lightsweetcrude @ The Tranzac Club, Toronto – 8/16/2013

Fort York – Toronto Art Spin, June 2013

Getting set up @ Fort York for Art Spin Toronto 6/27/2013

Wondering what you saw last Thursday? Here's a summary of the event with images, artists names and links to match…. http://t.co/BfjbsfSOw4

— Art Spin (@artspintoronto) July 2, 2013

This one is going up a little late, but a great multi-sensory collab  went down at Toronto Art Spin last week, which evolved from that “Sound & Light” residency last Spring at Somewhere There . Guitarist Arnd Jurgensen, whom Michael Kaler had recruited to be part of a few ‘random’ ensembles, was this time in  position to do some recruiting, and did just that, putting together an ensemble that included Kaler, saxophonist Paul Newman, and drummer Ambrose Pottie. I held the projection chair, and our spontaneous performance at Fort York was one of several stops on the bike trail for this edition of Art Spin.

Bloody Good Time #artspin pic.twitter.com/oLSbbgfVgR

— Zombie Liberation Co (@ZombieLC) June 28, 2013

An outdoor projection at the ArtSpin afterparty… Walnut Studios, Toronto

A little fun in the lab….

Feed Your Head #5

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“There’s no such thing as improvisation. There’s only composition. Only you do it quickly; you’re composing on the spot.”
-Jerry Garcia

The projectors will crackle, Kyle Haight will be doing live painting, and some other guests TBA will be in the house to complete the experience. Join us.

**canceled**

Synaesthesia @ The Garrison

4 humans + 1 machine + 1 projector with liquids

Garrison Jan 11th/2013 photo by @thebradee

Backstage: Ancient runes from previous musical civilizations, warning of bad monitor mixes…

Garrison Jan 11th/2013 Photo by Kenneth Laing Herdy

Photo by Kenneth Laing Herdy

A Jammer In The Hammer

Hard to believe we’ve played Owen Sound twice, and not once in this great city right next door. Not that it hasn’t been on my radar since we started gigging in 2009. It has. Somehow since my last Grateful Dead concert (ironically Copps Coliseum on 1990-03-22), and my popping my head up out of the studio trenches in 2007, curious once again about the ‘jamband scene’ (always a dubious term, but we’ll save that discussion for another time), Hamilton had become Ontario’s hub. Obviously bands traveling in from the US were more likely to stop in TO, but not always – Garaj Mahal and a few others were notable exceptions, adding a stop in the Hammer to their short North-of-the-border schedule, or playing exclusively there.
How did this come about? I personally have no idea. There’s always a reason, though. Fill me in.
Must Stash Hat were uber-kind to ask us to open for them at what I’ve heard is a great venue: Homegrown Hamilton. We really dug MSH’s set when we gigged together at The Bovine in February – very tight, almost hypnotic, groove-oriented jamming, that really floored me. I was struck again by how many different approaches exist under the ‘improvised music’ umbrella, all taking us to the same place, but along different paths.

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Crosswires #9

Crosswires is a recently launched pwyc night Sundays at The Garrison, curated by Doc Pickles of TO’s Wavelength crew. So far the lineups have been very interesting, and tastefully eclectic, with visuals by General Chaos being a regular feature of each gig. Nice!
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.@lightsweetcrude rockin’ their sweet vibes @TheGarrisonTO twitter.com/CrosswiresTO/s…

— Crosswires (@CrosswiresTO) April 23, 2012

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Lee’s Palace!

Lee’s Palace! The one place I used to check out bands during my time at U of T that is still around and I still haven’t played myself. I saw many bands there back then: The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, The Phantoms, The Shuffle Demons, The Hopping Penguins, Punjabi By Nature, Chunk O’ Funk….. That great gig with Treble Charger and The Posies on a bill – that was a good one…. And many more that I can’t quite recall now… Now if you chat up some older scenesters, you might learn that Lee’s is also the venue where a legendary Black Jello / Neon Rome / Mike Marley and the Sailors gig took place (1986?) that involved an altercation between a soundman working at Lee’s and Black Jello’s lead singer, who pulled a Roger Daltrey, but he wasn’t a seasoned ‘mic swinger’, and it hit the floor, causing the sound man to attack. Quite a skirmish. Mr. Lee (RIP) himself was even in the thick of it and got hit in the head, if you believe the stories. Supposedly there’s some video footage, but it’s not in circulation yet… (I missed that gig, but am happy to say that I caught Neon Rome at an all ages gig that went down before this one). My point: Lee’s is one of the few true TO rock venues with history that is still around. And lightsweetcrude is psyched to play there tomorrow night. Come join us!

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P.S. Of course…. something this cool would have to be co-opted by Hollywood.

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Road Trip To Owen Sound

Last Summer we did a road trip to Owen Sound for OtherFolk, and it was a blast! We have played out of town festivals before, but had previously met up at the gig, and traveled separately – this was the first time the whole band was in the Crudemobile together for a voyage. I was curious how it would turn out. After all, if we found for some reason we couldn’t get along for 12 hours together, the “live” future of lightsweetcrude would be looking grim. We’re still trying to learn from our audiences here in TO, but the plan is to eventually make extended visits elsewhere to learn from other audiences, as well.
Obviously things went fine. 12 hours isn’t such a long time, especially when you’re psyched to play in another city. The entire trip out there just builds the excitement! Yes, I may be an older hand in the studio, but regarding the “road”, I’m green and not as jaded.
Music selections on the road were interesting… I was able to turn these guys on to a stretch from Miles‘ “Live/Evil”, and King Crimson‘s “Lark’s Tongues In Aspic”. Michael hippified us to Ronnie Boykins‘ 1975 album, “The Will Come, Is Now”. On the way back, I played some long overdue live Grateful Dead for Alexei and Mark, who had never heard any before(!), but were constantly subjected to references from Kaler and myself. 6/22/73 was the jam du jour. Let’s just say all Crudemobile passengers were ready to hear it with open ears at that point. (If you check the link for this show, we listened from track 22 onward, just fyi). Then Alexei hippified us to Talk Talk‘s “Spirit Of Eden” – an interesting album with a real sense of space, true to the ‘ambient’ ’80s. Mark has to bring his iPod next time!
As we arrived at the venue, so did Kyle Haight from Blobject, who were headlining that night, and Kyle was generously supplying the kit. The gig was on the rooftop of the Chaise Lounge. Putting aside the possibility of rain, a rooftop is an amazing place to play…. There’s an amazing view, the sky above, snare hits reverberating off buildings across the street – you get the idea. It was even nicer once it got dark, and the bar was a big source of light.
We had some time to kill, and went for some coffee. On our return to The Chaise Lounge, Kyle was carting around a portable live painting station that he was pumped to put to use that night, converting different bands’ music into art. After our set, he handed me this:

Beautiful! So generous of him! Check Kyle’s website. A very talented individual.

It was a great road trip, and we played to a great crowd. It’s hard to nail exactly why, but the vibe and energy was so different from a Toronto gig, and I really think the music responded to this. Feel free to check it out below. We’re heading up to beautiful Owen Sound again this weekend for Lupercalia fest, also helmed by Joshua Richardson, and we’re looking very forward to it!

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February Has The Jam

Who knows what the weather will be like on February 23rd? This gig poster is hopeful that we will have some snow in our lives, even just for a little bit. Does that mean I’m personally hoping for a snowstorm? Not really. Except this Winter has been a bit creepy. It would feel kind of nice for some kind of a snowfall to come at some point, and allow to brush of all that Global Warming stuff as nonsense…. But maybe not until after the weekend of Feb 18th / 19th. We’ve got to drive up to Owen Sound….

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