| Bands Currently Dominating The Scene |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dogbus Music. defined by what we steal, Jay Spectre, Springloaded, False Fiction, MFR!, Pants!
|
Greg Macpherson is from Winnipeg, Ontario and this past summer paid a visit to Lindsay not once, not three times, but twice. Both times he boggled the collective minds of the Dogbus Community with his passion, guitar playing and trucker hats. I recently flew out to Winnipeg to have a conversation with him when I realized he was in Toronto staying at his friends house. I flew to Toronto only to find out that he had recently played a show in Montreal and wouldn't be back until the next day. Finally we met up in Whitehorse and had this simple, yet satisfying conversation...
Ryan: Your European Tour just got called off. What happened?
Greg: Apparently there are a lot of bands on tour in Europe right now and competition for bookings is stiff. I’ve never toured there before and my music isn’t easily categorized as punk, hardcore, folk or whatever so it can be difficult to convince promoters to book me over established, genre specific bands. About a month ago things were actually looking good; the shows were coming together, we bought tickets, booked time off work, etc. But with 2 weeks to go some of the shows fell through and it became apparent we were going to lose our shirts. I still have a painfully expensive ticket that has to be used within a year so this story’s not over yet.
Ryan: I'll give you ten bucks for that ticket. You recently spoke about the CBC on your message board. Is it all you listen to? Cause it's all I listen to. Unless it's the wine-cheese show or the show about gardens. Cause I'm not a fan of either.
Greg: When it comes to radio I either listen to CBC Radio One or campus/community radio stations. I know what you mean about those CBC gardening and wine/cheese shows too… the ‘Ontario Today’ host, (what’s his name? Alan Neal?) can be extremely annoying with even the best topics. I pity you Ontarians.
Ryan: I really hate that woman that does "As It Happens". You're from Winnipeg. I've only ever been there once and I saw Karate Kid at the theatre. What would you suggest doing while in Winnipeg?
Greg: Spending money! Winnipeg is really poor these days and some high rolling Ontario tourists would go a long way to helping us out. If you don’t have the money to throw around though I’d suggest checking out the Mondragon restaurant/bookstore at 91 Albert Street for excellent vegan food and a fine selection of thought provoking books, music, and magazines. If you have more than a few hours to kill I’d suggest going to a movie at the Pembina Cinema City 8. VERY cheap month old films, never too busy, good popcorn, and pickles for sale! I think I saw Karate Kid 3 there in fact..
Ryan:How is the new album coming along? Will it be Greg Macpherson, The Greg Macpherson Band or some new incarnation of yourself... Like "Thoraxxx: The Triple X Warrior and brother of Thor".
Greg: After all of my special G7 guerilla training, years of top-secret missions, countless purple hearts and high protein vegetarian dieting I’m mostly a machine these days. Bionic legs, hydraulic shoulders, built in balaclava hatch, digitally enhanced mid section… you know how it is. The new album you ask? It’s being mastered as we speak and features work by a full functioning, 100 percent human rock and roll band throughout. I think you will like it.
Ryan: You don't know what I like! You worked in a cemetary for six years. How do you dig graves in the winter? Do you just store the bodies in a freezer until summer comes? Or do you bust-through the ice?
Greg: If someone has purchased a specific cemetery plot and the family insists on a quick burial, the grave gets dug regardless of ice and snow. They also dig ‘winter holes’ in the fall so that people without prearranged plots can be buried without us having to jackhammer through frozen ground. Some bodies are kept in morgues and buried at later dates, others are cremated and either not buried at all or held onto until the weather warms.
Ryan: George W. Bush recently came to Canada. What's your favorite fruit?
Aaron: Is a sock full of quarters or a pair of brass knuckles considered fruit? I’m not a violent man but oh boy is he crossing the line eh?
Ryan: Being on a label like G7 Welcoming Committee Records, do you feel pressured to create political music? Is there a part of you that wants to bust out the Dashboard Confessional and sing about the time your girlfriend's hair was everywhere?
Greg: I think I do write songs about relationships and I definitely write with a sense of humour so that’s a complicated question to answer. I write songs to create something good, to challenge myself, to express my thoughts and feelings as articulately as possible to the rest of the world. I don’t think exclusively about politics but some very political factors define who I am and therefore affect my work. Who isn’t moved by injustice or effected by class, race, war, religion, labour issues, fear, intolerance, environmental degradation, violence against women-children-animals-the marginalized, urbanization, technological change, etc?? Ultimately as a conscious human being living in this day and age how could my music not be political?
Ryan: Dashboard seems to get away with it. But perhaps they're not conscious human being(s)...Could you tell all us at Dogbusonline.com the lyrics to that Spoken Word bit you do? Administration? That's probably a lot of typing... So you don't have to... Even if you just give us a line, you're cool.
Greg:
I got the word administration sent me a pink check
I saw my name on a list of numbers dropping off the company Rolodex
Sold me out to supply demand
What about my home, my loans, my 20 years in and my health plan?
Spent.
This ain’t an accident.
I took a look at the fax they sent.
Look up the word abandonment
My name is on the page
Beside: loser, executer, old computer, mass polluter, system user, former mover-and-shaker.
Today I got my wake-up call,
They set their axe to fall,
I heard my name out in the hall
I’m just a number on a page in a desk in an office upstairs…
I could’ve worked up there myself but I wouldn’t let them put my conscience on the shelf
I’m a man. Best I can. Made my plans.
I lived my life on a budget. Bought my car second hand.
I’m a fool. I went to school, played the rules, and made myself a tool of the trades.
I’ve seen better days come and go so fast…
Where was the kick in the ass when I needed it?
Too old to find a decent job
Too young to get a pension yet
Damn the system, damn the scenario
I got nothing coming in and I’m making payments on a stereo
Bastards getting me old so fast…
I got a house in St.Vital and I can’t afford the taxes
Damn the system, damn the scenario
I got nothing coming in and I’m making payments on a stereo
Bastards getting me old so fast…
I got a house in St.Vital and I can’t afford the taxes
There
Up the stairs, through the glare, they can see this ain’t gonna be a walk
No! Letting me go, your last mistake…
I got bad thoughts in my head
I think I’m gonna break down
It’s 6AM and I’ve got a head full of rage
A combination of relation change, sane, pre-apocalyptic and pity
Self. Lack of wealth. Looking at my neighbour. Loss of labour.
Safer concentrating on my mental health.
I’m on the cloverleaf west past the mall about to pay a call to the PETRO Can.
This ain’t a joke man, I’m in it:
Count the minutes to the working day. Jerry can. Max my plastic. Drive away.
If I’m a bastard, pent up and drastic get a hold of the old, original, plastic man and give him a shake
Scream until he understands that things don’t ever work out like you plan.
I’m in the parkade, my car’s running and so am I
Black-gray buildings under black-gray skies
In the stairwell, up three floors and to the right
Cubicles, empty halls and one last flight
In my head I’m all out and this is all I’ve got
An ex-wife in East Kildonan and one last shot at being real
I feel!
Lose the fake smile!
Docile? No-style?
Not me, not this time.
Get out while you can
I’m coming over and you don’t want to be there
to lose everything that you thought you had.
Ryan: Seriously though, Have you ever played a show with Three Inches of Blood? They wouldn't fit on a bill with you.
Greg: No but I’ll keep that in mind.
Ryan: Tell us about your "First Time" (doing anything.)
Greg: My first show:
I had nagged my parents to buy me a guitar for all of 1979 and eventually they gave in under the condition that I would take lessons. I remember having this image in my head of playing loud rock music on a killer electric guitar with huge solos and lots of smoke! Unfortunately, my Cape Breton parents, who listened to John Allen Cameron and the Clancy Brothers bought me a child sized acoustic from the Sears catalogue and with that my first punk rock lesson was learned: if you really want something you have to work for it and buy it yourself.
It was 1980, I was in grade 2 and my Mom talked the elementary school music teacher into letting me take lessons on my shiny new axe. I took about 2 lessons before I found out that all the other music students were in grade six and that by taking lessons we automatically volunteered ourselves to perform at a special concert for all of the students and most of their parents later in the year!
My interest in playing guitar waned instantly. Suddenly it hurt my fingers, the chords they wanted me to learn were too big and my 7-year-old hands were too small… This shitty attitude did not sway my parents however and my practice regimen was accelerated: I had to take lessons twice a week while everybody else ate lunch; I had to sit in my room by myself torturing my hands while my brothers were out playing road hockey; I had to carry that guitar and its dilapidated old cardboard box to school, to my grandma’s, to my friend’s houses, in the snow, in the rain... I learned to hate that guitar.
All laziness and aptitude aside, time passed and the day of the big concert arrived. The rest of the evening is a blur to me but I do remember walking out on stage with my guitar and hearing people clapping. I sat on a stool with a microphone a few feet away and sang ‘You are my Sunshine’ as loud as I could until it was over and people started clapping again. I was the youngest performer in the whole concert and the crowd actually gave me a standing ovation… not bad huh? I didn’t play guitar again for about 10 years but I was hooked on the rock shows from that point on.
Side note- in 1989 (with a huge mullet and wearing tight black jeans and a motor head shirt) I smashed that guitar into a million pieces behind my school and had my friend Rob take pictures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
March 2nd 2007
Rancho Relaxo
Jay Spectre
Greg Macpherson
Kasey Hinton
Vercity
March 3rd 2007
Knox United Church, Peterborough
Marchfest
Bouncing Betties
SledgeHammer
+ loads and loads more.
March 9th 2007
Lindsay Boys and Girls Club
Pridian
Fall First
+ more as a fundraiser for the Skate Park
Please E-mail Us if you have any info on shows you want posted.
Check out these websites for further listings on shows in the Lindsay area.
Expired Air
Homicide Promotions
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
