Blue Lines

It's a shame about Massive Attack being forced to cancel their appearance at the inaugural Canadian Edition of the Virgin Festival which is taking place this weekend in Toronto at Olympic Island. The Emerge Blog says that in addition to Toronto, the band have been forced to cancel the upcoming Montreal(9/11), Detroit(9/12) and Chicago(9/13) dates as well although if it's any consolation the press release does say that Virgin Festival ticket holders will be entitled to 'front of the line' status at Massive Attack’s next Toronto show which will be announced soon. Refunds for Sunday Virgin Festival Passes are at the point of purchase and if you bought tickets at Futureshop you only have until September 10 at 12 pm to return the tickets for a refund. Filling in for Massive Attack's headlining spot on Sunday evening is Broken Social Scene. While not quite on the level of Massive Attack[and I've really been wanting to see Massive Attack for a long time], I'll be happy to see BSS live again since the last time I saw them was at one of their shows at Kool Haus earlier in the year. And Emily Haines is in town so I expect to see her onstage with BSS this Sunday. Not sure about Amy Millan since her and or her and Stars bandmates will soon be hitting the road for some out-of-town shows. Whereabouts of Leslie Feist? Who knows Correction: Leslie's MySpace site says she'll be in Hollywood, California for a show at Avalon on Saturday night(September 9th). Anyone think she'll jet back to Toronto to join BSS onstage Sunday night? Let the betting begin!

Emily and her Metric bandmates(along with The Weakerthans) will be performing as part of University of Toronto's frosh week concert this afternoon[info]. If it is anything like last year's frosh concert(with Sloan and controller.controller) passerbys and non-students alike(like moi) should have no problem getting in since this is an outdoor show and it'll probably not be fenced off. I can't say the same for York University's frosh show, dubbed YorkFest, taking place September 15th but will only be open to York students and alumni with proper York ID as well as government-issued ID(not including Health Cards).

Did anyone get tickets/guest-list-spots to tonight's Virgin Festival Invite-Only Launch Party at The Mod Club which will feature Phoenix? Arts and Crafts as well as the band's website were giving away guest list spots to the first ten people who e-mailed them, but it doesn't look like I made the cut. I even e-mailed Arts & Crafts this morning, asking if I could still get on to the guest list. Wish me luck. (Or maybe if just stand outside The Mod Club and beg, maybe they'll let me in.)

Props to theplot over at Stille Post for offering up a couple of full song video clips from Cat Power's late show at Lee's Palace from this past Labour Day. Download live video clips of "The Moon" and "Metal Heart".

Lee's Palace's websites indicates that Joe-Rae and the River will be there on November 10 for their CD Release(of their third album "Knows What You Need" released through Baudelaire Records). Tickets for the show $10 in advance. Listen to a track("Just One More") at the band's MySpace site. Nice horns on that track. The album is already out on vinyl on indie label We are Busybodies which I saw at Rotate This yesterday. The cover photo of the band is awesome.