As I rode north on Brock Avenue on the evening of Saturday, June 4th, the sky was full of purple bevelled clouds. I passed an ice cream truck, whose siren call to local children was “Turkey in the Straw”.
It had begun to
cool down outside, but when I walked in to Penny’s at 20:50 the first thing I
noticed was that it was very hot in the bar. At that time the only person on
stage was Bruce Brandao, the Frequency Zed drummer setting up his kit. The only
person in the tiny audience area was a young woman who looked like a dedicated
girlfriend, sitting and watching him as he worked and as he sang along with the
pop songs that were playing on the bar’s sound system.
I sat at the far
back and in the corner, on the end of an old fashioned but probably not antique
gold coloured ornate sofa like the kind one finds in working class Italian
furniture stores.
Nick Cushing, Bruce
March and Zedman Slavinsky (Slava) arrived together because Nick transported
them and their equipment.
When
Slava saw me he thanked me for sending him the words to the song “Stanislavski”
by Silvia Fine. He had sent me a birthday greeting, and in response I’d sent
him the funny song about a famous Russian because I think that Slava likes
humour and because he’s Russian.
“Who
is world’s greatest actor, and how did I get that way?
Who
made me a genius,
The
greatest projactor who ever wore a toupee?
Who
made me most melancholy Hamlet,
the
deadest Romeo who died for his bride?
Who
made me most awful Doctor Jekyll and then made me Hide?
Stanislavsky!
Stanislavsky of the Mosky art!
Stanislavsky!
A director from the heart!
I’ll
never forget first time I meet great master …
He
took me by the hand and beat my head against the
(sound of banging
five times) wall
and in one word he
tell me the secret of the great Stanislavsky method … Suffer! … That’s all.
Suffer!
You must live before you give!
Suffer!
You must ache before you make!
Suffer!
You must think before you stink!
Suffer!
Suffer! Suffer! Suffer! Suffer! Suffer! Suffer!
Suffer
… and the audience suffers with you.
Stanislavsky
… Stanislavsky …
I
will never forget the day I get first part to play
They
tell me I am to be sailor
But
first I must suffer
What
I’m going to do?
I
join navy … become sailor
First
day out … big storm … It was terrible!
At
first I was afraid I was going to die
Then
I was afraid I wasn’t going to die
But
I suffered
So if you want
career on stage
You mustn’t dream
of merely acting
Use the
Stanislavsky method
Of mental
chiropracting
Be a tree, be a
sled,
be a purple spool
of thread
Be a storm, a
piece of lace
A subway train, an
empty space
Take it fast, take
it slow.
Hello Moe! Hello
Joe!
Just got back from
a Vaudeville show!
I’ll never forget
the day Brooks Atkinson say I stink
I was playing part
of stable boy
It was a great
Russian tragedy
It was beautiful!
Everybody died!
I also played part
in great Russian comedy
Everybody died,
but they died happy
This makes it
funny
But I will never
forget the day of my greatest triumph
I am playing part
of antique mahogany bureau
So convincing in
the third act, my drawers fell out!
And who was the
man who loosened my screws?
Who pulled me all
apart?
Stanislavsky!
Stanislavsky of the Mosky art!”
Silvia
Fine wrote the song for her husband, Danny Kaye, as she did most of the songs
that he sang.
Slava
began to set up the sound for their show. The cords that one of the other acts
brought were not compatible with the house system. Someone declared that he was
tired of dealing with cords, and asked, “Isn’t this the wireless age?”
The
line-up for the night turned out to be pretty much the same set of performers
that I’d seen share the stage on the first occasion that I’d seen Frequency Zed
play at the Smiling Buddha a couple of years before.
There
was an extremely talkative man at the bar and on the television above the bar,
“Blade”, starring Wesley Snipes, was playing.
This
event was officially the launch of the Frequency Zed single, “TTC”. Nick was telling me about how he’d made an
animated video of the song for the band.
Suddenly there was
a loud electronic screech from the sound system as the musicians continued to
set up their equipment.
Nick tried to give
me the rest of his beverage because he’d accidentally bought a disappointing
wheat beer. I turned it down and told him he’d have to “say his prairies”.
Duane Starpilot,
one of the opening acts, was drinking a glass of ice water and explained that
it’s supposed to loosen up the vocal chords for hitting the higher notes. This
is the kind of thing that needs to be researched, so after following up I
discovered that muscle function of the voice can be inhibited by cold fluids
and relaxed too much by hot fluids. Lots of water is very good to lubricate the
voice but it should be taken at room temperature.
The first
performer was Nick Love, singing physically alone on stage but backed up by a
pre-recorded soundtrack of his band, including himself on lead guitar. The
first song was called “Love Will Be Love Today”. Nick Cushing had told me
beforehand that Nick’s sound is very 80s in style, and that was clear from the
start. Nick’s guitar work on the soundtrack is quite good. Nick Cushing says
that he doesn’t understand why the guy doesn’t at least play his guitar at
these gigs when his band can’t make it.
The second song
had the great title of, “Danger Danger” and the music was fine but the lyrics were
nothing to speak of.
“Radio”, his next
song had a hooky intro but the hook went away.
It not only looked
more like karaoke for Nick to be just standing there and singing with a
soundtrack, but his stance, with his thumbs and sometimes his entire hands in
his pockets, was extremely undynamic. Nick Cushing called out to Nick Love,
asking, “Where’s your guitar?” His answer was that he’d forgotten how to play
the guitar solo.
Nick’s soundtrack
was being played out of his cellphone and through the house sound system, but
it sounded great. The only problem was that while he was singing his
composition, “Nature of the Soul”, his phone actually rang, cutting off the
music, until he turned it off and continued. It would have been funny and
interesting if he’d been able to incorporate the interruption into the song, by
actually taking the call and talking for a few seconds.
His physically
absent band, called Symphonic Envy, is actually pretty good and it has a good
name. The titles for his songs are also interesting, such as “Ominous Plane” –
“ … Where the skies are dark, the stars are gone … Break down … on the ground …
the world is spinning round … No one can find us anyway on this plane.”
Another song was
named “Takers” – “ … Don’t lose control, that’s not the way you know …”
Nick Cushing
thinks that Nick Love’s music is sort of a mix between Journey and prog-rock.
I hear Nick’s
vocal style to be more that of a crooner than a rock and roll voice.
Bruce March, the
bass player for Frequency Zed, and someone that I’ve known for twenty years,
came over to where I was sitting to tell me that he was going to buy me a beer
later on. While walking away though, he tripped over the cord that was running
between Slava’s phone-sized recording device where it was sitting on the coffee
table and the wall outlet where it was plugged in. The result was that Slava’s
recorder was knocked to the floor, causing, it seems, a piece of the apparatus
to come off. Slava spent a lot of time looking for it and I had to get up
several times while he kept on moving everything around to try to find it.
Nick Love’s final
song was called “You Are”.
Nick Love is a
good songwriter of pop-rock tunes and his voice is pleasant to listen to. It’s
awkward though to watch someone perform their own material as if it were
karaoke. I agree with Nick Cushing that if Love had even brought a recording of
his own band without the guitar and had brought his guitar to play along live,
it would have made for a much better show than watching someone sing with his hands
in his pockets. The titles for his songs suggest that he has some lyrical
creativity but that doesn’t show itself much in mediocre poesy of his songs.
Perhaps he deliberately holds back in that field to prevent him from sounding
too heavy.
When Duane Starpilot
was introduced, I began singing, “Staaaaar pilot!” to the tune of “Sky Pilot” by Eric Burdon and the Animals.
When Duane came up to the microphone he acknowledged my chant by saying that
he’d actually gone to see Eric Burdon and the Animals a couple of years before,
but the only original band members were Burdon and the piano player, while the
rest were in their twenties. He didn’t say which original piano player from the
Animals that he’d seen though. There had been several.
Like Nick Love,
Starpilot played to a backing track, but it was a track that he’d created
electronically and he also was playing his guitar live, demonstrating quite
well Nick Cushing’s point.
Starpilot’s first
song was called “Hollyhocks” – “No one gives a shit … social atrophy, don’t
tell me what’s good for me … Need someplace to calm me down … Swallow pride and
carry on, always something going on …” The song had kind of a Punk feel, only
it was more organized, with a marching beat.
For his next piece
he started off kind of scatting in a Punk-Ska style. He has a good voice, and
almost sounded like he was yodelling at times and though the music was
different, the vocal reminded me of the song “Hocus Pocus” by the Dutch 70s
band, Focus. From the song – “Slips on his brain and thinks he’ll never be the
same … He climbs the stairs to find the roof … It’s just a way to hide … Over
actor … It’s too late … Haunted captor …”
His guitar work
was quite interesting and overall he laid down a wide variety of sounds.
He said that his
next offering was a My Bloody Valentine cover. He got very animated during the
strumming instrumental break.
His next was
perhaps called, “There’s a Soul In Your Head” and the guitar work was kind of
funky, but this song and some of his others do not end well. They just suddenly
stop, with no transition.
From another song
– “ … It’s just another angle that you move through life …” A lot of
Starpilot’s music has an 80s feel.
There was an
instrumental piece with the title, “The Future Is Not The Past”. He uses quite
an eclectic mix of styles in his song writing.
Next, Starpilot
performed a cover of “Whoever You Are”
by the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and was dancing as he began to play and sing –
“I will take you for a ride deep inside, won’t beg you step inside, please …”
Between songs,
Starpilot needed to tune his guitar. Nick commented that he needs more than one
guitar and someone to just hand him a tuned one when he needs it.
From his last song
– “ …What is the point of all this, of everything you feel you’ve got to do … I
can see how everything’s a mess … I would kill every single one of you if I
could …” It ended with a dramatic guitar solo with lots of sustained, vibrating
notes.
Duane Starpilot is
an eclectic songwriter with some interesting lyrics, good guitar playing and a
dynamic performance style. His ability to digitally create the sounds of a
backup band is also quite impressive.
Slava’s recording
device was not working after the accident, so he asked Nick Cushing if he would
record the frequency Zed show. He told him he would but said to me that his
field recorder is not good for loud concerts.
It was quarter to
midnight when Frequency Zed took to the stage. Slava spoke into the mic,
“Testicles, one, two, three …”
From the first
song – “ … I feel so down inside of destiny … the walls are turning back … A
creature of the night … a stranger to yourself …”
Frequency Zed is
mostly a prog-rock band and Slava and Bruce are quite good. I think though that
they need a better drummer to match the quality of their playing.
Slava tells us
that in their studio in the Junction their neighbours keep asking them to turn
it down.
All of the songs
they did on this occasion were written by Zedman Slavinsky, but I know that
Bruce also writes songs. I have yet to hear him play them though.
They did their
song “Never Late To Party”, which has lines such as – “Always late for school,
never late to party … Always late for work, never late to party …”
Another song was
“Thick As My Prick III” – “ … Karma’s gonna get you, karma for everyone …” with
some very heavy guitar.
In another more
pop-rock styled tune, Slava sang – “ … I wanna fly away … I gotta try … Starlit
sky …” Slava told us that the song was a big hit in Vulgaria.
Slava said, “Never
trust a digital tuner. I wish I’d that sooner.”
Their next song
was more of a Heavy Metal piece called “Anthrophobia”, and it had a strong
guitar solo by Slava.
Judging from his
voice and the nature of his comments between songs, I’m pretty sure that Slava
was a bit drunk at this point.
Slava asked us,
“How do you kiss a girl where it smells?” and then he answered, “Take her to
Hamilton.”
Then it was time
for the song around which this event was built. Slava called their new single a
“folk song” – “Ride the rocket, ride ride the rocket … I’m late for a date with
the girl of my dreams … TTC, TTC, the better way for you and me … out of
service … I got tired of waiting, so I started to walk … They don’t care if
you’re late because when they go on strike, they will still get paid …”
They followed this
with “Queen of Darkness” – “ … My queen of darkness, she has taken me away …”
Between songs,
Slava started making a comparison between Canadian and US money, saying, “US
money looks cheap, but they got all the money in the world!”
Bruce the drummer
said to him, “Come on! Don’t scare people off!”
Their next song
had the musical feel of an anthem – “ … Endless possibilities … the actors
getting laid and getting paid … The world’s a nightmare or a dream …” For the
only time that night, during this song Bruce March was given space for a bass
solo. Afterward the song continued. I was exhausted. I leaned my head against
the vibrating wall and went to sleep for just a few seconds, but long enough to
have a dream that Satoshi Nagasaki, the mega-guitarist waiting at the other end
of the couch to go on stage after Frequency Zed, was the manager of a food
co-op and he was giving away free food.
Nagasaki and Bruce
March were the only people in the bar that didn’t drink any alcohol that night.
Satoshi nursed a bottle of spring water for hours, while Bruce brought his own
green tea. This couldn’t be said for Slava, who I think was pretty hammered by
that point. The drummer, Bruce Brandao was looking a little drunk as well. He
noticed that the movie, “Rocky”, was playing above the bar and he shouted,
“Give it up for Rocky Balboa! I fucking love that movie!”
Their last song of
the night was another progressive rock song called “Burn Baby Burn” – “I still
can hear your crystal voice … I’ve got to look for someone new to please my
necrophilia …”
Slava thanked
everyone for coming to their show.
Zedman Slavinsky
writes songs in a variety of styles and though his lyrics are not generally
great poetry and are often clichéd, some of the images are interesting. It’s in
his guitar playing that Slava truly shines, and he may be one of the best rock
guitarists in Toronto. I think though that Frequency Zed though would benefit
from Slava not drinking so much at his shows. Also, although Slava can manage
as the lead singer, the band might get further if they had a professional lead
singer who can more easily hit the notes than Slava.
Bruce March’s
contribution to the band as a bass player is considerable, and I think the
quality of his playing is a good match for Slava’s guitar.
Bruce Brandao,
while an adequate drummer, is less of a fit for Frequency Zed. I think that a
polyrhythmic percussionist would top up the abilities of the rest of the band.
I would have liked
to stay to watch and hear Nagasaki play his giant guitar, which is its own
light show. I heard him at my first Frequency Zed show and his playing really
was impressive. It was at least 1:00 though by the time Frequency Zed had
finished and I was dead. I had to get home.
Slava was nice
enough to give me a copy of their “TTC” single.
I walked out into the pouring rain and saw
Starpilot smoking in a doorway. I told him that I’d really enjoyed his set. I
think I was pretty well soaked even before I’d unlocked my bike. At least home
was only ten minutes away.
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