{"id":17913,"date":"2017-07-26T15:41:07","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17913"},"modified":"2017-07-26T15:41:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:41:07","slug":"just-party-with-us-says-music-festival-headliner-monkeyjunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/just-party-with-us-says-music-festival-headliner-monkeyjunk\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cJust party with us,\u201d says Music Festival headliner MonkeyJunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Admit it \u2013 you probably have some preconceived notion of what it means to sing the \u201cblues\u201d \u2013 ranging anywhere from plaintive, to sad, to angsty \u2013 but you\u2019re probably wrong.
\nIn fact, musician Steve Marriner has one of his own: \u201ccomplaining.\u201d
\nBut the MonkeyJunk frontman, and indeed the band, have turned over a new leaf with their new album Time To Roll, which they are bringing to Aurora on August 5 as the headlining act for the Aurora Music Festival at Town Park.
\n\u201cWe wanted to make a more raw, urgent-sounding record with a live feel,\u201d says Marriner of the latest offering from the popular Ottawa-area band. \u201cTime To Roll, in my mind, is supposed to be a little bit more uplifting and celebratory. I listened back to some of our other records and there was a lot of complaining \u2013 and that is probably my fault because I write most of the lyrics! We just wanted to keep things positive.
\n \u201cSome of our other records took a full year to make front to back and we didn\u2019t want to do that because we wanted to slam together a quick and dirty, more bluesy record inspired by where we came from.\u201d
\nTo find out where they came from, you have to tune your ear back to 2008.
\nThe Juno-winning band, which describes themselves as a blues\/rock and roll\/swamp band, was formed when Marriner, Tony Diteodoro and Matt Sobb came together with a shared love of music at Irene\u2019s, a popular pub in the nation\u2019s capital.
\nUnited by common interests in blues funk, soul, rock and roll, they found their unique blend immediately struck a chord with the pub crowd and, working on their weekly gig, they were quickly packing the house on Sunday nights.
\n\u201cThere are some blues artists who really try to keep their music pure and traditional, and they have some [genre] boundaries and what is acceptable to bring into that realm, but I think what\u2019s different about MonkeyJunk and what makes Matt, Tony and I kind of on the same page; we love to push boundaries and incorporate different styles. Frankly, the band and our creative process has been one big experiment for the entire time that we have been a band, and that is exciting because you never know what you\u2019re going to come up with.\u201d
\nFrom those early days at Irene\u2019s, they booked some studio time and put down a four song EP. Armed with their first record, they began booking summer music festival and their following went from strength to strength.
\n\u201cAfter about a month, we knew people were paying attention in a way that was just different and there was something new going on,\u201d says Marriner.
\nMarriner also sensed something new going on as a kid when he first sat down and watched The Blues Brothers movie on TV with his dad at the age of 10. By the time the credits rolled, he decided he wanted a harmonica, a wish that was fulfilled by the time Christmas rolled around.
\nWith his new instrument in hand, his dad connected him with some harmonica players in the Ottawa area, which set him on a road to immersing himself in the harmonica-heavy Chicago-style blues.
\n\u201cI went deep and the music always really spoke to me,\u201d Marriner explains. \u201cIt is music that whether you are happy or sad, it can be a lament or a celebration and everything in between. It hit me hard and now here we are.\u201d
\nMarriner had been playing professionally for about nine years before he converged with Matt and Tony, and as soon as that chemistry was in place, he says they found there was a lot less lament and a lot more celebration in what they had to offer \u2013 and indeed what fans took away from their performances.
\n\u201cPeople would dance right away from the get go,\u201d he says. \u201cThe thing is we play so many different styles. Even on our first record, there were some swampy songs, some Chicago stuff, but I think we just had a way of playing that really focused on the groove. When we make songs, it is with the intent of making people dance. That is really what we like to do. We pick grooves and different beats that make us move and ideally that would inspire others to move as well. I don\u2019t think you have to think too hard about our music. It just hits you.\u201d
\nAs long as you get up and move at Town Park next Saturday, August, 5, then it will be mission accomplished.
\n\u201cHopefully people can just shut their brains off for a few hours, have a nice time and maybe dance,\u201d Marriner says. \u201cIf you are with your partners, just dance, have a celebration, and just party with us. Hopefully the weather will be fair and then we can just have a beautiful night getting together and having some fun. That\u2019s what we bring \u2013 let\u2019s just have some fun!\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Admit it \u2013 you probably have some preconceived notion of what it means to sing the \u201cblues\u201d \u2013 ranging anywhere from plaintive, to sad, to angsty \u2013 but you\u2019re probably wrong.
\nIn fact, musician Steve Marriner has one of his own: \u201ccomplaining.\u201d
\nBut the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-07-27-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4EV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 10:57:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}