Wherein I opine, and you can comment on how stupid I am . . . Caveats and regulations: 1. For a show to be on here, it has to have sustained quality for its entire run —not just have had a few good episodes or one good season. 2. This list is accurate and scientific, and if you disagree, you're just wrong. 3. If you think Heroes is one of the best series, you must not have seen the last two seasons. 4. If you [...]
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 [...]
Every year I say that I'm going to tone down the amount of shows that I go to, and every year I end up seeing more than the year before. This year's final tally sits at 143 different artists to have graced the live stage in my presence, including three more than I still haven't gotten around to reviewing but I will. Eventually. Of course, I have friends that have probably seen that amount in a weekend but for an old married guy, I'd say that's still a pretty obscene number. Overall though, this year has been a [...]
Well, I'm happy to say that 2009 was a significantly better year for me that 2008 was. Although I managed to say away from really bad news for the most part, I did have to step up my work schedule quite a bit for mildly unfortunate reasons, which meant that the opportunities to take part in this here blogging hobby of mine had to suffer, just a little bit. Whenever I did find a moment to post something, there was usually a belated show review that I had to get to, which meant that I didn't get a chance [...]
Just over a year ago, I posted a cheesy US Magazine-styled list of the ten biggest rock stars in the city, and (relatively) surrounding area. It wasn't meant to be taken too seriously, since such a list would mean that I was excluding hundreds of other worthy contenders, since our city and (relatively) surrounding area is teeming with them. It was also kind of a spur of the moment thing that was initially intended to be sort of a one-off thing. But I've come to realize that people (especially rock stars) love to see themselves on lists. So [...]
Day 4 of the "Best of 20093 blogger series brings you a stream of consciousness so to speak. Have you ever just sat there and thought to yourself and realized later that it ended up written down in front of you? Ever experience lost time by dozing off and waking up in a jarring manner only to realize you weren't really asleep? Well if you are plagued with these issues, you have a friend in Tsuru. ;-) It just so happens that Tsuru runs one of the newest and best blogs around - always a treat to read [...]
ARTIST / BAND: Yukon Blonde MP3s: "Wind Blows" ALBUM: Yukon Blonde FILE UNDER: rock LABEL: Bumstead Productions Ltd. INFO: After returning from a cross-Canada tour with Jon-Rae Fletcher, both as his backing band and his opening band, Alphababy packed their bags and moved from Kelowna to Vancouver. Big changes lead to new beginnings, and with that, the band changed their name to Yukon Blonde , signed to Toronto-based Nevado Records (Bahamas, Fox Jaws), put their [...]
Procrastination nearly gave me a swift kick to the head last Friday night, when up until about noon that day, it looked like I wasn't going to get in to the Rural Alberta Advantage 's sold out show at Lee's Palace. I don't know why I didn't think it was going to be a problem since, according to a very reliable source, the RAA is currently the hottest band in Canada . Thankfully, I was one of the fortunate ones as I was able to squeeze in at basically the last minute. Sometimes it's kinda cool knowing someone [...]
Welcome to my weekly roundup of inexpensive indie(ish) musical happenings in downtown Toronto, all for $10 or less. If I'm missing something you think I should list, or you have any comments, let me know. I star (*) shows that most interest me. Like this list? Join my Facebook group or subscribe to this blog. Subscribe to my podcast (or download the episodes) here , or through iTunes . The latest ones are here . Make sure to [...]
For ramblings on how I came to compile this list go here . And for commentary on previous selections: [ #50-46 ] [ #45-41 ] [ #40-36 ] [ #35-31 ] [ #30-26 ] [ #25-21 ] [ #20-16 ] [ #15-11 ] [ #10-6 ] Drum roll please.... 5. Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens (2005) Forget about simply putting out a concept album, Sufjan Stevens actually had the nerve to [...]
6.45pm . Magnanimous (n, mag naa nuh muhss). From the Latin for "Great-spirited", normally defined as "generous, appreciative", though another synonym is "DF". In a typically seasonally appropriate gesture, DF hereby supplies an illustrative object lesson. DF is thankful, bitches. Oh, yes. DF is thankful for everything from Axe Body Spray to Zatarain's Fish-Fri . Exempli gratia : DF is thankful for the tact exhibited by the personnel at the nearby Qik-Stop (sic) Market, who never point out how inebriated he already is when stopping [...]
Frank Yang It was just 51 weeks ago that The Rural Alberta Advantage first stepped onto the stage at Lee's Palace, there as support for a co-headlining show featuring two of the most lauded indie acts in Canada - The Acorn and Ohbijou . They seemed a bit awed by the scale of their surroundings, having mostly played the smaller, cozier rooms of the city to that point, but were far from intimidated and deliver another wonderful set and as I commented at the time, "I've long said that people [...]
Toronto - I don't really listen to enough Canadian music. This I know to be true. This is possibly because I don't listen to much CBC Radio 3 . Anyways, Friday night was a big night for Canadian music. Over at Lee's Palace, there was the Rural Alberta Advantage, Bahamas and Fox Jaws show (you can read a review here ). While over on the East side of the city, Steamwhistle was presenting their very own Canadian night at the Phoenix, featuring Little Girls , Think About Life and You Say Party! We [...]
Frank Yang It was just 51 weeks ago that The Rural Alberta Advantage first stepped onto the stage at Lee's Palace, there as support for a co-headlining show featuring two of the most lauded indie acts in Canada - The Acorn and Ohbijou . They seemed a bit awed by the scale of their surroundings, having mostly played the smaller, cozier rooms of the city to that point, but were far from intimidated and deliver another wonderful set and as I commented at the time, "I've long said that people [...]
Lee's Palace hosted yet another great all Canadian line-up on Friday night with Nevado Records artists Fox Jaws and Bahamas opening up for the local breakthrough act of the year, The Rural Alberta Advantage . Headlining their largest local show to date, the RAA managed to sell the venue out weeks in advance, prompting dozens of fans to wait outside in the cold for the chance to grab tickets halfway through the show.
On Friday night the RAA performed for a sold-out hometown crowd at Lee's Palace. It was a great show; I'll get to that. First, some background. I've been following the Rural Alberta Advantage since the summer of '07, and first saw them perform back in May 2006 (with, apparently , Friday Morning's Regret, AKA the Wooden Sky , though I can't remember). About a year ago, I included the RAA in my personal list of the hottest Canadian bands of 2008 . Listing them at no. 7, I noted that they'd gone on [...]
For ramblings on how I came to compile this list go here . And for commentary on previous selections: [ #50-46 ] [ #45-41 ] [ #40-36 ] [ #35-31 ] 30. Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams (2000) The argument that most of the world's greatest art is derived from sadness is one that I've always worked hard to refute, but a guy like Ryan Adams doesn't make it easy for me to do so. It doesn't [...]
For ramblings on how I came to compile this list go here . And for commentary on previous selections: [ #50-46 ] [ #45-41 ] 40. Goodbye Doris - Fox Jaws (2007) Barrie's Fox Jaws are easily one of my favorite live bands, and I make a point of trying [...]
I went to a lot of shows in October (including a Shotgun Jimmie instore and an historical Roky Erickson show with The Sadies that I still have yet to tell you about) which means that I think I'm going to chill out a bit for the month of November. I'll still be catching a few, but I'll likely be limiting it to a few of the smaller ones. Still, there's a lot to do, and here are my picks. For more detailed listings, as usual, go check out Stillepost , [...]
Well, it's that time of the year that every Canadian music blogger loves the most: I (Heart) Music 's carefully calculated compiling of The Hottest Bands in Canada . Matthew is the head maestro of that high quality music blog from Ottawa and what he does is he asks several of the country's finest music aficionados (and me) for their personal picks of the 10 hottest bands in Canada. He then takes our respective lists and, using a team of highly respected scientists and mathematicians, puts together the final selections. I was flattered to once again be [...]
The often excellent Odd Blood is a step into new directions for Yeasayer, and vocalist Chris Keating touched upon their process in a recent NY Times profile: [...]More about Yeasayer
This week we have a new numero uno and three tracks making the chart for the first time. [...]More about Hot Chip
I dag dök nya albumet från Massive Attack, Heligoland, upp på Spotify. Min recension: Helt jävla grymt! Splitting The Atom fick vi ju [...]More about Massive Attack
Miike Snow are pretty awesome, had the chance to see them perform when they opened up for Lykke Li and boy did they impress me. [...]More about Vampire Weekend
Phoenix, who delivered one of the best albums of 2009 once once with “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix“, recently played an acoustic set for the German magazine [...]More about Phoenix
I don’t know about you guys, but for me there’s no better time of the year than late January to sit back, contemplate and assess the [...]More about St. Vincent
check it! beach house headed over to daytrotter to record a few tunes from their massive new album “teen dream,” already being hailed by many [...]More about Beach House
I’ve been listening to a lot of Pavement lately, and the more I do, the more increasingly clear it becomes that Spoon is the Pavement of the 2000s: Indie [...]More about Spoon
i know what youre thinking. “really? another day n night remix? really?” well, this one is way better than any other one youve ever heard, [...]More about Kid Cudi
Gorillaz / Damon Albarn has always held a very special place in my heart. Demon Days was one of my top albums [...]More about Gorillaz
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB | UNDERCOVER MARTYN
The Strange Boys - Be Brave
Phonat - "Love Hits The Fan" music video
Die Antwoord - Enter The Ninja (Official)
Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields - Official Trailer
Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Review)
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
TOUR: The Tallest Man On Earth Announces U.S. Dates
[mp3] Joanna Newsom - "Kingfisher"
New Releases V2.9
