Mr. Mom

It was into the wee hours when the Secret Mommy Quintet finished things off with a set of glitchy pop. I've seen reviews that compare them to the Animal Collective. I can see why, though I think the Collective is a lot more clamorous, noisy and psychedelic. The SMQ makes more obvious use of the contrast between laptop techno and instrumental sounds.

So, just who is Secret Mommy Quintet? According to recently declassified data, it's main man Andy Dixon and his fave lady Merida (on the blue ukulele).



Also in this Castanet-toting crew is Shane Krause of They Shoot Horses, Don't They? on saxophone, Sarah of The Doers and Gregory Adams, who is in Andy's other band Winning.



Andy gets with the program.



Sarah flutes a little, Adams picks up the Tele and Wink Todd kicks in some mini-maraca.



Duct tape is good for fixing maracas.



There was much envy for Dixon's sea-green Ric.



Xylophone action!



Krause in close-up.



The view from the back of the sofa.



The whole lot! And a taxi!



Mighty entertaining. And mighty late.

• Show reminder: Like I said yesterday, Islands, The Magic and Street Carnage perform at Babylon. The Mantra, Biipiigwan, The Mothers of The Lower East Side and The Mistress play the Bytown Tavern.

Keep one eye open

We return again to the residence of Calum Marsh, a few days ago, May 17 to be precise, and Ennuie has just concluded their set. It's The Winks' turn to take the stage - or, as it is more colloquially known, the living room floor. The Winks have six members, but for this occasion they had stripped down to a trio of Todd, Sean and Tyr.



Todd MacDonald rocks the mandolin.



Josh Zubot (not Sean, as I had originally) on drums and some unidentified circular metal thing that could be the lid of a pot.



Tyr on cello, singing and fancy dressing. Note the pedal board (and big green feather). She also does some tap dancing, for which she retreated to the entrance hall (just off to the right) since the hard floor there was more suitable. She also sang Simon & Garfunkel's Feelin' Groovy.



Hair-shaking action!



And sans flash.



Singalong action!



Sarah Jane of the Secret Mommy Quintet (and The Doers) helps out on keys. Did I have the flash a mite high for this photo? Err, possibly.



They've just wrapped up their tour with Secret Mommy. I'm keen to see them with their full roster.

• Show reminder: Male Nurse plays the Manx. Depending on which listing you consult, either poppy punks Hello Mayberry play Zaphod's along with Art or Sex, or Sam Slick, The Epilogue and The Wet Bed Fiasco perform. The only point of agreement seems to be that Smaller on You is going to play.
  

How you do

The attendance at The Doers' last show in Ottawa was, in my words "rather horribly low" - things turned out much better for them at their Legion hall performance last Saturday (unless you count the finkrat who stole their roadie's camera in a late-night van break in).

Bassist Barry Higginson - for some reason I always think that would be a great name for a British explorer.





Sean Maxey and Sarah Jane - Sarah Jane is also a professional hairdresser and was taking appointments to crop tops as The Doers toured the nation.



The lady in back is Joy, the band's new drummer.





Sean sings!



They got rhythm.



Clapping action!



Singalong action!





The Doers from light to dark.



The space definitely suited their acoustic sound; I liked this performance quite a bit more than I did their one at Babylon.

• Show reminder: Daiquiri and Boycrusher play Barrymore's.

Eight is enough

Bands to see in one night, that is. My first stop on Saturday was the Montgomery Legion Hall on Kent where local photographer Paul Galipeau was holding a show featuring five bands. First up, Expatriate, who really ladled on the feedback.



Sudbury's Varge played an active set.



Vancouver's Doers have a new drummer and less facial hair then when I saw them at Babylon ("Where we played to two people" they said - I forgot who the other person was ...) but still sounded great.



Then it was faceoff time as hometown boys Quebexico did battle with Toronto's DD.MM.YYYY.







Everything wrapped up around 11 p.m., so I had plenty of time to go a block to Babylon and catch Andrew Vincent starting off a triple bill with The Banditas and Detective Kalita, who were there to celebrate the release of their new CD on Kelp, The Michael Parks.







A fine way to spend six hours or so, but man are my feet tired. Come to think of it, so is the rest of me.

Do, do, do

Vancouver's The Doers are an acoustic folk-punk quartet from Vancouver... part Minutemen (they've actually recorded an EP with Mike Watt), part Violent Femmes. I'm not sure if the acoustic guitar and bass are actually necessary for the sound, but what the heck. The turnout was rather horribly low, but enthusiastic, and the band put on an energetic show.

Sarah Jane on vocals and shakin' about.



Guitarist Sean Maxey gets all Joe Cockery. Bouncing the flash off the ceiling doesn't really work if it's painted black, does it?



Bassist Barry Higginson and his amazing mustache.



Drummer Jeff Sebastian and his less amazing but still impressive mustache (I also observe a marked resemblance to Kevin Kline ... hmm).



Seriously folks, is this a rhythm section, or extras on HBO's Deadwood?



Rockin' and shakin' all over!



Kathy Dube of The Cinch is/was a member, but she wasn't in evidence at this show. Nor was much of an audience, I regret to say.

• Let there be rejoicing, for The Banditas have recorded an album ... and they're holding a release party for it, even! The Nymphets (from Montreal) and Run Stop Restore (featuring them Sproull lads) will be on hand at Irene's Pub to help celebrate the happy occasion June 25.