Problem child

I headed over to Pressed on Thursday to check out a trio of acts covering a wide range of pop sounds. Headliner Gregory Pepper, a long-serving Guelph power-popper, is touring some Weezer-worshipping sounds, locals Pony Girl are exploring their acoustic side, and Montreal's Old Haunt is having a religious experience, so the sounds were fairly diverse. Pony Girl were on stage first. I gather they were quite a bit quieter than usual. Here's Yolande, soundchecking some clarinet.



Gripping action with Pascal!



Percussive action with Jeff!



Julien strums!



Singalong action!



The whole lot!



More singalong action!



Old Haunt - in this case represented by main man Lucas Huang - has a new EP coming out on Monday, dubbed Refuge, containing songs like Get Back Satan that deal with Lucas's "complicated" relationship with religion.



It's got a folk, ambient and gospel feel to it (you can download it free online).



Next up, the stripiest band in the land, Guelph's Gregory Pepper and His Problems. Pepper's latest album Chorus! Chorus! Chorus!, named after his songwriting philosophy (I kid), comes out August 21, with the vinyl arriving sometime later once the record pressers are finished with re-releasing every 1990s album. Anyway, here he is with Tyson Brinacombe (far left), Alex Ricci (at back on bass), occasional Legato Viper Mike Brooks at right on guitar and mostly obscured drummer Adam Zantinge.



They kicked things off with a Thin Lizzy riff and spent the rest of the show doing cheesy rock moves.



Tyson frets!



Mike sings!



Gregory shouts!



Guitar action!



The whole lot!




Alex gets on down.



Hair-shaking action!



Feedback action!



Adam hits!



Extra Gregory!



They finished things off with an encore of The Boys Are Back In Town.

Need for sleep

So Saturday night I went over to Gabba Hey to check out some touring East Coasters and grab a Hot Dogs 7-inch from Pierre's wee shop. You might be thinking "Isn't today Saturday?" Yes, you read right - this post is a week late due to school and studying and wanting to keep regular hours. The main draw was The Yips, who have a new tape out on Bruised Tongue, but I had to go early (and by early, I mean around 1 a.m.).

Let's start with the surfin' sounds of The Legato Vipers, who brought switchblade combs and whiskey flasks for their merch table.



Let's just say their music is more 1960s than 1984 ....



Leather jackets for everyone!



And so on ...



On to the swell sounds of Nap Eyes, who really impressed. And yes, that is Monomyth guitarist John Salter on bass. He pulled a doubleheader, as did Seamus Dalton, who drums for the Eyes.



Nigel Chapman does the songwriting ... there's something a bit Postcard-Orange Juice about their sound.



Seamus hits!



Guitar with Brad Loughead!



Bassist-stroking action!



Back to back action!



On to Monomyth, who seem to be doing an excellent job carrying the torch from Elevator to Hell.



Seamus sings!



Singalong action!



Microphone-sharing action!



Feedback ation!



The crowd goes wild! And falls over!



Then it was time for me to head home for bed ... I'll have to catch The Yips another day.