Pitchfork

Brian Eno once purportedly said that only 100 people ever heard the Velvet Underground, but all 100 went out and started bands. Dunno who the other 96 were, but the four fellas who comprise Canada's Simply Saucer must've worn down the grooves of their White Light/White Heat, as their late-70s underground classic Cyborgs Revisited smacks of VU-obsessiveness and some of the other primordial punks, cut through with a touch of Krautrock. Cyborgs has long been a favorite of the likes of Julian Cope and Thurston Moore, but like many of rock's great also-rans, Simply Saucer were long gone before finding the favor they might've deserved.

Flash forward to 2007, and Simply Saucer-- due, perchance, to renewed interest in the group drummed up by last-year's reunion gig-- have reunited for their first studio time in nearly three decades. The ends of these sessions, coupled (as the album name would suggest) with a few concert recordings, is Half Human, Half Live, due from Sonic Unyon at an as-yet-undetermined point later this year. What's more, the band will showcase material from the new disc at a pair of shows at Toronto's Ciao Edie, April 13 and 14.