Monday Roundup #293

Community notes:

• The 2026 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest is now open. "Compose/submit an experimental piece in any electronic-music genre — acousmatic, electroacoustic, glitch, soundscape, intelligent dance music (IDM), turntable art, video music et. al. The contest is open to entries from anyone located anywhere in the world and from artists at any age or stage of career. Pieces must be previously unpublished, i.e. not released on a commercially available recording at the time of submission." Maximum length is 10 minutes. Contest entry fee is $30, and entrants receive a free one-year subscription to the print edition of Musicworks. Get all the information you need here.

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Concert announcements:

Altered States Artist Showcase (feat. Rebecca Hennessy/Michael Herring/Tim Shia) / Water to Wine 2026-09-02 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [more info]

the grandson [album release show] [Yoshi Maclear Wall/Ezra Schell/Lee Rosensweet] (Genre Fiction [Ben Culver/Alex McPherson/Miles Cakebread-Kraus/Ali Rashid]) / Burdock Music Hall 2026-09-02 (Wednesday). $10. [more info]

ESP Free Jazz Thursdays (feat Brent Tanemura/Jake Bikay/Diana Piruzevska/Gloria Ksimuniv) / Water to Wine 2026-09-03 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. Germaine Liu / Fossils / Day of Niagara) / "River" 2026-09-05 (Saturday). $pwyc. [more info]

Adjacent Spheres ["performing original music inspired by and composed by Dean Veneruz"] (feat. Village [Michael Davidson/Joel Bracken/Aline Homzy/Jen Lo/Hiro Tanaka/Mateo Mancuso]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-06 (Sunday)

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. Vampire John Coltrane / Bee Solomon / Cows in Rain) / "Porch" 2026-09-07 (Monday). $pwyc. [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. J.Vulgare / Colby Richardson / Fan Wu / Mariana Medellin) / "Mall" 2026-09-09 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. Brian Abbott's Tone Cathedral / Mani Mazinani & Marilyn Yogarajah / Bea Labikova) / "Creek" 2026-09-11 (Friday). $pwyc. [more info]

Elastic Recordings Presents: Inhabiting & Releasing Spontaneous Structures – A Concert & Workshop (feat. The Plastic Waste Band / Michael Davidson & Bjorn Kriel / Aline Homzy) / Annette Studios 2026-09-13 (Sunday – workshop @ 3:00 p.m., concert @ 8:00 p.m.). $20-$25 concert only (advance), $25-$40 concert + workshop (advance), $free (kids 12 + under). [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents Back to School Field Trip: Installation Garden ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. various artists) / "Ravine" 2026-09-13 (Sunday). $pwyc. [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents Back to School Field Trip: BPM (Big Percussion Meeting) ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. Amiel Ang / Brian Ruryk / Raf Wilcot / Victor O / Caleb Clawson) / "Playground" 2026-09-15 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Green-House (Masahiro Takahashi) / The Baby G 2026-09-16 (Wednesday). $25.03, 19+. [FB event]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. HAHAHAHAHAHA / shemona / quivering / Emergency Euphoria) / "Highway" 2026-09-23 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. SlowPitchSound / Fleshtone Aura & Sandro Perri / Gayle Young & Reinhard Reitzenstein / tête à tête [Philippe Melanson & Matthew Pencer]) / "UFO" 2026-09-25 (Friday). $pwyc. [more info]

Soundstreams Encounters: Nagoya Marimbas [featuring Steve Reich’s "Mallet Quartet" and "Nagoya Marimbas", plus works by Ann Southam and Juri Seo] (feat. Kairos Percussion Quartet with Aerin Cho) / Hugh's Room 2026-09-29 (Tuesday). $free with reservation. [more info]

Soundstreams Encounters: Violins Unbound [works by André Ristic, John Beckwith, Chris Paul Harman, Parisa Sabet, Ana Sokolović] (feat. Judith Fliedl & Roan Ma) / Hugh's Room 2026-11-02 (Monday). $free with reservation. [more info]

Soundstreams Encounters: Orison [a new music theatre work-in-progress featuring the ondes Martenot] (feat. Daniel Áñez & James O’Callaghan) / Hugh's Room 2026-11-30 (Monday). $free with reservation. [more info]

Soundstreams Encounters: Hua ["an immersive audiovisual collaboration"] (feat. Margie Kelk & Alison Yun-Fei Jiang) / Paradise Theatre 2027-04-13 (Monday). $free with reservation. [more info]

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

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Shows this week:

Strings & Spirits presents [live score of indie game "A Short Hike", featuring composer Mark Sparling & developer Adam Robinson-Yu, along with special drinks & surprises!] (feat. Render File) / Canadian Music Centre 2026-08-24 (Monday). $PWYC, suggested minimum $10. [tickets + more info]

The AMBiENT PiNG & Imaginary North present: 27 Years of Ambient Love! (feat. Cheryl O / Nanotopia / Jim Field) / Handlebar 2026-08-24 (Monday). $PWYC. [more info]

Jazz Rat Mondays (feat. Patrick Smith/Anthony D'Alessandro/Chris Banks/Ernesto Cervini) / Dina's Tavern 2026-08-24 (Monday). $pwyc. [more info]

Nick Fraser presents (feat. BLOOP-tanium Riot with Christine Duncan [Christine Duncan/Mike Smith/Rob Clutton/Nick Fraser/Ryan Driver]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-25 (Tuesday) [more info]

ESP Free Jazz Thursdays (feat. Brent Tanemura/Lauchlin Wood/Brodie West/Mateos Labbé-Phelan) / Water to Wine 2026-08-27 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

Hieronymus Harry (Isla Craig / Jack Pine) / Pamenar (back patio) 2026-08-27 (Thursday). $15 or PWYC. [more info]

Caution Wet Floor Signs [Yoshi Maclear Wall/Garret Hildebrandt/Dame Cook/Will Hunt/fossa séu] / The Emmet Ray 2026-08-27 (Thursday). $12. [more info]

Karen Ng presents (feat. Rob Clutton ‘Scrapples’ Quartet [Rob Clutton/Kevin Turcotte/Tania Gill/Mackenzie Longpré]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-27 (Thursday). [more info]

Army Girls (By Divine Right / Amelia Maxwell) / The Drake Underground 2026-08-28 (Friday). $22.63, 19+. [more info]

Exit Points #75 (feat. Julie Lassonde/Lisa Santoprete/Yvan Sheremetieff/Andrew Chiappetta/Woolworm, Ontario / Kavi/Roa Lee/Sahil Gopal/Michael Palumbo/Awstad Afraaz Adam Mulji) / Array Space 2026-08-28 (Friday). $15-20 advance, $20 door. [more info]

The Ryan Driver Quintet [Ryan Driver/Martin Arnold/Rob Clutton/Brodie West/Mateos Labbé-Phelan] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-28 (Friday). $pwyw. [FB event]

The Silt [Doug Tielli/Ryan Driver/Marcus Quin] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-29 (Saturday – early)

4 Weeks for Sonny Rollins (feat. The Bridge Quartet [Shawn Nykwist/Lee Wallace/Chris Banks/Mark Hundevad]) / CONTXT by Trane 2026-08-29 (Saturday). $30.79 advance, $40 door. [FB event]

Devin Patten trio [Dan Pitt/Devin Patten/Aaron Blewett] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-29 (Saturday). [more info]

Joni Void ["two sets of improvised electronics and sample-based soundscapes, merging into an exclusive collaborative finale between both acts"] (Liz Hysen) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-30 (Sunday – noon). [more info]

Cosmic Homeostasis XXXIII / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-30 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.). $pwyc, all-ages + family-friendly. [FB event]

Amrita [Anita Katakkar & Kayla Milmine] / DROM Taberna 2026-08-30 (Sunday – 5:30 p.m.). $pwyc. [FB event]

Sympathetic String Band & Friends (feat. Sympathetic String Band / Andrew Timar) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-08-30 (Sunday – early). $pwyc. [more info]

Mifune Moods presents: Akira [live score] (feat. Mifune Moods [Ali Rashid/Annie Elgie/Fionn Ling/Luke Nickel/Sarah Laur/Keon Narinesingh/Yoshi Maclear Wall/Ezra Schell]) / Bampot 2026-08-30 (Sunday). $pwyc/$10, all ages. [tickets + more info]

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Bandcamp corner:

• There have been a variety of various sonic experiments and presentations in the past while, but it's exciting to see a new song — portending a new album of same — from Lisa Conway.

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It happened this week...

• ...on August 28, 2010 at The Shop under Parts & Labour.

Little Girls - Youth Tunes

Procedure Club - Feel Sorry for Me

[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: Prince Innocence

Artist: Prince Innocence

Song: To My Right

Recorded at The Silver Dollar Room (NXNE 2012), June 16, 2012.

Prince Innocence - To My Right

My notes for this set can be found here.

Currente calamo: NXNE 2012 (Saturday)

NXNE 2012 (Saturday, June 16, 2012)

While these shows are fresh in my mind I want to get some quick notes down. I'm a nerd for not wanting to throw my full reviews out of sequence, so there'll be a fuller accounting of the night by and by that'll include even more details and recordings.

8 p.m.: Warm Myth @ The Garrison

After a busy day of rock'n'roll that included a boat cruise and some in-store action, I headed over to The Garrison. Rumour had it that there was some sort of show going on at Yonge-Dundas Square, but that's not my scene. As the hour rolled around, I was content to be in what looked like an audience of three rather than a thousands-strong sardine can crush. And as the band held off, trying to get some technical glitches worked out, some friends and supporters trickled in so that there was at least a respectable handful around to see the live debut of Warm Myth.

Casey Mecija has played some solo shows in the past, but they were mostly a chance to workshop stripped-down versions of tunes bound for the next Ohbijou release. For this project, however, Mecija is working as much with sonics, crafting a different kind of music than what we've heard in the past. Her collaborator here is drummer Kieran Adams, most recently seen playing alongside Bonjay. In fact, his high-velocity work there came straight to mind at the start of this set, as his "In The Air Tonight"-style thumpitude was a bit at odds with Mecija's woozy synth track. That mismatch can be put down to the fact that the pair were very clearly still learning how this material works in a live setting (as well as the normal sonic gremlins in a set's first song as the tech gets everything in balance).

By second number "Working" (one of tunes featured on the band's soundcloud), that was reined in and there was a much more satisfying balance between the two players — all the more so as Mecija shuffled across the stage in the midst of a big, shred-y guitar part. Warm Myth is assuredly atmospheric, but that doesn't mean it's sedate.

The process isn't smooth and instinctive yet, and one song had to get a re-start (a "character-building moment," as Mecija called it), but there are some very interesting seeds here. Instead of some of more stereotypical hallmarks of the "electronic side-project", it sounds as if Mecija's sonic sculpting is aimed towards shaping new kinds of songs, and the quick set here really implies this'll be worth keeping an eye on.

Listen to a track from this set here.

9 p.m.: Sean Nicholas Savage @ The Garrison

When I realized how long it had been since I'd seen Sean Nicholas Savage perform, I figured I'd better stick to see what he was up to. Given how quick Savage's artistic drive has propelled him from style to style, I figured there might be something else going on besides the solo disco crooner I'd encountered in the past. And indeed, he was now accompanied by a bassist (with amazing pants) who also handled the laptop, MPC and so forth controlling the backing tracks. That left Savage, who took the stage in a long red dress and a leer, to play guitar and sing.

His current set is less of an upfront dance party than I recall, trading that in for a more measured — almost limpid — style. It brought to mind some of the soulful British indie soul-pop bands of the '80's — a gentle sort of sound that encourages swaying more than boogieing. For whatever reason, this was coming out particularly quiet in the Garrison's PA, and even the slight bit of chatter in the room was getting competitive with the music. But still, glad I updated myself on Savage's present live set up. His release schedule has slowed down from last year's torrid pace, but it's evident that he's still got ideas to spare — and a wild-eyed stage presence, regardless of what genre he's working in.

11 p.m.: Shellshag @ El Mocambo

Given the complete unreliability of pretty much every surface transit route on this crazy night, I decided a nice walk would be in order and ended up simply hiking over to College and Spadina. Stepped in to a nearly-empty El Mo with enough time to catch the last couple songs from Our Brother The Native, part of Eric Warner's We Are Busybodies showcase. Their bearded, textured rock was pleasing enough but didn't make me sad that I hadn't arrived sooner.

In any event, I was on hand for another helping of Shellshag, who had completely charmed and beguiled me the previous afternoon. To some extent, I was hoping that lightning would strike twice, but I was also curious to watch the band with a bit more detachment, and see what I could figure out about the craft behind their casual-looking approach. Of course, as soon as their "pyramid of sound" on the stage lit up, I was all smiles once again and most attempts at analysis went straight out the window.

Shellshag's songs, though wrapped in an off-kilter Mo Tucker thump and roaring guitar, are often sweetly romantic at their core — "face to face / kiss me", Shell sang in the first one, and indeed they were standing face to face across their customized microphone setup.¹ At first, I was one of the only ones standing up front and playing attention to the band, but it only took a few minutes for a few more people to start moving up — and after another song a couple beside me started dancing.

So it was interesting to see which of the spontaneous-looking gestures are, in fact, rehearsed rituals, but in the end, it didn't matter too much. There's simply some alchemical element in the pair's raw sound that just works for me — and as I made my way through the length of the now-filling room at the end, I was rather pleased to hear more than one conversation breaking out about how awesome the band were.

The band was partially in town to celebrate the release of a new 7" on We Are Busy Bodies, so hopefully that relationship indicates that they'll make it back this way sooner rather than later.

Midnite: Prince Innocence @ The Silver Dollar Room

After that, I headed across the street from one venue that was suddenly getting full (with people streaming in to see the Limblifter reunion) to another. There was a lineup sprawling out along the sidewalk in front of the Dollar — a sign that Prince Innocence has some considerable draw already. The crowd that faced them as they took the stage indicated that the lineup wasn't just for the night's headliners, either. Looking around me, I was amused to note that this was not a typical Silver Dollar crowd of grimy rock'n'roll lovers — they were a lot of club-going types who looked like they were slumming it here. There were people chasing buzz.

This project sees Josh McIntyre put aside Little Girls' reverb-laced postpunk in favour of a dancefloor-friendly minimal synth sound. With him staying put behind the gear, Talvi Faustmann is the face and voice of the band.

In one sense, I could comprehend it if some were cynical about this new project: after all, they were doing fashion spreads before hardly anyone had heard a lick of their music. On the other hand, McIntyre seems to know a thing or two about riding the mercurial waves of hype, and seems to be someone who is willing to deal with le fast-thinking of the modern world as a means to get his art out there, but backs that up with substantive work to justify the glare.

The downside of this sort of hype-driven bubble of attention is that is encourages the sort of short-term thinking that does the artists a disservice. To be honest, to me this felt like a work-in-progress for a project still finding its voice and looking for its strengths. Certainly as a live unit, this is not all the way there yet. Even limited to keyboard and laptop (and some live percussion flourishes), McIntyre looks pretty in control of things on stage; as a live vocalist, Faustmann is less solid. Whether it was big-crowd jitters or lousy festival monitors, she couldn't quite nail her parts for the first couple songs. Some of this will work itself out with more shows, and I suspect that future material might position itself a bit more sympathetically in her range. (In the early going, one point of comparison that came to mind is Austra, and it served as an indirect reminder of Katie Stelmanis' advanced technical abilities in the use of her voice.)

The best sign was that Faustmann's strongest vocal performance came on the pair's newest song, one that had been written earlier in the week. And as I said: I'm not particularly rushing to judgment here — I want to wait and see how Faustmann is doing six months or a year from now. By that time, she might also have a bit more of a grip on her stage persona as well — she gave good ice queen during the songs, but then dropped it and let the spell break in between.

Listen to a track from this set here.

1 a.m.: Bleached @ The Silver Dollar Room

There was a bit of a crowd turnover after that, and it actually felt a bit less packed as L.A.'s Bleached took the stage to close out their three-night headlining stand. As always, this was a perceptive choice from booker Dan Burke, grabbing a band that's definitely on the way up. Even with only a couple singles to their name, the band managed to attract some attention — some of it for Jennifer and Jessica Clavin's past work in Mika Miko, but probably just as much for their of-the-moment girl group gone Gun Club sound.

Live, the sisters (both play guitar and sing, though Jennifer is more of the frontwoman and Jessica the lead guitarist) are backed by a no-fuss rhythm section to power their sugar-sweet buzzsaw bursts. It's simple — and not inexact — to want to situate the band in a continuum with, say, Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls, especially the rawer, earlier incarnations of both. At this juncture, Bleached hews closer to punk than either — it's no accident that their setlist included Ramones and Misfits covers. Although that also drew attention to their as-yet limited storehouse of material, as even with those, the band played for barely twenty-five minutes. But what they did play was excellent, and definitely enough to make me into a fan.

Listen to a track from this set here.

1 a.m.: Automelodi @ The Silver Dollar Room

I knew nothing going in about Montréal's Automelodi, and was mostly sticking around waiting for the next set, but they turned out to be a very engaging surprise. There was a stage full of keyboards (and a vertical rack of hexagonal drumpads) for songwriter/producer/vocalist Arnaud Lazlaud to work with — he moved pretty fluidly around the stage, sometimes hunched over a synthesizer, sometimes shaking a tambourine and flipping it against the drumpad. He was backed by Simon Yupiktake on synths and guitar to combine for an icy, uncluttered musical approach. There was a continental 80's minimal wave here, though I know less about that stuff than the poppier material it inspired, and there was traces of that in the mix as well.

I think the band's success can be seen in a couple ways here — first and foremost, it made me want to dance, something that definitely doesn't happen with all "dance" music. And second, it was having the same effect on an interesting coalition surrounding me on the dancefloor, with goths and punks getting equally down. The songs' structures encouraged that, with the best moments coming during the long instrumental passages. Lazlaud had some presence as a vocalist, but some of the more portentous, nearly-spoken interludes were less compelling. This is the sort of material that falls outside of my musical sweet spot, so it was nice to feel a little swept up in it — and now I'll keep an eye out for this band.

2 a.m.: Kontravoid @ The Silver Dollar Doom

I was sticking around for the last set to check out the mysterious Kontravoid, who had been given a high recommendation by a couple sources. My energy waning by this point, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to make it, especially as gear adjustments kept the set from starting anywhere near on time. It was nearly twenty past when the lights went out and Cam Findlay began to play. Only a strobe light running in sync to the beat cut into the darkness, revealing quick slices of Findlay behind his stack of analogue keyboards and electronics.

If you were to guess his career based on the glimpses of moustache and leather gloves, "'80's hit man" might come to mind, and there was indeed a sense of menace behind the tunes. Musically, I could sense an affinity with the likes of Crystal Castles and Trust, both bands with which Findlay has played as a drummer. But his own stuff has more of a menacing minimal throb, making it feel like the aggressive, macho top to Trust's wan, conflicted bottom.

Sonically absorbing stuff. Even if there's not much of a stage show, the punch of the music made it feel like a vital live experience. Giving me enough of an energy boost to make it through the evening, I'm looking forward to hearing more of this.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ As if they're all part of one grand narrative, the songs are also quite often self-referential, with ad-libbed lines tossed in to embellish the story of Shellshag. "Do you remember when we played Sneaky Dee's?" asked Shell in one song — and I did, smiling to myself.

Festival: Wavelength 515 (Night 4)

ELEVEN! Festival (Wavelength 515 – night 4) (feat. Grimes / Eric Chenaux Electric Trio / Little Girls / Maylee Todd / Hooded Fang)

The Great Hall. Saturday, February 19, 2011.

The Friday-night action for the Wavelength Festival moved to the expansive semi-grandeur of The Great Hall, with its high ceiling and the unoccupied horseshoe-shaped balcony above the floor, as well as the large stage made all the more theatrical by the large arch above it. It's a decent room when the vibe is right, but it's also a space that can feel extra-desolate with a small crowd and extra-packed with a full house. It also has perhaps the worst bathrooms for a venue of its size in the city.

As the early crowd for a five-band bill filtered in, host Doc Pickles took the stage to greet them. Someone must have mentioned to him beforehand to push the merch, as his monologues were peppered with the slightly awkward pitches of a self-hating consumerist. He was more in his natural habitat in relating a fable about a lazy bear and an industrious beaver.

Once all the gear was ready to go, the stage was given over to Grimes, bandonym of Montréal-based Claire Boucher. Although she started with a slightly ominous warning ("I'm very sick, so I can't sing. And I'm going to try some new stuff that's maybe risky right now.") she actually sounded to be in good voice, but was looking a little rough. Creating slightly-unorthodox one-woman dancescapes, Boucher has moved quickly from the more found-sound bricolage of her debut full-length (the Dune-Referencing Geidi Primes¹) and follow-up Halfaxa to Darkbloom (a split album with d'Eon), which has more of a beat-driven vibe. That was palpable on opener "Crystal Ball" with dancey beats underneath a synth set on harp-like sounds and gauzey layers of vocals.

Boucher sometimes used her vocals as a textural tool, though in some songs they were unsmooshed enough to regain comprehensibility. All of which is to say that though she had built her musical style from the ground up, it does sound like she's heading for a sort of convergence with the tradition she's working in on stuff like the dancefloor-ready "Vanessa". The songs had a propensity to stretch out, so there were only five in her half-hour set, which ended with a new one — Boucher didn't express a lot of confidence in her ability to play it, and indeed it did falter a bit.

Keeping her hands busy with keyboard and electronics, Boucher didn't have much of a stage presentation. And perhaps it had something to do with her feeling unwell, but some of the songs felt a bit de-energized. There were encouraging signs throughout the set, but I didn't find it completely compelling. But given the speed of her musical development, Boucher is well worth watching, and as what was originally a prototypical bedroom recording project spends more time on the road I'm sure she'll project herself more forcefully on stage.

Listen to a track from this set here.

A deliciously Wavelength-esque left turn after that with the Eric Chenaux Electric Trio taking the stage next. It was, in fact, a quartet on this night with Chenaux's amazingly nimble guitar work backed by Nick Fraser (drums) and Rob Clutton (bass), as well as percussionist Blake Howard. Although these might not be household names to those with a strict rock'n'roll mindset, this is very much an all-star combo of artists working at the intersection of folk-inspired singer-songwriter composition and free-ranging improvisation — the sort of fusion fostered in places like The Tranzac.

Putting all those elements into play right from the start, the set led off with "Put In Music This Ballad For Me", a re-assembly of fourteenth century ballad "Notes pour moi". If I had to describe Chenaux's style I might label it "avant wah", given his propensity for creating complicated guitar lines sent down a snaky path by his pedals, but generally staying in sight of a clear melodic line. That mindful waywardness made Clutton a good musical counterpoint — he was high and clear in the mix, but playing clean, uncluttered basslines. That was followed by "Amazing Backgrounds", another song which had originally appeared on Love Don't Change, his collaborative album with Michelle McAdorey. Eschewing any selections from the recent Warm Weather album, the set hewed closer to Dull Lights, his album from '06, with the inclusion of the title track and "Worm and Gear".

It was interesting to watch the division of labour between Fraser and Howard — they actually had about one drumkit between them. Howard was doing more of the accents and "percussion" work, with shakers and congas, but he also had the bass drum. Both of them played a lot with eyes closed, feeling out the groove — and it's the groove here that really got the songs over. When the band eased off for "Dull Lights", which was more quiet and abstract, the audience was less into it — and me as well, a little. But while it was cooking, it was great stuff.

Even when it was really cookin', there was still a mellow undercurrent to the music — appropriate, perhaps, to an all-seated ensemble. The songs were played in a manner allowing them to gently unfurl, giving the musicians time explore the ways they could weave their lines together. That peaked in the nine minutes given over to closer "Love Don't Change".² Quite fabulous stuff.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Then another extended intro from Doc Pickles, this time singing a jaunty improvised tune while Little Girls dealt with a recalcitrant laptop. Once it was up and running, it provided ever-melding visual effects on the screen behind them. The background images turned out to be geometric vector-y graphics interspersed with stock footage. The images flowed into each other just like the band's songs, which ebbed and segued with looped guitar noise and occasional muttered greetings from guitarist/vocalist Josh McIntyre.

Given that the previous couple times I had seen Little Girls had been in the lo-fi confines of The Shop, I was curious to see what a bigger sound system would do for what I had found to be a muddled sound. As it would turn out, though this was the most-nuanced I'd ever heard the band, they're still pretty murky by design, with McIntyre's vocals usually reverbed to incomprehensibility. But the sound was also beefed up, with the band now sporting a synth-ier edge, mostly as simmering texture, another ingredient in their simmering Joy Division-y brew. Many of the songs came and went in two-minute-ish bursts, and though there's been some evolution, there's a lot of continuity between older stuff like "Youth Tunes" and newer songs like "White Night" and "Ex". Those would subsequently make their way onto the new Cults EP (on Hand Drawn Dracula), which similarly continues and torques their earlier sound.

Maylee Todd can perform in explosive funk mode as well as being a harp-weiding balladeer, but she always beings a sense of adventure to the stage. That dramatic flair was in evidence as she took the stage wearing something that resembled kimono pajamas, leading a five-piece backing band sporting plenty facepaint all around. The set started off in quieter mode, playing a slow song that still managed to swing, Todd's harp complemented by Andrew Scott's gurgling analog keyb sounds. That gave the first part of the set a cast that, while undoubtedly beautiful, had less Saturday night oomph than one might have expected. Mixing songs from the fine Choose Your Own Adventure with some newer stuff, things started to ramp up with "Hooked", featuring Hooded Fang's Lane Halley and Julia Barnes stepping on stage to dance along as well as add a burst of horns.

Todd's greatest strength (besides a powerful voice) is her fearless gregariousness on stage, never afraid to get a little goofy. Or, in the case of an extended percussion groove preceding "Summer Sounds", to get a little physical, throwing down like she used to in her aerobic sock-hop events. A mini-segment at the centre of the set substituted soulful intensity for pure groove, with excellent results, including a new slowburner called "I Tried", plus another with a chorus of "everybody needs a mouth to mouth".³

Any worries of a groove shortage were put to bed in the final part of the set, with a cooking "Aerobics in Space" (including an appearance by band's namesake Pegwee, a creature of indeterminate origin that looks somewhat like a giant oven mitt) and "Haven't You Heard", a Patrice Rushen cover where Todd jumped down to the floor to sing, creating a giant circle in the middle of the dancefloor around her as she invited people to step out for a Soul Train-style dancing breakout.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Closing out the night, Hooded Fang stretched out seven wide across the stage. Starting off, there were nimble versions of "Highway Steam" and "Green River", staples from their debut Album. There was also a slightly haphazard run through "Promise Land", but perhaps the band was just gearing up for the sonic approach of the new songs.

Although it wasn't entirely clear at the time, this was essentially the pivot point closing the Album era and inaugurating Tosta Mista, as the band gave the crowd a first shot at hearing some of the new songs, starting with the new wave frenzy of "Jubb". That sound would come as a shocker for many in the audience, but for anyone who had witnessed singer/guitarist Daniel Lee's other work in Hut, this would seem of a piece. For me, the most surprising element would be how much of that he brought to Hooded Fang. "Brahma" cut the difference between old and new a bit more, with room for the horns before the slow-dance awesomeness of "Den of Love".

Tom McCammon boosted the horn section for "Laughing" and the band closed out the main set with "Love Song". They returned for a couple more, closing the night out back at the beginning of their oeuvre with "Land of Giants" from their initial EP.

There are other options than, say, Wavelength. But I admit I'm partial to an event where you can see someone like Maylee Todd rock an incredible set up on stage, and then look over beside you when the next band is playing and see her dancing and snapping pictures like everyone else in the crowd. "Probably the best thing ever to happen to Toronto," said Daniel Lee.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ This one is still available as a free download from Arbutus Records, which is doing some fine work out in Montréal.

² Like several songs in his discography, this is one that Chenaux has recorded twice, revisiting it on 2008's Sloppy Ground after first essaying it on the album that bears its name.

³ Update: We now know that this song is Maylee's new single "Hieroglyphics", which you can grab as a free download here.

Recording: Little Girls

Artist: Little Girls

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Shop under Parts & Labour, January 12, 2011.

Little Girls - unknown

My notes from this set can be found here.

Gig: Frankie Rose and The Outs

Frankie Rose and The Outs (Little Girls)

The Shop under Parts & Labour. Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

Wickedly cold out after a big snowfall, the last thing I wanted to do on a Wednesday night was head out to Parkdale. My vaguely grumbly mood going in wasn't helped by the fact that the show was starting pretty late for a weeknight, with sets slated for 11:30 and 12:30. So there were some things set against it from the get-go, but at least I was warm as I descended into The Shop's basement space. A laptop DJ played a mix of girl group and similarly retro sounds to set the mood as the place filled up and I looked at my watch, hoping that things would go on relatively on time.

Openers Little Girls, no strangers to playing at The Shop, were having a bit of a tough time getting through a linecheck so the start was indeed pushed back a little. Although it was actually rather instructive to pay attention to Josh McIntyre and company as they prepared — the band's preferred sonic palate is so muffled that someone might mistake their preferred deliberate tweaks for an accidental mess. Once things got underway, the band seemed a bit more prepared to stretch things out and glide along compared to the last time I saw 'em. That had been recent enough that most of the changes in the set were little things — the vocals were higher in the mix, for example. That doesn't mean they're comprehensible, mind you, so much as an echo-y muddle. But definitely a louder one.

Also, as more time goes by, this feels more like a band and less like the bedroom recording project it started as. McIntyre's fellow guitarist¹ is making increasingly key contributions both instrumentally and with his vocals. Again, you have to watch them a little to see just what's going on — given how much echo there is on everything, different voices and guitar lines sometimes bleed and melt into each other. Enjoyable stuff, and I would note that the band is continuing to evolve from what I'd seen here, with McIntyre taking an increased interest in a keyboard-driven sound.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Outside of the vague/wide net of "reverb-heavy pop", there wasn't a lot to align the openers musically with Frankie Rose and The Outs. The band is something of a pedant's dream with all the connections and comparisons that can be drawn out. Frankie Rose's project tends to get lumped in with, say, Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls for narrow stylistic reasons (as well as lazy gender ones). And Rose's past membership in Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts are easy pointers, too. The scuzzier elements of her sound do link her solo material with the latter bands — and there's a bit of Golden Triangle in there, too. But on record the traces of sonic murk ultimately are subsumed by the pure, sunny AM-radio popcraft of Rose's songs.

Live, with Rose plus a second guit backed by a rhythm section, there's understandably a bit more rock'n'lurch, but there's also an "implied" element of restraint to the songs, like opener "Save Me" (the last track on their self-titled album) which was delivered in an agreeably languid style, the band not in too much of a rush. That mostly worked, but there were a few points where I was kinda waiting for the music to shift up to the next gear, which didn't always happen. Rose did tear into bubblegum anthem "Candy" with some gusto, mind you.

Rose was also in an upbeat mood on stage, praising crowd and venue and even returning a lost wallet that she'd found in the bathroom. Acknowledging the enthusiastic vibe amongst the crowd, the set hit most of the upbeat points of the band's self-titled album, wisely not slowing things down too much with some of the album's quieter moments. There was also a new song or two in there as well.

It was a satisfying set, but not mind-blowing. All told, there wasn't anything here that improved on the album versions. I suppose my reaction is coloured by the fact that this was not my favourite crowd ever. More than a little yappy, there were a lot of people who apparently wanted to come stand right up front and get caught up on their gossip with friends. And during the bouncy "Girlfriend Island", a guy near me started yelling at the woman beside him — though he was later bounced, so was a bit more amped-up than the crowd at large. Still, in a place like Parts & Labour, where you can only really see the band if you're right in front of them, you'd think you'd be able to hear 'em there as well, too.

Listen to a track from this set here.

If you noticed that the pictures here are way better-looking than they normally are in these parts, that's because I've borrowed a few shots with the kind permission of Ivy Leah. Ivy captures the passion of bands because she's passionate about them as well — and can be found right up in the thick of it at many of the city's finer no-bullshit rock'n'roll shows. Check out her stuff here.

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¹ I'm having trouble finding a reputable source for the band's current and relatively stable lineup — even the band's wikipedia entry lists two different lineups.

Recording: Little Girls

Artist: Little Girls

Song: Youth Tunes

Recorded at The Shop under Parts & Labour, August 28, 2010.

Little Girls - Youth Tunes

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Bishop Morocco

Bishop Morocco (Procedure Club / Little Girls)

The Shop under Parts & Labour. Saturday, August 28, 2010.

"Due to the nature of lemon-flavoured rum," as my notes indicate, my memories of this night are a little fragmented. A delightful summer evening of backyard hanging out and barbeque had me sipping beverages since late afternoon, so I was pretty wobbly by the time I headed off to the gig. Which put me in a hyper-observant and obsessively documentary frame of mind. My notepad has page after page of observations from this night — a good chunk of them from before I even got to the gig, as I was apparently trying to tease out mystical signifiers on the Lansdowne bus ("this is the holy route into Parkdale") and considering the virtues of "fake mental text messages" (?!). Unsurprisingly, of course, even when my scribbles were legible, it was mostly drunken woo-hah.¹

Though I was slow in getting down to Parts & Labour, I had the drunkard's serene egotistical belief that they wouldn't start without me, and as I stepped in I indeed had time to grab a drink — oops — as Little Girls finished setting up. It'd been awhile since I'd seen Josh McIntyre's combo — in fact, all the way back to their fourth show, just as the project was transforming from bedroom-based recording project to buzz band. As that bubble of hype was waxed and waned, there's been the full-length Concepts and a pretty regular slate of local shows. And, beyond the momentary flash of hype, some genuine forward movement.

Live, the quartet created a murky, underwater sort of vibe. After an opening instrumental, the remaining songs featured McIntyre's deeply buried vocals mired in layers of reverb, sometimes sounding like they might belong in a slower song entirely than the rest of the surrounding band. Generally speaking, the music was spiky two-guitar stuff. There were some points where the guitars got muddled like the vocals, but there was still room for the band to get catchy on songs like the jaunty "Youth Tunes". It all created a somewhat dissociating vibe ("this is happening," my notebook reads, as if I was trying to reassure myself) but there was a more consistent sound than I remember, and some moments where it all blurred together rather deliciously.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Slotted in the middle was the band that I had come down to see: Procedure Club, a two-piece out of New Haven, Connecticut with Adam Malec on guitar and Andrea Belair on keybs and vocals, with the drum machine sitting on a stool beside her. I'd rather enjoyed their Doomed Forever album² on Slumberland — one of the best labels going right now. With their hazy bedroom pop offering flashes of Black Tambourine via the Jesus and Mary Chain, Procedure Club fit well on the Slumberland roster, and I definitely wanted to show my support on their first visit to these parts, even if I was vaguely worried about how the lo-fi duo were going to pull it off as a live unit.

As they got going, the potential frailties of their setup were evident, but more than overwhelmed by the pop sensibility behind it all. The songs were generally built up from a steady drum machine beat, rhythm guitar and fuzzy keyboards which sometimes sounded like there was a loose connection somewhere, with Belair's vocals tying it all together, even when they were the lowest thing in the mix.

It was a largely stripped-down sound — a bit too so much at times — though the economic virtues of not adding any extra hands to tour with are pretty clear. It did make it a little harder for the pair to break through to a non-rapt, semi-chatty room but I was taken with the uncluttered sound. Songs sometimes came off a bit more straightahead than on the album versions, as on "Feel Sorry for Me" with one less layer of haze to draw attention away from the popnugget underneath. That didn't always work as well — the ridiculously wonderful "Rather", slowed down from its album incarnation, didn't quite capture the magic.³

If there's a criticism to be made here it's that the songs are sometimes a little indistinguishable. But I really love the sound so that doesn't matter so much to me. And there is a bit of a limit to what two people and a drum machine can replicate live. But if you thought labelmates Pains of Being Pure at Heart were getting too commercial, this is a band worth checking out.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Having gotten what I came for, seeing the night's actual headliners was just gravy, although I was curious to see Bishop Morocco — mostly to see what kind of musical common ground had been negotiated between the band's two principles. A partnership between Jake Fairley (ex-Uncut, though also with some solo work to his name — most notably his big beat album Touch Not the Cat⁴) and Jim Sayce (ex-Deadly Snakes as well as co-founder of the late Tangiers), long-time friends whose music to date has not been particularly overlapping.

The upshot of their collaboration was something that initially sounded closer to what I would have expected from Fairley, inasmuch as there was a synth-y sensibility to the whole thing with beats a few steps closer to the dancefloor than the garage. Along those lines, the first song featured atmospheric synths over a metronome drum machine beat. The tempo picked up after that, but the material was still synth-heavy in a dark disco kind of mode — my overall first impression was that for them "Last Year's Disco Guitars" wasn't just a song title so much as a statement of purpose.

Starting as more of a studio project, the pair played everything themselves on the tracks that'd become their self-titled album, but live have grown into a four-piece. Even then, it wasn't until a half-dozen songs in that the drummer joined the fray, which added a bit more of a "rock" sound — though at a few places that was rock in the manner that, oh, New Order was rock. Sayce and Fairley traded off vocals from song to song, but there was a unified underlying vision.

Ultimately, the vibe was plastic permagrim, and it was okay to listen to, but nothing in the set really reached out and grabbed me. Mind you, I'm not sure if the muffled sound they were getting here helped. And, to be sure, I was sobering up by this point — my notes by this point are more focused on the vast number of pedals in the band's employ than in the deeper meaning of what they were doing — so that might have something to do with their music affecting me differently than the preceding bands.

They played an eleven song, forty-minute set which pretty much represented their entire output so far. I wasn't won over, but I wouldn't say I was turned off. If we manage to cross paths again, I'd give 'em another go.

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¹ Perhaps all-too-aptly, I made some breathless notes about being on the verge of aphasia, though in retrospect I'm really sure I meant synesthesia.

² You can download two of the best songs from the album over at Slumberland's website.

³ I don't know whether to be sad or relieved that the band didn't attempt "Seventh Circle of Hell", another of my faves, which sounds like the work of someone attempting to write an ABBA song where their only point of reference was a slightly warped cassette copy of The 6ths' Wasps' Nests album.

⁴ I note that Fairley was a couple years ahead of the curve in the indie rock cat sweepstakes.

Recording: Little Girls

Artist: Little Girls

Song: What We Did

Recorded live at The Horseshoe Tavern, May 8, 2009.

Little Girls - What We Did

My notes for this show are here.

Gig: Vivian Girls / Crystal Antlers / Little Girls

Vivian Girls / Crystal Antlers / Little Girls

The Horseshoe. Friday, May 8, 2009.

Once again, headed down to the 'Shoe after the night's last Hot Doc screening. Made it in time to see the openers, local crew Little Girls, already drawing some attention even though this was merely their fourth gig. It's presumably a lack of material, then, that kept their set to a tidy seven songs in twenty minutes. What they did play was generally proficient, and showed off some potential. Their sound is perhaps not yet fully integrated, at the outset sounding like a certain sub-subgenre of mid-'90's bands playing distorted variations on Superchunk (Banned From Atlantis was the first name that came to mind, though that's arguably not a widely useful referent). Things shifted a bit when frontman Josh McIntyre set down his guitar, leaving a slightly sparer mix on a couple tunes that worked from a Joy Division template. McIntyre's yelpy vox were occasionally a bit buried in the mix, but it sounds like the band has a notion on how to construct a decent song. Worth seeing again, just to see how this develops.

Listen to a song from this set here.

Next up were Crystal Antlers, with whom I was not too familiar, having backed a different horse in the Great Crystal Band Race of '08.¹ The band came out six deep, organ and percussion augmenting the dual guit/bass/drums backbone. The org and perc at the edges of the stage served to create an interesting push/pull tension to the band's whirling, slightly psychedelicized sound, with the former integrating and smoothing things out and the latter adding an extra layer of frenzy. The real wildcard on top of it all was Jonny Bell's throat-shredding vox. All of it taken together gave the band its own unique sort of sound: "Trans Am playing Led Zeppelin," a guy beside me shouted to his buddy.² The band's early momentum was nearly stopped when Bell broke a bass string a couple songs in³, but a quick substitution was effected thanks to some timely intervention from the headliners, and the band covered with some instro-noodling while Bell tuned up and things moved along. I can't say the whole thing converted me, but the set was generally entertaining with some pretty good moments, including a final selection that actually rocked in a fairly convincingly menacing way.

A quick turnover for the Vivian Girls was negated by sound problems and a wayward instrument cable, which left the band standing around on the stage for ten-plus minutes before getting going, leading to some carping from the crowd — when some dick shouted "play a song already," the band lashed back like one of the tough girl-gangs they've based themselves on, Katy coolly uttering a quick "Hey, fuck you — why don't you come up here", while Cassie added "yeah, you play a song... asshole." Point to the band.

Once everything was set, they launched into a feisty "All The Time", and kept things going for forty-five minutes. I was curious to see what kind of chops the band had built up with some steady touring since they'd been in these parts at Fucked Up's Hallowe'en gig, when they were stuck with borrowed instruments and were fighting against broken strings and other problems. All things told, watching the band still feels like watching a tightrope act, as they occasionally teeter over the edge of shambolic recklessness. At the same time, there is more confidence here, and the band is even stretching out a bit. As Ali Koehler leaned into her kit, hunched over while pounding out the backbeat, Kickball Katy remained steady on bass, leaving room for Cassie Ramone's guit, including a few more solos this time round.

The room was not particularly full, giving a bit of elbow room which was fortunate for those standing near one Max Headroom-ish fellow who decided to start up a one-man pogo dancing party, lurching all over people's private space. His incursions somehow ended up with him getting a drink poured down his collar, which led to some shouting and shoving, but ultimately cooler heads prevailed. Meanwhile, the band was mixing up material from their album with cuts from their singles and some slated for the next long player. My impression was that things moved quickly from sounding together to being a bit off, and then back again — a bit of a wayward set overall. It's tough to get just that right level of things almost falling apart without things actually falling apart a bit now and then — this is the tension that both elevates Vivian Girls and threatens to undermine them completely. It remains to be seen how they navigate this as they grow in experience and confidence.

Still, they're fun to watch, and are putting on an entertaining show, banging their tambourines on their guitar necks and inviting the crowd along to the after party to hear them DJ. They ended with a lengthy instrumental jam, wherein the band all swapped instruments in mid-stream — Katy taking over the drums without missing a beat, Cassie picking up the bass, and Ali using her beer bottle as a slide on the guitar between swigs. It seems like this crew have more tricks up their sleeves, so I'm willing to stick around to see if they can take all of their compelling elements and consolidate them into a solid set firing on all cylinders.

Listen to a song from this set here.

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¹ Crystal Stilts, for the record, which has caused no end to the rancour with J., with me at the gig, who is a Crystal Castles man.

² I'm not sure I'm 100% behind this assessment, but it saves me from having to come up with my own "X covering Y" comparison.

³ And the E string at that — you don't see that happen very often.