Butter Magazine will be launching their Summer issue this Friday at Dadabase (uh-huh: the small space on Main & Broadway). Booze, DJing and the usual suspects.
You Wear It Well
Friday July 9, 2004, 8:30pm
dadabase 183 East Broadway (at Main)
DJs Wilson Hart and mygayhusband!
Christ - anyone else go to that absurd barn/warehouse party in Old Montreal with the 35 minute rendition of the chorus of "Pass The Dutchie"?
TONIGHT... While a night in a room full of 16 year old Blood Brother fans/Lipstick & Cigarettes users might not be yr idea of a way to spend a Wednesday night, the presence of GSL's The Chromatics and Kill Me Tomorrow (featuring ex-VSS alumni and GSL labelhead Sunny Kay) should manage to attend. The Chromatics resurrect and plunder the back catalogues of Cherry Red Records and Rough Trade (the Silver Apples cover on their most recent release "Plaster Hounds" is worth the price of the album alone) without sounding like the overly flaccid Radio 4, and Kill Me Tomorrow promise delay-saturated vocals overtop of swirling, punishing and ultimately confusing post-punk. Both groups prove that West Coast music nerds have been at the helm of the post-punk/no-wave revival thing for some time now, and are thus far beyond the art studio tinkerings of NYU art students and far more fucked up, too. AT EL SALON, DOORS @ 9PM
Alternately, there's another Wednesday night at Saphir tonight, this time with locals Statue Park performing. The last two nights have been wildly successful - perhaps because of the cheap booze - and way less goth-friendly than Friday nights, when body-odour quickly evaporates into a dripping-from-the-ceiling humidity and Quebecois ponytails appear far too numerous on the dancefloor.
Worldwide screenprintin' and illustratin' disturbers of the peace Black Rainbow will be exhibiting at a vernissage at Pharmacie Esperanza. The group, comprised of familiar locals like Yannick and Chloe of Serigraphie Populaire and mind-altering Matt Moroz, as well Vancouver's Keith Jones, Berlin's Meelo Gellfer & Anna Hellsgard, members of The Little Friends of Printmaking, Boston's Gunsho and others, work "in design, illustration, 3D, animation, painting, apparel, installation, film and screenprinting." Your friendly Goldkicks Montreal host Jay Watts III (that's me) will be DJing...
THURSDAY, JULY 8TH
8pm @ Pharmacie Esperanza - 5490 St. Laurent
w/ DJs TOTAL FUCKING CRAP and Jay Watts III
Okay, official start of the hangover season. I'm pretty sure that I'm still drunk and I'm surprised that the security guard let a jaundice-eyed man stinking of gin such as myself in the building today. I didn't manage to catch Death From Above's set last night, as I had to run off to Saphir to prepare for the DJ competition, which was less of a competition and more of a chance for me and Derek to drink ourselves silly on staff price drinks and play some records. There was quite a decent turn-out. Kudos to Guillarme and Jessica!
We Are Wolves were less nauseating this time rather than last, though I'll have to admit that the percoset and two bottles of white wine were probably what led to such my unfavourable assessment of their performance the last time I saw them, with the Sick Lipstick in the early winter.
Tony Allen's playing somewhere tonight, as I mentioned earlier. Spectrum, I think. I dunno. Christ, I'm hungover.
There are some new blogs to check out... Tyler Fedchuck, a Vancouver resident, does the MP3J Robot Is Smashed By... and Michael P. Brewster does Brewdog, which, in so far as I can tell, is not a review of sampled ales, but might be his dorm-room nickname.
Ex-Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen will be performing tomorrow night at the Spectrum. Tickets might be sold out, or at least getting there, so get on that. My roommate and I will be spinning records tonight at the Kill Him Hide The Body Dance-Dance Revolution DJ Competition at Saphir tonight. We've got the final slot (2am-3am), but there are drink specials and tomorrow is a statutory holiday. Yes. Even for Seperatists and Bloc Quebecois voters. Come down after the Death From Above show at El Salon.
Wolf Parade are re-pressing their 4 song EP, I hear. Savvy individuals will take the time to visit their local record shop and gather up any copies of the old self-pressed EPs to sell on E-Bay. Tour dates with Modest Mouse to be announced, soon as well.
Montreal's Arcade Fire have just released their first 7" on Merge Records. The Arcade Fire betray their draft-dodging Yankee past by preferring the American spelling of "neighbourhood" over the Canadian for the title. The A-side is "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" which is also the first track on their forthcoming album "Funeral," which will be made available by Merge for pre-order on September 3rd. The B-side is a 1940 recording of Win Butler's grandfather Alvino Rey leading the Alvino Rey Orchestra as they perform "My Buddy."
The distinct and striking artwork is by Montreal artist and Cafe X curator Tracy Maurice.
There are still copies of AF's self-released CDEP floating about, including some currently in the hands of Merge Records - it would be in your best interest to get your hand on a copy of that, as none of the songs will appear on the upcoming album.
Former Montreal resident and unparalleled creative force Suhrid has just launched his weekly MP3J blog AUM SUPREME, which I suspect any of you reading will be interested in, regardless of any imploring on my part. There's a detailed entry on past Montreal no-wavers DA BLOODY GASHES. Yessir.
The duo of Sarah Swash & Toshio Yamanaka are SWASH, winners of the Grand Prize in this spring's 19th Annual Festival International des Arts de la Mode (they collaborated with Japanese multi-talented illustrator Yuko Kondo (Kozyndan whooooooo?)) with their houndstooth vs. contemporary graffiti-influenced illustration designs are impressing me, and confounding me - when the hell will I be able to get my hands on their stuff? Their website teases...
SWASH
Woke up this morning and read the second page editorial in the Globe & Mail: maybe it was the early hour or my lack of sleep, but where the hell has the author been hanging out?
That this experience has profoundly turned Canadians off was evident Saturday when, on a welcome free day, I drove up the coast, stopping at various White Spots and Tim Hortons and doing nothing but eavesdropping -- and never once hearing "the most important election in Canadian history" mentioned. Roy MacGregor
Hmmm, despite the fact that now living in Quebec, I'm now deprived of any small sliver of hope that my vote for an NDP candidate might result in a seat for her/him (and hence, am voting Bloc Quebecois! Really.), this seems like one hell of an interesting election, as Paul Martin makes little mention of what really makes him qualified to run this country - his damn astonishing manuveuring and orchestrating and record as Finance Minister - and runs in disguise as a traditional NDP candidate (the likes of which the NDP spent trying to distance themselves from under Alexa McDonough's dismal leadership)... Jack Layton's (middle initial "U") campaign has also had a profound impact on the revival of the non-ironic moustache. My friend Nick, sporting one inspired by the feisty former Toronto city councillor, has commented on an increased feminine interest in it, just as the campaign draws to a close. Gilles Duceppe's hypnotic icy stare has entranced me - I'm voting for the man, as well as other Anglos in Quebec - and he doesn't seem to be hurt by last week's article in the Globe & Mail by La Presse columnist what's-her-name that revealed he used to be a radical Maoist. (Hey, I spent grade 9 as a deeply committed Anarcho-Syndicalist.) Stephen Harper bears a strong resemblance to a kid in high school that my friends and I used to refer to as "Just-Fished-Out-Of-The-River" - the pale complexion, his ghastly hair. Anybody who thinks Stephen Harper has a "hidden agenda" is parroting a rather empty phrase that's been repeated far too often in newspapers and on television programs and hasn't paid attention to conservative politics for the past ten years or so, since the Reform Party appeared on the political radar in this country. Jesus Christ! Of course they're all from fucking Alberta! (Great letter in today's Globe & Mail about how 'Western Alienation' is usually code for "Alberta's Complaints" and disregards the three other distinctly different provinces that count as Canada's West)
Your next couple of days will be busy... Mike Skinner (The Streets) is performing tonight at Club Soda - expect more of the university backpack crowd than true hip-hop fans, which is a crying shame, considering the considerable production and lyrical skills that Skinner has and showcases on his sophomore album "A Grand Don't Come For Free." Pseudo-Humanistic whiteboy garage/hip hop (from Britain!) that isn't over-intellectual NYU collegeboy rap or shockingly misogynistic? Damn!
Recent Merge Records signees, hometown favourites and the hottest members-might-be-Mormons group since Low, the Arcade Fire are performing at the oft-maligned venue El Salon on Sunday. Which makes me think that maybe they're not Mormons, unless Mormons are like Seventh Day Adventists, and have Saturday as their Sabbath. Anyone?
Bearded creepy folk guy who isn't Will Oldham but may be Christian: Iron & Wine on Monday night. Be prepared to fall asleep standing up. Maybe somebody will tip you. Ya know, like a cow.
Local electro-gothixx hype-atrons Duchess Says (think the Vanishing, with less kitsch or creepier Bauhaus with more electronics) are at Foufounes Electriques on Tuesday.
JFK's fucked up crunky bass n' drums assault, Death From Above will be performing along with Palm Picture's (label home to Moving Units) The Fever and Montreal's pseudo-DAF, We Are Wolves on Wednesday to round out a pretty damn good month for shows.
Tonight! Saturday, June 26th The Streets @ Club Soda
Sunday, June 27th Arcade Fire @ El Salon
Monday, June 28th Iron & Wine, Langtry @ La Sala Rossa
Tuesday, June 29th - Duchess Says, Eva Stone & Defectve Toy @ Foufounes Electriques $8adv/$10door
Wednesday, June 30th Death From Above, Fever, We Are Wolves @ El Salon
Thanks for the mp3 requests! Keep on sending them in & I'll send some out on Monday when I get back to my work comp!
Hey all, sorry for the recent departure from the internet, but I ended up stabbing myself in the hand while trying to remove an avocado seed and haven't felt up to one-handed posting. That's why the e-mails haven't been responded to, either! Sorry!
I imagine you're gearing up for the pre-Fete Nationale booze-fest - stocking up on acidic Quebecois wine, painting a fleurs-de-lis on your cheek, wondering why the hell there's no Mile End St. Jean Baptiste party this year (oooh cmon, you all read the Mirror, you know why)... I've heard that there's some hobo equivalent bonfire at the train tracks as well as an event at Greenland Productions new space, the Mile End Cultural Centre (just above the Green Room). DJs and stuff, ya know?
Touring indie vaudevillians The Perpetual Motion Roadshow will be stopping in Montreal tonight at Zeke's Gallery (3955 St. Laurent). Local author (and neighbour!) Michelle Sterling will be reading along with accompaniement by Newfoundland and Labradorian Musicologist Steven Guy. Others, too, like Jasmine Wagner and authors Frank Duff and Nick Mamatas. Doors are at 7:30 and it's $4.
I've been hoarding away some summer song mp3s - if you've got a gmail account (or something that can accomodate mp3s), send me a message at jaywatts@gmail.com with a little greeting and I'll send you something balmy and bouncy, like that backyard summer barbecue in that Fresh Prince & Jazzy Jeff video.
People who experience music outside of their PC speakers should check out this on Saturday night... Soundway Records compiler and proprietor Miles Cleret will be spinning Afrobeat, Funk, Highlife, etc. records with DJ Andy Williams to celebrate the release of his most recent compilation of 70's Nigerian Afrorock/Afrobeat, "Afro Baby." You Montreal kids better not sleep on this, because while you might think it all has the whiff of patchouli about it, (AND DEVANDRA BARNHARDT DOESN'T, YOU BASTARDS?) by August I'm going to see you moving your lame white asses to it like you did to "Hey Ya" for way too damn long last year. THIS EVENT IS AT SALON DAOME. It's $10.
The fine folks at Greenland had a bit of trouble getting their new venue (the Mile End Cultural Centre) completed before the opening last night, and because I desperately wanted to jog around a park listening to Montreal's pitiful classic rock station (97.7FM - at least they broadcast Little Steven's Underground Garage program), I unfortunately wasn't able to check out the space, which is another welcome addition to the growing number of venues in this city (Cafe Silencio in St. Henri and El Salon, for example)...
Tonight I'll be checking out the Panurge show at Le Swimming. Tomorrow night, there's a Calvin Johnson Carnival at El Salon (St. Laurent) hosted by killhimhidethebody that will explain more about the mystique of the passionate and gentle soul of the baritoned Olympian musical figure than the "Shield Around the K" film of a couple of years back... As well, Vancouver's premiere semi-dreary and dour post-punk/new-wave outfit, The Organ will be performing at Cafe Campus with openers Marlowe.
Friday Night
The Organ @ Cafe Campus (57 Prince Arthur St E) w/ Marlowe
Calvin Johnson Carnival (w/ The Antiques, Malajube) @ El Salon (St. Laurent)
On Saturday, there's a "Fetes des Peres" craft bazaar at Cafe Esperanza running from 11am to 6pm that begins with a brunch special and features astonishing sculpted creations by Atlas Strategic alumni Steve Simard. That night, closet Yes fans who'll only admit to a "heavy psych" fetish will be enjoying The Besnard Lakes at Casa Del Popolo.
Saturday
COOL CRAFTS FOR DAD BAZAAR @ Cafe Esperanza (5490 St. Laurent)
The Besnard Lakes, The Absent Sound, Mahogny Frog @ Casa Del Popolo
Anyone going down to the Siren Festival in the middle of July?
Ooooooh, apologies for not updating this thing in far too many days - I gave myself a haircut and I've been investigating the link(s) between grapefruit-based mixed drinks and hangovers.
The Fader's Music Issue is out on stands right now, and it's a remarkably well-written and well-put together issue this time around... I bought it yesterday afternoon and read it cover to cover by this morning. In it: a David Byrne/Caetano Velosa duel interview (conducted by Arto Lindsay, of all damn people), an interview with pseudo-Afrobeat group ChinChin, on article on the sock-wearing and sedate members of the Portland music scene, a piece on Mahjong (whom Dan and I had lined up to play our September 11th Freedom Jamboree in Victoria in 2002, but who couldn't make it across the border), a beautifully photographed travelogue about Brazil and a maxed out funk-derivation known as favela, and a profile on Montreal's own Pony Up!, who performed on Saturday night at Fringepop. Unfortunately, author Elliot Aronow missed the boat on Wolf Parade, only making brief mention of a group that will prove far more important and lasting (okay, okay, I'm a bit biased) to the Montreal music scene (and beyond), and especially bizarre considering the cathartic live-show the author witnessed at Spencer and Haji's loft. Hmm. Let's just assume that he's priming Fader readers for an interview with the lupids next issue.
Thursday, June 17 Panurge/The Hooks/PDQ @ Le Swimming, $3, 9:30pm
Vancouver's Panurge (shimmering summer pop from Canada's dreary left coast on Nettwerk Records) perform at Le Swimming this Thursday. They'll be on at 11:30pm or so. I've been promised scotch.
With rumours circulating about PonyUp forcing a member to have her teeth replaced or capped or replaced with crunky ODB-style gold ones, about PopMontreal's Communication Guru disappearing on a red-eye flight to Connecticut on Wednesday with a controversial and possibly anti-Semitic t-shirt, as well as about PopMontreal head Dan Seligman's recent conversion to either Leonard Cohen-style Zen Buddhism or joining a group of boots-n-braces skins, the PopMontreal-curated portion of the Fringe Festival began. Yes, I hate theatre-people, too.
There were a couple of issues with the FringePop portion of the Fringe Festival even prior to the bands taking the stage - firstly, the Condo Association representing the residents next door to the park had negotiated a 90db limit on sound (which, despite it being a rock show, is relatively fair - exposure to 90db results in hearing loss over a 7-8 hour period - after that, the period is cut in half with every increase of 5db) and secondly, none of the larger acts asked to initially perform at the opening of the Fringe panned out - Buck 65, formerly known as both Stinkin' Rich and Richard Tefry, either wasn't available or didn't like negotiating with theatre-hippies. (Other possibilities: The Dears, Wolf Parade) Thankfully the organizers don't appear to be Hour fans, and the fourth-rate Le NY Dolls coverband, Poxy, weren't offered the opening night slot.
I arrived late, having missed both the opening set by the World Famous Riflemen and Les Mods (they of the rapidly rising chart-position at the UQAM station) after attempting to negotiate myself through the heavily-perfumed swarms on lower St. Laurent. The lanky fellow with the moustache and longer hair who plays in this group and who I've spotted at Korova (occasionally) plays in this group, he described the group as "shit."
Impending Pendantry!
Adam and I drank a couple of plastic cups of St. Ambroise (OFFICIAL SPONSOR) beer, smoked cigarettes and hung out as Fantasy set up. Immediately repressed memories of wretched East Van house-parties came flowing back as Fantasy began playing, opening with a rather mundane by-the-book take on Olivia Newton John's "Physical." Devo, Human League, Eurythmics, Survivor, blecht. It's not just that there's something terribly wrong with irony and music being chained together and forced to fuck, it's that they've been fucking for far too long and the stench is beginning to set into my clothes. People seemed to enjoy them - the familiar list of 80's songs performed along with a cadre of aerobics buffs led by a slightly obnoxious (wooooooah, really?) woman in a leotard and leg-warmers. I may have enjoyed it more had I known these people, had the sight of my seemingly prosaic friends come alive and strutting around a stage, high-kicking and growling along to karoake, slightly tipsy warmed my heart and made me appreciate their good natured sense of humour. The soundguy, for his part, seemed to be playing along, and though I don't know if that was an ironic fanny pack or an ironic ponytail on his part, I know that by the reverb he put on the snare drum microphone, his heart was in the right place.
Before leaving the stage, Fantasy admonished us to visit their website and to keep an eye out for performances every Tuesday and Thursday during the month of July, because as is common knowledge, a bad joke, repeated again and again, eventually becomes hilarious. I'll be checking out the performers tonight, including self-proclaimed (and therefore, nancy-boy wussie Phil Collins-lovers) Postal Service fans, Statue Park. Shame!
I should note that there was an error on the scheduling in the post below, which has now been fixed.
Tonight
6pm Andrea Revel
7pm Statue Park
8pm ?Alice!
Jenn Wong's interview with Vancouver's uber-aphrodisiac supergroup Pink Mountaintops(members of Baron Samedi, E.S.Q.; Radio Berlin, and Black Mountain), in which interviewer lies to interviewee and proclaims her appreciation of the Suicidegirls website. Album out on Jagjaguwar now...
"This city is brimming with unbelievable originality and a plethora of eager, talented musicians and bands... ha!"
There are a lot of disturbing questions to be asked about the photos on this site (submitted by Adam Benzan) which features the Russian National Bolshevik Party's Combat girlfriends, such as - with the popularity of such seemingly disparate pairings as pasty-faced indie kids and pornography (Suicide Girls, SuperCult, FrictionUSA et al.) are the seemingly puritanical Leftist stalwarts still hanging about re-appropriating elements of the dominant ideology (pseudo-exploitative cheesecake photographs, ironic racist jokes)? And also, aren't these "Combat Girlfriends" all 13 years old? Who cares, Russia's fucked. Marx knew that.
Consider it Port Morris (or West Chelsea? I can't keep up) to the Plateau's Williamsburg, St. Henri, formerly home to saddlemakers and leather goodsmen and Oscar Peterson, has been experiencing the familiar trend of economic stagnation followed by hipster migration... Come witness first-hand the invasive Dionysian slumming rituals of slovenly Bohemia and be able to say you hung out before loft rents were in the four-digit range.
Friday June 11 2004
Cafe Silencio (3645 Notre-Dame Ouest - close to Lionel Groulx metro)
BAD FLIRT
w/ ABIGAIL LAPELLE & LISA HOFFMAN
9 pm / $5
File this in the "Corporate Shilling In Hopes of A Sponsorship Deal" file... After being unavailable for 18 years, Vespas will finally be sold in Canada by The Canadian Scooter Corporation. The 2004 Vespa ET2s (that's the 50cc, 2 Stroke scooter) are now available in Canada at dealerships in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, while the more sizable (150cc, 4 stroke) ET4s will arrive soon enough, possibly within 2 weeks and after that the Granturismos (200cc).
Vespa Montreal is located at 5155 De Sorel.
VespaCanada
Jenn Wong, of the (lesser-updating) Goldkicks Vancouver Bureau and Cindy-Adams-On-Bennies will be visiting the (far-more-boring) Goldkicks Montreal Bureau next month for a week of biking, dancing, mocking, shopping and boozing. As Quebec has one of the most substantial selections of 40 Ouncers available, we've both pledged to work our way through one of every 40 Oz.er that we can get our grubby little hands on, in the process inadvertently plagiarising some intrepid college student's webpage that one of us probably spotted a couple of years ago. Digital camera photos! Hilarity! Hipster self-loathing! Alcohol Poisoning! July 2nd or 3rd Goldkicks party! Details to follow!
