Making the
walls sweat

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Traditionally, during these frigid months, Montreal ends up losing out to a lot of big-name major tours that tend to steer their tour buses towards warmer climes. This tail end of February is no different, but local bands once again take over the clubs, and this week there’s no choice but to face the bitter winds.

One tour that has the balls to brave the cold is that of Super Furry Animals (see interview on p. 20), and the reason you should be bundling up and making it down to Cabaret early tonight is to see the lo-fi (and arguably somewhat ’90s-sounding) Times New Viking. Their new record, Rip It Off, can get sonically irritating, but in a live context, their pop gems are sure to take off. Making the bill impenetrable is folk/psych/graphic artist Jeffrey Lewis (see CD review on p. 25). If you have not seen the amazing videos Lewis has made for his über-geekdom fan songs—like the exhaustive “Anti Folk Complete History of Punk Rock,” his ode to Mark E. Smith in “The Legend of the Fall” or his brush with Palace’s Will Oldham in “Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror”—then get your itchy digits a-tappin’ to YouTube right now.

Keeping the home fires burning bright tonight will be the righteous punk rock sounds of Manic Manon and the Guestlist with Astro-Hot at l’Escogriffe. For all the punk rock trainspotters out there, Manon actually appears in the awesome punk flick Another State of Mind, documenting the disastrous 1982 tour of Social Distortion and Youth Brigade. Highly recommended, so rent it if you want to see just how bad a tour can get, and as an extra bonus, try to spot a teenage Manon being punk as fuck.

On Friday night, all garage punkers should point their Cuban heeled Beatle boots in the direction of the Katacombes for the B Sides, the Arson, Greg Cocaine and Shortpants Romance. A guaranteed good time on Friday night would be ex-Scat Rag Booster and one-man band bonanza Skip Jensen with Ninety Pounds of Ugly at l’Escogriffe.

On Saturday night, one of Montreal’s best kept secrets, Expo 67, will dress up like dandies directly after the Habs beat the pants off the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Barfly. Down at l’Escogriffe on Saturday night, you can check out the vintage garage punk/power pop of les Vautours with le Duo Turbo. At Katacombes on Saturday night will be the last ever performance of horror punks Troma Lisa with pallbearers Rockets Away, Midnight Stranglers and Crossbones.

On the Sabbath day, remember to wear red to the blood bath that will inevitably ensue at Istvan Kantor’s live music performance, with projections. Kantor (aka Monty Cantsin) is the forefather of Canadian industrial music, so don’t miss this unique performance happening at new local hot spot Lab Synthèse—of course, only those celluloid sickos Cinema Abattoir could bring you a night as deviant as this.

Finally, on Wednesday, you can marvel at the unusually dense sound stemming from duo Kickers when they lock horns with Coulees at l’Escogriffe.