This Wednesday is the official launch of Canadian Music Week 2008, and as you read this more bands are flooding into Toronto than you can shake a drumstick at. If you’re planning to see a lot of shows (and there is a slightly overwhelming number to choose from), then your best option is to buy a wristband. These cost $35 and allow you into the majority of smaller shows, with most of the bigger......

Photo by Darryl Scott. Danger! The Mothership descends onto the Phoenix this Monday, bringing George Clinton and his ace group of funkateers, Parliament Funkadelic, into town to tear the roof off the mutha sucka. Meer mortals are powerless to Dr. Funkenstein and his bop gun. All attempts to fake the funk are punishable with potential exile to the Zone of Zero Funkativity. Accept that it's one nation under a groove. (Note: resistance to groove......

It’s a strange, perhaps undesirable, thing to admit to, but Torontoist spends a lot of time thinking about R. Kelly. Generally it comes down to one core question that we just can’t answer (nor do we think we ever will): Is R. Kelly a genius or a lunatic? Here is a man who has produced some of the most pitch-perfect songs in the sickeningly syrupy ballad category (including possibly the pinnacle, Michael Jackson’s "You are......

Barack Obama lays down the smack in South Carolina's presidential primary. Obama won by an enormous 28-point margin, prompting Bill Clinton to afterwards comment that this was no big deal because Jesse Jackson, who is a black man, like Barack Obama, won South Carolina when he ran for President, and did he mention that Barack Obama is black just like Jesse Jackson? (Also black: Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and that R&B star that had......

London's transit story of the week—if not the year—was Tuesday's re-opening of St. Pancras rail station after £800 million (that's $1.6 billion) of renovations. Not only does the station provide London with a new terminus for a high-speed 300km/h rail link to Paris and Brussels (with a planned stop at the 2012 Olympics site in east London along the way), but it also upgrades the city's regional and suburban rail connections and improves access......

Haydain Neale, 36-year-old singer of Toronto-based band jacksoul, is in hospital in critical condition following a vehicle accident on Friday evening at the intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Kennedy Road [map]. The performer's injuries are serious, but he remains stable. His family has requested that details of his injuries and the hospital he has been admitted to remain private. Hamilton-born Neale currently lives in The Beaches with his wife and daughter, and won a......

Torontoist would like to take a moment to wish all of our readers a very happy Festivus. Since the Seinfeld episode “The Strike” first aired on December 18, 1997, thousands of fans from all over the world have taken it upon themselves to establish their own annual Festivus celebrations, mostly happening on December 23. And yes, while the recent Michael Richards spat may have made it difficult to remain a Seinfeld fan, let’s not allow......

Yesterday's release of R. Kelly's fresh operatic R&B opus, Trapped in the Closet, was an item more suited for Chicagoist - until it appeared to be all but unavailable in Toronto. A quick check into the Queen Street HMV and Soundscapes proved absolutely fruitless, though we had to pee severely (to clarify: unlike Mr. Kelly, we urinate in the proper receptacles). Have any of you little Torontoists seen this DVD in Toronto stores? If so,......