So back in April, we had the pleasure of Margaret Cho's company on the show. While chatting with George, Margaret mentioned how much she'd like to be a member of Broken Social Scene.
Check out the video below from 4:21 to 6:08 to see what I'm talking about.

So here's where things get AMAZING - check out what Margaret had to say in a recent Rolling Stone interview:

Anyone who's been in and around the Yonge and Dundas area in downtown Toronto lately knows that VFest (Virgin Festival) is coming. I mean how could you not? Banners for the 2 day music extravaganza are every which way you look. Hell, even my great aunt could not miss them on a recent drive up Yonge Street and she's 70!

Tickets for the festival have been on sale for months now, but with the onslaught of costly banners running down Yonge Street you have to wonder, "are ticket sales so low that they have to banner the most populated street to drum up sales?"

Still on the fence about going to VFest this year? Click here for reasons to attend next weekend's bash on the island.

Oh, and that other big festival with all the Hollywood celebs and films hitting Toronto next week, yeah we'll be covering that too, so stay tuned.

The Hour is coming back with a whole new season. Which means that summer is wrapping up. But it's not entirely our fault that summer is almost over! There are many other things that signify the end of summer. Having to crack out a hoodie to walk to work in the morning. The zucchinis your neighbour brings you from their garden are the size of small children. And in Toronto, the Ex is taking place at the CNE.
Summer is done.

A recent visit to The Ex taught me a few things.
1. It's getting hard to tell when someone is wearing a fanny pack ironically.
2. Same goes for mullet haircuts.
3. If you're buying food at a fair or carnival it's probably phallic.
4. It's a good thing that animals can't read.

To see exactly what I'm talking about, click here

Radiohead a review:

On Friday, August 15 2008, I was asked to review a band called "Radiohead". Their name is a fusion of the words "radio" and "head", with no spaces or punctuation in between.
Although it was a Friday night and I already had plans to attend a World of Warcraft LAN party, I begrudgingly agreed, as my boss got pretty angry when I told him that my guild of trolls would have insufficient magic to level up without me there to cast spells.
I went home and it rained a LOT. For a while I thought maybe I'd get to attend my LAN party after all, because the concert might be rained out. Then the rain stopped - right before the concert was suppose to start!

Continue reading...

While some of The Hour staff took some time off this summer to refresh and relax.
Others stayed within the confines of Mother Corp and had a little fun of their own when not pounding the keys.
Whether gone for just a day or a few weeks, one of our own came back to find herself a shiny new office.

Now before you start questioning whether taxpayer dollars were used to purchase the metres of tinfoil. Let it be known the huge roll came from the old storage room of former CBCer and ex Governor General, The Right Honourable Adrienne Louise Clarkson.

Click here for more photos

Anyone's who's ever seen a big band in a small club knows that feeling of excitement and nervous energy felt by all just before the band hits the stage. This kinetic force was felt by 554 lucky fans of BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB last night in Toronto. Find out what they played here

As another day comes by, and we are back at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Saint-Hélène. As we don't dare defy the rain, we pack once again our ponchos, which will be only later be used just to sit on the damped grass to rest and relax while waiting for another show to go on. Day 2 saw us running from stage to stage to see the following bands: Jamie Lidell, Matt Costa, The Kills, The Black Keys, MGMT, Gogol Bordello, The Go!Team, Duffy, Broken Social Scence, CSS, Chromeo and Jack Johnson! Yeah, not much rest but with a wide range of indie, soul, electro, rock, pop and surf music who needs rest? Read on here

Bonjour Montreal!

Osheaga is the third annual music and arts festival in Montreal on the island; but with one artist tent and some outdoor exhibits next to 4 stages and 2 full days of music, I'd say more music than arts. Osheaga mixes big-draw mainstage bands with home-grown talent and a few scenester, but worthy acts on the side. It's sounding played but once again the impending rain clouds threatened to cramp our style. We had to stop at the Montreal landmark 'Simons' to get some jellies, boots, flops and rain ponchos - it was already raining.

There was hardly anyone there on Sunday, yeah it was a Sunday-Monday show - blame Nascar. Good for Ontario but Quebec didn't even have a long weekend. Still an unprecedented number of people showed up on the Monday - Montreal knows things.

As seen here during the evening of Sunday August 3rd, the day before the band's gear got stolen in Montreal. Read the full story from cbc.ca
Iggy and The Stooges were one of 40 bands that performed at Montreal's Osheaga Festival.
Check back here at the blog for a full review tomorrow.
Till then check out these photos of the band's last performance avec their gear.

One of the best summer events to ever hit the Toronto Island is the annual and much anticipated Wakestock! Thousands braved the ferry lineups for a long weekend of water, tricks, lightning, mud, sun and music. The event has turned into a commercial machine since it's days in Muskoka but the skills are still mental, the concerts still hype, and the crowd one of the best the GTA sees all year. A refreshing vaca from the banker wankers - bring on the sk8rs and the boardriders! Trip to WAKESTOCK

...was the theme of the night, along with a lot of sound issues and a lot of love going out to Canada.

Toronto hip-hop fans have been coveting a proper Rock the Bells since its inception, a tour most noted for the reunions of: Wu-Tang Clan, Rage Against the Machine and this year bringing us once again A Tribe Called Quest. We won't count the Kool Haus meltdown, we'll just start again at Arrow Hall where we just were the previous day for Warped Tour. But today we've traded Cons for Air Force Ones and reverb for bass. And the thankfully indoor show thundered inside as we arrived again in the pouring rain. ROCK THE BELLS

Warped Tour 2008 - the tattoos, the hawks, the whoas, the yeahs, the hell yeahs, the outsiders... the mainstream outsiders, the punk, the rock, the faux punkrock and manufactured prepackage the youngsters eat up.

There were the usual suspects on stage and in the crowd that played the role and dressed the part. At this Warped tour, there was also the obstacle course to get to the 'beer floor', the parent waiting area, a sea of trash at the beginning of the show and a massive rainstorm. The pavement in the remote location of Arrow Hall was brimming with teenage testosterone and adolescent anger and angst, welcome to the WARPED TOUR.

So pretty much everyone who's been to Montreal understands it's one of the most down, chill, awesome cities in the country. I know my faux francais is pretty weak but at least I recognize I could really learn a thing or two about a little thing called life from the French. They really know how to enjoy it, not just get through it. And while basking in tubs of poutine, Dep wine, bagels, baguettes and fine cheese ~ a diet of champions, I was also lucky enough to sample some of their local music fare. For a completely francophone band, we're not sure why their name is Chinese and English, but Enter Chinatown.

A sweet surprise, an accessible location, familiar songs, an abundance of food options, a few heavy downpours, a new twist to an old game, a million planes passing overhead and a sole beer tent: this was Edgefest 2008.

See what you did and didn't miss here

Last week in downtown Toronto I and thousands of others managed to catch reggae legend, Lee "Scratch" Perrry, modern chanteuse, Martha Wainwright, Afrobeat czars, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, personal favourites and nu rave electroids, Ladytron plus, the first all ages showing for NME poster band, Crystal Castles...ALL FOR FREE.

Find out how here