Whaddya mean you don't know Matumoto Hiroshi

Here's a gem from vibrophonist Matumoto Hiroshi's group with pianist Ichikawa Hideo from 1969.

Blind Matty Band opening for The Sadies @ The Great Hall, Friday

Toronto's own Blind Matty and his rag-tag bunch of country outsiders heat things up for The Sadies at The Great Hall.

John Barry vs. Jimmy Carroll

See if you can spot any similarity between John Barry's Bond theme and Guy Mitchell's Ninety Nine Years arranged by Jimmy Carroll from 1956. 

Johnny Marr @ The Drake Hotel, May 30

 "Hi Hello" is off Johnny Marr's new Call The Comet album which he'll preview at The Drake Hotel on May 30. 

Long Branch record release @ The Baby G, June 1

Members of Chicken Milk, Shadowy Men and the Good Family are behind Long Branch's Found The Setting Sun album. 

The Rumblers vs. The Strangers

The Rumblers' 1962 instro classic "Boss" seems to have been inspired by The Strangers' "Caterpillar Crawl" from 1959.  

One For The Weekend: Basa Basa Soundz

Here's the party-rockin' instrumental version of  "African Soul Power" off the just-reissued Homowo LP. 

Roger Daltrey vs. Garnett Mimms

King Tuff, Cut Worms, Orville Peck @ The Horseshoe, Wednesday

Don't miss Kyle Thomas performing songs from his new King Tuff album The Other tonight with Cut Worms opening.  

Watch The Pretty Things at Holland's Blokker Festival in 1965

Happy Arrival Day Sun Ra!

Remembering the great Sun Ra with a live Arkestra performance of Face The Music / Space Is The Place. 

Watch Tami Neilson's video for "Manitoba Sunrise At Motel 6"

Tami Neilson's new album SASSAFRASS! will be released by Outside Music on emerald green vinyl on June 1. 

Top Ten vs. Teenage Head

Listen to San Francisco garage bashers Top Ten take on Teenage Head's first album ripper Ain't Got No Sense.  

Michael Rault @ The Horseshoe, Tuesday

Michael Rault's new album It's A New Day Tonight is out now on Daptone's Wick Records subsidiary.

Edmonton-born and Montreal-based singer/songwriter Michael Rault began working on songs in earnest for It's A New Day Tonight after winding down the tour supporting his 2015 full-length Living Daylight, but getting to the point of having an album was a process.

"Musically it came out of a period of dissatisfaction, creatively and personally, as I found myself pushing against the limitations of my abilities and approaches to making music."

But those delays eventually paid off. As he was working on Tonight's songwriting, Rault kept entering the orbit of Wayne Gordon, the producer and head engineer at Brooklyn's legendary Daptone studio—first through opening stints for the late firebrand Charles Bradley, then while on tour with Aussie shredders King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Sending Gordon early sketches of some songs led to Rault heading to Daptone for what was initially going to be a two-week recording stint. Midway through that Gordon approached him about signing to the Daptone label's fledgling rock spinoff, Wick Records —and becoming the first Canadian member of the Daptone family. Signing with Wick also led to Rault finishing the record at Daptone and bringing Gordon on as co-producer.

Check out the video for "I'll Be There" off It's A New Day Tonight.

R.I.P. Reggie Lucas, 1953-2018

Stylish guitar slinger Reggie Lucas added fire to Miles Davis performances in the 70s. 

Lester Sterling & Stranger Cole vs. Kenny Graham's Afro-Cubists

Stanger Cole & Lester Sterling's reggae classic "Bangarang" was inspired by Kenny Graham's Bongo Chant from 1953. 

Whaddya mean you don't know The Guinness Cassanovas

Here's the Guinness Cassanovas covering an overlooked Booker T & The MGs' gem off the Uptight soundtrack.

Bush Tetras, Beechwood NYC, Left By Snakes @ The Rivoli, Saturday

Here's a vintage clip of the Bush Tetras' post-punk classic "Too Many Creeps" from 1980.

Overlooked synth-enhanced jams of Pierre Sandwidi reissued by Born Bad

Burkino Faso boss Pierre Sandwidi's rare joints circa 1978-82 are compiled on La Troubadour de la Savane out June 1st. 

Parquet Courts, Goat Girl @ The Phoenix, May 27

Parquet Courts wisely hired a real producer, Danger Mouse, to oversee the recording of their new Wide Awake! album.

One For The Weekend: Manzoor Ashraf

Time to get down with a crazy instrumental jam from Manzoor Ashraf's soundtrack for Arzoo from 1975.

Peter Case, Paul Luc @ The Dakota Tavern, Thursday

If you don't see Peter Case perform, you miss the amazing stories he tells between his great songs. 

Cord & Tish preview Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding

Cord Hosenbeck (Will Ferrell) and Tish Cattigan (Molly Shannon) are excited about covering this weekend's big event. 

Fever Ray @ Rebel, Thursday

Karin Dreijer will be performing "To The Moon And Back" along with other songs from Fever Ray's Plunge album. 

B-Side Wins Again: Glass Torpedoes

Hidden on the flipside of the Glass Torpedoes ho-hum "Someone Different" single from '79 is the fab surf-inspired ripper' "Heart Surgery"

Montreal's Red Mass releases Rat Race EP

Check out the 3-song ripper from Roy Vucino's Red Mass crew featuring Nick Flanagan on Aggressive Tendencies!

That time Dungen's Reine Fiske jammed with Wolf People

Here's Wolf People performing "All Returns" with Dungen guitar slinger Reine Fiske.

R.I.P. Glenn Branca, 1948-2018

Influential guitarist/composer Glenn Branca died of throat cancer Sunday night. Here's Alan Licht's obit from WIRE. 

Crazy cool soundtrack for Hal Jepsen's surf film A Sea For Yourself gets deluxe reissue treatment from Modern Harmonic

Watch The MC5 perform Black To Comm at Wayne State University in 1967

Here's Wayne Kramer and crew on "The Hippies" episode for Conversations In Depth hosted by Seymour Ricklin.

Happy Birthday Vic Flick!

Cheers to Vic Flick who played the original James Bond theme on his Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe.

The ARC Sound @ The Gaslight, Sunday

Since it's Canadian Music Week, go see Gord Cumming shake some action with Tim Armour and Gerry Rozon starting at 8:30 pm.  

Happy Birthday Gil Evans!

Remembering Toronto-born pianist/arranger Gil Evans on his day with "Las Vegas Tango" and "Miles Ahead"

Time to get ILL

"Stuck on a Loop" is off the transparent blue full-length We Are ILL from Manchester's ILL out now on Box Records. 

Mudhoney w/ Huttch, The Rathburns @ Lee's Palace, Saturday

Seattle's finest return to Toronto for a show a Lee's Palace tonight. Watch the 2012 Mudhoney doc I'm Now below. 

Quantic vs. Drake

Check out the cumbia-style revamp of Drake's Hot Line Bling courtesy of Quantic's Colombian Los Míticos crew.

Tav Falco's Panther Burns @ Buffalo's Mohawk Place, May 16

Check out Tav's version of the Jim Reeves classic He'll Have To Go followed by Blind Man and Train Kept A Rollin'

One For The Weekend: Boubacar Traoré

Here's Boubacar knocking out his 1963 classic "Mali Twist"

Happy Birthday Arthur Alexander

Remembering the late soul great Arthur Alexander on his day with the Norman Petty-produced You Don't Care. 

Lydia Lunch Retrovirus @ Hard Luck Bar, Thursday

Don't miss Lydia Lunch Retrovirus featuring Weasel Walter, Tim Dahl and Bob Bert. 

Vintage Turkish fuzz-funk session by Beyaz Kelebekler just released

Guerssen's Pharaway Sounds subsidiary just put out Beyaz Kelebekler's whumpin' Köln Sessions from 1976. 

Vancouver's Slow reunites @ The Phoenix, tonight

Hugely influential Vancouver crew Slow have regrouped for a CMW show with The Dirty Nil and Single Mothers. Doors at 7 pm.

Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto @ Lula Lounge, July 5

Get your early bird tickets for Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto right here.

Whaddya mean you don't know Impala

Before Scott Bomar became a soundtrack big wig, he was cutting instro tributes to Memphis eateries.  

Nick Smash "Gone Talking" @ The Lilian H. Smith Library, Thursday

On Thursday (May 10), Wavelength will continue its year-round Music Talk series with a deep dive into the little-known corners of Toronto music history. In association with the Toronto Public Library’s “Make Some Noise” series, Canadian Music Week and Myseum of Toronto, Wavelength presents a talk by UK-based writer/musician/publicist Nick Smash. A Toronto native, Smash was deeply involved in the city’s vibrant DIY post-punk scene in the early ‘80s, as the creator of the fanzine Smash It Up! and a member of the bands Rent Boys Inc. and the Dave Howard Singers. Nick Smash has called the U.K. home since the mid-’80s but continues to keep the memory of this vital era in Toronto independent music history alive and relevant.

Between 1979-86, a group of defiantly independent bands, also including A Neon Rome, Breeding Ground, Fifth Column, the Hunger Project, Kinetic Ideals, L’Etranger, Sturm Group, Tulpa, Vital Sines, the Woods Are Full of Cuckoos, Young Lions, and Youth Youth Youth, dominated Queen West clubs in the years after punk’s initial explosion, devoutly in opposition to their music’s commercialization as “new wave.” Heard mostly through self-published fanzines, cassettes, and campus radio at the time, these groups are now mostly left out of the historical record, discoverable only through used record bins and YouTube rips. Yet these bands laid the groundwork for the Toronto indie-music explosion, and their immediate descendants included civic icons Blue Rodeo, Change of Heart, Cowboy Junkies, Rheostatics, and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet.

This multi-media talk will reintroduce a new generation to this long-forgotten scene, as documented in Nick Smash’s 2015 self-published book, Alone and Gone: The Story of Toronto’s Post-Punk Underground, which is being reprinted in conjunction with this talk. Smash will also discuss a new venture to get this lost music heard by new ears in the 21st century.

NICK SMASH ON “GONE TALKING” - TORONTO POST-PUNK IN THE EARLY ‘80s

In the summer of 1977, I got a job at Music World on the corner of Yonge Street and Gould. It was while filling the bins with vinyl import singles from the UK that I got a taste of punk rock. An introduction to the world of underground fanzines and weekly copies of the NME soon inspired me to publish my own fanzine called Smash It Up.

The dingier clubs of Toronto beckoned and trudging up the terrifying staircase at the Turning Point, or negotiating the equally terrifying clientele of Larry’s Hideaway meant I was making connections and meeting people of a like minded DIY philosophy. It was an eye-opening experience, as the strict rules of punk rock soon fell away to the broader post-punk worldview.
Fanzines gave way to record-it-at-home tape zines, which led to a stint of percussive clattering in Rent Boys Inc. The inevitable move to London UK was soon followed by the band splitting up, which was followed by a busy year with The Dave Howard Singers.

A stint writing about hip-hop during 1986-89 introduced me to the core of the UK music machine and soon I found myself working at Island Records in their press office. Fast forward to 2010 and all those photos me and my brother Simon White took during the post-punk years were presented as large format posters at the Steam Whistle Brewery, for an exhibit called Toronto Calling. Writing about all those experiences for a self-published book called, Alone And Gone: The Story of Toronto’s Post Punk Underground, has now brought me to the Lillian H. Smith Library (239 College Street) on Thursday (May 10) from 7-8pm. Listen to some of Nick's faves from the archives on the Equalizing Distort blog right here.

Athenians Of Toronto vs. Lighthouse

In the Toronto battle for "One Fine Morning" supremacy, the Danforth-dwelling challengers get style points for singing in Greek. 

R.I.P. John "Jabo" Starks, 1938-2018

Here are a few of the hugely influential drummer's memorable moments as a member of the JBs.

Watch the one man band doc Let Me Be Your Band

Hasil Adkins & Jesco White share the spotlight in Derek & Heather Emerson's excellent examination of one man bands.

Happy Birthday Delia Derbyshire

Celebrating the birthday of the electronic music pioneer with Kara Blake's documentary The Delian Mode.