provincial parks

Howl are up next, moving into a more melodic rock thing, starting off slow and then picking up the pace. A well-placed reggae break/outro strikes that part of me with a weakness for the genre. Though, if the bassist were to play up around the 12th all the time, he’d do well to get a Gibson EB series bass (or the equivalent Kalamazoo/Epiphone) vs a J. I start to realize that these guys really shine in the breakdown. Whoa, they have their own sound dude, snazzy.

http://www.torontoindie.com/?p=321
- www.torontoindie.com

The four dedicated souls in local indie rock band Howl literally live their art. They all moved into a house on Delaware Avenue and set up a basement studio for rehearsals and recordings. They also started putting on acoustic shows in their garage. How cool is that?!?
According to the band's bass player Scott Andrews, each show to date has turned into one big sing-a-long. The audience first consisted of the bands and their friends but it has slowly grown as new friends have been added to the circle.

I'm told the "Delaware House" is small (as most Toronto garages are), and the Howl boys have kept the shows completely acoustic - no microphones or amplifiers. There aren't too many shows like this happening around town at the moment, and their new Folk Yeah series continues tonight with at least ten different acts performing (!), including The Schomberg Fair and Proof of Ghosts.


Delaware House presents: Folk Yeah #2
Feat. Proof of Ghosts, Schomberg Fair, Ketch Harbour Wolves, Hungry Lake, Howl, many more
Friday, September 5
340 Delaware Avenue
Doors 8pm
$2 cover
- Blog T.O. c/o Gary Peter

There's something about feeling like a band is destined to be more than just another local act. Instead of just another band that seems to fill out the lineup for every show you go to, every so often you stumble upon a n artist that seems to represent everything that makes your neighborhood's heart beat.

Whether it's a cover band that keeps the bar rocking till 3AM on a Tuesday night or the band you and all of your friends tell everyone is the "next big thing", it's usually music that creates that kinship, and the sense of community that exudes from the new EP from Toronto's Provincial Parks so enjoyable.

Truth be told, I had never heard of Provincial Parks (or Howl as they were once known) before the EP arrived in my inbox and was a bit concernicus when I read a few passing reviews of their sound. Radio rock is not really something I gravitate towards, especially with a band is still in the early stages of a career. When a band starts out writing music for the masses, the result is usually catastrophic. Drama and a misguided sense of importance replace melody and creativity, and the end result become generic tripe.

Provincal Parks on the other hand put together a tribute to their own little corner of the world and the end result is a quick hitting EP that could be embraced by a much bigger audience. From the sounds of the Ossington Subway station that help transition the pulsing backbeat of Scenes & Faces to the acoustic melody of Island or the ice cream truck that keeps you daydreaming about summer even now as the last remaing leaves flutter in defiance, Iron Ponies is indebted to the location that birthed the band.

You see, despite the incredibly professional gloss on the songs, Provincial Parks recorded Iron Ponies -which like the song that shares the same name - and perfected their songs in the basement of their Ossington house. And on the surface, you might be able to name the ingredients that make up the Provincial Parks sound palette – acoustic driven tracks with solid electric backing work, pounding drums and soaring vocals – but you'd never expect a young band could pull off a track like Young Bride. The four-minute gem oozes confidence and throws in Rumors-like backing vocals on the chorus without feeling like a derivative attempt and mainstream success.

Provincial Parks eschew the hipper than hip vibe that dominates big urban centers and seem quite happy to dip into their parents' record collection and fuse tried and true sounds with radio ready rock songs. While that descriptor might be enough to warrant a disappointed face (trademark - Shane Nadeau), it's remarkable how tight this band is and how quickly the songs sink in. It's funny – well at least to me – that for some reason instead of talking about reasons to love this band, I keep coming up with reasons to prevent you from thinking you'll hate them.

I'm sure it's going to be something they have to deal with from the indie snob elite, but the beauty of the band is you can tell they don't care. Instead of trying to play with the hottest buzz bands, they open their home to local musicians for jam sessions and countless side projects. It's that kind of musical attitude that makes you hope this "local" band gets the chance to be heard by people outside of the scene that lays claim to them. - http://www.herohill.com/2008/11/reviews-provincial-parks-iron-ponies-ep.htm

"If every record will be just as mood-setting, as melodic, as good as “Iron Ponies” than there’s definitely something to look forward to this year."




Can you write a negative review?”
“I can write whatever the hell I want. The problem is that these f*cking musicians are too f*cking good”

This was a conversation that I had earlier this morning with one of my friends. One thing I’m definitely good at is negating everything. The funny thing is that as of late I couldn’t find even one album that I would dislike enough to write a negative review, dipping the whole thing into shit.

With that thought in my mind I sat down with my laptop, put my headphones on and pressed play in iTunes. The sun was setting and “Open Grave” hit my eardrums with a pleasant guitar that I instantly put into my mental list of “sounds I bloody like” (along with Taylor Hawkins’ drums and Kurt Cobain’s fancy 5-string). The song left me wondering what exactly did I mean when I left a note to myself that said that the “first track is confusing”, so I crossed that out and wrote “I feel that” instead. Once equilibrium was regained - the second track began with a seamless transition that left me sitting dumbfounded, going “holy shit!!!”.

While “Open Grave”, being a perfect opening track for this album, didn’t impress me that much, it’s “Love/Confidence” that I immediately fell in love with… That track, for whatever reason, made me think of California. California at it’s best. Setting sun, sandy beach, beautiful women and nothing but the sound of the ocean to be heard in the evening.
I don’t know why. Don’t ask me. So all in all, I was tapping along with the song and wishing for summer…

With the third track I was once again impressed with the way the songs end and begin, but then realized that I’m trying to make out what’s being sang. And even though that didn’t bother me one bit because I was enjoying the overall flow of this record, it does get a little tricky on some songs. Vocals are a little low in the mix, but hey, I’m not complaining.

The A Side of this double-sided EP ended with an instrumental track which gave the name to the whole album. “Iron Ponies” must’ve been controlled-substance-inspired because… well I’m not gonna tell you why. What I am gonna tell you is that the whole album feels very thought-through, very chill, very laid-back and very, VERY good.

colors_in_the_air

There is no way for me to describe what I actually think about this release because right now I’m playing “The Wasp and the Dragonfly”, which I know will be stuck in my head and will keep playing over and over again, making it impossible to think or write.

On that happy note…. well no, screw this. I have absolutely no idea how to segue into this, so I’ll just put it on the table.

If every record will be just as mood-setting, as melodic, as good as “Iron Ponies” than there’s definitely something to look forward to this year.

And goddamn I can’t help but think of California and everything incredible that life can offer… I wish the sun was setting. I wish there was nothing but the sound of the ocean….

- http://awmusic.ca/2009/01/25/provincial-parks-iron-poines-ep/

Traditionally, the music industry has existed to solve two important problems: how to produce music recordings, and how to distribute them. Both of these were intensely capital- and labour-intensive exeercises, so they required a concentration of wealth to finance the front-end costs and a professional class of producers, engineers, session musicians and A&R people to feed bands into it and keep it working.

At the same time, the scarcity and high cost of producing and distributing music meant two things: 1) the music labels had to filter potential acts before producing them, and 2) the labels were at a significant advantage when it came to signing contracts with musicians.

Of course, it's old news now that new technologies are well on the way to solving the problem of how to distribute music. The music industry is in the throes of a crisis over filesharing, which allows musicians to distribute their music (and for their fans to share and spread it) at effectively no cost.

The collapse of distribution costs has been devastating for an industry that exists partly to distribute music, but at least they could still claim necessary expertise in producing it.

On listening to Iron Ponies, the new EP by Toronto's Provincial Parks, I find myself thinking it's only a matter of time until the mass amateurization already sweeping across journalism and photography comes to demolish the second pillar of the music industry.

Provincial Parks are Richard, Pete, Scott and Will, four Torontonians in their mid-20s who have been playing together for just over two years (the first three started playing together a few months before Will joined).

Like most indie albums, Iron Ponies was mostly recorded and produced in the band's basement near Bloor and Ossington - albeit with engineering help from Inaam Haq and production on two tracks by Brent Bodrug.

Unlike many such albums, Iron Ponies sounds like it could have been put together in a professional studio.

The band says the album was "recorded using Logic Pro 7, mixed using Pro Tools with the help of European beer, whiskey, cigarettes for some and any other sound-making device that we could get our hands on and use in some way, shape, or form. We really knew what we wanted, and we set out to find ways to capture the sounds and mood any way possible."

This is their first recording (and an eight-song EP to boot), so in some ways it's more of a proof-of-concept than an opus. Nevertheless, it's an extremely enjoyable listen, drenched in pop sensibility and rich with catchy melodies and warm harmonies.

Provincial Parks sound like a band still developing their own sound. Their album wears its pop influences on its sleeve, to the point where I can almost hear what they were listening to when they recorded it.

In general, their sound is big and atmospheric, with reverberating guitar rhythms and a clean, upbeat rhythm section.

They seem to be going for what used to be known as the 'U2 sound' (I suppose these days it's the 'Coldplay sound'), an aesthetic most evident on the majestic "The Wasp + The Butterfly", easily the best song on the album.

The driving interplay between rhythm guitar and percussion reminds me in places of British indie rockers Bloc Party, particularly the rousing beats of "Scenes + Faces" and album opener "Open Grave".

At times the music feels slightly overproduced. This often works to the song's advantage - for example, the backing vocals on "Young Bride" evoke the distinctively retro harmonies of Boston's "Don't Look Back" and "More than a Feeling".

Likewise, the instrumental washes in the middle of the otherwise crisp "Love/Confidence" remind me warmly of the shoegazing style that came out of Britain in the late 1980s/early 1990s (Ride, Slowdive, Lush) and has enjoyed a recent resurgence with bands like M83 and Asobe Seksu.

But in the case of Provincial Parks, I get a sense that as they mature, they will gain the confidence not to hide behind so many effects.

This is one area - professional engineering and production - where the music industry still has an advantage; but the margin is narrowing steadily.

In the meantime, Iron Ponies holds the promise of truly great things to come as the band continues to mature and grow. I can't wait to hear their next offering.

Don't be fooled by the title of their closing track ("Too Indie for the CBC") - there are no guarantees in the music business, but if there's any justice, these guys have a very successful music career ahead of them. - http://www.raisethehammer.org/blog.asp?id=1194

Toronto indie music enthusiasts have probably stumbled across Howl one way or another, whether it was at a show of theirs, perhaps as part of a No Shame or TWM event, or at another local act’s set, because the boys who comprise Howl are some of the cities staunchest supporters. Or maybe it was at Delaware House, where the band throws house parties that more-or-less amount to social networking opportunities for independent local musicians. It’s bands like this that keep the scene moving forward.



Whether or not you’ve heard about Howl has suddenly become somewhat irrelevant, because the band has decided to take on the name Provincial Parks just in time for their Iron Ponies EP, which will be released at the Mod Club on Saturday November 8th.



I’ve been spending a lot of time with Iron Ponies, preparing for this review. I was already familiar with “Open Grave”, which is featured on Hi-Hat 2’s compilation and had been played probably 50 times in car rides I took over the last several months. So that’s where I’ll begin.



Like Arcade Fire’s entire record Funeral and the Band of Horses song of the same name, I always find myself intensely drawn to songs with a funeral- or grave-related theme. It’s my own personal scars that draw me in, but I also scrutinize these songs harder than I ever would another track. I’m here to tell you that “Open Grave” stands up to my test. It’s undeniably catchy and cleverly penned, with wickedly memorable guitar riffs and a perfect balance between positivity and melancholy that few musicians are able to achieve. If Iron Ponies can get attention beyond our beloved Toronto music scene, it will be through this song. Check out the vocal work from 2:25 till 3:03, and don’t be mistaken -- though they had excellent work done in the studio by Shawn Jurek, this is exactly how it sounds live.



“Tell me all the truth in your lies” is the key line repeated throughout the excellent “Young Bride”. Sometimes a lyric doesn’t have to be all that verbose to resonate with a listener. For me, this line just fits perfectly into my life and is bloody inspirational. When a band writes a song that any listener can hear and relate directly to their own life in an almost biographical way, they have written an upper-echelon track. The drumming on the album is exceptional, but Pete Garthside’s work here is his best, in my opinion. The band has a knack for knowing when to throw in just a touch of tambourine.



The only time Iron Ponies misses its mark with me is on its longest song, “The Wasp and the Dragonfly”. The vocals seem to blend a bit low in the mix, and at times I feel they are aiming to make this song that epic memorable track on the EP rather than letting it become such. But around 3:30, when the vocals are dropped for an awesome instrumental build-up equipped with some solid shaker action, I quickly forget about my above criticism. I’ve often said that you can rather fairly evaluate the quality of a record by the album’s weakest track. If that track is still quite good, then you probably have a winner.



And with the Iron Ponies EP you have precisely that. When so many bands have trouble even getting together for a gig, let alone to practice, this band literally lives, eats and hangs out together even when music has nothing to do with it. So when reviewers -- hopefully around this country -- describe this album as tight (which they inevitably will) they won’t even kn - http://www.twowaymonologues.com/reviews/provincial-parks/iron-ponies-ep/

If you think you're familiar with Canada's vast array of provincial parks, think again. Toronto-based band Provincial Parks won't be lurking in the periphery of your scene-dar for long. As ravenous bloggers lie in waiting, licking their mutton chops and following the scent of the "next best thing," Toronto's best kept secret awaits its inevitable widespread success. The four man ensemble, formerly named "Howl", have traded in their Ginsberg-inspired title for something a little more in tune with their music.

"People were missing out on our intended connection with the beat movement," says the group's singer and guitarist Will Hemmings. "We were finding ourselves being associated with wolves." According to Hemmings, this was causing a rift between the band's reputation and its members' musical intentions. Hence emerging Provincial Parks, whose highly accessible melodies and lyrics coincide more with the hippie movement within Canada's preserved landscapes than with the carnivorous yell of wolves.

While the band identifies with the hippie movement, their music avoids an overly psychedelic sound. "We want to move in the direction of bands like Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses," says Hemmings. "Their sound is not only widely accessible, but also manages to be unpredictable." This goal is certainly achieved in their newly released EP Iron Ponies, which was written and recorded in a band members' basement. Loaded with catchy lyrics and habit-forming hooks, the album manages to achieve the impossible. It manages to both appeal to a wider scope of listeners and repel the generic tendency of pop music. The fun and infectious track "Young Bride" should be accompanied by some sort of a patch to wean listeners off of its addictive melody. "I knew we were doing something right when my dad told me he liked our stuff," jokes Will.

It seems that Will's dad isn't the only member of the Provincial Parks fan club. The band has peaked the interest of many music publications who have also taken note of the evident pressure the band is placing on its hometown seams. "We've played one gig in Montreal," says Hemmings. "But other than that we mostly play gigs in Ontario." The band members hope to establish their touring bearings in the east before taking on the rest of Canada. However, Iron Ponies illuminates the inevitability of their local outburst. The band will be parading their hits across provincial and national borders in no time.

Despite these positive reactions from the press, Hemmings suggests that the goals and perspectives of the band members regarding Provincial Parks' future are fairly modest. "We're not in this to make loads of cash," says Hemmings. "I'd like to own a small house, but that's the extent of it."

In terms of the direction their music is taking, Hemmings envisions an approach more akin with the experimental, yet vocally refined sound of Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear. Hemmings admires the band for their diverse arrangements and stellar vocals, two ingredients which make "Provincial Parks" the burgeoning bear cub trailing heavily on heels of their mentors' exceedingly large musical paws.


Provincial Parks plays at The Pound (377 Richmond St.) on January 23. - http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2009/01/20/AE/Music.Indie.Rock.For.Ca

"On stage the band has much more in common with the Britpopish sounds of the Dears or the Stereophonics than with Sufjan Stevens or the Arcade Fire. And the crowd ate it up, happily singing and clapping along to the choruses of the catchiest songs,"




I had my concerns. When I arrived at the Mod Club it was only twenty minutes before Provincial Parks (né Howl) were scheduled to hit the stage, but the room was still far from being even half full. Plus, a suspicious number of the people who were there seemed to have been on the guestlist, and were looking decidedly more upscale than the "Toronto indie music enthusiasts" who have been said to make up the band's base. You couldn't help but worry that Provincial Parks' EP release might be drawing more friends and family than die-hard fans – and that they'd lucked into a booking at a venue that might have been a little . . . well . . . optimistic.

Of course I was dead wrong.

By the time the Toronto rockers did hit the stage, the room was packed. Whether you were at the front of the stage, or back by the doors, threading your way through the throng was getting to be a distinct pain in the ass. And the people making up that throng – who in retrospect probably owed their late arrival to a healthy bout of pre-drinking – were ready to let loose with the kind of enthusiasm you'd expect from dedicated fans, not just supportive acquaintances.

As they started to play, the band's live sound proved to be just as much of a surprise. If all you had to go on was the group's name, or the forest scenes gracing their MySpace page, or the hand-drawn rocking horse on the cover of their new EP, Iron Ponies, you'd expect Provincial Parks to be a gentle folk outfit, or a cooler-than-you indie-rock collective. And if you were judging by their recorded efforts, which have earned the band both positive reviews and comparisons to "adult-contempo rock/pop", you'd still have been off. On stage the band has much more in common with the Britpopish sounds of the Dears or the Stereophonics than with Sufjan Stevens or the Arcade Fire. And the crowd ate it up, happily singing and clapping along to the choruses of the catchiest songs, while the band played as tightly as you'd hope for from a group who all share an apartment and have been gigging together for years.

So, in the end, the Mod Club's psychedelic '60s murals and generous capacity proved to be the perfect setting for the show. And with a sound as likely to appeal to the radio-listening crowd as to the grassroots indie community they've long been supportive members of, it's easy to imagine that Provincial Parks could be playing some much bigger venues in the not-too-distant future. - http://www.soundproofmagazine.com/Canada/Live/Provincial_Parks_The_Mod_Club.html

"a band that I think has put out one of the three best debut EPs this year."

If I had to be honest, which I don't, I really wasn't expecting to enjoy Iron Ponies EP by Provincial Parks. My initial reaction, was to recoil at the adult-contempo rock/pop sound, but I did give it chance and boy-howdy am I glad that I did.

(Rob spends an incalculable amount of time thinking about how to try and convince readers to listen to the record even though he's compared the band to ones that his parents would listen to.)

And really, now that I think about it, once you've gone through your teenage angst period this issue of genre shouldn't be a big deal. I mean, good music is good music, right?

(Rob spends time thinking about all the artists he likes that his parents do also... he comes up with: A bunch from the '60s/70s/80s, Feist, Basia Bulat, Coldplay, Great Lake Swimmers, The Acorn, Ohbijou, and then decides its enough that he doesn't have to justify his initial reaction to the album anymore.)

What I really like about the about the album, particularly since it was produced in the band's basement, is how smooth it is and how it flows (one might say like a late summer breeze) from beginning to end. And while the album is smooth and catchy, little things like the noise of the Ossington subway stop at the end of 'Scenes & Faces' show the kind of creativity that you don't see from other bands who play this type of music.

(Rob tries to decide which song(s) to post since he feels like all of them are really good and songs that his readers should hear. He decides on 'Open Grave' the kick-ass opener and 'Scenes & Faces' 'Islands' because its also really good, and that's what I'm listening to at the moment. He tries to figure out a way to explain that the difficulty in choosing which songs to post is indicative of how excellent this EP is. He fails, since, this descriptive writing thing - ironically - is not really his bag, baby.)

[mp3] Provincial Parks - Open Grave
[mp3] Provincial Parks - Islands

More good news! The band is having their CD release party at the Mod Club this Saturday, Nov. 8.

Even more good news! They have offered to let you in for FREE if you email them at: provincialparks [AT] gmail [DOT] com

Sadly, I will not be able to attend (parents are coming to visit, if only I had known I probably would've actually brought them but we're going to see Jersey Boys), but you should go and see a band that I think has put out one of the three best debut EPs this year. - http://londononburgeoningmetropolis.blogspot.com/2008/11/iron-ponies-ep-by-provincial-parks.html

The backlog of CD's that I have to listen to and review is reaching the point of unmanageable, but I don't anticipate that I'll be heading out to a great wealth of shows over the next few days so maybe I'll get the chance to finally post a CD review or two.

I finally gave a listen to a few of them over the past week, and the one that stood out the most to me was the Iron Ponies EP by Provincial Parks. Will, Rich, Scotty and Pete all live together in the same house in the suburbs of Toronto (?), and they all met through craigslist. When you listen to the EP, it's actually quite amazing that these guys don't really have any other history with each other prior to the band, because the symmetry between the band members is uncanny. I'm saying this in terms of instrumentation, harmony and overall musical mood. Chemistry like this usually takes years to nourish, decades to cultivate. But Provincial Parks make it seem effortless, as each song on the EP eclipses the one before it. The production is so pristine that it's hard to believe that it was recorded in the band's basement. Some of the songs have a harder edged stadium sound to them (Open Grave, Scenes and Faces) while other songs are steeped in handclaps and melody (Love/Confidence). The title track is a mainly instrumental piece that is downright baroscopic as it segues into the beautifully epic The Wasp and the Dragonfly. This may be kind of an obscure reference for the regular readers of my blog, but it reminds me of some of the atmospheric renderings of Eric Johnson, minus the overwrought guitar explorations. The standout track for me is Young Bride, which is interesting in the sense that while it's not a cover of the Midlake song that shares its name, it seems to come from a similar point of reference. The chorus boasts some mesmerisingly stunning vocal work that is straight out of the Fleetwood Mac handbook, while the melody pulsates with ebullience. The song is beautiful, simply beautiful. The final song is an instrumental electronic left turn with the humorous title Too Indie For The CBC, which is a perfect album ender, but also a great way to whet the listener's appetite for what may be coming next. If the band has more output like this in store for the future, then a lot of people are going to be familiar with the works of Provincial Park in the years to come.
- http://itsnotthebandihateitstheirfans.blogspot.com/search/label/provincial%20parks