Maxos le Gervoïde - Les Ti-Gars N'Mourront Jamais (Cuchabata)

Quebec is a unique place in North America, musically speaking. Leaving the rabid politicking aside (please!) and glancing at the musical output here leads one to see, at first glance, three tiers of artists. At the top are predominantly anglophone (read: english) bands, usually from elsewhere in Canada and usually based in Montreal… the only truly bilingual city in a massive province. The next tier is a smaller one and includes francophone (read: french) bands that make good in the anglo world, by singing in english or following the tropes of mainstream indie rock.. as witnessed by the recent popularity abroad of bands like Malajube and Karkwa. These bands, however talented, are trying to cross over by appealing to the lexicon most easily grasped by the music buying zeitgeist of North America. Third tier is reserved for bands that are firmly planted in francophonia, bands you will never hear of outside of the Queeb circuit and perhaps a wider french appeal into France.

If one scrutinizes the space between those tiers, however, a wealth of interstitial and essential music and art is being made that transcends these illusory limitations of geography and culture. An hour down the road from the metropolis of Montreal the small burgh of Valleyfield, Quebec is teeming with a new generation of genre-blending and envelope-pushing young bands. Enter Maxos le Gervoïde , one of the many jewels in the crown of Valleyfield-based DIY label Cuchabata. This funny, poignant and incredibly gifted young songwriter has forged an instant classic on his latest Les Ti-Gars N’Mourront Jamais (loosely: the little dudes will never die.). Every song on the CD lilts along with enough sly and at times risquee humor to put a smile on, tempered by a serious ability to craft melody and memorable tunefulness. At times sounding like a conflation of Plume Latraverse , K recs-era Beck and early Tom Waits , every song on this offering rings with clever truths and relaxed but nimble mid-fi playing and production. Maxos’ ability to story-tell is featured strongly on songs like the title track, a salacious anthem of post-pubescent sexual awakening, followed up by a contemporized and rewritten version of Tom Waits’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”. Throughout songs like “Ma Guitare Contre un Missile” and “Brise Moi le Coeur Mais Pas L’Frien” laid-back guitar drives the dense poetics of lyric while the funny asides pepper the song spicily here and there. “Mon Meilleur Ami…”, a tongue-in-cheek lament about a friend who is becoming a cop sets the stage for the amazing (and self-deprecatingly hilarious) love-hate hometown ode “Valleyfield me Deteste”. Unabashedly and only slightly sleazily, Maxos worships the female form on “Le Corps D’Une Femme”. By the time the Neil Young -laced slowdance of “Ma Barmaid Est Parti” waltzes in, you really get the feeling of travelled, that Maxos Le Gervoïde has found in his music both means of poeticizing and channeling his storytelling but also pulling towards something wider than the little slice of province he springs from. But for the language these songs should be universal, as the themes are accessible to anyone.

Les Ti-Gars N’Mourront Jamais is a nugget of indie folk rock perfection, a firm foundation holding up a complex batch of stories that draw you in and make you laugh, sometimes despite yourself. Like the best and most transcendent music, the songs don’t need you to know the language to enjoy them either.. an underground gem that hopefully hints at a long and prolific career for this talented songwriter from Valleyfield.

http://www.myspace.com/maxoslegervode
http://www.myspace.com/cuchabatarecords