Photo by Dustin Rabin
Hamilton's belle of the blues kicks out a track thats all long greatcoats and converse trainers, a ball bouncer beat and late night arcade fired up lovers. Pinball King is one off the New Mistakes on Sonic Unyon. Terra hits the ground running with a tour of the States and Canada and date with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra String Ensemble Mar 9 and 10 at McMaster LIVELab.
Past, present, future, infinity, all propellants for artists on display at the Station Gallery opening Thursday Feb. 1 2018.
Gillian Iles' "a short trip to the infinite" opens in the Coppa Gallery and Anne Sims Heritage Gallery
Sheryl A. Keen, a writer and artist, explores themes of female strengths, grace and resilience, in her "State of Mind: Remixing & Deconstructing Beliefs" opens in the Jill Dyall Community Gallery
Poster enthusiast Dan Miles of Backing To The Future film poster restoration company, will be displaying some of his collection in the Heritage Gallery C. The show titled "And the Oscar Goes to. . . " features posters from the years between 1968 and 1978.
If age is experience and experience is the sum of actions then the Beat Escape's age is showing with their trippy trans- European expressions of the digital age. Super autobahn tune from the Montreal duo Addy Weitzman and Patrick A Boivin - take the ride. Its from their debut album "Life Is Short The Answer Is Long" out on Last Gang/Bella Union Apr 27 2018.
Its a smooth operator that will call their track "Nothing New" and Charlotte Day Wilson is one smooth operator operating the groove like its jelly. Her EP Stone Woman drops Feb 23 2018 and she has a couple of dates at the Danforth Music Hall Apr 6 and 7.
Peterpatch folkin' blues two-piece The Mayhemingways are readying up "Skip Land" for a Feb 23 2018 release. First single from the Steve Loree produced album "Frances the Truck Driver" is available and the duo have a long road of winter tour trucking ahead of them - locals dates include Dora Keoghs in TO, and the Arlington Hotel in Maynooth.
UPCOMING CANADIAN TOUR DATES
Thursday, January 25 - Timmins, ON - The Moneta w/ Lee Hannigan
Friday, January 26 - Espanola, ON - Pat and Deb’s Garage
Saturday, January 27 - Lavigne, ON - Lavigne Tavern
Friday, February 9 - Toronto, ON - Dora Keogh’s w/ Catriona Sturton
Saturday, February 17 - Tweed, ON - Tweedsmuir Tavern w/ The Sadies
Wednesday, February 21 - Calgary, AB - Open Mic Guests, Mikey’s Juke Joint w/ Brooke Wylie
Thursday, February 22 - Edmonton, AB - House Concert
Friday, February 23 - Calgary, AB - Ironwood w/ Skinny Dyck & The Chicken Catchers
Saturday, February 24 - Lethbridge, AB - The Slice w/ Skinny Dyck & The Chicken Catchers
Sunday, February 25 - Black Diamond, AB - The Westwood (Matinee 5pm start)
Wednesday, February 28 - Twin Butte, AB - Twin Butte General Store
Saturday, March 3 & Sunday, March 4 - Yellowknife, NWT - Snowking's Winter Festival
Saturday, March 10 - Peterborough, ON - The Mount
Saturday, March 17 - Belleville, ON - Capers
Friday, March 30 - Sarnia, ON - Paddy Flaherty’s
Saturday, March 31 - Maynooth, ON - The Arlington w/ Little Fire
Friday, April 13 - Winnipeg, MB - Times Changed High & Lonesome Club w/ Poor Choices
Saturday, April 14 - Gull Lake, SK - House Concert
Monday, April 16 - Jasper, AB - The Whistle Stop
Tuesday, April 17 - Field, BC - Truffle Pig
Thursday, April 19 - Chilliwack, BC - Tractor Grease
Friday, April 20 - Nanaimo, BC - The Queens
Monday, April 23 - Duncan, BC - The Duncan Showroom
Tuesday, April 24 - Tofino, BC - Rainforest Inn
Sunday, April 29 - Saskatoon, SK - House Concert
Photo by Mirjana Simeunovich (Oshawa Music Hall)
Matt Mays and Kitty Edwards - its a comeback bill made in CanCon heaven. Sign me up for this one as each are among my favourite artists. Both have been on a hiatus for quite sometime, Edwards has "quit" the business and opened a coffee house in Ottawa. Mays is rolling on back with his new album 'Once Upon a Hell of a Time . . ." and Edwards will be performing as a special guest. Ah yes the call of Massy Hall and friendship is strong so with prices starting at $18.94 you can see these two on the iconic stage. The Live at Massey Hall series is filmed and then made available online. Its an opportunity for artists as diverse as Peaches, Sloan, the Constantines and Tanya Tagaq to perform on the iconic stage. Other acts featured are Timber Timbre, Destroyer, Owen Pallett, The Weather Station and Zeus. The Live at Massey Hall series is in its fourth season and the resulting archive is a unique document of Canada's finest musicians.
Bahamas sings "I can't be everything to everyone" but he sure is a lot of something to a lot of someones. He has just released his new album "Earthtones", and has already sold out shows right across America and Canada and will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Wednesday Jan 24. He is performing Saturday Jan 20 at Harbourfront's Natrel Rink in TO at 6 pm. The album, has the pop hooks of the Travelling Wilburys, the soul of Hall & Oates and that confounding Ron Sexsmith ability to wrap a melody around a lyric that on paper shouldn't work. Earthtones also has the added groove of D'Angelo bassist and drummer, Pino Pallidino and James Gadson respectively, who joined Bahamas for the recording. Earthtones is all groove, a gentle groove, the gentle easy like a Sunday morning groove, like a Sunday morning canoe paddle, just you, the rising heat and the disco ball sparkle of the water.
Are you collectable? In the future with robots and automation maybe we will all just be pets and toys for the 1%, will you matter enough to be part of someone's collection? Pessimistic? Dystopian? Maybe but Thunder Bay pop-tronica act KUTCH ( Colin Kutchyera and La+ch) make it all sound so lovely - the track is a hummable swimmable swoonable ode to obsessions. Its from the debut, Notionside, due Mar 2 2018.
Photo by Devon Little
Everyone from Stevie Wonder to Whitney Houston is in here, even Alabama Shakes is in here - just when you think its all been done, all the soul mining is done, the gold done taken when Charlotte Day Wilson reveals there's a depth to the heart yet to be plumbed, the blues, the soul, the r and the b are not done yet not so long as people fail and rise, love and leave and face the long night alone with the dream of a new day. Day Wilson's 'Stone Woman' is the name of the EP due February 23 2018.
Photo by Sion Marshall Waters
Wild Beasts roll All The Kings Men over the roiling hills of some English landscape, the startled vocals and the steady drive - its the final fling for the UKsters Last Night All My Dreams Came True coming out on Domino Documents, a greatest pulling from their faves and finest and recorded live. For me its an introduction and an invite to dig deeper in to all these pretty things, for you maybe its a fare thee well.
Photo by Jenna Ledger
The Stranglers were able to move from "Do You Wanna" to "Golden Brown" without losing their grip on what made them Stranglers. Montreal's Ought manage the same feat - they move between Television waves and Radiohead nods with some Stranglers' sneer too on the track "Disgraced In America", the latest from their new record, 'Room Inside the World' due February 16 2018 on Royal Mountain. The video is by Heather Rappard and animates the spaces in between the fragments of the track - moving between - I guess somewhat in the manner The Stranglers were wont to do. Ought have a North American/ European tour in March with a date at Lee's in Toronto Mar 7.
Here's the previously released track, These 3 Things
HustleMe - think millennials meet Dragon's Den or just think win dollars for your start-up.
HustleMe will take over the Moustache Club at 7 p.m. on Jan 20 108. Eight start-up entrepreneurs rap off with one winner scoring $1000 for their business idea. The judges listen to all pitches and move a certain number forward through each round until one emerges. Winner gets a sweet grand. Nice prize, I was going to enter, but instead I said yes when asked to be a judge.
We talk about creativity here at SlowCity.ca and its mostly art and music, theatre, photography, the ARTS as they say but being an entrepreneur is also being creative. We are seeing more and more young people looking to themselves to build a future, looking at themselves as a resource, knowing the factory is over, knowing they are going to have to hustle to build their future. HustleMe also hustles. They are building their future and they are building ours. I like HustleMe, it is a pretty rad platform.
I contacted the previous winner, Samantha Stahkle of Ominous Games ( a winner if ever there was one) and asked her about her experience with the HustleMe event.
How has winning HustleMe helped you?
"HustleMe opened up a lot of opportunities for our team. Apart from helping fund our company's trip to the MIGS conference, HustleMe was our first real pitching competition, providing a lot of valuable experience and giving us the skills and confidence we needed to help take our business to the next level. Since HustleMe, we've gone on to pitch our business at Ignite Durham, where we won first place in the student category, and for UOIT's academic incubator start-up competition, helping us to secure more funding for our business. We also made a lot of valuable connections at the event, meeting people that have helped us to better understand aspects of our business such as merchandising and marketing."
Why did you first enter HustleMe and how did you hear about it, get involved?
"The decision to enter HustleMe was one made by our whole team - as a young, mostly-bootstrapped startup, it was an opportunity too great to pass up. Personally, I've always loved public speaking, so the experience also sounded like a ton of fun, which it was. I heard about the event through a friend from UOIT, Andrew Aultman, who is also pitching at the next event, I believe. So we owe him one for that!"
Where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from?
"That's a really complicated question, something which formed the focus of my first-round pitch, actually. I think it's a combination of just being passionate about your craft, and having the right people to guide you along the way. Over the past few years in school, my interest in game development naturally evolved into a desire to self-start, and thanks to our mentors at UOIT, our team had the resources and knowledge we needed to actually become entrepreneurs. For me, I think a big part of it is family, as well - my mom has always encouraged me to carve out my own path, and go for my dreams - what better way to do that than starting out on your own?"
What entrepreneurs do you admire?
"I could list off any number of Silicon Valley visionaries here, but the people I really admire most are the ones I've seen pursuing entrepreneurship firsthand. Several of my fellow students at UOIT have their own ventures, and knowing the commitment it takes to run a start-up, I have the utmost respect for them. All the great people I've met locally through organizations like Spark Centre and Start-Up Durham are so impressive - it's amazing what just one person can accomplish with a lot of effort and a lot of heart. But the entrepreneurs I've always admired the most are my mom and dad, Lana and David, who started a business together a few years before I was born. Growing up, I had the unique privilege of watching their business grow, as my mom sat with me on long nights poring over ledgers and explaining the basics of business to her curious little kid. I never really had to look outside my home for role models, and I'm incredibly grateful for that."
“It’s an ode to depression. To depression and self-sabotage, and looking inward at yourself with extreme hatred," says lead vocalist, songwriter and bassist Matt Flegel.
This is stark. Brutal, unflinching, honest - just you and your mirror - the essence of authenticity in an era of lies
Preoccupations will play the Legendary Horseshoe Apr 14 2018.