The second annual Toronto Freedom Festival is happening this Saturday (May 3) in Queen’s Park North, with a jam packed program including the local celebration of the tenth annual Global Marijuana March. And somewhere in the middle of all the pot revelry you’ll find a lot of free music.

The “Live Free” main stage cranks up the generators at 11:30 AM with lots of local acts like live hip-hop crew Down With Webster, reggae collective House of David Gang, Ko Kapches, God Made Me Funky, disco revivalists King Sunshine, instrumentalists Chameleon Project, deadheads Gratefully Dedicated Soundsystem and the incomparable Whitey Don, as well as a surprise special guest (you’ll just have to wait and see). Indie rockers Robotman from Scarboroough, recent winners of a contest at sonicbids.com that would allow a lesser known local a chance to play the festival, will play the last set of the evening.

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Well, I’ll be jiggered, and you can knock me down with a feather. Prince has mad back catalogue, but when he played Coachella earlier this month, he whipped out this cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” in favour of any of his own tunes:

 
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For some reason, I find myself strangly drawn to scruffy looking singers in old timey hats recently, so I guess Freddie Stevenson couldn’t have picked a better time to release All My Strange Companions, the London-based Scottish-American’s second album.

Then again, it’s hard not to sit up and take notice of a record that opens with a couplet like “J.K. Rowling’s been following me around/I’ve even thought of moving to another town.”

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It’s been a long road for Toronto’s Easy Way Out. They started out as an instrumental rock trio that couldn’t find a reliable vocalist, only to suddenly find they had two.

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Last summer, the members of Toronto’s Bellevue decided to do something constructive with a long weekend; they hauled ass to a cabin on the north shore of Lake Huron and spent three solid days recording the tracks that would become The Road to Recovery. The band’s sophomoric effort follows up 2007’s Lost in Space with a solid dozen hook-laden guitar-oriented pop tunes centred around Brent Hough’s distinctive baritone.

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It’s not often that I have a justifiable excuse to write about one of my favourite bands, the Ramones, especially now that Joey and Dee Dee have passed and Johnny makes no bones about his passion for things like the Republican party, the NRA, and Ronald Reagan (ew!). So, I’m going to take this chance while I can.

 
Richie Ramone - born Richard Reinhardt and also known as Richard Beau during his tenure with the Velveteens - played in the band from 1983 to 1987, taking over the drum chair from Tommy Ramone, who was originally the band’s manager (they started off in 1974 as a trio with Joey singing from behind the kit). While he was with the band, Richie penned six songs that ended up on Ramones records, including “Humankind,” “I Know Better Now,” and the minor hit “Somebody Put Something in my Drink” (see video above).

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The thing I hate about most “modern rock” bands is the tendency they have of trying to blend the disparate elements of pop songs, punk anthems and metal riffs into a radio-friendly homogenized pile of poo. Thankfully, that’s only a guideline, not a rule, and it’s a guideline Story of the Year disregard.

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Asian-American hip-hop dynamo Lyrics Born is dropping a new full length this week, and if you need something to shake your rump to you could do a whole lot worse.

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll most likely say it again: David Ford is an extremely talented little monkey. The sooner everyone listens to me, the less I’ll have to say it.

Check out this new video (see above), recorded in one take earlier this month while he was passing through Brooklyn. The killer thing about this version of “Go To Hell” is that it’s a completely different arrangement than the version I caught live in March when he last rolled through Toronto. It also bears little resemblance to the recording on the album.

So if you enjoy the video, you’re probably saying to yourself, “I’d sure like to get a copy of his record.” Well, I just so happen to have a copy of Songs for the Road to give away.

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Photo of John Scofield by blogTO Flickr pooler TorontoStreet

Well, music fans, it’s that time of year again; the 22nd annual Toronto Jazz Festival has just announced the lineup for this year’s festivities. With a solid stream of events running from June 19 to 29, there’s something there for just about every musical taste.

But wait, you say you don’t like jazz? There’s actually way more going on than just jazz. There’s a night with soul legend Al Green, Louisiana gris-gris master Dr. John, funk giant Maceo Parker, Grammy-winning gospel singers The Blind Boys of Alabama, Philly-based turntablist RJD2, and electronic artists like The National Parcs and Grand Analog.

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