A Tribe Called Red to close out Hillside 2018

By Will McGuirk

No skipping out early at Hillside this year, nope, phone in something on Monday because the Halluci-Nation are taking over Sunday evening and it is going to be a spectacular celebration not to be missed.

A Tribe Called Red have been announced as the closer for the Guelph-based music festival taking place on Guelph Island July 13-15.

And thats in addition to one of the most exciting and varied line-up in some time with Destroyer, Lido Pimienta, Hollerado, Plants and Animals, U.S. Girls, Cadence Weapon, Tamarack, Chad VanGaalen as well as Slowcity.ca pals Mappe Of, Annie Sumi and Crown Lands.  Plus of course so much more, three days of so much more!

Check here for  highly recommended tickets. 

Celebrate Earth Day with Annie Sumi 'In Everything'

By Will McGuirk

If we have to use the internet today, the day we take stock of this planet we call home, a planet in distress, a planet in turmoil, all due in part to our unchecked consumption of power, even this power used to use this internet, then let us a least choose this power to connect and share a simple message, look after your home, look after yourself and make the changes where you can and lets use it to connect more people with Annie Sumi, a child of the Earth if ever there was one. Listen and then in a few minutes log off, unplug and go for a walk instead.

Crown Lands, Mappe Off and Annie Sumi announced for Hillside, runs July 13-15 2018

By Will McGuirk

Hillside 2018 is going to be a lot of fun. The annual music fest in Guelph always is really but with three of my fave Durham Region acts on the bill its going to be even more so. All three, Crown Lands, Mappe Of and Annie Sumi are doing fine work, building and garnering even more attention as the days go by.

Crown Lands retro-psyche rawk, Mappe Of's prog-folk ramblings and Sumi's darling meditations are just a few of the great acts coming outta the Region, count Dizzy, Chastity, West Hammock, Matlock Expressway, Rory Taillon among those you will see and hear more of at festivals this year.

Its a good time in the D-Rawk however its odd I am also engaged in a FB conversation about how the Oshawa city staff are failing local acts by not booking them for their city-run events. Lot of work to do yet I guess but at least other communities are digging our kats and giving them a stage.

Hillside announced its full line up for its stages today and as per usual its as much on the edge as it ever was.  Destroyer!! Yes!! Adrian Underhill, Chad Van Gaalen, U.S. Girls, Partner, Walrus and Cancon classy folk trio Tamarack. Too many for me to bother typing but reality is Hillside is one of the highlights of the summer and more so when spent seeing pals get the accolades so justly deserved. Get your tickets, get your camping sites, get on it.

BEAMS will teach you how to love, they play the Moustache Club Apr 5

BEAMS are playing the Moustache Club Thursday Apr 5. Annie Sumi is opening. BEAMS have a new album, Teach Me To Love.

By Will McGuirk

Berlin baby, it has the pull, the pull of the nightlife - Cabaret and Kraftwerk, Bowie, Reed, Iggy and Peaches, It’s a Feistian bargain BEAMS has struck, the capital of cool imbues the Toronto band’s latest album, ‘Teach Me to Love’ but there is an accessibility, dare one say pop, to the avant-folk ramblings of Anna Mernieks, brothers Keith and David Hamilton, Heather Mazhar, Mike Duffield, Craig Moffatt and Martin Crawford.

The album marches in with simple sturdy strident sounds, mix up Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” and Neil Young’s “Computer Age” and then play lead on a banjo or conversely just listen to the first three tracks. BEAMS play synth-pop who knew with nary a synthesizer in sight, I’m looking at you “Live In The Real World”.

“Pull of the Night” has Martha & The Muffins “like a loaf of bread in the oven you look good to me” baked in - could be the accent.

The journey through the anything goes world of Berlin the Myth continues on “I Notice Every One”  which flutters on every one from Dave Brubeck to Focus to the Beatles.

As the album progresses it moves into more prog-folk territory, with the music becoming a subtle cradle for the voices of Mernieks and Mazhar, sonics ease, less stilted Kraftwerk more the wash of Tangerine Dream, albeit covering “Heroes”, as though nothing could fall.

Ultimately its the harmonies which hold up BEAMS and with such a strong core the band can play around with the walls, whether them walls be from Berlin or no.

No videos yet for the new album but here’s some oldies but goodies.