Rap star Warren G is looking forward to visiting his Lethbridge on his first ever Western Canadian tour, June 4 at the Blarney Stone.
 Warren G has been a cornerstone of the west  coast rap scene ever since he broke out of the bustling Long Beach scene with his breakout 1994 CD  ‘Regulate … G Funk Era.”

“I’ve been to Vancouver, but I’ve never toured any other city,” said Warren G over the phone from his home in Los Angeles, whose real name is Warren Griffin III
“I had no idea there were so many cities in Canada. That’s just great. I knew about Vancouver and Toronto and Quebec. I hope there isn’t any turbulence over the Rockies,” he observed. One of the Tracks, “Let’s Get High’ on his latest CD, ‘the G-Files,’  features Blink 182 drummer Travis  Barker.

“That’s my buddy. We’ve done a lot of shows together, but we’ve both been working so much, but we said we need to do a song together. So I wrote one and the rest is history,” he said.
Warren G is Dr. Dre’s half brother and grew up with with Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, but is a fixture behind the scenes producing  for other rappers. He even worked with 2Pac. But he has had several huge hits of his own since exploding on the west coast rap scene in 1994, including ‘This  DJ,’ and ‘Do You See,’ and ’Regulate,’ plus a reggae style reworking of ‘I Shot The Sheriff.’

“It’s been really cool to do something people really love. And working with 2Pac was great,” he said.
Warren G’s tour begins in Red Deer followed by Lethbridge and Calgary, then numerous B.C dates.
He and his DJ will be touring  this time, but next time he’ll be bringing a full band.
“I like playing with  the band the best. I mean, if I mess up, then they know when to catch up. I like that I can talk to to the audience. I like them both. It’ll be a great show anyway, but when I come back with the band, it will be a great show,” he said.

“People don’t just want to hear rapping all day long. People want to hear a story — something they can relate to,” he said adding he will also be on the lookout for new talent to work with.
“I just like to help people. I’m always on the lookout for  new people who could be the  next  to explode. I’ll be accepting all demos. I mean I’ve got my people, Snoop and Dre. I want to give back. That’s what it is all about,”  he continued.
“A lot of people can rap, but you really have to know how to create a song. That’s what was great about working with 2Pac. He was very professional. He already knew what he was going to talk about as soon as he heard the beat,” he said adding the basic essence of rap music hasn’t changed since 1994, other than there are more people using live instrumentation now.

Lethbridge record label, Ghostwood Records is  having a big bash at the Slice, June 5 to introduce Lethbridge to some of the fantastic local bands on the label.

Sleeping with Tuesday, Smokestack Jacks, Jesse Northey and the Dandelions as well as  the Necessities will be performing. The Living Luca may also be on the bill.
 A handful of people at an afternoon all ages gig , May 29 at the Hungarian Oldtimer’s Society got a taste of two of the bands — Smokestack Jacks and the new line up of Sleeping With Tuesday.

The numbers were scarce in the afternoon and  the show might  as well been billed a battle of Lethbridge’s loudest bands.
Earlier in the afternoon, local rock/metal band Eyes of Isis, who usually are the ones organizing Lethbridge all ages shows, played  a surprisingly soft  (volume-wise)  set for a handful of enthusiastic kids, one of whom was rocking out, waving his arms, bobbing his head and drumming along  with the band’s music, much of which will be featured on a new Eyes of Isis CD due out at the end of June.

After repeated urgings, they finally convinced  a few members of the audience to get up close to the stage, where they sat in their chairs and watched.

The last couple bands, including Lustre Creame, who  also played an ear-bleeding set of mindblowing music, opening for the Manvils at the Slice later that night, displayed their typically impressive musical chops including a version of the Allman Brothers’ ‘Whipping Post,’ which the crowd just wasn’t into.
 Smokestack Jacks played an energetic, ear-blistering set of deadly slide guitar drenched  blues/punk music, much of it from their new self titled CD. They attempted to get the people moving, but to little avail.

Calgary based weird blues tinged pop/rock band Ghostkeeper is back at the Slice, June 4 to play with the Shaela Miller Threesome.
“You’d better believe we’re looking forward to coming back. This time we’re playing with Shaela Miller,” enthused  guitarist/vocalist  Shane Ghostkeeper, who along with drummer Sarah Houle, multi-instrumentalist  Jay Crocker and  bassist Scott Munro make up the core of the band.
 Their second, self-titled CD, which was released in January, has received rave reviews from across the country and has been getting airplay on CBC Radio 3.
“People are excited about it and it is getting lots of publicity,” Ghostkeeper said adding the band is already hard at work on their third CD, which he expects will be ready for release next year. Making a CD  takes time as  Ghostkeeper likes to challenge themselves  by creating tough guitar parts.
“It’s a matter of challenging ourselves.  That’s pretty much our mandate, to never play something we’ve played before,” Ghostkeeper said adding he and Sarah  Houle come up with their own musical parts work together to bring them together as songs.

Pink Moth, Raised by Swans  plus  Megan Hamilton and the Volunteer Canola had something for everyone, May 26 at the Slice.
 Approximately 20 people were enjoying the show as Megan Hamilton and the Volunteer Canola were up first with some upbeat roots rock, and then tested the crowd’s musical knowledge by giving a CD to the first person to tell them who first sang  the theme from That 70s Show, ‘In The Street.’  For those wondering, it was originally performed by  Alex Chilton and  Chris Bell of the band Big Star, though Cheap Trick   redid a more popular version for the show later.

They played a superb version of it.  They ended their set with  a touch of ebow powered psychedelia.