Jason Collett brings his Basement Revue to the Dakota Tavern

Jason Collett will kick off a three-week residency Dec. 4th at the Dakota Tavern in Toronto. Advance tickets are available at Rotate This and Soundscapes, beginning this weekend, with a limited number available at the door each night.

There will be guest appearances and random shanagins each week. It’s a super small basement space, so be prepared to get intimate and personal. Share some pitchers and enjoy the night!

-Robb

Concert info HERE.

Stars to perform 3 shows at the Phoenix Concert Theatre November 26, 27 & 28

On November 17th Stars will embark on a Canadian tour in support of their new album In Our Bedroom After The War, set to be released September 25th.

Go to www.arts-crafts.ca for complete details of each performance.

Stars started from the roots up with Set Yourself On Fire, pushing and tormenting each other to make their most ambitious and collaborative album yet – this time, Torquil, Amy, Chris and Evan brought drummer Pat McGee along for the ride.

The result? A massive leap forward for the band. Let’s say Stars’ first album, Nightsongs, was the result of two Toronto boys marooned in Brooklyn feeling small and alone, and recruiting a rotating cast of friends to help them whisper a lovely message of beautiful, hopeful things. Heart, their second LP (which was nominated for a Juno, the top honour for musicians in Canada’s frozen hinterland), was a full band falling in love together and settling into a euphoric hibernation under grey woolly covers.

Set Yourself On Fire is the sound of what happens after the thaw. It’s thinking your life is on track, and when the floorboards collapse under your feet, giving in to the chaos instead of fighting it, starting over again more brilliant and gorgeous and raw than you’ve ever been before. It’s knowing you have to decimate your own history in order to understand it. They claim they were aiming for a straight-up sex record, but ended up writing a sex and death and robots record – in Stars, everything that starts off simple blows up big, ornate and rich.

ADVANCE FAN TICKETING — A limited amount of advance tickets will be for sale via Arts&Crafts Fan Ticketing at www.arts-crafts.ca/starsticketing. Onsale Now!

Public Onsale Saturday 10am!
Tickets are $22.50 in advance, available at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.ca, Rotate This, Soundscapes, and by phone at 416 870-8000.

Doors 8pm / All Ages // Guests TBA

Visit Stars’ official site…

Concert details here..

Source: Emerge

The Weakerthans are promoting their new album, coming out this fall. The Weakerthans are pleased to announce the worldwide release of our 4th album, Reunion Tour, on September 25th 2007 (September 24th for Europe). Here is a link to the Epitaph/Anti page with the cover art and track listing: link!

The Winnipeg indie-country-rockers last release, Reconstruction Site broke them into the mainstream demonstrating that real Canadian talent can also equate to big success. Their narrative lyrics are introspective and witty, jam-packed in 4 mins or less.

They’ll be stopping by to perform Toronto on Thurs, Nov 11. Be sure to pick up your tickets now as it will probably be sold out in no time!

Concert Details

It’s almost here! Virgin Festival has just added even more artists to an already amazing line-up headlined by The Smashing Pumpkins, Björk, Interpol, and The Killers, plus dozens of hot acts including Metric, The Arctic Monkeys, Paolo Nutini, Stars, M.I.A., and Dirty Vegas.

New Sept 8th Acts

k-os
Dragonette
The Most Serene Republic
Hayley Sales
The Vincent Black Shadow
The Wildbirds
Spectrum, feat. SONIC BOOM: SPACEMEN 3 & E.A.R
Bang Camaro
Sybris

New Sept 9th Acts

The Heights
The Red Romance
Liam and Me
The Postage Stamps

CLICK BELOW FOR FULL LINE UP:
DAY1
DAY2

Vfest website

Bang Lime – Lee’s Palace – August 24
“Featuring Josh and Joules of Metric”
Tickets on Sale Now!
$14.50 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 9pm / 19+ // Support: tba
http://www.banglime.com/

Tea Leaf Green – Mod Club – August 28
Tickets on Sale Now!
$15 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 8pm / All Ages // Support: The Populars
http://www.tealeafgreen.com/

Neil Hamburger – El Mocambo – August 31
“America’s $1 Funnyman”
Tickets on Sale Now!
$12.50 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 9pm / 19+ // Support: Nick Flanagan
http://www.myspace.com/americasfunnyman

Jagermeister Presents The Expendables
Mod Club – September 2nd
Tickets on Sale Now!
$15 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 7pm / 19+
Support: Authority Zero and The Supervillains
http://theexpendables.net/

Plaster – Drake Hotel – September 22nd
Tickets on Sale Now!
$10 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 9pm / 19+
http://www.plasterband.com/

Thomas Dolby and The Jazz Mafia Horns
Mod Club – September 25
Tickets on Sale Now!
$24.50 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 8pm / 19+ // Support: tba
http://www.thomasdolby.com/

Suzanne Vega – Mod Club – September 26
Tickets on Sale Now!
$30 in advance at TM, RT, SS
Doors 8pm / 19+ // Support: tba
http://www.suzannevega.com/

Damien Rice performs at Humming Bird Centre, Sept 10@8PM

Passionate and intense singer/songwriter Damien Rice is coming back to Toronto for the 2nd time this year, this time at the Hummingbird Centre. I saw the Irish singer/songwriter perform at Massey Hall a few months back, where we put on a near identical performance when he was here at the sweltering hot Danforth Music Hall sweat-a-thon show last year. It was a brief solo stop before meeting back up with the band.

I was severly disappointed with backup singer Lisa Hannigan left the band to pursue her own endeavous. Her haunting smoky alto voice combined with Rice’s intense and pain-stricken music went straight to the heart. Use of chilling call and answers and warm Hannigan echoes lost meaning when he had to respond to himself – it was on the edge of schizophrenic.

Nonetheless, Rice still packs an intense electro-acoustic punch and will put in a great show – even if it echoes his last few Toronto performances.

Ben Harper is doing a show at a great venue. It’s a perfect place to chill out and relax w/the Innnocent Criminals, no? I’ve found since he did some work for Standing on the Shoulders of Motown (a movie paying homage to the Greatest Motown hit machine ever, The Funk Brothers), his full band work takes me back to the Detroit Motown/soul era.

He’s a terrific performer that’ll get ya groovin’ and dancing.. and perhaps a few tokes between sets So if you’ve never seen Harper perform than check this show out!

Tickets HERE

Audio Clips
	“Ground On Down”
	“With My Own Two Hands”
	“Mama’s Trippin’”

Known for his work as singer/guitarist in punk/hardcore band Alexisonfire, Green has been praised for his piercing and melodic vocals. His chops also work well in his acoustic City and Colour work, without sounding too “whiney emo”.

Tix on sale July 20 via , and will likely sell out fairly quickly, so get ‘em now if you’re interested!

Show #1 details

Show #2 details

-Robb

Image Source: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/31023742/

After checking out about 10 artists, here are a few that blew me away:

Hey Rosetta! - An east coast roots rock band from NFLD. Lead singer and songwriter John Mullane has an explosive voice that sounds like he’s been smoking, drinking and singing for 20 years, when he’s probably barely passing 25 himself. With elements of Matt Mays, Joel Plaskett and a bit of Counting Crows, HR! has got a repertoire of infectious emotional and comforting music that pulls you right in. Songs like The Simplest Thing and Into the Night evolve as they play them, changing tempos and dynamics to keep you on your toes. It’s like every song is a soundtrack to a movie climax. Good shit.

Justin Rutledge – a heartbreaker roots country singer/songwriter. During his set he described his music “drunken bastard ballad tunes,” and I couldn’t agree more! It was my first time seeing him perform live, and I’d have to say it was much better than the recorded CDs. He’s a terrific performer, entertainer and storyteller.

You Say Party! We Say Die! - As part of the CBC Radio3 sponsored evening at the Horseshoe, it appeared to be that YSP!WSD! was band everyone wanted to see. With both media and wristband lineups that went for miles down Queen and all the way up Spadina, I wondered if they would be worth the fight with scenesters to get in. I was a little hesitant after a lukewarm crowd reception at the Exclaim! Spring Fling festival with DJ Champion (but granted, they were given the kiss of death 8PM opening start). This time around it was absolutely incredible. Their suburban punk-rock sound had the crowd jumping, crowd surfing and even moshing. It’s not every day when you see the comatose Toronto crowd moving at an indie show. With Rogers contracts and major labels buzzing around, YSP will be going places!

King Sunshine – A local Toronto act, King Sunshine once again delivered a 40-minute rollercoaster 70s disco funk/groove party at the Gladstone. It took a few numbers to the crowd moving, but once the engine got going the crowd was hopping. The lead singer has got both the Whitney Houston power and Aretha’s soul and sass, enough to turn your 2 left feet back to the right foot!

Here are more photos/videos from other artists that week. ENJOY!

Jim Bryson – NXNE

Pat Robitaille – NXNE