Best of Montreal 2000

>> This year's Best of Montreal was compiled by Siobhàn O'Connor and Mark Slutsky. Special thanks to Michel Thibodeau for formatting help and Lorraine Carpenter for research.

Chow Time


The fur flies as DJ Ram and Kid Koala connect

They've got a lot in common, DJ Ram and Kid Koala. They both topped their categories this year, they both have animal tags and they've both stepped up from DJs to DJs fronting bands, although Ram's Ramasutra project, making its full live debut next Thursday, is noticeably vinyl-free. He's saving that stuff for his forthcoming return to Europe, from whence Koala (aka Eric San) has just come back.

Mirror: You were saying Ram's reputation precedes him in Europe...

Kid Koala: People there would ask me where I'm from--for some reason everyone thinks I'm American. I'd say, "No, I'm from Canada. From Montreal." They're like, "Ram! You know Ram?"

Ram: Really?

KK: That's what they say. Hey, did you play that boat?

R: Yeah. That boat's amazing!

M: What boat?

R: There's a bar on a boat, called Batofar. It's a little club on a boat right outside the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The sound in that place is amazing, a totally souped-up, high-tech system that sounds better than most places here, and it's a boat.

M: I think drunk sailors absorb sound really well.

R: It's all those barnacles.

M: Are you taking the full band on tour when you go to Europe in June?

R: Nope, just the DJing. For now. Too many people to cart around. Everywhere I DJed, they offered to take the show afterwards. But before, they'd say it's too dangerous, too many people, too expensive.

M: Did you have a good time in Europe, Eric?

KK: Loved it. This tour went splendidly. They really got hip to the show, and I didn't know if they would. There's a lot of information on stage, lotta vinyl vaudeville three-ring circus, all sorts of crazy stuff. I didn't know if a club crowd would necessarily get into it, but they did.

M: So what can we expect from your live show, Ram?

R: Basically, it's every instrument known to man, on one stage.

M: Do ocarinas factor in there?

KK: What's an ocarina?

M: Those little potato-shaped flutes from South America. You know--hoot, hoot.

KK: Aw, that sounds advanced. Is it made out of potato?

M: Nope, clay.

R: Does it have a MIDI out? Anyway, it's eight guys, and we all play several different instruments. There's a lot of shit on stage. And visuals, like I did at that Asian Dub Foundation show. But no turntables on stage. I don't scratch.

M: I heard you got your vinyl ripped off in France, Eric.

KK: I did, but I found it. It was quite funny, actually. I'd fallen asleep on the train from Montpellier to Avignon, and there's three stops between. I woke up and somebody had jacked them off the train.

R: I don't even want to hear it.

M: Hold on, it gets good.

KK: I had to file a police report for insurance purposes, so I decided that day to go back by those stations and put up little notices, offering a reward--the entire Ninja back catalogue, which is worth more resale than my stuff. Like, my records have big chunks of vinyl broken out of the sides and stuff. I cut my fingers on them all the time. So I get off at Nimes and go to the police station. They ask what I'd lost, I say "A big box of records," and they go, "These?" I'm like, "Alriiight!" They'd cracked the lock and the records were all in disorder. I think because there was a lock on it, and because in that James Bond movie they were using record boxes to hold nuclear warheads and stuff, the thieves must have thought there was something really valuable in there that they could sell back to the government. I guess they realized it wasn't worth the hernia and left it at the train station for the cops to pick up.

M: So you got 'em back. That's good.

KK: Yeah, and that whole week, I'd been forced to think of new things to do. So now, I've got all those new ideas--and my old records! *

-- RUPERT BOTTENBERG