Ah, I love free concerts. Well, I pretty much love anything free. This apparently is due to my generation, according to an editor of mine, but he’s right. How can you deny free concerts?! I think anyone would feel this way though.
So, to jump to the point: here is quite the list of free shows you can catch around Toronto soon. From the independent record stores to the public library.
Hey all! There’s a few news bits for this weekend I think you should know:
Friday:
Lars Ludvig Lofgren and Ghost Trees will be playing a show at the Only Cafe tonight at 8 p.m. The Only Cafe is located at the Donlands subway stop and just an easy stroll around the NorthWest corner. Check them out! They played a very successful show in my backyard last week. Unfortunately, footage is still to come. You should also check out the Only Cafe, because it is a wonderful place.
Le Cyc will be performing their bike opera at the Music Gallery on John Street. This Guelph collective is getting a lot of attention for their cyclist, well anything, but they’ve also got pretty swell music and images that are projected along for the show – they tell quite the story! I’ll be covering this show & talking to them tonight for Broken Pencil – if you’re there, say hi!
Monday:
I found out recently I’ll be covering the Polaris Prize gala for Exclaim! So if you’re there, again, say hi! Unfortunately, I’m not cool enough to have a Blackberry or iPhone to live blog/tweet, so you’ll probably be getting your news somewhere else but I’ll be speedy as soon as the gala is over.
Who do you think will win the Polaris Prize? Will it be Chad Vangaalen? Elliott Brood? KNAAN? Metric? Malajube? Joel Plaskett? Patrick Watson? Great Lake Swimmers? Fucked Up? Hey Rosetta?
Hey all – sorry, just realized the link toGhost Trees was down in my last post. If you go back, it now works.
Also to take note is the show in my backyard with Lars Ludvig Lofgren is now Saturday instead of Friday. Let me know if you want to come!
And one more thing – they will be playing again next Friday at the Only Cafe, so if you can’t make it this weekend definitely try for next weekend (although yours truly won’t be able to make it, unfortunately.)
Interestingly enough, Lars is in town and will be playing a show with Ghost Trees in my backyard this Saturday!! Our backyard is tiny and intimate and the combination of these two talents will make this amazing. I’ll be bringing you exclusive content after, but why not come? Let me know if you would like to see the show – email me!
Anywas, back to Ghost Trees. She makes incredibly psychedelic yet soothing tunes and tones to fill up jars upon jars of colourful spirits. Her voice is calm and beautiful in a way of a female voice you don’t often hear in 10 other singers. Her songs are slow but upbeat; they are like light clouds rolling in, just when the sun is setting and you see all of the rays from the sun peaking through in every direction. “Books in Your Hands” is a perfect example of this.
The electric guitar sounds like she’s just playing around sitting on her bed, tapping her feet and shaking her hair. No hairbrushes or any type of fake microphones in sight, because this girl is serious business. Her music isn’t just the regular bedroom work some might stumble upon.
“Sound of the Old City” is a tale of the uniqueness of Karlstad, Sweden, and I think she captured the town quite nicely. The people always seem to be reflecting or just moving, moving, moving.
The two previous songs mentioned are on her MySpace for listen as well as two more – please check it out! Jamie’s got an EP called Feathers coming out soon – I don’t know the details yet but if you’d like a copy, leave a comment!
And again, let me know if you want to come to the show! But if you miss it, you will have another chance to catch them at The Only Cafe sometime next weekend, details to come.
It was filmed between all of their appearances at this year’s North by Northeast festival. Unfortunately, I’m feeling the burn as I somehow missed every single show of theirs that weekend, but at least I have this now!
Watch another colourful experience from Spiral Beach:
Spiral Beach releases The Only Really Thing on September 22. They will be touring with Two Hours Traffic and The Danks this fall. Go after the jump to see the dates!
Two great compilations have recently been released for download on the internet, and they are two that should not go unnoticed.
In the third installment, Brighton-based Ro Cemm from the Line of Best Fit has released another compilation of great Canadian music for the end of summer. It includes artists such as Dog Day, Bahamas, Amy Millan, Julie Doiron and The Paint Movement (all artists that have been mentioned on RoundLetters!). You can download it here.
A fabulous non-profit that RoundLetters happily promotes (and writes about in the latest issue of Broken Pencil) is Montreal/London’s the Yellow Bird Project. Recently they released their project with illustrator Andy J. Miller, the Indie Rock Colouring Book. This compilation is to commemorate the release. Blogger the Middle Distance Runner makes tons of mix tapes for Baeble Music, titled T.G.I. Mixtape, but this time the talents are turned towards YBP. Now, it appears you cannot fully download this compilation, but it is for full listen here. Artists include Stars, Broken Social Scene, Of Montreal, Au Revoir Simone, K-Os feat Murray Lightburn and Elvis Perkins.
Elliott Brood, this year’s Polaris country-rock nomination, have just announced new tour dates around Canada after the fated Polaris gala date, and believe me, they will bring their high and loud spirits if they win or not.
The tour takes them through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, then through the states and back up to Ontario and towards the Eastern provinces.
The band will be playing the Polaris gala, with the other 9 nominees. This is the first year that all nominated bands will be performing. The grand juray was also recently announced.
If you want any indication as to how awesome an Elliott Brood show is, go watch my SPIN Earth report from London from early this year.
If you’ve been following this blog since before its WordPress inception, you’ll know that I’m quite the fan of The Swell Season (by entries like this one and this one).
So it’s safe to say that I’m giddy over the recent performance of GlenHansard and MarketaIrglova (even though they’re romantically broken up now… I think… sigh) on NPR’s cute Tiny Desk concert series. The pair performed six new songs and one more familiar track off of their upcoming album, Strict Joy. The album will be released September 29, but for now, enjoy the performance along with me.
The songs are played in this order:
“Maybe I Was Born To Hold You In These Arms”
“Low Rising”
“Fantasy Man”
“Paper Cup”
“Feeling The Pull”
“Back Broke”
“When Your Mind’s Made Up”
Can’t resist the cuteness, can you? Now, it’s a little awkward when Hansard explains the story behind “Low Rising” as it’s about a rough talk with “a girlfriend”, so it’s a little heartbreaking. But it sounds like and looks like they’re fine with one another, singing about love…
I remember seeing them play a few of these songs, if not all of them, when they came to Toronto last year. And I remember feeling all warm and fuzzy. I don’t need to remember though, as I feel it again, and it’s obvious the entire NPR office did too.
Tiny Desk concerts are available as audio downloads, but it’s a great thing to see visuals as well. Check out Canadian Julie Doiron’s video performance.
Sept. 16 Jason Bajada (1:00-1:25 p.m.) Saukrates (1:45-2:10 p.m.) Terri Clark (2:30-2:55 p.m.) Arkells (3:15-3:40 p.m.) The Duhks (4:00-4:25 p.m.)
Amy Millan
Sept. 17 The Mountains And The Trees (1:00-1:25 p.m.) Hawksley Workman (1:45-2:10 p.m.) Ruby Jean And The Thoughtful Bees (2:30-2:55 p.m.) Amy Millan (3:15-3:40 p.m.) USS (4:00-4:25 p.m.)
Also, it’s a pleasure to hear some musician/filmmakers have had their films selected to screen in the festival. You can see Scorsese and the Duchess of York by The Wet Secrets’ Trevor Anderson and A Gun To the Head by The New Pornographers’ Blaine Thurier.
Sept. 16 Jason Bajada (1:00-1:25 p.m.)
Saukrates (1:45-2:10 p.m.)
Terri Clark (2:30-2:55 p.m.)
Arkells (3:15-3:40 p.m.)
The Duhks (4:00-4:25 p.m.)
Sept. 17 The Mountains And The Trees (1:00-1:25 p.m.)
Hawksley Workman (1:45-2:10 p.m.)
Ruby Jean And The Thoughtful Bees (2:30-2:55 p.m.)
Amy Millan (3:15-3:40 p.m.)
USS (4:00-4:25 p.m.)
Canada is well represented on the British web series Black Cab Sessions this week with two new episodes of Final Fantasy and Woodpigeon.
Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett sits down in the cab “I’ve never played in a car before!” after London’s Field Day festival on August 1. Pallett spends a lot of time over in old London-town I believe because he’s recording and finishing up his next album, and probably because he generally loves it there. In this video, the camerawork is a little shotty but that’s what makes it endearing and encompasses the meaning of these sessions: they’re low-budget ways to show music in motion, simple yet so sweet.
Lead singer Mark Andrew Hamilton of Woodpigeon got lucky with an impromptu session after the Field Day festival as well. BCS saw his name on the band list and gave him a ring. In this video, music in motion is given another meaning as you get to see more of London through the rain drop-covered window, and you get to see one of my favourite things about the city, Regent’s Canal. Hamilton’s singing and guitar strumming never wavers through this bumpy ride, and it becomes very soothing. And even after the great song, he promptly finishes to scratch his beard. Ah, Canadian musicians.
For any RoundLetters updates that came before May 09, go here.
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College and Shaw streets location of the Toronto Public Library
North York Central Library location of the Toronto Public Library
Bloor and Gladstone streets location of the Toronto Public Library
