It’s hard to fathom the influence MySpace has as a promotional tool in the music world. On an average day, the Fleet Foxes page is visited 19,000 times. Meanwhile, Lily Allen’s music is played 255,000 times. Per day. But despite the obvious benefits of this formidable promotional tool, Montreal-based pop band Clues have chosen to avoid all social networking sites – MySpace, Facebook…any of it. Given that the relatively new band includes members of the Unicorns and Arcade Fire, two of Montreal’s best pop bands in recent years, one has to assume that they’re using this dearth of information as a marketing gimmick in itself – drop a few rumors on the Internet, play some un-advertised shows, and let the music blogs buzz in anticipation. They have one song available online, and an album out on Constellation records, home of other off-kilter rock bands Tindersticks, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Do Make Say Think, and Seattle’s own Dead Science. In other words, to recommend Clues is to rely almost exclusively on its members’ musical reputations. Clues member Brendan Reed describes the band as the type of project that is suited best for “weird house shows, home recordings and toys for instruments.” The only way to know what the band’s really like, though, is to head to the show and see for yourself.

Wed., March 4, 7:30 p.m., 2009