Here at the A-K we’ve got a tiny little list of bands and performers that we decided right from the get-go must be interviewed if we were to consider this project a job well done. Of all he names we brainstormed and came up with in the beginning, right up near the top of the list was local vocalist and photographer Sarah Cordingley.

We first heard Sarah singing her head off with a band called Gang Violence on the MySpace tracks “Serious Face” and “Interspecific” and were totally blown away. Then while searching for images to borrow for the site posts, we started noticing that many of the best photographs we came across were taken by her. Anyway, long story short, after a long back-and-forth we’re of the opinion that, no matter what band she’s performing with or who she’s taking photos of, Sarah Cordingley can do no wrong. Here’s a great little interview to prove it…

The Aural Kinetic: First off, tell us a little bit about your history within the local band scene. Is Gang Violence your first band? How long have you been writing and recording original songs?

Sarah Cordingley: Before Gang Violence I was in a disco band called Ice Cream. It was really silly and fun and pretty cutesy. But pretty goth at the same time. I played drums. Bianca played bass, she plays in White Owl, and Nicholas and Aja were in it too, they’re called Cosmetics now. I was also in a band called Bakelite for about a year. I played drums and we went on tour for 3 weeks in England too.

Before that I sang in Channels 3×4 for a long time. We still play shows every once in a while. It’s fun to play a Channels 3×4 show. I feel totally uninhibited in that band.

AK: Listening to some of the songs you’ve laid vocals to, like “Serious Face” for instance, it makes me wonder if there’s a concerted effort within the local indie community to kick the living shit out of Vancouver’s “No Fun City” reputation. You could start a dance-riot with a song like that!

SC: I’ve always had lots of fun in Vancouver. But my idea of fun is complaining about and subverting everything that goes on around me. So I guess it’s a bit of a paradox.

AK: The first song I ever heard your vocals on was “Interspecific” and my immediate reaction was “Holy jumpin! Does she ever sound like Debbie Harry.” I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve heard the comparison, but I was wondering exactly how big an influence Blondie and similar 80’s post-punk bands have been on your sound and on the way you approach the microphone?

SC: No one’s ever said that before, that’s rad, thanks! I do tend to sing a lot of Blondie when I go to karaoke. I think 80’s new wave and post-punk and disco have had a huge influence on me. You can’t listen to something nonstop and not be influenced by it.

AK: We just heard that you played the famed Commodore Ballroom back in May! Despite reported technical glitches, how was it to play a room that size? Other bands we’ve talked to have mentioned a bit of a disconnect with the audience once they get on the elevated stage and play to a room that big…

SC: Maybe it was just the kind of people that were at that show, but I felt very connected to the audience. They were super positive and enthusiastic and supportive. They all crammed right up to the front and paid full attention for an opening band that they’d never heard of. It was weird.

And it was a huge bummer to fuck up such a big opportunity. We made it through one and a half and a half songs.

AK: As a silly aside, was the band name “Gang Violence” in any way a reaction to the massive increase in actual gang related violence in Vancouver and the lower mainland? Or are you actually GANG BANGERS? If it’s the latter, we would like to point out that we’ve been perfecting your GV gang sign all morning and think we’re ready to join your crew.

SC: I can’t even do that gang sign. I have crooked fingers. Yes, it was a direct reaction to the big gang media blitz and the non-stop inflammatory gang-war related headlines in the province.

AK: Where does the compulsion to play music come from for you? Like the DC punks of the 80’s do you feel you have some things to say and live music is the best avenue to get it all out? A pulpit of sorts? Or is it simply just a lot of fun to get up on stage and rock a room?

SC: Well mostly it’s just fun. I love doing it. I wouldn’t say any of the bands I’ve been in have been immediately political. But I do feel like playing the kind of music that we do is a sort of proclamation of culture. Like it’s necessary to establish ourselves and our demographic and our resistance to an outdated and unsustainable way of life.

AK: Aside from fronting Gang Violence it should also be noted that you’re an accomplished photographer with a specific focus on local bands. This site has mooched several of your photographs (and will probably continue to do so) because we feel that as a photographer, perhaps more than any other in the scene right now, you come closest to capturing the spirit of the current scene. Tell us a little bit about when you first decided to document the movement and what it means to you to photograph a band that might be here and gone in a short period of time.

SC: I started taking pictures of bands way back when I was a teenager in Vernon. I’ve been pretty obsessed with documenting things ever since then. I’m not sure my motivation is about documenting a movement so much as documenting events in my life. It just happens that my life involves a lot of local bands.

I used to write about music in Only Magazine, so I would photograph a lot of things for my column and interviews. I guess I happened to be taking all these pictures when the “Vancouver weird punk” scene was emerging. I’m not sure if anything was actually emerging, but there were definitely a lot of unique and charismatic people playing music.

AK: There have been several calls on the message boards for Gang Violence to release a 7” with the quickness. Are there any plans to do so in the near future?

SC: We came in and out of many plans to release a 7″, but it just hasn’t quite happened yet. Sadly I am no longer in the band, but the boys are recording an amazing sounding album, so it will be worth the wait.

AK: Tell us a little bit about your touring history. Are you a band who likes to hit the road and play different venues in different cities? Or are you most comfortable at home?

SC: Gang Violence went on one 4-day tour to Vancouver Island. It was ultra fun. I think the plan was to get a record to sell before we go on tour, and we never really got there.

Plus they piss on my duvet when I leave them for too long.

Channels 3×4 play Glory Days this Saturday, January 16th at The Biltmore Cabaret – 11pm – 2am. Special thanks to Steve Louie for the excellent photograph.

For those interested in Channels 3×4 check THIS out:

Okay this is going to be the fastest Song of the Week ever! This week’s Song of the Week is Dryer Fire by B-Lines! How come? Because once you hear it, you’ll never be able to do your laundry without getting it stuck in your head and that’s AWESOME.

Check it out!

Hey everybody! Last night we hit up two different shows, one at Little Mountain Studios and one at The Rickshaw. As much as we would have liked to have seen all of the bands who played, we did managed to catch sets by ok vancouver ok, Commander Riker aka Jarrett Evan Samson and Adrian Teacher, The Rain and the Sidewalk, B-Lines, Defektors and some jackass band from Oakland called Nobunny. Here’s some videos we took!

First up, ok vancouver ok performing “A Volcano”(?) with Adrian Teacher (Apollo Ghosts) and Beshele Caron (Greenbelt Collective). This is a pre-show practice demo that we were fortunate to have arrived early enough to see. I don’t think the microphone is even turned on. Go Jeff!

Next, Jarrett Evan Samson and Adrian Teacher as Commander Riker doing the original “Star Trek Theme Song”! Edit: Apparently it’s the Next Generation theme song. I should have know that! I’m a geek too!

Now here’s site favourites B-Lines performing “Social Retards” at The Rickshaw!

And finally, our kids Defektors serving up a track that we don’t know the name of. Anyone? Edit: The track is called “Black Hole”. Thanks Jerome!

Ta-daa! Sorry we didn’t get any video for The Rain and the Sidewalk’s set (I got distracted) or Nobunny (because they’re stupid).

Speaking of forgetting, I forgot to post a Song of the Week for last week! Gosh! Well here goes better late than never.

The song of the week for December 27th to January 2nd is…Community Affair by Greenbelt Collective. From the opening bells to the world’s most lovable lyrics (“Cancel all your plans and come with us, you know you’re always welcome to come and volunteer! I’ll make a reservation in my heart for you this year!”) this song is what happens when a group of talented and devoted folks get together with their instruments. For those who don’t already know, Greenbelt Collective are Vancouver’s version of Broken Social Scene with the exception that Greenbelt are infinitely better at crafting pop songs that make people feel good. Everyone knows that January and February are the gloomiest months around here, and it’s songs like these ones that’ll get you through it.

The song can be found on the Community Affair EP, although it maybe be a little tricky to track down these days. If you’d like to hear the song you can head over to our MySpace page, or better yet theirs.

Holy smokes! I almost forgot to announce the winner from the Vapid contest! Our 10th entry was from Brooke T. from Vancouver, BC! Hooray for Brooke!

Look for more contests in the new year!

Hey everybody, just a quick note to say that we’re not going to be posting very often for the next while. In order to get out of my crap-ass job I’ve decided to go back to school full-time. As a result, until I figure out exactly how much spare time I’m going to have, things are going to be a little slow around here. We’ll still try to do our Song of the Week updates on Sundays and we’ll still make plans to see as many shows as we can and review as many albums as we can, but the site goal of doing a post a day will have to be put aside for a bit.

Sorry!

Ian Explosivo

P.S. This might be a good time to re-mention that if anyone would like to contribute to the site, you can contact us at theauralkinetic@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Happy New Year’s eve everyone! Say, remember when we said we’d give away five copies of Vapid’s debut album Practically Dead if we didn’t post four reviews in one week? And then we actually pulled it off? Gosh!

Well to celebrate the end of the year we’re going to give away one copy to the 10th person to e-mail us at theauralkinetic@gmail.com. Just put Vapid Contest in the subject line and consider yourself in the running. If you win, we’ll give you your prize in person or mail it anywhere in Canada if you don’t live in Vancouver! And if you don’t have a record player, don’t worry because the good folks at Nominal Records / Deranged Records have included a free download coupon in the packaging! That way you’ll own the spiffy clear-vinyl LP AND something to put in your headphones. That’s called a win-win!

So e-mail us with the quickness! The winner will be announced on Sunday!

No posts all week? What the Jesus?! Well that’s it exactly! Everyone’s favourite imaginary friend had another birthday and to celebrate the occasion, the A-K kids spent our time eating icing-covered treats. Long story short, it’s SONG OF THE WEEK TIME! YES!

I’m just gonna skip the pre-amble and tell you what for! Our Song of the Week is Carolina by local four-piece The Shilohs and we picked it because the song, like the band, is balls-out amazing. How so? Well in less than a year The Shilohs got together, wrote a pile of great songs, played a bunch of shows, recorded an incredible full-length demo LP that may never officially see the light of day* and are now hard at work on their first 7″.

Featured on the upcoming release is our Song of the Week and if you’re like me and desperately need something to wash out the cacophony of Christmas carols you’ve been subjected to, you couldn’t ask for a better little rocker than this one. Everything about Carolina is great, but what I really love is the vocal pauses in lines like “Lost my way to Georgia / Flew into Atlanta / Tryin’ to make the bu-us on time! / She’s on my mi-iii-ind!”

Check it out on our MySpace page!

* We got one! Check back for a full review this week!

Last weekend I was going through a bunch of local MySpace pages and came across an artist that I’d heard a lot about but had never checked out before. In a sea of stuff that ranged from not-great to pretty-good, the songs of one performer in particular really stood out. So now we’ve come around to Sunday again and, after a considerable number of listens, Oh, Tonight by Ryan Walter Wagner is our pick for Song of the Week.

Maybe it’s because I’m on a big fat alt-country kick right now, but it’s awfully hard to not like such a prolific writer, photographer and singer/songwriter. CBC Radio 3 has lauded his collection of “plain old-fashioned good songs, completely void of any pretense” and listening to Oh Tonight I can see why. Similar in sound to some of Tom Petty’s better efforts, Wagner has produced a slow-burner filled with simple but outstanding instrumentation and back-up singing. In fact, “finding out sings the backup” has officially made my to-do list. It’s a great track and if I can find out any more information about it, I’ll be sure to update the post.

Until next week!