the book of right-on

Better late than never getting these pics up!

Last summer, local musician/producer Mike Petkau began an ambitious project; for 16 Wednesdays in a row, he gathered groups of three musicians, usually from different generic backgrounds, in a recording studio where they wrote and recorded an all-new track in one night. Into the wee hours of the morning, Petkau stayed up mixing the track so he could release it to the internet the following morning. (My original post on the subject.)

Last month word came out that Killbeat Music would be distributing the limited-run CD printing of the project, which comes in a happily-coloured orange-and-green, individually-numbered cardboard case.

The CD release was held, quite timely-like, in the newly reopened West End Cultural Centre, closed for nearly a year for massive renovations. It was my first time in the new WECC, so allow me to say a few words on the subject — IT IS AWESOME. (Now a few more words.) The biggest achievement of the new design is that when you walk into the new auditorium, located in an all-new building attached on to the old one (the old auditorium now is a lobby/multi-purpose-room/bar/washrooms), it feels the same as the old one. It has the same dark, cozy feel, and while the stage is larger and lower and there’s a (super-cool) catwalk balcony in a u-shape at the back of the room, the same old tables and chairs are arranged in a familiar manner and you still feel like you’re at the West End. That is amazing and hats off to everyone who pulled this massive project off.

So the new yet comfortingly-familiar West End was the perfect place for the live performances of tracks from the ROTWC project (some of the bands necessarily rearranged due to the originally participating musicians being away on tour and such). Even more remarkable were the performances of still more original compositions; the musicians who performed on the night also spent the afternoon working in new groups creating new songs. Like the ROTWC project, the results were uneven but always entertaining. Take, for example, “Group A,” who paired jazz saxophone with spoken word interludes that had throat-singer Nikki Komaksiutiksak and Moses Mayes DJ Grant Paley bantering about garage sales. Later on, a group featuring Julia Ryckman (the Gorgon, Slattern) on vocals, performed an amazing, long-form rock jam inspired by the prompt “Listening.” Other highlights included Magnum K.I.’s Ismaila Alfa rapping on two separate songs including ROTWC’s “Walkman,” and Heather Antenbring’s fantastic saxophone playing.

Here are the pics.

Heather Antenbring and Curtis Walker (a.k.a Blunderspublik)

Bob G. Somers

Nikki Komatsiutiksak & Mike Petkau

Julia Ryckman

Ismaila Alfa

Curtain call