by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Last week, the Mirror found itself in the unusual position of explaining the cabane à sucre experience to someone calling from the middle of the desert. James Canty had never heard of the slushy, syrupy Canadian pastime, but he and fellow Washington, D.C., musicians Jerry Busher and Ben Gilligan have been well fed by French Toast.

With stacked resumés including Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up and Fugazi (Busher played on The Argument), Canty and Busher formed French Toast in 2001 as an outlet for experiments in electronics and weird rock. After a pair of EPs on Canty’s Arrest label, and tours with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens of the Stone Age and Bloc Party, the band (with Gilligan on bass) released In a Cave on Dischord last year. Ahead of their third Montreal show, and the recording of their second LP, French Toast spilled some beans.

Mirror: Why French Toast? Was this around the time of that “Freedom fries/toast” business?

James Canty: I wish I could say it was so poignant, but it was just a banal stab at all the more-clever-than-thou names that people were coming up with at the time—anything starting with “the.” We just thought we’d give ’em something to chew on, as it were.

M: And one of your songs is called “Breakfast.”

JC: My 14-year-old nephew was just singing it to me yesterday. That’s our target audience with that song, but there’s something to be said for that. The Beatles said that, in the beginning, they were interested in writing music that would appeal to children as well as adults, ’cause they thought there was real power in childlike melodies.

M: Do you still get an all-ages audience?

JC: Lately, we’ve been doing better with the all-ages scene. We just did a small tour to the Midwest and back, and our two best shows were put on by local kids, for local kids in Bloomington, IN, and Louisville, KY. They put on these cool shows that are more like events. We don’t care that we’re a good 10 years older than most of the people in the audience—that energy, you can’t replace it.

M: Do you think that people hear your old bands in French Toast?

JC: When you hear [French Toast] next to old Make-Up records, you’re gonna know it’s the same guitar, and if you’re familiar with Jerry’s drumming, you’ll recognize it right away. We don’t wanna ignore that, we still enjoy it, but at the same time, you have to make it interesting and challenging for yourself. That’s why Jerry jumps on bass sometimes, I jump on drums, we have keyboards, whatever. If I knew how to play fiddle, I’d play that too. You can’t be scared that it’s gonna be unpopular.

M: Do you sense that a lot of fans and critics expect you to match your old stuff, stylistically or quality-wise?

JC: I have infinite patience for that. In the Cave was a weird record, the songwriting was strange, the production was eclectic. I don’t expect anybody to go, “This is the greatest thing ever!” because there’s a lot of good music out there and you just build your audience over time. There’s no rush.

With the Grey and Kickers at Zoobizarre
on Monday, March 20, 9 p.m., $7

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