I'll be leaving in approximately three hours from Cleveland, weaving my way through the northern scenic regions of Pennsylvania until I finally hit the brakes in Buffalo. After a bout with a basket of chicken wings, the lady and I are headed into the land of Ice Hockey and Rush. We're having a layover in Niagara. I hear them falls are romantic. In any event, by my calculations, this is at least a good 7-8 hours worth of road-trippin' over the next 24 hours. I can't be the only one hitting the open road today/tomorrow with [...]
To fill the limited time I have before I run the Flinstone wagon up to Canada, I'll post a few preview quick-hitters to get y'all primed for the festival. If a giant sphinx is keeping you from traveling next week, at least take these quick shots to the bank. These bands are on my quickly expanding radar, as I've been out of the loop for a little while, so bear with me. Between iced-espresso dranks and lots of cigarettes, I've managed to track down and peruse nearly all of the 650 bands [...]
It's June and it means the start of the summer festival season. NXNE is happening very fast and this will be my third time attending it. I always have a fun time attending NXNE. You can go check out what I did on previous NXNE coverage on here . This is part one of who *whoever is in Toronto* to check out at this year's NXNE. *This list will change during the night of the festival.* Here is a list of who to check out on June 15, 2011. Already I am too [...]
Pick A Piper hail from Toronto, Canada, and make fantastic percussion led tunes. The group includes Brad Weber, who also plays drums for Caribou, and Angus Fraser from the fantastic Tenth of May. As I said before, their tracks center around percussion, but that's not to say that there's no melody involved. Their self titled [...]
Psychedelic drum-dance party. That's how Pick A Piper describes their music and you know what? They aren't wrong. To tell the truth I'm listening to it right now and having a heck of a time writing this what with all the dancing around the room and all. In fact, I've pretty much figured out that this is the way I'm finally going to get into shape, listening to this EP. I've been caught bouncing around the house at all hours of the day listening to this. Don't even think of sitting still while listening [...]
Two nights down for Canadian Music week, and two more to go for me. Tonight will probably be a night at Lee's with hopefully a final destination of Supermarket for Phantogram . But, I'll have to see where the night takes me. So far, I've managed to catch sets from Sweden's Hellsongs (which I posted about here ), The Wilderness Of Manitoba , Pick A Piper , Family Of The Year , Forest City Lovers , Hooded Fang , The Rest , Little Dragon and Rich Aucoin [...]
Toronto-based Pick A Piper is the side project from Caribou drummer Brad Weber. The band released an EP last spring and will have another as they embark on a pretty extensive eastern Canadian tour following CMW. Check out the track "Hallam Progress" which features Gentleman Reg's Dana Snell and Andy Lloyd of Born Ruffians on vocals. CMW performance: Date: Mar 10th Time: 11:00pm Venue: Rancho
Listen to the new single by Pick A Piper . Its called Hallem Progress . For those that like the sound of Caribou (Correct me if I am wrong if one or two members are in that band?). And those that like to get up and dance to this music. Very funky and psychedelic. You should check out this band. For the month of March the band will touring the eastern part of Canada. Sadly there is no Ottawa [...]
Today is Thursday, and that means one thing here at the hill: we tip our cap to the late great Dan Gallagher and then we fire up the ole video-hit-o-matic machine. After all, people are still making videos, and if moderately successful outfits like ours don't show them, how will they get seen? Exactly, so let's get to the business at hand. Pick A Piper leads off, mainly because it's kind of a cool song from a group of folks who have, of course, also played in various other bands, like [...]
It's becoming increasingly more difficult to keep on top of all of the great new sites and blogs emerging throughout the city of Toronto and the surrounding area these days, much like the scene itself. Richard Trapunski is a writer for one of the good ones, a site called Resonancity . The site's mandate is to cover the Toronto music scene on a very local level, and from what I've read so far, it's doing an excellent job. The site has recently published its list of Toronto-area bands to chase for 2010 and Richard has asked several local music [...]
photo of Pick A Piper December, January and February. Three months where I can reflect on music I missed out on during the past year. Can't wait. In doing some 2009 research, here are five Canadian bands that I have discovered in the past few months that I am going to keep an eye out for in 2010. Enjoy: Pick A Piper - A collective of sound artists featuring Brad Weber of Caribou, Angus Fraser of Tenth of May, Dan Roberts ex-Winter Equinox and Clint Scrivener. If [...]
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 [...]
Frank Yang People traditionally go to great lengths to avoid getting a lump of coal for Christmas but there's something to be said for getting a big pile of rock for the holidays. And it was rock - and lots of it - on offer Saturday night at the Horseshoe for Jingle Bell Rock, an evening presented by promotions company Audio Blood Media and media partners aux.tv and Exclaim . The lineup featured four bands from the Audio Blood roster - Oh No Forest Fires , [...]
We're stickin' and movin' with another round of lightning fast musical jabs. Check out what I haven't had time to properly give you: Ben Davis, Charge It Up! This third solo album from Davis hits stores on January 5th. It's a dose of warped power pop that should tide you over until the new Ted Leo album comes out. Ben Davis' Myspace Pick A Piper, Pick A Piper This is an EP from a band that
Lately been very busy with the happenings in the Ottawa music that I haven't done any music picks. This time I will do EP picks since its seems to be a trend with indie musicians releasing them. Tune-Yards - Bird-Droppings This new Digital EP was released on Nov 10th. Two of the songs which were sung live at Pop Montreal (totally amazing set she did at the festival). Best tracks: [...]
If you're at all familiar with the sordid past of psych-rock pioneer Roky Erickson , than you know that it was only a few years ago that the possibility of ever seeing him perform live seemed about as likely as a warm winter in Toronto. His heavily permissive lifestyle back in the 60's while he was the leader of seminal psychsters the 13th Floor Elevators led to his being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1968, resulting in jailtime, electroshock therapy, and even a brief stint where he believed that aliens were coming to Earth to do him harm. It [...]
Image by Jack Dylan Here is part 4 of who I might or will see at Pop Montreal on Oct 3rd. 1:15pm: Faust at Espace Reunion which is a Symposium 7:30pm: End Of A Year at Underworld 8pm: Diamond Rings at Carbaret Juste Pour Rire Options: Daehyun Kim at Green Room 9pm: Kyrie Kristmanson at Calgibi Options: Centretown Cripplers at Il Motore 10pm: Rich Aucoin at L'Escogriffe Options: Katie Stelmanis at Casa Del Popolo The Balconies at Il Motore (MUST [...]
featuring Green Go, Ruby Coast, Pick A Piper and The Skeletones Four It was with grand enthusiasm that I was looking forward to this particular landmark on the local indie music scene. Whether she knows it or not, Lauren Schreiber has been personally responsible for a healthy percentage of my local musical knowledge, having introduced me to some excellent bands by means of her No Shame Concert Series. And this special commemorative show was destined to be pretty special with its inclusion of a couple of established greats along with a couple [...]
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 to get my weekly Toronto indie music listings. Subscribe to my weekly podcast (or download the episodes) here , or through iTunes . Or just listen to the latest [...]
Citizen Dick
PhotogMusic.com
The Tape
AWmusic
Indie Music Filter
Snob's Music
Herohill
It's Not The Band I Hate, It's Their Fans
The Panic Manual
Chromewaves
Delicious Scopitone
Narratives
Clive Davis Cancels Pre-Grammy Party After Whitney Houston’s Death
Watch: Trailer for Dave Grohl’s documentary, Sound City
