Live: Dear Landlord with House Boat and Mikey Erg @ The Knitting Factory 5.12.11

Looking at the fake poster to the left for this show, one might surmise that we had a contender for the show of the year for JS-NYC. I enjoy all off the parties, but it was really the mid-card that had me excited. It had been well over a year since the Unlovables had played out and The Sainte Catherines have a hell of a new record. Putting them on a bill where I could start thing off with the tail end of a House Boat set seemed like a fine recipe for an evening in Brooklyn. In what is becoming my new favorite irritation, the aforementioned two bands that I hadn't seen a million times before dropped off the bill just as soon as I bought the ticket. Don't get me wrong, it was only $8, but come on.

I considered bailing, but Mikey Erg jumped on the front of the bill, so I figure I'd make it an early evening and count my blessings. Mikey put in a good solo set, albeit one without the Cee-Lo cover that highlighted his solo show last week at Cake Shop. House Boat were up next. I always enjoy them a lot more than I expect to, but could deal with about 50% less drunk Grath per show. Suffice to say, he is no Paddy Costello. This show featured the recording, rather than ad hoc local, HB lineup with Zack and Mikey. It was good and hopefully now that Grath has a job, we'll get less talk and more rock in the future. As such, I hear there is a new House Boat record on the way, so we'll see how things transpire.

Dear Landlord came on at the wonderfully reasonable hour of 10 to a rambunctious crowd. I like me some DL, but was surprised to see the number of DL painted jackets and his and her t-shirt combos out at the show. Dream Homes has been out for a bit now and there is the new split with The Dopamines, but it still doesn't leave an epic amount of variety set-wise. I was more than pretty stoked to find that Zack and Brad have got the Copyrights half of the franchise knocking out Rivethead covers. That will get me to make the long walk down the block to ABC next month. All in all a good set, and I made it home by 11:15, so I will call this a win, despite the fact that I sure would have preferred to have seen The Unlovables and The Sainte Catherines on the damn bill.

R

The Sainte Catherines - Fire Works

Yowza! Is this one real ass-ripper of a record. Fire Works is the sixth Sainte Catherines full-length on as many labels. Four years after dropping Dancing For Decadence and two from the DVD/ odd and sods collection The Soda Machine, this time SC Stateside release comes courtesy of Anchorless Records, allegedly as Fat deemed it not punk enough for their hallowed halls. This from a label that is excited to release Cobra Skulls records? Life sure is funny sometimes. Listening to these tracks (and ok, the cover is pretty aces) I'd say Fat's loss will be to the gain of The Sainte Catherines and Anchorless, and would argue further that Fire Works is the best SC record to date. Thirteen tracks, all recorded by the band and sounding fat as hell. There really isn't a bad song on this record. I would acquire it immediately. East Coast JS-NYC readers should be advised to look out for the Sainte Catherines shows in Albany and at Party Expo in Brooklyn in early December.

Whiskey Trench - Television

Ah, Whiskey Trench! If I may digress from the onset, it's fairly irritating how much of a dick tease the internet can be. As it regards Whiskey Trench, for a while now I've been trying to figure out if Hugo Mudie is still in this damn band? Given the terse assertion that he is not on the web page, I'm given to think that I am right that he was, but that some sort of acrimony has facilitated his departure from the WT ranks. Not that Whiskey Trench are Rush or anything, but it'd be nice if there were somewhere one could get the skinny on the current lineup.

Not that I'm such a slavish Mudie jocker that I would disregard the band if he wasn't a member, but truth be told, The Sainte Catherines/Yesterday's Ring connection was the reason I got into the band in the first place. I grabbed the first Whiskey Trench record from the download section of If You Make It last year and was pretty taken with the Canadian inflected Jawbreaker-isms therein. Television keeps that legacy alive, adding a little Ben Deily era Lemonheads to the mix to keep things interesting. There is also an interesting Green Onions meets Planet Of Sound kind of instrumental turn on No Money For Bus Fare that heralds some interesting directions in the band's future. The fourteen tracks are all pretty sold, with Vicious Sore and Life Long Sentence taking the top two slots to these ears. As luck would have it, the gents are playing Bar Nine tomorrow night, so it appears I'll be able to get to the bottom of the Hugo thing and see if Whiskey Trench can pull it off live. See you front and center at the rock show. If you can't make it out, check the record out at their web presence or just buy Television from Kiss Of Death. Think about maybe buying two. It's the perfect holiday gift.

R

The Sainte Catherines - The Soda Machine

Canada has been trumping our rock in spades in recent years, what with quality franchises like Fucked Up, Fifth Hour Hero, Weakerthans and Chixdiggit hailing from North of the Border. The Sainte Catherines hail from Montreal, as you might surmise, and ply their trade in smelly guitar-driven punk rock, heavy on the Leatherface. You don't have to say that twice to get me to take notice. Vanessa at Fat had sent me Dancing For Decadence a couple summers ago. It was their debut for the label and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't a third rate Lagwagon rip-off. They were no stranger to a NOFX-y dischordant key change, but all in all, it just reinforced how boring most bands were in comparison.

Soon after, I made my first trip to Montreal and ended up catching Sainte Catherines alter-ego Yesterday's Ring down the street from my hotel. In between stupid fights with my (now-ex) companion, I ended up getting my mind blown by the countrified version of their sound. I picked up all three of the Yesterday's Ring releases while I was in town and vowed to scarf up The Sainte Catherines back catalog as well.

I managed to get virtually everything in their catalog fairly quickly, save for their debut Those Stars Are For You. That record and the early seven-inches are almost impossible to come by, depending mostly on your knowledge of the murkier areas of the Internet. The new Sainte Catherines release The Soda Machine takes a couple steps toward making it a little easier to get the out of print stuff. The Soda Machine is actually the title of the documentary by band confidante Sophie Fortier. That it self is worth the price of admission, but the DVD also comes with a cd compiling 25 b-sides and cast-offs and therein, mes amis, is where things really get fun.

The Soda Machine documentary is well done, exposing such gems as the fact that frontman Hugo is 25(!!!) and that they really had an unhealthy fixation with The Broadways in their early days. The companion cd further exposes the Leatherface adulation, including a pretty great cover of Sour Grapes. The Soda Machine cd has pretty expansive liner notes for most of the songs, with funny insights into their forays into hair-metal acoustic balladry and penchant for baiting Simple Plan. It's packaging like this that makes bypassing I-tunes all the more worthwhile. The whole package is cross-released between Indica Records, D-Tox and Outside Music, but most easily picked up at the Indica website for $15. Can't beat that price for twenty-five songs and a DVD.

The Sainte Catherines are currently touring Mexico and threatening more dates behind The Soda Machine in the Fall. Keep an eye on the sites below for dates and enjoy the DVD while you wait. Look out for a new Yesterday's Ring record, too.

R

www.thesaintecatherines.org

www.indicastore.com

myspace.com/thesaintecatherines

www.yesterdaysring.org

www.fatwreck.com

www.daretocarerecords.com