I met Jimmy Hayes from Harlan Pepper at 88.1 FM CKLN in Toronto just last week. He was fresh off a bus from a show.

In April 2009 Graydon James had a band, but no album. By August, he had an album but no band. He also had a two-week east coast tour booked, culminating in a CD release show in his home base of Toronto. The fledgling singer-songwriter, who released his debut solo EP in 2007, had spent the past three months arranging and recording his sophomore release: a harmony-driven, roots-based, hyphen-inducing double-album of 40 songs titled “goodnight, young novelist” that tackled heartache, small towns, Canadian fame, and dropkicks with equal aplomb. Now, looking down the double-barrel of a CD release tour, he needed a band to bring the recording to life.

Having received accolades from Rolling Stone, My Bloody Valentine, and NASA’s mission control, transatlantic space-rock orchestra The Flowers Of Hell release their third album, “O”, through Optical Sounds via Outside Music on November 16. The release is a 45 minute classical-meets-shoegaze track that comes on a double-sided CD/DVD, with a regular stereo mix on the CD side and a 5.1 surround sound mix on the DVD side, along with a live concert film and various special features.

“Stories From Home” is a compilation of songs from the Lauren Mann EP and the Lost and Found EP, as well as three unreleased tracks, all of which were written and recorded between 2006 and 2009. These are the stories of Lauren’s beginning, from her first years writing and recording in her parents’ basement. It tells the tales of years past, and is a prelude of things to come, including a cross-Canada tour commencing in early 2011, and recording at the Vanguard Room in Lakeland, Florida in April and May.

The band was formed in 1999 and independently produced and recorded their first two albums, Nothing and Nowhere and Violet. Through both of these high-demand releases, as well as their highly acclaimed and beautifully atmospheric website, the band obtained a large and loyal fan base throughout the world. Due to their independent success, in 2005 they were approached by European record label Repo Records (followed shortly by Metropolis Records in North America) and the band began its steady climb to reaching a much wider audience with the 2007 release of the acclaimed and wildly popular Walking With Strangers.

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead or a Night to Dismember?

Kevin Quain is a musician, songwriter, award-winning playwright and bar fly.

Ko Kapches was raised in a middle-class Greek family in the Queen and Broadview area in Toronto, Ontario. After falling into the trap of using and selling a wide variety of drugs as a 14-year-old, he soon found himself on an odyssey of rehabilitation centres across the United States. “I lived on the streets of San Francisco for a little bit until I eventually got in touch with my parents after a few weeks,” Ko explains. “My father flew out and took me home, but I started living on the streets of Toronto anyways.”

Since the release of Pink Strat in summer 2009, Bahamas has performed with Elvis Costello, Sam Roberts, the Weakerthans, the Constantines, Amy Millan, and most recently finished touring with Wilco. He is currently embarking on Jason Collett’s Bonfire Ball Revue tour alongside Zeus and just received his first Juno nomination for Roots Album of the Year.

Close your eyes and think of an ancient time when your word was only as good as your unwavering instinct to capitalize. The bridge that you must cross to meet your means to continue forward is governed only by the vulnerable sincerity in your desire to touch a soul and lift a spirit. For Mike O’Brien and Carlin Nicholson, a destined musical pairing known as Zeus, their new lofty pop and roll offering plans to do just that.

Dave Murray is a Barrie/Toronto local singer/songwriter, he’s been playing and writing music for around fifteen years.

Fox Jaws love hocking gear, getting to band practice on time and vibrating the little bones inside your ears

Jerry Leger is a Toronto based folk/roots songwriter. He has self released 3 acclaimed albums.

One basement practice lead to another and it quickly became apparent that the Balconies had something special.

When most kids their age were riffling through college textbooks and figuring out the path of least resistance towards some sort of stable income, these small town boys were riffling through their parents record collections, studying the messy emotion-fueled rock of Pavement and the fuzzy post-rock discography of Sonic Youth, dreaming of ways they could marry it all together. So far it hasn’t worn off, being the average age of 21, they still have their collective sights set on a future a little bit more shaky and unstable than the rest of their peers.