So glad I found the time to chill out and listen to this today. And so glad I was there to see it live…

via We Are Postrock.

I’m a little late posting this one, but I finally got my hands on a copy of Kaie Kellough‘s latest album, Vox: Versus, which I designed back in May. Kaie is an amazing Montreal-based poet, whose work deconstructs and reconstructs language, blending word-games with sound poetry, dub and jazz. The collected works on this latest offering present a series of collaborations with a group of talented local musicians, exploring the roots of rhythm, language and the inherent politics within them (ArtThreat interview with Kaie here).

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Super rough/raw footage here, but I think it still manages to showcase how much Erika M Anderson rocks!!!

Her previous project Gowns produced my soundtrack to early 2010 with Red State (thanks to Vince for the tip back then), especially the song Cherylee, a portion of which’s lyrics went into the last Fugue.

I was lucky enough to see EMA perform a couple of weeks back when they passed through Montreal at Quai des Brumes. It was, without a doubt, the second best show I’ve seen all year (the Godspeed shows still win out). Powerful, heart-wrenching stuff. Much to my delight, she even performed a solo version of Cherylee as an encore.

Fuck Death from plasti75 on Vimeo.

I’d been meaning to post this for a while, but I’m only now getting my tech set up back in order after a little computer mishap in Berlin. But it’s really not such a big deal, because Berlin brought me so many good things, among them the chance to meet the wonderful Lotti Thiesen. Her and her partner (aka Cow Heart) produced this beautiful little experiment for us, with Charlotte reading Nettelbeck’s poem Fuck Death, from our last issue Happy Hour.

I’d been waiting to see my favourite band in the world, Godspeed You! Black Emperor for well over ten years. I had given up hope when the hiatus that began in 2003 seemed to spell the end of the band until they announced last spring they were reforming. I was ecstatic then, and I am ecstatic now. I finally got the opportunity to see them, not once, but twice this past week and was completely and utterly blown away.

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Launch of Four Minutes to Midnight Issue 11: Happy Hour by FA Nettelbeck
with the bands Nightwood and The Lindbergh Line
with readings by Moe Clark and Vincent Tinguely

Friday, April 22nd @ Cabaret Playhouse (5656 ave. du Parc)
Doors 9PM, $8 door/$15 with a copy of the issue

“…but what more could / you expect when you’re / the last of your kind /
living amongst the / incompetent others / in the light they waste”
— F.A. Nettelbeck

Four Minutes to Midnight is proud to announce the publication of its eleventh issue. The double issue features Happy Hour, the final collection of work by American poet FA Nettelbeck (1950-2011), lavishly illustrated by Montreal-based visual artist Sophie Jodoin, and Fugue XI, an epic typographic cut-up poem edited by John W. Stuart, Kevin Lo, Hillary Rexe and Sara McCulloch.

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In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users.

A simple idea, perfectly executed, beautiful and relevant… This project gives me some interesting ideas for the future development process of the Fugue. Could a similar approach be applied to collaborative poetry and its typographic expression?

Poster design in collaboration with Kirsten McCrea

Four Minutes to Midnight is excited to co-present the second Howl! concert, featuring saxophonist Jason Sharp, harp duet Sarah Pagé and Robin Best, and a quartet lead by Nick Kuepfer. The Howl! concert series highlights and celebrates Montreal’s fiercely independent arts communities and the strong ties they share with social justice struggles here and abroad.

The concert takes place next Thursday, March 24th, at the beautiful Sala Rossa, advanced tickets are only 5 bucks and available at the usual fine record stores/venues.

More information on the facebook event page.

UPDATE: Stefan talks with Vince about the musicians and ideas behind the Howl! concert series on CKUT.