In training

The Train Jumpers finished off the "folk" section of Jam for Japan. Frontman Chris Landry was also the guy who kickstarted the idea (as far as I recall from various Facebook postings).

But first, some thrilling raffle prize awarding, featuring Brady!



Chris sings!



Tara sings!



Stuart makes his return to the stage for some banjo-pickin'.



Singalong action!



Slide action!



More Tara!



The view from above!



The view from the side!



Their next show is May 14 at Zaphod's.

• Show reminder: Quiet Parade and Hamilton Trading Company are at Raw Sugar Cafe;  Street Meat, Paul Crupi and Remember the Fire get dirty at the Avant-Garde; Loon Choir and Hotel Morphee perform at Cafe DeKcuf; Wide Mouth Mason, The Sheepdogs and The Stanfields rock Mavericks as part of the Prairie Scene; speaking of charitable events, Brandon Agnew, Sadie Hell, Ken Voita, Megan Jerome, Shannon Eddy Smith, Brian Simms, Andrea Simms-Karp, Lindsay Ferguson, and Kellylee Evans are at the Sparks St. D'Arcy McGee's for the Ottawa for Haiti CD Release. There's a second night of Monkeyjunk on tap at the Rainbow; Natalia Cabrera and Montuno perform at Irene's. Capital Grass and The No Men, Slim and Popular and Jon Laurie-Beaumont play the Elmdale. The Girlfriends hold an eviction kegger at 1 Flora along with the Rat Tales.

Out the door

Next on deck for Japan was Cluade Munson - "my name and the name of the band" - which in this case was just himself and drummer Pascal Delaquis; guitarist Jean-Francois Delaquis was unavailable so they might sound less ethereal on other occasions.

Claude.



More Claude and a bit of low-resolution Pascal.



A somewhat better version of Pascal.



Claude frets!



More Pascal!



Claude sings!



A bit of cymbal stickage didn't seem to stop Pascal.



The end!



His next show is at the Trailhead April 30.

• Show reminder: Allrights, Old Crime and City Above play the Clocktower. In Prairie Scene action you'll find Luke Doucet and Greg MacPherson at the NAC Studio, Library Voices, Volcanoless In Canada and Northcote at Mavericks; Right by Midnight, Union City and Little Stella are at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Todi Stronghands, The Mudplots, and Woolfolk play the Gin House; Monkeyjunk perform at The Rainbow; The Johnny Max Band roll into Irene's; Blisster and The Saddlesores, Group Therapy and Little Birdie ride into the Elmdale House. Celery Troff, Static Revolt and The Cowards are at the Avant-Garde.

Evening star

Looking about for something to do last night, I stumbled over The Treasures. The Toronto outlaw country syle band were sharing a bill with Laurent Bourque, who I've seen and enjoyed before opening for Old Crowns at Mavericks, and Sam Bradley who has been enjoying some success in the pop-soul-folk genre thanks to his inclusion as a cowriter of one of the tunes on the Twilight soundtrack (although the movies are alleged to be atrocious, the music selection doesn't seem half-bad). However, I mostly marched off to Cafe DeKcuf on the merits of The Treasures' Tried So Hard.

Laurent was already up an running when I got in the door. Last time I saw him he was accompanied by Jamie Kronick - this time he was truly solo, and sounding quite good. He did have to compete with the loud rumble coming from the all-ages punk rock show coming from downstairs - "I told the promoter I should be on that bill," he joked.


Laurent Bourque at Cafe DeKcuf, April 27, 2011

As for The Treasures, this is their  first trip to Ottawa, which they seemed to enjoy. I can think of a bunch of local acts they should get on a bill with for their promised return (The John Henrys would suit just fine). They certainly lived up to my advance listening.


The Treasures at Cafe DeKcuf, April 27, 2011


The Treasures at Cafe DeKcuf, April 27, 2011

Finally Sam Bradley closed things off with a set that made me think of J.J. Grey and Mofro, who also blend folk, rock and soul, albeit with a far more southern, swampy feel.He has a very adept backing band in guitarist John Notto, drummer Mark Kerrey (also responsible for some of the songwriting) and bassist Jeff Riedlinger. Perhaps the convivial feeling was due to about half the audience being family members: "My grandfather is here, my mom, my cousins ... my dog, my cat ..." he joked between songs.


Sam Bradley at Cafe DeKcuf, April 27, 2011

And a less-flashy photo.


Sam Bradley at Cafe DeKcuf, April 27, 2011

A pleasant way to spend an evening.

• Show reminder: Zac Crouse and Steve Gates perform at the Raw Sugar Cafe; there's Prairie Scene related activity at Mavericks with Royal Canoe, The Liptonians and Maybe Smith; the Elmdale is also in on the Prairie action with Codie Prevost and Desiree Dorion.

To L. and back

On a dark and dreary Wednesday I popped over to The Rainbow to do my bit for Japan by standing around and listening to a bunch of local folk and rock acts brought together to help out the tsunami-earthquake-nuclear-accident-plagued nation by raising a few bucks. First on the bill was L. Poushinsky, who has been slugging it out in the coffee shops, clubs and bars of our fair capital for a few years now.

And here she is!



That's Dave Edwards behind her helping out on drums.



Mallet time!



Closeup action!



Bonus Dave!



Lisa rocks the frets!



Train-jumper Stuart Rutherford helped out on a few tunes.



Extra Stuart!



At the time of the show, she was looking for musicians for an upcoming East Coast tour.

• Show reminder: Arsonists Get All The Girls, A Plea For Purging, Lionheart, The Contortionist, Volumes and Sleep Is For The Dead play Mavericks; upstairs at Cafe DeKcuf you'll find Sam Bradley, The Treasures and Laurent Bourque; Pistol George Warren, Hot Jupiter and Autumns Canon perform at Zaphod's; Flying Fox and The Hunter-Gatherers play The Rainbow; the Elmdale hosts Katie Murphy and Phantom Shores.

But no quiet

Vancouver's Peace are a band it's impossible not to like ... because after all, you have to be a total bastard to walk around saying "I hate Peace!" Also in its favour are the declamatory post punk the band has honed to a sharp point. Despite a recent interview with White Lung's Mish Way where they claimed to "only play bad shows," this one was quite good.

On our right, guitar men Daniel Geddes and Michael Willock.



At left, the mighty rhythm section of Connor Mayer and drummer Geoff Dembicki.



Shadowy action!



Daniel sings!



Guitar action!



Drumming action!



To heck with it, I'll provide my own extra lighting!



More guitar!



More bending!



The shouty bit!



Peaceful action!



More Geoff!



Behind the back action!



Their album My Face is swell, too.

• Show reminder: Paper Beat Scissors and Dave Norris and Local Ivan perform at Raw Sugar Cafe; French shoegazers Zero Absolu play The Rainbow.

Crosss purposes

Here's what I now about Cross. They like Black Sabbath, are very fuzzy, hail from Montreal and Halifax, they have a track on the much-recommended Khyber Compilation and there are three of them. They played quite a good set with Peace at Capital Rehearsal Studio April 9 - far more interesting than the pictures would suggest.

It's not easy when you've only got one green bulb to work with ...



All thecool kids play Hagstrom these days ... though I think it's the first bass I've seen in some time.



Drumming action!



Upside down guitar action!



Green fuzz action!



Shadowy drumming action!



Shadowy bass action!



Happy drumming action!



Fretful action!



On the plus side, you can eat off the Capital Rehearsal Studio's floors.



That's a handsome bandolier.



There was also an exciting finish I completely failed to capture.

• Show reminder: If you were at the Peace/Cross show, you probably want to be at Cafe DeKcuf to see Long Long Long, Total Crush and Dream Friends; you can bang your head at The Rainbow to Kill It Opous and Arch Spire.