Clem Snide - "All Green". Clem Snide played in Montreal at the end of October, at a little club called le Petit Cafe Campus. I went alone - ostensibly to review the show, but I never got around to it. Clem Snide's one of my pet little bands - I like them quite a lot, but no one else I've played them for has ever become quite so smitten. Eef's lyrics are always clever and sharp, but he has a romantic side I enjoy very much, too.

Anyway, there I was at the show, sitting on my own. (When I came in the door and took one of the stools along the wall, a fortysomething francophone man invited me to take one of the chairs at his table. It wasn't a drunken gesture, an uncomfortably friendly one, or any sort of creepy invitation; it was just a kind offer from one chain-smoking, greying, alt-country-music listening loner to another [minus the smoking thing]. For the rest of the show, I regretted not taking him up on it.) Surprise opener was Jim Bryson - whom I saw at BluesFest this summer - and I was struck with the same impressions as from several months ago. His live, full-band performance is scorching, terrific, bristling and fullhearted. I haven't heard the new one yet, but I do hope that it captures some of Bryson's loud, warm live show.

Er. Anyway... Clem Snide. Your Favorite Music is my favourite of theirs, by far, with the last couple being a little too rock for their own good. Each is spotted with amazing songs, however - seek out "Donna," "Your Favorite Music," "African Friend," "Lost On the River," "Chinese B"... Their new one, Soft Spot sounds like it should be genius - Eef's fallen headoverheels, and here's some pure-and-unadulterated love-songs. Sadly, it's not - the album plods, it lacks the beauty it aspires to. "All Green" is a perfect example of this, but it's still completely great. The instrumental backing just never lives up to the almost-too-good lyrics ("But summer will come with Al Green and sweetened iced-tea / Summer will come and be all green with the sweetness of thee"). Still, that line is good enough to sell whole albums, if you ask me.

Oh - Live? They were good. Not astounding, but good. Eef was distracted but earnest, peculiar and sincere. The highlight was a song called "Beautiful," not yet released... I'll have my ears open.

To continue the live-shows-of-2003 theme, there's this:

Bonnie Billy and the Marquis de Tren - "II-XV". This is from Get on Jolly, a collaborative EP between Will Oldham (Bonnie [Prince] Billy) and Mick Turner (Marquis de Tren, the Dirty 3). When Oldham played in Ottawa this summer, the show's emotional climax came (for me), when this sweet, forceful, devastating song turned over on itself and became "New Partner." This is a track that must be paid-attention-to. It's like a fallen star. Please.