Blog: For the 'records'

Janet Weiss & Carrie Brownstein of Wild Flag @ Bowery Ballroom: photo by Michael Ligon Firstly, 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 lazing getting photos up on my Flickr and posting about the CMJ shows I went. 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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]