The nutty boys

The Acorn opened the Malajube/Hot Springs show at Club SAW; this was a later show than usual for the club (there was an AA punk show scheduled for before it that didn't come together). The two Montreal bands were down as part of an outgrowth of Pop Montreal's Fringe Pop events. The Acorn skipped on the sleeveless Ts, bowties and Daisy Dukes this time around - probably still in the laundry from their show on the previous Friday.

Here Jeff Debutte, Howie Tsui, T. Jeffrey Malecki and Rolf Klausener lounge about before preparing to art-rock the assembled masses.



Tsui and Malecki skip the tie and wig.



Rolf croons ...



Jeff grimaces ...



And more Jeff, Howie and T. percussing away.



An unflattering photo of Malecki.



There's something unsettling about a pulsing pink furry bass drum head, by the way ...

• Show reminder: Sleeping Pilot, Cobra Noir, Expatriates and Chairs play 59 Argyle St. Zaphod's is holding a Bluesfest showcase with Trevor Alguire and The Mercury Pickup Band, The Bella Bombs, The Patsies, Stone Melodies and Quarter Life.
  

Feel the burn

Boston's Sunburned Hand of the Man put on a good long set: Three "songs" (a woefully insufficient word to describe the musical excursions the band partakes in) that stretched out over about 90 minutes, with a few minutes for a break after the first two.
Part One: A slow percussive build, chicken-picking guitar.
Phase Two: An echoing guitar flameout that would have done Comets on Fire proud.
Part Three: Another more meditative piece that started out with an audience clapalong and featured some real silliness from the band (when they broke out the rubber snake, I laughed ... when they broke out the rubber chicken, I began to wonder: Just what kind of band is this anyway?!?).
There was an unexpected treat during this psychedelic strangeness: The Avante Gard's "stage" is in front of the window facing the street. As the show went on, prom nighters and delegates at a local political meeting (some kind of Liberal shindig) could be seen passing by. The looks on their faces as their minds and ears tried to grasp the goings-on were sidesplitting. One young woman passed by three times, with an ever-more-contorted expression of confusion each time.

Outside looking in - and believe me, the air conditioning was most appreciated ...



There was a fair amount of instrument switching in fact they switched over drummers during the second phase of their performance. Here they plan the switch.



Some windwork during the first tune.



Rocking out during the second movement.



The guitarist was feeling it.



The whole crazy bunch.



"I am a psychic vampire ... I predict you will not get hepatitis from smoking blood ... and we will have a very happy Valentine's Day." You heard it here first.



Look everyone, it's Jimi Hendrix!



And yet more group rocking out.



The really strange thing: The Russian channel playing behind us featured a greatest video hits package from Aqua and a Depeche Mode concert ... could anything be more incongruous? Well, perhaps when slapstick movie Rat Race came on.

• Show reminder: Harshey, BlackBall, BlackSheep and Last Voice Heard play Irene's. The Ladies and Gentlemen and The Red Arrows bring arty pop Zaphod's (at least the former do - no hint of what RA sound like). The Empiricals surf it up at The Dominion.
  
• Animal news: Speaking of The Dominion, word has it The Anti-Nowhere League will play there July 4.
  

Taylor made

Akisakila took the middle slot in Friday's festivities with some loud computer-assisted drone, looped vocals and electronically bowed guitar. The group is a duo: Joshua James Bastien and Shub Roy.

As above ... Joshua.



So below: Shub.



Under observation from one of Sunburned Hand of The Man's guitarists.



Hard at work!



They made a very effective opener to Sunburned Hand of The Man, despite their markedly different tools of the trade. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

• Show reminder: Julie Doiron, Snailhouse and Sarah Hallman play Club SAW tonight. Those with stranger tastes can check out Daiquiri, The TunaHelpers (they're from Austin, so they must be weird!) at Zaphod's. I think I'll go see The Golden Dogs, Clothes Make the Man and Iconoclast at Mavericks; I dig what I heard of the Dogs' rootsy pop on their website.
  

Dog days of summer

Michael D. Wieland was one of the people who got the Sunburned Hand of The Man Show together, and his band Saint Bernard of Love opened the show. He was aided by Bill Guerrero and Damien Thompson. This show was at the Avante-Gard Bar on Besserrer St., which has Soviet-era posters admonishing people not to drink, gossip, or give aid to any Trotskyite-Bukharinist factions decorating its walls (only one of these directives was abided by, and then only due to a lack of Trostskyites).

Michael rocks the microphone.



Bill at the Sunburned drum kit.



And Damien makes three.



Bill, Damien and Michael are 3/4 of The Expatriates, along with the other quarter, Chris Landry, they'll be playing a gig with Sleeping Pilot, Cobra Noir and Chairs at 59 Argyle St., June 19.

Get an Eyeful

The Reverend Glasseye rounded out the night's performance at Babylon - hallelujah, brothers and sisters! The Reverend's congregation has undergone alterations ... new standup bass player and a fetching new trombonist. Trumpeter Jon Wobesky didn't tour with them but he came up to Ottawa just to play the showcase.

During the show Adam confessed an aspiration to become a boxer "But just look at me!" So he had to choose a similarly lowly occupation: Musician. But he still gets to throw the odd punch, or at least flail about in a lifelike manner.



Piet Masone and his fingers of fire!



Still too much red, which is why this picture of the Rev pointing out the group's newest member, Cassandra Lomas, is in black and white.



Some sort of preaching was going on, I recall.



That bass player, Paul Z. Dilly, and drummer Tim Maher.



The horn section - Kevin Corzett, Lomas and Wobetsky - extends its range.



Kevin sings along.



Yodelling Piet and fulminating Adam.



Entertaining as always!

• Electrical news: Magnolia Electric Co. will play the same fine establishment August 6, along with Pittsburgh rappers (yes, you did read that correctly) Grand Buffet and local yokels Greenfield Main. Contrary to an earlier report, British rockers The Divine Brown will not be blowing through Barrymore's July 9 - apparently it's just Divine Brown, who is someone completely different.

Red menace

The Golden Famile put on a great but short set opening for the Reverend Glasseye at the Music for Cats showcase. It's a good thing I've taken a bunch of other pictures of them, because these ones were so-so (better than the Weapons and Mono Hum pictures though).

Darrell prepares for a backporch folk rendition of Black Flag's Damaged (I kid).



Richard and Ryan in lovely black and white.



Nate was out of the lights, which is why this picture turned out okay.



Turning this picture of Jennifer Comeau black and white doesn't improve it, so I'll just leave it the way it is.



I only managed one picture of Mike Sheridan in his snazzy duds. I probably should have looked through the viewfinder when I took it ... oh well!



And some more group backporch folk action!



A fine show.

• I yakked about The Hot Springs and (at greater length) Malajube mere hours ago ... now its showtime! The play Club SAW, and as I said earlier, they come with the Gourmet Delice of Le Nombre stamp of approval.

Malajubilation

Montreal's hottest pop quartet, Malajube and The Hot Springs are playing a gig tomorrow night (Tuesday, when it's at home) at Club SAW. As I mentioned earlier, I was tipped to these guys by Gourmet Delice of Le Nombre. He arranged to have their record company, Dare to Care, send me their new CD. It arrived too late for Album of the Week consideration, so with their show imminent, I'll sings its praises right now!

Malajube
Le Compte Complet



Clocking in at a half hour - including a few seconds of dead space before the hidden track kicks in - Malajube's debut is short but tasty. Chirping keyboard opener and tinkling scree comes from the Animal Collective school of twisted pop. I'm not sure I buy the comparisons to Franz Ferdinand and XTC that have been bandied about in its wake. Some juvenile whoops on Le Metronome and songs about Teeth and Lemon Juice (not at the same time), along with its generally bouncy and buoyant feel and fuzzy guitars make me thing of Australia's Sekiden. A sweet confection in any language.

Catty remarks

I had so much fun with slowing down my shutter speed at the Demolition Doll Rods and Broadzilla show that I thought it'd be a kick to do the same thing at the Music For Cats showcase at Babylon June 4. I certainly felt like punting myself a fair distance when I got the pictures back. Every flood was red and the results were way too crimson to make anyone happy. Fact is, the pictures of almost everyone involved looked better in black and white. The first act of the night was Mono Hum.

Richard Jeffrey at the microphone.



And with Jennifer Comeau on organ.



Err, I took some very nice pictures of drummer Tim Matthews a month or so ago - why don't you check out the archives while I feed these negs to the nearest passing crocodile?

The Weapons of Mass Seduction pictures turned out a little bit better, but not by much. Here's Mark lunging at the microphone.



And rocking out with The Duke.



Tune in tomorrow for pictures of The Golden Famile. Or don't - you might be better off.

• Swedish news: The Caesars - formerly Caesar's Palace before a certain Los Vegas gambling establishment sent them a cease-and-desist order - are scheduled to play Zaphod's July 15. They may be best know for the ubiquitous Jerk It Out of iPod commercial fame, but they have a decent line in garage pop.
  

Album of the Week

Sunburned Hand of The Man
No Magic Man



Like so many of Sunburned Hand of The Man's discs, this has a hand-made feel to it because, well, it's hand made (the hand-lettered title in green felt pen on the spine is kind of a giveaway) and is numbered (once again, as far as I can tell) Manhand 14, though it was allegedly released on the Bastet label. It was recorded in Spring of 2004 in the band's loft and at WMBR, a Pennsylvania radio station. It's what passes for hi-fi among SHOTM CDs.
Normally one gets this disc to subscribing to Arthur magazine (Bastet is their music imprint), but I grabbed this CD, (along with CD-Rs of their classic Jaybird and a new set of recordings entitled, as far as I can tell Zample One) at their recent show at the Avante Gard bar (pictures and a writeup for that show will be up in five or six days).
No Magic Man ups the ritz factor a bit - it has three stickers, a gatefold cardboard cover- but the music is the same zoned-out rhythm section, weirdo chants and occasional Comets On Fire-style guitar freakout (particularly on the penultimate track, Twin Gates). Mind-expanding vocal snippets and some oddly funky jams open the album. From there on in it's one long, strange 54-minute trip. Get it from the band itself, via an Arthur subscription or Eclipse Records and allow your brain to be bent.

Motor City demolition

The Demolition Doll Rods show at Mavericks June 3 wasn't as flagrantly sexual as an earlier gig at The Dominion, but that isn't saying much - their costumes were less revealing by a square inch or so (you can get a lot of coverage out of feathers). Danny took on a greater vocal role than I recall from last time (for reasons explained later). The guitar interplay was as incendiary as I remember.

Margaret gets her kicks in.



Danny in boots.



Christine on drums; she didn't get to do her signature tune, Fat Pussy, because the night was getting on, but she did step up to the microphone.



Despite blowing out her vocals cords ("The only thing I've blown in two or three years," she told the audience), Margaret still pulled out a fairly long set.



Christine steps out from behind the kit.



Sing along with Danny ...



Explosive demolition!



Another sin-sational rock-stravaganza from the 'Rods, who ended the set with their version of Amazing Grace.

• Jack Daniels news: Jake Lovetart - one of the bands that made me think "darn, I should be out photographing stuff" - appears with Four'n'Giv'r at Babylon June 24.
  

Broad appeal

Detroit's Broadzilla followed the G-Men with their crushing power trio attack. Singer May has a good singing voice and the songs are good - well, some of the lyrics are a bit daft, but then again, it's rock'n'roll!

Rachel May on guitar and platform shoes.



Kim Essiambre on bass and heavy metal shoes.



Angie Manley on drums and blonde dreads.



Some dual downstroke action.



Them Broads!



A very rocking show - and the photos turned out nice.

• Punk reminder: The Riptides, The Vapids, The Creeps and The PG-13's play an all-ages show at Mavericks.