Apostle of Hustle

I thought Craig Mercer would be the reigning king of my favorite Canadian guitarist in my heart forever. Craig, you've met your match. Andrew Whiteman, frontman of Apostle of Hustle and guitarist of the Broken Social Scene, is pretty damned close. The two are stylistically similar -- as if born from the same little Fender factory -- but somehow come from such divergent backgrounds it can't be possible. And yet, to me, there was something so oddly familiar. Mixed reggae-indie-electro styles with more funky pedal action than I can fill my ears with? Chops? I dunno. I'm just a music fan, not an expert or critic.

What do I care? I've got a new band to love.

I don't know why I hadn't seen Apostle of Hustle up until now. Some bands just manage to escape my heavy concert calendar, I guess. Well, on a whim, I thought I'd head up to Il Motore (a venue that is growing on me since my kind of lukewarm feelings of it since it opened) and see the hoopla and hee haw. I missed the openers -- that's how indifferent I was to the whole thing. Ah, man, I was just totally enraptured from the get go.

The sound is exactly what me loves most. Fused styles that become their own style, wildness, dancing tunes, crazy lyrics, sampled sound, tambourine action, and a lot of give'r as they used to say back east. The drummer... Jesus Christ... he was on fire. If you haven't seen these guys yet, don't sit on your hands waiting and watching for hummingbirds. These guys are amazzzzzzzzing. With that many zeds.

Muchas gracias! Muchas muchas muchas.