From the Queen West corridor comes a jolt of synthesized punk fit to soundtrack your next trip into the Sprawl. Eardrum scraping drum machine snaps provide the accompaniment to guitars, bubbling electronic tones and swathes of fuzz-riddled bass. The skull-and-palm-trees cover finds its expression in vocals that dart from yelps to booming horror soundtrack chants, but Cellphone is also simply the sound of overheated asphalt.

Actual Water have emerged a pop monstrosity from the mirth of fidelic ruin; their debut LP exists within an echo-chamber of guitar-laced jangle and humoured rhythm, making each stab more destructively addicting. With bludgeoned flare, The Paisley Orchard‘s euphoric clamour induces a slurred frenzy of popular distaste. The entire package is some top of the line wine for the ruinous at heart. Top 10 of the year for sure. YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Somewhere between a Canadiana Jandek, or a tone-deaf Neil Young, prairie-born Dave Smith drops a few of his strongest Going Down the Road-styled slices. Smith’s jams are often nothing more than tape buzz and harmonica-folk devolving into windy noise but with enough personality to shame Shotgun Jimmie into submission. Man of the land.

As Toronto is set ablaze with music during one of Canada’s largest music festivals, we’re proud to join our friends in providing an alternative to the chaos. NXNWyrd is a new micro-festival curated by Weird Canada, Offerings, Pleasence and Burn Down The Capital and is happening Thursday June 14 through Saturday June 16. As an imprint of Weird Canada’s nation-wide Wyrd festival series, NXNWyrd will focus on empowering guests to explore and discover the North American musical underground.

On top of stages shared by bands like Drainolith, Oneida-and-Sightings-related Man Forever, Sean Nicholas Savage, Sexy Merlin, and other emerging artists, NXNWyrd will feature a special Saturday Afternoon Mellow with vintage private issue New Age DJ’ing by yours truly and environs, smells, and comforts provided by Spa Kosmische.

Advance tickets for the entire weekend are $15, or priced individually for each show at the door. The weekend rate presents a deep discount if one plans on going to at least two shows. Full lineup, details, locations, and ticket information below.

Festival Details

Dates: Thursday June 14, Friday June 15, Saturday June 16
Festival Tickets: $15 (http://nxnwyrd.eventbrite.com/)
Festival Website: http://weirdcanada.com/nxnwyrd
Venues:

• Double Double Land (209 Augusta Ave.)
• Infinite Library (Upper – 664 Queen Street West)
• Polyhaus (388 Carlaw Ave)

Full Lineup

• Astral Gunk
• Drainolith
• Doom Tickler
• Energetic Action
• Indigenous Nudes
• John Milner, You’re So Boss
• Man Forever
• Man Made Hill
• Mass Horns
• Moonwood
• Pon De Replay
• Sean Nicholas Savage
• Sexy Merlin
• The Soupcans
• TOPS
• Young Truck

Show Details

Thursday June 14: Man Forever + Mass Horns + Guests

Featuring:

• Man Forever
• Mass Horns
• (special guests)

Date: Thursday June 14, 2012
Location: Double Double Land (209 Augusta Ave.)
Price: $10 door. / $0 with festival pass.
Doors: 9pm

Friday June 15: Pleasence Showcase

To celebrate Toronto’s finest polyvinyl imprint, Pleasence has curated an enormous bill of talent from across Canada.

Featuring:

• Sexy Merlin
• Young Truck
• Drainolith
• Pon De Replay
• Energetic Action
• Astral Gunk
• John Milner, You’re So Boss
• Man Made Hill
• The Soupcans
• Indigenous Nudes

Date: Friday June 15, 2012
Location: Polyhaus (388 Carlaw Ave.)
Doors: 7pm
Price: $10 door. / $0 with festival pass.

Saturday June 16: Saturday Afternoon Mellow + Sean Nicholas Savage + Guests

Everyone needs an afternoon of mellowtude. Come and relax within Weird Canada’s HQ. Vintage and authentic New Age meditation music provided by Aaron Levin with environs and aromatics by Spa Kosmische.

Featuring:

• Sean Nicholas Savage
• Doom Tickler
• Moonwood
• TOPS
• New Age Meditation Music DJ Aaron Levin

Date: Saturday June 16, 2012
Location: Infinite Library (Upper Floor – 664 Queen Street West)
Doors: 3:30pm
Price: $7 door. / $0 with festival pass.
Set-Times:

• 16:00 :: New Age music mellowness
• 18:00 :: TOPS
• 19:00 :: Sean Nicholas Savage
• 20:00 :: Doom Tickler
• 21:00 :: Moonwood

Performer Details

Astral Gunk (Sackville, NB)

• file under: garage burners
• why we love them: http://astralgunk.bandcamp.com/

ASTRAL GUNK was formed in September 2011 after 2 years of communicating through touring and email, the four members found themselves living in the same town while their previous bandmates were sprawled across eastern Canada. Drawing inspiration from a melting pot of punk, post punk, garage rock, pop, psych rock and everything in between, the prevailing sound is as much an amalgamation of influences as it is the product of four dudes drinking beer in a shed and avoiding their responsibilities. The gunk rockers are equally influenced by the rich history of rock n roll music as the current onslaught of Canadian and international bands they regard as peers and mentors.

Drainolith (Montréal, QC)

• file under: underwater hood jams
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/12/new-canadiana-drainolith-you-paid-for-it-bw-deep-water-pa/
• official website: http://www.myspace.com/drainolith

Drainolith is the droned-out, avant-cosmic project of AIDS Wolf guitarist Alex Moskos. We have heard tales of live shows nothing short of incredible.

Doom Tickler (Toronto, ON)

• file under: gremlinatrix
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2010/06/review-doom-tickler-spectral-forum-teen-steam/
• official website: http://doomtickler.bandcamp.com/

An intense miasma of gremlinized vocal workouts from Toronto’s L. Predy. Incredible, if not totally terrifying.

Energetic Action (Edmonton, AB)

• file under: 80s post-industrial goth-riot
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/09/new-canadiana-energetic-action-walls/
• official website: http://www.youtube.com/user/energeticaction

Hailing from the petroleum wastelands of Edmonton, Alberta, Energetic Action have single-handedly revived the D.E.Y (Do Everything Yourself) aesthetic that defined the British post-punk invasion. In one fell swoop they have conjured an punk-driven intensity that compares to nothing the world is ready for.

Indigenous Nudes (London, ON)

• file under: freak-city drone
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/11/new-canadiana-indigenous-nudes-cleaning-up-for-al/
• official website: http://indigenousnudes.bandcamp.com/

Rude, nude, and dudes. We’re kidding. This avant-collage project from the unlikely town of London, ON, heralds back to a time when the Nihilist Spasm Band ran rampant through the streets of tinsel town, Ontario.

John Milner, You’re So Boss (Toronto, ON)

• file under: boss punk
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2012/05/new-canadiana-john-milner-youre-so-boss–7/
• official website: http://jmysb.tumblr.com/

Intense punk crustaceans from Toronto’s underground nether maze. As brilliant live as their name is long.

Man Forever (Brooklyn, NY)

• file under: Glassian drum drone
• why we love them: http://thrilljockey.com/thrill/Man-Forever/Pansophical-Cataract

John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions) is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer who is perhaps best known as the drummer for Oneida. Man Forever, his vehicle for exploring the outer limits of drum performance, was created to overwhelm, to investigate the nuances that bloom in the midst of repetitive music, and to act as a pure sound experience. John also plays in Brooklyn-based band Sightings.

Man Made Hill (Toronto, ON)

• file under: fonkayness of the highest sexual order
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/06/new-canadiana-man-made-hill-future-florists/
• official website: http://www.myspace.com/llihedamnam

Man Made Hill is a breathtaking work-out of sexual funk jams that has Susan Johanson getting busy on the dance floor. If you can match Man Made Hill’s dance regime, you’re guaranteed to loose 50 in 30. We’ll let you define the units and time frame. In the interim, GET FONKAY.

Mass Horns (Toronto, ON)

• file under: avant-drum-psych intensity
• why we love them: n/a
• official website: n/a

A blistering side-project of Young Mother, the drum-based guitar wrenching insanity will completely melt your face, body, mind, soul, wallet, children, home, job, and universe. This will be the last thing you ever see. Die fantastically.

Moonwood (Toronto, ON)

• file under: aquatic explorations of ethnographic psych
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2012/03/new-canadiana-moonwood-river-ghosts/
• official website: http://moonwood.bandcamp.com/

Moonwood conjure a choking atmosphere of worldly instrumentals. Their drawn-out explorations touch upon every ephemeral state. Their new jams stray from the acoustic cosmos occupied on their first album and dive deep into heavy Krautrock territory. We’re excited to see the climax of their being. Join us.

Pon De Replay (Toronto, ON)

• file under: warbled tape jams
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/09/new-canadiana-pon-de-replay-whats-all-this-then/
• official website: http://www.myspace.com/pondereplaymtl

We say it’s warbled tape jams because this collage project is just that. Can you deal with it? Or will you dance to it. You decide.

Sean Nicholas Savage (Montréal, QC)

• file under: disco crooner pop of the highest calibre
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2012/01/new-canadiana-sean-nicholas-savage-flamingo/
• official website: http://seannicholassavage.bandcamp.com/

Edmonton ex-pat and now-Montreal crooner extraordinary, Sean Nicholas Savage has established himself as the go-to man for all things love. It’s pop, it’s personality, it’s beautiful. Sean Nicholas Savage is nothing short of a miracle.

Sexy Merlin (Toronto, ON)

• file under: double liquid drum insanity
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/11/new-canadiana-sexy-merlin-sexy-merlin/
• official website: http://www.myspace.com/sexymerlins

Easily the best-named band in canada, Sexy Merlin is an unstoppable erectro-drum kit explosion. harkening back to a time when Liquid Liquid filled cavernous halls with their insatiable drum-dance to the mother-land, Sexy Merlin will fill your mind with ecstatic sensations of eclectic euphoria.

The Soupcans (Toronto, ON)

• file under: trash punk
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2012/03/new-canadiana-the-soupcans-altered-states/
• official website: http://thesoupcans.bandcamp.com/album/altered-states

Toronto’s Soupcans will vomit trashy punk jams of the highest calibre, and you will eat the spew up with utter delight owing simply to their incomprehensible personality the band emits on stage. An incredibly unique experience and worth ditching your dinner date to catch the sloppy seconds. What?

Spa Kosmische (Toronto, ON)

• file under: smells
• why we love them: http://spakosmische.com/

Spa Ksomische is the musically-inspired spa product-line of Naomi Hocura. We are talking bath salts inspired by Can. Do you need any more?!

TOPS (Montréal, QC)

• file under: soft-psych mellowtude
• official website: http://tops.bandcamp.com/

Birthed from the ashes of Montreal-by-way-of-Edmonton’s Silly Kissers, Arbutus recording artist TOPS have redefined soft-pop into a mirrored acquiescence of mellowed delight.

Young Truck (Toronto, ON)

• file under: proto-post-drum-psych-disco-punk-adjective
• why we love them: http://weirdcanada.com/2011/07/new-canadiana-young-truck-man-made-hill-work-stress-disco-prison/
• official website: http://www.myspace.com/youngtruckmusic

With an incredible knack for thrashing genre boundaries and creating a beacon of non-wave dance
euphoria, Young Truck have become the premier gravity well for all things angular.

Partner Details

Burn Down The Capital

• web: http://burndownthecapital.weebly.com/

Burn Down The Capital puts on shows in Toronto. Our booking policy in dictated by personal taste, although we do tend towards noise, jazz & punk in the avant-garde, we are opened to pretty much any genre. We have been putting on shows in Toronto for about 5 years now & hope to continue doing so in the future. If you think we’d be into your music, please feel free to get in touch. Even though we can’t help everyone, it’s nice to hear from people who are into the same stuff we are.

Pleasence Records

• web: http://pleasencerecords.tumblr.com/

Pleasence Records is owned and operated by Deirdre O’Sullivan and James Lindsay. We release music on vinyl records. Pleasence Records loves no one specific genre more than another, though we prefer bands and artists with a flare for the oddball and experimental. Pleasence Records would like to meet you.

Spa Kosmische

• web: http://spakosmische.com/

SPA KOSMISCHE is an exploration of the therapeutic relationship between sound and scent. Each product is hand-blended using pure botanical essences chosen for their therapeutic and aromatic qualities. Inspired by kosmische musik (cosmic music) and krautrock, a genre of experimental music that emerged in Germany in the late 1960s, Spa Kosmische creates meditative environments to help your body return to earth while sending your mind into orbit. Created for people who enjoy exploring outer and inner space.

Weird Canada

• web: http://weirdcanada.com

Weird Canada is an award-winning publisher of diy / fringe / experimental / self-released musics from Canada. Weird Canada explores the Canadian musical cosmos through the lens of physically-released ephemera across all formats, genres, and experiences.

The physical connections between Jamaica and Toronto have been well documented by one Kevin Sipreano. Less known amongst the gripper elite are the abundance of fantastic dancehall singles produced in the heart of TO. Kitty Rouler’s stock-label entry on the ubiquitous Toronto imprint Classic Sounds is an addictive conjuring of dancehall-fuzed 80s R&B. Kitty’s staccato, pseudo-rap delivery, with pitched melodies, strangely anthemic flow, and relentless pursuit of her lyrical boyfriend, mutates traditional rhythms into a netherworld of clurb bangin’ and ep swingin’. It’s immediacy and nuanced personality made it an instant classic at WC HQ after Brandon Hocura dropped the bomb on us. “My Boyfriend” pre-dates Mike Jones‘ telephone # drop by 20 years, making it a proto-Swishahouse classic. Super grip.

Convenience stores emit sounds so high pitched that adults can’t hear to ward off young people from loitering (what we used to call “hanging out”). Reverse this hypothesis and lo, a sound that shakes soil and loam to drag up undergrounders from the deep who can dance with their eyes closed. Metal gates creak open in Sodom to welcome those shunned from the sidewalks and we fall, tripping over cracks. This overtly rude foursome can’t help but glue together weirdos and fun-boys, calling the rest of us a bunch of Taquito-eating old folks. If you think you’ve got it on the wrong speed, it’s right.

Toronto’s storied six-string weakling and Winnipeg’s notorious nightmare machinist junk it up on this flesh-crawling collab. The plainspoken title does little to prepare for the onslaught of shreddery lost in the tempest of tape loops and R2-D2 squeals. Bill Orcutt getting down with Bernard Bonnier is a start, but this is more like Mutant Concrète.

From the bubblegum pink loins of London comes this surprising little mix of some of Canada’s funniest, danciest, darkest and weirdest tracks. It begins gruff ‘n’ ruff with the Marlborough mumblings of Rip Tricker, living up to his name with a poetically curt account of last Christmas morning, waking up drunk in the bathroom with flashes of “last night” fleeting in and out of his damaged recollections. Sean Savage lubes the deal with his whispered pining and subtle-beyond-any-understanding “Chin Chin” to push you deeper into the wash of Water St. Projects’ uplifting cry for “HELP!” The order takes a turn for the curse with Eros Myth’s album/val-kill “Chessed Quest”, a gamer’s anthem. Just as you reach for your VHS copy of The Wizard (complete with Power Glove, “it’s so bad”), a burlap bag is thrown over your head and you are dragged though the cybersphere hearing blips of darkness on the rise when you find yourself on Man Made Hill’s “Sports Craft.” D-Sauce and Electric Stan make old seem very, very new with a borrowed bass line and recognizable riff that will make you want to join the Navy and lube your man up with buttah. The list honestly goes on and I could pun myself stupid but some WC favourites find themselves right at home amidst Londoners like Itsagamble, Flora, The Indigenous Nudes, Holden Main, TOPPS, New Zebra Kid, Ian Doig-Phaneuf, I Smell Blood, The Shanty Tramps, Thesis Sahib, Riderless, S.M., You’ll Never Get To Heaven and The Coconuts. This mix was put together to showcase our Forest City’s movement away from Forced Shitty. A new dawn is rising in London with tastes for almost any pallet. Enjoy all 31 tracks individually (even though it was created really as one play list tenderly groomed by Bot Dog of Hot Dog) and give yourself a reason to come here next time you’re looking for a *wink* good time.

This is the first (and hopefully last) time anything Blood, Sweat, and Tears related will appear within our northernly quadrant. Thankfully, most things of a fantastic nature endure humble beginnings, and David Clayton Thomas’ second single on ACTA embodies this vision. Paving the way for the ensnarled, rabid, wave known as garage-punk, Thomas embodies the enigmatic Bo Diddley on his first two singles. However, somewhere hidden within “Lucy”, DCT breaks the brooding, bass-frothy organ with a scorching scream. The resulting shreddery kick-starts the droning organ that wraps the cacophony in wondrous 4-4 time. Certainly not psychedelic, nor overly punk, “Lucy”‘s simplicity is its charm, and for whatever reason, its present is totally without mention within the DCT discography. Thanks to Brandon Hocura / Polyphasic Studios for the transfer. Rad.

Loneliness, despite its title, is an album with a warm heart of wires and at its core is the long-term musical friendship between Don Stagg and Eric Simpson. The duo formely recorded epic home-baked prog under the name VIIth Temple, releasing one hideously rare burnt-orange LP release soaked in gentle Moog, Mellotron and Giant. On Loneliness the pair traded in their plumes, velvet and epic jam band for thin ties and a cheap drum-machine. The LP still carries a whiff of patchouli, but the sound stings of solder and electricity, and inhabits a nascent zone somewhere between krautrock and new-wave. The vocals are all clustered on the a-side, starting with an ode to the inefficiency of the T.T.C. (some things never change!). The dystopian sci-fi themes are par for the League, a highlight is love ballad “Anna King” that sounds like it could be an outtake from Trans. The instrumentals on the b-side feel decidedly more Teutonic, and have a certain CBC charm that sounds like JP Decerf recording for Parry Music. The side even opens with a slinky stoned Pink Panther. About the loneliest thing about this album is the incredible cover photo. Don Stagg told me that he climbed up on a rooftop in St. James Town to take a photo for the sleeve when he came across a young man doing crack. The man was surprisingly obliging and Don snapped this evocative photo as night fell over the cold city. Take hold of this preserved slice of Ontario sprawl if ever you get the chance, it’ll probably surprise you to know how little has changed in all these years.