LIMBLIFTER's rapturous sonic experience at Zaphod Beeblebrox
Entertainment Posted by ggower on February 09, 2005
Summary: MapleNationWide/ Universal Recording Artists
LIMBLIFTER
+ DOUBTING PARIS
Wednesday, March 2.
Zaphod Beeblebrox & Labatt Honey Brown Ale
present
CD Release - "I/O"
"Four years is a long time in-between records,
but good cookin' is worth waiting for."
MapleNationWide/ Universal Recording Artists
LIMBLIFTER
+ DOUBTING PARIS
Wednesday, March 2 (Doors 8pm)
Zaphod Beeblebrox, 27 York Street, Ottawa, Canada.
Age 19+/ General Admission
TICKETS: $10 advance at Ticketmaster, or at the door.
"A pop-rock gem." - The Vancouver Province
"An iconic record that will stand to represent a bright corner in a dark time for rock music." - DiePopStar
""I/O is Limblifter's third album and is by far their most eclectic and significant musical statement to date."
- Canadian Music Network
Limblifter first served as a vehicle for the surplus of material Ryan
Dahle had written for his 'day job' band, Age of Electric. The
songwriter/guitarist single-handedly penned the hits Remote Control,
Ugly and Untitled, which elevated AOE to gold-selling status. With the
release of the eponymous first album in 1996, Limblifter found
themselves signed to Mercury Records in the United States. Their first
show was to a packed house at the legendary CBGBs club in New York
City, flying home a few days later to support Oasis at the Pacific
Coliseum. By the end of the year, Limblifter would have two Juno
nominations, a Casby award and three number eleven hits: Tinfoil,
Vicious and Screwed it Up.
The next year Age of Electric would release their final and most
successful record Make A Pest A Pet, on which Ryan wrote most of the
material. AOE disbanded in 1998 just in time to receive a gold record
and a Juno nomination for "Best New Group."
Two years of studio experimentation resulted in the epic and acclaimed
Bellaclava. Released in 2000, the record stumbled commercially, selling
only 15,000 copies, yet managed to produce two number eleven hits at
radio with Ariel vs Lotus and Wake Up to the Sun.
The year 2001 marked the end of the partnership with brother and
co-founder Kurt Dahle, who left to form Vancouver super-group The New
Pornographers. "It's not a simple task finding a drummer even remotely
as good as my brother, so I wrote songs to drum loops on my computer,"
says Dahle.
Excited by the new demos, musician friends soon coaxed Dahle back to
the meat locker to spend hours playing "as loud and long as possible"
through new material. This creative period provided the luxury of
experimentation for Dahle, paralleling the formative days of Limblifter.
I/O is the realization of years of hard work, preparing the band for
another era. Dahle's gloriously refined songwriting encompasses concise
forms and ideas, yet retains the interwoven guitar layers and complex
melodies that have made him a memorable, unique, and critically
acclaimed voice in the Canadian music industry.
Filled with colourful and ingeniously personal lyrics, I/O opens with
three strong rock radio singles. The first single, Get Money, is
riddled with ironic social commentary, followed by the instant classic
Perfect Day to Disappear and the comedy/tragedy of Fiercely
Co-Dependent. Limblifter's music straddles an uncharted middle ground
between innovative art-pop and rock-radio. From the Bonham-esque
drumming of The Auctioneer, to the sweeping strings of Alarm Bells, and
the 70's Supertramp-style Wurlitzer keyboard of Drug Induced, it is
evident Dahle evoked colours from a diverse palette of styles and eras
to form his ideas.
Joined by a league of Canadian musicians such as legendary drummer Pat
Steward (Bryan Adams, the Odds), and rare vocal appearances by Matthew
Good, Jordy Birch and Todd Kerns, I/O features the signature virtuosic
guitar playing that has made Dahle an icon to guitarists nationwide.
Mirroring Ryan's abilities note for note with an uncanny chemistry is
The David Paterson Plan (Spitfires). A human metronome, pounding
heartbeat rhythms in time with the likes of Malcolm Young and Swiss
made clocks.
Indie pop darling, Meegee Bradfield (Salteens, Sparrow), drives varying
degrees of distorted electric bass, celestial cello and haunting double
bass of gargantuan proportions in contrast to her tiny stature. Burento
Follett (Salteens), delivers a cohesive punch live, gluing together the
styles of original drummer Kurt Dahle and session performer Pat Steward
with his own momentous verve, adding his presence to the record by
performing all the percussion.
I/O was recorded at The Factory Studios in Vancouver. Dahle and his
co-producer, John Maclean (Bellaclava) along with engineer Sheldon
Zaharko (Billy Talent), decided to minimize the use of modern recording
technologies and computers, favouring instead the warm, organic sound
of 2" analog tape. "As a team we've produced and mixed quite a number
of records together and there is nothing that compares to the sound of
real, unedited performances by a band standing in a room together."
The spirit and musicianship that is Limblifter is once again
re-animated, allowing Dahle's incomparable voice to engage listeners to
his poetically graphic lyrics and distinct guitar phrasing. Limblifter
is a rapturous sonic experience in precision and a visual magnet of
comradery and energy.
************
DoubtingParis just may be one of the most promising up-and-coming artists to watch for this year.
With influences ranging from U2 and Sigur-Rös, to Counting Crows and
Sting, Vancouver-based DoubtingParis creates music that is a mélange of
beautifully melodic, unashamedly honest lyrics - with shimmering
guitars and evocative, haunting arrangements. Their self-titled debut
release is as mature a collection of songs you'd expect to hear from a
band several years their seniors.
Although DoubtingParis has been together for just over one year, some
of its members had been playing together for over five years, when the
band was formed in January of 2003 - at which time the eldest member of
the band was only 23. A few short months later, DoubtingParis had
recorded demos with the aide of Dakona's Ryan McAllister (Maverick
Records Artist), which gained the attention of Producers Daniel Mendez
(Lit, Eve 6, Dakona, Lucky 7) and Dwight Baker (Podunk, The Box Gods);
with whom the band recorded their debut LP release in the summer of
2003, at Matchbox Studios in Austin, Texas.
After the record was mastered by Gavin Lurssen (James Taylor, Ben
Harper, P.O.D.) in September of that year, DoubtingParis spent five
weeks in Denmark touring independently, playing over 20 shows -
everywhere from night-clubs to private schools; even one in a
seven-hundred-and-fifty-year-old church.
In recent months, DoubtingParis has shared the stage with national
Canadian acts such as The Trews, Dakona, and Mystery Machine - and been
featured on several episodes of MTV's reality television series, 'The
Real World', alongside Capitol Records artists Yellowcard and Vagrant
Records' Hey Mercedes.
************
Web sites:
LIMBLIFTER - http://www.limblifter.com
DOUBTING PARIS - http://www.doubtingparis.com
ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX - http://www.zaphodbeeblebrox.com
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