The News

Cumako a highlight of this week

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 13:14 Richard Amery

March begins with a roar this week.
Blues/folk singer songwriter Darren Johnson returns to the Slice, March 4. Also March 4, check out Maurice with the Armchair Cynics at Henotic. Henotic has a couple of excellent shows with Cumako, who were a Cumako returns to Lethbridge, March 5. Photo by Richard Amery

Cumako returns to Lethbridge, March 5. Photo by Richard Amery

hit at last year’s South Country Fair. L.A. Beat is giving away two tickets to this show to the first person to tell me what city Cumako are based out of. Just e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Another excellent show is March 5 at Henotic with Lorrie Matheson, Mark Davis and Chris Page, who are all playing with Jesse And the Dandelions. Fat Baby Jake is back at the Slice, March 6.
Also on March 6, there is a massive dance party blowout at Henotic with DJ Ninety Nine, CKXU DJs, the two Mikes from Still Leanin’ Friday night show and DJ Sleepyhead. L.A. Beat has tickets for this show to give away. Just e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Upstairs there will be complete chaos with the reunion of Endangered Ape, Bikeland from Calgary, Krang, Fist City and the Amber Waves. Tickets are $10 in advance.
For something completely different, local country singer Alyssa McQuaid is at Pop’s Pub South on the same night. As well, look for Wendell Ferguson and Katherine Wheatley at the Wolf’s Den the same night. L.A. Beat is giving away two tickets to this show, courtesy of Deb Rakos, to the first person to e-mail me This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the name of one of the bands Wendell Ferguson has played with.
Local grunge rock band Double Jack is releasing their latest CD at the Blarney Stone, March 5. The show begins at 9 p.m.. There is a four dollar cover. The first 25 people get a free copy of the EP.
There are several open mics this week beginning tonight at the Slice where Treeline will be hosting. On Wednesday, Becky Johnston hosts the open mic at Henotic. And Beaches Pub has a regular open mic on Thursdays.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:25 )

The Chevelles are Brier bound

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 12:47 Richard Amery

Curlers across Canada are beginning to discover Lethbridge’s number one party band — the Chevelles. Tim Carter of the Chevelles playing the Sound garden. Photo by Richard Amery

Tim Carter of the Chevelles playing the Sound garden. Photo by Richard Amery

“We’re just a cover band, we just started doing this for our own giggles so it’s awesome we get to do this across Canada,” said Tim Carter, aka Buck Chevelle, who said the band is looking forward to flying to Halifax, March 8 to play four shows at this year’s Brier. The Brier bonspiels draws the country’s best curlers and most enthusiastic curling fans to this annual championship which has gone to the best rink in Canada since 1927.
The Chevelles, who have been mainstays on the city’s Top-40 cover circuit for many years, are making waves nationally. They just returned from Sault Sté Marie, where they were performing Jan. 29-31 at the Scotties Curling bonspiel,
“We had a ball,” enthused Carter in between helping customers at Note-able music.
“It’ll be the first time I’ve been on the east coast,” he continued.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 March 2010 12:51 ) Read more...

Ferguson more than just a funnyman

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 12:11 Richard Amery

Toronto guitarist Wendell Ferguson is not only pretty witty, but he’s also an impressive guitar player. Ferguson, who plays the Wolf’s Den, March 6 with Katherine Weatley for the Lethbridge Folk Club, is the first to admit his mouth gets him in trouble, however he is also quick to admit Wheatley’s down to earth and sensitive personality and stage presence provides a great counterbalance to his wicked and often politically incorrect humour.
“She’s so sweet, people have been calling our tours, the ‘loved her, hated him tour,’” laughed Ferguson from his home/ studio in Toronto where he works as an in demand session player.
“She can make you cry, I can make you laugh. It can get pretty emotional,” he continued.
“My mouth used to get me fired pretty regularly. I have a strange sense of humour. I don’t have a filter between my brain and my mouth. What ever I say just comes out of my mouth,” Ferguson said.
“ I used to play with Terry Sumsion and he’s a pretty big fellow. One time we were on stage and someone pulled the fire alarm. So I said ‘Watch out, Terry’s backing up.” So he got mad at me and fired me. The next year, he’d be mad at me or forget about it and hire me again the next year,” Ferguson chuckled adding Katherine has also been subjected to some of his off colour jokes on stage.

“She’ll get mad at me as well. And she’ll say ‘don’t ever tell a joke like that on my stage again.’ I’ll say something but I’ll pay for it later. I know I’m an arsehole,” he said.
It’s not all about the jokes, Ferguson is also an exceptional guitarist. While he has played on CDs by Toronto humourists the Arrogant Worms, he also won the Canadian Country Music Association Guitar Player of the Year from 1995-99.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 March 2010 12:46 ) Read more...

Maurice looks forward to playing the Olympics before coming to Lethbridge

Saturday, 27 February 2010 16:29 Richard Amery

Victoria power pop band Maurice is looking forward to beginning their tour on their major label debut ‘Young people with Faces,” which began in Vancouver with an Olympic gig opening for Randy Bachman at a bar in Surrey before coming to Henotic, March 4. Maurice plays Henotic March 4.

“Our former booking agent got the job booking entertainment for the Olympics, so we called him. We’re playing right after the gold medal hockey game. The site is set up with big TVs so people will be there just to be there. It could be celebration or anti-climactic, but it has the potential to be really special,” said vocalist/guitarist Jean Paul Maurice adding he went to film camp with Randy Bachman’s daughter and his parents live in Randy Bachman’s neighbourhood on Salt Springs Island.
“Randy is a legend, so it will be great to meet him,” Maurice continued adding he is excited about the March 2 release of the new CD.
“We had some trouble with record companies and management companies,” he continued adding the CD was recorded and mixed back in 2008, though they added two new songs, ‘Kerosene’ and ‘How You Spend Your Time.’

Last Updated ( Saturday, 27 February 2010 16:58 ) Read more...

Kobra and the Lotus to bring back the rock

Wednesday, 24 February 2010 15:07 Richard Amery

Calgary power metal band Kobra and the Lotus, who come to the Slice to play with Lustre Creame, Feb. 27, have come along way in less than a year.
They have toured the United Kingdom and Europe and will release their debut CD, “Out of the Pit,” March 9. It was produced by Greg Godovitz from popular ’70s rock band Goddo and features Triumph’s Rik Emmett soloing on the Kobra and the Lotus’s version of Motorhead’s ‘Ace of Spades.’
“We didn’t have a thought in out head that we could have success in the music business. We were just sitting around and writing songs for fun,” said singer Brittany Paige, a classically trained vocalist who studied for eight years at the Mount Royal Music Conservatory with Elaine Case, before quitting singing for a few years. She answered an ad to be in a band with guitarists Chris Swenson and Matt Van Wezel and connected with them musically.
“It was amazing,” she said adding they have been playing together for two and a half years. Kobra and the Lotus solidified its line up last March with drummer Griffin Kissack and bassist Ben Freud.
Paige didn’t have much trouble moving from singing opera to singing metal.
“That’s an easy question. They (opera and metal) are so similar. Both are very powerful types of music . A lot of metal has a very classical sound. The transition just happened. Look at people like Bruce Dickenson and Halford, they have a very operatic sound,” she said agreeing their song ‘Legend’ gave her a chance to show off her voice.
“I feel like I have a lot of different techniques, I just wanted to show my other side. Hopefully we will write more like that one. I just enjoyed writing it,” she continued.
The band started writing songs together and recorded them at a Calgary studio.
“We were just getting together and writing songs for fun. We were told to polish up our music and get a producer and they said Greg Godovitz had just moved to Calgary,” she said adding he agreed to produce them and started recording at Metal Blades Studio in Mississiauga. He asked Rik Emmett to record a solo for “Ace of Spades.”
“He’s a really fun character. He got to the studio and he was so pumped up and he’s got this really long fingernail. he came in and laid down that solo in one take. He’s definitely got some sot of stage presence and he embraces all sorts of music,” Paige enthused.
“ It was definitely a real honour to have him definitely. We hung out for a bit and talked. He said some real encouraging things,” she said adding the band’s guitarists listen to everything from Metallica to Pink Floyd and some of her operatic training comes out on ‘Legend,” an eight minute epic.
Kobra and the Lotus’ metal leans a lot on the more classical metal of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and more of a rock influence, so it means they don’t really fit into the Calgary metal scene.