Saint Dirt Elementary School and THOMAS
This Wednesday the TRANZAC is proud to host a double CD launch by two of our favourite bands. Both albums were produced and recorded by Jean Martin at The Farm.
THOMAS launches Janela
‘Janela’ serves as a time capsule of a particular era in the T H O M AS trajectory. Recorded mostly live at Jean Martin’s Barnyard studio, the EP documents the development of a six-piece incarnation of the band that performed together throughout 2009-10. Minimal drum synths support long, slow dynamic arcs, allowing upfront, bone-dry vocals to dialogue with vast, dense, digital keyboard swathes on topics of friendship and pursuit of the spirit. ‘Janela’ is an engrossing listen, both dense and smooth.
Appearing in many forms and furnishing a variety of vibes, T H O M A S is the ongoing brainchild of Toronto’s Thom Gill. Since 2009 the band has been exploring the world of song, at home and abroad, with blissfully confused audiences. Says Tad Michelak: “Smoothed out pop songs and raw emotion spread almost too thin over delicate guitar work. T H O M A S blurs the line between pop and the avant-garde by re-inventing the cliches and turning them into something all his own without ever becoming one himself. His voice is like silk whispers that can become alien at any minute. A bizarre un-touchable oddness lingers in his perfectly composed post-smooth pop songs, begging you to dig deeper.
The musicians for this CD launch will include: Thom Gill – guitar, keyboard, voice, Bram Geilen – acoustic bass, Ryan Driver- guitar, flute, voice, Dan Pencer – flute and Felicity Williams – voice
Saint Dirt Elementary School launches Abandoned Ballroom
St. Dirt Elementary School is a little big band; it’s a salon orchestra; it’s a cabaret pitband; it’s a New School concert band half-remembering old school psychedelics in a district West of Weimar and North of San Antonio. It is both public and private. It can swing like a Kollektief or shamble like a seaside sinfonia. St. Dirt Elementary School plays compositions: rubberband exotica, bouncing like bamboo windchimes dangling from the hood of a springloaded pram.
Playing for St. Dirt on Wednesday will be: Wes Cheang-acoustic guitar, Ryan Driver-analog synthesizer, Myk Freedman-lap steel, Tania Gill-piano/melodica, Julia Hambleton-clarinet, Kai Koschmider-alto saxophone, Jake Oelrichs-drums/glockenspiel, Mike Overton-bass
“A great group of zanies here.”
-John Zorn
“Lap-steel whiz Myk Freedman excels at intensely evocative instrumentals that draw on Dixieland, klezmer and avant-garde jazz. His aesthetic is wistful yet subtly surreal.”
-Time Out New York
“Freedman’s ballads are some of the most gorgeous music in jazz right now.”
-David Dacks, Exclaim! Magazine
