Around this time of year, I start to crave something. Besides the usual cravings like ice cream, cold beer and not witnessing gross old men or even egotistical jocks shirtless (sup, dorks?), I yearn for some really good summer music. You know, the kind that you can blast at BBQs? The kind of music that make your steps a little more energetic while you walk to work and anthems you can sing along to. I think we all experience a form of this craving, so here are my local ideas for how to keep satisfied this July.
Every year, Canadian Music Week takes over Toronto, letting 800 bands take over 55 different venues over five nights. It’s really fun chaos. This year’s fest starts on Wednesday, March 9th. So as you’re unlikely to go buy a $75 wristband at this point, it’s in Dork Shelf’s best and wonderfully cheap interests to tell you about the great, free portions of the festival.
2010 was, by all accounts, a pretty rad year in music. The Canadian indie scene continued to thrive, all while established Canuck bands like Caribou and Arcade Fire wowed us with new albums. Didn't the music establishment declare electronica and rock n' roll dead nigh a decade ago? And yet here we are, still rocking out. Hip-hop, too, (or rap music as the kids call it) continued its rebirth of sorts; a vibrant new sound that is still hard to pin down, but one that is devoid of unironic autotuning and top 40 aspirations. Since summing up a year in music is proving quite difficult in less than 100 words, I'll leave that task to the musical experts of the Shelf: Jess and Zack.
It’s the end of 2010! Holy crap! Music has been really wicked this year, but you know what, we here at Dork Shelf are kind of glad we’re on to the next round. We're excited for a fresh wave of newly made-up genres and themes. While this year held Kanye, teenage dreams, The Suburbs and more in priority, next year could have much more west coast chillwave bands, danceable Brit Pop and hopefully a lot more interesting local Toronto bands (wink).
Now that the Toronto Film Fest is over, us entertainment suckers are getting itchy for new interests. If you want to turn to the music side of things, I can help with that. Besides taking September off here because I was just so distracted (yeah, sure), I've also decided to re-vamp this column. For the time being, I will just be discussing what is to be expected and enjoyed from the month in full.