THE MOST SERENE REPUBLIC
8:30 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $8.
The kids are still crazy about that Canadian sound, I hear. You know that sound: It’s made by folks that travel in packs called, natively, “collectives.” You usually hear their ruckus before they’re close enough to see. First your ears catch some minor chords played on, I dunno, a squeezebox and one of those Ricola horns. Then you pick up on the stomps and claps and high school choir harmonies and, before you know it, you’re shimmying along. When they hit your line of vision, you’ll know ’em when you see ’em: big collectives of overgrown kids, all rambunctious, often dressed like Mr. Darcy, Frontier Video Store Clerk. Turns out that some years ago, those kids went on a field trip to Scotland and found a like-minded gang, all droll, curled up on a hardwood floor, cats everywhere, listening to Chad & Jeremy records, wearing itchy wool mittens. Long story short, they were reheating some sandwiches, a nuclear accident from the microwave fused their genes together, and boom: there’s The Most Serene Republic. My Internet’s down so don’t hold me to that story, but I suspect that’s a completely accurate and scientifically sound representation of their genesis. The precocious mutants will visit Little Rock this Saturday with Annuals, their North Carolinian counterparts and What Laura Said, a playful popcore act from Arizona.
-John Tarpley