No Joy, No Past
Music, like fashion, is cyclical in nature. The somewhat recent resurgence of garage rock, psych, grunge and shoegaze is evidence of that. About 7 years ago an indie pop band called Bad Flirt experienced some brief and moderate success through extensive touring in 2005-2007. They went on to win a Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen Battle of the Bands. Record of this is hard to come by, since their myspace account and most videos have since been deleted. This is probably because the previous image of Bad Flirt is not in correlation with the revamped band, No Joy. Pitchfork darlings No Joy epitomize the lo-fi shoegaze, pretty girl, pretty music thing, and are similar to Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, and Best Coast, all of whom they have shared stages with. The band tours a lot, which is no easy feat. So what do we say about a band that changes their tune to stay current? People change, clothes change, attitudes change, why can’t bands? Jasmine and Laura grew up and so did their sound – is that embarrassing?
Judge for yourself. Here’s a link to a Bad Flirt music video for something called Hiroshima, Mon Frere, and a pic of them back when they were hanging with the Olsen Twins.
Arcade Fire: 1500 A.D-Present
Régine Chassagne has been the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist in the epic Arcade Fire for the past decade or so. They are a pretty huge band. They’ve won a Grammy, sung duets with David Bowie and David Byrne, received praise from Neil Young at this year’s Junos, continue to serve as Canada’s prime export, and everybody loves them. In order to preserve his own creative direction, front man Win Butler consistently ushers members in and out of the band. His wife Régine, and himself, meanwhile, are the only constants.
But before Arcade Fire, and before her Brazilian jazz trio Azucar, Régine was a founding member in a medieval band called Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore. The band, whose name translates into “Jugglers of the Mandrake”, performed in authentic historical garb, and specialized in ‘early’ music. Regine has moved on, but Jongleurs de la Mandragore are still available for medieval weddings and dance class workshops.
See if you can spot Regine in this historical re-enactment/music video. Warning: it may be the most annoying thing ever filmed.
Those who live in Crystal Castles shouldn’t throw stones
Claudio Palmiri, a.k.a. “Ethan Kath”, a.k.a. Ethan Deth, a.k.a. Ethan Fawn likes to think of himself as a complex character, developing alias after alias, and being quite evasive during interviews. Claudio has even called journalists after interviews, and claimed that his twin brother or roommate had been answering the questions on his behalf, and therefore it was unethical to go to print. Aside from hiding in his hoodie, these days Claudio most plays in a video game soundtrack cover band called Crystal Castles.
Before Crystal Castles, Claudio was the bass player in Bovine Sex Club regulars Kill Cheerleader/ Cheerleader 666, a project he’s tried to keep out of stories about his current work. The name of this band was inspired by the group’s tough time in high school.
The band received some pretty good wikipedia quotes. Motörhead’s Lemmy called them the “greatest rock and roll band since Guns N Roses”, and Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe gave them a “best new band” tag.
Claudio has ditched his long-hair-and-bandana 70s hard rocker look for hoodies and skinny jeans. There was some controversy over all of his copyright infringements, as he kept stealing samples and artwork without permission, but that seems to have been resolved. He now keeps a low profile, which still generates some publicity. So I guess it all worked out.
