We have lift-off

Roberta Bondar is a new Ottawa band. This was their second show (if I've heard things correctly), and I have to say I was quite excited by their performance. They sounded great, with two distinctive and capable vocalists in Alex Maltby (Fire Heats Water) and Lidija Rozitis (Silver Birch Society and Fashion Press) and hefty rhythms courtesy of drummer Tyler Goodman (Fire Heats Water, Greed Bros, Get A Life Losers) and percussionist/noisemaker Gary Franks of CHUO's Pop and Lock.

Ready to launch!



Lidija sings!



Gary hits!



Tyler is a rather outgoing person.



Guitar action!



Gary rocks the tambourine.



Alex sings!



The whole lot!



Lidija bends!



I can't recall in hindsight why I wanted the light decoration in this photo.



Shadowy, fisheyed action!



The end!



It certainly boded well for the future.

• Show reminder: Carmen Townsend performs at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Keturah Johnson is at the Rainbow; the Elmdale' hosts Plus Garden and the High Cliffs.

Three, two, one ...

Egad, is McLeod St. Ottawa's new boulevard of rock?!? Well, there are at least two domiciles willing to open their doors to musical performances. On the only sunny day in May I toodled over to No. 137 in the Golden Triangle to see performances from Roberta Bondar, The Brabazons, Dagger Eyes and Chris Bush. The first time I saw Chris was at another house show, fronting trio Get A Life Losers. The next time was at Gaga Weekend fronting duo Greed Bros. And finally here he is playing solo ...

Socky singing action!



Shadowy action!



The crowd goes wild! (Including Tyler, drummer from Greed Bros., GALL, Fire Heats Water and Roberta Bondar.)



Still nice and sunny outside!



Am I going to waste the opportunity provided by freshly painted ceilings and walls? Hell no.



The end!



What's next I know not.

• Show reminder: Sad Guru and The Magnificent Sevens play The Rainbow.

Opposites attract

Krista Muir wrapped things up (after some raffling action) with some tunes from her latest album (released this May 11) Between Atoms ... but I've said most of what I have to for the Lederhosen Lucil post a couple days back, so on to the snaps!

Krista rocks the stripes.



Her accompaniests this evening, Shane Watt (who also did the sound), a cleverly concealed drummer and Marie-Eve Bouchard.



Singalong action!



Marie-Eve rocks the xylophone.



The whole lot, somewhat better lit.



Baritone ukulele action!



Shane sneaks in some keyboard (darn microphone).



Stripes for everyone!



Upside-down bass action!



And finally, the one and only picture where you can actually see drummer Chris Olsen.



You can get Between Atoms at Bandcamp at the price of your choosing.

• Show reminder: The Maya Blues Band performs at The Rainbow; Ravenswing wings into Minto Park between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. (or Jack Purcell Community Centre if it's soggy), with arts, crafts and workshops, plus performances by Mark Alexander McIntyre, Male Nurse, Lipstick Lesbian, Silkenn Laumann and Django Libre. The Walkouts walk into the Elmdale.

Halifax! Rap! Legend!

I think Jesse Dangerously is at the forefront of a new trend - instead of having CD release shows, he had a book release show for Humble & Brilliant, with said book featuring illustrations, lyrics, an index ... basically liner notes on steroids accompanied by a download code. Just wait, all the kids will be doing it soon - you'll be buying a T-shirt with a download code stencilled on it or something. Anyway, now on to the photos of Jesse, his rap accompanist for the evening, Nic Carrier, feminist superstar Audra Williams and occasionally the back of somebody's head.

Jesse and Nic!



And again!



Theremin action!



Audra on the microphone.



Rapalong action!



Snappy action!



More Jesse!



More Nic!



More headbacks!



It was indeed brilliant. Jury's out on humble.

• Show reminder: speaking of Raw Sugar, The Withering Pines are there tonight; Uncooperatives and Boxcar Cadavers rock the Dominion; Pretty Little Death Machine, Maday! Mayday! and Descendant perform at Zaphod's; The Flats play Irene's; the Avant-Garde Bar hosts Huntly Slim and The Suburban Cowboys and O'mally.

Something fishy

I booked a day off just to see Jeremy Gluck of Barracudas fame at Babylon, with performances from The Barreracudas and Mother's Children as a special bonus. Gluck is taken some Ottawa power-poppers out on the road for this brief tour, which should be fun. Things ended up a little chaotic, but it was mostly quite entertaining.

First up were Mother's Children, who sounded super-tight throughout their nine-song set, which included several tunes off the band's new EP, Are You Tough Enough?


Mother's Children at Babylon, May 26, 2011


Mother's Children at Babylon, May 26, 2011

The crowd was warned that Atlanta quartet The Barreracudas would "kick your ass." It was definitely an ass-kicking set of sharp powerpop, finishing with a cover of Cheap Trick's Come On, Come On.


The Barreracudas at Babylon, May 26, 2011  


The Barreracudas at Babylon, May 26, 2011

Gluck has rounded up Ken from Mother's Children, Daniel of Zebrassieres and Beach Blankets and John Sproull of Chandeliers, The Secret Loves and others.  The encore turned into an amusing mess when Gluck handed the microphone off to Davey Quesnelle to sing I Want My Woody Back. I gather he is also heartily sick of singing Summer Fun ... though he did give it two run-throughs.


Jeremy Gluck at Babylon, May 26, 2011 


Jeremy Gluck at Babylon, May 26, 2011 

Catch it if you can!

• Show reminder: Sparrows, Seas, Albatros and I Spell It Nature play Club SAW; Austra, Trust and Silkken Laumann land at Ritual; Farler's Fury, Permanent Bastards, The Beer Barons, Dean Lickyer and The Scally Cap Brats rock Cafe Dekcuf; Snailhouse release their new CD release at Mavericks; Street Meat, The City Above and Knives For Kids perform at Zaphod's; Ross Neilsen & The Suffrin' Bastards, Bluestone and Papa Shango hit the stage at The Rainbow; The Elmdale hosts The Beauties. The ever-busy Static Revolt play the Avant-Garde.

Hosed again

Krista Muir is one of those artists I really don't get to see as much of as I'd like. I saw her perform at Irene's in her recent, ukulele-toting mode for a show with Shanker and Romps, and previously under her Lederhosen Lucil nom de synthétiseur at the Dominion Tavern in Swptember 2003. She should come back to town more often. Anyway, for this show at Raw Sugar she appeared under both her performing identities, starting with a very brief - and by brief, I mean it was two songs long - as Lederhosen Lucil.

Programming action!



Officialoppositionhosen action!



Highly reflective action!



Raffle prize revealing action!



And that's it ... when I say brief, I mean brief!

• Show reminder: Knives and Forks for Freedom, The Krapskraps, Lost Youth, Wasted Aces and The Romantic Edge play Cafe Dekcuf; Jeremy Gluck's Barracudas, The Barreracudas and Mother's Children rock Babylon; Prett Melberts and The Best Friend Patrol, Dirty Little Secret, Project Mars, Move Your Mountain and The Ginger Fox Band are at the Avant-Garde Bar; See Joe Smile, Oceans and Little Stella play Zaphod Beeblebrox.

That's crazy talk

Antigonish, Nova Scotia's Mad Chatter - who filled Zaphod's stage after Tim Gilbertson's departure - like to say they're influenced by East Coast music, such as Garrett Mason and Maritimes jam scene stalwarts like The Jimmy Swift Band (minus the electronica, at least for this gig), Slowcoaster and Grand Theft Bus.

Front man Alex Gerrior rocks the stripes.



Josh Dunbar mans the drums.



Juliam Cameron plays bass (not scene, because he wasn't about, keyboardist Matthew English).



Singing and hitting action!



Bending action!



The whole lot!



Bonus Josh!



More guitar!



And, er, that's it ... full credit to the band for keeping their game face on even though the audience was a bit on the spartan side.

• Show reminder: I, Colossus, The Isosceles Project and Collider rock Cafe Dekcuf; Society's Ills, The BCASA, Deadline Arson and Brainhunter are also slated to play Cafe Dekcuf, so I'm assuming there will either be terrible confusion, a battle to the death, or someone getting moved downstairs to Mavericks; Red Light Saints, The Stogies and Micarza Camaro play Zaphod's annual Towel Day; Dean Lickyer and The Led Hot Zili Peppers perform at The Rainbow; the Elmdale hosts Don Amero and Marc Robert Nelson; The Hornettes and Houndstooth are at the Avant-Garde Bar.