Drums, guitars, no bass

>>Blonde Redhead's cinematic shades

by LORRIE EDMONDS

Here's proof that post-modern music speaks in a myriad of tongues: Blonde Redhead's Simone and Amedeo Pace caught a jazz bug when their family moved from Milan, Italy to Montreal, and as teenagers they hung around old jazz clubs like Tatou. "We started playing in Montreal, but at that time we were essentially figuring out which instrument to play," remembers drummer/keyboardist Simone. "I studied with a drum teacher who played in a quintet with four saxophones. At the time, not knowing about jazz, it was like a wild revelation for us. We didn't know you could play like that."

The Pace twins went south together in 1984 to study at the Boston School of Music. "After that," says Simone, "the work meant trying to forget everything we learned in school and play music for what it was." Settling in New York, they met future singer/guitarist Kazu Makino, who had come from Japan to visit New York, plugged into the highbrow underground and decided not to leave.

Blonde Redhead have always balanced double-guitar complexities with technical discipline and pure passion. Their mercurial sound takes as much inspiration from the cinematic poetry of Godard and Pasolini as it does from Sonic Youth, Fugazi and Arto Lindsay's DNA. They first found support from Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley, who released their first two albums on his own Smells Like Records. "We were ecstatic over the fact that we could play with Sonic Youth, and that Steve liked us and gave us this beautiful start," says Simone. "People pay so much attention to what he does, so they also paid attention to us."

Blonde Redhead recently released Fake Can Be Just As Good (Touch and Go). Their bassist left (and was replaced by Vern of Unwound for that recording only), and the band has chosen to keep a bassless makeup.

"This is a dramatic change for us, but the three of us are so happy because three is now the best way for us to be," says Simone. "We had always wanted to try, but were too scared--musically we never felt we were strong enough. Now there's more space in the music--it doesn't sound so finished all the time, and it doesn't sound so full that there's nowhere left to go. There's still so much space for making mistakes, or making really good music."

With Toronto's Danko Jones and Mishima at Foufounes Électriques, Friday, Oct. 3, 8pm, $9