Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 48

CIO CALGARY HERALD Friday, June 29, 2007 ENTERTAINMENT Calgary's Top 10 Music Source: SoundScan Country Alternative Current Hard Rock I This Last This Last Last ms Last This Last week National Artist week week National Artist week week National Artist week week National Artist week week National Artist week 1 1 Brad Paisley 1 1 White Stripes 1 1 1 1 LlnkinPark 1 1 1 Rihanna 1 5th Gear Icky Thump Lost Highway Minutes To Midnight Good Girl Gone Bad 2 2 Carrie Underwood 1 2 2 Avril Lavlgne 5 2 2 White Stripes 2 2 OzzyOsbourne 2 2 3 Timbaland 3 Some Hearts Best Damn Thing Icky Thump Black Rain Timbaland Presents Shock Value 3 3 Toby Keith 2 3 3 Maroon 5 3 3 5 Brad Paisley 3 5 Marilyn Manson 3 3 2 AmyWinehouse 2 Big Dog Daddy It Wont Be Soon Before Long 5th Gear Cat Me Drink Me Back To Black 4 4 TimMcGraw 3 4 4 LlnkinPark 2 4 4 Rihanna 344 Finger Eleven 5 4 4 Justin Timberlake 5 let ft Go Minutes To Midnight Good Girl Gone Bad Them Vs. You Vs. Me FuturesexLove Sounds 5 6 Big Rich 4 5 6 Queens Of The Stone Age 1 5 7 Avril Lavlgne 10 5 3 Daughtry 4 5 5 Akon 4 Between Raising Hell Amazing Era Vulgaris Best Damn Thing Daughtry Konvicted 6 8 Rascal Flatts 5 6 5 AmyWinehouse 4 6 8 Maroon 5 7 6 9 Nine Inch Nails 6 6 9 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony 6 Me My Gang Back To Black It Won't Be Soon Before Long Year Zero Strength Loyalty 7 5 Taylor Swift 7 7 8 Lifehouse 7 10 Traveling Wilburys 2 7 7 Billy Talent 7 8 DJKhaled 8 Taylor Swift Who We Are Traveling Wilbury's Collection Billy Talent II We The Best 8 10 Keith Urban 8 8 11 GwenStefani 6 8 6 Michael Buble 5 8 12 Three Days Grace 8 7 Belly 10 Love Pain The Whole Crazy Thing Sweet Escape Call Me Irresponsible One-X The Revolution 9 7 Dixie Chicks 6 9 10 Feist 7 9 9 LlnkinPark 4 9 6 Nickelback 7 9 10 DMX 9 Taking The Long Way Reminder Minutes To Midnight All The Right Reasons Definition Of Pick Of The Litter 10 16 Johnny Reid 9 10 9 Finger Eleven 10 10 16 Timbaland 19 10 10 Rush 10 6 Fabolous 7 KickingStones Them Vs. You Vs. Me Timbaland Presents Shock Value Snakes Arrows From Nothin' To Somethin' CONCERTS 'I I I J' I I 'I I 1 I )M II" ,1.

1 I-I' 1 Indie icon finds inspiration loafing in parked van raj PREVIEW Eric Bachmann plays The Hi Fi club on Saturday as part of the Sled Island Festival. Sledding the festival The Herald will be checking out Sled Island all week and blogging what we see and hear. early 1990s as the head of Chapel Hill's prominent noisemakers Archers of Loaf, a band so loud and dissonant that some theorized Bachmann damaged his vocal chords while fronting it. But, like former The Replacements leader Paul Westerberg or ex-Husker Du frontman Bob Mould, Bachmann traded his guitar crunch for a more inward-looking, solitary approach as he aged. He disbanded the Archers in 1998 and formed Crooked Fingers, a much quieter entity that helped introduce Bachmann as an expert songsmith who took his cues from Springsteen, Dylan and Townes Van Zant rather than punk rock.

His history has made him a cherished institution in indie rock circles, but don't expect an anti-establishment rant from the artist. While you would be hard-pressed to find anything written about his career that doesn't use the word "indie," he insists it's a meaningless term, not a badge of honour. "I really don't have any hostile feelings towards major labels," he says. "People seem to think that I should be angry. The perception out there is that I'm against major labels and (selling music to advertisers).

But it's not moral fortitude, it's because I've never been offered anything. I seem to give off this energy that they don't want to deal with." Still, Bachmann admits that he is far more comfortable playing a festival CalgaryHerald like Sled Island than more established meet-and-greets like South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. "That's all about advertisers and business and labels, it's not for bands," he says. "To be honest with you, those events are a pain. (Sled Island) will be fun.

But this is its first year, isn't it? Give it 10 years. When the money starts creeping in, it might change." EVOLMERSTHEHERALD.CANWEST.COM Courtesy, Saddle Creek Eric Bachmann, former frontman for indie heroes Archers of Loaf, spent a summer living in his van to save money to record his new album. ERIC VOLMERS Calgary Herald Eric Bachmann realizes the strange circumstances in which he wrote his last album may on the surface seem desperate, dramatic perhaps even a little romantic. To save money, the former leader of 1990s indie-rock stalwarts Archers of Loaf spent months living in his van on the streets of Seattle while cooking up the stark, minimalist songs found on his 2006 release To the Races. It seems the perfect anecdote to further his reputation as an uncompromising but criminally overlooked artist whose contributions to American indie rock have yet to be matched by sufficient recognition or evidently financial compensation.

But Bachmann, for one, isn't buying it. "It wasn't that dramatic," he says, in a phone interview from his apartment in Denver. "People like to make it seem dramatic. But I just didn't want to (waste money) on rent. It was summer time and so I just thought I wouldn't pay rent for four or five months before I went on tour again.

I had songs to work oa And I figured as long as I didn't drink too much this would be a good way to do it. When you're at home, you have the Internet and phones and TV that can distract you from writing. I could be focused in the back of a vehicle where nobody even knew I was there. It could have caught fire and nobody would have ever made it in there. It allowed me to focus." It doesn't take long into a conversation with Bachmann to realize he has little time for attempts to romanticize, label or define his music.

He only reluctantly acknowledges that the desolate feel of To the Races may have something to do with his lonely writing routine and peculiar choice of recording locale. Bachmann's central voice and acoustic guitar tracks were recorded in an abandoned hotel on North Carolina's Outer Banks during the winter of 2005, a process that was often interrupted by lightening, howling winds and crashing waves that rose from the Atlantic Ocean. Surely this dramatic scene must have had some effect on the album's overall sound. "I'm sure it did," says Bachmann, who is scheduled to perform with violinist Kate O'Brien at Calgary's Hi Fi Club Saturday as part of the Sled Island Festival. "But anytime you start to talk about the nuances of it, you ruin the effect and start to take yourself way too seriously.

It's hard to think of that stuff as intentional" To the Races is the first major disc Bachmann has recorded under his own name, but he has released a number of albums under various guises over the years. The North Carolina native first came onto the alt-scene radar in the 4 to July 151,2007 Open 10:00 am to 7:00 pm A This is an incredible contest if you love face-melting guitar awesomeness. Enter for your chance to win one of six grand prizes, including a pair of tickets to see the Deftones LIVE with Die Mannequin, a copy of both band's newest CDs, an autographed Guitar Hero controller, your very own XBOX 360 video game and entertainment system with accompanying Guitar Hero game and a rare chance to hang out with the Deftones on their tour bus to play Guitar Hero! Go now to dosexacontests I Canada's Next Top Cast-Off Every week, we chat with the latest contestant to be given the boot from Canada's Next Top Model. Find out what the dismissed divas have to say about the experience at dosexatv. Celebrity Video Keep track of your favourite stars with the latest paparazzi video and watch Dose.ca'sdaily entertainment newscasts at dosexavideo.

cool PriZ ,1 For full program details, go to www.calgary.carecreation. v. 3JH7 CuunHnALB CA1GW JMmott midnight Partner activities -7 a.m. Loose Moose Theatre at the Theatre Calgary Rehearsal Space in the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arte. 7 a.m.- Fort Calgary 4 p.m.

HBC run, pancake breakfast and more. 9 a.m.- Heritage Park 5 p.m. Free breakfast (until 10 a.m.) and more. 11 a.m. Rocky Mountain Rail Yards 3 p.m.

Train rides, displays and entertainment. noon Prince's Island Park 6 p.m. Opening ceremonies at noon (Enmax Main Stage). Music and entertainment. 5 p.m.- Olympic Plaza midnight Storytellers, 5 p.m.

6 p.m. Tot Lot. 5 p.m. 9 p.m. Musical entertainment, 6:15 p.m.

Featured guest The Jim Cuddy Band, 9:30 p.m. p.m. Fireworks at about 10:30 p.m. Plaid Tongue Pevils 11 p.m. midnight fnTTVrl MTTHlTTiy JoOT 5f DAM COWCMnW ccJfep Event Sponsored by: Impaffc EnCana i I ED CttytV Canary 11 23? T7T tiTZ?" -4.

Address: Phone p.m. Calgary Tower flame lighting Th Calgaty Bowntown Association wider and bukr on th Stephen Ajmmw Mai. Free shuttle bus between Fort Calgary Prince's Island Park and Olympic Plaza from noon 6 p.m. RGR Resorts ot the Canadian Rmkies lptl( tk III M.Tt ClcryHer.id Prize will be drawn on July 1. Winner will be contacted on July 2007.

For more information visit www.calawaypark.com or call (403) 240-3822.