Slim Twig
| Slim Twig | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Toronto, Canada |
| Genres | Indie rock |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Paper Bag Records, Palmist Records, Calico Corp. |
| Associated acts | Tropics, Archaic Women |
| Website | Slim Twig.com |
Slim Twig is a Canadian songwriter/performer and film actor.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Slim Twig is the stage and screen persona created by Max Turnbull. He was born in 1988, the son of Toronto-based filmmakers, Ross Turnbull and Jennifer Hazel and graduated from the Claude Watson School of the Arts in 2006.[1][2] In 2008, Slim was called “an icon-in-the-making...” and named Toronto's Best Pop/Rock Artist of the year by Now Magazine.[3] He is currently signed to Paper Bag Records.
Slim Twig played 'Billy Zero' in the 2007 film, The Tracey Fragments, directed by Bruce McDonald and starring Ellen Page. Slim was cast as 'Max' in French director Kim Chapiron's film, Dog Pound, set in a juvenile detention centre, and plays the lead character in an independent feature film entitled Sight Unseen, for which he also composed the score.[4][5][6] He has acted in other commercial productions and shorts and composed music for films.[7][8]
In addition to Slim Twig-branded music, Slim fronts Tropics, a “Guitar vs. Drums” duo (with Simone TB on drums) that plays what Pitchfork Media called “a feral take on the Birthday Party's blitzkrieg blues.”[9] Slim Twig also pursues a second solo project called Archaic Women.[10][11] Tropics was accorded the top rating by Chart Magazine at the Canadian Music Week festival in March, 2008.[12] In 2009, Tropics released a cassette tape entitled SETTE and Archaic Women released a cassette tape entitled The Hit Sixties.[13][14]
The earliest Slim Twig recordings were self-released in 2005 on a CD entitled Livestock Burn, with some of the songs released on Seattle experimental label, Aphonia Recordings in the U.S.A., under the EP title, Dissonant Folk.[15] Derelict Dialect was the first Slim Twig EP release from Paper Bag Records, in April, 2008. Prior to that, Slim Twig self-released an EP called Whiite Fantaseee.[16] The songs from that recording (save one) were subsequently re-mastered and issued as Vernacular Violence by Paper Bag Records, in August, 2008. One critic mused that the “frustrating circumstances that inspired this recent Slim Twig EP should be worshipped.”[17] Paper Bag later released its two Slim Twig EPs as a limited edition, vinyl LP album.
Paper Bag Records released Contempt!, Slim Twig's first, full-length LP, in 2009. He asserts that he created the record largely from found sound and samples set against his own vocals.[18] The album was acclaimed in numerous reviews, typified by NOW's assertion that Contempt! is “...a startlingly unique project.”[19] Coinciding with the release of the album, Slim created a free, downloadable “mixtape” EP entitled Spit It Twig! (Vol. 1).[20] Spit it Twig! Vol 2 was issued in the fall of 2009[21] and was named one of the top downloads of the year by Toronto's alternate weekly magazines.[22][23] Naming Slim Twig "...the outsider's outsider", one critic enthused that with Spit it Twig, Vol. 2, "...It's as if everything everyone has been doing this year culminates right here."[24]
For a young performer, Slim Twig has received a considerable amount of often highly admiring press coverage, in print and on the internet, as well as a smattering of somewhat baffled or dismissive blog commentary.[2][9][25][26][27] Various prominent figures in popular music have been mentioned for comparison purposes, notably including Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Suicide and David Bowie.[28] In a concert review, music columnist Sarah Liss suggested that Slim Twig's music sounds like “...what might happen if you left a bunch of Elvis Presley LPs on a radiator, smashed them to bits with a hammer and re-assembled them for play on a turntable. In a word, otherworldly.”[29] Slim Twig's interest in constructing a persona and adopting unsavoury characters' points of view in his songs, together with his "switchblade-sharp lyrics" and quasi-experimental musical bent, clearly point to his originality.[2][30][31][32] He calls his approach to creating pop music “songsculpting”, which Courduroy Magazine suggested makes him "...a molder who meshes disparate sounds to create a unique musical patchwork..."[33] A number of critics also have suggested the influence of cinema on Slim Twig, with one remarking on “...his compulsive soliloquist's flair, a direct but static-filled line into a collective cinematic unconscious.”[34] Indeed, in speaking about his creative approach, the artist cites his admiration for David Lynch's work.[35]
In 2011, Slim Twig professed to a change of direction, with NOW Magazine stating in an interview that he "...is now reinventing himself as a 60s pop craftsman."[36] His first foray in this direction, the recently released Palmist split recording with U.S. Girls,[37] has been greeted with effusive reviews.[38][39] Slim Twig and U.S. Girls have jointly created their own label, Calico Corp., and issued 7" singles from each of the artists as the label's first productions.[40]
[edit] Discography (as Slim Twig unless otherwise noted)
- Livestock Burn (self released: 2005)
- Dissonant Folk EP (Aphonia Recordings: 2006)
- Quilibrate split EP with Huckleberry Friends (self-released: 2006)
- Whiite Fantaseee EP (self released: 2007)
- Derelict Dialect EP (Paper Bag Records: 2008)
- Vernacular Violence EP (Paper Bag Records: 2008)
- Derelict Dialect/Vernacular Violence LP (limited edition vinyl) (Paper Bag Records: 2008)
- Contempt! LP (Paper Bag Records: 2009)
- Spit It Twig! (Vol.1) EP (digital download: show-released free CD, 2009)
- Slim Twig Toronto/ Le Corbeau Oslo (7" vinyl split, Best of Both Records, 2009)
- Spit It Twig! (Vol. 2) EP (digital download: show-released free CD, 2009)
- Tropics - Sette (limited edition cassette tape/ digital download, Popsick Records, 2009)
- Archaic Women - The Hit Sixties (limited-edition cassette tape/ digital download, self-released, 2009)
- A Sheik in Scores (Spit It Twig! (Vol. 3)) (limited-edition cassette tape/ digital download, self-released, 2010)
- Tropics - Pale Trash (7" vinyl, Pleasence Records, 2011)
- Bloodstains Across Ontario (7" vinyl compilation, including one song each by Slim Twig and Tropics, Mammoth Cave Recordings, 2011)
- U.S. Girls/ Slim Twig (12" vinyl split, Palmist Records, 2011)
- There's a Secret to Your Pleasure (7" single, Calico Corp., 2011)
[edit] Video
Slim Twig:
- Notorious Bride (A Veil & A Vice) - video by Jennifer Hazel
- I'll Always be a Child - video by Mitch Fillion
- Priscilla - video by Jennifer Hazel
- Street Proposition - video by Zonial Pictures
- Mansion Haunting - video by David Rendall
- Birthing and Birthing - film/video collaboration with Dona Arbabzadeh
- Gate Hearing! - film/video collaboration with Exploding Motorcar Collective
- Where the Dead Are Glorious - video by David Rendall
- A Black Hole Is Quite a Lot - film/video collaboration with Dona Arbabzadeh
Tropics:
- Enuff Film - video by Zonial Pictures, edited from footage from The Tracey Fragments
- Extermination Night - video by Exploding Motorcar Collective
[edit] References
- ^ [1]FFWD: Slim’s chance
- ^ a b c [2]Eye Weekly: Ballad of a thin man
- ^ [3] NOW's Guide to the Best of 2008
- ^ [4] IMDB: Dog Pound
- ^ cited in The New Wave: The Hottest Names to Know in Canadian Music, Flare, Sept., 2009, Vol. 31, No. 9, pg. 139
- ^ [5] Sight Unseen website
- ^ [6] You Tube: Grish and Nub
- ^ [7] Slim Twig on IMDB
- ^ a b [8] Pitchfork review of Slim Twig's Derelict Dialect and Vernacular Violence
- ^ [9] Tropics MySpace page
- ^ [10] Archaic Women MySpace page
- ^ [11] Toronto's Tropics Pick Up Highest ChartAttack CMW Report Card Mark
- ^ [12]Sette review: "Popsick"
- ^ [13] Beniffer Editions
- ^ [14] Aphonia Recordings News. Livestock Burn & Dissonant Folk are no longer available.
- ^ [15] Slim Twig: Whiite Fantaseee
- ^ [16] The Coast, review of Vernacular Violence, by Andrew Robinson, August 21, 2008
- ^ [17] Paper Bag catalogue entry
- ^ [18] Disc Review: Contempt!
- ^ [19] Exclaim - Spit it Twig!
- ^ [20]Spit it Twig! Vol. 2 (Free Shit)
- ^ [21] Eye Weekly Music Critics Poll: Best (and Worst) of the Rest
- ^ [22] NOW Magazine: Top Downloads of 2009
- ^ [23] Will McGuirk, newsdurhamregion.com
- ^ [24] iheartmusic.net: Slim Chance
- ^ [25] Indieville review
- ^ [26] Year End Pulse: Slim Twig
- ^ [27] Click Hear: Slim Twig - "Gate Hearing"
- ^ CBC News, Arts & Entertainment, CMW 2008 Blog by Sarah Liss, March 8, 2008
- ^ [28] Slim Twig Whiite Fantaseee
- ^ [29] On Disc: Slim Twig Contempt!
- ^ [30] Slim Twig - Contempt!
- ^ profile: Musician Slim Twig, written by Ben Barna, Corduroy, Issue 3, pg. 8
- ^ The Globe and Mail: Ten Acts You Shouldn't Miss by Robert Everett-Green and Carl Wilson, published 06/03/08
- ^ [31]Montreal Mirror: A pinch of Lynch
- ^ [32] Slim Twig interview Vol. 30, No. 51
- ^ [33] Palmist Records U.S. Girls/ Slim Twig 12"
- ^ [34] Get Bent review
- ^ [35] review by Paul Kerr
- ^ [36] Calico Corp.
