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Pop Montreal Festival

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The Pop Montreal festival is a celebration of bands from another time period that did not want to take all the fame and glory for themselves. There are a lot of indie performers at this event which often serves as a spring board to launch their careers.

As well as musical artists, the Pop Montreal Festival highlights artists and artisans of every medium. There are symposiums at this event (which help the general public comes to grips with the true meaning of the festival and all it’s multiple off shoots) as well as concerts and exhibitions of their wares.

I recently found out about this neat little festival while skimming through the Maclean’s Magazine Nov. 03 ’08 publication in the “stage” section. Once in a while I stumble across a great article that catches my eye, and this one was certainly note worthy.

They discussed the line up of the show and shed of faint light about who the artists really are. The performers are acts that shared the limelight with many of the past great performers of their time, but for whatever reason they chose not to stand out in that particular crowd at the height of their career. I guess you could say that these bands are the ones who decided not to sell out their musical souls to the POP devils!

For instance, for all you true soul and R & B fans out there, Irma Thomas played at the Pop Montreal Festival. The song that helped her, and the Rolling Stones out, was Time is on my side. We do have to give New Orleans credit for this magical influence!

Another band that played at the festival was Silver Apples, an obscure electric act from the 60’s who had Simeon Cox with his HOME MADE electric synthesizer. They were more like a new wave band with a RadioHead feel to it, from this era. Oscillations is a great one to groove out to! Today, new bands that have taken the torch and ran with it to new levels! Congratulations to Cortometraje are in order.

Then there was Elyse Weinberg, for the folk lover in all of us. Her Canadian counterparts were none other than Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and a little guitarist called Gordon Lightfoot! Houses, with Neil Young playing guitar on this track is just plain beautiful!

In the musical portion of Pop Montreal events, I just love to see them showing the bands from the past that did not wish to sell out to the masses during their brief time in the spotlight. This is a celebration of these ideological trail blazers. This underground event also helps us to place them on the proper pedestal that they so rightly deserve, even though they never really were acknowledged properly by mainstream media!

I, for the life of me, don’t know what makes some artists shine so bright in their respected genres, and then they chose to take a back seat to all the divas of their time? The only thing that I do know is you have to respect them for their stance.

Sometime in the future, when I’m able to, I will head off to Montreal to check out this gathering of the musical minds. Love live Pop Montreal!

Keep on Jammin’





Hauntario is the place to be for Halloween

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Bad candy?

If you love going to haunted places this year and you live in Ontario, Canada, then this post and links on it is the place to go!

Haunted Ontario is a place to check out. I wonder if there is a haunted music studio on this tour? Yes, even in Toronto the good there are some SCARY PLACES! One place that was too scary for me, is this one music store on Queen St. W. near Leslie ville. For the rest of the city Toronto ghosts are everywhere, boo!

Don't drink & fly

So for all of you going out for Halloween in the Ontario area, like where my buddy Domenic is playing with Hairy Mulligan at Liquid Lounge in Brantford this Friday Oct. 31, make it a safe one and most importantly …

Keep on Jammin’!

The “What Wilton Said” Band’s instrument list

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Here is list of some of the equipment that Wilton Said used on stage live when they performed at this years Nuance 2008.

Here’s a list of some of the equipment of myself and the band members.

  • Wilton – Keyboards – Roland EP7 Digital Piano, Roland Sound Canves, Roland PC-70 Controller. Guitars – Lado Halk with Kayler floating Bridbe. Both have Semour Duncun distortion pick ups. Roland Jazz Chorus 77 Amp. Variety of boss pedals.
  • Chris Reid – Guitar: was playing a Gibson SG Deluxe with the Bigsby style Maestro bridge, a Traynor Custom Valve 40 amp, and effects: Dual Overdrive, Cry Baby Wah, Volume fade pedal, Delay, Tremelo, Flanger and Chorus pedals. The pedals are Boss, except for the flanger (Ibanez) and of course the wah. I also used an E-bow in a few parts.
  • Frank Heisler Bass: Music Man Stingray 5 fretless
    Amp: Euphonic Audio iAmp350 350 watt amp with a CXL-112 1×12 with a coaxial
    horn tweeter within.
    The rig provides a suitable level of power and growl while weighing under 60 pounds!
    …and then there’s the ubiquitous music stand..
  • Richard Rizzo – Drums (don’t know)

Now the amplifier that Wilton himself uses is really a thing to behold! The Roland Jazz Chorus is heavier then my car, but produces the best guitar chorus sound, this side of heaven.

It has such a full sound, that only other amp. I’ve tried, that really gives it a run for it’s money, is a Yamaha Leslie. Check out the link, it is so wild. The speakers actually swirl around giving it the ultimate chorus effect.

If you’ve even went to a church with a organ in it, and you saw a BIG BOX beside it, it probably was a Leslie Speaker amp. So if the opportunity presents itself, go back and ask the organist to show you how it works! Tony F, from my old band Pylis, had one and he said why don’t you hook your guitar to it and when I did, it was the best chorus I’ve ever heard. You can also control the speed of the speakers spinning.

The E-bow that Chris uses is something that has been around for years, but I have never known anyone to have used it. The link that I have attached to it, shows the diversity of this product. Next time I’m in my favorite guitar store, The 12th Fret, I’ll definitely try it out!

That’s all from the boys in the band!

Keep on Jammin’, Wilton Said so!

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