Toronto: Shooting heroin in the sky and other misuses of architecture

It's been a few days since my last post in this cross-country trip through the enchanting world of Canadian indie rock, but after a brief layover in everyone's favorite city, I've put my dreams of 'peppers' and poutine to rest and have entered back into the land of Maple Leafs, endless bureaucracy and diminished Buffalo dreams (what,ever,the,fuck,that,means). Coming into Ontario from Quebec, you pass by our national capital Ottawa (well, it's a bit of a detour but close enough). The fact that the highway leading to Ottawa from the main Canadian highway (yes, we do have a single highway that traverse the entire 6000 or so KM) is a two lane country style highway with no streetlights should tell you something about our nations capital. Not matter what anybody tells you, Ottawa is an innately boring city with a strangely upperclass cultural scene that seems to entirely revolve around Government grants. This might be great for the artist themselves, but it does nothing to foster a grassroots, lively arts scene based around popular expression or exclusive participation. It is stuck up, white collar and about as interesting as a librarian after two glasses of wine, which is to say, not very. And while a few good bands have come from Ottawa (Kepler and Wooden Stars come to mind, as well as the Kelp Records collective), they travel down the 401 so infrequently that we often forget they do anything but crunch numbers and waste dollars up in Bytown. Alright, alright- i'm being much to mean to Ottawa. It's a pleasant place with pleasant restaurants and a great skating rink in the winter and that is all i will say about that.

Despite all the vibrant and crucial regional scenes in Ontario, whenever you mention 'music scene' and Ontario in one sentence, everybody thinks of that grand city of culture (how does one express sarcasm on the web?) Toronto. Being from Hamilton, we have something of a brotherly hatred for Torontoians, but truth be told, if it wasn't for our close proximity to Toronto, living in Hamilton would be unbearable.
Toronto itself is not a particularity interesting or beautiful city (in the way that Montreal and Vancouver are), but by way of being the largest city in the country (around 3 million people if you stretch its borders to what you can see from the top of the CN Tower), it does attract most of the artist, musicians and is the home of most of the music industry companies in Canada. Toronto is also experiencing something of a musical renaissance right now and has a good chunk of the worlds hipsters looking its way for the word on what's cool; which, given the already overinflated egos that people assume from simply living west of Roncesvalle is not necessarily a good thing. What is a good thing is the sheer number of bands who do actually make great music in the city and play it in clubs all around town. Everybody knows Broken Social Scene, the Constantines, Royal City , the Hidden Cameras, Death From Above 1978, a Do Make Say Think, but there are also tons of great local bands simmering beneath the surface, growing their facial hair and just waiting for the return on 1975. Bands like C'Mon, the Illuminati and More Plastic play rock and roll so sincere it's as if they've been frozen since 1975 and haven't been told disco happened. Bands like Uncut and Controller Controller, who have heard of disco, are doing there best to tarnish its legacy through their (oh so hip) death disco thing. And then there is always Wavelength, a pay what you can live music night (on Sunday! how fucking rock and roll is that!) that has been causing god grief for over 5 years now and shows no sign of slowing down..

C'Mon

You know that Simpsons episode where Homer gets Snake's hair and it possess him and causes him to kill all those who put Snake on the electric chair? I believe Ian Blurton's beard has similar powers, causing him to make even louder and dirtier Rock and F'ing Roll each time he steps on stage with a new band. For those who thought that Bionic was just about as far as you could take the 'turn it up to 11' mentality, welcome to C'Mon. Musically this is raw rock in a Detroit by way of Melborne kinda way, short songs full of energy and a little boogie for the drunk fans out there. Live, these guys blow windows out across the street and make everyone dance from simply shaking the building so fucking hard that you couldn't stand still if you wanted. For those sick and tired of those bands that claim to be 'real rock and roll' and then proclaim deafness two years later, C'Mon is the real deal.

Rock and Roll Can Break y'r Leg
The Fever (live at the Horseshoe)

The Illuminati

The Illuminati's debut album was produced by Ian Blurton (of C'Mon) and has Danko Jones proclaiming them then best band in Canada- that is the kind of pedigree we're talking about here....Danko? is that even a good thing? Either way, the Illuminaiti more then live up to the considerable hype they've been generating around town with their classic rock boogie sound and their unsane live shows- I generally hate this kind of music, but i'll take every chance i can to see these ridiculously talented (and tattooed) musicians; this is the only band that can compete with C'Mon and Bionic for sheer volume, but when the guitarist does his best Slash impressions, forget about it. Thinking of joining a secret cult this week? Let it be the Illuminati...

On Borrorwed Time
Lay Low

Constantines

There is not much i can say about the Constantines that hasn't been said before. All i can say, is that i said it before any of you...ha.ha. Seriously, these were the first guys i saw at a legendary club here in Hamilton called the Raven way back in Dec of 2000 (has it really been so long?) and i've been a devotee to the cause since then. Check out everything they've put out and make sure to see them live. No other band plays with such sheer intensity and emotion and simple love for the music.

Here's some tracks from their Suicide Squeeze E.P, Modern Sinner Nervous Man:

Dirty Business
Underneath the Stop Signs
Blind Luck

Listening to all that rock is making me blind (my senses get confused). Also, i'm tired, hungry and want to get baked. I'll continue this later.

In the meantime, here's some tracks from a compilation called (surprisingly enough) Toronto is the Best! it's put out by ☺☺☺ recording club, a really cool little label that has been releasing some pretty interesting stuff locally. More on them later; for now, the music:

AnimalMonster- Electro-Tron- Dirty lo-fi eletro beats that will make you smile instead of wanting to kill that person with the horrible hair blasting it way too loud on the subway.

The Blanket- Hey Ya!- White boys get funky on this hilarious cover of the Outkast tune.

I Can Put My Arm Back On- Alternate/Not Alternate- Not my favorite song by these guys, but their show in Montreal put a friend of mine in such a dizzy that we had to spend the rest of the night burning off that excess energy--thanks!

tomorrow, we will wander down Queen West and poke fun at wannabee hipsters from Sudbury..