Blog: For the 'records'

&nbsp Austra @ Wrongbar: photo by Michael Ligon It's no wonder that I only saw two bands for my second night(on March 12) 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 [...]

&nbsp 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 [...]

Memoryhouse: photo by Michael Ligon Review to come. Photos: Memoryhouse, Young Empires, Prussia @ Canadian Musicfest, Toronto (March 10, 2011) MySpace: Prussia MySpace: Young Empires MySpace: Memoryhouse

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

• Young Prisms - 03 Sugar
• Young Prisms - Weekends and Treehouses

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

• glasvegas - The World Is Yours

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Happy Birthday Mr. Bowie .

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) [...]

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 [...]