Having spent all NXNE-weekend in full-on alt country mode, I knew that Monday night's Mod Club set by UK ghouls The Horrors would be a shock to the system. But that's exactly the challenge I wanted, and why I accepted the offer from the fine folks at Musebox to attend. I knew of The Horrors' reputation for mayhem getting them banned from venues, and while I may not exactly have a steady diet of spooky distorted ear-splitting screamo goth, in my youth I experienced enough pit-induced broken bones and bloodied noses to prepare me for anything, right?

Right?

Ready for another round of North By Northeast? Full of spreadsheets and band schedules, and enough speedy venue-hopping to choke a jackrabbit? Sure you are. If you've got open slots in your schedule or are still unsure where to hop, let your friendly BlogTO music staff lend a suggestion or two. (Important note!: NXNE schedules have been known to change on a whim mere hours before a show, so please confirm the latest setimes on their official website before stepping out).

The Official BlogTO NXNE picks are (and we're sorting them by writer this time, so if you tell us they suck, we're taking it personally!):

June may be host to the much-hyped North By Northeast, but Toronto does not live by media blitz alone ... there is more, so much more!! -

FRI, JUNE 1
- JILL BARBER, Andre Ethier @ Mod Club, $14
- THE PIPETTES @ Lee's Palace. $15
- SAFFIRE THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN @ Silver Dollar. $18
- PHILIP GLASS (Luminato Festival) @ Elgin Theatre, $25-$125.
- AND MAGAZINE LAUNCH PARTY w/ Jewish Legend, Gravity Wave, Chad Ross @ El Mocambo, $10
- VICTORIA BANKS @ Hugh's Room
- BOBBY DREADFULL, The Breasted Superheroes @ Horseshoe Tavern, $6
- THE BLUE DEMONS, The Heart Eaters, The Robots and The Burnin Sands, Great Lakes Surf Battle @ Rancho Relaxo

That tingle in the air isn't just your spring allergies - it's the excitement of the summer music festival season peaking around the corner. Oh boy yeah! May kicks things off early with this weekend's Over The Top Fest, and shows no signs of slowing down:

WED, MAY 2
- TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS @ The Mod Club, $15
- PAT METHENY & BRAD MEHLDAU w/ Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard @ Hummingbird Centre, $55-$75
- DR DOG AND THE TEETH @ Lee's Palace, $14.50
- THE WILLOWZ, Key Witness, The Hoa Hoa's @ The Horseshoe Tavern
- JEN MILITIA, Sleeptodream, Nicknameless @ The Smiling Buddha Bar, $7
THE RATTLESNAKE CHOIR feat John Borra @ The Paddock

THURS, MAY 3
- DD/MM/YY, Ecstatic Sunshine and Rozasia (Over The Top Fest) @ Sneaky Dee's, $8
- JULIE DOIRON, Pit Er Pat and Reily (Over The Top Fest) @ St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church (103 Bellevue), $13.50
- THE HYLOZOISTS, The Explorers Club and Casper & The Cookies (Over The Top Fest) @ Tranzac, $11
- PAGE FRANCE, Five Blank Pages and Great Bloomers (Over The Top Fest) @ Whippersnapper Gallery, $10.50.
- JETPLANES OF ABRAHAM w/ Fox Fire Forest, Relief Maps @ Drake, $7
- EL-P @ Opera House, all ages, $22.50
- DEFECT DEFECT, Dangerloves @ Racho Relaxo, $8
- PITTER PATTER NIGHTS w/ Oklahoma Bomb Squad, Akroid @ The Boat, $5
- PRINCESS MARGARET HOSPITAL BENEFIT, Lily Frost, Matthew Barber and Kaesun @ Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge), $50-$150
- LOWER CLASS BRATS @ Kathedral, $10.50
- JON BROOKS CD release w/ Greg Quill @ Hugh's Room. $14
- HEATHER MORGAN, Edgar Breau, The House Plants @ Mitzi's Sister

I've already bawled publicly about the Rheo's final shows, but since I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm at this moment streaming the absolutely GORGEOUS soundboard recording of the farewell show that CBC 3 has just posted. And bawling all over again.

Care to do the same? GO HAVE A LISTEN. It's real purdy.

The uninitiated can start at the beginning with the haunting & beautiful "Saskatchewan", and the hardcore folks can jump to the bottom and stream the entire show. Other farewell goodies (additional audio, video, photos) of both the Massey Hall and Horseshoe shows are being collected on the Rheostatics Live site's "Good, Gone, Dead" section.

(Photo by Graham Kennedy. Oh, and the dude in the front is security, not a mysterious new Rheostatic).

I bet you thought that the absence of an April Music Calendar was an April fools joke, right? No, that was just me being scatterbrained. Here we go:

SAT, APRIL 7
- THE AIRFIELDS w/ The Butterfly Explosion @ Neutral
- THE SECRET HANDSNAKES (LAST SHOW), Terror Lake, Pinko Kronkite, Divorced @ Lola
- EXCLAIM! Hockey Hootenanny @ Lee's Palace, $6
- THE SILT (CD Release), The Sheet and Castlemusic @ The Tranzac, $10/$12
- DOC WALKER @ Jeff Healey's Roadhouse.
- JIMMY SWIFT BAND, w/ Germans, The Dunes @ Opera House, 19+, $12
- JACK DE KEYZER BAND @ Silver Dollar, 9 pm, $12.
- FUCKED UP, Iron Age, Rise and Fall, Hatred Surge and The Kill Decibel @ drift Skatepark (299 Augusta), all ages, $10.