Music
Press
Maze Spells Independent With a Capital I
By MIKE YOUDS
Kamloops Daily News Staff Reporter
If you missed Jimi Maze at Monday’s Music in the Park, you can
catch up to him tonight and Wednesday at the Squilax youth
hostel.
Maze, whose real name is James Lanbro, has played at Riverside
Park three summers in the past as the front man for the popular
folk-hop band Canary Mine. The band is still a unit — they plan to
release their next CD in six months’ time — but in hiatus for the
summer.
“Our drummer had triplets so we aren’t touring outside of Ontario
now and I wanted to keep the ball rolling,” Maze said Monday.
As a solo performer he’s every bit the musical maverick, a self-
styled ambassador of hip-hop, that the band has been since
forming four years ago.
Canary Mine’s music has been featured in the Hollywood cult
comedy Weirdsville. Maze has also created soundtracks for two
documentaries — Germinio Polittio and South of Marrakesh, which
have had some airing on Bravo!
As an independent artists, Maze has made a career of slipping
through the cracks, guerilla style. As he notes, he’s “unconvinced
of the validity or the honesty in a troubled music industry,”
preferring to blaze his own trail.
He’s one of the rare solo acts at Music in the Park, travelling
around in his minivan mostly setting his own schedule: “I call it my
RV,” he said.
Every two or three gigs, he burns a new CD, numbering and
labelling it by town. It might include live performances, studio work,
past works and work in progress. His laptop computer and local
printers serve as substitutes for a record label.
He mixes the the positive party vibes of bands such as Tribe
Called Quest and Beastie Boys with melodies influenced by Hank
Williams and Merle Haggard. He’s as comfortable fraternizing with
Ice-T, De La Soul, Kardinal Official, Black Eyed Peas, Buck 65 and
Run DMC as he is with the music of Johnny Cash, Hank Snow and
Willie Nelson. The common demoninator is emotional storytelling
and minimalism, he feels.
His next project? Developing a hip-hop-polka band, hoping to play
perennially for Octoberfest in his hometown of Kitchener and
Munich, Germany.
Tonight and Wednesday night, Maze joins Tom Glenne at the
Squilax General Store and Youth Hostel. Also a free spirit, Glenne
plays rock like free--form jazz, making every performance unique.
He divides his playing between Toronto, Victoria and Squilax,
where he’s the unofficial musician-in-residence.
“I did his sound for a time,” Maze said, “He’s got a crew of
songwriters who follow him around.”
Every Saturday night for the next four weekends at the hostel the
Tom Glenne 5.5 performs with visiting headliners such as Geoff
Howe and Richard Summerbell.
Performances begin at 8:10 p.m. and there is a $6 cover charge.
The hostel is located 10 kilometres east of Chase at 229 Trans-
Canada Highway.
- Kamloops Daily News
Maze Spells Independent With a Capital I
By MIKE YOUDS
Kamloops Daily News Staff Reporter
If you missed Jimi Maze at Monday’s Music in the Park, you can
catch up to him tonight and Wednesday at the Squilax youth
hostel.
Maze, whose real name is James Lanbro, has played at Riverside
Park three summers in the past as the front man for the popular
folk-hop band Canary Mine. The band is still a unit — they plan to
release their next CD in six months’ time — but in hiatus for the
summer.
“Our drummer had triplets so we aren’t touring outside of Ontario
now and I wanted to keep the ball rolling,” Maze said Monday.
As a solo performer he’s every bit the musical maverick, a self-
styled ambassador of hip-hop, that the band has been since
forming four years ago.
Canary Mine’s music has been featured in the Hollywood cult
comedy Weirdsville. Maze has also created soundtracks for two
documentaries — Germinio Polittio and South of Marrakesh, which
have had some airing on Bravo!
As an independent artists, Maze has made a career of slipping
through the cracks, guerilla style. As he notes, he’s “unconvinced
of the validity or the honesty in a troubled music industry,”
preferring to blaze his own trail.
He’s one of the rare solo acts at Music in the Park, travelling
around in his minivan mostly setting his own schedule: “I call it my
RV,” he said.
Every two or three gigs, he burns a new CD, numbering and
labelling it by town. It might include live performances, studio work,
past works and work in progress. His laptop computer and local
printers serve as substitutes for a record label.
He mixes the the positive party vibes of bands such as Tribe
Called Quest and Beastie Boys with melodies influenced by Hank
Williams and Merle Haggard. He’s as comfortable fraternizing with
Ice-T, De La Soul, Kardinal Official, Black Eyed Peas, Buck 65 and
Run DMC as he is with the music of Johnny Cash, Hank Snow and
Willie Nelson. The common demoninator is emotional storytelling
and minimalism, he feels.
His next project? Developing a hip-hop-polka band, hoping to play
perennially for Octoberfest in his hometown of Kitchener and
Munich, Germany.
Tonight and Wednesday night, Maze joins Tom Glenne at the
Squilax General Store and Youth Hostel. Also a free spirit, Glenne
plays rock like free--form jazz, making every performance unique.
He divides his playing between Toronto, Victoria and Squilax,
where he’s the unofficial musician-in-residence.
“I did his sound for a time,” Maze said, “He’s got a crew of
songwriters who follow him around.”
Every Saturday night for the next four weekends at the hostel the
Tom Glenne 5.5 performs with visiting headliners such as Geoff
Howe and Richard Summerbell.
Performances begin at 8:10 p.m. and there is a $6 cover charge.
The hostel is located 10 kilometres east of Chase at 229 Trans-
Canada Highway.
- Kamloops Daily News
Discography
Jimi Maze - The Jimi EP - 1995
Jimi Maze - Listen Like This Pencil - 1996
Ji'BeenaRoc - Something To Do On Sunday 1997
Ji'BeenaRoc - Gravitational Pull 1999
Canary Mine - Bitter Better 2004
Canary Mine - Maybe Yo' Momma 2005
Canary Mine - Live Tear 2006
Canary Mine - X-traordinary X-Mas X-travaganza
Wierdsville Original Soundtrack - 2007
Please check myspace.com/jimimaze for more streaming mp3's.
Please check these youtube's.
http://www.youtube.com/v/W_o3HZc3gUY&rel=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/9K5Tp7AjrO4&rel=1
Photos
Bio
An MC, DJ and guitarist, Jimi Maze fuses country, rock and hip-hop into an energetic head nodding dance extravaganza.
The MC, DJ Jimi Maze will tickle your ears with his mix of beats, lyrics, tunes and guitar.
The MC, DJ Jimi Maze has planted his feet on 4 Continents, 14 countries, 36 United American States, 10 Canadian Provinces, and two Canadian Territories and therefore has been exposed to all variety’s of kick-ass music.
He once hitchhiked from Toronto to Victoria, at the far West of Canada.
The MC, DJ Jimi Maze, though causing much trouble, has never been to jail in Canada.
As a child, he hated school.
As a teenager, he lived in a van and followed the Grateful Dead on tour.
As an adult, he lives in a van and follows himself on tour.
He also keeps a job and a house in Toronto.
The MC in Jimi Maze loves a microphone.
The DJ in Jimi Maze loves great tunes.
The MC, DJ Jimi Maze is better known as James from the band Canary Mine.
The MC, DJ Jimi Maze is always planning tours to Cape Breton to retrace his roots, which he's already done a few zillion times.
The MC, DJ Jimi Maze wrote this in third person and this weird’s him out.
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