Dancing, trumpets, pop music, a sparkly blue dress, high fives and tall, slender redheaded men were all part of the scene at the Ship pub this past weekend.

On August 27^th and 28^th the Windsor, Ontario quartet Michou preformed at the Ship. This was the last leg of a month long tour for the band, and technically the farthest they have ever played from their hometown. According to lead singer Mike Hargreaves, the band was in rough shape when they first arrived on The Rock.

“We took the three hour drive to get to Corner Brook and we were all feeling pretty down in our health and spirits, it’s been a really long tour, but we had a blast there. We played this really cool venue called the Bar Room. The drive so far has also been pretty incredible.”

I spoke with Hargreaves on Saturday evening. Despite his positive outlook, all that talk of long, albeit scenic, drives and exhaustion left me wondering how their show at The Ship was going to play out that night. Fortunately, I would soon get my answer.

Michou formed around four years ago but have been their most active over the last two years. Their biography attributes the band’s formation to a mad scientist (hinted at being current manager Michael ‘Teenwolf’ Fox) inseminating multiple women and then transporting the resulting children back to the future. Those four kids grew up to become the band Michou, with mad scientist man collecting a percentage of their labour’s profits.

“It is pretty surprising how many times that biography has been printed in leaflets in festivals we’ve played in,” says Hargreaves of their origin story.

The name Michou comes from Hargreaves’ childhood. “It’s what my mom called me as a kid… kind of a combination of Michael, in French, and  ‘ma petite chou’, my little cabbage.”

The self proclaimed “cleanest non-smelliest band ever” released their first album, Myshkin, in 2008, and their follow up, Cardona earlier this year, putting them on a heavy touring schedule for the last two years. Surprisingly, they came to Newfoundland before they hit up the west coast, which is, noting the financial risk in touring the island, a tad flattering.

On Saturday night, Michou were prefaced by the Pre-Raphaelites and Repartee. I missed the Pre-Raphealites because I was busy shooting beer at my kitchen table, but arrived in time to see Repartee preform their consistently lively and upbeat show. Dancing and twirling engulfed the floor before them with many a high five was sent lead vocalist Meg Warren’s way.

Her blue sparkly dress was also pretty rad.

Between acts the dance floor had emptied so that when Michou began to play people were standing at a hesitant distance. That was until keys/trumpet/mini xylophone/tambourine player Sasha Appler ecstatically ran into the crowd, laying down push ups and dancing with patrons. With that the dance party began.

Much to my delight, the band were cheery and high energy, which worked well with their sanguine pop melodies.

The highlight of the night occurred towards the end of the set as the band invited their new friend local flutist Rozalind Macphail to preform with them. Rozalind hopped on the stage with her candy stripped socks, whipped out her flute, and played along as if they’d been jamming together for years. She even managed to pull off an impromptu solo. It was a lovely ending of the bouncy, lighthearted show.

Earlier in the night while I was photographing Repartee, a young man kindly stepped back to let me move forward in the crowd. He looked exactly like Michou’s lead singer, Mike Hargreaves, who I had interviewed earlier that evening. Both were tall, slim gingers wearing poly-cotton American Apparel t-shirts (though different colours), with a similar tossed look to their hairdos.

Hargreaves confided in me earlier that he only wears these particular t-shirts on tour because they don’t wrinkle, so when I saw the young man with the similar appearance and wardrobe I greeted him enthusiastically and gave his t-shirt a tug saying “you’ve changed your wrinkle free shirt!”, or something equally as retarded.

He looked at me like I was a crazed hobo gnawing at his leg.

It turns out Dylan Varner-Hartley’s friends had made the same mistake earlier, approaching Hargreaves in a similar fashion.

The doppelgangers met at the end of the show and gladly posed for a bizzaro photo-op.

Jetset Motel are celebrating the release of their debut self-titled album with a return to St. John’s tonight at The Ship alongside special guests The Pathological Lovers and The Domestics.

Tickets are $10 at the door, but one lucky Signal reader and a friend will be strutting in tonight for free and walking away with a signed copy of the new album.

To enter the draw for tonight’s pair of free tickets + signed CD, simply leave a comment below.

We’ll be making our draw from all the comments here at 6pm this evening so don’t delay: leave your comment now!

Note: all comments must be accompanied by a valid e-mail address (we don’t collect that stuff in any way, but it helps keep the number of repeat entries down to a minimum, which is only fair).

UPDATE:

Congratulations to D’Arcy Butler for winning two tickets and a signed CD for the Jetset Motel CD Release Party at The Ship tonight!

If you know who Holy Fuck are (wiki), and you haven’t heard yet, I’m going to give you something to look forward to for the next week and a bit:

A little local history…

In September 2008, Benjy Kean started doing a monthly electro house set at Distortion. He called the night Musique Non Stop.

At around the same time, Jud Haynes began booking indie rock shows under the guise of Mightypop, mostly playing at The Ship and The Rockhouse, with a few performances in Corner Brook.

Benjy started adding guest DJs to his sets, including Herman Collider/Physical Patrick, Lee Hanlon from The Gramercy Riffs, Leo van Ulden and Brainbomb.

Jud started bringing in some out of town artists. Most recently, You Say Party! We Say Die! showed up to play The Rockhouse just before Halloween.

On the last weekend of October 2009, standing up to George Street Mardi Gras, Benjy pulled a double header – in costume. Friday night at Distortion, Saturday night at A1C gallery. Both nights, both venues: packed.

Now, the pied piper and the prince of parties are teaming up to make next Thursday a really special night. Brian Borcherdt will play some soft acoustic solo stuff 9-midnight with Julie Fader (who’s been here before with Sarah Harmer). After that? Beats.

For those of you who think a DJ set is some kind of consolation prize – pining for a real HF! show, I’d like to point out that they did the same at Lollapalooza. Plus, it’s only $10 at the door. Details at the Facebook event.

Breakwater Books is launching two new novels at The Ship tonight: Chad Pelley‘s Away from Everywhere, and Tina Chaulk‘s A Few Kinds of Wrong.

Admission is free and there will be live music, munchies and even some prizes to be won. And of course readings and signings from both authors.

That’s at The Ship Pub from 8pm-10pm tonight.

Michael Crummey, born in Buchans, NL, is the author of three novels: River Thieves, The Wreckage, and most recently Galore, which launched at The Ship on Monday, August 31st.

This is his final entry as a guest blogger on Signal (though we hope to have him back again soon!).

Well let’s see. My mother was there. And my Aunt Helen. And about half the population of Sin City. At least that’s how it felt. Haven’t seen the Ship that blocked since Lisa Moore launched February a couple of months ago.

Before that it was a show by the Novaks, back when they were still Persona (am I dating myself here? Don’t get out much anymore).

In retrospect, the Ship seems like the perfect spot for the launch of a book about the lore of Newfoundland. Can’t think of another location where so many legendary/infamous events have happened.  There used to be a pair of crossed swords hung on the wall until they got some use in a bar fight. Gerry Squires painted the original Ship Inn sign to pay off his legendary bar tab. Saw Ron Hynes sing Away about two o’clock in the morning one Friday when there were only three or four people in the bar and I’ll never forget it.

Film producer Paul Pope dragged myself and Michael Winter and Mark Ferguson into the can just before we called it a night (it was the only place with enough light, he said) to get a photo. Lined us up in the same corner where he filmed Tommy Sexton for Codco’s “Ship Inn Man.” There was no flash and we had to stay still. We were having a good time, honest.

Michael Crummey, born in Buchans, NL, is the author of three novels: River Thieves, The Wreckage, and most recently Galore, which will be launching at The Ship on Monday, August 31st.

He joins us as a guest blogger on Signal.

Launch day for GALORE.

And just in case you were considering coming along, it gets underway at the Ship at 7:30. No cover and there will be some finger food.

If you can’t make it but were really hoping to hear me jabber on about the book,  here’s a clip posted on You Tube (they really will post anything, those guys).

Michael Crummey, born in Buchans, NL, is the author of three novels: River Thieves, The Wreckage, and most recently Galore, which will be launching at The Ship on Monday, August 31st.

He joins us as a guest blogger on Signal.

Five days till the launch of GALORE at The Ship on Monday. Just got a call from Wallace to say he can set up the mic for me. Think that’s pretty much all I need.

Also just got word from my editor at Doubleday, Martha Kanya-Forstner, that she’s going to be flying in for the event with little Alice in tow. Martha and I have worked together on all three of my novels and having her eye on these stories has been one of my favourite parts of writing them.

River Thieves was the first book she took on as lead editor and she was pregnant with her first child around the time it was published. Remember getting a look at the sonogram of the little fishy (now better known as Susie) before she’d announced her pregnancy to the world at large and I joked at the time that she’d have to produce a baby for every novel I wrote.

Ha ha.

She was off on maternity leave when The Wreckage came out four years ago. That was Lucy. And she’s on maternity again now as GALORE hits the shelves. Welcome to the world, Alice.

I’m starting to feel a little bit guilty about the thought of writing another novel. Exactly how big a family are you planning on, MKF?

Susie and Lucy

If you’ve read any of the reviews, it’s hard not to be all 32 flavours of excited about Galore’s arrival and the chance to give it a thorough read.

As journalist Diana Mehta writes for The Canadian Press:

“Crummey’s deft prose and attention to stark detail have readers wrinkling their noses at the rancid fishy smell that wafts off a mysterious stranger one page, and gawking at the gnarled, twisted features of a witch-like hag the next.”

While author Steven Galloway tells us in The Globe and Mail:

“Crummey’s prose is flawless. He has a way with the colloquial that escapes many writers, an ability to make the idiosyncrasies of local speech an asset in creating an image in the reader’s mind.”

My excitement doubled when I approached Michael Crummey to be a guest blogger on Signal and he agreed.

When I first contacted Crummey he readily admitted that he’s totally new to blogging, but welcomed the opportunity nonetheless. This will be a great chance for readers to gain some insight into the author and his work, ask questions or even just pass on a comment.

Expect to find Crummey blogging here in the coming days, leading up to Galore’s launch party at the Ship on August 31st.

The Once, who’s self-titled debut album is all kinds of amazing, are playing The Ship tonight (best place for live music ever, says The Globe).

The trio will take to the stage at 8pm for a set, then take a break long enough for a bowl of stew and some Georgetown Bakery bread, then back to the stage with friends Greg Walsh, Mark Neary and Elliot Dicks to cap you off for the night.

The Once will be playing their full album, which you’ll be wanting to take home with you if you haven’t already. Lucky for you, they’ll be available to buy at the show, this being their album launch and all.

[photo via by Adam Penney]

AE Bridger, one of my favorite local bands (listen to my interview with them here), apparently played at Night Music this past month, and I missed it! They’re like a cross between Primus and The Unicorns. Thanks to Patrick Canning and his awesome blog (you are reading it, aren’t you?) you can see all the AE Bridger action here.

Canning has many other great videos of local musicians and great reviews as well, so check his blog out.

Also, you do know about Night Music, don’t you? Every third Thursday at The Ship you can expect a great time with a featured band (usually experimental in nature) and an improv jam session in between sets where you can bring your own instruments and jam with others. I don’t go because of the conflict with The New Spin, but it’s a must-see gig, which I didn’t know about until several years after living here.

And if you haven’t done so, pick up a copy of AE Bridger’s cd, I am a Ghostly Leech. Here’s my review of it. They also might have a new album coming out this year? Dunno, but I hope so.