Ever since Torontoist wrote about the little house at St. Clair and Dufferin—known affectionately as "Toronto's Little House" (OK, why don't you think of a more creative name, smarty-pants?)—it's received an enormous amount of local and international attention. So much attention, in fact, that it was famously associated with a potential purchase by comic/dancing machine/talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, although tiny houses are presumably much easier to give away than tiny dogs, so what was......

Photo by Darryl Scott. Danger! The Mothership descends onto the Phoenix this Monday, bringing George Clinton and his ace group of funkateers, Parliament Funkadelic, into town to tear the roof off the mutha sucka. Meer mortals are powerless to Dr. Funkenstein and his bop gun. All attempts to fake the funk are punishable with potential exile to the Zone of Zero Funkativity. Accept that it's one nation under a groove. (Note: resistance to groove......

Musicologist is not sure The Drake is a large enough venue for the arrival of Baby Dee on Wednesday, February 6. The multi-disciplined artist is a classically trained harpist, organist, legendary Cleveland street and circus performer, and collaborator with such brilliant acts as Antony and the Johnsons. The 54-year-old performer brings a wealth of musical and artistic experience to the stage, and her transgendered politics are surfaced through her healthy variation of wistful harp and......

Hot on the heels of a sweet little in-store at Sonic Boom, Brooklyn's Nada Surf have further endeared themselves to Torontoist (and allowed us to make yet another obvious "Popular" joke) by so obviously featuring our wonderful city in their new video for "I Like What You Say" (via Chromewaves) from their upcoming full-length, Lucky. How weird would it be if the band actually played a show at Filmore's? Only a sad animated cardboard......

Photo of Matt of Epigram by Richelle Forsey Beneath a pile of attractive shows in the city this week (Brooklyn’s Au Revoir Simone at Lee’s Palace on January 16, not one but two Elliot Brood shows at the Dakota Tavern on January 18 and 19), there lies a very distinctive show Musicologist whole-heartedly recommends. On Thursday, January 17, Windsor’s What Seas What Shores, Toronto’s Epigram, and Tunturia will be playing at The Boat for......

You may remember our coverage of the excellent Vice film Heavy Metal in Baghdad. A documentary following the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda, we reviewed it at TIFF and called it “one of our top films of the festival” before interviewing one of the directors, Suroosh Alvi. Although Acrassicauda have since managed to escape Iraq (and then escape Syria) with the help of Vice and many generous donations, the band is still in trouble,......

In celebration of 60 years and counting for the local, legendary Horseshoe Tavern, Joel Plaskett Emergency will be performing six consecutive shows this week beginning Monday, each day playing in chronological order an album in their discography of full-lengths. After seeing its days as a blacksmith shop, a strip club, and of course the host of some of the most legendary first time Toronto performances including Willie Nelson, The Talking Heads, and Neutral Milk Hotel,......

Even though Brooklyn has been part of New York since 1898, the calibre of talent that comes out of there these days almost makes it seem like a separate city again (and if it were, it would be the same size as Toronto!). Tonight, Brooklyn-based Project Jenny, Project Jan are performing at our very own Horseshoe Tavern for the Toronto stop of their tour, which has already taken them to Philly, Boston and Montreal. Joining......

Brooklyn indie buzz band Bishop Allen play Lee's Palace this Thursday night. Their music is infectiously catchy with great pop hooks. If you're looking for a frame of reference, one music blogger described their sound as "a mix of the brainy lyrics of The Talking Heads and the stripped-down guitar work of the Violent Femmes." Their records are on regular rotation on the iPods of several Torontoist staffers. We can't get enough of them.......

While our experience Over The Top experience from Thursday was full of guitar driven pop-rock, Friday night was all about pianos, keyboards and synthesizers. We're still all smiles from it, it was that freakin' good. Here's why. It's hard to find a more energetic, loveable duo than Matt & Kim, who started the night at the Mod Club. With Matt on keys/synth and Kim on drums, the Brooklyn pair smiled and headbanged their way......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay tribute......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

Allegedly from Toronto, Rock Plaza Central took New York City by storm this weekend -- opening for Oxford Collapse at The Glasslands in Brooklyn on Saturday, and for Montreal's Malajube and Atlanta's Snowden at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan on Sunday. An unbelievably energized ensemble of strings, brass, and percussion, Rock Plaza Central just might be this year's most exciting musical breakthrough. The New York crowds seem to have corroborated this claim, as they wouldn't......

Part Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, part Animal Collective, part something else completely, Grizzly Bear have a unique sound that's tricky to categorize. This is not music you will necessarily dance to, but you will be moved. The Brooklyn-based band hits Toronto on Tuesday at Lee's Palace with Dirty Projectors to promote their newest (and critically acclaimed) record Yellow House. Despite ranking their last show in Toronto in support of TV on the Radio their......

Damn it, Arcade Fire, why do you keep teasing us? Beginning at the end of this month (in support of their soon-to-be-released new album, Neon Bible) the band is playing five consecutive nights in three big cities -- and not one of them comes from the Iroquois word for "place where trees stand in the water" (that is, they're starting in London, then in Montreal, and ending in New York). Tickets for all fifteen shows......

Happy Holidays from the Ist-A-Verse! Austinist is in good holiday spirits, and so is their interview, Andy Roddick. They know what CDs they want in their stockings, but more than that, they know that the greatest gift you can give them is making fun of a famous Austinite on national television. Torontoist isn't really feeling the Christmas spirit, though: unfortunately, there's still no snow in Toronto. Maybe if somebody were to put a big Christmas......

Photograph of Rick Santorum conceding defeat with his family by Gene J. Puskar/AP The -ists this week had politics on the brain. And what goes better with politics? Partying-- that's two great tastes in one. Oh, and Kevin Federline...can't forget about Kevin Federline. That's three great tastes in one. -Bostonist discussed two big state issues-- what sort of math constitutes a marriage and what kind of alcohol can be sold in most grocery stores.......

Oh boy! Contests! This one comes courtesy of Vice Records, and is for two free tickets to Brooklyn band Favourite Sons's show at the El Mocambo on Friday Saturday night as well as a copy of the group's new record, Down Beside Your Beauty. The show also features openers The Drones and Devastations. For those curious, here are a few MP3s to check out: ▪ Favourite Sons - Hang On, Girl ▪ Favourite Sons......

Friday, we caught the 9:15 pm show of Mutual Appreciation at the Bloor Cinema. Shot in grainy black and white, we follow the story of Alan, a musician who's just relocated to New York from Boston. He's finding his way in a new city with the help of his old friend Lawrence and Lawrence's girlfriend Ellie. Alan's band has broken up, he's got a gig to play, and he needs to find a drummer.......

Two teams from the Toronto Kickball league will be heading down to NYC for the Brooklyn Kickball Invitational over the Canada Day long weekend and we wish the teams going lots of luck. But before they can kick their way to international hipster glory they need to make gas money (not to mention bribes for the customs officials at the border). So on Thu. June 22nd the league will be holding a fundraiser at Sneaky......

It's a well known joke among indie rock fans that there are tons and tons of "wolf" bands. Everyone from Wolf Parade to Aids Wolf to Guitar Wolf. There's something about the lupine animal that just attracts musicians trying to come up with a band name. With the success of wolf bands the backlash is going to be inevitable. Which makes Torontoist wonder which animal will be de rigeur for struggling indie musicians everywhere. We......

There must be something in the air lately, because it has been a weird few weeks for Torontoist and everyone we know. And a series of vaguely ominous occurrences (which included the spontaneous locking of our oven in the middle of cooking dinner - 36 hours later and we still haven't been able to nudge it open) came to a head on Saturday night when we were innocently heading down Bathurst Street towards pie when......

The ridiculously busy Fall concert season is getting underway, and first up is the hype band du jour, New York's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The hype machine began chugging this past Spring when the five-piece was annointed as the next greatest band in the world by the Brooklyn blogerati and confirmed as such with a 9.0 review that ensured that the initial run of CYHSY's self-titled, completely independent debut was sold out coast to......

An extremely slap-dash look around the blogiverse has yielded the following links (excuse the tardiness of some): - Our friend Frank's got some BSS pics (one of which we ungraciously stole), and some words for those who didn't like Les Giraffes. (PS Did they remind anyone of the first Batman, when the Joker had that street party? Toronto=Gotham City) - Still tickets available for Jon Stewart in Toronto. - Brooklyn Vegan has a Saul Williams......

Nobody said it'd be easy, but no one ever said it would be this hard. It's the time of year, much like that time of year, that Mixtapes are not in the mandate. Sorry if the music selection is scant this week. 1. Okay - "Now", and Okay - "Compass" Mr Okay is intensely ill and hooked up to an IV machine all day due to a rare form of Crohn's. Incredibley, he also released......

Brooklyn based artist Jillian McDonald draws inspiration from the peculiar cultural phenomenon of celebrity worship. Her video installation, "To Vincent, With Love," showing until March 26 at YYZ Artists Outlet straddles the two extremes of celebrity worship; the innocuous deluge of fan-sites, letters, and mind-numbing celebrity "journalism" and the often disturbing phenomenon of stalking, romantic delusion and threats of violence. In the work McDonald has placed herself in various scenes of Gallo's film Buffalo 66.......