Double whammy

>> Tulip splits to become Gazelle and To Bed With Venus

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

There's a silver lining to every grey cloud. Take the breakup of local band Tulip: did Montreal lose a good band upon singer Cheryl Sim's departure? Hell, no, we gained two even better bands.

Tulip, or rather the Phillippi brothers, Nick and Dan, have reconstructed themselves into To Bed With Venus, a name taken from a Victorian boardgame. With the addition of Toronto guitarist Nick St. Aubin, To Bed With Venus capitalize on the muscle that was always hiding under Tulip's gentle surface. "It's the same music as before," says bassist Nick, "because I'm still writing. But now it's a bit more intense. Tulip was headed in the right direction, but we had to make this change to express ourselves 100 per cent."

One thing that Tulip always had going for them was a DIY attitude, from their self-produced disc to their hand-painted posters. The Phillippis have taken that aspect a step further, too. "We decided, about a year ago, that we needed money to do it properly. Dan and I aren't good at asking for money. If we need financial assistance, we like to go get it ourselves."

To that end, the boys stumbled across an Old Montreal convenience store that needed to be managed for a year. By the time their tenure is up in June, To Bed With Venus will be set to pay off all the gear, rehearsal space, recording time and production costs on their forthcoming album, slated for release in May.

Meanwhile, singer Sim is keeping busy with Gazelle, a duo with guitarist Peter Soumalias. The two have been working together for three years now, doing jazz and pop vocal standards under a variety of names. The last incarnation was Olive, happening parallel to Tulip, which fizzled out upon the departure of drummer John Britton. Once again, a disappointment... or a golden opportunity?

"We wanted to keep doing the lounge thing," says Sim, "but we wanted to morph it into something a bit more hip and now. We were trying to find new people, but nothing seemed to work out. So eventually we thought, 'Let's try and get by without a band,' so we bought a computer. Both of us come from an analog background, so this was totally new, hard disc recording and drum loops and that kind of thing. It was really this silicon band that we put together."

The result is a charming blend of Sim's crooning, minimalist pop and a healthy dose of kitsch. Sim cites Ella Fitzgerald, Burt Bacharach and bossa nova as influences to be presented in a modern context. "We call the music urban electronic lounge. We love bossa nova, we love drum & bass, we love pop, obviously, and trip hop as well. I don't know it would be for the dancefloor, as so much electronica can be. It's really for kicking back."

Like To Bed With Venus, Gazelle have an album coming together, targeting early February for the launch. Both bands are also planning videos and tours..