This Friday, November 14 offers two unbearably hot choices for music lovers. First, local spaz-rock indie group Fox Opera will release their long-delayed CD at The Palomino Social Club with pals Hunter Gatherer and The Grim Beat.

Just blocks away, Broken City will host an evening of unpredictable twists and turns with the reckless Thee Thems, The Wicked Awesomes and the exciting debut of Sharp Ends, a band birthed from the ashes of the much-loved and now defunct The Ostrich, and featuring members of all-ages alumni The Pants Situation and post-punk power trio Draft Dodgers. In a recent chat with Fast Forward, singer Chris Zajko, guitarist Dan Christiansen and bassist Dan Laplante gave old Dane some backstory and a sip of what to expect.

“No dicking around,” says Christiansen. “No seven-minute songs or anything. To the point, loud rock ’n’ roll. Shit that’s not going to make you bored or anything. We got a lot of frustration.”

Following The Ostrich’s demise, Zajko and drummer Mike Bressanutti set about assembling a new team of misfits and invalids, testing out a few different flavours before settling on Laplante and Christiansen, bringing them both back into the fray after a year-long break since the implosion of both The Pants Situation and Draft Dodgers (who called it quits at the same show, lovingly documented on the Melodiya Concert Archive DVD, Vol. 1, available at Melodiya Records).

With Christiansen’s frantic, puncturing riffs and LaPlante’s no-nonsense bass running alongside the drumming and vocals of The Ostrich, the sound that the new band will debut is difficult to imagine. According to Christiansen, though, it’s the attitude that they all share that makes the band work.

“The first thing that I think we all agreed on is there’s really no effort,” he says. “We come over, and we’re just having fun. This is our sanctuary. What’s the quote from the Goonies? ‘It's their time. Their time up there! Down here, it's our time. Our time.’ I think Mikey said that when they’re in the well, and they’re about to go home, but they’re like ‘No man, we gotta keep going, this is our chance.’ Same idea.”

After you get all cut up by Sharp Ends, The Ironwood Grill will offer up a soothing ointment in the form of folk trio The Fates on Friday, November 21. Building a fog of acoustic grooves and cutting through them with strong vocal melodies, these three damsels will heal your wounds and make a few new ones while they’re at it. Winding further down the folky path, the Marquee Room will feature the creeping blues of the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir and under-appreciated roots-rocker Jon Gant on Saturday, December 6.