Free spirits Acetone turn to Vapor

It's worth tracking down a copy of Acetone's latest album.

It might take a minute. The self-titled album by the California group, one of the finer sounding signings to Neil Young's Vapor Records, is available in Young's Canadian homeland only as a pricey special import through Vapor distributor Warner Music.

A cruel irony. But is it surprising? Not really. Except to the band themselves.

"Are we not released in Canada?" asks Richie Lee, low-key bassist for the equally low-key California band, who open for Spiritualized at the Guvernment Thursday.

"I guess that is sort of cruel. But the fact that you can find the album at all is better than it was before. With our old label, Vernon Yard, which was distributed by Virgin, you couldn't find our records anywhere, even in America.

"Vapor's a smaller label, monetarily at least. If anything, we're selling down with them rather than selling out. They didn't interfere with us making our record; we made the record we wanted to make."

The album, Acetone's third, is a dreamy, quietly intricate answer to the silly athleticism that marks the run-of-the-skate ramp Californian guitar rock of recent years. The sound has also proved to be an apt primer for U.K. bands like Oasis, The Verve, and the aforementioned Spiritualized. All have enlisted Acetone's services as a support act.

"Oasis actually opened for us first in England, when we were both supporting for The Verve," Lee says with a laugh. "By the time we toured the States with them, they were monstrous and we were opening."

Lee admits that other musicians are all too often the first ones to tune in to Acetone. But working in his band's favor is a timeless quality, a strain of pop classicism that should increase their shelf life, if not set them apart as musical misfits.

"I don't see that as a bad thing," he says. "I would like for our records to seem as though they could tap into everything that rock has ever been, but at the same time seem current now.

"We are just a garage band, and we've just sort of gravitated toward playing this dreamy music. It wasn't a conscious thing to become what we have. I think our personalities are just such that it suits us. None of us are consummate rock showmen, or introspective, egocentric singer-songwriters. It just is what it is.

"Hopefully, eventually we won't fit in at all, anywhere. But we'll be totally recognizable."

Meanwhile, as previously reported, Spiritualized will be warming up for their Guvernment show with a invite-only gig atop the CN Tower at sundown tomorrow. Singer-guitarist Jason Pierce and Co. will attempt to set a world record for the highest concert ever played -- altitude-wise, that is.

Acetone say they have no plans to play the world's lowest gig anytime soon.