Decibel Geek and Juno

Who or what is a Juno Award, you might ask, that is unless you're from Canada. Well simply put, The Juno Awards are Canada's equivalent to The Grammy's and showcase the best in Canadian music from genres across the board. The Juno Awards are named for Pierre Juneau who was the first president of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and former president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The awards
 began in 1970 and celebrate the best in Canadian musical artists, acknowledging their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. Prior to the Awards, the host city features "Juno Week" with Juno related concerts and activities in the days leading up to the official ceremony.

As a part of 2015's Juno Week in Hamilton, Ontario eOne Entertainment and Gibson guitars held The Gibson All-Star 2015 Juno Extravaganza and Decibel Geek was invited to the event! I'm not too sure who made the mistake of inviting The Meister as Decibel Geek's representative, but I wasn't turning it down! The email evite contained only a R.S.V.P. which offered little information about the event taking place on Saturday March 14, 2015, the night before the actual Juno Awards. So I sent an email:


"My name is Rich "The Meister" Dillon and I'm a writer with Decibel Geek. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to represent Decibel Geek at The Gibson All-Star Juno Extravaganza 2015 on March 14. Never having attended the event previously I had a couple of questions and I could find no information online.
1. What's the dress code for the event? Being a rocker my usual outing attire consists of ripped jeans and a sleeveless rock t-shirt, but that won't go over well if this is a black tie event.
2. Will there be any performances/special guests and if so who would they be?"

Answer: "1. No dress code, come as you are. 2. 13 artists from 9pm-3am, but can't say who they are, only that all of them are JUNO Award winners/noms." It all sounds so mysterious.

Liuna Station was where the event was being held (revealed only after you R.S.V.P.'ed) and the banquet hall was quite nice inside and a fairly large stage set-up. I certainly felt a little out of my element but was prepared to leave my 80's style hard rock and heavy metal bubble for a little while, expanding my horizons. For the most part, I was underdressed in my jeans, but hey, at least I threw on a collared shirt for the occasion! Learning earlier in the day that fellow Decibel Geek staff writer Kate Campbell was also going to be in attendance (invited as a guest of another invitee) the shenanigans ensued quite quickly as she discovered the Bacardi photo booth. So glad she was here
tonight! (see photos below)!

The affair was underway with the Julian Taylor Band serving as the house band if you will. They treated the spiffy crowd to about a half an hour set of covers  such as Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" and others peppered with an original piece or two and I must say that they were quite good. Julian Taylor possessed an excellent voice and covered a wide range of material including, at one point Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". Their originals were also quite spirited especially the song announced as being from their new album which is named after the bar from the first Terminator movie, Tech Noir, and I'm definitely on the lookout to purchase the album....perhaps a Facebook message will assist me.

The Julian Taylor Band sometimes vacated the stage to make way for the next Juno winner/nominee performer and sometimes portions of them accompanied or provided the backing band for the performer on stage at the time. While I was unfamiliar with each and every artist aside from one, they each had fans in the audience and rightly so as they all seemed to perform well despite not being "my style". I wondered if we will be getting a hard rock or heavy metal band at some point? Definitely expanding my horizons. The hors d'oeuvres that began circling the crowd fully assisted in taking my attention and focus away from the performers on stage, well to be exact Kate playing the role of "food shark" as she trailed around the crowd following different hors d'oeuvres trays distracted me. All that was missing was the Jaws movie theme music as she sighted her prey and struck, snatching the tasty little morsels off of the silver platters.

Throughout the evening the performers that spent some time on stage included (and please don't crucify me if I missed someone or made a name error, but I've tried my best to get everyone) JUNO winner for "Country Album of the Year" Dallas Smith and his band for one song, country artist Meghan Patrick from Bowmanville, Ontario and The Once (a three piece band from NFLD). Alysha Brilla with the house band and her strong voice covered "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" and an original with help from her sisters and publicist. JUNO Award winner Amelia Curran & Hamilton, Ontario's Harlan Pepper with Colin Linden delivered Teenage Head's "Let's Shake" (at least I'm pretty sure that's who was on stage for that excellent cover!). When Tom Wilson (of Junkhouse...and the only performer I knew) graced the stage with his band Blackie & The Rodeo Kings (also featuring Colin Linden) he spoke into the mic "What we've got up here is a bunch of JUNO losers!" before breaking into Junkhouse's "Out Of My Head" I had forgotten about this song/band and how much I played that cassette when it came out in the early 90's, in any case it was friggin' awesome to hear it tonight, a definite highlight! This performance was followed by a rap/hip-hop style artist, Kardinal Offishall who called for the crowd to come closer and they responded as such (I did quite the opposite). He probably had the biggest response, the crowd the most into things I'd seen yet, but I'd never even heard of him before this and had to ask someone nearby for the name. Steve Strongman, Steve Hill & Matt Anderson teamed up to deliver some awesome "dirty blues" next, more albums to search out for. It wasn't metal, but ole Meister can certainly groove to this! Amanda Rheaume ripped through some covers like The Black Crowes' "Hard To Handle" and The Rolling Stones' "Honkytonk Woman". I personally was definitely preferring the latter half of the acts, but maybe that's because the comedic "food shark" had vacated and I was simply paying more attention. The Dead South from Regina, Saskatchewan were something different with their bluegrass style and served up an amazing cover of "House Of The Rising Son" from The Animals before Lindsay Broughton took the stage with the house band for spirited versions of the rock n roll/blues classic "Shake, Rattle & Roll", Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and more, taking us well past 2AM! Finally at around 2:30AM the now rather sparse audience was aurally abused by what I'd been searching for all night long...loud, heavy, smashing, headbanging music! It was served up in the form of a band that I had as yet unheard of (a theme of the evening it seems), The Wild! The Wild! hail from the West Coast Canadian Province of British Columbia and when they hit the stage, literally assaulting the audience's ears, I was jolted alive. Described on the band's Facebook page as "the bastard son of AC/DC and ZZ Top", The Wild! have recently signed to eOne Entertainment and I'm now waiting to get my hands on their forthcoming album. Check out this video from the event for their song "Road House".

After The Wild's blistering three song assault I drained the remainder of my final adult beverage and headed toward the door, pausing only briefly to check out the evening's final performer (I missed their names) with their cover of Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" before I spilled out into the cold dark night. Now to kill time in a 24hr A&W until the next bus to Union Station, Toronto at 4:30AM, then waste 2 hours there until the next bus north to Newmarket at 8AM....what a long night and a chore to make it home!

What did I learn at the eOne/Gibson All-Star 2015 Juno Extravaganza?

#1-Well, I'm rather seriously out of touch with some of my own country's musical talents and not just in genres that I usually avoid, but all around. Time to search out Julian Taylor, Steve Strongman, The Wild! and others all while spinning my age old copy of Junkhouse's Strays.

#2-If you get invited to an event such as this in the future, book a hotel room you idiot so that you don't have literally hours of bus travel to and from, finally reaching your bed at around 9AM, you're too old for this shit nowadays!

Canadian music offers some of the best in the world across all genres and tastes so check some out! Some of my favorite local area bands include Diemonds, Sarasin, Skrou, Shock and Wild T & The Spirit.

Cheers,
The Meister

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LINKS:
eOne Music / Gibson / The Juno Awards / Julian Taylor Band / Dallas Smith / Meghan Patrick / The Once / Alysha Brilla / Amelia Curran / Harlan Pepper / Colin Linden / Lee Harvey Osmond aka: Tom Wilson / Blackie & The Rodeo Kings / Kardinal Offishall / Matt Anderson / Steve Hill / Steve Strongman / Amanda Rheaume / The Dead South / Lindsay Broughton

The Wild! Website / The Wild! Facebook / The Wild! Twitter

Sarasin: Metal From The Hammer

What's this? A plain kraft paper envelope in my mailbox addressed to "The Meister"!  I slid the CD and the accompanying promo package out of the envelope.  The cover art was rather uninspiring, let me re-phrase that.  The drawing was quite intriguing, a serpent of sorts swallowing itself so that it's encircled in a ring, but what makes the cover unappealing is the for lack of a better description mustard brown hue that everything is tinted with, not a favorite colour of The Meister.  The back cover displayed a faded version of the serpent with the eight track titles imposed over it and the whole package came with a "Promotional Copy" sticker
affixed to the outside.  The included biography of Sarasin offered much more interesting fare to the Ole Meister.  It included phrases such as the opening paragraph: "If you are a classic heavy metal listener and have Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in your record collection (CHECK), it makes sense to give the new Sarasin CD a listen (OK, I WILL).  We haven't tried to re-invent the wheel (HONESTY AND HUMILITY), but we take great pride in paying homage to our heavy metal Gods with 9 songs (THE BACK OF THE CD SHOWS 8) that fit right into that genre without sounding plagiaristic." And a little farther down: "Sarasin has been around longer than we care to admit (LOL), and this has afforded us the luxury of playing every shithole in North America (OK YOU GOT A CHUCKLE OUT OF ME)."  "With the decline of everything good in life (AHHH....THE ONSET OF GRUNGE AND SEATTLE SCENE) it was clear that by the mid 90's, even if you had a record deal you were running out of places to play (SAD, BUT TRUE).  We've always had a loyal fan following based out of Hamilton, Ontario (NICKNAMED AS "THE HAMMER"), but if you're looking for an extensive Facebook following or super polished website, we apologize (MORE HONESTY).  Somehow putting a guitar down to jump on a computer or cell phone never had much appeal for any of us (MORE ON THIS POINT IN A SECOND)."  I really liked the underlying humility, honesty and sense of humor running through the bio and right away I was intrigued to check out Sarasin.  I loaded the CD into my computer as I do with every disc to add it to my digital library and then transfer to my MP3 player or cell phone for listening on the go.  What's this?  There's actually nine tracks, must be a misprint on the back of the CD.  A quick message via Facebook to Roger Banks (drummer and sender of the promo package) results in the correct track listing, but also in him offering me the job of manager since I'm the only one to proofread and catch the track listing error.....or was it a test of some sort?

Let's get to the tunes.  The band from Hamilton, Ontario open their self-titled Sarasin CD with "The Hammer".  This track captures my attention quickly and surprisingly it does not appear to be lyrically concerning their hometown of Hamilton, Ontario nicknamed "The Hammer".  Watch the interview video at the bottom of this review to find out what "The Hammer" is about lyrically. The track has a good, energetic pace with a delicious little solo and some strong vocals. The production seems to be a little dull and muddy, but that's just fine with me as I prefer a little character to my tunes.  Next up is "The Enemy Within" featuring a haunting beginning added to by the thunder & lightening in the background.  Before long the track opens up into a pounding grind for a song that has quickly become my favorite of the collection and has made its way onto my daily gym workout playlist along with "The Hammer".  "In Our Image" has a catchy bridge and chorus in this pace-changing composition for another solid track.  "Now" charges out of the gates and keeps things moving along nicely, with another memorable chorus adding to an already strong CD outing from Sarasin. Throughout the CD you can easily hear the band's previously stated influences of Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath while "Soul Invain" opens up another avenue displaying a little Alice In Chains style or feel to it.  The slower, chugging  pace of "SinkHole" appears next and was the track that was missing from the roster on the back of the disc. The moody and again slower paced track of "Live To See The Glory" follows.   The pace and energy ramp up again with the catchiness of "Forevermore" that seems to stay with you days after listening and things close well with "Wake Up" although it's another slower paced affair.

Not being a particular fan of the slower paced fare, I lost a little interest during "SinkHole" and "Live To See The Glory" or maybe I just have a short attention span. In either case, this is a great CD, with no real weak spots, just a few that outshine the rest. The compositions are strong and the musicianship solid throughout. A high recommendation from The Meister!

Sarasin drummer Roger Banks was kind enough to chat with me a little about the band and the latest Sarasin album. Listen to the highlights from our chat to find out what the song "The Hammer" is all about in the interview video below and check out the song.

Cheers,
The Meister

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(Sarasin Website) (Sarasin Facebook)