The Adam Brown is from skanky Montreal, but Toronto loves them anyhow. They make those great rock songs that exist only in your head when you're driving until you hear them in real life and are like "Oh... oh!" The band's shows are happily less "scenester toe-tapping" and more "revival-tent rockstravaganza". The Adam Brown is composed of four fine-looking gentlemen, and Kate Carraway plucked two of them away from their busy days to answer some questions.

Who are you?

Shawny Petsche: ...featured a terrible direct-recorded guitar tone from Pete Townshend. But other than that mis-step, he's pretty much a god in my eyes. That said, I am Shawn Petsche, guitar, tambourine, and keyboard player
for the self-contained rock 'n' roll unit named The Adam Brown, named so after a 19th century locomotive that traveled the woods of the BC interior. Lord, I was born a ramblin' man...or I wish I was.

Adam Brown: I'm Adam Brown from The Adam Brown. It's 3pm and i just woke up, but I still remember that much. The Adam Brown however is something much greater than myself. It's like Voltron. Rock n' Roll Voltron, or for some of you: Rock' n Roll Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It's almost Captain Planety... but without the eco villains.

Toronto seems to have a big, juicy crush on you. Do you like us back?

SP: SWEET YES! Although it almost pains me to say so. You see, I was raised on Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater (the book and the NFB animated film). My grandfather played for The Montreal Canadiens. It's cliche to boil the Montreal-Toronto rivalry down to our hockey clubs, but hey, usually, cliches are born out of something powerfully 'true.' So yeah, I have been programmed to hate Toronto with all of my heart. That said, the shows we have played in Toronto have been among the most fun shows we've ever played, and the crowds have just been so incredibly sweet, sincere, and fun that we're willing to chuck aside that whole Toronto hate thing. Besides, New York Subway's burritos make city-rivalry talk kind of pointless. That said, Tie Domi is a tool, and the CBC stands for "Completely Biased Channel".

AB: I SOOOOOO have a crush on Toronto!! Does Toronto really like us back!? Eeeeeeee!!!!!! I'm not even kidding! I think about Toronto all the time. Especially on the really cold days in Montreal when Toronto is 3 degrees warmer. But seriously now: your audiences have always been really receptive, and warm, booty shakin'... and that's all I've ever asked for in an audience. I actually think I'm full on in love with you Toronto.

If Toronto is so rad and containing the perfectest audiences, why is Montreal the city du jour?

SP: Oh, don't get me wrong. As much as we love playing shows in Toronto, that isn't to say that it is the most perfect of cities (though New York Subway's burritos are absolutely perfect). We (and by that I mean "I") have really come to the conclusion that there is no city on earth like Montreal. The air is fresher (well, at least than Toronto's smog-filled air). The bars stay open later. You can eat the best hot dogs and fries at LaFleurs and Dic Anne's. It's a walking-friendly city. We don't worship Mats Sundin and his ridiculous smirk -- We (and by that I again mean "I") worship Seripop, Ric Trembles, Billy Mavreas, Elisabeth Belliveau and Jessica Moss. The list is long. I think that Montreal is justifiably the city du jour, in terms of music, if ever such a thing was justifiable. If you look at the number of incredible bands, for example, that aren't mentioned in the Montreal frenzy, you can get a real idea of why its such a fantastic city to listen to and play music in. Tricky Woo, The Sunday Sinners, BBQ, King Khan & BBQ Show, Royal Mountain Band, The Donkeys, American Devices, Crackpot, Fake Blood, Bionic, Telefauna, Think About Life, Priestess, J.Five, etc. That said, Toronto *does* have The Illuminati, Shikasta, and Goat Horn!

AB: Umm... cuz we bring the party to Toronto? Because Toronto is the city of every other jour, and it's nice to get a jour here and there, every once in a while? Actually, when I speak about Toronto, lately I've been speaking about the friends I've made there, and people I've met, all have been amazing. The actual city itself is far too big for me to comprehend. It takes two hours to drive through it. So many neighborhoods, so many people.

Did you ever catch the nefarious gear stealers [who stole TAB's gear, nefariously]? And if so, have you heard of vigilante justice?

AB: Oh I've heard of vigilante justice, I just never got the chance to use my mad ninja skills on the bad guy(s) who stole our stuff.

SP: Charles Bronson taught me everything I know about vigilante justice --take that as you will. As for the gear thieves, they have not been caught, and most likely never will. In all honesty, if we ever found them, I think we would just be too happy to have found Marc's father's hand-me-down to exact any sort of revenge. Plus, I'm not a very big guy, so I'd go down fast in a fight.

A big contingent of the WL audience is probably familiar with WIBI, but tell us a tale of the label and why you put out your own stuff for the noobs.

SP: WIBI stands for 'The West Island is the Best Island.' That's because it is. The West Island is the suburban area of Montreal in which I, and most of the members of The Adam Brown (at one point, all of us!), grew up. It was a semi-joke, at first. My brother actually came up with the name, as we were both huge fans of Ice Cube (or at least his trademark: "yeah-yeeaaayyyyhhh" -- at the time. Consider it a commentary on the gangster-ism rampant in the suburbs, or a political commentary on the Montreal merger, or a joke, or a very sincere sentiment. I put out stuff
for the noobs to pad my C.V.

AB: I can tell you that The Adam Brown is a side project of WIBI Records. It seemed like everyone on WIBI had their own projects, and I wanted mine, so I took members of other WIBI bands to form my own. Shawny and I played in a band called Fistful of Nature Death with Dave Timerman, Edmund Lam, our first drummer was in A Vertical Mosaic at the time, and I used to play bass for J. Five, who now plays bass for us. Heck, Moses Mathur of One Candle Power used to be in The Adam Brown as well. Basically, you can take all the core members of WIBI, mix them up in different ways and get different bands. Ex. Cock Dragon, Fistful of Nature Death, J. Five, Blue Collar Madness, One Candle Power, A Vertical Mosaic, Ass Cobra, The New City Rules, Badflirt.

What are your top 7 dream Jeopardy categories?

SP: Oh wow, what a great question. I hope we're talking Rock & Rol Jeopardy here, because my crowning achievement is once scoring a perfect round as I played along while watching it on VH1 (not a repeat either). That's right, I would have even defeated the mighty Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray fame, who has a surprisingly encyclopedic knowledge of rock 'n' roll. Though my brother claims that I could never defeat him. Rock & Roll Jeopardy is also how I developed a slight crush on Moon Unit Zappa. Anywho, on to the list!

1 - AC/DC.C Deville (one of those categories where the two correct responses share a middle section, this time focusing on great pioneers of hard rock/metal, and those who later tarnished the genres' reputations)

2 - Cowboy Songs (all songs about cowboys, the easiest question's answer being Thin Lizzy, or Bob Dylan's soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, an average answer being The Velvet Underground's "Lonesome Cowboy Bill," the toughest one being Billy Childish's "Western Plains" or Thee Headcoat's "Cowboys are Square."

3 - Even Cowgirls Get the Clues (a category in which the clues will all be related to country chanteuses -- Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Susanna Clark, etc.).

4 - Bands Who Play(ed) 1977-1978 Gibson RDs (there are so few guitarists that use Gibson RD guitars, that I think the category would be one I could clean up in. I'd expect Kevin Cadogan of shit-makers Third Eye Blind -- who sold me my Gibson RD Custom -- to be one of the answers).

5 - Ink on Paper on Poles (a visual clue category in which concert posters would be flashed on screen and the contestant would have to name the poster artists responsible for the work -- yes, I am that big of a dork).

6 - Rock, Paper, Scissors (this would be a concept category. The clue would always be the same: "This move never fails to win a rock, paper, scissors game." The answer would be "What is rock?" because rock always wins).

7 - The Good, the Bad, and the Morricone (in this audio category, excerpts from Morricone's scores would be played, and the contestants would have to properly identify the film *and* character with which the excerpt of the theme is associated. I think it would be appropriate for a category to finally point out the obvious -- that buzzing in at jeopardy is just our generation's version of the high noon walkdown duel).