Jay K., The Manvils

You’ve come a long way since I last went through the doors of a Toronto music festival like NXNE.

In 1999, I did CMW (Canadian Music Week). I recall drinking, not sleeping, checking out the Lo-Fidelity Allstars, putting a “♥” next to The Sadies in my diary entry and eating nachos at midnight at Sneaky Dee’s. But I also remember only going to about 10 different venues. About the same amount for NXNE around that time. Now there’s, what? 650+ bands playing at 40 or so venues? Makes me almost wanna return back to the T.dot, stop in at Poutini’s, have a burger at Oddfellows, check out some music and yeah, okay, mum, come visit you, too.

Some of the bands playing at Toronto’s big music/film/interactive hipster fest have graced the digital pages of BSR in the past five months since our launch. Have a look:

Eagles of Death Metal – Three-chord rock wonders. “Boots Electric” Jesse Hughes once gave me the nickname of “Sexy Red Genius”. Watch the video.

Japandroids – Punk’s not dead. It’s just made out of two nice boys from Vancouver.

The Pack a.d – Punk’s not dead. It’s just made out of two nice girls from Vancouver.

Sex With Strangers – Robot Rock. Armadillos. AND A GUY WHO EVERYONE THINKS LOOKS LIKE JACK BLACK. (Plus, I’m in their video for “New City Anthem”, which makes them even more awesomer.)

The Manvils – They rock. And they’re bonkers. How do I know? Read the interview with Mikey Manville.

Smile Smile – It’s not all about rock, here. It’s also about alt-folk. And what’s better? A TEXAN ALT-FOLK BAND DOING ROCK HANDS!

Check your local listings, you lucky TO-based (or bound) people, for who’s playing, when, where and how often. And be sure to buy them a drink and say hello from the Backstage Rider!

Photos: Sex With Strangers by Lindsay Elliott, Jay Koenderman of the Manvils by The Manvils

Been a long time since I’ve gotten this excited about a band. Ergo, you should too.

Becky Black and Maya Miller’s latest album is We Kill Computers (out on Mint Records) - a speedy, bluespunk rock platter made amazing by Miller’s A-NI-MAL!!!! drumming and Black’s otherwordly and voluminous howl. It’s currently sitting in my Top 10 for ‘10.

Live, the twosome are supercharged gritty awesome. Expect random Converse shoe changes, pausing for a shot or two, crawling on speakers, cowbell assaults, headbanging, jokes and, most importantly, tracks from We Kill Computers or their two earlier efforts, Funeral Mixtape and TinType. You may even get to buy some cool merch.

The Pack a.d. are on tour in the US and Canada (with two stops at NXNE, in Toronto and a Vancouver Commodore slot with the Anti-Pop Consortium) now and likely forever more. Have a listen and pick a date on MySpace. And when you go, say hi to them from me babble babble babble… \m/