Nearly three months after their sophomore effort, Themes: International, hit the streets, The Summerlad is finally gracing Edmonton with their presence for an official CD release show. What took the veteran Calgary band so bloody long to pay us a visit?

"We talked about doing a release with Whitey Houston but circumstances didn’t allow," says frontman/guitar god P7, who also answers to the more prosaic moniker Garrett McClure. "We’ve been really, really busy, doing a piece at the High Performance Rodeo and a shitload of touring."

Hmph. Touring to every other prairie city except ours. Still, we’ll forgive them for keeping us waiting, but only because Themes is such a stunner of an art rock album–an original, intense, and often astonishing sonic experience that hauls the listener through complex and evocative soundscapes.

The effect is all the more amazing when you know that Themes was made for a mere $700. "We turned my house into a recording space," McClure explains. "We did the vocals in my downstairs bathroom, the drums in my living room, made some mixing choices while we were on my couch listening to it on my stereo. It was nice to take our time–no looking at the clock, like in a studio."

Despite being justifiably thrilled with the album, McClure won’t promise the band will stick to CD release conventions and play mostly material from Themes.

"We want to do a show that’s interesting for us," he chuckles. "That’s the point of Summerlad, to do what we want. We want to challenge expectations; challenge the audience. Our live show depends on our mood. We pull from our old stuff, our remix project, new songs. That’s the cool thing about the band–we can do a 45-minute ‘day in the life of a city’, defiantly artsy thing, to ‘the hits’, these furious three-minute punk songs. It’s always going to be different. That’s how you’ll get your money’s worth."

THE BURNETTES

"We’re all over the map, but we’re consistently all over the map," stresses Cora Burnette, one half of the husband/wife Vancouver-based combo The Burnettes (you may recall hubby Chris from strumming duties in Furnace Maintenance).

"Our official term for our music is ‘new-wave-country-kitchen-party-pop’. It’s pretty accurate, in that it’s a little bit of everything. We’re not here to blow you away with our polished pop songs."

Their descriptor also captures the freewheeling vibe on their two records, the charmingly shambolic, consciously home-produced debut Album Schmalbum and the recent We’d Better Be Dreaming. Both releases feature sweet nuggets of songcraft playfully delivered by either Cora’s velvet purr or Chris’s more deadpan vocal approach; simple tunes about relationship promises, moms, and self-doubt.

Lullabies may be on the agenda for the next Burnettes CD, since they also have another Burnette in development–the couple are expecting their first child in August.

"We’re praying for a drummer or a bass player," Cora confesses. "There are enough guitar players in the family already."

The couple is playing a few dates in their former home province while on their way to NXNE, accompanied by drummer and honorary Burnette Kreg ‘Mung’ Brow.

"Mung’s awesome. He’s this big, huge guy who drums like a shaman." She adds, "Our live show is more consistent than the records–my acoustic guitar, Chris’ distorted acoustic, and Mung drumming, but every song is still a weird hybrid of different genres."

RUN WITH THE HUNTED

"It’s kind of a ‘band rule’. We try not to play bar shows," explains Tyler Day, bassist for Edmonton hardcore practitioners Run With The Hunted. "Not so much because of the alcohol, but we don’t want to exclude the younger kids. We remember the disappointment of when we were 16 and 17 and couldn’t get into shows."

Day says the two-year old band, "Feeds off the energy and intensity of the crowd. Interacting with them, when they’re singing along and going crazy in the mosh pit is what it’s about."

He maintains that despite recent lineup changes, RWTH has stayed true to their original hard-as-fuck sound. "Not much has changed since the beginning–we’re still pretty brutal," Day says.

The band is excited about writing towards a full-length release and an upcoming show June 23 with New York’s legendary Bane. In the meantime, they are looking forward to hanging out and catching up with peers from here and Calgary at Saturday’s show. "We know most of the bands," he says. "We share members with The Divided Left. I’ve never seen them, but we’ve always known the guys from The Ghost Cried Murder. And Nikola Tesla are great; they’re friends."

"It’ll be a good, crazy show," he enthuses.

THE LONDON APARTMENTS

You have to be really, really secure in your masculinity to sing like a girl. And you have to be really, really, really super-confident to rock that "indeterminate gender" thing within the context of incandescent, imperfectly gorgeous, hushed electro-pop confessional confections.

The London Apartments is another of those "one guy with a band name" acts, consisting of just the extremely secure and talented Justin Langlois. Romanticism Aside, his lovely new album, was recorded as a duo, but Langlois lost musical co-conspirator Erin Fortier to graduate school and the Windsor-based artist is once again solo.

"Romanticism Aside was written and recorded with a second person in mind, and live I try to stick pretty close to the album, using what I have–loops on my computer and my guitar. I can’t do everything myself," Langlois explains. "But I figure that not a lot of people will know the songs anyway, so it’s more interesting."

Despite strange worldwide connections facilitated through the techno-serendipity of the Internet–a split EP with Japanese band The Bad Spellers, hooking up with Florida label Sound of Pop Records (they stumbled on The London Apartments on the New Music Canada website)–this is Langlois’ first time playing out west.

"That’s part of the excitement of this tour," he says, "getting to play for people I haven’t played for yet. I’m also doing a showcase at NXNE, trying to get some attention and US distribution."

"The label’s been great–not just financially supportive, but emotionally supportive too." Langlois continues, "It’s nice to get a call and some encouragement when I’m on tour. Knowing they believe in me lets me relax and approach things with more confidence."