Weird can be good. So if you want to hear some of Alberta’s most unusual and innovative bands, don’t miss the Electric Eye Music Festival on May 10.
The day long music festival features 30 of some of Alberta’s most unusual independent bands playing at six different venues in downtown Lethbridge
Organizers Eric Sharp and James Phelan focused on Lethbridge bands or bands with former Lethbridge residents, but have bands from Taber to Edmonton participating.
“This is a showcase of emerging independent Albertan bands with a local focus,” summarized Sharp who plays in local band the Yeah Dads with James Phelan. They will be opening the stage at a newer venue, the Army and Navy Air Force Veterans Hall ( 517 5th Ave South) at 12:45 p.m. There will be bands performing at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, The Slice, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Telegraph Taphouse and Blueprint Records as well.
“ We wanted to pick 80 per cent local bands. We saw a need for it in Lethbridge,” Phelan added, noting the duo drew inspiration from similar festivals like Weird Canada, Sled Island (June 18-22) in Calgary and the Mammoth Cave Festival in Lethbridge a few years ago. They talked about the idea with some their friends in the exploding jamming, underground garage rock scene and found overwhelming interest in playing at the festival.
Sled Island is one of the sponsors for the festival, and in fact several of the acts performing the Electric Eye Music Festival are also playing Sled Island this year including local punk trio Advertisement.
Sled Island sponsors the music of a newer venue- the Army Navy Air Force Veterans Hall, which will feature The Yeah Dads, Advertisement, Chief Mountain, Medicine Hat alternative rock band Terra (who made an impression a few weeks ago as the bassist smashed his bass on stage) Lethbridge/ Calgary garage rock garage rock/ punk favourites Fist City followed by Feel Alright who are also playing Sled Island this year.
“ We had bands calling us, too many bands, and had nowhere to have them play, but James found the Army Navy Air Force Hall and called
them and they were very receptive,” Sharp said.
The festival came together very smoothly thanks to a lot of support from sponsors CKXU, The Slice, Owl Acoustic Lounge, Long and McQuade, the Telegraph Taphouse, Blueprint, Two Guys and a Pizza Place, Nectar Fine Tattooing, Sign City, L.A. Beat and particularly a City of Lethbridge Heart of the City activity grant.
“ We wouldn’t have got nearly as far as we have without the Heart of the City grant,” Phelan said.
The lineup gelled quickly as Edmonton bands the Lad Mags and the Betrayed were looking for some place to play in Lethbridge on May 10 anyway, so the duo built the line up around their gig at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.
“ They really wanted to play that date,” Sharp said.
“ We really stepped up to the plate on this. We both really care about the music scene and the community,” he continued.
“ People jumped on board with it right away,” Sharp said.
Some of the highlights included a couple of all ages shows.
The first one is at the Owl Acoustic Lounge at noon with the Lethbridge Girls Rock camp, Johnny Greenshields, Silvana Campus, Steve Foord, the Brenna Lowrie band and country/ old school rock and roll band the Palmers.
Another all ages gig begins at Blueprint at 5;15 p.m. with alternative rock band Fox Eyes, followed by Lethbridge female rapper Pzeudo and garage rock/ punk trio the Ruby Plumes.
A third all ages gig at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery focuses on electronica music beginning at 6:30 p.m. with An Ant and And Atom, Edmonton’s BOOSH! and local duo the Open Channels.
It will also feature a visual component.
“It’s also national drone day, (celebrating electronica music) which we didn’t know about so we’re having an electronica show for National Drone Day and we didn’t even know it,” Phelan observed adding while most of the acts fall into the garage rock category, there is still a lot of diversity.
“ It’s not just white hipster douches,” Phelan said.
“ They all fall under the do it yourself side of the music spectrum,” Sharp said.
“ We have learned that when people get together and work on something like this, they can create something that is truly unique and special,” he continued.
There are several all female rock bands, bands from the Siksika reserve like Chief Mountain and Fox Eyes, electronica and even a touch of country and roots music.
Shaela Miller and Tyler Bird plus Nolan Bossert will be playing at the Telegraph, while the Slice starts off their day at 3:30 p.m. with the Mangy Mutts followed by Lethbridge country/ roots bands Treeline and Rancho Deluxe doing a songwriting workshop at 4:45 p.m.
The Slice is all about rock and roll in the evening with Robotoroboros, progressive rock trio Lustre Creame, medieval metal band the Outlaws of Ravenhurst and Edmonton’s Bonspiel and Calgary/ Lethbridge fuzz rock band Hypnopilot.
Though some of the country music has a weird twist like Taber punk / jug band the Mangy Mutts who exemplify the Do It Yourself theme of the Electric Eye as they built their own instruments when they decided to transition from playing thrash and death metal into playing roots music.
“ We’d been playing together for years in thrash and death metal bands, but decided to try this,” said Riley Rombough, who build a stand up bass out of an old washtub, a stick and a piece of clothes line.
“My brother Zach (Murray) plays washboard and my buddy Neil ( Megyes) plays guitar,” he said adding they immediately started writing their own country songs after being influenced by folks like fellow Taberite Corb Lund and especially Hank Williams the third, which lead to them exploring the music of the other Hanks.
“I decided instead of spending a thousand dollars on a stand up bass, that I’d build my own,” he said adding he didn't know of many other bands using washtub basses.
“But it isn’t ordinary stand up bass, I’m playing thrash music on it and walking bass lines,“ he said.
They usually play on the same bill as punk and metal bands including a Lethbridge gig on April 5.
“It’s pretty funny being on the bill with metal and punk bands and seeing them say ‘holy s--t they’re pretty good.’ But they know we’re punks,” he said.
They made another impression a couple weeks ago by getting asked to leave the Enmax Centre property for protesting a show by pop-country act the Florida Georgia Line.
“ We‘re really against this pop country stuff, so we did a friendly protest. But it’s not like we were shouting ‘pop country sucks.’ That’s in our songs,” he said.
We set up and started busking outside the doors. Then they asked us to leave. So we went and partied in the parking lot and set up again when everybody was coming out. They thought we were a bunch of homeless guys, and then we started playing and some of them started dancing and saying ‘holy s--t, they’re pretty good,” he recalled.
The Mangy Mutts play the Slice, 3:30 p.m.
Admission to the festival is by donation. Sharp and Phelan recommended a three dollar donation per band, or people can buy a “no hassle” wristband for $20. You can get them in advance at Blueprint.
“ It shows that you have already donated and guarantees you admission and you won’t be hassled by the volunteers who will be hassling people for donations,” Phelan said.
“ But we hope people will want to show their support for this event and the community by donating,” Sharp added.
There has already been a great show of support with two fundraising concerts.
“In between Terra smashing their bass on stage and the great show with the Devonian Gardens last week, support has been absolutely amazing,” Phelan enthused.
They would like to make the Electric Eye an annual event, so they have already laid a solid foundation by setting up a bank account, designing merch and trademarking the name.
The complete schedule for the Electric Eye Music Festival is http://eemusicfest.com/site-map/
