M For Montreal: Friday

MONTREAL — Another day, another set of young, eager bands coming down the conveyor belt.

The second night of M For Montreal followed an identical format to day one: a group of American, British and European tastemakers scuttled back and forth between two stages in the same venue, eventually catching six bands play for 30 minutes apiece. Oh, except the Cabaret was also holding the Maxim Grey Cup Party on Friday night as well. M For Montreal had some impressive acts, but none of them included scantily clad cheerleaders.

The first act was Montreal francophone band Chinatown, who are composed of French pop/mod music fans who play extremely catchy pop music.

You may have already heard their work without realizing it. The Stills' contribution to the Wicker Park soundtrack, the French-sung "Retour A Vega," is a Chinatown original. The first Stills record is a fairly good launching point for what Chinatown sounds like, although the influence of French pop — especially in the warm keyboards and jangly guitar riffs — gives Chinatown their own feel.

Hamilton trad-rockers Arkells were next. The quintet were a stark contrast to the preceding act since their rough, earthy guitars sounded distinctly American compared to the more European-influenced groups that dominated the night. Considering the Brits' inexplicable fascination with southern roots (now arena) rockers Kings Of Leon, the Arkells' gruff working-class style of rock and lyrics about being "John Lennon in 1967" could find a niche in the U.K.

The only gripe was the occasional switching from a garage-based sound to a more bouncy, indie style. It often sounded like two different bands were performing (especially on the keyboard-heavy tracks), and some of the outro jams seemed inappropriate given the earlier tones in the songs.

If you haven't yet heard of Winter Gloves, expect to be inundated in the upcoming year with the kind of relentless praise befitting the next big band to come from Montreal. Are Winter Gloves worthy of such hype?

Not necessarily, although with seemingly every act at M For Montreal dabbling in synth pop, Winter Gloves' more interesting textures provided an enjoyable respite from the onslaught of similar sounding trendy bands, despite their being a synth pop band as well.

Winter Gloves played tracks from their 2008 full-length debut, About A Girl, and frontman Charles F.'s falsetto is the group's main selling point. The act most comparable to Winter Gloves are an up-and-coming band from Boston called Passion Pit, another name to look out for in 2009.

Beast — composed of former Champion singer Betty Bonifassi and Plaster drummer Jean-Phi Goncalves — have been covered quite a bit already, but their live show remains a shocker regardless of how many times you've seen them or experienced the record.

Theirs was by far the night's loudest show. Bonifassi sung and rapped with frightening ferocity while Goncalves rapped with a bullhorn when he wasn't behind his drum kit. The lighting and use of smoke was superb and made Beast's aggressive trip-hop sound all the more sinister. Surprisingly, they most resemble Rage Against The Machine on stage.

If you combine recorded output with live shows, there might not be a better band around than Toronto's Woodhands. Their set — which went over the allotted time, but no one seemed to care — was the one instance during the night where it seemed kosher to dance amongst a crowd of crotchety music execs.

Vocalist Dan Werb flailed around and screamed obscenities like he had come down with a temporary case of Tourette's syndrome, while human drum machine Paul Banwatt provided the backbone to Woodhands' brand of analogue dance music. After catching them opening for We Are Wolves at this year's International Jazz Festival and their own headlining set at Pop Montreal, it can be safely said Woodhands are one of this country's best and most consistent live groups.

Considering We Are Wolves were the winners of last year's M For Montreal contest, it would seem unfair to allow the group's side-project, the much dancier CLAASS, to be eligible a year later. CLAASS feature two of the three Wolves — bassist Alex Ortiz and keyboardist Vincent Levesque — and local DJ Jordan Dare. They're still fairly unknown despite forming more than a year ago.

Dare handles most of the vocal duties, though it sounds like an invading army of shouting robots with all the microphone reverb that's used. Their beats suggest the trio could make excellent hip-hop producers. Who knows if this collaborative effort will result in an album (or even any actual tracks for their MySpace page), but CLAASS have come up with a distinctive sound.