Weekly update!

Listings + podcast!

My picks for the Polaris Prize

Interested in what I'd pick if I were a Polaris Juror? No, eh? Huh...

If you change your mind, my post is here.

Introducing Great Bloomers.

Check out my blog for a little "shout out" post about Great Bloomers, a young band with a new record and a cross-Canada summer tour coming up. I met some of them when Tyler and I had them on the podcast ahead of their CD release show. You'll find a mini review, some free song downloads, links to other cool stuff, and the band's upcoming Toronto and Canadian tour dates.

Pick of the Week #22: Pink Mountaintops

Without belabouring the point (I belabour the point here), basically, I'm not really a fan of Stephen McBean, Black Mountain, or people from the West Coast (kidding! about the last part at least), but Outside Love by the Pink Mountaintops is quite good. In a nutshell, the album eschews the messier, grungier, side of Black Mountain and replaces it with a more accessible, free love, sort of boy-girl vocals. They haven't turned into the New Pornographers or something, but they have softened things up enough to win me over...

See last week's pick of the week: Howie Beck

This week's podcast + listings + other stuff!

The podcast is up here.

Featuring Flotilla ("Charlie, I'm Through"), Clara Engel ("Appetite for Pain"), Evening Hymns ("Sentimental Reasons"), The Darling DeMaes ("Girl Soldiers"), The Lovely Feathers ("Lowiza"), and Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum ("Bird's Nest").

Tyler and I realized that we've already done a year's worth of podcasts! The first one covered the last week of May 2008. So here's to the start of year 2. Thanks so much to everyone who's listened!

As always, we're on the lookout for new music. Streaming from MySpace can be difficult or impossible some days---like yesterday, when the player wasn't at all reliable, so feel free to send me some song files (historyjenATgmailDOTcom).

Another podcast you should know about are the ones done by Justin Beach for the NxEW.ca music blog. Check out previous all-music podcasts here, and submit your band's music for potential inclusion (northbyeastwestATgmailDOTcom).

And the show listings for the rest of this week and the first half of next.

I took in some of the huge Pitter Patter Music Festival on the weekend. And it left me sick come Tuesday. Yeah, PPMF, I blame you. And all the great bands I saw: Octoberman, Sandman Viper Command, Pick A Piper, The Diableros, Sports, Cursed Arrows, The Speaking Tongues, Chang-A-Lang, Mt. Royal, Sarah D., and Drunk Woman. And Slim Twig and Wyrd Visions, too. Also, and most especially, Keith Hamilton. *cough* *sniffle*

Everything is great this week. Here's to hoping I'm well enough to take some of it in. My schedule looks like Flotilla on Thursday, Jordaan Mason et al. on Saturday, and Wavelength on Sunday.

This Saturday is the first AUX.tv "secret session" at TARA. All the details about this can be found here. The first band to do an acoustic session is The Ghost Is Dancing, this Friday at 5pm. It's free to go as long as you RSVP beforehand with your name and the number of people coming.

Finally, there's a new mini-documentary by Egin Kongoli about the Wavelength anniversary shows that happened in February. It's really great, and I encourage you all to check it out.

WL 450 from Egin Kongoli on Vimeo.

New Ohbijou Album "Beacons"

This may be the shortest post ever...

Ohbijou's Beacons came out digitally yesterday, will be out physically (in Canada) June 16, in the US a week later, and it is AWESOME.

You can read everything I've ever written on Ohbijou here.

Live in Sackville: SappyFest 2009 Linuep

A first look at the SappyFest 2009 lineup has just been posted at the Sappy Records website and I think I just peed myself a little in excitement. Take a look at it yourself and see if you don’t loose a little control:

http://sappyrecords.com/SappyFest_09/lineup.html

What a collection of bands! I missed the boat on submitting to perform this year, but I’m sure as hell going to try to make it to Sackville anyway this summer, as this lineup looks top notch (with more TBA).

Read the full post at Wolveshawksandkites.com.