Episode 117: Professor Corey's Music Focus

The first question after a long absence necessarily has to be ‘why did you go away?’ - which belies how happy fans are to see Big Wreck return. The truth is the details have gown hazy over the last decade and neither Ian Thornley nor Brian Doherty recalls precisely what brought about the shelving of their band. Sure, there were outside pressures and there was a machine whose component parts were no longer in sync. The simple answer on why Big Wreck is back owes to a rekindling of the friendship of these two musicians, who didn’t speak for years and, once they did, the guitars came out. “I just missed him,” says Ian frankly. “I called him just to hang out but of course knew the chemistry would be there.” Brian echoes the sentiment: “We got together and started doing the same things as when we first met, on personal and musical level. It seemed to make complete sense.”

Returning to that place where like-minded musicians communicate is to return to the wellspring of inspiration and creativity. With Big Wreck, that translates into an outpouring of rock music that is direct from the subconscious heart, and lives in the interplay of controlled horsepower and unbridled virtuosity. Big Wreck remains faithful to the Big Rock playbook but isn’t necessarily interested in the “so big it will eat your children” flavours of today. “I went for all the good stuff that’s missing on rock records these days,” says Ian in describing the recording process. “I wanted to avoid falling into the formulaic cookie-cutter trap. That’s not going to interest me so how can it interest the listener? I have to go with my gut, which means longer songs, intros and bridges which explore strange territories, more room for breathing and a different dynamic range or sonic palette altogether.” While contemplating the next studio sessions, Ian was listening to Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac and Thin Lizzy, finding a love of the textures in clean guitars against dry drums for creating a sonic backdrop that’s rarer today.

As important as finding a more natural approach to the aural landscape, Ian was also committed (and unencumbered!) to approach the recording technique in a way that would offer least obstruction. “The first Big Wreck was recorded really quickly, almost like high-performance demos. When we got signed, that’s what they put out and it worked,” he recalls. Albatross would be best served by following this same template: written free from outside influence, recorded fast in the studio to match the vibe that Ian wanted to capture. “There’s no other word for it other than ‘vibe’ – it may be a cliché but you know when it’s there and you definitely feel its absence when it’s not.” Continue reading…

Episode 116: Professor Corey's Music Focus

The Reindeer Section is the super group combining some of Scotland's musically creative as well as some of indie rock's finest to emerge during the late '90s. All hailing from the city that brought Travis, Primal Scream, and Texas to the U.K. music forefront, the Reindeer Section boasted similar testimonies to their native land and swooning swan songs surrounding drink and daydreams. It's merely an experiment -- musical mayhem captured during ten days in a studio that Belle & Sebastian's Mick Cooke and Richard Colburn joined Arab Strap's Aidin Moffatt and Mogwai's John Cummings for a stunning result entitled Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! Jonny Quinn and Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, select members of the guitar rock outfit, Astrid, as well as musicians from Hercules, Eva, Mull Historical Society, and V-Twin added to the Reindeer Section's story book swirls of something lush and dark. Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! was issued on Bright Star Recordings in the U.K. in early 2001, and on PIAS America later that fall. The next year, The Reindeer Section expanded their line-up with the addition of Idlewild's Roddy Woomble, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and members from The Vaselines and Cadet. Such expansion allowed for a grand sound as well. A second album, Son of Evil Reindeer, appeared in summer 2002. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide

Episode 115: Professor Corey's Music Focus

Björk Guðmundsdóttir 

Born in 1965 in the Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik, the daughter of Gudmundur Gunnarsson (an electrician) and Hildur Hauksdóttir who divorced before her second birthday, Björk grew up in a hippie-type community with her mother and her seven siblings. She started to study classical music at the age of 5 and released her first album in 1977 (mainly traditional Icelandic folk songs and international hits translated to Icelandic) when she was only 11. During her teenage years Björk became involved in several bands, most of them punk: Spit & Snot (1977), Exodus (1979-80), Jam 80 (1980), Tappi Tíkarrass (1981-83) (featured the documentary Rock in Reykjavik (1982)) and Kukl (1984-86). She then formed the pop group The Sugarcubes with Einar Örn Benediktsson and Sigtryggur Baldursson and eventually other members Þór Eldon (with whom she had a son in 1986), Margrét Örnólfsdóttir and Bragi Ólafsson. The band released its first single in 1986 and its first album, "Life's Too Good", in 1988, and discovered international success, especially in UK. During her Sugarcubes years, Björk also collaborated with the Icelandic jazz group Gudmundar Ingólfssonar Trio for the album "Gling-Glo" in 1990, and featured 808 State's "Ooops", which was the start of her electronic music interest. The Sugarcubes eventually split after a few albums in 1992 and in 1993. Björk released her first solo album, "Debut", in collaboration with producer Nellee Hooper. The worldwide success of the album (nearly 3 million copies sold) made possible her second album, "Post", in 1995, also with help of not only Nellee Hooper but techno gurus Graham Massey (from 808 State), Howie B. and Tricky, followed by the remix album "Telegram" the year after. After some problems in the UK, where she lived, she decided to go to Spain to record her third album, "Homogenic", released in 1997. Her main collaborators were the 'Icelandic String Octet', Mark Bell (from LFO), Mark Stent and again Howie B, and the album may be her most electronic.  Biography By: Raphaël Jullien <jraf3615@yahoo.com.au> 

Episode 114: Professor Corey's Music Focus

As the first white rap group of any importance, the Beastie Boys received the scorn of critics and strident hip-hop musicians, both of whom accused them of cultural pirating, especially since they began as a hardcore punk group in 1981. But the Beasties weren't pirating -- instead, they treated rap as part of a post-punk musical underground, where the D.I.Y. aesthetics of hip-hop and punk weren't that far apart. Of course, the exaggerated b-boy and frat-boy parodies of their unexpected hit debut album, Licensed to Ill, didn't help their cause. For much of the mid-'80s, the Beastie Boys were considered macho clowns, and while they dismissed that theory with the ambitious, Dust Brothers-produced second album, Paul's Boutique, it was ignored by both the public and the press at the time. In retrospect, Paul's Boutique was one of the first albums to predict the genre-bending, self-referential pop kaleidoscope of '90s pop. The Beasties refined their eclectic approach with 1992's Check Your Head, where they played their own instruments. Check Your Head brought the Beasties back to the top of the charts, and within a few years, they were considered one of the most influential and ambitious groups of the '90s, cultivating a musical community not only through their music, but with their record label, Grand Royal, and their magazine of the same name.  Continue reading....

Episode 113: Professor Corey's Music Focus

Ron Sexsmith

Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born ) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario, currently based in Toronto. He started his own band when he was fourteen years old, and released the first recordings of his own material seven years later, in 1985. Some of the same artists who inspired Sexsmith?Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, and John Hiatt?are now people whose praise he has won.

Sexsmith was seventeen when he started playing at a bar, the Lion's Tavern, in his hometown. He would gain a reputation as "The One-Man Jukebox" for his aptitude for playing requests. However, four to five years of this led him to play original songs and more obscure music his audience did not favour.

He decided to start writing songs after the birth of his first child, Christopher, in 1985. He moved to Toronto, formed a band called The Uncool, and released a cassette, Out of the Duff. A year later, he released There?s a Way. Next came the birth of his second child, Evelyn, in 1989.

Meanwhile, he worked as a courier, and released Grand Opera Lane in 1991. On the strength of this album he earned a contract which led to his self-titled album in 1995. The album received wider attention when it was praised by Elvis Costello, for whom Sexsmith later opened. Between 1997 and 2001, Sexsmith released three more albums before the acclaimed Cobblestone Runway in 2002. Retriever, a more pop-oriented album than those before, is dedicated to Elliott Smith and Johnny Cash. In 2004, he performed at the RuhrTriennale in the concert series Century of Song hosted by Grammy Award-winner Bill Frisell.

On , 2001, Sexsmith performed "Just My Heart Talkin'" on the BBC's Later with Jools Holland musical showcase, alongside R.E.M., Orbital, India.Arie and Clearlake. Holland backed him on piano. It was his second appearance on the show.

In 2005, he released a collection of songs recorded with drummer Don Kerr during the production of Retriever, called Destination Unknown. Director Liz Marshall made a whimsical music video for the song "Listen", it was shot in and around Toronto's harbour with Sexsmith & Kerr paddling in a canoe and basking in the spring sunshine. The same year, he won a songwriter of the year Juno Award for "Whatever it Takes".  Continue reading….