CMW Film Fest Day 2: Feeling good, Feeling weird

I arrived at TIFF Bell Lightbox Saturday morning pumped for a full day of movie watching ahead of me, although I must admit I wasn’t on my a game going into day two of the CMW Film Fest. While Chris, Cassie and Jerry go to shows all night, dance around, then sleep in, I was up early to sit in a dark theater all day.

Of all the movies I saw on Saturday there are two that really stand out for me. The first was the Julien Temple documentary about the 1970s English rock band Dr.Feelgood called Oil City Confidential. Julien Temple is…

CMW Day 2: Strangers, Surprises and Old Friends – The Sadies, Sammy Hagar, Gabby Young & Maylee Todd

Canadian Music Week on Friday night led to many unexpected twists, turns, and surprise special guests. Including The Sadies with Ron Sexsmith, and Bachman and Turner with Sammy Hagar and Gabby Young. It was a strange kind of dreamy night where wandering around could lead to anything. Many of the new “independent” bands and performers we saw were also having the time of their life and were really fun to watch. This is what happened

CMW Day 2: Pure Amazement – Alcoholic Faith Mission, Racoon Bandit, Whale Tooth and more

Picking a band is like picking a book it’s all about the name. Don’t judge a book by its cover they say. Don’t judge anything. Judging is bad (or really just part of human nature). We all judge things. We have our opinions, whether you voice it or not, you have thoughts floating around in your mind like cheerios in milk at breakfast. Day two was ultimately amazing (the music gods must have heard my plea for greatness). My adventure started off at the Analogue Gallery. The gallery was lined wall-to-wall…

CMW Film Fest Day 1: Losers, Mods and Rock Stars

As Jerry has already mentioned in his CMW preview, it was not easy for FTB to leave Montreal Thursday morning. We had the best intentions of getting out of town as early as possible, and while we were in the car and ready to go at a reasonable hour, the goddamn snow refused to let us leave the city that morning. Tired and frustrated when we arrived in Toronto, the bad vibe had me really down on the whole CMW experience. Thankfully, that quickly changed…

CMW Day 1: Bored? Try moving your arm dude – Still Life Still @ Horseshoe Tavern

Still Life Still played at the Horseshoe Tavern last night for a packed audience. Having read back in August that they were eyed as one of the 10 bands to break through in 2010 I was expecting more. Their sound was on par, they played good songs, some guy in the front was trying to hump his girlfriend (which I’m assuming is code for Still Life Still is our sex music), and they did what they were supposed to do – stroke their instruments and sing into a mic. Cool, I get it, that’s their thing…but a little more life would have been fun. I guess they’re really trying to stick to their name’s meaning…

CMW Day 1: Endast and Barr Brothers

Toronto is rocking with music and I’m having a great time! The rain hasn’t let up, but anything’s better than the ice blizzard back home. At least I get plenty of great bands to look forward to. Here are a few bands that I got to see last night. Hopefully I will make it. With all this great stuff going on, getting pen to the page and writing is harder then is sounds. Let me tell you about some of the great shows I got to see last night…

CMW Preview: Jerry packs his bags, helps push a car and gets his ears ready for a musical feast!

So here we go, I’m packing my bags and getting ready to go to head out to Canadian Music Week in Toronto. Diary. Check. Pens and crayons. Check. Toothpaste. Black scribe gloves. Check. Sun glasses (because I wear my sunglasses in the dark). Check. Okay its 10 o’clock, ready to go. Wait a minute. This is Montreal, a city where it rains and snows simultaneously. So I sit for two hours waiting for the photographer (Chris Zacchia) and our movie reviewer (Stephanie Laughlin). It turns out they were stuck in an alleyway covered in three feet of snow…

Are you dating your music? – CMW bands we’re seeing pt.1

We’re going a trip – a music trip! Music trips are the best. Remember when Jim Morrison went on his crazy psychedelic desert music trip? Or that time you drove four hours to a music festival in the back of the woods and ended up lost for three days and woke up in a hammock with random, but awesome songs in your head? Oooooohhhh shit. Actually pretty sure I just watched The Doors biopic, read too much about the Burning Man Festival and went to Evolve. Plus, I hate camping and deserts, so good thing this music trip is in Canada’s largest city, Toronto (I’m all for the concrete jungles)…

Take a new music holiday: Canadian Music Week, March 9-13

Canadian Music Week (CMW) aka Canada’s biggest week of new music starts in two months. If you have ever planned an event, this is probably giving you anxiety right now. Two months is not a long time for organizers, but lucky for you, it gives you some minutes get your tickets and trip in order! So, get out your pen or start-up your virtual calendar because you’re taking a long weekend in March (really, it’s a music holiday).

This year CMW will be held from March 9 to 13 in Toronto. CMW brings together thousands of delegates from all over the planet. They hold numerous conferences, present awards, host shows of the trade and of course zillions of music performances, and some fun films. Here’s the numbers for Canadian Music Fest (the performance section): 800 artists and 55 venues over a five day span. It’s a music salad and you could be the fork.

CMW focuses on connecting the heard and unheard artists for one week to help share music of all genres with the Canadian public and the world…

Humming along to Imaginary Cities

The current emergence of bands comprised of two members, one female and one male has become an apparent trend in the world of music. As this trend continues to dominate there is one Canadian group who should be a mandatory playlist in your iTunes library in the coming year Imaginary Cities. Imaginary Cities hit the Canadian music scene full on last year. In May 2010, they opened for Young Galaxy at Toronto’s NXNE music festival, in October they released a preview 7″ and digital EP, Hummingbird, and in between those lines they also toured Canada with acts like Ra Ra Riot and the Rural Alberta Advantage. As I write this, they’re sharing their passion and talent with our friends across the ocean in Europe.

2010: The Year In Rants

It’s been a heck of a year. A lot has happened. Let me see.

In January I turned 34. I saw a pretty good metal show on my birthday. I began the year with high hopes and then ranted about ageing and cold medications. I was forced to get a credit card again. My human nature made me run up a larger bill then I should’ve allowed myself. I also got robbed and was frauded on my credit card for somebody’s kitchen renovations.

2010: The year of confusion – From Rob Ford to Burlesque, the year that made no sense

I must admit, I’m a bit confused. I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to write about here. It’s a year-in-review piece, so at least the time frame is solid, but the subject matter, hmm, that’s another story. You see, I don’t really have a clear beat. I started off 2010 as a theatre writer, but now that’s done by others and occasionally me, at least when it comes to burlesque shows (heh heh, but seriously, check out my reviews of Blood Ballet and Glam Gam). I do write about news and politics, even in this space, but I’m not the only one, so this can’t be a year in the news piece. I could write about the year it was for FTB. (and in fact I will, but that’s coming up New Year’s Eve, not here.) So I guess I’m just going to have to talk about the year in random things that caught my attention.

The Wrath of Grapes

The mouth of the great white north is at it again. Don Cherry seems to make headlines whenever he speaks, whether it’s practicing the gentle art of bigotry in front of a national audience on Coach’s Corner or speaking at the inauguration of the newly elected conservative Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford. In the past, Cherry has belittled Europeans and French Canadians and slammed the Canadian government for not supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Most recently he insulted anyone who rides a bicycle or takes public transportation to work, not mention every liberal in the country.

Not taking the 401 – a rant about Rob Ford

All of a sudden I’m glad that the move I wanted to make when I was four years old didn’t happen. At that time, for political and economic reasons, many of the friends I’d made and several relatives moved to Toronto. I had visited relatives who had recently moved there and thought this was some kind of magical place, somewhere far, far away that took a long time to get to. Another land and a better one in my tiny perspective. There were signs everywhere, like I’d never seen before. Signs on benches, signs on trees, signs on top of other signs! My wish didn’t come true then and as a result I took on my hometown of Montreal as my city. Don’t get me wrong, Toronto is an important, bustling metropolis that wouldn’t be half the city it is today if not for Bill 101 and the Parti-Quebecois chasing Anglophones and businesses out. Former Montreal institutions are now Toronto, institutions with no trace whatever left in Montreal.

Shit my mayor says Rob Ford’s victory in Toronto is sad but not surprising

Yup, that’s right, the Tea Party has come to power in Toronto. With the election of Limbaugh-esque (and not just for his appearance) loudmouth Rob Ford as the city’s mayor, Toronto has turned a page, actually a few pages, back in its evolution. If you thought his call to lynch the homeless was shocking, his thoughts on the rights of cyclists aren’t much better. Neither are his actual policies. He has very loudly proclaimed plans to curb the power of unions, privatize sanitation services and support tax breaks for the Bay Street clique while breaking the backs of those who work for them.

This just in: G20 most wanted list

The Toronto Police Department is scheduled to release a list today of ten people most wanted in connection with violence at the G20 Summit. We’ve obtained an advanced copy, so here are the top five: 1. Stephen Harper: Wanted for scheduling his photo-op in a city that didn’t want it and where he knew there would be trouble. He knew that he could use that trouble as an excuse to bring on violent police repression which would show the world and his opponents that he could and would do anything he wants, minority government and individual rights not withstanding. Yeah, he also spent more than a billion taxpayer dollars on this disaster.