David Bowie

Happy New Year y’all! Here are some shows/events that might tickle your fancy for the month of January and beyond.

Ottawa up-and-comers The Balconies will be playing one of my favourite new places to see a show, The Supermarket in Kensington Market, this Wednesday. This show is pay-what-you-can and their set time is 10:30.

Burlington’s Sandman Viper Command will be playing the Casbah in Hamilton this Thursday. Details here.

Depending on your feelings for tribute acts (one of my very first concerts was an Eagles tribute band at the South Shore Exhibition – it was magical), then you might be interested in checking out the Tattoo Rock Parlour’s David Bowie Birthday Celebration, with Thin White Duke impersonator Clifton David Broadbridge. This Friday, celebrate the man who singlehandedly inspired legions of eyeliner-wearing male singers today and for decades to come.

I’ve taken a lot of chirping recently from people who weren’t aware that Little Girls is, in fact, THE NAME OF A BAND (I swear, if I hear one more joke about being a pedophile…). But I know better to listen to them, because the Toronto noise-mongers are awesome, and the band will be playing Sneaky Dee’s on January 15th with special guests. Facebook event details here.

The author of the new book, Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History Of Punk In Toronto And Beyond (1977-1981), Liz Worth, will be talking to Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham about the history of Toronto punk at the Gladstone Hotel on Jan. 18th. Doors open at 7p.m., admission is free with the purchase of the book ($5 otherwise), and there will be live DJing from Mark Pesci.

Love Music Volume 1 is a one-night-only event set to take place Jan. 23rd at the Sound Academy. This year’s lineup features Switch, The Martinez Brothers, Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem), Hercules & Love Affair & more! This show is 19+ and tickets will set you back $29.50. More details here.

Toronto-based independent music label Out of this Spark will be celebrating their third anniversary at the Garrison on Jan. 22nd. Music will be provided by The D’Urbervilles, Forest City Lovers, Evening Hymns, and others. Tickets are $8 in advance from the usual suspects, or $10 at the door.

If you live in Halifax – or Nova Scotia for that matter – and you consider yourself a fan of good live music, than chances are you already know about the Paragon Theatre. This is for those of you that haven’t, or are planning to making a trip to Halifax in the near future. Reopened this year under the new name, in the building which used to host the iconic Marquee Club, the Paragon has quickly grown a reputation for drawing some of the biggest local, national, and international acts from indie rock to electro and every genre in between. But this January, it’s all about the hip-hop. Just some of the names set to appear this month: rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, Scratch from The Roots, East Coast DJ Skratch Bastid, and Wu-Tang’s GZA. Get all the details on these shows and more on the Paragon’s Facebook page, Twitter, or website.

This show announcement might be a little premature, but I was excited to recently learn that one of my favourite new bands of last year (that feels weird to type) are coming to Toronto. West Palm Beach’s Surfer Blood will be playing with Nashville’s Turbo Fruits (containing former members from Be Your Own Pet) at Sneaky Dee’s on March 6th.

This year’s Canadian Music Week will be taking place March 10th to 14th, and is set to see over 700 artists play 45 venues in Toronto. Among the initial acts announced to play the festival are Our Lady Peace, The Trews, Joel Plaskett, Constantines, K-Os, The Rural Alberta Advantage and many, many more! Two acts that I’ve already put in my “must-see” column are The Mountains & The Trees, aka Newfoundland folk singer-songwriter Jon Janes, and American triple-threat (DJ/producer/musician) RJD2, whose work you may have heard recently on a little-known TV show.

Happy show-going!

Photos By Jonathan Hutchinson

“Summertime and the living is easy…” Well there’s no doubt that summer is finally upon us, and so far I’m finding it pretty easy to settle into a routine of getting up around noon, spending lazy afternoons downtown, and attending shows late into the night. Last night I caught a solid double bill of Scottish noise rockersMogwai and The Twilight Sad at the Phoenix, after interviewing The Twilight Sad’s lead singer James Graham. Saturday night, one of my friends came downtown for her 19th birthday, so on a whim I ended up catching a high-energy USS show (including backup dancers and a cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya!”) at the Sound Academy. Since I’m living in Toronto this summer until at least the beginning of July – and possibly longer – I’ve made it my personal mission to discover all that this city has to offer. And while eventually I’ll have to pick up more shifts at my restaurant (hey, those $6.50 drinks at the Phoenix don’t pay for themselves), in the meantime I’ve been conducting interviews and checking out concerts, so keep checking the Lamb daily for new stuff. Here’s some news!

For the past week I haven’t been able to stop listening to the new Black Lips album, and I couldn’t be more excited for their not one, but two appearances at NXNE this June. One of those appearances will be a free show at Dundas Square on June 18th, with Burning Brides and Melissa Auf Der Maur. And as much as I dislike the Atlanta quartet’s self-referential “flower punk” tag, their latest album 200 Million Thousand, definitely draws on influences as diverse as 60s pop, R&B and soul. The standout track for me is the slow-burning, drugged-out “The Drop I Hold” with lead singer Cole Alexander delivering drawling lines like “Ain’t got no money, but the gods make it fuckin’ rain”. The band recently got together in Austin with Wu-Tang’s GZA for a performance at SXSW, which resulted in the rapper contributing some bars to make a great song even better. Listen to the collaboration via the Vice Records website here.

Bloc Party have a new video for the Armand Van Helden “Signs” remix. Myself, I’m personally not a huge fan of the song, and the remix itself isn’t that special, but damn if this video sure isn’t a mind fuck.

Speaking of bizarre music videos, here’s one that’s strangely artistic and non-cliche for a hip-hop video, from New York’s Christian Rich. The song is called “Famous Girl” and the masks in this video remind me of that band The Sound Of Animals Fighting. Unfortunately, the song still sucks.

King Khan and the Shrines will be performing live at the MTV studios on May 11. For free tickets to the taping call 1-888-491-6888, or email liveaudiemce@mtv.ca.

Back in October, I got a chance to interview former Ryerson student Gavin Gardiner, who is the lead vocalist of a Toronto folk-rock band called The Wooden Sky. After opening for the likes of The D’Urbervilles, Mother Mother and Wintersleep, the band will finally be back in Toronto on May 22 for a show at The Music Gallery.

That Fleet Foxes show at Massey Hall that I reported on a week ago now has a date. If you’re a fan of the Fleet Foxes, or Swedish psychedelic-rockers Dungen who will be opening for the band, mark August 4th on your calendars.

Don’t look now, but there is a new Toronto music scene poised to make waves in the upcoming months. The defining characteristics of this scene? Noise, noise and more noise. Noise rock bands from the United States such as No Age and Times New Viking have gotten increasingly popular over the last few years, but now there are bands north of the border making this lo-fi, feedback and distortion-heavy music. Two new Toronto bands that are leading purveyors of this sound are Pirate/Rock and Little Girls. Pirate/Rock are an unsigned duo, but thanks to love from EXCLAIM! and their recent sold out EP Desert Eagle, they might not stay that way for much longer. Little Girls is actually a side-project of Pirate/Rock’s Josh McIntyre and I recently got the chance to check them out at Sonic Boom. I have to say that I was quite impressed by the band’s energy and McIntrye’s droning voice, which reminds me of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis (who isn’t a bad person to be compared to vocally, right?), and I’d advise you to check these guys out especially if you are fans of Austin’sThe Black Angels. Both bands have upcoming shows in Toronto, check their MySpaces for all the details.

Finally, if you are looking for a great show this weekend, The Kills will be playing at the Phoenix this Thursday. These guys are one of my favourite bands and they are supposed to put on a great live show – tickets are still available for $18.50 at the usual record stores, or $20 at the door. Also, on Saturday, rapper k-os will be bringing his “pay-what-you-can” show (as a poor university student, I’m a strong advocate of this concept) to the Kool Haus – be sure to get there early, because this show will get crowded quickly. Check one, or both shows out – myself, I’ll probably be at the Kool Haus with some friends.

Cheers,
Max