Grey Kingdom (Spencer Burton of Attack In Black)

by Malcolm Petch


When you read Grey Kingdom’s bio, your first thought is that you’ve somehow stumbled upon the text for a graphic novel. Either that, or the imagination of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes has spilled over onto Grey Kingdom’s website (though there is rather much more blood than Calvin would normally envision). You’ll have to check it out for yourself to see what I mean.

So you turn to Grey Kingdom’s record label, Dine Alone Records, for more insight. And there it is: the proof that Grey Kingdom is keeping good company with label-mates like Hey Rosetta, Dinosaur Bones, and the ubiquitous City and Colour.

Grey Kingdom is the solo-artist stage name of Spencer Burton, a singer songwriter from Ontario. On CBC Radio 3 he lists himself as a Rock Singer Songwriter, as well as Folk, but it’s obvious from his music that he’s more college-crowd oriented than Top-40 oriented in his writing. And, sure enough, there’s an RSS blog feed from Grey Kingdom: “This Thursday, May 20, I’ll be on 103.7 Brock Radio playing some songs and putting on a few of my favourite records” – Brock Radio being, of course, the college radio station at Brock University in Ontario. So besides his talents as a singer songwriter, Burton also spends time as a late-night disc jockey.

Grey Kingdom’s music is acoustic, natural, and really enjoyable. Also keeping busy as a member of the Canadian indie band Attack in Black, it’s obvious Burton can express himself in a wide range of musical styles. As the solo artist Grey Kingdom seems to land more on the acoustic side of the spectrum, although songs like ‘Haunted’ (the full length version, not the EP version) still feature a full rhythm section.

Burton says his solo career started when he and Daniel Romano, another member of Attack in Black, recorded a few of Burton’s songs in their home studio while the two other members of AiB were away. “I’ve always been writing and recording songs,” says Burton, “I’ve just never really had a place to put them. With Attack in Black the songs would very rarely fit onto a CD. They’re generally a different style of music so we wouldn’t really have a place for them.” Burton and Romano played the songs for Dine Alone Records, who liked them enough to release them. Burton recorded a few more of his songs, and Dine Alone released both an EP and a 7” vinyl of the music (the release entitled “The Grey Kingdom”) – plus a full-length record (entitled “Eulogy of Her and Her and Her”).

The Grey Kingdom- Wood & Wires Live from Adrian Vieni (Wood & Wires) on Vimeo.

Grey Kingdom is on tour promoting his release of “Eulogy of Her…” and will be appearing at Streaming Café on June 25th, along with co-Canadian artist Young Wife.

Young Wife is the touring name of Allie Torrance, a singer songwriter from Saint Catherines, Ontario. She classifies herself as Grunge/Minimalist/Psychedelic, and sounds a little like an energetic Julie Doiron.

June 25th promises to be an evening of well-written songs and enjoyable performances. As always, if you can’t be here in person you can always join us online at www.streamingcafe.net at 7pm Pacific Standard Time.

MBF's Matinée Performance!

by Malcolm Petch

MBF, or Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, first blew through Streaming Café as part of the Breakout West music festival in October of 2010. He took the stage with a drummer and backing guitarist, and, along with his trademark “flower-on-the-headstock-of-his-guitar”, proceeded to play an energetic set that had the crowd literally up and dancing. By the end of the set our producer was hard-pressed to find a camera angle that could capture MBF, because the dancing hordes had surrounded the stage and were cutting off views of Fitzgerald from all sides. And the term ‘dancing hordes’ is not a fluffy non-accurate description written to spice up an otherwise dreary paragraph; the room was packed, and there were frenetic dancing bodies filling virtually every square foot of the space around MBF.

Needless to say, this type of crowd is not what we’re used to here at the generally “alternative folk” flavoured listening room we call Streaming Café. MBF had definitely left his mark on us.

Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is from Calgary. He is working on a new record, but just prior to heading back into the studio he decided to release a live album that consists mainly of material from his appearance at Calgary University’s MacEwan Ballroom in February 2011. The name of the new live record? “I'm working on a studio release but in the mean time I thought I would put out a recording of us playing live in a big room with friends”. Seriously.

But that’s what you’d expect from such a creative artist. A quick overview of his website shows his quirky and pleasantly unorthodox performance personality (say that swiftly four times) with tweets like these from May 27th: “In Calgary it is still raining. At this point the only way I will find happiness is by building a large fort with tarps”, and then: “Once this fort is built I will eat snacks and watch movies within it. You are all invited.” And during his performance at SC in October, MBF wore a red Pistons jersey and brought a pink and gold microphone to sing into. The guy knows how to be memorable, which is a key to surviving and thriving in today’s music world.

MBF's New Live Album

If you haven’t heard it, MBF’s music is engaging right from the start. Even the most dour audience members find themselves starting to bop along to the tracks when MBF is playing. It’s clear Fitzgerald has made strong progress along the journey of writing winsome songs that sound good and feel good from the first listen.

Kelowna music lovers will get a special treat at MBF’s June 25th show at the Streaming Café. Tickets are $20 each for the 3pm matinee performance, but each ticket buyer will also receive a signed copy of MBF’s new life album. Unfortunately, online viewers will have to track down their own copy of the album (but, mind you, the online show is free; it kind of evens out that way). There’s a rumour going around that the live album can be pre-ordered through Calgary’s PrimeBoxOffice.com, but you’d have to see for yourself.

Did you notice that the time for this show is 3:00 p.m.?

We’ve never done a matinee performance before. We wanted to bring MBF in, but we already had artists booked for the 25th – and that was the only day Fitzgerald was going to be in town. So, after much back-and-forth repartee between Michael Bernard Fitzgerald’s agent and our own Michael (Michael Donley, who scours the earth daily finding the best talent around for our live music shows), the show was booked and the date finalized.

There you have it. Come out and enjoy Michael Bernard Fitzgerald in person, 3:00 p.m. Saturday June 25th at Streaming Café in Kelowna BC, and take home a signed copy of his live album; tickets are $20 each (only 50 available). Or join us online (3:00 p.m. Pacific Time, 4:00 p.m. for folks in Alberta, 6:00 p.m. for all those living under Eastern Time) to enjoy what promises to be a dynamic and engaging performance.

June Performers: video overview

by Michael Donley

Independent music is live and well in Canada and this month is proof. Here's a brief overview of this months performing artists with a video clip so you can check 'em out.

SATURDAY JUNE 4TH 7pm (pst) - ZAAC PICK

When you hear Zaac Pick on Saturday (or when you heard him, if June 4th is behind us at the point you’re reading this), you’ll perhaps find yourself thinking he sounds/sounded familiar.

“Hey, this young man sounds familiar.”

And of course he does, we’ll answer, because he played here in February of last year.

“No, that’s not it. I wasn’t here when he played before, but he still sounds familiar. One song, in particular, sounded very familiar indeed.”

Ahh!, we’ll say. That’s because we made special arrangements with Zaac to use a clip of his music in our online show intro. If you’ve watched any of our shows online over the last few months you would have heard that clip.

You can tell we like Zaac around here. That’s why we picked one of his songs to be our tag-line audio sample.

Zaac has been really active lately, working on finishing a new album and doing a bit of touring to test out some of the new music. We’ve strategically placed ourselves near the end of his little tour so that all the new music is well-rehearsed before we hear it.

Some of the tracking for this new album took place in Nimbus Studios in Vancouver, courtesy of SHORE-104, a Vancouver radio station. Zaac won their “Sounds of Summer Song Search” contest with his song “My Century”, and part of the prize awarded was some time in the Nimbus inner rooms. Interestingly, some of the judges for the contest were Bruce Allen, Terry McBride, and Sam Feldman, all three of whom are heavyweights in the Canadian and North American music scene.

We really wouldn’t be surprised to see Zaac get catapulted suddenly to international fame and fortune. Not just because his music is great (which it is), and not even because Allen, McBride, and Feldman have all heard his stuff and liked it (which they have); more because we here at Streaming Café know a good thing when we hear it – and because we’ve re-booked Zaac Pick to play this coming Saturday, June 4th. If you can’t be here in person, check us out online. And see if you don’t like that show-opening audio sample!

SATURDAY JUNE 11TH 7pm (pst) - KAYLA LUKY and BUCK & JESS
Listening to prairie girl Kayla Luky it is easy to see why her voice is often compared to country folk icon Emmylou Harris.  Luky’s latest album "The Time it Takes" marks not only a homecoming for the young songstress, but a complete countrification of her sound.

Singer-songwriters T. Buckley and Jessica Leger combined with their love of the Rockies and old country duets form the duo, Buck & Jess. Experienced solo performers and songwriters in their own right, the two combine their original material to bring audiences impressively strong and varied sets of fresh yet timeless melodies.


SATURDAY JUNE 18TH 7pm (pst)- RALEIGH
If you were watching Streaming Cafe during BreakOutWest back in Oct.'10 you will definitely remember the wicked performance from Dojo Workhorse. A couple members from that band are performing in a different form as Raleigh. Raleigh is the labour of love of Calgary based musicians Brock Geiger (of The Dudes & Dojo Workhorse), Matt Doherty (of Axis of Conversation & This City Defects) and Clea Anaïs (of the Consonant C & Dojo Workhorse).  Raleigh’s debut album, 'New Times in Black and White' is driven by a collaborative approach at songwriting. Combining deviant percussion and the melodic nuance of cello, guitar, and piano, an intricate musical narrative has been created.

SHOT AT THE DARK - Raleigh from Shot at The Dark on Vimeo.



SATURDAY JUNE 25TH 3pm (pst) MATINEE- MICHAEL BERNARD FITZGERALD

Calgary's Michael Bernard Fitzgerald has just released his new live album "I'm working on a studio release but in the mean time I thought I would put out a recording of us playing live in a big room with friends”  He's celebrating the release by performing a special MATINÉE show at the cafe at 3pm. This will be a good time, be sure to check it out!
For ticket info click here.

SATURDAY JUNE 25TH 7pm (pst) - GREY KINGDOM with YOUNG WIFE
Grey Kingdom is the solo-artist stage name of Spencer Burton, a singer songwriter from Ontario. Also keeping busy as a member of the Canadian indie band Attack in Black, it’s obvious Burton can express himself in a wide range of musical styles.
Young Wife is the touring name of Allie Torrance, a singer songwriter from Saint Catherines, Ontario. She classifies herself as Grunge/Minimalist/Psychedelic, and sounds a little like an energetic Julie Doiron.

The Grey Kingdom- Wood & Wires Live from Adrian Vieni (Wood & Wires) on Vimeo.


You can catch all these shows in-person at the cafe or interact with all the artists through our live chat and watch live online @ http://streamingcafe.net