“We wanna party tonight because we got evicted from our house and we wanna tell our landlord to fuck off. Excuse my language,” said Casey Mecija, the pint-sized lead vocalist of Ohbijou, to gales of laughter at Lee’s Palace.“And there’s no better way to do that than with orchestral music,” she said, beaming in a canary yellow sweater and purple pants on stage at the Friends in Bellwoods 2 release party on August. 28th.
Although it was slightly off putting to hear profanity with a grin from Mecija, it’s understandable given the fact that the Bellwoods cottage where sisters Casey and Jennifer lived, performed and recorded in collaboration with local bands recently closed down on Sept. 1. Apparently mold set into the dwelling where the first compilation album, Friend’s in Bellwoods, was recorded in 2007 to raise funds for Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank.Skirting Trinity Bellwoods Park, the former haunt for intimate basement shows and collaborative recording sessions with indie bands such as Forest City Lovers and The D’Urbervilles may have passed on, but something will live on from it.
“I think having the compilations has made having to leave the house a little easier,” Mecija sighs. “The first compilation represents a very youthful, uninhibited time. Fast-forward to the compilation now, and everyone is in different stages of their lives, and they have different priorities and have been traversing the music industry in different ways. We don’t see each other as much, but it’s not as reckless — beautifully reckless. It’s not like that anymore. But having these compilations has actually made it less heartbreaking for me,” said Mecija in an Eye Weekly interview.It’s almost fitting that the curtains close on what NOW once wrote was “the new epicenter of T.O.’s indie rock community,” as they release round 2 of Friend’s in Bellwoods, a 40-track double-album set of work from a slew of independent Canadian musicians.
She pours out vocals both sweet and strong, like a shot of gin and liquorice burning down your throat. Butterscotch coats her vocal chords, melting in sugary dollops, a candy apple with a dark, toxic layer buried deep in the centre.
When the founding sisters of Ohbijou eventually clamber on stage amid a hodgepodge of instruments and the rest of the band in tow it seems like the crowd gets what they came for. Its also apparent that Casey isn’t letting an eviction notice get her down.
The second last song of the set, “New Years”, from their latest album Swift Feet for Troubling Times is the riotous climax of the evening. It starts with a simple guitar melody and then Casey blasts the last line, “Lover come grab your guns. I know that you want some. Maps in flames, I'll follow you, while you lead the way.”The pants-less performance continues as a bemused Casey turns away from the sight and Tim eventually struggles to pull the fabric up again. In the middle of a high-emotion, thunderous beat, hands clapping performance a public change room session takes place.
When 
As each song began to unfold it was fascinating to watch her layer tunes together, releasing one strand of sound and then overlapping it with longer, higher or lower notes that build and become a thick stew of interwoven harmonies. She lays out each tone like an ingredient from a memorized recipe on her kitchen counter, stirring with enthusiasm and adding zesty new flavors with gusto.
It starts simply, with two phrases sung in a delicate strand. “Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground. Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down.” She places a fresh stanza over that one, like laying a second pale sheet upon a bare bed.
