FFWD Weekly
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Music by Aubrey McInnis Streetsounds The Ex-boyfriends have a dart board with a cartoon version of some girl’s homely ex-boyfriend as bull’s eye. Composed of members from bands such as Yr Scapegoat, The Puritans, Pitchin’ Woo, The Drapes and The Shinolas the quartet is posed to hit their own rock ’n’ roll bull’s eye with their seasoned experience and dynamic performances. A lot of people are attracted to the band because of their active shows featuring local rock legend, Don Davidson (also known as DJ Djewel) being his spontaneous showman self – swinging off light fixtures, sliding lyrically adroit tunes to the audience with a whole lot of sass and high voltage rock energy. Famous for being incurable music addicts, The Ex-boyfriends are releasing an album of their own this summer offering fans a further glimpse at the depth of the band and a chance to hear poetic lyrics that they might otherwise miss in a noisy bar atmosphere. Try and decipher their lyrics (and remember to duck) as The Ex-boyfriends and Straight open the show for Nikki Sudden & The Jacobites on Friday, March 12 at The Night Gallery. Playing a set of new music on March 12 with maybe one or two old favourites, Straight have just begun to stand on their own feet again since a drastic member change last year. Mainstays Joe McCaffery (guitar, vox) and Cheryl Lancastle (bass, vox) were permanently joined by drummer Jay Woolley after their old drummer and other guitarist retired from the band. Although a lot of their recorded material was written as a four-piece, they’ve ditched most of it and have written a slew of fresh songs that are proficiently carried as a trio. They may be recording a few four-track singles before delving into recording a CD and are still as serious about making good music as ever. Another band to watch for this summer in the independent section of your favorite record store are boogie rockers The Puritans. They begin recording their follow-up to Marquee Themes next month and are still working their global appeal. Not only are they on New York’s Skully Records compilation, Black Jacket Racket, but they’ve been given a spotlight profile by a DJ in Latvia. Bob Keelaghan (on guitar) explains that The Puritans 7-inch single (part of the Ship & Anchor’s not-so-successful Cocktail Series) was discovered by an L.A. jazz producer who then sent it to the radio show Rockade in Latvia. (All other interested bands can contact and mail this guy their stuff at www.radio.org.lv). Once their drummer is set (for now, they’re working with Court Recorder’s Jonathan Swyres), they’ll be touring to promote their new record. They’re currently selecting the songs they want to record and have a large amount of material to choose from – including jazz, Latin, and slower numbers – but Bob offers the assurance that they’re all still very loud. The Puritans will be playing with Winnipeg’s Stagmummer on Saturday, March 13 at the Night Gallery.

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