ELEMENTSIRCUS
OLD MARKET SQUARE
JUNE 21, 2008
KIDS' STUFF
4:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Hoop Dancers
Face Painting
Chalk Art
MAIN STAGE
6:30 pm until 1:00 am
ENTRE PARENTHESES
POOR ANDY'S DOG & PONY SHOW
AND THEN NOTHING
SO HOLY HEADCASE
TWIN
DRUM & BELL TOWER (VANCOUVER)
BREATH GRENADES
10:25 pm
Author & Speaker
MIKE NICKERSON with DONNA DILLMAN
Musical Chairs with THE FLAMING TROLLIES
Pinata Smash !!!
VIDEO PROJECTION
Roof of Artspace Building
TRADERS' POST
Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse
Sonus Musica
The Peace Sign Co.
War on Music
PERFORMERS
11:35 pm to close
(Main Stage)
www.myspace.com/vavjungle
www.vavjungle.com
Lynch Night by Karen and Jaimz Asmundsen
MARCH *****VAV JUNGLE***** NEW ALBUM - "PAP ROCK" - CHART UPDATE - On Montreal's CHYZ!
To date since the release, Vav Jungle has hit stations in Lethbridge, Winnipeg, Ottawa/Windsor and Montreal independently and reached the cross-country Electronic Chart!
It's time to tour - baby/honey bunny/love-child - have Vav Jungle! UnWiRkLiCh! ELECTRO-TEASE dance music - on-stage with a wild/electronic "tease" of a live show and in-studio using vintage keyboards/beats and effects and vocals. EPK for tv/radio/film available on www.vavjungle.com.
COMPLETELY PRODUCED by Eve Rice with mastering by Al Hunnie. "PAP ROCK" IS AVAILABLE across the planet on iTunes and CDbaby, in Winnipeg at Urban Waves, Kustom Kulture, Music Trader, Ragpickers Antifashion Emporium, Into The Music & Hattrix Hair Salon
10:40 to 11:20 pm
(Main Stage)
BREATH GRENADES
BREATH GRENADES BLAST SPACE RAWK, HEAVY PSYCH NOISE, and A FEW LOCAL ANTHEMS AT THEE SUMMER ELEMENT SIRCUS 2008 ! BG's PLAY FOR OLD MARKET SQUARES! It's the BG's First-Ever Bio!
by Poem Dr. DeeVeeDOOM
Word of Mouth Masters of Thug Rawk! Synth on my bass hook! Sit on myface book! No concern for song structure, no marketing, no tours, no merch, no web presence - thus far.
Sporting walls of analog synthesized covert suspicion and a huge mistrust of the misuse of technology and our environment, the original analog elektro space-thugged psychedelic Breath Grenades started in Winnipeg's North End in 1984 when the glamcore flyin' fuckin' Snoids bassist Don Vom Doom (ex-Garbage, Incredible D.M. Band, Battleoctopus, Yodelling Toenails, Chainsaw, Kogg) started riffing thunderbass & criti-tech poetry called space garage screams over Captain A.K.'s Micro Moog kronch in the Cap's LP'n comic infested basement.
The core BG's team shared a common view that "it's all been done B4" so they tried to change things a bit, and bring something new to music with their sprawling bass'n synth invented space thug psyche rawk poetry blasts. Their initial forays were described by jaw agaped folked-up classic-rocked onlookers as Hawkwind meets Devo & the Ramones or Motorhead meshed with Throbbing Gristle, but BG's knew they were on their way to something way more different and exclusively Manitoban.
The Canadada duo moved into the Legendary Pink Garage, jamming tirelessly through a grueling 'pEg winter - saw best worst breath literally materialize mid air into Garnet-powered space rawk chug. Thus wuz solidifried the original BG's guitarless, drumless, synth destructo blast. Gigz were played by the duo in the N.E. & at Beach Mutant Pete's basement on Furby with Dr. Suess (pre-Dementia 5) & Lesbian Bingo and word of mouth attendees hitting a furnace with pipes, and at Fort Rouge Leisure Center to a buncha skater kids ooglin' Vom's cutup Misfits tee and wooden BG's clothespin ear clips.
Aquarius (Snoids) and zine scribe Dr. Ackula were the first BG's bongo players, the beginning of BG's percusso legend, and the revolving spiral of encrazed drummers who've been in and out of the BG's until now.
BG's have hundreds of songs and thus recorded & released a bunch of cassette albums in the mid to late '80s mostly sold by snail and at gigz'n rec stores like the amazing Pyramid Records including some o' these: Intersteller Bass Garage Soakin' (D.A.R.T.), The Non Exploding Pink Garage Eviction (D.A.R.T.), In the Valentine, Raw! (D.A.R.T. - Stu Art barf bag edition), The Great Canadian Civil Ward (unreleased), BG's Make Soup of Cauldren with Space Club Stirz (D.A.R.T.), Roy Al Bert's Army Neg Twizt (D.A.R.T.), Loud Canadian Loud Lords of Loud (unreleased), and Destroy the Winnipeg Hate Vibe (D.A.R.T.).
Breath Grenades - consisting of D. Vom Doom on Fender thunderbass & space garage screams & Micro Moog 2, Captain A.K. on Micro Moog hit by a stick, and kitster Volcanic Vim Vile plus some guests recorded two albums at Amphetamine Reptile studios in Minneapolis with Halo of Flies bassist Tim Mac as engineer in the early '90s. These resultant mostly-live AmRep sessions resulted in BG's only CD release to date - Space Rawk Replicas for a Thuggin' Tomorrow (Sister/Thugwarp Blastin' Ink), and the hitherto still unreleased working-titled Speed 'Til U Scream (Yer Pantz) including the epics Amp Blower, and Fuck Guitar!, a cover of Oscillations by Silver Apples, and the 20-minute plus BG's space psyche smash (Now I Wanna) Make Noise Now!
BG's appear live on the 2 Corefest CD compilations around this time with (Let'em Eat) Space Rawk (Blasting Pad Version), and North Winnipeg Rant (Junkyard Core Mix). Other unreleased BG's albums from this period include Breath Grenades D-fine Aero Jag Jass, Smellington's Blitzkrieg Blastoff!, Thuggin' Ta the Beat of the Core, (After Breath Grenades) Drugs R Nothing, and Best Wurst Breath.
In 1996, Breath Grenades were invited by long distance phone to record a session of space thug for Brave New Waves, so they did in a studio on Portage Avenue in the CBC building. The resultant session of all-neu live BG's recordings - some rehearsed, some not - by Vom, Capt. A.K., Volcanic Vim Vile on kit & drum synth, with sax guy Paul Veet Jansen, and Evan Voot Kroeker (Grand Theft Canoe) on Mini Moog - was broadcast nationally on BNW several times in ensuing years - exposing BG's to an all new Canthug FM radio audiophile audience.
All kindsa unbelievable crazy things have happened over the years - before he left our planet for a probable better world beyond - Winnipeg Avant Elektro Synth Pioneer Captain A.K. Kyba told curious Much Music vid reporters to "F.O." at Corefest 1999.
Cap introduced Winnipeg Elektro Synth Pioneer - Vortexo the Living Synth Blast (Not Half, Scavenger Vacuum and more) to an illusion of a few BG's Moog osmosi moves, and for the past decade the insistant instant synthstant Vortexo has set the BG's spontaneous synthesized standard as master synth blaster to beat in the all-elektro underground.
Many hip mod BG's recordings have been made, planned, and all are unreleased - including: Triple (Thuggle) Album - Dubble (Bubble) Faildumb, Breath Grenades Unthugged, Space Gurls R tha' Neu Boys, Melted by Gawd, Killed by Breath, PeePee mp3 EP, and Doing Something Different in the Sugar Shutdown Where Everything's the Same.
Over fifty members have been in BG's over the years and the space psychedelia is still spreading: Going nowhere real slow like radio ripples in space. Ignored by modern media - especially the local press - and shunned by talent buyers because they don't know how to categorize them - Breath Grenades are the future now, with new drummer Vinegar Rich (The Afterlife), and third space keys guy in limbo Veelectrocute Hiwatt (High Watt Electrocutions). Plug: Vom guests on Moog Prodigy on the new High Watt Elecrocutions LP available on Instrospection Records.
Breath Grenades are and always have been a band of uncomprimising performers who believe the sweat in the LIVE show is good enuff and that lo energy input is high energy gain.
BG's would like to say ultra-positive black to calm salutational thankensteins to Rob, Dave, Paulette, Kristen & all the volunteers and people behind the scenes at Element Sircus, our families and friends, the BG's astromaniacs fans, most past members & collaborators, sound engineer Ryan Settee & filmmaker/visual art design genius/fantastical painter/comix creator Robert Pasternak, Andy O., TTurner 2, Go Johnny Go, those crazy kidz at Grumpy's, hardworkers at Winnipeg venues & bookstores & music stores & open playlist radio stations, and anyone we forgot - otherwise it's the Cap's "Heave ho! F.O.! "
Make Noise Now! Thrill to Future Rawk! Enjoy your Breath Grenades! BG's Play Fer Old Market Squares! - DVDoooooooom in the Blasting Pad II 06/18/08 Winnipeg, Manitoba.
9:45 to 10:25 pm
(Main Stage)
www.myspace.com/drumandbelltower
Drum and Bell Tower is an attempt to reveal the natural joints between that which is elemental in music: rhythm and melody; drum and bells.
Ever since Brent Morton heard what Jimmy Page did with his guitar in the sonic twilight zone of Dazed and Confused, he wanted to make music with a focus on sounds. Emerging from the "Floyd Void" and discovering Radiohead in the 90's, he has spent subsequent years working on sonic manipulation and texturization.
Upon moving to the Taiwan in 1999, the underground House scene became the only venue for enjoyable live music, and as such, an interest in sounds was merged with the desire for thick, pounding beats.
Taking inspiration in the last number of years from artists like Boards of Canada and Caribou, Morton has begun the process of computerizing his music. Now liberated from the tyranny of "the band", he has delivered himself into the despotic stranglehold of technology. (At least technology shows up to practice and doesn't get wasted before the show...knock on wood.)
The strength of Drum & Bell Tower is the interplay of genres, the artful mongrelization of elements, and the fact that Morton employs the audio capabilities of midi and computer while alternating between psychedelic guitar, tripped-out vocals, and drums, out of which the living shit is pounded.
In the Bell Tower canon, you will find not only a variety of styles, textures and instruments, but also experimentation with time signatures. Morton forays frequently into the rhythmically irregular, especially when the irregular is danceable. A careful listen to many tracks will reveal a crafty employment of 10/8, 7/8, and 6/8 signatures, and seamless transitions between them. Further, a distinguishing trait of his brand of electronica is that, with a solid background in music and songwriting, many D&BT tracks feel like more than just "tracks"--they feel like songs.
As well as writing and performing his music, he has also been producing it. All of the Funeral Songs albums were true basement projects, and all solo save some fortuitous collaborations. In 2008, having moved to the central interior of B.C., his work has become completely solo. Further, he has left behind the comfort of full time work, focusing specifically on his craft.
The spring and summer of 2008 will be the crucible for Drum & Bell Tower (a new name as "Funeral Songs" has outlived its meaning). Morton is in studio this winter writing and recording the forthcoming album “Fibrinous Issue”, which he plans to tour throughout Western Canada and beyond.
9:10 to 9:35 pm
(Main Stage)
8:35 to 9:00 pm
(Main Stage)
SO HOLY HEADCASE
www.myspace.com/soholyheadcase
So Holy HeadCase is a solo project of Winnipeg artist Robert G. Menard. He is mostly known for playing in the band Absent Sound in which he founded back in 1995, creating the 20 Guitar Circular Wall of Angelic Sound, and co-creating the ElementSircus Festival.
Menard uses electronics, record scratch loops, found, gathered and honed sounds along with his guitars and keyboards to create and bring his music alive. The outcome is a very unique style of tribal movements with techno/ disco, post/ math rock and ambient subtleties. He is currently working on a full length album to be finished SPRING 2008.
You will also find him playing in such bands as HellinCopter, Room 237, and Medicine Missile.
(NEW) SO HOLY HEADCASE ALBUM, ’THINK!, AND REALITY CHANGES!’ TO BE RELEASED ON 2-PLY COLLECTIVE RECORDS IN JUNE 2008.
7:50 to 8:25 pm
(Main Stage)
www.myspace.com/andthennothingmusic
Photo by Stephanie Willer
...and then nothing is an experimental band that hails from Winnipeg, MB. We often juxtapose film and other visual artforms with music in a hazardous unplanned way to see what effect it will give. Sometimes the results are startling!
The band rarely stays the same. Other than Ivan Burke, Derrick Finch and Stéphane Oystryk, the band is in constant change. That’s the way we like it. We love to share songs with our friends and see what they have to contribute creatively. We’ve rarely played more than two shows with the same line-up. The musicians and the songs are always evolving so everything is a snapshot in time. A moment to be cherished and not taken for granted. We try to keep things fresh.
We just love music and sounds. Hopefully we’ll put out a CD or something soon. There’s a compilation out there with our only studio recorded song, Late November, Nothern Michigan. It’s called the Winnipeg Parks and Recreation Authority. The CD was put out by a great group of folks called Conifera Records. Last we heard they were no more. That’s really unfortunate. Hopefully they’ll come back from the dead! There are a whole pile of great bands on that disc so if there are still copies kicking around somewhere (Music Trader or Into the Music in Winnipeg perhaps...), ask no questions and get it!
BenWah was the recording engineer for that tune and we really appreciate his patience and his willingness to help up and coming bands who want to put their sound down on CD. He’s been a great help!
7:15 to 7:40 pm
(Main Stage)
www.myspace.com/poorandysdogandponyshow
Joshua Stanton — fine artist, acclaimed illustrator, character-actor, and filmmaker — is a multi instrumental recording artist & producer. Instantly recognizable as Winnipeg's 'Man in Black' with the 5-foot dreads, he is also one of Canada's most dynamic contemporary sitarists, having studied with Ustad Irshad Khan--the nation's preëminent sitar mæstro. Joshua's invention, the dobro vina, presents a true common point for Indian and Western classical instruments. Stanton's Chaplinesque alter-ego Poor Andy has introduced the classic U.K. Skiffle Sound to a new generation, and starred in the one-take silents "Better Bunk" and "The Wedding Ball".
Mr. Stanton has had a long and diverse career on the Winnipeg scene, having played as a guest-soloist with bands such as Skingerbreadman, the Hummers, and Querkus, and collaborated with the likes of Finjan and the Mini Mariachi; released several CDs on his VoidHouse label including "Paradise" and the upcoming "Poor Andy's Dog & Pony Show", scored several shorts including Shannon Ottarson's "The Keys" which starred Ryan Black, and maintained creative relationships with legendary kathak-dancer/choreographer Usha Sharma and Manohar Performing Arts of Canada (Winnipeg's premiere Indian classical dance troupe) with whom he appeared in Guy Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World". Joshua is a founding member of triOOMPH Productions film group, and a member of the Ragpickers/ElementSircus performers' collective. He has represented the classical instrumental tradition at Folklorama's India Pavilion since 1995.
Joshua remains among the last of the classically-trained pen-and-ink typographer/illustrators, and ranks among his numerous achievements Heartland Associates' "Dancing Backwards" and his countless posters, ads, and graphics for Ragpickers Anti-Fashion Emporium. A technical artist by trade, Mr. Stanton was the master conceptual modelmaker at New Flyer Research & Development.
As intense a producer as he is a personality, Joshua Stanton remains an independent, an intellectual, and an artist of integrity.
Poor Andy Artist Statement:
My dear and cherished friends, colleagues, and rather more dubious acquaintances: it is with the utmost verisimilitude of heartful sentimentalism that I bid you--welcome.
I am, of course, that genteel and gentle-souled, holey-soled, seldom-sober so-and-so the girls at Ragpickers call Poor Andy. I may admit myself, with some little pride, a 'man of the streets' — whether I am so much a man of the people... I have retained, for your ostensible diversion, as fine a lot of tub-thumping ne'er-do-wells as ever grubbed a nickel--and I say that with all due respect. I call these ambrosiated tootlers my Dog and Pony Show, a name which is intended neither to generate inference, nor cast aspersions, upon any persons, animals, or for that matter personable animals — who besides which are mostly chums, so what the Hell? God bless and keep you all!
Ours, dear friends, is a SKIFFLE act, in the eminently disremembered British style, featuring my pained if plaintive renditions of such erstwhile quadruple time ballads of murder and infamy as I am wont so adamantly to horse-flog. — And as to this tramp business; of course I realize it doesn't qualify as gainful employment, but what tramp is not merely an itinerant self-employed person? — Besides which I've a MySpace-page, so figure THAT on your abacus... And what IS an itinerant person, at that? Indeed, perhaps it is YOU! However this is neither a dictionary nor an abacus — though I daresay the former may prove helpful in regard to the latter.
"Poor Andy" indeed! Poor PEOPLE...
6:30 to 7:05 pm
(Main Stage)
www.myspace.com/entreparentheses
www.purevolume.com/entreparentheses
Venant de les plaines du Manitoba, Entre Parenthèses est un groupe qui est difficile à catégoriser. Leur musique prend de plusieurs styles pour former un amalgame qu’ils ont nommé « métal mélodique.
En l’an 2004, un groupe d’amis qui ne fesait qu’écouter de la musique ont décider de former un groupe ensemble. Ce groupe, qui n’avait pas de nom à ce point, se formait de Daniel Plessis à la basse, Joseph Péloquin-Hopfner à la batterie, et les deux guitaristes Pierre Péloquin et André Péloquin-Hopfner, avec André qui chantait. Ensemble, ils ont écrit trois chansons en but de les jouer à la Chicane Électrique 2005.
Au moi de Juillet de cet année, un événement tragique leur a forcé de lâcher cette idée: Pierre s’est suicidé. Après deux mois de confusion, le groupe a fait des changements et s’est remis sur ses pieds. Joseph et André ont fait appel à leur ainé, Daniel, qui joue la batterie et Joseph a pris sa place à la guitare et à la voix. Ils ont enregistré leur premier demo pls tard dans l'an 2005 avec Éric Gosselin de Kraink. Ce demo avait comme chansons Supplie et Arc-en-ciel teint noir.
En 2006, ils se sont inscrit encore une foi à la Chicane Électrique. Avec le support de leurs familles et de leurs amis, ces trois frères et leur ami (qu’ils considèrent un frère) ont continué. Ils ont dédié leur carrière en musique en mémoire de Pierre et ils ont continué avec encore plus de conviction. Ils sont devenus les lauréats de la 20e Chicane Électrique en Septembre 2006.
Inspiré par une variété de genres musicals, d’opinions solides et de fortes émotions, ils continuent leur chemin vers la perfection musicale.
MAIN STAGE TWEENERS / PARK
10:25 pm
(Main Stage Tweener)
MIKE NICKERSON & DONNA DILLMAN
The Life, Money & Illusion; "Living on Earth as if we want to stay" international tour will be in Winnipeg on June 21st. Three-time author Mike Nickerson and uranium activist, Donna Dillman, will be speaking at the Pantages Theatre hosted by the Green Party of Manitoba and then coming to Old Market Square to give us the basic message in an informal setting...
Mike's intent for his talk at the ElementSircus will be to focus on the marvels of life and the opportunities that living gives us for having so much fun that we don't have time enough to damage the Earth!!!
***
Human beings will be around for a very long time, but we are in for a rough ride if we do not recognize the problems that our success has brought.
Cures do not result from treating symptoms. The cause must be addressed. While Climate Change and gasoline prices have captured public attention, they are symptom of a greater challenge. That challenge is that the human species has grown to fill its planet.
Mike Nickerson and his wife Donna Dillman are touring with Mike's latest book, "Life, Money & Illusion: Living on Earth as if we want to stay." The book details the differing views on how to be successful in our changing times. One, the "Life" perspective, says we need to preserve and enhance ecosystems and communities, the other, the "Money" perspective, says we need to continuously expand production and consumption.
The event will be a talk and discussion about how these two approaches differ significantly on how to deal with today's most serious problems. "Life, Money & Illusion" outlines new ways of organizing mutual provision (the economy) and a change in priorities that can lead to a long and fulfilling future.
During their presentations, while Mike looks at the big picture, Donna, the Lanark area grandmother who recently went 68 days without eating to protest uranium exploration and mining in eastern Ontario, speaks to an 'on the ground' example of what needs changing. We cannot continue releasing toxic substances into the environment from which all life builds its physical forms.
"There is a tradition in some societies, whenever decisions are being made, to consider the interests of the next seven generations.
For the modern world to do the same would mark our passage to maturity."
(Park)
The Fire Pyxies Performance Art Collective consists of a group of three women firedancers from Winnipeg. They perform all year long for a variety of events and festivals. They learned to spin fire while travelling abroad in Thailand, India and Mexico. The collective began around 2002 when they decided to start busking around the city and perform together. Their choreography and creativity continues to grow and evolve. The more they learn, the more they try to come up with new ways of moving. They really enjoy playing for people and their audiences are always energizing and encouraging. The Fire Pyxies thank everyone who has helped them along the way... they couldn't have done it without you!
Fire dancing originated from the Maori tribe of New Zealand whose warriors performed certain movements in order to improve their sense of balance and coordination. The fire dancing that this group does is somewhat different in that it incorporates dance, martial arts and gymnastics. Musical accompaniment allows the dancers to move more freely and the various fire tools they use gives them the chance to explore different ways of dancing with fire.
(Park)
Musical Chairs with the Flaming Trollies!!!
Pinata Smash!!!
VIDEO PROJECTION
Roof of Artspace Building
Hope Peterson is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and performer who lives in Winnipeg. She has been making video art since 1987. Peterson's work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada and has been exhibited throughout the world.
* Armour For Living (1987) 3/4”, 1:50, Colour
* Selling the Flamingo (1989) 3/4”, 7:30, Colour
* Surface Damage (1992) 3/4” SP, 14:00, Colour
* Night Bus to Fargo (1991) 3/4”, 20:00, Colour
* From the Archives of the Libido (1995) 3/4", 4:00, Colour
* Stain (1988) 3/4”, 6:00, Colour
* One Story (1994) Hi 8, beta, 5:30, Colour
* Transition Ramp (2006) super8, 3:50, Colour [clip]
* Memorial Park (1998) Super 8/3/4”, 10:00, Black & White
* Ambit (2005) betaSP, 4:30, Colour
Andy Warhol Machine
Winnipeg artist Ken Gregory has been working with DIY interface design, hardware hacking, audio, video, and computer programming for over 10 years. His creative performance and installation work has shown publicly in Winnipeg, other parts of Canada and many international media and sound arts festivals. Anything is part of Gregory's palette, and by using cut-and-paste techniques, random juxtapositions, and careful manipulations, he crafts unique art works. These works are presented in the form of gallery installations, live performances, live radio broadcasts, and audio compact discs.
Recent career highlights amongst others are the acquisition of 12 motor bells, a large sound installation by the National Gallery of Canada, Cheap Meat Dreams and Acorns, a solo survey exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor and soon to be at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown PEI, at the The Art Gallery of Hamilton in Hamilton Ontario and participation in the Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) media arts residency at New Plymouth New Zealand.
KIDS' STUFF
4:00 to 6:30 pm
