Jesus Please Help Us

The Bruins just blew the Habs away last night. If they win two more, we can say goodbye to our rich lazy bastards who will be on a plane to their respective homes in Russia, Finland or anywhere far from Montreal. That's why we must be happy that there are still many people who actually care about their fans and that some of them are in town tonight. The veteran producers Simian Mobile Disco will be practicing their magic at Metropolis. Our own Bell Orchestre – the string section of Arcade Fire - will reproduce the weird sound of their new record at La Tulipe. But the ‘aubaine’ of the night is definitely Starfucker, who will be rocking Il Motore for the ridiculous sum of 10$. Apparently, they’re pretty amazing live and I’m looking forward to see them. By the way, I’m really sorry that I missed three days of posting and I hope you’ll accept these three excellent tracks as an excuse.

Download Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation Buy it on 

Download Bell Orchestre - Throw It On A Fire Buy it on 

Download Starfucker - Isabella of Castile Buy it on 

No Free Song Day

The first time I saw Milk, I was in New York and I had to pay 13$ US to get in the theatre. Yeah, I know, that’s a rip off. Anyway, I just watched it again yesterday and seriously, go see this movie if you haven’t seen it. Gus van Sant really did a great job controlling our emotions and Sean Penn made sure he looked like the gayest of all men. I checked to be sure and he’s totally straight. He’s even dated Madonna for a while and she dedicated True Blue to him. Anyway, good job guys : if I was gay, I’d be really proud to see that such a good movie had been made for me.

It’s funny you know, having written this, I realize that I was really trying to write in a way that wouldn't let anyone think that I could be gay. I guess, for me, being gay is still kinda taboo, and I emphasize on the kinda, cause when I'm trying to be conscious about it, I can see that I’m just being stupid. But we’ve grown up in a society where it’s so taboo: I guess it’s just a reflex that’s embedded really deep in ourselves. Movies being one of the best ways to modify attitudes in depth, Milk can be seen as a true achievement for the gay community and for the world in general. Next step for me: Brokeback Mountain.

I’m diverging, ain’t I? Don’t be scared, I haven’t decided to make this a gay movie blog yet. The main thing I wanted to tell you is that two of the best Canadian electro acts, Thunderheist and MSTRKRFT, are in town tonight. If you got money to spend, you could even catch a bit of each, cause Metropolis and Club Soda are really close to each other. If you don’t have money, which is probably the case, I would suggest Thunderheist cause it’s only 15$ and their last album is way better than MSTRKRFT’s last album. The real choice will go to your bank account I guess.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Tonight was supposed to be a crazy party night, but for some reasons, I ended up watching In Bruges in the basement of a friend. It's not a bad movie: it's funny, the girl's hot and there are some unexpected events. Then, I got in the night bus and it was full of stupid 'Français de France' singing 'Fernande' really loud. When they got out, they said 'Merci Madames et Messieurs. Au Revoir.' and some people in the bus said 'Merci'. Bravo! Now, they'll think we like it and they'll do it again.

So here I am at 5:30 AM writing on this blog cause I want to talk to you about a cool new band from Montreal called Hexes & Ohs. They are playing a benefit concert for the Leukemia Foundation tonight at Foufounes Électriques. I thought they merited some free publicity, so I interviewed lead singer Edmund last Thursday. We talked about many things, although it's kinda hard for me to summarize it, because I'm getting really tired now. You can read it all HERE.

Download : Hexes and Ohs - Head Over Heels (Tears for Fears Cover)

Who's handsome?

Tonight at Il Motore. 15$. (sold out - merci au gâcheur de party)

Download : Handsome Furs – Officer of Hearts Buy it on :

POMO - is it?

Have you ever heard of Radiohead? Uh uh… Before becoming experimental geniuses with Kid A, these guys were really good to take the rock clichés that bands like Nickelback uses all the time and arrange them in a way that makes them work, a little bit like Tarantino does with the clichés of cinema. A perfect example for this would be Fake Plastic Trees, a sentimental rock ballad Bon Jovi-style with violins and organs, but for a reason I can’t explain, when I listen to the song, I really feel something.

There’s a band from Montreal that also does that right. I wouldn’t say everything from them is good. I didn't go crazy on their bigger hits like ‘Montréal – 40’ or ‘Pâte Filo’ and I didn't go crazy on their new album 'Labyrinthes' neither. But when I finally got a hand on Trompe-l’oeil a few weeks ago, I discovered a song called ‘La Monogamie’ that made me go crazy. The song is already good from the beggining – especially the beautiful acoustic guitar riff – and until the half of the song, it's classic indie rock like we like it. Then, at 2:45, the outro begins, with a strummed acoustic guitar and the voice of Julien Mineau, it then evolves into a crescendo that's usually not my kind of thing and it finishes in a crazy chorale with drums and guitars and keyboards, and all this makes me feel something I can’t explain, a little bit like with Fake Plastic Trees. Ok, Malajube are no Radiohead. They’re not even close. But when I hear something like that, I feel proud to be a Québécois.

They are playing tonight at La Tulipe to promote their new album. The Montreal-based Hollerado is the band opening. I’ve seen them open for the Virgins a year ago and I can tell you they're cool. But... the show is sold-out. There’s still the possibility to pickpocket one at the door if you want to danse, danse, danse toute la nuit.

Mediafire: Malajube - La Monogamie (196 kbps) 

'Let's get married and have a band'

Arcade Fire made people say that Montreal was the new Seattle. But even with all the good music these guys produced, the team of Les Oiseaux Exotiques - meaning me - would argue the best song this town has produce recently is by Wolf Parade and is called 'I'll Believe in Anything' - merci Jess. In top of that, this band's first album was a really good, almost perfect pop album.

But they have changed: Spencer Krug is turning more and more progressive while Dan Broeckner is turning more and more post-punk. As shown by their second album, that's hardly compatible. If I were them, I would just kill Wolf Parade before it gets more difficult. I guess they still have to earn their living with Wolf Parade so they can get as creative as they want with their respective side projects: Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs. But they should think about it, if they're interested in becoming Stone Roses-like legends.

Anyway, as for now, the side projects are doing really well, as proved again by the release on Tuesday of the second Handsome Furs album. I had some trouble choosing which song from it to upload. I first thought of a very nice track called '(White City)', but it's a bit short at 1:29, so I then thought of 'Thy Will Be Done', which really could have been produced by Martin Hannett, but then again, I don't know, so I finally set my choice on the track of the album that sounds the more like a Wolf Parade song, i.e. the closer 'Radio Kaliningrad'. Listen to that guitar riff, that's fucking beautiful.

Mediafire: Handsome Furs - Radio Kaliningrad (192 kbps)