GBGG – Pick A Piper

Good Band, Great Guys or GBGG is about bands who rock and who aren’t jerks.

Pick A Piper is one of those side projects that go so fantastically right that they very quickly cease to be side projects and jump directly to being headliners in their own right. PAP features Brad Webber of Polaris Prize winning outfit Caribou, Angus Fraser of Tenth of May, Dan Roberts of ex-Winter Equinox and Clint Scrivener.

Like a micro-chipped poncho, Pick A Piper play tribal psychedelic rock with a deliciously biting electronic component and a serious dose of percussion. Ecstatically charged yet almost trance-inducing, PAP are a vodka-redbull with none of the edge, all of the euphoria and zero unpleasant aftertaste. The quartet keep the pulse racing with their 2 drummer set up (they play a Siamese kit, or 2 kits connected by a cymbal), but it’s the understated vocals and melodic flourishes draw you away from the frenetic and towards the sublime. The bells and glockenschpiel featured in their song ‘Rooms’ shimmer and shine over acoustic guitar, barely audible group vocals and hand drums, and make this track a slowly ascendant joy-ride. The arrangement of flute, trumpet, layered vocals and never-ending percussion see their self-titled EP diverse enough to forgive the hippy-dippyness; it’s just SO GOOD that it gets rescued from the cheese pile and move directly to kick ass.

My pick for EP of the summer.

The band has only been together since the early days of 2009, but they’ve developed so quickly it’s astounding. I first saw them play the Drake back in February and thought – my goodness there’s potential here! By the time I caught their second Toronto show in late March I was convinced - clearly they’re on their way to working out all the little live hiccups that come with being a new band, particularly one that bridges analogue (live instrumentation) with electronic (pre-recorded blips and boops). I’ve confident that 3^rd time will be a charm, so for any and all in Toronto this weekend, I advise checking their set out at The Cameron House Saturday night, before Caribou jump-start their hectic touring schedule up again and you’re left wishing you’d caught them when you could.

For Fans Of: Akron/Family, Caribou, Animal Collective, Plants and Animals

Listen at http://www.myspace.com/pickapiper