It`s been a couple years now that we have been advertising our upcoming shows on the chalk board. Not only showcasing the musical artists we have at the cafe but displaying the artistic talent of our baristas.
Here`s a couple years of chalk art into one big Where`s Waldo?!
Dutch sound poet and performance artist Jaap Blonk will be appearing at 7:00
pm on Sunday, October 14th, at the Streaming Café (596 Leon Avenue,
Kelowna).
According to San Francisco Weekly, “Blonk's avant-garde
performances channel the provocatively pioneering nonsense of Dadaism.
His work is tremendously complex, but his brilliance makes it easy to
think the opposite.”
This is Jaap's first ever appearance in
Kelowna--he's gonna blow minds with his tongue-sounds! Admission to
the event is free.
JAAP BLONK BIOGRAPHY
Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Holland) is a self-taught composer, performer and poet. He went to university for mathematics and musicology but did not finish those studies.
In the late 1970s he took up saxophone and started to compose music. A few years later he discovered his potential as a vocal performer, at first in reciting poetry and later on in improvisations and his own compositions. For almost two decades the voice was his main means for the discovery and development of new sounds. From around the year 2000 on Blonk started work with electronics, at first using samples of his own voice, then extending the field to include pure sound synthesis as well. He took a year off of performing in 2006. As a result, his renewed interest in mathematics made him start a research of the possibilities of algorithmic composition for the creation of music, visual animation and poetry.
As a vocalist, Jaap Blonk is unique for his powerful stage presence and almost childlike freedom in improvisation, combined with a keen grasp of structure. He performed in many European countries, as well as in the U.S. and Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa and Latin America. With the use of live electronics the scope and range of his concerts has acquired a considerable extension.
Besides working as a soloist, he collaborated with many musicians and ensembles in the field of contemporary and improvised music, like Maja Ratkje, Mats Gustafsson, Nicolas Collins, Joan La Barbara, The Ex, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Ebony Band. He premiered several compositions by the German composer Carola Bauckholt, including a piece for voice and orchestra. A solo voice piece was commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2002. On several occasions he collaborated with visual computer artist Golan Levin.
Blonk's work for radio and television includes several commissioned radio plays.
He also makes larger-scale drawings of his scores, which are being exhibited.
He was the founder and leader of the long-standing bands Splinks (modern jazz, 1983-1999) and BRAAXTAAL (avant-rock, 1987-2005). He also has his own record label, Kontrans, featuring a total of 17 releases so far. Other Blonk recordings appeared on Staalplaat, Basta, VICTO and Monotype.
The Crackling are pleased to announce a fall tour kicking off in Kelowna, BC at the Streaming Cafe on October 13th. The band is fronted by Kenton Loewen and next week, he heads on tour as a trio (alongside his bandmates Gordon Grdina and Tyson Naylor) to celebrate their latest EP, "Ashen."
It's been a busy summer and fall for The Crackling as the main members of the band support one of Canada's fastest rising and award-winning songwriters - Dan Mangan. Fresh off their big wins at the West Coast Music Awards (WCMA's) with Dan Mangan in Regina last week, they are in fine form to hit the road once again.
ABOUT THE ASHEN EP
The Crackling released the Ashen EP, a follow up to their debut album Keep Full Ambitious on May 22, 2012 via Vancouver imprint File Under: Music. This collection of thoughtful, beautiful and previously unreleased recordings acts as the first taste of a full length release expected in 2013.
The project of Vancouver musician Kenton Loewen, The Crackling hosts a number of guests including the Vancouver Children's Choir ("Keep Me Drunk"), Dan Mangan ("Ashen") and a small ensemble of string and horn players led by renowned experimental heavyweight Eyvind Kang (Beck, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and Blonde Redhead).
In addition to the new material, Ashen includes an unreleased B-side from the Keep Full Ambitious sessions called "Her Body's In My Arms" and a cover of "Suicide Is Painless", the all-too familiar theme song from the 1970's hit movie and television series M*A*S*H. The Crackling resurrect the song's lesser known lyrics, written by a 14 year old Mike Altman, with intensity and chaotic reverence. The Ashen EP finishes with "I Love You Tonight", a nostalgic, romantic tale of yearning and times of change.
Rococode - SAT. OCT. 6th (late show) Very sorry, due to unforeseen circumstances Rococode had to cancel
this show.
And as all things begin and end with the music, Rococode has set to making exciting new pop. Their debut album Guns, Sex & Glory is a little bit dark. A little bit playful. A little bit scary. A little bit thoughtful. All whipped together with the help of Mother Mother’s Ryan Guldemond (co-producer), Andrew Braun (co-producer), engineer extraordinaire Shawn Penner (Mother Mother, Hannah Georgas, Elias) and mixer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree, The Walkmen). Tickets: $10 available @ Streaming Cafe Time: 10pm (PST)
The Crackling - SAT. OCT. 13th
Kenton Loewen has seasoned himself as a touring musician having been on the road exstensively since 2000. Known mostly as a drummer (Dan Mangan, Mother Mother, Gordon Grdina Trio), The Crackling is his work in songwriting and his focus in guitar. Tickets: FREE SHOW Time: 7pm (PST)
In the three short years since Kalle Mattson began writing songs, he and his band have grown from a Dylan-influenced solo act into a full on experimental folk-rock quintet. With two full-lengths already under his young belt, and a video for “Thick As Thieves” from the his second album “Anchors“ with over 1,000,000 views.
Reuben and the Dark - SAT., OCT 18th Reuben and the Dark is the newest project from Calgary's Reuben Bullock. The quartet weaves together sounds and vocal harmonies that create an unexpected texture that finds ways of translating the confusing language of emotion into song and melody; sounding simultaneously ancient and uniquely contemporary. Recently brought to London by Mariead Nash (Manager of Florence and the Machine/Blood Orange), the band has returned from Europe with a new release in tow. Multi-instrumentalist Scott Munro (Chad van Gaalen, Ghostkeeper), drummer Distance Bullock (SAVK, Bring Fire), and guitarist Shea Alain round out the ensemble. Tickets: FREE SHOW Time: 7pm (PST)
Maurice w/ Matthew de Zoete - SAT., OCT 27th Maurice - Sometimes from bad luck or circumstance, amazing opportunities and transformations can arise. This is much the case for Maurice, a man, and a band, born and raised in Victoria BC Canada. From a major label signing, lofty expectations, and working closely with producer David Foster in Hollywood, to tumult and shattered dreams, out of a mishandled career path and naivety, Jean-Paul Maurice was able to pick up the pieces of a misdirected career path and take his music and art into his own hands.
Matthew de Zoete - Imagine Nick Drake cheering up a bit and living long enough to work with Beck, and you have an idea of how Matthew de Zoete sounds on his new album Colour Film. Produced by Les Cooper (Jill Barber, Good Lovelies, Meaghan Smith) and graced with beautiful harmonies by Julie Fader (Sarah Harmer, Great Lake Swimmers), Colour Film displays the confidence and strength of a young man hitting his stride. Tickets: FREE SHOW Time: 7pm (PST)
It’s hard to convey the refreshment it gave me to open up the Sunparlour Players website and see among the ever-present (ad-nauseam) social media icons on their homepage (you know: facebook, twitter, myspace, youtube, itunes, yada yada) a green symbol amongst the others labeled “BERNARDIN”. The best part? The link really was to the home-canning company (apparently they make there own jam...no joke!).
That iconography is, in itself, an adroit snapshot of the larger Sunparlour experience. Labeling themselves as alternative folk or punk folk act, Sunparlour Players exist more in the indescribable outer rim of indie acts who escape description: Macleans magazine described them as “AC/DC visits Little House on the Prairie”, but I’d say they’re more like “Julie Doiron visits Snailhouse” – definitely more experimental and fun than AC/DC, and a lot less formulaic than Little House on the Prairie!
Check out the SP music on Bandcamp. The EP “Sunparlour Preserves” is completely worth the 11 and-a-half minutes it takes to listen through. It’s well worth clicking on ‘buy now’ and naming a price that will leave some cash in the band’s collective pockets. And, of course, you’ll see by the name of the album (and the last track) why they have a “BERNARDIN” icon on their home page.
The photos of Yanni on their facebook page take the experience even further.
SP take their name from the Ontario region nicknamed “Canada’s Sun Parlour”, an area where SP songwriter and founding member Andrew Penner grew up. Besides songwriting, Penner contributes his skills in the areas of lead vocals, guitar, bass, banjo, bass organ pedals (Geddy Lee influence noted), percussion, and kick drum. Michael Rosenthal, the other founding member, is not to be outdone: he brings drums, glockenspiel, banjo, backing vocals, keyboards and bass to the mix. Both Rosie and Penner come from Ontario, and Sunparlour Players make their home in Toronto.
While the band delight in arranging their own gigs in any location from barns and backyards to theatres and clubs, they certainly don’t shake a stick at opportunities to tour or perform with other acts, including gigs with Blue Rodeo, Mumford & Sons, and Plants and Animals.
When SP hits Streaming Café on October 18, they’ll be sharing the intimate stage with Kalle Mattson, another Ontario singer/songwriter who is blazing upward in sonic recognition not only in Canada but around the world.
Propelling his music and his name globally since this past November, Mattson’s music video “Thick as Thieves” has received on-air and online attention from media giants including Time Magazine, Huffington Post, Yahoo, Much Music, and CBS News. The National Post, in commenting on all this attention, highlighted Mattson as one of five musicians poised to breakout in 2012.
The video for Thick as Thieves, created for only $250 in materials (and tons of hours of careful work) showcases the history of the world in stop-motion animation. That’s an ambitious goal in any genre.
As a Dylan-inspired solo act who has now grown into a full-on experimental folk-rock quintet show, Kalle Mattson has only been writing songs for three years. But it is pretty clear that he’s found something he’s good at: his 2009 debut album “Whisper Bee” garnered two Northern Ontario Music Award nominations and a Top 100 placement in the Billboard World Song Contest. Album number two, “Anchors”, won the award for Group Album of the year at the afore-mentioned NOMA, and earned Mattson the 2011 SOCAN Songwriter of the Year Award. There was even a song placement on the TV show Degrassi.
“Lives In Between” is Kalle Mattson’s newest release, an EP featuring a new lineup and a new sound, and it came out in the spring of 2011. Mattson and crew have been touring the EP extensively while working on a full-length project also due out in 2012.
Both of these Ontario acts are impossible to capture in words. Their music needs to be heard to be appreciated. (That sentence is in the passive voice; let’s try that again: You neeeeed to hear their music!!). The Streaming Café website has links to the bands’ websites, where you can hear their music first-hand, and SC is honoured to be able to present both groups live and in-person on October 18th.
If you’ve ever been to Streaming Café (596 Leon Ave, Kelowna BC), you’ll know how hard it is to find a seat when there’s good live music in town! Plan to get here in plenty of time to catch Sunparlour Players and Kalle Mattson – and in fact, if you buy your tickets ahead of time you’ll be guaranteed a spot (if it’s not already too late…).
Of course, out-of-towners and those unlucky enough to miss the ticket sales will be able to catch the music online, and will even be able to ask questions of the artist via our innovative tweet-your-questions setup. But you’ll want to be here in person…
