In the groove

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Just a quick little mention before we get to this week’s round-up of shows. Real, live purchasers of music (there are a few of us left, you know) may want to hunt down the DVD I Need That Record: The Death or Possible Survival of the Independent Record Store, directed by Brendan Toller and released this week through MVD Visual. Toller’s documentary is probably the most accurate description of the current state of the music industry but also proves to be as entertaining as it is informative. Toller’s thorough research as to why these wax shacks are hitting the skids is impeccable but it’s when he steps away from the camera and gets other people’s perspectives that things really take off. Interviewees include Ian MacKaye, Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Glenn Branca and more, with subject matter that runs the gamut from mere vinyl fetishism to the actual nuts and bolts of the industry. Over the two-plus hours, Toller dives in in depth with very scary and often under-reported statistics but miraculously never loses the heart of the film. Highly recommended!

Okay, let’s get around to the shows happening in your favourite watering holes this week. On Friday, May 28, check the punk rock cacophony of the Bill Cosby Anarchist Society with Chix N’ Dix at new punk rock haunt Crobar. At one of Montreal’s best rooms for raw rock ’n’ roll, l’Escogriffe, are the Walnut Kids, the Bators and Kier Keating. A big coin toss for those of you who like their punk a little noisier would be Homostupids with Genital Hospital, Dead Wife and Crude Genes at Friendship Cove, or the more noisier and less punky gig at Casa del Popolo with Realicide, ttttttttttttttttttttt, Selfish Implosions and Wasted Windows. Choose wisely young hipster.

Pretty crazy Friday, huh? Well, I’ve saved the real big guns for last—the metallic beat-down of Buried Inside with Titan and the local doom-laden ballast of Ensorcelor are at Katacombes while on a completely different tip, at Sala Rossa, is the epically driven melodrama of Japan’s Mono with the Twilight Sad.

Phew! Saturday, on the other hand, has far less traffic with some sure bets starting at Cagibi at 9 p.m. for the screening of TV Carnage and Totally for Teens, and some sort of drunken spiel from writer/director Derrick Beckles. This is some seriously funny and fucked-up shit culled from television’s most tragic moments, so don’t miss. Afterwards, you can make it down to the super-sweet Barfly to check out the noisiness of the Famines with the punk rock of Drunk Dial and Futensil, or turn it up to 11 at l’Escogriffe with Rock Hard and the Darlings of Chelsea.

A perfect capper to the weekend on Sunday would be the newly launched metal night at Salon Officiel, the aptly titled le Jour du Sabbat. I made it down to the launch last week and it was killer. Five words: metal, smoke machine, beef jerky. Questions?

Finally, on Wednesday, the biggest dark horse of the week could be when Native play with the U.K.’s This Town Needs Guns, Noia and Expectorated Sequence at Casa del Popolo. If Native’s recent record Wrestling Moves is any indication, they should just obliterate in a live setting, while the mathy post-punk of their U.K. tour cohorts truly seals the deal.

HOTSY-TOTSY… JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM