On the surface, Toronto-based punkers Shit From Hell are an enjoyable, if slightly silly and derivative punk rock band. In fact, in many ways, Shit From Hell’s latest release, Why Do You Hate Me?, is a fairly typical pop-punk record. It has two songs about how much Facebook sucks (“Modern Age” and “Super Poke”), a [...]

More than almost any other genre, hip-hop has traditionally been averse to anything that resembles a cover. Sampling another rapper’s voice is fine, but borrowing someone else’s bars is kind of unacceptable. Thankfully, local rapper D-Sisive has never been huge on “traditional.” His new release, “Adam,” isn’t actually a cover per se. Instead, it’s an [...]

Leonard Cohen must have felt a sense of time’s great circle, Monday night. Honoured at Massey Hall as the Ninth Laureate of the Glenn Gould Prize, the iconic Montrealer doffed his fedora to the applauding crowd, cracking jokes and dryly sharing stories from early in his career. In that booming, legendary baritone, he recalled meeting [...]

The venues, schools, record labels, stores, and other landmarks that created the sound of our city and shaped its music history. In this instalment, we look at sites that provided music to our ears prior to the 1960s, ranging from 19th-century concert halls to suburban record companies. 1 Palace Pier (Humber Bay) Originally envisioned during [...]

On his new album, Cult of Love, local retro-popster Art Imperial takes a grab bag of sounds from the ’50s and ’60s—doo-wop, surf rock, British Invasion pop, and Phil Spector girl groups to name a few—and creates a record that is at once heartbreaking and catchy. Imperial’s love of ’60s sounds doesn’t make him unique: [...]

“We want you to forget about today, about yesterday, and about tomorrow,” the singer proclaimed to the crowd of 10,000 at Maple Leaf Gardens. “Tonight we’re gonna create a whole new world,” he added as the band roared in “Fire,” their traditional opening number. By the time he played Toronto on May 3, 1969, Jimi [...]

A Tribe Called Red Album Release Party With Pho (of Bonjay) The Drake Underground (1150 Queen Street West) Thursday, May 3, doors at 11 p.m. $10 in advance; limited quantities available at the door “I see red people!” Dan General, also known as Deejay Shrub, shouts into a mic over a pulsing synth and the [...]

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 [...]

Electronic dance music really only exists for one reason: to get people to dance. It’s right there in the name of the genre. Given that directive, Summer Sounds, the new EP by local electro-house upstarts Shintaro, may well be the most effective album of all time. Summer Sounds sets asses to shaking right from the [...]

BBNG2, the latest offering from jazz-hop juvenile delinquents Badbadnotgood, is equal parts original compositions and re-imaginings of both recent hits and more obscure fare. (They end the album with a version of My Bloody Valentine’s “You Made Me Realise”, a song that is several years older than anyone in the band.) Their vocal-free, abstract take [...]

Many of Toronto’s music shops had sales and special offerings on Record Store Day, which took place on Saturday. The annual event is intended to highlight the fact that plenty of people, young and old, still buy their music somewhere other than iTunes. (For Record Store Day preview coverage on Torontoist, check out our profile [...]

In a master stroke of programming, the Images Festival wrapped up its 25th year on Saturday night with “The Sounds Of Science,” a collection of vintage short films on marine life by French filmmaker Jean Painlevé and his partner, Genevieve Hamon. The truly brilliant part: the festival also booked indie rock band Yo La Tengo [...]