A symphony of metal-machine-music guitar violence, carpet-bomb synths, and Gatling-gun drums, the SSRIs’ fantastically experimental Teems isn’t going to win any awards for the safest record of the year. Joseph Hirabayashi sings and plays synth, piano, and guitar for the four-piece, which sounds crazily beautiful one second, and then more than capable of shit-kicking the Locust in a cage match the next.

Best local release other than yours
“Falcao and Monashee—it’s a self-titled release by Falcao and Monashee. I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but it’s my favourite local release this year. It’s a two-piece band with someone named Falcao and someone named Monashee. I get a really sincere vibe from the record, and it’s also really groovy. They do a lot of loop-based songs and then put violins and harps over top of them.”

Most mind-blowing concert of the year
“I saw Chain and the Gang and Rose Melberg and Calvin Johnson at Little Mountain Studios [May 30]—the K Records crew. It was super mind-blowing to see Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening actually play. He sang with no mike, over top of the band. He has this low bass voice that completely carries—it was unbelievable.”

 We just found Bruce Allen’s platinum card. Where are we eating?
“Hoko’s Sushi and Karaoke at 362 Powell Street. They need lots of money and lots of support. They’ve been a really supportive [live-music] venue for a lot of years now, but they are getting shut down because of all the liquor licensing complications they’ve been having. Because of exceeding the 90-db limit and the no-dancing [violations], they just got slapped with another fine from the city.”

With apologies to Katy Perry, who would you like to wake up in Vegas with?
“Probably Eric Axen of Hermetic. It would probably be super awkward, and I don’t know what we’d do. Maybe just stay in the hotel room and shiver or something.”

We’re going to a desert island. What record are you bringing?
“It’s so hard with all-time records, but I’m really into Meddle by Pink Floyd again, so I could probably take that. That’s been a really sustained record for me—I’ve recently rekindled my high-school love interest with that album.”

The city has given you a blank cheque. Where are we opening a live-music venue?
“Not to bring up Hoko’s again, but keep Hoko’s open. I figured out this would work out really well because if the city is talking about fines, we can just take the city’s money and pay off the fines with that, so everybody wins. We could complete the cycle and then they could stay open and keep doing what they’ve been doing.”