For the records

Austra - "Spellwork" (music video)

2012-01-12T23:52:00.002-05:00

The new music video for Austra's song "Spellwork" directed by Yelena Yemchuk. The user comments over at YouTube aren't all positive but I like it. There's something very soothing about the pacing of the camera work and the framing of the shots in my opinion. Conceptually, it seems very random - the whole scene at the end with the girls gorging themselves on watermelon seemed very tongue-in-cheek but overall I'll give it a thumbs up.

TWELVE: The Wavelength 12th Anniversary Festival

2012-01-10T23:28:00.001-05:00

Wavelength, the Toronto concert series [for many years until the last few years that had been running as a weekly concert series] which has introduced fans to a cornucopia of new music acts over the years turns twelve this year, and of course will be celebrating the occasion. TWELVE: The Wavelength 12th Anniversary Festival will be taking over several Toronto music venues over the long weekend [thank you Dalton McGuinty] of February 16-19 with featured acts including Fucked Up, P.S. I Love You, No Joy and Bonjay. An all-access festival pass is available for $36, or else else individual show ticket prices range from $10-$17 adv / $12-20 door. Advance tickets will go on sale January 17, in person through usual outlets Rotate This and Soundscapes or online at GalleryAC.com. Check out the Wavelength site for full lineup and ticket price details.

If you are of the social media persuasion, there is a Facebook event page.

Coachella 2012

2012-01-09T23:08:00.001-05:00

Curing the post-holiday blues, a late date announcement brings news of this year's lineup for Coachella taking place as usual on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. In an interesting move but odd move, the festival this year will be replicated over two weekends, first on the weekend of April 13-15 then the next weekend April 20-22. I imagine that festival organizers want to be able to accommodate as many ticket buyers as possible, but doesn't having the festival occur on one weekend and then having the whole festival replicated the next weekend make the whole festival, less special? What if the first weekend is better [weather-wise, performance-wise, what have you] than the second weekend or vice versa? What if scheduled performers, for what other reason make it out only to one weekend? It looks like a formula for someone to feel jipped. Musically, there's a good mix of artists that I think will appeal to the average music festival-goer - your reunions (Pulp, Refused, Mazzy Star, At The Drive-In), your current heavy-hitters (The Black Keys, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg) and a whole slew of current buzz-worthy acts. The Canadian contingent this year will include Feist, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Destroyer, Zeds Dead, Dragonette, The Weeknd (will Drake make a surprise appearance perhaps?), and The Sheepdogs. I haven't gone to the festival since my one and only time in 2004 and I don't imagine going this year but if I do reconsider it's only because I'd want to feel that warm Californian sun on my face and soak up the good vibes. Coachella is about music foremost but it's also about the experience. If you've never gone and if at least a few of the acts are worth your while, my suggestion is, GO. There is nothing like Coachella. On the other hand, it is three hot days and nights in the desert. I think I may just watch the webcast.

Favourite Albums of 2011

2012-01-02T23:50:00.003-05:00

As with my favourite album posts for 2007, 2008, and 2009 as well as my favourite songs of 2010 (a year which I couldn't even concentrate on whole albums) have pointed out, my favourite albums over recent years have either been by established favourites of mine, or else new artists I've gravitated towards have been a select few. I've missed out on many an album released in 2011 out of the sheer exhaustion in seeking out new music but there have been a few artists that had piqued my interest that I'm glad I checked out. So here are the albums released in 2011 which I enjoyed:

Austra -- Feel It Break
Video: Austra - "Darken Her Horse" (Live on KEXP)
MySpace: Austra

The Weeknd -- House of Balloons
Video: The Weeknd - "High For This"
Facebook: The Weeknd

PJ Harvey -- Let England Shake
Video: PJ Harvey- "The Words That Maketh Murder"
MySpace: PJ Harvey

James Blake -- James Blake
Video: James Blake - "The Wilhelm Scream"
MySpace: James Blake

Thurston Moore -- Demolished Thoughts
Video: Thurston Moore - "Benediction" / "Blood never lies" (A Take Away Show)

Miracle Fortress -- Was I The Wave?
Video: Miracle Fortress - "Tracers" (live @ Soundscapes, Toronto, 13/05/2011)
MySpace: Miracle Fortress

Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
Video: Lykke Li - "Sadness Is A Blessing"
MySpace: Lykke Li

CMJ & New York City (October 22, 2011)

2011-12-31T20:43:00.005-05:00

Peelander Z @ Public Assembly, NYC: photo by Michael Ligon

Last day/night of my trip to New York City and CMJ back in October 2011. (Next year, if I do the NYC trip again, I think I'll just post updates on a daily basis - this is too much work after the fact.)

For my last day/night in The Big Apple I took it relatively easier than the other days:

- Starbucks near MOMA
- Radio City Music Hall
- General Electric Building
- Rockafeller Center Ice Rink
- Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
- Emmy The Great @ Spike Hill
- Born Gold & Peelander-Z @ Public Assembly (as part of Day 2 of the Brooklynvegan 'not a CMJ' party)
- Grand Central Terminal; while wandering around, a one Miss Rebecca Black (of "Friday" fame) was signing autographs and chatting with a few fans.
- back to MOMA only to find out that it closes earlier than I expected on Saturdays.
- raced on over to Central Park to check it out, especially Wollman Rink (although because the rink itself it was closed, I didn't get to renact the scene in the film Serendipity when John Cusack lies on the rink as snow flakes fall down. ;-)
- saw the Robert Indiana LOVE Sculpture
- raced across town to the World Financial Center for the Sonic Festival featuring the American Composers Orchestra with the headlining piece composed by The National's Bryce Dessner and featuring him as well as his brother Aaron on guitar [FREE things like this should so happen in Toronto more often].
- at this point, figuring what I'd do for the rest of the night, but nothing musically was really fancying me, nor was the prospect of traveling back to Brooklyn looking at all tempting on my last night in NYC.
- checked my Facebook on my iPhone using the free Wi-Fi @ Burger King (across the street from the Occupy Wall Street protest) and found that my cousin had just arrived in NYC for a week's stay for his birthday [too bad we could not get together since I was leaving the next morning].
- Starbucks, then Chinese Food near Canal St. and while I was in the area(near Lafayette St.) I saw that the show at Santos Party House (which I think was featuring a hardcore lineup) was just letting out; at that point I decided to call it a night.
- walked back down Broadway towards my hotel, to drop off my bag, and while waiting to get my key to the room, chatted with a cute Asian girl at the counter apparently having problems with her booking; wished her well and then left to explore the Bowery / Soho neighbourhood for the remainder of the night until a little after 1 am.
- pondered even going to one more CMJ set [Peelander-Z was in fact playing a set just down the street from my hotel at the Bowery Poetry Club] but since the band weren't set up yet when I passed by, I decided not to stick around; I did notice how busy the Bowery strip was on a Saturday night.
- called it a night.
- will it be a third year in a row for NYC / CMJ this October for me? We shall see.

Photos: CMJ & New York City (October 22, 2011)

CMJ & New York City (October 21, 2011)

2011-12-30T22:41:00.002-05:00

Emmy The Great @ Public Assembly, NYC: photo by Michael Ligon

- started out the morning exploring the neighbourhood around my hotel (walked down Bowery and then turned on Prince; nice Ralph Lauren and Gant Rugger shops on Prince St, although both way too expensive for what I was willing to pay (I've slowly become a clothes horse over the last few years, although I never buy regular price)
- walked to Lafayette for coffee at Dean & Deluca then went window shopping (David Z, Converse, Ben Sherman store @ Mercer St.)
- random chat with older dude I passed walking down the street, as we both looked back at the same cute girl who just passed us. ;-)
- logged on to the free Wi-Fi @ a Starbucks to check a few things on my iPhone.
- browsed the shops on Canal st.
- spent some time @ the Occupy Wall Street protest at Liberty Plaza (now known as Zuccotti Park)
- checked out the site around Ground Zero
- that afternoon headed to Public Assembly in Brooklyn for the Brooklynvegan "not a CMJ day party" feauturing sets varying from interesting to terrific, including sets by Young Magic, Emmy The Great, Silver Swans, A Place To Bury Strangers, Chelsea Wolfe, Hospitality, Xeno & Oaklander, and J Mascis
- the whole afternoon, Public Assembly was serving free booze courtesy of Sailor Jerry as well as giving away free organic snacks!!!
- one thing that stood out from Emmy The Great's set was when she mentioned that she'd also be playing the day after at a venue in Brooklyn who's name she couldn't recall and so I yelled out "Spike Hill" which she then queried whether I was a Fleetwood Mac fan (I'm still not sure what the reference is there) at which I was left speechless at that point.
- J Mascis played a cover of Edie Brickell's "Circle of Friends" and also a song called "Several Shades of Why" the title track of his first solo album released earlier this year; he also played Dino Jr. classics, "The Wagon" and "Get Me", video which you can see here.
- after that full afternoon of CMJ day partying, decided to try to check out the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (which had free admission that night from 4 pm to 8 pm (as it does every Friday night) but in error I ended up going to Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMOA)
- I then hopped on the 5th avenue bus to head down to MOMA but got there just as it was closing.
- while I was in the vicinity, I went to check out the new Uniqlo Global Flagship store that just opened; it was effin' huge, and bright, and busy.
- hopped on the 5th avenue bus again to continue south to Madison Ave and East 23rd to go to, drumroll please...Shake Shack! Verdict? Not the tastiest burger I've ever had but it was pretty darn good, or perhaps I was just really hungry.
- for the night time portion of my CMJ festivities, I headed straight from Shake Shack to trek back down to Brooklyn to Glasslands Gallery where I checked out a terrific set from a new local act called Caveman (who are coming to Toronto in January!) and from our own Canadian act, Memoryhouse.
- however, it was such a cluster-fuck of people (who all seemed to be not over the age of 25) and it was too much for me to bear to stay for the rest of the bands on the bill (which was at least 2, maybe 3 more acts) and so I bailed.
- walked to Bedford and then down Bedford to the Bedford subway station, along the way picking up my only taco (from a Taco Truck) during my whole trip.
- it'd been a long day, and I was glad to call it a night relatively early (don't get me wrong it was still after midnight, I think closer to 1 am, by the time I got back to my hotel). Sleepy-time.

Photos: CMJ & New York City (October 20, 2011)

CMJ & New York City (October 20, 2011)

2011-12-29T23:23:00.001-05:00

Givers @ Ace Hotel, NYC: photo by Michael Ligon

So yes, I'm pretty late on posting this (and still have two more days from my CMJ/NYC trip in October to post, so bear with me). And so here it is, point form, with a link to the photoset below:

- swung by the CBGB's site again (noticed the etching in the concrete this time).
- saw the Joey Ramone Street sign
- @ Ace Hotel to catch tailend of Widowspeak's set, part of the 2nd CMJ day show sponsored by radio station KEXP.
- coffee had @ Stumptown Coffee Roasters (connected to Ace Hotel)
- still @ Ace Hotel, chatting with volunteer due at KEXP free swag table who told me that his daughter goes to York University in Toronto but comes homes to NYC in May; and then we chatted about the plethora of free music in the summer that NYC has to offer.
- headed to East Village on a successful quest to see the Joe Strummer mural up close
- hot dog had @ Papaya Dog; (not the same as Papaya King as once referenced in an episode of Seinfeld).
- Ace Hotel for Givers' set (good but not too excited about them).
- hopped on over to Times Square (failed quest to get to that Shake Shack location).
- back @ Ace Hotel for Dum Dum Girls' set (good).
- on my way over to Brooklyn, caught NYC subway soul singer sensation Danny Smalls AKA Geechee Dan busking on the subway platform!! If you don't know who Danny Smalls, check this video out.
- swung over to Brooklyn to catch the Pop Montreal / Smoked Beats CMJ day party at Public Assembly with Miracle Fortress (good), Pat Jordache (good).
- Pop Montreal brought in FREE smoked meat sandwiches from The Mile End deli, a Montreal Jewish delicatessen in Brooklyn
- ginormous pizza slice had @ Anna Maria Pizza & Pasta
- massive backup of people on the L Train subway platform due to subway delay.
- back in Manhattan, saw the Flaming Cactus street art installation near Astor Place subway station as well as the Alamo sculpture at the same location.
- headed over to Thompson LES Hotel for the free CMJ shows sponsored by Purevolume.com; caught sets by Dum Dum Girls (well the singer and guitarist anyway) (great set), and Unknown Mortal Orchestra (wasn't paying too much attention as this point as it was pretty cramped); I won a free set of ear buds.
- also during the Purevolume.com show, there were guest DJ's working the turntable.fm app(sorry, it is only available within the U.S. currently), with guest DJ's including Nancy Wang (LCD Soundsystem), Amrit Singh (Stereogum), and Ayad Al Adhamy (Passion Pit)
- my night time portion of CMJ for this day was spent at Littlefield in Brooklyn featuring Blues Control, Talk Normal, Widowspeak and Frankie Rose, a varied, interesting and satisfying night of indie music.

Photos: CMJ & New York City (October 20, 2011)

The National, Neko Case, Wye Oak @ Air Canada Centre, December 8, 2011

2011-12-28T23:39:00.007-05:00

The National @ Air Canada Centre: photo by Michael Ligon

Just taking a moment to post a link to my photos from the fantastic triple bill of The National, Neko Case, and Wye Oak which happened down at Air Canada Centre near the beginning of the month. By all accounts, it was a fantastic show. Part of me was dreading having to see the show at Air Canada Centre, but the "theatre" configuration that the venue was transformed into, combined with my fantastic seat which was just about dead centre in the 100's section, gave me a terrific view for the show. First openers, Baltimore indie rock duo Wye Oak, did a fair job entertaining the sparse audience on hand with their moody, melodic, indie rock. For a duo, their sound sounded quite full, making a lasting impression on the audience. Vocalist Jenn Wasner, gave thanks for being on this great bill with The National and Neko Case, and humorously expressed that the all thing bad about playing these shows was getting drunk too early in the evening.

The last times I'd seen Miss Neko Case live was back in 2009, having seen her twice, first at Trinity St. Paul Church in April of that year, then later that summer making her debut at Massey Hall. For various reasons, both shows weren't in my opinion the best I'd ever seen Miss Case, surprising when given those venues, one would hope those shows would have knocked me off my feet. Even more surprising is that Neko's most recent local show, this time at Air Canada Centre, ranks as one of the best sets of hers I've ever seen. Paced well, many of the set's songs were taken from her last few albums (Middle Cyclone and Fox Confessor Brings The Flood) with a couple of new songs sprinkled in. Neko kept her humourous banter flowing throughout the set between songs, seeming giddier, and well naughtier than ever. Joining her on this tour was guitarist Paul Rigby, bassist Tom V. Ray, backing vocalist Kelly Hogan, multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse, and for this tour specially, John Convertino of Calexico on drums. Musically tight as I've ever heard Neko, highlights included the pristine "Vengeance Is Sleeping" with Kelly on background vocals and Paul on guitar as well as the raucous "Red Tide" with particularly fiery background vocals from Kelly. As always when they're in town, a shout was given to our own The Sadies (who wrote the song "Hold On, Hold On" for Neko). Fantastic set all around. Hope I won't have to wait two years until I see her live again.

As 'indie' bands make the natural progression from the small stage to bigger stages when they tour Toronto, The National have been one of the few bands that has just gotten better. I'd not have guessed that The National could have outdone the last show I'd seen of them in Toronto when they played a fantastic show at Massey Hall (one show of a two-night stint) back in June 2010 but by all accounts, The National reached even greater heights. What The National accomplished was making the night an experience on a variety of factors - such as visually interesting and colourful screen projections, humorous banter from vocalist Matt Berninger throughout the night, and encouragement from the band to keep the audience engrossed and participating. On that last factor, the Dessner brothers at one point got the crowd clapping leading to a natural transition to most everyone in the audience to stand up. From there on, the show just got better and better. Matt would later on invite fans onto the floor which would soon lead to a virtual onslaught of many more fans to invite themselves onto the floor (leading security to cut off the access to the floor, and Matt sheepishly pondering his original idea and whether it was such a good one). But perhaps the icing on the cake in terms of Matt's efforts was when he ran into the stands singing and proceeded to navigate himself through the seats (literally crossing near me a couple of rows up from me) from one end of the stands to the other and then back onto the stage. Man, that was one long-ass mic cord. Local musical hero Owen Pallett was a surprise guest joining in with the band on violin for a few songs including a new one. Things had just about reached their peak as the main set drew to a close but reached even higher with the encore, featuring a non-amplified rendition of "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks", with the entire band and including Wye Oak making their way to the edge of the stage, performing acoustically and singing without mics. Singing with passion to the audience, which in turn drew the audience to sing along as well, the performance, transformed the environment into a very intimate setting. It's such a rare thing to experience in a venue as big as that, and I am truly thankful.

Photos: The National, Neko Case, Wye Oak @ Air Canada Centre, December 8, 2011
MySpace: Wye Oak
MySpace: Neko Case
MySpace: The National

Sloan, Rural Alberta Advantage, Ohbijou, Bonjay @ The Great Hall, Toronto (December 21, 2011)

2011-12-23T23:44:00.014-05:00

Sloan @ The Great Hall: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [December 25/2011, 1:38 am]: Review now up. Merry Christmas! Now have to wrap some presents

Thinking back to 1995 when Sloan headlined CFNY 102.1 FM's Edgefest 3 festival at Molson Ampitheatre, billed as their farewell performance, Sloan had called it quits. Their most recent album at the time had been their second full-length Twice Removed, released a year prior in 1994, and arguably to the some was the band's finest album. But a year after Edgefest 3, the band reunited to release their third full-length, 1996's Once Chord To Another, and as they say the rest is history, with the band continuing to this day as one of Canada's most respected musical outfits. It was "Once Chord To Another" which Sloan chose to play front-to-back for Toronto charity COUNTERfit (an Ontario Ministry of Health and City of Toronto funded injection drug harm reduction program) at a show at The Great Hall organized by Toronto band Fucked Up. The promise of such a performance was more than a tantalizing factor for many who snapped up tickets for the sold out event. And as a bonus, the opening bands lineup was none too shabby itself, with an all Toronto supporting acts lineup featuring Bonjay, Ohbijou, and The Rural Alberta Advantage.

Electro-dancehall duo Bonjay featuring dynamite vocalist Alanna Stuart and programmer extraordinaire Ian “Pho” Swain were definitely the odd man out on the bill and did their best to warm up the small yet devoted early attendees. I'd caught about half the set as I myself had been running late. I chose to hang back during the remainder of their set which may have worked to my advantage as the beats and vocals sounded superb from where I was standing. As soon as their set was over, I made my way to the merch table and ended up purchasing one of the limited edition show posters and then I ducked out of the venue to put said poster in my car before returning about 20 minutes later.

It's been a number of years since I've seen live nor paid attention to Toronto's Ohbijou. I was always a fan of the band's melancholy, string-laden, indie-pop sound but as a live entity had usually been disappointed with their laid-back stage presence. Now on album number three with this year's released Metal Meets, which I still have yet to hear although I'm assuming they were playing songs off of at The Great Hall, it seems the band is flexing a little more muscle these days. With the Mecija sisters, vocalist Casey and violinst Jenny, both wearing black (Casey wearing a black hooded cloak even), I'd swear the band had gone goth, and even they haven't they're definitely heavier, hence the album title Metal Meets perhaps. The band seems to strike their instruments harder, and play louder, Casey even going-into guitar-face and strumming her guitar furiously at times. Ohbijou still maintain their recognizable melancholy pop sound but this time with more oomph, and it's working wonders for them.

Since the release of their first full-length "Hometowns" in 2008, Toronto's The Rural Alberta Advantage have gradually been achieving a most fervent fanbase within Toronto, Canada and beyond. RAA were a band who'd in their early days regularly played shows at the tiny Embassy in Toronto but more recently have been headlining at midsized Toronto venue, Phoenix Concert Theatre. It'd been a few years since I'd seen RAA live when they played the third stage at 2009's Virgin Festival Toronto, the same year that American indie label rereleased their debut album Hometowns. Earlier this year, the band released their second album Departing which by my own procrastination had never gotten around to picking up. Given this gap in my RAA experience, it was nice to again see the band live. If you're familiar with the band's propulsive acoustic sound based around drums, keys, and acoustic guitar, then yes, not much has changed but that is a good thing. The band played a bit more ragged than usual ["Edmonton" in particular, seemed a bit more sped up and less rigid than on record] but overall reminded me why they're one of the best current bands in Toronto.

Beginning with Fucked Up's Damian Abraham announcing Sloan on to the stage, a la the beginning of One Chord To Another ("Will you please… welcome to the stage… SLOAN!"), the band erupted into lead off track "The Good In Everyone" and proceeded to play the entire album front to back. Second track "Nothing Left to Make Me Want to Stay", never a single but which should have been in my opinion, remains one of my favourite tracks on the album and I was singing along to much of it. You could feel the crowd energy surge on the punky "G Turns to D" and later on the urgent "Anyone Who's Anyone" (whose lyrics "Everyone who's played a part, We're all together now, Everyone who's played a part, stand and take a bow" sounded so appropriate that night). Other highlights included the three person horn section on "Everything You've Dong Wrong" and "Take The Bench", the former also benefiting from the crowd singalong. The Jay Ferguson-sung "The Lines You Amend" also garnered a favourable reaction from the crowd and a further crowd singalong. I cannot remember if I'd ever heard "Can't Face Up" live but regardless of guitar flub during the Patrick's solo which he freely admitted, hearing it that night was like listening to if for the first time, and when Patrick belted out the chorus it was sublime.

While the occasion of the night was to play One Chord To Another, the encore was a treat unto itself. Kicking off with one of my faves from Twice Removed, "Snowsuit Sound", then Fucked Up's Damian come on to stage perform a punky / hardcore number which I did not recognize which had Damian and Chris vocally playing one another then lead to some physical horseplay between the two. The next song "500 Up"(from their debut Smeared) was a pure joy to hear regardless of the mic problems that plagued drummer Andrew Scott's vocal parts. The piece de resistance to the encore and the night was the surprise appearance by Toronto's own Leslie Feist, who played added guitar for what was an energetic rendition of the band's song "She Means What She Says". Wow. What started out as Sloan agreeing to play a special charity show turned out for me in coming full circle with the band; the show revived, at least temporarily, the pure euphoric rush I once had for them. I guess that is what we call nostaligia but damn it sure feels good. After all, they are a band that has a song called "If It Feels Good Do It". Thanking the crowd at the end, Chris remarked that they came to Toronto as a Halifax band, but more and more are feeling like a Toronto one. And this another reason why Toronto is one of the best cities in the world.

Photos: Sloan, Rural Alberta Advantage, Ohbijou, Bonjay @ The Great Hall, Toronto (December 21, 2011)
MySpace: Bonjay
MySpace: Ohbijou
MySpace: Rural Alberta Advantage
MySpace: Sloan

Bon Iver, Lianne La Havas @ Massey Hall, Toronto (December 6, 2011)

2011-12-20T23:40:00.002-05:00

Bon Iver @ Massey Hall: photo by Michael Ligon

The second show I'd gone to this month was the first show of a two-night stint put on by Bon Iver at Massey Hall on December 6. As it seems with me over the last several years, I've not put too much effort into exploring much new music. I haven't totally ignored new music but rather have been really selective. As a result, I've caught on to some artists a little late. I'd only given Bon Iver's debut album Forever Emma Forever Ago cursory listens in the past and I'd liked what I'd heard but still hadn't been compelled to listen to it too often. I'll admit, my choice to buy a ticket to the Bon Iver show was purely on the current popularity of the group and perhaps I should see what all the fuss is about. I am glad to say that Bon Iver did make an indellible mark on me that night.

Opening the show was a young new UK artist named Lianne La Havas [even spelling out her name in full], a slender, petite young thing wearing dark boots, tights, a white skirt, and a glittery black top, who strolled onto stage to her mic with her guitar. Thanking the crowd profusely throughout the night in her thick British accent, toasting the crowd with tea, and singing songs about love, breakups, and old boyfriends, her jazz-inflected pop songs sounded like a mix between the soulfulness of Adele and the starkness of Tracey Thorn. La Havas displayed a competent grasp of the guitar that complemented her soulful, melodic songs well. I will be a monkey's uncle if she does not hit it bigger in the music scene next year. She's set to release her debut album early next year.

This being the first night of a two night stint, it's easy to overlook that Bon Iver had just played Toronto at the dreaded Sound Academy this past August to promote the self-titled 2nd album which came out this past June. Regardless of how well that show went, I'd imagine that many a Bon Iver fan breathed a sigh of relief when the Massey Hall shows were announced. It was an ecstatic audience response that great Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and his 9-piece band as they strolled on to the stage. What I found apparent of the set overall was, although they've frequently been categorized as indie-folk by the music press, Bon Iver do come across much more musically ambitious. Like Vernon jokingly said on stage, "Stop calling us an acoustic rock band." Added to the usual drums, guitar, bass on stage was other instrumentation like violin, baritone saxophone, and trombone. Bon Iver may start from a basis in folk-rock, Appalachian and American influences, but also showed a willingness towards sonic experimentation which reminded me of Wilco. What was almost more interesting to me was Mr. Vernon's vocal range which could go from a falsetto-toned vocal on one song, then to a bluesy, ragged drawl on the next. The man[ie. Justin Vernon] I'd read about who'd apparently for the first album had sequestered himself in a log cabin in the woods after a broken-up relationship to write the songs for the first album, turned out to be quite chipper during this show, infusing bits of humorous banter between songs throughout the night.

Musically, highlights included the solo-performed, desolate-sounding "re: Stacks", and the group sing-a-long- and hand-clapping on main set closer "Skinny Love". But for me the I just about shed a tear on the encore closer "The Wolves (Act I and II)" on which Mr. Vernon encouraged the audience to sing-a-long repetively with the lyrics "what might have been lost". Such a beautiful conclusion to a wonderful show.

Photos: Bon Iver, Lianne La Havas @ Massey Hall, Toronto (December 6, 2011)

Austra, Young Galaxy, Tasseomancy @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto (December 1, 2011)

2011-12-15T23:23:00.008-05:00

Austra: photo by Michael Ligon

Kicking off a busier month of concert-going than usual for me these days was Toronto's Austra at the Phoenix Concert Theatre at the beginning of the month. The bigger ticket that night was Feist at Massey Hall but there seemed to be a full-house (if not a sold out one) for the homecoming show for Austra who'd been making waves and touring all year.

Doing double-duty that night were twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman aka Tasseomancy who to me were better known as Austra's dynamite backup vocalists / all-around foxy side women. It was only more recently that I found out that the sisters use to be Haligonian indie folk duo Ghost Bees. Joined by male musicians on keys and drums, the gals stark vocals complimented the lilting folk melodies and subtle instrumentation nicely. Haunting at times, and sonically interesting throughout, they aren't your average folk band.

Since the release of their self-titled debut full-length in 2007, Montreal's Young Galaxy were a band I'd suspected would have hit it big by now, which if they had, it'd have been deserved. The band's soaring, dream-pop melodies were never really the mainstream, as mainstream pop has gone over the last five years, but in my opinion could have crossed over easily if only the fickle music buyer had taken notice. With the release of their third album Shapeshifting released earlier this year, it seems that band has discovered dance music, as was obviously displayed by the band during their set preceding Austra. With the entire band dressed in white, including female lead vocalist Catherine McCandless in a flowing white top, it was a visually attractive presentation. Musically, it was quite apparent that the band's recent forays into dance-inflected pop is what's floating their boat these days. A part of me misses their earlier dream-pop sound, but the band seem like a more stimulating live band this time around, especially Mccandless' vibrant movements and tambourine-shaking onstage.

Austra's debut album Feel It Break released this past May I will have to say is my favourite Canadian album of the year. Featuring vocalist Katie Stelmanis' stark operatic vocals against a backdrop of pulsating rhythms and synth, along with a bevy of great melodic tunes, it's just such a fantastic listen. Stelmanis greeted the crowd and told us that just a year ago they'd play their first headline show at the Bovine Sex Club and now they were playing their biggest show yet in Toronto, this time at the Phoenix. I was fortunate to catch them live at the sweaty and intimately confining Wrongbar earlier this year during Canadian Musicfest so it's a shame to say that this show at the Phoenix just did not reach those euphoric levels I'd experienced at Wrongbar. I wished the crowd had shown more energy, like the pulsating, dance-infused crowd that greeted Austra earlier this year. The crowd at the Phoenix was wholly appreciative for sure, but definitely lacked the energy that they should have had. given the band's exemplary musicianship. Perhaps the post-midnight set was frustrating for some that Thursday night for those who had to work the next day, but hey, you're only young once.

Photos: Austra, Young Galaxy, Tasseomancy @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto (December 1, 2011)

CMJ & New York City (October 19, 2011)

2011-11-20T23:50:00.002-05:00

Portugal The Man @ Ace Hotel, NYC: photo by Michael Ligon

If it had to rain, then I'm glad it was at the beginning of my trip. More thankfully, I'm glad it only rained once the whole five days I was in New York City last month. Given the rain, I was confined to mostly indoor activities. With umbrella in hand, and rain jacket on (yes, I came prepared), I took off that morning to head to the Ace Hotel in midtown Manhattan for KEXP's "Free Yr Radio" CMJ sessions, and then for whatever randomness the day could bring. Overall I think I made the most of what was a soggy day.

Things I did / saw / heard / ate:

- an Americano and toasted bagel with Nutella (although I didn't eat the bagel until much later in the day) at Think Coffee on Bowery St. down the street from my hotel.
- saw the Joey Ramone street sign at the corner of Bowery and East Second Street, (down the street from the original location of CBGB's.)
- watched local bluegrass outfit Ebony Hillbillies busking at the subway station as part of the city's Music Under New York series.
- Flatiron building at 23rd and Broadway [funny thing is I didn't realize that Shake Shack was just across the street]
- Flatiron Prow Artspace which is a glass-enclosed space at the base of the Flatiron building which was hosting "The Cup Drawings", an installation by artist Gwyneth Leech who draws on upcycled take-out paper coffee cups and suspends them by string
- The Ramones tribute in front window display of the Guitar Center on 14th Street in Manhattan
- Urban Outfitters @ 14th and 6th
- Portugal The Man performing in the lobby of the Ace Hotel as part of KEXP's "Free Yr Radio" CMJ sessions; the hotel itself is a boutique hotel which I'd have loved to have stayed in; it had such a cool ambience.
- had the most delicious pulled pork sandwich at No. 7 Sub just around the corner from the Ace Hotel
- Puma Store, Union Square location for the CMJ Spin Sessions with Washington, D.C. rock band U.S. Royalty [not my thing, but they were decent] and San Franciscan shoegaze trio Weekend who fared better with my musical tastes [I'm biased].
- bottled apple cider at the Union Square Farmer's Market
- off to Brooklyn to catch the tailend of Conneticut psych-funk outfit The Stepkids' set at Public Assembly as part of Under The Radar's free CMJ day party.
- rest back at the hotel
- headed to Santos Party House at Canal and Lafayette but got denied entry because I hadn't RSVP'd; grabbed a coffee Starbucks and went back to Santos but they still wouldn't let me in.
- headed to Pianos and caught a few acts on the upper floor including the electro-pop chanteuse Erika Springs (of Au Revoir Simone) [I'd wished I'd caught her whole set - it was good], and local indie act Dinosaur Feathers whose melodies and musicianship were impressive.
- decided to try my luck and head back to Santos Party House to see if I could get in - success!; finished off the night seeing Los Angeles duo (backed with a band) Inc who seemed to specialize in funk, r n' b and soul for a new generation, and a headlining set from Brooklyn resident George Lewis Jr. aka Twin Shadow

Photos: CMJ & New York City (October 19, 2011)

CMJ & New York City (October 18, 2011)

2011-11-17T22:07:00.004-05:00

Janet Weiss & Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag @ Bowery Ballroom: photo by Michael Ligon

First, sorry for the late posting. CMJ and my trip to New York City in October has already been over for almost a month now, and I've been really lazy getting photos up on my Flickr and posting about the CMJ shows I went to. Overall, it was great to be back in The Big Apple. The CMJ lineup this year felt more subdued than last year, but with the amount of acts I had to choose from, I caught a number of good bands I hadn't heard before. In any case, CMJ is well worth the trip when you have the city and all that it has to offer to fall back on. I hope to get up these posts on a daily basis, although don't hold me to that. Grammar be damned, for expediency's sake, I'm going to shoot this off point form:

Things I did / saw / ate / heard:

- Bowery House (check-in) - good location in lower Manhattan, the hotel itself feeling somewhere between a hostel and a boutique hotel. I got myself a private cabin which basically was a room with a bed and a dresser and that's it but of course I was hardly going to be in the room anyway. The bathroom/shower facilities are however shared, except for the one individual bathroom available if you were lucky to snag it when no one was using it. The price was good and the staff were friendly. I recommend it if you're looking for a inexpensive and clean hotel in Manhattan.
- Ramones-in-front-of-CBGB's poster on the wall of my room - cool.
- New Museum
- John Varvatos Store (@ 315 Bowery St., the site of where CBGB's used to be)
- Chinatown (peanut rice dumpling, hmmm)
- Sara D. Roosevelt Park
- random conversations with others (including one photographer from QRO Magazine) in line outside of Bowery Ballroom trying to get a ticket for the Wild Flag, Eleanor Friedberger, & Hospitality (basically a mini Merge Records fest with local NYC outfit Hospitality its newest signees) show (success!); by the way, the people I met were really friendly.
- locals Hospitality opened the show with a spiky set of indie pop tunes
- Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger almost stole the show with her fantastic set of pop tunes.
- Wild Flag set was an intoxicating mix of musical influences and was really a sum of it's parts ie. the art-rock influences of Mary Timony's old outfit Helium and the punk, garage influences of Sleater Kinney; I'd also perceived a psych-rock influence at times.
- Wild Flag's Carrie Brownstein kicking her plastic glass of beer into the crowd at the end of the main set
- Wild Flag, for their encore, playing covers of Television's "See No Evil", and Patti Smith's "Ask The Angels"

Photos: CMJ & New York City (October 18, 2011)

The Lemonheads, The Shining Twins @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (October 17, 2011)

2011-10-27T23:45:00.001-04:00

Evan Dando @ Lee's Palace: photo by Michael Ligon

After a steady diet of The Smiths, New Order, The Cure and and The Jesus and Mary Chain in the late 80's, the 90's were to usher in a shift in my musical tastes. discovered the Pixies and their eclectic musical stew of surf, garage, punk and pop just prior to their breakup and their last album, 1991's "Trompe Le Monde". The musical axis of 1991 and 1992 of course was dominated for me and many others by Seattle's Nirvana and their 1991 major label debut "Nevermind", a vibrant combination of grungy guitars and pop melodies. On the other end of the Atlantic, Scottish power-pop outfit Teenage Fanclub also released their major label debut album in 1991 entitled "Bandwagonesque". But of that time period, I would say the album that has most stuck with me was The Lemonheads' 1992 alt-pop classic "It's A Shame About Ray". Led by singer songwriter Evan Dando, up until that point, the band had gone through a few configurations and had released 3 indie albums and one major label album. But with the release of "It's A Shame About Ray", the band became bona-fide alt-rock stars, and Evan Dando a musical pin-up poster boy for many female musical fans(and I imagine some male music fans). For me, "It's A Shame About Ray" was a logical extension of my alternative pop tastes in the 80's and it was a voluptuously hummable album from start to finish. On another level, the album was important to me because while they were already on a major label at the time, my musical research into the band at the time, opened me up to their indie history and well of course the burgeoning American indie rock scene. With Nirvana's "Nevermind", 1991 may have been the year that punk broke, and Nirvana the voice of a new generation but The Lemonheads' "It's A Shame About Ray" was a far more influential album for me.

I'd seen The Lemonheads (well Evan Dando and whomever his touring band was) play Toronto in 2006 at Lee's Palace and more recently had the pleasure of seeing Dando and his dear musical friend Juliana Hatfield perform a set of Lemonheads and Hatfield songs acoustically earlier this year. When I heard that in honour of the 20th anniversary of "It's A Shame About Ray", Dando was going to tour as The Lemonheads and perform the entire album, I was super excited. It'd have been cool for consistency sake if the album's original lineup was touring, with Juliana Hatfield on bass/vocals and David Ryan on drums, but for this tour Dando brought in some replacements, bassist Josh Lattanzi(The Candles) and drummer Brian Nolan (American Hi-Fi). Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Opening the show was New York City punk duo The Shining Twins, consisting of Alex Weiss and Marisa Kreiss. My own superficial research into the band reveals that it was only within the last few years that the duo learned to play their instruments, that being drums and bass guitar, and it does show. And while the band may have rudimentary musicianship it does in no way detract from the gals musicality, with nods to old school punk and their sound also reminding me of the DIY ethics of the American West Coast K Records scene of the 90's. Perhaps to relive some of the old punk rock energy of The Lemonheads' earlier albums, Evan Dando joined them on guitar and some vocals for the gals' last song.

Given the brevity of "It's A Shame About A Ray", running approximately a half hour, had the show been confined just to the album itself, it'd have been a short show so thankfully Evan included a number of other Lemonheads' goodies. The band first ran through the entire album minus the cover of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Mrs. Robinson' which Evan chose not to perform and wasn't on the original pressings of the album anyway. Compared to the record, the performance felt grittier, especially in the guitar sound making everything that much better in my opinion. It was quite apparent that on songs like 'My Drug Buddy' and 'Bit Part', Juliana Hatfield's vocals were missed. Looking up at Dando on stage, it's almost like he'd never aged with his stringy hair and sleepy look staring down upon us like most of us remembered him 20 years ago and that sense of nostalgia that many of us in the crowd had was exhilarating.

As good as the first part of the show was, the remainder of the set felt equally as good. Dando's bandmates would leave the stage to let Dando perform a bunch of songs solo before returning later to play out the rest of the set. During this portion I wasn't entirely familiar with everything, although their were a number of songs included from "Come On Feel The Lemonheads" and "Car Button Cloth" which were exhilarating, in particular 'The Great Big No', 'Into Your Arms', 'Big Gay Heart' and 'If I Could Talk I'd Tell You'. Even back during the band's heyday, I had a tendency to underestimate the talent's of Dando because the music while really enjoyable was also deceptively simple. But therein lies the answer to why Dando is so talented - it's Dando's simple, straight-forward directness in his melodies, chord changes, and even sometimes his lyrics eg. 'Being Around', that really ARE the marks of a good pop song. I imagine writing a naturally-sounding good pop song can be a difficult task, even for the best songwriters, but Dando's rounded out a 20-plus year career of making it seem easy.

Photos: The Lemonheads, The Shining Twins @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (October 17, 2011)
MySpace: The Lemonheads

Portishead @ Sound Academy, Toronto (October 10, 2011)

2011-10-16T01:56:00.001-04:00

Beth Gibbons of Portishead @ Sound Academy: photo by Michael Ligon

There are bands I wish to see live who I have accepted will probably never reunite (The Smiths, New Order) and then there are the bands that I think I will never get to see live but then miraculously the band comes out of hiatus or retirement and goes on tour. Of the latter category, I've seen The Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, and most recently, as well as more dear to my heart, Portishead. Along with fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, Portishead ignited the 'trip-hop' genre in 1990's propelling what was once an underground musical style towards the mainstream. Prior to their most recent full-length "Third" in 2008, they'd only released two albums, their seminal full-length debut "Dummy" in 1994 and their sinister self-titled follow-up in 1997. And for whatever reasons I'd not been motivated not check out the band live during the few times the band toured to promote their first two album, it was the band's 1998 live album / DVD "Pnyc Live" (a recording of the band's one-off show at NYC's Roseland Ballroom at which the band performed with an orchestra)which cemented my need to see this band live. At the time I could have not forseen the band going on hiatus from touring or recording a follow-up full-length until a decade later. When the band finally released their third album, entitled "Third", in 2008 I was ecstatic and was even more ecstatic that the band started to play live again, my hopes that the band would come back to Toronto. The band's first show in North America in 2008 was at the Coachella music festival and I remember being glued to my computer screen as I watched the live webcast of Portishead's phenomenal set. I'd never have guessed that it would have been more than three years later that Portishead would embark on a proper North American tour. Toronto made the cut fortunately, and even more fortunately the band booked two shows here for October 9 and 10. Too bad it had to be at the ghastly Sound Academy. But beggars can't be choosers, and as the dates grew closer, so did my excitement for the show. I was even more excited that within days of the show, I found out I got approved for a photo pass.

I was going to the second show of the two, which also was the same day as Thanksgiving here in Canada. After spending the day with family, I made my way down to the venue. It was just as well that I got there when I did because my arrival was only minutes before Portishead were to start. By the time I got my photo pass, then squeezed my way through the crowd to the front, then was let into the photo pit by Security, the stage lights dimmed and Portishead came on to the stage as I was still fumbling with my bag trying to get my camera and lenses out. Sweating profusely at this point, partly due to my excitement for the band and partly due to some nervous energy realizing I was almost late, I finally settled in for the three songs I'd be up there. When I wasn't snapping away, I stopped for a moment to realize I was mere feet away from the one and only Beth Gibbons!

Portishead's holy trinity of Geoff Barrows (drums, turntables), Beth Gibbons (vocals), and Adrian Utley (guitar) were joined onstage and for this tour by Jim Barr (bass), Clive Deamer(drums), and John Baggott (keyboards). The set kicked off with the rhythmically propulsive, pre-millenial tension of 'Silence', then one-eighty'd into the solemn quietness of 'Hunter' before working up the audience with the cinematic crowd-favourite 'Mysterons'. I felt fortunate to experience the band front-row centre for those three songs, to feel the immediacy of the band's different sensibilities. My three songs in the photo pit were over and I made my way back into the crowd when the band sunk into the desolate-sounding 'The Rip'(my personal favourite off "Third"), Beth Gibbons' voice trembling with every note. My view of the stage from stage left may have been less satisfying but with the remainder of the set just getting better and better, the visual element almost didn't matter.

The remainder of the main set had it's share of highlights. 'Wandering Star' was stripped down to a bare bones version with Beth and Geoff seated in the middle of the stage, Beth on vocals and Geoff on bass guitar. Audience sing-alongs could be heard on favourites like on 'Sour Times' and 'Glory Box'. It was on the latter that I realized how deeply connected I was to Beth's presence as even with such gender-specific lyrics like "Just give me a reason to love you, Give me a reason to be a woman, I just wanna be a woman", I felt like I was experiencing the female point-of-view without it being awkward. The descriptively titled 'Machine Gun' sliced it's propulsive rhythms through the air, Barrow's metallic drum sounds synched with the video projections behind them. The band's self-titled second album got the least representation during the show but thankfully included a few stunners, 'Over' featuring Barrow's exemplary turntablist skills and the sinister 'Cowboys'. I didn't realize it until they played it, but the band's Amnesty International charity single 'Chase The Tear' a song gussied up in electro-rhythms but grounded with simple drums and guitar, reminded me of Radiohead. By far the most eye-opening (or maybe that should be ear-opening) point of the night was the set-closer, the metal-ish 'Threads' on which three-quarters of the way through Gibbons' normally subdued vocals went through a transformation as the thrust and volume of her vocals achieved a level I was not entirely acquainted with. And it was exhilirating.

The encore, while only two songs, was near perfect with the Rhodes-accompanied 'Roads' which enthralled the crowd from its very first keyboard note and then with the urgent, industrial-sounding 'We Carry On' during which Gibbons, normally the introverted type, lept down to the floor to seemingly shake the hands and greet the entire front row of the crowd. Cameras and camera phones lept in to action before Gibbons jumped back onto the stage where she stood towards the right side of the stage sipping her beer as her band mates steamrolled to a conclusion.A concert on Thanksgiving could not get any better than this.

Photos: Portishead @ Sound Academy, Toronto (October 10, 2011)
MySpace: Portishead

The Weeknd - "Initiation" (new song)

2011-10-11T23:19:00.005-04:00

Toronto's Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd is blowing up, quietly. He's been propped by Drake after he quoted a line from the track "Wicked Games" via Twitter and then linked to The Weeknd's website. He's released a few free mixtapes through his website, first "House of Ballons" and more recently "Thursday", the former which had garnered him a Polaris Music Prize nomination. He's only performed a few live shows so far including The Mod Club in Toronto, opening for Drake at Molson Ampitheatre this past summer, and more recently at the Guelph Concert Theatre at the beginning of October. The Weeknd's chill, heady brand of r'n'b is as much about his vocals as about it's production, the latter of which I'm actually more drawn to. And until he releases his next mixtape, or perhaps a proper album, to whet our appetites he's recently released a new song entitled "Initiation" - best experienced through headphones:

The Weeknd - "Initiation"

MP3: The Weeknd - "Initiation"

Portishead and Doldrums Collaborate On New Single For Charity

2011-10-09T23:15:00.001-04:00

As of the time of this posting, Bristol UK's Portishead are in the midst of their first show of a two-night stint at Sound Academy in Toronto. I'm super excited to see the group live tomorrow night, and even scored a photo pass for the show! And for Canadian Thanksgiving tomorrow, that photo pass will be one of those things I give thanks for, along with of course the important things like family and health.

Portishead stopped in recently with "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" to perform a few songs including their new Amnesty International benefit track "Chase the Tear" for television broadcast as well as their classic "Mysterons" as a web exclusive:

"Chase The Tear"

"Mysterons"

In recent news from XL Recordings, it was announced that "Chase the Tear" will be released on vinyl for the first time through XL on November 14. And if you thought there wasn't any Canadian content in this post well then you're wrong as the b-side of the vinyl will be a remix of "Chase The Tear" done by Toronto experimentalist eccentric Doldrums.

Check out Doldrums' cover of the Portishead track below. Doldrums posted this on YouTube back in December 2009 and it's definitely a cover. At this point I'm not sure of the track below will actually be the b-side of the new Portishead vinyl as the info from XL lists Doldrums' contribution to the vinyl as a remix. I guess we'll have to wait and hear:

Doldrums - "Chase The Tear" (Portishead Cover)

Nuit Blanche, Toronto (October 1, 2011)

2011-10-04T23:35:00.007-04:00

Another edition of Nuit Blanche, Toronto's "...sixth annual sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art" happened this past Saturday night. And aside from the night's chilly temperatures, I wasn't feeling thrilled in the quality of the installations and projects as I'd had in past years. Much of what I saw was visual which may make for interesting visual stimulation for a moment but didn't provide much in the way of a lasting impression. On the other hand, installations like "Soon" at Commerce Court, with spotlights situated atop buildings surrounding the area shone down on the crowd while an immersive, audio-warped soundtrack filled the square, in my opinion made for a cool experience. With my brother, cousin and his girlfriend in tow, we hit Zone's B and C and never made it to Zone A. But as the night wore on, there were a few installations(like the aforementioned "Soon") that stood out and provided good photo ops, making the night not a total loss. I'm a strong supporter of the annual event in general and I will be surely out for the next edition.

"Soon" @ Commerce Court: photo by Michael Ligon

"Je t'aime Alouette" @ Design Exchange: photo by Michael Ligon

"Barricades" @ Yonge & Queen: photo by Michael Ligon

"I just know that something good is going to happen" @ Dundee Place: photo by Michael Ligon

Check out my entire photo set of the night below:

Photos: Nuit Blanche, Toronto (October 1, 2011)

Sloan @ Echo Beach, Toronto (August 5, 2011)

2011-09-29T23:45:00.002-04:00

Sloan @ Echo Beach: photo by Michael Ligon

Sloan @ Echo Beach: photo by Michael Ligon

Sloan once were fashionable - for about a year, maybe two. They were right on board with the alt-rock movement of the early 1990's when Nirvana and Sonic Youth were bringing the indie and 'punk' music to the forefront of the music industry. But since their second album, 1994's "Twice Removed", the band have gone the decidedly unfashionable route for the last seventeen years playing out their pop and classic rock influences. Over the band's twenty year career, they've released ten full-lengths, two EP's and a live album and have solidly established themselves, I think, as one of Canada's all-time best bands.

The band played a free show at Echo Beach in Toronto at the beginning of August. The classics of course were what the fans were obviously there for and Sloan eased their way into the set with a trio of songs from their most recent album "The Double Cross" before giving the fans what they wanted, starting with their very first single 'Underwhelmed'. Funny thing is that over the course of the last 15-20 years (holy shit I'm feeling old), I'd thought I'd grown out of the noisy, messiness of their first album "Smeared" but since the show have reconnected with its discordant, pop melodies.

The rest of the set was a mixture of their greatest hits/singles, more songs from "The Double Cross" and a few curve-balls such as the vocally reconfigured version of 'C'mon, C'mon (We're Gonna Get It Started)', as well as 'Sinking Ships' both from their album "Navy Blues". The main set ended quite exuberantly with enthusiastic renditions of 'Everything You've Done Wrong' (with a horn section) and 'Who Taught You To Live Like That?'. For the encore, fan favourites 'The Other Man' and 'Money City Maniacs' were included but the pièce de résistance was the band's ode to the venue and well to Toronto's Martha and the Muffins by performing an excellent, albeit, ragged cover of "Echo Beach" featuring second opening band Modern Superstitions' Nyssa on vocals. A fine set all around from a band who have been and who will no doubt remain my favourite Canadian band of all time.

The setlist.

For my whole photo set, check out the link below:

Photos: Sloan @ Echo Beach, Toronto (August 5, 2011)

Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square (August 26, 2011)

2011-09-28T23:50:00.001-04:00

Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square: photo by Michael Ligon

Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square: photo by Michael Ligon

As you may have guessed given my two recent posts, I'm trying to work my way backwards, posting photos/reviews of the shows I've gone to over the last several months, which brings me to the enchanting Basia Bulat who played Mississauga for the first time on August 26 at Mississauga Celebration Square. It was a solo set from Miss Bulat, accompanying herself on vocals with a variety of instrumentation from piano, guitar and autoharp.

A somewhat small crowd was on hand for the show, but otherwise Basia was chipper throughout, playing enthusiastically and smiling through. Basia bantered with the audience, .entioning her days as a youth patronizing such Mississauga establishments as "Coffee, Tea or Me" and how her mother still goes to Starsky's (a European-style grocery store). Performing a selection of tunes from her two albums, 2008's "Oh My Darling" and 2010's "Heart Of My Own", she charmed the crowd throughout her set. In addition to that, other highlights included a cover of Jon Rae Fletcher's "Come Back To Me" (which she sung as a duet with Mississauga native and Arkells member Dan Griffin), a cover of Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in the End" and the folk traditional "Hush", which she embellished with hand clapping and foot stomping. And recognizing her heritage, and if I recall correctly saying something along the lines about wanting to record a Polish-sung album, she even sung in Polish like on "W Zielonym Zoo". Even a group of young teen boys, who in my opinion were acting up a bit, seemed to be charmed by Miss Bulat as during several of her tunes, they started to dance - it was perhaps a little bit of a joke to them, but Basia took it all in stride, accepting their enthusiasm as genuine. And perhaps maybe it was.

I've seen Basia several times live, and it was after this show I finally introduced myself, as well picking up her CD "Heart Of My Own". Lovely, lovely person, and I also must thank her for giving me the heads up on Supercrawl, a music and arts festival in Hamilton, ON which happened a week later, where she had a sublime performance collaboration with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

For my complete photoset from the show, check out the link below:

Photos: Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square (August 26, 2011)

Supercrawl in Hamilton, ON (September 10, 2011)

2011-09-27T23:40:00.002-04:00

While the Toronto International Film Festival occupied most of my time during the period of September 8 to the 18, I'd consciously took Septemeber 10 off in order to check out a arts and music festival called Supercrawl in Hamilton, ON. I'd heard of the festival for a few years now and had hopes of going but it didn't happen, but when I'd seen the musical lineup this year which included amongst others, Broken Social Scene, J Mascis, Plants and Animals and Basia Bulat performing with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, I made up my mind quick to check it out. Somewhat serendipitously, I was clued into the festival and the music lineup by Basia Bulat herself who I'd spoke to briefly after her solo show in Mississauga at Celebration Square just a week prior to Supercrawl.

Taking over several blocks of Hamilton's James Street North neighbourhood, there was an array of artwork, sculptures, vendors, and music stages. While I was there primarily for the music, I was impressed with the art that could be found at different spots along the street - photographs, paintings, street murals, sculptures. As well there was an array of artisans selling and vendors selling their wares. In addition to that, there was a variety of food trucks, food vendor as well as local restaurants and cafes providing a variety of food choices for hungry Supercrawl-ers. But yes it was the music lineup that brought me out, and in short it was fantastic.

It was only by chance that I caught Toronto's Bruce Peninsula as I'd happened by their free show (a CD release at that for their new album "Open Flames" which comes out October 4) at Christ’s Church Cathedral. Apparently, Toronto's Snowblink had opened the show. Funny, but I'd never had seen the band live before, and have more than an ounce of regret after hearing what little I did that day. Within the sublime acoustics and environs of the church, the vibrant, vocal indie-folk of the band was mesmerizing. I'd only caught their last song and their encore, but it was enough to count me now as a convert. The band are in the midst of a tour and will be in Toronto on October 27 for a show at Lee's Palace.

Bruce Peninsula @ Supercrawl: photo by Michael Ligon

Having only seen Basia Bulat the week before, playing a solo show in Mississauga at Celebration Square, I was super excited to see her perform with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Orchestra adding illustrious arrangements to Basia's tunes and with Basia herself changing the phrasing of her vocals somewhat, these versions were quite a bit different than I'd heard from her before. And yes it worked very well. As a Hamilton outsider, when I think of Hamilton, a symphony orchestra does not come to mind, but after this set, Hamilton has proven its cultural depth with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra's blissful performance with Miss Bulat.

Basia Bulat with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra @ Supercrawl: photo by Michael Ligon

As the sun went down and then set, after a long setup, Montreal trio Plants and Animals took the stage for a vibrant set of their tactile and jammy rock music. "Faerie Dance" with the audience participation of "la la la la la la la la la" was perhaps their finest moment of the night. Terribly disappointing that the band's long set-up time meant the band had to cut their set short, but otherwise it was a fine set.

Plants and Animals @ Supercrawl: photo by Michael Ligon

Who might Paley and Francis be? Well, the Francis refers to Black Francis - yes, that one, sometimes also referred to as Frank Black. But no this was not a Pixies set nor the Frank Black show. Francis and Paley (Reid Paley that is) took relatively equal duties on lead vocals, and the music drew a bit on the garage rock eccentricities of the Pixies though perhaps with a bit of a blues flavour. With the duo rounded out with a bass player and drummer, it was not as electrifying as I'd hope it be but still to see Black Francis was exciting.

Paley and Francis @ Supercrawl: photo by Michael Ligon

Shooting back to the mainstage I went, to catch Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis sitting on a chair, playing his acoustic guitar through an amp and performing some of Dinosaur Jr.'s more well known songs. Later on in the set, J would bring up Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew to sing along on "Not Enough". Musically I loved it and J tore through some fantastic guitar solos, although as a whole it was somewhat underwhelming to watch a solo set as the quiet crowd gazed towards him. Part of me wished I could have caught Junior Boys' set down the street, but that stage was too far to get to and I wanted to secure a spot for Broken Social Scene's headlining set.

J Mascis (with Kevin Drew) @ Supercrawl: photo by Michael Ligon

Broken Social Scene's show at Harbourfront Centre in 2009 was my favourite show by them ever, with the extended BSS family like Feist and Emily Haines popping out the woodworks to make it a very special show. Broken Social Scene are a much more streamlined animal these days with a core lineup of Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff, Lisa Lobsinger and Sam Goldberg making up the band. Kevin mentioned that this was their last show in Ontario for a long time, and with recent news of the band going on an indefinite hiatus, I'm glad to have caught the band this time. No special guests unfortunately for this how, but the band did seem to have a pep in their step as they played selection of favourites from their last three albums and apparently also including a cover of Modest Mouse's "World At Large". It was neither the band's best nor worst show but as a capper to the festival it was a keeper. I have no doubt the band will be back (and have not broken up). I think we've all started to take the band for granted, especially over the last several years, and I think now's the perfect time for the band to take a break, both for themselves and from us, but I think when the band eventually make their return, it will be monumental.

Broken Social Scene @ Supercrawl: photo by Michael Ligon

For my complete photoset of Supercrawl, check out the link below:

Photos: Supercrawl in Hamilton, ON (September 10, 2011)

2011 Toronto International Film Festival Wrap-Up

2011-09-21T23:50:00.003-04:00

I jumped heavier into this year's Toronto International Film Festival than I'd ever had before seeing a total of eleven films over the festival's eleven day run. Overall, I'm glad to say that everything I saw was good to great, although having seen a number of films that were dark, grim, or just plain weird, I'm motivated for next year to see more comedies.

Gus Van Sant's newest film "Restless" was a great start to the festival, a quiet, quirky film about life and death, and the budding romance between two social misfits. There was a very nice balance between the sombre and the uplifting elements of the story and both lead actors, Henry Hopper as Enoch Brae and Mia Wasikowska as Annabel Cotton were excellent. My favourite scene in the film was the graveyard conversation.

Q&A, 'Restless': photo by Michael Ligon

Directed by and starring Ryan O'nan (and who also wrote and performed many of the songs in the film), his directorial debut "The Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best" turned out to be a great little indie comedy. In the film, a pair of fate-matched musical losers come together to form a guitar / multi-instrumentalist indie rock duo and go on tour. Part comedy, part drama, part road movie, this was a fun film with surprisingly good musical performances to boot. The three leads (Ryan O'Nan, Michael Weston, Arielle Kebbel) may be relative unknowns but were fantastic and there were some familiar faces (particularly Andrew McCarthy, Christopher McDonald, Jason Ritter and Wilmer Valderrama) that filled out smaller roles to great effect.

Q&A, "The Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best": photo by Michael Ligon

I took the Sunday route with a laid back screening of the new Todd Solondz film "Dark Horse" at the VISA Screening Room at the magnificent Elgin Theatre. Having rewatched Solondz' 1998 film "Happiness", I was reminded of his skewed perspective on everyday life, even borderline uncomfortable to watch, depending on the company you were watching it with. While Solondz hasn't necessarily changed his world view on things, he's reigned back the weirdness just a tad on his new film. In this new film, Solondz' story of a man-child's pursuit for love is comedic, yet tragic, fantasical yet grounded in real life.

Q&A, "Dark Horse": photo by Michael Ligon

With famed director Jonathan Demme already hemming Neil Young's previous concert films: 2006′s "Heart of Gold" and 2009′s "Trunk Show", it was only natural that he come on board to document Young's shows at Massey Hall in May of 2010. This newest concert film entitled "Neil Young Journeys" is not only of document of Neil's two night stint at Massey Hall in May of 2010 but also intersperses clips of Young's musings of his childhood as he makes the drive from his childhood hometown of Omemee, ON to Massey Hall in Toronto. Concert films will never take place of a real show but this one comes close with perhaps the finest audio quality I've ever heard during a concert film. During the Q & A, Demme and Young spoke about some sort of new audio technology used I believe to record the sound, and believe me the sound quality was fantastic.

Q&A, "Neil Young Life": photo by Michael Ligon

Apparently, if you're Australian, the mention of "Snowtown", conjures horrific stories of serial killings that took place in the impoverished small town in South Australia between 1992 and 1999. In his directorial debut, director Justin Kurzel does a superb job, given the difficult subject matter, in firstly directing mostly unknowns who gave fantastic performances, and secondly, creating an the films appropriately grim atmosphere. It's not really a film I can say I took 'pleasure' in watching, given it's subject matter, but I appreciated the craftmanship that went into it.

Q&A, "Snowtown": photo by Michael Ligon

And what would a film festival be, without at least watching a foreign film with subtitles. "Kotoko" a Japanese film directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, tells the story of the unravelling mental state of a young mother with double vision which affects her ability to take care of her baby, eventually being suspected of child abuse and having her baby taken away from her. The film does a great job with editing and camera shows in illustrating the realm of pyschosis, to the almost unbearable point of feeling the sickening madness myself. Tsukamoto stars in the film as a writer who's drawn to Kotoko's maudlin singing on the bus one day, eventually pursuing her romantically even after realizing her mental unwellness. At this point, this sounds like a Hollywood formula, but believe me this film is far from it.

Q&A, "Kotoko": photo by Michael Ligon

The most 'star-studded' film I saw was the co-production between Canadian actor Shawn Ashmore and British actor Dominic Monaghan for their post-apocalyptic film "The Day". The short of it is, the film is about a rag-tag group who try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world but then encounter a hurdle. What is it you might ask? No, it's not zombies. Go watch the film. Not much depth to the plot, but as a Midnight Madness entry it was appropriately fun, especially with some of it's kick ass kill sequences.

Q&A, "The Day": photo by Michael Ligon

Better known as stand-up comedian, Bobcat Goldwaithe's directorial effort entitled "God Bless America" turned out to be a surprisingly affecting film. It definitely has a satirical edge and a sensibility that reminds me somewhat of the 1993 film "Falling Down" starring Michael Douglas. But amidst the film's satirical components, is the unconventional friendship between a middle-aged divorced father and a dissatisfied, independent teenage girl. Albeit, as touching as that sounds, the premise of the story is that they do go on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque killing spree. Better than I expected, and admist the violence and satire, there was a wonderfully human message.

Q&A, "God Bless America": photo by Michael Ligon

The zombie film genre is something I've grown attached to over the years and was psyched to see that the Cuban-Spanish co-production entitled "Juan Of The Dead" was in this year's festival. It definitely leans towards the side of "Shaun of The Dead" with it's comedic angle, and the humour while cheesy at times, was at other times uproariously funny. Part of me was a little disappointed at times that the zombies weren't as visually threatening as they could have been, the zombies being of the slow and sluggish-paced variety. Director Alejandro Bruges uses the characters' dialogue at times to make commentary about life in Cuba, which somehow fits in well with the characters' situations. Admirable addition to the zombie film genre.

Q&A, "Juan Of The Dead": photo by Michael Ligon

My penultimate film of TIFF was the midnight madness screening of UK film "Kill List" directed by Ben Wheatley. A strange and suspenseful twist on the hit-man film, I especially enjoyed the pacing and buildup of film. By the end film which turns out to be a suckerpunch, your reaction is like, holy 'eff did that just happen? Intensely, dark atmosphere, maybe too dark for some, it won't be everyone's cup of tea but I'll recommend as an intriguing curiousity.

Q&A, "Kill List": photo by Michael Ligon

My last film of TIFF was the Swedish film "Play". Intriguingly shot entirely in long shot, "the film is based on an actual incident in Gothenburg where a group of black kids manipulated other teenagers, mostly from "ethnic" backgrounds, into surrendering their valuables." As a closer for the festival for me, it was an insightful film and its use of long shots an example of how wonderfully cinematography in filmmaking can be. As a story which touches on issues of bullying, race, and the like, it was an insightful film.

And that's it. Let's do this again next year.

And more of my pics during TIFF below:

Elgin Theatre: photo by Michael Ligon

TIFF Volunteers: photo by Michael Ligon

Red Carpet at Roy Thomson Hall: photo by Michael Ligon

Princess of Wales Theatre: photo by Michael Ligon

Mounties by Mr. Brainwash: photo by Michael Ligon

Spray Cans by Mr. Brainwash: photo by Michael Ligon

Alfred Hitchcock by Mr. Brainwash: photo by Michael Ligon

For my complete TIFF photoset, check out the link below:

Photos: 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (September 8-18, 2011)

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ps. Apologies to anyone who's stuck around for the last 2 1/2 months hoping for a post. I lost all motivation for posting gig reviews during the summer partially out of laziness but also partially because of the dearth of really anything extraordinary to post about. Mind you, I saw some good shows during the summer, and did the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago this past July but otherwise the bands and artists that I did see, you've all heard and read about anyway. While my motivation for writing has waned, the pleasure of grabbing a few photos at gigs still remains. At the very least, photos will still provide content to this site, but I'm rethinking the writing angle. I'd like to keep the writing off-the-cuff and spontaneous and rather leave the act of music writing to those of who you who do it for a living, or at least do it better. One of the books I'd read over the summer was called "The Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture", a harsh critique of user-generated internet/web content in many ways, but one thing I've gained from the book is that I'll probably tighten the quality control on what I publish and don't publish.

Digable Planets, The Pharcyde @ NXNE in Toronto (June 19, 2011)

2011-07-03T22:58:00.000-04:00

Imani & Fatlip of The Pharcyde: photo by Michael Ligon

Review to come.

Photos: Digable Planets, The Pharcyde @ NXNE in Toronto (June 19, 2011)
MySpace: Digable Planets
MySpace: The Pharcyde

Mode Moderne, Doldrums, Guards, Wild Nothing, Twin Shadow, Memoryhouse @ NXNE in Toronto (Saturday June 18, 2011)

2011-07-02T23:03:00.005-04:00

Twin Shadow: photo by Michael Ligon

Review to come.

Photos: Mode Moderne, Doldrums, Guards, Wild Nothing, Twin Shadow, Memoryhouse @ NXNE in Toronto (Saturday June 18, 2011)
MySpace: Mode Moderne
MySpace: Doldrums
Bandcamp: Guards
MySpace: Wild Nothing
MySpace: Twin Shadow
MySpace: Memoryhouse

Persian Rugs, Stars, Action Makes, Crocodiles, Heavy Cream @ NXNE in Toronto (June 17, 2011)

2011-06-29T23:50:00.002-04:00

Crocodiles: photo by Michael Ligon

Since I had Friday[June 17] off from work, I'd had hopes off making it out to some of the daytime NXNE festivities but alas it did not happen. It figures just when it seems the daytime NXNE-affiliated or NXNE-related shows are stepping it up, I don't make it out to any of them. On the other hand, I made a conscious decision to try to start the night out early.

My 8 pm pick went to Toronto indiepop group Persian Rugs. In my NXNE preview post for this night I picked Persian Rugs as my choice for the 8 pm slot and in that same post, I kind of eulogized the death of indiepop in Toronto when Toronto's The Airfields called it quits (went on hiatus?) a few years ago. It was a pleasant surprise when lo and behold up on the stage of the Silver Dollar I see Ian Jackson, ex of The Airfields and The Diableros. Also behind the drumkit was Diableros drummer Mike Duffield. Filling out the band was a female on alternate lead vocals and keyboards as well as a gent on bass guitar. Very much in the vein of C86 / Sarah Records-inspired indiepop, the alternating lead vocals between Ian and their female vocalist was a nice change. As well the varying textures from song to song going from sweet, float-y synth, to more dissonant guitar work kep things interesting. Not quite sure what happened to The Airfields although if I understand correctly that was the project of a one David Lush, so it is nice to see that Mr. Jackson's struck out with his own band. Thin crowd at the Silver Dollar but given the confined quarters there, a thin crowd didn't seem all that thin actually.

For my 9 pm timeslot I shot up to Yonge Dundas Square to catch Stars. I had to dig back through the archives but I believe the last time I saw Stars live was when they played a free show at University of Toronto in September 2007 as part of Frosh Week. And now here they are headlining a big show at Yonge Dundas Square. As I fully expected it was packed so I reserved myself to watching the show from the back amongst which as you might guess is far less exciting than watching a show from near the front. So I got to see Torquil's big face on the video screen, as well as of course the lovely Amy Millan. Busting out their 'hits' such as "Elevator Love Letter", "The Night Starts Here", and "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead", Stars' fans got what they wanted. I remember seeing Stars several years back when they played Lee's Palace(one show of a multi-night stint there) and it was really fantastic but the effect of the band's sophisticated pop songs felt diluted in the Square. Good points to the set other than the music - Torq's articulate / humourous banter such as his dedication of their song "We Don't Want Your Body" to the lady-adorned H & M billboard atop the Eaton Centre staring back at him from across the street.

The garage rock / pysch scene in Toronto is proudly heralded and promoted by Toronto indie label Optical Sounds although it's largely a scene I don't have partake in that often. Toronto garage act Action Makes who were playing the Silver Dollar at 11 pm were my next stop. As I arrived, the band were already playing to a sweaty packed crowd, with a select bunch of patrons really getting their dance on. With mop-topped lead vocalist Clint Rogerson, and four other gents on keys, guitar, bass, and drums, the band stomped through a melodically-infused set of garage rock tunes. They were as good, maybe even better, than other bands of the genre I've heard. They play live in Toronto occasionally and I do recommend they'd be worth your time.

The big draw of the night, at least for me, was the next band to hit the Silver Dollar stage for a midnight set - that belonged to San Diego buzz act Crocodiles. With a co-ed membership, the females of the group on drums and Farfisa, with the males of the group on lead vocals, bass and guitar, the band played a setlist of tunes with titles like "Neon Jesus", "Summer of Hate", "Hexes" and "I Want To Kill". The lyrics may have not been all sunshine and lollipops but musically, the upbeat tempos and melodies showed the band to be far more fun and less serious than you might have imagined. For God's sake, they played a totally fun Farfisa-driven cover of The Ramones "Beat On The Brat" - loved it. Making the set even more special was what seemed like a totally spontaneous moment when NXNE-participants, Dum Dum Girls [Dee Dee's husband is Brandon Welchez of Crocodiles] jumped onto stage and started to dance and jump up and down vigorously during Crocodiles' set. Crocodiles were Silver Dollar promoter Dan Burke's pick to play a 3-night stint at the venue for NXNE and this very well could have been the best show of the bunch, well at least I hope it was.

Ending off the night for me was garage-punk outfit Nashville's Heavy Cream who were playing next door at The Comfort Zone. The 3/4 female group were setting up still as a I arrived and I was a bit disappointed to see the venue less than packed. I'd seen them live during last year's CMJ in NYC and I'd missed their set during this year's Canadian Musicfest so I was glad to take in their set during NXNE. Taking their musical cues from The Ramones with short bursts of rock n' roll tunes (although perhaps less melodic), as well as visual cues with their t-shirts and denim, Heavy Cream gunned through a set with just the right amount of punk attitude, especially from vocalist Jessica McFarland (now sporting a platinum-blonde, longer haircut rather than the tomboy-ish, brown-ish 'do she had last year during CMJ) who's snarling vocals always seemed genuine and never cartoonish. This is a band I could have imagined would have fit in quite well with the CBGB's / 1977 NYC punk scene. I might not be cool, but they are.

Photos: Persian Rugs, Stars, Action Makes, Crocodiles, Heavy Cream @ NXNE in Toronto (June 17, 2011)
MySpace: Persian Rugs
MySpace: Stars
MySpace: Action Makes
MySpace: Crocodiles
MySpace: Heavy Cream

Snowblink, OFF!, Washington, Kevin Seconds, Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield, No Joy, Chains of Love @ NXNE in Toronto (June 16, 2011)

2011-06-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield: photo by Michael Ligon

I stayed surprisingly true to my original picks for this night of NXNE. And making the most of my Priority Plass(thanks NXNE), I hit the night hard.

Kicking off the night early, I hit The Music Gallery to take in the 7 pm set of Toronto-by-way-of-California band Snowblink. I arrived just after the band had started it seemed with most of the pew seating occupied so I took to the right side of the church to stand and snap a few photos. Getting my first real taste of the band's songs, I'm now less inclinded to lump them into the indie-folk genre (my original preconception of what I thought they might be based on reviews I read) and even moreso have to draw a comparison to Feist who was the artist I was reminded of when I'd first sampled their tunes prior to their set. Like Feist's occasional use of a stripped down instrumental setup, Snowblink which is the project of Daniela Gesundheit had along with her only a drummer and guitarist, and the three musicians played a subdued set of not-quite-folk and skeletal pop. My first taste of Snowblink and it was good.

I decided to bypass the 8 pm timeslot for a snack and then headed to Yonge Dundas Square to catch the tail-end of Fucked Up but ended up missing the whole set. Hardcore supergroup OFF! who were playing the Square next were my 9 pm pick for the night and although I hadn't got the e-mail confirmation that day to photograph the show, the gentleman in the pit making the decisions was kind enough to let me shoot. The band consisting of Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag) with Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), Dmitri Coats (Burning Brides) and Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless, Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes) played a blistering set, the self-admitted 56-year-old vocalist Keith Morris in fine form as was the rest of the band (guitarist Dmitri Coats and his long red wavy hair flapping around providing visual stimulation for the crowd. Morris showed himself to be an articulate person, his banter touching on political issues, the punk scene, and growing old. His proposed plan if OFF! were to play the half-time show at the Super Bowl, including dropping tar from the Goodyear Blimp on to the heads of US Politicans was hilarious but at the same time illustrates Morris' political convictions.

Lee's Palace was my next destination, mostly because I was keen on catching the midnight set of Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield, but first there were the 10 pm and 11 pm sets of Aussie singer-songwriter Washington and American singer-songwriter Kevin Seconds respectively to to stand through. Fortunately, what I'd sampled from those artists prior to show pique my interest. I was a littled disappinted that Washington (whose full name is Megan Washington) was playing solo with only keyboards but almost from the getgo she showed herself to be a mighty talent. With her supple keyboard playing and emotive vocals, obvious comparisons are Fiona Apple and perhaps even Sara Bareilles. Megan played a set of originals as well as covers by Rufus Wainwright and fellow Aussie Paul Kelly, the latter which was her last song of the night and which she sung accapella. Quite a thin crowd at this point, but for those who were there, we were impressed.

With the crowd growing a little fuller for 11 pm, singer-songwriter Kevin Seconds (ex-vocalist of seminal Reno, Nevada punk rockers 7 Seconds formed back in the early 80's) took the stage. With his quite interestingly hand-decorated acoustic guitar which had among other things a picture of a young Johnny Cash as well as the words "This Machine Trolls Fascists" inscribed with black marker on it, Kevin played a great set of tunes that straddled country, folk and pop some a bit laid-back while others displaying a bit of a punk-ier energy with furiously strummed guitar. With song topics ranging from growing older[which seemed to be the defacto theme of the night thinking back to OFF!'s set], to his hometown of Sacramento, and to love and friends, Kevin had a good knack for melody and effective lyrics and his acoustic guitar chord structures and playing were fantastic.

As expected as soon as Mr. Seconds ended his set, I could feel the herd of patrons rushing as close as to the stage as possible for Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield. I'd seen Evan live a few times in the past 6 years touring The Lemonheads playing newer material and the classics but on the other hand had never seen Juliana live, mostly because even as she was releasing new material she never ended up touring up here. As she'd mentioned during the set, she was releasing a new album/material later this year, but whatever made her decide to finally perform live up here now during NXNE (and better yet with Evan) I was just glad she was here. Sitting on stools side by side, and each with acoustic guitars, both were slightly older but at the same time almost exactly the way I'd remembered them back in the 90's, with their stringy hair, denim and morose facial expressions. Each took turns singing their songs, as well as singing together, on Lemonheads classics like "Drug Buddy" and "Down About It" and Hatfield tunes likes "Choose Drugs", and Dando was in fine voice as ever, while Hatfield held her own most of the time with only minimal strain trying to hit a few higher notes. This was a purely nostalgic set that left me with enormous happiness hearing these songs and at the same time a little sadness that the early 90's from which the setlist harkened from can now be classified as nostalgic. On a side note, while she admitted she was not a hockey fan, she just had to bring up the fact that the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup. Juliana we still love you anyway.

I felt I was on a roll at this point so I headed on down to the Horseshoe Tavern for the 1 am set of Montreal's No Joy. There was a good sized crowd for the blonde-haired duo of Laura Lloyd and Jasamine White as well as their male rhythm section on bass guitar and drums. There was a bit brighter stage lighting this time than when I'd previously seen them in NYC at CMJ last October which in my opinion detracted the vibe away from the band's shoegazer, noise-pop element and focused my attention more on how hard-rocking they were. Yes, they move on stage.

A quick check of the NXNE Twitter page revealed that the secret guests for the 2 am time slot at Sneaky Dee's were Vancouver retro-pop outfit Chains of Love and there I headed off. Some technical snafus prevented the band from starting on time but by about 2:30 am, things finally got underway. Chains of Love, consisting of Felix Fung (Guitar), Clint Lofkrantz (Bass/Guitar), Henry Beckwith (Keyboards), Nathalia Pizarro (Vocals), Rebecca Marie Law Gray (Vocals/Guitar), and Al Boyle (drums) play Motown-inspired, pop-filled, rock n' roll and have the sixties-influenced attire to match. The band's songs were glorious at times, but sometimes the tempos felt rushed. Asking the soundman for a lot of reverb in her vocals, frontwoman Nathalia Pizarro in her sparkly top and leather mini-skirt reminded me a lot of Amy Winehouse(back when Amy was voluptuous), exuded an exhuberance on stage and in her vocals. The band, quite literally at times, bashed away on their instruments, the drummer losing his cymbal a few times, while I believed a mic stand was knocked over at one point and finally, guitarist Fung lost the whammy bar off his guitar at the end. It seemed all over too soon, and with too few patrons really dancing (blame it on 3 am approaching at that point), so it may have not been their best set, but I'm sure this band could get an entire venue hopping.

Photos: Snowblink, OFF!, Washington, Kevin Seconds, Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield, No Joy, Chains of Love @ NXNE in Toronto (June 16, 2011)
MySpace: Snowblink
MySpace: OFF!
MySpace: Washington
MySpace: Kevin Seconds
MySpace: Evan Dando
MySpace: Juliana Hatfield
MySpace: No Joy
MySpace: Chains of Love

Lowe Dens, Ume @ NXNE in Toronto (Wednesday June 15, 2011)

2011-06-21T23:45:00.001-04:00

Lower Dens: photo by Michael Ligon

Over the last several years NXNE has taken strides to improve, one factor being that it kicks off stronger on the Wednesday night than it had historically. The Thursday night of the festival traditionally was the official first night of the festival but in recent years Wednesday night has provided more musical options, I guess to satiate the appetite of festival-goers who couldn't wait to get started. While generally I find this a good thing, this year I'd eased slowly into this year's festival with only two shows on the Wednesday night since I hadn't booked off work the day after[I'd only booked Friday off work] - next year, I think I might just book most of that week off. In the long run, I think easing into the festival with just two shows the first night was prudent as I hit the rest of the festival relatively harder and am only recovering now. And of course two shows the first night makes this blog post a whole lot easier to do.

By the time I'd started out this night, I'd already missed any bands or artists playing time slots from 9 pm or prior, and so then decided on checking out the 10 pm set by Baltimore's Lower Dens at the Garrison. I'd hadn't even heard the band's music prior to this night, but they were one of the buzzier acts of the festival and on top of that were playing the Garrison who've booked a number of good acts (most of which I've not actually caught unfortunately). Any anxiety I had of encountering a lineup at the venue was soon diminished as I got in with no problems and found the venue to be comfortably filled at about half capacity. A little background - the five member Baltimore outfit are led by the androngynous-looking Jana Hunter and they released their debut full-length Twin Hand Movement in 2010. Prior to that, Hunter was a solo artist, most notable for being the first artist to release an album on Devendra Banhart and Vetiver frontman Andy Cabic's label Gnomonsong. At the time I'd arrived, it looked like the band just began their set. With the general configuration of bass, guitar, synth, drums, and vocals, my initial impression was a bit underwhelming, although mostly due to the band's lack of stage presence but partially due to the sluggish pace of whatever song they were playing at the time. However as I listened more closely, the band's musical qualities became more apparent. Their music was a far more subdued version of shoegaze, choosing atmosphere, subtle dissonance, and echo-y melodic guitar lines over feedback. But what really tied it together nicely were the song's bubbling melodies and the enchanting, distant-sounding vocals of Hunter along with the contrasting back-up vocals of bassist Geoff Graham. Not an exemplary live experience by any standard due to the PA problems, but musically I'm convinced and I hope to catch the band live next time they come to town.

Next venue I headed to was the Drake Underground to see the 11 pm set by Ume. Austin, Texas female-led rock trio Ume have been simultaneously been making waves in the music scene and remaining a little under the radar for a few years now. I'm expecting them to really hit it big any day now. I've read that they've been named one of the top 16 unsigned bands in North America by Rolling Stone and after finally experiencing their live set, and well actually really hearing their music for the first time, you wonder why they haven't been signed yet. Led by husband-and-wife duo Eric Larson (bass) and Lauren Langner Larson (guitar/vocals) plus recently acquired new drummer Rachel Fuhrer the band tore through their hard rock, slightly punky tunes carried effectively by the melodic vocals of Langner. Langner was also exemplary as a guitarist ripping through riffs and displaying a strong personality and stage presence as front-person of the band. I'd half expected the venue to be at capacity and was more than a little surprised that the venue was only half full. Disappointly though, most of the crowd seemed fairly tame but overall the crowd was appreciative of the band's rocking set. Ume have now come through Toronto a number of times now and been constantly touring over the last few years, acquiring fans gradually. Ume's time will come, just you wait.

Photos: Lower Dens, Ume @ NXNE in Toronto (Wednesday June 15, 2011)
MySpace: Lower Dens
MySpace: Ume

Joel Plaskett Emergency, Beast @ David Pecaut Square, Toronto (June 10, 2011)

2011-06-20T23:40:00.000-04:00

Joel Plaskett: photo by Michael Ligon

NXNE just wrapped up so before the bombardment of festival coverage that will be upon you, I just wanted to get up a post on the Joel Plaskett Emergency show which kicked off Luminato over a week ago, a festival which also just wrapped this weekend.

Taking place at Metro Hall Square (renamed David Pecaut Square) a good sized crowd was onhand for the free show that was kicking off Luminato. Montreal alterna-rock outfit Beast wasn't really appealing to me from the start, with their somewhat dated sound merging 90's grunge and alternative rock with trip hop, hip hop and electronic rhythms. They were technically proficient, Francophone vocalist Betty Bonifassi posessing a strong, soulful singing style and the band was obviously appealing to some but they overall weren't my cup of tea. Drummer Jean-Phi Goncalves near the end of the set put on a fantastic display of drumming proficiency and when the band's bassist joined in and they both together segued into the intro of Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" I got excited for a moment although it only turned out to be a tease. Oh well.

Since the end of his Thrush Hermit days, Joel Plaskett has been alternating between releasing solo albums and as well as under the moniker of Joel Plaskett Emergency, the latter of which is a band configuration that chose for the Lumintao launch show that took place down at David Pecaut Square in Toronto on June 10. With original Emergency drummer Dave Marsh behind the skins and with multi-instrumentalist and current Toronto resident Peter Elkas as well as bassist Chris Pennell in tow, Joel and the band played a set that touched on all aspects of his career from the kick-off song which was Thrush Hermit's "From The Back of The Film", to recent solo tunes like "Deny Deny Deny" & "Through Through Through" to Emergency standards like "Come On Teacher" and "Extraordinary". I think I've underappreciated Plaskett outside of Thrush Hermit when I should have been paying more attention. As was fully exemplified during this live set, he's a clever lyricist and outstanding songwriter and while his gangly physical appearance may not be an indicator, Plaskett's seasoned comfort on stage as a performer (including humourous banter) is apparent. He's got a foothold in classic rock influences but at the same time his songs have a timeless quality which cannot necessarily be said of his Thrush Hermit days which definitely have a 90's indie rock quality to them. Regrettably, I wish I'd been more familiar with Plaskett's work as I would have sung along with many of those that were in attendance. It was one of those shows, that I'd not expected much but came out with a reaction like, that was really great. The show was not without a certain bit of promotion as Plaskett just released a solo-spanning rarities collection entitled EMERGENCYs, false alarms, shipwrecks, castaways, fragile creatures, special features, demons and demonstrations via his own label, New Scotland Records. The collection boasts 20 tracks spanning over a decade of his career and as impressed I was with Plaskett during this live appearance I may just have to pick up this new collection and rediscover him all over again.

Photos: Joel Plaskett Emergency, Beast @ David Pecaut Square, Toronto (June 10, 2011)
MySpace: Beast
MySpace: Joel Plaskett

NXNE Picks (Sunday June 19, 2011)

2011-06-19T16:22:00.003-04:00

If I had to encompass the last four days of NXNE, it'd be "phew!" and on one level I actually didn't hit the festival as hard as previous years. Part of it has to do with the 'Murtaugh' factor (ie. Roger Murtaugh, a character in the Lethal Weapon films whose famous catchphrase is "I’m getting’ too old for this shit") which had been hilariously played up in an episode of "How I Met Your Mother". A few nights ago I was waiting for the TTC Blue Line bus with Murtaugh's famous catchphrase running through my mind. But I digress. It's been a great festival and it seems to be getting better and better every year. However, it's not just yet over as NXNE concludes officially tonight with a free hip hop show down at Yonge Dundas Square. Check out my NXNE picks for today below including details tonight's hip-hop NXNE closing festivities show down at Yonge Dundas Square:

3:00 pm - 6:00 pm - Static Zine Launch Party @ Sky Blue Sky & Christie Pitts

Static Zine is a new Toronto arts and lifestyle zine started by fellow Toronto blogger Jessic Lewis of Roundletters along with Melody Lamb and Aviva Cohen of The Singing Lamb. The zine which has already apparently run out of it's original printing had been given out by the girls through various locations in Toronto including NXNE headquarters at the Hyatt Regency. To celebrate the zine's launch, they're having a day of intimate performances first at a Wilco-themed sandwich shop in Toronto called Sky Blue Sky [which I've yet to visit but I heard is great], then strolling down Bloor St. towards Christie Pits where the last few bands conclude things. It's technically not a NXNE-affiliated event but the first issue of the zine was billed as the NXNE issue, so there. And as you read this, it's still not to late to catch the bands that'll be playing the launch party. The bands and set times are as follows (I realize that I'm posting this late and I apologize):

3:00 Kat Burns at Sky Blue Sky
3:30 Lowell Sostomi (of Great Bloomers) at Sky Blue Sky
4:15 walk down Bloor with The Ruby Spirit
5:00 Bravestation at Christie Pits
5:30 Sister at Christie Pits

Video: Kat Burns - In Studio(National Post) session
Video: Great Bloomers - "The Young Ones Slept" (music video)
Video: The Ruby Spirit - "Tin Can Bees" (Wood & Wires Session)
Video: Bravestation - "White Wolves" (music video)

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it(sorry girls) because of Father's Day plans so I wish them all success.

7:00 pm - 11:00 pm - The Pharcyde, Digable Planets, D-Sisive @ Yonge Dundas Square

Canadian rapper opens things up early down at the Square at 7 pm with 90's hip hop legends Digable Planets and The Pharcyde continuing the party at 8 pm and 9 pm respectively. As hip hop goes I'm no where a connoisseur of the genre and I only have relatively small amount of it in my music collection, but 90's hip hop was in my opinion my favourite decade for the genre thus far. Argue that as you may listen to The Pharcyde's debut full-length Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde or Digable Planets' second album Blowout Comb and then tell me if I'm wrong.

Video: D-Sisive - "Wonderful World" (music video)
Video: Digable Planets - "9th Wonder (Blackitolism)" (music video)
Video: The Pharcyde - "Passin' Me By" (music video)

11:00 pm - Wild Nothing @ Garrison

The NYC indie pop group played a good set at Lee's Palace yesterday and were one of my picks for yesterday. Here's another chance to see them live.

Video: Wild Nothing - "Chinatown" (live @ Holocene, Portland Oregon, March 01 2011)

NXNE Picks (Saturday June 18, 2011)

2011-06-18T16:34:00.001-04:00

While tomorrow NXNE concludes officially, tonight's festivities are really where it's at. There is just too much going on, really illustrating the major downside to festival's such as this is that you're always going to miss something. But c'est la vie. As you can see from my picks below, it's very likely that I might just camp out at Lee's for most of the night. But then again maybe I won't. We'll see how it all works out. As always make sure to check out the NXNE Twitter as you never know what last-minute special shows might be announced. Fuck, if Brian Wilson plays some intimate last-minute set somewhere, I will die [not literally - you know what I mean] - but then again at 2:00 am he's probably fast asleep in his hotel room, which is probably what I'll want to be doing at that time also.

5-5:40 PM - Dirty Beaches @ Yonge Dundas Square

Alex Zhang Hungtai, known by his stage name Dirty Beaches, is a one-man band whose music, from what I've heard is a weird hybrid of rockabilly and post-punk influences. Intriguing stuff, although I'm not sure how this'd come off in the daylight and concrete surroundings of Yonge Dundas Square.

Video: Dirty Beaches - "Sweet 17" (live @ Hardly Art / Art Fags showcase, SXSW 2011)

7-7:40 PM - Cults @ Yonge Dundas Square

This NYC indie outfit, with their reverb-laden, Motown / Blues influced pop music has been making waves since last year having alreadly rolled through Toronto twice. Apparently there was a packed house for their midnight set at Lee's Palace yesterday. Here's your last chance during the festival to see what the hype's all about.

Video: Cults - "Most Wanted" (Live in Toronto, 4.4.2011)

8 PM - Mode Moderne @ Supermarket

Elements of goth-pop, Joy Division, and The Smiths seem to infuse the bands tunes from what I've heard. Given my 'goth' leanings as of late (Austra, Zola Jesus, and older bands like Siouxsie and The Banshees, This Mortal Coil), Mode Moderne would give me another opportunity to awaken my inner goth.

Video: Mode Moderne - "Ashes" (live, 2009)
Video: Mode Moderne - "Real Goths (fan video)

Also worth your time: Men Without Hats @ Yonge Dundas Square [8:00 pm - 8:40 pm]

9 PM - Doldrums @ 918 Bathurst

As quoted from their last.fm page, "Doldrums is a project started by Airick Woodhead. He lives in Toronto and does weird stuff." According to the band's website, they are soon(?) to be releasing a split 7" with DDMMYYYY.

Video: Doldrums - "I'm Homesick Sitting Up Here In My Satellite" (music video)

Also worth your time: Louise Burns @ Supermarket, Devo @ Yonge Dundas Square [9:30 pm - 11:00 pm]

10 PM - Guards @ Lee's Palace

Guards is the one-man band pop project of Richie Follin(who also is in the band Willowz). His sister is Madeline Follin of the band Cults.

Video: Guards - Live at Daytrotter Barnstormer IV

Also worth your time: Jennifer Castle @ The Great Hall, Hooded Fang @ Horseshoe Tavern

11 PM - Wild Nothing @ Lee's Palace

I was impressed with the indiepop stylings of NYC group Wild Nothing when I caught them during CMJ in NYC last October so it's very possible I will just stay put at Lee's for them and the next couple of acts.

Video: Wild Nothing - "Live In Dreams" (live at Monster Island Basement for Fader TV)

Also worth your time: Grimes @ 918 Bathurst, Braids @ The Great Hall, Jenn Grant @ Horseshoe Tavern, Heartbeat Hotel @ Rancho Relaxo, Nightbox @ Wrongbar

midnight - Twin Shadow @ Lee's Palace

Twin Shadow, the stage name of George Lewis Jr. Lewis was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Florida, been making splashes in the indie scene for the last year or so eventually getting signed to 4AD for his debut full-length Forget whose been described as the black Morrissey by some and his sound harkens back to the new-wave pop of the 80's. I've heard but a few of his tunes and I'm liking everything so far. Lee's probably will be packed at this point so it's recommended you probably come by a few sets early.

Video: Twin Shadow - "Castles In The Snow" (Billboard's Tastemakers Session @ Mophonics Studios, NYC)

Also worth your time: Secret Cities @ Dakota Tavern, Chad VanGaalen @ The Great Hall, Dinosaur Bones @ Horseshoe Tavern, Diamond Rings @ Wrongbar

1 AM - Memoryhouse @ Lee's Palace

This Guelphite band's dream-pop impressed me during their set at Canadian Musicfest earlier this year. But then I'm a sucker for this kind of music. The band were recently signed to Sub Pop - look for a new release by the end of the year.

Video: Memoryhouse - "Lately" (music video)

Also worth your time: Crocodiles @ Silver Dollar, Handsome Furs @ Garrison, Grimes @ The Great Hall, One Hundred Dollars @ Horseshoe Tavern

2 AM - Makeout Videotape @ Garrison

Tasty, lo-fi pop nuggets from are what this young guitar / drums Vancouverite duo seem to specialize in. Not too shabby. Good way to end the night perhaps - if I'm still standing.

Video: Makeout Videotape - "Heatwave" (music video)

Also worth your time: Lying down on the nearest park bench.

NXNE Picks (Friday June 17, 2011)

2011-06-17T18:57:00.000-04:00

Phew! Yesterday, I hit NXNE hard taking in show starting at 7 pm with Snowblink at The Music Gallery and ending off the night with the 2 am set by Vancouver Motown-influenced indie outfit Chains Of Love at Sneaky Dee's. Slept in until 10 am this morning which it's a good thing I booked off work today. And now we'll do this all over again tonight. Here are my picks for tonight:

8 PM - Persian Rugs @ Silver Dollar

After Toronto indiepop group The Airfields dissolved a few years ago, I thought indiepop in Toronto was pronounced dead, but apparently that's not the case as evidenced by Toronto's Persian Rugs who wave the flag of C86 / Sarah Records-styled indiepop proudly.

Video: Persian Rugs - "Always All" (NYC Popfest @ The Rock Shop, 22.5.11)

Also worth your time: The Most Serene Republic @ The Mod Club

9 PM - Secret Cities @ Wrongbar

This Fargo, North Dakota band plays psychedlic-tinged, chamber pop. Could be worth checking out if I find the crowds at Yonge Dundas Square for the Stars show too daunting.

Video: Secret Cities - "Pink City" (music video)

Also worth your time: Art Brut @ The Mod Club

9:30 PM - Stars @ Yonge Dundas Square

You know 'em and you love 'em. The Montreal indiepo quintet have been around for a little over a decade with their 2004 album Set Yourself On Fire a certifiable classic in the Canadian music canon. The band just released the digital-only The Bedroom Demos, which you probably guessed correctly are the demos of the songs which appeared on the band's 2007 album In Our Bedroom After The War. The Square will be packed and of course there'll be some loser who shouts out prematurely, "play, 'Your Ex-Lover Is Dead".

Video: Stars - "The Night Starts Here" (music video)

10 PM - PUJOL @ Wrongbar

I'll likely be at the Stars show at Yonge Dundas Square for PUJOL (whose full name is Daniel Pujol) who had a 7-inch produced by Jack White last year. PUJOL's garage punk sonics are improved on by his grasp of melody which, in my books, places him a notch above other wailing garage punks.

Video: Pujol - "Black Rabbit" (music video)

Also worth your time: Dirty Beaches @ Lee's Palace, The Vandelles @ Comfort Zone, Indian Handcrafts @ El Mocambo (main floor)

11 PM - Volcano Playground @ Rancho Relaxo

A local Toronto act that I was previously acquainted with, what I've heard from Volcano Playground ranges from blippy electro-pop to more guitar-oriented indie pop. And with both male and female vocals to boot, I do indeed want to check these folks out.

Video: Volcano Playground - "Fill It Up" (live @ The Painted Lady, Toronto on August 31, 2010)

Also worth your time: Braids @ Garrison, Dum Dum Girls @ Lee's Palace, Juliana Barwick @ Wrongbar

Midnight - Crocodiles @ Silver Dollar

Silver Dollar booker Dan Burke's annual tradition during NXNE of booking a band for three nights in a row continues this year with San Diego band Crocodiles, who as per indicated on their Wikipedia page are likened to The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Spacemen 3. How can they go wrong? We'll see, but most accounts I've read of their show last night at the Silver Dollar were a thumbs up.

Video: Crocodiles - "Mirrors" (Studio Session With Insound)

Also worth your time: Freak Owls @ Czehoski, Carolyn Mark @ Dakota Tavern, Matters @ Drake Underground, Olenka and The Autumn Lovers @ Gladstone Ballroom, Swervedriver @ The Great Hall, OFF! @ Horseshoe Tavern, Cults @ Lee's Palace

1 AM - Heavy Cream @ Comfort Zone

This Nashville 3/4 female punk outfit impressed me when I saw them during CMJ in NYC last October. I missed them when they came through Toronto recently during Canadian Musicfest in March so maybe I'll make it up tonight.

Video: Heavy Cream @ Public Assembly, Brooklyn, 23 October 2010

Also worth your time: Rich Aucoin @ Garrison, The Pack A.D. @ Horseshoe Tavern, Superhumanoids @ Lee's Palace, Ty Segall @ Wrongbar

2 AM - Sheezer @ Sneaky Dee's

Fans of this local all-girl quartet totally dig what these girls do but there also seems to be an equal number of people who slag them. Of course this band is an offshoot made up of REAL musicians - Laura Barrett, Dana Snell (The Bicycles), Magali Meagher (The Phonemes), Robin Hatch (Sports: The Band). I've not seen these girls live but have heard some of their Weezer interpretations and if I end up getting down there tonight, I expect it to be loads of fun.

Video: Sheezer - "El Scorcho" (Weezer cover, Souther Souls session)

Also worth your time: Special Guests are scheduled for 918 Bathurst, Bovine Sex Club, El Mocambo (main floor), Garrison, Horseshoe Tavern, and Silver Dollar. Keep checking the Twitter feed.

NXNE Picks (Thursday June 16, 2011)

2011-06-16T18:40:00.000-04:00

Again, here I am with my 11th hour picks for tonight for NXNE. I didn't hit NXNE hard yesterday but what I lacked in quantity I made up for in quality with decent sets from Baltimore indie outfit Lower Dens over at the Garrison and Austin, Texas' rock trio Ume at the Drake Underground. But, alas I had to work today. Responsibility, people. Booked off work tomorrow, so my tentative plans are to go out past midnight. Here are my picks for tonight, where you will most likely find me, most time slots except for 7 pm, indicating other alternate choices worth your time:

7 PM - Snowblink @ The Music Gallery

A local act I haven't gotten around to checking out, but they've been getting some buzz from the local press and having opened for some big names recently like Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. They've generally been tagged as indie-folk although the sample below reminded me a bit of Feist. Take what you will from this.

Video: Snowblink - "Ambergris" (music video)

8 PM - The Lying Cheats @ Comfort Zone

The band's description in the NXNE guide describes them as a husband and wife team influenced by the Jesus and Mary Chain. The sampled below doesn't sound like JAMC but maybe I shall give them a chance.

Video: The Lying Cheats live at the Silver Dollar (April 28, 2011)

Also worth your time: Ruth Minnikin @ Dakota Tavern, Evening Hymns @ The Music Gallery, Rusty @ Yonge-Dundas Square

9 PM - OFF! @ Yonge-Dundas Square

Punk supergroup made up of Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag) with Steven McDonald (Redd Kross), Dmitri Coats (Burning Brides) and Mario Rubalcaba (Earthless, Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes). With a lineage like this, they must be the best band in the world, right?

Also worth your time: The Luyas @ Horseshoe Tavern, Brian Borcherdt @ 918 Bathurst, Forest City Lovers @ The Music Gallery

10 PM - Washington @ Lee's Palace

What I've heard of this Aussie female falls squarely in the realm of what may be considered radio-friendly pop music but it possesses enough edge that I'm not embarrassed to admit I like it.

Video: Washington - "Rich Kids" (music video)

Also worth your time: The Two Koreas @ Velvet Underground

11 PM - Kevin Seconds @ Lee's Palace

Mr. Seconds was the vocalist of seminal Reno, Nevada punk rockers 7 Seconds formed back in the early 80's but he's playing it troubadour style these days with gritty acoustic guitar accompanied singer-songwriter material.

Video: Kevin Seconds - "Boy Leader" (from 'My Secret YouTube Videos' Series)

Also worth your time: PS I Love You @ Horseshoe Tavern

12 AM - Evan Dando / Juliana Hatfield - @ Lee's Palace

Mr. Dando and Miss Hatfield were both 90's hero's of mine fulfilling my sweet tooth for pop melodies while adding grit with grungy, fuzzy guitars which was fashionable back then - alterna-pop if one might categorize it. While my tastes have broadened since then, I've always held a special place in my heart for alterna-pop. Let's hope I get into this set.

Video: The Lemonheads - "It's A Shame About Ray" (music video)
Video: Juliana Hatfield Three - "My Sister" (music video)

Also worth your time: Ty Segall @ Garrison, Tomboyfriend @ El Mocambo (Upstairs)

1 AM - No Joy @ Horseshoe Tavern

Montreal female shoegaze duo. I saw them at CMJ last year and were impressed. Their debut full-lenth Ghost Blonde is out through Brooklyn indie label Mexican Summer.

Video: No Joy - "Hawaii" (music video)

Also worth your time: Bruce Peninsula @ Rivoli

2 AM - Special Guest @ El Mocambo (Main Floor)

No clues to who this will be, but I will be checking the Twitter feeds, you can count on it. Well, except if I run out of steam before that and call it the night.

Also worth your time: Light Fires @ Wrongbar

NXNE Picks (Wednesday June 15, 2011)

2011-06-15T21:20:00.004-04:00

North By Northeast kicks off tonight with a slew of choices for music fans and while tomorrow it really kicks into high gear, this year's Wednesday night is more robust than previous years. It was surprisingly problem-free picking up my media pass after work today, and this year's NXNE tote bag is nifty (I actually switched all my gear from my messenger bag into the tote bag because I like it that much). Ok, so I'm here in an internet cafe typing out my picks for y'all rather than checking out either of my 8 pm picks, but if I do end up checking anything out tonight, it'll be any number of my picks below:

08 pm - Young Contrarians @ Rancho Relaxo

Local outfit whose NXNE bio describes them as a "...group of soft rockers whose taste for 10cc, Eno and Kate Bush has produced a terrific little ambient pop group". I'm liking what I heard on their MySpace and am sorry I just missed their set.

08 pm - LOOM @ Rivoli

I've not heard about local artist Brooke Manning a.k.a LOOM currently on the roster of local indie label Nevado Records. Delicate vocals combined with atmospheric sometimes droning instrumental accompaniment. Intriguing.

10 pm - Rob Moir @ Dakota Tavern

My first impression was to liken Toronto troubadour Rob Moir to Dallas Green/City and Colour. The singer with guitar thing is so played out but I was really impressed with what I heard from this gent.

Video: Exclaim! TV: Rob Moir - Lost And Found (Like You)

10 pm - Lower Dens @ Garrison

The band name of Baltimore outfit Lower Dens recently in the press and by some of my fellow blogger peers but I still haven't heard a lick of them. But they're playing the Garrison who frequently book buzzy-worthy acts and that's enough that I might check 'em out.

Video: Lower Dens - I Get Nervous (NPR Tiny Desk Concert)

10 pm - The Meligrove Band @ Rivoli

This Mississauga trio's been on the local Toronto scene for years having gone from their east coast pop-influenced beginning towards headier, more psychedelic territory, all the while maintaining a keen ear for melody. The band's most recent effort Shimmering Lights was released last September through Nevado Records in Canada.

Video: The Meligrove Band - "Halflight" (live @ CN Tower)

11 pm - Red Mass @ Horseshoe Tavern

I'm tempted to check out this raucous Montreal psychedelic, garage rock collective again after having witnessed their earth-shattering performance at the Silver Dollar during NXNE in 2009.

11 pm - Ume @ Drake Underground

This Austin, Texas female-led rock trio been simultaneous been making waves and remaining a little under the radar for a few years now. I'm almost expecting them to really hit it big any day now. Maybe it'll be today.

Video: Ume - "The Conductor" (music video)

12 am - Parlovr @ Horseshoe Tavern

Self-described "Sloppy Pop" trio Parlovr (pronounced "parlor") formed in Montreal, Quebec had may a splash on the Canadian music scene a few years ago and somehow I've yet to see them live. I should remedy that but not tonight - I have to work tomorrow unfortunately. Yes, I am wussin' out.

Video: Parlovr - Pen to the Paper (music video)

01 am - The Damn Choir @ Dakota Tavern

Chicago five-piece who are described as cello-laced folk-rock which these days applies to a number of bands. Where in that spectrum do The Damn Choir fall? Make up your own mind.

Video: The Damn Choir - "Noah" (music video)

The Radio Dept., Nightbox @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (May 29, 2011)

2011-06-12T23:04:00.006-04:00

The Radio Dept @ Horseshoe Tavern: photo by Michael Ligon

Update[June 15/2011, 12:06 am]: Review now up.

So it had only been February 7 of this year which marked the Toronto debut of Swedish shoegaze-y, indie-pop trio The Radio Dept. but that didn't stop them from booking a second Toronto show just 3 1/2 months after, this time taking place at the slightly cozier Horseshoe Tavern. The other big show that night was anthemic Scottish shoegaze pop outfit Glasvegas playing a sold-out show at Lee's Palace and since my plans were foiled in picking up an advance ticket to the show, I decided to go check out The Radio Dept. for a second time.

New local dance-rock outfit Nightbox opened the show attempting to drive the crowd into a frenzy and only half succeeding. Indeed there was a small yet enthusiastic number of people dancing but then there was also quite a number of others seemingly disinterested. Count me as somewhere in the middle. I appreciated the band's sensibilities and was reminded a bit of UK's Friendly Fires but for some reason I don't recall being intrigued by the songs live. Strangely, their recorded output(from the samples on their MySpace) displays a melodicism, plus an equitable melding of organic(guitar, drums, bass) and electronic(programming, synth) influences that I really dig. Off-night for me perhaps that prevented me from being open to something new, but I guess all I was wanting was my dose of The Radio Dept. Until the next time Nightbox.

I never got around to reviewing The Radio Dept's show at Lee's Palace back in February but if I did, much of what I would have said would have applied to the band's recent show at the Horseshoe Tavern on May 29. Dim lighting. Sparse musical setup. Void of any stage presence. But all that aside, with music as delectably melodic as the band's hazey, indie-pop tunes, it didn't much matter. Playing some of the same songs they played back in February at Lee's Palace such as "David", "Freddie and the Trojan Horse", and "The Worst Taste in Music" but also adding some different ones like the breezy "This Past Week" and the stunningly dreamy and my absolute favourite "Pulling Our Weight", the inclusion of the latter resulted in this show inching ahead as the better show over the February show at Lee's Palace, even if the sightlines at the Horsehose can be less than desirable [which was of no consequence to me since I was near the front]. While the Glasvegas show may have been the higher profile show that night, there was a near-capacity, if not sold out capacity for The Radio Dept at the Horseshoe. And so for the hour or however long it was, reflective of the dream-like quality of the band's music, the crowd was put into a dream-like state that Sunday night making the entrance to the work-week the next day just that much more bearable.

Photos: The Radio Dept., Nightbox @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (May 29, 2011)
MySpace: Nightbox
MySpace: The Radio Dept.

Anna Calvi, Cuckoo Chaos @ El Mocambo, Toronto (May 27, 2011)

2011-06-11T23:07:00.005-04:00

Anna Calvi @ El Mocambo: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [June 14/2011, 11:14 pm]: Review now up.

One of the more anticipated draws of this year's Canadian Musicfest this past March was suppose to have been UK artist Anna Calvi who was suppose to have played a hotly tipped showcase at Wrongbar but when she cancelled the show plus a string of others due to an unspecified injury I'm sure it some disappointed. Ever since then I'd not even got around to sampling her wares but still was somehow compelled(based purely on the buzz surrounding her) to purchase a ticket to her show at the El Mocambo which took place a several weeks ago. Although press on Ms. Calvi from the local media and blogs seemed to be at a low rumble leading up to the show, the packed house did indicate otherwise that Toronto fans (or at least a segment of them) were still intrigued to check out the Toronto debut of this ingenue.

San Diego five-piece Cuckoo Chaos had the task of opening the show and were overall semi-successful. Admirable but not entirely revelatory, a modern point of reference would be Vampire Weekend as Cuckoo Chaos display at times a similar afro-beat means indie sensibility, although with less smugness and a bit more volume. The band's west coast origins also appears to have rubbed off in their music with at least of an ounce of a surf vibe in the band's African-influenced guitar melodies. The band in actuality are probably more influenced by the Talking Heads (rather than the Heads-influenced Vampire Weekend) even recounting them gushing over David Byrne who happened to take in their show at the Bowery Ballroom a few nights before - although Cuckoo Chaos vocalist Jackson Milgaten grinninly pointed out that Mr. Bynre was very likely at the Bowery to check out Miss Calvi. Cuckoo Chaos further into their set displayed more straightforward punk tendencies on at least one song which seemed to come from left-field but did show the band's versatility.

It's seldom these days it seems that I come across a new artist that leaves me awestruck but Miss Calvi did just that. Anna came onto stage with her hair tied back and wearing black pant suit and heels displaying a visual resemblance that reminded me of German actress/singer Marlene Dietrich. Along with her was a drummer and multi-instrumentalist/percussionist to fill out the sound. Her bandmates aside, it was Calvi's vocals and electric guitar which were front and centre. Playing songs off her debut self-titled album out through Domino Records, there was a myriad of influences that seemed to infuse her songs ranging from a southern gothic, twangy, guitar sound to the torch-song quality that infused her vocals. And if I had to pick her musical peers it'd probably be PJ Harvey and Nick Cave.

The beginning of her set, such as on her song "No More Words" in particular, started out with whispered vocals, brittle guitar, and lightly tapped drums and percussion quite a subtle display which at the same time made it quite apparent to the crowd of the hard-rocking band playing on the second floor. But soon, Calvi would cut loose with her expressive vocals and brash guitar playing on songs like the adrenalin-rushed "Blackout" or the gender-role reversal, early PJ Harvey-sounding "I'll Be Your Man". It was songs such as these that the crowd gravitated the most. On the other hand I was quite taken by the quiter, less-harsh material such as the romantic, grand-sounding "First We Kiss" or Calvi's twangy, southern gothic rendering of Elvis Presley's "Surrender". Nary a word from Miss Calvi between songs, but it didn't matter anyway because she'd already grabbed a hold of our attention with her music. Her one-song encore, an urgent rendition of Edith Piaf's "Jezebel", practically bowled the crowd over, as Anna passsionately uttered "Jezebel" as the drums and guitar came to a stop-on-a-dime conclusion. Utterly wonderful show.

Photos: Anna Calvi, Cuckoo Chaos @ El Mocambo, Toronto (May 27, 2011)
MySpace: Cuckoo Chaos
MySpace: Anna Calvi

Austra, Trust, Army Girls @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (May 19, 2011)

2011-06-05T23:47:00.007-04:00

Austra @ Lee's Palace: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [June 9, 1:07 am]: Review now up.

Don't take my tardiness in posting this review as any sort of apathy towards local electro-diva Katie Stelmanis, these days fronting her new band Austra, who played a sold out record release show at Lee's Palace for their debut Domino Records full-length Feel It Break. On the contrary, that show was just further evidence that the hype that the music is indeed well-deserved. I was intrigued with Stelmanis' earlier work as a solo artist under her own name as well as her collaborations with drummer Maya Postepski, Stelmenis' prior works which could be described as classically-influenced keyboard arrangements accomapnied by her stark operatic vocals. Stelmanis maintains her identifiable vocal style with Austra but the music is indeed much more accessible, for all intent purpose pop songs that mix goth and dance influences into a truly infectious mix.

My procrastination cost me getting an advance ticket to the show and so I consider myself very fortunate to get into the show after lining up early before doors opened and eventually snagging one of only six available tickets at the door. Yay! The first opener wouldn't go on until about an hour later, which would be local guitar/drums duo Army Girls led by singer-songwriter Carmen Elle. They were an odd act to open given the electronic/beat-oriented acts that would follow. Carmen had a certain charisma with her empassioned pop vocals and strummed guitar playing and certainly has the potential, backed with her drummer, for greatness but honestly songwise I can't remember much at this juncture. Perhaps it was a veil of Austra excitement which blocked my focus during Army Girls' set. Better luck next time.

On the other hand, local electro-synth outfit, Trust, which featured Austra drummer Postepski doing double duty, made a fantastic impression. With Postepski's solid drumming and vocalist Robert Alfons slightly deadpan vocals, and with a third member adding some scintillating synth arrangements, Trust create dark yet most times danceable pop music. I wish they had had a different band name as I'd have probably have taken notice of the band sooner in the music listings and have already checked them up, but better late than never.

When I saw Austra live for the first time a few months ago during Canadian Musicfest, other than Stelmanis and Postepski, they were an unknown entity to me but I was intrigued enough by their description and the buzz surrounding them to give them a chance and they turned out to be my favourite set of the festival. That set was a perfect combination of the band creating an intoxicating, hypnotic sound and the audience reacting enthusiastically with undulating dance movements. It was intense. I'd hope those circumstances could be recreated again during their set at Lee's Palace a few weeks ago but it wasn't entirely achieved. There's no mistake that before and during the show, the crowd was excited. But the move to the larger Lee's Palace as compared to the much more intimate Wrongbar at which Austra performed at during Canadian Musicfest would definitely play a factor, at least in my mind. Stelmanis does not so much play to the audience as she gets lost in her own undulating body movements. It seemed like a select bunch at Lee's Palace who danced during the show whereas the crowd(well, at least the front crowd near the stage) at the Wrongbar show a few months ago were much, much more into it, my theory being that the eye-level experience of Stelmanis and her back-up vocalist-dancers hypnotic dance movements were reflected back to the audience much more effectively. The eye-level experience of seeing Austra at Wrongbar outdid their set at Lee's Palace, but only ever so slightly. The goth-vocal tinged, rhthymic "The Beat and The Pulse" may not be the best song on the band's debut full-length Feel It Break but arguably is the definitive song of the band, and in my mind was the best song of the nigh - sweeping vocals, trance-like beats - you will be converted and you will love it.

Photos: Austra, Trust, Army Girls @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (May 19, 2011)
MySpace: Army Girls
MySpace: Trust
MySpace: Austra

Death Cab For Cutie, The Lonely Forest @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto (May 18, 2011)

2011-06-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's Death Cab For Cutie

It's funny how long seven years can be. In the grand scheme of things, seven years isn't necessarily a long time. On the other hand, a lot can happen in seven years. I'm already nostalgic for 2004. Things were just a lot simpler back then (believe me it was). Musically, it was also somewhat of a renaisance period which for me culminated with my trip to Coachella that year where I latched onto bands (not necessarily new bands) that seemed to break out that year (or perhaps just prior to that year) such as Broken Social Scene and what is the topic of this post, Death Cab For Cutie. The Washington State indie four-piece had already released several indie albums, but broke out with their 2003 album Transatlanticism. A few years later they'd jump ship for the majors which brings us to the present as the band's third major-label album entitled Codes and Keys was just released and which brought the band to the Phoenix Concert Theatre a few weeks ago to promote the album with an intimate club show.

Lucky ticket-buyers were subjected to a will-call process to get into the venue, which while warding off scalpers, meant a lineup into the venue that snaked down Sherbourne even half an hour before doors opened which was when I arrived. But fortunately it was a mild spring day which made the waiting process more bearable. Finally making it into the venue, Anacortes, Washington quartet The Lonely Forest were already into their set warming up the fairly packed house. I'd have probably have been more into this band perhaps 7 years ago, their music in the vein of melodic emo pop-rock not entirely dissimilar at times to headliners Death Cab For Cutie. The band's musicianship and melodies was satisfying on one level but there was also something of generic quality that I couldn't get passed. Perhaps it's not such a good move to open up for Death Cab For Cutie if you sound a bit like them, just saying.

For a band who's worked their way up to scheduling their biggest show yet in Toronto on July 29 at the Molson Ampitheatre, you'd figure that an intimate club show would have the all-ages crowd at the Phoenix delirious. While the band entered onto the stage amidst a euphoric reponse, the crowd soon lulled into a passive state even though the band kicked off the set with fan favourites "I Will Possess Your Heart" and "The New Year". Honestly, from my vantage point from the middle of the room just past the drinking area barrier, the crowd seemed dead. The setlist, while including a number of songs from the new album (early on in the set including "Some Boys" and "Doors Unlocked and Open"), also included most if not all the fan favourites that I could think of. I think it wasn't until Ben Gibbard bantered to the audience that they'd play a lot of new songs and then quipped "This is like free jazz Death Cab...whatever happens happens" that the crowd finally warmed up with a chuckle.

Soonafter, with Ben on keys, the band broke into "What Sarah Said" with the crowd launching into singalong during the song's outro "who's gonna watch you die", a poignant closing to that song. With the band minus Ben leaving the stage, Ben polled the audience "This is fun right?" before leading into the other big audience singalong of the night of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark' with more than a few smartphones raised in unison to capture the video for posterity. Of the five or so new album songs played during the night, my favourite was "You Are A Tourist" with it's urgent tempo and sinewy, melodic guitar line. "Underneath The Sycamore" while less memorable was also enjoyable, at least within the group of the last part of the main set list which ended the main set on a high note. "Soul Meets Body", Twilight-soundtrack contribution "Meet Me At The Equinox", "Cath", "Crooked Teeth", "Sound of Settling" -- what more could any Death Cab fan asks for.

Well an encore for one, which the band gave to us with four songs, including some earlier catalogue tunes including "Photobooth" and "Your Bruise" but intermixed with Transatlanticism faves "Title and Registration" and the title track. When the band plays the Molson Ampitheatre in July it won't be the first time they've played a big stage - I did see them play the mainstage at the Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge Ampitheatre in Washington State in 2008 and the band just played that festival this past Memorial Day. While there wasn't as fervent a response from the crowd at the Phoenix as I'd hoped overall, the crowd did warm up and it turned out to be an enjoyable set. One can hope that their Molson Amp show will be life-changing for someone - I will attest that hearing "Transatlanticism" on a big stage amongst a sea of people and flickering lighters and illuminated mobile phone screens will virtually move you to tears.

ps. No photos for this show, except for the less-than-stellar cell phone photo above. I had a ticket for this show but not a photo pass. And I also just want to apologize for the lack of posts lately; general laziness on my part but I hope to get up reviews and photos for other shows I've attended lately including Austra, Anna Calvi, and The Radio Dept. Plus, of course, Luminato and NXNE is coming up. Stick around.

MySpace: The Lonely Forest
MySpace: Death Cab For Cutie

Zola Jesus, Cult of Youth @ Garrison, Toronto (April 20, 2011)

2011-04-26T23:22:00.010-04:00

Zola Jesus @ Garrison: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [May 2, 12:01 am]: Review now up.

Goth was a music subgenre that I could really never peg. The 80's had bands like The Cure, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and The Banshees, bands all musically divergent from each other, that I associated with that youth subculture of black-clad wearing Goths, that scary-looking group of kids that hung out at the back of the cafeteria. But even back then I in fact had a certain affinity to these bands even though I didn't dress the part. And now fast forward to the present, my interest in listening to The Cure and Siouxsie and The Banshees has been rekindled, I've rediscovered bands like This Mortal Coil who I never listened to much to begin with, and I've found my musical tastes leaning towards artists like UK's new-goth described Esben and The Witch and even Toronto's own Austra whose stark operartic vocals provide a certain goth aura over her supple electro beats. It was a double shot of goth-inspired fun that took over the Garrison for a midweek show on April 20.

Brooklyn four-piece, Cult of Youth, opened to a relatively thinner crowd earlier in the evening. With a heavy hand on bass, strummed acoustic guitar, primal drumming, baritoned vocals and the addition of violin for just a little bit of etherealness, the band's music did present itself with a dark tone reminding me a bit of Nick Cave. On their song, the southern-gothic sounding "New West", the band were particularly appealing. It was a short set overall, but gave enough reason to pick up one of the band's releases at the well-stocked merch table, if one so choosed.

Zola Jesus, the stage name of Russian American singer/songwriter Roza Danilova, has played Toronto several times and she seems to have a particularly affinity for the comfy surroundings of the Garrison. However, after this most recent sent, she may have to reconsider larger venues. It was difficult for me to gage how popular she is in Toronto but by the time she hit the stage, the back room of the Garrison seemed to be at just about capacity. With little stage lighting, and flanked by two keyboardists, a member responsible for electronics and programming, and one drummer, the petite vocalist sauntered gently onto the stage barefooted, wearing white leggings and cloaked in a orange Gregorian-monk inspired hooded garment. It was an austere entrance and for much of the set she remained like that. It was particularly frustrating at times that there was never a proper spotlight on her, the only lighting being the video projector that seemed to only illuminate the bottom half of her body but never her face, except when she crouched down a few times. Otherwise, the lack of lighting did add to the vibe of her dark, scintillating synth pop.

Zola Jesus' tunes straddled between atmospheric, synth soundscapes, and danceable, beat-laden electro pop, all tunes carried along Nika's stark, dramatic vocals. As I'd sampled on some of Zola Jesus' live clips on YouTube, Nika's vocals can sometimes be lost in the reverb-laden mix, as was the case at times during this set, but as the night went on, the sound mix seemed to clear up a bit. While Nika's presence on stage was usually austere and cloacked in darkness and light, on tunes such as "Night", amped up for this live set with more beats, Nika was in dance mode. The lack of banter during the show and interaction with the crowd [except for that one time that Nika jumped onto the floor to sing amongst the crowd before climbing back onto the stage] didn't seem to matter much with the crowd who were enjoying every bit of the set. The crowd cheered for an encore which we got for one song and then we clamored for a second encore, the outcome which ended up with Nika coming back onto the stage just to tell the crowd thank you very much(without playing another song), an odd move that left a few befuddled. But other than that somewhat awkward conclusion, it was a satisfying night overall. And not one vampire amongst the crowd - at least that I know of.

Photos: Zola Jesus, Cult of Youth @ Garrison, Toronto (April 20, 2011)
MySpace: Cult of Youth
MySpace: Zola Jesus

First Wave Of Acts For NxNE (June 13-10, 2011) Announced

2011-04-20T07:10:00.005-04:00

First wave of acts for this year's North By North East (NxNE) taking place June 13-19 in Toronto have been announced. Notable acts participating this year include Devo, The Pharcyde, Digable Planets, Twin Shadow, Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield(!!!!), Wild Nothing and so on. And Men Without Hats. This coming June, we will dance if we want to.

For passes and tickets, click here.

The Old 97's, Teddy Thompson @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (April 6, 2011)

2011-04-15T23:20:00.007-04:00

The Old 97's @ Horseshoe Tavern: photo by Michael Ligon

Update[April 18/2011, 12:31 am]: Review now up.

While I'd barely caught on to the No Depression movement during its first wave except for hearing Uncle Tupelo's song "Whisky Bottle" off a promo cassette including with an issue of Alternative Press [back when it was a good magazine], I really started digging the alt-country scene in the mid-to-late 1990's with bands like Wilco, The Jayhawks, and a little ol' band called The Old 97's. I remember coming across a used copy of the band's debut major label album (but 3rd studio effort) entitled Too Far To Care in a Cash Converters. I'm not sure exactly what it was that convinced me to pick it up but I was immediately blown away by it's raucaus lead-off track "Timebomb" and by melancholy tear-jerker country ballads like "Salome". It was 1997 since that album came out and while Wilco, and to a lesser extent The Jayhawks had gone on to greater popularity, The Old 97's remained in relative obscurity, eventually their major label deal with Elektra records ending three albums in with 2004's Drag It Up and the band recording with the LA-based New West Records ever since. A fellow concert-goer reminded me that it was strange how the band never went on to greater popularity if but on the lady-killer looks of it's frontman Rhett Miller. I don't recall how often the band have played Toronto but the last opportunity to catch a configuration of the band was back in November when The Old 97's Rhett Miller and Murry Hammond were scheduled to play the El Mocambo and it got cancelled, so rather than let another opportunity slip away, there I was at the band's show at the Horseshoe Tavern on April 6.

I arrived a little into opener Teddy Thompson's set. It was only after I started researching that I found out he was the son of musical couple Richard and Linda Thompson and with such a pedigree, you'd expect some musical talent, and Teddy does definitely have it. With a competent although rather unspectacular rhythm section accompanying him, they performed a selection of originals mixed in with a cover of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" illustrating Thompson's supple guitar playing and melodic vocals. Thompson's music, a mixture of country, folk, and jangly Byrds-influenced pop music, hits all the right notes in terms of authenticity and I found myself impressed with his songwriting but at the same time, it felt somewhat faceless, like I've heard it before. Already five albums into his career, his most recent being this year's Bella released this past February, Thompson continues to promote his musical wares, although ironically even part of Thompson's banter was a self-deprecating reference to his stalled musical career.

The Old 97's are vastly underappreciated in my opinion, but I fully expected a full-house for The Old 97's show at the Horseshoe a week and a half ago. As it turned out, there was a good loyal crowd on-hand but not the sell-out as I'd hoped. A mixed crowd of young-uns and older fans, the band consisting of Rhett Miller – lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Murry Hammond (bass guitar, occasional lead vocals, backup vocals, Ken Bethea (lead guitar) and Philip Peeples (drums and backup vocals) tore through a set including encore that lasted almost two hours by my count. The setlist included a bunch from their most recent album The Grand Theatre Volume One but with their indie album Wreck Your Life and their major label debut Too Far To Care getting multiple representation with some scattershot songs from a few of their albums plus a cover of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" also being included in the setlist.

Guitarist Ken Bethea and drummer Philip Peeples were the more energetic of the foursome, tearing ferociously at times through their guitar and drum arrangements, although frontman Rhett Miller was no slouch at the mic, often his arm in mini-windmill motion against his drum strings. Bassist Murry Hammond was the most laid-back of the bunch but when he took to the mic accompanying himself for a rendition of "Valentine" it was one of the finest moments of the night. The Too Far To Care songs seemed to be the most popular of the night so when approximately nine songs into the set twang-inflected "Barrier Reef" finally showed up, the crowd perked up.

My only criticism of the night was that overall, the crowd while appreciative, was just too mellow. So while crowd faves like "Doreen", "Four Leaf Clover", "Rollerskate Skinny", "Big Brown Eyes", and "Timebomb" were everything an Old 97's could have asked for, I wished the crowd showed more energy. Especially, during encore closer "Timebomb", I'd have hoped the crowd would have been ALL OVER THAT and have collapsed in a bucket of sweat, but it did not happen. Such a reaction, or lack thereof, I won't necessarily blame on a Toronto apathetic music audience but really more on old age. But, hey if Rolling Stone fans of the elder generation can still bust a move during their shows, why can't older Old 97's fans do the same?

Photos: The Old 97's, Teddy Thompson @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (April 6, 2011)
MySpace: Teddy Thompson
MySpace: The Old 97's

Cults, Magic Kids, Superhumanoids @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (April 4, 2011)

2011-04-09T19:59:00.002-04:00

Magic Kids: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [April 12/2011, 11:40 pm]: Sorry for the delay. Review is now up.

I didn't know exactly what sort of turnout to expect for the show at the Horseshoe Tavern last week on Monday night. Its headliners Cults, and middle act of the night Magic Kids have both had their own share of buzz and press, but I heard nary a peep about this show from the local press leading up to it. And with that night bringing some nasty weather, I thought that would have scared a few people away but in the end I was pleasantly surprised that at least by the time the second act of the night Magic Kids hit the stage, the 'Shoe had a healthy turnout.

The bands bookending the night(first openers Superhumanoids, and headliners Cults) were bands that soundtracked my last night of CMJ in New York City last October. Los Angeles four-piece Superhumanoids were the tightest band of the night in my opinion, and while they may have protypical melodic indie sound propelling their songs along with boy-girl vocals, guitar, bass and keys they do it well. They don't quite fall into dream-pop territory but there was a certain dreamy quality to their songs, mostly with the vocals of lone female member Sarah Chernoff and her keyboards, while the guitars(courtesy of male vocalist Cameron Parkins and the rhythm section(bassist Max St. John and drummer Evan Weinerman) had a bit more muscularity to even out things. It was a sparse crowd at this early point in the evening which is a shame that more people didn't catch them. Next time Toronto.

Memphis, Tennessee buzz band Magic Kids were up next and while headliners Cults were the band most people were there to see, there also seemed to be some palpable excitement for Magic Kids as well. The band's 2010 single, the Brian Wilson-influenced "Hey, Boy" was one of my favourite songs of last year and although I never really got around to listening to the rest of their debut-full-length Memphis, if the rest of the album was anything like that single, I'd expect it to be a good set. The quite young-looking outfit led by lanky frontman Bennett Foster dressed in ripped denim jeans, and slim denim jacket buttoned up and the rest of the band were dressed comfortably, with a certain hipster, geek-chic quality, The band ripped through a fun set of pop music, bowing to the alter of Brian Wilson melodically, with a lot of 'oohs' and 'aahs' in the vocals, melodic keyboard arrangements, ramshackle guitar and bass and overall played looser and more casual than I'd heard them on record. With two keyboards setup in the middle of the stage for later use in the set, main keyboardist Will McElroy was set up at stage left with violinist/vocalist Alice Buchanan beside him, with drummer Ben Bauermeister at the back of the stage, and frontman Bennett Foster, guitarist Alex Gates, and bassist Michael Peery taking up center to stage right. With Bennett, Alex and Michael lined up the right side of the stage together, it was an interesting configuration to see all three approach their mics at the same time to sing together. I've read the band described as a budget Beach Boys which is somewhat apt as although the band does possess a similar melodic sensibility, vocally and instrumentally they are a lot less precise. But they who says they were trying to be. Fun, fun, fun.

Somewhere along the lines between the first time New York group Cults played in Toronto last August at the Horseshoe and this show, the band has garnered a following. I'd already picked up on that when I saw them during CMJ last October, although part of the excitement in the crowd that time also had to do with they were a hometown band. But yes, Toronto has taken a liking to them. According to their Facebook page, Cults is offically the project of vocalist Madeline Follin and guitarist/vocalist Brian Oblivion, but as a touring act at least for this show were rounded out with a drummer, bassist and second guitarist. The band straddled between Motown-ish pop influences ("Go Outside", "Most Wanted") with a more blues-y, rock sound and wasn't afraid of a bit of reverb. The band(other than vocalist Follin) were perceivably and actually young but at least felt like a band and were up to the task as musicians. On the other hand, while vocalist Follin did impress with her strong vocal dexterity, her way-youthful appearance and wholesome stage presence formed a bit of a disconnect with the rock n' roll frontwoman presence she perhaps was trying to achieve. Vocally, FOllin excercised her vocal pipes with an abundance of melodic and blues-y tones, with the emotions that coincided visible in her facial expressions, but part of me also wished she'd cut loose physically in a fit of euphoric release a la Janis Joplin. Aside from such criticisms, it was a brief but enjoyable set and for the night overall, a more than satisfying indie triple-bill.

Photos: Cults, Magic Kids, Superhumanoids @ Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (April 4, 2011)
MySpace: Superhumanoids
MySpace: Magic Kids
MySpace: Cults

The Mountain Goats, Megafaun @ The Opera House, Toronto (April 3, 2011)

2011-04-05T22:49:00.013-04:00

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [April 8, 12:18 am]: Review now up.

The Mountain Goats of Claremont, California are a band I've been meaning to see live for some time. I'd discovered the band back in the mid to late nineties when I was big in to zines and mail-order indie releases and had ordered one of The Mountain Goats' earliest releases, their cassette only album "The Hound Chronicles". I say 'their' when actually back then it was only John Darnielle alone recording under The Mountain Goats moniker. Underneath its truly lo-fi recording aesthetics, I could hear the songwriting talent of Darnielle. I'd lost track of the band after that, all the while The Mountain Goats recording for a variety of indie labels until they made the big jump to 4AD in 2003. However, it wasn't until about five years ago that the band crept back in to my consciousness, and so I started picking up many of their releases, both pre-4AD and 4AD, casually listening to them but never fully grasping their greatness. It was the live show that I heard and read was the thing that could convert me, and with the Goats playing shows in Toronto at Lee's Palace both in 2006 and 2007, I had a few opportunities to see them but ended up bailing on / missing both. It's now 2011, and it was time to remedy that.

Despite the wickedly wet weather or maybe because of it, The Opera House was already near capacity when I arrived a little in to the set of Durham, North Carolina openers Megafaun. An amiable trio of fellas, brothers Brad and Phil Cook and fellow Eau Claire, Wisconsin native Joe Westerlund, their vocal harmony-laden, folk-rock singalongs, augmented with guitar, drums, and banjo at times, held the crowd's attention for he entirety of their set. This was no better illustrated than with the spare acoustic traditional-soundingn "Lord, Ease My Mind" which had the band simply singing and strumming acoustic guitar and guided along by simple handclaps which the crowd eventually joined in on.

From reviews I've read, The Mountain Goats last visit to Toronto in 2007 was as a duo consist of Darnielle and bassist Peter Pughes but for this most recent visit at The Opera House the band was no actually a band rounded out with drummer Jon Wurster (of Superchunk), and keyboardist Yuval Semo. The band was in town to promote the newest Mountain Goats album entiled All Eternal's Deck. Walking onto the stage with soundbites of "Hello, America" and heavy metal music playing through the speakers, the crowd was enraptured as if Darnielle was Elvis. The four members, dressed smartly in dark suits, the band wasted no time and lept into cleverly-titled new album track "Liza Forever Minnelli".

My unfamiliarity not only The Mountain Goats' newest album but with the catalogue in general made piecing together the set list difficult, but there I tried, jotting down lyrics and song-title guesses on my iPhone in between songs. Even post-show, trying to piece together the setlist by looking at the setlists from some of recent shows turned out to be unreliable as it soon became apparent that Darnielle was not content on playing the same setlist every night. Googling the lyrics I'd jotted down, my sleuthing revealed that while The Mountain Goats played at least a few songs off the new album, including "Liza Forever Minelli" and "For Charles Bronson", and playing fan favourites including "No Children" and "Southwood Plantation Road" from Talahassee and a variety of songs spanning other albums, it was 1995 album The Sunset Tree which seemed quite prominent, with the band playing at least six songs off that album.

In fact, it was The Sunset Tree songs which were the crowd faves and provided most of the show's most memorable moments. The crowd shouted out requests throughout the night and The Sunset Tree's "No Children" was called out multiple times and so the crowd was enamored when the band finally played it. The song "Broom People" was preceded by Darnielle's recounting of a girl name Marci(three years older than him) he dated when he was in high school who he tried to break up with by letter after meeting another girl. An audience member supportively yelled out "Marci Sucks" but Darnielle came back in her defense and said something like "Fuck You" and expressed that given his douche-bag action he thought he at least owed her a song. When the band finally ended the first encore with "This Year" joined onstage with openers Megafaun and the combined membership chanting the chorus "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me", I had a lump in my throat.

Darnielle falls in line with some of the best musical artist / storytellers / banterers I've experienced like Neko Case and Stephen Merritt, although Darnielle's quips and storytelling felt quite more spontaneous in my opinion. When Darnielle solo performed the opening four chords of new song "You Were Cool", a few audience members yelled out "woo", though Darnielle retorted that they wouldn't necessarily know what song he was playing. Ironically that songs lyrics started out "this is a song with the same four chords I use most of the time, when I've got something on my mind" a truly hilarous, self-deprecating comment if I ever heard one. In response to a random question from audience about why he wasn't wearing shoes, he asked the audience if they wanted to know the story then lept in to it anyway, mentioning it was practice by musical artist Amy Grant who did the same thing to be more comfortable on stage. When Darnielle and band came back from the end of the main set for an encore, Darnielle quipped about doing a Grateful Dead-like lengthy second set but then instead, and more realistically offered a six-song encore set as consolation. For a surprise 2nd encore, Darnielle returned to peform a cover of Franklin Bruno's "Houseguest". I've not much to add except to say that it was a spectacular evening and am looking forward to see Darnielle and company in the future.

Chromewaves and The Panic Manual both have reviews of the show. Mechanical Forest Sound has an MP3 live recording of "No Children" from the show.

Photos: The Mountain Goats, Megafaun @ The Opera House, Toronto (April 3, 2011)
MySpace: Megafaun
MySpace: The Mountain Goats

British Sea Power, A Classic Education @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (March 24, 2011)

2011-03-30T09:50:00.001-04:00

British Sea Power: photo by Michael Ligon

Not counting Canadian Musicfest, last week's British Sea Power show at Lee's Palace was just my second real concert of the year. Off to a slow start you might say, but quality over quantity, my friends. The last time British Sea Power played Toronto was in May 2008 when they played Lee's Palace in celebration of their then-new disc Do You Like Rock Music? and in the same fashion the band were again back in Toronto to promote their new record Valhalla Dancehall.

Openers for the night were a band from Bologna, Italy called A Classic Education. This was a band I'd seen briefly during CMJ in New York City this past October but even given my brief encouter with the band I'd already been impressed with the band's music. It was a real treat to see the band live again given how much I already liked them. A random patron shouted out "Welcome back to Canada" alluding to the fact that the band's vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Jonathan Clancy is from here - in fact, Clancy revealed this was their first time playing in Toronto, and he also mentioned that he used to go to school at a school on Lawrence Ave. The 5-member lineup in addition to Clancy on vocals/guitar included a girl on keyboards, and gentlemen on lead guitar, bass and drums. Given Clancy's Canadian roots, there is indeed something distinctly European about the band's approach to pop music - the band do possess a certain level of pop sophistication that I just don't hear in most North American indie acts. Clancy's swooning vocals and the band's lead guitarist melodic guitar lines are by far the best elements of the band's sound, but the songs themselves are indeed wonderfully crafted pop tunes, drenched in a bit of reverb and sounding every bit as classic as the word classic in their band name alludes to. Songs such as the summery "Gone To Sea" and especially "What My Life Could Have Been" are some of the most fantastic pop songs I've heard in recent memory, and on that alone I recommend them highly. To show a raunchier more playful side, the band also played a cover(L'il Red Riding Hood?) of a song by 1960's Tex-Mex rock 'n' roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Delightful.

As with every other visit to Toronto by British Sea Power, introducing them to the audience was Toronto resident, British ex-pat, and the terminably ageless Kayvon who in his hyper-kinetic talk rambling non-sensically, integrating references to the band's albums then introducing the band on to the stage. For this show, the band was less chaotic and whimiscal overall than on previous visits, but the band was as musically as satisfying as ever through a main set and even breaking tradition with no encore and playing not one, but two encores. Even with a new album to promote, there was quite an equitable representation of all the band's four albums (Valhalla Dancehall, Do You Like Rock Music?, Open Season, The Decline of British Sea Power) and also a smattering of songs from some of their EP's. For a Thursday night it was a healthy crowd, but given that Lee's Palace has been their resident venue every time they've come to Toronto, and that this show wasn't sold out, one wonders what's preventing them from reaching the next level. Musically their urgent, slightly orchestral pop-rock is as exhilirating as ever, and while some of the band's earlier material is a bit more eccentric, much of their more recent material is exciting yet accessible.

Breaking the tradition of no encores, the band played not one but two encores, the first encore including their stupendous single "Waving Flags" and the instrumental interlude "The Great Skua", plus a few others and then coming back surprisingly on the enthusiastic prompting of our host Kayvon to play the eccentric, garage-rock of "Apologies To Insect Life". During this last song lead singer Yan had picked up Kayvon and plopped him onto his shoulders for most of the song before dumping him into the front rows of the crowd on the floor. At this point even, other Wilkinson brother Hamilton (who Yan had mentioned had lost his voice) was even making attempts to do some back-up vocals. Multri-instrumentalist Phil Sumner was quietly impressive throughout the night playing a range of instruments including guitar, horns and keyboards while, drummer Wood and violinist Abi Fry provided consistently augmentation to the band's sound. Guitarist Hamilton was perhaps the most energetic onstage with his guitar playing and at the conclusion of the second encore, after the rest of the band left, fell over into the audience for a bit of body surfing. It was a great show overall that will hopefully increase the client's fanbase in Toronto and if that means playing a bigger venue, I will totally be okay with that. Really.

Photos: British Sea Power, A Classic Education @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (March 24, 2011)
MySpace: A Classic Education
MySpace: British Sea Power

Digits, The Einar Flaa Academy, Bonjay, The Zoobombs, The Peelies, Katie Goes To Tokyo, The Pack A.D. @ Canadian Musicfest, Toronto (March 12-13 2011)

2011-03-21T00:33:00.003-04:00

The Pack A.D.: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [March 26, 2011, 11:14 am]: Review now up.

Continuing on with the Canadian Musicfest coverage, I went full tilt on the Saturday night and even made it out to the Sunday night of the festival for a few shows. Digits is the stage name of Toronto's Alt Altman, a one-man electro-pop artist whose set I began Saturday night of Canadian Musicfest. An admirable effort at best, but unfortunately it didn't feel quite essential at least compared to other artists such as fellow Canadians Junior Boys who create music in a similar vein. Digits handled all duties himself - vocals, synth, programming duties and even a bit of bass and there were bright spots occassionally, especially in some of the programming, beats and synth arrangements but not enough overall to convert me wholeheartedly. But perhaps I was just turned off by a lack of visuals and stage presence, making it a bit of a boring experience. Surprisingly for an early set, the venue drew in a larger crowd than expected - not packed by an means, but nor did it remain empty as I thought it might be.

Next up, I jumped onto the Spadina south streetcar on my way to Global Village Backpackers Hostel down the street to catch Norweigan folk-pop band The Einar Flaa Academy. Named after the band's singer and songwriter, this live set was a stripped down acoustic performance with Einar Flaa on vocals and acoustic guitar sitting on a stool with Ole Marksten on vocals, sax and glockenspiel, and Monika May on vocals both also seated. The performance had very much a living room feel with the band set up within the hostel's sunken intimate bar area. As I understand Einar and Ole are full-time members of The Einar Flaa Academy but I think Monika May[a musical artist in her own right] was only a guest that night, but from the wonderful performance they gave, you'd have sworn that Ms. May was a full-time member. Monika's soulful vocals blended nicely with Einar's more folkish vocals and with Einar's acoustic guitar playing augmented by Ole's instrumental contributions with glockenspiel and saxophone it was an understated performance punctuated by well-written songs. Disappointly, it was a rather disinterested crowd on-hand it seemed(at the very least giving some polite applause), although I hope that didn't discourage the band from coming back to Canada.

My plans to see Nashville's Heavy Cream at Wrongbar were foiled, and not because I didn't get in to the venue, but because once I got in I found out the sets were running half an hour behind schedule. I caught the tail-end of The Pack A.D.'s set, chatted with Joe from Mechanical Sound Forest for a bit but then had to jet for the next band I hoped to see which was Toronto's Bonjay who were playing The Mod Club about a quarter after midnight. Indie rockers/hipsters beware but The Mod Club on a Saturday night is definitely a place you should NOT be - it's a Saturday night dance party featuring clubby music and not the good stuff it seems. At times, I just felt like I was in an episode of Jersey Shore. This would not bode well for Bonjay - it was the first time I'd heard the band live and I was totally digging their ragga / electro / r n' b 'ish tunes but except for a few select souls near the front, most of the crowd seemed disinterested or distracted. Bonjay's vocalist Alanna Stuart expressed a few times to the crowd that the crowd was too quiet but the crowd never seemed to really get into it like they should have. Alanna and the band(including producer Pho on synth as well as a live drummer) made a valiant effort, but the crowd plain sucked.

And so to end off the Saturday night of Canadian Musicfest, I took in a double shot of garage rock goodness, first with Japan's The Zoobombs at The Comfort Zone, and then with all-girl female quartet, Montreal's The Peelies playing at Silver Dollar. The Zoobombs, who I've seen during past visits to the city, are at this point beyond review, except to say they are just about the most rockin' band out of Japan ever, their mix of garage-y, r n'b rock, mixed with squelches of keyboard and sleazy guitar playing, is always a good time, kind of like experiencing a band who musically seem like a mixture between The Rolling Stones and Iggy and The Stooges. The Peelies brand of garage-y pop-rock was more subtle than The Zoobombs but was satisfying nonetheless, with the girls alternating vocals/instruments between songs, and performing from an amateurist angle but overall with a sense of fun and non-chalance.

Normally I'd have ended the festival on Saturday night but I couldn't resist in the end to catch Swedish band Katie Goes To Tokyo who were playing a set at Bread N' Circus. For a Sunday night there was actual a good turnout for them, although disappointedly everyone was seated although it was rather for comfort than intential disregard for the band as the crowd seemed to enjoy the set. The band were quite in the vein of fellow Swedes The Cardigans (well, mostly early Cardigans), with vocalist/songwriter Kathrine Bergström and her band(including keys, bass, drums, and guitar) playing a set of breezy, sunny pop songs songs like "Little Sister". Especially noteworthy, was that it was Toronto's own Carmen Elle on guitar who did a fantastic job on guitar with her sinewy, melodic guitar lines and on drums was Kathrine's album producer Mårten Tromm who also produced Canadian singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman and which led Workman to co-write a song with Kathrine entitled “Paper Moon”. Kathrine's most recent album My Naked Heart was recorded in Stockholm but mixed and mastered in Toronto, Canada. Small world.

Given that I was already downtown, I decided not to waste the opportunity to catch The Pack A.D. at the Horseshoe Tavern whose set the other night at Wrongbar I'd only caught the tailend of. It was a rockin' good time as the guitar/drums duo wailed through several blues-tinged garage rock. Like, The Zoobombs, and The Peelies the night before, old school rock n' roll will always have a place in this little heart o' mine. Rock n' roll is here to stay, and it will never die. And with that, another Canadian Musicfest in the books - see you next year.

Photos: Digits @ El Mocambo, Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 12 March 2011)
Photos: The Einar Flaa Academy @ Global Village Backpackers, Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 12 March 2011)
Photos: Bonjay @ The Mod Club, Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 12 March 2011)
Photos: The Zoobombs @ Comfort Zone, Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 12 March 2011)
Photos: The Peelies @ Silver Dollar, Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 12 March 2011)
Photos: Katie Goes To Tokyo @ Bread n' Circus, Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 13 March 2011)
Photos: The Pack A.D. @ Horseshoe Tavern Toronto (part of Canadian Musicfest, 13 March 2011)

MySpace: Digits
MySpace: The Einar Flaa Academy
MySpace: Bonjay
MySpace: The Zoobombs
MySpace: The Peelies
MySpace: Katie Goes To Tokyo
MySpace: The Pack A.D.

Karkwa, Esben and the Witch @ Canadian Musicfest, Toronto (March 11, 2011)

2011-03-18T23:43:00.006-04:00

Esben and the Witch: photo by Michael Ligon

I guess a Polaris Music Prize win doesn't guarantee a lineup down the block for a band's Canadian Musicfest set that's in a relatively intimate venue, well at least if your Montreal Francophone act Karkwa. I generally didn't line up all that long arriving about half an hour before their scheduled set time and when I got in I found the venue to be have ample elbow room amongst those already inside. Members of the band had actually sauntered past us in line as they arrove and entered the venue through the front door with the person behind me in line saying in jest to Karkwa's drummer as he walked past something along the lines of "thanks for showing up". The humour was somewhat lost on the drummer before he realized the guy was making a joke. Except for the exquisite French-pop of their song "Oublie Pas" which I'd heard on the soundtrack of a Francophone film(whose title escapes me) I wasn't at all familiar with the band's music. A person in the audience I introduced myself too, who happened to work for chartattack, upon me asking her what the band's music was like described them as band who some have described as a French Radiohead. And after hearing Karkwa perform, they didn't really remind me of Radiohead at all - Karkwa were far more conventional when compared to Radiohead's current experimental-sounding output and Karkwa didn't sound at all like old Radiohead in my opinion. However, like Radiohead, I guess Karkwa do possess a certain amount of dramatic tension within their pop-rock tunes. The level of musicianship in the band was exemplary with vocalist/guitarist Louis-Jean Cormier and his band which included two drummers/drumkits, a bassist, and a keyboardist equipped with an arsenal of keyboards. And so while the band defintely has chops, I felt a disconnect overall which had not even so much to do with the fact I don't understand French. It was a good set overall, though not the great set I'd hope would prove to me why they won the Polaris Music Prize.

Similarly, UK's trio Esben and the Witch were a generally unknown entity with a lot to prove given all the buzz they've been garnered by the music press. Word is that when the band opened for Foals at Lee's Palace last September, they'd put on a good show. I'd only sampled a bit of their music prior to their show, and it's funny how a came to describe them in my mind as new-goth even before I read a lick of press on them which bandied around the term 'goth' ad nauseum. There was a tangible excitement for the young trio as they took the stage, the band composed of guitarist/keyboardist Thomas Fisher, electronics/guitarist Daniel Copeman, and vocalist/percussionist Rachael Davies. The band concocted an intoxicating mix of stark vocals, dark pop atmospherics, threatening guitar attacks and primal / electronic beats that had the crowd intrigued for the hour and a half or so they'd played. The band's admitted in interview that while everyone likes to describe them as goth(bands like Bauhaus, This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins), it was only after they were compared to them that the band discovered these bands. One wonders where the band did then get their influences, but if it is from within, it is one deep dark place. Intriguing. The band's Matador Records-released debut Violet Cries is out now.

Photos: Karkwa @ Wrongbar, Toronto as part Canadian Musicfest (March 11, 2011)
Photos: Esben and the Witch @ Wrongbar, Toronto as part Canadian Musicfest (March 11, 2011)
MySpace: Karkwa
MySpace: Esben and the Witch

Brian Borcherdt, Austra, Butterfly Explosion @ Canadian Musicfest, Toronto (March 10, 2011)

2011-03-17T23:50:00.008-04:00

Austra @ Wrongbar: photo by Michael Ligon

It's no wonder that I only saw two bands for my second night(on March 11) of Canadian Musicfest as my first night consisted of 6 bands in total, the first three which I reviewed a few days ago. Let's waste no time and continue onward.

Next up for the midnight-and-onward festivities was Brian Borcherdt at The Garrison. Borcherdt is better known in most circles as the frontman of sound/beat manipulators Holy Fuck, but his work as a singer-songwriter was very much an unknown entity for me, although perhaps that unknown given the decent sized crowd that came out for his midnight set. With a forlorness in his vocals, Borcherdt performed an entertaining set of folk / alt-country tinged tunes, accompanying himself on electric guitar. Borcherdt began the set solo but then shortly into the set was joined by a burly gent on violin before he was replaced and joined by a bespectacled indie rock dude on drums. It was particularly disappointing that half the crowd seemed uninterested, chatting non-chalantly the whole time. In any case, it didn't seem to phase Borcherdt one bit and there was at least a few of us that enjoyed the set immensely. So what's next for Borcherdt? A combination of his beat-terrorism and his singer-songwriter mode perhaps? Now that'd be interesting.

From the Garrison, it was back down to Queen St for me and west towards Wrongbar where Toronto's Austra were set to perform. I'd picked up on the fact that Austra was Katie Stelmanis' new project. I'd previously been familiar with Stelmanis' music which combined her stark, dramatic vocals within a post-punk musical framework. There was a good-sized crowd in the venue and a tangible excitement in the air, and Stelmanis and company did not disappoint. Flanked by two dancers/back-up vocalist, a drummer, keyboardist, and a bassist, Stelmanis and company invigorated the crowd with a voluptuous set of electro-synth dance tunes. As a singer, Stelmanis retains her stark, dramatic vocals and against the supple drum beats and synth arrangements I was reminded a bit of Bat For Lashes although less devoted to Kate Bush influences and sounding more clubby. This is defintely music you can dance to, but it was the band's sultry combination of vocals and beats that was almost hypnotic, displayed in Stelmanis and her backup vocalists'/dancers' whose wavy body moments seemed to absorb and reflect every beat. For the crowd at the front of the stage at least, the urge to dance was undeniable, all flailing arms and booty-shaking. I cannot wait to see this band again. Undeniably the best set of this year's Canadian Musicfest, in my opinion. The band's debut album, Feel It Break, featuring drummer Maya Postepski and bassist Dorian Wolf is set to be released this coming May through Paper Bag Records.

Ending off the night for me with a 2 am set start time(and thankfully I had the day off work the next day) was Irish shoegaze act Butterfly Explosion. This wasn't the first time the Dublin band had crossed through town, having come to Toronto for some show or two back in April 2007 has documented by Chromewaves. My interest had been piqued back then but for a reason that escapes me, I didn't end up seeing them live. So with this 2 am set there one and only appearance at this year's Canadian Musicfest, I decided to check 'em out, and defer my comfy bed for another few hours. As shoegaze bands go, they weren't as transcendent as say My Bloody Valentine but they were no mere slouches either. In addition to shoegaze, the band was also partially indebted to their post-rock and dream-pop influences. The five-piece featuring Gazz Carr (Guitar, Vocals), John Coman (Drums), Conor Garry (Bass), Jay Carty (Guitar), and Aine McGrath (Keys, Vocals) thanked the crowd for coming out at the late time, then proceeded with a set of varying shades of shoegaze-influenced rock n' roll. While I recall the start of the set being a bit mundane(mostly due to the vocals), the band seemed to get better with every tune, varying their tempo, rhythmic assault, guitar heaviness, and keys accompanient from tune to tune. If anything, the lead vocals seemed to be the weakest element, and perhaps recognizing that maybe that was why much of the set seemd to be instrumental. There was however a tune where Gazz and keyboardist Aine both sang a bit more equitably on which made a strong case for the band to have more songs like that. There wasn't a particularly large crowd on hand, which seemed to get thinner as the hour drew later, and for what few remained, they seemed less interested in the band than in grabbing a last drink, but hey it was close to 3 am and I was ready to call it a night.

Photos: Brian Borcherdt @ The Garrison, Toronto, Canadian Musicfest (March 10, 2011)
Photos: Austra @ Wrongbar, Toronto, Canadian Musicfest (March 10, 2011)
Photos: Butterfly Explosion @ The Hideout, Toronto, Canadian Musicfest (March 10, 2011)
MySpace: Brian Borcherdt
MySpace: Austra
MySpace: Butterfly Explosion

Memoryhouse, Young Empires, Prussia @ Canadian Musicfest, Toronto (March 10, 2011)

2011-03-15T23:29:00.001-04:00

Memoryhouse: photo by Michael Ligon

Anticipating that The Great Hall might get busy for recently-signed Sub Pop signees' Guelph's Memoryhouse who were playing later in the night, I decided to kick off my Canadian Musicfest early at the venue to check out the opening acts. The venue's lineup for the night was part of The Windish Agency showcase. Detroit's Prussia kicked off the night to a sparse crowd and I didn't have much expectations by the non-descript looking five-piece but I did warm up a bit to the band's skewed indie pop. Lanking vocalist Ryan Spencer's vocals reminded me of a mix of Talking Heads' David Byrne and Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug and if that latter band's recent hiatus was a disappointment to you, Prussia's jaunty eclecticism will perhaps be right up your alley. As sparse as the crowd was, they were generally appreciative of the band's efforts. Or perhaps just of Spencer's contortive dance movements.

For a band who I'd tagged as having one of the best singles of last year I was a bit disappointed with my first experience seeing Toronto dance-rock trio Young Empires when I saw them play Steamwhistle Brewery this past December - they had much energy, and played off the crowd well, but most vocally, sort of lost track that night. In a turnabout, for their Canadian Musicfest set last week, it was the energy of the crowd that was sorely lacking while, vocally and musically they were much more on point. Adept at carving out tunes through a combination of programmed beats and samples with vibrant guitar, bass and vocals, songs like the Ibiza-fueled rhythms of "Rain of Gold" which reminded me of Technique-era New Order, to soaring set-closer indie tune "White Doves" showed Young Empires to be a multi-faceted band, as interested in singing songs as making us dance. It's just too bad that the crowd didn't break out into an all-out dance party. Chalk another one up to Toronto apathy.

Guelph's Memoryhouse will likely draw comparison's to other Sub Pop "-house" band Beach House, both bands music having a dreamy, melodic quality to it, but Memoryhouse seem even more devoted to that direction, to the pointing of seeming like they'd float off into the stratosphere. Reminiscient of bands like Slowdive and a bit of Cocteau Twins, Memoryhouse's set, while what lacked in general stage presence, was a dream-pop lover's wet dream musically. Having expanded from a duo to a four-piece for this show, the band played most competently. Ringing guitars, subtle keys, bass and drums, and angelic vocals and a good arsenal of tunes drove the short but sweet set but when the band upped-up the tempo ever so slightly on "Heirloom" while still maintaining all the other qualities that make them who they are, Memoryhouse really hit the mark. For the music they play, I don't ever expect them to have much stage presence (although banter, perhaps could help a bit), but I'd hope they'd considering augment their live set with some visual lighting or projections in the future. I do somehow find vocalist Denise Nouvion every bit enchanting because of her dreamy vocals AND despite the fact that all she did was gaze into the audience, or look down to her keyboards the whole time.

Photos: Memoryhouse, Young Empires, Prussia @ Canadian Musicfest, Toronto (March 10, 2011)
MySpace: Prussia
MySpace: Young Empires
MySpace: Memoryhouse

2011 Canadian Musicfest Picks (March 12, 2011)

2011-03-12T19:04:00.002-05:00

Bonjay

So what will it be tonight for Canadian Musicfest. The garage-punk showcase at Wrongbar looks strong and entertaining - I'll vouch for the 3/4 female Nashville punk outfit Heavy Cream who I saw during CMJ in New York City this past October - crazy, cool vocalist. And Vancouver garage-blues duo The Pack A.D. are also fun to experience. I have a feeling this venue'll be crazy busy. Japan's The Zoobombs always put on a fantastic rock n' roll show and they'll be at The Comfort Zone at 1 am. The music selection that appeals to my tastes are somewhat thin tonight - I don't have that many options for each of the times slots and I just realized I don't even have a 9 pm selection. What I'm almost positive is that I'll be heading to The Mod Club to check out the electro / dancehall / r n'b stylings of Toronto's Bonjay. I only saw two bands yesterday - Montreal's Karkwa and buzzy UK trio Esben and The Witch at Wrongbar, and then ended the night early only because I needed to crash - and I feel like I need to make up for that tonight. Let's do this.

8:00 Alcoholic Faith Mission @ El Mocambo (downstairs)

@ Wrongbar
10:00 The Pack A.D.
11:00 Heavy Cream
12:00 Ty Segall
1:00 Teenanger
2:00 The White Wires

10:00 The Einar Flaa Academy @ Global Village Backpackers

10:00 The Balconies @ Lee's Palace

@ Horseshoe Tavern
10:30 Parlovr
1:30 Rah Rah

@ Silver Dollar
11:00 Neon Windbreaker
12:00 Shortpants Romance
2:00 The Peelies

@ Painted lady
11:00 Kill Krinkle Club
1:00 White White Sisters

@ Rivoli
12:00 The Golden Dogs @ Rivoli
2:00 Fever Fever @ Rivoli

12:00 The Treasures @ The Dakota Tavern

12:00 Terra Lightfoot @ Czehoski

@ Mod Club
12:15 Bonjay
2:30 DVAS

1:00 The Zoobombs @ Comfort Zone

1:00 Kidstreet @ El Mocambo (downstairs)

2011 Canadian Musicfest Picks (March 11, 2011)

2011-03-11T19:54:00.002-05:00

Esben and the Witch

I'm so much more uncertain about what to check out tonight during Canadian Musicfest. My first choice would be the J Mascis / Kurt Vile and the Violators / James Vincent McMorrow show at The Great Hall but with it being listed as allowing "Limited wristbands/passes accepted", I don't feel like gambling trying to get into that show. And I don't feel like getting there super early to line up - perhaps if it were June. The remainder of the night is a mixture of the familiar, the acquainted with and other curiosities. The music genres encompassed by the lineup of bands below range from indie folk, indie rock, post-rock, electro-pop, alt-country and so on but above all these bands have intrigued me. My top pick of the night is UK band, Matador Records artist Esben and The Witch who exude a dark, austere atmosphere. Should I classify this has perhaps new-goth? They're definitely intriguing.

@ Drake Underground
8:00 Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
9:00 Adam and the Amethysts
12:00 Holger

@ Comfort Zone
8:00 Halves
9:00 Tennis System
10:00 Hotkid
11:00 The Wilderness
12:00 Powers
1:00 Foxfire

@ Sneaky Dee's
8:00 Nash
9:00 Christien Summers
11:00 Allie Hughes
1:00 The Meligrove Band
2:00 Make Your Exit
3:00 DVAS

8:45 Maylee Todd & Pegwee Power @ Revival

@ Supermarket
9:00 Rebekah Higgs
10:00 Lindi Ortega
10:30 The Treasures
1:00 Maylee Todd & Pegwee Power

@ The Dakota Tavern
9:00 Rob Moir
12:00 Alcoholic Faith Mission
1:00 Racoon Bandit

@ Underground Garage (365 King St West)
9:45 Kill Krinkle Club
10:30 windings

@ Lee's Palace
10:00 The Jezabels
11:00 Dinosaur Bones
12:00 Bombay Bicycle Club
1:00 Parlovr

@ Wrongbar
10:00 Karkwa
11:00 Esben and the Witch
1:00 Bok Bok
2:00 Kingdom

@ Horseshoe Tavern
10:20 Hooded Fang
12:20 Cuff The Duke

10:00 The Pack A.D. @ Bovine Sex Club

10:00 Aidan Knight @ Rivoli

10:00 Holger @ Painted Lady

11:00 Katie Goes To Tokyo @ Mitzi's Sister

2:00 The Lines @ The Hideout

2011 Canadian Musicfest Picks (March 9-10, 2011)

2011-03-08T23:50:00.002-05:00

Memoryhouse: photo by Edward Bishop

This year's Canadian Musicfest (as part of the annual Canadian Music Week music industry conference) is about to kick off officially tomorrow night in venues across Toronto. The whole schedule is up here. Tomorrow night will have a number of venues hosting showcases although Canadian Musicfest really kicks into high gear on Thursday night. Check out my picks below [note: the band/artist names are hyperlinked to their respective MySpace sites]:

WEDNESDAY MARCH 9, 2011

After a perusal of Wednesday night's schedule, I found I wasn't intrigued by very much unfortunately. I'm non-committal about this night in general but if I do go out, I may check out some of the acts below.

9:00 Lordy Lordy @ Rancho Relaxo

11:00 Snowblink @ Painted Lady

11:30 Gentleman Reg @ Gladstone Hotel

1:00 Sacred Animals @ Painted Lady

THURSDAY MARCH 10, 2011

I fortunately have the day off work on Friday so if I feel motivated to hit Canadian Musicfest hard on Thursday night, I just may do so. This night in general is a much harder night for me to pin down a schedule because of all the time slot conflicts. Rather than a strict sequential listing of picks below for each time slot, I chose to group some picks by venue which gives a clearer picture of the option of hunkering down in one venue for part or all of the night (see especially my The Opera House, Wrongbar, Silver Dollar and The Great Hall picks below). Memoryhouse are my top choice of the night. Maybe I'll just head to The Great Hall early.

@ Sonic Boom
6:00 - The Balconies
7:00 - Dinosaur Bones
8:00 - The Most Serene Republic

8:30 Modern Superstitions @ Horseshoe Tavern

@ Lee's Palace
8:30 The Wilderness of Manitoba
9:30 Miracle Fortress
11:30 Young Galaxy

@ The Opera House
8:30 Little Scream
9:30 Isis (of Thunderheist)
10:30 Cadence Weapon
12:30 Land of Talk

@ Wrongbar
9:00 Valleys
11:00 Little Girls
12:00 Metz
1:00 Austra
2:00 Monolithium

@ Silver Dollar
9:00 Grounders
10:00 Heartbeat Hotel
12:00 The Russian Futurists
1:00 Silly Kissers

@ The Great Hall
10:00 Young Empires
10:45 Memoryhouse
11:45 Yukon Blonde

@ The Garrison
10:00 Actual Water
12:00 Brian Borcherdt

@ Smiling Buddha
10:00 Orangegrass
11:00 Sugar Plum Ferry

10:00 The R.G. Morrison @ Bread n' Circus

10:00 Kalle Mattson @ Mitzi's Sister

11:00 Chateau Marmont @ Drake Underground

11:00 Bloodgroup @ Rancho Relaxo

@ Clinton's
11:30 Idiotape
12:30 Vidulgi OoyoO
1:30 Mathemagic

@ The Hideout
12:00 Halves
2:00 The Butterfly Explosion

The Dears @ Sonic Boom, Toronto (February 17, 2011)

2011-02-24T23:18:00.008-05:00

In celebration of their most recent full-length Degeneration Street, and touted as a comeback of sorts, The Dears played an entertaining instore set in the basement of Sonic Boom last Thursday night. With founding members and husband and wife, Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak, welcoming back into the fold were keyboardist/guitarist Rob Benvie, guitarist Patrick Kief, bassist Roberto Arquilla (who'd been in an early incarnation of the band prior to 2001), and current drummer Jeff Luciani. The band was in good spirits, especially vocalist Lightburn dressed in all black including his nerd-chic eyeglass frames. Acting like a loveable goof, Lightburn exclaimed "aww snap" when just before the band was to start Benvie was experiencing technical difficulties with his keyboards. Later Lightburn would call out Pitchfork on their recent 2.4 rating of the band's new album, then jokingly exclaimed to the audience that they're still 'indie-rock'. The band played four songs from the new album, stripping away some of orchestral/athemic qualities of their past work and the dourness of their previous album Missiles for a more upbeat direct approach. Don't get me wrong - they still sound like The Dears, Murray still sings with a certain Morrissey-inflection, and the music still has an Anglophilic feel, but the new songs I'd heard thankfully were more direct and weren't mired in cacaphonic wankery. The band ended the short but sweet set with an invigorating version of "Hate Then Love" from their album Gang of Losers.

NOW Magazine has a a clip of The Dears from the Sonic Boom instore.

blog.HaterHigh.com has a review of the show plus audio of the whole Sonic Boom instore set available for download.

Photos: The Dears @ Sonic Boom, Toronto (February 17, 2011)
MySpace: The Dears

The Radio Dept., Young Prisms @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (February 7, 2011)

2011-02-09T21:53:00.003-05:00

The Radio Dept. @ Lee's Palace: photo by Michael Ligon

Review to come.

In the meantime, Exclaim, Chromewaves, and The Panic Manual have reviews of the show.

Photos: The Radio Dept., Young Prisms @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (February 7, 2011)
MySpace: Young Prisms
MySpace: The Radio Dept.

Preview --- The Radio Dept., Young Prisms at Lee's Palace tomorrow night

2011-02-06T23:44:00.001-05:00

One of the most anticipated shows of the year hits Lee's Palace tomorrow night with Swedish dream-pop purveyors The Radio Dept. with what I believe will be their debut Toronto, if not Canadian, gig. Now three albums deep into their career, their most recent being last year's Clinging To A Scheme, and having recently released a restrospective collection entitled Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010, the band have quietly built a small yet fervent following, that around these parts has culminated in a sold out show at Lee's Palace tomorrow night. My favourite song by them is one of their contributions to the 2006 period - piece - with - a - post - punk - soundtrack film "Marie Antoinette":

The Radio Dept. - "Pulling Our Weight"

Do yourself a favour and show up early for openers Young Prisms all the way from San Francisco. I saw this young female-fronted five-member shoegaze outfit this past October in NYC during the CMJ festival. The band were adept in creating a hazy, guitar-drenched, melodic racket and will be a fitting opener tomorrow night. The band have been building a name for themselves since the late 2000's with a series of small releases [split cassettes, CD EP, 12 ", split 7" singles] and recently released their debut full-length last month entitled Friends For Now through Williamsburg, Brooklyn indie label Kanine Records. Check out a sampling of the band with the music video below, and some other media after that:

Young Prisms - "These Daze"

Video: Young Prisms - "Breathless" @ SMMR BMMR 8/14/10
MP3: Young Prisms - "Sugar"
MP3: Young Prisms - "Weekends and Treehouses"

If you didn't get tickets to tomorrow's sold out show at Lee's Palace, you can try catching Young Prisms earlier in the day when they play an instore at Sonic Boom at 4 pm or when they come back to town on April 21 when they play Parts & Labour with The Fresh & Onlys. Via Chromewaves.

Natural's Not In It --- Gang of Four in town this Friday; new disc "Content" just released

2011-02-02T23:32:00.013-05:00

Gang of Four (photo via)

The Toronto Star, chartattack, The Toronto Sun, Eye Weekly, and Spinner all have pieces on seminal post-punk outfit Gang of Four who play a show in Toronto at the Phoenix this Friday and are promoting their recently released new disc Content. They were a band that I'd caught on to about 5-7 years ago(or perhaps more) when I randomly found a copy of their Peel Sessions release, then found that the public library system in Mississauga had a copy of their retrospective collection 100 Flowers Bloom: Anthology. Over time, as luck would have it, I'd collect their albums on vinyl including a near mint copy of their debut Entertainment which I found at a local Goodwill for $2. But my interest was further piqued when the band reissued their debut album on CD in 2005, as well as the band's inclusion (with their song "Natural's Not In It") on the soundtrack of the 2006 Sophia Coppolla-directed film "Marie Antoinette". Most recently a segment of the band's song "Natural's Not In It" can be heard in of all things, a television ad for Xbox Kinect.

For the price of an e-mail , you can download the track “You’ll Never Pay For The Farm” from the new album Content - head over to the band's website.

Rural Alberta Advantage talk with AUX.TV. Watch the band's recent music video for their song "Stamp" from their upcoming new album Departing, out March 1, 2011 on Saddle Creek.

Toronto electro-rock trio Young Empires have announced they will be playing the Canadian Music Fest showcase, along with Yukon Blonde, at The Great Hall on March 10.

The pyschedelic-looking new music video from UK outfit The Go! Team is cool, but the song entitled "Buy Nothing Day", with vocals from Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, is pure pop terrificness. Best Coast are in town for a show at the Phoenix this Sunday February 6 with openers Wavves, and No Joy. The Go! Team play The Opera House in Toronto on April 10; the band's new disc Rolling Blackouts came out February 1.

Have been meaning to check out Toronto outfit Bonjay live and a probably have to skip their upcoming instore at Soundscapes on February 12(at 7 pm) since their Facebook Event Page says it's gonna be a short performance, but that doesn't mean you have to skip it. One of these days.

The Journal interviews Julie Doiron. She's at the Horseshoe tomorrow night for a show.

So long to The White Stripes.

The Pixies will be touring Canada in suppport of the 20th Anniversary of "Doolittle"

2011-01-20T13:04:00.003-05:00

photo via The Coast

The Pixies are on there way to Canada in support of a tour for the 20th anniversary of their classic album Doolittle(via AUX.TV) They'll be going from coast to coast, and will be playing several dates around the Golden Horseshoe including April 17 in Kitchener at The Center in the Square, April 18 at Massey Hall in Toronto, and April 20 in Hamilton at Wentworth Room. Who's excited? I imagine this will sell out in minutes. Be half-prepared to be disappointed.

Coachella 2011 Rumblings

2011-01-18T23:26:00.009-05:00

photo via College Humor

It's not the entire lineup for Coachella that's been released yet, but sources have confirmed to Billboard that The Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons and PJ Harvey are booked for this year's festival. Other rumored acts include Crystal Castles [who do have a bunch of North America dates leading up to Coachella including a stop in Toronto at Sound Academy on April 2], Cut Copy[who just confirmed some North American dates including a stop in Toronto at Sound Academy on April 7], as well as The Strokes, Duran Duran, OMD[who recently confirmed a date in Toronto at the Phoenix on March 5] and Gary Numan. If you head on over to the Coachella website right now, they're featuring a music video of an artist called Monarchy, and according to Billboard the site has been featuring music bands/artists all week including Trentemoller, Lightning Bolt, Phantogram, and Fanfarlo, all artists presumed to be playing this year's festival. Consequence of Sound has been weighing the odds of a number of different acts playing this year's festival - worth checking out because CoS provides links to evidence to support the expectations/rumours [although some of the evidence links are no longer valid unfortunately]. I keep saying I want to go back to Coachella - my one and only time was in 2004 - but I'm also pondering a return trip to the Primavera Festival(whose lineup is already shaping up nicely) in Barcelona this year as a few music blogger friends of mine are also going. Let's see how this Coachella lineup rounds out before I make any decisions.

Update[January 19, 2011]: Coachella just HAD to announce the lineup for this year's festival just after I put up this blog post yesterday evening, rendering it somewhat redundant. Check out the full-lineup or check out the official poster. There's alot of highlight and alot of buzz bands, some unknown entities, but overall looks like a pretty good fest. I know they're big, and I don't hate them, but c'mon why does King of Leon have to close the first night? And to point out the Canadian contingent they include, Crystal Castles, Rural Alberta Advantage, The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, a reunited Death From Above 1979, Chromeo, City and Colour, and Gord Downie - anyone else I have forgotten?

PJ Harvey "The Words That Maketh Murder" / "The Last Living Rose" (music videos)

2011-01-17T22:15:00.002-05:00

The new video for PJ Harvey's song "The Words That Maketh Murder" made it's way online last week. Her last album 2007's piano-based, stark White Chalk was the biggest musical departure yet for PJ Harvey whose music had previously been quite entrenched in a raw, sort of punk aesthetic, but by the likes of this newest song from her upcoming new album Let England Shake (out February 14 in the UK and February 15 in the US) shows a folkier side, with a hint of perhaps an Appalachian Folk influence, melded with a more conventional rock rhythm section. The more I listen to it, the more it's growing on me:

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder

Uploaded by spektorholic (via Pitchfork)

According to info at NPR, this 'film' directed by Seamus Murphy is one of a series of 12 shorts to accompany the 12 songs that make up PJ Harvey's forthcoming album, Let England Shake.

And somehow I missed the first Seamus Murphy directed short film released last month for PJ Harvey's "The Last Living Rose", a song also from the upcoming new album. Musically, it sounds more like PJ Harvey - uncomplicated drum arrangement, stark vocals, simple guitar melodies, - oh and a bit of saxophone? Great song:

PJ Harvey - The Last Living Rose

Glasvegas "The Word Is Yours"

2011-01-16T12:15:00.005-05:00

Unfortunate to me and everyone else outside of Europe, but the new Glasvegas singe "The World Is Yours" is available for free download today only for those in Europe. So for the moment get your stream on and listen to the track below. The new album is entitled EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ and according to NME is set for release this spring:

Or listen to the track below via SoundCloud:

For smart phone users - go to Soundcloud directly to stream the track which, at least for me, is compatible with my iPhone.

The band's only headlining date around these parts was in April 2009 for a foundation-shaking performance at The Mod Club - I think they also opened for Kings of Leon after that - and it's been far too long since I've seen them.

The Concretes, All Day

2011-01-15T15:08:00.001-05:00

Since Lisa Milberg took over lead vocals for Swedish pop outfit The Concretes in 2006 (when original lead vocalist Victoria Bergsman left to devote her time to her own solo project, Taken By Trees), she's taken vocal duties towards a slightly more sultry direction, the music also following suit IMO as illustrated by a few of the songs below (off the band's newest album WYWH, released late last year):

And via The Line Of Best Fit the band perform an acoustic version of "My Ways" as part of TLOBF Sessions

The band just kicked off their North American tour (check out their dates at their MySpace) and will be in Toronto this Monday January 17 for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern with openers Hooray For Earth.

Jenn Grant Gets Us Good

2011-01-13T23:40:00.006-05:00

I'm so happy to see how far East Coast singer-songwriter Jenn Grant has come since her humble beginnings when I'd first saw her live back in 2005. Having already released two terrific albums of alternatingly lush and folky pop confections, 2007's Orchestra for the Moon and 2009's Echoes, Ms. Grant has kept on her current two-year cycle with her just-released new album entitled Honeymoon Punch. I've not yet picked up the album, but the first single is a fun up-tempo, approaching-on-rockin' pop number - the video itself is also pure fun:

Also Jenn is X3's Artist of The Month, for which Jenn and band were filmed for a session of X3's Camera Music, performing acoustic versions of "How I Met You" and "Getcha Good":

Finally, Jenn took part in The Craig Norris Hour on CBC Radio 3, as part of the X3 Artist Co-Host Initiative. Speaking with Mr. Norris from a studio in Halifax, NS he chatted with Jenn then they listened to her new album Honeymoon Punch in its entirety track-by-track, with Jenn offering reflections on each song. Listen to the program below:

Audio: Jenn Grant X3 Artist Interview (The Craig Norris Hour / CBC Radio 3)

Jenn Grant's upcoming tour dates are up at Six Shooter Records. She'll be in Toronto for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern on February 19 with doors at 9 pm and the show starting at 10 pm. I will do my best to be there and you should too.

(VIDEO)The Walkmen - "Juveniles" (live on Late Night With David Letterman)

2011-01-09T23:05:00.005-05:00

When The Walkmen passed through town last October for a show at the Phoenix, in was in support of their new album Lisbon. They'd obviously performed several tracks from the album although nothing sunk in at the time nor had I ever had a chance to listen to the new album. But the band's performance on Late Night With David Letterman does provide more reason than ever to check the new album out. Performing a song entitled "Juveniles", the song shows a dare-I-say more mature side of the band, showing more emphasis on melody and a cleaner, more succinct approach to their instrumentation. Terrific song. The band has some select US and UK dates coming up over the next several months and then the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, Spain in May - tour dates are posted at the band's MySpace.

ps. You may have noticed my abbreviated blog posts as of late. I plan to keep posting a bit more streamlined at least for now, and saving more detailed posts for concert reviews (when I go to shows, of course). I also hope to get back to posting about more local artists/eventt. Posting (both in content and frequency) will be fairly random but I hope you'll stick around.

We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day

2011-01-08T19:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday Mr. Bowie.

PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder" (new single)

2011-01-06T23:34:00.004-05:00

When's PJ Harvey making return to Toronto? Ok so I don't have that breaking news since there isn't any. The last time she came to town was back in October 2004 when she played a most fantastic show at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in support of her album Uh Huh Her. And she never did come to Toronto for her 2007 album White Chalk which was such a shame because that album was so starkly beautiful. She's currently only has some select dates in Europe coming up (with a promise to the festival stage this summer) but with her 8th studio album entitled Let England Shake coming out this Valentine's Day, at least that's something to look forward to.

The first single from the new album is entitled ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ and will be available for digital download on January 17th. The single will also be available on 7” vinyl on February 7th, and will feature an exclusive B-side - ‘The Guns Ca...lled Me Back Again’ – which was recorded during the Let England Shake album session.

You can sample the first single over at Amazon UK. And yes, that's the artwork for the single above.

Fanfarlo - "Atlas" (new music video)

2011-01-04T23:23:00.003-05:00

Of the last several years, one of the bands I love the most is London, UK indie-folk group Fanfarlo.

The band filmed a video for their song "Atlas", a song which was originally released on the soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse this past summer. As the band describes the video:

"We filmed the video for Atlas ourselves on the 3rd and 4th of August over a couple of hours (probably less), in between playing shows at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney last year. Brian Gonzalez edited it and then it was a slow wait until we had the green light to post it online. So here it is!"

The band shot the video backstage at the Enmore Theatre while on tour in Australia last year.

And yes here it is:

Favourite Songs of 2010

2010-12-25T00:30:00.005-05:00

still from Young Empires' "White Doves" music video

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone. So before all the presents hoopla and face-stuffing-with-food begins, perhaps you might fancy some light reading.

This may be my one and only 2010 list this year. These are my favourite songs (most of them being actual singles) of the year, at least the ones I could remember with at least half amount of effort put into it. On the whole, I'd had neither the time nor patience to sit through many new albums this year and as each year goes by it seems I find I'm either spending more time dusting off my vinyl collection (much of it of that late 70's punk / early 80's post-punk period) to listen or get reacquainted with albums I had never spent much time with or catching up with more recent albums such as last year's Reservoir by Fanfarlo, Lungs by Florence & The Machine, or this year's Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons. Yes, every year brings it's own crop of good to outstanding music, but it seems that the enormous attention given to whatever is currently hot is fleeting then everyone is on to something else. The beauty of the single or individual song is that if the time and mood is right, a song can absolutely knock you off your feet or one might find oneself humming the tune for days. These were the ones that fell into that category:

"White Doves" - Young Empires (video)

It's hard to pick my favourite track of the year above all else, but this track by Toronto's Young Empires very well may be it. With a solid drum beat, subtle guitar and keys and soaring vocals and melodies, this anthemic, world-class number never ceases to amaze me.

"Hey Boy" - Magic Kids (video)

Shamelessly pilfers Brian Wilson / Beach Boys influences but with vocals (lead & choral) so charmingly reminiscent of a high school glee club.

"Society" - DVAS (video)

I came across this track only last month but this song, merging an 80's influence with some Daft Punk-isms, by Toronto electro-dance pop DVAS quickly became a favourite. This makes me long for summer.

"Fuck You" - Cee Lo Green (video)

It's funny that I never heard the original of this song until after hearing Gwyneth Patrol's decent though censored version of the song featured in a episode of Glee. Cee Lo Green's version is a stone cold soul classic.

"The Cave" - Mumford and Sons (video)

I was teetering between including either Mumford and Son's "The Cave" or "Little Lion Man". The latter is the obvious single, a consistently urgent bluegrass pop number, but in the end I chose "The Cave". I feel this song in my heart, and have bordered on shedding a tear at times.

"Something Else" - Diamond Rings (video)

Casio beats, electric guitar and vocals combined with one of the most infectious melodies in recent memory make for one of the best songs of the year.

"I Didn't See It Coming" - Belle & Sebastian (video)

With Sarah Martin's delicate vocals guiding this song along, it's pop songs like this that remind me why I loved Belle & Sebastian in the first place.

"Rocket" - Goldfrapp (video)

This unabashedly 80's influenced infectious dance pop track from Goldfrapp is so drastically different from the band's previous material it should qualify as a guilty pleasure.

"Scissor Runner" - Jenny & Johnny (video)

I get all giddy inside every time I hear this song. Lovebirds Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice duet nicely on this track, a country-ish rocker that never fails to get me tapping my foot.

"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" - The Arcade Fire (video)

My favourite song of the summer. The Arcade Fire get funky, so to speak.

"Faster" - Janelle Monae (video)

"Tightrope" is the single but "Faster" is the song that made me take notice. Living up to it's song title, it's like a sped-up, Motown number.

"Down In Your Valley" - Dead Letter Chorus (video)

I'd first caught on to this Aussie band when they played Canadian Music Fest in Toronto earlier this year. Their debut full-length "The August Magnificent" came out in Canada in March through Bumstead Record and the song above was the first single. This mid-tempo folk-rock number is nicely sung by vocalist Lee Carey and was one of the most charming singles of the year.

"One Life Stand" - Hot Chip (video)

At its core, it's a pop song but it's made doubly more intriguing and fun by Hot Chip's uncanny ability to intricately weave an array of instrumental sounds both electronic and organic into this fully knit electro pop beauty.

"The East Wind" - Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles (video)

From this year's album "The Grand Bounce", the first single "The East Wind" is melodically and lyrically simplistic but gathers momentum as it goes along. I was first drawn in by the comforting vocals of Mr. Downie and the opening pensive acoustic guitar strains, but then with a "1,2,3,4", the drums, bass and electric guitar kick in to push the song into a higher gear.

"Dancing On My Own" - Robyn (video)

As hummable, electro-dance pop numbers go this was one of the best ones of the year.

Young Empires @ Steamwhistle Brewery, Toronto (November 19, 2010)

2010-12-12T23:50:00.000-05:00

Robert Aaron Ellingson of Young Empires: photo by Michael Ligon

I went to check out Toronto electro-rock outfit Young Empires several weeks back at the Steamwhistle Brewery part of the venue's UNSIGNED Indie Music Series. My interest had been piqued by the band's song "White Doves" and after missing multiple opportunities to catch them live when I was in New York City in October for CMJ I vowed to drag myself out on a blistery Friday night down to the Steamwhistle Brewery.

I caught the tail-end of opener DVAS's set and missed the headliner Rich Aucoin, mistakenly thinking that Young Empires were the headliner, so it was a short and sweet night for me. After seeing the band live, what I wrote back in October about my impressions of the band still stood true - "White Doves" remains their piece de resistance, "a fully realized slice of melodic electro post-punk" as I put it, and that makes it one of the best singles/songs of 2010. As a band they did exude a certain amount of energy onstage, with exhuberant guitar playing and keyboard noodling from member Matthew Vlahovich being most notable. While singer Robert Aaron Ellingson made a valiant effort to maintain the urgency of the performance, it seemed he lost track of his vocals because he seemed out off-key at times. I'm interested in seeing what this young band may bring and if they tighten up the loose ends they may just live up to the hype.

Eye Weekly and Lithium Magazine have reviews of the show.

Untold City has uploaded a video clip from the show.

Photos: Young Empires @ Steamwhistle Brewery, Toronto (November 19, 2010)
MySpace: Young Empires

NYC & CMJ (October 23-24, 2010)

2010-12-05T23:01:00.003-05:00

School of Seven Bells @ Santos Party House, NYC: photo by Michael Ligon

For the record, let's wrap up my fifth and final day in NYC and CMJ, which took place over a month ago. Perusing some of the notes I jotted down in my iPhone, time and datestamped 2 am on October 24, I wrote:

"Today it was Broadway and back to Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Vegan day party and wandering, the back to the Lower East Side to the Cake Shop, a walk on the ~~Queens~~Williamsburg Bridge at sunset, picking up dinner at Tiny's Giant Sandwiches ( http://bit.ly/ck3wVL ) then night time at Santos Party House. NYC and CMJ it's been swell."

While the previous four days all had it's high points, the fifth day/night was a near perfect experience to end off my trip. The Brooklyn Vegan day party at Public Assembly in Williamsburg began for me with a satisfying solo set from Ted Leo, with the added bonus of Ted asking me to hand him his drink part way through which I did successfully without dropping it and making a fool of myself. I stayed at Public Assembly for a few more set including a satisying though energetically muted set from Australian indiepop group The Crayon Fields with lead vocalist Geoff O'Connor mentioning that their setlist was written up on napkins then made a humourous remark (in his slightly fey, dry tone) that the set would be 'very clean' (or something along those lines). Injecting the festivities with a good dose of energy was Nashville's Heavy Cream featuring a 3/4 female membership who played a thoroughly enjoyable set of old school punk rock and a snarling female lead vocalist. Met a girl who worked at Criminal Records in Atlanta who I chatted with in between sets and then I headed out to the main room which was packed to catch what I could of Titus Andronicus' set. Back to the Lower East Side and Cake Shop I went to try to catch an afternoon set from A Classic Education who's set I either missed or never happened so I grabbed a beer before heading out to wander the neighbourhood. I took a relaxing walk to the middle of the Williamsburg Bridge as the sun went down, then grabbed a delicious pulled pork sandwich at Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop part of which I'd scarf down as I waited for the first band to come on at Santos Party House, for The Windish Agency CMJ showcase.

That final night, while featuring some more than decent acts, also included some sporadic socializing and I guess when one's in a strange city all by one's self, it does somehow motivate one to come out of one's shell. So yes, I did get to talking briefly with a cute Asian local girl with a camera and then a lengthier conversation with a bubbly Chicagoan lovely who I was standing beside near the front of the stage. The music was almost an afterthought, but overall the band lineup made for a musically varied and satisfying evening. Although the first band Los Angeles' Superhumanoids I thought had a terrible name, they did prove to be a satisfying musical act with boy-girl vocals and a dreamy pop sound to boot. Knoxville, Tennessee trio Royal Bangs seemed hell-bent on bringing the rock after the first band, and somehow live seemed a little less interesting than what I'd heard on their MySpace. Local up and comers Cults were the first band I was interested (and as it seemed so were many others in the audience also eagerly awaiting them) this night in seeing live and their stripped down brand of Motown-ish indie pop did impress in the end.

Rounding out the night were two Brooklyn acts that really need no introduction to most of you, first with dream-pop shoegazers Asobi Seksu who played a blistering set with the stage enguled in purplish and reddish hues, then rounding out the night was School of Seven Bells(the duo of Alejandra Deheza and Benjamin Curtis, with touring drummer Zachary Saginaw) with their sultry, rhythmic, electro-fied, guitar driven dream pop, who could very well be my new favourite current band if only I ever get around to buying their most recent album, this year's Disconnect From Desires. The occasion was made even more special as the band's drummer Zachary Saginaw announced to the audience that he had something important to ask his girlfriend, and after several tense minutes of waiting for his girlfriend(who was apparently backstage somewhere) to come on to the stage, everyone knew what was about to happen and he asked her to marry him to which she did say yes. The band continued on with an encore, and then it was over. I decided to end things off on that high note, so no late night sets for me since I had to get up the next morning to pack and get to the airport. Much thanks to the random people I met, to all the bands I saw during the festival who put on great sets, and to well the New York City for being it's wonderful, diverse and spectacular self. We shall meet again.

Photos: NYC & CMJ (October 23-24, 2010)
MySpace: Ted Leo
MySpace: The Crayon Fields
MySpace: Heavy Cream
MySpace: Superhumanoids
MySpace: Royal Bangs
MySpace: Asobi Seksu
MySpace: School of Seven Bells

NYC & CMJ (October 22, 2010)

2010-11-18T23:15:00.000-05:00

Braids @ Cake Shop, NYC: photo by Michael Ligon

Ok it's been about a month since coming back from my 5-day long stay in New York City and I still have a couple of days to cover, so I do apologize if these next few posts seem rushed, because well they are. Day four started out with me packing as I unfortunately I had to check out of the Jane Hotel as I was unable to book it for the next few nights, but before checking out I took it as an opportunity to stroll and bike around area which later I'd find out is called the Meatpacking District given its origins at the beginning of last century as home to 250 slaughterhouses and packing plants and nowadays gentrified with boutiques, restaurants, lounges and even an Apple Store. I also got to stroll through the High Line. Other areas of NYC explored this day included Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village, the Kimmel Center at NYU, the Broadway shopping district including the Strand Bookstore (which bills itself as "Home of 18 miles of New, Used, Rare and Out of Print Books"), Union Square (which itself has a history as a site of political activism and on this day the site of the "October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation") and then it was back to Brooklyn to take in part of the day show at the Knitting Factory. Later I'd trek back to the Jane Hotel to pick up my luggage, head over to the Chinatown hotel where I'd been staying for the next few nights, grab some Chinatown eats and then head out for night four of CMJ. And I stil had one more day/night of NYC/CMJ to do.

And at this point I guess I should run down my CMJ happenings on this day but I'll keep it brief since I really I don't have the strength to do do an in depth review. Back in Brooklyn late afternoon, my first stop was Knitting Factory to catch Diamond Rings' set, this being the second time I'd catch Jon live during CMJ. Without the technical difficulties which plagued him during his set at Cake Shop a few days earlier, it was a much more fluid but still brief set. Sporting a Toronto Blue Jay Cap this time around, Jon alternated between keyboards, and guitar, and occasionally busted some enthusiatic, spastic dance moves. Although, the response was appreciative in the spacious(compared to Cake Shop), though only partially filled venue, I still wished the crowd had shown a little more energy.

I decided to stick around for a few more acts, with local Knitting Factory roster band Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers up next. The least 'indie rock' of the bands / artists I saw during the festival, while there were signs of some fans in the crowd, they didn't seem to correct with much of the crowd. I'll admit they do possess some musical merits, especially in the full-throttled vocals of Ms. Shilpa Ray. Instrumentally, Ms. Ray's harmonium playing lays a foundation for the rest of the band who competently contributed guitar, drums and bass. Elements of blues, folk and rock weaved their way through the band's songs so I'm hard-pressed to really categorize them. They weren't really up my alley but if it means anything to you, Nick Cave is a fan, so much so that he invited her and her band to join his band Grinderman for a few recent tour dates. Toronto wasn't one of them, but Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers will be in Toronto in the new year for a set at El Mocambo on April 8 according to The Windish Agency.

With still a little light out this early evening in Brooklyn, I decided to stay for one more act at Knitting Factory which was Wisconsin's Cotton Jones. Forming the core of the band is Page France alum Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw. Nau's and McGraw's vocals melded nicely, with the latter's sweet vocals adding a nice contrast to the former's laidback drawl. The band did have a nice, rustic, indie-folk quality, embellishing their tunes with, instruments like banjo and glockenspiel. The band's current album "Tall Hours in the Glowstream" is out through Suicide Squeeze and the band will be in Toronto for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern on February 26 opening for Nicole Atkins and The Black Sea.

With the day's light now dissipating, I headed back into Manhattan to check in to my hotel in Chinatown, grab a quick bite and then head out again for the night portion of CMJ, which I kept decidely low-key (ie. no club hopping this night. I planted myself at Cake Shop for the night (which was hosting a showcase for local Williamsburg, Brooklyn indie record label Kanine Records), getting there before 10 pm and catching only a bit of Pepper Rabbit's set and would catch only two full sets for the rest of the night before calling it quits. Having multiple opportunities during the festival to catch Montreal's Braids and with nothing else that night really interesting me at that time, seeing Braids was a no-brainer. I hadn't heard a note of them prior to that show, but I was quite aware of how keen some of you are of them, so that was my primary motivation to check them out. Combining an experimental approach with more conventional pop and anthemic qualities, think a marriage between Bjork and Arcade Fire. Definitely on the artier side of my musical tastes - if they ever play The Music Gallery in Toronto, I am there. A video of one of the band's performances at Cake Shop during CMJ surfaced on YouTube - really good stuff. They will be playing Toronto in the new year at El Mocambo on February 19 and I very possibly will be there.

And rounding out the night for me was a shoegaze band from San Francisco called Young Prisms. A genre band to the hilt, as shoegaze bands (or bands for that matter) go, they weren't particularly innovative, but their dreaminess was effective nonetheless. Immersed onstage in light and shadow with a video projection playing out against the band for most of the show, these were particularly fitting visuals for the band's hazy, shoegazey, guitar-drenched, pop music. Similarly, the band's vocals, alternating usualy between band member Stefanie Hodapp bassist Giovanni Betteo, were buried beneath the sonic mix, contributing to the overall dreamy, hazy quality of the music. The perfect soundtrack to play in my head as I left the venue to wander the streets of NYC before heading back to my hotel for a good night's sleep.

Photos: NYC & CMJ (October 22, 2010)
MySpace: Diamond Rings
MySpace: Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers
MySpace: Cotton Jones
MySpace: Pepper Rabbit
MySpace: Braids
MySpace: Young Prisms