Plants And Animals Like Slow Cookin'

This summer, Plants And Animals joined the small, elite club of artists at Secret City Records. The label's other two Montreal acts, Miracle Fortress and Patrick Watson, were both nominated for the Polaris Prize in July. Watson won. P & A are set to release a new LP early next year that could prove equally prize-worthy.

Until Parc Avenue drops, fans can tide themselves over with an EP called With/Avec, which the band have been selling on tour and will be available in stores in late October. Both are quintessentially Montreal titles in that they refer to the city's bilingualism.

Only a few aficionados are likely to remember the band's self-titled debut EP which they released way back in 2004. Why did the new discs take so long to record?

"Because it's just so much fun!" said drummer Matthew "The Woodman" Woodley over the phone from Montreal. "Things kept growing and changing as we were [recording] and I think we just kept doing stuff until something inside us said, 'These are the right songs.' It's very much an album more than it is just songs."

That dedication to quality also led P & A to use entirely analog equipment. "We recorded on two-inch tape. We hadn't expected it, but when you record to 24 tracks like that and you don't have a big fucking computer screen in front of you... you're limited by what you can do. It means you have to play well; you can't patch up mistakes here and there."

The Woodman and his guitarist cohorts, Warren Spicer and Nic Basque, are a nerdy music critic's worst nightmare. Try as he might, this writer can't think of any precious, too-specific subcategories that neatly brand the band's sound in only a handful of hyphenated words. Maybe I'm just bad at my job, but apparently others have had the same problem.

"People have been calling it 'post-classic rock,'" Woodley says with a chuckle. He later admits that he himself invented that tag with the help of a journalist friend and a pitcher of beer.

"It's funny, because it's not post-rock and post-rock is definitely not the sound of the future. It's more the sound of the late-'90s."

Their neo-traditional (there's a good one) style defies specific categorization. Suffice to say that Plants And Animals play rock 'n' roll music with passion and talent. What else is there to know?

Plants and Animals 2007 Canadian Tour dates:

Nov. 16 Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
Nov. 17 Toronto, ON @ Drake Hotel
Nov. 21 Halifax, NS @ The Grawood
Nov. 22 Charlottetown, PE @ Hunter's Ale House
Nov. 23 Moncton, NB @ The Paramount
Nov. 24 St. John, NB @ Ellwood's
Nov. 28 Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre w/ Patrick Watson
Nov. 29 Regina, SK @ The Exchange w/ Patrick Watson
Nov. 30 Calgary, AB @ The Grand Theatre w/ Patrick Watson
Dec. 1 Edmonton, AB @ Myer Horowitz Theatre w/ Patrick Watson
Dec. 4 Kelowna, BC @ Habitat w/ Patrick Watson
Dec. 5 Victoria, BC @ Element w/ Patrick Watson
Dec. 6 Vancouver, BC @ Transmission Showcase
Dec. 7 Vancouver, BC @ St. James Hall w/ Patrick Watson