Toronto Unplugged

Most may know Toronto’s historic Fort York for the annual beer festival…most might not remember any of it, but that’s standard. The Rogers Picnic has declared Fort York home for their annual bash celebrating great music. This year’s bash will feature New York’s Vampire Weekend.
In case you missed Vampire Weekend when they were last in Toronto at their crazily hyped show at the Horseshoe Tavern, this is a chance to see them at another unique (although much larger) venue.
The other acts at this year’s Rogers Picnic includes Animal Collective, Cat Power, Dizzee Rascal, Tokyo Police Club, Born Ruffians, …read more

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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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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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It’s officially playoff time in the NBA and our Toronto Raptors will take on the Orlando Magic in the first round. Although this is a music blog, it is also a Toronto blog and for the most part, we hold our sports just as high as our music.
Last week, Chris Bosh pleaded with the fans in this video to take the ACC to the next level with regards to noise and fan support. Home court advantage is only an advantage if it is an intimidating venue for other teams. Chris made it out to a few Toronto …read more

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(Image Credit: Run With The Kittens)
While driving home the other night I heard the Run With The Kittens interview on the Edge with Barry Taylor. As many of you know, I’ve been a Kittens fan for quite a while. Their weekly Tuesday night residency at the Cameron House is always worth checking out. Last summer they played the Toronto Beer Fest and Cameron’s Brewing 10th Anniversary Party. Quite simply, the band puts on a show…regardless of how many people there are in the audience.
Lead singer Nate Mills has the rocks to wail not matter what …read more

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Somewhat local musician Caribou is getting ready to kick off a two night stint at Lee’s Palace. From Dundas Ontario (and also the title track from Caribou’s album) Dan Snaith leads psychedelic, indie electronic, dream pop, math rock jams.
Snaith, who previously went by the show name Manitoba, had to change his name due to a lawsuit brought upon by American Richard ‘Handsome Dick’ Manitoba.
So why Caribou? Snaith says he picked the name while on LSD with some friends in the Canadian wilderness.
Caribou gigs are bright, visually pleasing and funky. What better way to spend Easter weekend …read more

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Couple solid shows that have just been announced…
If you’ve missed MGMT on their previous Toronto jaunts, this upcoming MOD CLUB show will be a good chance to catch them as they hit the tipping point. MGMT will be at the MOD CLUB on Tuesday April 15th – Tickets are only 11 beans.

As we’ve mentioned before, The Opera House is a fantastic spot to catch an energetic show and Tokyo Police Club always lives up to that bill. TPC will rock the Opera House on Friday May 2nd – Tickets are 16 bucks
Great spring shows…check em out.

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Working away today listening to CBC Radio 3 and caught their live feed from SXSW.
Grant Lawrence was on site (or was he…) at the outdoor stage at Emo’s.
Radio 3 shot the feed through all the snow to us Canadians. The line-up was canuck heavy and featured….
The Most Serene Republic from Milton, ON – proud home of astronaut Chris Hadfield…you will be reminded of it everywhere in Milton
The Shout Out Louds from Stockholm Sweden (not sure how many astronauts have come from Sweden…feel free to weigh in)
One of …read more

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It’s always fun watching bands creep into stardom. Bell X1 have been making music for years. Their latest (and third) album Flock was just released in North America and is quickly getting passed around with praise.
The band’s name (the merit often debated) derives from the film and book The Right Stuff. The Bell X1 was a supersonic research project and designed to be the first aircraft to breal the speed of sound. The band was drawn to it for it’s “naive discovery”
Jet setting from Ireland, the band is currently playing the El Mocambo and I expect …read more

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This was one of the nights many in the city were looking forward to…including us. The line-up consisted of a diverse mostly Canadian line-up stretching from Coast to Coast.
Vancouver’s own Said the Whale are gaining a loyal following across the Country with their acoustic pop/rock sound.
Toronto’s White Cowbell Oklahoma play some of the wildest and craziest gigs of any band with onstage antics that include chainsaws, strippers, bear suits and rivers of Jager.
And there was a great buzz around this 9-piece band from Sydney Nova Scotia called The Tom Fun Orchestra. Everyone seems to have a tough time …read more

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