Rural Alberta Advantage @ Soundscapes in Toronto (November 17, 2009)

No I'm not stalking Rural Alberta Advantage 's Amy Cole as much as the above photo may seem - it was just the best photo I could capture having arrived a little late for the band's intimate instore performance at Soundscapes in Toronto this past Tuesday. 'Intimate' is the key word as the band opted for a more subdued performance than their usual live show as will likely be on display when they play a sold-out show at Lee's Palace tomorrow night. It was very much a bedroom performance as if they were trying not to disturb the neighbours and the crowd on hand was perfectly attentive. RAA's Nils Edenloff compared this set to their days when they hosted an open mic night at a venue on Parliament [presumably the now defunct Winchester, if this article is accurate]. A brief but good preview it was for tomorrow night's show and I believe they played at least one new song (anyone know the title?). With any luck I'll be at Lee's tomorrow night for the show (which I'll remind you is sold out); next time I won't wait so long to buy a ticket.

So what else fancies me these days, at least musically speaking?

The Magnetic Fields perform an all-ages show Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto on February 8, 2010, tickets $30.50, and go onsale to the public on Saturday November 21 at 10 am. Some of you scored presale tickets I see. Jealous.

Paper Bag Records are giving away a free digital sampler to celebrate 7 years in business - entitled '7 year itch', it features the labels artists covering a selection of tunes by various artists. Have yet to hear it but The Acorn covering Gowan's "Strange Animal" seems strangely intriguing. On a related note, it's news to me that The Acorn's "Glory Hope Mountain" was the only Canadian album to make the longlist(although not the shortlist unfortunately) for the 2009 Uncut Music Award back in September (the winner to be announced in the magazine's January 2010 issue). Just recently the album also made Uncut's list of the Top 150 Albums of the decade, scoring in at 147. Seems like a good time to reacquaint myself with this album.

Hottest Bands in Canada, 2009 edition

    photo credit: Joe Fuda

As Matthew of I(Heart)Music has done over the past four years, he's again polled a selection of Canadian music writers, journalists and bloggers for their top ten hottest Canadian bands / artists of the year. I've always been happy to participate and this year's not any different. In some ways, I'm behind the curve on some of the new artists that made the top 32 - bands like The Balconies, The Wooden Sky and Bruce Peninsula who I've only had cursory listens of but am intrigued but have yet to check out live. Past favourites of mine like Ohbijou and Great Lake Swimmers didn't make it to my top 10, and not because they were not 'hot', but rather because personally I didn't end up spending much time with them, either listening to their new releases or going to see them live. My top 10 list was a very subjective one, although scrutinized with a little objectivity - in the end what made my top 10 were those bands / artists who had some sort of activity in 2009 (whether it be touring, releasing music etc...) and who musically had an impact on me. Check out the list below with the commentary for each I submitted (numbers in brackets indicate the artists' ranking in the final top 32):

01. (1) Rural Alberta Advantage (Toronto, Ontario)

They played New York City, SXSW, Toronto and all points in between. They signed to Saddle Creek. I saw them live at for the first time earlier this year during Canadian Musicfest, saw them perform a rapturous hometown CD release show at the Horseshoe Tavern, and then ended the summer seeing them at this year's Virgin Festival[who were immensely better than most of the acts that played the larger stages that day]. I was generally behind the curve latching on to them but better late than never.

MySpace: Rural Alberta Advantage

02. The Hidden Cameras (Toronto, Ontario)

Led by Mississauga-homeboy Joel Gibb, Toronto's The Hidden Cameras returned quietly with their newest album "Origin: Orphan". I had the pleasure of catching their special intimate CD release show at Goodhandy's in Toronto which only emphasized that it's one of my favourite Canadian albums this year. One will still find pleasure in the band's gay-friendly sunny pop tunes but to the provide some balance there's some darker songs and more ambitious instrumental arrangements. Maturity never sounded so good.

MySpace: The Hidden Cameras

03. (9) Metric (Toronto, Ontario)

Fuck the haters. Their most recent album "Fantasies" is a good album. Metric were always rock stars even when they were indie but bottom line they were and still are credible. "Gimme Sympathy" was one of the best singles of the year and there's something so profound about the lyric "who'd you want to be, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones". And when Ms. Haines returned to perform an acoustic version of this song at Broken Social Scene's homecoming show at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto back in July, it was heaven.

MySpace: Metric

04. (22) Gentleman Reg (Toronto, Ontario)

Reg Vermue aka Gentleman Reg played a shit load of live shows this year, and will continue to do so until the end of the year, in support of his most recent release "Jet Black". The more I listen to the samples on his MySpace, the more I wonder why I haven't yet picked up the album. Delicious, edgy pop music.

MySpace: Gentleman Reg

05. (27) Olenka and The Autumn Lovers (London, Ontario)

This London, Ontario outfit seems to be winning new fans incrementally with each live show. I continue to brag about being one of only a few people who caught their live set at C'est What during North By NorthEast back in 2008 but it seems people are now catching on to the band's charming hybrid of rootsy, acoustic, gypsy-folk. Festival-heavy participation this year for the band including NXNE, their own hometown LOLA festival, Pop Montreal and Halifax Pop Explosion as well as the self-release of their debut full-length has made it a successful and busy year for them.

MySpace: Olenka and The Autumn Lovers

06. Junior Boys (Hamilton, Ontario)

The Hamilton duo released their newest album "Begone Dull Care" continuing in the vein of past releases with another album of organic and electronic elements that intersect with the duo's solid songwriting aspect. Any year the boys release an album, they'll be hot.

MySpace: Junior Boys

07. (32) Still Life Still (East York, Ontario)

Signing to Arts & Crafts this year with the release of their debut album "Girls Come Too", Toronto's Still Life Still combine the youthful exhuberance of peers like Tokyo Police Club but with a scruffy pop sensibility that's more in line with their label brethren Broken Social Scene. BSS jr. perhaps, but there's a tune or two from Still Life Still that'd sound terrific on your next playlist[ok the old-schooler in me really wants to say mixtape, but hey who I am kidding?].

MySpace: Still Life Still

08. Hooded Fang (Toronto, Ontario)

This young Toronto outfit makes me smile with their boy-girl vocal-sung indie pop. They only have a five-song EP under their belt(released in early 2009), but 5 songs is better than none right? The band seems content playing around Toronto for now, but do check them out if they hit a town near you. Trust me - their song "Land of Giants" - the definition of pop gem.

MySpace: Hooded Fang

09. The Diableros (Toronto, Ontario)

They've been pretty quiet lately but they're slowly easing back into playing live and the band step up to professional-quality recording with the release of a new EP entitled "Old Story, Fresh Road" to tide things over until the next album. I still remember how insanely good their debut album, 2005's "You Can't Break the Strings in Our Olympic Hearts" was, and how their 2007 album "Aren't Ready for the Country", if not as intoxicating as the debut, was still quite good. The new EP's "Heavy Hands" stands as one of my favourite tracks of the year.

MySpace: The Diableros

10. Tokyo Police Club (Newmarket, Ontario)

TPC spent the year touring, playing dates at All Points West Festival(in New Jersey), the Canadian National Exhibition in TOronto, Hillside Festival in Guelph and even a l'il free summer show in my hometown of Mississauage, and they will continue to play live into November. God love 'em. Late on the wagon as I was, I finally got down to listening to their debut full-length, 2008's "Elephant Shell" and haven't looked back since.

MySpace: Tokyo Police Club

Canadian Musicfest in Toronto (March 12, 2009)

concert review: Canadian Musicfest (part of Canadian Music Week) in Toronto - March 12, 2009

2/3's of Rural Alberta Advantage @ Gladstone Hotel: photo by Michael Ligon


Not much club hopping this night as after starting my night at Rancho Relaxo I parked it for the rest of the night at Eye Weekly's 3-way Throwdown over at Gladstone Hotel. I was spared the frigid temperatures for the most part, but on the other hand staying in one venue and standing up is actually more tiring that hopping from venue to venue for an entire night. Thankfully, the Gladstone's CMF lineup was interesting, if not stellar.

9 PM - We See Lights @ Rancho Relaxo

Scottish folk-rock outfit We See Light ushered in my Canadian Musicfest experience this year and were one of the highlights. While it was a thin crowd (perhaps some of which were probably members of other bands performing that night), it didn't seem to phase the band at all. The young band do have a certain fashionable indieness about them but their music is of the good honest songwriting variety, their tantalizing melodies performed with electric and acoustic instrumentation and wrapped up beautifully by their thick Scottish vocals, most notably of the band's lone female vocalist Ciaran McGuigan. Their first single "Parachutes" (a love song that draws on the analogy of a parachute as they sing 'break my fall' in unison) is off their upcoming album "Ghosts and Monsters" - it's a wonderful song that makes the transition from the in-unison-sung "Break my Fall" to the charming alternating boy-girl verses that follow. Ciaran was gracious enough to give me a free CD sampler when I asked if they had any CD's. Consider yourself fortunate if you were able to see this Scottish outfit at any of their other showcases during Canadian Musicfest.

10 PM - Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship @ Gladstone Hotel

This was only the second time I'd seen Ms. Deveaux and co. live since 2006 and she's as down-to-earth a performer as I'd remember her being. For the most part, though she did let the music speak for itself from the countrified melancholy pop of her debut (from which I recall she only played one song) to her most recent album "Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship" (which the set was heavy upon) extending the sound of her debut with meatier instrumentations most notably in guitarist Mike Feurstack's bright and brilliant guitar arrangements. She's one of the most approachable artists I've ever had the pleasure of chatting with, if ever so briefly, and while she did make reference that she's fairly under the radar in Toronto and hence hasn't toured here much, I do plead that Toronto music fans check her out.

Myspace: Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship

11 PM - The Week That Was @ Gladstone Hotel

Inked as the Toronto debut of UK's The Week That Was, it was a four member version of the band that imparted their proggish pop tunes upon the audience. Although I did mention the word 'pop' it's more a description of their sprightly textured guitar and keyboards instrumentation and less of a focus on obvious melodies. In spots, they did remind me of XTC. I've read that they've had up to 12 members in the band, but without the benefit of members on flute, horns and the such, the four-member version came across with a rockier flavour. Their music does present a certain amount of enjoyability at least in terms of their tight succinct instrumentation, and while the crowd seemed to have a positive, if polite, reaction, a few more obvious melodies wouldn't have hurt.

12 PM - Slim Twig @ Gladstone Hotel

Think an even more freak-out version of Mr. Jon Spencer, Toronto's Slim Twig siphons his obvious love for rockabilly (reverbed drenched vocals and guitar) through experimental, whigged out means, incorporating electronic effects, skronky keyboards and a Fall-like angularity. By no means my regular cup of tea but his guitar and vocal work was incendiary at times and I did enjoy the set's visceral energy. And as I'd told a fellow blogger, I'd much rather listen to Slim Twig than a conventional boring band.

1 AM - Rural Alberta Advantage @ Gladstone Hotel

I have no reasonsable explanation as to why it took me so long to see Toronto trio Rural Alberta Advantage live but damn they're good. What's most impressive is even the most rudimentary of instrumentation (acoustic guitar[Nils Edenloff], drums[impressively played by Paul Banwatt], xylophone, tambourine, handclaps[the last 3 instruments enthusiastically performed by Amy Cole], vocals) cannot deter from the fact that their songwriting is impeccable and their songs are catchy as fuck. Adding to their musical abilities, they were confident onstage and were able to encourage the audience to participate if at least to enthusiatically clap along to the songs. On more than one occasion I recall reading articles/blog posts pondering why they still are not signed yet, and I must emphatically add to that sentiment. It's only a matter of time.

MySpace: Rural Alberta Advantage

Photos: Canadian Musicfest - March 12, 2009