Alex Radeff - Guitar and Vocals
Terry Kavanagh - Drums and Vocals
Joe Spina - Bass
Influences
Harry Nilsson, Badfinger, Pink Floyd, Small Faces, Johnny & The G-Rays, Robyn Hitchcock, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Roy Harper,
Marianne Faithfull, Roxy Music, Humble Pie, Cyndi Lauper, Sex Pistols, Randy Newman, Ray Davies & The Kinks, The Only Ones, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Ian Hunter, Bob Marley, Terje Rypdal, John Abercrombie, Jan Akkerman, Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett, Roy Buchannan, Debussy, Sun Ra, Bonzo Dog Band, John, Paul, George, Ringo & Yoko.
Founded by singer/songwriter/guitarist Alex Radeff as a vehicle for his eclectic songs, Donkey is an original rock/pop group based in Toronto. The music ranges from melodic hard rock to soft pop ballads, each song from a unique songwriting perspective.
The project first gathered critical praise with two independent releases in the mid/late 90’s. High profile media figures such as Moses Znaimer, Gary Topp, and Q107’s Al Joynes heard and supported the group’s musical/artistic direction. The College Music Journal reviewed Radeff as “something of a guitar genius”.
Building a loyal following as a trio in Toronto’s “live original music scene” and encouraged by airplay on Canadian, European and American radio, Radeff and Donkey maintained a steady stream of club dates in such Toronto venues as the Horseshoe, El Mocambo, Lee’s Palace, Rivoli and the Opera House among others.
1999 saw Donkey release the debut CD “Kickback”. The rocking anthem “Wartime” was a hit in Romania where it remained in the Top 20 for 14 weeks while the Kosovo war raged on. ”Kickback” also received airplay in Japan.
Through the years 2000/2001 Donkey continued a busy schedule of live shows including two excellent headlining dates at Toronto’s Hard Rock Café with legendary impresario and fan Gino Empry in attendance.
2003 brought the release of “Nodding At The Universe”, an original collection of imaginative songwriting and adventurous musicianship. At that point Alex returned to the live scene, performing at the then infamous Gladstone Hotel with Paul Fitterer on drums and Joe Spina on bass. With rotating drummers including, Terry Kavanagh, Cleave Anderson and Scott Milligen. Donkey performed around 80 one night stands until the end of 2008. “Nodding At The Universe” kept the band gigging for 6 years through a netherworld of Toronto bars and clubs mostly under the radar of the mainstream. “There is an underground. It may be playing music in hard bars with misfits and hard drinkers, but it isn’t plastic.
We get to rock and stretch out and they like it ” says Radeff.
In October 06, Radeff (solo) opened for British rock legend Arthur Brown, when he came to Lula Lounge in Toronto . “Good lyrics” said Mr. Brown
The new Donkey CD, recorded over the past two years is called "The Calling Of The Streets". It is the project's best work without a doubt.
The live line up is Alex Radeff on guitar & vocals, Terry Kavanagh on drums & vocals and Joe Spina on bass. As 2009 evolved the band continued to grow creatively and remain active live in Toronto.
The new CD can be ordered from CD Baby www.cdbaby.com/cd/donkey
Here's a review from GWNtertainment magazine's Jamie Vernon
DONKEY
The Calling Of The Streets
(Donkey Records)
DONKEY may seem like an odd name for a band, but has been the recognized nom de plume of mainman Alex Radeff for nearly two decades. 'The Calling Of The Streets' is the band's third full-length disc since 1999 and follows seven years after the excellent sophomore album 'Nodding At The Universe'. On the surface that seems a painfully slow proliferation of output but Radeff is both a victim and auteur of his own craft; he not only writes all his own material, but is a virtual one-man band providing vocals, guitar, keyboards and bass to songs he also produces and records with a zero budget in a fabricated church basement-cum-studio bunker in Toronto's west-end using only vintage analog equipment. Guest drummers are the norm -- including live band-mate Terry Kavanagh, Battered Wives/Blue Rodeo veteran Cleave Anderson and Clark Institute's Jim Clark -- but there are sparse drop-in musicians like bassists Joe Spina and Richard Sturge or vocalists Mark Doucet and Donna Hoo augmenting the proceedings.
The ten years of laboratory-like recording has resulted in 'The Calling Of The Streets' being Radeff's most accessible and polished of releases. The over-all feel of the album is a push and pull between trippy Pink Floydian psychedelia on tracks like "Nobody", the abbreviated passages "Railway Crossing" and "Recall", and the title track itself versus the straight-out garage-psyche of "You Ooze Love", "Nuclear Fallout" and the album's catchiest, stand-out song "Even Though I Want You".
That's not to say this is strictly a psyche record. Far from it. Radeff goes for the throat right off the top of the disc with his potent observational protest song "The Jews Think I'm An Arab; The Arabs Think I'm A Jew". It is both pithy and uncomfortable to listen to on a humanitarian level only because he pulls no punches, does not wallow in Political Correctness...and is bang on.
Where Radeff shines both vocally and lyrically is the acoustic, balladry of his hippie hymn "The Squattor", the pensive anti-love song "I Don't Know Anything", the weepy "Broken Heart Doctor" and the beautifully plaintiff "Read 'Em And Weep".
This album was well-worth waiting seven years to hear. Here's hoping it doesn't take another seven for the next one.
http://www.donkey.ca
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ 1/2 out of 5
