Day 1 of the 2015 of TURF, The Toronto Urban Roots Festival, was fantastic. The weather was great, the crowd, as always, was fantastic and, of course, the music was sublime.
Prior to the big festival at Fort York, the TURF team put on a Club Bonus Series the coincided with the main festival, as well as a Preview Series. I didn't make it out to all those extra shows, but for the ones that I did, my posts are linked below.
If you missed my individual posts, here's all of day one in one place, plus links to my Club Bonus Series and Preview Series posts.
Of Monsters and Men headlined the first day of this year's Toronto Urban Roots Festival. The Icelandic band are riding high on the release of their most recent album Beneath The Skin. Of course, this album follows on the huge hit of their 2011 album My Head is an Animal.
They are a polished and thoroughly professional group of musicians whose harmonies sound as distinctive and perfect on stage as they do on album. For those who didn't venture over to the south stage for Fishbone's evening-closing set, Of Monsters and Men's show was a perfect way to cap of the excellent first day of TURF.
So many important things happening today. First, it's 420.
Second, today's the day that The Toronto Urban Roots Festival, TURF for short, has unveiled their line-up for 2015! The big names include Of Monsters and Men, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Wilco, The Avett Brothers, Neko Case, UB40, Cake and Lord Huron. Also on the bill are Desaparecidos featuring Connor Oberst, Deerhunter, Built to Spill, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Shakey Graves and Will Butler. I'm personally excited about some more of the small-print acts like Fishbone, Skydiggers, The Elwins, NQ Aruckle, Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins and Restorations. In total, there will be 46 acts across three stages, so more acts will be announced as we get closer to the show date.
Due to the Pan-Am Games, the festival is later than usual. It's scheduled for September 18-20 at Fort York Garrison Commons. This year's focus is on the Toronto scene with a local artist kicking things off on each of the three stages each day. The biggest challenge that I see for TURF is the other festivals, including Riot Fest, that are scheduled for the same weekend.
TURF ticket info:
Earlybird Tier One 3 Day Passes, 3 Day Front of Stage VIP Passes, and 3 Day VIP Plus Passes go on sale Thursday April 23 at noon through Ticketfly, and then at Rotate This, Soundscapes, and The Horseshoe Tavern Friday April 24 at noon
Earlybird Tier One ticket sales end on Wednesday June 10 at Midnight
Single day line-ups and tickets will be announced June 8 and on sale June 11
The Club Bonus Series, which features many of the festival performers, appearing in venues like Lee's Palace and The Horseshoe Tavern, is back and will be announced in early July
Here are some of the acts that I'm most looking forward to. Of course, one of the things that I like best about TURF is the acts that I discover by seeing them at the festival.
Of Monsters and Men
The Avett Brothers
Neko Case
Desaparecidos
Deerhunter
Built to Spill
St. Paul and the Broken Bones - quite the build-up from Mr. Letterman. I think these guys will put on a super-fun show.
Fishbone - I haven't seen these guys since the second Lollapalooza tour back in 1993
Skydiggers
Chuck Ragan
The Elwins
NQ Arbuckle
Ron Hawkins and DGA (Do Good Assassins)
Restorations - really like what I hear on first listen. Look for a more in-depth post on these guys.
Just in case you missed it, you can see all my TURF coverage from 2014 and 2013 by clicking right here. I've got pics of such artists as July Talk, Gogol Bordello, Gaslight Anthem, Hey Rosetta!, Drive-By Truckers, Shovels & Rope, Black Joe Lewis, Deer Tick, Gary Clark Jr., London Souls, The Hold Steady, Frank Turner, Lowest of the Low, Matt Mays, Dawes and more.
Of Monsters and Men have a new album called Beneath the Skin coming out June 9 and they've released this great new tune. It's called "Crystals" and it features a rousing beat and anthemic vocals. If you don't have tickets for their upcoming May 4 show at Toronto's Massey Hall, I don't know what to tell you, because it's sold out. More tour dates on their site.
I enjoyed "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men, as did many other people. It even made it to number 37 on my favourite tunes of 2012 list. Their album My Head Is an Animal is quite solid and yielded another single in the form of "King And Lionheart".
It's been a great year for indie-alternative music. Maybe it's because I've been putting more emphasis on seeking out great music for the blog, or maybe it's just intergalactic forces. Whatever it is, I'll take it.
Just to avoid consistency of any kind, I've abandoned last year's idea of doing 2-year best of posts, like doing "The Best of 2011-2012".
Here's post number two featuring songs 40-21 of my favourite 60 songs released in 2012.
40. "Ropes That Way" Dirty Ghosts
39. "Lost Kids" Blood Red Shoes
38. "Are You Gonna Waste My Time?" Zeus
37. "Little Talks" Of Monsters and Men
36. "In Came The Flood" Wintersleep
35. "Forever" Haim
34. "Waiting" The Whigs
33. "Cold" Blood Red Shoes
32. "To Nothing" Sucioperro
31. "I'm Just Me" Diamond Rings
30. "Stereo" IAMDYNAMITE
29. "Keep Believing" Bob Mould
28. "The Mother We Share" Chvrches
27. "All of Me" Tanlines
26. "Hold On" Alabama Shakes
25. "Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It" Stars
