Bank on it

I went over to Raw Sugar Jan. 19 to check out a bunch of nobodies - former members of the Creeping Nobodies, that is! In addition to former creepers in Karaoke and Bruised Knees, local scoundrels Caymans performed. Guitarist Blake Hargreaves was a Fluorescent Friend, while Joni Sadler has been involved in community radio and was one of the Sounds Unlikely crew.

Blake sings!



More Blake!



Getting a good shot of drummers tucked away on the Raw Sugar stage isn't easy ...



And so on!



The whole lot!



Joni hits!



The end!



I caught them earlier in April opening for White Lung .. what they're up to now I know not.

• Show reminder: Lioness, Birthday Girls and Organ Eyes perform at Cafe Dekcuf.

This must be the place

Real Estate ended the evening with some mellow mildly psychedelic and quite jangly indie rock.

Fake blues action with Martin Courtney!



Alex Bleeker rocks the bass!



Matthew Mondanile rocks the axe.



Martin sings!



The band has added a third guitarist, Jonah Maurer, who also plays keyboards.



Newish drummer Jackson Pollis hits!



Jonah strums!



Alex sings!



Singalong action!



They're just wrapping up a bit of touring in the the U.S. Midwest.

• Show reminder: There's rock aplenty at Mavericks, with The Supersuckers, Nashville Pussy, The BCASA; Capital rehearsal Studios hosts The Yips, Organ Eyes and ISBN. The Gatineau Steamers play the Elmdale.

Kids' stuff

I was glad to be able to see Real Estate again, but was almost more excited for The Babies, since they had a connection to one of my favourite bands, The Woods. Woods bassist Kevin Morby plays guitar and sings in The Babies. Cassie Ramone of The Vivian Girls is also a member.

Kevin sings!



Bass action with Nathanael Stark!



Cassie strums!



More Cassie 'n' Nate!



Rhythm section action with drummer Justin Sullivan!



Cassie sings!



Extra Kevin!



Extra Cassie!



Justin hits!



Kevin frets!



The end!



Good stuff in a Vaselines style.

• Show reminder: The Nymphets, Currents and Swollen Eyes rock the house at 446 Lisgar; Rouge and The Johnnies play Raw Sugar; Stones enthusiasts The Ya-Ya's perform at Irene's; The Mercy Now, Little Foot Long Foot and Dirty Little Secret play loud at Zaphod's; Diesel Fitter and Shakey are at the Elmdale; the Avant-Garde hosts Sad Guru, Full-Tipped Sleeve and Metronome Jones.

Before and In Between

Kalle Wainio and company - Kalle Mattson the band, that is - have been keeping busy. They have a recently released new album, and just scored a slot at this year's Bluesfest. For this mid-January gig at Mavericks, they were opening for Real Estate and The Babies, and sounding quite a bit more rocking than when I saw them  at Zaphod's in June 2010.

Singalong action!



Guitar action!



Gripping action!



Thean sings!



Drumming action with newish (or perhaps more accurately new-to me) member Kyle Woods!



Meanwhile, on the shadowy side of the stage, we have trumpeter and thing-shaker JF Beauchamp.



More Kalle and his crazy hair!



Bonus Rory!



The end!



The band is currently on the road (in Sudbury at the Townehouse tonight) and will be pass through Ottawa for a show at Mavericks on May 25.

• Show reminder: Measha Bureggergosman goes pop at the Bronson Centre Theatre; StillNative rocks The Daily Grind; Dayglo Abortions play Mavericks with Endprogram, four-stroke and Rawrawriot; Alert the Medic, Amos The Transparent and And What Army? perform at Zaphod's; the House of Targ shakes to the sounds of The Skip Jensen Group, The Shakey Aches and Eat Crow; The Ross Neilsen Band rolls into Irene's; the Elmdale hosts John Allaire & The Campistas and Tom Breiding; The Robert Farrell Band is at the Avant-Garde.

By the numbers

Math Rosen, who I imagine by now has completed his relocation to Toronto completed the evening at Raw Sugar with some soundtrack for movies as-yet unmade and dance electronica.



Yes, the pictures are pure excitement, aren't they?



More Math!



Laptop action!



Up next, something a bit more rock ...

• Show reminder: Romanian metallurgists Negura Bunget, Wolven Ancestry, The Way of Purity and Din Brad bring the volume to Mavericks; Joel Plaskett Emergency and Frank Turner perform at  Bronson Centre Theatre; Mosely plays at the Avant-Garde.

Red White and the blues

A few years back, I became enamoured of a band called The Clone Defects. Tim Lampinen - a.k.a. Timmy Vulgar - has since bequeathed a fine catalogue of fried psych punk upon the world as Human Eye, but when the band went its separate ways a couple of its members ended up backing Chicago's  Miss Alex White as her Red Orchestra. I bought a few of her albums and enjoyed their spunky chunk-rock quite a bit. Her current project is White Mystery, a duo with her brother Francis, and it's more of the same goodness. They're on a nine-week tour, which took them to the Dom last night.

Local trio Haywired was rocking the place as I walked in the door. I hear a bit of UK82 punk, some LA hard rock. At least some of the band has done time in The Nummies. They have a mohawk-sporting drummer who looks like he should be in a crusty band and a guitarist with a Nashville Pussy shirt. In fact, they covered Nashville Pussy's Dead Men Can't Get Drunk. It was a really ferocious set and I'm eager to hear more.


Haywired at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Faceoff action!


Haywired at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

The two men of Bearshark I've seen before. Guitarist Jeff Coghill was of course in The Coggs and has brought their bluesy sound to his new unit. Last time I saw Hamish Robertson he was jumping about with a Flying V on the Bluesfest main stage backing Trevor James - this time he manning the traps. He's under there somewhere ...


Bearshark at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Jeff frets!


Bearshark at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Finally, White Mystery brought the house down with their curly haired mop waving and three-chord rock. Miss Alex White rocks the Ric! Complimented on her guitar tone after the show, she explained she just turned everything up all the way.


White Mystery at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

Francis hits!


White Mystery at The Dominion Tavern, April 24, 2012

They're in Hamilton tonight, Toronto tomorrow.

• Show reminder: The Dudes, Poor Young Things and Ashleys perform at Cafe DeKcuf.

Male model

Moving right along, we have some croonelectirca from RLMDL. Here's the gear:



And here's the man - Jordan Allen, that is.



Jordan tweaks, Luca films!



Gripping action!



Closeup action!



And that's that. New music is promised this summer.

• Show reminder: White Mystery, Bearshark and Haywired rock the Dominion. Stef Land and Brown Paper Bag perform at Zaphod's; Katie Bourque plays the Rainbow.