culture
CMW 2012 Profile: Dirty Penny
Torontoist talks to some CMW 2012 performers. In this installment, we have Dirty Penny, a band that promises each audience member a story to tell the next day.
During Canadian Music Week, there will be many bands that will leave you feeling indifferent. Dirty Penny won’t be one of those. Catch them when they play the Cadillac Lounge tonight at 8 p.m. We spoke with the band’s frontman, the enigmatic JC Penny himself.
Why should we see you at CMW?
Penny: Dirty Penny has a policy called OAM—Original Act for Mankind—which states that every show must contain some performance art that is completely original to human history. We provide each audience member with a story that begins with, “hey, I saw this band last night and they did this freaky thing,” to tell their friends the next day around the photocopier. Secondly, we’re a straight-up mash-up of Pixies, Ween, and Velvet Underground. If you like those bands you won’t be disappointed. We’ve been playing for 11 years. Finally, we’re actually a Canadian band. Half our songs are about Canada. We use French liberally. Our members are of Guyanese, Indian, Sri Lankan, Scottish, and French-Canadian descent. The CBC never returns our emails.
What’s your favourite Toronto venue, and why?
That’s a tie between the El Mocambo and The Horseshoe. Bad sound can kill any performance no matter how awesome the musicians are. Secondly, the space should be big enough and well-designed for both audience and band. These are the two essentials. Sound and space. The El Mo and The Horseshoe excel at both compared to all the other venues we’ve played in Toronto. However, if I may, The Starlight in Waterloo was equally excellent the one time we played there.
What’s your preference: indoor or outdoor venues?
Indoor. No contest. The sound is unpredictable [outside] and you might as well be playing to the merciless ocean.
What’s your preference: giant music festivals, or single shows?
Single shows. See ocean comment above.
Any advice for CMW-goers?
Only go see independent bands, i.e., not owned by a corporation. I know, who has the time to figure that out? Here’s a good rule of thumb. One: Read the CMW band listings. Two: If a band name makes you smile, giggle, or shiver, Google them. Three: Give them five minutes to impress you. Four: Return to band listings and repeat. We are little people. We put ten bucks here, 20 bucks there. But if we all thought about that 20 bucks for a minute each time we spent it, Sony Music would cry sweet tears of pain.
What’s your favourite memory of one of your own concerts?
Playing the CMJ Music Festival last year in NYC. At the end of “Bomb Ardier,” our story song about a fictional lynching of a French-Canadian slumlord by a poor English mob, a New Yorker actually yelled out, “Did that really happen?” Our singer, JC Penny, replied, “Da French once ruled da world!”
What’s happening for the band after CMW?
Third album release. Done tracking. Being mixed right now. Title is “Sorry Mom”. Dedicated to the mothers of fallen Canadian soldiers.