Time: 9 p.m.

 Cover: $8

The Zolas http://www.myspace.com/thezolas 

Vancouver based The Zolas' debut album 'Tic Toc Tic' mixes infectious indie-pop songs with hairpin turns, schizoid piano throwdowns, and a sort of cabaret strut. This prog-pop treasure chest is equal parts catchy and cryptic; it's like Justin Timberlake meets The Beatles, or maybe Coldplay meets The Clash.

There’s something happening on the west coast. Whether it’s in the air, the water, or the drugs, a pool of talent has formed around the notion that you can have your pop and eat it too, with brainy, prog-influenced weird-beards like Bend Sinister and arcane psycho-confectioners Mother Mother demonstrating that musical complexity can still be hummable. Commercial, even.

Throw The Zolas into the picture and dammit – you might even call it a scene! Not that it’s ever been a concern to long-term musical partners Zach Gray and Tom Dobrzanski, who established their gifts for intricate songcraft three years ago under the name Lotus Child.

Since then, the duo has finessed its formula into something even busier yet no less direct, filling their new album Tic Toc Tic with hairpin turns, schizoid tonal shifts, multiple parts, and a sort of cabaret strut.

Miraculously, between New Pornographers vet Howard Redekopp’s unfinicky production and the clarity of Gray and Dobrzanski’s vision, Tic Toc Tic works like a charm. Complex without being alienating, it aims equally and with dead-eyed precision for the head, heart, and groin.

Guitarist-vocalist Gray hits on the twin poles that define Tic Toc Tic when he reveals an equal passion for the visceral Scandinavian dream pop of Mew, whose influence is obvious, and the classic music hall rag of the Kinks, whose influence is anything but. Not on first listen, anyway, though the presence of Ray Davies is felt in Gray’s lyrics. Particularly when he turns his attention to the mundane, like the character in “You’re Too Cool” who wrestles with his vulnerability at Vancouver’s hipster HQ the Biltmore. Or the confessional “Body Ash”, which documents a relationship on the ropes. The directness of its sentiment echoes what Gray describes as Davies’ “populism”.

Boxing the listener with their virtuosity right off the top, opener “You’re Too Cool” is six minutes of fortified waltz-time piano dissolving into what Gray characterizes as an “anti-chorus”. “The Great Collapse” is swaggering and deceptively sunny power-pop for apocalyptic future scenarios. “Marlaina Kamikaze” bounces between big band stickwork from drummer Ali Siadat, braying trumpet, and a decadent stride-piano breakdown.

Meanwhile, “You Better Watch Out” has Gray anguishing over a cute girl on a bus while cascading piano arpeggios and Aidan Knight’s hyperactive bass push his suffering to operatic levels of high drama. “Queen of Relax” is featherlite prog, and “Cab Driver” somehow contrives to be both the most straightforward number on Tic Toc Tic, and the most demanding. “It’s the most fun to play,” says Dobrzanski, who caps the song with a libidinous boogie-woogie throwdown sizzling enough to give “Honky Cat” era Elton a case of pianist envy. “It’s a rock-out,” he continues. “I like the athleticism involved in parts of it. It’s actually work.”

If “Cab Driver” finds the Zolas in an almost conventional mood, “I’ve Got Leeches” and album closer “Pyramid Scheme” both explore the fringes of the songwriting team’s expanding universe. Gray describes the first as “baroque” and “Bowie-esque”, while the latter, he admits perhaps a little freely, “is one of the tracks where we never cared if anyone ever listens to it.” As such, it includes what Gray calls “a vaguely Maori, haunted house, war chant section.” Deadpans Dobrzanski, “That moment might come across as a bit out there.”

In truth, Tic Toc Tic is a little out there from bar one to its closing outburst of unbound inspiration. Perhaps it has something to do with the duo’s seasoned friendship – they met as choirboys in Grade 9 – or a working relationship that begins with Gray broadstroking ideas and passing them along to Dobrzanski, his classical musically inclined “details guy”.

Whatever alchemical thing lies beneath the sparkling progressive pop of Tic Toc Tic, the partnership has made its great leap forward. It’s our job to catch up. And we should consider it a pleasure. 

 We Are the City http://www.myspace.com/thecitiesmusic

We Are The City is a three piece progressive indie rock act from the Okanagan lakeside city of Kelowna, British Columbia. Originally forming under the name “Seraph” in the Spring of 2006, they changed their name to “The City” in January of 2007, and finally settling upon We Are The City in May of 2008. We Are The City features three young composers: Cayne McKenzie on vocals and keys, David Menzel on guitar, and Andy Huculiak on the drums. Cayne’s symphonic piano arrangements flow into David’s guttural guitars and the grand heartbeat of Andy’s drums, as the vocals slink from soft melodies into gruff howls. Their songs paint out a sincere and beautiful interpretation of life; exploring evocative sounds and storytelling.

They draw inspiration from Muse, Coldplay, Mew, and Radiohead. They have already shared the stage with Alpha Baby, Secret & Whisper, Kyle Tubbs, National Frost, Sylvie, Anything August, The Painted Birds, The Emerson Letters, Italian Edition, My Broken Hero, Bend Sinister, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Winter Gloves, Mother Mother, and Leeroy Stagger. We Are The City was recently invited to close the Best of BC Stage in Victoria, for BC's 150 Festival, followed on the mainstage by Burton Cummings, Sarah McLachlan, and Feist.

Listening to their instrumentation and orchestral arrangements you will readily discover their potential for greatness is simply palpable. Cayne has been classically trained in piano for eight years and playing for twelve. David and Andy are both self-taught musicians, with Andy playing drums for five years, and David playing guitar for four years.

In person, and during their witty banter in between songs on stage, you will find these three young men endearing, awkwardly funny, and incredibly sweet. They are brothers drawn together to explore their own musical renaissance. Having just finished highschool, their innocence and sincerity will pull fans in to find their own fists clenching at nostalgic summer days with bruised teenaged knuckles. These three young men may be comical, humble, and sweetly adorable, but their music is not to be taken lightly. With their booming stadium-ready sounds and stirring melodies, they are set to continue to steadily gain fans of all ages around the globe.

We Are the City will convince you with their good hearts and inspiring sounds to come and be a part of their city.