Joe Howell Media

From The Strand April 8 2008

Who knew that growing up in suburban hell could have such a silver lining? According to Greg Aslop, drummer for indie darlings Tokyo Police Club, the Newmarket band formed there “because there was nothing else to do.”

“We could either do a lot of drugs and cause shit, or we could meet up in [guitarist] Josh’s mom’s basement once a week and write songs on a Friday night.”

The songwriting of those early tracks benefited from the Newmarket doldrums, as well. The inventive lyrics of tracks like “Citizens of Tomorrow” stemmed from the band having to use “our imagination, because nothing interesting was happening in our real lives.”

That’s all changing now.

Since the youngsters released their first E.P. A Lesson in Crime, they’ve played major festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, toured extensively, and been signed to Saddle Creek Records. All this on the strength of Crime’s 16-minutes of taut, catchy songs that earned the group considerable buzz in the bloggerhood, and left listeners and critics clamoring for more from the embryonic band.

The trouble was, though, that the boys of Tokyo Police Club were still in school, and hadn’t anticipated such phenomenal success. As Aslop puts it, their “main inspiration for playing music” was “being bored and not getting any,” not rock superstardom.

Much to their parents’ consternation, the band decided to let it ride, ditching class to pursue their music. “When [lead singer] David and I decided to drop out of school, there was definitely some hesitation from our parents, just because it’s usually a really terrible decision to leave school to go join a band. But once we started getting some inklings of success they came around, and they’re very supportive right now.”

That success has taken the shape of leaving their parents’ houses in favor of pads in downtown Toronto. “We can make rent every month. We eat a lot of spaghetti, so we’re definitely not extremely well off right now, but we’re making do,” says Aslop.

It was playing on Letterman that let Aslop know the band was viable, though, an experience that the young drummer described as “nerve racking,” but the ultimate proof that Tokyo Police Club had “arrived.”

The rest of us know the band is here, however, and are more interested in hearing where they’ll go. Since the release of the impressive Crime, only a tiny amount of new material has been released. With the “indie world collectively [holding] its breath for the TPC full-length,” as Pitchfork put it, the band teased fans with an even briefer release, the flash-in-a-pan Smith EP. With some disappointed and others tantalized by the lightweight album, expectations and demands for a “real” record continued to increase.

At long last, the wait is nearly over. Tokyo Police Club is set to release Elephant Shell on April 22, and is making the rounds in support of it. In March the band played The Indies at Canadian Music Week, alongside The New Pornographers and Attack in Black, right before heading off to the warmer climes of Texas for South by Southwest.

Torontonians got an even earlier taste of the outstanding tracks on Elephant Shell, though, at a much chillier gig at Nathan Phillips Square. In January, TPC played a free subzero show there, where the band was clad only in t-shirts. “No matter how cold it gets outside I always end up breaking a sweat,” said Aslop.

That probably explains his love for frozen treats. When asked what he’d do if he actually got “the President of the world” on the phone, as the band demanded in their call-to-arms “Cheer it On,” Aslop didn’t hesitate to respond.

“I would ask him to give us free ice cream. Buy everyone in the entire world just one scoop of ice cream, chocolate or vanilla. It’s nothing grand; it’s not world peace, but maybe something would come from it.”

It’s the kind of flippant answer you might expect from a band that has written songs “based on the way the future was perceived in old sci-fi movies in the 1950s,” as Aslop describes “Citizens of Tomorrow,” and surreal lyrics about girls dreaming of “paisley pigs and classy digs,” as one line from Shell’s “Cut Cut Paste” goes. It’s the kind of answer that prepares you for Aslop’s speculation on what the “Nature of the Experiment” actually is.

“Girls. They’re all about girls when it comes down to it,” he quips.

That might change under the careful direction of Saddle Creek, though. “They’re a real pleasure to work it. They’ve got that personal touch that an indie label has. But they also aren’t afraid to go out and try for things on a grander scale. So, I’m really excited to see what happens in the year with them.”

So are the rest of us, holding our breaths just a bit longer for the release of Elephant Shell. Here’s hoping it’s a hit, so that the lads from Newmarket can lead the rock star lives they so desperately crave. “Hopefully we will move to a nicer part of town. Or at least eat nicer meals. I want to move into finer pasta; I want to be able to eat penne. With a name brand sauce. Ragu, maybe Prego. Either one would be a dream come true.”

From The Strand’s April Fools issue

The University of Toronto’s unhappiness with Maclean’s seemed to peak in 2006, when U of T, along with nine other schools, declined to participate in the magazine’s annual rankings of the nation’s post-secondary institutions. But with the release of Maclean’s 2008 “Guide to Partying at Canadian Universities,” U of T has a whole new reason to be outraged.

The university scored poorly on categories like “Drunkenness of Frosh Week,” “Tendency to Riot” and “Streaking,” but its worst performance came on “Hotness of Student Body.” There, U of T was topped by most Ontario schools, only beating York and the University of Waterloo.

Some senior administrators are fuming at the results. According to Vice-President and Provost Vivek Goel, “the methodology used by Maclean’s to ascertain the hotness of our students was egregiously flawed. They sent out a man and a woman to keep track of how many of the first 100 students they saw that they would “hit.” But they started in the Engineering buildings! The fact that Maclean’s didn’t include Vic or UC students in their experimental data shows systemic bias.”

President David Naylor, however, agreed with the magazine’s conclusions. “I was maxin’ and relaxin’ down at Ryerson the other day, and let me tell you, they had fit bitties stacked to the rafters. And then I roll back up to U of T, and suddenly I’m nigh-ready to gouge out my eyes. It brings me great shame to be President of such a fugly school.”

Student Rick Rollins disagrees that there aren’t good-looking women at U of T.

“I took this Sexual Diversity Studies class ’cause I thought it would get me laid. It didn’t, ’cause the chicks were all lesbians, but they were crazy hot lesbians. Just bangin’. Anyway, what’s up with all the lesbians in this city? I go out to the bar and the ladies all ignore me. Me! Have you seen these pipes? I’m pretty sure they’re only interested in rug munching.”

Lusty co-ed Chiste Lustig insists that there are indeed handsome lads at the school. “I’ve seen two or three hunks o’ burning love at St. George this year!” she giggled. “They’re probably dating girls at Western, though. Plus, I heard that one has the French Disease, so I guess his love really is burning. But he’s totally syphilicious.”

Members of UTSU were unable to comment, as they were busy subverting democratic elections in third-world countries, but student group AlwaysQuestion was outraged.

“Shame on Maclean’s! Shame! Shaaaaaame!” they yelled several hundred times, before returning to their sit-in of a bus shelter.

Regardless of campus sentiments, though, President Naylor sees a need for action.

“I wish Maclean’s had recognized our proclivity for pranks, but they’re absolutely right about all the unattractive students,” he lamented.

“U-G-L-Y, they ain’t got no alibi, they ugly! It’s bad for morale. I have an inchoate plan to attract more comely ones to our school, though. Prospective students will have to achieve a certain score on hotornot.com, say 8.5, and ones who fall short can make it up through involvement in extracurriculars like beer-pong and panty raids.

“Look out, Maclean’s 2009 ‘Guide to Partying at Canadian Universities!’ Pretty soon they’ll be calling us U of Par-T. Heh. See what I did there?”

From The Strand, March 27 2008

My first-hand report of what happened at the Simcoe Hall sit-in is “old news,” so to speak, but is of continued relevance now that 14 of the protesters are facing charges.
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“Hello Everyone, I am writing this memo to inform you that we (the students) have occupied Simcoe Hall and refuse to leave until our demands are met.” So read the beginning of a message sent on March 20 to all members of the Facebook group Stop the 20% Fee Increase at New College.

Some three dozen protesters planted themselves inside Simcoe Hall, where many of U of T’s top administrators have their offices. It was the first time such a demonstration had occurred since student protestors overtook the building in 1972, in an ultimately successful effort to gain undergraduates access to Robarts Library.

Protesters were equipped with Palestinian flags, signs that read “student-worker struggle,” and chants of “drop fees not bombs”. These mixed messages lead many to question what exactly was being protested.

The demands issued by those in Simcoe Hall were clear enough, however. They refused to leave without an “immediate meeting with [University President] David Naylor,” along with the removal of the motion to discuss the proposed residence fee from the next meeting of the University Affairs Board.

The Strand arrived on the scene to find students arguing with several members of campus police. Protesters on the ground were trying to hoist “food and medicine” to members of the sit-in. It seemed that the protest had inadvertently turned into a hunger strike, as demonstrators realized they did not have the supplies for a prolonged siege of the building.

“If anyone up there needs medicine they can come down and get it,” an officer told the students crowding around him.

What happened next is up for debate. There was a sudden commotion inside Simcoe Hall, and much shouting could be heard by those gathered outside. One woman screamed “what is going on up there?” into a megaphone.

Moments later, a man wearing only an undershirt stuck his head out the window, shouting that they were “trampled” by the police. His neck sported a long red mark. An officer leaving the building shortly after had a small amount of blood on his right hand. A few protesters on the ground went into a frenzy of obscenities directed at the police, who refused to answer questions at the time. The sit-in soon ended, but the story did not.

A video soon emerged accusing the police of “brutality.” President Naylor issued a lengthy statement, condemning the protesters for their “aggression” and “physical assault” of staff members. The New College Student Council denounced the protest on their website, and withdrew all support from it.

President Naylor wrote that “We do not accede to thuggish tactics by mobs.” He went on to claim that students had trapped staff in the Provost’s Office, “asserting that no one should leave before a meeting took place with them.”

“Protesters placed themselves on the floor in the path of staff trying to leave, pulling at their legs and causing the first staff member to fall to her hands and knees… Staff escaped down an adjacent stairwell. The protesters eventually dispersed of their own volition. University of Toronto Police did not forcibly remove anyone from the building…in an astonishing display of historical revisionism, [the protesters] then portrayed themselves as victims.”

Demonstrators anonymously denied these allegations to The Strand. “Individuals who watch the video should recognize that there is much going on that the viewer cannot see. Violent tactics were used on students.”

They claimed these tactics included dragging students across the floor, picking them up and throwing them into other students, tackling them, and forcing them to the ground where they were stepped on by officers and staff.

“Naylor and the administrators are lying and attempting to polarize students, who should really be supporting each other. Alleged attacks on officers are part of this same strategy,” alleged the demonstrators.

Campus police said only that an internal investigation is underway, the results of which should be available within two weeks, and declined to comment further.

Robert Steiner, U of T’s Assistant VP for Strategic Communications, responded to accusations that protesters had been ‘trampled’. “I can tell you that they weren’t,” he said. “The police…don’t want to confront. In fact, they told administrators to stay in their office, specifically to avoid a confrontation. So the idea of “trampling” these guys is about as far as you get from U of T campus police tactics or strategies and you can possibly get.”

There are more effective ways of creating change at U of T, said Steiner. “Students are involved with setting policy. If a student wants an appointment with a senior administrator, instead of blockading the door, they can just call the assistant and make an appointment.

“It’s almost a joke, in a way. If the behaviour weren’t so upsetting on Thursday, it would almost be like a skit.”

Steiner recommened students go to one of many public meetings, and ask for speaking rights. “That’s the constructive way to actually shape the debate and policy.”

by Joe Howell

The Strand March 13 2008

You have the chance to meet two of your high school heroes, a rapper/producer duo from Minneapolis known as Atmosphere. You take a deep breath before you enter the hotel they’re staying at while in town, and worry that meeting artists you admire will be like discovering the man behind the curtain in Oz.

In a weird way, you feel like you already know them personally, due to their deeply introspective, emotionally honest style. Atmosphere’s songs frequently feel like they’ve been ripped from the private journal of a a clever poet, offering a rare glimpse into the turbulent life and mind of a troubled man. A man who loves with an all-consuming desperation, who veers wildly between delusions of grandeur and crushing insecurities, dizzying highs and sickening lows, hurt and hope. A man with the ability, or perhaps compulsion, to turn everything good and bad that happens to him into art.

You’re about to meet that man.

But first, a publicist leads you to a laptop, so you can preview the new album. It’s entitled When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, which reads like a ten word description of the group itself. You think of making problems the solution, and the prof who told you “KFC isn’t disgustingly greasy, it’s ‘finger lickin’ good.’”

Curiously, Lemons begins with an illustrated children’s story about a princess suffering from “fuckedupselfimage,” and a boy who is literally shrinking. You get the impression that Atmosphere is trying something different here.

The album indeed departs paths from the rest of their oeuvre. Slug, the rapping half of the pair, seems kinder, gentler, and more focused on the problems of others than on his own. It’s unclear what role Ant plays this time, as traditional hip-hop beats are conspicuously absent. In their stead are acoustic guitars, real drums, pianos, and other instrumentation. The song “Painting” provides a clue: “the progress starts and pauses/sputters like the basement faucet,” raps Slug.

Atmosphere hasn’t completely changed, however. While “Your Glass House” - a sinister song about waking up in a strange place - seems like one of the darkest songs they’ve recorded yet, Slug is still heart-baring and self-deprecating. In “Yesterday,” a strong track with a surprise ending, he raps “you disappeared but the history is still here/that’s why I try not to cry over spilled beer.” On “Me,” he tells you that “yeah, the child in the mirror was homely/so he learned early on how to switch into low key.” Slug still doesn’t care how awkward a rhyme is, or how many syllables he’s cramming into one line.

Headphones on, you startle as the publicist comes back into the room. It’s compelling stuff and you want to keep listening, but Slug and Ant are waiting, she says.

Another deep breath, and you enter their hotel room. They’re smoking and drinking coffee, and seem very relaxed. Slug immediately makes you just as comfortable, jokingly asking you for weed, teasing you about your mismatched socks, and otherwise bantering like you’re old friends. Ant is a little more reserved, but as the beatmaker you figure it’s natural for him to take the backseat. “This record made him crazy,” says Slug of his partner.

“Ant this time had to not only produce the music but communicate to people about what he wanted them to do, you know what I mean?” Slug explains that Ant directed the many artists who played back-up. Ant replies that it was “a whole different thing.”

You and Slug nod agreement. “I think we learned new tricks from it that we will probably be applying from here on out,” he says, saying that they’ll take it “another step” on the next record. You’re shocked - the “next” record? But this one doesn’t even come out until April 22nd!

“This record is old to us. It’s been finished for probably about six months now,” says Slug. He proceeds to explain that he wants to do a concept album revolving around “that Russian bodyguard, the female one, that got killed and dragged by her own Porsche.” You can’t tell if he’s joking about the idea, so you comment that it seems like he’s more into telling other people’s stories now.

“That was always kind of the thing in general, it’s just that I was doing it through my eyes, so everybody thought I was telling stories about myself. Whereas I was just doing narratives (based on) my own assumptions on life, but making myself the character. But yeah, there was definitely a conscious decision not to say “me” and “I” a lot on this record, but to try and fictionalize it on other people and narrate their lives.” You mention that you’d like to try that, too.

You ask about the record title, wondering if life has served them any proverbial lemons lately. “Lately?” asks Slug. “I’m gettin’ fat. And I’m not even trying. I mean, yeah, of course. Every day. The thing about problems is that everybody has a certain amount of weight that they carry.” He tells you that no matter how good someone else’s life looks, they’ve still got their troubles - “the same type of frustration that I might have over not being able to pay my phone bill.” He goes on to explain that we need to learn to deal with our private tribulations: “We tend to bitch and moan as if our world is crashing down upon us, but at the end of the day you’re still going to adapt to the fact that you got herpes. Sorry, that wasn’t Freudian.”

You’re intrigued by the comment about being unable to pay the bills. After all, their last album hit #1 on Billboard’s Independent Music chart, and when you saw them a couple of years ago, the show was sold out. Has Slug not yet made good on his classic quip from a decade ago that “Mom, I promise, I’m gonna be large/some day I’ma stop trying to borrow your car”?

“I’m not trying to borrow my mom’s car anymore, definitely not. I guess I’m not living large; I’m living better than I was. I’m living better than I would be had I just held onto my courier job. I think if I were to quit rapping right now I probably would have enough money to last me about 3 to 5 years depending on how I budget it out.”

This visibly surprises Ant. “Shit, really?” he says. “I’d probably go six months.” Slug explains himself: “Remember me? When I used to come over on Sundays and record? I was a dude that spent six dollars a day on food; I was a budgeted dude. I had to be - I wasn’t gonna sell dope. Six months is about right if I try to maintain the lifestyle. We’re not rich by any means.”

But perhaps one of these days, one of their records will change that. Maybe even Lemons. “I am more proud of this record and the work that we put into it than I think I am of anything we’ve ever done,” boasts Slug. “But it’s more challenging now, just because I realized after Seven’s Travels that I was becoming kind of redundant. I felt like I needed to break out of that. Writing-wise, my whole approach to this record was 100% different to how I’ve ever written a record. Not just the fact that I wasn’t writing in 1st person.”

You wonder if this is why so few of the new songs deal with past relationships, and joke that the damning title of “emo rap” given to them by Rolling Stone seems less applicable than ever. “My situation right now is amazing. I’m sure that’s going to influence me not to sit and complain about my ability to maintain a relationship anymore. People still throw that fuckin’ word around. I used to write journalism for a local paper long enough to know that that shit happens because writers have to figure out a way to explain something in the least amount of words as possible. So they make up things like “emo rap,” “freak folk…” I guess I don’t care what you call me, just download my shit and listen to it, bitch.”

Slug tells you that he wasn’t the first rapper baring his emotions, either. “Tupac beat me at that. That dude was emotional about everything. Cars, girls, money - he was emotional about money! I think Ghostface even beats me in the emotional category because he knows how to use his voice to relay emotion. But these guys don’t get the name “emo rap” because they got guns. I’m gonna get a gun. A rifle. Buckshot. Will you explain to him (Ant) that people up here do have guns and do get shot? There are murders in Canada.”

You tell them about a recent shooting at Charles and Yonge, and proceed to applaud them on never senselessly glorifying violence in their music. “Well, because I’m not a violent person,” says Slug. “I have a senseless glorification of infidelity because that was more where my life was.” Even still, you feel that they respect women more than other rappers, as well. “It’s funny because I do get into arguments with 19 year-old white girls with dreads who are in their first year of women’s studies in college who wanna call me a misogynist, or playing to the patriarchy. So it’s like, ‘are you really listening?’ Makes me wish I had a gun.”

You’ve been chatting with them for a while now, and only have one more question. Obama or Clinton in ‘08? As if they’ve been rehearsing, Slug and Ant immediately say “Obama!” in unison. “There is no reason why Obama shouldn’t win. If he doesn’t win, then I’m thinking there’s probably going to be some hell to pay in our country.”