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As frontman for the enduring punk/hardcore band Dwarves, Blag has maintained his anonymity through 20 eventful years of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. And he's not alone.
Joining the mysterious Blag Dahlia for Sunday's much-anticipated Ottawa show will be such pseudonymous bandmates as Tazzie Bushweed, Toss, Clint Torres and The Fresh Prince of Darkness.
That's not to mention HeWhoCanNotBeNamed, Dwarves' guiding force who occasionally performs with the band despite supposedly having passed away in 1993. (You could look it up!)
Confused? A number of record labels have been. Blag reckons Sympathy For The Record Industry, the brave outfit set to release a new Dwarves album this year, is the band's "fifth or sixth" label.
CASHING IN
Past dalliances have included a stint with SubPop. But they, like others before and after them, never quite knew what to do with Blag and his merry band.
"A lot of them don't understand," Blag confirms. "They're just looking to cash in quickly on something, and that's not really how we're structured. We're more structured to make interesting records over few-year periods.
"Labels are like banks that are run by drug addicts. So they make lots of stupid moves and then they get frustrated. They spend too much money on things that they shouldn't spend money on, then they get all agitated like they don't have any money.
"I've seen every different permutation of what record labels do and I just have to laugh. I took Epitaph's money while their guy was on drugs and I took SubPop's money while their guy was on drugs. As long as there are people on drugs, I think there'll be somebody to give me money to make records."
A tad jaded, Blag is. But neither he nor the band's music has slowed down with advancing age. And the songs still tell tales of lust for alcohol, drugs and adolescent girls. It still works, but one wonders how long Dwarves can obsess over such matters.
ABOUT THE GIRLS
" 'Til they bury me," Blag asserts. " 'Til they drag me away, drooling, from the microphone. Adolescent girls are what it's all about."
Blag used to believe punk rock was what it's all about. But he's grown weary of "fake" bands making noise about "being real" while awaiting their chance to sell out.
"Also," he adds, "most bands in general are pretty lame. Good, bad or indifferent, they just don't play anything very interesting; whereas, Dwarves always try to come up with something new within the idiom.
"We've been playing around with weird sounds and samples and drumloops and various vocalists and different things since the beginning. And people find that confusing. For the most part, they like something that's always exactly the same, that's very predictable.
"Which is what most punk bands are, but we're not playing that game."
RAPID RISE FOR DOUBLE PUMPERS
Dave Martindale, Damian Sawka and Paul "Yogi" Granger like playing games. That's obvious from the wry, riff-heavy songs on their debut CD as The Double Pumpers. And it comes through in the band's live show, which brings a smile to the faces of musicians and audience alike.
But the playing on the band's Do It To It album reveals The Double Pumpers are serious about what they do.
And the rapid rise of the local power trio betrays any hint of goofing off in the band's approach.
Martindale, Sawka and Granger played their first gig in January, have maintained a busy performing schedule since and this Saturday celebrate the release of a polished nine-song CD.
'MOVING FAST'
"Everything's been moving so fast," Sawka admits, "we haven't had an opportunity to write new songs."
No matter. These nine will do for now. And the band still predict the second album will be ready by the fall.
"We were just blown away by how quickly it all came together," says Sawka, who like Granger was once a member of comical local punk band Chucklehead. (Martindale, meanwhile, served time in Feed.) "We were thinking about doing a demo but it just kept growing."
He credits producer Michael Houston Hanlan of Fiftymen with making it all work despite the limitations of an eight-track facility in the band's rehearsal space.
The songs on Do It To It do not sound rushed, and benefit from the freshness that comes with a new project.
The themes, meanwhile, would make Blag Dahlia proud.
"Well," Sawka shrugs, "we all booze it up and we play a lot of rock. It all makes sense to us."
More music more music ... The Salteens come in from the West Coast tonight for an evening of delightful, '80s-ified pop-rock; "We're not reliving the past or resurrecting a sound," vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Scott Walker insists, "we're trying to build on what's been done before." ... The Skydiggers were here less than a month ago, but are always welcome in this town; they'll be at Barrymore's Friday singing Wherever You Go and other modern classics ... Heather Horak loves jazz and sings of Elvis and poutine; she'll be providing a fine excuse for a trip to Wakefield Sunday afternoon, when she plays the Black Sheep Inn.
SCENE SETTER
DWARVES with THE RIPTIDES, MAXIMUM R'N'R AND SACK LUNCH
- Where: Babylon, 317 Bank St.
- When: Sunday, 7 p.m., all-ages/19+, $15
THE DOUBLE PUMPERS CD RELEASE PARTY WITH FIFTYMEN
- Where: Dominion Tavern, 33 York St.
- When: Saturday, 9 p.m., $5