Forward to the past

There’s a scene in William Gibson’s tour de force near-future thriller novel, Neuromancer, where the protagonist visits a decommissioned space station inhabited by former satellite-construction employees who have turned to Rastafarianism and begun growing hydroponic marijuana in space. The inhabitants refuse to leave the station, content to float around for the rest of their days, eating lentils and constantly listening to a bizarre, futuristic, electronic form of dub reggae. The book, written in Vancouver in 1984, single-handedly established the term “cyberspace,” kickstarted the cyberpunk literary genre and laid the philosophical groundwork for modern Internet culture, not to mention being one of the most terse, lovably pedantic, spine-tingling novels ever written. And I’m also pretty sure that I found the stoner electro-space-reggae he was talking about. Check it out at the monthly Komodo Dubs, which is tonight at Academy with Komodo, DJ Hosta and this month’s guest, Nils Fluck.

Continuing the theme of dystopian West Coast pop culture from 1984, there’s a movie called Suburbia which was directed by Penelope Spheeris, who also directed such greats as Dudes and The Decline of Western Civilization, parts 1, 2 and 3. In that film, there’s a scene where Los Angeles hardcore powerhouse TSOL do a synthesizer set for a crowd of cynical, flamboyantly-dressed 20-somethings in colourful high tops and handkerchiefs. I swear that the electroclash scene in Montreal inches closer to that paradigm with every passing week. Go on youtube.com and search for “suburbia” and “TSOL,” then click on the video for the song called “Darker My Love.” Then go out on Saturday night and see Trash Fashion, Nu Ravers on the Block, Cherry Cola and Put the Rifle Down, also at Academy. I swear you’ll piss yourself laughing. Big shout-outs go to Cherry Cola for his spur-of-the-moment marathon set, opening for the Ed Banger posse at Club Soda. Special thanks also go out to the chick who broke my nose in the mosh pit.

I don’t have any early-’80s trivia to draw similes from for this one, but it’s definitely within your best interests to go see Junior Boys on Saturday at Sala Rossa. They put on a fantastic show last time, inciting so many impromptu dancefloor hugs and cuddles that I started to wonder if they might do a cover of the Care Bears theme song. Oh, there you go. I knew there was some ’80s kitsch in there somewhere.

If you’ve been missing Zoobizarre’s defunct Flaky Disco Fridays, or have been looking for an excuse to trek up to the raddest hole-in-the-wall north of Laurier (you heard me, Green Room), check out the new Poussez! Poussez! monthly, featuring residents WhyAlexWhy? and Sons of Warsaw as well as this month’s guest, NYC’s Mike Simonetti, founder of Troubleman Records. Once again, that’s Friday at Zoobizarre.

And, finally, there’s a weekly in Montreal that I’ve been tragically neglecting up until this point. Not only is it at one of the very coolest venues in the city, formerly le Manoir, now le Social, on Bishop, but they play disco—real disco, mind you—with rotating themes and guests every week. That’s Loose Joints at le Social (1445 Bishop), every Friday night, and this week is Italo week.

Writing between the lines… jack.oatmon@gmail.com