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By Mike Bresciani - The Lonesome Strangers - 11/01/2006

What does Death Cab do for a living? Apparently, touring endlessly seems to be at the top of their list, as November 1st marked their third live appearance in Montreal in just over a year. Standard touring schedule? A diabolical case of oversaturation within a key market? Or do they just really REALLY like Montreal’s smoked meat sandwiches? Let’s be honest, it’s tough to question their motives. Death Cab For Cutie is one of the most harmless bands making it big right now. They’re the kind of band your parents would encourage you to hear in high school, and that’s perfectly fine. As inoffensive as Ben Gibbard and his posse is, the music they make is genuinely sweet and pleasing to the ear.

They might get tagged with the dreaded E-word from time to time, but let’s be honest, do they really deserve it? Where’s all the eyeliner and the drama? How about the fashion, and the sappy lyrics hiding behind those crunchy guitars? And the teary-eyed screamy yelps? Well, asides the out-and-out mopeyness, I don’t see a resemblance whatsoever. But hey, mope sells, and now having released their sixth album Plans over a year ago, Death Cab has become a household name in mopeyness with a massive following.

So thank you, Jerk from The O.C, thanks to you, I’ve got a K-Fed look-alike standing next to me, thugging out to "Crooked Teeth" and "The Sound of Settling". Thanks again!

In spite of this, it would take a lot for me to dislike a band over something so juvenile. However, if Oprah were to praise them at her next book club meeting, I might just wretch.

The show began with an underwhelming set by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, never really winning over a totally unresponsive audience with their 30 minutes of stage time, which is a shame. They’ve got a decent following, as well as a reputable punk frontman who fronted the DC punk outfit Chisel in the 90’s. When you have the time, have another listen because most people, myself included, didn’t give 'em the time of day. To be fair, Ted Leo and Death Cab don’t really have much in common, so the pairing was a little odd. Conversely, last October, Death Cab brought Aussie band Youth Group along on tour, which made for a terrific one-two punch, as both bands have a relatively similar sound.

Death Cab began their set with "405" from their second album We Have The Facts, We’re Voting Yes. From there on, the rest of the set list was a rather predictable ensemble of songs, pretty much what one would come to expect from a band that pulls so few punches. "Photobooth", "Company Calls" and "Movie Script Ending" were the best received older selections in a set that didn’t necessarily revolve around the last two albums, although the most commended songs did come from either Plans or Transatlanticism.

At times, the first half of the set sounded rather stale, which can happen to pretty much any band playing the Metropolis. Death Cab’s simple lo-fi sound just doesn’t seem to accommodate bigger venues, so one could only imagine what they sounded like last April at CEPSUM. Therefore it goes without saying: the smaller the venue, the better the sound, the more intimate experience. Death Cab is no exception.

The one surprise of the night was the 10-minute extended version of "We Looked Like Giants". Now in most cases, bands will usually break out into psychedelic riffs or trippy onstage antics. Death Cab just played the song with a little more gusto, and added seven minutes worth of instrumentals, that’s about it. The encore was equally predictable with "Marching Bands of Manhattan", "Tiny Vessels" and the big closer, the fantastic seven-minute "Transatlanticism". By that time, I had my jacket on, with one foot out the door. So although I do enjoy listening to Death Cab from time to time, I felt fairly bored throughout most of the show, and was extremely anxious to leave. From an outsider's point of view, there was no real problems with the show; they played everyone’s favorite songs, they were courteous, they were great. I don’t mind seeing a band more than once if I really like them, and I do like Death Cab, but this show was one too many for me.

If you would’ve seen them last year at the Spectrum, you’d probably understand.

[Tune in to The Lonesome Strangers every Wednesday from 3pm to 5pm.]

By Stephanie D - Twee Time - 09/22/2006

I recently remarked to a friend that many shows I've been assigned to review in the past always have an "Our Town" feeling to them. The stage sets are always simple, containing only an amp and maybe a turn able or a guitar stand. No more than one or two people perform on stage at any given time, and the lighting is always minimal or non-existent -- Sisters of Mercy, I'm looking at you -- props and smoke machines sometimes omitted. The show on September 22nd was no different -- or so it seemed at first. This was Billy Bragg: guitar, two amplifiers, and voice.

Upon arriving at Club Soda, I caught the tail end of Seth Lakeman's (of the Lakeman Brothers from Devon, England) opening performance, minimal in orchestration and very high energy. Lakeman -- a true folk artist -- played guitar alone, and man, that guy sure could sing, stomp and fiddle. When Seth finished and left the stage, nothing changed save for the guitar roadie and a sound check.

In my youth I had dreams of seeing Billy Bragg perform. The only album of his I owned back then was Back to Basics (1987), consisting of tracks from his first three politically-charged releases and most notably, his first album Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy (1983). When I listened to the album -- and I listened a lot -- in my mind I pictured a man alone in a darkened theatre playing guitar and just being himself. The songs echoed in my head, along with thoughts of neighborhood children (myself included) sneaking into the theatre, unseen by Billy, ready to witness something special. Before Billy Bragg took the stage I was left wondering, what will make this show different from those dreams and Our Town?

Over the past 25 years, Billy Bragg has been making music and reiterating time and again his personal commitment to political and humanitarian issues. This tour -- promoting the giant box set Billy Bragg Volume I released this past March, which consists of seven CDs and two DVDs, and rare previously unreleased tracks (a second volume is set to be released October 9, 2006) -- is very much indicative of these themes and of Bragg's passion for punk, rock, blues and folk music.

Early in his career, Billy Bragg created many songs about his disdain for the Thatcher government in the United Kingdom, and the themes he touched upon then -- and in his music even now -- are very much valid for today's political climate in and outside of the UK. The show at Club Soda that night was not entirely serious, however, and Bragg often engaged in banter with the audience, which prompted one audience member to laugh and say, "The Comedy Styling of Billy Bragg". In addition to his political feelings, Billy Bragg spoke of his vices (hanging out in record shops as a lad), having once drawn inspiration from Simon and Garfunkle, and of his fondness for internet videos depicting talking cats.

Bragg also mentioned MySpace a few times throughout the show, though he did not speak of the run-in he had with that company, wherein Bragg disputed terms and conditions of the site that at one time allowed News International to reuse any content created by users without renumerating the owner, terms which were later changed when Bragg removed his music from the site in protest.

Billy Bragg revealed to us his alter-ego "Johnny Clash", who was a clever mixture of Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash, in the song he affectionately called "The Old Clash Fan Fight Song". He later mentioned his book (to be released at the same time as Billy Bragg Volume II) The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging, which discusses Englishness and national identity, and Bragg joked how this book should sell very well in Quebec. He performed the title track from England, Half English and later a roadie named Randy brought the man his second cup of hot tea, which was quite fitting.

Bragg's performance gave us a chance to see how truly amazing the man plays the electric guitar. His technique appeared effortless, and the songs sounded much richer and passionately felt; for example, "Like Soldiers Do" from Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (1996) performed live was more amazing than the original recording that it took a verse or two to realize what song it was. He continued to touch upon matters of the heart with "Sexuality" from the album Don't Try This At Home (1996).

One standout was a currently unreleased new song, entitled "Farm Boy". He "forgot" the words and asked if the crowd knew the lyrics and could help him out. The main set ended with a clever song depicting a summary of what he discussed during the show.

The first encore included the songs "Black Wind Blowing" and "Eisler On The Go" from Mermaid Avenue (1998) and Mermaid Avenue II (2000), which he played acoustically. The song lyrics on these albums are originally by Woody Guthrie, and later became part of a collaboration between Bragg, Wilco and Natalie Merchant after Guthrie's daughter Nora became familiar with Billy Bragg's music in the early 1990's. She personally requested that Billy Bragg compose music for unused lyrics written but never realized as finished songs, by her father. She was impressed by his ability to perform effortlessly with country and blues musicians, and because they (Woody and Billy) touched upon similar subject matter in their songwriting.

Bragg also performed prison songs originally by Leadbelly, and then employed a steel slide on guitar for the famous song "The Bourgeois Blues", and also updated the lyrics to make them contemporarily relevant.

For his second and final encore, childhood dreams were realized when Billy Bragg performed all seven tracks from Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, most notably "The Milkman of Human Kindness", "To Have and To Have Not", and crowd favourite "A New England". For that final song, Bragg invited fans to sing the chorus, and then surprisingly added the since-forgotten "extra" verse (added to the late Kirsty MacColl's version of the song):

My dreams were full of strange ideas / My mind was set despite the fears / But other things got in the way / I never asked that girl to stay / Once upon a time at home / I sat beside the telephone / Waiting for someone to pull me through / When at last it didn't ring, I knew it wasn't you.

Billy Bragg remarked how he wanted to be a soul singer, but that deep in his heart liked being a punk rocker. One might argue that he is indeed both, and what made this show different, made the man real, and what brought so much to life was his sense of humour. The show ended with his call to the audience that we fight cynicism and keep the faith.

[Tune in to Twee Time Mondays 5pm-6pm.]

By Shaun Anderson - Losing My Edge - 09/26/2006

"Let me get this straight; we're not punk... When someone calls you a punk, it means you're nothin' but a bitch."

This statement, coming from anyone else's mouth besides The Black Lips singer/songwriter and lead guitarist Cole Alexander, would deserve a punch in the mouth as far as I'm concerned. Many around this station will tell you that I am one of punk rock circa-2006 staunchest defenders, and there is nothing more that bothers me in music criticism than the blind dismissal of punk rock by people who only discovered the music they have moved onto through punk rock in the first place -- such as the entire writing staff of Pitchfork, for example. These drunken words in quotations above, uttered about halfway through The Black Lips mind-melting set last Tuesday, summed up something that all of us lucky enough to have bared witness to their awesome spectacle have surely discovered. What The Black Lips are accomplishing in music right now -- on their records and on the road on a nightly basis -- are making every other currently active band in punk rock today (with the possible exception of Fucked Up) look like their collective bitches by comparison. After three full-length records and nearly a dozen singles since getting together as teens in the late 90's, people are finally starting to catch on to The Black Lips' magical brand of modernized pop psych-infused and 60's-inspired garage which they fittingly called "Flower Punk". This is hot on the heels of having just released one of the decade's best albums Let It Bloom less than ten months ago, as well as recently inking a deal with the major label-financed ūber-indie Vice Records. Having missed their two previous shows in Montreal (and having the crushing letdown of their third scheduled show two years prior being cancelled due to negligence among the promoters trying to get them across the border), I was ridiculously excited to finally get to see them play, even if it meant having to see them open for indie hype band Be Your Own Pet, as well as missing an opportunity to see one of the greatest Canadian bands ever Nomeansno play a set just down the street on the same night.

The evening started off well. I arrived just in time to see the notoriously inconsistent hometown purveyors of lo-fi trash punk CPC Gangbangs (with Paul Spence of Fubar fame on guitar and lead vocals) bang out the best set I've seen them play in at least six months. I was starting to think my patience with this band had worn completely thin after seeing them over a half dozen times in the last three years to varying degrees of success, but I think I have been officially swayed back onto their side. Granted, their brand of punk rock isn't exactly rocket science, and I honestly couldn't see them winning too many converts among the crowd that came strictly to see BYOP, but they deserve credit for playing a tight set with minimal ridiculous self-indulgence they can get caught up in from time to time. Their songs –- sort of what you could imagine Crime would have sounded like had they secretly worshiped Hawkwind and Chrome –- stood on their own surprisingly well, and I find myself looking forward to hearing what their forthcoming full-length on Swami will offer up.

Really though, this evening undoubtedly belonged to The Black Lips, who had the whole crowd eating out of the palms of their hands from the first song on, weaving their trashy, poppy, effortless-looking yet incredibly loose-sounding songs through some of the most hilarious and unbelievably great stage antics I've ever seen. Those stage antics are already somewhat of a thing of legend at this point, as they have regularly taken to puking all over themselves, playing guitar with their dicks, and (literally) pissing in their own mouths on stage, among other sorts of ridiculousness. This show was a little less crazy, but it was still amazing to watch Cole perform feats like make out with Ian (their rhythm guitarist), play guitar solos with his teeth, and catch spit balls he was launching five feet into the air back into his mouth, all while not messing up a single part (let alone note) of any song. Add to that the hilariousness of having used their Vice signing advance to add a smoke machine and cheesy 60's lava lamp-style light projector to their arsenal -- not to mention the obligatory brand spanking new guitars, drum kit and amps, of course -- and you have what stacks up to be one of the most viscerally interesting live bands on the face of the earth at this moment. This all would make them about as musically vital as GWAR would it not be for the fact that they are also arguably the best pure garage punk band since the Oblivians and easily, without question, the best pop songwriters working within the punk milieu since the Exploding Hearts untimely demise three years ago. Their command of the room and the energy of their performance was so incredible and awe-striking, many were shocked to learn that their bass player (and author of roughly 30% of their songs) Jared hadn't even made it across the border with them, and was being temporarily replaced by Jeffery Novak from the Memphis punk band The Rat Traps (and husband of one of the Be Your Own Pet members) on their two Canadian dates. When they ended their 35-minute set with the perennial tongue-in-cheek anthem "Freak Out" off of their first album, the whole crowd literally freaked the fuck out, prompting a huge circle pit in the front row, while several members of Montreal's Demon's Claws forced themselves on stage to frolic about, as The Black Lips put the finishing touches on one of the best sets of music I've seen this year. I could have easily put up with another hour of this non-stop greatness, but it was somewhat fitting to see them so effectively set an impossibly high bar to follow; a modern-day throwback to the days of Jerry Lee Lewis' piano-torching sets that no headlining act, no matter how great they were, could ever hope to top.

I honestly felt bad when I left right before Be Your Own Pet's set, but really, what could have topped The Black Lips? On this night -- and probably almost every other night in this day and age -- absolutely no one could touch them, so why even bother?

[Tune in to Losing My Edge Sundays 2pm-4pm and Tuesdays 8pm-10pm.]

By Susannah Hicks - Rock the Plank - 09/07/2006

When I walked into Les Saints, the lights were low and smoke machines were on full blast. The crowd seemed into the hip-hop filler music, as people were dancing and excited for Ratatat and still pumped from the two openers The Envelopes and Panther. Ratatat quietly entered the stage and started to play. The first couple of songs weren’t that exciting; Ratatat’s energy was mellow and calm. This wasn’t expected from their hard-hitting, energy-pumping, rock 'n roll-twisted hip-hop beats that they showcase on their albums. The live set-up involved the core duo of Mike Stroud and Evan Mast with a third touring musician playing with the band. One element that made Ratatat’s show stellar was the mighty projections, a contribution to making many shows great. The artists' black silhouettes intertwined with the psychedelic geometric-shaped projections against the white wall added a great dimension to the show. Aside from the projectons, Ratatat were not impressive for their first couple of songs, but then they started to heat up -- smoking, in fact -- with hard reverberant bass lines and power-charged eletric guitar. The crowd started dancing up a storm, with robotic moves and the Running Man alike. What really intrigued me about the show was that Ratatat played their instruments precisely like on their album. The majority of the songs played were off their most recent album Classics, released in August 2006. They sounded crisp, clear, full, so analogous to their recording quality, which is rare with two-piecers. They integrated their analog instruments perfectly (guitar and bass) with the keys and ended up sounding seamless. Ratatat played a one-hour set with two encores, keeping their dance punk vibe strong throughout the show. All in all, it was a good evening -- aside from the first couple of songs -- and they soon won over the crowd and rocked steadily the rest of the night.

[Tune into Rock The Plank, every Thursday 2-4pm]