January Music Matters: Bass Coast Festival, Band of Brothers and more
Entertainment reporter Stuart Derdeyn's reveals his monthly roundup of music events and news you should know — from Vancouver and beyond.
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What is Music Matters?
Simply put, it’s our new monthly music column that highlights music-related news that you can use. Expect album releases, playlist downloads, sleeper shows, and things you should know about your local, national and international scenes.
Think of it as a quick reference point for datebook items, purchases and more. Because everyone’s busy and benefits from somebody else (that’s me!) keeping track of those items you might otherwise miss. It’s a two-way communication, too. Email relevant tips and rants to sderdeyn@postmedia.com.
Without further ado, here are the five top music highlights of the month.
From Bass Coast With Love: 12 Days Vol. 7 Music Compilation
Where: basscoastmusic.bandcamp.com
The seventh edition of Bass Coast Festival alumni tracks features a dozen gems including Vancouver Island’s Astrocolor’s Nightflight given a Neil Jam3s dub remix and the Librarian’s Moon Illusion Self-Evident remix. Each year, 100 per cent of proceeds from sales of this compilation are donated to the Nicola Valley Food Bank in the host town of Merritt. So it’s good music towards a good cause. Long considered one of the finest electronic music festivals in the world by such tastemakers as DJ Mag, the annual music and arts event that takes place in the Nicola Valley from July 12 — 15. Tickets sell out super fast, so head to basscoast.ca ASAP to not miss out on this year’s party.
Hotel Mira and Fake Shark
When: Jan. 19, 8 p.m.
Where: Commodore Ballroom
Tickets/info: From $36 at ticketmaster.ca
Are you staying at the Hotel Mira yet? Because with over 24 million cumulative streams and a million-plus YouTube video views, this Vancouver quartet is on a star trajectory. Since the release of its latest Light Organ/604 Records sophomore effort, titled I Am Not Myself, the band has landed on the top 10 most-played artists on Canadian alt rock radio in 2023. Songs such as Fever Pitch, Dancing With the Moonlight and I Am Not Myself are all in regular rotation. Alone in America drops this month to keep that motion moving and the group makes a triumphant return home to play the Commodore. Labelmates Fake Shark, who recently released Exactly What I Thought You Were, are also on the bill. A solid local scene double-bill bound to blow the Ballroom roof off to start 2024.
Band of Brothers: Levin & La Barbera
When: Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Blueshore @ CapU, North Vancouver
Tickets: From $35 at rickshawtheatre.com
The bassist and Chapman Stick ace Tony Levin is a legend. In addition to his nearly 50-year tenure playing with Peter Gabriel and art rockers King Crimson, credits include John Lennon, Lou Reed and many more. His brother Pete Levin is a session keyboardist heard on records ranging from Annie Lennox to Miles Davis. Juno award-winning horn player Pat La Barbera served a long tenure in Buddy Rich’s band, while brother Joe La Barbera has sessions with everyone from Tony Bennett and Michael Bublé to Rosemary Clooney and Rod Stewart. Put them together and what do you have? A quartet of monster players putting their all into the music that they all started with: Jazz.
Lydia Loveless
When: Jan. 28, 7 p.m.
Where: WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac
Tickets/info: $32.34 at ticketweb.ca
Alt-country punk Lydia Loveless first came to attention with 2010s The Only Man, a project begun when the singer was 15. Since that release, their albums have gained a reputation for honest, hard-hitting lyrics couched in rollicking honky-tonk tones such as those heard on 2023’s Bloodshot Records release Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again. The title reads like the way Loveless has approached making music in a scene that is heavy on male membership and low on everyone else. Loveless is evening that score. Jason Hawk Harris opens.
Auteur: Music Inspired By the Films of Wes Anderson
Amanda Gardier | agardier.com
As much as he relies on a key group of actors to realize his quirky creative visions, director Wes Anderson also turns to Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh for the idiosyncratic sounds of his films. For this altogether engaging project, saxophonist/composer/teacher Amanda Gardier tackles the Anderson/Mothersbaugh legacy with swinging results. With Bad Plus drummer Dave King pushing the quartet of guitarist Charlie Balantine and bassist Jesse Whitman, Gardier finds fantastic new inroads into the themes to produce nine tracks that range from more traditional film music to ambient rock textures. Anderson’s most recent work, Asteroid City, is on most major streaming services.
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