Featuring Tom Waits, Radiohead, Bob Geldof, Bono, Tokyo Police Club, J. Lo, Bad Religion and Joe Strummer

---

Well, it looks like MP3s are slowly killing the radio stars, as music sales fall to their lowest level in over twenty years. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

Pitchfork has some pretty awesome photos of the first night of the Tom Waits “Glitter and Doom” tour. I hope he comes to Toronto. I haven’t had a chance to see him since Mule Variations, and I was in the second last row of the balcony (and it was still an awesome show).

 
Radiohead have narrowed down the finalists for their animated video contest. You can find out more details at the band’s MySpace page.
 
More »

Winnipeg’s Grand Analog aren’t your typical hip hop outfit; mixing beatboxes and turntables with live musicians and incorporating elements from funk, reggae and rock with true sincerity, they’ve earned the distinction of being one of the few decidedly non-jazz acts to be invited to play the Toronto Jazz Festival.

“In this day and age, we’re comfortably an eclectic mix,” says front man Odario Williams from his new home in Toronto. “If you think about hip hop today, hip hop in 2008, in general, that definitely doesn’t fit in a jazz festival; it should be in a club somewhere… but I think we’re an exception to the rule. We’re very much into musicianship and melody and I think that’s what resonated with the jazz fest staff. Can’t speak for them, but that’s my assumption anyway.”

More »

Featuring: Grace Emilys, Mistress, Dance Yourself to Death, Grand Analog, Foxfire, Run with the Kittens, This is Radio Freedom and The Worst Pop Band Ever.

I kicked off Saturday night in Kensington (I really hate driver-side parallel parking, by the way) so I could check out one of the festival’s few representatives from the land of haggis. Good thing I did, too, because Dundee’s Grace Emilys came a long way to play a great set to a relatively sparse crowd (much like the first Toronto show by The Police), and years from now I’ll have the photographs to prove that I was there (assuming of course they catch on the way that other band did).

The cool thing about Grace Emilys is that the three guys out front switch up the lead vocal duties, often mid-song. They delivered some nice, tight and concise songs, including one of my new personal faves, “Falling Up the Stairs” (B-side of their debut single) - nice choice for a set closer.

More »

Featuring: Hugh Cornwell (ex of the Stranglers), Priya Thomas with special guest Lindy Vopnfjord of Major Maker, and The Travelling Band

I haven’t seen rain like that in ages. I needed a paddle to get across Dundas. Luckily, the Dakota (249 Ossington) has Maudite on tap, which made me much happier (definitely calmed my nerves), although I was a little sad I had no designated driver (damn responsibilities).

Fortunately, punk rock elder statesman Hugh Cornwell was in the house with his acoustic guitar. Whipping though a short set of newer solo material mixed with Stranglers gems, his longtime loyal fans were treated to tunes going all the way back to 1977’s Rattus Norvegicus. The crowd did a commendable job singing along to “Hanging Around,” and I was saved the bother of having to shout out a request when he graced us all with “Golden Brown.”

More »

Featuring: The Books Elusive, Stand, Mad Staring Eyes, Monotonix, Jennifer Foster, Stop Theif and People in Planes

I decided to kick off NXNE 2008 by going to the Big Bop (651 Queen West @ Bathurst) so I could bounce between Holy Joe’s and Reverb to take in as much as I could.

I showed up just in time to catch the first song by Toronto’s The Books Elusive upstairs at Holy Joe’s. This high energy duo proved to be lots of fun. With Lynne Dubuc on vocals and guitar and Damon de Szegheo on drums and vocals, my first thoughts were of a gender reversed White Stripes, though that’s probably oversimplifying things.

To sum them up in just one word, I’d call them proto-minimalist. de Szegheo absolutely pummeled his kit, which is always a lot of fun to see. He switched to mallets to add a gentler touch for one number, but it wasn’t long before the rubber tips came flying off.

More »

Interviewing Toronto’s The I Spies was one of the more surreal experiences I’ve had leading up to North by Northeast. On a three-way call with singer/guitarist/keyboardist Johnny Kay (in his kitchen “cooking up a whole mess of farfalle pasta”) and lead guitarist/singer/keyboardist James Roberston (on his cell being chauffeured around town), I found myself in the middle of an arsenal of snappy one-liners and in-jokes that one might expect from a comedy troupe.

That’s not to say that their music is a joke by any stretch of the imagination. The I Spies deliver powerful guitar-fueled pop songs reminiscent of the early days of new wave (Television, not Culture Club). With energy to spare and hooks galore, their debut album, In the Night, stands as testament to a local act ready to take on the world.

More »

Transatlantic phone interviews are inherently problematic. You always run the risk of hearing static interference, having crossed wires that cause the audio from another dialog to obscure your conversation, or interviewing a soft-spoken subject with a thick Mancunian accent.

When I connect with Adam Gorman of Manchester’s The Travelling Band I hit the jackpot and get all three. Lucky me!

Bad connections be damned, this is rock and roll, and I’ve got a musician to interview.

More »

Without a doubt, it’s going to be a hot weekend for music in Toronto. There’s that one certain music festival that everyone’s talking about, but there’s also something else you should be aware of - the Better Reasons Festival at the Tranzac (292 Brunswick); a very cool fund-raiser for a very cool cause.

The three-day pay-what-you-can event will raise money for Sketch, a Toronto-based group that creates art making opportunities for street-involved, homeless, and at risk youth.

More »

Brant Bjork is in no danger of becoming a huge pop sensation, and that suits him just fine. As a founding member of Kyuss who’s also served time in Fu Manchu and Queens of the Stone Age, Bjork has definitely earned his stripes in the riff rock world, and he’s quite happy doing his thing his way.

His new album, Punk Rock Guilt, is a purely analog document of stoner metal that’s truly been a “long time coming.” Over the phone from his home in California, Bjork tells me “it’s been on the shelf for about three years … I hadn’t been working on it. I just made it and then sat on it. It just kind of sat there and collected dust, and then we just realized now’s a good time to release it.”

More »

If you’re passionate about music, as I am, you tend to view time spent listening to a band as a sort of bizarre relationship, whether it be a casual flirtation or a full blown romance. Just so long as it doesn’t turn into a case of stalking, all is fair.

I’ve been following R.E.M. for over two decades now, since the night I stumbled upon their first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman (when they played “South Central Rain (I’m Sorry)” before it even had a name). From that day on, I was hooked, slavishly devoted to the Georgian quartet’s effortless melodies and Peter Buck’s chiming, Byrd-ish guitar textures.

More »