Random Family want to be your favourite band. It’s music by way of collage: pop meets post-rock meets indie, before a delay pedal devours the whole thing and regurgitates it in a glittery shower of sound. You can catch Marcus Retterath, Aaron Lyons and Alec Forbes filling Lee’s Palace with sonic dreamscapes tonight at 9:30 p.m. Try them on for size, wear them like a coat.
The SummerWorks Festival kicks off today. This indie theatre fest has been around since ’91, and has grown from its fringe-like beginnings to the respectable breeding ground for local artists it’s known for today (over 20 of this year’s Dora nominations came from past SummerWorks productions). But with such great responsibility also comes great controversy. We caught up with the fest’s artistic director, Michael Rubenfeld, to chat about theatre and the festival’s future.
Concertgoers at the Phoenix Concert Theatre received an eclectic, intoxicating one-two punch on Tuesday night, courtesy of Beirut and Owen Pallett. If you’re not much for reading concert reviews, then I humbly suggest you do yourself the favor of clicking those links, listening to the music, falling in love and clearing your evening schedule, because history is going to repeat itself tonight — same time, same venue.
On any evening in pretty much any neighborhood in the city there are dozens musicians sitting in bars strumming on acoustic guitars. And while Toronto’s Hamilton Trading Co. does, in fact, revolve around Keith Hamilton and his acoustic guitar, there is one element that makes the experience stand out: surrounding him is a soulful choir belting out harmonies and stomping out the rhythm of the songs.
Wolf Parade alumni Dan Boeckner and wife Alexei Perry are Handsome Furs (August 2 @ Horseshoe Tavern), maybe my favourite live act going. I’ve seen them blow the doors off at least three Toronto venues with their manic, crisp, minimal indie-pop.
Coming soon (they hope) to a radio station near you is FIRExFIRE, a muscular, synth-heavy, power pop band by former members of Toronto’s well-received (and now defunct) The Framework. They’re determined, they’re ready, and they’ve got plenty of experience cramming songs with hooks until they piñata-burst. And they namedrop T.S. Eliot in interviews. Not too shabby. Fans of reverb and glisten can check them out at Lee’s Palace, tomorrow.
Wayne Johnston has a thing for outsiders. They seem to populate the award-winning novelist’s books, from his debut The Story of Bobby O’Malley to his best-sellers The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Navigator of New York. His latest, A World Elsewhere, is no exception.
Local residents protesting a Toronto City Council–approved midtown condo have rejected a $100,000 offer to walk away from an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) appeal.
A recent Toronto City Council approval to develop the commuter parking lot at Yonge Street and Wilson Avenue has some residents concerned about dwindling parking space.
Media mogul David Thomson, reported by Forbes to be Canada’s richest man, has begun massive renovations at his Roxborough Drive home.
The Langstaff Gateway Secondary Plan, which will guide the redevelopment of the land that stretches from Bayview Avenue to Yonge Street, between Langstaff Road and Holy Cross Cemetery, was recently passed at York Regional Council.
On Aug. 17, Mike Colle, member of provincial parliament, will be leading a march along Eglinton Avenue urging locals to open their eyes to how the roadway might look in the future.
