Baby Cages: The Wavelength Interview
November 5, 2015Purveyors of: Mutating goth pop. File next to: Siouxsie & the Banshees, Massive Attack, Cat Power Playing: Friday, November 13 at The Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St.) — Get your tickets here! The music that Toronto/Halifax duo Baby Cages makes is hard to describe. Certainly goth-tinged, it shares commonalities with a diverse group of influences from the reality-folk of Cat Power to the
Bernice: The Wavelength Interview
November 8, 2015Purveyors of: Soft indie R&B, in which the R stands for romanticized melancholy and the B stands for blissful memories. File next to: Feist, Little Dragon, Juana Molina Playing: Friday, November 13th @ the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St.) — Get your tickets here! Bernice is “tenderness encapsulated, smoothnesses ebbing and flowing. A warm mauve light hums where butterfly kisses fl
Swedish Azz: The Wavelength Interview
June 23, 2015Purveyors of: The sound of jazz falling down a very long flight of stairs, and sticking the landing perfectly. File next to: The little-known history of Swedish jazz Playing: Wavelength 670, Tuesday June 23 @ Hard Luck Bar, opening for The Ex Maybe Sweden isn’t the first place that pops into your mind when you hear the word “jazz” — but without Sweden’s rich jazz history, perhaps M
Esmerine: The Wavelength Interview
November 11, 2015Purveyors of: Intricate and collosal tapestries of sound. File next to: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Rachel’s Playing: Friday, November 13th @ the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St.) — Get your tickets here! Esmerine is a creation out of time or place. The music is sewn of many fabrics, tethered by traditions spanning varied histories. A sinusoidal trek through a continuum of sprawling, int
Brodie West & Fleshtone Aura: The Wavelength Interview
June 22, 2015Purveyors of: Free-form jazz paired with seasonal electronic weirdness. File Next To: Getatchew Mekuria, Sun Ra, Joe McPhee Playing: WL670 Tuesday, June 23rd at Hard Luck Bar (opening for The Ex) Toronto improv mainstays Brodie West and Fleshtone Aura (né: Andrew Zukerman) hop on stages across our city periodically, excising ideas and illusions through their shared spirit of collaborations.
Champion Lover: The Wavelength Interview
June 21, 2015Purveyors of: Lumbering post-punk jams that move from drone to musical assault File Next To: METZ, Odonis Odonis, Cloud Nothings, Mexican Slang, Sonic Youth Playing: Wavelength NXNE Showcase, Sunday June 21 @ Smiling Buddha (8pm) Composed of twins Edward (vocals & guitar) and William (guitar & occasional vocals), as well as James (bass VI) and Erik (drums), Champion Lover is a noise-p
The Ex: The Wavelength Interview
June 19, 2015Purveyors of: Avant-garde, transcultural punk explorations. File Next To: Getatchew Mekuria, The Mekons, Instant Composers Pool Playing: Wavelength 670, Tuesday June 23 @ Hard Luck Bar with Swedish azz feat. Mats Gustafsson, Brodie West & Fleshtone Aura Founded in the why-not-us spirit of punk’s first wave, The Ex have evolved/endured/mutated to this day, their music incorporating idioms
Not Of: The Wavelength Interview
June 12, 2015Purveyors of: Heavy, layered noise rock that never slows down. File next to: METZ, Death From Above 1979, Odonis Odonis, Drive Like Jehu. Playing: Wavelength’s NXNE showcase, Sunday June 21 at Smiling Buddha (961 College St.). Not Of is the project of two prominent Toronto musicians under secret aliases. John Ex (guitar, vocals) and Jason Seance (drums, vocals, synths) may only be two peopl
Man Made Hill: The Wavelength Interview
December 21, 2015Purveyor of: Squishy, squashy existential funk for extra-planetary brain slugs. File next to: The Residents, Orange Milk Records, Barry White Playing: Wavelength New Year’s Eve at Markham House City Building Lab. Get tickets here! The years have witnessed Man Made Hill’s metamorphosis from lo-fi experimental creeper to full-on WWE-LSD nightmare pop dreamboat. His party skills are unmatched
The Holy Gasp: The Wavelength Interview
December 27, 2015Purveyors of: Tom Waits-tinged bebop being played inside a spinning blender. File next to: Love is All, King Khan and the Shrines, The Cramps Playing: Wavelength New Year’s Eve at Markham House City Building Lab. Get tickets here! Catch the Holy Gasp as part of Wavelength’s New Year’s Eve! Also featuring: MATROX, Maylee Todd, Delta Will, Man Made Hill + other sundry items including but no
Maylee Todd: The Wavelength Interview
December 29, 2015Purveyor of: An array of genres, exploring electro this time around. Soulful vocals taking on a haunting yet direct tone with a really good beat. Lyrics that will have you singing along while dancing around the kitchen floor one moment, sobbing over the sink the next. SO REAL. File next to: A lot of the laidback electro of the day, but with much more depth and subtlety. Playing: Wavelength New Y
MATROX: The Wavelength Interview
December 30, 2015Purveyors of: Electro-apocalyptic robotic sounds that can brainwash any audience into enthusiastic dancing. File next to: Kraftwerk, Daft Punk. Playing: Wavelength New Year’s Eve at Markham House City Building Lab (610 Markham St.). You can still pick up advance tickets (in person only) at Rotate This (801 Queen W.), Soundscapes (572 College St.) and Tiny Record Shop (804 Queen E.)! A very lmi
Hush Pup: The Wavelength Interview
May 21, 2015Purveyor of: Breezy and melancholic dream pop that evokes sad summers and late night sorrows but also emanates the comforting warmth of favorite memories. File Next to: Cocteau Twins, Panda Bear, Slowdive, Beach House Playing: Saturday May 23 @ Clay & Paper Theatre Originally hailing from Victoria B.C., Hush Pup has since found a home in Toronto. 2013 found the band releasing the 3 track
Alphabot: The Wavelength Interview
May 16, 2015Purveyor of: Human pop, by and for robots. File next to: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, B.A. Johnston, MATROX Playing: Saturday May 16 @ Handlebar for Wavelength’s May Long Weekend Blowout —& Alphabot’s first Wavelength since WL433 in 2008! I had the opportunity to sit down with Toronto musician/artist/robot Alphabot yesterday. He’s an odd sort who puts out sporadic albums, co
Big Dick: The Wavelength Interview
May 15, 2015Sounds like: Energetic, 90’s-tinged, Albini-flecked power punk. File next to: Wavves, Parts and Labor, Japandroids, Nomeansno Playing: Tonight! @ Handlebar for Wavelength’s May Long Weekend Blowout Big Dick are a punchy punk two-piece from Ottawa, Ontario, whose tight, aggressive and to-the-point songs belie their pleasant dispositions. We caught up with drummer Dave Secretary ahead of th
Merganzer: The Wavelength Interview
February 8, 2016Purveyor of: Classically-infused whimsy. File next to: Soundtrack to your greatest daydreams. Playing: Day Two of WL16, Saturday February 13 (afternoon show) at Markham House: City Building Lab. Get tickets! Drawing on collaborations with the likes of Basia Bulat, Timber Timbre, Broken Social Scene and Feist, Merganzer is the pop electronic brainchild of uber-talented violin virtuo
Duchess Says: The Wavelength Interview
February 8, 2016Purveyors of: Moog rock, post-punk science, and homemade religion. File next to: LCD Soundsystem, Liars, Erase Errata, Les Georges Leningrad Playing: Night Three of WL16, Saturday February 13 at The Garrison. Get tickets! Duchess Says just destroyed the Dominion Tavern in Ottawa for the second edition of the Megaphono Festival, and Wavelength’s Jonny Dovercourt was there to witness it. Th
FOXTROTT: The Wavelength Interview
February 9, 2016Purveyor of: Fierce and unrelenting electro-pop full of sensuously big beats, enticing you into that deep, dark corner of your mind while you bop your heads with your friends. File next to: Björk, The Knife Playing: Day Two of WL16, Friday February 12 at The Garrison. Get tickets! Montreal musician Marie-Hélène Delorme just released her debut LP, A Taller Us, under the moniker FOXTROTT t
She-Devils: The Wavelength Interview
February 10, 2016Purveyors of: Retro pop kitsch. File next to: International ‘60s pop, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra Playing: Night Three of WL16, Sunday February 14 at The Garrison. Get tickets! Montreal-based duo She-Devils utilize premade sounds to create their unique brand of visual music. Audrey Ann’s gifted vocals are the perfect match for Kyle Jukka’s wild selection of samples. Christopher D
Beliefs: The Wavelength Interview
February 11, 2016Purveyors of: Gauzey, guitar-driven dream pop. File next to: My Bloody Valentine, No Joy, Whirr Playing: Night Two of WL16, Saturday February 13 at The Garrison. Get tickets! Toronto’s Beliefs have been at it since 2010 — but this is their year. Beliefs second release, Leaper (Hand Drawn Dracula, 2015) has perked up ears for its unabashed inspiration in ‘90s dream pop and shoegaze, and wi