Saturday night fever

Marie-Josee Houle has shown up frequently in this blog, performing as part of the Centrtown Music Club or, as below, with Glenn Nuotio. But she has her own solo project on the go, and has two fine records out under her own name. She's playing tonight at the Avant-Garde Bar with a full band.


Marie-Josee Houle, Club SAW, May 25, 2007

There's plenty of other stuff going on tonight. I've already mentioned Winter Gloves, who play Mavericks with The Weathermakers and Ruby Coast. Australian folkie Marta Pacek should appeal to fans of Jenn Grant and Rebekah Higgs - she plays Zaphod's tonight with Kris Ward. Hercules and Love Affair, released a hotly tipped electro album last year - they're at Babylon tonight with Jokers Of The Scene and DJ Bear Witness. Ryland Bouchard , the android formerly known as The Robot Ate Me will rock the house at 443 Kent St. with Emperor X and White Flash. Washboard Hank and Lonesome Paul perform at Irene's. Bluesman Scotty Doubt and his band hit the Rainbow.

Sex, drugs and murder

As September drew to a close I snuck off to see The Evangelicals, Parenthetical Girls and Glenn Nuotio at Zaphod Beeblebrox. As it turned out automotive disarray kept the Girls in the U.S.A. Glenn has had a different crew with him on every occasion I've seen him, and on this occasion he had appropriated The Murder Plans' rhythm section to create a distinctively more muscular take on his usual cabaret piano pop.

Glenn in blue (with a smiley Nicholas Descarie behind him).



Reddish Michael Simon.



Shadowy rhythm section action!



The whole lot!



All right, time to turn the lights back on.





Strange lighting courtesy of bouncing the flash off the reflective insides of the fluorescent lights above the stage.



More Nick!



More Michael!



More and so on!



No word on what Glenn's up to next, but The Murder pLans will open for The Sadies at Barrymore's Nov. 14 and perform at Cafe DeKcuf Nov. 29.

• Show reminder: It's the second night of Matt Mays & El Torpedo and Arkells gig at Barrymore's; The City Streets, Eamon McGrath and Kissing With Pop Rocks play The Rainbow. Everything Less, Freddie Al-Hajj and Laura O'Reagan perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox (and this time I mean it).

Say a little prayer

First, the bad news: The Parenthetical Girls' van flamed out about a week ago, so they didn't make it to last night's show at Zaphod's or, for that matter, across the border. The turnout wasn't that great either, considering the headliner has a fair amount of critical buzz to its credit - about two-dozen people, mostly local musical types.

The show itself was rally good, starting with Glenn Nuotio. His band seems to have left for university (or something like that), so he nicked The Murder Plans' rhythm section: You can see Nick Descarie and Michael Simon adding oomph in the background.


Glenn Nuotio, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sept. 28, 2008

The Evangelicals are from Oklahoma and get a lot of Flaming Lips comparisons (mostly to the latter band's early years). I think they also sound a bit like Dead Meadow. They put on a super show. Lots of reverbed backing vocals, one of the guitarists wore a cape, and they brought their own murky green stage lighting.


Evangelicals, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sept. 28, 2008

I hope people don't make the same mistake tonight and take a pass on The Evangelicals' pals in Dark Meat.

• Show reminder: Dark Meat (yes, I'm repeating myself ... really, missing this show is probably not a good thing), Fucked Corpse and Holy Cobras rock Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Thrills and pills and bellyaches

Two things surprised me upon my arrival at Club SAW for the i(heart)music promoted show May 25. The first was the big turnout (about 100, says head dancer about architecture Matthew). The second was that I was actually early enough to catch all of Glenn Nuotio's set. Must have been a blue moon or something. I took a break from my usual flash-happy practices to better capture Ryan Stec's video display.

Glenn, the band, his biggest fan, etc.



Patrick DeDauw.



I like the way this picture of Glenn turned out. Unfortunately this is also my best picture of new drummer Randy Innes, barely visible to the right.



Centretown Wilderness Clubber Marie-Josee Houle in silhouette. She'll be performing some of her own music at Westfest June 10.





Fingersnapping and beer-drinking action.





"Here's a song about long distance relationships and prescription medication."





Glenn's next show is at the Black Sheep Inn, June 24.

Nightclubbing

Off to Club SAW for a most eclectic and entertaining show. We've got piano pop, dance-rock and m'bira from an Adorable. To wit:

Pop cabaret artist Glenn Nuotio, seen here singing of long-distance loving and prescription medication - thus the pill projection backdrop.



Last time I saw Dan Werb he was playing keyboards with Spitfires and Mayflowers. Here he is, still playing keys but this time with electro dance-rock duo Woodhands.



Laura Barrett - last seen with Henri Faberge and Co. - rounded things off with her thumb-piano (she also had one of those bass-pedal thingamajigs and Ajay Mehra to play glockenspiel).



I'd also add the turnout was excellent: About 80 people, I'd guess.

Medical mystery

The audience for last Wednesday's benefit for the Canadian Mental Health Association was small. I suspect the rapidly cooling weather and a diverse lineup kept folks from showing; pity, because it was a mightily interesting lineup, including two performers I'd never heard of and one whose members I know but whose music I didn't. Glenn Nuotio was just wrapping up his set with a pair of songs, both about doctors behaving oddly, when I walked in at half past 9 p.m. or so.





Patrick DeDauw on cello.



Nuotio refers to himself as a "Newfoundland homo emo indie rubbish phenomenon" on his website. He made me think a bit of Howie Beck crossed with Paul Roland. The rubbish bit is certainly false modesty. Nuotio will be playing at Barrymore's with The American Devices and Hilotrons Nov. 19.
Next up: Smoke Judo, which consists of Christie Watson from the Fluouresent Friends collective and Shub Roy from Akisakila.

Shub Roy on some James Williamson and Chrome-esque riffs.



Christy on drums and crazily reverbed vocals.



Shub and Christy action! With some gear donated by Muffler Crunch.







If some crazed Japanese psyche band took bad Iggy Pop bootlegs as their starting point, they might end up sounding like Smoke Judo. But probably not. They're playing at 59 Argyle St. Oct. 27.

• Show reminder: Henri Faberge and the Adorables, The Bicycles and Relief Maps play at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Sparta and Sound Team perform at Babylon.

Strange attractors

There was a pretty sparse audience at Babylon; perhaps the cruddy weather scared everyone off. Or maybe they were all next door at Barrymore's watching the Suicide Girls strut their stuff. I walked in the door some time past 9 p.m.; Glenn Nuotio was launching into his last two songs.

Nuotio's material is very high calibre singer-songwriter stuff. I would guess that's Patrick DeDauw on cello.



Smoke Judo followed with some experimental rhythm driven stuff with a lot of reverbed vocals. It's the latest project from Fluorescent Friend Christie and Akisakila's Shub Roy. I was quite impressed and bought one of their CDs.



Place was up next. They sounded a bit sharper than the last show I caught (some time ago).



Then it was the turn of a couple of Montreal groups. First, Danger Danger Mammoth Hunter; they do have some vocals - it's tempo-switching aggressive post rock; they did a good job.



City of 100 Spires finished things off with more stop-start instrumental rock and jumping about. This the third show I've caught by them and the most ferocious by far.



City of 100 Spires is also performing tonight at Mavericks as part of the Exclaim Aggression Tour.

• Show reminder: Apart from the Mavericks show - which also features Pelican, Daughters and Kennedy - you can see Jon-Rae and the River, Woolly Leaves and The Soiree at Zaphod's.