Rose City Sessions
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Rose City Sessions!
By Murad Erzinchlioglu
Rose City Sessions – ASK
Rose City Sessions is a col...Rose City Sessions!
By Murad Erzinchlioglu
Rose City Sessions – ASK
Rose City Sessions is a collaborative project that brings together Windsor, Ontario based Filmmakers, Visual Artists, Musicians, Writers, Photographers, and Recording Engineers to shine a light on our community’s burgeoning artistic and musical talents. Rose City Sessions is operated and produced in Windsor, by Windsorites, for Windsorites. The mission is simple: To create live audio/visual representations of Windsor-Essex County talents in the highest quality possible. Each month, more free online materials and downloads will become available. Each live session pairs a Windsor-Essex County based visual artist with a musician or act. Over the past four months the project has recorded musicians such as The Bulletproof Tiger, Orphan Choir, Kero, The Locusts Have No King, Tara Watts, Fiftywatthead and Johnny West with the work of artists like Dave Kant, Dianne Clinton, Derek Cerovski, Jason Deary and D3N!@L setting the scene for each session. A virtual creme de la creme of the Windsor cultural scene and we still have a long way to go with many more sessions mapped out through to the new year.
In the case of our fourth installment our musician and artist are one in the same as we teamed with local art-rock band ASK. Filmed in Sturgeon Studios as the act neared the completion in recording their sophomore full-length effort, the project’s founder and audio engineer, James O-L could not have hoped for a more ideal recording environment. It’s a true tribute to the hard work and dedication of Sturgeon Studios owner Adam Michalczuk who has spent year’s refining his craft and and space into a top level recording studio. On top of that he allowed and outside crew come into his life’s work and have their run of the place; a humble and generous member of the Windsor cultural community to say the very least.
ASK, formerly A.S.K. – Another Saturday Knight, formed in Toronto in 2006 as an art project by Windsor native Chad Howson, “I had a plan to create music, paintings and lyrics that ask questions and simultaneously showcase them to the public.” A.S.K.’s first show was at Taloola Café in late December 2006 featuring Shawn Ladd and Chad Howson as a duo with Alex MacArthur soon joining the band as bass player. In March of 2007 the band acted as opening support for their comrades The Locusts Have No King. Chad Howson moved back to Windsor in August 2007 and worked to solidify the line-up in preparation for the first record (A.S.K. – Another Saturday Knight). From 2007 through 2009, A.S.K. performed over 50 shows between Windsor and Toronto, self produced and released their debut album, hosted a half dozen art shows of ASK/mixed media paintings/drawings from Chad Howson and released a DVD (the Big Visit) featuring 3 music videos and a full live performance of their debut album.
The name change came in late summer of 2009 after band members solidified and a new sound and vision was formed. “We vacillated over names, but ultimately felt that the name and concept is what we are.” ASK has had many styles in their time, traveling from Outlaw/Indie/Folk-Rock to the sharp Indie/Alt-Rock of their first record. The upcoming release Future Communication (coming this fall) boasts an ultra-modern musical projection of what has been described as Post-Grunge/Art-Rock. Future Communication’s production team was composed of a veritable who’s who of the Windsor scene including the aforementioned Adam Michalczuk, Mark Plancke of Shark Tank Pro as well as Chad Howson himself with mastering form Toronto’s Phil Demetro at Lacquer Channel.
One thing Chad Howson knows how to do is work with the area’s finest talent. Over the years musicians who have performed live and/or recorded with ASK include: Luke Pelotte, Adam Michalczuk, Stephan Svetkovich, Liam O’Donell, Pietro Caira, John Oleynik, Joey DesRoaches, Trevor Malcolm, Shawn Ladd, Max Marshall, Gary Clarke, Nancy Drew, and Alex MacArthur. Chad Howson’s spirit for collaboration and co-operation transcends music and into art with his frequent work with FUZE an improvisational live painting project that operates publicly at area festivals and events. These experiences have given Howson to further explore painting with more confidence as he has worked as an illustrator for the majority of his artistic career.
ask me, ask me, ask me Another Saturday Knight Question the Past on Their Debut Album
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Ask Me, Ask Me, Ask Me
Another Saturday Knight Question the Past on Their Debut Album
Paul Hoffm...Ask Me, Ask Me, Ask Me
Another Saturday Knight Question the Past on Their Debut Album
Paul Hoffman
Another Saturday Knight (otherwise known as ASK) will be celebrating their debut self-titled CD on December 20th at Dr. Disc in the afternoon, followed by a big show at Phog Lounge along with David Dubois (from The Locusts Have No King) later on that evening. On the 27th of this month they will be backing up the legendary Luxury Christ at the Blind Dog, another show that definitely cannot be missed!
ASK began performing sometime in 2005 as a group of musicians that included singer Chad Howson and a host of other like-minded folks. They would find themselves jamming on Saturday nights, soldiering on and fighting the good fight, hence their status as defenders, champions, and zealous upholders of a cause or principal...in this case, their music. ASK is an apt acronym for these guys because their music asks a lot of big questions that challenge their audience and the band itself. The current incarnation of the band finds Howson on acoustic guitars and vocals, Shawn Ladd on guitar, Alex MacArthur on bass, John Oleynik on drums and Gary Clark on guitar and vocals. The CD also features the assistance of James Nichols on vocals and Huladog keyboardist Mark Calcott on a variety of instruments on most of the tracks. Howson describes ASK as definitely a “rhythm band†with their crunchy and choppy guitar sound, influenced by the densely-layered guitar noise of Television-two. Howson’s plaintive and almost robotic voice echoes the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division, one of the bands that Howson points towards as influences, along with the Monks, Clinic, and Beck. Howson also notes a band that has been a major influence on him that I had never heard before, Hope of the States.
The nine songs on the new CD cover a wide spectrum of ideas and sounds, beginning with the catchy opening tune "Pause/PLAY," a timely rant against the failure of government and the economy: "Help yourself to whatever you feel/Money's the best defence..." The following tune "As it was" deals with what Howson calls "an introspection of quantum reality," looking back on your past and accepting your current reality. It also includes the stand-out line, "Why are you breathing, why won't you leave me alone?" "Morals," the next track, quickly moves on to the theme of religious oppression. The song is based upon Howson's early upbringing in a strict Pentecostal household, but is applicable to any type of religious dogma, with religion as a metaphorical vampire, "feasting on my happiness" as he wonders "Where are all the consequences, the ones that made you repent?"
The CD then shifts towards interpersonal relations in songs like "DALE," a character study on a larger-than-life person that Howson grew up with. It is a study in how Dale's personal relations slowly disintegrated in tandem with his struggle to recover from a particularly hard breakup: "I tasted your pain, and you pointed out all mine...I never really loved you, I only held on to get me by..." and rails against the "crazy transference glue" that has eroded their friendship as a result. At the center of the CD lies the catchy sounds of "Gravity Boots," a song that Howson describes as "an adaptation of love," the changes that occur as a relationship goes through its ups and downs. It's about the never-ending quest to find someone, some thing, to help keep you grounded: "So hold me and walk with me now/Together we'll bust through those clouds/We'll jump and we'll never look down because we have...Gravity Boots!" This brings to mind Charlie Kaufman's "Adaptation." Kaufman recently spoke about his process of writing and directing: "When I create a work of art, I put myself into the world; people can respond to it or not. I'm exploring things that are relevant to my life, and are universal: issues of aging and regret, illness and dying." It occurs to me that these are the very same questions of life that Another Saturday Knight struggle with throughout their lyrics and musical structures. The song concludes with an excerpt from the CBC's "Vinyl Cafe" as Stuart McLean is heard through the squelching of a radio, a counter-point and deconstruction of the song we have just heard: "There is nothing original in the song, all artists learn ...that you copy, and you copy, and you copy and...slowly you make it your own, slowly it gets into your hands and into your hair and into the way that you walk, and into the way that you talk. But if you're lucky, you find your own voice. And people start copying you. So when you listen to a cover, you're listening to the essence of music, the very heart of the matter. You're listening to someone who is saying, this is something I wish I could do!"
The overriding theme of the CD is one of personal introspection, looking back on the past and coming to terms, as found in "Drive by stabbing" and "Too many days," songs about acceptance and moving forward with your life. Howson discusses the notions of "contesting the past, learning where those triggers are and finding a way to turn them off." More questions arise in lyrics like "Why won't you cry, why can't we lie here? Why all the crimes on my heart, from your heart?" And "what are we all so afraid of? And why are we carried away, with the games that we play to the grave?" Big questions, and ASK offers no answers because they are a part of human nature, with no easy answers in sight.
The CD closes with "Tractor," a song that Howson describes as his favorite tune, one that speaks of "ethereal clandestine development," and by that I think that he's talking about the massive yet hidden changes rapidly taking place in today's society. The song itself echoes these changes in its chord transition towards the end of the song, a change that even the band was unsure of but one that ultimately wound up making pretty good sense of things after all.
ASK is definitely a thinking-person's band, but the songs are catchy and propulsive in their unrelenting beats. They may be asking many questions, but they manage to do so in a way that challenges their listeners through their intelligent lyrics and toe-tapping melodies. Be sure to check them out on December 20th for their CD release, and also be sure to look out for them on December 27th as they back up local legends Luxury Christ at the Blind Dog just in time for the holidays. How can it get any better than that?
supersonic
