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Pier pressure

Ford Pier at the Horseshoe (368 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 9 pm. $7. 416-598-4753. it's not easy to describe the musi cal margin-walk that Ford Pier hazards. Pier-ic Victory, Pier's new album, is ample proof of the man's extraordinary talent, but because he's so deft in his stylistic inter-breeding, he's hard to define.

"For me, there are as many different ways of writing songs as there are songs," Pier says. "Sometimes they come very slowly and develop over time. Other times they come all at once and take less time to write than to listen to. It's as if they emerge as a gestalt from someplace outside myself."

As a songwriter, Pier is sincere, and his lyrics are beautifully precise. Musically, he's able to pull references and nuanced gestures out of the full spectrum of pop styles. No doubt, much of his encyclopedic fluency comes from years with musicians as varied as D.O.A., Jr. Gone Wild, Neko Case, Veda Hille, Martin Tielli and Carolyn Mark.

It's a ragged comparison, but Pier has the thing that's made Elvis Costello's such an inspired career – a voice that's completely his own.

Bangin' banjo

Elliott Brood at the Cameron House (408 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 10 pm. $6. 416-703-0811. as mark sasso strums, slashes and slaps away at his banjo alongside Elliott Brood guitarist Casey Laforet and suitcase percussionist Stephen Pitkin, it soon becomes evident that he's a devotee of neither the clawhammer style nor the Earl Scruggs three-finger technique. In fact, his idiosyncratic rhythmic bashing has no clear precedent in the bluegrass tradition, which makes sense when you find out he's never encountered the music of Bill Monroe or the Stanley Brothers – or anyone they inspired, for that matter.

"I found a banjo at a pawn shop in Lindsay," explains Sasso, "and I just started playing it the way it felt right and sounded right to me. Later, I picked up this pamphlet on how to tune the instrument. I found a tuning that worked and I've stuck with that ever since."

That may seem like heresy to traditionalists, but Sasso's naive approach to the instrument hearkens back to the pre-recording origins of banjo music, when many of the best players were self-taught.

It wasn't long before he hooked up with his old pal Laforet, strangely enough, also in Lindsay, and the duo started creating material for Elliott Brood. Sasso noticed that composing on the banjo was having an unusual effect on the songs he was writing.

"My songs immediately became much darker," says Sasso. "Before I picked up the banjo, I wasn't writing anything this heavy. I mean, my stuff wasn't exactly happy, but I definitely wasn't writing murder ballads."

Girl Nobody

Girl wonder

GIRL NOBODY at the Reverb (651 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 11 pm. $10. 416-507-0744. marta jaciubek, girl nobody's pol ish-born vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist, sounds awfully calm considering it's 9 am in Vancouver and she's speaking while packing with the band before heading off on their first tour ever. Jaciubek's not nervous. "Should I be?" she asks.

Come to think of it, no. Her five-member group, which bandmate Joey Turco aptly describes as the Who meets Portishead, borrows its name from a Tomek Tryzna novel, and plays with the confidence to weather any storm. At least they do on their debut, The Future Isn't What It Used To Be.

But uncertainty awaits, as Jaciubek's Rhodes may be too cumbersome to take, and their last practice was a bust.

"Judging by last night, people shouldn't expect too much," she jokes. "But every time we have a bad practice, we have a wicked show."

Visuals, instruments galore (each member plays at least two – Turco alone plays seven including mandolin, theremin and moog) and the camaraderie of friendship since kindergarten should make for a tight night.

"It's a warm family atmosphere with a bit of freaking out," says Jaciubek. "We try to make it interesting as possible."

Pyramid power

4th Pyramid at the Funhaus (526 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 10 pm. $10. 416-366-3303 toronto rapper/producer 4th Pyramid, who's the first Canadian signee to New York's Def Jux label, feels he got famous after just two songs. "In Montreal, people stop me on the street," he says on the phone from la belle province. "Those who know, know. A lot of people who once knew now hate. I personally feel good. I got fed mangoes for breakfast the other day."

After releasing his instrumental album The Light Is But The Shade Of Darkness in 2000, he bounced between New York and Toronto after meeting soon-to-be Jookie C-Rayz Walz and recording a single at D&D Studio with him.

"El-P approached C-Rayz in 2002 to sign a deal, and he got a chance to hear a bunch of songs C-Rayz and I had recorded for our collabo album under the group name the Angel & the Preacher. He was digging my style and asked C-Rayz what was up. I went in and played him some songs. The first two tracks I played for El-P ended up being on the lead single to the compilation Definitive Jux Presents 3. It was a big step for the little steppers."

He's willing to perform live for any-size crowd.

"A month ago I played for 10 people in Portland. I had fun but moved on. Then it's, like, you go to Boston for 600 kids and they're chanting a song they didn't know till one verse ago. I feel like a king now."

Karma co-op

WELCOME KARMA at the Cameron (408 Queen West) tonight (Thursday, June 10), 11 pm. $6. 416-703-0811. this excellent toronto trio's like Modest Mouse, Pavement and the Shins all rolled into one. Recently hooked up with EMI, Welcome Karma show all the signs of going the distance. Of course, having the Band's Garth Hudson as an ally doesn't hurt. As lead singer and guitarist Erik Alcock points out, "He's a friend of Andrew Haust's (W.K.'s drummer) uncle, and we had a chance to meet him, so we brought along a bongo and guitar and played some of our songs.

"He liked them enough to end up playing piano on the album, and helped out with studio time."

Attracting a great piano/keyboard player with such subtle, low-key melodies is a testament to the strength of Alcock's songs. There's no Chest Fever pipe organ going on here, just simple structures and impassioned performances that hold the songs together.

The hook is Alcock's fragile vocal delivery, revealing an honest vulnerability that makes you believe every word he says.

Sekiden

Rosy Sekiden

SEKIDEN at B-Side (129 Peter), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 1 am. $8. anyone expecting brisbane's seki den to fall in line with the greasy classic rock rehash of recent imports from Down Under is in for a shock when the Aussie power trio hits the B-Side tonight. Sure, they pull off a certain nostalgia trip, but their retro flair has more to do with amped-up synths, fluorescent shoelaces and Saturday morning cartoons. Think the Cars but cuter, with a jolt of Ramones-ish pogoing. Sekiden's Simon doesn't understand why folks in his homeland are so obsessed with the heavier side of things.

"It's like a pop rock hangover in Australia that never went away. In the mid-90s there was a movement against grunge and heavy tunes that killed hair metal off, and I thought we were done with it. I have some metal records, and we all love AC/DC, but I don't know about the new stuff. Their energy is all right, but they need melody."

Sekiden's candy-coloured electro-pop and sweet boy-girl harmonies should be enough to cure that dearth of melody, and while their summery anthems sound too upbeat to be true, Simon insists the band is actually that happy.

"Well, at least most of the time. My band seems to think I'm a crankypants, but it just depends how much coffee I've gotten into me during the day and how much beer I've gotten into me at night. In general, we're terribly cheerful people."

Heroic Spitfires

Spitfires and Mayflowers at the Cameron (408 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 1 am. $6. 416 703 0811 according to the four musical cadets in Toronto's Spitfires and Mayflowers, the band's had a great first year. The same friends who were lying when they said they liked the band now grudgingly admit their appreciation for the music. Spitfires started when high school chums singer/guitarist Jose Lourenco and guitarist/voxman Henry Fletcher met up with Andy Lloyd and drummer Tim Oakley, who initially didn't know and didn't like the two.

You can tell by their live show that that's not true any more. The lineup's camaraderie and artistic fit seem like they've been there forever, and each non-percussionist handles some songwriting duties.

It's a prescription that creates a musical drug with differing effects, depending on which one sings. Lloyd has a sugary-sweet voice and songwriting technique, whereas Lourenco and Fletcher take a similar cocky 70s/new wave approach to their tunes. So why form a band?

"It used to be getting girls, but we all have girlfriends," says Lourenco over Cohibas and milkshakes as we prattle at a Yorkville cigar bar. "Now it's to make the white kids dance."

They've garnered attention at an out-of-town stop at the Pop Montreal festival and opened for acts like Weird War and the Arcade Fire, and there's an upcoming T.O gig supporting bro/sis combo the Fiery Furnaces. But most importantly, an S&M enthusiast has written fan fiction about the band.

"My favourite is the one where we're superheroes," admits Lourenco.

Bassist Lloyd agrees that the superhero story is the best existing piece of fan-fic in the world, and when he talks about the band's music aspirations, he manages to make them heroic, too.

"We just want to help people," offers the kindly Lloyd.

So help people who help people, and support these hipster youths at their Horseshoe gig.

Starvin’ Hungry

Hungry eyes

STARVIN’ HUNGRY at the Silver Dollar (484 Spadina), tonight (Thursday, June 10), 1 am. $8. 416-763-9139. this montreal quartet is led by ex-Torontonian John Milchem with members of Tricky Woo and Soft Canyon, but they wouldn't be out of place in today's Detroit garage scene. They play no-frills rock and roll at maximum volume. "I don't want to be tagged, but there are worse scenes to be associated with than Detroit rock," Milchem says when asked about comparisons to the new Detroit bands making waves.

Taking the blueprint laid down by the Stooges, the Stones and Motörhead, Starvin Hungry ain't trying to win no congeniality contests, and they aren't worried about what your mama thinks either. They just wanna rock.

Milchem may sound like Motörhead's Lemmy on a serious Doors binge, but this is no metal band. Keeping the focus on rhythm, they've forgone flashy solos and anthemic choruses.

"I've always loved the rhythm guitar playing and vocal delivery of Lou Reed. Ever since I was a kid, everything he did with the Velvet Underground seemed perfect."

While they don't sound like the Velvets, Starvin Hungry's heavy rock sound will appeal to those who like their rock without the hairspray and makeup.