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.

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Are local chip-pop darlings Crystal Castles a couple of common crooks? If you ask Belgian producer Lo-bat, the answer could surprise you.

It would appear that local duo have raised hackles within the Creative Commons community, who allege that the Toronto musicians violated Lo-bat’s rights when they sampled his song “My Little Droid Needs a Hand” outside the provisions of Creative Commons licensing.

The song in question, “Insecticon,” is currently listed on the band’s label’s MySpace page as CC vs. Lo-Bat, but that wasn’t the case when the track first surfaced, and to many this doesn’t go far enough.

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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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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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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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Philadelphia’s Man Man are one of those bands that just doesn’t stop touring, except to do a little recording now and then. Luckily, I’ve managed to get a few minutes to chat with the band’s singer/keyboardist/evil genius mastermind Ryan Kattner (AKA Honus Honus) on a rare, much deserved break.

“Because of band circumstances and whatnot,” explains Kattner, “I became without a home about six months ago. I’m still without a home; we tour so much. We have a couple of weeks off, so I’m just in LA couch-surfing … Nothing interesting, and definitely not jet-setter glamorous.”

After three solid years on the road, he seems to be enjoying a little time off before hitting the road again. He recalls, “in the old days - when I say ‘old days’ I mean like last year - we’d go on a gruelling tour we’d come back and immediately have to go back to our day jobs working in cafes and bars and moving companies.”

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We all like to think we have better musical taste than our cohorts; it’s an essential element of the human condition. Now, thanks to a new website, you can actually get charts and graphs to justify your position.

Songkick.com is a London-based site dedicated to helping you find a good concert to see in your area. They do so by monitoring Amazon sales, blogosphere activity, and various MySpace statistics (song plays, profile views and number of friends) from the last five weeks and applying an undisclosed algorithm to come up with a proprietary ranking for every band in their database.

The coolest thing about the site is their Battle of the Bands page, which allows you to put in any three bands and compare their stats. So I thought it would be fun to put together a TO-centric battle royale to see who would come out on top.

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It’s so hard for a young, unknown band to get some exposure these days. Thankfully, there’s the Colbert Bump, the inevitable rise in popularity one receives after appearing on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

The latest recipients of this prestigious honour are R.E.M., currently flogging their latest studio project, Accelerate.

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I stumbled across a wicked cool link while researching a feature I’m writing about the pride of Newmarket, Tokyo Police Club, who are currently touring all over North America in support of their soon to be released full length LP, Elephant Shell. They’ve come up with a novel approach to tour blogging; rather than give you the boring details of going from show to show, keyboardist Graham Wright has taken to writing specifically about the various restrooms he encounters along the way, briefly discussing their merits and ranking them on a scale out of 50 on such things as cleanliness, amenities, décor and functionality (always the clincher).

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