Results tagged “sneakydees”

On any given Sunday, at least since we were all babies and The Simpsons started sucking, the best place in the city to squeeze the last few minutes out of your weekend is at Sneaky Dee's. While the Dakota Tavern has been getting more attention (and line-ups) lately for its weekly Barn Dance, Dee's is home to the most delicious veggie nachos ever in the whole world, but, more importantly, the indie-cool mecca Wavelength Music Series. The tried-and-true weekly party turns nine this week and is celebrating in its usual style with an anniversary festival, this year spanning four nights (Thursday–Sunday), five venues, and hosting nineteen bands. As newer weekly showcases such as Two Way Monologues start to build their legacy with local music fans, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say the task might be daunting: the taste-making Wavelength series counts among its success stories a pre-Polaris Final Fantasy and pre-kings of everything Broken Social Scene (who, as Wavelength co-founder Jonny Dovercourt told us on a past anniversary, played their first show at the series in 2000 at original venue Ted's Wrecking Yard. Holy cred!).

MUSIC: Anti–bill C-61 filesharing defenders The Craft Economy celebrate the release of their new E.P., Is On Your Side, at Sneaky Dee's tonight with Provincial Parks and Whale Tooth. Copies of The Craft Economy's new album will be available at the show (we'd publish a direct link to download it, but that would probably be a bit cruel). Sneaky Dee's (431 College Street), 9 p.m., $7 ($5 with food donation).

DISCUSSION: Are re-runs of Inside the Actors Studio starting to bore you? Then check out View Points: Inside the Musicians Studio tonight, with DJ and journalist Denise Benson stepping in for James Lipton, and Rolf Klausener of The Acorn and Slim Twig stepping in for Al Pacino. Learn about the complex thought processes and strains of really good weed behind the magic that is song writing. Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West), 7 p.m., $5 at the door.

MUSIC: Torontonian electro-soul group Pants and Tie are celebrating the release of their new single, "Washing Machine," with a party tonight at Sneaky Dee's. The single, mixed by Dale Morningstar, will be available on both CD and vinyl at the show. Pants and Tie will be performing (obviously), accompanied by musical sets from the Pink Noise and Slow Hand Motem, and a DJ set from DVAS. Sneaky Dee's (431 College Street), 9 p.m., $5.

MUSIC: Psychedelic folk band These United States are playing at Sneaky Dee’s tonight. Coincidentally, today is also the release date of their sophomore LP, Crimes. No strangers to the Ist-a-Verse, These United States actually wrote a few tour blog entries for DCist a year ago. Also playing at Dee’s this evening are Entire Cities and Dickie Haydon. Sneaky Dee’s (431 College Street), 9 p.m., $5.

FESTIVAL: A two-day tribute to cult film The Big Lebowski is going down this weekend. LollapaDUDEza kicks off tonight with a screening of the film at Rancho Relaxo, and a Lebowski-themed costume contest. Following the screening, there will be a Lebowski trivia competition, as well as karaoke. Your ticket also gets you a free drink at the bar! If you can't make it out this evening, LollapaDUDEza has booked the Bathurst Bowlerama for three hours of (what else?) bowling tomorrow, from 4–7 p.m. After that, there will be a tribute night back over at the Rancho where local bands will be covering CCR songs and other Big Lebowski soundtrack gems. Rancho Relaxo (300 College Street), 9 p.m., $15 (or $25 for a two-day pass, which includes admission to bowling).

MUSIC: You've got some options today, reader. You could head over to Sneaky Dee's tonight for the 428th edition of weekly music series Wavelength. This week's lineup features Winnipeg funk pop group Flying Fox and the Hunter/Gatherers, followed by improvisational jazz group The WoodChoppers (431 College Street, 10 p.m., PWYC). Alternatively, you could go to the Tranzac, where folk rock singer Andy Swan is playing in the Southern Cross Lounge (292 Brunswick Avenue, 10:30 p.m., FREE).

THEATRE: This evening, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is presenting Electro-Alice: Adventures in the Underground. A new techno-opera by Torontonian Noah Henne, Electro-Alice explores what would happen if Alice had taken a bunch of MDMA before proceeding down the rabbit hole. The Facebook event describes it as "an experimental-techno-opera-costume-ball-acid-trip-mind-fucking-spiritual-dance-party for the 21st century." 2008 Toronto Drag Idol winner Daytona Bitch stars as Alice. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street), 10 p.m., $10.

FILM: Parkdale MPP Cheri DiNovo is presenting a free screening of award-winning documentary Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion tonight at The Revue Cinema. After the screening, stick around for the feel-good Q & A of the year, featuring panelists from the Tibetan Joint Action Committee. It’s party time. The Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue), 7 p.m., FREE.

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

The last time Torontoist made mention of local punks The Little Millionaires, it was a few days after a rousing night of rocking and rolling at Sneaky Dee's. This time out, however, it seemed like a good idea to give some advance warning of the band's next Toronto show. So get your black t-shirts ready! This Thursday, February 7, the band will be opening for recent Juno nominees The Saint Alvia Cartel (another Torontoist favourite) at the Mod Club, along with Hamilton screamo-punks The Reason.

Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com.

Trampoline Hall, the lecture series/literary salon with a reputation for being playful and inventive, is upping its quirk factor slightly this week in two ways.

A lot happens in and around Toronto, but we can only write about so much in a week. Here's the best of the rest, in a new weekly feature we're calling Superfluist. Superfluist will appear every Friday night.

Our Simpsons contest is over, and while fifteen of our readers came up with valiant attempts to invent new words, we can only give three of them the prizes that we've been graciously allocated by Cornerstone Promotion. We at Torontoist are pleased to be part of the unending promotional machine that is this film. So, winners!

When deciding who to see at this year's Over The Top Festival, we luckily opted to check out Halifax's Rich Aucoin. Between his musical pedigree (he's the brother of the Hylozoist's Paul Aucoin) and the fact that his EP was synched up to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, we knew he would at least be interesting. His set turned out to be far better than just interesting, so it seemed natural to give his Personal Publication EP (Independent) a proper review.

Weekly indie institution Wavelength started in 1999, setting up shop at Ted's Wrecking Yard, then bouncing between venues until landing at its current home, Sneaky Dee's, in 2002. Past performers read like a who's-who of home grown indie music: Great Lake Swimmers, The Bicycles, Cadence Weapon, Julie Doiron, Peaches, Final Fantasy, Feist—and the list goes on.

The first time Torontoist encountered Dave Meslin was at the August 2004 Trampoline Hall at the AGO's Walker Court. Ostensibly speaking about "Drinking Games," Mez instead develivered a speech about his first experiences with alcohol, the hegemony of mixed drinks, and the backwardness of the cup half-empty, half-full metaphor. It was one of the most spectacular things we have ever heard.

love/hate relationship with the city for over a decade, but thanks to a move and the graffiti, "love won." Our own "I Love You" collector Sharon Harris, likens photo collections to a concept album as compared to a single because it has narrative. Pryde discovered Harris's images through Google, but she also looks for her handmade declarations of love in store windows and indoor spaces. "They are everywhere," she says. "The conversation ebbs and flows, but its positivity is a constant." It's also an ongoing dialogue. The image above was taken at Sneaky Dees. "The amount of work that went into it impressed me, says Pryde. "I still always look to see if that booth is empty so I can sit there when I scarf down a Veggie Eater and some nachos."

Couple: But we've brought him here before!

Attention all families: are you looking for something to do for Mother's Day that doesn't involve cheesy cards or impersonal gifts? If so, gather the kids this Sunday, and take them to the brand new Union Yoga Center (242 Carlton St.) for some quality family time. Ladyfest Toronto will be hosting Celebrating Motherhood at 2 p.m., featuring a yoga warm-up and songwriting workshop for kids. Space is limited and at only $5 (or PWYC) per family, it will fill up fast—so get there early.

Another ticket giveaway! This time it's to check out Toronto's very own Uncut at Sneaky Dee's tomorrow night, courtesy of The Musebox. Also on the bill for the evening are Debaser, Fjord Rowboat and Fire Hydrant, so it's going to be a busy night! We have a pair of tickets to put into someone's hands, and all you have to do to win is be the third person to email carrie@torontoist.com with your full name. Pretty simple stuff.

After a short hiatus, Live Baby Live is back on its feet (along with it's author) with an abridged version of the listings this week. Hurrah!

Hey kids! Do you like to share files? Do you believe in the public domain? Do you think that mashups and Photoshop contests and having Torontoist publish your Flickr photos are an important or worthwhile part of our media-immersed culture? Would you like to talk about these sorts of things with interesting people while drinking beer and/or eating nachos?

After an exhaustive three days of Canadian Music Week, we bring you a recap of some of the bands Torontoist had a chance to take in. (You can also read another writer's take on the festival.)

Photo by David Topping.

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.

The year is winding down and so is the music, which is kind of nice, actually, because there seem to be a lot of tours already gearing up for 2007. Hopefully Alexisonfire isn't one of them...we have no idea how they can manage to go onstage and scream for 7 solid days (they have a few more shows this week). Insanity.

Everyone likes free swag, and we happen to have quite a bit of it lately. Our latest offering is for tickets to see Chicago buzz band The Changes, along with +/- and The Sharp Tongues this Wednesday at Sneaky Dee's. Yes, we know that the show is technically free, but hey, this you'll get in, should it happen to sell out. Perhaps more importantly, you'll also take home a signed copy of their CD Today Is Tonight.