Summery Memories and September Embers

Devon Sproule with Bernice at the The Burdock in the middle of August: complex compositions spread expediently across a team of visionary musicians.

The glory of Kristine Schmitt singing original old-time country songs with John Showman and Cris Coole can not be overstated. The Cameron has done more for real country music in Toronto this summer, with Kim Beggs and Sarah Jane Scouten also in month-long  residencies, than any other local club. 

Corin Raymond and The Sundowners are in many ways the spiritual hub of the scene for the past 10 years.

Panamania gave the whole city a chance to get charged up for no charge at all. It was impossible to keep up with the updraft of international talent that lifted the city into a mellifluous cloud of cumulative ecstasy.

Choc Quib Town from Colombia, performing on Independence Day at the Distillery Square to a flag-waving throng gave the whole celebration an anti-gravity component. 



Maqueque and Jane Bunnett brought a revolutionary jazz fiesta ambience to the proceedings.




Luanda Jones' band was a cool and soul seducing distraction from the hair-crisping heat.

And over at Nathan Phillips Square there was a night of home and native Canadian excellence, with performances by Cold Specks and Joel Plaskett neatly bracketing a half hour of torrential rainfall.

Mimi Oz brought it all back home from Brooklyn in September with a set of new songs that scintillated in the dark Cameron House back room and tickled the ear-bones immensely. Special harmonic emblazoning was provided by Jessica Stuart and Jocelyn Barth.

Ringmaster Alan Davis proves it really is a small world as he introduces Fanfarai at the currently on-going Small World Music Festival opening Thursday  Sept. 17

Braids were extravagantly joyous performing with full velocity at Lee's Palace the night after their performances at the Polaris Music Awards broadcast.

And just before months' end, up jumps Retrocity at the Mod Club evoking screams and memories with two sets of expertly arranged eighties hits for voices only. M+M's Martha Johnson was a surprise guest on a show-stopping version of Black Stations White Stations. 

Femma-lectrical Back-Up Genderators

Young Galaxy (POLARIS NOM)  ~ Austra ~ Grimes ~ Braids ~ Rae Spoon (he's a they, tho) ~ Me'shell Ndegeocello ~ Zaki Ibrahim (POLARIS NOM) ~ N'Dea Davenport ~ Diana ~ Kristi Lane Sinclair ~ Imaginary Cities ~ Sarah Jaffe ~ Joanne Crabtree ~ Pat Benatar 
                                                               They Amaze!

My version of  George Cukor's "The Women" ~ 
                                                                 This week I will be programming two hours of  women singers, (often within the musical cuddlement of male musicians).

      Fridays with  Corby's Orbit ~ nothing roundabout about it.

Thursdays are always the best at NXNE.....BRAIDS!

OMG ~ Eeeeek! Braids!!!
Okay...But wait....I'm getting ahead of myself.
Okay: The Comfort Zone, home of white light cocktails and stoner chic in T.O. Midriffs, silk jackets, crazy makeup, glowsticks, trippabble light-show, celestial convergences hourly. This time out it was new band Paula, sending up some echo funk inside a pixillated typhoon of projected colour, advanced string theory and chilly-cool tunesicles to draw the crowd into a dreamy poodle pasture under a low ceiling of sound. Music nobs arriving late were  unable to penetrate the thick clutch of fans ready for the first Braids Toronto show since Horseshoe 2012.

Efficient cable mongering and drum wrangling had Raphaelle, Austin and Taylor on their marks right on time. I was offered a table dance for my front row vantage point, but stood my ground for an eerie and astral set of post-jungle drums, malletted electro-marshmallow vibraphone and the wonder-eyed vocal aeronautics of Raphaelle Standell-Preston (founding co-vocalist Katie Lee was neither present nor referenced). All-new material featured the multiple brands that Braids have come to radiate - deconstructed lyrics, moebius keyboard oscillations, impermeable iceberg tempos and heart-stopping melodic leaps. Feedback was monstrously available in such a low room but occasionally blended right in and melted into the lava-lanche of loud pounding sound. The band seemed relaxed and tightly interwoven after a recent swing through the southern States and a SXSW showcase.
Patrons, fans and corpo-weenies alike were awe-inspired and, for a few days, nothing sounded really amazing to me.
Then I cracked open Sarah Jaffe's The Body Wins. But that's a story for another post.
Honestly, though. BRAIDS!
Sophomore album, Flourish // Perish,  is due for release in August

Suncrave Week Complete

I had to miss my show last week but it was all happening in a screened in sunroom atop the Canadian Shield
We relaxed and browned. Not evenly but thoroughly. Perfect weather, perfect food, no bites from the pests, no bait on the hook.
Five Years' Time by Noah and the Whale
Music largely present: Braids, Noah & the Whale, Genticorum, George Benson & Ronny Jordan, Stan Kenton & Artie Shaw, Blackbird Blackbird, Lindi Ortega, Abigail Lapell, Mike Angus, David Bromberg, Toots and the Maytals, Aline Morales, Snatam Kaur.

Took a trip to a basement forest studio midweek to play bass on Black Velvet for CBC's Cover Me contest with Alicia Sales and The Radio Friendlies. Fingers crossed. Video to follow.
Musical pleasure from Kasper Winding below. Pull up a chair.