Results tagged “indie”

Somewhere in the first half of this decade there was a handful of female artists and bands churned out into mainstream Canadian music and steered towards an edgy look and sound—for example, Avril Lavigne became an international Top 40 star, while Vancouver then-teens Live On Release and their single "I'm Afraid of Britney Spears" were banished to the one-hit-wonder subconsciousness of regular Muchmusic viewers. Based mostly on timing (oh, and uh, total gender association), innocent bystanders Magneta Lane got lumped into a similar rundown of names, and even after releasing their excellent third album, Gambling with God (while also jumping from indie powerhouse Paper Bag to powerhousier Last Gang Records), they might still be suffering from the initial wrong-place-wrong-time impression.

Like a ray of pop-nostalgia sunshine, the new self-released, self-titled EP from Everything All The Time finds its way into our sad-bastard acoustic hearts this week. It's a committed pop record that is technically pretty removed from a lot of the easy indie rock cop-outs that get thrown at the messy-haired, bespectacled sextet, but don't be afraid—they keep the conventions and the company (oh, and live drums), so no one will ever know.

Lady singer-songwriters get an historically raw deal (thanks for nothing, Lilith Fair). But when you're lumped in, first and foremost, with company as incestuous—and hugely successful—as the Arts&Crafts crew, you've got not only the means but the insular support to create and release, unafraid. Amy Millan, luckily, has nothing to be afraid of anyway. The Toronto-born-and-raised, now-Montreal-moonlighting chanteuse released her sophomore solo album, Masters of the Burial, earlier this month, and through laments of her own and some choice covers, she paints another dusty, unabashedly pained-artiste portrait of romantic solitariness.

While it's no secret that we've got a wimpy soft spot for lush, melodic indie rock with banjos and acoustic guitars, we're tough enough (swear!) to dig melodies with a bit of balls, too. Few do it as well as local husband-and-wife thrash duo Lullabye Arkestra, and Threats/Worship is a stripped-down, fast, and heavy tag-team triumph whose genre at times masks just how angry and eerie it can get. Also, A+ on the title.

If you read only one album review this summer (where's your attention span?), make it this one, because if there's one local band you should listen to this year, it's Horses. There's no gimmick, no trend, no all-star roster here (how's that attention span holding up?)—just four dudes with heart, substance, stories, and balls. Their new EP, Brotherly Love, is available now through Juicebox Recording Co., and its roots-tinged, working-class earnestness is as authentic as it gets.

Although it isn't technically a brand-new release, we would be negligent parents to ignore today's long-overdue official release of Hometowns, the debut album from relative scene babies The Rural Alberta Advantage. It's noteworthy not only for the fact that the re-release happens to be courtesy of Omaha, NE's indie-mecca Saddle Creek Records (where the RAA find themselves among other friendly CanCon faces such as Sebastien Grainger, Land of Talk, and Tokyo Police Club), but because of the gradual grassroots buzz that Hometowns managed to accumulate based solely on the strength of the minimal and urgent indie ballads in disguise.

This music stuff sure can be serious business sometimes. When Bon Iver's Justin Vernon secluded himself in an isolated cabin for a winter to deal with the break-up of a band and a relationship, he produced one of the most (rightfully) lauded releases of 2008. For Emma, Forever Ago was an aching, almost desperate catharsis—a much-needed exorcism of love and self lost. With her group The Weather Station, Tamara Lindeman makes a similar attempt at hiding and healing on the new debut full-length, The Line.

Revue Video on the Danforth—one of Toronto's last great independent video stores—shut down earlier this month after two decades of providing Riverdalians with access to the best and most obscure foreign, indie, and documentary films. Apparently tired of answering questions about whether the store would re-open, and certainly bitter about something—maybe the Shoppers Drug Mart soon to open across the street—the store owners left a note on the front door about their future intentions, a rather blunt variation on the more typical "back in 5 minutes." Although today's weather is a good candidate for hell blowing over, it's not quite cold enough for the freezing action required to revive the store.

Photo by Jeff Croft.

We don’t tend to post too often about video games here at Torontoist, what with basically the entire rest of the internet being devoted to it (well, that and anthropomorphic Star Trek slash fiction), but we do like to make special note when some pleasant news of local interest comes up, such as Toronto as a Half Life mod or the Toronto Indie Game Jam (Which we, er, forgot to mention this year. Our...

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.

In June, 200 media professionals, producers, activists and academics packed into a Bathurst Street studio for a party celebrating the launch of a new English-language global news and documentary network, The Real News. If building an international news network from scratch doesn’t sound mind-boggling-ly ambitious to you, consider this: Real News CEO Paul Jay is promising to accomplish this feat without corporate, government or advertising dollars. This makes The Real News the world’s first...

On Sunday afternoon, over 150 independent publishers, writers, artists and bloggers from across the continent will pack Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel for Canzine, Canada’s largest celebration of small press publishing and alternative culture.

Slightly different beginning to our Film Friday today, because we’d like to highlight the fact that our favourite film in ages, Reprise (pictured above), was released on DVD this week. We really feel it should have been given the same kind of cinematic release it’s getting right now in the UK, rather than an astonishingly bare-bones DVD transfer with burned-in subtitles, but what are you going to do? You really have to see it anyway. It was one of our top picks from TIFF 2006, and is still as vital as ever (and Eye’s Jason Anderson agrees).

Toronto’s DIY fashionistas, independent designers, eclectic personalities and thrift store scavengers get a chance to flaunt the city’s indie fashion credentials this Wednesday at the Cadillac Lounge.

Indie popsters Stars will be shooting a new video in Toronto tomorrow and Thursday and they want you to be in it. If you missed the Joel Plaskett shoot we told you about earlier this year, you've got another shot at your 15 minutes of fame (or at least becoming known among your acquaintances as "the one who was in a music video"). Aspiring extras should send photos and contact info to extras@blinkpictures.com for their chance to hobnob with Stars.

Queen West West hosts the Parkdale Arts and Crafts Festival this weekend, July 14 and 15 from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Organized by the Parkdale/Liberty Economic Development Corporation (PLEDC), the festival is intended to "promote and celebrate the diversity of arts and culture in Parkdale." We're mostly going for the beer garden and knitted finger puppets.

This week, the biggest news in movies is that Warner Bros. has decided to stop all advance promotional screenings of its films in Canada, in attempt to stem the flow of pirated movies from Canada. Yo ho ho! Unfortunately, they’ve likely decided that Canada is a hotbed of disgusting movie pirates on some pretty wonky data. Though apparently there’s no law against recording movies in a theatre onto a camcorder in Canada, which is kind of crazy.

Even though the Toronto Indie Pop Festival became the Over The Top Festival a long time ago, Thursday night's show at the Whippersnapper Gallery would have fit in easily with the former name. With three bands on the bill, it was a short blast of sweet songs that got the fest off to a good start.

The Over The Top Festival starts today—the real one, not the CFL event. The next four evenings will find bands, films and dance performances filling various downtown venues.

Years spent on the Indie Rock scene should be measured in dog years: if a band manages to maintain its original line up for an entire trip around the sun, it should count as seven. Toronto’s Talladega has featured many members over the years, but the original core-duo of Stewart Whitehead (ex-Grace Babies) and Sean Bettam (ex-Chicklet) guides its flight path with endurance. Tonight, with new members Mark Buffone and Dave Cyr, they launch their sophomoric release, Up from Beneath (Fading Ways U.K.).

Australian 70's-arena-rock-inspired Wolfmother created some buzz last week when they were in town for a soldout show at the Kool Haus, as well as a brief performance at the Indie Awards. We're a little late reporting on it (blame CMW), but last Tuesday's show was nothing short of a marathon set, if we've ever seen one.

Torontoist caught-up with Dave Azzolini and Jess Grassia of The Golden Dogs recently. Having finished a radio interview, they were rushing to pick up the rest of the band and proceed to The Docks for 2007 Indie Awards. Torontoist interviewed them in their van as all this happened—because such is Canadian Music Week. (And apparently we enjoy bands and their vans.)

Tonight begins the running around from venue to venue, as Canadian Music Week starts it's second day. The Indie Awards last night at The Docks were... interesting, but now the real fun starts. As such, here is our second installment of CMW previews to help you plan your Friday evening. If you missed the first preview, you can check it out here

It's that time -- Canadian Music Week has finally arrived and is taking over just about every decent music venue in the city for the next four days, starting tonight with the Indie Awards at The Docks. Planning on checking some shows out, but can't make heads or tails of the overwhelming number of bands playing? We're here to help. We've scoured the list of over 500 bands to seek out some of the shows we hope will blow us away, and we want to share them with you. Over the next few days, we'll be previewing each night of the festival in hope that it will help you decide to either find a venue to nestle into for the night or put on your comfy shoes for an evening of club hopping.

It's finally here - the week of festival hell insanity. Got your wristbands and earplugs ready? Canadian Music Week kicks off on Wednesday with the Indie Awards at The Docks, and Thursday to Saturday will have you running around town trying to catch as many acts as possible. Wristbands are $35, or you can purchase (limited) tickets at the door to most shows. Not your thing this year? There's also the Pitter Patter Festival running from Wednesday to Sunday. It features fewer acts than CMW but depending on your preference, it might give you more bang for your buck. Keep an eye on Torontoist for previews of both festivals in the coming days.

On the way to the sold-out Bunch Family Salon at The Arts and Letters Club last Saturday, my eight year old son looks into the window of our subway car and sees an alternate universe; it's just us, but backwards. After he asks me to call him by his inverse reality name, "ttenraG," he ponders how my name would sound. Turns out that even in other worlds, my name is "moM."

Let's just get this over with right off the bat -- Arcade Fire have announced their Toronto show dates. Hurrah! They'll be at Massey Hall on May 15 & 16, and tickets go on sale on Feb. 23rd. Predicted time to sell out? 1 minute 49 seconds. If you have no luck with those, the next closest location is Montreal on May 12 & 13.

It seems pretty appropriate that we just had Groundhog Day, given that we're feeling a little bit like Bill Murray looking at the concert listings this week. Not only is there very little going on, but most of the bands who are playing seem to be here every week (Apostle of Hustle, The Tragically Hip, Hostage Life, Friendly Rich). Thus, we have nothing left to say about them! So if you've already seen these shows, it is advised that you take this time to rest up because the end of February and month of March are going to be insane for loads of high quality live music.