Sugar and molasses

My musical plans last night were made at the last minute. Initially I had thought about going to see Born Ruffians at Ritual, but I left my ticket-buying to the last moment, and needless to say didn't manage to get one. Instead I popped over to Raw Sugar. Previous shows there have been pretty jammed, but this time around the turnout was commendable but not wall-to-wall like it was for the Kelp showcase. On hand were a couple of Saskatoon combos Jeans Boots and Slow Down Molasses, and local quintet The Ethics.

Jeans Boots is fronted by Jeanette Stewart and a cast of thousands (okay, two: her bandmates from Slow Down Molasses, Ryan Drabble and Tyson Brooks). Slow Down Molasses has already professed their love for Julie Doiron, and I'd say that goes for Jeans Boots too. JB comes in two flavours, electric and acoustic. This was the electric, "get kicked out of the folk festival" version. It was super-fuzzy, with the bass used more to build up a wall of fuzz than keep time. I liked it very much indeed, and picked up one of her two CDs the moment she cleared the stage.


Jeans Boots at Raw Sugar, March 30, 2011

They really did rock out.


Jeans Boots at Raw Sugar, March 30, 2011

Next up were The Ethics, a band I have heard much of but have yet to see live. I'm glad to have done so since they put on a very sharp pop performance, entirely composed of songs they'll soon be laying down in the studio. The pictures I took unfortunately don't do justice to the whole band - the layout of Raw Sugar isn't friendly to those musicians not up front.


The Ethics at Raw Sugar, March 30, 2011

Finally Slow Down Molasses hit the stage. They stretch the indie rock gamut from shoegaze to roots rock to pop. They've recorded with Julie Doiron and pulled off a cover of My Bloody Valentines' When You Sleep with aplomb.


Slow Down Molasses at Raw Sugar, March 30, 2011

Also, everyone wished Rolk Klausener happy birthday. Yay!

• Show reminder: The Brains, Evil Farm Children, The Krap Skraps, The Mudplots and The Grave Mistakes are at Mavericks; The Withering Pines, J.J. Ispen and The Paper Crown perform at the Elmdale. Eamon McGrath and The Goodnight Webcams play Zaphod's.

Dog days

By the time Black Mastiff was on stage it was becoming pretty clear that Cafe DeKcuf might have been a better venue for the heavy duty psych rockers. Well, it was a small but enthusiastic crowd who were digging the Edmonton band's thick, vaguely Queens of the Stone Age grooves.

Guitarist Bobby Yiannakoulias in the red, plus drummer Allan Harding.



Meanwhile, by one of the band's pointy things we have bassist Clay Shea, who's also in Passenger Action with Allan.



The whole pointy lot!



Bobby sings!



Allan hits!



Clay rocks the frizzy hair!



Rhythm section action!



More Bobby!



Allan sings!



Extra bonus Bobby.



Bending action!



More Clay.



I enjoyed it enough to buy an EP and one of their very cool T-shirts.

• Show reminder: Born Ruffians, First Rate People and The Amalgamation play Ritual; Slow Down Molasses and The Ethics perform at Raw Sugar; Al Tambay is at the Elmdale House.

Submission

Next up were Monic, another band that seems to owe a bit to the harder-edged sounds coming out of Seattle around the time of grunge - that, and a lot of 1970s British prog.

First, closeup action with frontman Kevin Plamondon.




Taylor Harris hits!



Can't decide which picture I like better ...



On the right we have keyboardist Nejra Eminovic.



Guitar action, plus a shiny-shirted Sebastien Belanger on bass.



Nejra sings!



Sebastien sings!



More Nejra and Taylor!



More Kevin!



Hair-shaking action!



The whole lot!



More hair-shaking and hitting!



That leaves only one question: Should Monic get on a bill with The Mnemonics?

• Show reminder: Rostov Metro is at the Elmdale House.

Up in the sky

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... The Superlative! If you listen to their music on Myspace you might pick up a bit of an Alice In Chains vibe on some of the songs. Said vibe was absent at this Mavericks show opening for Black Mastiff since singer Matt Beaudry was not about - thus the band was in "temporary instrumental" mode, and more than capable of covering for the absence.

From left to right we have Pat Lebrun on guitar, his brother Sylvain on drums, bassist Alex Tait and guitarist Kiel Burwell.



Sylvain hits! Also, that is the best rack tom ever.



Brother Pat frets.



Kiel picks a bit.



More Sylvain ... this rack tom is pretty good too!



Alex walks on.



Tapping action!



Wah action!



The band in the red.



Extra Alex!



Rhythm section action!



Even more Alex!



Bonus Kiel!



Grrrrr!



And that's that.

• Show reminder: Skepsis plays The Rainbow.

Going through ch-ch-changes

Young Galaxy first came to my notice as a sister band to fellow Montrealers The Besnard Lakes. Like The Lakes, they had a jones for Pink Floyd, although they were a bit poppier and not as dedicated to skull-crushing volume. They also shared a fondness for a bit of stage flash, of the smoke'n'lasers variety. I figured that even if I didn't care much for their recent turn to a more dance-oriented sound at least I would get some cool-looking photos. Although I do like their new sound, I wasn't so keen on the snaps ... Their stage show has a new theme: Band in white, projection onto screen and themselves. Maybe it's a Montreal thing: Priestess has also gone the projector route. My opinion? These things just don't work as well in practice as in theory.

Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless go white.



Max Henry mans the keys.



They also have a new drummer, who I don't recognize and can't find a name for.



There's one thing about the band that hasn't changed: Stephen Kamp's hair.



Stephen frets, Catherine sings!



Much messing about with camera settings, little results.



The whole lot!



Catherine rocks the baby bump.



Stompbox action!



Bendy action!



Singalong action!



Bonus unknown drummer action!



Max grabs axe.



Stephen sings!



More Catherine!



They're done with touring for now, and I suspect a hiatus lurks in the near future.

• Show reminder: Rockers Normann release their new CD at The Rainbow; The lovely Luyas are at Mavericks; the Elmdale hosts Graven, Dave Norris/Local Ivan and Grainne.