Slowcity.ca Open Mic - April Showers, May Flowers edition with Local Natives, In The Valley Below, HuDost, Russell Louder, Grizzly Coast Sasami and Black Mountain,

Will McGuirk April 15, 2019

By Will McGuirk

Thinking positively, extreme April showers should bring extreme May flowers, so lets look forward to a season in bloom, record breaking blooms.

We begin with the cheerful sounds of Local Natives. They have contemporary dancer Micaela Taylor. We move into In The Valley Below, a pop duo, we will give you an explicit warning fyi, - the Valley have a short film, ‘The Pink Chateau, which they are touring, and the album is the soundtrack. Performances feature the two playing live to the film.via headphones. Also on are HuDost, Russell Louder, Grizzly Coast, Sasami and the majestic psyche-sonics of Black Mountain.

Shows

Sasami - Thursday, April 25 @ Baby G, Toronto
Black Mountain - Thursday, May 9 @ Lee’s Palace, Toronto
Grizzly Coast, - Saturday, May 11 @ The Paddock, Toronto
Local Natives - Monday, May 27 @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto

My Father’s Son - plays Springtide Festival in Uxbridge

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Springtide performer My Father's Son, plus Merin, Old Man Canyon, Dead Soft, Bear's Den, Hayden Thorpe, Clinic, Ronley Teper & the Lipliners,

Will McGuirk April 10, 2019

Welcome, thanks for showing up. Its vital that, showing up, its what makes a scene. Showing up this week from Montreal is My Father’s Son., who will performing at the Springtide Music Festival of Uxbridge, just a couple of weeks away.

Also coming in is the Pavement-like Merin from Thunder Bay and Old Man Canyon from Vancouver and Dead Soft, also of Vancity. And some Brits breaking out, listen to the shimmer of Bear’s Den, the trilling beauty of Hayden Thorpe and the pyschedelia of Clinic. TO Art punk from Ronley Teper & the Lipliners, close out the mic. Dig in, thanks for showing up.

Shows:

My Father’s Son - Saturday/Sunday April 27 & 28 @ Springtide Music Festival, Uxbridge
Ronley Teper & the Lipliners - Friday, May 3 @ the Dakota Tavern, Toronto
Merin - Monday, May 6 @ The Burdock, Toronto
Old Man Canyon - Saturday, May 11 @ the Rivoli, Toronto
Bear’s Den - Friday, May 24 @ the Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto

UK Hookworms drive into the heart of the Microshift

Will McGuirk January 10, 2018

I'm old school - I'm a sucker for songs which skip the head and the heart and go straight for the crotch, if you can get all three all power to you but if you are going to pick one go low. Hookworm from Leeds. UK, go low. There's a lot of head and heart in their tracks, lot of drone, lot of prog, lot of smarts, lot of strings but there's also a drive and an energy and a rumble and veering and its get-loose-time in the best of the Velvet Underground/ Pink Floyd-dy psychotic trips. But there's a new album due, "Microshift" - it seems based on the available tracks they have just shifted up a gear.