Although any form of music that involves more than just one agoraphobic nerd, a credit card, and Pro Tools-laden PowerBook can arguably be tagged collaborative, it’s been a trend of late for bands to hit the basement/bedroom/garage studio to cross-breed and see what happens. Many of these sonic experiments birth less-then-stellar results, generally something like a Frankenalbum that stitches together pieces of each group without really creating something new and interesting.

There are no bolts sticking out of the jewel case of Fake Mistake, a charming and offbeat offering from This Civil Twilight and Little Baby Cupcakes that jauntily straddles compilation and collaboration. Fake Mistake sees each band do a song, and then switch off to cover the other band’s song, before joining forces for the proverbial grand finale.

This Civil Twilight’s Mark Simpson explains, "We thought it would be interesting. We sound quite different as bands, although we share similar aesthetics."

Michael Sambir, Little Baby Cupcakes guitarist and vocalist offers, "You guys are heavier."

"But you’re heavier, existentially," counters Simpson.

"As a local band no one admires," notes Sambir. "Bands like us never get to hear how people perceive [us] and cover one of our tracks."

"I’m a fan of covers," says Simpson. "Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t. Dinosaur Jr’s cover of the Cure’s ‘Just like Heaven’–great cover. [Or] Tree People doing [The Smiths’] ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again.’ A good cover is really transformed. It’s a question of being able to do something different with the song."

Sambir adds, "Arrangement is key. Messing around with arrangements–that’s a good time."

On making it

Both bands are in the process of crafting individual releases, so they were holding material back for their respective albums. But, each brought in a couple of options and arrived at a consensus as to which tunes to try. Recording took place in LBC drummer Darren Johnston’s basement.

"The big challenge was mixing, getting our schedules together for that," says Sambir. "Recording was actually done quite quickly, a year ago." He points out that both bands are "amateurs, in the true sense of the word," meaning that while they are all seasoned musicians, they play together for the sheer delight of it, rather than out of any rock star-type ambition.

"I can’t speak for them, but we’re not terribly driven," chuckles Sambir. "We’ve put out a couple EPs, but we’re not touring cross-Canada anytime soon."

Simpson agrees. "It’s fun to do little tours, but the time for sleeping on floors has come and gone."

Two of their members may still be up for roughing it, though–LBC’s bassist Tony Baker also plays in Brit-pop-a-likes Columbus and Duncan Turner splits his guitar time between TCT and the MayKings.

Sambir is just happy to be able to create music at whatever pace his life allows. "We did everything on the computer. We amateurs wouldn’t have the time or money to record, otherwise. It’s been great, this digital revolution."

"You make it sound like it’s over now," Simpson teases. "Tear down the barricades!"

On Fake-ing it

Despite the self-deprecation, both outfits do a fair imitation of rock stars, and while Fake Mistake is certainly shambolic, it’s also a rewarding listen–assured, smart, and inventive. It’s kind of temperamentally similar to Pavement’s Wowie Zowie, weaving between TCT’s noisy indie rock that occasionally unspools into deconstructed aural side trips and LBC’s slightly sinister, meandering space pop.

On the last and title track, the guys take the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups approach ("hey, your Little Baby Cupcakes are in my This Civil Twilight!" "No, your This Civil Twilight are in my Little Baby Cupcakes!"), with the punch line of course being, they taste great together–like a drunk, low-fi Mercury Rev.

The guys are quite pleased with the final product, too. Simpson raves, "I think their cover is really great. Our song is reasonably straight ahead and they gave it a French feel, channeling ’60s French pop."

Sambir returns the compliment. "It was interesting to hear someone take one of our ideas in a direction that we don’t often go. They ‘subverted’ the structure... Ours begins softly and crescendos into the ending; their version does the exact opposite–I also like how they tweak the accents in the melody."

Saturday’s show will feature what Sambir jokingly calls, "the galactic premiere of the covers." He claims to be particularly looking forward to adding TCT’s song to his band’s set list because, "It’s the best-written song we do."

"The challenge will be doing ‘Fake Mistake’ on stage," muses Simpson on their collaborated multi-layered song, which evolved over several studio trips from a skeleton he brought in. "Performing it’ll be a sound check experiment. We could only record one or two instruments at the same time, so we’ve never played it all at once."

Simpson shrugs, "Our show will be eclipsed by National, anyway. They’re great–they’ll clear the club and send everyone home before we go on. We’re not ‘headlining.’ We have to play last because Michael has to go to sleep."

"I’m an old man," nods Sambir.