Happy 125 to us! Yep, The Varsity, your friendly neighbourhood campus newspaper, is turning a century and a quarter this year, and to celebrate, we’re throwing ourselves an indie-rock bash right in our ‘hood at good ol’ Lee’s Palace.
If you’re a regular reader of these pages, you’ll know that we’re committed to supporting local indie talent of all stripes, and as such, we’ve partnered with local-label-done-good Arts & Crafts to present hometown heroes (and heroine!) The Most Serene Republic in their first homecoming show after being on tour for most of the year. And for any good soirée, you’ve got to up the ante, so we’ve added Halifax melody-makers In-Flight Safety to the bill and made sure The Varsity is represented (natch) in the form of local rockers Debaser.
The show’s sold out, but we hope to see many of our U of T comrades there helping us toast the longevity of a campus mainstay. If you see any of our editors there, shake their hand, ask about how you can get involved, or better yet, buy ’em a drink. After all, we work hard putting together your campus newspaper week in and week out-but now, it’s time to party. Here’s a look at the lineup for Saturday night’s festivities.-TABASSUM SIDDIQUI, Arts Editor
THE MOST SERENE REPUBLIC – 12:15 a.m.
What a year it’s been for these kids from Milton, ON. The first band not part of the extended Broken Social Scene family to sign to red-hot local indie Arts & Crafts, they’ve seen their Underwater Cinematographer debut re-released on the label, gotten all sorts of wicked press for their quirky, clever-beyond-their-years sound, and gigged non-stop, most recently opening for most of Metric’s North American tour. In fact, Saturday’s hometown show at Lee’s will be the first time they’ve been back in months-and they’re not about to get much of a rest-they’re headed right back out on the road next week to open their BSS brethren’s European tour. Heck, they could probably use some serenity right about now.
In fact, they’re so in demand that the last time we caught up with the rising sextet was at the big Olympic Island blowout back in the summer-sitting around a rickety picnic table hidden away in a wooded nook, the group was clearly beyond excited about the wide-open road ahead of them. As everyone oohed over a red-winged blackbird that had alighted on the table, and Jewett performed mock-CPR on a dead spider, they chattered about everything from the rigours of touring to the perils of being the elusive Next Big Thing. Listen in:
On touring:
Jewett: “Touring is hard on loved ones. It really is, because you’re away from that person all the time. Relationships are very hard to do when you’re on the road all the time, because it’s the distance thing, and that’s a really rough part of the tour process, because every day you’re busy doing something else… Touring is definitely for high-octane people.”
Ditchburn: “High-octane!” (laughs)
Jewett: “We’re just very green and very excited to be on tour.”
On their musical influences:
Lenssen: “Um, anything I could say would be way too long, so… Hard-bop jazz, and mid-to-late 90s rock-there!”
Ditchburn: “Mid-to-late 90s?!”
Nimmo: “I’m a Tears for Fears kinda guy…”
Jewett: “Nah, it was all Ace of Base.”
Ditchburn: (making a pained face) “Please exclude this.”
On those that want to cut them down to size for being so successful so soon:
Lenssen: “If everyone loved what we did, that wouldn’t be a good thing, because then we know that we’re doing something wrong-we’re not challenging people enough; it’s too easy.”
Jewett: “For some people to have some negative critique of us is actually kinda refreshing, because it means we have done something that is questionable, like, ‘What are they trying to do?’ and really, this album was nothing but questions-questions that we tried to answer. And I don’t know if everyone agrees with our answers, but we’re interested to hear what everybody else comes up with from our formulas.”
Lenssen: “I really hate form, and if we can get away with staying away from form and traditional time signatures and conventional ideas in music, but pull it off in a way that’s not completely alienating the audience-in a complete 180-degree of how pop media is portraying how music should be today-then I think that we’ve done our job.”
IN-FLIGHT SAFETY – 11 p.m.
Not only do they have a catchy name, but East Coast band In-Flight Safety make equally compelling music-their melodic anthems, anchored by singer/songwriter John Mullane’s intense vocals, won them the best unsigned band award at the North By Northeast festival in 2003, and it’s been a steady rise for the group since then.
They’ll be coming all the way from Halifax (where they’re currently based) for Saturday’s show, but met while attending Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, a few years ago.
Their shared influences include the melodic majesty of artists like Wilco, Jeff Buckley, and Sigur Ros, and you can hear that penchant for atmosphere on their much-praised five-song debut EP, Vacation Land.
The band is preparing to release their debut full-length (The Coast Is Clear) in January on local D.I.Y. diva Emm Gryner’s Dead Daisy Records label. Gryner first happened upon IFS during an East Coast tour and quickly became a steadfast supporter of the group, who she calls “the most amazing band I’ve seen in a long time. It has been a while since a band has literally made me forget everything and just made me sink into their music.”
DEBASER – 10 p.m.
They’ve been working the local indie circuit for over four years now, but this quartet of old friends who met at the Etobicoke School of the Arts in the late 90s has finally just released their debut full-length CD, Blackouts, a catchy blast of dark punk-influenced indie-rock. You’ve probably seen their gig posters on a pole near you, but recently the band has been venturing out beyond our local borders to play sold-out gigs across Ontario.
They’ve even caught the ear of infamous booker-’round-town Dan Burke. To hear the band tell it, they were doing one of their first rehearsals in their former practice space, and when they exited, Burke, slumped into a sofa in a dark corner, beckoned them over, told them they had a good sound, and (even though they hadn’t played any gigs to date) offered to set up some shows for them.
Though the Pixies (the band is named after one of their classic songs) are clearly an influence, bassist Jordan Bimm describes their sound as “dark and hooky and rocked-out,” noting that all four guys bring their own musical backgrounds to the mix.
Aside from the fact that they’re a great up-and-coming local act, Debaser were the ideal choice to open the Varsity’s 125th anniversary show, as bassist Bimm (a U of T American Studies student) just happens to be the paper’s indefatigable associate arts editor and chief financial officer (no, really-it says so right on his business card).
