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Well I'm definitely hitting TO then back up to Ottawa it would seem.

That's what I thought. Wayne Krantz is like a legend amongst NY guitarists. Plays in multiple milieus and contexts. I wonder how much this is - I'm tapped but don't want to miss it.

I scanned through that a little too quickly but apart from the mammoth highlights it's pretty meh. I'd add Passion Pit and Rural Alberta Advantage to the lists already mentioned. So who wants a former jailbird roommate from the 7th to the 17th cause I can't see going back and forth for Further and the Hold Steady.

Here's one with Brad mainly about the vital addition of Andy (Andres) Vial on keys, bass and assorted instrumentation. http://northernheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/brad-barr-interview-church-of-redeemer.html And this one's with Andrew but exclusively about the monstrous band he's in Land of Talk: http://northernheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/andrew-barr-interview-on-land-of-talk.html

Is it Mike (your student)?

Oh I hope you heard Brothers. That's my wedding song for my Brother in June, although I suspect the wedding band won't know it.

You can check the setlist here: http://northernheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/barr-bros-opening-for-plants-animals.html Great show, had the crowd rapt with admiration an increasingly noteworthy development, bolted before P&A.

thank fucking god

There was some deviation from the onstage copies of the setlist, listening through to the show a few times I've pieced together the proper setlist which is much meatier. This, in Bahamas absence, and at the end of an arduous tour was very nearly if not a perfect show. http://northernheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/bonfire-ball-revue-jason-collett-w-zeus.html

Here's the setlist for the last night of the Bonfire Ball Revue which wound up after 5 weeks in Kingston before a small jubilant crowd at the Grad Club. northernheads.blogspot *don't drink you know that, more a by candlelight typing with feeble hands and tired eyes.

I just find it unfortunate that NewRider can't go to shows in TO anymore.

Yeah I was the Volunteer Coordinator, you know the douchebag sponging off the gov't. I had a nice chat with Andrea Chase from CFTO (who's sister also lives in a Houselink property) and Carol Tenenbaum (one of Toronto's biggest art benefactors) whose sister is the Executive Director- we agree with you it is an important organization doing important work.

Well this is toxic as shit. Let's call a spade a spade which is a racial epithet I think. I actually respect where Esau's coming from he makes some really great points. NewRider's a hopeless drunk who wants to blame everyone else for his fucking problems (period)- I should know I've done the same. I think my point before this spun out was that I dug the opener, was sober, didn't think much more of Dr. Dog after that. Again that happens. As far as I know none of you are trying to forge a career for yourself in the field of music journalism. Indeed all but a very slim few of you have ever tried writing an article or show review - it's alot harder than you think to not come off sounding like 'then they played this song' or 'they're a really great alt.country band' but please have at it. Submit your Dr. Dog show reviews here. You think I come off like a fucking ass? Seriously - while we're 'keeping it real' - I have done many questionable things while high or in the throes of mania (being 'friends' with a number of you for instance) but I've worked myself out of a pretty substantial hole. I'm guessing most of you wouldn't last (Esau's a noteworthy exception here too) a day let alone 3 months in the Don Jail, being beaten by inmates, guards and captains until the swelling and bruising on my brain caused me to lose consciousness and have one of many seizures (I have no history of seizures), I found a place to live (in a subsidized apartment yes thank you, I also just worked a charity auction that pulled in $50K tonight for the same organization that employs me and houses me), a job, began rebuilding a career. But while we're on the topic of scamming the government NewRider I'm guessing you're gonna be paying back all those student loans with you're fabulous career what from all those classes you attend. Oh and while we're on the topic of thiefs- I want my girlfriends Ipod dock back NewRider - if it doesn't come back soon (that's if you haven't sold it for drugs which seems likely). If I don't get it back, and you know what even if I do, let's just say don't come within 20 metres of me.

Badams, asked and answered variously and multiply. Put it this way, what do you in your spare time (I have two part time jobs running a drop-in mental health kitchen and as a glorified sous chef)? In my spare time, for instance this evening I have to work a charity fundraising auction but I've been 'working' since 9:00 on transcribing interviews, doing background research, listening to unreleased material, random political trainspotting via CNN etc. I do this because ultimately I'd like to do alot of things but I'd like to get paid well to write high calibre music journalism in major markets or outlets. In the meantime I do alot of let's say pro bono stuff, promoting Jay Cleary's shows, or using jambands.ca as an outlet to get the word out about noteworthy shows, bands, releases, to build or rebuild my portfolio. Trust me when I tell you that there are alot of grateful musicians who are glad that I spend as much time thinking about and putting as much effort into reviewing their releases as they do producing them. Call it social capital. That's why NorthernWish and a handful of us should throw our own festival (not sketchfest) to call in alot of that social capital many of us have accrued including Bouche, NorthernWish, myself. But that's another point. Again I'm not even talking about the release Shame Shame (which as I've said I'd suspect is quite good). I literally don't have the time to get around to it yet. Just as I don't have the time to get around to piecing together what the Low Anthem played the other night or how they played. You want to know what I think of The Low Anthem? Besides being incredibly moved by their music and voices, knowing only the instrumentation and setup of the members on stage not to mention the by all acounts stunning venue - what else can I say? I have to do some research, but first I have to finish this Bonfire Ball Revue article w. interviews with Jason Collett, Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas), Carlin Nicholson (Zeus), Dave Azzolini (The Golden Dogs), then finish some stuff on the Barr Bros., then see the Barr Bros. again, then interview them again, and Mike O'Brien from Zeus oddly, then transcribe all those interviews, then interview Dave Azzolini about his new release Coat of Arms which Zeus produced and played on, then maybe get to The Low Anthem thing then maybe bother listening to Shame Shame but I'd bet you dollars for donuts I'll be listening to Black Milk and Guilty Simpson instead. [color:brown]Alcohol The downside of being drunker than everyone else is that people tend to presume you’re a fool

Must have been a conflict because Andrew played Toronto (I think I got the whole setlist off him although I had tickets and missed the show). I know they opened with Cornerphone and encored with Thirteen by Big Star (in memory of Alex Chilton's passing) and played Some Are Lakes and Magnetic Hill of course. I have to transcribe that interview at some point I'll post the setlist.

We woke the bear! Don't poke the bear. You can't ruin a thread, it's not a linen shirt for christ's sake. It's a different beast researching a show or a band from the perspective of a writer, reading through their interviews and bio, acclimatizing yourself to a band's repertoire- it's fun but it's also work. It happens I'm a sous chef also (and a few other things) it's sort of the same thing - okay you eat in restaurants but do you know anything about food? I can't play a note but I know everything about Music.

Funny thing is I had already figured that out!

^ Fag Central. Boo hoo hoo. Give it a fucking rest. I'm a music journalist - I've read 8000 more things about music, books, articles than you have - it's an informed opinion and I think I made pretty clear it was just my opinion. But sorry your little precious band who's album is probably quite good but who's concert was, in my EYE, lacklustre. Then again I don't drink, wasn't on molly and have, you know a valid perspective. Enjoy the gooballs doucheball.

What is my luck? I decided to hang out with the far less famous Bowden Bros. last night but didn't realize Mike O'Brien (co-founder Zeus) was playing. I actually needed to talk to him! And see him!

Yeah sorry I went to be that night just hearing a snippet on the news and not realizing he was on at 11. It sounds like Fox who he'd been negotiating with since the part with NBC didn't offer him 12 because their affiliates like to run 'stripped' reruns of 30 Rock and The Office from 11:30-12:00. They also lowballed him offering 2/3 of his budget or $60 rather than $90 million (affecting his staff of course and his $12M salary). I don't think he retained ownership either in the Fox deal.

I got this setlist from Azzolini(shows you how intricate the staging was there was a band setup in front of the soundboard in the audience, and the stage setup and choir setup behind.

It was a detail, the Feist thing, she looked comfortable and a friend had brought her on a whim everyone gave her respectful room and treated her like everyone else. The crowd was older, the type that appreciats certain concerts you have to be dead quiet for and turn off your cellphone unless you're told to turn on your cellphone and make whispering murmurs of sound like the rumour that came through your town.

It may have been the same time but connected to a Harbourfront gig they did a panel discussion at noon in the Brigantine Room or something and played a bit as I remember there were so few people there and it was a brilliant chance to listen to and interact with the band.

The Low Anthem I can confidently say are making a new and manifold contribution to the New Weird Americana. Feist seemed dutifully wrapped up in the proceedings. Most musicians I've talked to, say Carlin Nicholson from Zeus and others have been genuinely interested to know what it was like whereas predominantly people are so bagged and caught up with their own shows they don't think much of contemporary bands or at least get out to see them. I knew absolutely nothing about them going in, except that notably Weirdness - who's one of my oldest childhood friends, an insane audiophile and studious about at least contemporary Americana in particular by way of new vinyl releases - said he was coming for Low Anthem and that Barr Bros. alone wouldn't be worth the drive in from Guelph. To me, knowing him that was telling and proved really heavy. His recording will be intense if he ever gets around to mastering it but I suspect it's bumping up his pile. Even the crappy recordings I took for notation sake tracking out little mp3s on a panasonic hand recorder sound pretty damn good because the place was pindrop quiet and the acoustics so stunning. The stainglass and iconography of the Church were also really integral to the performance for me at least. I'm not aware of this church being used as a venue but it's one of the most prominent churches in the downtown core and everyone knows it from their thoughtful sermons posted prominently as you drive past. I had a few suspicions that would appeal to me more personally about the significance of the stainglass panels and also that the organ was as it turned out a Casavant Frere (likely a very very good one). And that the church was built in a Gothic revival style, which of course means something quite different from American Gothic, or the 'American' and 'Gothic' music (much like Romantic means a great many things) that The Low Anthem make. It was in effect the most perfect and admirable setting for a performance of this nature which manages to be bravely modern and present while being firmly rooted in the past.