Glitz on the fritz

>> With the right mix of pop perfectionism and idiosyncratic oddness, Montreal quartet Creature aim to bring out the best—and the beast—in everyone with their high-voltage live show and their debut CD, No Sleep at All

GOING BUMP IN THE NIGHT: Creature

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

“She’s selling me knee flab!”

In a relatively quiet corner of Ruby Rouge restaurant in Chinatown, Creature’s guitarist and singer Kim Ho is holding something up for inspection while the dim sum cart lady checks off a box on the table’s running bill. Dangling from his chopsticks is a glutinous lump that may well be what he thinks it is.

The timing is perfect, given that Ho’s co-conspirator in the Montreal band, singer and keyboardist CowBella, has just been griping about knee flab. More accurately, Angelina Jolie’s knee flab. More accurately yet, the tabloids fixated on such unseemly matters as Angelina Jolie’s knee flab.

“It’s tough,” says CowBella, seated next to bassist Gina Simmons. “We’re all drawn to it, we’re all hypocrites. I’m as drawn to those magazines as anyone else.”

Drummer Sid Z, for his part, is convinced that, like unicorns, knee flab doesn’t exist. He does however acknowledge the media’s manipulative manner and conformist coercion, and sees his band’s music—tight, slick, glammy and of proven pop-appeal potency though it may be—as a corrective.

“We realized, talking about these songs with other people, that they’re all about the freedom to be who you want to be, and not care about knee flab and all that stuff. Look back to when you were 14, 15, how hard that was to work against, to ignore all those influences.”

Were the 11 songs on Creature’s brand new debut CD, No Sleep at All, not enough argument for being cool by one’s own rules, the quartet has included CowBella’s “12-step program” in the liner notes, under the telling heading “Dance Like No One’s Watching.” Milestones on this purported pathway to bliss involve moonwalking and naked banjo-playing.

“If it influences one or two girls or guys out there to have enough confidence to be themselves…” Sid Z lets the earth-shaking ramifications linger in the air as another cartload of dubious delights pulls up.

Weird way with words

Creature are either among the coolest bunch of misfits on the local music scene, or alternately the strangest bunch of cool kids. Take your pick. Their music is an arch, arty strain of spiffy, spiky, highly danceable pop-rock, speckled with retro-flavoured raps and riffs, crafted with enough care to make mainstream waves—case in point, the first single off No Sleep at All, “Pop Culture,” is already in rotation on CKOI.

Their sound is augmented by their penchant for looking good, if highly idiosyncratic—dandified duds, daring dance moves, a theatrical flair in their live shows. “One time, when we played la Sala Rossa,” recalls Sid Z, “we did a whole office theme—we put up desks, there was a boss who screamed at us. I think that was the beginning of where we want to take this.”

Note that the band has a solid pedigree—Simmons (aka Anna Ruddick) also plays with Shot While Hunting, CowBella (Lisa Iwanycki) clocked in a stretch with the Social Register, Kim Ho has a history reaching back through PEZ and work with Jérôme Minière to the garage band the Sherlocks, and Sid Z (family name Zanforlin) was the founding and longstanding drummer with no less than local icons Me Mom & Morgentaler.

So yes, Creature’s music is pop by the numbers. It’s just that those numbers get fudged and flipped to add up to some decidedly odd equations. A good illustration would be the unusual, even disconcerting twists that Kim Ho and the rest of the band bring to their vocal deliveries.

“There’s a lot of ‘ooooo’ and ‘aaaaah’ and weird, operatic stuff,” says Sid Z. “It’s so weird but… Talking Heads were doing it before us!”

As CowBella notes, “David Byrne said, the key to success in pop music is strange male voice. When we’re jamming and writing songs, the point is to break out of our everyday element, those feelings of what we should be. That’s where Kim’s caricature voices come from, and we all sorta do that in our vocals.”

“It’s kinda like a joke that you take too far,” muses Ho, “so far, it becomes funny again after awhile.”

Wartime wig-outs

Fun is clearly job one, judging by the various tracks on No Sleep at All. Take “Who’s Hot Who’s Not,” which tosses a Bronski Beat synth motif over a pastiche of old-school hip hop.

“That song came about from thinking about where hip hop was born,” says CowBella, “and how it started off as a positive thing, as a way to sort of escape whatever harshness there was in their day-to-day lives. Now it’s all showy, I’ve got more money than you, I’ll shoot you if you come on my property. Which is fun and cool, whatever, but this song is paying homage to the beginning.”

From a beginning to an end—Creature’s signature track for some time has been “Last Days of America,” an only somewhat tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to moviemaker Michael Moore, fashioned following the 2004 American election. The song makes the case that bad news and a good groove can in fact cohabitate.

“It’s hard not to be fascinated by American politics, being so close,” says Sid Z. “Bush got reelected, and I think that shocked a lot of people. This song came about just after that. I was like, augh, that’s it—the last days of America. Is it just as relevant today? Yes, environmentally. Politically, I’m hoping Barack or Hillary gets in. It’ll be as relevant, just with a different slant.”

Despite the title and source of inspiration (Sid Z recalls a news report about a cynical candy company humping a rush shipment of chocolate bars to Afghanistan in 2001, to beat the competition and score free advertising), there’s a lot less political substance to the tune “Kandahar.” Ho notes, “It’s an extremely dim subject that we just kind of point to while we’re having fun here at home,” but its fierce, feral disco dub-punk function more than compensates, making it the truest triumph on the disc.

Then there’s the vivacious “I’m Alive,” a salute to seniors who refuse to get the memo. “Music keeps us young,” says Sid Z. “I hung out with Jack DeJohnette, he’s in his late ’60s, early ’70s, and when he plays music, he’s a kid, he’s a 12-year-old.

“None of us here are 16 or 18 anymore,” he adds (the gents in Creature are 30-somethings, the ladies in their 20s). “Music is keeping us young, and that music can be inspirational to 65-, 70-year-olds to stay young.”

“I know I’m gonna be hot when I’m 65,” announces a confident CowBella.

All night, alright

In the much more immediate future, Creature have plenty to keep them occupied. The band has already got ears pricked up locally and abroad, and following this week’s CD launch, they’re looking at a showcase at SXSW and a European jaunt come July. It doesn’t hurt that having signed to the label of Bonsound, the local marketing group who’ve bosted DJ Champion, Malajube and les Breastfeeders, they snagged a Canadian licensing deal with Universal in the bargain.

A month ago, Creature earned a test run at the big time when they opened for Mika at the Bell Centre. Ho remembers his trepidation—“Would the audience be receptive, how would things come across in such a vast expanse? I was very surprised. Our energy, our fun show, everything we have going for us live was just magnified. I mean, the crowd was amazing, they were clearly there to party and have a good time, but I felt very comfortable up there. I was surprised how easy it was.”

“I don’t think any of us have seen a big Bell Centre gig, with the whole production, in a long time,” says Sid Z. “Mika had a crew just for blowing up balloons! He had a costume person travelling with him who brought people up from the audience and put them in corsets. It was this huge deal! It was inspirational! If, God willing, one day we get to play big places on our own, I think that’s the direction we’re going.”

Whatever direction they’re headed, Creature have their work cut out for them. They can expect to be exhausted, but don’t take the title of their album for a complaint. If anything, it’s an order.

“We definitely feel that, once or twice a year, you should stay up all night and watch the sunrise,” says CowBella, cribbing from the 12-step program she concocted. “It’s easy to forget that. We don’t need no sleep at all—we’re a party band, so that idea’s pretty ingrained.”

CD launch at le National on
Wednesday, March 5, 8 p.m.,
$10, all ages