by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“We really don’t intend to be the loudest band in the world, but…” So says Toronto’s Jesse F. Keeler (the “F” stands for “Fucking”), formerly of Black Cat #13, presently leader of the uniformed “spazzcore” band Femme Fatale and half of Death From Above. With Femme Fatale drummer Sebastian Grainger on skins and vocals, Keeler on bass and vocoder, the duo drops some mammoth, melodic rock tonnage on their debut EP Heads Up!, which, Keeler stresses, owes more to Deep Purple and Tricky Woo than Lightning Bolt and Les Savy Fav. Though he was recently voted “the biggest asshole in hardcore” by readers of HeartattaCk, the Mirror had a friendly chat with Mr. Keeler about volume, soulless rock and coke sluts.

Mirror: Death From Above?

Jesse F. Keeler: It’s from a shirt I saw at an army surplus store. It had a skull with parachute wings.

M: It’s paratrooper lingo, right?

JFK: Yeah, and it’s also a finishing move in wrestling. We just used it ’cause it sounded great and I liked the idea of this big, loud wall of noise falling on your head.

M: I guess earplugs are in order.

JFK: Oh man. With Femme Fatale, I want to apologize to the audience when we start a show. “Sorry, this is the last thing you’re ever going to hear.” DFA is still really loud, but I’d rather the kids walk away humming melodies than rubbing their ears. That was a real concern for us early on because we were so used to doing that to kids, audio terrorism. Now we’re just trying really hard to write good songs.

M: From what I’ve read, it seems you’re pretty fed up with the Toronto scene.

JFK: It’s just that there’s nothing there for me. And we’re broke. We live on the east side of the city so we spend more time on the beach than anything. But it seems like no one is trying to make timeless music these days. The modern stuff I listen to is techno and rap, that’s it. When I hear most rock bands, I think, “Wow, what an accomplishment, this conjures no feeling in me whatsoever.”

M: Well, I gather your song “Dead Womb” has conjured some negative feelings. [Lyrics: “We’re looking for wives/So tired of sluts coming to us in the clubs with their cocaine.”]

JFK: Well, the people who make a big deal about it have never seen it firsthand, it’s still glamourized in their heads. The song is really literal. I mean, Sebastian and I are not little kids. We used to go out all the time ’cause I got free drinks where I DJed and I could get all my friends in, but after a while it was just ridiculous. You can have a lot of fun with coke, but I think it soured that life for us quite severely. Some people have written, “These guys are tired of coke sluts? I wish I had that problem.” But you don’t! You really don’t. It sucks, all those hollow eyes. You don’t want that to be your girlfriend. :

With North of America and the Electric End at Casa del Popolo on Monday, Feb. 17, 9pm, $5

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