Results tagged “newpornographers”

Photo of The Breeders by Chris Glass

Photo of Cadence Weapon by David Topping.

For the time, it seems, side-projects are here to stay. If you take a look at any of the large indie bands from Canada (Broken Social Scene, Stars, New Pornographers, The Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, off the top of our head), they've got at least one offshoot, whether active or not. The surprising thing is that, for the most part, these side-projects have done a decent job of living up to the hype brought upon them from their larger, more successful bands. With the Handsome Furs' debut Plague Park (Sub Pop), Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner joins the long list of artists who have spawned another band while in the downtime from their main gig.

Whoever booked the bands for the Wintercity Festival this year definitely earned their paycheque. Typically these free shows consist of bands that are either Canadian Idol runners-up or musicians you've never heard of. While there are still some bands listed that'll make you say "who??!" there are a number of great acts that will make it worth the trek to Nathan Phillips Square and freeze your ass off for. Just remember to wear your longjohns and toque, and hit up your favourite cafe for an extra large hot chocolate first...oh, and be sure to get there a bit early for a decent view.

Tsk, tsk. Late two weeks in a row. Someone needs a good spanking. Next week we'll get our act together and put Torontoist before busy schedules and get this puppy out on time. Pinky swear.

More evidence that we're the centre of the universe (kidding), the nominees for the inaugural Polaris Prize is out and four five out of the ten nominees are bonafide Toronto artists. Broken Social Scene, The Deadly Snakes, Final Fantasy, Sarah Harmer and K'Naan make up the Toronto contingent. If we add Metric (which live in a whole bunch of places) and Sarah Harmer (who lives near Kingston) then over half the list calls Toronto home. Good job scene.

Torontoist enjoyed Stuart Berman's interview in this week's eye, pitting Max McCabe-Lokos (the Deadly Snakes) and Bry Webb (the Constantines).We're not taking sides in this little "tiff" but we'll gladly go and watch either band this weekend at the Horseshoe. But enough of the friendliness of Canada's indie scene, we think that underneath all this collegiality and 'pat-on-the back' we're all in this together joviality there's some real rage.

and this promises to be a helluva to-do. Victoria's Immaculate Machine are also on the bill, which has an early start time of 6:30PM.

This Le Mercredi Mixtape starts off with promising New Yorkers and ends with promising Brits and in between is a warm salty ocean to dive into. But 'mixtape'? Mixtape seems like an anachronism already, who makes them anymore? And this isn't a 'tape' now is it? But, what the hell, I used to make mixtapes all the time and actually enjoyed giving new music to friends. This was the idea behind my mp3 blog, *Sixeyes, as well. So, friends... here is some music for you. A mixmp3download/streamthing. Yeah, I know, mixtape is better.

, given to Torontoist for review, contains scant amounts of the aforementioned ingredients. Not to say this is the Vince Carter of Mountain Goats albums - it's a good album and will receive a generous mark in our review - but there is a certain weirdness that plagues Mr Darnielle's most emotional output.