Author Archives: Volante Matheson

Trumpet AND accordion??

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(Jack Garton)

Welcome to the groovy toe-tapping musician by the name of Jack Garton. I walked into a concert hall at Ignite The Arts in 2023 and people were bouncing, swing-dancing, kicking their legs and popping their hands. To be frank, I will day-dream watching this crowd and lusting to kick and pop like they do – but this is also one of the reasons I have my camera. Because who else will be there to experience their enjoyment?

Jack Garton rotates between both a trumpet and accordion as he sings. As stated on his webpage he is “a blend of folk and roots, steeped heavily in rockabilly and doo-wap.” I find this perfectly said.

I walked into this Ignite The Arts show and the crowd was filled with an array of music and art lovers from around British Columbia. Ignite The Arts brings together musicians young and old, artists of so many kinds, interactive workshops, and families with little ones experiencing all this in their wee yout. How extraordinary to see this kind of collective exists. That kind of happy-go-merry about life that cults do, but instead of containment, all these wonderful people are scattered geographically, creating their “thing” and bringing it into a proper Spring honouring festival.

(Fog Fotág / Facebook)

You’ll have to give me some patience, because up until I started working with the Co-op Radio Show “No Apologies Necessary” my idea of festivals was different. My music tastes were just leaving electronic, dub, house for the time being and venturing into having a curiosity towards the amount of time it takes for someone to learn an instrument. Hearing music where someone played an instrument in a way that blew my mind, because you really have to decide you love this growing up to be so amazing now. You have to pick music. So suddenly I was being localized to the amazing folk musicians that lived in my city. Then moved somewhere affordable to hone their tune, and just focus on their instruments.

It was a glorious daydream that I like to picture exists. But walking into this room seemed to affirm that to me.

Jack Garton had transported this room of people back in time, and everyone was jolly and merry in a way that was entirely genuine. Giving back dance and joy to the musicians that spent all their time creating this music. It was different from the festivals I’d been to previously. Later I would see Jack Garton performing again with a musician who played a saw with a bow. I was enthralled with what artists were doing with their time.

“The musical saw is a flexible handsaw played by holding the handle between the knees and bending the blade while bowing along the flat edge.” -Wikipedia Definition

My recording below encapsulates my experience of Jack Garton. In fact the tune “Move The Mess Around” begrudgingly remains stuck in my head every time I clean my apartment:

In a Vancouver Sun article Garton said, “I keep connecting with the music that my grandparents, particularly my mom’s parents, were listening to. That was a lot of rockabilly and country from the 1950s.”

Having recently released the new album, Original Skin, Jack Garton is on route for a summer of music performances. On May 17th, 2025 he will be on Galiano Island for the Galiano’s Farmer’s Market. If you’re looking for something closer to Vancouver then on May 24th, 2025 he will be performing at the Clarke Theatre Cafetorium in Mission, BC! Jack Garton has previously played as part of Petunia & The Vipers, and has collaborated with the amazing pianist Adam Farnsworth. We will likely be seeing a great amount more of him in the future!

Shout out to all the social media posts of his lovely family! I couldn’t even picture what it would be like growing up with a trumpet playing, accordion jamming, take me to a sweet all-ages folk festival family.

For more about Jack Garton click the links below:

jackgarton.com

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Checkmate – my encounter with a rap legend

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(Fog Fotàg / Facebook)

Did you grow up in the 90s? Perhaps you were a teenager or young adult at the time? You’re a little cooler than everyone born after? Then this is your article.

Canadian hip-hop legends Rascalz from Vancouver, BC dominated the development of hip-hop in Canada. This group consisted of emcees Red1 and Misfit, and record producer DJ Kemo. In 1998 they collaborated with another Canadian artist, rapper Checkmate, for their influential single “Northern Touch.” Here’s a taste to grease your memory wheels:

Now because Evolution audience ranges in age and taste, you might not click at the height of this group. One you might’ve heard on local Vancouver radio is “Top of the World” – and if that doesn’t jog your memory, you’re a lost cause.

My story today starts in Downtown Vancouver, off Cambie and Hastings, near Victory Square. Dispensaries were just becoming a thing, not officially government-regulated, but they were decriminalized. The weed buying game had gone from “check-over-your-shoulder” dealer’s homes (I never did this Mom), to suddenly shops popping up here and there around the city. If you had a medical referral you could wander into one of the government regulated shops, but anyone knew that you’d get dry crusty (albeit “totally safe”) nugget of weed. I was in the market for that real stuff. The places that let you smell before you buy and weighed it out in front of you. This is what I would refer to as the “good ‘ol days” for weed-smoking Vancouver.

I’d made the venture all the way downtown. When you know where the good stuff is, you make the journey and buy in bulk. I was down there to top up at the now gone Shaman Shop that was part of Cannabis Culture HQ and next door to the infamous vape lounge. I crossed the street to get to my favoured shop… but low and behold… the buggers were closed. I went into a sister shop and asked when the place would reopen. “Not for a couple hours,” I was told, but I should give the shop next door a try. You need to knock on the unmarked black door, someone would answer, and the weed shop was down the hall at the back.

Ominous … but I decided to give it a go.

(HipHopCanada)

Here I met Lyle. A smooth-talking man who called me “miss” for the first long-while of our interactions. He was fascinating. I’d recognized his face from a different weed shop, and this jazzy, Hollywoood-esque romantic demeanour with a thug exterior was so uniquely him.

Not much time had passed before I started doing as I do, and asking questions. How’s your day been? Any fun stories to tell me? What do you do on your downtime?

Lyle, I learnt, wrote music. “Music??” I said, my recent initiation to the Vancouver Co-op Radio Show “No Apologies Necessary” was tickling my thoughts. I was just learning about this comfortable new “in” I had to ask people about their lives, and to ask musicians about their music. With the credibility of a radio show behind me, I felt little to no shyness to ask him more. Then finished up when he agreed to come down to our radio station a couple blocks away for an interview.

That day I went home and googled Lyle Bismarck, also known as Checkmate. There was ample information about him. Rapper, producer, a strong representative of not only Canadian-music, but Vancouver specifically. I was blown away.

(Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press)

I called up my co-host, told him I found this amazing rapper who agreed to be on our show – and that I was in awe by his readily established notoriety. Mostly blown away that his internet interviews were but a handful, yet he had agreed to do one with little-noob me. I sent over all the information so my co-host could prepare. The day came, Lyle came in all cool and suave as normal. The interview began.

About part-way through the interview I noticed something clicked on my co-host’s face. This was WHO? Suddenly my co-host was attempting to keep his demeanour nonchalant. This was the music he grew up on, and suddenly he realized this and didn’t want our interviewee to realize he had just realized.

After Lyle left, my co-host turned to me, “Do you know who that was???”

“I tried to tell you!!!” I said.

My co-host will groan reading this memory, but it paints a wonderful picture to just how monumental this interview became.

(Alchetron)

Lyle Bismarck, Checkmate, is making music with a drive that never waned. Before “Northern Touch” Lyle recorded over 200 underground tracks. After his Rascalz appearance he compiled his songs to create the 2001 album “Welcome to the Game.” In 2003 Lyle received a Juno Award nomination for his standalone single “R.A.W.” Fast forward to 2021, Checkmate released his fourth solo album “Aviator Game” which featured appearances by Concise, Snack the Ripper, Bishop Bigrante, Moka Only, Tre Nice and Tiago Vasquez. This album was executively produced by Rascalz member DJ Kemo.

Checkmate continues to record and release music. You can find his music on Spotify where the newly released Pro Game 2 is posted.

Keep your eyes on an upcoming episode of our New Music Now podcast on Evolution where Lyle will be participating for further questions about his music.

Find more about Checkmate through the links below:

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Baby, your face is Brass.

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(Babyface Brass / Facebook)

Alright let’s get down to business. Because with Babyface Brass, it’s all business in the front and party at the back. You’re metaphorical mullet when there is zero mullet in sight. Its called symbolism.

Babyface Brass is a ten person brass band hailing from Vancouver, BC. They are a funky group of musicians that you will find busking along the Granville strip of downtown Vancouver. In fact, my No Apologies Radio cohost and Babyface Brass drummer almost went viral recently after a group of passers-by mistook him for Seth Rogen! Now as a Vancouverite we love some Seth Rogen, but in fact the fame went the other way around this time as Seth Rogen would be lucky to jam like my buddy Kenan Zeiglar-Sungar. Sorry Seth, you can have comedy!

(Babyface Brass / Facebook)

Babyface Brass actually started as a purely busking band. Aston Sweet, a musician who’s face you will probably recognize from a multitude of East Vancouver bands, began Babyface Brass with the notion that they would jam on the street to make some extra cash. Whether for extra drinks or extra living money, Aston told me this was their first time busking ever. With no goal in sight, this was a fun way to jam, take in the city the people, and make some money. Enter in my friend and radio co-host Kenan Zeiglar-Sungar. A local drummer, stand-up bass, and vocalist from East Vancouver. Kenan was now a long-time cohost of the Co-op Vancouver radio show called “No Apologies Necessary”. This show has been running over 15 years and evolved from a hip-hop show to what is now referred to as an “eclectic shmorgasboard of all Canadian music.” His first time playing with Babyface Brass was actually when they were invited to come play live on the radio show in Downtown Vancouver.

“I had them on Co-op Radio and they said ‘Bring some drums’ so we did something live on the radio for the first time we played together. It went fairly well, I had my friend running the board. It was done simply, wasn’t the best in audio quality, but we had fun doing it. I don’t think we broke any microphones. CRTC didn’t break down the door.” -Kenan Zeiglar-Sungar

Babyface Brass started small, then over time became of a collective of musicians coming and going. They have a drummer, trumpets, saxophone, tuba, trombone, and even tap dancers! Kenan told me in conversations past how they came by these tap dancers. While busking on the Granville strip, one day a mother and her kids passed by the band – one of the kids worked up the courage to ask Babyface Brass to jam. He was a tap dancer, and while we all know tapping to be a form of dance, it is also a form of music! The band members readily allowed the tapper to join, and thereby another piece of percussion was added.

(Babyface Brass / Facebook)

One of the first times I saw Babyface Brass was at the now closed-down Cafe Deux Soleils which was a Commercial Drive hub for poets, up-and-coming musicians, and many other members of the community. The cafe closed forever in 2022 due to a lack of funding. A classic trope of arts-based venues here in Vancouver. Ironically enough Kenan and I were posed to hold our first No Apologies Necessary fundraiser together at his iconic venue, days after the cafe permanently closed. We were shocked, speechless, caught up at the time of finding a new venue for our days-away music fundraiser. I was lucky enough to experience the venue for the last time, and take in an epic tap battle between the three tappers that joined them that day. As a “refuge for outsiders” Cafe Deux Soleils is duly mourned.

Not long after I would see Babyface Brass perform at Victoria’s Ska & Reggae Festival in 2022. I watched the band relate to the crowd, picking up the heat-soaked tired crowd, and putting them down with boogie-bumping beats. It was the first time I was clearly able to recognize what a “hype man” was on stage.

At this time I was freshly exploring what it means to be an interviewer. I’d seen bands perform, then meet them after, and starting to question the differing nature of one individual split into two. Musicians perform music that is uniquely them, but very often I was meeting musicians who created a persona on stage that was different. In my mind, I couldn’t understand how the two could exist at once, so I knocked it off as a “cultivated persona” that had been created purely for the stage.

(Fog Fotág / Facebook)

But this thought would later expand. Not to be proven wrong, but added to for a better meaning.

Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons or a table top game of the like? In these games you create a persona, one that you want to be, and perform the rest of the game as if that character. Although to the unexperienced D&D player this could be seen as fantastical imaginings of someone you want to be – but to the sociologist inside of me I saw these characters as another branch of who they were. Players could meet around the table and get to know each other better through the deep-psyche that presented itself while playing. Player A wanted to destroy the monster and be a hero? That reflected something deeper inside. Player B wanted to only ransack and cause havoc…. Another keen attribute to something that lured deeper inside.

So was how I learnt it to be with musicians. They weren’t creating something entirely new and fabricated on stage. They were using the medium to explore another branch of who they were.

Taking us back to “hype man”. Here I was watching Babyface Brass and learning my cohosts other psyche as “hype man.” He could rouse the audience, create a chant if he wanted to, or start a clap along.. the opportunities were endless. While each member jumped to the front for their individual creations, this was a trait that many of them exuded. They were finding parts of themselves on stage, not pretending to be someone they weren’t.

I love a good ‘ol “sociology experiment” and this one proved as another learning lesson to me. I was getting closer at understanding how the intimate internal filtered into this exuberant external. And while I could talk forever of the tunes, it was this bridging of the self that most caught my attention that day.

(Fog Fotág / Facebook)

Kenan and Aston, in tandem with other members of a group called High Society are on their way to Cumberland today. Booked and jamming for a 4/20 event in the small town that hosts an insane amount of folk-music events. While Babyface Brass seeks to continue creating and publishing new music of their own, you will find them performing all around Vancouver. From Downtown Granville St. to a local East Van music venue called The Wise Hall. Like many many MANY other awesome music venues, The Wise is experiencing a battle with demise as funding struggles to keep the venue afloat. On Mondays you will find a weekly Jazz Evening hosted sometimes by Babyface Brass and other times by recognizable local musicians in an effort to fundraise for this awesome space.

Find more about Babyface Brass below:

babyfacebrass.com

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT.

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Astral feedback: New Age Doom

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(New Age Doom / Bandcamp)

The sun was already down as I entered The Biltmore Cabaret.

I was there supporting a friend’s band and feeling very much anti-social that night. Hanging in the back next to the sound booth…. The occasional head nod to the music. People-watching mostly. The crowd was great, they were enjoying the music, and I was enjoying their enjoyment.

My friend’s band, who had played just before, erupted a mosh-pit. A story for another article… and last on stage was New Age Doom. Here I was planning to dip in and out in a mere flash of support. But when my friends came off-stage they implored me to stay. This last band wouldn’t disappoint.

Let me paint you a picture.  Recently I had travelled to Seattle to the epic and historical Paramount Theatre to see Earth and Sunn O))). What was this genre? Noise? Instrumentals? Rock? When I ask ye olde Google it described Earth as post-rock drone metal. Why am I educating you about this? Because it’s the only way for you to understand the full effect New Age Doom had on me.

Here’s a taste of Earth:

Ok, flash-forward to my tale at the Biltmore. These two members crossed the stage, hooked up to the audio, and slayed. The crowd had changed from the revelry mosh-pit to somewhat of a hypnotic trance. I was enthralled. Captivated. Tranced-out. New Age Doom sounded like Earth! This “small” up-and-coming band in front of me… playing for a crowd that was not as big as they deserved. I needed to talk to them.

I mean, me in anti-social mode… and breaking it because the music hit so good.. Takes a lot. I applaud you New Age Doom for your neuropathway changing beats, because they had effected a change in me that evening.

New Age Doom identifies as experimental-metal. They are a duo from Vancouver, BC consisting of drummer Eric J. Breitenbach and multi-instrumentalist Greg Valou. They previously worked in collaboration with popular dub and reggae musician, Lee “Scratch” Perry. Scratch broken-heartedly passed away after recording with New Age Doom as lead-vocalist in the album “Guide to the Universe” which was released in November 2021. Lee Perry was a key figure in the development of Jamaican music from the late 1960s forward. As written in an article by Jesse Locke, “Perry stripped songs to their skeletons and rewired Frankensteined remixes with deeply spaced-out electronic echoes.” Click here to read the full article, “He shaped the sound of internationally beloved artists such as Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, The Congos, and countless others.”

When New Age Doom began seeking vocalists, they decided to start at the top with their hero. After a mere email, Perry was on board.

“When you listen to his lyrics, it was almost like we fulfilled the prophecy” Valou says in the Music Works article, “You have to dream/ You have to know what you want/ You have to ask for it/ You have to step forward.” – New Age Doom.

I am thankful to experience the evening I did. It made my mind buzz, and the thoughts continue rolling into how these different musicians find this sound – like Earth. As my role on this planet is exploring how musicians work and how they find their sound, I was always left with the notion that “they must’ve been holding onto this one sound inside them their whole life. This one sound that represents who THEY are. How to express who THEY are to the rest of the world.”

But I am understanding that there is no one thing that fits ME in a box, or a brand, that would be the “only representation of myself to explain to the rest of the world.” I am a multitude of different things that come together as a whole. Instrumentalist Greg Valou, while not creating for New Age Doom, dabbles in Zimbabwean Afro-fusion, Arabic jazz-rock, and Balkan folk music. In New Age Doom he bows and strums a metallic hybrid instrument of guitar, bass, and harp strings. Drummer Eric J. Breitenbach pounds his beats into massive double bass drums, his locks of hair moving like rough water as it all beautifully coordinates into what is New Age Doom. They as musicians are a multitude of things that come together as a whole.

Music is meant to evoke something in its listener and represent something about its creator. My memory of this group did not encompass the whole of what they are. But it did what art is supposed to do, to spark.

(New Age Doom / Ingrid Valou)

Find out more about New Age Doom through the links below:

newagedoom.com

You can also find their music on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Youtube.

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Your sign to try Progressive Metal

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(Anciients / Bandcamp)

So Anciients have been making BIG waves recently. Their second Juno!! If you don’t know, now you know. Vancouver’s own heavy metal band Anciients have won their second Juno for best Metal/Hard Music Album. This is well-deserved and a great shout-out to the kinds of amazing musicians being cultivated here in Vancouver.

Anciients defines itself as progressive metal, which makes me think of trying to explain “progressive metal” to my Mom. A topic for another article.

My exposure to metal was very limited, if at all, growing up. “Punk” was the closest thing I understood to what is created in metal. That exposure to a type of emotion that is so uniquely human. A place to take out that emotion properly, whatever it may be. Metal is a fascinating dive once you go in…

If you’re someone who has never listened to metal but you’re still fascinated by the emotions like me, check out “Beyond the Reach of the Sun” by Anciients. The instrumentals are an interesting journey and the lyrics hold their own storytelling power. The vocals only take you slightly towards Satan. 😉

I had the pleasure of attending a progressive metal show. Meshuggah was playing at the UBC Thunderbird Stadium back in 2023. Meshuggah is a Swedish extreme metal band that formed in 1987. Their openers, Whitechapel, a death core band from Tennessee, USA. What an mix for my first live show. Our tickets were for arena side seating, but we started at the back of course. That way you get the full effect of the light-show and the best sound.

(Meshuggah)

After a while we moved to our scheduled seating and got an entirely new experience. I could see the hair and beards of Meshuggah blowing from the line of electric fans on stage. A couple steps back and a peak around the curtain… was the boss. The drummer with a long-flowing grey beard and pony-tail and a ring of fire surrounding him with electrical wind. It was majestic.

But also Satan.

From the side we also got this amazing view of the moshers in the centre arena. Chairs didn’t exist in their section, it was like a beautiful symbiotic school of fish moving and pushing off each other. Could you imagine a bird’s eye time-lapse of this? Mosh-pits are an interesting beauty, and I’d never seen one this big before.

This kind of music hits you in the ears in a way that makes you love how peculiar and awesome humans have become.

And Anciients represent the kind of music coming from Vancouver. Congratulations on your triumph Anciients, I’m excited to see what you’ll do next.

If you want to check out more of Anciients click the links below:

anciients.net

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Music to wag your tail to – Deaf Dogs

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(Deaf Dogs / Bandcamp)

I was sitting in a local East Van jam space. A rundown building that the city likely eyeballs as its next “affordable housing” condo. The walls were vibrating.

“Who the heck is that?” I asked my friend.

“These crazy kids upstairs, they are soooo good.”

Even with a floor and four to five walls between us, this was accurate, they were soooo good.

I’d later witness this goodness in the flesh when Deaf Dogs performed at a Green Auto show.  A group of 5 musicians: 4 vocalists, 3 guitarists, a drummer, a bass guitar. You’d think it would be a mash of sounds fighting against the other to be heard – but in fact everything just works. All members took the stage and it seemed like there was harmonic space for everyone’s unique sound. No classic band dynamics of one singer leading the tunes, stealing the sweet riffs, and the rest of the band acclimating behind. In Deaf Dogs every member shines – and as an audience member you don’t know where to look next, all of it happening at once. It bloody rocked.

With only one album released, “Live from the Pound” they are described as a melodic punk rock band. Bluesy riffs, rich vocal harmonies, and crushing rock instrumentals.

“We make bipolar music,” bassist Berke says on an episode of Once More With Feeling, a music podcast hailing from our lovely Vancouver, BC.

“Everyone comes well-equipped… we come through and write really well together,” guitarist Brent says in the same podcast.

I reached out to the members of Deaf Dogs for a quote and they filled me in. The band started jamming a few years ago after meeting through mutual friends. With their unique sound I asked “How did you even come to this?” I learnt their sound developed organically simply by solving the problem of having three guitars playing at once.

(Deaf Dogs / Bandcamp)

While you can seek out Deaf Dogs all around Vancouver, at venues like Green Auto or the Cobalt, you can also check out their stuff online. Word on the street is their first album was entirely self-produced.

In my quick interaction with the band they disclosed that their first full length EP will be released this summer! Their live performances will ramp up after this release in an effort to support.

“A bunch shows around Vancouver! After the summer we’ll be hitting the road and playing more shows around B.C.” – Deaf Dogs

Find their music on Spotify and Bandcamp, and keep your eyes locked there for their new EP release.

For a further dip into Deaf Dogs sound check out this video from their semi-recent performance at Green Auto, posted below.

Click the links to find out more about the band:

 

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Ska & Reggae? Yeah mon.

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(Ska & Reggae Festival / Facebook)

The Ska & Reggae Festival is coming back to Victoria! Do you know what Ska is? I didn’t until I first attended back in the summer of 2022. Let me give you a quick lesson:

Ska is a fast-paced and upbeat music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s. First take one part Mento (Jamaican folk music), add a couple cups of Calypso (Afro-Caribbean music from Trinidad and Tobago), then smash that together with some American jazz, rhythm and blues.

Now you’re a ska expert!

Well, no. BUT if you want to get in the mix and have a taste get yourself to the Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival this summer from June 18th-22nd. It is an all ages event that is split between a couple venues. Outside at Ship Point – perfectly poised on the Victoria seawall, outside in the glorious heat. Bring your sunscreen and sunbrellas! The other two venues are the Victoria Curling Club and The Wicket Hall. Unfortunately the Wicket Hall remains 19+ for all you kiddlets reading, but this year the Victoria Curling Club is for everyone. “Providing they get a pass on their usual bedtime,” as stated on their webpage. In fact, kids under the age of 10 get in free! Sorry fellow wrinklies, you can try your pass at a free entry, but why not just contribute to the cause. The cause being epic beats and an amazingly happy atmosphere.

Now step into my time portal back to the year 2022. You’re a 29 year old girl, heading to see her friend’s brass band play at this Ska & Reggae Festival that you’ve never heard of before. You’re on the ferry enjoying the whip of the wind as your hair attacks your eyeball, mentally preparing to stand in a crowd of festival goers on your own. Then you’re in Victoria, the heat is blaring, you decide your too cool for sunscreen and regret it later. Finally you’re in the crowd, your friends 10 person brass band is on stage, and they wink at you as you shimmy close to the front. Life is grand.

(Fog Fotag / Facebook)

My experience at Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival has imprinted itself in my memory. The crowd was filled with old and young and everyone in between. There was face painting, hoola-hooping, families spread out across the grassy hill munching on picnic.. oh ya, and music! Babyface Brass was my friend’s band, one drummer, one singer, seven brass instruments, and one tap dancer. Five Alarm Funk played as the sun was going down! The heat had soaked up all the energy of the crowd and somehow these boys brought it back tenfold. Finally, as the sky turned light purple and the street lights came on, Bedouin Soundclash came on. Children strained to keep their eyes open as they sat on their parents shoulders. The rest of us gearing up to head to the Victoria Curling Club for more.

(Fog Fotag / Facebook)

Now before I leave you, have you heard of Too Many Zooz?? They hail from New York City so I’ll only give them a brief mention. But this group is a trio, a drummer carrying his snare and bass like a marching band, a trumpeter, and a tenor saxophone. We were all jaws to the floor because it was as if these brass musicians never paused for breath…. How in the what?

(Fog Fotag / Facebook)

Get your tickets for Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival with the links below. The line-up this year is stacked incorporating bands I adore like Propogandhi, Punitive Damage, and Spiritual Warriors. These three may not reflect the Ska flavour, but there are numerous others for you to check out. Try something new! I believe in you!

Victoria Ska & Reggae Fest 

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Art & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Geo AKA The Voice

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(Geo AKA The Voice / Viberate)

How do I even begin with Geo. A prolific wordsmith weaving together his Secwépemc and Cree heritage with dance beats and INSANE rapping poetry. Because it is poetry. You need listen a mere minute before you agree.

George Ignace (aka Geo) has his hat in many circles. Visual art, written published works, film projects, practicing his traditional culture through harvesting and processing traditional foods, and then of course his music. He joined the popular group The Melawmen Collective in 2007. This collective was formed with the goal of creating connections between Indigenous People and all others through music and story. As stated on their webpage, “Developing our shared historical consciousness toward what the Secwépemc call ‘The Human Beings’.”

The first time I met Geo was at Ignite the Arts Festival in 2023 in Penticton, BC. He had just come from a previous festival where he’d buggered up his knee and was now sporting some much-hated crutches. But even broken and healing, he was a notably good time. Raising his crutches as pointing emphasis during his performances, leaning shoulders up balanced on these sticks, and still managing to hold a drink in one hand and the mic in the other. Oh Geo.

You might see Geo this summer at 2 Rivers Remix Festival. Hosted by a member of The Melawmen Collective, this is a FREE festival of Contemporary Indigenous Music and Culture. If you live in BC, add this beautiful event to your list. This is an all ages Moveable Feast hosted on the St’uxtews Secwépemc territory live and streamed. This summer it takes place on July 5-6th, 2025. You can find more information through the links below.

I reached out to Geo to ask about how he started down the music path:

“I was 8. Started off with poems. Had a whole binder of Tupac. He inspired me.”

Geo’s music has an oddly soft sound, his voice adding scruff and texture, and his poetry hitting deep realms. I swear Geo’s rhyming always blows my mind – in an Eminem ‘Rap God’ style of whipping out ideas so fast and having it flow together.

Check out Geo’s album “The Big Picture” on Spotify. Keep your eyes out for an upcoming New Music Now podcast on our page, as Geo will be featured in one of the upcoming episodes!

Click the links before for more about Geo:

The Melawmen Collective 

2 Rivers Remix Festival

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

Clucking good beats from Kitty & The Rooster

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Don’t laugh at me, I was a big fan of Kitty & The Rooster for quite some time before the innuendo suddenly clicked. Here I thought it was just clever marketing for their mascot-like ensemble of masks.. but when it finally registered I was met with an eruption of laughter and “No DUH, your brain is so innocent.”

Have you heard their tune “Paid A Million Dollars (To Live Like You’re Poor)”? If you live in Vancouver this song will definitely produce a tense chuckle of the reality behind their lyrics. After the duo was regrettably moved from their East Van home, it was later discovered a young family had purchased their spot. What could be described as a “heritage home” of leaky pipes, disregarding landlords, and not enough insulation… this was now a new family’s relaxation haven. After hearing the facts Jodie Ponto and Noah Walker, the duo behind Kitty & The Rooster, had to get their two cents in.

Keeping in tune with this frank hilarity comes another gem called “Good For You”. A compilation of alllllll the wonderfully-terrible things people have said to the duo after their shows:

“Hey, good show, looked like you were having fun up there

You’re not finished are you? But we just got here!

You’re all really talented but can I give you some advice?

If you keep playing what you’re playing, this party’s gonna die.”

If you’re a musician or performer maybe you can relate to these snippets of stories too good to be made up. A swashbuckling adventure of what NOT to say to musicians you admire. Speaking of what not to say, check out the Be Wells Session by Co-op Radio posted below. Jodie finishes up the session with a new song (NSFW) where they asked all the female musicians to send in their stories. Jodie sums it up perfectly in the video below, “the most ridiculous, the funniest, the most infuriating things that people have said to them.”

“It’s all about how when you play music and you don’t have a penis people say a lot of dumb sh*t to you.”

Kitty & The Rooster is beyond funny. The toe-tapping, hip-shaking, head-bobbing jams are worth your while. You’ll most likely catch them playing at one of the multitude of BC folk festivals or perhaps just their faces in one of the many other bands they both play in.

Find more Kitty & Rooster through the links below:

kittyandtherooster.com 

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca

The Funk-tastic Five Alarm Funk!

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(The Free Press)

Now I don’t know how sweaty you like to get at concerts, but at a Five Alarm Funk show you don’t get a choice. Their booming bombastic beats have you jumping with the mob of audience that are their fans. No time for rest, as the musicians themselves are bouncing all over the stage and you can’t leave ‘em hanging on their own.

Five Alarm Funk is an eight person Vancouver-based band. Drum kit, timbales, congas, bass, guitars, trumpet, saxophone, and a never ending supply of costumes.. it’s something I’ve never seen unfold on stage. My first experience of their live performance was at Victoria’s Ska & Reggae Fest in 2022. The conga player was a banana.. then in a tutu.. and it didn’t stop. Did he have a trove of costumes behind the drums? Clearly he did. I was laughing, I was bouncing, I was trying to take photos but too lost actually wanting to watch.. it’s hard to take photos when you’re dancing.

(Five Alarm Funk)

Five Alarm Funk was first formed in 2003 by drummer and lead vocalist Tayo Branston, guitarist Gabe Boothroyd, and original bassist Neil Towers. It began as a bunch of friends jamming together, each feeding off the other’s beats until something undeniable was created. Vancouver’s got a great music scene, but on top of all that grunge, alt, indie music they knew something was missing. FUNK. Their first show was at The Fairview Pub with a whopping 300 people, next would be Richards on Richards with room for 800. Their fan base continued to grow and now the group tours Canada yearly! Maybe you saw them at Vancouver’s Folk Festival.

“We aren’t the most physically profound young men, but we’re all up on stage, shirts off, just buckets of sweat,” Tayo Branston said in an interview with the Revelstoke Review, “Five Alarm Funk is an all out gypsy power funk explosion of musical mayhem.”

Check out their hit “Wash Your Face” below. A quirky set of lyrics that came out much before COVID, but I couldn’t help but sing all through the pandemic. I mean, once I saw the dance move incorporated with this tune I was left wondering… is this a friendly face wash? Tell me what you think in the comments.

FIND MORE ABOUT FIVE ALARM FUNK HERE:

fivealarmfunk.com 

Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT

Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca