Vancouver may not feel like the hot and bothered bayou of the deep south, the place where blues is born, bred and put out to the killing floor night after night. You couldn't be faulted for being resistant to the place of a modern, old-school blues band from right here in Terminal City. And you may be disarmed after hearing the work of The Pack A.D. to discover the fierce conviction they play with, the lyrical bite of a lover forlorn or the whisky-soaked growl of a hell-torn rambler.

These two ladies whip up a fury of sound on their full-length debut Tintype, enough so that anything more that can be wrenched from Becky Black's slide guitar and impassioned vocals or Maya Miller's accentuated drumming would be a detriment to their health. This is a deep, passionate album full of woe & fury - a roadside blues bomb going off in all directions. Sometimes simmering on the sultry side, sometimes reining in the chops, it's no wonder Tintype was the number one album on CiTR 101.9FM in 2007.

Just a little heads up for those experimental music fans out there. The weekly melting pot of noise/skronk/improv/punk known as Fake Jazz Wednesdays is boiling over and uptown to the Western Front (303 East 8th Avenue) this Friday for a one night stand.

Yeah, I know we've talked about it before, but it bears repeating. Why? Well, every week is a different blend of music - sometimes pure, unadulterated noise, other times gentle ambience or slightly skewed punk with just enough random action to justify it's inclusion. Plus, if you have ever been a little turned off by the Cobalt but wanted to check the scene, here's your chance.

Friday's lineup features Totally Ripped, B.C.V.C.O., her jazz noise collective, and Black Dicks. If myspace streaming is anything to go by, Totally Ripped are doing a study of sine waves and distortion pedals - very cool. Has a bit of a Yellow Swans vibe to it perhaps and some downright spooky interludes. her jazz noise collective is an experimental music network for women in Vancouver with members coming and going all the time. It's a community thing, not a "band" per se. But with the right bunch you'll get something golden.

B.C.V.C.O. - British Columbia Voltage Controller Oscillators - is an all analog synth ensemble featuring members of luminaries Black Mountain, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Destroyer and Superconductor among others. They're flying high all the time. Black Dicks? Well, they don't make it easy to search them online, so you'll have to see it to believe it I guess.

My recipe for a great night? Grab a burrito from Budgie's, check out the rare vinyl at Dandelion next door (make sure to wipe the salsa off your hands first) then walk a block to the Front for a night of mind-expanding sounds. And if you really dig it, Fake Jazz Wednesdays continue to happen at the Cobalt most weeks.

Image courtesy Western Front

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before. Ok, so it's not telepathy, but telekinesis I'm talking about here. Telekenisis, a form of psychokinesis, is the application of mind over matter that allows one to influence objects remotely. The idea has fueled imaginations for decades now. Citing Uri Geller, people went on (spoon) benders in the 70s and still do today. Sissy Spacek's Carrie showed us the dark side in the movies. The phenomenon has a history of controversy but skeptics and believers can't claim a definitive answer one way or the other.

It is a mystery, but perhaps you can put your mind to rest at the first ever World Telekinesis Competition coming to Victoria this spring. Teams of three will compete against each other to influence the behaviour of a candle placed in the middle of the game board. The winning team will have swayed the candle's drip to fall upon their opponent's side of the board. Here's the clincher: team members do not have to compete from the same geographic location, hence the "remote" part of the program.

The event is being organized by Noxious Sector - a collaboration of Victoria artists Ted Hiebert, Doug Jarvis and Jackson 2bears "dedicated to the exploration of alternative cognitive function". I spoke with the group about this unique competition because, frankly, I had no idea how one would go about setting it up, let alone declaring a winner in such an ambiguous contest. Turns out they have it all figured out.

Vancouver has been losing out on performance space over the last few years with the tearing down of the old (historic watering holes) and the building up of the new (shiny condos). Anyone heading out after 10pm looking for some live music, stand-up comedy or variety acts of any shape and size are sometimes left to wander the streets in search of a destination. A new venue in town promises to fulfill those simple needs with local and touring bands, Watermelon and Canned Hamm (respectively, to name a few).

The Biltmore Cabaret (395 Kingsway) opened it's doors on Monday night for a free neighbourhood preview. Seeing as I live a few blocks from the club and the furthest I usually got inside was the caged offsales trap, it was time to see the place with a new light. That new light was red. The place has been completely renovated with lush velvet curtains, deep cushy booths and a very spacious floor to bounce, dance or bob to the music. A few more pics below...

After a decade-long battle, the owners of the Lee Building on the corner of Main and Broadway will be forced to fold their hand and remove the over-sized billboard that sits on the roof of the seven-storey landmark. Seen from kilometres away, the billboard is recognizable from almost any vantage in the northern part of the city and is one of the last rooftop billboards in the city.

The billboard has been creating controversy ever since it was re-installed on the roof in 1998, despite a Vancouver by-law banning rooftop advertising that came into effect more than 30 years ago. At that time more than 400 businesses voluntarily conformed with the by-law and removed their structures.

The Lee chose to fight, but it seems the saga is about to wrap and the owners have just over a year to take down the sign. It's about time. Not only has the Lee Building been flaunting the bylaw for almost 10 years, but taking this case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada? A little much. This morning, the Supreme Court dimissed an application by the owners to hear their case leaving them pretty much out of options. They fought the law, and guess what? This time, the law won.

For all you experimental music fans, one of our city's finest DIY art spaces is hosting the premiere of Andre Cormier's Piling Sand - Piling Stone II - a new work for viola, cello and live electronics this Saturday night at Blim. The acclaimed duo Suna no onna will start soft and steady playing with a six-minute cumulative tape loop before building the acoustics at Blim into a frenzy.

I caught up with violist Robin Streb after a night of intense rehearsals to put into words how this music will unfold: "The piece begins very quietly and slowly, and gradually builds in intensity as the music becomes more complex and the tape loop creates layers of sound. Because the loop is six minutes long, by the end we will have created a densely layered six-minute recording. The audience will hear the instruments acoustically as well as through the recording."

The piece explores microtonal tunings - what American composer Charles Ives called "notes between the cracks" on the piano. I can start to wrap my head around that one (Black Flag and Radiohead are two bands who have used this technique in their work). But how does that work with this arrangement of instruments?