Maybe it’s the way that “Sobriety Up and Left” hits me that first made me fall in love with Alcoholic Faith Mission, but now it’s so much more than that. I can say with absolute honesty that Alcoholic Faith Mission may be the most powerful and intense live performance I’ve ever witnessed from a non-traditional rock band. I don’t expect it to be topped anytime soon.
Needless to say, when I saw that Alcoholic Faith Mission had put out a free digital download collection of their top material in anticipation of their upcoming North American tour — and a Canadian record deal with my friends and huge Toronto music supporter Todd Arkell’s label — I was thrilled. Continue reading →
Let me introduce you to Dave Whitty. Dave’s story isn’t all that different from that of the many other Newfoundlanders who spend large portions of the year away from home, but Dave does it for a very different reason: to advance his career as a musician. Having played solo and with band in Newfoundland for quite some time Dave recently migrated by himself to Toronto, where he has began to go to work to gain the same obsessed crowd, with all his lyrics memorized, that he has back home. Continue reading →
Much of what I could say here, you’ve probably heard me say before, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Next week, on Thursday Febuary 2nd, The $5 Rap Show puts on their first show of 2012 celebrating the release of not one but two brand new music videos. The first is “Heatwave” (above) which features my good friends the Backburner crew: Timbuktu, Chokeules, Wordburglar, Jesse Dangerously, Thesis, and Jay Bizzy. The video was shot for the lead single off the compilation album of the same name, released in late 2011. It’s a freaking awesome album and something you need to hear — do it on their bandcamp.
The second video is one even more near and dear to me — Wordburglar’s brand new music video for “Rhyme O’Clock.” I love this one not just because a large portion of it was shot at Rancho Relaxo — home of The $5 Rap Show — but also because over the years of SJ playing shows for me under the TWM name, and him and More or Les launching The $5 Rap Show at the venue I book, we’ve become pretty tight. It’s been ages since Wordburglar has released a new album to the masses, and this video is the precursor. However, to see this one you are going to have to actually drag your ass out to the show: http://www.facebook.com/events/115866101867243/. It will be debuting for the first time anywhere that night, Thurs Feb 2nd, at The $5 Rap Show.
I caught Papier Tigre (who hail from Nantes, France) playing a festival set at Rancho Relaxo a few years back, and ever since I’ve been a big fan of their album The Beginning And End Of Now. That record came out in 2008, and aside from a split in 2010, they haven’t been releasing a ton of new music. Needless to say, I was excited to see a new track off their upcoming LP Recreation pop up on Facebook yesterday.
The new song — “Home Truth” — sounds a bit heavier than anything we’ve heard from Papier Tigre in the past, but their mathy precision and technical drumming show up here in full force. These guys are seriously bad-ass, so check out the stream above and go grab The Beginning And End Of Now as well. Recreation comes out March 1st, 2012 via Africantape & Murailles Music.
I’ll be honest: I didn’t do a very good job of staying in touch with the wider world of music last year. I paid attention to the best in local music here in Toronto, and there were a couple of 2011 releases that I really liked — most notably from Dum Dum Girls and Wild Flags, both of whom I saw play live. But as this month’s onslaught of best-of lists makes clear, I missed the boat on a lot of other stuff. Here a list of 10 albums from this year that I haven’t yet heard — mistakes I’ll be correcting in the new year.
If you read my year-end list that went up before the Christmas break, you probably noticed that I put Tycho‘s album Dive on there. I loved that album a lot, and now I’ve just stumbled upon a Toronto artist that reminds me quite a bit of Tycho: Toronto’s own Decommunication.
He’s got a free record called Midnight Orion that contains ten tracks of electronic music ranging from ambient sound-waves to beat-based trip-hop stuff. The second track in particular (“Ryukyu”) reminds me a ton of Tycho — so much in fact I wish it lasted a full two or three minutes longer. The rest of the album is pretty solid though too, so check out the stream of Midnight Orion above and grab the free download through Bandcamp if you’re enjoying what you hear.
Some people play music just as a hobby. Some people play it to make a career out of it. Some do it because they feel they have to, that life isn’t complete without it. Others just do it because they want to. Hell, some people do it because they feel a pressure to do it. As a music promoter, I come across all sorts of different people playing music for different reasons. There’s the bar band that is completely content to play the Rancho every few months to a decent crowd and doesn’t need to play for a while after that. Or there’s the band playing more than 100 gigs a year and would prefer to be playing 200 or more and everything that exists in between. Sometimes I am very wrong about where a band falls in this spectrum, but more often than not I am right. But let me tell you a story about a band I was very wrong about, Different Skeletons.
In the last few years I’ve been more of a fan of Tim Kasher‘s solo and The Good Life output than I have of the more recent Cursive records. In my opinion the last truly great album they released was The Ugly Organ — though that’s not to say Happy Hollow and Mama, I’m Swollen didn’t have some great tunes.
So, I’ve had high hopes for the new Cursive record I Am Gemini — since it is Kasher’s return to the concept-record format he has worked so well within in the past. Their new song “The Sun And Moon” hasn’t completely sold me on the new album, but it’s an interesting turn for the band nonetheless. Stream it below! I Am Gemini will be released on February 21, 2012.
I’ve mentioned before — when reviewing artists on the punk side of the indie spectrum — that there seems to be a new generation of bands who aren’t content playing just punk or indie music. Bands like Joyce Manor and By Surprise have taken all their influences, from indie to math-rock, post-punk and beyond, and thrown them in the melting pot. This is exactly what Summer Vacation‘s latest album Condition does, and it’s working better than ever. Continue reading →
The view from the stage at my #1 show of 2011 at Rancho
There is no exact way for me to figure out how many bands I booked in 2011. Basically, here’s how my job as a talent booker at the Rancho works: Every single event or show that happens at Rancho is booked through me, but not every one of those shows is a TWM event; sometimes other people come in and use the room. Factoring those shows out, I figure I put on around 235 shows last year at Rancho — seriously, that’s a lot of shows and a lot of bands. Factoring in the festivals, I would say that is about 800 sets of music curated by TWM at Rancho this year. From those approximately 800 sets, I’ve picked 10 that stuck with me for being the most memorable sets of 2011 at Rancho. Continue reading →
