Diva in training

Jamie Lidell may not be that much of
an asshole yet, but there’s still time

CALL HIM “SIR”: Jamie Lidell

For a little while there, I thought that Montreal was going to miss out on the eccentric charms of sweet-soul-voiced Jamie Lidell this year. The Warp Records signee seemed to be making stops just about everywhere else but our town in support of his new album, JIM, but I’m happy to see him tightening up this year’s Osheaga line-up, and giving a lot of you the chance to see exactly where all this hoopla about his live show is coming from. The Mirror caught up with Lidell in L.A. as he rehearsed, hours before performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Mirror: You seem to be the kind of person who would definitely embrace their mistakes in the creative process. Am I wrong?

Jamie Lidell: Well, I think you can look at them in many ways. I think it’s good to force yourself to the point where you feel like you can’t do something, because by doing that, you see what you can really achieve. If you’re in a comfort zone, the chances of making a mistake are slim, but if you stretch that out, you’re bound to make some mistakes. As a result, you’ll probably learn.

M: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in a live show, or on record?

JL: (laughs) I know I have a few. A lot of the mistakes I’ve made involve thinking I’m prepared for something, and getting too cocky. I’ve arrived in a city where the support act was, amazingly, blowing me out of the water, and I’m left scrambling to come up with something brilliant because I really wasn’t prepared. Getting drunk and taking a lot of mushrooms is something I’ve done before playing. That was a mistake.

M: Which leads me to my next question. What are some of your more inexcusable qualities?

JL: We all have them, don’t we? I’m a little judgmental. It’s not inexcusable, but it’s not palatable. I don’t think I have any inexcusable qualities! I’m not that much of an asshole. Maybe I can learn from Elton John who I’m playing with later this year. I’ll learn to be more of a diva, making everyone scatter when I enter a room, or call me sir all the time and that kind of shit.

On the MEG stage (2:30 p.m.)
at Osheaga, at Parc Jean-Drapeau
on Monday, Aug. 4, 1 p.m.,
$67.50, all ages

Isle of styles

Other cool stuff at Osheaga this year

By RUPERT BOTTENBERG

With clean restrooms, edible food, decent beer, unobtrusive security and a gorgeous setting, Montreal’s Osheaga sets the bar high for what a two-day music fest should be. Back for its third edition, the two-day event at Parc Jean-Drapeau offers some great tunes—and more. Here are a few hot tips:

Afro-Bytes: The name suggests some sorta pocket-sized polyrhythm generator, but it’s in fact a St-Henri-based caterer specializing in African food, returning to Osheaga again to serve up those big, fat sausages that put even the mightiest Jazz fest frank to shame.

KINDER-PUNK: Mumbleboy art

The Tom Fun Orchestra: Many moons ago, Montreal hosted a triple bill of the Pogues, Violent Femmes and Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper. Cape Breton “cluster-rock” nonet the Tom Fun Orchestra could well be described as an unholy car crash of those three acts. They’re on the Scène des Arbres stage at 4 p.m. on Sunday, which begs the question, how much can you drink by that point?

Mumbleboy: One of the numerous talents taking over the Salon des Arts section, Portland, OR-based Kinya “Mumbleboy” Hanada is a pioneer in the new school of regresso-delic kinder-punk visual art, bursting with bright colours, handcrafted cool and deceptively innocent materials and iconography. Also worth keeping an eye out for: the eerily super-real tableaux of Adad Hannah and the Sanchez Bros., and William Betts’s paran-oyeuristic works drawn from security-cam footage.

N*E*R*D: After far too long a wait, the live-band project of Pharrell and Chad of the Neptunes and their pal Shay finally makes its first Montreal appearance. While subsequent albums haven’t matched the stunning funk-rock-pop-hop blend of their debut In Search Of…, this is still one seriously overdue set.

Sébastien Tellier: Once the Stooges wrap up on Sunday, there’s little reason to stick around the main stages if you don’t care for the Killers. Two great alternatives await, though—Montreal’s “outdoorsy” National Parcs (at the Scène des Arbres, of course) and, at 10 p.m. on the MEG stage, this crazy Tellier cat. Initially a protégé of Air, the shaggy freak of a Frenchman has recently released an album dedicated to carnal concerns, Sexuality. Between Tellier’s own arch eccentricity and sweet production by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, expect buzz to build on this one.

For more info, go to www.osheaga.com

Diva in training

Jamie Lidell may not be that much of an asshole yet, but there’s still time

Isle of styles

Other cool stuff at Osheaga this year

Jamie Lidell may not be that much of
an asshole yet, but there’s still time