Monday, June 28, 2021

Monday Roundup #24

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.


Community notes:

  • Another venue update, following on the couple posted here last week: it looks like the space hosting The Mod Club, which announced its demise last year, has new management and a new name (The Axis Club). (It looks like news of this came out back in April, but it didn't cross my path 'til I saw some concert announcements this week, so maybe it's news to you as well.)

Livestream nation:

  • Exit Points returns on Wednesday (June 30th) with another pair of ad hoc electroacoustic ensembles, as well as the customary online collaborative jam. Expect to hear from Fae Sirois, Marc-Alexandre Chan, and thispatcher in the first set and Dey Kim, Shay, Tyson Headon and Edward Kennington in the second. Free to stream on Twitch (with donations accepted!) — the hub for all relevant info can be found here.
  • Not "live" in the sense of "happening while you watch", but this set from the outskirts of Niamey, Niger with Mdou Moctar and his band comes highly recommended. The set is in celebration of the release of the tasty new Afrique Victime album — and under current circumstances, it's unclear when we'll be seeing international superstars like Moctar (one of the great fiery guitarists of our time) on local stages.

Feat. Karen Ng:

  • By a happy coincidence, two new songs popped up on my feeds this week with guest appearances by Karen Ng. A new single from Lee Paradise has Ng on sax and flute (as well as vox from Blunt Chunks), while a pre-album single drop from New Chance's highly-anticipated Real Time has some more smokey sax licks — alongside a highly-inventive video from Vic Cheong that gets a lot of mileage from some lo-tech staging.

It happened this week...

  • ...on June 30, 2009 at the Silver Dollar Room.

Zoobombs - Mo'Funky (Part 1)

  • ...on July 4, 2009 at Harbourfront Centre.

King Sunny Adé - unknown

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Monday, June 21, 2021

Monday Roundup #23

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.


Community notes:

Just by coincidence, both of the venues of the recordings that I picked for this week's archive picks had popped up in my feeds recently, so I'll pass word along in case you hadn't heard:

  • Bad news first, it sounds like the Jam Factory is no more following the sale of the building at 2 Matilda. Something of a destination venue (especially as the hub of the Feast in the East series), the space was hot as hell in summer and didn't always have great sound, but it was a tremendous place to run into people, making any show there a social event. It will be missed.
  • Meanwhile, better news from The Tranzac, which reports that much-needed upgrades and state-of-good repair work has been taking place during the shutdown. Increased sound isolation between the Main Hall and Southern Cross will be welcomed by users of both rooms, and a new set of front doors will welcome patrons when it reopens. (That means it remains a good time to take out or renew your membership!)

Livestream nation:

  • Dan Tapper, a recent addition to Arraymusic's tech team, has been programming a series of "micro-concerts" in a new series called "Interstitial Space". Tonight sees a couple solo pieces from cellist Amahl Arulanandam (known for his work in VC2 and his frequent appearances with the Thin Edge ensemble) in a free stream debuting at 8 tonight (June 21st).

It happened this week...

  • ...on June 21, 2017 at Jam Factory (TONE Festival – Show #5)

Hailu Mergia - unknown #1

  • ...on June 24, 2018 at The Tranzac (Main Hall).

Isla Craig - Faraway Blue

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]


Bandcamp corner:

  • Just by chance, I've encountered Roan Bateman doing more abstract/ambient-noodly stuff, so it was quite exciting to listen to his pop sensibility moved to the foreground. Brushing against several shades of neo-psychedelia, my brained flashed on a few 80's synth-pop hits not too long after the music pressed the "See Emily Play" button in my mind.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Monday Roundup #22

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.


Community notes:

  • Just a quiet reminder: "re-opening" doesn't have to be an instantaneous, 0-to-100 kind of thing. Go at your own pace, keep doing the things that make you feel safe and comfortable. It's swell and heartening to see concert announcements and suchlike, but there's still a lot of question marks about how things are going to look a couple stages down the line — especially for the music "sector", where there's no solid re-opening plans in place yet. And definitely don't feel like you're a spoilsport if you're in less of a rush than someone else! Concern for others (and yourself) is still the true reason for the season and ain't going out of style soon.

It happened this week...

  • ...on June 14, 2015, at Geary Lane as part of "Sound Séance I", Night 3.

Off World - unknown [excerpt]

  • ...on June 15, 2016 at Monarch Tavern.

The Burning Hell - Men Without Hats

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]


Bandcamp corner:

  • "The album was abandoned in 2019 and these demos are all that remain. Given that much of ZA's prior output has been lo-fi and impulsive, we see no reason not to share this with you."

Monday, June 7, 2021

Monday Roundup #21

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.


Community notes:

  • Congratulations to Music Gallery Artistic Director Sanjeet Takhar, whose first curatorial project comes to light this week. Her new "What Is" series is promised as an annual event to both embrace and break down genre conventions. The first edition, "What is: Soul" offers five events over the next week, including a "one hour vocal lesson on how to sing full from the confines of your apartment" with dreamcastmoe (Tuesday, June 8th), a conversation on "the culture around music sharing" with Eugene Tam and Raf Reza (Wednesday, June 9th), a workshop that explores putting emotion into music with Byron the Aquarius (Thursday, June 10th), a "panel discussion curated by Anupa Mistry exploring how urban resilience, cultural exchange, and femme resourcefulness can liberate the soul of the city" (Friday, June 11th), and a "special webcast performance & record release by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Angel Bat Dawid, one of the leading lights of Chicago's avant-jazz, boundary-defying labels, International Anthem and The Village, the like-minded L.A.-based record label stemming from the work and legacy of the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra" (Saturday, June 12th). A free registration (found here) gets you access to all events.

Livestream nation:

  • Audiopollination returns Wednesday (June 9th) with a performance from Love Children of the Apocalypse (Elizabeth Lima and Michael Lynn). Call it free-spirit improvisation; last time around they were gettin' physical, aerobic class style — who knows what inspiration will arise from lockdown fever dreams? (free to stream via Arraymusic)

It happened this week...

  • ...on June 9, 2012 at Wrongbar.

Omar Souleyman - unknown

  • ...on June 10, 2013 at Array Space.

Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society - Boro

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]


Bandcamp corner:

  • Let us once more praise Telephone Explosion — Toronto's most essential Pandemic-era label. After issuing plenty of stone grooves last year, their most recent couple offerings hew towards singer-songwriter vibes. Dorothea Paas' Anything Can't Happen is sadly in love, with hints of hauntings and plenty folky flourishes, while Andre Ethier's Further Up Island spends some extra time in producer's Sandro Perri's backyard with organic sonic textures creeping a bit further into the foreground.