Car Free Day - Hits a home run in to the left field

The Car Free Day Festival in Vancouver originated on Commercial Drive - it stems from the rise of "green" politics on the east side of the city; seven years on the event continues albeit it has major competition internally and externally.

twidling my knobs in public

I love car-free day, my band Mr M & The All Nighters played it in 2007, it was raining that day but we had a good time and have the photos to prove it. Last weekend my new band Vertigo played the mainstage as its first ever public appearance and I got to supply the sound through my Adanac Sound for the whole day.


Car Free Day currently runs in 2 other locations; Main Street and Denman Street. The Main event expanded this year to 33rd Ave, making it by far the biggest of the three. Opposingly, by all reports the Denman event continues to dwindle, possibly due to the lack of support from the local BIA. The Commercial event continues, however it has strong competition from the rejuvenated Italian Days that is now just the week prior. Commercial Drive is known as for its "cool-ness" however some parts of the drive are "cooler" than others. South of 1st Avenue the event seems to get about a third of the crowds, this is a little bizarre since people arriving on transit have to get off at the Skytrain and or Commercial and Broadway. The mainstage is located at 7th and Commercial and it was powered by Fraser Valley Cow Poo

the view from the sound desk

As expected the day was a long one for fellow organiser Joel Liman and myself. we were basically loading gear at 8am and ended the day around 9pm loading the gear. Our stage was kindly supplied by Conrad Schmidt @ Vancouver Sound and Lights, special thanks to Devo for helping us put it together. This was the first time out for my PA system, so I was a little nervous as to its reliability, volume and quality. We had a bit of freak out 2 mins before noon when we had no monitors, however with a little help we got things off to a good start.

Vertigo - rockin' out

The bands were awesome, we had many different styles from bluegrass, rock, funk and soul. Coco Jafro had an awesome set despite Karl leaving his keyboard dongle at home, Kiki Em was in fine form and my PA did her justice. My mate Brian Harris made the trek from Maple Ridge to perform with his band "Ages". My band Vertigo did well for its first gig, a bit shaky in spots, but not bad at all for a first outing, at least we are still together and have not parted ways immediately after. Our next gig is July 6 at the Richmond Night Market. Joel and his various bands performed well with some impressive new singers in tow. Nice to see the lovely Rebel Valentine in her post natal repose back on stage.

Ages - doin' their thing

Once the bands were done it was time to pack away the stage and the PA, thankfully made easier by the volunteers that turned up to make it happen. My thanks to Joel, Conrad, Devo and all the performers for making it happen; after a few days rest and a few ideas to make the mainstage that much better,  I'm already looking forward to next year.

To see more photos from the Mainstage
 

Return of the Stern and Skylab Sounds @ Cellar Jazz June 5th

Wednesday nights are not usually a busy night for most venues, this last Wednesday [June 5th] at the Cellar Jazz in Kits was no exception, however what the audience lacked in numbers they certainly made up for in energy and participation.

Kicking off the night were recent imports from Victoria, Skylab Sounds; Skyla and Ozzie have just moved from the Island yet have already garnered a bit of a following in the city. Their funky/jazzy laptop beat oriented sound was a perfect fit for the Cellar, a venue that admittedly doesn't see too many laptops onstage. Skyla's vocals are well suited to the downtempo vibe and Ozzie's keyboard and bass foil fits nicely in their overall sound. They will certainly be coming back to the Cellar in the near future.

Return of the Stern is a band that I have been following for a few years now. I first put them on with High Society back around Christmas 2011 at the Media Club and was immediately impressed with their ability to groove. Although the line-up has altered some what since, the central core of Adam Baylin Stern on drums and Ryan Grimsey on keys has been consistent. With the recent addition of my former band mate Lorick Russow on tenor sax and Graham Holland the band have a more of a jazzy feel. Lorick's wacky street smart style is a perfect foil for the talented Ryan on electric piano. On a side note Ryan is a graduate of the Young Lions jazz school, having played in the class at age 12, so it was great to see some of that come to fruition on stage. This was the band's most prestigious gig to date and they certainly rose to the occaison. The Cellar is a perfect venue for them.

The future of Vancouver jazz lies in the hands of bands like these; not only within the music they create but in their ability to attract a younger audience. Music is always evolving whether people like it or not, new styles attract new audiences and new audiences keep venues like the Cellar alive. About 90% of the audience had never been to the Cellar Jazz Club before and that was also good to see.

Supernovah Soundwave May 21 Cellar Jazz, 3611 West Broadway, Vancouver

This week's East Van Soul Radio show features an interview with Supernovah Soundwave who play at the Cellar Jazz May 21  @ 8pm. We talk with Devon Martin and Mark Nybo about how the band came together at a 420 event in Vancouver and how they have taken this otherwise random event and creating a cool new band from it.

Presented by Van City Soul Club Supernovah Soundwave 8pm Tuesday May 21 featuring Juno award winner Devon Martin aka Mr Metro

See the event on Facebook

Join the Facebook group for East Van Soul Club Radio

More Van City Soul Club presents event will be announced shortly....

Neglecting the blog

It has been almost a year since I last posted, so it is indeed high time to do so.

At lot as happened around East Van Soul Club over the last 11 months, we have expanded geographically to the Van City Soul Club; the radio show continues every Monday 10-1pm and I now work at Cory Weed's Cellar Jazz in Kits a few nights per week as sound tech.

More to come real soon....

June has been busy - yeah

June is turning out to be a busy month, helpful since the Vancouver tv and movie industry has ground to a significant dead stop since May.

Adam @ Prophouse Cafe

Earlier this month [June 9th] I got on my bike and caught two great performances on Commercial Drive. The first visit being Adam Farnsworth-Lautsch's CD release party at the Prophouse Cafe; Adam is a crazy kat, a sort of mash-up between Frank Zappa and Cab Calloway in his stage presence. He sings about the crazy stuff that happens to him, such as a case mistaken identity in his song "Marathon Life". His new CD is "Semitone Off" and you can download it here.

Baby Harry @ Falconetti's

My second stop was a few blocks away at Falconetti's. Now for the record I have to say I'm not big fan of venues that generally don't pay their live acts, I've been boycotting the Libra Room for some time now. However, my mate Baby Harry was playing and he convinced me it was in best interest to see him play there. Baby Harry was on form, but I'm not keen on the venue at all. I realise it is tough to be a venue at the best of times, especially on Main St and Commercial Drive, but I just get the feeling this kind of venue is contributing to the demise of live music in East Vancouver in some way by not paying it's performers. The debate rages on nonetheless....

Live from the Drive

June 17th saw East Van Soul Club take to the streets and play its first ever live show at the Commercial Drive Car Free Day. We were first on the bill at the Tribal Harmonix Stage, the rain stayed away and we were able to broadcast live via wi-fi supplied by Bump and Grind Coffee. My thanks to Tim and Garth for making it happen and to Tim Wisdom for inviting me down in the first place.

June 21st saw my two piece band "AI Vertigo" play at the Make Music Festival in Gastown. Last year my soul band Mr M & The All Nighters played the inaugural event. This year had 150 acts and they managed to close off Water St from 6pm onwards. Luckily we got down early enough to find out our stage 17 didn't exist and we ended up being moved to another stage and bumped ahead in the schedule;  we also ended playing in front of a punk band with volume issues. This ended up being the main complaint from the performers, too many stages in a small area, however at least 30,000 people attended the event making it considerably larger than 2011. AI Vertigo play the Richmond Night Market on July 1 at 945pm.

Make Music Festival in Gastown

June 23rd saw East Van Soul Club out in Coquitlam at the Roo Pub for a night of soul tunes and burlesque. Sadly, this was also an UFC night and the combination did not really work [duh]. The audience was a bit mystified by the site of nearly naked women in their local boozarama; its a common sight in Vancouver but folks in the 'burbs are just getting 'lectric light and 'tinternet, so there is a bit of an education curve involved. Dear Suburbia - it is ok to cheer and applaud at burlesque !

On a final note East Van Soul Club Radio is now available for podcast here.

And on a final, final note here's a great video from East Vancouver's High Society

High Society - One Day from Cinemanifesto on Vimeo.

Or go to this web site to see it if you cannot see it above.

Help us raise some funds

Say Hello to Coco Jafro and some live dates

Been a while since I posted something, not that I have been lazy elsewhere, things seem to be coming together in many respects.

I've been following local singer Karina Morin since her days with Richard Coleman's "Soul Assembly". I even made it out to a few of their gigs at The Fairview and Lulu's Lounge in Richmond. Karina Morin is Canada's answer to Alice Russell and she is an import from Montreal, but that didn't stop me from bumping in to her on the set of "The Selection" a few months back, then spending some time updating me on her musical pursuits.


Turns out Karina is in a new band "Coco Jafro", she sent me a few songs and I was immediately impressed with the tunes particularly "Voodoo" and "The Dude" . The band is nice n' tight as it blends elements of latin, funk, soul and jazz - having Karina's vocal enhances the mix greatly, however the band holds its own on instrumentals equally. A feature of the band is the dual melody/harmony playing between sax/guitar or hammond, this lends itself to more of jazzy feel, you can hear it on "Jam Killer" and a few of the other tracks. 

Coco Jafro play the Victoria Jazz Festival June 30 at 330pm and the up to Crofton for a night at the Crofton Hotel July 7. Coco Jafro will be in Vancouver very soon - June 22 at the The Railway don't miss out when they do.


In other news - June 17th see's East Van Soul Club Radio making a live appearance at the Car Free on Commercial Drive event. Yours truly will be dj'ing from noon til 1pm from the stage at Venebles and Commercial - just outside the Bump n Grind Coffee shop. If all goes to plan we will broadcasting live for the hour, so that EVSC Radio listeners outside of Vancouver can join in the fun.

East Van Soul Club has been bus[t]y of late, 'er so to speak ! Back in April we tried a night of Burlesque and classic soul tunes at the Great Bare Pub on Kingsway in Burnaby. Owner Damian was impressed enough he booked us back June 1 and July 6. He also booked us in to his other venue in Coquitlam June 23rd. This is the first time either of these venues have had Burlesque dancers, so well done to Damian for giving it a shot. 


East Van Soul Club Radio had its first interviewee a few weeks back, I think it will now be a regular feature on the show. Thanks to Taryn LaRonge for coming in and having a chat. If you are interested in being a guest on the show please contact Ian directly.


My own band AI Vertigo play the Make Music Festival June 21 in Gastown


Overall it should be a busy summer for all concerned.

You can hear East Van Soul Club Radio Podcasts here