Underground Music in Rain City

When writing an article for a zine you have only two things to worry about. Deadline and word counts. When I interviewed Jord, the new singer of freshly reformed Circle The Wagons, I was WAY over word count and had to chop a lot of good stuff. Thankfully my blog has no word count, so break out your reading glasses and prepare to read it all folks!  And be sure to catch Circle The Wagons playing with Dayglo Abortions @ Funky Winkerbeans on Thursday April 14th for their tour kick off, gonna be a great show. Circle The Wagons – Not Dizzy Yet. By: Denis Maile Denis - When did Circle The Wagons form? Jordan - To the best of my knowledge, the band was formed in 2001. Back history and such should be directed to someone who was in the band at that time. I was 15 years old then, and too busy splitting my time between youth group and masturbation to document any kind of local scene. Denis - And when did they break up? Jordan - The last show was in June of 2006, in Fernie of ...

This is an interview that ran in the Skinny Magazine in July 2009. Jesse's solo CD was a really great listen and summertime album, so I've revisited this interview because he has a new EP out, and a release show coming. All the info you need to hear the music, and attend the show are at the bottom, but first here's the interview.  Jesse from CAMBRIDGE unplugs. By: Denis Maile Upon hearing that Jesse Lebourdais, vocalist/guitarist from Vancouver punk band Cambridge, had released an acoustic CD it struck some interest in my gut. Upon hearing the actual songs on his myspace had me quick to realize that Jesse’s musical talents stretched much further than punk rock. The songs I heard went from upbeat and punky tunes to more somber arrangements featuring piano. There was even a folky bluegrass song, where I’m pretty sure I heard a squeeze box. Basically what I’m trying to say is that there is a colourful range of instruments, song styles and summer anthems. It was high time ...

When it comes to heavy music in this city, no band has bigger buzz right now than Black Wizard. And all you have to do is attend one of their live shows to realize all the attention is fully garnered. They've got the sickest groovy riffs, the steadiest of drums, and a definite wild side. When I heard via Facebook that one of their guitarists Johnny was quitting the band it was apparent that I would need to be attending his last show. Who knows when they'd have their feet back on the ground, so this show was going to have to get me my Black Wizard fix for the next while. The show was at the Interurban Gallery, and the place was packed. Black Wizard had pulled their van into the venue. It was like something out of the 80s. I should have been proudly displaying my long hair, but kept it hidden under a hat and hood trying my best to be interurban. There were a few girls prancing about and a lot of people were flying their hipster flags high. I couldn't care less, as I came fo...