November 20th, 2009 - Ohbijou
w/ The Painted Birds (Acoustic Set)
$10 advance, $15 door (+$1.50 tx & sc) Buy your tickets for this show here
Available at Leo's Video & Habitat
Doors at 7pm, show at 9pm, come early for dinner!
Borne in the bedrooms of a family home in Brantford, Ontario, Casey Mecija's tender compositions, bound with youthful frailty and unnerving beauty, found their pace in Toronto. Enlisting the help of her younger sister, Jenny, and friends Heather Kirby and Anissa Hart, Mecija's songs took flight. An encounter with James Bunton and Ryan Carley led to further collaboration and the conception of Ohbijou. Andrew Kinoshita soon added his talents to Ohbijou's orchestration. Furnished with mandolin, violin, piano, banjo, cello and an impressive array of other instruments, a seven piece orchestral pop force began to appear on stages around Toronto. In June of 2005 Ohbijou released Zips and Zings, an EP that announced the arrival of a band that would deeply alter the landscape of independent music in Toronto. The 2006 release of their first full-length album, Swift Feet for Troubling Times, garnered high praise from critics, led the band across both Canada and the United States, and was catalyst for numerous sold-out performances.
Ohbijou has a healthy preoccupation with the movements and events that coincide with the creation of their music. Mecija pens songs wrought with the romantic afflictions of big city life. She sutures the intimate details of her personal relations to the macrocosmic relations of her city; her lyrics eulogize the streets and neighbourhoods of a changing city, and the humbling encounters that happen because of and in spite of these changes. Dressed with intricate melodies and vocal harmonies arranged by her bandmates, the songs reveal a striking musicality and virtuosity. A string of accolades has followed Ohbijou since its inception, and they have quietly amassed a devoted and varied army of fans. Ohbijou's delicate sound increasingly matures with each recording.
Despite acquiring such praise, each performance and recording is tempered with gestures to other musicians and other initiatives, deflecting attention away from the band itself and back onto the audience from which the band draws strength. With a pointed self-reflexivity and humility, Ohbijou crafts lyrics and melodies that pay homage to those to whom their sound is indebted.
To speak of Ohbijou as strictly a band is not really accurate. They defy the limits of such, and are at once friends, a curatorial movement, familial unit, assembly of musicians, and philanthropic initiative. At times Ohbijou is synonymous with "Bellwoods"- the moniker given to a cooperative house in which two members of the band live, and in which all members and dozens of friends make and share music. The spirit of the house calcifies in concerts that take place in its basement and projects such as "Friends in Bellwoods", a compilation CD curated by James Bunton and Casey Mecija that showcases some of the acts that have played in the house. Defined as a "digital diary of the house", to date the original compilation has raised over $11,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank of Toronto. A second "Bellwoods" compilation will be released in August, 2009.
Ohbijou now returns with their highly anticipated sophomore album, "Beacons". The record gleaned early praise from critics and was touted as one of 2009's most anticipated albums. The band has inked deals with Bella Union in Europe (also home to Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Andrew Bird, etc.) and Last Gang Records in North America (New Pornographers, Metric, Crystal Castles, etc.). Over the next year, Ohbijou will grace international stages, touring their sound to new audiences.
Since forming in the fall of 2005, Vancouver indie-rockers The Painted Birds have secured a loyal following throughout Canada. Their debut album, "So Much For The Rain", was released independently in 2007 and the band has since performed over 100 shows, including two tours across Canada and five regional tours, all self-booked. They have been invited to such reputable festivals and conferences as Canadian Music Week, NXNE, Sled Island, Western Canadian Music Awards, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, and Vancouver Jazz Festival. Features on the band appeared in the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Edmonton Journal, Windsor Star, and Vancouver Courier.
The Painted Birds have a distinct sound that is rhythmically dynamic and melodically rich. The fusion of Dominique Fricot’s powerful voice with Shawn Berke’s melody-driven bass lines and Josh McNorton’s effects-laden guitar conjures up intense emotions for the listener. Fricot co-writes most of the songs with Berke and working with him feels like fate. “I’ve never been more confident in anything in my life until I started writing music with Shawn. It’s not only regimented and professional, but it’s also spontaneous and can happen at the drop of a hat without any instruments around.”
2009 has already been an incredibly busy year for the band. They have showcased at Canadian Music Week, performed at JUNO Fest, and made their debut south of the border at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Most recently, The Painted Birds were selected out of 450 artists to participate in the Peak Performance Project, a five million dollar initiative sponsored by Vancouver’s newest AAA station, 100.5 The Peak FM.
On October 6th, the band released a new single, “Wash Away” which was produced by Shawn Cole (You Say Party! We Say Die!, Bend Sinister), mixed by Warne Livesey (Matthew Good Band, 54-40) and mastered by Joao Carvalho (The Tragically Hip, Sam Roberts). The new single is available for free download on the band’s website, www.thepaintedbirds.com
$10 advance, $15 door (+$1.50 tx & sc) Buy your tickets for this show here
Available at Leo's Video & Habitat
Doors at 7pm, show at 9pm, come early for dinner!
Borne in the bedrooms of a family home in Brantford, Ontario, Casey Mecija's tender compositions, bound with youthful frailty and unnerving beauty, found their pace in Toronto. Enlisting the help of her younger sister, Jenny, and friends Heather Kirby and Anissa Hart, Mecija's songs took flight. An encounter with James Bunton and Ryan Carley led to further collaboration and the conception of Ohbijou. Andrew Kinoshita soon added his talents to Ohbijou's orchestration. Furnished with mandolin, violin, piano, banjo, cello and an impressive array of other instruments, a seven piece orchestral pop force began to appear on stages around Toronto. In June of 2005 Ohbijou released Zips and Zings, an EP that announced the arrival of a band that would deeply alter the landscape of independent music in Toronto. The 2006 release of their first full-length album, Swift Feet for Troubling Times, garnered high praise from critics, led the band across both Canada and the United States, and was catalyst for numerous sold-out performances.
Ohbijou has a healthy preoccupation with the movements and events that coincide with the creation of their music. Mecija pens songs wrought with the romantic afflictions of big city life. She sutures the intimate details of her personal relations to the macrocosmic relations of her city; her lyrics eulogize the streets and neighbourhoods of a changing city, and the humbling encounters that happen because of and in spite of these changes. Dressed with intricate melodies and vocal harmonies arranged by her bandmates, the songs reveal a striking musicality and virtuosity. A string of accolades has followed Ohbijou since its inception, and they have quietly amassed a devoted and varied army of fans. Ohbijou's delicate sound increasingly matures with each recording.
Despite acquiring such praise, each performance and recording is tempered with gestures to other musicians and other initiatives, deflecting attention away from the band itself and back onto the audience from which the band draws strength. With a pointed self-reflexivity and humility, Ohbijou crafts lyrics and melodies that pay homage to those to whom their sound is indebted.
To speak of Ohbijou as strictly a band is not really accurate. They defy the limits of such, and are at once friends, a curatorial movement, familial unit, assembly of musicians, and philanthropic initiative. At times Ohbijou is synonymous with "Bellwoods"- the moniker given to a cooperative house in which two members of the band live, and in which all members and dozens of friends make and share music. The spirit of the house calcifies in concerts that take place in its basement and projects such as "Friends in Bellwoods", a compilation CD curated by James Bunton and Casey Mecija that showcases some of the acts that have played in the house. Defined as a "digital diary of the house", to date the original compilation has raised over $11,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank of Toronto. A second "Bellwoods" compilation will be released in August, 2009.
Ohbijou now returns with their highly anticipated sophomore album, "Beacons". The record gleaned early praise from critics and was touted as one of 2009's most anticipated albums. The band has inked deals with Bella Union in Europe (also home to Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Andrew Bird, etc.) and Last Gang Records in North America (New Pornographers, Metric, Crystal Castles, etc.). Over the next year, Ohbijou will grace international stages, touring their sound to new audiences.
Since forming in the fall of 2005, Vancouver indie-rockers The Painted Birds have secured a loyal following throughout Canada. Their debut album, "So Much For The Rain", was released independently in 2007 and the band has since performed over 100 shows, including two tours across Canada and five regional tours, all self-booked. They have been invited to such reputable festivals and conferences as Canadian Music Week, NXNE, Sled Island, Western Canadian Music Awards, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, and Vancouver Jazz Festival. Features on the band appeared in the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Edmonton Journal, Windsor Star, and Vancouver Courier.
The Painted Birds have a distinct sound that is rhythmically dynamic and melodically rich. The fusion of Dominique Fricot’s powerful voice with Shawn Berke’s melody-driven bass lines and Josh McNorton’s effects-laden guitar conjures up intense emotions for the listener. Fricot co-writes most of the songs with Berke and working with him feels like fate. “I’ve never been more confident in anything in my life until I started writing music with Shawn. It’s not only regimented and professional, but it’s also spontaneous and can happen at the drop of a hat without any instruments around.”
2009 has already been an incredibly busy year for the band. They have showcased at Canadian Music Week, performed at JUNO Fest, and made their debut south of the border at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Most recently, The Painted Birds were selected out of 450 artists to participate in the Peak Performance Project, a five million dollar initiative sponsored by Vancouver’s newest AAA station, 100.5 The Peak FM.
On October 6th, the band released a new single, “Wash Away” which was produced by Shawn Cole (You Say Party! We Say Die!, Bend Sinister), mixed by Warne Livesey (Matthew Good Band, 54-40) and mastered by Joao Carvalho (The Tragically Hip, Sam Roberts). The new single is available for free download on the band’s website, www.thepaintedbirds.com
- Categories: Concerts , Past Events , Indie Rock , Acoustic
