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Music

T.O. Music Notes

Rating: NNNNN


songs for peace


Tired of chanting the same old tunes to raise spirits at demos and rallies? Fear not, there are people out there working to create a new repertoire of peace anthems, and local songwriter Michael Moon is one of ’em. Moon’s new tune, Wake Up The World, has landed him in the finals of the Ireland-based international Tipperary Peace Convention Song Of Peace songwriting contest.

Started in 1983, the competition was intended to reclaim the town of Tipperary from its traditional associations with first world war fave It’s A Long Way To Tipperary. In response, the founders created the Peace Convention, a forum to promote the concept of peace. The winner of last year’s song competition, Jill Ann Siemens, was also a Canuck. (Hmm… could be a trend.)

Moon claims his song meshes the “sound healing” of mysticism and shamanism with a poppy style that blends Loreena McKennitt with Pink Floyd — think New Agey multi-instrumentation with a hit of Doors psychedelia — and reflects his philosophy that “the best way to transform the conflicts of the world is to recognize their counterparts in ourselves and transform them.”

He’s got a show at the Yoga Sanctuary (2 College, 3rd floor) Saturday, April 12, a funder to raise cash for his trip to Ireland, where he’ll perform his song in the final round on April 26.

Moon’s Yoga Sanctuary gig starts at 7 pm, and admission’s $12 $25 with limited-edition CD. Check out www.thetempleofsound.com for further details.

march 25, children’s hour


When Zwan’s Matt Sweeney stepped forward to introduce openers the Children’s Hour as “our favourite band,” the announcement carried an unspoken plea not to throw shit.

Seconds into the weedy classical guitar and harp duo’s half-hour set of primly picked ditties from their forthcoming SOS JFK (Minty Fresh) debut, it was evident that Sweeney’s calming words probably saved them from a beer bath.

When operatic soprano Josephine Foster began strumming a ukulele along with Andy Bar’s plaintive chording, some restless Zwan fans jokingly hollered, “Rock on!” and made up their own goofy dance steps, but sarcasm and general indifference were as rough as it got. The Children’s Hour would’ve been better off with a Sunday matinee at the Free Times Café.

upcoming, tyler clark burke’s deadlines


If you’ve wandered by the Rotate This windows over the past year or so, chances are you’re well acquainted with Three Gut Records art phenom Tyler Clark Burke’s wildly surreal, fragmented work. Burke’s a brilliant force behind the awesome Three Gut aesthetic — remember the weird wolf heads on Royal City’s Alone At The Microphone disc? — and she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves. Her first gallery exhibition, Deadlines, opens Friday (April 4) at Sis Boom Bah (1114 Queen West).

The title gives you a vague impression of the show’s thematic content: mortality, time, the life cycle and yes, even the more banal notion of deadlines. Burke describes it with a witty epigraph: “I’m dying to see you. We’re all dying of something.”

“You know, while I’ve spent so many years in inspiring collaborative relationships with the bands on the label, it is interesting to be decorating my own stage,” she offers. “The freedom, which was initially a little daunting, has become quite exhilarating, and I’m learning a lot about my own creative process and my relationship to death, the dead and deadlines. Drawings of lightning victims, mouse skeletons and maggots in neon, pastel and ink.”

The drawings are morbid but not gruesome (lots of neon ink and no gory blood) and have a pretty amazing emotional impact that should be felt in the flesh, so check ’em out at tomorrow’s opening. The show runs through April 19.T.O.

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