In the meantime, have a happy holiday, and please enjoy one of the best videos to cross our desk in quite some time:

Stereophonic Lineup Announcement! from This Camera on Vimeo.

P.S. For everyone too old fashioned to head over to Vimeo, feel free to rejoice. The upcoming festival features a bevy of East Coast talent, including Pat Leopoidevin, Cousins, Jon Mckiel, The Slate Pacific, Olympic Symphonium, Gianna Lauren, Julie Doiron, and more!

In a year where the lines at the Fredericton Food Bank have already gotten 3% longer, Executive Director Elizabeth Thurber and her volunteers are bracing for yet another increase on the chalkboard behind her. It tracks the number of people who use the Food Bank monthly, and it appears as though each time the calendar flips, more and more families are in need of their help.

“Our numbers in 2010 have been between 800-900 families a month,” said Thurber, twiddling a green pen between the fingers of her left hand. “Last year we were serving 750-800 families, so there has been that increase from year to year.”

Cluttered is a word to describe the organization’s modest work space; boxes are piled down the length of one wall, while a nondescript desk with an outdated computer perched on top, and with a mess of papers and envelops around it constitutes an office. Thurber puts the pen down and turns to the bristolboard schedule at the other side of the room. Her glasses and the wrinkles that adorn her eyes give the middle aged woman a look of wisdom beyond her ears, as she explains what she expects to be another rise in the number of Fredericton families who depend on the services provided at 860 Grandame Street.

“The significant increase has been coming since the 2007 year, when the recession hit,” said Thurber. “So from 2007 when we were doing 650 families, to now, where we’re doing over 900 – that’s the trend,” she said. “Trying to keep food is very, very difficult.”

It becomes even more difficult during the holiday season, especially with initiatives like Christmas hampers and turkey dinners in addition to the usual order. According to their own records, the Fredericton Food Bank helped an average of 825 families a month in 2009, but December of that year produced a figure of 1068. Despite a rise of roughly 29%, Thurber says the Food Bank doesn’t need to worry “until January,” thanks to the efforts of some smaller groups within the community. One of those groups is the city’s tightly knit musical scene.

Keep The Change

After finishing his PSA and restarting the music, Barton fills me in on the station’s holiday initiative, Operation: Keep the Change. Now in its fifth year, the project puts dozens of spare change jars in the hands of businesses, teams, and groups, pooling all of the collections on the weekend before Christmas. According to the station’s website, Keep The Change has raised over $100,000 for the Salvation Army, Fredericton Food Bank and Community Kitchen.

“It’s a real community effort, and it’s uplifting to see people come together like this,” said Barton. “As nice as it is to receive gifts at Christmas, it’s a whole other feeling to give a gift that someone truly needs and appreciates.”

The clean cut, twenty-five year old disc jockey says that the reason members of the Fredericton music community have stepped up is rooted in a sort of universal balance.

“I think that it’s simple,” said Barton. “If you want people to support your efforts, whether it be by going to a show or buying a CD, etc, I think you have to support theirs as well,” he said. “Call it Karma, or whatever, but if you help when your community is in need, your community will help when you’re in need.”

For Barton, the motivation resides in the feeling of belonging that the initiative gives him – both to the music community and the city at large.

“Keep the Change is a chance for me to give back to a community I very much enjoy being a part of,” he said. “The best stories, for me, are when kids come by to throw in whatever change they have – whether it’s their allowance or otherwise,” he said. “When I was kid, anytime I got a couple bucks, all I could think of was what I was going get at the store.”

He says that facing adversity is natural, but efforts like this put things in perspective.

“Something like Keep The Change helps keep me grounded and reminds me of what really matters,” Barton said. “Because people in the music community are often times all too familiar with what it’s like to struggle, it’s easy to relate.”

“A heavy time of year”

A peak through the windows of The Capital Complex on Queen Street reveals a very empty space. Aside from a couple of wooden high chairs by the bar, some extension cords on stage and the eerie glow of a floodlight, the room is still and bare. On December 16, however, the hardwood floors and brick mortared confines of the Capital will become significantly less vacant, as six local musical acts assemble to play the bar’s annual Christmas benefit show.

Rob Glencross and Jon Bowie make up half of one of those bands, the Westerberg Suicides. Glencross, a shaggy looking twenty-something, says the importance of the show is in helping out the less fortunate in the area.

“This can be a very heavy time of year for a lot of people – especially those who don’t have a lot themselves, and even less to give to others,” said Glencross. “We look at the show as an opportunity to have a good time with friends, and to give something back to the community,” he said. “It’s important for me,” Bowie added, “because my wife and I have volunteered at the food bank in the past, and we’ve seen firsthand that people need help all year round.”

The two are no strangers to the commercial aspect of the holiday season, but Glencross feels that shows like this are the best way that he, as a musician, can help overcome that outlook.

“Whenever I head into the malls, it seems like the spirit of Christmas is lost,” he said, a sad looking glow now resonating in his quizzical eyes. “I see so many frustrated people, but then I think about the folks that can’t even put a half decent meal on their own table sometimes.”

As members of the local music community, both men feel an obligation to step in and use their own talents to help out the Fredericton community at large – especially at this time of year.

“I believe that one owes their community a certain amount their time or talent,” said Bowie. “If what you do is play music, than when a call comes out to play music for a charity or a group in need, well, why wouldn’t you? It’s a no-brainer,” he said, a smile creeping through the five o’clock shadow that dominates his face. “For me,” Glencross added, “putting together a show that we can send out to people who aren’t thinking about the big things of Christmas… If they can get some potatoes and carrots and turkey for Christmas, it’s amazing,” he said. “It’d be great if we could do that every day, every week, but Christmas… Christmas is big.”

“There are interesting dynamics in the community,” said Thurber in regards to the efforts of groups within Fredericton’s population, like the city music scene. Long after the volunteers of Operation Keep The Change stop collecting, and the last chord is struck at the annual show at the Capital bar, groups like the Food Bank will still need the community’s support. In the meantime though, some selflessness and good music are working to ease the “heavy” feeling out of the Holiday season.

Rah Rah setting the stage at the Market in Fredericton

Saskatchewan, Canada’s Rah Rah had the honour of kicking off this November night to remember – an honour that quickly turned into a listening pleasure for the fifty or so initial concert fans at Fredericton’s The Market.

While the energetic seven-piece were touring on the heels of a very respectable sophomore album, there were definite concerns that Breaking Hearts couldn’t quite measure up to the crashing violin crescendos, roaring guitar riffs, booming percussion and poppy piano hooks that bolstered their debut, 2008’s Going Steady. The powerful prairie collective, though, showed why there was no reason to worry.

Their short-but-sweet set featured an excellent combination of old and new songs – songs that got the ever expanding crowd dancing, swaying, and moving like crazy. While standbys “Fuck NAFTA” and “Duet For Emmylou & Grievous Angel” dominated their set, it was the perfectly timed confetti explosion on “Arrows” that really sent them off with a bang.

Rah Rah (pre confetti explosion)

Next up came the Besnard Lakes – presumably out of a time machine set to 1972. Singer Jace Lasek certainly looked the part, and those psychedelic appearances translated perfectly into wild riffs and a hazy shoegaze sound that’s been making critics swoon internationally for the last four years.

The shaggy rockers opened on one of their most well known numbers, and “Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent” set the stage for one heck of a performance. Smoke began pouring out of machines across the stage, and that along with a stellar light show acted as a great backdrop for stunning three part harmonies and shredding guitar solos.

Bassist/singer Olga Goreas whipped out a flute for The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night standout “Chicago Train,” and the instrumental that ensued at the end of it sent shivers throughout the audience. Those who moved along to Lasek’s guitar solos got an amazing workout, and the word “Wow” was suddenly omnipresent in the crowd of 200+.

After encouraging some balloon volleyball, the Montreal quartet took fans back a few years with well known track “Devastation”, before rocking out on what is easily their most popular number. “Albatross” brought another round of anthemic instrumentals, and sent revved up audience members into another quick intermission.

BL killing it yet again on "Albatross"

Finally, it was the moment that Frederictonians had been waiting for, for over two years: beloved East Coast band Wintersleep taking the stage in what would be their triumphant return to the city. The band had been touring internationally since the release of their fourth album, New Inheritors, and while they may have been a little jet lagged early on, they certainly did well at shaking it off.

As Wintersleep took to the stage, the band’s sound tech pumped some ambient noised through the PA system, and they kicked off on the rarely heard/perfectly executed number “Drunk On Aluminum”. The ensuing set was one of well played songs; songs largely taken from New Inheritors and its predecessor, 2007’s Welcome To The Night Sky. Instead of peppering their loyal audience with a bunch of fresh, distant songs, though, the Halifax five-piece actually did an admirable job of mixing in both old and new favourites.

“Experience The Jewel” brought Rah Rah violinist Kristina Hedlund back on stage, and that number led into what was perhaps the highlight of the night. “Preservation” brought and air or sincerity and grace to the performance, and there were many damp eyes throughout the audience. Wintersleep singer Paul Murphy himself seemed enthralled in the emotion of the song, most notably as he crooned the thought provoking lyric: “If that was how you put it and if you ever willed it, I would embroider you in disaffected kisses, in bleach reticent sunsets, in soldered animal glue.” Not only was it genuine in subject matter, but “Preservation” also proved to be the tightest the band played all night.

From there, they were able to masterfully play through rocking instrumentals on two Welcome To The Night Sky favourites. “Laser Beams” proved to have more intense of a build-up than the album version, and “Miasmal Smoke” once again sent a sense of urgent and fervent movement throughout the audience. The guys then left the stage, only to come back and finish the night on “Orca” before vanishing into the November night.

Wintersleep stealing the show...

Brendan MaGee: So Hannah: You’ve been getting your feet wet in music since you were quite young, but have only really decided to dive in, in the last couple of years. What was that eureka moment when you definitively said “I’m going to do it?”
Hannah Georgas: “I moved out to BC six years ago, and I decided to give university a try. I was doing that for three years and had always been, like you said, doing music forever but never putting myself fully into… taking it seriously and wanting to do it as my full time career. I guess my point where it was just like okay, I need to really do this fully fledged was third year university where I just didn’t feel like it was right. I decided not to go to uVic [the University of Victoria] anymore, and moved out to Vancouver. I just started pursuing music full time and trying to get myself out there to meet people who could help me.”

BM: So you dropped out of university to pursue the career – any regrets on leaving that part of your life behind?
HG:  “Not at all. I remember after high school finishing, my mom being like “You should apply to the universities that you’re interested in.”  I remember being like “well I’m not interested in anything other than music.  I think going out to was a way for me to move out of Ontario and find my own scene, and I was curious. I wanted to try it, and I was interested in psychology. I wanted to give it a go. There are no regrets because I can still go back and do what I wanted to do. What I was trying to hone in on was music therapy, so if I want to go back, I can do. At this point I don’t even see that as something I’d want to put potential to.”

BM: Ever since then, you’ve been trekking across the continent, even spending a fair bit of time across the pond. What sort of affect does having all of these new worlds opening up around you have?
HG: “Meeting people has definitely had an influence on me. Going across the country and discovering that people are coming out to shows has been amazing. Just a positive thing for me. For the last two years, we’ve been going back and forth across Canada. Now this time around it feels really familiar. It’s a beautiful place, and I feel pretty lucky to be living here. “

BM: You were recently asked to write a song about British Columbia for the CBC – how has being constantly on the road affected your relationship with your home province?
HG: “I don’t know… I feel like I’m there traveling around doing that. The last tour I did was Western B.C. and I’ve been there the last six years, so it does feel like it’s becoming home for me. It is home in the sense that I started giving my heart to my music out in British Columbia. As an artist, I can say that I’m from Vancouver, because this is where I started really pursuing it – feeling 100% confident about what I’ve been doing. Whenever I’m back there, whenever I fly into Vancouver, I drive back in through the Rockies, you just have this… ah… it’s so refreshing. It feels like home.”

BM: Being on the road means not only being away from that home, but also being away from a lot of the people that you care about. Has it gotten easier or harder to keep writing the really personal songs you’re known for?
HG: “That’s a good question. I have friends back there, and people that I love who I call when I get back… but I feel that right now I’m so focused on touring, just getting myself out there and having these shows where I can be there live, in person and play my songs. That’s why I feel so excited, I haven’t been in [Fredericton] for a year. Yeah, it’s hard in a way, but at the same time, I know what I have to do and I’m really excited. The only thing that’s stayed really consistent in my life is my music; in relationships, with people, and in friendships. I just feel like there’s no questions there– the music 100% makes my decisions.”

BM: You write on “Let’s Talk”: “And we’re all getting older, and it’s time to figure out, why our hearts are getting colder, and all tangled up inside”. That’s sort of a darker lyric… is this representative of how you feel about living in today’s world?
HG: “I definitely play with the fact that even though we’re growing older, we should still keep that adventurous side to us. Humour is so huge in my life, and just to not take life too seriously. I just don’t want myself as I grow old to develop this certain way, or to be stuck in this way, that I find some people… I don’t want to say my parents (laughs)… I want to feel young at heart all the time, and still feel like there’s a world of opportunity. I am growing old, but I don’t want to grow stale. I think that’s what I’m trying to say.”

BM: Lending itself to that, I think it’s important to point it out that even though it contains bits like this, the album is ultimately called This Is Good. Would you say that sums up the craziness of being in a travelling band today?
HG: “For sure, I wouldn’t have it any other way right now. I feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to share my music. I feel pretty luck that this is what I’m doing for a living. To be on the road. To have people actually respond to what I’m doing and tell me that they relate. Or that they love it. Or that it means such and such to them… It’s just like life can’t be any better right now, and I just want to expand on that. That’s my goal in life- to be able to have a fan base and have people that can relate and feel… That it’s helped them in some way. It might sound cliché… but it’s true (laughs).”

BM: So, you’ve already released the debut full length, toured internationally, graced the cover of Exclaim Magazine and shot a video in the buff…
HG: (laughs)

BM: (laughs)… with all that in mind, do you have anything else to check off the list in 2010?
HG: “Yes! For one thing, I have new songs that I want to record- I think I might go hide for the month of January… I want to make another record, because there are songs that I’m really excited about. I have trouble when I have a new song, I just want to play it. Even when I listen to a new song, I just want to hear it all the time. That’s kind of how I feel about the new music that I’m writing. Also, my new record is coming out in Europe in the New Year too, so I want to be out there. I want to be touring so much out there. I want to tour in the states and have my record out there by the New Year too. I have a lot of work to do.”