The College Dropout

So it's that time of the year again. Frosh week has begun so expect alot of bright-eyed first year students to infiltrate downtown Toronto streets. Coincidentally, I almost got hit by a dude running down Yonge St. this morning, who I believe was taking part in a scavenger hunt. They're sort of annoying but on the other hand maybe it's just a sense of nostalgia I'm feeling. My advice: Enjoy those years. Reality'll set in when you graduate, or drop out, whichever comes first. (For the record, I am of the former.) I came across the following campus frosh events that I'm thinking of checking out, the U of T and York U events in particular:

Sept 7, 8:30 pm
Cuff the Duke,
@ Ryerson, Ram in the Rye Patio - info

Sept 9, 1:30 - 5:30 pm
Metric, K'naan, Chiva, and Funkadesi
@ Olympic Island - info

Sept 9, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Sloan, controller.controller
@ University of Toronto, back campus (free show) - info

Sept 14, 3:30 pm - 11:30 pm
controller.controller, K-os, and others
@ York University (free show) - info

Update: controller.controller isn't listed as part the Yorkfest lineup anymore although the schedule currently shows the 8:45 pm timeslot as TBA.

Thanks to suckingalemon for pointing me towards the U of T and York U events info.
:
:
A post over at Stillepost speaks of a free outdoor concert in support of locked out CBC employees which'll take place tomorrow at CBC Courtyard at 250 Front Street West (weather permitting). It'll feature performances by K'naan, Masia One, Dana Edmonds, Belladonna, Isis, Lindy, Maracatu Nunca Antes, Jon-Rae plus more local talent and DJs. It gets going around 1:30 pm and ends around 7:30 pm. I think I might stick around downtown after work to check this out.

Again, a post over at Stillepost(oh, what would I do without 'em) pointed me towards this compilation released by the blue house which is an artist-run online shop. The compilation features new tracks from Jim Guthrie, Final Fantasy, and Snailhouse amongst others.

Here's a torrent(registration required) of a live show of Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ Valentine's, Albany NY, July 19, 2004.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

I got lazy about going to the Of Montreal show @ Lee's Palace tonight, so now you guys get a post. Lucky you.

Death Cab For Cutie(actually just Chris and Ben) were at KEXP today for an acoustic live session. Check out the live session through the streaming archive by date and time - Tuesday August 30, 9:00am[PST]. They performed "Soul Meets Body", "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", a lovely cover of Teenage Fanclub's "Start Again", and "Crooked Teeth". Look out for the archived performance in the future. Right after work I purchased DCFC's new CD "Plans" for $9.99 at Futureshop. If you're on the wall about picking this up, at least $9.99 won't break the bank. [photo from MTV]

Update: Here's a torrent(registration required) of the DCFC KEXP live session mentioned above.

Annie Hayden(ex-Spent vocalist) and The Clientele are @ Lee's Palace on October 23rd. [from Pollstar]

Tickets go on sale this Saturday September 3rd for Feist who has two shows scheduled for Danforth Music Hall in Toronto on October 17th and 18th. [from emerge]

Here's a torrent(registration required) of a live show of Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ Valentine's in Albany NY on June 24, 2005. And I forgot to mention yesterday that Ted Leo fansite, Timorous Me is hosting a couple of mp3's of other songs("Biomusicology" and "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?") which Ted performed at the Seaport Music Festival. [mp3's courtesy of Bekkah from the Ted Leo/Pharmacists Livejournal Community]

Watch this stirring live performance by Martha Wainwright singing "Factory" @ the Cambridge Folk Festival(which took place from July 28-31, 2005). [link from a post at the Martha Wainwright Yahoo! Group]

From The Pernice Brothers mailing list, regarding Joe - "Beard reportedly gone. Video reportedly exists." :-)

Cadillac Dust

Weewerk artist, Elliott Brood are set to release their first full-length album entitled "Ambassador" on October 4th. It seems I've been on a bit of a alt-country/folk kick as of late. Elliott Brood's music is described on the Weewerk's site as "Death Country - dark, gritty folk music built around whiskey". It seems it's been the summer of alt-country in Toronto and Elliott Brood nicely fits into that mold. Unfortunately, I missed their set when they performed at the recent T.O. Twang Festival at Harbourfront because I was watching Carolyn Mark's set. However to make up for that, Elliott Brood have a bunch of Toronto appearances lined up for this fall including:

Sep 08 @ TD Centre(Dominion Courtyard) [free show]

Sep 17 @ Ear To The Ground Festival

Oct 05 @ Soundscapes instore [free show]

Oct 14 @ Horseshoe Tavern

Check out the artist's official site for more Ontario fall tourdates, as well as European tour dates.

Check out the artist's page at the Weewerk site for audio samples.[photo credit: Michael Sutherland]
:
:
If you're lucky enough to get a ticket to this, this should be interesting: Pitchfork reports on Architecture in Helsinki's fall tour dates which brings the 8-piece to Toronto on October 1st at...and now take a deep breath, Rancho Relaxo. Logistically, this seems like a nightmare with a band that large in such a small club, not to mention the buzz behind the band at the moment which most definitely will make this a hot ticket. I'm not sure why the tiny Rancho Relaxo was booked of all places(well, if I had to guess, it's because Black Mountain are already booked for Lee's Palace on October 1st.). This is sure to sell out fast.

Ted Leo fansite, Timorous Me is hosting the video of the performance of that as-yet-untitled new song which Ted Leo performed at the Seaport Music Festival. [video courtesy of Dan Dickson] It's a QuickTime file; I've tried playing the file on my computer but the video component of the file isn't displaying, even after I downloaded and installed a newer version of Apple QuickTime. If anyone gets the file working properly, drop me a line.

I'd like to thank Bella for uploading onto their website, the video for the interview they did on Muchmusic's "Going Coastal" on June 26, 2005. They are a fun indiepop band from Vancouver who I'd discovered earlier in the year and was fortunate to catch their set when they performed at The Drake Hotel in Toronto during NXNE.

Strange double-bill, Sinead O'Connor and Sly and Robbie will be at the Kool Haus on December 3rd, according to Pollstar.

Finally, Billboard reports that that the final Guided By Voices concert which occurred on New Year's Eve of 2004 at Chicago's Cabaret Metro is set to be released on DVD on November 15th through Plexifilm.

Sons of Cain

Dan Dickson graciously provides an mp3 of a recording of an as-of-yet-untitled new song Ted Leo performed at the Seaport Music Festival from last week. Listening to the song, I heard the repeated phrase "Sons of Cain" which I'm gonna guess will be the probable title of the song. If you listen to the audio, you'll hear Ted express that he wrote the song that morning. Rough around the edges, but damn impressive. [link via largehearted boy via Kathryn Yu ] You can also download the song over at Ted Leo fansite, Timourous Me.

Check out Kathryn Yu's photos from Ted Leo's set at this years Seaport Music Festival.[photo credit(at left): original from Kathryn Yu]
:
:
I unfortunately missed the Great Lake Swimmers/akron/family/Jon-Rae Fletcher and The River/Lullabye Arkestra extravaganza this past Friday night at the Horseshoe which suckingalemon and a WHOLE BUNCH of people over at Stillepost are raving about. Fortunately someone over at Stillepost has informed that Jon-Rae Fletcher has been added to the Cuff The Duke(CD Release)/Meligrove Band bill which is scheduled for September 9th at Lee's Palace.

Thanks to Janice for the correction to my earlier post about Matt Pond PA. It has NOT been confirmed that they will be opening up for Athlete who will perform at The Opera House on Sept 19th, even though Edge 102.1 FM is currently reporting this on their site. However, according to Matt Pond Pa's official website, they are scheduled to open for Liz Phair when she comes to Toronto for a show at the Phoenix on October 23rd. That Liz Phair show's now looking more tempting.

In the meantime, download the first Liz Phair podcast, featuring some live performances over at Liz's official website.

Stars recently began a European tour and their peformance tomorrow August 29th will have a live webcast which'll be available tomorrow at 21:00 CET(15:00 EST) on www.stars.fabchannel.com.

Some torrents of recent live shows are available over at dimeadozen incuding[links via Largehearted Boy]:

The New Pornographers @ The Triple Door- Seattle WA[KEXP.org Uncompressed Webcast(1.4 MBps)], 2005.8.23

The Pernice Brothers @ Century Lounge, Providence RI, 2005.8.25

And an added bonus torrent over at PureLiveGigs:

The New Pornographers @ KCRW Studios, Morning Becomes Eclectic, Santa Monica CA,2005.8.26

Kofi's Hat has a good review and lovely photos of The New Pornographers' recent instore(from August 25, 2005) at Tower Records(on Sunset Blvd) in Los Angeles.

Making Plans for Death Cab

Death Cab For Cutie. New CD "Plans". $9.99 @ Futureshop and Best Buy starting August 30th. Yo. (I swear I'll shop indie after this.)

Use It

Just a reminder that The New Pornographers are performing a live session for Morning Becomes Eclectic today at 11:15 am PST[2:15 pm EST]. Update: Watch the session. ...The Associated Press speaks with The New Pornographers' Carl Newman about how it feels to be one of the only red-heads in rock. Ok, they also talk about other things. [news link via Waved Rumor]

Pitchfork give Belle Orchestre's "Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light" a decent 7.8/10 rating. And after reading the review, I have a sneaking suspicion that this music might just go right over my head.

Here's yet another torrent(registration required) of a live show by The Arcade Fire on August 22, 2005 in Nantes(?).

Vancouver's The Georgia Straight speaks with Brian Wilson.

Popmatters speaks with Joe Pernice.

Patience kiddies...Broken Social Scene will come back home eventually. They always do. And for that we are grateful. Go buy their album on October 4th.

Sing Me Spanish Techno

According to Pollstar, The New Pornographers show in Toronto for October 9th, originally booked at The Docks, has now been moved to the Phoenix. If this is true(Pollstar, please don't be wrong again), this is great news. Which'll mean move fast because, tickets should NOW go fast. Sorry, Docks but you suck. When I was writing this post earlier this evening, I was so excited about the prospects of seeing The 'Porns at the Phoenix that I went straight to Soundscapes and bought a ticket to the show. If this concert info turns out to be wrong, well I guess I'm going to The Docks. While I was at Soundscapes I also picked up the new CD "Twin Cinema". Actually, Soundscapes was giving away that limited edition 7-inch single with the new CD but the guy at the counter looked around for some and couldn't find any so had assumed that they were all gone. Just my luck.[BTW, did anyone get one of those 7-inches?] ...In related news, a crapload of reviews for the new album have been added to the media section over at the band's official website. [photo from http://../]

Central Village has an mp3 of The New Pornographers' "Sing Me Spanish Techno" for download if you'd like to sample the new album for yourself. Just don't mention the single "Twin Cinema" while you're there.

Spoon, American Music Club and Mary Timony(!) will be in Toronto at the Phoenix on November 1st. [info from Morecowbell]

Here's a torrent(registration required) of a live webcast of The Arcade Fire's performance at Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, Holland on August 20, 2005. [link from Largehearted Boy]

Aperture Enzyme has a bunch of new videos for download of some recent live sets at indie shows in and around Toronto. Check out the old-fashioned around-the-campfire singalong on "Down By The River" by Jon-Rae Fletcher and The Choir.

Bryce aka Vitaminsforyou will be playing sax with Lullaby Arkestra at this Friday's show at the Horseshoe, which'll also feature sets from Great Lake Swimmers, akron/family, and Jon-Rae Fletcher and The River(it's their CD release). [info from vitaminsforyou's official blog]

The Night And I Are Still So Young

According to Endearing Records, orch-pop wonders, The Heavy Blinkers are scheduled to perform in Toronto on September 15 at Sassafraz Cafe's Jitterbug Perfume Lounge, as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. I hope this isn't just for film industry people, because I'm so up for this show. The 'Blinkers are currently holed up in the studio working on their 5th studio album. You can monitor their progress at their blog. [photo from http://../]

The (International) Noise Conspiracy will be at Kool Haus in Toronto on October 11th. [from Pollstar]

According to the band's website update yesterday, controller.controller will release their new album "X-AMOUNTS" through Paper Bag Records on October 11th and they have a full Canadian fall tour in the works.

Paper Bag Records has some new live dates for some of it's roster. In anticipation of their new album "The City" due out September 6th, local arty-twang combo Fembots have some live dates lined up. In addition to their opening slot for Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah at The Horseshoe on September 3rd, Fembots also have scheduled a Soundscapes in-store on September 6th at 6 pm, and a CD Release show for September 23rd at SuperMarket. Then they head out east for some dates in October. Magneta Lane will be at Harbourfront(CIBC Stage) on September 30th, for something called "Culture Shock".

Zerophase reports that Chicago's Smoking Popes(remember "Need You Around"?), who broke up seven years ago, will be reuniting for a performance at Flower 15 on November 11th.

The New Pornographers' "Twin Cinema" e-card!

True Patriot Love

concert review: Joel Plaskett Emergency, as part of East Coast Rhythms @ Harbourfront Centre(Toronto, Ontario), August 20, 2005

I went down to Harbourfront to catch Joel Plaskett Emergency this past weekend. There was a good turnout for the show, more than I expected actually. I wandered towards the stage down one of the aisles to get as close as I could to the stage. The Emergency as he called his bandmates consisted of fellow ex-Thrush Hermit member Ian McGettigan on bass guitar and drummer Dave Marsh(who's played with The Super Friendz among others). With half of Thrush Hermit onstage I was hoping for some old Thrush Hermit classics to weave their way into the setlist. Unfortunately, I don't think any surfaced. Anyways, Joel performed his own brand of honest pop-rock which was both hummable and dance-able at the same time. The only album of Joel Plaskett's I own is "Truthfully, Truthfully" so it's really those songs during the set which I enjoyed the most. "Come On Teacher" and the cowbell-enhanced "Extraordinary" were good crowd-pleasers. Audience request "Mystery and Crime" was my favourite song of the night because it echoed the pop sentiments of Thrush Hermit which I loved so much. The brooding pop of "Radio Fly" was a nice change of pace but still totally invigorating because of Joel's emotional vocal turn on the song.

Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with Joel's other albums, although I do recall him playing a song solo(something he did several times during the evening) called "I Love This Town" which got a favourable reaction from the crowd. I liked how he interwove "Toronto" as well as "Thrush Hermit" into the lyrics of the song, to the pleasure of the crowd. I think there were alot of Nova Scotians/Maritimers in the audience that night based on the reaction from the crowd anytime anything east coast-related was mentioned. For example, Joel: "I played the Dartmouth Waterfront Festival..."; crowd: "Woohoo!". You get the picture. So, yes Torontonians and Ontario-ans were for one night NOT the centre of the universe. ;-) The highlight of the evening had to be his solo rendition of "True Patriot Love" during his encore which he performed to an attentive crowd. It's a lyrically wonderful song even if it's dripping with melancholy. I think Joel is quite adept within this solo troubadour style and I'm looking forward to seeing at least part of his solo set at the Ear To The Ground festival next month. The only disappointment of the night was not getting a second encore. After the encore, it seemed there was a possibility of a second encore, especially since the MC had motioned the crowd for more applause. Thanks for getting our hopes up. No dice with a second encore. And I was really hoping they'd come back to play a Thrush Hermit tune. Now there's a reunion I'd LOVE to see. [photos from the show]

ps. more reviews of the show from suckingalemon, morriganlefey, and whintegreen.
:
:
To celebrate the release of The New Pornographers' new album "Twin Cinema" tomorrow, the band will appear tomorrow August 23rd on KEXP to perform a live session at 3 pm PST[6 pm EST]. Pitchfork reviews the new album today, giving it a strong 9 out of 10. Toronto weeklies, eye and NOW reviewed the album last week and both liked "Twin Cinema" well enough but were less enthusiatic overall. Hmmm, I hate mixed reviews. Lastly, after KEXP, the band will head to KCRW to perform a live session on Morning Becomes Eclectic on August 26th at 11:15 am PST[2:15 pm EST].

The at-once-disappointed-but-relieved Kevin Drew addresses the leak of the new Broken Social Scene album over at the band's official website[see the update on today's date]. Okay, I downloaded the album just yesterday, but just because of you Kevin, I think I'll hold off listening to it and wait for the CD to be released.

In addition to the already scheduled Metric show at the Phoenix on September 29th, a second show has been added for the day before on September 28th. [from emergelive]

chromewaves reports that Matt Pond PA's new album "Several Arrows" will be released October 11th with tour dates to be announced shortly. On a related note, I noticed over at the Edge 102.1 FM website that Matt Pond PA are scheduled to open for Athlete at The Opera House in Toronto on September 19th. Hopefully, some smaller club dates will surface around that time. I would have been tempted to go to that September 19th show but I'm already going to see Sigur Ros.

Dan Burke over at stillepost says that The Zoobombs will stick around the city after the Ear To The Ground Festival for a show at The Silver Dollar on September 22nd. Openers will be California's The Willowz.

Death Cab For Cutie will be performing a live session for BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe, tomorrow August 23rd.

The Big Ticket has a long overdue post about seeing The Constantines in concert back on July 14th at 400 Bar in Minneapolis. He has some nice photos from the show plus a couple of links to mp3's of tracks off The Cons' new album "Tournament of Hearts" which will be released through Sub Pop on October 11th.

My Mean Magpie ends his consecutive posting of the Teenbeat Mp3 of the Week at the 100th post, and for the occasion has compiled a live version of Unrest's "Perfect Teeth" LP consisting of live recordings of (most of)the album's songs recorded in and around 1993.

Alone At The Microphone

concert review: Three Gut Records 5th Anniversay afternoon show @ Club Tranzac(Toronto, Ontario), August 20, 2005

I just have to say that the afternoon Three Gut Records 5th anniversary show at Club Tranzac was pretty sweet. Nothing like rocking out in the afternoon. Well, actually it was a pretty loose, casual affair. The show took place at Club Tranzac in Toronto which is located just off Bloor St. on Brunswick Ave. in the vicinity of Lee's Palace. It was my first time going there and it was a pretty decent venue. The show started at 2 pm but by the time I got there it was about 35 minutes into the show. Apparently, Nathan Lawr had performed. Too bad I missed it because I was interested in hearing his music after having heard a couple of Sea Snakes songs.

I walked in while The Constantines Steve Lambke was performing solo with an acoustic guitar onstage. It was pretty mellow folky stuff and there was an off-the-cuff feel to the performance. Fellow Cons member, Dallas WehrleWhil Kidman joined in to add some subtle bass guitar noodling. DallasWhil then took his own turn onstage, and picked up the guitar for his own brief set of acoustic Elliot Smith-sounding tunage. I was really impressed actually. If Steve's set was off-the-cuff, then Dallas'Whil's was downright ramshackle, as his whispered voice strained for a barely attainable falsetto, and songs came to abrupt endings. Such circumstances made for a charming set and the strength of the songs was what shone through.

If I remember correctly, I think it was Gentleman Reg next. Reg started off his set performing with a bassist only, but then the rest of the band, including Royal City's Simon Osborne, came onto the stage to perform the balance of the set of intelligent pop music. Good stuff - I need to check their music out.

Next up were Pat and Rachel of Oakley Hall who were actually unknown to me at the time. I only found out after the fact who they were from reading cmedley's account of the show. They performed a brief but good set of country-ish songs on acoustic guitars with vocal harmonizing, highlighted by their country-ish turn on The Cons' "Young Lions" which they had preceded with a "challenge" to the audience to guess what song they were playing. Uh, yeah it was really difficult. ;-) Considering I didn't know who they were beforehand, they impressed me right away with the lovely vocal harmonizing, Pat with his country-ish drawl, and Rachel with her lovely higher-pitched vocals.

Next up, Bry Webb of The Cons played an all-too brief two song set of rustic acoustic tunes. It was definitely a sharp contrast to seeing him as The Cons' frontman.

Finally, Jim Guthrie finished off the afternoon with a full band to perform his set of articulate and inspired pop music. In between songs he took on the task of thanking everyone involved with the show that afternoon; and he did it in an alliteral fashion, such as when he said "Reg was Righteous"; you get the picture. Later on in the set, I believe during "Turn Musician", Jim prompted his friend Vish to come onto stage to take a turn on the mic for some rapping, which Vish then preceded to bust out some "hockey rhymes" until he exhausted his lyrical arsenal and got off the stage to an appreciative crowd response.

It was a memorable afternoon for sure. No corny speeches but there was birthday cake, and it was delicious!

So to Three Gut, thanks for the music.[I only have some photos of Jim Guthrie's set, but cmedley has more.]

Somebody's Watching You

concert review: Matt Mays and El Torpedo w/ In-Flight Safety @ Harbourfront Centre(Toronto, Ontario), August 19, 2005

Damn tornado warning made me miss the Jon Rae and The River instore at Soundscapes yesterday. When things cleared up, I decided to check out In-Flight Safety and Matt Mays and El Torpedo who were playing a free show at Harbourfront as part of their East Coast Rhythms festival. Toronto blogger A tear that hangs... has raved about this Halifax band for a year now comparing them to Coldplay. And you know what? Damn, do they remind me of Coldplay. If you're into introspective but anthemic Brit pop-rock such as Coldplay or early Radiohead, you'll probably like In-Flight Saftey. Actually, the vocalist had more of a muscular vocal style at times than Coldplay's Chris Martin or Radiohead's Thom Yorke and reminded me more of The Verve's Richard Ashcroft especially on their single "Somebody's Watching You". Their tunes featured alot of meaty pop hooks courtesy of the fine keyboard arrangments and guitar playing as well as solid percussion and bass lines which kept things interesting. Most of the songs hovered within that atmospheric pop-rock territory but the band performed a good cover of The Inbreds' "Any Sense of Time", elevating it from the original bass guitar/drums setup into a fleshed out band version including guitar and keyboards. I wonder if NME and any other of the Brit music mags/rags have caught onto In-Flight Safety, because I think music fans in the UK would just eat 'em up. I mean, I was somewhat disappointed in missing the Coldplay show in Toronto recently, but then In-Flight Safety's set yesterday made me forgot all about that. Apologies to the band for all the Coldplay comparisons, but fine set overall.

Matt Mays and El Torpedo were up next. It's too bad that the tornado warning earlier in the day kept attendance yesterday evening lower than expected. However, the seats did fill up somewhat more after In-Flight Safety's set. I'd only seen Matt Mays and El Torpedo live once before when they opened for The Thrills at the Phoenix in May 2004. The Son Volt-country rock stylings of their performance in 2004 seemed to only be half there yesterday. Yesterday evening's set had more of a Neil Young and Crazy Horse-vibe. And there lay my disappointment; I'd prefer the former over the latter. From song to song there were alot of guitar change-ups from electric to acoustic and back and I thought the keyboards in particular were top-notch. Matt Mays said they appeared on Muchmusic's MuchOnDemand, earlier in the day; I wonder if the kids even knew who he was? And what I wouldn't have given to see the band perform their sound check during the afternoon, as Matt said that the storm was quite intense and was throwing the boats in the harbour around like "soap in a bathtub". [photos from the show]
:
:
Brooklynvegan has some lovely photos of Stars who opened for Death Cab For Cutie @ Summerstage in New York City.

The Hamilton board over at Stillepost says that Mr. John Cale will be at Corktown Tavern on November 16th, which leads me to believe that if he's coming to Hamilton he must be coming to Toronto also.

Grab a bunch of Magnetic Fields songs covered by other artists over at Copy, Right? while you can. [via One Louder]

Here's a torrent(registration required) of a recent live show of The Pernice Brothers at Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge MA on August 14, 2005.

Dinosaur Jr. perform a live session for KEXP today at 3 pm PST[6 pm EST]. Listen online.

Merchants of Soul

Stereogum discusses a theory that a friend of his overheard at a party, which goes that Spoon's "Gimme Fiction" was meant to be listened to in reverse track order(last song to first), but was sequenced backwards on purpose as some sort of inside joke, pop masterpiece. Methinks I should burn the CD in reverse track order and see if this theory has any legs.

Mp3 blog, Pimps of Gore runs down the early history of Spoon and has some mp3's of songs from some out-of-print Spoon releases. Apparently, the band's "Telephono" is difficult to find, and even if you found it on the web it'd cost you. I guess I should consider myself lucky for finding a NEW copy in a bargain bin for $1.

I'll admit, I'm late onto the Spoon bandwagon, but I can say most definitely that "Gimme Fiction" is the killer album of the year so far.[photo from http://../]
:
:
The most recent update at Three Gut Records recounts as best they could, highlights of the label's illustrious career. Oh man, if I had Marty McFly's Delorean right now and could go back to November 2001 to that Sufjan Stevens/The Hidden Cameras/Royal City show at Lee's Palace.

Stuart Berman of eye compiles an essential Three Gut Records tracklist.

Just a reminder that the record label's 5th anniversary/farewell shows are going down in Toronto on August 20th at Club Tranzac in the afternoon(between 2-5pm) and in the evening at Lee's Palace. I'm actually considering heading down to Hamilton tonight(since I've booked the day off from work tomorrow) to see The Constantines at The Underground, which'd give me the opportunity to see Joel Plaskett at Harbourfront on Saturday night.

Thom of Radiohead has a blog. Be prepared for weirdness. [from the oh so quiet show] Productshop NYC offers more info on this latest endeavour of Thom's.

Just came across this...a download of Feist's recent live session for World Cafe is available courtesy of a poster at Feist's message forum.

Remember this thread? Well the Hamilton "September Shows" Stillepost thread is hopping with some great shows scheduled for that month, some recent announcements including:

Julie Doiron @ The Casbah on Sept 15th

The Stills w/ The Ladies & Gentlemen @ The Underground on Sept 16th

Gentlemen Reg will be opening for The Organ @ The Casbah on Sept 19th

The Willowz will play @ The Underground on Sept 19th

Plus, Whitey Museum at Stillepost says Japan's, The Zoobombs will play The Underground, with Yep Roc's Ian Moore opening, on September 21st.

The Bones Of An Idol

The New Pornographers performed live on WFMU yesterday. The radio station has a blog called WFMU's Beware of the Blog which has links to streaming audio of the performance as well as a download of a video clip from the set. Neko Case wasn't there unfortunately but will be joining the group later on in the tour; joining in on vocals was Carl Newman's niece Kathryn Calder who was making her first radio appearance and second ever live performance with the band. I still haven't made up my mind whether it's worth enduring the horrendous Docks Nightclub in Toronto to see The New Pornographers play there on October 9th. [photo at left is a still taken from the video clip of a performance of the band on WFMU]

More New Pornographers' mp3 goodness over at So Much Silence, who has an mp3 of "The Bones Of An Idol" off the new album "Twin Cinema" which is being released August 23rd.

Thank to Just Keep Bloggin' for the heads up that an October Canadian tour is in the works. After rereading that Pitchfork article about that Bright Eyes tour I noticed that both Feist and The Magic Numbers will be opening for Bright Eyes when that tour hits Buffalo on November 21st.

Some concert announcements: Weird War will be at Sneaky Dee's on October 1st.[via Pollstar] Nashville Pussy will be at Lee's Palace on October 6th.[via emergelive] And finally, word's out at stillepost that Architecture in Helsinki will FINALLY come to Toronto on October 1st at a venue TBA! (yes, that last one deserved an exclamation mark!)

Here's a torrent(registration required) of a live show of Broken Social Scene on March 18, 2004 at Emo's in Austin, TX.

Blog Rock

More Cowbell has Liz Phair tourdate info which includes a Toronto show at the Phoenix on October 23rd. I've been listening to Liz' new single "Everything To Me" over at her MySpace site and I'm afraid to say it but she's gone mainstream on us, if that hadn't already happened with her last album which I never actually got around to listening to. Mainstream success would be good, but sounding like mainstream radio is very bad. I want to say it's not a band bad song but...I can't, especially when the lyrics of the chorus are totally cheeseball. And now I got to whip out my copy of "Whip-Smart" just to remind me why I liked Liz Phair in the first place. I'm hoping that Liz redeems herself on the rest of the new album, entitled "Somebody's Miracle" which will be released this Fall. [photo from http://../]

So are The Willowz one of America's most promising young bands? The Village Voice thinks so. I still haven't heard a note of their music but Dan Burke things they are "the future of American rock". With kudos like these, who wants to bet that in six months The Willowz are "the next big thing". We shall see.

Aversion, Billboard, and Pitchfork report that Bright Eyes is hitting the road again for tourdates in October and November. Southern Ontario-ans can drive to Buffalo to catch him on November 21st @ Center for Arts @ University of Buffalo.

Thanks to One Louder for pointing me towards the Echo and The Bunnymen site which is currently hosting audio clips from the upcoming new album entitled "Siberia". Echo and The Bunnymen will be coming to Toronto for a show at The Carlu on November 23rd.

Check out the new main page at the Broken Social Scene official site which features the artwork for their upcoming self-titled second album. Ok, old news to you, but new news to me.

While over at the Arts & Crafts site I noticed that The Most Serene Republic are playing a show at a venue called Hype in Brampton on August 20th. According to canada411.com, the venue is located at 1701 Queen St. East in Brampton. Anyone know what this venue's like?

I just checked out the festival schedule for the upcoming Ear To The Ground festival and it's looking stellar, yet I'm freaking out at all the overlapping sets, especially the overlapping sets between the Ruckus and Bandshell stage on the Sunday night in particular. I guess that's inescapable with a festival setup. I'm expecting to scurry between stages ALOT that weekend.

Somehow over the weekend, my blog got linked to The Village Voice 's blog rock column which at the time featured a blogger's commentary on the band Louis XIV. Just to let you know but, I did NOT write that. However, I did appreciate the extra web traffic. ;-)

T.O. Twang

Beck's "Odelay" has been my soundtrack of choice this past weekend. Insofar that I've rediscovered it's the PERFECT summer album, listening to it reminded me that it contains one of my favourite modern country songs, "Lord Only Knows". Strip away the punky/hip-hop-inflected intro, and the general indie-slacker aesthetics of the song and what remains is a top-notch country tune. I'd admit that my country music tastes have always leaned towards the alt-country side of the spectrum. So it was with great pleasure when I found out above T.O. Twang, billed as "Toronto's first and only alt-country festival". T.O. Twang went down over the weekend at Harbourfront Centre and featured two nights and two days of a variety of alt-country acts from the US and Canada. The key terminology is "alt-country". There was none of that "new country" bullshit, just a variety of "rockabilly-surf, bluegrass, newgrass, honky-tonk, swing and country-fried-rock" acts to please just about anyone. Let's run this down day by day, and I'll try to be brief(or maybe not):

-- Friday August 12, 2005 --

The Sadies @ CIBC Stage - 9:30 pm
When do Toronto's The Sadies not impress? Their music's a seamless blend of styles ranging from surf, country-twang, garage rock, and 60's pop, and what better representatives are there to wave the banner of T.O. Twang. Hightlights of the set included Dallas' and Travis' mother lending her vocals to several songs as well as the surprise guest appearances from Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor and Basil Donovan which included a run through Blue Rodeo's "Trust Yourself". Other things to mention: a)Dallas' vocals are a deadringer for Lee Hazelwood, b)Travis and Dallas are great guitar players(as if you didn't already know), and c)that "shoop,shoop...shoop-shoop, shoop" song is insanely fun.[more photos]


Carolyn Mark and The New Best Friends @ Brigantine Room - 11 pm
T.O. Twang CIBC stage hostess Carolyn Mark and her band played a double set at the Brigantine Room after The Sadies' set finished. I never saw her perform live and I must say she was such a delight to see. She wasn't very country actually; more of a rock n' roll boogie kinda gal. The twang-inflected tunes mostly came from guest steel-pedal extraordinaire Bob Egan. Wearing a fifties-inspired hoopskirt, she looked like the perfect example of fifties wholesomeness. In contrast, she was quite a bit more rambunctious. There were some fun moments of Carolyn doing some rock guitar posturing, dropping to the floor, kicking up her heels to reveal her panties. She was quite the confident stage banterer, making off-the-cuff remarks that had the audience in stitches. By the way, her keyboardist Ford Pier had totally insane dance moves. [more photos]


-- Saturday August 13, 2005 --

Billy Joe Shaver @ CIBC Stage - 9:30 pm
There was a good turnout for this gentleman. There was alot of older folk as well as a fair share of cowboy hat-wearing country music fans in the audience. "New country" he isn't but having read that he was an older gentlemen I was hoping for some hurtin' Johnny Cash or Hank Williams influenced numbers. Revered as he is, his brand of honky tonk country music just wasn't my cup of tea. There was a tender moment during his set when he dedicated a song he wrote about his son, who he said was a great guitar player and who had passed away due to a drug overdose. [photo from http://../]


Stone City Stragglers @ Brigantine Room - 11:00 pm
Of the acts that I wasn't familiar with, I most wanted to see Stone City Stragglers after perusing their website and sampling some audio tracks. The band's from Joliet, Illinois which I'm assuming is not a mecca of country music. I wanted to be knocked off my feet and was a little disappointed at the start of their set. At the start of their set, I'd have been nclined to agree with this review which states about their first album, "Little Misfortunes & Innocent Mistakes", that "Love, alienation, prison, loneliness - all the best themes in country are represented here, without much 'alt'." and then goes on to say that the album is "middle of the road". Up against the best alt-country artists like old Wilco, Uncle Tupelo or more recent artists like Neko Case, Stone City Stragglers started out their set with a conventional country sound that lacked the "alt" that I was hoping for. I do admit that they were great musicians and the vocal harmonies between the two lead singers were superb, in particular that of female vocalist Allison Moroni. (As an aside, the glasses she wore were quite flattering and she was really gorgeous in her long brown country dress and boots.) Thankfully my initial disappointment was brief as I believe that the band redeemed themselves during the second half of their set. The band pulled from their sleeves a bevy of great songs including a new acoustic tune called "Magnolia" which had the raw emotion I was hoping for. Sometimes less can really be more. The series of tunes which the guitarist pulled out the mandolin for were also very good. The added percussion contributed by the male vocalist's wife was interesting and added some needed dimension to the songs. I noticed and was glad the guitar was turned up for a certain Son Volt-style rocker as well as a couple of desert-rock instrumentals. The Star(not to be confused with The Toronto Star) spoke to the band in advance of their appearance at T.O. Twang, and stated that they were the only unsigned band at the festival. I'm a little miffed that the turnout for Stone City Stragglers' set wasn't overflowing with stragglers(pun intended) coming from mainstage headliner Billy Joe Shaver's set. I'm hoping someone took notice because they really deserve a record deal. Oh, and almost forgot to mention that the young daughter of the male vocalist was so adorable when she took the stage to sing on one song.

-- Sunday August 14, 2005 --

Ancient Chinese Secret @ Brigantine Room - 2 pm
This all-instrumental country/pop/surf music trio played a nifty set of covers that were all really good. The band features Brian Connelly who used to be in Shadowy Men and a Shadowy Planet and I believe still plays as part of the more recent Atomic 7. While I could state quite confidently that Shadowy... was an indie, garage-y outfit, I'd be hard pressed to make any major distinguishment between Ancient Chinese Secret and Atomic 7, other than the fact that Ancient Chinese Secret play more country covers. Actually, Ancient Chinese Secret played a bevy of other cover songs that just weren't country including a lovely version of "To Sir With Love" and a super-cool version of Tom Jones "It's Not Unsual". The country tunes were songs I wasn't all that familiar with except for Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". I think Brian lives in Toronto because I've spotted him in town, although he's not hard to miss with his red hair and rockabilly-style wardrobe. His guitar skills are truly scorching. Whatever incarnation he's a part of, you must check out Brian's skills for yourself.

Nathan @ CIBC Stage - 3 pm
This young band is a four-piece made up of two females and two males, from Winnipeg playing folky, sometimes twangy pop music. Their set was pretty eclectic with nods to various styles including country, folk, polka, and pop music. The vocal harmonies between co-frontwomen Keri McTighte and Shelley Marshall were very lovely and their stage banter was confident and humorous. The banjo was used to nice effect on several songs and towards the end of their set Keri displayed an impressive skill in the use of a theremin. The accessibility of their music, as well as the fact that they are young are a couple of factors that I really think could attract a younger audience who are interested in discovering new music. Their music wasn't always as dark as they advertise themselves to be, at least if you went by the quote(by Michael Wrycrafter of CBC Radio) at their website which describes Nathan as "If David Lynch had directed 'O Brother Where Art Thou?, Nathan's music would be the soundtrack." Actually, Nathan's sound is quite sunny at times. I just thought you should know that. [original photo from Nathan's official website]

:
:
Please also check out suckingalemon's review of T.O. Twang. Whereas I made it out to a measly two acts per day, it appears she saw almost every one of the mainstage acts. Wow.

Friday Night In T.O.

I might elaborate on these following shows I saw yesterday but for now I'll do this photo-blog style. Lal were understated and although I appreciated their set and like their music, the concrete environment of the Square(and during daylight no less), wasn't the ideal venue they should be seen in. See them in a small club, trust me. The Sadies, with special appearances from their mom as well as Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor, and Bazil Donovan, performed a great eclectic set of their country, surf, twang material with a few nods to 60's pop and Lee Hazelwood. I was mighty exhausted by midnight and was only able to stay for Carolyn Mark's first of two sets. As much as everyone thought her set rocked(yes, it was a rockin' good time!) I did notice some people leaving after she finished the first set? Anyone stick around for her second set(after midnight)?

Lal @ Yonge-Dundas Square(Toronto, Ontario), August 13, 2005


The Sadies, part of T.O. Twang: All Things Alt Country festival @ Harbourfront Centre[CIBC Stage](Toronto, Ontario), August 12, 2005





Carolyn Mark and The New Best Friends, part of T.O. Twang: All Things Alt Country festival @ Harbourfront Centre[Brigantine Room](Toronto, Ontario), August 12, 2005

Spin The Bottle vs. Superball

Lately, I've been wondering about a couple of 90's indie rock gals who by their respective websites are still plugging away to this day, but have been missing in action in the Toronto vicinity for some time. And now I'm getting all misty-eyed for the 1990's indie rock scene:

Long overdue for an appearance in Toronto, Juliana Hatfield currently only has some US east coast tour dates lined up until August 20th. In the meantime, check out Kofi's hat who has available an mp3 of Juliana performing a live cover of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So". Her newest album "Made In China" was just released on August 9th. Along with the gals in Jale, Juliana Hatfield was one of my first(if not the first) indie rock crush I ever had.

Ex-Helium frontwoman and now going by her own name, Mary Timony just confirmed some new tourdates for September, but unfortunately there isn't a Toronto date. The kick in the pants is she's playing some dates with Portastic who will be in Toronto on September 12th at Lee's Palace, but Mary will be playing her own shown in Akron, Ohio that day. In the meantime, she does mention that a new mp3[well, actually it's only streaming audio], of "9X3", from her latest album "Ex Hex", is available over at her MySpace site.

Cuff The Duke make an impression in the maritimes with a cover story in this week's issue of Halifax weekly, The Coast.

Here are mp3's of a recent live radio session by The Constantines. [thanks to suckingalemon for pointing me towards the Livejournal Constantines Community] If you read my reply(today's date) in this thread, I'm a little hesistant to believe that The Cons will be in Toronto in October opening for The New Pornographers. Pollstar is notorious, at least in my experience, for having inaccurate info, and The Cons website doesn't mention an October 9th date in Toronto.

From stillepost, Belle Orchestre return to Toronto with openers Kepler for a record release show at The Drake Hotel on October 14th. BTW, the band's got a spiffy new website, which indicates that their record entitled "Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light" will be released August 22nd through Rough Trade in North America and the UK.

Raul Malo(of The Mavericks) will be at El Mocambo in Toronto on October 15th. The Mavericks were one of those country bands who were accepted by Nashville but at the same time had an outsider quality which was quite appealing to me. Drawing their influences from Buddy Holly, classic country, mariachi bands and so forth they were one of the first country bands that really interested me. I think I got a Mavericks best-of CD somewhere. I'll need to dig that up sometime. I'm highly going to consider checking out Mr. Malo in October. [tour date info from Pollstar]

Doves will be hitting the road for a North American fall tour including a date in Toronto, at you guessed it, The Docks on September 30th. Ugh. I've noticed the string of 'good' bands that The Docks have managed to snag for themselves. I'm assuming they've managed to hire a booker with taste. I salute you whoever you are, but at the same time, damn you. I hate The Docks...the sightlines in the club, parking costs, public transit issues. Shall I go on? [tour date info from More Cowbell]

chartattack(via NME) reports on Grandaddy's plans to release a mini-album on October 3rd entitled "Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla" as well as a new still-untitled album which is planned for release in early 2006.

7/4

Billboard reports that the first pressing of Broken Social Scene's upcoming self-titled second album will include a 7-track bonus EP entitled "EP To Be You and Me". The EP will include the following songs: "Her Disappearing Themes," "Canada Vs. America," "Baroque Social," "No Smiling Darkness" / "Snake Charmers Association," "All My Friends," "Major Label Debut (Fast)" and "Feel Good Lost (Reprise)." Billboard also reports that you can download a limited-time free mp3 of "7/4(Shoreline)" via the band's galleryAC digital downloads website. Wow, I just listened to the mp3 and this studio version has way more ooomph(both in the instrumentation and the lushness of the vocals) than the versions that have been floating around the 'net for sometime. And it's Feist singing the girl part. I kinda wish Amy was singing the girl part too. And yeah, towards the end of the song, those horns kick in. Sweet. [photo from http://../]

Pitchfork has the details about the different formats that The Deadly Snakes new album "Porcella" will be released as. The album will be released on September 27th through Paperbag Records and will be available in standard CD format as well as a double-vinyl edition. Check out Pitchfork for tourdates, which include a couple in my neck of the woods: Toronto @ Lee's Palace on Sept 23rd[openers: Heartless Bastards], and Hamilton @ The Underground on October 17th[openers: Tangiers].

The Fall have added a couple more UK tour dates, this time in London on November 1st and 2nd. As I mentioned yesterday, there's a possibility Mark E. Smith will bring his merry bunch over to the US(and I'm assuming Canada) after the UK dates. Although, Miss Valerie states otherwise as she says her "husband"(I think that's her cheeky way of saying Pete Doherty) in Manchester is going on holidays to Barcelona in November with a couple of the guys in Mark E. Smith's band.

Thanks to suckingalemon for pointing out the details of the upcoming 5-year anniversary Three Gut Records show which is happening on August 20th in Toronto. There's an afternoon show, possibly between 2 and 5 pm at Club Tranzac and an evening show starting at 9:30 pm at Lee's Palace. Check out suckingalemon or the Three Gut Records website for the lineups and details. Alas, I'm planning to be in Vancouver at that time, so everyone have fun.

Mod-soul-pop rockers Novillero will be coming back to Toronto on September 3rd, 9th and 10th. Details TBA. Also The Organ have some upcoming US and Canadian tour dates, including dates between September 8th and 17th in Ontario. Again, details TBA, although a post over at stillepost states that The Organ will be at The Casbah in Hamilton ON on September 19th. The band are confirmed for the Ear To The Ground Festival in Toronto at Exhibition Place on September 18th.[info from Mint Records]

Speaking of Novillero, listen to(and or download the mp3 of) their nifty live version of Joy Division's "Ceremony" over at their MySpace website.

I hadn't caught onto the following info until a post over at stillepost pointed me in the right direction but Always Familiar posted several mp3's for download of tracks from The Diableros upcoming debut album. They are playing with The Jim Yoshi Pile-up at Sneaky Dee's on Wednesday August 17th.

Stuart Berman of eye and The Two Koreas is guest blogging at Always Familiar this week.

If you hadn't already downloaded You Ain't No Picasso's mp3 compilation indie covers mix, he's given you a second chance to download it here. And like your mother always told you, be sure to say "thank you".

Keren Ann performed a live sesson for BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe program on Monday August 8, 2005. Listen to the stream here[around the 20:40:00 mark; only archived for a week].

Umm, I had planned to bring out the bicycle this evening before it got dark. Too late.

La La Means I Love You

Jens Lekman recently held a competition over at his website. His instructions were as follows:

"So I want you to do something for me. I want you to go out and spraypaint something on a wall, a house or your old mans Mercedes. it could be a word, a sentence or a picture. If you don't have a spraycan you can use a marker or you could draw it in the sand on the beach if you want to but that's sort of missing the point. I just want you to let the world know that even if life is hard you're not gonna fall in love with your own misery cause you're above that. But use your own words. Be creative."

The photo above is the winner, although I found some of the honorable mentions pretty nifty, in particular the one with the caption "Find a warm heart to make your home." Or how about the more philosphical, "Why are people search for love when they could try my tree?" Check out some of the other photos here(see Jens' update on Aug 8, 2005).[photo credit: William Sandersson]
:
:
Just read the update over at The Heavy Blinkers' website that Jason MacIsaac of the band has started a blog for their fifth album "Health". As Jason puts it you'll soon have access to "exclusive demos, photos and the pointless ramblings of yours truly."

A Soundtrack For Everyone gives a thorough track by track review of The White Stripes' "Get Behind Me Satan", and in the process has convinced me that I need to give this album a chance and stop listening to music critics who've panned the album.

chartattack reports that Toronto rock band Danko Jones have pushed back the release of their new 11 track album, entitled "Sleep Is The Enemy", to early 2006, originally slated for a release this fall. Apparently the guys are burning up the rock radio charts in the states. Here in Canada, I haven't heard a peep.

The Arcade Fire will be opening for U2, playing in Ottawa on November 25th at Corel Centre and in Montreal on November 26th and 28th at Belle Centre. [from Billions] And from Us Kids Know[news update Aug 9, 2005], The Arcade Fire will be one of the performers at this year's Fashion Rocks event. I'd read about this on several blogs but hadn't noticed the info that the event will be broadcast on CBS on September 9th. I'm crossing my fingers that this means The Arcade Fire's performance will make it to the broadcast.

pop77 makes me want to get an iPod. He's got the new mix up now. Plus, check out the newly redesigned site.

A peek at the official Fall website reveals that The Fall are scheduled into October for a series of UK tourdates. The website unfortunately states that, "It appears very unlikely that they'll be playing the U.S. before October; possibly afterwards." I'm assuming when they say U.S., they also mean Canada.

Burn To Shine

Billboard reported last week that the second volume of the Brendan Canty(of Fugazi)-produced series "Burn To Shine" will be released on August 23rd. If you aren't already familiar with this series, it features a lineup of artists' performing one song each in an empty room of a house which is scheduled for demolition or will be burned to the ground. Each volume of the series has or will be curated by someone familiar with the music scene in the region in question. The first DVD of the series took place in Washington DC and featured such artists as Bob Mould and Ted Leo. The second DVD of the series was filmed in Chicago and featured such artists as Wilco, Tortoise and Freakwater. The filming of the third DVD of the series, which was filmed in Portland, was just completed and is currently being edited and according to The Shins website[Aug 2, 2005 update] is scheduled for a fall release. According to The Shins' wbesite[Aug 2, 2005 update], The Shins recorded "Saint Simon" for the project and other artists involved for the third volume of the series include The Thermals and The Decemberists. You can buy the first volume(and preorder the second volume) here.

Ted Leo will be playing The Underground in Hamilton ON on Sept 30th according to whitey museum over at stillepost. Ted Leo in Toronto on September 29th and in Hamilton on the 30th. Good odds that I'll be going to both!

If you can stand the slow download Thee Silver Mount Zionist is offering up a download of the whole video set of Broken Social Scene live at the 2004 Ottawa Folk Festival. Nine songs in total, and you can download them individually. [download link via Passport Radio]

For the vinyl-challenged, You Ain't No Picasso offers a link(via Secret Unicorns forum) to an mp3 of The Arcade Fire performing the song "Brazil" which is a cover of an Ary Baroso and Ed Russell song and is the B-side to the "Cold Wind" 7-inch single.

Just a reminder, that Feist - Live at the Rehearsal Hall will FINALLY be broadcast on Bravo Canada tomorrow night at 9 PM EST.

My friend and I did manage to make it down to Taste of The Danforth on Saturday night. Missed part of the The Golden Dogs' set and only stayed for about half an hour of Lowest of The Low's set. Lowest of the Low managed to work into one of their songs, The Killers' lyric "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier" which was a fun surprise. The crowds were suffocating at times and then in addition to that my friend and I found that the main stage at Danforth Ave. and Logan St. was overrun by a beer garden which was maybe twice as large as previous years and extended all the way to the front of the stage. Oh, and the parking issue this year was ridiculous. It was probably about a 20 minute walk to the car. At least the souvlaki was good. Here are some photos of the bands.