City and Colour/Dallas Green

Forget Ritalin. If you want a group of kids to settle down, just get Dallas Green to whisper "Shhhh." The Alexisonfire co-vocalist (the one who sings, not screams) held court over a full house of quiet teens at Lee's on the afternoon of Jan. 29, the first of two acoustic shows in support of a new solo EP, released under the alias City and Colour and titled The Death of Me. (Yeah, I know....)
The all-ages gig was an all-day affair. While Raising the Fawn confused many with their spacey extended feedback jams, emo-friendly Sonic Unyon-signing Sleeper Set Sail managed a queue of autograph-seekers at their merch table, selling over 100 copies of their new CD, A Forward. When Green stepped up to perform "Celine" with Raising the Fawn, the polite crowd perked up. By the time he took centre stage, they were at rapt attention. Judging by the roars that
followed Green's admission that his AOF bandmate George (the one who screams, not sings) was in the house, clearly they were hoping for Alexisonfire Unplugged. Instead, they got to hear original material as good as anything on the band's Watch Out!
For a punker, Green's voice is gentle and melodious, well suited to the sparse, folk style of his solo material. Reminding the Warped generation that the root of screamo is emotional, his romantic confessionals (complete with wound and knife references, natch) warmed the crowd more than a black band hoodie. All the while, girls swooned and guys noted his guitar fingerings. A cover of "How Come Your Arms Are Not Around Me" by Sweden's Fireside was particularly lovely. And then, an impromptu "cover" of AOF's "Side Walk When She Walks" bloomed immediately into a rewarding singalong.
Raising the Fawn rejoined Green for several more tunes, including the excellent travelling musician theme, "Hello, I'm in Delaware," but it was unnecessary. Green's star persona was enough to captivate, the songs were stand-alone hits that deserve an intimate listen. The crowd shuffled home, satisfied. -- LIISA LADOUCEUR

- Eye Weekly

Dallas Green, whose gold-selling band Alexisonfire won a 2005 Juno Award for new group of the year, plans to finish up his full-length solo album this month.
The more melodic of the two vocalists in the St. Catharines, Ont. hardcore band has already released a sold-out limited edition EP, "The Death Of Me," a collection of emotive acoustic songs.
"I've been trying to add to it," says Green, whose solo monicker is City And Colour. "I've had studio time booked twice now for a week that we've had off after a tour, but both times I've come home and lost my voice because I've gotten sick on the road, so I've had to cancel it. So it should be done by now, but I've had to push it back. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of April and then we want to try and put it out by the summer."
The album, also to be titled "The Death Of Me," will come out on Dine Alone Records formed by Alexisonfire's manager Joel Carriere. The label is an imprint of Greg Below's Distort Records, Alexisonfire's Canadian label, which is now distributed by Universal Music Canada.
"Greg's going to do the business end of it and I'm going to take care of everything else, all the A&R and creative," says the St. Catharines-based Carriere. "He signed a really good contract with Universal so instead of me having to go through all that, I'm just going underneath him."
Even though Alexisonfire's deal with Distort allows him to shop his outside projects, he's not interested in a big solo deal. "Maybe one day. I'm in Alexisonfire. That's what takes up 11 months of the year for me and when I have a week off, I do this. Enough kids have been yelling at me in the crowds over the last year and a half to put out my solo stuff 'cause the old demos I did (seven songs through his Modest Productions label), we put on the Internet and kids loved it. So why not put a record out?"
Working with Julius Butty, producer of Alexisonfire's latest album, "Watch Out!," Green has four more songs to record, which he will add to the EP's six -- "Save Your Scissors," "Like Knives," "Hello, I'm In Delaware," "Day Old Hate," "Casey's Song," and "Sometimes (I Wish)."
"I'm going to do some different stuff on the older songs -- not re-record them all, but I'll probably add some more harmony parts and stuff. It would be cool to have something a little bit different when I put it out again," Green says.
One of the things he might do is add some female voices. He talked with Sarah Slean and Jully Black over Juno weekend in Winnipeg. "I like girls that sing a lot," says Green. "I love music that's electronic beats with a girl singer, like Everything But The Girl and Imogen Heap and Frou Frou and all the Massive Attack stuff when they have guest vocalists."
Right now, there are no guest vocalists on the album. "It's just me. But I'd love to, especially Jully Black because she's got the best voice in Canada."
Green met Black the afternoon of the Juno Awards when they both performed at the Songwriters' Circle, hosted by Burton Cummings at his eponymous theatre. Green has been performing solo between Alexisonfire dates and sold all 1500 copies of "Death Of Me" over eight shows. He also sold 500 copies of an enhanced CD single, "Missing," (with live video component), the proceeds from which he donated to the Starve-a-thon charity founded by his deceased high school religion teacher who he writes about in the lyric.
Alexisonfire is currently on the last nine dates of its North American tour, which concludes on April 16th in Vancouver. The band then heads to European until the end of May.
- Canoe Toronto Sun

Alexisonfire didn't get to be Chart's 2004 Artist Of The Year by slacking off. The St. Catherines quintet were constantly on the go. Touring relentlessly behind their sophomore effort, Watch Out!, they definitely earned themselves a much-needed break over the Christmas holidays. However, having become accustomed to a hectic work schedule, guitarist Dallas Green decided to use his vacation to make a solo album.
Recorded over two days at the end of December, The Death Of Me is being issued through Dine Alone Records and will be released under the moniker City And Colour. Initially, the disc will only be available at shows, but may be distributed nationally at a later date. Green explains that the title of the album represents his belief that his chosen occupation may put him in an early grave.
"The title 'The Death Of Me' refers to the fact that music will probably be the death of me," he states. "Sometimes it's never-ending. Not in a bad way, but I'm always working. But it is work that I love to do."
According to Green, the tracks on his six-song EP are sparser than his band material. Having been writing and releasing music on his own for over a decade, he's happy to now have the opportunity to share his solo stuff with a larger audience. Comprised of mainly acoustic songs, he feels that some Alexisonfire fans and lovers of mid-'80s and early '90s R&B will enjoy The Death Of Me.
"It differs from Alexis because it's stripped-down. It's just me and a guitar and sometimes a piano. My solo stuff wouldn't fit with Alexis. I think some of the fans who like the prettier parts of Alexis songs will like my record. Also, people who like Eddie Murphy's solo stuff, Another Bad Creation and New Edition will love my CD."
Folks will be able to gauge the truth of that statement soon. Before heading out on tour again in February with Alexisonfire, Green is playing a handful of shows in Ontario to help celebrate the release of The Death Of Me. Joining him on all dates will be Sonic Unyon's Sleeper Set Sail and Raising The Fawn. Both acts will be accompanying Green onstage for a few songs and he in turn is planning on making a guest appearance during their sets. Along with his album, fans will also be able to pick up a new CD single that will include a track not on the EP as well as enhanced live video footage. Proceeds from the sale of the single will be donated to the annual Starvathon fundraiser held at Denis Morris High School in St. Catherines. Green says the single and cause both have a special place in his heart.
"This CD single is extra special to me. It is titled 'Missing' and is dedicated to Ralph Serravelle. I credit him as the reason I am playing music today. He was my teacher in high school and was one of the only people who told me I could make a living out of music and meant it. He used to tell us to leave our mark and legacy. He passed away a little over a year ago. I am donating all profits from this single to a fundraising event called Starvathon, which Serravelle started at the school to raise money for famine victims in Haiti and Guatemala and to help out local charities." — Shawn Despres
- CHART Magazine

Alexisonfire's Dallas Green is best known for jumping around with his band of screamo misfits, but many of his fans are becoming more and more aware that Green has a softer side and its name is City And Colour.
The singer's debut solo record, Sometimes, will be released on November 1 in Canada on Dine Alone, an imprint of Distort Records, Alexisonfire's Canadian label. The imprint is distributed by Universal Music Canada.
Green won a 2005 Juno Award with Alexisonfire for New Group Of The Year and also this year released a limited edition EP under the City And Colour banner.
According to Green's bio, the EP was "wildly circulated on the internet, the release causing such an overwhelming buzz that fans as far away as Europe and Australia were emailing the Alexisonfire site asking how to obtain copies."
Here is the track list for Sometimes:
"...Off By Heart"
"Like Knives"
"Hello, I'm In Delaware"
"Save Your Scissors"
"In The Water I Am Beautiful"
"Day Old Hate"
"Sam Malone"
"Comin Home"
"Casey's Song"
"Sometimes (I Wish)
- CHART Magazine

The first two times I called Dallas Green's cell for an interview, my phone didn't work and he couldn't hear me. This made me very nervous when I called him on a different phone the third time, as he sounded a little annoyed when he hung up the first two times. Fearing the worst, I prepared myself for a hostile interviewee.

Dallas Green, one fifth of the popular punk/rock group Alexisonfire, released his solo effort, Sometimes on Nov. 1, under the moniker City and Colour (Dallas = City, Green = Colour). The album is a melodically-driven adventure in acoustic guitar and voice. Nothing like the loud (and proud) sound his fans are used to from Alexis.

"Most people don't realize that I've been playing acoustic shows since I was, like, 15 years old. People just see me big in Alexisonfire and then they think I'm trying to distance myself from the music, or something, because I put out an acoustic record," said Green in response to some critics labelling Sometimes as his ‘softer side'. "But it just happens to be that I like music a lot and I write tons of different types of songs."
Sometimes is actually a follow up to a limited release EP Green put out called The Death of Me. For a while, some of the songs featured on Sometimes were only available on the internet and, despite their rough sound, became wildly popular. Green wasn't happy with the recordings so he decided to re-do them along with some others and package it all up into a neat little album.

"I just wanted to put the songs out and be proud of something as opposed to cringing every time I heard someone talk about the songs that they heard on the internet," he said. The songs, though recorded this past January, were mostly written when Green was in his late-teens (the musician is now in his mid-twenties), so there are some questions as to whether the songs are still representative of the writer as he is now. Green doesn't seem to concern himself with that question, but instead insists that Sometimes is just an exploration into a different style of writing than that of Alexisonfire.

"I always really wanted to write a song about everywhere I've been in the world, and I've always wanted to put Saskatoon in a song for some reason, just because I think it's a funny name," he said in reference to the song "Comin' Home", which is an ode to the place he loves most in the world: Canada. This particular song also provides the closest thing to a political message on the album with the line "I've been to Lincoln, Nebraska and hell you know it ain't worth shit." When asked about this line, Green gives his most candid response in the entire interview, emphasizing the deeper meaning behind such a simple verse.

"Sometimes when you're on tour, there's just really bad days - I'm not saying the kids weren't good or the show wasn't good - it's just the town," he said. "It just seems like an awful place. There's a lot of places in America that really make me nervous and just scared."

Aside from "Comin' Home", the album's theme generally runs along the lines of love won, lost or unwanted. Standout tracks include the mournful "Day Old Hate", as well as the title track "Sometimes (I Wish)", which is about as emo as anyone can get.
If any of Green's fans are worried about his place in Alexisonfire, they shouldn't be. City and Colour seems more like a side project, started just to take up extra time, than a life-long ambition. And seeing as the singer is playing only two official shows to support the record in Canada before moving directly into writing the next Alexis album, it doesn't seem like there are any Beyoncé-esque delusions of grandeur in this guy's future.

When Green had to excuse himself for a moment in order to pay a toll, I realized that he had been driving the entire time, and in fact was on his way to Albany for a show with Alexis. To me this explained why he sounded tired, stressed and generally uninterested in our conversation. In the end, press interviews, just like his solo album Sometimes, are only afterthoughts to something much more important to Dallas Green - the music.
- The Excalibur

Sam Roberts, The Weakerthans, The Dears, Tegan & Sara, Closet Monster, Buck 65 and Alexisonfire's Dallas Green are among the Canadian artists who have contributed songs to a War Child Canada compilation CD, spearheaded by Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida and executive producer Bob Rock.
There is no title yet, no distributor, and Maida hasn't even decided what OLP track he will donate or if the band will simply write a new song, but he does know he'd like to have the benefit album out before Christmas…
- Canoe Toronto Sun