Have you ever had a strong hankering for a corn dog? A vegan corn dog? Three friends, Garrett Kruger, Mike Brennan and Dallas Thompson, had just that hankering. The trio lives at “The Stoop,” as it was dubbed, based on those inviting front steps on which they frequently hang out and it was there that the idea first started to take shape.

When the guys were inspired to make their own vegan corn dogs, no one wanted to cook inside so as to avoid creating a mess. Solution? Cook them on the stoop! The “corn dogs” were a vegan recipe they generated and, soon after their recipe was created, they started to invite friends for vegan corn dogs on the stoop. During this time, someone mentioned starting a pizza place, called The Brosnake Slice. After deliberating the idea for some time, they ultimately decided that this was not really feasible.

Kruger, Brennan and Thompson all come from musical backgrounds — all are music lovers, or have played a part in bands including The Wolfnote, In Irons, Fractal Pattern and currently play a part in The Famines and The All Overs. Brennan has worked for a few years at Cafe Mosaics Vegetarian Restaurant as a cook with Thompson as a dishwasher. Veganism is a lifestyle choice for the boys of the stoop.

It was a trip to Portland for Music Fest North West that catalyzed the idea for their food truck. While in Portland, they found a late-night food stand that served vegan poutine, called Potato Champion. While ordering, they were asked what name to call out when there order was up. “Order for Brosnakes?” That is the first time it hit them — “What about starting a food truck?!” Thus, the Sailin’ On food truck was born.

Following their return to Edmonton, they got a bit more serious. They invited friends over and had them fill out surveys to rate the food they prepared. The final results showed the most popular dishes were the burrito and the seitan chicken ceasar wrap. Kruger set off to promote the truck in the same manner he did with his bands. The philosophy of the truck is not about hardcore vegan politics, it’s about having a place that is “inclusive not exclusive,” with “good personality and good food — and I just love burritos!” he says. Of course, their music histories influence them, as evidenced by the name of the truck, Sailin’ On, lifted from a Bad Brains song. Raymond Biesinger designed the logo (the E on the flag represents Edmonton). They produced pins and stickers just like they would band merch. The truck held a pop-up event at Wunderbar and another one just recently in collaboration with 3 Boars Eatery before the official launch which will occur in early May. The truck will be located right out back of Wunderbar a partnership which they say is “good for both of us.”

Sailin’ On and Wunderbar are a couple of the sponsors for Aaron Getz’s event, The Hot Plains Music Festival, which runs May Long Weekend, from May 17th to 19th. Be sure to check that out and grab some grub from Edmonton’s newest food truck!

By Seb Syrota
Photos: Andriko Lozowy

After a hiatus of organizing and promoting shows, Aaron Getz began planning a little gig for the band The Wet Secrets. He approached Wunderbar and discovered the venue was available for May long weekend. Bam! Barber Ha was added as an additional venue and what started off as an innocuous gig has exploded into a 17-band mini-festival.

This fest can be described as a celebration of the Edmonton independent music and arts community. All of the acts (with the exception of Vancouver’s Slam Dunk) are Edmontonian and include Camembert, The Lad Mags, The Wild Rose Orchestra, The Switches, Bonspiel, Renny Wilson, Brazilian Money, The Strugglefucks and The Allovers, to name a few.

Getz curated the additional acts: “I went down the list and almost everyone said yes. I had another 17 to 20 bands that I didn’t get to that I would have loved to have included.”

Spring fever means festival fever and Getz plans to expand this event further. “This is more of a running start for next year, do something proper… At Sled Island, I appreciated the fact that they utilized small venues that you can walk between. Whyte Avenue doesn’t have many large venues, but there are many small, mid-sized venues. Next year, I would like to see it become multi-venue.”

The event is sponsored by local businesses, including Vue Weekly, Wunderbar, Sailin ’On Food Truck, Barber Ha, Blackbyrd Myoozik and CJSR. Getz appreciates the support he has received from the community with things like organizing (Mike Podgornsky), posters (that will be available for sale at the event with designs by Smokey, Bob Prodor and Andy Cookson) and the website (designed by Matt Cowley).

Sailin’ On Food Truck will be present at the fest, so get ready to enjoy tasty vegan treats between shows. Discounts for burritos will be available with the purchase of a wrist band.

Celebrate the best of Dirt City with the Hot Plains Music Fest from May 17 to 19 at Wunderbar (Edmonton). $40 gets you a weekend pass and access to all 17 bands. For more information, head to hotplainsmusic.com.

By Jenna Lee Williams
Poster: Smokey

Raleigh exists as key elements in the current fabric of Calgary’s music community.

I was first introduced to the musical stylings of Raleigh in spring 2010, at the time they were known as simply Clea Anaïs & Brock Geiger. The duo were looking to collaborate with a drummer and eventually found the skilled Matt Doherty.

Since 2010 Raleigh have individually racked up a long resume of touring as well as working on a variety of projects. Anaïs, Geiger and Doherty each play with Dojo Workhorse, while Geiger and Doherty also play for the Dudes, as well. Geiger also has his solo work and Doherty also plays drums for the HighKicks, as well as dabbling in various jazz projects. Together, as Raleigh, they form a quirky, experimental folk collaboration (some have even called them a folk “super group”).

In 2011, they released their debut album, New Times in Black and White, with significant buzz and high praise from media. This fall, they will be releasing their follow-up, Sun Grenades and Grenadine Skies, almost a year after recording.

“We recorded at hotel2tango with Howard Bilerman and Greg Smith in October 2012,” says Anaïs. “It was an awesome experience. We were able to remain authentic to our live sound but also embellish the songs with guest players and interesting orchestrated parts. We have been working towards a carefully planned release because we want to make sure the album has support to make it as successful as possible.”

The music video for their first single off Sun Grenades, “Carebear,” produced by Ramin Eshraghi Yazdi, features an eccentric group of party-goers attending a flash mob-esque event in a washroom, complete with odd costumes, balloons and lots of escalators. It is has an off-kilter feel to it, similar to their perfected, complex, pretty, yet quirky sound.

“This new album has a grand quality to it with expansive sounds and warmer colours and that is represented in the title while leaving a lot up to the listener’s imagination.” Anaïs paints a vivid picture of what we can expect.

Those in tune with Canadian folk music have been expectantly awaiting new music from the trio as they have evolved over the past years.

“Our sound since the release of New Times in Black and White has definitely become more cohesive,” says Geiger. “We sound more like a band, as opposed to a brand new project. I really enjoy the process of experimenting lots with songs as they are being written, trying new tricks out live and seeing how that fits the song and translates to an audience. Nothing felt rushed and it was nice to take the time to work out supplemental parts for the recording. We’ve come along way since New Times, settling into working as a three-piece and figuring out new directions to push our ideas.”

Doherty looks forward to returning to Calgary triumphant with a show on May 23 at the Ironwood: “Nothing brings a group of people closer then sharing an experience across the continent, playing for new people every night. I have a feeling that coming home we are gonna be the best trio we have ever been.”

By Andrea Llewellyn

Yo La Tengo is a name that has that ability to introduce itself. With a 20-plus year history and the cult following to match, this band has cemented itself firmly in the world of music. By combining and refining their own differences and similarities, band members Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew have ended up creating something bigger that has reached levels they never imagined. Contrary to what is typical of artists deep in their careers, Yo La Tengo has constantly keeps growing, experimenting musically and challenging themselves.

The iconic band’s latest release, Fade, tends to lean more towards the bands quiet and calm nature, there is no doubt that the playful side also fires through and shows off the multi-layered aspect the group holds artistically. The album is a myriad of layers that have been finely tuned, worked and mastered, something that could be attributed to Yo La Tengo’s decision to switch things up a bit and work with genius producer and technical engineer John McEntire.

“Working with John enabled us to try so many things, he’s a really talented engineer and he was able to facilitate any idea that popped into our heads. Before the sentences ended he was already most of the way done with it. That was kind of a psychedelic experience. I think every answer we heard from his was ‘yes’ like ‘could we try-’ ‘yep, sure can I just finished it, here it is.’ Once we realized that there were endless possibilities we began working in a really explosively creative way,” explains McNew.

Not only is the album a success in the eyes and ears of the band and fans, but the live performances are something people should be getting excited about.

“The show we’re doing now is unlike anything we’ve done in the past. We’re playing two sets, the first is quiet where the second is loud which enables us to highlight the mood we play and is really a good format for us. We can change it up when we want, ” he says. The immediate spark and animation in James McNew’s tone upon the topic of touring is hard to ignore. “It’s been really fun, this has been my favourite tour I’ve done ever in this group. I love the shows that we’re playing, they’ve been really satisfying and really fun, it’s been awesome. I’ve had such a great time. It’s been exhausting at times but every day on the tour I woke up and I couldn’t wait to get started and I never really felt that before. Normally I am so exhausted that I just want to go to sleep. It’s been really fantastic.”

With that kind of amped attitude and motivation it is hard not to be intrigued to see just how it all translates through their live show.

Yo La Tengo is set up for a busy year ahead, for April 26 to the end of May alone they start in Baltimore, then hit southern states, slide across Southwest, come up the coast to the Pacific Northwest and drift back through the Midwest. Along with that they will also be playing the Wilco Solid Sound Festival in Massachusetts then will be playing some shows with Belle & Sebastian in the summertime. That’s just the surface. “It’s a busy year and it’s really great.”

Yo La Tengo plays the Commodore Ballroom on May 18.

By Jamie Goyman

“At that point, I began to fear for my life. The Psychic Alliance were clearly an insane religious cult and had probably spiked everyone’s drink with MDMA and cyanide.” I can understand Vivian Pence’s trepidation. She was an unassuming Vancouver hipster sent into a den of weirdos by the Georgia Straight and now she was facing down against an already crazed crowd being driven further into madness by the pounding psychedelic pop of The Psychic Alliance. But, she made one mistake: The Psychic Alliance would never do something as wasteful as mixing a slow acting chemical like MDMA with an instantaneous poison like cyanide. That’s just a waste of good drugs.

Also, killing your audience tends to make for a really bad show, which is not what this cult — I mean, band — is about. It’s been almost two years since the band made the move from Calgary to the coast, yet their new home leaves them wanting.

“Vancouver needs to loosen the fuck up, live a little and have some fun,” says Shaun Lee, lead singer of The Psychic Alliance. “There was a time in Vancouver when you would see some bands that would seriously scare the shit out of you and you just don’t see that anymore. There’s a serious fun police problem. Vancouver is full of pussies, cowards and chicken-shits, which even people from Vancouver would agree with. I think it’s because they don’t listen to enough country music.” Shaun continues, adding, “I’m really glad this is running in a Calgary publication.”

“We’re a polarizing band in a polarized city. We’re too smart for the dumb people and too dumb for the smart people,” says Marc Guenette, lead guitarist.

It’s not too surprising that the band hasn’t been met with open arms everywhere they’ve gone in Vancouver as the boldness of their statements is matched by their performances. They’ve been banned from more than one venue, but their overall impression of Vancouver is still positive. “It’s different in all the ways you want it to be,” says Lee.

This month The Psychic Alliance will return to Calgary to release the album that was recorded live off the floor in Calgary prior to the band’s relocation. “The world wasn’t ready for this album two years ago. It’s still about seven years ahead of its time,” Lee says of the upcoming release. As for the show in Calgary there was talk of dancing bears, a mongoloid boy playing the tambourine and the reanimated corpses of FDR and Stalin in a bare knuckle brawl to the re-death. “Also we’ll have Kyle fucking Qidl, which is more than anybody else has,” Lee boasts of their bass player. Regardless of the sideshows, any night spent with The Psychic Alliance is sure to be memorable, no matter how much you may want to forget it.

Psychic Alliance will be playing as part of ShakeOut! on May 17 at the D.

By Stephen Russell

The upcoming Decibel Magazine Tour through North America is shaping up to be something quite memorable for metal fans both new and old. While the new fans have plenty to look forward to for the show, the older crowd is in a particularly interesting position of being able to see some of the longest-running death metal and grind acts from when the genres were first conceived. Headliners Cannibal Corpse are particularly excited and honoured to be sharing the stage with U.K. grind gods Napalm Death and New York death metal stalwarts Immolation. My conversation with the genuinely affable bass playing legend Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse revealed his and the group’s enthusiasm over the tour bill.

“It’s going to be a whole lot of fun. I’m sure from talking to Ross (Dolan of Immolation) that we’ve known them for a long time and did a lot of touring with them back in the mid ‘90s… and Napalm Death, the second time we ever went to Europe, we were sharing a bus with them for a short festival tour of Europe for Christmas in 1991, so we’ve known them for oh… 22 years now,” Webster recalls with staggering detail.

Cannibal Corpse has been a flagship band for the death metal underground since their meteoric rise in the late ‘80s for the uninitiated, think breakneck speeds and morbidly down-tuned guitars paired with some of the most powerful guttural vocals death metal has ever known, courtesy of George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. Alongside Fisher and Webster is Paul Mazurkiewicz on drums and both Rob Barrett and Pat O’Brien on guitars. Known also for their particularly violent and descriptive lyrics and absolutely shocking album artwork, the band has never been a stranger to controversy and attempts of government censorship — it has been a long and illustrious career that has spanned the birth, proliferation and evolution of death metal. It started immediately after the band’s release of Eaten Back to Life (1990) through the band’s career-long label, Metal Blade Records.

“We didn’t do really any touring for the first record, just shows around the northeast. For the second record, we did do some touring and it hasn’t let up since,” Webster says, referring to the band’s incessant touring/writing/recording cycle. Twelve studio albums later, the band is gearing up to release Dead Human Collection: 25 Years of Death Metal. This release will include all 12 of the band’s studio albums in a special packaging, a live DVD of the band performing and other pieces of swag to commemorate the band’s quarter century existence as a death metal institution.

Widely considered to be pioneers and proliferators of modern death metal, Cannibal Corpse have been somewhat emblematic of the death metal genre. Both death metal and the band have never gone away and have stayed consistently creative and hardworking throughout their existence, while still showing the ability to adapt their core sound into something more modern. The recent fixation on death metal sounding like it came from the early ‘80s has birthed some fantastic work from some bands, but Cannibal is not that band. Much like their peers in Napalm Death and Immolation, they have managed to stay relevant and on top of the ever growing tide of bands. This Decibel Magazine tour is serving to be a testament to this fact.

“The camaraderie for this tour is well established. In addition to being great bands, they are great friends.

“I can’t wait.” Webster finishes. Based on the legendary lineup on display here, I’m sure he isn’t alone.

See the Decibel Magazine Tour on Tuesday, May 21 at the Commodore Ballroom (Vancouver) with Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Immolation and local regional opener Archspire. Catch ‘em in Calgary the next day on Wednesday, May 22 at the MacEwan Hall Ballroom with Calgary regional opener Beyond Creation. The tour will hit Edmonton on Thursday, May 23.

By Tanner Wolff
Photo: Alex Morgan

Over a couple Caesars and brews, I had the opportunity to speak with Ben Disaster about the transformation of his solo project into an eight-piece collective and, eventually, a solid four-piece band and their upcoming tour and releases.

Before meeting with Disaster, I had a suspicion that he was talented and creative, which he readily verified as soon as we sat down. He explains that he has tried to be a “normal guy” who goes home after work, makes supper and watches some television. After a two-week attempt he realized how much he loathed that life. Disaster constantly needs to be making things (mostly writing and performing music, but he also makes rad, slide-infused lampshades for the Royal Bison Craft Fair in Edmonton). He is also involved in some side projects, including Love Electric and Ben Disaster and the Ghetto Blaster.

The origins of the band name came from his high-school punk project, Dance Floor Disasters, and the drunken tattoo of the word “Disaster” on his knuckles at age 21.

Ben Disaster started performing a harmonica and guitar pun-infused folk set on the streets or in bars, wherever he was afforded space. After the release of his first album, a nerve injury in his hand led Disaster to join seven other band mates: “It was ridiculous and fun. That project was still folky. We were tying in the elements of what I wanted to be doing, but with that many members, it didn’t have a specific focus.”

After a while he quit the band, kept the name Ben Disaster and it reformed as a poppy, shape-shifting four-piece rock and roll collective, including Drew Lefebvre (guitar, vocals), Robert Burkosky (drums), Laine Cherkewick (bass) and Ben (guitar, vocals).

Their original sound can be compared to bands that range from Sloan, Galaxie 500, The Jesus And Mary Chain and The Buzzcocks, with a layered, ambient noise element incorporated into the mix.

Ben Disaster are not afraid to go against the grain, “kind of like what the Replacements did,” he notes. Their sound can vary between shows and sets: “We will play a country show and play all punk songs. Or play a rock show and do an acoustic set.”

The quartet makes music very organically together and won’t be stopping any time soon. “I’m excited to grow old with this band,” says Disaster.

Keep your eyes open for some releases within the next few months. Ben Disaster recorded a full-length this winter, which is currently being mastered, and a campfire EP, which was actually recorded around a fire pit. He has even recorded a children’s EP that he hopes to release around Christmas. There’s no normal life in store for Disaster anytime soon, but chances are, he’s OK with that.

Catch Ben Disaster at the Palomino (Calgary) as part of ShakeOut! on May 17 and at the Owl (Lethbridge) on May 18.

Story and photo by Jenna Lee Williams

Formed from the remains of four Edmonton bands past, like Fractal Pattern,The Last Deal and From the Streets to the Hills, SLATES is a phoenix that has emerged from still-burning ashes. Their music oozes with the influence of early ’90s and ’80s punk rock and fuses that sound with their proud prairie roots. It is no wonder that SLATES has been dubbed Edmonton’s answer to the Replacements — a powerful fusion of post-punk and analog rock. “SLATES is actually a band called Secret Fires, we played for a couple years,” drummer Dallas Thompson clarifies. “We’ve known each other, we’ve all been playing in Edmonton for the last 10 or 15 years with different bands. I mean it’s the same story it is with any other band comprised of dudes who are in their 30s: an old band breaks up and everyone else who sticks around and likes just playing form another band.

“Well, actually if we go way back, right before Secret Fires, we played a benefit for the battered women’s shelter as a Hot Snakes tribute band,” Thompson chuckles, “in like ’06, and that was right after all our bands had broken up, and after that we were like, ‘We should start like writing tunes together.’ So, Stef [Duret, gutiars/vox,] James [Stewart, guitar/vox] and I went on to form Secret Fires with Travis who later left the band… When our singer left the Secret Fires, we kind of started writing different material.”

Thompson continues, “It’s been evolving naturally for the last five years. It’s one of those things where you stick around and you keep playing music with other people who keep playing music — your song writing gets better, your playing inevitably gets better. The songs will be better. Sonically it will be better… Any band that has been around for 20 years is fantastic at what they do, you know? We’re getting to a point now where I think that we are getting really good.”

This summer, SLATES will be recording their third LP with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago. This will be the band’s first time recording out of the country and they couldn’t be more excited about the upcoming experience. “We’re hitting Whitehorse in June and that’s basically our last show before we go and record in Chicago. [It's] something that we’ve always wanted to do, I guess. Like, independently, as musicians, everybody’s always enjoyed the sound that he is able to capture,” Thompson confesses in reference to Albini’s long catalogue of recorded music. “We’re just kind of in a period in our lives where we’re able to make more of a realistic thing. We’re all fans of all those Albini records and, of course, we’re all fans of analog tape and the sound that comes from that. As a drummer, I can’t wait to get into that studio and hear what my drums will sounds like in that room.”

Before hitting the studio, SLATES will be hitting the open road this May, travelling across the Western Canadian prairies once more. On their last cross-Canada tour, SLATES fought against the band’s image the East Coast seemed to assume. “As we went across Canada, we talked to lots of Eastern media just about being a Petro-State band and a lot of East Coast papers or radio folk would have this weird impression of us,” Thompson expresses with some apparent resentment. “Like, we embodied this kinda backwoods stereotype that seems to be propagated out of the East there. Whereas, I think there is a lot of forward-thinking people out in this province trying to do good things, you know? Not everyone is trying’ to make the most money as quickly as possible.”

Catch SLATES at Broken City (Calgary) on May 17.

By Lori Meyers

Hot off the heels of their highly-anticipated sophomore album, Image du Futur, Montreal rock troupe Suuns falls between no-wave New York, a little bit of grunge, and lilting jazz mastery. You could say they’ve rounded the bases through just about every decade of the twentieth century.

Max Henry, bassist and keyboardist from Suuns, phoned BeatRoute from his home in Montreal upon his return from Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) to talk about no wave, the future and hot sauce.

Drawing comparisons to Sonic Youth—whose front man, Thurston Moore, was spotted at one of Suuns’ SXSW shows—Suuns are marked by their succinctly no-wave sound, particularly present on several of the tracks on Images du Futur.

The collage of genres on Image du Futur move between math-rock in “Powers of Ten” to indie-folk-pop in their most popular “Edie’s Dream”.

The musical range on the album may be attributed to their formal training, but listening to Henry makes it clear that they are really just fascinated by their medium, particularly in its most raw and experimental forms. “There’s an amazing phenomenon where someone will just throw their hand on their guitar with this shape and come up with this chord that sounds amazing and they have no idea what [it is]… when you don’t understand what you’re doing you still get a visceral reaction from it, and you’re still controlling it, but in this very unscientific way and it’s almost a kind of prayer.”

Image du Futur is a mixed-melody, pop, post-punk album making it more accessible to a wider audience, but Henry still sees the craft as an outlet for experimentation. “I think if you’re gonna really make a go of it as a musician, any kind of musician, no one’s kidding anyone, no one’s making money, so if you’re out there all the time touring, the only real currency that stays is creative ambition,” he says.

“I wish I could tell you we were mainlining heroin, or something,” Henry says with a laugh when asked how the band spent their time offstage in Austin. “If we weren’t playing a show or loading in, we were at the hotel, there was a pool, it was nice. I got a bit of reading done – we all did. We were just enjoying the weather.” Pausing for a moment, he adds, “I went on a crusade to find hot sauce for my roommates… and it all got taken away at the airport because I put it in my carry-on. But yeah, we like to read, we like to listen to music in the car, occasionally we’ll talk about some nice things. Pretty chill.” Not to suggest that they’re purely negative, but for bands festivals can sometimes feel like, as Henry puts it: “the musical equivalent of sitting under a heat lamp and rotating slowly.” Currently on their first leg, or the mini-tour, the band embarks on a larger international tour in late April.

Suuns play the Media Club in Vancouver on May 23. As well, they’re also on the Sled Island roster in Calgary.

By Jessica Todd

The history of music is full of extraordinary characters desperately trying to get the sounds out of their heads onto paper, tape, and ultimately into your head. Visions of Frank Zappa composing in his underwear eating burnt weenie sandwiches, chain smoking, and drinking pot after pot of black coffee come to mind when thinking of such characters. The same dedication, some would say possibly insane behavior, applies to Beethoven or Phil Spector and their love affair with music.

Austin, Texas native Bill Baird may not have such erratic behavior or at least that we know about, but he has the same love of song making and music as the above noted, a passion that have seen him produce numerous releases with Sunset, Sound Team, and now his solo recordings.

Spring Break of the Soul is his newest album that has you lying on your back, staring up at the bright sky while you float away on your emergency safety raft in a sea of melancholy. Songs like “Lake Eerie” and “World Gone Deaf” put the world in slow motion and quiet the chaos surrounding your survival from a ship going down. You end up in the middle of the ocean alone with nothing but the steady drum beat and haunting string section of “Lake Eerie” as your flair to signal for help.

When listening to the album visions of sea life are not uncommon as Baird explains his interpretation of the song “Lost at Sea” and “Go to Mexico”

“I imagined a musical taking place on-board a becalmed boat wherein the characters sit and wait for wind to arrive in their sails but the wind never arrives. They’re stranded. It’s how I feel about life sometimes. There is no answer. Or if there is an answer, it doesn’t occur to you just sitting around waiting for it to arrive. ‘Go to Mexico’ was me thinking about the existential idiot. In this case, frat boys on the beach at spring break experiencing some sort of epiphany. The ocean, the waves, the sound… they transcend their meat-headed-ness for a brief brilliant moment.”

“These two feelings, being ‘stranded’ and the ‘existential idiot’ looking to buy himself to a higher spiritual plane or just sit around in a pretty place and have life’s answers easily arrive, were the guiding feelings for the record, and for the ‘Career’ record too, actually, although that one also made fun of career musicians, like myself, who are constantly in danger of becoming parodies of themselves.”

Baird is pursuing his Masters at the prestigious Mills College in Oakland, California. The college has quite a reputation with such names as Terry Riley, Joanna Newsom, Laurie Anderson, Steve Reich, Fred Frith, Iannis Xenakis, and Pauline Oliveros being apart of the faculty or the student body.

“I took a composition class with Pauline Oliveros and one of my pieces involved pre-recording a whole choir (of myself) and placing it inside all the CD players at Best Buy and letting it run until an employee noticed. The employees never noticed, but I somehow managed to break one of their CD players, so I quickly departed.”

“I feel really inspired by the people I meet at Mills. It’s a refuge for adventurous spirits, amazing creators here. There is an atmosphere of mutual respect. You’re encouraged to go far out then go further. Anything conventional doesn’t feel much welcome here. I still love traditional things though, like verses and choruses and songs. I don’t think Mills could cure me of my addiction to songs.”

Baird has merged the two worlds that he lives in, avant garde and the pop-rock, into an epic 17 song voyage where you lose your mind and regain it during the span of a single song, every song.

Bill Baird is playing the Cobalt on May 17.

By Joe Smiglicki