Tokyo Sex Whale, photographed by Matt Miller in Paul 'Yogi' Granger's vintage van. From left, J.P. Sadek, Julia Loan and Granger.

It was there, barely audible, though I knew that on the other side of the walls it was very loud. Tokyo Sex Whale were rehearsing in their bunker on Main Street, just metres from the Queensway, and I had to get inside.

Problem was, they couldn’t hear me banging on the door, for they were in full stoner-rock flight, guitar and bass and drums all pumping at maximum volume. Paul ‘Yogi’ Granger, the guy on the guitar and the owner of the studio-bunker, had sent me his cell number but I had, dimwittedly, deleted the email from my Blackberry. I was in the process of phoning Mrs. Big Beat and asking her to go into my email on a search, and then the band took a break. Knock, knock, door opened. “Wow,” I said, “these walls are well insulated.”

Granger, Julia Loan and J. P. Sadek were running through songs from Tokyo Sex Whale’s upcoming new disc, Slammed. They did two songs while I was there that night, a week or so ago, and I videotaped both. Click here to watch the video for the new song Virgin Forest. It’s a suitable example of the band’s no-frills, retro rock, like a less-serious Black Mountain. And to think that the neighbours never heard a thing.

Tokyo Sex Whale will hold a CD release party for Slammed Sept. 18 at the Dominion Tavern in the Byward Market.

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A model of Cheryl Pagurek's "Currents."

A city committee has chosen Cheryl Pagurek as the artist to install her work in the Market Place Corridor, part of the extended Transitway in the city’s south west near Strandherd and Jockvale roads in Barrhaven.

A selection committee chose Pagurek’s work “Currents” over three other proposals. She will install in the station a large LED screen that will broadcast synchronized images of the waters of the Jock River, “creating a natural ‘oasis’ on the west platform,” her proposal said. There’ll also be historic images from the neighbourhood, and all the images will be on the large, public screens or available on an cellphone app.

The commission is worth $90,000.  The corridor is to open in March. Read a fuller story about the project here.

Cheryl Pagurek, at a recent public display of the various art proposals for the Transitway extension.

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Joce, from User Men, by Tony Fouhse at La Petite Mort Gallery.

For several years Tony Fouhse has been photographing crack addicts in the Byward Market, and one side of that project goes up at Friday, Sept. 3, 7 to 10 p.m., at La Petite Mort Gallery, 306 Cumberland St.

User Men will include some of Fouhse’s unrepentantly gritty photos of the men on the streets. Watch for female users, who Fouhse has been shooting lately, to come. This week I spent a morning on the corner of Cumberland and Murray with Fouhse, as he shot more crack users for the series. It was an enlightening experience, and, for me, served to humanize the addicts. More on that coming up on the Big Beat. Read more about Fouhse's recent work by clicking here.

Michael, from User Men, by Tony Fouhse at La Petite Mort Gallery.

Robert, from User Men, by Tony Fouhse at La Petite Mort Gallery.

Steve, from User Men, by Tony Fouhse at La Petite Mort Gallery.

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Artists Benjamin Rodger and Genevieve Thauvette during Portraits of Bluesfest 2, at Cube Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)

The Portraits of Bluesfest 2 charity auction went last week, and it raised $7,000 for Blues in the Schools. The program brings professional musicians into public schools to work with pupils and students, and is run by Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest.

It’s the second year that I’ve organized Portraits of Bluesfest, and once again it included 13 fine artists from the city, including Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison.

The works were sold by silent auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington West, and the $7,000 raised will help kids make music.

Portraits of Bluesfest 2 was sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, and Patrick Gordon Framing.

Artist and gallery owner Don Monet during Portraits of Bluesfest 2, at Cube Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)

Artist Michael 'Zeke' Zavacky during Portraits of Bluesfest 2, at Cube Gallery. Zavacky's drawing of Geddy Lee was purchased by the Canadian Museum of Civilization. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)

Artist Jonathan Hobin, right, and his father Barry Hobin, the Ottawa architect, centre, during Portraits of Bluesfest 2, at Cube Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)

There’s another new band in Ottawa, and it plays tonight (Tuesday, Aug. 31) at the Elmdale Tavern. The Jeers promise “original music that is fuelled by a desire to make a mark on the world and driven by the momentum of punk, rock, reggae, hip-hop, and folk musics of the planet.”

I’m not familiar with the people in the band, but the four-piece is said to be made up of veterans from the music scenes in Central Canada.

“The Jeers are made up of musicians who have been playing in and around Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal together and in other outfits for 25 years,” says band member Randy Innes, in an email. “Daniel Jackson recently released a solo piano CD and has played with The John Doe Reunion and The Autodidacts.  Mark Matz has played with Glenn Nuotio and other local acts, and was active in the London, England jamming scene in the ’90s.  Lorian Belanger has made a return to bass playing.  Randy Innes has played drums with Daniel in many configurations for 25 years, with Glenn Nuotio, Lee Bowie, John Jastremski, and many other local musicians.”

No photos yet or videos that I can find, but the band is putting together an EP for September, Innes says. He also included an extraordinarily precise list of influences for the band, which I copy in full below. The Elmdale is at 1084 Wellington West. 9 p.m., $5, with Rustbuckit.

Jeers' influences

Rock music from 1962 to 1978
Punk and New wave music from 1977 – 1988
Rhythm and Blues, Soul and Blues music from 1949 - 1983
Jazz music from Dixieland to Bitches Brew
Hip hop from 1981 to present
World music folk traditions – all countries, all times
Techno music, all genres, from 1982 – present
Early Country and Western music from 1927 – 1971
All other music
Visual Art, Theatre, Film, Literature, Humanities, Science, Philosophy, etc.
Conversations with Friends, Negotiations with Lovers, Questions from Children etc.

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A quick look at what's selling this week in Ottawa record stores. More stores will be added as they come in . . .

CD Warehouse, 499 Terry Fox Drive, 1383 Clyde Ave., 1717 St. Laurent Blvd.


Suburbs - Arcade Fire
Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
Brothers - The Black Keys
Recovery - Eminem
Final Frontier - Iron Maiden
No Better Than This - John Mellencamp
Crazy Love - Michael Bublé
God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise - The Pariah Dogs/Ray LaMontagne
Safe Upon The Shore - Great Big Sea
Oh Little Fire - Sarah Harmer

David Franklin is leaving behind his job as deputy director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada to begin his first job as director, at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (Citizen photo)

Those looking for intrigue in the exit of David Franklin from the National Gallery of Canada will be disappointed. It’s a simple story of a man leaving a good job for a better job.

Though Franklin was caught up in internecine battle with then-director Pierre Théberge a couple of years ago — details seeped through public cracks in the gallery’s institutional facade — his new job is an impressive step up in the international art world.

Franklin, the National Gallery’s deputy director and chief curator, is taking over one of North America’s premier arts institutions. As director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, he’ll oversee the final stages of a massive expansion — $350-million U.S. in total — and control an acquisitions budget that would leave most directors drooling with envy. At $13-million U.S. per year, it’s almost double what our National Gallery has to spend on new pieces.

“It just struck me as a place where I could learn a lot, but also be part of something that’s pretty unique,” Franklin said Friday, in a telephone interview from Cleveland. “I really think this museum is going to be the focal point of American museums in the next couple of years, because of this ambitious . . . $350-million campaign.”

 It's a grand accomplishment for Franklin to achieve his first directorship at such a respected and monied gallery, and it leaves little doubt that his expertise, which he quietly displayed for 12 years at the National Gallery, has been noticed far afield.

“There’s no question that David’s experience and reputation from an international standpoint were very attractive,” said Steve Kestner, a Cleveland lawyer and chair of the search committee that hired Franklin, in a phone interview on Friday.

Attractive, indeed. Though being curator of a national gallery makes one a favoured target for art-world ankle-nipping — other curators, artists or tax-paying citizens have their own, superior “vision” of what a national gallery should be — Franklin’s reputation shines like a Roxy Paine sculpture.

“The Italian exhibitions he put on for us were first-rate,” National Gallery director Marc Mayer said Friday. “I’m not at all surprised that a museum of this calibre would come calling. His Parmigianino show, for example, got rave reviews in New York when it was shown at the Frick (gallery).

 “David was someone who could organize a show based on the collections of the Vatican and Buckingham Palace, and the major museums in the world,” Mayer said. “His scholarship is so airtight and so irrefutable, that people who own the old masters, for example, are happy to lend, because they know . . . it’s going to be a first-rate job.”

How do you replace a guy like that? A search committee is already in place, working with the firm Odgers Berndtson. I asked Mayer, how soon do you hope to hire somebody?

“Tomorrow afternoon would be great. They could learn the ropes over the weekend,” he said, wistfully. “But it’s going to take some time. These people do not grow on trees. They’re rare. They’re hard to tear away from their jobs, in some cases. We really want the best person, we’re not in a screaming hurry.”

Franklin — who has already left the National Gallery to start work in Cleveland, despite an “official” start date of Sept. 20 — said the gallery will have no shortage of “outstanding” candidates to replace him.

“You’ve got a wonderful director, Marc, who’s got very diverse interests also. He’s got good historical knowledge as well as contemporary,” he said in a phone interview from Cleveland. “You’ve got a collection of quality, you’ve got fairly generous acquisition funds, you’ve got an exhibition program that I actually want to emulate here. The amount of resources and the quality of that program will really attract a candidate of the highest order, I’m sure, either Canadian or international. It’s good, I think, the have a changing of the guard, and I’m really proud of everything I’ve done there.”

He was born in Lachine, Quebec, and grew up in suburban Toronto, earned an arts degree at Queen’s and a masters and doctorate at the University of London. Oxford gave him an honourary degree. He’s frequently published — an important measure in the art world.  It’s not surprising that a man of global outlook would get restless. 

“It was time for me to face some new challenges,” he said Friday — and he’ll get them. The Cleveland Museum of Art was built in 1916 and has undergone several renovations and expansions that “quite frankly, did not fit together very elegantly,” said Kestner, a member of the museums’ board of directors. The $350-million expansion will bring the museum’s parts together. It began in 2005, and has been so extensive that the museum was closed for most of 2006. It plans to be fully back on stream by 2013 — three years before its 100th anniversary.

“The museum really has to look ahead to the finish line and figure out what it wants to be,” said Steven Litt, who covers arts and architecture for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Ohio’s most-read newspaper. “Thoughts about that have varied over the years, and David Franklin is the guy who gets to figure it out. He has the potential to put a huge stamp on this institution. It’s a big job in the world of American art museums.”

How could Franklin say no? “Cleveland allowed me the opportunity of a lifetime to be part of that project to finish and complete new galleries, to reinstall the collection pretty much completely,” he said. “It’s a museum that’s being totally being transformed.”

If he regrets the battle with Théberge, which made it to the courts and resulted in Franklin being fired and then rehired, he’s found solace in the outcome.

“It was an unfortunate situation, but it was the catalyst also for the gallery to work on all manner of polices for electronic information storage and retention, and for staff to get training so that basically that could never happen again,” he said. “So I think it had a very positive outcome in terms of the climate at the museum.”

Change has been the prevailing wind at the National Gallery in the past year or two. Mayer has been bringing it about in his first 18 months as director, and the pace will only quicken with a new deputy director and chief curator.

“We may not find anybody better,” Mayer said.  We’re hoping to find somebody just as good. . . . It might take us a few months to find that person. It might take some fancy talking to lure them away from where they are.”

Meanwhile, he quips, he sees one good side to Franklin’s flight to the United States.  “We’re losing one of the most talented people who ever passed through this place, but a Canadian going down there and civilizing those Americans is also good news.”

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The Peptides, DeeDee Butters and Claude Marquis, photographed in Ottawa by Jonathan Hobin.

Title: For Those Who Hate Human Interaction

Artist: The Peptides

Label: Independent

Rating: 5 out of 5

An album built on diverse musical styles can be an erratic failure or an eccentric success. Ottawa band the Peptides takes that gamble on the new album For Those Who Hate Human Interaction, and they succeed in spectacular fashion.

Even in a city with a vibrant indie music scene, For Those Who Hate Human Interaction raises the bar. It’s a crazy mish-mash of styles and instruments that defies categorization, and it’s so confident, so brassy and devil-may-care that it almost beggars belief coming from a relatively obscure, local band. Who are the Peptides, and how did they get so damned good?

The Peptides are, at the core, two people, Claude Marquis and DeeDee Butters, though seven other vocalists and one bass player are credited on the album. Marquis read the album title in a student newspaper, which recommended a quiet restaurant “for those who hate human interaction.” The album was recorded on Marquis’ laptop in his Chinatown living room — another surprise, considering the rich, spacious sound. (It was mastered by Jeff Lipton, who has worked with Arcade Fire, the Magnetic Fields, etc.)

The concept, or theme, is equally rich: it has 25 songs in three “acts,” each song titled “for those who hate” something or other —  For Those Who Hate Memories, For Those Who Hate The Voice in Their Head, For Those Who Hate to Sing & Whistle To A Tune.

It sounds macabre but is anything but. The music is boisterous, exuberant and by times joyful. You’ll think of old and catchy movie themes — Bond films, Sergio Leone westerns, hopelessly romantic musicals. You’ll think of hot nights of funk at the Apollo Theatre, and nights by the radio before television. It’s cabaret, theatre, a staggering mix that was aptly described on a poster for the band’s recent sold-out CD release party at the Mercury Lounge as thus: “humanity’s demise set to racy beats and baroque ballads.” It’s at every step a lot of fun, just the thing to blow any party wide open.

The styles and influences are wildly diverse. Here is a very short list of the composers or performers I thought of this week while listening, over and over, to the Peptides; the B-52s, the Belgian electronica pioneers Front 242, Enrico Morricone, Rogers and Hammerstein, the Brazilian icons Os Mutantes, Al Jolson, Handel, Mozart, and James Brown et al, heard here often in the layers of percussion and bass.

There are guitars, bells, whistles, woodwinds, tambourines and most anything else that goes ding or blang or yoo-de-hoo-hoo. Strings and horns burble in the background and blast out whenever the mood strikes. It’s musical layer upon layer, some of it cooked up fresh by Marquis, and much of it from samples he mined from aged, out-of-print LPs and then manipulated on his laptop into something that is somehow both retro and contemporary.

The lyrics, in coherent statements or random phrases, come and go playfully, set loose like crazy birds to flap around the room. For Those Who Hate to Shower & Shave For A Date moves on a chorus of female voices that sounds like the Andrews Sisters on helium. Then it all gives way to an old-fashioned starter horn from a racetrack. Why? Don’t ask, just dance. It’s a hoot.

 The artiness comes to Marquis and Butters naturally. He’s a noted painter, and has hung in some of the city’s reputable galleries. She’s an actress, and will appear next month in Crossing Delancey at Ottawa Little Theatre. They met a couple of years ago, introduced by Jonathan Hobin, the Ottawa photographer who took the album’s audacious cover photo.

“It was an opportunity to explore all those types of music from all the decades, like using a theme,” Marquis said this week, over juice and mineral water at the Raw Sugar Café in Chinatown. “I love all types of music, and I don’t think it would’ve worked if there hadn’t been a theme behind it, to glue it all together.”

He’s very laid back, and laughs when I describe him as “languid.” Butters is highly animated, prone to spontaneous accents and a menagerie of sounds that highlight and punctuate her sentences. She’s like a sexy cartoon character who’s been fired out of a cannon shaped like an exclamation point!

They’re unstoppable. Marquis is 17 songs into the next Peptides’ record, Love?, which will be “a mirror” to For Those Who Hate . . . And they’re trying to get a band together, searching for a few multi-instrumentalists who can reproduce the complex sounds live. (Recent shows have been theatrical, with recorded music and video and a row of live singers.)

I generally don’t give five stars out of five to new recordings, because a new recording needs time to prove its staying power. Yet it feels churlish to deny the Peptides the top mark. For Those Who Hate Human Interaction is not of this date or time or any date or time. It’s a gleefully exotic hybrid of just about everything, thrown at the wall just to see if it will stick.

It stuck, I say, as I  snap my fingers and tap my toes. Baby, it stuck. 

The first three people to email their name, address and daytime phone number to bigbeat@thecitizen.canwest.com get a free copy of For Those Who Hate Human Interaction.

UPDATE, 7:56 a.m.: The CDs have been won. (Who knew so many people get up early on a Saturday?) The winners will be notified presently.

**********

The Peptides recently released another disc, North Hero, which is a smaller and mellower affair than is For Those Who Hate Human Interaction. Again, it’s mostly Marquis, this time working  primarily with vocalist Pam Kapoor (who also appears on For Those Who Hate . . .).

Again, it’s an eclectic mix, though in a different way. It’s a handful of original tunes, plus covers of John Lennon, BillyTalent, Blues Oyster Cult and that old standby, Amazing Grace.

Whatever your opinion on Marquis, you have to concede that he’s unpredictable.

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Claude Marquis and DeeDee Butters of the Peptides, photographed at Raw Sugar Café in Ottawa. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen).

The new album from Ottawa band the Peptides is tremendous, the sort of high-energy, creative music that anybody can like - and it will certainly get any party started. The album, coyly titled For Those Who Hate Human Interaction, is out now on Itunes or in local record stores. The Peptides play the Get Naked for Cancer benefit Thursday, Aug. 26, as part of pride weekend.

Watch for a feature review of For Those Who Hate Human Interaction in Saturday's Citizen, or here on the Big Beat.

"Still Waiting for an Encore," by Andrew King, 16 by 24, oil on board.

You can lead artists to Bluesfest, but you can’t tell them what to see.

The 13 painters and photographers involved in Portraits of Bluesfest 2 have seen the city’s biggest arts event through their own eyes, and the results are diverse. But first, some background . . .

Portraits of Bluesfest began last year, when I asked 13 of the Ottawa-area’s most respected artists to each create a portrait “of” Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. There was no further instruction on subject or content, so long as the result evoked the festival. The images were sold in a silent auction, and more than $8,000 was raised for the Blues in the Schools, which brings professional musicians into public schools to work with pupils.

This year’s lineup has 13 different artists (with one notable exception), and a new location for the silent auction. Portraits of Bluesfest 2 will be held Thursday, at Cube Gallery in Wellington West. The artists include Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Gordon Harrison, Jennifer Amenta, Don Monet, Karole Marois, Michael “Zeke” Zavacky, Russell Yuristy, Dave Cooper and Andrew O’Malley.

There’ll be 14 or 15 original works of art up for sale, from portraits to landscapes to highly conceptual photographs to an inventive lightbox from O’Malley.

(Top right, Jonathan Hobin's photo of Gord Downie. It will be printed on aluminum. Bottom right, Gordon Harrison's painting of trees behind the Canadian War Museum.)

The lightbox is one of two pieces that had to overcome a hurdle: the artists wanted to participate, but would be out of town during the festival. O’Malley, whose paintings and lightboxes have recently show at Cube Gallery and Wall Space Gallery, come up with a clever solution.

While spending the summer working on his art in New York City, O’Malley followed Bluesfest’s feed on twitter.com. Then he built an LED lightbox, in the shape of a musical double note, and programmed in more than 5,000 actual tweets from Bluesfest fans.

“The messages are stored on a memory card, and the piece randomly plays them back,” O’Malley writes from New York City. “The future owner of the piece can then customize it by changing the text file on the memory card which is easily removed from the piece.”

The other artist who couldn’t physically make it to the festival site was Gordon Harrison, the noted landscape artist with his own gallery in the Byward Market. Harrison asked if I could send photos of the festival, and perhaps he could find inspiration in them. I shot photo after photo and one of them, showing trees along the river behind the Canadian War Museum, caught his eye. Harrison’s small oil on canvas is a boldly stroked mix of blues and greens, and will be immediately recognized by the many who are familiar with his work.

The one artist who is returning is Philip Craig, one of the most respected painters in the city and the biggest money-raiser at last year’s auction. Craig has painted two portraits for the auction, one

of Rush’s Geddy Lee (a friend of Craig’s) and one of the fans.

The photographer Jonathan Hobin, whose upcoming exhibition In the Playroom, at Dale Smith Gallery, will be a highlight of Festival X next month, staged an elaborate scene for his Bluesfest photo. It shows Ottawa-area musician Lindsay Ferguson (who posed after her Bluesfest show) as a sort of Pied Pier character, surrounded by diaphanous young children. It will be printed on aluminum, making it an unusual and unique piece of art. Hobin also did a second photo, a portrait of Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, which will also be available at the auction.

The photographer Genevieve Thauvette also created an elaborate stage for her photo, though her content is much different. Thauvette is nude in her self-portrait, her body covered in red paint as she straddles a banjo amid empty beer cups and other festival detritus. It hints of that Faustian bargain that legendary guitarist Robert Johnson made with the devil, down at the crossroads.

You’ll also see a beer cup in Benjamin Rodger’s acrylic portrait of his friend, Nico, with fingers in his mouth and set to whistle, the whole thing set against a checkered background of greens. Rodger’s recent shows in Ottawa and Gatineau leave little doubt that he’s a talent in ascent.

Russell Yuristy, whose work hangs in the National Gallery of Canada, did a portrait of B. B. King. Though King didn’t play Bluesfest this year, he personifies the spirit of the blues, and the subject matter is a striking departure for Yuristy.

Don Monet, the artist and owner of Cube Gallery, used photo collage and acrylic to create a distinctive scene of the Metric show at Bluesfest. Karole Marois also went for a crowd scene, with her musicians and fans created from daubs of colour against the gloaming of the day.

Fans are also the subjects of Jennifer Amenta and Dave Cooper. Amenta’s acrylic portrait shows a young woman, facing away, her arm raised in apparent exultation with the music. Cooper, the renowned animator, has created a triptych of drawings, each showing fans in all their lumpy, imperfect glory.

Michael “Zeke” Zavacky’s image is also akin to animation, with dozens of faces and phrases squeezed onto the paper and floated over Rush’s Geddy Lee.

These are the pieces of art that will be sold to raise money for Blues in the Schools, and the bidding may be intense. People were keen last year to support the arts, and win an original and storied piece of art for their walls. So let the bidding begin! (And remember, it’s cash or cheque only.)

Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing.

Above, Karole Marois's oil on canvas of a Bluesfest side stage. At right, Philip Craig's portrait of Geddy Lee, from the Band Rush, oil on canvas, 12 by 12.

Below, Jonathan Hobin's portrait of Lindsay Ferguson as the Pied Piper of Bluesfest. It will be printed on aluminum. At right, Philip Craig's portrait of fans at Bluesfest, 16 by 16 inches, oil on canvas.

Three drawings of Bluesfest fans, by Dave Cooper. Above, Hourglass, below middle, Everything Else Falls Away, and bottom, She Airdrummed Iron Maiden Perfectly.

Above, Don Monet's portrait of Metric's show at Bluesfest, photo collage and acrylic. Below, Andrew O'Malley's lightbox, which runs more than 5,000 tweets from the Bluesfest feed on twitter.com.

Above, Nico, by Benjamin Rodger, acrylic on canvas, 24 by 36 inches. Below, Russell Yuristy's portrait of B. B. King, acrylic on canvas, 32 by 32 inches.

Above, Genevieve Thauvette's self-portrait as the devil with banjo. Below, Michael Zeke Zavacky's drawing of the world around Geddy Lee, of Rush.

Jennifer Amenta's portrait of a Bluesfest fan (acrylic, 15 by 30 inches)

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I was standing in front of Mavericks on Rideau Street sometime after midnight on Tuesday morning, when the drummer for Titus Andronicus walked past.

“Great show,” I said to him. “You had your work cut out for you on those drums, with four guitars in front of you.” He smiled and acknowledged that it was a challenge keeping up with his bandmates who, at various times during their Monday night show at Mavericks, had from two to four guitars pounding simultaneously.

The New Jersey band puts out a big and energetic sound, one aptly described by a friend of mine as “part Hold Steady, part Pavement.” I’d toss in a dose of the Black Keys, heard in Titus Andronicus’s ragged edge.

They played for about 90 minutes to 150-odd people, the sort of crowd that reminds you how bands like this aren’t doing it for the money. Night after night, loading their own gear into a van, driving from town to town in small clubs. Touring like this is for the love of performing, the love of playing music.

It’s clear that the five members of Titus Andronicus love to play music, and nowhere was it more evident on Monday than in the short song Titus Andronicus Forever, which serves a a sort of coda to A More Perfect Union, the seven-minute stomper that opens the band’s second album, The Monitor. Titus Andronicus Forever is one minute and 55 seconds of raucous noise. “The enemy is everywhere,” they sang Monday, over and over again, in almost joyous fashion, and the young lads up front bounced off each other like drunken bowling pins.

The band loves emphatic refrains — “you will always be a loser,” they repeat in No Future, Pt. Three: The Escape from No Future, “you will always be a loser!” Set against a throbbing row of guitars and the relentless drums, such lines become fist-pumping chants for the crowd.

The band also loves ludicrous titles — a favourite is Richard II or Extraordinary Popular Dimensions and the Madness of Crowds (Responsible Hate Anthems). This is not a band that’s going for mainstream radio play.

Check out their myspace page, or buy their albums The Monitor and The Airing of Grievences. If you like hell-bent rock and roll for its own sake, Titus Andronicus is for you.

See more Spectrasonic shows here.

Philip Craig's portrait of Geddy Lee, of the band Rush, at Bluesfest. (12 by 12 inches, oil on canvas). It's one of two pieces by Craig that will be available for bidding at the Portraits of Bluesfest 2 silent auction.

Watch daily for more pieces that will be available at the fundraising auction, Aug. 26.
+++
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest. 

The artists include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison. 



The original works of art will be sold in a silent auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26). The proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the program that brings professional musicians into public schools to work with children. 



Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.



I’ll be writing more about it  over the next week, and each day I’ll post one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at the auction.

NOTE: The silent auction is cash or cheque only, no credit or debit cards. Thanks for your co-operation on this front!

Philip Craig's portrait of Bluesfest fans (16 by 16 inches, oil on canvas). It's one of two pieces by Craig that will be available for bidding at the Portraits of Bluesfest 2 silent auction.

As you may have already read, Ottawa's three-year-old reggae festival, which has long been the subject of rumours about financial problems, collapsed into insolvency on the weekend. The sheriff literally showed up to grab what meagre dollars could be had from the gate and beer tents. You can read a story about it by clicking here. Below is the full statement from the festival's board of directors, issued Sunday night and again on Monday afternoon.

Not sure where all the money went, but it sure didn't go to publicity and marketing. Until The Citizen published a small advance story late last week, I hadn't seen a single news release, advertisement, facebook post, tweet or news story anywhere about this festival. Nor did I hear any of the legions of music fans in the city that I know mention anything about it.

Jonathan Hobin's Pied Piper-inspired portrait of Ottawa musician Lindsay Ferguson, for Portraits of Bluesfest 2. Hobin is printing the photograph on aluminum, and it truly will be unique. It'll be available for bidding at Thursday's silent auction for charity.

There are two photographers among the 13 artists in Portraits of Bluesfest 2, and they are Jonathan Hobin and Genevieve Thauvette. Their contributions to the fundraiser are above and below.

Watch daily for more pieces that will be available at the fundraising auction this Thursday, Aug. 26.
+++
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest. 

The artists include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison. 



The original works of art will be sold in a silent auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26). The proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the program that brings professional musicians into public schools to work with children. 



Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.



I’ll be writing more about it  over the next week, and each day I’ll post one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at the auction.

Genevieve Thauvette's self-portrait for Portraits of Bluesfest 2. It'll be available for bidding at Thursday's silent auction for charity.

 Here's a look at what's selling in Ottawa record stores. More will be added as they come in . . .updated.

The band that began Bluesfest this year, Iron Maiden, is now the number one seller at the city's biggest CD retailer.

CD Warehouse, 499 Terry Fox Drive, 1383 Clyde Ave., 1717 St. Laurent Blvd.

Final Frontier - Iron Maiden
Suburbs - Arcade Fire
Foundling - David Gray
No Better Than This - John Mellencamp
Recovery - Eminem
God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise - The Pariah Dogs/Ray LaMontagne
To The Sea - Jack Johnson
Milk - Hawksley Workman
Brothers - The Black Keys
Songs From The Road - Luther Allison

Compact Music, 190 Bank St., and 785 1/2 Bank St.

CD

1.        Arcade Fire  Suburbs
2.       John Mellancamp  No better than this
3.       David Gray  Foundling
4.       Ray Lamontagne  God Willin and the creek don`t don`t rise
5.       Kathryn Calder Are you my mother
6.       Sarah Harmer  Oh little fire
7.       Sting Symphoncities
8.       Los Lobos   Tin Can Trust
9.       Danny Michel Sunset Sea
10.   Eli `Paperboy`Reed  Come and get it
 
Vinyl
 Arcade Fire Suburbs
Velvet Underground And Nico
Stars Five Ghosts
Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures
Midlake  Acts of Man