Indie-folker Aaron Booth is releasing his fourth solo album at the Marquee Room on March 29
Spring is in the air, and in my step, with all the local music news for March. First of all, the most exciting development is that Women are playing shows! No, not the gender, that's been happening for awhile now. I'm talking about the awesome new band featuring past and current members of Azeda Booth, The Cape May and Pressure Kill Common Style. In fact, they have the exact same membership as a group you may remember from a few years back called Veritas.
You can catch these men on March 12 at The Marquee Room, on March 13 at Broken City (with Lint and The Neighbourhood Council), and on March 26 at The Marquee Room again, where they'll be DJing. Finally, on March 27 at The Republik, Women will be rocking out as the opening act for Azeda Booth, who are making their triumphant return after a far-too-lengthy hiatus. Kris Ellestad is playing that show, too. It'll be the place to be that night.
Another show on my radar this month is the Rock 4 Choice all-ages event, which is going down March 8 at the Windsor Park Community Hall. Acoustic rocker Jeff Caissie, scary shredders Ole, grindcore maniacs I Die Screaming and power-pop trio The FunFuns are representing the local contingent, and the headliners are Toronto hardcore punks Career Suicide. Oh, and the Radical Cheerleaders will be there, too. Do a Google search for them. Oy vey.
If you're tired of typical rock shows, Axis of Conversation may have the prescription for you. On two nights only (March 6 at Broken City and March 7 at the Liberty Lounge), they will present "The Panda & The Rat" — a brand new set of quasi-instrumental and sample-based music, with visuals from biology class education reels. According to the band, it is "loosely based on themes of natural selection and the human tendency to deny base instincts." If that all sounds too high-minded, AxiCon are also playing an afternoon and evening show, both on March 28. The former is at the University of Calgary's That Empty Space, and the latter is at The Palomino.
The Marquee Room has some more excitement scheduled this month, with the non-house party debut of The Dirty Dirty North (featuring members of The Pants Situation and The Draft Dodgers) on March 19. MX Missile are also on the bill, Jon Gant will be spinning, and apparently there will be free snacks.
Beloved indie-pop tunesmith and Shecky Forme member Aaron Booth is releasing his long-awaited fourth solo album Back Stories this month, with a show at The Marquee Room on March 29. Check out aaronboothmusic.com for Aaron's solo jams, and myspace.com/pigeonbooth for his collaboration with Woodpigeon. Booth's CD release gig will also be supported by Phil Withers, my favourite Chris Dadge project.
On the gothier side of things, another band releasing a CD this month is Mannequin Depressives. To celebrate the new album Girls Are Evil, the synth-pop spooks are throwing a two-floor banger at The Warehouse on March 20, along with Fritz Helder & The Phantoms, Phonotactic, Thee Thems, The FunFuns and Beneath These Idle Tides. Visit myspace.com/mannequindepressives for more.
Finally, following up their appearance on February 16 at EMMEDIA for last month's edition of the Melodiya Concert Archive Series (the DVD will be available soon), undefinable up-and-comers Prussia are playing at the HiFi Club on March 29. Kara Keith is on the bill as well, with both acts warming up the night for one of Toronto's best bands, Born Ruffians. Get your badonkadonkey down there!
If you're a local artist doing something interesting and want to have it written about, drop me a line at either alvy411@gmail.com or myspace.com/alvy411. Shalom.
