T-MAK World 2013 NXNE Recommendations

NXNE 2013 Recommendations

June 9, 2013 – It’s hard to imagine considering the cold wet Spring we’ve had, but North By Northeast is about to takeover Toronto for the annual music, film and comedy festival. This year’s line-up features 1000 bands, 30 films and 150 comedians. That means it’s time for our T-MAK World NXNE 2013 Recommendations.

As always, T-Mak World is here to help separate the wheat from the chaff. We’ve gone through the bands to identify those that rock and are worthy of your time. Note, this is a list of Rock bands, not hipster alt country folk pop bands playing ballads on acoustic guitars. So if that’s your thing, you’ve surfed onto the wrong internet beach, quick, hit your back button now.

This year’s NXNE features 64 recommendations at 26 venues. Well that’s if you consider Pearson International Airport a venue. Surf band Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet will be playing at the airport on Thursday at 4pm welcoming travellers to Toronto. We won’t be there and expect only a hardcore fan would make that trek. That said, their show last July at Lee’s Palace was packed so maybe fans would choose to pay for airport parking for the equivalent of the ticket price at Lee’s.

The major, not-to-be-missed event of this year’s festival is the debut of Public Animal. Public Animal is guitarist/producer extraordinaire Ian Blurton of C’Mon, Change of Heart, Bionic, Happy Endings, on guitar, Bella Clava’s Caitlin Dacey on organ and vocals, Eric Larock, ex of Tricky Woo, on bass and Ryan Gassi of The Lying Cheats on drums. Public Animal will be playing NXNE twice, first at Lee’s Palace on Thursday at 11pm and again at the Bovine Sex Club on Friday at 1am.

T-Mak World talked to Blurton and Dacey a couple weeks back at the Horseshoe. Public Animal was formed last fall and have spent most of their time since then at Blurton’s ProGold studios and their debut album will be out later this year. The band is named after Alice Cooper’s Public Animal #9, a song off the first album Blurton ever bought, School’s Out. When suggested that Public Animal was a supergroup, a la Cream, Blurton laughed and then suggested he’d prefer Captain Beyond. I have to admit to not even knowing Captain Beyond, so, according to Wikipedia, “The original line-up for Captain Beyond were singer Rod Evans (ex-Deep Purple), drummer Bobby Caldwell (ex-Johnny Winter), guitarist Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt (ex-Iron Butterfly), bassist Lee Dorman (ex-Iron Butterfly) and keyboardist Lewie Gold.”

Bella Clava fans can rest assured that they have not disbanded and in fact are another of the highlights of this year’s NXNE (Friday at 3am at the Horseshoe). Since their incomparable guitarist, Steve Suttie, lives in Thunder Bay, they don’t get a chance to play as many gigs as we’d like. Our requests that he move to Toronto have so far fallen on deaf ears (which is not surprising considering how loud they play). Sadly Bella Clava live shows are usually reminders to check the batteries in your smoke detectors. And while Blurton’s live shows also tend to be infrequent, Public Animal looks to be breaking that mold. The band has 7 or 8 other gigs planned in a short period of time aside from the 2 during NXNE. They’ll be playing around southern Ontario in London, Peterborough and elsewhere. There’s no word of a website yet and Blurton is no fan of Facebook, but they do have a Twitter account. You can follow Public Animal at @ThePublicAnimal.

Last year I called Blurton a Jedi Master. Aside from being a wicked guitar player, he has a wise countenance. There’s an honesty and integrity about him. He’s been around so long he’s forgotten more about music than you and I combined will ever know. He’s the best music producer in the country but is humble about his accomplishments.

Public Animal and Bella Clava are not the only highlights of NXNE though. Other T-Mak World favourites, such as Little Foot Long Foot, The Blue Stones and catl, now back after their winter slumber, are all playing this week. Rockers Diemonds and White Cowbell Oklahoma are sure to lay waste to their venues. We’re looking forward to seeing more from Montreal’s The Damn Truth at the Horseshoe and catching Biblical again at Bovine.

NXNE 2013 Recommendations

Check out the T-Mak World NXNE 2013 recommendations below.

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Recommendations and photos by Steve Mallinson.

T-Mak World: Toronto’s Site for Music, Movies and Culture

Author: Steve Mallinson