Diet doctor rock

Starvin' Hungry have a pretty noisy fanbase in Ottawa; it was a bit larger a few years back when they had their CD out and seemed to come down to Ottawa every six months or so for shows at The Dominion. According to the photographic evidence (available at the Birdman Sound website), last time I saw them was when they played with the Mighty Eagle Band and Double Pumpers at Babylon in January 2005. Too long! John Milchem is one of the great under-appreciated performers on the Canuck rock scene, says I, and he has a top-notch band as well.

John Milchem rocks the 12-string.



Scott Mucklow is one of my favourite guitarists.



Singalong action! With bassist Dave Lavoie.



Spencer Warren's mustache has been unchanged by time.



Starvation action!









John bends a little!



John bends a little more!



John bends quite a bit!



This was a slightly informal show, with a few new songs, promises to make a new album sometime ... maybe, and some failure to merchandise: "We have T-shirts and CDs ... in a Rubbermaid box back in Montreal ..." said Scott. Well, I'd settle for a shorter wait to see them again.

• Show reminder: The Empiricals perform in the cozy confines of The Manx; Much rock action at Zaphod's with Lions In The Street, The Watters Brothers and Elie Smith and the Mainprize. Ex-DFA 1979 man Sebastien Grainger plays Mavericks with his Montagnes, Captain Foxy and Curviture chap Matt Gilmour.

What's shaking

Once again I nipped off to Zaphod Beeblebrox for another Mocking Music show. I was wondering if a huge crowd would turn up based on The Castanets connection to Sufjan Stevens via the Asthmatic Kitty label, but the audience was on the slim side. Well, the Castanets' sparse freak folk was probably never intended for a huge audience.

Local chaps Books on Books opened things up; they have a new drummer and played a short but sweet set.



Here's most of Castanets and the rhythm section from Shapes and Sizes, who stuck around after their other half were forced to hightail it home due to illness.



I also noticed they had the new Vanishing Voice CD at their merch table. Although there's an obvious musical connection, I hadn't realized there was an overlapping musical membership and a tie to Wooden Wand. Live and learn.

Night shift

It's nice having a couple of clubs that play live music only two blocks from you house. It means after biking home from work you can stumble over and catch some tunes while you recuperate. In this case The Phantom Shifters and Starvin' Hungry. If The Phantom Shifters keep playing out at this rate I'm going to have seen them more times after their breakup than before.

I had to lean over the speakers on the right side of the show to take this shot. Not for the view - so I didn't fall over.



Ryan's back to two strings, as nature intended.



Chris keeps the beat.




Greg rocks the Ampeg.



Somewhat blurry faceoff action!



Singalong action!





The whole lot!



As pummelling as usual.

• Show reminder: Tanya Janca releases her new CD at The Rainbow with Andre Bourbonnais; Castanets and Books On Books perform at Zaphod's (Shapes & Sizes apparently didn't feel fit enough to show).

Tones in town

Field Music, Land of Talk and Menomena have been garnered a good chunk of praise from the usual suspects, and a large crowd showed up at Zaphod's to catch three prime candidates to be the next big thing.

First up was Britain's Field Music: Two brothers who spent some time listening to Skylarking and electropop and a bloke on piano (he's off to the right - this is David and Peter Brewis).



Next up Montreal's Land of Talk, a scrappier trio.



Finally Menomena, the artiest of the bunch.



Unfortunately Menomena's set was delayed by microphone problems, and truncated to about 45 minutes by the club's switch to dance party. Other than that, great set.

Over the water

I've seen Isis once before, at Babylon. I didn't enjoy it - I seem to recall feeling out of sorts and unimpressed with the shouty vocals and general sonic bludgeon. My taste in music and Isis's ongoing mutation seem to have converged in a happier spot because I enjoyed their closing set at Barrymore's - not as much as I liked Zozobra's, but good stuff. Whoever was doing the lights was having some fun as well.

Aaron Turner strains the neck veins. Not shown: The foot-long tendril of phlegm that dripped from his microphone.



Michael Gallagher in a blue mood.



Jeff Caxide in primary colours.



There was so much red floodlight some of my pictures ended up with almost zero contrast. Drummer Aaron Harris is in there somewhere.



I failed to get a good solo picture of keyboardist, laptop manipulator and guitarist Bryant Clifford Meyer. Here he is at right.



Lady of Green Crops action!









Big finish!







I wasn't quite sold enough to buy an album (I plumped for the tour edition of Harmonic Tremors instead), but I'll try to see them again if they come through town.

Town and country

Spring has sprung! That means I biked to work and back. On the plus side that means I don't have to cool my heels waiting for the bus. On the minus side my legs were a little wobbly. I arrived at Babylon in time for the final half of Casey Comeau and the Centretown Wilderness Club's set and spent most of the time nonchalantly propped up against the club speakers so as to avoid tipping over.



Although technically the headlining act, the Centretown Wilderness Club handed the finishing set off to Crowded Skies so that Casey's parents could catch her set.



Unfortunately I missed Violet Lyal's set. Next time. I also missed an opportunity to prep any Isis pictures, so they'll come a little later in the day.

• Show reminder: KnifeHammer, Muffler Crunch, The Suicide Pilots, Critical Convictions, Belligerent and Andy-Tap kick it at 61 Argyle Ave; The Hi Lo Trons and Great Aunt Ida play Babylon; Bloodshot Bill and The Solid Senders rock and roll at Irene's; Menomena, Land Of Talk and Field Music perform at Zaphod's.

1,000

I got home late from work, but headed over to Babylon to catch the tale end - the crust, if you will - of the Rock'n'Roll Pizza Party. I had been incorrectly informed it was an early show, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the Phantom Shifters still working through their set when I smacked down my $5 at about 11:30. Early show, my hairy butt.



I was even happier to catch all of Starvin' Hungry's set, even if it was a bit on the short side. The Montreal band always rocks out, but it's been years - before I started blogging - since I'd seen them live.



They were just as killer as I recall - and a most worthy subject, along with the Phantom Shifters, for National Capital Rock's 1,000th post.

• Show reminder: Casey Comeau and the Centretown Wilderness Club, Crowded Skies and Violet Lyal perform at Babylon; Born Ruffians, We're Marching On and Fucked Corpse play Zaphod Beeblebrox. Amos the Transparent and Hoodlum perform at the Black Sheep Inn.

Jes' folks

My first encounter with the recorded work of Justin Broadrick was Scum, the landmark debut from Napalm Death. I also picked up a few Godflesh albums, but hadn't really twigged to his latest project, Jesu. Compared to most of his other work, Conqueror seems to consciously strive for beauty. It's a lot less noisy than works like Merciless, and Justin's vocals sound like something off a shoegazer album. If I had to choose the band whose work Jesu seems closest to it would probably be My Bloody Valentine (I gather just about everyone else would choose MBV, too).



Diarmuid Dalton rocks the four strings.



A very murky picture of drummer Danny Walker ... I gather work permit problems kept regular skinsman Ted Parsons from joining the North American leg of the tour.



Justin bends!



The whole lot!



Jesu action!



And more Justin. Much more, actually.







I heard some grumbling about their set post-show, though at the time the audience seemed pretty receptive. I thought they were good, but I confess to preferring the music over the headphones.

Zo it goes

Who is Zozobra? Apparently, he's a giant puppet burned by the Santa Fe Kiwanis during their big yearly fundraiser. Sometimes he's called Old Man Gloom. And if that name rings a bell, it's because Zozobra's mainman Caleb Scofield plays in the California band of the same name. And yes, the Cave-In bassist also fronts Zozobra the band (OMG drummer Santos Montana also features in Zozobra). You want extra Cave-In action? Okay - CI guitarist Adam McGrath is helping Caleb and Santos fill out the sound on tour. The remaining man on stage Monday at Barrymore's was McGrath's mate in Clouds, guitarist Jim Carroll. Everything's connected, I tell you!

Now, some (not very good) pictures! Caleb started things off with a turn solo on guitar.



He switched to bass for the rest of the set.



Santos Montana. Yes, this is undoubtedly my worst drummer picture ever, and that's saying something!



I can't tell Zozobra's guitarists apart, but I believe this is Jim, purely because all the pictures of Adam I've seen have him toting a Les Paul. Note the Dungen tee.



Adam? Your guess is as good as mine. Or possibly better.



That's some shadowy action!



I like silhouettes, and this one in particular.





Pretty damn cool - I picked up their tour edition Harmonic Tremors LP and it's real solid. I particularly like it that these guys aren't just growlers.