by JOHNSON CUMMINS

I'm huddled away in a corner with the three members of Ashtray Heart in what used to be one of the best bars on the Main. A CD disc changer has replaced the DJ tonight and the local musicians who made up a large part of the clientele have been replaced by college goons slurping up their student loans. If you discount the guy banging along to the alternative hit parade on the table next to us, the place is completely void of any musicians other than Ashtray Heart.

Seems like the perfect watering hole for these guys, as they never seemed comfortable rubbing elbows with any band in Montreal anyway. "I guess we don't really go to the right places and don't really know other bands," says drummer Patrick Ross. "So I guess that's part of the reason we haven't played around town too much."

When they released their debut Rags to Rock 'n' Roll over a year ago, this trio served up a blend of Am Rep-style noise rife with blues-infused rock 'n' roll swagger that marked them as well ahead of the curve of noise rock. Shortly after the release, though, shows became few and far between as the band struggled to keep a permanent drummer. Add those pesky day jobs into the mix and before you knew it, they quickly lost any sort of momentum. "When we put out the first CD, it was really hard because the label kind of crumbled," says singer/guitarist Ahsan Rahman. "It got so disappointing, we wondered why we were doing this."

It was only when Ross returned to the band after a six-month break that things started to click again. "When I quit the band," says Ross, "it was because I was really fed up with how things were going. But after a while, I really started to miss playing with these guys."

"And things are really clicking now," adds Rahman. "Our last show went so good that we went into the jam space the next day and songs just kept coming out. We are really into what we are doing as a band again, and I don't think we've ever sounded better."

Now that Ashtray Heart's batteries have been recharged, the boys are more than ready to take another run at the hill. The new songs celebrate the more quirky, angular jams that make up the lion's share of their sound (they did take their name from a Captain Beefheart song, after all) and the rock 'n' roll touchstones are all there, only now they seem more galvanized and energized.

Rahman insists the band exists for its own benefit, and the renewed spirit within the band is reward enough. But the urge to jump into the studio and follow up the debut is starting to hit, and if it means avoiding crumbling labels by putting out the CD themselves, that suits them just fine. "At this point, it's like we're a bad rash that just won't go away. As long as it feels good, we're going to keep on doing it."

With Squalor and Steel Toe at Barfly on Friday, Jan. 21, 9 p.m., $5

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