This week highlighting the Flemingdon Community Food Bank 10 Gateway Blvd Toronto.
Hours Mon-Fri-10 am-1.30 pm. 416) 422-4322

Stepping out with a new single from the always adventurous and highly accomplished Lori Cullen. Born in the crucible of fear and confusion that is CoVid 19, Cullen channelled her own dire misgiving into a heart rending take on Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’. Yeah, we’ve heard it covered in all sorts of ways but you ain’t never heard it done like this. So let’s hear from the lady herself.

June 2020

I don’t feel well.
Everything has changed too fast.
All of my paid work is gone.
I have to teach my child and I am failing.
I have no more time to myself.
I’m worried about money.
I’m worried about everything and everybody.
Grocery shopping feels like going to battle.
I have to do something to remind me of who I am, to give me hope and to pull myself out of the mud.

This week we spotlight Donnie Blais and his team at Rancho Relaxo restaurant. These thoughtful folk are putting out 500 meals a day to feed those in need. Please support Rancho Relaxo next time you’re up for the best Mexican food in Toronto. Blais has been feeding rock’n’rollin Toronto since the Nineties, both touring acts and local up and comers, many of the latter dining free courtesy of the man’s generous heart and community spirit.
ranchorelaxotogo.com/

In case ya missed it, here's the new single / music video 'Inside' from Rockshots Records latest signing Neroargento. The single is off upcoming album "Circles' due out later this summer. This album will be big for fans of Motionless In White, Falling In Reverse, Linkin Park. Dude cooks up a likeable brew of melodic metal, grunge and electronica.

Get ‘Inside’:

Hugh’s Room Live is Toronto’s cozy nest for singer/songwriters, especially of the rootsy/folkie bent. Its new Songwriter Sessions series explores songcraft in a round robin format with players peeling back the stories behind their work. Crossing genres and tapping into the natural Canadian gift of open, honest lyrics and tunes, the artists get to delve deeper as they share their songs and bond with each other. This week’s Songwriter Session features Tony Quarrington, Andrea Ramolo, David Leask and Melanie Peterson, and happens Tues. Oct. 9, 8.30 start.

Veteran musician Quarrington has been a formidable and thriving presence on the Toronto music scene for more than 40 years. He first appeared at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1966, and played at many renowned Yorkville nightclubs and coffee houses in the late ‘60s, performing ballads, blues and his own original tunes. Quarrington’s relentless career as a sideman and studio musician has seen him appear on literally hundreds of other artists’ recordings, playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, piano and dobro, and lending his voice as a singer.

Montreal trio Timber Timbre have unveiled the video to "Sincerely, Future Pollution", the title track to their recent sixth album, released on Arts & Crafts. The video was directed, animated and produced by Joël Vaudreuil. Timber Timbre's music has arrived at a smoky, grimy space for roots sounds like blues, folk, and early R&B, fitting framings for their most politically savant album yet.

The pair have always created music that traces a shadowed path, using cues of the past to fuse the sound of a distant, haunted now. On Sincerely, Future Pollution, the band coats the stark, sensual sound of 2014's Polaris Music Prize Short-Listed andJUNO Award nominated album Hot Dreams in an oil-black rainbow of municipal grime. It is the cinema of a dizzying dystopia, rattled by the science fiction of this bluntly nonfictional time.

Not at all Christmassy but bright fun all the same is “St Lucia”, newest video from artpop crew Bernice, pairs soulful vocal melodies with playful sonic tripouts. Bernice vocalist/songwriter Robin Dann says artist Sonia Beckwith-Cole, who directed the “St Lucia” video, was the clear choice – “Her animation felt completely right to me, and I knew she would make something so beautiful for the song's world.”

“When I first heard the song I imagined pinks and blues, a lot of textures and water, water, water,” director/animator Sonia Beckwith-Cole says of her inspiration for the video. “The song talks about how as a woman you are connected to a lineage of women that are a part of you, and contribute to who you are, while somehow still being distant. The verses bring up these complicated feelings and the chorus brings us escape from these worries to be present in a moment of joy. The woman in my story starts out in a confused wandering state surrounded by dark, obscured imagery. When she finally dives off the edge of a waterfall the imagery becomes bright, colourful and full of movement and she finds solace with friends in the water.”

Earlier this year, rapper, radio host, and now soft rock singer, Shad released a surprise album, Adult Contempt, under the name Your Boy Tony Braxton. He is preparing to hit the stage with Tokyo Police Club for three nights at The Mod Club on December 8, 9 and 10 in support.

Recently Your Boy Tony Braxton shared the music video for album track “Good (Enough).” The video, directed by Justin Broadbent, takes us on a trip back to the 90s and features Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning trying to rent a copy of Speed 2 on VHS.

"So, this is a song about a man who's just beginning to understand what's behind his loneliness, insecurity, and rage," explains Shad. While Broadbent added "I wanted to make a video that affirmed it was ok to like things like Speed 2. We often get in our heads about our futures or art making and need to take a step back and truly enjoy things for what they are."