SPRING ARTS PREVIEW
Vinyl Vaudeville returns to support launch of breakdance battle game Floor Kids
Looking to fill your calendar with entertaining events this spring? You’re in luck. We’ve rounded up some of the most must-listen music, must-read books and must-see events. Consider this your guide to help you navigate the season’s busy entertainment agenda. You’re welcome.
In concert › Kid Koala’s Vinyl Vaudeville Floor Kids Edition When: May 4, 8 p.m. Where: Venue Tickets and info: From $25, at ticketfly.com
He’s given us Music To Draw To; the Space Cadet Headphone Concert, complete with comfy pillows and “nap time” moments; and been a key member of groups like Gorillaz and Deltron 3030. Now Kid Koala is promising “the silliest dance party in the history of silly parties.”
It’s all part of his tour in support of the launch of the new MERJ Media breakdance battle game Floor Kids.
Koala lent his mad mixing skills to the game soundtrack. Now he wants to put it into a live setting with a 19-date cross-country tour, complete with giant robotic backup singer puppets, life-size dancing robots from his popular Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet graphic novel/music projects, and a working cardboard gramophone — among other things.
“I really have gotten into this world that is somewhere between theatre and film and puppetry and live music,” said Kid Koala (a.k.a. Vancouver-born and raised Eric San, 43).
“For me the whole ethos of the hip-hop and scratching scene was always to express yourself freely in unique ways. Right off, kids were taking this technology designed for one purpose and doing something entirely their own with it and finding a generational voice.”
Koala’s entire career has been defined by expressing his own distinct voice within that world and branching out far, far beyond.
From his heavy rock crew The Slew (featuring the rhythm section of Wolfmother) to trippy pop with Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini and even 12 Bit Blues, his musical output has been impossible to categorize as anything but Kid Koala.
Add in turntabling skills that are as otherworldly as Jimi Hendrix’s guitar playing and a sense of humour that’s huge and it makes his performances something quite special.
“I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin and The Muppet Show and stuff even before I started scratching at age 12, and all of it somehow went into the blender of my creative DNA,” he said.
“So now what you are witnessing is all of those universes colliding in some form or another. Vinyl Vaudeville has a lot of gear, and we’ll show up at a venue and people will be like ‘aren’t you a DJ?,’ and I’ll be saying ‘sure, I just happen to travel with a giant robotic tarantula in that case and dancing penguins in this one.’ ”
Vinyl Vaudeville originally started as a variety show in 2012. Koala was touring his 12 Bit Blues album and decided to bring in extra elements to “jack up the party atmosphere on what was largely a midtempo tracks release.”
Collaborating with dance troupe Adira Amram & The Experience and DJ Jester, costumes were designed to go with every track and ideas such as paper airplane fights, puppets and more were added.
“Now that Floor Kids has been released in about 37 different countries, we decided to revive Vaudeville because it worked right with the music from the game too,” Koala said.
“It’s all done in keeping with chaotic, multi-level multi-tasking, lo-fi D.I.Y. spectacle that is really mostly depending on human energy. We’re also bringing a travelling arcade, so we can set up custom Floor Kids consoles and people can battle before the show.”
It seems obvious for an artist like Koala to be making soundtracks for games, but he admits he isn’t really much of a player. This doesn’t mean that he and illustrator John John didn’t have a clear vision for Floor Kids.
“Man, we wanted the hand drawn animations and the music to be seriously active and it took awhile to find a game design company crazy enough to take on the challenge,” he said.
“Victoria and Montreal-based MERJ Media did an amazing job to develop such a fluid engine to accommodate those tens of thousands of hand-drawn frames. Having it featured with Nintendo Switch is pretty much a dream come true.”
Stay tuned for more games from this duo, as Koala says that the creation process was genuinely more fun than expected. Plus, he thinks his job was easier than the illustrator’s task.
“I knew animation was the most tedious of the tedious arts and with each character having 16 basic moves and over a hundred transitions, there were times I was cursing John’s name outright as I had to foley in the foot taps to each of those frames,” said Kid Koala.
“We were sticking to a schedule at one point where we worked so long that we would go past second wind into what we called ‘stupid time,’ which involved a lot of crazed laughing and ridiculous ideas. The thing is, a lot of them wound up in the game.”
Now that he knows what can be done, he’s ready to do it again, working from “crazed” as the starting point to see what kind of a mess he can cause for the designers. Chances are, it will be a hit.
Best of the rest
TANYA TAGAQ AND LAAKKULUK WILLIAMSON BATHORY
Where: March 16-18, 7:30 p.m.
When: Telus Studio Theatre, Chan Centre Tickets and info: Sold out, tickets.
ubc.ca
Inuit throat singer/vocalist
Tanya Tagaq is an absolutely riveting performer on her own. Joining forces with Greenlandic mask dancer Laakkluk Williamson Bathory to present a reclamation of Indigenous women’s stories will be incredible.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR WITH KENDRICK LAMAR, SCHOOLBOY Q, SZA, JAY ROCK, AB-SOUL, ISAIAH RASHAD, SIR, LANCE SKIIIWALKER, AND ZACARI
When: May 4, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Rogers Arena
Tickets and info: From $49.50, ticketmaster.ca
Right now, Kendrick Lamar could well be the most important rapper on the scene. His music embraces that most esoteric of forms — jazz — and marries it to verses in ways that recognize rap’s past as well as its future. With messages that are topical, far less braggadocio and far more intelligent than most of his peers, he might be the one to bring the music back to its golden age again. Even if he isn’t, the man took apart the 2018 Grammy Awards where he collected a handful of statues. There are some seriously tight additional acts on the bill too, many of whom headline in town when they roll through.