CANADIAN MUSICIAN SHOWCASE

Showcase - December 1996
By Karen Bliss

Gaudi Birds
Style: soar o'er moon rock
Lineup: Justin Bird (vocals, rhythm guitar); Ron Prunster (drums); Doug Vallier (bass); Matthew Woodward (guitar, vocals)
Contact: Contact: Stellar Records, PO Box 61, Stn. C, Toronto, ON M6J 5M7 (416) 406-5847,

Something is about to happen. It's a full moon in Kingston, Ontario and singer/guitarist Justin Bird is getting anxious. A Gaudi Bird (?!) flies by and the dementia begins so does the band. The lead cut is "Nervous", which meanders slowly with a certain cool insanity. Bird's seductive rock delivery teasingly threatens to explode and finally vents part-way through, the band following his lead. The song is totally cool, probably captivating live. "Is That All Right" has a grooving tension and more of a pop melodicism. It's sexy, seemingly spontaneous and most definitely psychedelic. Other tracks vary from "What I Feel I Need", which is a repetitive bluesy-rock grind, to "Wilted", a long, jangly, sinuous opus which leads to pill-induced suicide and "I Once Was A Bird", a grounded acoustic rumination. Of the seven tracks presented here, along with "Nervous", the melodic calm, cool and inviting "Blue Heron" is the stand-out and potential hit. The eponymous album was produced by frontman Bird and Grant Ethier at The Funhouse, and engineered and mixed by Ethier and Dave Lindsay.

Graeme Kirkland
Style: poetry in motion
Line-up: Kinnie Starr (vocals, guitar, piano) & a small ocean of friends
Contact: Blister Management, #473 - 916 W. Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K7 (604)224-1068, FAX (604)986-0219

[Picture] Powerful, persuasive, poetic. Vancouver�s Kinnie Starr is a fearless performer, daring to enter your sacred space to sing and rap her often sensual, woman-proud poetry. With her smoky, sultry and authoritative style, she delivers her words in a raspy blues rhythm often accompanied by a simple distorted guitar strum or penetrating hip hop groove. On her self-produced album, Tidy, she is hypnotic. Her voice, her words, her rhythms penetrate like gentle sex or ferociously like a mallet to the skull. From the sultry condemnation Grandma�s Bicycle about a rip-off tourist district to the sensuous calling of Ophelia with its simple, elastic strum, she is commanding. Without detracting from the words, Stiff Sour Lemon Rind employs a distorted raunchy guitar while Loons is a nasty piece of rock and Rime Gone Rong is a potent rock squall. Then, there�s Month of Trickery, a rap poem dedicated to her brother with a humming hip hop groove pulsating underneath, and ending with a suggestive rapid-fire spoken-word piece leading, appropriately, to the whisper-sex of Simple. The album ends with the fabulously primitive, percussive piece Praise and her multilingual life-affirming chants. Indeed, to customize one of her lyrics, �when (Kinnie) busts open, you know it�s going to get hot!�

Daytona
Style: sportscar-spinning guitar-pop
Line-up: Colin Cleaver (electric guitar, vocals); Jenny Lundgren (acoustic guitar, vocals); Michael Breen (bass, vocals); Jim Banning (drums)
Contact: Zulu, 1869 West 4th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6J 1M4 (604) 730-1107, FAX (604) 736-9836;

Perhaps because Daytona didn�t hole up in a sterile studio facility, the Vancouver band�s guitar pop songs are alive and spirited. Perhaps it�s coz they started recording the day lovable old Jerry Garcia exited this world. Or, most likely, it�s coz producer Glen Reely (54.40�s Smilin� Buddha Cabaret, Mystery Machine�s 10-Speed) was at the helm, and he simply knows how to capture raw guitar without it sounding messy, and pure melody without it sounding AM. The procedure was as follows: "Armed with a one-ton truck, a hundred little black boxes and a fist-full of cable to set up (drummer) Jim (Banning�s) house, basement, bathroom and garden into a summer fantasy studio.� Guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter Colin Cleaver helped produce the album, as well as mix it in Reely�s basement and master it at Gotham City with Craig Waddell. The result is Sustain - Daytona�s followup to 1994�s Chicane - the tone of which is set by the lead track/video "Shannon Kissed A Train", a song steeped in verve guitar and pop melodicism. While most of the lead vocals are handled by Cleaver, Lundgren claims "Chances Are" and "Minneapolis" and adds her sweet harmonies to his plaintive strain on the break-up ballad You�re The One. Daytona is a band that begs the question, "Why the hell isn�t someone playing them every hour?"

Credit: Karen Bliss is a Toronto-based freelance writer.