Dressed in faded, handmade jeans, a blue tank top, red dog collar and a blue Lone Ranger eye mask, Chris Mills, one-man-band artist behind Just Like The Movies, is bursting with nervous energy. Sitting in his hunter-green living room on a nondescript Thursday afternoon, Mills is describing his “We’ve Got Casios” Tour with Peaches on-stage associate The World Provider on April 4. Joining Just Like The Movies, low-fi punk rock band Slutarded and Vazaleen DJ Will Munro promise a night worth the $5 cover. With two albums under his belt (Mama Said Make You Smile and Shake It), this 25-year-old Casio keyboard lothario and self-proclaimed “Canada’s #1 air guitarist” is taking his music to fans in Toronto bars and Guelph living rooms.
The story so far: A one-time comedian and York student, Just Like The Movies was a dedicated punk rocker until he stumbled across a Radio-Shack Rapmaster 2000 at a friend’s house party a few years back.
As he started to annoy partygoers with improvised tunes, Mills had a vision. He saw that fate had brought him and the Rapmaster together. Throw in a Casio keyboard, funny, ironic lyrics and voila: Just Like The Movies.
Lone Ranger mask or no Lone Ranger mask, Mills takes his music very seriously but doesn’t mind having a little fun.
Apart from the cheesy, pop-culture portability of the Rapmaster (it only needs a couple of AA batteries), Mills loves the instant accessibility of the music while he continues to explore the potential of the Casio-Rapmaster medium. Mills describes Just Like The Movies as “punk rock freedom” and “sound with comedy.”
His second album, Shake It, is a combination of lyric-focused, pre-set keyboard rhythms that runs the gauntlet from country-and-western, metal, folk, punk, love ballad to electronic.
“Baby Share the Covers” is a mock-earnest lover’s lament delivered with Elvis-like sincerity. “I Like Sex” is a jubilantly loud anthem, while “Hit It” is a cool, multi-layered synthesizer instant classic. In performance, Mills admits that Just Like The Movies is never the same band twice. He isn’t averse to making up new songs mid-show or introducing a comedy routine.
Also debuting at Clinton’s on April 4 is Attack of the Evil Man Arm, a short film produced, directed and filmed in Super 8 by feminist filmmakers Rose and Brenda. Brenda, better known as Brenda Goldstein, is Chris Mills’ housemate and a former Varsity writer and editor.
An OCAD graduate, she’s had video installations at the AGO and the A Space gallery and has her short films shown at the Splice Festival and the Hidden Camera Festival (where her film was shown in the Metro Porn Theatre at Bloor and Clinton).
As Mr. Cheese, her fluffy orange cat, pads around the living room, Goldstein describes Attack of the Evil Man Arm as a “feminist, Super 8, superhero slapstick, surrealist film about the oppressive nature of patriarchy…but really it’s about a roller coaster of emotion: joy, terror (and) trippiness.”
The film is also a personal testament to artistic vision and determination. She counsels potential filmmakers: “Get a Super 8 camera. If you have an idea, you can do it.” With an original soundtrack by Bob Wiseman (Blue Rodeo, Slutarded) and put together for the low, low price of $60, Attack of the Evil Man Arm is a funny and sophisticated story told in exactly 4 minutes, 14 seconds. Just Like The Movies’ “We’ve Got Casios” Tour featuring Attack of the Evil Man Arm, Slutarded, The World Provider and DJ Will Munro begins April 4th at 9pm at Clintons.
