Tokyo Police Club with Hexes & Ohs and Spiral Beach @ the Horseshoe

Damn, I'm getting old. It's gotten to the point at which every new band I see looks like they're straight out of high school. But I guess like most fields that rely on innovation (e.g. art, math, science), the best work is done when the person is young. Not that any of the bands at the sold-out Horseshoe last night were particularly innovative, but they were all a lot of fun and were accomplished performers.

Well, except for Montreal electropop duo Hexes & Ohs. I still maintain that they need more confidence in their singing. I suspect that it's part of their charm, though. They're very wistful and earnest, and a full band and better singing chops would change their sound entirely. Perhaps for the better, because I do like their songwriting, but it would make them an entirely different band. At the moment, it's only the two of them on guitars and synth and their hardworking MacBook.

They only played two songs that I recognized off of Goodbye Friend, Hello Lover. I hope that means there'll be another album soon as I liked all the new material. Set highlight: Edmund Lam suddenly dropping to the floor to play a guitar solo on his back. We didn't see that coming at all.

NOW Magazine cover children Spiral Beach got a mixed response from my posse. We agreed they were good, but not original. We all heard different influences, ranging from Kate Bush to Garbage to Bjork to the B-52's to '60s psychedelia and '70s prog rock. Me, I had terrifying flashbacks to last month's Fiery Furnaces' show. I thought they were an impressively tight band, and the obnoxious theatrics amused me, but the songwriting was harsh to my ears. As K. pointed out, they were best when they had a melody to play with.

Set highlight: what seemed to be Ma and Pa Beach standing on a bench just to the left of us, filming the show and dancing.

By the time Newmarket post-punk-rawkers Tokyo Police Club took the stage, I was tuckered out and I suspect that everyone else was too. It was really hot, and there was more than one person who was a little smelly. Set highlight: none, really. They rocked out pretty well, but there wasn't any one moment that stood out for me. I was likely distracted by the number of people who kept squeezing by me as they were coming or going.

So despite TPC's strong performance and the appreciative audience, this was the first show I've been to at which the people didn't clap for an encore immediately after the band left the stage. (Although considering that the A Lesson in Crime EP has seven songs and is only 20 minutes long, maybe no one thought there was any more material to play.) I felt a little bad about joining the mass exodus -- it was TPC's last show of 2006, and they'd probably hoped to go out with a bang -- but damn it, there were people crammed into every nook and cranny in that place and I wanted out.

Hexes & Ohs website
Hexes & Ohs on MySpace
Spiral Beach website
Spiral Beach on MySpace
Tokyo Police Club website
Tokyo Police Club on MySpace

No, I won't sit and be quiet

Speaking of DIY bands as an excuse to have fun with your friends and impress girls, I present the Trucks as Exhibit B. Despite this Seattle quartet being all-female, I imagine several tracks off their self-titled debut will hold a special place in girls' hearts. These tracks will have you singing drunkenly with your gal pals on the dance floor while all the straight males in the vicinity look on in confusion or terror.

Their MySpace page claims, "WE ALL HAVE SWEET MOVES AND ROCK THE HOUSE!" Translation: collaborative synth-pop that's a cross between Peaches and Luscious Jackson, with a dash of Le Tigre's grrrly flair. Peaches probably inspired the raunchier lyrics, which is disconcertingly incongruous with the Trucks' girlish singing and harmonizing and catchy melodies. You will likely find yourself humming the most inappropriate tunes in the most inappropriate places. I unfortunately had the chorus of "Why The?" ("Why the f*ck won't you go down on me?") cycling through my head yesterday, which made for an entertaining day at the office.

But don't let that turn you off (or on, depending on your tastes). This is still a debut album; they haven't settled on a sound and schtick yet. Some tracks are nicely crafted alt-pop songs. Others will have you dancing in your pyjamas. And a couple will have the men in your life blushing with shame. All in all, the Trucks sound like good fun, and they're on my list of bands to see if I make it to Seattle next year.

The Trucks website
The Trucks on MySpace

Hot Chip @ the Mod Club

"These guys are neither hot nor chip." - J., as Hot Chip took the stage

The fellas in Hot Chip may look like the unlikeliest electronic Britpop stars (various members taking their fashion cues from Bill Cosby, Weird Al and the Thunderbirds) but they rocked nonetheless last night. I'd compared them to the Postal Service, but the set was closer to Depeche Mode and New Order's dramatic brand of synth-pop.

The arrangements were all different from the album -- only slightly different, mind you, and richer, unlike Fiery Furnaces' impenetrable 30-minute medley last week -- and kept the sold-out audience guessing. I liked how everyone, except the drummer, was aligned in a row at the front of the stage so that there wasn't a frontman despite one band member filling most of the lead vocal duties. There was singing, goofy dancing, and the playing of synths, guitars, cowbells, congas and maracas. It was all good.

Opening (and local) band Born Ruffians must have been called in at the last minute, because their forgettable guitar-driven indie rock was mismatched with Hot Chip's electropop. (Huh. I just checked their website and they're opening for Hot Chip for the entire US tour.)

The Born Ruffians -- well, they didn't look like ruffians. They looked like they were barely old enough to shave. The trio performed well and with a lot of enthusiasm, but I think they need a few more years to grow and find their sound. We amused ourselves during their set by imagining the boys practicing in the basement, only to be interrupted by someone's mother bringing down Sunny Delight and freshly baked cookies. "Moooomm... rock stars don't drink Sunny D. Rock stars drink beer!"

Born Ruffians website
Born Ruffians on MySpace
Hot Chip website
Hot Chip on MySpace
"Over and Over" on YouTube

There’s nothing too advanced about the grooves

I’ve just discovered BBC Radio’s podcasts. (If you use iTunes, search the Podcasts section of the store for “BBC”.) The Beeb’s already pretty good at making content available over the internet, but this makes it much easier. It’s like getting magazines delivered to your door as opposed to browsing for them at the library.

BBC Radio 1 is the popular (i.e. not jazz or classical) music channel. I subscribed to the Best of Unsigned, listened to the "Electric Proms special" from October 27, and was intrigued by the last song of the podcast: "Found Can Move", by Edinburgh lads Found. It sounded as if Lou Barlow was experimenting with trip-hop.

How can you not like a band that holds a colouring contest for its CD cover? That and their laid-back combination of lo-fi indie and equally lo-fi electronica won me over. I was also impressed that an overseas listener like me could buy their music easily; I feared that the band was so new (and Scottish) I wouldn't be able to find their CD in stores, and I'd have to spend too much at Amazon.co.uk.

Thankfully their record label has an online store where, for 6 pounds sterling, you have 24 hours to download all the songs from Found Can Move in either mp3, ogg and/or flac format. You can also listen to all the tracks. The whole transaction was brief, painless, and a great example of how the music industry can make the internet work for them.

Found website
Found on MySpace
Found Can Move at the Surface Pressure Records shop

Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal

At a friend’s urging over instant messenger, I checked out Hot Chip on MySpace, and within 20 minutes I’d bought and downloaded The Warning off iTunes and ordered tickets online to their Nov 6 show at the Mod Club. And the record industry says the internet is destroying them. Pffft.

They sound like the Postal Service - simple, forlorn pop vocals over ’80s electronic beats - but less precious. It’s probably because they’re British. Anyway, I pushed it onto a beta tester -- a co-worker whose taste runs to the happy and electronic -- and it got his seal of approval, so that’s good enough for me.

Hot Chip website
Hot Chip on MySpace

Ladytron@the Guvernment

...was loud. Wow, were they loud. And overwhelming, aurally and visually. I'm exhausted just remembering last night.

This was the last concert where I would expect to see crowdsurfing, but the frontwoman of the opening band, CSS, led the way. CSS, by the way, is shorthand for Cansei de Ser Sexy, and is responsible for such songs as "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" and "Music is my Hot Sex." If I had known that before the show, I would've been very, very afraid. They turned out to be harmless as kittens -- sort of a younger, meaner, oversexed Go!Team.

I am convinced that Mira Aroyo is a robot, but that’s still cool.

Did I mention they were loud?

Please destroy me this way

One of the most highly anticipated shows this year is Yo La Tengo at the Phoenix on October 2. Me, I’m seeing Liverpudlian electroclash refugees Ladytron at the Guvernment instead because, dammit, sometimes a girl just wants to dance.

I sampled then bought Witching Hour after it was released to good reviews, but was disappointed; the songwriting is a bit too pop for my tastes. Ladytron makes up for it tenfold in coolness, though. I like to think of them as ABBA gone bad -- a European pop group consisting of two men and two women who craft catchy, danceable tunes -- only their tunes have sinister, menacing arrangements. And their futuristic mod/goth/Communist chic trumps feathered hair and satin bellbottoms any day. Not to mention band member Mira Aroyo has a Ph.D in molecular genetics from Oxford. How cool is that?

Ladytron website
Ladytron on MySpace
“Destroy Everything You Touch” on YouTube