Notes from Harvest ’17 Part III - Friday

--taken from: The Brunswickan (read more here)

by Ryan Gaio

I end the night with the TransCanada Highwaymen, a new Canadian supergroup—a Traveling Wilburys of the Great White North, if you will. Its members consist of the Barenaked Ladies’ Stephen Page; Chris Murphy of Sloan; Odds’ very own Craig Northey and Moe Berg from The Pursuit of Happiness. They each play hits they had written for their respective bands, but the songs are reimagined, reinterpreted, reshuffled and reborn (just as I have been). The set is somewhat sloppy, but in the best way; it feels unpredictable and it feels now. They look like teenagers in a garage band who hardly know their parts—but it doesn’t matter, they have heart; they look like they’re once again having fun playing songs they’d gotten sick of strumming. They even launch into silly, spontaneous singalongs—at one point, somehow, the “Na na na na”s from “Hey Jude” become “Na na na na, Jaaaaaaaz Blueeeees.” Soon, everyone under the tent is singing it. I watch Stephen Page lead the band through “The Old Apartment,” and remember that that same song opened the show at the first concert I ever went to. Now, here I am, all these years later, seeing him sing that same song, and I’m writing about it!. Funny how these things turn out, isn’t it? Moe Berg takes lead vocals on the set-ending “I’m An Adult Now;” if this is what being an adult means, I’m okay with it.

--taken from: The Brunswickan (read more here)

Concert for Orillia Youth Centre promises TUNS of fun with supergroup

--taken from: Simcoe.com

Canadian indie-rock supergroup Tuns headlines a Sept. 23 fundraising concert at Burl's Creek Event Grounds in support of the Orillia Youth Centre. Mike O'Neill (left) of the Inbreds, Matt Murphy of Super Friendz and Chris Murphy of Sloan will hit the stage after performances by Skye Wallace and Aurora Blue. - Vanessa Heins/Submitted

by Frank Matys

Dubbing your band a “super” group can be a risky proposition, lest discerning listeners decide the result is anything but.

In the case of Canadian indie rockers TUNS, however, the designation appears well-deserved.

Since 2015, Chris Murphy (Sloan), Matt Murphy (Super Friendz, Flashing Lights) and Mike O’Neill (Inbreds) have been creating and performing infectious power pop laden with soaring harmonies, driving beats, and guitars that crunch and chime.

“I value singing over musicianship; but, those guys — Matt is a really special guitar player and Mike is such a beautiful singer,” Chris Murphy says in advance of a Sept. 23 performance at Burl’s Creek Event Grounds. “And Matt’s a great singer, too.”

All proceeds from the upcoming concert go to support the Orillia Youth Centre.

Skye Wallace and local music-makers Aurora Blue open the show.

“There is going to be a silent auction and the concert,” said Kevin Gangloff, the youth centre’s director. “Everything is coming back to us.”

The downtown facility provides a range of services, including cooking lessons, horse therapy, art and music, along with a well-used drop-in program.

“This year, so far, we’ve had 8,000 visits,” Gangloff said. “Youth of all walks of life are coming through the doors and take part in different stuff.”

The upcoming concert “puts the youth centre in front of different people that might not know what we are doing,” he added.

TUNS formed in October 2015 to play an all-star benefit show organized by Hayden at Toronto’s historic Massey Hall.

“It is really fun and inspiring to play with these great players and singers,” Murphy said of his bandmates. “And they are also old friends of mine.”

The group’s name is an acronym drawn from the former Technical University of Nova Scotia — now part of Dalhousie University.

The school “was where they would have a lawn jam … and every year, bands would play at TUNS,” adds Murphy, a Halifax native. “I had the good fortune to play at the lawn jam, I think in 1989.”

--taken from: Simcoe.com

Cooling down at the jazz festival

--taken from: Orillia Packet (read more here)

by John Swartz

Looking ahead, the youth centre is heavily involved in a Roots North Music Festival - Revisited concert at Burls Creek Sept. 23. The headliners are Tuns (Mike O'Neill of The Inbreds, Chris Murphy of Sloan and Matt Murphy of The Super Friendz) with Aurora Blue and Skye Wallace.

I'd go just to see Skye Wallace. I've seen her twice now doing very different sets and I enjoyed all of it. Aurora Blue is much better than two months ago (being on the road will do that for you) and are proving to be good students of music by maturing into a great little band. Tuns should be nice icing on the cake with some solid rock.

--taken from: Orillia Packet (read more here)

Tuns to play fundraiser for Orillia Youth Centre

--taken from: The Barrie Examine

by Patrick Bales

For many people, Tuns is just another independent band playing small rooms across the country.

Then there are others who see the three names that make up the band – Chris Murphy from Sloan, Matt Murphy from the Super Friends and Flashing Lights and Mike O'Neil from the Inbreds – and lose their collective minds that three of their 1990s indie-pop heroes are playing together in one band.

“There are some people for whom this will be like 'holy crap, I can't believe Captain Kirk and Captain Picard are on the same show,'” Chris Murphy said in an interview from Toronto, recently. “And then everybody else are like 'who are these people?'”

Folks in this area will get a chance to find out who Tuns are Sept. 23 when they headline a show inside the barn at Burl's Creek Event Grounds. Hosted by Roots North Music Festival, the evening features Skye Wallace and Aurora Blue in support. All proceeds from the show will go to support the Orillia Youth Centre.

The relationship between the three band members stretches back three decades when the two Murphys first met, and even played together for a time in the Super Friends. But the three joining together as any sort of collective is a new development.

About four years ago, the Murphys joined O'Neil on stage for the first time, backing him up as he played tunes at a party to celebrate a book on the history of Murderrecord. That was the label Sloan created in the mid-90s as a way to maintain control of the band's master recordings, and, in the process, release records of like-minded musicians, primarily from the east coast.

While Chris Murphy has been a constant of the Canadian music scene with Sloan, Matt Murphy and O'Neil had found other creative avenues in recent years, with Matt Murphy first working at the CBC and now at Vice, while O'Neil transitioned into television projects, including one in development with Mike Clattenburg, creator of the Trailer Park Boys.

Chris Murphy calls himself the driver behind getting the three to play together on a regular basis, to put out a record – 2016's self-titled debut – and play about 50 gigs in the last two years. But this is a different band than Sloan, operating in a much different fashion. It's also certainly not a solo project.

“I've always shied away from solo projects, because I've always been afraid it would take the best material for the band,” he said. “Eric's Trip were just the greatest. We were their contemporaries, we were there when they started and we loved them so much. They were so special and crazy. But they all had solo projects and that was my lesson. The Elevator to Hell record is better than the new Eric's Trip record. Why are they doing this?”

That made Murphy a bit sheepish about the Tuns side project, but what has eased him is how different the writing process is between the two bands. The three members of Tuns will get together in a room and start to jam, formulating song ideas as they go. The jams are recorded onto a phone voice memo app and the best ideas are turned into proper tunes. Murphy says about 50 songs have been created this way, and a new Tuns record is eventually in the offing.

“It doesn't affect my backlog of material, my cache of song ideas,” he said.

--taken from: The Barrie Examine