The Best Part Of Being In A Band

Is all the inspiring and creative people you meet via playing shows.

Still , having people to care about your tastes in music is kinda neat too. It's nice to know that we can spread a bit of love back to those who inspire us and hopefully introduce a few people to their new favorites . Since our band has more than one record nerd , we relish talking about the records that are getting us excited.

I only wish we could have each had our own list!

AIDS Wolf , Listed :




AIDS Wolf

AIDS Wolf formed during the great Wolf wave of 2003. Satirical and baiting, the Montreal foursome took immense joy in poking fun at the suddenly ubiquitous band nameand pissing off self-righteous folks everywhere. Funny thing happened, though: tasteless as they were, AIDS Wolf made pretty decent music, too. Their brand of danceable noise-rock incorporated the sounds of Captain Beefheart, Voivod and Throbbing Gristle well enough to catch the ear of Montreal’s best radio station CKUT 90.3 FM, which has been a champion of their music ever since. And as you might gather from this week’s Listed, Yannick, Myles, Chloe and Alex are each rabid record collectors. The band’s latest LP, Cities of Glass is out now on Skin Graft Records, and you can catch their debauchery live on the following dates:

Oct. 30 – Danbury, Conn. (Heirloom Arts Theatre)
Oct. 31 – Brooklyn, N.Y. (Danbro Studio Warehouse in Goldenrod Brewery w/ DMBQ, Ponytail, Homosexuals and more)
Nov. 1 – Philadelphia, Penn. (WPW w/DMBQ)
Nov. 2 – Washington D.C. (Velvet Lounge)
Nov. 3 – Baltimore, Md. (Otto Bar w/Deerhunter)
Nov. 4 – Richmond, Va. (The Triple)
Nov. 5 – Greensboro, N.C. (Square One)
Nov. 6 – Atlanta, Ga. (The Earl)
Nov. 7 – Chattanooga, Tenn. (JJ’s Bohemia)
Nov. 8 – Birmginham, Ala. (The Bottletree)
Nov. 9 – Hot Springs, Ark. (The Exchange)
Nov. 10 – St. Louis, Mo. (Bluebird)
Nov. 11 – Kansas City, Mo. (Record Bar)
Nov. 12 – Oklahoma City, Okla. (Conservatory)
Nov. 13 – Dallas, Texas (Club Dada)
Nov. 14 – Austin, Texas (Emo’s)
Nov. 15 – Lubbock, Texas (The Foundation)
Nov. 16 – Albuquerque, N.M. (Launchpad)
Nov. 17 – Phoenix, Ariz. (Modified Arts / Trunk Space)
Nov. 18 – San Diego, Calif. (The Casbah)
Nov. 19 – Los Angeles (The Smell)
Nov. 20 – Sacramento, Calif. (UC-Davis Firehouse w/ AH Kraken, the Mayyors)
Nov. 21 – Oakland, Calif. (21 Grand)
Nov. 22 – San Francisco, Calif. (Hemlock Tavern)
Nov. 23 – Portland, Ore. (East End)
Nov. 24 – Vancouver, B.C. (Biltmore)
Nov. 25 – Seattle, Wash. (Vera Project)
Nov. 26 – Missoula, Mon. (Badlander)
Nov. 28 – Minneapolis, Minn.
Nov. 29 – Chicago, Il.
Nov. 30 – Detroit, Mich.

1. The University of Minnesota Marching Band - 14th Annual Indoor Concert 1975 (Mark Records)
Picked that up in a Minneapolis used shop. Contains probably the most staccato and jerky pieces of pink noise ever. Completely recorded in some incredibly reverby arena, where the crowd screams mix with the drum lines to increase the confusion even more. The songs are complete bullshit arrangements from traditional and other SousaSousa-like favorites, but the fun of it rests mostly in the crazy-assed blend of the percussion that ends up sounding like a hurricane of treble without any tone. The army-like feel and whistle shots increase the uncomfortable feeling of the whole recording (Yannick)

2. The Karate Party “1, 2, 3, 4,” (from Black Helicopter on S-S Records)
The bass goes on a descending scale in 8, while the drums go in 4 – following an extremely basic repetitive pattern, and the guitar is in 2, strumming two huge super atonal chords back and fourth, the guitar meets up with the bass in the chorus, while the drums goes in 2 – the whole thing sounds super alienated but keeps it catchy – a garage unit that is not afraid of churning out completely atonal pieces without sounding like goth-drenched no wave. Like a better, weirder Crime. (Yannick)

3. Moussa Doumbi - “Yeye Mousso” (from Lipa Kodi Ya City Council on Mississippi Records

This tune is amazing because it makes an extremely atonal vocal line very very catchy. 1960s distorted psych from Mali. Its inspiring because its heavy and driving and simultaneously very joyful. The bassline is undeniably North American sounding but the vocal tone and melody is very otherworldly. That particular bassline turns up in a modified form somewhere on Cities of Glass. The rest of the record is beautiful as well, the gospel song at the end of the first side is particularly gorgeous. (Myles)

4. Donna Summer - “I Feel Love” (from Live and More on Casablanca Records)
This one might seem out of left field but the slightly distorted vocals and bizarre harmonies from the back up singers take this version to another level. She introduces her sisters and orchestra during the synth breakdown, which is charming. The energy of the performance and the audience make this one great. And the synth tone of course. (Myles)

5. Alban Berg - Wozzeck: Performed by the New York Philharmonic, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Conductor (Sony Classical Heritage Masterworks Series)
Opera is so abstract. When you get into the 20th century stuff and the music becomes less tonal and you have ladies really getting into the upper registers it becomes bonkers dissonant. This one tells the story of a soldier who is brutalized by the system, experimented on by a crazed doctor, constantly belittled and berated by his military superiors and ends up murdering his mistress...all the while failing his wife and child in untold psychological ways. Harsher than any current p.e. noise. Herzog made a film version of this story. Berg’s opera is better...if you can sift through the German libretto. (Alex)

6. The Scenics - Play the Velvet Underground - How Does it Feel To be Loved (Dream Tower Records)
Recently released, unearthed tapes of some scrappy Ontario boys belting out VU covers in various Toronto clubs circa ‘79-80. No frills, no skills versions of all your faves by some no-name jammers from hogtown. Lovely. (Alex)

7. Felix Morel - Journey Through Quebec’s Weirdo Underground (Live CKUT 90.3 Montreal Broadcast)
Felix is an amazing poster artist in Montreal who does collage better than anyone in the current crop. He’s also in a great Montreal band called Panopticon Eyelids, who have stuff out on Our Mouth and Abandon Ship records. Here he plays two straight hours of absolutely bent Quebec underground music from the mid ‘60s to present. From psychedelic jigs to gutter punk songs in French about mescaline. So amazing. Grip mp3 here. (Alex)

8. Albert Marcoeur - Albert Marcoeur (Atlantic)
A few years back, when we were on tour, we played a show in Munich that was a bit of a disaster. Our set was capped with a huge fight with our then guitarist, Christopher, who stormed out into the fog with the keys to the van leaving us stuck at the venue. On top of that we’d spent the day at Dachau, so were all feeling pretty fucked up and moody.

Trying to lighten the mood one of our hosts , Herman, poked his bearded face into the room saying “I hear you guys like prog?” and waved a giant slab of records at us. So, we all stayed up all night taking notes. This was the best record he played us, and lucky for me I found a copy at a record convention in Belgium about a month later.

Albert Marcoeur is a french avant-prog multi-instrumentalist who writes some of the most off kilter tunes this side of Captain Beefheart. On this record he sings, plays drums, clarinet, piano, wood pipes and a bizarre homemade percussive horn made from PVC tubing.

On songs like “C’est Raté, C’est Raté" and "Tu Tapes Trop Fort" he gurgles, barks, screams, slows and speeds his vocal lines and uses heavy breathing as percussion. These are the songs I studied while coming up with my vocals for Cities of Glass. This album is so disjointed and discordant, yet manages to be downright celebratory. It’s avant gardism that is FUN. (Chloe)

9. U.S Girls - Bit + Pieces CD-R (no label)
U.S. Girls is one girl – one girl who tours by herself on a Greyhound bus, sings over backing tapes played on a tube-powered reel-to-reel and makes some of the most hauntingly original music I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a one-woman goth-noise-girl group that’s amazingly catchy, using weird percussive elements in both vocal delivery and in the backing music.

The call and response vocals of the title track (a Dave Clark 5 cover, FYI) is especially interesting, it’s auditory schizophrenia! A demented one-person conversation that playfully and scarily subverts the original context of the song, the way few covers can. My fingers are crossed that these tracks will find a proper (meaning vinyl) home in the near future. (Chloe)

10. Country Teasers – The Empire Strikes Back (In The Red)
“All human life must be destroyed!!” Yes, Ben , I agree. The world’s greatest living lyricist doesn’t pull any punches here. His satirical lines might cause some of your friends some discomfort, so ditch ‘em – they aren’t too bright anyway. You deserve much better, smarter and funnier friends.

Being less abrasive than much of the Country Teasers output, I was initially surprised at myself for liking this so much more than everything else they’ve done. And that’s saying a lot cause I’ve been obsessed with this band for 10 years. It works in an “avant” context because of the epic nature of the album. Song to song there are subtle shifts in tone, and thematically, there is more cohesion than found on previous albums. What we have here is a concept album on race relations and misanthropy. This thing is a fucking opera and B.R Wallers is the smartest person I’ve ever met. (Chloe)

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Because I'm a space cadet I forgot to post this . Here yous go! AW live in Milan last May

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