Die Mannequin: Chantal Kreviazuk Is Like Patti Smith, PJ Harvey

On the surface, Toronto alterna-punk trio Die Mannequin share little in common with Winnipeg-born folk-pop megastar Chantal Kreviazuk. They trade in the kind of raunchy riffs and screw-off attitude that's bound to have many of Kreviazuk's fans scurrying into dark corners, wetting themselves in fear. So it might surprise some to hear that frontwoman Care Failure (real name Caroline Kawa) recently spent a bit of quality time fleshing out some of her new songs with the multi-platinum Chatelaine cover model in Los Angeles.

"We get along so well, and we're really similar. It's kind of weird," says Failure, before a show at a downtown Toronto bar. "She's all five-months pregnant and swearing and awesome. She's totally got it in that cool Patti Smith, PJ Harvey way — that attitude that you have to have respect. She said it the best: 'On any given day you could write a better song than I could write, or I could write a better song than you.'"

But with a rapidly growing fan base and two much-loved EPs to her band's credit, it's not as if Failure and her bandmates — bassist Tony "Useless" Bleed and drummer Pat, a.k.a. Ghostwolf — seem to need a helping hand. A fresh take on things, maybe.

"I've never written with hardly anyone, and I wanted to see what would happen," explains Failure, noting she also met with "a guy from Helmet" and some other songwriters while in L.A. "There are some songs where you know where to finish and then there's some stuff where it's like, 'I don't know where to go from here.' I've never done it before and so it was good."

Failure seems even more pleased about having the chance in L.A. to hang out with grunge metal goofs The Melvins, one of her all-time favourite bands.

"They played me some new songs off their record, but they didn't know who the fuck I was. I have them tattooed on my arm so I was trying to hide it because I'm all embarrassed," she says, before exposing a tattoo of the cover of the band's 1993 record Houdini on her forearm.

Amidst all the excitement and hard work on material for Die Mannequin's debut full-length, Failure admits she'd almost forgotten about Unicorn Steak, a 10-song collection that repackages the band's first two EPs together. Released on March 4, the disc also boasts a couple of previously unreleased songs, including an early demo from 2006 called "Empty's Promise" and a cover of a tune called "Hand In Hand" by a German punk band called The Beatsteaks. Failure says the meaty title is a tongue-in-cheek play on the disc's not-so-rare material.

"It's like [puts on mock car salesman voice] 'Unicorn Steak. One hundred per cent joyous, beautiful collection of joyous music. It's one of a kind,'" she says, laughing. "People kind of know they're not rare, but then there's some new stuff. So it's like being a fucking car salesman."

Rare or not, the release will give Die Mannequin something fresh to peddle to fans and to potential converts as they head to Germany and Europe for a spring tour with fellow Toronto rockers Danko Jones. Before that, though, they'll head out across Quebec and Ontario to finish some dates that were postponed last fall when tour mate Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 injured his back.

Check out Die Mannequin opening for Sum 41 at one of these all-ages shows:

March 14 Sherbrooke, QC @ Theatre Granada
March 15 Quebec City, QC @ Pavillon de la Jeunesse, Agora de Quebec
March 17 Barrie, ON @ Georgian College
March 18 Kingston, ON @ Stages
March 19 Oshawa, ON @ GM Centre
March 21 Windsor, ON @ The Roxy Entertainment Complex
March 22 London, ON @ Centennial Hall
March 23 Hamilton, ON @ Wentworth Room, Hamilton Convention Centre
March 25 Kitchener, ON @ Elements
March 26 North Bay, ON @ Nipissing University
March 27 Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus