Michael F. Cote

Once you hear his band jam and sing with Chet Baker as they play along to an old record of “Let’s Get Lost,” you realise that here is a musical adventure that demands you share the anarchic fun. In a variety of small groups from duo to septet, Coté explores a slew of irreverent strategies. That sloppy sense of fun is undeniably part of his music’s comic charm. His manic vision always sounds at its most compelling and provocative when he combines with the guitar of Fradette and trombone of Tom Walsh to explore funky fusion “Ouyouyouille,” reggae “Verschwinde/Toubab” and the mid-tempo vamp of “Egomegacoma.” The audacious deconstruction of the ballad “You’ve Changed,” shows why Coté is more inventive than many of his more serious contemporaries. For inspired bad taste even Weird Al would be pushed to match such world music parodies as “Encore un peu de saké” and “Bavaroise.” After the extreme parody of “Bavaroise” I found that the final 20 minutes became redundant — the audacity of embedding a CD skating problem into the final three tracks grew irritating very fast. However, the opening 50 or so minutes are brilliant stuff. Clearly the music scene would benefit from more comedians as gifted as this guy.