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There are a variety of different bands of a plenitude of genres and styles playing in Lethbridge and, surprisingly, several different record companies featuring an equally eclectic style of music. Unfortunately, there also tends to be a degree of infighting and judgment in the scene among bands and among their audiences.
So one amazing day of live music has been organized — The Magnetic South Music Festival on May 19 — to help get an early start on the long weekend and maybe open up some ears and minds to new music.
There will be 19 bands playing at four different venues on that day — The Owl Acoustic Lounge, The Slice, The Tongue n Groove and Blueprint Records.
The Magnetic South Music Festival features an array of local talent from record labels Esper Records, Mammoth Cave Records and Ghostwood Records as well as talent coming from out of town including Gunsmoke, Red Mass, Role Mach, Hobo Expanding Cult Band and Silver Dapple. Organizers hope it will become an annual event.
The festival is an expanded version of the Mammoth Cave Music Festival, which took place over the previous two years at Henotic.
It also features some of the same bands taking part in the Wyrd Canada travelling music festival happening May 20-22 in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
Mammoth Cave Records’ Paul Lawton has been involved with the travelling music festival and it was going to skip Lethbridge this year, but there was a change of heart after talking to Jesse Northey of Esper Records. Northey also works with all of the local venues and was able to book them all for May 19. Then they brought in Lorinda Peel of Ghostwood Records to lend her expertise and experience booking bands.
“We want to broaden the scope of people’s musical tastes. While all our styles of music are very different, we are all equally passionate about our music,” Lawton said.
Each label presents three of their bands. Ghostwood Records’ bands include Sleeping with Tuesday, the Darryl Düus band and the Necessities. Esper Records presents Jesse Northey and the Dandelions, The New Weather Machine and Church. Mammoth Cave presents Fist City, the Ketamines and most likely Chief Mountain as punk band Stressed Out are unable to perform.
The event isn’t supposed to be a competition.
“It’s not like we’re all wearing different bandanas and rumbling in the alley,” Northey joked.
“We are all passionate about music, so It is important for everybody to work together. There is too much bridge burning in Lethbridge,” Peel said.
The organizers also reached out to musicians who aren’t part of any scene or record label such as Matt Robinson and Sonis McAllister and the Barracuda Orchestre, which is something Lawton attempted to do last year for Mammoth Cave.
Peel emphasized it is important for people to check out the music at all of the venues, rather than choosing just one and staying there.
“If you don’t like one band, you can always go to another venue,” Lawton said, adding he hopes people will accept and embrace bands they might not listen to otherwise.
“Bring quick transportation like a bicycle,” he advised.
He noted organizers will have bands of widely differing styles playing the same venue to ensure there is a variety of music being offered. It is because of that they aren’t going to release a list of who is playing where until the last minute.
“When you put a mixture of bands on each stage and putting a mixture of audiences together chances are they will be able to find something they like about the bands. We hope they can just lose the politics and just sit and listen,” Lawton said.
Northey emphasized the festival provides an opportunity for “people to be there for bands they might not otherwise listen to.”
Peel is contacting the Lethbridge Buskers Association as well to hopefully have buskers playing en route to each venue.
“We want to emphasize circulation. If you pass a busker, stop and listen to them,” Peel noted.
Tickets are $20 and available at the door of each venue.
“It’s like a dollar a band for a day you will never forget,” Northey said.
“I’m very excited to prove to people that we have enough bands to do our own music festival. It legitimatizes Lethbridge.”
Northey would like to do the festival again next year, maybe double the number of bands and venues participating.
Both Lawton and Northey will perform in the festival as well. Northey will front his band Jesse Northey and the Dandelions as well as playing bass in the New Weather Machine while Lawton’s band, the Ketamines, will also perform.
“I’m looking forward to playing for a new crowd who may not have heard us,” Northey said.
Lawton, a veteran performer of similar festivals such as Sled Island and Wyrd Canada, echoed that sentiment.
“There is no better feeling than winning over a hostile crowd,” he said.
“It gets boring playing for the same 20 people, ” he added, emphasizing it is great to have that core of support.
Local performer Leigh Doerksen is also looking forward to the festival.
“I’m looking forward to playing in a record store,” he said.
“It will be fun playing for people who haven’t heard us.”
Montreal-based rock and roll collective Red Mass is one band all three organizers are looking forward to seeing, especially Lawton, whose band will back them.
Red Mass is a tip of the glass and nod of the head to rock and roll’s originators, but while adding a more modern twist.
“What we enjoy is making experimental music and soundscapes. It is something that seems to be lost now,” said frontman Choyce, who goes by Roy Vucino in the real world.
“Guys like Bo Diddley were inventing beats over their careers. These guys were way ahead of their time,” he continued.
“Rock and roll is more of a lifestyle. Rock and roll has kept me out of a lot of trouble. Of course, earlier, it got me into a lot of trouble, too.”
He enjoys being part of a festival such as the Magnetic South and Wyrd Canada.
“I think this experience will be amazing because the genres are so open,” he said.
“All of these acts are on the fringes of popular music, but people have opened up their ears to different kinds of music. All of the bands have something that sets them apart.” |
