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We last wrote about Vancouver electro-pop outfit YOUNG LIARS with the release of their debut EP Homesick Future back in February – and if you haven’t heard this thing yet, you best get on it!

Preceding the album, the band initially put out a video for lead single Colours which showcased the song’s lyrics in a text-overlain silhouetted number. YL are now releasing the “official video” for Colours, which adds an interestingly BC element to the mix.

Filmed by the fine folks at Amazing Factory Productions, the video was shot at the aerially-suspended pedestrian overpass in Surrey, BC, and the lighting of the walkway makes for fitting scenery in the video (that’s actually the colours of the night-time bridge lighting) – check it out below.

No word on current live show dates/tours from this Vancouver five-piece, though they WILL be hitting Toronto for two NXNE 2012 dates in June (see below).

Upcoming Dates:

2012-06-14 – 3AM @ The Dakota Tavern
2012-06-16 – 12AM @ The Painted Lady

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Twelve years ago, Allyson Baker felt a big change calling and made the move from her native Toronto to the cosmopolitan hills of San Francisco. As a member of Toronto punkers TEEN CRUD COMBO, Allyson felt that she had done all she could at the time within the Toronto music scene, and she felt that to pursue her aspiration of making music her career she needed to leave the city. It looks as though the move paid off – on her most recent return to her hometown Allyson was accompanied by her new band, DIRTY GHOSTS, as part of their month-long North American tour to promote their debut album, Metal Moon.

To be exact, DIRTY GHOSTS are not really a ‘new’ band. Allyson has been working on the project for about five years, with the writing of the songs starting as a personal outlet. After the frustration of some failed bands, she was trying to take a step back from the pressure she had put on herself to succeed; in fact, she actively tried to quit music. However Allyson found she still needed to write, and some experimentation with her friend and former PARCHMAN FARM band member Carson Binks produced the early stages of DIRTY GHOSTS. Slowly but surely, an unrelenting drive to be part of a successful band returned to Allyson.

“I started to feel like I wanted to play live again; get a band going; be active. All the things I was avoiding when I started DIRTY GHOSTS. I just lost the desire to do all that stuff after doing it for so long: just your typical burnout. But after about four years it started to bubble back up again.”

She enlisted the help of a drummer, who before the recording of the album, quit. This paved the way for her then-husband and major inspiration in the initial recording stages of the project, AESOP ROCK, to step in, adding drum loops and production touches to the album. However, on their recent tour, DIRTY GHOSTS featured neither AESOP ROCK nor Carson Binks, but instead a new line up of Erin McDermott, Ben Tuttle, and Nick Andre.

“All the music I listen to gets in my head and a lot of times when I listen to something I think, ‘ugh I wanna try that’, and that’s how it started; it’s ‘record collector music’ I guess.”

“With this band I’ve learned that everything can change in a second. The plan is to have no plan. I’ve already started working on writing the next record and things with the live band are going great so the idea is we’re a band now and we’ll all be in the studio doing the next record.”

DIRTY GHOSTS’ debut album, Metal Moon, features a hybrid sound of Allyson’s punk and guitar background fused with slick production beats, late 60s funk, 70s rock, post-punk, new wave, and R&B. As Allyson says, “All the music I listen to gets in my head and a lot of times when I listen to something I think, ‘ugh I wanna try that’, and that’s how it started; it’s ‘record collector music’ I guess.”

So how does the album’s sound, with its production flares and chugging drum loops, translate to the guitar/bass/drums/keys line-up of DIRTY GHOSTS’ live show? Allyson explains, “The live show is pretty high-energy and doesn’t have the subtleties of the record that you’d hear in your headphones. We try to get as much of that as we can in the live set but it’s definitely more ‘big and rock’ live.”

DIRTY GHOSTS have just finished a month-long, 27-date stint touring their live show across the continent. Despite narrowly escaping a violent hail storm in Texas that claimed their tour van, (“We had some pretty stiff drinks at the hotel at the end of that night!”), the band made it to the Silver Dollar in Toronto as part of their tour. Allyson says it was one of her standout shows on the tour.

“My family and lots of old pals came out – even high school friends showed up that I didn’t expect to see – and Mark Pesci put on the show who’s an old friend too. It was definitely a special show. When we played in Ottawa it was the same scenario for Erin because that’s her hometown. Montreal and Vancouver were great too. It was good vibes in Canada; I’m very much looking forward to going back there again.”

It seems Canada plays an important part in the life of DIRTY GHOSTS. The band’s name is an acknowledgement to a personal joke among friends from Allyson’s time in Toronto, and references can be found in both TEEN CRUD COMBO and PARCHMAN FARM before the name was resurrected in full for this project. The band also maintains its Canadian ties through its record label, Last Gang Records. The Toronto-based label, which helped launch such Canadian acts as METRIC, MSTRKRFT, DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, and CRYSTAL CASTLES, became involved with the release of Metal Moon after an inadvertent reach-out by Allyson.

“I called an old friend of mine to see if he had any leads on parties for SXSW last year. He didn’t but he told me he was an A&R for Last Gang and started asking me about my band. So I wound up sending him the record and that’s how it happened. Last Gang are awesome and I’m really stoked to be with a label from Toronto.”

“The live show is pretty high-energy and doesn’t have the subtleties of the record that you’d hear in your headphones. We try to get as much of that as we can in the live set but it’s definitely more ‘big and rock’ live.”

The label seems like a perfect fit for the band’s first album and its gritty-yet-polished electro-hip hop-rock stylings. Now that DIRTY GHOSTS have a set lineup with a slightly different instrumentation to their record, it will be interesting to see what direction their new compositions take. Allyson says the closest the band has come to writing new material was on tour, when they were “listening to music and talking about things we wanna try on the next record. I’m [Allyson] super excited to get to work on it.”

Despite the fact Metal Moon was released a mere four months ago and DIRTY GHOSTS have just finished an extensive and busy tour, Allyson is excited and energized with her new band and is eager to do it all again.

“[Touring] was so great – I hadn’t done it in so long and it was so fun to do with Erin, Ben and Nick. They’re all friends first so that really makes it feel like a vacation in a way; we’re all ready to go back out, even though we’ve only been back a few days. In terms of style, there are a lot of things I’m excited to try on the next record, and [to make] a record that doesn’t stretch over a 4-5 year period; it’s hard to have all the songs relate when they’ve been made so far apart from each other. It did show me that people don’t really give a shit if all your songs make sense next to each other or not, as long as people like them.”

You can catch Dirty Ghosts when they return to Canada to play Calgary’s Sled Island Festival in June – in the meantime you can read more of the band’s tour antics on their blog.

Image via Last Gang Records

Montreal folk-rockers Wind Up Radio Sessions have been on our radar for some time now. In fact, the band played one of our showcases here in Toronto earlier in the year. So, obviously we like what these guys are up too!

With that said, the band is set to drop their sophomore effort, Bird Eyes on May 22nd and we thought you should know about it. The first track off the LP, Little Bird, is up for streaming in the embed below and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll check it out.

Following the release, the boys will embark on a cross-Canada tour – live dates are below.

For more on Wind Up Radio Sessions, hit them up on Facebook.

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Tribal-pop fans rejoice, Toronto trailblazers BRAVESTATION have announced the release of their debut LP Giants & Dreamers on July 10th.

The band teased fans back in February with the release of the album’s first single Signs of the Civilized, and now they’ve just released a second single, Tides of the Summit. Both songs are available as free downloads on their Bandcamp, where you can also pre-order the album.

BRAVESTATION’s intriguing 80′s tinged “quirky tribal pop” has caught the attention of international tastemakers, as they played the Evolution Festival mainstage with IGGY POP AND THE STOOGES and THE KILLS on their UK tour last summer. More recently they played a bustling showcase at The Horseshoe Tavern for CMW.

The Giants & Dreamers release party will be at The Drake Underground on Sat, July 7th. We’ll certainly be there, will you?

NEON INDIAN / LEMONADE / SILENT DIANE

Have you ever done your best to enjoy something and just not been able to? It’s heartbreaking. Unfortunately that’s what happened last Tuesday at The Phoenix as a trio of synth-pop bands from the States brought their music to Toronto.

Let me be clear here; it wasn’t all bad, and NEON INDIAN actually put on quite a good set. But I digress: let me start at the beginning.

SILENT DIANE was the first band up. They’re a two-piece consisting of female vocals/synth and bass; samples fill in the rest. They tend towards mid-tempo tunes, and their most distinctive aspect was their chest-vibrating kick drum samples.

Unfortunately for a band that is focused on moving a crowd, The Phoenix didn’t seem too receptive, bordering on indifference. The band was also a little passive, largely due to the fact that they had almost no stage space (they were surrounded by synths from the later bands). They succumbed to a common electro-act issue where it just didn’t feel “real” enough – too much of the meat of their songs were in the samples, not the live playing. That being said, when they managed to get a good drum and bassline going it was impressive, so don’t rule them out completely.

Next up was LEMONADE; this is where the story gets weird. I was immediately interested as the drummer set up a hybrid acoustic/electric standing kit in the front, complete with roto-toms and sample pads. Unfortunately, that interest was short-lived.

As soon as they launched into the first song the audience was confronted with the WORST live sound that I have ever heard at a professional gig: the vocals were completely inaudible, and the percussion samples the drummer spent most of his time triggering were so low that his sticks hitting the rubber sample pads were almost as audible as the triggered hits themselves. To quote an audience member I overheard, “It was like watching Rock Band.”

Now, I don’t want to be the cynical reviewer here – I REALLY tried to like these guys. From what I could tell through the distorted mix, they were actually quite good! They had a very interesting mix of upbeat synth-pop and non-traditional world beats, and their recorded music is excellent. However, the sound mix just could not be forgiven and the crowd spent the majority of the set talking incredulously amongst themselves. For a touring act coming through The Phoenix, it was completely unacceptable.

Needless to say, that whole affair put a damper on things and the crowd was in a weird mood before NEON INDIAN’s set. Again I was intrigued by the gear on display; in evidence were classic Simmonds drum pads and a gorgeous mini analog-synth.

The band took the stage to a dramatic opening of big ambient synth riffs and an elaborate stage set-piece complete with circuit boards, fog machines and light displays. When they finally launched into the first song, to the relief of the crowd, they had a large, full sound. The vocals were still mostly unintelligible, but the audience didn’t seem to mind and threw themselves into dancing enough to make up for the previous two acts.

There was a lot of neat stuff on display here. The second song made liberal use of a huge growling synth bass that left me shaking at my very core – in fact, the “wall of synth” effect seemed to be a common element of many NEON INDIAN songs.

Alan Palomo – the frontman and brains of the operation – made for a good entertainer, as he seemed to slink around the stage (and I mean that in the best way possible), showcasing some sweet dance moves that had the crowd smiling. The way his vocals blended with the oft-quirky music had me drawing DELOREAN comparisons.

The band played quite a long set that, unlike most acts, seemed to continually get stronger as the night went on. A highlight was Polish Girl, the band’s biggest hit and a kooky little dance number that turned the area in front of the stage into a pit.

By the end of the set the songs had definitely started to blend into each other, and a more concise set would probably serve them better, but the audience seemed to love every minute of it. I did come away from it feeling that there had been something missing that held them back from being truly memorable. That being said, it was an entertaining show and NEON INDIAN is certainly a strong young act that can only go up from here.

Photos by LIZ GARERI

Writing a review of one’s favourite band is always a hard thing to do. Separating your love and excitement from information and facts, while at the same time painting a picture for your readers of the show you just saw is quite difficult – you want to do justice, but you can’t find the words to explain. This is how I feel writing about THE DRUMS.

This all-male cast hailing from Brooklyn, NY played to a packed house at The Phoenix on the night in question, but rest assured and keep reading: this isn’t your typical boy-band.

Touring with their new album Portamento – which they released in late 2011 – THE DRUMS serenaded the crowd in a very nonchalant style. Opening the show with What You Were and Best Friend, lead singer Jonathan Pierce did his ‘thang’ up on stage with his hipster bowl haircut and erratic dance movements as the band backed his vocals, not missing a beat.

One thing I noticed about this indie pop band’s new album is the writing style. Coming off their first EP Summertime!, which was chalked-full of more fun, beach-inspired tunes, the band made the switch to a more honest and open lyric style, singing about life experiences and things that can resonate with us.

Continuing the show with Money and I Need A Doctor – both new songs – there wasn’t a body in the eclectic audience not moving. Everyone was trying to imitate Pierce’s unique dance style, myself included; guilty as charged. When they played How It Ended it was clear that each of the songs off Portamento had history and was likely inspired by their own personal life experiences – a sign that these boys are growing up, and thankfully I feel like I’ve been part of the ride right from the beginning.

They closed the show with a hit called Days Go By only to be summoned back out by hundreds of cheering fans for an encore – and how could they say no, they hadn’t played the song everyone came to hear: Let’s Go Surfing.

All in all, despite the fact that the only thing to watch out of five guys up on stage was the swaying hips of a lead singer (which is never a bad things in my books), THE DRUMS rocked The Phoenix with a little taste of the beach, and left behind the hope for a wicked summer after a brutal winter. Keep it up boys!

- Photos by DAVID MARSKELL

We last caught up with Toronto pop-rock trio ATTAGIRL back in the fall as they were rocking the stage at Rancho Relaxo and circling their debut EP Basement Tracks. A little over a year since that dropped (in April 2011) the three-piece is getting set to debut their latest effort The Cruelest Month.

Recorded/mixed by Mitch Girio and mastered by Richard G. Benoit, the four-track EP evokes a slightly reverbed + echo-y tone that sounds like it might have been recorded live off the floor. It has a little 50s Grease-motif about it and it’s heavy in the guitar mid-tones: ultimately it sounds pretty slick production-wise, but not in an overdone way… it’d probably be killer on vinyl: check it out below.

ATTAGIRL is set to drop The Cruelest Month at an album release show this-coming Friday (May 25th, 2012) at The Silver Dollar. Fellow Torontonians INVASIONS, REBEL REBEL, and MOST PEOPLE are also along for the ride – so for a $10 cover charge and a free EP at the door you can’t really go wrong.

The iM is pleased to announce we’re once again teaming up with Steam Whistle brewery for more great CAN-CON rock.

UNSIGNED #22 goes down Friday, June 1st at the Steam Whistle Brewery and features Toronto’s WILDERNESS OF MANITOBA, Ottawa’s AMOS THE TRANSPARENT, and Toronto’s CAI.RO. As always, doors open at 8 PM and it’ll cost you the low-LOW price of $5 at the door with proceeds from ticket sales go towards the Artists’ Health Centre Foundation.

Now’s your chance to get in on the action – ENTER TO WIN a Steam Whistle UNSIGNED Prize Pack including two (2) tickets to the show (and a few refreshment tickets), a pair of brewery tour passes, and a bunch of Steam Whistle swag.

TO ENTER:

Drop us your name and contact info in the entry form below! Contest closes Sunday May 27th, winners will be contacted May 28th.

The Lowdown:

Who: CAI.RO, AMOS THE TRANSPARENT, WILDERNESS OF MANITOBA
What: Steam Whistle UNSIGNED #22
When: Friday, June 1st 2012, 8PM
Where: Steam Whistle Brewery, 255 Bremner (across the street from the CN Tower)
MORE INFO: Event Info HERE

CLICK HERE For full contest rules and regulations. Don't worry... they're not ridiculous.

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There’s a new band in town! If you’re a fan of lo-fi garage pop, you’re in luck, because STELLA ELLA OLA is the newest entry in the Toronto scene.

The band itself is a web of current local acts, featuring brothers Jake and Nick Boyd (of HOLLERADO), Anna Douris, and Vince Rice (of ATOM DIVISION – which itself features HOLLERADO member Dean Baxter). It’s an interesting mix, to say the least.

The band just released a free self-titled EP on their Bandcamp on May 13th, produced by Graham Wright. The album has already seen fair amount of attention, including positive comments from members of bands such as TOPANGA and THE ELWINS. We like what we hear too, especially the irreverence of opening track Little Black Rope.

So give the EP a listen in the embed below and then head on over to the band’s first show on Sat, May 26th at Cinecycle where they are supported by Graham Wright and Dangerband!

The iM is back @ The Silver Dollar for the month of June!

Join us on Friday, June 1st for a night of escalating electronic rock intensity – going through all the realms of electro-rock including ambient/synth/dubstep/garage/industrial.

Yes electro-garage-rock is a thing. It is awesome.

Doors open at 9PM, music starts around 9:45PM and cover is $6.

The Details:

Who: MACHINEFIEND / OPOPO / ELEKTROTANK / EMORIE
When: Friday, June 1st, 2012 – 9PM ($6)
Where: The Silver Dollar – 486 Spadina Ave. | TORONTO
MORE INFO: Facebook Event HERE