According to CBC’s Chris Boyce, the goal of this weekend’s CBCMusic.ca Festival is twofold. First and foremost, the CBC wants to celebrate Canadian music. Second, it wants to celebrate CBC Music, the broadcaster’s online music service, which launched a little over a year ago.

In 1996, Theatre Columbus premiered playwright Michael O’Brien’s “freely adapted” take on the famous Beaumarchais play The Barber of Seville, which was written in 1775. O’Brien’s version mixed in music from the 1816 opera of the same name by Gioachino Rossini, as well as original tunes by composer John Millard. The adaptation also propelled the story forward a couple centuries, with pop culture references galore. With Theatre Columbus co-founder Leah Cherniak at the helm, the musical ended the season with six Dora Award nominations (it won three) and plenty of critical acclaim.

Seventeen years later, Soulpepper Theatre is remounting this zany reimagination of The Barber of Seville, updated once again by O’Brien, Millard, and Cherniak. But, for some reason—the change in decade, or company, or sense of humour—whatever had made the original so magical, has faded, save for a few key performances.

Diamond Rings is really, really tall when you see him up close.

Now that Canadian Music Week is over, here are reviews of the shows we managed to see in the last three days of the festival. Most of them were pretty good.

2013 SiriusXM Indie Awards
FROM: Everywhere
PERFORMED: Friday March 22, 8 p.m. at the Kool Haus

Canailles bring some Franco-fun to The Indies.

Pre-Show Hype: High. The Indies are arguably the centerpiece of CMW.

Performance: Very mixed. On the one hand, most of the bands put on great performances. Metric showed why it’s one of Canada’s most successful bands with a tight, dynamic set. Diamond Rings and Cold Specks cemented their status as two of the brighter young lights in the country’s music scene. And, despite being given an almost disrespectfully short set, Cadence Weapon managed to bring his trademark high-energy stage presence. (Matt Mays also played. We seriously do not understand the appeal of Matt Mays. Can anyone explain it to us?)

On the other hand, the actual awards show was almost alarmingly bad. Host/SiriusXM Canada Programming Director Jeff Leake dropped a series of jokes that were either lead-balloon unfunny or incredibly sexist. (At one point he claimed to have groped a member of Hunter Valentine, and implied that most of the audience would like to have sex with Carly Rae Jepsen.) On top of that, the awards were almost comically un-indie. Artists like Jepsen, Taylor Swift, and Mumford and Sons all won things, although none of them were on hand to accept.

Best Moment: French-language Emerging Artist of the Year winners Canailles, who infuse traditional Quebecois folk music with a punk-like energy and alternating male-female vocals. They were almost completely unknown to the Anglophone crowd when they went on the stage, but had earned dozens, possibly hundreds, of new fans by the time they were done.

Miscellaneous: Cold Specks is a great singer, but seemingly terrified of speaking in public. She responded to winning Female Artist of the Year by saying about three words and power walking off stage.

Verdict: This is an awards show without a purpose. When you’re called “The Indies,” but many of your winners are major-label-backed megastars, you need to rethink what you’re doing.

Savages
FROM: London, England
PERFORMED: Friday March 22, 11:10 p.m. at the Horseshoe Tavern

Pre-Show Hype: Very, very high. The Canadian debut of this British all-girl post-punk rock foursome was one of the buzziest events of all Canadian Music Week. The Horseshoe was packed tight, even though the group’s first full-length album isn’t due out until May.

Performance: In a rare occurrence, the real thing lived up to the hype. Dressed in matching all-black attire, the group rocked the Shoe with their highly acclaimed A-side tracks “Flying to Berlin” and “Husbands” (a high-energy finale), along with other highlights like “She Will” and “Shut Up.” Lead singer Jehnny Beth bellowed, wailed, and intensely glared at the crowd, while guitarist Gemma Thompson looked straight at the ground, bassist Ayse Hassan kept her eyes closed completely, and drummer Fay Milton was lost in whatever mental state lets her move her arms that much. They weren’t much for stage banter, but that would have only gotten in the way of the music.

Best Moment: Jehnny Beth’s finale to “I Am Here” will go down in the books.

Miscellaneous: As one particularly vocal fan professed his love for each of the Savages, we caught only one eye roll, from Beth.

Verdict: Savagely cool.

Mac Demarco
FROM: Vancouver, British Columbia
PERFORMED: Friday March 22, 1 a.m. at Sneaky Dee’s

Pre-Show Hype: Heavy. Demarco’s 2012 solo LP debut, 2, was critically acclaimed, and his live shows are already notorious: Exclaim described them as “raunchfests.”

Performance: Demarco didn’t disappoint. More happened in his 40-minute set than in a day at most festivals. There was stage diving, crowdsurfing, and moshing. A fistfight broke out briefly, and one of his band members was ejected by security, near the end, for lighting up on stage. Through it all, Demarco remained chipper and composed. He battled through early feedback to deliver a great show.

Best Moment: For his set closer, “Together,” Demarco pulled a woman out of the crowd, serenaded her, made out with her, and eventually crowdsurfed with her while locked in a tight embrace. Fans probably recognized her as longtime girlfriend “Sweet Kiki,” but most in the crowd (including us, at the time) probably assumed she was a random fan.

Miscellaneous: There were several covers in the set, including Weezer’s “Undone: The Sweater Song,” a medley of Ramstein’s “Du Hast,” Rob Zombie’s “Dragula,” “The Little Drummer Boy,” and BTO’S “Takin’ Care of Business.” Demarco made them his own with expletive-laced verses.

Verdict: Demarco’s a consummate entertainer, and he’ll be back in Toronto soon, no doubt. Unless you’re put off by dirty jokes, we’d highly recommend attending.

Suuns
FROM: Montreal, Quebec
PERFORMED: Friday March 22, 1 a.m. at Lee’s Palace

Pre-Show Hype: High. With Savages’ second CMW show at midnight and Suuns taking the stage at 1 a.m., the lineup outside Lee’s Palace formed early. It’s been a while since Toronto got a live show from our favourite Montreal psychedelic-electronic-rock band, and it has been missed.

Performance: Suuns still delivers one incredible live show. The band’s layered, twisted, and distorted melodies seem to emanate directly from the bodies of members Ben Shemie, Joe Yarmush, Max Henry, and Liam O’Neill. Their set list included some new songs from their sophomore album, Images du futur (like “20/20″ and “Edie’s Dream”), but it focused mainly on oldies (if tracks from 2010 count as oldies) like “Up Past the Nursery,” “Arena,” “Pie IX,” “Armed for Peace,” and “PVC.”

Best Moment: After what felt like an incredibly short set, the audience erupted into cheers for an encore there was no time for. The applause would probably still be happening if Yarmush hadn’t told everyone to stop.

Miscellaneous: Lead singer Shemie and keyboardist/guitarist Henry could probably duel for weirdest face while playing music. Shemie would win.

Verdict: Still a band that will confuse you while delighting you and also turning you on.

Blood Ceremony
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: March 23, 9:20 p.m. at the Danforth Music Hall

Pre-Show Hype: Less than deserved. Blood Ceremony is always completely captivating live, with an incomparable energy and vibe. The group deserves far more mainstream recognition.

Performance: Great. Blood Ceremony has a strong, inimitable aesthetic, which was showcased brilliantly at this show. Fat, fuzzy riffs and urgent bass lines drove the energy forward, while frontwoman Alia O’Brien commanded the set with her extraordinary charisma. As much ritual as performance, Blood Ceremony’s time on stage proved conclusively that there need to be more flute solos at metal shows.

Best Moment: The extraordinary rendition of “My Demon Brother,” delivered with a snarl and a wink.

Miscellaneous: This show was solid proof that ’70s-inspired occult rock, mixed with a little doom metal heaviness, can be an irresistible combination in the right hands.

Verdict: Excellent. The members of Blood Ceremony are inveterate show-stealers, going for broke at every single live performance. This was no exception.

Austra
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: Saturday March 23, 9:20 p.m. at the Danforth Music Hall

Pre-Show Hype: Solid. This show served as the consolation prize for everyone who didn’t manage to get tickets to Nick Cave. It didn’t disappoint.

Performance: Very Good. Clad in a boiler suit, Katie Stelmanis was unquestionably the focal point of the night. She split her time between the keyboard and the mic, filling the Danforth Music Hall with her soaring, ethereal vocals. Austra played several new tracks, and the effervescent energy and swirling complexity of them speaks very well of the group’s forthcoming album, Olympia. It was a dark, dramatic, and entirely compelling set.

Best Moment: During a performance of Austra’s fantastic new single, “Home,” Blood Ceremony’s Alia O’Brien joined the band on stage.

Miscellaneous: While electronic music often gets dismissed for being light and airy, Austra served as an excellent example of a moody, spooky, and compelling take on the genre.

Verdict: At once dark and celebratory, Austra generated a great deal of buzz for their sophomore effort while also casting a dark and dazzling spell over the audience.

Donovan Woods
FROM: Sarnia, Ontario
PERFORMED: Saturday March 23, 10 p.m. at The Central

Donovan Woods folks things up at The Central.

Pre-Show Hype: With Woods’s third EP (Don’t Get Too Grand) dropping tomorrow, there was a palpable feeling that this was sort of an ad-hoc release party, at least for several of the audience members already seated in the Central’s main space. Of course, that sense of devotion faded as soon as the upstairs crowd worked its way toward the bar, ordering shots at the top of their Saturday-night lungs. During quiet, intimate acoustic sets like Woods’s, some Toronto audiences need to figure out the difference between “inside voice” and “outside voice.”

Performance: Smooth, tight, and in many ways, fluidly emotional. Woods is the kind of singer-songwriter who can actually make a song about drinking gasoline come across as a narrative about human vulnerability; not a joke. That said, humour remains an important part of Woods’s performances. He laces his country and folk stylings with sarcastic, dry asides.

Best Moment: Watching Woods get into it with a few of the louder, more boisterous audience members in attendance. He laughed warmly when a guy took a shot, threw up the “horns,” and told the singer that he was “killing it.”

Miscellaneous: In the two years since NOW Magazine voted Donovan Woods Toronto’s best singer-songwriter, the Sarnia-bred performer has yet to live that honour down.

Verdict: Woods came off as a slightly more polished version of Damien Jurado, another singer-songwriter with a knack for making dark, occasionally painful themes very palatable. Definitely an 8, and that’s being a little conservative.

BadBadNotGood
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: Saturday March 23, 12 a.m. at the Horseshoe Tavern

BadBadNotGood are actually excellent.

Pre-Show Hype: Well, let’s just put it this way: with the lineup snaking around the front of the Horseshoe Tavern, we very nearly didn’t get in—and we heard more than a few of our line-mates saying how much it would suck to miss BadBadNotGood.

Performance: Some of the best CMW shows introduce you to new performers entirely. We’re a little ashamed to admit that this was our first time seeing the group live since it formed at Humber College in 2010. It eventually became clear that these three young hip-hop and jazz afficionados clearly inhabit their own category, top to bottom.

Best Moment: Evidence of the above: when the stagediving began.

Miscellaneous: BadBadNotGood? More like GoodGoodVeryExcellent.

Verdict: We’d tell you to go see these guys immediately before they blow the hell up, but considering the group’s recent collaborations with performers like Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator, and Frank Dukes, we’re late to that party. This performance was a 9.

oOoOO
FROM: San Francisco, California
PERFORMED: Saturday March 23, 1 a.m. at The Garrison

Pre-Show Hype: Medium. People definitely knew he was coming, but it’s hard to tell how excited they were about it.

Performance: oOoOO stands up fairly well in live performance. He’s not a crowd-hyping, hands-above-your head type of producer, but his sound is impressive when recreated live through a club’s PA system. His Southern hip-hop influences also become even more apparent when you see him in person. (At times the set was less witch house and more molasses-slow trap music.)

Best Moment: When people began rapping along with the vocal sample in “CoachBagg.”

Miscellaneous: oOoOO’s performance was inexplicably tacked on to the Indie Montreal showcase.

Verdict: oOoOO may be hard to Google, but it’s still worth checking out.

Mozart’s Sister
FROM: Montreal, Quebec
PERFORMED: Saturday March 23, 1 a.m. at The Comfort Zone

Mozart’s Sister plays The Comfort Zone.

Pre-Show Hype: High. Caila Thompson-Hannant had just had a strong showing at SXSW, and the buzz over her new Hello EP is constant, spearheaded by Pitchfork and local blog Silent Shout (who were producing the showcase she was headlining here).

Performance: Much improved since we first saw her at NXNE 2012. Then, she was playing great (though bare-bones) tunes, but much of Thompson-Hannant’s focus at that time was on the tech in front of her. With the backing tracks fleshed out, this time she spent much more of her set dancing. She expressed this new confidence between songs, as well, giving the crowd tips: “If you’re liked by your friends, you should like yourself.”

Best Moment: “Who wants to dance onstage with me? It’s sexy dancing, though.” A half dozen enthusiastic grinders formed the backdrop for a new Mozart’s Sister tune about buying duty free when depressed.

Miscellaneous: “Who wants to be on my new record?” The audience cheers lustily. “Yes, that will suffice for a sample.”

Verdict: Great fun, and still on our must-see list.

Shout Out Out Out Out
FROM: Edmonton, Alberta
PERFORMED: Saturday March 22, 1:30 a.m. at The Horseshoe

Shout Out Out Out Out may be the best thing to come out of Edmonton since the early ’80s Oilers.

Pre-Show Hype: When we finally made it into the Horseshoe, nearly every conversation we could overhear fixed in some way on the boys from Edmonton, Shout Out Out Out Out. Their shows, we gathered, are the musical equivalent of mountain climbing or something: everybody we spoke with referred to a past concert, the buckets of sweat they left on the ground at that performance, the volume, and how this show was going to compare to that last musical summiting, so to speak. The buzz was definitely more of a tectonic rumbling.

Performance: Every band frontman will tell local audiences that the show he just played was the best of the tour, like clockwork. But when members of Shout told their CMW Saturday night crowd that they had been on tour for a month, and that this was the single best night yet, you got the feeling they were being sincere. Maybe it was the hoarse, elated exhaustion with which it was said, or maybe it was the fact that one of the band’s two drummers was wearing an audience member’s clothes. Whatever the case, Shout called Toronto their “home away from home.” In those terms, their grateful toast to the crowd from the stage at the Horseshoe really did seem like a drink between friends.

Best Moment: There were two, really. On the stage, Shout in all its bass-slamming, synth-heavy glory. On the floor, a mosh pit, occasionally shirtless. It’s like Saturday night at the Horseshoe reached a critical mass the moment Shout went up, and nobody recovered. Not even the band.

Miscellaneous: At one point, Shout apologized to the crowd for the relative shortness of their CMW set. We get the sneaking suspicion they were forgiven.

Verdict: Fuck it, 10.

Boy
FROM: Hamburg, Germany/Zürich, Switzerland
PERFORMED: Sunday March 24, 10 p.m. at The Dakota Tavern

Interestingly, there are no boys in Boy.

Pre-Show Hype: Medium. Boy escaped the attention of most Toronto media previews, but the group’s show still filled the Dakota to capacity with an energetic crowd that head-bopped and mouthed the words along to the folk tunes of Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass.

Performance: These girls have charm. Supported by a backup guitarist who added some extra power from an electric instrument at times, the adorable duo kept their audience enthralled, even joining in for sing-alongs, late on a Sunday night after a long week of concert hopping. Tracks like “Drive Darling,” “Skin,” and “Little Numbers” sounded like tunes you might hear down on the farm in Kentucky, rather than in metropolitan Europe.

Best Moment: Boy surprised us with a stripped-down version of “Lonely Boy,” by The Black Keys, that rivaled the original. Good music and wordplay. We’re in love.

Miscellaneous: Besides being good musicians, both Valeska and Sonja had great accents.

Verdict: Boy was one of our favourite CMW surprises this year.

Pick a Piper
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: Sunday March 24, 11 p.m. at Rancho Relaxo

We’re happy we picked Pick a Piper.

Pre-Show Hype: Not bad. The fact that Pick a Piper’s Brad Weber drums for Caribou certainly didn’t hurt, and the upcoming self-titled LP release in April has people interested.

Performance: We’re at a bit of a loss to describe it, but we liked it. It was dark and driving, and there were definitely some jazz influences—especially in the numbers featuring trombone and saxophone. Performance-wise, though, it’d be a good idea not to have the two vocalists/keyboard players facing each other. Neither ever made eye contact with the crowd, and we had to watch lips to tell who was singing sometimes.

Best Moment: We’ve gotta go with when three of the band members were playing percussion.

Miscellaneous: At one point in the set, an enchanted audience member reached out and stroked the side of the saxophone.

Verdict: Pick a Piper is playing its album release party at the Rivoli on April 13th. We’d recommend it, and may even go ourselves.

Light Asylum
FROM: Brooklyn, New York
PERFORMED: Sunday March 24, 11 p.m. at The Garrison

Pre-Show Hype: Fairly solid. The fact that they played a show the night before at Wrongbar, and apparently killed it, certainly didn’t hurt.

Performance: Singer/drummer/synth player Shannon Funchess was a weird, kinetic machine, making crazy performance faces, leaving her post to dance and occasionally humping a monitor. Her voice managed to go from growl, to screech, to operatic tenor. The hard, driving beats were equal parts industrial, ’80s synthpop and early ’90s rave. Everyone in attendance lost their minds with joy, dancing up a storm and occasionally picking each other up.

Best Moment: Probably when Funchess abandoned sticks entirely and began punching her digital drum kit.

Miscellaneous: Funchess ended the set by saying, “Thank you, Canadians.”

Verdict: We’ve been listening to Light Asylum all morning. Why aren’t you listening to them right now?

When one’s usual listening habits are drenched in difficult, dynamic noise, sometimes a little bluesy folk is exactly the right antidote. Released last week, Linger Longer is a live-off-the-floor (or, rather, live-in-the-bedroom) record. All its songs were written and performed by Pixie Moonshine (vocals, guitar, and cello), and released under her imprint, Wombat Ending.

Pixie Moonshine is best known as the former songwriter for Toronto progressive grunge outfit Tripping Hazard (she is credited as Pixie Strokum on those albums). That group disbanded in 2011, though its last record, Running From A Bear With Your Arms, wasn’t released until February 2012.

Many of the same progressive and jazz influences that define Linger Longer were present in the work of Tripping Hazard. The songs here are fractured in the same kinds of ways, the vocals and instrumentation spiralling away from each other like broken fractals only to collide again in brief moments of harmony.

But while Linger Longer shares these technical similarities with Tripping Hazard, the execution and emotional tone is utterly different. The subtitle of the album is “live, in a bedroom, with cats” (who occasionally make their presence known with a meow). There is an intensely intimate, muffled, interior feel to the songs. They’re introverted without being claustrophobic, all warm bedding and slanted light, composed for those entire weekends of blocking out the rest of the world.

The album warms up to itself, and relaxes gradually. The opening track, “Skyline, Friction, Fire,” comes across as flustered and out of sorts (you can listen to it by clicking on the sample, above), whereas by the time “Fever” begins, Pixie’s sound is stretched out and comfortable. The album highlight is the penultimate track, “Come to Bed,” a sweet and entreating cocoon of a song that also perfectly encapsulates the feel of the record: cozy and sweetly endearing, while allowing for rough moments of pleading, awkwardness, loss, and need. The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Joel Dalton, who also provides vocals on “Princess.”

Linger Longer is a perfect record to score the next weekend you spend entirely in bed, under a quilt, surrounded by cats and cooling cups of tea.

Three days in to North by Northeast, I think this pretty much sums up the mood of the entire city.

North by Northeast got progressively crazier last night, with bands playing late-night shows in the park and people lining up around the block to see a group of very loud, bearded New Yorkers.

Eight and a Half
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: June 15, 7:30 p.m. at Yonge-Dundas Square

Eight and a Half frontman Dave Hamelin is quite handsome.

Pre-Show Hype: Moderate. The square was full, but with fans or gawkers, we can’t be too sure.

Performance: On-point sound, tight riffs, a seemingly ego-maniacal frontman making visual love to the crowd.

Best Moment: The handsome vocalist glancing down at the camera pit, then strategically propping his foot up on the amp while playing.

Miscellaneous: The drummer is a former member of Broken Social Scene, while the other two members of the band were in The Stills.

Verdict: Performance was lacklustre, but as much can be expected from a Canadian indie band playing a show to a mixed-generation crowd before dinner time.

Anna Atkinson
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: June 15, 8 p.m. at Free Times Cafe

Pre-Show Hype: Low. Just down the street from this café, Taste of Little Italy was already in full swing—so stepping inside was immediately a quieter affair.

Performance: Strong. Though Atkinson rotates between a number of instruments, her charm really shines through when she’s playing the accordion. The intimate nature of the café also gave her set a real home-like feel.

Best Moment: At one point, her hair started to defy gravity and lifted up on its own. She explained, “My friends say my hair has a different style for each of my songs.”

Miscellaneous: There was one song where she encouraged us to sing along like pirates: “Or as they say in theatre, give a piractical performance. Actually, I don’t think they say that in theatre.”

Verdict: Well worth seeing, and a worthy addition to Free Times Cafe’s singer/songwriter lineup.

DZ Deathrays
FROM: Brisbane, Australia
PERFORMED: June 16, 9 p.m. at Wrongbar

Pre-Show Hype: Fairly strong. A band doesn’t come all the way from Australia for nothing, and while they may have had a terrible, early set time, the venue was still three-quarters full.

Performance: No one ever, ever wanted to refer to a band—particularly one as good as DZ Deathrays—as playing “groove metal.” It’s a phrase that brings to mind terrible funk fusion bands and ill-advised side projects. That said, it’s a very accurate way to describe the band’s sound. The self-described “party thrash” duo play music you can both dance to and slam dance to, and do so with the intensity of a nuclear meltdown. Drummer Simon Ridley pounds his instrument as hard as anyone in the game right now, and has the ability to play complex patterns without sacrificing power. Guitarist and vocalist Shane Parsons moves around the stage like a maniac and is capable of generating an almost mind-blowing volume for one man. These guys are just straight-up fun.

Best Moment: When Parsons began slam dancing in the crowd, his guitar still strapped to him.

Miscellaneous: Apparently the band played a party in a park after the show.

Verdict: These guys are your new favourite band, and if they’re not, there may be something wrong with you.

Hooded Fang
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: June 15, 10 p.m. at The Silver Dollar

Pre-Show Hype: Surprisingly high. Though the band call Toronto home and shows are not exactly a rare occurrence, the packed house was a good indicator of the strong buzz surrounding them.

Performance: Feeding off the energy in the room, it was an ebullient set that did not disappoint. They may not be the showiest group, but what they lacked in theatricality they made up for in old-fashioned musicianship.

Best Moment: The incessantly catchy guitar line on “Vacationation,” one of the stand-out tracks from their new album, Tosta Mista.

Miscellaneous: Bassist April Aliermo laid down reliably tight grooves while draped in a stunning (and probably toasty) white coat that screamed “rock star.”

Verdict: Not quite best-of-the-fest material but steady and enjoyable nonetheless.

Face to Face
FROM: Victorville, California
PERFORMED: June 15, 11:45 p.m. at Sound Academy

Face to Face's Trever Keith attempts to sing over the crowd.

Pre-Show Hype: High. The show was only marginally affiliated with NXNE—the festival’s logo appeared on the poster, but they weren’t on the official roster and only 100 wristbands were accepted—but the venue was still packed to capacity.

Performance: Twenty-one years after they started, the veteran pop punk act—who went on hiatus from 2004–2008—have scarcely lost a step. The band has always been skate punk’s kings of shout-along choruses, and the crowd nearly drowned out vocalist Trever Keith on songs like “Ordinary” and “Disconnected.” Wisely, the set list tended to favour material from the band’s mid-to-late ’90s heyday, although a few songs from their 2010 comeback album, Laugh Now, Laugh Later, did manage to sneak their way in.

Miscellaneous: Trever Keith released two electronic albums under the moniker The Legion of Doom during the band’s mid-00s hiatus.

Best Moment: Keith: “Are there any crusty motherfuckers in the crowd who saw us when we opened for NOFX here in 1993?”

Verdict: Between Thursday’s throwdown at Yonge-Dundas Square and Face to Face’s perfomance last night, it’s been a great week for skate punk in Toronto.

The Men
FROM: Brooklyn, New York
PERFORMED: June 16, 12 a.m. at Wrongbar

Pre-Show Hype: Through the roof. Word must’ve spread from their Thursday night show, because the lineup outside the bar went nearly to the end of the block.

Performance: The Men isn’t exactly a subtle band name. You’ve got the long hair, shirtless performers, and music powerful enough to rip your face off if you aren’t careful. With the music actually seeming to increase in volume from song to song, intense isn’t even the right word to describe this set. But so it was—a non-stop barrage of guitar and drum solos.

Best Moment: The set at times could be overwhelming, with songs and genres blending together, so that when they finally broke into the accessible “Open Your Heart,” a straight-up rock song and the title track of their latest album, it felt like they were playing an old classic (even though it’s really just a few months old).

Miscellaneous: The audience itself was one of the highlights of this show. Though the venue was hot and packed, people would jump on stage and start dancing, crowd surfers were everywhere, and the front half was a giant mosh-pit. Even those stuck at the back were standing on chairs just to see what was going on. Everyone was into this.

Verdict: See these guys in a small venue while you still can—it feels like they are destined to take over the big-stage festival circuit.

Oberhofer
FROM: Brooklyn, New York
PERFORMED: June 15, 12 a.m. at Lee’s Palace

Pre-Show Hype: High. Since signing with Glassnote Records (Mumford and Sons) in the summer of last year, the band released its first album, Time Capsules II, in April.

Performance: It may be unfair to still compare all New York bands to The Strokes at this point, but there is an inherent apathy while on stage that seems endemic to the city. And though the group did still carry that too-cool-for-school attitude about them, it was enlivened by welcome bursts of glockenspiel and whistling. At times, the instrumental stretches veered into a tad too much style over substance, with walls of swirling noise standing in for genuine experimentation.

Best Moment: When lead singer/guitarist Brad Oberhofer instructed the crowd between songs, “On the count of three, everybody make a sound like a dog.” And they did.

Miscellaneous: After an epic closer that began with Oberhofer asking that the stage lights be turned off, things ended rather anticlimactically when he simply announced following the song, “We’re done!”

Verdict: It would be a stretch to deem the performance great, but it was enough to serve notice that the name is one to watch in the future.

Phèdre
FROM: Toronto, ON
PERFORMED: June 15, 12 a.m. at Sneaky Dee’s

Pre-Show Hype: Huge. Phèdre were profiled, interviewed, or at least tipped by just about every publication in town.

Performance: The hype was justified, in terms of spectacle at the very least. Most of the band entered in a procession snaking its way from the back of the venue through the crowd to the stage, waving enormous feather fans. April Aliermo and Daniel Lee were joined by three back-up dancers, plus a few other special guests.

Best Moment: Tough call. Aliermo had a great turn of crowdsurfing; Lee, failing to knock apart a confetti and streamer filled piñata, threw it into the crowd, where it was promptly torn to bits. But our favourite moment was a brief snippet of crowd conversation, where someone said Lee, who was crooning along in his metallic half mask and white sports coat, “sounds like a slowed-down Billy Idol.” Odd comparison, but it totally worked for us.

Miscellaneous: Arowbe of Times Neue Roman emerged from a gold lame coccoon to spit some stellar rhymes over several song in the set. (He’d play with his own band at 2 a.m.)

Verdict: Phèdre’s live show may not quite match the bacchanalia of their first viral video, “In Decay,” but it’s a seriously fun time just the same; Lee, Aliermo, and pals kept the crowd pumped and primed.

John Maus
FROM: Los Angeles, California
PERFORMED: June 15, 1 a.m. at Lee’s Palace

Pre-Show Hype: High—though admittedly, the anticipation was more of a curiosity thing. Not many had seen this guy live before, but had heard whispers of his “performance art”–like act.

Performance: Incredible. Let’s set the stage: Maus has worked in bands like Animal Collective and Ariel Pink. He comes out on stage with just a mic—no backing band, just music blasting out of the speakers. He’s quiet at first and then he screams (there’s this reverb effect that makes his vocals echo). And then he goes nuts. He starts running around the stage, punching himself in the face, pulling his hair, even at one point channeling his inner Michael Jackson (that arm-extended-howl)—the sheer energy that he was able to generate with just his body was awe-inspiring.

Best Moment: Most of the set felt like a chamber, with his music and screams blending together to form something like a rave, but then he got to his final song, “Believer,” and for a flash, this alien-like animal on stage felt strikingly human.

Miscellaneous: This was the first time so far that it looked like the crowd might force an encore—alas, the NXNE schedule is tight so it was not to be.

Verdict: Speaking to some of the crowd members after the set showed that reception was split. Some wanted Maus to play instruments, others wanted it to be more like Animal Collective—most, though, were talking about how they had never seen anything like it. At the end of the day, this is a must-see act—an electrifying performance that was unlike anything else at NXNE (and possibly, anywhere).

Strip Comedy
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: June 15, 2 a.m. at Monarch Tavern

Diana Love actually managed to add clothes. Photo by Zaiden/Courtesy of the artist.

Pre-Show Hype: Fairly high. Comedy may still be a relatively new addition to NXNE, but the combination of potential nudity and extended bar hours proved a strong draw.

Performance: The comics were slightly hampered by a crowd that was too drunk and talkative to pay attention, but they managed to put on a good show anyway. Host Georgea Brooks-Hancock and special guest judge Alex Tindal did a strong job of keeping things moving, while acts like Diana Love, Keven Soldo and Sarah Hennessey brought some solid material, while creatively avoiding disrobing completely. (Love demanded additional clothes from Tindal, Soldo wore about seven pairs of underpants, and Hennessey wore a helmet, although stripped down to her underwear anyway.)

Best Moment: When Steph Tolev took off her skirt to reveal a massive dildo hanging out of her underwear.

Miscellaneous: There seemed to be a lot of comics heckling other comic for the express purpose of getting them naked.

Verdict: It’s hard to tell jokes in your underwear.

CORRECTION: June 17, 2012, 9:55 PM This post originally named the incorrect member of Times Neue Roman who took part in the Phèdre show. It was actually Arowbe, and not Alexander The.

No Use for a Name played Yonge-Dundas Square on Thursday.

We’re nearing the end, but there’s still a ton of great music left to see. Here’s who’s worth seeing on Saturday and Sunday.

Hollerado
Yonge-Dundas Square (21 Dundas Square)
Saturday, 5 p.m.

If you haven’t yet experienced this Ottawa indie group’s live act, then you finally have a chance to make things right. Hollerado, who seem to be making a tradition of free shows at Yonge-Dundas Square, are definitely one of the most fun bands to check out while you’re exploring NXNE. If being Juno-nominated and picked by Jack White to open for The Dead Weather wasn’t enough, you can expect many laughs, power-pop awesomeness, possible confetti, and more when they take the stage (oh, and you will be dancing).

Go if: You need a jolt of spontaneity and good ol’-fashioned Canadian humour to add to your NXNE schedule.

The Flaming Lips
Yonge-Dundas Square (21 Dundas Square)
Saturday, 9 p.m.

There’s a reason that the name is the biggest on the poster. Say what you will about the fearless freaks from Oklahoma and their progression from noisy experimental garage band to creators of life-affirming anthems used to sell cars—they know how to put on a show that is anything but boring. It will be interesting to see how the band fares in a space like Yonge-Dundas Square, but in all likelihood, they will successfully transform the area into a wonderland of positive vibes and infectious rock. Admittedly, part of the fun of their concerts is discovering what new theatrics they have in store.

Go if: You have two ears and a heart. And happen to think Radiohead is overrated.

The Lumineers
The Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen Street West)
Saturday, 11 p.m.

This Denver-based outfit bears a passing resemblance to Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros in their fondness for folk anthem sing-alongs, though perhaps less so the travelling hippie commune aesthetic. They cracked the Billboard Top 40 chart yesterday, so they’re definitely a band on the rise. You can say you saw them when.

Go if: You’re a fan of the “roots revivalist” sound, espoused locally by acts like The Rural Alberta Advantage, further afield by Blitzen Trapper and the aforementioned Magnetic Zeros.

Rival Schools
Wrongbar (1279 Queen Street West)
Saturday, 12 a.m.

Consisting of members of several classic late ’80s New York hardcore bands—including Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits—melodic punk act Rival Schools have averaged roughly an album a decade since getting together at the turn of the millennium. The only reason they’re able to get away with it is because said albums are worth the wait.

Go if: You’ve always wondered what happens when angry young men grow up.

Killer Mike
Wrongbar (1279 Queen Street West)
Saturday, 1 a.m.
AND
Yonge-Dundas Square (21 Dundas Square)
Sunday, 8 p.m.

Atlanta’s Killer Mike has been tapped as the next A-Town rapper to blow-up for most of the last decade, ever since he was signed to OutKast’s Purple Ribbon label back in 2003. While he’s received a ton of critical praise and a few sniffs of commercial success, he’s never been able to hit that next level of fame. His new album, R.A.P. Music, was produced by ’90s underground legend El-P, and looks like it may finally be enough to get him over.

Go if: You like hip-hop that’s smart and street at the same time.

Ohbijou
David Pecaut Square (55 John Street)
Sunday, 4 p.m.

So technically, this isn’t a NXNE show; it’s part of the final day of Luminato Festival programming. But listening to the lush baroque pop of Ohbijou in the afternoon, sitting on the grass, sounds like a perfect way to wind down an impossibly hectic week of music and culture.

Go if: You like your indie chamber music to have lots of strings and sweet vocals.

Wannabe (Spice Girls Tribute Band)
Redpath Stage – Harbourfront (235 Queens Quay West)
Sunday, 5 p.m.

Come on, you know what you want, what you really, really want. With another NXNE coming to a close and the terrible shadow of Monday looming, this is the perfect opportunity to indulge in a dose of bubblegum nostalgia before the weekend peters out. One of Toronto’s most successful tribute bands, the ladies adopt the personas of everyone’s favourite proponents of Girl Power and perform all of your favourite hits. While they maintain that their audience consists mostly of girls in their twenties and gay men, straight guys have always had their own reasons for liking the Spice Girls and should not be ashamed to attend.

Go if: You really, really, really wanna zig-a-zig-ah.

Tre Mission
Yonge-Dundas Square (21 Dundas Square)
Sunday, 6 p.m.

Tre Mission is probably Canada’s only grime MC. At minimum, he’s the only one getting co-signed by the heavyweights of the traditionally all-British genre. As a result, he doesn’t play a ton of shows in his hometown. That said, he’s starting to increase his local profile after successfully taking over the U.K., and has been tapped as one of the next Toronto MCs to blow up.

Go if: You’re a fan of fast, technical MCs.

Raekwon and Ghostface Killah
Yonge-Dundas Square (21 Dundas Square)
Sunday, 9 p.m.

Raekwon is a part-time local, Ghostface is making up for not coming to Canada for 16 years due to an immigration ban by playing two shows in seven months, and they’re both part of one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time. Seeing shows like this for free is what makes NXNE great. If you’ve always wanted to shout along with “Daytona 500,” this is your chance.

Go if: You like hip-hop even a little.

Pink Wine
The Crawford (718 College Street West)
Sunday, 11:45 p.m.

If you’re looking to end your NXNE with catchy tunes and an all-around jammin’ good time, look no further than this power-pop group. With melodies and funk not dissimilar to the New Pornographers, Pink Wine (who are made up of members from Mother Teresa, the Miracles, and the now-defunct Get Nuns) will have you oohing along to the beats as your feet try to keep up.

Go if: You need one more stretch of non-stop dancing before you have to sign back into work tomorrow morning.

For those of you who don’t feel like running around all night, we’ve taken the liberty of selecting the evening’s best single-venue lineup.

Best Lineup: Saturday
Yonge-Dundas Square (21 Dundas Square)

It is an understatement to say there is an abundance of good shows tonight. So if you aren’t interested in braving the crowd for Flaming Lips at Yonge-Dundas Square, seeing the recently reunited Archers Of Loaf’s return to Toronto, or venturing to a big non-NXNE show by some British band named Radiohead, there are other places to make camp. Lee’s Palace has Matt Mays (11:30 p.m.), The Horseshoe has Young Empires (midnight), but in all honesty it would be hard to beat the Yonge-Dundas Square day-long smorgasbord that, aside from the Lips (9 p.m.), also offers Of Montreal (7 p.m.), Portugal. The Man (8 p.m.), and Oberhofer (6 p.m.), among others.

Best Lineup: Sunday
The Rivoli (334 Queen Street West)

It’s the end of the festival and, to be honest, the last thing you probably want at this stage is to hear even one more note of music. Here’s the alternative: kick back and let regulars of Comedy Bar’s Laugh Sabbath like Chris Locke, Nick Flanagan and Aaron Eves cleanse the palate with endless bouts of uproarious laughter. There’s no sense in limiting your NXNE experience only to music when there are other forms of entertainment this enjoyable out there.

Forget compasses, GPS, or helpful Sherpas. From June 11 to 17, Torontoist is here to be your guide to everything NXNE.

Bad Religion's iconic logo on their drum kit at Yonge-Dundas Square.

Thursday night was undoubtedly buzz-band night at North by Northeast. Whether it was a quartet of attractive, Jack White–co-signed goths, a self-destructive Texan or a pair of haunting Albertan electro-popsters, if they had serious blog buzz, they were playing.

Nash
FROM: Montreal, Quebec
PERFORMED: June 14, 7 p.m. at the Mod Club

Pre-Show Hype: Minimal. 7 p.m. is a rough slot to fill—especially in a place as big as the Mod Club.

Performance: Excellent. It was impressive that that the vocal frontman was jumping up and down with his guitar and tambourine despite the fact that the room was only a quarter full when the set kicked off. These guys strive to be huge, and there are definitely echoes of bands like U2 in their music. They likely got a much better reaction at their 1 a.m. show later that night.

Best Moment: There was a stomping jam in the middle of the set that was a nice switch up from the previous numbers—and it finally got the audience engaged in the tunes.

Miscellaneous: This show was proof that rock stars can wake up early and still rock.

Verdict: Despite the early nature of the show—several of the audience members even looked like they might be nursing a hangover—it was a pretty solid set. Still, these guys deserved a much better time slot.

Good Riddance
FROM: Santa Cruz, California
PERFORMED: June 14, 8 p.m. at Yonge-Dundas Square

Good Riddance singer Russ Rankin expresses his frustration at the Devils recent Stanley Cup loss.

Pre-Show Hype: High. Considering that the band was playfully heckled by a fan in between songs for not returning to Toronto in seven years, it would be safe to assume there was an excitement in the air.

Performance: Songs started and ended at such a dizzying clip that, by the end, you could have sworn that they had played 20 of them in the 40 minutes they were on stage. Blasting out hard punk with a social and political bent, the group showed that time had not slowed them down—rather, it had further honed their skills. It was surprising how many people tightly packed into Yonge-Dundas Square were passionately belting out every lyric—almost as surprising is how well the material actually holds up.

Best Moment: Gloriously bald-headed bassist Chuck Platt was in especially fine form on this day, expressing his gratitude to the city’s enthusiastic reception with the promise that, “if you keep dancing, we’ll keep playing.”

Miscellaneous: One needlessly aggressive shirtless guy in the mosh pit had security putting on their plastic gloves.

Verdict: As part of an undercard for the night’s Bad Religion show, it almost felt like our own mini–Warped Tour in the heart of the city.

I Smell Blood
FROM: London, Ontario
PERFORMED: June 14, 8:45 p.m. at the Annex Live

Pre-Show Hype: Moderate. They were still setting up a few minutes after they were supposed to start, but the crowd was certainly ready for it.

Performance: Definitely a highlight of NXNE so far. You know when you hear a band’s first ridiculously loud riff and you just want it to last forever, without any of those silly vocals? Well, that’s what happened: no lyrics, just rock. To say that this drums-and-guitar duo blew the roof off the Annex Live would be understating the sheer power of their set.

Best Moment: Realizing that no one was going to be singing and that these two just came here to play—and hard.

Miscellaneous: Number of times it was forgotten that only two people were playing: too many to count.

Verdict: A must-see live act only bolstered by the fairly small space provided by the Annex Live. It’s hard to say what they’d sound like in a larger venue. For the time being, let’s just enjoy having our faces torn off by guitar-shredding just feet away from us.

Bad Religion
FROM: Los Angeles, California
PERFORMED: June 14, 9 p.m. at Yonge-Dundas Square

The smartest man in punk rock, Bad Religion's Greg Graffin.

Pre-Show Hype: Approaching fever pitch. They were already one of the biggest acts of the festival, and the anticipation was exponentially increased by the fact that punk fans are, without question, a loyal and enthusiastic bunch.

Performance: Bad Religion are considered legends, and by tearing through many favourites from their extensive catalogue for more than an hour and a half, they reminded the crowd why. From older material like “Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell” to mainstream breakthrough “21st Century (Digital Boy),” virtually every one of the band’s eras was represented. In many cases, the political undertones that have always been present in Bad Religion’s music seem even more pertinent now than when the songs were released.

Best Moment: Not to discount the music, but all of lead singer Greg Graffin’s between-song banter. Like a great stand-up comedian, he bragged about the Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup victory before dismissing sports altogether. Later, he amusingly expressed his distaste for all of the advertisements surrounding the stage.

Miscellaneous: Though they omitted Toronto from their 30th anniversary tour a few years ago, the group did hint at a special treat for their Canadian fans in the near future.

Verdict: Punk shows can be judged by the quality of their mosh pit. By that measure, Bad Religion’s appearance was a success.

B L A C K I E
FROM: Houston, Texas
PERFORMED: June 14, 10 p.m. at the Drake Hotel Underground

Pre-Show Hype: Fairly high. B L A C K I E’s performance at South by Southwest definitely put him on the radar. There was a fair bit of curiosity about the man who will be playing three nights at North by Northeast.

Performance: When you strip away the hype about the homemade 5,000-watt sound system, B L A C K I E—whose music combines punk, hip-hop, metal and dubstep—is essentially just one guy who screams bad poetry over top of a prerecorded backing track (admittedly a very loud one) and is really picky about how his name is spelled. That said, his North by Northeast debut wasn’t a total waste of time. B L A C K I E is, if nothing else, deadly serious about his own ridiculousness. His performance was fascinating and kinetic, and had a Darby Crash–ish flair. He hung himself with the mic, screamed, stomped, humped the amps and flailed around as if he was on fire. He may not have been great to listen to, but he was certainly fun to watch.

Best Moment: B L A C K I E stood wordlessly for two and a half minutes, alternating beteween a Jesus Christ pose and the “Y” in “YMCA,” while the audience clapped and cheered.

Miscellaneous: There were roughly 50 people in the crowd. It looked as if more than 40 of them had either a media pass or an artist pass.

Verdict: Like most of the crowd, Torontoist was there with a press pass. If we had actually paid money to be there, we would have been annoyed.

Sarah MacDougall
FROM: Whitehorse, Yukon
PERFORMED: June 14, 10 p.m. at C’est What?

Pre-Show Hype: Strong. A set like this is basically prime-time. So in a packed venue filled with a still-chatty audience, everyone was looking toward the mic as 10 p.m. drew near.

Performance: Great. MacDougall’s no stranger to the touring scene, having spent the last three years on the road. She definitely knew how to work the audience. There were sing-alongs, songs that encouraged the crowd to make wolf noises at certain intervals, and charming audience banter.

Best Moment: There were many great ones (the out-of-nowhere howl that featured occasionally in her songs, for example), but maybe the most memorable was her between-songs story about how living in the Yukon had made her so scared of bears and wolves that she would pee in the sink to avoid going outside to use the outhouse.

Miscellaneous: The baseball cap she was wearing actually made her look cooler. Why don’t people wear those anymore?

Verdict: It’s hard to keep track of all the great singer-songwriters out there, but MacDougall managed to capture the audience’s attention.

Tre Nyce
FROM: Vancouver, British Columbia
PERFORMED: June 14, 11 p.m. at the Crawford

Pre-Show Hype: Zero. Nyce was supposed to be part of Wednesday’s cancelled hip-hop showcase at the Rivoli. No one expected him to be here.

Performance: The Scarborough-born, Vancouver-based MC/singer put on a high-energy, entertaining performance. His fast-paced rhyme style, his tenor voice and his ability to mix thought-provoking lyrics and straight party rhymes all bode well for him in a world where Kanye West and Childish Gambino are superstars. While Nyce will never be a full-time singer, he can belt out a hook better than most rappers who try.

Best Moment: When he gave a shout-out to Scarborough, half the crowd broke into cheers.

Miscellaneous: Apparently he had bronchitis, which makes his performance even more impressive.

Verdict: He kept repeating the phrase “Tre Nyce is the future” throughout his set. There may be something to that.

The Hundred in the Hands
FROM: Brooklyn, New York
PERFORMED: June 14, 12 a.m. at Wrongbar

Pre-Show Hype: Pretty high. They had a song on Gossip Girl.

Performance: The Hundred in the Hands’ brand of new wave–influenced, synth-heavy indietronica tends to go over well at North by Northeast, and they represent the sub-genre at its best. Keyboardist and vocalist Elanore Everdell’s haunting voice contrasted nicely with pulsing beats and catchy synth riffs, and guitarist/bassist/programmer Jason Friedman is a talented multi-instrumentalist who moves like a hyperactive scarecrow.

Best Moment: Excited Audience Member: “You’re my favourite!”

Everdell: “Well, you’re OUR favourite.”

Miscellaneous: The Hundred in the Hands have their own webzine, where they interview their fellow musicians, as well as other artists.

Verdict: When it’s done well, dark-but-danceable is hard to beat. The Hundred in the Hands do it very well.

The Black Belles
FROM: Nashville, Tennessee
PERFORMED: June 14, 12 a.m. at the Garrison

Pre-Show Hype: It was a packed house. People standing on chairs.

Performance: Goth garage rock at its finest. Good sound, great song delivery and cute head-to-toe black outfits.

Best Moment: Emily the Strange’s twin sister wailing on the drums like they owed her money.

Miscellaneous: The band appeared on an episode of The Colbert Report in 2011.

Verdict: They were discovered by Jack White, and he knows what he’s doing. If you don’t like what they sound like, at least they’re nice to look at.

Purity Ring
FROM: Edmonton, Alberta/Montreal, Quebec
PERFORMED: June 14, 1 a.m. at Wrongbar

Pre-Show Hype: High beyond reason and completely out of proportion. Wrongbar was positively packed to the gills, with the entire audience standing at rapt attention. All this for a band whose debut album hasn’t even come out.

Performance: Most blog-buzz bands would crack under the pressure of this sort of high-profile coming-out party. Purity Ring may actually have exceeded expectations. Even when performed live, their emotional, slowed-out variety of electronica has the sort of polish you’d expect from a veteran act, not from a pair of newcomers. Megan James’ vocals are absolutely captivating.

Best Moment: When James admitted they were “really nervous” to be there, and that the crowd was “really awesome.”

Miscellaneous: The entire show was sponsored by a shoe company, who had their own VIP area. If anyone knows what it takes to be a Converse VIP, please let us know.

Verdict: Purity Ring aren’t going to be massive stars. They already are.

Lovely Killbots
FROM: Toronto, Ontario
PERFORMED: Friday June 14, 2 a.m. at the Boat

Pre-Show Hype: Middling. Lovely Killbots were the last band scheduled as part of the HMV Digital Showcase. As of our arrival at The Boat at 2:10 a.m., there were half a dozen audience members on the dance floor (two were photographers), and another two dozen tired-looking spectators spread throughout the venue in chairs.

Performance: With such a small and tired crowd to perform for, and Lauralee Love having difficulty hearing her keyboard in the monitors (and consequently not always nailing the right pitch), we doubt this was a high-point show for Lovely Killbots, though they soldiered on.

Best Moment: The best song in the set was “Must Be Machine,” which got our toes tapping.

Miscellaneous: The video projection during the set was a nice touch.

Verdict: This duo, with “a penchant for heavy analogue synths and fun, catchy electro” has been making music together for five years, so by now they’ve surely learned to weather an off night. This was one of them.

Photo by Ross Halfin.

Loudon Wainwright Album Release Party
Hugh’s Room (2261 Dundas Street West)
Wednesday, May 2 and Thursday, May 3; 8:30 p.m. performance
$42.50 in advance; $45 at the door

For someone who has claimed to be a one-man kind of guy, folk singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III sought the help of a surprising number of friends and family members while making his new album, Older Than My Old Man Now. Wainwright—in town for an album release Wednesday and Thursday at Hugh’s Room—recorded tracks with his children Martha, Rufus, and Lucy. He also enlisted ex-wife Suzzy Roche and father figures Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Barry “Dame Edna” Humphries. Even Wainwright’s own late father gets involved, when Wainwright reads one of his prose pieces.

“I’ve been playing the family card for a long time,” Wainwright said over the phone. “I’ve written about my kids, my parents, grandparents, and sister, so that’s not new. But I think there were certain songs where it certainly made sense to get the family members on the record. They all happen to be good singers, so that helps.”

During a duet with Martha on one the new album’s tracks, “All In a Family,” the two wrestle with complicated issues of genetics, as summed up in the lyric, “What family is not insane?” Wainwright considers the subject a universal one.

“I’m writing about stuff my listening audience knows about, because they have kids and parents and ex-spouses, and current spouses,” he said. Though his lyrics sometimes air his family’s dirty laundry, Wainwright is not concerned. But he does recall at least one instance of over-share.

“I once wrote a song called, ‘I’m Saving All My Blackheads For You,’” he said. “I thought, ‘No, people don’t want to hear that.’”

Wainwright has been working on his acting chops: He was in Tim Burton’s Big Fish, Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, and the Judd Apatow TV series, Undeclared. The premature cancellation of the latter after only one season left a bitter taste in his mouth, just as it did for the show’s fans.

“I wish we could have done it for a few years, that would have been a lot of fun,” he said. “I loved doing that show, working with those guys and gals.”

Wainwright has just completed a run with an off-Broadway play, and he appears in a new film, Sleepwalk With Me, which is expected to be released later this year. “I’d call it a marginal, occasional career,” he said. “I enjoy it when I get an acting job, but primarily I make my living as a musician.”

As should probably be expected of a habitually forthcoming 65-year old songwriter, much of the material on his newest release is candid on the subject of aging and death. Wainwright sees nothing wrong with growing reflective at this stage of life.

“They say, ‘Don’t look back.’ I’m looking back all the time. I’m ignoring Bob’s advice,” he said, referencing the Bob Dylan documentary. The future, however, remains significantly murkier to him. “I’m enjoying the job, hope to hold onto it a few more years. Or at least through the weekend.”

As for his lasting legacy, Wainwright dismissed the question with a characteristic cocktail of tongue-in-cheek arrogance and morbid humor.

“I’m just writing songs. I put out a record every once in a while. Hopefully people will realize my greatness a hundred years from now. If not, I’ll be dead so it won’t matter.”

In some ways, former FemBot A. David MacKinnon’s solo debut, The Past is a Foreign Country, is the exact opposite of what you’d expect from the local indie stalwart. Piano-centric, heavily jazz-influenced and completely instrumental, Foreign Country is a fair distance away from the introspective indie folk the FemBots were known for.

On the other hand, it’s possible that The Past is a Foreign Country is exactly what you’d expect from a former FemBot. As a band, the FemBots were also well known for a tendency to incorporate non-traditional instruments into their sound and a love of things cinematic, as evidenced by everything from their name to the sci-fi-esque video for “My Hands are a City” to their work on the soundtrack for Bruce McDonald’s 2007 film The Tracey Fragments. Foreign Country is cut from the same cloth.

First: non-traditional instruments. This is an album is filled with hard-to-place sounds. (The song “Clock Against Typewriters” seems to incorporate both clocks and typewriters.) And in FemBots fashion, it is also oddly cinematic—the entire album feels as if it could be a film score. Even without lyrics, there’s an oddly narrative flow to the album. It kicks off forcefully, with the jazzy, driving title track, then moves into slightly more introspective territory with the mournful “Time vs. The Sylvan Apartments,” before hitting the triumphant high note of “Looking for Ambrose Small” and then book-ending the story with the oddly resigned “Gospel vs. Church.”

There are no real weak spots on The Past is a Foreign Country, but the title track and “Clocks Against Typewriters” stand out above the rest. The former feels like it could be used to score a foot chase in a ’70s action flick, with its combination of understated jazz drumming, aggressive piano riffs, and soaring, barking horns. “Clocks Against Typewriters” is a song that builds up beautifully, starting off with just piano and percussion, and eventually exploding into a joyous, multilayered cacophony.

The Past is a Foreign Country isn’t a tremendously accessible album. It’s too jazzy for most indie rock fans, but has far too many folk, rock, and even gospel influences for the sort of jazz purists who might otherwise be attracted to it. That said, it is interesting, beautiful, smart, and often fun. Its appeal may not be universal, but those who like it will probably love it.

Every Tuesday, Torontoist scours record store shelves in search of the city’s most notable new releases and brings you the best—or sometimes just the biggest—of what we’ve heard in Sound Advice.

Toronto’s Tasseomancy weren’t always known as Tasseomancy—before, they were Ghost Bees, and though that group was also made up of twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman, at that time they were living in Halifax (where they went to school and started the burrito delivery service they eventually brought home). On the east coast, they were playing a style of folk much more barren and unsophisticated than the subtle and stirring stuff we hear on their full-length debut, Ulalume. Sharing a name with an Edgar Allan Poe poem, the album’s darkness and mystery aren’t a surprise, but neither are its whimsical mythologies and imagery.
Tasseomancy’s many influences and inspirations include Timber Timbre‘s mastermind Taylor Kirk, so it stands to reason that as producer (along with Timber Timbre mate Simon Trottier), he’d bring the most out of very little—the same sparsity for which he’s known gains its intensity through reservation (what are those Lightmans holding back?) and through restrained layers of sound that, much like Timber Timbre, are so perfectly placed or sustained or manipulated that it could be masterful human precision or, as we prefer to think, some kind of magic. Kirk doesn’t turn a flashlight on dark corners so much as he pushes the Lightmans out to find the path with a dim lantern. You can hear him unmistakably on the first single, “Heavy Sleep” (streaming above), in the eerie warble of “Healthy Hands (Will Mourn You),” and on the pretty “Up You Go, Little Smoke,” a more typically folk-lush song that possesses an old soul.
The Lightman sisters also provide vocals alongside Katie Stelmanis in Austra, which is another influence (in sensibility more than on the music on Ulalume), if you’re looking for an easy one. But it’s what’s between the sisters here that makes it all their own: the chilling vocal interplay in “Ashkelon,” the seeming ease in the challenging “Diana.” There’s deep movement running through Ulalume and its connectedness to earth and sea and air. Perhaps it’s a touch of that spooky Kirk spirit, but more than likely it’s true what they say about twins and the strange bond between them. Here, Tasseomancy have shared part of it with us while keeping most of it hidden under dark.