Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to score a ticket to Andy Kim's annual Christmas show at the Mod Club. It's a great event to get that sense of the holidays - musicians giving their time to come together, play some music, all for the sake of charity and friendship. This year, the proceeds were going to the Regent Park School of Music, "one of Toronto's foremost independent non-profit community music school with a mandate to provide a safe and secure environment where inner-city young people can participate in an affordable after-school music program. "
And what a great mix of a line-up. Andy Kim, iconic Canadian singer-songwriter, known best for writing "Sugar Sugar' for The Archies and singing his own hits like "Rock Me Gently". He was joined by a great band, including Derek Downham, a local musican who's immense talent is only surpassed by his willingness to give of himself. Andy Kim hosted and sang all night, and damned if it wasn't fun to sing along with him at the top of your lungs.
Andy Kim's show always manages to draw together a collection of local indie musicians and Canadian musical stalwarts. Among the performers that night were The Beauties, Broken Social Scene, Gentleman Reg, and Kim Mitchell. A lot of talented folks there. Most turned in 2 or 3 song sets, with Andy and the band coming out to play a few songs between sets. A highlight was a moving tribute video to the recently passed Haydain Neale that had the room enraptured and more than a few in tears.
Here are some highlight videos:
The Beauties cover the classic Pogues tune "Fairytale of New York", with Samantha Martin playing Kirsty MacColl to Shawn Creamer's Shane MacGowan.
Broken Social Scene grooving on "Love Is New".
Broken Social Scene opened their 3-song set wanting to give the crowd a holiday tune, so they rolled out the new tune "Sweetest Kill". It was fun to see them rock a room full of CFRB listeners and staffers.
The finale saw Andy Kim leading the crowd in "Rock Me Gently", joined by members of Broken Social Scene and The Beauties. Everyone was just having a blast
I usually grumble at this time of year at how slow I seem to gather my holiday spirit, but the Andy Kim show was the tonic for that. The good will, charity, and energy of the musicians and the fans who made it out that night was infectious. Hopefully that'll rub off on the crowd as they go out into their lives, giving a little more of themselves than usual.
Wow! Canadian record label Arts & Crafts is handing out a treat. Until Halloween, you can download Timber Timbre's ridiculously good self-titled album Timber Timbre for free.
From now until midnight on Saturday October 31, 2009, you can download the entire breakthrough, critically acclaimed, self-titled album Timber Timbre for FREE.
We encourage you to listen to the album that KCRW (where you can hear them live this Wednesday October 28) raves, "Timber Timbre takes on the topic of love but presents it in a cloak of macabre beauty that is perfect for the Halloween season. Songs full of eerie sounds, dark imagery and ghoulish lyrics will make for a spellbinding session on Morning Becomes Eclectic."
A long-list nominee for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize, Timber Timbre was heralded by the Canadian press since its release this summer on Arts & Crafts. Playing CMJ last week, Time Out New York wrote that Timber Timbre was "the standout act" describing their set as "powerfully dark, even eerie folk tracks (which) managed to keep the crowd positively awed.” The Village Voice called them a "uniquely creepy beauty".
Click the link above to discover (for free!!) the album Toronto's Eye Weekly has already called, "The Album Of the Year".
Just in time for fall, and definitely an album that serves as a ideal soundtrack for this time of year.
When the Polaris Prize shortlist was announced, one of the most glaring omissions, at least from the folks I talk to, was Timber Timbre's album. Just follow this link to the Timber Timbre's site and download one of the most acclaimed Canadian albums of the past year: FREE Timber Timbre album
Timber Timbre's touring around a bit right now. The next Toronto date is part of the up and coming "Make Some Noise" festival at the North York Central Library, part of a terrific movement to place more Canadian music into public libraries. Timber Timbre and Bruce Peninsula play at North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge St. (North York Centre subway) on Saturday, November 7, at 8 p.m.
The rest of the tour dates are here, with stops in Los Angeles, New York and the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield QC.
The Tom Fun Orchestra hit Toronto on Thursday night for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern. Get into the mood for their raucous live show with this charming animated video for "Throw Me To The Rats". If you need more of a Tom Fun fix (or can't manage to part with the $8 cover), you can also see the Tom Fun Orchestra play a game of "how many musicians can we fit on a stage" tomorrow as the band perform at a free in-store gig at Criminal Records on Queen Street West at 6pm.
"I’ve got my rum & I’ve got my tequila, I’ve got somewhere to be"
If your last name is Fun, you better live up to it. And if you're fronting an eight-piece gang of musicians from Cape Breton, you best know how to get the feet movin' boy. A couple tracks into their debut album You Will Land With A Thud and I knew I wanted to be in any live venue where The Tom Fun Orchestra was holding court.
The Tom Fun Orchestra hail from Canada's east coast, and you can hear the Celtic-Maritimer heart pounding a beat through every song, a mix of camaraderie, pride, and joy. The TFO seems on the brink of a musical riot, with this banjo, trumpet, violin, accordion and guitars. But it just lends itself to this feeling like being at a kitchen party where everyone's brought an instrument. Everything seem nice and civil at first. There's the slow exhale of an accordion, the harmonic pairing of a violin and trumpet. Banjos and guitar join in, picking up locomotive speed, things get more boisterous, and by the time singer Tom Fun's whiskey and sandpaper voice leads the charge, the party's in full swing, you're spinning a dance with your new best friends, and barely notice nor care that your dining room set ended up in the street.
The TFO has developed a bit of a rep for a raucous live show, and you can hear that joyous din on You Will Land With A Thud. The opening track is a slow lament, “When You Were Mine”, but by the second track “Rum & Tequila”, you've turned your back on your troubles and found music to drive the feet and choruses that will have you singing back at the band. It's an album of bold music that's best heard loudly, and in good company. The song lyrics read like poetry scrawled in a yellowed note book, sometimes a rallying shout, sometimes warm comfort against cold regrets.
The Tom Fun Orchestra is closing out their summer tour with a number of dates in Southern Ontario and Montreal:
31 Jul 2009 - Montreal House - Peterborough, Ontario 1 Aug 2009 - Phog Lounge - Windsor, Ontario 3 Aug 2009 - The Casbah - Hamilton, Ontario 4 Aug 2009 - Vinyl - Guelph, Ontario 6 Aug 2009 - The Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, Ontario 7 Aug 2009 - Merritt Park - Welland, Ontario 8 Aug 2009 - Divan Orange - Montreal, Quebec
Contest: I have a 2 tickets to The Tom Fun Orchestra at The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto on Thursday August 6th, plus a CD copy of You Will Land With A Thud.
To enter, email me at the2scoops.contests AT gmail.com with the subject line: “I want some Tom Fun”, along with your full name and email in the body. Deadline is 11:59 pm on Monday, August 3rd. Please be sure you're able to be in Toronto that night. It promises to be a great night of music with Toronto band The Coast opening – I'm always glad for a chance to hear those guys play live.
If you're a fan of kitchen parties, The Pogues, Spirit of The West or The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, or ever wondered what would have happened if Tom Waits grew up as an East Coast Canadian, check out The Tom Fun Orchestra.
Broken Social Scene has always been my Toronto soundtrack. Their music intersects with a lot of positive memories and stories of my life in Toronto. And the band has always shown a little extra love for the place many of them call home. When Broken Social Scene canceled their Toronto Island gig for various logistical reasons, they immediately offered up a free show as compensation. A pretty sweet treat, and the location threw me back to the last time I saw them at Harbourfront in 2004. As covered in The Book Is Broken, that show was rumoured that it was going to be their final gig, even announced as such by the band. Fortunately it was just the moment they needed to take a time-out and, though the future wasn't clear for the band at the end of that 2004 summer show, it's come back into focus in recent years.
The day of the gig, word got out that director, Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments), in collaboration with Arts & Crafts, would be filming the show for a new feature film called THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN starring Broken Social Scene. Written by Don McKellar (Last Night, the series Twitch City) the film looks to be that centers around a couple who attend a Broken Social Scene show, but the heart of the film would appear to be the concert at Harbourfront on Saturday night. I'm picturing the concert and love story playing out simultaneously on screen, with the multiple split screens like McDonald used in The Tracey Fragments. So okay, Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar, and Broken Social Scene are a personal trifecta of Canadian content brilliance. I can't be biased, this was going to be pretty damned good.
By the time I arrived, the venue was already full and I claimed a spot around the perimeter of the Sirius stage. Decent sightlines, and they crowds kept coming. I had found out through the band's Twitter feed that Metric was in town, so I'm thinking "all right, Jimmy Shaw and Emily Haines are likely to play tonight, going to be a good show".
The Rattlesnake Choir warmed up the show, a favourite band of Kevin's who regualrly play The Dakota Tavern. And then the show started, and it was all Broken Social Scene at their best, with the founding line-up on stage.
My first surprise came when Feist came out on the 3rd song, 7/4 Shoreline, and she was pumped to be there. I don't think she stopped the whole show, a whirling dervish of Muppety singing and energy.
Amy Millan (Stars) came out shortly after, and by the time Emily Haines (Metric) came out, we had the 3 original women of Broken Social Scene. And given each of them is in the midst of either touring or prepping a new release, it's a special night to see all 3 singing on stage together like the old days.
So even though I expected Emily Haines to appear, I was still knocked out when she led Broken Social Scene through this slowed down version of Metric's big hit “Give Me Sympathy”
Finally, Jason Collett, fresh from opening at for Steve Earle at Massey Hall earlier that evening, arrived. Here he was playing one of my favourite summer songs, 5 years after I first heard him play it at Harbourfront 2004.
I put the camera down long enough to take it in. This was the full damned line-up of Broken Social Scene out in full force. There was Andrew Whiteman, Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, Kevin Drew, Jimmy Shaw and Evan Cranley jamming away. Lisa Lobsinger was singing, Julie Penner on violin. Jason, Emily, Feist, Amy were all there. So many others, and brass and drums and guitars, more guitars. This was a pretty special night, and it surely was the largest collection of Broken Social Scene members in one place at one time. And I'd seen a number of Broken Social Scene concerts, but there was something extra out there Saturday night. And then they dog piled onto this classic from their album “You Forgot It In People”, effortlessly passing the ball back and forth through the song with a riotous joy.
(I love it when Feist can't stop herself and starts air guitaring. I mean, the bands been playing this song for 7 years, and it still gets them charged up)
Speaking of classics, there is a new rule as suggested by the blog It's Not The Band I Hate, It's The Fans. No offence to any singers in Broken Social Scene, but “Anthems for A Seventeen Year Old Girl” shouldn't be performed without Emily Haines present. I can't imaging anyone but Emily singing this song.
And just when you thought we reached the finale, the band continued into the endless encore (Kevin: “We finished 20 minutes early. I owe Brendan $20”). And man, it was moving to hear Brendan Canning dedicate an encore song to Martin Streek, the legendary Toronto DJ who took his own life earlier that week. What followed was a repeating cycle of “Meet Me In The Basement” that saw Broken Social Scene play each refrain louder and louder, celebratory and defiant.
By the end, it seemed like they hit every favourite in the catalogue. Two hours of music, and what struck me was that, seeing up to 19 players on stage at once, many of whom have played together for years and some at least a decade, Broken Social Scene looked like they were having the time of their lives. And the crowd was urged to shout their lungs out and scream apologies and declarations of love into the Toronto summer night. The screams echo into the night, as Broken Social Scene said thank-you and good-night farewell, until we meet again in the streets, in the market, in the bars, in the city.
Broken Social Scene are currently recording their new album in Chicago.
This Movie Is Broken is currently in production. There's a call for submissions of footage of summertime in Toronto, with film credits and invitations to screenings as prizes. Click here to check out the details.
Setlist: Kevy Key Jam/ Fire Eye'd Boy / 7/4 (Shoreline) /Love Is New/Chameleon / Amy's Song / Feist & Kev's Song Medley / Gimme Sympathy / I'll Bring the Sun / Soul Unwind /Almost Crimes / MTV Jam / New Country /Anthems For a 17 Year Old Girl / Bandwitch / Frightening Lives
Encore: Pacific Theme/ Meet Me In The Basement / KC Accidental / Major Label Debut
I'm a fan of the Polaris Music Prize. It's Canadian, it rewards musicians for artistic merit regardless of sales numbers, and it draws attention to music that isn't usually regarded as commercial. In addition to the $20,000 prize, nominated bands benefit from the exposure this national contest garners. Tuesday morning, the jury selected long-list of 40 albums will be cut to 10 albums vying for the prize.
Tune in to CBC Radio 3 online or on Sirius 86, as host Grant Lawrence broadcasts Tuesday morning from 7:00am - 9:00am PST/ 10:00am - 12:00pm EST with the shortlist announcement livefrom the Drake Hotel in Toronto.
This is only the 4th year, but we already have a number of artists who've been nominated previously, like Junior Boys and Metric. And anybody has a shot at this, regardless of genre. Past winners like Final Fantasy and Caribou defy any one classification as it is.
I can only base my picks on what I've heard this year, so just because it's not one of my picks doesn't mean it isn't an amazing artists you should check out. I'm annoyed I haven't gotten to check out the albums from $100 or Hey Rosetta's yet. Here's my best guess picks, based on merit and the impression these artists have made live and on record:
This year my money's on K'Naan to win it. His new album is drumming up lots of well-deserved praise, with a stirring performance at NPR's Showcase at the SXSW festival. Feels like it's his year to be critic's choice. My own pick would be Joel Plaskett. Putting out 3 albums worth of music in one shot is an impressive feat, but putting out 3 albums worth of well written songsmusic is award worthy.
Updated: The list is out The 2009 Polaris Music Prize Short List.:
Elliott BROOD - Mountain Meadows (Toronto, ON) Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life (Toronto, ON) Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels (Toronto, ON) Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood) (St. John's, NF) K'NAAN – Troubadour (Toronto, ON) Malajube – Labyrinthes (Montréal, QC) Metric – Fantasies (Toronto, ON) Joel Plaskett – Three (Halifax, NS) Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane (Calgary, AB) Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms (Montréal, QC)
I managed to get 6 out of 10, plus my honourary mention in there. Congratulations to all the competitors. More later.
The winner will be voted on by the jury and announced at the Polaris Prize gala on September 21st.
Oh Canada, what a country to have such talent in it. Gone to bed, happy and with new list of bands you should listen to more often. Like these fine folks who make such wonderful music, from the lush harmonies of Woodpigeon's to Novillero's infectious energy to the pop-bomb of awesome that is Said The Whale:
Checking in from the NXNE festival - some shots on the go from the Outlaws & Gunslingers Showcase at Lee's Palace. Full write-up and pictures after the fest ends.
There's a moment where your standing in some dimly lit club with no air conditioning, packed in with a crowd, wondering what you're doing there. Then the band shambles onto the stage, hit those first notes, and you know you're going to want to hear this music for the rest of your life. That moment happens again and again at NXNE.
The Coast performing at The Horseshoe NXNE 2008
NXNE is a music festival designed to get bands exposure to audiences and media, with dozens of venues all over Toronto playing host to hundreds of bands. And all you need is one $50 wristband to grant you access to the whole festival, with most venues having event liquor licenses that will keep the drinks flowing until 4am.
Last year I took in the festival over 3 nights in Toronto. 3 hot, sticky, at times wet nights. And it was all fantastic. I managed to only see 8 bands (I was aiming for at least a dozen), but every band I saw gave a fantastic performances that won me over: The Coast, The Wet Secrets, The Great Lake Swimmers, Laura Barrett, Royal Wood, The Two Koreas, The High Dials, The D'Ubervilles. I've bought albums from every one of these bands after I got hooked at NXNE and I look forward to the next time I get to see them play.
You have a few ways to go with the festival:
Pick out a number of bands spread across town, dashing from venue to venue and hope to avoid any line-ups. Make some back-up choices just in case the venue hits capacity.
Show up at venues without checking out the line-up and get surprised by bands getting by on talent without any expectations.
Pick one of the stellar showcases, go early and plant yourself there for the entire night.
This year I'm going with option 3. Asides from planning to see some great bands, my not-so-secret goal is to work on my concert photography hobby, get some exposure, and build a portfolio for when I start applying for media passes.
Here's what my schedule looks like:
Wednesday is the kick-off, and already I'm pulled in 2 directions.
And special guest headliner, which judging from the line-up is most likely Broken Social Scene
Across town, City Sonic is hosting the official NXNE Gala after-party at The Drake. City Sonic is producing short films about musicians and their connections to the places where they first played. They'll be screening 5 of the short films at The Drake that night, with a hot dance music line-up:
With a surprise guest headliner, which could be anyone from Metric (in town for Edgefest?) to Modest Mouse really. Most likely it's a band on the Arts & Crafts roster.
I'm parking myself at the outstanding Six Shooter Records/Starfish Entertainment Starfish presentations OUTLAWS & GUNSLINGERS SHOWCASE at Lee's Palace on Thursday, June 19 @ 8pm. The line-up has all the makings of a helluva good time, with a roots-rock-country flavour. And beer. And a poster suitable for framing.
Finally, Saturday is a long haul. I'm planning to hit the Six Shooter Back Lot BBQ in the afternoon. It's 2pm - 6pm in the lot behind their store at 1118 Queen Street East. These folks put on a great party every year, this time in cahoots with Steamwhistle Brewing and Damzels in Distress. Music all afternoon with hosts NQ Arbuckle, other guest spots include performances by Rose Cousins, Royal Wood, Jenn Grant, Michael Rault, Jason Plumb, Victoria Hume, Martin Tielli, Luke Doucet, Justin Rutledge, and The Beauties, plus the grand opening of Beth Hamill's photography exhibit, Rock Paper Pixels. Beth's blog and pictures have been a favourite of mine for ages and I can only aspire to be that good one day. It's a good day to celebrate
Celebrate Joel Plaskett's inclusion on the Polaris Prize long-list with this new video for Through & Through & Through, off his triple-album "Three". Great summertime music and harmony, travelling through the Nova Scotian scenery with Rose Cousins and Ana Egge. Where do I sign up for that vacation package?
, that show was rumoured that it was going to be their final gig, even announced as such by the band. Fortunately it was just the moment they needed to take a time-out and, though the future wasn't clear for the band at the end of that 2004 summer show, it's come back into focus in recent years.
". Great summertime music and harmony, travelling through the Nova Scotian scenery with Rose Cousins and Ana Egge. Where do I sign up for that vacation package?
.jpg)