NXNE 2014 Day One: The same, but different

One drum, one bass, two guitars and vocals. After a great meal at Wvrst, we heard that ubiquitous combo interpreted three different ways by three relatively new bands our first night of NXNE 2014.

First up: Monomyth from Halifax. In addition to a song in rotation on CBC Radio 3-- "Cigarette"-- they recently signed with Mint Records, which will release Saturnalia Regalia July 22. Descriptions of the band are all over the map: psych pop, shoe-gaze, space pop, surf rock. Their style is all over the map, which is what we liked, especially combined with occasional dissonance and rhythm changes.

Toronto's Brave Little Toaster was off our radar but on stage before our next scheduled show. They win for band name least likely to invoke what the actual band sounds like. They call it soul twang, we call it rock as basic as bread. But all the good ingredients are there: energy, talent and solid harmonies.

It's been two years since we saw Stella Ella Ola; drummer Vince Rice promises an album is coming soon. Based on the great set of alt pop/rock we heard at the Silver Dollar, it promises to be worth the wait. Until then, you'll have to be content with this brand new video for "Peter Sellers."

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

NXNE 2014: High Five

This year makes NXNE #5 for us, and we're no less excited. We've already been poring over the list of artists-- keep checking as more are added regularly-- and have found plenty that we think are exclamation point worthy: Culture Reject! Andre Ethier! How Sad! METZ! Slow down, Molasses! Zeus!

While the music at NXNE is always at the top of our list, as we're waiting for more exclamation points we put together a list of our own: our most memorable music+beer+comedy+art+interactive NXNE moments from the last four years. What are yours?

• Steam Whistle tours (2011, 2013)
• The Kelp Records/Line of Best Fit barbeque (2011)
• Random encounters on the sidewalks of TO with artist like D-Sisive, Muneshine, Ghettosocks, Old Man Luedecke and more
• CBC Radio 3 co-hosts and Breakfast Club (2010, 2011, 2012)
• Moshing with abandon to Hot Panda (2013)
• The Hollerado show in 2010. So many things went wrong that trip... a cooler flood in the trunk of the car, not getting in to the Wheat Pool/Old Man Luedecke show, a late night journey from hell from downtown Toronto to Markham. Hollerado made it all right.
• The now infamous Dally in the Alley with Jian Ghomeshi (2011)
• Our wedding  (2013)

Show Alert: Hollerado bring their So It Goes tour to Pontiac

Tues., Oct. 7
The Crofoot - Pike Room - Pontiac
Opening for The Features

Cover art for Hollerado's new album, White Paint.

When we first attended NXNE in 2010, we did it all wrong. We didn't stay in the city. One of us had a media pass, the other had a wristband. We didn't have a schedule. And we left on Saturday to see a show in London, Ont. (a great show, three Polaris short-listed bands, but still...)

Friday night we wanted to see an artist and a band we absolutely love at the Dakota Tavern: Old Man Luedecke and The Wheat Pool. Silly us. After an expensive cab ride because we were late, we wilted at the sight of the long line. S2W's media pass meant immediate entry, but N2D of the lowly wristband had to wait in line.

Always the gentleman, S2W refused. After realizing entry was futile, we took another expensive cab ride to catch part of Sloan at Yonge-Dundas Square. They were good, but hungry and dispirited we made our way to the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. And found out Hollerado were playing there. It was only a year after they self-released their first album, the rock-solid Record in a Bag, but obvious that a lot of people had the record out of the bag.

It was like the heavens opened and beautiful music spilled out and fountains erupted and the sun shined down on us-- okay, so it was the band cranking through irresistibly fun singalongs like "Riverside" and "Got to Lose," spraying beer at the ceiling in unison and confetti raining down. By the time the show was over, we'd had the time of our lives, and it was all worth it (just don't ask us what it took to get home that night).

We still keep some of that confetti in our backpack.

Hollerado are very like a college student, balancing classes and partying. They sound like they're not taking anything too seriously, and yet writing about death, World War II, doing creative presentations on Americanarama, and referencing Kurt Vonnegut. If Record in a Bag was a freshman, the long-awaited follow-up White Paint is absolutely a sophomore. They've matured a bit, but they're still having a good time.
 

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

NXNE 2012, Day 2 (Jun. 14): From top to bottom

Our entire NXNE 2012 was full of great music, people and experiences, but if we had to pick a day that best sums up what you can squeeze into less than 12 hours at NXNE, it would be Thursday, from top to bottom.

Up on the rooftop

We started off the day with an interactive session, then headed over to Chinatown to spend the afternoon with fellow CBC Radio 3 bloggers at the Audio Blood and Bonsounds Rooftop Riot! presented by Steam Whistle. We didn't see the promised free haircuts and tattoos-- and would have been reluctant to partake of either-- but there was plenty of free Steam Whistle, Vitamin Water, tri-color popsicles and cupcakes. We did see two great sets of Canadian indie rock, from Francophone Les Breastfeeders (Montreal), and Burlington's Sandman Viper Command. We've been fans of SVP since last year, when they were feeling under the weather and still stormed through every song they knew, and then some at the Phog.

Pho sure

When the Steam Whistle ran out so did we. Waiting outside the venue for everyone from the group to gather, we had one of those NXNE moments. "Uh, isn't that Old Man Luedecke over there?" And it was. "I'm kind of here by accident," said Luedecke, who remembered us from his show in London a few weeks earlier, as "the ones from Detroit."

Next we had a dinner date with Pho Hung, which proved to be, chopsticks down, the best meal we had that week. One order of BÚN THỊT NƯỚNG, NEM NƯỚNG, CHẢ GIÒ (Grilled Pork, Spiced Grilled Pork Roll, Spring Roll with Vermicelli and Vegetables) and one order of BÚN XÀO BÒ, GÀ HOẶC THẬP CẨM (Stir Fried Vermicelli with Mixed Vegetables with Pork, Beef and Chicken), total bill $15.50.

Karen Silkwood and Peter Sellers

What do these two well-known names have in common? "Karen Silkwood" is a song by PEI's nerdy in the best way possible Boxer the Horse off their new album, French Residency. Their virtually perfect set of alt-pop/rock at the El Mo made us all the more sorry they missed the Said The Whale/Chains of Love show at Windsor's Capitol Theatre last April due to a scheduling mix-up.

Our next stop was the Velvet Underground to hear "Peter Sellers," the strongest single from Toronto's Stella Ella Ola. The new band features the two Boyd brothers from R3 favourites Hollerado, Nixon and Jake, Vince Rice (Atom Division) on drums and Anne Douris on guitar and vocals. Famous for stripping down to his skivvies during Hollerado shows, at a shouted request a tipsy Jake willingly doffed his shirt, but kept his pants on.

The kids in the hall

Our next show, both in artist and venue, couldn't have been more different from the previous two: the weather station in the Great Hall Lower Theatre. Instead of a mostly male raucous rock group, there was the fair and fey Tamara Lindeman, standing on tiptoe at the mic as she performed songs like "Traveller" to a reverent audience. As if using an electric guitar at the start wasn't daring enough, "We're going to try something crazy," she announced. Crazy was adding Ian Kehoe (Attack in Black, Marine Dreams) on drums and some back-up singers. Lindeman was as unique as her 80-year-old acoustic guitar, and just as treasured and lovely.

Up in the Great Hall proper, the phone rang: "Hello, Rachel? This is Spookey Ruben. I sit next to you in U.S. History. Yeah, and I traded your tangerine peels for pencil shavings. Did I mention that I play in a band?"... A dynamo making sunny 60s-inspired pop that rocks, Spookey Ruben (Toronto) gets our vote for most fun show of NXNE 2012, complete with hugs from a giant owl.

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Hello, North By

We were always surprised when we asked bands if they were playing at N-X-N-E and they gave us a blank look. Then we would clarify: "North by North East," and the light would dawn.

Well, it finally dawned on us. Nobody says S-X-S-W. They say "South by." Apparently, the same holds true for North by. Now if we can only get out of the habit of referring to it as N-X-N-E.

However you pronounce it, we have a special affinity for this music/film/interactive extravaganza in Toronto. N2DS2W was born on the drive home from NXNE 2010; we did this at NXNE in 2011. So we're looking forward to NXNE 2012, scheduled for Jun. 11-17: more music, more Radio 3 bloggers and this year, we're attending some of the interactive sessions.

While the schedule isn't up yet for the interactive sessions, NXNE has released an initial list of performers. Canadian indie bands include those listed below; Hollerado will definitely be at the top of our list. Other bands we know are performing, but not yet listed, that we're excited to see: Vancouver's Brasstronaut, Montreal's Parlovr and Windsor's The Unquiet Dead. Stay tuned as more details are released.

MATTHEW GOOD
PURITY RING
METZ
PLANTS AND ANIMALS
ANDRE WILLIAMS & THE SADIES
BRAN VAN 3000
WE WERE LOVERS
EIGHT AND A HALF
MAC DEMARCO
ODONIS ODONIS
YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN
PHEDRE
HOLLERADO
CATL 

Road Trip!

We're pretty lucky when it comes to Canadian indie bands playing the Metro Detroit/Windsor area. But if bands we want to see don't come to N2D-- well, N2D will go to the bands.

http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?p=11593

Sarnia's an easy hour drive for us; we've even hauled to London and back. So when we found out The Besnard Lakes and Malajube were playing Oct. 5 in Kalamazoo, and Hollerado the next night in East Lansing, the answer to "What are we going to do?" was "Road trip!"

Although paired with The Besnard Lakes, one of our top 10 shows of 2010 and an all-around favourite (review here), we would have journeyed to the land of K-Zoo just to see Malajube making their first appearance in Michigan. It's a shame most of the crowd at The Strutt that night were probably saying "Mala-who?", because this award-winning Francophone band and their intelligent, nuanced, melodic rock deserves a much wider audience.

They've been around since 2004; they scored the film The Trotsky; the last three of their four albums have all been either short- or long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize. The way we see it, there are no barriers, linguistic or otherwise, to appreciating great music. So we applaud the one person who shouted "Porte disparu!" Lead singer Julien Mineau politely declined the request; instead, with one exception ("Cristobald" from Labyrinthes), their entire set list was made up of songs from their latest album, La Caverne.


After a stay at the budget-friendly and tres acceptable Red Roof Inn Kalamazoo East, we headed for East Lansing by way of the Gilmore Car Museum and a lot of rural roads through rolling farmland. Our destination: Macs Bar, a blast from the past for one of us and a venue so no-frills it doesn't even need an apostrophe.


























With their water-spouting, confetti showers and other on-stage antics, we can't think of a band better suited for a college town than Hollerado.We'd been trying to catch up with them since NXNE 2010, when six months after winning $250,000 in a contest, they not only rocked Toronto's Hard Rock Cafe but let the audience order whatever they wanted on the rocks with a 10-minute open bar on their tab.

Look beyond the frat house mentality and you'll find pop rock with irresistibly catchy hooks and singalong lyrics that range from clever to poignant to whimsical. They were nominated for a Juno in 2011 (Best New Group, which went to Said The Whale). Their catalog of videos are as fun and engaging as their music ("Americanarama" has more than a million views and won Best Video in the 2010 CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards; "Good Day At The Races," which features the band racing ostriches, was also nominated for Best Video). Even their website is a hoot. Although they've released some new singles recently, we know there are a lot of fans waiting for a follow-up to the enormously popular Record In A Bag; count us among them.

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images,
Lincoln photo --->  http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?p=11593