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The Barr Brothers

TURF Day 1

The Barr Brothers: Your name confuses me. Remember The Barmitzvah Brothers? I do! I thought you were them. You are not. You were okay though. I enjoyed your set. It was a nice lazy set to open the festival with. You were enjoyable… bravo. Camera Obscura: You want to be Belle & Sebastian. All these years later, you still want to be Belle & Sebastian. You’re not Belle & Sebastian… BUT BELLE & SEBASTIAN WILL BE AT TURF LATER IN THE WEEK! OMG! OMG! OMG! You’re pleasant. You write nice songs. They’re not great, but they’re fun. Your bass player has a TARDIS sticker on his bass. I approve of… Read More »TURF Day 1

Gabriel Minnikin

NXNE Part 7: Gabriel Minnikin

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. Gabriel Minnikin 14 JUNE 2013, 12AM Tranzac Gabriel Minnikin doesn’t seem to play in Toronto too often. I’ve been a fan of his former band The Guthries for quite some time and his sister Ruth’s for just as long. I think that his living in the UK and not performing in Toronto was what led me to never check out his solo records. I bought two records of his a couple years back at the Zunior Boxing Day sale. While I liked the record,… Read More »NXNE Part 7: Gabriel Minnikin

Cœur de pirate

NXNE Part 6: Cœur de pirate

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. Cœur de pirate 13 JUNE 2013, 11PM The Great Hall Apparently Béatrice Martin, aka Cœur de pirate, was recovering from a illness, but the audience was none the wiser until she pointed it out before her last song. He voice is beautiful and he songs are pretty. I generally don’t understand what she’s singing about, but it was a nice and strange sight to see a room full of Torontonians singing along to songs in French. Maybe Canada’s French/English divide isn’t as strong as many believe.

Michael Rault

NXNE Part 5: Michael Rault

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. Michael Rault 13 JUNE 2013, 10PM The Great Hall I got to The Great Hall early as there was much buzz about Cœur de pirate’s show at 11. With only a wristband, I didn’t want to be closed out on the rainy Toronto streets. He played his bluesy songs solo, with the occasional help from his Rockabilly-styled guitarist.

Arizona Lily

NXNE Part 4: Arizona Lily

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. Arizona Lily 13 JUNE 2013, 8PM Rancho Relaxo I don’t really have much to say, since bass player Jessica is my friend.  Jessica looks like a smurf in this lighting. Oh Rancho, you do so many things terribly, lighting is amongst them.

Matt Murphy

NXNE Part 3: The Super Friendz

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. The Super Friendz 15 June 2013, 12am The Great Hall The last time I saw The Super Friendz perform in Toronto, I left the show with such a high that lasted me for a whole week, and no it was no artificially induced. It was teh first time I saw The Super Friendz live, and I expected it to be the only time I’d ever see that classic ’90s Halifax rock band. Fate seems to want to correct me. Fate seemed to have a… Read More »NXNE Part 3: The Super Friendz

Chris Murphy & Andrew Scott

NXNE Part 2: Sloan

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. Sloan 14 June 2013, 11pm The Great Hall Peppermint. In 1992, Sloan came into existence and to prove this to the world, they self-released a six-song EP called Peppermint.It’s not the most popular of their releases, but contains an early version of their first hit, “Underwhelmed,” and two other songs which would later be released on their major label debut Smeared. Smeared and Peppermint go hand in hand; the two records are stylistically the same and bleed the heavy grunge that led record execs… Read More »NXNE Part 2: Sloan

Mike O'Neill

NXNE Part 1: Mike O’Neill

I was surprised by a friend when she handed me two North By Northeast wristbands. I promptly started scouring the NXNE schedule, these are the stories. Mike O’Neill 14 June 2013, 10pm The Great Hall Mike O’Neill doesn’t play Toronto often. I don’t think he plays all that often, period. Mike O’Neill was, once upon a time, the bass player and songwriter for The Inbreds. The Inbreds were signed to Sloan’s Murderecords record label in the 1990s. Since then, over the past 13 years, O’Neill has released three solo records. Celebrating the release of a new book released by Sloan about the 7″ singles released by Murderecords, Mike O’Neill opened… Read More »NXNE Part 1: Mike O’Neill

Daniel Romano

Today on my drive to work my phone decided to play some Daniel Romano. He doesn’t pop up too often, even though I own three of his albums1. His latest album is more country than anything he’s done before. Moving away from the folk of his previous two albums, and the rock of Attack In Black. The song was “A New Love (Can Be Found).” As soon as he sang the opening lyrics, the most country lyrics you can imagine, I was hooked. Some stranger is with her for the first time tonight. What’s a man to do when he just can’t win? I don’t know if this song is… Read More »Daniel Romano

Telekinesis

Telekenisis @ The Horseshoe Tavern

Way too long ago Mari told me about Telekinesis, I didn’t pay attention. Then one day I showed up to the Horseshoe Tavern where they were promoting their album 12 Desperate Straight Lines. I was giddy at how awesome they were. Last night they came back to Toronto to promote their new album Dormarion. While I’ve yet to listen to Dormarion1, I absolutely adore their previous record. I’m waiting for Merge to ship it to me. [↩]