Results tagged “blues”

Jeff Healey, legendary Torontonian musician and owner of Jeff Healey's Roundhouse on Blue Jays Way (and Healey's at Queen and Bathurst prior to that), has died of cancer at only 41. The news, posted to his website earlier tonight, comes just under two months before the domestic release of Healey's new album, Mess of Blues, recorded with what Healey called "the best damned bar band in Canada." His website has plenty more information about his life and music. Funeral and memorial arrangements are forthcoming.

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

If you're like us, and you attended a Canadian university, you probably watch U.S. college football with a mixture of bemusement and envy—bemusement because you can’t quite fathom how a hundred thousand people could turn up to watch collegiate athletes, envy because you wish you could’ve had that experience at your school. This past Friday, for instance, over 90,000 fans packed Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks knock off...

They’ve got Hank’s seal of approval, so you know they’re at least half-way decent. Since receiving some "big-ups" on Henry Rollins’ show on L.A.’s Indie 103.1, The Harold Wartooth’s grunge-y star has been rising, with support coming in from the likes of CBC’s seminal Definitely Not the Opera and UK-based Catacomb Records. With a solitary self-titled EP under their belts, the band have demonstrated a propensity for writing Fun House-era Stooges-style riffs and burying them in Rated R-era Queens of the Stone Age-esque heaviness. The result is a mix of drunken garage punk and wanking classic rock, a combination that has done right by the band so far. You can thank the good folks at Sleepytown Sound for bringing out the best of the band's sound, letting the grime shine through their Hendrix-inspired solos and aviator-sunglass-wearing ways.

Reel Toronto is a look at Toronto's illustrious film history, during which our fair city has represented just about everywhere on earth. Yes, we're proud of our chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow––heck, Toronto even plays itself, every now and then. Even the legendary Elwood Blues cannot distract from the glaring sight of CBC Headquarters. There are a zillion reasons why Blues Brothers 2000 is not as good a...

After MasterCard agreed to ante up $160k to keep city skating rinks open this December, local newspapers spoke with one voice in reporting the story. The Star offered the headline "Private bailout of city rinks...priceless," the Post weighed in with "Skating in December...priceless," and the Sun daringly dropped the ellipsis with "Donation: Priceless." The Globe alone experienced a spasm of originality, settling for a subheading of "Skating still in the cards."

Amidst the swirl of sensationalism surrounding the death of a "caretaker" at the Brentwood home of actor Ving Rhames last week, many Torontonians were unaware that the victim, 40-year-old Jacob Adams, was a local actor and screenwriter.

Cat Power hit the stage at the Phoenix last night for her third Toronto show in less than a year. It was Torontoist’s first time seeing her live and after having waited a few years for the privilege, and hearing wonderful things about her shows of late, we were slightly let down.

Lots going on around town over the next little while. One of the city's biggest music festivals, NXNE, held their press conference this week announcing the 2007 lineup (warning, the list is tough to read), hosted by Dave Foley. Many show dates and venues were announced, including the addition of the Dinosaur Jr., Voxtrot and The National shows as officially being part of the festival. Limited wristbands will be accepted at each show, so if you really want to go, you're better off buying tickets.

Past Griffin Award recipient Christian Bök once stated, "The Griffin is the poetry award that can drastically change a poet’s life." Christian isn't exaggerating: the $100,000 prize, shared by two winners, is one of the largest poetry awards in the world. In a 2000 speech, Scott Griffin, founder of The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry, explained, "the poetry prize had to be of sufficient size to make a statement that declared that poets and poetry are just as important as novelists and their works."

At the end of the second verse of one of Bright Eyes' new songs, "Reinvent The Wheel"—a eulogy for a dead musical idol, possibly Elliott Smith—lead singer Conor Oberst laments to his fallen hero that "you never understood what we loved you for." Coming as the line does in the song, with guitar chords and drums emphatically struck together to highlight Oberst's voice and the backing vocals, the moment is both uplifting and tragic, a beautiful example of the ambivalence and catharsis that runs through much of Bright Eyes' work. But standing in the Opera House at the band's concert last night, surrounded by an ocean of half-drunk couples with side-bangs awkwardly making out, half-pretty under-aged girls wondering when the slow sad songs were going to start, and most of the rest of us just wondering when it was going to get good, it was hard not to feel that Oberst's lyrics lamenting the misunderstanding of a crowd's love might very well apply to him.

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did.

The last 10 days have been a great time to be a film nut, but now Christmas comes early for book nerds as over the next few weeks two of the biggest events of the year take place, starting with next Sunday’s Word on the Street, which will be followed by the start of the International Festival of Authors in mid-October.

As if there wasn't enough going on, the Distillery Blues Festival rolls out this weekend for three days of pentatonic pleasure. With three outdoor stages, and the mainly sunny forecast, what more can you ask for? Oh yea... it's free!

Toronto synth-punk band Pony Da Look starts up this Thursday Music Roundup. PDL, which up until recently had been on a break, are back in force. They're doing two shows, one tonight with Kiss Me Deadly and Pyramid Culture at Sneaky Dee's ($8 bucks) and tommorow as part of Lederhosen Lucil's EP and Zine launch (pictured here).

Ed Blefour's play in the Maple Leaf goal this season has for the most part been the calibre of play his team has relied on from the Ottawa Senators in four of the past five playoffs. He has yet to record a shoutout in 24 games this season - a stat that illuminates when you realize that the St.Louis Blues' Curtis Sanford already has a pair. When the Eagle takes the ice in Ottawa this weekend, nineteen days will have passed since his last victory, while backup Mikael Tellqvist has won two games, stopping 55 of 57 shots in that span. So when Torontoist looked at the goalie ratings on YahooSports today, it was no surprise to see Tellqvist ranked 15, while the aging Belfour sat 25th.

Tall Poppy Interview - Adi Braun, Jazz Vocalist

Making the Deadly Snakes new record -scene at Soundscapes, when the Snakes play a free in-store mini-concert.

3. Northern Secondary School Bleachers (791 Mt Pleasant Rd.)

The Al Green Theatre, a nice film space located in the Miles Nadal JCC (at Bloor and Spadina) will soon see greater usage as regular theatre. It's now going to be operated by Capri Releasing (or Capri Films), who say they will "program first-run, specialized films from leading distributors, and will also present special cinema programs with leading filmmakers and panels that feature experts on a wide range of cinematic subjects." The whole thing will see its launch with a week of free movies commencing July 8th with Canada-Israel-Germany co-production Metallic Blues. Why do we always refer to films as co-productions and not merely films? TOist cannot tell you, but free co-production movies are better than unfree co-production movies. This much we know.

), has a newish band, called Atomic 7. But the side project TOist loves best is his instrumental trio Ancient Chinese Secret, covering old country songs by Connie Smith, Lefty Frizzell and Charlie Rich. It's where mellow surf guitar (a Gretsch, actually) meets mournful hillbilly twang --but not in an irritating, Chris Isaak way.

Good news for Canadian hockey fans - and it doesn't even involve our self-important, hockey-hating buddies, Gary B. or Bob G. (Although Gretz recently sounded off on the fortunes of the NHL, read here if you still care.) No, this hockey news is that the Canadian World Junior Hockey Team reached the Gold Medal game with a 3-1 win over the Czech Republic in Sunday’s semi-final. Canada is now set to face a familiar enemy on Tuesday night, as the Russians beat the host United States to also advance.

L’express francophone de Toronto relève : « Au fil des ans, l'événement prend de l'ampleur, changeant d'adresse au gré de son expansion. Après avoir vendu les 1100 places du Music Hall en 2003, les organisateurs ont misé gros en réservant le mythique Massey Hall. » Cela ne les empêche cependant pas de faire salle comble à chaque année et à chaque échelon franchit.

Reddick plays the Silver Dollar on Saturday. He's the closest thing Toronto has to a through and through blues man. And we once had a delusional cabbie that claimed Reddick and his Sidemen were also the 'world's nicest guys.' What further recommendation could ya need?