Bixis As Vehicles of Diversity: An Interview with Jonathan Maurice

When Morin Heights' favourite son Jonathan Maurice first rode a Bixi, the sky opened, the sun flashed, and in an instant, he was re-born. From importer of the infamous iPod Battle, he became a Bixi Supporter who may have unwittingly spilled the beans about a Communist plot to socialize transportation. (Bixis, shall I compare thee to a Lada? Though art more lovely& temperate.)


As an early adopter of the Bixi, you're uniquely qualified to offer insight and to comment on the Bixi phenomenon, the challenges it faces, and some of the great successes the program has seen in the past couple of months. When was your first Bixi ride, and what was the impetus for that ride?

As the average Montrealer, I was starting to be a little bit frightened of getting my bike stolen or vandalized every summer. It's been 15 years that I am living in this beautifull city, but it's been also 15 bikes or more I bought (actually, I did steal one back a night I have been robbed...I was drunk, far away from home and the stealer managed to leave an unlocked bike just near my stolen one...). Anyways, I was glad Montreal adopted Paris and Amsterdam's idea of sharing public bikes, so that I could ride freely, without feeling any fear of getting robbed again! The good thing is that it cost less than the price of a used Raleigh (low class) bike to get a year membership, and it does the job honnestly when getting from A to B. For the longest drives, well I guess I would have to borrow my grandma's bike. she doesn't use it anyways.

My first bixi ride was curiously when I got back from Paris in this year may. On vacation, I had the chance to try the velib (Paris' bixi equivalent) and I was waiting for the bixi to arrive in Montreal. As a matter of fact, I knew it was coming in Montreal, but I did not know it was coming the exact same date I was coming back home. When I got back, I was eager to try the new bixis so I just put my credit card and rent it for a simple ride, a pure "goingnowhere" 2 wheels roadtrip! It was a lot of fun actually! I think I went to parc Maisonneuve with a friend of mine. It even inspired me to be romantic for a short period of time, as my friend and I decided to buy some goodies at the public market to do a romantic picnic in the middle of the montreal ecosystem.

Do you see the Bixi as part of a broader civic approach to alternate forms of transportation, or is this a one-off pilot program destined to fall into disrepair with the arrival of winter?

I really foresee the Bixi as one of the elements of Montreal's mayor proud. I know that he gave himself a lot of credit for copying what Amsterdam and, more recently Paris, were already doing. He also decided to export "his" idea to Boston, London and New York, which will sooner or later have Bixis also. So for me it is inconceivable that he would stop investing in one of his favorite project! I would not be surprised that Montreal decided to heat the bike paths up this winter! Honestly, I think bixi is more of a marketing "tour de force" than any civic approach. Obviously, it sells for itself because it is a green form of transportation, but for me, it is mostly the signature of a political gesture. A political gesture yes, but at least a political gesture that is useful!

What's the smoothest thing about a Bixi ride?

The smoothest thing about a bixi ride? Hmm, I don't really think it is that smooth of a ride. The bike is really heavy and tough to run in the hills, but in a downhill situation, yesss, it is smooth. Beside that mechanical issue, I think the smoothest thing about a Bixi ride is the fact that you don't have to find a place to lock your bike. You just leave it to the stand and forget about it. If you want to go somewhere else, you go and you don't have to bother yourself of always carrying a bike from places to places. It's like having a little genie in the pocket that makes a bixi appears anywhere you need one. There is really a lot of stands, so it is not hard at all to get a bixi anywhere in the plateau, mile end or downtown area!

As a high-profile Bixi rider (you were featured prominently in a daily commuter newspaper early on in the program), do you feel any pressure to muffle your criticisms about the Bixi program, as one would with a loved, yet flawed, family member?

Not at all. Maybe if they'd paid me though, but even then... And by the way, I hope I am not seen as an ambassador of the Bixis. I was just happy to offer myself as a satisfied user of the bixis for the medias, but the city didn't ask me anything, so I don't feel like I owe anything to the city at all.

What are some of the cosmetic and structural changes you would make to the Bixi?

I don't really care about the cosmetic of the Bixis. I am totally aware that they are far from being as sexy as the fixed gear bikes per example, but for me, the usage of a Bixi is everything except sexy. Sexiness is for cupid and individual purposes. Bixis are mostly element of a communist or communitarian philosophy, which endorse common sense and compromise, more than eccentricity and style. Maybe someday, when our society will become totally narcissistic, we'll remember the Bixis as the good old age of our past humanity, and than, they will become sexy...maybe. I don't know. I just suddenly feel so visionary!

Anyhow, the system is not perfect. Sometimes the stands are broken or the key doesn't work, but again, it is like in the former CCCP, I am sure the Ladas were not always the best reliable cars, but they were almost free!

Who do you think the typical Bixi rider is, and do you think with the program's success, a whole subculture might develop around the Bixi? What would tie together the various practitioners of the Bixi Lifestyle?

Again, as a broad public initiative, it is really unlikely to develop some kind of a ghetto usage of the bixis. I think it will be hard to identify any tendency or fashion around it. You will always find fat tourists, as well as hipsters around a Bixi stand. That's the beauty of the thing. It is democratic. It represents our diversity. For some purists, Bixis will never worth a try, but again, I am ok with that. It leaves more Bixis for my usage.

iPod Battle #1, 2006
featuring such titans of the Montreal music world as Mike Durcak, John Lee, Peer Pressure, Christopher Pare, Baz, Annie Q, Heidy Pinet, Guillaume Decouflet (pre-Khiasma days), Mange ta Ville, & me with a terrible haircut.

All-Rounder est mort.

The Whispers It's A Love Thing
Sharon Redd Beat the Street
Lucy Pearl Dance Tonight
Teena Marie It Must Be Magic
Central Line Walking Into Sunshine
Shift Roller Rink Funk
Janet Jackson Escapade
Mary Jane Girls Candyman
The Spinners I'll Be Around

91 editions of the All-Rounder, and finally, the lumbering & genre-swappin' night that is the All-Rounder is laid to rest. In honour of the sweaty times, the wonderful times, and the excessive times, here are a number of mp3s culled from the archives to celebrate 2 years or so of whatever it was that was going on in Montreal's favourite unlabeled bar. I'll add more throughout the week. Thanks to all of our guests, the staff & owners of Korova, everyone who stopped by to imbibe or dance or both, & everyone else. Enjoy!

Montell Jordan, Disco Divas & Kraut Rock

Could it have been that wise to own a parrot during the cocaine excess of the disco years?

Edititude City Love 4 the Sake of Love (Crisco Dancing Edit)
Montell Jordan Get It On Tonite

In 1999, Kappa Alpha Psi frat brother and R&B superstar Montell Jordan took a trick from the Puff Daddy toolbox, sampling Claudja Barry's Love For the Sake of Love for his chart-topping single Get It On Tonite, the video of which featured an early example of text-message infidelity, making a case for the zeitgeist-anticipating qualities of the R&B genre. In 1980 was there a rock band with a track as prescient as Ronnie Jones' Video Games? (Incidentally, that song was also produced by Claudja Barry's pet-producer, who I discuss later). Not likely!

David Shaw is one-half of the Loose Joints duo here in Montreal, an incredibly talented graphic designer, and an extremely nice & hilarious guy to boot. He's also associated with the international DJ & production cartel Attitude City. For whatever reason, David & Davey Lahteenma (the other 1/2) are one of Montreal's best kept secrets - mixing & mastering for years and earning them the righteous love and appreciation of everyone who ever manages to catch their set, as well as bringing in Hercules & Love Affair, Brennan Green, Mike Simonetti & countless other guests before their big moments in the blogspotlight. Hopefully I'll have some other edits to post in the next little while, but in the mean-time, here's a live-set of David Shaw recorded last year entitled Disco's Dead. (Full-disclosure, I had the great privilege to DJ with him this past Saturday at Pop Montreal's Italo Disco Bike In and it was awesome.)

And now to our diva... Jamaican-transplant turned Torontonian Claudja Barry left Boney M in 1976 to pursue her own singing career, and thank God, because it gave us many great & fine songs, not the least of which is the simple and strutting song Love For The Sake of Love, the b-side to 1976's Sweet Dynamite. Production duties on this (and many other Claudja Barry tracks) were handled by German producer Jurgen S. Korduletsch, who prior to this was working with kraut-rockistes Amon Düül II.

Can I Want More

Kraut-rock & disco are not mutually exclusive, which is where Can's I Want More comes in. Also released in 1976 (on the album Flow Motion), the seemingly disparate worlds of the dancefloor & Deutschland find themselves in perfect union here, and thus became their only Top 40 hit in the UK and earned them a slot on Top of the Pops. The guitar-work & full-group vocals on this song are amazing, and the organ-stab anticipates the same stab on Diana Ross' My Old Piano.

Sounds Like Walking or Running

The Crystals, many years after recording Da Doo Ron Ron

The Crystals Da Doo Ron Ron
The Rolling Stones (Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City
The Mighty Avengers (Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City
The Supremes Run, Run, Run
The Velvet Underground Run, Run, Run

There are certain songs that, owing to that bizarre alchemical process known as "record production" produce in me a physical desire to not dance, but to move forward somehow - usually run, sometimes just walk and skip a bit - but propel my body forward. In the case of these two songs, I've managed to narrow it down to two elements - piano arpeggios and tympani. Although none of Philip Glass' compositions produce the same effect, so maybe I'm off-base. Or is it just that one song mentions walking specifically, and in the other, "ron ron" could be misheard as "run run?"

The Crystals' Da Doo Ron Ron is a lovely bit of nonsense written by song-writing duo Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and produced by Phil Spector. You know it, no doubt.

I first heard (Walkin' Thru The) Sleepy City on Metamorphosis, a spectacular collection of Rolling Stones' singles, demos and b-sides from their early career under the tutulage of Andrew Loog Oldham that's frequently spotted at used record stores and well worth the $3 or so one has to put down to own it. Some of the songs on the collection recorded as demos to be shopped around to other groups, and such is the case with this one. The Mighty Avengers (or their producer) foolishly decided to bury the piano in the mix, and there's a naivety in the vocals that pales in comparison to the y'know, transcendent snarl & knowingness of Mr. Jagger in the Rolling Stones' version. (Another similar sounding song worth your time in the collection is I'd Much Rather Be With the Boys)

So, is it just the title then that compels me to walk or run? Let's see. Here we have two songs with the same title that are vastly different in terms of subject matter. The Supremes' Run, Run, Run is a strangely off song written for the group by Motown's sweetest song-writing trio Holland-Dozier-Holland in 1964 that resulted in a dismal chart-showing. The Velvet Underground's Run, Run, Run performed even more dismally on the charts, of course, although at this juncture it's the more well-known of the two. Neither of these songs make me want to move much.

Your step-father, before he met your mother...

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band Night Moves

There's an unrepeatable story that explains the ubiquitous use of the term "Night Moves" amongst my friends, but like most inside jokes and small infants in the wild, it wouldn't last very long out of the watchful eyes of its creators. And it's not that much easier to speak about one of Detroit's many favourite journeyman musicians Bob Seger, either. His name brings up images of an earnest and bearded man who was never as cool as Bruce Springsteen nor as unbearable as John Cougar Mellancamp, but occupied a similar niche for men of a certain age, of a certain class, and probably a certain type of beer, too. (Is that why his backing band is called the Silver Bullet Band?) Step-father rock, but not Steve Earle.

So, I'll talk about the song, despite the salacious and entirely unwholesome imagery and memories the phrase conjurs up in my mind, this song is a soft and endearing bit of roots rock with piano that recalls The Band or alternately predicts Bruce Hornsby's playing on The Way It Is, more than the honky tonking it was probably intended to recall. So, for all of you working men & working men's offspring, who will be finishing their work late this evening, after hoisting bails of hay or tool-boxes or hefty grant applications, this is an appropriate song for which to end the working day, allowing you to segue into more ironic and rocking territory before hoisting bottles of beers to your weary, bearded faces. Oh shit, this is a song about one night stands? Weird.

Cut Copy's I Thought of Numbers EP (2001)

Cut Copy Rendesvouz
Cut Copy Drop The Bomb
Cut Copy Standing Up Sitting Down

The other day, I was thinking that there should be another Cut Copy album coming down the pipeline, and lo and behold, no word of anything yet. Alas. The Australians are easily one of my favourite electro groups around today, managing to penetrate my low-level hostility and antipathy towards that continent. To tide myself over, I returned to their 2001 debut EP, I Thought of Numbers, from which the songs above are taken. Rendezvous best bears the Cut Copy sonic stamp of the three songs here - the rolling synth-lines, disaffected vocals, and chopped vocal samples: not quite ready for the dancefloor yet, though. Drop the Bomb sounds a bit like the Avalanches, or the Bumblebeez or the hybrid edits that Jacques Renault specializes in - certainly more of a UK break influence being felt at this time, while Standing Up Sitting Down is a faux-Teutonic head-nodder that eventually morphs into a sample-fueled disco mid-tempo work-out.

You can still buy a 12" from Modular that has four of the songs on it.

Fleetwood Mac Never Forget (Cut Copy Lifelife Remix)

As an addenda to yesterday's Fleetwood Mac post, here's Australia's favourite Golden Boys re-mixing another Christine McVie song from the So Cosmic mixtape that they put out last year. The layers of jet-propelled melancholy are perfect if you find yourself biking up a mountain an hour before sunset or so.

Slinging Summer Sounds

Roy Ayers Everybody Loves the Sunshine (1976)
Brand Nubian Wake Up (Reprise in the Sunshine) (1990)
Mary J. Blige My Life (1995)
Naughty by Nature Sunshine (1995)
Lucy Pearl Don't Mess With My Man (2000)
A.Skillz vs. Beat Vandals Sunshine (2007)

I remember playing the hell out of the A. Skillz vs. Beat Vandals mashup a couple of years ago, and only being vaguely conscious of the sample. Didn't give it much thought. It took the fine aural instincts of my friend Mauricio to tie it back to Lucy Pearl at first, and Roy Ayers later. As you can see, the song's been many things to many people in the 30 plus years since it was first released: popping up to nod heads with Brand Nubian; providing credentials for Mary J. Blige's snoozeworthy My Life, with production reminscient of Gospel-pop; with the creases ironed out in Naughty by Nature's libidinal labial lyric, and done the best way, I believe, by Lucy Pearl, that oft-missed super-group comprised of the ever-dapper Raphael Saadiq*, Dawn Robinson of En Vogue, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest.

Souls of Mischief '93 'Til Infinity

2 Live Crew Hoochie Mama

First, here's the classic title track from the debut album by Oakland's Souls of Mischief, which includes a sample from the song Stratus from fusion drummer Billy Cobham, who kept musical company with Mr. Ayers.

Who knew the Friday soundtrack would be so popular and strike such a chord well into the 21st century? Ice Cube? I still get at least a couple of search referrals every day from people looking for an mp3 of 2 Live Crew's Hoochie Mama that I posted years ago, so I figured I'd satisfy at least 100 of them until the Yousendit link runs out. Probably familiar with the song, but if not, listen & sing along "Hood Rat, Hood Rat, Hoochie Mama!"

* He just released a fun video for "Let's Take A Walk" last month.

It was all a Mirage, I used to read West Coast Magazine...

Paranoia, Jealousy, Hand-Tinted Photographs

The Talking Heads This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Fleetwood Mac Everywhere

When it comes to Fleetwood Mac, there are a couple of idées fixes that I tend to harp on about when the topic inevitably arrives. First, there's my suspicion that when Lindsey Buckingham wrote 1986's Everywhere, he was either directly or indirectly paying homage to the Talking Heads' This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), which was released in 1983 (and with the intro, possibly the sound logo of Disney's Buena Vista). Both of these songs are passable as hipster mating calls, which would explain the following videos.

MGMT cover The Talking Heads

Vampire Weekend cover Fleetwood Mac

Secondly, that a couple of years ago, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album was the album that allowed people of my age and generation the chance to re-evaluate Fleetwood Mac, primarily because the strange excess and weirdness of the album itself and the recording process gave us permission to. That was followed by an embracing of Tango In The Night (I'm thinking now of CFCF's great re-working as evidence), and that we'll shortly be in the age of Mirage, after which there will be a Photian Schism for a couple of years while various sects develop around The Cult of Peter Green, The Gospel of Christine McVie (née Perfect), The Doctrine of Stevie Nicks, & maybe even The Decrees of Mick Fleetwood's Zoo (that's least likely, I think.)

Fleetwood Mac Love In Store

So, what's going to give us all permission to delve into Mirage? Truthfully, the nasally voice of Stevie Nicks has always rubbed me slightly the wrong way, to say little of her neo-gypsy art school teacher outfits (I hate free spirits), so it's going to be a Christine McVie song first, Love In Store, which is awesome in much the same way that the Grateful Dead's Touch of Grey is awesome, and has given me great results as a late-night dancefloor closer.

Fleetwood Mac Hold Me

After Love In Store, my next pick on the album is the 9th track. The opening piano roll of Hold Me is a compelling dance-floor shuffler that eventually picks up steam & becomes a near-perfect expression of desire and the anticipated satisfaction of that desire.

Christine McVie back when her last name was Perfect

Fleetwood Mac Wish You Were Here

Finally, there's the album closer, Christine McVie's ballad Wish You Were Here, reportedly about her deceased lover Dennis Wilson (of The Beach Boys). Incidentally and (by now) obviously, I love Christine McVie's voice, and how much does Victoria Legrand of Beach House's voice sound similar? Just prior to Christine McVie joining Fleetwood Mac, she recorded and released a solo album called Christine Perfect that I would highly recommend to anyone else enamored with her voice. Here she sings noticeably deeper, and the music is bluesier than her later solo work, especially on a cover of Etta James' I'd Rather Go Blind and my personal favourite, No Road is The Right Road, which is the stylistic forerunner of Holly Golightly's There Is An End.

This could all be moot, though. It's been a long time since I've mp3 blogged, and maybe now we've all got rid of our musical hang-ups, which would go a long way to explain the widespread enthusiasm for the Italo Disco Bike-In this weekend.

Lindsey Buckingham pays tribute to Adam Ant & the Nouveau Pirate Movement

Kano's "Don't Try To Stop Me" & Ring My Bell: Pop Montreal Italo Disco Bike-In

Kano Don't Try to Stop Me

A sleeper Italo Disco Funk hit from Kano from their 1981 album New York Cake. It's a super fun boogie vocoder-laced workout, similar to their dance-floor slayer I'm Ready.

I'll be DJing (as Jay Watts III, natch) the 3rd Annual Pop Montreal Bike-In this weekend, along with the ever-talented Why Alex, Why?, David Shaw (Loose Joints), and Bethany Benzur (New York City) at Terrace McAuslan. In previous years, the themes have been R. Kelly & Bollywood, (I'm hoping next year it'll be a Hip-House Bike-In) while this year we'll be celebrating the artistic heights that the greats of Italo Disco managed to scale. If the names Kano, Jimmy Ross, Scotch, Carmen, & Pineapples mean anything to you, or you consider the ouevre of Ken Laszlo to be beyond compare, then I'm sure you'll appreciate the night.

There's also a screening of Michaelangelo Antonioni's dubious masterwork Blow Up happening at dusk. All free, just pay for your drinks & food!

The Hour's Brendan Murphy wrestles the zeitgeist to the ground and steps on its throat, describing Bixis as "the new fanny packs," but being okay with Italodisco.

Jack Oatmon loves anything on two-wheels and calls me an 'inimitable pop sophist.' Thanks?

Art Garfunkel's "Break Away" & Non-Canonical Yacht Rock

Art Garfunkel Break Away

Discovering non-canonical yacht rock songs is one of the true and distinct pleasures of searching for music. While it's always interesting to re-discover the familiar songs of the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, and the rest of the giants of the 70's soft rock pantheon, it's a far rarer and more delightful treat to come across a song that, given my age, has passed me by or never even got the chance to. The titular track from Art Garfunkel's second solo album, Break Away is just such a song. Penned by Gallagher & Lyle, the Scottish songwriting duo who also wrote A Heart in New York, which Simon & Garfunkel sang at their concert in Central Park. (Garfunkel's version sounds like Chicago, incidentally.)

Art Garfunkel's voice doesn't crack here or warble, an affectation that served him well in his songs with Paul Simon, but marred some of his solo work. I'm thinking specifically of the verses in I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will be Forever), which is far too insistent a song to fall under the rubric of yacht rock. More a raft caught in a squall, than the pleasurecrafting of Break Away.

Guests on Garfunkel's "Break Away" album include Paul Simon, Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennille, Graham Nash & David Crosby, & Beatles-friend & former Manfred Mann member Klaus Voorman.

What are the qualities of a yacht rock song, good or bad? Obviously, from the great television show of the same name, we can find out that it's the smoothness of the sound and generally written and performed by a group of associated musicians in Southern California during the 70's, but this song doesn't fit that description and yet it's definitely yacht rock. The jazz-inflection, the presence of a Rhodes piano, vocal harmonies, an easy and gentle tempo: these are a few of the obvious signifiers.

The Black Ghosts It's Your Touch

Does The Black Ghosts It's Your Touch count as a contemporary yacht-rock song? I'd generally say not, though it's certainly smoother. Closer to Sade and Zima commercials, though. The Black Ghosts is a bizarre Hammer Horror British Noirist recording project from Simon Lord of Simian Mobile Disco and Theo Keaitng of The Wiseguy. I don't know how I feel about this song, really. I liked the sound and the production (it certainly reminds me of Phoenix) but the vocals lag and commit the familiar British crime of the Pitch Shift Whine that annoys me about Muse, Radiohead, and Elbow, to cite a few of the major offenders.

Soundalikes

Jens LekmanThe Opposite of Hallelujah (MP3)
The Chairmen of the Board Give Me Just a Little More Time (MP3)

Jens, meet The Chairmen of the Board. Gentlemen, meet Jens. Oh, wait, it appears you've already met. Our Swedish friend Jens is, of course, no stranger to the curious desire and pull that influences, conscious or not, can exert on one's work. In previous songs, he's graciously lifted from The Left Banke, Belle and Sebastian, and The Mamas & The Papas, and in deference to our esteemed corporate friends above, Mr. Lekman has often launched into a cover of Give Me Just A Little More Time during his performances. Pop!




Sinbad Richardson directs a new video for Think About Life's Sweet Sixteen.

The Friends & Fellow Travelers at Pop Montreal are putting on the Passion Pit show this Thursday at Sala Rosa. It's all sold out online, and I imagine the last 10 tickets available at Casa del Popolo will be gone by the time it opens its doors in 45 minutes.

Nice Day for a Bixi

Richmond Lam, photographer & general nice fellow, had his first taste of the Garden of Earthly Delights yesterday when he rode Bixi for the first time. Citing a broken bicycle (he's going to get it fixed soon, he says) as the impetus for his first foray into Bixi land, the young man took to it like Icarus to his wax-wings, but without the melting and crashing. Remarkably solid things, those Bixis, and as our hero demonstrates above, mocassin-friendly.

(Yes, Eve, the Ganakoo is real.)

Get To Know Your Bixi Rider

Nevermind about dogs you can ride, let's talk Bixi. Montreal's own bicycle-taxi system, The Bixi, has been keeping me laughing since I first saw one of those things, and recently, I've become a bit obsessed with the Bixi Lifestyle. So much so, that I'm about to go all Midnight Poutine and develop a new feature called Get To Know Your Bixi Rider, in which I adopt the traditional man-on-the-street approach and interview Bixi lovers, novices and afficianados alike about the Bixi: its culture and history, and the impact of the Bixi on the lives of those who ride Bixi.

Who is your typical Bixi rider? Is there even an average Bixi rider, or does the convenience and spirit of the Bixi transcend all barriers between people?

If Arrested Development were around today, Jeb would not ride a Segway. No. He would zoom around Orange County in comfort and style astride his Bixi.

Ex-patriate Frenchman cultural critic and blogger Fabien Loszach (of the Almost As Cool As Fighting blog) and I were taking the air, as it were, biking to see the MSO perform a number of crowd-pleasing favourites in Parc Ahuntsic on an overcast Thursday (that turned foul hours later), when he told me of the seminal indie-rock band, The Bixies and their sleeper-classic, Where is my Bike? A week later to the day, my bicycle would be gone - stolen from outside of my house, not 50 feet from a Bixi docking station. If it were a particularly slow newsweek, I imagine my conversion from 10-speed Plateau-ish cyclist to a full-on Bixi rider would earn me a place in the Montreal Gazette's lifestyle section - a wide-angle photograph of me crossing my arms by the spot where my bicycle was stolen under the headline, "Bike Bandits have this Boy Whistlin' Bixi."

From now on, whenever you think about Bixi (and trust me, you will), visit Goldkicks. In the coming weeks, we'll be talking to the people that make Bixi what it is, representatives of the Bixi subculture, Bixi detractors, and get to the bottom of the painfully unsuccessful and bizarre Bixi thefts. Bixi Branding - what is it, and does it work? Do you find the Bixi is compelling enough as a concept? Does it emotionally resonate with you, or is the Bixi Identity too utilitarian? Can a Bixi be sexy? All these questions will be answered, and new ones will undoubtedly arise, as we chart the exciting life and times of the Bixi.

Other Notes

Ali Rahman vs. Bobcat Goldthwait.

Chris Clark is King of the Contests, King of Christian Comedy, and Montreal's stealthiest publicist.

Bixi Buzz: Bixi Stations, Bixi THIS!, You're on a Bixi right now, Bixit iPhone App, Bixi Me iPhone App, Up-to-date Bixi Map, Bixi & Twitter: So 2009, Should Bixis Come With Helmets?, Bixi Video, Maclean's Magazine Does A Bixi Audio Tour, Are Bixis Bad For Small Business?.

Just For Laughs Rumour Mill

Confirmed by the warble-voiced Hollywood mentor of Charlyne Yi, the Reigning Queen of Mixed Media Mumblecore Comedy Performance: that fumbled smooch in the film Paper Heart wasn't just acting. The 23 year old Angeleno is dating her co-star, Michael Cera.

Just For Laughs Film Festival Jury Announcement & Paper Heart

I went out last night to catch Paper Heart, the mixed-format documentary (and stop-animation!) film from Nicholas Jasenovec & Charlyne Yi (you'll probably remember her from Knocked Up), documenting Charlyne's aw-shucks search for love, its meaning, and so forth. Jake Johnson (as Nick Jasenovec) as the slightly manipulative, but ultimately well-meaning director, was pretty funny, and while all-in-all the film depended on a certain mannered awkwardness, the essential charm of the cast and their own personalities stopped it from devolving into the unbearable twee-fest it could have been.

Michael Cera, for all his corduroy-clad stammering is a funny guy, and a lot of him in this film reminded me of his short-lived series Clark and Michael. Same apartment, too, I guess. Cameos by Seth Rogen, Demetri Martin, and a number of alt-comedy also-rans. Music production by Montreal's own Alden Penner (lately of Clues, formerly of the Unicorns).

Also on the JFL front, today they announced their jurists for the 13th edition of the film festival. From the press release:

This year's jury will be made up of 5 members of the entertainment industry, including David Greenbaum (Vice President of Production and Development, Miramax Films), Alex Epstein (writer, Bon Cop / Bad Cop), Melissa Auf de Maur (music artist from the band Hole and Smashing Pumpkins), Denis Côté (filmmaker, Carcasses) and Tendo Nagenda (Vice President of Production, Mandate Pictures).

Films are screening from July 16 to 25 at the NFB CineRobotheque on St. Denis, by Berri-UQAM metro.

Evan Dubinsky is still Googling himself, and unfortunately, intrepid searchers, I have no photographs of boys in panties here, just an old post on a Victorian musician named Panty Boy.

Ali Rahman information and whereabouts-seekers, please direct your attention to http://whereisalirahman.tumblr.com/

Who Killed Michael Jackson?

Who killed Michael Jackson? Ian Halperin, in an interview with the Montreal Mirror, thinks it was the vultures that surround him. Who murdered Michael Jackson? Was Michael Jackson murdered? Death by neglect? Overwork? Janet Jackson? Latoya Jackson? Jermaine Jackson? It couldn't be bass-loving Tito Jackson, so humorously portrayed as a best-of hocking envious brother by Tracy Morgan of 30 Rock. Did Scientologists kill Michael Jackson? Could they have saved him from the rampant rumours of homosexuality, anorexia? Was it Cory Feldman? What about Corey Haim? Corey Feldman killed Michael Jackson, by diluting his brand. Certainly Corey Haim did not kill Michael Jackson. Out of the two Corys/the two Coreys, I just don't think he would have it in him. More than likely, in a plot to squash the popular uprising in Tehran and across Iran, the Iranian government killed Michael Jackson. Twitter has changed the world. Eddie Murphy might have killed Michael Jackson by wearing that red jacket so much. Was that in Raw? Those Jakarta bombings, in Indonesia... Michael Jackson was beloved by southern Asians, and the Japanese, of course, but for different reasons. Bollywood loved him. I don't know how the northern Asians felt about The Prince of Pop. Did the Mongolians like Michael Jackson? Maybe, but there was no love. Same with the northern Chinese provinces. Vaguely aware, but, meh, whatever. I don't know if anyone can ever answer these lingering questions, and maybe it's more rhetorical than anything else, like when Jeru the Damaga asked who killed hip-hop. It turned out hip-hop wasn't dead, but that Puff Daddy had just kidnapped him, had him holed up somewhere in New York (not in one of the five boroughs) and maybe Ma$e was around, feeding him and playing poker or whatever. Probably reading the Holy Bible. Death by Jeans Job. A career in denim. The last crime in a world gone mad. New Mexico. Explosions. I get so much traffic for hood rat, it's kind of weird. Hoochie Mama, too. Maybe it's people looking for 2 Live Crew ringtones. I don't know if it's 2 Live Crew diegesis or what. Someone in Hanna, Alberta came here recently from the query "Is there a dog you can ride?" I guess it's a big agricultural area, Hanna, in Alberta. Must be a recession thing. Horses are so expensive. If there was a ridable dog, why, that'd be easier to feed and you wouldn't have to worry too much about them running away. Dogs stick around. They're loyal like that. Michael Jackson in Prada, by Miu Miu. Nice shoes. Sex and the City killed Michael Jackson. Evan Dubinsky of Bad Flirt hasn't Googled himself recently. Maybe I'll write about Greg Ipp's CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE. I wonder if Jian Ghomeshi has commented yet. I am going to make this blog the first search result for Evan Dubinsky. I bet I can make it to at least #2. I'm #5 right now on Google for Evan Dubinsky. I don't really want to change the name of the blog to Evan Dubinsky Kicks or something, though. Noah Bick Kicks would be funnier. Those rideable dogs, man, I get a lot of hits for that. And pictures of Dean Martin, Sharon Tate and Mia Farrow for some reason. bad flirt is evan dubinsky, jasamine white-gluz, laura lloyd, music, raf de la durantaye. Yoko Ono killed Michael Jackson.british open leaderboard 2009, martellus bennett was a great rapper, loved his rap video, love hip hop videos by martellus bennet, and evan dubinsky hip hop project, too. Lindsay Avner was not on the Tour de france stage 13, or the Tour de France Stage 11, either. Tour de France Stage 14 and Tour de France Stage 15 will be great, as long as Lori Silverbush and Tom Colicchio from that Homecoming Movie with Jared Kushner don't end up in a trailer, and instead Tom and Lori have a baby. Top Chef, never seen that show. Panasonic tc p54z1 is out and Heather Zeo is happy, happy, happy. Taleon Goffney. Where are these names coming from? Myley Cyrus? What a weird first name. The Apollo moon landing hoax is a tired and boring conspiracy theory, and I'm a bit too queasy to read anything about Canada's favourite serial killers, Karla homolka and paul bernardo. Karla Homolka lives in Montreal now, or supposedly lived in the south of Montreal. Apparently there was some ex-convict who loved her and seeked her out. Who knows what Karla Homolka does in Montreal. Maybe Karla Homolka is in Pointe-Claire, or Verdun, or Karla Homolka is in St. Henri. The North bay road castle is quite the amusing Ontario/Ontarian theme park or tourist attraction. Back to that Martellus bennett rap video, starring Julio Lugo, who could show him a thing or two about rhymes and crimes. Adam kimmel. Adam Kimel even. Maybe Adam Kimmell. Miami beach castle is not as cool as that North Bay thing.

Kesha Nichole, Richard's Wedding, Trendifying, and those damn sharks in New York.

Kesha Nicole Nichols is quite a lady, the Richard Jefferson wedding must have been a blast Is it really Ni Cole? Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols, maybe. Nee Cole? Nico! Little Pamela Laverne Long and Wendy Touton pics and pictures, bios and biographies. The uncensored tale. Shameless video. Why do the Russians care? Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a parable for the Obama Age (some say Obama throws like a girl, but that's coming from a fat guy in pleated khakis who tucks in his polo shirts) or just plain racist, Sibylle Szaggars photograph is in high demand, Tu 154M were some doomed Caspians, MTLQQ is the General Motors stock symbol and I hope it's not on your market ticket, Andree McLeod is Alaskan, Swine flu symptoms checker is going to make you paranoid, The People's Pharmacy sounds like something out of Berkley, basking sharks are more common than those that are broiled, Gipper's List sounds like some quasi-religious Reaganite parable, Maria del Carmen Bousada was quite the mother, WJFK format change has people talking, while Tupolev 154 was mentioned above, Trutv is a reality TV station, I guess? Robert Redford's biography makes some mention of Natalie Wood, but not enough. A Today show wedding is more exciting than Larry Bird and his rights (miranda or not). I've never seen the Mike O'Meara show, but the BAA half marathon, well, not that either. But people run, boy, do they run in the Boston half marathon. 2009 or 1979, when a lot more people were smoking. Ben Mezrich did not win the all star game 2009, and the Jimmy V foundation might not be as generous as you imagined. Sheriff David Morgan is in Escambia County, in Florida, someone got murdered there. Who woulda thought? The Tour de France is in stage 11. Riley Fox was a 3 year old, and, unfortunately, not a bit character in the beloved Wind in the Willows novel. Huddle House is a gross-out diner in the United States that to some might mark a symbol of the end of the American empire, but is really just gross. Lola Redford (nee von Wagenen) and Robert are now married. Congraulations, say James Rafe Mitchell and Ty Strickland. Probably not a coupling that that ol' stalwart broad Ayn Rand would have approved of. So many sports events like the British Open Golf just pass me by. Back to those basking sharks - they seem to be popping up everywhere - even Long Island, whereas the Tupolev plane isn't going anywhere. Jim Valvano, what a coach and what a foundation head. The late great probably would have appreciated the Ann Arbor art fair, as would have Sotomayor paramour Kevin Edward Noonan. No one's going to take a pet airline - that's pre-Recession nonsense. Caspian airlines, will we remember you a month from now? Or does the New Zealand earthquake story have more legs? Alstrom Syndrome, that rare thing. The Harry Potter box office rides strong. Anthony Randolph is a fine player, Danielle Keller was 29 years old, and will never get the chance to enjoy a drink prepared by the portable frozen drink maker, the Margarator, which will be a frat house staple for years to come. Dave Chappelle, in Pioneer Square or Reef Central, either way, not that funny. Now, when a giant shark washes ashore, people take notice. Penelope Cruz pregnant? Oh, woah, despicable me. Evan Dubinsky's star-turn. Dubinsky is moving to Los Angeles, they say.

Q&A: Matt Silver & Pat Kiely (Kidnapper Films, Who Is K.K. Downey?)

Screenwriters, comedians, and mensches Matt Silver and Pat Kiely took some time to answer my questions about their work on the Showcase Series' The Foundation. 2 episodes of the upcoming series will be screened as part of the Just For Laughs Festival, which opens on Thursday, July 16th and occasionally subjects Montrealers to more street theatre than even they can handle.

How did Mike Dowse approach you to work on this project?

We had known Mike for a little while through our mutual friend Paul Spence. He had seen a few of our sketch shows back in the day and so when it came time to put together a writer's room, he gave us a shout. The room included myself, Pat Kiely, Paul Spence, a hilarious dude named Gord Skillet, Mike Dowse, his producer Jennifer Wilson, and a seasoned T.O. writer named Jackie May. It's really the best way to write comedy in my opinion, because you just sit around all day trying to be the funniest guy or girl in the room. (full disclosure: I was never the funniest guy or girl in the room).

You and Pat play the Tak Brothers in The Foundation: can you describe a bit about your characters and their relation to the series?

Pat plays an ex-Olympian who loses his legs to a drunk driver, and I play his skeevy drug-addict brother. In it's simplest terms, Pat is recruited to wheelchair his way across Canada by the head of a charitable organization and I tag along as his manager and drug dealer. Neither of these brothers are the nicest or healthiest dudes, and essentially they figure out pretty quickly a way to cheat the system by attaching the wheelchair to the back of a tour bus.

Both of you, if IMDB is any indication, appear to have had a rather busy couple of years, even besides working on K.K. Downey. Besides your God-given talent, Protestant work ethic and mounds of charm (etc., etc.), do you find that there's anything community-wise that Montreal has, that has kept you steadily working?

We've been lucky enough to have a bunch of friends who, over the last few years, have gone into production with a bunch of stuff. The anglo production community is pretty tight in Montreal, so if someone decides to shoot something (usually on a limited budget) they know that there's a pool of cheap talent out there. We just happen to be the cheapest of the cheap talent.

When will the series debut on Showcase?

I'm not 100% sure when The Foundation will be on Showcase. I'm thinking sometime in Autumn but again I'm not totally sure about that.

Pat Kiely: The only thing I can add is that "The Foundation" premieres on Sunday nights, starting September 20th at 10pm (after Weeds and before Kenny vs. Spenny).

Are there any plans for anything from Kidnapper Films in the works?

Kidnapper is cooking a few things up. We're hard at work on the script for our next feature, ostensibly a Montreal period piece where three idiots fix a horse race. We're also putting the finishing touches on another script which is being produced by Mike Dowse (FUBAR, Pete Tong) and John Hazlett (Suburbanators, These Girls). Besides that...shit I think that's it.

And... WHERE IS YOUR SERIES?

Where indeed, my friend. Where indeed. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Matt Silver as Mark in the film One-Man Party. Directed and shot by Mark Slutsky for the 2008 Montreal 60 Second Film Festival. This year's edition will be taking place on September 9th through 11th at Sala Rossa.

Thanks for the shout-out, Pardon My Hindi!

The Foundation at the Just For Laughs Film Festival

We're in the final stretch of the Montreal Jazz Fest, and while it was kind of interesting to press myself up against 100,000 other people for Patrick Watson's performance on Sunday night, truthfully, I've neglected my duties as a newly minted Quebecker (I declared my residency last Friday, after five years of living here), which, at this time, include wandering buzzed around the Quartier de Spectacle, fondling produce at a Farmer's Market or two, and playing pétanque in a city park.

Yes, I've been lazy, but now I'm summoning up all the civic pride I can to get involved, even if that means sitting in a dark theatre on a summer evening. (Thankfully, the weather's been mostly miserable...) The Just For Laughs Festival, widely known across the rest of Canada as the place where they film all of the filler stand-up comedy for Saturday night emergency programming on CTV, is here, and truthfully, I can take or leave stand-up comedy and comics. (And circus acts and the tam-tams and many other of Montreal's summer delights. Thank God they don't hold poetry slams outdoors.) But as it goes, there's something very compelling about this year's festival, and that's a screening of two episodes of a new television series on Canada's Showcase network (which re-broadcasts American cable shows, used to show a blue movie or two, and occasionally produces some Canadian shows) which stars two of the principals involved with last year's film, Who is K.K. Downey?, which premiered at Fantasia.

Kidnapper Films' Pat Kiely and Matt Silver make an appearance as the Tak Brothers, in an episode of a new five-part series called The Foundation, which is screening two episodes at the Just For Laughs festival. (Contrary to past years with this blog, I won't delve needlessly and deeply into the arcane details and connections, I'll just say that these are two very talented and very hard-working young men, and their lengthy CVs attest to that.)

From the trailer, it looks like it's just as funny, quick, offensive, and also features just as many questionable hairstyles and incidents of hard-drug use. Mike Wilmot (from It's All Gone, Pete Tong) stars as a morally bankrupt family patriarch, with Mike Dowse (Fubar, It's All Gone, Pete Tong) at the helm.

The Foundation at the Just For Laughs Film Festival
Thursday, July 23rd, 19h
NFB CineRobotheque
1564 rue St. Denis

I'll have a brief Q&A to post with the duo in the next day or so, but in the meantime, to give you a bit of context, here are some audio pieces. The first is a mock college radio show hosted by Terrance and Theo Huxtable that takes place prior to the events in Who Is K.K. Downey, and features an animated and aggravating caller, as well as selections from the film's spectacular soundtrack (Miracle Fortress, CFCF, Duchess Says, and others.). Unfortunately, we weren't able to re-create the smooth reggae sounds that follow on The Natty Dred Show. Production was by Ali Rahman and Martin Horn of Digital Bird Studios, with a little help from yours truly.

Who Is K.K. Downey? K.K. Cast (MP3 format)

Against Film Schools is a 2008 piece produced by Cristal Duhaime, who works on CBC Radio 1's Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein, for the sadly short-lived and ambitious Savfaire magazine. The voice you'll hear is that of Matt Silver, expounding wisdom to the fresh and naive souls who wish to make it as film-makers.

High School Lesbian Poetry Teacher

The shirt of a high school lesbian poetry teacher. Pedagogical Lesbianism. Sapphic poetry, odes of love from Sappho's Island of Lesbos ("What an island." - Burt Lancaster, in The Midnight Man). Is it simply the purview of academia, or does it have deeper resonance, in the creative writing workshops and homoerotic homework sessions of middle America? Across the pond, does the oeuvre of Jeanette Winterson inspire desire? Do daughters

Do nymphet nubilians squat and strong alike gather round to discuss Nubians, Sophie Scholl, Buckingham Nicks, and the near Talmudic levels of meaning in the 2 Live Crew chant of "hood-rat, hoodrat, hoochie Mama!" Poutina or poutine? Is it only adult fun, or young work? Lyrical lines on the elegance of the yellow heron or Yeats' mischievous soul?

Polanski's late-night dalliances with Sharon Tate, squatting in shadows, alone in the apartment, the thick, strange, brooding mood and anchorless violence of "Knife in the Water." How did Dean Martin & Mia Farrow play into this? Did Frank Sinatra (Senior, not Frank Sinatra, Jr., that faked Lindbergh baby) have dark connections to a couple of world famous riflemen, one of which ? Incestuous strands tied together here and there. What's the meaning of the Chinese Walk Into Ocean meme? Racist claptrap not on the level of Konrad's Captain Kurtz? Apocalyptic Christian hysterics from born-again grandmothers? Post-modern paranoia with anti-mercantilist roots, as old as the times of Tutankhamun and his Egyptian tomb? Lupid rhymes with stupid, but lupus rhymes with a couple Latin words, maybe. Shameless video clips. Shamelessly wondering if you can ride a dog. Can you ride a dog? Can I ride a dog? Dogs can be flea-bitten, but can they be ridden? Saddle up to ride, astride, a Labrador or a Pekingese? Who is the most disturbing, kitschy, and perverse? The director of KPax, the director of the film Powder (albindo deer-healing prowess), or outsider artist par excellence Henry Darger, janitor by day who favoured inaccurate depictions of flat-fronted genitalia, like Depression-era dolls done art brut?

Symphony no 6, op 74. Or Symphony Number 6, Opus Number 74. Tchaikovsky, by the Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Here we find the light touch and seemingly effortless of a genius. The mood sours, the pace quickens, the strings swell! Proto-Gershwin for Fellow Travelers! A Rhapsody in Red! That's familiar!

I went to a Japandroids show, last night, in Montreal. Never heard the band, but they both went to UVic, guess they shopped at Ditch. Some guy was opening up named Slim Twig, played amped-up looped and sampled post-punk-noise-funk, as if Sunny Kay from the VSS was now fronting Suicide for a reunion tour, instead of Alan Vega, and he wasn't afraid to trade in rockabilly licks for Sly & The Family Stone loops. Never saw Japandroids, but they like Atlas Strategic. Fine. Evan Dubinsky was there, from the pride of NDG, Bad Flirt. Evan, if you're nationalistically Googling yourself right now, Hi. Evan Dubinsky, who will soon move to Los Angeles to seek fame, fortune, and a better quality of t-shirt, made with pride by migrant workers paid a living wage under the watchful eye of Dov. Noah Bick, too. Hi, Noah! (Well, he was there. Noah isn't re-locating to the USA. Not yet...) Really, though, I bet Evan's moving to California to escape the creased-corduroy socialism of his brother, who has ties, deep and pink, to Canada's NDP (New Democratic Party). Evan wants to be more Donald & Keifer Sutherland than Shirley Douglas, daughter of Tommy Douglas.

CFCF & Jay Watts III at The All-Rounder LI at Korova Bar Terroir

Saturday, November 15th

10pm, Free
Korova Bar Terroir
3908 St. Laurent
Montreal, QC

Join our FB group for more information

Korova Bar in Montreal: Tuesdays are <86

Noah Markowicz (Dr. Dreidel) and I are doing a new night at Korova on Tuesdays. The concept is music before 1986, hence <86. Come down to Korova Bar (3908 St. Laurent) and check it out. Rotating guests, free mix-tapes!

Dogs You Can Ride

I was on a casual stroll down Van Horne avenue earlier this afternoon, on the hunt for a coffee, when I came across a giant Saint Bernard tied to a telephone pole outside of a grocery store. This Saint Bernard was at least the size of a pony, and therefore, I would imagine as ride-able as a pony. ("Can I ride a dog?," I thought. "Can I ride that dog?") It struck me that if one could somehow combined the ride-ability of the pony or horse with the love-ability and trustworthiness of the dog, well then, that ambitious breeder or marketer or trainer or what not would really have something. A dog-pony. A dog you can ride. Dogs you can ride. Ride-able dogs. Man's best friend, and man's best ride. Equestrianism has a whiff of hide-bound tradition and the static class society, not suitable for the democratic ethos of The New World, but dog-riding has the potential to be an accessible and affordable form of animal riding, if only someone were to step up and fulfill the need!

The riding animal or mount animal has been a part of civilization since the, er, dawn of civilization, and possibly before - from the Hindu & Buddhist Garuda (or Garula): a winged mythological creature; to ostriches, dromedaries, and elephants.



This sadistic little book cover above is, of course, nothing like what I was imagining in my head, and the image of a maniacal, wild-eyed cat driving a poor hound into the ground by the handle of his switch belongs to a different time, when peace between species was not so close at hand, as it is now, in the year 2008.



For years, clueless Irish Wolfhound owners* have done nothing but stand their Irish Wolfhounds on their hind legs to pose for illustrations, paintings or photographs, trying to prove some inane point about their dog's size, unaware of how much more impressive it would be to come trotting down main street astride their majestic beast. And for the Irish Wolf Hound? No more demeaning parlour tricks, no, the Irish Wolf Hound could hold head high, becoming part of a lineage that includes the mighty stallion and the regal elephant.

Do any of you know of any dogs that might be suitable for riding? Interested breeders, please get in touch. Can you ride a dog? Have you rode a dog before? Are you interested in buying a dog saddle?

I can and will ride a dog. I swear this now. Certain larger canines (Newfoundlanders, Dog of Berdoux, Bull Mastiffs) have been fitted with saddles like majestic mini-horses for the infirm, very young children, and certain elderly people with very frail bones to ride.

* A special thank you to Marion Elissalde, a dog-owner but not dog-rider, for suggesting Wolf Hounds.

hand in handjob

More Square Quotes Episodes

Okay, Alexander, Martin, Ali and myself have been busy since I last posted here. We've got four whole more episodes, and pretty soon, we'll be producing a special episode for Osheaga. The Osheaga podcast you'll be able to get directly from their website, and will include interviews with musicians, artists and other people associated with the festival.

In the meantime, do some catching up with the last couple of episodes... I'll list them in reverse chronological order, or you can go to the main site at www.squarequotes.com or find us on iTunes.

Square Quotes, Episode 6: Bend It Like Beckett

Square Quotes is back with a vengeance, notorious and ever glorious! During our two week hiatus we shuffled off the chains of Suoni per il Popolo and now fly towards the sun like Icarus! This week's episode is packed with summer sounds, summer flicks, and Cancon controversy.

Jordan Robson-Cramer, contributing member of Montreal's Sunset Rubdown and Miracle Fortress visited us and played a song with Rory Seydel (also of Shapes and Sizes) - the newest member of Jordan's long-standing project Magic Weapon.

Tempting fate, we invited Darren Curtis and Matt Silver, two peanut-shelling funny-men partially responsible for Kidnapper Films' debut full-length Who is K.K. Downey? to talk with us. The film premieres in Canada later this week as part of the Fantasia Film Festival.

This episode's musical picks anticipate, welcome, and think about love: its complications, its great bounty. Delegation's Darlin' (I Think About You) appears on their landmark champagne-disco-funk album, 1979's Eau de Vie; ABS dug up Jermaine Jackson's Good for the Gander, which is an unreleased Motown gem produced by Norman Harrison and Ron Tyson; Steely Dan's Dirty Work speaks for itself; Johnny Moped's Darlin' (Let's Have Another Baby) gets straight up paternal; we all love Silver Apples' I Have Known Love (they may be popping up in our city sometime soon - shhh); and Magnum Force speaks to the mood of the moment in Girl, You're Too Cool.

Square Quotes Episode 5: Pansexual Digressions & Nocturnal Omissions

With a turnaround time that would daunt most college radio stations, but is par for the course in the big leagues with major players like Radio Congo, we came up with episode 5. A majestic palace of sophistry, loving communication, and dialogue. Our guests this week were Ken Vandermark, the acclaimed saxophonist whose name you might recognize from Powerhouse Sound and The Flying Luttenbachers; Amber Goodwyn, the publisher of Canada's, nay North America's best smut zine, Lickety Split; and finally, the beloved Claude Bernier, logistics master and jack of all trades with the Suoni per il Popolo festival, who came in to the studio to chat us up, and deliver exclusive Suoni sounds recorded over the course of the festival from Vic Chestnutt and The Sun Ra Arkestra, live at Sala Rossa.

This Episode's Songs...

Leon Ware Rockin' You Eternally, The Velvelettes Je Veux Crier (My Foolish Heart Keeps Hanging on a Memory), Di Melo A vida seus métodos diz calma, The Sun Ra Arkestra Excerpt (Live at Sala Rossa), Vic Chestnutt Excerpt (Live at Sala Rossa), Marcia Hines You Gotta Let Go, Sadina I Want That Boy

Square Quotes Episode 4: Too Much Too Late

Woah. Well, Square Quotes took our sweet, precious time delivering this, a snapshot of a week or so in the life of a gaggle of Montrealers... First, Sasha Kleinplatz, a Montreal dancer, choreographer and organizer who recently put on a dance event called Piss In the Pool at the dilapidated Bain St. Michel went head-to-head with ABS; after that, we spoke to Billy Mavreas, the garrulous and lovable mensch who runs the Monastiraki Curiosity Shop, and is also a cartoonist who's recently published a graphic novel called Inside Outside Overlap, published by Timeless Books. It's all about dream logic, the murk, and a recent experience at the Helen Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, BC, where he participated in their Workaday series; and finally, Jenny Craig, the hostess and curator of the monthly Greasy Goose salon series discussed the business of talking about things here in Montreal, and let us listen in as local cosmologist Mark Slutsky spoke about ESP. Music? Yep, music again - Art Ensemble of Chicago, Manfred Krug, Mavreas' The Fudge, Ben E. King, and The Soft Boys. All for you, by us.

Square Quotes Episode 3: The Sun (Ra) Also Rises

On episode three of Square Quotes we talk with Alex Moskos of electronic-jam-duo Thames / circuit-twisted pop trio the Unireverse. Afterward we enlist his help in channeling the spirit of afro-futurist jazz artist Sun Ra.

Then Jack Oatmon of the Montreal Mirror stops by to give us the lowdown on Ivan Smagghe's health issues and he manages to squeeze in an interview with Andy Butler of NYC's post-disco group Hercules & Love Affair.

Later on we check in with Phil Elverum, of Mt. Eerie, just before his appearance at the Suoni per il Popolo festival. We play some songs too, like "I Comma Zimba" by Abdullah, the militant Motown musician and "Moliendo Cafe" performed by twelve-piece Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocărlia. We also get heavy with Pilooski, who channels the high priestess of soul Nina Simone.