Artists for aquatic preservation : Great Lake Swimmers, The Balconies, Dragonette and more

Great Lake Swimmers will release a new track this week honouring fishermen and families affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Ballad of a Fisherman's Wife" was written and produced in Toronto and will be released online at www.swimdrinkfishmusic.com.

"'Ballad Of A Fisherman's Wife' was written after hearing, with great dismay, news about the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Most striking and heart-felt to me were the sentiments of outrage from those who made their living in and along these waters, especially the fishermen, and especially their wives. I wanted to comment on this ongoing crisis from that very specific viewpoint," says Tony Dekker.

Dekker's music has been featured on the Swim Drink Fish Music website throughout the month of August. The Swim Drink Fish Music Club is an online music and audio experience @ http://www.swimdrinkfishmusic.com. Developed by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper with Ottawa Riverkeeper, and Fraser Riverkeeper, SDFM brings artists together with activists and citizens to celebrate exclusive and rare music while creating swimmable, drinkable, fishable futures for their communities.

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On the other hand, The Balconies, Dragonette and many other artists have donated songs for the Spill Compilation. Ryan McCambridge of the band Recovery Child organized the SPILL compilation, reaching out to other musicians in the Canadian music scene after the devastating explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and consequent environmental devastation of the spill of millions of gallons of oil into the oceans.

Spill: Songs For Oil Spill Relief is a free music compilation download in support of Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Oceana is encouraging people to help end offshore drilling through donation support and by signing their petition. Offshore drilling is a cause that the musicians on the Canadian compilation see as a global issue. In exchange for making an online donation to Oceana, you will receive a link to download the SPILL compilation.

The compilation includes tracks donated by: Dragonette, Lindi Ortega, The Balconies, Spirits, Clothes Make The Man, Recovery Child, Michou, Sandman Viper Command, The Junction, Peter Katz, The Salingers, StereoGoesStellar, and Dinosaur Bones.

Concert Review : Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees & Dragonette

(First of all: wow. Electro-dance music live. So much better than the recorded stuff. The show last night was a great continuation after seeing Champion and His G-Strings at Rifflandia.)

Now I admit up front I knew neither Dragonette nor Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees well going in to the concert and had little to no expectations. Rebekah Higgs of Ruby Jean is mentioned quite frequently on NxEW, so I assumed good things. A friend had invited me to the concert last minute and he's quite familiar with Dragonette's music, showing an interesting contrast where I knew the opening act while he knew the headliner. This review focuses mostly on Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees.

The show was held on October 17, 2009, and the venue, laconically named Venue (don't you love ironic un-creativity), was originally the Plaza night club. It was quite classy, in fact, which was a nice deviation from many of the Vancouver clubs. There was a high stage, much like the Commodore Ballroom, and similarly has a well laid out floor plan. High ceilings and a balcony enabled a back wall LED light display, as well as a hanging ceiling light displays. Both of those were put to good use during the two sets.

A few notes about Dragonette-- the lead singer Martina Sorbara oozes confidence. She knows how to grab attention and hold it. The crowd, which consisted of everything from screaming club girls to Gucci-sporting men to gamer-looking huge guys, ate up whatever she served during the hour set. It was amazing to be up so close to the front and see the amount of arms reaching and longing to touch her grey body suit or shake her slender hand. Sorbara was visibly pleased and thanked the full house crowd for their full attention and adoration.

Now onto Halifax's Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees. As an opening act, they complemented Dragonette very well, as both bands have strong frontwomen, backed by solid trios of supporting men. They both played electro-dance rock which moved you involuntarily.

Ruby Jean launched into You Don't Miss Me, the one song I was familiar with from CBC Radio 3, as the first song in their set. They then proceeded to blitz and grind through the remainder of songs from their eponymous album.

Although their time slot was quite early (7:30 on a weekend?), which Rebekah apologized for, the area in front of the stage soon filled up with bobbing heads and swinging hips. And with good reason. Rebekah Higgs is a hell of a show-woman, clutching two microphones, swinging her mess of blond hair around, kicking the air, craning her back down where previously thought humanly impossible, punching her suitcase of buttons and pedals... in short, it was amazing. She oozed confidence (and sex appeal!) in a fully sequined blue mini-dress, matched by guitarist Jason Vautour in a leather vest (no shirt) and leather short-shorts.

It was a pleasure watching the band rock out on stage, visibly having fun, with chemistry and what may be sexual tension building up to the (very high) roof. Rebekah thanked the audience frequently for their high energy, and reached out into the crowd quite a few times for audience participation.

I immediately bought their album and shirt after the set, which came to a very reasonable $20, and got to chat briefly with Rebekah, who's really sweet despite (?) her onstage persona.

On stage, Higgs mentioned that this is only the second time that they've played in Vancouver. Well, that has to be remedied. and fast.

For more pictures from last night, visit my Flickr!