Category Archives:
Music Festivals

North By NorthEast (NXNE), one of Toronto’s biggest festivals, will be taking place between June 17-21, 2015. This year’s festival will feature hip hop’s rising stars, an arsenal of the strongest female performers around, and the best breaking bands in North America.

NXNE Music has confirmed performances by “Mr. Wonderful” himself, Action Bronson; indie rock supergroup The New Pornographers; rising hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd; sun-drenched Best Coast, described by Noisey as “Californian badasses, plain and simple”; Real Estate, whose recent album Atlas landed on Stereogum’s 50 Best Albums of 2014 list; Kanye collaborator Ty Dolla $ign; Angel Olsen, who has earned comparisons to Leonard Cohen by NME and Consequence of Sound; Vince Staples, who XXL says is “beyond his years”; Glass Animals, who were recently named Band of the Year by the BBC; Blonde Redhead, after releasing their much lauded ninth album Barragán last fall; rapper Tink, crowned “a no-bullshit teenage feminist” by FADER; Deafheaven, whose music was characterized by Pitchfork as “dire black metal to triumphant post-rock “; and Baths, called the “romantic black sheep” of electronic music by Drowned in Sound.

Also announced: Pentagram, the legendary doom metal band; fierce Vancouver punk quartet White Lung; OM, who The Quietus say “know their shit”; Liturgy, following the March release of their much-anticipated album The Art of Work; Ibeyi, praised by NPR for their “sonically stunning, wildly inventive work”; as well, Betty Who, whose album Take Me When You Go was named Best Pop Album in 2014 by SPIN.

And the list is not done! Also confirmed for the NXNE Music lineup: A Place To Bury Strangers, Odonis Odonis, San Fermin, No Joy, Lower Dens, The Gories, Lydia Ainsworth, Bishop Nehru, Aidan Knight, Son Lux, Cathedrals, Heems, Coliseum, Ryley Walker, Kate Tempest, Jacco Gardner, UNiiQU3, Dilly Dally, Amen Dunes, Obliterations, K.Flay, and plenty of more to be announced.

This year, NXNE has made it easier for fans to get in to see their favourite bands. NXNE will offer festivalgoers a chance to purchase advanced tickets for select shows. Tickets for Northby Advanced shows are $20-$35, and are on sale now at nxne.com.

Also, if you are one of the ones who purchases three Northby Advanced tickets, you can upgrade to a full-festival platinum badge for an additional $60. As usual, that platinum badge will grant access (19+ and subject to capacity) to every NXNE show. Four-day ($49) and single day ($30) wristbands will also return for NXNE 2015, providing festivalgoers access to premium Clubland shows at venues including: Adelaide Hall, The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, Lee’s Palace, The Garrison, The Silver Dollar, and many more.

For additional information and to see more of the artists playing NXNE 2015, visit nxne.com. More programming announcements will be released in the coming weeks. Come back to this site or follow me via Facebook and Twitter for updates! For now, I leave you with this playlist.

 

The Winterfolk XIII Blues & Roots Festival brings us a stellar lineup of artists for its 13th annual edition; taking place February 13 – 15. A variety of music styles will fill five stages in various venues at Broadview and Danforth in Toronto. Venues include The Black Swan Tavern, The Globe Bistro, Dora Keogh’s and Terri O’s.

The festival launches Friday night at The Black Swan, with gritty blues performer Alfie Smith, best known for his resophonic guitar playing and brazen slide licks, followed by New Orleans jazz-style paraders The Heavyweights Brass Band. Then renowned blues-rocker Jack de Keyzer headlines the Winterfolk All-Star Blues Band with award-winning bassist Gary Kendall of Downchild, Al Lerman of Fathead, and more.

Other performances to catch at this year’s festival include:

Songs and Stories‘ host Danny Marks is joined by Tony Quarrington, Jory Nash and Ben Sures to play their tunes and spin their tales at this concert stage.

Saturday, February 14

The inaugural all-female Lilith Comes to Winterfolk presentation features Canadian songwriters Lynn Miles, Lynn Harrison, Soozi Schlanger of Swamperella, Rae Billing and Shawna Caspi.

Also on Saturday in time for Valentine’s Day, Love at Winterfolk highlights sultry singer-songwriter Laura Fernandez, hillbilly swing duo HOTCHA!, the return of the Trio of Fun (with  Ken Whiteley, Wendell Ferguson, and Tony Quarrington), and closing Cajun party band Swamperella.

Sunday, February 15

Duelling Banjos: Long time feuding clans presents Frank Evans, John Millard, members from Andrew Collins Trio, and Kitgut Stringband to converge for a Bluegrass Hootenanny to settle things.

Nik Beat: A Celebration of Life: Celebrating the life and art of Poet and Musician, the late Nik Beat, join Host Michael Oesch and artists Jennifer Hosein, Nancy Bullis, Laura L’Rock, Pat Kelly, Michael Marion, Michael Marion, Pat Connors, Laura Fernandez and more.

These are but a few highlights of what Winterfolk is serving up this upcoming weekend. Last year’s festival had me forgetting all about the winter blahs with some excellent music, and new favourite artists too! For performance listings, venues, and ticket information, visit winterfolk.com.

We, in Toronto, are a spoiled bunch in terms of the great local music scene we have. As NXNE is fully underway, I thought I’d highlight one of Toronto’s up-and-coming bands.

The Beaches is an all-girl Indie Rock band, who is getting a lot of attention these days. With catchy tunes, they take cues from Patti Smith, Elastica, The White Stripes, just to name a few.

I had the pleasure of meeting all four band members a few days ago in preparation for their NXNE gig tonight, June 14th at 10pm at The Rivoli. Band members are Jordan Miller, Kylie Miller, Eliza Enman McDaniel, Leandra Earl; all of whom are still in high-school. Makes me think, what was I doing at their age?! Pardon the background noise but take a listen to our chat and get to know more about these talented young women.

As well, the girls were able to make this short video to introduce themselves to you.

Make sure you also take a listen to their music on Soundcloud… Like them on Facebook, and follow on Twitter. Well you know where I’ll be later tonight; let’s get rockin’!!