Ghetto blasters

>> South-central punks Dare to Care

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

If you call yourself a punk, you’re likely one of three things: a prison bitch (yes, the old meaning still stands), a well-scrubbed, spikey-topped mall clone or a scruffy kid in two or three dive-bar bands who might listen to country music on the weekends. If your interest lies behind door number three, you’ve probably heard of local punks the Sainte Catherines, currently prepping for a summer tour that will take them across Canada and over to Europe. But the boys of Ste-C are keeping busy before they hit the road, what with singer Hugo Mudie’s label Dare To Care (DTC) and their band’s “drunk ass acoustic” side project Yesterday’s Ring.
“The Sainte Catherines were on tour last summer and we were just jamming on a front porch in Memphis one day,” says Mudie. “It was different, like folk-country-punk, but it sounded good.”

Along with a Yesterday’s Ring/Couch Addiction split CD, DTC issued the farewell disc by beloved locals Naked ’n’ Happy—whose alumnus Ali Bissonette runs the label along with Mudie and Danny Léfebvre—as well as Early Summer Campfire Songs, an acoustic comp featuring bands such as Subb, Dashboard Confessional, the Ataris, Rollerstarter and the Kingpins.

DTC’s core roster is a pack of underground punk, ska-core and experimental acts, mostly old gigging buddies who live in and around the scenic Gay Village, or “the cheapest place to live—south-central, where the junkies are.”

Coming from such a ’hood, it follows that prices for DTC shows and merch are kept to a minimum, and 25 cents of each CD goes to a charity of the band’s choice. Also in the spirit of good will, non-perishable food donations will lower the cover charge at tonight’s semi-showcase, which features DTC’s latest recruits Self Made Man and Suck La Marde.
Notable in almost all DTC bands, as well as the Sainte Catherines, is the anglo-franco mix, a harmony that’s more evident in the bands than in their audiences.

“It’s ridiculous. There’s the indie rock English scene at places like Barfly, and the French punk scene that sticks to l’X, where most English people don’t seem to go,” says Mudie. “DTC’s split CDs have one English band and one French band, we try to do stuff like that because we don’t believe in this separation.” :

Lae Tseu, Self Made Man, Suck La Marde, Yesterday’s Ring and the Parka 3 are at l’Alizé on Thursday, Jan. 10, 8pm, $7 ($5 with non-perishable food)