Viva la dancehall taxi!

Just before we get to the week’s entertainment, I have a brief news item to address. The Jamaica Gleaner and the BBC have recently been covering an ongoing legal row between Jamaican taxi drivers and the government. The problem relates to drivers playing loud reggae and dancehall music in taxis while on the job. The government labels some of the music as “vulgar” and “X-rated,” and has thus decided to crack down on music-listening and radio-playing in taxis, with minimum fines of $5,000.

I’ve never been to Jamaica. Maybe I never will. But the thought of booming dancehall reggae being banned from Jamaican taxis makes my little heart sink. For the time being, a coalition of taxi drivers has postponed the ban with the argument that the reggae radio stations also provide much-needed flood and traffic reports, meaning that the ban would threaten the safety of passengers. And that’s where there’s a lesson for Montreal. The crackdown on bar licences and protocol—Cherry Club in the Old Port being the latest venue to fall victim to the bureaucracy—threatens to take the proverbial reggae out of our taxis if we don’t figure out some reason that loose licensing laws save lives.

In beats this week, for fine selections of disco both fresh and mature, future funk, house, early electro and the like, drop by Academy club on Friday night, when local techno, broken beat and sample-stitching talent Moonstarr will be joined by the Loose Joints and Cocktail Soundsystem crews for their Disco Cubizm event.

Local newcomers Cougarettes appear at Zoobizarre on Friday with their eardrum-pounding glitch/hard-rock/8-bit electro hybrid sound. Yes, it’s that trendy, derivative, disparate and likely doomed, but there’s something interesting floating around in their style that might prove worthwhile. They’re joined by 011 and Matt Fuzz, so that should be a good jam.

Moving into Saturday night, you’ve got the chance to hear local live electro/techno knob-twiddlers FM Radio Gods at Saphir. Down the street at Studio Juste Pour Rire, Cirque de Boudoir presents its latest in naughty soirées, Body Slam. As the name suggests, the theme is kinky wrestling. The innuendo doesn’t get much more blatant than that, so come dressed to pop buttons and boogie in both axes. DJs are Omni, Davidé and Cherry Cola.

On Sunday night, you’ve got the chance to catch NYC pop experimenters Takka Takka on their way back from SXSW. They pack an interesting if schmaltzy brand of rock that awkwardly explores the adult-contemporary end of indie, evoking the Velvet Underground and Phil Collins in equal measure. Sounds like a bad idea, but it’s not half bad. They’re joined by Sister Suvi at Il Motore.

If you stay standing till Tuesday, venture back on up to Il Motore for an evening with Copenhagen’s epic, emotive, choral quartet Efterklang, blending big band instrumentation with pop in a cutesy, sort of high-school after-band-practice kind of way. They’re joined by Peter Broderick.

That just about rounds out the week’s fun. Just remember, while you’re out there romping around—do it for the dancehall taxis. Do it for all the basslines battled by bureaucracy. Ask not what my dancehall taxi can do for me, but what I can do for my dancehall taxi.

RIDDIM RIDIN’…
jack.oatmon@gmail.com