the break, and look forward to a return show at PJ's in August.

Joan Belgrave (left) and jessica Care moore

A pretty high bar had been set for the second half of the evening. Backed by Ideeyah and special guest vocalist Joan Belgrave, Moore raised it even higher, with a performance that demonstrated why she's a quintuple "It's Showtime at the Apollo" competition winner. Her incisive stage "ranter" throughout the show imparted perspective we all need to hear, about being a black woman, being a black woman and rock musician, and Detroit. "We take people downtown and they ask, 'Where are the black people?' They're east and west, in the real Detroit."



When SATE stormed the stage at last, three songs left us anything but sated. Like a warrior from a futuristic sci-fi movie she is fierce and a force. Watch for a new album from the Toronto resident later this year.

SATE

CeCe Peniston (right)

It would be easy to dismiss CeCe Peniston as a one-hit wonder, but the fact is she had five number one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play list in the early 90s. Far from a has been, she was commanding and regal, and delivered a crowd-pleasing finale of her hit "Finally."

We would have felt like we'd gotten more than our money's worth if the evening had ended there but the best was yet to come. That honored guest? You might know Nona Hendryx as one-third of Labelle, of "Lady Marmalade" fame. At the close of the night, we knew Hendryx as a 73-year-old woman who could rock harder than performers half, heck a third of her age of any gender. She shimmied through Venson's legs, climbed on the drum kit and engaged artist after artist, one-on-one.

Nona Hendryx

Nona Hendryx jamming with Jackie Venson.

Age is just a number when you're Nona.

We knew black women could rock; now we  know how much. We doubt we'll see a better show this year. Thank you, jessica Care moore, for this rock of ages.

Black Women Rock! Musical director Kat Dyson with Nona

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

The Seven Year Ditch: Our Year in Review

For seven years, our musical calendar revolved around three signature Canadian indie events:  NXNE in Toronto, Home County in London and Phog Phest in Windsor.

This year we forgot to make hotel reservations in time for NXNE, attended the family Christmas in July instead of Home County, and Phog Phest went on hiatus (we hope it's just a hiatus).

That doesn't mean 2017 was a bust. By all accounts it was a BABOOM, notable for seeing bands we've never seen in places we've never been. Here are the highlights.

Oh, Alberta: Our excuse for forgetting NXNE hotel reservations? We were busy making plane reservations, beginning with a trip to Edmonton in March to see The Wheat Pool's five year reunion show. Yes, we love that band that much, and it was worth every pen-- er, nickel. We had a great time hiking around the city and seeing the new Rogers Arena, CKUA, the Legislature grounds and the High Level Bridge.

The Wheat Pool

The Wheat Pool

The Wheat Pool

The Wheat Pool

Vancouver is Awesome: We suffered a lot of ROMO when we couldn't go to the legendary 924 Gilman's 30th anniversary celebration, which included a Smugglers reunion. So when a second reunion show in Vancouver to launch Smugglers' frontman and CBC radio host Grant Lawrence's new book Dirty Windshields was announced, we made more plane reservations. We flew in on a Thursday afternoon and left Sunday morning. In between we:

• Checked in to the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay
• Had a great dinner with R3 friends
• Had a great breakfast the next morning with an R3 friend
• Biked around Stanley Park 

N2D

(From left) Larry Livermore, Nardwuar, S2W

• Attended the welcome party at WHAT'S UP? HOT DOG in East Van, with more R3 friends, met Nardwuar the Human Serviette and secretly swooned over sitting in the same booth as Lisa Marr from Cub
• Visited the Vancouver Aquarium
• Saw The Smugglers, Chixdiggit, Needles//Pins and The Muffs at The Commodore Ballroom 

Grant Lawrence
Author
Raconteur 

Chixdiggit 

Chixdiggit 

Chixdiggit 

Chixdiggit

The Muffs

The Muffs

The Muffs

The Muffs

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

After the diploma: We were proud parents seeing the youngest kid cross the stage as co-valedictorian in June. We were happy campers at Phog Lounge a few weeks later seeing a fantastic Bry Webb (lead singer of The Constantines) for the first time. It was also our first time seeing someone-- Ben Grossman-- play the hurdy gurdy. Amazing.

Bry Webb

Take me to the river: We've seen METZ and Preoccupations before... but not on a boat! So we were among about 1,000 people who boarded the Detroit Princess Riverboat for Detroit's Protomartyr record release show. Coincidentally, METZ' outstanding latest album, Strange Peace was released the same day. The sound in the ballroom wasn't ideal for Preoccupations but perfect for METZ' blistering set.

Detroit Princess

More new faces and places: Out of the six shows that wrapped up our year, five were headlined by bands we've been waiting a long time to see.

Half were at tried and true venues:

• Broken Social Scene at The Fillmore Detroit - Hug of thunder, indeed. 

Broken Social Scene

• Japandroids at Majestic Theatre - Only Rich Aucoin is more uplifting than this duo's aptly-named celebration rock. 

Japandroids

• The Dears at Phog Lounge - N2D's top show of the year. It felt like an arena show in a 75-person venue. We recommend checking out opener Lou Canon if you have the chance, too. 

Lou Canon

The Dears

The Dears

Half were at venues we were long overdue to check out.

The Elwins at Marble Bar: We heard it's hard to see the band because the stage is so low. But we didn't have to worry about seeing The Elwins sing "So Down Low." The bar was nearly as empty as the shell-shocked neighbourhood around it. But we liked the Marble and love The Elwins' earnest pop.

The Elwins

Do Make Say Think at El Club: This venue is making our Canadian indie dreams come true. Stubborn Persistent Illusions is one of our top albums of 2017, and we still can't believe we got to hear some of it live in Detroit. Another top show of the year. We also saw Chad VanGaalen at El Club the week before, and can't wait until April for Kid Koala.

Do Make Say Think

Chad VanGaalen

 Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images