It was indie rock night at the Slice, Jan. 20 with Michael Granzow, the Utilities, Medicine Hat trio The Daydream Junkies and Jesse Northey and the Dandelions.
 Granzow, who most people know from the Record Holder, started off with a sedate set of originals indie-folk including most of the new Record Holders’ EP “To Sea.” He had a  Weakerthans’ John K Samson thing going on throughout his set.

 The Utilities were up next. This Lethbridge/ Ponoka band impressed me on my first exposure to them as I thought they were going to be another very similar sounding Said the Whale style ambient indie pop band. But they were so much more. The dual Stratocaster powered band brought together a blend of influences including a little funk, a touch of alt-country, a little Weakerthans alterna-rock, a smattering of Dave Matthews folk pop and a lot of indie folk pop. There was lots of jumping around in place, time tempo change, guitar exchanges and a variety of different styles being explored. At one point they segued into  Beck’s “Devil’s Haircut” mid song, though they added a little more funk to it.

Medicine Hat’s Daydream Johnny added a much need burst of energy to a fairly mellow night. The energetic trio supplied a healthy dose of slapback echo filled, snarling late ’60s garage rock.

Going to see Harry Manx is like having your brain massaged for a solid two hours including a break.
That’s what a full house at the Geomatic Attic,  experienced Thursday, Jan. 19.

 The Salt Spring Island bluesman played a really, really, really laid back show of original music as he played a variety of unusual instruments.
 He began his show with a  slow song to set the laid back tone for the night on his signature instrument— the two layered, 20 string east Indian instrument, the Mohan Veena, which  had a hypnotic drone. He managed to make all of his other instruments drone in that East Indian style as well as he tapped out the rhythm on a  couple electronic drum pads.

 He alternated instruments almost every song  incorporating a six string banjo, his cigar box guitar on which he had strung a couple bass strings and a couple of other guitars on which he was playing his unique over the fretboard slide. He didn’t say much in between songs other than to crack a few soft spoken jokes about banjos  and the difficulty of tuning a Mohan Veena and to chuckle “here’s another cheerful song about death.”

 He proved to be an affable host and was every bit the one man band as his fingers fleetly flew over the strings of his odd assortment of instruments.

 His second set proved to be more of the same. One of the laid back highlights, Tijuana,  not only blended the music of the east and west, but also the south. A lot of the second set included songs he wrote with Kevin Breit, with whom he has recorded three CDs. He switched to yet another guitar— a National Steel guitar, and quipped he always wanted a “shiny’ guitar when he was 13 and finally got one when he was 56. He wound down his night by playing and exotic version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.”

The Naked Ear were back at the Slice on Wednesday, Jan. 18 to play some experimental jazz.
 Gordon Leigh and the Naked Ear were interesting as always combining jazz with stream of consciousness poetry.
 They added guitar, bass groove and lot of of percussion for a hypnotically groovy set of experimental jazz fusion.
 An interesting one was “The roots begin in Africa.”
 They were happy to play a request for  “Cold is in the box.”
 They also used a variety of weird instruments like an Ax-Synth and an exotic African thumb piano called the kimbali for extra percussion.

There are a couple excellent folk and blues show in a week which really does have a little bit of everything.
 One of my favourite bluesmen, Edmonton’s Marshall Lawrence is getting pumped up with the Battle of the Blues with John Rutherford at the Slice, Jan. 25.
 The show begins at 8 p.m. There is a $10 cover for it.

And continuing with the boxing theme, there is also music for a good cause this weekend as Soup of Flies help “Knockdown Cancer” with a wind up gala evening at HB’S Lounge, Jan. 28.

 It is the wind up event for a month’s worth of fundraising presenting by bowling centres across Canada throughout January. They have been putting pink bands around the bowing pins, provided a donation box and have donated 25 cents from each bowling shoe rental throughout the month. In addition to music, there will be bowling, of course, both regular and cosmic bowling with local celebrities, a live and silent auction featuring a variety of items including golf, Bulls baseball, teeth whitening, hair care products and restaurant gift certificates. There will be free pizza and a dance with all proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society. Tickets are $25 each.

 Another one of my favourites, Jenny Allen and Leslie Alexander are looking forward to returning to Lethbridge to play the Slice, Jan. 27 before heading south for the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis.
 The duo have each released new CDs in the past year and help each other out on them.
 The show is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.