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Music, like so many of its contemporaries within the arts, evolves, grows and takes on a life of its own. There is a beauty in how organic it can be. Examine some of the following; the jazz forms of the great Miles Davis, Coltrane or Brubeck can be found in today’s music performed by The Roots or St Germain; the R&B soul of James Brown can be found in the likes of John Legend, Mary J. Blige or Joss Stone; how about the soulful blues of Buddy Guy or BB King? Listen to red-hot Black Keys for a more modern take on the sound; Like the sounds of prog or psych rock from the 60’s/70’s? Give a listen to Canada’s own Black Mountain; there’s certainly an argument that can be made as well with regards to how hip-hop has kept many a sound and artist relevant through the use of sampling (and the laws dictating that the samples now be credited).

Upon inspection however, this only illustrates a rather limited window. What then about the sounds so many of us grew up with? Not Cat Stevens, Abba, Jim Croce or any of the 70’s rock greats our parents “shared” with us. Many readers should be able to recall early childhood memories of Saturday morning cartoons and the soundtracks that went with them. Loony Tunes, Bugs Bunny and Merry Melodies who unbeknownst to us at the time were providing a world class education in classical music. Classical music, when it was the soundtrack to a short pudgy hunter (viking) carrying a “dead” rabbit (valkyrie) up some stairs (Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries), we accepted it. When our folks took us to see the symphony or teachers forced us to study it, we rebelled, viewing it as noise and some kind of torture imposed upon us by “old” people. The argument could be made that this particular form has not evolved greatly, resulting in few new compositions. It seems the musical embodiment of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Maybe we aren’t paying enough attention?

There’s been a relatively recent groundswell of what I have termed Modern Classical (others may deem it something more mundane such as “instrumental rock”, which truly does the sound little justice). I suspect it would be because the sound has no commercial appeal (read radio), has little following and few national “scenes” that it is rather unheard of. Make no mistake however, Modern Classical has its champions. From Texas; Explosions in the Sky, (maybe best known for their soundtrack to the movie Friday Night Lights) and from Scotland; Mogwai (who’s track on the short lived NBC show Life helped nudge them into the mainstream). Within the second tier of this movement are bands such as This Will Destroy You, God Is An Astronaut, We vs. Death and My Dad Vs Yours. While this is by no means a definitive or comprehensive list, it certainly is representative of the best of a genre. What makes this list worthy of Lysten, is that My Dad Vs Yours (MDVY) is not only Canadian, but from Ottawa. This is significant in many respects, not least of which being that they may just be one of Ottawa’s best kept secrets.

Going back some years,  I was privy to a show at Zaphod’s featuring a collective from Toronto riding high on praise from no less than Pitchfork.com. Rock Plaza Central had released an exhaustive effort titled “Are We Not Horses” and was touring Ontario in support of it. On the Ottawa bill was local talent As The Poets Affirm (sadly defunct yet groundbreaking and featuring a young Adam Saikaley) and My Dad Vs Yours. With the exception of a brilliant cover of “Sexy Back” by Rock Plaza Central (available on-line if you search for it – it is spectacular), My Dad stole the show. Here were a couple of kids standing on a small stage playing JUST music, no lyrics. It was a mind altering experience for me, as I had never given much thought to the notion of a band playing in this manner. This wasn’t just new for me conceptually, but emotionally. Stripped of lyrics I was able to focus solely on the sound created by the artists while being taken by how effectively the music was able to manipulate and sway my emotions. It would be easy to make the mistake of claiming that the beauty of the music lay in its simplicity, but there is nothing simple about the multiple layered sounds created by four individuals come together.

That night has stayed with me. It was the first moment where I realized Ottawa was creating her own musical artists of note, artists I continued to follow thereafter. Rewind now to September of 2010 and the Lysten Music Festival. I had the good fortune to be able to book MDVY to play on the Sunday (alongside Canadian stalwarts The Sadies and local artists Hollerado). Not only was I thrilled to be able to see them again, this time on a stage worthy of their talent, but they informed me that they had finished recording their third album and would be playing new music off of it. If a stadium show can be considered intimate (and this one could be, since there were 20 of us in attendance) then it was just that, an incredibly intimate moment with one of my favorite bands. Not one of my favorite local bands, but one of my favorite bands. Period. I would be remiss however if I excluded my favorite moment of the festival, albeit a rather fan boy geek moment. I had the pleasure of sitting up in a stadium box, hanging out and talking with the band. Upon hearing that a close friend’s father in Sweden was a big fan, we had an advance copy of the new album gifted to us. We were also privy to the knowledge that the band was going to release this album on vinyl as well, which is a format I’ve long been a fan of. Sadly and regrettably for the band, this did end up leading to my weekly questioning of “When…?”

PART TWO OF "MY DAD can beat up your dad..." will be posted Wednesday evening, and features a brief history of the band.