Tag Archives: music

“The Chad Tape” leaks…

The Chad Tape was slated to be officially announced via a release from Flemish Eye on August 13, however, the internet had other plans!

Some time ago Chad VanGaalen approached Chris Reimer of Women offering to reproduce a casette tape of Chris’ solo work. Chris started work on this but passed away before completing the project. His closest friends have assembled the songs he intended for the tape, laid it out with Chris’s own writing and artwork and now this tape is available here for you.
***All proceeds from this release will benefit the Chris Reimer Legacy Fund, an organization dedicated to providing scholarships for children in music and dance education.***

You can still pre-order cassettes from the Chris Reimer Bandcamp site, and you can also download the digital album.

The project has already been mentioned by Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Chart Attack, CBC Music, Exclaim!, Pitchfork, CMU and elsewhere. We sure do hate that word “posthumous,” but we’re thrilled at the response to this work. Continue reading

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Christopher JJ Reimer Memorial Show Recaps!

Mad love and thanks to all the peeps who came out to see our boy’s show at Sled Island last week. (Two weeks ago, I guess. They say you lose time in grief. It’s true. It goes somewhere).

Also, I don’t know that I properly thanked the Sled Island Festival, and Paisley Sim in particular, for so generously making possible this event. From FFWD:

For Sim, however, one exhibition stands out from the rest: the Reimer show at MOCA. “Marc Rimmer curated it and Marc and Chris were best friends for many, many years,” she says. “It’s a collection of photographs of him by many people in his life and then we’re playing many of his unreleased, ambient scores — they’re all so textured.”

The show features a silent auction to raise funds for a foundation in Reimer’s name.

“More than anything, I feel humbled to be able to present it. I loved Chris and I hope that the show is well-received by his family more than anything else.”

 Paisley, it was. THANK YOU.

CBC Calgary’s The Homestretch spoke to Marc in advance of the show.

And BeatRoute interviewed Rena about Gold.

Thanks to DivinerOne/Kathleen Moors for this lovely ambient video:

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Sled Island Art Show Announced | Opening Wednesday, June 20 @ 6:00 pm

(Marc Rimmer has done an amazing amount of work to put this together, and we’re all grateful. Please come out to the opening if you’re in Calgary; we’d love to see you. –Nikki)

Christopher J.J. Reimer

Known and loved both at home and abroad for his spellbinding guitar playing in bands such as Women and Azeda Booth, Chris Reimer was a fixture in the Calgary music scene for almost a decade. Before passing away suddenly in February 2012 at age 26, Chris made an unforgettable impression on his community with his huge talent and remarkably generous nature. This exhibit taps into Chris’ tremendous spirit and explores his unparalleled creative vision through a collection of photographs taken by him, his friends and bandmates, accompanied by a soundtrack of his lush and largely unheard ambient recordings. All opening reception drink sales and donations will benefit a memorial fund in Chris’ name.

When: Opening 6:00 p.m., Wednesday June 20 and running for the duration of the Sled Island Festival

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary, 104 – 800 – Macleod Trail SE
(Main floor, Calgary Municipal Building)

Tix:Free. All opening reception drinks and donations will benefit The Chris Reimer Legacy Fund

About the fund:

Christopher John Joseph (Chris) Reimer was an immensely talented young artist who was taken from us at the tragically young age of 26. Known and loved throughout the world for his spellbinding guitar work in Azeda Booth and Women and as touring guitarist for The Dodos, Christopher also composed a significant amount of unreleased and largely unheard music. Christopher’s artistic talents extended beyond music: he was involved with dance performance as a youth, and he created a collection of mostly unseen drawings, photographs and writing as a young man. Chris’ early training in dance and music was integral to his development as a professional artist.

The Chris Reimer Legacy Fund Society (official charitable registration pending) is a collective of Chris’ closest friends and family who have banded together to keep his tremendous spirit alive. Chris was unfailingly generous, loving, loyal, humble and kind. It is our hope that his art and his generosity may live on through our work.

The Chris Reimer Legacy Fund has two aims:

1) to provide funding for youth to receive training in dance and music

2) to professionally produce and release the music that Chris wrote


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Palamino Tribute Show: New Paths to Helicon Pt. 1

On March 1, 2012, the day of Chris’ cremation, and the day after his funeral celebration, a private concert was held at the Palamino Nightclub in Calgary in his honour. The following videos are from that night, courtesy of Melanie McKay.

MOGWAI

This is one of Chris’ favourite Mogwai tracks, New paths to Helicon pt. 1.

The musicians are: Marc Rimmer, Scott Monroe, (guitars) Matt Flegel on bass, our dad Tim Reimer on drums, and Myke Atkinson.

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Palamino Tribute Show: Chad van Gaalen

On March 1, 2012, the day of Chris’ cremation, and the day after his funeral celebration, a private concert was held at the Palamino Nightclub in Calgary in his honour. The following videos are from that night, courtesy of Melanie McKay.

Chad van Gaalen

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Christopher John Joseph Reimer Fund Update

Hello and thanks to all who’ve read, written and sent support, condolences and love. It has been much appreciated by those of us on the inside of this great loss.

My mother’s not yet been able to read this blog, but I know that when the time comes she will be as honoured and comforted as I have been by all of your kind thoughts towards us and our boy.

I wanted to give a quick update on the situation with the preliminarily-named C.J.J. Reimer Scholarship Fund:

The team has had a few meetings, and we’re quite excited about our ideas, however, we still need to deal with some legalities, firm up our intended partnerships and obtain official not-for-profit status.

As soon as the Fund is ready to officially launch, we will announce it both on this blog and in media releases.

In the meantime, if any of you would like to contribute to the fund, you may send cheques directly to my father C/o the following:

Tim Reimer
11 Woodhaven Crescent, S.W.
Calgary, AB T2W 5S3

Funds may be earmarked for either the production of Chris’ unpublished music or for the scholarship. (Please just send a note indicating your preference). A separate bank account has been set up to hold the funds raised so far until we’re ready to transfer them into the official fund account.

Please backchannel me if you have any further questions: nikki(dot)reimer(at)gmail(dot)com

Sincerely and humbly,

Nikki Reimer on behalf of Team Reimer!

(Nikki Reimer, Tim Reimer, Jo Reimer, Rena Kozak and Marc Rimmer)

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Women at Flemisheye Ball

Hi Nikki,
I thought I’d send you a video that me and a couple of friends made for the Flemisheye Ball.  Here’s Women playing.

I have the whole concert on DVD too, and I can get your family a copy or anyone else that wants one.

-Jeff

Women live @ Flemisheye Ball, May 16, 2009. Video by Jeff MacLeod, Brian Batista and Brad Hawkins.

Women live at Flemisheye Ball, 2009

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Chris interviewed in 2008

2008 interview on About.com conducted by Anthony Carew.

Calgary quartet Women began as a project: four old high-school pals deciding to make a record to fill in Alberta’s frigid winter months. Roping in local analog-equipment-hoarding weirdo (and Sub Poprecording artist) Chad VanGaalen, Women rolled tape on a set of short, sharp, fragmented tracks in a basement, a crawlspace, an outdoor culvert, and by the side of the river. The resulting record, Women’s debut self-titled set, is a tape-hiss-draped work both mysterious and immediate. Standing outside of a Vietnamese restaurant in Hamilton, guitarist/vocalist Chris Reimer spoke.

Interview: 9 October 2008

You’re in the middle of three solid months on tour. Is it weird to have your life planned so far in advance?
“It’s kind of hilarious: you want to make plans with your friends, and you say: ‘Let’s go for coffee! How’s April?’ It feels weird, but it’s also kinda nice, because playing music for people is the only thing we really want to do.”

Has it always been that way?
“Well, I started playing guitar when I was 10, and started jamming with [Women’s] Pat [Flegel] and Mike [Wallace] when we were, probably, 13. We were the guys at school who played music. We’ve been in bands on and off since then; most of my life has actually been spent making music with the dudes in this band.” Continue reading

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The Dodos on Jimmy Fallon

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Women, December 2008

Jagjaguwar-signed Women play in-store at London’s Rough Trade East

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