Neckbeard

Victoria's Calvin Dick (aka Neckbeard) wants your ears, not your money. As with past efforts, his third collection of breaks and beats is available at no cost - all you have to do is write him. "It's a hobby, it's fun," he insists by phone from Vancouver Island. "A guy who buys water-skiing gear doesn't expect money back from it. I save up for it." Too good to be true? Dick's altruism is as fresh as it gets these days, as are the 24 tracks he drops on Sexpo, his finest effort to date. Home-baked with clips from 50-cent records (procured from "St. Vinnie's," every Saturday morning), live drums, keyboards and bass, Neckbeard fuses '70s laid-back grooves with modern day cynicism and humour, providing an enjoyable musical backdrop for a house party and a lot of laughs for the attentive listener. Dick has clearly refined his hobby since his last release, two years back, putting the "three-and-a-half track" aside in favour of a Mini-Disk Eight, and using keyboards more extensively. With brilliantly subtle bass lines leading the way, Neckbeard echoes his idol Morricone on tracks such as "Wampum Lost Its Value" and "Hignon Encounter," showcasing some of Dick's best oeuvres to date. Sexpo, named after a 1970 Copenhagen festival ("They had a band and mattress on stage; you were supposed to go squirm up on the mattress in paint"), will undoubtedly get Dick some of his most interesting mail yet. "I've [gotten] pictures of erections, guy's wife's asses. I was going to do up some women's panties and silkscreen the logo on the crotch and wrap the CD in them. I found myself at one point going into the store and looking for bulk bags and I thought, 'this isn't right.'"