Happy Birthday Transistor 66 Record Company! The jolly good local label turns eight years old this weekend and to celebrate, T66 will do what it does best: rock 'n' roll!

A double live birthday bash, the T66 Rock 'n' Roll Weekender goes down Feb. 5 and 6 at the Royal Albert Arms. Night 1 is highlighted by The Angry Dragons and the release of its new hot pink seven-inch, while Saturday serves as the CD-release party for Bloodshot Bill's Git High Tonite!

"Can't wait," Bloodshot Bill says. "The last few times I was in Winnipeg there was lots of death and murder - and that was all in one summer!"

The Montreal rockabilly musician and one-man band, who has his own brand of pomade (Bloodshot Bill's Nice 'N' Greasy) and is banned in the States ("I hate their freedom"), is proud to be a part of T66's "happily dysfunctional family" and says he's pleased with the job label guru Art McIntyre has done with his T66 debut.

"Feels good so far," Bloodshot says. "Art is real easy to work with and I like that. We've kept in touch for years and the timing was just right (to join T66).

"I like (Git High Tonite!). There's a bunch of songs on there that I had to get out of my system, either so I could move on to new stuff or so I wouldn't forget them. I like the way it turned out."

Hardy partiers will get a double shot of Bloodshot as he's also playing support to The Angry Dragons. The local garage rock band formed in early 2007 and features vocalist/guitarist Joanne Rodriguez (American Flamewhip, The High Thunderers, ex-The Vagiants), lead guitarist Jen Alexander (ex-The Quiffs, ex-The Rockdoras), bassist Anastasia Chipelski (ex-Mad Young Darlings, ex-Brat Attack) and drummer Bill Northcott (ex-The Rockdoras).

"It just so happened that everyone was falling out of a band," Rodriguez says. "I'm like, 'Do you need some sympathy? Do you need a shoulder to cry on? You should join my band, we're going to be really good.' Then I gave them money and drugs, and I got them hooked and then they had to stay with me. I'm kind of like a pimp. They all owe tons to me so they're not going anywhere."

Rodriguez says she's delighted with the lineup she lured.

"I'm really happy with the combination and totally fell in love with them as soon as we went on the road together," she says of the Angry Dragons' Alberta jaunt in October. "I fell in love with them. It was a honeymoon phase, like a bunch of happy kittens in a wicker basket."

TRANSISTOR 66 ROCK 'N' ROLL WEEKENDER
Feb. 5 & 6, Royal Albert Arms