Vacuity – May/June 2004
Who: Vacuity
What: brink rock
Where: Kitchener, ON
To Contact: 211-301 Traynor Ave., Kitchener, ON N2C 2H3, www.vacuity.net, vacuity@vacuity.net.
The voice is the star. Like Raine Maida, Gord Downie and Matt Good, Vacuity singer/guitarist Rob Mcfee has an unusual style that can’t be duplicated – slightly unnerving, that teeters on the brink of insanity, and is unpredictable. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke is another comparison. In the lead track, “Misdirectional”, one can’t help but be intrigued by the band, the way it takes the song in multi-directions, complete with sci-fi gurgles at the end. But there’s nothing ‘mis’ about it. It’s innovative. The Middle Ground is the title of the band’s first commercial album, but Vacuity aims for more than that. Mcfee, bassist Paul McGough, guitarist Greg Osborn, and drummer Emeri Schweigert are childhood friends, who put the band together seven years ago. Its first CD, Confrontational, was a limited run, burned to give out at shows. This one, while written, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered in its basement studio, Gremron, Vacuity hopes will take it further. The guys even gathered a quote for the bio from Todd Clark of rising rock band Pilate: “It’s really good. I like it. It’s not first listen music either.”
