Toronto-based new-wave rock band THE FRAMEWORK’s highly anticipated sophomore album ‘Before Tonight’ will be released August 4th.

THE FRAMEWORK formed in late 2006. At barely 3 months old, the band garnered national attention as a result of winning runner-up in the Toronto Mix 99.9’s 2007 RadioStar Songwriting Contest, for the song, “She Thinks I’m Famous”. The combination of buzz from the contest and the band’s catchy synth-rock epics instantly set The Framework up with an extensive online international fan base and sparked the interest of media outlets such as Metro and InsideE Magazine who describes the band’s new record ‘Before Tonight’ as “A confidently cool synth-rock assault that strikes a nonchalant medium between happy pop and stadium rock”. International attention has ensued with the band scoring invites to perform at the coveted Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, packed shows in New York City at the Canal Room and the North by North East music Festival in Toronto (being named one of 5 top acts at NXNE 2007).

The Framework – Upcoming Dates ::
June 13th School of Rock – Molson Amphitheatre – Toronto, ON
June 19th The Rivoli – Toronto, ON
June 25th London Music Club – London, ON
June 26th Seventy Three – St. Catherines, ON

Bringin’ It Back: The latest video from God Made Me Funky’s latest album ‘Enter The Beat’ Available iTunes and CD.

These guys were a BLAST to hang out with at NXNE back in June — a total blast. I caught their show at Sunshine Records on Yonge and then followed up the show with burritos and story time down the street. All around great people and fantastic musicians! Sadly all of my hilarious video footage from that day’s been lost. I’ll sum it up for you: It started with awesome, awesome music and ended with a talking burrito and Coke coming out of my nose. Got the picture?

Now, these guys have a small request from us (you and me and all of you who love awesome music, that is): The latest GMMF single, ‘Too Shy’, has just been released to radio nation wide. Go, request the single (please?). Call into your college station mix shows and ask them for some God Made Me Funky! Shout it from the roof tops, etc. Give these guys some love!

(Wanna see another super cool video from GMMF? Check this out! I have this song in my head for days at a time.)

18 Sep 2008 21:30 Lydia’s Pub SASKATOON, Saskatchewan
19 Sep 2008 22:00 Dickens Pub CALGARY, Alberta
20 Sep 2008 22:00 Lyrics Bar GOLDEN, British Columbia
21 Sep 2008 21:30 Rose and Crown BANFF, British Columbia
23 Sep 2008 21:30 The Drake Inn CANMORE, British Columbia
27 Sep 2008 19:00 Cincinnati MidPoint Music Festival CINCINNATI, Ohio
28 Sep 2008 21:00 Boulder Coffee Co. ROCHESTER, New York
1 Oct 2008 22:00 Arlene’s Grocery NEW YORK, New York
2 Oct 2008 21:30 Merlin’s BUFFALO, New York
4 Oct 2008 20:30 Funk N’ Waffles SYRACUSE, New York
16 Oct 2008 22:00 The Mansion House St. CATHERINES, Ontario
18 Oct 2008 22:00 Revival Toronto, Ontario

The Halifax-based quartets’ first full-length album The Coast Is Clear exceeds all expectations. The disc is a superb cinematic pop experiment that tugs at your heartstrings upon first listen.

Starting out in Vancouver, the band began work on five tracks with producer Warne Livesey (Midnight Oil, 54-40), who took the band under his British wing for a month-long recording adventure. On their return to Halifax the band enlisted Laurence Currie (Sloan, Ghandharvas) to help bring the record towards the finish line. But, when it came time to sculpt the album into a satisfying wall of sound, In-Flight Safety opted for the hands on approach.

The groups first release, the 2003 mellow-pop gem Vacation Land, won over countless fans and critics upon release, landing the band two Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia Award nominations (Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album). The same bedroom recording helped score a green In-Flight Safety their first gig in Toronto at the NxNE Festival where the band won 2003s Fan Choice Award which led to a distribution deal with Universal Music.

The disc, which received a four NNNN/Critics Pick review in Toronto’s Now Magazine, also generated a video for the single ‘Somebody’s Watching You’ that has been featured prominently on Much Musics The Wedge and Going Coastal. The video was filmed in a 1940s movie theatre located in small town Sackville, NB where the band members met as university students who juggled computer, geography, classics and fine arts courses while quenching their insatiable desire to play music.

Now signed to Emm Gryner’s Dead Daisy Records and distributed through Outside Music, Mullane feels confident about the bands future. I don’t think there is a label in the world that will work harder for us than Dead Daisy Records, he says. Emm has supported us from day one and we know we are in good hands.

It doesn’t hurt that the band has spent the last year performing alongside some of Canada’s best independent artists. In-Flight Safety has toured with Stars, The Most Serene Repulic, and gigged with Broken Social Scene, Metric, Sam Roberts, The Constantines, Hawksley Workman, Joel Plaskett, and Matt Mays and are fast becoming one of Atlantic Canadas top draws.

The Details, not content to sit around, have played at the 2006 Western Canadian Music Awards, New Music West 2007, North By Northeast 2007, Pop Montreal 2007, both Canadian Music Week 2007 & 2008, and South By Southwest 2008. They have shared the stage with a diverse group of great bands such as Stars (Arts & Crafts), Constantines (Arts & Crafts), You Say Party! We Say Die! (Paper Bag), The Meligrove Band (V2/Murderecords), Mother Mother (Last Gang), Great Lake Swimmers (Nettwerk), and many many more. Much Music also graced the streets of Winnipeg to conduct an interview with The Details which aired nationally.

From Halifax to Vancouver or vice-versa, The Details can’t seem to see enough of Canada. They have spent the better part of the last two years crossing Canada supporting their various releases.

2008 has already been a busy year for The Details who cracked the top 100 on the CMJ charts in their second week at 74. They also had a song placed on NBC’s new series ‘Lipstick Jungle’.

The Details spent the spring of 2008 once again crossing Canada followed by several festival showcases including the Jazz Winnipeg festival and a second year at Calgary’s acclaimed Sled Island festival.

Though they don’t have any upcoming dates right now, be sure to check back often with TransCanada Radio for upcoming concert dates and to find out what these awesome Canadian artists are up to!

As we wrap up our NXNE coverage, we wanted to give you one last chance to grasp a taste of what it was like to be in Toronto for one sweaty week of music. Check out the best images we took of NXNE (ignore the poor composition and low resolution; we’re very DIY).

Toronto’s Spiral Beach knows to throw a party. Beach balls are required but forget your shoes.

As a wrap up to this NXNE-rich week on TransCanadaRadio, we’ve compiled the very best of the great music we saw and heard over the course of the week.

Here are the top 6 bands that all of us at TCR agree were the very best of the best, in no particular order:

David Martel

I went in to see David play with my mind as a nearly blank slate, only having listened to a very short clip of his stuff via his Myspace. But armed with the praise of my friends, I checked him out at Sunrise Records on Thursday, the first day of NXNE and I can honestly say that this guy blew my mind.
Here’s a video of David performing one of my new favourite songs “Stay In” at Café Lola Rosa:

The Wet Secrets

One would think that marching band costumes combined with B52-esque vocals would be far too over the top, but these guys really pull it off. I was absolutely enthralled by their funky beats and brass solos not to mention the cool majorette costumes — very slick. This Edmonton based band really pumped up the crowd and got everyone dancing by playing original songs like “Secret March” and the hilarious “I Teabagged Myself (With Two Really Fucking Heavy Cans Of Paint)” — got a lot of laughing and chant-a-long from the audience.
Here’s a video they put together of “Get Your Own Apartment”:

Rebekah Higgs

The Halifax-bred musician plays within the borders of folk-tinged yet she isn’t afraid to infuse her work with experimentation, incorporating vocal loops and electronic flourishes like her musical inspirations Bjork and Radiohead. She has a wonderful voice and a big guitar. You are doing yourself a disservice by not checking out her cd.
Here’s the official video for Rebekah Higgs ‘Parables’:

Spiral Beach

As Doug said: “Pretty much from the moment they took the stage, they had a packed and sweaty crowd screaming and jumping until they could nary jump and scream any more. I particularly enjoyed the pylons, the speech bubble, and the ET finger-touching moment with the crowd. Check these guys out before they become so big you can’t get as close to the stage as we were last night (check the Flickr feed for evidence).”
Here’s the very, very cool official video for “Made of Stone”:

The Hoa Hoa’s

These Toronto natives certainly represented for the hometown crowd. There music is a combination of groove and evil: you just want to dance and/or punch someone in the face. Their guitarist was great — loud, crunchy, articulate playing — and their bassist set her amp on fire. Major points for the predominance of hollow-bodied guitars.
Here’s the official video for “New Love Too”:

Julie Doiron

What can I say about Julie? She’s my favourite and she didn’t disappoint. She played for a packed-solid club and had the audience singing along to nearly every song. On top of that she was a delightful entertainer: watching her, you knew that she was giving her all and that scores huge with me.
Here’s the official video for “No More”:

We got the chance to see Royal Wood perform at a BBQ hosted by Six Shooter Records during NXNE.  I had seen him previously as he opened for my favourite Canadian songstress Sarah Slean in May and he quickly found a place in my heart.  There is something to be said for an opening act moving an entire audience to tears with a song he wrote about the death of a friend’s grandparents. He had all of us singing along.  Putty in his hands.

On Jan 30th 2007, Royal Wood and Dead Daisy Records/Outside Music unleashed A Good Enough Day to rave reviews.  Carefully writing, performing and producing the effort, Royal decided to have a few guest musicians sit in, including well-known Toronto musicians Hawksley Workman, Kurt Swinghammer, Harmony Trowbridge and Kevin Fox.

With the new record out to critical praise, his music in the hands of fans, successful performances at major festivals and venues, including a tour with Canadian songstress Sarah Harmer, Royal Wood is an artist whose time is at hand to be heard.Royal’s music has been featured on several TV and movie soundtracks; including the HBO series Regenisis, the CBC series This is Wonderland, the CTV movie Playing House, the film The End of Silence starring Sarah Harmer, and the Warner Music Canada soundtrack to the Food Network’s The Surreal Gourmet (with other artists including Feist, Tom Waits, The Flaming Lips, Moby, Aretha Franklin) and more.

His self-written, performed and produced releases The Milkweed EP (2003) and Tall Tales (2004) have garnered critical praise.

Beginning on the piano at the age of four, Royal became a multi-instrumentalist by his early teens. In fact, any instrument he could get his hands on was explored and devoured. His school’s music program had a sign-out policy for any instrument smaller than the tympani – and they all found their way home to his bedroom. Even the drums came home for the summer months.

Fast-forward to today, and you will find Royal performing major events like Hillside Music Festival, Canadian Music Week, North by Northeast, Halifax Pop Explosion, Bluebird North and more; as well as sharing the stage with the likes of Sarah Harmer, My Morning Jacket, Sarah Slean, Peter Elkas, Danny Michel, Serena Ryder, Dan Bern, Justin Rutledge, Lindy, Jill and Matt Barber, Emm Gryner, Erin McKowen and more.

As you may or may not recall, the NXNE event I was looking forward to the most was seeing Julie Doiron perform at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.  Well, let me tell you, that day was working very hard against me. I was having some accommodation issues so I was lugging around all of my equipment with me in a backpack.  It then proceeded to totally down pour — thunder and lighting and cats and dogs and all that.

So here’s me, running in 6 inches of water from venue to venue in flip flops with a bag full of electronics while the rain just absolutely pours down on me.  Doug got absolutely stopped up by the rain on his way into Toronto, so I was trying to hit as many venues I could and check out as many bands that night as I could.  Around 10:45pm I decided to make a run for it (in what seemed to be the heaviest part of the down pour) from the Velvet Underground down the street to The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.

Finally made it to the Horseshoe at 11pm on the nose only to find the place completely packed! I managed to find a place to stand about eight rows back which completely sucks for my poor lil’ five-foot-nothing self. Finally, a very nice gentleman sitting behind me saw me struggling to see and offered me his chair to stand on! It was great, albeit dangerous with all kinds of people dancing and drinking at my feet. But at least I got to see Julie — and man, did she put on a fantastic show! She played all the songs I wanted to hear and visually totally rocked out. I’m so glad I finally got to see this talented lady perform!

While at NXNE, I managed to steal away some time from Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sonicbids, Panos Panay, for an interview.

Sonicbids is a web site that helps bands get gigs, and promoters book the right bands. Their community includes over 150,000 bands, singers, songwriters, and performers of all kinds, and 14,000-plus music buyers of all kinds, including promoters, licensors, festival programmers, and much more. Bands go there for gigs; promoters go there for bands. They have lots of both!

Panos’s childhood dream of being alternatively the next George Best or the next George Benson came to an end when each canceled the other out. The idea for Sonicbids came to him while reading the book “Blur” and decided to go for it in September of 2000. Before that, he worked on the “dark side” of the business as an international talent agent. Panos hails from Cyprus and is a self-described “voracious” reader, usually traveling with more magazines than clothes (that’s a LOT). He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1994 with a degree in Music Business. In 2005 Panos was named as one of Fast Company Magazine’s “Fast 50″ entrepreneurs and is currently serving as co-chairman of CREATE Boston, an initiative launched by the Mayor of Boston to bolster the creative economy in the city. He is a diehard supporter of English football club Arsenal and by last count he owns over 25 jerseys of “The Gunners” dating back to 1983. He loves his coffee extra strong and blames Elvis for his lifelong fascination with America.

Check out part one of my interview with Sonicbids‘ Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Panos Panay, where we talk about what Sonicbids does and why artists should be all over it like glue.

What Is Sonicbids? An Interview With Panos Panay

Doug’s ‘Impressions’ posts gave me an idea — now that my NXNE hangover has passed (caught up on sleep, did endless loads of laundry, sewed my poor, abused travel bag…), I’d like to talk about a few of my experiences and sum up my time at NXNE in Toronto. Alright, here goes. Doug style.

**Wifi is damn hard to find in downtown Toronto** Seriously. I could not believe how difficult it was to find wifi free or otherwise! As a blogger, it’s likely I should have secured several places from which to blog. It was just ridiculous. More than once I found myself sitting on the sidewalk outside of a random apartment building err… tapping into someone else’s unsecured network or sitting on the floor of the Holiday Inn facing a very specific direction in order to keep the weak signal connected. Bah, I say. Bah!

**I really like 70’s-esque funk/pop/psychedelic** Yep. Turns out I like psychedelic music a whole lot. It seems that some of the acts I enjoyed the most at NXNE all had elements of psychedelic pop or funk: The Hoa Hoa’s, The Wet Secrets, Spiral Beach… all totally awesome bands. This was a learning experience for me. I never knew this about myself. I feel like I’ve grown as a person. Now I can listen to the B52’s and grow out my beehive unashamed and rooooooooam if I want to! *totally grooves*

**I’m David Martel’s biggest fan** I know! Sounds so stalkerish. But seriously? I can’t stop listening to his album I Hardly Knew Me. I can’t recommend this guy enough. I found myself this morning wishing I had the lyrics and chords so I could sit down and jam along with the cd. Great stuff. Here, go buy I Hardly Knew Me for yourself. I’ll judge you if you don’t. I’ll question your commitment to good music.

**Moshing is still as fun as it was 10 years ago.** That’s pretty self explanatory, isn’t it? Man, jumping wildly to awesome music never loses its cool.

**Packed clubs are HOT.** This is not Paris Hilton’s ‘hot’, this is, like, face-melting hot. At one point Doug and I actually completely drenched ourselves and each other with ice water to try and not die while dancing in with the swarms of hot, sweaty people. It was pure insanity, I tell you.

**BlackBerry’s are terrifying. And quite vulgar.** So I’m sitting in my favourite restaurant enjoying some delicious shrimp and chicken pad thai and a nice glass of white wine and enjoying my sunshine-y seat by the window when all of a sudden a giant walking BlackBerry comes along and throws himself at the window directly beside me and starts grinding the window and rubbing his scroll ball. I laughed and choked and checked to see if my heart had exploded. Thankfully, I survived the attack to witness, only five minutes later, at least 7 more giant BlackBerrys parading by the window waving and shaking their qwerty keyboards crudely at passers-by. I nearly ran out on my bill to chase them with my camera to nab some photos for our sister site BlackBerryCool.com. The BBCool guys would have loved it!

**Yes, bring more than one pair of shoes to NXNE** When I bought these shoes, I though “Wow, it’s like I’m walking in bare feet! These shoes are so comfortable!” And after 4 days of walking and rain and clubs and beer covered floors and moshing, I was like “Wow. It’s like I’m walking in bare feet. These. Shoes. Are. Awful.”

**My ears are still ringing, also.** You can say that again! Wait, no, please… say that again?