by JOHNSON CUMMINS

On behalf of radio fans everywhere, I would like to send out a good ol’ “fuckin’ right!” to the McGill student populace, who last week got out and voted in favour of paying fees to keep CKUT 90.3 FM on the air.

Although it’s only costing them each a whopping $8 a year, this vote ensures that the station will be able to keep broadcasting for another five years. Without a doubt, CKUT’s eclectic playlist and community-oriented programming has been a major contributor to Montreal and its music scene. Unfortunately, they’re not out of the woods yet—with McGill students continuing to shoulder only 40 per cent of their annual budget, the station still has to rely on advertising and its annual funding drive to pay the bills.

This year’s funding drive is getting underway in the next couple of weeks, and until then, they have some goodies cooked up to help encourage you to dig deep. This month, they hatch an artist-in-residency show, on which they’ll have local musicians performing live, doing the programming and bringing in guests on a weekly basis for four weeks. For the next four weeks, it’ll be the band Timber who’ll be in charge on Mondays between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. So tune in and turn on, and if you value community radio, help the little guys out when the funding drive comes up—or be forever doomed to the same 20 songs CHOM plays every day.

If you are up for a good ol’ fashioned all-ages hardcore show, you can practise your scissor-kicks and floor-punching when the Bled, Since by Man, As Cities Burn and Protest the Hero play El Salon tonight, Thursday, March 23. Also, don’t miss the world’s biggest gathering of computer programmers and music-store clerks tonight, when Dream Theater show you just how good they are on their instruments at Metropolis. These guys can actually boast that their audience is scarier than Rush fans. Neeeeerds!

Remember that terrible, schticky band Dread Zeppelin, who took Zep songs like “Black Dog” and merged it with horrible Club Med reggae? How about the all-girl AC/DC tribute bands AC/Dshe and Hell’s Belles? Well, these two dubious concepts collide when the all-girl band Lez Zeppelin get the Led out and pull into Club Soda on Saturday night. Hmmm, I wonder if they’ll do “Stairway to Heaven?” Probably a better bet, though, would be to go down to l’Escrogriffe instead, as they’ve been celebrating their sixth anniversary all month long, with killer bands occupying the postage-stamp-sized stage every night. Saturday night, the house should be packed when gas-guzzling rockers les Psycho Riders duke it out with the pop-punk stylings (the good kind, though—think the Runaways) of Comme un Homme Libre.

Next week, I will be talking to Mentos mint spokesman, Sala/Casa dictator and apparent superstar of indie rock Mauro Pezzente, so don’t miss it.

DREAM THEATER AND TRIBUTE BANDS—TAKE THAT, INDIE ROCKERS! jonathan.cummins@gmail.com

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