Uh Oh Canadia returns Saturday April 13 to Whammy Analog Media with your host Robert Dayton to present Animation Night in Canada...in Los Angeles! Special release party for Canadian International Pictures selection of animated short films from the National Film Board of Canada. A jam-packed program of incredible animated shorts from the 1960's to the 1980's including groundbreaking work from Norman McLaren, the much beloved The Big Snit, and so much more! There will also be prizes and surprises! Blurays will be for sale! Tix:
https://www.whammyanalog.com/events/uh-oh-canadia-animation-night-in-canada-vol-1-cip-release-party
Pacific Boilerplate group art show, Eagle Rock, CA (Elmo Fogfood)
I was quite taken with Elmo Fogfood's drawing in a group show at AndPens in Eagle Rock, California co-curated by Marc Bell up until Jan. 28th. It looks like Fogfood just scratched my name out and replaced it with their own! I've been plagiarized before but this is beyond the pale! Someone should buy this piece so we can find out exactly who this Fogfood is!!!!
Lots of great artists in this show, too (a rare Owen Plummer sighting for example).
http://andpens.com/pacific-boilerplate/
https://andpenspress.bigcartel.com/
The Birthday Experience Los Angeles Saturday January 13th!
Tickets and info here:
https://www.elysiantheater.com/shows/bday
”It’s Your Birthday Whether It’s Your Birthday or Not!”
The Birthday Experience is a live comedy variety show celebrating whomever has a birthday that month! But anyone can attend -birthday or no birthday- it will be fun for everyone! Is it your birthday? Or a friend's birthday? Come on along! Even if it isn't, come on along!
The Birthday Experience has Robert Dayton as your excitable host, along with bandleader and sparkling keyboardist Jon Steinmeier, wonderful puppeteer Molly Fite with Puppet Molly -a very good dancer, and filling in will be substitute clown George Chen as Mike Hans!
Plus Special Guests: Maggie Maye doing reviews of candy!!! And Christina Catherine Martinez!!!
A gaggle of new friends for the audience to visit each and every show! There's cake, balloons, prizes, and surprises! And loads more birthday style entertainment!
Toronto Dec 1st
The Birthday Experience, Friday, November 10th, Los Angeles
Tickets and info here:
https://www.elysiantheater.com/shows/bday
Rest In Peace Mark Gabriel
Rest In Peace Mark Gabriel, the loveliest loveliest fella, my dear friend and bandmate in July Fourth Toilet who was such a music lover that was open for all kinds of music and shenanigans, egging me (us) on! Mark opened up his home (along with his wonderful partner Alison and kids Zoe and Aaron -thank you so much for this, so much joy in your home) and studio to rehearse our many shows and record our albums and stuff over many years, making it happen. And they even let me live there for a spell at one point! I fortunately got to visit with Mark in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago and he was nervously waiting on test results. He'd beaten cancer twice and I just thought he would beat it again. Fucking cancer. I was looking forward to doing more stuff with him -it was so much fun creating and hanging out with Mark! I miss him. This is just so sad. My heart goes out to Alison and Zoe and Aaron. Here are links to music and vids, of which he was a huge, important part of, a big throbbing heart part of! Listen, watch, I'm proud of the stuff we did together, that he helped create.
Small Town Carnival:
http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_11.html?page=50&sub_id=626#626
When he worked on this song he told me that he cried and that meant so much:
https://julyfourthtoilet.bandcamp.com/track/lady-bug
https://www.youtube.com/@JulyFourthToilet
https://julyfourthtoilet.bandcamp.com/track/twinkle-belle
His son Aaron is on this and it’s a song that Alison told me he sang on his last night:
https://julyfourthtoilet.bandcamp.com/track/cute-little-baby
This song led to Ted joining Destroyer, he and Dan Bejar informed me recently. Ted was rehearsing in Mark’s garage and played on this as we were recording with Mark in his studio:
https://pointsgray.bandcamp.com/track/tonite-you-sleep-alone
Cross Country: Canadian Erotic Thriller Fri Aug 4th Whammy: director in attendance
Join Whammy! for our ongoing Uh Oh Canadia series, hosted and curated by Robert Dayton, a real-life Canadian. This iteration brings us a screening of Cross Country (1983) with special live Q and A by director Paul Lynch in attendance.
Get ready for an Erotic Thriller! And not just any Erotic Thriller: a Canadian Erotic Thriller! And it's a doozy! It delivers! A nasty, neo-noir!
Canada so nice? Better think twice! How do you take your Canada? Take it sleazy in dingy motel rooms and strip clubs! Road trip au trois! Richard Beymer is back (Twin Peaks’ Ben Horne -this could even be part of the Twin Peaks universe) with nothing/everything to lose -he shows his butt! Nina Axelrod plays it mysterious and needs to leave town too. Along for the ride is Brent Carver as the drifter in the Canadian tuxedo. What are they hiding? Who caused that brutal murder? Detective Michael Ironside (Scanners, etc.) intends to find out! Let’s go for a night drive! Nasty! Grimy! Sexy? This is an under-recognised Erotic Thriller that you don’t want to miss!
And -wait for it- director Paul Lynch (Prom Night, No Contest, The Hard Part Begins, and so much more) will be here as our special guest! Special thanks to Bret Berg (Museum of Home Video) for the recommendation and David Marriott (Canadian International Pictures) for the help!
Plus: prizes, pre-show, and a special cameo performance by The Canadian Romantic
https://www.whammyanalog.com/events/cross-country-1983-presented-by-uh-oh-canadia
Club 57 tonight (July 16) then Art Rock Vancouver: I perform Sat July 22nd, 2 pm
Oh hi I am excited to be a part of the Club 57 Black and White Ball tonight (SOLD OUT tho):
https://www.thebroad.org/events/club-57-society-black-and-white-ball
”In conjunction with the special exhibition, Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody, The Broad is teaming up with iconic denizen of the 1980s East Village art scene Ann Magnuson to revisit and celebrate the spirit and energy of the infamous Club 57, where she met and befriended Keith Haring while managing the club. Club 57 Society: Black and White Ball is inspired by events that took place at the original Club 57 including some of Haring’s earliest performances and exhibitions, as well as themed nights such as Twisting in High Society, Stayfree Mini-Prom, and The Ladies Auxiliary Debutante Ball. Our rousing and raucous homage features performances by and tributes to now-legendary artists who were part of the original Club 57 and knew Haring personally, as well as subsequent generations of artists that offer new examples of the grit, glitter, and experimentation that proliferated in this seminal venue.”
Then I am off to Vancouver for this (see flier):
https://libby.ecuad.ca/exhibitions/2023/art-rock-summer.html
ROBERT DAYTON (AND THE BEACH BOYS)
WITH SPECIAL GUEST: THE CANADIAN ROMANTIC
Libby Leshgold Gallery
July 22, 2 pm
For Robert Dayton's performance with The Beach Boys, he will be utilizing his entire being while accompanied by The Beach Boys Stack-o-Tracks LP, an instrumental album consisting of backing tracks to many of The Beach Boys' songs.
The Canadian Romantic is a character created by Robert, a melodramatic figure of faded glamour who tries to bridge and explore the gap between Canada and romance with somewhat dubious results. So far he exists through live performance (having performed across Canada and the U.S.A.), a series of videos, an album with music by Marker Starling (unreleased), a lenticular winking photo, a doll, and an art book (Publication Studio Vancouver, 2013).
Also I have a piece in the Doing and Doing Group show at 560 Gallery in Vancouver, info here, so many great artists in this!:
https://scoutmagazine.ca/2023/07/10/on-alternative-ways-of-doing-doing-with-local-artist-slash-art-activist-dan-siney/
Yayyyyy!!!
Marmalade Duplex review
I run this review here because I just want people to know about this… read on…!
Marmalade Duplex - 01001000 01001111 01000111 01001001 01000010 01000001 01010010 01000111 (2023, Corduroy Palace Recordings)
https://marmaladeduplex.bandcamp.com/music
Most original album of the year? Of the decade? What??? Of the day? Well, almost all of the lyrics are binary 0’s and 1’s. You can follow along with the enclosed lyric sheet. The opening track “01010011 01001111 01010011” begins exactly like that before venturing off into other arrangements of 0’s and 1’s. These are transmissions. As binary as these lyrics are, the music is decidedly non-binary, it fits nowhere. This song contains long horns and delicate pulses. Where are they taking us? On a voyage of uncertain destination. The ship adrift just outside our comfort zone.
The second number “01001100 01001111 01010011 01010100” is an instrumental you could almost dance to if your bones were gelatinously askew. Bouncy analog synths get sideswiped by scraping tones dogpiling up side-saddle, somewhat erratic yet always pulsating. The guitars never riff but they do bend (with Marmalade Duplex’s previous album being titled “Snot Bath” these really are the literal bends). Are they guitars even? Or is it all an amazing array of analog synths?
The 0’s and 1’s grow more emotive nearing a clarity of their own (not ours). All these 0’s and 1’s never wear thin (some also thicken with vocal doubling). I have been discreetly told that this vast accumulation of these 0’s and 1’s have actual meanings with some lyrics and titles reductively translated into “S.O.S. help us”, “loft commnctn”, “out of rng”, “pzzl”, “escpd”, and “where do we end up?”
Nearing the end of side one, we get a response from the calls of 0’s and 1’s. Actual words asking, “Hoagie barge, are you there? Are the members of Marmalade Duplex safe?” overtop of an intentionally Suicide-“Ghost Rider” template that transitions into a sci-fi seafaring drama melding. This is a most perilous journey.
To further muddy the waters there are three people involved in these binaries. Musicians Tyson Brinacombe and Brad de Roo are based in Guelph, Ontario, a mid-sized Canadian city, while the vocalist -noted cartoonist Marc Bell- exists elsewhere. Marmalade Duplex’s previous two albums had actual lyrics such as, “Hot fresh barnacles I said/I don’t know if I want you to go into the light/That sallow green light.” There the more eccentric aspects of The Fall were a musical influence, but here it doesn’t fall, it sinks, down below the vast mysterious depths. Marc Bell’s art on those first two records was elaborate and colourful; full of squishy, fine detail. “01001000 01001111 01000111 01001001 01000010 01000001 01010010 01000111” is rendered in striking contrast, further locking in the concept in near mechanical black and white featuring only a rendering of the hoagie barge, a sandwich submarine that the band members (not depicted) are stuck in unmoored.
Yet, after the emergency response, the music becomes heavenly synth plateaus, the 0’s and 1’s are delivered with coy bemusement, tickled to be here, galumph fish bass waddling along with kick drum and tittering percussion as we get further submerged. In the accompanying log book, written by their label Corduroy Palace Recordings, it is assumed that Marmalade Duplex may just be content to be lost. Have they made peace with their situation? Their label is seeking clarity. However, as a listener, when an album’s mysteries become unlocked the allure can disappear. For this album there is great joy in the confusion that, though carefully considered, may never be fully resolved. In frustration the label tore up the band’s contract then released this album in a limited pressing of 200 copies. They plan to release another Marmalade Duplex album in future.
-Robert Dayton
mrdayton@gmail.com
The Birthday Experience
Plus we’ll be celebrating my birthday!!! Oh my God!!!
Event info and tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/avail-comedy-showcase-the-birthday-experience-tickets-633712700747
The Canadian Romantic in Seattle this Saturday opening for Mantraband and L80 for Art Martyrs Relief Society
Info:
https://do206.com/events/2023/4/29/mantraband-w-l80-and-the-canadian-romantic-powered-by-art-martyrs-relief-society-tickets
Sunset Tavern, yayyyy!
Part Donna Summer, part The Electric Company, Mantraband is a sing along, dance along, disco catharsis joy cult. The synthy dance club vibes are the music baby of Matt Manges on drums (Circus Contraption, Annie Ford Band, Orkestar Zirkonium), Doug Arney on bass (Correspondents), and Sari Breznau (Flotsam River Circus, Up Up Up Crane Truck Circus, Future Fridays) on synth and trumpet, with the help of the Mantraband Friends Fellowship Society, a choir of true believers, on vocals. Unabashedly positive, Mantraband is here to uplift, unite, dork out, and get down.
https://mantrabandmusic.bandcamp.com/album/mantraband
Crawling their way out of the seattle underground avante garde, L80 (pronounced like lady) is a two person dark wave performance art duo.
L80 (Chadka and Tony James) is a force to be reckoned with. Solely through efforts of their labor alone, they execute every single part of the creative process; from production to video.
The Canadian Romantic is a character created by Robert Dayton, a melodramatic figure of faded glamour who tries to bridge and explore the gap between Canada and romance with somewhat dubious results. So far he exists through live performance (having performed across Canada and the U.S.A.), a series of videos, an album with music by Marker Starling (unreleased), a lenticular winking photo, a doll and an art book.
The Birthday Experience Thursday April 27th
Skip Tracer screening Friday April 21st at Whammy!
This is my favourite Canadian movie. Tickets here:
https://www.whammyanalog.com/events/uh-oh-canadia-presents-skip-tracer-1977
The Birthday Experience
Tix here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-birthday-experience-tickets-550591753757
Thursday March 16th, Lyric Hyperion, Los Angeles
Doors: 9pm // Show: 9:30pm
$10 Presale // $12 Day of Show
Cast:
Your host- Robert Dayton (@therobertdayton)
Musical Director- Jon Steinmeier (@jonsteinmeier)
Puppeteer- Molly Fite (@mollyfiteclub)
Classic clowning by Inessa Frantowski (@inessacomedy)
Production and pizzazz by Sarah Cisco (@disco_cisco)
This month's special guests: juggler Michael Rayner! The comedic stylings of Bebe McPhereson!
The Birthday Experience is a monthly live comedy variety show celebrating whomever has a birthday that month! But anyone can attend -birthday or no birthday- it will be fun for everyone! Is it your birthday in January? Or a friend's birthday? Come on along! Even if it isn't, come on along! It's your birthday whether it's your birthday or not!
The Birthday Experience has Robert Dayton as your excitable host, along with bandleader and accomplished keyboardist Jon Steinmeier, classic clowning by Inessa Frantowski, puppeteer Molly Fite, and pizzazz and production by Sarah Cisco! A gaggle of new friends for the audience to visit each and every show! And March's very special guest performers juggle Michael Rayner and the comedic stylings of Bebe McPhereson!
There will be cake, balloons, prizes, and surprises! And loads more birthday style entertainment! This will be the go-to show for anyone celebrating a birthday or just anyone who wants a night out to see some wild entertainment! An all-inclusive real crowd pleaser!
Bios:
About Robert Dayton:
Hailing from Canada and now based in L.A., Robert has a long history of hosting and putting on live comedy variety shows. He’s toured all over North America and Australia and released a few albums with the comedic song-and-dance duo Canned Hamm, the unpredictable and lucid ‘no two shows the same’ act July Fourth Toilet, and the glittery larger-than-life character The Canadian Romantic which has a lenticular winking photo, videos, a doll, and art book. He hosts the Uh Oh Canadia screening series at Whammy. Robert has written a forthcoming history of Canadian Glam; his previous book was a pen-and-ink humour break-up book entitled The Empty Bed. Robert’s writing has appeared in Cinema Sewer, Maggot Brain, a piece on forgotten comedy duo La Troupe Grotesque for Nicolas Winding Refn’s website, as well as The Onion, and more. Credits include Male Fantasy, Scare Tactics, Jackboys video, etc. He won a National Magazine Award for his work as host/co-creator of the Pagelicker video series (Hazlitt/Random House) and holds an M.F.A. More here: www.robertdayton.com
About Jon Steinmeier:
As a thoughtful and versatile composer, Jon has written music for theater, ballet, television, short and feature film, and other live performance contexts. As a pro multi-instrumentalist and charismatic performer, he has spent over 15 years touring the US and Europe, performing and recording with artists including Mavis Staples, Andrew Bird, Tim Booth, Bobby Conn, Mucca Pazza, and Baby Dee.
Jon now lives in Los Angeles, where he composes and produces music for picture, performs music and comedy in studios and on stages, teaches music, and collaborates with other artists. He is also the bandleader for the popular comedy variety show Scot Nery’s Boobie Trap, as part of Fire Leopard.
About Sarah Cisco:
Sarah Cisco is a visual and performance artist living in Los Angeles who has been involved in the independent music and art community for over ten years. She previously created, produced, and starred in the on-stage variety show Charm School; as well as hosted the live-streamed, absurdist crafting program Filth Flip which was broadcast by Super Deluxe. Sarah currently lives with her cat and her shoe collection and celebrates her birthday about once annually during the Spring months.
About Inessa Frantowski:
Inessa Frantowski is a Los Angeles based comedian/actor/writer and friend to all. She is a Gemini (Canadian Emmy) award winner and a two-time Canadian Comedy award winner. An alumni of the world famous Second City mainstage in Toronto, she wrote and starred in 4 record breaking revues. Credits include: This Hour has 22 Minutes, Match Game, Scare Tactics, the Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town, Cosmopolis and the Avicii music video, I could be the one, which has over 330 million views! Inessa wrote for the Facebook daily trivia show, Confetti. She is also a performer/writer on the International Emmy nominated series, The Amazing Gayl Pile on Amazon Prime, for which she won an Indie Series award. You can catch Inessa on the new Jamie Denbo/Jenji Kohan series American Princess on Lifetime or in the film Greener Grass on Hulu! Her comedy albums Help me Help ME and Inessa and Sarah get you through the Day are available wherever you get albums! Or if you just need a bit of advice from Inessa, you can check out #abitofadvicewithinessa @inessacomedy on the gram.
About Molly Fite:
Molly Fite is a native of Vancouver, Washington. She trained at The Jim Henson Company as a puppeteer, and you can see her puppeting every week at the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Highland Park. There she created and hosted an evening puppet/variety show for adults called When Puppets Are Your Only Friends. She has puppeteered for Pink Martini at The Hollywood Bowl, has appeared on Nick Junior's Ryan's Mystery Playdate, and in music videos for Allison Ponthier, and Twin Temple. Most recently she spent the summer in residency with Bob Baker at Knott's Berry Farm performing four puppet shows a day. She performs stand-up, sketch, and improv comedy, all over Los Angeles and has trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, I.O. West, The Groundlings, and The Second City. She has an MFA in Acting from UCSD, and she loves you very much.
SpunkFest in Seattle with Gibby Haynes & The Paul Green Rock Academy performing Butthole Surfers and more!
The Canadian Romantic is performing AND Mcing Seattle this Sat at The Crocodile for SpunkFest with wild cabaret acts, Gibby Haynes and @paulgreenrockacademy_official (these students do Butthole Surfers songs so incredibly) and Victim's Family!!! Tell your Seattle pals! So excited to perform!!!! If you know me you know how much the Butthole Surfers inspired me…and the whole night looks VERY interesting! It’s going to be a blast!
Tix and info here:
Uh Oh Canadia on Cathode and The Christmas Martian at Whammy!
Hi! I am excited to be a guest curator on Cathode starting in a few minutes (Wed Dec 14, 7 pm pst) and happening all night here:
https://www.cathodetv.com/
Next Wed dec 21st at Whammy is this, tix here:
https://www.whammyanalog.com/events/the-christmas-martian-1971-a-cosmic-christmas-1977-presented-by-uh-oh-canadia
PIN!
https://www.whammyanalog.com/events/pin-1988-presented-by-uh-oh-canadia
Hallmark album out now
Hi! Today I am releasing the album by a band was in called Hallmark! It has Romantic Glam qualities. It is free but if you do decide to pay all money will go to Indian Residential School Survivors Society and Ravens Trust (they do a lot, including covering legal funds to fight pipelines on indigenous territory). If you like it or know others who might, please share. I am very proud of the work we did on this album. Labels basically went, "It's so good, but it doesn't fit." Now you can finally listen. Liner notes and lyrics are included.
Link here:
https://hallmark.bandcamp.com/album/hallmark-2
Los Angeles: Neil Hamburger Sunday
Theremin Man t shirt
I designed a t shirt for Theremin man Stephen Hamm. Check it out!:
https://stephenhamm.ca/product/795276