Blog By: Addison Wylie
In music, there are moments that make you feel happy or excited, like listening to your favourite song, and then there are moments that raise that bar to a whole other level. For me, discovering a band with an original sound would fall into that category of lifting me to Cloud 9. In fact, I'm even more thrilled when I find out the band is Canadian. With all this said, these moments are usually far and few between for me but it's worth the wait. When I was first introduced to the stylings of Rush, I was instantly floored by this feeling. When I first discovered The New Pornographers when I popped their Mass Romantic CD into my computer, this feeling occurred. This occurrence has happened once again. Toronto Indie Music Award nominees, Avery Island, a band originating in Durham, Ontario and have been creating music since early 2009, brings a lot to the table offering audiences fresh and innovative writing and performances as well as a variety of different songs that are sure to be stuck in your head for ages.
Band members Brandon Heenan, Jordan Plishewsky, Kyle Rawn, and Lauren Heenan know exactly what they're doing and know how to portray their image and sound across to multiple audiences. The band's main focus is to play with their audiences emotions which is portrayed effectively through the writing. By utilizing effective phrasing techniques, including holding notes for emotional, affecting results, and by using the weight of expression in Lauren's voice, Avery Island is able to capture heart strings and never let go. The songs vary from gradual melodies to fast paced, animated music. The moods and transitions between the different tracks never feel abrupt or uncomfortable which is very nice and the audience is never taken out of the audible experience. As for the other members of the band, Brandon Heenan offers great accompaniment with his talents on the guitar as well as offering background vocals. His vocals can be very subtle but they make a great difference in the overall tone displayed in the music. Pilshewsky offers a lot as well showing off his expertise on the bass guitar and Rawn's drumming talent is persistently marvellous. His ability to bang out creative beats is astounding. Also, it definitely helps that all these bright musicians seem like a great group of people that you'd want to hang around with.
It's great to know that another great Canadian band can move onto my queue of bands I am definitely going to recommend to people who are in the mood for inventive music by a young, smart band that offers original elements without being gimmicky. The tracks that show their strongest efforts are definitely Jive Talking and Grapes Study Me, I've Seen the Reports; both stellar tracks that would give a music lover instant first impressions as to the level of originality their in for.
Avery Island's music can be heard at www.myspace.com/averyislandmusic and their blog is located at averyislandblog.blogspot.com. Avery Island can be seen live at Lee's Palace in Toronto on September 23rd at 9pm.
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