Picastro's one of those bands that you don't hear too much about, except for how good other people say they are. Over the years, they've quietly had lineup changes, released two records (most recently Metal Cares on Polyvinyl) and played shows all over the place. The band combines the talents of Evan Clarke (drums), Zak Hanna (guitar), Alex McLeod (strings) and Liz Hysen (guitar + vocals). Shaunna Bednarek met up with frontwoman Liz in honour of Picastro's first Wavelength in years.

YOU GUYS WERE JUST IN EUROPE. WHAT ARE THE SHOWS IN EUROPE LIKE?
People are, for the most part, more enthusiastic. They buy more records. I think there's a certain novelty in a band being from North America, too. At the same time, it sorta feels like in North America it's a little bit harder, but for a very good reason. There's bands that tour in Europe that you've never heard of here but they can play, like, 40 shows in Germany. It's weird. It's a good thing to do.

YOU'VE HAD ALL SORTS OF LINEUP CHANGES, TOO. WHO HAS REMAINED CONSISTENT?
(Evan) the drummer; he's been in the band the longest. Zak's been in the band for a pretty long time too, almost as long as Evan, so they've been pretty constant. String players, it's pretty hard. It's harder when you're a classical musician. I think it's expected, most bands have changes. Our new string player (Alex) is a friend of Owen (Pallett)'s and he's going to school in Germany in September. Every time someone new comes in, there's usually a buffer period. It takes about a year to settle in and you know if it's going to work out or not.

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE PLAYING WAVELENGTH AGAIN AFTER ALL THIS TIME?
It's different. When I started going, it was a certain crowd of people that used to go, and it seems like over the years there's a new generation and crowd of people, which is cool. It's just interesting if you've been around a while to see that change happen, and there's probably people that haven't heard of us. There's definitely stratas of generations of bands in Toronto and I remember some from, like, 10 years ago, and I don't know how many people remember them.

HOW DID YOU END UP SWITCHING TO POLYVINYL?
The one guy that worked there on a part-time basis contacted me and he liked the last record we did, and I started sending him new stuff over the years. It sort of just came up by accident that they were looking for new bands and then they just asked for a record. We were going to do a split 7" at first, and they asked for more stuff and I sent them more and they ended up liking the whole record. I didn't consciously seek them out, it was really nice how it happened; they were fans.

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING WITH PICASTRO?
We have a song that's out right now on The Wire, a British magazine. They're pretty tame as far a music magazines go. They're actually sensible. They put out a comp about twice a year and our song is on it this month. I'm a big fan of that magazine, so that's nice. We're playing some scattered shows in the US over the summer. We're playing CMJ in September. And then we'll just keep playing shows in North America and again in Europe because the record's going to be coming out there in September. I've pretty much decided that Picastro should never put out records in the summer because it doesn't make much sense.

By Shaunna Bednarek

It takes balls to wear a mask on stage. If you're some metal band maybe no one will care or the kiddies will just like you even more, but presenting yourselves as a faceless, anonymous unit to the perennially-jaded indie community is like shooting yourself in the foot. Luckily, the Vulcan Dub Squad care not about such nonsense. They prefer to let their swirling, hypnotic fusion of shoegazer and psych-pop to speak for itself. And they're probably giving you eyes behind those masks anyways, cuz how dare you wear those shoes with that shirt'¦. ugh. Mike Perreault talked to the band by passing notes.

AS A FACELESS, SOMEWHAT ANONYMOUS COLLECTIVE YOUR NEW ALBUM POSSESSES A VERY STRONG SENSE OF CANADIAN IDENTITY. AT WHAT LEVEL ARE YOU COMFORTABLE REVEALING YOURSELVES TO THE LISTENERS?
In a perfect setting, it would be just our names in print and on the CD's themselves, but the reality has us lugging our own gear around, setting up and sound checking, or sometimes in panel discussions/interviews to sell those CD's etc. so everyone knows who we are off stage and what we look like. Secrecy on that level isn't the point really. We separate the live show and music: a show/bit of theatre on the one hand and recorded music presented in its own light/art. The album does have a strong Canadian sense, but that's because it's our environment and heritage.

DOES IT BOTHER YOU WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO PEG YOU AS A GIMMICK BAND?
Yep. What if you don't like the way music is marketed, how do you evade/escape it? I dunno, anything you do is in turn considered your vehicle/gimmick/thing, so maybe there is none. We're playing live shows because we have to, but I wish we didn't have to and the music could sell itself. Still, any review of a show that goes on about what socks, hair or culture the band caters to, kills me. In all fairness, couldn't any band in a specific movement/fad be viewed as a gimmick band?

HOW OFTEN DOES YOUR BAND GET MISTAKEN FOR A REAL DUB COLLECTIVE? EVER HAD ANY IRATE REGGAE FANS SHOW UP AT ANY GIGS?
Ha! I wish. At least it would change the colour of the crowd a bit, though my family tends to do that (we're Paki's, watch your step). Dub is a bit of a misnomer, and I tried to get the boys to abbreviate the name to The Vulcan DS, but Nintendo beat me to the punch. An irate reggae fan at a music gig? Ha!

HAVE THE CROWDS BEEN MORE RECEPTIVE TO THE VDS IN RECENT YEARS, WHAT WITH THE GROWING POPULARITY OF SHOEGAZER/PSYCH POP MUSIC?
Shoegazer music is fairly old now (at least 13 years on since the British press coined the term) and I was a huge fan from '96-'99, and the earlier albums reflect that. But if you listen to late 60's soft-psych bands, you can hear a lot of similarities/roots. There's only so far it can go in its basic form, but combining it with pop-psych allows it much more space creatively with mood/colour, embellishments, structure, etc. so the current hybrid makes a lot of sense to me, and if it's an avenue through which people can enjoy The Vulcans, great'¦but I don't know. How many music listeners do their homework anymore? Lots I hope.

THE INDIE COMMUNITY IS INFAMOUS FOR THEIR CYNICAL VIEWS ON ANY TYPE OF VISUAL GIMMICKRY. HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED MUCH OF A BACKLASH?
Backlash? Before we get a backlash, we need to get a few on the front! We're probably the worst business men in the world; who in their right mind takes their career cues from The Residents?! Ack!

SUMMERTIME: WHAT'S UP FOR THE VDS?
Playing till August when I'll be getting married, a honeymoon tour of Scandinavia will be enjoyed and then it's preparation for the U.S College circuit in September. Sadly, our management feels we'll go over much better in the U.S, U.K and Europe than in Canada. They've got a dismissive attitude when it comes to Toronto and Canada for us, which I don't share, but what's to be done when your family's not interested and the neighbours are curious about the noise coming from your window?

By Mike Perreault

Touring the rough and tough, divey drinking holes of Canada can be a grueling experience, especially for the warm hearted, kitten saving, guacamole and tomato sandwich eating, Neil Young loving Kat Burns! The Whitby native moved to Toronto 2 years ago as a thriving musician and print artist and is now about to embark on a Southern Ontario sprawl in support of her new handmade sunny-day-under-a-tree-with-nothing-to-do, e.p. For The Birds, which was released in May, and is available at www.thebluehouse.org. An East Coast tour is in the works for the fall but until that happens the songstress would like to keep busy designing and printing album covers and miscellaneous merch for fellow musicians. To prep her for the long and arduous journey of melting hearts nation wide, we sat down one fine afternoon for some survival training with a game of'¦ "Dreamhouse"'¦ where your dreams can be achieved and shattered within a matter of seconds'¦ where fantasy is reality and reality is 2-D.

Here's how you play:
A large piece of paper is divided into 2. Each player gets a different colour pen/marker (kat=black, me=red)
Each player on either side of the page gets 3 minutes to design her ideal living space/fortress. The players then take turns (no longer than 2 minutes) to either deconstruct the opponent's living space or add to/repair their own habitat. The game ends when the page is full or when the players lose interest.

Game highlights include:
- Padlocked Jack in the Box.
- Becoming a Real Boy.
- Cleaning Kat's cussin' mouth out with soap.
- Having big, jolly women crush you under their rumpus.
- Being allergic to books
- Woodchoppered Dutch book becomes a swarm of mini Dutch books a la Fantasia.
- The knee to elbow "YES!" action

By Maria Bui