Boy
Dying Is Fine
Each Year

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Frank YangSyracuse’s Ra Ra Riot have found success largely by maintaining a delicate stylistic balancing act; one that relies on the sextet’s energy and musical dexterity to offset their more ostentatious proclivities. In particular, the tendency to allow the strengths that made them distinct – the vocal acrobatics of Wes Miles and string section of Alexandra Lawn and Rebecca Zeller – to run away with things. At their best, they were a dizzyingly nimble orchestral…

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Roll Away Your Stone

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Frank YangI can’t count the number of times (okay, I suppose via a text search I could) I’ve looked back to the evening of October 4, 2008 and shaken my head at the quality of the bill that played the Rivoli that night. Amongst the van full of exhausted young British folk revivalists wrapping up a North American tour were Laura Marling, at the time the marquee name on the bill with having her debut…

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Invincible Hero
Deseret
Hot Cakes
Extracirricular
First Date
For Ash
Remember Last Time
What’s In It for?

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Frank YangI don’t really maintain any sort of live music “bucket list” – I find the very notion a bit creepy – but there are bands whom I’ve long wanted to see but never gotten the opportunity for whatever reason. Near the top of the list are New York’s Versus, whom I discovered just after they finished promoting their last record Hurrah, back in 2000. Of course, at…

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Light You Up
If I Were A Tree
We’re In A Thunderstorm
Come Away With Me
Good Evening

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Frank YangThough I’d seen Forest City Lovers a few times in the past year while their new record Carriage was being written, I can’t say as though I remember (m)any of the new songs being aired out live before being committed to tape; perhaps all the more reason that I was bowled over by just how good the new album is when I finally got to hear the finished product…

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Horchata

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Frank YangWho: Vampire Weekend
What: Jangly, chart-topping indie-poppers who tend to drive people crazy in both the good sense and bad sense
Why: Having sold out the Sound Academy lickety-split before Contra was released and topped the charts, they’re returning to play their biggest room yet
When: Tuesday, September 7
Where: The Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
Who else: Even if you don’t feel the Vampire Weekend, the presence of Beach House and Dum Dum Girls
How: Tickets for the show range from $30.75 to $55.75 plus fees but courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got…

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Call Me

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Frank YangWho: Gramercy Riffs
What: Newfoundland five-piece who released their debut album It’s Heartbreak earlier this year and were one of the best new finds at this year’s NXNE.
Why: Headlining a showcase of rock from The Rock in an event they’re calling The Bonavista Social Club
When: Friday, August 27, 2010
Where: The El Mocambo
Who else: Newfoundlanders past, present and future Jetset Motel and All Day Driver support
How: Tickets are $7 in advance but I’ve got two prize packs consisting of a pair of passes to the show and…

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Elephants
Billie Holiday
Oh! Centra
World MIDI Classics, Vol. 2
Whirring

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Frank YangWith all sympathy to Brooklyn’s Beach Fossils, who thanks to some lost passports were unable to get across the border, and to the fans who had been waiting to see them, I can’t say I was too disappointed that they had to cancel the engagement at Wrongbar on Wednesday night because it meant that my night out would be that much shorter and that I would get to see Warpaint that…

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Lights
Love Is All I Am
Hard As Nails
Strictly Rule
Albatross

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Frank YangEvery relationship waxes and wanes over time, and mine with Interpol is no different. Like many/most, I fell for the blend of post-punk and atmospheric rock on their debut Turn On The Bright Lights, an infatuation cemented by a stellar show at the Horseshoe way back in September 2002. The bloom started coming off the rose not long after, though, with a lacklustre show at the Kool Haus a year…

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Light You Up
If I Were A TRee

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Frank YangWho: Forest City Lovers
What: Toronto folk-pop outfit who’ve just released their third and far and away best album in Carriage.
Why: The band are capping a cross-Canada tour in support of the new record with a hometown record release show.
When: Thursday, August 12, 2010
Where: The Great Hall
Who else: Support comes from Gentleman Reg and Carmen Elle
How: Tickets for the show are $12 in advance but courtesy of Out Of This Spark, I have one prize pack to give away consisting…

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Elephants

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Frank YangWho: Warpaint
What: Los Angeles four-piece whose debut EP Exquisite Corpse tantalized with its blend of art-rock and dreampop textures, setting expectations for their debut album this October.
Why: A highlight of NXNE in June, they’re back playing some headlining dates around their Lollapalooza appearance before signing up as support for The xx’s Fall theatre tour.
When: Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Where: Wrongbar
Who else: Support comes from Javelin and Beach Fossils
How: Tickets for the show are $12.50 in advance but courtesy of Embrace, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give…

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Promises

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Frank YangIt could have been an interesting study in contrasts if I’d bothered to go to both free shows happening in Toronto yesterday evening. Down at Union Station, you had local aspirant arena rockers Metric drawing throngs while shutting down a key chunk of downtown at rush hour as part of a cell phone launch for a major international corporation. And up in Little Italy, there was Christopher Chu – one quarter of California’s pop merchants The Morning…

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Boyfriend
Something In The Way
End Of The World
Laura
Lust For Life
Zebra
Norway
Gila
Heart Of Chamber
Master Of None
The Strangers
Now Now
Infinity Guitars
Crown On The Ground
A_B Machines
Gold Soundz
Rattled By The Rush
Heckler Spray/In THe Mouth Of A Desert

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Frank YangGiven the unrelenting heat that defined the first two days of Pitchfork 2010, a forecast of rain for Sunday wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world and indeed, we got an impressive flash thunderstorm around noon – perfectly timed as I was still holed up…

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The Underdog
I Turn My Camera On
The Way We Get By
This Book Is A Movie
Mountain To Sound
Chips & Dip
Idiot Driver
In A Cave
Juno
Daisy
Skip Steps 1 & 3

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Frank YangI’ve previously bemoaned the dearth of festivals in the 416 this Summer, but on Thursday night at the Molson Amphitheatre, if you squinted just right, it certainly looked like a festival. Sure, it was only four bands deep but it certainly had many of the necessary bases covered – buzzy young up-and-coming act?…

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Gin In My System
15 to 20
You’ll Disappear

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Frank YangSo when this run of NXNE reports began earlier this week, I dismissed last Wednesday’s claim of being “day one” of the festival for its general lack of options in programming. So what made Sunday, the final day of the fest and also with only a smattering of options on offer, worthy of being called “day four”? Well, the fact that I went. I never promised anyone consistency.

It was a one-stop…

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Gently, Gently
Piece By Piece
Bright Orange Air
Spotsylvania
In Which I, Robert
Faces
Flower In The Night
10,342 Cuts For The US
Call me
Billie Holiday
Oh! Centra
Youth
Coast Of Carolina
We Don’t Want Your Body
Long Live The Fallen World

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Frank YangThe Friday night programme of NXNE didn’t have, at least for me, any must-see anchor act around which to plan my evening so, instead, I assembled an itinerary of acts I was curious about, had recommended or were just conveniently slotted. A smorgasbord of showcases, if you will, which…

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NYE
Life In Trees
Free Energy
Hope Child
Elephants
Calm
Flashlight Tag

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Frank YangNitpickers may choose to point out that this year’s edition of NXNE began on Wednesday with a handful of official shows, and even though I didn’t hit the streets until the following night, calling this post “NXNE Day 1″ is factually incorrect. To those people, I say: silence, monkeys. Thursday was the first night of the festival with a full and proper schedule of events and, anticipating what would be my most…

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Ballad Of El Goodo

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Frank YangNXNE has quite thoroughly kicked my ass, so you’ll forgive me if this week’s selection falls under the category of quick and easy. But hopefully still satisfactory.

And why wouldn’t it be? There are few better go-to guys for covers than Ted Leo, who seemingly hasn’t met a song from any genre that he’s not prepared to take a swing at if it’s a good tune. And there are few bands who’ve wrote more…

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Keep The Car Running
Black Mirror
No Cars Go

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Frank Yang“Thanks for coming out on such short notice.” It was hard to tell if Win Butler was smirking when he said this, midway through the first night of Arcade Fire’s surprise two-night stand at the Music Hall in Toronto this past Friday night. After all, they had given the city just over 48 hours notice that these performances would be happening – though they did offer teasers throughout the week –…

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Afraid Of Everyone
Bloodbuzz Ohio
So Far Around The Bend
Fake Empire
Two
Bear
The Universe Is Going To Catch You
On The Roof
Stairs To The Attic
Cold War
Keys

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Frank YangLike in most cities, there is a pecking order to venues that bands can play in Toronto that are commensurate to said band’s level of success. Start at the Horseshoe, move on to Lee’s or Mod, then the Opera House, Phoenix and Kool Haus. At this point the options going forward begin to diverge – the…

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Yaa I Get It

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Frank YangThis is the weekend that myself and other music writers from across the country feverishly cram on Canadian albums released over the past 12 months to assemble our votes for this year’s Polaris Music Prize, and while I don’t have any particular insight into how any of the other jurors are voting, I am willing to bet dollars to donuts that the words Shad and TSOL will be getting typed into the online ballot more than…

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Neat Parts
No Epiphany
Twice Born
Slip Away

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Frank YangTruth be told, I don’t really like listening to Fucked Up. This isn’t any sort of comment on them in particular, just the fact that hardcore – their genre of choice – has never done much for me though if I were given the choice of current hardcore acts to listen to, I’d certainly choose them. If The Chemistry Of Common Life was Fucked Up’s Zen Arcade, then let me know when they…

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Ashes In The Snow
Gone
The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain
Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
Reflection Of The Television
Cold Days From The Birdhouse

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Frank YangThe curious pairing of Japan’s Mono and Scotland’s Twilight Sad probably hasn’t yielded many tour stories as they trek across North America – after all, the former can barely speak English, if at all, and the latter might speak English but it’s delivered in such a thick brogue that even native Anglophones would have trouble deciphering it. I imagine there’s been a…

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Tin Man
In The Fall

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Frank YangI was there. In 2010. On a Tuesday night in May at the Kool Haus in Toronto. I was there when LCD Soundsystem, here from New York City, played what might have been their last show in the city. I saw them support of their third album, This Is Happening. I was there when LCD Soundsystem took my recollection of the only other time I’ve seen them, at Austin City Limits in 2007 which…

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Yaa I Get It
I Don’t Like To
Twenty Miles

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Frank YangI think I’m done qualifying any opinions I might voice on the subject of hip-hop. Which doesn’t happen often, no, but when it does, I’ve always felt the need to point out that I don’t have the experience with the genre to form what I’d consider a properly contextualized viewpoint and so end up with a quarter-assed collection of observations rather than my usual half-assed.

This insecurity manifested itself most…

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Waves
Forest Green Oh Forest Green
Lemonade
Run Chicken Run
Frankie’s Gun
Wonderful Life

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Frank YangI’ve already document thoughts in this space about Holly Miranda on record – specifically her debut The Magician’s Private Library – and Holly Miranda live – specifically one of her day shows at SxSW – so I’m a bit short on lead-in thoughts to her show at the El Mocambo in Toronto this past Thursday; her second solo appearance but first headlining.

I do, however, have some thoughts on Montreal’s Braids, who were…

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I Can Talk
Something Good Can Work
Gold & Warm
Go Home

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Frank YangNear as I can tell, there’s no great narrative that explains why or how Two Door Cinema Club’s sold-out show at Wrongbar earlier this week became the hottest show in town, with tickets in huge demand and scalpers having apparently missed the boat entirely. There’s been no soundtrack appearance, no ad placement, no celebrity scandal, nothing that could explain why people were lined up hours in advance of doors…

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Search & Destroy

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Frank YangFuse was a show on CBC radio that sought to bring together two disparate Canadian artists in a live studio environment to collaborate on their own songs and covers – a great idea that yielded some great material before sadly coming to an end a couple of years ago. Putting The Sadies and Gord Downie together didn’t count as one of their most out-there combinations – The Sadies had opened up for The Tragically Hip on a number…

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Factory
No ONe’s Gonna Love You
Is There A Ghost
The Great Salt Lake
The Funeral
Gentle On My Mind

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Frank YangPeople seemed generally disappointed on Tuesday when I answered their queries of, “so what are you doing for your birthday?” with “having sushi, watching TV and editing photos”. Apparently the correct answer was some permutation of “getting loaded and causing shit” but fact was, I had been out a lot in the past few days and a quiet night at home getting…

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Hard Believer
Sailor Song
Find A Home
Yaa I Get It
All The Kings Men
Go Outside

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Frank YangI’ve taken a bit of ribbing in the last while about not only attending Monday night’s a-ha show at Massey Hall, but for being excited about it. Which is sort of fair, I suppose, as the Norwegian trio largely fell off the North American radar around 1987, despite not only maintaining but growing a massive fanbase worldwide over the past two decades plus. But those who…

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World Sick
Fire Eyed Boy
Hotel
Restoration
Hermit

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Frank YangA local scribe much wiser than I recently pointed out that everyone – in Canada and Toronto specifically – has some baggage when it comes to Broken Social Scene, and you can take it from the fact that I’m quoting him that I wholly agree. This is the band that, for good and bad, came to be the musical ambassadors for Toronto to the world, would become pretty much inescapable both in the…

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Walls
Tonight I Have To Leave It
Generator 2nd Floor
Good Evening
Your Truly, The Commuter

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Frank YangI detected a sense of general disappointment, critically speaking, around Shout Out Louds’ latest record Work, mostly centered around the fact that it didn’t represent as big a leap from 2007’s Our Ill Wills as that record did from their debut Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. And if we allow that there’s a way to quantify such things, it’s probably true – Work isn’t as sonically lush as its…

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Waves
Forest Green Oh Forest Green

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Frank YangI can’t pretend I wasn’t a bit disappointed when Holly Miranda departed The Jealous Girlfriends to strike out on her own – that outfit had a lot of potential that their debut only touched on – but after hearing where she went with The Magician’s Private Library, it’s understandable why it didn’t work. As eclectic as her former band’s stylings were, they were still very much a rock band and it’s hard to…

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