April
Wavelog
Take a Trip to the Bruce Peninsula
By kevin ~ Posted Friday, April 29th 2011
Many of you have probably heard but let's take another moment to thank the music gods that Bruce Peninsula frontman Neil Haverty has finished his rounds of chemotherapy and is now in remission. While Neil begins his recovery the band are busy bees as they prepare for the fall launch of one of 2011's most anticipated records, Open Flames, the follow up to Bruce Peninsula's debut LP A Mountain Is A Mouth.
With the record's release delayed and a tour cancelled due to Neil's illness this past winter it's great to see the rumblings of what's sure to be a triumphant return to the stage. As Neil and the band both build back up their strength they've relaunched their website, which is absolutely gorgeous, and have created the Bruce Trail Fire Sale. Every couple of weeks the band is posting videos, live recording sessions, b-sides and rare odds and ends from the past few years of their career. Posted already is a video for BP's cover of Loudon Wainwright III's Swimming Song and a live Daytrotter session.
Bruce Peninsula is powerful because of its many branches and the new website and Fire Sale is a great way to get to know the many leaves on the Bruce tree. Check out the fireflies at the top of their site and click on each and every one - there is much to love.
So head over to the Bruce Family Tree and click on everything but while you're here you might as well watch this video:
Bruce Peninsula - The Swimming Song from Bruce Peninsula on Vimeo.
Get your park on
By ryan ~ Posted Wednesday, April 27th 2011
A little more than a month ago we told you that Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) was approaching the public works committee with a proposal to create an overnight parking pass. Well, we've got good news.
The public works committee has approved an $8 overnight (24-hour) and a $12 weekend (48-hour) parking pass. That means bands coming through town for one night only can get a pas through the City of Toronto website and can spend the night without fear of waking up to a parking ticket. The measure just needs to be approved by council, which it is expected to do, and passes should be available by July 1st.
Slow Coasting
By kevin ~ Posted Monday, April 25th 2011
Last week local dub trio The Deeep posted a Prince Nifty remix of one of their tracks. This week they unleash a new reeemix by Myrrh, aka Matt Cully (of Bruce Peninsula and Eons).Check out Myrrh's rendition of The Deeep track Slow Coaster.
Shinier Diamonds
By kevin ~ Posted Friday, April 22nd 2011
Let's take another moment to congratulate Toronto's one-glam-band Diamond Rings on inking a new deal with megalabel Astralwerks, the home of such artists as Air, The B-52's, Fatboy Slim, Petshop Boys, Kraftwerk and others. Diamond Rings' current label Secret City will still handle the Canadian side of things while Astralwerks will re-release Mr. O'Regan's debut LP Special Affections this summer and help him quickly dominate the world. Go get 'em friend! Stay fierce!
You can follow Diamond Rings' sexy world takeover over at @stayfierce. And if you haven't watch this video yet for It's Not My Party, treat yourself now:
Smooth Breath
By kevin ~ Posted Thursday, April 21st 2011
Toronto's post-smooth fusion prince Thom Gill has a new tape out in the ether. For those who don't know Thom, you may recognize him from many '09/'10 Owen Pallett shows as the person on stage who was not Owen Pallett. Playing under the band moniker THOMAS, Thom's new solo tape is called Breath and can be found at Totally Disconnected for $5. Check out two songs over at the awesome Weird Canada. You can also hear more of THOMAS here. And check out this music video for a track from his first record released a few years ago:
A Nifty Deeep Remix
By kevin ~ Posted Wednesday, April 20th 2011
Instant Gratification After A Long Week Of Work
By kevin ~ Posted Wednesday, April 20th 2011
Speaking of Nifty business, that Prince has gone and done put up a free record for downloadin' onto your music machines. Instant Nifty Volumes 2 and 1 collect, yes, the first two volumes of Matt Smith's Instant series, in which he writes, records and releases an album in a week, basically while the rest of us are wasting our time sleeping or playing with phone apps.You can find the digital release here. But while you're here, check out a sampling:
Nifty recently received some good news so you can expect a Volume 3 and 4 and more in the near future. Though he may be a bit busy for awhile playing in his new/old band.
Go West of Zanzibar with Fucked Up
By jonny ~ Posted Friday, April 8th 2011
The anticipation is building for tomorrow night's World Premiere of Fucked Up performing their original live score to the classic 1928 Tod Browning silent film, West of Zanzibar. This historic occasion will mark Wavelength's sixth annual co-presentation with the Images Festival, as well as their Closing Night Gala. Eye Weekly went behind the scenes and visited the Polaris Prize-winning punk rockers at their practice space to take a sneak peek at their creative process.
This very special screening / performance will be taking place at Toronto Underground Cinema (on Spadina between Dundas and Queen) and the evening will kick off promptly at 8pm with a big-screen showing of Luminations, the debut DVD by Wavelength's own in-house projection artists, General Chaos Visuals. After 11 years of providing his inimitable psychedelic visuals for thousands of performances at Wavelength, The Ambient Ping, Optical Sounds and numerous other live shows, GCV's Stephen Lindsey is finally getting the attention he deserves. NOW magazine recently interviewed him about Luminations and his unique place in Toronto music history.
Tickets for Saturday night are going fast, so pick yours up at Rotate This, Soundscapes, Queen Video (on Queen) and the Images Festival box office.
Hello, Images Festival!
By jonny ~ Posted Saturday, April 2nd 2011
We've been busy the last few days moving the head offices of Wavelength HQ from Kensington Market to the Trinity Bellwoods Park area, which explains why we've been remiss in bigging up this year's Images Festival, which had its big launch two nights ago. For those who don't know — and there are still too many of you! tsk tsk! — the Images Festival has been Toronto's most risk-taking, yet accessible, festival of independent, non-commercial film and video since 1988.
2011 marks Wavelength's sixth annual collaboration with Images, with past highlights including The Valerie Project, Cloud Eye Control, Jens Lekman with Stephanie Comilang, and last year's commission of Hello Adventure by Polydactyl Hearts Collective, which went on to win the festival's "Overkill Award" — which has to got to be the best-titled prize of all time.
This year, we'd like to think we've stepped things up a notch — from a pretty high notch mark to begin with — with this year's Images co-presentation. We've asked our friends in Fucked Up to create an original live score to a classic silent film, Tod Browning's West of Zanzibar (1928) — a nasty tale of colonialism and revenge if there ever was one. The band is composing and arranging a score for the entire 65 minute running time of the film. This should show off the more ambient, atmospheric side of the band — one heard at times on their Polaris Prize winning 2008 album The Chemistry of Common Life — but could also lean more towards the theatrics we've heard will play a role in their forthcoming rock opera, David Comes to Life. Who knows what will happen? You will have to come find out yourself!
Fucked Up's live score to West of Zanzibar happens Saturday April 9, a week from tonight, as the Closing Night Gala of the Images Festival — at Toronto Underground Cinema on Spadina. You can still buy tickets at Rotate This, Soundscapes, Queen Video on Queen, and the Images box office. The concept of a punk band scoring a '20s era silent film has already attracted some mainstream media attention, so don't wait to buy tickets and end up missing out.
But that's not all!! The evening will be warmed up by a special big-screen showing of Luminations, the hour-long DVD created by Wavelength's own General Chaos Visuals. If you've ever been to a Wavelength, you've probably been entranced by the colourful, psychedelic visuals that illuminate our performers, and intrigued by the ancient projectors and the long-haired man waving his hands in front of them. That would be Stephen Lindsey, who along with partner Eric Siegerman, have been providing visual stimuli as General Chaos Visuals since Wavelength's early days at Ted's Wrecking Yard. The DVD is an audio-visual collaboration between General Chaos and URM — a.k.a. electronic musician Jamie Todd of The Ambient Ping, General Chaos' other weekly (now monthly-ish) home since '99. Luminations will screen when the doors open at TUC at 7:30pm, and will be available for purchase that evening. Truly a must-own item if you're a fan of the Wavelength series.
