Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thanks to Paul Hoffman for finding Frank's doppelganger (and he's a logo for a beer company)!



This is SO FRANK!
Awesome.

Windsor Live Music: The Rest of March and April Schedule!

Here are the rest of the shows in March, and the shows coming up in April.

March 27th - Open Mic (Slam Fundraiser)
28 - Leighton Bain (Toronto/Windsor) wsg Michou & Charles Benn
29 - Ron Leary 5-Piece wsg Dean's Dragon (Dean Drouillard) & Adam Warner (Toronto)
31 - Open Mic Surgery with Tara Watts

April
1 - The Perpetrators (Winnipeg) wsg Dan Keeler & Lodown
Also: from 4pm-6pm the TSAR Silkscreening Un-conference will be taking place...
3 - Spiral Beach (Toronto) wsg TBA
4 - Smash The Glass Show!! Elbow Beach Surf Club (Guelph) wsg Arrows (Guelph) & Hotkid (Cambridge)
5 - Infighter (Toronto) wsg The Framework (Toronto) & The Vicious Guns (Toronto)
7 - Open Mic Surgery with Tara Watts
8 - Windsor Slam
10 - Mahogany Frog (Winnipeg) wsg Not_digital
12 - Hilotrons (Ottawa) wsg TBA
14 - Open Mic Surgery with Tara Watts
17 - Grand Theft Bus (Fredericton, NB) wsg TBA
18 - Pough Boy (Windsor)
21 - Open Mic Surgery with Tara Watts
22 - Super Fun Film Society (Free-For-All Video Pile-up *EVERYONE WELCOME TO BRING VIDEO UNDER 10 MINUTES)
25 - Malcolm Bauld (Montreal) wsg Horses (Toronto) & Orphan Choir
26 - Helsinki Go wsg Square Root of Margaret (Chatham)
28 - Open Mic Surgery with Tara Watts
29 - Radio Free Tuesdays with CJAM
30 - Museum Pieces (Halifax) wsg TBA (likely Riverfront Ensemble)

Tom Co-hosted The Craig Norris Hour for CBC Radio 3 today!!


Hey Windsorites...we're on the map!
I was honoured to co-host the Craig Norris Hour web show on cbcradio3.com
In fact, if you take a look at the website, you'll see the post with the elephants at the Odette Sculpture Garden.
CRAZY!

It was on Thursday from noon until 3pm.
So unbelievable.

Click photo above for larger image.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Windsor Live Music: Golden Hands Added to tonight's show!


The Golden Hands Before God have played with The High Strung before, which is why they were the natural choice to play with them again, but...

With their show at The Room, which I knew was coming up, I tried to get The Hung Jury to play, and that was a no go...

And then I decided to use my brain.
The Golden Hands boys will compliment the show, regardless of their other shows during the week/month and I figured, if they could do it, we would try to create the best show possible.

So, not only are you getting my favourite band in Detroit, you're getting my favourite band in Windsor too.

To quote Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park, "Hold on to your butts."

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Want some Holy Fuck news?

Our good pal, Mr. Brian Borcherdt was just at SXSW with his boys.
They were at the most surreal party of the event...the Rachel Ray afterparty jam, where The Stills, among others played to an impressed crowd of listeners.

Subsequently, it was overheard that Lou Reed, of the prolific Velvet Underground said that Holy Fuck was his favourite band of the festival, and is currently his favourite band!
Holy F*!%#! That's no small accomplishment!
Read the Radio 3 article here.

Anyway, the gorilla vs bear blog has finally gotten onto the bandwagon and has a sweet link that you should check out. There's a link to a site that recirded an entire live set that you can download for free! Hello!

Go get it here.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GVSB/~3/255003218/holy-fk-live.html
Or click on the Awesomelink.

Windsor Live Music: Phog: Thursday to Saturday

It'll be gone in a flash!This three day supply of entertainment is really too much.
It feels like a little bit of P.A. Fest, on a slightly smaller scale...
Andrew Penner of Sunparlour Players

Thursday night we have Sunparlour Players for gawd's sake! They are playing with Al Penner and Greg Cox, who are phenomenally gifted guitar geniuses who are supposedly playing some kind of dirty blues. I cannot wait to see this!
Citywide Vaccum: all in white.

Friday night is too much. Shotgun Jimmie, who has been here in his band with Julie Doiron (Shotgun and Jaybird) and playing solo with Construction and Destruction, is one of my favourite solo/singer/songwriters. He is fun, funny, and humble in a way that makes you laugh WITH him at some of his lyrics. He was simply in the area, and wanted to play with whoever was on the bill already. Who's he playing with?
Shotgun Jimmie shooting an arrow.

Well, Square Root of Margaret (Chatham) for starters and Citywide Vacuum! This may be the nuttiest collection of musicians I've ever seen. They are fun, wacky, and marvelous in their own ways. They also will have the most extravagant set-ups and take-downs ever. Ever.
Square Root of Margaret "projecting" mind-altering tunes.
The High Strung

And Saturday. Holy sweet hell.
The High Strung from Detroit return.
Let me put this into perspective.
They might be the best band I've ever booked. They are so charged, and energetic, it is nuts.
The music, high-end, pure rock and roll with bits of The Kinks, Guided By Voices, upbeat Beatles, mixed with some 70's rock guitar solos here and there. They are simply stunning, and if I was to recommend a band to see all month, it is The High Strung. They don't come to Windsor very often...usually once per year, twice at best.
Seriously, come see the best-kept musical secret in Detroit before they get too huge to play Phog.


3 photos Above: The High Strung in various stages of play.

I had to include this drawing of Shotgun Jimmie done by Chad VanGaalen.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Windsor Live Music: Ain't Patrick's Day Monday at Phog

We have an extremely full bill for Ain't Patrick's Day instead of Open Mic Night.

However, Tara Watts will be playing the evening!
The band I could not say not to was The D'Ubervilles (Oshawa) after having heard their samples on their myspace, and having watched them on a sweet indie music video podcast.
The D'Urbervilles are bringing a band called Fox Jaws (Barrie) whose samples sounded wicked.
Also, one of our stand-out open mic performers (Cory) who does a unique "tapping" style of guitar playing mixed with traditional playing, HAS A BAND version of this stuff.
The band is simply called ".D"
They will likely be playing second in the evening...which will be at ?:?? o'clock.

So get there before too late.
Since there are 4 performers, things will likely start earlier than usual.

I'm pretty fired up for this one.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Windsor Live Music: Flashbulb (Chicago) w/ Perilelle, Furs, and Kero March 23rd (A SUNDAY!)

The Flashbulb (www.myspace.com/bennjordan) blends drum & bass rhythms with classical guitar methods to create sounds comparable to Aphex Twin meets Atari rocker!! He runs the label Aphabasic out of Chicago which features artists such as Richard Devine and Wisp and is currently touring to promote his new album Soundtrack to a Vacant Life -- here's a partial review: "The guy's likely bipolar, and it shows - lush full ideas progressing to a different sort of rational."

He moves in both independent and commercial circles -- his music is featured in advertisements for Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty (which was nominated at Cannes for best commercial campaign)and he was just featured in an article for Canada's National Post about pirating music: http://www.slicethepie.com/About/PressItem.aspx?id=219

In 2005 he toured with Dillinger Escape Plan and has been recently collaborating with Ben Weinman from the group on various creative projects to diversify his sound and audience.

Performing live with local electronica heavyweights Kero, Furs and Perilelle, The Flashbulb appears with a multilayered cake of electronica & rock.

Windsor Live Music: Lindy (Toronto) wsg Wax Mannequin (Hamilton) playing Saturday March 15th

This show will be well attended because these two are monsters in their own right...
Lindy hasn't been here for a while, and I have a feeling that since he's been married, he's going to bring even more exaltation to the building.

Wax Mannequin is tough to describe, but I look to use the descriptive, "intense". He always blows my frontal cortex, giving me a freshly-blown nose feeling. He goes all-out.
The show will be crawling with libertarians, who have found capitalist love in the melodies of Lindy. I look forward to seeing them again, as they are a fun group, and I haven't seen them for a while.

PS - Lindy (or as some of my customers call him, Thor McCartney) likes to give hugs, and he's a giant, but don't be scared, he's a "friendly".

Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Super Fun Film Society begins at Phog!!!


One Tuesday per month, Phog Lounge will be hosting a video collective called The Super Fun Film Society.
It is an invitation to ANYONE who uses video as an artform, or leisure activity.
You can bring in videos that you think need to be shared with other film-makers.
The first event will take place

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Windsor Live Music: Said The Whale (Vancouver) w/ Hollerado (Montreal) and Yellow Wood playing Phog Tuesday March 4th

Said The Whale (Above)

Hello!?
Is this NUTS!?
Said The Whale (Above)

These bands playing Phog on a Tuesday?!
Yes.
We are blessed once again.
Said The Whale (Vancouver) with Hollerado (Montreal) and Yellow Wood.
Hollerado (Above)

Look them up.
Listen to them, and come see them.
Yellow Wood (Above)

This shirt kicks ass


This shirt was given to me by Melanie.
She is an amazing t-shirt designer, with an affinity toward buttons...
If you're a total idiot, it is the front of Phog with the full moon in the background, and it is done so meticulously that it blew my mind when I received it, and it blows my mind every time I look at it.
This was apparently an apology gift for having never participated in the T-Shirt Art Shows I curated in passed years.
I hope this means that she's going to make stuff for the upcoming show in June.

At least I'll have a souvenir when this ride ends.

Saw this on ESPN


Apparantly my dreams are coming true, and there are NCAA basketball games being played at my bar when I am not around...