(Toronto) This Friday night local label Out Of This Spark is holding their third anniversary party at the Garrison. Playng the show will be The D’Urbervilles, Forest City Lovers, Evening Hymns and Jenny Onmichord.
Yes, that is right, I said Jenny Omnichord
The first time I heard Jenny Onmichord (Jenny Mitchell), her sound seemed very familiar to me. I later found out that familiarity came from her being part of the Barmitzvah Brothers. Nine years ago, Jenny bought an onmichord from her fathers’ thrift store, and the rest is history. What is an omnichord? Taken from Wiki:
An Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument, introduced in 1981 and manufactured by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate, and buttons for major, minor, and diminished chords. The most basic method of playing the instrument is to press the chord buttons and swipe the touch plate with a finger or guitar pick in imitation of strumming a stringed instrument.
Her current release is an album of children’s songs, Charlotte or Otis : Duets for Children, Their Parents and Other People Too, which features help from Shad K, Wax Mannequin, Scott Merritt, Kim Barlow, Jim Guthrie, Great Aunt Ida, Old Man Luedecke, Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers and Andrew Penner of Sun Parlour Players. Yeah.
If you are into Katie Stelmanis and Laura Barrett then you will probably enjoy the sounds and quarkyness of Jenny Omnichord. If you are a parent and need the reassurance that you are still cool and relevant after changing a million dirty diapers, then you should also pick this album up. Here is the title track from Charlotte or Otis, which features Andy Magoffin of The Two Minute Miracles. See you all on Friday night.
