Performers 2006

• Wednesday, Sept. 27: Lesbians on Ecstasy, Nicky Click, Librarian’s Touch, Mackenzie MacBride @ Maverick’s, AA/19+, 9pm


• Friday, Sept. 29: Hexes and Ohs, Sarah Hallman, Catriona Sturton and The Screaming Elks, Snowblink, Oen Sujet @ Club SAW, 19+, 8:30pm


• Saturday, Sept, 30: Les Allumettes, Ennuie, Bleeding Heart @ End Hits, AA, 5pm


• Saturday, Sept. 30: Barmitzvah Brothers, Kickers, Bad Flirt,, Spacecan, Captain Foxy @Club SAW, 19+, 8:30pm


• Tuesday, Oct. 3: Julie Doiron, TunaHelpers, Kelsey McNulty @ Maverick’s, AA/19+, 9pm

Bad Flirt (Montreal, PQ)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – Club SAW
Somewhere in between the “Sweet Valley High” books for young adults and Jawbox’s “For Your Own Special Sweetheart”, Bad Flirt’s songs combine sugary, shimmering indie pop with raw, unadulterated punk. With a central emphasis on all matters of the heart, Bad Flirt sing about all the things that make you blush: awkward first dates, predictable one-liners, holding hands, long lost loves and of course, flirting badly.

Barmitzvah Brothers (Guelph, ON)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – Club SAW
The Barmtizvah Brothers are a band from Guelph. They have been Geordie Gordon, Jenny Mitchell, and John Merritt for years, and they are now usually Sylvie Smith and Tristan O'Malley too. Their style can really only be described as eclectic, as it ranges from upbeat tunes to more melancholy ones, and includes elements of polka, alternative rock, punk rock and bluegrass. They do not wish to narrow themselves down to a particular style, but would rather just be associated with a pleasant, fun atmosphere. They play fiddles and drums and keyboards, and omnichords, and guitars, and trumpets and all kinds of things.

Bleeding Heart (Ottawa, ON)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – End Hits
Bleeding Heart is made up of three 14-year-old girls, is young and full of spunk, talent and attitude. Frontwoman Hannah Stewart formed Bleeding Heart in late November of 2005. Hannah recruited classmates Helen Pike on bass guitar and back-up vocals and Thea Cunningham on drums, while Hannah herself played lead guitar and vocals for their school’s annual Christmas Variety Show. After playing together only 4 weeks, the young Bleeding Heart played their first show of one song in front of the high school and junior high students of Notre Dame High School. They have since played shows at school coffee houses, their school Oscars, and were the youngest and first ever amateur band to play on the main stage at WestFest in June of 2006. They will be playing at this year’s Super Ex in Ottawa and at this year’s Annual Stars On the Rise Talent Competition. Their first self-released album, Haunted By Your Heartbeat, was released in June of 2006 and consists of 6 demo songs. Bleeding Heart aims to one day take over the musical world and hope to start a revolution in popular music.

Captain Foxy (Ottawa, ON)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – Club SAW
Captain Foxy like basements, 60s and 90s rock, and ice cream. They sing about unrequited love, bad jobs and people they don't like. Neither over-stylized nostalgia rock nor spoiled quincy punk, Captain Foxy vow to use their contradictory influences for good and not evil. Lacking any musical training they are DIY by default. Live shows are loud, lo-fi, and energetic and concert goers may be made to participate in contests.

Catriona Sturton and The Screaming Elks (Guelph, ON)
Friday, Sept. 29 – Club SAW
“Hello Kitty dancing with Buddy Holly” meets “ace harmonica” in Catriona Sturton and The Screaming Elks. Dana Snell (The Bicycles) and Andy Lloyd (Spitfires and Mayflowers) join Catriona Sturton (ex Plumtree, The Secret) for an indie-rock romp through Hiroshima, Halifax and Guelph. Sturton got her start in Ottawa blues bars (playing with Larry “The Bird” Mootham and The Mighty Popo. Switching to the bass she toured Canada with Joel Plaskett and The Weakerthans as a member of Halifax’s 1990’s workaholic pop band, Plumtree. With Hiroshima’s garage-rock cuties, The Secret, Catriona honed her songwriting chops and non-verbal communication skills. Now fronting a band for the first time Catriona backs up her roots credibility with a solid indie-rock pedigree and a knack for saying embarrassingly funny things on stage.

Nicky Click (Oylmpia, WA)
Wednesday, Sept. 27 – Maverick’s
Nicky Click’s inventive style of electro-synth pop is much more than meets the eye. Upon closer inspection the songs unravel into simple stories based around feminist ideals, mixed with simple emotions and queer politics. Nicky Click’s music encompasses an experience of magic and pureness, childlike simplicity and near aloof harmlessness. Nicky Click has toured Europe and opened for Lady Sovereign in 2005, and has shared stages with The Blow, Gravy Train, StinkMitt, Grand Buffet, Anna Oxygen, why? of the Anticon Collective, and many others. She is the physical manifestation of one woman who focused on capturing, preserving, and making into song, the experiences and feelings of those who passed through her world.

Julie Doiron (Moncton, NB)
Tuesday, Oct. 3 – Maverick’s
Julie Doiron began her musical career in 1990, singing and playing bass for the Canadian indie rock band Eric's Trip. As the group released numerous EPs and three albums for Sub Pop, Doiron also began writing her own largely acoustic material. When Eric's Trip broke up in 1996, she released an album under the name Broken Girl on Sappy Records, her own label. Later that year, Doiron worked on her second album, Loneliest in the Morning, which came out on Sub Pop and was recorded with prominent indie rock producers and musicians like Doug Easley, Davis McCain, Giant Sand's Howie Gelb, and the Grifters' Dave Shouse. Doiron moved to Tree Records for her next release, 1999's EP Will You Still Love Me; a collaboration with Canadian indie rockers the Wooden Stars followed in early 2000. Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars won that year's Juno -- Canada's equivalent of a Grammy Award -- for Best Independently-Released Album. Doiron moved to Jagjaguwar for 2001's Desormais and the following year's Heart and Crime; the label also reissued Will You Still Love Me? and Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars in 2002 with some multimedia extras.
Julie Doiron continues with her delicate, melancholic songwriting on Goodnight Nobody (2004), released by Jagjaguwar Records. As on most of her songs and albums, Doiron lets minimal instrumentation float and breathe against the deeply personal and intense observations of the lyrics. Lately, she has been playing bass in the band Shotgun and Jaybird, who also musically support her when she performs.

Ennuie (Ottawa, ON)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – End Hits
When Luca and Iva met at the concert held a punkottawa.com anniversary show, they knew something was coming. As they became closer friends, their passion for innovation, live performance and music beckoned a jam session. Luca was already experienced in bands as he had played guitar in Bangkok for at least two years. Iva, on the other hand, had a slew of poems, chords and inexperience requiring a medium in order for her ideas to become materialized. Satisfied with the outcome of Under Wraps, which was written that first day, Ennuie was formed. After a few months, the two tested their modest set (and extravagant apparel) on Avant-Garde bar, a basement show, an all-girls private high school, a house party and SAW Gallery to positive reactions. By slowly drawing their own lines between performance art, jam rock and pop, Ennuie hopes to inspire dialogue, dance parties, and audience participation implied in their set (and not in an, “Ok, now you guys sing!” kind of way). Ennuie is planning a release of demos by Fall 2006.

Sarah Hallman (Ottawa, ON)
Friday, Sept. 29 – Club SAW
Sarah Hallman uses guitar and piano to construct the hollowings, intimately sung, heart-felt songs of melodic inner monologues. In 2001, Hallman recorded and produced an introspective collection of songs that she wrote and has regularly performed live (“File next to: A tapestry woven in threads of sadness, clarity, insight, retrospect and beauty.”) In the past few years, Hallman has been focused on sharing her evocative music with live audiences and writing new material. The songs are catchy and bittersweet. Their spirited restlessness and wandering melodies lure the listener to unexpected levels of darkness, somehow antithetically leaving the listener quietly exhilarated. 2006 heralds the release of her sophomore cd, recorded and produced by Ottawa’s Dave Draves. This collection of songs is the outcome of musical collaborations that have enhanced Hallman’s songwriting and furthered her experiments with dimension and depth, with an inner sound transported.

Hexes and Ohs (Montreal, PQ)
Friday, Sept. 29 – Club SAW
The story behind the Montreal-based electropop duo begins with a pair of highschool sweethearts and spans a decade of couplehood, musical projects and everything in between. With the release of their debut full-length Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover (2005) on Noise Factory Records, Edmund and Heidi have crafted their best, most focused work to date in the form of infectious pop compositions driven by the interplay of charming, glitchy electronics with engaging, sharp melodies, rounded out by endearing vocals delivering clever lines of urban observations. Their dynamic, engaging live show has earned them invitations to an impressive number of major music festivals (including CMJ, Pop Montreal, Canadian Music Week, North By North East, Ladyfest and Halifax Pop Explosion) since the album's release, as well as sharing stages with Ivy, Chixdiggit, We Are Wolves, Thunderbirds Are Now!, the Comas and Japanther, Hexes & Ohs have been topping the campus radio charts and garnering much attention as an exciting newcomer to the electropop genre, poised to receive further accolades with the release of the much antipated follow-up album presently in the works.

The Kickers (Montreal, PQ)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – Club SAW
Montreal’s Kickers sound like Fugazi (circa The Argument), The Carpenters, The Cars and the B52s all mixed up in a rock blender. They are a duo who share vocal duties, with Anne Gauthier (of the Frenetics) on drums and Victoria Morrison (ex-Letlowns) on guitar. Acclaimed for their serpentine guitar licks and thunderous rhythm, Kickers have been likened to a ‘math-rock boxing match’. Kickers released a self-titled EP this past February on the label www.takethishammer.com

Les Allumettes (Ottawa, ON)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – End Hits
Les Allumettes play melodic rock with a fiery spirit. Ottawa’s French Immersion sweethearts are influenced by punk rock, swayed by the seasons and partial to poetic moments. Les Allumettes are guitarist and singer, Jordanna (ex-Bold Maid), guitarist, Nina and bassist & singer, Natasha (both ex-Sophomore Level Psychology) and drummer, Andy (also in Touching Earth Made of Steel among others). All band members are active in the Ottawa music scene. They are very fond of Ladyfest Ottawa, which is partially responsible for creating this band. Les Allumettes formed in fall of 2004 and has played shows with les Georges Leningrad, Golden Famille, the Hot Springs, Republic of Safety and Pony Up. They also toured with the Maynards and Cougar Party in November 2005, which included a show in Toronto as part of the Wavelength series.

Lesbians on Ecstasy (Montreal, PQ)
Wednesday, Sept. 27 – Maverick’s
Hide your daughters! The Lesbians on Ecstasy are making electronic music of the lesbian variety. It's kd lang, but it's different somehow...Lesbo folk songs, rebel songs and beats for the modern lesbian. Straights and dudes love it too. LOE are: Bernie Bankrupt on the Ensonique, Veronique Mystique on the Monster Bass, Jackie "The JackHammer" on the Octapad and our very own Fruity Frankie (aka Lynne T) rockin' the Vox.

Librarian’s Touch (Toronto, ON)
Wednesday, Sept. 27 – Maverick’s
Librarian’s Touch just started playing shows but have performed previously in Fox the Boombox. Lindsay Gillard is a former member of the Sick Lipstick, who are Ladyfest Ottawa alumni. Amy and Lindsay like to sweat it out together and play their music very hard and loud. Librarian’s Touch will be recording this fall/winter.

Oen Sujet (Montreal, PQ)
Friday, Sept. 29 – Club SAW
We are a Montreal-based, experimental electro(acoustic)-pop band (for lack of a better term) that came into being in 2003. Originally a duo, we have now taken the form of trio and since embraced the notion of creating and performing a middle-ground music – music that pits electronics vs. acoustics, abstraction vs. clarity, human performance vs. machine performance, traditionalism vs. (post)modernism, natural sound vs. processed sound, much-without-too-much, and song vs. song de-centered. We are recording a self-titled CD at the moment, which should be finished sometime in the summer of 2006, and are planning shows both at home and abroad.

Mackenzie MacBride (Ottawa, ON)
Wednesday, Sept. 27 – Maverick’s
The internationally ignored song stylist, Mackenzie MacBride, is originally an East Coast gal who bedazzled tourists with her electro-lounge act on B-grade cruise ships. Like a coffee stain on a wedding dress, MacBride and her music are unusual, controversial, and full of gritty imperfection.This rock diarist lets you know that she's been through worse than a broken nail at the prom and a guy who didn't love her. Audiences enjoy the wit and the honest confessions of her "draw your own conclusions" story songs, which meld together personal reflections, philosophy and pop culture. MacBride's music fuses the angst of Glam with the intimacy of Lounge and layers it over slowed down four-on-the-floor beats. Refusing to take herself too seriously, MacBride then gets on top of this lo-fi musical kick in the pants and belts out the typos of her life with "Dolly Parton meets Tiny Tim" novelty vocals. This is truly Cruise Ship Cabaret.

Kelsey McNulty (Ottawa, ON)
Tuesday, Oct. 3 – Maverick’s
Classically trained pianist Kelsey McNulty has made her mark on the Ottawa indie scene as keyboardist for reigning post-rock champions My Dad Vs. Yours and rock-and-roll strongmen Amos the Transparent. Kelsey's now arrives at Ladyfest Ottawa with her own distinctive combination of electronic and folk-tinged music, surely the catalyst to what will is a burgeoning, brilliant solo career.

Snowblink (San Francisco, CA)
Friday, Sept. 29 – Club SAW
Snowblink is San Francisco-based songwriter Daniela Gesundheit accompanied by a rotating roster of four boy back-up singers, fiddle, pedal steel, harp, bells, banjo, and party trumpets. The instrumentation of a given show is determined by whom she knows in a given city, or whom she has convinced to travel with her. She has lived in several cities, the first of which was Los Angeles. There, she performed with various dance and site specific performance art troupes before heading to Connecticut to study South Indian Classical Voice. While in Connecticut, she continued to play around the Northeastern United States, opening for a range of people including Patti Smith. She recently completed a two month US/Canada tour with Toronto-based songwriter Dan Goldman in support of her second independent release since 2004, "My Oh My Avalanche." Both of her albums are hand made and produced in limited quantities. Her tour consisted mainly of house concerts, drawing on the support of friends she has made in her travels. Snowblink has made seventeen people cry "in a good way" to date.

Spacecan (Toronto, ON)
Saturday, Sept. 30 – Club SAW
Spacecan, founded 2005. Three small aliens endeavour to understand the mysterious ways of the human creatures they encounter every day. Where does everybody go when they sleep? Do I lick the bus stop? What is underwear? Such are the wonderings of our intergalactic adventurers. Obviously, support is necessary. So they gang together and form a band. Guitar, drums, keys,foam costumes, snow suits, percussive instruments galore and dance moves the likes of which earthlings have never seen.

The TunaHelpers
Tuesday, Oct. 3 – Maverick’s
For half a decade, The TunaHelpers have heartened accomplices in crimes of passion, they have touched the untouchables and awoken faded spirits in their hometown of Austin, Texas; across the United States and all the way to Canada. Two odd, yet delightful sisters and their odd, yet delightful long lost sister are eager to spread their tuna tales across the world and enlighten those who are in need of an oceanic fantasy revelation.
What is their recipe for fairytale nightmares? Cut out patches of your childhood terrors, the grandmother that soothed them, your first pair of teenage thigh-high stockings and the sound track that played in your head when you plotted the death of your first love...stitch them together with guitar strings and lace... stuff it with corn syrup blood and rotten fish guts and you've created a TunaHelpers doll of your own. This doll will sing to you with an operatic voice, will teach you to waltz to sparse drum beats, will dazzle you with its puppet shows and American Sign language. Here you will discover a tapestry of gothic stylings weaving the doctrines of girly power, gross-out contests and sophisticated musical achievement that encompass The TunaHelpers. Let them be your favorite doll.