>>PREVIEW
MALAJUBE
Wednesday, March 28
The Warehouse
"Sorry about my English," apologizes 26-year-old Mathieu Cournoyer, rock ’n’ roll bassist and former bike courier in Montreal’s Malajube. "It tends to get better after I’ve had some beer."
Ironically, Malajube is the first band to break out of Montreal by singing in its mother tongue, French. Many of the band’s peers who have either helped build the buzz of the Montreal scene or tried to capitalize on it cannot call the city their proper hometown, since most of them have relocated from either Toronto or Vancouver.
Understandably, members of the Montreal scene have been biding their time wondering when a band that was actually born in Montreal and represented authentic Francophone Montreal culture would make a splash on the rest of the world.
After listening to their Polaris Award nominated, Trompe-L’Oeil, it isn’t a mystery how this quintet has become entirely exportable to the rest of Canada and to the United States. One of last year’s best releases, Trompe-L’Oeil is an instrumentally mesmerizing package. Every deeply compelling melody is held in place with engrossing guitar chords and a rallying rhythm section jostling the listener into understanding the story of the lyrics.
Lyrically, Cournoyer says Malajube is no different from any other band.
"I’m just really happy that we sing in French and people show up anyway," he continues. "A couple years ago, (we were told) we’d never go to the States singing in French. It feels good."
"I’m sure it’ll be really fun in Canada, but touring the States and seeing a bunch of people showing up at shows in Cleveland or (wherever) it’s really weird for us seeing people trying to sing along with our songs, it’s like, what the hell?"
Armed with five new heavier songs in their repertoire, Malajube have been visiting the studio to record their third presently untitled album. |
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