Ontario roots rocker and piano pop crooner Brett Caswell and his band the Marquee Rose are releasing a debut album on 18 May called A New Balance . This will be Caswell's first offering since 2007's Still Waiting EP. Ahead of the release, the band is celebrating with a few Ontario shows, including 12 May's at Toronto's Supermarket. Here's a taste of the new disc: Download : " A New Balance " ( A New Balance , 2010). [...]
Ketch Harbour Wolves , crafter's of the no. 1 Canadian EP of 2008 , are celebrating the release of a new album, Anachronisms , at the Horseshoe on Saturday, 8 May. Well, sort of: The album won't be released for real until June, but you can hear the new songs and pick up an advance copy of the new disc at this show. Here's a track from their last EP, and you can head over to the band's website to download the whole thing for free (for now). [...]
This is the fifth installment of my interview series with people in and about the Toronto music scene. Previous ones featured Mitch Fillion (Southern Souls), Mike Smith (Muskox, etc.), Randal Ball (WreckingBall Entertainment), and Ben Mueller-Heaslip (What's All This Then?! podcast). Robert Gibson runs local record [...]
It's been a little while since I've put up one of these giveaways, but thankfully the Dress Whites have given me the chance to change that! The Dress Whites have been on hiatus since the fall, and they've taken the time to write and record new material. The band's got a couple recent discs under their belt: 2008's album My God, The Shame , and last year's The No Fun EP. They've got a show coming up at the Piston a very new venue in the former [...]
Saturday night at the Horseshoe local music promoters No Shame are presenting electro-soul outfit Everything All the Time , electro-rockers Lioness , and Rich Aucoin . The first two bands feature great vocalists in Alanna Stuart (EATT) and Vanessa Fischer (Lioness). Not only can these women sing, but they've got stage presence and, well, attractiveness on their side. You can't go wrong. Alanna's also one half of Bonjay . Vanessa used to be in No Dynamics , and her backing men were in controller.controller . Rich isn't a woman, but [...]
We're now firmly in December, and I'm in a giving mood. So here's yet another musical giveaway! Next Friday, 11 December, is a stacked bill at El Mocambo: Ketch Harbour Wolves, the Rest, and Chinese Food. Toronto / Cambridge, ON's Ketch Harbour Wolves stand out in my mind for working well as very much a rock band and in their stripped-down acoustic version. I've enjoyed them while sitting on the grass in a backyard and in a traditional rock club setting. If you've been around the Canadian music scene in [...]
So last week I had quite the prizepack to giveaway... tickets to a stacked show plus four free CDs. Well, loyal readers, here's one that's even better. Hard to believe, but trust me. Audio Blood Media's annual holiday bash is happening at the Horseshoe Tavern this year, and includes 4 of the bands on its roster: Oh No Forest Fires , Make Your Exit , Clothes Make the Man , and the Balconies . I can personally vouch for the live performance awesomeness of at least three of those bands. It's a great lineup [...]
Let me get right to the heart of the matter: this is your chance to get your hands on 4 CDs and 2 tickets to one heck of a local music showcase, all for the price of $0. Interested? Read on. On 28 November the Garrison plays host to four local(ish) bands. Two Narratives favourites, Black Hat Brigade and the Schomberg Fair , kick things off, followed by Brantford's the Racoon Wedding ---who will be celebrating their CD release, and ending up with Germans . The whole thing will cost you $7 at [...]
My two favourite musical genres are folk and electro, or, more specifically, electro-pop and folk-rock. The last contest I brought you was folk and pop and quieter stuff, so it's only fitting that now I've got one that showcases my love of dancing (awkwardly). Vancouver band You Say Party! We Say Die! are on tour, promoting their new album, XXXX . The first and only time I saw this band was during this year's NxNE festival at the El Mocambo. Though festival showcases aren't always the best measure of a band's performance prowess, YSP!WSD! didn't [...]
One of the country's top folk rock bands, the Wooden Sky , released their sophomore full-length album--- If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone ---this summer. ( I liked it ; still do.) To celebrate the release, the men went on the road, playing backyards, living rooms, rooftops, and other alternative spaces. Filmmaker Scott Cudmore went with them: (Part 2 of the documentary is up here , and look for parts 3 and 4 later this month.) Although the summer tour was fantastic for the bands and fans [...]
Last week I told you about a new book that I really enjoyed and learned a great deal from: Ryan Edwardson's Canuck Rock: A History of Canadian Popular Music . Now I've got a few copies of the book to giveaway! Details and a Q & A below, plus download songs by some of Ryan's favourite Canadian artists. The book deals with rock 'n' roll, folk, and other popular (read: commercially successful) forms of music in Canada from the 1950s to the present day. Although fairly broad in scope, the book is mostly interested in [...]
Toronto band Make Your Exit have a new EP, Remind Me the Reason I Came , coming out on 22 September. The band's sound is indie pop-rock with the expected xylophone and the rather less expected saxophone, plus good lead and backing vocals. Their instrumentation and vocal arrangements choices remind me of a poppier Paint Movement and sometimes a rockier Fleet Foxes. I like Make Your Exit's combination of folk and rock sensibilities. The first track off the album, "Kids," has all the ingredients in it. "Through the Winter" also showcases what the band's sound is all [...]
People I meet occasionally ask me how I got into music and going to local shows. An important part of the answer is Lauren Schreiber's No Shame music series. Next Friday, 18 September, No Shame celebrates 100 shows with a blow-out at the Horseshoe Tavern . Keep reading for details on the show and how you can win tickets! I first started going to No Shame semi-regularly in the fall of 2007, when it was a weekly happening at Tiger Bar. Now largely-defunct, this basement venue holds a maximum of 70 people and one has [...]
The Junction , a Toronto-based three-piece (with suburban roots), released their second album last week. A great example of danceable Canadian indie pop-rock, Another Link In the Chain will appeal to indie kids as well as commercial radio stations programming for the broader music-listening audience. This is a group clearly inspired by the rock they grew up with in the 90s and indie rock bands of the 2000s. By bringing these two influences together with a nod to classic Brit-pop, the Junction has crafted a strong rock album that should appeal to indie rock fans as [...]
This is gonna be a quick one. A few local(ish) bands, and one Ottawa band (that Toronto loves) are playing the Horseshoe on Saturday night. The headliners are Modernboys Moderngirls , a garage-y pop-rock group. I saw them play nearly two years ago when they were a large ensemble. They've trimmed their size and refined their sound since then, and I've heard only good things about their performances. Also on the bill are Everything All the Time , a band that produces chilled-out, groovy dance tracks that are impossible not to move to. Then there's Ottawa's The [...]
Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum have their debut full-length, Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head , ready to share with the world. Jordaan Mason sees himself as a misfit in the local music scene. But as one of the hosts and organizers of the Oxford Hotel presents performance series, he's a misfit that's connected to a lot of local and touring acts who work better in backyards and inside homes than they do in bars or clubs. The musicians I most associate with Jordaan are ones he already collaborates with, including Guelph's [...]
Montreal band Flotilla 's second full-length album, One Hundred Words for Water , is full of musical surprises of the best kind. Flotilla is hard to pin down, genre wise. Some tracks are solidly indie art-rock, but there's a jazzy flavour underlying the whole album. Add a bit of cabaret, folk-rock elements, a dash of electronica, nonstandard time signatures, and occasional mid-song mood changes, and you've got Flotilla. Veronica Charnley's vocals are the standout element, but the inclusion of harp lines throughout—a classical harpist is one of the band's four regular members—also differentiate this band from others. Sonic [...]
After seven years and three albums—2004's Spaces to Occupy and Abandon , 2007's full-length Last Blush , and the new Young Glow EP—Toronto-by-way-of-Brampto n band Five Blank Pages are calling it quits. The two remaining original members Noyan Hilmi and his wife Pinar Ozyetis reunite with their former drummer (Noyan's sister Chelen, helping out on the kit but mostly singing backup; Michael Reles is the band's current drummer) and bassist (Rajiv Thavanathan) to play their final show on Saturday, 23 May, at the Mod Club. Also serving as a CD release party for Young [...]
A couple Sundays from now, 24 May, is the anniversary of Bob Dylan 's birth. An annual musical celebration's been happening in Toronto for the past 8 years, and the 9th is taking place on the date in question at C'est What (67 Front St. E). The night will feature "music from 5 decades of Bob Dylan." Hard to go wrong with that, eh? Local singer-songwriters and Dylan fans Dave Borins , Amy Campbell , Sarah Loucks , "Big Daddy Z" Noah Zacharin , and host Shawn Clarke are the night's [...]
First, I review the new album. Scroll down further for a couple song downloads for contest details. As a live music fan rather than an avid clubber, I prefer bands to DJs—no disrespect intended. But I do like dancing, and once in a while a really top-notch electro group can get me really moving. Woodhands , of course. But perhaps my second favourite is a young Guelph band called Green Go . Up to now, to take a bit of the party home with me, I've had to do with a smattering [...]
Narratives
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Music Singles Chart #95
Whitney! ♥
FREENESS: Robot Orchestra – Beat The Odds (Germany)
The Twilight Sad cover The Smiths
