After the SXSW festival officially ends in Austin on Sunday, March 22, it’s cleanup time for Tucson and a great time to come out and see two great shows happening Monday, March 23 and Wednesday, March 25.

Here’s the breakdown for the two WXSW shows.

Monday, March 23, Plush:
11:30 – These Arms Are Snakes (Seattle, Wash.)
10:30 – Marnie Stern (NYC)
9:30 – Tera Melos (Roseville, Calif.)
8:30 – TAT (London, England)

Wednesday, March 25, Club Congress:
11:30 – Monotonix (Tel Aviv)
10:30 – AIDS Wolf (Montreal, Quebec)
9:30 – Crystal Antlers (Long Beach, Calif.)
8:30 – Mika Miko (Los Angeles)

Tickets are $8 at the show or just $10 for both shows if you get a wristband.

Also, in this edition, we feature my favorite noise rock from up north, AIDS Wolf from Montreal, Quebec.

In their exclusive interview, their were some things the band did not want to talk about, like where they came up with the name AIDS Wolf, the band union in Canada and how that affects touring in the US, and what kind of harm, other than hearing loss, they wish they could do with their music. Besides those topics, everything was game.

Choosing to conceal their identity, AIDS Wolf operates in this interview and live as an extremely loud and chaotic whole. Their combined sound definitely reaches the threshold of pain in decibel levels and fun. I dare you to stop smiling as AIDS Wolf destroys your ability to hear. Tiinnitus has never been so enjoyable.

Tell us a little bit about The 9 Principles of AIDS Wolf and the perceived threat behind your mission statement, “We are a fucking cult and will cause you harm and ill will.”

AW: We are misanthropic workaholics, what else do ya need to know? We prefer the kids who follow us from town to town cause they are showing real dedication.

Your 9th principle, Become the Weird Punks, includes one of your most apropos passages: “Destroy genre straight jackets and move out of the comfortable. Confrontation with norms and expectations is where the AIDS Wolf family is most at home.� It seems a lot easier just saying that, so how have you embodied that principle?

AW: Easier than what? We seek to blur the lines between genres and stretch the boundaries of the “rock” format like a giant elastic.

Tell us a little bit about Thee Outernet and what your affiliation with the blog is.

AW: Thee Outernet is a music blog that two of us and half our friends write for. We’re working on an interview with U.S. Girls and her mom Denise about dancing in the kitchen and singing in the car.

You play with the U.S. Girls as well as some other great bands every place you visit. Who are you most excited about seeing?

AW: Well, we’ve already played with U.S. Girls, Can’t and Sightings, three acts we were most stoked to play with. We are also salivating for Love Tan, Mayor Daley, Puffy Areolas, PRE, Gay Beast, Shearing Pinx, Dead Machines, The Mayyors and Death Sentence: PANDA! We’re really pretty excited for all our bills, playing with bands we are friends with and/or fans of is really important to us. Getting to see the bands we like is one of the things that make touring worthwhile.

Who are you listening to on tour?

AW: Thee Oh Sees, Ornette Coleman, ZZ Top, Captain Beefheart, some sweet Balinese classical music, Babe Ruth, Ennio Morricone, Walter Wegmuller, U.S. Girl Meghan talking about eating meat and the sounds of Bob Gainey crying.

What’s the best thing about being from Quebec?

AW: The Habs, hands down. They are the Motley Crue of hockey.

What do you miss most about Canada when you’re on tour in the States?

AW: Sugar Shack season, Karine Cossette-Barbeau and our cats. What we don’t miss is doing Mclean’s homework.

What’s on the horizon for AIDS Wolf? Are you working on a follow-up to your Cities of Glass (LovePump, 2008) LP?

AW: We have a new EP coming out in the fall and we are working on a rock opera about Canadian prime ministers in history, to be called Canadian Erectors and a 20+ minute Throbbing Gristle cover.

Is there anything you’d like to say to Tucson?

AW: Our buddy Heath said there are sweet thrift shops there so we’re coming to clean you out, cold.

Stay tuned for more interviews from the bands playing on Monday, March 25 at Club Congress.