De La Soul

Friday night I was in the mood for some toe-tapping music, and the tiny bar/cafe called Holy Oak at Bloor/Lansdowne was hosting a cover band called A Soul. One of my favourite local singers Maylee Todd was on deck. I was curious how they were going to fill a drummer (who continued his beatific beaming from the last time I saw him with the Eric Cheneux Electric Trio), percussionist, pianist, bassist, guitarist, and Maylee into that space. It was a tight squeeze with the band taking up almost 1/3 of the space.

It was 2 fun sets with the band playing some classic soul. Even if I didn't recognize most of the songs, I couldn't keep my feet still with all that awesome groove. There were only 3 things that would have made the night even better. One, there were lots of bopping heads but not many dancers. Two, whenever someone stood right in front of the relatively modest speakers, the singer's voice came through underpowered and muffled. Finally, everybody wanted to hear more Maylee, who took the lead on 3-4 songs. The two male singers were adequate, with the bassist having a nice loose drawl, but Maylee was born to sing soul.

Just to end this post on a soulful note (ha!), here are two original soul numbers, Hieroglyphic Love Letter and Aerobics In Space,  from Maylee during CMW at Supermarket. I was there and it sounded even better live. And here she is belting another original scorcher at UBC. I'm anxiously awaiting her new CD.

Enchantment Under The Sea

A long time ago, I attended my senior prom. It took place in a dining hall of a museum. The gala didn't last long because everyone made a bee-line over to the Quebec side of the city where the drinking age was only 18. On a rainy Saturday night, I busted out the fancy suit and went to my second senior prom at the El Mocambo.

The principal (David Dineen-Porter) welcomed the 2011 class, mostly well-dressed young men and women, of "Def Leppard" High to the venue. After some scatter-shot jokes, he made way for Chad (Gentleman Reg), the handsomest boy in school. Chad's 3-piece band played melancholic tunes that suited his alto voice. Highlights included We're In A Thunderstorm and covers Wild Heart and If It Makes You Happy.

Then it was time for the announcement of the Prom King and Queen. Chad won Prom King  and Allie Hughes was Prom Queen. This was quite a coincidence since this night was billed as Allie Hughes' Prom Queen Dream. Allie Hughes glided onstage in a wonderful daze with her band. Even the two girls from Rouge who tormented her through high school became her back-up singers. Allie sang her wild mix of pop songs. It was only appropriate that Chad came on to sing Not The Stars with his Queen. But the dream turned into a nightmare when he started playing tonsil hockey with another guy. Allie descended into madness, complete with running blood (but no buckets though), for a few more songs. She ended her dream writhing on stage with her cover of Britney Spears' Toxic. The student newspaper has more coverage with photos as well as the school's AV team.

The evening ended with Christian cover band Pop Salvation (Dwayne Gretzky) leading the student body through some fun tunes including Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Billy Joel, et al.

Only A 7 Count

Wandering down Bloor St. near Spadina after work, I thought about having some ramen at Kenzo Ramen. But what's this? A burger joint right next door. I was at first excited to see the name K.O. Burger because my mind was think Kobe beef. That would be good. But that wasn't it. This joint was originally called Wing Shop 366 (specializing in 66 chicken wings flavour) until they realized the customers liked their burgers more than the wings.

It wasn't a Kobe burger but it was freshly made (or so the menu claims). I got the 8 oz Hugo burger ($5.99) with jerk sauce. It takes a while to get your meal because they don't start cooking until you order. I didn't detect any jerk but it was a large and tasty burger. More importantly, the beef was nicely seasoned unlike other burger joints that go upscale with the meat but don't do much else with it. I suppose they have to cook all the way through because of Toronto's uptight regulations, but the patty still retained a good chewiness.

On the other hand, the fries were a disaster. I couldn't believe it but they were actually under-salted. More egregiously, the dark-brown colour and taste told me that the oil doesn't get change very often. They were also composed of short pieces so it felt like eating leftover bits that should have been thrown out.

I was going to go around the corner to Walmer and get some Italian yogurt but then I remembered it was meals like this that added that 20 lbs when I first came to Toronto. So nothing to do but work some of that grease off by walking home from the Annex.

Musical Chairs

On Saturday night, I went to Gallery 345 to listen to mini-uet, 8 new works for toy pianos from the Toy Piano Composers Collective (all 8 composers were there), played by junctQin (pronounced junction) who were Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferreti, and Stephanie Chua. In my mind, I was picturing Schroeder from Peanuts with Kalimba-like songs. In reality, toy pianos made by Schoenhut are plinkety-plink curiosities without much dynamic or tone. Add to the mix composers who are into modern classical music without much melody and harmony and I was getting a few "my kid could do that" moments.

Chess Suite (Monica Clorey) for 2 toy pianos attempt to represent the chess pieces. For example, a pawn can only move 1 step at a time. It would take a more educated ear than mine to discern that in the cacophony. In the final movement, there were some quiet passages that "sounded" like an end-game to me, but maybe I was trying to create pattern out of chaos. Fractured (Christian Floisand) was the most successful and enjoyable piece for myself and the audience. A grand piano, accompanied by a toy piano and "acoustic table" played a series of themes with complex poly-rhythm. The usage of a simplified piano/music score to represent percussive patterns to turn a trained pianist into a good percussionist is a very clever idea. With Ares' Breath (Ruth Guechtal) we're back to key-banging, to represent the misery of March, for 2 pianos and 1 toy piano. One Short Piece for my Short Attention Span (Igor Correia) was more traditional, but there was nothing outstanding in any of the musical snippets in this piece.

After the intermission, Interlocking No. 3 (Chris Thornborrow) was first up. All 3 pianists played on the same piano. I think part of the enjoyment of the piece would have been to see them negotiate their lines (as mentioned in the description). Unfortunately, like all classical concerts, you have to sit snug in your chair and have no chance to stand close to the performer and observe their technique. Dragging Death to Life (Dan Brophy) was the most trying of the compositions. According to the composer, this piece is not only not pitch-oriented like most modern pieces, but it also does away with rhythmic phrasing as well. Also, the performers are to ignore each others' tempo. It certainly sounded unlike anything that I would consider to be music. Crosscurrents (Glenn James) was the other successful piece. Two separate themes interacted with each other on piano, toy piano, and music box. This composition showed, in my opinion, where the strength of a toy piano lies: a "playable" music box. The evening ended with Welcome to Warp Zone! (Elisha Denburg), which was to be a homage to the music of 8 and 16-bit video game without actually referencing any well-known game music. It was disappointingly 80s TV special instead. It takes more than a toy piano, piano, or even a Casio synth to create those 8-bit earworms.

Kilroy!

I went down to Sneaky Dee's Friday night to attend the release of "Once Smitten", the Lovely Killbots' new CD. First up was Mintz/Darby Kickdrum, 2 local artists/producers who got together for the gig. Their performance was rough ("We didn't practice very much"), but there were a few neat songs. The singer had an interesting way to rhyme verses and the topics were a bit unusual: God missing Lucifer; a love song revealing the destructive logical conclusion to the typical declarations about changing yourself for your partner.

Next was The Love Machine, a 4-member band from Ottawa. They played a lot of up-tempo pop and frequently use anthemic/repeated choruses and call-and-response. When Babe followed and I saw the 5-string bass, I knew there was going to be some bass wankery. Sure enough, this band is electronica/dance music with funky bass-lines. Not a great singer but adequate to the task. At the start of their set, there were suddenly 4 six-feet-tall fashionable girls looming heads-and-shoulders right behind me. I have never felt more inadequately short in my life.

Mix Chopin, a Disco-esque band, was next. But the sets started so late and overly long that the main act, the Lovely Killbots, decided to go on. Their electronica composed of synth-and-drums (and a backing track at various times) got a lot of heads nodding. The female lead singer had a thin voice (due to the live sound-mix) so that the songs that sounded best were those where the drummer added his brassy voice in harmony. The only negative was the sound-mix also often lost his voice. The syncopated, off-beat drumming kept the songs lively. Highlights included "Must Be Machine", "Time For Change", "Hello My Dear", and "It's Fun To Be Grumpy". All are on the excellent CD.

Fit For a King?

As I strolled by the incomprehensibly busy Nazareth, I noticed that another Ethiopian restaurant has opened a few doors down at the corner of Bloor and Dovercourt. I've seen this place before; African Palace used to be closer to Bloor and Shaw. The sign advertised Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Middle-Eastern. Sure enough, the simple two page menu comprised of Ethiopian dishes on one side and Middle-Eastern (shawarma, samosas, eggplant, etc.) on the other. I ordered the 4 veg, 2 meat combination plate ($11.99) and looked around at the decor.

The walls are painted with columns covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs; but this might have been left over from the shawarma place that used to be here. The African musical instruments and carvings were Ethiopian though, as well as the traditional Ethiopian rattan seats and round tables. It was too bad that there were only 2 such seatings, the rest were undistinguished formica dining sets.

The affable hostess/owner explained that the restaurant started out 8 years ago as African Village, an Ethiopian breakfast diner near Queen and Parliament. They were at  Bloor/Shaw for the past 4 years but rising rent drove them further west.

The combination platter came out less full than Lalibela, but the injera was thicker and more spongy. It had a nicer tanginess and mouth-chew. According to the owner, the wiring on all these old buildings on Bloor, along with the cost of hiring additional staff, prevented the numerous Ethiopian restaurants in this area from making their injera in-house. But she encouraged a friend to start making them at home as a business and that was her source for injera.

The vegetables were tasty though as a personal preference, I liked my collard greens more bitter. Unfortunately, the lamb and beef were decided inferior: gamey and tough. I'll come back and try the chicken or some other meat because I really want an alternative to Nazareth and I like the owner. But at this time, Lalibela offers the better choice: tastier meat dishes and enough food for lunch the next day if you do take-out.

There is also another new food place at this corner. Right next to the Delaware exit of the Ossington subway stop, Bakerbots Baking has opened up. The owner was originally trained in the arts. You can see that background in her gallery photos, but blecch all that fondant! For the spring season, the store is opened to the public Friday through Sunday if you want to get your fix of cookies, muffins, macarons, and ice cream. On Sunday, after being unable to get a ticket to see the documentary El Bulli in Yorkville, I came back and sat on the bench, enjoying a scoop of rasberry white chocolate with cocoa.