The Little Red Umbrella: music

CMW 2016: Pale Lips @ The Silver Dollar

WEDNESDAY – If you went looking for the graves of all the dead Ramones, dug them up, extracted their souls, washed those souls and dried them and carefully folded them for shipping to Canada, where they were infused into the living bodies of four women from Montreal, the band those women would then form would almost certainly sound a lot like Pale Lips. They play quick, furiously catchy punk songs — all hooks and distortion and tattoos and denim, with just a hint of the Beach Boys-y seaside vibe that the Ramones brought all the way across the continent from California to the dark and dingy clubs of New York City. And Pale Lips didn't exactly hide their influences during their Wednesday night show at the Silver Dollar, turning the Ramones' "Rock & Roll High School" into "Rock & Roll Dipshit"and referencing old timey jukebox rock & roll with shout outs to songs like "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Great Balls of Fire." There's plenty of the '50s and '60s and '70s in the Pale Lips — but it made for one of the best sets we saw at CMW in 2016.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2016 here.

Words by Adam Bunch, Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project and Toronto Historical Jukebox. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

Photos by Carmen Cheung, the Arts Editor for The Little Red Umbrella.

CMW 2016: Bend Sinister @ The Comfort Zone

WEDNESDAY – Few bands in Canada are more reliably awesome on stage than Bend Sinister are. And they proved it once again this Canadian Music Week. Their first set of the festival was a fairly low profile slot: late at night on a Wednesday, while most of the city slept. But in the basement of the old Hotel Waverley, bathed in the sickly blue light of the Comfort Zone, the Vancouver prog-rockers tore through a blistering series of songs — the kind of tunes that it's hard to believe were written in the 21st century, and not in the hey day of classic rock. Sweat-drenched headbands and raging keyboard solos; vicious leg kicks and vibrating tambourines. Given the timeslot, the audience was sparse — only about a couple dozen strong — but I'm not sure I've ever heard such a small crowd give such a big roar in response to a band. And Bend Sinister deserved it. Just as you'd expect.

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2016 here.

Meet The Band: Pins & Needles

Pins & Needles play the Silver Dollar at 8pm tonight (Wednesday, May 4) for Canadian Music Week. We originally published this interview with them April 23, 2014.

There might not be any band in Toronto with a better age-to-awesome ratio than Pins & Needles. They got together at Girls Rock Camp back in 2012 and they already count some of the city's best acts among their supporters — groups like The BB Guns and Patti Cake. "We're a mix between '50s doowop and garage rock," they explain when we asked them to describe their music. "Just picture loads of three-part harmonies, beachy riffs, some punk influences, some soul sprinkled in there, and some tinkling of '80s synth. Not sure if that gives a clear picture, but that means the more reason to check it out!"

A new, crowd-funded, debut EP will be coming within the next few months, but you won't have to wait that long to hear Pins & Needles for yourself. They'll be playing at May Cafe this Saturday night (April 26, 2014) as part of a fundraiser for Princess Margaret Hospital. All the details are on Facebook.

In the meantime, you can get to know them a little better with some live videos and a round of Five Questions right down here:

VITALS

Members: Deanna (Guitar and Vocals), Nastasia (Keytar and Vocals), Sabrina (Bass and Vocals) and Rebecca (Drums)

Hometown: Toronto

FIVE QUESTIONS

1. If you could open for one current band that you haven't played with before, who would it be?

R: I want to say The White Stripes, but since I can't I'm going to go with Jack White. That or The Dirty Projectors!

D: I would say The Strokes, or Best Coast.

N: Alive, would be Half Moon Run, because they seem so awesome and they play sick music. Dead, the Beatles before they were super super big. Because damn, who wouldn't want to hang with the Beatles?

S: Everyone has such good answers! Jack White would be unreal, the Strokes absolutely insane and the Beatles (?!) would be mind blowing. Anyone got connections?

2. If you could play one venue you've never played before, what would it be?

D: I would love to play The Opera House, because I've seen some great bands there and it's a gorgeous venue.

S: I think I want to play a big festival. It seems like such a cool experience and you would get to meet and see so many bands! In Toronto though I think I'd have to go with Sound Academy or the Phoenix, they're really good venues!

N: The one venue I desperately wanted to play was Lee's Palace, and we've sort of already done that... So.... Yeah... But the next step up for me would also be the Phoenix, definitely.

R: Stonehenge, the original rock concert.

3. If you absolutely had to get a face tattoo of album art from one record, which record would you want to have on your face for the rest of your life?

D: I would say either Elephant by The White Stripes or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles.

S: I feel like my taste in music changes every month and I don't have any albums that are classics to me! But for right now I guess I'll have to say Grimes because I just got her album on iTunes and the art is really cool.

N: Its a tie between the Velvet Underground's Banana Album, or Eagles's Hotel California. Just because both would make sick tattoos.

R: I want to stick The Cat Empire’s logo in the middle of my forehead!

4. What was the first record you ever bought? When was the last time you listened to it?

N: In all honesty the first record I ever owned was an original Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas Album. In the summer I would run around my grandmother's house in my bathing suit and scream "christmas time is here" at the top of my lungs. It was a dark time. I haven't listened to it since I was seven or eight.

R: My first was Arular by M.I.A. I just rekindled my love for it, so I'd say I listened to it less than 24 hours ago. However, when I was younger my mum asked me to pick out any album I wanted at the record store, and I picked out Delta 5’s Singles and Sessions mix. Haven’t listened to it since I was little… Maybe I should go do that now!

S: I think the first CD I ever got was Raven Simone, but the Cheetah Girls came shortly after and I think it had more impact. I'm a really cool person as you can see.

D: The first record I bought was Joan Jett and The Blackhearts I Love Rock And Roll, and I played it on my uncle's record player in Montreal.

5. If you could switch places with another musician in some type of "Freaky Friday" type incident, who would you want it to be?

D: Present day, it would be Leslie Feist for sure, because I think she's gorgeous and one of the most talented women out there.

ALL: * Simultaneous agreement. *

WATCH

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pinsandneedlestoronto

Twitter: www.twitter.com/5girls1band

Blog: pinsandneedlesband.tumblr.com

Instragram: www.instagram.com/pinsandneedlesband

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Meet The Band is a regular feature in which we introduce you to bands we like.

Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

Holy Shit Weaves' New (ish) Single Is Great

We're been a bit slow to come out of our winter hibernation this year, which means we've been unforgivably slow to listen to the new song from Toronto's wonderful weirdos in Weaves. But holy shit. "One More", which premiered on NPR back at the beginning of March, is one of the best tunes the band has released to date. Which is saying something — the bar has been set high by the distorted squeaks and squeals of songs like "Motorcycle." Pretty much every track Weaves has released has been one of our favourite tracks in recent years.

So if you haven't checked it out yourself yet, it's about time you listen to "One More":

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The Toronto Historical Jukebox: "Tired Of Waking Up Tired" by The Diodes

The Diodes may very well be the most important punk band in the history of Toronto. They were formed in 1976 — playing together at the Ontario College of Art just as the Queen West punk scene was about to become one of the greatest punk scenes on Earth. And The Diodes played a founding role.

It was The Diodes and The Viletones who quickly became the giants of the scene: their infamous rivalry pitted the art school background of The Diodes against the working class thuggery of The Viletones. But it was still a tightly-knit community. In 1977, The Diodes turned their rehearsal space in the basement of a small office building (on Duncan just south of Queen) into a punk club called the Crash 'N' Burn. That summer, they invited all the best punk bands in the city to come play — The Viletones included. For a few, brief, glorious months, bands like The Curse, The Dishes and Teenage Head shook the building to its foundations. But it didn't last: The Liberal Party of Ontario had an office upstairs; by the end of the summer, their complaints about the noise and rowdiness forced the club to shut down.

By then, word had gotten around. That August, The Diodes became the very first Toronto punk band to sign a deal with a major label. The year after that, they started playing a brand new song. "Tired Of Waking Up Tired" would prove to be one of the most popular tracks to ever come out of the Queen West punk scene. Chart even put it at #17 on their list of the Top 50 Canadian Singles Of All Time.

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Listen to more Queen Street punk here.

You can find links to buy Didoes records here.

Special thanks to Ralph Alfonso (The Diodes "manager, designer, lighting guy, roadie, publicist" and co-founder of the Crash 'N' Burn) for his help with this post.
You can listen to more songs from the Toronto Historical Jukebox here.

Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project and the Toronto Historical Jukebox. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

The Toronto Historical Jukebox: "Charlena" by Richie Knights & The Mid-Knights

This catchy tune from Richie Knight & The Mid-Knights was the very first #1 single in Canadian history. The band had been around since the late 1950s (originally formed with a different name and a different line-up), but as "Charlena" hit the airwaves during the spring of 1963, the group was launched into a whole new level of stardom. Now, they were one of the most famous bands in Canada. They were in high demand at high schools dances, got invited to play dance halls all over Southern Ontario, and even landed a couple of gigs at Maple Leafs Gardens — one of them opening for The Rolling Stones. Not only that, the fact that "Charlena" had climbed all the way up to the top of the CHUM Chart proved that Canadian bands could get air play too; the song marked the beginning of a whole new era for Canadian music.

And they didn't stop there. Richie Knight & The Mid-Knights were far from one hit wonders. After the success of "Charlena", they released a whole slew of excellent songs — from the rowdy rocker "That's Alright" to the slow burning ballad "You Hurt Me" to the bluesy chain-gang tune "Work Song."

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Listen to more songs from the Yonge Street strip here.

Photo via Garage Hangover.

Special thanks to Richie Knight & The Mid-Knights bassist Doug Chappell for his help with this post.

You can listen to more songs from the Toronto Historical Jukebox here.

Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project and the Toronto Historical Jukebox. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

NXNE 2015: The Best Of Our Photos

We saw dozens of bands during this year's North By Northeast — and during those brief periods when we were sober enough to hold a camera still, we took hundreds of photographs of them. Now that the dust has settled and our hangovers are distant, lovely memories compared the stress headaches of every day life, we've narrowed those photos down to our favourites. They've all been uploaded onto our Facebook page and you can check them all out right over here.

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Find all of our coverage of NXNE 2015 here.

NXNE 2015: Broken Social Scene (ish) @ Lee's Palace

THURSDAY – It was three in the morning by the time Kevin Drew stepped out onto the stage at Lee's Palace. By that point, the Paper Bag Records showcase celebrating their 100th release was already getting into its eighth hour. Many of the best bands playing anywhere at this year's North By Northeast had already taken the stage. Born Ruffians. PS I Love You. Young Rival. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan. Frog Eyes. Laura Barrett. Mozart's Sister. And it had all been building to this.

Drew stood behind his microphone and told a story. It was about his band, Broken Social Scene, and their first album, You Forgot It In People. It was about the moment that — without any exaggeration at all — changed Canadian music forever. Broken Social Scene's second release was Paper Bag's very first. And so it was Paper Bag who sent a copy of that album to Pitchfork to be reviewed. The 9.2 score and the glowing words that came with it not only launched BSS into international stardom, it heralded the beginning of a new age for Canadian indie music: the age of the Internet. With national borders less of a cultural barrier than ever before, bands from the northern half of our continent would finally get a chance to make it big without having to leave home. This was the age of Metric and of Stars and of Arcade Fire. And it all started with Paper Bag.

So it would be hard to imagine any more appropriate climax for the night than the one we got: Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning on stage together — along with some of the best talent our country has to offer. They were backed by Cuff The Duke; they were accompanied on vocals by the Luya's Jessie Stein and Young Galaxy's Catherine McCandless. It was the perfect three-song finale to one hell of a memorable night. "KC Accidental." "Lover's Spit." "Almost Crimes."

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Read all our coverage of NXNE 2015 here.

Words and photos by Adam Bunch, Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project and Toronto Historical Jukebox. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.

PUP Drop Yet Another Awesome Video

The Toronto punks in PUP have continued their awesome run of awesome music videos with some brand new animations to go along with "Dark Days." The new video — directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux and Chandler Levack — just dropped this morning. And this time you can have fun spotting all the cameos and shout outs to local folk like Pkew Pkew Pkew, The Dirty Nil, Vince Rice from Stella Ella Olam and photographer extraordinaire Yoshi Cooper among others. It's a little like Where's Waldo? if Waldo had a better sense of fashion and spent all his time on the road touring in a Canadian punk band. (Which, uh, now that we mention it, is totally a book we'd buy.)

Check it:

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NXNE 2015: Pet Sun @ The Silver Dollar

FRIDAY – We were pretty trashed by the time we stumbled into the Silver Dollar. Pet Sun were playing one of the late slots on Friday, taking the stage in the wee hours of the morning — that time of night when the number of beers you've had is more of an abstraction than a concrete figure. But trashed is a pretty good way to stumble into the Dollar. And it's a pretty good way to see Pet Sun, too. The Hamilton punks are a blur. A roar. An earthquake. A fist. A bloody fight in a parking lot you can't remember. The promise of a Saturday morning hangover made of fuzzy memories and purple bruises. They are a rising wave of electricity and distortion vibrating through the thick air of a hot room. They are loud. They are raw. And they are good.

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Read all our coverage of NXNE 2015 here.

NXNE 2015: Michael Rault @ The Garrison

SATURDAY – It wasn't so long ago that a Michael Rault show was a bit of a rare treat in Toronto. The retro rocker originally called Edmonton home, with thousands of kilometers between his catchy, '60s-inspired tunes and the bars of Queen West and the Ossington strip. But oh how things have changed. Rault made the move to Toronto a few years ago. And in the short time since, he has already become one of the most reliable staples of the local indie scene.

He delivered yet another solid set on North By Northeast's Saturday night, playing in the backroom of the Garrison. But he was, sadly, a little bit hobbled by an early set time: the sun was still high above the horizon; the room was only half full at best. The scheduling was a shame: Rault plays the kind of raucous garage rock that would turn a late night and a full room into a drunken sweaty mess of a party. Still, those who were at Garrison for his NXNE gig were treated to yet another display of Rault's seemingly endless supply of hooky tunes, climaxing with a blistering rendition of "Suckcess."

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Read all our coverage of NXNE 2015 here.