Monday Roundup #263

Community notes:

• The is more of an eyebow-raising note than breaking news, but the Silver Dollar sign has apparently been (literally) covered up.

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Concert announcements:

Harry Vetro and Friends [Kae Murphy/Harrison Argatoff/Ben Isenstein/Andrew Furlong/Harry Vetro] / The Emmet Ray 2026-02-02 (Monday). $15

More Noise Please! presents: An Evening of Deconstructed Sounds (feat. SlowPitchSound / Property Violator / o0yu x rOrU / System78 / The Eyes, The Mouth / dsouziate) / BSMT 254 2026-02-05 (Thursday). $17.31/pwyc. [teickets/more info]

Toronto Improvisers Orchestra / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-02-08 (Sunday – noon)

Dan Pitt/Jen Lo/Kae Murphy/Stefan Hegarat / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-02-04 (Wednesday)

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / Destroya / Nick Flanagan / OOP) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-02-08 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Bad Baby and Mayme Joach [Aidan McConnell/Jack Johnston/Evan Cartwright/Charliecello Lukashevsky/Alex Lukashevsky] (Fan Wu / Colleen Coco Collins) / Burdock Music Hall 2026-02-08 (Sunday). $22.13. [tickets + more info]

Mike DeiCont Trio [Mike DeiCont/Eric West/Leland Whitty] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-02-09 (Monday) [more info]

Music Hosted by Karen Ng (feat. Maz Stover/Mateos Labbé-Phelan/Andrew Furlong/Karen Ng) / Wenona Lodge 2026-02-17 (Tuesday). $pwyc

Ellwood Epps Quartet [Ellwood Epps/Jonny Luke/Rob Clutton/Blake Howard] / The Emmet Ray 2026-02-20 (Friday – 6:30 p.m.). $15. [more info]

Westelaken (Eliza Niemi / Shep Treasure) / Dina's Tavern 2026-03-01 (Sunday) [more info]

Drones Over Dufferin / The Emmet Ray 2026-03-05 (Thursday – 6:30 p.m). $15. [more info]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

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Shows this week:

Lipliners Residency (feat. Ronley Teper & The Lipliners) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-01-27 (Tuesday – early) [FB event]

Nick Fraser presents (feat. Nick Fraser's Special Topics [Nick Fraser/Kae Murphy/Max Stover/Josh Cole] / Kae Murphy [solo]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-01-27 (Tuesday) [more info]

Brandon Davis's Stations Quartet [Brandon Davis/Patrick O'Reilly/Luan Phung/Germaine Liu] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-01-28 (Wednesday) [more info]

Discoveries Vol.8 with Musical Host Batuki Music (feat. Nii Osabu / Dipo / Sintayehu “Mimi” Zenebe & Abebe Fikade / David J. / Ruth Mathiang / Ṣẹwà) / Hugh's Room 2026-01-29 (Thursday). $21.82. [FB event]

CCMC [Casey Sokol/Cheryl O/John Oswald/Christine Duncan/Mani Mazinani/Rick Sacks/Bruce Gremo] / Array Space 2025-01-29 (Thursday). $pwyc, livestream available

Karen Ng presents (feat. Double Teams [Ryan Driver/Karen Ng/Aidan McConnell/Philippe Melanson) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-01-29 (Thursday)

All-Set! Presents (feat. Molehill) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2025-01-30 (Friday – early) [more info]

Josh Cole + Strings [featuring the premiere of "Concerto for Bass Drum"] [Josh Cole/Aline Homzy/Nick Storring/John Oswald/Blake Howard] / Sellers & Newel 2025-01-30 (Friday). $20 minimum donation. [FB event]

Exit Points #67 (feat. cheryl o/Annie Elgie/Shaunt Raffi/Casey Sokol/Michael Palumbo / W L C/Sonia Leung/Danielle Sum/Alexia Monize/Angelica Zavala) / Array Space 2026-01-30 (Friday). $22.89 advance, $28.27 general admission. [tickets + more info]

The Ryan Driver Sextet [Moon CD release] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-01-30 (Friday) [FB event]

Exhibition & Sound Performance: S, M, L & other sizes (feat. Sarah Peebles & Mira Martin-Gray) / PIX FILM Gallery 2026-01-31 (Saturday). $free. [FB event]

University of Toronto New Music Festival (feat. DOG Ensemble and Jazz Faculty) / Walter Hall 2025-02-01 (Sunday – 2:00 p.m.). $free. [more info]

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Video hits:

• This new video from Luka + co. brought me lots of joy this week!

• Anyone whose spent serious time traversing the tunnel at Spadina Sation will know what's going on here. (And a few shots in the Reference Library as well!)

• And speaking of the Reference Library, here's some documentation of Labyrinth Ontario prsenting a night of Turkish Makam there back in November:

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It happened this week...

• ...on January 26, 2016 at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

Lina Allemano Four - unknown

• ...on January 30, 2016 at Galleria Shopping Centre (Long Winter: Galleria).

New Fries - 90 Yr Old Girl

• ...on at 1161 Dundas St W. (Endless City: Invoking The Spirit), January 31, 2016.

Cyclopean Wall - [excerpt]

[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 Roundup #202

Community notes:

• Modular synth documentary I Dream of Wires receives a 10th Anniversary screening at the Revue Cinema cinema this week (Wednesday, November 27th) with a special live performance by Aida Khorsandi (who was seen at Track Could bend a few months ago).

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Concert announcements:

Ghostlight / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-04 (Wednesday). $pwyc, $10 suggested. [FB event]

No Frills (Packs) / Ted's Collision 2024-12-05 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior & Kurt Newman / The Sympathetic String Band / Nick Flanagan / Way Bad Stone) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-12-08 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.) [FB event]

Lostworldsounds [Heartbroken Yesterdays Fleeting Tomorrows album release celebration!] (Man Meets Bear / guests from Ghostlight) / The Sun Room at 918 Bathurst 2024-12-08 (Sunday). $15/PWYC (no one turned away for lack of funds). [FB event]

fuzZfest 2.0 (feat. Ben Bennett/Raphaël Foisy/Karen Ng / Eric Laska / Battle Milk) ["home-cooked vegetarian meal included"] / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2024-12-12 (Thursday). $15 (cash/card) or pwyc. [FB event]

Not a Band [Secrets EP Release Party!] (feat. Wilderness Adventure Ride / Triage Eclair) / Collective Arts 2024-12-12 (Thursday). $15/PWYC. [FB event]

Henri Fabergé Crashes The Creskins Ball ["A festive night of comedy,music & mayhem"] (feat. Gwynne Phillips / Briana Templeton / Kayla Lorette / Roger Bainbridge / Miguel Rivas / Alex Tindal / Clare McConnell / Adam Niebergall / Sharjil Rasool / Johnny Spence / Steve Foster / Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll / Sarah Bennett / Juliann Wilding / Nicole Passmore / Jackie Pirico / Sarah Ruba / New Chance / Anh Phung) / 918 Bathurst 2024-12-19 (Thursday – early show @ 6 p.m., late show @ 8:30). $27.96. [FB event]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

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Shows this week:

Brittany Pitt's Reverie [Brittany Pitt/Dan Pitt/Caleb Klager/Jon Catanus] / The Rex 2024-11-26 (Tuesday – 5:30 p.m.). $10. [more info]

Clue Note: Trivia and Creative Music (Vol. 2) (feat. Socks and Sandals (and Friends) [Germaine Liu/Mira Martin-Gray/Nick Storring/Mark Zurawinski) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-26 (Tuesday – early) [FB event]

Dan Pitt Quintet [Horizontal Depths album release]/ The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-26 (Tuesday) [more info]

Dimming Pool [1st gig!] (Prancing Like Zebras / FORMING / Romeo Romeo) / The Cameron House 2024-11-27 (Wednesday). $15. [FB event]

Ronley Teper & the Lipliners / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-27 (Wednesday) [more info]

Dean Drouillard & Christine Bougie / Sellers & Newel 2024-11-28 (Thursday). $20 minimum donation. [more info]

Zoobombs (Pretty / Scooter Jay) / Monarch Tavern 2024-11-28 (Thursday). $18.50, 19+. [FB event]

Tara Kannangara (Hiroki & The DenSan Band / Emily Steinwall) / Burdock Music Hall 2024-11-28 (Thursday). $16.95. [more info]

Halocline Trance Presents (feat. Eldritch Priest [album release] / Karen Ng & David Psutka) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-28 (Thursday). $15 / pwyc. [more info]

All-Set presents (feat. Molehill [Mike Smith/Jake Oelrichs/Pete Johnston] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-29 (Friday – early). $pwyc

Corpusse with Mike Milligan / Sellers & Newel 2024-11-29 (Friday). $20 minimum donation. [more info]

Exit Points 55 (feat. Zoma/Sarah Peebles/halfdecentheart/Jaeyoung Chong/Andrew Finlay Stewart/Kimute/WEI EN/Zoë Ëoz/kat estacio/Jonathan Huard/Michael Palumbo) / Array Space 2024-11-29 (Friday). $17.52 (early bird)/$22.89 (advance)/$28.27 (general). [FB event]

The Ryan Driver Sextet / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-29 (Friday). $pwyw. [FB event]

Burn Down The Capital presents (feat. V. Vecker / Death Kneel / Cetacea / Aida Khorsandi) / Collective Arts 2024-11-30 (Saturday). $17.52. [FB event]

CORDS [new project from Jesse Levine, Face The Sun! album release celebration] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-11-30 (Saturday – early) [more info]

Cannon Album Release (feat. Dan Fortin/Michael Davidson/Thom Gill/Phil Melanson/Karen Ng/David Occhipinti / You Can Can [Felicity Williams & Andrew Zukerman]) / The Tranzac (Main Hall) 2024-12-01 (Sunday). $20. [FB event]

Labyrinth Ensemble presents (feat. Marta Solek / Roa Lee / Sasan Salaseli) / Drom Taberna 2024-12-01 (Sunday). $pwyc. [FB event]

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 30, 2013 at Double Double Land (Punchclock Showcase).

New Fries - Plexiglass

• ...on December 1, 2013 at Creatures Creating Gallery (Wavelength 583: The Bass Piano).

Ryan Driver/Justin Haynes/Michael Davidson - First Improvization for Bass Piano [excerpt]

[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 Roundup #98

Concert announcements:

Lee Paradise (Moon King) / Monarch Tavern 2021-12-10 (Saturday). $15, 19+. [FB event]

Ayal Senior & Friends (feat. Ayal Senior/Kurt Newman/Andrew Furlong / Jessie Dara / Nick Flanagan / Tzevi Sherman) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-12-11 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.)[FB event]

Happy Sundays (feat. Beams / Joy Shape / Isla Craig) / The Baby G 2021-12-11 (Sunday). $free, 19+. [FB event]

Nidus (Wenderly Park) / The Tranzac (Living Room) 2022-12-20 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Only God Forgives (The Crime Family / Accelerant / Cootie Catcher) / Monarch Tavern 2023-01-19 (Thursday). $15, 19+. [FB event]

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Shows this week:

xen0hyena presents: Joyride S1E2 (feat. Think Fast! / Delilah Brae / Joe Sorbara / Oddity / The Liquid Kidney Quintet / Nevada-Jane Arlow / secret guest performer: Gabe) / Bar Orwell 2021-11-28 (Monday). $10/PWYC [FB event]

Dan Pitt/Brittany Pitt Quartet [Dan Pitt/Brittany Pitt/Caleb Klager/Ethan Ardelli] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-11-29 (Tuesday – early!) [FB event]

Nick Fraser Presents: Imaginary Brass Band [CD release show!] [Doug Tielli/Heather Saumer/Nick Fraser/Tania Gill/Charles Spearin/Emily Farrell/Colin Couch] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-11-29 (Tuesday)

Music Hosted by Karen Ng (feat. Allison Cameron [solo] / Mark Ballyk/Raphael Foisy-Couture/Andrew Furlong/Karen Ng) / Wenona Lodge 2021-11-29 (Tuesday). [FB event]

Brodie West Quintet / The Rex 2021-11-30 (Wednesday – 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.)

Bitchin Bajas / The Baby G 2022-12-01 (Thursday). $20.05 advance, 19+. [FB event]

Musicworks Live: Archive Activation ["local creative musicians join forces to 'activate' some of the innovative graphic scores that were published in the magazine's newsprint editions in the late '70s and early '80s"] (feat. Sara Constant/Naomi McCarroll-Butler/Matti Pulkki/Morgan-Paige/Racha Moukalled) / Array Space 2022-12-01 (Thursday). $pwyc, advance tickets available. [FB event]

Audiopollination 10th Anniversary Bash (feat. Jessica Houghton/Kathryn Merriam / Bob Vespaziani/Kayla Milmine/Tegan Dietsch / Diane Roblin/Ryan Kinney/Julian A M.P. / Sarah Peebles/David Story/Saba Saneinejad / Killer Quartet [Emjay Wright/Kai Grant/Erin Corbett/Mickle32] / Double Group Continuous Improvisation [Del Stephen/Patrick O’Reilly/James Bailey/Mira Martin-Gray/Andrew Finlay Stewart/David Parker/Tyson Headon] / Cosmic Homeostasis) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2022-12-04 (Sunday – noon to 4:30 p.m.) [FB event]

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Bandcamp corner:

• Bandcamp Friday coming up once more! Don't forget to support some musicians if you can! Here's some stuff on my shopping list:

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 30, 2016 at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

Cameron/Cole/Perri/Rampersaud - [first set, excerpt 2]

• ...on December 1, 2016 at The Garrison.

New Fries - Gertrude Stein Greeting Card from Pape/Danforth

[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 Roundup #46

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.

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Community notes:

• Reminder to knob-twisters and soundscapists that Musicworks' 2021 Electronic Music Composition Contest is open and awaiting your entry. It's a pretty wide-open field ("any electronic-music genre — acousmatic, electroacoustic, glitch, soundscape, intelligent dance music (IDM), turntable art, or video music etc.") and your entries will be considered by the jury on the basis of your sounds only, as all identifying information is stripped away before they are given the tracks. (Full disclosure, I am a past jurist for this competition.) There's a fee of $25 to enter, but that also gives you a one-year subscription to the magazine, so it works out as a pretty good deal. You can get all the information you need here.

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Video hits:

• Clara Engel's "Microgods of all the Subatomic Worlds" (from their 2017 EP Songs for Leonora Carrington) has been given a second go-round with a striking new video from dance troupe Odeón Círculo Escénico, filmed on-site in the Museo Leonora Carrington in San Luis Potosí, Mexico:

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Bandcamp corner:

• No surprise that the new album from the Nick Fraser Quartet (Nick Fraser/Tony Malaby/Andrew Downing/Rob Clutton) rips in all the right ways. It's also pretty sweet to see these musicians amongst some pretty heavy hitters (like, say, Don Cherry/John Coltrane/Albert Ayler/Matthew Shipp) on Ezz-Thetics' bandcamp page.

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It happened this week...

• ...on November 30, 2016, at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge).

Cameron/Cole/Perri/Rampersaud - [first set, excerpt 2]

• ...on December 1, 2016 at The Garrison.

New Fries - Gertrude Stein Greeting Card from Pape/Danforth

[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.]

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at MOCA (Not Dead Yet Presents), June 29, 2019.

New Fries - unknown

There was a bit of physical/emotional dislocation and relocation at this show, sorting through the realities and ironies of our gentrifying city. Recently a sort of semi-abandoned zone where off-the-grid culture flourished (and just over from where some cool DIY loft spaces used to be) and in a formerly-abandoned building (where audiences and musicians like the ones at hand used to sneak in and explore and smoke a joint, looking out over the city) this show took place in the new Museum of Contemporary Art, now refinished with a sort of austere/pricey minimalism and filled with Expensive Things. From the back of the long, rectangular space, held up by large circular concrete pillars, it looked not unlike a show taking place underneath a highway overpass — and by virtue of the space, it sounded more than a little like one too. Is this a simulacrum of independent culture, selling us back our nostalgia for a recently-departed past at a bespoke markup? Or is it just a matter of trying to find any sort of space in a city where space for the DIY spirit is getting crowded out?

The second time seeing this new trio re-incarnation of New Fries found the space rendering their sound a bit more harsh and apocalyptic than the previous go-round, but that takes away nothing from the menacing minimalist groove power underpinning the music.

[New Fries will be playing with Frigs and Piper Maru at the Velvet Underground on Saturday, December 14th.]

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Jam Factory, May 17, 2019.

New Fries - unknown

New Fries had taken a bit of a break away from the stage, and it looks like that time was put towards some renewal and recalibration. This is a band that has pushed through inspired amateurism into accomplished technicianship and then inverted themselves, playing with both form and content on stage to defy audience expectations of how songs should be formed or sets should proceed. Currently, the group are playing as a three-piece again, swapping instruments and without keyboardist/disruptor Ryan Carley, and that seems to have tipped things back from "anti-band" to "band". Or perhaps the trio had been locked in a rehearsal space for a a few months with only an ESG comp, as the tunes here were all funky, minimalist groovers with Anni Spadafora now on bass to provide the infinite low-end chug, like a Pauline Oliveros tape loop stuck in party mode.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: Gertrude Stein Greeting Card from Pape/Danforth

Recorded at The Garrison, December 1, 2016.

New Fries - Gertrude Stein Greeting Card from Pape/Danforth

Even (especially?) at the release show for their new 10" EP, New Fries tried to upend the settled order of how a band's set should go. Toss away the Flashy Opening Number and start with a meandering bass solo from Tim Fagan; and instead of a Big Finish, why not have most of the band wander off one by one at the end of a song, leaving keyboardist Ryan Carley to noodle for a bit before opener Carl Didur climbed up on stage to lean his keyboard on his knee and add some proggy widdle-wahs and see how long that could hold the audience's attention. But the middle! Mixing a couple older songs amongst the EP material, Anni Spadafora led the group through a display of their not-inconsiderable bent rock prowess, 3-D hamburger hypercubes swirling behind them.

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: 90 Yr Old Girl

Recorded at Galleria Shopping Centre (Long Winter: Galleria), January 30, 2016.

New Fries - 90 Yr Old Girl

An ambitious "takeover" project from the Long Winter crew saw their usual mix of music + art transferred to the near-derelict/doomed-by-gentrification Galleria Mall. It was a sonically awkward environment to hold a show (there's a lot of muddy "mall reverb" in these recordings) that attracted a rather different crowd than the regular LW events — skewing older, and perhaps towards those feeling a sense of pre-nostalgia for kitschy but less-corporate spaces like this. (Ironically, having a larger 19+ component in the crowd made for long lines for anyone wanting to get into the event's licenced areas, but that notwithstanding everything on the night seemed to run pretty smoothly.) I'm not sure whether or not the dancer (dressed as a giant M+M candy) was crashing the stage or not during this set, but the band seemed to take it in stride. The band otherwise delivered a fairly straightahead set, with fewer groove-sabotaging moments than they used to generate.

Recording: Four Corners V

Artist: Four Corners V^*

Song: Hey! Bo Diddley [Bo Diddley cover]

Recorded at Steelworkers Hall ("Four Corners V"), August 8, 2015.

Four Corners V - Hey! Bo Diddley

A benefit for Girls Rock Camp was the impetus for the revival of this beloved concert series that originally ran for a conceptually-elegant four instalments from 2010 to 2012. As before, the Steelworkers' multipurpose room was the scene for this quadraphonic jam, with bands set up in each of the room's colour-coded corners and alternating two-song bursts for a no-dead-time rock jam. With cans of beer for sale instead of easily-slopped cups of cheap draft from a keg, the floor was less dangerously slick at night's end, but it was still an immersive, joyfully-exhausting experience. Whether this means that the series is back for another set of four remains to be seen, but it's a concept that I was glad to experience once again.

I was also glad to see that the night's performers also decided to revive the tradition of finishing off the night with a four-bands-at-once cover song blowout. In fact, this might have been the best of the ones attempted, with the groups wisely deferring lead vocals to Surinam's Matt Mason, which gave things a bit more of a centre as everyone hammered away on that Bo Diddley beat. Of course, things pulled apart as the bands forged ahead, but in the centre of the room it sounded like a rather fantastic mess, pulling itself in and out of focus before ending in a feedback haze as each of the bands tried to figure out how to finish — or if they wanted to finish.

^* To be precise, this was a simultaneous jam featuring Surinam, HSY, New Fries and Cellphone all at once.

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: Jazz

Recorded at Steelworkers Hall ("Four Corners V"), August 8, 2015.

New Fries - Jazz

A benefit for Girls Rock Camp was the impetus for the revival of this beloved concert series that originally ran for a conceptually-elegant four instalments from 2010 to 2012. As before, the Steelworkers' multipurpose room was the scene for this quadraphonic jam, with bands set up in each of the room's colour-coded corners and alternating two-song bursts for a no-dead-time rock jam. With cans of beer for sale instead of easily-slopped cups of cheap draft from a keg, the floor was less dangerously slick at night's end, but it was still an immersive, joyfully-exhausting experience. Whether this means that the series is back for another set of four remains to be seen, but it's a concept that I was glad to experience once again.

The night's format meant that New Fries couldn't lead with their usual fool-you/fake-out slow start intro, but they still managed to inject a certain amount of practical chaos into their segments, including, oh, y'know, a guitar being smashed and ending with all of their gear in a heap. But while everything was intact they reeled off a bunch of old and new material, including this one from their new single.

Recording: New Fries

Artist:

Songs: Jasz + Jz III

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point ("EXVEE"), May 30, 2015.

New Fries - Jasz + Jz III

Celebrating fifteen years as a retreat and incubator for the arts, Artscape Gibraltar Point decided to throw itself a big party, a day of music and secular blessings. Rain early on kept the crowds away somewhat, but it turned into a fairly pleasant day, with music in the backyard tent going ahead from late afternoon to late at night.

With things falling behind schedule, this no wave quartet were forced to launch right into their set — no dirge-y antics from keyboard player Ryan Carley this time round. But he's definitely sounding more integrated into the band's sound, especially on an increasing amount of new material. Everything else — from vocalist Anni Spadafora's guitar lines on down — is still tap-dancing on that knife-edge of song and anti-song.

Gig: Wavelength FIFTEEN - Night 3

Wavelength FIFTEEN – Night 3 (feat. Bart / Tenderness / New Fries / Fresh Snow / Mozart's Sister / Look Vibrant / Cellphone)

The Garrison, Sunday, February 15, 2015.

The three nights of this year's Wavelength festival were each loosely themed around the notions of "past", "present" and "future" and it was the third and final night of those that brought the most satisfaction. Focused squarely on emerging bands that are doing great work right now, this is the sort of show that could send people home with a new favourite band they'd be eager to see again. With an extended 4 a.m. last call, it was also a long night with bands on stage from 8:30 'til nearly three in the morning.

Getting things started, Bart packed a lot of music into less than a half-hour on stage. Led by Chris Shannon (ex-Elwins) and Nathan Vanderwielen (ex-Ruby Coast), the pair switched quickly from parallel dual vocal leads and doubled guitar lines to dartingly-interlocking bursts on both. They were backed by Hooded Fang's Lane Halley on guitar as well as Biblical's rhythm section (Andrew Scott and Jay Anderson). With the high vocals, shifting time signatures and fiddly guitar parts, there was definitely a prog rock thing at play here — but (as of yet, anyway) don't expect any side-long suites detailing Middle-earth battles. So far, their album cover style would probably be more pop-art than Roger Dean, reflecting their quick pop-structured songbursts — maybe let's call 'em "jukebox prog" for now. It's that spirit that sees four songs crammed into the twelve minutes of their début Bart by Bart 7". Heady stuff.

Listen to a track from this set here.

With only Steve Reaume's pixelated geometric abstractions lighting the stage, Chrissy Reichert (who performs as Tenderness) played a set focused on the new material that will be making up the project's sophomore album. There's a lot of variation within the cluttered bricolage of her dancefloor-friendly aesthetic, ranging from touches of hip-hop to galloping dabke beats to a gorgeous slo-jam that sounds like the last dance on the last night at church camp. I am admittedly a little partisan when it comes to the Reichert's work, so take it with a grain of salt, perhaps, when I say that this was the night's headliner-quality set.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Up on the big stage, New Fries played a more focused set than when I last saw 'em on New Year's Eve, but that doesn't mean it was necessarily more straightahead, as there were still a series of gestures that seemed designed to destabilize the standard rock-show dynamic. Once again there was a bit of bait-and-switch at the outset, with Ryan Carley's weird fugue-y keyboard lead-in providing accompaniment for some jibbering crooning from bassist Tim Fagan.

Once Anni Spadafora (guit/vox) and Jenny Gitman (drums) kicked in, it lurched back into rock'n'roll mode as the band reeled off the tunes from their Fresh Face Forward (plus a new one!) in a fairly brisk manner. During closer "Plexiglass" (which received a freeze-frame two-chord breakdown that was longer than the song part of the song) a mysterious pale figure in a white gown emerged on stage and assumed a Jesus-y pose before slumping forward. It's art when deliberate gestures are offered without obvious answers, and punk as hell when a band is presenting music with their own coded massages on their own terms.¹

Listen to a track from this set here.

Notwithstanding a special night of some live film accompaniment and suchlike, Fresh Snow have been keeping a lower profile since last summer's WL Island show. A split single (with Reel Cod labelmates Mimico) added a cover of "Mony Mony" to their repertoire, and word is that a new EP is in the can and being readied for release. The results of that time away from the stage were apparent in a set that featured almost entirely new material — perhaps considered enough of a novelty that the band presented it in a pretty frills-free manner, sans masks or any of the other dramatic devices they're known for. (Well, there was a fair amount of dry ice.) That left the focus on the music, and it sounds like there's a lot to look forward to as we wait on the band's next release.

Listen to a track from this set here.

I will confess that I initially approached Caila Thompson-Hannant's solo project Mozart's Sister with some probably-unwarranted baggage after having read that she had been a member of Shapes and Sizes — a band that I remember being utterly turned off by at a gig back in '07. That said, the first time I saw this project I was — if not overwhelmingly convinced — able to see that she's on to something in this incarnation. Dance-pop doesn't tend to do much for me, but seeing a second performance managed to push me towards begrudging acknowledgement of what Thompson-Hannant is up to.

It was also a chance to situate her on a spectrum of broadly-similar acts at the festival: next to the previous night's Lowell set, this looked like the work of a musical genus; next to the evening's earlier Tenderness performance, it felt a little tame. Thompson-Hannant's stage manner (complete with dance moves) is engaging and about half the material registered with me, so I'd say the performance netted out somewhere above the meh zone, even if this isn't something I'd go out of my way to see a third time.

Listen to a track from this set here.

That was the programmatic peak of the night, and not unreasonably a lot of the crowd headed home, leaving a lot more elbow room for Montréal's Look Vibrant, a young quartet radiating bouncy energy on stage. The band looked maniacally happy to be performing, and they got the crowd (about half of which seemed to be friends who came along up the 401) jittering along. Their hypercaffeinated tunes came across a bit like listening to a Todd Rundgren tape while mashing down the fast forward button, and while I suppose it was fun, it didn't register as my kind of fun. I wager I'll be more into the next wave of bands that some of these lads will end up in a couple years down the road.

Sending the night off with a roar, Cellphone took the stage at about twenty past two to an even more thinned out crowd. That didn't phase the band, who turned in a solid performance that was one of the best-sounding sets I've heard from them in a while. In the DIY spaces I've mostly seen 'em in, minimal PA scenarios tend to hide the vox and synth behind a wall of guit/bass/drums, but here there was a bit more balance that really showed off their unique thrash/new wave fusion. They seemed to be in the mood to play, and after announcing their last song a couple times they ended up playing on. Hopefully I will run into them in such circumstances again. Well, maybe not quite at three in the morning.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ The set's other moment of punk rock instability came when a noted local musician (with a bit of a confrontational bent) made his way up to the front to tell the horde of photographers (who'd been swarming the front of the stage for the duration of the set) to get their damn cameras out of the way and let people watch the show. Clearly not recognized as someone who had probably played more Wavelengths than some of photographers had attended, he was treated with derisive scorn, and there was a brief moment of weird tension.

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: Water & Water

Recorded at The Garrison ("Wavelength FIFTEEN - Night 3"), February 15, 2015.

New Fries - Water & Water

My notes for this set can be found here.

Six years/Six pack: James Lindsay

MFS has turned six! My introductory thoughts on this landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.

Today's list is from James Lindsay, who I know as a well-dressed man and co-proprietor of beloved local label Pleasence Records.

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Black Walls - PTSD

Beautiful recording of what's become Black Walls' signature piece. In the right environment "PTSD" is intensely affecting, silencing the crowd as guitar and vocal loops build on top on themselves until reaching a climatic, otherworldly wall of sound. I've seen people publicly cry during this song.

New Fries - Fix Touch

I can't think of another current band I enjoy watching live more than New Fries. I also love this song and was disappointed it didn't make the Fresh Face Forward EP, though you can find it on the Mechanical Forest Sound compilation I put out with Reel Cod. I think this recording nicely captures their live show, where their jagged post-punk teeters, at times assertively awkward, on slipping into performance art.

Moonwood - Sack of Blood

This was my first time seeing Moonwood as a four piece, at Feast in the East's short-lived home in Little India. The band had a lot of energy that night. I, along with everyone else I spoke to, was completely gobsmacked by this set, which never seemed to let up, charging from one motorik voyage to the next without interruption.

Nature - Heater

Toronto supergroup comprised of Sexy Merlin, Man Made Hill, Jesse Locke (Century Palm/Tough Age), and Brandon Hocura (Polyphasic Recordings and Studio). They firmly capture the mutant-disco of '80s NYC, invoking flavors of Arthur Russell, ESG, and Liquid Liquid. This is from their first public performance, jamming on Sexy Merlin's "Heater", and by the crowd's reaction, you can tell people were feeling it.

Brides - Sinatra

Brides blew many a mind in their brief existence. Channelling the controlled chaos of the Contortions, but much darker, they helped pave the way for much of the no-wave inspired art-punk in Toronto right now. I saw them every chance I got.

Not The Wind, Not The Flag - [guitar excerpt]

The free-psych of Colin Fisher and Brandon Valdivia must be seen live to be fully experienced. At this point is safe to say that they are two of the city's best players, with jazz-tight chops, who are associated with countless, diverse artists, and have their own notable solo projects as well. They come from the tradition of explorative guitar and drum duos, yet every time I catch NTWNTF my mind struggles to grasp that human beings are capable of making this music. Intensely meditative. Vociferously introspective.

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You can always click on the tags below to look for more stuff from these artists. Has there been a half-dozen songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: Oil & Water

Recorded at The Tranzac – Southern Cross Lounge ("Tranzac New Year's Eve"), December 31, 2014.

New Fries - Oil & Water

With the recent-ish addition of Ryan Carley's keybs to the lineup, there's an additional layer of woozy instability underlying New Fries' live sound. I don't wanna get too highfalutin' about it — 'cause it's still rock'n'roll to me — but New Fries is increasingly coming across as trying to resolve a dialectic of groove and anti-groove (to say nothing of vibes and anti-vibes) and heading into a space where the tense opposite of a thing becomes a thing.

[New Fries will be helping to represent "the future" at the last night of Wavelength's fifteenth anniversary festival at The Garrison on Sunday, February 15th.]

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Song: Hurricanes Be^*

Recorded at CineCycle, April 26, 2014.

New Fries - Hurricanes Be

Full review to follow. Evolving quickly, New Fries has moved beyond the relatively skeletal song structures that held things together when I first saw 'em into something with a bit more of a groove. But when you listen to the closer there's depths and depths here, as if there's still something hurt and angry scratching to get out.

^* This was introduced at this gig as "Lesbian Sneeze", but it has subsequently shown up on bandcamp under this title.

Recording: New Fries

Artist: New Fries

Songs: Fix Touch + Plexiglass

Recorded at Double Double Land (Punchclock Showcase), November 30, 2013.

New Fries - Fix Touch

New Fries - Plexiglass

Full review to follow. Local screen printing collective Punchclock packed Double Double Land for a night of music and dancing. The night was led off by this new-ish DIY-core trio (Jenny Gitman/Anni Spadafora/Tim Fagan) whose set was apparently filled with songs making their debut. There were some real winners here, with minimalist/naive guitar clatter and shout/spoken lyrics giving shades of, say, The Raincoats.