Results tagged “cufftheduke”

Oshawa's Cuff the Duke find themselves in position for a great lurch forward with their fourth album, Way Down Here—the album was recorded and produced by one of Canada's most successful demographic-crossover roots-rock artists, Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor, and they're self-releasing it with distribution through Universal Canada on their newly formed Noble Recording Co.—but instead they find themselves at a near standstill.

WORDS: On August 31, owner Marc Glassman closed Pages Books and Magazines' doors for good, ending its thirty years in business on Queen Street West. Tonight, "Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years" will bring together many of the Canadian icons who both graced the shelves and roamed the aisles of Pages. The list of guests include Matthew Blackett, Rob Bowman, Eldon Garnet, and many more. Monkey Toast will create improvised comedy based on some of the stories shared. "Afterword" is a This Is Not A Reading Series (TINARS) event. Gladstone Hotel, Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West), 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.), FREE.

Throughout his fifteen-year career, Hayden has been travelling a leisurely path from gravelly grunge-folkie to a more refined folk-pop sound. It's a transition still in progress, and on The Place Where We Lived, out today on Hardwood Records, Hayden gets a little help from his friends on a fitting next chapter in his ever-expanding sad-boy saga.

SPORTS: The Natrel rink is now open at Harbourfront, which has loads of SK8 Culture celebrations planned for the rink’s twenty-fifth anniversary. If you’re there early enough (before 6 p.m. today), check out the two hockey-themed exhibits (“Blue Blood” and “The Arena Project”) on at the York Quay galleries until January 4. Harbourfront (235 Queens Quay West), 10 a.m.–10 p.m., FREE.

Most should be very excited by the wide gamut of shows announced this week; Musicologist is excited, but distracted by the concept of a $30.75 Hedley ticket. But yes, excitement: Rick White and The Luyas (one third Jessie Stein of Miracle Fortress and SS Cardiacs, two thirds Bell Orchestre’s Pietro Amato and Stefan Schneider) play the Music Gallery on February 9. Gogol Bordello returns on March 2, shortly after their over-the-top performance last October. New York’s Vampire Weekend evidently can’t get enough of Toronto coming back for the third time since last summer on February 11. Basia Bulat (with Musicologist-loving Katie Stelmanis) is headlining her own show after a heavy North American, Hayden-supporting tour on March 29. Finally, Thee Silver Mt. Zion play on June 7 and 8 as per their (sometimes) annual Toronto visit—sadly, both shows will be Patti Smith-less.

Musicologist's generous boast last week of a busier than usual month for music was definitely that: generous. While this week's listings seem a bit skeletal compared to the past few, there are definitely a few events worthy of precious holiday season time.

In case you're not into any CMW bands playing this year like these guys, or you want to avoid the boozing and schmoozing music industry folks (who are desperately clinging to their jobs), you might consider checking out the Pitter Patter Festival running concurrent to CMW. Featuring more than 80 local and non-local bands playing in Toronto, Hamilton and Oshawa, this year's line-up is a competitive, if not superior alternative to Canadian Music Week.

It's always risky to see a band when they're not promoting a new album. There's always the possibility of finding a lot of new songs thrown into the mix, which can seriously hamper, if not altogether halt, what might have been a really fun show. So it was no surprise that Saturday night's Cuff The Duke show, a sold out affair infront of a well-liquored audience, was lopsided, filled with new songs from the third Cuff The Duke album, which they will soon go into the studio to record. Don't take that to mean that the songs were in any way bad, because they're not. They manage to walk the fine line between being alt-country but not sounding derivative or repetitive. It was just obvious that it was not what the audience wanted.

It just never ends. Never. Ends. The stream of tour announcements is still going strong, and we're now at the point where there are 3-4 shows to choose from on some dates -- our calendar is starting to look as busy as a CEO's! As suspected last week, The Police added a second Toronto date to their tour schedule, on July 23 (tickets on sale now)...good thing Sting practices tantric sex so he'll have enough stamina for all of these dates. Sorry, bad visual...shake it off. We're looking forward to the ever adorable Lily Allen, who will be back in town April 5, and is hopefully bringing a bigger setlist with her this time; Feist will be gracing us with her presence at Massey Hall on May 26, in support of her new album The Reminder; and Muse is apparently opening for My Chemical Romance on May 11, but since it's not confirmed, we won't get too excited yet (about Muse, not MCR).

The year is winding down and so is the music, which is kind of nice, actually, because there seem to be a lot of tours already gearing up for 2007. Hopefully Alexisonfire isn't one of them...we have no idea how they can manage to go onstage and scream for 7 solid days (they have a few more shows this week). Insanity.

Canadian Music Week, which is not really a week, kicks off tonight with what looks like a promising line-up. Then again, with like 200 bands, how could there NOT be a promising line-up? The CMW shotgun approach has Torontoist looking forward to this small smattering of shows:

Hayden Desser's not as as cute as Oliver, but that won't stop him from folking-it-up at Lee's Palace tonight and Saturday, Nov. 19-20, 2004. Hayden's devoted following will bring copies of his lastest album, , to his two-date Toronto show for his always cute autographs. Hayden returns to Canada after an extensive European tour. Listen to his songs here. He is playing with Guelph-rock upstarts Cuff the Duke, whom also aren't as cute as Oliver.