CMW Feature: Line-up and artist feature

Canadian Music Week, CMW, is ringing in its 34th year from May 2-8, 2016 in various venues around Toronto. There are club shows, the iHeart Radio Festival, the Indie Awards, a.k.a. "The Indies", and much more. These festivals are amazing for seeing your favourite bands, the coolest up-and-coming artists and for checking out new bands. You're guaranteed to find some new artists to grace your music library.

The very cool line-up features personal favourite Bob Mould, Tegan and Sara, Skepta, Dilly Dally, No Joy, and David Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti with his band Holy Holy, along with Eagles of Death Metal, The Strumbellas, Wintersleep, Sate, The Beaches, Partner, Wild Nothing, Royal Canoe, Le Sera, Tops, White Lung, Duchess Says, Dearly Beloved, guitar gods Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt and Yngwie Malmesteen and much more.

Many of these artists have graced the virtual pages of this very web site, including Bob Mould, No Joy, The Strumbellas and again, Wintersleep, Sate, Partner, Royal Canoe, Duchess Says, Grounders, The Beaches and again, A Fellow Ship, The Julian Taylor Band and again, X-Prime and more. Click those links to see my pics and check out some tunes.

Surf on over to the official CMW site for additional details, grab tickets or a wristband and get out there for some great music.

Here are some of the artists I'm most looking forward to seeing:

Bob Mould

Tegan and Sara

Dilly Dally

No Joy

Eagles of Death Metal

The Strumbellas

Wintersleep


The Beaches

Sate

Julian Taylor Band

White Lung

NXNE 2015: No Joy at The Silver Dollar Room - Concert Pictures

No Joy was one of the acts I was most looking forward to seeing at this year's NXNE. I got to see them on their first of three nights at The Silver Dollar Room, on Thursday, June 18.

On record, they play overdriven, shoegaze pop, with the emphasis on the melody. Live, they flip the formula on it's head. The volume and intensity of the guitars made the vocals almost disappear. The band presented an impenetrable wall of noise that didn't let up for their entire set; feedback and effects soaring to fill the gap between songs. Both experiences are quite different. Both equally worth experiencing. I was transfixed for their entire, all-to-short set.

Listen to some amazing tunes:

"Everything New"

"Moon in my Mouth"

"Hollywood Teeth"


"Blue Neck Riviera"

"Here Tarot Lies"

"Lunar Phobia"

"Hawaii"

NXNE Feature: No Joy

Montreal shoegazers No Joy released their latest album More Faithful this week. In addition to other tour dates, they're in Toronto for NXNE. I really like their tunes and I hope to catch one of their live shows. 

Check out some tunes from their latest:

"Everything New"

"Moon In My Mouth"

"Hollywood Teeth"

Pic from Facebook.