Cinema Lamour

ArtsFestivalsMusic

Everyone knows Montreal has no shortage of music festivals. But there is a real lack of focus on the local music scene. Enter Passovah Productions and their annual Passovah Summer Music Festival.

This year is the second edition of the new festival and it has already established itself as a vital one among Montreal’s various cultural happenings during the summer season. Its inaugural edition featured 24 local acts spread out over two nights. This year’s edition has doubled in size with over 50 local acts. They’ve also added an extra night of shows as well as daytime shows on Saturday and Sunday.

The festival’s success and great potential for further growth can be attributed to a few factors.

“The fact that it’s all local is a big thing,” said Passovah’s creative director and co-founder Noah Bick. “The fact that it’s pay-what-you-can and the fact that we have short sets, those are three things that set it apart from other festivals.”

The PWYC model is one that is gaining in popularity in the local music scene. Bick and many others agree that this is a very effective way of promoting local talent and exposing less well known acts to a broader audience.

“It’s a good way of making sure that whoever wants to come to the concert is going to come and cost is not going to stop them,” he said. “I think a lot of artists would rather have 100 people in the room, 50 of which have paid, than 50 people in the room.”

Another thing to consider is that if you’re paying less to get into a show to see a band, you’ll be more willing to spend that money elsewhere on their music or merch available at the show.

Aside from the fact that the musical acts featured in the festival lineup are all local, there is nothing that they all have in common. The lineup is an eclectic collection of genres and styles that exemplifies the wide range of talent that Montreal’s thriving music scene has to offer.

“A lot of these bands are either people that I’m friends with or people whose music I’ve really gotten into and I’m just so glad that Passovah’s organically grown into this way of helping local artists do their thing,” Bick said. “The different ways in which some of these bands have gotten on the bill is really cool and inspiring.”

The following is a small taste of some of the acts performing in the festival, which runs from Friday, August 9 to Sunday, August 11. For a complete list, consult the Passovah Summer Music Festival’s website.

SALTLAND / Friday, August 9 at Il Motore.

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FRAGILE FEET / Friday, August 9 at Il Motore

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RUBY KATO ATTWOOD & ALASKA B (YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN) / Friday, August 9 at Il Motore.

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WAKE ISLAND / Saturday, August 10 at Il Motore

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SPECIAL NOISE / Saturday, August 10 at Il Motore

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PIGEON PHAT / Saturday, August 10 at Il Motore

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*Photo by POP Montreal

MIRACLE FORTRESS / Sunday, August 11 at Il Motore

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CINEMA L’AMOUR / Sunday, August 11 at Il Motore

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ISLE OF PINE / Sunday, August 11 at 185 Van Horne

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ArtsMusic

GHOST LIGHTS – SALTWATER (November 27, 2013)

Folk /  Indie Rock / West Coast Acoustic

The first time I heard this EP a couple months ago, I couldn’t help singing along with it out loud. I then met Noah Cebuliak (guitar, voice) of Ghost Lights when he played a set at a show organized for the debut of my small band. Within seconds, he had the audience in a trance, eyes closed, smiles content and longing hearts. There is something in Ghost Lights’ tunes that is hard to pinpoint. Ghost lights is atmospheric, recalling the wilderness that inspires Cebuliak who is from British Columbia. In trying to find artists to compare Ghost Lights to, the closest I could come up with was a little of The Barr Brothers, a bit o’ local wonder Joe Grass and a more stripped to the bone version of Patrick Watson’s early work. “Babble from a Beehive” and “Fog Chief” are our favourites from Saltwater which is a strong debut EP that showcases strong talent for poetic lyrics and beckoning melodies. Recommended for drinking iced tea on the patio with a loved one.

HEAR THE MUSIC:  ghostlights.bandcamp.com

SEE THEM LIVE: Next Show on June 3rd with WILDERLING & ANNA SCOUTEN at O Patro Vys

(Facebook Event)

 

Album-Launch-Poster-662x1024CINEMA L’AMOUR – LIMITATIONS (May 31, 2013)

Loop Rock / Alternative Rock / Avant garde 

I’ve been keeping an eye on Montreal-based Cinema L’Amour since they played their first show and impressed me beyond words. Since then, I’ve been anticipating the release of their first full-length album with some impatience. Limitations is finally here and it kicks ass. Limitations boldly showcases the band’s last four years of composing and touring across the country and was well worth the wait. The two piece usually performs with only one guitar, one drum kit, and an impressive loop pedal board to create an array of textures. On the album, these familiar songs are transformed into something even more complex as Saxophone, Trumpet, Tuba, and Cello (to name a few) are added to the mix. Cinema L’Amour’s talent presented in Limitations is unique and incredibly driven: a combination that will bring these guys places. Since Cinema L’Amour plays with textures and rhythms with a fervoursly dynamic kind of song engineering there is not one comparison that can do these guys justice: there’s a little bit of Buke and Gase, a speck of early Incubus, some funk elements right alongside some harder rock, at times in the same song. Our favourites are “Dedicated” and “Oh So Much”. These guys also throw amazing shows and bonanzas. Recommended at any point: day or night.

HEAR THE MUSIC: cinemalamourtheband.bandcamp.com

SEE THEM LIVE: Album Launch on May 31st with SAXSYNDRUM & LOOSESTRIFE at Brasserie Beaubien

(Facebook event)

 

4543903ARCHERY GUILD – DIN (May 28, 2013)

Experimental / Rock / Pop

I’ve been hearing about this band nonstop for the last year or so. They’ve been called a powerful “wall of sound” by some of my most trusted musical informants. I’ve had the opportunity to hear them live once and it was pretty grand and it was then I realized what my friends had meant: this band has nine core members and an additional armory of friends who join them on stage to produce a cacophony of sounds woven together by a melody. There’s joy to the energetic chaos that ensues from Archery Guild’s music. It’s difficult to listen to DIN without getting up and dancing or getting pumped up to do something exciting in the city. It’s pretty hard to find what band Archery Guild sounds like (especially since I don’t listen to that much experimental rock) but I’d say it’s kind of like the misfit child of Sunset Rubdown and Arcade Fire. Our favourites are “Juslyk” and “Swimmin’ Out”. Recommended for hearing live or dancing to during party times.

HEAR THE MUSIC: archeryguild.bandcamp.com

SEE THEM LIVE: Album Launch on May 28th with CHOSES SAUVAGES at Casa Del Popolo

(Facebook Event)

Cinema L'Amour Moncton
ArtsCityMusic

Cinema L’Amour, is a quirky Montreal band, lovingly described as nerdy loop-rock. (It’s also a porno theatre on St. Laurent and Duluth) The band is currently on an east-coast Canadian tour and ForgetTheBox is following them… well not really, but sort of. While they are on the road, Dorian will be sending us blog posts detailing their adventures and exploring what it’s like touring across Canada. For the next few weeks we’ll be posting their updates culminating in their big welcome back show on June 2nd. Here is their weekend report.

Show #2: Moncton

We spent the weekend in Sackville, hanging out with Chris’ family and all our new friends in town. On saturday night, we had the excellent fortune to be around for an epic show featuring locals Astral Gunk, Yellow Teeth, PEI’s The North lakes, and Halifax’s Quaker Parents.

Quaker Parents
Quaker Parents rocking out at the Sackville Legion
Yellow Teeth bringing the noise!
Yellow Teeth bringing the noise!

It was an awesome show, it’s incredible to see such a diverse and vibrant scene in such a small town. We’re really excited to be playing with Astral Gunk members Noise Hounds when we return to Sackville once again on May 30th at 15 Allison. Also on the docket: rocking out alongside Yellowteeth at our show a couple nights later at the Somerset in St. John! Our new pal Mark Grundy of Quaker Parents is going to be in town all month doing the Sappyfest songwriter residency, we’re pretty jealous he gets to spend so much time in such a rad environment, we’ll be following his progress as he goes for sure!

The next stop on the tour was Moncton at the quickly-becoming-venerable Plan B Lounge. We’d played the bar before on our last run through the Maritimes, and we were looking forward to coming back. As soon as we arrived, we noticed a new feature of the bar: two entire walls covered in band names scrawled with sharpie markers. It was awesome to see so many folks we recognized from across our travels represented there on the wall, and we were stoked to leave our own mark on the place!

Plan B's rock wall
Wall of Rock

As it was a Monday night, the turnout was far from exceptional, but the amazing staff and a good number of regulars made us feel right at home. We had a great time chatting with the Sound Guy and Venue Booker Brock about our favourite venues across the country (hello, Sheila and the Apollo!). Hopefully we’ll be sharing some of that with you folks in the future with help from our pals at CKUT, more on that later.

Cinema L'Amour MonctonOur excellent Bartender and Pal Keegan!
Brock feeling the good vibes!

After the gig, we returned once more to Sackville and the doll filled hotel for one more night of celebrating with Chris’ family before heading on to Halifax.

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The view from the backyard!

There was Tequila, there were attempts at playing pool.
Also: a bar called Uncle Larry’s that would literally fit upwards of two percent of the town’s population at a time.

Seriously.

-D

Cinema LAmour Sackville
ArtsCityMusic

Cinema L’Amour, is a quirky Montreal band, lovingly described as nerdy loop-rock. (It’s also a porno theatre on St. Laurent and Duluth) The band is currently on an east-coast Canadian tour and ForgetTheBox is following them… well not really, but sort of.

While they are on the road, Dorian will be sending us blog posts detailing their adventures and exploring what it’s like touring across Canada. For the next few weeks we’ll be posting their updates culminating in their big welcome back show on June 2nd. Their first article detailed the preparation process for Cinema L’Amour and today we have an update from… Sackville?

Returning To Sackville

Hey there,
Right now, I’m sitting in a hotel room in scenic Sackville, NB. There are porcelain dolls everywhere. Everything in our room is blue, flowery, and trimmed with lace. It is… unique.

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We’re staying at a hotel this weekend because we’re in the company of Chris’ family. It’s convocation weekend, and his sister will be walking across the stage to shake hands with Peter Mansbridge (no kidding!) on Monday, so the whole Kavanagh Clan have joined us for the first few days of tour.

Cinema LAmour Sackville
Cinema L'Amour Headlining in Sackville, NB

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Due to the number of convocators in the Sackville music community, we had quite a multigenerational performance at Struts Gallery last night. Not only were Chris’ parents, sister and Grandmother in attendance, there was at least one other set of Grandparents in the venue. We’re serious about this whole all ages thing.

Sackville diner
Prepping CDs before the show

The lineup was nicely mixed with locals the Moany Jitchels playing their first “real” show to open the night, followed by east coast legends Construction and Destruction from Port Greville, NS.

The Jitchels brought amazing energy and a healthy dose of sassy swagger to the space, and Construction and Destruction’s measured poise had the audience rapt with attention.

Moany Jitchels
Moany Jitchels rocking out.
Construction destruction
Construction Destruction

Construction destruction band
Construction and Destruction swapping instruments like champs!

We finished off the evening with a short and sweet set of new and old songs. Some rocking out was done, there was some dancing along, and even a wee bit of hootin’ and hollerin’. It was great seeing so many faces we recognized from our last visit to town, and it was awesome to make so many new friends.

As is seemingly always the case in Sackville, as soon as the show was over almost 100% of the attendees, performers and venue staff migrated to Ducky’s Pub. We had great chats with the other musicians, fans, and even got offered another show in town. We’re extremely excited to announce we’ll be playing a house show at 15 Allison on May 30th, should be a blast!

As things got late, my memory starts getting cloudy.

I can say with some certainty that there was a keg stand.

This morning, it took a while to recover, I’ll say that much.

We’ll be chilling out in town all weekend, and then on Monday it’s off to Moncton and Plan B.

Can’t wait,

-D

Cinema lamour shirts
ArtsCityMusic

For those of you who don’t know Cinema L’Amour, they are a quirky Montreal band, lovingly described as nerdy loop-rock. (It’s also a porno theatre on St. Laurent and Duluth, from which they got their name.) The band is composed of Dorian Scheidt and Chis Kavanagh who both love experimenting with their music and exploring rhythmic complexity and texture. They are currently on an east-coast Canadian tour and ForgetTheBox will be following them… well not really, but sort of.

While they are on the road, Dorian will be sending us blog posts detailing their adventures and exploring what it’s like touring across Canada. For the next few weeks we’ll be posting their updates culminating in their big welcome back show on June 2nd. So without further ado, here is the first installment!

Cinema lamour shirts
The Screen I burned myself!

Day 1: Be Prepared

 

The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic over at the Cinema L’Amour HQ on Boulevard St. Laurent in Montréal. The scope of our looming adventure was overshadowed only by the overwhelming nature of preparing for such a voyage. If you’ve ever spent a month living out of a van, travelling thousands of kilometers and counting on the kindness of strangers for couches and floors to sleep on, you’ll know what I mean. Tasks crawled out of the woodwork like bedbugs in a student apartment. Their existence was obvious, but their number impossible to calculate.

Still, one by one and day by day our list was slowly whittled down.
Boxes checked.
I’s dotted.
T’s crossed.

One of the most exciting things we accomplished before leaving town was screen printing a batch of new T-shirts with the help of the kind folks down at Ste. Emilie Skillshare. We had a blast burning screens, pulling ink, and waiting for things to dry with our new friends Tasha and Lia. The space is an incredible resource for independent artists and community groups in Montréal, it’s a real civic treasure!

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Lia giving the Thumbs up!

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Unicorns and Disco Sex. ‘Nuff Said.

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Chris pulling some ink while Tasha keeps the screen solid!

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So many red shirts. So much drying.

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Also: PINS!

 

You’ll be able to see, touch, and even purchase the fruits of our labour at all of our upcoming shows across the Maritimes, Newfoundland, and Ontario.

Warning: They’re going fast.

See you on the road!

Best,

-D