Second Wave of Sled Island 2013 Announcements

  photo credit

From the Sled Island website comes a second wave of announcements for the festival which takes place in downtown Calgary Alberta from June 19 - 22, 2013:

"Lineup additions include Danish hardcore phenoms Iceage, indie rock royalty Superchunk, the Miami-based doom pop of Torche, The Night Marchers featuring members of Sled Island 2012 faves, Hot Snakes, psych-rock hype factory Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson, and prolific lo-fi folksters Mount Eerie performing with a full band. Also announced today is the mind-melting masters of hip hop jazz improvisation, BadBadNotGood, hyperbole-inducing Ottawa-based producer Ryan Hemsworth, frantic Vancouver punk rockers White Lung, artful R&B pop crooner Javelin and genre-defying Los Angeles DJ, The Gaslamp Killer."

Passes are on sale now - the Festival Discovery Pass is $199 and the Festival Discovery Plus Pass is $349. More information can be found here.

Summer Festivals 2013 - Sled Island (Calgary, Alberta)

  photo via ffwd

Sled Island, based in Calgary, is an annual music and arts festival that started in 2007 and has been a festival that has been on my radar since its inception. It consistently has featured an interesting lineup and this year is no exception. Recently the first wave of headliners for this year's festival were announced. Taking place from June 19-22 in Calgary, with its mainstage at Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary this year's headlingers include The Jesus and Mary China, Explosions In The Sky, Swans, Divine Fits, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Mac DeMarco, Colin Stetson, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Metz. The guest curators for this year's festival are influential sound artist Tim Hecker and John Dwyer of the Krautrock-inspired garage band, Thee Oh Sees. In addition to these headliners, expect to see more than 250 other bands, filmmakers, artists and comedians? Pretty sweet if I do say so. Enough for a trip to Calgary perhaps? The festival starts a week after Toronto's NXNE ends, so it is perfectly do-able. Festival passes are on sale now with limited individual tickets to shows to be available in the future.

Facebook: Sled Island
Twitter: Sled Island

Torn Blue Foam Coach

Sometimes all it takes to discovering a favourite new band is to stay up late and watch the late-night talk shows. New Sub Pop signees Grand Archives made their debut television appearance yesterday on Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson performing an energetically poppy version of "Torn Blue Foam Coach". It was first time hearing them, and they're a wonderful discovery. I may just check 'em out live when they come to Toronto for a show at El Mocambo on June 6. Full dates over at their MySpace. And now their performance yesterday:

Video: Grand Archives - "Torn Blue Foam Coach" (live on Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson - April 30, 2008)

video link courtesy of Bona Fide Darling

Raleigh, North Carolina's Annuals are at the Drake Underground on June 16, tickets $15. The band's newest EP "Wet Zoo" was recently released. Check out the video for 'Sore' from the EP:

Video: Annuals - "Sore" (music video)

Jill Barber stops in at Harbourfront Centre on June 27 and 28 as part of the Banff Lake Louise Tourism sponsored 'A Rocky Mountain High' weekend event.

Beth Orton will be at Danforth Music Hall on July 8, tickets $29.50. Her last album "Comfort of Strangers" came out in 2006 and I've heard of no news of new material, but she did a brief solo acoustic tour in the US in March, so I wonder if she'll be going that route for the Toronto show.

Newest Vice Records signees Berlin's King Khan And The Shrines have two shows lined up at the Horseshoe Tavern on July 23 and 24, tickets $15, 8 pm doors the first night and tickets $10, 9 pm doors the second night. I don't know why the ticket price is different for each night but that's what rootmeansquare says.

Lycanthropy brings news that new blog-hyped act Does It Offend You, Yeah? will hit Toronto for a show at Drake Underground on August 4. They remind me of a collision between dance-punk and electronica - I'm sure the kids'll love 'em. Check out a music video:

Video: Does It Offend You, Yeah - "We Are Rockstars" (music video)

Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands points to new Shins. Ok, it's The Shins performing on a children's show, specifically Nickelodeon Jr.'s live-action music series for kids, Yo Gabba Gabba! The song's called "It's Okay, Try Again" and as kids songs goes, it's a fun little ditty. For convenience check out the YouTube vid below(which'll air on Nickolodeon in the future):

Video: The Shins - "It's Okay, Try Again" (on 'Yo Gabba Gabba')

Stereogum's got the goods on the new Sloan album "Parallel Play"[due out June 10]. Stereogum also has an mp3 of the song "I'm Not A Kid Anymore" from the new album available for download. Thanks to Stereogum for pointing to a stream of the album:

Stream: Sloan - "Paralell Play" (album)

Calgary's Sled Island Festival gets even better with the addition of grab bag full of worthy acts including Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, Grizzly Bear, Yo La Tengo, and Okkervil River among others. Check out the news over at Chartattack. Broken Social Scene is playing Sled Island AND Montreal's Osheaga Festival, which makes me wonder if they're ramping up for more Canadian dates including a hometown show.

Egg Hunt

Just clearing out some links and info below before the weekend's done and hopefully I'll have my review of The Raveonettes show at The Opera House from this past Good Friday up tomorrow:

Just around the corner on April 7 and 8, the one and only Jens Lekman returns to Toronto for two shows at The Music Gallery. The first night local Katie Stelmanis will play a short set and the second night Final Fantasy, Mr Owen Pallett will be there. Presented by Wavelength, the two shows are part of a fundraiser for The Music Gallery as well as a special addition to the Images Festival. Tickets are $20 advance at www.ticketweb.ca, on sale now(oh, and $25 at the door - advance tickets for the April 8 show might already be sold out.) Full details of the shows over at Stille Post.

Eye Weekly lists the The Teenagers at Lee's Palace on May 1, although the band's MySpace is still saying the venue's suppose to be Anti. Things should hopefully get sorted out soon according to Danieljosef in my last post's comments.

Brooklyn, NY indie bad Mobius Band have been added to the Black Kids/Cut Copy bill at Lee's Palace on May 9.

Kids, get your dance on - Diplo and Nasty Nav stop at Wrongbar on April 19 while Berlin DJ Ellen Allien is at The Mod Club on May 7. I believe both of these shows are performance(not DJ shows) but I'm only guessing since their respective MySpace sites don't seem to indicate they are DJ gigs.

Stay tuned this March 25 for the announcement of the lineup for the 2nd annual Sled Island Festival which takes place in various venues around Calgary from June 25 to June 28.

Looking to the summer, for more cultured events look to the Luminato Festival - there's already a schedule of events posted over at the festival MySpace.

Brooklyn Vegan has tour dates for Toronto comedy troupe Kids In The Hall who are jumping on the reunion bandwagon for a series of live shows in the US and Canada. Things get underway on April 4 and culminate with a hometown show at Massey Hall in TOronto on June 5.

Thank God for Youtube and for someone posting the videos for PJ Harvey 's recent performance/interview on VH1 Jo Whiley's Inside Track(and no, still no news of any North American tour dates):

Video: PJ Harvey - "Grow Grow Grow" - VH1 Inside Track (3/21/08)
Video: PJ Harvey - "Interview" - VH1 Inside Track (3/21/08)
Video: PJ Harvey - "The Devil" - VH1 Inside Track (3/21/08)