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PAGE 22 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1993 When Grant Edmonds moved from Ottawa to Toronto four years ago, the band he threw together, selfâ€"admittedly, stunk. The current lineâ€"up of 49 Acres, however, does anything but. *I‘m relatively new at this, and when | first came here, |‘d never really been on stage," says Edmonds. front man for the independent Torontoâ€"based sextet. *And it was pretty awful." A new sound and a new approach to their music But since then, the band has undergone a metaâ€" morphosis. A onceâ€"alternativeâ€"acousticâ€"folk combo, which went through several incarnations, 49 Acres, with the addition of new members, dishes out an (in Edmonds‘ words) easternâ€"greengrassâ€"grooveâ€"rock sound 49 Acres By Deborah Crandall When vocalists Georgie Donais joined Edmonds. Mike Siderman (bass), lan Guenther (violin}) and Phil Romkey (drums) in the spring of 1991, band memâ€" bers, then bordering on apathy, began to take a more serious approach to the music. ‘Her voice and mine really jelled, and the personaliâ€" tes blended well," Edmonds says. "We enjoyed pracâ€" ticing, and people (band members) would actually show up." Donais‘ rich, wideâ€"ranging voice had added a new dimension to the group‘s evolving sound, but there was still something missing. *I had written about six sort of rock tunes, and | started to play them on stage with electric g&r + which I‘d never done before," Edmonds says. I‘d get up on stage and go for some distortion, flick a switch and accidentally turn myself off. The other guys said, ‘maybe we should get an electric guitar player‘." Enter Steve Ellis, bringing with him a raw edge that transformed the alternative countryâ€"folk band into a "blend of loud distorted sounds and traditional Prior to the addition of Ellis, though, 49 Acres had been enjoying some local limelight. in the fall of 1991, the band independently released an EP, With This Fish, Volume II, which received reg:l;r airplay on CFNY. And the cut Confortable Day the EP was selected as the opening track of CFNY‘s Modern Music Search CD. Yesterday, 49 Acres independently released its first fulHength recording, Living in the Drywall, which was launched with a record release bash at Toronto‘s Horseshoe Tavern last night. It‘s tough to describe an album that occasionally blends funk with bluegrass, but unique is as good an adjective as any. From the funky The Addiction of Louis Riel, to the rocking Mother Nature‘s Referendum, to the bluesâ€" rock Loretta Save, to the folkie The Old Town, and to Poor Little Red, which kicks off in hoeâ€"down style and switches to countryjazz, Living in the Drywall certainly lives up to Edmond‘s description â€" Easternâ€"greenâ€" grassâ€"grooveâ€"rock. 49 Acres performs, with The Saddletramps, at the Commercial Tavern in Beautiful Downtown Maryhill, June 25. The band will also make an inâ€"store appearâ€" ance that afternoon (3:30 p.m.) at HMV, 150 Univerâ€" sity Ave. W., in Waterloo. July 11, 49 Acres will play Phil‘s Grandson‘s Place, also with The Saddletramps. Living in the Drywall is available at Sam the Record Man, HMV and other indieâ€"friendly record stores throughout Southern Ontario. ematography exciting. Through interviews with 26 outstanding d.p.s (m:dphmiw).dis joint U.S./Japanese documentary cinema history absolutely engrossing. You‘ll get gooseâ€" bumps from the movie clips alone: Citizen Kane (photographed by Gregg Toland); Chinatown (John Alonzo}; Easy Rider (Laszlo Kovacs); Who‘s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Haskell Wexler); The Godfather pictures and Annie Hall (Gordon Willis); Taxi Driver and Raging Bull (Michael Chapman}; McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Vilmos Zsigmond); ApomerNmn and The Last Emperor [Vittorio Storaro); Goodfelâ€" las (Michael Ballhaus)], and over 100 others, datâ€" ing back to the first days of film. Unlike actors, who usually find it excruciating to verbalize what it is they do, this troupe of artists has plenty to say. These d.p.s extol the capabilities of their equipment, rattle on about the properties of light (and dark}, expose the intimacy of their relationships with directors, speculate about the large number of emigres in their field, and recall accidents or hunches that led them to effects mir roring characters‘ souls. The three filmmakers responsible for Visions of Light each have their own profile in the industry â€" for Stuart Samuels, it‘s producing, for Arnold Glassman, editing, and for Todd McCarthy, screenwriting and film critâ€" cism â€" and the result is an insider‘s approach. We aren‘t burdened with a celebrity host‘s chatâ€" ter. The cinematographers speak for themselves and Glassman has woven their snippets and illusâ€" trations together so seamiessly we feel as if we‘re at a round table discussion with them. This picture is designed for viewers with some film appreciation; it helps to know a bit about Birth of a Nation, The Cabinet of Or. Caligari, film noir and the the French New Wave, as well as to be familiar with terms like "zoom", "handâ€"held", and "wideâ€"screen". The interviewees are so high on their discoveries and those of their peers and ancestors, they don‘t often stop to wait for the slower members of the tour. Of course, the more you know about any topic the more exciting it is for you; the better prepared you are for these d.p.s‘ revelations, the woozier their ideas will make you feel. For the uninitiated, however, this docuâ€" mnuryeouldboanelacfiiy;g" crash course. Visions of Light preserves its visual quotes in _ their original dimensions. Artisans like Allen Daviau also wax eloquently about the virtues of black and white. No one mentions cropping for video and TA., or the haunting spectre of colorization. The (Continued on page 23)