The Paint Movement

NXNE Aux TV interview with Alan Cross - Explore Music

filmed by mitch fillion - Southern Souls

The Paint Movement - s/t
Nevado Records
Published August 25, 2011 by James Wilt in CD Reviews

The Paint Movement is one of those bands that just can’t avoid being compared to Broken Social Scene. After all, TPM’s self-titled debut album — which was released earlier this month — was produced by David Newfeld of You Forgot It in People and Broken Social Scene fame.

Hushed vocals are exchanged between male and female vocalists in similar fashion to Feist and Drew (“Heart Lids”). Guitar lines — although slightly more formulaic in the TPM rendition – are cleverly accompanied with heavy smacks on the toms (“Fortune’s Window”).

But despite the nearly shocking similarity of sound, TPM has managed to make a solid debut album which suggests a great deal of potential for future efforts. Although the band is still finding its sound, there are a few elements of the music which uniquely demand attention.

Take the presence of the saxophone, for example. Unlike TPM’s label partner, Library Voices (which I criticized last week for not having enough sax), there is an abundance of the instrument throughout the album. Songs are arranged in a way that prioritize the sax, which gives the band a slightly more jazzy feel on tracks such as “Is it True.” In saying that, the sax player really needs to work on his tone, as many of his high notes sound flat.

There is certainly some work to do before TPM can cement itself in the indie rock circuit (and probably a spot or two on BSS’s roster). But it is, after all, the band’s first album. - Fast Forward Weekly

I'm seriously bowled over by the self-titled debut by Mississauga/Toronto band The Paint Movement, which is available now via Nevado Records. The 9 songs are musically rich, beautifully layered but never heavy. The contrasting male/female vocals ebb and wane, demanding your emotional attention like a soft-spoken friend. The Paint Movement is an album that you'll go back to again and again, rewarding you anew with each listen.

It's easy to draw upon comparisons to indie veterans Broken Social Scene, whose producer David Newfeld was enlisted in the mixing and production of the record. In fact, that was my initial impression, and on tracks like "Fortune's Window," with pounding drums, his-and-hers vocals, horns and quirky guitars, the influence is hard to deny. But to stop there would be a disservice both to you and the album, which exudes an easy warmth and a confidence beyond the band's years. Soulful at times ("Is It True"), rocking in others ("Embers," "Skip to the West"), this debut shows a band with sizzling chemistry and a good handle on the parts that make up the whole. These songs don't meander; they aim straight for your head until you're humming along only a verse and a chorus in. - NxEW

After realizing how strict the bars are in Halifax with respect to proper ID, I ended up at The Seahorse Tavern. After catching a bit of The Balconies’ set, it was evident just how packed the venue was. The Paint Movement had quite the crowd right up front dancing along to their set. While the band hails from Toronto/Mississauga, they seemed to have Halifax in the palm of their hands, or at least those at the Seahorse.
- Buying Shots For Bands

It would be easy (and not all that inaccurate) to dub this Toronto, ON crew Broken Social Scene-lite. The band’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach, with hushed boy-girl vocals, makes it difficult to distinguish the crew from their heavyweight Toronto colleagues. Of course, enlisting Dave Newfeld (best known for his work on the Scenesters’ first two records) to produce doesn’t exactly help squash the comparison.

But that discounts the sophisticated level of songwriting on display. The Paint Movement’s songs are lean jams held together by some soaring melodies and subtly brilliant saxophone work. But credit Newfeld with bringing these tracks to life; his clean production cuts through the busy noise of the band’s six instrumentalists, bringing out the inherent hooks of each track.

Though not the most original group going, this debut proves that the Paint Movement certainly have the potential to be among the most thrilling.
- If The Music's Loud Enough

It would be easy (and not all that inaccurate) to dub this Toronto, ON crew Broken Social Scene-lite. The band’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach, with hushed boy-girl vocals, makes it difficult to distinguish the crew from their heavyweight Toronto colleagues. Of course, enlisting Dave Newfeld (best known for his work on the Scenesters’ first two records) to produce doesn’t exactly help squash the comparison.

But that discounts the sophisticated level of songwriting on display. The Paint Movement’s songs are lean jams held together by some soaring melodies and subtly brilliant saxophone work. But credit Newfeld with bringing these tracks to life; his clean production cuts through the busy noise of the band’s six instrumentalists, bringing out the inherent hooks of each track.

Though not the most original group going, this debut proves that the Paint Movement certainly have the potential to be among the most thrilling.
- If The Music's Loud Enough

The Paint Movement
Nevado (http://www.nevadorecords.com)

The Paint Movement are a Toronto based indie-pop band that incorporate elements of chamber-rock and soul to establish an innovative and progressive style. After independently releasing an EP locally, followed by a 7" vinyl on Nevado Records, this self-titled album is their debut full-length CD. The Paint Movement has been in the process of being made for over a year, and it does not dissapoint those who have been waiting. The album was mixed and produced by David Newfeld, who is fairly well known for his work with Apostle of Hustle and Broken Social Scene amongst other great upcoming rock acts.

The Paint Movement begins with "Young Lights", a song that showcases the band's smooth saxophone leads and simple but danceable rhythm section. The album then moves into "Embers", a track with catchy polyphonic melodies which draws similarities to the Arts & Crafts sound that Newfeld assisted in popularizing. The Paint Movement display their powerful vocals in "Fortunes Window", with alternating male and female vocal parts accompanied by groovy soul rhythms. "Curiosity" is The Paint Movement's most sensual song, with interesting dynamics and romantic imagery. Some other excellent moments include the jazzy piano-driven "Heart Lids", and the emotional folk-rock feel of "Skip to the West". The Paint Movement is a very promising group with impressive musicianship and songwriting that makes them standout from the majority of Toronto indie-rock acts.

By Marshal Hignett - !earshot

The Paint Movement – who had a slow start to their set, but stepped it up by song three – played a tight set to warm the crowd up for Yukon Blonde. Their timing was impeccable, every band member played exactly the right note at exactly the right moment. Aesthetically, the band dressed the part – their clothing matching the hippie-rocker feel of their songs. However, what really sets The Paint Movement apart from other similar bands is their incorporation of a saxophone into their music. This gives it a home-y vibe – sort of like how your parents played their music in the car while you were a kid and too young to appreciate it – and in doing so, transformed a bar of strangers into a warm & friendly place. My only complaint was that the six-piece band didn’t have enough room to really spread out and move. I think that was the reason the crowd didn’t get as engaged with the music and the band as they could have, although plenty of people were smiling and nodding along with the beat. The Paint Movement is coming back through Edmonton this Sunday, November 13 at Wunderbar – it will be interesting to see how the six-piece act performs in a different space. - The Sound and Noise

reviewed by Michael

It’s always a joy to watch a large band do what a large band does best- make complex but not overwhelming music. This is exactly what The Paint Movment, based out of Mississauga/Toronto does on their debut self-titled release.

To describe their music it would probably be easiest to compare them to Broken Social Scene, but they’re definitely not just a Broken Social Scene clone.

The band enchants with female-male vocals, a nice layer of horns and a high degree of melodic unpredictability. These elements will warrant a second, third, fourth and fifth listen easily as the listener will attempt to pick out all the things that make the album special.

Not sticking to one formula is the main reason why I enjoyed the LP as much as I did. The musically dense “Curious City” and “Fortune’s Widow” features huge musical interludes with a crazy amount of instruments playing at once, while songs like “Heart Lids” focus on just keys and drums, making for a totally different-sounding song.

While chaos is where the band thrives, it’s certainly not all they do well. The band shows remarkable restraint in “Is It True” and showcase a rather unique vocal style in “Embers.” The latter starts out with the lyrics “The fire’s out/But it’s still glowing.”

There aren’t many words left that can accurately describe the sound of the Paint Movement so I’ll end commenting here. It is most definitely worth a listen or three and the band should be right at home with fellow Nevado Records artists.

Top Tracks: “Young Lights”; “Heart Lids”

Rating: Proud Hoot (Really Good) +*swoop*
- Grayowl Point

By Alex Hudson
A few months ago, we praised Ontario rockers the Paint Movement for the sultry sax and thundering drums found on their single "Fortune's Window." Now, the band are getting ready to follow up 2009's Our Eurythmy with a self-titled full-length, due out August 16 via Nevado.

The album was produced and mixed by David Newfeld, the studio whiz who has worked with Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos and Super Furry Animals. Sessions took place in a converted church in a small Ontario town. This meant long highway drives for the Toronto- and Mississauga, ON-based musicians, who recorded in short bursts of a few days at a time.

A press release describes the band's sound like this: "The six-piece band mixes elements of rock, pop and soul and melds them into unique songs which at times feature male vocals, at others female vocals, and a lot of the time you hear group chants."

Expect to hear more of that when The Paint Movement arrives on shelves. You can also catch the band live in the coming months, with more dates to be announced soon.

The Paint Movement:

1. "Young Lights"
2. "Embers"
3. "Fortune's Window"
4. "Curious City"
5. "Heart Lids"
6. "Caught In The Act"
7. "Is It True"
8. "Porcelains"
9. "Skip To The West"

Tour dates:

6/15 Toronto, ON - The Rivoli
6/16 Toronto, ON - Analogue Gallery
9/2 Mississauga, ON - Celebration Square *
9/9 Toronto, ON - The Horseshoe Tavern
9/17 Windsor, ON - The Phog
9/28 Guelph, ON - Vinyl

* with Born Ruffians
- Exclaim

The Paint Movement is a band that evolved over the last year, out of a circle of musicians from the Mississauga Area. Consisting of Jason loftman (Sax and Keys), Kevin Kralik (guitar/vocals), Jason Haberman and Glenn Candy (Drums), the performance also included very capable guest vocals by Lauren Casciato-Turner.

Their songwriting evokes singer/songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and more recent performers like Hayden while the musical backing is a creative mix of jazz, pop, and rock. The Paint Movement takes the listener on a series of well arranged sonic adventures covering a whole mixture of textures, sound landscapes, vocal styles, songwriting styles and instrumentation. The much maligned saxophone is featured in almost every song skillfully and creatively. What you get is a band that is fully engaging to watch, and that plays fun, intelligent and interesting music.

Each musician adds to this group. I could talk about the very skillful percussion, the emmensly enjoyable saxaphone riffs, the fantastic vocal arrangements, the great grooves and so on, but there was no one person that stood out as the strongest or weakest in this band, and I think that’s what makes a great band great. Perhaps this is a result of their collaborative approach to songwriting that shows through in their dedication to the performance.

Songs like “Cat’s Meow” and the arresting and powerful “Howl at the Moon” (my favourite I think) showed off the hauntingly sparse and unique sound of Kevin’s vocals the most creative songwriting and were the most intimate performance moments, while other songs like “I’ve got the Ghost” are more straight ahead pop songs and they had a very happy crowd fully engaged.

There weren’t any 3 minute pop ditties on Friday - the songs are substantial pieces for the most part and with the creative arrangement and skillful execution you are still left wishing for more at the end.

The performance wasn’t perfect, I found the set started off a little slow and the first couple songs weren’t performed as well as the later songs, but with each successive song that I heard, I knew I had stumbled onto something really notable. The Paint Movement is a definitely must see band.

—–

CD notes: I picked up “Our Eurythmy”, the bands new release - It’s GREAT!
- Amplifier Buzz

http://www.fazermagazine.com/2009/03/31/the-paint-movement-our-eurythmy-review/ - Alex Young - Fazer Magazine

I stumbled upon The Paint Movement at another show a while back but was only able to catch the last song of their set. Those three minutes have stuck with me since then and I finally got to end my hunger pains on this night at the El Mo. Going into it I knew two things for sure: 1) The audience was in for a treat. 2) I was going to feel sorry for the bloke who walked in during their last song.

The Paint Movement is Kevin Kralik (guitar/vocals), Jason Loftman (tenor sax and keys), Jason Haberman (bass/vocals), Glenn Candy (drums), Jeremy Panda (trumpet) and Chuck Markham (guitar). Their influences – Broken Social Scene, The Most Serene Republic and semi-new local band Still Life Still – were clearly, but ambiguously, revealed throughout the night.

The band kicked things off with "Cats Meow", a crescendoing tune that promptly illustrated how this band can be tight and elegant while staying upbeat and roomy. It also provided an idea of how unique Kralik's voice is and how exceptional and particularly meaningful their songwriting can be. "Knock Knock" took us on a creative adventure while "Faults", mirroring the same effects, had some colourful arrangements and was an obvious favourite of the packed room. The band also played the habitual "I've Got the Ghost", "The Real Good Man" and a never-before-played-on-stage track called "Have You Seen?" They ended with a really fun instrumental jam where Haberman and Kralik switched up instruments.

The Paint Movement painted a picture (excuse the pun) for listeners using a fusion of skillful instrumental textures. It's rare to see a group of six musicians playing in unison while remaining tight and thoughtful about what they're trying to convey. The unyielding horn section definitely helped to make each song seamless. While their energy and enthusiasm on stage practically poured out into the audience, it wasn't hard to observe that not only are The Paint Movement hard workers, but they have fun doing it.
- By: Allison Janzen - SoundProof Magazine

http://itsnotthebandihateitstheirfans.blogspot.com/2009/02/paint-movement-our-eurythmy.html - bobby b

http://www.blogto.com/music/2009/02/call_response_the_paint_movement/ - gary

http://www.mississauga.com/article/24163 - Dominek Kurek

http://audioblood.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/news-the-paint-movement-signs-to-burgeoning-toronto-label-nevado-records/ - Sari Delmar

Why the name The Paint Movement? What’s in a name?

/"The paint movement is a balance of eurythmy between the 4 of us. We are in a process of building musical blueprints of the art we want to feel, hear, and see." /

You seem to be proud of your Mississauga heritage whereas some bands would just write they are from Toronto to not scare of promoters. Why is that?

/"We aren't afraid of scaring off promoters. We are who we are, and where ever we end up... we will still be from Mississauga, and we will still be playing the music we developed togther."/

You’ve been working on a new album all winter recorded in your basement. Is it ready? What was it like recording? What can we expect from the new album?

/"We're taking the time to do things right. the beauty of doing this on our own, is that we dont have outside pressures. As the songs are already written, they are still evolving and being built as the recording process goes on. People can expect layers and layers of guitars and vocals, dynamics of brass and guest apperences from extremely talented friends and artists we have met in the past, such as: Dee Planche, Still Life Still, members of Ghost Stories, Sean Pinchin and more."/

How did you find your sound of the non stop jamming rock jazz fusion?

/"The sound came to be through each of our own influences and styles blending together. We realized what we are capable of as a band and learned to feed off eachothers unique musical taste."/

Any big plans for the band with the new record out?

/"A lot of gigging and traveling! We hope to see alot of Canada and bring friends with us along the way. We will always be writing, experimenting with new sounds, and trying different things until the time comes to record again."/

- Two Way Monologues

http://www.blogto.com/toronto_independent_music_podcast/2008/12/toronto_independent_music_podcast_89/ - Rajiv Thavanathan - Dec 31, 2009

Every musician can think of an album that inspired them to pick up their instruments, turn on the microphones and create music.

For Mississauga band, The Paint Movement, it was Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People.

"There's so much sound on that album," said guitarist/vocalist Kevin Kralik. "It was so layered, so complex, I actually didn't fully understand it the first few times I heard it."

In time, the band – Kralik, bassist Jason Haberman, keyboardist/saxophonist Jason Loftman and drummer Glenn Candy – came to understand and, eventually, admire it. They love the album.

The inventiveness and willingness to experiment with sounds and styles that became a hallmark of the Toronto collective can be heard on The Paint Movement's 10-track debut album, Our Eurythmy, which was recorded at Caterpillar Records. Several tracks, including Real Good Man, Knock Knock, Howl at the Moon and Faults, can be heard by visiting www.myspace.com/thepaintmovement.

"The whole idea of the CD is growth and a starting for us," said Haberman. "It's the coalescence of our beginning. In the simplest form, it's about the four of us creating art through music.

"(Our sound) wasn't something we set out to do, it just came together," he continued. "You're just playing what you like. But it's very cool to hear people say we sound like some of our favourite bands."

Tracks like Cat's Meow display the band's obvious love of perfect-sounding song structure. The atmospheric tune builds and builds to an atmospheric crescendo.

"The best stuff comes when you're feeling it in that moment," said Haberman. "When we first started jamming with Loftman, there was lots of energy. Glenn was dying to play and we all fit, musically. We came up with some powerful stuff we hadn't tried before. We haven't looked back."

The band's progressive indie rock sound is further defined with the song Faults, which has a slightly rockier feel to it. The extro, with weeping guitar sounds and other atmospheric noise, shows off the band's willingness to explore the artistic side of music.

The guys even indulge their jazz side with the stunning Groovy Bones.

The band has adopted the collective approach to recording, inviting friends and family to join them on the album. Musicians and vocalists including Bill Candy, Huy Pham, Daniel Rengifo and Dee Planche lent their talents to some songs.

The album can be purchased through iTunes or select HMV locations, including Erin Mills Town Centre.

cclay@mississauga.net


http://www.mississauga.com/article/22554 - Chris Clay - Mississauga News