BANDS
THE CONNOISSEURS are entering the final stages of completing the artwork for their four song demo and look forward to eating burgers at Steer Inn, Connoisseur style.
THE 4-STAR MOVIE is a whole new band , as founding member and singer/guitarist/bassist Stephen Shiffman is now joined by singer/bassist/guitarist Muli Muli and drummer Andrew Innanen (who also pounds the skins in More Plastic). They’ve traded in power-pop for a trashier sound, somewhere between Jon Spencer, Pavement, the Kinks and that kid from Deliverance.
KID SNIPER has finished mixing their seven song EP Vantage Point, with the aim of releasing a limited edition CD-R soon. In the meantime, they are working on new material, and open for Chicago’s Five Style at the Horseshoe on May 2.
MEAN RED SPIDERS are shooting for a June release for their second CD, entitled Stars and Suns, on Teenage U.S.A. they’ve been prepping for the upcoming promotional onslaught by ransacking the villages of Hamilton, Ottawa and Montreal with their space-rock assault.
MASON HORNET is preparing the enter the studio in mid-May to record their long-awaited debut LP with Jeff McMurrich (Kid Sniper, Danko Jones). The satirical pop sextet also plays the Cameron House April 8 with Parkdale punks the Belle Jars.
WAYNE OMAHA and THE CO-OPERATORS successfully released their split EP Doubleride at the Horseshoe on March 23. The show was a beauty, with the entire stage draped in curtains, and all band members dressed up spiffily. Wayne Omaha play Wavelength on May 21.
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LABELS
DOT-DASH is please to report that their first release, Parts unknown’s Airshow, is receiving airplay on the BBC in Great Britain. It seems the Brits can’t get enough of Canadian indie-rock right now. Can you blame 'em?
NOISE FACTORY has four new CD releases this spring: Beef terminal’s 20 Goto 10 (moody electronic home recordings by ex-Kennel District guitarist Mike Matheson), K.C. accidental’s Anthems For The could’ve Bin Pills (a collaboration between Do Make Say Think bassist Charles Spearin and Kevin Drew), Sparrow orange’s The Beauty of Sadness (ambient from Grand Rapids, Michigan) and the compilation Beautiful Noise (the apocalypse), featuring the aforementioned artists, as well as Tetrezene and Fwark.
TEENAGE U.S.A. has been bought by the new music company the Song Corporation. But T.U.S.A. heads Mark Di Pietro and Phil Klygo will retain creative control of the label they co-founded in 1997, whose new releases for 2000 include wildly divergent discs by electro no wave honey Peaches, London, Ontario pop group The Weekend, glam band Robin Black & The Intergalactic Rock Stars and of course our own Mean Red Spiders. Go team!