The Music Tapes

Julian Koster's The Music Tapes project will be at Toronto's Lee's Palace on Friday while I'm farther south in the city at the Horseshoe Tavern seeing Jon Langford, The Sadies and The Burlington Welsh Male Choir.

But even though I'll miss his show, Julian was such a gentleman when he performed at my house with his singing saw Badger in December that I thought I should give his performance a plug. By the way, you can see six videos from that magic night in our media section. They're worth checking out.

The Music Tapes feature the singing saw as well as a number of antique instruments and mechanical contraptions put together by the former Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control member to make interesting and experimental music. You can hear more of it on Music Tapes For Clouds And Tornadoes, which was recorded in Julian's various bedrooms and released by Merge Records last year.

Julian will be joined at Lee's by Nana Griziol and Brian Dewan, who narrated The Music Tapes' 2nd Imaginary Symphony For Cloudmaking. Dewan is a multimedia artist whose 1993 Bar/None debut album, Brian Dewan Tells The Story, is worth seeking out if it's still in print.

If I don't see you at the Horseshoe on Friday, give The Music Tapes a shot at Lee's.