IGGY!

It’s the day we’ve been all waiting for – the official announcement of the NXNE line up! NXNE, a seven-day marathon this year, will feature Les Savy Fav, Surfer Blood, De La Soul, Mudhoney, Japandroids…oh, and Iggy and the Stooges. No big deal. Oh, and they’re playing for free at Dundas Square on June 19th. Again, no big deal. I just squealed like a little girl when I saw it; that’s all.

Here’s a list of everyone’s who have been confirmed so far:

Deradoorian

It always sucks to read about events that you missed out on but there wasn’t much I could do about this year’s SXSW. I will begin planning my hitchhiking plans for next year though; something along the lines of when Sideshow Bob hung on for his dear life to the bottom of the Simpsons’ car in that one episode. Okay, maybe I need to work on my plan a bit.

Even though I missed out on amazing acts such as PJ Harvey, Camera Obscura and Dinosaur Jr. the band that I was most excited to read about was Toronto’s very own Rural Alberta Advantage (of which a blog accidentally called the Royal Alberta Advantage). Something tells me that the trio’s appearance at this year’s festivities will mark the beginning of something big. Already, they’re receiving fantastic praise from Pitchfork,Brooklyn Vegan and Paste Magazine and now everyone is asking the big question: Why are these guys not signed yet? Even Pitchfork has said “This band could be huge.” Well The RAA are already huge to me, but Pitchfork is right – they are going to be bigger. Congrats, guys!

In other news…

Passion Pit has cancelled their upcoming Canadian tour, so please disregard my news yesterday about Ruby Coast. That is a bummer. (Thanks to nowhere for the tip)

Camera Obscura is going to be back in town on June 27th at Lee’s Palace.

Gregory and the Hawk will be at the El Mocambo on May 2nd.

Metric will be making an appearance (and performing) at The Edge 102.1 studios (228 Yonge St.) on April 14th (the same day their new album, Fantasies will be released). They will also be making an in-store appearance at the HMV Superstore (on Yonge, near Dundas) on April 9th from 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm. And last but not least, according to ‘For the Records’, Metric and Holy Fuck are apparently going to be at the Mod Club on April 14th (via Beggars Group Canada) but there has been no mention of this elsewhere. I’ll keep you posted; if this is actually true though, it sounds very exciting!

Holy Fuck will be playing a free show this summer at Harbourfront, as part of the annual Beats, Breaks and Cultures Festival on July 10th.

John Richman and Vic Chesnutt will be at The Great Hall on June 25th.

Jay Reatard will be at the Mod Club on June 29th.

Deradoorian has a new song out called “You Carry The Deed”. Listen to it here!

More of a Dirty Projectors fan than Deradoorian? Well you can listen to their recent set at SXSW here!

Buck 65 has formed a new band called Bike For Three! The band will consist of the MC himself and Belgium’sJoelle Phuong Minh Le (Greeting From Tuskan). Read more about it here.

i(heart)music is offering up live mp3′s of Hannah Georgas’ recent Radio 2 concert. Download it here!

The French Kicks will be at the Horseshoe on April 27th. Tickets are $11.50.

According to their MySpace, Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees will be back in town on June 17th and 18th for NXNE. Excellent!

And for those in Mississauga (because I know you’re out there, reading this), the Mississauga Waterfront Festival will be taking place June 19-21 (unfortunately the same time frame as NXNE) this year at Port Credit Memorial Park. The first night will include Sam Roberts and Kathleen Edwards, with Spoons and 54-40 on the second and Bruce Cockburn and Hunter & Collectors’ Mark Seymour on the third.

And playing on Canada Day in M-town will be the one and only Sloan. Pending on the line up for Harbourfront’s Canada Day festivities (as I’m there EVERY year), I may actually be in Mississauga this year. Wow. (Again, thanks to ‘For the Records’ for the news)

Happy listening!

Musically,

Melody

Sloan

It confuses me slightly that, for a band that has been producing records for over a decade, I can still find very few friends that know of Sloan. I’m convinced that my particular cross-section is a skewed one indeed – after all, this is a band that has had almost yearly awards and nominations doled out in their name, courtesy of the East Coast Music Awards.

Last Thursday was my first Sloan concert, and, like the rest of the CMW festivities, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. A long-time Sloan fan, but only a recent adventurer into the deeper depths of the band’s back catalog, I found myself dwarfed by the other fans crowding the stage-front with me, mouthing lyrics and melodies with an eerie precision.

Yet, one of the best parts of the evening was just how well the fans enjoyed the evening’s two opening bands – Montreal’s Hexes & Ohs, and Will Currie and the Country French. While the two adopted a much different sound than the focus of the evening, those around me agreed that both bands were solid openers. While I was only able to catch the back half of Hexes & Ohs opening set, I could tell that the high-energy performance was even better than what I had witnessed at The Singing Lamb’s launch party.

Will Currie, meanwhile, was simply more fun than I had expected; the band’s excellent blend of piano-pop and catchy riffs actually managed to expand upon what is already an incredibly solid EP.

One thing that struck me in particular about Sloan was how much fun the band appears to have on stage; there were constant smiles all around, and an almost carefree execution from song to song. Opening with “Fading into Obscurity”, the band quickly moved into a thorough cross-section of hits, new and old, much to the delight of fans.

Meanwhile, fan favourites, like “Good in Everyone,” “People of the Sky,” “Other Man,” were littered amongst newer hits like “Cheap Champagne” and “Believe in Me”. One of Sloan’s greatest advantages is the fact that its members don’t quite take themselves all that seriously. Chris Murphy, Sloan’s main singer and bassist, made the most of every photo opportunity, posing and smiling for those snapping shots up front. Almost immediately after, Murphy changed gears entirely, embarking on a lighthearted and energetic temper-tantrum for “Not a Kid Anymore.”

If there’s one thing I have to give the members of Sloan credit for, it’s that everyone is involved in the creative process. This is a band that doesn’t simply limit themselves to their own instruments – in fact, there were about four points during show in which the band played musical chairs. The result gave the likes of Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson, and Andrew Scott the ability to perform their own songs and vocals as well.

The result was a selection of songs that drew from nearly every album in Sloan’s arsenal – including songs like Scott’s “I Hate My Generation” and Pentland’s “Money City Maniacs”.

There are often bands that you have to see live to fully understand, and I think last week convinced me of Sloan’s inclusion in this category. Don’t get me wrong, though – I’ve had Twice Removed and Navy Blues on constant repeat for the past week. Yet, there’s a very big difference between hearing the end result, and seeing a musical creation in progress.

The difference, you ask? I don’t think there’s an album that can properly emulate the amount of fun I had at last Thursday night’s concert. And I think you’d be hard pressed to find a band that recognizes this fact as much as Sloan.