all the best from canada

Photo: Ottawa's Kathleen Edwards is a big hit at SXSW Music Fest '05

Canadians stage strong showing at SXSW

The crowd picks of SXSW include Hot Hot Heat, Kathleen Edwards, Death From Above 1979 and The Dears

Times Colonist (Victoria)
Sun March 20 2005
By Sandra Sperounes

AUSTIN, Texas -- New York publicist Frank Woodworth is jumping for joy in the middle of the Austin Convention Centre, the main headquarters for the South by Southwest music festival.

Why? Did he score backstage passes for Elvis Costello? Did SXSW keynote speaker Shawn Fanning slide him some Napster stock? Is he celebrating a tryst with the University of Texas cheerleading team?

Uh-uh. He's ecstatic about Canadian music.

"All the best music is coming from Canada," he smiles before rattling off his favourite artists.

"I listened to Broken Social Scene on the plane ride here. Feist is friggin' amazing. I was telling everyone to buy the Arcade Fire disc -- I let The New York Times cut in line so they could see their sold-out show at the Mercury Lounge (in New York)."

Woodworth doesn't work for any Canadian acts, but he might as well be one of our ambassadors. As he ponders what's behind the northern nation's musical greatness, he forgets he's supposed to be handing out gig flyers for one of his New York clients, The Fame.

"It could be that the (Canadian) government invests money into music. It could be the cold -- look at all the great music coming out of (Europe's) Nordic countries a few years ago. Maybe there's nothing else to do but make music," says Woodworth.

None of Woodworth's favourite Canucks are playing at this week's SXSW, but plenty of others are. At last count, the official number is 76 -- about five percent of SXSW's entire roster and the largest contingent ever from Canada.

The list reads like a who's who of our best and brightest acts, including Victoria's Hot Hot Heat and Leeroy Stagger as well as Buck 65, Death From Above 1979, The Dears, Kathleen Edwards, Tegan & Sara, Kinnie Starr, The Be Good Tanyas, Boy, Lorrie Matheson and Ann Vriend, who will soon be recording her second soul-pop record in New York.

SXSW's music director Brent Grulke says the inclusion of so many Canadian acts is not a token gesture.

More than 8,000 acts applied to get into this year's SXSW and he says Canadians deserved to make the cut.

Thanks to funding from Canadian Heritage, Grulke has travelled to many of our festivals and events and knows the quality of our scene.

"There's a lot of buzz about Canadian acts across the board," he says. "There's been a real outreach by the Canadian (music) industry and cultural funding industries to promote talent in the U.S. On a personal level, I've become so much more exposed to Canadian music. There's a greater awareness of it."

In the last 15 years, Canada has produced a growing number of superstars -- Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan, Sum 41, Nickelback -- but we're now also considered one of the world's major epicentres of cutting-edge, left-of-centre rock, rap and electronica.

U.S. publications such as Spin and The New York Times recently lauded Montreal's flourishing art-rock scene, anchored by The Arcade Fire, Stars, The Dears and the now-defunct Unicorns.

Rootsy rapper Buck 65, Winnipeg's The Duhks and Caribou are also quickly becoming critical darlings in the U.S., while Britain's BBC Radio regularly plays The Dears and Hot Hot Heat, Victoria's dance-punks. Not even our own country offers the same radio support.

Based on murmurs in the clubs of Austin, the picks of SXSW include Hot Hot Heat, Kathleen Edwards, Death From Above 1979 and The Dears. Their names are mentioned in at least one of three conversations -- usually followed by the occasional crack about our colloquialisms and climate. "There's lots of snow there, right?" (Hey, don't joke -- last week, Edmonton was warmer than Austin was on Tuesday, eh?)

Such hype doesn't necessarily pay dividends for every Canuck. Wednesday's "Canadian Blast Off" showcase -- featuring Radiogram, The Nice Ones and Old Reliable -- was sparsely attended for most of the night.

Wade Sheedy of Toronto's Shikasta isn't taking anything for granted. Canadian or not, he knows he still has to drum up a crowd for his band's SXSW slot.

"Last year, we were the only Canadian band on a Japanese showcase, but we managed to draw people off the street," he says. "This year, I'm going out to every club and handing out flyers."

Death From Above 1979, Toronto's fiercest rock duo, has no trouble drawing hundreds of fans and SXSW delegates to the sweaty Blender Bar.

Neither do The Dears, Hot Hot Heat or Kathleen Edwards, who performs in a purple and black room reminiscent of a '70s discotheque, minus the glitter balls and lines of cocaine. Several Edmonton musicians, including Shawn Jonasson of the Swiftys, park their weary bones near the front of the stage and talk to her guitarist/keyboardist Jim Bryson as he sets up his gear.

A line of 30 or so fans wait on the sidewalk, trying to peer into the windows to catch a glimpse of Edwards, who looks like a rosy-cheeked farm wife in her jeans and cowboy boots.

For the next 40 minutes, she delivers her sassy roots-rock (Back To Me) and forlorn twangy folk (Six O'Clock News) with the help of her partner/guitarist, Colin Cripps. The two often stare at each other like they're ready to attack with their guitars or teeth.

"That was the best show I've ever seen," gushes a girl as she leaves the club.

"I didn't know she sang so many of my favourite songs."

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Check out the official SXSW website for more music info:

http://2005.sxsw.com/music/