So who's bigger, I Mother Earth or Moist?
It's almost too close to call.
Still, two of Canada's biggest rock bands on the same cross-country tour - which pulls into town Friday with opener Mudgirl for a four-night stint at the Warehouse - sounds like a hotbed for clashing egos.
"We were ready for that, but they've been supercool with us and vice-versa," says I Mother Earth frontman Edwin, who concedes that headliners Moist might have the edge over his Toronto quartet. "It's one big caravan, a huge body that's in perfect syncopation. It's kinda neat.
"Both bands are trying to preach to the unconverted," the affable singer adds, referring to the respective audiences they're pooling. "It's pretty much neck and neck."
It's actually more of a victory lap.
The past year has been very kind to I Mother Earth. Their second album, Scenery And Fish, is nearing double-platinum sales (200,000 copies) in Canada. The band has won a solid following in "four corners and the centre" of the U.S.: New York, Florida, Seattle, San Diego, and Denver.
Edwin makes a Freudian slip and refers to the past nine months on the road as "nine years."
Remembering that I Mother Earth toured their 1992 debut, Dig, for almost three years before starting work on Scenery And Fish, he says the band doesn't want a "huge gap between records like last time."
They plan to record their next disc in the spring. But it's not like IME suffered from the fabled "sophomore jinx" when they followed up Dig.
"Thank God, we seemed to escape that," Edwin says. "And it's not that hard to make people not interested in what you do for a living. Guys that complain about how popular they are kinda make me laugh. It's hard enough to stay popular.
"We were just debating what comes after the sophomore record," he muses. "The junior? It's not the graduate record, anyway."
I Mother Earth are a couple of albums shy of their post-graduate careers. Edwin says the group will waste no time getting there.
"I think we always have that itch to get back in the studio," he says. "We like to keep the creative flow going, so we noodle in soundchecks and come up with new ideas.
"Touring is insane. Getting time to write is a blessing. Now we have an actual touring bus, with a lounge where we can relax, and bunks where we can read. But our quality control is pretty strict. We labor over things until we're confident enough to let them go.
"Our `junior' album could go anywhere," he adds. "It depends who enforces his ideas the most. We always come from different corners and meet somewhere in the middle of the room. It will be as exciting to me as it would be for any of our fans."
