Toronto Unplugged

Virgin Festival Toronto has unleashed an outstanding line-up. This blog will continue to examine the solid bill, but one act that has generated huge buzz is Bloc Party.
Bloc Party are an English indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke on vocals and rhythm guitar, Russell Lissack on lead guitar, Gordon Moakes on bass guitar and Matt Tong on the drums. The band formed in 1999 after Okereke and Lissack decided to form a band at the Reading Festival. They went through a variety of names, before settling on Bloc Party in 2003. Moakes joined the band after …read more

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Named after the song on David Bowie’s Hunky Dory, the Kooks met while attending Brighton Music College in the mid-2000s. Each shared a liking for the Police, the Strokes, the Everly Brothers, and Funkadelic, and the bandmates began funneling such influences into their own sweet and precocious sound in 2005. The Kooks’ debut full-length, Inside In/Inside Out, arrived in January 2006. The band is reportedly working on new material for a new album and will be ‘testing’ out new material at shows over the course of the summer.
The Kooks will be gracing Toronto with their presence on …read more

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Coldplay never intended to become England’s favorite band when their signature rock melodies ruled the charts throughout 2000. The Brit rock quartet — composed of Chris Martin (vocals/piano), Jon Buckland (guitar), Will Champion (drums), and Guy Berryman (bass) — yearned to mess around a bit, plucking their own acoustics for fun while attending the University College of London. All had been playing instruments since their early teens and had been influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Stone Roses, Neil Young, and My Bloody Valentine.
We’ve discussed before how British bands are revered in Toronto and Coldplay is no different.  They …read more

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Big concert announcement – The Raconteurs will be supported by The Sadies when they come to Toronto to play The Ricoh Coliseum on June 5th.
A self-described “new band made up of old friends,” the Raconteurs feature the White Stripes’ Jack White and power pop maestro Brendan Benson on vocals, keyboards, and guitars, and the Greenhornes’ drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence as the group’s rhythm section.
As if the gig wasn’t hyped enough…the addition of The Sadies adds a local flavour to the bill.  This isn’t one of those shows where you sneak in just in time for the headliner…this …read more

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It’s Monday…add a little crooner culture into your life.
All about the style, swagger, and sexy hip of the smooth-voiced singers from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s era of music and life.Crooner Culture is all about the style, swagger, and sexy hip of the smooth-voiced singers from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s era of music and life.
Two tracks from Crooner Culture that you should have on your iPod
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Some crooners, most notably Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby or Jean Sablon, incorporated other popular styles into their music, such as Blues, Dixieland and even …read more

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We got a few shots at The Verve concert at the Ricoh last week. While some are typical concert shots, this is from the ‘whoa trippy’ collection.
We will continue posting Verve Toronto pics as they come in.
The trippier the better…

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Big concert tomorrow night in the city – The Mars Volta will be playing the Sound Academy. The Mars Volta are a very cool band with a rockin’ smooth vibe.
The Mars Volta is an American Progressive rock group founded by Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López in 2001. They are generally considered progressive rock, with jazz and Latin influences. They are known for their wild, energetic and improvised live shows, as well as their usually concept-based studio albums.
The roots of The Mars Volta are found in the side project of At the Drive-In members Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez known …read more

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Hello Operator is a breakthrough band. They were called a “newsmaker” in Macleans magazine, and listed as “one of 12 bands to watch out for” by Canoe.ca after their exciting Canadian Music Week performance. Their video for Chasing Satellites has been in regular rotation on Much Music and Much Loud since November 2007 and have been featured on MTV Live.
The band just returned from an 8 week tour zig zagging across North America. Throughout the tour we would get random updates through msn, Facebook and email. Cameron’s Brewing is a big fan of the band and threw …read more

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This week we’re still pulling some key tracks from other blogs in the channel.  We are diversifying our portfolio so to speak.  Start out your day with some quality Jazz.  Some people don’t ‘get’ jazz.  Appreciation can be simple for jazz and any other genre – listen to it and pick out why it’s different from what you normally listen to.  For jazz, your mind will race at the complexity and magic of the sounds.  The Jazz and Blues Lounge is our online authority for Jazz and Blues and here are two key tracks.  Keeping with the jazz …read more

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We’re huge fans of British music.  Both Toronto Unplugged and I think Toronto (and most of Canada’s metropolitan areas) as a whole.  There is a shared vibe.  We dig their sound and they seem to catch on to Canadian artists and bands before anywhere else.
Brother blogger Dave at Brit Music Scene has just posted two somewhat mellow tracks that are recent releases to the British Music Scene.
Have a listen an do let us know what you think.  This is an audience participation show…
Brit Music Scene | The Feeling | Duffy | Listen Here
Image Credit:  Amazon
 

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