Hamilton-based band Babbage Industries joins worldwide celebration encouraging everyone to
stop and listen to the music
On Aug. 30, local band Babbage Industries played a free concert from the porch of a house near Churchill Park in Westdale. Members of the Westdale community gathered to enjoy an evening of music.
Play Music on the Porch Day was started in 2014 by artist Brian Mallman who wondered, “What if for one day everything stopped and we all just listened to the music?” The event is held on the last Saturday in August and has grown to include thousands of musicians from over 70 countries. To participate you simply go outside and play music.
What if one day everything stopped and we all just listened to the music?
Brian Mallman, founder, Play Music on the Porch Day
Participants could register online to be on the Play Music on the Porch Day worldwide map, which showcases the global extent of the day. Monica Knott, the event host and bassist, remarked “We’re just one little dot in all of the dots. It’s everywhere. It’s kind of cool to know that everywhere in the world everybody was doing something like that.”
This was the first time Babbage Industries participated in Play Music on the Porch Day, having heard about the idea last year. However, they had been playing music on the porch since the COVID-19 pandemic. "We wanted to play music together and of course it’s really impossible to do that during COVID times. So we practiced exactly that way many times and the neighbours would sit on their porch and [cheer] and that sort of thing," said Knott.
Play Music on the Porch Day provides an opportunity for people to meet their neighbors and build community. In between songs, the band and audience talked about music and other shared interests. The audience was encouraged to sing along to songs they knew. Knott mentioned that one woman brought a melodica and played along and another passerby happened to be an accordion player.
Knott enjoyed witnessing small interactions between people, like her neighbor going to get a chair from his house for another attendee. “We consume music, for sure. We wear our headphones, but it doesn’t build interactions like we’re having right now. Even when you go to a concert, you go with your friends, you dance with your friends, but you’re not necessarily making those connections. But this made connections,” said Knott.
We consume music, for sure. We wear our headphones, but it doesn't build interactions like we're having right now. Even when you go to a concert, you go with your friends, you dance with your friends, but you're not necessarily making those connections. But this made connections.
Monica Knott, event host and bassist, Play Music on the Porch Day
Babbage Industries enjoys performing regularly. “As a band, we just love playing together. One thing we love more than anything is just hanging out, making music, being good to each other,” said Knott. The band’s upcoming engagements include the Hamilton for Haiti fundraiser and I’ll be Mother, an original musical. Knott said she hopes to host Play Music on the Porch Day again and have more musicians join in next year.
This winter, Hamilton Music Collective is holding a series of concerts to fundraise for An Instrument for Every Child, a program that provides free music lessons to children
The Hamilton Music Collective will be hosting a series of local jazz concerts this winter from Feb.1-Apr. 25 at their downtown jazz lounge to support their An Instrument For Every Child program.
The concert series will feature the performances of Dave Young Quintet, “Getz/Gilberto” Revisited, Tim Clarke Quintet and Diana Panton Trio.
The Hamilton Music Collective has been around since 2008 and their mandate is to enrich our community through performances and educational opportunities. AIFEC is their most well-known program. Ever since AIFEC was started in 2010, the program has reached over 9,000 children, working with around 800 children annually. They provide elementary school children in challenged neighbourhoods the opportunity to play an instrument on a free-loan basis.
The Hamilton Music Collective is partnered with all Hamilton school boards and they are currently operating in 16 schools. Not only do they provide instruments to children at these schools, but they also provide free instrumental lessons. The lessons are taught by highly skilled music instructors, paid by the program. Much of their fundraising, then, goes towards paying these instructors.
Astrid Hepner, the CEO and founder of Hamilton Music Collective, mentioned that many programs exist to make recreation and sports accessible to all children but that not as many programs exist in the arts.
“We are using music as a medium of social change, for providing opportunities to children [who] otherwise would not have certain opportunities,” said Hepner.
Attending these concerts is a great way for McMaster students to destress during midterm season, while contributing towards a great cause in their community.
By hosting this series of jazz concerts, Hepner hopes to increase arts opportunities for local children while also sharing a love for jazz and for music with the community. Hepner hopes that concert attendees will be blown away by the concert performances.
“We just hope that they walk away sort of enlightened, just loving it, which often is the case––they just say, “Wow, this was absolutely stunning,”” said Hepner.
In the future, Hamilton Music Collective hopes to continue what they are doing: growing and reaching out to more children to produce great concerts and be a main player in the cultural scene. Tickets to the upcoming jazz concerts can be purchased from their website. The next show will be on Mar. 28 featuring the Tim Clarke Quintet!
From heavy blues to cinematic soundscapes, Hamilton's music scene offers something for every music enthusiast, no matter the genre
As an amateur music connoisseur, I love discovering artists from all over the world. Be it Britpop, Latin or K-POP, each one has drawn me in as a listener with their distinctive styles and sound. But I've recently realized that I've become more in touch with foreign music scenes than ones more local to me. So in my quest to familiarize myself more with Hamiltonian musicians, I compiled this list of some of my favourites thus far with high hopes that other students may consider checking out their work as well.
JUNO nominee and McMaster University alumni Terra Lightfoot is a musician and singer-songwriter from Hamilton. With raspy, mezzo-soprano vocals and guitar skills that have been compared to the likes of Van Morrison, Lightfoot has made a name for herself in the world of blues, rock and folk music. Her newest album, ‘Healing Power’, is a must-listen for fans of classic rock and artists like Joan Jett.
Coming from a diverse musical background, Hamilton-based musician LTtheMonk creates unique and distinctive tracks, often blending dance music with hip-hop and pop. Songs like ‘New Monk Swing’ perfectly showcase this mix of genres, as well as the artist’s signature performance style which he describes as “bantamweight Gene Kelly-meets-James Brown” footwork.
Born in Dundas, Ont., Dan Snaith is a Canadian artist who has gained worldwide recognition for his unique blend of electronic, psychedelic, and indie pop music. With over 10 albums across three different monikers, Snaith’s discography is filled with intricate, layered productions and can be characterized by infectious melodies, rhythms, and introspective lyrics.
Hamilton-born musician, Efajemue Etoroma Jr., or “Efa,” is a drummer and percussionist known for combining jazz with touches of hip-hop and R&B influences. Along with serving as a drummer for acclaimed acts like Moonchild, Efajemue has created projects of his own, including his most recent album, ‘Aesthetics,’ which earned him a JUNO nomination for best solo jazz album of the year.
Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Carly Paradis is a BAFTA nominated composer and musician known for her captivating and emotive soundscapes. Paradis’ compositions are characterized by their atmospheric and cinematic qualities, often blending orchestral elements with electronic textures to create a unique sonic experience. She has written scores for the likes of Netflix and has even toured across Europe with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Josh Parsons
Music Editor
As far as I’m concerned, the greatest thing the internet has provided is the mountain of musical freebies – be they legal or otherwise. There has never been a period in history like this one, where so much music was just a few clicks away.
If you’re one of those nose-in-the-news types, I’m sure you’ve heard a thing or two about this SOPA bullshit. While many popular websites are staging blackouts as a protest to the anti-piracy legislation, I’d prefer to take a more direct route.
Here’s a guide to some of my most reliable methods for finding free music.
The first one is a no-brainer: torrents. If you’re still living in a cave, torrents are super-sneaky way of downloading files from multiple users at once. All you need is a simple torrent sharing program, such as BitTorrent, and suddenly a sea of free music is only a search away.
Becoming a superstar in the torrent community often leads to an invitation to one of the uber-exclusive websites, like Demonoid and ImmortalSeed. These sites host an even broader selection of goodies, including rare demos, bootlegs and unreleased material. Get into one of these and you’ll never need to buy an album again.
If you find yourself technologically inept, as I often do, there’s an even simpler, faster and more illegal way to have instant access to thousands of tracks. Search the domain of MediaFire.com for instant access to countless downloadable albums.
MediaFire is a massive file hosting website. Simply type in what you’re looking for and download the .zip file in which the album is contained. With average bandwidth, an album is downloaded in less than two minutes.
If downloading isn’t quite your thing, there are plenty of options for streaming music for free online. Although it is heavily policed by hordes of lawyers hired to defend the major labels, YouTube hosts an impressive amount of independent and eclectic music.
Other websites boast a massive catalogue of streaming audio, often utilizing a simple interface and playlist capabilities for maximum ease. GrooveShark is easily the most popular and makes it easy for users to create lengthy and diverse playlists.
Another popular website that embraces this platform is the HypeMachine. But unlike GrooveShark, it also serves as a blog aggregator and posts an up-to-the-minute list the latest music trending in the blogosphere.
And finally, for those looking for the most indie of indie, there are plenty of community-based sites that attract artists embracing the world of free music. SoundCloud is a European website that hosts a lush variety of independent artists willing to offer their tracks for free. Although it originally specialized in electronic music, musicians from nearly every genre now make use of SoundCloud to reach out to fans.
Of all the sources for free music on the internet, these are some of the most reliable that I have come across, and although I thrive off free music, I still support those artists who need the cash. Go to a show, buy a shirt; there are so many ways to support a band without buying the record. The reality is that it always costs a little bit of money to make recorded music possible.
