by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Right on schedule, there’s a bracing nip in the air these days, and the Montreal live-music scene is shaking off its end-of-summer sluggishness. This week alone sees a stack of worthwhile shows. Tonight, Thursday, Sept. 11, marks the return—and expansion!—of the Peace Party Benefit at the stately Plaza Theatre on St-Hubert. Music by stratospheric locals Test Pilot, one-man-band wunderkind Tippy Agogo and Psyjam Project and DJs Gordon Field and Seb is supplemented by VJs, ballroom-gogo-circus-breakdancers Mange Mes Pieds and films of both the serious documentary and wacky cartoon variety. Also tonight, there’s Wayne Wonder and Toronto’s R&B outfit In Essence at Groove Society.

Saturday night is the return of Double Concept’s excellent Rockabilly Jam, at 1855 Rachel E., featuring the venerable Art Adams, prodigal good-time gal Sophia Wolff and her Cubs, DJ Tiki Surfah and more. Sunday, Foufounes Électriques hosts the Sonic Sunday Rampage with 16—Jesus, 16!—bands playing as of 6 p.m., including The Brains, Hyena and Beauty Dropout. Raaaaaaawk!

Local-boy-done-good Sam Roberts at le Spectrum on Tuesday, Sept. 16 (same night as the tastefully understated Cephalic Carnage at le Medley), and on Wednesday, Montreal’s garage rock patriarchs the Gruesomes celebrate a new best-of comp, Gruesomology, from noted ’60s pop archeology label Sundazed, at Petit Campus.

Next week is even crazier. Y’all got a kiddie-punk triple play at Rainbow on Thursday, Sept. 18, with Gob, Singing Utters and Youth Brigade, the same night nü-metalists Godsmack hit Metropolis. Rainbow also hosts NYC’s upscale ska-meisters The Slackers on Saturday, Sept. 20. Friday, Sept. 19 gets electronicallifragilistic, with Delerium at le Spectrum and H Foundation, Fred Everything and more at SAT and Danny Tenaglia graces Stereo on Sept. 20.

Oh, and the ladies are in the house that week. Anglo-Tamil chanteuse Susheela Raman is at le Spectrum on Saturday, Sept. 20, Goldfrapp present their electro overhaul there on Monday, Sept. 22, and Jane Birkin’s back there on Sept. 23 and 25. On Thursday, Sept. 18, “trailer clash” sleaze-rappers Stink Mitt get all potty-mouthed at Unity II, the new home to DJ Frigid’s Kink! soirées (the “official” relaunch, with Ladytron’s Mira Aroyo on the decks, is on Oct. 2).

Neo-bossa darlings Bet.E & Stef mark their meteoric rise in popularity with three nights at Metropolis, Sept. 19, 20 and 22. SAT hosts Hold-Up Mental, a multidisciplinary hip hop event showcasing Kodiak, Loe Pesci, Narcicyst, Monk-e, Rawgged MC and more as well as dancers, spoken word, an exhibition of photos and graf, films and VJ work.

Can’t stop the pop

Okay, here comes the bottleneck, the Pop Montreal fest (bottle, pop… get it? Haw haw, I slay myself!), running a mere four days with like, four million bands. Here’s just a few of the far too many sweet picks lined up for the plucky lil’ fest’s second time ’round: Sloan, High Dials, Stars, Metric, Buck 65 (holy shit, check his soon-to-drop new CD), Peter Elkas of Local Rabbits fame, Danny Michel, Sans Pression and Shades of Culture, current hot ticket Broken Social Scene, an Alien8 bill with Shalabi Effect, Soft Canyon and The Unicorns, Melon Galia, Poxy, Hawksley Workman, major heaviness with Bionic, Le Nombre and Tangiers, No Use for a Name, The Dears, ?Alice!, The Sadies, Tiga with Chromeo, Evening and Hrd Vsion, Echo Kitty, Jérôme Minière, Black Dice, Raised Fist, Queens of the Stone Age and a three-way jam with Zamfir, Danzig and Yoko Ono (actually, no—just checking if you’d read this far). Pop Montreal runs from Sept. 25–28.

And thus we move into October, the first week of which sees the precision heaviosity guys Strapping Young Lad at Foufounes Électriques, Yo La Tengo with Aisler Set at Club Soda, Calexico’s two-night stand at Cabaret, the astounding soul shakedown of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings at la Sala Rossa and Sweden’s Jay-Jay Johanson (like Goldfrapp, now on the electro tip) at le Spectrum. Peaches pimps her new joint Fatherfucker, with guests Electrocute and The World Provider, at Club Soda on Oct. 8, and the world’s preeminent sitar player Ravi Shankar, with his daughter Anoushka, are at Place des Arts on Oct. 3.

Black, blue and you

October 8–14, it’s this year’s Black & Blue circuit-party series, including the main event at the Big O with Mat Ste-Marie, DJ Paulette and Mark Anthony. The night after, local up-’n’-comers Gods of Taste get tasteful at la Sala Rossa (before they hit the Savoy, in Metropolis, on Nov. 21). And dig this, organ-grinding wild man Mr. Quintron and his puppeteer partner Miss Pussycat come back to la Sala Rossa on Oct. 14.

The week after that is a good one for psychedelic Britpop, what with Spiritualized at le Spectrum and Broadcast at Lion d’Or. Brighton may be from here, but the name should be a clue as to their Britpop leanings—they’re at Petit Campus on Oct. 16. Rumour has it that rock-hop rascals Brassy get noisy at Café Campus on Oct. 18, and likewise that Le Tigre get their claws out there on Nov. 20—we’ll see. Fans of the Def Jux backpacker sound will wanna catch Mr. Lif and Aesop Rock at SAT on Oct. 19.

If you missed the ear-splitting mechanical-muppet mayhem of Captured by Robots! last time it came through Casa del Popolo, be there on Oct. 26, and bring earplugs and a camera (and maybe a lug wrench). Japanese cute-rockers Shonen Knife return on Oct. 28, at Petit Campus. Noted jazzman Brad Meldhau is at le Spectrum on Oct. 25 and the two nights after, the same space sees Gotan Project, the Parisian tango-meets-beats act that stole the show from Cinematic Orchestra at the Jazz Fest this past summer.

Foufounes Électriques has the word out on their Halloween party this year, featuring Astro Zombies From Mars, a local tribute to the Misfits. Keep the creepy makeup handy, because theatrical metal master King Diamond is at Club Soda on Nov. 5. Local rough-roqueurs Les Pugilists launch their new CD at Foufounes on that same night. Nov. 3 sees Beans (of Anti-Pop Consortium) and Prefuse 73 (joined by John Herndon of Tortoise) at Cabaret. More leftfield hip hop coolness arrives in the person of two Ninja Tune bills—DJ Vadim is at la Sala Rossa on Nov. 8, while Kid Koala does a pair of shows at Club Soda on Nov. 6, joined by P-Love, Jester, Lederhosen Lucil and some cartoons. Neat! That same night, Jean Leloup kicks off a three-nighter at Metropolis. Nov. 9 has Warp’s Chris Clark, Plaid and Luke Vibert at SAT for some forward electronic action. Likewise, catch T. Raumschmiere and Ellen Allien tear it up German style at SAT on Nov. 14.

Seminal French synth punks Métal Urbain are at la Sala Rossa on Nov. 10, and the awesome soul-punks The Dirtbombs, who kicked ass at Sala some months back, are at Foufounes on Nov. 12. Bruce Cockburn does his thing at Theatre Outremont on Nov. 28, while Symphony X and Deicide bring the heavy at Foufounes on Nov. 15 and 16 respectively. Oh, and finally, it bears repeating that that cancelled White Stripes show has been rescheduled for Nov. 14 at Metropolis. Still sold out, though.

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