Recording: Marker Starling

Artist: Marker Starling

Song: Diamond Violence

Recorded at Dina's Tavern, February 21, 2026.

Marker Starling - Diamond Violence

Some (such as myself) might have been attracted to this evening as a chance to see Chris Cummings perform some "melancholy party jams" backed by his full band, though as the night's opener, he was happy enough to act (in his words) as entertainment for the filling-in crowd while they perused the headliner's merch table. There was definitely an affinity with Rapallo's headlining yacht rock set, and the group presumably made some new converts. The only thing to be sad about for longtime Mantler-heards is that the catalogue is so deep now that there's no time to reach back and dust off the "classics" — with a couple new ones in the setlist, tracks like this from the group's next-to-most-recent album are already being given a retrospective cast.

Recording: Cici Arthur

Artist: Cici Arthur

Song: Felt in an Instant

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (TONE Presents), May 23, 2025.

Cici Arthur - Felt in an Instant

Chris Cummings is not Marker Starling — and now, he is not Cici Arthur either. The former, his longtime "solo" vehicle has now been joined by the new "group" endeavour — an effort spearheaded by Joseph Shabason and Thom Gill (who was absent for this show) to provide some lush and smooth sonic settings for Cummings' songs. Nimble and soulful, this is a formidable soft-rock powerhouse that has lead to the very tasty Way Through album, as well as a star-studded band (with Mara Nesrallah, Dorothea Paas, Phil Melanson, and Bram Gielen) bringing the songs to life.

Monday Roundup #187

Community notes:

• Newsletter alert! Local music writer Stuart Berman has joined substack with stübermania!. "Each week, stübermania will feature a complete transcript of a conversation I had back in the ‘90s and 2000s with a notable alt/indie/rock semi-star, complemented by my current observations on how the interview went, and what I maybe shoulda-woulda-coulda done better. I like to think of this newsletter as my 30th-anniversary box set of greatest hits, complete with updated liner notes... In addition to the main interview, each newsletter will feature an opening act of sorts—i.e., a brief introductory section featuring links to my current writing, other clickable curiosities, and notes on the latest updates to my ever-evolving Best of 2024 playlist."
• Do note that the calendar on The Tranzac's website is suffering from some technical problems, so my t'zac listings for this week are somewhat deficient. Do keep an eye put on their social media for updated info — they tend to get a "This week in the Southern Cross" update on facebook Mondays after this has gone to press.

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Concert announcements:

The AMBiENT PiNG's 25th Anniversary (feat. Wally Jericho / Planet of the Loops / dreamSTATE with Kurt Swinghammer) / Handlebar 2024-08-19 (Monday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Exit Points #52 (feat. Keisha Bell/Janel Jones/Ryan Kinney/Lex Feathers/Ambrose Pottie / MAYSUN/Sihwa Park/Danika Lorèn/Michael Palumbo / Switchemups!) / Array Space 2024-08-30 (Friday). $25 ($20 advance). [FB event]

Ghostlight Residency: Fall Equinox (feat. Ghostlight) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-09-04 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [FB event]

Venus Fest & Not Dead Yet present (feat. Claire Rousay / rEmPiT g0dDe$$ / Karen Ng) / Monarch Tavern 2024-09-27 (Thursday). $25.26, 19+. [more info]

Venus Fest presents (feat. evicshen / Ahya Simone / Kat Estacio) / It’s OK* Studios 2024-09-28 (Friday). $20-$30 sliding scale, all ages. [more info]

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

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Shows this week:

Cowbird Composer Collective Residency: Improv Night! (feat. Paul Newman/Sara Constant/Brian Abbott/Chris Adriaanse/Patrick Smith/Manuel Morales) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-08-12 (Monday) [FB event]

Never Was [Brandon Davis/Racha Moukalled/Patrick O’Reilly/Joe Sorbara] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2024-08-14 (Wednesday). $pwyc.

Sloan / CNE Bandshell 2024-08-16 (Friday). $free with admission to The Ex, all-ages, family-friendly, outdoors. [more info]

Theo Vandenhoff (Amery / Bingo Day) / Monarch Tavern 2024-08-16 (Friday). $14.50, 19+. [FB event]

Forró on Sundays (feat. Maria and The Band) / Drom Taberna 2024-08-18 (Sunday – 2 p.m.). $10. [FB event]

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It happened this week...

• ...on August 18, 2019 at Tibet Kitchen's back patio (Music at Tibet Kitchen).

Karen Ng - [solo sax improvisation]

Dorothea Paas - Anything Can't Happen

[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: Holy Oak Family Singers

Artist: Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Ryan Driver / Alex Lukashevsky / Dorothea Paas / Luka Kuplowsky

Songs: Picture a World / Bein' Green / The First Time It Happens / Everybody Eats [all composed by Joe Raposo]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Tribute to Joe Raposo), July 3, 2024.

Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Ryan Driver - Picture a World

Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Alex Lukashevsky - Bein' Green

Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Dorothea Paas - The First Time It Happens

Holy Oak Family Singers feat. Luka Kuplowsky - Everybody Eats

The name Joe Raposo might not ring a bell, but chances are good you've got some of his songs lodged in your brain. One of the key writers in the classic Sesame Street/Muppets era, he not only composed the Sesame Street theme, but piles of instantly-familiar tunes, including "C is for Cookie", "Doin' the Pigeon", "Would You Like to Buy an O?", and "Sing" — as well as a fair few other TV themes. That meant there was plenty of material for the usual mix'n'match insta-ensembles at H.O.F.S.' regular night of musical tribute. The best results came when the singers mined the vein of bummed-out melancholy that's just below the surface of many of these songs — but the bursts of pure ebullience worked pretty swell too (Alex Lukashevsky tackling the Three's Company theme was everything you could hope for).

[Do note that H.O.F.S. are taking August off! You'll find them back in the Southern Cross on the first Wednesday in September.]

Recording: Dorothea Paas

Artist: Dorothea Paas

Song: Anything Can't Happen

Recorded at Tibet Kitchen's back patio (Music at Tibet Kitchen), August 18, 2019.

Dorothea Paas - Anything Can't Happen

Bringing back a favourite summer excursion after a couple years away, Jonathan Adjemian hosted this lovely afternoon of music, tasty eats and good vibes on the back patio of Parkdale's Tibet Kitchen, still offering the same tangle of backlane wires overhead and the same serene peacefulness away from the hurly-burly of Queen Street. Not even an ungrounded amplifier prone to giving unnerving shocks could derail the afternoon's closing meditations from singer-songwriter Dorothea Paas, playing a solo set focused on newer tunes. Bypassing the troublesome amp and plugging guitar straight into the mixer, its spare dryness did not detract from the depth of the songcraft.

Recording: Baby Cages

Artist: Baby Cages

Songs: Flowers + Polly

Recorded at Owl's Club, June 29, 2018.

Baby Cages - Flowers

Baby Cages - Polly

A brightly-coloured celebration in support of the new bitter melon (an ambitious project that also exists as a video album) saw the band, a half-dozen wide, in neon fruity finery. Focused on the new release, Halloway Jones and co. offered up a concise set, showing off the new songs' diverse moods — ranging from the tautly-drawn Cate Le Bon-ish spareness to the lush and tender balladry heard in this pair. The release of a project is always a marker of beginnings and endings, so it was a treat to hear the fuller arrangements here, including Katie Jensen's vibraphone, before the band transforms into new shapes.

Recording: Dorothea Paas

Artist: Dorothea Paas

Song: Climbing

Recorded at The Great Hall (Long Winter 4.5 – Night 2), March 19, 2016.

Dorothea Paas - Climbing

You can't fault Long Winter for being ambitious and for wanting to close out the season by cramming in as much music and art into the Great Hall as possible, but their plan to close the year out with a two-night stand didn't entirely pay off. Giving patrons the choice of two nights (and holding them at the end of Spring Break) seemed to especially cut into the younger crowd and both nights (especially Friday) lacked that "about to burst" feeling that makes LW unique. But even if the crowd was at less than maximum strength, there was no certainly no lack of music spread throughout the building.

On her recorded output, Dorothea Paas' songs have a little more of a dreampop sheen than was revealed at this live outing, that instead saw them delivered with rough'n'ready rockin' urgency from a straightforward guitar-bass-drums trio. Uncluttered arrangements, keeping the focus on the songs in a short and focused set on a night that this was the only "rock" act in the Conversation Room.

[Paas will be playing a solo set at Holy Oak on Saturday night (April 2nd).]