photo by Mindy Tucker!
I've heard it said before that Baltimore is where white people who live in Washington, DC actually live. It very well could be, I've never been there. and unfortunately I've never seen recent 4ad signees Celebration reside in that city. They played last week in Montreal with Brooklyn's Calla, but for some reason, I ended up watching Guelph's favourite prairie rockers, The Constantines, who conjured up images of endless, drab and beige landscapes.
Outside of the physical confines of Baltimore, Celebration spend some time in a murky underworld of N. American music, which shares stylistic similarities with the world of goth music, though tactfully avoiding the kitsch and cliché that weighs down the buckle-booted and leather-strapped. (It seems like a nice even split - they have their Fields of the Nephilim, and on the other side, another strand of developement: Slaves/Pleasure Forever and associated groups (VSS, the dubby Subpoena The Past, Lion Fever, let's even say Angelhair), and occasionally the two meet and talk about Bauhaus...)
The group have been around over a number of years, existing as Lovelife and Birdland, before settling upon a three piece line-up, sticking with a moniker, and finally getting some recognition. Keen observers might notice that Celebration and The Get Hustle share more than aesthetic similarities - singers Katrina and Valentine have the same husky and hounded voice found in post-punk foremothers such as Ari Up or Siouxsie Sioux. Incidentally, The Get Hustle released an album a couple of days ago on 31g.
Celebration-War.mp3
The Get Hustle - Pharoah's Horses
ADDENDA Portland, Oregon's G. Candy fit quite nicely, too... A newer track.
Glass Candy & the Shattered Theatre - Iko.mp3
It's a good week for getting in touch with your spirit animal.
Tuesday at Le Divan Orange, 4234 St-Laurent
Emboldened psychotropic voyageurs The Besnard Lakes will be presenting another chapter in their intergalactic space opera tomorrow night at Le Divan Orange, along with fellow travellers The Kickers and Bionic. Cover is pay what you can...
Wednesday at Friendship Cove, 215 Murray St
The Unireverse, beloved Damo Suzuki collabos, hot off of this weekend's scintillating GROOVE WAGON (eeeerk) with Islands' Jammie Thompson will be opening up a night of primordial klink, scrape and pummel with Dreamcatcher and The Shalabi Effect.
Friday at The Main Hall, 5390 St. Laurent
I always avoided listening to Holy Fuck, not being much of a fan of The Remains of Brian Borcherdt, but this is one of the best things that I've heard from Toronto for a long time, or so it seemed, halfway through Pop Montreal, when I caught the tail end of their set. Tape-loops, rhythm-oriented noise. The Unireverse and Land of Talk, fronted by Outremont's favourite peeping tom, Elizabeth Powell, open.
As December hits, all of NY will no doubt be talking about the scheduled week-long Montreal invasion, beginning with Telefauna's stateside debut at Pianos with fellow city-dwellers The Hot Springs on the 1st, and ending with Islands' Knitting Factory show on the 6th. There's two warm-ups as Montrealer Ghislain Poirier opens for British hip-hop princess Lady Sovereign, who will, hopefully, stay away from McDonalds' prior to the performance, and We Are Wolves are performing at the Mercury Lounge on November 26th with honourary Montrealers Mixel Pixel.
1 comment:
Damn. Those are some good shows. Tell Telefauna that the DC kids wanna see them -- out of all the Montreal stuff that I reccommended, kids liked them best.
And as for DC and Baltimore.....yeah. Baltimore is better. They're both shitty, dangerous cities but Baltimore has better shows and bars and it's cheaper. You're more likely to get murdered in DC but you're more likely to get stuff stolen in Baltimore, I think. Something like that.
That being said, you should still come visit sometime. I'd protect you!
-KT
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