
I've gone high concept this week, and that is not a reference to this week's cover art which is by my friend Davie Kaufmann. No, I mean there's a gimmick: all the songs on Summer Fridays 4.10 are less than two minutes long. All 33 of them (maybe even 34). With this kind of criteria, we don't really have much in the way of new music (two songs by my count) but quality remains high of course. I've tried to vary it up as much as possible because the bulk of the two-minutes-or-less songs in my collection are of the [...]

( email | facebook | twitter ) If you're one of those for whom any Meligrove news is big news, then we have big news. June 2008 saw the release of Songs For The Gang: Thrush Hermit Tribute . Artists such as Rebekah Higgs, Two Hours Traffic, and The Superfantastics contributed. And The Meligrove Band. Stream their cover of Thrush Hermit's "I'm Sorry If Your Heart Has No More Room" here . The original version [...]

youarestars.com Usually, the process goes that a band releases a record, then tours it, and then if it's done well and seems like it can be squeezed a little longer, puts out a companion album of remixes and b-sides. Stars appear to be set on doing things, if not in reverse, then in an order of their own choosing, convention be damned. Shortly after making public the June 22 release date for their fifth album The Five Ghosts , the band announced that they would tour said record [...]

Toronto - We here at The Panic Manual have made no secret of the fact that we like Joel Plaskett. The dude has been writing good tunes and playing great shows for awhile now. But as I'm sure many of you are aware, before he went solo, he was a part of the great East Coast band Thrush Hermit. I probably remember seeing Thrush Hermit first on the old MuchMusic program Much East. (creative name, that) Their videos from back in the day were a little bit odd and definitely pretty awesome . [...]

Alex John Beck I headed into SxSW last week with a list of artists I wanted to see at the festival and I actually did quite well at crossing names off of it - the only two really notable misses were Los Angeles' Local Natives and Norwegian ragna-rockers Serena-Maneesh . I had experienced the Norwegians in Austin before - their gleefully insane set was one of the highlights of the 2006 festival - but this time out, their schedules and mine just didn't gel. Though our last encounter was four [...]

Oh you thought that because we went and saw the Hermit turn back the clock at the Paragon here in Halifax last Friday that we were through with Thrush Hermit posts? Think again. I realized that we were halfway through the week and we had yet to mention on the hill how excellent the show was. The building was appropriately packed (the mix of drunken kids and old dudes, with some happily drunk and some disapprovingly sober like ourselves, made for an interesting crowd), and from the time that the bands classic neon "Rock & Roll" sign [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , Canada Way back in the early '90s, Halifax, Nova Scotia was hailed as "the next Seattle" and Thrush Hermit were at the forefront of the so-called East Coast explosion. That hype helped Thrush Hermit snag a big-time American record deal, but despite big-time expectations, record sales never materialized. The band pulled the plug shortly after releasing their acclaimed second full-length record, 'Clayton Park.' To mark the tenth anniversary of the group's demise, Joel Plaskett , Rob Benvie, Ian McGettigan and [...]
Not a bad week for you Toronto concert-goers out there. Here's my picks: The Big Pink w. A Place To Bury Strangers, The Mod Club, Mar 24th I'm actually surprised by this bill because A Place To Bury Strangers are big enough to blow the doors off most clubs in the city on their own without The Big Pink electro-pop buzz. The Big Pink's Myspace A Place To Bury Strangers' Myspace Thrust Hermit,

Well kids, the time has come, Joel, Rob, Ian & Cliff got their Voltron on and re-formed last night, as the opening show of their mini-reunion tour went down in Moncton (and from the brief accounts I've read so far today, it sounds like copious amounts of fun were had by both the band and the crowd). But let's be honest, the tour kicks off for realz tonight, with the boys rocking a very familiar hometown stage they would have graced last when it was the Marquee. So then, it's going to be quite the [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , Canada Before Joel Plaskett was one of Canada's most beloved solo artists, he was a member of the alt-rock group Thrush Hermit . Along with Sloan and Super Friendz, Thrush Hermit was part of the so-called Halifax Pop Explosion of the mid-'90s which had rock media labeling the Nova Scotia capital "the Seattle of the north," and saw pony-tail sporting A&R reps scouring the city's streets in search of the next Nirvana . [...]

Who's up for a Thrush Hermit post that features herohill co-founder Shawn Lapaix, WITH VIDEO! What? The Ack did exactly such a post this morning you say? Oh, well, you can never have too many posts like that in my humble, so let's get to it. Unless you have stumbled on the hill via some kind of really-awesome random web surfage, you are aware that Thrush Hermit will be commencing their mini-reunion tour next weekend, and we've been counting down the weeks until showtime with some fun reminiscing about [...]
The countdown is officially on folk. Next week The Hermit reunion shows will hit Halifax and the mix of nostalgia, rock, and lines shaved into people's head will reach critical mass. To help get everyone excited, Joel sent over a great video of one of the unreleased gems on the Box Set - out March 17th on New Scotland Records. The video is collection of tour & backstage footage that shows the band back in the day and as they grow older, including MacGetts wearing an outfit that looks like he should be working at a frozen [...]

After a couple of months of relatively casual concert going action, it looks like the month of March is going to be a busy one for me, concert-wise. If you couple that with the fact that life is also going to be quite busy life-wise, than you're going to be looking at a fairly exhausted guy come months end. For the most part however, it'll be worth it, since the month promises not to leave me wanting in terms of high quality shows, so here are a few picks if you're looking for something to do. For more [...]

We're three weeks away kids. In three weeks, your favorite band of Halifax West alumnus's get the ole band back together and head out on a bit of reunion tour. I started counting down the weeks until tour launch last week , and I see no reason to stop until they kick things off in their hometown of Moncton! Wait, what? I thought they were opening the tour here? Man, we get it Moncton, you are also a very viable Maritime tour stop, but must you try so hard to steal our thunder? [...]

Not sure if you've heard, but the almighty Hermit is making it's return. That's right, it's 2010, and Thrush Hermit is back . Ian, Joel, Rob & Cliff - together again FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY! Nine nights actually, but that sounded more awesome. And while we're on the topic of awesome, I have to think these shows are going to be exactly that. If you've been into Canadian indie rock at any point over the last 20 odd years, there's a good chance you agree. So then, with the first [...]
Then And today: Anyone else excited for the Paragon shows yet?

Thrush Hermit . A much beloved band when I was too under-aged to get into their shows. And then the broke up. Luckily for me, one of my teenaged hopes that someday "Thrush Hermit will get back together and play a show" came true! (Ah, the non-reality based problems of being young). They're actually play many shows around the East Coast and Ontario: Thurs. March 18, 2010 Moncton, NB @ The Manhattan Friday March 19, 2010 Halifax, NS @ Paragon Theatre Sat. March 20, 2010 Halifax, NS @ Paragon Theatre Tues. [...]

Wilkosz + Way Under normal circumstances, it'd be logical to consider the record that followed a band's breakthrough album through the lens of how those successes might have affected their creative process and output. You can't quite do that in the case of Woodpigeon's newest record Die Stadt Muzikanten , however, because even though its predecessor Treasury Library Canada was the album that brought the Calgary outfit national recognition via the Polaris Prize long list, Muzikanten was already completed and [...]

Norman Wong After being out of sight for what seemed like the longest time following the 2004 release of Darby & Joan , Toronto's Reg Vermue, aka Gentleman Reg , has been nigh-inescapable since the release of fourth album Jet Black just under a year ago. He's played many shows big and small, toured North America with The Hidden Cameras and late last year, released a new digital EP in Heavy Head . And now, following his set opening [...]

I'm not going to lie: I've been rather enjoying my concert going hibernation over the last month or so. The brief spurts of time off have been refreshing as they've allowed me to indulge my other passion for classic foreign films, not to mention trying to find a decent recent movie to enjoy also, which was extremely difficult to do. "Not impressed 'cinema of 2009', not impressed at all!" (I'm talking to you Mr. Cameron ! Give me my money back or I'll continue to hold these 3D glasses for ransom!) Still, a concert goer has to [...]