THE UNICORNS

"Our sound is, like, ‘whoa’–and it’s everything you wanted to know about awesome, but were afraid to ask: danceable is the term," quips drummer J’aime Tambeur, one third of the quirky Montréal indie-rock outfit, The Unicorns. The band’s deviously playful low-fi guitar rock, quirky synthesizer blips, and oddball personalities have earned them a strong cult following across Canada, and this week they’re bringing their eccentric ways to Edmonton to open up the Hot Hot Heat show.

"I think that they like our awesomeness and the fact that we kick ass. Also, we’re hilarious to hang out with, so they probably liked that too," Tambeur offers to explain how they scored the highly coveted gig.

Along with the hipsters in Hot Hot Heat, Tambeur says The Unicorns are working on fashioning themselves "a crazy entourage of mind-blowingly amazing guys and gals" to tour with and to become part of their dysfunctional musical family. "We need a little more money before it can be fully realized as an idea, but we’re hoping that within six months or so we are going to be a traveling mind-blowingness factory, with all of the craziest, coolest people from everywhere we’ve been, and we’ll be able to just roll up into a town and already be the craziest party you’ve ever been to," he explains.

Tambeur says that along with having "big crushes on girls" in Edmonton, which they are looking forward to exploiting, the band will also be on the look out for some blue-collar rockers to join their unconventional unicorn cult. "We want to get that one crazy, hilarious [drunk], awesome person in your town and get them together with an army of crazy, hilarious [drunk], awesome people," he remarks. "We can’t predict the results, but my guess is it will be pretty crazy and hilarious."

Oscillating between serious topics, like the futility of mortality in "I Don’t Want To Die," to Motown-inspired sing-alongs, like "I Was Born A Unicorn," the band’s deeply rooted sarcasm comes across in their analog-laced anthems as much as it does in their personalities. But Tambeur swears there is a serious side nestled somewhere beneath their cool, ironic exteriors. "Most people seem to think that the songs on the album are tongue-in-cheek, or jokey, or whatever, but they aren’t at all. Nick is seriously the-most-afraid-of-dying person I’ve ever met, and a lot of his songs are about that," he explains in an almost serious tone. "We prefer ‘personal’ to ‘quirky’ as an adjective to describe our music. We also prefer ‘brilliant’ or ‘genre-defying’ or ‘masterfully inventive; I’ve never heard anything like it.’ The sounds, lyrics and song titles come from somewhere deep within."

Serious or not, this weekend’s show promises to include everything you can possibly expect from a band that takes its name from a mythological flying horse.

And probably a little bit more.

Among other things, the band has staged resurrections, puppet shows, bloody band member fistfights... They even once hired a homeless man to impersonate them during a gig. "We have somebody making tailored outfits for us in Vancouver, which we’re super-excited [about] because the drawings we’ve seen of them look fantastic," Tambeur adds. "We’re that kind of band, too: classy, you know?"

The Unicorns open for Hot Hot Heat on Sat, Nov 22 at Red’s (WEM)

OMNESIA

"Music doesn’t discriminate over race, religion, health, or age; it’s heard by everybody and there is nothing you can do to control that," remarks Anuj Rastogi, founder of the Edmonton-based world music label, Omnesia. This weekend Rastogi will prove once and for all just how wide the boundaries of music can be pushed, as he stages an unprecedented event of globe-spanning proportions.

"There are elements of drum ’n’ bass, hip-hop, spoken word, Celtic and Eastern European music, opera, and classical Indian music," Rastogi notes, mentioning just a few of the eclectic styles that will be presented at the Omnesia event. Along with that spectrum of musical styles, Kita No Taiko, Edmonton’s own Japanese drum troupe, will provide some powerful percussion for the affair. An all-dimensional experience has been planned that will saturate the audience’s every sense.

"We’re creating an atmosphere with candles, incense, and videos playing in the background because this is supposed to be more than a concert you listen to: it’s an all ‘round musical experience," Rastogi explains. "We are bringing together the Japanese approach to rhythm with Indian classical [music], jazz, and all our other influences–to make it one living, breathing creation."

A small army of local musicians will be on hand to pull off the disparate arrangement of sounds, and, while an accumulation of such a diverse set of influences may sound a little peculiar, Rastogi asserts the result is "very new, very different, and very remarkable."

All proceeds from the concert will go to support the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which is a charity Rastogi chose because it fits well with the way he understands musical methodology. "Music is universal: put two musicians who don’t understand a word of the other’s language on stage, and the moment one plays a note the other will suddenly discover an understanding with them," he remarks. "Heart disease is the same in that it touches everybody and it doesn’t discriminate just like music does[n’t], albeit in a very different way. At the end of the day, music brings us together, and so does the grief of losing someone from a heart attack or a stroke. Everything we are trying to do with Omnesia is to bring people together, whether it be for music or for another cause."

The Omnesia showcase takes place Sat, Nov 22 at the Myer Horowitz Theatre (U of A campus).

THE MINOR THIRDS

For most people, daydreaming about Saskatchewan is about as exciting as collecting jars of bellybutton lint; however, for one big-city artist, Chris Piuma of The Minor Thirds, Saskatchewan is a mystical place that actually inspired an entire album.

"When I was a kid, I would look at maps–because I’ve always had a fascination with them–and imagine what the places would be like," Piuma reflects. "I found Saskatchewan when I was young. I thought it had a weird name and it looked like this big box in the middle of a huge country that I knew nothing about, so I would make up stories about people that always came from Moose Jaw or Saskatoon, and I just invented the details."

Currently based in Portland, Piuma has spent his entire life in big cities such as Boston and New York. Such urban settings made Piuma’s imagination drift to more desolate locations, and he says "the idea of someplace that was like a big blank slate" was extremely tempting and mysterious to him. The band’s latest release, Saskatchewan, features more than a dozen different musicians playing everything from the trumpet to the banjo in order to create the soundscape of Piuma’s musical musings on Canada’s bread basket. Chaotic rock rhythms come together on the disc with aching folk anthems, and the work includes such curious tracks as "Moos Jaw." A dedication is also made "to the good people of Saskatchewan who are forced to put up with [the band’s] errant dreams."

Only two of the album’s dozen musicians will be making the snowy trek up to Canada this week, and Piuma says their live show will feature a stripped-down approach to their indulgent recordings, but he’s excited about the adventure nonetheless. "I’ve never actually been to Canada, despite wanting to go for a long, long time," Piuma adds. "I’m just curious what life is like there. It’s someplace that’s very close to where I am, but it doesn’t get any media attention, and it just seems to be ignored by everyone."

With any luck, the snowy roads and even snowier fields of the big, flat prairies won’t be a disappointment to the American dreamer. If you’re curious about how an outsider might imagine our desolate ways, you might want to check out the gig, and bring Piuma some maple syrup and back bacon while you’re at it.

See the Minor Thirds at Remedy (8631 109 St.) on Fri, Nov 28 at 7 pm.

BABE LLOYD

Babe Lloyd, the self-professed "eccentric yet accessible" Edmonton-based solo artist, will be bringing his bag of humorous, emotional, melodic and slightly daft tunes of to the modest stage of Tim’s Grill this weekend. With a Comparative Literature degree and many worldly travels under his belt, Lloyd is sure to please with literary punk tunes inspired by everything from Jello Biafra to Weird Al Yankovic and the quirks of modern culture. Lloyd sings, writes and plays all the instruments both live and on his recordings, so if you’re looking for a bare-bones gig of pure local talent this just might be the show for you.

Friday, November 21 at Tim's Grill (7106-109 St.)