Results tagged “ohbijou”

       

If you've ever pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment, you can stop patting yourself on the back, slacker, because a group of fourth-year Ryerson students put all your cut-and-paste efforts to shame with the final project in their Radio and Television Arts degree. Third Floor Sessions is a series of ambitious music and multimedia events that is part live show for an in-house audience, part live internet broadcast, part HD multi-camera videos, and part fully produced MP3s of the live set that will, at its conclusion, span five months, hundreds of hours, four (maybe five) bands, and piles of sanity.

Why is Jonas Bonnetta so damn disarming? His debut full length as Evening Hymns—essentially a fleshed-out version of his real-monikered earlier release—oozes a level of granola that could cause discomfort for hyper-aware, self-conscious indie rock fans; the album is called Spirit Guides and much of the lyrical content is about the forest and there's a full track just of a rain storm and have you seen that eerie, foggy mountain on the cover? Somehow, though, there isn't a pretentious note on this record.

What started as a way to compile the prolific creative output of a west-end group of musician friends turned into not only a scene-defining snapshot, but a charitable project that has so far yielded more than eleven thousand dollars for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank. Friends in Bellwoods II, out today on Out of This Spark, is a second showcase of what Ohbijou sisters Casey and Jennifer Mecija's house can produce for a good cause.

Even a marginal indie pop fan should have a soft spot for Ohbijou—three years ago, their darling sounds and community contributions (both musical and social) helped define a new sector of Toronto's indie scene and made them an instant focus. After a recent signing with Last Gang Records, Ohbijou release their second album, Beacons, today (digitally, with a physical release on June 16), and it's a perfect reminder why their orch-pop left such a lasting impression.