wavelength

	April 2001 Girls Are Short Shut-In Muli Man Free Work Band Blackeyes Currently in These United States Bicycles Royal City Molasses Tiger Saw Polmo Polpo Frink
	GIRLS ARE SHORT What if: WARP RECORDS RELOCATED TO CHAPEL HILL, N.C.? WAVELENGTH #54: SUNDAY APRIL 1, 10:45pm e-mail: forever_with_you@angelfire.com Girls Are Short: would you rather they be taller? I guess it does sound a bit spiteful, but it's a pretty neutral statement. I don't know, we'd rather they don't promise to sing with us then stand us up, because that's just mean-spirited. Who are the members of GRS and what are their roles in the band? Girls Are Short is the lifelong dream of myself, Daniel Zabawa and Alistair P, he lives in Brooklyn now and I live here in Erin Mills. Our role is making the music, or trying to come up with ideas to keep things fresh and pristine. Then there is David Regan. He gives us a lot of ideas, and keeps everything moving forward and looking up. Then beyond that there are people that we try to get to sing for us or play instruments. A lot of people have been involved, some who just humour us and some who seem interested in whatever we are trying to do at that moment. There seems to be an interesting mixture of catchy indie-rock and left-field electronica in your music. There also seems to be a few other people from the Mississauga region working on a similar fusion (Black Cat #13, I Am Robot and Proud). Do you want to comment on this? That's a nice way to put it. We get caught up in things and don't think about mixing things, but I guess it really is an element of it. Anyways, Black Cat used to have a Roland Juno 160... that doesn't really seem like a fusion but more of an inclusion of an instrument in a band. I Am Robot is more similar to us in that it's based on personal home compositions, equally based in necessity (i.e. not wanting or able to maintain a band) and a more than casual fascination with beats and synthesizers... hovering in some grey area because that's where we feel the best about ourselves and the music we are making. Shaw-Han (IARAP) is in some ways really different from us but we can always get what the other is doing no matter how wack our music gets. What role does the personal computer play in the creation of your music? It frees us from consistent members, practices, recording time, and is responsible for our whimsical sort of way of making music: transfering files of beats and samples and melodies back and forth all night. When it first started, we fell in love with putting together notes and sounds at whim and it totally changed how we approached making music. But we don't really compose with computers, our songs come from words or melodies and with computers we can try everything until it starts to make us feel a certain way. Still, when we hack around with software we make at lot of songs that to us are insanely funny or cute or endearing but probably only to us. You can make a lot more bass with a computer than with any instrument, and that has become really important to us. When not making music, what are you most likely to be doing? I try to spend my time playing Tokimeki Memorial, a dating simulation game for the Super Famicom, but currently I am trying to get the high score on a certain bust-a-move machine, but I can't get past third place. - interview by Jonny Dovercourt
	SHUT-IN Purveyors of: CALCULATED ROCK ONSLAUGHT Pictured: Gus the Californication Rock Dog taking a break at practice WAVELENGTH #57 SUNDAY APRIL 1 11:45pm If you never had a chance to experience the thrilling intensity of a live show by Toronto's Pecola - a band whose name was prefaced by "the mighty" more than any other - then we are sorry for the meager, impoverished life you have led so far. Lucky for you, Wavelength is here to present the debut by a new band featuring two quarters of those dearly departed, should-be-legendary asswhuppers... ladies and gents, Shut-IN. Please list the band members' names, instruments, previous band activities. Craig - bass, vocals. Pecola and others. Chris - drums and programming. Currently records as Mandala Of The Octave (MOTO). Joey - guitar. Sang on Slow's Against The Glass EP. Her brother tried out for the Red Hot Chili Peppers one time and her dad once picked up Charles Mingus as a fare when he was a cabbie in NYC. Zak - guitar. Pecola, Picastro. From the fragments I've heard of your music, it seems that Shut-IN is picking up where Pecola left off, only transfusing the blues with more of a pop influence. Is this a fair assessment? Certain elements in that band grew tiresome. It seemed to grow into this massive noise beast, which was great on the level of excitement and immediate impact but not so on the level of clarity. With Shut-IN we're trying to write memorable songs in the genre we're playing in. That's what I understand by "pop" influence - catchy as fuckin' hell. Hits coming out of our ass, ya know? Is your name a comment on growing up and not feeling like going out and wasting what remains of your youth in smokey bars full of pretentious, annoying people anymore? Or is that just me? Just you. We hardly know you. The question is too complex and touches on some sore spots better not touched upon. Don't know about you, but we're still immature enough to enjoy being alienated, whatever form that takes. Whatever. What have you been reading of late? Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground, Customer Service Agree-ments, innumerous emails, and my Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet Canned Ham food label from a promotional giveaway for Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham, that I will never give up in honor of the SADLY DECEASED REID DIAMOND. Reid, for those about to rock, WE SALUTE YOU! Do you have any April Fool's Day pranks planned for your April 1 Wavelength appearance? Playing music is a prank enough. Have a nice day. - Interview by Jonny Dovercourt

	FREE WORK BAND Purveyors of: NEO-IMPROVISATIONAL JAZZ Pictured: Jamie Carrasco, Chris Banks, Gordon Allen, a fan e-mail: gordonmichaelallen@hotmail.com In their own words: Free Work Band is Jaime Carrasco on drums, Chris Banks on bass, and leader Gordon Allen on trumpet. This unit plays compositions by Allen, and improvises in the tradition of jazz and free music. Every performance is a new one, and we look forward to presenting our music to you, joining in the spirit of playing and listening. Passionate souls have been stirred to create music with the intent of railing against the constraints of "normal" music. But the history of jazz is such that breaking boundaries has in itself become an accepted form of the genre, and not so much a reaction to the staid and generic as part of it. Is the freeing of jazz not a convention in and of itself? The freeing of jazz is jazz. I'm not against any rules or constraints at all; knowing how to work with them is the way to freedom for me. Coleman Hawkins was as hip in the '60s as Ornette Coleman for me. Alfons Fear (who has graced the stage of Wavelength in the past) did not play on your latest recording... is he a new addition? Comment on your current line-up. A bit confusing; Alfons was in the band at the time of the recording, but was away on tour. He has since left the group, which is now a trio. Alfons rocks! Gordon Allen formed FWB and is the composer behind the ensemble; but a spirit of improvision and collaboration pervades the work. I know this is the nature of jazz, but where does it begin and end? Every listener will have a different experience; our music hopes to have an alchemy of the composed and the improvised. We're definitely not interested in only having the head-solo-head formula; each piece has its own unique form and methodology. Where can you be found? How supportive is the scene? What sense of community pervades your circle? We can be contacted at fullcircle@ciut.fm (ask to be on our emailing list!) we can be found @ the Cameron, Now Lounge, and this September at the Guelph Jazz Festival. The very few people who make up the scene are very supportive for the most part. Most of them are musicians themselves. There's virually no respect from club owners for any kind of forward-moving music in Toronto right now; it's folks like you @ Wavelength, and the musicians themselves who keep us afloat. Are your works available for home consumption? How can they be obtained? The CD is being mastered in Vancouver right now, and should be available on the bandstand in a month or so. - interview by Paddy O'Donnell
	BLACKEYES WAVELENGTH #58 SUNDAY APRIL 8 10pm Purveyors of: COUNTRY-ROCKIN' MURDER BALLADS Left to right: Katia Taylor, Randy Ray, Kim Temple, Nick Taylor e-mail: nicholastaylor@hotmail.com Place in order of preference: Drinking Shooting a man down where he stands Riding the getaway horse away from the hanging Committing crimes Running moonshine 1. Shooting a drinking horse where he hangs 2. Riding the moonshine 3. Getaways from The Man 4. Committing standing crimes 5. Running away What time of day am I describing: The yellow sun had all the character of my dead brother. Mah brother wasn't right. Mah momma always told me that he would sit out among the dusty pickups in the junkyard and start fishin' for "dust snapper". We all kinda humoured him (tho' he was damn near sixteen and marryin' age) until the day we found him drowned in a pool of engine oil under a particularly rusted old flatbed, his small cold hand still clenched around his treasured bamboo rod. Ol' Doc Pickles couldn't expain it - something had got caught in the fishing line and dragged him across the lot. He musta busted his head on the chassis and come to rest in that vile slick. Ah rememeber seeing the high noon sun reflecting in his still, defiant eyes, and ah too cursed it. For drying up the lands and makin' the fishin' scarce. And ah have cursed it and spat upon the ground to this day, fifty-eight years later. Ah remember the night before his death, mah brother saying he was "gonna git the big one tomorrow", and all ah had done was shake mah head. That boy wasn't right. Using the following words, write a short descriptive paragraph about a typical Blackeyes show: steer flat-out dusky sling It was on a particulary dusky midwestern evening that I finally had enough. I steered the eighteen wheeler (through whose pigeonshit-layered windows I had seen all the highways of North America and made a living for half my forty-two years) flat-out through the front of a roadside drinking establishment. After that fury I took Maggie, my trusty .45, from her sling, climbed from the hulking beast and took care of those that were still standing. Except for the band, Blackeyes. They were good people. Explain how "you" (undefined) came to be "here" (take it as you like it, I'm not getting at anything). (sing to the melody of "Bird on a Wire") Like a band with guitars And members who sometimes have cars We packed up our gear and went east Past Montrose and Grace We'll shoot the lights out of place And promise to rock out a wee bit for thee. - interview by Buddy Byzantine
	CURRENTLY IN THESE UNITED STATES Purveyors of: WALKING-THE-PLANK ROCK Photo by: Kit Carter e-mail: lindaharrison@messagez.com WAVELENGTH #59 SUNDAY APRIL 15 11pm Currently In These United States is a kick-ass, energetic three piece act that is driven by Matt Collins who has quirky, wigged out vocals and a raunchy guitar, Jonny Dovercourt who rocks hard on his sparse drum kit, while Matt McDonough keeps a steady yet melodic bassline going. You'll regret it if you don't come so don't forget it. Please explain the title of your band. I mean, aren't you guys Canadian? Don't you have any patriotism? What's the deal, eh? Matt C: I came up with it. I feel that Canada, no matter how hard we try, is always under the thumb of the U.S.A., so why not make the CRTC mad so I'll never get played on Canadian radio while all these U.S. bands do. Kill 'em all, I say! Jonny: The name makes me think of a 1950s radio announcer voice... something you'd catch on a blast of static... it fits with the music. Matt M: It's sort of like the Fifth Column. Whose crazy idea was this band and how did it start? Matt C: Me again, I had been recording all these saaaaad pop songs and some funny ones too, but all the while I had these ROCK! type songs and when I asked Jonny and Craig to be in the band they thought it'd be all mellow and sad but it WAS NOT... ha! Jonny: Craig keeps quitting and rejoining after every show... my money is on him being back before the 15th (and gone again before the 16th). Jonny, how many bands do you have and how do you have time?! Jonny: Five or six at this point, I guess. I can never keep track. I love playing with Currently because it's pure stress relief to bash out on the drums and a challenge to master a different instrument. Matt C: If I may, an explanation is in order. We have developed a series of nine Jonnies to fulfill all his Jonny duties. For instance, there is a "kind to the elderly and pets" Jonny. I've always wanted to be a cartoon character. If I were to zap you with a ray gun that shoots out special powers to change you into a cartoon, what or who would you be? Matt C: That Mormon dog thing... "I don't know, Dayyyy-veee, let's see what Ecclesiastes has to say about LSD..." I think he's called Goliath. Fuckin' Mormons. Jonny: I don't care who or what as long as I have the power to teleport. Matt M: Sha-zam? He didn't have to bother with the phone booth. Maybe one of the rats from Nimh - the thorn bush was a pretty cool hang-out. What are the last three CDs/vinyl you each have bought? Matt C: The CIA Sings Broadway - Mind Control for Fun and Profit; Manuel Noriega with Barbara Streisand - Manny Loves Barbie. Jonny: Marvin Gaye - Super Hits; Steve Reich - Octet/Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase; Iron Butterfly - In-a-Gadda-da-Vita (all on vinyl). Matt M: DNA - A Taste of (vinyl); The New Year - Newness Ends (CD); two records I bought off of Craig to cut "The Man" out of the transaction equation (Craig was selling 'em to keep outta the "Red"): Sweep the Leg Jonny/ Thinking Fellers Union (both vinyl). What's the word that you use the least and would like to incorporate more into you every day communication with other humanoids? Matt C: Smartinator. Jonny: Flummoxed. Matt M: Commando. - interview by Mandylion
	BICYCLES WAVELENGTH #59 SUNDAY APRIL 15 10pm Purveyors of: POP-A-WHEELIE Seen here: A rare snapsnot of the Bicycles' secret hideout e-mail: matt@thebicycles.ca Web: www.thebicycles.ca The Bicycles are a millennial cult that have a secret HQ in the Canadian Northlands. Roughly translated, "Bicycles" means UFOs saving a chosen few from a global apocalypse through their adherence to a strict aesthetic lifestyle and methodically working on macrame wall hangings. The Bicycles believe their brand of sweet and tuneful acousto-pop stylings will save them for man's technological holocaust. Who what why where when are the Bicycles? Who? Matt Beckett, Drew Smith, Dana Snell, Jeff McLarnon. What? Pop music that mixes in elements of country, rock'n'roll, robots, corduroy, girls. Why? Because we are seriously inept in other facets of life. How do you approach recording? Matt: All our recording is done (believe it or not) at home, so we can spend all the time we need on any given song.. What else do you do other than music? Matt: Cry. Drew: Eat, procrastinate, beg, sleep, wander around city streets. If you had the budget would you hire a symphony? Matt: Actually we're able to pull of symphony style ideas vocally (Matt and Drew pat each other on the back). Would you rather be a mountain bike, a French touring bike or a BMX bike? Matt: French touring bike. French style! I think Drew's a rough and rugged mountain bike. Drew: Yeah, I like the idea of mountains in general. I'd grow a beard. Live in a shack. Plant peas. Oil myself. When did the training wheels come off? Drew: 13 Matt: 18... I was a late bloomer. The Bicycles - Luddites or Futurists? Matt: The Luddites! I have all their albums! Do humans deserve redemption? Matt: Yes, especially if they play rock music. Is being successful at music difficult in Canada? Drew: You'd think that rock would thrive in a land associated with the almighty beaver... Matt: Eww... If I were to say you sound like Herman's Hermits and The Beach Boys challenging Redd Kross and Elliot Smith to a tag-team wrestling match, would you hunt me down for sport? Matt: No, because then we'd sound like Ted Nugent. What's the deal with Tommy Douglas? (referring to Tommy Douglas monologue in one of the songs) Matt: You found us out! The Bicycles are actually a leftist socio-political band, sort of a Rage Against The Machine for the bubblegum set. Drew: Yeah, Maoist mini-pops. - interview by Nora Charles
	ROYAL CITY WAVELENGTH #60 SUNDAY APRIL 22 11:45pm Purveyors of: SOULFUL SLOWCORE Left to right: Aaron Riches (vocals, guitar), Nathan Lawr (drums), Simon Osborne (bass/vocals), Jim Guthrie (guitar/vocals) Web: www.threegutrecords.com My first comment, I guess, would be that live, you guys seem to concentrate on making sure that the dynamics in your songs are there, whether or not the audience is able to take it...? Simon: Just recently (looks at Aaron), wouldn't you say you had a crisis of conscience about this on a certain weekend? I dunno... lemme put it this way: when we started out, I think we were pretty quiet overall, and then for whatever reason, I think we just kind of panicked... it was during our tour in the States, and we started feeling like "Gee, maybe we should rock out a bit more," and I think we might have taken a misstep in terms of trying too hard to be a little louder, a little more like a "rock band"... Aaron: Also, if you're a quiet band and you play a couple of your quiet songs, people sort of settle into their own conversations, and they settle into you as a quiet band, but I think that when we freak out and scream (in the midst of that), it's not necessarily volume-louder, but the intensity is stronger than some, like, really loud rock bands... So it can sometimes seem downright alienating, which, in a way, is just what we intended, to shake up some people and make them, y'know, pay attention, and it just became a crutch that we started to use, in terms of writing songs in order to facilitate that, but I mean, once the whole set becomes that, it's no longer alienating, 'cuz it's only alienating in reference... I just thought that was neat, because it's not really a gimmick, but it makes your songs sound better, 'cuz, I mean, it doesn't matter if it's 1-4-5 (traditional chord changes), as long as it's a good song; you guys don't necessarily try for, at your songs' base, anything new... Simon: What I was trying to say about that was that I think now we're trying to get back to what we thought were the important things when we first started out... Nathan: And not be shaken by what we perceive an audience might expect from us, and rather feel more confident onstage... Simon: I think, ultimately, we want the same thing that any band wants; just to be heard, just to be listened to... Aaron: We want to be able to be loud, but always be a quiet band. Speaking of which, were you guys listened to attentively in the Yukon? How did that go? Nathan: Yeah, actually, the two shows that we played, people were very attentive. Jim: One was in a cafe, and the other one was in a theatre in this art building in Whitehorse; it was a big place. Nathan: Big stage and a big P.A., and really nice... Simon: Crazy acoustics... Jim: Yeah, it was probably the best show we've played in terms of sound. Nathan: There weren't that many people there, but everyone that was there was watching; like, there was no talking, none... Simon: Actually, in our defense, there weren't that many people there 'cuz there was this huge dogsled race that was starting right when our slot was... Nathan: Yeah, there's this dogsled race that goes from Whitehorse all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska; it takes two weeks, and the big kickoff for thing was at one o'clock on Sunday, exactly when we were playing! Jim: And if you win the race, you get like $50,000 or something - Aaron: And a weekend with Jim Guthrie (laughs) ... A weekend with Jimmy Guthrie in a five-star hotel. I remember once, Aaron, you went on a nice little tangent about feral children... Aaron: (deadpan) I don't know anything about feral children. Well, back to the music, have you guys just recently been working on your three-part harmonies, or did you guys have that from the start? Simon: I think it started out as a trickle... Jim: And now we just seem to want to put them in there as much as we can; well, not as much as we can, but, I mean, they're just so fun to do that when we can work out three parts that sound great together, we put it in... Nathan: It just dawned on me that one of the reasons that that happened was that we practice without a P.A.; for instance, when we started playing that "Daisy" song, you guys just started singing (back-up), and it sounded really good, and it wasn't a matter of setting up a mic or anything like that... I mean, we could just sing unamplified, so why not? Simon: That's how it always happens, somebody's singing, and somebody spontaneously joins in; that's the long and short of it. Jim: Yeah; it's not something we set out to do, but if I hear it or Simon hears it, we sing, and if it sticks, it sticks... Whereupon the conversation meanders into talk of the faith-renewing Deep Dark United set witnessed the night before and the surprising lack of enthused movement of any sort by the vast majority of hardcore-bored-of-hardcore show attendees, followed by Aaron demonstrating a few dance moves of the late and lamented "circle-pit" era that he'd committed to memory... - interview by Craig Fraid Dunsmuir
	MOLASSES WAVELENGTH #60 SUNDAY APRIL 22 10:45pm Purveyors of: FOLK MUSIQUE CONCRŽTE Here: Montrealers look mysterious e-mail: fancyworks@hotmail.com web: www.alien8recordings.com I read some of your reviews and noticed you've disuaded critics from ever using the term singer/ songwriter, why do you think this is? Other than the obvious reasons... (I am jealous of this.) I'm not sure I've ever dissuaded anyone from using the term "singer/songwriter." For better or for worse, I do happen to sing in Molasses, and I do have a hand in most of the "songwriting" (if we insist on calling a couple of chords and a mouthful of words the "written song") but people can be too quick to point to the vocalist or lyricist in a band and mark that person as the centre around which the rest of the band sits. And that's just not an honest version of how Molasses makes its music. Molasses exists in many different musical incarnations. The music we play relies so heavily on experimentation and improvisation that control of moments or movement is constantly shifting between players. So if I try to dissuade anyone from anything, it's from identifying me as something more than one among the many. I'm only the one with my mouth full of words in the midst of whatever music gets made. I am also envious of the Montreal approach to music, versus the Toronto approach. It's more aesthetic and complete. Do you think it's a musician versus enterntainer thing? Should I move to Montreal? I don't understand the question. I feel blessed, after travelling and living in a lot of different cities, to be in Montreal. But I'm not sure I see any differences in musical approach between here and anywhere else, and I doubt any actually exist. I mean, Montreal's underground arts are enjoying some international recognition at the moment. But that's a fleeting thing that makes it easy to romanticize an entire town. Where exactly is the North American music mecca? Chicago? New York? Seattle? Chapel Hill? Montreal? Why not Des Moines, Iowa? Or Moscow, Idaho? Or Mexico City? Anywhere I've ever been - and that includes Des Moines, Moscow and Toronto - has its own adventurous music community that's good and interesting and that deserves attention or adoration. Though like most underground communities, they remain largely invisible or ignored. But remember, for every song ever sung on Queen Street that you or I might find dishonest or uninspired, there's a contrived, uninspired song being sung on St. Laurent Boulevard. On the other hand, I do believe that Montreal's a strange place in the world. It's like this charmed and broken outpost that attracts unusual and interesting people. So unusual and interesting things can happen here. Maybe that's what you're getting at by posing the question in the first place. Should you move to Montreal? Some people are enthralled by this city. But I also know people who become completely depressed in a place that sometimes feels like it can be defined by poverty, urban decay and vicious winters. I recently saw a film in which a woman in war-torn London realizes, with her heart wrenched, that when WWII ends, so too will end her entire sense of purpose - which is to survive in chaos while trying to achieve her own inner peace. She's drawn to people who suffer in the same way. Since her inward salvation depends on certain outward struggles, she feels completely threatened by the possibility of actual external peace. It may sound melodramatic, but that's sort of how I see our music as existing in Montreal. The city is crumbling all around us and we celebrate our lives to spite that. But any starving artist in any tumbledown apartment anywhere in the world could say the same thing. I feel like (notice all the questions start with I) there is more of a move toward making non-narrative music. Do you think this will happen all across the board or just remain in the usual circles? I'd like to see it in pop music if that's possible. What do you mean by "non-narrative" music? Because I think I'm essentially a narrative musician. I sing these slow, mangled folk songs, for God's sake. And the songs are stories that you're told, no matter how abstract they may appear. And I don't even think they're that abstract - although I'm constantly amazed by interpretations of Molasses songs that never would have occurred to me. Sometimes the story is designed to disguise things as much as it's designed to reveal. Or it's designed to allow listeners to invent a vision for themselves. But music always has its own overt and hidden meaning. Just like every word wears its own mask. If I sing, "I was born on the burnt earth," then you make your own interpretation of that. But if I tell you that my last name - Chernoff - when it's translated from the Russian, more or less means "burnt" or "black" "earth," then maybe you'll see things somewhat differently. One of the things that appeals to me in music, or with words that music accompanies, is that something oblique is always lurking in the melody or the meaning of things. It's what's hidden inside the song that makes the language of the song inviting. And the music we make with Molasses is so often caught between order and its own sort of anarchy, that maybe the music's narrative or structural qualities become obscured. Is that what you mean? There's also a lot of dissonance in this band. It might be musical or lyrical or vocal. But whatever it is, it's as important to me as any harmony or reason. And the silence that the music and words sit in might be the most important thing of all. Some reviewer wrote not so long ago that "Molasses uses silence like an instrument," and I liked that a lot. To my mind, our music depends as much upon confusion to conjure the story as it depends upon clarity to explain the story. In songs, it's often at the moment when the singer is most mute or least coherent, or the musician most off-key or out of time, that I feel most excited and intrigued. Does that even begin to address what you were asking? I don't know. It's weird to even examine questions about the music we make. All of a sudden you're asked to analyze what you usually do by instinct. So I rattle off these stream-of-conciousness answers that begin to sound like a long-winded, post-modern rant on pop music. And sorry, but post-modernism and pop music be damned. I couldn't care less about either of them. What is your favorite smell? Fire. What sign are you? Cancer. Not good astrology for a performer. Hence the quavering voice and my performing with my back to audiences. I'm a Cancer too. I use that as my excuse all the time too. - interview with Scott Chernoff by Liz Hysen
	TIGER SAW Purveyors of: EAST COAST LULLABIES WAVELENGTH #60: SUNDAY APRIL 22, 9:45pm email: tigersongs@yahoo.com web: www.envy13.com White Star Line shared many U.S. dates with Tiger Saw, and the more I saw them, the more I enjoyed them. My first impression was Loaded-era VU, but they were cello-less then, and when I finally got to see the "proper" set-up, they opened up a wholly unreferenced outlook. Based in idyllic Newburyport, Mass., band leader Dylan Metrano has had plenty of experiences to shape his current approach... disastrous work with Kramer, and joyful motivation from Edith Frost. I'd say that that is a nice parenthetic approach to T-Saw and what they are about... I recently heard it expressed that too many people are on the "dour rock" bandwagon, crediting it to bands like Low, hinting that if it didn't have riffs and distortion it would be contrived... how does that make you feel? Dylan: The aesthetic is very much planned. It is, in fact, a response to playing for many years in a loud, very noisy rock band. For me, this is all part of an exploration of sounds that exist at the other end of the spectrum. Sounds, which I believe to be just as powerful and honest as those coming from the greatest rock bands. There are good and bad bands playing in every genre, and I don't consider Low to be "dour" or "rock". Jake: That seems like a reasonable observation, but it reminds me of my belief that at least 90% of all music sucks, no matter what genre. But there is a small percentage in any genre that is good. It's all been done before, why the hell are you doing it? Dylan: It makes me feel good. No other reason is necessary. Jake: Once again, it's ALL about the feeling... J.R.: perhaps it has been done before... but not quite this way... What's the favorite thing that you've heard about why someone likes your band? (or something, you know what I mean) Dylan: People don't really talk to me after the shows. They usually talk to J.R. (the cute one) or Juliet (the girl). Jake: My roommate says he likes to listen to it while he wakes up in the morning. J.R.: I think some people like us because they are attracted to Juliet (kidding). Really, any compliment is a good compliment. Does being a band from Mass. contribute to the Tiger Saw aesthetic? Dylan: While I am certainly proud to be from Massachusetts, I don't know how much that has affected the sound of the band. A lot of the songs were written in California. Figure that out. Jake: I wish I could really say it doesn't but since we all grew up in Mass., it does. J.R.: Certainly Mass. is a beautiful and diverse place. I think the ocean contributes to the music of Tiger Saw... (i.e., track 10 on the How to Be Timeless Tonight LP) What do you hope people take home with them from a Tiger Saw show? Dylan: How To Be Timeless Tonight. Jake: Love. J.R.: I'd like to see someone go to a show, drive home, and go back to their thang. But in the meantime, say the next day when they are at work, they start humming one of the jams, or getting the words stuck in their head. I'd also like to see them take home some merchandise. - interview by Stephen Dohnberg
	POLMO POLPO WAVELENGTH #61 SUNDAY APRIL 29 10pm Purveyor of: DUBBY DEEP HOUSE... BUT ALWAYS TUNEFUL email: sandro@thpoon.com Loosely translated, Polmo Polpo means "Octopus Lung" in Italian and stands for the music of Toronto-based Sandro Perri. Some have described Sandro's music as minimal techno or even experimental-dubby-house that defies the stigma of "electronic as inorganic" - but that would be mistaking a few rays for the entire spectrum. The forays of Polmo Polpo also include instrumental arrangements (which he, along with lap-steel guitarist Nick Zubek, will liberally serve the audiences of Wavelength) and mixtures of both electronic and instrumental. The sounds, teeming with microbic sonic life, repeatedly evade being pinned down as one sound. Yet, consistencies exist, even in chaos theory. Inherent in the compositions of Polmo Polpo are: a strong adherence to rhythm, pronounced low-end and a passionate affinity for the dub aesthetic, intoxicating the listener into a glorious world of echo... As somewhat of a minimalist himself, even in words, Sandro puts it directly, "The only kind of commitment I want my music to have is to itself." - I. Khider
	FRINK WAVELENGTH #61 SUNDAY APRIL 29 11pm Purveyors of: SLOW AND LOW, THAT IS THE TEMPO Photo by: Mimi Choi e-mail: frinktheband@hotmail.com Just over a year after making their first appearance at Wavelength, the band Frink is making their second appearance their last. Ever. And so, the band members decided to write their own elegies. From the brain of Aidan: Intangible tendernesses mystify and miraculously return upon themselves tenfold. Implicit tragedy makes martyrs of us all rectifying the wrongs of historical misdeeds. Indeed we are afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome which makes us shout inappropriate titles for Dave's songs to which he scowlingly informs us, "You're fired, the lot of ya!" We laugh and resume the impossibly daunting task laid before us of collectively re-organizing the molecules of the space-time continuum into some musical logic transcendent of the moment, the instant, the Heideggerian now. We are, of course, always successful. Time continues on its transient flow of consumption. Altered, fractionally, perhaps, frinktionally, yes, and better. Better. 94 words by Veronica: Welcome to the musical stylings of Frink - a potted court of peoples and noises, designed to amaze and amuse. We like to think of ourselves as no-frills, but really we're pretty fancy. Aside from the fact that it's kind of neat to have an eclectic array of instruments, we also get good exercise running around switching between them every few songs. Larry needs to diversify, though. Anyway, this is our last show but hopefully we'll live on posthumously. So buy our EP. Please? You can call me Mama Yo, but I'm not Yo Mama. Larry gets poetic: Tangling sound of strings, strung, singing, sliding cello bow. Bent notes, broken chords, distortion, disruption, dissonance. Air through metal, plastic on metal, wood against metal, glass over metal, metal under fingers, metal in the past. Rosin, resonance, sustain, decay, loss. Echo, repeat, fade in, fade out, stop. Fret buzz, string noise, muted, mutated, mutilated. Words of longing and of sorrow, autumns past and cold tomorrows. Space between notes, space within a cello, martial drums, tremulous tremolo. Clouds of endless sound, sound without end, sending sound upon sound, sound in waves, songs of leaves, brittle and impermanent. Dave's requiem: "And now the end is near, and so we face the final curtain..." Well folks, if you're wondering why we are calling it quits, you can blame me. As much as I've loved my three-year stint in Toronto, I feel the call of the cold Atlantic calling me back East. It seems like we've been together forever, even though it has only been a little over a year. Thanks to all the folks who have come to our shows and all the bands we've played with. "The record shows we took the blows, and did it our way." (Frink Sinatra)