We've said it before: MuchMusic kinda sucks nowadays. Dave Bidini says the same thing, but more eloquently, in his column at This Magazine. The front man of the now-defunct Rheostatics reminisces about a time when his band was "afforded two hours at midnight to present bands live in an empty garage studio in the bowels of the Much/City colossus." Regrettably, those days of low-fi Canadocentric programming are long gone. Bidini continues: Circa 2008, MuchMusic......

Yes, it's kind of cool to hate on Alexisonfire once you've reached puberty. And no, Crisis, their last record, wasn't filled with delightfully twee indie pop, but pretty much every person who reviewed it dug it like whoa. And the fact remains that as played out as "screamo" gets, these guys have been doing it since long before downtuning and shouting put you on the fast track to rock 'n' roll success. They've bucked......

Photo by Jeff Croft. Since The Beastie Boys dropped an album last year, their resident DJ Mix Master Mike has had some time to fill. The turntablism legend and three-time winner of the DMC World DJ Championships will be spinning a set at This is London on Wednesday night. Undoubtedly, he will bust out a crazy scratching display like this one from his appearance at Republik last September. Indie-electro dance nights are a dime......

Sure, they penned the obviously raddest one-hit-wonder of 1996, but since that fateful year, full of cheerleaders and homoerotic football players, Nada Surf have continued to rage against the dying of that hit-single light. They may have fallen off MTV's radar, but so have most things north of Christina Aguilera's baby-bump. Since leaving Elektra in 1998, the band have built a quiet following of appreciative indie rockers around the world, unconcerned with attaining the......

Are you getting geared up for the season finale of The Hills on Monday? If so, continue reading. If not, we don't need another lecture about how the show is quasi-scripted—tell it to your boring friends. The last few weeks have surprised loyal viewers with some major plot twists: Audrina finally dumped Justin Bobby, Lauren wants to make a boyfriend out of notorious man-whore Brody Jenner, Spencer's sister has turned cat-fighting into the official......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Beaver Brothers Wood Co. BY HDR IMAGES ARE SO MTV.......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Hugger Sept 07 BY HDR IMAGES ARE SO MTV.......

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with the Toronto International Film Festival Group to run a contest each day until the end of the festival for tickets to next-day screenings. Today’s Contest: For your chance to win one of five pairs of tickets to tomorrow’s Doc Talks panel discussion Covering War (at 4:00 p.m. at the ROM Theatre), featuring directors Michael Tucker, Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro debating filmmaking in war-torn nations,......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Pride 1 & Pride 2 BY HDR IMAGES ARE SO MTV. RELATED ON TORONTOIST: Pride(ist)......

Starting September 1, the Hamilton television station known as CH will be rebranded as E! Entertainment Television. E! is an American entertainment and lifestyle cable broadcaster best known for its wildly successful E! True Hollywood Story series. CH corporate parent CanWest MediaWorks will license the E! trademark and manage Canadian content programming, including online, mobile, satellite radio and video-on-demand platforms. There are also CH-branded stations in Montreal, Victoria, Kelowna and Red Deer which are included......

City council says up to 2,500 tonnes of dog poop are deposited in park trash bins every year. This is problematic since our garbage dumps in Michigan refuse to take it. So where should we put our growing heap of canine feces? Councillor Pam McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) thinks the city should provide green bins in parks, while Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) doesn't think it's a big deal for dog owners......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyway, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In other......

Torontoist was very saddened to learn of yesterday's passing of Canadian animation legend Ryan Larkin. In an article last December about his station ID tags for MTV Canada, Torontoist wrote of Larkin:Between the groundbreaking (and Oscar-nominated) Walking in 1969 and his equally revolutionary follow-up, Street Musique, three years later, Ryan Larkin cemented his status as among the most daring and brilliant animators of his time, taking hand-drawn animation to a previously-unseen level of surreal......

You probably heard that Andy Samberg (the cute guy who does the funny videos on Saturday Night Live) was discovered online. As a member of the comedy group Lonely Island, Samberg and his cohorts were regulars at the video show-slash-website Channel 101, which eventually caught the attention of SNL’s Lorne Michaels. The rest is comedy history. Anyone can make a digital short and then use the interweb to distribute it around the world. It......

In order to more accurately reflect the values of German youth, MTV Germany altered the hit TV show Pimp My Car to Pimp My Bike. Toronto's own Corwyn Lund has pimped a bike so hard, he's gonna head up bike pimping operations for MTV World. Well, maybe one day he will. But for now, he is delivering missives and enunciations to the citizens of Toronto with this luminous bike – but only on Mondays.......

As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans for......

Ah, convergence. It's a word fraught with different meanings, competing motives, and opinions up the proverbial wazoo. To some, convergence is a paradise of synergy, cross-promotion, and massive profits. To others, it's confirmation that more and more information is being disseminated by less and less people. Wherever you stand, however, the world of Toronto media overlords might be on the verge of becoming a whole lot smaller, as Alliance Atlantis confirmed today that one......

Between the groundbreaking (and Oscar-nominated) Walking in 1969 and his equally revolutionary follow-up, Street Musique, three years later, Ryan Larkin cemented his status as among the most daring and brilliant animators of his time, taking hand-drawn animation to a previously-unseen level of surreal impressionism. He was the rising star of the NFB, the protégé of, and successor to, Norman McLaren, but the pressure to top his earlier triumphs exacerbated his already-present problems with drug-......

Tonight, the Horseshoe Tavern plays host to the Pitchfork/Secretly Canadian Indie Rock Triple-Header. This is a chance to see three awesome bands you've probably never heard of... but who everyone will be talking about in a few months. If you want to get ahead of the curve, read on. San Francisco's Birdmonster headline the night. Their sound is giant. Their guitarist famously declared: "Our main goal is to rock so hard one of us faints."......

Sometimes you have to wonder what they're thinking down on Queen Street. First there was MuchMusic, "The Nation's Music Station." Remember when you were growing up and you told all your American friends how much cooler -how much more REAL it was than MTV? Well, then it kinda stopped playing music (just like MTV) so they brought in Much More Music which played LESS music than the old MuchMusic but more than the current MuchMusic,......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing)......

Bell Globemedia, owners of CTV, the Globe and Mail and a bunch of cable channels is in the midst of buying Chum, owner of CityTV, radio stations and even more cable channels. The resulting media conglomerate would be scary to say the least and probably own about half the specialty cable channels in Canada. It will also make the Canadian media scene just a little more concentrated. Bell Globemedia has indicated that it plans to......

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called "How to Get the Guy" that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing. Getting on the wrong train sucks. Getting on the wrong train and becoming the victim of what will later be described as a "stabbing spree" really sucks.......

If this green arrow were real it would crush several hundred teenie boppers and a few dozen talentless musicians on Sunday. Sadly, it's not real. What is very real is the Much Music Video Awards and the resulting noise from screaming adoring fans and traffic confusion from out-of-towners who forgot that MuchMusic actually occupies real space and once a year holds a large award ceremony. Guests this year include Paris Hilton (and the resulting......

MTV Canada launched three months ago, and since that time one thing has become obvious: it's way better than MuchMusic. Less annoying VJs (including Daryn Jones, of Daryn Jones & Mista Mo fame) and way more addictive content (My Super Sweet 16 and Laguna Beach, to name a few) are just the tip of this sexy, American iceberg. Sure, MTV doesn't have any actual music videos and their website is a huge pain to navigate,......

Back in March, we told you about the launch of MTV Canada. Yesterday we were noticing how they've spent their budget on adding fancy lights to give the Masonic Temple, where they film MTV Canada, more prominence. Strangely, it reminds us of the Chum City building, home of Much Music, without all the foot traffic and big windows to see in the studio.......

MTV has been live in Canada for just over 24 hours and Torontoist’s immediate response is yawn. Obviously, it is still very new and we should allow them time to work out the kinks, like replacing their version of “hip” Vjs for one (a few of 'em pictured here). Torontoist will honestly say that based on the quality of their marketing across the city and on television there is potential for good things but do......

Torontoist had heard for a while that MTV Canada's arrival was fast approaching which got us thinking about what MTV’s presence will mean for Canada’s own MuchMusic. Apparently, CTV is required to operate this station under a Talk TV license; therefore, more lifestyle programming and little focus on actual music and videos. So it would appear Much will keep its core audience and the two networks will have little to battle over. Right? Well, who......

Of all the 80s reunions littering the concert circuit these days, the one featuring the original Dinosaur Jr lineup has to rank as one of the unlikeliest. Anyone who's read Michael Azerrad's tome on the 80s underground scene, Our Band Could Be Your Life, knows that the acrimony between J Mascis and Lou Barlow was legendary. The fact that they were able to record three albums before fracturing (in a famously jerk-eriffic move, Mascis told......