On the left hand path

Been a while since I managed to catch Lefty McRighty and the Boxcar Cadavers. The contents of the Boxcar have shifted in transit somewhat, with Rick Cadham switching to lead guitar then switching to not being in the band. Cassandra is their new bass player. Also, Lefty has a new hat. Onward!

Cassandra. She has a few tattoos.





Boxcar T-Bone Bonnadouchebag. He, too, has tattoos.



Continuing the tattoo theme is Lefty - he still can't spell fuck, but there's a new bullethole- tough crowd, I guess.



Hurray for beer!



And now some more pictures with people in 'em.









I missed their last couple of numbers because, as I mentioned earlier, a guy was entertaining himself by running into people. No problem with that, until I looked down at my arm and noticed the mole on my left arm was gone and there was a couple of streams of blood running down over my elbow. Yech. Nothing a bandage couldn't cope with, though.

Here be monsters

Bloodshot Bill's one-man trashabilly got a boost on Wednesday from standup bassist Johnny Montreal (normally seen wearing skullface makeup in The Brains) and a special guest appearance from - well, read and look on ...

Ol' Bloodshot. One of these pictures is from early in the show, and one is late - you can see Bill's pompadour has suffered somewhat.





Johnny has the stripes, the coffin shape and the girl painted on his bass - it's like the deluxe model, ya dig?





And here's special guest Gerard Van Herk, to sing his Deja Voodoo smash hit Monsters in My Garage. It really had the crowd fired up.



As you can see I was kneeling right down front - this meant that when Van Herk stepped off the stage he almost stepped right into my camera. I am glad to report that I did not almost nail an icon of Canadian independent music in the nads. That would have been embarrassing.



"I took your woman!"



The bloody and brainy duo!



Inimitable as ever.

C'mon and give some time

Lord knows I could use some, because it's closing in on 3 a.m. So, Four'n'Giv'r, The Long Timers and C'mon were all excellent. Here are some pictures of the bands in whole or in part - you can just scroll down a short bit if you want to see any more Four'n'Giv'r action, since they played Babylon four days before. Of course, further pictures shall be forthcoming.







I'm going to bed - I just realized, I forgot to post pictures of the best band in Ottawa. They played too, but you'll just have to wait for those.

Sound on sound

Since I'm still paying off my camera, I've been making an effort to avoid blowing all my cash on music. It has not been a successful effort, but at least I tried. Today I cruised downtown to sell off some CDs I no longer want or need (or in the case of MC Lars, ever did), and picked up a bunch of tickets for upcoming shows (Lovely Feathers, Islands, Pink Mountaintops, Bellrays, Pelican/Mono) then bused over to Organized Sound to unburden the store of some of its vinyl and CDs at the going-out-of-business sale.
I bought Matt Valentine and Erika Elder's Ragas and Blues - Fantastic String Music, at the suggestion of former OS desker and Les Allumettes drummer Andy Cant. For some reason, even though I have one of his CDs and quite like Valentine's associates in P.G. Six and the Tower Recordings I completely blanked on his name - you know you're getting old when you can't dredge up the names of psych-folk obscurantists at will. I also got Charambalides' IN C R EASE - "About time someone bought that album!" someone said. Eclipse released it in 2002, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear it had been sitting in the bin for the last four years. Throw in a copy of Jana Hunter's Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom and that's it for my long and fruitful experience as an Organized Sound customer.
Some may think it silly to feel sentimental about a record store, but who else in town would feel compelled to stock a B.C. Gilbert CD (which I passed on, tempting though it was in its little wooden box)?
I also went next door to grab a Heavy Trash ticket and - speaking of sentiment - I also bought the new Nikki Sudden 7-inch on Munster, Hanoi Jane/Pretty Little Pretty next door at Birdman Sound. It was the first of what was supposed to be an ongoing venture between Sudden and Munster. I hope there are other recordings in the bag, because both sides are cool stuff.
Speaking of Sudden (warning - major diversion ahead), he also appears on the pair of Television Personalities tributes put out by The Beautiful Music. He performed the title track on the first, If I Could Write Poetry came out last year, and now we've been graced with a vinyl only Alternative Television Personalities tribute, Someone To Share My Life With, which features Sudden on a different mix of the tune. With the number of TVP fans out there, I wouldn't be surprised to see an Alternative to the Alternative Television Personalities Tribute either ...
Anyway, back to the here and now. I also got the CD I'm listening to as I type, the debut from heavy psych dealers Mammatus, pictured above. Unfortunately my scan doesn't do the Arik Roper cover justice. Think Comets on Fire meets High on Fire (High on Comets?) . Their bio references early Monster Magnet, and they're on Holy Mountain, so you know they're way out there, man. I also grabbed the new Fucking Machines 7-inch and the Nick Castro CD on Eclipse, but I haven't had a chance to listen to either, since I'm about to take off for dinner. Then I'll run off to see C'mon at The Dominion.
Obviously, not spending money on music is a lost cause where I'm concerned - but isn't it always?

Night crawling

The Cockroaches continued the rockabilly with a more old school sound and look, right down to the microphone.

Eddy Blake on standup bass and most of the vocals.



Guitarist "Duck Tail" Dale and his Harmony amp.



Drummer Dan Quixote takes a tilt at his drums.



Ride the wild bass!



Rockabilly action!





Some fun, and good original tunes.

• Show Reminder: The Empiricals play Irene's; C'mon, The Long Timers and Four 'N' Giv'r play The Dominion.

Under the microscope

Wednesday night I nipped over to Babylon again to catch a quartet of billified bands. The hardcore hepcats came out - I was one of the few guys in the audience without slicked-back hair. Some people thought the turnout was mediocre but I thought it drew a decent crowd for the style. The Pandemics are a Montreal rockabilly trio, complete with standup bass and standup drummer. They get pretty wild on stage.

Singer and guitarist Ryan - likes a bit of leopard.



Bassist Jordan.



Drummer Rene ... I think he's wondering what those other guys are up to.



Rockabilly action!





Shake that hair!





I was showing the Pandemics a preview ... they liked the first group shot; I prefer the second.





An energetic kickoff for sure!

Over the border

The Expatriates wowed a tiny crowd at Babylon with their heavy instrumental rock - it's a bit like Kinski meets Sabbath ... or at least, I like Kinski, Black Sabbath and The Expatriates, so I figure there's a connection there somewhere.

Michael Weiland shows off some rock moves.



Chris from on low.



One advantage of all these floor-level wide angle shots I've been doing: By the end of the year you'll know what kind of shoes Ottawa musicians favour ...



Bill Guerrero models the Gerard Van Herk look.



Chris and Bill.



Keyboard action from Damien.



Michael stands above it all.



Group action! (Although Michael is on notice - I want a big rock star jump next time he stands on something ...)



There next show is at the Montgomery Legion Hall May 13, along with DD.MM.YYYY, Quebexico, Sudbury's Varge and West Coasters The Doers.

• Show reminder: The Hussies, For The Mathematics and Turning Into Salt play Zaphod's.

The sign of four

I knew after listening to the band's two-song EP from their CD release show that they were truly evolving into their own sound, and according to ear-witness reports of their latest recordings and Tuesday's show, I was right.

Those Four'n'Giv'rs - Bob, Mark and John.







Help, Bob's coming to get me!



Singalong action!



Faceoff action!



Yelling action!



The whole crew.



Their cover of The Dirtbomb's Sovereignty Flight has evolved somewhat as well - I think it's changed into a criticism of runaway monarchs ... (Addendum: I forgot to add, they play this Saturday with C'mon and The Long Timers at The Dominion.)