WE R IN NEED OF DRAMA ON TEH INTARWEB
There's a new poster on 20hz-- Esthero. The 'œWikkid Lil Grrl'? showed up to defend herself against claims of not paying Owen Pallett for use of his violin talents and to whine about people making fun of her. Owen did end up getting paid and an MS Paint-doctored image of Ms. Englishman was deleted.

ROCK THE BOAT
There's a new place to party in the Market. The Boat is a pirate ship-themed bar located at 158 Augusta and it's looking to book all sorts of smokin' parties. Hey, I hear Esthero likes pirates'¦

LOOK! IT'S GREG COLLINS ON TV!
Kevin Shutterbug has compiled an awesome little DVD featuring live performances from a lot of your favourites, like Les Mouches, Sea Snakes, and Neil Haverty and many more. Aperture Enzyme Presents: Moving Pictures Vol. 1 will be available for purchase at Wavelength shows, Rotate This and Soundscapes, as well as through his website, for a mere ten bucks. You can also check out 15 new videos Kevin shot throughout the Wavelength 250 anniversary weekend at the same website.

OOPS!... WARNER'S DONE IT AGAIN!
Over The Top Fest, Eric Warner's annual four-day funfest is happening at various venues May 5 through 8, and each new show that gets announced is even better than the last. Announced so far are shows featuring locals like Jon-Rae and the River, Five Blank Pages, From Fiction and The Vermicious Knid and out-of-towners like Chad Van Gaalen, The Books and MC Paul Barman. Also playing are a pair of bands that are in town so much that they could be considered locals-- Japanther and Aids Wolf. If all of this isn't awesome enough, there'll be a pre-party-party for the fest April 23rd at Sneaky Dee's with Of Montreal, Better Than Everyone and a special guest. All shows, including the one on the 23rd, are all-ages.

A CHORUS OF PARKAS
North Bay's The Parkas are currently recording their follow-up full-length that should be released on Endearing Records sometime this year. Sonic Unyon will be releasing A Northern Chorus' new EP this month, as well.

WEAKERTINES, CONSTANTHANS
The Constantines are done recording their follow-up to the Torontocally-acclaimed Shine A Light and are about to embark on a cross-Canada co-headlining tour with The Weakerthans. Republic of Safety, C'Mon, The Bicycles, among others, are slated to open for their four Toronto dates at Lee's Palace (which includes two all-ages matinee gigs).

HAS A GOOD HOME HAS A GOOD HOME
Final Fantasy's Has A Good Home will be released in Europe through Tomlab records (the same European friends that released Ninja High School'smost recent hit). And if you have Arcade Fire tickets, you'll be thrilled to know that Final Fantasy will be opening, as well as Wolf Parade, for all three shows at Danforth Music Hall.

PLANT MURDER
Brantford's best venue ever, The Ford Plant, is organizing another Murder City Music Festival, so check out their site if you want to apply.

By Shaunna Bednarek and Steven Himmelfarb

A NORTHERN CHORUS
Bitter Hands Resign (Sonic Unyon, www.sonicunyon.com)
With the smashing of the drums mixed with the bending of notes along the guitar as an intro, this album is an example of some of the great bands creating music in Canada. With the delicate vocals intertwined with the build of simplistic, and yet powerful instrumentals, this band gets two thumbs up. With songs like 'œSubjects and Matter,'? this album had an intense sound that was dark, and yet melodic, ultimately reminding me of the Stills album, Logic Will Break Your Heart. Having every song be over three minutes long, each brought you into a little story that seemed to coincide with the pictures above the lyrics of each piece. The intimacy, and beautiful craftsmanship of this album was demonstrated with songs like 'œPrisoners of Circumstance,'? which grows in sound as the cello and drums explode and then abruptly stop, leaving an a cappella ending. With few or no breaks in between songs, you get the feeling that you are stuck in a story that one should listen to from beginning to end, as the vocals and instruments seemingly pour their hearts out to the listener. ­­-- JASMYN BURKE
File Next to: The Stills.

MAXON BLEWITT
Antwerp and Aalst (Independent, www.maxonblewitt.com).
With a voice that reminded me of Lou Reed, it was hard not to like the vocals on Maxon Blewitt's self-titled album. As it began I found the CD case, having two guitars on the back, demonstrated exactly what this album has a lot of '“ the acoustic guitar. The songs all seemed to be mastered in a way that showcased the sound of the acoustics, making for a sound that combined a little rock'n'roll with some twangy sounds in the background. Each individual song sounds good, but as a whole they all sound the same. At the same time, when I heard 'œPut on the Light,'? and 'œStupid Cupid, '? which both combined their acoustic guitar playing with the synth, I thought Maxon Blewitt could strike upon a cool sound if they combined these two instruments and went in a more experimental direction. Overall I liked the second part of the album that had more electric guitar, and steered away from the more organic sound in the beginning. The album wasn't bad, but I'd prefer that they used more of the electric guitar and synth, as I thought it meshed with the singer's voice, and made for a more appealing album. '“JASMYN BURKE
File Next to: In between your Shania Twain and Metric albums.

COUNT BASS D
Down Easy/Holdin' On (Ramp, www.countbassd.com)
Count Bass D is sort of like rap Einstein. He's so much of a genius that it doesn't even make sense, he can't be compared to anyone and you can't say what's amazing about him except that he came up with this thing out of nowhere. Down Easy isn't even rap, really. It isn't even anything. AND, I think he made up the words all at once and didn't even think about whether or not they had to work, because he's hyper, like, ahead of everybody or even anything anyone will ever come up with. I'm not even sure it could be copied and used by other people. He's like an insane cross between Biz Markie and Mase and The Wu Tang Clan and De La Soul, if you can picture that. I'm listening to it and I can't picture it. All I know is I'm freaking out so hard over it and it even kind of makes me feel sad in the enjoy-a-thing-that's-sad way, which NEVER happens! '“MATT FUCKING COLLINS
File next to: Just... NOTHING, I guess. Too amazing. Not even just not NEXT to, but not even FILE.

ELEVATOR
August (Bluefog; www.elevator.ca)
Holy shit! This is fucking amazing! The last few Elevator albums have been delving further and further into structureless drones and squalls, focusing more on texture than their early efforts and becoming more like aural wallpaper. August, however, marries the best aspects of Elevator's recent albums with the pop structure of their Elevator to Hell days. Some of the tracks, like the opener and closer, drag on a little long, repeating themselves for a few minutes longer than my attention span can sustain, but they have a danceable quality that I never would've expected from an Elevator album. All the other tracks fit in nicely around four minutes. They combine the ebb and flow of shoegaze with beefy bass and guitar rock. I want to experience this live, surrounded by a massive crowd of people who are all going out of their minds. '“RYAN MCLAREN
File next to: Rock n' rave.

THE EVENS
s/t (Dischord; www.dischord.com)
We must give praise to the god of DIY, wherever s/he may be, for the fact that after 25 years in the scene, fortysomething punk Ian MacKaye just can't not be in a band. Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Embrace, Egg Hunt, Fugazi, and now The Evens. With Fugazi on semi-permanent hiatus, Ian's new band is a duo with drummer/vocalist Amy Farina (The Warmers). Spare, sparse, bare bones, stripped-down '” these are the adjectives inevitably attached to The Evens. Indeed, the band is aptly named, with its steady balance between MacKaye's baritone guitar (a low-tuned six-string) and Farina's tastefully brushed percussion, and the pair's delicate voices. Yes, Ian leaves the holler at home for the entire album, but this won't actually come as that much of a surprise to those paying attention to the Fugazian output of the latter '˜90s. The Instrument soundtrack even included the band's only piano ballad, 'œI'm So Tired,'? but whereas that was a little on the shaky side, on The Evens the man can really sing. Farina's harmonies complement his voice perfectly on this collection of duets. The dynamic isn't all restrained, however, as 'œIf It's Water'? chugs along on a classic Repeater style bass line '” but the key is it never explodes. With the first of hopefully numerous releases, The Evens have created a fantastically enjoyable exercise in tension, without release. And now, to the Dischord site's tour dates section... '“JONNY DOVERCOURT
File next to: All the awesome quiet bits on Red Medicine.

MARK FARINA
Mushroom Jazz 5 (Om, www.om-records.com)
San Fransisco's DJ Mark Farina is mainly known for his quarky yet funky house music. In the mid- 90's, however, the psychedelic traveler initiated a series of underground events in the bay area that focused on kicking back and smokin' blunts to instrumental hip-hop grooves. Shortly thereafter, the first Mushroom Jazz DJ mix was dropped and people around the globe were trippin'. '˜Shroom Jazz 5 is more of the same delectable goodness that has graced leisure lounges and living rooms for nearly a decade. Take a phat break, some deep bass, a crazy trumpet solo and the odd lazy rhyme, and it all adds up to a really good time. '“MARINKO JAREB
File next to: Instrumental hip-hop, DJ m-m-mix.

FOLK FESTIVAL MASSACRE
Something Else (High School Champion, www.highschoolchampion.com)
This album reminded me of lazy Sundays spent in my parents' basement looking through piles of junk. Or cold Saturday mornings sitting in the sun and watching TV with my family. Every time I put this album on, I started cleaning my room or cooking. With rotating vocalists including Wavelength MC Doc Pickles, and guitar work by Mean Red Spiders' Greg Chambers and Dave Rodgers, Folk Festival Massacre doesn't feel like a committed project but more like a weekend at a cottage with some friends and a four-track. It's simplistic and lo-fi, not to be taken too seriously. Even with the songs I don't like, I wish I could've been there when they were recorded. '“RYAN MCLAREN
File next to: The good parts of high school.

FRENCH TOAST
In a Cave (Dischord, www.dischord.com)
This band seems to be about getting right to the point '“ they like playing loud! Starting the album with 'œFloat Away'? was like turning on the car and forgetting you had the radio on full blast the night before; you weren't expecting such a get-ready-to-rock-out kind of song when you turned it on. This band definitely seems to like combining unique sounds; with songs like 'œNew Dub'? sounding like an '80s techno band, to 'œSeen Me,'? where the chorus seems to resemble the theme song from Batman. In listening to the album in its entirety, no two songs sounded alike which kept the album fresh since you were excited to hear the next song. Overall, the album had an '80s quirkiness to it, but it was this quirkiness mixed with catchy guitar riffs, alien sounding noises, and any other sound they were able to create that made it great. It's an album that grows on you; it's a hidden treasure that, as a whole, is really well out together and would probably be great to hear live. '“JASMYN BURKE
File Next to: I'm not even sure'¦(I'm speechless!)

IRON BITCHFACE
Enter the Goatheaded God(Independant, www.ironbitchface.com)
This is the most demonic record of 2005. It's also the best record of 2005. Right now, Wolf Eyes are listening to this and crying because they don't have a song as good as the title track or "Sacrificial virgins upon a bloody altar for the dark master". I've been following these guys since I was subjected to their hit, "Bryan", roughly seven times at a show in Kitchener during a split-city 30-hour speed binge; I wasn't ready for this though -- literally budda-budda drums and buzzsaw metal riffs with unintelligible fuzzy shrieking and completely insane and Down-Syndromey keyboard solos, with probably five true total mindmelts where you punch the air or yell "Of course!" or "It STARTED with the drum beat!" as opposed to what usually gets called mind melts which is when the Comets on Fire record was just a bunch of guitar soloing... no, these are real melts, where the world seems sort of dull and vaguely disappointing compared to the way it seemed when the melt happened. What I'm saying is that this record is like going really hard for 30 hours. "This is a song about a guy named Bryan! It's called... BRYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" '“MATT FUCKING COLLINS
File next to: Serious people can never, ever, be this serious.

KILO
Augarten (Onitor, www.onitor.de)
Florian Bogner and Markus Urban aka Kilo, are a pair of ex-garage band guitarists based out of Vienna, Austria. Putting aside rock music, their Kilo project is about fashioning minimal techno from the sonic debris they create while strumming their guitars. The results, although often punctuated with deep bass and the throbbing pulse of a detuned kick drum, are so textured and delicate that they that they flow over the listener like a playful summer wind. Particularly interesting is the balance between electronics and acoustic guitar in the sense that layers of effects give way to the clear tones of guitar strings; the self-produced duo let the strings buzz and shine, bringing the beautiful tonal qualities of the instrument into focus at all the right moments. Kilo's Augarten is deep electro-organic brilliance. '“MARINKO JAREBFile next to:Kompakt, Minimal Techno verges on electroacoustic.

LENA
Floating Roots (Quartermass, www.quatermass.net/qmass.html)
Lena is Mathias Delplanque, born in Burkina Faso, furthering his African roots by adapting the music of his past with the influences of European electronics and Jamaican dub. Floating Roots can best be characterized as artificial dub music. Lena lays down grooves at a variety of tempos, from reggae speed skankin' to the quick pulse of dub techno, while guest MCs Black Sifichi and Tablloyd toast the bagels on a few tracks. The plastic sounds of Lena's dub are so synthetic that they'll inspire visions of bright sunshine piercing the thick morning fog floating through a lush jungle valleyÖthat's when the song ends and you realize it's just the ganja mist clearing out the bong and over your head. Cough! On the real, this album is getting regular rotation on the ghetto system. '“MARINKO JAREB
File 'œbetween'?: Burial Mix, Basic Channel, Studio One, Lee Perry

THE OLD SOUL
s/t (Hand of God; www.theoldsoul.com)
The Old Soul are here to fill the void left wide open by Mercury Rev after they became Disneyfied Jesus Christ posers. Recalling the joyous, maximally orchestrated wide-screen freak scene heard on lost Rev classic See You on the Other Side (released in '95 on now-defunct Sony imprint Work, and totally worth tracking down, by the way), The Old Soul's self-titled debut is a real creeper of a pure pop pleasure. These hard-drinking, well-dressed gentlemen deserve some backslaps for knowing what an album's supposed to be: a non-stop hit parade. Mainman Luca Maoloni has gone on record as being sick of the Brian Wilson comparison, so I won't belabour describing the Smile-y-ness of the layered harmonies that abound here, so instead I'll invoke another reclusive musical architect, Kevin Shields, and his now-famous, Canadian-record-label-christening quote about 'œunpeeling the layers of a sonic onion.'? This is the first new record I've heard in seemingly ages which has made my ears engage in this immensely satisfying activity from start to finish. '“ JONNY DOVERCOURT
File next to: Listening as work as play.

TONETRAEGER
This Is Not Here (Quartermass, www.quatermass.net/qmass.html)
Tonetraeger is Volker Bertlemann (Hauschka, Music A.M.) and Torsten Mauss (Twig) who hail from the industrial town of Dusseldorf, Germany, a city whose music scene has seen some fresh energy lately. Tonetraeger is self described as 'œT-rock'? or techno rock and although that may be an appropriate description in Germany, it is misleading to the Canadian music fan. I think of techno rock as dance floor oriented techno or electro beats with grinding guitar sounds '“ think T.Raumschmeire or International DJ Gigolos. Tonetraeger's emotionally charged music, however, comes across like a mash-up between down-tempo electronica and folky emo. It's very clean and nice sounding, even relaxing. The sound is not entirely unlike Stereolab but with a primary school twist for extra cuteness. As much as I like the idea of Tonetraeger, a 'œband'? that pairs electronics and live instruments to create avant-pop, I feel like they are a band that one would need to see live in order to fully appreciate their sound. On a CD, in the context of my home stereo system, their music seems a little contrived and overdone. '“MARINKO JABEK
File Next To: Karaoke Kalk, Epic Folktronica / Turbo Folk.

TRESPASSERS WILLIAM
Different Stars (Nettwerk, www.nettwerk.com)
I don't mind listening to someone whine, so long as they learn and grow and stop complaining about the same things after a while. This album is like a sappy whine that keeps the same steady and boring drawl for a little more than an hour. It's too hard to take. 'œLove You More'? sums it up with 'œAll of my songs are for you, all of my songs are sad.'? Maybe I'd like this more if the lyrics even changed a bit, but they don't. It goes from 'œOh I need and don't want to need more than I should'? to 'œI see it when you do just what I said and I don't feel then that my heart knows the difference.'? What? '“RYAN MCLAREN
File next to: Chunky Monkey and crying.

Wavelength first-timers The Secret Handshake are gonna bop their way into your hearts with their hip-hop musics on April 3. Growing out of a failed rockabilly jam session, The Secret Handshake became a booty-shake-shake amalgam of a variety of influences instead. They remain devoid of any intellectualizing or mission-statement-having, choosing instead to appeal exclusively to our rhythmic sensibilities. Made up of oft-Malkmus-voiced Spencer, Deaglan on guitar and Erik on drums, the strapping young lads and some selections from their The Secret EP can be found at http://www.myspace.com/thesecrethandshakes. Kate Carraway pulled their ponytails via email.

HOW DID THE SECRET HANDSHAKE COME TOGETHER?
D: In a dream where Arthur Rimbaud and Screamin' Jay Hawkins led me through the desert to discover '“ as they said and I quote '“ 'œThe Next Big Thing!"
E: Deaglan made an Irish joke, and nobody laughed except me. And Spencer. So I said "Hey guys, let's start a rap band." And suddenly we were famous.

DID Y'ALL GO TO SUMMER CAMP?
S: I was actually suckered into going to this insane mega-Baptist day camp by my crazy old neighbour when I was a kid. We played soccer-baseball and some kid tried to slide into home and he skinned his knee and then everybody had to get down on their knees and pray that he was OK. I knew this was lunacy so I never went back.
E: Once. I sat on a hornet and have a scar on my ass

I'M REALLY PRO-PEDOMORPHISM AND MAINTAIN THAT THROWING PERIODIC TANTRUMS AND CULTIVATING NICKNAMES AND STRINGING LITTLE ROCKETS ACROSS YOUR CEILING IS TOTALLY WISE AND HEALTHY. ASIDE FROM SECRET HANDSHAKES , DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN MUCH PRE-ADOLESCENT BEHAVIOUR?
D: Daydreaming intensely.
E: You're only as young as the kids you pick up in your unmarked van.

WHICH LEADS ME TO MY NEXT QUESTION. SINCE IRONY AND POST-IRONY ARE BORING AND I'M NOT SURE WHAT THE POST-POST-POST-IRONY THAT YOUR WEBSITE REFERS TO IS, WHAT'S THE SECRET HANDSHAKE'S CALL FOR THE NEXT OVERARCHING CULTURAL COMMON DENOMINATOR?
D: The call itself is left to be determined as the evolution occurs. The
call will sound something like a piercing feedback that consists of
rhyme, rhythm and reason.
S: Maybe mass-amputations for the sake of fashion or something. Or the inevitable comeback of Pig Latin, or maybe the crazy languages that twins teach each other, you know, like a pidgin fad or something, that'd be awesome.

EXPLAIN "AVANT-NOTHING"D: Avant-nothing means we don't subscribe to ever, with intention, set out
to be one genre or one sound. It's a found term.
E: We're not original. We're not clever. We're avant-nothing. We're passé, old hat, yesterday's news. But we're still better than you.

I HATE HOW NO ONE READS. PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE WAVELENGTH AUDIENCE WHY LITERATURE IS RIGHTEOUS.
D: Literature is righteous. This is because to be righteous is to be
virtuous. Knowledge is a virtue. Literature provides knowledge. Literature then is virtuous and thus it is righteous.
E: Interpersonal communication is far too often mired by motive or circumstance, sentiment or timing '¦  Fiction, drama, and character are the sincerest forms of discourse, as they allow a barren, authentic and real human emotion to be communicated free of the emotional and intellectual meshwork surrounding it. To act, to convey, to tell the story is to portray a real feeling without the influence of time-space relevancies. The written word, of course, allows for this contextual value to pass to the reader's senses in a fashion which lets them choose their own learning methodology, '˜n'shit.

ANY RECOMMENDATIONS?
D: Ulysses by James Joyce, All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir, and 'œHowl'? by Allen Ginsberg.
S: I really like this poet called Jeffrey McDaniel. I also really like I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, and pretty much anything by David Sedaris, Dr. Karl Shuker and H.P. Lovecraft.

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM CUPCAKE?
S: Vanilla with coconut and chocolate chips and made of ice-cream and world peace.
 

By Kate Carraway

Shaunna Bednarek had three major things working against her for her interview with Dupont. For one, she didn't know very much about them and felt dreadfully unprepared. For another, some kind of Gmail miscommunication made the interview a half hour late. Most of all, she was still getting over a post-St. Patrick's Day brain fry. Since Dupont's music has no words, it was even jokingly suggested that this here interview have no words. But then you, the reader, wouldn't know that Dupont are Dave Dunnett, Jason Williams and Ryan Cherewaty. And that shortly after their Wavelength show, they'll be amicably calling it quits. This will be followed by a posthumous release of recordings they did this past March. Here are some of the things Shaunna and the band said to each other when they met up.

HOW DID YOU GUYS GET TOGETHER?
DD: I met Ryan at a party at 50 Borden and we jammed in the back shed, and we had a lot of fun. Then I moved into a new place, Jason was looking for a new apartment. I built a jam space in the bottom of the house and we would jam down there.
JW: So we decided to try and do a band. We ran into Ryan at a party in October and asked him to join the band, so that's pretty much it.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FUNNY STORIES?
JW: All we have is tragic stories. Stories of despair and sadness!

WHAT'S THE MOST TRAGIC STORY OF DUPONT?
RC: We were playing this show and this really weird guy came up behind me. I was playing my keyboard, and it turns out it was Jason's best friend.
JW: He's become kind of our unofficial roadie. He likes to come up onstage sometimes and just stand around. He's like, the boss.
DD: He picks up my drums if they fall over. My glasses fall off when I play and he picks them up.

SO, UHH'¦ YOU GUYS LIVE ON DUPONT?
DD: Me and Jason were living at a place at Dupont and Avenue Rd. We used to take the subway all the time at Dupont station. It's a cool station.
JW: Actually, how we got the name was Dave had taken a picture in the subway station with the name Dupont with a bench in it, and the picture was so well-framed. We were looking for a new name. The picture was so good that we decided that we wanted to put it on a record if we ever made one.
RC: The name is a commentary on anti-capitalist structure'¦
JW: There's a standard of excellence that we strive to, as the Dupont Corporation in a lot of ways.

WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO?
JW: We just did some recording. Which was trying.
DD: We spent three days recording with Chris from Audiolab. The first two days were total write-offs. And the third day went totally awesome and we got a bunch of good material. We're hoping to do something with that in the next couple of months.

AND PLAYING SHOWS, OF COURSE.
JW: We've played extensively for groups of our friends.
DD: I started off just setting up shows for us. The first show we played was at Planet Kensington. Then I set up a show for us with the Silent Film Soundtrack from Waterloo at Rancho Relaxo, started talking to some promoters and stuff, started playing a few more shows, like at the El Mo and Silver Dollar and stuff.
RC: We had a strange run-in with a Toronto promoter, who shall remain unnamed, with a crack pipe.

By Shaunna Bednarek