Time: 8 p.m.

Cover$20

Time: 9 p.m.

Tickets:$20

THE THIRD ANNUAL FROSTBITE RAILJAM IS BACK!
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE BOARDERLINE & ULSU THIS EVENT BRINGS TOGETHER ALL THE BIG NAME SKIERS & SNOWBOARDERS IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA. WATCH THEM COMPETE FOR THEIR CHANCE TO WIN $1000 AND TONS OF FREE PRIZES

THIS EVENT IS FREE TO ALL SPECTATORS AND IS LOCATED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE (THE BREEZEWAY)

REGISTRATION FOR ALL RIDERS IS FROM 11-12:30PM
ENTRY FEE $20

STAY TUNED FOR A SITE MAP

SPONSORED BY;
DINOSAURS WILL DIE SNOWBOARDS, VOLCOM, MY PAKAGE, ELECTRIC GOGGLES, CASTLE MOUNTAIN, VANS BOOTS, UNION BINDINGS, COAL HEADWEAR

 Mo Kenney http://www.mokenney.com/

Mo Kenney never had that archetypal I-want-to-be-famous moment. But somehow she was always going to make albums, play live and get noticed in her native Canada and way beyond.

Maybe the clues were there in the way she saved up her lunch money to buy records, begged her parents to book guitar lessons for her and made demos in the modest recording facility at a school she wasn’t even attending. Now, Kenney’s brilliantly accomplished ‘In My Dreams,’ one of Canada’s most acclaimed records of 2014, is about to become one of the freshest and most inventive releases on the international stage this autumn.

And stage is the word, because the artist, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, views staying on the road and playing for as many people as possible as her life’s work. The reward is in the recognition she’s enjoying from her discerning album audience.

‘In My Dreams’ is already an award-winning follow-up to Kenney’s much-decorated, self-titled debut of 2012. The new set swiftly secured an ECMA (East Coast Music Award) for Pop Recording of the Year, to sit alongside the same trophy that was bestowed upon its predecessor, which also took a Canadian Folk Music Award for New/Emerging Artist of the Year and no fewer than three Nova Scotia Music Awards.

The sophomore set is produced, as was Mo’s previous album, by Joel Plaskett, the Canadian rock icon who can fairly be described as her great mentor and key creative collaborator. It was recorded in his bespoke studio, New Scotland Yard, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and for his label, New Scotland Records. We’ll return to the story of Plaskett’s role in Kenney’s career shortly.

In an undeniable progression from the sometimes acoustic folk-pop of the first record, the rockier framework of the new one reflects the fact that Mo is working more often with a band, in the studio as on stage. It’s also a perfect showcase for her incisive lyricism. “That’s something that’s changed a lot from when I started writing, when I guess there was a lot more covering up of the truth,” she says. “I’m more direct now, and I like it that way.”

“When I’m writing, I’m not thinking about people that are going to be listening to it, which is helpful, so I don’t have to worry about what I’m saying, I just go and record it.” Indeed, to borrow a phrase, friends probably think this song or that song is about them. “Oh, so many people say that to me,” she laughs. “If it is, I tell them.”

The album’s flagship song ‘Telephones’ arrives with a suitably engaging and amusing video and provides an imaginative take on the traditional romantic predicament. It was first written and recorded by Canadian East Coast rock band Mardeen in 2008, and suggested by Plaskett as potentially rich material for Kenney. “I don’t think very many people knew of it,” she says. “But it was kind of a perfect fit.”

Mo is now reaping the rewards of the musical inquisitiveness that started at an early age. She’ll happily admit to the poptastic pre-teen period we all go through, when she momentarily favoured Danish hitmakers Aqua. There was even a stage when she was at home to hard rock, in the form of AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne.

But then Kenney realised that instead of just listening to the guitar, she should be playing it. Unlike many artists who were dragged kicking and screaming to their first instrument, she begged her parents to arrange guitar lessons for her. “I’m not sure why I wanted to play guitar so badly,” she says. “I don’t even remember asking my mum to put me in lessons, I was that young.”

“My uncle had a guitar. He was the only person in my family that I knew of that had a musical instrument. I remember it would just be kicking around at family gatherings, so I’d fiddle around on it. So maybe that’s why. But I was so obsessed with playing guitar when I first started, I kind of assumed I’d be doing something with it later on in life. But I wasn’t sure what it would be.”

As her listening tastes developed alongside her own playing, Mo began to empathise with one much-admired composer in particular. I didn’t really have a guitar idol when I was growing up,” she says. “I only started listening to Elliott Smith when I was 14. That was the first kind of confessional songwriting I’d really heard. I was obsessed with him. I still am.”

When she started to experiment with her music, fate took a hand. “There were a few bands recording at this school in downtown Halifax,” she recalls. “I didn’t go there, but I knew some people who did. They had a little makeshift studio where everybody could just go in and make demos, and Joel came to talk to us one day about the music industry, trying to give us advice on being a musician.”

“So we played him one of our songs each and that was it, he went away. I think that was about 2007, I showed him my song, he really liked it and then I didn’t hear from him. In 2010, I got a call from his manager, who’s now my manager, inviting me to a songwriting camp.”

“Joel had recommended me, and I hadn’t talked to him in three years. Actually, it was my birthday. I was heading to work to go and make pizzas and I got a call. It made my day. I’d just been playing open-mic, and that wasn’t really doing anything for me except helping me with my live show. I don’t know how I would have managed if it hadn’t been for Joel.”

When Plaskett went on to sign Kenney to his label, she had the platform from which to create that debut album, and to find out about the music business. “It was a huge learning curve,” she admits. “I had an idea in my mind what it was going to be like, and it was totally different. I was just really fascinated by how everything works.”

As well as having toured in Canada with Plaskett, Ron Sexsmith and extensively in her own right, Mo is already no stranger to international audiences. She has played Iceland Airwaves, The Great Escape and Green Man Festival in the UK, where early in 2014, she toured for six weeks with her good friend, Scottish artist, Rachel Sermanni. Kenney is heading back to Britain, Ireland, and Germany in support of ‘In My Dreams.’ The stage is literally set for her.

“Besides writing, the aspect of being a musician that I like most is playing live,” says Kenney. “I love touring, so if I can build up audiences all over the place, then I can stay on the road forever, which is what I want.”

Dear Rouge  http://www.dearrouge.com/

While bands often spend their early days discovering their musical directions and vying for visibility, the story of Vancouver’s Dear Rouge is something unique and almost unheard of in Canada. The band is led by husband and wife duo Drew and Danielle McTaggart. Between the two of them, they carry years of touring and recording with multiple bands and different musical ventures. Drew and Danielle met in these days of initial musical exploration. Both driven by a passion to create energetic music with a creative backbone, they formed Dear Rouge and their debut EP Heads Up Watch Out.

Their 2012 follow up EP Kids Wanna Know helped hone their alternative dance-rock sound and also led to the duo winning the Peak Performance Project that year, the largest artist development project in Canada. Bolstered by their success and now financially equipped to delve further into their music, Dear Rouge got straight to work on their first full-length record. The record’s lead single, “I Heard I Had”, is a driving synth-rock jam, which shocked the entire Canadian music industry by steadily climbing the alternative and rock charts to the Top 5 - with no label or album backing it; a rare feat, especially for a band that had no previous charting history.

Dear Rouge’s debut album is complete and is scheduled for an early 2014 release. First listens of the album showcase punchy guitar hooks, uplifting synth layers, and the sincerely powerful vocal delivery of Danielle. Producer/Engineer Ryan Worsley and Drew produced the majority of the album, providing a steadfast vision for their sound whilst working alongside the input of some of Canada’s top producers; Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, Mother Mother) and Gavin Brown (Metric, Billy Talent). The team helped develop what has become Dear Rouge’s instantly recognizable mature sound.

It feels as if Dear Rouge has been in existence for quite some time; a thought that was stirring in the mind of this duo since before they met or first started playing music. Now that this idea has been realized, it will soon be in your head too.

Ria Mae http://www.riamae.com/