Results tagged “feist”

              

If you're into Feist, chances are you were at Saturday's sold-out show at Massey Hall, stink-eyeing anyone bragging within earshot about getting into last week's much smaller and much secret-er show at Cameron House. Like we said, we didn’t get in either (nor did we get into her impromptu show at Rivoli, but since that’s like quadruple the capacity, it's quadrupley less interesting). BUT! we did manage to track down one of the 50-odd people who witnessed this supposed fairytale magic that was the tiny little Queen West one-off, a Torontoist reader named Michelle who would like her last name to remain sexily mysterious. And that suits us just fine, so long as we get to share her pretty pictures and video, and a little firsthand commentary.

SCULPTURE: Almost two hundred years ago, American ships sailed into the Toronto harbour at Fort York and released an army of soldiers who then set fire to the city. A battle ensued and by the time the War of 1812 had ended, Canada had the confidence to develop as a nation and the Americans found themselves rebuilding their White House. Douglas Coupland—writer, artist, and lover of all things Canadian—commemorates the event with his new sculpture Memorial to the War of 1812, to be unveiled today near the site of Fort York. 600 Fleet Street, 12:30 p.m., FREE.

Leslie Feist is back. She's playing shows in London on October 31 and here in Toronto on November 1 (at Massey Hall) and 3 (at the ACC). Yesterday, she was host of a surprise "songwriters circle featuring members of her touring band (Afie Jurvanen, Jay Baird, Vancouver songwriter-cum-guitar tech Bob Kemmis), her opening act (Hayden, along with his touring guitarist Wayne Petti of Cuff the Duke) and old friends (Doug Paisley)" at the Rivoli, according to Eye. We're pretty sure that we took the southbound Dufferin bus with her to Queen West late Monday night. And we're also pretty sure that Feist fans might want to be on high alert for a secret show that just might be happening this evening.

Somehow, "Sesame Street" is about to begin its thirty-ninth season, and they're pulling out all the stops for their premiere on August 11. Among the whack of celebrity guests slated for the first show of the new season is the omnipresent Leslie Feist; she'll debut a new song with Elmo and perform "1234." Judging by a clip of the latter performance that was uploaded to YouTube this morning, the whole thing is looking pretty damned adorable.

Waterfront Toronto considers corporate naming scheme. On the one hand, yes, it's a travesty. On the other hand, does anybody call the Skydome anything other than the Skydome, regardless of what Rogers wants us to call it?

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

These days, everyone and their grandmother has a celebrity gossip blog. Perez Hilton became a millionaire by outing Lance Bass and defacing paparazzi photos, while TMZ.com (named for the Thirty Mile Zone surrounding Hollywood) came out of nowhere in 2005 and almost instantaneously became the top site to see celebrities behaving badly.

An excuse to post Feist's "1234"? Yes, please.

This week Musicologist will be checking out Regina Spektor at the Kool Haus, thanks to the insistence of a friend who pretty much exclusively listens to hip hop. The fact the he loves Spektor means she's gotta be good. It's sold out, but Musicologist never shies away from listing sold out shows—we all know there's always an (expensive) last-ditch way to get in if you're desperate. (Why does that sound dirty? We mean scalpers, of course.)

This Monday, September 24, the winner of the second-annual Polaris Prize will be announced at a gala event at the Phoenix. There will be stars, musical performances, free food and drink, and, unfortunately, you are probably not invited. Given to the best Canadian album of the past year, and awarded solely on artistic merit, the $20,000 prize is getting handed to someone (probably Feist) at a media and invite-only event. (Torontoist was graciously invited, but we're not sure if we'll be there to cover it yet.) This year's shortlist––which we spent a midsummer day covering––is heavy on the rock and light on everything else, with The Arcade Fire, The Besnard Lakes, The Dears, Julie Doiron, Feist, Junior Boys, Miracle Fortress, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Chad VanGaalen, and Patrick Watson all getting nods.

Camp Okutta counsellors hit the pavement downtown last week handing out brochures for the wilderness getaway, which aims to teach kids the "art of war." Ads posted to utility poles boasted briefings on grenade throwing and minefield navigation. A promotional clip for Camp Okutta (right) shows children ranging from ages 8–12 strolling along nature trails and sitting around campfires, but also toting automatic rifles.

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.

Photo of Cadence Weapon by David Topping.

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.

Photo by Sylvain Dumais from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

"What's The Frequency, Campus?" highlights some of the intriguing shows and special programming happening on Toronto's campus and community radio stations.

The Art of Time Ensemble played their final shows of the 2006/2007 season this past Thursday and Friday at the Harbourfront Centre. The group's aim is to bring chamber music to new ears by blending it with other genres and new ideas, while retaining its elegance and intelligence. Andrew Burashko created The Art of Time as a way to "test my assumption that we could present chamber music in an accessible way." Judging by the crowd they drew for Thursday's Toronto Songbook show with Sarah Slean, they've succeeded, with audience members last week ranging from tweens to seniors.

Sarah Slean is one of Toronto’s most enchanting musicians, winning over audiences with her whimsical songs and charismatic shows—to see her play live is to almost assuredly fall in love with her. This week at the Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre, Slean will put aside her own lovely songs to tackle some covers, at which she’s equally adept (this Torontoist once witnessed her cast a spell over a cozy audience with her moving version of "Edelweiss," complete with faux weeping).

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 musician who tries, unsuccessfully, to juggle their love life and career.

It just never ends. Never. Ends. The stream of tour announcements is still going strong, and we're now at the point where there are 3-4 shows to choose from on some dates -- our calendar is starting to look as busy as a CEO's! As suspected last week, The Police added a second Toronto date to their tour schedule, on July 23 (tickets on sale now)...good thing Sting practices tantric sex so he'll have enough stamina for all of these dates. Sorry, bad visual...shake it off. We're looking forward to the ever adorable Lily Allen, who will be back in town April 5, and is hopefully bringing a bigger setlist with her this time; Feist will be gracing us with her presence at Massey Hall on May 26, in support of her new album The Reminder; and Muse is apparently opening for My Chemical Romance on May 11, but since it's not confirmed, we won't get too excited yet (about Muse, not MCR).

We realize that we probably talk about Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, way too much. So we're not going to talk about his free show on Saturday night at North York Central Library, also featuring The Creeping Nobodies, Hank, Ninja High School, and Bob Wiseman. Nope, not a word.

After being hotly anticipated for months- at least by stores- All Hallows' Eve is finally here.

Ok, sorry for the YouTube overload but we know that you like Feist and we also know that you like claymation (who doesn't like claymation?) So here you go, a claymation version of Feist's "Mushaboom."

Artist, Santa Cruz organizer, co-founder of Three Gut Records, Eye Weekly art director and woman-about-town Tyler Clark Burke launches her newest – and most ambitious – project today: The Few Bricks Short A House Project. Tyler wants to buy a house, and has enlisted some of her friends to help her do it. Starting today, you can bid on a variety of items or services donated by Toronto artists, photographers, musicians, and writers - as well as her mom. 40% of the profits will go to the donor, 40% will go to Tyler, and the remaining 20% will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.

When Feist returned to Toronto a couple of years ago she brought back a little bit of France to Toronto. This weekend another Torontonian comes home and brings back a little more of the Continent back to T.O.. Born in Toronto, Gonzales lived in Berlin and Paris like musical collaborators Feist and Peaches. Teaming up with Peaches, Gonz gained notoriety for his over-the-top live shows. In the studio he's part of the reason for Feist's breakout album "Let It Die", co-writing three songs. He's even worked with French pop legend Jane Birkin, producing and playing the instruments on her duets album.

We'd like to call this new Sloan video a MySpace sensation, but we know we'll all regret using that phrase very soon. A YouTube sensation? Maybe. It was first posted there in early May. But, you know what, we're re-posting it. So now it's a Torontoist sensation.

For those interested in 'it'-specific events, this Tall Poppy is for you. The Boat, the venerable 'It' club in Kensington Market, is the site of an increasingly popular monthly dance party called Zoi Zoi, the venerable 'It' DJ night in Toronto. If that wasn't enough 'It's, resident DJ Mimi plays what has become the 'It' music of the day - French language pop. We're using the 'It' phrase so much because we've never actually been able to get in to the packed Zoi Zoi nights, and thus knew sh-'It' about them. Luckily the redoubtable DJ Mimi was nice enough to help us with the translation.