Well, this maybe made me cry because nothing has really seemed more significant recently: One of the greatest OUT Canadian bands of all time playing at the sexiest intersection in the country. Nobody showed up, except for the LEGEND Mark Maclean (1) and Brian Seeger (2) (documentarian). Whomever curated this stage was a GENIUS. Get Disguises to rip a set that sounds like someone shovelling glass trilliums overtop a TG rehearsal… at high-fucking-noon, at the epicentre of EVERYTHING. Before urban renewal, Yonge and Dundas was the only intersection in Canada that really felt like SOMEWHERE! That was before Lastman and his minions at city hall razed the pawnshops and porn-shops, the record stores and headshops, the dank jewellery markets, the diner joints and a whole slew of gorgeous heritage commercial architecture. I’m over it now and back to thinking it’s the coolest intersection in Canada. And if you are old enough to remember Yonge and Dundas before the Great Flattening than you are old enough to remember Disguises with Kevin Hainey (3) in the line-up on woowoowoowoooozy bass. Sometimes he would just stare at the bass and use his will to pitch its eternal wooing. Jon Shapiro (4) shreds bass here but he’s best remembered kneeling on a table playing mixer feedback, tapes and a giant horn. Randy Gagne, who looks like a cross between Prince and the Coffee Time at the corner of Dundas and Pape, better known to YOU as Man Made Hill, is the shuffle in Disguises, the motion flow. And what of the roguish mug up front in the sick cyan plaid? That’s Kevin Crumpp who runs Wintage Tapes and Records (5), crooning his little heart out, beating a rap, homeowner. The Disguises lp on Wintage (now OOP) is a chef d’oeuvre, recorded by Dale Morningstar at the legendary Gas Station Studio on Toronto Island (6) (which is historically significant (7)). People are so busy inquiring about the status of AIDS Wolf they forget to inquire about the status of Disguises, a more pressing question. And next year: Gastric Female Reflex featuring William Davidson at the Harborfront Center.

Addendum: If you’re not jamming WITH the King, then you’re jamming FOR the King, so might as well get with his majesty’s Lute-through-too-much-Line-6-style and call it a deep, mind-melded, madrigal, there Troubadour!

(1) (Mark Maclean) Of the Sick Lipstick, Black Cat 13, Thrashed Genes and Induced Labour, but who recently chose Life and gave up on the permanent death-fetish that is rock n roll, ostie.

(2) (Brian Seeger) Of the Planet Smashers, Pon D’Replay, Wasted Nymph

(3) (Kevin Hainey) Who runs Inyrdisk, the label that released the killer Clinton Machine Lp and tons of Toronto Underground Sound Force related cds, former Exclaim contributor, author.

(4) (John Shapiro) Of Induced Labour, Conspiracy of Familiar Objects, 13 Moons, Almost Blue Sunshine, producer of the John Milner 7” on Pleasance… also runs LsdOTB records, one of the few labels to actually release an Afternoon Penis joint, remembers record shopping on Yonge St. in those Palaeolithic times, secret side doors to the Lion at College and Adelaide, long nights at the Bagel and the first great gig of 2005 as if it had been fried and served just now, Chuck Schuldiner briefly joined Slaughter for a few months and was seen straggling around York Mills for some reason, how the Jerks and Suicide played the Horseshoe, Major Street days, long-night living room gig scenes and onwards.

(5) Wintage, the non-internet-presence label, has released countless amazing underground titles. Recent zones have included releases by Thurston Moore, field recordings of a Japanese couple fucking, Knurl, Nihilist Spasm Band and Six Heads, the former three on wax! The former three are all stone-cold Canadian classics.

(6) (Gas Station Studio on Toronto Island) Of Diner is Ruined, possibly even the Rheostatics. Recorded plenty of records in his day, including sides by Gord Downie, Julie Doiron, the Woodchoppers Union and the second GYBE! record ect ect. The Diner is Ruined blew my adolescent mind bee tee double you, when they opened for Helium and Sonic Youth at the Warehouse circa 1995.

(7) Reminds me of my submitted piece on Black Sabbath’s “Never Say Die” for Weird Canada’s Departures Revisited, the draft of which came back to me defaced, in Levin’s hand, by a giant MAPL system logo with only the “P” blackened.

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.

Un dance party angoissant, mais un party quand même : la voix d’un la Fred Schneider fantomatique mène des guitares spastiques, des volutes synth-chédéliques et un tapochage de Neandertal à travers une dense ambiance de sélection naturelle. Des tounes qui crient vers les cavernes, préhistoriques et brutales, rendues intrigantes par des mélodies vivides et tordues qui rampent vers toi comme des peurs que tu t’inventes : je veux dire, tu vas pas avoir peur d’un CD, t’es plus fort que ça, mais ces gars-là PORTENT DES MASQUES.

Ease back into 90s sluritude with Weed’s latest quad-platter offering of bummed-out grunge. The newly formed melancholy drips mighty rhythms into a painful chorus of subterranean solitude; the glimmering sun, locked into grooves laced with peaks and valleys, rarely yielding a morning dew more suffocating than the BOSS distortion warming each track on Gun Control. Minimal synth aficionados will be fooled by “Ben’s Tour”‘s opening riff, but the real heads will dive for the mail-order-only grippage. Vinyl is limited to 200 copies with a cassette-version offered via Green Burrito.

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 bleeps, sweeps and creeps of Craig Storm’s MMC get a visual jolt from found footage aficionado Joshua Rogers on this hep DVD. In a tour de force of cable access follies, the songs of Le Progrès sync up with stormy night drives, puppy love on the monorail and aluminum foot soldiers goose-stepping to the beat. It’s an A/V collab on par with Ratté v. Femminielli.

Kevin Stebner is the only guy we know who can fit his gear into a lunchbox. While he wears many hats — Bart Recs / Revolution Winter founder, Stalwart Sons howler and Ghost Throats head stoker — his chiptune project GreyScreen is the focus of this particular feature. Jamming harder on his GameBoys than most can with a Stratocaster, Stebs charges the Nintendo kingdom full steam ahead. On his recent trip to support the new tape Thrillogy, we linked him up with WC’s resident lensman Landon Speers to spotlight some essential tour items.

Jesse Locke
Weird Canada // Texture Magazine
weirdcanada.com // texturemagazine.ca/wordpress

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.