Outlaws

Toronto-via-Ottawa's The Wooden Stars are releasing a new album 8 years after 1999's Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars collaborative effort. The new album is called "People Are Different" and will be released through Sonic Unyon this April[via Chartattack]. I'd always had this on-again-off-again relationship with The Wooden Stars' music. At their core, I think they create pop music, but it's a challenging sort of pop music to say the least. With every challenge there comes difficulty, but success can pay off with a little effort. The Wooden Stars' music is full of odd-time signatures, unusual chords, and fractured vocals making them somewhat difficult to listen to(at least to this pop fan at heart), but at their best the buried melodies creep to the surface to reveal something really beautiful. I saw them live at least once or twice in the 90's and had last caught their "reunion" set at 1995's Exclaim Anniversary show at The Phoenix. It's with great pleasure to find out that they have a few shows lined up this spring to get reacquainted with them[tour dates via CBC Radio 3 Blog]:

April 13 - Montreal, Main Hall
April 19 - Toronto, Horseshoe
April 20 - Hamilton, Casbah
April 21 - Ottawa, Babylon

MySpace: The Wooden Stars (new song "Orphans" is currently streaming)
YouTube: Julie Doiron and The Wooden Stars - Dance Music (music video)
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Learn a lesson from Bob Mould: back up your computer files.

concert announcements:

Feb 27/07 - Ohbijou (opening for Bright Eyes) @ Massey Hall The Opera House [!]
Mar 21/07 - Basia Bulat (opening for Maria Taylor) @ Horseshoe Tavern [!]
Mar 28/07 - The Blood Brothers, Celebration @ The Opera House [#]
Mar 30/07 - The Pointed Sticks @ Horseshoe Tavern [&]
APR 20/07 - The Frames @ Phoenix [#]

! - Ground Control Touring
# - Billions
& - Horseshoe Tavern