Cameo Of The Day: Me, In An Orkestar Kriminal Video

I won't classify this officially as a Video Of The Week because it's not English-language (it's yiddish), but you might notice a tall bald man watching Orkestar Kriminal play (and, ultimately, dancing to the beat) in this video:



All of those musicians are in other bands (many of them very fine acts I have actually enjoyed seeing and listening to), but you might remember lead singer Giselle Webber from such terrific Montréal rock bands as Hot Springs and Red Mass.

This video was directed by Bruno Goulard.

Dance Movie, The Lindbergh Line & Sébastian Hell @ Bar St-Laurent 2, August 3rd, 2010

I got at Bar St-Laurent 2 at 8:45PM and, to my surprise, the only people there were the Former Lady Of The House, her friend and her friend's boyfriend. That's it - one table's worth of humans. Even the bartender wasn't at his post behind the bar - I had to go fetch him behind the sound console for him to start making any money off of us, and I hope he was glad I did, that was 8 beers right there, and 6 more 15 minutes later when three of us had finished our first two.

It took until 9:30 for anyone else to come in - and even then, they were the other acts performing that evening, so me and my buddies were starting to wonder if I was going to be playing to an empty room. It was, after all, a stormy Tuesday evening. Luckily, the closer it got to 10PM, the fuller the place got. Not full enough to start earning free beers, but enough to ensure whatever happened would end up being a good time for all.

By 10:05, Will Austin - my drummer for the evening - and I got on stage and sound-checked an improvised rendition of Prince's 'My Name Is Prince' and then proceeded with the show. I'm not narcissistic enough to critique/review my own performance, so I won't, but I'll say this: I had a good time. And the setlist was:

1. My Love
2. Let's (Last) Dance
3. My Music Is Rock But My Love Life Is The Blooze (instrumental)
4. Sonic Reducer [a Dead Boys cover]
5. Selfish (slow version)
6. Bitter End
7. Daughters

Next up was my favourite new band of 2010, the previously-blogged-upon (and playing only their second show ever) The Lindbergh Line, who again were up to par. So much so, in fact, that the crowd requested an encore after their set... and I don't blame them one bit! As a band, depending what you're willing to focus on, there's always something interesting going, whether it be the songwriting, their ability to play their instruments, the tightness of their sound, the tribal pounding of Denise Williams on her drums while she's hidden in the back, the unfairly good looks and terrific rock stance of bassist Karl Leblanc, or the surprising power and stamina of could-have-been electro-pop queen Myriam Chebat's vocal-and-guitar attack, with each song building in intensity from her presence alone.

Then it was time for Halifax's own Dance Movie, which on this night consisted of... well, pretty much singer and guitarist Tara Thorne, with Denise Williams sitting in on drums. Their MySpace mentions three band members, and I do know Denise is only sitting in on half the shows of the tour they're on together, so my guess is the actual drummer just couldn't make the first part of the tour.But Tara has a good enough stage presence to pull off whatever setting she chooses - alone, as a duo, or in a band. Her songs hold up too, and the Former Lady Of The House actually thought she had been the best performer of the evening, with the best songs, one of which is set to play in the upcoming season of Degrassi... it was like witnessing a cross between old-time Soul Asylum (in the days where Dave Letterman called them ''the best live band in America'') and Death Cab For Cutie when they, themselves, were good. All-pro, all good, right there.

So good, in fact, that I opted to stay for even more beer to reminisce after the show ended when the initial plan was to leave at midnight no matter what because I had an early day this morning...

If you can, catch the tour as it heads to your town: St. John, NB (5th), Fredericton (6th), Antigonish (7th), and Halifax (the 8th).

UnPop Montréal 2009

Well, it's official: UnPop Montréal 2009 will take place, starting August 24th, hopefully until September 15th - I really like partying on my birthday, and beyond.

All shows, as usual, will be free for the public to attend.

The start-off show will be held at Soundcentral, an independent record shop situated at the corner of Coloniale and Mont-Royal, and will feature myself, Sébastian Hell, and Small Wars - UnPop founder Nate Munn's acousti-punk alter-ego.

The most massive show will be an outdoors extravaganza on St-Laurent street, Friday, August 28th, from 4PM to 10PM, during the street fair - a collaboration with our nemesis Pop Montreal (as in 2006, we've given peace a chance, more specifically, the chance to play outdoors to a bunch of people). And it'll rock onwards and upwards from there.

Some shows are still being booked as we speak, some bands have yet to confirm, but this year, Year 5, looks to not only be a good yet, but possibly the best yet.