Pipo on the cheap-o

>> The lo-fi nostalgia of Pipo Fiasco

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Few of us would want to find ourselves fall-down drunk in a Depression-era dustbowl dive, but one can't deny the sepia-toned romance of such an atmosphere. Local band Pipo Fiasco know it, and put it to music.

 "People always say it's in the Tom Waits ballpark," says frontman Marc Gagnon, "in terms of the different influences. There's blues, there's country, there's swing, there's jazz, there's dissonance--all those things. When people want the quickest explanation, I say it's in that ballpark, but it's not a cover band. It does have its own sound."

 Gagnon's joined by guitarist Sylvain Cote (Rhythm Activism and Urbain Desbois), drummer Alex MacSween (Detention, Pest 5000) and Fred Theriault on bass. The lyrics, though, are his department.

 "The way I do things is almost mathematical in that I'll write the melodies and then find things that fit into that. I do a lot of cut-and-paste and make strange associations. It's very rarely a linear narrative--there's a lot of juxtaposition going on. I'll have a melody line go, 'ba-buh-dee, ba-buh-doo-doo-doo, ba-buh-dee-dee-dee,' and then I have to find words that fit into that. We have songs about seeing Jesus in a car crash, we have dirges about tequila, all kinds of things."

 The show will see the launch of PF's debut disc Omen Cats (not bad for a bouncing baby band, formed only last March). "We recorded it about a month and a half after we got together, in my house, live. We spent about $300 on rentals and put two mics into a DAT machine. So it's a CD, but it's also something I'd hoping to farm out there, get some money to go into a real studio and get all the different levels of sound going on, all the subtleties. Sylvain's done a lot of recording though, and he thought that, because we have a style that could be reminiscent of the '30s or '40s, in the feel more than in the songs, we should do it this way. He said, 'That's how they recorded then, so let's try that.' So we did a really standard era recording."

 That doesn't close the creaky barn door on the possibilities for Gagnon, musing on about "strings, accordions--I always have trumpet lines in my head, stuff like that. Hopefully someday I'll get four or five grand to spend three weeks in a proper facility."

 If unusual instrumentation's in the cards, Gagnon might want to enlist Neptune, who share the bill with Pipo next Thursday. "They're a band from Boston, friends of Sylvain's, and I guess the guy who runs the band is also an artist. He's built all the instruments out of scrap metal--the guitars, the drums, everything. There's a band picture of them with all the instruments, and they're so beautiful. Crescent-shaped guitars and bike wheels in the guitars and so on."

 Gagnon notes what great late-night driving music Pipo Fiasco's inspirations are, which invites the obvious question. "I'm hoping to tour soon," he says. "I'm looking forward to playing places where I don't know anyone in the audience, as opposed to knowing everyone." :

At Casa del Popolo on Thursday, Sept. 28, 9pm, $5