The Mixtape Project #1 - Broken Arts: Year One
When I decided to do a themed series of mixtapes to post in this space I knew there was one natural place to start - at the beginning.
Broken Arts began on July 16, 2009. Initially a trio of myself, Mike Rosenplot, and Natalie Garcia we started with an art jam series every Sunday at a coffee shop called The Black Cup (38 King St. E. where Mad Cafe now stands). We ran Art School Sundays for a month and a half but the highest turnout we ever got was five people. I was ready to give up on Broken Arts altogether but they wanted to persevere. A friend of Mike's had just opened a new bar called The Green Bottle so we talked to him about putting on a concert there. He said yes and that changed the entire future of Broken Arts.
In the year between our initial formation and Broken Arts' one-year anniversary Mike left to pursue other work, Stef Walker and Amanda Westenberg joined, we ran five concerts, the first Broken Arts Fair, a 24-hour comic jam, a fundraiser for the Cat Town animal shelter, Oshawa's first buskerfest, and participated in activities at The Oshawa Generals' first fanfest and Get Bent's Summer Solstice festival. Natalie, Stef, and Amanda would also leave the team. Looking back it's very much the picture of a rookie group, starting out with no concrete plan and making it up as we went. Any success was part luck and part perseverance.
Broken Arts: Year One
1. Jenny Omnichord - Mending Nibbled Wires
2. Andrew Vincent & Company - Ambassador Bridge
3. The Elwins - Stuck In The Middle
4. Tonkapuma - Throwdown
5. Big Crimes - Gnome Song
6. Avery Island - If You Want Me
7. Pink Moth - Forest Fires
8. Stereo Moon - I Would Dream For You
9. The Strumbellas - Carry My Body
Download now.
Jenny Omnichord headlined Soundtracked 4, our first all-ages show held on a Saturday afternoon in May at the old Isabella's. She traveled out from London with her omnichord and her 3 year-old son Otis. It remains in the top three of our worst attended shows and the first time Broken Arts went into debt.
I discovered Ottawa's Andrew Vincent when CBC Radio-3 began playing his song "Going Out Tonight" fairly regularly. I loved it and wrote to his label on a whim asking if he'd play Soundtracked 1. To my surprise he said yes. I had had no idea that it was that simple and found it so frustrating that I could have been putting on concerts for years if I had only known how easy it was.
Newmarket's The Elwins, along with Broken Arts founder Natalie, opened for Jenny at Soundtracked 4. They played Guess Who before their set. They finally released their debut album a few weeks ago and it's been getting glowing acclaim.
The biggest influences on me as a show promoter and on the Broken Arts: Soundtracked series in general are Toronto's Daps crew. It was their all-ages car garage shows that made me first decide that our shows needed to be more than just a couple of local bands in a bar. They inspired the mix of local and non-local and music and art and food and decorations. As soon as we decided to do Soundtracked 1 I went to Dan and April and asked them if one of their bands would play. The other members of Hooded Fang were busy at the time so they played as their surf duo Tonkapuma.
Pickering's Big Crimes were in attendance at the first Soundtracked and wound up recommended to us by the members of Avery Island. We brought them on to play Soundtracked 2, our first Christmas show. Big Crimes just broke up this past November but Tom is still going strong as The Undrummer.
We had locked in Andrew Vincent and Tonkapuma for Soundtracked 1 and taken on the band Cedar at the suggestion of Green Bottle owner Craig. (They would later cancel and be replaced at the last minute by The Oldest Child, who contacted us out of the blue and hitchhiked out to the show from Peteborough.) Mike and I were hanging out at The Shwaltz and trying to decide who to get to round out the lineup when Avery Island took the stage. We had never heard of the Port Perry foursome before but, after one song, I turned to Mike and said, "I want them."
I discovered Toronto's Pink Moth in a roundabout manner. I first came across the comics of Willow Dawson at The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. When I found out later that her husband had a band that she occasionally contributed to I asked them to play our Christmas show with Big Crimes and Mellowkotzen.
On June 7, 2010 we ran our Julie Doiron Day tribute show at Isabella's. To date it's the only concert we've put on that didn't fall under the Soundtracked banner. For the event Jade Alexis, HeSaid SheSaid, Holy Mount, and Stereo Moon came out and played covers of Julie and Eric's Trip songs. This was the first time we met Stereo Moon and he won us over instantly.
With our Christmas lineup nearly confirmed Isabella's owner Giacomo suggested that we should get a band from Toronto called The Strumbellas to play. I was hesitant after taking a suggestion for our first show and then having that band cancel but we agreed. Luckily Giacomo knew what he was talking about because The Strumbellas were fantastic. Last July we were able to bring them back to headline Broken Arts Fest and, with their debut album finally released last month, we might have to see about getting them back again sometime in the near future.
