brazen crush

When Brazen Crush hit the stage for the first time in December 2004 as part of the Sexy Sagittarian Celebration at the Vatikan, the overwhelming consensus was that the audience had never seen a band that was so tight on their first gig.

Indeed, after listening to the four demo tracks on the band’s website (www.brazencrush.ca) you might be excused for thinking they had been plugging away for years as opposed to a mere 12 months. Since that successful first show in late 2004, they’ve played just over a dozen gigs.

Before they evolved into the first-rate live act that’s been wowing Toronto audiences for the past year, BC started out as a drummerless collaboration that involved Gillmor and keyboard player Steve Sauve jamming and emailing their best ideas back and forth over their FTP sites. Moxie added her vocals later. When they had a finished CD, they took it to drummer Cheryl Reid, who had been looking to play with Gillmor for years, and invited her to join them if she liked what she heard. Reid loved it and the rest, as they say, is history.

On paper, the band member’s backgrounds seem to be disparate with little common ground. Gillmor has played bass for a number of acts over the last 15 years, including Roach Motel and Kelly and the Kellygirls. Reid has kept time for Ember Swift and Sauve has dabbled in experimental electronic music as well as teaching Sound Design and Digital Audio at a number of colleges around the GTA. In addition to HerAgainn, Moxie has also performed with the Disco Dyke Divas.

BC’s sound seamlessly melds their wide-ranging influences into an intoxicating whole. The “Soulful Jazzy Funky Trippy Grooves” line at the bottom of each page of their website is an apt description of the mélange of sounds the band creates.

“We, I think, really click with each other in a very alchemical way,” Gillmor said. “That was why this was my favourite thing to do is write collectively like this.”

When they rehearse, they usually jam to warm up. Gillmor admitted she records these sessions because that was how their first six songs were conceived.

“It’s amazing how we start playing and within two minutes most of the time, or even less sometimes it feels like instantly we’re playing something that we’re all excited about that ends up becoming a song,” she explained. “I mean it’s just quite exciting how we just start playing together and there’s the next song on its way.”

Getting Toronto music fans to cast aside their inhibitions at live shows and do more than stand around and nod their heads can be a daunting task at the best of times. At a show at the El Mocambo in late 2005, even the aloof “too cool for this” crowd could be seen moving in time to the infectious grooves that BC created.

“To me, there’s no greater reward while playing groovy music than to see that you’ve inspired other people’s bodies to move,” she said.

Moxie’s phenomenal vocals and incredible stage presence were one of the highlights of the show, particularly on the powerful ‘Hysteria’. When she started swaying to Gillmor’s funky bass lines and Reid’s crisp beats even the most inhibited soul would have been hard pressed not to feel at least some of the energy that coursed through the room during their set.

Andrew Horan, January 2006 - Scene and Heard

(NOTE: these reviews relate to shows with our previous singer Moxy.)

I went to check out this “collaborative soul-jazz-funk-fusion group” Brazen Crush at their Gladstone Spring Thaw. Here's what I saw: a prom queen in big boots and a tiara on vocals (Moxie), a boppin' cowboy/girl on bass (Jen Gillmor), an uber-sweet-nerd on synth (Steve Sauvé), and dapper-in-her-hat Cheryl Reid on drums.

Their songs let me imagine various scenarios: a jazzy number had me hallucinating blue smoke swirling around the swinging diva, and a room full of cool cats tapping their feet. Next I fantasized myself dirty dancing with a lover on a secluded rainy day to a trip-hoppy number. Then I was blasted into the past with their dreamy cover of David Bowie's Heroes. The intensity of the bass often prompted thoughts of MeShell Ndege O'cello. Let me tell you, they can and will really belt it out! And there's nothing better than a band that is playful and communicative with each other and their audience when performing. In addition to all being strong players in this collaboration, they also have some cool tricks up their sleeves: playing the keyboard avec tambourine, a new year's noisemaker keeping time, plucking a Jew's harp, and creepy mic effect for the song Carnival of Fear.

- Trade Magazine, Toronto