Mr Something Something

Opening for Afrobeat legend Tony Allen

Amin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:42:30 +0000

Tonight, we’ll have the honour and great pleasure to open for Tony Allen, Fela Kuti’s legendary drummer. Fela once stated that, “without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat.” He turns 70 in August and he’s still the funkiest man alive. Best of all, the show at the Luminato Festival in Toronto is free. Bela Fleck is headlining.

CBC Radio highlights our pedal power philosophy

Amin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:19:42 +0000

June is Bike Month in Toronto and we kicked it off this past Sunday with a pedal-powered SoundCycle show in Toronto’s Kensington Market, for the first Pedestrian Sunday street party of 2010. The following day our lead singer Johan was a guest on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning to explain the philosophy behind SoundCycle. Johan’s conversation with Matt Galloway touched on why the bicycle is becoming a symbol for a quiet revolution and the ethical implications of our energy consumption. Listen to the interview in its entirety here.

National Geographic discovers what David Byrne and Mr. Something Something have in common

Amin — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:16:57 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came out and made our US tour in April so much fun. Here’s a link to an article that National Geographic did about us and ex-Talking Head David Byrne in conjunction with Earth Day on April 22.

SoundCycle 2009-2010: Our bicycle powered show gets warm reception in Europe

Amin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:55:06 +0000

A month or so before the climate talks began in Copenhagen, John and Larry from Mr. Something Something were in the supremely bike-friendly Danish capital attending the massive music conference WOMEX. Many of the European delegates were enthusiastic about the SoundCycle, our much publicized, bicycle powered show that gives audience participation a whole new meaning. At the request of environmental activist Giorgos Markakis, we were featured on Swedish National Radio, and concert producers responded tremendously well to our off-the-grid innovation. Festivals, agents and promoters from many European countries including Germany, Luxembourg, Turkey and Greece (where our new album ‘Shine Your Face’ got a fair bit of airplay and climbed up on the charts this past fall) are interested in Mr. Something Something’s “dancefloor activism” and zero-emissions, people powered performance model. Post conference talks have begun to engineer a second edition of the SoundCycle in Europe to support future touring. Stay tuned for more news of European developments in 2010.

Back home in Canada, we will be bringing the SoundCycle into schools this winter to give pedal powered concerts and do workshops to raise awareness about sustainable energy. We will also be featured in the documentary Powerful: Energy for Everyone by filmmaker and green educator David Chernushenko. The film will be released in 2010 and we’ll let you know when it comes to a theatre near you. Watch the trailer.

Globe & Mail article about our SoundCycle

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:15:24 +0000

In this past Saturday’s Globe & Mail, Robert Everett-Green talks to Johan about the pedal powered show and how it got started. Read the article in its entirety here

Toronto magazine highlights Mr. Something Something’s bike-powered dancefloor activism

john — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:03:08 +0000

Toronto’s hottest new magazine Dandyhorse writes about “Toronto on two wheels” or, in other words, about bike culture in a city dominated by cars. For their latest issue, they did a nice feature on Mr. Something Something.

In an article entitled ‘The Movers and Shakers’ Johan explains how the SoundCycle concept came about and how the band tries to use music as a vehicle for activism. Pick up your free copy of Dandyhorse here

“The Value of Food”: great podcast with Wayne Roberts, featuring music from Shine Your Face

john — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:31:38 +0000

The good folks at CitizenShift produce inspiring and enlightening media for social change. Under the CitizenShift umbrella, our friend Paul Baines has made an excellent podcast that we highly recommend. Paul talks to respected food policy analyst and author Wayne Roberts (pictured here riding a bike to power our sound system at a street festival earlier this summer) about the role of food in connecting environmental and social problems and solutions. Torontonians may know Wayne for his NOW Magazine columns, generally on themes that link social justice, public health and green economics.

By re-organizing food prices based on human needs and environmental limits, we can plant the seeds of sustainability at the local and global levels. Debunking the myths of jobs versus the environment and pollution in the name of progress, Wayne fuses ideas on work, health, community, energy, resources, farming, and global warming.

The podcast features music from our new album Shine Your Face. We’re honoured to be in such good company. Download the podcast for free here

Shine Your Face a “superb release”

john — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:57:37 +0000

The latest issue of Penguin Eggs, Canada’s leading magazine devoted to folk and roots and world music, features a very positive review of Shine Your Face. Here’s the album write-up in its entirety:

Mr. Something Something
Shine Your Face
(Independent)

From way out in left field comes this superb release, their third, spreading wide the gates of listener-friendly world music, but based out of Toronto. From a first listen, it grabs you with its busy rhythmic pulse and stop-on-a-dime horn section recalling Osibisa, another original band known for blending African and Western musics.

Yet this infectious five-piece band grafts each sensational track together with smart pop hooks held in place by a gifted and extraordinary singer in Johan Hultqvist—adding accessibility to what is otherwise a high-torque melding of funk, jazz and Afrobeat (each of which is far too limiting in defining this crackerjack band).

Special attention is also due the divine marriage of John MacLean’s tenor sax (and guest horn section) to Larry Graves’s precision drumming. The resulting wall of sound is spiced up nicely (but never enough) by Paul MacDougall’s guitar lines and the fleet-fingered bass work of Liam Smith.

The opening track serves immediate notice that this is something fresh and impossibly involving, its complex rhythms giving way to a phenomenally stimulating listen. Each of its eight tracks is its own highlight, an added plus found in the band’s smart lyrics—at once socially conscious and politically motivating. Why Why Why and What Are You Waiting For? alone make the perfect soundtrack to the summer that never came to Eastern Canada.

– By Eric Thom

“Di Bombs” on soundtrack of award-winning documentary

john — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:52:59 +0000

The track “Di Bombs” from Deep Sleep – our 2007 collaboration with Ikwunga the Afrobeat Poet – is included on the soundtrack of an award-winning new documentary called Kassim the Dream. Produced by Academy Award winning actor Forest Whitaker and directed by Kief Davidson, Kassim the Dream is the moving story of Kassim Ouma – born in Uganda, kidnapped by the rebel army and trained to be a child soldier at age 6. After a decade of warfare, Kassim defected to America, and soon became the Junior Middle Weight Boxing Champion of the World. Watch the trailer here.

Shine Your Face #1 on college radio chart

john — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:04:37 +0000

Shine Your Face has climbed up to the top of Earshot’s ‘International’ chart which means that our new record is the most played World Music album on Canadian college and community radio right now. If your local station isn’t playing it give them a call and request a track from Shine Your Face.