Mother Mother Brings the Strange

Maybe it's just a big city stereotype, but island folk are suspected of being a little stranger than us mainland inhabitants. Maybe it's because of the solitude, or maybe it's the lack of police and abundance of mind-altering plant growth; whatever the case, the Quadra Island born Mother Mother goes a long way to confirming island dwellers' oddball reputation.

Now based out of Vancouver, Mother Mother delivers weirdness of a magnitude that could possibly only come from long periods of island-induced isolation. The group's debut album, Touch Up, was released in 2007, and its 13 stripped-down tracks span freakish folk, Pixies-inspired college rock, hillbilly country and goofy white boy hip-hop -- often all within the same song. Of the album's many stylistic forays, things never got stranger than "Verbatim," a hip-hop track about cross-dressing that steals its guitar lick straight out of "No Scrubs." Still, despite the disc's genre-mashing aesthetic, it achieves a consistent sound thanks to the tight three-piece harmonies of Ryan Guldemond, his sister Molly and cohort Debra-Jean Creelman.

The group's sophomore release, O My Heart, is comparatively tame, with straight ahead rockers like "Body of Years" and "Burning Pile" sitting alongside sugary pop like "Arms Tonite." With a full five-piece lineup including Ali Siadat on drums and Jeremy Page on bass, the album has less room for the stylistic left turns of Touch Up. Then again, the collection also includes the group's most outrageous track yet, the schizophrenic juggernaut "Hayloft." The tune makes another foray into hip-hop, this time featuring fuzzy rockouts and chilling lyrics about a gun-wielding farmer catching his daughter getting frisky in the barn.

As well as providing a breeding ground for creative and original art, island living has another advantage: free from the hustle and bustle of the city, there's not much for young musicians to do other than practice. There is no tighter live band in Vancouver, with guitarist Ryan Guldemond taking audiences on virtuosic tours of his fretboard while his bandmates follow each structural left turn with note-perfect precision. The vocal harmonies, meanwhile, replicate the album's precision exactly, with Molly and Jasmin Parkin (who replaced Debra-Jean Creelman last year) adding some eye candy to the already jaw-dropping musicianship.

To experience the live spectacle, be sure to check out the group's free show at Robson Square on Feb. 27, a performance that's being hosted by the Cultural Olympiad. It'll make you wish that those crazy island folks would make their way over to the mainland more often. 

Mother Mother plays at Robson Square on Saturday (Feb. 27).