Mt. Royal

Mark Hamilton, Calgary Herald

Published: Friday, March 14, 2008

Medicine Hat seems like one of the least likely places to find a band as forward-looking (or perhaps, more accurately, lurching) as Mount Royal. Fronted by freshly minted 20-year-old twins Thomas and Robert DiNinno, Mount Royal's frenetic live power is finally captured full-blast by local wunderkind producer Arran Fisher on the band's debut EP Mad Foxes. Turning on a dime and taking off at full speed, it's a crazed (and crazy-good) introduction.
Be it the careening, Velvets-y keyboards and cymbal crashes of "Ghost Song," or the motorik-keyboard loops of "Let in the Light," Mad Foxes is the type of taster release that not only grabs attention, but, despite its brevity, also stands up next to comparable full-length records. There are traces of Modest Mouse and Les Savy Fav, to be sure, but it's all filtered through a left-field, small-town lens so uniquely, well, Mount Royal.
Besides putting The Hat on the map with their series of weekly Young & Pretty shows (always packed, always interesting), curated by bandmates Thomas and Steve Lind, Mount Royal has already played opening slots for the likes of Sunset Rubdown and The Summerlad, and is touring this summer with Calgary's next big thing, the band Women. Now that's hitting the ground running.

Mad Foxes is released Tuesday, March 18 with celebratory shows in Medicine Hat and an appearance on March 22 at the Marquee Room. Mad Foxes will be available at local independent shops and through the band at myspace.com/mtroyal.

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The DiNinno bros. on Mount Royal's EP Mad Foxes

Track by Track

1. Come On Robert: "Basically every song just starts out as one line that I like, and I go from there. This one started with the title, basically. We could say it's a magical story about magic. And people exploring the wilderness. I don't think that I'm a super-good singer or lyricist; I try to make the singing and the lyrics more a part of the music--lyrics are an instrument as much as they are just words."
2. Let In the Light Thomas: "This is the first song we wrote that made me think, 'We should stick this out. It's pretty decent.'" Robert: "This song is about the future. It says people are going to drive cars in the sky like in Back to the Future. I was watching that movie when I wrote the words to this one."
3. Banjo Song Robert: "It was fun writing a song with the banjo and making it a rock song." Thomas: "I just started singing this in the shower and thought it sounded cool."
4. Ghost Song Thomas: "We wrote 'Ghost Song' in about 10 minutes, and it was a big accident. We were waiting for our bass player to show up for practice, and he didn't end up actually coming. We thought, 'Let's jam,' and there it was." Robert: "That's my favourite song to play. It's like rock on, and then we're done."
5. Eye-Lights Robert: "That's Thomas' masterpiece!" Thomas: "I was thinking of CCR, and there was one song that really influenced me.
I was listening to it every day and lots of Motown stuff, and I wanted it to have that kind of '60s space-rock vibe." Robert: "He played that CCR song over and over to me." - Calgary Herald

Medicine Hat rockers take Calgary by force

Published March 6, 2008

Medicine Hat might not be the most obvious indie-rock hot spot, but through fanboy enthusiasm and endless networking, the young lads in Mt. Royal have managed to establish exactly that. Not only have they built a scene of rabid music lovers in their hometown, they’ve created something worth bringing to the big city. Fronted by the twin DiNinno brothers — Thomas and Robert — the time has come to get the word out about Mt. Royal.

With their debut EP Mad Foxes, produced in widescreen Technicolor by The Summerlad’s Arran Fisher, Mt. Royal are putting Medicine Hat on the map with an exciting blend of pop tunefulness and good, old-fashioned youthful noise. “Ghost Song” and “Let In the Light” are built on waves of swelling, clockwork keyboards, while “Eye-Lights” builds on a chorus of handclaps to make a driving cacophony. With near-mechanical precision and its fair share of madness, Mad Foxes packs in more ideas than some bands muster over the course of an entire full-length. It’s a surprisingly assured debut, in particular for a band with such inauspicious beginnings.

“We always wanted a band really badly,” says Thomas, “but never had an excuse to play. Some of our friends asked us to play with them, and we started just writing songs for the show. It just kind of happened.” Shortly afterwards, Thomas and his bandmate Steve Lind started the Young & Pretty series of shows, currently a weekly sellout success at Medicine Hat club The Ottoman. Featuring one of the province’s best stages, lit from beneath Saturday Night Fever-style, the venue has helped make their hometown one of the de rigeur stops for every Calgary band worth their road salt. “I don’t do anything for the shows,” adds Robert (whose side project, Capital R’s, is one of the town’s biggest local draws), “but people always give me some of the credit for them, and that’s cool with me.”

Giving credit where credit is due, recent props for Mt. Royal include Calgary shows with The Summerlad and Sunset Rubdown, and this summer sees the group taking on their first major tour with local heroes-in-the-making Women. “Alberta’s kick-ass. It’s the best place for music right now,” says Thomas. Robert interjects, “We really like Medicine Hat, too. It’s cool actually. We own this town.”

Yet, despite their distance from Calgary, the DiNinno boys’ work in changing the face of Medicine Hat for its teenagers has also given them a role to be reckoned with in Calgary’s music scene. “I think a lot of people forget we’re from Medicine Hat,” says Thomas. “They’ll try to send me posters to put up, and I’ll have to remind them I don’t live in Calgary.”

“It’s kind of neat that way, just being out of the big city,” adds Robert. “We’re impartial to the corruption of the big city.” - FFWD

If you haven’t heard of Medicine Hat’s Young and Pretty Folk Music Association, well it’s about time you did.

Headed up by local bandmates, Thomas DiNinno and Steven Lind of Mt. Royal, the non-profit association has been booking Tuesday nights at the Ottoman Lounge since – well, since February of 2007.

But the association has been promoting all-ages shows in the city since late 2006.

“We were kind of setting up a few shows before we put a name behind it,” said DiNinno. “We started off doing one all-ages show a month and then the Ottoman approached us about doing something on the weekdays.”

The first show they put together at the Ottoman was very last minute and for a friend, but despite all odds, the show was a success.

“It just started snowballing from there,” said DiNinno. “It got to the point we had so many requests for shows we were doing five all-ages shows a month...the Ottoman was a good venue change for us.”

Tuesday nights with the Young and Pretty Folk Music Association has become a mainstay for Medicine Hat live music and brings people of all ages out of the woodwork.

“I never see these people around,” said DiNinno. “I guess we just tapped into something that no one else has yet, and it’s bringing out all of these interesting people.”

Although the association’s venue is 18-plus, it still tries to maintain a healthy dose of all-ages shows.

DiNinno says Tuesday nights are booked solid until May this year, and that is only because Mt. Royal is touring from May 20 to June 29 with the band Women.

The promoter, who also attends the Visual Communication course at the college, says it keeps him hopping.

“I am pretty busy, I usually don’t sleep that much.”

Back to the band: Mt. Royal has been together for a couple of years and DiNinno is here to tell audiences – no they didn’t attend Mount Royal College in Calgary and where the heck did that rumour come from?

“We didn’t even know about that until we got home from to Alberta, but Montreal, that’s where we got the name,” he said. “Actually I have never been to Mount Royal College, I don’t think any of us have.”

The band is made up of DiNinno brothers, Thomas and Robert, along with Dustin Desharnais, Mitch Martin and Steven Lind.

Together they are releasing their five-song EP, Mad Foxes, at their upcoming concert events.

On the band’s Myspace, they describe their sound as ugly pop – so the News asked DiNinno to elaborate.

“It’s like Britney Spears if Tom Waits was singing,” he joked.

The band released its first EP a few years back, but DiNinno says it’s nothing compared to the latest EP.

“This one (Mad Foxes) we are really happy about and Arran Fisher recorded it, he’s from the Summerlad.”

Even though the album was recorded in DiNinno’s basement and living room, which was fun for the band, he promises the Mad Foxes EP has solid quality.

Props to Arran Fischer (who is Summerlad’s bassist and guitarist) who has done production work for many Calgary bands including; Woodpigeon, Gunther and The Cape May.

Just add Medicine Hat’s Mt. Royal to the list.

Mt. Royal is playing two CD release shows, the first at the Ottoman Lounge, March 18 at 8 p.m. and the second, an all-ages event at The Lucky Squid, March 21 at 7 p.m.

Both shows have a $5 cover and the Mad Foxes EP will also be available for $5.

Mt. Royal will be joined by local band Christmas and Calgary’s Summerlad at the Ottoman as well as a few special guests at the all-ages event.

Mt. Royal is also planning to record a full-length CD when they get back and if all things go well, will also have a seven-inch single release on vinyl.

“That will be an unreleased song and we hope it’s for sale at our tour kickoff,” he said.

Mt. Royal starts its tour May 20 at the Ottoman Lounge. - Medicine Hat News

Mt. Royal kicks

Written by Edge
Saturday, 05 May 2007

On Tuesday May 8th local Medicine Hat rock band Mt. Royal kicks off it?s first ever tour with a special concert and party at the Ottoman Empire. Their tour will cover Western Canada all the way to the coast and back and even include a special performance and interview on Calgary?s CJSW 90.9 fm. Guitarist Thomas Di Ninno comments on how excited they are for the tour: ?It?s going to be really fun. We?re really lucky to be able to do something like this, most bands don?t make it out of their basement, let alone able to tour and show off their music to other people?. The doors open at 8pm and admission is three dollars. No minors are allowed. For more information visit www.myspace.com/mtroyal. - The Edge

RAMP 6!

Number 6 already! This is all so great. Last night was very cool. A dedicated crew of the hardy braved the crappy re-winter and enjoyed an awesome trio of acts that fully impressed with their takes on horror themed music.

Unless you were there, you probably haven't seen Mt. Royal do their thing yet, but then you seriously missed out on a band that is making some incredible music. One thing that I really like about them is that their music is really hard to describe. My friend said he thought one song reminded him of Daydream era Sonic Youth, and another thought they were a bit like the Fall. And then maybe they're a bit like Bauhaus, but more fun and inquisitive in their approach, I mean, none of these bands use a banjo or ridiculous (in a good way) synth sounds. But these bands are just like tiny flashes of recognition in the Mt. Royal sound, and never distract or take over. Ultimately, you can't really peg them, which is what makes them so great.
- RAMP

- Exclaim! magazine sponsored cross canada tour w/ women (may/june 08)

- Featured on cbc radio 3 podcast (http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2008/05/Podcast-154-Fresh-Flowers)


-neat - mt. royal