from the Kitchissippi Watershed
We’re going to be playing another haunted house concert right on Hallowe’en itself this year.
As you can hopefully see from that poster, it will be Oct 31st at 274 Flora, music starting at 8pm, $20 or pay what you can.
We’re going to be playing some new songs and making some new sounds with pedals and amps. Don’t worry, though there will still be acoustic instruments and sing-alongs about spooky deaths.
We’re thrilled to be playing a concert with Willow Switch (London, ON) on March 8th and then Milkweed (London, UK) on March 29th. Here’s the details:
When: 3pm, Sunday March 8
Where: Avant Garde Bar (135 Besser St. in the Byward Market, close to the Rideau Centre)
We’ve been hearing for years about witchy folk duo Willow Switch, who feel like they could be a sibling band Wychwood was separated from at birth. Check out this video in an abandoned church for all the ritualistic, raw, eerie goodness:
Meanwhile, we’re going to be doing a crossover set with our friend Sarah AKA Princess Unlucky, who plays harp, mixes a little freak folk and goth into her songs, and might just be the best new(ish) act in Ottawa.
Myle Bullen is touring with Willow Switch, and plays some vulnerable, lo-fi hip-hop it’s going to be very different and very cool. Listen here:
https://mylesbullen.bandcamp.com/album/mourning-travels-4
And Avant Garde Bar might just be our favourite Ottawa venue. They have Soviet propaganda decor and a pickle platter, what more could you want?
When: 7pm, Sunday March 29
Where: Le Spot (a private rehearsal space in Hull, please message us for the address)
Cost: 20$ / pay what you can / no one turned away for lack of funds
We became fans of Milkweed as soon as we listened to them. The way they bring together spellbinding folk, cassette hiss, and J Dilla-style beats is really compelling. Proof: https://milkweedfolk.bandcamp.com/album/remsc-la-2
Bambini is also going to treat us to bedroom freak folk, while Sheep Skin Rain is going to bring cassette loops and musique concrète to our set and their own.
Bonus: Here’s a couple of fascinating articles about Milkweed, if you want to dive deeper into the mystery:
Still Listening Magazine: Start Listening to Milkweed
Riverfest is back again this Monday, with ourselves and transatlantic duo C Joynes (guitar, Cambridge, UK) and Mike Gangloff (fiddle, Southwest Virginia, USA) playing.
Veterans of many albums and projects, you can check out their collaborative album here: cjoynes.bandcamp.com/album/tom-winter-tom-spring-2
Lucky for us, these two compelling sonic explorers are making a stop on their Canadian tour to play Riverfest. Come out to hear some jaunty frolics, improvisation, with touches of drone, psychedelia and other fun stuff in the gorgeous ambience of Pangishimo Park overlooking the river.
PANGISHIMO PARK is a new-ish gem of a lookout point between Chaudière/Akikodjiwan waterfall and the War Museum. Here’s shot of how things can look there:
More info, including how to get there:
We’re going to be playing a ton of music in July!
Here’s all the details…
We’re going to be playing at mini-set as part of a Canadian Spaces radio show on CKCU that be broadcast live from The Turning Point record store at 10am on Saturday, July 13.
And finally, the community sing/jam-along we host will take place the next day (Sunday, July 14, at 6pm) in Patterson Creek Park. (More details here.)
We’re playing a concert Thursday, February 8, 8pm at House of Targ!
Targ has perogies & pinball, Scrip Issue will bring their shoegaze punk (spotify), Preloved will serve up beautiful homemade dreampop (bandcamp), and bring the blackgrass, of course.
In particular, if you like watching us fight with pedals – and sometimes produce wild and beautiful sounds –this’ll probably be the show for you.
We’ll be playing two sets this weekend on short notice.
First, we’re opening for Benj Rowland at 9pm, this Friday Oct 6 at Irene’s Pub, 885 Bank St.
Tickets are $15 in advance on Ticket Tailor and $20 at the door.
If you’re unfamiliar, Benj has been the main driving force behind the Mayhemingways and has recently released a great album, Community Garden, under his own name. If you like your folk to be a little quirky and to feature offbeat instruments and effects (and if you don’t, why are you signed up for this list?), you’ll enjoy Benj’ live show. He’s been a bit of an inspiration for us, so we’re stocked to have been asked a little last minute to join the bill.
We’re also gonna play a set starting at 11am at the Art Market organized by our pals at the Arlington Five coffeeshop (5 Arlington Ave, just off Bank St) .
If you find Valentine’s Day to be a) icky b) annoying c) a scam or d) all of the above, you’re welcome to come join us for an Anti-Valentine’s Day Show/Get Together this year.
We share your aversion to this rather weird holiday where you’re supposed to prove your love by buying stuff and where the “love” that’s idealized is a really specific, exclusive kind. It’s not that we don’t believe in love; it’s just that there’s so much more than one kind of emotional attachment or one relational ideal to celebrate. If you feel skeptical or excluded by V-Day, consider this an antidote, a show/get together featuring music from us and Libby & Cal.
Wychwood, the world’s first blackgrass band are excited to play a bunch of old songs about rejecting or escaping conventional romance (sometimes tragically but more often happily).
Libby & Cal, purveyors of jangly strings and smooth harmonies, will play songs about alternative love. In response to popular lyrics about self-sacrifice and unrealistic devotion, their new album proposes something different: a step off the relationship escalator. There are many roads to Happy Ever After and marriage is only one possibility. You can listen to Libby & Cal’s album “If You’ve Given Up on Love then Let’s Call it Something Else” on Bandcamp,
When: Tuesday February 14, 2023
When exactly: Doors 7:30pm~ Show 8pm
Where: Avant-Garde Bar ~ 135 Besserer St.
Tickets: $20 in advance on eventbrite or at the door
$15 in advance if paying direct via e-transfer to info@wychwood.xyz
No one turned away. In other words, Pay-what-you-can options are available (send an email to info@wychwood.xyz or direct message us on socials to arrange a PWYC ticket)
There’s a party coming up to celebrate the release of Wychwood’s first “proper” album and you’re invited. Come celebrate our new Blackgrass Harvest album with a combination concert and listening party. We’ll be playing songs from the album with an assortment of guest musicians including Oddeline, David Jackson (Day of Niagara, IMOO), Haley Wolk (Rubber Roses), Justin Dickie (Daipth, Obsidian Will) and Jack Pyl.
There will also be some trippy videos and at least one game to keep things interesting. It should be a good time.
(And just imagine – if you come, you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren “I went to the album release for the first proper blackgrass album ever made!”)
When: Sunday November 20
What time though?: Doors 7:30pm, start 8pm
Where: Spark Beer – 702 Somerset St. W. It’s cute, comfy, and conveniently located in Chinatown
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door
(Pay-what-you-can at the door or in advance by sending an email to info@wychwood.xyz or direct message us on socials.)
Accessibility note
There’s one 6-inch step to get into Spark (and our attempts to borrow a stopgap ramp haven’t paid off, sorry) and a couple doors that aren’t automatic. The bathroom also isn’t accessible.
Covid note
As much as well want to pretend that the pandemic’s over, there are more people in the hospital in Ottawa with covid than any other autumn. If you want to come to this and haven’t got your booster yet, please do so! Not to be melodramatic but we don’t want anyone to die or be debilitated because of a fun time celebrating a little Bandcamp album. Let’s take reasonable precautions, look out for our neighbours, and have fun living life.
Although we have a soft spot for the raw live recordings and demos we’ve shared to date, Blackgrass Harvest is truly a milestone. It’s the first well-recorded album we’ve put out, in many ways our first real album, and the first fully realized demonstration of this “blackgrass” idea that’s motivated Wychwood from the beginning.
Blackgrass Harvest is an album of mostly dark traditional folk songs played mostly acoustically, but blending in some black metal, ambient, drone and noise music, samples, and other experiments. It was recorded in Tim’s bedroom between the 2nd and 7th wave of the pandemic.
Blackgrass Harvest is out on Bandcamp on 20.11.2022
Have a listen at wychwood.bandcamp.com (samples before that date and the full thing after).
We look forward to sharing these sounds and sharing the evening with you!
We’re going to playing Libby & Cal’s album release this Hallowe’en weekend – October 29 – it’s gonna be great spooky fun. There will be candy, there will be prizes for best costumes… also: music.
All the fun details & tickets magically appear by going to bit.ly/libbycal.
If you wander over to Libby Hortop on Faceborg, she’s been posting about creating an album of alternative, non-prescriptive love songs, the joys and challenges of recording an autoharp, and other genuinely interesting things.
Traditional folksongs and our set will do a good job warning of the dangers of conventional, possessive love – also, how to avoid being misled by a demon lover (look, forewarned is forearmed). Libby & Cal’s set and album will point to more open and diverse ways of loving.
Kick off spooky month in Ottawa with us this Saturday – and a host of musical friends! Once again, the tunnel supplies natural reverb and amplification, the fresh air provides pleasant safety, we’ll supply the songs, you can make it special.
Saturday, Oct 1, 6pm, at the tunnel to the Library & Archives parking lot (behind the library, towards the river – here’s the spot on google maps.)
We’ll be playing with Rubber Roses, Oddeline, Unsociably High, and Shawn Scissors/Myhill. (Follow those links for delicious music samples.)
If you came to previous tunnel shows, this tunnel is directly below the bike tunnel we played in before – the bike tunnel which is closed for construction. This tunnel is bigger, more reverberant, and spookier. There will be refreshments to share and we encourage you to bring your own light to pool with ours – and whatever you need to keep warm.
Also, it’s kind of a secret (sshhhh) but Chrissy’s going to play some songs from her solo project and Tim’s going to play a little bit with Haley from Rubber Roses. AND David from Day of Niagara and IMOO (the Improvising Musicians of Ottawa and Outaouais) will be adding ambient burbles and spooky drones to our folksongs.
TL;DR Tunnelfest = spooky fun, extra specialness
