Tweedy and Bird heading to TURF
When one plans a summer music festival focusing on roots music, the name Jeff Tweedy would be at or near the top of most people’s lists when it comes to primo performers. And, yesterday, the Toronto Urban Roots Festival announced that the Wilco frontman will be one of their headliners for this year’s rendition. This is huge. The line-up is already stellar, including such artists as Neutral Milk Hotel, Violent Femmes, Andrew Bird & the Hands of Glory, Gaslight Anthem and many more. Beirut and July Talk were also added.
Watch Tweedy below performing “I'll Fight” at Farm Aid 25:
Drew brings Darlings
Kevin Drew, co-founder of Broken Social Scene, released his new solo album Darlings yesterday to much acclaim. And, it is the first album in recent memory to include its own body butter for separate purchase. Website Consequence of Sound describes the new album as, “a warm testament to his mature, stellar songwriting that just wants the world to love better.” Drew kicks off his tour April 3 in New York City and plays the Field Trip festival in Toronto, June 7 and 8.
Glass Boys arrives in June
Toronto punk stalwarts F'd Up have shared more details regarding their upcoming album Glass Boys, set to arrive on June 3 via Arts & Crafts (Matador Records in the U.S.). Musically the album is described as follows: “Glass Boys carries echoes of some of the more ragged and adventurous bands from America’s punk past (Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr.), but it also has some of the anthemic charge of the Who and the guttural intensity of Negative Approach.”
Massey gets busy
Massey Hall has announced a cool new concert and concert film series devoted to showcasing Canadian artists. According to a press release, “Live at Massey Hall concerts will be recorded, filmed and edited into a series of 30-minute episodes, made up of concert night footage, to be later broadcast online.” The series will commence on May 23 with a concert featuring Timber Timbre. The Toronto band will be releasing their new album Hot Dreams on April 1.
Play time
Sunparlour Players have booked May 24 to celebrate the release of their latest album The Living Proof. The concert will take place at Adelaide Hall and will include a number of special guests to be announced at a later date. Andrew Penner describes the album thusly: “From shredding guitars, pounding drums, searing synth lines to howling vocals, ragged banjo and a spoken word recipe track, the songs on The Living Proof are living things that exist now. They do not harken back, nor romanticize. They are a forecast of sorts,” explains Penner. The band has also released a new video for the song “Soapbox” below.
Trew that
Canadian rockers The Trews have announced a new self-titled album scheduled for release on April 22. The first single “What’s Fair Is Fair” was released last month, and the launch party for the album is scheduled for April 26 at the Danforth Music Hall before the band sets out on tour.
Shaping up
The Misshapes, star New York City DJs and fashion icons, will be in Toronto this weekend (March 22) at Cube Nightclub for the closing night party of Toronto Fashion Week. The so-called “hipster collective” includes DJs Leigh Lezark, Geordon Nicol and Greg Krelenstein. They've been playing clubs for more than a decade, in addition to publishing their own stylebook amongst other projects.
