by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Brian Connelly is pretty hyped about coming to Montreal this week. "It's one of my favourite places on the freakin' planet. I can never get there enough," he says, and he ain't just being polite.

Back in the '80s, Connelly was layin' down the twang and reverb with Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, perhaps best known for their theme music for Kids in the Hall. Montreal was a prime connection for the Shads, as it was home to the Deja Voodoo guys and their label Og, the foundation of the Canadian indie garage-rock scene. "The Og stuff was pretty inspiring," he recalls. "There are a lot of people who went through that and learned great lessons from those boys."

But there's more to Montreal's retro-rock heritage, as the Torontonian twangster sees it. His new band Atomic 7, likewise an instrumental rock trio, plan to bust out a cover of a tune by les Jaguars, just one of the many early-'60s Quebecois acts plying what many might call surf.

That's a misnomer, as Atomic 7's recent debut album Gowns by Edith Head so effectively illustrates. While some tunes might suggest the hanging of the ten, others evoke sombrero-sporting mariachis and pompadoured teds, martinis in the Boom-Boom Room or riding shotgun with Squinty Clint.

"Doesn't it really come down to mood music? That's a term equal to surf music, because ‘mood music' just screams James Last. But isn't the whole purpose to suggest a mood, to take somebody somewhere? Throw a steel guitar in and it's the essence of western swing. Or something like our ‘Swinger's Ear,' which says Holiday Inn lounge, really late at night and probably in Minneapolis, if your imagination goes that way."

In the tradition of the Shads, Atomic 7 set the mood from the get-go with their quizzical (and frequently food-related) song titles. Take the creepy "Hairbone" - "that's a magical voodoo trinket, usually a chicken leg bone, boiled and painted in bright colours, with human hair glued to one end. If you hang on to it for long enough, it's supposed to bring good luck," he says, claiming it's "an old family recipe."

Then there's "Artistry in Nachos," a salute to the band's favourite pitstop, the Gem Bar & Grill in Toronto (near Ossington and Davenport - write it down). "It's really small, a little oasis. With 15 people in it, it's packed. The people who run it are hardcore music fans, they actually let us play there from time to time. The also have the absolute best nachos on the planet - with mystery ingredients!"

While Atomic 7 takes up most of Connelly's time, he makes concessions for things like the recent Drunk Baby Project CD by Kids alumnus Bruce McCulloch. "I was part of his play Slightly Bigger Cities that ran right across Canada pretty much, on and off, for two years. It was basically Bruce being Bruce and me at the side of the stage playing guitar. A lot of the stuff on the album is from that."

Connelly joined other musicians, including guys from the Odds, in backing McCulloch's vision. "The Tragically Hip have this little studio out in the middle of nowhere, in Bath, Ontario, right on the lake. We just locked ourselves up for a week, record all day and write all night. It was fun, and very different for everybody involved. But Bruce is one of my oldest, bestest friends, we've known each other since '73. We went to high school together - that's where all the trouble started!"

With Micro Maureen at Petit Campus tonight, Thursday, June 5, 8:30pm, $7

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