BRAAAAAAP!! Tonight is the opening night of Kazoo! Fest, an annual event taking place in our favourite town in Southern Ontario. Guelph has a very supportive, community-oriented music scene with a long history, from bands like King Cobb Steelie, Black Cabbage, The Constantines, Royal City and Green Go to labels like Three Gut Records, artist-run centres such as Ed Video, festivals like Hillside and the Guelph Jazz Fest... and the Kazoo! music series. Started by some of the same people involved in the Polydactyl Hearts Collective, creators of Hello Adventure, Wavelength's recent — and award-winning! — co-presentation with the Images Festival, Kazoo! is more than just a monthly, curated concert series. They also published the Kazine! quarterly arts journal up until last summer, and since 2007, have been producing the annual Kazoo! Fest. Involving not just music but also visual arts, video screenings, a zine fair and a basketball tournament, Kazoo! Fest places the emphasis on good old-fashioned values like accessibility (no show is more than $15) and getting to know your neighbours. The festival's musical line-up is also 100% Canadian, with over 30 bands playing at 8 different venues ranging from a United church to a breakfast show in someone's house. There's some worth catching every day of the festival, so check out the schedule.

We're also excited for our little roadtrip tomorrow night, as Wavelength's 502nd yet first-ever out-of-town show takes place Thursday (April 22) at Ebar as part of Kazoo! Fest. We've asked some Wavelength faves to bring some Toronto flavour down that little stretch of the 401. In addition the bands, the roadshow will include General Chaos Visuals and his swirling psychedelic projections, the one and only Doc Pickles on emcee duties, and programmers Kevin, Ryan and myself along for the ride. It should be pretty heavy-duty night: first up are Soft Copy, who are long-time members of the Wavelength. Drummer Paul Boddum and singer/guitarist Andrew McAllister played WL #1 way back in 2000 as members of Neck, who recently reunited to play WL 500. Rounded out by bassist Wes Hodgson, this power trio just released their sophomore disc Vicious Modernism to widespread acclaim; sonically they wrap jagged post-punk riffage around a sweet pop centre. Check out their video for "Hot Cakes":

Next up are Brides, who have deep Guelph roots, but are now pretty entrenched in the Toronto art/noise/basement show scene. I first saw them at a Kazoo! series show at Ebar back in 2007, when they were just a duo comprised of Tamsen Fields and Elliott Jones. Now a bad-ass sextet driven by no-wave skronk and nihilistic shrug-itude, Brides can rip your face off (if they want to). They have a new 6 Nassau-recorded album in the can, which could come out some time between now and the end of time. And last up is Wavelength's First Couple and Anniversary House Band, Vice Records slayas and soul-metal muthas, the mighty Lullabye Arkestra. Start working on your devil horn salute and/or rock lock.