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Music

Creepy Jakalope

Jakalope at the Mod Club (722 College) Friday (March 4), $15. 416-870-8000 Rating: NNNNN


When producer Dave “rave” Ogilvie brings his baby Jakalope to the Mod Club this week for an already sold-out show, he wants to blow people away.

“I want people to leave and go, ‘Wow! I can’t believe what I just saw,'” says an enthusiastic Ogilvie on the phone from Vancouver.

Alas, he won’t be able to use quite all the fancy pyrotechnics he envisioned for the performances.

“Unfortunately, you have to follow at lot more guidelines than you used to. When we did Skinny Puppy tours years ago, you could basically get away with anything and only find out the ramifications after the show. In those days people’s hair in the front rows would catch on fire and you could say, ‘Hey, I’m really sorry, here’s some T-shirts and CDs,’ and people would be easily satisfied. These days a lawsuit that would shut down everything you’re doing.

“I’m going to get away with as much as I can, but in full regard of all the laws.”

The seven-person tour, which includes Matt Warhurst from SNFU, Phil Caivano from Monster Magnet and Matt Hyde from Porno for Pyros, actually represents only a portion of the whole beast that is Jakalope.

There are at least 30 card-carrying members, including Trent Reznor, Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland and some dudes from Sloan.

For Ogilvie, who has worked with such illustrious folk as David Bowie, Mötley Crüe, N.E.R.D and Marilyn Manson (OK, the illustriousness of that one is debatable) but is best known for his work with Skinny Puppy, it was simply a matter of turning the tables.

“These were all people I’ve worked with or wanted to work with but couldn’t throughout the years. I’ve always worked for them and enjoyed doing it, but this time it was, ‘Hey, how about we switch roles here and you come help me out?'”

However, he decided to go with an unknown vocalist, 22-year-old Katie Biever, who has the best last name ever but for some incomprehensible reason chooses to call herself simply Katie B. Biever, a former receptionist at Warehouse studios whose previous claim to fame was singing some backups for Mandy Moore, was the obvious choice, says Ogilvie, because she has “it.”

“There has to be a frontperson who can really carry the show. With Skinny Puppy I had Ogre, with Marilyn Manson I had Manson, with Nine Inch Nails I had Trent. All these people, when you meet them, you feel something, and right away you know this person will be an amazing spokesperson for the project. When I met her I knew she had those attributes. And I said, ‘I’d love to do a project with you because I know that when you come to the public, people are going to fall in love with you. ‘”

Well, she’s cute, at any rate.

The debut record, It Dreams, is a work of electro-industrial pop rock, along the lines of Evanescence but with fewer haunting goth bits and more teen pop elements. Yes, it’s kind of like Mandy Moore fronting an industrial outfit. And yeah, all of Miss Biever’s songs are about boys, which kind of bothered Ogilvie at first.

“I don’t think like that, because when it comes to music there are so many things in the world to talk about. But then I think, ‘Well, wait a minute. If you listen to what most boys sing about, it’s girls.’ Besides, if you look at the great songs in history, they’re generally about some sort of relationship, so I had to back off on that.

“She’ll have plenty of time to sing about the problems in the world.” elizzardbreath72@yahoo.com

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