Results tagged “myspace”

Photo of Owen Pallett by Heidi Slimane from his MySpace.

Sorry Spice Girls: R.E.M. just one-upped you in the "most exciting concert of 2008" department.

Toronto native Lucian Matis, 28, landed in second place behind Evan Biddell, a 24-year-old designer from Saskatoon, on the finale of Project Runway Canada last night. Matis, Biddell, and third-placer Marie Genevieve Cyr showed ten-piece collections at Toronto's L'Oréal Fashion Week in October as the final challenge of the reality show. The runway shows were performed in front of an audience and evaluated by the Runway judges: supermodel Iman, Elle Canada Editor Rita Silvan, and Bustle Clothing's Shawn Hewson.

There are trendsetters, trend followers, and those who plant their feet and shout at trends until they go away. Over the years, with their solid sound and party-till-you-puke attitude, Toronto band The Pariahs have survived countless club scenes by screaming louder and longer than the competition.

While they may not technically be Toronto residents, The Sourkeys still hold a special place in the heart of this city. And really, Waterloo’s just not that far away. Which is why the band’s final Toronto show, this Thursday, September 27, will be an important one to catch.

Lovers of live music are in luck this week—there are a great deal of quality shows in the next seven days. Musicologist's number one choice this week is The Cinematic Orchestra (Sunday at the Phoenix), since we were utterly enchanted by their free outdoor show at Harbourfront earlier this summer. Head over to their MySpace and give the songs a listen. Just try to resist being won over.

Today’s Interview: Suroosh Alvi, co-director of Heavy Metal In Baghdad

The bands for both the University of Toronto and Ryerson's frosh week concerts are all confirmed and good to go, and they're all extraordinarily excellent.

The Little Millionaires are so good, it took Torontoist several days to get over their righteous awesomeness in order to attempt a description of their sonic mightiness. Formed from the ashes of the phenomenal Bombs Over Providence, TLM balance the driving pop elements of Bombs’ punk rock aggression and step up the hardcore element in their sound considerably. The result had a full room at Sneaky Dee’s rocking out sincerely to a short, sweet set of originals and two (two!) Mclusky covers. Yes, that Mclusky.

Everyone loves the thrill of discovering a hot new band, but there's something equally exciting about watching a bunch of grizzled, middle-aged rock 'n' roll veterans show the kids that they can still hold it down.

Songs about zombies, drive-by shootings, Obi-Wan Kenobi, pirates, monsters, punching people in the face, pregnancy, "reeking and seeking," families, obesity, virginity—all of them catchy, all of them disconcertingly happy-sounding, and all of them sing-and-clap-along-able. That is what Austin's Oh No! Oh My! is made of, and their albums—their self-titled full-length; their new EP, Between The Devil and The Sea; and their Jolly Rogers demo that the songs from the new EP are culled from—are the best pieces of pop to come along in a very, very long time. No kidding.

On Sunday night, the mostly Torontonian electropop extravaganza Dragonette took to the stage at the Social. Martina Sorbara, the group's lead singer, stood up front in green stilettos and grabbed her glowstick necklace, proclaiming, "I feel so New Wave!" The group then proceeded to throb and pound out song after sweet, sensuous song from the tiny stage, while densely-packed fans, resigning themselves to the lack of horizontal dancing space, jumped straight up and down and pumped their fists in the air.

If you're interested in learning more about what the future holds for you, but feel that clairvoyance is not something to be attempted on an empty stomach, Psychic Brunch may be just what you’ve been looking for.

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 them on the tour are Brighton-based electronica legends Fujiya & Miyagi.

Pandas is an odd name for anything, and more than a little disconcerting if you're a fan of large, bamboo-eating quadripeds who don't like to breed.

Hey, so what are you up to tomorrow night? Wanna go to a concert for free? Of course you do. Texas mega-band The Polyphonic Spree are in town at the Phoenix with their 561 matching-robed band members (okay, so really about 23), in support of their third album, The Fragile Army. And we want you to be there!

Enjoy showering with toy animals going at it inside your soap? Collect silver vinyl vegan handbags? Is cross stitching pin-up girls your thing? Then you have to check out the Sassy Little Craft Show at the Victory Café on Friday June 22, 7 p.m.–12:30 a.m.

It's almost time to say goodbye to North By Northeast for yet another year. Two longs nights have past, leaving tonight as the last chance to get out an enjoy some of the best new music from around the world. Seeing as it is Saturday, expect a lot of the shows to be really busy so going earlier is always better than later. All the cool kids are doing it!

Swedish garage rock band Mando Diao seem to be quite fond of making up words. First, their band name came to singer Bjorn Dixgard in a dream, then they named their recent release Ode to Ochrasy, which is a made-up term meaning, well, we're not sure exactly, since we've read so many variations on the story. What's not made up, however, is the fact that the band is in town tomorrow night at The Horseshoe, with supporters Pop Levi & The Films. It's true. In fact, courtesy of Against the Grain, we have 2 pairs of tickets just for you. If you want to go, send an email with your full name to carrie@torontoist.com, along with the answer to this skill-testing question: What's better? Swedish meatballs, Ikea or blondes. Entries 4 and 6 win the prize.

Two super-fast ticket giveaways for you today...get 'em while they're hot.

On occasion, Daniel Johnston has shed his cult status and entered the public spotlight: it happened when Kurt Cobain promoted him and again with the release of The Devil and Daniel Johnston. And as a recent compilation confirmed, his influence can be felt throughout modern music, including Tom Waits, Beck, and The Flaming Lips.

Good morning, Toronto!

Brighton, UK's The Kooks are coming to town this Tuesday on what must be the longest tour ever, supporting their first album Inside In/Inside Out, which came out in January 2006. They must be doing something right, though, since the show is completely sold out. Did you try to buy tickets with no luck? Well, here's your second chance to snag a pair.

As the weather starts to get lovely, a band name has never seemed more appropriate. The Long Winters are playing a free show tonight in two hours and there are still (apparently) forty tickets left that they can give away. (We originally read about it on Chromewaves but were waiting to hear if there were enough tickets left to let our readers know.) If last October's show at Lee's was any indication, tonight's performance should be absolutely spectacular.

Most people are probably jealous of Feist. As a globe-trotting artist she's had the chance to play shows around the world, both as a solo-artist and with Broken Social Scene, not to mention the time she has spent living and recording in France. But as her third album highlights, now out on Arts & Crafts, all of this travel has come at a high price. The Reminder shows the lonely life of the internationally popular musician who tries, unsuccessfully, to juggle their love life and career.

Ladyfest began in Olympia, Washington – the hometown of the riot grrrl movement – in 2000, and the feminist festival, featuring music, art and workshops, has since spread across the globe. 2007 will mark the sixth consecutive year for Ladyfest Ottawa, and the first time since 2004 that Ladyfest has taken place in Toronto.

Idiot ex-Green candidate complains that party refuses to support him just because he wrote how he thought the 9/11 attacks were "beautiful." The best part is that Kevin Potvin claims that this is proof that the Greens don't know how to handle a scandal. uh, they punted your butt off the party in about a day, jackass.

Being in a band isn't all glamour and sexy stage moves. One of the big disadvantages of the musician's life is that people are always stealing your stuff. Sometimes it's a crumb bum nicking a guitar for a quick buck down at the pawnshop. Other times, it's a fan hoping to grab a little piece of the magic. (Guitarist Steve Jones claims to have started the Sex Pistols with instruments plundered from Roxy Music's van—and they were his favourite band.)

We here at Torontoist are always fans of new campaigns to boost our fair city's reputation, but the problem is that most of these campaigns are, shall we say, kind of pathetic. No, actually -- not "kind of." They're just pathetic. Almost universally they cast Toronto as a handy convenient replacement for some other city you'd like to go to. "Toronto! It's almost like Paris, and you don't have to spend money on a transoceanic flight!" "A trip to Toronto is like a trip to New York, but on a Buffalo budget!" "Toronto: the Sydney of the northern hemisphere, with less ocean!" And of course we were quite disparaging regarding the city's most recent attempt in this area.

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.