by RAF KATIGBAK

While some of you may know that Thursday is the new Friday, and that Friday (which was the new Saturday) is now officially the new Tuesday, not a lot of people realize that Wednesday is the new Monday and that Monday is now hump day. Ravers will no longer refer to their weekly dip in serotonin levels as Tuesday blues-day but as Monday unfun-day and that Thank Goodness It's Friday has now become So Happy It's Thursday.

That said, while Sunday is far from the new Thursday, it certainly seemed that way last week at lower St-Laurent's Nexxt club, where Richie Hawtin worked the crowd to a frenzy. While the club was filled just a hair beyond the comfort zone, the music was solid with the artist formerly known as "the bald guy with glasses" dropping some seriously deep, melodic, minimal funk. My personal highlight was seeing Scott Monteith (aka Deadbeat, aka one half of Montreal duo Crackhaus) beaming as Hawtin dropped not one but two Crackhaus tracks to a more than insane crowd. If you haven't picked up their excellent EP It's a Crackhaus Thing on Onitor yet, run out and get it right now. Monteith was part of the Mutek crew who recently returned triumphant from a short stint in Chile, repping Montreal techno. Next stop for Monteith: Detroit, where he and fellow Crackhauser Steven Beaupré will be rocking the birthplace of techno this weekend. Good luck, old chaps!

While Crackhaus are busy tearing Motown a new one, Montreal will be keeping up with their own must-see events. Over at Parking tonight, Thursday, Feb. 5, Philgood will be rocking the decks all night long with an acid/new beat set that will relive the days of Chicago's famous Warehouse club. As usual, cover and drinks are on the cheap, so don't miss it!

For the more experimental minded, Casa del Popolo will be the place to be as sonic adventurers Capsule, Zen Nakamura, Jackie Gallant and Black Market will be performing on a special multi-speaker, surround-sound system. Cost is only $5. A note to all you IDM fans out there: as of today, tickets for the Squarepusher show at Club Soda on April 4 are on sale, so get 'em while they're hot!

Friday night, all post-punkers, indie rockers and IDM introverts must check out the German band the Notwist. Imagine a male version of Nico meeting Tortoise, Kraftwerk and Steve Reich for a jam sesh and you're halfway there. If their live show is even half as good as their last album Neon Golden, we're in for a treat. Don't miss!

Also on Friday, check out Parc Un at O Patro Vys, a sonic experiment involving four turntables, eight hands and several computers with the Parallaxe DJ team (DJs mir, slp, bleuchut and endless). Starts at 10, cover is five bucks.

This Saturday, local label Trigger Recordings head François LeBaron, Epsilon Lab technician Eloi Brunelle and DJ Baya will be launching their regular Monokini nights over at Velvet. Looking to take your night to the early morn? Check out Manny Ward at Gravity for some serious house music. From tribal to progressive to all the house and dance classics, this guy's got it all. Tax is $27.

The shiv is the new high-five… Diskoakimbo@sympatico.ca

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