Peasant at Rancho Relaxo was rather pleasant

"I could take this photo a million times and I would still look the same." - Damien DeRose, aka Peasant

I didn't know a lot about Damien DeRose, better known as Peasant, before going to see him at Rancho Relaxo in Toronto last Thursday night. Joanne, who also writes for the blog, has been a fan for quite the while so I've heard that he's a singer-songwriter with a simple vocal-piano-guitar sort of set-up, and that his music is very pleasant and honest. I was baffled to arrive at the venue to see the poster for the night's lineup. To me, it seemed kind of off putting to put the soulful solo artist with his acoustic guitar and apologetic but endearing smile onstage following local acts "The Panty Peelers" and "The Dildonics". Seriously, guys?

So following a surfer-rock set by The Dildonics that sounded more like a soundtrack to a teen beach movie than a live band, Peasant took to the Rancho stage. He apologized for not rocking as hard as the bands before him, and he apologized for being American since we had just found out that the Canadian women's hockey team had beat USA for gold, 2-0. He let us have our hoots and hollers, and he proceeded to serenade us with some standout tracks off of his upcoming album, Shady Retreat, as well as some older ones from On the Ground.

I've finally had the chance to listen to the album now, and I can say that much like Shady Retreat, Peasant's live set was short and sweet. The album is about thirty minutes long, and I can't imagine that his set at Rancho was much longer. But no matter how short or long that amount of time was, it was then that I was introduced to his music. And I do love it! While the album is fairly bare essentials in itself, his live performance is even further stripped down. It was a man and his guitar. Minus the production work, his songs can sound even more familiar and closer to home in that rare, comforting way. Between endearingly enthusiastic and sometimes apologetic banter about being American and his loving relationship with Canada, he delivered a collection of casually contemplative folk-pop songs. Peasant has a way of putting his inner monologue into pretty melodies and songs that simplify the same thoughts and feelings that you and I tend to over-complicate from day to day into something clear and understandable. It's this kind of clarity that came out best in his performance of We're Good, and the first single off of Shady Retreat, The End. It's really a shame that the clarity became muddled in the drunken, boisterous conversation of Panty Peeler and Dildonics fans that stayed behind.

My thoughts now said, are you ready for some Impressionable Youth blog bad quality bootlegs? Well, alright!

Peasant - We're Good (live at Rancho Relaxo) (mp3) (amazon) (iTunes)

Peasant - The End (live at Rancho Relaxo) (mp3) (amazon)

Peasant - The End (mp3) (amazon)

Despite the inappropriate crowd and opening bands, the singer-songwriter had nothing bad to say when we met him at the merch table after the set. In fact, he appreciated an eclectic mix of music. What a trooper. Following a truly pleasant conversation and photo-op with him (above), I feel like the music industry needs more guys like this.

So it really wasn't his crowd last Thursday, but he had another show in Toronto the following night at the Opera House. Opening for Fucked Up... I agree with Peasant when he says that variety in music is great and all but personally, I think someone needs to talk to his booking manager.

Shady Retreat is released March 2nd. Go ahead and pre-order it at Paper Garden Records, and check out more from Peasant at his mySpace.

I've Been Thinking

Those of us who aren't actors have the inability to emote, to express ourselves in such a way as to convey something more exaggerated than the everyday human emotions of joy, anger, sadness and so on.


Peasant, aka Damien DeRose, to my knowledge is not an actor. According to his bio, "when Damien DeRose turned eighteen, he dropped out of school, packed up his guitar, and bought a sailboat in California with a friend. The plan was to sail down the coast, live life the simple way, and let the wind dictate the pace. However, as life would have it, DeRose’s journey took a different course and while the ship may not have left the harbor, he would find himself on a new journey writing and traveling across the U.S and Europe".

Since then, he's released the On the Ground, and has appeared on Daytrotter, WOXY, and Amsterdam Acoustics amongst others. Based in folk, his simple song structures and instrumentation allows for his transendent voice to shine through. He's got a voice that just expresses so much emotion without any effort. There are no vocal gymnastics or production tricks to help him with this, he's just blessed with a voice that embodies the complexity of the human spirit.

His next LP, Shady Retreat is out March 2, 2010 in North America and April 5th in Europe. There will also be a tour in the spring to support the release and judging by some of his recordings, I think this is one of those cases where you just have to hear it live.

Peasant - Hard Times (mp3) (buy)

Peasant - Well, Alright (mp3) (buy)

[Edit:] Peasant fans in Toronto will be able to catch him on Feb. 25th at Rancho Relaxo, and Feb. 26th (with Kurt Vile and Fucked Up) at the Opera House. Oh, happy days!

Amsterdam Acoustics

I'm so excited to introduce you to Amsterdam Acoustics! Much like other indie music street performance blogs out there, Amsterdam Acoustics records musicians playing their stuff acoustically in some kind of random location in their namesake city. I'm super extra excited about this one! Other than the clear video and sound quality shot mostly in picturesque outdoors, there's another distinguishing feature: they pick awesome acts to perform, rather than just who's popular or just having a massive site full of mediocre acts. On their website, I found obscure talent that I already adore and think deserve some more exposure. I also found a ton of great new stuff.

We all know that finding new music is about sifting through the crap to get to the good stuff. And here, I found many gems. Clearly whoever runs Amsterdam Acoustics knows there is a big difference between indie music and GREAT indie music. I'm so glad they chose the latter to feature on their site.

Check out a few of the latest videos below.

Peasant - We're Good (mp3) (buy)

We Have a Band - Honeytrap (mp3) (not yet for sale)

Peter, Bjorn and John - Stay this Way (mp3) (buy)


And head over to Amsterdam Acoustics to see more!

Peasant Power

A boy with a guitar.

What makes Peasant, aka Damien DeRose, a boy with a guitar different?

Special, even?

Well, I'll tell you.

He's got a voice like butter. And not just "butter". Imagine Mike Myers in his SNL heydays saying "butt-ah". It's like butter.

There is a WOXY session with Peasant when his album On the Ground came out in January, where the production value is similar to that of the record, but his voice shines. The session is acoustic much like the record, but without the production values that take away little errors of string slides etc, it's even better. His voice radiates warm and emotion so clearly. I think Peasant is definitely someone to see live.

Peasant - We're Good (mp3) (buy)

Check out the mp3s on the Futurist (WOXY's blog) too.