supergroups3.1
More musical giants and rock tigers on the prowl from Saskatoon (..oops.. we mean Canada!), more sounds of the nation that are succesfully invading the world....
Now Jordan Cook could easily be described as a classic rock guitarist, but when you consider the fact that highly skilled guitarists of the calibre of Gary Moore and even BB King have described him as 'iconic' then maybe the phrase 'classic rock guitarist' sounds more like an embarrasingly complete and utter understatement. Jordan certainly has an iconic stage presence and that rasping rocked up voice that ( just like Gary's old friend Phil Lynott) clearly stands out in the musical crowd. The rock may well be a classic but there's also a bluesy undertone that rips through those riffs and lead breaks with a joyously loud and melancholy ease.Jordan has even been described by many significant others as 'the best guitarist in the world' and his playing certainly ranks alongside giants like Gary Moore, Pat McManus,King , Clapton etc etc and the Chinese certainly thought so too when he was the first Canadian and Western rock musician to successfully tour the worlds most populous nation in the nineties!
Cook first picked up a guitar at the age of two and by the time he was eight years old he was touring Canada as a pro eventualy releasing three albums after being signed to Sony at the age of seventeen. His fourth album is being released independantly -and after over five years in the making it'll certaily be well worth the wait.
When not found touring the far flung reaches of the globe Jordan can be found either 'drinking the water in Saskatoon', collaberating with old friends or tinkering around at the following links, so if you've forgotten what a real world class guitarist actualy sounds like you can remind yourself here...
The next trio of Saskatoonians have also been drinking plenty of the towns magic musical waters and have not only managed to write some immense classic 'toons' of their own but also managed to play and perform what was possibly the best version of Stevie Wonders 'Superstition' we've ever heard (with Stevie Wonder coming in second place and the UK's 'Vivid Sky' in third - see supergroups 2.3). Shaun Verreault, Safwan Javed and Earl Periera are the names that should ring a bell , with the band name you should all know by now being Wide Mouth Mason. Formed in 1993 and touring for over fifeteen years the music of Wide Mouth Mason is still designed to be downed by the bucket load
(- a little drinking pun that most Albertans should get-) and the band still remains a phenominal experiance whenever witnessed live.With five albums to explore tucked firmly under their belts while signed to Universal, you can find out alot more on the band whose music refused to be pidgeon holed by the labels via their own sites right here...
For our next Canadian Supergroup we'd like to start off with a brief quote from a song by our own editor that kind of sets the scene for whats to come...
* "Simple tunes lay scattered all around, Intermingled with movement and brilliance.." *
Well it seems that one verse pretty much sums up everything that 'In-Flight Safety' have ever uttered, written or recorded and they are without a doubt one of the very best bands of their generation worldwide (...pity we can't say the same about our editors!) . There aren't too many bands in the world whose songs consistently hit the mark every time (...we're talking of 'QUALITY' here -not sales quantity, though we dare say the latter will soon follow) and even though 99.9 percent of the greatest bands in the world will release or fill an album out with at least one track which wouldn't be worth using as second hand toilet paper, we have as yet been completely unable to find just one single In-Flight Safety verse, bar or stanza not worth it's wait in pure gold. There is quite simply nothing about this band or their music that could leave a bad taste in your mouth and every ivory, string, bass, skin and microphone they touch quite simply turns to gold....So need we realy say any more...?
The boys are from Halifax, Nova Scotia and are releasing and touring through their own NightDanger label right now. The two videos we've included are firstly, their very latest video for 'Model Homes' directed by Drew Lightfoot of The Revolver Film Company ( above right). Finaly, (to the right ) the very first In-Flight video to be directed by Drew for the song 'Surround' , filmed on Toronto's rooftops in 2006. So to hear even more liquid gold auraly soak into and bath your musical souls head over to their very generous band sites and look out for them on the NightDanger tour at... .....................
* lyrical quotation taken from the song 'Dreamscapes On The Breeze' by Mairtin O'Riain copyright 2007 *
Now before In-Flight Safety started their own Night Danger label they were briefly assigned to another self made artists label called 'Dead Daisy '. Everyone in Canada and Ireland should know who's up next straight away as Dead Daisy is the label formed by one of Canada's most 'animated flowers' Emm Gryner.It seems that this particular flower is also one of a kind too with a unique family lineage that has literaly taken the very best of two cultures that were 'as far as the east is from the west' (Ireland and the Philipines to be precise ) and united them both halfway around the planet (in a little town in Ontario called Sarnia to be 'preciser') in the frame of an angel ....if you dont believe me then all you have to do is watch the videos of 'Grace' or 'Age of Consent' by the Neverending White Lights below -see... she realy is an angel!
Emms first major leap into 'mainstream' music came through her second album 'The Original Leapyear' in 1997. After her song 'Wisdom Bus' won a national songwriting competition Emm financed the album release and the new 'Dead Daisy' label from the prizemoney.When Warren 'I hope she gets fat then she might want me back' Violent Femmes' Bruleigh heard the album he quickly dropped all of his previous song persuits and and quickly ensured that Mercury records followed suit with a promising recording contract . Unfortunately for Mercury Records, once they were bought out by Universal shortly after Emm released the album 'Public' in 1998 it transpired that their contracts of the time were no longer worth the paper they were printed on when the new parent company 'dropped' a number of their most promising artists - including Emm.
Emm's response was to then go on to release a number of award winning songs and albums to put Universals tone deaf executives to shame. She was also one of the few female singers and songwriters to have earned the genuine respect of David Bowie as an artist in her own right after she toured with him in his own band from 2002 -04. Upon leaving the band those ancestoral Celtic genes started to kick in big time when she released 'Songs of Love and Death' - a set of haunting and experimental covers of songs by Irelands best rock bands which also included what must be described as the most original ever cover version of the Horslips classic 'celtic rock' anthem 'Dearg Doom' (see Rock Cornerstone One), Ash's 'Shining Light'- recently 're-covered' by Annie Lennox - and many of Irelands top contemporary and independant bands of the last thirty years.
The album quickly made her into a household name in Ireland among both fans and bands alike where her name is also held in high esteem among many of the elite of the nations greatest bands and musicians (Her own songs and lyrics are held in an equaly high esteem and U2's Bono has even confessed to have been secretely wishing he'd written half of her songs himself!). Her songs and talents also featured in the Oxfam Cake Sale project - an album release by Irelands 'Cake Sale Collective' featuring other top artists including 'The Frames', Glen Hansard (see 'Tale of Two Films' and 'Gigs of the Month' pages), Lisa Hannigan (supergroups 1.8) and many more. Despite the vast crowds of talent surrounding her on both sides of the Atlantic, Emm's own songs still stand a head and shoulders above the rest with powerfull, emotive lyrics acting like a giant searchlight to cut through the darkness and reach deep into the human heart and soul, often reaching places seldom touched by others and seldom set to music with such a classical skill with the 2006 album 'Summer of High hopes' being a prime example of that searchlight at its most reaching and powerfull. But 2009 has now seen the release of Goddess, where, through the range and power of songs like 'An Empty Hole', she also seems to have been able to fulfill a long held desire to 'rock out' alot more too. Rumours abound of more releases, continuing tours and recordings to come for the remainder of 2009.So to turn the lights on inside and fill the empty hole with some real musical passion and skill go to the following links...
Neverending White Lights is the musical brainchild of Daniel Victor and deserves alot more than a couple of paragraphs so we thought we'd cheat on page length restrictions and use our 'sneaky scrolldown' once we run out of space....and the yellow 'caution' triangle was awarded to the 'Angels and Saints' video only as some images might scare small children and apparently, the occaisional adult too. Now for any non Canadians looking into the talents of the Maple states then Daniels musical influences and scope of recent years would probably place him very much on a par with the likes of the UK's (and America's) Marc Ronson in terms of production skills and influence among his own nations musical community or, in terms of self made musical creativity, production, recording, mixing skills and artistic vision, then he's probably on a par with the likes of Romanian born producer/musician Michael Cretu ( the founder of A.R.T studios whose breakthrough 'Enigma' albums set the ultimate standard for electronica and trance), or possibly even with Mike Oldfield - due to his insistance in playing and mixing all instruments personaly on each song and album track.
Daniel was born in Ontario's Windsor to an Italian father and an Argentinian mother - which needless to say, gave him an almost instant and incredibly unfair advantage over 80% of most other Canadians when it came to the 'tall, dark and handsome' category. Those inherited family talents also included a natural ear for music too as his father was not only a gifted musician but he was quite the sound engineer too and actualy built a professional recording studio into their family home from where they both eventualy encouraged, recorded and produced many of Ontarios up and coming bands and musicians of all styles and genres...and when Daniels childhood wasn't being filled to the brim with wide ranging musical feasts at home it was being drummed into him by some very strict nuns at school -so that 'natural ear' for sound certainly saved him from alot of acts of contrition (if only the same could be said for those nuns!). So as soon as Daniel left the world of education with a degree he set about on a four year expidition in climbing the mountain that would become his first album in the unfolding 'Neverending White Lights' trilogy of musical 'Acts'. The first act in the trilogy entitled 'Goodbye Friends Of The Heavenly Bodies' drew some of the best current vocalists from Canadas bands into the studio to weave and thread their talents through Daniels musical escapade while many more collaborated on different phases of the production from the occaisional joint composition to video production, casting and acting (hence Dallas Green's exceptional vocals being animated by Emm Gryner's convincing angel on the award winning video for 'Grace' ). Friends from those many bands stepped in for 'live' renditions of the Act as even though Daniel played all the instrumentation throughout the studio version, he, like Mike Oldfield in the days preceeding and proceeding 'multi-channel mega-loop mass bands in a box and a bloke pushing a button' live sets', chose a traditional multi-musicianal band format to bring the musical movement to life to the stage.
The four year plus hike through the world of slightly greater lesser spiritual beings to the eventual musical perfection and release of Act 1 through his own 'Ocean Records' label in 2005 played havoc with his health on a mental, physical and spiritual level, so, in a bid to not end up with his head spinning around 360 degrees and showering his friends in projectile vomiting, Daniel decided on a change of spiritual direction for Act 2 entitling the second musical feast ' The Blood And Life Eternal'. The second album also taught him a new lesson in musical perfection too - by using 'imperfection' to perfect the sound..a trick which not only worked wonders on easing the sleepless nights but also increased the special quality in the 'NWL' sound and enabled Act 2 to be released by 2007 to even more awards and even more national and international acclaim.
In between supporting new up and coming bands through his label, an occaisional arena filling tour and researching act 3 in a similar fashion to how most professional novelists and writers would research for a book, Daniel has been setting plenty of time aside to record and hone the imperfections for the upcoming new title in the epic trilogy so you can expect more awards and accolades to pass his way later in the year when the musical master plan is unvieled so for an ongoing concept that defies and transcends the modern music industry of most other nations with real skill and brilliance you can head into the light via the links on the left...Just don't forget to buy it before you die.
copyright 2009 Mairtin O'Riain and Martin Ryan
The Ryan O'Riain22
