Music review: ASAP Rocky – LiveLoveA$AP

By Max Mertens

While the majority of rappers making headlines this year were either luxury-celebrating veterans (Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross), or social media-savvy, controversy-baiting up-and-comers (Kreayshawn, Lil B, Odd Future), there was another generation of underground talent coming out of New York. There’s recent SPIN cover boys and jokers Das Racist, Detroit import Danny Brown and several other left field names including Action Bronson, Despot and Mr. Muthaf–king Esquire. The most buzzed-about of this new wave of rappers, however, has been ASAP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, a 23-year-old Harlem emcee making gritty hip-hop that ranges from spaced-out ambient rap to Cam’ron streetwise rhymes to Houston codeine syrup-sipping screw music. Rocky’s not-so-secret weapon is New Jersey-based producer Clams Casino, who creates dreamy, new age pop soundscapes on the mixtape’s three best songs, “Palace,” “Bass” and “Wassup.” And while you won’t hear any of his songs on the radio any time soon, the rapper is no longer New York’s little secret. Not only did Rocky sign to Sony/RCA Records subdivision Polo Grounds Music for a hefty $3 million, he was also handpicked as the opening act by Drake for the Canadian rapper’s current tour. As one of Brooklyn’s finest, Biggie Smalls, once put it, “Mo money, mo problems.” Here’s hoping major label attention doesn’t change him.

Music review: Childish Gambino – Camp

By Max Mertens

For those of you who watch NBC’s comedy series Community, you know how funny Donald Glover can be. The actor plays Troy Barnes, a former high school quarterback-turned-nerd, who builds blanket forts, hosts a fictitious talk show called “Troy & Abed in the Morning” with partner-in-crime Abed Nadir (played by Danny Pudi) and idolizes former Star Trek actor and Reading Rainbow host Levar Burton. There’s plenty of punchlines on Camp, Glover’s first studio album under his rap alias Childish Gambino, however it isn’t exactly G-rated humour. If you haven’t listened to any of his previous free albums and EPs, which have seen the actor rapping over everything from Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” to Sleigh Bell’s “Infinity Guitars,” Glover isn’t afraid of graphic descriptions of girls and sex. After signing on to Glassnote Records, a label that has handled releases by the likes of Mumford & Sons and Phoenix, this is the most ambitious Gambino release to date. But that’s not necessarily a good thing―Camp suffers from being all over the place musically and lyrically. Having the luxury of a studio, Glover has piled on backup choruses, violin solos, layers of synth, acoustic guitars and electro beats. That’s not to say he can’t rap though. “Bonfire” is a worthy successor to last year’s “Freaks and Geeks,” with Glover in full-on braggadocio mode, over a beat that sounds like something a basketball team would play before taking the court. Meanwhile, “Heartbeat” packs references to bin Laden, Keyshia Cole and Super Smash Brothers in the same song. It’s when he talks about his childhood, insecurities and race relations in America―unsuccessfully trying to mirror Kanye West that the album starts to grow boring. It’s too bad that the future of Community is up in the air (NBC recently announced that the show would be pulled from their mid-season schedule, with the remainder of the season’s episodes being shown at an unconfirmed date), as Camp proves that Glover shouldn’t quit his day job.

Music review: Drake – Take Care

Max Mertens

It isn’t easy being Drake. Since the days of his early mixtapes, Toronto’s favourite sweater-wearing rapper has had to answer to critics doubting his toughness, parody Twitter accounts (@DrakeDoinThings, among others) and oh yeah, the fact that he started his career playing a guy in a wheelchair on Degrassi. In the past year, he’s played award shows from the Grammy’s to the Junos, discovered and launched the career of fellow Toronto R&B act The Weeknd and become an honest-to-goodness Canadian rap superstar. So you perhaps can’t blame him for taking a moment to give the finger to haters. “I think I killed everybody in the last year,” boasts the rapper on “Over My Dead Body,” the opening track on his heavily anticipated sophomore album, Take Care. He acknowledges his newfound fame but also makes it clear he still has his demons, many of which are female. While he kept people guessing till the last minute about what songs would make the album— “Club Paradise” and “Dreams Money Can Buy” are two noticeable omissions—he managed to get a who’s who list of guests to appear on Take Care. With the exception of the Rihanna-assisted “Take Care,” which shamelessly rips off the collaboration of the same name between Gil Scott-Heron and U.K. producer Jamie XX, the rapper manages to get the best out of them (I’m sure Chantal Kreviazuk was thrilled to get the call). After a slow start, the album finds its way halfway through. “The Real Her,” the best song on the album, sees Outkast’s Andre 3000 continue his streak of strong guest appearances. Meanwhile on the giddy “H.Y.F.R.,” Lil Wayne delivers one of his sharpest verses since being released from prison. If you’ve driven in or out of Toronto recently, you may have noticed the Take Care billboard over the Gardiner Expressway, with the CN Tower looming in the backyard. Who says you can never go home again?

Second TEDx conference embraces innovation, hopes to set Ryerson apart

By Daniel Viola

On November 20, more than 300 people arrived at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio to attend the second annual TEDxRyersonU conference. The event featured 15 speakers, all from the Ryerson community, who came together for the simple purpose of sharing ideas.

TEDx events are independently organized TED (Technology ,Entertainment and Design) conferences. This year’s speakers included a mix of faculty, students and alumni, including Ryerson president Sheldon Levy, ambassador Jeremy Kinsman, and graduate Gwen Elliot, creator and host of Rogers TV program Start Something Big.

Harjas Dogra is the organizer of productions and logistics for the TEDx steering team. Speaking to the sold-out crowd, he said that technology and innovation has allowed us to work together in ways that were not possible in the past.

“However, it’s time to stop thinking with the rules of the past and start thinking outside the box,” Dogra said. “It is amazing what can be done by letting go of those rules and thinking differently, or as we like to call it, [thinking] forward.”

The event was broken into four sections: The Perspective Change, In Other Worlds, Discover Grow Dare, and Re-Think. Technology has always been an essential part of TED talks and played a key role in Ryerson’s event. The entire conference was streamed live to an online audience, and videos of the talks will be posted on the TEDx YouTube Channel. Throughout the day, members of the audience were also able to post questions on Twitter, and at the end of each talk, one question was selected and answered.

The speeches put forward ideas to challenge the audience and encourage critical thinking. “We wanted to force [the audience] to think of ideas, think about their own future, think about how they can make a difference,” said Parvinder Sachdeva, curator of TEDxRyersonU and third-year business management student.

The sold-out talk was not an exclusive Ryerson event. Attendees came from across the province and included entrepreneurs, students and organizers from TEDx events from as far away as Ottawa.

TED conferences are non-profit events held across the world that focus on the sharing of ideas and exploration of diverse topics such as philosophy, engineering and the arts. They first began in 1984 and have featured speakers such as former president Bill Clinton, actor and author John Hodgman, and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

A long-time fan of TED, Sachdeva started Ryerson’s event last year after feeling that his business faculty was disconnected from the rest of campus.

“I couldn’t find this one place where everybody connected together. And by everybody I mean not just students, but also professors from different faculties, or alumni,” he said.

Sachdeva said that by focusing on innovation and embracing TEDx, Ryerson will be able to promote itself not only in Canada, but across the world. “I think that’s the only way we can distinguish ourselves against all these established universities such as U of T that are so strong academically,” he said. “But I’ve never doubted that Ryerson is one of the most innovative universities that I’ve ever seen.”

Halifax-based comedy troupe Picnicface is all over the map

By Adriana Rolston

Brian Eldon Macquarrie and Andrew Bush, two members of the comedy group Picnicface, are performing a sketch on the stage of Toronto comedy club, Second City. It starts with a groom and his best man reminiscing before the wedding about the good times they’ve had. They act out flashbacks of playing catch and drinking beers as the nostalgic tune “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by The Hollies plays in the background.

In the last memory, best man Macquarrie is passed out on a chair as Bush, who stands beside him, slowly undoes the buttons of his shirt (eliciting shocked bursts of laughter from the audience) and places Macquarrie’s mouth against his nipple.

“What was that?! You were breastfeeding me!” Macquarrie shouts, as Bush tries to calm him. “I’ve been breastfeeding you for years,” he reveals, and tries to force Macquarrie’s mouth onto his nipple again. The scene ends with Macquarrie on his knees wailing “No!” as The Hollies song plays.

Welcome to the absurd, twisted and sometimes dark style of Picnicface, a Halifax-based comedy troupe who recently co-headlined the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, which ran from November 8 to 13, alongside Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall.

The eight-person group includes Andrew Bush, Kyle Dooley, Cheryl Hann, Mark Little, Brian Eldon, Macquarrie, Evany Rosen, Scott Vrooman and Bill Wood. The troupe started to form in 2004 when Mark and Kyle met at improv camp, and other members eventually connected through Halifax’s improv and stand-up scene.

With a strong fan base in Halifax, Picnicface has also gained an online following with their YouTube videos, especially their aggressive energy drink advertisement parody, “Powerthirst,” which received a nod from Will Ferrell on funnyordie.com. The video, which guarantees that you will become “uncomfortably energetic” and have 400 babies that can run like “KENYANS,” went viral and has received over 24 million views since 2007.

Shortly after they started putting up YouTube shorts, Picnicface was approached by Toronto production company Breakthrough Entertainment who then pitched a sketch show to a number of networks. The Comedy Network responded, and Picnicface teamed up with Mark McKinney of Kids in The Hall and Mad TV writer Garry Campbell to create a self-titled, 13-episode sketch comedy show that mixes Pythonesque photoshop techniques with absurd and contemporary humour that resonates with a younger audience.

“It seems like the people that like it, really like it, and there’s people that hate it. But that’s fine, I’d rather have some hardcore fans and some people who really hate it than a bunch of people who are like, ‘It’s ok,’” says Scott Vrooman, who hopes that there are enough hardcore fans for the network to sign them on for a second season.

The group also recently published a satirical book with Harper Collins called Picnicface’s Canada. It examines everything Canadian, with articles that range from favourite Canadian wizards to moments in bear-related news. “They were fantastic at letting us do whatever we wanted and so I’m kind of amazed at some of the stuff we got away with,” says Vrooman. The original version of the cover didn’t fly though. “It was the only part that they put their foot down about because it was a picture of a baby crying with a map of Canada being tattooed on its forehead. Tattooing babies is a common theme with us. Somehow, that’s upsetting. I don’t get it,” says Vrooman.

During development of their show with the Comedy Network, Picnicface was also working on Roller Town, a feature film co-written by Vrooman and Bush. In the film, a town’s popular roller-disco is converted into an arcade by thugs, which turns teens into mindless zombies. But the main character, Leo, played by Mark Little, saves the day. Every member of Picnicface plays at least two roles in the film, which was influenced by ’70s disco rollerskating films, like Skate Town USA, Roller Boogie, and Zanadu. After a great reception at the Atlantic Film Festival in September, Roller Town should be released in some Canadian theatres this spring.

Right now, the group is working on editing the final episodes of their Comedy Network series. One past episode entitled “Premium Membership” got a lot of attention when Picnicface tweeted that the first 100 people to retweet the message would get a free premium membership, complete with VIP footage and perks. The membership program was hammed up the entire episode. But fans were actually directed to a fake website with “under construction” graphics. Some didn’t take it well.

“It was hilarious,” says Vrooman. “One guy who emailed us was like, ‘Hey guys, if you’re going to have a premium membership program, at least make sure the site’s up on time.’ Like, did you watch the show?”

Music review: Wavves - Life Sux E.P.

Max Mertens

To say it’s been quite a year for San Diego’s Wavves would be a huge understatement. Since the release of last year’s King of the Beach, the trio has been a staple at major music festivals in North America and has played with everyone from Fucked Up to Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA. They’ve also kept themselves in music headlines for their various offstage antics. Frontman and lead singer Nathan Williams, who in the past has gotten a bit of a reputation as a hothead, has been featured on the cover of music magazines and in gossip blogs for his relationship with Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino. Last month, the band’s attendance at the MTV Video Music Awards was halted abruptly when bassist Stephen Pope was kicked out for smuggling in booze and weed, their presence at the awards show akin to a bunch of skate kids crashing the popular kids’ party in high school. This bratty-but-lovable attitude is all over their new E.P. Life Sux, a ramshackle six-song collection of live cuts, covers and collaborations, which they released on Williams’ own label Ghost Ramp.

The trio—Williams, Pope and drummer Jacob Cooper—make pop-punk that evokes Dookie-era Green Day and Weezer before they got terrible, while drawing production inspiration from the likes of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. There’s a lo-fi feel to the E.P. that makes you believe it could’ve easily been recorded in someone’s garage. Wavves shows off their love of ’90s grunge with the Dinosaur Jr.-esque “Bug” (it’s too bad their version of Sonic Youth’s “100%” didn’t make it on here) and the cheekily-titled “I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl.” Everyone’s favourite Canadian frontman Damian Abraham (of Fucked Up) also shows up to lend his trademark growling to the rambunctious “Destroy.” The highlight is “Nodding Off” with Cosentino subtly contributing background vocals and Williams defiantly stating his independence. “Don’t call me friend,” he sings and lets us know that he’s doing just fine on his own, thank you. Being young and bored in California never sounded so sweet.

Music review: Various Artists - Drive (Original Motion Soundtrack)

Max Mertens

Let me begin this review with a disclaimer: I have yet to see Drive in theatres. The film, which stars the impossibly good-looking Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, was one of the biggest draws at this year’s TIFF. I would by no means consider myself a cinephile, but I have talked to some friends who caught a screening and they all gave it rave reviews. I’ve only watched the trailer on YouTube, so I’m reviewing the soundtrack, rather than how the music fits the movie. The soundtrack consists of an original score by Cliff Martinez (who, according to Google, was once the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) with a few other songs by artists including The Chromatics, Desire and Electric Youth. Martinez’s compositions are both atmospheric and dark, drawing inspiration from Italo-disco, slightly trashy synth-pop and 80s sci-fi soundtracks (think Blade Runner). The soundtrack’s pièce de résistance is Kavinsky’s “Nightcall,” which is synth-heavy French electro-house at its finest. Of course, the fact that the song was produced by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, mixed by Ed Banger Records’ SebastiAn and has Lovefoxxx from Brazilian band CSS contributing vocals, doesn’t hurt its chances of being successful either. In fact, listening to this, I can’t help but think this is what the Tron: Legacy soundtrack should’ve sounded like (sorry Daft Punk, I love you, but those compositions were phoned in). Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have a movie to catch.

Music review: BADBADNOTGOOD

Max Mertens

This isn’t your father’s jazz record. BADBADNOTGOOD are three Toronto music students who have filmed themselves playing jazz interpretations of songs by the likes of Odd Future, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka Flame and Flying Lotus. The videos typically feature drummer Alex Sowinski playing while wearing a creepy pig-faced mask alongside his bandmates, pianist Matt Tavares and bassist Chester Hansen, in a downtown condo. They’ve been racking up some pretty steady YouTube numbers since last spring, and gained some major exposure after controversy-baiting Los Angeles rapper Tyler, The Creator tweeted about one video which features the trio performing an instrumental session of his songs. Since then, they’ve put out two self-titled mixtapes which you can listen to and download for free on their Bandcamp page (BadBadNotGood.Bandcamp.com).

Like traditional jazz, there is plenty of improvisation and medleys of several songs together, though you’ve never heard the songs like this before. Take “Hard In Da Paint” for example: a hyper-aggressive track by Atlanta-based MC Waka Flocka Flame, which BADBADNOTGOOD transforms into a sinister-sounding jazz instrumental. Highlights include the plinking piano on Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade” and the band’s take on British post-punk legends Joy Division’s “Transmission.” They also throw in covers of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation” and The Legend of Zelda theme song for good measure. Once you wrap your head around the uniqueness of the concept, the music is pretty damn good. All three are talented musicians and what they’re doing is even more impressive when you consider that many of their interpretations are based on simply listening to the songs repeatedly. The perfect antidote to anyone who says that jazz is boring.

Word on the Street: a literary fan-girl’s dream

Kelsey Rolfe

I’d never attended Toronto’s Word on the Street festival before, but on September 25, I had my first real exposure to the city’s thriving literary community and remained from start to finish.

The festival began in September 1990, when the Promotions Committee of the Book and Periodical Council determined it was time for the city to join other major publishing centres in hosting their own large-scale festival dedicated to the written word. Over the years, Word on the Street went from a crowd of about 40,000 visitors annually to over 200,000, and has attracted authors such as Margaret Atwood, Nino Ricci, David Suzuki, Kenneth Oppel and Dennis Lee.

I stuck mostly to four tents: the Toronto Book Awards tent, to check out the authors in competition; the Toronto Star tent, for some insightful writing-related panels; the Remarkable Reads tent, to hear a couple of big-name authors do readings of their books; and the Scotia Bank Giller Prize Tent, to check out what books I should be reading in the future. (Also, Jian Ghomeshi was there…) Unfortunately, I did not make my way over to Kid Street.

For the first time ever, the festival was hosting a “Best Sellers of Tomorrow” panel at the Giller Prize tent, in which three “authors to watch” were introduced to the crowd, with a pitch from their publicist as to why each should be considered the next great Canadian author.

The three novelists on the panel this year were Brian Francis, with his newest novel Natural Order; Ian Hamilton, with the second book of his Ava Lee series; and Shane Peacock, with the fifth book of his The Boy Sherlock Holmes series. After three pitches and three readings (Shane Peacock’s notably longer than everyone else’s), Natural Order held the most promise; the prose had an undeniable flow, it was funny — seemingly unintended — and from first blush Joyce, the main character, was blunt but likable.

Ian Hamilton’s crime fiction series does present an interesting story, but the narration sounded a little clunky from the section I heard, and Shane Peacock’s series seemed more appropriate for a slightly younger audience, though he claimed it was for people “ages 11 to 99.” However, working with one of literature’s most beloved characters and managing to stay true to the character while making the series his own is an impressive feat.

As for the rest of the festival, the Toronto Star tent provided refreshingly funny panels on everything from reviewing movies, with Linda Barnard and Peter Howell, to the Ontario provincial election, with Robert Benzie, Martin Regg Cohn and Tanya Talaga. Jian Ghomeshi, definitely on his best game, led a spirited discussion about the Giller Prize long list, and the controversy regarding the readers’ choice pick, Myrna Dey’s Extensions.

But my favourite moment of the day took place in the Remarkable Reads tent, when Terry Fallis, the winner of Canada Reads 2011, read from his second novel, The High Road — and, lucky me, it was my favourite part of the entire book.

I recorded the whole reading, so I could play it back later. The entire festival was like a book-lover’s fantasy.

Global art project turns Toronto communities Inside Out

Roohi Sahajpal

On a cool Saturday morning in mid-September, about a dozen people gather in Regent Park. Armed with buckets and paint rollers, they assemble in front of construction boards surrounding the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre, opening in Spring 2012. They’re here to work today, but they’re not painting. In their buckets is wheat paste – a combination of wheat, water and sugar – and in their arms are stacks of folded paper, each printed with a black and white portrait ready to be pasted. On the weekend of September 18, this group of volunteers came together to participate in one of the largest activations of the Inside Out Project.

The Inside Out Project is a global art initiative started by JR, whose idea of transforming messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work won him the prestigious TED prize, worth $100,000 and awarded yearly to an individual expressing their one wish to change the world.

“I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…inside out,” said the French street artist during his wish announcement at TED 2011.
The idea behind the Inside Out project is simple. A portrait is taken and then blown up into a large black and white print, which is then pasted around a community. JR’s work has reached places like Brazil, France and now Toronto.

Seema Jethalal, the managing director of the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre, says this project is important, especially in an area like Regent Park.

“Regent Park is often stigmatized by people and this project shows that this area has beautiful and diverse people living here.”

Twenty-four photographers had been going into communities before the event with the intention to photograph a diverse range of faces. In Regent Park particularly, the portraits being pasted were those of people living in the community.

Jacqueline Pizzolon, a volunteer at the Regent Park site, says that seeing reactions from people as they walked by was an experience in itself.

“I could only imagine what those people were thinking when they saw the faces of their friends and family blown up and pasted on walls in their own community,” she says. “One girl even noticed that her brother’s face was on one of the posters.”

Along with Regent Park, teams of volunteers set out to different areas of Toronto like Rexdale, Shaw Street and Jane and Finch to paste over 400 portraits.

With the pending cuts to public funding for the arts, Jethalal also says this project sends a strong message to the city of Toronto and encourages young artists to display their art.

“Public art can transform communities and inspire people.  [Giving] young people a chance to have a space in the public sphere can only work towards a greater good.’’

For more information on the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre and the Inside Out Project visit TorontoArtScape.on.ca and InsideOutProject.net

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