Verbal Deception 
Who: Verbal Deception
What: aye matey metal
Where: Calgary, AB
To Contact: Scarab Metal Productions; Suite 22, 2526 Battleford Ave. SW, Calgary AB T3E 7J4 (403) 240-7843, , www.myspace.com/verbaldeception.com, www.verbaldeception.com.

Sure this is a bit Spinal Tap, but maybe it's meant to be. With song titles such as "Pirates Attack", "Jewels Of The Dead" and "High Seas" and a 16-page story with treasure map (ARRR!), Verbal Deception is working the theme well on its debut full-length, Aurum Aetus Piraticus. Naturally the first song is "Pirates Attack" which starts off with the sound of crashing waves and seagull caws, and then a kind of metallic sea shanty. The vocals are pure guttural with the lines "Cowards of battle/Bastards of life/Our enemies being/Quelled by the knife." Hilarious stuff! Metalheads will rally for this, much like they did for BC's Three Inches Of Blood. Comprised of lead vocalist/guitarist Kresho Klarich, 19; keyboardist Walt Fleming, 19; bassist Matt Petti, 18; and drummer Jordan Bourgeault, 22, the band - now in its fourth year - released a six-song EP in 2004 and this album in late June. It was self-produced at Sundae Sound with engineer Al Irving and mastered by Dave Horrocks at Infinite Wave and charted at #3 on !Earshot National College Loud Chart, July 25. Since October 2005, Verbal Deception's songs have received about 45,000 plays on MySpace.

Chantal Chamandy
Who: Chantal Chamandy
What: exotic pop
Where: Montreal, PQ
To Contact: Steve Levesque or Jennifer Malazarte at Luck Media & Marketing Inc. 8900 Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 860-9170, FAX (310) 860-9171, , www.luckmedia.com, www.chantalchamandy.com.

Lush and exotic, Montreal's Chantal Chamandy's "Love Needs You" is one of the best dance/pop albums to come out of Canada. The ethnic flavours (Indian, Middle Eastern, Latin) and her strong beautiful voice give it its uniqueness, as opposed to some of the by-the-book cheesy, mechanical-sounding dance music so often released. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Chamandy self-produced all 14 songs at Caverne Studio in Montreal, where she now lives, and is aided by some two-dozen musicians, who add everything from violins, percussion, trumpet, saxophone, piano and background vocals to carnatic violin, ehru, and tablas. She wrote all the lyrics and co-wrote all the music, mostly with Subir Dev. The lead track "Zindegi" is a sensuous song with a soft undercurrent of percussion, but the second song, "You Want Me" is the one getting all the attention with its Eastern vibe and rock sensibility. The body-shaking song is enjoying club play with a remix done by Brian Rawlings (Cher's "Believe") and US airplay at Hot AC. The album was recorded and mixed by Yanik Daunais, except "Nunca Sera Igual" and "Amor de mi Vida" was mixed by Humberto Gattica. Mastering was done at Vlado Meller at Sony Studios in NYC.

Tacoma Redd 
Who: Tacoma Redd
What: redd rock
Where: Toronto, ON
To Contact: Management - Diane Foy, Skylar Entertainment, 45 Markham St., Toronto, ON M6J 2G4 (416) 413-9672, , www.tacomaredd.com.

Out of a tragic circumstance, Toronto's Tacoma Redd is paying tribute to its friend and late guitarist Ron "Dabz" Boudreau-McLellan (who died in 2004 after a valiant fight against Cystic Fibrosis) by continuing on without him. The rock band's six-song EP, A Momentary Misfortune, is not only dedicated to him but many of the lyrics seem to be about him. On the lead track and first single, "When I'm Not Around", frontman Doug Smart sings "You never backed down from your fight/You fought for 30 years to hold back all those angry tears…your pain is over," and on "Letting Go" there's such lines as "Time can only bring more healing…time to rest eternally…I'll have to say goodbye." A song like "Please Keep Believing", which has a darker, urgent sound, could be a romantic relationship ("Where are you now, my angel/'Cause I need you now") or perhaps be a call-out to Dabz. Produced by Moe Berg of The Pursuit of Happiness, the EP was recorded at Toronto's Chemical Sound and engineered by Rudy Rempel, and is a straight-up melodic rock recording. "Tears Fall Down", a softer song, includes violin by Douglas Spence. Joining Smart in the band are guitarist Bryan Richards, bassist Chris Bell and drummer Dean Glover.

Credit: Toronto-based music journalist Karen Bliss is the Canadian news correspondent for Rollingstone.com, and operates a Canadian music industry news column, Lowdown, at http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Lowdown. She also edits Gasoline, and contributes to Elle Canada, Audience, Tribute, Words & Music and others.

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