For a Canadian rock musician, it's always been a struggle to earn praise south of the border.

For Matt Mays, it's a work in progress.

The singer-songwriter and neighbor to the north is the frontman of throwback rock band Matt Mays & El Torpedo, which on Sunday will co-headline a show at Lulu's Nightspot, 131 S. Pugh St., with the Deadstring Brothers.

Aside from sharing a homeland with rock Hall of Famers The Band and Neil Young, he and El Torpedo share the same straight-ahead rock style.

"They're probably one of the tightest rock bands I've seen in a very long time," local promoter Ted Swanson said.

Sharing the reckless guitar style of Young, Mays said that the band always tries to keep its audiences guessing.

"The only thing we're strict about is not being strict about anything," Mays said.

"We just get together and play and whatever happens, happens."

Mays said that having a more conventional rock style allows the band to get more creative within that particular style.

"There's some artists that can do some really weird stuff and get a good song across," Mays said.

"We kind of try to keep the songs very straight ahead, but as far as the arrangements, we try to come up with some unique stuff.

We try to keep the underlying song good. A lot of people like a song that's easy to digest; they don't want to work hard."

To add another similarity to Young, the band was nominated for a 2007 Juno Award in the same category as him.

Though the band failed to win the award, Swanson said that it wasn't such a bad thing the band didn't succeed.

"When you lose to Neil Young, you gotta be doing something right, to even be in the same category," Swanson said.

Swanson said the hallmark of both Matt Mays & El Torpedo and the Deadstring Brothers was their songwriting ability.

"These guys can hit you with song after song after song after song," he said.