Daniel Romano Featured On I (Heart) Music • 14.07.10

WHO
Attack In Black frontman getting in touch with his inner Dylan.

DISCOGRAPHY
Workin’ For The Music Man (You’ve Changed, 2010)

IN A NUTSHELL
It may seem like an abrupt shift in gears, but Daniel Romano’s solo debut is wonderfully Dylanesque.

THE STORY
If someone had told me back in 2007 that in a few short years, the lead singer of Attack In Black would be a Dylanesque folkie I’d have scoffed. After all, the band’s debut, Marriage, established the band as an heir to Constantines. Even if Daniel Romano were to opt for the solo guy with a guitar route, it seemed far more likely that he’d wind up somewhere in Bruce Springsteen territory — not far off from Dylan, obviously, but still a little more rocking.

Yet here we are, just three years later, and that’s exactly where Romano has wound up. His solo debut, Workin’ For The Music Man, instantly brings to mind the likes of Blonde On Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited. He’s got a similarly croaky voice (albeit one that’s a little easier on the ears), religioussimilarly simple melodies and a similar ’60s/’70s vibe running throughout the album (as a track like “So Free” demonstrates).

Oh, and it’s political. You can’t be Dylanesque without having some politics in your music, and thankfully Romano doesn’t skimp out here. The album is bookended by Parts I and II of the title track, and on both ends Romano comes off as highly critical of the music industry. Elsewhere, the album also features “Joseph Arthur“, a scathing condemnation of the money-grubbing right. None of these are difficult targets, of course, but they’re still all pulled off in a way that’s never less than listenable — which shows that Romano drew another equally important lesson from Dylan, one which too many artists have forgotten over the past few decades.

If you look closely, of course, Romano’s folkie turn didn’t come completely out of nowhere. After all, Marriage’s success helped obscure the fact that, only months after its release, Attack In Black released another album, Curve of the Earth, that was entirely acoustic and wholly different from their breakthrough. Even more recently, just last year Romano was responsible for two albums that undoubtedly foreshadowed Workin’ For The Music Man: AIB’s Years and Daniel, Fred And Julie, a collaboration with two artists who make a living off the quieter end of the musical spectrum, Fred Squire of Construction and Destruction and Julie Doiron.

Of course, in each of those cases it wasn’t entirely clear how much Romano was responsible for. Workin’ For The Music Man, however, is entirely his creation…and there’s no doubt that it’s a creation of which he should be incredibly proud.

http://www.iheartmusic.net/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1965-This-weeks-feature-Daniel-Romano.html

Seth Smith’s “New Problems” Reviewed In The Toronto Star • 06.07.10

Hey, who wants to hear some more Dog Day propaganda from me? None of you? Too bad. Frontman Seth Smith goes lo-fi, murky and more oblique than ever on this low-key solo release that will likely do nothing to drag Dog Day out of obscurity but will please anyone who’s already keen on his half-sad, half-sinister songwriting and bell-clear sense of vocal melody. Rick White’s work with Dog Day on last year’s Elder Schoolhouse EP would appear to have left Smith with a few production tricks up his sleeve and an emboldened fondness for burying his tunes within layers of psychedelic murk. The fragmentary songs gathered on New Problems unfold in two long, seamless, stream-of-consciousness blurs that correspond perfectly to two sides of a tape and there’s already plenty of hiss in the mix, so you’re probably better off tracking down the cassette version.

http://www.thestar.com/article/831339–ben-rayner-s-reasons-to-live

Glory Glory Man United in the Toronto Star’s Anti-Hit List • 30.06.10

Arguably the most impressive indie pop band to come out of the East Coast since Two Hours Traffic, this Halifax trio sits easily along a musical continuum that includes Thrush Hermit and Sloan. (In a tip of the hat, they cover the latter’s “I Hate My Generation” at www.myspace.com/ggmu). More importantly, like all of those bands, they seem to have arrived fully formed. You can see/hear for yourself June 30 when GGMU plays Rancho Relaxo. (From Zombies!!! out July 13)

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/antihitlist/article/827622–the-anti-hit-list

Daniel Romano’s Workin’ For The Music Man reviewed in Now Magazine • 30.06.10

Daniel Romano, frontman for the Welland indie rock band Attack in Black and the Daniel in Daniel, Fred & Julie, has the kind of hard-times life story country & western legends are made of: Given up at birth. Taken in by an older couple who teach him guitar. Freak accident resulting in partial loss of vision. Reconnection with birth parents, also musicians. Death of older couple. Recording of a batch of sad folk tunes in his old house, which get destroyed when the house is razed.

This debut solo effort is Romano’s triumphant survivor, and marks him as one, too. Weariness, frustration and authenticity resonate through the 11 well-crafted tunes. Mostly, it’s acoustic guitar, lap steel, fiddle, shuffled rhythms and Romano’s eyes-shut croon, which is roughly mournful but gets Steve Earle reedy on So Free. Fluttery backups by Misha Bower and Romano’s aunt Darlene are lovely, as is the surprise sax solo on My Greatest Mistake.

4/5 Stars

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/discs.cfm?content=175723

It Kills feature in The Coast • 24.06.10

Some relationships are better the second time around. There is history, understanding and an established way of relating. Former members of i see rowboats, Lisa Lipton, Solomon Vromans and Will Robinson, have reunited to become It Kills.

“Once we disbanded from i see rowboats we just started up a new project a few months down the road,” says Lipton, calling before heading to band practice. “It was easy because we already had the relationship from before.”

Don’t read too far into the band title—It Kills isn’t nearly as cryptic or as emotional as one could imagine. It was originally mentioned in an off-the-cuff manner. All members nodded their heads. “The name isn’t conducive to the sound. We like it,” says Lipton.

Recorded during the winter at St. Matthias Anglican Church and Joel Waddell’s place in Dartmouth, It Kills is a self-titled collection of songs that wanders along the landmine of imagination. There is a lingering darkness, with accents of light. There are moments of clarity and moments of confusion. It Kills embodies human experience through spiritual sound. “There’s a little bit of heartache, we travel through a bunch of emotions,” Lipton says. “Not necessarily all, but a lot of the songs came out of an emotionality that we were all going through simultaneously. Heavy hearts would be fair.”

The opening track, “Dragons,” climbs with instrumentation while Robinson’s cries feel spiritual, primal almost. Lipton’s ethereal vocals add serenity to the song’s momentum—they fuse together just as it seems the song falls into a spiral of twinkling guitar. Lipton and Robinson join in chorus singing, “so long, farewell,” and the building rhythm kicks back in. “Salt” and “Sailors” are other epic tracks.

“I really love ‘Dragons,’” says Lipton. “We were all playing guitars. I think it’s probably our newest song. I just love playing. I get to sing really high.”

It Kills is built on dynamic and tension. For the CD release this Friday, Darcy Fraser and Alice Hansen are joining in, though it’s just the trio touring the country by train.

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/it-kills-is-reborn/Content?oid=1701381

It Kills reviewed by Herohill • 23.06.10

If you had to pick one word to describe the immensely dense songs Halifax’s It Kills puts out, it would be emotion. I’m not talking sung/screamed yelps, frantic guitars or sad sack wordplay. No, Lisa Lipton, William Robinson, and Solomon Vromans, fuse classically trained strings with inspired acoustic work and choir like falsetto or tribal chants to channel emotion much deeper and powerful than should be possible with so few words.

It’s easy to hear the beautiful arrangements, each one constructed so meticulously, and start dropping names like Sigur Ros or The Album Leaf, but instead of moving across glacial planes with crystalline fractures, the trio experiments with darker sounds or adds a warmth to their epic sound scapes more akin to summer breezes across the prairies or rolling African hills. There is something rural, almost spiritual about the drums and soaring oohs and ahhs that help shape uplifting numbers, but the trio isn’t afraid to retreat into the tormented shadows either. Those emotional highs and lows give the album a more realistic feel and force a connection with every listener. “Jump Kid” is ominous – and honestly, mildly unsettling – but the triumphant piano chords of “Sinners” and inspired defiance of “Sailors” that follow, clear the dark clouds until you feel like nothing can stop you.

When you consider the last band Lisa, William and Solomon were a part of – the absolutely fantastical I See Rowboats – the bar was already set fairly high for this record, but the trio succeed in unexpected ways. While ISR could turn a room pin-drop silent with a performance, some of that emotion and power was lost on record. It Kills converts the spontaneous energy of a live show into a record that can soundtrack almost any moment of your life. The confident surge of the piano on “Old Song” challenges the violin and Lisa’s vocals, refusing to give ground and the band brings the intensity to a feverish level. William’s guitar and the the thumping drums of “Dragon” accomplish the same soaring heights. In fact, as I walked around Toronto during NXNE with It Kills owning my ears, life started to seem like it was made from limitless possibilities; not in some made for the big screen, “The-Shins-will-change-your-life” type moment, simply that It Kills make those moments of your days better. If you ask me, that’s something more tangible to hold onto than a scene from someone else’s movie.

http://www.herohill.com/2010/06/reviews-it-kills-self-titled.htm

Apollo Ghosts Interview on The Talking Machine • 17.06.10

Vancouver’s Apollo Ghosts appeared, as if from nowhere, and have made huge headway in the past year-and-a-bit.

Their second album, Mount Benson, is getting all kinds of praise.  All their songs are short, and sweet, and very Canadian.  Largely in homage to their hometown, Nanaimo, the most darling song of the album, Things you go through,  straight-up lists the trials and tribunes of being a kid in BC.  “Drinkin Brews, Heartbreak too. Things you go through”.

AC Newman described them as ‘quite awesome.’  When you’re a man of few words, like AC Newman, you gotta make them all count.

They’re coming East-bound this summer, and if the internet is any indicator (and of course it is!) their live show is as fantastic, or more fantastic, than any of their recorded work.  Notably zany, crazy, and unpredictable, Apollo Ghosts have a reputation for keeping audiences on edge.  Ryan from www.catbirdseat.org said they were becoming  ‘things of legend’. So you can’t blame a girl for being curious.

Okay – correct me if I’m wrong, but so far as I understand it, your album is a concept album about a man searching the world in a claw-foot tub to find his lost love.

I’m not really sure what a concept record is exactly. . . the opening song definitely has that line about the claw-foot tub. I helped my friend move an old one into his house last summer. They are really elegant appliances. Something very old world about taking a bath that way. He bought this house off an old woman who died in the upstairs tub. Like, that’s how they found her. There are also bathtub races between Nanaimo and Vancouver B.C., or at least, there used to be. The opening lines of ‘Wakesiah’ connect to the lines of a song called ‘Dobermans’ off our first record if you listen carefully. It’s just a knight-in-shining armour / sword in the air kind of start to the record…or at least that’s what I thought. Instead of a horse, it’s a bathtub.

Since the release of Mount Benson, how do you feel your reputation as artists has grown within Canada?  How has being from Vancouver shaped your sound?

What’s your favourite home-town band?  What ought we be listening to?

In no particular order: Role Mach, Collapsing Opposites, Thee Ahs, Chris-a-riffic, Gross Placentas, Mezamazing, Fine Mist, Half-Chinese, Madonna Bangers, Bash Brothers, Aaron Read, Rose Melberg, Pompoir, B-Lines, Nu Sensae, Shearing Pinx, Kidnap Kids, the list goes on and on…

Although your record is fantastic and huge, you’re more known for your stage performances.  How important is performance to you?  Where do you get your sweet costumes?  Is there a difference between your on-stage personalities and your ‘regular’ personalities?

Our live show is a bit more stripped down or raw than the recordings I think. We’re just a three piece and we’re not really interested in playing the wuss songs live. We’d rather get blood and sweat on the strings and jump into the crowd than sit and stare at our shoes. Performance for us is a celebration of life. We like to see people smile and we like to incorporate unconventional elements in our live show. Sometimes we wear capes (Amanda our drummer made them). Sometimes we’ll play for twelve minutes or play lots of covers. Each show should be different in some way. Off-stage we are the same people. I mean, we’re not going backstage anywhere (I don’t think we’ve played anywhere with a backstage) …we’re with our friends in the crowd dancing/shouting/heckling the next band.

You’re coming to the East Coast!  Where do you want to play most?

I think the maritimes will be a big thrill for us. People there just seem so nice. I’ve always dreamed about going to Sappyfest. But we’re excited to play everywhere in a variety of settings. New York will be a mind-fuck!

Amanda Panda, Jay O, and Adrian Teacher - Why did you decide to use stage names?

http://snowsuitsound.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/dispatches-from-the-interplanetary-afterlife-apollo-ghosts/

La Strada Reviewed in NOW Magazine • 17.06.10

On their first full-length, Brooklyn’s La Strada successfully synthesize elements of indie rock with classical, orchestral pop and Gypsy folk into a surprisingly uncluttered formula. It would be more impressive if it didn’t veer so close to Beirut, Zach Condon’s similarly worldly indie folk project, though bandleader James Craft is a distinct enough songwriter to avoid sounding like a rip-off artist.

The songs are intricately arranged around major-key melodies and a cleanly strummed acoustic guitar. Accordions and strings fade in and out as textural support rather than attention-grabbers, creating a lush, sophisticated sound. The album drags a bit toward the end, but that has more to do with Craft’s voice than with a lack of ideas. Give it a chance and it grows on you.

Top Track: The Traveler

NOW Rating: 3/5

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/discs.cfm?content=175494

The Grass Reviewed in NOW Magazine • 17.06.10

The Grass’s rear-viewing rock sure is tight. On this re-release of their 2009 debut album, they blend garage rock with country and 60s psychedelia and manage to avoid rehashing Dad’s record collection.

Ain’t Running Scared’s twangy guitars swap effortlessly with piano, Spreadin’ The Blues could use a little less Ringo, and Without You offers up drive-in doo-wop that morphs into hazy 60s sonic disorder. Ever-present echoing organ acts as a uniting thread throughout.

The Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, foursome are most successful on The Ballad Of Davey Jones, the closest thing to a purely psychedelic track and a sign of the Grass’s great promise.

Top Track: Ballad Of Davey Jones

NOW Rating: 4/5

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/discs.cfm?content=175497

Daniel Romano Q&A on Quick Before It Melts • 15.06.10

QBiM: State your name for the record (and mention your record while you’re at it).
DR: Daniel Romano, Workin’ for the Music Man?

QBiM: Where are you from, how did you get here, and where are you going next?
DR: I’m from Welland Ontario, Joni Romano birthed me. and I’m going to get ice cream next.

QBiM: You’ve had a busy 2009 and 2010.  How did your collaboration with Daniel, Fred & Julie come about?  Is that just going to be a one-off project or will we be hearing more from the three of you?
DR: I’m not sure if its a one off project yet… I’m up for anything. It came about because I asked Fred to make a record with me. And then I took the train out there. I had some songs and some books. We worked it out. Julie joined us.

QBiM: Is your new solo album a reaction to being part of Attack In Black, or is it just an extension of the band, like another side of Daniel Romano?
DR: It really has nothing to do with the band… It’s its own thing. It reflects, I suppose the “other side of me” but this particular side has been there my whole life; long before le rock and roll.

QBiM: get the sense from Workin’ for The Music Man that you’re somewhat disenchanted with the whole record industry whirlwind?  Is that a valid assumption?
DR: Yes. but I’m also very happy about other stuff…

QBiM: There’s also a lot of romantic (dare I say love?) songs, in a singer-songwriter vein.  Does that have anything to do with the “other stuff” you’re happy about?
DR: Yes I am very much in love.

QBiM: Being from Welland myself I know that this working class town is somewhat lacking in a cultural/music scene.  Did you find growing up here provided enough inspiration for your music, or did you have to look beyond Welland for that?
DR: The less there is going on the more you can focus on whatever you need to. I find it perfect here. No one knows or cares. And I love that.

QBiM: What’s the one record you can go back to and listen to over and over again?
DR: ONE RECORD!? Impossible.

QBiM: I understand that the new record was recorded mainly at home in your own studio.  Is that a big change from the way Attack In Black work?  Was there less pressure on you working at home?
DR: There is never pressure recording a record for me. It is always as fast as possible so that I stay focused and don’t get sick of it before its finished.

QBiM: How has the rest of the band reacted to the solo album?
DR: They seem to be taking my lead. Spencer (Burton) made a record. (Ian) Kehoe is thinking about it I think. And my bro (Ian Romano) has been playing with my folks’ band and is starting to record and produce other bands a lot more. I think it’s good for everyone.

QBiM: Attack In Black is scheduled to play at NXNE this year, but will you be doing any solo shows in support of the record?
DR: There is a small tour yes, and some festivals in the summer.’

QBiM: What’s the one sound that drives you crazy?
DR: Wet boots being rubbed or dried on carpet.

QBiM: When was the last time you got into a fight?
DR: Too long ago… You wanna go?

QBiM: What’s the worse bit of musical advice you’ve ever been given?
DR: “You should try to sound more like the E street band.”

QBiM: what’s the one thing our world could do with less of?
DR: The E street band. And everyone that copied them.

QBiM: Is there anything left to explore?
DR: The ocean!

QBiM: Who has been the most influential Canadian artist in your career?
DR: Neil.

QBiM: Anything to declare?
DR: I rarely wear underwear, and when I do it’s usually something unusual.

~~~

Underwear aside, there’s nothing unusual about Romano’s talent:  Workin’ For the Music Man is a bright, assured album of classic folk rock songs very much in the vein of his chief influence, Neil Young.  I’ll have a full review of the album in the next week or so, but don’t wait for me–go out and get it yourself now.

http://www.quickbeforeitmelts.com/2010/06/qbim-qa-with-daniel-romano/