Silver racket

>> Montreal’s Chris Burns regurgitates a
quarter-century of freaky, frenzied fretwork

TWENTY-FIVE JIVE: Chris Burns today

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

On October 15, 1982, a gawky, 15-year-old Chris Burns took the stage for the first time, guitar in hand. He was playing with what would become Terminal Sunglasses, oddballs fondly remembered by the denizens of Montreal’s protean punk and indie-pop scene.

A quarter of a century later to the day (when the clock strikes midnight, anyway), Burns turns la Sala Rossa into an underground rock ’n’ racket version of This Is Your Life. Terminal Sunglasses are reuniting for the soirée, as are his later projects Bubblegum Army and Slaphappy 5 (with his brother Mike and Lesbians on Ecstasy’s Jackie Gallant). Burns’s current efforts, Nutsak and the quasi-jazz duo GlassBurns, will also play, as will a video-format stumble down memory lane.

The bands named above constitute a mere fraction of the spread of outfits Burns has played with over 25 years—a full list would fill most of this page. Such hyperactivity is mirrored in the spastic, mile-a-minute approach Burns takes to playing pop, punk and improv music. Thankfully, he was able to sit still long enough to answer a few questions from the Mirror.

Mirror: Over the many different musical projects you’ve undertaken, what would you say is the Chris Burns touch you’ve brought to all of them?

Chris Burns: I’m not sure you could trace it all the way back to the beginning but, over the years, I think I’ve developed a distinctive, brain-damaged guitar style. Also, any of the projects that have included my vocals have had flat singing. Hopefully, it’s all had a strong sense of humour and a healthy disregard for whatever the current trends of the time happened to be.

M: With which act would you have least expected to find yourself involved with?

CB: I was surprised to find myself playing with Mike Watt. As a young teen, I recall listening to the Minutemen’s “Little Man With a Gun in His Hand” and thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great to some day be in a band and try to play amazing music like this?” To find myself playing and singing that song with one of its actual writers was somewhat surreal.

The few times I have done solo, acoustic shows—as Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls—also freaked me out. As a younger person, I never expected to find myself playing “free jazz” like I’m sort of fake-doing with a few projects now, nor did I ever expect to be doing James Brown, Ike Turner, the Commodores and scores of other covers I have done with Nutsak.

Shady characters

M: You call Nutsak, your band with Howard Chackowicz, Sam Shalabi and André Asselin, your favourite band in the whole wide world. Explain yourself.

CB: First of all, all three of those fellas are incredible, talented and inspiring musicians and they are also very warm, funny, good-hearted chaps—a mighty rare combination. Also, because they kick my ass to try things I would not have dared to consider. It satisfies a lot of my musical fancies—I get to play punk rock, jazz, klezmer, funk and blues, improvise a fair amount and just generally wig out.

M: Terminal Sunglasses was, if I’m correct, your first band, in the early ’80s. How was Montreal’s independent music scene most notably different at that time?

CB: Far fewer bands, places to play, people who gave a shit about what I guess you might call “weird” music. Technology has probably made the biggest change, however. Back then, you couldn’t easily record your music, burn it as a CD-R and sell it, or put it online and get it out there. I would say that there are both pros and cons to both of those major changes.

M: Will this astounding display of narcissism you’ve concocted involve, at any point, you receiving a bouquet of roses while tears streak your mascara and your tiara tumbles askew?

CB: Hopefully, it won’t actually come off as a totally narcissistic event. If it’s a tribute to anyone, it’s to all the fine folks who had the patience to put up with me throughout it all, and an opportunity for people to get a chance to see and hear some bands they may have missed out on. It’s quite surprising and touching that so many people have agreed to take part. Terminal Sunglasses’ bassist, Foster Grant, is flying all the way in from B.C. for the event, which blows my mind! I sure hope he, at least, ends up having fun.

At la Sala Rossa on Sunday,
Oct. 14, 7 p.m., $5