House party

>> Raise the roof for Casa del Popolo's first birthday

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Where else in Montreal can you see bands and spoken word acts, watch silent movies with live music, draw comix with your buddies, buy art from a vending machine or chow down on a tasty veggie sandwich? Booking, housing and feeding the local avant-garde music and artistic community is no small feat, and the little Mile-End venue's new limbs (a ballroom and a magazine) give the Casa's popolo even more to celebrate. But before the news, the party.

Birthday suite

This weekend's one-year anniversary celebration comes to a head with a joint record launch brought to you by budding promo team/record label Blue Skies Turn Black. Ottawa natives the Marato are releasing their debut disc, a six-tracker called Dirty Stories. The new-wave-meets-math-rock combo, now based in Montreal, are influenced by the likes of Gang of Four, Fugazi and Blonde Redhead, so brace yourself for some caffeinated fun.

Support comes in the form of experimental punk-funk band Spengler (all from Halifax, save for their Chinese "Angry Ape") and indie-rock/punk act Kiss Me Deadly, another band of displaced souls, with members from Boston, Burlington and Quebec. The two bands are launching a split 7" single for those of you with a functional turntable (any advice on acquiring a cheap needle would be much appreciated, thanks). The evening will also feature prizes such as CDs, records and a pair of tickets to see the Marato supporting Unwound and Mecca Normal the following Saturday, Sept. 8, at la Sala Rossa. What the hell is la Sala Rossa? Read on.

Red room over yonder

When Mauro Pezzente and Kiva Stimac acquired the old Artishow just over a year ago, their goals were simply to get their licenses, complete minor renovations, assemble their vegetarian menu and have bands play on the weekends. Now they're open as a café every day from noon, and nighttime events--mostly music and spoken word, along with monthly comix jams and "Kino at Casa" movie nights--are hardly relegated to weekends. In fact, some of the shows they've booked have been too big for the intimate Casa, which just barely holds 100 uncomfortable popolo, leading the pair to borrow the 300-cap ballroom at the Centro Social Español across the street. After several sold-out shows in the elegant room (including Arab Strap, Add N to (X) and the Dears), Stimac and Pezzente have got their hooks into the space and renamed it la Sala Rossa ("the red room," referring to the sleek red curtains draping the walls).

"It'll take a couple of months for us to get it organized properly, just the way it was with Casa in September of last year," says Pezzente. "We've never had a club or restaurant before, so every day for us is a learning experience. We had to have shows like Add N to (X), where there were 320 people, the air conditioning wasn't working well and we didn't have enough fridge space. We've fixed all that now, but if we didn't have that show, we wouldn't have known. It's just too bad that everyone who was there had to be so hot and have hot beer."

Village vocce

Following Foufounes' lead (somewhat), the latest addition to the Casa empire is La Vocce Del Popolo ("voice of the people"), a free, quarterly zine-mag published by Stimac.

"It's got a lot of politics, art, culture and music, and it's all written and drawn by local community people like Sam Shalabi, Vince Tinguely and Dexter X," says Stimac. "The main thing I asked people when I approached them to write was that they should really care about what they were writing. It's kind of a reaction to the world we live in and reflects what people in this community are really excited about or really angry about or want to make public." The first issue, featuring a glossy cover and 52 pages of text and imagery, is out today, Aug. 30.

The Marato, Kiss Me Deadly, Spengler and YUL are at Casa del Popolo on Saturday, Sept. 1, 9pm, $5