Photo by Daniel Kahn. Last night, amidst the falling snow, the torrid wind, and the downtown lights, a sizable contingent of ironically-dressed hipsters, amateur figure skaters, tiny tots, and bewildered parents skated to the sounds of Stars, Major Marker, and Kevin Drew. All the while, Craig Norris froze his ass off while hosting the R3-30, CBC Radio 3's weekly indie rock countdown, at the Natrel Skating Rink at Harbourfront. Besides the music, there was......

If you are saddened by your procrastination that cost you Richard Hawley and Jose Gonzalez tickets this week, you can direct your attention to the eclectic choice of shows as a mild substitute. It does, however, appear as if local label Arts and Crafts have successfully cornered the market on this week's moderately sized shows (read: tickets that cost no more than $35). Tuesday you can catch Jason Collett with a surprise guest at the......

"Do you trust your friends? Would you let them redecorate your apartment, or do your homework for you? Would you let them buy your groceries? Would you leave them in charge of your kids? And if you did, what would they change?" So reads the beginning of the liner notes from Do You Trust Your Friends?, the album of remixes and reimaginings of songs from Stars' Set Yourself On Fire, now out on Arts &......

Bunch Family is at it again. The family oriented group, who also run the Family Dance Party and Bunch Rocks events, bring the Bunch Family Salon to The Arts and Letters Club (14 Elm St.) this Saturday, February 24th, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The event "is a symposium of art, music and ideas for kids and parents," keeping the Bunch tradition that family events should be designed with both the children and parents......

Owen Pallett (aka. Final Fantasy) has taken the inaugural Polaris Music Prize and $20,000 for his sophomore album He Poos Clouds. Pallett beat out nine other worthy artists including Cadence Weapon, the Deadly Snakes, Malajube and more. The award was started by music industry veteran Steve Jordan who based the award on Britain's Mercury Prize. For Owen's sake we just hope that there's no Polaris Music Prize curse. Update: Check out Radio 3's commentary......

The Canadian Content of the Late Show with David Letterman will increase by several hundred percent as our own uber-group Broken Social Scene hits CBS tonight. We wonder whether Paul Shaffer will join Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, et al. BSS will be joined by new Lois Lane Kate Bosworth and hopefully be upstaged by a bunch of middle-aged New Englanders who do crazy things with Mentos and Diet Coke. Letterman airs at 11:30 ET.......

Sometime last year there was a rumour going around that a NYT writer was in town fishing for interviews for a piece on Toronto's indie scene. Well that piece is here and the ever resourceful kids at Stillepost have somehow got their hands on the piece before it was put up on the NYT's site (NYT subscribers get a sneak peek at Sunday's issue, the piece will most likely appear in this Sunday's NYT magazine).......

Kevin Drew, the braintrust behind Canada's premiere art-rock collective-typ band, is now trying his hand at travel writing. But instead of selling a blurb on Ft Lauderdale to Maclean's or something of that ilk, the easy-on-the-eyes singer went to Silver Spring, Maryland to sell articles about Toronto. For Harp Magazine, a U.S. music magazine, Drew wrote a quick-hits, some nonsense guide to Toronto. He highlights Rotate This, a bar that's been closed for some time,......

There's a difference between celebrity-gawking locally (seeing P Diddy buying some clothes at Roots in Yorkville), and local celebrity-gawking (catching Stuart Berman eating a burrito at Bar Burrito). At Torontoist, we'd take the local celebs locally any night of the week. And last Friday - the Tangiers' CD release party at Lee's Palace - happened to be such a night. We first saw Mr Kevin Drew, whom we will not call a Broken Social Scenester,......