Photo of Owen Pallett by Heidi Slimane from his MySpace. News of Owen Pallett's OHIP being revoked has been quickly met with a reaction: an open letter sent today to George Smitherman, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, from France Gélinas and Rosario Marchese, NDP MPPs who insist that Pallett is "an award winning artist who deserves our support" but who has instead been "unfairly treated." The letter takes issue both with the......

Sorry Spice Girls: R.E.M. just one-upped you in the "most exciting concert of 2008" department. The band, which famously played a free concert for 20,000 fans here in May 2001, announced Monday afternoon that their new tour (in support of their new album Accelerate) will feature both The National and Modest Mouse. All three bands are indisputable headliners, and it's a fantastic combination: R.E.M. are old and established, with something to prove after 2004's pretty-good-but-not-great......

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......

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. On October 18 and 19, the band will celebrate 20 years of ripping through the eardrums of clubgoers with two back-to-back shows at the Bovine Sex Club. Also......

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. Producing weird, aggressive, yelp-y music since 2001, the band’s track record of one amazing full-length, an awesome split 7" with the (sorely missed) Vermicious Knid, and......

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. Another good bet is blues singer/guitarist......

Despite having seen a lot of screenings after only two days (and already being completely knackered as a result), Heavy Metal in Baghdad is still one of our top films of the festival. We got the chance to talk to the Toronto-born Suroosh Alvi (pictured above on the left)—co-founder of Vice Magazine and co-director of Heavy Metal in Baghdad—about the film and the current situation of Acrassicauda. Today’s Interview: Suroosh Alvi, co-director of Heavy......

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. At about 4:30 p.m. next Friday, September 7, the Hidden Cameras and Stars will play a free concert on U of T's Back Campus (north of University College, at Devonshire Place and Hoskin Avenue) which is restricted to current students. While last year's U of T frosh week saw......

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......

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. The second annual MQMusicfest takes place on August 19 at the Phoenix Concert Theatre, and promises to be filled to the point of overflow with old schoolers shredding like it was somewhere between 1985–95. The Festival is headlined by......

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......

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......

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. Psychic Brunch first took place in 2003. Since then, it's become a twice monthly event where what the Psychic Brunch MySpace calls "a small but seasoned, dedicated team of psychics and healers" gather to help clients "mold happier......

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......

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. Luckily for pandas and those who love them, the No Pandas gallery isn't a radical anti-panda group dedicated to the final destruction of that most endangered of species. It's an art show at Xpace, dedicated to exposing North Americans to China's up-and-coming young artists. Curator Siya Chen, who......

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! Courtesy of Universal Music Canada, we have one pair of tickets to give away. But that's not......

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. The show’s MySpace proclaims "This aint [sic] your granny's church basement!" And this craft party sure doesn't seem so. Grab a drink and browse the kitsch, the tack, and the......

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! But before we get back......

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,......

Two super-fast ticket giveaways for you today...get 'em while they're hot. First up are three pairs of tickets to see Colorado's Rose Hill Drive with Zuku tonight at Lee's Palace, courtesy of Against the Grain. If you've never heard Rose Hill Drive, think 70's rock a la Zeppelin, and for what it's worth, Rolling Stone recently named them one of the "10 new artists to watch in 2007." Up for it? If you can make......

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. So it was a surreal experience to see Johnston close the Over The Top Festival this past Sunday. On one......

A group of Grade 12 students caught a fight between a motorist and a cyclist on tape near Queen and Bay. The cyclist, who lost a tooth during the attack, allegedly stopped at a yellow light and prevented the driver from going through the intersection. Remember last year when a similar road rage showdown was captured on film in Kensington Market? (Thanks to Daniel for the tip.) Leaking barrels of toxic waste shut down traffic......

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. Courtesy of +1 Music we have one pair of tickets to......

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......

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......

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. According to Ladyfest Toronto’s mandate, it aims to “work locally to support and inspire emerging women artists and improve the......

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. Ontario voters will get the chance to vote in a referendum for mixed-member proportional government. If it wins,......

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......

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......

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. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......