05-05-2005, 06:34 AM
I enjoyed myself last week at the Mod Club and thought a seperate thread for the other shows, articles and CD thoughts would be in order here!
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=21083587-b1da-43ea-aeaf-d48e86f8a29e">http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawaciti ... 8e86f8a29e</a><!-- m -->
He shall be redeemed
Reformed bad-boy Hugh Dillon now pens songs from the heart
Lynn Saxberg
The Ottawa Citizen :: May 4, 2005
Deep into the excellent new CD by the Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir, there's a song that never would have made it onto a record by Dillon's old band, the Headstones.
It's a love song called Puzzle I Am, in which Dillon expresses his gratitude to his longtime girlfriend, Midori -- now his wife -- for sticking with him. She put up with a lot over the years, the biggest challenges coming from his drug and alcohol abuse.
For more than 10 years, Dillon was the obnoxious frontman of the hard-rock quartet that cranked out dark, heavy songs such as Cemetery, When Something Stands For Nothing and Unsound. Swearing and spitting, the bad-boy singer emanated an edgy charisma, even when he did disgusting things such as pick up other people's previously chewed gum and pop it into his mouth. The band recorded five discs, enjoyed plenty of radio play and toured the country numerous times. There was no time or inclination for wimpy love songs.
"We were lucky to have survived the craziness of being a rage-oriented, anti-social kind of band," a reformed Dillon says now. "We did our thing, but how long can you go? The lifestyle was crazy. For me personally, I just thought, 'I can't continue because I'm not going to survive.'
"The band was over and everything else, and Midori had been there for me through all the bullshit. (Puzzle I Am) was one of those songs that probably should have been written long before then. It was the first song I wrote when I left the Headstones and I knew it would never have made it in the Headstones."
It was also one of the first songs Dillon was motivated to record without the band. He began working on material with musician Chris Osti, the son of Dillon's substance-abuse counsellor. They wrote a song the first day they sat down together.
"For whatever reason, the chemistry was just there, and it was fun and it wasn't a giant effort, and we had a great song," Dillon says. Their first co-write was Microscope, now the first single from the new disc, The High Cost of Low Living.
After writing a few more tunes, a recording found its way to Tragically Hip guitarist Paul Langlois, an old friend from Dillon's school days in Kingston. Langlois liked what he heard and invited them into the Hip's Bathouse studio to make a record. They assembled a band -- not a choir -- of young musicians from Osti's circle of friends.
Dillon's acting career had also taken off since he kicked his addictions and became a more reliable individual. He appeared in the Bruce McDonald film, the Love Crimes of Gillian Guest, and in Debra Granik's Down to the Bone, which won an award at last year's Sundance Film Festival. It helped Dillon snag the right papers to work in the U.S.; now he divides his time between the film industry in Los Angeles and rock 'n' roll in Toronto.
"I'm ridiculously busy, but this is the best time I've ever had in my life," Dillon says. "It's great because I'm not desperate to get the band happening. I do it because I enjoy it and it's way less stress and way less weird pressure."
The Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir's debut has been available online for a few months, but will finally hit stores on June 7, thanks to a deal with Langlois. The first release on Langlois' new Ching label, it contains less raunch than the Headstones, but the songs are strong, coloured by keyboards, harmonica and a touch of twang. The sun is a recurring metaphor in Dillon's latest lyrics, a significant development for a guy who never saw much daylight while he was in Headstones.
"I find it funny because so much of it just comes out and then I try to figure it out," he says. "With the Headstones, so much of it was dark. This is stupid, but I spent so much of my time in the Headstones awake at nighttime, and slept all day. This last couple of years, I'm awake every morning and I'm up doing stuff."
To celebrate the release, a handful of shows have been booked this week, including tonight's appearance at Barrymore's, and last weekend's performances in Toronto and the hardcore Headstones territory of Buffalo, New York.
Dillon admits it: he was nervous about Buffalo. Fans don't like change, but he wasn't about to sneak a Headstones song into the set just to make them happy.
"But again, the songs did the job," he says. "If they hadda sucked, people would have gone, 'whatever.' We won them over. At the end, I sat and talked to fans, and people I'd known for years, and they were impressed. They loved it."
The Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir plays Barrymore's tonight, with Money Money opening. Tickets & times, 233-0307.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=21083587-b1da-43ea-aeaf-d48e86f8a29e">http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawaciti ... 8e86f8a29e</a><!-- m -->
He shall be redeemed
Reformed bad-boy Hugh Dillon now pens songs from the heart
Lynn Saxberg
The Ottawa Citizen :: May 4, 2005
Deep into the excellent new CD by the Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir, there's a song that never would have made it onto a record by Dillon's old band, the Headstones.
It's a love song called Puzzle I Am, in which Dillon expresses his gratitude to his longtime girlfriend, Midori -- now his wife -- for sticking with him. She put up with a lot over the years, the biggest challenges coming from his drug and alcohol abuse.
For more than 10 years, Dillon was the obnoxious frontman of the hard-rock quartet that cranked out dark, heavy songs such as Cemetery, When Something Stands For Nothing and Unsound. Swearing and spitting, the bad-boy singer emanated an edgy charisma, even when he did disgusting things such as pick up other people's previously chewed gum and pop it into his mouth. The band recorded five discs, enjoyed plenty of radio play and toured the country numerous times. There was no time or inclination for wimpy love songs.
"We were lucky to have survived the craziness of being a rage-oriented, anti-social kind of band," a reformed Dillon says now. "We did our thing, but how long can you go? The lifestyle was crazy. For me personally, I just thought, 'I can't continue because I'm not going to survive.'
"The band was over and everything else, and Midori had been there for me through all the bullshit. (Puzzle I Am) was one of those songs that probably should have been written long before then. It was the first song I wrote when I left the Headstones and I knew it would never have made it in the Headstones."
It was also one of the first songs Dillon was motivated to record without the band. He began working on material with musician Chris Osti, the son of Dillon's substance-abuse counsellor. They wrote a song the first day they sat down together.
"For whatever reason, the chemistry was just there, and it was fun and it wasn't a giant effort, and we had a great song," Dillon says. Their first co-write was Microscope, now the first single from the new disc, The High Cost of Low Living.
After writing a few more tunes, a recording found its way to Tragically Hip guitarist Paul Langlois, an old friend from Dillon's school days in Kingston. Langlois liked what he heard and invited them into the Hip's Bathouse studio to make a record. They assembled a band -- not a choir -- of young musicians from Osti's circle of friends.
Dillon's acting career had also taken off since he kicked his addictions and became a more reliable individual. He appeared in the Bruce McDonald film, the Love Crimes of Gillian Guest, and in Debra Granik's Down to the Bone, which won an award at last year's Sundance Film Festival. It helped Dillon snag the right papers to work in the U.S.; now he divides his time between the film industry in Los Angeles and rock 'n' roll in Toronto.
"I'm ridiculously busy, but this is the best time I've ever had in my life," Dillon says. "It's great because I'm not desperate to get the band happening. I do it because I enjoy it and it's way less stress and way less weird pressure."
The Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir's debut has been available online for a few months, but will finally hit stores on June 7, thanks to a deal with Langlois. The first release on Langlois' new Ching label, it contains less raunch than the Headstones, but the songs are strong, coloured by keyboards, harmonica and a touch of twang. The sun is a recurring metaphor in Dillon's latest lyrics, a significant development for a guy who never saw much daylight while he was in Headstones.
"I find it funny because so much of it just comes out and then I try to figure it out," he says. "With the Headstones, so much of it was dark. This is stupid, but I spent so much of my time in the Headstones awake at nighttime, and slept all day. This last couple of years, I'm awake every morning and I'm up doing stuff."
To celebrate the release, a handful of shows have been booked this week, including tonight's appearance at Barrymore's, and last weekend's performances in Toronto and the hardcore Headstones territory of Buffalo, New York.
Dillon admits it: he was nervous about Buffalo. Fans don't like change, but he wasn't about to sneak a Headstones song into the set just to make them happy.
"But again, the songs did the job," he says. "If they hadda sucked, people would have gone, 'whatever.' We won them over. At the end, I sat and talked to fans, and people I'd known for years, and they were impressed. They loved it."
The Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir plays Barrymore's tonight, with Money Money opening. Tickets & times, 233-0307.