PREVUE // VIDEO REVOLUTION
Young Empires
These guys are probably Facebook friends
Thu, Oct 4 (8 pm) With Dragonette and guests Starlite Room, $32 – $46.50
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t's simple: you watch a music video, like it and share it on Facebook for all to see. But what if you could be part of that video—or at least your Facebook photos could? Young Empires, a four-piece indie rock group based in Toronto, has made that possible with the video for its new single "White Doves," directed by Miles Jay. Before playing, viewers are asked to sign in with their Facebook username and password, and then to type in the name of their closest
friend. What unfolds is a thought-provoking conceptual look at memory, with viewer's Facebook photos taking centre stage throughout the video. "You see so many music videos come out, you watch them once or twice, someone posts it on Facebook, and then it's gone, even something great ... so I think for us we really wanted to do something that would have some kind of sustainability and some lasting quality," says Aaron Ellingson, one of the band's founding members and a former Edmontonian. "I think any time you can make people feel like they're part of something and you can have some kind of interaction, it really helps. When you're in a band, with things like Facebook and Twitter, you can do it a little more than people used to and you can interact, but any time you can involve people in something they're going to be more excited about it and it's something you're going to watch more than once." The addition of viewers' Facebook photos not only allows fans to get in on the action, but also enhances the overall theme of the video: memory. Ellingson says it particularly focuses on the value placed on memories. The photos in the video are often in various states of destruction, which he believes would be a traumatic thing for many people to witness in real life. "You value your car and your clothes and things like that, but those things are replaceable," Ellingson explains. "And it was kind of the idea of those pictures, that's the memories and the physical picture can get destroyed, but the memory is still there, so it's just kind of that idea of making you stop and think and value that." MEAGHAN BAXTER
// MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM
PREVUE // ELECTRO FLUTE
Marion Garver Fredrickson "It's kind of sad that people don't think, well, flute players play in rock bands, they play electronica, they teach," Fredrickson says. "They do so many things to make a living, but for some reason, people's minds automatically go to the symphony." Aside from traditional concert flute, Fredrickson has a particular interest in low flutes, developed after a four-month trip to Europe, where she met Dutch flute maker Eva Kingma, who specializes in low flutes such as alto, bass, contrabass and contralto. The Kingma system also features special keys that allows the player to achieve quarter tones. "You can play it a little more smoothly, more like a string, so you can do slides and things like that a little more easily," Fredrickson says, adding she owns each variety of low flute, joking the contrabass flute looks like a piece of plumbing, but has a warm, baritone sound she enjoys.
Sat, Sep 29 (8 pm) (Un)plugged: Electro Meets Acoustic Part of Alberta Culture Days Harcourt House, $5 – $10
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lutes aren't just for the symphony. The classical instrument has evolved, and can hold its own in jazz, pop, rock and even electronic music. San Diego-based flautist Marion Garver Fredrickson, who also happens to be a former Edmontonian, says the first question she's asked when she says she plays the flute is whether she's in the symphony, but she admits that she didn't have the orchestral drive most of her classmates did in high school.
For her trip back to Edmonton, Fredrickson will be joining forces with electroacoustic musician and media artist Shawn Pinchbeck to create a unique electroacoustic performance titled (Un)plugged: Electro Meets Acoustic. The pair have been working together for more than 20 years, and recorded an album together called Resonance in 1995. Fredrickson says they'll be bringing back some older tunes from as well as some new collaborations. Fredrickson says that the key to making a collaboration work is a good ear. "Especially the electronic person, if they're manipulating your sound while you're performing, you have to put your faith that they're gong to do something that you like," she explains. "A lot of the time it's more improvisational, so I kind of figure out an idea of what I can use and see what they do and react to what they do. It's kind of like jazz." MEAGHAN BAXTER
// MEAGHAN@VUEWEEKLY.COM
VUEWEEKLY SEPTEMBER 27 – OCTOBER 3, 2012
MUSIC 29