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Even more Victo picks... By car, Victoriaville is an hour-and-a-half drive from Montreal. So for the the 14th edition of the new music festival, we've centred our recommended shows around two key daysthe goal being maximum picks for minimum odometer clicks... Friday, May 16 CCMC A name like the Canadian Creative Music Collective sounds like a front for a staid institution mired in old-school musique concrète, but the members of this longtime and floating performing ensemble based out of Toronto's Music Gallery are just as likely to front themselves, telling you that CCMC stands for Cannot Chew Much Celery--and therein lies the spirit of fun they bring to new-music improv. Centred around famed Canadian multidisciplinary artist Michael Snow (piano & synthesizer), the group at Victo will also include "vocal sound artist" Paul Dutton and Plunderphonic cut-up guy John Oswald, reprising his role at the festival from two years ago as unlikely sax machine. CEGEP de Victoriaville, 5 pm, $14
Monday, May 19
And finally, this unofficial meta-rock day and the festival itself are closed by post-rock poster boys Tortoise. |
Fred Frith Quartet If not the godfather, Fred Frith is the eccentric uncle of the gonzo electric guitar--as measured, mad and revered by the new music set as by the Sonic Youths of the indie-rock crowd. After a five-year absence, Frith arrives back in Victoriaville with his guitar quartet, anchored by longtime friend and collaborator René Lussier along with Mark Stewart and Nick Didkovsky. On the surface it might appear that Frith is aging gracefully, embracing the classical format of the string quartet if only to electrify it and apply it to works by contemporary composers. But the group will also perform original works and their furiously contained approach to the ol' thing quartet is nothing if not original. Colisée des Bois-Francs, 10pm, $24
Keiji Haino Guitarist Keiji Haino walks out of Japan's rich noise-rock tradition wearing black, sporting shades--and brandishing the occasional album of hurdy-gurdy improvisations?! Then again, Haino does bill himself as "the priest of both silence and noise," and what would noise be if not contrasted by some tender moments? But when he plays Victoriaville with his hyper-power trio Fushitsusha, don't look for too many soft spots amid the sonic boom. Haino plays regularly in New York with everyone from John Zorn to Bill Laswell to Thurston Moore, but this is the first time he hops up the Hudson to Montreal--or Canada, for that matter. CEGEP de Victoriaville, midnight, $14
Gastr Del Sol Twisted sisters of Tortoise, the group has been boiled down to just David Grubbs (acoustic guitar, piano, voice) and Jim O'Rourke (acoustic guitar, organ, electronics, voice), more than enough creative fire power when it comes to math rock, blasts of noise, atmospheric electronics, piano ballads or avant-classical madness. CEGEP de Victoriaville, 4 pm, $16