Unlikely sounds

It was a pretty easy decision to head over to Sounds Unlikely last night to catch a triple bill of far-out sounds - mostly on the noise side of the spectrum - from three different acts. About 30 people showed up, so it was a tight fit among Sounds Unlikely's CD bins and record racks.

Self Surgery is the noise-music project of Fucked Corpse member, photographer, Bruised Tongue proprietor and master of disguise Pierre Richardson. You could say his performance was straight off the floor, using a bunch of tape decks and a microphone.


Self Surgery, Sounds Unlikely, February 22, 2009

HI-COMM were more melodic. Despite the photo below, there are in fact five people in the band, including Daniel from Place (at left). They got plenty noisy at times, but there was more discernible rhythm, and at times they sounded a bit like Circle, or the more industrial parts of F/i.


HI_COMM, Sounds Unlikely, February 22, 2009

Thames brought the noise back with some grinding tones and freakout guitar on the last movement. Alex Moskos, who's part of Unireverse and also played with Goa when they were at the Avant Garde many moons ago, is 50% of Thames; the other half is Blake Hargreaves of Dreamcatcher and Cousins of Reggae.


Thames, Sounds Unlikely, February 22, 2009

I'll just repeat what I said during one of the intermissions: "I'm glad I brought my earplugs."

• Show reminder: The Polytones, The Urban Aesthetics, That's The Spirit and Sunjet Records Band play Zaphod Beeblebrox.

This must be the Place

Place grabbed the middle spot at last week's eclectic but ill-attended benefit. Their debut recording is out and for this show they incorporated real live drums (you can see the handles protruding from Sam's pocket in the photo below).

Sam.



Andrew.



Daniel takes a turn at the microphone.



More Daniel - yes, this is a band that likes to concentrate on their work.



They kicked things off with a cover of the theme song from Doctor Who.



Place prepares to strike!



More singing!



Place action!



I think they've got the makings of one of Ottawa's more interesting bands. The only weak spot is their vocals, which could use some polishing.

Strange attractors

There was a pretty sparse audience at Babylon; perhaps the cruddy weather scared everyone off. Or maybe they were all next door at Barrymore's watching the Suicide Girls strut their stuff. I walked in the door some time past 9 p.m.; Glenn Nuotio was launching into his last two songs.

Nuotio's material is very high calibre singer-songwriter stuff. I would guess that's Patrick DeDauw on cello.



Smoke Judo followed with some experimental rhythm driven stuff with a lot of reverbed vocals. It's the latest project from Fluorescent Friend Christie and Akisakila's Shub Roy. I was quite impressed and bought one of their CDs.



Place was up next. They sounded a bit sharper than the last show I caught (some time ago).



Then it was the turn of a couple of Montreal groups. First, Danger Danger Mammoth Hunter; they do have some vocals - it's tempo-switching aggressive post rock; they did a good job.



City of 100 Spires finished things off with more stop-start instrumental rock and jumping about. This the third show I've caught by them and the most ferocious by far.



City of 100 Spires is also performing tonight at Mavericks as part of the Exclaim Aggression Tour.

• Show reminder: Apart from the Mavericks show - which also features Pelican, Daughters and Kennedy - you can see Jon-Rae and the River, Woolly Leaves and The Soiree at Zaphod's.

Where they're at

Place were the synthiest band at Synthfest - only appropriate since they had a lot to do with it coming together. They did throw in some guitar like the other bands, but otherwise it was all synthesizer and drum machine. Unfortunately the lights were set to moody so some of these pictures come up a little short on the "in focus" department, but you get the idea.

Andrew - since I missed his starter set, he might as well go first ...





Mooney - the facepaint makes me think of Adam Ant. Boy, am I dating myself ...



Sam, sporty synthesist.





Andrew works the microphone.



Mooney gets a little synth time.



Location action!











Unfortunately I was getting dog tired and headed home right about the time they were getting into the swing of things, but I thought it was a good set nonetheless.

• Show reminder: Sick Sick Sicks, The Nads, Midnyte Revival, The Poulsens and Eugene and the Eugenics play Le Garage in Gatineau.

You just made that up

The first annual Synthfest - from whence I have just returned - went off pretty well. There wasn't quite as much synthesizer as one might expect, but there were three good performances that I can vouch for and many kind things said about the performance by Place chap Andy that came and went before I showed up.

First band on stage was F!ghtF!ightF!ight - captured here in a very synthetic moment.



Next up, Pianosaurus Rex - only 25% synthetic, but it's a big one.



Finally Place - the synthiest band of the evening - took their turn.



Actually, they're probably still playing; I had to leave early - work you know. New (and frankly better) pictures will appear sometime over the weekend.