Album Review: Last FM

August 6th, 2010

3AM Revelations: In This Together

From the moment I first saw Wil hit the stage, years ago, I was drawn in. His live show was just so incredible and energetic that I was an instant fan. But while I enjoyed his first album, Both Hands, it seemed to be missing a little piece of what made him so special live. His next album, By December, was a huge step forward, both in his writing and music, and seemed to capture that live quality. So needless to say, I was more than a little excited for his third album, In This Together, hoping it would be as big a leap as Both Hands was from By December.

“Long Kiss Goodnight” opens the album heartbreakingly, lamenting on a ruined relationship with the music matching the emotions that swing between angry and melancholy. The album picks up from there, though, with “Why Ask Why?” slowly building to an explosive climax and the infectiously catchy & roots-driven “Baby Baby” both taking a more positive (or at least less bleak) look at relationships. “The River” — a song he’s been playing live for years now, so it’s great to finally have recorded — has an upbeat tune that belies the dark lyrics. “Cooder Mountain” is another track that just builds and builds; starting somewhat ominously and then piles on the intensity until the end leaves you breathless.
“If You Want Me Too” brings the mood down slightly, as it sounds like it should be a gloomy song, but is actually quite touching, lyrically. The worst least good song on the album is probably “Way Too Long”, which isn’t really all that bad, just a little… forgettable, not sticking with you like the rest. That is quickly remedied as “Uh Oh!” bursts forth with energy and enthusiasm, though “The Deal” brings the dark intensity back, with another building song, this time about sacrifice.
The moody and longing “Hold Me Tonight” seems has an optimism to it, when Wil begs “hold me tonight / and everything’s going to be all right”, a sentiment that leads perfectly into “Together”, an aptly named song which gives closure both musically and lyrically, assuring you that “the days ahead get better”. The combination of the two songs is an excellent way to bring the album to a close, and is a great counter to the opener.

The first thing I noticed about the album is that it does not have that one song on it that was head and shoulders above the rest, like both previous albums had (“Spitfire” and “Honey Pie”), but it is more evenly good. And while I may have been a little unenthusiastic towards the album, at first, the more I have played it, the more intricacies and nuances I find, to the point where I think it might be his best yet.

Posted by Kirk

China was a truly amazing experience. I went there with being open to everything and anything i could experience. It is a country of incredibly industrious people with a great work ethic, the ability to solve a problem, not dwell on ho it came to be or seemingly regret it having happened. It is a Country of fake fender amps and Nike runners but very real food and smiles, the class system has as big a gap as East Hastings to Robson St in Vancouver, tiny shanty homes open for business crammed together in the mat blackened street fronts with narrow alley ways that open up to a thousand vendors with everything and anything for sale you could imagine in one place ( i had the sense this was a place truly for the locals when in Wuhan ) I believe Gremlins really can be purchased for a birthday now. Then, not even one block up there was a gun metal gray Porche Cayenne parked out front of a lavish business with a one tonne jade panther and impeccably ornate gold leaf detail around each doorway and window.

Our schedule was quite intense actually, averaging 3 and 4 hours sleep with 5 and 6 am lobby calls after night performances in clubs, literally planes, trains, and automobiles but some days many of each. An average day was early am lobby call, bus, train, plane, back on a bus, into another lobby, then bus to venue, cab back to hotel sometime after midnight, actually allot of the time the venue was in walking distance to the hotel which made for a moment to take something in. I walked when i could especially on my day off in ShangHai, i was up a 6 and walked around until out 2pm, met Tod and went out to finally film something. For some fucked up reason, when i gave my camera to someone to shoot me, they would have it off during filming then turn it on at the end, it happened at least 5 times and it became clear to me it was how the interface of the camera worked. Tod had done this twice and felt awful, no need though as i have always felt that more things than not were never meant to be recorded but simply be a moment in time to forever be either remembered or eventually forgotten. Live shows should hold onto their mystique, just my opinion, the gods of rock lost their status when they brought us into their homes on MTV to reveal all of their common dysfunction and boring insecurities.

The bands i was with were all incredibly different in music and as people. There was a bit of school cool at first with some of them but i believe once they had all realized we were all in this together, they could no longer fight the kindness of others simply trying to get places to do what we all need to do, the common denominator was that we were foreigners in a foreign country performing foreign music……covers from the 4 On The Floor record by Foreigner……haha! By the 3rd or 4th show, we were basically all in support of one another and wanting one another to do well. My favorite band was Flash Lightnin’, a balls out rock assault trio, Darren lead vox electric guit, Chris drums and Darcy bass. Has a ZZ Top / Queens of The Stone Age melody and attack about it with a hint of Nazereth in Darren’s voice. I had met Darcy quickly and immediately enjoyed his kindness and perspective on things, never a dull conversation that ever really ran out with him, funny, when i saw him i had thought he would be the toughest nut with the most personal luggage containing days gone by of greatness that no one could ever match……..i like being wrong.

My favourite song of these bands was Parlovrs tune ( Pen To Paper ) even though i think their best song is one called ChuggaChugga ( not yet recorded ) The opening synth lead on this is incredibly great, intentional or not, highly representative of China and what i might understand being it’s traditional music, Louie’s guitar tone is massive and unique.

The sweetest band award go’s to the Raccoons ( soon will have penned a new name ) Matt ( lead vox and rhythm guit ) has a pretty original voice, kind of the right amount of not trying so hard to be good but worked enough at it to be nicely genuine, Murray ( vox / lead guit ) had professed to me in Hong Kong that he had met his now girlfriend at one of my shows in Victoria and Jeff ( percussion / pads / lap top ) is such a grounded young fucker, has David Usher good looks, but acts like a guy just wanting to enjoy every moment, always smiling and listening, you could see how they came together as they have a remarkable amount of weight in their shoes, silly good melodies and hooks in the tunes doesn’t hurt either.

My favourite ( i had no idea who did that song moment ) go’s to ill Scarlett’s Milkshakes and Razorblades, fucking deadly chorus! i stumbled accross this video in some hotel room on the road late at night, loved it outta the gates. I had an amazing conversation with front man Alex about war, he is a much deeper man than his pre Apocalypse Charlie Sheene swagger would lead us all to believe, it was refreshing speaking to someone who knows so much about the history of wars and has an educated perspective on it, he had finished our way too deep chat with ” why can’t we simply deal with right now and look around at who needs help instead of what already happened and where we want it all to end up?” something to that effect anyway, we had been kept well in beer, strong Chinese cigarettes and oreo cookies that night under the blue tarp in Guangzhou.

Ohbijou gets my ( tightest and most professional band ) award, they are so gentle and courteous in the music they perform and as people off the stage, you know when you hear a band truly perform together and there are not really any stand alone components, it’s soft and intelligent, i told Heather ( bass ) that i loved not being able to easily pick out what she was doing, her playing sat in and amongst the rest only supporting it all like a warm hand holding a church mouse. They had also managed to not drink themselves silly thus never winging about anything the next day other than simply saying they were tired which was accurate and true for us all.

In closing, i opened my head up and a shit load of life and a shit load of it fell in, i am in reflective mode right now attempting to right my sleeping patterns again, it was fast, unfortunately mostly poorly attended shows with some pretty sketchy gear yet thanks to Tod Cutler and our fearless leader CigaZhou, we always managed to get where and what we needed to be able to fire it up for some people who genuinely found something in some of us if not all of us, we moved people who were not accustomed to show being moved by western music, not country music, western, i felt all of us really killed it in Beijing. ShangHai was the big industry show with delegates but i fell victim to it feeling more like a 20 minute noon spot during just another music conference, thinking i have to try to impress tired industry people whom for the most part may not have been listening but bobbed their heads when being caught not doing so, my issue entirely, for a moment i felt old, not just experienced but old but managed to pull it back together and dig into my only reason  for being there, to do what i know i was built to do well, be an artist.

i did not intend for this to be an awards announcement, but if i could, i would have provided some people with little statues now and again when ever they had manage to effect me in my life………that would have been a shit load of bowling trophies by now!

Thanks so much to Transmit for this experience i shall never forget.

wil ( lucky man )

Oh, a dishonourable mention go’s out to Dyson for keeping Tod and I in good constant stitches.

See you in June?

June 2nd, 2010

Hey everyone,

Just Wil here with some interesting news, I will be heading to China on May 27 to perform 7 shows in 5 cities with just a guitar, albums, my voice and stories in tow. It is organized by Transmit Now
( http://www.transmitnow.com/transmitchina2010 ), they bring Canadian artists over to perform beautiful venues in front of allot of people. The intent is of course for exposure in another country however i am also very much looking forward to experiencing a new and different culture as Americanized as some of it seems to be, definitely won’t  be looking for a cheeseburger or any cliche’ items like a Mao Zedong bobble head. I will be trying to take in as much as possible even though it seems to be a pretty steady go once we arrive in Hong Kong, have learend a few basic phrases in Mandarin and Cantonese and i figure if i get lost i will simply be ” Lost in China ” ( translation sounds better though ) This could yield another records worth of experiences, hmmmmmm.

See you in June?

Cheers,

wil.

www.ibreakstrings.com

Tonight @ The Rivoli

May 5th, 2010

Doing a very special show tonight @ The Rivoli with a 3 piece band. I hit the stage at 10:30pm but Click Here for more details.

CONTEST ALERT!

May 3rd, 2010

ITUNES CONTEST

We want to give away a couple signed albums of In This Together so if your in North America and can’t purchase it yet or just want a signed copy for your collection this is for you! All you have to do is sign-in to iTUNES and write your review of the new album…


STEPS TO ENTER

1. Sign-In to iTunes

2. Find my new album In This Together

3. Write your review/thoughts/comments

4. Take a screen capture (mac: shift+apple+4) (pc: PrtScn)

5. Email your name and screen capture to ibreakstrings@gmail.com

Hey Folks!

I got a great review in Guleph Mercury from my show with Matt at the Boathouse, CLICK HERE to read it.

We also have a new video up so check it out – WATCH Music is the Message

I’ll be performing in store this Thursday, April 22nd at the Megatunes in Calgary, Alberta – going on at 3pm. CLICK HERE to see pics from my performance of “Baby Baby” at the Shore 104FM in Vancouver

Hey, I just released my third album In This Together and it’s in stores across Canada right now. In the next month or so I’ll  make it available in the U.S. but in the meantime I’m working on a video series for you guys. I’ll have a video for each track on the album with my thoughts and give you a chance to hear the song and maybe a little performance…..

I’ve also joined Twitter so I can send you updates from the road > follow me @ibreakstrings

IN THIS TOGETHER ON ITUNES

Fanmail: Perry Hammer

March 24th, 2010

Hi Wil,

Just loved seeing you in Stratford last month.I have almost worn out my new “In This  Together” cd ,sounds great!. Just wondering if you plan on releasing “shipwrecked” as a single sometime. Please refresh the lyrics of Copperhead Road by Steve Earle.Your cover of that song was amazing. Hoping you come back to Ontario sometime!!!!!!!!!!

Regards Perry Hammer

Andersen took the stage after Wil — a Calgary raised roots singer/songwriter with one missing “l” and no last name now living in British Columbia — won over the packed house. Strumming an old, battered and beaten acoustic guitar, he introduced seven songs of love and death spanning 200 years. His voice — which is a dead ringer for American roots artist Ray LaMontagne’s — had the effect of making the audience, many of who who still eating, pin-drop quiet in a matter of a few bars.rreid@therecord.com

View External Article

Source: The Record-Kitchener, ON

Author: Robert Reid

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