The Little Red Umbrella: Search results for dwayne gretzky

Dwayne Gretzky Play On A Boat — This Friday

One our of very favourite memories from last September was the Young Lions Music Club boat cruise. Downstairs (what do they call that on a boat? down the hatch? below deck? you know, the part where all the poor people died on the Titanic) there was the live music of Dwayne Gretzky and Stella Ella Ola. It was the first time we'd seen either band, who both quickly found their way into our hearts. Meanwhile, upstairs (above deck? up the hatch? you know, the part where pirates have their sword fights) there was a full-on dance party DJed by The Smiths' Andy Rourke. The whole night ruled.
This year, they're doing it again. The super-group cover band Dwayne Gretzky will be back, playing a setlist that usually includes everything from Queen to the Jackson 5 to Fleetwood Mac. And the Young Lions Music Club's own Summer Fling DJs will be dropping their dance-happy tunes. It promises to be a pretty fun night on the high seas of Lake Ontario.

You can pick up your ticket ~~online for $20 here or~~ ~~in person from Soundscapes or Rotate This, they're sold out online~~ if you're lucky, through a post on the Facebook invite wall here.

Once you've done that, you can start getting excited with the Dwayne Gretzky-themed edition of our Songs You Can Dance Around Your Apartment To podcast right on over here.

Photo: Toronto Harbour by Adam Bunch

Dwayne Gretzky Does Fleetwood Mac: The Movie

A couple of months ago, Toronto-based super-group cover band Dwayne Gretzky played the entirety of Fleetwood Mac's greatest album, Rumours — on the very same night that Fleetwood Mac were playing the Air Canada Centre. It was a crazy-awesome night. And the guys at Humble Empire — the same fellows behind Live In Bellwoods — were there to capture it all on video. They recently released their footage as a twenty-minute short film. If you were there that night, it's a great way to re-live the awesome. If not, it's a great way to get excited about Dwayne Gretzky's next show, which is happening tonight. They're playing an old power plant in the Junction with Golden Dogs, Jumple, street food, circus performers and a whole whack of craft beer as part of Ontario Craft Beer Week. It's called Strange Brew, it's $20, and while it's officially sold out, you still have a chance of making it in if you show up ~~at 10:15, just before the unused guestlist spots get turned into more tickets~~ for 8pm. It's a Young Lions Music Club joint. Facebook deets here.

And here's the film:

Songs You Can Dance Around Your Apartment To, Dwayne Gretzky Edition

Fleetwood Mac are in town on Tuesday, but the real party is going to be at the Great Hall where Torontonian supergroup Dwayne Gretzky will be covering the entirety of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. In honour of the event, we've got a special Dwayne Gretzky edition of the podcast filled with songs they've covered: Elvis Costello, The Stones, Van Morrison & more.

TRACKLIST

1. "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5
2. "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello
3. "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet
4. "Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones
5. "Suffragette City" by David Bowie
6. "Born To Run" by Bruce Springsteen
7. "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon
8. "Second Hands News" by Fleetwood Mac
9. "Domino" by Van Morrison
10. "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads
11. "Lovefool" by The Cardigans
12. "Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO

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Compiled 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.

Dwayne Gretzky Cover Fleetwood Mac (And Prove Toronto Can Be Fun)

Once upon a time, when we younger and much more foolish, the words "cover band" made us think of middle-aged men playing crappy versions of Lynyrd Skynyrd songs in a dive bar selling watered down beer so they didn't have to go home to their families. But over the last few years, thanks to some local supergroups, that's all changed. Turns out that if you get a bunch of kickass young musicians playing kickass songs in a packed room full of drunken young people, cover bands kind of rule. It can make for one hell of a party — and everyone knows the words.

Toronto might have a reputation for being a city full of arm-crossers — for being too reserved to ever dance and jump and sing-along and just generally have unironic fun somewhere music is being played. But anyone who has ever felt the floor at Sneaky Dee's buckle under the weight of a crowd jumping along to Sheezer's cover of "Buddy Holly", or seen Loving In The Name Of pack the Great Hall from wall to wall with people singing Sinead O'Connor at the top of their lungs, knows there are plenty of people here who would rather have fun than take themselves too seriously.

Which brings us to Dwayne Gretzky. This particular Torontonian cover band supergroup brings together a rotating cast of some of our favourite local musicians: Allie Hughes, Robin Hatch (who's also in Sheezer), plus members of Sweet Thing, Arkells, July Talk, and Our Lady Peace among others. They cover some of the best and most fun songs ever written, from The Jackson 5 to Queen to Elvis Costello to The Cardigans to Pixies to Talking Heads to the Boss. And maybe some Mariah Carey and "No Diggity" too.

On Tuesday, Dwayne Gretzky are taking cover-band-edness to the next level. They'll be at the Great Hall, playing the entirety of Fleetwood Mac's 1977 masterpiece Rumours on the very same night Fleetwood Mac are playing the ACC. And they'll follow it up with some of their usual covers.

Last we heard, there were still tickets left — but only a few. You can check out the Facebook invite here or buy tickets from Ticketfly here.

We've also got an entire Songs You Can Dance Around Your Apartment To podcast inspired by the band, filled with songs they've been known to cover. You can stream it or download it here.

Gettin' drunk on a Tuesday, y'all!

Shit You Should See At NXNE 2012

Well, here we go again. 780 bands. Dozens of venues. More booze and drugs and dancing than at Lindsay Lohan's Sweet 16. All of which are perfect examples of the kind of thing that will get Little Red Umbrella editors to take some time off of work, forsake sleep, and send their livers termination notices. Just like last year, we'll be out in full force throughout the festival, posting photos and reviews as we go. You'll find all our coverage here (including the NXNE preview edition of our Songs You Can Dance Around Your Apartment To podcast, which we've already posted here). We'll be tweeting it up, too. You can follow us @LittleRedU.

During the afternoons, we'll be in Trinity Bellwoods Park on Queen Street West, tall boys in hand, enjoying the Great Heart Festival. That's the new name for the free acoustic shows put on by the Young Lions Music Club and Live In Bellwoods peeps. (Check out our photos from last year's edition here.) This year, as usual, they've put together an exceptionally exceptional line-up of artists, including Julie Doiron, Luke Lalonde from Born Ruffians, The Elwins, Paper Lions, Army Girls, Dwayne Gretzky, Michael Rault, Julie Fader and more. (You can check out all the info on Facebook here.)

And this year's festival also includes some great comedy acts. The BOOM, featuring Little Red Umbrella Variety Spectacular alumni Desiree Lavoy-Dorsch and Deborah Etta Robinson, are bringing their sketch comedy to Lot 100 on Thursday night. And Lavoy-Dorsch is also doing stand up there on Friday.

As for the main event — the nightly NXNE showcases — we're posting some of the stuff we're most excited about below. You can also check out the full schedule here. Wristbands ($50 for the whole festival; $25 for one day) and individual tickets are on sale here.

WEDNESDAY

Army Girls (9pm) at The Supermarket
Tomboyfriend (10pm) at The Boat
Enjoy Your Pumas (9pm) at The El Mocambo
Charlotte Cornfield (11pm) & Jeff Pinto (1am) at The Cameron House

Tomboyfriend! The first time we ever saw the Toronto art rockers live was at NXNE last year. They've quickly become one of favourite bands — they even played the inaugural edition of the Little Red Umbrella Variety Spectacular back in October. So we'll be there for sure on Wendesday night when they take the stage at everyone's favourite nautically-themed Portuguese Kensington Market restaurant, The Boat.

But that's not all. Earlier in the night, Enjoy Your Pumas, the Winnipeg indie rockers we interviewed just the other day, will be playing the club we still can't help but think of as the place where Margaret Trudeau partied with The Rolling Stones: The El Mocambo. Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, Army Girls will be taking the stage at The Supermarket.

If you're looking for something a little more folksy, we recommend The Cameron House. Hands & Teeth's Jeff Pinto will playing solo at 1am on a bill that also includes the excellent singer-songwriteringness of Charlotte Cornfield.

MP3: "The Power" by Army Girls
MP3: "Swayze" by Enjoy Your Pumas
MP3: "Alexander McQueen" by Tomboyfriend
MP3: "Skank" by Tomboyfriend
READ: Our review of Tomboyfriend at NXNE 2011
MP3: "The Colour" by Charlotte Cornfield

WATCH: Charlotte Cornfield perform "Big Volcano, Small Town"

THURSDAY

Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers (9pm), Hooded Fang (10pm), Unknown Mortal Orchestra (midnight) & Bran Van 3000 (1am) at The Horseshoe
Honheehonhee (1am) & Les Breastfeeders (3am) at Sneaky Dee's

Michael Rault (12am) at The Dakota

Moon King (9pm) at Wrongbar
Army Girls (10pm) at The El Mocambo
Hands & Teeth (10pm) at The Silver Dollar
Whale Tooth (12pm) at The Great Hall

The festival gets into full swing on Thursday night and The 'Shoe has a particularly exciting line-up. Toronto's own hook-happy indie rockers Hooded Fang (who just made our second straight Polaris Prize ballot) hit the stage right after beard-happy folk rockers Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers. Then, at midnight, Portland's Unknown Mortal Orchestra play their oh-so-popular lo-fi pscyh-rock followed by the holy-crap-are-they-seriously-playing-The-Horseshoe-?! Bran Van 3000. (Who you remember from back in 1997 when they sang about drinking in L.A.)

If '90s nostalgia isn't your thing, Sneaky Dee's late night line-up features a couple of kickass bands rocking into the wee hours. Honheehonhee delivered one of favourite sets during Canadian Music Week. And now they're back for NXNE, sharing a bill with the francophone garage rock of Les Breastfeeders.

Meanwhile, a bunch of awesome local acts are playing all over the city. Former Spiral Beachers Daniel Woodhead and Maddy Wilde bring their new project, Moon King, to Wrongbar. The recently-moved-from-here-Edmonton Michael Rault takes his '60s throwback tunes to The Dakota. And the city's two sexiest dental-themed bands — Hands & Teeth and Whale Tooth — play The Silver Dollar and The Great Hall respectively. Plus, if you missed Army Girls on Wednesday night, you'll get another chance to catch them at The El Mo.

READ: Our interview with Ben Caplan
MP3: "Laughing" by Hooded Fang
READ: Our review of Hooded Fang at Canadian Music Week
MP3: "Thought Ballune" by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
MP3: "Drinking in L.A." by Bran Van 3000
MP3: "A Is For Animal" by Honheehonhee
READ: Our interview with Honheehonhee
MP3: "Ce Ne Sera Pas Un Jour Comme Les Autres" by Les Breastfeeders
MP3: "Theme For Moon King" by Moon King
MP3: "It'll Hurt You, Too" by Michael Rault
MP3: "Hunting Season" by Hands And Teeth
READ: Our interview with Hands And Teeth
READ: Our review of Hands And Teeth at North By Northeast 2011
MP3: "Hibernation Song" by Whale Tooth
READ: Our review of Whale Tooth at Canadian Music Week

FRIDAY

Christien Summers (8pm), Paper Lions (12am), Dwayne Gretzky (2am) at The El Mocambo
Hooded Fang (10pm) & Parlovr (11pm) at The Silver Dollar
Phedre (12am) at Sneaky Dee's
Modernboys Moderngirls (2am) at The Hideout

Anyone who was at the most recent Little Red Umbrella Variety Spectacular knows just how good Christien Summers are. But their dance-friendly indie disco tunes are only one part of the Friday night line-up at The El Mocambo. The Young Lions Music Club takes over the ground floor for their showcase and along with Christien Summers, they've got one of the catchiest bands in Canada, Paper Lions, and one of the city's finest supergroups, Dwayne Gretzky, playing later in the evening.

While that's going on, just a few doors up the street Hooded Fang will be following their Thursday night set with a Friday night performance at The Silver Dollar, followed by Parlovr. Phedre will be playing a few blocks away at Sneaks. And Modernboys Moderngirls will be doing their thing down on Queen West.

MP3: "Shoot The Breeze" by Christien Summers
READ: Our interview with Christien Summers
READ: Our review of Christien Summers at Canadian Music Week
MP3: "Lost The War" by Paper Lions
READ: Our interview with Paper Lions
MP3: "Do You Remember?" by Parlovr
MP3: "In Decay" by Phedre
MP3: "My Baby Says Boy, Don't You Ever Leave Me" by Modernboys Moderngirls
MP3: "On The Line" by Modernboys Moderngirls

SATURDAY

of Montreal (7pm), Portugal. The Man (8pm) & The Flaming Lips (9pm) at Yonge & Dundas Square

Topanga (12am) at The Garrison
Christien Summers (1am) at The Cameron House

The festival's biggest buzz in indie rock circles is, of course, about the free Flaming Lips show on Saturday night. They'll be taking the stage after a day of music at Yonge & Dundas Square, immediately following sets by the grammatically confusing of Montreal and Portugal. The Man. And there's good reason for all the excitement. It'll be preeeeeetty interesting to see how The Lips' confetti- and giant hamster ball-oriented theatrics play in Toronto's billboard-laden answer to Times Square and Piccadilly Circus.

Once the fun outside the Eaton Centre is over, we'll be heading to The Garrison to finally catch a show by one of the city's newest shout-along indie rock groups, Topanga. So far, every time we've shown up, they've packed the place so tight we couldn't even get in.

Of course, if do we get turned away at the door yet again, there's always Christien Summers. They'll be playing a second NXNE set, this time at The Cameron House.

MP3: "Disconnect The Dots" by of Montreal
MP3: "So American" by Portugal. The Man
MP3: "The W.A.N.D." by The Flaming Lips
MP3: "Do You Realize??" by The Flaming Lips
MP3: "Lionheart" by Topanga
MP3: "Back Against The Wall" by Topanga

SUNDAY
Raekwon & Ghostface Killah (9pm) at Yonge & Dundas Square
The BB Guns (11pm) at The Crawford

By the time NXNE's Sunday night rolls around, we're usually in the mood for a long stay at the Betty Ford Clinic, rather than dragging our liquor-soaked corpses out for yet another night of live music. But the festival organizers don't seem to be interested in helping us to recover for our additions. They're keeping what may very well be their biggest booking coup for the verrrrry last moment. Former Wu-Tang Clan MCs Raekwon and Ghostface Killah play Yonge & Dundas Square at 9pm. That's not the kind of thing anyone with any interest in hop hop is going to want to miss.

If you're looking for more indie rock, may we suggest you check out the women of The BB Guns? They'll be bringing their garage rock to The Crawford at 11pm.

MP3: "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit" by Wu-Tang Clan
MP3: "(She Thinks She's) So Soho" by The BB Guns
MP3: "Mystery Girl" by The BB Guns

Once the festival starts, you'll be able to find all of our coverage right here. And again, you can check out the full schedule here, get wristbands and individual tickets here.

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Photo: Maddy Wilde of Moon King (performing with ALX at CMW) by Carmen Cheung

Posted by Adam Bunch

NXNE 2012: Live in Bellwoods - Day Three

SATURDAY — One of our very favourite parts of North By Northeast every year is the line-up of daytime shows in Trinity Bellwoods Park. They're organized by the Live In Bellwoods fellows with our little red friends over at the Young Lions Music Club. And this year, they've given it all a brand new name: The Great Heart Festival. Day Three happened Saturday afternoon in the great grass bowl in the heart of the park, with acoustic sets from Paper Lions, Dwayne Gretzky, Ben Caplan and more.

You'll find our photos (and a video) from Day One here. Day Two is here.

The White Buffalo

Nicholas Doubleyou & The B-Squad

Paper Lions

Ben Caplan

Ryan O'Reilly

Dwayne Gretzky

Photos by Melanie Baresic.

Day One is here. Day Two is here. Find all of our NXNE coverage here.

Melanie Baresic is a Toronto-based freelance photographer with a passion for high fashion and experimentation. Be it quirky or beautiful, she can shoot it all and wants to do it all. You can reach her by e-mail at mel@melaniebaresic.com and see more of her work here.

Dwayne Gretzky Do The '90s — And We're Giving Away Tickets!

This Friday night, Toronto’s greatest super-group cover-band named in honour of a hockey player (sorry Bobby Roar) will be taking the stage at the Phoenix Concert Theatre. Hot off a successful residency at the Horseshoe — where they played sets full of Beatles tunes, love songs, and the entirely of The Band’s Last Waltz among other things — this time around, they’ll be playing hits from the 1990s. Big Shiny Dwayne. You can find the details on Facebook.

As you might expect, something this awesome will soon be sold out, but fear not: thanks to our friends at the Young Lions Music Club, The Little Red Umbrella has a pair of tickets to give away. For a chance to win them, just follow us on Twitter @LittleRedU and tweet us with your favourite song from the first volume of Big Shiny Tunes. We’ll pick the winner at random from all the entries we get by ~~5pm tomorrow (Wednesday, April 16)~~ noon on Thursday, April 17 and — should you be the lucky follower — we’ll get at you with the deets.

CMW 2015: W Darling @ Tattoo

SATURDAY — It's always a good sign when an act arrives on stage and the keyboard player turns out to be Robin Hatch. We've loved pretty much every project we've ever seen her involved with, including the Toronto's best cover bands: Sheezer and Dwayne Gretzky. But under the lights of Tattoo on the Saturday night at this year's Canadian Music Week, she was backing another exciting local talent. W. Darling is relatively new to the scene, but already boasts a barn-burning guest vocal on an epic Bassnectar tune. And she just so happens to be the daughter of a certain guitar-playing, beard-boasting, log-crawling, cat-song-singing Canadian children's performer.

LOOK

LISTEN

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

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

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.

Weaves Drop Their Best Song Yet

Weaves are new and they are awesome. Fronted by Jasmyn Burke (from RatTail) and co-created by Morgan Waters (Dwayne Gretzky, Sweet Thing), their relentlessly rumbling rock made them one of our favourite new discoveries at this year's North By Northeast — so much so, we saw them twice. At the time, they only had one track available to stream online (so we did: over and over again). But last week they finally released their second: it's the tune we called "their very best song to date" when we first heard it live. It's called "Motorcycle".

"We're all from Toronto," Burke explained as she introduced the tune at a house party during NXNE, "where everybody fucks each other. So I thought I'd write a song about... having fun."

Here's "Motorcycle" by Weaves:

Weaves Have A Third Single & Buzz From Spin

Just three months ago we were watching Weaves play in the basement of a house party during North By Northeast. We'd only heard about them for the first time less than 24 hours before that — but this was already our second Weaves show and they were quickly becoming one of our favourite new bands in the city. That's not entirely surprising: Jasmyn Burke had already done an impressive job fronting RatTail and guitarist Morgan Waters is a member of the best non-Weezer-specific cover band in Toronto, Dwayne Gretzky.

Fast-forward to the end of the summer and it seems that plenty of others are taking notice, too. Weaves have only released three songs online, but they're already getting buzz from one of most popular music magazines on the planet. That third track, "Take A Dip", just premiered on Spin. As they put it, it's the "third song from the pinballing rock foursome that casts frontwoman Jasmyn Burke as a taunting temptress, beckoning over siren-like guitar work."

And here it is:

Weaves Release Their First Video

The last time we wrote about Weaves was just a couple of weeks ago, when they released "Motorcycle". Thanks to their live shows, it was already our favourite song from the relentlessly rumbling new group, fronted by Jasmyn Burke (from RatTail) and co-founded by Morgan Waters (Dwayne Gretzky, Sweet Thing). Now, they've got a video to go along with it, which takes the song's sexual innuendo — "I want to ride your motorcycle" — and turns it into a full-throttle love story.

Check it out:

Meet The Band: Paper Lions

If you've been paying close attention, you'll already know that we love Paper Lions. We couldn't help but shamelessly rave about them after having seen the Charlottetown indie rockers play a stripped down afternoon show at CMW and a full-on raucous shout-along set during NXNE. They're so catchy they could get played on the radio and so objectively awesome that you wouldn't even mind if they did. So we're pretty excited that starting tonight, they'll be playing the Supermarket every single freaking Wednesday all month. And with super-amazing special guests, too, like Allie Hughes (tonight), Dwayne Gretzky (next week) and Green Go (the week after that). The cover? $5. Insane!

In anticipation, we sent guitarist Colin Buchanan our (silly) Meet The Band questions, so we could get to know Paper Lions a little bit better:

How do you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard you before?
Hot Tracks.

If you could open for one current band that you haven't played with before, who would it be?
I'd love to open up for Weird Al just to hopefully get to meet him. I can honestly say without any irony that he is an inspiration for determination in the music industry.

If you could play one venue you've never played before, what would it be?
In Charlottetown there is a great small movie theatre called City Cinema that apparently used to have live shows. Every time I go to see a film there I think about how awesome it would be to throw a party/show. There aren't many midsized venues back home so we are always on the prowl for new venues.

What would be your all-time, all-star supergroup?
David Byrne, Jonathan Richman, Stephen Malkmus, Harry Nilsson - A cappella

What was the craziest live show you've ever played?
We were playing The Exchange in Regina about a year ago. It's this great community run venue with a small gallery attached to the back. Library Voices (who we were touring with) just got off the stage when all these punk and hardcore kids bust into the gallery side with amps and drums in hand and set up a show in about 5 min. The band was just a two piece (bass and drums) and were fucking nuts, but what was even crazier was the crowd. I thought the mixture of the two scenes was going to be venomous combination but it was awesome. Everyone just lost it together for about 20 min. and then it was all over. I have no idea what the band was called but that is the reason I love Regina.

What's your favourite song to play live? Why?
Any song of ours people know the words to. Because when people sing along it’s pretty much the best feeling ever.

What was the first record you ever bought? When was the last time you listened to it?
Tragically Hip - Phantom Power. It's still in my mom’s car and I listen to it every time I borrow her wheels, even though "Bobcaygeon" skips pretty much the whole way through.

Who was your favourite band (or artist) when you were 12 years old? Do you still like them?
When was Aqua a band? It might have been Aqua. Yeah, definitely Aqua.

If you could only listen to one band or artist for the rest of your life, who would you pick?
If I could only listen to one for the rest of my life I’d probably pick someone with a huge catalog like The Stone or Pere Ubu. Variety is the spice of life.

If you could switch places with another musicians in some type of "Freaky Friday" type incident, who would you want it to be?
John Lennon. So I could be rad in heaven.

If you could have one musical superpower, what would you want it to be?
I wish that whenever I play ukulele, stars and spaghetti shot out of the neck and suddenly I could fly for some reason

Photo: Paper Lions

Meet The Band is a regular feature where we introduce you to bands we like. You can find all of the rest of them here.

Meet The Band: Stella Ella Ola

Tomorrow night, Stella Ella Ola will be playing what promises to be one of the most awesome shows of the entire summer. It'll be on a boat. On the lake. Two other fantastic Toronto bands will be playing: Dwayne Gretzky and July Talk. And the rest of night will be DJed by Andy freaking Rourke. Yeah, the same Andy Rourke who played bass in The Smiths. So, uh, to put it mildly, we're a little bit excited.

Plenty of that has to do with getting to see Stella Ella Ola play live. The band — which shares members with Hollerado — have put together a sound that's part garage rock, part surf rock, part indie, part country and alllll something you'd like to dance along to while drunkenly cruising the high seas. So we figured we'd catch up with the group's Anne Douris and get her to answer some of our silly questions. Which you'll find below.

Tickets for the event are apparently going pretty quickly, but you might still be able to get some at Soundscapes or Rotate This — or online by clicking through the link from the Facebook invite, which has all of the event info here. The whole thing is yet another party put together by the fine folks over at the Young Lions Music Club.

MP3: "Hypersleep" by Stella Ella Ola

How do you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard you before?

Ever seen that movie, “Degrassi High: School’s Out”? (1992). It’s like “YEAH, summertime party go go” But then shit gets real. Somebody dies. We try to make fun music for your free time, but also tell good stories and talk about the tough stuff.

Alternatively, you could say garage-surf-pop?

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

One day I really really really would like to play at the Kee to Bala. Duke Ellington, Glen Miller AND David Wilcox AND Drake have all graced that stage. Not at the same time, obviously.

Your all-time, all-star supergroup?

You mean, if I could put one together? All the members of Can, Liquid Liquid and Herbie Hancock. George Gershwin would do all the writing.

What's the worst album you own?

I have so many embarrassing albums, but I could never hate on any of them. That list might include the soundtrack to “Cats”, which I listened to every single day (not exaggerating) in 1999. Or maybe the album of John Lithgow singing songs for children - “Singing in the Bathtub”, which I purchased as a young adult. From Mastermind. Which, by the way, is a great place to buy CDs... you just have to know what you’re looking for.

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

Tough one, because a lot of my favourite musicians are sort of dead. I would switch with Trish Keenan of Broadcast. But if they need to be alive... James Murphy.

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?

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s album “Architecture & Morality” is one of my favourite album covers out there. Plus it wouldn’t look bad on a face. Otherwise, the pepsi symbol from “Gordon”.

What’s your favorite solo ever on your favourite instrument ever?

The Beatles, “For No One” has an amazing French Horn solo - it always stood out to me. It was one of the reasons I played French Horn in middle school. The other reason was that all the other, easier instruments were taken.

If you were going to be a roadie for one band, who would it be?

Oh oh oh. The Flaming Lips. I want to take that human-sized hamster ball for a joyride so badly.