If you’re confused about whether the band Nightbox should be classified as Irish or Canadian, then you’re not alone. With members hailing from both countries, the one thing everyone can seem to get straight is that they create an ultra-catchy style of dance-rock that makes the body want to move. They may only have one [...]

The Indies are a staple of CMW, one that often includes if not the best, then at least the highest profile, line-up. That is the case again this year with acts like Dan Mangan and the reunited Treble Charger. But perhaps no band is on a more meteoric rise than Young Empires. As purveyors of [...]

During Canadian Music Week, there will be many bands that will leave you feeling indifferent. Dirty Penny won’t be one of those. Catch them when they play the Cadillac Lounge tonight at 8 p.m. We spoke with the band’s frontman, the enigmatic JC Penny himself. Why should we see you at CMW? Penny: Dirty Penny [...]

“It’s an embarrassing record.” Of course, Islands frontman Nick Thorburn wasn’t talking about the quality of their latest release, A Sleep & A Forgetting, which they were in town to support on Tuesday at the Music Gallery. He was referring to the difficult circumstances surrounding its genesis. “I was living in New York for about [...]

Spacing did it, now CTV is doing it: CTV wants you to make a video about our city using the prefix phrase “My Toronto is…”. Interview a kid smoking in line at Funhaus, a smiling, round-faced butcher at St. Lawrence Market, and a Bloor station musician. Ya know, the usual. Then pepper the vid with [...]

In our opinion, the time-travel short Hirsute was one of the strongest of the festival, particularly if we discount the almost unfairly good Madame Tutli-Putli. We recently talked with writer and director A.J. Bond (pictured above on the left and right) about the creation of the short, his inspirations, and the “Many Martys” theory. Today’s [...]

Despite having seen a lot of screenings after only two days (and already being completely knackered as a result), Heavy Metal in Baghdad is still one of our top films of the festival. We got the chance to talk to the Toronto-born Suroosh Alvi (pictured above on the left)—co-founder of Vice Magazine and co-director of [...]

If today’s column title gets Rachel Sweet’s Hairspray stuck in your head for the rest of the day, good! Because then we’ll have made our point that the version of Hairspray hitting this weekend isn’t as good as the John Waters original. Though the music not being as good is only part of it. There’s [...]

Who likes lists? Everybody! As we creep up on the new year, we thought we’d reflect on a few of our more popular (and our more controversial) posts of the past twelve months. Thanks to our revamped Favourites page, it’s a little easier. If nothing else, this post will give you some reading material to [...]

If film buffs get the TIFF, art buffs get the Queen West Art Crawl, and hockey buffs get the NHL playoffs, then literary types get the IFOA. This year’s fest packs in dozens of authors and into 10 days worth of readings, panel discussions, interviews and parties. Yes, once in a while literary types put [...]

…but you can’t tell can you? On the radio, Sundays from 1:00 – 3:00pm is when you can listen in on CIUT 89.5 This week – a hot show! Blog This! w/ MH – Part 2 of an interview with the editor of this fine blog – Ron Nurwisah In Concert w/ Andy Frank – [...]

Last month Torontoist posted about Brian Joseph Davis’ Yesterduh project. Tonight, Davis wraps up the project with a CD release party. He’s layered 60 individual recordings (Boy Reporter is one of them) of the Lennon-McCartney classic “Yesterday”, gathered over a month, into one giant polyphonic Beatles extravaganza. Samples are available here. Tonight’s event will also [...]